You mean everyone doesn't do this?

Steeple Chase 8k

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Location:

AL,USA

Member Since:

Jun 14, 2008

Gender:

Male

Goal Type:

Other

Running Accomplishments:

I've finished a couple of races here and there...

Short-Term Running Goals:

Maybe one day I'll be enough of a runner to run a race.

maybe not...

Long-Term Running Goals:

My ultimate long term goal is to die young as late as possible...

Personal:

Rule #1:  Cardio - Zombies lead a very active lifestyle, so should you.

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Miles:This week: 0.00 Month: 0.00 Year: 0.00
Easy MilesMarathon Pace MilesThreshold MilesVO2 Max MilesTotal Distance
264.204.0019.400.00287.60
Easy MilesMarathon Pace MilesThreshold MilesVO2 Max MilesTotal Distance
5.500.003.100.008.60

Ran a little 5k today that I think was a fundraiser for an elementary school in town.  Ran something to the tune of a 17:20, which was good enough for the win (I think 2nd was 18:30 or so), which got me a $50 gift card to a local outdoors store.  Oh, yeah, and this was all after a final.  yay.

Comments(5)
Easy MilesMarathon Pace MilesThreshold MilesVO2 Max MilesTotal Distance
20.200.000.000.0020.20

"Because things are the way they are, things will not stay the way they are." - Bertolt Brecht

Comments(2)
Easy MilesMarathon Pace MilesThreshold MilesVO2 Max MilesTotal Distance
13.500.000.000.0013.50

"Life is far too important a thing ever to talk seriously about." - Oscar Wilde

Comments(4)
Easy MilesMarathon Pace MilesThreshold MilesVO2 Max MilesTotal Distance
14.000.000.000.0014.00

"Let not thy will roar, when thy power can but whisper." - Dr. Thomas Fuller 

And you're in luck; two for the price of one again today:

"Never feel self-pity, the most destructive emotion there is.  How awful to be caught up in the terrible squirrel cage of self." - Millicent Fenwick 

Comments(1)
Race: Steeple Chase 8k (4.9 Miles) 00:28:35, Place overall: 2, Place in age division: 1
Easy MilesMarathon Pace MilesThreshold MilesVO2 Max MilesTotal Distance
6.000.005.000.0011.00

Contrary to what the name might suggest, the race is not what you're thinking in terms of a steeplechase; the race route simply passes a bunch of churches.  My race was fairly mundane as far as races go.  That's not to say I didn't thoroughly enjoy myself; I just didn't have an epic battle for the finish tape that sometimes happens.  I started in second, and I finished in second (although I think that if there had been another mile I would have fallen to third, but that's another story).  In any case, I beat a guy that I've never beaten before, and I got beaten by a guy that I have beaten before, so I guess I broke even.  Oh well; it was a well organized race, and a good time was had by all.

Comments(3)
Easy MilesMarathon Pace MilesThreshold MilesVO2 Max MilesTotal Distance
0.000.000.000.000.00

Happy Mother's Day to all of you mothers out there.  Words cannot express how incredibly blessed I am to have my ever- and most amazingly Inimitable Mother.  No ultra distance I will ever cover could even come close to the incredible effort and sacrifice she has put forth for my siblings and me, and I become more and more aware of this very fact with each passing year.  I only hope that I can one day raise a family with as much faith and selfless determination as she has already done.

Thanks, Mama.

Comments(2)
Easy MilesMarathon Pace MilesThreshold MilesVO2 Max MilesTotal Distance
13.500.000.000.0013.50

"The greatest good you can do for another is not just share your riches, but to reveal to him his own." - Benjamin Disraeli

Add Comment
Easy MilesMarathon Pace MilesThreshold MilesVO2 Max MilesTotal Distance
10.500.000.000.0010.50

running = escape

Comments(5)
Easy MilesMarathon Pace MilesThreshold MilesVO2 Max MilesTotal Distance
18.750.002.000.0020.75

 "There is theory which states that if ever anybody discovers exactly what the Universe is for and why it is here, it will instantly disappear and be replaced by something even more bizarre and inexplicable.  There is another theory which states that this has already happened." - Douglas Adams 

Comments(4)
Easy MilesMarathon Pace MilesThreshold MilesVO2 Max MilesTotal Distance
6.700.000.000.006.70

"Son, you need to buy a car!" - Mrs. Hunt, my high school cross country coach, as she drove past me today toward the end of my run.

