Tag Archives: running

Running, Sports

Race #48 – Road Shark Five Mile Run

Given that we all survived another Sharknado, I just had to run this virtual race!

I wanted to challenge myself, and do something a little longer than the 5K races I’ve been doing lately.  Five miles is about 8km, and is a small stepping stone to the half-marathon distance (a little over 21km) that I’ll be doing in November.

Frankly, I’d been dreading this run for a few days.  It’s summer.  This was the longest distance I’d done in almost three months.  And lastly, I was doing it on my own — no race support, other runners, etc.  All that weighed heavy on me as I thought through my route planning for this morning.

I landed on a good, extensible course, which was the path up Clayton Road.  That’s been my favorite 5K route, despite the recent runs on the Wren Trail course.  I’ve favored Wren lately because of traffic.  I love having music in my ears when I’m on course, and Clayton Road just has too much traffic on it to do that, unless you get out early in the morning.

I ate my regular raceday breakfast — toasted english muffin, with peanut butter and honey, paired with a tall glass of water —  stretched and headed out around 6am, just after sunrise.  And right from the start, this run felt different.

The weather was amazing, especially given the heat we’ve had over the last couple of weeks.  I think that was really fortunate for me, as I’ve proven many times this summer that I don’t do well in the heat.

I marched down Clayton, and things were coming easy.  Way easy.  I got to my turnaround point for a 5K, and did a little bit of a gut-check.  Did I have it in me to go beyond this point, and complete these five miles?  I felt good, so I plowed on.

When I planned my route a few days ago, I was surprised to see how far up the road my turnaround point was gonna be.  Somehow, my brain had that location figured to be a whole lot farther away from the house than I’d just seen on the map.  I just knew that couldn’t be right, and I knew I’d be watching my Garmin to make sure I knew my “real” turnaround.

I got closer to my planned turnaround point, and began to climb the last hill on the eastbound side of my route, and I was struck by just how far I’d come… both in my personal journey, as well as this run.  I would never have believed I could’ve travelled on foot so far.

I turned around — and my race planning was correct! — climbed that hill again (from the other side), and got into a great groove going down the long grade as I continued westward.  In what seemed like no time, I passed my 5K turnaround point, knowing I had just over 2km to go.  And right about then, I got a gift.

A business was watering their lawn.

I didn’t dance in the sprinklers, but I did take it in, and let it rain down on me.  Even though it wasn’t especially hot this morning, that unexpected shower felt wonderful, and was the best part of the route this morning.  I was energized by this, and continued to work toward the ranch.

It seemed like I blinked, and was home.  It seemed like the whole course went by so fast, especially the last 2km.  If I had to guess, I was enjoying the benefits of that “runner’s high” that I keep hearing about, but has never quite found me.  This wasn’t the longest run for me — that was the Hospital Hill 10K in early June — but it was by far the best run I’ve had since I began this journey three years ago, taking advantage of my second chance after cancer.

So, how’d this match up against my 10K times two months ago?  Well, it’s pretty amazing.  In June, the race was just over six miles, and I covered it at a pace of 17:54min/mi.  This morning, I did just over five files, and covered it at 16:35min/mi.  I shaved 1:20min/mi off my time in June!  And frankly, this morning, I really believe I could’ve done 10km easily.  Things were going just that well.

After a couple of weeks of pretty challenging running, it was awesome to have a really, really good run!

Race Course
Running, Sports

Race #46 – Remember the Fallen 5K

Anyone who’s read my ramblings about running knows that I love to be out in the rain.

I’d missed this virtual race around Memorial Day when it first came around.  The Virtual Strides folks brought it back recently, with another production run of medals.  After the events back home in Chattanooga, I knew I had to sign up, running this race for the city that helped shape me into the person I am today.

I’d targeted doing this race Saturday morning, but struggled getting myself together to do it, so I deferred to yesterday morning — one of the nice things about a virtual race.  I awoke around 5am to storms, so I didn’t exactly get an early start.  However, I did get started, and that’s a good thing!

