Year of Races

nice tech shirt

Last Saturday I had my second Dirty Spokes Trail race.  We were in Cumming, GA at the Sawnee Mountain Nature Preserve.  I was immediately impressed with the new visitor’s center.  Everything still seems so fresh and new.  My buddy, Jason, and I got there a little late to take advantage of the small parking area so we were directed down the street to park in a cow pasture.  I dropped the TL into 4-wheel drive, splashed through a couple of pillow-sized cow patties and got us parked.

We walked over to the visitor’s center and got checked in.  The Dirty Spokes series of trail races are so well run.  As I mentioned, this was only my second one, but, once again, I was impressed.  We not only got a quality technical shirt again, but also got our timing ankle strap to ensure quick results after the race.

Jason and I jogged around for a mile to get warmed up and then took our spots at the start.  This being the last race in the series, there seemed to be a bit larger crowd than normal.  The race was supposed to be 3.5 miles.  The first 2+ up Sawnee Mountain and the remaining back down on a different trail.  I wasn’t necessarily excited about the uphill portion of the race.  I couldn’t keep my mind from flashing back to the Boling Park trail run and the steep inclines that had me walking and on the verge of puking.  However, I was excited to get going because Jason and I had been putting in the work on the road and the track lately and I felt stronger than before.

At the start, we did a lap around the small parking lot to get a bit of spacing before we headed into the woods.  The trail up the hill was double-wide so you could pass folks if necessary.  I felt strong early on and was steadily making my way up the hill.  After about a mile, Jason was long gone ahead of me, but another friend of mine, Freddie, was nearby.  We were struggling up the hills making decent time.  About 1.6 miles in, Freddie asked how much farther we had until the top.  Another guy nearby said we were getting close, but the worst was still ahead.  Great.  Thanks pal.  At about 1.9/2 miles, I couldn’t handle it anymore and stopped to walk a couple times.  It was so steep and my calves and thighs were burning.  I’m a wuss.  What can I say?  A bunch of the guys around me were walking too.  We would pass each other over and over as one guy would start walking and another would stop walking.  Freddie pulled ahead of me at this point, but I thought I could possibly catch him on the downhill.

At the top I was actually concerned I wouldn’t be able to run the downhill.  My calves were like jelly.  After a couple minutes though, they chilled out and I was able to start chugging down the mountain.  The problem was that the trail down was so steep that you actually were out of control in a couple of places.  Everyone was forced to go down about the same pace:  breakneck speed.  I passed a few people, but never could catch Freddie.  He ran a great race.  That P90X stuff must really be working!

I finished in 29:29 and the course measured 3.28 according to my Garmin.  I was kind of disappointed in the race.  I did better than Boling Park, but I hate the fact that I stopped to walk again.  Jason and I checked our times and I was surprised to see that I finished 3rd in my age group.  Sweet!  Jason finished in 26-something and 2nd in his age group.  We hung around and got our little Dirty Spokes medals.  The overall winner was in 21-something and was the same guy who won the Woodstock Freedom Run in 15-something.

3rd place 35-39 age group

I really enjoy the trail runs even though both of them have kicked my butt (I was sore until Wednesday evening probably).  I vow to run more of the races in the series next year and maybe even finish top-3 in the season ending overall point standings.  This year by just running two events (7th place & 3rd place), I finished 4th in the overall point standings.

• Official Results (don’t know why they have me at 30:00.  That’s not correct.  Everyone’s time was inflated in their results.)
• Garmin stats
• Photos of me (courtesy of Defiant Photography): #1, #2, #3

This Saturday I’ll be at Cherokee High School for the Etowah River Run.  A notoriously fast course, I’m hoping to really put down a good time.  We’ll see…

It was a great race Sunday morning in Kennesaw, GA for the Full House 5k.  This was the second race in The Time is Now Series.  The premise of this race was that at each kilometer you would be handed a playing card.  At the end of the race, the people with the best poker hands won prizes.  Pretty cool, huh?  Well, they ended up not handing them out on the course and just dealt you five when you finished the run instead.  Still a novel idea and an interesting twist to the 5k.

Before the race I met up with Nate, Nick, Christina and my mom.  It was great to see everyone out running again.  It had been a few races since I last had some company.  It definitely makes the race more enjoyable.

Mom, Me, Christina

I feel like a broken record, but once again the course was pretty hilly.  I guess if I’m looking for flatter courses I should move.  Atlanta isn’t really the place for fast, flat tracks.  The worst hill came about midway through the race.  Here’s a pic of the elevation changes.

