one last long run
i finally got myself out the door at about 9:30AM and headed down to the glacial drumlin trail. temps were in the upper 50’s with overcast skies…perfect for a long run. i headed toward waukesha and picked up the fox river trail and headed south. i wound past the sewage treatment plant (phew!) and the town dump then crossed sunset avenue. the next 3.5 miles were much more "park" scenery and i made the turn shortly before 64 minutes at about 8 miles.
heading home i had the benefit of a tailwind pushing me along. the sun ducked in and out of the clouds and the temps rose a little bit. i made the turn from the fox river trail back onto the glacial drumlin then up commanche to home. my blood sugar was a bit low so i grabbed a dr. pepper from my fridge in the garage and walked around my court with a soda in hand.
overall, i mustered just under 8 min pace for 16 miles. 3 weeks to the lakefront marathon!
Al’s Run
i met up with ryan and jeff over at ryan’s house at 8:30AM. one nice thing about this race is that it starts at 10:30AM which allows folks to sleep in a bit. we headed downtown and ryan found a great parking spot by the starting line. we found other members of the hillrunner.com team and ryan handed them their race packets. with about 30 minutes to race time, we headed out on a short warm up and headed for the bus station for one last pit stop before the race. unfortunately, they were cleaning the bathrooms so we had to improvise, adapt and overcome elsewhere.
ultra-legend roy pIrRUNg had the same plan to use the bathrooms and ended up running along with us back to the starting area. he had just gotten back in the states after participating in the 100K world championships. the US team took bronze and he broke his US record in the road 100K for 55-59 year olds. he also said that kevin setnes ran well.
i ended up about three rows behind the start line right next to ultra-legend dave "double" dehart. the gun sounded and we rolled downhill. i pulled through the first mile in 5:50 and shortly thereafter got to listen to the bagpipers. making a left onto prospect, i could already feel the wind and the lack of turnover in my legs and my pace slowed a bit. we headed down lafayette hill and i did what i could to lean into the hill and let gravity do the work. down on lincoln memorial drive, roy pIrRUNg went past me with another local legend Bob Fitts (who had competed against Steve Prefontaine back in the day).
i did what i could to maintain my pace through the 4th and 5th mile and made the turn for the finish with the clock reading in the high 31’s. i did what i could to get myself across the line in under 32 but the clock doesn’t wait for anyone and i finished in 32:04.
the hillrunner.com team ended up 2nd in the corporate division, losing by only 40 seconds. considering a few weeks ago there wasn’t even a full team, it turned out pretty good. after chatting at the finish for awhile, we headed back up to the starting area for the ride home.
easy does it
i needed to be in at work early today so i brought gear and ran "off reservation" during the lunch. i ended up running five miles at a little over 8 minute pace and felt pretty good. temps were in the upper sixties with sun and a south wind.
tomorrow is an off day then saturday is an 8K race.
be the ball.
slow and steady
this morning the temp was all of 45 degrees and not a cloud in the sky. looking up, the moon wasn’t visible…only the stars. like i mentioned before, i can pick out the "dipper" in the south sky…i should look it up to see if it’s "big" or "little". i headed down madison then up moreland past church then made a turn north towards the city police headquarters. i noticed that there is a bakery outlet right next door to the police headquarters…there’s a joke in there somewhere.
i turned around after 3.5 miles and headed for home. it was a bit painful heading home as i had to go "#1" and there wasn’t any place to stop…since i was running through town. thankfully i made it home without resorting to anything that would have resulted in potentially getting a ticket.
my college (marian college) recently revived its cross-country program. during lunch, i decided to browse around and see if the college’s web site had anything to say about it. turns out that my old teammate Archie was hired as the mens and womens cross country coach. i think the last time i saw Archie was on the bus at the 2002 BOSTON marathon.
otherwise, i’m 3 1/2 weeks out from the Lakefront Marathon and looking forward to the taper down to the race. my legs are a bit sluggish at the moment. i’m planning on running easy again tomorrow then take friday off. saturday will be my only "tune up" for the 26.2. time will tell…as always.