Every Race is an Adventure!

Because today is a holiday (no work or school) my family stayed up late playing Bang! (an Old West-themed card game from Italy). I slept in and was going to run at 9:00am but ended up not getting away until about 10:45am. I decided to run up towards the canyon and try to get in 10 miles at an average pace of 8:30/mi or faster.

Shortly after I started an elite-looking runner who was also running up 1600 N on the other side of the road passed me quite easily and was pulling away. I picked up the pace a little but soon turned towards the high school. I thought he might be running over to 800 E and then down to 1200 N. If so, our paths would intersect there again. It caused me to push the pace a little faster than I would have, but he got there well before I did. I saw him cross through the intersection and by the time I got there he as a block or more down the road. Oh well, it got me pushing the pace early in the run.

About 4 miles into the run I was averaging 8:20/mi and feeling okay so I decided to go 12 miles instead of 10. Then I realized if I went to 6.55 miles before turning around instead of at 6.00 miles I could get the half marathon distance in. That's the great thing about an out and back route, once you go out a certain distance, there is no shortcutting the distance back home.

My mile splits out were: 8:01, 8:22, 8:15, 8:28, 8:53, 9:14, and 9:29/mi for 0.67. The pace got slower the last 3.6 miles as I got to the canyon trail that was covered with a thin layer of slush, just enough to make the footing slippery and unsure. I concentrated on keeping my center of gravity centered over the contact point of my stride to prevent the magnitude of a lateral force in any direction from exceeding the frictional coefficient of the slush...I tried to keep from slipping and falling down. This seemed to make it more difficult to keep my pace up.

My splits back were: 8:55, 8:49, 8:22, 9:11, 8:55 (0.5 mile). I then reset my lap to measure the last two miles home, which were: 8:06 and 7:58. The slush again slowed me for the first 3 or 4 miles until I got back up 800 N and off trail and back on the streets. I had to work hard to keep my pace up, and felt pretty good about the last two miles considering how tired I was.

My overall pace was 8:36/mi for the 13.2 miles. I missed my goal of 8:30/mi, but with the slush and adding on 3.2 miles I still feel good about my efforts. At least I think I should be able to finish the Painter's 1/2 marathon in St. George on Saturday a bit faster than today. There may be rain (dang it!) but with the possibly warmer temperatures, lower altitude, a mini taper, and race day magic I'm confident (hopeful) I'll be able to go a little faster, maybe considerably faster. Regardless, I'm looking forward to another adventure and seeing what I can do.

I ran the 2000 N hill route with Larry and Kent at an easy pace. My right heel was a sore this morning after yesterday's long run, but it didn't bother me much during the run. We were "blessed" with a little freezing rain during the last part of the run.

Larry, Kent and I ran the new modified Wednesday route...the 1st big water tank hill up to the parking lot, twice, then a loop through the old WordPerfect campus. We left at 5:00am instead of 5:45am because babysitter Grandpa Larry needed to be home to watch grandson Becket so Grandma Jolene could go to work.

As usual I looked at my watch near the end of the run to see how fast I had to hurry to get home by 6:45am. When I realized it was only 6:00am, I decided to add a few miles onto the end of the run. After walking and chatting with Larry and Kent a bit I continued on and ran the neighborhood 5K course. I bumped into Lyle stretching after his run near his home and stopped and talked for a while. It had begun snowing at that point and by the time I got home it was coming down pretty steadily.

As I was running on the Northridge Park trail, unlike Monday in the slush, I wasn't "concentrating on keeping my center of gravity centered over the contact point of my stride to prevent the magnitude of a lateral force in any direction from exceeding the frictional coefficient of the surface" (COKMCOGCOTCPOMSTPTMOALFIADFETFCOTS) and I slipped twice on the same patch of ice and nearly went down. From then on I made sure I was COKMCOGCOTCPOMSTPTMOALFIADFETFCOTS-ing.

I think I'll take it easy tomorrow and maybe skip Friday or just go a few easy miles as I mini-taper for the 1/2 marathon on Saturday. I wanted to still get in 40 miles this week. I've now front loaded the week enough that the 13.1 miles from the race on Saturday will get me to 40.

