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202 Days to Comrades - Freedom 10 Miler

It was a near perfect day as I rolled out of the house this morning and headed to the church. It was a cool morning, the sun was shining and there was only a very light breeze I knew it would be a good day. 

After teaching a class on the Anabaptists I headed into our 10:15 worship service. It was a communion Sunday and I pronounced the benediction at 11:20, just 40 minutes to race time. As normal I spent a few minutes shaking hands as people made their way out of the service and headed into the fellowship hall for coffee. It was now 11:30... 30 minutes to race time. I followed the crowd into the fellowship hall and spent a few minutes chatting with folks before making an early exit for my office where I would change into my running gear before heading to the race, 11:35... 25 minutes to race time.

After a quick change into my running gear and a bathroom stop I hopped into the car, 11:40... 20 minutes to race time, and drove to the start, 11:45... 15 minutes to start. Getting out of the car I walked over to the packet pick up and grabbed my race number and timing chip and pinned them onto my shirt, 11:50... 10 minutes to race time, I knew I could make it, lots of time to spare!

My race plan was to run a very conservative race today, I thought I'd be really happy with a 7:30 pace and content to plod through at a pedestrian 8:00 pace. 

When the gun went off I was content to find a comfortable pace to run and was a little surprised when I ran through the first mile in 7:21, I certainly didn't feel like I was running that fast. I decided to tuck in behind Bob (I found out his name as all the course officials were calling him by name as we passed by) and the second mile disappeared in 7:02. 

I wasn't sure what to make of this but decided to see if I could maintain this pace for a while and I just settled in. After 5 miles I was averaging a 7:12 mile and started to wonder if I could hold on to this pace and set a PR. The miles began to disappear, mile 6, 7, 8 still on a 7:12 pace, mile 9, still on a 7:12 pace.

As I entered the final mile I was trying to remember what my PR was and wondered if I might beat it. As I crossed the finish line I stopped my watch and it read 1:12:01. The official results currently say I ran a 1:12:07 but I think that has to be the clock time and not the chip time, as I can't see how I could be off by six seconds. Either way it was a clear improvement on my previous best of 1:12:47.

A great day and a surprising race result. I really like these races that start later in the day, I almost always run them better than I think I will.

 

Leaving the church I jumped into my car and drove to the start of the race

Lumberjack Days

It was supposed to be a long run day, my calendar said 17 miles but I'd signed up for this ten mile race. It was a beautiful morning, not to warm and very little humidity to speak of, the wind was from the NW and the race was a point to point run mostly heading south, a perfect day for running.

After meeting up with my friends Brian and Jan we took a short run to warm up and then it was race time. Brian and I started together as Jan took off into the distance and then I took off leaving Brian behind me. The race is mostly downhill and I plodded my way through the first mile in 7:12, my second mile came in at 7:04 and my third mile was faster still a 6:53. I realized I was going much faster than I had expected or even wanted to run. So when I hit the long uphill section I slowed way down, I didn't want to totally trash my quads with all the hard downhill running.

About half way through mile 5 Brian caught up with me and we ran together through 8 miles when I let him go ahead. I took the last couple of miles at a very comfortable pace and finished in 1:14:16. I felt great! After hanging out at the finish for a while I jogged around for a bit of a cool down (extra mile) and headed home.

I called Jenny on my way home to see if she wanted to go for a run. So together we set out for a short run of just over three miles taking my total for the day to around 15.

Unfortunately I had run the downhills a little too hard and my quads are in serious need of recovery. Perhaps next year I'll try and set a PR on this course, a very definite possibility.

Manitou 15k

It was a cool 45 degrees at race time as we lined up for one lap around White Bear Lake. My goal was to run it as a tempo run somewhere between 7:30 - 7:40 pace. I figured if I put in a lot of runs at this pace I'll be in a good position to qualify for Boston this fall.

We started running and I wasn't sure of my pace but I knew it was a little faster than I'd expected to start but I felt good. When I passed the first mile marker in 6:34 though I knew I was in trouble. I've never sustained this pace for a 5k let alone a 15k! So I slowed down a lot hoping I hadn't done to much damage and pressed on. At 5k my pace was now averaging a little under 7:00 so I was giving time back just as I should. I still ended up running faster than I intended finishing in 1:07:40 with a 7:16 average.

It felt good knowing I was able to run this pace this early in my training. I'm feeling very hopeful for a sub 3:20 marathon in the Twin Cities this fall!

Army Ten Miler

It was a beautiful morning for the race, temperature in the mid-50s and the sun shining. This is quickly becoming my favorite race. At 7:10 the had the Canadian parachute display team jump followed by the Army jump team. Then just before the start came the helicopter fly over, low enough to get everyone's blood pumping.

I was fortunate enough to be close enough to the start line to be able to get running with minimal difficulty and quickly found myself clipping along at a comfortable pace. That is until I reached the mile one marker. I crossed the first mile in 7:15 and realized this was about 15 seconds faster than I had planned for. I decided I felt fine and thought I'd see if I could sustain this pace for the race, it was a gamble.

