Same wavelength

I guess I am on the same wavelength as Sherry, because after running today I thought I should post also. I am a wimp and have not been running outside. My main excuse is that there is snow and ice on the ground in places and I don't want to fall. It is also cold and even though one warms up when running it is hard to get going. So, I have been running on the track at the Murray Park Centre. I am up to four miles, but it isn't easy. I am running about a 13 minute mile. It is my goal to run five miles this week.

Today I ran two miles on the track and two miles on the treadmill. There were boys from the basketball and soccer teams running on the track at the same time and they were wild. I don't know if they were from Murray High School or not because they seemed kind of small. Anyway, they ran in a group and thundered around me as I was running in the middle lane. The last boy in the line would go around and get in front of the group, then the last boy would repeat, etc. I found it somewhat intimidating so I decided to use the treadmill. I really worked up a sweat and my heart rate was 160 or so. I had to slow down and walk for a minute before I could finish my second mile. My bra was really wet as was my hair on the back of my head. Next time I must tie up my hair because it kept getting in my face.

I am kind of discouraged because I don't feel like I am improving. I guess I am, because two weeks ago I was only running three miles.

I too want to hear from everyone. It is fun to read the individual posts.

Training begins??

So since it is now January and we are supposed to be running in the Memorial May 1, it is probably time I try to do some consistent running. So I ran Saturday and today! Yay me. I haven't ran since the week of Christmas. I would say I have averaged about 1/week since Thanksgiving. That is the joys of winter. Saturdays run went okay. It was a little over 3 miles and the weather was pleasant. I didn't' even need a hat. Today, however, was a bit chillier. Curtis and I started out in a whoppin 14 degrees. That is chilly! We opted to face the light breeze at the start which was a good choice, but after 12 minutes, I had to go in a building to warm my hands, toes and face up. Once we were away from the wind, it was practically balmy and towards the end my arms and torso were a bit sweaty! We finished at just under 5 miles (4.9) and a lovely 18 degrees. All and all, it was decent. I don't know if anyone is looking at this but I do expect you Okie people can get those temps with a good north wind. So, everyone, jump back on the blog. I like reading it.

~Sherry

Ready for Route 66

The Route 66 marathon/half marathon is on the 21st...less than two weeks now. I think I'm about as ready as I can be for it now. I made my last long run for it this past Saturday. I ran 10.75 miles in 1 hour 37 minutes. That time is running time. I did take a couple of bathroom breaks, but that would come to no more than 5 minutes additional time. I actually ran negative splits up thru mile 7, starting at 9:30 and going down to about 8:50. I finally did a bit of walking on miles 8 and 9, but my time was still under 9:30 for those two miles, so I didn't walk too much!

I feel pretty confident I can maintain a ~9-minute pace, at least thru the first 9 or 10 miles. We'll see if I can continue that for the last two or three miles. I'm hoping to finish around 2 hours. A 9 minute pace for 13.1 miles comes to 1 hour and 58 minutes, so coming in at 2 hours would pretty much require no bathroom breaks or stoppage of any kind. Either that, or I'd have to run a bit faster than a 9 minute pace...not out of the question, but I don't think I could maintain much faster than 8:45-8:50 over the course of the race. So somewhere around 2:10 to 2:15 is probably more realistic. But, there's nothing like setting lofty goals!

My other concern has been weather. Right now the forecasted trend for for next week looks to be highs in the high-50's to mid-60's with lows in the high-30's to low-40's. Anything in that range should really be pretty good running weather, so I'm pretty optimistic about that right now.

After my long run this past weekend, I'm cutting back to get ready for the event. I've done a 3-mile and a 4-mile run this week, and will do a 6-miler this weekend and do easy 3 or 4 mile runs next week too. Wish me luck!

I'm Back

As you all know, I had surgery about 2 months ago and was supposed to lay off running for 6 weeks. I started talking walks and would cheat a little and run about 1/2 mile every now and then. You don't know how much you miss something until you are told not to do it. I started to run again after 5 weeks and was frustrated because I didn't do very well. Then I decided to do like Thais did and just start over. Today I ran 3 miles and it seems to be getting easier although my knee has been bothering me a little. After my run I went to 7/11 to get a dr. pepper and while standing in line, the man in front of me started asking me about my run. Then the guy in front of him gave a few comments. It is interesting to know there are fellow runners everywhere.

The Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure 5k

On Saturday, October 9th, Ross and I both ran in the annual Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure 5k in Oklahoma City. The race begins and ends by the ballpark in Bricktown, looping thru downtown OKC. I was told by a coworker who also runs that it's one of the biggest 5k's in the area every year, and after attending I believe him. In fact, Sunday's paper said they had over 18,000 participants this year! (That's for the 5k and the 1-mile walk/run that starts concurrently).

Big pink Limo parked on Reno.

Peggy and I got there around 7:30 and it was already extremely crowded and difficult to find parking. As it neared 8:00, Reno, the street the race started on became seriously packed with runners and walkers. Additionally, on the North side of the street by the ballpark it was a packed mass of humanity. Luckily I was on the South side of the street where you could still maneuver thru the crowd.

