The Inaugural Deer Dash 5K

This morning my kids and I participated in the Deer Dash 5K and 1 mile fun run at Deer Crossing Elementary School in New Market (MD). This was a little tricky with Andrea in Las Vegas, but all in all it worked out pretty well. Temps were around 70 with high humidity under thickening clouds.

Upon arrival I was expecting to have to push Skylar in her stroller for the race, but I soon found the Lincoln actually WANTED to keep Skylar! With a lot of other kids present, a nearby playground, and several people milling around that knew me, I wasn't too worried about leaving Skylar with Rae and Linc, so I was free to run all out! Yeah!

Shortly after signing up (a little disappointed that they were out of T-shirts - more for the kids than for me), we bumped into Jay Silvio. It was great to finally meet someone from the MCM Forum in 3D! Still on the mend from hamstring and calf issues, Jay was planning on taking this race conservatively (which meant maybe he wouldn't win).

Lincoln and Raeann signed up for the 1 mile fun run. Lincoln's funny when you get him to one of these things. He takes his event seriously. He joined me for part of my warm up, and later on he ran some more on his own before his race started.

But the 5K was first. I planned out my target splits based on my most previous 5K earlier this month, although I expected this to be the hillier course. At the Mission of Mercy 5K, I simply went out a bit too fast (6:40 the first mile) and faded to the 7:20s for the last 2 miles, for a 22:08. I wanted to run a more even race this time, and especially take it easy early since I knew hills were coming. As for the hills, I drove part of the course yesterday and knew the start was mainly downhill, hills were plentiful along that drive, but didn't seem too bad. Nothing I shouldn't be ready for. There were a couple of segments of the course which I could not drive because they were on bike paths. I assumed those parts were fairly flat. (Idiot!)

I figured I'd try to run a 7 min first mile and then slow a bit through more uphills to the 7:20s for the second 2 miles. If all went well, maybe I could repeat that 22:08.

So we start and I refrain from getting caught up in the sprinters off of the starting line. I consciously take it easy, letting several more people get ahead of me than in that last 5K race. Through that early downhill and just ran easy and felt decent, confident that I was running a smarter race this time.

My first mile split? 6:35. WTF! I actually went out faster than last time! And again I paid for it. Although I attacked the hills steadily, I soon learned that those bike trail sections were the worst parts!!! Down down down up up up! I'm at 14:30 after 2 miles. I'm not far into the 3rd mile, trudging along more bike path, cursing the course planners and the word "sadistic" pops into my head!

During the race there were a couple of cul-de-sac out and backs which allowed us to see runners in front of and behind us. The first time I saw Jay I think he was in about 4th place. Later I think I saw him again, but don't know what hisplace was. Tim O'Keefe, who I tried to shadow in the MOM 5K, was again well ahead of me, as were many of the same runners that I knew from the Steeplechasers: Steve Dobson, Steve Pilarcik, Chad Connors, the Blacks (Ron and Beverly). Beverly finished one place ahead of me at the MOM 5K, probably 30 seconds faster.

Today I keyed on Beverly as much as anyone else, and I was actually staying with her a little better this time than last. I think the hills might have been hurting her just a tiny bit more.

Another runner I have to mention is a little kid; a middle schooler! I recalled passing him around mile 1 thinking here's another of these kids that sprinted at the start and used everything up. Well, he proved me wrong a mile later by passing me again! He and Beverly were the next runners ahead of me during the last mile, along with another guy that I saw Beverly pass.

With a 1/4 mile to go we turn into the driveway for the school. I notice Jay doing a cooldown and he cheers me on. A couple seconds later I hear the MCM Forum Battle Cry, "Suck it up, Ron, suck it up!" Aw, shit, so I do. With a quick burst I pass the guy that Beverly had passed. Then things get a little interesting.

The course at the finish does a double zig-zag (it goes zig-zag-zig). Entering the first zig, one could also bear left (cutting through a phalanx of cones) and start down the final zig. As I'm picking it up, I see that both the kid and Beverly had done this! Having driven the course previously and studied the finish, I knew I had to stay right and I did. (Chalk that up to experience - it ain't always bad to be in your 40s!) They both get back on track, but by this time I've caught right up to them and had passed the kid. Beverly is still maybe 30 feet ahead of me. So we get to the zag. At the zag, one could also take a wider turn and go to the final zig, but in reverse, to the finish line. To my shock Beverly is doing just that! I'm seeing her head to the finish in one direction and I see someone else coming from the opposite (correct) direction! They're on a collision course! I put my head down and go down the zag. Beverly had done herself in.

