Race Recap Trifecta

Okay, so I've admitted that I've been on a blogging and training slump.  However in my mind, I still feel guilty about both, so in an act of utter self-congratulatory preening redemption, I'm going to hit you with my last 3 race recaps cliff notes style!

Warrior Dash

Setting:  9/17/11, Manchester, TN.  A beautiful day if not a bit warm.  This was the site for Bonnaroo.

Summary:  This was a 5K obstacle course with about 11 obstacles which included demolished cars, scaling walls, fire and a mud pit!  It was as if Bonnaroo and Cross-fit had an unholy union and spawned a race.  Most notable were the number of grossly obese and out-of-shape people who attended.  Give a man a fuzzy viking hat (looks more like a water buffalo hat from the Flinstones) and he'll try anything.  At one scaling wall, I had hooked my arm under a screaming woman and helped her over the wall.  She was very thankful as I dropped off the wall and ran onto finish the race.

Conclusion:  23rd out of 612 men, age 40-45.  525th out of 6209 overall.  32:48.00 finish time.  9:23/mi pace.  This was a fun race and would have been even more fun had I run it with some of my friends.  Next year, I may race it in the morning and come back wth my friends in the afternoon and run it again!

The Middle Half

Setting:  10/15/11, Murfreesboro, TN.  A perfect day for a race.  Started off cool and stayed cool even after the sun came up.  The course was relatively flat and fast with a ton of volunteers and crowd support.

Summary:  This was the annual half-marathon in Murfreesboro.  This was the race that I had circled on my calendar all year.  Typically I run pretty fast in the 'Boro, so I was hoping that I could break my half-marathon record there.  Despite a light summer training schedule, I went out pretty fast and was able to maintain my pace.  My watch was showing me an average pace of 7:21-ish/mi, but at mile 9 and 10 I started to notice that my measured distance was off significantly from the course markers and my watch distance.  I figured that my watch was off by about .4 of a mile.  Doing even more math in my head, I figured that I would not get my goal time of a sub 1:39:00.  When I hit the finish line, the clock read 1:40:00.  I later learned that the police officers directing race traffic accidently sent the early runners the wrong way, and we ran an extra .4 mile, which explained the deviation between the mile markers and my watch.  All times were declared unofficial as the race directors could not determine who ran farther and who did not (the officers realized their mistake later and directed the remaining racers correctly along the course).

Conclusion:  23rd out of 153 men, age 40-44.  94th out of 1776 overall.  Clock time of 1:40:00 for 13.509 miles, 7:24/mi pace.  Re-calculated time for 13.1 miles, 1:36:56, 7:24/mi pace.  A new PR either way.  If not for the hiccup with the distance, this was a near perfect race in regards to the conditions, course, support, and crowd.  I really enjoyed it.  Except for the distance screw-up.  That really cheesed me off.

The Lincoln Family Y Half-Marathon

Setting:  10/22/11, Phoenix, AZ.  Phoenix in October starts off very cool in the morning and heats up quickly when the sun rises.  By the middle of the race, the temps were between 80 and 90 but there was a breeze that helped alleviate the heat.  The course ran through the South Mountain Regional Park and was lots of rolling hills.  The scenary was beautiful, but it also had a stark, desolate edge to it.  Not nearly enough crowd presence (practically none) for my tastes.

Summary:  I had flown out to Scottsdale for a work conference and learned that this race would take place on the last day of my conference.  Seizing the opportunity, I signed up for it earlier in the year and planned to use it as training run.  This had not taken into account my experience at the Middle Half.  Now with something to prove, I decided to turn this race into a full blown race, but realizing my limitations, I was hoping instead for a strong finish around a 7:30-ish/mi pace.  However the combination of jet lag, a half week of gluttonous eating and drinking, and only 4 hours sleep, and I was lucky to make it off the starting line.  My pace starting out was well below my goal pace and the rolling hills were quickly becoming a challenge.  Like the landscape, the crowd support was bare, which was a big negative for me.  I feed off crowd energy to help me push through some of the harder miles, so when there is no crowd for me to play up to to cheer me on, I start to drag.  And drag, I did.  By mile 7, I was spent and knew that I would be lucky to finish under 2 hours.  By mile 10, I was pretty baked by exhaustion, the heat, muscle cramps, and a slight lingering hangover, and I thought I would be lucky to finish at all.  Pride kept me moving and I did finish the race, albeit much the worse for wear.  I gathered what was left of my sunken pride and my pounding headache and headed back to my hotel to pack up and catch my flight back home.  On a side note, the starter for the race was Wyatt Earp's great-great grand nephew or some such.  He carried on the family name of "Wyatt Earp" and even dressed the part, mustache and all.  He started the race off with ridiculously loud shotgun.  That was pretty cool.

