Year of Races

Dirty Spokes

This weekend is my first trail running event.  I’ll be Running the River’s Ridge at Boling Park in Canton, GA for 4.5 miles as part of the Dirty Spokes trail running series.  After the Run for the Children 5k on Saturday I drove over to Boling Park to scope out the trails and give them a bit of a test run.

Earlier in the week, I had purchased some trail shoes:  the Asics Gel-Trail Attack 5 WR.  I paid $81 for them at Big Peach Running Co. on 3/20, came home, looked up the shoes on Amazon and saw that they had my size for $41.  Uggh.  So, I ordered them from Amazon and returned the other pair to Big Peach.  $40 is $40.  So, anyway, I was looking forward to breaking them in on some trails.

I ended up doing about 3 miles in the shoes (Garmin stats).  They felt ok, but, around mile 2, my left knee started hurting pretty good.  I’m not sure if it was the new shoes, the new type of running caused by trails, or the fact that I had already done a 23:15 5k about an hour before.  It makes me a bit nervous about the race on Saturday because I’m not sure how the knee will feel.  I’ve since done 2 sessions on the treadmill without issues, so maybe it really is the new shoes.  I’m going to get back out to Boling Park one more time before the race and test them out again.

Asics Gel-Trail Attack 5 WR

The actual trail running experience was nice.  No one was out there.  It was a beautiful morning and running alongside the river can be quite peaceful.  I’m thinking that mixing in some trail runs can definitely keep things interesting.  Heck, maybe I’ll end up liking trail running even more than regular street running…

On a side note, I have two kids: an almost 11-yr old daughter and an 8-yr old son.  I’m one of those parents who likes to put their kids’ sports/school info on the back of my vehicle in the form of magnets.  My son seems to appreciate the support and I’m proud of their accomplishments.  I also have a 13.1 magnet that my buddy Reid gave me after my first half marathon at Berry College.  Well, as I’m approaching my car following my run, I notice that while I was out enjoying nature and testing out the shoes, some individual had removed all of these magnets from my car.  So, if by some cosmic karmic coincidence, you, magnet-remover, have stumbled upon this blog possibly while googling the phrase ‘how to be a d!@k,’ I’d like to congratulate you.  You have effectively stolen from an 8-yr old boy.  I hope your friends found that to be hilarious.  Maybe next time you could steal a kid’s stroller or something; maybe an infant car seat.  LOL, that would be OMG epic!!!111!!11  Loser.

Garmin stats:

I ran the Run for the Children 5k this morning in downtown Canton, GA.  The race was put on by the Cherokee County Service League raising money for local needy children.  Temps were not in my favor as it was in the mid-40s with blustery winds.  Other than that, it was a great race.  I arrived around 7:30 and headed over to the registration table to get checked in.  The shirt is green, cotton, and short-sleeve.  Nice looking shirt.  As a bonus they were also handing out cool little Publix drawstring bags.  Not sure what I’ll use it for, but it’s better than the typical plastic Big Peach Running Co. bag.

Run for the Children 5k Publix Bag

Run for the Children 5k Shirt

Before the race, I met up with Nate, Christina & Trey (Trey was kind enough to come out for moral support in the cold), and Nick.  I didn’t really have a goal in mind for this race, but everyone else had theirs locked in.  Some PRs were destined to be set.  I obviously wanted to break 23 again, but, with the wind and hills, didn’t think I was up for killing myself trying.

The beginning of the race we did a parade lap around downtown and then headed out to see some of the older houses.  Downtown Canton’s a pretty cute little place.  Kind of reminds me of a small town you’d see in a movie.

The whole course was fairly hilly.  You were either going up or down at almost all times.  Some hills were just steeper than others.  The worst was around 1.5 miles into the race.  You’re heading down this stretch of road and the only thing you can see is this gigantic wall of a hill at the end of the road.  I did my best to shorten my stride and pump my arms, but I was gassed at the top.  The nice part was you had a nice section of downhill following.  The only problem for me was that I was so burned from the uphill that I couldn’t fully floor it down the descent.

