Episode 4 - Failure Brings Success

The Crazy Runner is back once again with Episode 4! Tune in as I explain 2 weeks of failed long runs and discuss various topics including Gordon of Run to Disney's latest episode of his podcast, my upcoming half marathon, and some other things.MUSIC Today's music was brought to you by http://www.musicalley.com/ "Company of Fools"/"Ordinary Day" Combo - Great Big Sea (Intro/Outro & excerpts) "Lonely Boy" - Black Lab

Also mentioned in this episode was:
Run to Disney
Run Vegan Run
Buttar.com
Central Florida 5Klub
RunningPodcasts.org
The Devoted RunnerRemember if you want to get in contact with me send me an email at thecrazyrunner@gmail.com, leave a comment here on the blog, send me a tweet at www.twitter.com/crazyrunner, follow me on Facebook at www.facebook.com/crazyrunner, or leave me a Voice Mail at 206-337-6871 Hope You enjoy the show!

Download this episode (right click and save)

Episode 3 - WWFOR - Swanson House Half

After yet another 3 weeks in waiting, The Crazy Runner is back with Episode 3! Tune in as I apologize once again for taking so long to get this podcast out there for everyone and decide that odds are this show will be produced every 2 to 3 weeks. I also recap my running of "The Swanson House Half" as I run my race for the WWFOR.


MUSIC

Today's music was brought to you by http://www.musicalley.com/

"Company of Fools"/"Ordinary Day" Combo - Great Big Sea (Intro/Outro & excerpts)
"Running" - Allison Crowe

Remember if you want to get in contact with me send me an email at thecrazyrunner@gmail.com, leave a comment here on the blog, send me a tweet at www.twitter.com/crazyrunner, follow me on Facebook at www.facebook.com/crazyrunner, or leave me a Voice Mail at 206-337-6871


Hope You enjoy the show!

Download this episode (right click and save)

Updated Marathon Training Plan

I had to recently update my training plan after removing my 2 October races due to my son's T-Ball and adding in a different half marathon on November 14th

Hope you enjoy both the schedule and Episode 2 of The Crazy Runner which was released last night!

Training Schedule2

Episode 2 - Not to Shabby

After 3 weeks in waiting, The Crazy Runner is back with Episode 2! Tune in as I apologize for taking so long to get this podcast out there for everyone and as I recap the 2 races that I ran since the last episode.
MUSIC

Today's music was brought to you by http://www.musicalley.com/

"Company of Fools"/"Ordinary Day" Combo - Great Big Sea (Intro/Outro & excerpts)
"Walk on the Moon" - Great Big Sea

Remember if you want to get in contact with me send me an email at thecrazyrunner@gmail.com, leave a comment here on the blog, send me a tweet at www.twitter.com/crazyrunner, follow me on Facebook at www.facebook.com/crazyrunner, or leave me a Voice Mail at 206-337-6871


Hope You enjoy the show!

Download this episode (right click and save)

Episode 1 - Welcome!

Episode 1 is FINALLY here. Tune in and listen as I introduce my podcast and give out special thanks to those who helped get The Crazy Runner going (special apologies are given to Adam "The Zen Runner" Tinkoff - as he was also supposed to be thanked, but being episode 1 things can easily be forgotten - he must use his zen power to power some dogs in this episode - LOL. Another thanks to be given to Dirt Dawg for his help in getting this podcast published for everyone to hear

MUSIC

Today's music was brought to you by http://www.musicalley.com/

"Company of Fools"/"Ordinary Day" Combo - Great Big Sea (Intro/Outro & excerpts)
"Ordinary Day" - Great Big Sea

Sites mentioned during the episode are:

World Wide Festival of Races

Central Florida 5Klub


Download this episode (right click and save)

IT'S ORDERED!

Hello Everyone!

Just a short update to let everyone know that the production of my podcast is getting closer and closer. Today I officially ordered my mic and my digital audio recorder! I am so anxious for them to arrive. I feel like a little kid at Christmas time!

I also made a little "hand-drawing" of a logo for the podcast, and a co-worker of mine is helping to make it a digital file and spice it up a little!

Things are comming together nicely, now just to get everything in, start recording and get episode 1 released!

I am about to go home and go out on my 6 mile run today. This is an easier week this week for training as I get 3 days off! It is supposed to be a 6,5,5,6 week. I am however going to move my 6 on Sunday up to 10 since I completely missed my 10 mile long run on week 3. So this week will still only be 26 miles, then next week steps up to 30!

So training is going good, I think the "cough" is pretty much completely gone, and I am excited to get this podcast going!

I will keep everyone updated!

Til Next Time.

Buh-Bye Jacksonville! / Celebration of Running 5K

Hello Everybody!



I start this blog out with sadness in saying that my running of the Jacksonville Marine Corps Half Marathon in October is no longer going to be happening. :( - I will still run on my own though in the World Wide Festival of Races Half Marathon :)






The reason I will not be running in the half marathon then is that is the day of my son's FIRSE EVER T-Ball game! I could not miss this for ANYTHING! This is a short 2 month league, so my Saturdays from October 3 til the end of November are now filled. This also means I will have to cancel my running of the Big Pig Jig in Bushnell, FL on October 17th. For this, I say sorry to the rest of the Central Florida 5Klub, but I will feel to badly if I miss my son's t-ball games.

