Berlin Marathon Recap

Kara, Kara, more Kara, celebrities running the New York Marathon, and Tatyana rules.

Tue-Thur: 12 miles

Friday, September 26^th – 0!  Travel day to Germany.  4:15 a.m. bus to Springfield, then transferred to a train which took me to Chicago where I met Tim.  We had an hour to kill or so before the flight to Europe, so grabbed lunch with my sister and headed to the airport.  Roughly 6 hour flight to Dublin, before we connected to Berlin and made our way to the hotel via subway.  The international connections were very quick and easy, unlike the U.S., and the stress of travel was at an all-time low.  Public transportation in Germany is fantastic, and reminds me of the New York system which is very efficient with stops all over the city.  Finding our stop on a map, however, was a huge problem as we more or less had to play “Where’s Waldo” on a map full of long, German names to find “Tiergarten” which is a burrough where our hotel was located.  We eventually made our way to the hotel and checked in, and traveled to the expo to pick up our race numbers and do a little shopping before our friend Josh met up with us.  The expo was located a few subway stops over, and is located in an old airport hanger.  The expo itself wasn’t very exciting, and we picked up all the necessary stuff and a few souvenirs before making our way outside the hanger which had many food/beverage/vendor exhibits awaiting us.  Had an Erdinger Weissbeir and talked with some runners, and hung out for awhile and soaked in the atmosphere.  I think that’s one of the coolest parts of participating in these marathons – the stories people have, the races they have done, etc.  Finished up, met up with Josh at the hotel, then headed out to dinner in Berlin where we grabbed an authentic German dinner and walked around town a bit to do some minor sightseeing. 

Sunrise from the train to Chicago

Hello Germany!

Waiting for subway to hotel

Our home for the next few days

Could be trouble later...

Expo!

Walking towards exhibitors

Outdoor expo after you wind through inside

Outdoor exhibit

The expo was actually an old airport hanger

Prost!

Inside the expo - nothing too crazy

Brandenburg Gate replica

The Majors

Posing with Tim at the "finish line"

Saturday, September 27^th - ~3 miles.  Quick shakeout jog with Tim around our hotel.  We ran down the crowded streets through a little market (people set up selling various clothing items, trinkets, paintings, toys, basically anything you can think of), before turning off and hitting some side streets behind us.  Little did we know that we were running on the exact marathon route, so was pleasantly surprised the next day.  Weaved around some of the stores/car dealerships, and looped around before getting slightly lost.  Not a good thing when you don’t know the street names of anything, nor have a phone.  Luckily, we found the subway line, and followed it back since the subway stop for Tiergarden (the borough we were staying at) was literally next to our hotel.  Felt very sluggish, and we didn’t go fast at all.  Can’t imagine doing low 7 minute pace, when high 8’s don’t feel good, but a lot of that may be from the long travel.  Spent the day doing some sight-seeing around Berlin.  Josh loves to explore cities when he travels, so we let him plan the day and gave him explicit instruction to cut off any sight-seeing for us by 5 p.m. so we could get prepped for the race.  Some highlights of our visit were the Berlin Wall, checkpoint Charlie, the Berlin Bundestag (parliament building – VERY cool!), the Berlin Holocaust exhibit which was very sobering, the Brandenburg Gate (sooo impressive to see in person), Potsdamer Platz which is a very cool urban area in the center of Berlin, the Gendarmenmarkt which had some stunning views of the French and German Cathedrals (we stopped and had a beer on the plaza – so chic of us!) and the Konzerthaus Berlin, where the Berlin Symphony played.  I’m sure there is plenty I am missing, but the city of Berlin is absolutely amazing.  I was so impressed from top to bottom.  Could have spent so much more time here exploring.