We made our way back to the downtown district and had a nice steep downhill finish.  I came in at 23:15.  All in all not a bad showing.  I had a miserable stomach stitch for the last mile or so that was really annoying.  I ended up getting passed by a few folks in the last half mile or so which is always disheartening.  I’ve gotten into a bad habit lately of going out too fast and fading at the end.  I need to try to turn that around.

Nate & Nick both beat their goals, so congrats to them!  Christina had some stomach issues and ended up missing on hers.  I’m sure she’ll get it next time though!  I was impressed with the post-race food — bagels, cookies, donuts, etc.  It was actually one of the more impressive spreads I’ve seen at a race.  Well done.  All that food and I think I ate one chocolate chip cookie afterwards…

The volunteers were nice.  The miles were marked.  No chip timing, but the event was organized very well.  It’s really a nice event and great, challenging course.  Maybe next year the wind will be a bit kinder.

• Reviews
• Official results (UPDATE: Page 38 of this pdf)
• Pictures (UPDATE:  Nate pointed out this collection of photos – I’m at about 1:47.  This was right after cresting the nasty hill.)
• Here are my Garmin stats.  (I forgot to stop my watch at the end for a while, so the charts look a little goofy and the time isn’t right.

Downtown Canton:

Downtown Canton Gazebo

Downtown Canton Storefront

More Storefronts

UPDATED: Here’s a pic of me crossing the finish line.  I look tired.

Finishing up

After the race, I headed over to Boling Park to try out some trail running in preparation for next weekend’s Running the River’s Ridge 4.5 mile trail run.

UPDATE:  Official results here.  (6th overall but I’m 36 years old, not 35.  I’m happy my sub-23 came through on the official times — 22:59.6)

Wow!  What a beautiful day in Atlanta today.  I was in Powder Springs, GA running in the Fallen Officer 5k.  This was going to be a small-scale event, so I wasn’t quite sure what to expect.  Turned out to be a nice run for a great cause.

Fallen Officer 5k

The morning didn’t start off too spectacularly.  I’m not too familiar with the Powder Springs area, so I was relying on my ol’ Garmin to get me to the race on time.  Apparently my ol’ Garmin can be a real jerk sometimes.  After driving around for about 20 minutes, I finally pulled over, pulled out my phone and used Google Maps to get me to where I needed to be.  I arrived later than planned, but still with plenty of time to register, hit the bathroom, and stop thinking destructive thoughts on what I was going to do to my Garmin when I got home.

It was a small crowd with, not surprisingly, a lot of off-duty law enforcement professionals running.  We started off from Lost Mountain Baptist Church and wound our way through some back roads, finishing back where we started.  It was a nice loop course.  We passed some farms, and, with so few participants, I was kind of running on my own most of the race.  The toughest part of the course was a huge, long hill right near the end.  This was a killer, and I got passed by one guy who, unfortunately, ended up being in my age group.

Fallen Officer 5k - killer hill

I knew I had made fairly decent time, so rounding the corner to head to the finish line, the clock said 22:14.  I pushed just enough to cross (according to my watch) at 22:59.  I’m psyched about breaking 23 minutes for the first time and setting a new PR.  Here are my stats from my Garmin Forerunner.  The course measured out at 3.08 miles, so it was just a hair short, but still longer than the Polar Bear 5k that I had gotten my previous PR in.

I stuck around for the awards ceremony.  I knew that I had probably placed in the top 3 for my age group.  I think I finished 7th overall, so the odds were good that 4 of the 7 wouldn’t have been in the 30-39 age group.  Luckily, I was right and I got a nice little 3rd place medal for my efforts.  The post-race food was good:  sausage biscuits, bagels, bananas.

