For the West End (Richmond) Runners

This post is dedicated to my friends and running pals who ran the Suntrust Richmond Marathon and the McDonalds Half Marathon yesterday. You are my heroes -- I saw some good times in the results. Maybe these thoughts from Meb will resonate with you:



(Stolen from Half Fast who stole it from Running is Funny who stole it from ...?)

The words for the week are: rest, recover, refuel. Then enjoy running.

I got in my longest run to date in Kenya -- headed out after our worship service for a slow (relative, I know) 6.38 miles in 58:21. With the altitude and the hills, I figure that ain't too bad.

Run well, y'all,
Bob A

Our "Home" City, 2005-2009

This is a shout out to my homies in Richmond -- John Rolfe 10K Training Team, John Rolfe Patrick Henry Half Marathon Training Team, Posse running group -- many of whom are running either the Richmond Marathon, Half Marathon, or 8K next weekend. Good luck -- you all are so ready for this. (Don't worry -- that's the end of my attempts at urban language.)

From May 2008 until July 2009, we lived in Richmond, VA. While we would have preferred to have been overseas, Richmond was a good place to live and a great place to run. This video gives an overview of some of the reasons for that (we didn't do all that's rapped about in the video) -- and it's a fun look at the city.



Run well, y'all,
Bob

Ukrop's Monument Ave 10K, Richmond

The Richmond 10K is history. The temperature at the start was about 61° with a very light mist. Some 31,000 people were registered but a lot of folks didn't show.

I didn't hit my target time but wasn't too far off. Considering the crowd, I'm not bummed. I had hoped for a sub-45:00 but my time was 45:43.18 -- a 7:22 mpm pace. That was enough to finish somewhere in the top 600-700 or so overall (so far, I have only seen the top 500), 32nd out of 830 finishers in my age group (50-54), 9th out of 64 53 year olds.

I'm really proud of my wife. She participated and finished well -- her first race and she finished in 1:20:56, #390 out of 1115 finishers in her age group. After I finished, I wound my way out of the finish area, ran about 2.5 miles of the course to try to catch her wave, then moved to the median (out and back course) to try to find her on the return leg. We walked and finished the last @3 miles together. It's the farthest she's ever run/walked. And, she had to run in a lot more rain than I did.

A huge THANK YOU to our daughter who stood in the mist and rain and cheered us on.

As I mentioned in an earlier post, the Ukrop's 10K played host to the USA 10k Men's National Championship Race. It was pretty neat to watch these elite runners start the race. As my wave hit mile 1, the leaders passed us on their way to the finish. Abdirahman and Browne were in the lead and it looked like it could be a good finish. Richmond's WTVR online news reported the results this way:

Abdirahman Wins Ukrop's Monument 10K Race

Abdi Abdirahman showed Richmond his strength as a world-class distance runner, winning the 9th annual Ukrop's Monument Avenue 10k in 28:34, about 27 seconds short of record pace, and defending his men's 10k national championship at the same time.

Abdirahman, a Somalia native who now lives in Tucson, AZ, nosed out second-place finisher Dan Browne, from Beaverton, OR. Browne, who was stationed at Fort Lee in 1997 and 2006, finished 4 seconds behind Abdirahman at 28:38. Fasil Bizuneh from Massachusetts finished third at 29:04.

It will be nice not to be tied to a training plan for a couple of weeks. I get to simply run. Then, it will be time to start getting ready for a late August half marathon.

Run well, y'all,
Bob

A Few of My "Friends"

I'll be running with (well, OK, behind -- WAY behind!) some prestigious company on Saturday. The Ukrop's Monument Ave 10K is also the US 10K Men's Championship. The defending champion, Abdi Abdirahman, will be here along with Alan Culpepper, Dan Browne, Fernando Cabada and a number of other contenders. Weather predictions are warm and wet (thunderstorms). The course record for the Richmond run is 28:07 -- that could fall. Abdi won the 2007 championship at the Peachtree Road Race last year in 28:12. The US Championship record is 27:59, set by Matt Giusto in 1996. The world record is 26:17.53 set in 2005 by Kenenisa Bekele of Ethiopia.

With the wave start, I'll be close to completing mile 2 when the Elites cross the finish line! Gives me something to shoot for!

Run well, y'all,
Bob

Ashland 10K Railroad Run

The YMCA 10K training group suggested that participants run the Ashland 10K Railroad Run today as a training run for the Richmond 10K in 3 weeks. Sounded good, so I signed up.

I must have signed up early because I had bib #12. I decided to treat this run as a tempo run. My tempo run was originally scheduled for this past Wednesday but jet lag from the South Africa trip has really hit me this time. The plan this week called for a 7 miler: 1 mile warm-up, 5 miles X 7:40, and 1 mile cool down. So, I figured I'd aim for about 8:15 for the first mile, then do the last 5.2 miles at roughly 7:40. That would be just over 48:00 for the 10K -- a really good warm-up.

Ashland is a smallish town north of Richmond. Around here, they have a reputation for running good races. This was no exception. There were about 338 participants in the 10K. The weather was perfect -- a cool 48-50° at the start. Cool enough to be chilly in a short-sleeved running shirt waiting for the race to begin but great once we started. The course was pretty flat (my plot is off -- I missed both the start and finish spots) -- I don't think the variation was more than about 20'.

We got off at 9AM and I held back to an easy pace. It's hard to get passed by so many folks. I didn't see the 1 mile marker but at about 8:20, picked up the pace. It felt really good, almost too good. I hit the 2 mile mark at 14:55. Mile 3 passed at 22:something; Mile 4 at 29:something. At mile 4, we were on a downhill and I knew we were going to have to come back up that hill. Still felt really good. The turn-around point came at the top of a hill. I hit mile 5 going uphill at 36:37 and was beginning to feel tired. Just before mile 6, one of the course officials said there was only 1/4 mile remaining (OK, I can hold this pace that long). Mile 6 passed at 44:00 and I realized I was not only going to beat my 48:00 target but I was going to beat my 47:00 goal time for the Richmond 10K and, unless I passed out, was going to actually break 46:00. There was one person in front of me that I had a chance of passing by the finish so I picked it up a bit -- might as well leave it all on the road (in the end, I thought I was going to leave it all in the bushes). I crossed the finish at 45:29 -- 45th out of 338 and 4th in my age group (50-54). I'm still in shock.

Someone asked me if this was a PR. Yeah -- it's actually my first 10k race. Three weeks until the Richmond 10K.

Run well, y'all,
Bob