I'll be joining them as well; well, I'll be getting closer to them at least. I'm relocating back to the New Orleans area after almost 6 years of running The Woodlands.
Emmaleigh Grace
James Patrick
Sunday, June 12, 2011
I run like a Paw Paw
2 days after my 47th birthday, I was blessed with 2 grandchildren. They arrived a few weeks early so have spent time in the Special Care unit. James came home Monday and hopefully Emmaleigh will be joining him shortly.
I'll be joining them as well; well, I'll be getting closer to them at least. I'm relocating back to the New Orleans area after almost 6 years of running The Woodlands.
I'll be joining them as well; well, I'll be getting closer to them at least. I'm relocating back to the New Orleans area after almost 6 years of running The Woodlands.
Sunday, June 5, 2011
13.1 Chicago
After running over 50 half marathons in 45 states, I no longer have many "race firsts" in events these days. Yesterday morning at 13.1 chicago I did not receive an official race time for the first time. Only 130 of the 5000 or so participants received official times as the course was red flagged around 1:45 into the race. The red flag was changed to black a couple of miles later at about the 11.5 mile mark for me. I was able to finish the race and did receive a race medal.
The event started under yellow flag conditions in the mid 70s and balmy. Shining sun and not much shade on lakeshore made for tough running. The course reminded me of the Gary Bjorklund 1/2 course in Duluth MN that is run along Lake Superior vs Lake Michigan in Chicago.
Weather aside, 13.1 chicago seemed much better organized than reports I'd heard of other 13.1 events. Packet pickup was in a local running store within walking distance of the L. Shuttle transportation to and from the start/finish went very smoothly. I just would have liked to have had the need to check warmups but it just wasn't meant to be.
When I registered for this race, I had visions of training hard in an attempt to PR on a flat fast course. Work got in the way of training, so I'm not disappointed with the warm weather. I run another half in 2 weeks. Weather in Anchorage should be cooler than yesterday!
Mile 1 8:54
Mile 2 8:16
Mile 3 8:04
Mile 4 9:04
Mile 5 9:20
Mile 6 10:53
Mile 7 7:47 looks like this mile was short?
Mile 8 10:50
Mile 9 11:03
Mile 10 11:04
Mile 11 10:28
Mile 12 12:04
Mile 13.1 11:39
Total unofficial time: 2:09. My previous time May 1st in Lincoln was 1:49.
The event started under yellow flag conditions in the mid 70s and balmy. Shining sun and not much shade on lakeshore made for tough running. The course reminded me of the Gary Bjorklund 1/2 course in Duluth MN that is run along Lake Superior vs Lake Michigan in Chicago.
Weather aside, 13.1 chicago seemed much better organized than reports I'd heard of other 13.1 events. Packet pickup was in a local running store within walking distance of the L. Shuttle transportation to and from the start/finish went very smoothly. I just would have liked to have had the need to check warmups but it just wasn't meant to be.
When I registered for this race, I had visions of training hard in an attempt to PR on a flat fast course. Work got in the way of training, so I'm not disappointed with the warm weather. I run another half in 2 weeks. Weather in Anchorage should be cooler than yesterday!
Mile 1 8:54
Mile 2 8:16
Mile 3 8:04
Mile 4 9:04
Mile 5 9:20
Mile 6 10:53
Mile 7 7:47 looks like this mile was short?
Mile 8 10:50
Mile 9 11:03
Mile 10 11:04
Mile 11 10:28
Mile 12 12:04
Mile 13.1 11:39
Total unofficial time: 2:09. My previous time May 1st in Lincoln was 1:49.
Tuesday, May 3, 2011
Back to Back Half Marathon Weekend Version 2011
With only 7 states remaining in my 50 state half marathon quest, finding opportunities to pick up 2 new states over a weekend is becoming more difficult. I had these 2 states and races in my sites for a few years and was just waiting for the end of April and beginning of May Saturday/Sunday dates to line up correctly with the calendar.
