Category Archives:

Scouting out the new territory

0, 08mi

Start time: 04/09/06, 10:00am
Location: Waterside and National Mall
Distance: 8 miles
Run:Walk ratio: 6:1
Average pace: ~10:30min/mile

Since the new AIDS Marathon season starts in a month, and this year I’m a site assistant at the Waterside location, I figured it would be a good thing to get to know the area. This, in no small part, because I’ve never actually been there before aside from visiting a friend that used to live around there. I shanghaied grok and made him show me around the area. It went really nicely, despite huge crowds on the National Mall. Lots of dodging of people, sudden detours and loop arounds, and such, but still really enjoyable. It’s fun to run in a new neck of the woods, especially one as iconic as the monuments area of DC. I’ve never actually run down there aside from in a race, so it was nice to do so in a relaxed state of mind.

“It’s that damn third mile!”

0, 04mi

Start time: 04/05/06, 6:00pm
Location: W&OD Trail
Distance: 4 miles
Run:Walk ratio: 6:1
Average pace: 10:18min/mile

The subject line was a direct quote from Julie upon finishing. Once again, our pattern held true on mile splits (9:53, 10:14, 10:41, 10:22). This was also the first run since the race, and I am thoroughly impressed with Julie; not only had she jumped from 6 to 10 miles for the race, but she was still game for running on Wednesday and with no backsliding. I think she’s going to surprise herself immensely by the time training starts in June. She’s much faster than she thinks she is.

A thoroughly pleasant Cherry Blossom 10-miler

0, 10mi, pr, race, statistics

Start time: 04/02/06, 8:00am
Location: Washington DC
Distance: 10 miles
Run:Walk ratio: 6:1
Finishing time: 1:32:38
Average pace: 9:16min/mile

I must admit that I had my doubts going into this race. Were my muscles really up to speed? Had my lack of sleep the past couple of nights (coupled with the return of Daylight Saving Time) doomed me? What about the dehydration that had happened all through Saturday thanks to something I ate clearly not agreeing with me? And what about Naomi?

Regardless of my doubts, I of course still ran the race. I met up at the Foggy Bottom metro station with Julie, Ali, Alma, Craig, John, Katie, Mark, Marty, and Randy and we all headed down to the race. Despite half of our group needing to use the port-o-potties, we still made into the corrals (and fortunately Ali, John, and Katie were all able to start with us despite being in a different corral; we went towards the back and they went towards the front) and were off before we knew it. Alma and Marty took off and were going to run the whole thing straight through; knowing that I’d poop out partway through I was more than a bit jealous!

Before too long it was just me, Craig, John, Katie, and Randy hoofing it together. The weather was gorgeous, though, and the cherry blossoms were in full bloom. So rare considering the past two years the race has been sub-Arctic complete with icy cold winds, and the blossoms have long since departed. My watch said 59:01 as I went over the 10K marker, which I was less than thrilled about, since my 10K PR from last May was a minute faster and I figured I’d have a faster pace for this race. It didn’t dissuade me, though, and our run through Rock Creek Park was great since its out-and-back means we can see other people ahead and behind us. I passed my friend Cal right at the turn-around, and we began the trek back towards the finish line.

Somewhere around mile 8.5, Katie took off (and power to her!), even as I was losing speed and John was nowhere to be found. I focused on my final walk break with the knowledge that I had just 1.5 miles to go, and tried to keep up with Randy and Craig. The two of them began to slip away from me around mile 9.5, and it took every ounce of energy I had left to “rubber band” off of Craig even as Randy continued to pull ahead. I barely passed Craig about 100 feet before the finish line, but Randy had already crossed over. My finishing time was a 1:32:38 which gave me a 9:16min/mile, faster than the Half Marathon. That made me super happy. The splits were slightly more erratic this time (9:44, 9:20, 10:00, 9:08, 9:30, 9:23, 9:23, 8:52, 9:16, 7:56) and I have no idea what the heck happened at mile 3, but all in all, a very good race indeed, smashing last year’s time of 1:49:02.

Phew! I’m glad I’ve got no more short races in April, though. (Just two more in May—a 5K and a 10K—and that’s it for the spring season!)

