The marathon is one week away. I'm pretty excited about it this year compared to last year when I had much more trepidation. Last year was my first big race at such a long distance. I did the half marathon but really felt like I finished poorly. My legs gave out on me starting after mile 10 so the last 3 miles were a chore. I feel like I've trained much better this year from the standpoint of getting longer training runs in. Last year I only went 9 or 10 miles in my training and only did that a few times. This year I've done better about completing long runs in my training. I have routinely run 8 and 9 miles during the week and often was able to get in a 13 or 14 mile run on the weekend. I don't think I'll have a problem with my legs giving out on me like they did last year.
Yesterday (Saturday) I met Rendon at the Chesapeake boathouse for a 13 mile training run. This will be Rendon's first long distance race as he just started running this year. He and I ran in an 8K race in February so he could experience a race environment but this is stepping up quite a bit. He has put in at least a couple of long training runs of 13 miles or so but I'm not sure exactly how many he's done. I know I've been running more than he has but then I'm much older so I need the training worse.
Anyway, we met at the Chesapeake boathouse at 7 am on Saturday. The weather was ideal for running. There was hardly any wind at all and the temperature was about 49 or 50 when we started. We headed west on the north side of the river. I really enjoy running along the river as it is scenic, you don't have to worry about cars, and you also get to see other runners which always inspires me. Rendon started out very strong so I let him lead out. He was probably running at about an 8:40 p/mile pace which is a little faster than I usually start out so I lagged behind a little bit. Rendon ran strong for 5 miles and then started to slow down a bit. I finally caught him a little after passing May avenue. At Portland avenue we crossed over the river and ran on the south side. We continued west almost to Meridian where the trail ends and you have to turn around. It had been about 7 miles so we walked while I ate my GU pack. Rendon had already eaten his. He had vanilla bean and I had chocolate. I liked the chocolate and Rendon said the vanilla bean was also pretty tasty. We probably walked for about a minute to a minute and a half and then resumed our run. My legs felt strong and I just seemed to be in a good groove so I continued on at about an 8:40 pace which is where Rendon started us at the beginning. We saw some rowers on the river including the OU women's team. They were also having some Olympic tryouts this weekend for kayaking so there were some others out there too. We ran back east on the south side of the river until we got to Robinson and then crossed over back to the north side. There's a small water fountain in a park by the cross over so I stopped and got some water. Rendon did the same thing when he crossed over. DG Productions sponsors several races around the city for runners and they were holding an event for victims of sexual abuse (green ribbon). As I was coming down the final 1/10th mile to the finish line the race started so I found myself running against the tide of runners starting their race. I had to move off the path onto the grass in order not to collide with other people. I guess I was in the wrong place at the wrong time. Plus, it was at the beginning of their race so they hadn't really had a chance to disperse very much and were pretty tightly packed. I finally gave up and stopped my running app with a hundred yards to go or so. My GPS showed the run to be 13.84 miles. When I got to the finish line I noticed the track continues around on the south side of the river so I think it's just one big loop. If I had known that I could have not crossed over at Robinson and just run back to the finish line on the south side of the river and avoided all the traffic. Lesson learned. My time was 2:02:54 which felt really good. I had stopped a few times to look around, guide Rendon since he didn't know the route, and feel I could have run even faster if it had been the race. So I feel good about next week and I hope everyone else does too.
I know R Jay and Curtis are doing the full marathon so they've got a big test ahead of them. Maybe I can run a full one at some point but I knew I wasn't ready after trying a 17 mile run back in late February or early March. I'm excited to see everyone at the race. I will miss Thais dearly but it makes me happy that we can run in the Memorial Marathon in memory of our sister. It's neat that Leslie and Elfriede are going to run the 5K too.
Sunday, April 22, 2012
Tuesday, April 17, 2012
Marathon movie
I had hoped to get some video shot last year and put together a little movie of our race at the Memorial Marathon. However, the bad weather kept that from happening. I'm really sorry we couldn't get that done, since that was our last opportunity to get one made with Thais.