Drake Relays half marathon is held every year the last Saturday in April as part of the Drake Relays. The Lincoln half marathon is a companion half held in conjuntion with the Lincoln marathon the first Sunday in May. So for 2011, I was able to run the 2 events Saturday, April 30th and Sunday, May 1st and pick up states 44 and 45.
Race week brought me some weather related news regarding my online running log. After not being able to access Buckeye Outdoors website for a couple of days, the following message appeared in the website Thursday evening:
After starting out using nothing to record miles in my first marathon to using a stopwatch to click miles in my first few half marathons before getting a Timex watch with lap features to getting my first Garmin back in 2006, keeping mileage logs has become more and more important to me. So hearing the above news that the one place that had all my marathon and half marathon results plus other distance PR times had lost all data was somewhat troubling. However, Thursday evening was my normal start packing for a race weekend time so I did my normal post final training run laundry routine and started gathering items for my back to back running weekend. When running a single race while traveling, I don't pack my Garmin charger; for a double race weekend, I packed the charger to make sure I'd have enough battery for both races. With a wet Saturday forecast for Des Moines, I also packed 2 of everything (including running shoes) in case everything got soaked Saturday.
As 2 pairs of my size 13's could probably fill a carry on bag alone, I packed in a bigger bag and took advantage of my Continental One Pass elite access for the first time by checking a bag for free. After completing my packing for the most part, I headed to bed after 11 knowing that Friday would be a busy traveling day for me. I woke up early Friday with Waldo wanting his early morning breakfast as usual. After feeding him, I decided to get something out of the freezer for myself. I then discovered that my freezer was not nearly as cold as it should be; food was partially thawing out. After noticing frost in the back of my frost free unit, I got online and tried troubleshooting the problem. Around 4:00 in the morning, I was removing the back panel of my unit and cleaning stuff out with a brush and my vacuum cleaner attachment. I then replugged the unit and tried to get a little more sleep. After not much luck sleeping more and as much luck with the unit cooling down, I unplugged the unit and emptied out the freezer. I just left the kitchen with the refrigerator pulled out in pieces; this would become a Sunday evening project!
I dropped Waldo off at Cozy Paws on the way to the airport. Cozy Paws is really convenient and is a great alternative to more exclusive cage free dog boarding facilities that are further out in Conroe and don't do as well with problem pooches. You'd think with a picture with Caesar that they could handle dogs better. Just saying.....
I then made my way to IAH for a mid morning flight to Kansas City. A hassle free flight and a smooth car rental had me on my way for the 3 hour drive to Des Moines right around 1:00PM. I drove straight to packet pickup on Drake campus and then checked into the Hyatt Place downtown for my night in Des Moines. When I started unpacking, I discovered that my Garmin was nowhere to be found. Charger was there but turns out my Garmin was back in my dining room hundreds of miles away.
Saturday morning was cloudy and 56 with light rain having passed through the area earlier. With no Garmin to record my data (that may be eventually be lost with all my other data) I found myself without a watch for the first time since running the Great Alaskan Maritime Marathon cruise with the Bingham/Hadfield no need for speed gang. On that cruise, the running catch was to try and run your events at the same pace without using a watch in order to emphasize consistency versus speed (so I found out I'm neither fast nor consistent that week). Having run a half marathon in Juneau without a watch gave me some confidence heading into this event.
My one concern of going out too fast proved to be valid and would come back to kick me in the butt later in the race. One thing about the Drake field; well two things about the Drake field. Being held in conjuction with the Drake relays with high school,college, and open divisions competing at track and field events, there were true athletes all around the area and entered in the event. The other thing was with a 2 1/2 hour time limit, you only had serious race walkers and runners that could maintain an 11:30 pace.
