Riley Creek Citizen's Race

So Jay motivated me to write about my last little 5K and actually brag a bit. I am not nearly as eloquent as he is though so don't get too excited about reading it.

After most XC races, there is a Citizen's Race on the same course. I don't typically run them mainly cause I don't want to embarrass myself. But, at the home meet this year, I decided to take my gear. It helped that Curtis was able to go to the meet and brought his too and definitely pushed me to do it. He promised he would run with me :)

The kids like this course because it is pretty flat and has some pavement and packed dirt which makes it "fast". It is out in a campground by the Pend Oreille River so you are running by the water for a little bit. There is not usually official timing in the Citizens Race - it is more about just enjoying it. Oh by the way, out coach, Matt Brass, did win in 16 something. Insane! (He was finishing about the time I was at the 2 mile.)

The gun went off, and it is a bit daunting for me cause you typically have a bunch of XC coaches, old HS runners, kids who may not have run the race but are on a team, etc. So they all start off pretty fast, but off Curtis and I went. We were running and I told Curtis I was pretty tired and breathing hard. I thought that maybe it was because I had been standing around for 4 hours at the finish chute, but then we got to the first mile and Curt said we were at 8:15. No wonder I was tired! That is fast for me. We kept going and he wasn't letting me slow down, plus there is that factor of the HS team seeing me and cheering me. You know, I didn't want to appear to be slacking. The second mile, 16:30 so we were at the same pace. You loop twice on this course and probably around 2.5 or more, I was I have to slow down a bit. We came to mile 3 (I have no idea what the time was) and just past that was Sydney and a bunch of the XC kids. Sydney yells "Kick you guys"! Well unfortunately there is very little kick in this girl, but I tried to push myself down to the finish line and hopefully look like I was still running. And we finished! 25:52!!! A new PR! I was exhausted but even with a lowkey race, it felt pretty dang good.

Curtis finished right before me. No PR but I don't think I could've done it without him. He kept me going. It was probably a bit of a fluke, but whatever, not bad for a 50 year old.

The 2011 Race for the Cure race report

I really debated whether to enter the Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure 5k this year. IMO, it's overpriced for a 5k (even if it is to support a worthwhile cause) and the race really seems secondary to their whole fund raising effort. And you have to pay an extra five bucks if you want a timing chip in the race. But with over 18,000 participants it is quite an event, although it feels a bit unorganized. Obviously, I ultimately decided to participate and went to the Red Coyote running store the Thursday before the race to enter.

I've been putting in a lot of miles recently, but hadn't really done any real speed work leading up to this race. I did go ahead and take one evening's run the week of the race to focus on running fast, putting in one sub-8 minute mile and four more miles between an 8 minute and 8:30 pace. I felt good that evening, so that was encouraging. Like the Midnight Streak in August though, I went into this race without a clearly defined goal...more of a "let's see what happens" attitude.

We got up early, got ready and headed to Bricktown. After finding a place to park (not easy) we headed toward the Bricktown Ballpark where the race begins and ends. As we walked I realized I had left my sunglasses in the car, but we had gone far enough that I didn't want to turn around and go back. As I was kind of stressing about that, it hit me that I had forgot to bring my Garmin GPS watch when we left the house. Now I was really stressed! I tend to keep a pretty close eye on my pace using my Garmin and have found it really valuable in races, mostly as a check on my early pace so I don't run myself out and end up with nothing left while still having a ways to go. I didn't even have a regular watch, so I had no way at all to check my splits. I would have to run this race totally by feel. I realized there was nothing I could do about it now, so I figured I'd just make the best of it and see how it went.

We got there early enough to cruise around the ballpark for a few minutes, picking up some of the swag being passed out by various groups. The temp was in the upper 50's and there was a pretty good breeze blowing, so it was a bit nippy. I wore shorts and a singlet, but also brought a light running jacket which I kept on until I was ready to go line up in the starting area.

With about 10 minutes until the gun, I gave the jacket to Peggy to keep for me then worked my way into the 8 minute pace group at the start. While waiting to start, I bounced on my toes trying to stay warm and considered asking one of the runners near me who had GPS watches if they were really planning on running an 8 minute pace, thinking if so, I'd follow them early. The races I've run previously have had some sort of leadup/countdown to the gun, but there was no warning on this day. As I stood there fiddling with my iPod BOOM, the gun went off! The crowd around me surged toward the starting line and I quickly popped my headphones in my ears and turned the iPod on as I shuffled toward the start.

As usual in a race, once I crossed the staring line I felt like everyone around me was going way too slow and I began weaving my way thru the crowd, trying to find some room to run. And, as usual, once I did that I thought I was probably running too fast now. I slowed myself a bit, but tried to keep the pace feeling a little uncomfortable so I knew I was going fast enough. After probably about a half mile, the course turned on to Lincoln and proceeded up a long hill. It was very reminiscent of the long hill toward the end of the Midnight Streak. Not exceptionally steep, but quite long, and you definitely knew you were running uphill. I tried to adjust my pace appropriately so I wouldn't kill myself early, but not slow down too much to hurt a good overall time.

Once we topped the hill, it leveled off and I picked up my pace a bit. Shortly after that I passed the 2k marker and the clock there read 10 minutes and something. I began trying to remember what the kilometer to mile ratio was. I couldn't recall, but I did decide I was on a pretty good pace. The course turned off of Lincoln heading West toward I-235 then turned back and wove thru the office parks between 235 and Lincoln. I kept the pace a bit uncomfortably quick but didn't feel like I was overdoing it.

After the course crossed back over 235 toward downtown I picked up my pace a bit more since I knew we had to be on the last mile. The race finishes coming down the steep Walnut bridge (you may recall the OKC Memorial Marathon went up that bridge early in the race). Last year, by the time we hit this point I was completely gassed, having gone out too fast and I ran down the bridge putting the brakes on all the way. This year I still felt pretty good and really let myself fly down the hill. Once you hit bottom of the hill you're left with about 200 yards of level straight away and I broke into a full sprint toward the finish line.

I crossed the finish and almost immediately spotted Peggy. I walked over toward her as I caught my breath. I was definitely tired, but felt better than I did when I finished the Midnight Streak in August. I felt like I had run a pretty good time, but wasn't sure it was my best. I told Peggy I forgot to look at the clock as I crossed the finish and she said it read 23-something when I finished. I was rather disbelieving of that and thought she must be mistaken.

We hung out at the ballpark for 30 minutes or so and collected a bit more swag before walking back to the car and after a bit of hassle found our way back to the highway and headed home. Once I got home, I checked onlineraceresults.com and was surprised to find they had already posted times. Then I was even more surprised to find Peggy had been correct and I had broken the 24 minute mark. By over 15 seconds!  I had run the race in 23:44 beating my previous 5k PR of 24:49 by over a minute!

After the Midnight Streak, I had been really proud of my time, but was also a bit disappointed, because at that time I felt like I may have just about reached my limit for a 5k. I was so spent at the finish of that race that I wasn't sure I could run one any faster. I felt at best I may be looking at shaving a few seconds off that time occasionally. And now I felt like I had blown it away. And I think I can still improve.

As I've mentioned before, after the extreme summer we had, I've been surprised this fall how much difference the cooler temperatures make when running. I think that was the biggest factor in my time in this race versus the Midnight Streak. However, I also think running without the GPS contributed quite a bit too. I suspect I ran the first couple of miles faster than I would have if I'd had the watch on and been tracking my pace. The biggest reason I now wish I'd had the watch on is that I would like to know what my splits were. My average pace for the race was 7:39/mile. I'm sure I didn't run the first two miles that fast, but I did probably run them under 8 minutes. And I probably ran the last mile close to 7:30.

Over the almost two years I've been running now, one truth I've seen is that you can almost always run harder and longer than you think you can...your mind is as much of a limiting factor as your body and physical ability are, if not more so.

New look for Mondo Marathon

If you're checking out the blog, I guess you noticed the new design. I took advantage of Google's Blogger layout tools and changed the look of our blog. Got some runners in the background now as well as some other subtle design changes. I like the new look...I guess I should since I picked it. As a side note, you can add your own background image rather than use one that Google provides, so if I come up with an appropriate running image...or if one of you have one you'd like to send my way, we can change it out.

Feedback on the new design is welcome.

The 2011 Memorial Marathon

Note: Like my SLC Half Marathon report, this took much longer to finish writing up than it should have, but finally, here it is for posterity. Hope everyone enjoys it.

Last year while Sue and I were in Salt Lake City for the SLC Marathon, I told Sherry, Curtis and Thais they needed to come to Oklahoma this year and we could all run in the OKC Memorial Marathon. Ever since I started running, I've almost felt obligated to run the Memorial at least once due to my personal connection to the OKC bombing. They all agreed that would be fun, and a good excuse for a family reunion so they would see if they could make it happen.

