Ran a 5 miler on Thanksgiving called The Boulevard Bolt.  It was a perfect and beautiful morning…sunny and about 40 degrees at start time…perfect!!  I ended up starting toward the middle of the pack, and with over 8000 people in the race (runners & walkers of all levels were here), I had to weave my way up thru the crowd (why walkers start near the front, I’ll never understand…it’s not that I dislike walkers, they just need to start at the back).  I also had to dodge a camera man as I almost ran into him.  He was standing there in the middle of the road filming the start…and I turned to see where my running buddy was and as I looked forward, I have to take immediate evasive action.  Well, with all the weaving & dodging in my first mile…I ended up doing it in 10:50 (well below my pace of 9:30 to end up at 48 minutes).

Well, by the second mile, things had thinned out a bit and I was able to pick up the pace.  By mile 1 and ½, I saw the leaders returning (it was an out & back…turnaround at basically the 2.5 mile mark)…boy, where they flying.  The second mile had a few rolling hills…but nothing too significant…and I did it in 8:50.

I continued on, and made the turn around and by this point, I was into my groove, and was able to run them without too much weaving.  Since this was an out & back, mile 3 and 4 had the same rolling hills.  I ended up doing mile 3 in 8:40 and mile 4 in 8:37 (pretty consistent there).

Now I was into the last mile and decided to really pour in on here.  Again, some ups and downs…but the last quarter mile of so was slightly downhill.  As I approached the downhill, I looked at my watch and knew I had a shot at breaking 8 minutes.  I cranked up the speed during that downhill, took the right hand turn into the parking lot for the finish line.  I glanced at my watch and sprinted in the last 30 yards or so…I had done it, my last mile (mile 5) was 7:50.

Total time was 44:47.  I was extremely happy as I broke my goal of 48 minutes and smashed my previous PR (50:24).  What a great way to start Thanksgiving!!!  And the best part…not feeling too guilty for all the eating afterwards.

I am feeling really strong now (and it shows in my times for past couple of months).  I am going to rock my marathon in two weeks!!!

White Rock Half - Dallas, TX - Dec 13th 2009, 8am

Traffic sucked, should have left earlier. Ended up parking over a mile away and "warming up" to the start. Got there just in time!

Started at the back of "corral C" with the 2:10:00 pace runner. It took the standard 10 mins to get over the start line.

I knew from last year that the first 3-4 miles of the race are a veritable human train wreck but, as last year I went out waaaaayyyy too fast, I wasn't really worried about it. The plan for this race was to run miles the first 4 miles between 9:45/mile and 10:00/mile... and then see how I felt.

Mile 4 - 40:08 perfect, especially as I had to stop for a quick pitstop in mile 4! Feel good. Still going up hill though.

For the next few miles the plan was to keep it at 9:30 and see if I could pick it up a little on the down hill miles 10 - 13.1.

That worked for miles 5,6 & 7 and then I was up to the point where I bailed and started walking last year. This year though, I felt fine. No, better than fine, good! Mile 8 was down hill. I caught and passed the 2:10 pace group and put in an 8:51. What followed was nothing as dramatic as MrPH's Seacoast finish but I never looked back. I put in progressively faster splits for a chip finish (and brand spanking new PR) of 2:02:17

This time last year I had a goal of doing this HM in 2:00:00.

Since joining this forum I set something a little more realistic. I wanted to:

• Finish
• Finish without stopping to walk
• PR
• Still be able to train next week!

Last year. This race killed me for over 3 months. I did not really run again until April

I'm not sure if I'm going to be running tomorrow, but I will be on Tuesday!

Y'all are right, put the miles in and things will happen.

Next year sub 2:00:00!

Thanks for all the support fellow HM Trainers!

Too Cold to Hold 15k - Dallas, TX - Jan 17th 2010, 8:30am

This is a weird race for me. I put it on my calendar so I have some training motivation over December & early Jan. Last year I didn't run it. This year I wasn't expecting much.

It was foggy when I drove out to East Dallas but by race start time it had mostly cleared up. It was almost perfect conditions; overcast, mid forties and no wind..... and I had bib number 1!

The plan for the race was simple go out at 8:45/mile and see how long I could hang on.

I guess the extra training miles must be paying off because I never looked back.

The course is pretty flat with only a couple of small hills even by North TX standards!

I finished the first 5k in 27:14 and felt good.

I was thrown off a little in the second 5k. The five mile marker was placed early making for a long sixth mile! I pushed the pace a little and finished with a 26:26 split.

In the last 5k I pushed even harder. I was passing a few people now and while that felt good I feared that when I put in an 8:15 mile number 7 I may have kicked for the finish a little too early. For the last mile and a bit I was blowing pretty hard but I closed out the last 5k in 25:42. Ended the race with a new PR for the 15k of 1:19:23

So; strange doings... a 15k PR was not on my goals list for 2010 but I am happy to have it.

What was on my goals list was a sub 26min 5k - which I ran in my last 5k here and a sub 53min 10k which I ran in my last 10k here. That's not in the spirit of things though so I'm off to find a couple of shorter races to hunt down some new PRs and close out some 2010 goals for real!

Way to go, Matt!

Goal was sub-2:00:00 time......official time was 1:55:21....WOO HOO!!!!

Flew to Phoenix from Denver on Saturday to attend Expo and pick up race packet.  Went to PF Chang's (hey, got to support the race sponsor, right?) for dinner.  Met friends for dinner and strolled around Tempe.  Hit the hay at like 10:00.

Race day started at 5:00 AM with a strong cup of coffee (to get things moving ;-)  ) and a couple of power-bars purchased from the Circle K across from the hotel.  I have never traveled to a race, so a lesson learned that I should plan for meals on the road.  Good thing this worked out well.  We rode light-rail to downtown and walked to start line.  We were there too early.  Luckily I brought trash bags (pre-cut) to save the day!!

Race started with Doug and Duncan going out much faster than I did.  I was hoping to go out at 9:10 pace on average for the first 10 miles and then put the hammer down.  Instead, I went out at like 8:50 (see graph below) and just kept going. By the time I got to the very slight hill at like the 9 or 10 mile mark, I found I was running out of gas.  Hopefully my GPS graph gets uploaded correctly so you can see my pace per mile.  I just kept plugging away, though.

I didn't have any gas to sprint to the finish.  Two years ago, I passed Doug at like 12.5 miles and beat him by like 1+ minutes.  This time he crossed the finish line ahead of me.  Funny thing is that he also left the start line ahead of me.  Bottom line is I ended up beating him officially by 3 seconds.

We went to the hotel where we showered, got a burger and a beer (or two) at the bar, and headed back to the airport. 

Great day and I am looking forward to my next race in Moab, UT in late March.

Let's see if I can embed links to photos below.....

Denver airport.....on the way to Phoenix.  That's me on the left and Doug on the right.

Light-rail trip from hotel to start line....Doug and Duncan.....

Start line crowds...

Sunrise over Phoenix...

Me (left), Duncan (center), and Doug at the start line (corral 9)...

Heavy metal band along route...

Finish line crowds...

ASU Sun Devil Stadium near finish line...

At the finish....left to right....me, Duncan, Doug....