Run The Bridge 10K Race Report

I am finally writing a race report for a 10k that I did last week. It was my first 10k, but the significance of being the first time at this distance seemed a little diminished considering I have already done a 10 miler and half marathon. I have not progressed through the distances like many runners do.

Run The Bridge 10k is in southern New Jersey. You run across the Ben Franklin Bridge toward Philadelphia and immediately turn around and run back, through Camden and into Campbell's Field. The minor league home of the Camden Riversharks. This is one of the first races I found when I started running not too long ago and one that I really looked forward to doing.

The morning started a little rough. Two trips to the bathroom and cramps in my thigh had me worried that I would not do very well. I had done almost no running in the two weeks leading up to this race because of my sore ankle. A short run a couple days before the race did not bring on any pain so I felt confident I could do the run. I tried to warm up by jogging very easy before the start and I just felt out of the groove. My head was telling me that the run might not be so good.

I started feeling much better as we walked to the starting line. Maybe it was the people around me, or some primal connection with running... whatever it was I suddenly had a sense of calm come over me and I knew I was ready to run.

My main goal for this race was to practice my pacing in a race setting. It is typical of me to start too fast in the beginning and then keep an uneven pace throughout the run as well as needing walk breaks in longer runs. Today I wanted to start slow and keep a very steady pace throughout the entire 6.2 miles.

I ran faster than I wanted to, but that did not cause a problem. No walk beaks needed, but I started feeling it toward the end of the run and really had to push through some hurt. I forced my body to respond to my mind, instead of the other way around, and I kept running.

The end of the run was rough in more ways than one. Along the Camden waterfront are brick walkways and stone paths. These are what we ran on and I could really feel the difference in impact between that and the road.

Relief came when we entered the outfield of Campbell's Field. The soft grass felt incredible underfoot and the finish line was only a couple hundred feet away. I was able to put in a strong finishing kick and ran hard through the finish line.

My chip time ended up being 1:00:07 for a pace of 9:42 per mile. This was the first time I ever held a sub 10:00 pace for more than three miles.

My goal for this run was to keep a steady even pace. Despite going a little faster than I thought I would, I did accomplish this. Here are my splits:

1      10:31
2        9:33
3        9:16
4        9:14
5        9:32
6        9:26
6.2     2:35 (8:43 pace) <--- great finishing kick!

This has been the best race I have done in my short running "career" and has given me a good boost in my confidence for the marathon, now just two weeks away!

Time For Broad Street

It has been a while since I last blogged. I am going to have to blame Facebook for that. It is addicting, and I welcome anyone to request me as a friend.

It is now less than 12 and a half hours until the Broad Street Run. It seems like yesterday I was signing up and now it is upon us! My first major race and the excitement has been building all day.

I went to the expo this morning with my son and brother. We arrived at Lincoln Financial Field a little after 10 and the line was incredibly long to get in. It moved quickly though.

The expo was pretty cramped, and whoever planned the layout was pretty sneaky. When you got upstairs you had to go all the way to the right to the end and get your BIB. Then you had to turn around and go all the way to the other end to get your shirt and bag. In the meantime you had to pass every single vendor that was set up for the expo.

The only thing I bought was a t-shirt for each of my kids, and a case of GU. The GU was a great deal, only $22 and I was able to mix and match flavors. I got a few I like and some I have not tried yet.

So here is my plan for tomorrow... My goal is an incredibly slow 1:45. I will run the first two miles at 11:00 pace, then the next three miles at 10:30 pace, and the last five miles at 10:00 pace. That will give me a finish time of 1:43:30 and a 90 second margin of error to reach my goal!

I posted that plan on my Facebook page for all the world to see. I risk failing in front of all the Internet world, but if I pull it off I can look like a running scholar. lol

So, I am not as prepared as I thought I would be at this point, but I am very confident that I will have a good run.

Good luck to everyone racing this weekend!

eewww... Who Fartleked?

Sorry. I can never resist a fart(lek) joke.

So today was the first time I ever really did fartleks. I turned the auto lap off on my Garmin and split the laps after each recovery and interval. I am pretty impressed with how fast I was running and I hope that doing this every once in a while will help with my speed.

