Lake Michigan at Sunrise

Lake Michigan at Sunrise

Friday, September 20, 2013

Professional High Fiver.... and I need to grab a straw

Yesterday evening my family unit went out to see the Wurst Running Club Ever make our debut at the St. Michael Oktoberfest 5k.  I wasn't running it, as it is my scheduled rest day and Lord knows my danger zone legs needed it, I decided to at least bring some moral support. For a recap of the race, see Pete @ The Lakefront Trail's recap here (I'm also stealing some of his photos).

I made a sign, and I couldn't even take the time to check my spelling...Wurs(t) sign ever:


And here is a photo of the kid and myself:

And a group photo at the end of the WRCE:
my wife and kid make a little cameo in the back

I had fun giving out high fives to the runners, i'd say after the sub 19 minute finishers went by, I had a really high success rate. I felt like the Todd on his best day ever:

I loved that my daughter, loving to mimic, was trying to hand out high fives too. She got a high five from one lady who then said lets run! And she took off with her.. I had to quickly wrangle her back! woops.

Now here are some of the WRCE members running (I missed Jennifer's photo as we were taking pictures by who had on the team shirt, and she hadn't gotten hers yet, but I did high five her!)





Not WRCE, but funny



Can you name them all?

Okay, now that the fun part is over, lets get to today. I need to grab a straw cause this run suuuuuuccked.

I went to bed around 9:45pm seeing that there would be a good chance of thunderstorms starting at 3am F.......

I woke up at 1am hearing rain and felt defeated. I checked my phone's weather app and saw a giant mass of storms heading our way, double F. I may have to do the run right after work, blah.

3:20am, alarm goes off. Check radar - all clear and nothing in the state. SCORE! Wait, am I really that happy to be awake at 3:20am?

Hanson Marathon Method called for a 10 mile run at marathon pace, and include a warm up and cool down. So today's goal was to do 10 miles in 1:10:30. Last Friday I did my 9 miles at pace with ease and like a minute to spare...but the weather was also a lot better..

Full Disclosure: I'm planning on running the marathon for a 3:10 finish, which is about a 7:15 minute mile. But pre hammie strain, I was aiming for a 3:05 which is a 7:03 minute mile. I have not changed any of my training paces to reflect a 3:10, but instead still aim for 3:05 goal for my pace chart and so forth.

4am, out the door. Get GPS signal and start stopwatch. Time for the daily game of - does anything hurt?

The bottom of my left calf was tight as was part of my hamstring on my right leg, noted mostly for PT purposes. Stretching after 10 minutes helped.

Now just to keep stay fully honest. I was mentally b*tching the entire warm up. I felt creaky, I wasn't sure if I should bag it and rest. The humidity was rising, near 90% at 4am, almost 100% when I finished. Breathing ended up being the hardest part of the run.

I convinced myself to at least try to do the work out.. I asked myself, what if the marathon is under these god awful conditions? I can't give up then... so I went.

I got a stitch in my first marathon pace mile.. I was ready to just say screw it.. but I didn't. The path was mine. Nobody was out to see me have a fit or whatever emotion I let out.

My main goal for today was to internalize my pace again, but the breathing issue was throwing me for a loop.  My first 6 miles I was able to hold it, but then the last 4 the humidity and heat settled in and my pace started to flubber. I stopped a few times for water after I realized how much I was sweating and my sneakers were like sponges.

End result? 10 miles at marathon pace in 1:11. So 7:06 average... I'd like to say, oh if it wasn't for the humidity, I would have hit my goal, but how often do we get the perfect run? Try harder next time.

At least my energy is amazing, yay runner's high. Physical therapy today and the results of my video gait analysis will be given to me as well.

Long enough post, Happy Friday!

Edit: AND:
Thanks Xaarlin and Erin for letting me know!!

Edit 2: Almost forgot -crushing high five from Erin as well this morning!

19 comments:

  1. Hahaha, the Todd! Thanks for bringing the whole family out to spectate! And now I'm super happy I wore my day-glo neon green compression socks so I can find myself in those dark pictures :)


    Sorry to hear that Kenny Loggins was calling your legs! I always think the pace thing is interesting - even finishing a little slower, at 3:10, that's only a 12 second difference per mile! That's, like, nothing. Like an extra long water break, or stopping to take a picture or something. Also, 3:10 for your first marathon would be pretty sweet.

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  2. Wait - You got pics of the rest of WRCE but not me? :'-(



    To be fair... I was behind-ish the red eye guy so more people were interested in his pic than mine...



    Good Finally meeting you last night! Your daughter is just too cute :-)

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  3. Love the Red Eye guy! Ha ha!


    This morning I ran with Bobbi and was like "Can you imagine running a marathon in THIS?!" Y-U-C-K. I am happy you still got some previous marathon goal pace miles in. ;)

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  4. Great job with the humidity! Even recovery miles today were difficult. I ran with a side cramp for a few miles too. Let's hope there's no humidity during the marathon.


    I love all the pics and the Red Eye Guy, he must have been struggling last night in the heat/humidity.

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  5. Pete B lakefronttrail.blogspotSeptember 20, 2013 at 10:44 AM

    1:11? You absolutely crushed that run. I am amazed that with the grueling schedule you keep you are able to run that fast for that long. Be proud! Anyway, thanks for your family's support (and wife's picture taking) that last mile. I needed the power boost, since my legs weren't providing it for me! Looking forward to at least running a portion of our Hanson 16 milers together on Sunday.

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  6. The human body is amazing... a little will power and we can keep going. Way to rock the run this morning. Nice seeing you and the family last night even with your daughter attempting to cover me in leaves in dirt.

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  7. Love the GIF of Erin! Also toads jelly that Dathan tweeted you, although I have met him in person, so, I win =P

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  8. Now I just have to think about ways to make my sign for the Chicago Marathon even wurs than your sign.

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  9. I'm so sad that I have to miss marathon weekend this year! I guess I will have to make you a sign and take it to the Browns-Lions game in Cleveland. It still counts, right?

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  10. I was glad to attend! Please wear glow in the dark next time.
    12 seconds makes a huge difference! (tWSS)

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  11. sorry! I told my wife to take pictures of anyone with the shirt on! she missed you :(
    and thanks!

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  12. thanks!! i'm hoping that training a little harder than my planned pace will pay of physically and emotionally!

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  13. I figured I should at least complain about it to make myself feel better about falling a little short! lol

    The girl in the costume next to the red eye guy was as red as a fire hydrant!

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  14. Well if I allow myself to shave off 30 seconds for humidity! then yes.. but we think enough alike, we are rarely satisfied with our runs.. always think back that we could have done a bit more, a bit better, a bit faster

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  15. Dirt keeps pigs cool, why not humans right?

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  16. it is a toug job but someone has to do it.

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  17. Nerri @ LaPetiteRunnerSeptember 22, 2013 at 1:12 AM

    I love Todd!!! But I hate the "does anything hurt today?" game because the answer is always yes! Mental toughness is strong though - glad you were able to get you runs in!

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  18. Ha ha, I laughed at the part of your daughter running too.


    Average pace was 7:06? Wow, pretty good.

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