Sunday, 10/5/2014 to Saturday, 10/11/2014 - Scarecrow 5K & Ready Set Glow

I ran 6 times this week, 22.25 miles. 2 were warmups of 1.7 and 0.75 miles.

Sunday, 10/5/2014: "Slug" day

I contemplated running but didn't so I felt like a slug all day. I felt I needed to rest my right hip which hurt on yesterday's run. I did notice that a lot of people ran the Wineglass Half or Marathon down in Corning. The marathon was a point-to-point from Bath to Corning.

I glanced through the marathon results with 1962(!) finishers: Jason "Jmac" McElwain finished 18th overall in 2:56:22 (BQ), Liz Matthews in 3:05:32, Brian Matthew in 3:07:14, Bill Sandow in 3:30:58, Prem Kumar in 3:32:18, Wilt Alston in 3:54:39. I also glanced through the Half Marathon results with 2473(!) finishers: Bill Crowe in 1:45:12, Mary Crowe in 2:02:50.

I watched the Bills-Lions game with half an eye while I read the newspaper. The Bill had benched their starting QB, E J Manuel, and started their backup QB, Kyle Orton. They got down 0-14 and clawed back to 6-14. The Bills defense continued to hold but not break while the Lions continued to miss FGs. The 4th quarter was exciting. The Bills scored a TD and a 2 point conversion to tie at 14-14. The Lions missed a 50 yard FG with under a minute to go. The Bills took over and hit a 20 yard pass play with 9 seconds to go. Then the Bills kicked a 58 yard FG straight down the middle to win 17-14, link here!

Monday, 10/6/2014: 6.25 miles, 49:29, 7:55 pace, 66F, 49% RH, 6 mph S wind, light mist to light rain.

Garmin Connect Activity for A "Gotta Get Out There No Matter What" run

My darling wife, Christine, needed some hugs when I got home after work so ... I got a late start. It was almost dusk so I rushed ... I put on my reflective belt, grabbed my headlamp and out the door I went. Well ... I got about 50 feet when I realized that the headlamp was very dim and getting dimmer. I got about 1/4 mile when I realized that I had on my old Brook Adrenaline GTS14 running shoes that I had retired with 650 miles. Plus it was a light mist and I was pretty sure that it was going to get worse. Did I turn back? You're darn tooting I didn't! I continued onward. I adjusted my running gait to run more forward and not heel strike which helped the pain in my feet. I had wanted to do a 15K but since the light mist changed to a light rain I modified my run to a 10K instead. I was wet (OK, drenched) ... but it was well earned. I hadn't run in the rain for a bit ... and it felt good! I stripped when I got in the door and a hot shower did feel good! My splits were 7:54, 7:42, 7:57, 8:06, 7:46, 8:03 and 8:00 over the last 0.25 mile.

Tuesday, 10/7/2014: Rest day

Wednesday, 10/8/2014: "Too tired" to run day.

I was up at 5:30AM due to my darling wife, Christine, sawing the wood ... err, snoring. Two days of about 5 or 6 hours of sleep caught up to me and I didn't have the energy to head out for a run after work. If I had got out during the morning before dawn I might have seen the lunar eclipse like some people did who posted on Facebook. I did get to bed early and got a nice 7 hours of sleep.

Thursday, 10/9/2014: 11.2 miles, 1:27:28, 7:48 pace, 57F, 51% RH, 13 mph W wind, partly cloudy

Garmin Connect Activity for A nice long run

Rant: You just gotta love drivers who stop suddenly because they are so afraid of red light cameras. On the way home I was approaching the red light camera at the corner of Lake Ave and W Ridge Rd behind another car in the rightmost lane. I knew the light was getting ready to change since the left turn arrow was on. The light turns yellow. The guy in front of me was about 200 feet from the light and slammed on his brakes! I had to cram mine on and skid to a stop so I wouldn't slam into the back of him! ASSHOLE! You WILL NOT get a ticket unless your rear axle is still behind the stop line when the light turns RED! The yellow light still had 2 more seconds! /Rant.

