Congrats Cecil.  I don't know what to make of you as sometimes I think of you as a 'speed' guy who stretches out to these longer races (this based on some of the short intervals you report which are fecking fast!) and then you change it all up and I think hah, maybe he is a distance guy!  Anyone who races 8 miles up a hill like that and then jogs back down it has some distance chops.  Good work.  Sounds like you're healed up nicely from that fracture?

 I'd holler for my woman to bring me a beer, but she's in Germany for a month, and if she WAS here she'd throw a shoe at me for that..

I like your wife already.

Nice run.  Sounds like a really fun race.  If I ever make it to Maui at the right time of year I would do Race to the Sun.

Congrats Cecil.  I don't know what to make of you as sometimes I think of you as a 'speed' guy who stretches out to these longer races (this based on some of the short intervals you report which are fecking fast!) and then you change it all up and I think hah, maybe he is a distance guy!  Anyone who races 8 miles up a hill like that and then jogs back down it has some distance chops.  Good work.  Sounds like you're healed up nicely from that fracture?

Thanks Ken, sometimes I wonder the exact same thing about myself. I like to be a generalist in running and be able to cover any distance within reason, and not be a specialist at any one distance.  The stress fracture seems to be totally healed up, but we'll see if it's still OK when I wake up tomorrow morning, and if I had half a brain in my head I would not run a single step tomorrow, even if it is a Sunday long run day... The optimist in me says well, I've been getting out and getting real sunshine in the past few weeks and all that natural vitamin D might have strengthened up my previously "fragile" bones after 6 months of little to no real sunshine here, and the only vitamin D I got during all that time was in supplement form.

 

Are any of you old enough to remember the Carling's Black Label Beer commercials from the 50's? "Mabel! Black Label!"

 

Race to the Sun? Is that a run up Haleakala? I've driven that road, it was a tiring drive. I'd totally bike up it and back down, but running.. That's like 5 times more miles and climbing than I did today, and some of it is up where there is a lot less oxygen. I'll take the downhill leg if you want to do a relay...

Nope...Not old enough...by how much I will not define.  

Yes, it's ~36 miles up Haleakala.  I ran ~200 yds at the top and was shocked at how hard it was.  They have a hard time organizing the race but are trying to keep it alive.  The first year they did the bike race...I was told by locals...they offered prize money and a former pro came and rode so hard in the low oxygen that he collapsed at the finish and had permanent brain damage.  So they do not offer prize money anymore.

I biked down it tourist-style.

Well done Cecil & Spaniel.

5/18 - Roth Runner - Dulwich Parkrun - 5k - London, UK - PR (sub 16:50)

I had to bail in the end but I should have another race mid week next week instead, TBC.

 

Nope -- 49:57. I think I'm feeling the effects of racing six weeks in a row, plus the hamstring was a bit of an issue. I did think I was in better shape than last year, though. Hayes St. Hill just destroyed me. I pretty much gave up after that, and struggled to run near MP for the middle miles. Still had fun. 

Pretty respectable race, considering that at least a couple of those recent races were marathons? I'd say good job.

 

11:53:30.

 

I was motivated to hurt myself and get the sub12 I've been looking for since last year.

It was hot (93+/- degrees when I got to the run), and it was windy on the bike.

 

2013 Goal #1: done

Damn, I couldn't hack a marathon in that kind of heat....much less with 114 miles or so beforehand.  NIce job!!

Cecil, that uphill race sounds like a blast.  Way to absolutely smoke it--and to be the crazy guy who "cooled down" by running the whole damned distance again.  The elevation profile from that thing is awesome.  Glad to see you healing up nicely.

Spaniel, sorry the race was long--that's especially frustrating on the shorter end of the distance spectrum.  Hard to be *too* mad about a win though.  Nice.

Bhearn, watching your racing is like a case study in the effects of cumulative racing fatigue. Still an impressive race considering how many you've done lately.

KerCan, Iromans aren't hard enough for you on their own, so you do one in 93F heat?  Damn.  That is an impressive performance you threw down--and it would have been so even in good weather.  Congrats!

As for me, I ran a 4:29:50 at my 50K this past weekend, which was about 15 minutes better than my goal and a PR at the distance by an hour.  The course was great, mostly.  I didn't like the "run on the top of this levee/dam for several miles" that much, though it was fairly fast in that section, just mentally tough and all loose grass.  Really well-run race, especially considering it was its first year and it sold out, too.