I graduate from UW 3 weeks from today! Also, my birthday is a week from today... I'm gonna be OLD!
Hanging in there school-wise, I have a presentation tomorrow (eek) and a bunch of papers to get done in the next few weeks, plus finals... but at the moment, everything is manageable... that doesn't mean I should procrastinate though, right? ;)
I had a great run today, 6 miles at half marathon pace... I figured I'd run at whatever pace I felt like, and apparently I felt like running fast. It felt great, and the weather looks like it'll be nice for the next few days.
Not much else to say... next race is the Lake Youngs Ultra (though I'm only doing the 9.6 mile version). It'll be my first trail race! And will be fun because we ran there in high school... oh, the memories. And it'll be my first race as a college graduate! :O
Wednesday, May 20, 2009
Sunday, May 17, 2009
Beat the Bridge 8K Race Report
The training - Not much. I had a few consistent weeks since Bloomsday, including a 12 mile run last weekend, but I took this past week off due to personal issues. Running felt good, so hopefully that'll motivate me to keep on with it despite the personal issues.
The race - I signed up to do this race with my friend Tim. He's been running for a while and is on a 10K training plan, and this was his first race. I was kind of skeptical about it at first, as a) I'm not exactly in the best shape right now, and b) my average easy pace is about 11:30 per mile, and his is around 9:30 per mile - but he said he wanted to run it with me, so I agreed.
It was a gorgeous day for running - sunny and 60 at the finish. There were 10,000 people there, some doing the 8K and some doing the walk or the mile fun run. The start was delayed a little bit because of technical difficulties, but finally we were off and running. It was crowded, but thankfully not Bloomsday crowded!
The first mile went by pretty quickly, and we ran it in 9:35. I felt like we were pushing it, but not too much. The second mile we picked up the pace and I was really starting to feel it in my legs - they were pretty tight from not running recently. I told Tim that we'd run his pace until we beat the bridge (at mile 2) and then run mine the rest of the way. We ran the second mile in 9:15, and beat the bridge with time to spare (we had 25 minutes to make it 2 miles).
After running across the bridge, we slowed into a pace that was still pushing it for me but that I thought would be easier to maintain. It was getting hot by this point, and my stomach was getting a little sick, so I pushed as much as I could without risking getting sick. The last few miles were pretty uneventful - we just stopped at all the water stations and kept on going. On this course, these miles are pretty much torture - you run by Husky stadium on Montlake, and then there is an out and back, and then it's through all the parking lots back to the finish. It was fun on the out and back part seeing all the people that were behind us, and I looked at my watch and noticed that if we didn't slack, we could make a sub 10:00 minute/mile finish. As we ran into the stadium, my competitiveness kicked in and we sprinted across the finish line.
Final time - 48:27, average pace 9:45/mile
Final thoughts - I'm glad I did this. Tim had a great time and said he definitely wants to do more races. I am pretty pleased with my performance given my lack of consistent running lately, and hopefully that will motivate me to keep back on track with the running in spite of the personal issues I've been dealing with. I know running makes things better, it's just hard to get out there sometimes!
The race - I signed up to do this race with my friend Tim. He's been running for a while and is on a 10K training plan, and this was his first race. I was kind of skeptical about it at first, as a) I'm not exactly in the best shape right now, and b) my average easy pace is about 11:30 per mile, and his is around 9:30 per mile - but he said he wanted to run it with me, so I agreed.
It was a gorgeous day for running - sunny and 60 at the finish. There were 10,000 people there, some doing the 8K and some doing the walk or the mile fun run. The start was delayed a little bit because of technical difficulties, but finally we were off and running. It was crowded, but thankfully not Bloomsday crowded!
The first mile went by pretty quickly, and we ran it in 9:35. I felt like we were pushing it, but not too much. The second mile we picked up the pace and I was really starting to feel it in my legs - they were pretty tight from not running recently. I told Tim that we'd run his pace until we beat the bridge (at mile 2) and then run mine the rest of the way. We ran the second mile in 9:15, and beat the bridge with time to spare (we had 25 minutes to make it 2 miles).
After running across the bridge, we slowed into a pace that was still pushing it for me but that I thought would be easier to maintain. It was getting hot by this point, and my stomach was getting a little sick, so I pushed as much as I could without risking getting sick. The last few miles were pretty uneventful - we just stopped at all the water stations and kept on going. On this course, these miles are pretty much torture - you run by Husky stadium on Montlake, and then there is an out and back, and then it's through all the parking lots back to the finish. It was fun on the out and back part seeing all the people that were behind us, and I looked at my watch and noticed that if we didn't slack, we could make a sub 10:00 minute/mile finish. As we ran into the stadium, my competitiveness kicked in and we sprinted across the finish line.
Final time - 48:27, average pace 9:45/mile
Final thoughts - I'm glad I did this. Tim had a great time and said he definitely wants to do more races. I am pretty pleased with my performance given my lack of consistent running lately, and hopefully that will motivate me to keep back on track with the running in spite of the personal issues I've been dealing with. I know running makes things better, it's just hard to get out there sometimes!
