The Long Run

Alone with music. Monday run done.  Time to start the week and see what's in store.  Mondays can be a new beginning.

Ran with Jenny , Chris H. , Lisa R. , Nicole S. and a guest appearance from Jamie! No racing or pace pushing today, just a chill run.

Easy run with the big group - Kathryn L. , Chris H. , Lisa R. , Nicole S. but most importantly my beautiful wife and running partner Jenny (sorry for the mushy stuff Jenny :-) )

It was weird how my legs felt.  I had been awake pretty much all night, just couldn't seem to get to sleep.  So, when I woke up in the morning my legs did not need anytime to wake up.  It's often a struggle just to keep up with the group during the warm up mile.  So, not such a good thing to get very little sleep but interesting.  Maybe that is why I don't have a sluggish feeling in my legs on many marathons because the night before those I don't get very much sleep.

Warmed up a little bit by myself, then ran with Jenny , and Kathryn L. for a nice relaxed Friday run. Glad the weekend is almost here.

I am going to do a 10K tomorrow.  Komen Race for the Cure 10K.  I did this one two years ago and PR'd.  That was when I was in the midst of marathon training and was running more miles than I had run.  This year I'm running it just to support the cause as well as part of a fundraising team that a friend is running called "Team Eye Site".

So, I may just run it, or maybe run it as a tempo run (haven't done a tempo run in a long time), or maybe I'll race it.  I'm not sure what will happen.  Sometimes you just need to show up and see what happens, those can be the best experiences.

With tomorrow's miles, I'll have a few less than I did last week, so a cut back week which is good.  Then next week, hopefully I can add a few more miles in and start doing some longer runs.

I'm grateful for many good things this week in addition to just the running.  I need to always remember to concentrate on those things and to do my best always.

41:55, 14th Overall

Perfect conditions on a day to support a great cause. My first race since Boston, and first race where not injured in quite some time.

I wouldn't say I had low expectations for this race, it was more like no expectations or even no concept of expectations.  All during May I was running mid 20's for mileage and it was getting worse and worse with the hip area pain.  I kept on taking time off but nothing seemed to work.  But eventually with some exercises that Jenny showed me from an article by coach Jay Johnson and a month of physical therapy I think I'm back to normal and hopefully better than I was before even when not injured.

Before the race I did a 1 mile warm up.  It was a beautiful morning with the sun rising up over Tampa Bay, looking out from Vinoy Park.  While it was still dark the pier was illuminated with pink lighting in honor of breast cancer awareness.

I went out way too fast the first mile but it felt great (6:13),

the other miles were:  6:35, 7:00, 6:48, 6:46, 6:40 with the last bit after mile 6 in 6:01 pace.

Two minutes slower than my PR but a very lifting race.

Running the first mile actually felt like one of the best first miles of a 10K I've run.  But, after the first mile I couldn't quite hold on and needed to readjust and I just focused on keeping it under 7:00, which I did except for the third mile which was up hill.  I got passed by a few people here and there up to about the 4th mile.  There was a woman that passed me that I almost caught up to a few times but eventually she got away from me, finishing about 20 seconds ahead of me to be the overall first female.  There was also a guy that ran up behind me and said "are you Mark?", he said he was in my age group and that I usually beat him (his name was Steve).  He also said he was supposed to be running with his wife but he got a little carried away.  I said I think that today was the day he might get me.  He told me to follow him which I did for a while but he got away from me.

I think I can scratch off the (injured) now.