Weekend Bling Report
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My first marathon! Cold, and rained the entire time, but it was amazing. I saw two guys juggling balls the entire way, a couple got married during the race (I only saw a lot of bridesmaids and one groomsman), so much kindness from the racers and the volunteers... it was an experience of a lifetime. Race goodies included the awesome medal, raw fiber t shirt, cooler lunch box, cap, bottle opener, and a bag. I was too cold to stick around for the food but it smelled good lol!
I also received this mysterious to me item in my bag, I don’t know whether I should eat it, bath with it, or stick it in my shoe...? Any insight would be much appreciated 😂.8 -
I assume you mean the big round thing in the second photo? How big is it?
Or the bottle opener?1 -
spiriteagle99 wrote: »I assume you mean the big round thing in the second photo? How big is it?
Or the bottle opener?
Yea the big round thing in the second photo, it’s about the size of my palm, very light weight, not styrofoam it kinda feels like a towel material but when I bent it it cracked and fell apart a little. It came wrapped with that advent health thing on top in plastic that seemed like it was meant to be opened. It doesn’t have a smell lol. Theories are bath bomb, paper weight, or perhaps a towel that if it gets wet expands. Holding off on getting it wet though in case if that messes it up.1 -
Found out it was a compressed wash cloth towel lol.4
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USATF Cross Country Championships, Masters Men: Finished in 32:53, 49th of 107 overall and 10th of 30 in the M 60-64 age group. I was fortunate enough to be the lead runner on the 3rd place Men's 60+ Team:
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Here's my 10k night race bling. The medals are nicer this year, but it's race #3 in a 4-race series and probably the only one I'll do, so I'll miss out on whatever design they'll make when all 4 medals get put together.6 -
15k race bling...
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Smashed my 5k...
Really good goodie bag... t shirt, medal, water (obvs), banana, flapjack, peanut butter, banana bar...
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Myrtle Beach SC Marathon - I finished in 4:01:31, which was good enough for first in my AG (60-64) and another BQ. Award was another medal. I liked the long sleeved shirts, which are a speckled turquoise and white.3
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I ran the 20M Psycho Wyco Run Toto Run Trail Race two weekends ago with my lab, Kody. They also offered 10M and 50K distances on the same 10M loop course. I wanted to run the 50K but for the second year in a row I was limited to 20M due to recovering from injury. This time was recovering from my October foot surgery.
Everyone got a thin hoodie and finishers got a distance sticker and a finisher's mug. No medals for runners this year but Kody, who ran his first trail race, got a medal. The tornado in the medal actually spins.
Since I was coming back from injury we just ran this as a training run but Kody still managed to place 4th out of 9 dogs in the Canine Division for his first 10M loop (all dogs in all three race distances were timed for just their first loop). He missed a podium finish by less than 2 minutes.
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I had a great weekend of racing! It's been a miserable winter for training, and, after running a 5K two weeks ago that was about a minute slower than my PR, I have been feeling very doubtful about my ability have a successful marathon in April. So a good weekend of racing was really much needed and I knew this going in.
On Saturday I raced a local, but large, Shamrock Shuffle 5k, which was my PR from last March. I didn't think I could beat my PR, but I was hoping to at least be in the ball park. I ended up running a 21:56 and beating my PR by 1 second! I finished 5th female out of 494 and 40/817 overall. Awards went to the top 25 male and female finishers and was a Green Queen City Running T-shirt and a cool pair of lime green Shamrock Shuffle knee socks. This is a really fun community race with a great post race party. Unfortunately, I could not stay to enjoy the festivities because I had family in from out of town and a second race the next morning.
My Sunday race was the Cincinnati Heart Mini half marathon. This is a really big event in Cincy with over 20,000 runners racing between the 5K, 15K and HM options. The 15K and HM start together and run a very hilly, challenging course. I participate in this event every year that I can and I have run both options at least 5 times each, so I am very familiar with the course. To add to this year's challenge, the day was very windy and the HM course crosses the Ohio River and back and the wind was pretty brutal on the bridges. This race was really going to be a tell tale for how my training was going. I ended up finishing in 1:41:54, which was first in the F 45-49 age group out of 76, 40/682 females and 222/1503 overall. This was not a PR, but was a PR for this course, so I was super excited about it. Award was a $10 gift card to a local running store and a long sleeve t-shirt, which proudly says "1/2 Champion" on the back. Epic fail Heart Mini. Another good reason to stick to the 15k distance next year!2 -
Congrats on the age group win @lporter229! I ran the Heart Mini half yesterday too. I didn't run it quite as fast as you, but I was very happy with my 1:54:40 finish (I was hoping for around 2 hours). It was my first time running that race and it was a lot hillier than I expected it to be, especially that little out and back (up and down?) around mile 6.1
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My first half is officially in the books!2 -
Congrats on the age group win @lporter229! I ran the Heart Mini half yesterday too. I didn't run it quite as fast as you, but I was very happy with my 1:54:40 finish (I was hoping for around 2 hours). It was my first time running that race and it was a lot hillier than I expected it to be, especially that little out and back (up and down?) around mile 6.