Conclusion:  17th out of 49 men, ages 40-49.  66th out of 327 overall.  1:47:38, 8:13/mi pace.  Not my best time in the world, but not my worst either.  Had I used this race as a pure training long run, I would have been more than happy.  However since the Middle Half, I'm still feeling "unofficial."  I run races to prove myself, and the "official" stamp, as superficial as it may be, validates my hard work and displays for the world to see (at least the parts that decide to check) that I have accomplished something.  So when I string together 2 less than ideal races, I tend to get a little pissy.  Still I'm glad that I got to do the race.  It was fun-ish but hard. 

Next week, I'm going back to my regular training schedule just in time for the Lungevity 5K next Saturday.  Let's hope I'm ready, because I don't know how much longer I can stand listening to my pissy, whiny ass!

The Reality Check

The problem with blogging is that at some point you will hit a creative wall and fail in your bloggity updates.  The problem with being a runner is that a some point you will hit a wall in your training and you will fail to keep up your training.  I don't actually like to think of it as a failure but more of the body and mind working together to force you to rest and recover.  After running two half-marathons on consecutive Saturdays, I can confess that I have hit that recovery wall.  This week I have not had the will to muster the strength to go run much at all.  This would be all and good if I didn't prop up the time off from running with a mango key lime pie from Publix nearly every night this week.  A runner is intimately aware of what his or her body can handle.  We know the sound of every creak and pop our joints make as we struggle out of bed.  We search out the familiar tightness in our calves as we stretch before a hard run.  We suffer every cramp and spasm to know when we start to break down.  We know our limits so that we can routinely test them and push past them on occasion.  My reality is that despite my best efforts, I'm getting older and it's getting harder to push my body to its limits. And this week I hit mine.  Hard.  I'm resting and trying not to feel guilty about it.  But in reality I know that I needed the rest.  So off to rest I go!

The Non-Competitive Learning Curve

I realize that I'm not always the best judge of what passes for "normal" nowadays, but when people try to tell me that they don't like to compete (in a race, game, etc.) but just have fun, it takes everything I have to hide my look of befuddled incredulity (honestly, most times, I don't hide it all). Can you NOT compete and have fun? I find the idea shocking. What more fun is there than to see your enemies and rivals laid out at your feet awash in defeat? Is it not everyone's dream to stand over your fellow competitors in haughty derision at their loss? Is not victory most sweet stolen from those who are not awesome enough to take it away from you? Playing for fun...and not to win? Sounds like a commie plot to me.


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Adrenaline Leakage

Tomorrow is the Warrior Dash in Manchester, TN.  For those of you not in the know, it's a 5K obstacle course that includes mud pits, slides, pipe crawls and fire jumping.  Oh...and horned warrior hats.  You read that right.  Horned.  Warrior.  Hats.  You had me at "horned."  To prepare myself for this race, I've considered wrestling alligators, swinging with gorillas and chasing my dog through the doggy park.  This all seemed too 'soft' to me, so instead I decided to cut back on my mileage and weightlifting to run a couple miles with grade schoolers.  I kid.  Coaching the SBA cross country team has been surprisingly invigorating despite the logistics of managing a 100 + strong member team.  Couple the nervous energy of herding small children about, my own over-flowing Joel-ness, and various hardcore rap tunes, and you get one super-pumped warrior-to-be.  The trick of course will be to not do something incredibly stupid tomorrow to try to win.  I promise you this is no easy feat for me.  I can be INSANELY stupid when it comes to competition.  Did I mention that winners get a horned warrior hat upgrade?  Oh, yeah.  IT. IS. SO. ON.

The Franklin Classic 5K Race Recap

Yesterday, I celebrated Labor Day by running in the Franklin Classic 5K Run/Walk. If you look closely at the image to the left, you will notice that there was also a 10K. Anyone who knows me would then be asking yourself, "I wonder why this Dingus didn't run the 10K also? Or even both races?" (In my self-absorbed head, everyone is always wondering why I do the things that I do.) This is becoming a very tired song, but again my training has dropped off lately. Not entirely my fault this time (I'm not just watching TV and shoveling pie into my face) as I have been trying to run/organize/coach/herd my son's school's cross country team through this season. So for the last several weeks, I haven't done much over 20 miles with my longest run being no more than 8 miles. Ug-ly.

So in a move uncharacteristic of myself, I used some good sense and logic to realize that I couldn't race the 10K effectively, much less both races, and signed up for the 5K. Even if I totally sucked, I could at least make a good show of a 5K, right? Seemed right to me.

