Charlottesville Men's Four Miler

Day 339 - December 5, 2009

Well, it wasn't exactly ideal racing conditions this morning. The temperature was about 38 and it was pouring rain. But, I had to run anyway right?

I ran a little over mile to warm up and my rain gear did a pretty good job of keeping me dry, but for the race I wanted to lose the baggy pants and jacket. It wasn't too bad at the start, but it was raining pretty hard. I inched up to about 10 rows from the start and was surprised when the gun went off that I didn't find myself wishing I had started closer to the front. I tried to hold back a little at the start, but hit the half mile split exactly on the 6:15 pace I was hoping to finish the race in. I guess that is better than being 20 seconds ahead of pace.

At the half mile point I started working my way up through the pack and reached the first mile mark in 5:58. Much quicker than I expected, bu I was feeling good.

And then the snow started.

I finished the race in the snow/rain mix by hitting the half way mark in 12:10 and the third mile in 18:25. The last mile was a struggle to maintain my pace, but I held on for a 6:20 last mile and final time of 24:45. After catching my breath I walked back onto the course and cheered on many friends who ran either their first or fastest 4 milers today. I have to say it got pretty cold waiting for them to finish.

The race organizers did a great job with the race and made the smart call to cancel the awards ceremony. I have no idea what my overall place was, but I assume it was a top 30 performance. The results should be online in the next day or so and I'll post an update. But, my unofficial 24:45 was 15 seconds faster than my goal time of 25 minutes. I thought I'd get to use the weather as an excuse - now I've ruined any chance of using it in the future. If I can run a good race today, I can't really anticipate worse weather for a race.

UPDATE: Official results put me in 23 place overall in 24:45. That was good enough for third place in my age group - Nice!

November comes to an end

Day 334 - November 30, 2009

The running streak is officially 11 months old and one-third of the way to 1000 days! After 11 months of running every day, I have logged 1330 miles and run for 172 hours, 22 minutes and 9 seconds.

Today was a rainy run with the running group. We were three strong again but we lost two today because of the rain. I felt surprising well considering the weather and had one of my better 5 mile times.

I also signed up for the Charlottesville Men's 4 miler this weekend. I've run this race in the past, but the last couple of years I've missed due to scheduling conflicts. I'm excited to get back out for it this year. After last week's Turkey Trot, I've got sub 25 minutes in the back of my mind, but 25:30 is probably more likely.

I also received the official press release that the Charlottesville Marathon has gone to a flatter and hopefully much faster course this year. I'm flirting with the idea of signing up...hmmmm. I've got a decent base of runs in and 4 and a half months to prepare....hmmmm. I'm going to have to think about this one for a few days.