Quintiles Marathon at Wrightsville Beach

Things I hate about races:

- People cheering, saying you look great when clearly you're beat down and your race is over.

- Girl power. Unless it's an all chick race, I don't want to hear "GO GIRL!"

- Race directors with a megaphone.

- Phrases like, "Well, at least you finished. I mean, that's huge."

All of these chapped my rear end this morning. I knew I wasn't going to have a pretty race. Aside from being in the midst of a deployment work up, which allows for no training time, I'm also straight off two weeks in the field. However, like Pat told me, when has lack of training ever kept me from being stupid.

I held 7-min pace all the way to mile 16. Then the quads, which were now cramping badly, finally had enough. I was able to gut it out to mile 21 where I promptly headed to my car, wounded pride in tow.

No big deal, though. Like I said, lack of training, I knew it was going to be stupid, and when have I ever done well in a marathon. Expectations weren't that real high to begin. Local 5k this weekend. Party.

Run hard.

Run for Ray 13.1

For my birthday I convinced my roomates to run in a half marathon. We showed up to the start a half hour early only to find that the directors had moved the race 30 miles south. Fortunately, they also pushed the start time back two hours. So after we registered, we air guitared in the parking lot until the gun went off.

I ran 1:36 and grabbed third overall. I was fighting for first until the last lap (3 laps total) and then the legs just didn't have any more in them. I fell twice pretty hard, but no permanent damage. Just tuck and roll, baby.

Trail running is still relatively new for me, so I don't know how fast 1:36 is really. But I did get to meet Tony Hawk. Apparently he lives in the area and the race director knew him. So he and his wife were there signing skateboards. Quintiles Marathon at Wrightsville Beach, March 21st.

Run hard.

Odyssey Trail 40-Miler

This race is a 13.1 mile three loop course that runs through Douthat State Park in Covington, VA. An absolutely gorgeous run through the Shenandoah foothills. The first three miles are straight up the side of a mountain. Our elevation gain was 2400 feet and pretty much you had to walk. Coming down the backside was where you made up for lost time. It basically amounted to a controlled fall.

I made it through the first lap no problem. The second lap, I made it back up the mountain and had started down. About halfway down I lost my footing and rolled 10-15 ft, destroying my legs. I smoked my left knee and the muscles in both legs instantly seized up. I got up and kept pushing, but by the time I finished the second loop I was toasted. I DNF'd at 26.2 miles and headed for home with bloody knees and bruised pride.

It's never fun DNF'ing, but at least I'm not doing it just because I don't like running. After wasting my lower-half, I knew I could keep pushing. The risk was that I begin the IOC in less than two weeks. This race wasn't worth it.

Run hard.

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.

Crystal City Twilighter 5K

Showing up late to races is apparently my style. I thought that maybe there'd be a hundred or so people doing this run, it's just a 5k after all. The numbered of registered runners was close to 3,000. Ridiculous. So while I was fighting to find somewhere to park, the gun was getting closer and closer to going off.

I did make it, but may as well haven't. It was a terrible race. A huge thunderstorm rolled in as it was starting, which actually wasn't so bad. I came out too hard. First mile was close to 5 flat. Second mile was close to 5:20. After that I fell off significantly. Something went wrong somewhere in the race. Either the course was long, or the clock was off, or something. The time on my watch and the race time were about a minute apart. Neither time was very good, however. It was one of those races where afterwards I was embarrassed to call myself a runner.

So now I'm redoubling my efforts to get in 5k shape. I came to the decision this month that I want to aim for the 2012 Olympics in the triathlon. This is my first stepping stone.

Run hard.