The first one was the High Noon Shoot-out. This was a stupid race. Some might call it novelty but I just call it stupid. 1.3 miles in blazing sun 97F temperature at high noon just for the hell of it. This race was put on by the Fort Worth Runners Club and it was followed by the annual club picnic.

I already ran 7 miles at marathon pace (7:08 min/mile) in the morning so I wasn’t feeling all that good, hip and the calves were cramping a small bit but I decided to run it anyway. Entry fee was free which is always a good price. The race had no timing or bibs, it was a short and narrow out and back course along the Trinity River. Timing was self administered or they called out your time as you crossed the finish line. Then you had to turn in your time with name, age and sex on a placement card that you got at the finish. This was the first race where I ran without a bib or timing chip. Definitely made the race feel very friendly and low key.

I never ran a race this short so I had no idea what to expect in terms of pacing. I figured it shouldn’t be much worse than my 800m repeats it’s just “slightly longer”. When the horn sounded and we were off I was in the lead and stayed there for the entire out section. By then it was a pack of 3 of us who kept together and the other two guys just passed me at the turnaround. I felt like I was done and I have clocked a 3:29 for the first half which was a 5:21 pace, a bit slower than my 800m repeat pace at the track. Based on race calculators I was supposed to be able to run a 5:30 mile so I was right on target. The second half was much much harder and I faded a good bit so my back time was 3:43 for a total of 7:12. My mile split was actually 5:24 which I am pretty happy with. I finished 3rd overall and 2nd in my age group.

The winner ran a 6:57 and the second place guy ran a 7:00 flat. They both ran 8 and 13 miles this morning respectively so they weren’t exactly running on fresh legs either.

But my co-worker who also ran the race already did his 20 mile long run before the race. They say the shorter the race the longer the warm-up should be, well I think he might have gone overboard with that 20 miler .

After the race we had free beer, hot dogs and burgers which made it into a fun an enjoyable event. And now I have a 1.3 mile PR!

The race I ran last weekend was the 4th annual El Scorcho which is another novelty race. It was my longest race so far and the venue was not ideal for a record setting pace considering it was 84F at the start with 65% humidity and it happened to be at midnight. But I did pretty good all considered.

I have learned from my last half marathon in 80F that hot weather and fast paces just don’t match so I purposefully picked a much slower pace than I should be able to run in ideal racing conditions. The slower pace was 7:03/mile. This was my goal which would have given me a target time of just under 1:50.

I got to the race venue around 11:00PM and things were in full action by then. Everyone was lugging coolers from the parking lot to the start in Trinity Park. It looked more like a picnic/free concert at the park than an endurance event. I was only half crazy and ran the 25K but there were full on crazies who went twice the distance at 50K. There were 128 finishers in the 50K and 329 in the 25K.

I met up with a couple of my running buddies, one of them was going to bandit the 25K and we decided that we would stick together as long as it was possible. His goal pace was 7:05 best case and 7:30 worst case. My 7:03 sounded doable for both of us.

We had a staggered start, the 50K started at 12:00AM and the 25K started at 12:10AM. The course was a 5K loop in Trinity Park and we had to do 5 or 10 loops respectively.

At the start I toed the line as usual and I was asking the guys around me about their target pace. Most were talking about 7 minute paces so I figured we should be good to go and hang in there. After the start two guys bolted and ran definitely faster than 7:00 pace. But I didn’t care, I have learned my lesson about running my own race instead of someone else’s. Me and my bandit friend and three other guys formed a pack and we were putting in some solid time at the beginning. First 5K was 21:33. I felt good and things were right on target.

Second lap was pretty uneventful although we have started lapping some 25K runners and we were definitely catching a lot of 50K runners. We were actually catching the back end of the 50K about 6 minutes into the race which meant some of those folks were on a 16+ minutes/mile pace. I’m not sure how many of them actually finished the distance. Second 5K was 21:55, right on the money.

The third 5K was getting a bit tougher our pack was starting to separate and two guys jumped from us and were a couple of seconds ahead of me and my bandit friend. We kept our distance and tried to maintain as much of it as was possible. Third 5K was 22:12. I was slipping and I could feel it. I asked my buddy if it was the 3rd or 4th lap and I was pretty disappointed when he told me that we had two more laps to go.

On the fourth lap the two rabbits from the front of us disappeared they were keeping a pretty good pace while me and my buddy kept on fading. My buddy was fading more and more and he took a water break after the 4th lap and said that he would try to catch up with me and keep coming. When I lost him at the lap marker I actually started to feel like he was holding me back and I was slowing my pace down for him earlier. But looking at my pace I was wrong. I was fading on my own just fine. Lap 4 was 22:46, my pace was falling apart. I started to have flashbacks of my last half marathon how I could barely keep it together by the end and how my pace was slower than 8 minutes/mile at the end. I felt a bit better this time and I kept thinking that I should push the last lap harder and harder. I thought it was all mental at this point and I jut had to push myself through it.

The last lap was feeling fine, I knew I was fading but I kept thinking about my form and pretending it’s a tempo run. I lost my buddy at the water station but he caught up with me a mile into the lap only to fade one more time. He could not keep the pace any longer and once again I was on my own. My half marathon split was 1:33:30 which I’m pretty happy with, it looked a lot more even paced than the last half I ran. I have decided that with 0.5 miles to go I’d really try to kick it hard and see where I end up. Last lap was 23:36 even with the kick and I ended up running a 1:52:02 and finished 4th overall. Considering the weather and the time of day I think it was a great pace for me and I think my BQ goal for October is definitely still attainable. When I checked some of the other finishers around me they all have 1:22-1:25 half finishes from last year under ideal conditions. It gives me hopes that under ideal conditions a 3:10 is certainly doable.

As for the other aspects of the race, it was really good.

Venue: The looped course is a bit twisty and boring and the constant lapping of people make it tough but it also keeps you on your toes and provides you with constant rabbits to chase. The surface conditions alternated between pavement, packed gravel and some areas we had to run even on grass. I thought I was going to twist my ankle on the grass but luckily that didn’t happen and I managed all the terrain changes just fine. The course was very well marked with glow sticks in the darker sections and there was no doubt ever in my mind which was I’m supposed to run.

Crowd Support: This race was the best I’ve ran so far in terms of crowd support. People were out there cheering everyone on. I have heard my name yelled more than I could possibly count and it never stopped to be entertaining. I really enjoyed the crowd and the constant cheering. The two end points had music blasting from two pick up trucks which also made them something to look forward to. All in all the crowd was fantastic.

Hydration: I brought my own 8oz bottles and the Fort Worth Running Company staff kept them ready to go every time I ran a lap. It was awesome to have my own pit crew and they did a phenomenal job. I almost forgot to stop for water after the first lap it wasn’t until they yelled me that I realized I was supposed to get water. I need to get the 8oz bottles with the nipples next time though, the ones with the caps just don’t work too well, not even with a straw especially when the straw is too damn short to reach the bottom. Volunteers were abundant and water and electrolyte was plenty at all parts of the course. The cups were nice and large and the volunteers yelled out what they were holding so you didn’t end up with electrolyte when you were expecting water. Post race support was also great with plenty of water and electrolytes to go around.

