Rollin' THUNDER

NO Limits Half Marathon

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Location:

Seven Hills,Oh,U.S.A.

Member Since:

Aug 31, 2010

Gender:

Male

Goal Type:

Age Division Winner

Running Accomplishments:

Toenails Lost: 2.5

Qualified for Boston:

  • TOU    9/17/11 3:09:49
  • TOU    9/15/12 3:04:38

13 Marathons: 3:04:38

7 Half Marathons 1:21:11

1 15k 1:02:08

Short-Term Running Goals:

Stop being fat and start running again. I want to turn my short term goal into a habit of running instead of being a crappy seasonal runner.

 

Long-Term Running Goals:

Find time for School, Family, and Running while in Podiatry school.

Beat LA

 

 

Personal:

I've been married since January 2008 to my biggest fan, and best friend. We have 3 kids, Mackson, Kaylin, and Linclon. I am from Utah, but now live in Ohio (since July 2015) for Podiatry School.

My Wife

Click to donate
to Ukraine's Armed Forces
Miles:This week: 0.00 Month: 0.00 Year: 0.00
New Balance Lifetime Miles: 209.00
Race: NO Limits Half Marathon (12.9 Miles) 01:32:48, Place overall: 3, Place in age division: 2
Total Distance
16.00

This race went way better than I could have ever predicted. In January and February I was really training hard, too hard. My knees started getting sore and I had to get some cortisone shots. I then decided to take a little time off from running and play basketball to get a break and let me knees rest. I was planning on a week, maybe two weeks of rest. I got some ribs broken which made breathing painful and running next to impossible. So I ended up taking much more time off than I had anticipated/wanted.

We moved, I got a job that really sucks my running motivation out of me. My training hasn't been there. I went into this race knowing that my training was poor at best, and I might argue that it was down right awful. My Parents and Wife kept talking about my "race", I had to remind them that I was not in shape to race and that this was just going to be a medium distance run for training for UVM on June 13th.

This is a hard course that has about 4.5 miles of trails, and many really steep and long hills. From 1.5 miles to 2.1 miles there is a 245' hill. Then at 3.3 miles to 4.1 miles it goes up another 235'. Its a hard course. But I have found that I get a greater feeling of accomplishment on the tougher courses.

The race started on time, which is always nice, especially since I took some caffeine pills to give me a little extra boost during the race. Jon Heslop and Ben Van Beekum took off at the start. I knew I couldn't keep up with them even if I hadn't missed 1.5-2 months of training. I let them go, but somehow found myself in 3rd place in a race that I wasn't planning on racing at all. Unfortunately that only lasted for about a mile. I was passed by 3 guys before we got to 1.5 miles. When the first one passed me I started to go with him for 2 or 3 seconds, but I caught myself and reminded myself that I was not racing and I didn't want to do something stupid this early on a tough course, so I let him go. Soon after, 2 more guys passed me and I didn't even think of going with them.

We got to the hill at mile 1.5 and I was about 40' behind 3rd place and 20' behind 5th, but I was fine with that. After about .1 miles I noticed they were coming back and I felt like I wasn't working too hard on this really steep hill. It must have been my incredibly well rested legs :) . By the time I reached the top of the hill, I had passed all 3 guys and had about a 30' lead on the 4th place guy. I thought about going hard on the somewhat flat trail for the next 1.1 miles and putting some distance between us. I again had to remind myself that I WAS NOT RACING I was just running, so I used the flat trail to recover from the hill.

At 3.3 miles the 4th place guy was now about 80' behind me, so he had been recovering as well. I started up the hill and quickly felt how out of shape I was. I contemplated walking for a bit, but kept going. I got the the top of the hill, and the 4th place guy had closed the gap a bit and was now only about 40' behind me.

4 miles into the run is where I decided I was no longer just running, but that I was going to race and try to take 3rd overall. I knew the worst of the hills were over and that I could push myself for 9 miles.

For the next 1.4 miles the 4th place guy kept closing the gap I had on him. I couldn't see 5th or 6th, so I didn't worry about them. At about 5.4 miles we got back on trails. I have run on trails very few times (maybe 3 or 4 times in 7 years), but I have liked it every time. I pushed a little harder on the trails, hoping to increase my lead. I looked back and saw that in very little time I had really increased the lead.

Right around mile 6 the trail starts going down hill. It loses about 250' in half a mile. I lengthened my stride and let gravity pull me down. This was the last spot I saw the 4th place guy. I kept pushing and hoping that I was on the right course. There was one point where I had to run around a locked gate (which ended up being the right trail).

Around mile 9 my calfs started cramping up. Nothing major but it was annoying and I thought about stretching them out for a minute. I just changed how I was landing on my feet. I had been landing on the ball of my foot, but changed to landing mid foot and the cramps went away. They only came back once or twice over the next 4 miles.

The last 5 or 6 miles were really  uneventful, just running and following arrows. I started passing 5k runners with about 1 mile to go, that helped pull me in a little faster.

They only awarded the overall winners (but left them in their age divisions) and top 3 of each age division. I was hoping for a 3rd overall ribbon, but I guess a 2nd age division is good too. I ended up about 15 minutes behind 2nd overall and 16 minutes behind 1st overall. I was the first finisher that isn't a sponsored runner, for some reason I am taking a little bit of pride in that.

I also one a $30 gift card in the raffle that my wife and I can use on a date night.

After the award ceremony I ran an additional 3.1 miles to give me 16 total for the day.

 

Weight: 164.00
Comments
From allie on Sun, May 03, 2015 at 12:06:31 from 24.99.46.55

nice job. i definitely know how moving, new job, etc can affect your running life (also, ribs! omg, that is killer). adjusting to a new life in a new area crushed me for ~five months, and i'm only just now getting back into a normal running groove.

way to go out and run hard -- there's always something positive that can come out of racing, even when you don't go into it methodically or feel like you are in 'race shape'.

good luck at UVM.

From RileyCook on Sun, May 03, 2015 at 18:07:29 from 73.52.134.194

Nice race. I haven't run it, but I've run in that area with Ben and Jon several times and it's very hilly and it seems like a difficult course. 3rd place is a great showing!

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