Pere Marquette/Dash 4 Dan 5K Recap

Ryan Hall and his new coach, and weird running stuff/gifts that work.

Saturday, December 8th - 12 miles.  Met up early in the morning at Fast Eddie's with Craig, Dickson, and Justin, and headed out to the Pere Marquette lodge for the 24th Pere Marquette Trail Race.  First one ever for me, and had talked with a few friends of the craziness that I was about to endure.  It had rained the night before, so the trail was nice and muddy.  Justin and I were in the same wave/corral, so decided to start together.  Started roughly 6 minutes after the first group went off, so began through an easy path before we hit our first climb.  And was it a doozy!  Within 5 minutes, I was already looking at my watch and wondering when this torture would be done - the footing was uneven, stones everywhere, and the hills were unlike anything I had ever seen before - long and ridiculously steep.  Ran for what seemed like an eternity, and we hit the first mile marker.  Lovely - only 6.5 more crazy miles to go.  Separated from Justin, because the pace was already getting challenging for me with the hills, so geared back substantially and went into pure survivor mode.  Hit the second mile, and actually wondered if I was going to be able to finish this race.  The next couple miles were a bit better effort-wise (not as hilly) but even though I was intentionally going easy, it's a bit humbling to hit 42 minutes for your 4th mile split.  We had made almost the highest accent somewhere at this point, and was cool to see the scenary from the top of the bluff - amazing, but unfortunately didn't have much time to enjoy the view with this race going on.  Anyways, Justin has distanced himself quite a bit through the first couple miles, but I made up a lot of the ground back and caught up with him and passed him a little later on.  The middle/end part of the race is hilly, but not as painful as the start, and I was feeling pretty good so picked up the pace.  The downhills were rough, as it felt like I was hydroplaning since I had virtually zero grip on the surface.  My feet were killing me towards the end from the uneven surface and the pitter-patter steps I had to take going down hills, but survived.  After one more treacherous climb on some stone steps, it was off to races for me and basically flew through the rest of the course and finished with a blaze of glory.  Fun, fun times, but exhausting.  Awards afterwards, Fast Eddie's for lunch, then 4 slow cooldown miles at home.  Not sure if I ever want to do this race again, but it was quite the experience.  I felt like Frodo climbing Mount Doom - a little dramatic I know, but I'm not that far off.  But cross this off the bucket list!  Trail race time was 1:11:27 (9:32 pace), cooldown was sloooooww.

We went up and down these evil steps

Wonderful climb

FML

Torture

Pain

Climbing Mount Doom

Sunday, December 9th - 0!  Legs were exhausted, and I felt like poo-poo.  Opted for an entire day of couch potatoing and watching football.  Tough day, I know, but the rest day was well-deserved.  45 miles this week (crap), 65 miles in December, 1805.5 miles for 2012.  Making 2000 miles this year REALLY tough for myself :(

Monday, December 10th - 9 miles.  2 miles up with Robbie, 7 miles with group at Big River.  Nice, chilly evening to do group run.  Wanted to get a little extra in, so jogged a couple early around the neighborhood before jumping into the actual 7 mile loop.  Ran with John, David, and Heidi and not surprisingly picked up the pace substantially before Robbie basically told me to slow down.  So ran it in easy - much more smart to do so.  7:40's average pace.

Tuesday, December 11th - 6 miles.  Did solo at night, I don't remember this very well but it was slow.  Loop around town - nothing special here.

Wednesday, December 12th - 12 miles (6 miles a.m., 6 miles p.m.).  Happy 12-12-12!  Decided to do 12 miles in honor, so did early out and back on trail (Home Depot), then late night loop around town.  8:15 average pace in the a.m., and I honestly don't remember the p.m. pace at all.

Thursday, December 13th - 6 miles.  Another run I don't remember very well, but did at night.  I don't remember time at all.  I do remember being very aggravated that I missed speedwork due to laziness/procrastination.  My discipline is complete crap right now.

Friday, December 14th - 9 miles.  A much deserved day off work, so got in a nice run in the late morning/early afternoon after a couple hours of errands/cleaning.  6 miles early - out and back towards Troy on the trail, Village Circle loop, then a mile around the neighborhood.  Typical negative split for me, but oh well - it's my speedwork right now.  Played 9 holes of golf, then 3 slow miles later on.  Felt pretty good on my run, and cruised through it even though it was getting warmer.  I can't believe how warm our December has been - 60 degrees, and sunny!  Splits for the earlier part of the run were: 7:38, 7:29, 7:25, 7:06, 6:41, 6:29.  Pushed the last couple miles, but made it through.

Saturday, December 15th - 8 miles.  Broke this sucker up into two runs as well - 6 miles early (out and back towards Troy on the trail) at low 8 minute pace, then 2 miles right before dinner (7:57, 7:51).  Felt really good, but definitely some fatigue at the end of this long week.  Nice dinner with Pat and Crystal at Cleveland Heath, then a wii night at their place - just what the doctor ordered!

Sunday, December 16th - 12 miles (3 up, DASH 4 DAN 5K (10th place - 18:52), 3 down, 3 miles p.m.).  Benefit for a local runner in Megan's parent's town (Bethalto) so we signed up to run for fun.  Sunday afternoon races are definitely not in the norm for me, especially a warmer mid December day.  Was pleasantly surprised to see a crapton of people (kudos to Missouri Running Company for making this event very big - 500+ runners!), so got parked and headed out for a warm up.  Intended on 20 minutes easy, but saw arrows for the course markings, so ran the course to get a lay of the land.  Stretched a bit, then lined up at the start.  No GPS for me today - just my trusty Timex, and going purely by feel instead of psyching myself out with time.  No real time goals, but would have been happy with anything sub 19 minutes.  Right away, I saw that the pace car was going to be an issue (literally 20 feet from us), so had to twist my way to get around everything.  Went out with a group of 10-15 runners, but it quickly got strung out so was working with a younger high school runner for the majority of the race.  Felt ok, but knew we were going pretty fast on the first mile.  Tried to get settled in, and into a rhythm, and successfully so.  Tried to pick off the high schooler, but he outkicked me.  In hindsight, he was slowing down the last quarter to half mile, and I should have pushed then but just couldn't will myself to do so.  Frustrating that I know I left some out there, but pretty happy with the time especially considering I was at the end of my highest mileage week of the year.  I finished 10th overall (damn young-ins) but won my age group.  Bling is always cool to win.  Jogged the course backwards for cooldown, then 3 easy at home.  Legs were pooped!  Total time: 18:52 (5:46, 6:11, 6:10).  62 miles for the week, 127 miles for December, 1867.5 miles in 2012.  Very, very pleased with this week.

Alton Telegraph Cover!

Franklin playing with his new toy

1st 30-39 Men

Post race