Posts Tagged ‘races’

As a follow up to my sort of “what’s next” post the other day, I put the wheels into motion this week to finish up 2011 strong. For the first time ever, I’ll be running three races three weeks in a row.

While they’re “only” 5ks, my goals for each are different, but all will have the same underlying similarity of figuring out what a realistic goal for the Shamrock Half Marathon will be in March.

Turkey Trot
For $20 and a long-sleeve moisture wicking shirt, plus running for a good cause, why not run this? It’s a new course this year in downtown Lynchburg, so no matter what happens, it’s a course record. And coming off two 5k PRs earlier this year, I want to see where I stand with that distance and speed.

I’m expecting a large crowd, so most of all I just want to have fun and an excuse to have seconds on Thanksgiving. This race is more about setting me up for the next race a little more than a week later.

Christmas Classic
This will be the first race I have ran five times — three of those from my pre-blogging days — with one of those being a 10k that no longer exists. My main goal will be to beat my course record of 24:34 from two years ago on a cold, rainy, almost snowy day.

This is my home course — the loop route includes streets I have ran on dozens of times since I moved back to Bedford two years ago. I feel like there’s no better time than now to make it the best Christmas Classic yet.

Jingle Bell Run for Arthritis
The final leg of the 5k trio takes me to Roanoke, where I fully expect to run a race purely for the fun of it. It’s free through a workout program at work and I’ll be running with co-workers that I’d really like to see push themselves in this distance.

That said, this is going to be a very crowded race and it’s all about bringing awareness to a great cause, ending the year with a fun run, and giving a push to co-workers. I won’t be setting any goals for this other than to have fun.

This almost didn’t happen.

Friday morning I had a slight sore throat that led to feeling kind of bad that evening. I felt like I was shaking it off, but as I had trouble sleeping, I had brief thoughts of a DNS.

Feeling good 13.1 miles in

Fast forward 13.1 miles to the middle of the Baltimore Marathon. There’s no reason not to — I fought of those stupid thoughts, started the first few miles slow (my first official split at mile 5.8 was 49:10, an 8:29 pace) and at the half way point I had picked up the pace and was at just under 1:50, an 8:23 pace. I was in the zone like never before.

But that feeling of a cold was still there and 20-30 mph winds were in the forecast. I had to push it before the weather elements hit and before my body would have no more of that running a marathon stuff.

Well, around mile 18 the wind hit. And a few miles later I suddenly needed water like never before. I wasn’t thirsty, but a bit of a stopped up nose and slightly sore throat was making my mouth so dry. I’m sure the wind didn’t help.

I couldn’t have prepared for what I was feeling. I was able to push mile 19 out in 8:35 as I tried to fight those thoughts; slowed down to just over 10 minutes for mile 20 and then managed to do mile 21 in 9:18.

I kept doing math in my head of what I could do, but I just wasn’t feeling good. My legs were actually doing great — there was no “wall hitting” feeling — but everything else was getting to me.

So mentally and physically, I axed my “A” goal of 3:45. I knew that if I slowed down, walked a bit every few minutes and grabbed two cups of water plus Gatorade that I would easily hit my “B” goal - a sub 4-hour marathon.

Getting ready to head through Camden Yards for a very cool finish.

I spent the last few miles soaking in the sights and sounds (tons of cowbells in Baltimore), backing off quite a bit (miles 23 and 24 were a few seconds over 10 minutes) and doing what I could to avoid further sickness.

Then it hit.

I had the absolute worse cramp ever in my left leg. I nearly fell down. I stopped, stretched, rubbed it out, and … nothing. I could not move. While I freaked out a bit, I had a little more than 15 minutes to spare with a mile to go to get to my “B” goal.

I took a deep breath, repeated those steps and took the shortest strides of my life for the final mile. I wasn’t going to get to the huge crowd through Camden Yards and walk.

My time? 3:56:17. 762nd out of 3,207; 582nd out of 2,015 men; 104th out of 336 in my age group.

This was far and away the best running experience since finishing my first marathon 4 years ago. There’s a lot more from this race and weekend that I’ll eventually blog about, but for now this is a moment I want to soak in and celebrate.