One thing I will do next time is not have so many splits... maybe just sprinkle in a few bursts of speed rather than have so many intervals. Just look at them all...


note: I tried formatting this so it would be easier to read, but it is not going right. You can check out my log over at runnersworld for the full workout if you want.

................Distance............Time.................Pace.............avg HR
Recovery.........0.64 Mi ...........6:58.96..........10:55.........154 warm up
Interval ..........103 Yd .............0:27.25............7:46........... 172
Recovery ........0.12 Mi............ 1:14.83............10:24 ..........170
Interval ...........89 Yd.............. 0:25.23............8:19............ 170
Recovery .........0.12 Mi........... 1:18.02............10:51 ..........173
Interval ...........102 Yd ............0:28.58 ............8:14........... 171
Recovery .........111 Yd .............0:41.4 ..............10:57..........171
Interval ............123 Yd ...........0:35.81 .............8:33 ...........173
Recovery ..........155 Yd ...........0:56.29 ...........10:40...........174
Interval .............134 Yd ..........0:33.42 .............7:19 ............174
Recovery .........141 Yd ...........1:07.83 ............14:07.........168 walk break
Interval .............101 Yd ............0:26.75 ............7:47............168
Recovery ...........0.13 Mi ...........1:32.97 .............11:56.........169
Interval ...............109 Yd ...........0:32.13 ............8:39 ..........169
Recovery .............125 Yd ...........0:47.52 ...........11:10 ..........170
Interval ...............103 Yd ............0:31.8 ..............9:04 ..........174
Recovery ..............143 Yd ...........0:53.98 ...........11:05 .........172
Interval ................108 Yd ...........0:31.61 ............8:36 ...........173
Recovery ..............0.33 Mi ...........3:53.26 ...........11:47 .........168

One thing I noticed is that my heart rate is pretty steady. I am not an expert but I think that can be good. I also think the workout might be better if I get my heart rate higher during the faster intervals. Perhaps I did not go hard enough?

This was fun, and I felt really good afterward. My goal is really distance and endurance over speed, but I would like to get faster than the crawl I am at right now. I am sure this will help.

Whoa -- This Can't Be Right

Okay... so I am doing an easy three on Tuesday afternoon and it is going real nice and easy. I feel that I am running a good pace between 10:30 and 11:00. To confirm this I look at my watch...

9:45???

This can not be right. I keep my pace as steady as possible and the pace only slows by about 5 seconds. I turn my attention back to my run. It felt too easy, there was no way I was running under 10 minutes per mile.

The day was clear and sunny. As I was coming up to a park I decided to stop at one of it's water fountains and get a sip. I also thought it might be a good idea to check my Forerunner. According to the navigation it had clear view of a number of satellites and good reception from those satellites as well.

Am I really getting faster?

I finished my three mile run at an avg 10:19 pace. This is not incredibly fast, but it is the fastest avg pace I have ran in a long time.... actually I think the fastest ever. hmmm.

So here comes Friday morning. I run before work, but this time is a little different than my other pre-work runs. Since I do not have to be in until late, I decide to take my time and actually jog a half mile as a warm up before I start my run.

The warm up felt nice and I got to the spot where I wanted to start my run. Hit the start button on my Forerunner and get going at a nice easy pace.

It was raining, so my jacket was covering my watch. I barely heard the beep when I reached my first mile split. Whenever I hear that beep I can not help but look at my split time, so I did...

9:52???

My mile split was actually less than 10 minutes? I can not believe this, it is my fastest mile time ever. So I decide to finish this short run fast. I was only doing two miles so I continued strong, and decided not to look at my watch at all the rest of the run.

I finished hard and out of breath, but not exhausted. I ended 2.02 miles in 20:08. A 9:59 pace. The fastest avg pace I have ever done during any run ever.

I am getting faster!?

For the rest of the day I felt like I was on top of the world. What does one do when they have such a huge milestone and breakthrough in performance? Find a race.

There is a 5k outside the Philadelphia Art Museum on April 18th. I have decided to sign up and go for a new PR. My current one is 32:14. Not really that fast by some standards, but that race was a milestone for me and gave me a huge boost in my confidence.

