BARCStoberfest Ready, Set, Sniff! 5K 2016 Race Report

I've got to get caught up after a busy week and weekend. Before I get to the race report, a quick update on the mysterious knee/leg injury.

I had my appointment with the sports medicine specialist on Tuesday and she diagnosed me with a mild case of IT band syndrome. Which ultimately makes sense and put me at ease that it was minor and very treatable. In fact, by the time I went on Tuesday, my leg was feeling much better and I'd been able to run very easy 3 milers on both Saturday and Sunday of last weekend.

She gave me a referral to have some physical therapy. The idea being that since I want to ramp up my mileage to eventually complete a marathon and possibly beyond, having someone with some expertise look at my biomechanics and prescribe specific stretches and exercises to help improve them will be a good long term solution.

So, I have to call to schedule an appointment, but she said it should only be 1 or 2 sessions; long enough to analyze my gait and get some exercises that I can do at home.

By the time I got to the weekend, my leg was feeling about 90%, with very little discomfort after runs, so I went for what was supposed to be a 7.5 mile slow run on Sunday. But I got a little turned around on my route, so I think I went closer to 8.1 miles than 7.5. I say I think because I've been using my old Garmin 305 to help monitor my pace and miles a bit more closely, but it usually takes a few minutes at the beginning of each run to find the satellites. So, when all is said and done, I'm guessing my missed turns and the GPS delay link up cost me about a half a mile.

But everything felt OK, with only some mild discomfort about 4 miles into the run. But that went away and never returned once I stretched my calf muscles out. So, I'm quite happy with that result, even if I was slow. Overall, the run felt good and while tired, I wasn't winded or exhausted as I had feared, seeing as how it's been almost a month since I last did a proper long run around 10 miles. All good news as I stick to my gradual return to building my mileage.

So, this Saturday was my latest race, a 5k to raise money for the Baltimore Animal Rescue Center (BARCS) called Ready, Set, Sniff! I had not done this race in years past, but it's held as part of a larger day-long festival in Patterson Park in Baltimore, which is about a mile or so from our house. The festival brings in rescue groups from around the area, as well as vendors, food trucks, etc., to raise money and awareness for animal rescue.

What's really cool about this race is that this is one of the rare events I've seen that encourages runners to run with their dogs. You can register as just a human, or as a human/dog team, which is really cool. The teams start about 5 minutes after the humans (in theory). There's also a 1 mile walk where you can walk with your dog if, like us, you have a smaller breed dog, or if you've got an older pet who doesn't like to or can't run 3.1 miles.

The run is a bit later than traditional races and starts at 9:30am. But, in late October, this works fine, and actually was perfect this year. The weather had been, up until Friday, more like late June then late October: highs in the mid-80's and humid. But overnight a front swept through and it cooled off and got really windy. On Saturday morning, it was ~55 degrees with a 20mph wind and overcast: prime October weather. 

I drove over to the park and parked about a half mile away due to city parking and to have a bit of a warm up run on the way over to the starting line. I did about a mile of very slow warm up and then made my way to the starting line. It was full of dogs, who were all very excited to be there and be hanging out with their humans. Some were wearing costumes so there were a few sharks and dinosaurs and ballerinas around, too.

The start was a bit confusing. As I said, in theory, the human/dog teams were supposed to start at the back about 5 minutes after the humans left. But in reality, there were lots of human/dog teams up front even after the race director announced that they needed to move to the back. That became more of an issue when the horn went off and dogs took off zigging and zagging into other runners. More than one pup caught sight of me as I ran beside them and decided to come over and say hello mid-stride!

But you just have to go with it and pet them and run on. I ran beside one black lab for a while and every few meters he'd look over at me with this look like, "Can you believe we're doing this? This is so fun!" and I'd have to say, "I know! This IS fun! Keep running!"