In other running news, Week 3 of my training plan was a DISASTER! I have been sick all week! Being sick at the begining of the week had me decide to change up some of my schedule for the week. Monday was a cross training day, so I just decided to take the day off. On Tuesday, I still was not feeling any better, so I decided to move my Thursday REST DAY to Tuesday and give myself another day of recovery. On Wednesday, I did get back out there and did 5 miles and was "thinking" I was feeling a little better. Thursday, I figured to be safe, I would do the scheduled 5 miles, but would make it an easy run instead of a Tempo Run. Friday, I made my way to my friend's house in Groveland, FL as we had a race to run on Saturday in Orlando. We had planned to run together on Friday night as I had 4 miles planned for the day. But visiting with friends, chatting, and playing old-school NES caused this to not happen (I did kick his butt at Double Dragon though). We finally got to bed around 1:30 AM and had to be up by 6am for the race.


I awoke fine though and was ready for the race (or so I thought). At 6:30 our small group (4 to be exact) met up and rode together to downtown Orlando for the Celebration of Running 5K presented bt Track Shack as the started off their Grand Prix series of races. (I was Bib # 590 If anyone wants to look up my results) Upon arrival we did not have time to run our SWAG bag and t-shirt back to the car, so we just decided to "hide it" in some nearby bushes. A little bit later, the race of 1,747 runners was off! I was not ready for the start of the race when it happened and my Forerunner 305 was not yet ready and was still "Locating Satelites". About a half mile in it finally located them (I guessed nearly 2,000 runners and being in downtown Orlando had something to do with that)! I was still feeling fine at this point and kept on moving at a good pace (somewhere around 7:30). However, about a half mile later I reached the 1 mile mark in around 8 minutes flat and then the COUGHING started. Just when I thought all the sickness was gone IT'S BA-ACK!!! I then slogged my way though the course while hacking up my lungs for the next 2.1 miles! I did finally come to the finish line and finished the Celebration of Running 5K in a time of 24:55 (according to my D-Tag Timing chip on my shoe anyways). I felt horrible after the race and just wanted to lay down.

After the race we all went out to Cracker Barrel for breakfast and then I headed home to my family. Upon arriving home I ended up taking a nice, long nap as I had a 10 mile long run planned for Sunday. Sunday came and my mind was ready for it's 10-miler! I had a course all planned out and was going to run it around 5pm when the weather cooled down. However, I had kept coughing all day long and was still not feeling perfect. PLUS, upon getting close to 5pm I saw that a really bad storm was approaching us, and figured between my sickness and the nearby storm, the last thing I wanted was to be 5 miles away from my house hacking up my lungs while a monsoon was comming down on me. So, as hard as it was to do, I decided to skip my long run for the week. So, in a week that I was supposed to run 27.1 miles, I only managed to run 13.18 miles! HORRIBLE.

Well, this is now a new week with no races so hopefully things will go much beeter and I will get my miles in (and please let me be cough free). I have 29 miles on schedule this week with a 10 miler on Sunday! Hopefully all goes well!

I still have full intentions on starting The Crazy Runner Podcast. I was waiting for finances to get right until I could get a digital recorder and a microphone before I started it, however, I might just go ahead and record with my headset for a while just to get my podcast out there and started. NO MORE EXCUSES! So hopefully within 2 weeks I can have AT LEAST episode 1 out there for everyone to hear. I can always switch the format to a runcast once I get the equipment, but at least this will be something in the meantime

Til Next Time!

¿ I better Slow Down ?

Hello Once Again !

Well I am now officially into the middle of Week 2 of my training plan!

Week 1 of my training went well! I finished the week with 5 runs, totaling 26.45 Miles. On Monday, I went to my parents house and enjoyed a nice walk with my mom around the neighborhood for just under 2.5 miles. This is not technically Cross Training, but, It will do! Tuesday and Wednesday I did nice easy runs of 4 miles each. On Thursday, my wife was off work and it allowed me to run in the afternoon and not get up so early. WooHoo SLEEP! That afternoon having more time, I did my Friday workout instead as it was a little longer. I did a 5 mile Tempo run with a 1 mile warm up and cool down with 3 miles of tempo run. On Friday, I had another nice easy run of 4 miles also. Saturday was to be my rest day, even though I do not know how restful it was as I went tubing down the Rainbow River in Dunnellon, FL - I think this wore me out more then my runs do LOL. I then ended my week on Sunday, with the 1st long run of my training by doing a 9 miler.

I do not know if I was just having a week that I was doing well in or if it is something I need to look out for, BUT, every single run I did this week (including my long run) I ran a little faster then I had scheduled myself to run. Each day, it seemed as I was running about 10-15 seconds per mile to fast! On Sunday, while on my long run I took a picture of the sign you see at the top of this blog as I found it pretty amusing that on a week where I am running to quickly that I came upon a sign warning drivers to SLOW DOWN. To top the "speed week" off I got pulled over for Speeding on Monday afternoon (luckily I only got a warning). I guess I am just trying to do EVERYTHING to quickly. I better slow down before I get injured.

