Catching Up

It's been awhile I know.  Why?  I just haven't felt like posting.  But, to bring you up to date, here's what's been going on running wise.  I ran the Sioux Falls South Dakota Marathon on 9/11/11.  I was trying to Boston Qualify the day before registration opened.  It was a nice race, a bit hotter than normal for SD.  My only complaint about the organization is that the host hotel is 6 miles from packet pickup and no shuttle was provided.  Surely they could add a $5 shuttle option for those of us that stayed in the hotel.  Instead your choice is a $25 cab ride.  I did find someone to share the cab with, but they need to fix that.

I ran the race, was holding pace for most of the run, but as is usual, had to slow down around mile 22.  It was there that I made a major error.  I decided that if I had a good potty break, I'd be able to run fast again.  I could have finished without the break, but I thought that was my best chance to make goal.  Well I took around 2 minutes to break, and missed my time by just over 2 minutes.  Oh well, not that big a deal, still my fastest marathon this year. 3:47.

On October 1st I ran a nice flat 5k.  I felt pretty good the whole race, and ran my fastest 5k in over a year. 20:59.

Yesterday, Sunday, October 9th my running club took a bus trip to Wichita for the Prairie Fire Full and Half Marathon.  I was running the half since I have two longer races coming up in the next month.  I'm running 6 hours at 24 the Hard Way, and the New York Marathon in November.  I started the half marathon with the single goal of running sub 1:45.  I felt that I could achieve this without stressing myself.  It was cool and a very light rain was falling.  Almost perfect running weather.  I started and was holding right at 8 minute miles.  My plan was to hold 8's and then pick it up at the 6.65 mark.  At mile 5 I was really feeling good so I started picking the pace up.  At mile 10 I was still feeling good, so I started running close to 7:30 miles.  I ran the last mile at 7:17 and was still feeling good.  I finished in 1:41:51 and feel no soreness a day later.  I need to run more half's.  Hope to talk to you again in less than 2 months.