The course stayed within Patterson Park and did several loops. I tried to plot the course based on my memory on my Running Ahead entry, but I'm sure I'm off somewhere. It was a nice course and had two sections of long climbs. Thankfully, the first and longest climb was followed by a nice descent so I could catch my breath.

My goal was to get a personal best. My unofficial PB for the 5k was around 28:00...honestly I don't remember what the specific time was, but it was back in 07 or 08, I think. Anyway, my goal was to get under 28:00 and call it a new official PB. Despite the zig zagging dogs and rolling hills, I came in at 27:13 on my watch (this race was very low key and didn't use chips), which was not only a PB, but got me in the top quartile of finishers and JUST outside the top quintile.

I was really happy with that result for sure, especially considering that I had taken that full week off, and really had only gradually started back running again. So I'll take it as a nice improvement. Overall, I liked this race and would do it again next year. Running with dogs is fun, even if you've got to watch out for pups in your lane and errant leashes.

My next race is the Saturday before Thanksgiving and is a 10k down near Annapolis. Although if I find another one to do between now and then, I may sign up. My primary goal at the 10k is to break 60 minutes. My "reach" goal is to get under 55 minutes, which is a 9:00/mile pace. Slow but steady improvement is the theme!

Flamed Out...Like a Boss!

This weekend, I'll admit, I fell off the wagon. I suspect many runners go through this sort of post-race drift. Where your body is no longer as exhausted and tender as it was the 24 hours after your race, but your mind remains in a stupor.

I ran a few times last week, but nowhere near to the schedule I had set for myself. I kept saying, "Well, another day won't hurt. I need tor est. I'll get my long run in on Saturday/Sunday and it'll be fine." The same could be said about yoga, which I skipped on Thursday. Thursday was also my wedding anniversary, so it was a convenient screen to cover up my own laziness. In the end, I went through this weekend having logged 5 measly miles, versus the 15 I had aimed for, plus the Sunday morning yoga class.

But, like I said, I think that's to be expected somewhat and I'm past the point of beating myself up over it. Instead, I chose to re-focus on this week of training. This morning I got out for my usual 4 miler, but made the rookie mistake of trying to run it hard, which was dumb. What's worse, I KNEW it was dumb as I was doing it. Yet I continued on anyway. Needless to say, I flamed out in fine fashion on the return trip up to Mt. Vernon, although my overall time was still completely fine. So, I probably won't do that again for a few months...I hope. But it felt great to get back out, and the unseasonably warm weather (it's nearly 80 here today) made the dark pre-dawn run less painful. January's runs won't be so enjoyable, I think.

Training for what, you might ask? Well, nothing quite as singular as a half marathon, although I'm going to keep my eyes out for a half sometime after the first of the year...maybe in DC, we'll see.

No, between now and December 31, I'm focusing on some shorter races interspersed throughout the holiday season. The next likely candidate is a 5K in Charleston, SC, where my family is meeting for Thanksgiving. My uncle as rented a house on the beach near Charleston, and the $30 entry fee, coupled with the proximity and flat course, should make for a good race. That's about a month away.

After that, there's a 5K up in Towson called the Man Cave 5K, that looks fun. It's partially sponsored by the Big Screen Store (sells ungodly large TVs, recliners, and obesity), so some of the door prizes include a huge TV, recliners, beer, wings, etc. I have no hope of winning an age group prize, of course...but I'd take a free new TV that would be way too big for our apartment. I've not signed up for this race yet, though. Still tentative.

I did register for the 2012 Celtic Solstice 5 Miler on December 15. It's a great local race, and the typically bitter cold weather keeps a lot of unserious runners away. Not that I'm some hard core runner, but you get fewer walkers out there when it's 8:30 AM and below freezing. You got to REALLY like to run to do that to yourself! The way the registration works is they open it up to runners who want the race premium, which is usually a really nice shirt or, in recent years, a jacket. It's nice, but they also charge $65 for the race for those folks. To each their own...those entries help keep the non-premium entry fee low for the rest of us, so who am I to complain?

