Good luck to our weekend racers
"Champions are everywhere; all you need is to train them properly..." ~Arthur Lydiard
Equinox Marathon 2017 in the books.
Perfect conditions today but it was cold at the start (37° and clear). The views from the top were incredible. A little breezy but not too bad. Wore short sleeved purple/black shirt with arm socks (cut toes out of DH's baseball socks, they worked great!), and Freedom's Run long-sleeved shirt over that with new purple/black running skirt. Gave DH the shirt at mile 9, took the sock-sleeves off at Henderson Rd (19.5) and the gloves at mile 23. That seemed to work, I was fine at the end. Finish temp was about 60°, sunny with a little breeze.
Garmin lost about .2 mile in mile 1 and never caught up, but was pretty "consistently off" the rest of the run so the miles are consistent. Felt pretty good today, but suffered calf cramps in the last third of the course (after the chute) that slowed me down quite a bit. Ended up 3rd in AG with 4:19:08, behind two women from Anchorage. Was ahead of Terri Buck (got 2nd in AG) until just before the power line, and she had a lot more in the tank than I did, finishing a little over a minute ahead of me. 1st in AG went to Laura McDonough, like last year. Was really hoping for 4:15 but expected 4:20 so this is a good finish time for me. If I want to be better, I obviously need to run the hill more and more long runs. Twisted my left ankle at mile 3.5 and it hurt for awhile, but then got better. After run was done, it's sore and my foot on outer side is sore too. Fell on the out-and-back after the turnaround (yes coming back uphill, almost at the top), tripped on a rock and landed on hands and right knee. Ouch. Have a bruise but it's ok. Who falls going uphill?? I'm hoping the ankle thing is just temporary and will be fine. Otherwise, I feel pretty good and will be sore tomorrow but not bad (hoping so, at least). This is the last race in our local series, and it looks like I'll finish 4th overall, which is great. So, another year done.
MM #5615
Nice job Erika! Congratulations!
Trails are hard!
Nice race, Erika!! Way to hit the goal. Hope there's nothing major lingering.
Need a fast half for late fall. Then I need to actually train for it.
Great race Erika - plenty of time to recover before Steamboat!
Excellent racing and report, Erika. Congrats on a race well run!
Jay
Without ice cream there would be darkness and chaos.
Excellent race and good report, Erika! Congratulations. Hope you are feeling good today!
Out there running since dinosaurs roamed the earth
Thanks everyone! I was bummed about getting the 3rd in AG, I'm usually first and get a little greedy. But to miss 2nd by less than a minute was frustrating and spurs me on to figure out a way to hold up better in the last miles. And my foot was a little sore Sunday but not bad and now on Monday I'm just a little stiff but no worse than after a hard long training run. So, on to the next one!
MM#209 / JapanJoyful#803
Wonderful 26.2 mile in a short sleeve finale to the summer.
Equinoxes don't get much better than that, do they?
and she had a lot more in the tank than I did, finishing a little over a minute ahead of me. 1st in AG went to Laura McDonough, like last year.
and she had a lot more in the tank than I did,
finishing a little over a minute ahead of me.
1st in AG went to Laura McDonough, like last year.
However, based on the preliminary results, a rewrite might be in order.
" . . . I was gaining as she finished less than a minute ahead of me
and 1st in AG was just over two minutes ahead in a tight finish."
.
ps - when ABC asked my friend's daughter if she was disappointed in missing a gold medal in the Olympic downhill by only O.06 seconds, she joyfully effused that it was better than being only three-hundreths slower for the bronze, or 0.12 for fifth place. Your annual Equinoxes are just as impressive.
"Enjoy yourself. Your younger days never come again." 100yo T. Igarashi to me in geta at top of Mt. Fuji (8/2/87)
Check out this drone footage from the Equinox!! You can see the cannon go off on the right at the start, then they move to the first relay exchange in the field across from the nursery/greenhouse. Then they go right to the second relay exchange at mile 17. I wish they showed part of the out and back, but the end shows some of the beautiful valley to the north of the Dome, looking out towards Minto Flats. Just a gorgeous day. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=06AoNFDgdu8
And here's the "Relive" link to my run, you'll see at the end that my Garmin shorted me about .3 mile, but it did that consistently after the first mile so there must've been a glitch at the start.
Great race Erika. Congrats!
It's been a long time since I felt like entering a race report, let alone had anything to report about. This past Sunday made me think of my old online friends that I have lost touch with... and Jay would be proud of me!