The only clock I saw was at the finish line. Mile markers were painted on the ground so weren't easy to spot. Some miles had volunteers calling out times but many did not. I started a few seconds after the gun so the times called out were pretty close to accurate. I ran the first 5 miles at an 8 minute per mile pace. The warmer weather, hillier than anticipated conditions quickly did me in and I found myself walking up quite a few hills later in the race. The route was quite beautiful; things were starting to bloom and it was a pleasant although tough course. After mile 5, I got a timer that called out a 1:25 time at mile 10 which was about 8:30 pace for me. The last 3 miles were at a 10 minute pace to put me at 1:55 for the finish. I could have pushed through but was holding back for Sunday's race.
After finishing, I got my medal and some post race food and headed back to the hotel to clean up and make another 3 hour drive west to Lincoln for Sunday's race. The early morning rain brought in a front that had me driving into 30 mile hour headwinds the entire drive. I arrived around 4 in Lincoln; checked into the Cornhusker (sounded like the appropriate place to stay on my only night ever in Nebraska) and made my way to the expo. The expo, restaurants, the start and finish line were all within walking distance of the hotel which was convenient. It was very windy Saturday and felt cooler than Des Moines.
Sunday morning brought weather in the lower 40s and calmer winds. I walked to the race area, checked my bag and lined up right in front of the 9:00 pace sign. The Des Moines hills had me somewhat concerned about what hills Lincoln would throw at me. I had read that Lincoln would have narrowing barricades at the start to attempt to spread out the race before the course narrowed around mile 6. With that said, it took me over 10 minutes to start post gun and didn't help much with the course narrowing later in the event. While the narrowing barricades was a nice attempt, it failed mostly because people lined up in the wrong spots. When you pass walkers walking 3 abreast within the first 2 miles of the race you know that the honor system just doesn't work. If you're going to attempt to spread out the race, use a seeded corral system to accomplish the task. I've run the Chicago marathon with 4 times as many people that didn't feel nearly as crowded as Lincoln was the entire 13.1 miles.
I was surprised that much of Linclon was run on a sidewalk starting around mile 6. A field of 10,000 running on a sidewalk made for a very crowded event. I was feeling great Sunday and was passing lots of runners. My times/splits are below:
My pace by split was 8:51, 8:29, 8:24 and 8:21. I felt strong the entire race but did tire by having to weave through runners the entire race.
The finish on the 50 yard line of Memorial Stadium was nice. Having a bigger race field than Drake, Lincoln had more spectators along the route. The finish area in the stadium was congested with spectators as well. Post race was another quick clean up and then hit the road for another 3 hour drive back to Kansas City. I got home about an hour later than planned due to storm delays. Plugged in the refrigerator and its working fine.....so far. Still no verdict on the Buckeye data recovery. Garmin is ready to run again. My quads not so much....ready for a post race massage.
Drake Relays half marathon is held every year the last Saturday in April as part of the Drake Relays. The Lincoln half marathon is a companion half held in conjuntion with the Lincoln marathon the first Sunday in May. So for 2011, I was able to run the 2 events Saturday, April 30th and Sunday, May 1st and pick up states 44 and 45.
Race week brought me some weather related news regarding my online running log. After not being able to access Buckeye Outdoors website for a couple of days, the following message appeared in the website Thursday evening:
And I thought running in the rain was my biggest weather related issue!Buckeye Outdoors has suffered a major outage. A series of electrical storms first knocked out the backup servers that were located at the backup up location. Then the unthinkable happened 4 days later and a second electrical storm caused an extended power outage at the datacenter where the primary Buckeye Outdoors servers are hosted. The current situation is pretty grimm and I'm despritly trying to recover the data that has been lost. If I am un able to recover the data I will put the application back online but right now I am holding out hope and I even might send the Hard Disks to a data recovery place.
After starting out using nothing to record miles in my first marathon to using a stopwatch to click miles in my first few half marathons before getting a Timex watch with lap features to getting my first Garmin back in 2006, keeping mileage logs has become more and more important to me. So hearing the above news that the one place that had all my marathon and half marathon results plus other distance PR times had lost all data was somewhat troubling. However, Thursday evening was my normal start packing for a race weekend time so I did my normal post final training run laundry routine and started gathering items for my back to back running weekend. When running a single race while traveling, I don't pack my Garmin charger; for a double race weekend, I packed the charger to make sure I'd have enough battery for both races. With a wet Saturday forecast for Des Moines, I also packed 2 of everything (including running shoes) in case everything got soaked Saturday.
