That's one in the books

So I am on my way to completing my next goal. Become a member of the Half Fanatics.

I took part in the International Peace Half Marathon.

This was an event that took place in Washington, DC on the C&O Canal tow path.

I was not looking to break any records, but I did have a good time.

I ran with a couple of "Purcellville Plodders". That is the group of runners that I am a part of.

I will say that I knew from a couple of people that this event is very low key. In fact they have a limit on the number of runners that can register. they will only allow 250. It was one of the cheapest half marathon events that I have run in. I was only doing this event so that it would count on my way to gaining membership in the Half Fanatics.

Anyway, there were a couple of items that came up that was a little upsetting. One was that fact that there were no bathrooms available. When asked about it we were told go and ask some of the shops or restaurants down the street. Really? Well it ended up not being that big of a deal. The other issue that I was going to write about I have decided not to as an email from the race director came out that covered it.

So now lets get to the meat of the story.

Race report.

It was a nice morning. Not too hot yet and almost not a cloud in the sky. This was not a chip timed event but rather timed by the clock. Again, not that big of a deal.

So part of this event was to acknowledge the lives that were lost on the attack of the US 10 years ago on Sept 11th. They rang a bell for each of the lives lost at the Pentagon. The National Anthem was sung (quite well) and then we were off.

Well for the past week we have had nothing but rain. So needless to say there were some puddles that we had to run through. The C&O is not a paved trail. It is more like crushed stone. So these puddles were more like mud puddles. Some of the runners were trying to run around then acting like they did not want to get their feet wet. Well for me I was more concerned about splashing the muddy water up on another runner. I was not too concerned about getting my feet wet. I did in fact bring a change of socks and an extra pair of shoes.

This was an out and back course with water stops about every 2 miles or so. The two other guys that came along were Dan and Mike. Well Dan is a faster runner then Mike and I so he went on ahead. Mike and I stayed with each other for quite some time. We were just chugging along having some very light conversation, taking in the scenery and just enjoying the moment. We did have to be mindful of the trail as it was not closed for our use only. There were a fair amount of other people out there ridding their bikes, running and walking and just finally enjoying a day without any rain.

Well like I said, Mike and I were keeping a very good pace until about mile 8.5. Mike had to take a break. I slowed down with him to keep him company. He urged me to go on. And even though I was not running for a specific time, I just wanted to have an official finish time. Which was good because this event did not have a time limit on it. Yet, I was torn. I enjoy the company of other runners, especially runners that I know. But I really did not want to slow down. I was feeling good. I was not pushing myself too much. Mike reassured me that it was ok to go on without him, so I did.

After a bit I felt myself getting tired. Well I only brought three Gu's. One I took just before the beginning of the race, one at about mile 5 and the last one at mile 10. I could feel myself getting tired. I could also feel the crust of dried sweat/salt stains on the side of my face. ***note to self - look into adding some electrolytes on the next one. The aid stations that they had set up were only providing water. Again, not a big deal.

I ended up learning a lot about myself on this run. This was a C race for me. I went out there enjoyed myself greatly. My A race that I am building toward is the Hershey Half in the middle of October.

Now I will say that my overall goal for my Half Marathon time is 2 hours. Right now my PR is 2:15 (and change).

I have been having some very goods runs as of late and feel that goal is definitely obtainable.

Not sure if I am going to try to get that accomplished in Hershey but maybe within a year.

Well that is all for now. Thanks for reading.

Earthquake then Hurricane.......