So race day is a dreary kind of cool and rainy day. Most of the rain had let up by the time the 5K rolled around, but it was still "spitting" a bit. I lined up in the 6-8 min/mile corral. RANT: I realize that everyone likes to be up front and everyone believes that they can be run a 4 minute mile. If you're one of these people and you can even come close to a 4 minute mile, I salute you. I can't do that, but I know that I can do 6:50/mi. However if you're one of those people that insist on lining up front and so that you can mark out your walking trail first, I just want to shake you. You people always seem to be right in front of me, slowing me down and breathing my oxygen. It just ain't right. I don't have anything against walkers. I love 'em. I love 'em lined up in the back, out of my way. So do us all a favor and line up where you actually think you will finish. Rant done.

The race went pretty well. I managed negative splits turning in a 6:54, 6:49 and 6:29 (and a 6:16/mi pace for the last .1 mile). I finished 53rd overall (out of 1t 006) with a time of 21:08, 6:49/mi. This earned me 3rd place in my age group and a new PR! Compared to the Goodlettsville 4 Miler that I had run over a month ago, this race was much better. I had really pushed myself and left almost nothing on the course. The field was pretty big, so placing meant a lot to me. Beyond that, the course was challenging but not overly difficult, and as usual the Striders put on a well-organized event. The race benefitted a great cause, and there was plenty of community support. I would definitely consider doing this race again.

The Cross Country Dilemma

Before we get started, I could have sworn that "dilemma" was actually spelled "dilemNa" but if Google says I'm wrong, I must be wrong (and the longer I look at it, I know that I was wrong).  On to my self-indulgent ranting!  At some point after my kids' school started, I stopped being a runner and became an administrative coordinator.  Thanks to the political shenanigans of my lovely wife, I am now the cross country coach at my kids' school.  I'm in charge of around 113 kids (the number changes depending on the whimsical nature of kids who want to play with their friends after school and the other kids who want to quit because the coach is a psycho meanie-face) from grades K-8.  Thankfully I have a cadre of awesome volunteer assistant coaches to help me herd cats keep up with the kiddos. 

And while I love running with the kids, I have to admit I don't get to do enough of that.  Most of my time before and after practice is spent making sure that I have plenty of volunteers, that I know which kids have joined or quit, that I have emailed every parent with practice updates, and that I'm sufficiently stocked in forms, first aid kits, water, and cups.  The list of things that needs to get done between practices seems pretty endless and seriously cuts into my running/workout time.

Don't get me wrong...I actually am having a good time.  Since XC (that's how all the cool kids abbreviate it (my lovely wife thinks these are the same kids that spell dilemma with 2 m's)), my mileage has dropped significantly.  Between work, school and having a semi-normal life, I have not had a chance to get in all my training runs.  Worse for me is that I'm having such a good time running with the kids that I want to run all the time.  They're really inspiring when they push themselves hard and suck it up so it doesn't look like they want to quit, even though they're pretty wiped.  Even better is that some of them seem to actually enjoy it!  I miss that feeling sometimes when I'm trying to slog through the hard miles, but when I run with my kids, sometimes I touch that feeling of joy and fun again for the briefest of moments.  And you know what...that is pretty cool.

The Goodlettsville Classic 4 Mile Run Race Recap

Another race, another race recap.  This year was another first for me, The Goodlettsville Classic 4 Mile Run.  Even though I used to work in the Goodlettsville area for a year, I had never been to Moss Wright Park.  Of course in those days, I was about 50 lbs. heavier and the only place I ran was to the Krispy Kreme when the hot, fresh doughnuts sign turned on.  In any case, I was back in Goodlettsville for this odd distance race.  By now, you all know the story.  My training to-date has been less than stellar.  My mileage has been short, but I thought the combination of speed work, hill work and weights would help carry me through.  Since this was a Nashville Strider race, I assumed that the field would be large and competitive.  Although it was competitive, it was a pretty small field. 

The race course itself was relatively flat and beautiful.  It was a mix of paved and tight gravel paths.  Fortunately my trail running made those transitions from gravel to pavement easy to manage.  Ultimately, I finished 27th overall out of 169. This won me a 2nd place award in my age group with a time of 28:48, 7:12/mi.  Was this worthy of a top 3 finish?  Apparently, but in hindsight, I probably could have tried harder.  In hindsight, I probably should have tried harder, and it makes me mad at myself that I did not.  Yes, it's nice to win awards and accolades, but if I get them for putting out a second best effort, is it worth as much?  Maybe, but I still won't feel good about it.  It was a good race with a nice course that deserved more effort from me, whether or not my level of training was up to snuff.  Next year, I might race it again, but if I do, I will do it right.