A few years ago, when I first started getting into walking after years of running, a search online for walking races led me to the New Albany Walking Classic 5 Miler. The race caught my eye, but I would have never thought to travel to Columbus Ohio. This race bills itself as the largest walking only race in the country. Fast forward to about 2 months ago. My wife had wanted to run a few local 5 mile races this summer, so I tagged along and decided to jump in and walk them (only having walked about 2 days a week for the last year due to injury). It got me back to thinking about racing again. Then along came a business trip opportunity. in Columbus... that would put me there the weekend of this race!
I spent the next 2 months trying to get myself back in shape, upping my long walks to 8 miles, trying to get in 4 days/week, and then in the last month even adding in a weekly “tempo” walk. A week before the race, my wife wanted to run an old time 5K that neither one of us had done in about 15 years. I ended up doing 10:40 pace, and felt great (she ended up finishing 3rd overall). Based on this, I set goals of breaking 11:00 pace (for 5 miles based on MacMillans race calculator), finishing in the top 20 (based on looking at previous years results), and placing in my age group.
Race day came after a long week at work. I started out near the front of the pack. The mile markers were off, but based on my garmin, my splits for the 1st 4 miles were fairly even, all between 10:48 and 11:00. I think I passed 1 or 2 people, and only 1 person passed me. I passed another person with about ½ mile to go. I rounded the final turn with about a ¼ mile to go and a 20 something girl pulled up on my shoulder. I “sprinted” it in and was able to hold her off by 1 second (although she ended up beating me by a few seconds based on chip time). According to my garmin, my final mile was 10:39. She actually thanked me for pulling her along the whole way, and we ended up talking for about an hour at the post race party. She said she has done this race the last 4 years, and hopes to see me back next year.
Final results:
18th overall out of 1800+
3rd I 50-59 age group
My garmin 10:51/mile for 4.88 miles
Race had it listed as 10:37/mile for 5 miles
I am extremely happy with the results. It has been several years since I have taken any race even somewhat seriously. For the first time since I gave up running about 4 years ago, I am actually excited about racing again. Best of all, 2 days later, I still feel good – no aches or pains from my injury.
I will try to not be such a stranger.
Hi Jtv,
Congrats on doing a great job at the New Albany Walking Classic! You beat both of your goals, and helped another racer have a good race too. And isn't it terrific to feel good (no aches or pain) after a race? What kind of walking are you doing - racewalking (for which there are rules)? Speedwalking (for which there are no rules)? Whatever you are doing, you're doing great if you can be at a 10:37-10:51 pace for 5 miles. At that pace, you'll beat a lot of walkers, and you'll never finish last in any road race. Keep up the great work!
jtv, that's an excellent race! I think it's so cool that we have you speedy walkers in our midst. I just can't imagine walking that fast, whether by the rules (racewalking) or not (speedwalking). And how serendipitous to have your work take you right to the race! Congratulations on a very nice job out there.
. At that pace, you'll beat a lot of walkers
And runners too.
And I thought the only purist walking races,
if any, were ones by Jay as RD.
jtv – when there were some posts how many others everyone else has run into for events and reunions all over the place, I was recalling that, of the few I have been able to connect with here, you must have come the farthest from the East Coast for a run in Seattle. However, you were so fast in those days that I had to accompany you on my bike! I’ll never walk sub-11’s either but let me know if you get any trips out here again. I still have my bike.
ps erika – fantastic. I’ve watched both multiple times. Love the black spruce mixed in with all the yellow birches. Wish they could have captured the beautiful fall fragrances too. Maybe get ‘em to have a ground level camera at the bottom of The Chute next year.
Jay - Thanks. I try as hard as I can to do racewalking. I have entered 1 judged racewalk - and barely made it through. I got 2 bent knee violations, and another judge on the final few hundred yards ran beside me for several strides debating whether to flag me, but ended up not. I have worked with 2 of the best coaches around, and both have said due to an arthritic hip, and severe inflexibility, I would always have a hard time with being legal. I know the rules and proper form, and do the best I can at maintaining it. That's why I liked the New Albany race so much - it's a competitive walking race, but it doesn't have to be strict judged racewalking. They do list on their website that the top 3 overall must adhere to the rules, but the age group award winners don't. I'm not sure how much they even enforce that however. If you have any other suggestions for races, please let me know. I live in South Jersey. And yes - i felt so good to race hard, but not feel it afterward, especially since this was my fastest racewalk. I was expecting my shins to be screaming at me the next day.
Erika - Thanks. Glad to see that you are still running fast marathons. Seems like I never left this forum! Keep up the great work.
Tet - Yes, I remember that run/bike through the park in downtown Seattle. Glad to hear from you. And it's nice to feel "speedy" again, albeit a different sport.
Jeff