There are a variety of things on my mind, so I won’t waste time getting to them:

• As if I didn’t know that the Baltimore Marathon was a month away, an email with a giant counter reminded me, and a Facebook post unveiled the official marathon logo. The finishers medal was also released today. So yeah, there’s a month to go.
• I got a nice reminder this week that my body is in full control. I was a bit wiped out Monday and skipped what had become a regular core day with our personal trainer at work. Then after a good run Tuesday, my throat started hurting a bit. Then Tuesday night/Wednesday morning, I didn’t feel that great. I spent yesterday fighting it with allergy medicine, Naked Juice, Arizona tea, water and a dose of Nyquil knock-off. I got a solid night’s sleep and woke up feeling 10 times better today.
• That said, I’m a bit off my mileage this week. I probably would have pulled a double yesterday for more mileage, and I thought about it briefly tonight, but besides an extra half mile with Duke, I’m opting for an earlier bedtime for more rest. I think at this point rest is more important than forcing miles. It’s the first week of my training that I have felt behind, but I’m not going to force myself to make anything up.
• If you’re not a Garmin Connect fan, check it out. There is now a courses creation feature that follows the road.
• This weekend marks what is now becoming known in the Shamrock Marathon events at Halfway to St. Patrick’s Day weekend. For me, it’s also known as 6-more-months-to-go-until-I-set-my-half-marathon-PR weekend, or 4-weeks-to-go-until-the-Baltimore-Marathon weekend. Both are equally exciting.
• Lastly, tonight summer gets a big boot in the butt as temperatures drop to about 50; tomorrow’s high might hit 60. It will be the coolest day since April. While I know there are plenty of warm days left, I think the oppressive heat is finally over. I’ll drink to that.

One of the biggest lessons I learned from last year was to not get too caught up in the “most ever” or “best ever” moments. While they’re great and worth celebrating, it’s very easy to lose focus if I dwell on them too much.

Today is one of those moments to celebrate, but I also need to quickly move on. I’ll talk about it now and drink a Magic Hat or two to celebrate, but tomorrow is September and there are still 45 days until the Baltimore Marathon. FOCUS.

So … what’s the big deal?

Today’s tired feeling 3.3-mile run puts me at 134.5 miles for August. It’s the most miles in a month ever, edging out 133 miles in October 2007. I actually fell about 6 miles shy of my goal, as well as not getting to 40 miles last week, but I knew ahead of time those were big miles for me. The 40 will come soon enough though.

Similar to how I felt a month ago, how I got to that number is what is important.

• 7 runs out of 22 were under a 9-minute pace. That’s not quite as good as July, but this month I had a few more shorter and slower (and very important) recovery runs.
• A solid effort in the Lynchburg Half Marathon.
• Breaking 22 minutes in the Fab 5k.
• I ran a mountain.

The finishing field.

Perfect August weather (about 70 with low humidity) + a flat course = a recipe for a great 5k.

Yesterday morning, I saw a post on the Mountain Junkies Facebook page with a map of the Fab 5k race course — very flat with only about 40 feet of elevation gain.

Start of the Fab 5k

While I knew much of this course was off-road — some gravel, dirt and grass — I had the brief thought that I should be able to set a PR.

In the time since my 5k PR in Ohio in July, I’ve continued to push myself and my forced hill training has proven to work in my other flat race — the Percival’s Island 5 Miler. While I wanted to run hard, I tried to push off PR thoughts until I started running.

With more than 400 people running, and a narrow bridge about a half mile into the race, I took off. I glanced at my watch about two-tenths of a mile in to check my pace and a co-worker pushed my wrist down and told me to stop looking at it. I managed to pass quite a few people before the potential bridge jam and then just pushed the pedal harder — 6:45 in the first mile. I didn’t feel like it was too fast, but I knew it would be tough to maintain.

Much of the second mile was on the road — I was feeling good and was able to hit 7:01. In my head I knew that as long as I didn’t fall in a hole I could set a PR, but could I break 22 minutes?

With most of the third mile on grass, and very mentally challenging as I could continuously see the finish line, I kept telling myself to hold it together. Don’t look at the watch. Keep my head up. Go. Just go.

I can see that I'm taking a quick glance at the clock. (The time on the other side was a few seconds off for some reason.)