I am now half way through week 2 and am still feeling great! I will update everyone early next week as to how week 2 went.

ALSO, If anyone is in Florida and is interested in doing any running or races with me, just let me know. My schedule is posted and here is a link of my upcoming races from now until Jan 10, 2010:

• August 15, 2009 - Celebration of Running 5K - Orlando, FL
• September 12, 2009 - Rock 'N' Run 5K - Orlando, FL
• September 19, 2009 - Run for Autism 5K - Ocala, FL
• October 3, 2009 - Jacksonville Marine Corps Half Marathon - Jacksonville, FL
• October 18, 2009 - Big Pig Jig 5K - Bushnell, FL
• November 26, 2009 - YMCA Turkey Trot 5K - Ocala, FL
• December 5, 2009 - Reindeer Run 5K - Ocala, FL
• January 10, 2010 - Walt Disney World Marathon - Orlando, FL

As far as I know that is the complete list, who knows what can still happen, I love races!

Hope You Enjoy,

Til Next Time

IT IS OFFICIAL!

HELLO EVERYBODY!

It Is OFFICIAL!!!!!

As of 8:45am on Friday, July 31, 2009 I have registered for the 2010 Walt Disney World Marathon! After the entrance fee and the Processing Fee through active.com for registering ($125.00 and $8.63) I am now out $133.63 and could not be more excited about it! JANUARY 10, 2010 at 5:50 am I will be at the starting line (or a good mile back LOL as 20,000+ other runners will be there also). I encourage you all to come out and run it with me. We will have a BLAST!

ALSO, in other exciting news, I have decided that I too want to venture into the podcasting world! I want to join the rest of my friends on the run-net community and contribute another running podcast for all to enjoy. I just downloaded Audacity for editing everything and also opened an account with Podbean. Now, I just need to go out and get a Digital Audio Recorder that has a USB input and a Microphone. (I will gladly accept donations or if anyone has an old one that they no longer use).

I am 5 days into my training plan and things could not be better.

I will keep you all updated

Til Next Time

My Jacksonville Marine Corps Half Marathon/Disney Marathon Training Plan

Here is my training plan for both the Jacksonville Marine Corps Half Marathon on October 3rd and the Disney Marathon on January 10th. The 2 plans overlap by 4 weeks.

I was gonna do the Runner's World Smart Coach Plan for the Half and the Hal Higdon Intermediate II plan for the full. This however was not easy to do because of that 4 week long overlap. So I decided to merge them together and make 1 big 24 week long training plan that I call the "Hal Higdon Smart Coach Intermediate II Plan". Kind of a long title, but it is exactly what it is, a combo of the 2 plans put together.

Training Schedule

Random Pics

Here are a few random pics from one of my recent runs where I ran from my house to the Santos Trailhead, a loop in there, and then back home. Hope you enjoy!

Don't mind the picture quality as these were taken with my phone instead of my regular digital camera


I came upon him on my run to the trail. As I took my phone out to take the picture of him, he walked right up to me






Here is the entrance to the Santos Trailhead (actually is a mountain bike trail, but I love to run it) - This is actually a part of the Cross Florida Greenway a trail that runs right through the entire state, coast to coast

Which trail should I take?

Why the yellow one of course (It is the easiest one, and remember these are mountain bike trails, so none of them are that easy on runners)

Here is a quick snap shot of a part of the trail (one of the only parts that actually are in open space not surrounded by trees)

One last picture which I did not take but I figured I would throw in anyways as it is another show of the Santos trailhead taken with a much better camera then my junky little camera phone.

Citrus Summer Showdown

Hello Everyone!


So, this past Saturday I ran in another race. This makes 2 races in 2 weeks! This race was the Inverness Citrus Summer Showdown which is a 5K trail run in Inverness, FL. I ran this same race last year, and I must say that this is a TOUGH race. This year though, I had the pleasure of my mom doing the race with me as this was her 2nd ever 5K. The best part about this race is that it is completely FREE. That's right F-R-E-E, FREE!

We were running behind and did arrive at the race site pretty late. I basically had time to get my bib number, get my chip timing device, go to the bathroom, and then off to the starting line! My friend Grant was supposed to be running this event also, but he got sick the night before and decided to skip it. Me and my mom did not get to line up together at the starting line though as the women started their race 15 minutes after then men did.

As the race started I took off with the pack! About a quarter mile into the race I looked down at my Garmin and saw I was running at a 6:30 mile pace. I thought "What the hell am I doing!!" and proceeded to slow my pace down (this way I could FINISH the race - LOL) I passed the 1 mile mark at 7:48 and was feeling wonderful. About another half a mile in, at around the half-way mark, I came to the only water station on the course where I decided to go ahead and take a cup. I did however only take a small sip of the water then doused my head with the rest of the cup. This felt GREAT as trail runs in Central Florida during the midst of summer do not bring about good temperatures or humidity! I finished the 2nd mile in 8:04 and was starting to feel pretty tired. The final mile was dragging on as my body was becoming more and more tired as I am not used to running on trails and keeping an eye out on the trail for roots and other things to make you lose your footing. I finished the 3rd mile in 8:09 and was ready for the race to come to an end. I finally crossed the finish line in a total time of 24:11, which is actually my 4th best 5K time to date (nothing to complain about). I then went and met my dad and my two sons as I awaited my mom to cross the finish line. She eventually reached the line and finished in a little over 52 minutes. This was about 1 minute slower then her 1st ever 5K but I was very proud of her as this was probably by far the hardest course she will ever do AND she had not really trained at all for.