Well this certainly has been a very interesting week.
I started upping my mileage in preparation for my half marathons that are coming up. I have been feeling really good too.
Well on Tuesday we had an Earthquake. So there I was in my office at my desk and we hear this loud rumbling. Well for some reason I yelled out "it's an earthquake". At first it sounded like a helicopter was landing on the building and no we don't have a helo pad.
Now I did spend some time in Northern California and have experienced a couple of quakes so it was really no big deal for me. Some people were really shocked about it.
Then up comes Irene from the south. It was really no big deal for us as we were far enough away from the center of the storm. It was like we had a big thunderstorm. We had some debris in the road but that was it. I was able to get my run in on Saturday and Sunday with no issues. The one route that I was going to do on Sunday does flood quite a bit so I changed my running plans. I did miss going out with a group of people that I run with on the weekends but from all of the emails that were going back and forth it did not look like many of them were going out on Sunday anyway. Most decided to do their long run on Saturday. I was doing a short distance so I opted to run by myself on Saturday. I will say that I had a great run on Sunday. I kept it slow and steady. I have noticed that when I go out with the group on long runs that I end up going out too fast and have to walk a fair bit. Well not this past Sunday. I was able to keep my own pace and not worry about keeping up with anyone. I ran the whole time. Now I will say that it was a bit difficult to do as it was a hilly route and the wind picked up every now and then.
Well all in all I had a great week of running and looking forward to next week.
So my training is set up that I have two hard weeks then a light week. So next week is a light week so I hope that I wont get too anxious.

I am........A Duathlete

Well I did it.
One more notch on the shoe.
On August 7th I started and finished the Duthe2 Duathlon. It was great. I really enjoyed myself.
I can not remember how or where I heard about this event, but for some time I had been thinking about doing one. It all started way back when I started training for the Marine Corp Marathon, maybe even before that.
Anyway, the point being is that I started to do some cross training by riding my bike. I have 2 road bikes now. The first one that I was using I got off of craigslist a couple of years ago. It is a 1977 Fuji S10-S. It is a nice bike and I like it a lot, but as I started to increase my riding mileage I noticed that I was having some difficulty on some of the more challenging hills. This is a 12 speed bike with the Front crank set being 42 x 52T and the rear cluster/flywheel being 14 - 30T. I will say that who ever I bought it from either really took care of it or hardly ever rode it. It shifts really smoothly and just seems to glide down the road. I did some research and it would appear that it has all original components. Now that is not to say that they might have been replace with OEM parts at one time but it is hard for me to tell. Even the tires still say Fuji approved on it. So in looking at the Duthe2 Duathlon the distances are as follows: 2 mile run, 26 mile bike, 4 mile run. I am not sure if this is considered an Olympic distance or a Sprint. I started to look at the Fuji and the rides that I had been doing and thinking "I need more gears". I thought about looking at trying to upgrade the Fuji with a three ring crank and possibly doubling the flywheel at most but later decided that I did not want the change the vintageness of the bike. Who knows, I might even ruin the way it rides and I don't want to do that. So I started my search on ebay and craigslist. Why not go to a local bike shop you say? Well for a number of reasons, one major one is that I am not rich. Now granted I am not an expert on bikes and not sure if I am getting a good deal or not but I did ok on the Fuji so figured I would give it a shot.
Well I found one. A Trek 420. It has a three ring crank and a seven ring flywheel. It was very close by to my office so I stopped by on my way home. I took it for a little ride around the block. It felt ok. It would need some adjustment but not much. The brakes worked and the gears seemed to shift ok. I did not ride for a long time as the wheels were flat and he did not have a pump to inflate the tires. I did notice that the tires would probably need to be replaced. No big deal. Its time I start getting my hands dirty. I attended a couple of bike maintenance classes at some of the different bike shops so I have some knowledge about different things. Just enough to be dangerous.
Anyway, enough rambling. I guess when you don't post for a while you have a lot to say.
On to why I start to post to begin with. Race Report.
The Duthe2 was put on by Ripit Events and even though this was my first Duathlon it was not my first race. This event was top notch. From the day I registered (October 29th) until I crossed the finish line I was impressed about everything. The communications that they provided was excellent. Now lets get down to business.
I get up to get ready. I am nervous as hell. Kind of like that feeling you have when you toe the line for your very first race, or your first marathon. I was not sure how things were going to go but I did have a goal. I want to complete this in under 3 hours. Lets see how I did.
At first they said that there were about 550 participants, so they had about 6 waves. I was in wave 3. I arrived at the venue, get my bike off my car and start gathering my stuff. I was alone. None of my family or friends were able to make it. Yea this bothered me a bit but what are you going to do. As I opened my trunk to get my helmet out I noticed that I put my bike pump in there. Good thing. My tires needed air. I filled the tires with air, gathered my things and started to make my way to the transition area. After a good walk, I get my bike set up in the rack and get everything set up. I have clip in shoes on my Fuji but the Trek had shoe cages which I decided to keep those and not switch them out. I did not want to slip or hurt myself as I never got comfortable running in bike shoes. Well I get my water bottles set up and mix up my nutrition, just enough time for me to hit the portapotties and get to the corals.
So here we go. Wave one - off, wave two - off, wave three - its on!
The two mile loop has 2 water stations, one right after the start line and the other is at mile one. They have water and Gatorade. I get some Gatorade at the second water station and I am able to complete the first run in 19:05 that was good for 308th place. I get in and out of transition fairly quickly with a time of 1:16 and 56th place. I did not have to change out my shoes so that helped. I know no one has ever won a race with a good time in transition but you can certainly loose one. Not that I was even thinking of winning anything, I just wanted to finish.
So now we are out on the bike course. A 13 mile loop that you complete twice. This was a very hilly course with two really steep hills to deal with, which made me kind of glad I had the extra climbing rings on the Trek and that I was not on my Fuji. I finished the bike leg with a time of 1:44;09 this was 263rd. I was tired but ready to plod along for the last 4 miles. From my training I knew that the first mile or so would be a little tough getting the legs to move, and it was. I came out of second transition with a time of 1:54, 182nd fastest time. The run course was set up to where there is more downhill on the first mile so that made the second mile more uphill. I keep my feet moving forward. I make my second loop and here it comes, the finish line.
The time on the counter read 3:01 and change, but keep in mind, I was in wave three. Each wave started 4 minutes after the previous. So I actually had 8 minutes to play with.
My official time was 2:53;43. I was stoked! But then I was sad as I had no one there to celebrate with. Well I did get over that. I got my medal, a bottle of water and a banana and walked around to try and keep loose.
So when it was all said and done, my time of 2:53;43 gave me 36th in my age group and 269th overall. There were 389 finishers. I am happy. I got my base time and now I am looking to improve on that. The trouble is there does not seem to be many duathlon events around where I live, and I think I mentioned before that I am not rich.
So to end this I would definitely recommend a duathlon to anybody that is thinking about it. I had a great time and felt a wondrous sense of accomplishment.
I don't see myself doing a triathlon but I have also learned to never say never.

