Monthly Archives: May 2012
A Relay sprint
8 p.m. ET, May 31 update
Thanks to a couple of donations today, I am now $322.20 away from hitting my goal. New to the challenge: running a mile total backward. I might not do the full mile at one time, but I’ll make sure 4 laps are done running backward.
10 p.m. ET, May 31 update
$172.20 to go! The generosity of others is amazing. I’d love to wake up in the morning and see my progress bar completed. Let’s go!
8 a.m., June 1 update
Less than 12 hours and $100 to go …
Original post:
In less than 48 hours, I will be hitting the track for Relay for Life. As part of my fundraising efforts, I made a pledge a while back to run a mile for every $50 raised, up to 10 miles.
It’s a similar goal I’ve had in years past. Last year I upped the ante a bit and committed to run 13.1 miles on the track if I hit my goal of $1,000.
This year I had a tougher time committing to a similar goal. I needed to wait to see how I felt after Cleveland before figuring out something special when I hit the $1,000 mark.
Well, here it is … as I write this, I am $337 away from my goal; my team — Wimmer Chiropractic’s “Cracking the Cure” — is about $600 from it’s overall goal.
So what do you say? Want me to run another half marathon in circles, all for a good cause? I’d love to do it again, but I need your help hitting my goal by Friday night.
To donate, visit my Relay page, then click on “Donate on My Behalf.” (Or just go here.) Relay for Life makes it easy for anyone to donate — the minimum is just $5.
As donations come in over the next couple of days, I will update as much as I can above. Let’s make this happen!
3 things Thursday
1. Besides the Richmond Marathon in a little less than 6 months, I don’t have any races on my schedule. It’s a refreshing feeling.
That doesn’t mean I won’t put something on my calendar soon, but for at least a couple of weeks I’m enjoying not having the stress of training or thinking about PRs.
2. I’m traveling back to Ohio on Friday night to spend the holiday weekend and bring my wife and son home — they stayed the week with my in-laws. I’ll have a chance to do a longish flat run over the weekend. And guess what? The forecast is to be really hot. So much for it being cooler there.
3. Speaking of Ohio … I said “never say never” the other day, right? After that post, I discovered that next year’s Cleveland Half is only $40 through May 31. That’s very tempting …
The Cleveland Experience
Beyond my race performance, my brief encounter with Cleveland was a positive one. I kind of wish I wouldn’t have rushed my time there so I could have taken in more of the sights.
Back when I was going to run the marathon, my plan was to make a full weekend out of it. When I changed to the half marathon, it became a quick trip to go to my in-laws, go to the expo late Saturday, run Sunday, return to my in-laws, return to Virginia on Monday.
My wife and I did get to catch some of the sights of downtown Cleveland without spending any extra money, but I’d like to go back sometime with some better planning.
One of the cool things about Cleveland was the access to Browns Stadium before and after the race. It’s great to see a race, city and venue work together to allow runners to use clean restrooms and to be able to relax in a quiet place.
After the race, I just wanted to sit in the shade in a quiet place. Who knew an NFL stadium would be the perfect place for that?
My wife said this was one of the best spectating events she has been too from the standpoint of the vendors opening up early. She was able to buy some coffee without walking back to downtown and hang out for a while before runners started finishing.
I’m not sure if I’ll do this race again or not. While my overall experience was positive, I wasn’t overwhelmed by anything to want to make a return any time soon. As I think about what I might do in 2013, this race isn’t jumping out as one I’ll sign up for right away.
Never say never though.
For now I’m eager to spend a few weeks of running for the fun of it, building a base, and then focusing on Richmond Marathon training.
Missing the “it” factor
I don’t know if was the weather, or not knowing the course, or my allergies, or something else altogether, but I didn’t have “it” today.
The Cleveland Half Marathon will go down in my books as one of my personal worst race experiences. On a day that got hot very quickly after a few miles, I just couldn’t put the pieces together for even a good race.
- No medal-biting today, and no “gun show.” Actually, by this time I was just joking around. Nothing I can change about this race.
My finishing time of 1:54:55 doesn’t reflect a nice start and what could have been — after a very congested first mile in 8:18, I put together a solid 7:31.
I was right on target and feeling good. Then I don’t know what happened. Miles of 7:44 and 8:03 felt OK, but I started to feel like my effort wasn’t producing good times.
Around halfway, I was feeling miserable. If this course had gone back toward the start/finish area near Browns Stadium, I may have packed it in and gone with a DNF.
I pushed forward though — I remember wiping my face 7 miles or so in and I was pretty salty. That’s never happened to me in a half marathon that I can remember.
My strategy quickly shifted and became to “just finish.” I walked through every water stop, grabbing both Powerade and water. I haven’t taken a sports drink during a half in several years.
My pace was miserable — I was putting down mile times that I don’t even think about doing anymore on an easy day.
I saw two people on the course getting medical attention and a third nearly fall over around 11 miles — thankfully several runners were there to help.
I came through the finishing shoot mad that the elements won, but grateful to be finishing.
By the time I found my wife, I had already put this awful, miserable experience behind me and could laugh about it.
I didn’t have “it” today and I’m just fine with that. It was a learning experience that will only help in training runs this summer.
Live, learn, and move on to the next race …
“A” race No. 2
I’ve never really referred to the Cleveland Half Marathon as an “A” race, but it is. My goal for this race is to go sub 1:40, knocking 49 seconds off my Shamrock time from March.
I’ve been so quiet about training specifics all year, but since March I’ve done some things that I think will get me to that new half marathon mark:
- This race week I am nearly 3 pounds lighter than Shamrock. Slightly better eating and continued “little bit” of core work has helped me hit that mark. I’m about 5 pounds from where I want to be, but that’s something I’ll focus on before Richmond Marathon training begins.
- Having a coach has pushed me to much faster training runs, and very specific runs that have pushed me to run below half marathon pace at times. I wrote about needing to do that shortly after Shamrock and I’m very happy about successfully doing that.
- I’ve run in a huge variety of weather with huge temperature swings. The weather forecast on Sunday is looking very warm with a high of 80 that day. The overnight low, though, is 60, so for the 7 a.m. start it shouldn’t be too bad. And if it is uncomfortable, I’ll adjust as the race goes along.
- My 10k PR was comfortably under my half marathon goal pace. I’m confident I can double that effort.
My brief illness seems to be completely gone, so all that’s left is a bit of driving to Ohio on Friday …
Wordless Wednesday: More cicadas
A follow-up to last week’s post …
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