As last year progressed, more of the family got on board. Ross committed to it and it looked like Lyndsey, Kellen and maybe Ashley would also run in it. Then on Thanksgiving last November, Thais or Sue (I don't recall for sure) mentioned to Sarah and Johnny that they should start running and do the Memorial with the rest of us. And right after that Sarah and Johnny started running with the intention of doing the half marathon. Unfortunately, due to various reasons none of those "young" people were able to participate. However, one of the Foster kids, Luke, did end up running it (with virtually no training!) and Karla and Ryan Smith's daughter Chelsey made a last minute decision (with some urging from Sherry and Curtis) to join the fun too.

The reunion/race weekend began on Thursday, April 28th with the arrival of the non-Oklahoma residents. The next day most of us were able to meet at Zio's in Bricktown for a great lunch and visit. In addition to our race running family members (Karla, Ryan and Chelsey excepted), Lyndsey, Kellen, Ashley and Abbie also made it and we enjoyed a good lunch and visit.

Sherry, Luke, Dad, Thais and Sue at Zios.

After lunch, Dad, Thais, Sue, Sherry, Curtis, Luke and Peggy and I all walked over to the Cox Center where we met Ross to pick up our race packets and attend the pre-race Expo. We all quickly picked up our packets then headed to the Expo room. Ross looked around for a bit, but had to get back to work before long. The rest of us browsed the various vendors and spent some money. Curtis decided to check out the minimalist shoe movement and bought a pair of Vibram FiveFingers which he enjoyed wearing as much as possible the rest of the weekend. Finally, we all left to get a small jump on rush hour traffic as we headed home.

At the Cox Center to attend the Expo.

Saturday Sue, Thais, Sherry, Curtis and Luke got up early and headed out to the Arts Festival. A bit later, Peggy and I met them at the Academy store on the Northwest Expressway as Thais wanted to check out some cold weather running clothes since the forecast was looking down for the race on Sunday. We all met at Dad's house Saturday evening, joined by Karla, Ryan and Chelsey to have a pasta dinner. We all enjoyed a great meal and had a good visit. We spent a bit of time discussing the weather forecast and what appropriate clothing would be as well as making plans on where to meet downtown in the morning. Eventually, the gathering broke up so everyone could get to bed and, hopefully rest up for the race the next morning.

I slept fitfully that night and woke up at 3:30. I had my clock set for 4:30 and I tried to go back to sleep, but finally gave up and got up around 4:15. I pulled up the weather on my iPod and saw the temperature was 56 degrees. I stepped outside and thought it didn't feel bad at all and began to rethink my clothing plans. I woke Peggy up and she reminded me that the local news came on channel 5 at 5AM. I tuned that in at 5 and found the weather man assuring us that it would begin raining by the time the marathon was scheduled to begin at 6:30. He seemed really sure about it, so I went ahead and dressed for the colder temps I expected if it rained.

Peggy and I were ready fairly quickly and we left the house by 5:20. We made good time and, seeing the exits off of I-235 to downtown were already backed up, we went on down to 23rd Street and exited there, jogged over to Robinson and took that back toward downtown. As we drove down Robinson, some raindrops began hitting our windshield. We pulled over to park on Robinson around 10th Street. By now the rain was getting pretty steady so my worst fears about the weather appeared to be coming true.

We were pretty early so we decided to sit in the car for a bit before heading for the Journal Record building where we were all to meet. As we waited, Sherry called and said they were still on their way. She told me Thais and Sue were already there and they said the start had been delayed until 7:00 because of the lightning. Peggy and I stayed in the car until around 6:35 before we finally ventured out into the rain to head for the starting area. As we walked by the Methodist church at Robinson and 8th(?) Street, there was a gentleman telling people the church was open for people to use their restrooms and they had hot coffee available. We went ahead and ran in so I could use their bathroom. With that taken care of we ventured back out.

We got to the Journal Record building and headed down 6th Street, and saw the family in the parking garage across the street. We jumped in there and everyone took the opportunity to pose for a photo before the race started.

Before the fun begins!

After we took the photo, the girls headed to the starting line. Ross and I thought we should hang out in the garage as long as possible. So we ended up almost staying in there too long. As he, Curtis and I tried to get to our starting area the crowd on 6th Street leading in to Harvey was almost impassable. We squeezed thru the crowd and a small opening in the fences blocking Harvey off and finally got into the starting area just minutes before the gun went off.

The crowd slowly shuffled to the starting line and finally we crossed it and began a slow jog down the street. When course turned by Leadership Square, Curtis jumped up to the sidewalk to get around the crowd. Ross and I followed suit and soon we were running at a sub-8 minute pace sprinting around the crowd. We kept this up for the first mile or so before it thinned out enough to have a bit of room to run the pace you wanted and we slowed down some.

After the first couple of miles, Ross settled in to a fairly quick 8:30ish pace. This was a bit quicker than I felt comfortable with this early in the race (and I found out later Curtis agreed), but I really wanted to keep up with Ross as long as possible. I worried this would probably bite me late in the race but decided I'd just go with it and see what happens. We had what I thought were rather impressive splits on miles 3 thru 6: 8:44, 8:52, 8:19(!), and 8:21. Despite that pace and the miserable weather conditions I was still feeling pretty good at this point.

On the 7th mile I stopped for a bathroom break while Ross and Curtis kept going. It was a pretty quick stop (my Garmin said the 7th mile time was 9:45) and when I took off again, I kept a pretty fast pace thinking maybe I could catch back up with them. I ran mile 8 in 8:28, but I was beginning to feel the effects of the distance and effort. I also realized Ross and Curtis probably had at least a one minute lead on me from my stop so I slowed the pace a bit and when I came to the next watering station I walked thru it like I had done at all the water stations during the Route 66 marathon back in November.

This was the long straightaway down Classen. My legs were definitely getting pretty tired now, I was only on mile 9, my fingers were numb from the cold...I was beginning to feel a bit discouraged. I was thinking I didn't feel this tired at this point of the Route 66 so I was beginning to wonder how strong I would be able to finish. Then as I neared the turnoff from Classen I spotted Curtis up ahead! I pressed a bit in order to catch up with him.

Feeling the burn as I run down Classen.

When I caught him I asked him where Ross was. Curtis said he thought he was long gone. The pace had caught up with Curtis like it had with me and he said he had begun walking for a minute during each mile...a pretty good strategy, especially if your legs are crapping out on you. That sounded good to me, so I stayed with him, taking a couple of minute-long walk breaks.

When we came to another water station Curtis slowed to get a drink and I kept on going. Right after that I thought I saw Ross a hundred yards or so ahead. I looked back and could see Curtis not too far behind me. I kept the pace I had been going and slowly gained on Ross. When I got close I stepped on it and went flying by. I turned and waved as I passed him. As I passed I noticed he was jogging rather slowly (for him). I slowed down after I passed him and fully expected him to catch up with me momentarily. When I he didn't catch up with me after a minute I looked behind me but couldn't see him or Curtis.

The course was now going through the historic neighborhoods north of downtown. It was really getting to be a chore to maintain my pace and these neighborhoods are on the hilly side. I began walking up hills that any degree of steepness to them. I still had a couple of miles to go and I felt like I was really struggling now. My splits over the last three miles were 9:18, 9:11 and 9:23. That means when I was running I was still keeping a pretty good pace because I walked several times over these last few miles.

Finally I found myself on 13th Street, heading for Broadway. This helped me find the energy to press on with no more walk breaks since I knew the finish was down Broadway, not too far away. I made the turn onto Broadway and shortly, I saw the finish ahead. I began picking up my pace and finally, when I thought I could maintain it to the finish I began kicking it with everything I had left. Despite feeling like I my legs were totally wasted I managed a 7:44 pace over that last 10th of a mile! I stopped my Garmin as I crossed the finish, and when I looked at it I saw 1:59:34. Unbelievably I had broken two hours unofficially. This was a surprise to me because I felt so much worse and walked much more over the last couple of miles than I had during the Route 66 in November where I finished in 2:03.

Despite everything, Peggy got a shot of me about to finish.

I attempted to cover myself with the blanket I was handed when I finished and worked throught the crowds around the drinks and food tables for the finishers, trying to stay under their tarps to avoid being rained on. Within 5 minutes of finishing I was beginning to get cold, and after ten minutes I was really staring to shiver. Curtis spotted me and asked if I had seen Ross. He told me when he caught up with Ross, Ross told him he just had nothing left in his legs. We both began walking back toward the finish to see if we could spot him, but I gave up fighting the crowd pretty quickly.

I was now beginning to actually worry a bit about hypothermia as I was really getting cold and shivering pretty seriously. I managed to dial Peggy on my phone despite my frozen fingers and after a bit of difficulty we finally found each other. I asked her where the car was and she told me she had some bad news. We had a flat tire. Not what I wanted to hear! We began heading toward the car. As we worked our way up Broadway we ran into some familiar faces trying to hide from the rain.