I want to try again this year though. Lyndsey is going to try to shoot some video with my camera and we'll see what we can get. Maybe Sherry can shoot some too. Obviously we'd like to get as much video of our family participating as we can, but that will be a challenge with over 20,000 people running. But even some short snatches can be incorporated with other shots of the the event, so I'm optimistic that we can get enough to put something together.
If you have a digital camera, it almost certainly will shoot video. This is awfully late, but if any of you have a chance, it would be great to shoot a couple of short bits of you training. Just something like a shot of the road/trail where you're running and you coming into view then running by the camera. Or a shot of you running off into the distance. Any little bits like this could be used in a movie. Here's a real short example I shot w/my iPhone of Ross during one of our runs by the Oklahoma River.
If we can't get enough shot to make something worthwhile, I can save everything and then try to get some more the next time we're running together...here, or maybe SLC next year and combine it all into a single movie.
I want to try again this year though. Lyndsey is going to try to shoot some video with my camera and we'll see what we can get. Maybe Sherry can shoot some too. Obviously we'd like to get as much video of our family participating as we can, but that will be a challenge with over 20,000 people running. But even some short snatches can be incorporated with other shots of the the event, so I'm optimistic that we can get enough to put something together.
If you have a digital camera, it almost certainly will shoot video. This is awfully late, but if any of you have a chance, it would be great to shoot a couple of short bits of you training. Just something like a shot of the road/trail where you're running and you coming into view then running by the camera. Or a shot of you running off into the distance. Any little bits like this could be used in a movie. Here's a real short example I shot w/my iPhone of Ross during one of our runs by the Oklahoma River.
The Memorial Marathon is coming up fast.
The Memorial Marathon is less than two weeks away now. I ran my last "long" long run this just passed weekend. I had hoped to go over 20 miles this time (ran a 20-miler 3 weeks ago), hopefully 22 or 23, but ended up just doing 20.
As you know I've been dealing with a chronic ankle problem for over a year now. Usually it's just irritating but when my mileage really starts going up, it begins getting worse and starts making my foot hurt too. After the 20 miler three weeks ago, it was really sore for several days. The following weekend I thought I should cut back the long run quite a bit to ease up on the ankle. Ross and I ran the trails along Oklahoma River, just under thirteen and a half miles. My ankle and foot felt much better after that run than they had after my previous two long runs.
I had hoped to get a long run in while we were all in Salt Lake City last week, but couldn't find the 3 hour block of time I would have needed so I ended up going almost a week with no running at all. I decided that was a good thing/bad thing. It seems taking almost a week off did my ankle a lot of good. It's felt much better and on the two weekday runs I did last week it held up well. I ran fairly hard on those runs too. Of course the bad thing is that I'm running the full marathon and I really need to be getting all the miles in that I can, so a week off, three weeks before the event is not great timing. But considering with Saturday's long run, I've run 31 miles this past week and the ankle feels pretty good today, the time off was probably worth it.
I'm really glad that Curtis will be running the full marathon with me. I have a real tendency to start running too fast if I'm feeling good, and I'm hoping Curtis will be able to help me keep my pace down, especially early. On my long run Saturday, I kept the pace between 9:00 and 9:30 for the first 8 miles, but began picking up the pace at that point, running mile 9 in 8:42. I ran at the Oklahoma River and for the first 9 I ran out the north side of the river four and a half miles then back. So after the 9th mile I was at the car and stopped to drink some water and took a 5 or 6 minute break.
Then I took off for another 11 (or hopefully more) miles, crossing over the the south side of the river this time. I was still feeling good...I slowed my pace a bit, to around 8:50/mile, but still faster than I should be running for a marathon. I kept that pace through 13 miles. Finally on the 14th mile everything began to catch up with me. I began to quickly run out of energy and started increasing the frequency and length of my walking breaks. At the end of mile 16 I stopped and rested for 4 or 5 minutes then slogged on. The last 4 miles were really a grind. As I finished the 18th mile I began getting muscle spasms in my calves and would have to stop for a few moments before continuing.
