For Whom the Dogs Bark

Fifth Third River Bank Run

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Location:

Cypress,TX,

Member Since:

Oct 10, 2009

Gender:

Male

Goal Type:

Other

Running Accomplishments:

5K: 24:22 (March 2010); 22:33 (October 2010); 20:47 (May 2011); 21:05 (May 2012); 21:33 (September 2012); 21:23 (November, 2013); 22:31 (September 2014)

5M:  39:22 (November, 2012); 35:54 (November, 2013); 36:03 (March, 2015)

10K: 44:08 (November, 2010); 49:20 (July, 2013); 44:07 (April, 2015)

12K:  56:03 (December, 2013); 58:58 (December, 2014)

10M:  1:11:58 (October, 2012); 1:15:24 (October, 2014)

Half Marathon:  1:53:xx (London's Run 2010); 2:05:21 (Cowtown 2010); 1:37:04 (Gusher 2011); 1:42:19 (Huntsville 2011); 1:33:47 (Baytown Jailbreak 2012); 1:33:50 (The Woodlands 2012); 1:42:52 (Texas 2015); 1:49:17 (Jailbreak 2015); 1:38:34 (The Woodlands 2015)

25K: 2:01:47 (Fifth Third River Bank, May 2014)

Marathon: 5:51:35 (Texas Marathon 2009); 6:21:36 (Ogden 2009); 4:58:29 (St. George 2009); 4:13:45 (Texas Marathon 2010); 4:04:12 (Utah Valley Marathon, 2010); 5:11:14 (Hartford ING, 2010); 3:41:43 (Richmond SunTrust, 2010); 3:39:27 (Texas Marathon 2011); 3:41:46 (Utah Valley Marathon, 2011); 3:30:35 (St. George 2011); 3:41:51 (Richmond 2012); 3:49:15 (Texas 2013); 3:46:59 (Paavo Nurmi, 2013); 3:34:04 (St. George 2013); 3:49:51 (Texas 2014); 3:31:59 (Richmond 2014); 3:28:34 (Boston 2015)

Short-Term Running Goals:

3:20, 1:30, 0:20

Long-Term Running Goals:

I'm 60, there is no long term.

Personal:

I live, work and run in Houston, Texas.  I have run 17 marathons, some good ones and some others.  I prefer straight, flat, cold, sea-level marathons, still waiting for my first one.  I feel like there are more PRs out there.  When I have them, I am told it is time to dial it back, run for healthy reasons.  I'm sure that's right, and I'm sure it won't happen.

My wife and I are from the mountains of the west.  We have five kids, three granddaughters and three grandsons.  The kids and grandkids are native Texans but we are not -- you have to be born here.

As for my blog title: I run most of my miles before sunrise, sometimes hours before. On the back road of my neighborhood two hours before daylight, I can depend on a pack of mutts behind the boundary fence lighting up when they hear my footsteps. I have wondered what they wanted; but according to Hemingway I needn't ask.

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Miles:This week: 0.00 Month: 0.00 Year: 0.00
Race: Fifth Third River Bank Run (15.69 Miles) 02:01:47, Place overall: 868, Place in age division: 29
Easy MilesMarathon Pace MilesThreshold MilesVO2 Max MilesTotal Distance
0.0015.690.000.0015.69

48F, 71%, SSW 7.  60F at finish.  Traveled to Grand Rapids, Michigan to run the Fifth Third River Bank Run, a very large 25K (the unusual name can be blamed on the local bank sponsor) that doubles as the national championship for that distance.  I have been traveling all week, so got a forced taper, 10 miles on Monday and 6 on Wednesday, ran 3 at race pace each time.  Don't have my notes for those days, I'll fill them in later.

My dad lives here, and he met me last night at the airport with his wife.  We went over to the expo and picked up my bib, checked out the logistics, etc.  The race is well-run.  Went to bed and slept well.  My alarm went off at 5:30 (a luxury compared to races out west) and got to the race area at 7:00 for an 8:20 start.  Plenty of time to get everything done.

They started the 5K at 7:00 and the 10K at 7:40, we never saw them, had the course to ourselves.  Loop course, it finished about a block from the start.  My goal was to hit 7:43 per mile, which for a true 25K distance comes in right at 2 hours.  I ran it in 2:01:47 (just under 7:46/mile) and measured it at 15.69, about 0.15 further than 25K.  (These courses are all certified, but if you read the certification rules, they want them to measure it long so that if anybody sets a record the measurement will hold up.  I missed one or two tangents but wasn't off by that much.)  Official pace was 7:50 per mile.  My heart rate was sky-high, 182 max, averaged 176.  858 overall out of 5565 finishers, 29th in age group out of 176.  Splits and heart rates were as follows (as usual, no accurate heart rate data to start, seemed to kick in OK by mile 2 though):

1: 7:37; 2: 7:36 (170); 3: 7:40 (172); 4: 7:37 (172); 5: 7:37 (173); 6: 7:45 (172); 7: 7:30 (176); 8: 7:30 (177); 9: 7:33 (178); 10: 7:50 (178); 11: 7:31 (178); 12: 7:57 (179); 13: 7:45 (177); 14: 8:16 (175); 15: 8:15 (176) and 16: 8:24 (177).

The course was essentially flat in the first half, then rollers until about mile 12.5.  The rollers were not difficult, but again I showed my inability to sustain hills late in a race.  I felt strong through mile 9 and managed to hang on through mile 11, didn't fall competely off the wagon until mile 14.  Got hot and couldn't sustain the heart rate any longer.  I think this is the highest heart rate I have carried for a longer-distance race.

But I felt strong in the first half, could have laid down the hammer at any time.  That is the first takeaway.  I never ran more than 11 miles after coming back from my injury a few weeks ago.  But the weight lifting and other cross-training have given me better speed.  Solution is to get back to longer mileage and longer runs, that is what gives me the depth to sustain what is now an easier effort to get to these kinds of speeds.  It's almost like I'm a younger runner who is naturally faster but undertrained.

Second takeaway is a rude wake-up for Boston in a year.  I have never run a course before that is ea.sy for the first half then gets hard before getting easy again.  Again, I need more stamina, but I have time to get it if I can maintain proper training cycles.

Really glad I came up here to run this; it is a good distance.  Hoping to convince some of my brothers and sisters into running it together next year.

Comments
From Tom K on Sat, May 10, 2014 at 15:59:56 from 71.203.20.181

Great job, Flat! That is right on your goal pace. I think you have the Takeaways wired. Excellent.

From SlowJoe on Sun, May 11, 2014 at 10:53:17 from 66.69.93.8

Nice going, and pretty good pacing - tough to prepare for hills when you live in Houston. Congrats!

From Stephen on Mon, May 12, 2014 at 08:02:37 from 204.182.3.237

Impressive run and impressive placement. I think I might get permission to do this one next year (so that I can visit my dad) I'm a little reticent to run marathons lately because I am so injury prone when I start building up the miles in training, but this would be a good distance.

From I Just Run on Mon, May 12, 2014 at 13:41:54 from 67.79.11.242

Good job Flat...One more step and milestone closer to that BQ!

From derhammer on Tue, May 13, 2014 at 11:22:59 from 64.245.52.2

Congrats - nice race.

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