All posts by Greg McElhatton

Mystery 13-miler

13mi

Start time: 6/25/11, 6:00am
Location: National Mall, Mt. Vernon Trail, Georgetown, Cap Crescent Trail
Distance: 13 miles
Average pace: 10:39min/mile
Total Miles For June: 64 miles
Total Miles For 2011: 371 miles

I vaguely remember this one only because of the slightly unusual route.

Mystery run

04mi

Start time: 6/23/11, 6:00am
Location: National Mall
Distance: 3.8 miles
Average pace: 10:00min/mile
Total Miles For June: 51 miles
Total Miles For 2011: 358 miles

And now, a series of “mystery run” entries; thanks to entering all of these two months after the fact, I don’t remember them at all.

Washington DC Triathlon

04mi, race, triathlon

Washington DC Triathlon
Start time: 6/19/11, 7:30am
Location: Potomac River, National Mall, Whitehurst Freeway
Distance: 800m swim / 20k bike / 7.5k run
Splits: 17:42 / 46:10 / 48:00
Total time: 2:04:00
Total Miles For June: 47 miles
Total Miles For 2011: 354 miles

I signed up for the Washington DC Triathlon… well, not on a whim, but almost a spur-of-the-moment. I’d had to cancel running the Columbia Triathlon this May due to illness, so I started thinking about the DC Tri in June as a replacement. Here’s the funny thing; I was signed up for both races last year and ended up running Columbia but canceled the DC Tri due to, yes, illness. I also remembed that last year the DC Tri was blazing hot that day. So instead of signing up for the Olympic/International distance, I went for the Sprint course. That way if it was baking outside, I’d at least be done a little earlier, right?

I almost had to sit around pre-race longer than my race itself (it was awfully close). The transition area closed at 5:45, and my swim wave was the absolute last to go in, around 7:30. Come to think of it, I probbaly did sit around longer than I raced. (Yeesh.) The swim, once I finally got there, was an interesting experience. I’d neer had a “jump in off a dock” start before, and the water was less than a degree under the maximum temperature for a wetsuit. I finally decided not to use mine, figuring what I’d gain in boyancy I’d lose in transition removing it. The water was indeed just fine, temperature-wise. A lot of people swimming sideways and hanging onto buoys right off the bat, though, which was odd. I knew my swim time would be subpar for me (I have not been good about keeping up with my swims this year) and sure enough, I was about two minutes off of where I should’ve been. I also managed to scrape my knee on the ramp as I was exiting the water. Potomac River water, yuck. (I used a lot of antibiotic cream on it for the next few days and that thankfully did the trick.)

The bike was not fast for most, but it was fast for me. It helped that it was a mostly flat course, but all in all I was really pleased with my performance there. A real improvement from Columbia (and its hills) the previous year.

As for the run? Well, I did the same thing I did in Columbia. In other words, bombed out around the 2/3rds mark. I need to work on pacing myself throughout the race a bit better to try and avoid this in the future. It probably didn’t help that a week before the race, they changed the course from a 6.7k to a 7.5k. Not a huge distance, I know, but I could have used that slightly shorter distance. I might’ve rallied a bit more at the end. Or maybe not, who knows?

All in all, a nice replacement for Columbia. I’m signed up for the International distance for next year. Now that I know the course, I wouldn’t mind tackling it again. Just with some better training under my belt, next time.

Another lovely morning

05mi

Start time: 6/15/11, 5:45am
Location: National Mall
Distance: 5.32 miles
Average pace: 9:50min/mile
Total Miles For June: 43 miles
Total Miles For 2011: 350 miles

Thursday’s run got scooted up to Wednesday due to work meetings for Steve, and such. Another beautiful morning, though. No complaints here!

(8:56, 9:52, 10:37, 9:53, 10:11, 2:51)

Nice morning

05mi

Start time: 6/14/11, 5:45am
Location: National Mall
Distance: 5.15 miles
Average pace: 9:49min/mile
Total Miles For June: 38 miles
Total Miles For 2011: 345 miles

Just me and Ben this morning, and Ben wanted to try running to our starting point from his home on H Street. (About a mile and a half away.) It worked out well; I ran my mile before he got there, we did three and a bit together, and then after running up Capitol Hill with him (on his way back) I turned around and finished up the last mile by myself. Gorgeous weather today, and we ran into Rick Weber at the end, which was a pleasant surprise.

