Posts Tagged ‘Christmas Classic’

A couple of months or so ago, I said that in 2010 I would run the Shamrock Half Marathon again. But after unexpectedly getting a new job and all that, I didn’t know if I would do it again. Last night, though, I signed up for it. There’s part of me that knows I would have missed doing it if I skipped it and there’s also a part of me that knows that a good Shamrock Half will set me up for successful Richmond Marathon training later in the year.

Plus I feel like I have a lot to prove to myself over the next three and a half months. I have that infamous 10 pounds I want to lose, plus I really want to set a PR in this event. While my No. 1 goal will be to run my race to the best of my ability, I will keep a big focus on getting faster this winter. I’ll worry about focusing on the PR the closer the event gets here.

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Speaking of 2010, I doubt that I’ll run the Rock ‘n’ Roll Half again. While the timing is good with training for the marathon, the money to travel to Virginia Beach twice in one year just isn’t worth it. Now that I’m back in the Lynchburg area, I’ll likely focus on many smaller races that I used to run. I had fun here a few years ago with these races and they’re a lot of cheaper. I’ll spend less money running a few races here vs. traveling on Labor Day weekend. There’s actually a half marathon in Lynchburg in August that I’ll likely do.

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The Bedford Christmas Classic is this weekend, the fourth time I have done this event. It’ll briefly overtake Shamrock as the event I’ve done the most. Oddly enough, though, I’ve never blogged about this specific race since the other three events (twice as a 5k and once as a 10k) occurred before my blogging days. The forecast right now looks, well, a lot like Christmas. It’s looking like rain will turn to snow that day with temperatures falling during the day, but around here I’ve learned not to pay much attention to the forecast. Either way, I’ll be unprepared for any of those conditions, including really cold, so I’m just planning to go with the flow.

Travis and I ran the course the other night and I finished in just a little more than 25 minutes, which is actually in between my previous two 5k race times, so I’m confident I can set my course record. I felt like I could knock a couple of minutes off that time in a race. But we’ll have to see how I feel and how the weather plays out. Right now I’m still feeling tired from my Thanksgiving trip — there’s been very little down time since then. I’m hoping tonight though to get some extra rest.

Earlier this year when I ran two races two weeks in a row, I walked away satisfied, but hurt. So now I’m doing it again, but it’s a far cry from a half marathon and a 10k back to back. Instead it’s a 2 miler and a 5k.

Next week I am heading to Ohio to visit the in-laws for Thanksgiving. It’s the second time I’ve been there for Thanksgiving and it will mark the second time that I’m doing the local turkey trot there. I’ve entered the 2-mile race to give myself a speed test. There is a 5-mile race too, but I don’t quite feel up to running 5 miles fast right now. I’m sure I could do OK, but it probably wouldn’t be a boost to my confidence. Four years ago I ran this race in 16:18 in some crazy pouring down snow and extreme cold. It was wild, but fun. This year it’s looking like it’ll be fairly cool in the low 40s with a chance of rain.

I’m pretty sure I can pump out two miles in about an 8-minute pace, so I’m aiming to break that “record” for that distance.

On Dec. 5 I am making the return to the Bedford Christmas Classic, a race I have done three times — two 5ks and a now defunct 10k — before my blogging days. The course is simple — Bedford, Va.’s loop. But it’s not easy. The first mile and a half isn’t bad — it’s mostly downhill. After that a big hill smacks you in your face and separates the field. Every year I’ve done this race it’s been cold — low to mid-30s — but I’ve had fun at each one. My 5k times were 24:51 when I first started running in 2004 and 26:51 the following year when I had let myself get out of shape a little bit. It was that race that kind of sparked me to get in better shape and run the Virginia Ten Miler the following year.

Right now, even though I know I’m not in the shape I’d like to be, I would love to go out and set a course record and PR for a 5k in my 30s (24:45). Now that I’ve been back in Bedford for almost a month and ran the loop several times, I think I can do it. I’ve been running faster by default with Duke and a couple of times with my friend Travis, so I think in race conditions I can step it up. I’ll see how next week goes with the 2-miler first. I need to pass that test before jumping too far ahead.

No matter what, though, it’s nice to be signed up for these community races. In an odd twist with my 5k experience, when I run the race on Dec. 5, that will be my first 5k since last October — more than 400 days. And in looking back at my post, that race was my first 5k in 420 days. I guarantee I’ll run another 5k before March 2011.

It wasn’t much, but for the first time this week I went for a run in Bedford today after work … and I ended up tackling a street that had two big hills that I completely forgot about. I was with my dog too, and I think he also forgot what it was like to run on hills. I actually was hoping to run last night, but some heavy rain disrupted that.

It was a nice change to hit these hills and I’m looking forward to more in the coming weeks to help me get back into the shape I want to be in this winter. I haven’t mentioned races in a while, but the 8k in a couple of weeks in Richmond is out — I just don’t have the time with my moving/living situation or money, nor am I in shape enough to do it like I would want. I’m sure I’d be able to run it fine, but I’d be slow and I can run 5 miles somewhere else for free.

My hopes now is to do a Turkey Trot when we visit Ohio at Thanksgiving and the Bedford Christmas Classic in early December, a 5k that I did when I lived around here before. Otherwise, I don’t have much focus on racing — I’d like to just run some hills, get in shape and then focus on, I hope, the Shamrock. If I can build a good base and then start putting focus on that in mid-December, I’ll be able to do what I want to do for that race … a PR.

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The first couple of days in my new job have gone well. As you know, I don’t talk about work on here too much, but I really feel this is the right thing. It hasn’t felt weird to be back in the Lynchburg area at all — of course it’s only been a couple of days and I’m without my wife and son for a few days, so my main focus has actually been to get to Friday afternoon and get back to Richmond to see them. Once they’re around, it will feel “normal.”