Illinois Marathon Relay Recap

Toni Reavis Boston analysis, what a week of racing!, Ryan Hall to do Flying Pig 10K, Meb to pace 1:30 group at RNR San Diego, how Meb won the Boston Marathon, running apps, Liliya is a doper!!!, and the lovely Miss Kara Goucher.

Happy Anniversary to Sir Roger Bannister for being the first man to break the 4 minute mile barrier, 60 years ago!

Saturday, April 26th - 10 miles.  Illinois Marathon relay!  Fun times for our team on a HOT, sunny day.  Colby started us out with the lead with a fast first leg (literally within 1 second of his time last year!), and Kyle nailed his leg before handing off to me.  So I was pretty pumped and took off through downtown Champaign, and was cruising alone before being diverted by a volunteer down a street.  Well, a minute into that road and almost getting smoked by a couple vehicles, it became very evident that I was led in the wrong direction, and turned around and headed back before rejoining the correct path.  Pretty pissed off at that point, and I lost a lot of the lead with this error.  Tried my best to get back into good rhythm, and worked my way through my run and got passed by a few fast marathoners and eventually the 2nd place relay team, much to my chagrin.  My run strategy completely changed to damage control, and tried my best to maintain a manageable gap for Yoch since this guy was faster than me, and I wasn't having the best day.  Handed off to Jon with a 45 second deficit, then headed to the finish area where we would meet up with him.  We found out later that he caught the team within the first mile, then cruised in with us for the victory!  2:44 (estimated my detour cost us 1.5-2 minutes) total, my leg was ~6:40 pace average.

Afterwards, we went back outside to watch Huelsmann finish up - some nervous moments for all of us, as we could track him up to the 20 mile mark where he was still barely on Boston Qualifying pace, and it had gotten significantly warmer as the day went on.  At pretty much the last possible second that we thought he would have before it was too late, we saw him heading towards the stadium before running out there to scream and cheer him on.  After he crossed the finish line at 3:15:08 (BQ for his age group was 3:14:59 or faster), we checked our phones nonstop for his final confirmation time, and finally got the good news when the 3:14:54 flashed across the screen.  BQ by 6 seconds - congrats Mike!!!  Afterwards, a great dinner at Destihl, then chilled out with everybody for a few late night beverages.  Great races by all - congrats to Megan on a solid 10K and Craig on a great half marathon!

Heading into Memorial Stadium

Big River Running Representation

Post race posing

Champs!

Sunday, April 27th - 0!  Travel day home, then spent the rest of the day pretty much recuperating.  Very tired, and legs were a little sore.  37 miles this week, 127 miles in April, 718 miles in 2014.  Ugh.  On a separate note, when looking through my log for April, I saw I missed an entire week of running on my blog (4/14-4/21) - I had 42 miles that week, with my workout being 1.5 miles around a quarter mile loop around Kyle's new place in Schaumberg.

Monday, April 28th - 7.5 miles.  U city group run with big group.  Crystal and I did 3 or so solo running on Delmar towards the Loop and back, and was sweating profusely from the heat/humidity.  Ran back out with a bigger group, and looped all around U City and its evil hills, then Crystal, me, Ryan, and some other dude broke away and finished strong.  My legs were pretty much garbage the entire time, but it was very fun to run with the group and talk about everyone's recent race experiences.  Thanks to Chad for organizing a group dinner at Three Kings on the Loop, afterwards!  We ran for about an hour, which equated to 7:50/mile average pace.

Tuesday, April 29th - 4 miles.  Ran solo out and back towards Troy on the trail.  Felt pretty comfortable, and was nice to knock out as soon as I got home.  Picked it up what I thought was slightly coming in, but definitely negative split.  29:40 total (7:37, 7:43, 7:22, 6:58)

Wednesday, April 30th - 0!  138.5 miles in April, 729.5 miles in 2014.  Not the way I wanted to end April.

Thursday, May 1st - 6 miles.  Ran with Crystal after work.  She talked me into running 40 minutes easy with her and pushing my workout till Friday, and we ended up doing more than the goal workout.  Out and back towards Home Depot, and got a little warm coming back in.  45 minutes, dropped the pace a little coming back.  So much for easy pace, but it did feel pretty good.

Friday, May 2nd - 11 miles (7 a.m., 4 p.m.).  Tempo work with Crystal and Hilary, bright and early in Tower Grove Park.  They enlisted me in helping them pace through their steady state run, and my instructions were to keep them right at 6:45 for the first mile, then work my way down.  We met on the corner of Arsenal and Kingshighway - weather was 50's and overcast, pretty much perfect.  Started out on a narrow path before working out way onto a loop on the inner roads.  Felt pretty comfortable the first 2 miles, but started to get tired and the girls broke away a little past the third mile, where I turned off and headed towards my car since I was only doing 4 miles.  For my efforts on the last mile, I was rewarded with a nasty hill, and just put my head down and kept pushing to finish it out.  26:38 was my total (6:45, 6:31, 6:39, 6:25) - cooled down about 10-15 minutes back to my car.  Not a bad effort for a morning run for me.
In the evening, I met up with Colby at the track and did a couple miles solo, while he was doing his workout.  We cooled down 2 miles together to finish out my mileage for the day.  New shoe day for me!  Caved in and bought a pair of Newton Gravity.  Initial impressions are the shoes are super light (9-10 oz.), and the support seems good.  I bought an older pair of Gravities, and the mid strike foam bump (as described in a previous post when I took them out for a spin during a Run Well clinic) wasn't as pronounced, so it felt pretty comfortable.

Saturday, May 3rd - 8 miles.  Ran with Crystal and Fenley on a warm, sunny morning.  Home Depot trail run and back, and was nice to have good company.  This run was decreed the "band" run, as between Fenley's gurgling guitar-riff stomach, Crystal's drum-like ankle clicks, and my amazing vocals, we had quite the performance!  8 miles was about my limit for the day - definitely feeling the effects of yesterday's mileage/work.  1:01:47 total (~7:43 pace)

Sunday, May 4th - 12 miles.  Troy route on a very hot morning with Crystal.  Because of the impending heat, we got up a little earlier and knocked this one out.  Both of us were tired, so made it a point to keep it right at 8 minute pace, which felt very comfortable.  1:35 total.  48.5 miles this week, 37 miles in May.  Back on track!

Monday, May 5th - 4 miles.  Ran solo at home, later in the evening.  It was pretty warm during the day, but cooled down at night.  Kept it comfortable, since I was tired, but dropped the pace as I kept going - always a good sign.  30:48 total - splits were: 8:14, 8:00, 7:30, 6:58.

Tuesday, May 6th - 5 miles.  Track workout with Megan on a breezy, wonderful evening.  The workout tonight was 5 x 1K at 5K effort (3:45 goal splits (6:00 min/mile pace)).  I haven't been sleeping well, and my legs were a little pooped so didn't feel so hot starting out, but it helped tremendously to be "distracted" with working with Megan on talking her way through her workout.  Before I knew it, I was on the home stretch, and was in a great rhythm.  Pleased with this workout, and hopefully a sign of things to come.  Splits were: 3:40, 3:41, 3:42, 3:39, 3:35.

Easy running the rest of the this week. Colby, Megan, and I are running a local 5K in O'Fallon on Saturday for fun/workout.