Back Out There

Back on Saturday I laced up and headed out to Bishop, GA to run my first race since returning from my injury-- the annual Will Chamberlin Memorial Santa Stroll 8K. This is only the second 8K race I've ever run, and it's about the right race distance for me at this point.

Pregame carb load started the night before at the Mellow Mushroom, an awesome pizza joint. The First Lady and I shared a cerveza and a Red Skin Potato pie, just like we did before I ran so well at the Huntsville half in 2012. It would be an omen.

It rained some during the night, so it was damp and a little chilly. The crowd was good-- about 150 competitors, and some of my running friends were there and it was nice to see them, since I don't get out to running groups much these days. There was no wind, which was nice. I can handle wind or cold, just not both. I went with wind pants over tights, and Brooks arm warmers underneath my red Athens Road Runners long-sleeved tech shirt. My Nike Pegasus 30 shoes have not let me down yet, so I stayed with them instead of my Asics Gel-Lytes.

The course is mostly flat, but there are a few curves and a couple of gradual hills to remind you of Georgia. I'd hoped to get in under 40 minutes, and maybe set a PR (under 39:20) if I was lucky.

My Garmin watch is on its last legs, so I had no idea of my pacing. It had the time of day flash up periodically, so I was able to crunch numbers and figure out my pacing went from 8:30 to 8:15 to 8:07 average pace for the first three miles. I don't really know when I put the hammer down, but I must have realized that I had about 15 minutes to go if I wanted a PR, and I'd planned on going out easy and picking it up as I went. I red-lined it over those last two miles, doing about 7:30 and 7:30, and getting in at 39:08 for a new PR at this distance. There's just something satisfying about giving a ton of effort and then seeing the results. Those 400 and 800 repeats I'd been running paid off.

The night before the race, I looked at the 2013 race results and did not expect to place in my age group, since I'd have needed 36:26 for third in 40-44. So you can imagine my surprise when I saw I took second in my AG! My time would have placed me 7th in my age group last year, but this time it was good enough.

Race swag:

Santa bobblehead SMO for placing in my age group.

So I had a great reason to stick around for the awards ceremony. It was a great run for me, and I was pleased at how I did. The next goal is the Chilly Dawg 5K in about a month, where I'll work on getting in under 22:00 on a course that's pretty flat. This is the course I ran 22:11 on back in January when I was in decent shape. Now I need to drop about ten pounds, but I'm planning on more 400 and 800 repeats. I won my age group at this race last time, and missed out on winning the master's championship by about 22 seconds. I hope to fix that this time around.

Athens Half Marathon

A few months ago I'd planned on running the 2014 Athens Half Marathon (which ran this morning) with the idea of setting PRs at each race distance in 2014. All I needed was to check off the half marathon and 8K boxes and I'd have set records at each distance from 5K to the marathon.

However, my goal got derailed by a herniated C6-C7 disc in my back, suffered in early August. Wanna know how much we take for granted? Try getting out of bed with this condition. It's like 50,000 volts shooting through your body. I tried chiropractic care, which had worked in the past but not this time, and I went to the orthopedic clinic in order to get turned around. The MRI confirmed things, and I'm now on the downhill side of this. Excellent physical therapy has me back to putting weight on my left arm, I can get out of the couch, and I can sleep comfortably at night.

My chiropractor is the one who told me to lay off running, and I did, for seven weeks. I figured it'd be difficult, the not being able to run thing, but when you hurt like that, the pain is the only thing you can see.

So I laid off until last week, when I ran two miles on two separate days. It felt wonderful to get back out there and get my engine running. My back felt OK during and afterward.

Now I'm starting to chomp at the bit, since I feel much healthier. I am a Fleet Feet Sports employee a few days a week now, and I worked our booth at the race AthHalf expo yesterday. It was great to see my running friends and to hear their well wishes for me, since I didn't really say much about my back on Facebook. Anyhow, so many folks were wearing race t-shirts that I started to get really excited about running again. I want more race shirts. I want to place in my age group, which is possible for me. At least it has been in the recent past.

So tomorrow I'll probably meet the Monday evening Fleet Feet group run crowd and run the shorter three-mile route. I haven't gone in a while, partially because of my injury and partly due to my now being a graduate student with limited free time.

Can't wait.

Shoe Review, Hoka One One Clifton

Hoka One One (pronounced hoka owe-nay owe-nay) is a phrase from the ancient Maori language that means, roughly, "now it is time to fly." This is also a relatively new brand name in the running shoe market.