Chelsey, Sue, Luke, Molly, Cara, Tayler and Sherry hide from the rain.

Peggy and I finally made it to the car and after a lot of warming up  and several warming-up-some-more breaks, I got the tire changed and we headed home. We had recorded most of channel 4's broadcast of the marathon, so we watched that Sunday afternoon and watched for official results to be posted online.

Every one of us had a good race...especially considering the miserable conditions. Here are all of our official chip times:

RJay: 1:59:31
Curtis: 2:01:50
Ross: 2:04:02
Sue: 2:21:28
Sherry: 2:21:36
Thais: 2:44:19
Luke: 2:24:01
Chelsey: 2:23:45

To top it off, I think everyone set a new PR. Of course, Ross, Thais, Luke and Chelsey did because it was the first half marathon for all of them. Maybe the bad weather played to all of our advantage as far as time went, i.e. the sooner you finished, the sooner you could get out of the cold and rain!

The following day, I met up with Sue, Sherry, Curtis, Thais and Carla and we ran around town a bit together, enjoying each other's company, finishing with a light supper in Bricktown. It was a great finish to a great weekend. The out-of-towners all tentatively planned on making it again next year, so we'll see how things shake out.

I can run for miles and miles

I've been increasing my miles slowly. I slacked on my weekday runs early in September...had a couple of weeks where I only ran once during the week, but I've been pushing my long run on the weekend up steadily. And I've managed to get a bit more on track with my weekday running over the past couple of weeks.

I ran 13 miles yesterday. The previous weekend I ran 12 miles. I felt good on that run until about the ten and a half mile mark when my legs suddenly felt really heavy and tired. I had to push to finish 12 that day. Then on my run yesterday I finished much stronger. I've been trying to keep my pace between 9:00 and 9:30/mile on my long runs since going out too fast will wear you out a lot quicker and a fast pace is also supposed to contribute to more soreness. I did a good job with that yesterday but pushed it hard over the last three miles, running them in 8:53, 8:47 then a strong last mile in 8:26. My legs were definitely tired, but felt much better than the previous weekend's run. And they are hardly sore at all today where last week they were pretty sore for a couple of days after my long run. So it looks like the slow increase is paying off as far as building up my endurance.

Despite that, I'm still undecided about entering the full marathon at the Route 66 this year though. I probably have just enough time left to get my long run up to 20 miles before a taper, but it's close. And I'm questioning whether I should be spending the money (an absolute minimum of $200 for entry fee, gas and food...and hotel?) for it that close to Christmas. If I decide not to do it at the Route 66, I'm still going to try to keep my mileage up pretty high so maybe I can find a marathon after Christmas to  run instead. We'll see how things go.

September Running

I decided to write on the blog although I don't think anyone is reading it except for Jay. I have been running at least 1-2 days a week during the summer and now am at least going twice a week now the weather is cooler. A friend from work is training for a marathon she is running in January so about once a week I go with her. Friday she was planning on running 7 miles so we went down by the Oklahoma River which I had never been to before. She ran her 7 miles and I ran about 5 1/2. It was my first day off after working 3 twelve hours shifts so that is my excuse for not doing as well as her. It is a lot easier to run when it is not so hot and it is also easier to make myself go for a run when I am training for something.

I have been struggling with hip pain and yesterday talked with a friend of mine who is a nurse practitioner. She said it may be my IT band and suggested taking naproxen twice a day for 10 days so I guess I will try that. Any other suggestions from anyone?

The cool weather difference

After three months of unrelenting outer-circle-of-hell temperatures, we finally got a break in Oklahoma beginning in the middle of Labor Day weekend. That Saturday the temperature reached 103. We woke up the next day to cloudy skies and a North wind making a surprisingly cool-feeling 70ish degree morning. It felt like you went to bed in Oklahoma and woke up in a different state. The low for Labor Day was predicted to be around 54 so I had decided that was the morning I would do my long run for the weekend.

I got up around 7 on Monday morning and found the temp was 56 with a pretty good breeze blowing out of the north. I got dressed, ate an English muffin then took off. Needless to say, it felt pretty cool to me after running in hot temps all summer (79 or 80 was about as cool as it got), but I knew I'd warm up soon enough so I resisted the urge to put on more than just shorts and a singlet.

We were housesitting for Peggy's sister last week and when we've been staying there, I just run around their neighborhood because it's a big loop that's about 1.1 miles around. I had a great run that morning. I ran six miles with a couple of quick stops for a drink. After six, I stopped at the house and rested for about 10 minutes, then ate a Gu packet and took off again finally finishing at 10.4 miles.

I followed that run up with another long run this weekend, putting in 11 miles this time. So, let me finally get to the point of this post. I know running in hot weather is harder than running in cool weather, but until these last couple of long runs I didn't realize how much it difference it really makes.

I've been wanting to run a full marathon and have been thinking I'd like to try it at the Route 66 Marathon in Tulsa in November. But I've had doubts about actually being able to accomplish this. In the three half marathons I've run, by the time I finished each one, I knew on those days, there was no way I could run another half, to equal a full marathon. Of course I also knew you have to train to run a full marathon, building up your long runs week by week until you know you can go at least 18-20 miles before attempting 26.2 in a race.

I've tried to keep up my long runs over the summer to keep a good base so graduating to a full marathon wouldn't seem to big of a step (hopefully). My long runs since the OKC marathon have been anywhere from 6 to 9 miles, with 7 miles probably being the average. As the summer progressed I kept thinking I needed to start extending my long runs if I was going to run a marathon this fall. A lot of weekends I'd think I'm going to run 10 miles this weekend, but then I'd end up running 7 or 8... I'd manage 9 if I really pushed myself. And even worse, I'd have to stop and rest 3 or 4 minutes before each of those last couple of miles and it would still be all I could do to run them.

I wondered what the problem was. I knew the heat didn't make it easier, but I didn't think that was the basic problem. I figured out that if I ran too fast in the first 4 or 5 miles I pooped out a lot quicker, so I'd work on keeping my pace close to 9:30 miles. But I'd still be dying by mile 8. I thought maybe I'm not eating well enough and running out of fuel. But it didn't matter how much I ate or if I took a Gu halfway through my run. I still had the same result.

Finally, with the cool weather the last couple of weekend mornings I understood that the heat and humidity were taking a bigger toll on me than I was aware of. I did those last two long runs with many fewer breaks than I've been taking all summer and I ran further and finished much stronger than I've been able to over the summer. After my 11th mile this past weekend, by legs were definitely getting tired, but I still could have run another mile or two. Now I've got hope that I can run a full marathon! We're not done completely with hot weather this year, but it looks like they'll be fewer and further between. I've got a bit over 2 months until the Route 66, so I'm going to keep working my mileage up a bit each week and we'll see how it goes.

2011 Midnight Streak race report

This year's Midnight Streak fell on August 13th—Dad's birthday and the date of Tayler's wedding reception. Because of the wedding reception, Sherry and Thais were both in town that day and originally, they had both intended to run the race that night. Unfortunately, due to Thais' recently diagnosed melanoma, she wasn't able to run the race and Ross couldn't do it because the reception didn't shut down until 11:00. However Sue and Sherry were both able to participate this year.

We all attended the wedding reception and had a great time. It was a beautiful event and we all got to see some familiar faces we hadn't seen in a long time.

The proud father and new bride.

The Hansen siblings pose for a photo op.

A bit before 10, Sherry, Sue, Thais, Peggy and I all changed then headed out to the Fairgrounds for the race. We arrived around 10:30 so we didn't have long before they began gathering at the starting area.

Sherry and Sue discuss their race strategy before the start.

Showing off my great runner-body type.

Sue, Sherry and I headed to the start and then stood around and talked for a few minutes before I left them to line up in the 8 minute/mile starting block while they lined up in the 9 minute block. It was significantly cooler this year than last. We've had a record breaking summer heat-wise in Oklahoma this year, but we got a break the week of the race and the high that day was "only" in the 90's (vs. last year's 103). I didn't get to see the temp around race time, but I'd guess it was in the high 80s.

I was lined up to start probably about 5 minutes before the gun and I really felt good and energized as I waited. I bounced up and down on my toes in anticipation. In my previous 5k's I've had a strategy for how I would run the race, but for this one I really didn't. I intended to just go be feel and see how it turned out. Finally, as the start neared, a girl sang the national anthem and then they fired the starting gun. As I crossed the starting line I worked over to the side a bit so I could get around the crowd and hit a good pace.

The course was almost the same one as last year, but traveled in the opposite direction, leaving the Fairgrounds almost immediately and going down May Avenue for a stretch before turning back into the Fairgrounds. I settled in to an 8 minute-ish pace and really felt strong. I found myself behind a guy who was keeping that pace so I decided to follow him for a while. I stayed behind him until he began falling off that pace as we neared the first mile mark. I went past him and after the first mile I was still feeling strong. This was a good sign to me since an 8 minute mile tends to wear me down.