The Spree which flows through Berlin at multiple points

Right outside the German Parliament - I think their constitution is written on these glass walls

Outside German Parliament Building - this is also the marathon finishers meetup area 

Brandenburg Gate

Checkpoint Charlie and part of the Berlin Wall

A crazy way to see the city

Holocaust Exhibit and the Berlin Wall

Kaiser Wilhelm Church

The bear - symbol of Germany

Alexanderplast

Alexanderplast biergarden

Gendarmenmarkt Square

Big River For Life

Sunday, September 28^th - ~27 miles (41^st BMW BERLIN MARATHON 3:10:59).  What a day!  Woke up with some major back pains, and started to panic a bit and spent some time doing heavy stretching and a couple yoga poses to loosen up.  Sight seeing around Berlin the day before the marathon was probably not a good idea in hindsight.  Walked to the start with Tim, which was roughly 15-20 minutes away, and had to walk through a forest (no bullsh*t) to check in bags and get into our corral.  The morning was sunny and very cool, and had some concerns about the temps (high was 68 and sunny all day) but dismissed for the meantime since it was borderline chilly on our walk to the start.  The whole start ambiance was pretty awesome – not as many spectators at that location, but a parade of runners are on the street, ready to do battle.  Right before our wave started, the race organizers played “Sirius” by the Alan Parsons Project – this is the song that the Chicago Bulls play during their player introduction, and one of my favorite songs of all time and one that I use frequently to pump me  up.  At that moment, I knew this race would be ok, and the Running Gods may be looking at me favorably.  We faced the Siegessaule Victory Column (a sight to see in person and roughly a quarter mile or less away from the start line), and we wrap around it before heading past our hotel and working our way around the Tiergarten burrough.  Basically, the race route replicated Tim and I’s run the day before, and the majority of the run was pretty familiar given our extensive sightseeing the day before.  This was a great thing, as I had many positive vibes from recognizing all the areas.  Started out a bit too fast out of the gate due to sheer adrenaline, and settled into low 7 minute pace which more or less felt like a jog.  Was trying my best to control myself and settle in with some runners, but was tricky finding people to run with since there were no defined pace groups and people were running all over the place, pacewise.  It was a bit of a mess, as the first few miles were completely packed and did a lot of weaving in and out of runners.  The course had 0 mile markers, and had kilometer markers which was actually a great thing since they went by so fast (42 markers!).  Coach Kyle and I had planned for this, and set a target of hitting 4:30 KM (translates to around 7:15 pace), so the conversions were very easy to do as I was running.   I found a few people to pace off of that would eventually fall off, and worked my way through the course with no major issues. 

The calm before the storm

Walking to the start

To the start corrals we go

 

One of the coolest starts ever

Here we go!

Run around the Berlin Victory Column during the first mile

Cruising right along

Homage to the greatest

Split high 1:33 at the half, and really was trying to control myself as my legs just wanted to take off.  Felt very composed and relaxed at that point, and had visions of me crossing the finish line with a crazy PR.  The congestion never really went away, as streets were packed with runners and was impossible to do any tangents.  The water stations were a complete circus, as no one was using any etiquette whatsoever and I lost some valuable time trying to get hydrated throughout the course.  Right around the 30K mark, started to feel some fatigue but shrugged it off and kept going.  My pace started to slow down (like a car running out of gas) and started to freak out a bit, but told myself to stay as relaxed as I could.  Soon after, I picked it back up naturally and reestablished my focus on the race, 1K at a time.  At the 35K mark, my body started to straight up shut down and flirt with the dreaded wall, and became pretty concerned as I was starting to physically have issues:  my feet were aching quite a bit, and my quads were shot at this point, and my marathon shuffle was at its all-time high since my stride length was basically 2 feet at this point.  The course had actually been pretty shaded up to this point, but the temps were getting warm in the open areas and we were exposed to the bright sun towards the end.  Made the decision to back off pace a little bit, and got slightly comfortable over the next few miles, if you could call it comfortable.  I guess a lot of the people around me were having problems too, as I didn’t really get passed by many people and focused all my attention on the crowd support and finishing this damn race.  I officially fell off 3:10 pace around the 23^rd mile, and thought that 3:12 finishing time was looking likely which was acceptable and within my range of 3:10-3:15.  With 2K to go, starting doing the math in my head and realized I could hit 3:10 with a good finish, and really tried to get my head straight despite the pain.  Weaved through the streets, then eventually made the turn where the Brandenburg Gate was visible.  That damn behemoth structure looked a freaking mile away, and I gritted my teeth and picked the pace up for the final straightaway.  I knew the finish was a little past the Gate itself, and pressed onwards before I started whatever kick I had left.  There would be no victory stroll here, and kicked the last 100 meters to hit 3:10 and a grin that wouldn’t leave my face for the rest of the trip J

Met up with my friend Larry at the finish, then ran over to the family meeting area to see Josh and wait for Timmy to finish and meet up.  He ended up running his second best marathon ever (3:54), and we more or less celebrated the day away.  What a fun time!

