Sunday, 4/15/12: Sehgahunda Preview Run #3, 12.96 miles, 2:52:49, 13:20 pace, 60F, cloudy to a light mist, no pain.
Christine and I woke up around 6:20AM to get ready to get down to Letchworth State Park for the Sehgahunda Preview Run #3. We dawdled for a while so we got down there just in the nick of time.
This run was from Check Point #3 (CP3) to CP6 and back. It was 60F or so, humid and a bit windy. So ... I overdressed and wore my Sehgahunda Training LabRat tech shirt, Brooks Racing Team arm warmers, shorts and light gloves. As soon as I walked up, we all started off. I fell into a nice and easy pace as we ran down from CP3. I powered up and down the hills and soon I was at CP4. I was hot so I took off my arm warmers and took a GU. After 3 minutes I was off to CP5 and then CP6. CP6 was a bit farther than I expected so I thought I had missed it until I met runners coming back. I met up with Christine in our car at CP6 for a couple of minutes. I took some water, a Gel, kissed her and headed back down into the woods. I started to hear a light pitter patter noise and realized that it had started to rain ... really a light mist which became a light rain at times. When I got back to CP5 I realized that I really had to take my wet shirt off because my left nipple was getting irritated. So I ran the last 4 miles without my shirt. By this time we had all strung out. I just saw the same three runners ahead of me coming down from each check point and I knew that only one other guy was ahead of them. Soon enough ... well after running for almost 3 hours, I got back to CP3 and stopped. I must say that this section was very rooty, hilly, and rocky. It required every bit of my concentration to keep upright and safe. I talked with one guy who rolled his ankle, did a faceplant and then ran 9 more miles ... he was not too happy about it.
I ate a PB&J sandwich and changed into dry clothes. Christine drove back home. We argued about a mile about her driving until I realized that I was really a horrible side seat driver and just shut my mouth. Hey, I'm a guy ... I like being in control. We stopped at Palmer's Wholesale Foods for spare ribs and browsed at Lori's Natural Foods in the Rochester Public Market in Henrietta on the way back. Christine cooked up the spare ribs with the Sylvia Spare Ribs recipe. The result was typical ... mmm, fall off the bone, delicious BBQ spare ribs!
We watched the final episodes of Battlestar Galactica off the DVR. Christine agreed with my opinion of the final episodes ... unsatisfying. But we did enjoy watching this series with Starbuck, Apollo, the admiral, Roslin, Baltar, Helo, Dr. Cottle, Cally, the hidden four (Sam, Saul Tigh, Galen and Rehka, ) and the fifth, Ellen. Along with the Cylons; Number Six, Boomer, D'Anna, Cavil and the hybrid. Just an intricate web of characters, plot twists and sometime copies!
Monday, 4/16/12: Rest day
Today was a well earned rest day ... and also the Boston Marathon! It was a hot day in Rochester with a high of 86F. It was even hotter out in Boston which affected the multitude of runners out there. I knew several people that ran: Tim Dwyer, 3:19:38; Heather Danielson, 3:48:32; Katie Urbonas, 4:14:07; Wendy Abbott, 4:16:18; Kathy Reardon, 5:10:23 and Steve Levitsky, 5:10:23.
Christine suggested that it was too hot to cook so I went back out to KFC and got a 6 piece meal with a mashed potato side. Mmm ... was that delicious!
Tuesday, 4/17/12: Sehgahunda Training at Cobbs Hill, 5.05 miles, 48:25, 9:34 pace, 50F, partly cloudy, a mild but cold wind, no stops, no pain
Garmin Connect Activity for Sehgahunda Training at Cobbs Hill
I headed down solo to Cobbs Hill for my usual Sehgahunda Training run at Cobbs Hill. I was a bit late because I stopped at Fleet Feet Brighton to sign up the Dirt Cheap series. I caught up with the group and learned about the workout. I did a 8 minute warmup, 3 reps of the stone steps, diagonal and the switchback, followed by a 12 minute cooldown. Just your average hill workout.
Wednesday, 4/18/12: Dirt Cheap #1
I headed down to the Devil's Bathtub section of Mendon Ponds Park for the first Dirt Cheap solo. The traffice was heavy so I didn't get there too early. But I was there just early enough so Boots (head of Sehgahunda Training) could suggest that I needed to get moving since it was only 12 minutes to race time. So I headed out for a short pre run before the race.
Garmin Connect Activity for Pre run before Dirt Cheap #1
Just a nice and easy 0.95 mile pre run before the race to get my legs warm.
