17 posts tagged “racing”
Lets see where to start...
1. I've been reading as usual. I finished reading "I am Legend" Let me tell you the book and the movie are alike in title only. Book is a little bit of a let down. It's a very short story with little happening. I'm reading "Honeymoon" by Paterson right now, I'll keep you posted on how it is. (I'm only half done)
2. We had a flood here last weekend. I was stuck in my subdivision all weekend. I was very lucky to have had no damage to my house so I'm not complaining. I've never seen so much water.
3. My race is this weekend. The race I put on. Due to some last minute drop outs I will be running on my wife's relay team. It should be interesting to see the race from the runners veiw and it will be a great chance for me to improve some little things to make next years race even better. www.hawthornhalfdayrelay.com
Best wishes everyone.
Well....I didn't run the marathon. (which is actually tomorrow) My recent illness made me decide that a marathon would be to much. In turn I ran the Sam Costa Half Marathon in Indianapolis this morning. It was about 30 degrees at the start and windy (someday Spring may get here). However the feild of about 400 was pretty competitive so even though I felt I wasn't 100% I would have a great chance to run a respectable time.
The race went out slow hitting the mile mark in 5:48 then speeding up. Tom (one of my training partners) and I dialed it in at 5:35 pace from there and quickly found ourselves in 3rd and 4th by the 3 mile mark (17:03). At the five mile mark we had pulled our gloves off and tucked them in the back of our shorts. Shortly there after a coach of a couple of the kids in the race offered to take our gloves for us if we wanted him to...which was very nice but in race mode I didn't realize what he had ask me until 300-400 meters after we had passed him. (5 mile - 27:52) By the time we hit nine I was hurting, I just didn't have the strength that I usually have when I'm healthy and I couldn't stay with Tom and I dropped to about 5:48 per mile hitting the 10 mile in 56:52. The last 5K was a battle, just after 11 this college kid passed me (he passed Tom and ended up in 3rd) but I held strong to my 5:48 pace until the finish. The finish was a 400 climb back to the church where you started the race...only it was also into the wind. The labored breathing caused me to start coughing. While I was coughing up the hill I was passed by 3 people (all who finished less than 10 seconds in front of me) and 2 of the people who passed me were also in my age group. So I dropped from 5th to 8th and from 1st to 3rd in my age group. The final time was 1:14:49.
I was pleased with my race in a lot of ways. Having the 3 people pass me at the end the way they did hurt my pride alot but given my recent sickness I felt good about getting out and running a pretty solid time on a tough rolling course. My buddy Tom won the Masters Division with a final time of 1:13:54 (4th overall), I finished 8th, Vaughn ran 1:17:40 (PR) for 10th place overall, and our buddy Tim ran 1:18:54 to finish 15th overall. So it was a very good day all around. I'm hoping to get into some races in the near future and there is a good chance I'll be running the Madison (WI) Marathon in May so the training wasn't a waste.
Best wishes everyone and I'll keep you posted.
And Jordan broke 4:00 what a race. Watch his kick at the end...He's the light blue and white jersey (the same as the rabbit is wearing.) Great race check it out.
Week 5 is a week that has been a real mess. The weather cut short a couple of days. Sunday I only went 15 miles as I recovered from the 15K race that I ran on Saturday. So Week 5 total was 64 miles. That puts me at 360 miles after 5 weeks. So that gives me 6 weeks left before I taper....
Ok here's the 411 on the other things. One of the guys I train with ran a 2:23.59 this morning. It's not a PR but he won the race by almost 10 minutes and had to run the entire race by himself. He's scary good.