I agreed

Comments(2)
Easy MilesMarathon Pace MilesThreshold MilesVO2 Max MilesTotal Distance
11.000.000.000.0011.00

"There is a vitality, a life force, an energy, a quickening, that is translated through you into action, and because there is only one of you in all time, this expression is unique.  And if you block it, it will never exist through any other medium and will be lost." - Martha Graham

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Easy MilesMarathon Pace MilesThreshold MilesVO2 Max MilesTotal Distance
13.500.000.000.0013.50

So I went ahead and decided to help out with Eric Schotz and Jon Elmore (schotz and jelmo on the blog) with the Run Across Alabama to benefit Tay Sachs disease.  Eric's son Elliott was diagnosed with Tay Sachs several months ago, and currently there is no cure, so a group is running across the state to raise awareness and money for research.  There is a link to the website for our run under the personal tab of my blog on the left, toward the bottom of the page.  Take a look...get involved...

I'll only be running the last couple of days, but three guys (Schotz, Elmore, and Charette) will be covering the whole state in four days.  It should be interesting...

Comments(1)
Easy MilesMarathon Pace MilesThreshold MilesVO2 Max MilesTotal Distance
16.300.000.000.0016.30

????????????????????????????????????????????????????????

Comments(5)
Easy MilesMarathon Pace MilesThreshold MilesVO2 Max MilesTotal Distance
11.100.000.000.0011.10

"How can you say luck and chance are the same thing?  Chance is the first step you take, luck is what comes afterwards." - Amy Tan 

Comments(1)
Easy MilesMarathon Pace MilesThreshold MilesVO2 Max MilesTotal Distance
6.004.000.000.0010.00

"A goal without a plan is just a wish." - Antoine de Saint Exupery

Comments(3)
Easy MilesMarathon Pace MilesThreshold MilesVO2 Max MilesTotal Distance
10.000.000.000.0010.00

soothing rain run

Comments(3)
Easy MilesMarathon Pace MilesThreshold MilesVO2 Max MilesTotal Distance
4.500.009.300.0013.80

Cotton Row Run today in Huntsville.  Ran a 37:10 in the 10k, which made for a good, solid-effort tempo run, and then ran the 5k, but ran it in a slightly more fun way than normal.  I waited until all 1500 people in the race got ahead of me, and then started trying to see how far up I could get after starting in the very back.  In any case, fun day.

We'll see how poor of a decision this was for the 50k on Saturday...

Comments(9)
Easy MilesMarathon Pace MilesThreshold MilesVO2 Max MilesTotal Distance
11.850.000.000.0011.85

You know, if the worst I have to complain about today is this run, then it's been a pretty good day.

Comments(2)
Easy MilesMarathon Pace MilesThreshold MilesVO2 Max MilesTotal Distance
16.000.000.000.0016.00

"Do not consider painful what is good for you." - Euripides

Comments(8)
Easy MilesMarathon Pace MilesThreshold MilesVO2 Max MilesTotal Distance
10.700.000.000.0010.70

"If you're not part of the solution, you're part of the precipitate." - Henry J. Tillman

Comments(3)
Easy MilesMarathon Pace MilesThreshold MilesVO2 Max MilesTotal Distance
2.700.000.000.002.70

I needed an excuse to take a shower.

Comments(6)
Race: Sweet H2O 50k (31 Miles) 05:01:25, Place overall: 10
Easy MilesMarathon Pace MilesThreshold MilesVO2 Max MilesTotal Distance
31.000.000.000.0031.00

So this was a pretty fun race...

I went to the Sweet H2O not really knowing what to expect.  The elevation profile had its share of spikes, but none of the climbs were that long; on the other hand previous years' times seemed to be somewhat slower than most 50k's, so I was curious to see how it all panned out.

