This morning, I did a last minute 5k.  I’ve done it the past few years, and it has a history of being brutally cold; only 4F last year.  Thankfully, we are in the middle of a winter thaw with temperatures creeping into the upper 30’s.  I didn’t decide to do the run until yesterday when I talked to my friend Carrie and confirmed that she and her dad would be running as well.

Portland is about an hour away, but the race didn’t start until 10:00, so it wasn’t a super early morning.  Nevertheless, I let Jennie sleep in because she has to get up early every day during the week and it wasn’t worth missing a sleep in day for a 5k.

We got to Portland High School at about 9:00 so I could register and make sure I got a t-shirt.  Last year, they ran out of shirts and just handed out shirts from the previous year.  Apparently they got complaints over that last year, so anyone who late registered didn’t get a shirt on race day and will instead have one mailed.  Whatever works, I guess.

I wasn’t quite sure how I was going to do because my right calf hurts like hell after cramping up on me yesterday at the pool.  It actually hurts more when I am walking than running, so I decided to push it as much as I could.

I went out fairly strong with a first mile of 6:13.  There are a lot of high school students who run this race, and they set a fairly quick pace right off the gun.  The second mile was my slowest mile; mainly because of the hills.  There are two hills that suck the life out of you.  I slowed down to 6:53 for this mile; crap.  I knew I would have to push hard to make it under 20 minutes.  As I turned back for the final mile, I was headed right back into the wind.  Not looking good.

Despite pushing out a 6:37 3rd mile and a 31 second .1 mile, I fell 15 seconds short of breaking 20 minutes.  Craptastic.  But it actually gives me a legitimate 5k PR (unlike the Turkey Trot), so I am happy with it.

After finishing, I grabbed my camera to snap some pictures of Carrie and her dad.

 
Dave crossed the finish line before I could grab my camera.

 
Carrie ended up finishing in just under 30 minutes – 29:58. 

Not bad for just giving birth to this bundle of joy 3 months ago.

After the race, Carrie forced politely asked for us to take a couple pictures of us all wearing shirts for 3C’s Fitness (a fitness center in Lake Odessa).

  
Because the name of the fitness center was on the back on my shirt, we had to do one with my better back side showing.

Post Race

Post race is the reason to do this race.  They have great food afterwards; better than a lot of the bigger races I have done.

I started off with a cup of homemade vegetarian chili, oranges, Great Harvest Bread Company’s Whole Grain Low Carb bread, powdered donut (which I ended up saving for Jennie), and a sour cream donut (that I didn’t save for Jennie)

After scarfing that down, I had to head back for more chili.

Well, whatever calories I burned during the run were quickly replenished.

Final Results

I ended up finishing in 20:15, which put me at 6 of 9 in my age group and 38th overall (out of 300-ish).  Last year, I ran slower (21:42) but placed 1st in my age group and 22nd overall.  I guess that is what happens when the weather is a bit warmer – more competition.

Overall, I am happy with my PR, and it leaves me confident that I WILL get under 20 minutes this year when I am 100% and have a bit more speed work under my belt.

Rest of the Weekend

Because of the race, I missed my long run of the week, albeit only a 6 mile run this week.  Probably all for the better as I want my calf to fully heal before I start another hard week of training.  I can’t believe I have to run 20 miles one day next week!!! I may do some easy spinning tomorrow, as the stretching tends to help my calf and that way there isn’t any impact.

As 2010 nears, it is time to finalize my schedule for the year.  I am getting fairly close to a full schedule, but I am not quite there.  However, I think I have decided on my first race of the season.  In keeping with my general plan to do 2 marathons in 2010, I have chosen the Martian Marathon as my first one.  The Martian Marathon has a Mars/Martian theme, which sounds like it could add a fun element to the race.  The race is invasion begins on April 10th, which puts it almost exactly 18 weeks away.  This is perfect because my standard marathon training program is 18 weeks.

So, that makes today the first day of the training plan.  I think I am going to modify the plan a bit and cut it back to 4 days a week of running coupled with continued swimming and biking to round out each week.  Rather than doing two light workouts (Tuesdays and Thursdays on the schedule), I’ll instead do one speed workout.  This should allow me to fully prepare for the marathon without losing any of the base I have built up for when triathlon season starts back up.

Less than 24 hours until the Grand Rapids Marathon.  I did the whole packet pickup thing this afternoon.  It was an absolute zoo; people everywhere.  The packet pickup was at the YMCA, so there were hundreds of runners along with the regular Y traffic.

They were welcoming ME (and only me, I would like to think)

I got my packet and shopped around a bit.  Another great shirt, red this year. 

I bought a GRM pint glass to add to my collection along with a new tri sticker (my current one didn’t stick very well for some reason) and a 26.2 one.

Jennifer found a great North Face vest to keep her warm.  I had to take a picture
of her wearing it because there was not any mirrors around and she wanted to
see how it looked on.

After packet pickup, it was time for a relaxing college football Saturday with the requisite nap, pizza, and beer.  My beloved ND lost in a heartbreaker to USC that came down to the last second – literally, 1 second on the clock.  This was supposed to be our year to beat USC.  Shit. 

Time for dinner, chicken and pierogis, before heading to an early bed.

Stay tuned for a race report.  However, it may be a little later than usual as I fly out for work tomorrow afternoon.  Not quite sure how a 3 hour flight after a 4 hour run will feel, but I’ll find out soon enough!

I finished the Ludington Triathlon today.  I gave it my all and went hard the whole way, pushing all the way to the finish.  It paid off.  It is my best finish of the season and I am very happy with how it all went.  We are back home and resting now; the lack of sleep is getting the better of me.  I’m not quite up on doing the full race report now, but I finished in 2:24:49 placing 7th out of 11 in my age group and 35th out of 87 overall. 

Stay tuned for a full race report!

This morning’s Millennium Triathlon was canceled due to the weather which is a bummer.  I got up at 5:30 and headed out to the race for packet pickup and to get setup. As of 7:15AM, the race was still on, but they weren’t making the final decision until 7:45.  During setup, there was a few sprinkles, but nothing too severe and it actually looked like it was clearing up at 7:40 when I headed down to the lake.  However, due to weather that was coming, they decided to cancel bumming out about 800 athletes.  Thankfully, a nice guy down at the beach let me borrow his cell phone, so that I could let Jennie and her mom know that the race was canceled.  I quickly tore down my transition gear and headed back to the car hoping to beat the crowd.  It was a zoo getting out of the muddy field where everyone was parked. 

On my drive home, at about 8:20, 20 minutes after the race was scheduled to start, there was some flashes of lightning and then it started to pour.  So, they made the right decision.  It would have been very dangerous to have people in the water or on their bikes in that kind of weather.  When I got home, I quick grabbed a snapshot of the radar from Weather.Com.

The storm was moving west to east, so you can see that the worst of it was
probably over, but by that time, the race would have been well underway.

It doesn’t look like they are going to be rescheduling the race, so I am looking for another tri sometime this month.  The Ludington Triathlon looks fun and offers the option of an Olympic distance.  Plus, Jennie wouldn’t take much convincing to make a trip up to Ludington and possibly on to Traverse City after that.

Stay tuned…