A Balance, Redefined

Crack of Dawn 8K

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Location:

Vestavia,AL,USA

Member Since:

May 31, 2007

Gender:

Male

Goal Type:

Other

Running Accomplishments:

Marathon Top 10 Finishes: 7 Bridges ('15), Utah Valley ('13), Salt Lake City ('08), Top of Utah ('07), and St. Louis ('04). Ran around the equator (24901.55) in 4,388 days.

Personal Records
Marathon 2:39 (SLC '08)
1/2 Marathon 1:12.30 (Provo River, aided '08)
10K 34:16 (Track, sea level '00)
10K 33:15 (Des 10K, aided '08)
8K 25:32 (Crack of Dawn, aided '13)
5K 16:44 (Track, sea level '00)
5K 16:07 (Running of the Leopards, aided '12)
 

Short-Term Running Goals:

NYC Marathon November 3, 2019 done 

London Marathon October 3, 2021 done

Tokyo Marathon March 3, 2024!!!

And my largest challenge to date, raise $20,000 for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society in honor of my cancer survivorship and in memory of those lost to blood cancer...
DONE! $26,403.70

https://pages.lls.org/tnt/al/london2021/awende

Long-Term Running Goals:

Enjoy being a Masters Runner.

Get under 3 hours one more time...

Personal:

Grew up outside Chicago and joined the blog while I lived in Salt Lake City. Now living outside Birmingham. I am married with two daughters. Wife thinks I'm crazy for doing marathons. And yes I am crazy I'm a scientist for a living...

Click to donate
to Ukraine's Armed Forces
Miles:This week: 0.00 Month: 0.00 Year: 331.25
RM 090416 Lifetime Miles: 136.06
Saucony Type A Lifetime Miles: 200.18
Nike Vaporfly Pink Lifetime Miles: 122.22
Saucony Ride #37 - Black Lifetime Miles: 56.50
Saucony Ride #38 - Neon Lifetime Miles: 53.50
Saucony Ride #39 - Grey Lifetime Miles: 59.50
Brooks Launch #38 - Grey Lifetime Miles: 65.25
Brooks Launch #39 - White Lifetime Miles: 57.50
Brooks Launch #40 - Blue Lifetime Miles: 54.00
Easy MilesMarathon Pace MilesThreshold MilesVO2 Max MilesTrainer 1 MilesTrainer 2 MilesRacer MilesTotal Distance
44.500.000.000.000.000.000.0044.50
RM 090416 Miles: 0.66Saucony Rides #11 Miles: 7.50Saucony Rides #10 Miles: 7.00Brooks Launch #4 Miles: 10.00Brooks Launch #5 Miles: 11.00Saucony Fastwitch Miles: 11.00
Night Sleep Time: 40.00Nap Time: 0.00Total Sleep Time: 40.00Weight: 0.00
Easy MilesMarathon Pace MilesThreshold MilesVO2 Max MilesTrainer 1 MilesTrainer 2 MilesRacer MilesTotal Distance
7.500.000.000.000.000.000.007.50

PM: Solo Suicide Loop. It was another good day. Busy as always. Did not get enough work done. But it is a holiday weekend... I did get some done and am back in lab now just setting up for the week. 

Avg. 8:45 HR 133

RM 090416 Miles: 0.01Saucony Rides #11 Miles: 7.50
Night Sleep Time: 8.00Nap Time: 0.00Total Sleep Time: 8.00Weight: 0.00
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Easy MilesMarathon Pace MilesThreshold MilesVO2 Max MilesTrainer 1 MilesTrainer 2 MilesRacer MilesTotal Distance
5.000.000.000.000.000.000.005.00

Happy Memorial Day and thank you to all the Vets out there.

Today was a good day. A bit of everything. Slept in and then my daughter came to work with me. She had been asking for awhile. She stayed a little over an hour and then went home to have fun with mommy. Ended up working most of the day but left early for a hike and then a picnic with the neighbors. After that did a SugarHouse loop with John.

Avg. 8:37 HR 135

Saucony Rides #10 Miles: 7.00
Night Sleep Time: 7.00Nap Time: 0.00Total Sleep Time: 7.00Weight: 0.00
Comments(2)
Easy MilesMarathon Pace MilesThreshold MilesVO2 Max MilesTrainer 1 MilesTrainer 2 MilesRacer MilesTotal Distance
5.000.000.000.000.000.000.005.00

AM: In early so up before 5am. Only time for the direct commute in.

Mi 2.5 Avg. 10:48 HR 127

PM: Commute back, busy week.

Mi 2.5 Avg. 6:25 HR 153

RM 090416 Miles: 0.01Brooks Launch #4 Miles: 5.00
Night Sleep Time: 5.00Nap Time: 0.00Total Sleep Time: 5.00Weight: 0.00
Comments(4)
Easy MilesMarathon Pace MilesThreshold MilesVO2 Max MilesTrainer 1 MilesTrainer 2 MilesRacer MilesTotal Distance
0.000.000.000.000.000.000.000.00

Work day goose egg... But at least I was done working before midnight.