Monday, May 4, 2009
Next on the menu
Running-wise, there are a lot of races coming up!
Sunday, May 24 - Beat the Bridge 8K
Saturday, June 13 - Lake Youngs (9.6 mile version)
Saturday, June 27 - Seattle Rock N Roll 1/2 Marathon
I finished my last midterm of the quarter today - only 5 more weeks of school plus finals!
Sunday, May 24 - Beat the Bridge 8K
Saturday, June 13 - Lake Youngs (9.6 mile version)
Saturday, June 27 - Seattle Rock N Roll 1/2 Marathon
I finished my last midterm of the quarter today - only 5 more weeks of school plus finals!
Bloomsday 12K Race Report
The training: Not as much as I would have liked, given that my training has been disrupted for various reasons since the Seattle Marathon (sickness, school, life, etc). But coming off of a few solid weeks of running, including a long run of 1:40 last weekend.
The weekend: Drove over to Spokane on Saturday with Mom - long drive! Checked into the Red Lion on the Spokane River, and then met up with my friend Tim from high school for a quick run on the river trail. I hadn't run with him since high school cross-country, so that was fun. We all had dinner at Geno's in downtown Spokane - apparently it was prom night too! I had a midterm on Monday so I spent the rest of the night studying - fun fun!
The race: Had gone to Bloomsday with the intention of meeting two fellow RW posters (drunningman and Tar), but somehow we got our wires crossed and ended up just missing each other before the race. The Porta Potty lines were SO long that I only had time to eat a piece of leftover french bread, use them, and go catch up to the orange wave, which was already starting.
The first few miles of the race were pretty uneventful, although hillier than I was expecting. It started off cool and overcast, but by the middle miles the sun was out and it was pretty toasty. Around mile 4, I ran by the water stop hoping to find some Gatorade, and was surprised (and annoyed) to find out that all they had was water!
Shortly after mile 4, we ran up Doomsday Hill. You could see it for a ways before you actually started up it, so it was fun watching the crowds of people making their way to the top. It wasn't a bad hill at all (at least not compared to some of the ones over here in Seattle), but it was made frustrating by the fact that people were walking all across the road, so those that were still running had to constantly swerve in and out and hit the brakes to avoid running into people.
Once we got to the top of Doomsday, the miles went by pretty quickly (with the exception of mile 6, which seemed to go on forever!). I'd given up on going fast (what with the crowds and walkers and the lack of Gatorade), but I was still pretty wiped by the time we made the final turn to the finish line. I had forgotten my watch, so had to wait until we got home and the results were posted to get my
Final time: 1:27:03, average 11:40 pace per mile.
Final thoughts: I'm glad I ran it, just to say I ran it. It was fun seeing 45,000 people out and running, and the weather was pretty decent. However, purely from a running perspective, I'm not sure it's worth the 5 hour drive each way if you actually want to RUN and not just have fun - too crowded, too many walkers, it was difficult to get into a rhythm, and no Gatorade. On the whole, though, it was a good weekend, and it was fun to run in a race again!
The weekend: Drove over to Spokane on Saturday with Mom - long drive! Checked into the Red Lion on the Spokane River, and then met up with my friend Tim from high school for a quick run on the river trail. I hadn't run with him since high school cross-country, so that was fun. We all had dinner at Geno's in downtown Spokane - apparently it was prom night too! I had a midterm on Monday so I spent the rest of the night studying - fun fun!
The race: Had gone to Bloomsday with the intention of meeting two fellow RW posters (drunningman and Tar), but somehow we got our wires crossed and ended up just missing each other before the race. The Porta Potty lines were SO long that I only had time to eat a piece of leftover french bread, use them, and go catch up to the orange wave, which was already starting.
The first few miles of the race were pretty uneventful, although hillier than I was expecting. It started off cool and overcast, but by the middle miles the sun was out and it was pretty toasty. Around mile 4, I ran by the water stop hoping to find some Gatorade, and was surprised (and annoyed) to find out that all they had was water!
Shortly after mile 4, we ran up Doomsday Hill. You could see it for a ways before you actually started up it, so it was fun watching the crowds of people making their way to the top. It wasn't a bad hill at all (at least not compared to some of the ones over here in Seattle), but it was made frustrating by the fact that people were walking all across the road, so those that were still running had to constantly swerve in and out and hit the brakes to avoid running into people.
Once we got to the top of Doomsday, the miles went by pretty quickly (with the exception of mile 6, which seemed to go on forever!). I'd given up on going fast (what with the crowds and walkers and the lack of Gatorade), but I was still pretty wiped by the time we made the final turn to the finish line. I had forgotten my watch, so had to wait until we got home and the results were posted to get my
Final time: 1:27:03, average 11:40 pace per mile.
Final thoughts: I'm glad I ran it, just to say I ran it. It was fun seeing 45,000 people out and running, and the weather was pretty decent. However, purely from a running perspective, I'm not sure it's worth the 5 hour drive each way if you actually want to RUN and not just have fun - too crowded, too many walkers, it was difficult to get into a rhythm, and no Gatorade. On the whole, though, it was a good weekend, and it was fun to run in a race again!
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