When I arrived back at the Chesapeake Boathouse where I had parked, I was at 19.9 miles. As mentioned at the top of this post, I had intended to run over 20 miles...maybe 22 or 23, but I had nothing left now and decided 19.9 was all I was going to get that day. So this run was actually worse than my previous 20 mile run. I was definitely feeling discouraged and worried about going 6 more miles in two weeks.
But I'm telling myself I had a lot of things working against me Saturday. The weather was way less than ideal: it was a very warm morning. 72 degrees when I got up just after 5:30. The humidity was high and it was very windy, between 20 and 30 mph. On top of being warm and humid, since I was running by the river and didn't want to carry any water with me, I had to run a 9 mile stretch with nothing to drink, then an 11 mile stretch. I also forgot to bring any Gu with me which may have given me a boost at the halfway point. I can't control the weather we get on race day, but I can control my pace and fuel and fluid intake, so hopefully, better management of those factors will help me. And, in my experience, running with someone makes it easier to push thru when your body starts wanting you to give up.
You're supposed to taper back your miles two or three weeks before your marathon. I'm not going to cut my weekday miles back much if at all since I really haven't been running as many miles during the week as I should be anyway. I will take it easy next weekend though. I'm planning on doing a 10 - 12 mile long run which really does feel pretty easy to me after the long runs I've been doing over the past couple of months.
I'm hoping we get lucky on the weather. A morning like today would be great...low 50s, sunshine and the high for the day only around 70. Really looking forward to seeing everyone again, under better circumstances than a week ago. I hope everyone else is ready!
As you know I've been dealing with a chronic ankle problem for over a year now. Usually it's just irritating but when my mileage really starts going up, it begins getting worse and starts making my foot hurt too. After the 20 miler three weeks ago, it was really sore for several days. The following weekend I thought I should cut back the long run quite a bit to ease up on the ankle. Ross and I ran the trails along Oklahoma River, just under thirteen and a half miles. My ankle and foot felt much better after that run than they had after my previous two long runs.
I had hoped to get a long run in while we were all in Salt Lake City last week, but couldn't find the 3 hour block of time I would have needed so I ended up going almost a week with no running at all. I decided that was a good thing/bad thing. It seems taking almost a week off did my ankle a lot of good. It's felt much better and on the two weekday runs I did last week it held up well. I ran fairly hard on those runs too. Of course the bad thing is that I'm running the full marathon and I really need to be getting all the miles in that I can, so a week off, three weeks before the event is not great timing. But considering with Saturday's long run, I've run 31 miles this past week and the ankle feels pretty good today, the time off was probably worth it.
I'm really glad that Curtis will be running the full marathon with me. I have a real tendency to start running too fast if I'm feeling good, and I'm hoping Curtis will be able to help me keep my pace down, especially early. On my long run Saturday, I kept the pace between 9:00 and 9:30 for the first 8 miles, but began picking up the pace at that point, running mile 9 in 8:42. I ran at the Oklahoma River and for the first 9 I ran out the north side of the river four and a half miles then back. So after the 9th mile I was at the car and stopped to drink some water and took a 5 or 6 minute break.
Then I took off for another 11 (or hopefully more) miles, crossing over the the south side of the river this time. I was still feeling good...I slowed my pace a bit, to around 8:50/mile, but still faster than I should be running for a marathon. I kept that pace through 13 miles. Finally on the 14th mile everything began to catch up with me. I began to quickly run out of energy and started increasing the frequency and length of my walking breaks. At the end of mile 16 I stopped and rested for 4 or 5 minutes then slogged on. The last 4 miles were really a grind. As I finished the 18th mile I began getting muscle spasms in my calves and would have to stop for a few moments before continuing.
 |
| Gray, warm, humid and windy. :P |
When I arrived back at the Chesapeake Boathouse where I had parked, I was at 19.9 miles. As mentioned at the top of this post, I had intended to run over 20 miles...maybe 22 or 23, but I had nothing left now and decided 19.9 was all I was going to get that day. So this run was actually worse than my previous 20 mile run. I was definitely feeling discouraged and worried about going 6 more miles in two weeks.
