Sunday, 6/18/2017: 3 runs of 1.8, 3.16 and 1.0 miles: 77F, 79% RH, 9 mph SSW wind, mostly cloudy.
Today's race was my sixth Medved 5K to Cure ALS (2012 - 20:13, 2013 - 21:26, 2014 - 20:59, 2015 - 21:28 and 2016 - 21:47). I set my 5K lifetime PR of 20:13 here way 5 years ago in 2012. This was my 5th Rochester Runner of the Year (RROY) race of 2017.
I knew the drill: wake up at 6:30 AM, have my pre-race cereal and banana, quietly get dress, program the coffee for later, kiss Christine goodbye and get on the road at 7:30 AM. Done and down to Frontier Field by 7:45 AM in plenty of time for the 8:30 AM race start ... easy peasy. I went in to got my bib and new Medved 5K short sleeve tech shirt. I chose to wear my white 2014 Medved 5K shirt along with black shorts for the race.
I got out for a really nice and easy warm up run of 1.8 miles at 8;34 pace, link here. I was walking to the Cruze for a swig of water when I saw Tom Butler ... shirtless as usual. Well ... the weather was really hot and muggy ... so I decide to ditch my shirt too! I also took off my heart rate monitor.
I think this is my first shirtless race. I can't remember any others ... but with over 400 races I can't be sure. Anyway ... we were off! I got up to race pace quickly but held back and ran behind Tony Gingello. He's a fast 70 year old GVH runner who probably knew a thing or two about pacing. I was determined not to go out too fast in these conditions. So I held back and just ran on his right hip for almost 2 miles before I passed him. Then ... I just held on ... past Frontier Field ... into the back entrance ... down the warning track ... past the 3 mile sign ... home plate in sight ... I was a bit disappointed at seeing the clock way past 22 ... done in 22:40 according to my Garmin. I was definitely parched and drank a cold pint of water as soon as I could.
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| Running on the warning track ... photo courtesy of Tim Matthews of https://runnerpics.shuttlefly.com |
I went home via BJs and did a bit of food and hot weather shopping. The food was Tony Romas ribs (with a coupon of course) for Father's Day and not 1 but 2 pedestal fans (each $5 off) for our upstairs bedrooms. I cooked up the ribs later while Christine took a nap. The ribs were quite good ... I can follow instructions. There is hope for me in the kitchen ... but I don't push my luck too often.
The fans went together OK ... I can follow even vague instructions. They work well.
Father's Day went well ... a hot and humid race early along with some quality time relaxing later. Christine and I reconnected and spent a lazy day together. I received Father Day's greeting from my three children (Michael - Facebook Chat, Karen - a phone call and David - text) along with a text from Christine's daughter, Beth Glaude. Ahh ... the wonders of technology!
Monday, 6/19/2017: Recon day.
Christine and I went down to Letchworth State Park (LSP) after work. She didn't want to go but I insisted that I needed to show her the correct way to get from the Castile exit over to River Rd. So I showed her. Then I showed her the two places where I had wanted her to meet me back on Sunday, 6/11. The first spot was Cabin E past the Parade Grounds. She explained to me that she had been here, asked people if they had seen me and waited for me. She must have just missed me. Then I showed her where I came out at Sehgahunda CP #4. She told me that she would have never found that spot. I told her that I had mistakenly told her to wait for me at CP #2 instead of CP #3 so that even I had made it to CP #3 that she would not have been there either. We cleared the air about the mistakes that we both made. I didn't carry enough water and I should have shown her where I had wanted her to be. I found out that River Rd looks a whole lot different without any Sehgahunda CP signs. No voice and minimal text reception at the south end of LSP didn't help us on that day either.
Tuesday, 6/20/2017: Rest day.
Wednesday, 6/21/2017: 6.2 miles, 1:24:59, 13:42 pace, 73F, 57% RH, 8 mph WNW wind, mostly sunny.
I wanted to run trail down at Mendon Ponds Park right after work. I even used 2 hours of vacation so I could get out there early and get it done. But ... I reviewed in my mind what I had brought with me around 2:30 PM ... no shorts! So ... I went home, growled a bit at Christine, changed and headed over to Durand Eastman Park. I wore my summer usual trail clothing: shorts, calf sleeves, Darn Tough socks, my new Medved 5K short sleeve tech and my blue Salomon SpeedCross 3 trail shoes. I filled my homemade hydration vest (Salomon pack with a 3L bladder hung inside) with 2L of water and wore it to get used to the difference of having something on my back and its "slosh", "slosh", "slosh" sound.
I parked across the street at Durand Eastman beach, crossed Lake Shore Blvd and looked for trails into the woods. I didn't have any particular one in mind and just ran on whatever ones I could find ... yellow, red and blue. I don't run at Durand Eastman very often and thought it didn't have many hills. I was soon educated otherwise by the trails that I happened to find. I ran nice, easy and carefully. I didn't want to roll an ankle three days before MOTG! My splits were: 12:05, 17:05, 13:40, 14:00, 15:06, 11:07 and 9:27 over the last 0.2 mile. My last run before MOTG on Saturday.
Thursday, 6/22/2017 and Friday, 6/23/2017: Rest days before MOTG on Saturday.
The forecast for Friday was rain and rain it did. The Facebook post from the MOTG race director, Eric Eagan, was"You all get letchworth post storm tomorrow. Yer welcome." I left work a hour early so that I could get my hair cut and to get 2 "victory" donuts from Wegmans. I set my alarm for 3:05 AM and went to bed at 10 AM. But sleep didn't come easily.
