Turkey Trot Results

Here's what I was able to muster up this morning, on a balmy 29 degree morning in lovely Lincolnwood, Il. Let me again preface what my running has consisted of lately; 20-30 miles a week with paces largely going unnoticed. Usually I'd average somewhere in between 7:50-8:30 for my last four weeks post-marathon. I did hit a 6:40 for a three mile stretch in a run about nine days ago. With that being said, I laced up the lunaracers and headed up to Lincolnwood at about 7:45.

I arrived too early and my toes were freezing. I was really planning on racing by feel and if things went well, I could come close to beating my previous 10K best of 43:54 set in August. For those of you not following the blog back then, here's quick recap:

• Tweaked a hammy the two days before caulking the bath tub
• Came out too fast and ran the first mile in 6:20
• Side cramp somewhere in between miles 2 and 3, resulting in 7:30 miles at 3 and 4
  
• Finished with a 43:54, a 7:04 pace
• For the original full recap, go here: http://runningforcru.blogspot.com/2008/08/youll-have-nothing-and-like-it.html
  

Fast forward to this morning. I started about 5-10 seconds off of the starting line, but it was chip timed. I ran through and around some people during the first mile and felt good. It's always a weird feeling coming up on that first mile marker. You never know what it's going to say, especially on a course that you don't really know.

I felt good and felt like I would hit the marker near at a 7:00 or so pace. I hit mile 1 at 6:27. I was feeling good though and found a couple people to run with for mile two. Mile 2 felt pretty good as well. I ran it in 6:37. I lost my little group somewhere in there (not sure if they slowed down or were running the 5K). I came up on the third mile and my watch said 19:51, meaning I just ran the third mile in 6:47. Good news and bad news shortly after that. I was starting to get out of rhythm with my breathing and I just got passed by two people. One guy I had passed in the late in mile 2 and another woman(I think) I hadn't seen. The good news was that I was about halfway done and had two guys in my sights who seemed to be running pretty steady.

Mile 4 felt rough. I must have miscalculated my time in my head, because I thought I put up an 8 minute mile. It turned out to be a 6:57, which perfectly continued the trend of losing 10 seconds every mile. I decided at that point I needed to try to pick it up and finish up strong. There were only 2.2 miles left. I felt better during Mile 5 and ran a 6:50. With just 1.2 miles to go, I decided to run pretty steady for the first 1:30-1:40 of that mile and then try to run the last mile as hard as I could. Some girl seemed to be running at about the same pace for the last 1.2 miles, so I tried to hang with her after she passed me. We were weaving through the 5K runners and walkers at that point. My breathing was still holding up relatively well and I hung with that girl and hit the 6 mile marker. I ran it a a 6:43 pace, leaving just .2 left. I wanted to catch that girl, but she appeared to be putting on a late charge as well. I never did catch her and hit the last .2 in 1:21, giving me an unofficial 41:45 finishing time. The official time was somehow 41:48, which isn't a big deal, but three seconds is a little strange. That translates into a 6:43.6 pace. Very nice.

I beat the Windrunnner 10K mark by 2 minutes and 6 seconds, which is pretty huge. Needless to say, I am very happy with my time and actually think I can do even better. If this turns out to be my last race of the year, I am glad to be ending on a high note. I am not sure I would want to race in much colder weather.

If I don't post again before Thanksgiving, have a great holiday.

10K in the Morning

That's right, the Lincolnwood Turkey Trot is at 8:45 on Sunday morning. My expectations are not too high for the race. I am just going to go out and run. If I can beat the time I posted at the Windrunner 10K in August, that would be great. But, I really don't know where I am at physically and have only been running about 25 miles per week the past 5-6 weeks. I was able to get three tempo miles in the middle of a 5 miler last weekend at a 6:40 clip. We'll see what tomorrow will bring. I do have some new shoes for to wear. Here they are:

That is the the Nike Lunarlite Racer. I am not what most would call an incredibly biomechanically efficient runner, so these shoes may be a slight stretch for me. I am a slight over-pronator. These things weigh under 6 ounces and don't offer much in terms of support. I did use to run in some Nike Frees. Those even feel like bricks compared to these things.

I'll post a 10K race recap tomorrow or Monday. Tomorrow looks to be pretty busy after the race. Lastly, here's a video that I find hilarious. It's pretty bizzare, twisted and perverted. If this offends you in any way, I apologize. You have been warned.

See more funny videos at Funny or Die

Back in the Blogosphere

Hey. It's been a while. I have recently been contemplating if I should keep this blog going. I have have decided to forge ahead. I'll still continue to get the blog out there and hope to continue to raise awareness of SMA. I may have to take down the link to the Firstgiving site because I think it shuts down any day now. I'll probably just include a link to the FSMA site so people can directly donate their if they still want to. Anyway, my point to all this is that if my ramblings can lead to more awareness or funds being raised, than it's definitely worth it.

I am obviously not training for anything right now, but hopefully I can still bring you a laugh or two a couple times a week and give you a little look in to some of the random things that happen in my life. I did recently sign up to run a 10K on November the 23rd. Should be interesting. I am currently running around 25-30 miles per week, but haven't been paying too close attention to my pace. I did run 8 miles this past Sunday at a 7:53 or so. I am going to mix in a few fast miles, a few fast finishes or strides and a few Yasoo-type exercises, although I may make them 5x600 or 800m.

In the last couple of weeks, there's been some excitement in these parts. The country (at least 53% of us anyway) has celebrated a new president being elected. Here's a great time lapse video of that night's events in Grant Park.

http://www.chicagotribune.com/video/?slug=chi-obamatimelapse081105-wn


Tiffany and I also celebrated our second wedding anniversary and my 31st birthday a couple weekends ago. Here a few pictures from the 31st birthday party, also known as the second annual toga party:





That's it for now. Please come back again soon. I'll try to make a post or two every week.