Nutrition: pre-race nutrition was a mixed bag for me. It’s kind of hard to prepare for a midnight race. I had pasta for lunch then the family wanted pizza for dinner so I had two slices of that and three hours before the race I ate some yogurt with muesli. I had no GI issues, things were going great. I had a gel pack 15 minutes prior race start along with 8 oz of water. I had 3 gel packs on me and I was going to have one per lap but I didn’t even get to them I was just too busy running. In training I usually eat the gels during water break but with racing I just don’t stop. I really need to start working on fuel consumption during running if I ever want to eat some of these gel packs during a race. Post race nutrition was also awesome, they had plenty of bananas, skittles, M&Ms, trail mixes, cookies, oranges, peanuts and chocolate to replenish some of the lost calories. I felt pretty dizzy when I finished the race but after drinking and eating some food I felt perfectly fine. In an hour after the race I felt really great even though the legs were fatigued. Again, the race food was great and the race staff did a phenomenal job!

Mile splits and HRR% (Heart rate Reserve %):
06:45 – 80.7% – A bit too fast start
07:00 – 87.8% – getting in the groove
07:03 – 88.0% – right on the money
07:02 – 88.9% – perfect pace
07:04 – 89.1% – still going strong
07:02 – 88.4% – another perfect split
07:01 – 88.5% – Why am I speeding up?
07:12 – 87.8% – Uh-oh!
07:13 – 87.1% – Yup, the wheels are coming off again
07:09 – 87.4% – Or maybe not! Hanging on for dear life
07:17 – 86.4% – Tougher and rougher
07:26 – 85.3% – Yeah, I’m done
07:27 – 83.9% – Is this thing over yet?
07:42 – 82.5% – OMG!
07:51 – 83.1% – WTF?
07:05 – 87.3% – Last 0.5 miles and I still managed to kick it! I’m happy and relived

As you can see I was running well into lactate threshold throughout the entire run (82-88% of HRR) and I “bonked” right at the 1 hr mark which is basically the definition of lactate threshold runs, a pace you can keep for one hour. Us, fatties (165lbs) just can’t run fast in the heat.

All in all it was a great event and I’m certainly planning on running it again next year!

1) Course was on a narrow asphalt trail in a city park with public walking their dogs against race traffic all day long.

2) Race was on a looped course, 3.7, 3.1, 3.1, and 3.2 for the last leg. It would mean lapping slower people in a regular marathon by the second lap. But this was even worse.

3) It was also a 4 men relay race with 2,000 people competing which meant a bunch of fast guys going out like crazy at the start, essentially running 5Ks while a whole bunch of 35+ minute 5K people grouping together and taking water from front of you at the water station. It also meant a whole lot of stupid surging with relay runners passing you at the exchange then you having to pass them at the 2 mile mark once they ran out of steam.

4) Water stations sucked. They had them at the exchange, 1 mile and 2 mile points on the main loop but the stations were short and I never had a chance to double up on the water which felt really needed considering the heat. And some of the volunteers, bless their heart, were holding onto the cups with their death grip where by the time I freed the cup half of the half filled cup’s content spilled which left very little water. One time I accidentally picked up Gatorade instead of water out of desperation as there was no water left on my side.

5) Speaking of the heat, the race started promptly at 8:00AM in 77 degrees with 89% humidity. By the time I finished it was 80 at 81% humidity. Not running friendly weather and it definitely made it into a novelty race instead of a PR course.

So these were the issues that I really had no control over and I can blame. Here are the issues that I had control over but still managed to screw up:

1) Going out too fast. My Polar footpod was 1.1% off meaning the pace it indicated was actually 1.1% slower than reality. It meant that my 6:40 splits were really 6:36 splits. But considering the weather even the 6:40 pace was way too ambitious of me. I really should have paced myself better.

My first 5 mile splits were: 6:27, 6:35, 6:34, 6:32, 6:38. They were all way too fast and I should have slowed it down more but it felt easy at first and I felt good.

Mile 6 and 7 were 6:40 and 6:42. It was mile 8 where the wheels really started to come off the bus and my splits got progressively worse and worse throughout the remainder of the run.

Mile 8-13:
06:52
07:07
07:09
07:36
07:47
07:59

The last 0.1 was a 7:27 pace which was my feeble attempt of a final kick. I knew that the goals were gone and I knew that I was done. I just wanted to finish and sit down.

2) Relying on my watch instead of feel. At 7.8 miles it was the 1 mile marker from the exchange into my 3rd lap. I looked down on m watch and I saw 6:46 for the lap timer for the last mile which was off my pace but not entirely bad. But 20 seconds later when I looked down I saw that my pace was 7:06 so I tried to pick it up. Then another 20 seconds later I saw my pace dropping to 7:26 so I tried to push even harder. Then a minute later I was down to 8:26 pace yet I was passing a whole lot of people and I felt completely exhausted. by the time I felt completely wasted my watch indicated a 9:00 pace. Or so I thought. You see, I never switched back from the lap timer to instant pace display and what I thought was instant pace was just the time elapsed since the lap started. So naturally the time kept going up and my pace was not really slowing down I just thought it did. So I was running 6:35s while I was thinking it was 8:30 and my heart rate was climbing at a steady rate into the stratosphere. I’m sure I have built up some solid amount of lactate during this stint which ended up hurting me in the long run. Sure, I was already down to 7:00 pace on my own but after this little stunt I dropped to 7:30+ and I just never recovered.

If you think I didn’t like the race or the organization, it’s not true!

1) The entry fee is $25 for both relay and individual races. This is probably the cheapest half marathon out there and in terms of bang to buck it’s impossible to beat. You get a t-shirt, a finisher’s certificate and a catered Italian pasta with chicken meal which looked really yummy! I gave up my meal ticket as I had my family with me and we had to go to Seaworld and I had no time to get in line and enjoy the meal.

2) The race was very well organized, the exchange area was perfect the way they called out the teams ahead of time via radio sure seemed to work for the relay runners. The course was perfectly marked and there were marshals at every corner where you could have had any doubt about which way to go.

3) They had age group awards in all combination of the relays (all men, all women, 3+1, 2+2, 1+3). They also had calligraphy on site to do the half marathoner’s name and time on the certificate.

4) Post race refreshments were plenty, from banana to beer. To have beer you needed an ID, it would have been nice to include that tidbit on the FAQ on the website, just like the fact that bag check was available. Both were mentioned in the race packet but for out of town runners who picked up their race packet on race day and walked up to the start with nothing on them in case there was no bag check it was a bit too little too late.

5) Crowd support was great. Even though most of it really came at the exchange it was very strong there and made you feel pretty good about the run. I had one guy who cheered me with a “Go Greg!” every single lap. It was awesome.