Fallen Officer 5k - 3rd place 30-39 Age Group

Fallen Officer 5k - Shirt

One of the reasons I chose this race was because is was organized by a Sequoyah High School student as her senior project.  My kids will be Sequoyah students one day, so, in a way, I was supporting the Chiefs too.  Besides, the race was for a great cause…

Officer James Fredrick (Freddie) Norman was part of the Cobb County Police Department until his death on February 14, 2009. Officer Freddie Norman succumbed to injuries sustained 21 years earlier when his patrol car was struck by a teenage drunk driver as he responded to an emergency call. The accident left him as a quadriplegic. His death was determined to be a direct result of the injuries sustained in the crash.

In May 2010 the Cobb County Police Department Honor Guard as well as Freddie Norman’s family would like to honor fallen Freddie Norman during National Police Week in Washington D.C.

All proceeds from this race will be distributed through the Chaplain’s Association to the Cobb County Police Department Honor Guard and the family of Freddie Norman. We would also like to make this an annual race with proceeds being distributed through the Chaplain’s Association.

Incidentally, I did meet a guy, Glenn, who is also doing a race each week for a year.  His year started in February.  He’s an experienced runner, unlike myself, and ended up winning today’s race.  He has some sponsors that are supporting him in his efforts during the year and he hopes to raise a ton of money for breast cancer awareness (he was decked out in bright pink: shirt, shoes, Oakleys).  Nice guy and I hope he realizes his goals and stays injury free for the year!

All in all, another fun Saturday morning.  Next week is the Run for the Children 5k in downtown Canton, GA.  What are you waiting for?  Sign up!

Ok, so for those that don’t know me, I’m kind of competitive and intense.  It’s been eating at me that I wasn’t able to get my sub-50 like I had intended at this weekend’s Jog for a Cause 10k.  As more and more reviews trickle in, I realize that I’m not the only one who thought the course was a bit long.  It turns out that almost everyone who was measuring with a GPS device had it at 6.4+ miles.  That got me thinking…  Was I really feeling bad that morning or was it just an excuse after the race to justify missing my goal?  Without the added distance could I have made my sub-50 goal?   I decided to dig a bit deeper.  Why?  Because I’m annoying like that.

10 kilometers = 6.2137 miles

Here are my splits:

• Mile 1 – 7:41
• Mile 2 – 8:02
• Mile 3 – 8:03
• Mile 4 – 8:05
• Mile 5 – 8:14
• Mile 6 – 8:07
• Remaining .45 – 3:26 (206 seconds)

Total time of 51:38

Adding up the first 6 miles, I’m at 48:12.  I’ve got 1:47 to spare to get under 50…

So, if a regulation 10k is 6.2137 miles, then let’s take a percentage of the remaining distance to figure out what kind of time I could have had.  .2137/.45 = 47.49%

47.49% of 206 seconds is 98 seconds or 1:38.

48:12 + 1:38 = 49:50.  I want my dang PR.  :)

Jog for a Cause

UPDATE: 10k Official Results

I was in Alpharetta, GA this morning running the 7th Annual Jog for a Cause 10k.  The weather was kind of chilly in the 40s and fairly windy.  The streets were still wet from the rain the past 3 days.  Overall, not really ideal running conditions for me.  I’m not sure if I’m still sore from the Half Marathon last week or what, but I just didn’t have it this morning.  The race was advertised as fast and flat, so I was really hoping for a sub-50 time, but, honestly, I wasn’t even close.  51:42 on my watch.

Alysia and I

Both Alysia and Christina came out to run the 5k, so that was cool.  This was Alysia’s first 5k EVER, and she rocked it coming in at about 32:53.  Christina was aiming for a sub-32, but came up a hair short at 32:20.  Outstanding effort out of both of them.  I love having friends/family out there running with me.  I also got to meet Nate, a co-worker of Alysia’s, who has been running quite a bit lately.  Nice guy and I look forward to seeing him at some future events.

So, the course was a loop around the North Point area.  10k’ers did the loop twice.  I guess it was flat, but there was a long hill on the back stretch that took a lot out of me.  The weird thing is that this was a Peachtree Qualifier event, yet my Garmin Forerunner 305 measured the distance at 6.45.  I thought that maybe it was just a malfunction on my end, but then a fellow DailyMiler said that her Garmin measured in at 6.46?  So, was this a “long” 10k or were both of our devices going wacky?  Not sure.