Elevation Chart

I ended up running really well.  My Garmin put me in at 20:56, which is a new 5k PR.  There was some question on whether the course was a full 3.12 miles, but Nate seems to think it was after measuring it on mapmyride.com.  I’ll trust him.

Nate, Nick, Christina and my mom all set new PRs!  Everyone’s been working really hard and it’s starting to pay off with some impressive times.  Nate and Nick finished 2nd and 3rd respectively in the 30-34 age group.  I finished 3rd in the 35-39 age group.  All in all, a very successful day for our little group.

Nick, me, Nate with our medals

We earned a nice little medal for our effort.  So far, I’m 2 for 2 in medals in the Time is Now races.  Hopefully I can keep the streak going in August at the Summer Harvest Gallop 5k.

3rd place medal

You may be wondering what’s up with the purple shirt I’m wearing.  Good question.  The Time is Now race series supports Cystic Fibrosis research.  One of my dear friends, Katie, is currently battling CF and she volunteered to make me a shirt for the race.  It turned out great!  Not only did I get to stand out in my purple shirt, but I also set a new PR!  By my book, that makes the shirt lucky.

The Full House 5k shirt is pretty nice….if you’re a chick.  Seriously, what’s up with the flowers?  It’s a nice technical shirt, so I’m still going to wear it.  I’m not afraid.  I just ran a 20:56 in a purple shirt for crying out loud.  What’s a few flowers gonna hurt?

Full House 5k shirt

• OFFICIAL RESULTS
• True Speed Photos was there:  Me #1, me #2, me #3, Nate, Nick #1, Nick #2, Mom.  Christina was apparently too fast for cameras to capture her.
• My poker hand sucked.  King high.  I think the best overall hand was a King high straight flush.
• Reviews of the race.  I always like reading what other people thought of the race.
• I had a great time.  I think everyone did really.  I know Nate, Christina, and Nick are all in for this Saturday’s Holly Springs Memorial Day 5k.  Anyone else running it?
• I’m kind of doubling up this weekend again.  I’m doing the Celebrate America 10k on Memorial Day.  Good way to start Memorial Day.  I can be guilt-free later on as I eat hamburgers and drink beers knowing I burned a good 600 calories.

My 3rd place award

They got the results up for the Choate Construction Run the River 10k.  If you recall, Alysia and I left before the awards ceremony because we assumed neither of us had placed in our age groups.  Well, we were wrong.  I finished 3rd.  In fact, I was only seconds away from finishing 2nd.  I need to stop letting anyone who remotely looks like they’re my age pass me at the very end.

Anyway, I emailed the race director and asked if they still had my 3rd place award, and, luckily, they did.  I swung by the Homestretch offices on my way home from work and picked up a nifty little 3rd place plaque.  Very cool.

I’m running the Big Peach 5k tomorrow morning.  It’s going to be a big event, so I’ll for sure not be placing in my age group this time.  Unless, that is, I throw down a sub-19.    The first 1700 registered finishers though will be getting a Nike technical shirt, so that’ll be nice.  We’ll see how it goes.  Hopefully no rain.  The course looks to be downhill for the first half and uphill for the second half.

elevation chart

I still haven’t found any official results for the OLA Spring Stampede 5k or the Run for the Children 5k.  I’ll keep checking.

Run the River 10K shirt

We were in Roswell Saturday morning running the Choate Construction Run the River 10K.  It was a beautiful morning with perfect running weather.  The course was advertised as fast and flat, so I was hoping to finally get that sub-50 monkey off my back.  My PR for the 10K was 50:09 set way back in February.  If you remember, I had a near miss at the Jog for a Cause 10K, but the course measured in at 6.45 miles and I missed my mark.  So, I really wanted to get it done Saturday.  Also, Alysia & Nate were running the 10K as well.  It’s much more fun to have some company with me.  This was Alysia’s FIRST 10K!

We got lined up for the race.  I stayed back near the middle of the pack with Alysia.  When the gun went off, I spent the first half mile or so weaving in and out of folks.  Once we got some spacing, I settled into a low 7 minute mile pace.  After last week’s hilly Operation Yellow Ribbon 5K, I had some confidence on being able to maintain that kind of pace.  I figured if I could run a hilly 5K at 7:21/mile then I could do a flat 10K at about the same.

