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On May 25 2013 08:57 Bonham wrote:
Race day on Sunday!
Did my last run before the race over lunch with my training partner today. I am quite excited – I've been feeling pretty good about my ability to recover from workouts these last two weeks, so I think with a day of rest behind me I'll be ready to rock on Sunday morning – the goal is 33:xx. The Terwillegar Riverbend Advisory Council 10k don't know what it's in for!
Best of luck hope you have a clean, great race. Let us know how it goes.
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Well, that was a hot, stinky bag of garbage. Employed some pretty bad race strategy. I think I need to do some Valium or something before races to stay calm and go out at my goal pace – after this many starts, I still get wound up and overexcited and run a positive split. Then again, as Steve Prefontaine said, "The best pace is a suicide pace, and today is a good day to die."
The race employed an outrider more interested in impersonating Lance Armstrong than doing his benighted job – he shot out 400m in front of my in the first 10 minutes of the race, causing me to miss a poorly-marked turn just past 2k and run 60 per cent of the race on unofficial trail. I just turned around when my Garmin read 5k.
My little shortcut also sent me down a hilarious little hill that falls 40m in 40m and then shoots right back up. Since I ran an unintended there-and-back, I had to climb it twice. When I went through it on the way back, around 7k, it knocked me right into hash and blew up any chance of coming home under 34 minutes. Came back to the course feeling fairly demoralized and demonic and finished in 35:44, crossing the line with what I'm sure was a look fit to kill on my face. I've decided to write an email to the race director rather than speak to him in person. Maturity, I'm told, is very important.
My girlfriend had parked her car in full view of the finish line. After the race, sitting in the passenger seat and trying to cool down literally and figuratively, I watched the outrider escort the "winner" across the line at least five minutes after me. Felt a bit poignant, that. I was sorely tempted to hop out of the car and converse with the outrider for a second, but my cooler self prevailed.
I hope everyone had a happier end to their week than me. About to go write as diplomatic an email as I can manage to a certain race organizer.
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Wow. Sounds like a disaster. The RD is probably party to blame for not preparing the lead bike well, but sometimes those guys just don't know how to do the job properly.
At least you got in a good, hard effort though right?
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A bit of a trying experience, yes, but all in all a pretty small cross to bear -- it was just a monthly heat-check race with nothing at stake, really, and I suppose I got two good hill reps in and some more pacing experience. As I mentioned, I seem to have a hard time controlling my excitement at these things no matter how small-time they are, so it's good to get more practice at it.
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Holy shit, big respect that you didnt get out of the car and at least yelled at the outrider in explicitly mature language. Did noone else notice what happened? The "winner" should have been surprised that the guy who was in front suddenly disappeared. Have you written your mail yet?
We usually have volunteers here (mostly members of the club organizing the race) who stand at the not so obvious turns to make sure everyone gets home safely. So the most important job for an outrider is to clear the way for the leaders particularly at races with mutiple laps.
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10k today, couldn't pass up the Bolder Boulder. Just couldn't do it.
Fantastically...pain free! Actually feeling pretty damn close to healthy now. Definitely not going to be jumping right back into running as I continue to work on hip strength/flexibility, but might start adding in a little jogging here and there.
Very pleased with the race. The time of 41:48 isn't fast by any means, but its a hilly, net 100 ft uphill course that has 60,000 participants, and since we started late I spent the entire race cutting, weaving, and dodging around walkers. More importantly, I've run less than 10 miles in the last 8 months...so I have ZERO complaints with that time. Once I get back to racing weight I think I'll be right about back where I left off.
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On May 28 2013 06:40 Don_Julio wrote:
Did noone else notice what happened? The "winner" should have been surprised that the guy who was in front suddenly disappeared. Have you written your mail yet?
I don't know if anyone involved in the race figured it out. One woman I passed on the unofficial section of the course let me know that some bike rider had yelled something at my back. I assume this was the outrider trying to correct my navigational error. But when I crossed the finish line, the race director said something to me that I think involved the word "winner", and no one else made anything of it. I was feeling too volatile to ask him to repeat himself, so I just stalked off in surly fashion, and I didn't linger around the race site.
On May 28 2013 06:40 Don_Julio wrote:
We usually have volunteers here (mostly members of the club organizing the race) who stand at the not so obvious turns to make sure everyone gets home safely. So the most important job for an outrider is to clear the way for the leaders particularly at races with mutiple laps.
