So I ended up completing four of the five grand prix races and all the results are in.  I placed sixth in my age division with a point total of 2612 which Im pretty happy with.  Initially I was hoping to break the top 20, then it was the top 10 and I slowly inched up to sixth.  I finished 430 out of third place which is where the prizes ended and Im hoping I can break into that next year.  From what I can tell through looking at the finishes for the individual races, if I can pull seven minute miles I should be able to pick that up.

For Thanksgiving I did the Turkey Trot 10K held by Inside Out Sports in Cary.  Ive been waiting to post the results till I knew how I did officially.  I wasnt enthused about doing the race on race day.  When I woke up I didnt want to go, when I got there I didnt want to run, and after the first mile I wanted to stop.  Definitely not the mindset to have for a race.  The weather was cold and misty.   Not really sprinkling but definitely a humid mist that sticks to you.

The course was over several hills, you might remember that the 10K I did in Cary was also from Inside Out Sports.  The course didnt cover any of the same roads but still held the suprising hills that I dont normally relate when thinking of Cary.  The mile markers werent reliable so I wasnt able to keep track of my splits to see how I was progressing.  I kept my heart rate at about 170 the whole way but I could feel myself burning out mentally faster than my heart rate seemed to do.  At about the halfway mark I started being passed without being able to put up resistance to it.  I was pretty sure that my final time wasnt going to be good.  Especially when I got to the finish and again couldnt muster up a kick to finish out and pass anyone.  All I wanted to do was be done with the race and head home.

In the end my final time actually ended up being a tie with my personal best pace for races over 5K.  My pace per mile was 7:53 which tied the Old Reliable Run 10K a couple weeks earlier.  My overall time was 39:11 and placed me 149 out of 434 runners.  So while it was one of my faster times it was disappointingly average in comparison to the rest of the field that raced that day.

This was the final race of the Second Empire Grand Prix and Im sure locked up my top 10 spot for my age group.

Its been a while since I updated, I can tell cause those piece of **** spammers have registered a bunch of users on my message board again. Of course they are now deleted, they seem not to care that I disabled the website entry on the registrations which means they will get zero traffic by spamming my site. I guess its enough to be a harassment and annoyance since thats the only reason they exist anyway. Im not bitter, just wish every single spammer would get hit by a car, heal up, then get hit again perpetually till they die of old age.

I did the Old Reliable 10K Run for the second time in downtown Raleigh. I did this race last year with my friend Zack. It was his first organized run and I offered to do it with him to keep myself in shape after last years Ride for the Roses and not let myself fall too far out of shape for building up for this years ride. Since he had never run a distance like that before or a race we ran together with me pacing us by my heart rate monitor since we’re physically a similar shape. We did the whole race at 80% with me kicking up with about half a mile to go and passing about 30 people. Sounds impressive but when there are over a 1000 runners its not hard to do.

This year Zack planned on running it again and we met up at my place and headed down. It had been raining all morning but luckily finished up right before we headed out to the start. By race time it was just a mist but still fairly chilly. I let Zack know that i was going to try to push myself a bit so I’d meet him at the finish. We both planned on beating last years time.

I got out at a decent pace with my first mile around 7:42. The second I slowed up to around 8:30 and then was able to do negative splits the rest of the miles topping back out at slightly under 8 minutes a mile. The course has plenty of long gradual hills that make you ache and suffer the whole way up them. After reading some articles and talking with other runners I decided to try to peg my heart rate at about 85-90% of my max which basically had me running at right around 170bpm. That pace definitely made me suffer more than usual and thoughts of quitting weren’t hard to come by but luckily i didnt. I remembered the quote by Lance Armstrong I read at this years Livestrong Challenge about not remembering pain but never forgetting quitting. There was also a girl in front of me for a couple miles with a shirt that read “Running is a mental sport…cause we’re all crazy” which kept me going as well.

At the end I attempted to do a kick but couldnt even get one started. For the first time I found myself being passed at the finish and completely and utterly spent. Normally I can pick up a few spots in the last block or so but when I tried I couldnt even close the gap on people a few feet ahead so backed off. I was able to stretch out some and walked back a few blocks to run in with Zack to the finish to cool down.

Zack finished 53:48 at a pace of 8:43 and finished 452nd which was 2:59 seconds faster than last year and 54 seconds a mile faster on his pace. In the end my time was 48:37 at a pace of 7:53 a mile. Just like the Nike 5K the week before it was a new personal best for the distance. I was 241st out of 762 competitive runners and 20th out of 50 in my division. Last year I finished in 57:16 at a pace of 9:16 a mile. Then I was 672 out of 913 and cant find my division place. Overall a pretty good improvement. I shaved 8:39 seconds off my overall time and 1:23 off my pace per mile. I cant complain about those numbers at all. My goal next year is to crack the top 100.

So the trend of running continues as I did the Nike 5K here in Raleigh yesterday.  This was another race that was part of the Second Empire Grand Prix series and having finished it Ive now done the required three races.  Ill still be doing the Thanksgiving Turkey Trot 8K which is the last of the races since I wont be leaving town.  For the Nike 5K I set a PR (Personal Record) of 23:18 gun time and 23:07 chip time and 89th out of 236.  The race was pretty hilly and the first mile was a steep downhill section which put my first mile split at 7:01, which I was suprised by.  And yet again my heart rate monitor popped off, but this time I immediately ripped it off and carried it.  After I did that though the uphills kicked in and I felt like I was about to die.  I hadnt realized just how dependent I had become on the monitor but when its gone I feel like Im dieing which is probably completely mental.  I did the second mile split in 7:48 and I could feel myself slowing the whole way, I was even getting passed by one or two people which irritated me.