As 2 pairs of my size 13's could probably fill a carry on bag alone, I packed in a bigger bag and took advantage of my Continental One Pass elite access for the first time by checking a bag for free. After completing my packing for the most part, I headed to bed after 11 knowing that Friday would be a busy traveling day for me. I woke up early Friday with Waldo wanting his early morning breakfast as usual. After feeding him, I decided to get something out of the freezer for myself. I then discovered that my freezer was not nearly as cold as it should be; food was partially thawing out. After noticing frost in the back of my frost free unit, I got online and tried troubleshooting the problem. Around 4:00 in the morning, I was removing the back panel of my unit and cleaning stuff out with a brush and my vacuum cleaner attachment. I then replugged the unit and tried to get a little more sleep. After not much luck sleeping more and as much luck with the unit cooling down, I unplugged the unit and emptied out the freezer. I just left the kitchen with the refrigerator pulled out in pieces; this would become a Sunday evening project!
I dropped Waldo off at Cozy Paws on the way to the airport. Cozy Paws is really convenient and is a great alternative to more exclusive cage free dog boarding facilities that are further out in Conroe and don't do as well with problem pooches. You'd think with a picture with Caesar that they could handle dogs better. Just saying.....
I then made my way to IAH for a mid morning flight to Kansas City. A hassle free flight and a smooth car rental had me on my way for the 3 hour drive to Des Moines right around 1:00PM. I drove straight to packet pickup on Drake campus and then checked into the Hyatt Place downtown for my night in Des Moines. When I started unpacking, I discovered that my Garmin was nowhere to be found. Charger was there but turns out my Garmin was back in my dining room hundreds of miles away.
Saturday morning was cloudy and 56 with light rain having passed through the area earlier. With no Garmin to record my data (that may be eventually be lost with all my other data) I found myself without a watch for the first time since running the Great Alaskan Maritime Marathon cruise with the Bingham/Hadfield no need for speed gang. On that cruise, the running catch was to try and run your events at the same pace without using a watch in order to emphasize consistency versus speed (so I found out I'm neither fast nor consistent that week). Having run a half marathon in Juneau without a watch gave me some confidence heading into this event.
My one concern of going out too fast proved to be valid and would come back to kick me in the butt later in the race. One thing about the Drake field; well two things about the Drake field. Being held in conjuction with the Drake relays with high school,college, and open divisions competing at track and field events, there were true athletes all around the area and entered in the event. The other thing was with a 2 1/2 hour time limit, you only had serious race walkers and runners that could maintain an 11:30 pace.
The only clock I saw was at the finish line. Mile markers were painted on the ground so weren't easy to spot. Some miles had volunteers calling out times but many did not. I started a few seconds after the gun so the times called out were pretty close to accurate. I ran the first 5 miles at an 8 minute per mile pace. The warmer weather, hillier than anticipated conditions quickly did me in and I found myself walking up quite a few hills later in the race. The route was quite beautiful; things were starting to bloom and it was a pleasant although tough course. After mile 5, I got a timer that called out a 1:25 time at mile 10 which was about 8:30 pace for me. The last 3 miles were at a 10 minute pace to put me at 1:55 for the finish. I could have pushed through but was holding back for Sunday's race.
After finishing, I got my medal and some post race food and headed back to the hotel to clean up and make another 3 hour drive west to Lincoln for Sunday's race. The early morning rain brought in a front that had me driving into 30 mile hour headwinds the entire drive. I arrived around 4 in Lincoln; checked into the Cornhusker (sounded like the appropriate place to stay on my only night ever in Nebraska) and made my way to the expo. The expo, restaurants, the start and finish line were all within walking distance of the hotel which was convenient. It was very windy Saturday and felt cooler than Des Moines.
