Sunday, 5/31/2015 to Saturday, 6/6/2015 - McMullen Mile and Webster Trail Classic

I ran 6 times this week, 23.71 miles.

Sunday, 5/31/2015: Rest day

My darling wife, Christine, and I just lazed most of the day. We did do a bit of unpacking but not enough to really notice. I did unpack my short sleeve and long sleeve tech shirt into the 2nd bedroom. It looks that this bedroom will morph into the stash for my running stuff.

I ran xx times this month for only 82 miles. I have run xx times this year for xx miles. So ... my 20 month streak of running at least 100 miles per month is over. I could use the fall at Mind the Ducks and moving to Greenleaf Meadows for an excuse but I won't. I still have opportunity to get out there and get it done but chose not to so ... time to start a new streak.

Monday, 6/1/2015: Rest day.

I was hobbled today by muscle aches two days after the Ontario Summit Trail Race. I have found that my body aches the worst two days after a major running event. Christine made a lot of progress in the living room ... we can actually see floor! Now ... if we could just find our plates and flatware. I have a feeling that they are in the ... basement.

Tuesday, 6/2/2015: 11 miles, 1:31:17, 8:17 pace, 63F, 55% RH, 8 mph E wind, mostly sunny

Garmin Connect Activity for A nice 11 mile loop

I dilly-dallied like usual but eventually said "Runs don't get done by themselves". I got dressed, got ready and got out there. I am still exploring run loops and figured out this one on www.mapmyrun.com. It was a bit long so I ran a bit hard for the first 8 miles and then slowed it down a bit for the rest of the way. My splits were: 8:00, 8:04, 8:07, 8:10, 8:01, 8:16, 8;34, 8:46, 8:48 and 8:25. The only part I didn't like was the bike path part. The path is pretty windy and bikes can come upon a runner or walker quite quickly.

Wednesday, 6/3/2015: Rest day.

I thought about running but I was still sore from running last night. I found out that the blue Brooks Adrenaline GTS running shoes that I ran on were old ones with plenty of mile ... not the new ones. No wonder my legs felt like crap. So .. no run on National Running ay for me. So I unboxed most of my running stuff in the 2nd bedroom. I found out out that I have at least 64, yes 64 short sleeve tech shirts. I still have another box to unbox too. Wow!

Thursday, 6/4/2015: Rest day.

Christine found the flatware during the day. I went through the boxes in the basement to look for the dishes. I found a couple of small unlabeled boxes that had stuff packed in newspaper and brought them up. I continued sorting boxes downstairs until I had either looked in each box or looked at what was labelled on them. Christine had found some more glassware and a few more small dishes in one of the boxes when I got back upstairs. Maybe the other box has our dinner plates!

The 2015 Rochester Marathon and Half Marathon course has been set, news link here, half map link here and full map link here. It looks gnarly for a road course ... trust me! It explores the north part of Rochester, the Genesse River Trail, goes up the Thomas Ave hill at mile 8 (for the half and full) and mile 20 (for the full), runs down St Paul St and through the Seneca Park pedestrian bridge. Hills ... truly a Boots designed course!.

Friday, 6/5/2015: 3 runs of 0.75, 0.8 and McMullen Mile of 1.03 mile, 79F, 59% RH, calm, mostly cloudy.

Today was my fourth McMullen Mile. My darling wife, Christine, was supposed to meet up with me but got lost and ending up in Penfield before giving up and going home disappointed. Her phone (and its GPS) died just when she needed it. Anyway ... I got down to the Nazareth College track around 5:15PM in plenty of time for the 6PM start. I found that I was registered for the Masters Elite Men with times less than 6:15. I requested to be put down to the Men less then 8:00 but greater than 6:15 heat. I really didn't want to finish last or close to it. This heat had about 55 runners so I was in the 2nd heat. I had plenty of time to get in two warmup runs of 0.75 at 8:45 pace and 0.8 mile at a faster 8:06 pace, links here and here.