I’m not sure what’s up with me this past week.  I’m assuming my body’s not fully recovered from the Half Marathon, but I just don’t feel right.  My hamstrings and calves have been tight all week, and, during the race this morning, they felt really tight again.  I think I need to incorporate some better stretching routines into both my pre-race and post-race activities.  I’m getting too old to just go out and run 6 miles without ample warmup.

Jog for a Cause Shirt

The shirt is great.  A short-sleeve light-weight technical shirt.  Just the kind I like.  Unfortunately, Alysia didn’t get hers today due to the large amount of race-day registrants (including Alysia), but the race volunteers assured her they would drop it in the mail.

• Official results
• Garmin stats.
• Reviews of the race.
• Photos from TrueSpeedPhoto (UPDATE: Pic of Alysia and I)
• They had really nice post-race food:  cookies, muffins, bagels, smoothies
• File this in the TMI file if you want, but I had to pee the whole race.  Problem was that the line for the port-o-potties was like 50 people long.  That’s ridiculous.
• No timing chip, which meant for us middle-of-the-pack runners, we had no idea where the actual starting line was and the official times won’t be as accurate.

I have no idea yet which race I’ll be doing next week.  Any suggestions?  There are 2 5ks in Powder Springs that are possibilities.  There is the ING Half Marathon in Atlanta on Sunday.  I’ve been torn on which one to do, but now I’m thinking my body’s just not ready for another long event.  Maybe a 5k is in order…  Stay tuned.  I’ll pick one eventually. 

Berry Shirt & Medal

UPDATED: Photos are here

I ran the Berry Half Marathon yesterday in Rome, GA at beautiful Berry College.  It was my first half marathon, and I didn’t feel adequately prepared.  I hadn’t been diligent enough on my long runs and never built up the mileage I should have.  It worked out ok for me this time, but next time I’ll need to do a little bit more training…

Rome’s about an hour drive from my house in Woodstock, so I got up dark and early at 4:30.  Took some time to relax with some coffee and eat a couple waffles.  Maybe not the breakfast of champions, but it sounded good to me.  Left the house about 5:30 and arrived at Berry College a few minutes past 6:30.  I wanted to get there early enough to park on campus and not rely on the shuttle, and I made it just in time.

Once there, I met up with my pal, Reid, and we proceeded to the registration tent to get our bibs and stuff.  We got our shirts and bags of goodies and decided to head toward the dining hall to hang out inside where it was warmer.  The morning was very chilly at about 30°.  We got to the dining hall, put our race bibs on and thawed out for about 20 minutes.  With about 30 minutes until race time we went back out in the cold and checked our bags.  We did a quick loop around the big field where all the sponsor tents were to get warmed up.  It was go time.

Reid and I decided to start near the 2 hour start group.  We figured we’d shoot for 9-minute miles and see how long we could last.  The race started and we were off.   The race didn’t have actual pace groups, so we were left on our own to determine how fast we were going.  I relied on my Garmin Forerunner 305 to keep me up to date on our pace.  It worked really well, and I’m really loving this little guy.

The Berry College campus is so beautiful.  The morning was cold but sunny and everything looked so peaceful.  During our first mile or two, as we headed down the straightaway towards upper campus, we had no less than 10-15 deer running through the fields on either side of us.  It was really cool and a great way to start the race and appreciate nature’s beauty.

I really don’t have much drama to report on the race.  I kept a steady 9-minute mile pace (with some slight variations here and there) for the entire time.  Reid stopped to re-fuel with some Gu at about mile 5, so I ended up running ahead of him for most of the race.  I stopped around mile 9 for some Gu, which, by the way, reminds me of eating toothpaste.  It was my first time trying it — not too bad.

Around the 10-mile mark I really started feeling it.  My pace never really slowed down too much, but I was really hating it there between miles 10-13.  This also happens to be, in my opinion, the worst part of the course.  It’s not hilly, it’s just flat and straight and boring.  You’re running on part of the Viking Trail and there aren’t really any volunteers out there and it just seems to drag on forever.  I was VERY happy to see the end of that part and get back onto the lower campus.

