Here is wishing a fun racing adventure to our weekend racers!!
Enjoy the race and please come back here and tell us all about it!!!
"Champions are everywhere; all you need is to train them properly..." ~Arthur Lydiard
MM #5615
At the end of the school year, my 16 year old granddaughter asked if I would like to do a 5k with her, sometime, over the summer. I, of course, was thrilled and started the search for the perfect race. When I realized my birthday fell on a Saturday, I thought, “What better way to celebrate turning 60 than running a race with my granddaughter?” I found a small town race about an hour and a half away and I signed us up.
Madi is my oldest daughter’s daughter...one of a set of twins. She is the sweetest, most caring, young ladies you will ever meet. She and her twin sister both are very good soccer players. They both made the varsity soccer team as freshmen and that year the team won the state championship. Madi didn’t get to play a whole lot but her sister played almost all the time in every game. Mallory is just a natural and doesn’t have to work very hard at being great. Madi, on the other hand, is the most dedicated, hardest working kid on the team...okay, I don’t really know that, but she works pretty dang hard. Because of her hard work, she is being recruited by a couple of D1 colleges...no offers, yet, but she is going on a college visit in September, to meet some potential teammates. We talked about this and many other things on our hour and a half ride to and our hour and a half ride back from the race.
Oh...the race...does it really matter?
It was a great way to start my first day of being 60!
Mike - there's nothing that beats running races with grandchildren. I've done several with GD1, GS & DD and they are my fondest memories (along with half marathons with DD & DIL). But I'm spoiled as I also run with DH. But then I recall you've mentioned running with Ryan once or twice.....keep it up!
Wild West Relay
I was a last minute substitute runner for the Wild West Relay this weekend. Opie called my up on July 24 looking for a runner for the relay team he was on. I was able to juggle my schedule (retirement is tough ) & fill in for their missing team member.
I drove up to Colorado on Thursday (11 hour drive) & met up with the team for their pre-race dinner. From there, it was off to get a good nights rest as I was starting the race by running leg #1 at 6:30am. Early Friday morning, I arrived at race & picked up my bib, loaded my gear in the van, & got to know my boon companions for the next 48 hours.
The race started soon after the usual pre-race phot0. Leg 1: My first leg was 4.3 miles into a stiff north breeze. It was basically a flat run which was great since I needed to get used to running at the higher altitude (5000 feet in Colorado vs. 1000 feet in Oklahoma). I was able to lock into a decent breathing pattern/pace & actually picked off 3 runners on this leg (roadkill) at my 8:08/mile pace. I handed off to the fast runner in our van & enjoyed the scenery & camaraderie for the next few hours until it would be my turn to run again.
Leg 2: This was my tough leg for the relay, 5.4 mile uphill. It started out at 8200 feet elevation and finished up at 9300 feet elevation. Uphill the whole way, it was either steep or very steep with no flats or downhills. My goal was to try to run it under 12:00/mile. I started out with an 11:00/mile pace and was able to keep that up up the first 2 miles. However, over the next 3.4 miles, I had to walk the steeper portions while continuing to run the steep portions. I finished this leg with an 11:46/mile pace. I did enjoy running this leg & even picked up a couple of more roadkills. Challenges are fun & the course scenery was awesome & amazing through this portion of the race.
Leg 3: My final leg was a rolling hills 6.5 mile route running out of Walden Colorado towards Rabbit Ears pass. I had ridden my bike on this same road last year on my ride to Flaming Gorge Utah from Oklahoma last summer. So, I was familiar with this portion of my route already. Goal here was <9:00/mile. I was not sure I could keep that pace at this altitude (>8000 feet) though. I took my hand off at the high school & ran through downtown Walden. At the edge of town, another runner came up behind me. I figured he would just blow on by me, but instead he came along side & asked if he could run with me for a bit. He was a member of an ultra team & was really needing company. He had caught up to me since I was running at a similar pace to him. His company helped me a lot and I probably ran faster because of his company. Turned out he is a pathologist. So we had some common background besides running. I ended up running an 8:53/mile pace for this section & I'm not sure that without his company that I would have met my goal pace on this final leg. Also, at that pace... 5 more roadkills to end up with 10 total! Here's a picture of Opie at his last relay leg hand-off:
It was a great relay. Had a blast running in the same van with Opie along with meeting new runners. Relays are great.
