St. Gregory's 5k - Birthday Marathon

Yesterday I ran the St. Gregory's 5k. St. Gregory is a Benedictine college. I like the place because you see monks walking around in robes. They blessed the race last year, but we had a less colorful blessing this year. I sized up the competition and saw that I only had one running club age group rival. They moved this race date, and there were fewer people this year. We took off and he was ahead. I decided that I'd better get ahead of him right away because I know near the end of a race I get the "I don't cares." I don't care if he beats me, I don't care who passes me now, I don't care that I'm near a P R. So I speed up and pass him within a few blocks. I had set my Garmin for a :21 minute race. This would be a P R for me. I was ahead of pace the whole time, and I felt as though I might get under 21 minutes for the first time. But on the main street we pass through this underpass and the Garmin lost the signal. This is an out and back on that portion, so I lost the signal twice and I wondered if the Garmin picked up correctly. Anyway I felt like I had first in age group locked up and was starting to gasp for air near the finish. When I was in view of the clock, I saw that it was just passing 20 minutes..... WOW. So I held pace and finished in 20:28. A new PR for me by 47 seconds. I felt pretty good about that, and feel pretty good about either this year or next year being able to get below 20 minutes.

I'm planning to run a marathon this coming Sunday, Oct. 5th. I'm only doing it because that's my birthday, and I just thought it would be cool to run one on my "new age group" birthday. I have no big expectations, it's a wildlife park marathon, and not conducive to a fast race. So my plan is to treat it like a long training run.

My granddaughter called me yesterday and wanted to spend the night again. Since I was home alone, I said yes. So that took care of running this morning. But I got her back to her mom by noon and decided to do an easy trail run. I went to the Draper trails and did an easy 5 miles.

Redman Tri & Training

Yesterday I worked in my running club's aid station for the Redman Full and Half Ironman. This is my second year and I love doing this. For one thing it is a nice party for friends from the running club. And it is always inspiring for me to see these multi-sport athletes. Our aid station is at the turn around for the marathon. So we see the half's first, then we see the fulls who have to come through twice. The lead male and female breezed through like they were just starting their marathon. Forget the fact that they had already swam 2 miles and biked 112 miles. Awesome.

Yesterday morning I wanted to run with a group that ran 16 miles at Overholser. But I missed them by about 10 minutes. Since I knew there was no way I would catch them, I decided to just warm up, then do about 8 miles at marathon pace, 8:35. I started at mile 6 and ran 8 at pace, then backed off and cooled down for the last 2 miles. I saw the group pulling out from the parking lot, so depending on how long they stayed after finishing, I wasn't too far behind them. Today I planned to really burn it up. I ran with the running club at Hefner for a planned 12 miles. I got there thirty minutes early and did a real easy 1.5 mile warm up. By the time they got there I was ready and when we took off, I hung with the lead pack. We started running 8 min/miles and picked it up to 7:30's to the 6 mile water stop. I was amazed that I still felt pretty good. We took off again, and we backed it off to 8 min/miles. Since my pard and I decided to just finish the loop instead of an out and back. I needed another mile. He said he was done, so I took an easy cool down mile. All seems to be well.

GEICO Race for Freedom - Granddaughter Visit

Yesterday was the Geico 10k. I was running late, by my standards, and couldn't park as close as I would like. This meant that I didn't warm up the way I like to and that bothered me a bit. It wasn't a bad morning, despite worries about the remnants of Hurricane Ike disrupting the race. It was overcast, but very humid. We start and I start sort of fast. By the first turn-around, about a mile and a quarter I realize I'm going to have to slow down. I was hurting from almost the beginning, and was worried that I would have to walk some of this race. After we split from the 5k runners I had scaled back my pace into survival mode. I knew it wasn't a P R day, but still hoped to finish in the top three age group. After about 4 miles I started to feel a little better. I picked it up a bit, but we had an out and back hill to climb. I hung on to continue to hold off anyone behind me. I finished in 46:45, well over my best time. Oh well, you can't P R every time you go out but I did finish 3rd in my age group. One more medal to throw into the drawer.
Today I ran 10 miles around Hefner at a very easy pace. I wanted to run with the running club but after the race yesterday, my granddaughter called me and asked if she could spend the night with me. All other plans went out the window, and I went to pick her up. We had a great time together yesterday and today.

Makin' Tracks 5k & Training

Training is going well. I've been feeling pretty good. I did a 12 mile run on Wed and felt pretty good. I did have an issue that has only happened to me once before. That "I've got to find a bathroom and fast" issue. And since I'm a guy, you can guess it wasn't number one. Anyway, I'll spare you the details, but I was able to take care of business, and felt so good after that the rest of my run went very well. Today I did a 16 mile run with 8 miles from mile 6 at 8:30 or better, my Boston qualifying pace.
Yesterday was the Makin' Tracks 5k race and I was a bit apprehensive since I hadn't run a short race in some time. But when I got to the site, and after a short warm up, I was really feeling pretty good. I felt like I might have a P R in me. I sized up my age group competition and decided there was only one person I had to worry about. We took off, and I was feeling good and taking it kind of easy. I was passing people but wasn't at maximum velocity yet. There are some small hills in this race, and I felt really good climbing them. After 3k I only saw the one guy in front of me and decided I might have a chance to catch him. I picked it up a bit, and after passing the 4k mark I was really starting to hurt. The last k is also uphill and I wasn't in love with it as much as the earlier ones. But I was determined to catch him, and hopefully win first in my age group. It also helps that I know this guy slows a bit near the finish. I caught him with about a block to go and won my age group by 4 seconds. I also P R'ed by 20 seconds. A good morning all in all.