Sunday morning brought weather in the lower 40s and calmer winds. I walked to the race area, checked my bag and lined up right in front of the 9:00 pace sign. The Des Moines hills had me somewhat concerned about what hills Lincoln would throw at me. I had read that Lincoln would have narrowing barricades at the start to attempt to spread out the race before the course narrowed around mile 6. With that said, it took me over 10 minutes to start post gun and didn't help much with the course narrowing later in the event. While the narrowing barricades was a nice attempt, it failed mostly because people lined up in the wrong spots. When you pass walkers walking 3 abreast within the first 2 miles of the race you know that the honor system just doesn't work. If you're going to attempt to spread out the race, use a seeded corral system to accomplish the task. I've run the Chicago marathon with 4 times as many people that didn't feel nearly as crowded as Lincoln was the entire 13.1 miles.
I was surprised that much of Linclon was run on a sidewalk starting around mile 6. A field of 10,000 running on a sidewalk made for a very crowded event. I was feeling great Sunday and was passing lots of runners. My times/splits are below:
| Location | Race Time | Time of Day | Overall Place | Division Place | Sex Place |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Time | 1:49:36 | 8:59:52 | 1040/7212 | 72/235 | 694/2410 |
| 15K Split | 1:18:10 | 8:28:26 | 1121/7190 | 75/235 | 732/2405 |
| 10K Split | 52:40 | 8:02:57 | 1240/7212 | 79/235 | 791/2410 |
| 5K SPLIT | 27:27 | 7:37:43 | 1697/7206 | 96/235 | 997/2408 |
| ChipStart | 11:48 | 7:10:17 | 2332/7212 | 117/235 | 1186/2410 |
| GunStart | 00:00 | 6:58:29 |
My pace by split was 8:51, 8:29, 8:24 and 8:21. I felt strong the entire race but did tire by having to weave through runners the entire race.
The finish on the 50 yard line of Memorial Stadium was nice. Having a bigger race field than Drake, Lincoln had more spectators along the route. The finish area in the stadium was congested with spectators as well. Post race was another quick clean up and then hit the road for another 3 hour drive back to Kansas City. I got home about an hour later than planned due to storm delays. Plugged in the refrigerator and its working fine.....so far. Still no verdict on the Buckeye data recovery. Garmin is ready to run again. My quads not so much....ready for a post race massage.
Thursday, April 21, 2011
With a Lincoln 1/2 finish on the 50 yard line of Memorial Stadium......
I think I'm going to have to pull out my LSU dri fit gear for this race on May 1st!
dWednesday, April 20, 2011
Monday, March 21, 2011
nyc half
The Comeback Continues
While still not PR race ready, I ran the NYC half marathon Sunday morning just 4 weeks after running my first half marathon of the year in Austin. Less weight, more training miles, and much cooler weather resulted in my knocking almost 18 minutes off my Austin time. That put me at 1:52:24; within 25 seconds of running a 1:51 something. 1:51:xx is the only time that I have yet to run between 1:39 and 2:00 hours. Oh well, this was only my second 1:52:xx time, my first coming way back in 2001 with my 2nd ever half marathon.
The Expo
The expo was held Thursday through Saturday at the Metropolitan Pavillion in lower Manhattan. Prior to traveling, I discovered that mapquest now has (may not be new at all but it was new to me) mass transit directions in addition to walking and driving so I printed out subway routes for every place I planned to visit while in NYC. Subway got me to the expo with no issues.
I received an email earlier in the week that we would receive a bracelet at the expo that needed to be worn at all times until after the race. I think nyrr's were worried about bandits running due to the low volume of runners in the tri state area that got accepted via the lottery process.
The expo looked like all others, actually probably smaller than many. It looked like they were getting ready for press conferences or something so I just picked up my packet and got out asap. I didn't see any power bars at the expo (the one thing I forgot to pack) so I headed over to a Sports Authority across the street and got a power bar and clif shot blocks for the race.