So if all things fall into place I will have a new PR in a couple of weeks. But if all things fall into place, and the stars and planets align correctly, and I warm up properly (something I do not always do), I think I will break 30 minutes.

If that happens, I will have a runners high for the entire weekend.

Long Run, Negative Splits

Today I ran my long run a little harder than I was supposed to. Despite that it felt really good even though it started pretty bad.

I woke early and could not get out the door. The one day I finally have motivation and I am ready to go, and the bowels start talking to me. After a couple trips to the bathroom I finally got outside.

My legs felt pretty tight, and I was still a little worried about my stomach. I took my time warming up and did not go very far from my house at first. I decided to take it extremely slow, and after a little bit I was feeling better.

Before the end of the first mile I was feeling great and had picked up my pace. I knew that I would be doing five miles today. I decided, on the fly, to try to get it in under an hour. Last time it took me 1:05:41.

Something clicked in me. I was feeling great and just floating down the road. My mind was racing with everything except the run. I was thinking about my writing, my job, my future. I was daydreaming about the marathon and my mind was just wandering all over the place. The last mile I had a good song playing and really picked it up.

When I got home and looked at the data in my Forerunner, I was surprised by the splits. 12:18, 12:16, 11:50, 11:22, 10:41. A total time of 58:29.

My legs feel great, my mind is clear and I am feeling awesome right now. This is the first time I had a run where every spilt was negative!

Now if I can carry this run into the rest of the day, and through the beginning of the week...

Long Run Cheat

I usually do my long runs during the weekend. This past couple of days has been crazy so I decided to get my long run in this morning, but count it for the weekend. So I did not really cheat on my long run, I just cheated on when to include the miles, since I am a stat whore and wanted the six miles to be on last weeks total.

My main goal for this run was to keep a very slow and steady pace. I was aiming for six miles, which I have never done before, but told myself five would be fine.

I also did not want to listen to music on today's run and debated on whether I should listen to a podcast or just forget the ear buds altogether. I opted for a podcast called 4 Feet Running. This is a great podcast. They record on the run and in the studio, so most of the time I felt like they were running right beside me while talking. I definitely recommend it.

I think listening to their conversation helped me keep a slow steady pace and also entertained me while I ran.

As I neared my house I was a little short of six miles, but I was feeling great. I took an extra loop around some of the side streets so that I would hit six and still have enough distance to do a good cool down walk.

I love the feeling after a run, and it feels especially good after a long run. Today feels so much better than yesterday!

2008: A Year In Review

Well, 2008 has been a great year for me. It is the year that I finally fell in love with running. This may be a long post, but here it goes.

I started the year cycling. I had been doing it on a regular basis for a bit over a year. I was doing it to get back into shape, but was pretty "business casual" about it. I was still using the no name mountain bike that I had bought at Target over 7 years ago, but I changed out the knobby off road tires for slick road ones.

Over the last few years I have tried to take up running a few times. It was not until April of this year that I found the C25K program, and thought that it would be perfect for me. I was basically a couch potato and would love to be able to run 5k on a regular basis.

I did the first week in these crappy shoes that I got from PayLess. My feet were killing me and I knew that I had to get real running shoes. I could not afford the local running store, so I went to a department store and got a pair of New Balance. Immediately I could feel the difference and I fell in love with running shoes. I still to this day have some sort of weird thing for them, and actually check them out on other runners.

By this time I had started to abandon cycling and really wanted to get into running. I followed the C25k program for only the first three weeks. To be honest I do not even remember why I stopped, but I regret stopping. The first week in May would be the last time I would run until August. On top of that I would not ride my bike, except while doing it with my, now 5 year old, son.

Something clicked inside of me near the beginning of August. I wanted to run and I knew that I just had to do it. I would go out and run for 15 minutes and then turn around and run back. I never really got far, and there were a lot of walk breaks involved, but I was doing it. It was easier for me to do because I was not really tracking my runs, just running.

My first breakthrough came a couple weeks later when I ran two miles without stopping. It felt really good, and I realized that I could have done it all along, but I was not letting myself do it.

I kept better track of my runs and worried more about building mileage and endurance rather than speed and pace. I noted improvements in time, and celebrated milestones in speed, but my main focus was distance. I increased mileage gradually, I think sometimes too slow, but focused on running longer and farther.

