NewBo Half Marathon

Couldn't be prepared as much as I wanted for this half marathon. Ran three miles on Monday, six miles on Wednesday, and nine miles on Saturday. Miles on Saturday didn't go as well as planed either. Had to walk/run a little bit. The objective was to finish in 2 hr 10 min or less, more like 2 hrs flat.
Race started at 7:30 AM after listening the American anthem. Ran conservatively the first mile and had almost no pain on my abdomen. That was a good sign. Tried to stay ahead of the 2:10 pacers and could see the 2:00 pacers about 100-200 m ahead. Two young women wearing blue tank-tops were pacing the two hour group (Danielle Wangness was one of them). They looked very fit and they were talking to each other for most of the time.

I ran with the help of my friend Andres Fajardo. I had to stop running and had to walk after mile 10. But, I was able to recover fast and continue running. I tried to walk as minumum as possible, just enough time to get my feet recovered. Feet were hurting (wonder how I can fix that... sandals?).
Finished under two hours. Felt happy with the chronos, thinking I did not have enough training.
I have been alternating running and bicycling. It seems that by doing this I can recover well from the runs.
Now, I need to recover and get ready for pacing Omaha's Half Marathon on September 16th.

Kewash Half

I have been putting some miles on my VFF, so I decided to run this half wearing them. Of course, I recently bought a pair of five toe socks. Things went well. But, at the end of the race I was in this such pain. Pain is right on my right foot hill, on the sole of the foot. Is that part of the foot also called hill?
Not sure how much damage there is. But, at least, I should take running off tomorrow morning. Not sure how many miles coach Dan wanted to do, either 5K or 10K.
Race is getting better and better. They have also a 5K and a 10K that start together with the Half. Medal keeps changing every year, but it gets better and better. Enjoyed running with my friends, although part of the race looked like I was running with coach Dan only.

Go! St Louis Marathon

Another marathon in St. Louis under my belt. Race started after 7:00 AM in the morning. It was pretty cold, which I prefer over a warm day.
Stayed with the 1:55 hr Half Marathon pacers, which were going a little bit too fast.

Stayed with the pacer until mile 10, when their group turned to the half marathon course and I had to stay on my own. I caught some girls who were going at a good pace, but I believe I left them because I felt they slowed down. Maybe I should have stayed with them. I apparently died around Mile 21. One of my friends says that it was lack of a good carb-loaded breakfast. Had to stop running and started walking. I know that run/walk intervals are not so slow, so I tried my best to keep moving.

2018 Winter Iowa Senior Games (WISG)

Wanted to try the WISG. Never had run an indoor track race before. However, the 200 m track is pretty familiar because of the indoor track training I have done in the past. I was way behind everybody in the short distance sprints. But, I was able to place in the longer distances. All races are hard, but I believe the longer distances require some strategy. I was glad to grab three silver medals today. Not bad for a first timer, I guess.

distance	time	place
55 m	10.14
200 m	38.06
400 m	1:20.84
800 m	2:55.81	2nd
1500 m	5:56.43	2nd
3000 m	13:54.52	2nd

 The question is what kind of running should I concentrate? short, medium, or long distance? I like medium distance. I remember I liked 800's when I was young. I guess my favorite long distance race is the half marathon.  I just feel like the marathon is way harder. 

Treadmill

It has been extremely cold most days in the past few weeks (negative digits). So cold, we haven't had too many days to run outside. So, the treadmills have been busy at the HTRC. Also, the Nike Running Club app has added some guided runs. There's this First Speed Run I tried the other day. One min 5K pace one min recovery about eight times. I used this treadmill in a Hampton Inn hotel with a new brand new machine. I did my 5K pace at 8 MPH (I think this is more like my 10K goal pace 7:30 mpm). It felt good to know I can do this speed run! Now, I am anxious to do this run again, but I know I shouldn't do these speed runs more than once a week. 

December 28 2017

The end of the year. Time to think about past accomplishments and propose new goals for the new year. I already signed up for two marathons, St. Louis and CRANDIC.

St. Louis, April 8, 2018
CRANDIC, April 29th, 2018

I also would like to run all the CorridorRunning races they have for the year.

FreezeFest 5K, Marion, February 17, 2018
Shamrock Shuffle, March 10, 2018
Fifth Season Races, July 4th, 2018
NewBo Run, September 2nd, 2018
SwampFox Festival, September 29th, 2018
Timber Trek, October 2018
Indian Summer Classic, October, 2018

Omaha Marathon 2017

This was the first time I officially paced a group in a marathon. I paced the 4 hr 40 min group. It was a small race, only 270 runners finishing the Full marathon. But, there were about 700 runners doing the Half. Pacers met around 6:00 AM near the start line and we got to know each other a little bit. Weather was excellent. A little bit cold early in the morning, but once we started running, we forgot about the cold weather. Tried to maintain the 10:40 pace in every mile, but of course, I was slightly faster than that, so I tried to slow down or walk during the water stops.

I was happily surprised I was going to pace a group of runners. They were all very nice people, and we talked while we were running the first few miles. I think some of them knew each other and were from Omaha.
The problem was that I ran for 26.5 miles and not 26.2 miles, so, even though my pace was 10:40 mpm, I finished about 1 min 30 sec late.

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