Star Hill Half Marathon

Pat and I drove to St. Francisville early this morning to run the Star Hill course. The weather was great and really enjoyed getting back to "Louisiana hills."

I'm smoked right now. I've been running the LSU lakes incessantly and it's finally catching up to me. I just want to get in as much as I can before I peace out again. I was suppose to run in the BREC Zoo 5k tomorrow morning, but I may benefit more by taking it easy. Plus I need to go see Inglorious Basterds with Paul.

Run hard.

Hartwood 10 Miler

Saturday night, before the race, Deanna and I went up to DC to see a Nationals ballgame. A crazy rain storm, however, pushed back the start an hour and a half....so we didn't end up back in Stafford until about two AM. I needed to be up at 5:30 to get to registration at six. So I had about two to three hours of rest for this run. My only goal was to keep it under seven min/mile.

For once I didn't come out too hard. I knew what pace I wanted, found someone moving about that speed, and paced them out. I did start to feel it a little after the half-way point, but still finished relatively strong. I grabbed third in the age group and got a $10 gift certificate to VA Runner. Final time was 1:07:47 with a 6:47 pace.

Looking forward to getting back to BR for a couple weeks and doing some running on the lakes and with ole' boy Pat.

Run hard.

Dahlgren Trail 50k

It's important to preface this entry by letting you know that I didn't find out/sign up for this race until about a week and a half before it was scheduled. The negatives may have outweighed the positives, but I figured "eh, what the hell, its just 32 miles" and signed up.

Mother Nature couldn't have cooperated better. I was really worried it was going to be a scorcher, but the sky was overcast all day and stayed in the high 70's. I actually had the heat on in the car before the race.

I came out with the lead group (me and two other guys) and we were moving fast....too fast. The trail narrowed at one point and I knew that in order to stay on the course I was going to have to either sprint ahead or fall back. I decided to sprint ahead 5-10 feet and then fell back to our normal pace. Problem was, when I looked back, the other two guys were dropping off. I didn't think I was moving that fast until a few miles later when I checked behind me. I was all alone. That's when I realized I might be in a position I really didn't want.

I was in the lead up until the 15 mile marker. At the turn-around (mile 20) I was in fourth place. Then I bonked and gradually drifted. I finished in 5:23 and grabbed 11th place. That time isn't great, but remember the preface...

Run hard.