As I hit mile 3, a younger woman passed me and said something — I think “good job” or “almost there” or something like that.

It was what I needed for a final surge and pass her just before the finish mat and get under 22 minutes for a 5k for the first time ever.

I looked at my Garmin — 21:54. I almost threw up. My official time was 21:52, nearly 20 seconds faster than my PR from July 4. I’ve shaved off nearly 50 seconds off my 5k race time this summer.

I was 83rd out of 402 finishers; 8th in my age group out of 23.

My co-workers also did a great job with one of them running under an 8-minute mile pace for the first time ever.

It was a great day all around that course as more than 30 people had less than a 6-minute mile pace. It’s the type of day that gives me thoughts of getting my 5k time even lower and one day breaking a 7-minute mile pace.

It's great to have some co-workers at a race!

As I look ahead to the next couple of months, this will very likely be the last race until the Baltimore Marathon. As great as I feel about yesterday’s race, today’s long run is a different story. But that’s for another post some other time. This 5k PR is worth celebrating.

Thanks to Sam Rice for all the photos!

Coming off Saturday’s Lynchburg Half Marathon, I’ve been very happy with how my body has reacted.

• I had a nice 2+ mile recovery run with Duke on Sunday morning. It was a good way to cap off a week in which I really pushed myself with four runs in three days mid-week and the race. At 33.2 miles, it was the highest mileage week of the year and just less than 2 miles off my training peak from last year.
• I had a great core session on Monday, which included increasing my reps of squats I’ve been doing. I was worried initially about making that push, but my legs felt great.
• Today I continued my “push” theme and ran 4.7 miles in an 8:30 pace, which included a comfortable 8:19 middle mile. I initially felt like I started too fast, but I was able to maintain a good pace. The second mile, which was the hilliest, was 8:40.

Yesterday marked the two-months-to-go mark until the Baltimore Marathon. Two months? Really? That’s all?

I’m very happy with where I am in my training and the progress I continue to make with distance, speed and less worrying about my knee. The thought is still there quite a bit, but I can’t let it be a big distraction.

Next up in the journey is a big week with a goal of 36 miles this week, which will include a 5k on Saturday — the Fab 5k in Salem, Va. It’s a cross country style race.

While it’s promised to be flat, I’m looking at it as a speed workout. I’m not going to set a specific goal for this one. My long run goal is 16 miles on Sunday.

As I enter the second half of my training, I’m really setting my sites on a “first ever” moment of hitting 40 miles in a few weeks. It’s a distance out there that I’ve never been able to hit.

My previous two marathon attempts had too many things happen, but as of right now I’ve put it on my plan to hit 40 or more a few times before the taper begins. This will be the year it finally happens.

My wife caught this awesome photo of the James River in Lynchburg from the first bridge we cross in the race.

You know those moments where you plan something and it plays out perfectly? Well, that didn’t happen today. For one of the first races ever, I set a very specific goal for today’s Percival’s Island 5 Miler in Lynchburg. I even went as far as writing on my wrist where I needed to be each mile to hit 36:54.

7:22 pace would have put me at 36:54 (yes, that's a 4, not a 9)

My time today was 36:47. That’s right, 7 seconds faster than my goal. It was also 12 seconds better than my PR in this race from 4 years ago, and it was nearly 3 minutes faster than last year.

The best laid plans of running a consistent, even-paced race — hitting about 7:22 each mile — just didn’t happen. Not that it’s a problem, but it turned this into a race in which I dug deep both physically and mentally in the second half to make up time after losing precious seconds in the first couple of miles.

I got caught up in a little more traffic than I usually do in the first mile and hit it in 7:28. I hit mile 2 in 7:25. That put me about 10 seconds off where I wanted to be.

When I hit the halfway point and the clock read 19 something, I had a decision to make — lay off the gas pedal a bit and still have a solid race, but accept missing my goal, or … well … let’s just say I wasn’t going to play the mental game today. I picked my ass up and went for it.

Through mile 3 and 4 I was able to get my pace down a bit, but I still had some work to do. When I hit mile 4, the clock was right at 29:59 — I still had to do a 7-minute mile just to tie my time from 4 years ago. It was shut up and go time.