Really the run was pretty uneventful.  I passed a bunch of folks at the beginning having started in the middle of the pack, but I did eventually end up with a group of runners that were at about my pace.  At around 2 miles we veered off onto a dirt road.  This was a bit more challenging with the loose rocks, but nothing to really slow me down.  I hit the 3 mile mark at 23-something.  I was feeling great and knew I could keep it going.  The only challenging hill came just after 3 miles.  It was short but fairly steep.  The good thing was that it marked the turnaround point for the course, so we got to then cruise back down the hill.

I was feeling really strong, so I kept up my low 7 minute mile pace and started passing some more runners the last 1.5 miles.  It was nice to finish strong.  I ended up coming in at 46:09 on my watch.  The official time will be a little off probably.  As I mentioned, I started in the middle of the pack, and they weren’t using timing chips.  Either way, I crushed my previous PR by about 4 minutes.

• Alysia did fantastic in her first 10K.  She only walked 3 times for a minute or so each time.  She crossed the line in 1:04:30.  Really good time for her first and I’m so proud of her.
• Nate also set a PR by coming in at 50:18.  Great Job!
• The shirt is a nice technical material.
• There appeared to be a decent crowd for this race.  I’d say around 400-500.
• There was an 80-yr old guy there trying to set the Georgia record in the 10K for his age.  I saw him cross the finish line as I was waiting for Alysia, but I’m not sure if he broke the record or not.  I hope so.
• Official results (Don’t have them yet).  Not sure where I finished in my age group.  Probably top 10 I’m guessing. (UPDATED:  Here are the results.  46:18.  Turns out it was a weak 35-39 group and I finished 3rd out of 32 and 38th out of 377 overall.  Guess I should have stuck around for the awards…)
• Pictures (UPDATED: Photos are at the Collages.net site.  Username is “Run the River” and password is “19065″.)

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!

Resolution Rush Shirt

It was a beautiful morning here in Atlanta for the Resolution Rush 10k.  With all the miserable weekends we’ve had so far, this was definitely a needed change of pace.  I was excited about this event because it is literally 3 minutes from my front door in good old Hickory Flat, GA.  I was able to sleep in a little later than usual and still get over to the starting line in plenty of time.

The 5k runners took off at 8am while us 10k folks had to sit around until 8:30.  This was kind of a bummer, but ended up being pretty cool seeing the 5k winners come through.  I don’t usually get to see that since I’m normally in the middle of the pack somewhere.

The course was an out-and-back type that we did twice for the 10k.  Some rolling hills but nothing too steep.  I haven’t been running as much the past couple of weeks, so I knew this race would be tough for me.  I’ve had a bit of a cold and some nagging injuries that have kept me off the pavement.  I NEED to get back into the swing of things or I might actually die during the Berry Half Marathon on March 6th.

Garmin Forerunner 305

This past week I took the plunge and dropped some cash on a Garmin Forerunner 305.  This was my first run using it.  I’m soooo glad I bought this little gadget.  It was really nice knowing my pace, distance, and heart rate as I was progressing through the race.

Here are my splits courtesy of the Forerunner 305:

Resolution Rush Splits

As you can see I kept a pretty even pace throughout – about 8:15/mile.  I need to get that down to 8:00 even or just below if I want to get a sub-50 10k.  Today I finished in 50:14.  Not too bad considering my lack of miles recently.  I had to work a lot harder on this one though than I did during the Chattahoochee Challenge.  My heart rate was definitely up there in the 180s quite a bit.  I never stopped though and felt fairly decent afterwards.

Also, as a bonus, I took advantage of the smaller crowds and finished 3rd in my age group.  This was a pleasant surprise and I received a nice little medal for my effort.  I’m proud of this guy:

Resolution Rush Medal

Other interesting tidbits:

• the shirt is short-sleeve moisture wicking.  Kind of plain.  I still like the technical long-sleeve shirts best.
• plenty of post-race food – chocolate chip cookies, bananas, smoothie samples, bagles
• no chip timing this time, so the award ceremony was delayed a bit, but I’m glad I stuck around
• traffic situation was kind of sketchy as they had to let cars come down the middle of E Cherokee Dr with runners going both directions on the sides.  Wasn’t too bad, but a tad annoying.  The police officers did a great job stopping traffic at intersections for runners.
• I’ll link to the official results if they post them online. UPDATED: Here are the results.
• TrueSpeedPhoto was there again.  I’ll link to any photos they took of me.  UPDATED: Pics 1, 2, 3, 4
• Here are some reviews on active.com.