We don't have anyone in our Intrepid Racing list, but just in case we have a racer who is racing this weekend and would like to post his/her race report here (lurkers are welcome to post as well)
"Champions are everywhere; all you need is to train them properly..." ~Arthur Lydiard
These are the 3 racers on our Intrepid thread
04/29 CallMeDan - Hall of Fame Run 3K, Plano TX
04/30 pfriese - Oklahoma City Memorial Marathon, Oklahoma City, OK
04/30 Opie - Oklahoma City Memorial Marathon Relay (10k leg), Oklahoma City, OK
04/29 Dave - Rally for Autism 5K (he snuck that into the daily!)
And Paul has been working hard on making this one a BQ. His training has been stellar too. Run like your hair is on fire!
Tammy
Plus, I think we will need a race report from the RD of the Omak Orchards in Bloom Half-marathon/10K.
04/29 Mariposai - Omak Orchards in Bloom Half/10K, Omak WA
Paul's blog
Rally for Autism 5k:It was a humid 68° at the race today. This was a big community event with all kinds of stuff going on. The race: Let's be honest. I'm 30 pounds over a healthy BMI and I am only averaging about 14 miles a week. A 5k is practically a long run for me this year. My "A-goal" at these races is to go for 9:00 pace and remaining standing at the end. Ten minutes before race start time, I was standing around the starting area when the announcer said the race would start in 2 minutes. That would mean an 8-minute early start which would be fine with me, but people making one last bathroom stop would be disappointed. He did eventually realize his error and we started at 9:01.I started at what felt easy. Not breathing too hard. Something I thought I could hold for the race. I hadn't warmed up at all so I was having the usual aches and pains scattered around my limbs. My right leg felt tight and my back felt sore, but all that went away once I was warmed up. I felt pretty good the whole race. Pace was pretty steady. I gave it all I could.Here are the numbers. Keep in mind these include a huge amount of walkers:27:45 - 8:46, 9:07, 9:02, :49 (about an 8:58 pace)80 of 831 overall62 of 332 male4 of 21 age group 55-59
beard.
Dave59, great job!
5K Specialist
Plano Pacers Hall of Fame 3k
It was hot, humid and a 30 MPH wind for my race today. My goal was sub-13, but I had a good idea that conditions would cost me some time. The first half of the race was into the wind and the second half had the wind at my back. I haven't done any speedwork yet and it showed in the race. I just couldn't get feet moving fast enough to get into 3k speed. I ran around a 7 minute throughout the race with a fairly even pace. I step it up for the last quarter mile. Honestly, I felt like I could hold the pace I had for another 2k. I ended out with 13:32. 18th out of 114 and 4th in my age group. Slightly disappointed, but it is a good stepping stone to my next race.
Personal Bests:
800M - 2:38 (5/28/13) | 1 Mile -5:54 (5/28/13) | 3K - 11:55 (12/29/12) | 2M - 13:00 (12/1/12) | 5K - 20:00 (4/12/13) | 13.1M - 1:37:24 (2/3/13)
MM#5991
I raced the Trail half marathon. It was awesome weather and the trails were in excellent condition. But I have been battling a cold and am somewhat dehydrated as result and even lost 4 pounds this week. I really should have DNS'ed. So my performance was awful. I walked most of it and have the finishing time to reflect it. But I wasn't last and even passed a couple of souls.
Lori
*it's Bertha or me. My money is on me.*
**"There is no growth in the comfort zone and no comfort in the growth zone".---- Sandy**
About the race:
The Oklahoma City Memorial Marathon, a "Run to Remember". The race was created for the purpose of providing financial support to the Oklahoma City National Memorial. It also serves to remember & honor the victims & their families. This is the Memorial’s largest fundraiser.
Official Result
Time: 3:47:43
BQ: YES!
AG: 5th
The Goal:
Last year I just missed my BQ at my goal race (Light at the End of the Tunnel Marathon). I ran a 3:55:27 there, needing a 3:55 to BQ & really I needed faster than that to assure entry into the Boston Marathon. At my “backup” marathon in September stomach issues & heat made for a truly ugly marathon finish (4:52). It was time for a change of my usual training for marathons. Over Thanksgiving Opie introduced me to the PTR running group in OKC. Several members of that group were using Hanson’s Marathon Method. After a bit of online research, I bought the book & made a plan targeting OKC Memorial Marathon as my goal race using that plan.