My first race was a pumpkin run 5k in October. I signed up less than a week before it and got my brother to do the same. We got there and were immediately intimidated. Everyone looked faster and more experienced at running than us and I was sure that I would finish dead last. Three point one miles was the farthest I had ever run, and I only did it once.

I got caught up in the excitement of running with so many other people and went out too fast. I walked quite a few times and thought I was going to die on one of the hills, but the race was a good one. I finished near the back of the pack, but there were plenty of people behind me!

The following week was the Run The Bridge 10k that crosses the Ben Franklin Bridge into Philadelphia and back, then goes through Camden and ends in the Riversharks minor league baseball stadium. I did NOT run this race, but I was pissed off at myself because if I had continued with the C25K program and ran through the summer I know I could have done it. There is always next year.

Late November was the Philadelphia Marathon. I had no intention of running this at all during the year, but as I fell in love with running I knew that I was going to go over and watch it. I have already decided that this will be my first marathon, hopefully in 2009.

It was a fun day watching the marathon. I got over there early with my brother who was attempting the full marathon for the first time. His training was interrupted by injury, but preferred to try it than have a DNS.

I had a great time watching the marathon. I never thought I would like watching strangers run, but it was fun. I enjoyed the atmosphere and the festivities of such an event and was glad that I went. I am excited to be a runner next time rather than a spectator.

My brother ended up stopping at the half, because his injury was acting up again, but he has vowed to run it all the way through next year. I will also be doing it.

My second race was a 5k that came in December. I was by myself, but much more confident since I knew a little more of what to expect at an organized race. I just got a Garmin Forerunner 305 a couple days before and was excited to try it out.

This race was even better than my first. The route was nicer, the weather was better, and I ran the whole thing without stopping. On top of that I PR'd with a 32:14, breaking my goal finish of 33 minutes.

My mileage gradually increased each week and each month. The last few weeks of the year I have developed some serious shin splints, so I am resting up. 2008 has been a great year, and I am excited to run through 2009.

Here are some numbers:

Total Distance in 2008: 114.9 miles
Longest Month: 30.9 miles
Longest Week: 8.6 miles
Longest Single Run: 5 miles

Races Run: 2 5k's
PR's Set: 2
Fastest 5k: 32:14

I will be tracking all my runs in 2009 and setting bigger and better goals... but more on that in the first post of 2009.

The Last of The Firsts of 2008

I am warning you now... this post is going to be long.

I have had a lot of firsts during 2008, and I will talk about them in a later post. Today was my last day of running for 2008 (more on that in the next post), and I find it fitting that it was full of firsts.

The first time that I drove somewhere in order to run.
I wanted a little bit of fresh scenery, and I have been tossing around the idea of finding more places to run and writing about them, so I decided to go to Copper River Park in Collingswood, NJ. I used to think it strange to drive more than you are actually running, and I still do a little, but it is nice to get out of your neighborhood and find new places to run.

The first time I carried a camera and snapped photos while running.
It seems that I see something amazing on every run that I do, yet I never have anything to record it with. I decided to carry my camera with me this morning since it was my first time running Cooper River Park. I snapped some pretty nice pictures. Check them out at my Flickr page. I will not carry my camera with me every time, but one thing it did for me today is help me keep my pace slow during my LSD and also helped me to enjoy my surroundings and have a relaxing run.

The first time I ran 5 miles.
Today was my LSD run, and 5 miles is my new record for long run. I did it at a very slow and relaxing pace, and did not take any walk breaks. I only stopped for about ten seconds at a time to snap a photo.. This run was a very good quality and it also boosted my confidence that my endurance is improving.

The first time I ran over 1 hour.
Again, proof that my endurance is improving. I had no walk breaks at all and I felt incredible after the run. My pace was very slow and 5 miles is not very far to go in an hour, but I will be working on speed next year.

So here is my run. The distance around the river is about 3.75 miles, but I wanted to do 5. So when I finished my lap around the river I did the last mile and quarter on the track that they have there.

The track is nothing fancy, just dirt, but it felt great running on it. I had to make a conscience effort to keep my pace slow, and the pace of the track part of my run was almost a minute faster than the rest of my run. This is another confidence builder, knowing that I will be able to go fast on the track when I start my speed workouts.

