Start time: 3/30/13, 7:30am
Location: National Mall, Rock Creek Park, National Zoo
Distance: 10.26 miles
Average pace: 10:21min/mile
Total Miles For March: 74 miles
Total Miles For 2013: 146 miles
Current Shoes: 45 miles
Beautiful morning, great company, nice scenery, no complaints.
Start time: 3/27/13, 5:50am
Location: National Mall
Distance: 5.12 miles
Average pace: 9:57min/mile
Total Miles For March: 64 miles
Total Miles For 2013: 136 miles
Current Shoes: 35 miles
First run in my 40s; was hoping to have one more in my 30s but a combo of work and weather kept me grounded on Monday. Just me and Ben for a pleasant run, although we both admitted that we are getting burnt out on being all bundled up for winter. It’s spring, we’d like a good 10 degrees warmer in the mornings, please.
Start time: 3/20/13, 5:00pm
Location: WSC Clarendon
Distance: 6 miles
Average pace: 9:25min/mile
Total Miles For March: 52 miles
Total Miles For 2013: 124 miles
Current Shoes: 23 miles
Cold morning + no one else available to run = Greg electing to sleep in and hit an afternoon run. Ended up doing so on the dreaded treadmiill (ugh) but it all worked out in the end.
Start time: 3/23/13, 7:00am
Location: National Mall, 14th St Bridge, Mt. Vernon Trail, Roosevelt Bridge
Distance: 7.16 miles
Average pace: 10:18min/mile
Total Miles For March: 59 miles
Total Miles For 2013: 131 miles
Current Shoes: 30 miles
We meant to run 8, but our memories of how far a route this would be were a little off, and no one felt like the extra mile (myself included). Cold, brisk morning but a good run.
Rock ‘N Roll USA Half Marathon
Start time: 3/16/13, 8:00am
Location: Washington DC
Distance: 13.1 miles
Finish Time: 2:13:34
Average pace: 10:12min/mile
Total Miles For March: 46 miles
Total Miles For 2013: 118 miles
Current Shoes: 17 miles
Another year, another March race. This is one where my training’s been a little haywire but I was still hoping for better. Unfortunately I started cramping around mile 8, which added with back pains around mile 1 and in retrospect I should be glad I finished. Nothing seemed to go quite right, unfortunately. Dressed too warmly and in layers that would be difficult to remove, coupled with (making a mistake I’ve done before) filling my water bottle with a sports drink that I then barely sipped because I’m not crazy about the taste. Between the two I might have dehydrated a little bit. Oops.
Bizarrely I ended up within seconds of the last time I ran this race, two years ago. And also one in which I wasn’t thrilled about. So I guess that’s… something? Maybe?
Anyway. I finished, that’s a victory, but there are a lot of lessons to be learned here that I’m still parsing.
Start time: 3/13/13, 6:00am
Location: National Mall
Distance: 4 miles
Average pace: 9:32min/mile
Total Miles For March: 33 miles
Total Miles For 2013: 105 miles
Current Shoes: 4 miles
Skipped Monday’s run due to a combination of DST grogginess and (more importantly) getting a lungfull of dust on Sunday afternoon, which I’m highly allergic to. Spent the rest of Sunday and a lot of Monday kind of sick.
Anyway, could’ve knocked out 6 today but I’ve got a Saturday race so decided to take it a little easy. Just me and Steve this morning, and it was a good solid run.
Start time: 3/9/13, 7:40am
Location: National Mall
Distance: 8 miles
Average pace: 9:48min/mile
Total Miles For March: 29 miles
Total Miles For 2013: 101 miles
Current Shoes: 287 miles
Here’s something I haven’t done in a while: run 2 miles by myself at the start of a Saturday run, then circled around to pick up the rest of the group. Ended up with 8 overall and I’m glad I had those starting miles because it allowed me to ditch the hat and gloves, neither of which were needed. It warmed up awfully fast (and today, that was a good thing).
Start time: 3/7/13, 5:00pm
Location: Rock Creek Park
Distance: 5 miles
Average pace: 9:18min/mile
Total Miles For March: 21 miles
Total Miles For 2013: 93 miles
Current Shoes: 287 miles
Another nice afternoon, so another run in Rock Creek instead of at the gym. I think I ate lunch a little too late today though (or it was something in particular) because my stomach felt a little queasy around mile 3. Took a minute walk break for miles 4 and 5 to help things settle and that did the trick, though.
Start time: 3/5/13, 5:00pm
Location: Rock Creek Park
Distance: 4 miles
Average pace: 9:08min/mile
Total Miles For March: 16 miles
Total Miles For 2013: 88 miles
Current Shoes: 282 miles
After missing Monday’s run (“Feels like 16 degrees” from weather.com is apparently my limit for what I am willing to put myself through), and with snow on the horizon for tomorrow morning, I figured I needed to knock off a few miles at the hated gym treadmill after work today. But then something crazy happened… it got up to 50 degrees. And I couldn’t let that go to waste.
So, I mapped out a 4-mile route, changed into my gym clothes, used my “emergency jacket” as well since it wasn’t quite warm enough for just a short-sleeve shirt, drove halfway home and parked in Rock Creek Park at the parking lot right by Beach Drive and Blagden Rd, and then ran and used the time on my This American Life podcast as a stopwatch. Worked pretty well! By the time I was done it was starting to get a little dark, or I might’ve thrown on two more for good measure. But four is better than zero! And since this might have to hold me over until Saturday, that’s a victory.
Start time: 3/2/13, 7:00am
Location: National Mall, Capitol Building Grounds, Hains Point, Mt. Vernon Trail
Distance: 12 miles
Average pace: 10:35min/mile
Total Miles For March: 12 miles
Total Miles For 2013: 84 miles
Current Shoes: 278 miles
Very, very breezy morning; I’m glad I brought a third layer at the last second. It went well; held back a bit in the middle section then picked back up to my regular 12-miler pace with no real problems. Fingers crossed!