Well, somebody has to start a thread to wish good luck to today's racers.

Good Luck!!!!!!!!!

Mary, I feel your pain. I've done that many times on Sunday after thinking I could do 2 long runs in a row.

My excuse today, however, is that I had PLANNED to go around 5 or so, but at mile two, out jumped a strange

dog from the creek I run by.   He was probably more scared than me, but I am just plain freaked out by any dogs, so around I turned and hightailed it back to my hood, where it then began to rain.  Now most of you dedicated overachievers out there would not have been deterred by a little spring shower, but I just didn't feel like slogging around in front of possible curtain peekers, yep, that's my excuse, and I went home, where I then prepared sausage, biscuits, eggs, and gravy.  

Oink oink.

Thanks Deb. How was the play?

Not your morning for running, eh, Mary? And on the mistaken identity thing, I was also once mistaken at a race by an RAer for Tselbs, although that's actually not that much of a stretch: all us 60+ runners start to look alike after a while.

Running in the rain in August can be fun; in March, not so much. So I stayed in and did 5 on the TM. Hoping for more mileage this week, but since my new bike just came in at the shop I'll probably have that as a major distraction if the weather warms up.

Now how are those racers doing today??

{{Mary's tired legs}} Hey, you get to play with puppies instead, right?

Wondering how our racers are doing today. Go Ribs!

I'm going to sneak in and cheat with  small RR in the daily.  But this was a last minute decision, as in "If I wake up and my hamstring doesn't feel TOO tight, I think I might go down to Cambridge and run this race"  This was the Cambridge City Run for 5 miles.  When I saw late yesterday that Henry and Marj were going , that pretty much made up my mind.

There were well over a 1000 runners and walkers, so I didn't hold out great hopes of finding Henry and Marj without a pre-arranged meeting, but as I was walking out with my bib, Henry was coming in.  It is always so delightful to have a chance to chat with them.  As an added bonus, Mary T (who I think used to post here) stopped by to say Hi.  I felt almost like Tselbs at his races, although I think the percentages of people that he knows at his races is JUST a bit higher. 

I ended up at the very back of the pack by stopping to chat with a couple of ladies with a Golden.  As we were ambling towards the line, the gun went off, so it actually worked out nicely, as the initial crush had dissipated and I could run right from the start.  The actual starting line wasn't marked so I think I miss by just a hair, as Garmin had me at 4.99 miles at the finish.  Don't think I ran the tangents that efficiently.

I had only two goals for this--I wanted to go 5 miles without anything hurting and stay under 10 minutes for the whole thing.  I managed both amazingly enough--with no sore hammy OR shin, and a Garmin finish time of 49:17.  So even if I cheated a little on the distance, I think I would still have made it.  Gun time was about 50:30, so I was a little behind at the start.  It is sort of fun to run from the back, though--you get to pass more people that way.

An unexpected benefit was a woman giving free 10 minute massages afterwards.  I had her work on my tight hamstring and it feels REALLY good at the moment.  But she made me almost levitate off the table when she found a couple of the tight spots.

I channeled my inner Ribs while dressing for this race.  My usual ensembles look like an explosion in a laundry basket.  Today was gold hat and long sleeve shirt and black shorts to go with my gold and black Brooks.  Now that I can dress like a real runner, I may have to start running like one.

A very pleasant way to spend the morning.  Hope everyone else's races and runs are as nice.

Kevin

PS:  both Henry and Marj were pleased with their runs, but I'll let them tell more.

Denise - I saw the pictures.  It makes me smile to see you having sooo much fun.   You look fabulous in a purple boa!

Mary - some days are just like that.

I was also quite speedy running with the Frederick Marathon training group, while performing my duties as an on-course marshal this morning.  I felt very important clutching my turn-by-turn directions and wearing an ill-fitting orange vest.

20 miles at 9:47/mi pace. 

I checked my log and I've never run a long training run that fast before. I should do group runs more often.

We followed up with a nice breakfast at a local restaurant in downtown Frederick.  It was marred somewhat by the middle-aged couple at the next table discussing (loudly) the guy's infidelity and how she was going to "make him pay", meanwhile begging him to tell her the name of the woman he'd cheated with (and she was going to hate forever).  And on and on (and on).  Didn't really need to hear all that.  We decided that they were probably more annoying than we were (sitting there in our stinky running clothes).

Anyhow - let the taper begin.  Boston is 3 weeks from tomorrow!

Great miles there Beers and sounds like fun with the group. Dr. B and Dr J went into Boston today to run 23 on the course and I am sure I'll hear tales about all the people they saw.

Good day for me and 19 miles total with a good portion of it in race mode at the Oleksak Lumber/Boys and Girls Club half-marathon in Westfield, MA. This course and I seem to like each other as my past experiences have been good ones too. I was gunning for a 1:35 or steady 7:15 pacing per mile (at least those are the splits I wrote on my arm and memorized). The hills are mostly in the first 4 miles---short steep one at mile 2 and long climbing quad-buster at mile 3. Nice and sweet downhill at mile 5. I am really, really happy that I was able to hold pace and run under 7:15s without a taper. There was a pretty stiff headwind most of the way and I was mostly by myself---no tall guy wind guards! First mile was 7:10, hit mile 5 at 36:20, mile 8 at 57:13, mile 10 at 1:11:23 (faster than the Jones 10 miler in February), mile 12 at 1:26 and then the finish at 1:33:56----my wristwatch and the race clock had the same times. No chip timing here but I lined up fairly close to the starting line and lost maybe 4 seconds there, so no biggie. I was 43rd overall and first masters woman (5th woman overall). They have a huge feed after the race---bagels, bananas, oranges, pasta, meatballs, cookies and more. I could only handle a bagel and some water but everything looked great. Cool wooden medals too---a lumber company after all! I saw lots of the local speedsters and had a blast. Warm-up mile and cool down miles out on the course made 19 for the day.

http://greystoneracing.net/pages/Race%20Results%202010/Westfield%20Half%203.28.10.txt

On to the week ahead----nice running Holly. I'll be tired when I see you for our Ohio run, but happy to have a friend to run with during a long week on the road.

Denise---I loved your photos on FB---you know how to turn 50 the right way and looking fabulous too. Happy (early) Birthday and I hope you keep celebrating.

Wow!  What a daily! Packed with good stuff!

I completed my second marathon in 2 weeks -- 4;44:20 unofficial.   Buehrle and Rocket Scientist are awesome! 

I'm showered, on the couch for the duration, and not completely lucid (Pretty much like any day, just earlier!   )

RR will follow, once I remember what happened out there!