Race Morning
I reviewed my subway directions before heading to bed early Saturday evening. The travel to the start involved a transfer between lines and it seemed easy enough. I got on the N train per the directions and noticed on the stop map in the car that we only had one more stop before the end of the line. Turns out weekend work had the N train stopping at the very next station. So I wind up from starting at the hotel at 45th street on 59th street at the end of the line when I needed to get up to 95th street to the start.
A very nice subway worker was giving directions for the few people around at 5:30 in the morning that needed to get some place. I might add that I was the only person that had slept the night before. Everyone else looked to be headed home from a night out. I was leery about taking the workers advice to head back to 42nd street, take a shuttle to grand central and then catch the 6 train up to 95th street. I got back on the subway (which was still sitting at the end of the line) and waited for it to leave. After a couple of minutes I decided not to wait and to just walk the 35 plus blocks to the start. The directions from the hotel were 3.6 miles so I knew it would be no farther than that. I ran into a few other people making the same walk up 5th avenue so the walk passed quickly.
I got to the start with plenty of time to check my bag. Race morning weather was in the mid 30s so I checked a warm up suit for post race and had gloves, a skull cap and a throw away sweatshirt for the 45 minute wait in the corrals.
After announcing a star studded field that included Ryan Hall and Meb (just Meb) and several other American and international runners we were underway. The race started in central park and ran a loop and a 1/2 through central park. I would say the hills were Huntsville State Park comparable with nothing too steep or too long but definetely hilly. That took us to mile 8 where we exited Central Park on 7th avenue and headed straight down Broadway through Times Square to 42nd street. Race trivia; The NYC half and New Years Eve are the only 2 times of the year that Times Square is closed to traffic. 42nd avenue west took us to the end of Manhattan on West? drive. After a quick right hand turn and loop to the finish we had 3 miles to the finish. Turning right there was a pretty strong headwind and I was glad that you could immediately see the turn. I smiled knowing that I would get a tailwind the 3 miles to the flat finish.
My split times per the NYRR website:
5k: 27:51
10k: 54:55 (27:04)
15k: 1:21:21 (26:26)
20k: 1:47:16 (25:55)
No blow up miles and I started somewhat slow not knowing how hilly the park would be and got gradually faster.
Back to dieting and more miles to get ready for back to back 1/2's in Iowa and Nebraska in 6 weeks.
As far as the elites, Caroline Rotich of Kenya and Mo Farah of Great Britain won the 2011 NYC Half! Americans Kara Goucher and Galen Rupp were third.
While still not PR race ready, I ran the NYC half marathon Sunday morning just 4 weeks after running my first half marathon of the year in Austin. Less weight, more training miles, and much cooler weather resulted in my knocking almost 18 minutes off my Austin time. That put me at 1:52:24; within 25 seconds of running a 1:51 something. 1:51:xx is the only time that I have yet to run between 1:39 and 2:00 hours. Oh well, this was only my second 1:52:xx time, my first coming way back in 2001 with my 2nd ever half marathon.
The Expo
The expo was held Thursday through Saturday at the Metropolitan Pavillion in lower Manhattan. Prior to traveling, I discovered that mapquest now has (may not be new at all but it was new to me) mass transit directions in addition to walking and driving so I printed out subway routes for every place I planned to visit while in NYC. Subway got me to the expo with no issues.
I received an email earlier in the week that we would receive a bracelet at the expo that needed to be worn at all times until after the race. I think nyrr's were worried about bandits running due to the low volume of runners in the tri state area that got accepted via the lottery process.
The expo looked like all others, actually probably smaller than many. It looked like they were getting ready for press conferences or something so I just picked up my packet and got out asap. I didn't see any power bars at the expo (the one thing I forgot to pack) so I headed over to a Sports Authority across the street and got a power bar and clif shot blocks for the race.
Race Morning
I reviewed my subway directions before heading to bed early Saturday evening. The travel to the start involved a transfer between lines and it seemed easy enough. I got on the N train per the directions and noticed on the stop map in the car that we only had one more stop before the end of the line. Turns out weekend work had the N train stopping at the very next station. So I wind up from starting at the hotel at 45th street on 59th street at the end of the line when I needed to get up to 95th street to the start.