Untangling my headphones as I begin to get ready.

Looking toward the starting line.

They had signs in the starting area for people to gather based on their projected pace for the race. I worked my way in between the 8 minute mile and 9 minute mile signs. As the start neared, I began inching a bit more toward the 8 minute mile area. The gun went off and the crowd of runners began to move. I was nearer to the starting line here than I was at the Midnight Streak 5k back in August so it was probably only about 15 seconds or so after the gun when I crossed the starting line.

Peggy shot this right before the start. You can't really get a perspective on the size of the crowd from this shot.

It felt like a slow pace in the crowd I was in so I began working my way toward the side of the pack where you can begin passing people. When I finally got a little room around me I found I was running faster than I intended (of course!) with my Garmin showing my pace to be near 7:30. I tried to slowed down some, but also felt the need to keep up with the runners around me...so I didn't really slow down as much as I wanted to.

Despite the quick pace I wasn't having too much trouble keeping it up. As we headed up Robinson I glanced down at my Garmin and saw we were nearing the 1 mile mark. I wanted to hit the lap counter on the Garmin at each mile so I could see what my splits were later. At 1 mile I hit the lap counter then looked up to see a course marker (a slender plastic barrier that stood about 3 and a half to 4 feet high) right in front of me! I didn't have any time to dodge it and put my hands out as I collided with it. I'm happy to report I took the course marker out rather than vice-versa. I definitely felt foolish though!

The course was mostly gently uphill for the first half, hitting 13th street at it's northernmost point before turning back south down Broadway and a gentle downhill slope. Toward the end of the second mile I was beginning to feel the effects of the pace I was keeping, but about that time a couple of my best running songs came up on my iPod back to back. That helped me keep going and avoid slowing down. At Broadway and 4th, the course turned East on 4th and went up the steepest part of the course by far. This was with about a half mile or so left. It went up the hill for probably about a quarter mile. I consciously slowed it going up the hill (to about an 8:30 pace) so I would hopefully have something left coming down the stretch.

At the top of the hill the course turned back South on Walnut (I think) heading to the ballpark and the finish. It went down a steep hill at this point. It was now easier to pick up the pace some, but I had to stay back on my heels a bit too because it was so steep. I was also really starting to run out of gas now. The finish line was in sight and people were turning their kick on and passing me. I wanted to do the same but didn't feel I had much left. Finally with about a hundred yards left I gave the best kick I could and made it to the finish.

According to my Garmin, my time was 25:49...almost 10 seconds faster than my time at the Midnight Streak. I spotted Peggy waiting just a bit past the finish and moved over to talk to her. As we talked, Ross came trotting up just 15 or so seconds behind me. I was ready to gloat that I actually beat him, but he told us that he waited too long to go to the starting area and got stuck in the crowd and ended up starting near the back of the pack behind huge number of 1-mile walkers. He said it took him about a half mile to get around all of them and he used a huge amount of energy doing so. Talking to him later, he said he clocked his time at 24:50, so he actually ran it about a minute faster than I did. His starting gun time was about 10 or 15 seconds slower than mine—also pretty good considering I started near the front of the pack and Ross started near the back.

When it was all said and done, the Hansen brothers finished 7th and 8th in the men's 50–54 age group—out of almost 50. Not too bad! Finally, as mentioned above, I did win my confrontation with the course marker, but it managed to get its own licks in on me.

RJay got a boo boo.

Gonna get my kicks on Route 66

I signed up for the Route 66 half marathon yesterday. It happens on November 21st in Tulsa. Sue and I had talked about running in it together after we did SLC back in April. Unfortunately, Sue just had her surgery a week or two ago and is on doctor's orders not to run right now (she told me she's been running a little bit anyway). So most likely she won't have time to get in shape for a half marathon by the date of the Route 66.

My only hesitation to signing up for it was the late November date. November is mostly pretty mild in Oklahoma as you all know, (the marathon's web site says average low of about 40 and average high near 60...great running weather) but it also can get quite cold and we even get snow  during the month occasionally. So I could picture a scenario of a high in the upper 30's with 25mph North winds--probably a pretty miserable day to run 13 miles. But, I decided to bet on the averages and went ahead and entered.

It's about 7 weeks away and I feel like I'm in pretty good shape for it right now. I ran 9 miles this past Sunday and really felt good. It was a beautiful day...the best running weather we've had here since April probably. I've been trying to do a longer run on the weekend for the past month or so, going 7 or 8 miles usually, in anticipation of entering the Route 66. It was such a nice day Sunday, that I ran the 9 which was more than I had planned. And my time was pretty good too. The running time was 1:23 (last mile was the fastest at 8:29!) and I probably had between 10 and 15 minutes of resting/bathroom/hydrating on top of the running time. That really makes me think I could run the half marathon near 2 hours, even with some walking. There's a goal to shoot for anyway!

I have had to start over. I ran a couple of times after my run in Sandpoint and it was like I had no breath, no stamina. I decided to return to the beginning and it has helped. I am adding a bit more every run and by the way, I ran three times this week. Yay! I am still waiting for more consistent fall like temperatures for more consistent running.