Sunday, 9/6/2015 to Saturday, 9/12/2015 - Oak Tree Half and Dirt Cheap #6

I ran 6 times this week, 26.64 miles.
I biked once this week, 17.4 miles.

Sunday, 9/6/2015: 2 runs of 0.5 and Oak Tree Half of 13.16 miles, 70F, 78% RH, 5 mph SE wind, sunny

I set my alarm for 5:20AM for my second Oak Tree Half (2006 in 1:59:51). Oak Tree was my first half way back in 2006. I remember that I didn't like the dirt roads of the middle of the course. But I signed up because it was a Rochester Runner of the Year (RROY) race. My lovely wife, Christine, was still recovering from her head cold so I got dressed, loaded all my gear, had my usual pre-race bowl of cereal and remembered to put on BodyGlide before I left at 6:15AM for the drive to Geneseo Central School. I got there just after 7AM in plenty of time for the 8AM start.

I purposely didn't do much of a warmup. I had raced the Summerfest 12k yesterday. I just ran 0.5 miles up to the start, link here. I met up with Prem Kumar, Heather Patterson, Wilt Alton and Andy Ciaio before the start.


And ... we were off! I settled into a fast pace alongside Heather Patterson as we ran a short out and back to come back to the start. The 5K runners were there just about ready to start at 8:15AM, two minutes later. They cheered us on as we ran by. I stayed with Heather for 1.77 miles before I let her go on ahead.

It was a left turn onto the dirt roads at mile 3. Now ... miles of dirt road, looking for smooth lanes of mostly stone free road. Always looking at the road ... looking for hazards, looking for the next place to put my feet over and over. The next mile was a long downhill. I remember seeing 37:47 at mile 5, pretty fast! But it was all mostly level or downhill up to that point. I had my first Gel at mile 5 and then my second at mile 9. I was slowing down. It was getting hotter but the breeze did help. Andy Ciaio passed me and then Wilt Alston. The hill at mile 11 was the very one I had sped down at mile 4. Yes, I walked a lot of it. No one passed me during the last part of the hill so why not? I had taken water at every water stop. Now my hips really hurt on the last 1.5 miles. I just kept running, practically closed my eyes from the pain and ran onward. The course led back up route 39 and then onto the track for a 3/4 lap. I ran around the track the best I could. And .. done in 1:49:14! I must have looked a bit ghastly because I soon had a woman escort me to where I could sit down for a couple of minutes. I revived myself and met up with Prem, Andy, Wilt, Heather and Bill Beyerbach (who I didn't see before the start). All had done well and all agreed it was hot and the course was brutal.

I stuck around for a while to have a 1/2 banana, 2 pieces of pizza and three cups of Gatorade. I felt OK. The results were posted here. I was 76th out of 304 and didn't do too well in my M55-59 age group, 9th out of 23. My splits were: 7:22, 7:28, 7:38, 7:12, 7:53, 8:26, 8:40, 7:46, 8:20, 8:29, 9:08, 10:34, 8:09 and 7:33 over the last 0.16 mile.

Other people did well: Kevin Woodruff finished 2nd in my M55-59 age group in 1:37:28 to take over 2nd in the M55-59 RROY standings (48 to 43). Prem finished in 1:42:42. Andy Ciaio finished in 1:44:07. Wilt Alston finished in 1:45:13. I wished I had stuck around for the awards. Chris Patterson in 1:26:43, won his M30-34 age group. Tim Dwyer in 1:29:16, won my M55-59 age group, Heather in 1:37:33 was 3rd woman overall and first masters woman.  Bill Beyerbach in 1:41:22, won his M60-64 age group. The official Oak Tree summary is here.

I caught up on coffee, Facebook and generally lazed around for a while before we absolutely had to do something for lunch.

A half rack of ribs, fries and beans really hit the spot!

So ... we headed out to The Original Charbroil House which is conveniently located just 2.5 miles away. Mmm!

Monday, 9/7/2015: Rest day

A truly needed day off from running. We lazed, lazed and lazed some more ...

I cooked chicken on the Weber while Christine made rice and ratatouille inside

Tuesday, 9/8/2015: A bike/run of 17.4 and 2 miles, 79F, 70% RH, 5 mph SW wind, partly sunny.

I probably should have stayed in on my day off but ... I had this crazy idea of getting out for a bike/run so I did. The bike was 17.4 miles at 13.8 mph average, 23.9 mph peak. The run was 2 miles on sluggish legs, 8:34 pace. I should have run the road instead of around the complex parking lot ... it would have been safer. I tried to use the Multisport mode on my Garmin FR310XT but messed it up so it came in as one run. I chopped up the TCX file by hand using Wordpad to get a bike and run into Strava.


