Happy Halloween!!! Where were you 50 years ago?

My parents were in the south end zone at this game.  The guy in the suit running along the sideline starting around the 15 yard line or so lived a block down in the neighborhood where I grew up.

Hit the Trails 5k

I ran a local 5k this morning here in The Woodlands.  At $40 plus active .com fees, the race was Woodlands pricey for  a 5k; however, the race was put on by Girls Run for a great cause!  I learned of the event a couple of weeks ago from a company email.  The plan was to get 5 of us to run to get a $1,000 heart & health grant through work to further benfit this great cause.  Plan fell through and only 2 of us participated in the event.  The plan is to get a grant for next year Girls Run events.
My Garmin decided to sleep in this morning.  I had the dreaded low battery message when I went to put it on after finding my satellites.  I ran it for my 1 mile warmup run; it died around .75 miles.  I went ahead and removed my HR monitor when I got back from the warmup.  My left calf let me know that it was there while I warmed up so the plan on the fly was to just have an easy run this morning.
The trails became the concrete after a heavy soaking rain Thursday put the trails under water.  3 loops in the parking lot wasn't so bad for a 5k; however, I can see why people are not big fans of the 3 loop Houston Half Marathon run on Allen Parkway.
I ended up with a 24:12 clock time.  The first mile was around my warmup pace of 9:00; mile 2 was around 8:00 and the third loop was around 7:00.  The calf felt a little tight but I didn't have the same sensation that happened last Saturday at mile 6 of the 10k.
Depending on how things feel tomorrow morning, I  think I'll head up to Huntsville to get in some mileage there in preparation for next weekends Rocky Raccoon 25k Saturday morning.  No sleeping in next Saturday with a 7:00 race start up in Huntsville State Park.  I could get spoiled with 9:00 am local start times like todays.
I haven't entered today's mileage yet but I know that my marathon training is headed in the wrong direction this month.  I logged 120 miles in September; I know I didn't break 100 this month.  Too many races and no real motivation are dragging me down.  November only has 2 races and hopefully awesome weather so the mileage should be back up.

Yet Another Rest Day

Before:

After:

Waldo and his stuffed pelican were fine when I left the living room to go get ready for work yesterday morning.  The area needed to be roped off for a Crime Scene Investigation when I came back out.  Pelican innards....stuffing, honking noise maker and what not were scattered about.  I think it's time to order more toys.

I planned on running for the first time this week last night.  It wasn't to be with rain coming down in buckets.  I woke up with another cramp in my left calf during the night.  I'll just have to take tomorrow morning's trail run easy and listen to the calf to avoid another pull.  Not sure what's causing all the cramps.

13.1 Marathon series

Flipping through the December 2009 issue of Running Times, I just came across an ad for 3 races part of a new series produced by US Road Sports & Entertainment Group out of Dallas.  It looks like 4 of the 8 races will be inaugural events.  With early entry fees starting at $55, the series looks to be competitively priced; lets hope it remains that way. 
The apparent attempt to brand these events without the 1/2 designation may end up confusing the non running community.  I still occasionally get the "How long is this marathon?" question from non runner friends.  Calling this a 13.1 marathon will further muddy the waters.
Of the 8 events, I've run in all the states where they are being held.  The one event I could possibly justify would be New York as that is the only state where I've run a full marathon but not a 1/2 or a 13.1 marathon!

Blame it on the Cheap Air

Oops I did it again. Last night I found airfare to Jackson, MS for under $70 on Continental as part of the price matching of Southwest's 72 hour fare sale.  The sale window fit in perfectly with the Mississippi Track Club 1/2 Marathon in Madison, MS just north of Jackson.  The 1/2 advertises itself as a no frills event; you can't beat the $17 registration fee.  A quick trip to hotwire.com and I now have a rental car for around $25 after all fees.  All I need now is 1 nights lodging.  This trip may end up being cheaper than my Houston Marathon "trip" in January. 
Staying on road, this will be my 6th half marathon and 6th new state for 2009.  5 of the 6 were not affiliated with a full marathon.  All 5 of the half only events were under $60; 2 in the $50's, 2 in the $30's and this one at $17.  I am finding events where the 1/2 is the featured race to be cheaper in general than 1/2's that are part of the full marathon event.
I will be picking up state 40 much sooner than anticipated but I still have my goal of completing number 50 on my 50th birthday.

Human Race Recovery

Good news is that the calf pull was just that and nothing worse.  I hobbled around the rest of the day Saturday but was walking normal again Sunday morning.  My legs are still sore so I will not run until Thursday the earliest.  I have a 5k on the calendar this Saturday morning which I know I shouldn't race but most probably will end up racing.  Something about getting a bib number and a group of people together makes me want to run hard.....  Rocky Raccoon 25k trail run is the following Saturday so I am getting some miles in but it's definetely not your conventional marathon training.  That's ok as running a half and full combination over a weekend is not your conventional race so it should all work out in the end.   That's what I keep telling myself.

