overtaking haynes

am 5.5, pm 1.6 miles on dirt road. raced my two younger brothers. Because i beat them both by about 1:30 last week I gave the 13 year old 1 minute and the 24yr old 1 minute 10 sec. i wanted to make sure i won easily and i did :) 

 I ran 10:22 or maybe 10:27, i was trying to keep track of their times. Next time i'm going to give them 1:25. we were all faster this week. I think this is going to be a season long racing series. next week will be interesting. it should come down to the last tenth of a mile.
 

had to stay at work later than i wanted to. ended up finishing the run in the dark. saw about 10 deer, 1 rabbit, and 3 bats! the first bat sighting of the year. not cool! calves felt incredibly tight, especially the right one. i need to force myself to stretch tonight. 

pm run up to end of john read rd and then did 1.6 down dirt road by myself. 

1hr 27 min trail run at aspetuck. it's strange how my calves don't feel tight when i trail run only on the road. oh well. one of the many reasons i like trail running more than road running. 

so i'm not going to call this a race report even though i paid $40 today. i guess i was hopeful that i wouldn't be pathetic and would be able to run close to 1:25. i was positive i wouldn't run 1:24 on this course like i did in '05 because there is a 250ft climb starting at mile 8 or so and my mileage has been non existent. i had been good with 5 mile temp runs. unfortunately that was about all i had in me! 

 at beginning of race i said hi to this 50yr old guy that lives on my road and who is faster than me. i hoped to not completely embarrass myself...

 the course started out pretty flat and the leaders didn't really take off. a bunch of kenyan looking runners vying for the $500 first place prize. i came through the first mile in 5:58 purposely slowing down after i saw the 1/2 mile split. one annoying thing was that every mile was 1.02 miles on my gps watch. i came through the 2 mile mark in 12:16 and still had no idea what lay in store. the next mile was similar. i noticed by mile four that i was down to about 6:25-6:30 pace....not good. came through the 5 mile in 31:37. not bad but that was pretty much it for me. i started hitting 6:52's for the next couple miles and then at mile 8 i was just done. i was a good sport about it as the 100's of people of all shapes and sizes and genders started passing me while i walked at times. the worst 1/2 marathon finish of my life by 6 minutes in 1:34 and change. my last mile was literally 11 mins on a downhill.

 lesson learned. if you have doubts, then you already know they're true. i will not be running many trail races this year because i am a long way off from being in shape to race more than a 10k.

 sorry you won't be beating me at the trail race this weekend haynes :)

 if you beat my time from last year you win though. i guess i need to decide whether i want to run 2 ultras a year or be able to run more consistently. my right leg is still a little strained from trying to run the weekend after the race over a month ago now.

am run, felt really tight and slow. 

4.7am and 3.8 mile hike pm

7 mile trail run pm

7.25 mile am trail run at terre haute, 5.2 mile hike at huntington, did just enough to beat brothers down and back whortleberry when i got back, 1.6 miles

ran in norwalk to cranbury park and back. very rainy and some dude who was also running disgustedly told me i needed more layers because it was too cold and raining too hard. i don't understand why people need to say there opinion about something like that. why can't i wear shorts and a t-shirt when i want? 

i think my montrails are pretty much done. they're still comfortable but i can tell they should only be used for hiking now. ran 5.3 at aspetuck with my younger brother. he could be a pretty good runner. already at 13 he doesn't hold me up on easy runs. he does have a tendency to trip though on the trails. decided to run when i got back 25 mins later to hit 10. ran on the old limekiln trails where i used to run all the time in h.s. not quite as good anymore since the housing development wiped out 160 acres but was still ok. i can be sure no one else will be there. 

 ate like a pig today.
 

1hr 44 min trail run at terre haute. got a loop that is now 8.75 miles long. very tiring but awesome. there were some sketchy dead animal smells at certain places along the trail along with the sound of rustling leaves. saw no one as usual. 

1hr 11 min trail run at huntington. found a new 2+ mile awesome mtn biker made trail that is now my favorite place to run. very twisty and my ankle hurt until i tightened up my shoes. 

5.5 mile am run, 2.8 mile pm hike. 

gps battery died so guessing about 6 miles. not less at least. ran at huntington

am run. was planning to do another 5.5 after work but ended up having to stay 2.5hrs late. 