On the second mile the course goes down a road for probably a bit over a quarter mile then turns around and comes back the opposite direction on the same road. This is where they have water tables set up. I went ahead and downed a couple of cups of water on this stretch while trying to maintain my pace. After the turn around I tried to watch for Sue and Sherry in the line of runners going out on the road. It was difficult to see the oncoming runners though because of lights by the water tables shining in my eyes. Suddenly Sherry popped into view and she waved as she spotted me. A couple of hundred yards later I saw Sue but she didn't see me as she ran past.

In the last mile, the course had a loooong uphill stretch. The hill wasn't particularly steep, but it was definitely uphill and of course by this point you were starting to get tired. And did I mention this uphill stretch was really long? I consciously slowed my pace a bit as  I ran up the hill, trying to reserve some energy for the finish. About halfway up the hill I looked at my Garmin and saw my pace had slowed to a bit over 8:40/mile. I thought I had slowed too much and didn't want to keep that pace the rest of the way up the hill so I pushed myself to speed back up.

There was probably about a half mile left at this point and I was really beginning to wear down. I finally topped the hill and now had a good stretch of downhill. I was tired but really let myself fly down the hill hoping to make up any time I had lost going up the hill. Even doing that though, I saw a couple of runners I had passed going up the hill fly by me on the way down. When I reached the bottom there was a bit over a quarter mile left. It was getting difficult to push myself now. My chest was hurting and my body was screaming at me to stop. I had the feeling I was on pace for a PR though and kept telling myself I only had to keep this up a bit longer.

I finally saw the finish line ahead, but didn't want to start my kick too soon. I waited until I was about 150 yards away then gave it everything I had left and really managed a pretty good kick considering how tired I was. I hit the stop button on my GPS watch as I crossed the finish line, then spotted Peggy and Thais and nodded at them as I walked around a bit trying to catch my breath. I looked at my watch and it read 25:14. This would be a new PR (my previous 5k PR was 25:30), but I was a bit disappointed since I felt like I had run even faster than that.

I walked back to Thais and Peggy to watch for Sue and Sherry finish. As we waited I glanced at my watch again and it read 29-something. I realized then that when I hit the stop button at the finish I must not have got it pushed good and it had never stopped. Now I would have to wait until the times were posted to see what I finished in. Shortly, Sherry crossed the finish and came over to wait for Sue with us.

Sherry at the finish, probably glad she went on a
training run in the heat with me back in July!

About a minute later Sue finished and we decided to wait for them to post finish times before we left. As we waited, Sherry ran into a couple of people she knew from when she and her family still lived in Oklahoma! I thought that was curious since neither Sue nor I saw anyone we knew.

Sue, looking pretty good for just finishing 3 miles in the heat.

They posted times pretty quickly and we all looked to find our names. I found mine and saw I had finished in 24:49, 8th out of 38 in my age group. I was really happy about that since I had broke 25 minutes and beat my old PR by 40 seconds! Sherry finished in 28:12 and 7th out of 37 in her age group and Sue finished in 29:36 and 5th out of 35 in her age group. A great showing I thought as we all finished top ten in our age groups. With that, we headed back to our cars and headed home.

It was a fun race and I had a great time with my sisters. I was really glad they got to run in it with me. Maybe Ross can make it next year.

Today's weather update

They keep lowering the temps for Sunday. Consensus now is upper 60s for a high and mid to upper 40s for the low. Also, channel 5 now has a 30% chance of rain like the Weather Channel app. No screenshots today. iPhoto didn't want to download them from my iPod and I didn't feel like fighting with it.

Temps sound pretty good, but I really hope it doesn't rain.

I didn't post last week but I went on my longest run (all by myself) on Wednesday. I thought I would go for running for 2 hours figuring that would be a relatively good indicator of how I would feel during the race. We have mentioned, to get mileage in here one has to travel across most of the town so I started from our house and went up and down some roads towards the actual town. I had a point that I originally thought that I would turn and head towards home but when I got there I thought, "I am not too far from the high school. I could just finish there and ride home with the kids". So I barreled on, feeling okay other than way too many "nature" needs.

I got to the high school at about 1:15, a bit shorter than 2 hours. I didn't see the kids around the track and was debating what I should do. Then I saw Mason running with his group and asked when he was going to get done. His coach said ~45 minutes. Well, there was my 2 hours. I took off again but decided I would just go about 30 more minutes. Oh my gosh, the first 15 were okay but my calves were absolutely killing me the last 15. I was to the point of just pushing my feet forward. Funny though, I got back to the high school and I wasn't quite to 1:45 so I circled around the parking lot until my watch hit that. Then I was happy to stop. End result? 10.84 miles!!! Yay, that made me happy.

Then yesterday, Curtis and I went out for a mid to maybe a bit long run again. This time I was aiming for 1:30 and made it to 1:24. We were pooped but got just over 9 miles. So, I am trained as I am going to get. Hopefully good enough :)

The weather forecast is making me happy. Curtis is very excited to pack shorts!! See you all in a couple of days!

~Sherry

ps: Syd ran a 6:17 mile at her meet on Saturday!! Mason ran his 2 mile in 11:07. Not his best but pretty good if you ask me.

Forecast update

Definitely some discrepancy between forecasts here.

Weather app forecast.

Weather Channel app forecast.

Neither one is bad...other than the rain chances in the Weather Channel app's forecast. Channel 5's forecast this morning was pretty much the same as the Weather app's forecast.

Weather forecast

Thought I'd post some daily forecasts for the upcoming weekend. We did finally get some way overdue rain here in central Oklahoma over the weekend. Had a nice steady drizzle all day yesterday. For the non-Oklahoma residents, we're in the throws of what is being termed an extreme drought, and have had almost no rain this year, so anything at this point is good for us.

Here's the pertinent portion of the Weather Channel app's 10-day forecast from this morning:

Early forecast

Of course they're all kind of rough this far out. Channel 5's forecast this morning said 72/45 for Sunday's highs and lows...a bit cooler than this forecast. Either way would be pretty good though, since it would most likely still be in the 60s by the time we all finished running.

Last "long" long run in the books

Ross and I met at Lake Hefner Saturday morning bright and early to do a last long run a couple of weeks before the marathon. We had a pretty cool morning temp, down near 40 and while it was nowhere near as windy as Friday, there was still a stiff wind blowing off the lake. We had hoped Sue would be able to run with us, but she had to work late Friday night and we met at the lake at 7 AM so she took a pass on it.

This was the first time I've run at Hefner. Ross had run there one time previously.  We both thought it was 11 miles around the lake which we thought would be a good long run for the 13 miles of the half, but it ended up being just under nine and a half miles according to my GPS watch. Ross and I ended up never putting our headphones on and just talked for the entire run. Besides some good company, this probably kept our pace a bit slower than it would have been if we'd been listening to music instead of talking. Not a bad thing in my mind since I always read you should keep the pace on your long runs slower than your normal pace, and I usually have a difficult time doing that.

We ran all the way to the golf course which was about half way around from where we started. We stopped at the golf course for about 5 minutes for a drink and a nature break, then continued on our way for the second half, at a bit quicker pace than we had run the first half. Finished the whole thing in a bit under an hour and a half then sat on the curb by our cars and shared an orange while recovering for a few minutes before heading home.

I'll be cutting back a bit for the next couple of weeks to let my body rest up. Probably do a couple of 4 milers during the week this week and maybe do a little 6 mile long run next weekend.

It's almost here! I'm excited to see everyone and to run the race too!

We Are Family!!

Yay for Sue! In fact yay for everyone. I did ~7.4 the other day by myself. The distance wasn't that remarkable, the "by myself" is. It is easy for me to talk myself into quitting when I am by myself especially if the weather isn't my idea of ideal. But, alas, I complain too much about weather.

Curtis & I were talking that we are a bit concerned about how we will do. He probably moreso than me. I am thinking that I will focus on the family event since I don't think that I am particularly "trained". Hopefully we can try a long run this week though so I can at least have done one. Curt has done a couple. Oh, by the way, he is doing the 1/2 with the rest of us.

I am excited to see everyone and am really hoping that it is sunny and warm while we are there :D

~Sherry

My Long Run

I decided to try a longer run today. Jay and Ross were supposed to meet at Lake Hefner at 7:00 am and run around it but I had to work last night until 11:00 pm and didn't think I would make it there by 7:00. So I went to Hafer Park in Edmond which is a different park than I usually go to. I haven't run around Hafer yet because the trail is only 1 1/4 miles long but I went today because I felt like I needed a change of scenery. My goal was to try to do at least 8 miles. I ended up losing track of how many times I ran around the trail but I know I ran either 8 3/4 miles or 10. I think I probably only did the 8 3/4. Once I started running I wanted to try 10 miles but I am pretty stoked about at least 8 3/4.