6) Water stations were at every mile, my problem was with their length not their spacing. If you were running a sub 7 pace there was no way to grab a water at the beginning and another one at the end. If you were running a slower pace and didn’t mind to stop at the water station then yeah, there was plenty of water. I must also mention that I have heard several times the volunteers yelling out to the slower runners to let the faster runners grab their water first so they tried their best.

7) There were door prizes. I won a bag and another t-shirt! Free stuff is always good.

So if I sounded disappointed with the race, I really wasn’t. It was actually a lot better organized and a lot smoother operation that I expected it to be. The only thing that I think they should have changed was to lengthen up the water stations to twice their length so you get a chance to double dip. Would I run it again as a half? Probably not. Would I run it as a relay? Absolutely yes!

So there you have it, my first half marathon with a not so stellar debut but I think I did OK all things considered.I finished 6th overall and since they only had a 0-39 and a 40+ AG I placed 6th in my AG as well. I think I have learned a bit from the race, mostly that a half marathon is not a 10K and I should certainly respect the distance. Running 26.2 at 7:15 seems even more daunting now than ever before.

Monday morning I drove to Arlington, TX to run the American Heroes 10K race. There just aren’t that many 10K races around to enter so I have to pick the ones I can run and go with them. This made for an interesting weekend with the double races but I think I came out alright.

The race setup was nice, it was fully chip timed from start to finish, the only thing I didn’t care for was the fact that both the 5K and the 10K started and finished at the same place at the same time which meant that at the start I was running with guys who were gunning for a 5K PR and I was finishing with the 40 minute 5K crowds. This means that the starters will drag you along for a fast starting pace and the finishers will slow you down as you try to zip by them. Certainly not a good combination. Another thing that bummed me out was the fact that this race had a great 1 mile fun run/walk unlike the one my family ended up doing Saturday. I really wish they had done this race instead.

Weather was hot and humid. We started out at 80 degrees and 70% humidity. We finished in the same conditions with some wind thrown in for good measure. It was not PR weather to say the least.

The race took place in Arlington, TX right by the Texas Rangers Ballpark, Six Flags over Texas amusement park and the brand spanking new Dallas Cowboy’s stadium. So the venue was nice with a lot of eye candy.

The start corral was done nicely, they had a separate place for the non-chip timed walkers and the chip timed runners. I started from the front as usual and I was talking with a lady about my goal pace which was going to be 6:10 for the entire race. Little did I know…

Once the gun went after a 3-2-1 countdown, 20 seconds of fiddling with the gun and then finally the old lady firing in the air the race was on. I had to hold myself back not to try to stick with the 5K lead pack. I recognized some familiar faces and I even had time and energy to say hi to them while running the first quarter mile. My plan of slowing it down kind of worked, I clocked a 6:00 even pace for the first half mile and 6:09 for the second half.

First mile: 6:04

After the first mile we got into our first slight climb and I started to feel that a 6:10 was going to be awfully difficult. We split off from the 5K pack and I found myself motoring in 5th place overall.

Second mile: 6:13

So far so good. Still within target but then we hit an overpass that went above I-30 and we caught up with the sole wheelchair racer on the course. Once you lose momentum it’s pretty tough to push that wheelchair up the hill. There is no coasting in a wheelchair uphill. My pace dropped as low as 7:30 on the climb but I managed to recover somewhat after the climb and got back in the groove again. A long stretch of straight running was coming and I finally caught up with the 4th place runner. He gave me a “go ahead” as I ran by him, he did not look too good.

Third Mile: 6:26

At this point I knew that any hopes of breaking 39 were dwindling fast and based on how I felt I thought a 40 minute run would be also in strong jeopardy. I kept inching up on the 3rd place guy, slowly but surely. At this point I picked a new goal; instead of trying to break 39, which I knew wasn’t going to happen, I tried to get on the overall podium. Just before the turnaround point I passed the 3rd place guy and I saw the first and second place runners pass us by on the way back. The first place guy looked rock solid and really far out. The second place guy looked like he wasn’t all that hot and he was younger kid, under 18. After the turn I thought this is where I should start pushing it and shoot for that negative split. I stepped on it and if felt like we were cruising downhill a bit and things felt OK. I also received crowd support from the slower runners who were still on the out part of the course as I was coming back. It felt pretty good. I kept looking back to see how far the 4th place guy was, I did not want to give up 3rd place.

Fourth Mile: 6:24

We had to cross the interstate again which meant one more climb over the bridge. As I got to the top I saw the second place guy in front of me grabbing water from the water station and walking a bit. I thought I had a chance of catching him but he started running again. At 4.5 miles we turned away from the outgoing course which still had plenty of people running/walking and went for what I’d call the place that separated men from the boys.

It was a quarter mile 4% incline through a parking lot that almost killed me. I was so ready to throw in the towel by the time I hit the top it’s not even funny. I thought my 3rd place was gone and there was no way I could hold onto it. But then I looked back and I actually saw that the distance between me and the 4th place guy actually increased. I wasn’t the only one who was suffering on the hill, it was everyone else too. My pace slowed to 8:00 by the time I hit the top.

The guy in front of me hit up the water station at the top again, then stopped, then started running again.

Fifth Mile: 6:40

At this point I didn’t know how things were going to shake out. My new goal was just to finish the race. Forget PRs, forget placing, forget about anything else. Just finish the damn race. I kept looking at the Ballpark and that thing was so friggin’ huge yet it was so friggin’ far.

At this point the 5K and 10K races merged together again and I was in a river of 40 minute 5K walkers. I had to stay outside of the cones so I could get past them with their iPods blasting and them not paying any kind of attention to anything else around them. The 2nd place guy slowed down significantly along with me so I still kept him in sight and at this point I felt that I was actually inching up on him even though I felt we came to a screeching halt in terms of pace. I was right about the pace. When you’re passing people that are on the 14 minute/mile pace a 7 minute/mile will feel downright speedy. But in reality our pace was cooked and done.

Sixth Mile: 6:39

Once I had the finish in sight and I felt confident that I could kick it I went for it. My rabbit was done, he was so far gone that when I kicked it he didn’t even lift a finger. After the race he told me he threw up twice during the race and he needs to work more on his pre-race diet. I didn’t see him barf but he still posted an impressive time and gave me a tough time to beat him even with the GI issues he’s been having. I saw the clock above the finish line just turning over 40 minutes which made me feel really sad in terms of time but I kept on kicking it strong until the very end. Once I stopped my watch it read 39:59 but I knew that it had at least 20 seconds extra on it due to the lame start with the old lady who failed to work the starting pistol right.

Last 0.2 mile: 1:09 (5:36/mile)

Official time: 39:35

I finished 2nd overall and since the winner took the overall win I also won my age group once he was out of the picture. If I could have done anything different it probably would have been towards the end. I think I got influenced and caught up in other people’s pace around me which caused me to slow down instead of trying to push it. I’m not saying I had anything left in the tank but I think I could have done a bit better had I had a faster rabbit to chase at the end.