At that same moment, I passed a couple of people who had just passed me; then a quarter mile later a guy passed me; I stuck with him and we passed a guy on a bridge who told us we were looking strong; the guy we passed on the bridge passed me with a tenth of a mile to go and said “Come on”; I passed that guy 3 feet from the finish line; the other guy was just in front of me.

This is near the finish line; I'm in blue. Somehow I dug deep and passed that guy at the end.

Instead of thinking about what I was doing, it was some very friendly competition in the last half mile that led to a sub-7 minute mile and a PR.

In the end, I learned a lot today:

• For these community races I need to get closer to the front — I was 42nd out of 225 people. There’s no reason for me anymore not to start a little closer to the front than I do.
• Writing the splits on my wrist is a huge help in keeping focused. I don’t know how many races I’ve done in which I tried to do math in my head to hit certain times, but I felt more at ease mentally today. I will definitely have more specific goals for future races.
• Keeping my arms lower continues to help keep me relaxed when pushing it. I heard someone at the end telling runners to “work your arms; finish strong.” While I probably did use my arms at the end to push myself, that technique is not for me for a flat race anymore. For hills, yeah, you need to use your arms, but I had a lot of energy left at the end because I didn’t waste any with big arm movement the first 4 miles.
• When the weather cooperates, push it harder. Today’s temperature at the start was in the mid-60s, about 20 degrees cooler than at the same time for much of the first half of the week. We had highs in the mid-90s to near 100 until Thursday, and those temperatures are coming back, so I felt like I had a small window today to push things even harder than I usually would.
• Compression calf sleeves are great for recovering. I’ll write a full review later, but my legs do not feel like they ran a hard 5 miles this morning.

Today’s race also caps off the first quarter of marathon training. I couldn’t have asked for a better start with some strong runs, steady long runs and two race PRs.

This weekend I’m running in the Percival’s Island 5 Miler in Lynchburg for the fourth time since 2006. This year the weather looks great with the forecast to be in the low 60s the night before with relatively low humidity.

Last year turned into a big humid mess; the weather the first half of this week has been the worst of the year with heat indexes in the low 100s.

Why all this weather talk? Well, like last week’s 5k PR, a change in the weather is all I need to change my mind frame. I’m also realizing that each time I run in the heat that battling the elements is just as much a mental fight as it is physical. I’m ready to move forward with setting a very specific goal for this race.

Based on recent runs on hills, the way I felt on this course last year, and some technological help, I’m setting a goal of 36:54. That’s 5 seconds faster — 1 second per mile — than what I did four years ago. I think it’s a realistic goal to set my mind to so I don’t just go out and “see what happens.” I’ve done that enough over the years, but I think it’s time that I have a very specific goal for a race like this.

Image: Chaiwat / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Entering today’s flat race in Howland, Ohio — the Stars and Stripes 5k — I had one thing in mind: a PR. While I wouldn’t have beat myself up over not getting a PR, I knew that my faster training on hills in Virginia had to pay off on this race day. Plus coming off a good 5k a couple of weeks ago, I knew I had it in me to beat that 22:41 that I set last year.

What transpired was unbelievable. I hit the first mile in 7 minutes flat. While it was a bit faster than I would have liked to have started, I felt great. And I also felt the pressure to keep up with a guy running near me making it look far easier than I was. I passed him early on and then he passed me shortly after. We pretty much stayed together the whole time.

Keeping up with him led to a 7:18 second mile — very much on target for the PR as long as I could hold myself together in the final mile. As I hit mile 3 in 7:13, a guy pushing a stroller passed me, making life look easy. I pressed the gas pedal a little more as I hit the 3-mile mark and smoked that last tenth in 38 seconds, finishing just behind my new pal and the guy running with the stroller.

At the end of the race, my new friend and I thanked one other for pushing each other — I’m not sure if he was being competitive and wanted to beat me, or if I was pushing myself a little harder just to keep up. Whatever the reason, it led me to a 22:10 finish (maybe 22:09; official times haven’t been posted) — a 7:08 per mile pace — and puts thoughts in my head of greater things yet to come.

I won’t get into all that now though. I want to let this soak in for a while and enjoy the moment.