Last year in SLC I had diarrhea during the race so I have been worried about that again this year. I am hoping that being at home will help. After my run today I had a few episodes of diarrhea (I know TMI). I don't know if it was the run or something I ate but if anyone has any suggestions, let me know.

I can't wait to see all my family.

A slight diversion...the Redbud Classic

This past Thanksgiving during dinner at Dad's, someone told Johnny and Sarah they ought to start running and do the Memorial half marathon with us. Johnny actually used to run regularly sometime before he met Sarah, so the idea didn't necessarily sound crazy to him. Sure enough, he and Sarah started running shortly after that. Unfortunately, Sarah hasn't stuck with it although she holds out the possibility that she'll start again. Johnny has stayed with it but he had to have gall bladder surgery back in late January which caused him to have to take about a month off from running.

He started back up as soon as he felt like he could and has lately been wondering about his progress and how he stacks up with other runners. He had talked to me about wanting to find a 5k to enter and see how he would do. I had been wanting to run a 5 or 10k this past winter but for various reasons never entered one. Lately I've been feeling better and better maintaining a fairly quick (for me) pace for longer periods and have been wondering if I could beat my 5k PR, and by how much.

The Redbud Classic has been held in OKC for almost 30 years now and is one of the larger ones around here so I told Johnny we ought to enter it. He was all for it so I signed us up last week and we headed down there yesterday afternoon with Peggy, Sarah and K.Lee.

They were predicting serious winds for Sunday, 25 to 35 with gusts to 50 mph! The wind was pretty serious all last week and it really did pick up Saturday evening, so I thought my chances at a PR were probably not real great. However the wind died down as the day went on and it actually wasn't blowing too hard by Sunday afternoon. It did get pretty warm..sunny and a temp in the mid 80s, but we've had a lot of that over the past month, so that wasn't really too much of a concern.

We parked about a mile from the Waterford where the race was to begin, and joined a huge crowd hiking along 63rd. After a pitstop at the first port-a-johns we saw Johnny and I went ahead and worked our way down to the starting area.

Johnny and me, looking cool before the race.

We settled in between the 8 and 9 minute pace markers and baked in the sun for 25 minutes or so waiting for the race to start. Finally, they had us move a bit closer to the starting line then the gun went off. I planned to run the first mile around an 8:30 pace, then pick it up to an 8:00ish pace for mile 2 and perhaps a bit quicker on the last mile if I had anything left. Johnny hoped to run it around 28 minutes and intended to follow me for at least the 1st mile then decided how he was doing from there.

We had to work our way thru the crowd early on in order to hit the 8:30 pace and I worried my PR was slipping away during the first two or three minutes of the event as we were closer to a 9 minute pace at that point. We finally found some room though and picked it up to a bit under 8:30. Between the half and three-quarter mile point (roughly) there was a fairly long and steep downhill stretch on 63rd. I figured this was a good opportunity to make up for any time lost at the start and let gravity pull me down the hill, hitting a 7 minute pace for much of it.

As I reached the bottom of the hill I realized I hadn't started my Garmin GPS watch at the beginning, so I wasn't going to know our distance except for any signs they had posted along the course. Turned out, the only sign I saw was at the 3k mark, so I was mostly running blind as to the distance covered and left in the race.

The course turned from 63rd onto Grand and did a loop on Grand thru a Nichols Hills neighborhood. I sped it up at this point (and I think around here is where I lost Johnny) and kept my pace around 8:00 mile for the remainder of the race. I was feeling good and not having much difficulty maintaining the pace. With probably a mile or so left I found myself behind a woman who was keeping a nice, steady pace so I settled in 15 or 20 feet behind her and just glanced at my Garmin periodically to make sure we weren't slowing down.

As we neared 63rd again, the course suddenly took a road off to the left and headed up a hill. I couldn't see a finish line, but felt we were on the last stretch. Normally, I'd probably ease up on the speed a bit going uphill to conserve energy, but since I felt we were nearing the finish, I maintained my speed, and passed the woman I had been following as she slowed down a bit. As we neared the top of the hill, the finish line came into view and I kicked it for all I was worth. I had a surprisingly strong kick left in me and broke into virtually a full sprint over the last 100 yards or so.

I crossed the finish and slowed to a walk and headed thru the finishing chute looking for the water tables. Found a cold bottle of water then worked my way back toward the finish line to watch for Johnny. About the time I started to wonder if I'd missed him I saw him come across the finish. I worked back thru the crowd and found him with Sarah, K. Lee and Peggy. We hung around the finish area for 20 minutes or so, trying to find out where the results would be posted. We finally gave up and decided we'd just have to wait until they posted them online and headed for the car.

The Redbud Classic is definitely a well run event with a lot of participation. Had a nice goody bag and the finishing area had lots of food and a live band playing. They even have finisher's medals...a bit unusual for a 5k. We all definitely enjoyed it. Johnny really liked the experience and is ready to run another one. When we got home he asked me when the next one was and I told him you can find one somewhere in the metro area almost every weekend. I said I wouldn't be running anymore until after the Memorial marathon, but then remembered they have a 5k too. So Johnny thinks he wants to run the 5k at the Memorial marathon.

The results were posted online around 5 pm yesterday and I was very happy to see I had beat my old PR of 25:54 fairly significantly with a time of 25:30! I placed 141st overall (out of over 800) and 7th in the 50-54 age group (out of 51). Johnny ended up with a time of 29:17, so he was close to hitting the time he thought he'd make and he said he was holding back some during the race since he wasn't sure of the distance left (like me) and didn't want to use everything up too soon. He feels he could definitely have shaved at least another 30 seconds or so off of his time.

Reflecting a bit, with the really strong kick I had left at the end, and as good as I felt when I finished (not nearly as gassed as at my first two 5ks) I probably could have ran a faster pace than I did. I'll have to start thinking about breaking 25 minutes for a 5k!

It took away my long run for the weekend since I didn't want to do one Saturday before trying to run a 5k the next day, but I'll get back on schedule this week. Actually this coming weekend will be my last long run before the Memorial since it's only a couple of weeks after that. I'm getting excited!

T minus 20ish

Things are counting down which means that I am starting to feel some pressure. I have been consistently doing runs that are 7 and just over 7 miles at least once a week sometimes twice. But really, I need to get some more distance especially since the last 10 minutes of those 7 miles is still pretty hard. So that is my goal, hopefully for this week. My fair weather running has been hampered by the lack of fair weather. I really need to just get over that, huh :)

I talked with Ross for a bit and he is still training. He is pretty much in my situation, needs to get over that 7-8 mile hump and add on. I expect he will succeed. Luke is sort of training. I am sure what he is going to run, but I told him he has to make the decision pretty soon. Curt is still undecided on the half or full. I think it will boil down to training and will likely be a half but . . .

Are Lindsay and Sarah running? I'm excited to see everyone. Luke told his employer that he is going to a family reunion. When asked if we were doing anything special, he said "running".

Neither hail, nor sleet, nor snow

It didn't hail yesterday, but the other two I had covered. I walked Phoebe prior to running and the weather was dry. By the time I had changed for running and was outside there were flakes falling from the sky. I persisted none-the-less and ran just short of two hours. The last half hour of running the snow got pretty serious. My hands got really cold so I decided to head to the barn, rather than finishing the run as planned. I was pretty wet, head to toe. I managed to step in a puddle towards the finish of the running. I ran twice around Sugarhouse Park. There were some people running and walking to end polio. I was running the opposite direction that they were going. We were all getting wet together. The first time around the park, some people shouted at me. I didn't recognize them but sort of waved. The next time around I was on the same side of the road as everyone else and recognized two of the runners. We said hi and continued on our way! Mason told me that if I was training for a half-marathon I should be running five days a week, maybe six. I didn't make it five days, but four. It is a new week for running. We'll see what I can do. May first is looming large on the horizon.

March Mileage Madness

I finished the month of March with a 6 mile run yesterday evening and had my highest mileage month ever! My previous high mileage month was October of last year as I was gearing up for the Route 66 half marathon in November. I ran 68.5 miles that month. After yesterday's run my March total was 75.6 miles. I know many really serious runners will do that much (or even more) in a week, but it was pretty significant for me.

I don't generally run more than 5 miles on my weekday runs, but I hadn't run at all this week since my long run Sunday, so I really wanted to get 5 or 6 miles in. I was feeling good so I went ahead and ran 6. Worked on speed some too and ran miles 2 and 3 in 8:16 and 7:56. Of course I had to stop after that and catch my breath for two or three minutes before continuing at a somewhat slower pace between 8:30 and 9:00 for the last three miles.

I should get April off to a good start too as I'm planning on a short, easy run this evening and doing my weekend long run tomorrow. I don't figure I'll end up with a 70 mile month though as I'll cut back the mileage significantly the two weeks leading up to the OKC Memorial.

One month from today everyone!

