Bunny Dash 5k

This is the 3rd year my dad and I have run this race. It is always a good time. They have an Easter egg hunt for the kids and even a petting zoo.


pops pre-race

I had low expectations for this race since my training has been sparse for the last 3 months. Between Calculus, Biology, work and family I am lucky to run 3 times a week.

I had planned to run 8 minute miles for the race, just to take it easy. That did not work out, I ended up running the first mile in 7:15. I was surprised how good I felt. Maybe I had not lost as much fitness as I thought.


Last year it was raining and there were about 400 runners, today it was sunny and cool and about 500 runners.

For the 2nd mile I ran 7:03 and felt pretty good.


My dad finishing up his run. He ended up with about 30:30. Good for 6th in his age group.

My 3rd mile was 7:23, I was no longer feeling strong at this point. I ran hard to the finish and ended up with a time of 22:36. This is only 1:30 slower than my best time which is pretty darn good considering my lack of training.

Splits and map

Now the real fun starts-petting zoo, Easter egg hunt and Easter bunny picture.





Opening up all the eggs

After getting the kids as much candy as their baskets would hold I checked the results. Much to my surprise I came in 2nd in my age group. This was a total shock to me since normally a race of this size (800) has many people running sub 20:00. So we stuck around so I could get my medal. The medal this year is much nicer than the one from last year.

Hopefully next year I can be in better shape for this one, but if not, that's ok too. It will still be fun.

Grab Danville by the Balls!

We drove down on Friday, it took us over 4 hours because we stopped many many times. When we finally arrived at the Holiday Inn Express, we found a nice new hotel with a pool that looked like it had barely ever been used.

One of the stops we made was at Dick's sporting goods. I bought the kids a soccer ball and a indoor hockey set to play with in the hotel.

Friday night we took a swim and went to the Deluxe restaurant in Danville.

Jackie, Oliver and I at Danville's oldest and crappiest diner, the Deluxe.



Saturday we got up in morning and had a nice leisurely breakfast and then drove to the race at Kickapoo State Park. The park was about 17 minutes from our hotel, so we had plenty of time to get there.

On the recommendation of one of the other runners, post race we went to Jockos Pizza Inn. We also went to the pool Saturday afternoon for a nice post race soak in the hot tub.





Saturday night we went to a La Potocino for dinner. The food was pretty good, but we had to leave before we were ready because Oliver was not enjoying himself.


Sunday morning I got up early and drove back to Kickapoo to run the race course again. When I started, it was 4 degrees, coldy-wan-kenobi. It was nice to run on some legit trails for once. I am glad I made the effort to get up early because it was a beautiful morning and it is hard to find nice trails like this in the 'burbs.



When I got back to the hotel we hit the pool for the last time the ate some leftovers for lunch before heading back up north to the big city.

Siberian Express Trail run

Oliver was dressed just right for the 14*F run.



The race was a 7.45 mile trail in Kickapoo State Park in Illinois. This race takes place each January as part of a race series organized by the Kennekuk Road Runner's Club. They also do a race on this course every fall.


The trail is beautiful, this was the most fun race I have even been a part of.

The trail is rated "difficult" on some websites and I would have to concur. According to my pre-race intelligence, the second half of the race is more difficult than the first half. This being the case, I had planned to run the first half slightly more conservatively than the second half. I accomplished this inadvertently by starting in the back of the pack and slowly working my way forward to where I should be over the first 2 miles.



We arrived at the state park an hour before the race start. I picked up my number, no race packet, t-shirt, coupons. I liked this change of pace. I am not a fan of race expos and finisher medals, I like to keep things simple.

The start was at the top of a hill and proceeded to single track forest trails. This made it difficult to pass at all for the first mile, so I ran this first mile at 8:40, but I didn't care. The trail was so beautiful that it didn't matter if I came in last. I was just glad to be there.

The miles went by so fast:
Mile 1-8:41-----Stuck behind slow people, this cost me a shirt :(
Mile 2-7:43
Mile 3-7:38
Mile 4-7:22
Mile 5-9:06----Huge hill that everyone walked, so I had to walk
Mile 6-8:00----Stairway to seven
Mile 7-8:03----as you can see the 2nd half is a bit more difficult
last .45-4:08 (7:53 pace)

The stairway to seven is a hill that is so steep someone cut notches in it and installed wood planks to make it passable. Nice. Most of this race took place on some of the most beautifl single track I have seen since I lived in AZ



I took these 2 when I re-ran the course on Sunday.