Anyway ... what a difference a day makes! I wanted to go for a long run so I got home early, had my usual bowl of cereal, changed and headed out around 5:15PM. It was a bit chilly but I didn't need my light gloves or hat. I struck up a nice pace, concentrated on shorter strides and just motored on like a metronome. I kept on my usual 10K route with an added 5K loop plus a mini loop to get to 11. The added 0.2 miles was due to more running while waiting to cross major roads. I carried water but didn't need to drink. My splits were: 7:54, 7:48, 7:43, 7;44, 7:48, 7:49, 7:47, 7:54, 7;56, 7:40 and 7:37 over the last 0.2 mile .. pretty darn regular. Sweet!!

Friday, 10/10/2014: Rest day.

I rested the day before a race like usual. I also signed up for Ready Set Glow at the last minute. My darling wife, Christine, was a bit irked. She had made plans for us to see her daughter, Beth, at Niagara University tomorrow afternoon along with a hair appointment at NY Line of Hair Design at 11AM. I had also made plans to stay overnight in Niagara Falls, Ontario ... which I also cancelled. I am just a runner with a racing addiction, I guess.

Saturday, 10/11/2014: 4 runs of 1.7, Scarecrow 5K, 0.75 and Ready Set Glow

I "slept in" until 6:30AM. This was my 7th running (2006-2008 and 2011-present) of the Scarecrow 5K in Fairport NY so I knew the drill. I like this course because it is a mostly flat and finishes on the canal path below where it starts on S Main St. I got there early enough to snag a primo pull through parking spot at the Fairport Village Landing parking lot where the farmer's market was already going on. I sauntered over to get my bib and T-shirt. I saw Mark Herberger on the other side of the road so I knew I had stiff competition.

Garmin Connect Activity for Warmup before Scarecrow 5K

I got out for a nice, slow and long warmup run of 1.7 miles at 8:28 pace. I headed out from the finish line backwards on the canal path so I knew that the Turk Hill Rd bridge was 0.5 mile from the finish. I went back to the Equinox where I took a last drink of water and ditched my arm sleeves. It was 46F, calm and sunny so I wore compression shorts, short sleeve tech top, calf sleeves, my orange hat and light gloves. I try to remember Heather Danielson's advice that she gave me 2 years ago of being a bit cold at the start.



Maggie Brooks showed up to give us a few words about domestic violence and sponsor of the race, resolve-roc.org. And .... we were off! I got up to speed. I said "Hi" to Mark Herberger as I passed him. I felt a couple of nips at my heels but I got away without falling as we turned left onto E Church St. This was a downhill until the left onto the Turk Hill Rd bridge and an immediate right onto Cobb's Lane. Cobb's Lane was a bit of curvy downhill as it made it way down to the canal path. I cut the tangents and heard the mile split of 6:22. A few runners around me chuckled because we all knew it was off. It was really 6:40. I had heard feet clacking behind me ... it was Mark Herberger's racing flats. I said something to him about him playing 'possum back there and he chuckled. I resolved to not lose him during mile 2 which is where I usually slow on 5Ks. Now we were on the canal path. I was about 100 feet behind Mark at the turnaround at 1.65 miles. I saw everyone streaming down from the Turk Hill bridge as we headed back ... mile 2 at 6:48 pace. I was keeping about 100 feet behind Mark. I was running at my maximum. I tried to close with him. The Turk Hill bridge, 0.5 mile to go, came and went. I saw Mark look behind him twice. I saw the sign "Drawbridge 1000 feet". The finish line was about 200 feet before that. The mile 3 split was 6:42. I saw Mark kick it up a notch. I tried to match him. I looked up and saw that the finish line clock was clicking toward 21. I flat out sprinted at 6:12 pace over the last tenth. I was about 20 feet behind Mark when I crossed the line just under 21. I patted Mark's back as I slowed to a stop. Done!!! I was out of breath to say the least. I found some water and chugged it down as I caught my breath. Wow ... what a race! I talked with Mark after the race. He accused playfully of playing possum with him as I almost caught him at the line.

