Kerry's Running Blog

Got out the door a few minutes earlier than usual. Temperatures very comfortable with clear skies. I don't think there was even a  hint of light on the eastern horizon as I sat on the front step and put my shoes on. The quarter moon was high in the sky and the stars were very bright. Yesterday I felt a little bit of soreness in my left ankle, but this morning everything felt fine. The first half mile of my warmup was very slow, but after that I began to settle into a nice rhythm. My legs felt great and the miles just passed by almost unnoticed. I pushed it a little harder the last couple of miles, but was happy that I was feeling so good at the end. I'll probably mix things up a bit before the half marathon on Saturday.

It doesn't look like there's any chance of getting in to Hobble Creek. I stopped in at Runner's Corner on Saturday and the girl at the counter said that the waiting list already had 200 names on it. Dang! I'm sure there'll be a rush on it next year. Maybe they'll have to start using a lottery soon.

I decided to try and sleep in this morning, at least until my alarm went off, so I was a little late getting out the door. Unlike yesterday morning, I noticed that the northeast horizon was already starting to get light, perhaps due to the fact that there was a little less moonlight this morning and the moon was a little higher in the sky. Sitting on the front step putting my shoes on, I was happy to see Betelgeuse just clearing Mount Mahogany. Orion was on his side just as if he'd been sleeping on top of the mountain. For me, it's a sign that the changing of first leaves is not that far away (sometimes we've seen the changing colors while waiting for the start of the Provo River Half which is held the second Saturday of August).

Fairly ordinary run this morning under clear skies and temperatures in the upper 60's. I felt a few extra momentary aches and pains, probably from having practiced soccer with my daughter yesterday evening. This morning I passed 22 people including Lloyd N, Doug S and Richard L (yesterday I only passed 14, mostly going in the opposite direction).

I had to laugh at an article I read in the sports section of the Deseret Morning News yesterday. It was talking about Josh McAdams, the BYU runner who recently won the 3000 meter steeplechase at the USA Championships, followed by a win at the Pan American Games in Brazil. The thing that struck me as funny as how he was described as being so short and stocky that teammates and others referred to him as "The Hobbit", looking more like a wrestler at 5'9" and 150 lbs -- which just so happens to be my exact height and weight! I had to tell my wife about that one as she and my mother-in-law rib me a bit about being too skinny. I guess it's all relative. The current US mile record holder for the 55 to 59 age group is my height and only weighs 122 pounds. 

I felt like I needed a physical and mental break this morning so I slept in an extra half hour and just ran easy for three miles. I felt pretty rested when I got up even though I woke up fifteen minutes before the alarm went off and I actually got to sleep about forty-five minutes later than usual. I hadn't really planned to taper much (if at all) for the Provo River Half this Saturday, but I'm just feeling like the rest and change of pace will do me good.

Light workout prior to tomorrow's race. I felt some spring in my legs this morning, which was encouraging, but I also noticed some soreness in my right hip and quad when I sped up the last mile. It must be a result of practicing soccer with my daughter. It'll be interesting to see how it goes tomorrow. Most of all I don't want to come away with an injury.

The official results have been posted and I was happy to find that I'm now classified with my correct gender. Instead of placing in first in the female 55 to 59 (and possibly being a contender for the Athena award as well :), I actually placed fifth in the male 55 to 59. I'm reasonably sure my splits were:

1	6:53
2	6:53
3	6:42
4	7:02
5	7:06
6	7:25
7	7:46
8	7:19
9	7:18
10	7:20
11	7:33
12	7:25
13	7:41
.1	6:34 pace

When I showed up early Saturday morning to pick up my bib, the guy looked a bit puzzled and said that he thought that was a female number. So I went over there and sure enough they had it. I asked one of the volunteers about getting changed to a male {insert joke here} and he said he could take care of it. A few minutes later I had a new number and was apparently considered to be male for all practical purposes.

The race itself went well. My heart rate monitor wasn't working so I ran what I thought was an aggressive but sustainable pace. I didn't start out with any body I knew, but I soon was running about the same pace as several others as one minute they'd be a couple of steps ahead and another minute, I'd be slightly ahead. I talked to the girl that was running the closest to my pace and she was targeting a 1:30 finish. The guys just behind me were targeting a sub-1:35. I told them I wanted to beat last year's time of 1:37. After about five miles they slowly began to pull away, either because I started to slow down a bit or they were thinking they needed to speed up because they were only pace to run 1:37.

I thought about taking an eGel at the aid station just before heading up the hill, but I wasn't feeling just a little bit of stomach discomfort. I took a water and headed up the hill. For a few minutes I felt like I was plodding along, but then I started feeling energetic and actually enjoyed the climb. I was trading places with Wayne at that point and Greg was just ahead of me at the turnaround.

Most of the rest of the race I really felt quite strong. The miles seemed to go by quickly and there wasn't any time that I felt overly tired (that might have been an indication that my daily eight miles runs had built up my endurance or that I wasn't pushing myself hard enough). By the end I didn't feel like I could run any faster, but I definitely could have run further. By the official clock I took off about two minutes from last year, but by my watch it was closer to one minute. I didn't hear a gun or any indication that the race had begun except that people started moving.

When I checked results after the race, it showed me back in the 55-59 female division. I emailed Curt to explain the problem, but I got a notification that email address on the trailrun web site wasn't valid. They apparently got it figured out, because the posted results are correct. I guess I'm back to just being a hobbit.