Jordan Fife another ISU alumni just missed the 4:00 barrier in the mile Friday night by running 4:00.13 at the IU relays. There is a small clip of the finish on You Tube below. The footage is bad but it give you a good look at how fast the kid is running and how great the crowd was. Here's the kicker...the kid only ran 4:30 as a senior in high school 5 years ago. Now he's on the brink of becoming one of only 150 or so humans to EVER break 4:00
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BJRh3MPHzFg
My race on Saturday was...OK. I hadn't raced in 5 months and needed to get out and race. However there had been 8 inches of snow there the day before the race. It was snowy and the course and the very hilly. Either way I got 3rd with a 55:08 (17:40 per 5K) not my best persformance but it was a great workout and I needed to get out and race. Weather this week looks better this week so I'm looking to get 80 in this week. Go Giants...Beat the Patriots
Ah yeah Wisconsin is COLD!!! Sunday it was 14 degrees 40 mph wid gusts and of course it snowed 8 inchs. Seeing the inlaws was fun (I like my in-laws...scary hun?) Running was tough all week but I made it to and from and get my miles in so I guess that's all that matters. The plan as of right now (big race wise) is the ORRRC Marathon on the 29th of March. The race is in Xenia, Ohio and it is a flat course. I ran it 2 years ago and thought I had the race won at 21 miles...23-26 were...well we'll say, NOT REAL GOOD. The big reason for my return is that my wife is trying to get her first marathon under her belt and this race is small and competitve (well organized) so she can race hard but not be completely over her head (like in Chicago or something). That way she can run a bigger marathon in the fall. As for me I've ran so much crap in my life that I could care less if there is 200 or 40,000 people their, but I can't blame her. Stay safe on New Years everyone.
Alas I fear winter is here. Todays workout (which sucked) was about 31-32 degrees and of course turned into rain (sleet) Lilo is recovered...like I said she loves the cold. I took her for 4 the other night and she handled it well. I never take her over 5.
Trying to think summer, I'm working on the details for my race next June. Last year was the second year and we had a good growth in numbers. This has given me the chance to add some new "Cool" things for 2008. Here's the back ground first. A couple years back I had the idea to have a relay race that didn't require you to have to be drug across 200 miles. While I love relay races, I'm a outgoing person who likes talking to people. So I thought what if there was a race that allowed teams to run a relay while staying in one place and hanging out? So my idea was born. I had a few people ask me the question "Can I run by myself, I'd really like to do a marathon but the time limits scare me?" So I said what the heck we'll add an individual division and call it the superman division. Ow by the way this is a 12 hour race! Well the superman (woman) division has become popular and we had 13 states represented last year. So this week I confirmed a host hotel that would give our runners a great discount. With so many people traveling in it seemed important to have. This year we will likely be adding a pasta dinner at the Friday night packet pick up and coaches meeting. (Money to benefit Newspapers in Education.) I'm still hoping to get The Element to come set up a both and sell running gear but they are still not on board. We will have a couple people out at the race for messages, that will be new this year. Some of this isn't even posted on the website yet since everything isn't confirmed but will be soon. It's really different seeing a race from the directors point of view. I think everyone should work at one race in their life...I know I really see the care that goes into races that I didn't see before. I know how hard it must have been at Chicago trying to get 30,000 runners 2 and 3 cups of water at every mile...I can't imagine trying to get 90,000 cups filled at every water station.
Try to stay warm everyone and stay on those 7 pounds.
Ow check out my race at www.hawthornhalfdayrelay.com
Never say that. We survived the Semi-State and made the state finals... As I stated before we were running without our #3 runner. Ok bad news for the Semi-State but hey that's no big deal, Right? How about 50 meters into the race our #1 runner (18:46 PR) gets tripped. Our number 2 runner falls over her and the rest of the team has to come to a complete stop behind them. Amy went down so hard it ripped her number right off the front of her jersey. The race did not have a recall starter so they didn't call it back. At the 400 meter mark we held 143-150 (out of 152 runners). Amy got up and came all the way back to finish 10th (she got up to 3rd but was to tired to hold it). Our 3-4-5 runner ran the races of their live and really saved the day. They came back to finish 36-41-47. As a coach seeing that happen at the Semi-State after everything these girls have worked for, it was heartbreaking to think they might not be running this week. In the end we got 5th and we were only 29 points out of 3rd (which is where we predicted to finish). That behind us I want your help. Saturday is the State finals (ironically we host the state finals) and the race is at 1:00. We have a team breakfast and then watch a inspirational movie before taking the bus to the race (the bus is only because it's easier in the crowd, the course is not at the high school). So I'm asking for movie suggestions. Remember that these are high school kids and we try to keep it PG (Without Limits is not PG, we've been through that before). With that limitation let me know what you think.
I keep waiting for things to slow down. Hopefully that will happen after next week. Tomorrow is the Semi-State here in Indiana and we are looking to make another trip to the state finals. The girls are finally tapering this week, but we are likely going to be short a runner for tomorrows race. We are losing a 20:05 (5K) girl for this weekend but it is in hopes that she will be able to return to the line up for next week. With 8 girls that can break 21:00 we are still capable of getting out and it's really not worth risking a serious injury for. So our hopes have to be that the taper works and the whole team runs well. Hope everyone is enjoying the fall weather. I'll be getting back to doing some racing of my own in a couple weeks (The workouts are going well) so I'll keep you posted.