Long summary (tl;dr)
Training:
After my blow-up last September, I kept my mileage up with primarily easy runs interspersed with a few races. In December I backed off my mileage a bit so that I would be fully rested before starting the Hanson plan. The Hanson plan for the first few weeks focused on mileage buildup with interval/speed work every Tuesday, tempo runs on Thursday, a “long” run on Sunday. After mileage had built up Tuesdays switched to a strength workout (still interval based). Paces for intervals, strength, & tempo workouts were all based on your goal marathon pace. Hanson’s plan has you running 6 days a week with only Wednesday as a rest day. It also tops out at 16 miles for the longest long run. Needless to say this 16 mile max long run gave me more worries than any other part of the plan. Training officially started on December 26 with speed work starting January 2. Not to be too boring with training details, I followed the plan with only 3 missed workouts, I only broke his "no racing during training" rule 3 times, and I did a single 20 mile long run just “because”. Also, I have stayed as close to pace as possible but towards the end of training my paces were faster than planned. My weekly mileage is higher than I’ve ever done. I have averaged over 50 miles per week since starting the plan with a peak mileage week of 70 miles.
Weather:
At start: cloudy & misty, 42 degrees with a 15mph WSW wind.
At finish: cloudy & misty, 45 degrees with a 22mph SW wind
Fashion report:
Black 2XU running shorts, black 2XU calf compression sleeves, black Flying Monkey Marathon shirt (for luck… I wore this last time I BQed), yellow/green OKC Landrunner running hat with A2A ear muffs underneath, New Balance socks, & Newton Distance V shoes (green, silver, & white).
The Race: Race started at 6:30 and after visiting with a few friends, I was in my corral next to the OKC National Memorial by 6:10. Around 6:15 Opie found me in the corral and we visited before the pre-race ceremonies. The first 10K runs through downtown, Bricktown (old warehouse district), past the health sciences center (where I used to work), around the state capitol building then through the Jefferson Park & Gatewood neighborhoods. Opie & I ran together through this whole leg. In fact, I think he set a 10K PR today. The next 5K runs through the Crown Heights neighborhood including the wild area called Gorilla Hill then on through a business park before the turn west into the wind. No problem keeping pace through here. In fact picked up the pace a bit through here. After turning west, we headed through a couple of close-in suburbs (Nichols Hills & The Village on our way to Lake Hefner. Most of this was tree-line and helped alleviate the wind some. The halfway point was just before the lake so I made a quick Porta-pot stop (I was well hydrated). Then it was on to the lake and no wind protection. Turned out not to be so bad and I kept my pace nice and even through here. Upon leaving the lake (mile 17) we headed back in a southeasterly direction towards downtown and the finish. The wind was slightly behind us with a nice cooling crosswind. Mostly downhill back through Nichols Hills. I was able to keep pace nice & even. Coming out of Nichols Hill & back into OKC, we were going uphill on Classen Curve into the Asian District with a turn into the wind. This was the only place that I felt like it affected my pace… but, it could have just been because we were at mile 21 and really feeling the distance we'd run. I felt good up Classen Blvd until around mile 23 and walked the water stop there. I was able to get back up to pace but ended up walking the next water stop when we turned into the historic Heritage Hills neighborhood. After that my pace noticeably slowed, I ended up walking the small hill coming out of that neighborhood. I wasn’t too worried as I knew that barring catastrophe that I would have my BQ. The final segment of the race was down the old Automobile Alley district to the finish. When you can see/hear the finish some strength came back & I picked up my pace for the final half-mile. 3:47:43 BQ!!!
Post-race: The usual; collect medal, grab water, get finishers shirt, & grab food. Then over to OKC Running Club post race event. There of course we all told about our races & checked online about others still out on the course. Then the post race "old man" walk back to the car.