Once again, I ran my neighborhood “three lap” course down Wren Trail.  It was raining when I started, which was nice.  And as I ran, I reflected on the last week plus in Chattanooga.  My home town has been bruised by the awful, awful tragedy perpetrated upon our military on their own soil.  My heart’s just so heavy over this.

And that’s why I ran this race… to remember the fallen in my home town.  #NoogaStrong, indeed.

This race benefitted the Special Operations Warrior Fund.

Race Course

Running, Sports

Race #45 – Hollywood Dash Mile

Normally, I don’t jump into short races like this one.  After all, I’m trying to build up my miles toward a 15K and half marathon later this year.  However, I couldn’t resist a short little race on a hot summer night.

This was this group’s first racing event, and frankly, it went off pretty well.  They looped inside the St. Charles Community College campus, which made traffic control and the course pretty easy.  I will say that the heat was miserable, but that’s not the fault of the event folks!

There were two waves of races — one non-competitive and another for competitive runners.  The non-competitive was fun to watch starting, with loads of kids and families taking off at “kid speed”.  Thirty minutes later, the competitive wave began, and I took off.

They had tons of volunteers along the way, and a course well-marked in quarter miles.  The race came and went quickly, and despite some slight hills, was very manageable.  Once again, I proved that I don’t do well in the heat, and did just as much fast walking as I did running.

This is the first “short race” I’ve done in well over a year, and frankly, I enjoyed it.  I’m definitely no sprinter, but I did collect a PR for me for both the mile and kilometer, which was pretty exciting.

The only hitch seemed to be with the finisher medallions advertised on the website for the race.  Apparently, there were only age group medals.  The event organizers have indicate on Facebook that they’re working on how to resolve this, especially since there were so many kids running the races.  Probably more on this another time!

Short race — short race report!

This race benefitted Recreation Council of Greater St. Lois, St. Louis Life, Treehouse of Greater St. Louis, Willows Way, Pathways to Independence, Family Advocacy and Community Training, Community Living, Caring Solutions, The Center for Autism Education and ShowMe Aquatics and Fitness.

Race Course

Running, Sports

Home Is Where the Hardware Is

As many of you have noticed (or tolerated!), I’ve been doing a lot of races lately.  Really.  A lot.  Many.

And because of my current need to have a carrot at the end of a rope when I run, I’ve brought home a lot of hardware from my efforts.  (I’ll leave my discussion about finisher medals with a previous blog post.)  Earlier this year, I grabbed a medal tree to display my medals, but my pace of races has picked up so much, that tree quickly became full o’ stuff, and was pretty unwieldy to deal with.

I’d seen some terrific medal displays from Lifespeed Sports last year at the Hospital Hill race in Kansas City.  I really liked ’em, but at the time, I couldn’t conceive of a time when I would need so much display space.  Funny what a year does to those kind of assumptions…

I saw Wayne and Cindy from Lifespeed again at Hospital Hill this year, and talked with them about creating a massive piece of shelvery to house my growing collection of race medals.  Becky and I talked with them for quite a while, and described what I was looking for.  Wayne was able to translate my sketchy description to his product, and we landed on a six foot long medal shelf with three tiers of hangers for my medals, stained ebony to complement the walls of my office.

Packed to Travel!
Packed to Travel!

A month later, the finished shelf was on the way, and on Tuesday, it landed on my porch.  I started unpacking it at lunch, and discovered it was packed by experts.  The box weighed almost seventy pounds, and was secured inside a custom built wooden cocoon.  Needless to say, it arrived very safely!

And frankly, it was pretty dang easy to put on the wall, using a sturdy piece of lumber atop which to mount it.  It took longer to unpack than it did to hang, and once hung, it was solid on the wall.  I quickly hung about fifty medals from it, placed a few things on the shelf, and made it a foundational part of the “love me wall” in my office.

My Precious!
My Precious!

I’m thrilled with the build quality, and think this will last me quite a while.  When I asked Wayne at HH how many medals he thought that would hold, he thought about 200-250.  I’m not sure it’ll house that many (although Becky has some ideas that may help it store that number), but I get a funny feeling I’m gonna find out really soon!  🙂

Running, Sports

Race #44 – Wheels and Heels 5K

My dad used to say, “Sometimes you get the bear; sometimes the bear gets you.”  This race was definitely in the latter category.

