Overtraining and Personal Gearing

A concept I have had a difficult task with corroborating with my own personal training plan is over-training. The idea that running 'one more mile for the gipper' can be more harmful than good runs contrary to my personal philosophy of hard work will eventually get you where you want to be.

As a middle aged running newbie, the difference between a substantial workout and an excessive workout is probably not very much. It could be a mile or two for a person in my condition and age. I would submit I have a small window with respect to an appropriate training program intensity.

I also need to remember what constitutes over-training for myself could be a day at the park for another person. On the flip side of the coin, my current training plan could be overtraining for others. The challenge is to keep your training focus on a regimen which falls within the boundaries of a reasonable plan for yourself.

After weeks of limping around on one leg, my leg has finally healed where my stride is normal once again. After running today, I realized I was essentially running with one leg for the last three weeks as I was not able to 'lead' with my right leg during my running. I would lead with my left leg and let gravity pull my right leg through my stride in a pendulum fashion and plant it for the next stride.


Excerpted from a Scotiabank Toronto Waterfront marathon email I receive on a weekly basis.

They don't call it long, slow distance (LSD) training for nothing. Every weekend, the main training objective is to run or walk S-L-O-W-L-Y and comfortably. So slowly in fact, that able to hold a conversation. We call this the talk test.

The purpose of the endurance workout is to build an aerobic base and time on your feet. To do this effectively you need to train in the right zone. Like gears on a car, if you use the wrong gear at the wrong time it will cause wear and tear on the car. It is no different in training.

If you train at too hard an intensity on the long workouts, you are simulating racing every week and your times will actually decrease and performance drop due to fatigue.

When you train long and slowly at a comfortable pace, you build endurance, FAT burning enzymes and develop strength by spending time on your feet.

If you use a heart rate monitor, keep it at an effort between 65-75% of your maximum heart rate. Expect your heart rate to gradually creep during the long workouts due to fatigue and dehydration.

Don't slow your pace in the later miles/kilometers with the creep, but keep the pace the same. For example, If you run at 10:30 per mile pace and your heart rate is at 70% keep it at that pace throughout, even though your heart rate will creep up slowly.

Mortality and Being 'Right' With Everyone

Sadly yesterday saw two cultural icons of the 70's and 80's pass away before their time. Both were adorned by the media and public and profited very much by the evolution of various forms of mass media in the United States during this time.

Charlie Angels was by no means an intellectually stimulating television show. However, it was a show our family would watch on a weekly basis. If I recall, correctly, the show had a general 'who done it' mystery or detective theme. Farrah marked the beauty standard all others were judged by in the mid to late 1970's.

Michael Jackson, in spite of leading a lifetime of eccentric behavior due to a misaligned self image has left a legacy of music only paralleled by few others such as Frank Sinatra or Elvis Presley. He deftly married rhythm and blues with pop music which appealed to people of all races around the world. His most unique quality was his global appeal - he seemingly had a large fan base in most every country of the world.

During a time when we mourn for those who have influenced our lives, it makes you wonder about your own mortality. You live life never knowing when your time will be up. I have been blessed with an awesome wife who has done a marvelous job with raising our two children. Our family has been a blessing which continually enriches our lives to unfathomable depths.

I have a wonderful mother and father-in-law. Due to an unfortunate circumstance where I also have a sister-in-law who has for nearly a decade proven less than capable of raising her own kids due to selfish and short-sighted decisions which prove to be of no benefit to her own children, my mother and father-in law have selflessly intervened and are raising them on a nearly full time basis. Because my parent's in law require a substantial amount of time to raise their other grandchildren, they do not have time to dedicate solely to our children.

My most fond memories of a child were with my grandparents and I feel my sons are being cheated out of one on one time with their maternal grandparents because of my sister-in-law's selfishness and her profound laziness regarding doing the things necessary day in and day out to provide for the welfare of her own children.

My mother-in-law and I have had contentious dialogue regarding the allocation of her time with her grandchildren. She spends hundreds of hours more every year with her other grandchildren than our children - most all of it one on one time. I know deep in my heart she loves them all and is merely filling the parental void created by my sister-in-law.