I finished the race in 83rd overall out of about 300 runners. I was the 30th place "Adult" as this race is broken down into Middle School, High School, College, and Adult instead of the regular 5 year age groups. This race is actually full with a lot of high school aged kids as a lot of school's have their cross country teams come out and participate in this race and get them ready for the upcoming season.

We then gathered the troops and went out for a nice breakfast before coming home for the day.

I will soon be posting some pictures from one of my recent training runs where I just went out and relaxed on a nice 10 mile run.

Til next time!

4 on the 4th

Hello to all my fellow runners!

So,another race has come and gone. This past Saturday (The 4th of July) I arose by myself without any other members of the Central Florida 5Klub to participate with me in the God & Country Day Freedom Run 4 Miler. This is an annual event held in Ocala, FL to support the Marion County Veteran's Memorial Park. I arrived at the race 45 minutes prior to the start of the event and got my bib number (133), T-Shirt, and SWAG bag. I pinned my number onto my shirt and brought my bag and shirt back to my car. After lots of walking around and a short warm up run I was ready for the race to begin.

The race had perfectly blue skies and the temperature was great. The humidity was pretty high, but then again, this is FLORIDA. I passed by mile marker 1 in a time of 7:43 and was feeling great. After a small loop I finished the 2nd mile in a time of 7:47 and was still feeling pretty good. Shortly after the 2 mile mark I was getting a little tired and ran up to the only water station on the course. I was pretty thirsty at this point so I actually walked the water station to make sure that I got as much water in me as possible. I finished the 3rd mile in a time of 8:09 - A little slow, but not to bad considering that I had walked through the aid station. A little after mile marker 3, we passed by a guy that every single runner in the race LOVED. This guy was nicely standing outside of his house at the edge of the road where he had a hose that he put the water nozzle onto MIST and he refreshed everyone superbly with a wonderful misting that completely rejuvenated me. With about a quarter mile to go in the race, there was a person there handing out a small flag to all of the runners. I crossed the finish line shortly after with a smile on my face and a flag in my hand as my 4th and final mile was my fastest of the entire race which i completed in 7:28 to make my overall finishing time 31:07. This time put me in 55th place overall and 6th in my age group. I am not positive on the number of total runners as the results are yet to be posted online. My guess would be roughly somewhere from 200-300 runners. I did run into a couple of people that ran in the event that I had not seen for a number of years and it was nice to get to catch up with them.

At the awards presentation they actually were giving out some prizes by randomly drawing race bib numbers from people that ran in the event. I was shocked to find out that I actually had a little luck run my way and I, Mr. Never Wins ANYTHING, actually had my number drawn and I won a 3x5 American Flag complete with the mounting kit. I was happy to get this as I missed winning an age group award my just over 1 minute.

I then came home and spent a nice day with my family as we just relaxed and enjoyed the holiday.

I will eventually list the official results on a future posting assuming that they are ever posted online (which I assume they will be as prior runnings of this same race have been).

I do have a 5K race planned for this coming Saturday in Inverness, FL which is F-R-E-E FREE ---- AND you still get a t-shirt.

Well, I will keep you all updated.

Til Next Time

RESULTS ARE NOW POSTED

I got 55th out of 266 (top 20%) and 6th in my age group out of 13. Also I was the 46th place Male (meaning only 9 women finished ahead of me)

To see the official results click here.

Mornings?

Hello Everybody! (sung like Charlie on Lost)

Well, today I started doing the one thing that I NEVER thought I would do. I woke up early and ran BEFORE work. I got up a little after 5:30am and went out and completed a 5.5 mile run. I must say that it was much better then I figured it would be. I even had to work until 7pm tonight (2 hours later then normal) and still do not feel exhausted!

I decided to try morning runs for a few different reasons.

1) It is way to hot in the afternoon now as lately when I get home from work the heat index has been around 105! And that just makes for miserable running at a SLOW pace. This morning it was still very humid out, but it was nice because the temperature was only about 75.

2) It rarely rains here in the morning hours but feels like it is always raining in the afternoon with thunderstorms.

3) Wakes me up in the morning allowing me to be more energetic at work and not dragging in rubbing my eyes as I enter the office

4) It allows me to concentrate on my work. When I run after work I feel like I spend half of my day there thinking about my run for the day, how far I will run, mapping out a course for my run, and other various things that prevent me from concentrating on and competing my work.

5) Allows me more time after work to get things done around the house and spend time with my 2 boys other then just going out running.

6) Less traffic on the road making my runs more safe.

I am sure that there are more reason that I have just failed to realize or am not thinking of at this time, but I feel that this list is a plenty big enough reason to start trying it out.

