Race Reports, Kudos, and Encouragement for Dec 7th, 8th and 9th

[tiberius]

Christa, Bree - It sounds like we all had problems running our events this weekend, good for you both for sticking it out and finishing! Isn't it good to know that even on a bad day when the wheels fall off, you still have enough to get the job done?

 

[andromedaslove]

Christa - I am so sorry to hear that you race didn't go the way you wanted it to. I still think you did an awesome job.... I mean I still haven't broken 5 hours let alone reached my goal of sub 4!! Also take into consideration how much you had going on this weekend. You had 2 shows on Friday then went out and ran 26.2 miles. That's more than I could have done!!

Bree - I am sorry your race didn't go as well as you had planned either. I can't imagine how hard it must be to run on hills. Here in Florida we don't have many of those, and the ones we do have don't even compare to what you guys have!!

Dana

 

[princessmomma]

Christa and Bree, you girls should be very proud of yourselves. You both had so much on your plate this weekend, Bree, I am sure your sick little one was in the back of your mind the whole race too (even if you didn't know it). I ran a half marathon with stress/worry over my DD and it is really draining both mentally and physically.

Also, the Charlotte marathon course is *NOT EASY*, the last 13 miles are much more difficult than the first half. Two of DH's co-workers ran it today and they too had a really tough second half.

Congratulations girls, you just ran another MARATHON!!

 

[Optimator]

Jen in GA - Fabulous race. I just can't believe how much speed you've picked up since the early spring! WTG!!

Richard - Sorry about the blister issue but congrats on a job well done. Was that you first 50K? If you don't mind me asking, what was the registration fee. That's a whole lot of goodies and support.

Christa - That's a great time considering your health isssues and all other physical activity you've had going on this week. Heck, that's a great time well rested and feeling fine!! I know you were hoping for the sub-4 but don't dwell on it too much. I'm betting you'll get it on your next shot. We're all proud of you!!

Bree - Ditto what I said for Christa. Remember, it was just a catered training run. Nothing to get too worried about. Plus, the nice flat Disney course will feel great after all those hills. BTW, I hope DS gets well soon.

 

[tiberius]

Mike - It was my first 50K. I registered about a month ago for $90, there was an early registration fee of $80. That was a lot of stuff for race premiums, plus there were a few more things I didn't list like stuffed animals, disposale camera, disposable rain poncho, free dinner the night before the race. This race was also the International Association of Ultrarunners championship for the 50 mile distance.

You can see more info at the race site at http://www.petroleumwholesale.com/sunmart.web/race/default.aspx

I would definitely recommend this race to anyone interested in the 50K or 50 miles distances.

 

[Optimator]

Wow! That's a lot of loot for $90 and a very late "early registration".

I'm thinking that if Disney used the same goodies to dollar ratio we'd be paying about $ 17.48

Good job again.

 

[gatorphipps]

Richard - WTG on your 50k! That is WONDERFUL! Sounds fun.

Thanks everyone for the encouragment. Still feel not so great. I am starting to think I may have a little something. Anyway.....here is my race report.
http://journals.aol.com/gatorphipps/PhippsFamily/

 

[Big Vic]

Christa and Bree - Great reports. Sorry you had such a rough day, but congrats on finishing!

 

[rKyDeX]

6th Annual Florida Gulf Beaches Holiday Halfathon December 9th, 2007

I decided to swap last weekend's LR with this weekend's so that I could use this local race as a training run. My goal was to run the first 10 miles at pace based upon heart rate (158 bpm) and then increase by 5% at the remaining mile marks (mile 11 at 165 bpm, mile 12 at 172 bpm, mile 13 at 178 bpm, then sprint).

The morning skies were clear, the temperature started in the 70's and rose to 85 and the humidity was level was high.

The race started 7:35 am at Madiera Beach City Hall and headed North on Gulf Boulevard for 4 miles through the barrier island towns of Redington Beach, North Redington Beach, Redington Shores and Indian Shores. At Indian Shores, we turned East and headed over the Park Boulevard bridge to the mainland.

The next 2.5 miles were along a quiet tree canopied two lane road that goes past parks and residential areas until we turned into Seminole Centennial Park. This is where we left the local roads and entered onto the Pinellas Trail.

The Trail was nice and smooth and flat with the exception of a couple of overpasses that crossed major roads. There was some light traffic from bicyclers and rollerbladers heading South as we headed North.

At mile 12, we entered Taylor Park and were directed around a lake on a crushed shell path. Once around the lake we crossed mile 13 and then had a slight downhill to the finish.

The first 10 splits ranged from 10:16 to 11:31 with a heart rate that averaged from 151 to 159. Lap 11 was 10:50 at 165. Lap 12 was 9:40 at 172. Lap 13 was 9:24 at 178 and the final sprint was at 8:18 with a max hr of 185.

I finished 50th out of 63 in my age group with a gun time of 2:21:00. Overall, I was 588/859 finishers. I think I will try and make this an annual event. I had a really easy time of it and felt like I could have run faster for all but the finish.

This morning I had no soreness, so I was glad the pace seemed easy. I think I will stay with this plan when I run the Goofy and will expect similar results.

Chester
W.I.S.H. Half-Fast Missing Link Marathon Team

 

[cdn_gal_eeyore]

Catch the Elves 10K

OK, I was so crazy busy at work last week that this was the only running I got in all week...

I honestly could not have asked for better weather for Sunday's race (at least in December anyway). It was about -5 deg C (23 deg F) or so and sunny, not too windy either. The race start was at 10 am so there was a bit of a chance for things to warm up. Since the race was being run for the Muscular Dystrophy Society the chip timing folks were only out for the one day instead of the charity paying for them to be there all three days of packet pickup and the race. The chip pick up was effortless the day of the race. It took about 30 seconds.

The race start was a bit confusing as we couldn't hear the lady yelling into the megaphone very well, so when I thought it was time to start, really they were just shuffling all the runners from the finish area to the start line. There were four or five elves all running at different paces with bags of raffle tickets and they were given a one minute head start. The first half of the race went okay, but I may have started out a bit fast. I hit the 5K mark at about 29:44 so in theory I could have gone sub 60:00.... I started to slow down a bit though after this point. About 6 or 7K in I started chatting with a lady next to me wearing a shirt that said "Team Connor" on it. There were about 140 people or so at this race wearing these shirts so I was curious about it. Connor is a 4 year old boy who has just been diagnosed with muscular dystrophy and his family and friends rallied around to raise money for the charity and run the race for him. It was pretty inspiring. This lady and I were running a similar pace so we settled in and kept chatting which probably helped me to not slow down even more. About 7.5K in I finally caught my first elf who was hiding behind a tree... Steps from the finish line I caught my second elf, so a couple more raffle tickets were added to the pot. I didn't break 60:00 - I finished in 1:00:44 - so close...

My boyfriend also ran as his first race ever. He finished in 1:08:44. He felt pretty good and I think the racing bug may have bit him too... Didn't win any door prizes off the raffle tickets, but it was a fun event.

 

[tiberius]

Richard - WTG on your 50k! That is WONDERFUL! Sounds fun.

Thanks everyone for the encouragment. Still feel not so great. I am starting to think I may have a little something. Anyway.....here is my race report.
http://journals.aol.com/gatorphipps/PhippsFamily/

Thank you, Christa. It was fun in the way only other distance runners would understand.