Paul
Mta: Oh yeah, the weather was great. Even at the start, the wind wasn't an issue. And it was totally gone by the time we started into the mountains. The temps were very nice too. 60 degrees for 1st leg, 68 degrees for the 2nd leg, and a chilly 43 degrees with some wind (so my hands got a bit cold) for my final leg. There was rain for parts of the race, but none for my legs.
Paul's blog
It was a blast! I should have taken pictures of Paul running, but that would require a new phone. Mine is about 3 years old and these days that seems to be longer than their lifespan-last time I tried to take a photo it wouldn't work.
This was my third time on the team but my first time in Van 1, which was great for a lot of reasons. I got to run during a different set of legs, obviously, but also the timing for getting a little sleep at night was better.
Paul was runner #1 and I was #6 so the current Okie & former Okie started and finished in our van. We had runners from Oklahoma, New Mexico and of course Colorado. My first leg of 6.15 miles was almost all on dirt/gravel road that was slick at times from the rain. By this point we had climbed to 5,823 feet. I live at 4,200 ft. but even that difference is an adjustment. Started very easy because the first 2 miles are a major climb but then was able to pick it up in mile 4! I rated it in my log here as 7/10 effort, hitting a HR of 177 and burning almost 1,000 calories.
My second leg was at 9:50 that night. Like I mentioned before, that meant that when I was done running, our van was done so we could actually sleep. In Van 2 the last two times, we would doze off but it's hard to fall asleep when you know you have to get up soon and be ready to run. The elevation for this second leg was 8,051 ft. but you know we had come down from the elevation Paul had run! I love downhill as you may know and this leg had some so the altitude wasn't a problem at all. I turned on the jets and then a nice lady with the Rum Girls Team chatted me up at the end. Their official name is We Thought They Said Rum and she was fast so I stayed with her until just before the exchange. My Whoop strap and app said later, "In this workout, you reached your max heart rate." I would say so if it's accurate because I haven't seen a HR of 186 for years! I rated it as a 9 effort. It was 6.5 miles and in the last half mile I was running an average 7:49 pace!
My third leg the next morning was at 8,528 ft. I felt great after a can of Starbucks Double Shot Expresso but there was a nasty headwind. This leg was about the same distance as the others at 6.7 miles but at this point, lack of significant sleep starts to take your energy away no matter how you try to fake your body out with caffeine, gels, etc. Also, this leg is a little challenging because it drops for the first 0.7 miles and then climbs the rest of the way. Finally got a road kill and at the perfect spot, where my team could see it!
In summary, I would do it all again.
"I didn’t run a race until I was 41 and that was a marathon! Let that sink in for a minute." -me
Some good reports. I don't have much to add for mine,
Local 5k that raises funds to support a Catholic Parish in Haiti with education and medical care for the village. Our parish does something similar but I couldn't run that one.
This is a strange course with lots of turns in the first mile. It was very humid. My goal was 21:30 so I tried to manage my pace to stay below 7 mpm. There were a couple of hundred runners and several from a local running group that was using it as their World Championship. I'm part of that group too and the guy who trains us age and gender adjusted to see who would be WC. In this case it was the usual guy, Jesse, who is an Olympic Qualifier in the marathon. He ran a 15:10 or so. He's pretty fast so I only saw him at the start and the finish. heh.
My race went well and I managed a 21:25 and only was passed by one person so I held a decent race pace. It was fun to compete with the team too. Nice small town race.
That is all.
"He conquers who endures" - Persius "Every workout should have a purpose. Every purpose should link back to achieving a training objective." - Spaniel
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