Next on the "bucket list" is to become a member of the Half Fanatics. This should happen by October so stay tuned.
Thanks for reading and let me know if you have any comments.

Happy Memorial Day weekend

Well here we are.
I am one week away from my A race for the year. And I will say that after taking off a month from being injured I don't feel so bad. Of course, now that summer has decided to show up has really but a damper on things.
My original plan was to hit it hard after Cherry Blossom and go for a 2:05 time, but then the Holy Spirit decided to mess with my plans. Not to get too religious but we recently had confirmation and in the Homily the Bishop mentioned that the Holy Spirit like to mess with your plans. It just seemed to click with me.
Anyway, I will have fun and enjoy myself when I am running in the Virginia Wine Country Half Marathon next weekend. Its the inaugural running of this event, plus it is literally almost in my back yard. In fact, I have run part of the route numerous times over the past years. I am sure that it will be a warm day and the humidity will come out, but I don't think there is anything that is going to stop me from having a good time.
The group that I run with be participating in the group competition. Not real sure what that is all about but we shall see. I am glad that my calf seems to be feeling much better now. I have been doing some self massaging as well as stretching some. Last week was when I got back into running. Chose a very hilly course as my first real run. It might have been part mental but I did feel my calf a bit.
Ok so I am rambling a bit and I am all over the place. It has just been such a crazy past couple of weeks.
So in the up coming months I have a half marathon in June (next weekend), nothing in July (yet), my first Duathlon in Aug. and nothing for the rest of the year. I am unsure if I am going to do anything yet. There is a duathlon in Oct that I have been thinking about doing, as well as a couple of half marathons. Oh, can not forget about the annual turkey trot that will happen in Nov. Almost got a PR last year. In fact I missed it by 36 seconds. Come to think of it I probably would have PR'd if it weren't for the fact that the weekend before I ran the Marine Corp Marathon. Oh well. Had a great time though. This year I will try to best that. Looking to get as close to 25 min for a 5 k as possible. That would be an 8 min mile pace. Something to work on.
At any rate that does bring me up to my goals/plans that I have been thinking about. I am going to start focusing on the half marathon distance. Ultimately I want to get under a 2 hour half, and for that I am going to look at "qualifying" for the half fanatics club. It looks like I will have an opportunity to do that by next spring time.
So that would be for 2012.
And for 2013, are you ready? I am putting it down on paper. I will look at running another Marathon. Which one? unsure.
I don't want to try to make too many plans because who knows what the Holy Spirit has in store for me.