Speaking of tracks, I am glad I found this one because all the local schools keep theirs locked up tighter than Fort Knox. I have two high school tracks within running distance of my house and can not use them. In fact if you look closely at this satellite photo you will see a much nicer track above and slightly to the right of this one. That belongs to a Catholic high school and, of course, is all locked up.

Run Hard

I planned on doing three miles today, but after unwrapping gifts with the kids, my parents came over. I was getting ready for the run when they got here, so I still went out, but I cut the run down to a little over two miles.

I have not run since Sunday, and since my leg was bothering me early in the week I wanted to take the run nice and easy. My decision to slow the pace was also made easier by the wind, which was a little gusty.

My pace was just under 11:00 minutes per mile, but as I neared the two mile mark I was feeling good. I decided to run hard for a quarter mile and see what I could do.

Visions of a YouTube video popped in my head. I could see Ryan Hall smashing the half marathon record, and now I was running beside him. I pushed hard and ran as fast as I could while still keeping a semi-decent form.

I finished the last quarter mile just over an 8:00 minute pace, with a best pace of 7:05.

I do not do any specific speed work right now, because my main goal is to build mileage and endurance, but I am confident that I will someday be able to hold these paces for an entire race... perhaps even for an entire marathon.

100 Miles

Today I ran my 100th mile. It really is not a lot when you look at the big picture, but I just started running this year, and have only been doing it seriously for about four and a half months now.

It is ironic, however, that such a milestone mile would turn out to be a bad run.

I was overdressed for the weather. I am still getting the feel for what to wear for each temperature and this morning I had too much on my upper body.

Also, I did not warm up or stretch properly. No wonder my legs were feeling tight during the run and my body was not relaxed.

Finally I started too hard. I have not run since Sunday's long run. My leg was hurting and I gave it a few days rest. It felt fine this morning and I started too fast for my own good. I knew it too, but continued with the pace because it felt good. Before long I was slowing and pushing myself through the run.

When I look back over my runs I can see what the good runs have in common with each other and what the bad runs have in common with each other. It is easy to see that a good run requires certain ingredients.

You need a good warm up, a good stretch, and you need to go at the proper pace. That with a few other elements can make or break a run.

Now as long as I remember that I should be fine.

Future Runner

I have two sons. The youngest will be two next month and the oldest is five years old. They frustrate the hell out of me sometimes, but they are everything to me, and truly a blessing from God.

When I finally got my Forerunner 305 a couple of weeks ago, there was only one person as excited as me. My five year old son. The reason he was so excited was because I told him that when I got my Garmin, he could have my other running watch. It is really nothing more than a timer and a very poor heart rate monitor that uses the pulse from your fingertip.

As soon as I opened my Forerunner, he ran over to the desk to get his new watch.

The next logical step was to get him shoes. We went to Foot Locker and tried on a few pair. We settled on a nice looking pair of Nike Shox. My son likes them because they have the "shocks" in the back and he thinks they can make him run faster and stop him from falling.

After the shoes I promised to take him for a run. We finally got our first run in this afternoon.

There is a field down the street from us, so I figured we would run down there and run around the field a bit. Of course this was before my long run this morning. (See previous post). My legs were killing me, but I took him out anyway.

He ran along the sidewalk, and I paced him in the shoulder of the street. I told him to take it slow at first, (more for me than him) and keep upright. He was doing well and he looked so adorable running down the street. I wish I had my video camera with me.

We got to the field and saw a deer. Then we ran around the field a bit. We raced and had fun. He controlled the running and decided when to walk. I am impressed because at moments we were running a 9 minute pace. Now to just keep him interested in running... Maybe he will BQ before I do.

I used my Garmin because we had to have our running watches in order to run. I also thought it would be neat to show him our path of the run and were we had gone. Most of this is walking, but we ran a lot of it...

LSD and More Milestones

Today was a long run. In the past my long run pace was about the same as my easy run pace, which I do not think is a good thing to do. All week my plan was to do this long run at a much slower pace and to make it my longest distance yet. A couple of steps that I hope will build my endurance.