July Training Plan

I ran two miles yesterday as fast as I could and was only averaging nine minute and thirty second miles. I am still hobbled by a sore left leg. I have two races scheduled for early July. If my leg remains a hindrance after the second race, I plan to eliminate running for the last two weeks of July and begin a brief strength training program in its place during those two weeks.

I had rested for eleven days in the beginning of June, which in hindsight was maybe a couple days away from completely healing. I was making great progress in my times until shortly after the May 16th five mile run in Lansdale PA. Since then my times have regressed.

Goal Reorientation

I am very relieved I have lowered my training goal from a full marathon to a half marathon. It was becoming increasingly difficult to balance my responsibilities of work, home ownership and running a family. I have also been dogged by a leg injury since late May.

Many of the training plans for a marathon include weekly runs of 12,16,18 and as many as 22 miles. I do not have the time to run for three or four hours of training nor do I have safe routes for running these lengths. Not to mention I physically crashed and burned this past weekend attempting to run a mere 13 miles.

I officially registered my change with the Scotiabank Toronto Waterfront marathon yesterday. The half marathon will only take slightly more than two hours to complete, as opposed to the four and a half hours I would have needed for the full marathon. I should have sufficient energy after the half marathon to walk around the city of Toronto at either a museum or zoo.

Half Marathon Training Wreck

On Sunday the 21st, Father's Day, I decided to determine how well prepared I was for running the half marathon in Fairfield Connect scheduled for June 28th. I set out to run from home toward Annville on Route 422 until I reached the 6.55 mile mark and then return home the same way for a total of thirteen and one tenth miles.

Similar to my running experience on Saturday, I had no energy reserves. I was barely able to run six miles, did a mixture of running and walking for the next two miles and wound up walking the last five miles. For reasons yet unknown, my water backpack was not holding water. There was not an obvious leak, but I am reasonably positive I did not consume the pack's 50 ounce capacity of water. Once I was exhausted, even walking was very difficult to do as both my legs and arms felt like lead weights.

While I was mixing up running and walking during the eighth mile I became extremely light headed and began to lose my sense of balance. My fingers began to feel numb also. When I got home from running my blood pressure was reading a very low 112 / 70, a marked decline over my normal 145 / 100 readings. I am not sure how much of my difficulties were due to dehydration, but I could sense I was pushing the bounds of my fitness level and overall well-being if I continued to run.

Based on my abysmal training performance and a lengthy discussion with my wife, I have decided to forgo the half marathon in Connecticut this Sunday June 28th. Based on my adverse reaction to running 13.1 miles, I have decided to downgrade my goal of running a full marathon this fall to running a half marathon. I believe I was very close to collapsing on Sunday and I promised myself I would not take this training to a level where I compromised my health.

We Have a Winner

I ran the CMN Chocolate Miracle 5K run this past Saturday in the rain. I slept in until 7:00 AM as the race was scheduled to start at 8:00 AM. I rested the previous two days so I felt I had a sufficient energy reservoir for the race.

The packet pickup was organized very well. One issue with the management of the race was the bullhorn was not working in the rain. The race organizers made a fair amount of announcements which were not audible to anyone except those standing in the front row.

The course had four distinct parts each of them roughly equal in length. The first quarter was downhill followed by an uphill section. The middle part of the course featured a turnaround on West Chocolate Avenue. At a turnaround someone is standing on the road and you reverse your direction by running around them. The third quarter was the reverse of the 2nd quarter, so this was primarily downhill. The last quarter, being the reverse of the first quarter was a long uphill sloping trek.

For whatever reason, I ran my worst 5K to date. I did not have any kick at the end of the race. I don't know whether to attribute this to running uphill or if I had nothing left in the tank. Probably was a combination of both. I usually take a mile to warm up, start to feel fluid in the 2nd mile and coast or auto pilot the 3rd mile. I never got warmed up during the second mile.

The only person I knew at the race was Stacy Teets. Her husband Jon and I played in the same fantasy football league, Chocolate Covered Football, for several years.

