Weekend Bling Report
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driven over those many times, going to have to check out this run for next year!0
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silverfiend wrote: »driven over those many times, going to have to check out this run for next year!
You must! Very well organized and proceeds go to a good local charity.1 -
Came in 3rd for my group in the Turkey Trot 5K race today, and I ran a new personal best of 25:37 for an 8:15 average!
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Since I became a runner, I've run the 10K Race with Grace each Thanksgiving Day. Today, as I'm coming back from Achilles tendonitis, I followed my coach's advice and took it easy to start before deciding what my recovering leg will tolerate. Ended up running my 6th RwG at about my healthy half marathon pace, finishing in 42:38. That's 1:45 slower than last year, when I was healthy; but I've aged up to an easier group. No age group bling, because I won 1st Male Senior and got a plain white envelope with a $50 bill inside. I guess you could say I finished 0 of 30 in the age group, as 30 guys who finished behind me are listed 1 to 30 in the M 60-64 age group.7
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Did my annual Turkey Trot 5k, an annual tradition. I usually use this race as my one 5k a year to see how much I've improved year to year. This year my 50k race was 5 days before it so I kind of passed on doing that... decided I'd go out and see if I could squeak out a sub 20. I was feeling the tiredness in my legs for sure by mile 2, but it still held together well and ended up at 19:43, just 5 seconds off my PR from last year. I wish I had realized I was so close to that and pushed the pace in the final mile to set a new PR!
Still was good enough for an AG win and I won a nice running hat and a pie! Since I ran to the race as a warm up, I had to run the 4 miles back home with my pie
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Thanksgiving Day Race (10K) - 40:33, 19th overall woman, 2nd in AG. I knew competition was going to be tough this year--there were several Olympic Trials Marathon qualifiers. I originally was aiming for under 40 minutes, but started with a really bad cold/virus a few days before (I am STILL having coughing fits). Race conditions were great, I just wasn't feeling it that day. Also, my shoe came untied around mile 2.5. Yes, the veteran racer that I am had an untied shoe in a race for the first time ever. I refused to stop and tie it, but man it annoyed the crap out of me. I blame those stupid racing shoes--I rarely wear them since I mostly do longer races!
race_3126_photo_49321196 by 
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Here is a good one of the shoelace!
race_3126_photo_49357004 by 6 -
Don Curran Memorial 5K, a.k.a. Freezeroo #1 this morning.
Freezeroo is a low-budget series; with the Black Friday discount, I get 6 races for $50. There is a modest series gift to all series participants. This year, it's a neck gaiter/buff that's one size fits all. It might be too loose for me to use it running, but I'll test it when the weather gets colder.
Freezeroo #1 is flat. Total elevation gain per my Garmin was 13 feet. The certification map says 12 feet. Even at 5K race pace, I didn't really notice what inclines there were. There was wintry mix in the air when I left home this morning. That had changed to drizzle when I ran my pre-race warmup, and had let up by gun time. Temperature was 37° F (3° C), the wind was supposed to be 13 mph NW, but it didn't feel that strong. The weather didn't live up to the Freezeroo name.
This is the first race I set out to run as fast as I could since getting out of PT for Achilles tendonitis. I've lost a step or two from being injured. Had my right shoe come untied during the first mile, and made the executive decision that I'd lose less time running with an untied shoe than stopping to tie it. Other than that, the race was uneventful. Many people passed me at the gun, I passed more than passed me later. Ended up finishing in 20:06, 59 seconds slower than my 5K PR but good enough for 13th overall out of 176, and 1st of 9 (?) in the M 60-65 age group. No age group bling, because it's low-budget.
Came home and looked up series scoring. The fast young guys didn't show up, so the overall winner was a 56 year old who ran 18:36. Points are based on the percentage of your time that the race leader (by gender) ran, so I get 92 points for this one. I don't know whether winning the age group for the series is good for anything but bragging rights, but I'd like to get those bragging rights.3 -
California International Marathon was Sunday, and race day conditions were perfect. I went out conservatively, and stuck to my goal pace for the first half. A race erupted about mile 15, when one of my age group competitors (we're M50) caught and passed me. I learned later, he'd been sitting on my heels all morning and now doing what I'd done to him in the prior two races of the series! Another guy came with him and the three of us duked it out for the next few miles- picking up the pace sharply. I had beaten both of these guys all season, but this time I came out on the losing end and crawled the last few miles to finish in 2:56. I'm pretty sure I could have run a bit faster if I hadn't been racing, but it was still my first sub-3 marathon since 2010. I'll take it.7
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USATF National Club Cross Country Championships were in Tallahassee on Saturday. Because I am over 60, I ran the 8K for men's masters 60+. Finished in 33:38 to lead our B team. Our A team won the team championship, the B team came in 8th of 16 teams, ahead of the other B teams and some A teams. No team bling and no individual bling for me, but I'm happy with how I did given that I'm recovering from Achilles tendonitis and that this was my first cross country race. It was a bit of an experience, seeing so many fast 60+ year old guys in the same race.5
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Sunday was the Bovington Marathon and Half Marathon, a bit of an experiment as it was an attempt to use Ministry of Defence training area for the races. So 360 runners in the marathon and 550 in the half. A considerable amount of effort had gone in over the year to make this work, and whilst the MoD do work to make the training areas accessible to the public, there are some areas where that's hard work. This was a good example of that, with Bovington being the Armour Centre, where we train phase 2 and 3 soldiers either in the Cavalry or the Royal Tank Regiment, and the various supporting arms. That makes it normally closed to the public. There is always a risk of last minute cancellation with MoD land, but that's mitigated by this being a school, so the training use is better forecast.