Considering the hot weather and the brutal hill in mile 5 I think I did pretty good. This was certainly not a PR course for me but my race time is still a good indicator of what to expect in my future training for longer distances. It would have been nice to get a sub 39 10K to go with my 18:13 5K this season but that will just have to wait until next fall as I am done with the shorter distances, at least for now.

Last weekend I had a planned 5K and I hoped to beat that 5K time. I had high hopes due to the nature of the course. It was an A to B course with 140 ft of elevation drop in mile 2 on an otherwise pretty much flat course which kind of lends itself to a PR. I also knew that the race was a well established race, this was the 12th year for it with some pretty good times and good turnout so I knew that pace would be set for me by some other runners.

It was another one of those gun time start, chip time finish races so I made sure to start from the front of the pack. Since I also had a 10K race coming up on Monday I knew that I wanted to keep my legs intact as much as possible and I promised myself that I would not go out too fast at the beginning. I certainly tried to stick with that plan but I still clocked my first half mile at 5:40 minutes/mile pace. It was most definitely faster than anticipated even though I let a whole bunch of people go early on. I have decided to run my own race instead of trying to keep up with the front runners early on.

My second 0.5 mile split was ran at a more modest 5:54 pace which was exactly in the ballpark for my target goal. It felt pretty easy actually even though this was the one segment in the race with a small climb. My split for the first mile was 5:47.

My second mile was the one that contained the huge elevation drop of 140 ft and it certainly showed in my pace as I have managed to eke out a 5:41 for the second mile.

By the time I hit the third mile my legs started to feel tired and worn out. But I was proud that no one has passed me since the start and I have picked off a couple of guys every mile. It clearly showed that I have paced myself well when compared to the other runners around me. I kept on motoring and reeling in some people. This segment of the course was pretty much flat with just a tiny bump around the 2.8 miles mark. That was actually the point where I have decided to start my final kick and I averaged 5:38 min/mile for the last quarter mile. My third mile split was a 6:03 which was still not too far off from my otherwise great pace.

I crossed the finish line 13/517 overall and got 2nd out of 18 for my age group. 16:36 won the race and my AG winner got 17:25 and finished 7th. My time was still a great PR at 18:13 which is a new PR by over 50 seconds from last weekend. It really felt awesome to break 19 minutes as well as run a sub 6 minute pace for the run. Granted that the course was super fast with the steep decline but I still think I would have PR had it been a flat course without the drop.

The best part was that unlike after last weekend’s 5K where I got some pretty bad calf cramps after the race, this time I felt great and rested. Instead of taking the shuttle back to the start I just jogged back with the winner and the master’s winner and had a great talk with them. They were some really nice guys and quite inspirational to see them kick my buttocks at age 40 and 48! There is certainly something to look forward to!

I wasn’t the only family member who raced this weekend. I have signed my son up to run the 1 mile fun run again and while I was going to let him do it by himself my wife didn’t let that happen so she and my daughter also came and they all ran the 1 mile event. My son had a blast all the way until the end of the 1 mile. Unfortunately the race was not very well organized and they didn’t really have a 1 mile finish, the 1 mile people were just simply supposed to run up to the 1 mile mark on the 3.1 mile course and stop in the middle of the road. The race director should go and try to explain to a 5 year old why he needs to stop while everyone else is zipping by. I don’t envy my wife for having had to deal with that situation at the 1 mile point. But I’m still very proud of my family that they came out and ran/jogged/walked the race.

After last Saturday’s 10K my 5 year old son, expressed great interest in wanting to run with dad. So last Sunday I took him to the local track after my 8 mile long run where he promptly got side stitches after about 100 meters.

I told him to run slower but he was pretty set on trying to run a 7:25 min/mile pace for 100 meters, get stitches, slow to a walk for 200 meters then try again. He was really killing me with his pace I could not keep up myself; my calves were burning from the 10K and the 8 mile long run. We kept it up for about 2 laps at which point we did some runs across the field and called it a day. I have tried to tell him to slow down but he didn’t want to listen. He was pretty cute to try running with dad and I was really proud of him.

Monday I went and bought him some running shoes, shorts and a wicking t-shirt. I figured if he wants to run at least he should look the part. Monday we went and ran in the neighborhood just up and down the street as we felt like and we probably put in another half a mile. This time we slowed down and he finally listened to me. We took breaks but he had no side stitches.

Wednesday we did a repeat of Monday’s training and Friday we ran probably close to a mile with very little stopping. I felt he was ready to run a one mile fun run this weekend so I took him to a race this Saturday.

I was not going to race this weekend, I had a 30 minute fartlek on tap for Saturday and a 10 mile long run for Sunday. But since I promised my son to take him I figured I’d jog the 1 mile with him and I’d video him as he ran.

My son has a rough time getting up in the mornings; we have to kick him out around 7:30 every morning to go to daycare. Saturday by the time I was ready to wake him at 6:55 he was already up, all excited about the race and ready to go.

So I fed him some yogurt and granola, got dressed and we took off. I wore my racing singlet and 2.5″ inseam split pants which were most definitely overkill for the 1 mile I was going to run but I wore my Brooks Ghost 2 shoes that I use for long runs and recovery runs. I did not sport the T6 Racers which are my shoes of choice for 5K and 10K.

We got there right at 7:30, just in time for registration to open. We got our bib, paid $50 for the two of us and they even gave us chips for the timing even though the 1 mile race was a non-timed event. It made my son feel important with the chip dangling around his laces, just like daddy’s shoes do. I have the foot pod on my shoe for pace cadence and distance information and he’s wanted something to be attached to his shoe too. The chip was just perfect.

$50 for a one mile fun run seems excessive. It was for a good cause, the Fort Worth Can Academy so I didn’t feel that bad about forking over the money. The lady at the registration said “you know you could just run the 1 mile with your son and you can run the 5K afterward if you feel like it”.

At this point I wasn’t sure if I should run the 5K, I mean I had my son with me and I had no idea what I would do with him until I’d be running the 5K. We get up for the 1 mile fun run and there are less than a dozen people lining up at the start. It wasn’t a heavy field to say the least; my son and I were the only ones who really showed up just for that, the other people were using it as a warm-up for the 5K. I was a bit disappointed that my son’s first race was such a weak turnout but he didn’t care.

The air horn for the start really got him pumped and we were off! We settled into a good steady pace of around 11 minute miles and we didn’t stop! My son ran the whole one mile. It was actually 1.12 miles in 12 minutes and 9 seconds! I was very proud of him! He ran a 10:58 average pace. It really felt great to see him run and not stop for the whole way. Even though there was zero crowd support and zero competition support the fact that he was wearing a bib made him run the whole thing. I’m one proud daddy!

After we finished the 1 mile “race” I found two nice ladies at a vendor booth and pawned off my son on them with my RoadID wrapped around his bicep in case he got lost and I decided to go for the 5K race.

The race wasn’t anything big, it had 80 finishers but I wanted to see just how fast I could run it. The air horn sounded and we were off!