1hr 17 min trail run. had to leave to go to a graduation at 9:30 or would have run longer. got to do a 5 mile hike behind bethel industrial park after. there was some archery competition that was going to happen the next day. there were all these animal targets which was neat. 

3hr 20 min hike up ramapo torne at bear mtn park in NY. need to stretch out my hip and it band!

4.3 miles am

 6.7 miles pm (ran down john read rd in the rain and on the way back got charged by a mean looking goose). there's a farm there and i guess he was protecting his pals. if i had pepper spray i would have zapped him but i gave it away. you run enough and the animals will get you!

am run. explored a trail i hadn't been on off the dirt road that goes 1.2 miles on a river bank. pretty nice and not too overgrown.

went for a hike at the bethel reservoir. On the way back i went on this person's driveway because it was easier and it was awkward that in the 1 minute i was on the driveway, the person drove up that driveway. what could i do but wave?

 

am 4.64 miles to and around bethel reservoir. saw a couple dogs and then the person who's driveway i walked down yesterday with his two husky dogs. what are the chances of that? 

 pm run at huntington. lots of mtn bikers out.
 

1hr 38 min trail run at huntington. 

1hr 30 min trail run at huntington. very hot today! still fun but i should probably start bringing water. local 10k trail race tomorrow, not expecting much.

I probably wouldn't have done this race if it didn't happen to be only 35 mins from where i live and have huge hype. you have to sign up the day it's open and there were 955 finishers which is absurd for a trail race! i wanted to see what all the hype was about. 

 i got to the race and there were already hundreds of cars, a bagpipe player and people everywhere! the race bibs were cool and actually had your first name on it. had it been last year i would have been aiming for a top ten finish but because of my training/perceived weakness i just wanted to have a good time and not embarrass myself. it was about 80 even at 9am in the morning.

 i saw a familiar face, a guy who has beaten me in a half marathon trail race (passed me in the last 5 miles) and i crushed him at a longer more rugged race last year. i expected to be crushed today and he did beat me.

 anyways, i lined up at the start in the front row. not many people seemed all that intimidating which was good. i found myself surprisingly in the top 10 across the large field and into the woods. it's always cool when the leaders are right there. the first half mile was about 5:40 pace which i knew was too fast. after about a mile we crossed an almost waste deep river which was pretty exciting and i started to settle in. i was passed at mile 2 or so by the guy i knew but he never got too far away. after about a half mile called the mud flats which were ridiculously muddy there was this huge sand hill with another bagpipe player which i was told i was in 10th place. there was a scrawny 17 yr old who for 1 sec overtook me but i shot by him once the hill was over. i put some distance on him but another guy came behind me and i could feel his breathing. i was pushing the whole time and i thought i would die because i had no confidence. i was passed after about a half mile and i stayed with him and he walked a few steps every once in a while on the hills and i caught up to him and passed him. we traded for a while and i had the lead on a long downhill which i knew he wouldn't pass me on. when it flattened out he passed me and i was sure he would surge away from me but i was able to hold on only about 5 sec back to the last field with about 0.5 miles to go. There was a tall grassy section and a bunch of people gathered and i thought  to myself i'm going to finish 10th, that's pretty awesome, i can't pass this guy. but the crowd of spectators were at the final water crossing! this crossing was also waist deep and the guy fell in and lost his footing. i saw him fall to his neck and i went around him on his right and surged ahead not looking back. i was sure the finish line was feet away! i'm going to win. much to my chagrin it was not and i had to go about a 1/4 mile uphill across the field beyond the original starting line. i had used up all my adrenaline and speed in the surge through the river and up the bank about a 100 feet. i was sure i was doomed, but i guess i had opened enough of a gap to hold on. it was pretty exciting and winning duels like that are always extremely rewarding!

i really needed this to feel good about running again.

3.4 mile hike after


 

trail run at centennial watershed starting on the easton side. beautiful river run. wish my legs had more in them so i could have run farther. 

am run up john read rd and back and added on whortleberry. wish i got to run in the evening also but had class. legs feeling a bit better but slow still. 

6.6 miles am, paced brother down our race course to get a PR. he kind of died coming back so only about .6 miles was tempo for me.

explored some more trails in town and found a nice 2.6 mile hiking loop after.