But I'm telling myself I had a lot of things working against me Saturday. The weather was way less than ideal: it was a very warm morning. 72 degrees when I got up just after 5:30. The humidity was high and it was very windy, between 20 and 30 mph. On top of being warm and humid, since I was running by the river and didn't want to carry any water with me, I had to run a 9 mile stretch with nothing to drink, then an 11 mile stretch. I also forgot to bring any Gu with me which may have given me a boost at the halfway point. I can't control the weather we get on race day, but I can control my pace and fuel and fluid intake, so hopefully, better management of those factors will help me. And, in my experience, running with someone makes it easier to push thru when your body starts wanting you to give up.
 |
| Mile 18, running directly into the 20+ mph wind. |
You're supposed to taper back your miles two or three weeks before your marathon. I'm not going to cut my weekday miles back much if at all since I really haven't been running as many miles during the week as I should be anyway. I will take it easy next weekend though. I'm planning on doing a 10 - 12 mile long run which really does feel pretty easy to me after the long runs I've been doing over the past couple of months.
I'm hoping we get lucky on the weather. A morning like today would be great...low 50s, sunshine and the high for the day only around 70. Really looking forward to seeing everyone again, under better circumstances than a week ago. I hope everyone else is ready!
Monday, March 5, 2012
The 2012 Elvis Run 10K race report
This past December I had the toughest unmotivated stretch I've hit since I began running. I had decided I couldn't afford the Route 66 Marathon and then my chronic ankle issue began really bothering me due to the high mileage I ran in October and November. All month I had a difficult time pushing myself out the door. I intentionally cut back my mileage hoping my ankle would heal up some. I was running one evening a week, four or five miles then putting in a long run of 10 to 14 miles on the weekend. Once I got going on my run I would almost always enjoy it and be glad I went, but was just feeling kind of blah about things. At the end of the month I decided to take a look at the calendar on the OKC Landrunners' website and see if I could find a race or two to enter and hopefully rekindle my recently lagging enthusiasm for running.
I settled on the Elvis Run 5k/10k which was scheduled for Saturday, the 7th (prize for best Elvis costume!). I've wanted to run a 10k ever since I ran my first 5k in August of '10 and I seriously considered entering the Elvis Run last year. I signed up the week of the race and got in one "training" run for it...I ran a couple of fast 1 mile intervals Thursday night at the park and then ran the two mile home at around an 8 minute pace. With that, I decided I was as ready as I was going to be.
I thought about a goal time, and some kind of strategy, but was really unsure about was a realistic goal should be since this was my first 10k. There's a great tool available for free online, the McMillan Running Calculator. It has a large list of race distances. You select the distance of a recent race you've run and enter your time and it will calculate your expected time for all the other distances it lists, as well as give you your appropriate pace for various training runs (long run, tempo runs, easy runs etc.). I had entered my PR 5k time in it after the Susan G. Koman 5k in October. As I was thinking about what I should expect to run the 10k in, I remembered I had printed out the results so I dug them out to see what my expected 10k time was. It said I should be able to run a 10k in 49:22 at a 7:56/mile pace. That seemed incredibly optimistic about my abilities to me. I can run a 7:56 mile. But 6 of them? Without stopping. Seemed pretty doubtful to me.
Next I went to the online pace calculator at coolrunning.com and checked the pace for a 55 minute 10k which came to about 8:50/mile, something I knew I could definitely do, without too much effort. So I knew I could run it in 55 minutes, but doubted I could run it in 50. I formed a vague plan to run the first 3 miles or so a little under an 8:30 pace then pick it up to near an 8 minute pace over the remainder and see how I ended up. I figured that would finish me between 50 and 55 minutes, and a bit closer to the low end of that.