Today is my 33rd birthday and I’ve had a variety of blog posts in my mind this week on marking this occasion. My birthday, though, is not something I tout too much. I’ve even taken my birth date off Facebook because I HATE to see Walls filled up with generic “Happy Birthday” posts.

So to mark today, which is just another day closer to a new age bracket in races, I thought I’d share 33 random thoughts about running – from lessons learned, to favorite moments, to pieces of advice, to some very random things, I feel like this is a good way to mark the beginning of a new year in my life.

1. If I ever stop calling running fun, I’m quitting. From sights and sounds, to pushing myself, to a new level, to running with my dog, there’s an element of fun in even bad runs.

2. I want to break 1:40 in the half marathon. Part of me doesn’t want to train for another marathon and instead focus on that distance.

3. With No. 2 being said, I want to run a marathon and not be injured afterward. Thus the reason for my drive and desire to run the Baltimore Marathon in October.

4. I think I’ve mentioned this before, but I once ran 5:45 in the mile in high school, good enough for next to last place – the only track meet in which I wasn’t last in the mile.

5. For no real reason, Guns ‘n’ Roses “November Rain” is my favorite song to run to, on the rare occasion I listen to music.

6. When hydrating for a race, you shouldn’t really do anything different than you did while training.

7. When doing a long-distance race, see what type of gels they’ll hand out. Don’t be surprised. Try it out on a couple of long runs to see if it settles well with you; otherwise bring your own. And don’t complain if you don’t like them.

8. If you need to stop to walk in a race or slow down, MOVE OUT OF THE WAY. Or you may get a slight elbow from me.

9. A year and a half later, I still look at an adventure I took in the mountains as a game-changer.

10. Don’t wear the event shirt until you earn it.

11. Injinji socks are the best. And if anyone gives me birthday money, I’m buying more to wear every day.

12. Wear sunscreen if you’re going to be running in the sun for a while.

13. While I’ve been blogging for four years about running, there’s about 3½ years worth of stories before the blog that I’ve only mentioned a few times. I’ve thought about doing retroactive race reports, but I don’t know how much I remember about those early races.

14. This photo from last summer is my most favorite picture that I’ve taken on a run:

15. And this photo is my most favorite from after a run:

16. And, quite sadly, I don’t have a favorite race photo.

17. Fitz at Strength Running has a great post this week about seven things that changed his running forever. I suggest checking it out HERE.

18. My 5k next weekend in Ohio is just my third out-of-Virginia race. The other two were also in Ohio and were two-mile Turkey Trots.

19. I’ll have a separate blog post on this, but I did buy the Brooks Ghost 3 that I wrote about a month ago. I’ve had four good runs in them so far.

20. I think there are a lot people out there who get caught up in thinking/saying “my favorite weather is now,” but I will forever say “bring on the cold.” Perfect conditions for me would be in the low 40s and cloudy. Still warm enough for shorts. I can certainly handle colder. BRING IT.

21. I’ve never publicly questioned the 10 percent rule – in fact I have embraced it many times – but this old article confirms what I’ve said many times: different things work for different people. Here’s an even newer article on the topic. It’s another subject for another blog post.

March 2003

22. Whenever someone asks me why I run, I talk about how I needed to lose weight. I do have a “before” photo of me on my About Me page, but the inset photo tells an even better story.

23. The next #runchat is this Sunday on Twitter. Head over to iRunnerBlog to read about this week’s great giveaway.

24. My post after my first marathon is still my favorite post ever. I am a marathoner and no one can ever take that title away from me.

25. My Stung in the eye post still picks up a lot of page views. People enjoy it when other people suffer.

26. I never knew how the Yasso 800s worked until recently. Now I just need easier access to a track to do them.

27. If someone tells you their product is “scientifically proven,” that doesn’t mean it will actually work for you.

28. If you’re looking for an alternative to ice, use a bag of frozen peas.

29. I really want to have a 40-mile week this summer. That’s a distance that still eludes me.

30. The best thing I’ve ever done to help my running: buying all non-cotton gear.

31. My son wore his race medal for nearly an hour after his race the other day. That makes me proud in many ways:

32. I want to run an ultramarathon one day. In particular, one of these.

33. Did I mention to make sure you have fun? No matter how far you go, or how fast your are … HAVE FUN!