Conditions: low 60s, drizzly, overcast morning. Perfect conditions for a PR!!!
The course was pretty flat, no major hills to climb that take your legs away. It was a two loop course. There were no mileage points on the course. They were two water stations, I guess spread out about 2 miles apart.
I only ran 5 miles the week before and had put in 9 miles previous to Saturday this week so I didn't know what to expect although my Tuesday run of 5 miles was run at a 7:46 pace.
I remembered to double knot my shoes!!! A friend from my running club got me on base and told me he was going to run with me - I told him I was concerned that I would hold him back. Anyway the race starts and he takes off and I let him go since I made the mistake at my first half marathon of trying to run with someone faster than me.
About a mile and half into the run my bladder is crying to be relieved, well what do you know there were no facilities on the course except at the start/finish area!! I reach the first aid station in about 17 minutes, but declined any fluid as I am feeling prenty good. The weather is cool and the drizzle keeps me from heating up. Which is a good thing cause I wilt in the heat and humidity. The second aid rolls around 16 minutes later and I decide to drink some Gatorade. Well it was like syrup!! I took about two sips and dropped the rest. It was pretty sweet. About six minutes later I am really laboring - my body is saying slow down I can't take this pace!! I figure I have about 12-15 minutes back to start area and tell myself that you can hang on for that long and then you can take a break since I was going to have to stop to empty the bladder. I get back to the S/F area in 12 minutes - first half of the race in 52:46.
I run into the bathroom to take care of the bladder. When I exited the facility there was someone singing the the National Anthem and everyone was standing at attention. So I figured it would be in bad taste if I just took off. So I waited it out, it only delayed me a little bit and the delay probably did me good by dropping my heartrate. I was in the S/F area for about 2 minutes and then I started on my second loop.
The legs felt fine but the lungs where hurting - I told myself you can survive between the aid stations. Just keep going and when you get to the aid stations you can walk, drink your water then get your butt in gear!! So that was the plan for the second loop and I guess I did it fairly well as my second loop time was about a little more than a minute slower than the first lap - 53:52.
Total time was 1:48:26 a new personal record!!!
I guess the next goal will be 1:44:35, which would make my splits 7:59.
Wednesday, May 23, 2007
Tuesday, May 22, 2007
Me
It was back in '05 that I noticed the scale was tipping close to 280+. So I finally decided to do something about it. I was still active within recreation sports, ie soccer and basketball, but was easily winded.
I decided to join a Wellness Center and try to follow the Abs diet. While I had some success but it wasn't as easy as the book stated. January of 2006 my company decided to have a biggest loser contest I weighed in at 260 pounds, by March I was down to 230 but sitting in fourth place as it based on calculation of percentage weight loss.
The guy leading was walking two miles a day, so I figured if he is walking two miles if I start running four miles the pounds will fall off. That didn't work, but I found something I enjoyed doing. The contest ended in June and I finished in fourth. Oh well, I found a healthy lifestyle. I figured I needed something to keep me motivated, so I signed up for a Half Marathon to take place in November.
I found a training plan on Runner's World, that was pretty aggresive. Helped me run a 22:50 5K at the local Susan G Komen that was pretty much on cruise control. But when it came time to run the actual half it was a learning experience to say the least as I hit the wall after mile 7. I more or less walked to the finish line in 2:03, but I learned that you have to fuel the body before you run and though you hydrate the day before it's a good thing to drink before the race too!!!
Well since that training was out of the way I started attending spinning classes at Wellness while still running 20-30 miles a week. I really enjoyed the classes and I longed to buy a true bike and get on the road, however, the wife balked at the cost of an entry level road bike. Well she received an email asking for donations from a friend who signed up for 70.3 mile triathalon through Team in Training. I was so jealous that she had bought a bike. I went looking again hoping that perhaps the prices had miraculously had dropped.
We went to visit her friend, who is stationed in Colorado Springs area, in March. Her friend needed some adjustments done on her bike. The wife went with her friend and eyeballed bikes and found some that were on sale. So the day before we came home we went and checked it out, but lo and behold that didn't have the proper frame size. Since she was so gung ho about buying I went to the local LBS to check their prices. They didn't have last years model so they were $100 more and of course they didn't have my frame size. Well about two weeks later I received a promotion, so we traveled down to Dallas to look for a bike as we saw a bike shop had the 05 Trek 1500 on sale for the price of the new 1000s on the internet. Well they didn't have those anymore, I had just about convinced to come back home and order from the local LBS. I told her where there were no bike shops around, but then she took a look at the list we had from the internet. I had never seen her so determined to buy something, normally she's a wait and see if the price comes down!! So we finally found the bike shop and it was actually $60 cheaper than back home.
So since the last week in March I have had a bike. My running mileage has decreased drastically but my riding mileage, well there was nowhere to go but up!!! I currently run twice a week with the local runner's club and ride on two group rides at the LBS if it's not raining then it's off to the gym for spinning. The weekends use to be my long run days, but now I jump on my bike.
I decided to join a Wellness Center and try to follow the Abs diet. While I had some success but it wasn't as easy as the book stated. January of 2006 my company decided to have a biggest loser contest I weighed in at 260 pounds, by March I was down to 230 but sitting in fourth place as it based on calculation of percentage weight loss.
The guy leading was walking two miles a day, so I figured if he is walking two miles if I start running four miles the pounds will fall off. That didn't work, but I found something I enjoyed doing. The contest ended in June and I finished in fourth. Oh well, I found a healthy lifestyle. I figured I needed something to keep me motivated, so I signed up for a Half Marathon to take place in November.
I found a training plan on Runner's World, that was pretty aggresive. Helped me run a 22:50 5K at the local Susan G Komen that was pretty much on cruise control. But when it came time to run the actual half it was a learning experience to say the least as I hit the wall after mile 7. I more or less walked to the finish line in 2:03, but I learned that you have to fuel the body before you run and though you hydrate the day before it's a good thing to drink before the race too!!!
Well since that training was out of the way I started attending spinning classes at Wellness while still running 20-30 miles a week. I really enjoyed the classes and I longed to buy a true bike and get on the road, however, the wife balked at the cost of an entry level road bike. Well she received an email asking for donations from a friend who signed up for 70.3 mile triathalon through Team in Training. I was so jealous that she had bought a bike. I went looking again hoping that perhaps the prices had miraculously had dropped.
We went to visit her friend, who is stationed in Colorado Springs area, in March. Her friend needed some adjustments done on her bike. The wife went with her friend and eyeballed bikes and found some that were on sale. So the day before we came home we went and checked it out, but lo and behold that didn't have the proper frame size. Since she was so gung ho about buying I went to the local LBS to check their prices. They didn't have last years model so they were $100 more and of course they didn't have my frame size. Well about two weeks later I received a promotion, so we traveled down to Dallas to look for a bike as we saw a bike shop had the 05 Trek 1500 on sale for the price of the new 1000s on the internet. Well they didn't have those anymore, I had just about convinced to come back home and order from the local LBS. I told her where there were no bike shops around, but then she took a look at the list we had from the internet. I had never seen her so determined to buy something, normally she's a wait and see if the price comes down!! So we finally found the bike shop and it was actually $60 cheaper than back home.
So since the last week in March I have had a bike. My running mileage has decreased drastically but my riding mileage, well there was nowhere to go but up!!! I currently run twice a week with the local runner's club and ride on two group rides at the LBS if it's not raining then it's off to the gym for spinning. The weekends use to be my long run days, but now I jump on my bike.
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