Oh, and my statistics for the Cherry Blossom (and its ludicrous “20-39” age group):

2004: 2235/2242 (99th percentile)
2005: 2132/2290 (93rd percentile)
2006: 1955/2873 (68th percentile)

EDIT: Although bizarrely, there’s also a listing if I go to RunWashington.com for a 30-34 grouping, but not if I go to the Cherry Blossom site. I guess Cherry Blossom doesn’t believe in those stats even though they were provided. For my amusement and records, though, it was 585/871 (67th percentile). Heh.

Farewell, March.

0, 04mi

Start time: 03/29/06, 6:00pm
Location: W&OD Trail
Distance: 4 miles
Run:Walk ratio: 6:1
Average pace: 10:17min/mile

One final run to round out March. Julie and I took another four miles together, and to our surprise half a mile in we ran into Mark, who joined us for the rest. He seemed in good spirits, and we chatted about Cherry Blossom 10-miler plans and such. A slightly slower third mile (9:56, 10:17, 10:41, 10:13) but not bad at all. No stiffness at all is left from the half marathon, so fingers crossed for a good race on Sunday.

Speaking of half marathons, its presence also meant that this was officially my highest mileage for a month where I wasn’t in the AIDS Marathon program, topping out at 69.1 miles. (The previous record holder was December 2005 with the surprisingly high 66 miles.) The yearly total is at 162.1 miles, while last year at the end of March I was at 118.4. Wow!

April should be an interesting month in terms of running; starting on Mondays I’m going to be running by myself and experimenting with a GPS unit. Interesting may not even begin to sum up what’s ahead!

Monday, Monday

0, 04mi

Start time: 03/27/06, 5:45pm
Location: W&OD Trail
Distance: 4 miles
Run:Walk ratio: 6:1
Average pace: 10:16min/mile

Two days after the half marathon, and thankfully all is well. I could definitely still feel it in my muscles, but it wasn’t a bad feeling, just more of a signal that the muscles had definitely been used on Saturday! And, as I commented to Julie as we were finishing, an added bonus was that it was still light outside when we finished. Shocking! Shocking I tell you! (10:04, 10:12, 10:38, 10:09. Julie was motoring!)

“Blow, blow, thou winter wind…”

0, 10mi

Start time: 03/18/06, 8:00am
Location: W&OD Trail
Distance: 10 miles
Run:Walk ratio: 5:1
Average pace: 10:24min/mile

That felt really, really good. It’d been a while since I’d done a double-digit distance (the last was… um… February 11th!) and it’s nice to know that it’s still a good process. I ran the first six with Julie and Randy, and a groove was settled into quickly while we chatted away with Randy about this and that, just catching up in general. (10:15, 10:30, 10:41, 11:03, 10:47, 10:52.) We did all of today’s at a 5:1 (instead of a 6:1) because that’s what Randy’s been training at, so it was interesting to be back at last season’s ratio and pace.

We dropped Julie off at that point and knocked out four more miles; no new ratio, but just naturally a bit faster without consciously trying (9:59, 10:05, 9:49, 10:00). Amusingly our finishing time was 1:44:06, which was faster than I raced the Cherry Blossom 10-miler last year. So that bodes really well.

I must say, though, it is awfully windy out today! (Hopefully this means we won’t have these winds still in two weeks time… yeah right.) Both Randy and I towards the end at different points had our hats blown clean off of our heads… brrrrr. Time for a nice hot shower!

(insert witty title here)

0, 04mi, rightfoot

Start time: 03/15/06, 6:00pm
Location: W&OD Trail
Distance: 4 miles
Run:Walk ratio: 6:1
Average pace: 10:35min/mile

On the bright side, better than Monday’s pace. And very consistant as well (10:27, 10:41, 10:37, 10:34). But I know Julie wasn’t happy with it, and to be honest I was less than thrilled as well. I told her that on Monday I was bringing a tazer and she gets one zap for every second below her pace. 🙂 More later, but I just accidentally deleted the data out of the watch so I figured I should post this now before going to bed and forgetting it all.