PATRICK FRENSLEY MEMORIAL RUN & Training

I wanted to race this weekend, but didn't want to run in the Redbud Classic. The classic is a huge race, plus it is Sunday afternoon, and I wanted to run long Sunday morning.

The Patrick Frensley Memorial is a 5k run in memory of a young man (College Student) who was killed by a train....... while running. I didn't know this story until I had finished and a friend asked me if I knew the story of this race. He had a slight grin on his face and I wondered why. I thought it was strange to get hit by a train while running (sober), but then I thought back to my youth and in my mind I could see him thinking even if he didn't beat the train to the crossing, he would be able to see he wasn't going to make it and stop in time. It is also my understanding that he did beat the engine, but there was something sticking out that caught him.

I made the 20 minute drive to the start of the race. The weather was warm, but very windy. This is an out and back, so I thought the wind would be against me at the start, but with me on the way back. While it is an out and back, it is not straight out and back. It seemed that the wind was against me no matter which direction I was going. On the way back I was pretty much by myself. There was one lady right in front of me, and I heard someone tell her she was 3rd female, so I thought, I'll stalk you for a while then pass you. I passed her with about 1.5 k to go and there was no more incentive to go faster. I wasn't going to catch anyone else, and no one was going to catch me. I finished in 22:07. First in age group and that was ok. This is a nice little race, and I would do it again.

Today the running club was doing their last 20 miler in preparation for the Oklahoma City Memorial Marathon. I did not plan to do 20, but wanted to test my IT Band up to 16 miles. The difference between today and yesterday's weather was the high Sat. was 80. The low this morning was 37. I knew a cold front was coming in and thought I was ready for it. I woke up this morning, checked the temp, 39. A little warmer than I expected, but the wind was howling like there was a winter storm going on. The weather man said these were tropical storm grade winds. I made a decision not to run with them, but wait till the sun came up and it warmed up a bit more. I also figured it might be smarter to do my miles on a loop course in case my IT Band flared up I could stop immediately. Whereas if I had run with the club, it was possible that I could be up to 8 miles from my car and would have to walk back. When I left, it was all the way up to 41, a whopping 2 degrees warmer. And the wind was still howling. I ran one untimed lap (1.5 miles) to warm up then started my Garmin. First lap at 9 minute miles. Then I sort of got into a groove and started doing 8:10-30 minute miles. I treated it like a true race pace, and when there was a headwind, I backed off, and when there was a tailwind let it take me away. I was able to do 16 miles, with an average pace of 8:30. While I did feel my band tightening up, it never hurt. That gives me hope that I may be able to run the entire Boston Marathon in a couple of weeks. I am determined to do it, but may fall short of my proclaimed goal of doing it under 4 hours.