Stats are in on the Country Half Marathon

I fared well. Finished in the top 15% in my age group in a little over 2 hours and 7 minutes. I have the full story on another blog. Click here to read about it.

10K Results for Randy

I was the only one of our family to participate today. Reed had a grandson birthday to attend (flu got him earlier also) and Sarah had a migraine headache and soreness from a softball game. I did something the night before but went with the program anyway. I was sore from dancing at a party.

The good news for me was a record breaking race. I surpassed the best speed of all my races, short and long. This 10K run had a very slow start and I did not think it was possible to improve my speed over other races, but I did. My best 5 mile speed to date was 8.1 minutes per mile. Today I finished with a 8.07 minutes per mile over a distance of 6.2 miles (10K). That put me in the top 20% of my class. I was the oldest in my age bracket but finished 9th in a peer field of 56 runners, Best time in my class was 42 minutes, 28 seconds by a runner from Angleton, Texas. I finished in 50 minutes, 31 seconds. If I had been one year older, this speed would have gained me sixth place in a field of 27. Overall, I finished 757th of the 2518 men running in the 10K.

Sarah posts excellent time in Houston Park to Park 5-miler

Yesterday, Sarah ran in the Houston 5-Mile Park to Park race. This is the annual race which several of us ran last year from downtown Houston to Herman Park. She is now running competitive, having achieved 12th place in a peer field of 43 runners. Her time was 8.7 minutes/mile. Next is the 10K Rodeo run next weekend.

Thought I was doing better. Got to work harder!

Today, I pushed for speed in a 7.7 mile run. Of course that is more stressful than a 10K, but still, I expected a better time. I did it in 8.7 minutes/mile using long strides. This is in preparation for the Houston Rodeo 10K coming on February 28th. This tells me that I need to work on speed. I am shifting towards the morning to prepare my body for the race as well. I expect that will have something to do with the outcome, so I am now officially in training for a specific event. Reed and Sarah should be in this with me. I got my race packet this past week. I am really looking forward to this.

Sarah's First Half Marathon - Houston Marathon 2009

I was a lucky dad yesterday to be able to see my daughter run her first half marathon race. She did it in about 2 hours 10 minutes, finishing in the top 10% of her peer age group. Her time was about a 10 minute mile average, maybe even less. Congratulations to Sarah for such a high accomplishment! This photo is four miles into the 13.1 mile race.

Sarah getting ready to run half-marathon

Sarah is gearing up to run in the Houston Half Marathon on Sunday. I have registered to be notified when she crosses 6.2 miles(10K), 9 miles(21K) and finishes at 13.1 miles. This service is provided free and is an automatic text message sent as as an athlete passes over the detection pad at those locations.

Sarah is successful in 10 mile race

After preparing for the last month or so, this morning, Sarah competed in the annual December Pearland Jungle Jog 2008 race, finishing 4th in her age group. A 10 mile race is both a challenge and an accomplishment. She ran the entire distance and was in the top 1/3rd of competitors in her group. She does not yet know her elapsed time. Congratulations for setting a goal and exceeding it!

Randy Placed fourth in the Run Through the Woods

I did improve on my time and placement this year. I placed 4th out of 20 contestants in my age group, was the oldest person in the top 11 in my age group and placed 413th overall of 1670 contestants in the 5-mile race. Prizes went to the top three in each age category (darn! just missed).

I did my best. Therefore, a finish in the top 25% of all runners is enough for me. Had I competed in the man's age 35-39 age group, I would have won the 36th spot out of 105. My time was 8:10 per mile . If I had trained exceptionally hard, I would have never made first place in my age group, but might have gained second place. First place ran a very fast 6:56 per mile average. The best pace in the entire race was 4:55 by a Houston runner and second place was 4:56 by a Dallas man. Very close finish! Must have been a fast sprint the entire way! I exceeded my goal of 8:15.

First Race of the season for Randy - Run through the Woods

I ran this YMCA race last year and did well. It will be a challenge to do as well this year. The race is Turkey Day, in the morning. Many people will run in this 5 mile race.

There have been too many interruptions in my training this year. This last one was a double whammy. I worked out with a new program of weights as designed especially by a YMCA trainer for my running. That was just bad timing, because it stiffened all my muscles right before this race. Not good. Then the next day, I helped a neighbor to recover her son from a fall, trying to get from his wheelchair to his sofa. He was in dire need and I did not think about what I was doing to help him except for his pain and necessity. Trouble was, the guy weighed a lot and I pulled something in my back in the process. That put me out of training for 4 days less than two weeks before the race.

