I'm retired from racing. Really.

Marci and I ran to First Dam 10k together in Logan today.  It was her first ever 10k and she did it on very minimal training.  She won't write her own race report, so I'll write it for her.  Here it goes:

Today was my first 10k ever.  Jon and I dropped the kids by a friend's house and went out to the race.  We drove the Merlin Olsen and registered for the race.  We had 40 minutes to go and I was so bored.  Jon wanted to warm up with Cody but instead stayed with me- what a sweetie.  We ran a small warm up and stretched.  My only goal was to finish, but Jon was hoping I could break 1 hour.  

The race started.  We went pretty fast right from the start, especially supposing I have only run maybe 6 times in the past 6 weeks.  The first mile was 8:58 and I was already breathing pretty hard.  The next mile was about 9:30 and had the only big uphill of the race- I worked pretty hard up it and couldn't drink the water Jon was carrying for me until I could catch my breath- did I mention what a nice guy he is for carrying my water?  But he kept making me run the tangets for the curves- what a silly guy.  The next mile had some downhill and we did about 8:39.  I felt pretty good at this point so we picked up the pace and caught some people.  Mile 4 was 8:24 and I was really hurting and working hard- glad to only have 2 miles left.  Cody and Paul joined us at this point.  Mile 5 was 8:30 and I was exhausted.  In the last mile, Jon kept pointing out some people ahead and making me go catch them- I probably caught 6 people or so that mile.  Mile 6 was 8:22- my fastest mile in a very long time!  The guys kept making me run faster and faster, reaching 7:00 pace.  I thought I was going to die but somehow found the energy to keep moving.  A car almost ran over Jon, but Cody repeatedly beat on the hood and yelled at them.  I even had a great kick to the finish and caught more people.  The last .2 was 1:27 with a total chip time of 53:51 (8:41 avg). 

I crushed the goal Jon had set for me.  After the race I noticed my heel was all bloody from being rubbed raw on my shoe.  It had hurt the whole race but I am so tough I never mentioned anything to Jon and didn't let it slow me down.  My 5k PR of 26:00 was set earlier this year and is only 18 sec/mile faster than my 10k!

Ok, this is Jon again.  I am so proud of Marci- she really pushed herself and ran amazing.  She told me after that she didn't enjoy the race during the race- that is a good thing, cause it means she was working hard.  But she felt great afterwards and very proud of her effort.  With some real training she could do even more awesomely!  I bet she could break 47:00 or even 45:00!  Good job, babe, you did great for your first ever 10k!

Cheered for Joe, Cody, and Lisa with their prizes.  Also met Dave S and his son Melosh (Bryson) from the blog- Bryson got 2nd in his age group.  Nice job to all.

My slacker month is officially over.  I only ran 110 miles in October, much lower than my old low in April of 180 (when I was sick for half the month).  And almost half my miles were on trails in Oct!  But I am feeling much better and not burnt out anymore.

PM- It was a dark and stormy night... darn daylight savings!  I was planning to run on the treadmill watching MNF but Cody called so I went with him.  We ran into Joe (man, must be a small town!) a few miles into the run and convinced him to run with us.  Ran thru Providence, River Heights, and up to campus.  Cody dropped me off near home but I decided to circle around some to get 9 miles.  Just over 64 minutes.

PM- 8 miles.

PM- 7 miles.

I realized today that, other than Saturdays, I won't run in sunlight until March or so.  5 months of darkness!  I might as well move to Alaska.

I was looking at the La Sportiva Mountain Cup trail racing page today and found a cool picture.  It is of the top 500 m of the mountain climb at Jupiter Steeplechase I ran in August.  I estimated to climb to be 35-45% grade.  Take a look at the picture and see if you can identify where I am (it should be very easy if you know anything about me).  Just for reference, you can see the first place runner about 2/3 of the way up the mountain... and that is 5 minutes ahead of me.  It was about a 10-12 minute climb.

