CTM5K2010

Day 598 - August 21, 2010

Today it was clicking! I intentionally let all the kids sprint out ahead at the start of the race and waited for the path to widen before getting up to race pace. The last thing I wanted to do was knock an over ambitious youngster down at the bottleneck. At the half mile, I was comfortably in the top 15 and working my way up through the pack. I hit the mile mark in 5:50 and was in 6th place and right on the heels of the lead pack as we started the first climb of any length. I quickly passed the next two runners to move into 4th and set my sights on 2nd and 3rd place. The climb was a little over a quarter of a mile, and when I reached the crest and made the turn back down, I managed to get the inside angle and slip past those two and move into 2nd place. First place was about 5-10 seconds ahead and looked to be running comfortably, but wasn't really accelerating on the down hill which allowed me to close the gap and pull up on his shoulder. I thought for a second that he was going to fade, so I made a move to get into first. My expectations for this race was a solid top 10 finish and at the halfway mark, I was leading. Probably the first time in a race with over 100 people since I was in college.

We started back up the hill toward the 2 mile mark and unfortunately I surrendered first place back. We went through 2 in 12:02 - much better than I had expected. I wish I could say that I put on a furious charge and managed to regain the lead, but the leader was able to pull away. I did hang on for second place and finished in 18:46, which is over a minute faster than last year. I also received a $35 gift certificate to my favorite running shop for my effort. All in all, a much better day than I was expecting.

Charlottesville 10 miler - 2010

Day 458 - April 3, 2010

Kick butt! Today's 10 miler went way better than expected. The forecast was for heat, but it never got that warm during the race. My goal was to break 65 minutes if all went well. At mile 1, I was a little nervous that I had gone out too fast, but at that point, there's nothing you can do about it. I decided to just go with it and if I hit the wall, I would deal with it. Mile 1 was 6:13 and I followed it up with a 6:17 for mile 2, 6:11 for mile 3, and 6:02 on the mostly down hill 4th mile. The 5th mile is where things start to get interesting as you run back uphill through the downtown mall. The crowds on the mall were great and I was feeding off the energy. I finished mile 5 in 6:09, probably the fastest I've ever run that mile. Miles 6 and 7 get pretty hilly and I was really pleased to run 6:25, and 6:30. I generally don't like the 8th mile. It is a long straight stretch up Main St with very few people. Mentally I find that really tough. But, this year was not too bad and I maintained a 6:33 pace. From 8 to 9, you run up hill through the corner and then turn uphill on McCormack through UVA. This stretch always slows me down and I've never done that mile in under 7 minutes before. Today, I crushed it in 6:38. With 1 to go, I picked it up and pushed as hard as I could for the last mile. I was rewarded with a final mile split of 6:12, my third fastest mile of the race. Official chip time - 63:14 a personal best by 56 seconds and 4 minutes faster than last year! I finished 54/2700+ and 8th in my age group (yes, it is a tough age group). Thanks to all the people and volunteers who made this such a great race.

Carl Tribastone 5K

Day 227 - August 15, 2009

This morning was the 5th annual Carl Tribastone 5K, a race to benefit organ and tissue transplantation and donation. Carl was a local runner who developed a benign brain tumor. A sad twist of fate led to some unfortunate complications and Carl passed away leaving behind his four sons (age six and under) and wife, Andrea.

But Carl's passing was just the beginning for four other people. Carl was an organ donor. In his passing, he was able to save the lives of four individuals desperately waiting for a transplant.

Today, over 400 runners and walkers came out to support Carl's legacy and raise money for organ donation. I was fortunate enough to participate and had a pretty good race, finishing in 19:52, good enough for first place in the 30-39 age group.

I learned today that a single person can save the lives of up to 7 people. Seven people! To learn more about how you can become a donor, check out Save7lives.org and learn how you can help up to 50 people with the organs and tissue you won't need any longer. I can't think of a better gift or legacy.

Camp Holiday Trails 5K

I woke up plenty early for the 5K this morning only to be greeted by 22F on the thermometer. Brrr. But, I put on plenty of layers and drove into Charlottesville ready for my second 5K of the year. Other than the chilly temps, it was a perfect morning for running - sunny skies and no wind.

When I got to the race, I found out that there would be a minor last minute course change - apparently UVA was doing some construction on the main road through grounds and there was a huge crane parked right in the middle of the road. Not a big deal really, but it did mean that we would now have to run several sets of steps as we maneuvered around the crane. The other problem this presented was that now the course was not measured and there would be no mile splits. That meant I would be running the entire race on feel and hoping I was on pace. Not ideal, but hey, it could be worse.

I intentionally held back a little bit the first half mile. I've found that it is much more encouraging to be passing people through the race than to be getting passed when you go out too fast. The plan worked pretty good as I steadily picked up places for the first two to two and half miles. After that, things had pretty much settled out and I remained in 9th place for the rest of the race, a good 30 seconds out of 8th and probably even more than that ahead of 10th. The finish of the race was pretty tough as you have to climb 20-30 feet of elevation in the last 100 yards and it didn't help that a car pulled right out in front of me and stopped on the path as I was trying to make it up the hill. But what's a couple of seconds anyway right?

When I initially crossed the line, I was disappointed to see that I had failed to break 21 minutes (21:18). I figured it must have been all the twist and turns and stairs that we had to run to get around the crane. But a few minutes later, a friend with a Garmin let me know that the course was actually 3.33 miles. Now, my time makes more sense. At 3.3 miles, 21:18 puts me at 6:27 pace, which would have been a solid 20:00 5K - cool. Way better than the 22:10 I ran on January 1.

When they announced the age group awards, I was happy to hear that I had finished first in the 30-39 age group - I will enjoy my free burrito and water bottle from Ragged Mountain Running Shop.