5K

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Running makes life an adventure!

5 more days to go on my diet and run recovery.  I am using a physician’s weight loss diet and am now at 182 lbs which is the least I’ve weighed since college.  It is going to be great to run again knowing that I have about a bowling ball less weight to run with.

I am a bit worried about getting running after my diet.  Mainly I know I’ll have to go slow since I’ve had almost no fat or carbs for a while.  I tend to want to push the envelope a lot and I want to be sure I don’t do that.

TJ is working with me on a running plan for our next race.  It is going to be the “Spring Scramble” in the first week of April.  This was our first 5K we ran after we began to run in March of last year.

Wow, a whole year is almost up.  I began running on March 25, 2012.  Is amazes me how far TJ, RS and I have come in a year.  Looking back at our first 5K, I barely finished in 32 minutes.  My goal for this year is to finish in the 20 minute area.  I am sure with TJ’s help, I’ll get somewhere close.

Life is always an adventure if you make it one.  That is why “I love running”.  Running is all about getting out there and doing it.  It is up to me to run.  Sometimes things get in the way like injuries or other responsibilities, but for the most part If I run, I do better at running.  If I run, I feel better about myself.  If I run, I feel like I have accomplished something.

The more I run, the more I love running.

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Best fall marathon? TJ wants to qualify for Boston!!!

First, yesterday was a great run. I mentioned in an earlier post that I tend to run faster after exerting myself in a 5K race. I started doing tempo runs this week with the input of TJ and it made a huge difference. I had a record 10K run yesterday in 50:55 total time. It really wasn’t much effort, except at the end when I was trying to get my 10K in under 51:00. I know it was the tempo run from Wednesday that made the difference.

The training continues for our half marathon. Today is a hill day (ugh) – my first. TJ says it helps a lot, but I’m not looking forward to it.

After our half marathon in February, we look for a marathon in the fall. TJ mentioned finding a fast marathon as he wants to qualify for Boston. He also wants me to qualify, but at this time I don’t see that happening.

Right now we are looking at Chicago or Jacksonville. Both are considered fast marathons. The advantage to Jacksonville is that I have a friend there we could stay with. The advantage to Chicago is that we also have friends there and we love to go to Ballydoyle’s Irish pub and also get some Giordano’s pizza. Another option that would mean a lot to me is the Marine Corp Marathon. The main reason for that is that this is the marathon my Dad and siblings always ran. It would be great to make my first marathon the same one my dad ran in years ago – also since <a href=”https://runat49.wordpress.com/why-i-run/&#8221; he is the inspiration for my running.

I don’t know if anyone has any suggestions. It is still early, but I know that April is when sign up begins for the Marine Corps Marathon and last year they filled up quickly.

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5K and beyond…

TJ is my running partner. We don’t actually run together much, but he is my knowledge base for running. He does the research and I put into action the things that I can. RS is also a running partner, but has had some troubles with injuries lately so he is trying to get his feet under him again.

TJ and I just ran our 5th 5K together. It was a great day. It was in the 60’s and overcast at 7:15am when the gun went off. Just for the record, TJ is in his 20’s and I am in my early 50’s, but we have been running the same amount of time. TJ is a natural runner as far as I can tell. He ran his first 5K in “gorilla glued” work sneakers that had holes all through them. That was in April 2011. He finished in 22:45 and won his age group. Not bad for just running 3 weeks and not every day. I finished in 32 minutes and was just glad to survive.

Last Saturday we ran in the 5th 5K of our year. TJ finished 2nd overall in a photo finish with the 3rd place finisher. TJ was probably 20 yards behind the 3rd place runner and passed both the 3rd and the 2nd in the last 100 yards – WOW. I ran my best 5K thus far. I finished in 22:10 and got 3rd in my age group and 22nd overall. Oh, did I mention there were 690 people in the race? My goal was to finish under 22:00 and I came close. Actually I pushed it a bit too hard as I needed some attention from paramedics after I finished. I needed about 15 minutes to get my breath back and then I was fine.

RS came along to cheer us on as did my other kids and my lovely wife of 26 years. On the video that RS took of me at the finish I can hear my family cheering me on, but in the race I couldn’t hear anything because of the shape I was in.

Now we begin training for the our first half marathon on February 16th. This will be our first race over a 5K. I have no goal, but TJ wants to finish in 1:30:00. I will meet him at the finish line probably 30 minutes after he finishes.