I missed finishing in the top 50 men by about 45 seconds so I missed getting a free long sleeve shirt. But I got this nice schnazzzy fanny pack....



This is me at the finish

Year End Review

Races completed:

Round Lake 5k 21:44 AG award





Hawthorne Woods Half Marathon 1:43:28 AG award



Des Plaines River Half Marathon 1:39:40




Crazy Legs 8k 36:35 (Last year 40:35)



Bunny Dash 5k 21:30 AG award (Last year 26:04)





Soldier Field 10 1:21:29 (Last year 1:25:46)

Northshore Half Marathon 1:43:49




Grayslake 5k 21:10

Gurnee 10k ~48:00



Rally for Autism 5k 24:34

Milwaukee Marathon 3:56:45






Westfield Hawthorn 5k 21:12 (2nd in AG)last year 24:00






Total miles run:
1400

Total miles biked:
300ish

Shoes run in:
ASICS Gel Nimbus 11
ASICS Gel Nimbus 12
ASICS Gel Nimbus 13
Saucony Progrid Ride
Saucony Progrid Ride 2

Running related doctor visits-3

Classes taken:
General Chemistry I
General Chemistry II
Grades:A in both (of course)

Next up:
General Biology I
Calculus

I turned 30 this year and that has worked out pretty well for me.

Westfield Hawthorn Turkey day 5k

At the start it was a nice 35*F. Perfect weather for shorts as you can see above. These kids were in the front the whole time, as you might imagine.

This may be the first 5k I ran like an adult. My first mile was right on goal pace and my 2nd and 3rd mile were both under 7:00 min pace

Thanks to Terry and Pete for the photos, this one is at the start line with the high school kids. One of these guys won the 5k in 16 minutes and change.
Nice.




I ran hard and puked at the end. For all that effort I got a nice shiny medal for 2nd in my age group. I would have had first, but they used 10 year age groupings.

Here is a photo of the GRC crew pre-race



I woke up and had a good breakfast with coffee, picked up my dad and had a short warm up. I wanted to do a longer warm-up, but it didn't happen. I ran into Pete, Ricky, Terry and some other peeps from GRC. It is always nice to have friends there for encouragement and inspiration.

Mile 1-6:29
Mile 2-6:55
Mile 3-6:50
last.1-0:56



This means 21:12 for today. Not a PR, but I will take an age group award over a PR all day, any day. I find that most 5k I run tend to be a little short, usually by not more than .05. This one was long by .05, and I think that is how it should be. You can't run perfect tangents, so it seems to me that the route should always read a bit long according to the Garmin.



This is my 3rd Turkey Trot and my second time running this particular race. It is nice to know the course so you can mentally prepare yourself for what is to come. I hope to run this next year as well with an even faster time.

This is my dad at the finish



Some more from the race photo people:
This 1st one is right at the end, my face shows what is to come:puking

Some Perspctive on Milwaukee.

Now that I have had some time to think about my first marathon, I thought I would revisit the day. Since this blog is really just a public journal I wanted a little more detail for my future self to look back on.

Splits:
1- 08:09 I started out with the 3:40 group, so I don't know why this is fast
2- 07:43 Got sick of the pace group pretty quickly so I just ran what felt good
3- 08:05
4- 08:08
5- 08:04
6- 08:19
7- 08:05
8- 07:54 Somewhere in this area I was running next to a girl whose dad (I assume) was cheering her on-"looking good (girl's name) but try to pick it up." That gave everyone around us a good laugh.

9- 08:01
10- 08:01 I think I had some delicious sport beans here
11- 08:06
12- 08:11
13- 08:08 Half marathon split was a bit over 1:46, which was right on time, or so I thought

14- 08:04
15- 08:18
16- 08:25
17- 09:35 This was a little slower because I had to piss and I could not hold it any longer. No, I was not willing to piss on myself to save a minute.

18- 08:14
19- 08:42 This is where the knee pain set in, I was really hoping it would just go away

20- 09:08 Knee pain
21- 11:22 Took a couple Hammer gels the were handing out, that didn't help the knee, all miles after this I was using the tried and true run/walk method :(

22- 11:22 Stopped somewhere around here to stretch out the knee and legs a little, that didn't help either.

