Asbury Park Relay Marathon recap

This past Sunday was the 1st AsburyParkRelayMarathon. You could run this race 2 ways, as a relay team, with up to 8 members, or as a team of one, which is how I ran it.

It was also an 8 lap marathon, the 1st lap was 2.75 miles, and the remaining 7 were 3.35miles.

The weather called for highs around 40, 20mph+ winds and rain, in other words, a Nor'easter!

When I arrived in AP, it was raining, not that hard, and I met up with Progman2000 & his wife at the host hotel. I also met up with a hardcore NJ shorerunner, Steve, who has a website dedicated to all of the races held at the Jersey shore, http://www.njshorerun.com/.
Going into this marathon, I had a 22-23 mile run in my plan, and when you see a marathon that falls perfect into your plans, AND only costs $30.00, I ask you, how can you pass it up?

I had no goal for time, and wanted to run the 1st 20 miles at a easy pace, and kick it up to my marathon goal pace for the final 10k. I told Progman that I was going to tether myself to him, so I won't pull my rabbit BS, and take off.

When the race started, the rain was down to a misty drizzle, but the winds where kicking! It was a U shaped course, with the finish / transition area actually inside the Asbury Park Convention Center. That was really cool. The winds on the boardwalk were brutal, but when you entered the convention center, the crowd was loud and it really pumped you up. Way cool!

We really lucked out with the rain, and by the 2nd lap, the rain had ended, and we just had the wind to deal with.

I stuck to my plan, and around mile 18, I started to pick up my pace, and work my way to my Philly marathon goal pace of 8:30's. When I hit mile 20, I said to myself "FU Last 6, you won't break me!". I repeated that to myself a few times over the last 2 laps, and did exactly what I planned. Everything went according to plan, easy 18-20, and MP last 6.2. When the garmin clicked off mile 26, and I looked at the time, I was really excited! 8:09... fastest mile of the day, was Mile 26 ! The garmin had me at 4:12:46, 26:59 miles.

I am a sore, but not near as bad as I was after Philly last year. I will try and run 2-4 on Tuesday, and 6 on Thursday.

Progman & I before the marathon.
Progman & I after the marathon, with our bling. Doesn't even look like we just ran for 4+ hours!

Here I am passing the WonderBar, during the later part of the race.

FYI.. Here are the mile spilts.

1. 9:57
2. 9:59
3. 9:49
4. 9:39
5. 9:16
6. 9:33
7. 9:25
8. 11:40 (bathroom break)
9. 9:45
10. 9:44
11. 9:50
12. 9:44
13. 10:30
14. 10:02
15. 9:35
16. 10:27
17. 10:04
18. 9:46
19. 9:17
20. 9:35
21. 8:35
22. 8:19
23. 8:22
24. 8:30
25. 8:23
26. 8:09 .59 4:48

Overall this averaged out to 9:30 miles.

Here's hoping my goal of a 3:40 Philly marathon is reachable!

3 days until Marathon #2, Asbury Park Relay Marathon

Hard to believe that I am 3 days away from running my 2nd marathon. I found the AsburyParkRelayMarathon earlier this year, and how could I pass up a $30.00 marathon? I am doing this strictly for training. My goal is to run the 1st 20 miles easy, and try to pick up to my marathon goal pace, for the last 10k. I know, easier said than done. It's going to be a mentally tough run. This marathon has 8 laps, the first is a 2.75 mile loop, followed by 7 x 3.35 mile loops. On top of the 8 laps, the weather is not looking good right now, for the race. We have 2 nor'easters hitting us, and the 2nd is coming in Sat nite, into Sunday morning, highs in the low 50's. Hopefully it clears by 10:00am on Sunday.
My running has got back on track after my 21 mile meltdown. I ran a strong 14 miles on Sunday. I averaged 9:09 for the run. The only problem I encountered was my Garmin wasn't fully charged, and died at the 9.64 mile mark. I felt like I kept the pace for the remaining 4+ miles. It was a nice confidence builder.
My weeks runs, 6-8-6, Tues _ Thurs, were also great. I had a nice speed run on Tuesday, 7:58 min avg. Wed, was 8:05 avg, with a 7:35 last mile! I took it easy in the rain today, and ran my 6 miler in a 8:31 avg. One thing I will say was that I didn't have crazy laps, they were all consistent.
Hopefully I didn't run too hard this week, and have it catch up to me on Sunday.
I feel pretty healthy and fresh, so we'll see how it goes. It's the last "long run" before Philly.