As with every race I have ran there are some crazy young guys who go out way too fast at the beginning then they fatigue about a quarter mile into the race when they realize that it’s a but longer than a quarter mile. Or there might be some crazy fast people that you just simply shouldn’t even attempt to keep pace with. But the problem is that these crazies tend to drag you along for the ride if you’re not careful. I have been guilty of trying and hurting myself in the long run.

My problem today also has been that my foot pod was not calibrated right. I only run long runs with these shoes so the calibration was way off. So what I assumed was a 6:14 pace based on my watch for the first mile was actually a 5:44 pace. It felt hard but I didn’t realize that it was that fast. We were running into some pretty strong winds so I just assumed that it was the wind that was holding me back and I should be picking up some good pace on my return.

After the early crazies fell off I found myself in first place at around the half mile point so I had to dictate the pace. There were no rabbits in front of me and, luckily there were no real chasers behind me either. The course was not marked very well and I was running off course at one point heading way off course when the guy behind me yelled at me which helped me to find the right trail.

At the turnaround I felt pretty wasted, I kept checking my watch for pace and I have seen numbers in the 6:25-6:45 range for my pace. I was thinking there is no way I could run any faster but I kept wondering why my pace was so lousy. I mean it wasn’t super slow but it was slower than my pace at last weekends 10K yet I felt a hell of a lot more tired. I chalked it up to running on tired legs as I haven’t tapered one bit for this race and it was unplanned plus I thought that I wasn’t pushing myself because I had no one to catch up to and there was no one really chasing me.

After the turnaround the wind situation didn’t get better and now it felt like it was blowing from the other direction. My pace deteriorated even more, now my monitor dipped down to 7:15 min/mile paces at times. I could not believe it! I was still in the lead the second place runner was about 20 seconds behind me but I just couldn’t keep it together. I could not believe how slow my pace was and how badly I was hurting yet I was still in the lead.

Once we got to the last half mile I was trying to give it a good kick which I thought I did but my pace didn’t really show it. I took one glance back and saw the second place guy still 15 seconds back I figured there was no way I would not win this one. I have given it one final kick once the finish line was in sight and as soon as I saw the clock I could not believe it. It was just rolling over 19:00. Based on my paces I knew that was no possible. But it still didn’t occur to me that it might have been my monitor and my paces that were wrong.

I crossed the finish in 19:05.7 a new PR for me! Second place was 12 seconds back; he clearly gained some time on me on the way back but luckily not enough.

So the lesson I have learned from today’s race is not to trust my monitor for paces blindly, especially when I’m running in shoes with incorrect calibration values. After I have corrected my downloaded data for the calibration my mile paces were:

1.0: 5:44

1.0: 6:17

1.0: 6:20

0.1: 6:19

It is obvious that I had killed myself on the first mile because of some crazy fast starters and my own stupidity of trusting the monitor for paces. Bottom line is that I still won the race and got a PR from it. I was really hoping to get under 19 minutes but that goal will just have to wait a couple more races…

Sunday I went and ran my usual long run, this time it was 11.1 miles on the Trinity Trail. I did it in 1:29. A lady caught up with me after 4.5 miles and we ran 2 miles together. She had 15 on tap and had a 3:30 marathon PR. It was nice to run with someone but she was clocking 7:40 miles so she dragged me along. It’s a good thing she stopped on the way back after 2 miles so I could settle into my own pace again. Then I went home put the bike rack on the car and drove back and repeated the same route with the family on the bike. My son in tow on a trail-a-bike and my 2 year old daughter in front of me sitting in a baby seat. My wife rode her own bike. We rode for 5 miles, stopped for lunch at Panera Bread then rode over to the playground and let the kids play. Then we rode back to the trail head. Total was 12 miles. We did it in 1:29. Kind of funny that our pace on the bike was almost the same as my pace while running.

When I manually mapped the course on mapmyrun.com it became clear where the discrepancy came from. Whoever mapped the course mapped it on-line and got 6.19 miles for the distance which is a lot closer to the 10k than the actual distance we ran. The problem is that auto routing when it’s set to follow roads will pick the middle of the road for the distance. If a race is mostly runs on long segments of straight roads it is not a big problem. But this particular run ran through some winding and turning residential roads that were long stretches of curved roads. On these sections the distance ran was significantly lower than the distance estimated as we all ran on the shortest line at the inside edge of the turns. This is why you have to actually ride the course with a calibrated bicycle on the shortest path to get it certified. This course was not certified so I can’t really say much about it, it was close enough.

The race was the 29th Azle Lake Run 10K. It’s a small race with few participants, this year just shy of 50 runners in the 10K, 11 runners in the half marathon (new event) and a bit over 100 in the 5K (new event).

I had several goals for the race:

1. Finish in the top three for my age group. Considering that last year there were only 39 finishers I figured it would be an attainable goal.
2. Finish under 40 minutes. I ran 40:55 a month ago on a much hillier course so I thought I had a pretty good chance at breaking 40:00 this time. It would have been a first.
3. Run downhill smart and fast. I’ve been struggling with the downhill segments before by not letting loose and losing a lot of energy. I really wanted to make sure I wasn’t going to make that mistake this time.
4. Don’t go out too fast, shoot for even splits. So far on every single race I have ran I ended up with positive splits. I fade towards the end and I have a hard time keeping my pace up.

Weather was pretty good for the day, considering it’s May in Texas. It was around 60 degrees, full overcast with a pretty good amount of humidity but luckily no wind.

Start was pretty uneventful; there is really not a huge crowd when you only have about 60 runners starting at the same time. The Half Marathon and the 10K started together while the 5K started 15 minutes later. There were some pretty solid half marathon runners and some pretty fast paced 10K runners at the beginning. Start was also downhill for the most part so pace was pretty fast.

First mile was 5:58.

By the second mile I finally slowed down and got into a groove where I could run my own pace. There was one guy breathing down my neck that was a bit annoying and eventually he passed me by which I didn’t mind as I finally got to run my own pace. My chaser just became my rabbit.

Second mile was 6:13.

During the third mile I started seeing several younger guys in front of me who clearly went out too fast early on as they were fading pretty badly. I started to reel them in slowly but surely. It was actually a lot of fun to pick them off one by one as me and my rabbit passed them by.

Third mile was 6:23.

At mile 4 the half marathon and the 10K split up. My sole rabbit, “Mr. wheezing guy”, went towards the half and I took the right turn onto some crappier quality residential road. All of a sudden I found myself alone with no one in sight. It was a long stretch of road with a pretty good climb and not one person in front of me. This is where I really started to feel the pain and the difficulty of running by myself.

Mile 4 was 6:24.

Up until this point my pace was all alive and well and I felt pretty good about my run. I was a bit concerned that I might have gone out a bit too fast early on and I was wondering what kind of toll it would take on me. I had two more steeper climbs ahead of me and my pace showed it. Running with no other runners in front of me I took a quick glance back and there was only one guy in my vicinity but he was a good 45 seconds back. He was one of the guys I already passed so I knew that there was no way I was going to give 45 seconds back on the last mile and a half. I also asked one of the marshals at the turn how many were in front of me and she said there were 3. I was bummed out that I was going to miss the podium finish in the overall. None of the 3 was in sight, I wasn’t even close.

