Monthly Archives: March 2011

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)

Pleasant Saturday Morning

08mi

Start time: 3/12/11, 7:30am
Location: Downtown DC
Distance: 8.25 miles
Average pace: 9:55min/mile
Total Miles For March: 31 miles
Total Miles For 2011: 129 miles

A nice run with the guys; up New Jersey Ave all the way to R Street, then cutting back down 6th before running down to the Waterfront and up around the Washington Monument. Aside from a bit of dawdling at mile 4 (several people were dropping things off at the cars since we were heading near them anyway) we were definitely on top of things.

(9:56, 10:03, 10:07, 10:54, 9:47, 9:52, 9:47, 9:16, 2:05)

Kcirb + Bleah

03mi, 04mi, brick, indoor track

Start time: 3/9/11, 6:00pm
Location: TJ Community Center
Distance: 3 miles
Average pace: 8:30min/mile
Total Miles For March: 19 miles
Total Miles For 2011: 117 miles

Oops! Catching up on entries here. Wednesday was a 3-miler before spin class, due to missing Tuesday’s planned run. No complaints.

(8:28, 8:29, 8:34)

Start time: 3/10/11, 4:45pm
Location: TJ Community Center
Distance: 4 miles
Average pace: 8:37min/mile
Total Miles For March: 23 miles
Total Miles For 2011: 121 miles

We had tickets Thursday nights for Madama Butterfly, so I got into work early enough that I could knock out a run afterwards. With the rain still bucketing down I decided I’d rather not drown and (alas) went for the indoor track again. I was hoping for 5 miles but I felt like crap the entire time I was running. Sometimes it just never quite clicks internally and this was one of them.

(8:37, 8:33, 8:44, 8:35)

Well, really 13

12mi

Start time: 3/5/11, 7:30am
Location: All over DC
Distance: 12.67 miles
Average pace: 10:21min/mile
Total Miles For March: 16 miles
Total Miles For 2011: 114 miles

Last long run before the National, it seems. Five of us started out at 7:30am for a quick 4-miler before coming back to scoop up the others. Would’ve been unnotable except Ben tripped on a grate at mile 2 and skinned his knee. Didn’t look too bad, but it was a gusher, as anyone else in the same situation will know happens. Steve had some hand-wipes so we cleaned it off as best we could (several times, it was going all down his leg and onto his shoe) and once we got back to the cars, took a brief break to bandage it up from the kit in Jim and Michael’s car.

Those first four miles were really something like 4.4 miles, but I’d turned off the watch when we hit 4. (Habit I guess.) Picked up another 8 and two thirds on the second half, which despite a bathroom stop at mile 5 and a “gel emergency” right at the start of mile 12, all was good. So really a 13 miler, but I’m counting it as 12 for the purposes of… um… whatever the purpose of me tallying all this stuff up is. 🙂

(9:57, 9:36, 10:17, 9:44, 10:50, 10:14, 10:01, 9:48, 10:28, 10:36, 10:43, 11:36, 7:10)