I'm jealous. My two goal races, August 24 and September 8, are part of a reasonably prestigious race series sponsored by Timex. I'm pretty confident they'll have much better organization – and much stronger fields of competition.
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On May 28 2013 07:19 L_Master wrote:
10k today, couldn't pass up the Bolder Boulder. Just couldn't do it.
Fantastically...pain free! Actually feeling pretty damn close to healthy now.
Awesome! That's tremendous news. I hope your mystery ailment is gone for good.
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On May 28 2013 07:43 Bonham wrote:Show nested quote +On May 28 2013 07:19 L_Master wrote:
10k today, couldn't pass up the Bolder Boulder. Just couldn't do it.
Fantastically...pain free! Actually feeling pretty damn close to healthy now.
Awesome! That's tremendous news. I hope your mystery ailment is gone for good.
Yea, I'm pretty confident it is/was Osteoitis Pubis, which is basically pubic bone inflammation @ the pubic symphasis as it showed on the MRI. Nothing else really seemed to be wrong, and while the orthopedist didn't seem entirely convinced that was the cause it makes alot of sense to me, especially when I thought about my symptoms. It's certainly rare enough that doctors/PT don't necessarily know about it.
My suspicion is that initially I had a groin pull, and improper rehab/trying to come back too fast caused problems with other muscles compensating putting undue stress on the area, leading to the problem.
Key going forward is just going to be making sure to build hip/groin strength and flexibility to assure everything is aligned and working properly to get stress off the area. Given that my plan is to gradually re-introduce some jogging and faster strides, building slowly enough to really allow the hip training to kick in.
Will be gone in Europe all of June, and probably wont get to run much anyway, which will be good to get me off it for 100% healing + time for more rehab, then start to think about getting back at it in July.
Weight is on the way back down now, almost back under 160.
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So the race director responded to my email – he was very polite and apologetic and seems like a nice man. Also, they're sending me $50 in gift certificates for a local joint that makes pretty good pizza. Not bad, especially considering that there were no prizes for the race in the first place. I'm glad I kept my cool and didn't drop any expletives on anyone after the race. Turns out you catch more pizza with honey than with vinegar, I suppose.
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Haha, not the kind of gift you would give a runner though is it? £50 sports vouchers maybe but pizza?
Someone doesn't want you running in his race again!
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Hey man...pizza is good stuff. Don't hate :p
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I assure you, eating $50 of pizza will not slow me down. Just back from second run of the day, and feeling voraciously hungry.
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woo. my gym teacher has been making me run miles since freshman year so I've ran a mile once or twice a week since January 2011ish and my mile time initially was 9:30 and now i run 6:50s. c:
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On May 28 2013 06:40 Don_Julio wrote:
We usually have volunteers here (mostly members of the club organizing the race) who stand at the not so obvious turns to make sure everyone gets home safely. So the most important job for an outrider is to clear the way for the leaders particularly at races with mutiple laps.
I'm jealous. My two goal races, August 24 and September 8, are part of a reasonably prestigious race series sponsored by Timex. I'm pretty confident they'll have much better organization – and much stronger fields of competition.
Aug 24th, your talking about the Edmonton Derby? Just curious. Since I failed my earlier attempt, its going to be my first half marathon, one way or another, I have heard its one of the best half courses in the area for beginners, and setting PRs, since it is extremely flat.
Still having issues with endurance running, so I have been working on speed instead recently, if nothing else, its much more fun running 4:15 kms for 5 than doing 5min kms for 15. Nice grab on the voucher too btw
Also, congrats L_Master on finally getting some pain free runs in!
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@Trident - Nice runs, that 3M one is especially quick, and the 5M run is quite nice following that effort.
@LagLovah - I'm right there with ya. Running FAST is fun! Sure it brings in more pain/intensity but when you are moving right and cruising effortlessly it's a wonderful feeling.
@Kenpachi - That's some VERY nice progress. Almost 3 minutes off your mile is some BIG improvement. Is that exclusively off of the gym miles you have been running, or have you been doing other runs as well?
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What do you guys use to keep track of all this? O:
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I use runningahead.com to log all of my stuff. Simple, clean log that can be as complicated as you want in terms of data you collect.
If you are talking about paces/distance then either GPS with watches/phones, or just knowing your route length (google earth if you don't) and just checking your watch pretty much yields the answer.
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EPT