Mile 5 was 6:29, the first split above my target pace.

During the last mile we ran into the 25 minute finishers of the 5K race. Their race started 15 minutes after ours but ended at the same finish. It was a bit difficult to pass them at times and I really don’t think it has helped my pace to be surrounded with all these “slow runners”. A girl in front of me was asking someone how much further the finish was. I glanced at my watch and I saw we had 0.4 miles to go. As I passed her I told her that it’s 0.4 miles to go. I wasn’t ready to start my final kick at this point I thought I’d wait until the 0.2 mark to really go for it.

Mile 6 was 6:30.

We took our final turn towards the high school track where, based on the map, I assumed we’d have a half a lap around the track to the finish. I started picking up my pace and as I looked up there it was; the finish line that is. I was a bit confused as I didn’t realize it was going to be this close. There was no track in sight and the finish was right there in front of me. I did a 5:00/mile sprint at the end until the finish and stopped my watch.

After talking with the other guys we concluded that the course was short and I probably didn’t do as well as I thought. My monitor indicated an average pace of 6:25 but that included 30 or so seconds of rest after the finish so I had to wait for the official time. I knew I beat 40 minutes just simply based on pace but I didn’t know by how much.

Official finish time was 38:08, a new PR. If I extrapolate it up to the correct distance it would be 39:11 6:18/mile pace which is still a new PR and under 40 minutes. Actually I think I could have kept up the 5:00-5:30 pace for the missing 0.15 miles so it would have been probably a tiny bit better than that.

As they told me on the course, I finished 4th overall and I got 2nd in my age group, there was a 32 year old guy who finished 3rd with 35:31. He was over 2.5 minutes faster than me, there was no way I could have beat him. Not this time at least.

So how did I do in terms of goals? I did finish in the top three for my age group which I’m pretty happy about. I love to leave the races with some hardware.

I also beat my goal of 40 minutes. If you look at the pure time I beat it by a long shot. If you consider that the course was short I still beat it by a decent amount and I totally killed my 40:55 from a month ago.

If you look at my pace graph I almost recovered all the speed lost on the inclines on the declines. I felt really good and really fast on the down slopes. Every single one of them were under 6:00 pace. I feel a lot more confident on the downhill now than ever before.

As for my last goal of getting to negative splits, well that didn’t happen. I went out a bit too fast, the second half had some climbs, there was a lot of lonely running and finishing with the 7:30/mile 5K crowd did not help much. But it is what it is and that elusive negative split is still out there. One of these days I’ll reel it in!

The race I ran was the 13th annual Fort Worth Zoo Run 10K. I have looked at previous years race results and based on my predicted time I was hoping for a top 3 finish in my age group and I was secretly hoping to break the 40 minute mark. So how did I do? I did fine.

The race started at 7:00, bright and early. This race is predominantly a 5K race, the 10K distance has only been added in the past several years. This meant that the 10K was the first race in the morning with just under 800 finishers while the 5K race had close to 2,000 runners. The weather was a bit warm at 63 degrees and it was cloudy with rain about to hit but we got spared and only the 5K racers got dumped by the rain.

The start was pretty fast at 6:07 and 6:18 for the first two 500m splits. The third split was still a 6:23 so the pace was certainly very fast for me even though I concentrated on keeping it easy, not going out too fast and letting the leader pack go. I clearly need more work on not going out too fast at the beginning.

By the 3rd km we were hitting some pretty good hills and my pace slowed down to slower than 7 minute miles on average and I started getting really worried about not hitting my target time or finishing in the top 3. I could worry all i wanted but my legs were just not getting any faster. My 5K split was actually 20:02 so I was still right on target to hit my goal as long as I could finish my race strong.

But the second half had even more hills and I was falling apart big time. I have tried to hold on but every step was harder than the last one. I wasn’t sure if I could even finish at this point, let alone meet my target. At one point I was contemplating walking and never running ever again. My legs felt like lead.

I event attempted to use one of the water stations at the 4 mile mark but my attempt ended in failure. I picked up the water cup, lifted it to my mouth, poured some of the water in my mouth and I could not swallow it. I ended up spitting it out and that was the last attempt at getting water. It was only a 10K so getting water during the race is unnecessary especially in the weather conditions we were running in but I figured since I’ll be having longer and longer races, this practice run was a good place to try to work on getting water. Well I failed. I’ll need to work on getting water into my body more at a later time.

There was a 48 year old guy who was passing me at the beginning then during a long straight in the middle I passed him back. Coming down the final downhill he passed me again. I am just not fast enough on the downhill. I’m too worried about letting myself go and really picking up the pace downhill. I will really need to work on it more.

The other problem I had was that I got disoriented and I thought we had much more left to go than we actually did. It wasn’t until we took the final turn and I saw the finish line that I started my final kick. Had I realized we were that close I would have started on it a good bit sooner.

Regardless of my sucking on the water station and the downhills I still managed to get a 40:55 in bettering my previous PR by almost 5 minutes from 1.5 month ago. I finished 22nd out of the 793 and got 3rd in my age group. I’m pretty happy with my result and I certainly know what I need to work on before my next race.

I have two more 10Ks coming up in this race season before I switch gears and start working on the longer races. I hope I’ll get two new PRs between the two races. And I know that I need to work on:

• not going out too fast early (I’m getting better at it)
• running downhill fast
• drinking water while running

I was going in with hopes of getting under 22:00 minutes which was probably a very easy goal considering I just had a 30 minute 7:03/mile tempo run on Thursday night. Unlike my last 5K which took place in freezing 24 degree weather and high winds, today’s race weather was perfect. It was a nice 50 degree morning with 5mph winds. It was sunny and georgeous.

I showed up around 7:30, race start time was 8:30. I warmed up with an easy 10 minute run which was the slowest I had run in a long time yet my heart rate was as high as it usually is during my normal slow runs. I was anxious, no doubt. I picked up my timing chip strapped it on my new obnoxious red Brooks T6 Racer that I bought a couple days ago for the race and went to the start line.

At the Cowtown 10K I made the mistake of starting from the back of the pack which probably cost me some time at the beginning of the race. While it’s a lot more fun to pass people than getting pased I wasn’t going to take that route this time around. It turned out to be a good idea to line up in the front.

The race did have chip timing but it wasn’t true chip timing. The start was a gun start with the finish being chip timed. It meant if you started from the back of the pack you really ended up losing some quality time as ther was no offset applied to your time and your net time was counting from gun time. I lined up in the first row, all proud and scared at the same time thinking to my self “What the hell am I doing in the first row?”

It was a small race, a combined 5K and 10K start with about 400 runners, split 50-50 between 5K and 10K. Both courses were out and back races the only difference was that the halfway point for the 10K was another 1.6 miles down the trail.

