Tag Archives: running

2006 Run Around the Square

4 Replies

This past Saturday, I ran in the Run Around the Square 5K. My stopwatch time was 27:05 (8:44 pace) and my chip time was 27:21 (8:49 pace). The course was a lot steeper – a lot harder – than I’d anticipated. My first mile time was about 8:18 and I think my last mile time was probably about 8:30. Obviously, the steep second mile kicked my butt. Hopefully I’ll do better at Run Shadyside on September 16, which has a very flat course. I’m hoping for a time of 26 minutes or better.

2006 Us Too Father’s Days 10K

1 Reply

[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 :)

2 Replies

"…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

2 Replies

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

2 Replies

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.