Weekend Bling Report
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I had a typo error - Registration capped at 1000 Athlete's ( filled in < 17 hr's )
Love the Air Quality statement of Avoid strenous outdoor activities.
The area about 70-80 km south of this was closed due to a fire in the area - which is why we had so much smoke.0 -
That is a really nice shirt. I love it when races provide shirts I actually want to wear. It makes me want to come back and run the race again. I already have a trunk full of ugly t-shirts. I don't need any more.
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@juliet3455 Great shirt and it looks like a beautiful course!0
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My first ever 7K race was on Thursday night along the river in Harrisburg, PA. I ran it in 31:14 which was good for 23rd overall and 5th in my age group. Even though it was my first attempt at that distance I'm not sure I could have done better. I'm pretty happy with the way I raced it. Strava even tells me I got my 2nd best 5k time.
I'm the one in the white.
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I was in Columbus, Ohio this weekend, so I rearranged my October marathon training plan a bit and ran two races: the Westerville Gameday 5k, which is the cross-country team fundraiser for the local high school near where I was staying in Columbus, and the Columbus Half Marathon at Alum Creek State Park.
The 5k was Friday night and the half was Saturday morning. I ended up finishing the 5k in 22:19, good for a new PR by about a minute. Finishers also got a pint glass and a t-shirt for their efforts. About 11 hours later I lined up for the half and finished in 1:50:23, another new PR by about a minute and a half (also got a finisher's medal and another t-shirt). I wasn't sure how I would feel for the half so soon after the 5k, but I felt good all the way through, so I guess the marathon training mileage is paying off. A storm blew through right before the Friday night race and kept things nice and cool (for August) for both races, so that helped too.
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Warsaw, Poland HM last night. Weather was great for an evening race. Up until the 9th kilometer it felt like a steady sea of people passing me-I definitely started too far forward in my corral. At the 9k mark I began to notice that I was beginning to pass a few people, and that only increased as the race went on. I only stopped running twice - once to take off my long-sleeved shirt and once to walk through one of the aide stations. I got faster as the race went on and by the last 2k it felt like I was flying as I passed people left and right and sprinted to the finish feeling awesome. It was definitely my best race so far. A PR by default because it's my first HM, BUT I came in 15 minutes faster than my estimate based on my training! Well-organized race with nice medals, a light-up band (that we were supposed to wear for the race), and a technical T-shirt that I really like and actually want to wear.
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Got this little beauty today. Wasn't a PB but a very enjoyable race!3 -
I ran the Harrisburg Half Marathon today in 01:42:22. That was good enough for 86th place (out of 704) and 10th in my age group. The weather was darn near perfect.
This picture was taken on a hill leading up to the bridge less than a half mile from the finish. At this point I was not holding back at all and was just about out of gas. I even knew the camera was there and couldn't even muster a smile (needed all the oxygen I could get ).
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A pretty challenging weekend, down in the Purbecks for the Bad Cow Weekender. A lapped trail race over a 4.4mi route, on a mix of forestation, sand and gravel, with each lap giving a vertical elevation of about 120 metres.
I called down there, so drive down on Friday evening and camped over the weekend.
Saturday was a 12 hour event. I'd contemplated a 50K, but opted to limit myself to a just a Marathon instead. I found the route was a bit more work on my legs than I'd anticipated and I didn't want to break myself. The weather was reasonable on Saturday, generally overcast but a brisk onshore crosswind over about a mile and a half.
The fastest marathon took 3:20, and I was comfortable with 6:17. The longest runner managed 66 miles in the 12 hours.
A couple of beers with friends on Saturday evening set me up nicely for Sunday morning. Another Marathon.
So there was a marathon and Half on the same route. Starting on tired legs was a bit of a challenge, and it was a pretty difficult time. The weather has closed in, with persistent rain for the day. Being pretty depleted after Saturday meant I was already feeling a bit tough, and I struggled to warm up at all.
I finished Sunday in 6:40.
First double, and a lot of learning points.
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Don't Get Lost in the Woods. Sunday September 10.
Trail run through the trees at the Wapiti Nordic Center in the rolling Sand Dunes Hills along the Wapiti River in Grande Prairie. They had the complete package of events, Walk or Run: HM,10 km, 5km, 3km and 400m for the kids.