After the race there was a raffle for prizes. Much to my surprise I won a $10 gift certificate to the Red Robin restaurant. We decided we would celebrate Father's day by having a meal at the Red Robin restaurant on Monday June 22nd.

Running mini 'Super Bowl' next week

The 1/2 marathon race next Sunday in Fairfield Connecticut is scheduled to have over 3000 runners entered. From my experience with having 1000 runners at the start of the Classic 10K last week in New York, there's a certain exhilaration and excitement which builds within the moments leading up to the race.

In those moments leading up to the start of the race, part of me is wondering what in God's name am I doing waiting to put myself through such a grueling physical trek. My comfort level at the starting line is tied to my training preceding the race. With the Classic 10K race, I was very confident I could finish six miles, having run five miles competitively before.

I have never run thirteen miles before - ten miles is as far as I have run. June has not been a very good training month as I was hampered by a sore leg for most of the first half of the month. My determination will play a large role in my ability to finish this race.

There is a high probability I will be running the CMN Chocolate Miracle 5K run tomorrow in Hershey in the rain. I have raced in a light rain once and trained several times within the rain. I welcome the rain as it provides a natural cooling effect as you run.

Feeling Exhausted

I had every intention of completing a trial run of the course for the CMN Chocolate Miracle Run this morning but felt very fatigued and opted to rest today and tomorrow for Saturday morning's 5K race. I have to balance my desire to complete another workout with my body's ability to recover from the previous workout. I need to have an energy reserve to tap into Saturday morning.

By most accounts, we should have rain on Saturday. It's unclear yet as to whether it will be raining at 8:00 AM. Running a couple of miles in the rain should not present any formidable problems - unless it's a torrential downpour. I am not sure what would cause the race organizers to reschedule the race. I imagine it's on rain or shine. Race registration begins at 7:00 AM.

There will be door prizes awarded after the race.

I am planning to run a three mile loop around our neighborhood a total of four times on Sunday. This will be my last major training day for the 1/2 marathon in Connecticut on June 28th. My performance and recovery this Sunday will dictate whether I attempt to run on the 28th.

URL for the CMN Chocolate Miracle 5 K -> http://chocolatemiraclerace.com/default.aspx

Notables: I have logged over 100 miles of running on the pair of sneakers (Mizuno Wave Rider 12) I purchased this spring. They are holding up remarkably well with no visible tears on the uppers and an almost new looking sole. I imagine running on a track 95% of the time helps reduce sole wear.

CMN Chocolate Miracle 5K Race preparations

I ran six miles yesterday and four miles today at the PHS track. The four miles was extremely difficult as it was right off the heels of the six mile run. My legs felt extremely heavy during the four mile run.

The majority of the race is run on Reese Avenue, the road connecting the Hershey Company's technical center to the Reese plant. It runs parallel to Route 422. In a nutshell, the first and last miles are relatively flat with a fair amount of hilly terrain during the second mile. There's a certain comfort level with running a course where you know exactly where you are and what you need to do to finish.

I worked as an IT consultant for the Hershey Company for seven years spanning from 1998 to 2004. I may run into an old acquaintance or two. Many of the people I was working with were just starting families so it will be neat to see their kids.

My current 5K personal record is 24 minutes 50 seconds for a 3.01 mile course at the Hershey Medical Center on May 30th. I ran a first mile of 7:51, second mile of 8:33, and a third mile of 8:24.

Post Classic 10K Race Ruminations

I have to continually remind myself that I have been in large part physically dormant for quite some time and will require a substantial investment in time to become physically fit again.

A concern I had with running the Classic 10K race was my time was not going to be very good - attributable to my lack of training caused by my leg injury. However, I had to remind myself that I wanted to use this year as the year of 'marker' or baseline runs. Before I set out to run I set realistic a realistic goal of what my average pace would be. It was most important to me to finish the race without walking, which I was successfully able to do.

It requires a tremendous amount of personal discipline to not alter your predetermined pace when you are being passed by a person with an excess of 30% body fat, an elderly man in his upper 60's, or an eleven year old boy. One metric I noticed from the race yesterday is my 5K split was appreciably faster than those who finished around me. The translation is I ran the second half of the race much slower than my finishing counterparts.

