The Long Run

Ran with Dixie in the hilly neighborhood.  Good morning for running, easy pace most of the way with some pickups on the hills then 4 hill sprints up the church driveway on the way back home.

Average pace: 8:12

Did my upper body "better than nothing" workout after the run.

Ran 6.75 miles with Jenny, then almost 3 more on my own.  Good run.

Average pace: 8:25

Ran with Jenny this morning.   Another cool and wonderful morning for running.  Picked up Jamie along the way, then did 4 miles at Jenny's planned marathon pace (8:15), then another 2 easy.  I finished up with one more mile on my own.

Average pace: 8:25

Chilly morning (for Florida at least, somewhere in the 50's).  Ran with Jenny for about 5 miles.  While we were running, we saw an Armadillo right next to the sidewalk, it turned one way and then the other and then ran right into Jenny and hit her.  She said it kind of hurt and that she felt "dirty" after it ran into her.  It's amazing how many armadillos there are around here, I used to think they were only in Texas.

After we ran together I did 8 x 400m with each one between 1:20 and 1:25.  The last couple were a bit of a struggle, so I stopped at 8. 

 Average pace: 8:18

Going to take another crack at a 5K this Saturday.  Weather should be great, the course is flat.  It's going to be a good size race (I heard 1700), so I'll have to make sure and line up at the front.

Ran with Jenny, Jamie and Kathryn for 4.5 miles, then did the rest on my own.  Good day for an easy run to take it easy after yesterday's speed and tomorrow's 5k.

Average pace: 8:28

18:55 , 15th overall, 1st age group.

Finally made it under 19:00!

Arrived nice and early (about 6:40) as I needed to race day register.  Had a comp entry from David J. whose company was one of the race sponsors.  Also, I usually get lost driving around downtown and can never find a place to park, but I did well this morning and did not have a problem.

Warmed up with a little bit over 2.5 miles.  It was starting to feel warm and I had a hard time at first finding a good place to run without having to go through traffic lights, but finally found a park nearby and ran along the river back and forth on the walkway.

Headed back to the race start and lined up.  The race was in honor of the members of the Tampa police department who have lost their lives.  They had banners which each fallen officer's name and some of the police runners had armbands in remembrance.  The chief of police said a few words, and then the mayor also.  There was a police helicopter flyover and lots of other things, too.  Attendance this year was 3 times what it was last year.

The race started and I almost had some problems between people lined up too far ahead and people behind me who initially went out fast, pushed past me, but then I had to go around - the usual larger race stuff.  In a way it was good because for almost the entire race there was someone not too far ahead that I could catch up to.

Splits - 6:05, 6:11, 6:07, 0:32

(18:54.42 according to chip times printout)

I felt pretty even throughout the run, I slowed down on the second mile but didn't feel slower.  Pushed as hard as I could on the third mile.  My garmin and the mile markers matched up precisely, which I usually don't get for various reasons.

Cooled down after the race with about 2 more miles of easy running.   Food was good, various snacks as well as beans, rice and salad from the Columbia restaurant.  Stuck around for awards and door prizes (although I didn't win anything).  Police chief personally handed out all of the awards as well as finisher's ribbons for all of the kids.  Fun morning and good way to honor those who have given their lives to protect us.

   1    15  1839 Mark Palamar             43 Trinity FL           18:54.48  6:06