The Kick for 3:10

Freeze frame from my race video

Gorgeous day for a marathon!

Hail to the Victors!

Post race celebration

Larry and I

Rehydrating on the Spree

Here is an excerpt from my email to Coach Kyle, almost directly after the race – excuse the redundancies, but captures more detail and my emotions at that given second.  This is what happens when I update this 3 weeks after the race, when I’ve forgotten some of the details:

Pretty excited with the results, and had many doubts but thought that 3:10-3:15 was realistic after the good last 4 weeks I had (workouts, KT82, McKendree half, and 10k).  The pace felt so easy for the first 15-16 miles, and was seriously holding back until I started to get tired for the last 5 miles or so.  I think I could have pushed it a little more, but was trying to be smart and not completely blow up and walk the last 4 miles.  Last 3-4k was a mental struggle, and it was more about survival and finishing strong.  I thought 3:10 was lost but did the math and had to kick hard to break 3:11 - my bib actually popped off during that time (all arms at that point) so I prob won't have any finish line pics lol

I wish they had a better system for the water stations. It was a complete cluster f*ck.  And the worst part is most of the runners around me are relatively fast and I'm sure have had prior race experience, so you would think they would at least signal or show some etiquette.  I def lost some time there crashing into people at almost every water stop and slowing down a ton.  And I ran the tangents horribly - garmin had 26.84 for me, I think (7:06 avg pace). Eek!  Tried to cut all the corners but the roads were so damn congested that I did a sh*t ton of weaving.  If I cut that down 0.2, that's almost 1-2 minutes right there...

I'm starting to see the results from the last year or so.  It's exciting to me, and definitely is keeping me motivated.  I hope to keep up this momentum through the winter so we can rock next year.  This block will probably go down as one of my favorite training blocks of all time.  I was definitely fit to run a good marathon, and couldn't be more pleased with the results.  It's been too long since I last ran a marathon, and your workouts were great and I never felt mentally burnt out which has been a problem for me the last couple years.  I need to get down in the low 170s for next year, and I think you'll see some really good results then :). And yes, you need to come to London and Tokyo - those trips would be epic.  Thinking London 2016 - next year may be a little hectic with potential wedding :)

Quick Takeaways:

Course: Very, very fast.  Roads were dead flat, and there were a lot of turns but nothing overly sharp.  There are a crap ton of people to run with, so wasn’t overly difficult to work with a group, albeit there were still some varying paces.  Relatively scenic, and no dead areas.  Very shaded for the most part.  I can see why the times here are so fast every year.  They need to fix their water station problems though – they had a big table full of water cups, then followed by the volunteers handing out the water.  I would consider reversing that order and figuring out a better system for spreading out the runners, which were queuing heavily at all the water stations.  The cups were tiny, and difficult to grab in the mobs around the water stations.  No Gatorade either – they had some sort of tea, which tasted ok but not what I was looking for nor expecting.  All in all, one of the most favorite courses I have ever ran on – very easy to get through, and went by so fast!  Grade: A+

Crowds: Full as expected, but not overly loud.  There were bands all over the course, and they were rocking!  Crowds were mainly polite and respectful.  They definitely had the numbers, but not the roars you hear in Chicago and New York.  Grade: B+

Weather: Lucked out, as the high of 68 didn’t really affect us too much.  Maybe at the end, but was almost done anyways and was dumping water on my head to cool off, which worked.  The marathon always seems to luck out with great weather, and this year wasn’t any different.  The sun is an evil, evil, evil thing.  Grade: B+ (overall)

My Race: Probably should have been more disciplined with holding it back (was a little fast at the half, but mainly from the first 5k), but felt so good for the first 18 miles or so.  My missed August workouts probably came back to haunt me a little, as I was struggling a bit more than I should have at the later parts.  Should have worked more with GU as my stomach was having issues later on (no bathroom breaks, thank goodness), but was physically uncomfortable at some parts.  Other than all that, I was pretty happy.  I really didn’t know what to expect, and had a decent training block – not my best, but solid.  I gave myself a chance to do well, and that’s the most I could have asked for at this point.  I missed every time goal that Coach Kyle set for me but finished in the top 2300 overall and given the extra distance I ran and temps, I ran a PR effort for this race, and had to grind to hit 3:10 which I did (barely).  Grade: A- (given all factors considered). 