Our Hoka shoe rep showed (shoed?) at our Monday running group with some demo shoes to try. They look bulky, a little gimmicky, and definitely grab your attention as they sit on the wall. But you've got to take these shoes for a spin.

Hoka Clifton

I'm using my laptop and having trouble getting pictures to post here.

The Hoka Cliftons have 29 mm of cushion in the heel, 23 in the forefoot. This gets away from the standard of roughly 24-12 in many shoes (with a differential of about 8 mm between heel and forefoot). It makes for a very smooth ride and a very smooth transition through the stride.

You might think these shoes would be bulky and awkward on the road. This was not the case for me. I never felt off balance during the five miles I ran in them, I believe due to the deep heel cup in these shoes. They're also very lightweight, 7.8 ounces, which doesn't jive with how much cushion these shoes have. After a mile or so, I hardly noticed what I had on my feet.

I even think that if you treat the shoes well, they could stretch well beyond standard shoe life. I don't own a pair, but they are fantastic and I would recommend them.

Life Cycles

I hear it's common for old running shoes to become yard shoes when they've aged out. So once the mileage is up, they begin a new life as mowing/edging/weeding shoes.

This is what's become of my old Brooks Adrenaline 12 shoes, the ones I got while I worked at The Athlete's Foot in Tuscaloosa, when the Brooks types had a monthly contest. Sell X pairs of their shoes and they'll hook you up. It was easy work-- those shoes sold themselves.

So my first run in these guys was in November, 2011.

My log shows I ran 602 miles in these. They didn't always have insoles.

Their last run was back in February of this year, when I hit the treadmill for 8x800 at 7:30 pace. It got to where I'd run longer distances on a forgiving surface, and only shorter outdoor distances every other week.

Now I know 500 miles is the generally accepted number when you start thinking about a new pair, but stretching things out is easier when you've got several pairs to rotate though. Cost is important to factor in, and I've been fortunate that I've not paid a lot of money for shoes in the last few years.

My favorite memory of these shoes is my first marathon-- the 2012 Mercedes Marathon in Birmingham. They carried me to a 4:12:35 finish.

They're great shoes and they did right by me.

Race Report, St. Patrick's Day 2007

I've been blessed with excellent health during my running life. I've battled one bout of Achilles tendinitis and pulled a calf muscle during half marathon training. Both happened early in my running life and were due to overtraining. That sore calf will announce its presence (though not with authority) from time to time, which is where my body was for the St. Patrick's Day 10K and 2-miler in Manhattan, Kansas in 2007.

Our race was run in conjunction with an army unit in Tikrit, Iraq. Fort Riley Army base is right down the road from MHK. 

I was on the back side of healing up, so I chose not to run the 10K, which included a trip up Manhattan Avenue and back. Instead, I ran the two miler that wound around City Park. The First Lady used to live near the park, so I'd go run there often. The race started and ended in the Aggieville bar district, but the 10K went right toward the big hill and the short race hung a left toward the park.

This was one of the harder races I've run, since there were so many entrants on such a narrow course. Lots and lots of kids, since one of the purposes is to get them tired so you can take them home. Part of the way through I started to realize my calf wasn't going to be a concern, so I worked on getting around people, but the big crowd made it tough to get around other runners. My finishing time was a solid 17:54. I even scored a ribbon for my effort. I don't remember why, since I finished 155th out of 360. Ann had her own cheering section, as she had friends who lived above a bar near the start, and they cheered her as she started the race.

This race was similar to how one of my Tuscaloosa Mayor's Cup races went. Go in with a balky wheel and just see what you've got, then realize all is well and put the hammer down. Both events became good efforts for me.

Marigold 10K Race Report

Two Saturdays ago I drov out to Winterville for the 39th Annual Marigold 10K, hosted by the Athens Road Runners. This race used to be put on by the Athens Track Club, a group that has really declined in recent years. I know the hierarchy of ARR (a group that has only existed a little over a year) has worked to honor the work of ATC. The race is part of Winterville's annual Marigold Festival, which featured a parade, crafts, and food.

I committed to running the race during the week leading up to the race, since it looked like numbers were down. I arrived at the race site with about 20 minutes to spare and got signed up and pinned my race number onto my ARR black and white team singlet. Forgetting my race belt turned out to be the worst thing that happened this morning.