The Culver Acadmey Invite was yesterday. WOW, what a meet. The Campus is amazing. It's a private school in Northern Indiana that sets on a lake. It makes most college campuses look bad. Anyway in the girls race 4 or the top 6 teams in the Midwest (2 from Indiana, 2 traveled in for the race). Also in the Indiana rankings the #1-2-3-4-6-8-12-1516-18 and then us at 25th ranked teams in the state were there. (To go with the 4-5 teams that made the trip from the states in the midwest) We had a great day in a lot of ways, but our #3 struggled and ended up #7 and that was the difference between 8th and 12th. Our #1 is still moving in the right direction (former 10:56 3200m runner who has had a lot of problems) she ran 19:13 (we run 5K in Indiana). Our number 2 and 3 ran 19:41 and 20:10. (Katie should have been right around 20:00 but with her struggling we had #4 & 5 finishers in 21:03 and 21:10. It was a good day though with out #8 and 9 runners (in the open race) coming up with finishes under 22:03. Jordan got cleared and will be back racing again next weekend which gives us another sub-21:00 runner in our varisty. The race was amazing 18:03 won the girls race but 14:47 won the boys race. It was an amzing race on the boys side, 3 guys went out together. First was the 14:47, second was 14:56 and the other guy died and finished 15:38 (for 5th). Its great to see the young tallent in the US thats coming. Enjoy the fall everyone.
Wow...what a weekend. I just returned from my 72 hour whirlwind weekend that covered over 1300 miles (of driving) 207 miles (of running) and 3 states. My team ran the Ragnar Relay from La Crosse WI to St Paul MN. While 95 of the 103 teams were 12 person relays, we were one of the 8, 6 person teams. We finished 2nd overall and won the 6 person division by almost 3 hours. We covered the 207 (+) miles in 22:06:54 about 6:24 per mile as a team. My share of the race was the 40 miles of grunt work. My 15.1 mile second leg included 3 streches of 1 to 2 miles of up hill running ranging from 400 ft of climb to almost 600 ft of elevation climb. I did manage to hold about 6:25 pace on that leg and was able to stay under 6:30 pace for all my miles. My legs were 12.8 miles (6:00 pace), 15.1 miles (6:25 pace), then 12.2 miles (6:48 pace). The last leg was the worst when you've traveled all night in a van, had no real food (power bars and Gu's only do so much over a 24 hour peroid) and having run 28 miles already at that point. The real racing was done by my team mates. I took the longest leg and the hills so they could race (seems less noble while you're running up a 600 ft elevation climb at 2:00am). We battled early with the team that would win the overall 12 person team. This was mostly on the sholders of Scot Mullins and Aarron Hoover who continue to amaze me every time I see them race. Scot opened his race with a 16 mile leg (followed by 9.5 and 8.5 mile legs) by running 5:30 per mile. Aarron followed that with a 12 mile leg running 5:37 per mile. That kept us in the overall lead through most of the second round of legs. In the end we were having to run twice as far as the guys on the 12 person teams and the runners for the Cross Trainers pulled away and beat us by 40 (+) minutes. They were a great bunch of guys. I wish we could have stayed closer to the in the end so we could have gotten to talk to them more at the exchange zones. The race itself was a blast. The best part of this type of race is that because of the staggered start time, you have runners of all levels and types on the course. Running the pace we were running, we got to work our way throught these teams and meet them at the various exchange points. Most of the teams would find out we were a 6 person team and have questions about running 2 legs at a time and how we traveled etc. We got to meet a lot of fun people and the teams were so supportive of each other in a way that you will only see in this type of event. We met one team that had met on the internet, we met teams that ran for various causes, and met teams that were there just for the party. All the major exchange zones were just that, 500+ of the 1000+ runners hungout, cheered, and just enjoyed the night. The race staff was great, the course was great (even though most of our race was at night). Congrats to everyone who finished and especially those who toughed out the 6 person division. The pictue below is of our team front row (L to R) Scot, Tom Dever, Tim Fears, second row Aarron, Meself, and Mike Urban. This photo was of course before we started, we didn't look nearly this good 207 miles later. http://www.ragnarrelay.com/greatriver/results07.php You can check out the results.
