OKC Marathon, Seattle, Training, Flying Pigs

First thing I want to talk about is the outstanding performances that my friends put on at the Eight Annual Oklahoma City Memorial Marathon. One friend was hoping for a sub 4, he did sub 3:40. He is one happy Willie. He likes to play with that word. Guys, we never grow up. Several other friends either PR'ed or just had great runs. I understand the weather was very cool, and some rain at the start. Also our usual South wind was from the North. So while they had a head wind for the first half, it turned into a tail wind for the second half. Great job folks. I used the Museum logo because the Marathon logo just wouldn't come out right.

I left for Seattle this past Saturday. No big problems with the airlines. I arrived in Seattle in the early afternoon, and my hotel was almost at the airport. So to pickup the car and drive to the hotel takes less than 30 minutes. I had already picked out a place to run before I left OKC. It's called the Green River Trail and it runs almost the entire length of the city. It mostly follows the Green River, and is real popular with bikers. In fact I did not see another runner, but probably 20 bikes. I was a little disappointed in this trail. While I only ran about 5 miles one way, 10 total, the trail is not very scenic. Maybe there are better places. Before I started, I turned on my Gamin, and it said low battery. I thought that was odd, because I've only seen that one other time, after my 50 mile run, but it was on over 10 hours that day. So I just said oh well, I'll run by feel and not worry about distance. So I do my run, and the next day (Sunday) I'm working in the Seattle Convention Center, and I try to use my cell phone, I was going to call and congratulate a friend who ran the OKC Marathon, and my phone wouldn't dial out. So I thought, well maybe if I turn it off and then back on it'll work. I turn it off, and it won't come back on. Odd, but I figure I'll charge it when I get back to the hotel and see if it will work then. It does, but I had charged it not too long before that. What I'm getting at is that it was odd that both the Garmin and the phone lost their charges so quickly. UFO's nearby sucking the energy from my devices?

Anyway, back to the real world. My training has been going OK, I had the semi-long run in Seattle, and then I ran yesterday (Tuesday) after my flight back to OKC. It was not a good run, but I didn't worry about it. I was running 1/2 mi intervals and just couldn't get into the groove. But I did spend 6 hours on airplanes and hadn't eaten anything of substance, so I chalk it up to that. I will probably do an easy run today, maybe a short tempo run tomorrow, and then not run again until the Flying Pig Marathon this Sunday.

This Weeks Training

This weeks training has had it's ups and downs. On Tuesday, I did 7 miles at marathon (8:35) pace. On Wednesday, I did 8-1K intervals at 4:30 each. I wasn't going to run Thursday, but my son wanted to get in a run. Since it was raining a bit, and we were in MWC, I said let's go check out Regional Park. Neither of us had ever run there before. It's a nice area once you figure it out. It has a woody area, and looks like you could run some short trails there. Anyway, I did 5 easy miles there before the cold front and rain ended the run. Saturday was the last training run for the running club, but I also belong to the OKC Trail Runners, and I hadn't run with them all year because of conflicts. So I ran with five lovely ladies, no other guys showed up. We started out together at the Draper Trails but ended up separating because some wanted to run different trails. I finished with a young lady for a total of two hours. I don't take my Garmin because it doesn't record well on the trails, but also I like to just run by feel sometimes. My plans today were to run 14-16 miles at a fast pace. I went to S & S park at Hefner and started out easy going counter-clockwise. After a little over a mile I started picking it up and ran 8:30 miles back to the park for about 6 miles. I stopped at my car to get something to drink and then started out in the other direction. I immediately started having problems. My right knee felt like it wanted to give out, and I felt like I had no energy. I stopped after a mile and stretched the knee. Started walking and then running again. I had the feeling again, but kept running and it went away, but I still couldn't get back into the groove. I went out 3 then decided to turn around. This put me into the wind and added to my problems. I decided to walk for awhile and after about 5 minutes started running slowly. I was able to run all the way back and just decided to chalk this up as one of those off days. My knee feels fine and I don't think it's a problem. I'll be in Seattle working next weekend and probably won't get to run. So I'll try to get a moderately long run in during the week. I may not post before next Sunday, so good luck to all who are running in the Run to Remember, the Oklahoma City Memorial Marathon.