I’d never heard of this race, and probably for good reason.  It was only the second time they’d run this event, and it included a 5K and 10K, along with a 10mi, 20mi and 30mi ride.  However, it was to benefit a broad set of good causes.  With that kind of coverage, and a medal at the end, how could I say no?

The race site was in Washington MO, which is about 45 minutes west of my house.  That’s about the same time it takes for me to get to downtown St. Louis for a race, so that wasn’t a bad thing.  However, that meant waking up at 4:30am in order to get ready, and be in Washington around 6am for packet pick-up.

I got there, and went to pick up my packet — shirt, bib, and sack o’ goodies.  The registration person asked my name, and then flipped to the second sheet of paper to find me.  Yep, there weren’t many folks signed up for the race — maybe 40 folks across both the 5k and 10k.  By far, this ended up being the smallest race I’d ever been part of.

After some opening comments by the organizers — reminding us to stay hydrated due to the heat advisory, and not to drink the water because of a boil order in the area —  we were off just after 7am.  And much of the first half kilometer was downhill — sweet!  And then it was up-down-up-down through Washington.  And the hills just kept on coming.  I kept watching for a hydration station, which was supposed to be around halfway… and never found it.

Now, I learned a long time ago to always carry water when I’m running, walking or cycling.  You just never know when you’re gonna need a slurp, and whether you can find any close-by can be a crap shoot.  Today, carrying water was the smart money.  Apparently, someone had been stealing the course signs, so many of us at the back of the pack were actually off the race course by a few blocks where it mattered the most — around the halfway point where the hydration station was.  Add this to the hills and unrelenting heat, and it became a pretty miserable race pretty quick.

I never come to a full stop during a race, but I stopped on the course a couple of times to talk with the traffic marshals.  I needed rest, and that was a good way to do it.  And for the first time in a long time, I really questioned if I would finish the race.  In fact, I questioned everything — why I was doing this, whether I could possibly do races in the future, my own existence… 🙂  Sometimes, there’s just a little too much alone time on the route!

Finished!
Finished!

But, I finished, having gone a little more than 5K due to the hijinks with the race route.  I felt kinda bad for the poor kid that had to stand there and wait for me to show up to put a medal in my hands.

I never expected this race to be so tough.  I think the frequent hills were part of that, but I also think the lack of water (for my course), and the fact that I rarely saw another member of the race or staff during the race certainly added some mental challenge to the event for me.

Done is done, though, and I’m happy to drop another race in the books.

(This race benefited the National MS Society, the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation – Gateway Chapter, and the Brad Cohen National Tourettes Foundation.)

Race Course

Running, Sports

Race #43 – Jedi Challenge 5K

Summer has arrived in Da Lou.  This week, it’s mid-90s for highs, with mornings starting in the mid-70s.  With that kinda heat, I’m left with morning runs, which puts me into “weekends only” mode until this weather breaks, and cooler temperatures return.

Last night, I decided that I would get the Jedi Challenge virtual race checked off the list today — it seemed like my only chance this week to pull it off.  Do you know how hard it is to get up at 5:15am to get ready to run at 6am?  🙂

That’s one of the cool things about this quest of mine, though.  While I’m not a fan of getting up early like that, it’s an awesome feeling to get home and cleaned up, realizing that the day is just starting, and I’ve already got miles under my feet.  That’s a great feeling, and worth every lost wink of sleep.

It was definitely hot this morning, and I started working up a pretty good sweat pretty quickly.  However, I had one new thing on my side.

Two weeks ago, I put a new Garmin running watch on my wrist (a 920XT — more on that another time) that will sync through my iPhone.  However, carrying my iPhone isn’t always convenient.  I have a SpiBelt to help with that, but it’s a little constricting, and I’d rather have my phone in my pocket  Of course, that means securing the phone so it won’t fall out, and that means zippered pockets.

