Return to Social Running: 10/27

As I've noted in the past, I am not the most social animal.  In fact, I'm kind of like a neighborhood cat that always around but never really interacts much with others.  I don't really run with others all that often.  The nOg Runs are great for me because I can run with tons of people, but I can keep to myself without seeming like the weird creepy guy.  Really, I am not recluse, shut in, completely devoid of social skills and personal hygiene.  I bathe daily -- often with soap!  Seriously, small talk just isn't my thing.  I can do it, but given the opportunity to avoid it -- I will.  And, I damn sure won't seek it out.  If I see someone that looks completely disinterested in meaningless yet somewhat obligatory social interaction.  I'm more than happy to leave that person to themselves. 

However, that doesn't mean that I am against the idea of joining a running group.  I would love to find a group of people, who are obsessive as I am to meet up and run with on a regular basis, but I just don't know many people in my area that fit the bill.  I've gone through some major re-locations as an adult and have been rather piss poor at maintaining personal relationships, so I am not one of those folks that has a bunch of close friends that they can rope into joining them for merry escapades and adventures.  Also, running sometimes borders on a spiritual experience to me, and those moments are usually only found when your alone and perhaps on the verge of collapse.



All of this being said, running still is a great social outlet, and sometimes even the neighborhood cat, who most often scurries off under a car when you walk near it, will come up to you and act like it wants to play.  Well, Thursday night, this cat wanted to play . . . I needed to run with other people.  I just couldn't bring myself to hit the streets alone after work, and Hiroko was beat from a 12 hour day at work!  So, I ventured to Fleet Feet for their social run.  I am pretty off and on with the Fleet Feet Thursday night social runs, but I was pretty much a fixture in early spring. But, I stayed away while I trained for my Half Marathon.  It was good to get back to running with other people in a small group.  They were doing a Halloween costume thing, but I wasn't aware and came sans costume.  Otherwise, I might have dressed up as Peggy from the Discover Card Commercials, "Hello, My name Peggy.  I help you."  My run was awesome, and it was good to run with someone else.  I ended up doing the four mile course; however, there was only one other runner running that distance, but we made the best of it.  We ran with the other groups until our turn off at around the1.5 mile mark, after that we were on our own.  The lady I was running with said she a had been doing about ten and half minute miles recently, but that she was willing to try and keep up until we hit the hills in the fourth mile, then all bets were off.  But, she did really well and hung with me for most of the course and only really fell behind at the end of the last hill.  I was really glad to run with her because, since she didn't know the route that well, it forced me to make sure I didn't go out too fast on the early down hill and flat portion of the course, which I tend to do on this route, only to pay the price on the last long hill.  I am hoping to focus on my pacing before my next half, so I can set a realistic goal. 


I was really happy at how I handled the hill and finished the course and can see a huge difference from the last time I ran it in May and fell out.  I have one more race coming up and don't really know what to expect.  It is a 10k with a course that is similar to this course.  But, I doubt that this run will give me any real insight into how the race will go.

I did 4 miles in 40:55 for a 10:07 and felt fine after the run.  Really.  It was the best I have felt after a run in some time.

Mile 1 9:42
Mile 2 9:51
Mile 310:08
Mile 410:48

Free Flowin' Thursday Run -- 6/16

This sums up my entire run on Thursday.

I did 3.72 in 35:19.06 for a 9:29 pace.

I got off work late and didn't have time to use the bathroom before leaving for the Fleet Feet social run.  I did  the first mile in 8:47, I sort of had to go so I figured I had better push my pace.

Mile two -- things were starting to get worse so I just tried to maintain my pace.  Running in a residential area, so finding a tree or bush wasn't an option.  I did the second mile in 9:05

Mile three -- hitting some in inclines and the problems are getting worse.  I am really struggling and looking for a public restroom in some of the parks we are passing, but no luck at all.  I did the mile in 9:48.

The last .72 was full of hills, which were unpleasant.  I did the first two, but on the last hill it was either stop running or wet myself.  And since I haven't wet myself in a least 30' some odd years and this wasn't an actual race.  I chose not wetting myself.  I did the last .72 in 7:38.58 for a 10:36 pace.

Yeah, nothing else really to say about this run.  It was just uncomfortable all around.

Taking On the Fleet Feet Four Miler: 6-9-11

The four mile Fleet Feet course has been kicking the crap out of me since the heat went all nuts-o on us.  But, with the Komen Race for the Cure 5k in less than two days, I needed to prove something to myself by running this course well before the race.  Therefore I went to the Fleet feet social run with the idea that I would handle this course.  Also, I knew that this would be the last run of my first year of running.  Last year's Komen was my first race of any kind, and it awakened my passion for running.  So, I sort of had the idea that I wanted to finish my first year running with a good effort.

 The high for the day was once again in the mid 90's and well into the range that makes me crazy.  But, by 6pm the heat had noticeably dipped, so that once our run began it wasn't as wretched as it has been in recent evenings.   I started the run out fairly well and my goal was to run about a minute off of my race pace, which I thought would be in the mid 8 min mile range.  The Komen course runs right through my neighborhood, which makes my very familiar with hilly nature of the course, so staying in the 8 min mile range will be a challenge for me.  I decided that for the social run that a pace somewhere in the 9 min. mile range would do just fine for the first 3 miles and that I would take whatever I got from the last mile, which concludes with a hill that has been killing me for weeks now.