My next race is a 5K this Saturday June 20th in Hershey PA. I do not anticipate setting another personal best for this race since I still have limited range of motion in my right leg which affects my stride lengths and consequently my speed.

I am toying with the idea of running the 1/2 marathon in Connecticut on June 28th. If I can get a fair amount of decent training sessions in between now and then I may be in a position to run the race yet.

Classic 10K of Middletown NY

In order to determine if I was capable of running this race I ran a labored two miles last Wednesday and a much better four miles on Thursday. Sometime this past Friday, after I awoke in the morning and was not hobbling, I decided my leg was sufficiently healed to run the 10K.

I awoke 2:30 Sunday morning to begin preparations for the 8:30 AM race. After assembling all my running gear and a small lunch bag I was out the door at 3:30 AM. Earlier in the week I had programmed my Garmin Nuvi GPS for Middletown NY. The GPS initially calculated an estimated time of arrival of 6:47 AM. The route primarily consisted of two highways, 81 North and 84 East into New York state.

The trip was not eventful, except for a few patches of very dense fog along the way. The sun began to illuminate the countryside a couple of minutes past five o'clock. At about the same time I realized I had left my lunch bag with my energy bars and Gatorade in the kitchen. I also forgot to bring a digital camera to take pictures of the venue.

I decided to use the Nuvi GPS to find the nearest Walmart, which happened to be in a town called Milford, just a stone's throw inside Pennsylvania as you enter New York state on Route 84. I purchased a couple of energy bars and a Port Jervis (NY) Red Raiders t-shirt as a cheap momento of this trip.

I arrived at the Middletown high school around 7:00 AM. The school parking lot was about two-thirds full at the time, but quickly filled up a short time thereafter. I made my way to the registration tables to pick up my running packet. Everything was very well organized. The bib number I had drawn for this race was 265. This marked the first time I had to affix the automated timing device named the D-Tag to my sneaker.

I took a tour of the grounds and noticed the high school had a newly built and somewhat grand football stadium. Instead of a scoreboard with the typical Home and Visitor scores and a painted logo of the school mascot, this high school had a big screen TV as their scoreboard. It was smaller than the TV's found at a college or professional football stadium, but very impressive nonetheless. There was a live video feed of the runners on the track which was displayed on the big screen TV.

The morning's first activity was the Rowley 5-K race and was scheduled to begin at 7:45. A group of over 300 racers lined up for this event. Much to my surprise, a starter's gun was used to begin the race. A local high school boy won the race in 16:37.

There were a host of vendors outside the stadium marketing their services and products as well as handing out free samples. I picked up a strawberry GU energy gel packet to use for the race.

I was very impressed by the overall organization of the event as their were paramedics, local police and very helpful event staff. I joked with my wife afterward the only problem with running a race in New York is that there are New Yorkers in the race. In reality, the racers were all very considerate and friendly.

I did a few warm-up laps around the track before the race. The track was ten lanes wide as opposed to the more typical eight lane track. My leg felt good, but still was not pain free. For only sleeping half a night and driving for three hours, I surprisingly did not feel fatigued or weary.

Frank Shorter, the 1972 and 1976 Olympic marathons winner addressed the crowd at 8:25 using a bullhorn. His comments were difficult to hear as his bullhorn was not sufficiently loud to over power the banter of the runners awaiting the start of the race. I believe he said he was recovering from some sort of physical ailment and would not be running the 10K race.

While waiting at the starting line for the race to begin, I was surprised to hear a woman singing the national anthem for the event. Next to the football stadium, two huge ladder fire trucks had their ladders extended and had a large United States flag draped between them. June 14th being Flag day, the track was adorned with small U.S. flags on wooden blocks in between each lane throughout the entire track. The public address announcer had announced that over 900 racers were ready to run the Classic 10K.