Four miles was the planned length. I was afraid that I would need to cut it short because my left leg has been bothering me for a couple days. I keep telling myself that it is just shin splints, and I think that I am correct because it did not hurt at all during the run, even though the leg has been sore the rest of the day. I plan on resting it for a couple days and if it does not feel better I will probably look for a doctor to check it out.

So the leg felt good during the run. I changed the display on my Garmin to show nothing but the pace so that I could focus on keeping it slow and steady, and not worry about the time or distance until I got closer to the end of the run. At first it felt weird going so slow, (which is doubly weird since a few months ago that was fast for me.) but I got in the groove and my legs coasted along the road.

I figured that I might need a walk break or two, since this was my longest run ever, but I did not feel like I needed one at all during the run. Even when I went through a park and passed the water fountain that I planned to stop at, I decided to keep going and not stop.

It felt so good to run for such a long distance. When I came to the end I slowed to a walk, and my legs felt like they wanted to keep moving faster.

So all in all I did 4.02 miles in 50:33 which comes out to a 12:35 pace. Just where I wanted to be.

So a few more milestones... I ran the longest distance I have ever run. I ran the longest time I have ever run. I needed no walk breaks at all. And I had my longest weekly mileage.

I am feeling very good about my running right now, and am so motivated to keep going and building my mileage. As long as my leg feels better and nothing is wrong, I should be able to build up my mileage over the next couple of months and start training for the Broad Street Run. God willing.

I have a lot more topics going through my head, so you will probably see multiple post over the next couple of days. And since I need to rest my leg and can not run, the only thing left to do is write about running!

Ice and Blogs

My left leg has been bothering me just a bit for a couple days. I iced it down real well tonight and it feels good right now. I am going to see how it is later tonight and pray about whether I should run tomorrow or not.

I am planning on a LSD run tomorrow and will be doing my longest distance so far of 4 miles. Tomorrow I am focusing on the distance rather than the time, so I will be keeping a slow steady pace and see how my leg feels.

Another note... I have been exploring a lot of blogs lately and keep finding some great running blogs! If you have time to explore then make sure you check out the incredible runners in my list.

And if you know of any good blogs, or have one that I have not seen yet, make sure that you tell me about it. I love reading the progress and story of others, and I hope they enjoy reading about mine.

Milestones

I believe that it is very important to note milestones and achievements, whenever you are striving to improve yourself at something. No need for big celebrations, but you should at least note them in writing so that you can come back to them and see that your hard work is paying off. After all, the big achievements are nothing more than a set of small milestones put together to form a larger one.

So here are some of mine. Some of them seem incredible to me when I think about how I am changing. Others seem insignificant, but I know that they are adding up to something bigger.

I have been running only since August of this year. That will only be 5 months come New Years. In that time I have gone from...

1. watching too much television to watching next to none.
2. not being able to run more than a couple minutes, to being able to run for over 30 minutes. (and soon even longer)
3. running my first mile in over 14 minutes to being able to hold a 10:22 pace for 5k.
4. struggling to hold 10 minute pace to being able to hold 8:xx pace for short periods.
5. not running at all to running 3 to 4 times per week.
6. not even thinking about running to loving it.
7. not caring about running, to searching out and watching endless video of runners on YouTube.

Not only that, but I have entered two 5k's in the last two months, and I am always keeping my eye out for more. I spent the day over in Philadelphia watching the marathon. (If you would have told me a year ago I would be watching strangers run, I would have thought you were crazy.)

I have found an entire community of bloggers that love to run and have some of the same goals as me. There are runners that are better than me, runners that are where I used to be, and runners that are at the same level as me.

When I look back at my running, and my improvement, it gets me excited and motivated. Excited because I know I will be reaching my goals with time, and motivation to work hard for those goals.

Official Results

The website for the 5k For The Holiday run did not post official results yet, but I went directly to the Compuscore site and looked up the results.

Here are mine:

Time 32:14
Pace 10:22.4
Place 109/179
Gender 62/77
Age Group 7/7

I finished last in my age group. I think it is funny, but at least I did not finish last overall. And I can always say I finished 7th in my age group... that sounds better.