Nike Human Race 10k

What a great day for a race!

Lukes Locker put on a great free show this morning for The Woodlands runners.  I would've run further than a 10k this morning without an organized event, but I decided to race the 10k since we had a course and runners and post race party. 

I was having a good run until about mile 6 when my left calf muscle decided to lock up/tighten up/cramp on me.  Driving home I remembered that I woke up in the middle of the night during the week with the calf cramping up on me.  I was able to avoid a full out cramp but I guess it was enough for it to act up again while I was running.  Despite the cramp, I ended up running an unofficial 48:17.  Post race, they had a live band, coffee and breakfast, and even massages. 

I will most likely skip running in Huntsville tomorrow depending on how the calf feels tomorrow morning.  I'd like to get out there as Rocky Raccoon 25k is November 7th but if its bothering me there's no sense pushing it risking injury.

The Bigger Challenge?

Interesting article from USA Today in the Sky.  Prior to fees being institiuted for checking bags, I almost always checked a bag.  With the liquid worries at TSA checkpoints, it was just easier to not deal with trying to carry on a bag.  Start charging me to check a bag, and, yeah, I'm going to start carrying on my stuff.  I have started sitting further back on the plane to ensure that there is still room in the overhead bins for my bag; before I always tried to sit as far forward as possible.  Last in, first off made sense to me.  I have found that earlier in, later off with bag in hand is actually quicker so I must thank the airlines for speeding up my travel experience.
Oh yeah, after going through the airport, the half marathon that I'm traveling to is usually a piece of cake!!!
For my January 2 run trip, I have decided that carrying on and doing laundry after my first race will be cheaper and more efficient than packing enough for the entire trip.  Plus, it'll be nice recovery time between races.

Running Through Goofy

If I was on the fence, my current training intensity has pretty much decided my Goofy fate.  I have not been training to run a PR marathon.  Orlando's January historical weather is reason enough to not expect favorable running conditions for the marathon.  Add to that the 1/2 that I'll be running the day before and a marathon PR is not likely.  So my training to date has been more of the surviving a 40 mile running weekend compared to racing 40 miles.

Now that I've decided to not push myself through Goofy, it would be nice to have a target race early next year.  I am considering the 3M Half in Austin later in January.  The course sounds much more to my liking than the 1/2 course associated with the Austin full mid February.  Unfortunately, most of my local running buds will be doing the full and not the half only event.  Oh well, it's not like I haven't traveled alone for a race before!!!!

My recovery and the Houston sucky weather are a good combination this week.  This weekends weather looks like the best of the fall season here in Houston; it actually looks like fall temps!!! Who knows, I may even run Saturday and Sunday.

I updated my state map yesterday.  7 of the 11 remaining states being contiguous make a huge white hole in the northern midwest portion of the US.  Current plans are for 2010 races in Wyoming in May and Montana in July.  All other 2010 plans are currently repeat states.

Just One Run Short of Fabulous

It is 40 and fabulous right?  If that's the case I'm now one more state shy of hitting the big four 0 thanks to this weekends Massachusetts and Connecticut's cool and not-so-cool runnings.

Planes, trains and automobiles
This weeks travel to Boston and then Hartford and then Boston involved all 3 modes of travel.  I rate them as follows:

Planes: D- 
While all delays were supposedly weather related, I am really hating air travel these days for some reason.  My Friday morning (was it the 13th?  Sure seemed like it....) 11:05 AM flight that was due in Boston at 2:52 PM Houston time was delayed 4 1/2 hours.  I was still on the ground at Bush IAH when I should have been in Boston driving towards Hartford.  My initial travel plans had me picking up my Saturday morning race packet very close to the 7 PM Friday evening expo close in Hartford.  Thankfully, Hartford had a race day pickup option.  Many races don't offer such an option.  Once our plane arrived from Philly via a weather related diverted stop and refueling in Lake Charles, LA and we boarded and on our way, we encountered yet another weather issue on our approach to Boston.  1/2 mile visibility turned into 1/4 mile which led to our circling in a holding pattern waiting for visibility to improve.  I have never been so relieved to hear the "Welcome to Boston" greeting from the flight attendants once we landed as we could have easily been diverted to another airport.  The return flight Sunday evening was slowed a half hour or so by headwinds from Boston all the way down to Jackson, Mississippi as well as a landing approach at IAH from a westerly direction due to Houston winds.  Total planes lost time: 5 1/2 hours