PM- I convinced Cody last minute to go running with me.  I had to drop my car off at the shop near the airport, then we worked our way over to 1200 E, thru USU campus, then eventually home.  I rediscovered how hard it is to run a fast pace in the dark.  9 miles. 

I found some videos this week of some races I ran this year. Very fun races in Park City. Some of you may enjoy these clips. If anyone wants to run them with me next year, let me know.

The first one is from the Mid Mountain Marathon and has several good green short views, plus an interview of someone you guys might recognize.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JZT5kITnKTc

The second one is from another the Jupiter Steeplechase, the race with the picture from yesterday's post. The winner, who is one of the best trail runners in the country, says it was one of the steepest hills he has ever climbed.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0T8Otb9xZY8

AM- Met Joe at the start of the canal and ran with him up the canyon to the Logan River trail where we met Paul.  Cody was a no-show.  Then we ran up almost to Guinavah Malibu campground, then back down.  I talked Paul's and Joe's ears off the whole way.  About 30 deg, nice day for a run- very peaceful feeling with most the leaves scattered about the ground.  Very few people on the trail.  Easy pace, about 15 miles, 1:59:27.

8 miles, 1 at 6:30 pace, 1 at 6:00 pace.  My fastest miles since SGM.

PM- 10 miles.  5 miles at 7:00 pace, then I decided I couldn't let Cody's morning run be faster than mine.  So I did two 6:30 miles followed by two 6:00 miles.  Felt good.  10 miles total, 1:08:00, 6:48. 

PM- 8 easy miles, 3 bathroom breaks.  Just one of those days. 

PM- I'm doing a Thanksgiving 10k and haven't done anything faster than 6:00 pace since SGM, so I figured I should do a little workout today.  The plan was 2 miles warmup, 2 miles tinman tempo, 3x800 m w/ 200m rest, then run home.  I met Paul at planet walk.  We started talking about football so much that we completely forgot to start the tempo till we were .5 mile from the track, so we did a very mini-tempo.  For the repeats, I simply wanted to be sub-6:00 pace and to get faster with each one.  They were rather slow, due to my easy goals plus lack of warmup.  First one was ~2:55 (no official time), then 2:54, then 2:53.  We were carrying on a very regular conversation the whole time, so weren't really working hard, though we were breathing a bit.  The next two were both 2:49 and still weren't too hard.  On the last one, we started off quicker and Paul really picked up the pace with 300 m to go.  He ran 2:34, I ran 2:38.  Felt good and pretty fast, but not strained at all.  Ran Paul home, then wound my way home.  Total was about 10 miles, 1:08:34.

Mission accomplished for the workout- just tried to pick up the pace and keep my legs fresh for my 10k.

AM- Semi-long run.  Ran from First Dam up the windy Logan Canyon to the start of the singletrack on the river trail with Cody and Lisa, then back to the car.  Then Paul and Joe joined us and we ran up the hilly Bonneville Shoreline trail and most of the way up Green Canyon.  I gave Paul and Lisa a hard time because they had never ran on the new singletrack that is 2 years old.  Very good run today with a good group- fun and nice to still be running on great trails this late in the year.  No snow on the trails yet.  It's nice that the Logan running group is growing again.  Although I worry about the mental state of a few of them-- they seem to have some abnormal (unhealthy?) infatuation with waving their arms in the air and screaming like girls when they run fast.  16 miles, 2:08.

Now it's off to Florida for a week where the weather will be warmer but I will have very little time for running.

AM- 5 easy miles in Idaho Falls. Good to be running again after my lost week.

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!

AM- nice 6 AM (???- whose idea was that) run with Jeff and Lynette in IF.  Nice morning, not too cold, almost no traffic.  Fun times, other than some stomach issues I kept having.  Now it's time for football and food and family!

6.5 miles with Jeff, Ali, and Dan S around the IF greenbelt.  Good company, good run.  A bit more windy and wintery looking today (is that a word?).  My legs were a bit sore today and I could not figure out why... until I remembered my 2 hour turkey bowl yesterday.