The cell phones started ringing at 6:30 in the morning and we all got out of bed dragging a bit. Morning people we aren’t though Ron does do a good impersonation. By the time we got everything together, such as Ron and I putting on our Nike+ systems, Paul’s heart rate monitor, and stretching it was about a quarter after seven so we headed out and walked the seven blocks to the capitol building in the heart of Austin. The start/finish was setup directly in front of it and the race headed out towards the river from its steps. We got a passerby to take a picture of the three of us in front of the start/finish then we headed around to the runners “corral” to get ready for the race. A random runner told us that there were 2,000 runners and 4,000 cyclists here for the weekend. We took the statements at face value but looking back at the results and the number of people I’d say around 500 was more accurate.

As seven o’clock approached the LAF speakers began to take the stage and talk to the crowd. The main purpose of moving the 5K to Saturday and at the capitol was to promote awareness of a vote coming up in November to provide some of the most ambitious funding for cancer research in the nation. Not being from Texas I’m not entirely in the know on this law but do know from what I’ve heard and been told it seems like a great idea and initiative. Several of the lawmakers responsible for the law were introduced. During all this the rumor began circulating through the crowd that not only Lance Armstrong was running the 5K but also Andy Roddick, the tennis pro. The rumor was pretty quickly confirmed when Roddick was introduced and he came to the podium in running gear to talk about his support of the proposition and then introduced Lance who also spoke at length to the crowd. Afterwards a young girl did a pretty impressive rendition of the national anthem. It was a great version but those that tried to sing along in the crowd quickly gave up as she sang it her way and at her pace.

Paul, Ron, and I had been talking about the run most of the morning and they were getting the impression from my times that I was pretty fast. I don’t think so but they did, which while it may be wrong, was a pretty good ego stroke. Paul said that he was going to use me as a pace and try to stick with me as long as he could which I thought would be a cool idea and run. Once the guys cleared the stage the race started with Lance and Roddick leading everyone out, at least I assume they both were there since we were too far back to see. It took 19 seconds to get from where we were to the start line, based on the results. Once we got across the line I saw an opening against the barricades and told Ron excuse me and I’d see him at the finish as I got by him and started to push through the pack to get open. I set out with the purpose of setting a new PR and I felt that if there was a time and a place to do it I wanted it to be here at this race.

I got through the pack within a couple blocks and looked over to see Paul right there with me. I had only run fast to clear the crowd and was planning on slowing down to find my pace to stick with. Now with Paul right there and all the talk from before I was thinking that he was going to push me all day. I had a slight fear of this to begin with and then just went with it as I was feeling really good and AC/DC had just kicked in on the headphones as we approached the first bridge. I looked back again and Paul was gone. I continued to cruise as we made the turn to the first mile marker which said 7:03. After that it was another turn to head back over the river at the next bridge.

It was then that I caught site of a runner all in black with a yellow stripe on his pants, a survivor card on his back, and staff written in yellow on his back. Lance was wearing almost the exact same thing when I saw him on the stage, though I didn’t know whether the staff was there. Either way the thought I had caught Lance was in my head and I had to know so I sped up and caught the runner at the halfway point of the bridge. Turns out it wasn’t him and I didn’t really expect it to be since he had done the New York Marathon in three hours. I kept on going but at the two mile mark I started to feel the pace getting to me and wanted to walk and pull back, but I knew that where I was and why I was doing it meant quitting wasnt an option. I gritted my teeth and got through it and as we turned up the back of the capitol building to come back into the finish I was feeling great again.

As I rounded the capitol another runner caught up to me and said something I didn’t understand so I just nodded and told him we had 400 meters to go based on what my Nike+ had just told me. He sped up and so did I, then 300, I kept accelerating and he hung with me but a step behind. At 200 I kept accelerating and he was gone as I passed another runner. I came into the finishing chute and raised my hands over my head waving my hands in the “raise up” motion to the crowd to get them going. I knew I had to be close to my PR and I was loving it and wanted the crowd going too. I could hear them cheering more and I’m pretty sure the announcer said something though I couldn’t hear with my headphones. I saw the finish clock and it said 21:58 and I knew I had beaten my best chip time by 10 seconds and that clock was by gun time. I lept across the line with a fist pump, I can only hope that the cameraman caught it cause I want that picture.

Chip time is the time from when you cross the start and when you cross the finish. Gun time is when the race starts to when you cross the finish. Hence the gun time is higher based on how long it takes you to cross the line. I had beaten my chip time PR with my gun time this race. As I got out of the finish line area I knew it was a lock and I ran into Andy Roddick. I had carried my camera with me so I gave it to someone walking by and asked him if he’d mind if we got a picture. He said no problem so I got a shot of us at the finish line. I asked him his time and he said he didn’t know but his friend told him it was 20:55 so I came within a minute of catching him on the course. Lance was nowhere to be seen but I expected that. In the official results they had my gun time at 22:02 which was surprising but still beat my old PR of 22:08 and the chip time, which is what I track, was 21:43 which crushed my old time. Overall I got 31st place out of 463 timed results, so obviously the serious runners weren’t there if I pulled that place.

