All posts by Greg McElhatton

Inspiration where you can get it

04mi, indoor track

Start time: 4/5/11, 6:45pm
Location: TJ
Distance: 4 miles
Average pace: 8:34min/mile
Total Miles For April: 14 miles
Total Miles For 2011: 185 miles

Original plan was to take advantage of Monday’s awesome weather and run after work, then hopefully get a swim in on Tuesday. Then all sorts of stuff happened and there was no exercise at all on Monday. So I talked myself into going to the gym after work where I’d use the rowing machine and maybe run 2-3 miles. I started up with the run part and right around the same time, the program that works with developmentally challenged adults was starting their activities on the track.

And the more I was there, the more I wanted to stay there, because they were all having a blast and it was infectious. So many people on the track at TJ have scowls on their faces, or are at least stone-faced, but with this team they were working hard but also pleased with their results. (Also, I am pretty sure one of them could’ve had a career as a sprinter.) So I skipped the rowing machine and did four miles instead, but then I was starving so it was time to go home for dinner. Plus, they’d moved on to some game involving a tennis ball and the thrill was subsiding.

(8:51, 8:49, 8:24, 8:13)

Up and down Mt Vernon

10mi

Start time: 4/2/11, 7:30am
Location: Mount Vernon Trail
Distance: 10 miles
Average pace: 10:12min/mile
Total Miles For April: 10 miles
Total Miles For 2011: 181 miles

Just a small group this week; Ben and John are running the Cherry Blossom 10-miler tomorrow, so I met Steve, Michael, and Jim down at Belle Haven Park (to try and avoid the chaos of downtown entirely today) for our own 10-miler along the Mt. Vernon Trail. It alternated between drizzle and no rain the entire time, but never got to be too heavy. Another 10 degrees warmer and it would’ve been pretty awesome weather; instead it was just so-so. But great company, so no complaints.

(We also might have taken some longer-than-normal walk breaks early on. None of us seemed to mind.)

(10:08, 10:19, 10:37, 10:01, 10:30, 10:39, 10:17, 9:56, 9:47, 9:47)

the forgotten three

03mi, indoor track

Start time: 3/31/11, 5:30pm
Location: TJ
Distance: 3 miles
Average pace: 8:36min/mile
Total Miles For March: 73 miles
Total Miles For 2011: 171 miles

Forgot to add this in on Thursday; I’d hoped to get 1-2 more in but I had a shindig that started at 7pm, and I got a late start to the run (despite going into work early). No bigs.

(8:52, 8:24, 8:32)

Back on the horse

04mi

Start time: 3/29/11, 6:00am
Location: Washington, DC
Distance: 4.3 miles
Average pace: 10:11min/mile
Total Miles For March: 70 miles
Total Miles For 2011: 168 miles

Met some of the guys for their 6am run down along the Mall, partially to get my butt moving again, partially to give Ben back his phone (which was accidentally left in my car after the race). Aside from an extra walk break in mile 2 so someone could perform emergency kidney maintenance (so to speak), uneventful. (And pleasant.)

(10:09, 11:13, 9:56, 9:38, 2:56)

An entire race of “eh”

13mi, half marathon, race

National Half Marathon
Start time: 3/26/11, 7:00am
Location: Washington, DC
Distance: 13.1 miles
Finishing time: 2:13:27
Average pace: 10:11min/mile
Total Miles For March: 66 miles
Total Miles For 2011: 164 miles

Another spring, another half marathon… well, except this was the most “eh” half marathon I think I’ve run. I was never feeling it from start to finish, unfortunately. Just a lot of plodding along, wondering when it would be over, never quite having the drive (or speed) that I wanted. Considering I was some 11 minutes off of the last race of this distance I ran, it showed. My third worst, and the other two were the Disney Half Marathon (where I was saving a lot of energy for the full marathon the next day), and my very first half marathon back in 2003 when I weighed a hell of a lot more (and it was an hour slower). Oh well; everyone’s got a not-good race (or five) in them, and this was one of mine.

As for the race itself, well… I swear, each year this race finds something new to screw up. This year it involved mile marker signs that were mostly not set up (what are the odds that everyone missed them?), and the ones that were set up were incredibly small and also parallel to the street so you couldn’t see them until you were on top of them, if at all. Nicely done there. On the brighter side, this year the course went through Howard University instead of (at least back in 2009, the last time I ran this particular race) near the hospital, so that was a nice change of scenery. And I loved seeing Charlie, Cristina, and Brett along the way, plus getting to see Beth and Chris come up toward the finish line after I was done. And my friend Ben from my running group did really well, so that was an added bonus too.

Since my GPS said I ran 13.3 miles, I have no reliable splits for this race, so you don’t get them either.

Taper Too

03mi, indoor track

Start time: 3/24/11, 5:15pm
Location: TJ Community Center
Distance: 3 miles
Average pace: 8:49min/mile
Total Miles For March: 53 miles
Total Miles For 2011: 151 miles

One last taper. Honestly I have no real goals for Saturday. No doubt I will still be disappointed no matter what my finishing time is, regardless. 🙂

(8:59, 8:42, 8:45)

Taper

03mi

Start time: 3/22/11, 6:30pm
Location: North Arlington
Distance: 3 miles
Average pace: 8:52min/mile
Total Miles For March: 50 miles
Total Miles For 2011: 148 miles

Just took an easy taper run through the local neighborhood.

(8:46, 8:58, 8:51)

South

06mi

Start time: 3/19/11, 7:00am
Location: SW and SE DC
Distance: 6.4 miles
Average pace: 10:07min/mile
Total Miles For March: 47 miles
Total Miles For 2011: 145 miles

A nice six-miler with the group this morning, confined (with the exception of a loop around the Washington Monument) to SW and SE DC. A bit windy, but it was 60 degrees instead of the predicted 50 when we started, so I was happy. Towards the end the wind picked up a bit and I ended up running ahead a tiny bit to get off the hill with the Monument. Brrrr.

(10:14, 9:59, 10:18, 10:04, 10:37, 10:09, 3:23)

One of those afternoons

05mi, new shoes

Start time: 3/17/11, 6:40pm
Location: Vienna, VA
Distance: 5 miles
Average pace: 9:11min/mile
Total Miles For March: 41 miles
Total Miles For 2011: 139 miles

The plan was simple; go to my parents’ house and pick up an old bike to take to Goodwill, plus drive my mom’s car around the block, and go for a short run. I got there a little bit after 5:30.

Over an hour later, I gave up trying to jump my mom’s car by myself, but by that point I was tired and stressed, and while a run sounded like the way to drop that stress it never really happened. By the last time I went through the (to be fair not terribly steep, but numerous) hills on the way back I was physically and mentally done for the day. Just one of those afternoons where you don’t feel good when you’re done, but I am glad I pushed through the discouragement of the day.

(8:51, 8:47, 9:05, 9:31, 9:37)

Such a strange feeling…

05mi

Start time: 3/15/11, 8:20am
Location: North Arlington
Distance: 5 miles
Average pace: 8:46min/mile
Total Miles For March: 36 miles
Total Miles For 2011: 134 miles

…to have a before-work maintenance run that is actually outside. Could spring finally be here?

(8:50, 8:49, 8:33, 9:13, 8:23)