A very nice subway worker was giving directions for the few people around at 5:30 in the morning that needed to get some place. I might add that I was the only person that had slept the night before. Everyone else looked to be headed home from a night out. I was leery about taking the workers advice to head back to 42nd street, take a shuttle to grand central and then catch the 6 train up to 95th street. I got back on the subway (which was still sitting at the end of the line) and waited for it to leave. After a couple of minutes I decided not to wait and to just walk the 35 plus blocks to the start. The directions from the hotel were 3.6 miles so I knew it would be no farther than that. I ran into a few other people making the same walk up 5th avenue so the walk passed quickly.
I got to the start with plenty of time to check my bag. Race morning weather was in the mid 30s so I checked a warm up suit for post race and had gloves, a skull cap and a throw away sweatshirt for the 45 minute wait in the corrals.
After announcing a star studded field that included Ryan Hall and Meb (just Meb) and several other American and international runners we were underway. The race started in central park and ran a loop and a 1/2 through central park. I would say the hills were Huntsville State Park comparable with nothing too steep or too long but definetely hilly. That took us to mile 8 where we exited Central Park on 7th avenue and headed straight down Broadway through Times Square to 42nd street. Race trivia; The NYC half and New Years Eve are the only 2 times of the year that Times Square is closed to traffic. 42nd avenue west took us to the end of Manhattan on West? drive. After a quick right hand turn and loop to the finish we had 3 miles to the finish. Turning right there was a pretty strong headwind and I was glad that you could immediately see the turn. I smiled knowing that I would get a tailwind the 3 miles to the flat finish.
My split times per the NYRR website:
5k: 27:51
10k: 54:55 (27:04)
15k: 1:21:21 (26:26)
20k: 1:47:16 (25:55)
No blow up miles and I started somewhat slow not knowing how hilly the park would be and got gradually faster.
Back to dieting and more miles to get ready for back to back 1/2's in Iowa and Nebraska in 6 weeks.
As far as the elites, Caroline Rotich of Kenya and Mo Farah of Great Britain won the 2011 NYC Half! Americans Kara Goucher and Galen Rupp were third.
Tuesday, March 15, 2011
Rodeo Run 10k
This was my 3rd consecutive Rodeo Run. This also made the 2nd Rodeo Run in a row that I was coming off an injury. Last year, I was recovering from a TFL injury when I ran this race.
This race has a nice post race party and a festive atmosphere. The first part of the course runs on the rodeo parade route. There are lots of spectators there that are lined up waiting for the parade to start.
Coming off the Austin 1/2 marathon finish the Sunday prior to this Saturday morning race, I felt much more confident at this distance. I had my race packet mailed to me this year so the challenge was not to lose my bib number and d-chip prior to the race. I managed to find the race packet buried under my kithchen table the night before the race.
The weather for this year's event was warm. I remember wearing a long sleeve running shirt and gloves the year before; no gloves required this year and short sleeves were in order. The race went well; I made my way around the post race party and then headed home.
I'm looking forward to running my 4th consecutive Rodeo Run next year. Hopefully I'll start a new tradition of showing up injury free!
This race has a nice post race party and a festive atmosphere. The first part of the course runs on the rodeo parade route. There are lots of spectators there that are lined up waiting for the parade to start.
Coming off the Austin 1/2 marathon finish the Sunday prior to this Saturday morning race, I felt much more confident at this distance. I had my race packet mailed to me this year so the challenge was not to lose my bib number and d-chip prior to the race. I managed to find the race packet buried under my kithchen table the night before the race.
The weather for this year's event was warm. I remember wearing a long sleeve running shirt and gloves the year before; no gloves required this year and short sleeves were in order. The race went well; I made my way around the post race party and then headed home.
I'm looking forward to running my 4th consecutive Rodeo Run next year. Hopefully I'll start a new tradition of showing up injury free!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