 

I need to learn how to run a tangent

Report Card

My reintroduction to the marathon was deemed successful by me, my worst critic.  Very happy overall, and know I have more to give next time I do this.  52 miles this week, 209.5 miles in 2014, 1762.5 miles in 2014.  

Monday, September 29^th – 0!  Early train ride to Munich, and didn’t really have much time to get in a run since we were trying to knock out a few errands and get over to Oktoberfest.  Our hotel is roughly a 5 minute walk from the fairgrounds, so very convenient.  Walked over, did some exploring, and joined the locals for some beer drinking and celebration!  Oktoberfest was all I thought it would be, and more.  It’s more or less a gigantic carnival with massive beer tents in between.  Each tent is decorated accordingly by its beer sponsor, and holds roughly 3,000-5,000 drunk people.  All these people are dressed in lederhosen and dirndls, and the bands play a lot of German and American music, actually.  We all sat crammed in picnic tables, and drink a ton of Oktoberfest beer and make friends with everyone around us.  Quite the sight to see!

 

Arriving in Munich via bullet train

Gorgeous church on our way to Oktoberfest

Sooo close...

Dressing like the locals

First authentic brat!

The beer tents

Spaten tent

Prost!

Somehow, the day quickly turned to night

One last stop in the Paulaner tent

Tuesday, September 30^th - ~2 miles.  Morning run around the Oktoberfest fairgrounds.  Josh had somehow (I say “somehow” very sarcastically) lost his wallet, so took the opportunity to run back to the scene of the crime and see if we could pick up any clues.  Quite amazing transformation of the thousands of people scattered around a few hours ago, to complete silence and a few workers cleaning up and setting up for the next day of craziness.  We hadn’t realized how big the fairgrounds were, nor how many beer tents there actually are in Oktoberfest!  Did a painful loop around, and managed to squeeze out a couple miles.  My quads were pretty shot, and tough to get anything more than a painful shuffle going.  Any slight inclination on the road was brutal, as I think I was lifting my foot about 1” off the ground and was constantly tripping on everything due to the soreness of my legs.  After getting back and planning for the worst (cancelling credit cards, us withdrawing euros for the rest of Josh’s trip,etc.), we found his wallet stuffed in Tim’s lederhosen (don’t ask) and all was suddenly well!  The hangover was gone, and our legs didn’t feel as bad.  We weren’t as sleepy and groggy, and it was time to celebrate!  And celebrate we did…  211.5 miles in September, 1764.5 miles in 2014.  Solid

 

People watching in Oktoberfest

Hobrauhaus

One of the best chickens I have ever tasted

Liter mugs for the festival

Yep

Wednesday, October 1st - ~4 miles.  Bad idea to celebrate like we did.  Early flight which meant an early wake-up call and packing and an early cab ride to the airport, with virtually 0 sleep and operating at roughly 10% function.  Somehow arrived in Dublin, checked in, then did a long shake out run around the city.  Our hotel was alongside a river on lower O’Connell street, right across from the infamous Temple Bar District.  So we got out, and ran alongside the river, through some crazy congestion of people before it opened up and could keep a consistent but slow pace going.  Ran through Trinity College, which .  My initial sense of Dublin was a lot different than I thought – pretty worn down, overly congested, and borderline dirty.  Not the country-side old town feel I was expecting.  Quads still hurt, but making some progress.  Slooooow pace – I think we ran 1 sub 10 minute mile.  At night, we hit the Temple Bar district, and tried out all the different pubs/bars.  Quite honestly, not terribly different than American watering holes, but we were in a more touristy location.  More to explore tomorrow…

View from O'Connell Bridge

Trinity College

Cool statue by our hotel

First Irish pub!

Temple Bar District

Acclimating ourselves in the friendly neighboring waterholes

Thursday, October 2nd – ~4 miles.  Ran through the city, and did some good old fashioned exploring.  We hit up a few different areas, and explored some of the cathedrals and churches of Dublin.  Absolutely amazing to see buildings that are centuries old, and see the nuances of the city that you would miss if driving in a cab or bus.  Highlight of the day was our visit to the Guinness factory, and an amazing view of the city from their 7^th story Gravity Bar!  At night, we stumbled around the north end of Dublin, and found a few local establishments which gave us more of an idea of the actual culture of the people. 

