Tag Archives: series

2007 Harry C. Holland Gutbuster 8mi

On a warmer-than-average Thanksgiving morning I ran the Gutbuster 8mi. I stumbled in at 1:34:23, exhausted and sore. Man that’s a brutal course, especially when you haven’t had time to train more than once a week. My split was a little more than 43:00, about a minute slower than last year’s 4mi finish. That’s not too bad, but it means my second half time was over 51:00. Ouch! I guess there’s room for improvement next time I run this race. 😉

This wraps up my 2007 racing. Any running outside of training will be hashing until the 2008 Just a Short Run.

2007 Pittsylvania XC Challenge

On November 10, I ran in WPTC’s XC Challenge and finished in a sluggish 34:06. Last year I finished in 32:03, and I’d hoped to break 30:00 this year. Oh well, I can’t expect much considering how badly screwed up my training has been due to being so busy with research. In addition to running, I (with help from my wonderful wife), fulfilled my social event responsibilities as WPTC’s membership chair by cooking hotdogs, which were well received by the cold and hungry runners.

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2007 Great Race 10K

On September 30, I ran in the 30th anniversary Great Race. I finished in a somewhat disappointing 53:56. That’s actually 5 seconds faster than last year’s 54:01, which you might think would make me happy. Well, considering I wanted to beat that time by 4:02, 5 seconds is a pretty disappointing margin of improvement. The good news is that I’ve progressed to the point that 53:56 felt like a bad run this year, whereas 54:01 felt like a good run last year.

2007 IKEA Half Marathon

Yesterday morning I ran the IKEA Half Marathon. It was very humid, which was less than ideal, but between the light drizzle and the temperature being about 20° cooler than last year, the conditions were pretty good. Things got off to a bad start for me, though, because the organizers banned iPods this year. That really pissed me off. Consequently, I may boycott this and any other race that bans iPods.

Anyhow, I’d hoped to finish under 2 hours, but I’m not disappointed with my 2:03:07 (9:24 pace). I wonder how the use of an iPod would have affected my time. Also, I had to pee at about 4.5 miles, which cost me at least a minute. Damn you, enlarged prostate!.