Race Reports/Encouragement/Kudos - October 18th and 19th

[Big Vic]

Saturday, October 18th

18 - amykab (Amy) Palm Harbor Octoberfest 5K, Palm Harbor, FL
18 – laxdef69 (Mike) Indianapolis Marathon, Indianapolis, IN
18 - MomofCKJ (Allyson) Diabetes 5 Miler, N.Brookfield, MA
18 - Steffwalks (Connie) Palo Duro Canyon Trail 20K; TX
18 - thndermatt (Matt) Blackwater Heritage Century, Milton, FL

Sunday, October 19th

19 – airtime247 (Steve) Humboldt Redwoods Half-Marathon, Humboldt Redwoods State Park, CA
19 - bunnyfoo (Vicky) Toronto Marathon 5K, Toronto
19 - Cindylou (Cindy) Baystate Marathon, Lowell, MA
19 – cohoe, funwalker (Margie) The Detroit Free Press 1/2 Marathon; Detroit, MI
19 - FatElvis (Kayci) Des Moines 1/2 Marathon, Des Moines, IA
19 – goofyinohio (Chris) Columbus Half Marathon, Columbus, OH
19 – Monte (Monica) Denver Half Marathon, Denver, CO
19 – Mooshu () Nike Women’s 1/2 Marathon, San Francisco, CA
19 – tracyz (Tracy) Nike Women's Marathon, San Francisco CA
19 - Pungodingy (Angie) Making Strides 5 mile, Concord, NH
19 – wtpclc (Carrie) and DH (Scott) Grand Rapids Half Marathon, Grand Rapids, MI


GO! WISH Team GO!

 

[Maherae]

Wow!!! North, South, East and West, WISHers have them all covered!!
YAY, TEAM!!!

 

[Tiger Lily 03]

Go WISH Team!

Have fun WISH Team! I'll bee looking forward to your reports.

 

[princessrunner]

GO WISH TEAM GO!!!

Cindylou, I will be thinking of you and cheering for you!!!! Best of luck!

 

[jmasgat]

Go WISH team!


And especially cohoe, funwalker (Margie) at the Freep! It should be a beautiful morning for it.

Maura

 

[Kristi1357]

Go WISHers!

 

[postesf]

GO WISH TEAM!!!

 

[Honeibee]

Go WISH team! Go WISH team! Go WISH team!​

​

 

[FireDancer]

Add me to the Columbus Half Marathon on the 19th. I am trying to finally hit my 90:00 half goal. See you there Chris.

 

[joan4mickey]

Well I've raced and am home. I have been training to do the Lungstrong 15K in Cornelius, NC. I told myself I would do it if the weather was nice. I registered on Thursday as the weather was was looking good. It was 50 degrees this morning and the clouds were clearing. I headed to the race and had to pick up my chip there. For me 50 is what I consider cold so after getting my chip I got back in my car (no I didn't leave, I just wanted to stay warm). Let me say that I had tried to find out where water stops were and if times would be available on course, but got no solid answers.

About 10 min. before our 7:45 start I got out of my car and walked to the start line. There was no orderly way to get started, just every man for himself. I had a brief chat with a couple girls and one looked down at my shoe and said, "OH, we forget to get our chips!" This was 5 min. before the race start. I encouraged them to run get them as even if the race started, their race time would start when the chip crossed the mat. They ran off, hope they made it back.

My DH and I had driven the course last week to get an idea of the layout. It was basically an out and back with a spur through a park. It was also some what rolling, but not at all bad. All paved and traffic blocked. I used my Nike+. I set it on the time mode for one and a half hours. So every five minutes I would get a time update. All miles were marked on the course. As a new runner ( this is my first year running and my second 15K) I struggle with pace and I set a very attainable goal of a 10 min. mile. With time prompts I know if I am going to fast or slow.

Let race...As I said they didn't ask us to line up by expected mile times so I got what I thought was about in the middle (they said there was about 1000 runners, but I think less). The first mile was dodge and find a space to move through so I wasn't expecting any great time. I got past mile one and my ipod hadn't given me the 10 min. prompt so the first mile was good. Now it thins out a little and I think to myself "get through this next mile and why am I doing this." At mile three there is a course clock and I'm on a 9 min. mile pace. At this point I think to myself "one mile at a time, maybe you can do this pace," but another voice inside me says, "you're going to bonk near the end, this pace is too fast." I get to mile 5 and there is another timer, oh good, still the same pace. I get water some where around here, just a couple of sips. Next timer comes at mile 7 and I can't believe it, I'm still on pace. That was the last timer. I get water after mile 8 (I think), I actually slowed a bit to get a couple of good slugs knowing this would be the last water I would take. So, somewhere around mile 9 it I hear my ipod, "15 minutes left in your run" (remember I set it for one and a half hour). There is one last little hill and the wind picks up a little and yes, it is a head wind, so I walk about 10 yards and then start to run again. THE FINISH, YEAH I MAKE IT! Time 1:22:52 average pace 8:56. Simple unbelievable.