Day 1 was a success for me, now let's just see how the rest of the week goes

Also, one other thing which could be interesting in the future is that my brother in-law said that he wants to start running. He just went out and got some running shoes, now I will do my best to hold him to it. I will gladly help him out and try to bring yet another new runner into the Run Net Community. So I now say in hopes that I don't get sued for copyright infringement (LOL Dan) ERIC, GO RUN!!


Til next time

Dreams, Festivals, and Blisters

Hello Once again!

It is I, the Crazy Runner, once again with a new blog post to keep everyone updated on myself.

Now that I am getting closer to 30, I have finally decided on what I want as my long term career goal. With the life of a professional athlete not seeming like it could happen, I have decided that I would like to eventually open up my very own running store right here in Ocala, FL. Running stores are great and are the true backbone of any running community. I think this would be a great thing that I would love to do AND there currently are ZERO running stores in Ocala at the moment (unless you count major sporting chains like Dick's or Sports Authority). There is obviously a lot of work to be put into starting a business but, that is why it is a LONG term goal. I obviously would need some financial backing or any small business grants would be super. If anyone has any ideas for the store OR helpful suggestions on getting a business started I would LOVE any advise that anyone could offer to help me out in any way at all.

So last week, I went out on a nice 7 mile run for my first run in like 10 days. This proved to be a mistake. Not the run itself, but the fact that I decided to wear my custom ortotics on this run. You see, all the prior running I had done in them so far was on my treadmill, and well, I quickly learned that running the roads is a lot harder on my feet then the treadmill is. After this run, I realized that I had gotten a nice blister on each foot right on the side of the foot at the arch. This did not feel pleasant at all. Plus I started to get a little bit of runner's toe again as my nail was killing me on one of my toes on my left foot. Well, tons of band-aids and a little rest later I have been back out running again. I will say that I have not worn the orthotics for running in since then (I am wearing them for daily use though). I will soon once again venture out onto the roads with them on some much shorter runs and see if the results are any better OR if I need to take them in and have something done with them so that they do not kill me LOL

Before ending this post, I would like to either remind or inform everybody (depending on who you are) to go sign up for the 2009 World Wide Festival of Races. Here you can sign up to run in the Worldwide Half Marathon, the Zen Run 10K, or the Kick the Couch 5K. These races are absolutely free for everyone. It actually is a virtual race that anyone can do on their own course in their neighborhood, or they can run an actual race and register that time for the event. The WWFOR will take place on the weekend of October 10-11 (or within a week if doing a scheduled race-just send an email to the director of WWFOR and make sure it is OK) and I strongly recommend everybody go out and register. This is the original virtual race (Nike did copy them with their virtual 10K race) and currently has 355 entrants from 24 different countries signed up for it. I myself will be running in the Jacksonville Marine Corps Half Marathon on October 3rd in Jacksonville, FL to obtain my time for the World Wide Half.

Again, I strongly recommend everyone both go sign up and let others know about this event.

If anyone has any advice or comments I would love to hear from everyone.


Til Next Time

I'm Ba-ack!

Hello once again everyone!


Wow, it sure has been a while since I posted anything new to my blog (partially because my running has been pretty non-existent as of late).

Well, yesterday was my first day of running in over a week, as the last time I ran was on Sunday the 24th. Man, I sure have been a slacker lately. I think it really hurt my running with the combo of my headphones broke and all the non stop rain we got here for like 4-5 days straight (and I got sick of only running on the dreadmill). But now, the weather is clearing up, and I got my new headphones in the mail and I love them. I got the Sennheiser PMX-70's which sell at Target for $50 and I got them on Amazon for only $25 with free shipping!!

Yesterday's run was an interesting run, as it was actually 4 different runs all done consecutively with no breaks in between. First I went out for my normal run and got back to the house after about 4.5 miles. Then (after listening to Phedippidations episode 188 talk all about running with dogs), I felt like taking one of my dogs out for a short 1/2 mile run. Well, she was running so good and fast that the 0.5 mile run turned into a 1.1 mile run. Upon returning home with her, I realized my other two dogs were extremely JEALOUS. So I took each of them out on separate runs (not as long - because they do not run as well as the other) totaling my 3 dog runs at 2 miles. So for the day I did a total of 6.53 miles in a time of 64 minutes.

Overall, the run felt good, and I felt great to once again hit the road. The worst part of the run is that now both of my feet obtained blisters on the inside of the foot right at the arch. I am not sure if this is due to the fact of running 6.5 miles after not running for a good 9-10 days , my new custom orthotics rubbing my feet badly, or both. Hopefully it is the first, but we shall see from future runs how my feet feel. Right now they have band-aids on them and feel fine.

Due to my lack of running, I did decide to skip the 5K race this past Saturday as I truly did not feel best prepared to run the race and did not feel like spending $20 on a race I was not prepared for.

I also have spent the past couple days catching up on my running podcasts and was sad to find out that one of my favorites in Trilogy Running appears to be have came to an end. I hope this is not true and they do continue they show as it is great listening to Shawn and Jason as their podcast is different then all of the others out there as they humor is great and they do push the envelope. This just makes their podcast even better! I will not get into the details of their leaving, but hopefully they will return.