(8:37, 10:07, 10:22, 10:23, 9:44, 1:17)

Chaos

10mi

Start time: 6/11/11, 6:35am
Location: Waterfront, Hains Point
Distance: 10 miles
Average pace: 10:01min/mile
Total Miles For June: 33 miles
Total Miles For 2011: 340 miles

Saturday’s run was an odd one. Originally I thought I was going to miss it, but due to a change of plans it looked like it would fit.

The plan was that Ben would run to the school in Southwest where we’d meet Stephanie, Rich, and Bill at 7am for an 8-miler (and that way Ben would get in 10). Sounded like a good plan, so I got there early, ran two miles, and met up with everyone else.

The route was pretty simple — take the bridge to Hains Point, then go up Ohio Drive all the way to Independence, and take it and Jefferson back to 4th St and go back down to the school.

About two miles in, Bill was gasping and wheezing to the point that I thought he was going to keel over. Apparently while he hasn’t been running since his last run with us, he did “an intense leg workout” at the gym on Friday night. He started talking about heading back early, and by mile 3 he’d dropped make to take some more walk breaks and was a little dot behind us. It was already grossly hot though, so before we left Hains Point, Stephanie and Ben came up with a new plan. We’d skip Ohio and Independence and just head directly back to the cars, which would be around 6 miles. Stephanie was going to stop there, but Rich and Ben and I would run up to the horse’s butt and drop Ben off (who would run the rest of the way home — turns out it’s 2.5 miles each way so that’d actually add up to 11 miles) and Rich and I would head back. Bill was nowhere in sight by this point.

So, we went back to the cars, the three of us headed up to the horse, we waved goodbye to Ben, started running back (through a sea of children, yay) and on the other side of the Reflecting Pool… Jim and Michael showed up. They were off on their own run and looked a little boggled to see me and Rich with no one else in sight. We said hey, each headed our own way… and standing at 4th and Jefferson, looking incredibly lost, was Bill. He said he’d cut directly over and was trying to find us to head back. (On the bright side the rest had done him some good and he no longer sounded like he was going to die.)

Finally made it back to the cars, gulped down my drink that Stephanie had thoughtfully bought for me, and then went home and showered and changed so Charlie and I could go to an outdoor wedding. Phew.

(8:46, 8:50, 10:10, 10:06, 10:11, 10:30, 10:27, 10:22, 10:16, 10:22)

Reunited

05mi

Start time: 6/9/11, 5:45am
Location: National Mall
Distance: 5 miles
Average pace: 10:22min/mile
Total Miles For June: 23 miles
Total Miles For 2011: 330 miles

…with my GPS, yay.

Boy, it’s hot out.

(8:51, 10:44, 11:01, 10:39, 10:33)

Still no GPS

05mi

Start time: 6/7/11, 5:45am
Location: National Mall
Distance: ~5.2 miles
Average pace: ~9:41min/mile
Total Miles For June: 18 miles
Total Miles For 2011: 325 miles

…still no splits.

Aimless

08mi

Start time: 6/4/11, 6:30am
Location: SW Waterfront, National Mall, Georgetown, Cap Crescent
Distance: ~8 miles
Average pace: beats me
Total Miles For June: 13 miles
Total Miles For 2011: 320 miles

Ran with John, Stephanie, and Rich on Saturday morning; we did a last second change of location due to the Race for the Cure, so the planned route went out the window and we just winged one that headed up along the edge of the Mall, over to Georgetown and the Cap Crescent, and then on the way back went via Maine Avenue to get to the waterfront. Only GPS was my old crappy one and when it reported the first mile took 12 and a half minutes we knew it was up to its usual “not working very well” tricks. When we got back it said 8.12 miles but the reality was probably a bit more. Hopefully my regular one will be back in a week or so!