After the race there was plenty of sports drink, a coffee booth (very good coffee), a beer booth, someone serving small cups of BBQ and beans, and some other promotional booths. They also had bananas and chips.

There were plenty of people on the course to tell you where to go-the far part of the out actually looped through a neighborhood. The first water stop around mile 3 was packed, but I knew that I would skip that as I wouldn't need water until 45min. into the race. There was a total of four water stops.

Now home, I have showed and am drinking my coffee.

Hope everyone else is having a wonderful Saturday!

 

[Maherae]

What a fantastic pace, Joan!!! Congratulations!!!

 

[MomofCKJ]

It was my first 5 mile race, my longest run ever. Before today I had only done 4.4. It was cold and windy when we arrived. Warmed up, stretched and waited. The walkers went out at 9:30 for a 3 mile course, maybe 25 of them.
At 10am the runners went out. There were 21 of us. It was in our town, very rural, and a pretty route, especially this time of year. Lots of hills though!

As soon as we started I was in the back of the pack but no suprise there. I usually do a 3R/2W but decided to just run till I felt I needed a break. My DH was up ahead and I was running for a few minutes with this woman who was doing her first race ever. As we came to the first mile marker I checked my watch and had done a 10:20 mile, my fastest ever by far!

From this point on that woman and 2 others were behind me. I eventually caught up to DH and we pretty much stayed together. We would run, stop and walk a couple minutes, and run some more. Checking the watch at the mile markers we were doing well for us.

At the finish he was ahead of me and beat me by 12 seconds. He finished in 59:12, I finished in 59:24. I was 18th out of 21 runners. Since there were only 2 of us in my age division I ended up winning that and got a nice blanket to go along with the T-shirt.

We had hoped to finish in about an hour so we were very pleased. I think mostly I was just so happy that I did it and felt good at the end. A great confident boost as January gets closer!

One other cool thing was Dick Hoyt ran this race too. He is the man who pushes his son in the wheelchair every Boston Marathon. I have watched him on TV for years and they have such an inspiring story. He is 68 and man can he run. It was cool to have him there running too, though I only saw him at the start and finish because he was soooo far ahead of me!


Allyson

 

[Maherae]

Allyson, What a wonderful showing for your first 5 miler event!!!
Keep up the great work, cause January will be here before we know it!!

 

[AmyBeth68]

Allyson...Congrats on a great race!

Joan....SMOKIN FAST TIME! Nicely done. Congrats!

To everyone else who ran this weekend...I hope you had a wonderful time and are feeling healthy!!!

Hot Chili Challenge 8 Mile Trail Race:

So last night I decided that I might want to run this crazy tough course today. It is run about 90% on single track mountain bike trail in dense woods here in northern NJ. The race itself is considered challenging, with very steep climbs and various technical challenges throughout the course. We had to scale a wall, run with about a foot clearance or else find yourself in the lake, Scale logs, run down steep hills riddled with pointy rocks (rock gardens as they are called), scale slag hidden by leaf litter. So it's a small race, not surprisingly LOL, and most who run it are super fast. Despite all this, I decided early this morning to hop in my car, donning my winter cap, gloves and warm running tights. I signed up and sat in my car wondering what the heck I got myself into!

At the start the small crazy group lined up in the woods and waited, not for fan fare, fireworks or even the National Anthem, just a simple "on your mark, get set, GO". We were off and I just kept my head down trying like heck not to fall and hurt myself as I'm technically in training for a Half Marathon in early December. As the race proceeded, I found myself in a small group of people who I clung on to for dear life. We didn't speak, but I grew to love them as we wound our way through the woods. I'm not a directional genius so the fear of going the wrong way was weighing heavy on my mind, having some fellow runners with me was a big relief. Unfortunately, I turned my ankle over pretty badly about 3 times during the first 3 miles . It started to ache but wasn't horribly painful so I carried on. The pack separated out quickly and the three of us scrambled up and down hills alone in the quiet of the room. There were 3 aid stations in the woods, and it was great to see the local cross country teams handing out water and cheering us on . As we hit the last mile I realized I had plenty left in the tank and ended up leaving my little security group behind as I tried to make up some time.

In the end I finished in 1:13:20 which is not bad for me in this distance and on this type of course. I'm simply proud of myself for getting out there and doing something that totally scared the heck out of me. Thanks for all your support! I thought about my running partner Scott and the wish crew as I stumbled alone there today.

 

[Maherae]

YOU DID IT, AMY, YOU DID IT!!!