Hoping for good weather

No one's posted any updates for a couple of weeks so here are some random thoughts. I've been getting a bit concerned about what kind of temperatures we'll be seeing for the marathon. It really warmed up here in Oklahoma in March. The week before last, we had a day where the temp got up to 88! I ran that evening and it was pretty warm although not ridiculously so like it is around here during the summer. And we've had a few other days in the high 70s or low 80s. I try to keep in mind that even if it is unusually warm for March, that doesn't mean the trend will continue thru April and May. In fact it's only 62 this afternoon...the coolest day in a couple of weeks, and it's supposed to be in the 50s and 60s next week. I think the marathon starts at 6:30 in the morning too, so even if it does end up being a hot day, it shouldn't be too bad before people are finished.

I've been fighting some aches and pains...left ankle and knee, but they are more of a distraction than a hindrance. I've managed to put in a bit over 20 miles the past couple of weeks and pushed my long run up to 8 mile the past two weekends. I'm planning to do 9 miles this weekend then after a couple of those I'll go for 10 or 11. As long as my ankle and knee hold up I should be ready by the time the event rolls around.

I haven't heard anything from Ross in a while. I assume he's plugging away, working his mileage up. Johnny has been keeping his running up after a brief break for gall bladder surgery, but I think he probably doesn't feel like he'll be ready to tackle the half marathon yet. He's talking about entering a 5K sometime soon though and I'd kind of like to run one before the marathon too. The Red Bud Classic comes up in April and it's one of the bigger events around here so I was thinking about suggesting that to Johnny. We'll see.

Looking forward to seeing everyone in a few weeks and having a great time!

I Was Fast. . . .sort of

So I am going to brag on my self just for a second. Mainly cause I don't get to brag much when it comes to running. Today I went for a 40 minute run w/Mason. His was supposed to not be a recovery run but at a comfortable pace. In case you aren't aware, Mason's comfortable pace is not mine, but he is tolerant of me and lets me run with him. Off we went, and he complemented me on my form :) I would say about 8 minutes in I was dropping back but not too terribly - that happens later. I won't bore you with the details but bottom line is I ran 3.95 miles in 35 minutes. Yay me! That, according to my mathmetician son, is just under 9 minute miles. I'm impressed even though I expect the only one really under 9 minutes was the first one. It made me feel good though. Too bad I can't do that for 13. Oh well, must train more.

9.9 miles

Last Saturday I ran two hours on a route which turned out to be 9.9 miles. I ran up onto the U of U campus, although not much of it. It was also hilly. I was exhausted by the time I was finished. I was tired all day. I also developed a blister on my left big toe which is still there a week later. I also had a very sore left second toe. It appears to be bruised. It was kind of a tough run and is somewhat frightening to me. How will I handle 13.1 miles?

I also bought some new shoes. They are Aesics and are designed correct my pronating gait. They certainly feel snug.

Oklahoma Running

I went this morning for a run. It had rained last night and was cool and overcast. I went to my usual park and got in 6 miles which is the most I have done in a while. It was a little misty and even rained briefly on me but I think it is my favorite running weather. I watched the news and they said March is the windiest month for Oklahoma but today wasn't too bad.

I have been running in my new shoes and my right foot always starts to hurt so today I ran on the side of the trail in the grass. About mile 4 I stepped into a hole and almost fell but caught myself. I was worried about my ankle hurting but I kept going and it seems to be okay. Thursday is supposed to be about 70, so I hope to get in another good run.

The Daily Mile

I wanted to mention the Daily Mile website to everyone. It's a social-type website with a fitness theme. You join the site and then post your workouts to it. You can "friend" people on it like you do on Facebook and then their posted workouts show up on your home page. It's probably mostly populated by runners although there are a lot of bike riders and triathletes on the site too. Some people (like me) pretty much only post their runs, but others also post their weight workouts and any other cross training they do.

It keeps a record of your workouts so you can review a lot of stats you generate, like total mileage, pace, time spent running, etc. Here's a screenshot of my Training summary for the past 4 weeks (click on the image to see it at full size).

Daily Mile Training Summary

It's a nice, free tool and a good way to track your training, so I thought some of you may be interested in signing up and trying it out. You can see my profile page on the site at http://www.dailymile.com/people/rocketjam

Any of you who sign up can be my friend!

A (hopefully) short interruption

You all may recall I hurt my left ankle last year, right before the SLC Marathon. It wasn't bad enough to prevent me from running, but it was enough to bother me when I was running. The injury hung on for the summer and I was beginning to resign myself to the fact that I'd have to live with it at least until I took some kind of extended break from running so it could heal up.

Then, toward the end of the summer I made some adjustments to my stride and over the next month or so, the pain in my ankle diminished and by the time I ran in the Route 66 Marathon in November it seemed to be completely healed up...at least it wasn't causing me any pain when running.

When I ran at South Lakes Park three(?) weeks ago there was a lot of patchy snow on the south end of the trail and I kind of danced through it on each of the 6 laps I ran. And to my dismay I found afterwards that the pain in my left ankle was back. I basically ignored it, other than maybe trying to stay extra light on my foot landings so I wouldn't make it worse. However, as I worked on stepping my mileage up over this stretch, it kept getting a bit more painful with each run.

Last week on the two runs I did on weekdays I only ran 3 miles each time because I was worried about making the ankle worse. This past weekend I ran 7 miles and felt pretty good...didn't have too much pain from the ankle, but then the next day it was quite sore, causing me to limp a bit when walking. I tried going for a run the next evening, but ended up only doing 2 miles because it was bothering me so much.

That was Tuesday and I haven't run any the rest of this week. It's felt quite a bit better the past couple of days, so I'm intending to go ahead and get a run in over the weekend and see how it is.

It was raining

I did the most unique run of my life today. I ran in my bedroom. It started raining when I arrived home from work, so I decided to take the dogs for a walk first and see how hard it was raining. We got pretty wet. It was clearing up to the west by the time we got home, but I wasn't certain how long it would take to get to where I was or last, so I decided to at least run awhile in the house. I ran barefoot too! My feet got tired and I got kind of bored even though I was listening to NPR. Mostly my feet got tired.

What a great day for running

It was in the 50's today. For the first time this year I ran in short sleeves and capris. I wasn't brave enough to wear short shorts. No gloves and no hat. It was lovely and I had a pretty good run too.

Spring Around the Corner?????

So much for stepping up the mileage. Curt and I got 2 decent long runs in over the last 2 weeks (~9 miles) and then we had a little blizzard last week with sub zero temps and school cancelled which is just a bit too cold for me to run in. Then, it has been snowing since Saturday night!! Okay, not 24/7 but practically. I hardly find it fair. We have probably had 10" of new snow (yuck) and as a result, the running hasn't happened.

I will quit complaining now, but I really do want some nicer weather or at least some dry roads. I made our airline reservations yesterday so we are officially on our way. Yes Jay, at this point Curt is doing the marathon. Me, just the 1/2 and maybe Luke the 1/2. That is what he says at least. We shall see.

Later. ~Sherry

Neither rain, nor sleet or snow...

I did two long (for me) runs this past week. I took advantage of President's Day and did a longer run and then again on Saturday. It snowed Saturday night so I put off the running until later, which meant greater opportunity to poop out altogether. Good intentions prevailed however and I ran mid-afternoon. I was going to leave Phoebe at home and really "enjoy" myself but when the time came to go, I took her anyway. She does well. We ran into two dogs at the beginning part of the run who were unleashed. She had to check them out and dearly wanted to play. The first dog which was bigger followed us around the corner and down the street abit. I finally stopped and told him to go home. He looked kind of dismayed, but he turned around and went home. (I assume he went home). The second dog was Phoebe's size and didn't want to play, so we were able to resume running with a minimum of fuss.

I am wondering how I know if I need new shoes. I received a little note from the New Balance store where I bought my shoes giving care advice and about how long shoes last. I have noticed the past week or so that the right shoe in particular starts feeling kind of loose my run lengthens. I keep wondering if I should look into the barefoot shoes that Jay wears.

I ran against the wind on Friday again. The storm was blowing in...

I decided I need to post something. I have been reading everyone's blogs but don't always feel like I have anything interesting to say.

I went running yesterday. I have been struggling the last few months with weather and finding time. I realized like Jay that the marathon is close, so I better step it up. I bought some new running shoes last weekend so I decided I need to try them out. They are Merrell barefoot running shoe...that is not their official name. They are really lightweight and not too ugly. I ran about 3 1/2 miles pretty easily yesterday. I don't know if it was the shoes or the weather...it was a sunny day in the 50's. I like the shoes and I feel like I ran better but of course 80 percent is mental (that's a quote from Curtis).

Everyone...keep up the training. See you guys in April.

