Sunday, 6/21/2015 to Saturday, 6/27/2015 - Medved 5K to Cure ALS and Charlie's Old Goat Run

I ran 5 times this week, 23.6 miles

Sunday, 6/21/2015: 2 runs of 1.3 and 6 miles (Medved 5K plus a cooldown), 72F, 83% RH, 7 mph WSW wind, partly cloudy.

I was up around 6AM for my fourth Medved 5K to Cure ALS. This was a Rochester Runner of the Year (RROY) race so all the fast kids were there. I dressed quietly, kissed my honey goodbye and got down to Frontier Field around 7:40AM. The race didn't start until 8:30AM so I had plenty of time for a 1.3 mile warmup run at 8:25 pace, link here. It was the sticky kind of muggy.

I met up with the usual runners: Chris and Heather Patterson, Prem Kumar, Kevin Clinefelter, Dave Kudla, Chris O'Brien, Bill Beyerbach, Bob Dyjak and Mark Herberger. I also saw a lot of runners that I knew by sight but not by name. Chris O'Brien had just previewed half of the 100K Twisted Branch yesterday. I lined up in the middle about 30 feet back and waited for the start.

And we were off! I got up to speed quickly with just a bit of trouble squeezing by some slower runners. I ran well for the first mile at 6:35 pace. Bill and Prem were ahead and Mark was behind. Heather said a quiet "Hey" as she passed. Chris passed too. I started to have a bit of trouble with my breathing in mile 2 and took a tiny walk break just after mile 2, 6:49 pace. A guy came by, tapped me on the shoulder and said "You can do it". I got back up to a run and stayed behind him for a long while. Bill was having trouble. I passed him just as we passed by Frontier Field. I could see Prem up ahead.

We entered Frontier Field at the right field warming track, mile 3 was in the middle of the warning track, 7:09 pace. I tried to kick a bit and got up to 5:38 pace as I hit the finish by home plate. Done in 21:38, 6:59 pace!

I later found out that I was 97th out of 555, link here. I was 6th out of 37 in my M55-59 age group, link here. Chris Patterson finished in 17:47, Kevin in 19:16 (a PR), Dave in 20:45, Heather in 21:03, Chris O'Brien in 21:17, Prem in 21:33, Bill in 21:44, Mark in 22:01 and Bob in 26;35. I got out with Bill for a cooldown run of 2.9 miles. I found out during it that I had forgot to start a new segment so the Medved 5K and the cooldown run are the same segment. A rookie mistake!

I got bagels and donut holes for my honey at Wegmans Latta on the way home. I surprised her with bagels, donut holes, coffee and the Sunday Democrat and Chronicle in bed when I got home. We relaxed for a bit.

Then I got out out to Scottsville to see my youngest son, David. He surprised me by hopping in the Equinox and saying "Take me to Newark". We had a lot of conversation to and from Newark as we saw both his sister, Karen, and his brother, Michael. He also wanted me to take a look at a Windows XP laptop that wouldn't boot.

Monday, 6/22/2015: Rest day ... gotta have rest days don't cha know!

Tuesday, 6/23/2015: 8.2 miles, 1:06:09, 8:04 pace, 73F, 53% RH, 17 mph WNW wind, partly sunny.

We got to bed late the night before plus it was windy as a line of thunderstorms moved through plus Christine snored. So ... I was up at 6AM anyway. Work was work.

Garmin Connect Activity for A windy out and back

It was Tuesday so I got up and got out there no matter how tired I was. I chose my "go-to" run ... just an out and back on Beach Ave, Edgemere Drive to Long Pond Rd and back. It was windy so I fought a headwind on the way out but enjoyed the tailwind on the way back. My splits were: 7:56, 8:10, 8:07, 8:25 (directly into the wind), 7:58, 7:55, 7:55, 8:10 and 7:40 over the last 0.2 mile. A sweet run!

Wednesday, 6/24/2015: Rest day

Thursday, 6/25/2015: Another rest day.

I decided to shop at BJ's instead of run. When I got home I just had to unbox a 32" Samsung Smart TV for the master bedroom. It was kind of sweet watching three episodes of Star Trek: Enterprise on Netflix over the wireless network.

Friday, 6/26/2015: Yet another rest day.

My darling wife, Christine, thought that I shouldn't run the night before a race ... so I let her talk me into not running.

Saturday, 6/27/2015: 2 runs of 1.8 and Charlie's Old Goat Trail Run (COGTR) of 6.3 miles,

Today was my fourth Charlie's Old Goat Trail Run. This trail race at Ganondagan in Victor NY is set on a nice 6 mile or so trail mixed with boards, a bit of mud, rolling meadows, a big hill and a stream crossing. My darling wife, Christine, wanted to come so we both got ready and got there around 8:05AM in plenty of time for the 9AM start.

It was a GRTC Rochester Runner of the Year (RROY) race for the second straight year so all the fast kids showed up but there was still a low key trail race vibe. I said "Hi" to the usual runners: Andy Ciaio, Heather Patterson, Tina Pellegrin, Bob Dyjak, Bill Beyerbach and Mark Herberger (who was running his first trail race). It was a bit cool so I took a long 1.8 mile warmup run at 9:32 pace, link here.

Before the start - courtesy of Tim Matthews

Just after the start - courtesy of Tim Matthews

After a brief greeting and prayer from the manager of Ganondagan ... we were off! There was about 1/3 mile of open meadow trail to sort ourselves out before we hit single trail. Then the usual COGTR ensued ... woods with rolling hills, running on boards, a wee bit of mud, rolling meadow, more woods, a stream crossing, a road crossing, rolling meadow, up a big hill, rolling meadow, down the big hill, rolling meadow, the road crossing, the stream crossing, more woods, more rolling meadow and the finish. Mark passed me at mile 2 but I passed him back on a downhill in a rolling meadow.

Going out - courtesy of Eric Eagan

Coming back - courtesy of Eric Eagan

Getting my feet wet - courtesy of Eric Eagan

 I remember Heather passing me just before the big hill at mile 4. I was still behind her and Andy on the second stream crossing at mile 6. I passed Andy on a uphill coming back to the finish. The cool air did help. I walked a tiny bit of some uphills but ran all the flats and downhill so I can find nothing that I can really beat myself up about in this race. I could see Heather about 100 yards ahead of me as I ran toward the finish ... and done with 6.3 miles in 55:38, 8:50 pace!

I stuck around for a while to eat the excellent post race grub ... a banana, two pieces of pizza, an excellent jelly donut and 2 homemade cookies before I headed back to the Equinox to meet up with Christine. We got out just before the rain started. We hit Wegmans and New Nails in Irondequoit on the way back.

I checked the results when they were posted by Score-This, link here. I did pretty well, 42nd out of 208 and 4th out of 17 in my M55-59 age group. Here are some results of runners that I knew: Jason "Jmac" McElwain in 45:37, Chris Pattererson in 46:53, Liz Matthews in 48:09, Bill Beyerbach in 53:54, Heather Patterson in 55:16, Andy Ciaio in 56:05, Mark Herberger in 56:31, Dave Kudla in 57:45, Mort Nace in 1:00:15, Wilt Alson in 1:01:44, Bob Dyjak in 1:09:04, Jeanne Herrick in 1:09:07, Tom Butler in 1:18:39, Dave Sek in 1:26:23, Amy Lord in 1:26:55, Tina Pellegrin in 1:46:10 and Bill Murphy in 2:28:01.