I hit a big wall after that because the whole course seemed as if it were a gradual uphill climb after that steep downhill start.  I wanted to quit pretty bad, more badly than I remember wanting to before but I latched on to a runner and paced the rest of the way in.  If I had been smarter I would’ve realized going down that hill meant going up that steep hill to the finish and I turned onto the road hating life.  I was passed at the bottom of the hill by a group of four and I though about kicking it to the finish but knew Id burn out too soon.  I let the group get about 10 feet ahead by the half of the hill and could hear the finish so said screw it and took off, which really meant a couple steps faster.  Either way I got past that group and saw one more runner I could catch before finishing so pushed myself too far yet again to the end but did manage to catch that last runner.

It did help that Ive been reading more about running, preparing, stretching, etc.  This race I did my normal set of stretches then did a warm up run as well as another set of stretches after warming up.  I read that a one degree celcius change in your muscle temp is a 13% increase in effeciency.  I made sure to eat in the morning as well which definitely helped in the long run, no pun intended.  We’ll see if the trend continues for the next couple races.  I have been following a training program for the past three weeks and that may be one reason for improvement but I havent seen much time improvement in the training runs.  I think the downhill mile is what set the record more than preparation this time around.

A little late in writing about the Inside-Out Sports Classic 10K from Sunday morning but I was waiting to see if the organizers found my time, which they unfortunately didnt.  Somehow my timing chip malfunctioned or was lost in the system, I was contacted today by the race officials for my estimated time which I figure to be somewhere between 48 and 50 minutes.  Like always I sprinted to the end and spent a minute or so catching my breath and drinking a water.  I was so out of it at the finish I didnt even notice if they had a finish clock and used my heart rate monitor timer.

It was pretty cold in the morning and I actually was smart enough to take the free long-sleeve shirt they gave me and put it on under my running shirt.  With no wind it felt like I could get away with short sleeves until I was actually out there walking around a few minutes.  The half-marathoners started out first with the 10K going about 15 minutes later.  I looked for my friend Adam Perez who had said he was doing the race also but never found him.  The race started out up a hill and should’ve been a warning of what was to come as after we crested that hill we begin a steady downhill run till about the second mile.  After the second mile or so the course changed into steep rolling hills, hills I hadnt realized were in Cary.  It was a constant up and down for the next three miles.  I kept myself paced by my heart rate monitor keeping it right around 80% of my threshold.  Since I hadnt trained up enough I figured I wouldnt push myself too hard.

Right after the first mile the rain also set in, a steady cold drizzle that when combined with the already cold temperatures made things a bit miserable.  With the running i wasnt shaking or anything but was definitely chilled but the constant movement kept me from being completely frozen.  I stopped only once to drink a gatorade at the last water station walking breifly before picking the pace back up.  There was an older gentleman that I would pass and then would pass me on the hills.  At some point I decided he was the one I wanted to finish ahead of even though for the last mile in I was pushing my heart rate way up.  It didnt help that the entire last mile was uphill without even a false flat to fool you into thinking it was ending.

With a half mile to go my heart rate monitor strap popped loose which drove me nuts.  I kept running and trying to fix it for a block or two before finally pulling it out from under my shirt and carrying it.  In that interim I lost the guy I wanted to beat as he was gaining ground steadily while I was goofing with my strap.  We made the final turn onto Cary Parkway which was a bit steeper than the previous section and I could see the CVS where the finish line was.  I didnt think I had anything in the tank but when I saw the line I was able to pick up the pace considerably.  It definitely helped my monitor was now useless cause it probably would’ve been going nuts with my effort.  I was able to close down the distance on the guys group quickly, passing 3 racers in the effort.  When it came down to it though and we turned into the CVS parking lot he was out of reach.  He got me by about 10 feet while I passed another runner right at the line.  I doubt he knew I was chasing him but it definitely helped me to have a “rabbit” to hunt down.

I was spent at the line, stooped over for a few before ripping my chip off and dropping it in a volunteers bucket.  I grabbed a water bottle off a table just past the finish and downed the whole thing then remembered that even though my monitor wasnt recording my heart rate the timer was still going and showed me just under 52.  I figured that Id get the real time online later and would know my exact pace.  I headed back to the store and even though it was stil raining I decided to hang around for the awards ceremony when I heard someone say it was only a half hour away and I had nothing to do.  The finishers were generally one racer way in front for first and then second being a few minutes behind.  When they announced my age group the winner was around 43 minutes which I realized if the trend followed I shouldve been close to that.  I didnt expect the top three but held out some hope.  When I wasnt there I decided to go look at the finish sheet to see where I stood.   Thats when I found out that my time wasnt recorded and told an official who took my information and estimated finish time.  This is the first time my time hadnt showed up but I guess there’s a first time for everything.

While Ill never be a fan of getting up that early in the morning the race was pretty fun and the most challenging 10K ive done.  That could be either due to the hills or lack of preperation but either way it was a good challenge.  It helped I had my mind focused on one thing the entire race to keep me busy.  Sometimes it sucks to have a monkey on your back but sometimes that monkey you think about will push you and make you better.  Guess we all need our monkeys to keep us going.