The first three miles were uneventful.  I ran them strong and was able to stay in the time range I wanted.  But, no matter how well I was running the prospect of that last hill just loomed over me for the entire run.  I tried to tell myself that I have run this hill successfully more times than it has gotten the better of me.  But the memories of my last two failures wouldn't fade and all I could do was dread that hill.  When I finally turned onto the last mile, I was in attack mode and just went after the hill.  I stopped looking back for the other runners, and just focused upon pushing my way up the hill.  I broke it down in section in my mind and tried not to focus on the whole thing.  I didn't allow myself to look too far ahead, and section by section I steadily progressed up the hill.  When I got to the top of the hill I was out of a little more out of breath than I wanted to be and my legs were a little more sore than they needed to be with a race less than 48 hours away, but after taking on that hill, my mind was relived and that made it well worth it.And in honor of that -- I leave you with the greatest music video ever made.


I did 4 Miles in 39:11.19 for a pace of 9:48

1 9:14.47
2 9:29.14
3 9:37.14
4 10:50.34

Miami Marathon Registration Run -- 6/2

Well Boys and Girls, I did it.  I have committed myself to running in the Miami Marathon in January.  I am excited, nervous, and slightly overwhelmed.  Regardless of the outcome of good, bad, ugly, downright scary, I am determined to make every effort to enjoy the challenge of this commitment.  I am in 100%!  It is that simple.  If I were not, I wouldn't dream of doing this.  As my love of running has grown over the last year, the challenge of a marathon has been looming off in the distance, seemingly waiting for me to make this leap.  Well, yesterday was the day where I put my chips on the table, and if all goes as planned, I'll go all in on Jan. 28th!

I'm In!

My eating habits are already changing, but I am going to have to get tough on myself, and I expect to have injuries, wretched runs that make me doubt myself, swollen feet, sunburns, fights with horse flies swarms, runs in every weather extreme Raleigh can imagine, and I am sure to face difficulties that I haven't even considered.  But, I welcome it all.  I want and need this sort of challenge in my life, and if in the course of my training anyone that reads this blog begins to hear me bitch and moan too much, please feel free to remind me that I wanted it.

After work I celebrated my registration by attending a very hot Fleet Feet Social Run, which I enjoyed a great deal.  I chose to run the 3 mile hilly course because it most resembles the Komen course that I will be running next Saturday.The heat was still a sweltering 93 yesterday, but we are expecting it to relent for the next five days!  High's in the mid 80's to low 90's!

I ran 3.07 in  28:48.92 for a 9.23 pace.
Mile 1 8:57.71
         2 9:24.67
         3 9:54.67

And just to reflect my mood here is my song for the day:

The Mizuno "Run with Us" Truck at Fleet Feet Social Run: 5/26

Mizuno One Pager

The Mizuno "Run with Us" Truck stopped by the Fleet Feet Social run last night and brought tons of shoes for everyone to test run, some awesome prizes, and pretty cool give always. Despite temperatures in the low 90's and some unforgiving humidity, there was a pretty large turn out. Fleet Feet also offered a 10% discount on all Mizuno purchases made that night, which was a nice little plus. I recently purchased two new pairs of Saucony and moved up to a 15 wide after ripping my last pair, so I wasn't looking to purchase anything last night. However, Mizuno is a brand that I know little about, so I was interested in seeing what they had to offer. Truthfully, I hadn't even expected them to have any 15's for me to try on, but shockingly, I was wrong. In fact, the Mizuno "Run with Us" Truck had two pairs from which I could choose. I can't tell you how much that impressed me because far too often stores won't even stock 15's, which is really frustrating. Finding that Mizuno had brought two pairs with them, on the off chance that someone with large feet might come to an event, just made me really happy and scored the folks at Mizuno some major points! I tried on the Mizuno Wave Rider 14, which are offered in a 15 wide. The Truck had the standard 15, and I decided to give it a try anyway. Immediately, I could tell that I had made the right choice by moving to a wide. I tried to give it a go nonetheless, but I quickly thought better of it and went back for my shoes. Still, just the fact that the 15's were there was impressive, and next time I go looking for shoes, I'll be much more likely to look into Mizuno's offerings. On many occasions when I have asked people about Mizuno's, I have been told that they run narrow and that I shouldn't waste my time, but now that I know that they offer 15, and 16 in both standard and wide sizes, I won't be so quick to dismiss them.

As for my run, I had planned to do the 4 mile loop, but I lost my group when I went back to exchange my shoes. When I returned to the run, I decided to run the course in reverse and do an out and back when I met up with the group. I could tell right away that this wasn't going to be a good run for me. I had a lot of soreness from the prior day's sports conditioning class. And, the humid air was much more punishing than I had expected. I am still in my first year of running, and I spent last summer either running early in the morning, on the treadmill, or injured, so I am not really experienced with the Raleigh's humidity from a runner's perspective. Of coures, having lived here I know the challenges our summers bring, but trying to run in this climate is whole different animal.

I met the group at about a mile and a half into my run. And, fell in with them knowing full well that I would basically be re-running the most hilly portion of the course, and would now be running it in the more difficult direction. Right away, I could tell that I wasn't up to snuff today. My stomach felt dicey, but I wanted to try to push through. I made it nearly all the way back, but I was increasingly struggling to keep with the guy with whom I was running. Just as we got the the steepest portion of the run, which is right at the end, I felt done in and dropped down to a walk. I was a little disappointed in myself, but I knew that I just didn't have the will to push myself the rest of the way. But, that's alright because I know that this frustration I am feeling about falling out of my run will be fuel for my next run.