When the starting gun went off, my initial reaction was to begin sprinting down the road. Due to the large number of runners, it was some ten seconds before those in front of me had cleared sufficiently to begin running. There were two finishing times listed in the results; overall time and net time. The net time took into account you may have had to wait to get to the start line after the starter's gun sounded.

During my last two training sessions, I was struggling to run ten minute miles due to my ailing leg. Prior to the race I decided I wanted to average running each mile in the 9:30 to 9:45 time frame. I was hoping my adrenaline would help me achieve sub 10 minutes miles.

Without getting into a mile by mile recap of the race, the first four miles of the race were uphill and the last 2.2 miles were downhill. It seemed a majority of the time I was running uphill followed by downhill runs. My Garmin GPS Forerunner 305 confirmed the hilly nature of the course it calculated 85% of the race was either an ascent or descent with only 15% recorded as being level. An awesome feature of this race was a water station at every mile which was staffed by a plethora of students. I took water at the three mile station with the NU energy gel packet I had picked up from a race vendor. I can't say the NU gel made any discernible impact upon my performance.

I finished the race in 59 minutes and 34 seconds, net time. I finished 602nd out of 926 runners and came in 67th out of 86 racers in the aged 45-49 bracket. Ironically, the aged 45-49 bracket had the most entrants for any individual bracket for this race.

While I believe I can do better than this in the future, my time was indicative of my poorly trained body at the time. One takeaway I had from this race is there were plenty of people my age who were in great shape. I need to retain this change I have made to my lifestyle where I incorporate physical activity into my regimen on nearly a daily basis.

Here's a picture below at the race finish line from the official race photographer, Ken Shelton studios. Can you see the six+ miles of hurt in my eyes ?

Taking Stock of Accomplishments

At this point I could either choose to become depressed I have not been able to run for an extended period of time or take stock of the fact I have been taking much better care of myself throughout this training period and at the same time substantially increased my physical well being.

I am eating much more healthy which I hope to continue for a lifetime. I have definitely incorporated more fruits and vegetables into my diet.

The one issue I haven't been able to address is my high blood pressure.

Patience - Can't Seem to Find It Anywhere

Day eleven of recuperating from my leg ailment. I'm starting to add a couple of pounds of weight back on, as I am up to 195 pounds. I am also beginning to become slightly depressed as a large part of my weekly schedule has been put on hold indefinitely.

I am facing three consecutive weeks of races where quite possibly I may run none of them for various reasons.

The race I am most interested in running is the Classic 10K in New York on Sunday. I believe I can run six miles in my current state, but would be at a very high risk of injuring my leg again during the anticipated 50+ minutes race duration. I am not sure if I have an adequate supply of adrenaline to cover this amount of running. In addition, I would be almost certain to incur another two weeks of injury recovery time from the damage likely to my leg again from running the race. Not to mention gas is nearly $2.60 a gallon for this 400 mile round trip commute.

The race I am least interested in because I have run this distance several times this year is the Hershey Company sponsored Children's Miracle Network run on Saturday June 20th. If I skip the race this weekend, I should be in sufficient shape to run a 5K. I admit I have a predilection for running races where medals are awarded and I do not anticipate earning one here. The other two races this month award participatory medals to all runners who finish the race.

The last race this month was to be the culmination of several months of dedicated distance running training. Once again, this race is out of state in Connecticut, some four hours and 220 miles away. I am holding out an ever so small ray of hope that I recover soon and come back with a vengeance to be able to enter this race. I would have to definitely skip the New York and Hershey races to have any shot of achieving this.

Worst case scenario is I don't race in June and pretty much flush the month down the toilet as an injury month. Problem now is, I only have slightly more than three months / 12 weeks to be ready to run a 26 mile marathon.

Race Entry Withdrawal

Since I have been sidelined from running for an extended period of time beginning Memorial Day, I will not be sufficiently trained to complete a 1/2 marathon. I am going to forgo the Stratton Fairfield CT race on June 28th. In addition to not being sufficiently trained, we really do not have the cash funding available for this trip.

I tried walking a 1/4 mile at the PHS track yesterday in an attempt to warm up a bit before I ran. I then tried to run with a normal stride, but there is a muscle high up on the front of my right leg responsible for lifting the leg up that feels like it had been severed.