 

St. Patrick's Cathedral

Private tour

Our knowledgable host

Slainte!

Catholic Cathedral

Best place in Ireland

Dublin at night

Unrequited Love

Friday, October 3rd – 0!  Woke up early, but didn’t make it out with Tim who was souvenir hunting by our hotel, before our flight.  Long travel day home, which included a plane, taxi, train, bus, and car ride.  On top of all our delays, our bus hit a deer at 1 a.m. – just lovely.  Amazing the lay down in my own bed again, and see my beautiful fiancé and Franklin!

 

Happy that Daddy is home

Saturday, October 4^th – 5 miles.  Ran solo on trails towards Troy, and Village Circle loop.  This was my first run going at a “regular” effort, and made it a point not to check my watch until the first mile beeped.  Legs felt a little tired, but pushed my way to the trail entrance.  7:09 – oops, so much for an “easy” run.  Scaled back a ton, and got locked in and enjoyed the gorgeous fall day.  I love running in this weather – just perfect.  7:37 average pace total, felt very nice.

Sunday, October 5^th - ~8 miles.  Went down to Mo Cowbell Marathon with Crystal to spectate the race and cheer on the many friends we knew who were running.  Did some mileage with Tim on the course, then looped back and ran a couple miles with Megan as she finished out.  Spectated some of the finer runners in the area tear it up on a perfect running day, then went out to escort Craigers on his BQ quest.  Made my way to the Katy Trail and started running out, and almost passed him – I knew he was shooting for 3:30, but expected around 3:35 out of him so was super pumped to see he was well on pace.  Ran him in, and was pretty jacked to see him qualify for Boston by almost 10 minutes (3:30:01 PR)!  Congrats to all runners, especially Yoch and Colby.  Jon ran 2:49 PR for the marathon, and Colby ran 1:19 PR for the half – great times on a great day!  23 miles this week, 21 miles in October, 1785.5 miles in 2014.

 

Go Craigers!

Monday, October 6^th – 4 miles – I don’t remember this one, just have it logged.

 

Thoughtful gift from my coworkers!

Tuesday, October 7^th - 6 miles.  Ran with Yoch over in his neck of the woods, and did a Maryville loop.  His legs were still pretty shot from his extraordinary marathon effort, so more or less went nice and easy.  Nice evening to run, and felt pretty smooth.  ~8:30 pace overall.

Wednesday, October 8^th – 6 miles.  I don’t remember this one.

Thursday, October 9^th – 4 miles.  Ran with Clint and Crystal bright and early, and did a loop around the neighborhood before out and back on Old Faithful, which is open again!  Felt nice and smooth, and the great company made this run go by pretty quickly.

Friday, October 10^th – 0!  Travel day to Chi, and just slept through the alarm for an early run.  With the shorter days with sunlight, it’s difficult to get up in the mornings!  Late night dinner at one of my favorite Chicago restaurants, Table 52.  Chef Art Smith is well known for his comfort food, and I had his fried chicken, which was the first time I had had fried chicken in probably 5 years.  We also ordered multiple orders of his famous oven baked three cheese mac and cheese, which is sinfully good.  Almost had a heart attack from all the bad food, but it would have been well worth it – soooo delicious!

Heart attack waiting to happen but so worth it!

Saturday, October 11^th - ~9 miles.  Lakeshore run with Anne and Ben on an absolutely perfect day.  Ran north on Lakeshore and back for 3 miles, before continuing on south by myself.  Ran to around Navy Pier and turned back, and was picking up the pace coming in without much effort.  So the run became an impromptu cutdown, and ended up hitting the last mile in 6:50.  Felt pretty smooth for the most part, and nice to get some faster movement going.  Started out in 8:15’s, dropped to 7:50’s, then last 3 miles were 7:30, 7:20, 6:50.

