Category Archives: export-health

2006 Us Too Father’s Days 10K

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[Us Too 10K bib]Well, that could have gone better.

I didn’t suck as badly as I did in the 2005 Great Race, but I’m not thrilled with my performance in the Us Too Father’s Day 10K. I placed 15th out of 22 men in the 20-29 age group and 179 out of 277 finishers with a time of 58:29. That’s a pathetic 9:25 pace. I’d hoped to finish under 45:00 if possible and definitely under 50:00. I think the biggest think that hurt me was the heat. It was a humid 80+° morning and there weren’t many water stations.

The insufficient water was my only major beef with an otherwise well-organized race. There was a station at about mile 1 and then another around mile 4. There might have been a third that i’m forgetting, but the point is that water stations were few and far between. The Great Race last year was a scorcher, but there was plenty of water along the route. Having so little water on such a hot day strikes me as pretty irresponsible. To make matters worse, by the time 10K racers were finished, 5K racers and their friends/families had taken all the bottled water. All that was left a guy pouring from a gallon jug into the same tiny cups used at the water stations. *grumble*

I’m still on the lookout for July and August races. If you know of any good ones, please let me know.

P.S. "No strollers" means "NO FREAKIN’ STROLLERS, @$$#*%&!!!"

A Great Run :)

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"…I decided to go for a little run…For no particular reason I just kept on going." – Forrest Gump

This weekend, I’m in Arlington, Virginia with my wife visting some of her friends from college. This morning, I went for a run on the Custis Trail. I thought I’d run at least 5K and perhaps go 10K if I felt good. As it turned out, not only did I feel good, I felt fantastic. I just kept on running until I hit the Washington & Old Dominion Trail, and I ran for a while on that. I turned around after running for 45 minutes. I felt like I was running about an 8:30 pace, so I probably went between 10 and 11 miles.

That’s the farthest I’ve ever run in a single shot. Woohoo!

Even better, I felt like I could have run a lot farther. For the first time, I actually feel like I could run a half marathon or longer. Today is a good day. 🙂

Addendum I forgot to mention that I ran without my Walkman. I haven’t run with it since.

2006 Pittsylvania Mile Run

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I ran the Pittsylvania Mile today. I was the only guy in the 20-29 group, and 30-39 was empty, so I ended running with the 40-49 crowd. They all kicked my butt. That’s OK, though, because I wasn’t running to beat anyone but myself. A couple months ago, I set a goal for myself to run a mile in under 7:30. With training help from my buddies in West Penn Track Club, I achieved that goal.

7:10! Woohoo!

Training Update

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My weekly training sessions with folks from the West Penn Track Club have been really helpful. Yesterday evening, I did something that there’s no way I could have done before training with them. I ran two miles’ worth of 400 meter intervals at an average pace of 7:00! If I keep this up, odds are good that I’ll be able to run the Pittsylvania Mile in under 7:30.

In other training news, I ran 10K with Edey today and got her to run a personal record for both that distance (49:34) and the split time (28:50). That’s about an 8:00 pace. I definitely didn’t run the first half as fast as I could have because I didn’t want to leave Edey behind. I figure I could have shaved a minute or two off had I been going full speed. I’m hoping to be able to run the Father’s Day 10K in 45 minutes or less.

2006 Race for the Cure 5K

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[2006 Race for the Cure 5K bib]It was naive of me to think that I could run a personal best at the Race for the Cure. There were far too many walkers clogging the route. The really annoying thing is that there shouldn’t have been any walkers on the race course at all. The walkers had their own course and were scheduled to start at a different time. Obviously a lot of people didn’t realize that or didn’t care. After all, rules apply to other people. *grumble* Next year I’ll definitely start close to the front of the pack. I’d rather be passed by the really fast people than have to pass the really slow people.

Anyhow, though my time of 27:30 wasn’t a personal best, it was still my best recorded race time. I figure I lost 2-3 minutes on the first mile alone. After that, though, I ran a hair over an 8-minute pace. Later in the day, I ran a training 5K in Schenley park with Edey and Father Michael Darcy (of the Oratory). My time on that was about 25:30.

My next race will be West Penn Track Club’s Pittsylvania Mile. I’m hoping for 7:30 or better. After that, I’ll be running the Father’s Days Us TOO 10K for prostate cancer research. My goal is to run it in 45 minutes or less. I’ve done sub-49:00 once in training, so I know it’s not impossible.