Oh Yeah... and here is the route from my Garmin. (No point in really showing this, I just like playing with my Garmin.) :)

5k For The Holiday

Today was my second 5k since I started running. It was the Run 5k For The Holiday, and benefited the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society. It is run on a very nice course that starts at a park in Burlington and loops around back to the park. Pretty flat with some hill, but not much.

I was very nervous when I arrived, for a few reasons. First, I had gotten sick around 3 in the morning and was hoping that it would not effect my run. Second, I was by myself. When I ran my first 5k I did not know anyone, but my brother was with me. I did not know anyone today either and I was by myself. Finally, my calf was hurting a little bit. Not a sharp pain but a tightness, and I was afraid it would get worse and slow me down during the run. It took a while to feel better, but I was okay after my warm ups and stretching.

I had a couple goals in mind for this 5k. First I wanted to run the entire thing without stopping. It sounds simple enough, but I have never ran 5k without a few walk breaks.

My next goal was to break 33 minutes... I know it is slow, but my pace is usually over 11 minutes per mile, except for short runs which are around 10:30 to 10:45 a mile. Breaking 33 minutes would also be a better time than my first 5k and therefore be a PR.

I started near the back of the pack, as I did in my first 5k, and planned to start slow enough that I would not wear myself out. Since I have my awesome new Garmin Forerunner 305 I was able to keep an eye on my pace and go exactly as planned.

The run felt great from the beginning. Believe it or not I passed more people than passed me. I was feeling excited, but calm. I was keeping my pace a little faster than 11:00 and feeling good. I continued to pass people and did not once feel like walking.

As I got close to the end I almost slowed for a walk break because I was forming a cramp in my side. I think I may have taken a drink of water too fast. As I started to slow, I told myself not to and kept going. I could see the finish now!

I turned the corner for the final straightaway to the finish line and tried to push it harder. I could only pick up the pace a little bit because I was getting worn down. I did finish strong and did not walk the entire thing!

Official results are not posted yet, but my Garmin time is 32:12 with these splits...
Mile 1 - 10:37 (10:37 pace)
Mile 2 - 20:44 (10:08 pace)
Mile 3 - 31:02 (10:18 pace)
Mile 3.1 - 32:12 (9:00 pace)

According to my Garmin (I love this thing by the way) My best pace was 8:15, but I am sure that I only held this for a short time... It was probably while I was passing someone since I usually speed up when I come around them. It also said I had a HR of 122 bpm in my last split... which is funny since I was not wearing a HR monitor. It must have picked up some one's monitor when I was coming through the finish.

When I was leaving I stopped to talk to one of the other runners. We talked about how we got into running and how much fun it is... I truly love running and every time I have a run like this it just makes me love it more.

Good For What Ails You

This week has been a little rough.

After getting home from the marathon on Sunday I started feeling sick. It came on pretty strong Sunday night and when I woke Monday morning I felt like I was about to die. I had to call out of work, not something I usually do, and I slept most of the day.

Tuesday, a day I normally run, I felt good enough to go to work, but not good enough to run. My body ached and I wanted to stay in bed. I couldn't though because it appeared my youngest son was getting pink eye and I had to take him to the doctor. No pink eye, but he was developing an ear infection.

Wednesday was better. I had a full day of work, but I still felt kind of crappy. I was late getting out of work because I had so much to do and when I got home I felt like doing nothing but sleeping... too bad though, I needed to go out and get a few things for Thanksgiving.

Thursday... I can not believe Thanksgiving is here already. I wanted to run a Turkey trot today, or at least do a long run in the morning, but did not feel up to it. I did have a good day though, we deep fried a turkey and had a great feast. We had a fire going outside and stood around it talking while keeping an eye on the turkey fryer.

Friday morning. I still felt stuffy, but after sitting up for a while my head cleared a bit. I decided to go for a run. Since it has been so long since running I decided to do a very slow pace and only do a mile. I ended up getting to a mile and a quarter a decided to keep going. I got to a mile and a half and still kept going. I decided to stop at two miles.

The run was actually the best I had done in quite some time. Very good quality at a comfortable pace. My head was cleared up and my headache was gone. I did start coughing and almost chucked a little, but that was only from all the snot and mucus that drained into my stomach. Sorry about being so gross.

This just boosted my love for running. It actually makes you feel better.