While waiting for the airhorn there was a young boy standing next to me in the front row with his Garmin 305 on his arm, getting ready to push the button. The race director came up and asked his dad behind him if he was fast enough to go from there, they didn’t want him to get trampled. His dad assured the director that he was fast enough. I asked the kid what his goal was and he said he’s planning on running around 8:40 min/mile. I was pretty impressed, he must have been 8 or 9. He just looked so darn cute standing there in the front with his watch ready to go with a min/mile pace set in his mind. It’s not often you see something like that.

At 8:30 the airhorn sounded and off we went. The first 0.2 miles were on cobblestone at the historical Stockyards then we got on some street to run to the Trinity trail which is a long biking/running trail running along the Trinity river. As we got on the trail there was a large downhill with a small bridge and a smaller uphill on the other side. Then the course was flat for the rest of the way until the turning point and then the repeat back, except the finish was not at the exact same spot as the start which saved us one small section of downhill running at the end.

While in the starting straightaway I glanced at my watch and I was looking at a 4:35 min/mile pace. I was thinking “hell there is no way I should be running this fast!” so I slowed it down with a dozen people in front of me pulling away. I slowed down but it wasn’t until the 0.4 mile marker that I really got into my race pace up until then I was running way too fast.

I was trying to keep up with the leading group but they were really fast and I figured there is really no point in me trying to run their race, I should be trying to run my race.

Then a really interesting thing happened at the turnaround. As I was approaching the big orange cones in the middle of the trail which was the clear turning point for the 5K runners, not one person in front of me took the turn. They all kept on running. They were all racing the 10K! And they were going faster than me. The 10K race was loaded with good runners and they were really booking it. This was the first year that this event has added a 10K race so most of the better runners went with that one instead of the 5K.

This left me in the lead at the turnaround which felt really weird and strenuous. The great thing about an out and back course is that you know exactly where you are and how much further you need to go. The other good thing is that as you’re running by the slower runners they cheer you on as you pass them, especially if you’re the leader at this point. One set of runners yelled at me “quit showing off!” and another said “hurry, they’re right on your heels”

The sucky part of an out and back course is that some of the slower runners are pretty ignorant and they don’t realize that there might be runners coming at them and they don’t move over until the very last moment when they finally decide to look up from fiddling with their iPods.

I still think the benefits outweigh the issue with runners who aren’t prepared for your return, maybe if I wasn’t the leader at this point it would have been a non-issue.

The person telling me about the 2nd place runner being on my heels wasn’t lying. By the time we got back to the end of the trail I was getting very tired. Mind you that’s what a 6:08 min/mile will do to you when you hardly ever run that fast in training.

As I approached the drop by the bridge and I had to climb the other side I didn’t feel like I could hold onto the lead. I could hear the other runner approaching and I eventually threw in the towel told him “I can’t keep it up, go ahead” and off he went. after the race he said he saw that my pace and cadence was detiriorating over the hill and that is when he felt he could take me. Boy, was he right.

I ran a 6:08 pace for the first two miles and a 6:37 for the last half a mile. Talk about positive split! But it didn’t matter, I still managed to finish the race while holding onto second place in 19:29 for a 6:17 min/mile overall average. Needless to say I’m super psyched about it! I got first place in my age group, the winner was a 50 years old guy who races 5Ks exclusively and has been for a long long time.

After the race was over I stuck around waiting for the award ceremony to get my age group winner’s medal. While waiting I cheered on the other finishers at the finish line and made some new friends with fellow runners. All in all it was a great race with some great running and I could not be happier with the result.

The race was scheduled for 7:30 AM which is mighty early for me. I’m a night owl who stays up and writes blog entries well passed midnight. Getting up at the crack of dawn is really not something I excel at. I was going to get up at 6AM and leave the house around 6:30 and make it to downtown in 30 minutes so that would have left me with 30 minutes to warm up and get ready. But my co-worker who ran this event the last three years said that traffic can be terrible and I better shoot for being there by 6AM! At this point I really had doubts whether this whole running and racing is worth it or not.

So I compromised and set the alarm for 5:30AM and I was out the door by 5:50AM well on my way. The trick was to have all my clothes set out ready to go the night before. Traffic was not bad at all it was actually really light and I made it to downtown in record time. My wife works downtown so she has a monthly parking pass in an underground garage so I went straight there. It turned out that the pass was unnecessary as it was free parking everywhere but it was still great to know where to park instead of trying to look around for a place. I was only about 500 yards from the start so I walked up to the starting line to size it up and make sure I can get there in time. There were a handful of runners already hanging out and warming up but I think they were just trying to stay warm.

Weather was freezing, it was a chilly 34 degrees (1 Celsius) with some good gusts of wind that really made it feel a lot colder. I had another one of those “what the hell am I doing?” moments and I quickly walked back to the parking garage and spent the next hour in my wife’s office waiting for the start time to get closer. As I was waiting for the time to pass I kept looking out the window to see if the crowd would grow bigger around the start line but I saw no real progress for the longest time. Around 7AM I decided it was time to drink my morning shake which had just the right amount of liquid and carbs for the run. I was also happy that I did not have to stand in line out in the cold for the port-a-potty I could use a much more civilized restroom in my wife’s building.

By the time I arrived to the start area there were a lot of people there. I did some warm up and around 7:20AM I got in line. It was pretty crowded and I honestly didn’t know where I should be standing with my planned target time of sub 50 minutes with the hope of under 48 minutes. I ended up what felt like the back of the pack but after post race analysis of gun times vs. chip times I was at the 25% mark. There were about 900 people in front of me and another 2,700 behind me. It sure felt like it was the other way around. At one point I also felt a bit like Apollo Ohno before the race; yawning and wearing my tight pants. But I must assure you the similarities ended right there. I might have watched a bit too much winter Olympics to make that connection. But hey, he’s also a runner and used to be chubby so there might be more similarities between him and I!

At 7:28AM I thought I heard the national anthem being sang by the front of the crowd but the singing didn’t quite travel to my area by the time it got to the end. Then at 7:30AM they promptly blew the air horn and the race was on. Well it was on for the folks at the front of the queue. For me it didn’t really start for another 40 seconds or so and even after successfully crossing the start line I was not really running for another 40 seconds. It was more like dodging people and trying to pass them any way I could.

At this point it became clear that next time I should be more aggressive about my starting position and go to the front of the line. I will not be stuck behind all the casual 1 hour plus runners next time for sure! I still kept passing people for the next mile and a half but things got better as the race progressed as the pace really started to spread us out.

My goal was to run an even split race. I was trying to run the first half as fast as the second half. This meant running the race smart and not overdoing the first half. This is where a heart rate monitor really comes handy. It’s kind of like a speedometer in your car that helps you to put your pace on cruise control without worrying too much about what the other people do around you. I just had to run my own race and ignore everyone else as hard as that is when there are this many other people around. Based on my training I knew what my heart rate was supposed to be and I ran the race based on heart rate rather than pace. I knew from training that as long as I kept my heart rate in check my pace would fall right in place.

