My Running Journey

Last Saturday I ran the St. Charles Rehab 4 miler race today. It was to be part of
a 12 mile run with me running the race in the middle of it. Perfect
weather, challenging course and some twists that I had not seen before.

I knew where the race began and finished and also knew the course
would be a 4 mile loop with the 1st two miles headed downhill and the
2nd two miles coming up hill.

There were roughly 250 runners in the race as there are 5 races this
weekend in the Long Island area.

I did my first 4 miles at a very easy comfortable 8 min pace and felt
good.

Mile splits were:
1) 6:09 nice down hill
2) 6:33 gentle down hill and then flatten out. I also felt my
hamstring tighten up in my left part of my tush.
3) 6:57 gentle uphill
4.1) 8:03 (all uphill)

Official time was 27:34 or a 6:44 pace for 4.1 miles

The finish had moved after we started the race. Apparently the police
decided it was a hazard where it was located so they made the race
director move it into a parking lot. This added a .1 mile onto the
race. That was a first for me.

I finished 10/250 and 2nd in Age Group (M45-49). However no hardware
as they only gave the age group winners a medal. How cheap is that?
I will let the race director know next year I will run one of the
other races and try for hardware where I can possibly win something.
I can be a materialistic guy at times but do like to win the medals!
Due to the sore tush (it felt like a huge knot in my left cheek and
Gina/Nora any ideas what to do for it?) I cut my cool down to 2 miles.
I also canceled my bike ride following it and went to the pool and
swam an easy 500 meters instead.

This was the last race for me before the half marathon in two weeks.
Now one more long week and then I can taper and get hopefully some of
the niggles I am having out of the way.

As of Today I still am not able to run but have continued to swim. I have swam 2,250 meters in the past 3 days and will be swimming more and more as I continue to recover.

Enjoy the day everyone.

P.S. TriShannon did very well on her recent half marathon. Check out her race report.