Fun run on the Boards & 21 miler back home

It was a quick recovery week, as the countdown to Philly is less than 8 weeks away.
My oldest son & I went to Wildwood for the weekend, to check out the Monster Truck races on the beach. We got up Saturday morning, and after breakfast, headed out to the boardwalk. He was on his bike, and I was running alongside him. We did the whole boards... 4 miles. I was proud of him, he was pushing the pace. We did the 4 miles in 35:16, for a 8:48 avg. He pushed me the last mile, and we did that in 8:24. He had the hammer down!
We got home early Sunday morning, so he could make his noon soccer game. Around 3:00pm, I got out for my 21 mile run. It was pretty warm out when I started, my guess is the low 70's.
I had seen that my running buds Shoreturtle & Progman2000 met up and ran 20 in the early morning. They kicked butt, avg. 9:30's with mile 20 at 8:00min. Pretty impressive. The one thing between Turtle & I is this silly competitiveness we have. After seeing their time, I felt the foolish need to best their time. I started out running 8:45's for the 1st 12 miles. I slowed a bit for the next 5 miles, avg. around 9:30's, but the damage had been done. My legs were toast. I hung on for the remainder, actually hit 10:53 for a mile, and finished the 21 miler in 3:18:27, a 9:27 avg.
I need to be smarter about my long runs. Maybe I'll learn someday.

Running early Mornings, Nights, in Dallas & in MUD!

I know, every time I start out, I say the same thing.. been busy... blah, blah, blah. Well, it is the truth. I have kept up with my training, even if it means getting up at 5:00am, and running before I go to work.

I missed the Philadelphia Distance Run, because my job had me in Dallas, for a conference. I did pack my running gear, and I was able to do an early Saturday morning 5.6 mile run there. Where the conference was, it was close to Dealy Plaza, so I made sure the route I planned had me running there.

It was pretty cool to see it for the part it played in the history of our country.

Back home, I have run the usual routes, but since I had missed the PDR, I decided to run part of the 2nd half of the Philly Marathon route. I did see that they have started to advertise for the Marathon, on their tour buses!

All this leads me to the run I had the most fun doing this year so far! I did the McGuireAFB 10k Mud Run. Picture part running, part basic training/survivor obstacle course. There were about 20 of us from the trail group, that made the trek to McGuire, and did the race.

There were some hard parts to this event. It started with about a 3/4 mile run, when at about the 1/2mile mark, a ladder fire truck hosed you down. If that didn't soak you, going into the mud pit obstacle around the bend got ya! At one point I was waist deep in a creek, for a few hundred yards, and when you got out, the legs were so cold, it was tough to get them warmed up and going again. What they called "hurdles", where more like a steeplechase. It was a crazy 1/4 mile of hopping barricades every 100 yards. It was insane but fun. A lot of groups dressed up for this race, guy dressed as Elvis, one dressed as a chicken, just craziness! This race was a nice distraction in the middle of my marathon training. Last year it was in Nov, and I am glad they moved it up a few months. A few of the trail group that did it last year, said the improvements to the course this year, made it more difficult, but it was a lot warmer. I couldn't imagine wading waist deep in water, in Nov !

Here are a few pics of the fun!

The last shot is a few of us after we attempted to clean off the mud from the race.

If you live close to McGuire AFB, keep an eye out for this event next year... it's a must run! Be prepared to get wet and dirty... there's no way you don't stay clean and dry!

I have a nice recovery week on tap, and a 20 miler next Sunday. Hard to believe September is coming to a close, and Philly is only 54 days away! I need to start thinking about the Asbury Park Marathon, that I am running on Oct. 18th. I know it's just for training only, but it's still a marathon!

Another week is in the books!

Another week is in the books! Time is flying by 'round these parts.
This past week was a nice recovery week, and it came at a great time. As much as everyone likes to ramp up the mileage, we need to give ourselves time to heal from the pounding of the pavement.

I had only 2 x 5 milers this past week, on Tuesday and Thursday. I got up early to do the runs, since we are swamped with activities at nite.

Tuesday and Thursday where just about identical. I did Tuesday in 42:35, and Thursday in 42:21. While Thursday was a bit faster, it was more of struggle. Funny how that happens.

Saturday, I got out with the trail runs group, and we met again at Mercer County Park. No bushwacking this week, as we got our run in, in between rain drops. It was a nice 7 miler, and we had another newcomer. We have had a new runner join us the last 2 weeks. That's good stuff!