I got up Saturday morning, put on my running clothes, ate a piece of toast and double checked to make sure I had everything. I had originally intended to not wear a jacket because, unless it's really cold, I always get to warm with one on once I've run a mile or two and end up taking it off. The temp was in the upper 30s and there was a bit of wind...enough to make it feel even colder. I knew I'd be standing around for a bit waiting for the start and I'm a wimp with the cold so I went ahead and took the jacket. I pinned my bib to my pants since I figured I'd shed the jacket at some point during the race. With that, I got in the car and headed for downtown.
I arrived about 20 minutes early and found the parking was pretty packed. There were more people there than I anticipated. I got parked and headed toward the Chesapeake Boathouse where the start would be. I had to pick up my timing chip first since they didn't pass them out with the race packets. That didn't take long though and I headed to the porta-potties to take make sure I could run for the next hour without needing to stop. Finally I headed to the starting area, found a place among the runners and waited for the starting gun.
The gun sounded and the crowd surged forward. The paved path along the Oklahoma River is a bicycle/walking/running path, so it's not real wide, maybe the width of a wide car lane on the road, so at the beginning it was fairly crowded with all the runners on the narrow path. Still, I got off to a fairly quick start. I was still unsure how fast a pace I wanted to run. I started around an 8:30/mile pace, but picked that up as the runners began stringing out and the initial crowd thinned.
Since the race was along the river, the course went out and back. As I neared my first mile, I saw a sight I'll always remember. The eventual winner of the 5k had made the turn around and was coming back. He was in full Las Vegas Elvis regalia complete with a wig, running as hard as he could. It was impressive! (He finished in 16 minutes and some change.)
By the end of the first mile I had settled into a comfortable rhythm around an 8 minute/mile pace. I was now focusing on a runner or two in front of me until I'd pass them, then I'd pick someone else. At the mile and a half point the 5k runners were all turning around so there was a bit of traffic there. Once you passed that point though, it thinned out a lot because now there was no one left but 10k runners. I finished the 2nd mile in 8:01. On the third mile there were a couple of guys right in front of me. I finally overtook them and now virtually the only person I could see for a long ways was a girl in a pink tie dye running shirt 60 or 70 yards ahead of me. I focused on her and kept my pace. She was moving along at a pretty good clip so I gained on her very slowly. I was getting pretty warm by this time too, and decided I'd take my jacket off at the turnaround.
As you neared the turnaround you could get a good feel for how many runners were in front of you by the number that were coming back toward you. There weren't a lot, so I thought I must not be doing too badly. I had almost caught the pink shirt girl as we came to the turnaround and she slowed a bit at that point and I passed her. I grabbed a cup of water from a volunteer and stopped and walked for 10 seconds or so as I downed it, then took off again, made the turn and started heading back to the Start/Finish. As I ran away from the turnaround I pulled my jacket off and tied it around my waist, while mostly managing to keep my pace.
As I headed back the runners were really strung out. I passed a lot of people still running out to the turnaround. There weren't many people near me going my direction. I was beginning to watch closely for the signs marking each kilometer now, as I was beginning to feel the effects of the effort. Over those next couple of miles there were three girls in front of me that I focused on. I eventually caught and passed the first two, however the last one was going every bit as fast as I was. I followed right behind her for a half mile at least, but couldn't get past her without expending a lot more energy than I wanted to.
As I got to the 8k mark it was getting really difficult to keep my pace. My legs were getting heavy and I was beginning to feel I was running out of gas. I knew I was on pace to finish near 50 minutes though, so between that and trying to catch that girl in front of me I kept pushing. With probably a bit less than a half mile to go, the path went downhill fairly steeply as it went under a bridge that crossed the river. I sped up a bit down the hill, but then as it started back up, I slowed and the girl, who I had almost caught kept her pace and started to pull away from me. Apparently keeping that pace back uphill was a mistake though because she slowed dramatically shortly after that and I flew past her. Finally, I could see the finish ahead. I picked my pace up a bit, as I had slowed some over the last mile. Finally, with a couple of hundred yards left I managed a weak kick and made it to the finish.