Stepping it up

I got a bit lazy after my half marathon back in November. I've kept up the running and even had a couple of pretty serious weeks, but haven't been nearly as consistent as I was back in September and October as I prepared for the Route 66. For most of January my running has been rather sketchy. Some bad weather, lots of cold evenings and a treadmill as the alternative have made it easy to skip runs here and there as well as quit after 3 miles instead of going 4 or 5.

Finally, the weekend before this last one, I started thinking about how much time we have before the Memorial Marathon. I realized it was only about 2 and a half months so I thought I ought to begin trying stay on a more regular schedule as well as start stepping the mileage up. So that weekend I went out to South Lakes Park (a bit south of Earlywine) where I haven't run since last summer. It was a nice, cool but sunny day and there was still some snow here and there (including quite a bit on the south end of the walking/running path). I had a good 7.25 mile run that day and really enjoyed it. It was my longest run since back in December and I was a bit sore the next day.

One of the "lakes" @ South Lakes Park

I only ran a couple of evenings during the week, one nite putting in 4 miles and then 5 miles for my other evening run. Then, this past Saturday, Peggy was taking K. Lee to a birthday party in downtown OKC for her sister's granddaughter. I decided to ride along and check out the trails they've put in along the Oklahoma River (formerly the N. Canadian river for you non-Oklahoma residents) while they were at the party.

I started out at the Chesapeake Boathouse and headed west down the trail. I ran out almost three and a half miles, then turned around and headed back. It was a nice change of pace (always good to run in a new place) and had a few good elevation changes where the path dipped down to go under bridges. They've planted a lot of trees along side the path, and it should really be nice in a few years when the trees grow up some. The only negative thing about the run was that I had the wind mostly in my face on the way back which adds to the work. I definitely would have preferred to run into the wind on the way out, then have had it at my back for the second half of the run.

It was an unseasonably warm day, with the high getting up to 77, so I did get a bit warm. And we had set a record the previous week with a low on Wednesday the 9th of 4 below!  All in all, it was a good almost 7 mile run. I'll have to do one on the south side of the river to check out the path there. Recommended to the Oklahoma runners for some different scenery. Here are a couple of pix I shot with my phone during the run.

Some pretty good rays shooting thru the clouds over the river.

A nice little section of the trail.

Aghhhh Dogs

I agree with Thais, we haven't been too terribly chatty on the ole blog. Me included. I have intentions to write after a run, but you know, showering, errands, life, get in the way and then I have lost whatever semi-interesting thing I may have said. Nevertheless, I will post for last week. Last Monday to be specific. I can't do anything more recent, because no running has occurred. We had good intentions to run on Thursday and then again today, but it was snowy on Thursday and today the wind is ridiculous (I know we get little sympathy from the Okies).

But last Monday, Curtis wanted to do a long run. I thought, I will go and if I need to I can turn back early. Oh,by the way, Curtis' idea of a long run is 12-15 miles while mine might be 8ish. Off we went. It was about 30 when we started but no wind so pretty nice. It moved up to the mid 30's pretty quickly I think. As I have mentioned, to do a long run, we have to cover a good portion of our little town. So we started off from the house and went south, up some hills, down the hills, just moseying along. About 45 minutes in, my bowels were calling (TMI, huh). During my little break, a couple of dogs decided to greet us and try to be tough. They were barking and Curtis visited with them a bit, then they ran off, then they would come back, then off again. Well, they came back again, barking, and one of them kind of lunges toward Curtis and bites him in the process! This has never happened to us while running so we were a bit surprised. It wasn't a bad bite, more of a scrape but it was bleeding pretty consistently so we decided to run to some friend's about a mile away so he could clean up the bite.

All done with that, Curtis was still ready to run, but I decided it was time to swing back towards home. I knew that I was at least 3 miles from home, and although I felt pretty good, I didn't want to go south for a couple more miles and then still have to turn around and run home. Off I went just kind of plugging away. It is pretty flat for the most part so I thought I was doing okay.

The last mile I was pushing myself to keep running but I did, and in total ran for about and hour and a half. So I was pleased with that. Mileage I am not so sure about. Curtis told me it was almost 9 but when I plot it out, that is not what I get, so hmmmm. I like the 9 cause that means I only need to go 4 more. Oh, and Curtis went like 10.5 or so. He has a bit further to get to 26. Hopefully Monday, will a better weather day here in Sandpoint. I am ready for warm weather running!!

Against the Wind

I found out for myself the joy of running against the wind. A cold front is blowing in and is it blowing in! It was only difficult when I ran south, which was only a fourth of the run. I didn't run at all when I was in Florida although I took my running gear. I ran once last week and had a hard time. The next four days I wasn't feeling very well, which meant I didn't do my Saturday long run. So, I had to run today, wind or not. Considering my long hiatus I did pretty well I think. This blog seems woefully short on new posts. Are you all running?

The Route 66 Marathon report

I first thought about entering this event when I talked to Sue about it on the way home from SLC in April. We both thought it sounded fun, but were concerned with the late November date (weather considerations). I really enjoyed the experience at SLC and then I ran a couple of 5Ks in the intervening months and also enjoyed both of those races. While I have no expectations of winning or even placing highly in races, I find the atmosphere of the events and all the other runners and spectators as well as having a personal goal for the race enable me to run faster and with more endurance than I can muster when I'm running on my own.

I began following @route66marathon on Twitter and in September they alerted followers that the price would be going up at the end of September, so I went ahead and signed up, not sure at that time whether Sue, and/or Kellen may also sign up for it. It turned out that neither of them was able to enter, so I was going to run this one by myself. I also began seriously training for it around this time. I began making sure my weekday runs were usually either 4 or 5 miles and started with 7 or 8 mile long runs on the weekend and pushing that up to 8 or 9 miles over the next month and a half.

The running time on my 9 mile runs was coming in around 1:20 to 1:25 and I began to wonder if I might be able to run the half marathon in 2 hours. I knew I could run a pace that would get that time, but on my training runs, I never run the entire distance non-stop. I will generally run between 2 and 4 miles then stop for 2 or 3 minutes for a water and/or bathroom break, catch my breath then take off again. That consideration, along with the memory that the first time Sue, Sherry and I stopped at a toilet during the SLC Marathon, we were there for almost 10 minutes waiting in line and taking care of business made me think 2:10 to 2:15 was probably a more attainable goal. So I had a "stretching" goal of 2 hours and a secondary, but what I thought was a more realistic goal of 2:10. On the entry form for the half marathon they asked for your anticipated running time and I put 2:10 on that.

I made my last long run of 10.75 miles two weeks prior to the event, then ran about 75% of my normal distance the following week. The week prior to the marathon I only did one 3 mile run although I ran it a a fairly quick pace...all 3 miles betwee 8:40 and 8:50.

Finally the race weekend was here. Peggy and I headed to Tulsa around 1 in the afternoon and arrived around 3. We checked in to the hotel then went to the race expo to pick up my race packet and look around. After that, we went to a Cracker Barrel near our hotel and had dinner then went back to the hotel and watched TV before going to bed. Unfortunately, I didn't sleep well at all that night. I slept restlessly early then woke up around 2:30 and COULD NOT go back to sleep. Finally dozed some before the alarm went off at 5:30. Once I got up and around I really didn't feel too bad for as little sleep as I got, and I thought about SLC where I also didn't sleep well but that didn't seem to bother me during that race.

I ate a banana in our room while getting ready. We loaded up the car then stopped by the hotel's breakfast bar where I had boiled egg and a couple of bites of a muffin before we headed downtown to Veteran's Park where the race would start and finish. We parked 3 or 4 blocks north of the park and walked down to the starting area. Weather-wise, it was unusually warm for November (the opposite of what I feared), the temperature being 64 when we got up at 5:30. It was also overcast and humid, with a strong south wind blowing 20-25 mph. In my mind though, the wind was a good thing since it would help keep the humidity from feeling uncomfortable. With the wind and the 60 degree temperatures it felt rather cool when you were standing around.

The had divided up the participants into 3 starting corrals depending on the projected time you put on your race entry form. I was put in the "B" corral. As I walked to the starting area I saw a sign that said 9-minute pace and began to get in that area, before I realized it was in the back of the "A" corral area, just in front of the "B" corral. So I moved behind the rope that separated the corrals and ended up at the front of the "B" corral. There was a general party atmosphere going on and as the 7:30 start time neared I could feel the adrenaline and excitement build.

In the starting area, about 10 minutes before the gun.

Finally, after the preliminary ceremonies they sent the first group off with a shotgun blast and a couple of machines shooting confetti into the air. It was pretty exciting and impressive! Then we waited... They would let each subsequent corral go 5 minutes after the preceding one, so I had another 5 minutes before my race would start. They moved us up to the starting line then finally, with another shotgun blast and a blizzard of confetti we were off!

And they're off!

