The Long Run

Ran the "I Love Father's Day" 5k with Thomas and Andy.  Andy was going to not race it and at first Thomas said he was going to go out medium effort.  I told him I thought we could win the father/son division.

Warmed up a bit and did a few strides.  There were several other people there that we knew including Alan, their cross country coach who was racing it with his daughter.  There was a last minute route change due to a small bridge being out, so instead of a big loop it was more of a horse shoe shape.  Temperature was warm and humid but the park has lots of trees for shade.

I ran pretty steady and felt reasonably good - it didn't feel like torture but was a solid effort.  Had splits of 6:15, 6:22, and 6:18

Came in right at 19:34, winner was 18:44 and Thomas came in about 20:20 and Andy about 26:00.  Happy I was able to bring down my time a little bit from RAP River Run.

There was a slight mixup with bibs and chips.  The chip numbers attached to the bibs were not the same as the bib numbers and there was no consistent way to tell so they had to sort it out by hand (some matched, some were off by 100, and some off by a random number).

They had pretty good food including tamales and the big blue beach towels instead of t-shirts are nice.  I also won a pair of newton socks in the drawing.

Grateful to have my two boys running with me for father's day , best gift I could ask for!!  (the card and Boston Market gift card they got me were also nice!)

9.37 mi, 1:20:44, 8:37 avg

I started off feeling like I could barly run, I actually stopped and walked twice to try and shake the dead leg feeling and managed an 11:28 for the first mile, next mile was 10:26, and after that was 9:40.  I was running from my house, out to 54 and then right on Starkey Blvd.  I saw a few straggler Striders also running late - Stan, Becky, Corey, and also had a few people beep at me that had just left while I was still on 54.  

Once I got to the turnaround was feeling much better and averaged 7:23 pace for the last 4.37 miles.

It was a bit warm and very humid but the cloud cover and breeze made it not so bad.

7.31 mi, 1:06:30, 9:06 avg

Run in the neighborhood, I think with Joe and Jamie but now I'm not sure because I've waited until July 1st to fill this in.

I do remember in the evening I ate at Fairway Pizza with my brothers Jim and Tim, Tim's wife Kristy, Grace, Alex, Brian, my Mom, Jessica, Aubrey, Sophia, and Jacob, was a lot of fun!  Wished my kids could have made it.

9.15 mi, 1:17:14, 8:27 avg

Ran from my house to Longleaf to say hi to the Striders finishing up their run then headed up Starkey Blvd for some more miles.  I did a few strides as a approached the turn around spot and then got ready to do one fast mile.  I wanted to run sub-6:00.  I started out but then stopped after about 0.25 miles and decided to try again (I was stuck in the 6:10's).  Got going again and it looked good at first, but then pace was slipping away, but I held it at 6:09 and was determined to at least break 6:10 , slowly picked up some more speed and came in at 6:04  (good effort for the heat and humidity and slight lack of sleep).

After a little recovery running, stopped to grab my stashed gatorade.  I walked to the edge of the parking lot and saw a rabbit, looked a few feet over and saw one more rabbit, and then one more just past that one.  Seemed like some sort of reward for stopping and looking around.

Got going again and did last two miles at 7:36 and 7:09 and stayed 7:30ish until back at my house, so 2.26 miles at "MP effort"

6.14 mi, 57:03, 9:17 avg

Another simple run in the neighborhood with no details that I can remember, but I think it was a pretty good run.

7.1 mi, 1:06:07, 9:19 avg

Ran with Joe, Jamie, and Daisy from Longleaf out to Diane's house.  Joe had run from his house, we got going a bit after 6:30.  Was warm and humid but it didn't feel that bad and my legs were feeling pretty good.  We got to Diane's house for her "lemonade" stand and saw a few others there that we chatted with.  Diane ran back with us almost all the way before she turned back.

We were rewarded with a light mist rain on the return trip to cool things off.

I thought about various odds and ends of things that need to be done before tomorrow but made sure not to forget and lose sight of the big picture and the happiness ahead.  The last just over 3 months have gone by quickly.  It seemed like a long way to go but tomorrow is finally the big day.