Turning the ankle and all..you showed yourself that you are made of stronger stuff than even you thought you were!! What an awesome job!!!

 

[MouseDogMom]

Way to go Amy!

I'm so proud of you for getting out there alone and hanging in there and finishing! Your time rocks too! We knew you could do it all along - you just needed your WISH team behind you.

Jackie

 

[smileyk8]

Joan average pace 8.56 is brilliant. You did so so well.

Allyson yay for your first 5miler and under an hour too. Sounds like a very sweet little event.

Amy so sorry bout your ankle, but you shouwed true WISH spirit pushing on and even speedin up at the end! Blimey that's impressive.

Hope everyone else has had fantastic events this weekend

 

[joan4mickey]

TO AMY

One for each mile!

 

[Kristi1357]

TO AMY

One for each mile!

I second that!

 

[thndrmatt]

Let's see here, another week, yet another race report from Matt...

Yesterday I dragged myself out of bed to do the Blackwater Heritage Century. You probably recall my intelligence about 2 months ago when I headed out in Tropical Storm Fay to attempt my first 100 miler on my bike, which although succesful was not the prettiest thing. Well this being my first organized century I was hoping for a bit easier time.

As it turns out, 100 miles is still a long way on a bike. The numbers up front:

Finish: 5:25:48, 18.4mph

This is a bit deceiving though for a couple reasons. I don't include stops, so my total running time was just under 6 hours. Also when it comes to rides that start out as a group of this nature, you can really zoom right along if you're in a paceline letting other people do the work, so it really isn't comparable to a solo effort where you fight the wind the whole time by yourself. I ended up 5 minutes faster than my previous effort but that one was entirely by myself in the wind and rain. That's why I don't really keep track of personal bests for bike rides, because depending on the number of stops I make and how long I'm just hanging out on someone else's wheel can really affect the overall time.

Enough excuses though, the main reason I had such a tough time of it today was just lack of training. I was waffling between trying the metric or the full century, and sadly the decision point was at mile 30 when I was still feeling great. I rode with a group for the first 20 miles before they took off on some of the first hills and dropped me with ease. That whole section was headed north into the wind so I knew I'd get some help on the way back from it. At 30 I decided I'd give the full a whirl and turned east. Although the wind became a crosswind for the majority of the middle of the ride, the hills took over as being the challenge. Up and down all day, my gears really got a workout. Definitely could have used a few more larger ones (I ride a double crank) on some of the steep stuff. Definitely looked down and saw single digit mph on multiple occasions.

Stuck with my usual every 15 minute nutrition, powerade for the first two then water + gel or whatever they had at the food stops if I happened to be close to one. Tried those new "gel blasts" from powergel, didn't like them as much as the standard gels. Also tried lavabars which I had gotten for free from races the past few weekends, and those didn't digest that well on the bike, and were pretty tough to open also. Was using this ride as sort of a nurtition taste/digestion test obviously. I really load myself down on these rides with bottles which probably makes the hills more difficult. I have my bike set up to carry count em, FIVE 24 ounce bottles, one on the seat tube, one on the downtube, and three on a behind the seat hydration holder. By my count that's 120oz or another 7.5 pounds of weight I have to lug up the hills. I go with 4 power/gatorade which each last me an hour, and 1 water to wash down the nutrition. This tends to get me through a century with only a water refill at some point and basically no stopping if I really needed to, so that's what I practice with since I do plan on doing the full ironman distance nonstop at some point. I certainly enjoy taking a break and getting off the bike to chow down on homemade cookies and things they have at the stops for these types of rides though.

Anyway, by 65 or so I finally turned downwind but by then my legs were pretty much done. I did the 56 mile half ironman leg a couple weeks ago but other than that hadn't done anything over an hour in several weeks, and I proved the seemingly obvious point that you can't really do a century (or a marathon run for that matter) without several long rides leading up to it, or you're going to hurt. Actually got almost a cramp at about mile 99 which had never happened before on the bike, normally only late in a long run. Probably lost about 6 pounds overall while riding based on my weight when I got home even though I already had pounded down the post race food of Olive Garden breadsticks and pasta with meat sauce as well as banana, apple, and pumpkin bread. Given how much I also took in while riding I was definitely getting down to nothing left to burn which explains why I felt so thrashed towards the end.

Hmmm this one was supposed to be short since I just went out and rode my bike all day, but look what happened. Alas this is the last fun I'll have this time around, turns out I will in fact be deploying prior to ToT (barely) and won't be able to partake in any fun next weekend. Next up is marathon training for me for the few months I'm gone, then the Houston Marathon in January, with the possibility of a sneak trip to Disney to scream team the week before. We shall see!

Smokin times those who have already posted reports, and lets hear from the rest! Posting will be sparse for the next few months but I'll be reading when able!