Wednesday, October 08, 2008
On Your Mark, Get Set, Hooah!
After a few days of bringing work home and also a day of my internet connection not working, I'm back online and have a few minutes, and in response to Doctor Paul's Facebook missive, I can finally provide an update.
Sunday was the first of my 3 big races this fall, the Army 10-Miler. It's the biggest 10-mile race in the US and the second-biggest in the world (there were over 18,000 people running).
My results? FanTAStic! I finished the race in 1 hour, 22 minutes, and 28 seconds. That's 6 1/2 minutes faster than my time in the Cherry Blossom 10-Miler last April, running an 8m 15s pace this time rather than the 8m 54s pace last spring. It's nice to see the last few months of training have paid off.
Time 1:22:28
Place
Overall 3984 /18857
All Men 3271/10584
Men 40-44 545/1820
I had planned to go slower than in the Cherry Blossom to avoid injuring myself like I did then. I had no idea how fast I was going until I reached the 3-mile mark and saw a clock for the first time and realized I was moving along pretty well. I kept passing people and each time I saw a clock I knew I was doing all right. When I saw a clock at the 9-mile point I knew that I could run the last mile in 14 minutes and still beat my old time, though of course I sped up rather than slow down. I kicked it in a bit but never felt any pain in my knee, unlike last spring when it started up in the last mile.
A number of friends ran as well, including Ethan, Vu and Troy, who have been my inspiration for all this running stuff. I actually ran faster than all of them, though to be fair, they ran 20 miles two days earlier as part of their marathon training (I changed up my schedule to account for this weekend's race).
So, yeah. I'm feeling good about the marathon, which comes up in less than 3 weeks. I certainly won't be running quite as fast as I did this weekend, as I don't think I could maintain that pace for 26.2 miles, but it's nice to know that I've gotten faster and increased my stamina through the summer. What do you know, practicing really does help!!
Sunday was the first of my 3 big races this fall, the Army 10-Miler. It's the biggest 10-mile race in the US and the second-biggest in the world (there were over 18,000 people running).
My results? FanTAStic! I finished the race in 1 hour, 22 minutes, and 28 seconds. That's 6 1/2 minutes faster than my time in the Cherry Blossom 10-Miler last April, running an 8m 15s pace this time rather than the 8m 54s pace last spring. It's nice to see the last few months of training have paid off.
Time 1:22:28
Place
Overall 3984 /18857
All Men 3271/10584
Men 40-44 545/1820
I had planned to go slower than in the Cherry Blossom to avoid injuring myself like I did then. I had no idea how fast I was going until I reached the 3-mile mark and saw a clock for the first time and realized I was moving along pretty well. I kept passing people and each time I saw a clock I knew I was doing all right. When I saw a clock at the 9-mile point I knew that I could run the last mile in 14 minutes and still beat my old time, though of course I sped up rather than slow down. I kicked it in a bit but never felt any pain in my knee, unlike last spring when it started up in the last mile.
A number of friends ran as well, including Ethan, Vu and Troy, who have been my inspiration for all this running stuff. I actually ran faster than all of them, though to be fair, they ran 20 miles two days earlier as part of their marathon training (I changed up my schedule to account for this weekend's race).
So, yeah. I'm feeling good about the marathon, which comes up in less than 3 weeks. I certainly won't be running quite as fast as I did this weekend, as I don't think I could maintain that pace for 26.2 miles, but it's nice to know that I've gotten faster and increased my stamina through the summer. What do you know, practicing really does help!!
