Time for Summer

I was originally going to entitle this blog post, "Wet Runs," in light of the recent weather, but I thought better of it.

Last Saturday, I ran my last race for the season, the Aquarium Half Marathon. I was running with a buddy of mine who just started running a few months ago. My goal was to come in at 1:50 or better. I assumed my friend would be able to do the same despite his relative newness to running because he was already hovering around the 8-minute mile mark in his longer runs.

We chatted for much of the first half of the race, maintaining a brisk pace (for me) of around 8:10, with occasional dips under 8 minutes, and occasional lags around 8:30. It was faster than I typically start, but I am typically running a full rather than half, so I figured I'd roll with it and see what happened. About 5 miles in, I passed several of my Runner's World friends coming from the other direction (not racing), which was a nice boost. At about 8 miles in, I passed Kathy going the other direction (racing). I contemplated throwing a Gu pack at her to get her attention, but she seemed to be pretty immersed in conversation, so I let it go.

We passed a water table at the 9-mile mark. I slowed down to drink my water. My friend did not. He took off ahead of me, and we didn't meet up again until the finish line. He came in at 1:45:15 with an average pace of 8:03. I finished at exactly 1:48 with an average pace of 8:16. I have to admit, I was a little sickened that my friend, who is so new to running, beat me by 2:45, and he beat my first half marathon time (Route 66, 2008) by 13:43. Despite this sickness, I was happy for him that he completed his first marathon. (I would guess that a full is in his near future.) And I was glad that I came in under my goal time.

Now that the Aquarium Half is over, I will have a 5-month break from racing. I plan to embrace the heat and the summer training in hopes of breaking the 4-hour mark this coming fall. This past week, I continued my Monday-morning fartlek (hee hee) on the Creek Turnpike trail starting east. (I really wish they'd hurry up with the construction around Memorial!) Yesterday, I had a great, relatively slow 8-miler. I missed this morning (my third Thursday in a row to miss). I can't post any stats below because bimactive.com seems to be having problems this morning (I think they have been since this past Saturday).

My next race will be in October. I'm still waiting to hear about attending a business trip in Denver. If I go, I will run the Denver Rock and Roll Marathon on October 17. If I do not attend, I'll drive up to Kansas City for the KC Marathon October 16.

Back to running...and blogging

April was a comparatively inactive month for me with regard to both blogging and running. Not a single blog post in the month of April (although this post marks #100 for me), and while I did run the OKC Memorial Marathon, between a week of tapering and a week of recovery (and a few missed days here and there), I still ended up with just under 100 miles for the month--first month under 100 miles since last December.

This first week of May, I made a point to get back on schedule. On Monday, I had a pretty intense 7.4-miles as I focused on increasing speed up the hills--a drill I plan to continue on Mondays in order to increase my VOx. This morning's 8.4-miler was unusually challenging. I would assume this was because of the intensity of Monday's run combined with the fact that I had the two weeks previous off.

Oklahoma City went pretty well, although I did not come in under 4 hours as I had hoped. My final time ended up at 4:02:45. The run felt good, and I was hardly disappointed with myself. (And I beat last year's OKC time by a long shot!) I know my experience is very limited, but OKC is the most challenging marathon course I have run. Seems like the first 13 miles is just one hill after another. At mile 17, I decided to walk a short, steep incline, simply to save strength. I ran again until mile 20 (and another hill). As usual, that 20-mile mark was a huge wall for me. I walked sections periodically from mile 20 to the finish line, with a final burst for the last half mile in an attempt to finish strong. No photographers caught me walking, so I suppose that this blog is the only piece of evidence. (Maybe I shouldn't have said anything!)

I didn't see too many Runner's World folks during the race. I saw Patty close to the halfway point, and again at the finish line. And I chatted with Eric in my subgroup at around mile 22.

While OKC is the worst "placed" marathon I've run, the race has, by far, the best fans and support of the four different locales in which I have raced (this includes the Las Vegas Rock n' Roll Marathon). People were lining the streets for much of the race, and the water stops were the best I've seen. They were plenty long, and the volunteers knew what they were doing. The non-beverage stops (fruit, sponges, sprinklers, Gu) were also well placed. At no time during the race did I worry about the distance until the next water stop.

Next up? I'll be running the Full Moon 5K with my wife this coming weekend, and the weekend after that, I'll be joining a friend of mine for his first half marathon at the Jenks Aquarium.

Marathon results below.

Activity Route: -- Elev. Avg: 1201 ft Location: Oklahoma City, OK Elev. Gain: -6 ft Date: 04/25/10 Up/Downhill: [+856/-862] Time: 06:37 AM Difficulty: 4.0 / 5.0 Performance Distance: 26.49 miles Time: 4:02:38 Speed: 6.5 mph Pace: 9' 10 /mi Calories: 3375 Map Elevation (ft) Pace (min/mile) Splits Mile Pace (min/mile) Speed (mph) Elevation Gain actual +/- avg actual +/- avg 1 8' 44 -0' 26 6.9 +0.3 -36 ft 2 8' 59 -0' 11 6.7 +0.1 +43 ft 3 8' 50 -0' 20 6.8 +0.2 +10 ft 4 8' 35 -0' 35 7.0 +0.4 -33 ft 5 8' 32 -0' 38 7.0 +0.5 -26 ft 6 8' 31 -0' 39 7.0 +0.5 -30 ft 7 8' 36 -0' 34 7.0 +0.4 +29 ft 8 8' 15 -0' 55 7.3 +0.7 -55 ft 9 8' 27 -0' 43 7.1 +0.6 +36 ft 10 8' 35 -0' 35 7.0 +0.4 +27 ft 11 8' 34 -0' 36 7.0 +0.5 +29 ft 12 8' 37 -0' 33 7.0 +0.4 -13 ft 13 8' 40 -0' 30 6.9 +0.4 -3 ft 14 8' 44 -0' 26 6.9 +0.3 -7 ft 15 8' 38 -0' 32 6.9 +0.4 0 ft 16 8' 31 -0' 39 7.0 +0.5 0 ft 17 8' 40 -0' 30 6.9 +0.4 +9 ft 18 9' 53 +0' 43 6.1 -0.5 +10 ft 19 8' 46 -0' 24 6.8 +0.3 -7 ft 20 8' 38 -0' 32 6.9 +0.4 -62 ft 21 9' 59 +0' 49 6.0 -0.5 -10 ft 22 10' 26 +1' 16 5.8 -0.8 +39 ft 23 10' 07 +0' 57 5.9 -0.6 +26 ft 24 11' 58 +2' 48 5.0 -1.5 +49 ft 25 10' 12 +1' 02 5.9 -0.7 -23 ft 26 11' 17 +2' 07 5.3 -1.2 +6 ft end 8' 47 -0' 23 6.8 +0.3 -16 ft Versus average of 9' 10 min/mile

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