Cool Runnings!

AM - got up early to run, since I will not have the chance to do so later today.  We will be traveling all day to visit my parents for Thanksgiving in Raleigh, NC.  Achilles was a bit sore and tender at first, took it easy, then it warmed up for the rest of the run.  I am glad to have gotten this run in this morning.  Ran a total of 5.5 miles, total time of 42:40, averge pace of 7:45/mile.  This was mainly due to the last mile, during which I picked up the pace to around MP.  I am looking forward to being able to run with Lybi while we are in Raleigh, since we are staying with my parents.  I am also looking forward to the 8K on Thanksgiving.

AM - ran 5 easy miles with Lybi.  The community where my parents live is totally rolling hills everywhere - hardly any of the run was flat.  Lybi and I made a deal on the run - she hung on to the back of my shirt on the uphills, and I would do fartlek work to get in an additional workout.  We didn't get the time, because I apparently stopped the timer on the Garmin for about 1.3 miles of the run, but we got to use the route feature of the Garmin today - HOW COOL!  We ran until we hit 2.5 miles, and then I went into the navigation menu and chose the option to return to the starting point (after I had marked my parents' house).  It first showed a map, but then when I hit the mode button again, it brought up a screen with a big huge arrow on one half of the screen, along with distance and time left (based on our pace).  This was so totally cool.  It even warned me of upcoming turns (probably would have beeped as well, but the sound on our Garmin is messed up - we are going to send it in when we get back from vacation and have it fixed).

My Dad, my younger brother and I are going to play a little golf tomorrow morning, so I am going to try to get in a run before then.

AM - Ran 6.2 miles before we went out golfing.  Achilles felt pretty good.  I started out nice and easy, although the downhills really skewed my splits, much more so than the uphills.  I didn't feel like I was working that hard on the uphills, my pace may have been around 8:30, but I usually went down around 6:00 pace on the downhills.  Total time for the run was 46:11, average pace of 7:27/mile.  Breathing was good, legs felt good.  All in all, a good run.  Looking forward to the race tomorrow.  It may rain, we will have to see.  Finally got to look at the course map, doesn't look too bad.  It starts with some downhill, then there are a few small hills in the middle, and appears to finish uphill, but nothing too bad.

Ran the Ridgewood Thanksgiving Day Turkey Trot.  Placed 8th overall, 1st in my age division.  This course was more difficult than I had anticipated.  I looked at the course map and put it on gmap-pedometer yesterday, there were a few hills, but it didn't look too bad.  However, when I ran the race, the first 2 miles were flat or downhill, and everything else was pretty much uphill.  Killer.  Full race report to follow.

OK - time for the race report.  I had no idea what the competition would be like, although it was fairly apparent just from some of the sponsored gear that there were some fast runners.  I decided I would run my own race, and just see how things played out.

First mile:  All flat and/or slightly downhill.  I started a little bit behind the leaders, so that slowed me down just a little bit, having to thread my way through some congestion, but not too much.  First mile was 6:02.  I felt really good on this mile.  If the course would have been flat, I am fairly certain I could have kept up this pace.

Second mile:  Same as the first mile, all flat and/or downhill.  I started to pick off some runners who had started too fast, and was running up with the first female runners at this point.  I still felt very confident.  Second mile was 5:54, passed the two mile mark in 11:56.  This is faster than the 5K last Saturday, but did not include any uphill.

Third mile:  Started out flat, with quite a few corners to navigate, then we went steep uphill, short flat section, steep uphill, short flat section, steep uphill, short flat section, turn right, another uphill, followed by another flat section.  Mile 3 was 6:24, mainly because of the flat sections during the first portion of this mile.

Fourth mile:  More uphill, followed by flat section, and a downhill.  My legs were pretty trashed at this point from all the uphills, and I could not maintain 6:00 pace.  My breathing was already ragged from all the uphills, and did not recover the rest of the race.

Fifth mile:  The entire last mile was gently sloping uphill, plus we had a brisk wind blowing in our faces.  I tried to draft off one of the runners who had passed me, but I just could not keep up.  The first female runner was just in front of me at this point.  I ended up timing my kick wrong, started to push with 1/2 mile to go, mistakenly thinking the race was 4.8 miles.  But I did manage to pass the top female runner with about 400 meters to go.  Could not catch the runner in front of me.  I was really suffering at this point, breathing was very ragged and fast, legs somehow managed to give me a little more with a couple hundred yards to go.

The course ended up being a bit long - the Garmin measured 5.01, but this could potentially be to some poor tangents.  This is only .05 longer than the course was supposed to be.  I staggered around for a few minutes, went and got some gatorade and a banana, followed that with some more gatorade and a piece of bagel, then waited around for about 1 1/2 hours just to found out if I had won an award in my age division or not.  My dad was there to cheer me (Lybi had to stay home with the boys), and was fairly certain that I had placed in the top ten overall, which boded well for an age division award.  When I finally saw the results before the awards ceremony, I was a bit surprised to find out that I had won my age division.  As an award, I got a huge Mizuno duffel bag and a $10 gift certificate off a pair of Mizuno shoes at the local running store.  The duffel bag is cool, but I probably won't be using the gift certificate.

This was a well-organized race (except for the wait for the results), which experienced massive growth from last year.  Last year, they had 540 entrants.  This year, there were over 1400, and so many that they ran out of both race bibs and timing chips.  In spite of that snafu, and in spite of the icky nasty hills, I really enjoyed the race, and was glad to be able to run on Thanksgiving day.  I feel much better about having eaten a lot for Thanksgiving knowing that I burned a lot of calories this morning.

Did not run yesterday - took a break, after having done two high-intensity runs in less than a week, one last Saturday, and one on Thursday.  We also did not have a lot of time, so I did not feel too bad about not running yesterday.  My calves and hamstrings were both pretty sore yesterday as well.  I was debating whether to run at all today as well, but with some encouragement from my wife, decided to get out for a run and shake out the soreness.  I was initially planning on doing 6 miles, but when I got to 3 miles, I felt really good, so I decided I would do some more before heading back.  Kept the pace pretty steady, no fast miles today, just recovery pace.  Total time for the 7.5 miles was 1:00:39, average pace of 8:05/mile.  Felt good to get out.