So I ran the first half of the race at 92% of my Heart Rate Reserve which for me meant 174 bpm. Then during the second half I have upped it to 94% which was roughly 177 bpm. These are actually pretty high numbers and well into anaerobic exercising range which means it’s not really sustainable for any longer than a 10K run.

When said I have upped my heart rate for the second half it didn’t really reflect itself in increased speed. It basically just meant that my pace did not fade too badly. Due to the nature of Fort Worth’s downtown which sits on a knoll it is inevitable to run downhill for the beginning of the race and having to run uphill towards the end. This can catch you by surprise if you didn’t plan for it. I knew that the incline was coming towards the end and I was watchign my speed decline and my heart rate increase as I was reaching closer to the finish line. Fatigue really started to kick in around mile 5 out of the 6.2 and I knew that I still had ways to go and I kept myself running the pace by concentrating on not the next mile but on running the same pace to the next parked car or the next telephone pole.

At the last 200 yards I have decided to gun it and I ran a pretty decent sprint to the finish. But as you can see my finish photos had to suffer because of it. I look like I’m in horrendous pain when in reality I wasn’t. I was just getting tired and worn out but the minute I crossed the finish line, gathered up my finisher medal and a cup of water I was feeling great. Oh and how did I do? My chip time was 45:42 which meant I have finished 125th out of the 3416 finishers. In my age and gender group I have finished 10th out of 188 finishers. Out of the 933 people that started in front of me I had to pass 837 of them. The interesting thing in the results data is that out of the 45 people that started the race from the front of the pack (gun time and chip time are identical) their average time for the 10K is 1 hour 10 minutes and 4 seconds. The average for all 3,400+ finishers is 1 hour 10 minutes and 55 seconds. Apparently there are a lot of runners who are not very clear on just how good or bad of a runners they are.

All in all the race was great and I had a great time. While the pictures might indicate a complete agony I actually enjoyed every minute of the race and can’t wait to do it again.

I have signed up for a 10K for the end of February as my first race. And since I’m not big on doing things in a half ass fashion and I’m an all or nothing kind of guy I started a training program for the race 3 weeks ago. This training plan calls for all kinds of running speeds and distances throughout the training period and this past weekend it called for a 5K race. I could have just ran around the block at race speeds but where is the fun in that? So my co-worker told me about a race that was coming up this past Saturday. We both contemplated going and in the end he chickened out but I went.

Why did he chicken out? I think it had a lot to do with the weather. Here in Texas weather can be very fickle. We had temperatures in the 70s (22+ Celsius) two weeks ago but the weekend forecast was 24 degrees (-4C) with a windchill factor of 16F (-9C). And sure enough they were right. The weather was brutally cold on Saturday morning. I’m not a morning person so getting out of the warm bed and drive to the race at the crack of dawn in freezing temperatures was a double whammy. But I did it with excitement and great anticipation.

I have not ran in a race environment for almost 20 years. You see, I used to be a long distance runner in junior high and I was pretty good at it to boot. I liked it a lot and I loved the races. But I got burned out and the only thing remained was my appetite which made me gain weight at an incredible pace. Fast forward 20 years and you get to my October 2009 state which is overweight and unfit but someone who deep down thinks he can run. Unlike other obese people who probably never ran a mile in their life I was actually a pretty damn good long distance runner with national titles, I’m not from the US originally, in my age group at the time.

So when I showed up at the race at the wee hours of 7:30AM I wasn’t sure if I could really do it. I mean I knew that I could run 5K, it’s 3.1 miles which has been the shortest running distance in my training schedule for the past three weeks but I didn’t know just how well I could run. Based on my previous training runs I figured I should be able to run it around 25 minutes. I didn’t know what 25 minutes would get me in terms of placement as I wasn’t really familiar with big running events like these and the quality and pace of the average runner.

As I looked around I saw all kinds of folks there. Men and women, young ones and old ones, fit ones and fat ones. People in shorts in the freezing cold and others wearing several layers and ski masks just to keep warm. It was quite an interesting sight to witness all these different people with different abilities getting ready to undertake the same race.

There were two race distances, the 5K which I ran and a half marathon as a preparation race for the upcoming Cowtown Marathon where I’ll be running my 10K. Due to the weather a lot of folks who originally were going to run the half marathon have switched over to the 5K race. I have seen bib numbers as high as 700 but all in all there were only 461 finishers, 244 in the 5K the rest in the half marathon. The whole race was pretty laid back and small scale which was probably a good thing for me as the first race.

Since I started moving up to the start line pretty early I got a good solid starting position but I realized that while I was going to run with all the other people I really was only racing myself and the time so the starting position didn’t really matter. Unlike 20 years ago when everything was timed from gun time now everyone runs their own race with a transponder chip on their shoes that measures chip time. At the beginning the crowd was pretty heavy and it took a good quarter mile before people started separating out enough and settling in their paces. To meet my target of 25 minutes I needed an 8 minute per mile pace (5:00/km). After the first quarter mile I was up to a 6:50 pace and felt great. As soon as my heart rate picked up to match the pace I knew that I had to scale it back as I would have been unable to sustain that pace for the entire race. So I slowed down a bit and settled into a 7:35-7:40 pace and kept at it. Things were going great and just as I was passing the 1 mile marker I was seeing the leader already running back. I did the math in my head and I figured there is no way he’s already at the 2.1 mile mark running twice as fast as I. And I was right. I didn’t know ahead of time but the course, while it was an out and back, it was really more like a fork. You ran up one leg of the fork then the other and back to the start. So the leader wasn’t really that far ahead he just came back from the left leg of the fork at this point and soon after I was at the tip of the fork too.

As soon as I turned around I got hit smack in the face by some super cold wind which was blowing like there was no tomorrow. It definitely slowed me down and my pace started to fade while my heart rate kept on climbing. My pace dropped down to the 7:50-8:10 range and I figured as long as I keep it close to the 8 minute mark I should be able to finish under 25 minutes thanks to the extra time I picked up earlier. As I was getting closer and closer to the end there were a couple of people passing me. But as they were passing me I felt that their pace, cadence and composure is in a lot worse shape than mine and I thought they were struggling more than me. I felt like I still got the efficiency I once had and I still had the mechanics of running down pat. I felt great. As I was getting closer to the end my heart rate kept on climbing ever higher to places I didn’t think it could climb. So I took back a notch from my pace and slowed to 8:30 pace by the last 200 yards. I knew I ran faster than 25 minutes but I didn’t know how much faster until I ran through the finish line and saw that I finished the race in 24:04. That is almost a minute better than I thought I was going to run. I was very happy with my result. I finished 35th overall out of the 244 finishers which made me feel great. First place? 17:41 by an 18 year old guy. What impressed me more though was the second place finish of 18:28 by a 34 year old man. I hope to be that guy one day. As for the winner’s time I could have ran circles around him when I was 13, I ran 5K under 16 minutes back then. But that was a different time….

All in all I had a great time and it has given me even more encouragement to look forward my 10K race at the end of February.