Officially, I finished in 20:59, 29th out of 467, 1 second behind Mark's 20:58, link here. I was 2nd out of 19 in my M55-59 age group behind Mark, link here. What a morning!

A free hot dog is an excellent run recovery food!

I regrouped back at home and waited for my darling wife, Christine, to come back from NY Line of Hair Design. She eventually came back around 1:30PM with a nice styling with just a bit of her blonde hair cut off.

Back view ...

Front view ...

Then she was off at 3PM to see her daughter at Como's Restaurant in Niagara Falls. She called on the way for a bit of help with directions since her LG G2 wasn't talking its directions.

I busied myself before the Ready Set Glow race with some plumbing work. I had bought an Aquadance showerhead and hand shower combo off of Groupon that arrived a week ago. It was time to put it in ... and it went well. I applied finger tight pressure when it said to as I followed the instructions and it worked with no leaks! Nice!

I read on Facebook about the exploits of runners who ran either the CanLakes 50K or 50 Miles down around Canandaigua Lake. I looked at the 50K results of 83 finishers, link here. Runners that I knew: Steve Levitsky in 4:49:18, Prem Kumar in 5:16:01, the Kathy Reardon and John Muoio duo in 5:41:58, Tina Pellegrin in 8:09:20 (a 1:02 PR!). I also looked at the 50 Mile results of 93 finishers, link here. Runners that I knew: Rob Wilder in 8:39:11, Joe Packard in 9:06:19, Laura Rekkerth in 9:24:13, Kim Rapp in 10:24:54 and Tom Butler in 12:39:22. Here is a blog entry of a 50K runner, link here.

I geared up again and headed out to Victor to Dwyer Road Park for Ready Set Glow put on by #TrailsROC. The race was set to start at 7:36PM. I got there around dusk around 7PM. I got my bib and adorned myself with some glowsticks. I wasn't too imaginative with just a necklace and some hoops on my headlamp. I was surprised to see Prem Kumar. He had just run the CanLakes 50K in the morning.

Garmin Connect Activity for Warmup before Ready Set Glow

It was getting cold so I put on my arm warmers and Brooks jacket as I took a 0.75 mile warmup run at 8:29 pace around the parking lot and up to the road to warm up both my legs and body. It was 45F with no wind and a clear sky. Well, my warmup run was a bit too long. I heard a "4 minutes to go" announcement. I don't think I took 4 minutes to get to the start line. But as I headed up to the start no one was there.



So ... I had given everyone a head start of about a minute. I was in pass mode for about a mile. People were saying "Someone is out for time" as I passed on the right or left as I found room. The course was very twisty with lots and lots of switchbacks. I stubbed my toe once. I went into a open field off a turn instead of a tree luckily. We ran up hill, down hill, sideways, around curves, past trees, over roots and over rocks with just headlamps leading the way.

Running in the dark with headlamps!

Luckily I had my Black Diamond headlamp fully charged. I slowed after mile 3 or so because there were more roots, I was tired and I didn't want to make a big mistake. The strap on my headlamp stretched and started to hang off my ears. Soon I had to hold it up with my right hand most of the time. Luckily I only had 1/2 mile or so to go. And ... done in 52:06 according my Garmin, 53:49 officially. I was 25th out of 101, 7th out of 9 in my M50-59 age group, link here. A #TrailsROC guy laughed when I told him that I may be turning in my sleep because the course had so many turns. I was cold and headed to the Equinox to put on what warm and dry clothes I had brought with me. I only had the Scarecrow 5K T-shirt to put on so I was still cold. Yes, I need to pack more warm gear ... fall is here and winter soon will be knocking.

My honey, Christine, was already home from Niagara Falls when I got home. Her daughter was more interested in seeing her college friends than her mother. But Christine did see her. Anyway ... a long day.