My Garmin read 49:59, so I knew my official time would be right around 50 minutes. After walking around a bit and catching my breath I got a bottle of water and watched runners come in for a few minutes. They posted the results fairly quickly and I saw my official time was 50:02. I'd met my (I thought) wildly optimistic time goal of 50 minutes almost to the second! Out of 155 runners in the 10k I had finished 23rd. And in my age group of 50–54 males I finished 2nd (out of 8). That meant I'd get a medal since the top three finishers in each age group received one. That points out the advantage of entering a race with a relatively small number of runners in your age group! I didn't let that stop me from being pretty proud of my medal anyway.
Here are my mile splits:
8:17
8:01
7:52
7:58
7:54
8:07
Then I managed a 7:23 pace over the last two tenths mile. Much better than I had imagined I could do, especially holding the sub-8 minute pace on miles 3 through 5. Once again, running proves to me that you can almost always do better than you think you can.
I settled on the Elvis Run 5k/10k which was scheduled for Saturday, the 7th (prize for best Elvis costume!). I've wanted to run a 10k ever since I ran my first 5k in August of '10 and I seriously considered entering the Elvis Run last year. I signed up the week of the race and got in one "training" run for it...I ran a couple of fast 1 mile intervals Thursday night at the park and then ran the two mile home at around an 8 minute pace. With that, I decided I was as ready as I was going to be.
I thought about a goal time, and some kind of strategy, but was really unsure about was a realistic goal should be since this was my first 10k. There's a great tool available for free online, the McMillan Running Calculator. It has a large list of race distances. You select the distance of a recent race you've run and enter your time and it will calculate your expected time for all the other distances it lists, as well as give you your appropriate pace for various training runs (long run, tempo runs, easy runs etc.). I had entered my PR 5k time in it after the Susan G. Koman 5k in October. As I was thinking about what I should expect to run the 10k in, I remembered I had printed out the results so I dug them out to see what my expected 10k time was. It said I should be able to run a 10k in 49:22 at a 7:56/mile pace. That seemed incredibly optimistic about my abilities to me. I can run a 7:56 mile. But 6 of them? Without stopping. Seemed pretty doubtful to me.
Next I went to the online pace calculator at coolrunning.com and checked the pace for a 55 minute 10k which came to about 8:50/mile, something I knew I could definitely do, without too much effort. So I knew I could run it in 55 minutes, but doubted I could run it in 50. I formed a vague plan to run the first 3 miles or so a little under an 8:30 pace then pick it up to near an 8 minute pace over the remainder and see how I ended up. I figured that would finish me between 50 and 55 minutes, and a bit closer to the low end of that.
I got up Saturday morning, put on my running clothes, ate a piece of toast and double checked to make sure I had everything. I had originally intended to not wear a jacket because, unless it's really cold, I always get to warm with one on once I've run a mile or two and end up taking it off. The temp was in the upper 30s and there was a bit of wind...enough to make it feel even colder. I knew I'd be standing around for a bit waiting for the start and I'm a wimp with the cold so I went ahead and took the jacket. I pinned my bib to my pants since I figured I'd shed the jacket at some point during the race. With that, I got in the car and headed for downtown.
 |
| An Elvis-costumed runner getting ready to race. |
I arrived about 20 minutes early and found the parking was pretty packed. There were more people there than I anticipated. I got parked and headed toward the Chesapeake Boathouse where the start would be. I had to pick up my timing chip first since they didn't pass them out with the race packets. That didn't take long though and I headed to the porta-potties to take make sure I could run for the next hour without needing to stop. Finally I headed to the starting area, found a place among the runners and waited for the starting gun.
 |
| I got a pretty good position awaiting the race start. |
The gun sounded and the crowd surged forward. The paved path along the Oklahoma River is a bicycle/walking/running path, so it's not real wide, maybe the width of a wide car lane on the road, so at the beginning it was fairly crowded with all the runners on the narrow path. Still, I got off to a fairly quick start. I was still unsure how fast a pace I wanted to run. I started around an 8:30/mile pace, but picked that up as the runners began stringing out and the initial crowd thinned.