Enter Zippy Sports.

I found these guys on Amazon, and started looking at them pretty closely.  Looking at their blog, I see that their shorts are American-made, and that they’re runners.  It seems like there are a bunch of running products out there, with some zoomie-zoom runner behind it.  These guys are faster than me, but are just normal folks out running, and I dig that.

I wound up with a pair of gray shorts from them, and took them out for a test run this morning.  They were light, didn’t soak up a bunch of heat, and have two wonderful zippered pockets.  The pockets extend toward the front, so my phone stayed on the front of thigh, and didn’t move around.  Perfect!

The other thing I liked about these new shorts was how they fit across my belly.  I carry a little extra weight — something I’m working on! — but beyond that, I have a little bulging belly scar tissue from my surgeries when I was fighting colon cancer.  These shorts don’t stretch too tight across my lower belly, and frankly, sorta give my belly some support as I’m chugging down the trail.  These are winners, and I will have more!

I was telling Darla this weekend that I’ve done fifteen races in the last nine weeks or so.  That’s just amazing to me.  A little over three years ago, I was still on the mend from colon cancer, and just barely decided to do a little running.  I’ve already run more races this year than I ran all of 2012, 2013 and 2014.  I think I’m hooked.

And I get why I do it.  This crazy race to run races plays right into my obsessive nature.  It’s measurable, has a collecting aspect to it, and the only person I’m competing with is me.  It doesn’t hurt that I’m seeing other benefits.  For example, I’m down about twenty pounds over the last two months.  Part of that is paying attention to my diet, but I know that putting 6-10 miles a week under my feet certainly doesn’t hurt!

My next scheduled race is the Wheels and Heels 5K in Washington MO on Saturday.  See ya then!

(This race was managed by Virtual Nerd Runs, and benefits the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society.)

Race Course

Running, Sports

Race #41 – Freedom Four Miler

Yesterday, I ran my third Freedom Four Miler.  And once again, I found myself in Forest Park, chugging through a hot course replete with hills.

Fog in Forest Park
Fog in Forest Park

The morning started cool — about 65°, way cool for July — with a foggy sunrise.  I got to the park early, knowing that parking was gonna be at a premium, and that it was a long walk from the parking to the start/finish line.

It's full of stars!!
It’s full of stars!!

Pre-race is always weird for me.  There’s usually some activities going on — usually beginning about thirty minutes before racetime — but there’s normally not much to do other than hang out.  I talked with other racers, stretched, and watched for good photo ops.

Schnuck's Shopping Cart
Schnuck’s Shopping Cart

This race always features a little bit of military hardware — this year, a Humvee — but the coolest hardware was a crazy, giant, motorized shopping cart.  I’ve seen this at the Bristol Speedway for some NASCAR races, but this is the first time I’ve been this close to one.  It’s a pretty cool rig, with plenty of noise, and a cool “gee whiz” factor.

Shortly after it pulled up, we all lined up for the start — about a thousand of us.  With the performance of the Star Spangled Banner, and a quick toot of an air horn, we were off.

The first third of a mile was a pretty quick flat, and slight downward hill, only to be followed by upward and downward portions of the course.  I’m just not a hill guy!  I broke into a quick walk, and watched as many folks passed me by.  That’s something I’m kinda used to, being a back-of-the-pack guy!

Somewhere late in the first mile, I was joined by a another runner, Kate.  This was her second race, and we stayed together, chatting through the remaining miles.  Frankly, the miles just seemed to melt away, and in no time, we were crossing the finish line.

Close to the finish!
Close to the finish!

This is the first race in a well over a year that I’ve run with a partner — even one “discovered” on the course.  I’d forgotten just how much a difference that can make.  Chatting about life, the universe and everything really takes your mind off the footfalls and the miles, and makes the race so much easier to complete.  Thanks Kate!

I was thrilled to cross the line, put another race in the books, and make a new friend along the way.  All in all, a really great Fourth of July!

(This race benefitted the USO of Missouri.  As a former military member, this is an outfit that I can’t help but support, and appreciate.)