week of firsts

Well it certainly has been a very interesting week.
It has been a week of firsts for me.
To back up a little bit, on April 3rd I ran in the Credit Union Cherry Blossom 10 miler. Had a great time and earned a PR!
I took it easy for the week after before I started getting back into training.
My sites were focused on participating in my first Duathlon and the next day doing a 10k. The same 10k course that I set my current PR on. I was getting excited. However I did have on my schedule a half marathon that I was focusing on as my "A" race.
So there I was a week and a day after Cherry Blossom and I was planning on doing my long run that I put off from the day before. I had time now as I got back involved with the Church Softball team and our games are on Monday nights. So I figured while I was waiting for the game to start I would go for a run. So I drove to the sports complex where the games were held, got my shoes on and off I went.
I ended up doing 7.5 miles on a warm and somewhat humid early evening. I was not out there looking to break any records, just wanted to get some slow easy miles in. I felt good.
So I went to the car to get my softball gear and get more water and to try some Hammer products. I bought some individual packets of the Recoverite to try. It was not bad. It says to mix with water but I am wondering if that is just a suggestion. I have used EAS protein power in the past and it says to mix with Milk or any of your favorite liquid. Anyway, it seemed to agree with me with no issues. Now to warm up my arm for the game.
So we are now into our second game and I am on first. The ball was hit and I was off. In looking at our third base coach he was waving me on to third. I touch second and start moving toward third and that is when I felt the pain. My calf. Now, I am not sure if I heard a popping sound from my leg or from my foot hitting the bag. I was in pain but able to limp over to third. I got someone to run for me and immediately put some ice on it.
The next morning I decided to stop by and see my doctor. Well I could not get in first thing but set up a time to come back later that day. After talking about a few things I guess she was concerned about my having a blood clot so they sent me to the hospital to get an ultrasound done. That was a fun experience. Well the technician came back in after and said that I did not have a blood clot. I thought to myself, duh! I am a little too active and I don't fly so........ anyway, I know that they were just being cautious. I mentioned to the technician that I was concerned that I might have tore something. She said that she could not tell that but that they would be sending the images over to my Doctor and I could discuss with them.
So the next day the doctors office called and confirmed that there was no blood clot and that I should rest the leg and ice as needed and to basically stay off until it feels better. I asked about a tear and they said that they could not tell but believe that it is only a bad sprain.

Ok. So I am following the RICE program. Its working pretty good. I am doing some cross training and upper body workouts just to try to stay as active as possible.
I do plan on visiting a physical therapist here in the next couple of days to see what he has to say. Just did not get that warm and fuzzy from the doctors office.
I will update on that later.

So not to cover the firsts that have happened for me.
I feel that I am truly injured, at least I am treating it that way. A little more then a year a go I hurt myself and was only out for about a week and a half. I feel that this is a little more serious then just a sprained muscle. I plan on being out for another week and a half to two weeks just to play it safe.
I was suppose to do my first Duathlon. Well I did not, but as luck would have it I was able to defer until the fall. I have never deferred an event before but they put on a Duathlon in the spring and one in the fall. So now I plan on doing a fall Duathlon.
I was suppose to run in a 10k, well that did not happen either. I was not able to defer on that one so count that as a DNS - Did Not Start. Another first. So I was talking to a couple of people and found out that there was a guy that wanted to run as his wife was running but they could not afford the entry fee. Well I let him run in my place. Was not concerned about getting the money back. It was good to see someone using it, rather then sitting on the couch.