As opposed to the other races I've been in, being at the front meant I didn't have to spend the first several minutes trying to find room to run. Our group fired over the starting starting line and almost immediately people began running past me. After a minute or so, I looked at my Garmin and saw I was moving along just over an 8 minute pace. As usual I was going too fast, especially this early and I forced myself to slow down to the 9 minute pace I planned on running. Of course this caused even more people to pass me, but I kept telling myself that I would be passing most of them later on.

The first mile and a half of the course was uphill with a significant portion being pretty seriously uphill. Not wanting to trash my legs this early I didn't push too hard and found my pace a bit over 9 minutes per mile for much of it. Despite that, I finished the first mile in just under 9 minutes, so I was feeling pretty good about my goal at that point.

Near the 2 mile mark, I saw the first port-a-johns and unlike SLC where all the toilets seemed to have long lines for the first several miles, there were no lines! I quickly ran over to one to take advantage of the opportunity. I continued on from there, and even with the stop, my time for the 2nd mile was still under nine and a half minutes. So I'd gone two miles and taken a bathroom break and was just a bit over my goal pace for the race.

Finally on mile 3 the biggest mistake I made as far as wasting time caught up with me. Operating on the theory that it's better to overdress for warmth and then shed clothing as necessary, I wore shorts, a running singlet top and then a hooded pullover top to keep me warm. Rather than pin my bib to my shorts, I went ahead and pinned it to my pullover and figured when I needed to take it off I'd take the bib off the pullover and pin it to my singlet. I was probably only a half mile into the race when I realized I probably shouldn't have worn the pullover because the body heat from running quickly overcame the chill from the wind blowing. After my bathroom break on mile 2, I decided I needed to shed the pullover at the next water stop.

When I got to the water stop, I moved over the the sidewalk and stopped to remove my pullover and switch my bib to my singlet. I had to undo the safety pins, then I replaced each pin in a hole in the bib so I wouldn't lose them while taking my pullover off. I had my iPod in an armband so I had to take that off. Then I removed my pullover put my iPod armband back on then pinned my bib to my singlet. Whew! My time for that mile was 11:39. Since I ran most miles a bit under or a bit over 9 minutes, I figure the change took me about two and half minutes! Eliminating that stop puts me within a minute of breaking 2 hours.

After the first three miles I was almost three minutes over my goal pace. . After the initial mile and a half of almost all uphill, there were a lot of downhill stretches along with a few, shorter uphill stretches. I began to take advantage of the downhills, figuring I could make up some time. Some of them were fairly long and steep. I allowed myself to go with gravity and really picked up the pace on them. There were downhills where I hit a sub-7 minute pace for stretches. I found this allowed me to make up some time without really expending much energy. It also made me feel really fast since I would be passing a lot of people on the downhill stretches. :-D

Mile 3 winding around Swan Lake Park.

The first 8 miles of the course were really beautiful, winding through really nice neighborhoods with large, old houses. The trees were full of fall colors, vivid yellows, oranges and reds. The scenery really helped keep my mind off the exertion and I was able to maintain my planned 9 minute/mile pace fairly easily. In fact I ran 5 of the first 8 miles under 9 minutes and two of the three miles that were over 9 minutes were because of a bathroom stop and the shirt change.

Peggy shot this photo that gives you a taste of the
beautiful neighborhoods the course wound through.

My pre-race plan was to run the entire race, with the exception of walking through the water stops. This gave me 30 or 40 seconds of walking every mile and a half to two miles and that worked pretty well for me. The first 6 miles or so passed easily and it wasn't until mile 7 that I began to feel a bit of fatigue in my legs. Even so, I still felt strong and in fact, mile 7 was my fastest mile coming in at 8:39!

As the course approached the 8 mile mark it crossed over the Arkansas River. We suddenly broke out into the open and hit the bridge. At this point you were greeted by the strong winds and I really felt a chill. Near the end of the bridge I stopped one last time for a bathroom break, but found I felt like I needed to go much more than I actually needed to. The course only covered about a mile and a half on the east side of the river before crossing back over. That short stretch was the most uninteresting part of the course scenery-wise so I was happy to get back over to the other side.

By the 9 mile point, I was definitely beginning to tire and the fatigue in my legs continued to worsen as the race went on. At around nine and a half miles, the course crossed back over the river. the last three and a half miles ran down the East side of the river then turned 180 degrees and went back along the river in the opposite direction before a short jog to the east and back to Veteran's Park and the Start/Finish line. This final stretch seemed interminable to me.

 Feeling worse for the wear around mile 10–11.

I was really wearing down as I progressed along this last stretch. My legs were hurting and my energy was flagging badly. It was becoming difficult to keep up the pace I had been running and the temptation to stop and walk for a while was growing. However, keeping an eye on my time and the distance I had left, I knew I was still close to the 2 hour goal I hoped I could achieve. This kept me going. When I got to the water stop around the 11th mile, I broke into a walk as I had at all the water stops. I downed a half cup of sports drink and a half cup of water, then as I got to the end of that stop, it took some mental effort to make myself start running again.

During this stretch along the river, there was a stream of runners going the opposite direction. They had reached the turnaround and were heading back toward the Start/Finish line. For some reason this made the stretch I was on, going away from the finish seem even worse! Finally though, I saw the turnaround ahead and that helped my mental outlook.

As I was running along the river on the stretch back to the finish a guy running barefoot and holding a pair of VFFs in his hands that I'd noticed when I passed him a couple of miles back caught up with me. He asked me how long I'd been running in the VFFs. We ran along together for a half mile or so, comparing notes on running in VFFs. He'd begun developing a blister around 9 or 10 miles he told me and that's why he was running barefoot when I saw him.

Finally, the course jogged to the right, away from the river and I could see the 13 mile marker a couple of hundred yards ahead. By this point, due to physical and mental fatigue (remember I had gotten very little sleep), I was a bit confused and thinking I still had a mile to go rather than a 10th of a mile. However once you passed the 13 mile sign, the course went around a curve and suddenly the Start/Finish line was in sight. I was so happy when I saw it and realized I didn't still have a whole mile to go! I was still able to muster the energy to give a little kick for the last 150 yards or so and sailed across the finish line feeling really good about things. I stopped my Garmin as I crossed the finish line and as I slowed down to a walk, I looked at the watch which read 2:03:32!

RJay sets a PR! The lady behind me wonders
what that blue streak that just flew past her was!

MarathonFoto had people at the finish and someone asked me to stand in front of one of the big banners behind the finish to take my photo. After that, I began looking for Peggy. She had not realized the marathon finish was the same place as the starting line and was waiting at another finish line (for the 5K maybe?) that was in Veteran's Park too, but about a quarter mile from the "real" finish line. I called her on my cell phone, and after 10 minutes or so we finally managed to find each other in the crowd.

By now I had cooled down and there was a pretty good wind blowing (still) so I was beginning to feel chilled. They had been passing out the big mylar blankets at the finish so we went to that area and got a volunteer to get one for me. I made a quick trip thru the food tent to grab a bit to refuel with. Then Peggy and sat on the grass in the middle of the park for a little bit while I ate a banana and a cookie. Finally, we got up and headed for the car. We drove back to the Cracker Barrel by our hotel and had some breakfast then loaded back in the car and headed back to Oklahoma City.

Chilling at the park after the race.

I really enjoyed this event and felt like I learned some good lessons that will help me in future races. First, if you're wearing extra clothes that you anticipate shedding during the race, try to make sure you find a place to pin you bib where you won't need to move it during the race (my biggest timewaster in this race, as noted earlier). Secondly, I think the walking thru the water stops was a good strategy that allowed me to run the entire race with no extended walk breaks. I also think having a specific time goal helps keep you motivated to continue when things begin to get tough.

I was really sore after finishing the race, and continued to be sore for a couple of days afterwards. You wouldn't think that was unusual, but after my long runs on weekends leading up to the race, I would be fairly sore for the rest of that day, but feel pretty well recovered by the next day. Granted, I wasn't running 13 miles on my long runs, but I was getting close to it. I think the degree of soreness I had was due to running down the hills so hard and fast and from running a fairly quick pace (for me) the entire race with only 30 to 40 second walk breaks every couple of miles or so.

I also wonder whether keeping my pace a bit slower in the first few miles (say 15-20 seconds/mile) would have helped me have more left toward the end. Looking at my splits, I ran 5 of the first 8 miles under 9 minutes, the fastest being 8:39. And a couple of those first 8 miles entailed bathroom/clothing change breaks. My actual running pace for them was probably under a 9 minute pace too. But for the last 5 miles, I only ran one under 9 minutes, and it was barely under at 8:59. And 2 of the last 3 miles were run over 9:30 (mile 11 was almost a 10-minute pace--9:50).

It was really a nice event. Things were well organized and they have a great atmosphere with live bands and entertainers scattered around the course, as well as good community support. And the medals are first rate!

Cool finisher's medal. It spins!

 All in all, I really enjoyed the experience, I'd definitely recommend it to others and I'm really thinking about running the full marathon next year, as my first marathon.