Tuesday, October 19, 2010

He lives!!!!!

Yes, I know, it has been a long long time but here I am back posting and hopefully I will continue to keep all up to date on my training and adventures.
So what have I been up to since my summer western adventure to get states.  Well I have been training and wanted to loose some unwanted pounds, so I started to watch my calorie intake and focus on a 5k race held locally in Loudonville....Mohican 5K.
Training went well and I thought I was in 22:30 shape for the 5k when all was said an done.  I also lost 15 pounds making for a lighter version on DON.
I ran the course three times prior to race day to get a good feel for the course  and figure what my strategy was going to be for race day.  So the course starts on a road and travels about a half mile to a paved bike path.  Get position before entering the narrow bike path and run a 7:20 pace through the whole race.  There are two small hills/upgrades around a half mile and 2.9 miles.  So how did things go............

Mohican 5k, Loudonville, Ohio
October 17, 2010
Got up at 6:30 AM and began my preparations for the race.  Drank two cups of coffee and ate bowl of oatmeal.  Got dressed.  It was a little chilly outside with temperatures in the low 40's, with no rain or wind.
Perfect weather for a race.
Headed to the registration area and picked up my race packet, chatted with a few friends and began my warm up routine.  Half mile run, form running and stretching.  Drank some more water, ate a GU and headed to the start line.  Travis Price, one of my cross country atheletes was there,  Don Conrad, Y Running Club member and numerous friends.
9:00 AM the race started promptly after a few words.  I do what I normally do in a 5 km, I went like hell with a 6 minute pace according to my garmin.  I held this for a couple of tenths of a mile and got into my race pace of 7:20.  I had good positon heading on to the bike path and it was not crowded.  Past a few more runners going in to the mile (7:15).  Heading to the turn around at Morris Motors, I was past and I past runners.
 Made the turn around and headed to the 2 mile mark with a time of 14:56 (7:41 mile).  Here's where I made my mistake, I got into a groove and followed another runner who was going what I thought was an acceptable pace.  A quarter of a mile later I looked at my garmin and saw I was traveling about 8:10 pace, dammmmm!
So I picked up the pace and went into low 7 minute pace again. 
While on the hill/upgrade at 2.9 miles a runner past me.  I hate when this happens, I really hate to have anyone pass me on the last mile.  And this guy had lots of gray hair.......he must be in my age group.  So we crested the hill and I exploded and sprinted into the finish.  Last mile was 7:41 and last one tenth was 0:38 all good for 23:20 (7:30 pace).
I got 29th overall out of 132.  1st in  the 60 plus age group.  The gray haired guy who passed me and I re passed got 2nd AG, 8 seconds behind me.  3rd AG was around 24:00.
All in all, quite pleased.  Only wished I had not taken a vacation around two miles.

Now what.  Time to train for a 50k trail race.  We begin today.  More later.........

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I am glad you recaught your fellow geezer Don! See, you just had your numbers transposed...you hoped for 22:30 and ran 23:20. Now just play "Price is Right" and move that zero towards the left!!!

Awesome run though despite all my ribbing. I wish I could have been there for that one. Maybe next year.

Don: said...

Thanks Mike. The old geezer was caught by the old geezer. So that is the Age group I am now in, OLD GEEZERS.
Need to get together soon and do some running. Cross country is winding down, districts this weekend. The team will be drastically reduce on sat.