Sunday was back to the long runs! I had a 20 miler on tap, and enlisted a running bud to join me in the fun. ProgMan was up for the fun. He met me and was in for 12 of my 20 miles.

We met at Mercer County Park, and did the same loop that I did with Shoreturtle 2 weeks ago. Funny.. I only had to do 18 that day, Turtle had 20, and I did all 20 with him. I asked him if he wanted to meet us,and he had a 5k to go PR in!

When Prog & I started out, we were killing it the 1st 7 miles!

Look at these splits:

1. 9:18

2. 9:14

3. 9:03

4. 9:04

5. 9:03

6. 9:14

7. 9:12

We were on a heck of a roll, and the miles flew by. We slowed down a bit the rest of the way, but still very nice splits. We did hit our cars at mile 10, to change shirts and grab some fluids.

8. 9:20

9. 9:25

10. 9:14

11. 9:32

12. 9:06

A little past mile 12, Progman turned around and headed back. It was great of him to come out and run with me. It really helps on the long runs, to have a partner in crime.

When he left, it was tough to push thru the last 8 miles. I made a couple of mistakes. First, I didn't bring any salt with me, but luckily Progman had some salt pills. My second mistake was not running the 1st 10 mile loop with water. I know better than that. It was more humid out that I had realized. My other mistake was that I should have grabbed my Ipod before we started on the 2nd leg.

The legs were dying on the last 3 miles, similar to the previous 20 miler. I know there is some work to be done, to feel stronger the last miles of these training runs, and hopefully it'll come.

13. 9:13

14. 9:31

15. 9:47

16. 9:31

17. 9:48

18. 10:02

19. 10:03

20. 9:40

SOLD OUT !!

A check of the Philadelphia marathon website showed that the Full marathon is SOLD OUT !
Amazing.. I don't think it sold out last year until sometime in October!

Only 75 days until Philly !

Hard to believe that the Philly Marathon is only 75 days away. I am 1/3 of the way thru my 18 week training program! Time is flying by. Their website has only 500 spots left for the marathon, it seems to be filling up quite nicely.

The past week, I felt really good after the 20miler on Sunday. I have added salt to the beginning and middle of my long runs, and it seems to have helped with how the hammys have felt. I also added, along with my HammerRecoverite ,a protein bar after my long runs.

Tuesday, I went out for a nice tempo run. I had 1 hour to get in my 6 miler, since I was running while my oldest son was in his karate class. My goal was 8 minute miles, but wasn't sure if I had it in me after the 20 miler. I ended up right on! I did the 6 miles in 47:38, a 7:55 avg.

I did have a turtle sighting! Shoreturtle and his wife passed me, on their way to Princeton. They caught me committing the #1 rule of running on the streets. I was running with the traffic, instead of against it.

I had 8 on the schedule for Wednesday, but a combination of my car in the shop, 2 boys having karate, I didn't have the time to run. And yes, I have been beating myself up over it. I know missing a day in early Sept. won't have an effect in the big picture of training, but it's not something I want to become a habit.

I made it a point of getting up early and getting my 6 miles in on Thursday. I did the 6.12 miles in 51:41, for an 8:26 avg. It was nice, on this run to have my fastest mile as my last, at 8:09.

Saturday, I was out with the TrailRuns group. We did the entire loop around Mercer County Lake, which included some bushwhacking! Luckily, no ticks this time! The loop was 7.23 miles long, and the last 1/2 mile or so, Nate kicked it up a few notches, when we got on a nice clear trail.

Sunday, I slept in a bit, since I had to do 6, nice to have a recovery week! I made this a 2 part run. I felt really good, so I went out for the 6 at a marathon pace. I did the 6 in 50:20, 8:22 pace. I did mile 6 as my fastest at 8:07. From the 6 mile point, I reset my Garmin, and did another 4 miles in my training pace. I know I only had to run 6, but I felt good, and missing the 8 on Wed, it had me wanting to make up some of those miles. I ran the 4 miles in 35:17, a 8:48 avg.

I have (2)5 milers to run Tuesday & Thursday, and plan to do just them. I have felt a bit of discomfort in the right ankle recently, so this is a good time to let it rest a bit.

Enjoy the week, it'll be another hectic week around these parts, with the boys back in school, karate lessons, soccer practice, and fall ball starting!