I headed back up the course with my camera to try to catch Paul and Ron on the run and as I started I saw Ron coming in. I managed to get the camera out and on just in time to catch a photo before he passed. I walked back and met him at the finish where we talked for a second before he spotted Paul in the chute and i got a picture of him as he got his water and chip taken off. Ron finished with 25:19 for 84th place and Paul got 26:24 for 120th place which was really good for his first ever 5K. We wandered around the finish for a little while and got another group photo in front of the capitol before heading back to the hotel to relax for awhile.

A side note is that my knee held up great. It got a bit stiff later in the day but during the run it twinged a bit in the beginning but as I got going it loosened up and didn’t bother me again. I think this bodes well for the cycling on Sunday.

I realized that I neglected to post a race report for the Second Empire 5K last Sunday.  Kind of ironic since it turned out to be a PR beating my old record by over a minute.  I setup a new playlist on my Ipod for this race and made sure to not bring my heart rate monitor and only run by how I felt.  A lot of the time I’ll be a little too reliant on the monitor to control my pace rather than pushing myself to a better time.

I was suspicious of how well I’d do on this race because the day before was a NC State football game where I went out and tailgated plus went out after and had a bit too much to drink.  I woke up feeling ok but there’s usually not a get out of jail free card.  I also ended up getting out to the race course late after waiting for Charlie to come over since he was going to run this race with me.  The after effects of the day before were a lot more prevalent on his end.

I lined up for the run and it took me 14 seconds to cross the start/finish line at the beginning.  Usually that doesnt matter but turned out to be significant for this race.  I headed out pretty quickly pounding out to Bruce Springsteen’s The Rising which was the soundtrack of the Carolina Hurricanes cup run.  I knew I was going fast but wanted to push things and felt really good.  With AC/DC in my ears I came back through the crowd for the halfway mark still passing people with no one passing me.  My first mile split according to the Nike+ announcement was under 7 minutes.  At about the two mile mark I started to feel the effort catching up to me and knew I needed to set a pace and stick with it.  Luckily I was right behind a runner who was cruising at a comfortable pace so I settled in behind him for about half a mile.  Then when he started breaking down I went around him and started to push things to the end.  I caught quite a few more runners and looked back to see some people closing on my with their finishing kicks now that the finish line was close.  I broke out a sprint and crossed the line with a pretty big gap in front and behind me.

My finishing time was 22:07 which beats my previous PR by exactly one minute.  It turns out that i finished 120 out of 464.  I missed breaking the top 100 by 4o seconds.  Take away that 14 seconds from the beginning and it becomes 26 seconds.  I think I had 26 seconds left in the tank which is disappointing.  At least I think I did based on how I felt at the finish and my kick length.  I guess I’m starting to get to the point where lining up in the front of the race is starting to matter.  Not for wins but at least for personal goals.

Here’s hoping I can turn in another PR in Austin this weekend for the Livestrong Challenge 5K.

So I’ve decided to push my luck, and my knee.  Sunday at 2 is the annual Second Empire 5K in downtown Raleigh.  I’ve done this race the past few years and its always  a quick and fun run.  It’s also one of the races in the Second Empire Grand Prix.  This year the Grand Prix is seven races instead of five.  Only six will count towards the standings but unfortunately I won’t be able to make it to six of the races.  In the end I’ll be lucky to do four of them.

Either way I’ll be running this race on Sunday and hoping for the best.  I was able to pull off a five mile run yesterday with little complications.  My knee was tight starting off but loosened up as the run went on.  Towards the end it started to tighten back up but today its only a little sore.  I credit that to walking a lot after the run, taking an Ibuprofen, and icing the knee for a couple hours after.  I don’t expect to put in a PR on Sunday but it’ll be nice to have another run under my belt again.  I probably push things too far but how else will you find your limits, right?

It’s been a nice week off since the Duke Half-Ironman but its time to get back to work.  The Austin Livestrong Challenge is less than three weekends away and then the Raleigh City of Oaks Marathon is six.  I’ve been doing some digging and based on the training plans I’ve found I may have put myself behind the eight ball on the marathon training.  I’ve been doing the base miles it suggested in my half-Ironman preparation but I haven’t been hitting the long run distances they have laid out.  Looks like my marathon may not be as enjoyable as I hoped.

Regardless my current concentration has to be on the Livestrong Challenge.  I’ll be riding Tuesday’s, Wednesday’s, and a long ride on the weekends.  This schedule will allow me to work on my running for the marathon as well as be ready to go for the Livestrong Challenge.

