7 posts tagged “seaside”
Could not get many miles in this week due to some crazy storms and subsequent local flooding (and I could not bring myself to step on the treadmill). I only ran 10 miles this week.
- Tuesday, 19 Feb - Six miles. Pushed the pace a bit to get HR back into aerobic zone.
- Wednesday, 20 Feb - Four miles made for my shortest run since November.
- Monday, 25 Feb - Six easy miles but my legs were feeling tired for some reason
- Wednesday, 27 Feb - Six cool and windy miles from work.
- Friday, 29 Feb - Another six cool and windy miles from work.
- Sunday, 2 Mar - Seaside Half Marathon. Race report to come.
Havybeaks recently posted this response to a Trail Running Blog Tag from Scott Dunlap and Paul Charteris. I figured that I'll give it a go as well but, like havybeaks, my answers are more general in nature than trail specific:
1. Most memorable moment on the trails… was the 2007 WDW Marathon in early January (race report). I went out way too fast in very hot/humid conditions and thus dropped of my goal pace at about mile 14 but the experience of a marathon + Disney was awesome. I'd recommend it to any runner. I ran a 3:51:44.
2. Best new trail I discovered in 2007… I dunno really. I did find a new six mile route from work but its more of a convenience route rather than a great route.
3. My best performance of the year was… I did not run many races in '07 and the ones that I did run weren't all that fast (i.e. no PRs this year except for the marathon). Of the races that I did run, I think that I performed the best at the Seaside Half Marathon in early March (race report). I ran a 1:38:07 which was only 30 seconds off my PR for the distance. I hope to train and run a 1:35:00 half mary this year in order to qualify for the CF National Running Championship.
4. I do not know how I previously survived without… my Amphipod Hydraform Handheld Pocket handheld water bottle (gear review). I used to run with a regular handheld water bottle and I found that the round cross-section of the bottles would lead to hand cramps on my longer runs. The ellipitcal cross-section bottles used by Amphipod solve this problem and the pocket on the handle works great for gels, ID cards, or credit cards.
5. The person I would most like to meet on a trail in 2008... While I wouldn't be able to keep up to his pace or run as long as he can, I'd love to see Scott Jurek out on the trails/roads (earlier post regarding Scott). This guy's ultrarunning preformances are just amazing.
6. The race I am most excited/scared about in 2008 is... the Bataan Memorial Death March Marathon at the end of March (original post). I'm running/slogging this one with a team from my work. This isn't a regular mary; the course goes through the high desert terrain of White Sands Missile Range, N.M., conducted in honor of the heroic service members who defended the Philippine Islands during World War II. In the division our team is entered, we will be completing the distance while wearing BDUs, hydration packs, and combat boots.
So it was a cool and blustery day in Seaside (44F and 15mph winds) for their annual half-marathon is support of the Seaside Neighborhood School. Seaside one of a series of cute little planned-communities on the 30A highway in the Florida Panhandle. The exterior town shots from the "Truman Show" were actually filmed in Seaside. The Seaside course is pretty scenic and flat and there seem to always be lots of enthusiastic race volunteers helping and cheering everyone on.
While the weather was great for the run, the wind uncertainly sucked the energy out of us runners on parts of the course. With the wind in my face for much of the first half of the course, I was happy to turn around (as this course was an out-and-back) to allow the wind to help push me to the finish... to my disappointment, the wind was back in my face after the next turn :-(
I had a great race and finished within 30 seconds of my half-mary PR. I ran a 1:38:07 (a 7:29 mins/mile average pace) that put me 79th of 1232 overall finishers. My plan was to keep to a 8 min/mile pace as I did not think I had put in enough training in the recent past to put in a really good run. I managed to keep a 8 min/mile for the first few miles but then my pace started to quicken pretty consistently over the middle miles of the course. Once I hit mile 9 and figured that I could possibly run a PR, I decided to "kick it up a notch" and see what I could do. I am pretty happy with the results even if I didn't set a new PR.
The only bad part of the race was having to run past a fellow that must have had a heart-attack at mile 12. There were plenty of first responders on-site and they were busy performing CPR. I hope he made it. I'll admit that seeing this poor guy on the ground made it hard to focus on keeping my pace going for a strong finish.
Had some pretty good runs last week:
- Monday - 9.5 miles
- Tuesday - 4.5 miles
- Wednesday - 8 miles
- Thursday - 4.5 miles
- Total mileage - 26.5 miles
It's less than a week before the Seaside Half... with all the trials and tribulations my training lately, I certainly will not beat my PR (1:37:38) but it's a beautiful course so I know I'll enjoy the journey... but most importantly the post-race meal is absolutely great.
Show us a victory.
Submitted by dearbarbz.