And ... we were off! I started fast but not fast enough for the front. I settled in around 8th or so and just held on as well as I could. Andy Ciaio passed me on lap 2. I passed a few other guys on laps 2 and 3. I settled in behind another guy during lap 4 and then blew by him on the home stretch as I sprinted into the finish ... 6:20.65! I guess that was pretty good for no speedwork what so ever. It's a whole different type of running when you try to run flat out versus running road nice and easy or trail nice and steady. The results from Leonetiming are here. I was 2nd out of 8 in my M55-59 age group, link here. All pictures below were taken by Ron Heerkens Jr, link here.

I could see rain coming out of the west. Two more heats went off before the rain, lightning and thunder came in. I waited around for a bit for it to stop but gave up and went home. I had an early wakeup call the next morning.

Saturday, 6/6/2015: 2 runs of 0.6 and Webster Trail Classic of 9.53 miles, 54F, 71% RH, 15 mph NNE wind, mostly cloudy.

I was up at 5:55AM and puttered around a bit before I woke up my darling wife, Christine, at 6:15AM. I had everything mostly laid out the night before so I didn't take long to get ready for the inaugural Webster Trail Classic. We arrived at Webster Town Park around 7:15AM in plenty of time for the 8AM start. There were a lot of races today: the Airport 5K, the Fast and Furriest (5K and 10K) and the Mendon Mauler (4 mile, 8 mile and 12 mile). I wanted to try something new so I chose this race a couple of months ago before I knew of all the other races. I said "Hi" to the usual trail running group of runners ... Mark Monachino, Andy Ciaio, Prem Kumar, Steve Levitsky, Frank Quattrone and others. It was a bit chilly so close to the lake so ... I put on a long sleeve tech and short sleeve tech to wear. Bad move ... which I did regret a bit later. But I did get out for a 0.6 mile warmup run at 10:44 pace, link here.

And ... we were off! This trail race had a bit of everything ... standing water and mud in the first 1/2 mile, rocks and roots throughout along with a mile or so of rolling open meadow.

This was taken in the first 2 miles before I took off my short sleeve tech - courtesy of Eric Eagan

I settled into a nice and easy trail pace and just rolled with what the trail gave me. I stopped to take off my short sleeve tech around mile 2. Andy Ciaio passed and said "Too hot huh?". I continued onward ... run the ups, run the downs, try to pick up a bit of speed on the flats ... onward. We ran into and out of 3 different parks with plenty of vollies to warn us of traffic. Prem passed me in the last mile and I followed him up a hill where we ran out of flags to follow ... wrong turn so we backtracked down the hill and got back on course.

Just before the finish - courtesy of Eric Eagan

And ... done with 9.53 miles in 1:31:17 at 9:34 pace! My splits were: 10:01, 8:05, 10:25, 10:02, 8:53, 9:31, 9:21, 8:51, 10:04 and 11:29 over the last 0.53 mile. Mark finished in 1:21:28, Andy finished in 1:26:49 and Prem finished just ahead in 1:30:58, Steve finished in 1:35:32 and Frank in 1:39:16. I was 31st out of 123, link here. I was 7th out of 18 in my M50-59 age group.

I headed over to see Christine who was waiting in the Equinox for me to finish. There was a lot of pizza and cookies for post race grub ... mmm! We didn't stick around for the awards since I wanted to head over to Nazereth College to see the rest of the postponed McMullen Mile at 11AM. I watched 2 of the 4 races: the Elite Men (Steve Mangan won in 4:09.34), the Elite Women (Sarah Loerch beat out Amanda White by 0.8 second in 5:11:48).

Then we hit up Bed Bath and Beyond for some stuff that we needed  like seat cushions, dish towels and new sheets and maybe some stuff we didn't but we bought it anyway. Christine made some Lloyds ribs ($5 off at Wegmans) for supper ... mmm!