So, with about .3 miles to go, Reid catches me.  At the exact moment he’s passing me by, I get a quick little calf cramp.  I’ve been prone to calf cramps when playing racquetball and tennis, so I’m kind of used to the feeling.  I’m glad it came late in the race and I’m really glad it was just a quick lock up and release.  I was able to keep going without slowing down too much, but Reid had pulled ahead of me.  On the final stretch to the finish line, I decided to give it all I had and catch him.  I pulled up beside him just as we both crossed the finish line.  Officially we both had chip times of 1:58:16.

He and I were both ecstatic to have broken 2 hours, and I thought it was all the better to have finished with a good friend.  We grabbed our finisher’s medals and I had to sit down to let my heart rate slow back down.  Sprinting (or running as fast as you can after 13 miles) took a lot out of me at the end.   My legs were so tight after the race that I was seriously wondering if I could drive home or not.  After a banana or two and chilling out for a bit, I started to feel a bit better.

After the race, we hooked up with some friends from church — Tim & Maureen.  Tim had just set land speed records with a blazing 1:42.  Really proud of him for that time.  That’s amazing.  It was really great to see Maureen out cheering us on during the race.  My wife, Alysia, ended up not being able to make it because of my son’s basketball tournament, so having at least one person there saying “Go Tony!” was cool.  Thanks Maureen!

I ended up getting home ok and taking some Advil.  I’m feeling better now and already thinking about how I can improve on my time for the next half marathon.

Items of note:

• Here are the official results.  I finished 31 in my age group and 221 overall.
• Don’t have any photos, but if I find any I’ll put a link up
• All the volunteers were amazing.  They really raised my spirits during some of the more hilly areas of the course.
• Post-race food was the best I’ve seen:  cookies, mini-muffins, bagels, bananas, etc.
• Here is a link to my Garmin stats.  I ended up averaging a 9:02 minute mile.  Really proud of staying on track with that.
• One of the more challenging components of the race was the different terrain.  We ran on asphalt, dirt road & gravel.  I found this to be pretty tough.  It takes a bit more out of you physically & mentally to run on rocky dirt roads & gravel.  You really need to pay attention to your footing.  I’m looking forward to running some trails this Spring, so I’ll learn all about this I’m sure.
• The shirt is a short-sleeved technical shirt.  It’s not the light weight technical shirt that I got at the Tartan Trot or Resolution Run.  It’s a bit heavier.  Not sure I’d actually run in it, but I’ll definitely wear it around.
• The winner was at 1:07.  How someone can run 13 miles at that kind of pace is really beyond me.  Truly amazing.
• Never stopped to walk except to take about 30 seconds to re-fuel with Gu & water.
• Reviews from Active.com

Overall, I couldn’t have asked for a better first half marathon.  Finished under 2 hours, didn’t kill myself, had a good friend with me, admired the beauty of Berry College, and enjoyed the sunny day.  I hope the next one is just as good.

This week I’ll be doing another 10k.  The Jog for a Cause 10k/5k in Alpharetta, GA.  My sister, Christina, will be running the 5k.  Anyone else doing this event?

Berry Half Marathon

I’ve got my first ever Half Marathon this Saturday.  I’ll be up at Berry College in Rome, GA.  I really don’t feel like I’ve gotten the appropriate amount of training in to perform well, but I’m still excited about the race.  I’ve got a couple of friends also running, so it will be nice to hang out with those guys.  My wife’s making the trip up with me, so she can support and cheer me on as I crawl to the finish.  Maybe even take some pictures of me puking at the end.

It’s my first Half Marathon, so I’m not going to set any sort of time-based goal.  My one and only goal is to finish.  I feel like, for first time race distances, it’s always best just to finish and establish a time.  I’ll have plenty of opportunities to better that time in the future.

Wish me luck!  I’ll give you all the gory details as soon as my body recovers.