Daydreaming

Even though I do not do it as much as I did when I was a child, I still love to daydream.

The best time to daydream is while running. You can turn your legs on auto pilot and let your mind drift into another world. It can also help you get through the tough parts of your run.

Today I ran in the bitter cold, and throughout the run I was imagining myself running a marathon... and winning it! When I came to the final turn I imagined myself coming around the last turn of a marathon and kicking it into high gear, running neck and neck against Ryan Hall and making it a pure guts race for the win. I of course beat him out by a few feet.

I know this sounds childish, and it is, but sometimes you have to forget the world and just float in fantasy.

By the way, I finished this particular route in record time, and I ran the best pace I have ever ran. Still slow, 10:20 minutes per mile, but still showing improvement in both pace and endurance!

Cold Run and Gummy Bear Massacre

A lot of things to talk about regarding today's run. It was definitely a weird one.

As I am getting ready I look outside to see what the weather looks like. It looks amazingly cold outside, but the thing I notice most is the police officer pulled over to the side of the road across the street. He is getting out of his car and looking along the ground for something. He gets back in his car and drives away. Hmm. Weird.

So I go outside to start my warm up. It is amazingly cold outside. The coldest I have run in ever, but I am enjoying it for some reason. As I am warming up and stretching another cop car pulls up and two cops get out. They0 start walking through a small bunch of trees across the street with flashlights looking for something along the ground. I take off down the street, expecting them to stop me and ask if I have noticed anything, but they just say good morning and I am on my way.

On Sundays I usually run down to a battlefield park that is down the street from me, along the river. As I started my run I began to tell myself that I may cut it short, because it is so cold. I do this sometimes, but as usual when I get to the point where I might turn around I just keep running and finish the whole distance as planned.

About half way through my run I see some colored spots along the ground. It took me a minute to figure out what it was, but finally I realized that it was gummy bears. Tons of them all over the side of the road. It was a massacre. Perhaps the cops were looking for their killers.

I also passed a guy walking his dog this morning. He was bundled up pretty good and trying to block himself from the wind. He pulled his dog close as I ran by. I smiled and said good morning and he nodded back with a very puzzled look on his face and said good morning. He really did think I was crazy.

On my way back I passed another guy. This one was sitting on his porch smoking a cigarette. At the time I was taking a short walk break. I said good morning with a smile, and he said the same. Since I was walking he also had time to say "one day we sweat, the next day we freeze." He was referencing the fact that the weather this past week had been so nice you would actually sweat pretty easy, and now it was freezing cold. I agreed with him, but then realized...

I always sweat... and I picked up the pace and finished running.

I finished this run in a 10:55 pace or so... still pretty slow, but it is a great improvement. This was my third run in a row breaking 11:00 pace.

A Short Prayer And A Long Run

I love running in the mornings, but when I wake up early in the morning my body aches and I never feel like getting up. When I finally do get up it usually takes me half an hour to get moving and another fifteen minutes to get dressed and ready to run. I know that part of this problem would be solved with a new mattress, but that is not the point of the story.

All week I have planned on running 3.1 miles... it may not seem long, but it is my longest so far. I decided to do it Saturday morning and was looking forward to getting up early and getting into the run. I knew that I would be slow starting in the morning, but I did not want to start off my run like that. I talked to God the night before and asked him that I get a good night sleep and wake refreshed and without any aches.

This seems like such a simple little prayer and is insignificant in many ways, but God answered me. When I woke up Saturday morning my body was feeling good and I was ready to go. I did not even hit the snooze button.

I meditated on God and prayer during the first half of the run and felt great. The morning was overcast, yet beautiful. I was through the first two miles with a single 60 second walk break. The last mile was a little tougher, but the toughest part was the last half mile which consisted of two rather steep hills... something I did not realize when I mapped out the distance on the runnersworld.com training tool. I ended the run with a time of 35:35, which is a pace of 11:29. Pretty good for myself!

I know that three miles is not a long distance for most, but I also know that a lot of people who read this will understand what an accomplishment this is for a beginner. Being a beginner can be frustrating at times because progress is slow, but for me it is great because almost everyday has a milestone.

Three miles is my long run right now, but before long it will be my daily run.