Since the race was along the river, the course went out and back. As I neared my first mile, I saw a sight I'll always remember. The eventual winner of the 5k had made the turn around and was coming back. He was in full Las Vegas Elvis regalia complete with a wig, running as hard as he could. It was impressive! (He finished in 16 minutes and some change.)
By the end of the first mile I had settled into a comfortable rhythm around an 8 minute/mile pace. I was now focusing on a runner or two in front of me until I'd pass them, then I'd pick someone else. At the mile and a half point the 5k runners were all turning around so there was a bit of traffic there. Once you passed that point though, it thinned out a lot because now there was no one left but 10k runners. I finished the 2nd mile in 8:01. On the third mile there were a couple of guys right in front of me. I finally overtook them and now virtually the only person I could see for a long ways was a girl in a pink tie dye running shirt 60 or 70 yards ahead of me. I focused on her and kept my pace. She was moving along at a pretty good clip so I gained on her very slowly. I was getting pretty warm by this time too, and decided I'd take my jacket off at the turnaround.
As you neared the turnaround you could get a good feel for how many runners were in front of you by the number that were coming back toward you. There weren't a lot, so I thought I must not be doing too badly. I had almost caught the pink shirt girl as we came to the turnaround and she slowed a bit at that point and I passed her. I grabbed a cup of water from a volunteer and stopped and walked for 10 seconds or so as I downed it, then took off again, made the turn and started heading back to the Start/Finish. As I ran away from the turnaround I pulled my jacket off and tied it around my waist, while mostly managing to keep my pace.
As I headed back the runners were really strung out. I passed a lot of people still running out to the turnaround. There weren't many people near me going my direction. I was beginning to watch closely for the signs marking each kilometer now, as I was beginning to feel the effects of the effort. Over those next couple of miles there were three girls in front of me that I focused on. I eventually caught and passed the first two, however the last one was going every bit as fast as I was. I followed right behind her for a half mile at least, but couldn't get past her without expending a lot more energy than I wanted to.
As I got to the 8k mark it was getting really difficult to keep my pace. My legs were getting heavy and I was beginning to feel I was running out of gas. I knew I was on pace to finish near 50 minutes though, so between that and trying to catch that girl in front of me I kept pushing. With probably a bit less than a half mile to go, the path went downhill fairly steeply as it went under a bridge that crossed the river. I sped up a bit down the hill, but then as it started back up, I slowed and the girl, who I had almost caught kept her pace and started to pull away from me. Apparently keeping that pace back uphill was a mistake though because she slowed dramatically shortly after that and I flew past her. Finally, I could see the finish ahead. I picked my pace up a bit, as I had slowed some over the last mile. Finally, with a couple of hundred yards left I managed a weak kick and made it to the finish.
My Garmin read 49:59, so I knew my official time would be right around 50 minutes. After walking around a bit and catching my breath I got a bottle of water and watched runners come in for a few minutes. They posted the results fairly quickly and I saw my official time was 50:02. I'd met my (I thought) wildly optimistic time goal of 50 minutes almost to the second! Out of 155 runners in the 10k I had finished 23rd. And in my age group of 50–54 males I finished 2nd (out of 8). That meant I'd get a medal since the top three finishers in each age group received one. That points out the advantage of entering a race with a relatively small number of runners in your age group! I didn't let that stop me from being pretty proud of my medal anyway.
 |
| My Elvis Run 10k medal for finishing 2nd! |
8:17
8:01
7:52
7:58
7:54
8:07
Then I managed a 7:23 pace over the last two tenths mile. Much better than I had imagined I could do, especially holding the sub-8 minute pace on miles 3 through 5. Once again, running proves to me that you can almost always do better than you think you can.
Monday, November 7, 2011
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.
Monday, October 24, 2011
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.
Thursday, October 20, 2011
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.
Feedback on the new design is welcome.
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