A look back at '07

While December has been frustrating with being sick and then an injury, I'm not about to let that take away from an awesome 2007. The obvious accomplishment comes from finishing my first marathon in November, which is the whole reason for actually having a blog.

Before my blogging days began in April, I set a PR in a half marathon at the Shamrock Half Marathon in March. My chip time was 1:44:23, just under my goal of 1:45. That race made me really like half marathons a lot. With my foot issues now, it's tough to set a goal for the 2008 race, but I'd really like to beat that time. I set the bar high for myself with that race last year, but I know I can be faster.

This year has also been a great year with my 5ks. Coming into the year, my fastest 5k was 23:49, which was also my only time under 24 minutes. I broke that time twice -- in June I did a 5k in 23:03 and in July I broke the 23-minute barrier with a 5k in 22:42, "winning" my age group. (I was the only one in my age group that race.)

I saw set a PR in the mile (6:26) and 5 miler (36:59), although those two distances are very hard to find in races. I struggled though the extremely cross-country style James River Xterra 10k in May, and then had serious doubts about long distances by running a 30k in October.

I finished the year with 960 miles, well short of 1,000 miles, but much farther than I've ever gone before. I didn't start logging miles until the end of last year -- it was always time ran before that, but I know I haven't ran this much in a year. Despite a bad December, I'll take an average of 80 miles a month.

I've accomplished more this year in running since I started running again in 2004. It'll be a year I'll never forget, mostly thanks to the marathon.

As for 2008, I'm starting the year by giving my heel some rest. After I de-Christmas my house and get the boxes out of my way, I'll be doing some weight-training beginning this week. I'll probably hold off on running for just a few more days so I can heal my heel. The end of this year has become a lot like last year -- I think I want to get through the winter/early spring before making decisions on another "big" race. I definitely have the urge to do another marathon, but I don't want to stay hurt either.

Happy New Year everybody!!

"Challenging, but rewarding"

The closer I get to the marathon, the more I realize how happy I will be to say I finished. It's more than many people can say in their lives. This being my first marathon, I keep telling myself to not get carried away with time - just go out and finish it.

Today was the 30k I've been writing about coming up. Little did I know, this was an all-out cross country style race. The course description on the Richmond Road Runners' Web site was as follows: "These races will be run on the roads and trails of Pocahontas State Park in Chesterfield. ... This event is an ideal training run for the Richmond Marathon. The course is challenging but rewarding." Sounds to me like this would be 50/50 or 60/40 trail and roads. Uh, no. I would say MAYBE three miles of this race was on roads, which included a hill much worse than the one in Riverside Park in the Virginia Ten Miler. And we had to run that hill three times (well, actually, six if you count three times down, three times up).

So, let me cut to the chase. My time was an abysmal 3:27:57. It was hot. It's October and Richmond's highs today were forecast to hit the low 90s -- and it looks like this will continue for two more days. (According to Weather Underground, Richmond was 2 degrees short of a record high today.) I saw people out there clearly in much better shape than me reduced to looking like they've never ran before. The course was three of the exact same laps through Pocahontas State Park, the largest state park in Virginia. On top of being a very inexperienced trail runner, I completely dislike repetition. Out-and-back courses are fine. More than two loops? Boring. This reminded me of running a 5k on a track back in June -- no matter what you do, it feels like you're going nowhere.

On to the race ... since I knew it was going to be hot, I threw out any ideas of trying to go faster than usual or setting a goal time. I initially used this race to be a practice of what I'd do in the marathon. I wanted the first lap to be slow -- everyone who has ran a marathon has told me to go out slow. It seemed everyone else had the exact same idea. Plus I had NO IDEA what this course was going to be like, so I wanted to take it all in the first loop. Then I practiced what most everybody else has said -- walk through the water stops. I did this at every water stop. I did the first lap in just over an hour. For the second lap, I decided to pick up the pace a little bit, but about halfway through is when the heat started letting loose. Second lap was about the same as the first. Third lap ... I was reduced to walking. Initially, I just said the hell with it and walked for about two minutes. My knees were hurting, my back was aching and, like I've already said, it was freakin' hot. Then I got into a pretty good routine of running for four minutes, walking for one. After a little bit of that, the downhills became unbearable, so I actually ran the uphills fairly hard, then walked the downhills. Opposite of what some people do, but the downhills were too much for my body to deal with. When I walked, I was pretty much speed walking, probably actually burning more calories than I would have had I sluggishly ran. Walking also prevented me from possibly injuring myself -- something that I don't need right now.