My kick is not particularly strong at this stage and, wouldn't you know it, the kid comes flying by me on the left! He had my respect at mile 2, but now I was downright impressed! I pick it up and stay with him around the bend for the final zig, but I'm thinking that unless he totally burns out, I can't pass this kid. He's ran a great race and earned his place. I shadow him to the finish line and I finish in 23:09, maybe 2 seconds back of The Kid, Billy Czajkowski. I end up in 29th place out of 263 finishers (top 11%). That percentile is really skewed, though, because there were a TON of middle and even elementary school kids running.

Given the hills, I'll take the 23:09. I'd like to be at the point where I go sub 23 no matter what, but I guess I'm not too far from that. I'm curious what I could do on a flat course.

'

Raeann is ready to run her mile!

The 1 mile fun run goes well for Raeann and Lincoln, and I pushed Skylar along the course as well. Lincoln finished in around 7:39 and says he finished somewhere between 5th and 8th, but I suspect that the distance was a bit less than a full mile. I end up running along with Raeann most of the way. She's not particularly intense when it comes to races, nor particularly coordinated, but she'd run and walk her way steadily. She finished with a kick and came in at about 13 minutes. All 3 kids got finisher's ribbons!

We stuck around for the awards - Jay took 2nd Overall - and grabbed some food. Chatted with several people and took a couple pictures. The band that played the whole time was surprisingly good, if you ask me. I don't expect bands playing in Frederick County to be playing music that I'll like, but they did!

A fun, challenging, and educational race!

Jay Silvio and I after the race

Less than Brilliant

Most people have these little moments of brilliance, like when they’re looking all over the place for their glasses, and the glasses are actually sitting on top of their head. I sort of did that one a notch or two better on Saturday.

Our family went shopping at Target. When the 5 of us shop, the important thing is to keep track of Skylar, our youngest, who is closing in on 3 years old and knows quite well what SHE would like to shop for, thank you very much! We can ask Raeann or Lincoln to watch over Skylar for a couple seconds at a time, but in a busy department store I’d rather not rely on kids that are easily distracted themselves. So, while Andrea does most of the shopping, I do most of the Skylar-tracking. Every now and then she wants a ride on my shoulders, too, which is nice.

So we’re in Target for, like, an hour. We checked out clothes for Raeann and Andrea, socks for me, and had slowly passed through the toy section. All pretty much without a hitch.

Then we came to the Nintendo DS aisle. Raeann has decided she wants to buy High School Musical for the DS, so she was really checking this area out. Skylar and I were with her, and Andrea and Lincoln were an aisle over. I was amazed by one of the games they had on display. It was one of these new basketball games where, I swear, it looked just like live action NBA! The player movement was amazing. If you only glanced quickly at the screen, you’d think it was a real game on tv! Unbelievable!

Noticing that Skylar was not with us anymore, I backed out of the aisle and over to the intersection where Andrea and Lincoln now were. Looking around, there was no sign of Skylar!

“Hey! Where’s Skylar?” Andrea looked at me. Her brow furrowed just a bit. The sense of urgency that a parent should feel when their 2-year-old is missing didn’t seem to be there, though. That angered me a bit.

“Where’s Skylar? IS SHE WITH YOU???”

Andrea’s mouth dropped open. Then I happened to notice my hands. They were firmly grasping ankles. Tiny, 2-year-old, pink-socked ankles. Uh-oh.

I can imagine how this looked to Andrea. There’s her loving, frantic husband, standing there demanding to know where his precious daughter had gone, while said daughter sat patiently perched upon his shoulders all the while! Andrea later told me that she thought I was kidding around at first. It wasn’t until she saw the panic in my eyes that she knew I wasn’t.

My shoulders slumped. I was relieved, but thoroughly beaten. Not sure how I’ll ever live this one down.

Into the Heart of Darkness...

Friday night at 10pm 4 other runners from the Frederick Steeplechasers and I met at the Brunswick Train Station along the Potomac River for our headlamp run. Despite rain earlier in the day, forboding clouds all evening, and a vicious breeze in the parking lot when we pulled up, the weather actually cooperated very well. I was shivering in the parking lot in my shorts and long-sleeve tee, even though it didn't seem all that cold (low 50s), while we waited for the last runner to show up. Once we hit the trail we were out of the main breeze and I quickly got comfortable. And a short while later the moon and stars were out.