I lined up before the race and exchanged pleasantries with fellow runners. The race started ... my plan was to not to run out fast. My phone rang about a mile into the race, I ignored it. I settled into a pace that I could manage and tried to hold on. Running hills fast (Dirt Cheap style) is more than a bit different than running hills slow (Sehgahunda style). I walked the steep hills that I had to walk and manged to hold off some runners. I do believe that we went up the same hill twice but I am not sure. I remember that Boots was standing at the top of a steep hill taking our picture. I finished strong ... running up the infamous stairs.
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| Gritting my teeth and digging for the finish! |
Garmin Connect Activity for Post Run after Dirt Cheap #1
I changed out of my wet tops into a sweatshirt. Then I listened to Heather Danielson and Kathy Reardon talk about their Boston Marathon experiences. The usual post race raffle was next. I won the last and best prize ... the Salomon trail shoes! Woo-hoo! I did OK in the race itself. I was 50th out of 286, link here. I was 5th out of 19 in my M50-54 age group, link here. Bill Beyerbach mentioned that he thought I ran it faster this year than last year. I ran DC#1 in 4.61 miles at 9:07 pace last year and 4.74 miles at 8:40 pace this year. He was right!
I went home expecting a luscious BLT waiting for me. Well ... due to a failure in communication Christine thought I had already eaten. My darling went to the freezer, pulled out the frozen bacon, cooked up the bacon and made us BLTs! It took a while but by 10:30PM we were eating luscious BLTs ... mmm! Meanwhile we caught up on a couple episodes of NCIS off the DVR. A late night but sweet!!
Thursday, 4/19/12: Rest day.
Christine and I had a nice stretch after I got home from work. Then we proceeded to do our laundry which had piled up for about three weeks. A late night ensued as we caught up on the rest of the NCIS episodes off the DVR.
Friday, 4/20/12: Rest night.
I know I was supposed to run ... but Christine and I decided that I needed to rest and carbo-load instead. I have a lot of running this weekend. The Muddy Sneaker 20K is tomorrow morning plus we want to fix our 2000 Cavalier's A/C this weekend. This will involve runs to and from our auto mechanic's house (3.5 miles minimum distance one way plus whatever I tack on).
Saturday, 4/21/12: Lots of running.
Christine and I got up at 6AM to get ready to drive down to Naples for the Muddy Sneaker 20K. The drive took an hour, then we drove up and up Parish Hill Rd to the start. We got there around 8:20AM ... in plenty of time. The weather was 45F, light rain and calm winds. It was a bit dreary but lots better than last year!
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| Just before the start ... |
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| Waving as I go by up the hill from the start ... a long way to go! |
I picked up my packet and got ready, just some stretches. Christine elected to stay in the car. This race attracted some serious trail runners. The race started on the road for 1/2 mile then into the woods for some rooty, rocky, muddy fun until mile 3ish.
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| The dancing chicken! |
The dancing chicken at mile 3 signaled us onto loads of double track jeep trails. Up, up until mile 5 (we were running into either fog or clouds), then down, down until mile 6, then back up, up until mile 7.5. We saw the dancing chicken again at mile 7. Then back into the woods for more rooty, slippery, muddy, singletrack downhill fun for a long ways. We broke out for a bit then at mile 9 ran down a long, very steep downhill until we crossed a creek at mile 10.25 (the lowest part of the course at 853 feet). Then it was a walk up a very steep hill until we broke out into a double track jeep trail that led uphill to the finish. My Garmin will tell you I ran between 753 and 1899 feet and ran 2210 feet in elevation. I can tell you that I ran a lot of long ups and downs.
I crossed the finish in 2:08:11, which was a 6:50 minute PR, link here. I was 11th out of 33 in my M50-59 age group. Sweet! I was drenched and tired but done! My Sehgahunda Training on hills really helped me on the long uphills. I chowed down on some pizza with some hot chocolate. Then I called for Christine to bring the car closer ... I knew that I needed a warm change of clothing and really didn't want to walk a 1/2 (OK, 1/4) mile to the car. Getting out of my wet clothes into dry clothes was quite a struggle but worth it. The SmartWool socks in the swag bag helped since I had forgotten to bring a change of socks!
While I was out running in the rain my darling Christine had spent her time calling hotels down near Letchworth State Park. She had booked us into a bed and breakfast named the Genesee Valley Inn in Portageville on Sehgahunda Trail Marathon weekend, aka Memorial Day weekend. Christine drove home and made sure that she hung up all my wet clothes and fed me. She is such a sweetheart! We had some lunch and just lazed around.
Garmin Connect Activity for Russell's House to Home
But ... I had made an appointment with our auto mechanic, Russell, to get the A/C in our car repaired. So that meant driving out to Russell's house and running the 3.5 miles back. I was a bit creaky at first but got into a groove and ran a 8:11 pace back. It was still 43F, light rain and still calm.
We just kind of lazed around. Christine went to bed early. I just stayed up and puttered around while I watched Iron Man 2 off of Netflix.