 

Home away from home

Sunday, October 12^th - ~5 miles.  Happy Chicago Marathon Day!  Went downtown super early, and got hooked up with an athlete/coach’s pass which let me go inside the ropes.  Met up at the Hilton in Grant’s Park (right next to start/finish), then rode over to the elite tents and more or less hung out with the athletes and coaches and watched them all warm up and prepare for the battle that awaited them.  Pretty awesome to watch the runners up close and personal, and very nice to have a tent literally 100 feet from the start line!  Because of the massive street blockages due to increased security, had to run through Grant Park to Lakeshore and more or less tempo it around the city, across the river, then through the city so I could meet up with Coach Kyle and Schlegel, who were downtown watching the race.  The race was about to start in 5 minutes, and I had to get moving!  It was a solid 2-3 miles, and ran with the runners on the sidewalk a little before the 1 mile mark before weaving around and meeting up with those guys.  This was my first time actually spectating downtown, and it was quite the spectacle from the other side and I have a hell of a lot more respect to the spectators for the running around they have to do to see us at specific points.  Great morning to run, albeit a little windy but ran to a few points downtown before heading to the finish, right before the dreaded Roosevelt hill before the finish.  We didn’t see a course record, but a hell of a performance by Eliud Kipchoge who dropped a 4:30 25^th mile to separate from the pack and finish in 2:04:10!  And he was smiling the entire way – absolutely insane!  A big congrats to all the local runners who finished out, especially my buddy Gabe who rocked out the mother of all negative splits (1:30/1:26), and my buddy Ken who PRed during his 26.2 mile training run in preparation for the Naperville Marathon!  Fun day with a lot of running in between, and definitely got me pumped up and excited to run again!  34 glorious miles this week, 55 miles in October, 1819.5 miles in 2014.

Elites at the hotel

Fast women

The start

Eventual champion

Getting ready

Bekele brothers

Game face from Kenenisa

Strides

Lead pack

Blazing by in the first 5K

Cruising

Monday, October 13^th – 0!  Rained all day, and opted to go to the Rams/49ers Monday Night Football game.  Legs feel antsy, so sort of regret not going.

Tuesday, October 14^th – 6 miles.  Ran with Mike late at night for some easy mileage.  Misty and cool, and starting to adjust to the shorter days.  Felt nice and easy, and we picked it up coming in.  Ran out and back on the trails to Troy – fun, fun.  Total time was 48-50 minutes, total.

Wednesday, October 15^th – 6 miles.  Ran with Yoch around the neighborhoods in Maryville.  We met up after work at his house, and looped around at a conservative pace – his legs were still a bit trashed from the marathon. 

Thursday, October 16^th - ~4 miles.  Late, late run due to a late NLCS game.  Started at almost 11 p.m., and did my first official workout post Berlin.  10x1 minute on, 1 minute off, and did on my 270 loop and the streets of Glen Carbon.  Because of the time, I did only a half mile warmup and cooldown, and wanted to add some variety to the terrain which is why I ran on the hillier 270 loop.  The effort was at 5K pace (~6:00 min/mile), and after calculating the distances ran, I think I was pretty close.  Nice, cool evening to get the legs moving – I LOVE fall running!

Friday, October 17^th – 6 miles.  I don’t remember this, but logged in my files.

Saturday, October 18^th – 0!  Kyle and Tracy were in town visiting, and completely crapped out on running altogether.  Poor excuse, I know.

Sunday, October 19^th – 12 miles.  Ran 6 with Coach Kyle on a weird loop on the trails (Home Depot route), then did 6 solo on the trails, out and back towards Troy later in the afternoon.  Mid to low 8 minute pace overall, and was getting a little tired at the end but probably because I am running consistently again.  34 miles this week, 89 miles in October, 1853.5 miles in 2014.

Monday, October 20^th - ~6.5 miles.  Creve Couer Park run with Crystal over lunch.  Very sunny and a slight breeze, and it ended up being a very warm day.  Felt pretty good for the most part, and we were threatening to drop to a fast pace but kept it pretty honest with the help of my trusty Garmin.  I forget how nice CC is, and should utilize more – it’s only 10 minutes from work and lots of people are usually out and about, which is nice to have company from time to time.  50 minutes total.

Tuesday, October 21^st – 6 miles.  Forest Park run with Joe Lyons on a perfect evening.  We did the reverse loop (up Skinker, down dinosaur hill) and more or less was cruising.  Was getting a little tired at the end, but mainly because we were in the process of negative splitting every mile (I have decreed this type of a run, the “Sullentrup run”).  We started at high 7’s, but finished at high 6’s – did not feel the best at the end, but it got done and the conversation made the run/pain go by pretty quickly.  It’s scary that I did a marathon in low 7 minute pace roughly 3 weeks ago, but mid 7’s feels uncomfortable right now.  Am I really that much out of shape again???  45 minutes and some change, overall.

