I got up this morning at 0545 with my son and we ate breakfast and played until I left the house at 0700 to get to Jacksonville after having run a mile warm-up in the sub-division. I'm glad I ran that mile because I didn't get there until about twenty 'til eight and had to register, use the restroom and change into my flats. I ran to each destination and got a slight warm-up that way and did a few strides at the starting line. I was sweating at that point and I figured that with temps in the low 70s and humidity that was also in the 70% range I was warmed up pretty well. I was wrong.
The gun went off and Coach C. and I ran together for most of the first mile until he fell off the pace. I felt pretty stiff and dead in my legs and eased into my race and hit the first mile slightly behind Joy (hereby referred to as the "Bionic Woman") in 6:27.78. It sure didn't feel like I had run that slow so I sped up and started to pass people. I 3-4 people the second mile and hit two in 13:15.45 with a 6:47.67 split still within 2-3 seconds of the Bionic Woman. I was in contact with a strung out group of about five people and I started picking them off as the Bionic Woman started surging and building up a lead on me. I kept the turnover going and started surging at every other phone pole until I hit what I figured to be the half mile to go point. I passed my pal Matt, who wasn't having a good day, and caught a few high school kids. I had been dueling with a guy in yellow shorts most of the last mile and I thought I broke him but he passed me with about 400 to go and I couldn't run him down again. I clicked my watch at the starting line, which I figured to be in the area of the three mile mark, and passed it in 19:20.98 with a mile split of 6:05.53. I'm pretty sure I didn't run a 6:05 mile. I ran the last bit of the race in 26.00 and didn't vomit which tells me that I was no where near the three mile mark when I took the split because a 26.00 induces involuntary evacuation of the stomach 100% of the time. I ran into the finish chute and stopped my watch at 19:46.98. Not bad for feeling tired.
I ran a 14 minute cool-down with the Bionic Woman and a few other people from the Club as we waited for the results to come up. The Bionic Woman won the women's race with an official time of 19:18, which was about 10-11 seconds faster than what she had timed herself at. She had one of those Polar pedometer things on and it measured the course out at 3.14 (pi!). Nyle got 3.06 on his and someone else got 3.20 on theirs. I ended up winning my age group with an official time of 19:32 (at least that's what I think he said). And Yellow Shorts won his age group in 19:30. Ironically, I beat Yellow Shorts at Scholastic by about a second and he returned the favor today.
Coach placed second in his age group with a time of 20:48 but left before the awards.
I feel good about the race. I gave a pretty even effort and only got passed by two people (Bionic Woman and Yellow Shorts) and I passed close to ten or more the last two miles of the race. I didn't wimp out the last mile and I pushed myself right up into that discomfort zone and to the edge of regurgitation. The last time I ran this race was in 2004, and it was my very first race after four years of nothing. I finished it in 23:26 and took almost FOUR minutes off that time today. I'm pretty happy about that.
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"I finished it in 23:26 and took almost FOUR minutes off that time today. I'm pretty happy about that."
In that case, I think you better be sure to run this race again in 2010. You'll probably get under 16!!!
I was interested in your brief discussion of the Polar pedometer. There's a running group down here called the Trailheads. They run exclusively on trails, and because of that, the pedometers have become popular in their circle (GPS systems inevitably won't work on single track trails due to dense foliage).
My opinion is that they are great for that sort of thing. If you're doing a trail run and you want to know how far you went plus or minus 5%, perfect. However, in a 5K, I think I want more accuracy. That 5% (which is roughly the variation beween "Nyle" and "someone else") is large enough that I'm likely to just ignore the thing. I mean, the difference between 3.06 and 3.20 is almost a minute.
That's one of the cool things about cycling- you get fairly accurate numbers on your cycling computer in real time as you ride.
I agree. I measure all my routes with my bike odometer. I had one of the Timex Time-Distance-Speed things and it was cool except when summer came around and foliage developed on the trees. It wasn't very thick foliage around Chatham but it was still enough to disrupt the satelite link. When you think about it, 5% error comes out to .15 miles just on a 5k. That is a good 50-55 seconds for most people.