So at 3:20 this morning, Heather May, a friend from Auburn and venerable runner (having gone to the US Women's Olympic Marathon Trials the last two times), who was running her first trail 50k, got on the road to get to the park just west of Atlanta.  Once we got there and got checked in, we had a little time to mill about and found several others from Auburn, including two more first time 50k-ers.  I also got the privilege of meeting Deborah from the blog before the race started (aka the Little Engine that Could), and she seemed in good spirits for the day.

Right at 7:30, we got started, and from the start, I could feel and was telling people that we were moving quite a bit faster than course record pace.  Even as the field thinned out several miles into the race, it still felt like I was moving a bit more quickly than I had anticipated, considering that all I wanted out of the race was a solid long run with relatively even energy levels (having run decent mileage all week somewhat nixed the idea of truly racing).  The trail was very scenic, often running by the Sweetwater Creek, and it appeared to be, for the most part, very runnable.  There were several relatively steep climbs early on, but nothing to write home about.  That changed around mile 7....

Around mile 7, we came to a part of the course known as the Top of The World, which is a series of several brutally steep climbs through powerline cuts, each of which had an equally brutal, knee pounding, and somewhat frightening descent, and the whole section let you fry, being almost totally exposed.  The best part about the Top of The World - we got the joy and priveledge of running it again around mile 23.  I couldn't wait...

The next several miles were, as I mentioned earlier, by and large very runnable and went by relatively uneventfully.  We got to cross a stream whose girth and current put those I mentioned in the Mt. Cheaha report to shame.  The stream was wide enough to warrant (in the race director's eyes, at least), a rescue team on the other side to both instruct runners on how to effectively cross using the rope provided and to retrieve any runners who happened to want to ride the waves downstream a little.  It was incredibly fun, and to cap off the stream crossing experience, there was a short, incredibly steep climb immediately following the crossing.  Awesome. 

At mile 23, we hit the aid station that signaled going back out to the Top of The World, but this time we got to take it from a different angle, and I'm not sure whether it was longer the first time or the second time, but both had all kinds of dramatic elevation changes that left the quads, knees, and back begging for mercy.  My kind of section...

Once we got back to the aid station after the lovely Top of The World traverse, it was only a four mile jaunt to the finish, so I just trotted my way to the finish, and that was that.  I will say, though, that I was surprised to see that I beat the old course record time of 5:01:44 which was good enough for 10th this year (the winner took an amazing 40 minutes off of the old course record with a blazing 4:20).  Hmmm...

Shortly after I finished, Heather, my friend from Auburn, came in, taking the win for the women (for which she got one of the larger steins I have seen in recent history).  Two of the guys from Auburn, Marcus Farris and Eric Gilbertson, smoked the course, finishing well ahead of me, two more guys from Auburn, Blake Henry and Lance Haney, completed their first 50k with style around an hour later, and Bob Lawson, a professor at Auburn, finished shortly after Heather.  All in all, it was a solid day for Auburn ultrarunners...

After the race, we all sat around chatting it up for a while (sorry Deborah, I hope I didn't bore you too much or talk your ear off, but thanks for listening to me ramble).  Fred Trouse, one of my pacers from Pinhoti, had apparently taken a pretty nasty fall and had to pull out, but was in great spirits at the finish nonetheless.  It's always nice to see Fred...

 A couple hours after we finished, Heather and I loaded back up in the truck and headed back to Auburn, one more race richer.  To end my little ramble, I'll just say that if anyone ever has the chance, I would highly recommend this race.  It has its fair share of incredibly challenging spots as well as some of the most runnable trail I've ever encountered.  Fun stuff....

 



Comments(9)
Easy MilesMarathon Pace MilesThreshold MilesVO2 Max MilesTotal Distance
10.900.000.000.0010.90

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They've been going in and out of style,
But there guaranteed to raise a smile,
So may I introduce to you,
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And he'd like you all to sing along,
So may I introduce to you,
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And Sargent peppers lonely hearts club band!

Comments(3)
Easy MilesMarathon Pace MilesThreshold MilesVO2 Max MilesTotal Distance
264.204.0019.400.00287.60
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