Kevin and I ran the Cascade course. I tried to just take it easy with the race coming up on Saturday. Average pace was just under 9:00/mi.

I finally found some time to file a race report.

I wasn't quite sure what to expect out of myself at this race. My mileage this winter has been better than most winters, but I've done little to no speed work. On Oct. 21 the doctor confirmed that my right hip pain was being caused by my left leg being over an inch shorter than my right (a result of a serious knee injury when I was 14). I've used various lifts in my left shoe over the years, but I finally decided to get serious. I did some research and got some lifts that maximized the height I could get within a shoe. This added about 3/8" to the height of my previous lifts. I got six of them and now wear them in all my shoes, including my running shoes.

I started running with my new lifts in late October and have been focusing on just getting my body used to the new alignment after 30+ years. My hip pain has improved. I still feel some pain in my hip at times...probably arthritis...but it usually isn't bad enough to effect my running much.

The weather for the race was cooler than I'd hoped for, but at least the rain stayed away. I was going to run in my jacket, but after warming up for about a mile I decided to hurry and drop my jacket in the car before the start. I was glad I did. I was comfortable for the whole race in just  shorts, a short sleeved shirt, my hat, and some knit gloves. There was a cool breeze after the race and I got pretty cold pretty fast in my wet clothes. They were handing out space blankets, but I opted to go to the car and put on a dry shirt, long pants, my jacket and a fleece vest.

I started the race with Wayne Fairbanks, Jonathan Crampton, and Hal Amos. It wasn't long before Hal pulled away. He went on to beat me by 5 minutes. Jonathan and I pulled a little ahead of Wayne, and then at about mile two I pulled ahead of Jonathan and ran the rest of the race alone. Wayne and Jonathan finished 3 and 4 minutes behind me, respectively.

Just before I pulled ahead of Jonathan I told him my goal for the race was to find out where my fitness was, and I couldn't do that unless I pushed my limits. I think I did a good job of that. I pushed pretty hard and held a pretty steady pace (or at least effort) throughout the race. I passed a few and got passed by a few, but I didn't crash. I feel like I finished pretty strong, but my tank was pretty close to empty. I fought back to beat a couple of strong men runners that passed me with a few miles to go, mostly because they looked like there was a chance they could be in my age division. I couldn't muster enough speed, however, to catch Josse Tobiasson or Marci Lamoreaux, who both finished less than a minute ahead of me. Marci won the women's master's division.

My mile splits on my Garmin were: 7:20, 7:24, 7:04, 7:12, 7:45 (hill), 7:12, 7:37: 7:36, 7:50 (hill), 7:19, 7:37, 7:26, 7:20. I must have accidentally pushed the start button after race because a really slow extra mile was on my watch when I looked at it later.

My official overall time was 1:36:24 (7:22/mi). I finished 8th of 50 in the Men's 45-49 age division, and 86th of 543 out of the men overall. There 22 women who beat me, all of them were in their 20's or 30's except for Marci (41), so I finished 108th overall out of 1322 runners.

Considering I've run very few miles over the last few months at near 7:22/mi pace, I'm thrilled I managed to average that pace for 13.1 miles. My old body held out pretty well and I was mentally tougher than I thought I might be.

My body recovered pretty quickly. The only concern is some plantar faciitis pain in my right foot. It started after my long run last Monday. I've picked up my mileage a little (47+ miles this week), but I really think worn out shoes is the cause. Both my #1 and #2 pairs of shoes have over 500 miles on them. Wearing my Strassburg Sock at night has helped, but I think I'm going to have to bite the bullet and get some new shoes this week.

I feel good about the race, but the best part of the weekend was having some getaway time with Karen. I really enjoyed the drive down and back and our brief time together in St. George. I also really enjoyed visiting my parents in Nephi on the way back. It was also very enjoyable spending some time at my friend Greg's 50th birthday party Saturday night and seeing some old friends (both long-time and aged) I hadn't seen for a while. Saturday was a full day, which is usually the best kind.