The most frustrating part of the slow healing process is watching time fly by where you are not improving your running skills. If I were already in shape, a few delays would be more acceptable. As I have a long road to travel before I am fit, I need all the time I can get to dedicate to this pursuit.

I am still planning to run the 10K on Sunday in New York, but the prospect of skipping this race is increasingly becoming more likely. An old coaching adage is if you don't practice the week of the event, you don't play. I'm not very comfortable with sitting on my duff all week and then trying to run a race.

Frustrations Mounting

Due to my ailing right leg, I have not run a decent training session since the third week of May. On Saturday morning, June 6th to be exact, I went to the Palmyra track to test if my leg had been sufficiently rehabilitated.

My leg was not fully healed but I was able to run like a peg-legged pirate for five kilometers at a 13 minute mile pace. It was my hope I could run through the pain because the source issue may have been muscle tightness. The muscle never loosened up and my 400 meter splits became progressively worse as I continued to run.

As it stands now, I am not in the best condition to run a 10K race due to my lack of recent training. I initially was regarding this as a race, but may have to downgrade this to a run to finish. Part of my motivation for wanting to run this race is to add to my medal collection. Once I am old and retired I will look back on these medals and have some embellished stories for my children as to how I earned them.

Wonders of Modern Technology

Microsoft's answer to Google's search engine debuted recently @ bing.com. Using a two dimensional map located on the web site for the Classic 10K run in Middletown NY, I was able to simulate running the race using the bing.com web site and aerial photos of the entire route. I feel more at ease while I run if I have prior knowledge of the entire course. For this six mile (10K) race I will most likely commit the locations of mile markers three, four and five to memory.

It appears Middletown NY is similar to many towns across America. Relics from an era where the United States was a global manufacturing power seem to abound in the form of old buildings. Part of the race is run on Main street within the town. Lest I forget, Middletown's notoriety comes from the fact it was the boyhood town of 1972 and 1976 Olympic marathoner winner Frank Shorter. He currently lives in Colorado, but appears to enjoy making a celebrity appearance for this race. He is scheduled to be there this Sunday.

The aerial photo of the Middletown high school running track is outdated as the school recently upgraded their running track. I have been sidelined with an injury for some time now. I have a modest goal of coming in under one hour for this race.

Finding Your Physical Limitations

I have been reading running magazines for several months now and in many cases elite runners are profiled. A common theme with many of the runners is losing a fair amount of training time due to a regimen which exceeded what their bodies could handle.

Running has turned into somewhat of an addiction for me. The more I run the better I get and the more I want to run. Unfortunately I try to add too much to my regimen too quickly. After I ran 10 miles almost two weeks ago I have been sidelined with a nagging injury ever since. I have run one day in the last ten days in an effort to heal more quickly. I also started taking the non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug Alleve, but even that is not working too well. Maybe I'll try Ibuprofen.

The 10K race next Sunday is fast approaching and I have not logged very many training miles recently. I may need to skip this race if I don't heal quickly. I tried to run today but felt too much pain when I bore weight on my right leg.

Trying to extend your physical limits through training is an eggshell dance where you need to go further than you have before but not too far, lest you break down. More is not always better.

June 09 Schedule

June will be my most challenging month of races this year. Beginning on Sunday June 14th, I travel to Middletown NY for the Classic 10K race. This race requires fastening a disposable "D-Race Timing Tag' to your sneaker for tracking purposes.
It's my understanding you run over rubberized mats with this paper tag and they somehow record your time at various points throughout the race as well as the finish.

For the majority of races I have run to date, I have hovered in the front third of the racers at the starting line. I will need to move further back in the pack for the beginning of this race or risk being run over by faster racers at the start. One more item - everyone finishing this race will receive a participatory medal.

The only local race for this month is in Hershey on Saturday June 20th and is sponsored by the Hershey Company and the Children's Miracle Network. This is my last scheduled 5K race for the year. The race is run near the Hershey Company's Technical Center on Route 422. I used to work for the Hershey Company so I may run into an old friend or two.

