Sunday, September 18, 2016

CCRI 5k (Race Review)

Ran the CCRI 5k up in Lincoln, RI today.

I'm a CCRI alum. At the end of my high school career, I knew I wanted to pursue higher education, but I didn't have the academic records from high school to make a four year college a reality right out of the gate. I had a lot of personal and family struggles in high school, and it just wasn't possible for me to achieve at the level I needed to then. Fortunately, I found CCRI, poured all of my time into my studies and then went on to a four year college to complete a bachelor's degree. As a favor to a retiring professor, I transferred my credits back from the four year school and also earned my Associate's Degree. I'm a really proud alum.

So I wanted to run the 5k mostly because the school doesn't sell any good gear. I've always wanted a decent hoodie from them, to show my pride, but they only really sell basketball and nursing hoodies. I signed up for that reason, and sort of as a joke.

This morning we headed up to Lincoln around 8am. The race was at 10am. This gave me some time to get the lay of the land, find bathrooms, registration, and have a quick bite before race time. Met up with some other friends who ran. With the CVS 5k in Providence today, expected the field to be small, which it was. The Providence Gay Men's Chorus did a lovely job with the national anthem (although I was surprised it wasn't the school chorus...?) and we all headed over to the start area. Some nice words by the school's new president, and some safety tips from the race director, and then we were off.

Did I mention this race was partially on trails? Because I had no idea it was going to be on trails. That was a hell of a surprise. It wasn't super technical, and it ended up being a really lovely course, but it was a surprise. I ended up falling in with the top ten pack before we hit the trails, but couldn't see the leader. Ran through the trails, and up a very big hill which caused me to slow down quite a bit. Back around the baseball and soccer fields before a final loop of the parking lot, and came through the chute in 22:45. Not too bad given that I haven't been training for the 5k, and I didn't know the race had trail segments. Ended up finishing sixth overall.

Afterwards, met up with some friends and decided to go out for a friend's birthday. We picked a diner, and took of. I figured we would be good as I placed sixth, so I didn't expect to be acknowledged at the awards thing, and honestly, that isn't why I run anyway. Headed to the diner, sat down, and got a text from the timing company. Won my age group! That was a real surprise. I don't think there were age group awards, but I do feel sort of bad skipping out now in case they read my name. Next year I'll pay more attention and wait around a bit more.

Overall, good time. Loved the course, and with it being so close to home I'll definitely run it again next year.

Up next on the race calendar: my return to the Jamestown half marathon. I'm not expecting a PR this year, but looking forward to challenging myself and getting some longer runs in the books before a late October marathon.

Wednesday, September 14, 2016

Fall Running

So, I've fallen behind a bit on my mileage goal for the year.

I didn't intend to, but I came down with another bug that had me feverish and with some respiratory issues. I decided to take a couple of days off, and just spend time with my family.

The animals we live with have fleas. No fun. Some of my dogs when I was a kid had fleas, but it has been awhile since I've had to deal with it. Treatment can take up to three months to completely get them out of our house. In the meantime, it means lots and lots of cleaning. We wash the bedding every day, flea comb the animals, give the dog weekly baths. That whole new set of chores is really taking it's toll on me.

Got out for seven and a quarter miles tonight. Have a race coming up at CCRI this weekend (5k) and honestly just looking forward to running. Should be lots of fun.

Saturday, September 3, 2016

End of an Era

My run streak came to an end this past Thursday. There are a lot of reasons for that.

I wasn't feeling great after work, but I carried on as we had the social club that evening. Baby girl had a really rough day at school, so when we got home we all took a nap. I got up, cleaned the house, and held the social club meeting. During that time, it was pretty obvious to us that the baby was running a fever, and shortly after I checked her temp she began vomiting. Our guests headed out as we called the doctor, who told us there was a bug going around and to keep her home the following day.

Around that time I started feeling not-so-great again with a headache. Ordinarily I would have gone out and gotten a mile in, but the combination of concern and fatigue proved to be too much, so I went to bed and slept for ten hours.

My immediate reaction is that I'm somewhat disappointed I wasn't able to carry on until the end of September, but I'm also very happy with the 94 days of running I've put in since Memorial Day. I'll always remember this summer when my daughter was this little, and the fact that I loved every mile I put in on the road. This is the 'end of an era' as it were, but it certainly isn't the last time I'll do a run streak. There are more really good things on the horizon.

At this point the plan is to resume a normal three on, one off, two on, one off training schedule. I'll focus on putting in a long run, some speedwork/hill work, and possibly a tempo here and there. This should enable me to get to my fall half marathons in good trim, and also be in good enough shape to start my holiday run streak in November.