The camp is the home of the tank, having been established in the 19th Century as an Infantry garrison, during the First World War it was identified as the garrison of the Heavy Section of the Machine Gun Corps, essentially the force element responsible for operating the earliest tanks. It's been the garrison ever since.
Personally I'd entered the Half, as when places came open on 1 Jan I wasn't entirely convinced I'd want to do a fourth marathon this year. In practice that was probably best, after the Clarendon Marathon in October I've generally been a bit run down, so this was never going to be pretty.
The key point from the race briefing was not to pick up anything metallic, in case it blew up.
A foggy start as we dropped into heathland to the south of the garrison camps, on a nice forest track, broken with a few knee deep, cold puddles. That lead to a long, slow climb to the West of the camps, rising through woodland. These areas are used to train wheeled vehicles or light recce vehicles. Breaking through the treeline the terrain changed significantly, the area used for the heavy armour, with bigger roads, deep mud and much clearer skies. This area was hard going, it had been heavy rain for several days before the race, meaning that the ground was saturated.
The route then led back down into the tree line, and whilst it was a long descent, there were a fair number of quite steep climbs in there as well. Getting back into the forestry meant firmer going, but a number of very deep streams to get through.
We finished under the barrel of a Challenger Mk1.
Personally I found it pretty tough, as my training hadn't been on form since Clarendon. That said, it was a good race. Great to get onto an area normally closed to the public, and as ever with White Start Running events some very friendly runners. Few people are chasing times, and most see these races as an opportunity for a bit of fun.
I used my Inov-8 Mud Claw 300s for this one, which I found was the right choice. The terrain was very soft, and the traction really helped.
Anyway, the bling... It's massive!
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Reindeer Run 5K, to benefit the Strong Museum of Play. Snow in the air, snow on the ground, sections of the route unplowed, plowed streets filling in with snow, and a case of running for least bad footing instead of making any attempt to run good tangents. So I don't know why the Garmin says 3.12 miles; I have longer distances reported for 5Ks when I thought I was running pretty decent tangents.
Under the conditions, I ran 23:27 (compared to 20:06 in a 5K with better conditions 2 weeks ago). But most runners were running 3 to 5 minutes slower than a normal 5K, so that was good enough for 29th of 1105 overall and 1st of 30 in the M 60-64 age group. Got a jar of nut butter and got to choose from a selection of toy-themed trophies.
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No bling for the low-budget Freezeroo series, but it's fun. Today was Freezeroo #2, a.k.a. Resolution Run, 7.5 miles of rolling hills. Counted heads early, and saw only 10 people ahead of me. After that I counted how many passed me and how many I passed; I thought I was finishing 14th overall. Results got posted, and they showed me 12th overall. Best guess is that two of the runners who were ahead of me slowed down enough that I thought I was passing early start runners when I went past them.
Official time showed as 50:44.830. The overall winner ran 45:48.437, so I should get 90+ Freezeroo points for this one. I was first M 60-64, so I will be leading my age group for the series.
After the race, a friend asked me if this was a PR. I dunno, I haven't kept track of 7.5 mile races. But this is the only 7.5 mile race I've run, and the weather was awful the last two years, so it should be a PR, right? Right! Previous best 7.5 mile race, 53:07; best/only 12K race (about 7.45 miles), 51:24.2 -
Thanks to DayQuil and Halls cough drops, I finished 24th out of 357 for the New Year 5K today. It was good for 4th in my age group. Had I run the same speed as my Thanksgiving Day 5k, I would have won my age group. Oh well, at least I didn't cough up a lung.
Time 24:13
Award Placement Ages 45-49 Males 4 of 19
Overall Place 24 of 357
Overall Males 20 of 142
Ages 45-49 Males 4 of 19
Males 47 1 of 51 -
Winter Warrior Half Marathon on Saturday. 21º F (-6º C) and 10 mph W wind for my warmup at 3 PM. 19º F (-7º C) and 11 mph W wind at gun time, with the temperature and wind trending like that while I ran 4 equal loops. Went out too fast, and ran the 3rd and 4th loops to survive rather than to finish strong, but still had a decent result. 1:32:40 was good enough for 20th of 767 overall and 1st of 19 in the M 60-64 age group. Race hat and finisher's medal:
The heater for the heated tent stopped working, so I didn't hang around to see what I won for finishing first in the age group. I'll check on that later.4 -
Good for you Moby, 1st in your group is a great result. Cold and windy runs suck, so congrats for getting out there and doing it! Love the hat and bling, they look great.0
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Walt Disney World Marathon Weekend is over. Dopey Challenge completed.
5K = 31:47
10K = 1:03:33
13.1 = 2:32:12 (unofficial due to runDisney canceling the half due to lighting potential) A lot Dopey runners got together and ran our own race.
26.2 = 5:00:55 (weather reared its ugly head again on this one, start time temp was 38F with a wind chill of 28F. Really cold for the Orlando, FL area).
Not my fastest race times, but was trying to conserve the legs. This for me was about finishing all the races and having good time.
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Disney marathon on Sunday. This was a "for fun" race for me. Official time was 3:07:07, which put me 9th overall and 1st in AG (technically 2nd, but OA 3rd place was in my AG and you placed in that). I stopped twice for character pics. Start time was outside my comfort zone--5:30, which meant I got up at 3 am! So not me! I was having sleep issues ever since we arrived in Disney and had about 2.5 hours sleep over 2 nights.
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@Wendy98- Wow...first in AG at a race the size of Disney is pretty spectacular. Especially with photo ops! And I love your headband!2