Exactly.
I borrowed a friend's Garmin when I was thinking about buying one, and on a December day in Chapel Hill, it couldn't find me for about a mile. If it's having trouble in December when the leaves are off the trees, it's never going to find me around here in July.
One place where I'm told the GPS systems do very well is at the beach. That's great, but I might take three runs a year at the beach. That doesn't justify the cash.
On the other hand, I have great faith in the google maps-based online pedometers, such as runstoppable or gmaps-pedometer. A few years ago, 12 of us from Chapel Hill did a 200 mile relay from Napa Valley to Santa Cruz. I measured out every leg of the race with gmaps-pedometer, and they were all within a tenth of a mile. That's pretty impressive. In flat areas, they do particular well.
I used the gmaps pedometer link that you sent me a few times and then all of a sudden the map of Chatham went from being current to being about 7-10 years out of date. My end of my subdivision doesn't even show up on the maps. Same with usatf.org. I had intended to print all my routes out and put them in a binder for my wife so that I could just open the binder up to the route I was running that day and if I didn't come home she had an idea where to find my body. Instead, I have to be careful about not running into cars and such.
As I am not much of a runner, Iafter reading how fast y'all were running I had an involuntary release of the donut I just ate.
Hey bam, funny you should mention that you involuntarily released the donut you were eating because I came home after the race and ate a few of those Hostess donettes and had a piece of carmel pecan pie later after I ate dinner and drank a few beers.
For breakfast this morning I had two pieces of apple pie with cool whip and coffee. I would probably run faster if I ate better but why exercise all the time if you don't let yourself splurge? Am I right?
You are absolutely right. I think one of the things I like about running is that I feel I can eat and drink as much as I want. And when you run a mile in 9 minutes, I figured that if my ass is out there sweating for so long then I need to replenish.
Bernardo
I'd like to see the two of your eat breakfast together. Aaron would be eating pie and cool whip, and Bernardo would be drinking a chocolate milkshake. Breakfasts of champions indeed.
Another of my personal faves for breakfast is leftover birthday cake. I'm usually a cereal, yogurt or fruit kind of guy but if there is pie or cake I eat it for breakfast.
Usually, I do cereal because it's quick, and I'm almost always running behind in the morning. On occassion, I'll do waffles. If we're on the road, I'll probably grab a bagel, and if we go out for the breakfast, it's typically huevos rancheros.
Weekdays it is cereal for me. Weekends it is either pancakes, waffles, or omelets.
No tortilla-based foods for breakfast? I thought you ate everything with a tortilla, B?
**NOTE: B really does eat unusual foods with tortillas. No need to alert the PC police unnecessarily**
Nate, you're going to have the ACLU shutting down my blog!!!!
Aaron,
Don't know what made me read up on you today--think I was needing motivation for my morning run! But you crack me up--here's my fave: "I ran the last bit of the race in 26.00 and didn't vomit which tells me that I was no where near the three mile mark when I took the split because a 26.00 induces involuntary evacuation of the stomach 100% of the time."
Heehee--keep up the good work!
I only puked one time from the ages of 12 to 21 after a race and it was during a 5k where I sprinted the last 0.1 in 28 seconds. I have sprinted that hard twice since I started running again and if I don't empty my stomach in the chute I do it a minute or two afterward. I hate it.
Good to hear from you Peg, tell Jordan I said hi.
I'll tell Jordan for ya! He has been on cloud nine this week. 2 calls from Coaches in Colorado this week and he heads out there for camp and an official visit at Adams State 7/22 and we will visit Western State College the day before in Gunnison. He was showing sheep with Grandpa up near Chicago last week and a Coach from St. Xavier came to see him and spent an hour with him. Does wonders for the motivation for him to get out and run in this heat! See you soon!
Peg
He was talking to Coach Caton (Havana) and me, after Scholastic, about visiting Adams State this summer and sounded pretty excited about it. Are Western State and St. Xavier D-2or 3?
I bet he's out there running his butt off now that he's had coaches sniffing around! That's awesome.
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