23- 12:03 I was really hurting here, it was really demoralizing "running" this slow. It also didn't help that I saw all my peeps pass me by around this time.

24- 10:41 At this point I knew I would finish under 4 hours by just walking it in and that gave me some energy to run this blazing 10:41

25- 12:08
26- 10:11 The spectators got thicker here and I think that helped, I could also see the finish area by now.

27- 09:21

During those last 5 or 6 miles I witnessed many people who looked much fitter than I dragging themselves along as I was. In the last mile there was a woman laying on the side of the sidewalk getting medical attention.

At mile 24-25 there was a guy limping along with his girlfriend yelling at him to run and pick it up. That was humorous and I don't think it was helping.

Now that I have had some time to think about it, I am somewhat glad I ran this the way I did. I tested myself, and that is what these races are all about. I could not hold my pace for the entire race, but I definitely gave it all I had.

I probably could have finished quite a bit faster if I would have run all 8:30s from the start. That would have put me around 3:45 and that would have been great, but I learned a lot from this and now I know what running a marathon really feels like.

I read a great quote regarding marathons-"Mile 20 is the halfway point." That really sums it up and I can relate to that after this one.

For my next marathon I will be better prepared to be sure. Good weekly volume has to be +40 for the whole cycle with a least a few weeks over 50 miles. For the near term I am really going to concentrate on speed. My number 1 goal going forward is a sub 20 minute 5k. #2 has to be a faster half. My 1:39 last spring is going down.

I need to be more consistent with speed work and tempo runs to accomplish these 2 goals, which should be doable now without the time consuming 20 milers. Of course, I have to wait for my knee to improve, I am still having some stiffness after 2 weeks.

Milwaukee Marathon

3:56:45


First of all, thanks to Lindsay for putting up with my training schedule this summer and fall. Between work, classes, photo shoot and running, it has been taxing on all of us. You are the best!

This is my first marathon. In preparation for this I started out on the Higdon Advanced I schedule, but that didn't work out well for me so after a few weeks I just ran what I felt like.

Here is my log

3 runs over 20 and a few in the high teens. The last 20 miler felt pretty good and I was finally feeling like I was ready for the marathon. I ran my long runs at about 9:00min/mi. which is about 45-60 seconds slower than my planned marathon pace. This seemed to work out well for me. I needed zero recovery time after my 20+ runs and I never got to the point of feeling burnt out.

On my last 20, I had some Sport Beans courtesy of Golden Legs. They were really good, so much better than any Gel I've had. So on the way up to Milwaukee, we stopped to get some from the Jelly Belly store.

Me as Linds was dropping me off



The race started great I ran a typical, if not slow, half for me of 1:46:32. So I was on perfect planned pace. I was feeling good, no surprises.

At a couple spots along the route, Mary, Trish, John and Greg were there with signs and everything. This was a great pick-me-up. That was really great to see some familiar faces cheering me on.

Thanks to Trish for this one:


Here is my Garmin data

As you can see, I was doing well until mile 18. That was when my left knee started to hurt. It was on the outside of my left knee, I was sure it would subside after another mile or so.......but it did not.

It got worse and worse.

At one point I actually stopped and sat in the grass on the side of the road and tried to stretch it out. That didn't work either.

I started having crazy thoughts: "I'll just call Lindsay at the next place I see and she can pick me up." or "I'll make it to 20. 20 is enough. 20 is plenty."

Those evil thoughts subsided and I just kept on truckin' slowly. I walked some during all of the last 6 miles. I think it is ITBS, I had a little problem with this during training, but nothing like this.

I realized at mile 24 that I could walk the rest and still be under 4 hours, and that made me really happy. Which then energized me a little bit.

I was very glad when it was all over. I got my medal and saw Linds and the kiddies and made my way around the crowd to meet up with them.

Kids awaiting my arrival


Here I am relieved to be finished


Cool shirt


2 Alieve and my legs hurt much less, but this is going to take some recovery.

Before this race I was supremely confident that I could run a 3:40, if not faster. That did not work out for me. I thought my training and nuitrition were good. The weather was awesome. The race was awesome, great scenery, great support and everything you could ask for.

What went wrong? Obviously the knee was my main problem. I swore I would not go out too fast and I didn't think I did, but I guess I was wrong.

As the great Lt. Gen. Douglas MacArthur said "I shall return"

Thanks for reading