DW Runners

I wrote up a short race report over at my journal, if anyone is interested.

Hi there - I have a short report on a trail half marathon and road 5K over at my journal, if anyone is interested.

Hope your running/other exercise is going well these days!

... or, Why You Should Never Let A temve Race Unattended.

So, today is a public holiday in Germany - Ascension Day to the Christians, Fathers' Day to the guys, and to the local running community, the day of the local season-opener 10K, the Höchster Kreisstadtlauf.

This one is a Local Race writ large - virtually no pro runners participating, all proceeds got to a local children's charity, local volunteer fire brigades taking care of safety and water stops, and the local paper organizing the whole mess. Traditionally, this is the season opener for many runners in the area, not least because it's a net downhill course which makes for good times. And the weather is usually glorious, today being no exception.

So, early this morning I got on my bike, rode to the nearest train station, boarded the local train with a couple hundred other runners (and absolutely nobody else) and trekked out to the start line - this is a point-to-point, and while I no longer live at the finish line like I used to, it's still only a short bike ride away. I get to the start line, pick up my race number, pin it on... and realise that I've forgotten my timing chip at home. Oops.

See, that's what happens when I try to run races without ell, who is off to Poland for a long weekend of aikido today. Without her meticulous-bordering-on-OCD packing, I managed to bring a water bottle, a banana, a warm jacket, my phone, the house key, a little cash, and even some reading - but not my timing chip.

Oh well, I thought, I'll just treat it as a fun 10K run in the sun, with lots of company. That was when I spied a dude with a helium bottle and a couple of large red rubber balloons and a small sign informing the public that anybody who ran the race carrying one of those big red balloons advertising the local paper would get a free drink and food at the finish line.

Sure, I thought. Sign me up.



Pre-race me with red balloon doing its thing. Yes, that is a Japanese torii in the background. No, I don't know either.

( Let's call it the Decompression Derby, shall we? )

Some of you know I hang out on the Runner's World Online forums. One of my running friends, Jim, ran the California International Marathon this year (CIM, the race at which I set my own PR two years ago), and had an unexpectedly amazing experience. It turns out that this race is the national championship for the US Association of Blind Athletes. Around mile 15, a blind runner and her guide passed my friend; the guide was apparently having trouble and asked him if he could take over and guide the runner, and my friend immediately agreed, even though he'd never guided before, and sacrificed his race to help this blind runner...win her national championship!

His race report is here.

I wrote up short reports on several races I did this fall, over at my journal, if you are interested:
my first 25K, a 5K, and a half marathon.

Last Friday and Saturday I participated in my very first long-distance overnight relay race, Reach the Beach, just over 200 miles across the state of New Hampshire as part of a 12-person team. (I ran three legs totaling 19.8 miles.) This kind of event has become quite popular, with Ragnar Relays putting on a number of them across the US. My race report is here.

Hi runners! I ran the Worcester 10k last weekend as my birthday present to myself. I've written a race report here on DW.

I did promise ell I'd do a race report for Edinburgh, so here it is, better late than never.

Short version: Fantastic trip! Not my best race ever, but I'd do it again in a heartbeat, if it weren't so blasted expensive to fly over.

( long version here )

Last weekend I did a 5-mile race here in town. I have a lot less to say about it--it's always a fun race, and it's tiny, by Chicago standards, with only about 450 runners. Last year my time was 53:13, and I wanted rather badly to beat that, but I'd only got in one run the rest of the time we were in Scotland, so I really hadn't been training. Plus, the Wednesday before I'd had a tooth pulled, and I was taking antibiotics that made my stomach queasy, so it was going to be interesting.

The weather was terrific, although it did get a bit warm, and I managed to finish in... drum roll... 53:12! Beat last year's time by one whole second! So that was a bit disappointing, but not as much as if I'd gotten worse, and it was so fun that I'm not complaining.

My goal for July and August is to work up to about 25 miles/week, which should be doable. The Hokas seem to agree with my feet, thank heavens, and I've got some shoe suggestions from Runners World that I want to have a look at. I'm hoping to do another half in November--hopefully the one in New Orleans on November 21. So if anyone is looking for a road trip....

I've posted my ridiculously long race report from the California International Marathon (CIM): CIM race report.

Cliff notes version: My chip time was 3:23:31 for a PR of almost 6 minutes. This placed me third in the F50-54 age group out of 269 finishers; I was about a minute behind #2 and a minute ahead of #4, but the AG winner ran an astounding 3:03, completely leaving the rest of us in her dust. I got a pretty wooden plaque as an award.

I kept a fairly consistent pace with only a slight fade near the end, a 1:31 positive split - I probably should have paid more attention to my pace band and slowed my early miles down a bit. But overall I'm really happy as I made my goal and had a generally pleasant race.