It was a great run; we had a blast! Thanks to the rains of the last week, there were puddles EVERYWHERE! Between the 5 of us, I think we only had 2 headlamps that were kicking out significant wattage, so spotting oncoming puddles became a full-time job for the 2 runners that happened to be in the lead. Throughout the night there'd be calls of "Puddle left!", "Puddle right!", "Stay in the middle! "Oh, squishy here!", or "Oh, Shit! That was a puddle!" Try as we might, none of us could evade the small ponds very consistently, and after just a few miles we all had pretty wet feet.

But so what? The company was great and running at night along the towpath was really cool! We only had one instance of primal fear - while still near the railroad tracks, a LOUD shot rang out into the night. We're still not sure what it was, but it sound like a cross between a rifle shot and some really good fireworks being launched very nearby. Or maybe something impacting steel very hard. We all jumped and then froze when it happened - I think we all immediately thought gunshot. After a few seconds, Andrea said, "What the hell are we just standing here for? Let's get out of here!" Good thinking. We scrammed!

The rest of the night was peaceful. But the Potomac was raging! The water level was way beyond anywhere I'd ever seen it before. 10, 20, 30 feet out into the water there were still trees sticking up out of the water that obviously should have been on land. Very impressive display by Mother Nature!

Our pace was fairly relaxed, usually a little sub-10 minute per mile pace, and we took several breaks to walk, eat, or take care of more urgent matters. Three of my four companions (Mary, John, and Andrea) were in training for a 100-mile race in Ohio this coming August! Only Uli and I have never gone farther than 26.2. I no longer felt like my 16-mile long run for the week was so significant! For such a long race as that 100-miler, you've really got to tone down the pace so that you've got something left at the end. I think our pace tonight was faster than what they'll do, but the walking mixed in will probably be similar to what they end up doing. The running style was the same.

So it took a while. We did 16.7 miles in about 3:20. Got home around 2:30am .

Hope to do this again sometime!

Mother's Day Weekend

Hope any mothers reading this had a great day! No running for me today (Sunday). Instead we did some hiking up to the top of Maryland's Sugarloaf Mt. Skylar rode in the backpack most of the way (see above). Here's our journey in pictures:

http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v377/robisch/Mothers%20Day%2008/?albumview=slideshow

Yesterday, I ran a local 5K, the Mission of Mercy Run for MOM in Frederick. The morning here in Maryland was quite rainy, but I decided that I didn't care about a little rain. I figured anything that might lower the turnout might give me a better shot at placing in my age group!
Well, fortunately, the rain started to let up right as we were starting. There were 89 runners, and for the first time in a long while, a very long while, I stepped up near the start line for a race. I was hoping to take a legitimate stab at a very old PR of mine for the 5K. I believe that's from the 1987 Bastille Day 5K in Chicago, where I managed a 6:59 pace for roughly a 21:38 time. However, based on training runs, I didn't think that I was quite back to running a 7 min pace for 3 miles. My more reasonable goal was breaking 22 minutes, which I haven't done in probably about..., well, since that Bastille Day!

I knew many of the other runners, and my strategy was to try to shadow my friend Tim, who runs between 20 and 21 minute 5Ks almost like clockwork, for as long as possible. I figured I'd rather start too fast than too slow. I was thinking I'd shoot for a 6:50 or so first mile.

Well, the horn blows and we're off! I took off fairly fast and quickly found myself in the unusual position ( for me ) of being fairly near the front, like AHEAD of the bell curve, not TRAILING it! After the first few hundred yards - and no sign of Tim yet - I become alarmed. OMG what if Tim's taking it easy for some reason? He was my pacer! The alarm was short lived, however, as Tim soon came up and passed me. Whew! So I tucked in behind him.
I think I stayed with Tim for the first mile. 6:37. Faster than I wanted, but during that mile the couple of times I checked my GPS I was going faster than expected. I felt okay so I tried to maintain that pace. A half mile later I was beginning to drop off of that pace, and Tim was pulling away. The rest of the way was simply a struggle to keep my pace as fast as possible. Mile 2 was about 7:28. Mile 3 was 7:26. My kick at the finish was fairly weak, for me, and I finished at 22:08. That got me 5th in my age group, and 17th overall out of 89 (top 20%). And a stat that I've notice Jerry (from the MCM forum) frequently notes: one woman finished ahead of me (in 16th) place. Top 20% is really good for me! It was cool to actually be ahead of most of the other runners for a change. An odd thing, that.

Not a PR, but this was a solid 5K time for me that I haven't seen in many years, so I'll take it! Next 5K, look for me to challenge that old PR!