The temperature at gun time ( 9:00 am ) was perfect but it quickly warmed up as there was no clouds to shield the sun. The sun tends to be low on the horizon so at certain points in the course you were looking straight into it and were blinded - always makes for interesting run as you can't see what you are going to land on.
The course varied from wide triple track, double and single track. The single track was usually beside a swampy section and was a little bypass trail through the trees. In the Sand Dune's if you were able to run on the short grass the traction/stability were good. The Hills were a challenge as the sand was churned up by all the events ( Walk's, Runs, Bike's, Horse's ) that are held at this facility so it was like running on a beach above the Hi-Tide line.
One of the ladies in GP is the same pace as me so we were playing Tag/Follow the leader for the whole event. Helped both of us keep a good tempo. Ultimately she had more gas on the flats so finished ~100m ahead of me. I would catch her on the hills and she would float past on the flats.
10km 57:40. AG 3rd, 20/112. At first I was a little disappointed by my time then realized I was only 1 minute of my PB and it was on a Flat Street course, so it was actually a really good result.
Participant Medal was made from Birch Tree's collected on the course, the placement medal's were interesting.
The Shirt - I love it. No Advertising and a Great LoGo.
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6 km Yesterday at the Miserable Miles Obstacle Course event on Misery Mountain Ski Hill.
Wave Start 30 minutes separation. General consensus was that 10-15 minutes would be better as there was a lot of time between athletes coming into the finish. As a contestant once past the 3rd obstacle ( Big Wall ) not a lot of waiting for a clear run. Less than a Spartan, more than a plain old run.
A friend asked to go as a Team since she was not comfortable doing some of the obstacles, so that's how we did the event. 15 obstacles, 1 nasty climb and what goes up must come down = 1 Mega Steep downhill section.
Up hill start to get separation and then into the obstacles: Tire High stepping, Pony Hurdle x 3 -Short-Tall-Short, Army crawl, High Wall ( 8ft )
, Soul Crusher Hill 
km 1.1 to 1.4 100m vertical
, Pail Carry ( 50 yds. downhill, 50 yds. uphill with a 40 lb. pail , 6 American Ninja Angled Steps , 10 ft. Log carry - 50 yds. up-downhill, 2nd Army Crawl, 60 ft. Balance beam on old springy logs, Mega Steep Downhill on the Double Black Diamond Ski run, Pony Hurdle x 3 -Tall-Short-Tall, More Downhill, 4 Table Top Hurdles, Short Leaning Wall 5ft high and leaning into your body so you cant get your feet on the wall to help, Water Slide 
, Tire Flip - the biggest tire was the lightest. 59:57. Strava gave me 54:51 and the difference can be attributed to time stopped at obstacles waiting for other athletes to clear the obstacle. Didn't really care about the time as it was just a fun event to test general Physical Fitness.
I hung around and cheered the other athletes in and Accidentally fell into the water slide 3 times , if your already wet it just doesn't matter.
Heat 3 was stacked and they pushed themselves to a new course record 35:12. The old Record was 37:35 and had less obstacles. Although the water slide is more of a fun ending than an obstacle.
The hardest part of the day was doing Tear Down, drove a side by side ATV's around the course removing flagging, taking obstacles apart and hauling them back to the Storage Container, the SoulCrusher and Downhill were interesting in the ATV - 4 Big Event Tents 20 x 40 ft - those buggers are heavy, finished at 8:15pm so a 12 hour day on the hill.
I was actually writing this last night but fell asleep on the sofa with my laptop on my knee and typed multiple pages of ccccccccccccc before the laptop battery alarm went off, I couldn't copy paste in time to save it.1 -
Some More Miserable Miles Pictures.
A great Smile showing how much fun the Water slide is. Also she has the event shirt on
The Wobbly log Balance Beam
More water slide technique
The Young Guy in the Nomads Shirt set the Course Record and it was the first time he has ever done an Obstacle Race event.
A pet friendly event. They just asked that you let all the athletes leave and then go out with your pet to reduce/eliminate conflicts.
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10 km Roots and Ruts event in Grande Prairie. The event lived up to it's name and tradition.
They had a huge storm this week, up to 60mm ( 2.3 inchs ) of snow & rain that passed through the area. The temperature is dropping below freezing over night so no more Bugs .