 I enjoyed having 4 days off but back to work for a short 3 day work week.

Wednesday, 9/9/2015: 2 runs of 1 and Dirt Cheap #6 of 4.74 miles, 77F, 57% RH, 8 mph NNW wind, overcast.

My third race in 5 days, the Dirt Cheap #6 down at Stewart Lodge in Mendon Ponds Park. I had all the gear packed in the Equinox when I went to work so I just went there after work. A line of thunderstorms had moved through with some heavy rain during the late morning / early afternoon ...  the mud was waiting for us.

My lovely wife, Christine, wanted to meet me down there but her GPS got her lost so she went home  I was down there at 5PM in plenty of time for the 6 PM start. I got out for a nice and easy 1 mile trail run to check out the trail around Stewart Lodge, link here. There was a bit of mud and standing water so I knew that there was a lot more out there. I met up with Prem Kumar, Jeff Rose and Mike Meynadasy before the race.



The race director, Ellen Boutillier, had some words before the race about FOLLOWING the pink flags instead of the runner in front of you. The last Dirt Cheap #5 results were thrown out due to runners not following the course. And ... we were off!

Going down the hill just after the start - courtesy of Kim Smith

Going up the first hill - courtesy of Kim Smith

The first 1/4 mile was a couple of hills to get your heart racing and also to spread us out the trail went into single track. There was a brief bottleneck but I soon got up to speed and settled down. I have run a lot of Dirt Cheaps (40!) and soon saw some familiar terrain ... and mud, water, roots and rocks to boot. I was in trail running mode ... run the flats, run the downs, run the ups as much as possible, run through the mud (not around it), pass other runners as needed, say "Eh" if you know someone ... have fun! There was one spot near Devil's Bathtub where the flags led through a creek or you could have bailed out and ran across a bridge 20 feet away ... I went through the creek.

Catching some air - courtesy of Kim Smith

My Garmin FR310XT chirped after 4 miles so I knew that the race was almost over. I picked up the pace a bit ... I could see Jeff Rose 100 feet ahead. I tracked him down and passed him with 1/4 mile to go. And ... done in 46:48! Prem had finished ahead in 46:31, Jeff was behind in 46:57 and Mike behind him in 47:00. I had some water right away since I was parched. My splits were: 8:33, 11:22, 10:26, 9:54 and 8:49 over the last 0.74 mile.

I finished 48th out of 251-ish (ish because Yellow Jacket Racing never updated the list with all the runners), link here. I was 3rd out of 11 in my M55-59 age group, link here. I did OK in the series (best 3 out of 5 scored races since #5 was thrown out). I was 50th out of 155 overall, link here. I was 3rd out of 11 in my M55-59 age group overall, link here. It was pretty tight between Mike Viteresie and me with a 0.3 point separation but we were way behind the incomparable Ed Housel.

I hung around outside and was rewarded by the sunset. I snapped a few pictures like some others did.

Sunset over Hundred Acres Pond

I stuck around for pizza and the awards before heading home. Another Dirt Cheap series under my belt ... sweet!

Thursday, 9/10/2015 and Friday, 9/11/2015: Rest day.

I took a couple of days off from running because my right hip hurt a bit when I walked. So ... I rested. Boring but necessary at times.

Saturday, 9/12/2015: 5.3 miles, 42:44, 8:04 pace, 63F, 94% RH, 3 mph ENE wind, rain

Garmin Connect Activity for A rainy run

The forecast was a rainy weekend ... and it started to sprinkle and rain in the mid morning. I was up around 8AM. It was sprinkling and I could have gone out for a run but didn't. I read on Facebook of other runners being out and being awesome running the Rochester Marathon course or running various races. I dilly-dallied around and watched it rain, rain and rain some more. It seemed to stop for a while but I didn't get out. Finally I got tired of watching the DVR and watching it rain. So I got dressed and went out in a light rain anyway. The thing about a warm rain is that once you get drenched you can't get any wetter. I just got out there and ran. Yes, it rained and yes, I was drenched. But I was out there running so it was all good. My splits were: 7:57, 8:02, 8:00, 8:06 and 8:14 and 8:00 over the last 0.3 mile.

Other runners were out and about being awesome. The Old Forge Half in Old Forge NY was held, results here., The Pound the Ground 5k/10K was held out at Mendon Ponds Park, 5K results here and 10K results here. The Heart and Sole 5K was held at Camp Eastman, results here.