The crown jeweled race for me this summer is the half marathon at the end of the month in Fairfield Connecticut. I believe at the moment I have eleven consecutive miles of running within me. I need to develop the capacity to run an extra 2.1 miles by the end of the month.

This race also awards a participatory medal. It also uses the D-Race timing tag to record runner's times. Barring injuries, I should have two more running medals to add to my current paltry collection of one medal by months end.

May 09 Training - In Review

I ran 74.04 miles in total for May 2009. Of that total, competitive races constituted 14.28 miles, or about 19%. Looking at this from a slightly different perspective, I trained about 4.2 miles for every mile that I raced.

One interesting stat which surfaced using the heart rate monitoring component of my watch is my max heart rate peaked for the races. Typically when I train my max heart rate hovers within the 165 - 169 BPM range. During the last Balloon Chasers 5K run in Hershey my max heart rate topped off at 179 BPM.

In addition, I road biked five times during the month for a total of 45.13 miles. My longest bike ride was slightly in excess of 16 miles. I enjoy bike riding more than running, however I have yet to go over a max heart rate of 146 BPM while cycling.

Overall the month of May was a very good one for me. It's probably the most exercise I have completed in a month since my high school & college days. I never ran in college, basketball was my sport of choice at the time.

I have signed up for three races totaling 22 miles this month. Using the training to racing ratio from May, I anticipate completing about 90 miles of training runs this month.

CMN/UFC Balloon Chasers 5K Results

This race was an extremely tough one for me as I was not completely recovered from a very sore leg. To make matters worse, I did not sleep Friday night due to kidney stone related pains. I did not pass a stone, but my right kidney was putting me through a fair amount of pain for nearly twelve hours spanning from around 5:00PM Friday evening to 5:00AM Saturday morning.

Much to my delight, my family attended this Saturday morning (9:00 AM) event. We entered my oldest son, Dylan, into a one mile fun run once we got the Hershey Medical Center race course. It was a beautiful day for a run and there were nearly 250 runners for the event. The race was run by an organization named Pretzel City Sports http://www.pretzelcitysports.com and specifically by a gentleman named Ron Horn. I believe this is the third PCS sponsored event I have completed.

While I was warming up for this race I could feel my leg was not 100% and was extremely concerned I may be looking at a DNF (Did Not Finish). In large part because I had not run for three days, I had a great amount of energy in reserve and ran a very consistent race. Since I have been training at distances of six to ten miles recently, I had enough energy to have a small kick at the end of this race. I crossed the finished line sprinting, which was a new feeling for me.

I finished with a new 5K personal record of 24 minutes and 50 seconds, just two seconds shy of averaging an 8 minute per mile pace. After reviewing the race results, I determined I was 5th of 14 runners in my age group (45-49) and were I of the female persuasion, would have garnered a first place medal for my age group. I placed 94th out of 269 runners. (top 35 percentile)

Split Times:
(mile, split, total)
0.25 - 01:53, 01:53
0.50 - 01:51, 03:44
0.75 - 01:52, 05:36
1.00 - 02:15, 07:51
1.25 - 02:16, 10:07
1.50 - 02:15, 12:22
1.75 - 02:05, 14:27
2.00 - 01:57, 16:24
2.25 - 02:03, 18:27
2.50 - 02:08, 20:35
2.75 - 02:23, 22:58
3.00 - 01:50, 24:48
3.01 - 24:50

This race only registered 3.01 miles on my Garmin 305 GPS watch.

After the race, I ran with my son Dylan in a one mile fun run. One mile is way too much for him right now, but we finished. He received his second participation medal as a result. I really hope that in time he becomes involved with athletics in general.

Next Race: Sunday June14th- Orange Classic 10K in Middletown NY. This will be my first race where there is prize money to be won. The winner of this race gets $1500. This race draws runners from Kenya, Ethiopia, S. Africa. Unless a tornado claims the 256 runners likely to be ahead of me, it's safe to say I will not earn any taxable income from the proceeds of this race.
http://www.classic10k.com/index.htm