The first 7 km are all on in-formal trails through the trees made by Mountain Bikers, Runners and walkers. So a lot of it is single track and quite often the wide spots have Bike obstacles- jumps, balance beams etc. So it is a challenge to pass once you get past the 1.5km mark. So much fun racing through the trees, Jumping the recently Fallen Trees, High Stepping through the Mud/Swampy parts and picking a spot to jump over the little creek ( which wasn't so little with all the rain/snow).
A few of the hills had been polished up by the 64 people in front of me so were a challenge to climb, even more challenging to descend. I had the most success when I stepped off the Trail and ran in the Grass & Shrubs. The hill at Km 3.7 and 6.1 were nasty as they had a short steep climb followed by a quick descent that you couldn't see until you stepped over the edge. On both of these I had my first plant foot start to toboggan downhill through the greasy clay and the only thing that save me from a Butt Plant was my speed as my next step was solid and away I went. At about 7 km we hit a real twisty part through the trees and some started to doubt we were on the right trail as we hadn't seen any flags in a while. I remembered this part from the last 2 years so yelled out that we were okay. Once we came out of the trees the last 2 km are on a wide developed trail covered with small crushed gravel. Solid footing but limited challenge's when compared to the rest of the course.
421 registered athletes, 199 in the 10k. Only 137 of the 199 made it to the start line.
1st place crossed in 41:31:46. There was a huge group of athletes in the 59:00 to 1:16:00. I was in this group. 65/137 Chip Time 1:12:05. In the last 2 km I caught up to a young man who was loudly complaining to himself about all these "old #at Men & Women " passing him. Challenged and Accepted. Finished 43 seconds ahead of him. I actually struggled in this event as my quads were hurting after the 3 km mark and just couldn't hold my pace the way I wanted to.
The Strava, Garmin and MapmyRun Elevation profile just does not do this course justice.
I must have been close to max effort as my Quads are screaming at me right now, climbing the stairs to turn off the lights was no fun.5 -
First 10k of the season. Met my time goal and it was really hard! They gave us socks instead of t-shirts. The socks are awesome and the last 2 shirts I got from these races were really cheap, so I'm happy about that.
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Detroit Marathon on Sunday. I figured mid-October in Detroit would be a safe bet for cooler temperatures. Instead, it was nearly 70 degrees for the 7 AM start. Then the 25 mph winds kicked up for the last couple of hours. Finished in 4:13, which I'm not unhappy with, given the conditions.
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Forgot to add this.
I ran the Historic Hillsborough Half Marathon on October 1, 2017. I'm in a slightly different place in my marathon training compared to last year. The weather was good with the temperature of 47°F at race start with the dew point being relatively low. I ran at an easy pace trying to maintain a good pace. Apparently I "fell asleep" on Mile 12 when I was running on the Occoneechee Racetrack (the last remaining NASCAR Race Track from NASCAR's inaugural year) because my time slowed dramatically. I picked the pace back up in the last 1.1 miles. My time was 2:07:30 (one of my slower recent running times).
When I ran this same race last year, I was at my training peak, so I'm not too surprised by the results.
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I ran the Gettysburg Blue-Gray Half Marathon today. Beautiful sunny day (low 50s at the start, mid-60s at the finish). It's a gently rolling course through farm country and part of the Battlefield. I managed a 6 minute PR. 1:54:27. That got me first in my AG, which won me a homemade apple pie.5
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PNC Atlanta 10 Miler was Sunday morning. Nice, crisp 60-degree morning. This was the first year that they ran *down* Cardiac Hill for the race. Unfortunately, that put three long climbs on the back half of the course. I've been fighting a hamstring for what seems like forever, so I was thinking a 7:15 pace would be aggressive, but good, so I'm pleased with my results. Now a 4 week race-break until Thanksgiving.
Cardiac Hill is a highlighted segment because they run a challenge each year - the top 100 paces through that mile get a beer stein. I missed the mark. Top speed down the Hill was a 5:12 pace, #100 topped out at 6:19. Mine was 6:47, so not even close *lol*5 -
Finally got my pocture so I could upload it. bling for the Wild Duluth 100k was a neoprene hat and a mug. I totally prefer practical bling to a medal. Not shown is the hoodie I got.
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From a trail half marathon two weeks ago. A rural church holds this race every year to help fund their mission work.
In addition to the race they have a bake sale.
The actual race bling was the shirt, but I also won a door prize which turned out to be a jar of apple jelly. I also found $5 on the course so I used that to buy stuff from the bake sale (and egg sale apparently). I'll take eggs, cookies, muffins and jelly over a medal any day!
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