no end
back in 1999 my friend dave shared a link to an online competition of sorts, the Million Mile Ultra Run. no one has run a million miles and some googling has suggested the most miles run is somewhere south of two hundred fifty thousand.
fast forward to the later half of 2013 and my friend is ahead of me on the leaderboard with four thousand more miles than i’ve been able to muster. still, i continue moving forward with no end in sight.
8/20 – 7 miles
8/21 – 7 miles
8/22 – 7 miles
8/23 – 7 miles
8/24 – 17 miles
8/25 – 11 miles
8/26 – 7 miles
8/27 – 7 miles
8/28 – 8 miles
8/29 – 7 miles
8/30 – 10 miles
8/31 – 10 miles
August Totals: 257 miles (31/31 days, 37 hours & 25 minutes)
9/1 – 6 miles
9/2 – 7 miles
9/3 – 7 miles
9/4 – 7 miles AM, 6 miles PM
9/5 – 7 miles
MTD – 40 miles (5/5 days, 5 hours & 54 minutes)
YTD – 1,841 miles (244/248 days, 264 hours & 47 minutes)
Odometer – 36,779 miles
sans ipod
as of late i’ve been leaving my ipod shuffle at home when heading out for a run. there is really no real reason for making the change other than simply changing for the sake of change. i’ve noticed that i run a much more relaxed pace without tunes, which isn’t a big surprise if you have any idea of the music i tend to listen to.
8/1 – 7 miles
8/2 – 7 miles
8/3 – 15 miles
8/4 – 10 miles
8/5 – 9 miles
8/6 – 7 miles
8/7 – 7 miles
8/8 – 7 miles
8/9 – 7 miles
8/10 – 16 miles
8/11 – 7 miles
8/12 – 5 miles
8/13 – 6 miles
8/14 – 6 miles
8/15 – 6.25 miles
8/16 – 6 miles
8/17 – 8.75 miles
8/18 – 8 miles
8/19 – 7 miles
MTD – 152 miles (19/19 days, 22 hours & 16 minutes)
YTD – 1,696 miles (227/231 days, 243 hours & 44 minutes)
Odometer – 36,634 miles
uphill climb
one of the neat features of my GPS watch is that it tracks the amount of elevation i climb on my daily constitutionals. i usually don’t pay much attention to it but i recently passed 30,000 feet in elevation gain for the year to date. just for the sake of comparison, the elevation of Mount Everest is a bit more than 29,000 feet.
7/17 – 7 miles
7/18 – 7 miles
7/19 – 7 miles
7/20 – 10 miles
7/21 – 7 miles
7/22 – 7 miles
7/23 – 8 miles
7/24 – 7 miles AM, 6 miles PM
7/25 – 8 miles
7/26 – 7 miles
7/27 – 10 miles
7/28 – 11 miles
7/29 – 7 miles
7/30 – 7 miles
7/31 – 6 miles
MTD – 230 miles (31/31 days, 33 hours & 33 minutes)
YTD – 1,544 miles (208/212 days, 222 hours & 29 minutes)
Odometer – 36,482 miles
lending support
my sister ran her first 5K race on the fourth of july. she trained for it in secret then shared her intent with my dad the night before the race. instead of registering for the 10K, my dad (who was thrilled) signed up to run the 5K with her.
on race morning i caught up with both of them before their race. after chatting for a bit, i shuffled along out onto the course so i could see them run past. seeing them in their first mile, i called out “pick it up you two” as they passed by.
i then moseyed along to a spot in the second mile of the course and waited for them. with arms outstretched i again jestfully implored them to pick up the pace as a guy who was dribbling 3 basketballs at once was running ahead of them. yep, that’s how big brother rolls and he’s probably lucky that little sister didn’t run over and slug him.
my race (10K) had started earlier in the morning and to be honest the effort was a grind the whole way. it got a little fun as the course wound its way back into town and i was able to start picking off a few folks ahead of me. i stopped the clock at 39:21 which netted me 32nd overall and 5th in the M40-44 age group. no beer stein age group award for me this year. bummer.