tough week

“ A road well begun is the battle half won. The important thing is to make a beginning and get under way. ”Soren Kierkegaard (1813–1855) Danish philosopher and writer. When I first read this it struck a chord with me. This has been a mentally tough week for me. Not to bore anyone with the details, but it does help for me to write this down like I am talking about it. On April 3rd I participated in the Credit Union Cherry Blossom 10 miler in Washington DC. I had a great run and tore up the course. This was my third time running in this event and I have improved my time each year. Back in 2009 I had just started running for a number of reasons. I remember it so clearly. I was so nervous. All that I had in my mind was "don't let the sweep bus get you". In my training leading up to it the furthest distance that I ran was 8 miles and that was tough. Anyway, I did get through it finishing before the 2 hour 20 min time limit with a 1 hour 54 min (and change) personal best and longest distance yet. Last year I took 10 mins off of that time. This year I completed it in 1 hour 35 min and 58 sec. I was so proud and excited. So were my wife and friends that were down there. Well, our kids were with my parents so my wife and I decided to go to a nice restaurant and then to a winery after we got home and I had a chance to get cleaned up. We had a wonderful afternoon and evening. The kids did not have school the next day so they were spending more time with the grandparents. Monday morning. Here comes the tough part. My wife gets a text from a co-Teacher, "check your group wise''. My wife logs in to her email, and there it is. Here Principal had lost her battle with Pancreatic Cancer and past away the day before. The good news is that she did not suffer that long. She had been diagnosed with it just this past February. The bad news is that my wife's Mom, my mother in law, lost her battle with Pancreatic Cancer in April 2003. Being that we went through this before we knew what was coming, but it is still hard to deal with. With that in mind it has been very tough to get a work out in. There had been days that I felt that I needed one to try to clear the cobwebs from my mind and just try to get some of the emotion out. It pains me to see my wife in such sorrow and pain and there is nothing that I can do to relieve it. Our schedule has been so crazy as well. We both have had different activities come up with our kids that it has been hard to sit down and take everything in and talk about things. Everyone at the school has been crushed. Some were under the believe that she was going to beat this thing. Unfortunately, my wife and I saw the writing on the wall all too clearly. So this has been a really tough week in focusing on exercising in general. This coming weekend I have a Duathlon on Saturday and a 10k on Sunday. Crazy I know. What was I thinking when I signed up for those?!? Well I am still in decent shape from my 10 miler that I know I will complete both events. This will be my first Duathlon that I will be participating in. The distances are 1.9 mile run, 10 mile bike and 3.1 mile run. I don't think that I will go all out at the Duathlon as this will be my first time. I just want to take everything in and be able to complete the course. The 10k I ran last year and it stands as my PR of 59:19. I want to keep the momentum going and try to get closer to 55 mins. I will update next week as to how the weekend went. Thanks for reading. It helped me greatly.

Cherry Blossom 10 miler - Race report

Well another race in the books along with a new PR! It was a great event. I had a negative split and finished with a time of 1:35;58 I am so exicted. In looking in the future, I am doing a 10k in a couple of weeks along with my first Duathlon. I am really excited about that but also a little nervous. Kind of like how I felt when I did my first 5k. I know I won't have any issue with the running part, it is just the transition to and from the bike. I believe it is just a sprint duathlon as the distances are 2 mile run, 10 mile bike and 3.1 mile run. I have signed up for another Duathlon which is 2 mile run, 26 mile bike and 4 mile run. Although I am very excited about how well I did at the Cherry Blossom and very excited for the future races, I am sad today. We found out this morning that my wifes boss past away yesterday from Pancreatic Cancer. This is the same evil beast that took her mother away 8 years ago. This will be a trying time for us as we both deal with the tradegy and try our best to support each other. I would like to write more and I do hate to end on a down note, but it is all that I have to say about this today. I will try to get some pictures up from the race to hopefully add some color. Pancan.org does have a marathon training team. Team Hope. They were just approved to be a charitable organization for the New York Marathon in November. I am thinking about joining. We shall see..........