Race Course

Running, Sports

The Mail Is Here!

Some days, you wait for the mail carrier, and… nothing.  A dud of a mail day.  Nothing but junk mail and bills.

Then some days are like today:

  

These are medals for virtual races to come soon (except the Outatime medal — that’s for the day Marty McFly arrives… October 21st).

I believe that new medal shelf cannot get here fast enough!

Running, Sports

Races #35 & #36 – Hospital Hill 5K and 10K

Veni, vidi, vici collis.  Twice.

Hospital Hill is one of those legendary races.  From folks out here in the midwest, you hear just how wonderful and awful this race is… the folks are wonderful, and the hills are awful.

A year ago, in a stroke of questionable sanity, I ran in the Hospital Hill 5K.  I was slow, the hills were steep, and the heat was hot.  I had no idea what I was in for, but I finished, and I was thrilled about that.

This year, in another stroke… of something… right after last year’s Hospital Hill 5K, I signed up for the Hospital Hill Re-Run.  This is the combination of a 5K up The Hill on Friday night, and either a 10K (in my case) or half marathon less than twelve hours later on Saturday morning.  Not only would these races be close together, but this would be my first 10K.

Darla and I drove across the state Friday morning, which is a pretty quick trip from our home — Kansas City is only 3½ hours away.  We got checked into the hotel, and visited the health expo next door to pick up my race packets for both races.

These health expos are pretty cool, and are a great way to find new products associated with running,   You can also meet folks representing other races in the region, and pick up any doodads for the race that you left at home.  🙂  I picked up a bunch of brochures for other races around the midwest, thinking about my racing plans for the rest of the year.

I also talked with someone who makes custom medal displays.  Displaying my medals has been a real challenge, as it seems like I’m adding finishing medals at an alarming rate.  I’m halfway through the year, and I’ve already run as many races as I did all of last year.  Wayne, from LifeSpeed Sports, showed me a display and shelf option that I think will look good in my office.  Probably more to come on that in the future.

The weather dudes had been talking about rain in KC all weekend, but when Darla and I walked to the start line Friday night, it was bright, sunny, and hot — not what I was hoping for.

On the 5K race, you just barely get started before having to climb Hospital Hill.  This is a crazy hill, rising about 120 feet across half-a-mile, and since it’s the first thing you see, it sucks the life out of you before you really get into the course.  Blecch.  The cool thing is that you close out the race coming down that same hill, and that definitely helps your finish time.  I climbed the hill, slowly, and carried on.

As I always do, I found some other turtles to stay close to.  Every now and then, you chat, and then you either pass or get passed, only to catch up again.  It’s nice, because those folks are hoofing through the course the same way you are.

5K Finisher!
5K Finisher!

I finally got to the finish, and I was just spent.  Darla was waiting for me, and it was nice to see a familiar face as I crossed the line.  I got my medal, chocolate milk and an ice cream sandwich (which absolutely rocked!), finding a place to sit down.  There was just no fuel left in my tank.  The sun had beaten the fight out of me, and I hobbled back to the hotel after successfully completing the 5K.

When I got back to the room, everything hurt.  I was a little wobbly, and so discouraged about Saturday morning’s race.  If the 5K had taken that much out of me, what would the 10K do to me?  Could I really finish it?

The news Friday night said that we would have sunny skies again Saturday morning, and I wasn’t too excited to hear that.  Imagine how thrilled I was to awaken to the news that storms were due in sometime during the 10K race!

Storm Clouds
Storm Clouds

Last year, I was driving away from KC in very strong storms at the time the 10K began.  That event was delayed due to those massive electrical storms, and while there was rain due in, it appeared I would complete my race before things got ugly.  But with the rain coming, it was under 70, cloudy, and just enough breeze to keep things nice.

The 10K and half marathon shared the same course for the first five kilometers or so, so we all started together, and began the race.  This time, however, Hospital Hill came about two kilometers into the race.  For some reason, this approach to The Hill was much easier for me.  I dunno if it was the nicer conditions, or being able to warm up for a couple of kilometers before getting to it — regardless, it wasn’t nearly as tough on Saturday morning as it was on Friday night.