Congrats on smashing your goal! Yes, Torrence hill is a killer. One year they took it out because of construction and all of the runners ran by it and yelled at it. It was funny. Even though Torrence is still part of the 15K course, I much prefer the 15K course over the half marathon. All of those little twists and turns to add on the mileage at the end can be soul crushing!0 -
USATF Masters 8K at the Towne Bank Shamrock 8K this morning. I turned in a middle of the pack performance in the context of a USATF championship race: 32:06 gun time, 64th of 153 overall, 10th of 21 in the M 60-64 age group. Because it was in conjunction with the open Shamrock 8K, I got a finisher's medal. Because I age graded above 80%, I got a USATF age grade medal.
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. . . and the obligatory 4-medal bling shot: 8K finisher's medal, USATF age grade medal, half marathon finisher's medal, Dolphin Challenge medal. Also a blanket (still in the bag so it packs well to get home), a running hat, and a second string bag for running the half.
Stopped halfway home for the night. Results say I'm 2nd of 110 in the M 60-64 age group. I predicted no podium finish, on the basis that I was planning to run at marathon pace, not race it like a half. Ended up hanging near Meb, who was pacing 1:35, for over 12 miles; then I ran most of the last mile at T pace to finish with an official time of 1:34:22.4 -
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@99clmsntgr Yes, that experience was worth a lot. My target marathon pace is 7:20 per mile. The original idea was to practice marathon pace. Meb pacing 1:35 talked me into upping that to 7:15 per mile.
The interesting thing is that there was a substantial crowd going out with Meb the first few miles; I didn't feel the north wind, because the pace group blocked it. By the time I left Meb behind to finish fast, he was down to a group of 2 or 3 people running with him. I wasn't paying attention, so I don't know how many couldn't keep up and how many decided to run ahead at some point.1 -
99clmsntgr wrote: »
Yeah, I probably couldn't hang at that pace for a whole half, but I could, and WOULD, definitely do it for a few miles!1 -
@99clmsntgr Yes, that experience was worth a lot. My target marathon pace is 7:20 per mile. The original idea was to practice marathon pace. Meb pacing 1:35 talked me into upping that to 7:15 per mile.
The interesting thing is that there was a substantial crowd going out with Meb the first few miles; I didn't feel the north wind, because the pace group blocked it. By the time I left Meb behind to finish fast, he was down to a group of 2 or 3 people running with him. I wasn't paying attention, so I don't know how many couldn't keep up and how many decided to run ahead at some point.
Nice! How many people can say that they left Meb in the dust?1 -
Lucky Charm 5k this weekend. The plan was to try to PR but the wind and my recent flu ended those thoughts before the race even began. Ended up nearly 2 minutes slower than my PR. Still, that was good enough for 21st overall and 2nd in my age group (got a nice glass for my 2nd place effort).
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I did the Hogeye Marathon this past weekend in Springdale, AR. Time was not good, but I finished.
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Attended the closing ceremony for the trail 5k series I did. You have to complete 4 of the 6 races to qualify. The kids and I participated in all 6 this year
It's the same course each month, but the weather makes things very interesting!
This was my 3rd year participating in this series. They do a great job.
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Boston Marathon on Monday. Ended up one minute and 37 seconds off my (kind of arbitrary) goal, but was really pleased with my race.
I typed a full report if anyone is interested:
https://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10735956/april-2019-monthly-running-challenge#latest5 -
lporter - given conditions, that is an amazing result. A lot of people ended up 20 minutes off their goal.1
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I rocked the last leg of the Big Sur Marathon relay!I was on a relay team for the Big Sur Marathon. I ran the last leg, which was officially "about" 9.4 miles. Runkeeper gave me credit for 9.5 miles. However, sometimes Runkeeper looks at GPS satellites, shrugs, and says, "Eh, close enough." I had two teammates; our fourth team member was injured and not able to run. One team member ran the first 4.8 miles, while the second ran legs 2 and 3.
Logistics for this race were complicated, but fortunately the BSIM team has been doing this for over three decades and have it figured out. The logistics were complicated not just because this is a relay, but also because BSIM is a point-to-point race along a two lane road. We had to take buses to the exchange points, and all relay runners were at their exchange points by the 6:45 am start of the marathon--even those of us who were running the last leg. I was up at 4:30 am for my 6 am bus to the exchange point. Marathoners and earlier leg runners were expected to show up at 3:45 am, so I got to sleep in.