Wednesday, October 22^nd - ~6.5 miles.  Hill Workout and did with Mike over in Troy.  He had scouted the area and found a decent hill in a neighborhood, roughly 2 miles away so we headed there later in the evening.  The goal was to do 10 repeats at tempo effort, and we decided on 45 seconds since that seemed ok after the first couple reps.  We measured from street light to street light, and used that for our start/finish.  Jogged back down with a small rest in between reps, and we hammered them out.  Outside of the first rep (43 seconds), we were between 45-47 for the rest so was happy with the consistency.  The rep was roughly 0.12-0.13 according to Garmin, so we were hitting ~6:08 pace, which was a bit faster than the tempo goal pace.  We were more or less running at 5K pace, but the turnover felt great and was relaxed more or less the entire way.  Almost got t-boned by a truck on one of the repeats, and had a few close calls with some cars on the way back.  Apparently no driver in Troy will yield to runners, so be warned if you are running through the mean streets of Troy! 

Thursday, October 23^rd – 6 miles

Friday, October 24^th – 4 miles

Saturday, October 25^th – 7 miles (FATHER MCGIVNEY 5K: 18:53, 5^th overall).  Hot, sunny day for a local race in Maryville.  Finally, I was in town to do this race, and we assembled a group to go conquer this event between Yoch, Colby, Crystal, Megan, and I.  70’s and sunny, and was very sweaty after a 2 mile warmup with Colby and Crystal.  Out and back course around the Maryville YMCA – first mile split was literally at the trail entrance, then we ran out and back with the last mile being uphill.  Crystal had a workout, and asked me to help pace her through 6:00 miles for the first 1-2, so we worked together to nail that split.  Backed off a little once we got on the trails, and tried to stay as relaxed as I could and was on good pace through the 2^nd mile (6:14).  The problem was the last mile – we had to climb up a small but steep annoying hill, which was the first stomach punch for me.  We wrapped around the Y parking lot, then headed towards the school which was flat but once we made the turn, we hit a long hill which was the knockout blow.  I climbed what I could, but mentally and physically was gassed as my pace slowed down and finished the race with my tail between my legs.  However, hit my season’s best (albeit slightly short course), and better than I thought I would be considering I’ve done virtually 0 turnover work in awhile.  Cool down with group, then enjoyed a nice day with lunch at Cleveland Heath with Megan and Crystal, and dinner in St. Charles at a wonderful restaurant called Prasino.

Cleaning up

With my favorite fan

Sunday, October 26^th – 12 miles.  4 miles with Yoch on the trails/Crystal’s neighborhood, then group run with Crystal, Mike, Pat, and us.  We did Old Faithful out and back on a gorgeous day, and felt relatively decent given the tough 5K the day before.  Perfect day for company, and the run went by very quickly.  1:39 total, ~8:15 average pace.  48 miles this week, 137 miles in October, 1901.5 miles in 2014.

 

Post long run recovery

Monday, October 27^th – 6 miles. 

Tuesday, October 28^th – 4 miles.  Art Hill repeats with Joe Lyons after work.  We met at Forest Park, and did a 2 mile warmup around the area before doing 5 hill repeats on Mount “Art Hill”.  Tweaked my back after the first rep, and had to shorten my stride a bit to get through the rest.  The top of the hill has the highest incline, and is absolutely murderous – we went with a relaxed effort, and was still pretty brutal.  Definitely a lot of work to be done…

Wednesday, October 29^th – 6 miles.  Solo on the trails – out and back towards Home Depot.  Gorgeous fall day, and took a few quick pictures to capture the moment.  Went out a little faster than usual, and apparently picked it up – my body was leading the charge, and I was trying to hold back.  Felt pretty decent considering the hill workout, but could feel a little tired on the last mile.  43:04 total (7:11 pace) – a little quick for a recovery run.

Thursday, October 30^th – ~4 miles.  Easy run after work in the spitting rain.  Boy it’s gotten a little chilly outside!  Ran out and back on the trail for an easy 30-40 minutes.  Legs were a bit beat up, and my back was screaming.  Tune up appointment with Dr. Clint post run will help.

Headed to Indy tonight for the Indianapolis Monumental Marathon!  I'm running the 5K, and watching our group tear up their races!