The course wound on, rolling a bit up and down the ridges, until the 10K and half marathon runners split, and I was facing another hill, the 39th Street Hill — rising about 85 feet across a kilometer or so.  This hill led to Broadway, where the half marathoners joined us again at their eleventh mile.

Suddenly, flash, boom!  The storm had rolled in, and the rain began.  With only two kilometers to go, I was really hoping we would be allowed to finish.  With lightning in the area — and close — I wasn’t gonna be surprised if the race was paused for safety reasons, but the skies quietened, and we continued, albeit in a bunch of rain.

From there, the course was good, until we reached Trinity Hill.  This crazy hill looked like it went straight up into the sky, rising about 75 feet across a city block or two.  It was brutal, but was the last hill on the course.

With the 10K and half marathon runners finishing side by side, there were plenty of folks cheering us all on as we approached the finish line.  In fact, that’s one of the nice things I noticed about the 10K.  There were supporters all throughout the course, even for those runners turtling along at my speed.

10K Finisher!
10K Finisher!

And just like that, it was done.  I crossed the finish line, grabbed my two medals (you get an extra medal for running the 5K and one of the races on Saturday), and found Darla on the side.  And I felt pretty good.  In fact, I felt real good.  Maybe it was just adrenaline, but I was in so much better shape after the 10K than I’d been after the 5K.  Success!

I was really pleased with how my 10K race went.  It seemed to go quickly, and I was no worse for wear after it was done.  All that was left was a little BBQ celebration dinner, something we both enjoyed!

Race Courses

Running, Sports

Race #34 – Runner’s Day 5K

OK, so I really believe that an awful lot of virtual runs are designed to celebrate holidays and celebration days that don’t really exist.  Frankly, though, if you dangle a medal in front of me, I’m ok with both us pretending that there’s an Opossum Freedom Day, and I’ll run that 5K.  If you’d asked me about National Running Day prior to this year, I woulda put it in that category.

However, there’s a website.  And, an easy search through Uncle Google shows scads of events on/around the first Wednesday in June that celebrate this crazy obsessive sport I’ve fallen into.

And of course, the Moon Joggers folks (through their sister-site, Virtual Run Events) had a virtual race to celebrate the runner.  They had me at medal.  🙂

The mantra for this race became “I chose wisely.”

I planned to run this on Sunday (yesterday), not knowing that for the last weekend in May, Da Lou would be enjoying morning temperatures in the 50s, highs in the 60s and loads of cloud cover.  I stepped out, and couldn’t believe my luck with the weather.

Unfortunately, I had some bad luck with my Garmin.  For whatever reason, it had a tough time finding the birds to track my position, speed, etc.  I waited ten minutes, and finally gave up on it, and started my run.

My intent was to take this run pretty easy, and do a fair amount of walking.  I knew the Hospital Hill twins loomed ahead in just six days, and I didn’t want to burn through my fuel ahead of that monumental pair of races.  I wanted a good, successful day, and to further stack the deck, I took the course I found last weekend that was so wonderful.

I got on my horse, and moved along at a pretty good clip.  In fact, it seemed like I reached the halfway point really, really quickly.  With the Garmin only figuring out my position about 20 minutes in, I had no idea what kind of pace I was keeping, but it seemed fast.  Once the Garmin woke up, I saw that I was doing 10min/km, even through the slight hills.  This was way faster than I’d expected.

It seemed like no time, and I turned into the subdivision, running most of the last bit (including where Darla shot my photo, above).  I looked at my watch, and I saw that I was just a touch above fifty minutes.  I had knocked over SIX MINUTES off my time on that course from last weekend.  I was stunned.

So, I set myself up with a great mental “win” in preparation for next weekend.  All my gear — including my goofy body — worked as expected, and I was pleasantly surprised with the outcome.

Next weekend is Hospital Hill in Kansas City, and I’m really hoping for results every bit as good as yesterday’s Runner’s Day 5K.  Last year, I did the 5K in 52:22, and my intention is to bust that time this year!

Race Course: