Sunday, 10/11/2015 to Saturday, 10/17/2015 - Finish Strong 15K

I ran 4 times this week, 26.7 miles.

Sunday, 10/11/2015: A DeWeaver family picnic

Christine and I decided to invite my children up for a indoor picnic. The logistics of this was a bit complicated by the facts the two of the three don't drive. So Christine and I headed down to Newark to pick up my oldest son, Michael, first and then over to Farmington to pick up my daughter, Karen. We got back just as the Buffalo Bills - Tennessee Titans game started down in Tennessee. My youngest son, David, arrived shortly after. Christine busied herself with getting the grill going, cooking the burgers and setting the table with salads and potato chips. We ate just around halftime. The game looked dire when the Bills were down 0-10. But the Bills scored 2 TDs in the 2nd half along with some large runs by their QB, Tyrod Taylor. The Bills won a nail biter, 14-13, links here and here. David left shortly after. I took Michael and Karen back to their respectively homes.

Meanwhile, runners were out and about being awesome. The Chicago Marathon was held, news link here. Tim Dwyer ran a 3:07:54, link here. The Mohawk Hudson Valley Marathon was held, searchable results of 1143 finishers here. The Towpath Breast Cancer Awareness Ride and Run was held down at Mendon Ponds Park with 10, 25 and 50 mile ride options and a 5K run. The Green Monster 50K was held down in Wellsboro PA, 25K results of 205 finishers here and 50K results of 58 finishers, line here. The GVH Pete Gjavin XC Series #3 was held in Northampton Park, results here. Lots of awesomeness went on for sure!

Monday, 10/12/2015: 9.3 miles; 1:17:55; 8:22 pace, 77F, 30% RH, 8 mph SSW wind, overcast

Garmin Connect Activity for A usual 15K

I needed to run so I got out and ran long after work. I didn't get out early so I put on my reflective vest. Even so I had iffy footing on the drainage culvert/road part of Edgemere Drive and the shoulder of Greenleaf Rd on the way back. I took it nice and easy. My splits were: 8:05, 8:11, 8:15, 8:23, 8:38, 8:14, 8:25, 8:34, 8:31 and 8:38 over the last 0.3 mile. I felt great after the run.

Tuesday, 10/13/2015: Rest day.

Wednesday, 10/14/2015: 6.2 miles, 48:08, 7:46 pace, 54F, 58% RH, 12 mph NNW wind, partly sunny.

Garmin Connect Activity for A quick 10K

I decided to keep this run a bit short. The smart money would have been on nice and easy but ... I went with the "pedal to the medal". It felt good to stretch out and just go for it. My race on Sunday is the Moore Than A Race 10K so this was a practice run for that. I have to defend my 2nd overall finish of 45:33 at 7:21 pace after all. My splits were: 7:44, 7:52, 7:57, 7:45, 7:34, 7:46 and 7:17 over the last 0.2 mile.

Thursday, 10/15/2015 and Friday, 10/16/2016: Rest days.

The usual rest days after a hard run and a race the next day. The weather turned colder for the weekend so I spent a bit of Friday night digging out my cold weather running gear of tights, heavy running gloves and mittens along with changing to my bigger running bag.

Saturday, 10/17/2015: 2 runs, 1.8 and Finish Strong 15K, 37F, 75% RH, 8 mph W wind, wind chill 31F, partly sunny.

It was up early for my second Finish Strong 15K. This was my third 15K race of the year (Spring Forward 15K and the Boilermaker 15K). It was 37F so I put on my CW-X tights, a long sleeve tech, a short sleeve tech, beanie, heavy running gloves and sunglasses.

I Googled the directions to the Grace and Truth SportsPark. It was only 11 minutes away but I still had to turn around and find the park entrance from the other direction. No matter ... I was 50 minutes early for the 9 AM start. I got my bib and met up with Mark Herberger for a bit. I got out for a nice and easy 1.8 mile warmup run at 8:36 pace, link here. I ran up N Greece Rd to Camp Northpoint and turned around. I noticed a flag for a Courage Run 5K that looked like it was also being held.

The race director had a bit of fun with us in his pre-race directions by telling us that there was a dome over Edgemere Drive. I chuckled along with everyone else ... we knew it wasn't true and that the wind always seems to come off of Lake Ontario straight out of Canada.


And .... we were off! I quickly got up to pace and settled in. I could see Mark Herberger about 100 yards ahead for most of the race. Mile 1 passed in 7:08 and mile 5 passed in 37:05. I was in the same group of runners for most of the race ... just going ahead and getting passed back from time to time, no worries. I had a bit of trouble just before mile 5 when I felt I just had to walk for a few seconds. I got back up to speed and just tried to keep the same pace the rest of the way. I noticed that the walkers from the Courage Run 5K were coming towards us when I was running on Frisbee Hill Rd. I had some water from one of their water stops in fact. I caught Mark with about 3/4 of a mile to go on Post Ave. Then it was back on N Greece Rd for 0.4 mile. The finish line was almost in sight ... and done in 1:09:41!  I was parched and had three cups of water before I made my way to the Equinox to change out of my wet long sleeve tech and into a hoodie and Brooks jacket.

This race has a good selection of food afterward. I passed on pizza and had sausage, breaded chicken breast, pulled pork and potato salad instead ... yum! I checked the results that were posted outside the tent. I did pretty well, 20th out of 83 in 1:09:38 officially, 7:28 pace, link here. I was 2nd out of 8 in my M55-59 age group ... a distant 2nd to Kevin Clinefelter's 1:02:02. My splits were: 7:08, 7:16, 7:28, 7:24, 7:49, 7:28, 7:32, 7:22, 7:20 and 7:11 over the last 0.4 mile. I did notice that I ran this race 13 seconds than last year. Take that, father time!

BTW, I checked out the results for the Courage Run 5K, link here. There was quite a battle between the first two guys at 18:03.1 and 18:03.2. Wow ... I wish I could have broken 20 minutes back in 2012!

I went home for some well earned coffee and lots of time putting my feet up. I had another race on Sunday so I rested. I did some looking at my race results spreadsheet and saw that it was my fastest 15K of 2015, I did this race 13 seconds faster than last year and only 28 seconds off my PR of 1:09:15 set at the 2012 Spring Forward 15K. Wow!