Race for Lymphoma 5K Recap

Meb and Deena win RNR San Jose, Kipligat aims at the women's marathon record, Kim Smith and her NYC Marathon tactics, bio on Bernard Lagat, Haile warns British media about too much pressure, USA 10 Mile Championship results, and a Runners World Brief Chat with Chicago Marathon director Carey Pinkowski.

Forgot this last week ; 168.5 miles for September (awful), 1557.5 miles for 2011.

Saturday, October 1st - 5 miles (1 up, RACE FOR LYMPHOMA 5K (18:52 - 4th overall, 3rd male, 1st in age group), 1 down). Woke up a little tired from going to Big River's Brooks Pure Launch party the night before, but ate a quick breakfast, picked up Pat and Crystal, and headed to STL for the 5K. Chilly in the morning, but perfect for a race. Quick warmup with Crystal and Tim, Tim and I got impromptu recruited for the Team Competition, drills and strides, then lined up. Strategy was to go out in 5:50's, then run 6's in for a good time. Course was flat with a lot of turns, and basically went around the perimeter of the St. Louis Mills Mall, which is sort of scenic but basically a mall. Went out a little fast with Crystal, but slowed down to even it out. Pack had separated to the first 2 runners (way out front), Crystal, me, then a runner who was working off me. Crystal had worked a good gap about halfway through, so it was just me and the straggler who was hanging on. This race turned tactical for me, since I wasn't going to catch Crystal, so relaxed a bit and geared up for some surges on the last mile. Threw in a couple surges to open up a bigger gap, then cruised in. Lost track of time, and kicked too late and ended up with an ok time but sub 19 nonetheless. Crystal won the women's (18:11 PR, 3rd overall), then we watched Tim finish (21:04 PR), then went to catch Megan finish (27:05 PR) and caught Pat finishing (he ran the 10K - 50:12 PR). Tim and I ended up using our times in the team competition, and won that which was pretty cool. All in all, a very fun day with a lot of success for our team!!! 5K mile splits were: 5:55, 6:10 (relaxed a little too much), 6:03.

Sunday, October 2nd - 8 miles (4 miles a.m., 4 miles p.m.). Exhausted from just a long 2 weeks, so slept in and missed Crystal for the Big River group run in St. Charles. Gorgeous afternoon, got in 4 easy in the a.m. (started late because football was about to start!), and felt like complete garbage. Out and back towards Troy, slow and poopy. Evening, got out on the same route and felt 150% better. Had some stomach issues, so pushed it slightly coming in, but felt very relaxed and smooth. Crazy how much different earlier vs. later felt. A.M. run time was 36:58, P.M. 30:18. 42 miles this week - not too bad for race week.

Lots of congratulations to go around - congrats to Ben for winning the inaugural Mo Cowbell 1/2 Marathon (1:08:42 I believe), congrats to PR's for Brian and Margaret Lyons at the Twin Cities Marathon (2:19:22 - B, 2:49:58 - M). And finally, congrats to Stephen for a 14th place finish in the USA 10 Mile Championships (48:04)! Great races for all!!!