On the way to the bus stop, I realized I had forgotten my earbud. This was going to be a race with no music. I was not happy.
We boarded the buses and drove about 30 minutes down the coast. It was too dark to see much; being a local, that didn't really bother me. Around 6:30 am, I ate my usual breakfast.
The first non-relay runner passed our exchange point, around mile 16.8, MUCH sooner than we had expected. Most of the relay runners were still on the buses, which had been thoughtfully parked at the exchange point so we didn't have to wait in the cold. It turned out, however, that people running the 11 miler got to begin around marathon mile 15 at 7 am, so they showed up at our exchange point quickly. Leg 4 runners, who were already running over 9 miles, all agreed that next year we were going to run the 11 miler and be done a lot sooner.
The first marathoner wasn't far behind, however. We had only been waiting a little over an hour when he came flying by, and everyone on the buses jumped up to watch. He lead the entire marathon and finished 7 minutes ahead of the second place finisher.
After that, there was a steady stream of runners, and I spent a couple hours reading a book on my phone. Around 9 am, I got off the bus to warm up. I did an easy jog down a trail to the coast, and walked laps up and down the road by the exchange point. I was very concerned about warming up and testing out my right leg, which has an old patellar tendon injury that had been bothering me since my Monday long run. I had taped the knee on Sunday night, and pre-race it felt slightly swollen, but stable and not painful.
My teammate, having conquered two legs of the race (including Hurricane Point, the big, steep hill on leg 3), showed up at 10:12 am. She handed off the relay timing chip--a scrunchie that was by this point pretty drenched with sweat--and I congratulated her and took off.
There were a lot of walkers at this point on the course. Since I had not already run 17 miles, I flew past them. I did not have my earbud, so I just let Runkeeper announce my stats through the phone speaker. I wound up not missing my music very much; the race day adrenaline and focus took over pretty quickly.
The scenery was very pleasant, but not as amazing as the earlier legs of the race, since much of leg 4 moved inland instead of following the coast. Leg 4 has been described as "rolling hills," which were not difficult, though the last hill was steep but short. I'm certain those hills felt much more difficult to people who ran a longer distance. The weather was an ideal 50 degrees with a light breeze.
Other highlights of the course were the musicians, including a harpist on the outskirts of Carmel, and the strawberry station around marathon mile 23.
I maintained relatively even splits, with miles 2-4 all in the 8:48-8:55 range, but I was not able to keep up that pace on the later hills and finished with an overall pace of 9:08. That was still my best mile pace of any run thus far, beating last fall's 10k pace of 9:15. I finished in a total time of 1:26:48. (All stats from Runkeeper, so they are likely a little off.)
The right knee held up perfectly well, possibly helped by the KT tape. It was a bit sore immediately after the race, but felt better later in the afternoon.
At the finish line, I received all three team members' medals. Like the Monterey Bay Half, they were handmade ceramic ocean-themed medallions; this year's relay medals have an octopus on them. The relay director did not want the sweaty scrunchie back. The food tent was out of chocolate chip cookies
I would be willing to run this leg of the relay again, but next year I may do the 11 miler instead, depending on my HM schedule. This would probably also increase my chances of getting a post-race chocolate chip cookie.
Next up: Capitola Half Marathon on May 19! Based on my pace today, I feel like a sub-2 hour HM is going to happen this year, either at Capitola or at the Monterey Bay Half in November.
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I had no idea runners had to get to the buses that early. It's like the Disney races. I've always wanted to run Big Sur, but doing it on no sleep would make it a lot harder.
Congratulations on doing so well. If you're averaging 9:08 on a hilly race, you'll surely break 2 this year if you can find a flatter or downhill one.0 -
spiriteagle99 wrote: »I had no idea runners had to get to the buses that early. It's like the Disney races. I've always wanted to run Big Sur, but doing it on no sleep would make it a lot harder.
Congratulations on doing so well. If you're averaging 9:08 on a hilly race, you'll surely break 2 this year if you can find a flatter or downhill one.
Out of town folks can stay at a hotel in short walking distance to the bus stop, if that helps. If you’d be dealing with a time change, you might want to show up a few days early to adjust—there’s plenty to do in the area. Check out the Monterey Bay Aquarium, drive the route down the coast, take a whale watching tour, even head up to Santa Cruz if you get bored.
Thank you! My two half marathons this year are both pretty flat, and I train on hills, so I feel good about my chances for breaking two hours.0 -
Ran the Indy Mini on Saturday, in the rain. Time of 1:57:36 with an 8:53 average min/mil. New PR by nearly 10 minutes! I'm super excited by this result. I met all my goals, No walking, new PR and breaking 2 hours!2