Automobiles: C
Car rental shuttle from Logan to Hertz rental site rather quick.  Very smooth rental process with my new Hertz Gold status thanks to a new company contract with Hertz!  Kia Spectra more than adequate for my needs.  Loving the Garmin nuvi GPS that was on its 3rd out of town trip with me.  GPS does make solo navigating much easier than trying to read mapquest and drive at the same time.  As I realized that Hartford pasta dinner wasn't going to happen I stopped at the Framingham rest/service area on the Mass turnpike around 9:30 PM.  They actually had a pizza and pasta place there.  Unfortunately all they had left was pizza so I opted for McD's grilled chicken and fries.
Made it out of Taxachusetts tolls right under $8.00.  Not sure if I was in Mass or Connecticut when it happened.... nuvi showed me being 20 minutes from Hartford when I saw a red glow up ahead; made it up a hill and saw red brake lights.... 3 lanes worth... as far as I could see.  Someone decided it was a good night to merge 3 lanes of interstate traffic into 1 lane on the right hand shoulder to restripe the lanes.  Watched the 20 minute ETA time move up with real time as I crawled along with all the traffic.  Orange cones eventually stopped and all 3 lanes were open.  Made it to downtown Hartford without further incident.  Checked in quickly at Crowne Plaza, moved car to CP garage and made my way up to my room with my bags.  Got a call from the front desk 5 minutes later.  They had my wallet downstairs.  By this point had no idea how that happened.  I either brought it to the front desk for some reason (didn't need it as my drivers license and credit cards were in my front pocket)  or it fell off my lap when I got out of the car.  It was in my lap for the toll booth stops I made thru Mass.  Headed down and retrieved wallet after midnight, set alarm for 5:30 and caught a few hours sleep. 

ING Hartford 1/2 Marathon:
The 1/2 was part of the full marathon weekend; a 5k was also offered as well.  They had a total of 10,000 runners in all 3 events.  I put on my warmup pants and a long sleeve T shirt and headed out the door to the XL center to pickup my packet.  It was a short walk to XL.  Of course forgot my race number that had been emailed to me earlier in the week and my drivers license. Got my packet and race shirt quickly and headed back to hotel to get ready.  Warmups and T shirt weren't neeed as temps were in the 60s and humid.  Headed out to Bushnell Park/race start in running gear with no need to check baggage. 
Probably a combination of lack of sleep, poor fueling/carb loading and warmer temps had my heart rate higher than where I wanted it most of the race.  Kept reining myself in..... telling myself that I had another 13.1 to run the next morning.
Finished in 1:50 and change with wet clothes and wet shoes.  Had more clothes for the Boston 1/2 and another pair of shoes in the shoes that I wore for traveling.  Post race food was provided by Whole Foods; great job by them.  I headed back to hotel; applied some blow dryer heat to the shoes to jump start the drying process to try and run in the same shoes for Boston.  Got out of downtown Hartford without too much difficulty; had to head west on I-84 a few miles and turn around once outside of race closures as full marathon had roads still closed.
Headed back to Logan to return the rental car and make it to Back Bay Fens in Boston.

Trains: A+
After returning the rental car, took Hertz bus to Logan terminal B to catch the MBTA blue train shuttle to the Airport T stop.  Walked right into shuttle bus; bought my $4.00 round trip ticket and headed to Prudential center stop headed for the Boston Sheraton.  MBTA station and Sheraton were both within Prudential Center.  Didn't have to leave the block.  Also noticed a Cheesecake Factory, PF Changs and food court on the walk to the Sheraton.  Ate pasta at Cheesecake and took a nap; stretched legs a little and settled in for the night after getting directions to race start for the next morning.
Sunday morning warmups and sweatshirt came in handy with 40 degree temps.  After walking a little out of the way by Fenway Park, I found the race start/packet pickup.  I started to head back to the hotel after picking up my packet but realized it was too far to walk so I just stayed and checked a bag. 
The Boston course was tougher than Hartford but the cooler temps more than compensated. It was a beautiful morning for a run through several Boston parks.  I wound up running a 1:45; this was my 4th race run with a HR monitor; my HR was the most controlled that I had seen it.  I chalk it up to cooler temps.
Grabbed post race lunch in Prudential Center and then headed to airport.  Caught the end of the early NFL games and the beginning of the late games pre flight.

All in all a nice quick trip to pick up states 38 and 39.  This has been my 3rd straight Columbus Day weekend where I've run 26.2 miles.  Must be a popular time of year for races!!!! 

It's Great to be a......

Gator Hater!!!  I'll be geauxing gold on Saturday up in Boston.  Extended forcast for Hartford Saturday morning has upper 40s for the low with a rain chance.  Sunday morning in Boston mid 40s.  Must remember to pack garbage bag/throw away clothes.  Mid 50s in Washington state last month in drizzle was chilly.
No running this weekend at moms plus more eating than normal is not the best taper week plan but the trip had to be made.  Should be a nice taper week of running then a quick trip to the northeast to pick up states 38 and 39!!!!!