So, the month of May ended up being a pretty bad month for me in running as I only totalled 68.3 miles (a good 45 miles less then April) bringing my year to date total up to 447.7 through 5 months. This puts me on pace to finish the year with 1,074 miles and surpassing my goal of 1,000 for 2009. I expect June to be a much better month and to once again get back to how March and April were and pass over 100 miles for the month.

I was going to go on about what I decided that I want to do for my future long term dream goal, but this blog entry is getting a little long so I will leave that for my next entry (which will not take a month to put out like this one did). How is that for suspense - LOL

Til Next Time

Run Around the Lake 12K

Hello again, oh wonderful runners!


Doctor, Doctor, Road Race, Party. This is how my week ended last week.

On Thursday, I had my check-up with my podiatrist whom confirmed that everything appears to be looking good and that he hopes to see me out on the roads. I think he is a great podiatrist (not that I have a lot of experience with them) and he also is a runner which makes him even better in my mind. He is not ever going to just say "STOP RUNNING" and I love that. In case anyone is in central Florida and wants a podiatrist whom is a runner please go see Dr Goldstein in Ocala, FL. I do not think you will be disappointed.

Friday, I had my check-up with my orthotics guy. He lengthened my orthotics to be fitter my running shoes this way there is no slippage with them and they will be as comfortable as possible. I have yet to run in them as I have still been trying to slowly break them in (and he did not want me to run in them for the first week). I will probably be trying them on a short run or on my treadmill in the next day or so. He did go ahead and make another appointment for me to go back in a few weeks so he can monitor how my wear is on them. He seems to really know what he is doing and is very thorough about it. (He also was recommended to me by Dr Goldstein which makes me like him even more).

Friday evening I went to my friend Grant's house in Clermont as we had our race on Saturday morning. He had a few people over and his wife and him made up some good spaghetti with homemade meatballs and a nice salad to go along with it

Saturday Morning came and we arrived at Waterfront Park at Lake Mineola in Clermont, FL for the race right around 7am. There were 2 races that day both starting at 7:30 (The Run Around the Lake 12K & 5K). This was a smaller event with about 180 running in the 12K and only about 70 or so in the 5K. Of my group of friends, I was running the 12K, and everyone else was running the 5K. They started both races at the same time though so it made it nice for us all waiting for the race to start. The race started pretty much on time, however, we were lined up near the back and did not even know that someone had talked (must have been very quietly) and all of a sudden a gun went off to start the race. About a half mile into the race the 5K and 12K courses split off. The 12K course was one long loop around the entire lake.

I felt pretty good throughout the entire race, except from mile 4 to mile 5 i had a nasty little side stitch but I just kept going and ran through it. There were 5 water stops along the way, and I made sure to take water from each of them as it was getting pretty warm out. I ran consistent throughout the entire race finishing each mile in a range from 8:20-8:50. I was really booking it the last two tenths of a mile and overtook 2 women who were ahead of me for the entire race. According to my timing chip, my official time was 1:03:59 for an average pace of 8:34 per mile for the 7.4 mile race. After the race I was exhausted and drank a good amount of water before going out to Cracker Barrel for breakfast with the rest of the Central Florida 5Klub. As you can see from the pictures I was very tired and worn out after the race, not leaving much of anything out on the course, hence the basketball in the picture that they shot hoops with while waiting for me to finish (while everyone else had a good 30-45 min to relax before their group photo, I had like 2 minutes to recover)

.

After breakfast, I went back to my friends house and got cleaned up before heading to my parent's house for my youngest son's 1st birthday party. The party was very nice and everyone seemed to have a really good time. Ben got his own little cake and loved getting to eat it and make a mess. We finally got home around 8ish and everyone was exhausted from the long day. (I was told by my wife however, that I am no longer allowed to run a race on my sons' birthdays :) That I need to be there to help her get ready for them)

Overall it was a good day, I ran well and was very pleased with my time and the birthday party seemed to go excellent and everyone there appeared to enjoy themselves.

Next Race - The Ocala Grace Race 5K - May 30th - anyone who wants to come out and run with the 5Klub is welcome!

Til Next Time

It's Been a While

Hello All You Runners Out There (Non Runners are welcome too)

So, It has been a while since I last updated you all. Any of you following me on Twitter you may have been able to keep a little more current on me, but for the rest of you, I will try and update you now.

So, I finally made it in for my fitting for my semi rigid orthotics. As soon as I started taking my shoes off the man says "Man, you have some flat feet" LOL. The casting process was interesting. I was expecting to have to stand in something to make a mold of my feet, but he did not do this. The casting was actually made by using some fiberglass casting tape. I never knew that there was such a thing (but then again, I've never broke any bone and never needed a cast).

I get to go back on Friday the 24th to pick up my orthotics and hopefully they will be great for my feet and help to end any foot or ankle pains I may have been getting.

My training has been going pretty decent lately. I have been logging close to 30 miles a week and my heart rate has even been lower when running the same routes at the same pace as I did in the past.

