Vacation!

I write this hurried post in the midst of packing up for a vacation... we are going to be staying at a resort in Illinois through next week. It should be a lot of fun, and I hope to do some running on the trails the resort has. (They don't have a treadmill.)

I'll try to update my training logs on Buckeye Outdoors and Runner's World with my out-of-state jaunts when I can.

Keep on running, and I'll see you later!

Happy Thanksgiving! - The Drumstick Dash

Today I ran my longest race to date, The Drumstick Dash, a 4.5 miler. Over 5,000 people signed up for this race, which benefited Wheeler Mission Ministries, a mission that helps feed and give shelter to the homeless.

I finished in 48:13 at a 10:43 pace. I was hoping to run it in about 45 minutes, but I didn't. Here are my reasons *cough* excuses *cough*: It was 38'F, I had a cold, and I had never raced that far before. Pretty lame excuses, I know. But, I did have a cold, and I found out quickly that you cannot blow your nose while you're running. At least I can't. Anyway, I had to take quite a few walk breaks. The hills on the course were not very long or steep, but I felt them a lot in my lower legs.

Here are my splits:
Mile 1: 9:24
Mile 2: 10: 30 (19:54)
Mile 3: 12:01 (31:55)
Mile 4: 11:02 (42:57)
Finish: 48:13
I took along a small pen and a map of the course that I printed out while I was racing. At each mile, I recorded my splits as best I could while running. By the end of the race, the paper was a crumpled mess.

I finished pain-free, but tired. Happy to have raced longer than a 5-K. For a lengthy description of the race course, check out the post for the Drumstick Dash on the Run Central Indian blog.

I like the race shirt. It's a black technical tshirt from Brooks with the Drumstick Dash logo on it. It's me second long-sleeve race shirt... I wore the tech tee from my last 5-K during the race, and the ventilation was really nice.

Now, time to go eat some turkey with the family and watch some football. Happy Thanksgiving to you all!

No treadmill on vacation...

Today I called the resort that we'll be staying at and found out that they do not have a treadmill. Kinda annoying, but they do have trails, so we'll see how those are. Now I wish that I had purchased the Nike+ iPod sport kit for my shoes since now I won't know how far I will run. Hopefully they will have some sort of idea how long the trails are. We'll see...

Also they have limited internet connectivity so I'm not sure how much I can update this blog, or my training logs...

In advance, have a happy Thanksgiving! :)

Woohoo! '08 Mini, here I come!

Well, today I signed up for the 2008 500 Festival Mini Marathon! Last year I did the 5-K, and after a lot of training this summer, I hope to complete my first half in the spring.

This weeked I took a break from running, and hung out with friends. I should get back out there this afternoon though... I have a little cold & sore throught today, hopefully that'll clear up soon!

The Drumstick Dash is in 3 days, and should be fun!


EDIT: Here's a video by somebody else about the '07 Mini for your enjoyment:

Signed up for a Thanksgiving race

Today I mailed off my entry form for the Drumstick Dash, which is on Thanksgiving morning. It's 4.5 miles with a kids' run later, which my little brother will do.

Today's run of 1.25 miles went well.

'07 Spirit Run 5-K race

This was my first race since being injured and not really running for 2 months. I forgot my watch and realized that right before the start. I felt great as we started off on a 40-something'F beautiful sunny morning.

Mile 1: 9:30
Mile 2: 19:14
Finished: 30:06

All of these times are "official."
This particular race, they only had timing mats at the finish, so everybody's time started at the same time. The starting gate was only like 10-feet wide so it took me about 10 seconds from the start to actually cross the start time. I'm thinking that my actual time would have been a few seconds under 30 minutes. My one-time PR of a sub-30min 5-K, was a result of a lot of training, so I think I ran quite well today!

I placed 15th in my age group. Since I run 30 minute 5-Ks, and since I'm running against every high school track star who showed up... it wasn't too bad. They had cool origami cranse for the age groupers. I finished about 134th out of about 450 or so runners and walkers.

I had a great time, and it was fantastic to be out racing again!

Watch the Olympic Marathon Mens Trials live on the Internet

Tomorrow is the Olympic Marathon Mens Trials. and they will be broadcast live on the internet in addition to TV.

Here's the story:
http://www.ingnycmarathon.org/about/coverage.php

Here's the Internet streaming site:
http://www.nbcolympics.com/marathon

I'll be running the Spirit Run 5-K race tomorrow... results will be up afterwards!