However, historically you've been able to register for this race without the premium, which makes it really affordable. As in, it used to be $20 for a well-organized race with a nice post-race spread. Now, it's $30, but that's still a nice bargain for this race. As it got more popular, they instituted a waiting list for this option. Usually by mid-November, they'd open it up to the waiting list and you could register for the lower price (sans premium, obviously). I've always done this, as I just want to run the race. This year was no different; I registered for the  wait list way back in August. Last Friday, they sent the first 100 people on the list an e-mail with a password to use on Active.com to register early before they opened the race up. So I went ahead and registered on Friday to secure my spot. A. has no desire to run this race due to the cold weather, so she didn't register.

Beyond that, who knows? We're spending the final week of the year in Cincinnati, so we'll probably seek out a race while we're out there as well, but that's well down the road. For now, I need to make sure I get up tomorrow and get to the gym to re-start my dormant interval training routine!

Festival Eve

So here we are, finally less than a day away from the beginning of the running portion of the Baltimore Running Festival. Really that’s the entire Festival and the Health and Fitness Expo is just tacked on to get more money from non-runners. Nonetheless, Annie and I will be going over to the Expo after work today to do some serious shopping for shorts, shirts, socks, etc. I’m taking about $70 in cash to blow on running gear, which I am really excited about because I’ve been holding off on buying any new running stuff for about 2 months now. Technical T-Shirt for $10? Don’t mind if I do!

I’m feeling good about my race tomorrow. Yes, I know it’s just 3.1 miles but I’ve been looking forward to this 3.1 miles all summer. It’s been one of my long term goals since I started running as a hobby back in June and even so despite the shortness of the race, the fact that I have kept to a training regimen that has not only kept me in good enough shape to complete 3.1 miles, but has allowed me to modestly improve both my distance and speed. Running in the festival tomorrow is a major milepost (running pun alert! God I am so clever!) on my path towards the National Half Marathon in March. Of course there will be other races between tomorrow and March 29, 2008, but the Running Festival was the first really big goal I set back in June. I knew that I didn’t want to push myself from being a non-runner to being a half marathoner in 4 months. I wanted to take my time and make my first 13.1 miles really rewarding. I’d rather struggle to complete 3.1 miles in July ( see my race report for the Run to Cooperstown 5K) than struggle to complete 13.1 in March.

I have a good feeling about my time tomorrow. I’ve been running solidly in the low 9 minutes per mile range for a couple weeks now and my body doesn’t feel tired, nor have I had any serious injuries beyond some aches and pains to deal with since the blisters and arch pain back in August. My super awesome new Brooks Adrenaline GTS shoes have helped keep me in the game. I’m taking today off to fully rest my legs, which were still sore yesterday from walking down 34 flights of stairs and then running. Today they feel good and should be 100% by tomorrow. I’m not doing anything tonight except for going to the Expo and then maybe going to a dinner party (they’re serving pasta, so at least I’ll get some good fuel for the furnace!).

There is a group of people from my office who are running the 5K tomorrow as well, so part of my goal is to finish in front of most of them if at all possible (I think I could compete in just about anything). They’re meeting at the office around 7:30 to head over to the Festival, so Annie and I will meet up with them as well since the office is on the way to M&T Bank Stadium. She’ll be my official photographer so hopefully I’ll have lots of pictures to add to my online album after the weekend.

Other than that, I’m just going to prepare for the race and enjoy the experience.

On another note, there is a great Op-Ed in today’s New York Times written by an Olympic Marathon champion about the conditions at Chicago last weekend. I agree with his points about amateur runners learning to listen to their bodies in those conditions, but also the possible steps that could be taken at future events where heat and humidity become the main factors on the course. Check it out.

After the race tomorrow, Annie and I are going to hang out for a bit at the Festival but then we have a 4 PM flight to Cincinnati to spend a long weekend doing some wedding planning. As a result, don’t look for a full race report until Monday at the earliest. However, Tuesday evening is probably more realistic since we don’t get back until Tuesday afternoon.

Thaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaanks

So, I have begun to make some super awesome upgrades to my blog, which I’m sure all of my loyal readers (thanks Mom!) have already noticed. Before I unveil all the awesomeness that has been going on in the last hour, let’s recap since our last episode.

Thursday was an off day, as I was exhausted, per usual, from the week. Running three days in a row and also actually going to work and doing one’s job takes it out of you. That and staying up too late most nights. Anyway, Thursday I did no activity at all, which was nice. Friday was supposed to be a regular running day, but because of chores (laundry, paying bills, etc) and crappy race organization, that went by the wayside. Let me explain.

So, as you may know from my previous post, I’m running in the Bay Café 5K tomorrow. I’m excited to get another race under my belt and I can’t wait to see how much I have improved on my time from back in July. However, as readers of the past post will know, the whole air of this race is the classic “too cool for school” idiocy I’ve come to expect from most things in Canton. If you don’t believe me, go to the previous post and click on the link to the Bay Café 5K website, peruse it and then come back to this post and continue reading. If you don’t find it mildly annoying and arrogant, and at least agree with my feelings on some abstract, yet tangible level of principle, than you probably live in Canton or go to Towson University.

Anyway, the website makes this race sound like the most awesome-est race in the Mid-Atlantic and that if you aren’t running on Monday, you might as well kill yourself because you’ll never be cool and will never get laid the rest of your miserable dweeb life. This, in a nutshell, is the essence of the Bay Café as well. A crap-hole of a bar that serves overpriced swill to yuppies in training with usually sub-par music to accompany it. All wrapped in a veneer of coolness that barely hides the circle-jerk mentality that pervades the whole establishment.

Knowing this as I do, I was sceptical when I saw that the first opportunity to pick up our race packets was on Friday from 5-7PM at the Bay Café Happy Hour. Not wanting to get screwed out of another T-Shirt (I still have yet to get my Run to Cooperstown shirt!), I wanted to get my packet ASAP. So, after work, I went back to my apartment, got my keys and drove over there through holiday weekend traffic. It took me 20 minutes to drive 3 miles. Then I got there and the bouncer (yeah, they have bouncers at this place, and the balls to have a cover charge!) says, “Oh, the packets were never dropped off here. We don’t know why,”

In the words of Bill Lumberg: “Thaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaanks.”

So I drove over there for nothing. I wasn’t really surprised or even angry. If anything, it only reinforces my opinion of the Bay Café as a place for the flotsam and jetsam of my age group to congregate. So, that shot my Friday night.

Yesterday I was going to do my long run, but had to cut it short because Annie and I had some errands to do in the afternoon. No big deal, really. I got 4 miles in instead of 6.5 and will go and run another 3 or so this afternoon to keep the wheels greased for tomorrow.

Anyway, the changes to my website! Where the countdown to the Great Strides 5K used to be, I have placed a countdown to the Bay Café 5K. Of course, after tomorrow, the Great Strides will be the next race and its countdown will be restarted. Don’t worry.

Secondly, I have started a list of some of the running blogs I read. This list is incomplete because I have some of them saved on my computer at the office and can’t remember their names right now. I have my fantasy draft for the No Talent Ass Clowns on Monday afternoon, which I will do from the office rather than here at home (my office is a 10 minute walk from my apartment so no worries). I’ll add the other blogs to the list then.

You can check out my training schedule and log at Running Ahead (www.runningahead.com). It’s a cool site where you can track your workouts, courses, races, records, even your shoes. Very cool and worth looking at.

And finally, I have added AdSense from Google to my page in a vain attempt to earn millions of dollars through the Internet. So, if you like, go ahead and click on the ads at the bottom of this page 30-40 times for me. I think I get 1/2000th of a cent for each click. I’ll be swimming in gold like Scrooge McDuck in no time.