In two weeks (May 2nd - my son's 1 year birthday) I will be running in the Cleremont Run Around the Lake 12K. Once that run is over I will be heading back home for Ben's 1st birthday party. This should be a fun, busy day. (I bet I'll sleep good that night).

Well, that will end this short update and I will let you all know how my orthotics are doing once I receive them. Again, if for some reason you would like more current update please feel free to follow me on Twitter. My Twitter ID is crazyrunner and you can follow me at this link. Click Here to Follow me


Til Next Time

Bad Feet, Good Run ?

Hellllllllooooooooooooo Nurse! (Animaniacs flashback there)


So..... I had my doctors appointment with the podiatrist this week. The doc said that i have EXTREMELY flat feet, and said that my foot is what they call a "Z Foot". This basically means that my foot goes one way but my toes turn off at an angle (I guess I'm a weirdo). He also said that I could possibly be in early stages of Posterior Tibial Tendinitis, so he wants to see me again in a month. Before leaving he did write me a prescription for some Semi Rigid Custom Orthotics and said that they would benefit me GREATLY. The earliest appointment I was able to set was for Monday, March 13th. He said if I am having any problems in the meantime to continue with my goof friends Advil and Ice. He did say I could go pick up a pair of regular orthotics from a store like Foot Locker or something but they honestly will not do much of anything for me as they are made for people with "normal feet" and that I do NOT have "normal feet". (Didn't we already know that nothing about me was normal?) So, hopefully I should end up receiving my orthotics somewhere around the 20th and that can help me feel better and prevent the problem from getting worse.

Despite the pain, I had a 5K race race scheduled for Saturday (today). With the pain I had been feeling in my feet all week and any regular training runs I had this week resulting in sub par times, I was not expecting the greatest of results.

So, my running group, the 5Klub had a new member join today as my mom completed her first ever 5K event, the Fruitland Park Day 5K.

This was a smaller event that did not have online registartion, so we all opted to register on race day instead of mailing it in. The registration process was slow and did not feel the most organized (probably not the best start to my moms first ever race). But eventually we all were registed and were ready for the race to begin.

At 8am the gun went off and the field of only 125 was starting. Again, I was expecting to run the race in a time of somewhere around 26-27 minutes due to my injury problem. As it turned out though, my foot felt good the entire race and I crossed the finish line in a time of 23:12, setting a new P.R. and finishing in 15th place!!!

After finishing, I took a small cup of water and then turned around to go back onto the course and meet up with my mom and finish the race with her. When I got up to her, she had roughly 1 mile left to go. We crossed the finishline together, as my mom finished her first ever race in a time of 51:17 (I think that was her time).

Counting my mom, 4 members of the 5Klub ran in this race and 3 of us set PRs (the 4th member was only 63 seconds off of his PR). The other cool thing was I got 2nd in my age group and got a silver medal, while 2 of the other members received gold and bronze medals. With this rarity happening for us, we posed for an "Olympic Podium" picture and were then off to Bob Evans for a nice big traditional post race breakfast for all of us.

It is nice to know that one can set a PR in the same week as having foot problems and bad training. I guess this was a pretty good day



Us in our Olympic Medal Podium Picture (Steven-Gold, Me-Silver, Grant-Bronze)

Olympic Podium picture with me and Grant giving tribute to the 1968 Black Power Salute Protest

Me and my mom after the completion of the Fruitland Park Day 5K

It's the Best Month Ever

Hello all my faithful readers (all 3 of you)

Well............... another month has come to an end, and the month of March was a good month for me. Yes the month of March was my most productive month of running yet to date. I finished March with 117.7 miles which is 25.5 more miles then I ran in February! This just gets me singing "The Best Day Ever" from Spongebob Squarepants but replacing Day with Month (yeah, I know I'm a dork, but hey, I have a nearly 4 year old son that loves to watch "Bob Bob" as he says.

Well not a lot has been going on for me since my trip to Cincinnati (hence the amount of time since my last blog post). I have just been trying to stay consistent. I try each week to log right around 30 miles, keep up with my "family" of runners with their blogs and podcasts, and do not forget keep up with my real family also.

I do have a 5K race scheduled for this coming Saturday as I will be running in the Fruitland Park Days 5K. This will be a memorable race for me because it will be the first EVER 5K that my mother will do! I am happy to see that she is getting out there (now if only I can get my dear wife to join me out there, life would be super stellar!) and I will do what I can to make this a successful event for her. I plan on circling back to get her and finish with her after I complete the race.

My feet and ankles have been bothering me lately and I am not sure what it is. I did recently get a new pair of Asics 2130 shoes, but that already is the type of shoe that I had been wearing so I don't see how it could be this. The right foot is hurting the most right around the arch area (what little I have - I have pretty flat feet) and it also hurts above the ankle bone. Actually both feet have been bad, but my right foot is the worst. Normally, when I am out on a run now, my feet are killing me for like the first 15-20 minutes, then after that there appears to be no pain (or it just feels that way cause it has died down so much). I also am not sure why the pain would go away like this once my run is getting established. If anyone has any thoughts on this please let me know. It is not a horrible pain, as it is tolerable, but to be safe, I have an appointment with a podiatrist this afternoon to try and find out what exactly the problem is, and hopefully take care of it before it gets even worse.

