Wishing our intrepid racers fleet feet and much fun.
Joe is running a marathon
Erika is running a half marathon
Deez4boys is running a 10k.
Go racers go
"Champions are everywhere; all you need is to train them properly..." ~Arthur Lydiard
I had another race this morning to get August done. I have a doctor meeting on Monday about a possibility of surgery on my knee. But i got August done so this is 209 consecutive months with a race.
The race was Platte River 5k in Royalton MN. They actually have dogs running also so I took my dog for the run. The race went well, there was a former student of mine who was one of the top college runners so i knew i would be behind him. He actually had to push a stroller for his child so that slowed him down somewhat. But he still easily won. I turned out to be in second for the men and my dog, Archie, was again the first dog. He now has five races he ran and he was the first dog in all five of them. A good winner.
The race was okay. When i run I don't have any pain in my knee, I have the pain in the knee when i am walking or if I am sitting or it is worst when I sleep. The doctor already did surgery on my knee three years ago and he said i should get a replacement for my knee, so i expect that recommendation on Monday but I will just ignore that and try to find some way to lessen the pain while I am laying in bed and find some way to get some more sleep.
The race today was good. My dog won his competition, I finished second behind a guy 36 years younger than me. A good day.
Nice race, Spinach. You truly are an amazing runner. And congrats to Archie! He's getting quite a record there. Hope you find some relief from that knee pain.
Well the Santa Claus Half Marathon race is done. Goal was to 1) not go out too fast (I always do at this race), 2) maintain 8:30 average pace, and 3) beat last year's time (1:52). I think I did ok with #1 (first mile 8:10), and nailed #2 for the first 7 miles... then, went up over the dyke into the flood plain and... MUD. Large puddles and slick mud, bleh. There's no way I was going to risk a fall and I'm not running through any mud puddles, thank u very much. So, walked around the puddles and went around the slick spots into the grass, which was pretty wet. Had a few miles in the 9's dealing with that crap, then back up onto the dyke where I picked up the pace again and left some guy who I'd been following for awhile. Every time I started to get close to him on the bike path section (miles 4.8 to 7.6) he'd speed up, then slow down and I'd catch him again. Fine, be that way. Once back on the solid gravel dyke I passed him and that was the last I saw of him. One young woman (18) passed me in mile 8 when I was avoiding mud, but that was it. I passed maybe 4 guys on the way to the finish, and came in at 1:54:52, so just under 1:55. Good enough for 12th female (out of 98), 30th overall (out of 160), and 1st in AG (out of 5). Glad that's done.
This race is held at the Chena Lakes Recreation area, out in North Pole (about 17 miles SW of us). It rained heavily on our way back to town and continued for the next couple of hours but it's just raining lightly now. We've had so much rain the last few days, I sure hope it puts a damper on all the fires.
MM #5615
Nice racing spinach and Erika.
Nice racing spinach and Erika. Both of you are such an inspiration.
Erika, that's a terrific time in those conditions...well done!
Spinach, well done! Hope you get some clarity on the knee.
Thanks for noting I had a marathon on the schedule, Mariposai. I was a DNS due to some scheduling matters. For once, wisdom prevailed in terms of priorities :-)
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I have nothing particularly clever or profound to add as a tag to each message...I just like to run.
I did the MDRA 15k, this morning. This is a race on the race series and I haven't done a team race in over two years, so I figured I should show up to at least one this year...so I did.
I was dreading this race as I signed up. I'm just so tired of watching my times get worse and worse. On the way there, this morning, I decided I had to change my attitude and just forget about what I used to be able to do. Everybody is getting slower--I just have to do the best I can to do today.
The start of this race goes uphill for the first 1/2 mile, then it's mainly downhill for the first half and mainly uphill the second half...except for the last 1/2 mile when we go back down that hill we went up at the beginning.
I was just going to go out around a 6:30 or 6:35 pace and try to pick it up at the end. Well...that plan went right out the window as soon as I got to the to top of the hill and started the downhills. I figured I should take advantage of the declines and did miles 2 and 3 in 6:15 and 6:19...well that was just stupid. This was an out and back course and I saw HermosaBoy flying back to the finish as I was making my way to the turn-a-round. SubDood was right behind me and he looked really strong. With about 2 1/2 miles to go, SubDood passed me like I was standing still...I was struggling.
HermosaBoy finished in 59:26--25th overall and 1st in his age group. SubDood finished in 1:01:44--39th overall and 5th in his age group, I finished in a distant 1:02:46--45th overall and 3rd in my age group. Gee...I hope they didn't mind that I told you how badly they kicked my butt.
Anyway--it was fun talking to then after the race...and I'm glad it's done!
Left to right--SubDood - me - HermosaBoy
I thought you'd get close to 60 minutes for the 15K, Mike. Thanks for the report and photo for all three of you.
That "attitude adjustment" you describe is a central fact of life, isn't it. It calls for wisdom...we don't want (can't??) stop pushing ourselves, yet the limits are different.
Nice work...this will cover your tempo SOS for the week, right??
Mike I want to congrat you and too bad i wasn't able to get there this year. I was looking that early this year thinking I could get that distance by now. It would have been good meet you and see SubDood and HermosaBoy again. Maybe one of the times I will be able to get some races a bit longer and get down to the Twin Cities for some longer races.
You all did a great job down there, I wish I could have been there.
Congratulations to Archie (and Spinach). Hope the knee issue/solution doesn't end your streak.
Great job Erika. If mud can be avoided, then it should be avoided. (I think Aristotle said that.)
Mike, great race despite your feelings about it. You're old enough now to not be doing stupid things like go out too fast.