6/25 – 6 miles
6/26 – 6 miles
6/27 – 7 miles
6/28 – 6 miles
6/29 – 11 miles
6/30 – 8 miles
June Totals: 224.5 miles, 30/30 Days, 32 Hours & 5 Minutes
7/1 – 6 miles
7/2 – 6 miles
7/3 – 4 miles
7/4 – 10K race in 39:21 plus 1.75 mile w/u
7/5 – 4 miles
7/6 – 6 miles
7/7 – 6 miles
7/8 – 6 miles
7/9 – 7 miles
7/10 – 7 miles
7/11 – 8 miles
7/12 – 7 miles
7/13 – 9 miles
7/14 – 10 miles
7/15 – 7 miles
7/16 – 7 miles
MTD – 108 miles, 16/16 days, 16 hours & 3 minutes
YTD – 1,422 miles, 193/197 days, 203 hours & 58 minutes
Odometer – 36,360 miles
oh yeah, i’ve still got an active running streak going with 120 consecutive days without recording a 0 in my log.
justa number
the month of june was kicked off with a small 5K race here in town around frame park. i ran this race last year and was able to get the overall win, which was a thrill. this year, i started the race with a bit more controlled pace and essentially ran uncontested the whole way to defend the title.
it’s rare enough for me to win a race but this was a first time that i was able to repeat the feat a year later. for the effort, i received a medal and a gift certificate to Performance Running Outfitters. a few days after the race i went to PRO’s store and picked out a pair of “better than naked” running shorts from The North Face. i’ve been wanting to try these shorts out for quite some time, simply due to their name.
fast forward to last friday night, i ran another small 5K race here in town which started near our first house. the race started with a long downhill stretch which was lead by a pack of four high schoolers and a college kid which left me trailing behind in their wake.
over the first half mile, they strung themselves out single file one behind the other with the college kid out front. one of the runners ahead of me began to slow a bit so i zeroed in on him and moved past before the first mile marker.
my focus was then aimed at the next three runners ahead of me as the college kid was out front and pulling away. ever so slowly i began to reel the next three runners in and shortly after turning onto my old block i was right on their tail.
i surged past one then another to move into third place when all of the sudden the guy running just ahead in second place pulled to the side of the road and came to a complete stop. within the span of only a few strides i had moved from fifth place up to second place on the road.
figuring that the kid who stopped simply went out too fast, i motored through the remainder of the second mile which was signaled by a beep from my GPS watch. with the volume cranked on my ipod, i’m surprised i heard it but there wasn’t time to look down at my watch. all of my focus was on moving forward as fast as possible to hold off any impending charge from behind.
gasping for air and sweating profusely from the humidity the third mile boomeranged back up the hill we had descended at the start. leaning my torso slightly forward, and turning my legs over as fast as i could, i climbed to the top of the first uphill section then made a sharp right turn onto the final uphill stretch to the finish line.
as i closed in on the finish, the digits on the timing clock came into focus…leading with the number 17. mercilessly, time ticked away and i was unable to get across the finish line until 18:02 for second place overall.
initially lost in the moment was the fact that i had managed to hold off a high school kid by only five seconds. i doubled back and gave him and the kid who finished fourth a high five then shuffled off for a cool down run.
later on i found out the guy who had stopped ended up running slowly for the rest of the route and was high fiving folks on his way to the finish. while i would have liked to get under eighteen minutes, the effort still made it into my top ten fastest 5K’s…and was my fastest 5K in ten years.
6/1 – 5K race in 18:42 plus 6+ miles for w/u and c/d
6/2 – 8 miles
6/3 – 6 miles
6/4 – 7 miles
6/5 – 7 miles
6/6 – 6 miles
6/7 – 7 miles
6/8 – 12 miles
6/9 – 7 miles
6/10 – 7 miles
6/11 – 7 miles
6/12 – 7 miles
6/13 – 6 miles
6/14 – 8 miles
6/15 – 8 miles
6/16 – 7 miles
6/17 – 9 miles
6/18 – 6 miles
6/19 – 7 miles
6/20 – 7 miles
6/21 – 5K race in 18:02 plus 5 miles for w/u and c/d
6/22 – 10 miles
6/23 – 7 miles
6/24 – 7 miles
MTD – 180.5 miles (24/24 days – 25 hours 47 minutes)
YTD – 1,270 miles (171/175 days – 181 hours 37 minutes)
Odometer – 36,208 miles