So here I am back again. I have run twice without hurting the back at all. Yesterday was a day of testing my back and laying off of speed. I bought new shoes today and ran a decent run with them - 8.7 minutes per mile average over 5.8 miles. I still did not put a lot of speed into the run, so I have more to give. I will run the next couple of days also but not much on Wednesday. I plan to run significant distance tomorrow but not with speed. It is hard for me to run at a slower pace but I can and will.

Two more weeks until the RunThrough the Woods

On Thanksgiving day, Randy plans to run this race for the second year in a row. It is on Thanksgiving morning. What better excuse for gorging oneself than having run five miles for charities the same morning as the feast? You get a pancake breakfast after you run and does that taste good on a chiller morning after a race!

I am ready to run the race now but want to continue building strength and speed. I have discovered that I need to change how I land on long strides to make more efficient use of that stride. I will try that new technique this week. I am notably slower than I was this past Spring.

2009 Marathon

I am considering the Austin Marathon this year. I have plenty of time to train. The half-marathon is probably the target, although I am going to wait until I see what I can do. I am already running 4 miles.

Less than one week away to the half marathon

It is very early in the morning on April 12th. That is good and bad. It is 101 miles from IAH airport, so I will have to plan 1.5 hours to get there. It will be in the coolest part of the morning, so that is good. Materials are passed out starting at 5:30. The race starts at 7AM. So I want to leave the house about 4:30AM.

I am feeling healthy enough. I even have a doctor's OK to run. I ran twice this past week without any pain but felt the place in question. I just have to run with caution, so my time will likely not be too good. I will go for a steady pace race. Yesterday, I ran for 5.3 miles and was not stressed much, so my confidence is rising. Tomorrow I will try to go 7 miles. Then, I will fall back to 3 on Wednesday to complete all preparation except for stretching.

It's a borderline case

I have no idea if I am going to run in the half-marathon. Although I was in condition to do that 4 weeks ago, I have run only two times in the last month. As long as I feel the shin splint, I have a shin splint. Yesterday's trial short run gave me minor pain in the area previously effected, but I had no after-run consequences. Today I took a 12-mile walk at a relatively relaxed rate of speed and felt twinges of pain now and then, but in the last half, I felt no pain whatsoever. So I will work in the gym and run a little over the next two weeks, but will try to keep the risk of injury at a minimum so I will have the choice to run when the race comes around.

5 mile Park to Park Race

Last week, I went down to Houston to support three members of my family running the 5 mile race. Here is a picture I shot after the race. -Kelly

Scary Month of March - Half Marathon critical month

Runner World calls it Monster Month.¹ I call it Scary Month. March is the time to determine if we are fit enough to do the race. Three weeks before the race, we are supposed to forget about running the distance. It is all about the elapsed time endurance training. So about the end of March, we should taper our training program down so that our soft tissues are ready for the gruelling distance and associated body stress that comes with a Marathon or Half Marathon.

Personally, I think I can do it, despite the minor but potentially hazardous issues I am currently having with Shin Splints. I have abandoned my plan for highly strenuous training. I can now see that I have done the work I needed to do and now need to focus on maintaining and doing one long run before the race in April. I will take a week more of rest before I start the final training up to that end, the killer month! I will begin to use my new shoes since I have been approaching the maximum on the older ones. I was told today to not use them past 400 miles and I have passed some 320 miles or so. They said the shoes might be helping to cause the shin splints. On hindsight, maybe I should have used them on last Saturdays race. But then again, how smart would it have been to use new shoes on the day of the race? I have no idea yet what they will do for me.

The dress rehearsal¹ should come at the third week of March. I will put it on my calendar for March 23rd. This will be a distance run, not race, but a two hour run in my race gear. I will not care about the distance, but it must be on pavement like we will race on and maybe even on the roads where we will run. Jeff may go with me; we will see. With constantly rising temperatures during these weeks, it is any one's guess what we will face on run day. The plan is to dress for heat, not cold, but take gloves with us in case of cold. I will carry water on the run as well, so the dress rehearsal will have a little extra weight than normal.

¹ Half Marathon Training

I guess I'm ready

Well I guess I am ready for the 5 mile. Wish I had another week or so but I should be able to run it and in a fair time. I got up this morning and ran 4.5 miles and then ran another 5 miles after work today. I most likely won't run again till Sat and let my legs heal. It's great to have Kell on the Blog with us now! Let's get this family in shape! :-) -Jeff