Night Sleep Time: 6.00Nap Time: 0.00Total Sleep Time: 6.00Weight: 0.00
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Easy MilesMarathon Pace MilesThreshold MilesVO2 Max MilesTrainer 1 MilesTrainer 2 MilesRacer MilesTotal Distance
11.000.000.000.000.000.000.0011.00

AM: Commute run in. Likely the last early experiment day in Utah...

Mi 2.5 Avg. 10:02 HR 136

PM1: Commute run home.

Mi 2.5 Avg. 7:46 HR 131

PM2: SugarHouse loop with John

Mi 6 Avg. 8:26 HR 138

RM 090416 Miles: 0.62Brooks Launch #5 Miles: 11.00
Night Sleep Time: 5.00Nap Time: 0.00Total Sleep Time: 5.00Weight: 0.00
Add Comment
Easy MilesMarathon Pace MilesThreshold MilesVO2 Max MilesTrainer 1 MilesTrainer 2 MilesRacer MilesTotal Distance
5.000.000.000.000.000.000.005.00

AM: Commute run into work.

Mi 2.5 Avg. 9:41 HR 147

PM: Commute run home from work.Wanted to see family for a few minutes before a lab farewell dinner at the Himalayan Kitchen.

Mi 2.5 Avg. 7:55 HR 128

RM 090416 Miles: 0.01Brooks Launch #4 Miles: 5.00
Night Sleep Time: 6.00Nap Time: 0.00Total Sleep Time: 6.00Weight: 0.00
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Race: Crack of Dawn 8K (4.91 Miles) 00:25:31, Place overall: 2
Easy MilesMarathon Pace MilesThreshold MilesVO2 Max MilesTrainer 1 MilesTrainer 2 MilesRacer MilesTotal Distance
11.000.000.000.000.000.000.0011.00

This has been a crazy and tough year, mostly because of the changes at work/life. Definitely not because of hard track work or tough tempo runs... In fact such a large percentage of my runs have been between 8 and 10 minute pace I was starting to get some serious doubts that I could even break 3 hours at UVM. The good news is even without the structured workouts this year today turned into a huge confidence boost for next Saturday.

 

The last time I ran an official “8K” was in 2004! When I ran a 28:49. My PR was in 2000 running at the Washington University Invite as a Knox Alumni and that was a 27:24 on the golf course in Forest Park. So I really didn’t know what to expect although with the downhill I was hoping to break the PR but over a decade later and a bit removed from collegiate running :) I really did not have a gauge for the day.

 

As far as this downhill goes, I’ve run a number of times down Emigration and probably 100 times down City Creek and though I’d driven up Mill Creek a bunch of times this was my first time running the road there. It is a screamer. Because of another crazy week at work my plan was to just use this run as a workout. I know that is a bit of a discrepancy with the goal of a PR above but downhill… Also, I ended up staying up preparing for a garage sale until 1am the night before. Then got up at 4:30am to head to the start. Got to number pick-up right at 5am and then did the unthinkable. I ran to the start.

 

Now partly because of my sleep deprived state and partly because I wasn’t paying attention I took a wrong turn up. I turned at the light right by the Olympus shopping center to head up. Luckily I figured this out and got back on course by cutting through the neighborhood. This did add on an extra mile + so my warm-up was just over a 10K. The missed turn really got my heart pumping and I pushed the pace for the warm-up more than I should have but ended up getting to the start with only 5 minutes to spare so things workout for a reason. Here’s the image of that portion.

  

Now at the start I saw Allie and James. It was good to talk to them briefly. I really feel so disconnected from the blog lately as I have really barely had time to post much less look in on people. I apologize for that. I did notice a few guys that looked like they would work me but just decided to go for it. Because of the blood pumping from the warm-up I started quick. I was in the lead for about half mile and then Tim Stringfellow passed me. I did not know who he was but he looked strong and I figured that was the end of it. I stuck like glue to him the rest of the time in the canyon he had about 5-10 seconds on me at any time. Then as we passed the booth at the mouth of the canyon I caught him AND pulled ahead. I thought I had it at that point but out of know where he came back and I was broken. He buried me and put a 22 second gap on me in the last half-mile or so. Ouch! I might as well have been walking at that point. I’m just very happy he was there because he pulled me to a nearly 2 minute (aided) PR!!! Final time was 25:32 on the Garmin, but I’ll take the 25:29.52 the chip gave me! Image and splits below.

Here are the splits for if the image is removed later...
5:03!!!
5:07
5:16
5:07
4:59 (5:29 pace)

 

RM 090416 Miles: 0.01Saucony Fastwitch Miles: 11.00
Night Sleep Time: 3.00Nap Time: 0.00Total Sleep Time: 3.00Weight: 0.00
Comments(4)
Easy MilesMarathon Pace MilesThreshold MilesVO2 Max MilesTrainer 1 MilesTrainer 2 MilesRacer MilesTotal Distance
44.500.000.000.000.000.000.0044.50
RM 090416 Miles: 0.66Saucony Rides #11 Miles: 7.50Saucony Rides #10 Miles: 7.00Brooks Launch #4 Miles: 10.00Brooks Launch #5 Miles: 11.00Saucony Fastwitch Miles: 11.00
Night Sleep Time: 40.00Nap Time: 0.00Total Sleep Time: 40.00Weight: 0.00
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