8 races at once

OK...I admit it. I'm badly behind on my blogging. (Better than being behind on my flogging!) And I actually feel stressed about it. So...to remedy both situations I'm going to use this one blog to make a significant impact on my race reports. Quality will be less than normal but at this point I honestly don't remember a lot about each of these races anyway so short is the way to go.

April 10 - Crystal City 5K
This is my 10th race of the year. I learned the course the previous week so I wanted to give this one my best effort. And I did just that! With an average heart rate of 146 I pushed myself to a time of 36:30. Pathetic I know but it still stands as a 2009 PR for the 5K distance. It earned me 395 place out of 431 finishers. Robert Wade won the overall with a time of 15:28. Briana Whaley was the top woman with a time of 17:38.

April 15 - DCRRC Tidal Basin 3K
Nasty weather reduced the turnout for this monthly race to only 31. Small races can be good or bad for me. They can be good if its largely female and also men outside of my age group. The bad thing is the slower runners generally don't come out on really miserable days. As a result, I came in dead last. But I came in 2nd in my 5 year age group :). Heart rate analysis shows I pushed myself early, getting my heart rate up to 150 in just 4 minutes and 15 seconds. With no one running near me I took several walk breaks to recover and averaged a heart rate of only 139. It really should be in the low 140's at least. I finished with a time of 21:18. Disappointing, even by my low standards.

April 17 - Crystal City 5K
I like this race series! Its not a particularly difficult course, its close to home, I used to walk these very streets years ago when I worked for USAir, and best of all, the 2 for 1 dinners at Noodles and Company after the race! As for the race itself...weak effort. I really struggled with a time of 37:52...nearly 90 seconds slower than the previous week. My heart rate average was 143...3bpm slower than the previous week. I went out slower this week and tried to manage my pace. As a result, I didnt top 150 bpm until 11 1/2 minutes into the race. But my recovery walks were a bit too long, allowing my heart rate to repeatedly drop to the low 130's. I should probably be resuming my running when it drops to about 135. I'm doing this all be feel as its difficult to read the watch while running but this is givving me good feedback on how I'm feeling. Anyway, I came in 451st out of 491 finishers. This race series is clearly a success!

April 18 - University Park Azalea Classic 5K
I laced up the shoes early the following morning and headed out to the Azalea Classic. I ran this race a couple of years ago and had a good time. I spoke to Jon Palks for a few minutes before the race. I enjoy chatting with him...good guy. Anyway, while this is a pretty race and its always fun to run through neighborhoods, it does have a few difficult hills. The other downside is it has quite a few inexperienced racers. This means slower people that start up front and runners who weave and stop unexpectedly. This makes for difficult starts to the race since I start at the back but tend to run well early.

Given these challenges and my time from the previous evening on a less challenging course, I was mildly pleased to finish with a time of 37:12. This put me in 210th position out of 263 finishers. I don't know them but Lea Diamond and Lisa Devlin helped pushed me to the finish line as I was able to nip each of them by a few seconds. Regarding my performance in this same race 2 years earlier when I had a time of 36:30...well I am 2 years older!

April 24 - Crystal City 5K
This was a special race as it was the first time I have ever run a race with my wife Dori. It did require a lot of arm twisting but her running partner Katie also wanted to run it so it was a date.

Now I know this seems impossible but Dori is even slower than I am. I knew that going in since I do some training runs with her. But I admire her for being able to keep a steady pace and not take walk breaks. I was interested in seeing what the lack of walk breaks would do to my time and how I would feel at the end. Well, the data is in and here are the results. I finished with a time of 45:53...about 9 minutes slower than my "average" on this course. But I felt GREAT afterwards. I was sweaty but I recovered very quickly and had no aches at all! This is clearly the sort of pace I should be using when I train instead of my usual race day speed. Its not that I don't try...I just have a lot of trouble slowing myself down. Dori forced me to slow my pace, which was great. My average heart rate was a mere 117 and my max heart rate only got to 126. That tells me that I can probably run even a teeny bit faster and still not feel whipped at the end. But how will I do that without my pacesetter?

Speaking of Dori, I am very proud of her. She finished a second in front of me. This was her 2nd 5K ever. While the pace was easy for me, she was a little tired at the end but she did it! There's no quit in my wife. Afterwards, we had a nice dinner with Katie over at Noodles & Company.

April 26 - Vienna Elementary PTA 5K
This was a last minute decision and it almost didnt happen. I arrived at the race about 15 minutes prior to the scheduled start. They had already packed up all of the registration materials. That surprised me a bit as it was a charity race and I thought they would want all of the money they could get. Fortunately, I found one woman working the race that felt that way and she got me a number just in time for the start of the race.

It was a simple out and back course with few turns but some mild rolling hills. It set up pretty well for me though as the start of the race was uphill meaning the finish (when I'm usually struggling) was downhill.

A little stitch in my side troubled me during the middle parts of this race which coincided with the steepest of the hills. At one point I let my heart rate drop all the way down to 121 while I was trying to push the air out of my stomach. I pushed myself pretty hard during the last mile though and just missed setting a 2009 PR for myself, settling with a time of 36:40. Interestingly, the tale of the tape tells me that I really didnt push myself as had as I thought at the end. My max heart rate was only 151 and my average for the race was only 133. Based on that I should have been able to suck it up and shave off at least 11 seconds. I admit it, I'm a wimp!

April 26 - HCS Jeffers Hill 2 Mile
Not quite satisfied with my performance that morning, I drove up to Columbia to run a 2 miler that afternoon. I had only run this course once before, back in 2007. Thanks to my records I can see that I ran it in 21:48. So that was my target time. Oops, I guess I can go hunting with Cheney because I missed my target too. I finished in 22:51. Showing just how old I've gotten, I don't remeber the race even though the results show that I was nipped at the wire by Jessica Stern by only 4/10th of a second! With that I finished 35th out of 49 finishers.

May 10 - HCS Elkhorn 2 Mile
After a week in Vegas and 2 roadtrips to see a couple of Springsteen shows, it was time to get back to racing!

Now the last time I ran this course was back in December when I was scrambling to try to reach 50 races for the year and it was my 3rd race of the day. I finished with a poor time of 25:56. I was sure I could do better today.

And better I did. I finished with a time of 23:34. That doesn't look like much but the GPS data says I did fairly well considering. My heart rate never got below 137 and I maxed at 156. I averaged 140 which is right about where I think I need to be. So I'm not displeased by this effort, even though I only beat 3 people and finished 37th.