The Friesen 5K lived up to its name of being a fun race to participate in, with many of the Carolina Hurricanes players participating. The temperature wasn’t too hot when I and my friend Laura made it out to the RBC Center for the run just after eight. I was expecting the normal long lines and limited supply of t-shirts as with any other race so I wanted to get there early enough to get a shirt and have everything wrapped up. Turns out it wasn’t necessary because the lines moved pretty fast and they had tons of shirts. For some reason I didn’t make the connection of “fun run” meaning an non-timed event till I tried to find where to pick up our timing chips. I was kind of disappointed that it wasn’t going to be timed because I was hoping to put in a PR on the course since it was the first 5K of the fall season. That and I wanted a record of any players I may be able to beat as well as evidence of my bet with Charlie on Rod Brind’Amour.

From all the articles I’ve read with Brind’Amour, he always says that he dosen’t run and he hates running. So I took that to mean that he never trains for running and even though he’s in legendary shape there’s a difference in doing a sport you train for and one you don’t. So I had $20 riding on beating Brind’Amour in the 5K with Charlie. I figured worst case that I’d keep up with him, but my worst case was way too lenient. They announced the players about a quarter to nine with almost everyone present except Nic Wallin, Eric Staal, Justin Williams, John Grahame, Trevor Letowski, and Jeff Hamilton. Mike Commodore wasn’t announced but he showed up just as the race was getting ready to start. Hurricane’s prospects Casey Borer, Justin Peters, Patrick Dwyer, and Ryan Bayda also were out there. Ron Francis also attended but stayed in the background most of the day until John Forslund outed him. I think that covers everyone who attended. Pete Friesen, the Hurricane’s strength and conditioning coach, welcomed everyone to the event and John Forslund, TV announcer, emceed the event. After the introductions we were all sent over to the starting line where the players lined up in front, even though not all would participate.

The horn sounded and everyone took off and I left Laura at the line to push up to the front to try and get in a reasonable distance of Rod so I could keep pace. I looked up and all the players were already 300 meters out, by the time I got through the crowd the guys were disappearing in the distance. At some point in my initial rush I passed Coach Laviolette and I think Jeff Daniels but I never saw him till the finish line after I had been there a while. So either he finished way ahead and came back to the line or I did manage to pass him. At about the one kilometer mark I caught Tim Gleason and Casey Borer running together on the parking lot road heading back up to the RBC. This was significant in that it was my first player catch and also the last time I saw Brind’Amour’s red hat in the distance and most of the other players. I was feeling pretty good when we got out to Trinity Rd by Carter Finley Stadium when my Nike+ system announced two kilometers completed. I picked up the pace a little when I heard in my headphones that the halfway point was reached. I had confused miles with kilometers and realized I still had a ways to go and was burning myself out too fast.

I turned onto Blue Ridge and caught sight of another player in the distance. I picked up the pace a bit and caught up with Ryan Bayda as we turned onto Westchase back into the finish. As I was beside him I mentioned I didn’t remember this many hills and he laughed and said “tell me about it”. I figured I was finally catching players again and I took advantage of the downhill into the last climb to pick up some time. As we turned onto the final straightaway with about 400 meters to go (according to Nike+) I saw Erik Cole. I kept trying to catch up to run beside him and at least get one more notch on the belt. I was pretty toasted when I finally caught him. I gave the look over and at 200 meters took off again and ran down one other runner just on the line. Either Cole was sprinting as well or the crowd reached further back than I though cause I heard them cheering for him as I was coming in. I was spent and when he came up beside me I told him I didn’t think I was ever going to catch him and he started laughing. Later when I was walking around I walked by him and Ray Whitney talking about finishing times and Erik didn’t know his so I told him mine since we were so close together and it was probably his too.

The finishing time was 21:47 which was my best time by almost two full minutes from my last 5K in the spring. My first mile was 7:14, second mile of 7:36, and my final mile where I caught Ryan Bayda and Erik Cole was 6:46. All pretty respectable mile times and each a personal best, but nowhere near fast enough. Later Pete Friesen announced that Rod, Ray Whitney, Scott Walker, and a personal surprise (his words) Mike Commodore had all run the 5K under 20 minutes. I was amazed by how fast Rod was. Later when Laura had finished as well I walked over to Rod and told him that in everything I read I thought he always said he didn’t like to run. He goes, “Yeah I hate running, this is the only time I run all year.” Talk about deflating, I’m constantly trying to improve my time. I told him after reading that my goal was to basically hang at his pace and keep up with him but I blinked and he was gone. He laughed and said that he had a side bet going on the race. I said I hoped he won because I definitely lost my bet and he laughed again before heading off.

All in all it was definitely a fun race and I’ll do it again, maybe next year I’ll be able to catch a few more players. This does bode well for my fall races and the Livestrong Challenge 5K that was added to the Challenge weekend.