It was also really nice to see so many of my ARR and running friends. I'm not a regular attenddee at group runs anymore but I show up when I can. I used to show up at races before where I didn't know many folks and it's not as much fun when there isn't anyone to talk to. I liked seeing my friends before, during, and after the race.

Race temperature was mid-40s, unusual for the second week of May. There was no wind, so the conditions were favorable. Race shoes were the Nike Pegasus 30. My previous 10K PR was 49:20 two years ago in Tuscaloosa, and I felt like I could beat that. The goal was to finish somewhere in the 47 or 48 neighborhood. The course was basically three out-and-backs, so it was weird to pass by the finish line and keep going. The advantage was seeing my friends and feeding off their energy.

My first quarter-mile split was 1:48 so I wanted to idle back just a little bit, since I am always careful of going out too fast. The course was very flat and there was not a whole lot of traffic, so the splits only went up a few seconds. I still felt pretty good, so I kept the hammer down and focused on holding an even pace. I may see other runners ahead of me and concentrate on them without necessarily wanting to pass them. It just helps me to have something to focus on.

The only real hill was at 3.5, and it was a 50-foot incline over a half mile, so the runs through my neighborhood are a lot more challenging. My splits were no worse than 1:53 for the whole race. I was working hard but still felt pretty good as I clicked off miles right around 7:15.

I don't do much speedwork, and that's the only reason I had to wonder how I'd do, but my last six splits were 1:47 or better. In fact, the finish line kind of crept up on me, because I didn't sprint for the finish until the last 150 meters or so to finish with a time of 45:04.

bib number (sans race belt) and Shiny Metal Object for a
 third-place finish in my age group

The time broke a 10K PR by over four minutes. I was 30th overall out of about 250, and third in my age group. Bad tactic notwithstanding, I was very pleased with my race, which averaged 7:16 per mile. That number is still hard for me to grasp-- it's hard for me to believe that I can run that fast. I remember lumbering at 10+ milepace at my first 10K, and to know this is what I'm capable of is remarkable.

I scored two t-shirts-- one from the Athens Running Company types who had a Brooks putting green set up. I had three shots (but with a right-handed putter), and made the first one (with a purple golf ball,of course) and scored a Brooks Transcend tee, which is pretty snazzy. I felt like I was playing a pricing game on the Price Is Right.

The other shirt is the official race shirt, which I very nearly forgot to stop by to check on after I ran.

ARR sponsored the race-- no sponsors on the back of the shirt.

So the whole race experience was very, very positive. There are no races on the immediate horizon, though that is subject to change at a moment's notice. In addition, my right knee pain is gone. I've been running without any soreness for a few weeks now. This is a good thing, and it pleases me.

Live Team Trivia

Last night I made it back to my Monday night running group for the first time in a month. It's one of the joys of being a retail employee-- you can't really say no to hours but the downside is the schedule can be somewhat erratic. So I made it out for a sixer on a mid-70 degree evening, an evening where you can't *not* go out for a run, especially since the temps won't be cooling off any time soon. I ticked off an easy four in the morning to make it a double and felt really good during both runs.

This Monday evening group has taken on some of the feeling I had when the First Lady and I went to play trivia in Tuscaloosa. It was a way to check in with our friends and see how everyone was doing. It almost was like church for us-- that circle of friends is an awesome group of folks and we always looked forward to seeing them and playing. So the running group has a little of that mojo to it. I like the people who work at the Fleet Feet store where we meet, I like the folks who show up, and I like the guys who stop for a beer afterward. Good stuff.

One of the previous times I ran with that group, I guess it's been six weeks or so now, a New Balance shoe rep showed up with some Fresh Foam 980 shoes to try out. I never say no to a chance to run in a new pair of shoes, and I have never tried running in NB. Well, there was that one time when I first started running and ran in their (improper, for me) shoes and got plantar fasciitis. So it didn't work that time.

This time, however, was different. I thought the 980s were incredible shoes-- lightweight and comfortable.

NB Fresh Foam 980. Also available in blue.

 If I can't even tell I have a pair of shoes on, it's a good sign, and I could hardly notice these dudes on my feet. Great run, and a great feel on my neutral feet. It was unusual in that there was no noticeable guidance line on the sole of the shoe, but it made me no difference. I've seen reviews that were lukewarm, but I sure wouldn't mind adding them to my rotation.