As I pressed on I was drawing a lot of my energy and inspiration from the large contingent of amputee runners in the race. Once we hit the out and back on Independence Avenue time seemed to fly by as I watched the elite runners coming towards us and then after I'd made the turn watched to throng of runners moving up the street.

At mile 8 I realized that unless I fell or pulled a muscle I would finish with a PR and decided that I'd pick up the pace at mile 9 and push for the finish. At mile 9 there was nothing I could do, I had pushed the race as hard as I could. I felt strong on the last mile but also felt that if I pushed any harder I would leave my breakfast on the course!

I crossed the finish in 1:12:48, a 7:17 pace, my best time for this distance by 23 seconds a mile!

Our church team would once again have taken first place in the church division (if they had one, as we were the only church team in the race!) but we had to settle for a very impressive 7th place finish in the open mixed division. Well done team! 

Did I mention this is my last race before I enter the "Masters" age group!

Lumberjack Days Ten Miler

It was a beautiful morning in Stillwater, calm winds and blue sky, high end yachts filled the water, it was a perfect day for a race.

I had no idea what the topography of the course was going to be like so when we boarded the bus to start I paid careful attention to the route we took... we went uphill and then uphill some more! This was going to be a downhill race, I hoped my quads wouldn't snap before the end.

There was no great fanfare at the start, in fact I only knew the race had started because people started streaming over the start line, so I followed. For a few seconds I thought about running a comfortable pace but then decided to just go and run it. But for one training run a week before the race I hadn't gone ten miles since the National Marathon in March, so I was interested to see what I could do. My goal was to run a 7:40 pace, as I'll need to maintain this pace over 26.2 to qualify for Boston.

I did it, 7:40 pace 1:16:36 finish time.

The only question I had was, is this a PR? I ran a 7:40 pace in the Army Ten Miler last October so I knew I had ten seconds of wiggle room... It was a PR by 6 seconds!

Jenny also ran a great race but that's her story to tell, first born was a great cheer leader, second born ran a great kids mile and the little one made it a full 1/2 K in the toddlers race!

A great day shared with family and great friends, Brian and Jan.

Church Team Running The Army Ten Miler

I know it's still a few months away but registration for the Army Ten Miler is filling up fast. To date we have twelve people signed up to run on our church teams in the race. This is the largest race I've run in, 26,000 running over ten miles, it's crowded on the course but the support is fabulous, you never feel like you're running on your own.

If you know anyone in the Centreville area who might like to run with us have them get in touch with me.

My goal is to run somewhere between 7:10 and 7:15 per mile. To do this I'm going to need to get in some speed work over the summer.

A Tough Day to Run

Perhaps yesterday wasn't the best day to run a race. But run we did, the temperatures at the Army Ten Miler started in the low 70's before reaching 80+ degrees by the finish. On top of that we had oppressive humidity at around 95%. The sky was clear and the sun was hot, the last two miles being run along the freeway with absolutely no shelter from the beating sun. It was all a little crazy!

This was the story across the country yesterday as the Army Ten, the Chicago Marathon and the Twin Cities Marathon all experienced record setting temperatures for their races. In Chicago the canceled the race after four hours and pulled anyone not more than half way finished off the course, urging those beyond the half way point to walk it in. Chicago still experienced one fatality from the run.

Back in DC I was thankful to have started near the front, every second counted in heat that would finally top out at 92 degrees. Even though our race was shorter it proved to be about 400 yards to long for one gentleman who collapsed and died just before the finish. I ran by at least three or four other people who were laying down on carts with ice towels and oxygen masks on.

After consuming some 40 ounces of Gatorade on the course I then drank another 20 ounces of Gatorade and 20 more of water within about 15 minutes of finishing. 32 more ounces of water and 12 of coffee disappeared within the hour and I was able to avoid serious dehydration. If you do the math on that you will get a sense for how much fluid I had lost, that's just 4 ounces short of a gallon.

I ran well and I ran harder than I'd anticipated finishing in 1:16:42 a pace of 7:40.

I had planned on running 8:00 pace as I was supposed to run another 10 in the afternoon as part of my marathon training for Richmond but the competitor inside me couldn't let go and I pushed on. I didn't run again in the afternoon, it was just way to hot. I guess its back to back 20's the next two Sundays.

I forgot to add that for those running a slower pace they ran out of water on the second half of the course!

I'd love to tell you how our team did but there's been all kinds of problems with the website and all I know is my time, I don't even know where I placed yet. We all finished, that's the good news.

Army Ten-Miler

10469	Craigan, Neil	M37	Gainesville, VA
Gun / Chip Overall Sex Div Chip Time Pace 1:36:28 / 1:23:40 3916 /15645 3176 M 35-39 1:23:40 8:22

Army Ten-Miler

10469	Craigan, Neil	M37	Gainesville, VA
Gun / Chip Overall Sex Div Chip Time Pace 1:36:28 / 1:23:40 3916 /15645 3176 M 35-39 1:23:40 8:22