Last Long(est) Run & Other Training

On Thursday I ran at the park doing 1/4 mi intervals. Saturday I ran with a new group in Moore. My running club was doing 14 miles on hills, but I didn't want to run that far on hills knowing that I was going to do more than 20 today (Sunday). I had been keeping up with a blog for a group in Moore that is only about 15 minutes from me and decided that I would run with them. I got there and saw that I knew one of them, and had seen others run with us on our marathon training runs. I ran 12 miles with them at about a 9:30/mi pace. The only thing I don't like is they do all their running on city streets. That's ok from time to time, but I think they do all there runs there. I guess occasionally they go to the park, but that is a 1 1/2 mi loop, and is boring to me unless I'm doing speedwork.
Today I had plans of doing at least 20 miles, and as much as 26. I was running alone, so it was all up to me. I decided to do the Overholser to Hefner trail. That way I could make it an out and back and turn around whenever I got ready. It was a bit cold this morning, so I didn't get started until almost 8. I started running and I was wondering if I had enough on. But I was getting a lake breeze, and I knew that I'd be off the lake in about 2 miles. Once I left the lake, I did warm up a bit, but I was never really warm, however it wasn't too bad. Until I made it to Lake Hefner, I only saw two other runners. When I got to Hefner I had run about 8 miles. I started running around the lake, and decided that I would go no farther than S & S park. I hit 11 miles just before the park, so I decided to turn around there. I headed back and was doing ok, but fatigue was starting to set in. For a brief moment I wondered what I would do if I couldn't make it back. I was a long way from Overholser, but I knew I'd make it back. I finished my run in 3:50 or a 10:27/mi average for the 22 miles. I was ok with that especially for 34 miles in two days.

The Redbud Classic & Training

I have been continuing my training for the upcoming Flying Pig Marathon on May 4th. Saturday a week ago, I did 14 miles on the Edmond Hills with the running club. Sunday I ran 6 miles on the Lake Draper Green trail. Tuesday I did 6 miles of 1/4 mile intervals, and Thursday I did 7 miles with a 6 mile tempo run at sub 8 minute miles. This past Saturday I ran 16 miles by myself around Lake Overholser with the second loop (8 miles) at marathon pace -20 (8:15/Mi.). Everything has gone well, I was tired and sore after the 16, but nothing permanent. The running club was doing 20 miles on Sunday, but their marathon is the week before mine, plus I wanted to run the Redbud 10k on Sunday, and didn't feel that it would be smart to do 20 the same day. I plan to run 20 plus next Sunday.

Sunday afternoon at 2 was the running of the Redbud Classic. This is a pretty big race for Oklahoma City, in fact I think the total is probably larger than the total of the OKC Marathon (Full only, not including the other races). I don't really like this race, I mean the crowds are nice and it's nice to see this large a race in OKC, but I don't like the time of day for the race. Anyway, I toed the line for the start. My goal was simply to run the entire race, and beat my time from last year, 47:17. I started slow as I usually do. To pass the time I was picking out people passing me that I would pass later. The course for this race is somewhat hilly. I seem to be able to do a little better than some on hills, because I would pass a lot of people there, but they would get back around me on the downhills. This is a well organized race, but the walkers (I assume they were 5k since we didn't catch them till after the halfway point) seemed oblivious to the runners and were blocking the way in some cases. I didn't say anything but it did aggravate me. Around 7k I seemed to really hit my stride, and I started pouring it on. I would guess that I was behind last years time till then. I finished in 46:57, and was pleased with that. It was far too crowded at the finish for me, so I got some water and headed back to my car.

Grasslands Shirt & Buckle