I'm retired from racing. Really.

Milliken Earth Run 5k

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Location:

Greenville,SC,

Member Since:

Feb 24, 2007

Gender:

Male

Goal Type:

Other

Running Accomplishments:

I also maintain a blogspot running blog. Check it out. 

5k- 16:01, 1/2 marathon- 1:11:37, marathon- 2:34:16, 50k- 3:58, 100 mile- 15:19

Former World Record holder in 100 x 5k relay 

Ultra history:

8-100 mile, 1-100k, 9-50 mile, 2-40 mile, 14-50k-ish

12 wins, 5 CR's, plus four 2nd, five 3rd, 4th, 4th, 5th, 5th, 9th, 16th, 20th, 28th, 38th, and 62nd place, with 1 DNF 

Short-Term Running Goals:

Goals 

Enjoy running, stay fit (and maybe lose a few pounds). Play ultimate frisbee.

4 year coach of Langston Middle School- love it

Long-Term Running Goals:

Unretire at some point

Run a sub-6 hr 50 miler

Win a 100 mile ultramarathon

Personal:

I have five cute kids. And I have some rockin short green racing shorts- I wear them mainly because it embarrasses my wife so much. I like ultimate frisbee, trail running, reading, and cheering for the Denver Broncos!   And I have the absolute best wife in the world.  And I used to run for the now-disbanded national Team Pearl Izumi- Ultra!

Favorite Blogs:

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Miles:This week: 7.00 Month: 43.00 Year: 198.50
Fastwitch Lifetime Miles: 82.50
Trail N1 Lifetime Miles: 86.50
Road N1 Lifetime Miles: 31.00
Trail M2 Lime/black Lifetime Miles: 297.00
Road M3 Grey And Yellow Lifetime Miles: 324.00
Road N2 Purple 2 Lifetime Miles: 222.50
Road N2 4 Grey Lifetime Miles: 59.00
Race: Milliken Earth Run 5k (3.1 Miles) 00:17:22, Place overall: 3
Easy MilesMarathon Pace MilesThreshold MilesVO2 Max MilesCrosstraining milesTotal Miles
4.900.000.003.100.008.00

AM- Today was the second in the Greenville Corporate Shield races- the Milliken Earth Run 5k.  I was looking forward to this one because it is a cross-country race, run around the grass/fields of their campus.

I felt my training had been going well but was worried because of my very long, tiring day yesterday, combined with only a few hours sleep (I love it when you are exhausted but still wake up at 4 am).  Plus I had to dig around tons of boxes to find my racing gear.  I never found my race shoes, so made due with a trail pair.  Ran 3 miles warmup.  The course looked great, to me.  It was rolling hills over mowed fields/weeds/grass.  Very lumpy, bumpy, and rooty- not a fast course.  The course had lots of small rollers with lots of twists and turns.  My legs unsurprisingly felt dead during the warmup.  Temps were a bit warm, in the low 60's, with a high later that day of 84.

Lined up with the ~500 competitors near some of my coworkers- it was a true cross-country style start, with the runners lined up all along a 100-yard starting line, then funneling down to a 10 ft wide mowed section a few hundred yards later.  I found myself in 4th place by the half mile mark after having to pass the typical people who started way too fast (maybe I'm biased, but I automatically assume I will beat anyone wearing an iPod on an armband who is ahead of my 50 yards into the race- anyone else feel that way?).  The course was definitely slow due to very uneven footing throughout, though I always think those rough courses work to my strengths.

Mile 1 was 5:24- I was 15 sec back from the 2 leaders and 4 sec back from 3rd place, with someone 4 sec back from me (it's easy to tell when the RD reading times only calls out numbers when people go by).  My initial energy/adrenaline from the start was gone, and I started to draw on my training miles to sustain and push myself.  I caught up to 3rd place (who ended up being a co-worker Tim Hawkins, though he wasn't wearing a GE shirt) and put in a mini-surge to put a few seconds on him around the halfway mark.  He surged back a minute later, but then I passed him again just after mile 2, which was a 5:55 (note- mile 2 was about the same difficulty as the rest, but all the runners had it 30-40 seconds slower... so we are calling it long).  I pushed harder and harder to put some distance on him, especially up the biggest hill of the race leading up to mile 3.  Mile 3 was a 5:25, which was great considering the climb.  Finished the .1 in 36 sec for a total time of 17:22.  Winning time was 16:49, second place was Jim Harper, my coworker who recently ran a sub-34 10k.  Tim finished 15 seconds behind me (he beat me by 18 sec in the Jan 5k).  I would say the race went well, despite tired legs, and was satisfied.  The general consensus was that the course was ~30 seconds long in mile 2, plus slow.  I'm guessing I could set my road 5k PR right now, if I wanted.

At the finish, my old running teammate from college cross country at Mines, Grant Scott, recognized me and we spent quite a while talking and catching up.  It was great to see him, and very surprising- he is here on short-term assignment from St. Louis, but will likely be back occasionally.  That was a nice surprise.  Finished with 2 miles cooldown, watched the awards ceremony (GE swept top 3 team places in the open division), then spent the rest of the day unpacking boxes and fighting with AT&T to figure out why my DSL is not on- despite ~8 phone calls and many hours on hold as I got tossed between sales, technical support, and service, it appears last night that they somehow completed my transfer of service to NO new address.  In other words, no internet and no timeline for when I will get it (hence this late post).  Grrr- I definitely have not been impressed with AT&T's ability to properly turn on or transfer service and would not recommend them.

High mileage week for the year so far, with plans to continue building.  Next week features the unofficial Bad Creek 50k (a race that didn't get approved for environmental reasons) with ~15 other runners in the remote mountains between NC and SC.  Having a long Sat run of 33 miles will make it much easier to get my mileage than this week when I crammed 70 miles into 4 days.  Now I better head home- I posted this sitting in a parking lot, using the wi-fi of a nearby coffee shop!  I definitely hate not having internet and not knowing what is happening in the world (i.e. apparently BYU won, Pitt lost, we are now bombing Libya, and I have dozens of waiting emails).

NB 769 3 Miles: 8.00
Weight: 0.00
Comments
From Rob Murphy on Sun, Mar 20, 2011 at 21:42:24 from 24.10.248.6

Great "small world" story and it sounds like a great race.

You are demonstrating some impressive range! That is a really nice 5k time considering the week you had.

From Jon on Mon, Mar 21, 2011 at 22:06:54 from 74.167.72.2

Thanks, Rob.

From steve ash on Mon, Mar 21, 2011 at 22:09:34 from 67.166.103.179

Some days just don't add up in your favor sometimes I guess. I have had my share for sure.. I ditto Rob on the above also. It will be just a matter of time for a pr especially with the strength you have developed with running off the roads.

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