Reflections: Actually I’ll be reflecting & thinking about this for a bit and I may add more here later. But initially, I’m very pleased with my result and how the Hanson Method worked for me. I’m not sure it’s for everyone & I have a few reservations about not doing any long-runs longer than 16 miles in training, along with the short taper. BUT, it did give me my best marathon time in over 5 years and I beat last year's best marathon time by almost 10 minutes. So, I’m not really sure I’ll change anything on my next go-round.
Dave--nice going, meeting your goal pace.
Dan--good effort; that wind can't be good. Your one of the few folks here focusing on the shorter distances, so it's always interesting to see your training/racing.
Lori--glad you were able to finish. You're on your way back to health!
Paul--interesting to hear of your success with the Hanson plan. Hard to argue with success....or this: "I have stayed as close to pace as possible but towards the end of training my paces were faster than planned." I'm curious, in previous marathons were you following other specific plans? Making your own?
Glad you were able to make your goal this time. Does this mean you'll be entering Boston? Congrats and enjoy the aftermath of a great training cycle.
Be safe. Be kind.
Dave59 - Nice race. And you hit your avg pace/mile. CallMeDan - Nice racing in humid/windy conditions. Very speedy, too.
BerthaSlayer - You finished a shoulda DNSed race. Kudos on your perseverance. I've only DNSed one race & still second guess myself as to whether it was the right decision. Congrats Lori
Tramps - I've followed many plans. For my first 2 marathons, I followed a generic online "finish" a marathon plan. For the next few after that I did the Higdon plans. I felt like I had plateaued with them. So, I moved on to Pfitzingers 18wk/55mile plan. I followed it somewhat loosely ie. doing all the runs at an easy pace just to see if I could handle that kind of mileage. I did continue to race 3 weekends/month while training & I rationalized that as speedwork workouts. Amazingly I set my still PR marathon & 1st BQ doing that. Not satisfied with that result, for Boston I changed to the Pfitzinger 18wk/70mile plan. Needless to say, I went into Boston exhausted & did not do very well. I switched back to the 18/55 plan for the next Boston but doing it exactly like in the book. Halfway thru training I kept having setbacks... tendinitis in foot, calf strain, etc. each week brought a new problem. I finally backed it down to just easy runs. I've been fiddling with Pfitzingers plan ever since with pretty much the same result; an injury midway through training. I'm still not sure if it was just a fluke that Hansons worked for me (no injuries) or if it was something about the plan. He has you running 6 days a week whereas Pfitz runs 4-5 days a week so therefore the runs are not as long and recovery time is less. And the same for no 20 milers vs 4 20 milers with Pfitz. Recovering from a 20 mile run interferes with being able to do speed work effectively. Once again, I'm just guessing. But I'll think about it on the next training cycle, too.
Paul
Mta: And yes, I'll be entering Boston for 2018.
Great racing to all.
Paul, we are all intrigued with your training plan. Glad to hear you will be entering Boston 2018.
Call me Dan, you had an outstanding race as well.
Dave59 what an awesome race for a great cause. Nice job on your performance.
Berthaslayer, way to conquer that half trail marathon. You are one tough cookie. Pictures?
Me? My wings directed the 4th annual Omak Orchards in Bloom half marathon/10k. Being in a frontier, impoverished county, it is hard to attract outside runners. WE work so hard to promote our event, but yet we only had 130 runners (their registration fee does not pay for our liability insurance that we have to get for the county permit). 100% of our hopeful proceed goes to community wellness program for the year.
But the community is so proud of this little race and we hope to increase the number of participants or donors in the coming year to make this small spark of community event going.
This was a double whammy event. On Saturday we had the half marathon and 10k race.
The next day we had the hoof'n and Woof'n fun run, 1 mile and 5k. A great fun event. I ran this race and took second in my AG because I stopped many of minutes to take pictures of the participants.
Life is not measured by your own success as a runner, but on how many you have empowered on the way to become runners.
Congrats, Mari. These small community-based races are the best!
Nice job as RD & racer, Mariposai.
I did set a 10k PR with 52:04. When I do something even bigger and better, I'll write up a race report.
"I didn’t run a race until I was 41 and that was a marathon! Let that sink in for a minute." -me
Here's a pre-race picture of Opie & me