Today was a test of endurance, and I realized that if I wanted to be good at a race like this, I have to move to the trails. Today was either a gradual up/down hill or a steep up/down hill -- there was nothing flat. There was running on regular gravel, sandy soil, grass, fallen pine needles, narrow passages, over the same exact bridge six times, and, like I said, a very little bit of pavement. Back in June with the Xterra James River Scramble, I realized I don't like trail races. Some people love running on trails and doing cross country races, but it's not for me. Will I do this race again? Actually, for reasons other than the trail, I probably won't. I'd rather not get into too much, but I don't appreciate one person yelling at a few hundred people about not wearing headphones (can't that be put on a Web site, an entry form and signs - not a five minute speech), and then another person treating us like a bunch of chatty fifth-graders ("I'm a teacher so I'll wait until you're all done talking."). I'll leave it at that.

So back to the race description. This was certainly challenging ... it's by far the hardest thing I've ever done (No. 1, this race; No. 2, the scramble; No. 3, my first cross country race with the Apple Valley 5K in Bedford). Twenty degrees cooler certainly would have made a huge difference. Rewarding? While my body is still screaming at me for today's abuse, like someone else said on the course today: this is going to make the marathon seem easy. I don't care about my time - I'm happy with finishing such a grueling course. Like a marathon, not many people can say they finished a 30k. So, not only being rewarding from a physical standpoint, this event also was rewarding from a mental standpoint.

The race with an asterisk

The Xterra James River Scramble 10K is the most challenging race I've ever done. In three years of doing races, I've never finished a race and said, "That was the hardest race I've ever done," until this past Saturday. I've race some challenging races, but nothing so far had fallen into that "hardest ever" category.

Two days later it's still hard to put into words what it was like to run up steps, run through weeds, run over rocks, climb up a small ladder, jump over water and still finish in less than an hour. Race wise, this will go down as my slowest pace ever (57:07, click here for results by gender), but I think the same can be said for everyone there. It wasn't meant to be a race against time - it's more a test to see what your body can actually handle in 6.2 miles.

The race was broken up into four heats. I was in the first heat with a predicted time of just under 50 minutes. To be in the first heat, predicted times had to be less than 50 minutes. Well, only 116 runners out of nearly 1,100 actually finished in 50 minutes or less. To realize two days later that I still finished in the top third of the field is very satisfying. I am still sticking to my statement after the race though that this was a bad race, but a hell of a workout. It's tough to "race" when you have to actually stop and wait to climb up steps and jump over rocks. I'd say that total stop time was 2 or 3 minutes.

On paper, this will be the worst race I hope I'll ever do, but physically I learned a lot about myself and realized that there are many more challenges out there for me. It was a perfect springboard to have better 5K times and to get me even more motivated for the Richmond Marathon.

The summer lineup

With knowing that I'll be training for a marathon from mid-summer to mid-fall, races this summer will take on a while new meaning. While I'll be looking to set some personal records, how I run and how I feel afterward are more important to me. I'm looking at this summer's races more in the sense of having a solid workout each time.

So that being said, here's a look at races around the area that I plan on doing:
* June 16, James River Scramble in Richmond. This is a 10K and my first time running this race.
* June 23, Presbyterian Homes 5K in Lynchburg. Despite running races for nearly three years, I've never done this race. The past two years I've been on a mini-Dave Matthews Band tour in Hershey, Pa., and Northern Virginia. This also is my first time doing two races two weeks in a row. I'm not too worried about it, but will listen closely to my body after the 10K.
* July 4, the second annual Downtown Academy Mile. Last year's time was 7:11 and this year I hope to break 7 minutes. Last year at that time, I had no idea how to run something all out, but I've learned a lot in the past year.
* July 21, Percival's Island 5 Miler. This is a great, relatively flat race. At the same time it's a bit intimidating because you can see too far in front of you. Last year was the first time running this and I had a time of 41:07. This year I'm shooting to break the 8-minute mile pace and finish under 40 minutes. I'll have a better goal in mind when it gets closer, but realistically I should have a time under 38 minutes.
* Aug. 18 is the Lynchburg Half Marathon. I'll probably do this as a long run only. I said that last year and ran it too hard, but I've learned my lesson.
* Sept. 29 is the Virginia 10 Miler. I'll be running this again, but like the half marathon, I'll use this as a chance to do a long run with people around. I'd like to beat my time from last year of 1:23, but it's too far away to be worried about that right now.

So if you're feeling motivated, go sign up for a race. There's a complete listing of local races at Riverside Runners Web site.