I also am excited that this weekend brings the beginning of the MLB season as I am ready to watch my Chicago White Sox play and defend their title as AL Central Champions! Sadly, the Gators basketball season came to and end with a loss in the Elite 8 of the NIT Tournament, but at least Billy Donovan said he is staying at Florida as he turned down Kentucky once again. Also, our best player in Nick Calathes stated that he is entering the NBA Draft, but he is not hiring an agent. Hopefully he will realize he needs a little more work before the NBA and come back for 1 more year. The basketball season ended and the very next day was the first day of Spring Football for the Florida Gators as they start to prepare for their season as they try to go to Pasadena and REPEAT as National Champions!!

Well.......that is enough of me babbling for now.

One last thing, anyone else out there who is into running podcasts please go on over to the Buckeye Outdoors website and join the There Can Be Only One challenge to support your favorite running podcast. This is a challenge where each month they will eliminate podcasts with the least amount of miles logged for them until eventually there is only 1 ULTIMATE podcast left standing. I currently am on the team of 4 Feet Running under my Buckeye account of itisshaggy. Hope to see you all there!

Various Photos From Cincinnati

Where I went each night After a Long Day

The real reason for the trip (Work)

Practice field for the Cincinnati Bengals

Paul Brown Stadium (home of the Cincinnati Bengals)

Leaving Ohio and Entering Kentucky on a run

Same Run, leaving Kentucky and coming back to Ohio

Paul Brown Stadium from across the Ohio River

Great American Ballpark and US Bank Arena across the river

more of Great American Ballpark (hey, I love baseball and it's my companies park)

across the river and under a bridge

view at night of Fountain Square

picture taken from the "Purple People Bridge"

looking over the river at Kentucky

look at Frank Robinson swing that bat

Joe Nuxhall sure was an icon in Cincinnati

another view of Mr Robinson

Here's the pitch................

my companies Stadium

view from across the street

Side of my hotel (The Cincinnatian Hotel - built in 1882)

Cincinnati Trip/ The Winter Park Road Race

Greetings Fellow Runners

So my week of change has came to an end. Monday morning started out with Crystal driving me to the Orlando Airport for my flight to Cincinnati. I arrived into the Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky Airport at around 1:30 where I caught my shuttle to the Cincinnatian Hotel in downtown Cincinnati. After getting checked in, I decided I would go out for a run as there was nothing planned with work for the day and the day was still early. First, I learned that it is not as easy to get signal on my Forerunner 305 the first time in Cincinnati compared to Ocala. I ventured out in an exploring mode with my camera in my pocket. First I decided to head over to Great American Ballpark(the home of the Cincinnati Reds). I found this to be a very nice stadium with some nice statues out front of some former Reds Greats. I then continued my run down to the "Purple People Bridge" which is a pedestrian only bridge that crosses over the Ohio River and into Newport, Kentucky. After going about 1.5-2.0 miles I finished crossing the bridge and arrived at Newport on the Levee. At this point I decided to take a break from my run and walk around here for a little while. I walked around here for a while then decided to catch a movie (Gran Torino - which was VERY good) before heading back towards the hotel. I ended my run at right around 6 miles. I then cleaned up and went for a burger and a beer at a local hole in the wall type Sports Bar named Rockin' Robin's which was a very good place where one can feel very comfortable.

Tuesday, I had my training class go until 5-5:30 and the I ended up going out for another run that went from Cincinnati, over the Ohio River into Newport, KY, over a bridge crossing the Vickings River into Covington, KY then a 3rd bridge coming back over the Ohio River before coming back into Cincinnati running by Paul Brown Stadium (home of the Cincinnati Bengals). On my way back towards my hotel I ended passing THOUSANDS of people walking to US Bank Arena. I ended up asking a cop that was directing traffic what was going on, and found out it was a Elton John and Billy Joel concert on their Face 2 Face tour.

Wednesday, after getting out of training a group of 10 of us went out to Nicholson's which is a great Irish/Scottish restaurant/pub. This place was awesome, the food was SUPERB!, and has a beer list that was like 10 pages long. I ended up drinking a English Pale Ale that I had never had before and it was also great (Old Speckled Hen). We then went to an ice cream place where I had some excellent Black Raspberry Chip Ice Cream. This ended up being a day full of great food and beer - all of which unfortunately I do not think I can find any of in central Florida.

Thursday, was Graduation day from my training class. Once graduation was over a group of like 10-15 of us went over to Cadillac Ranch (a local Sports Bar with a southern feel) and had some drinks. We all had a blast and a good handful of us ended up riding the mechanical bull here which I never imagined could have been so much fun!

Friday, we still had a 1/2 day of training to go to before I left to the airport to head back to Orlando. Grant picked me up from the airport, went to Olive Garden, then went back to his place as we had our 10k race in the morning.

Saturday - RACE DAY - The Winter Park Road Race - We arrived in Winter Park right around 7am for a 7:30 race start. We got our bib numbers and Chip Timers on and then settled into the field of nearly 2,000 runners. The race ended up going pretty good and I felt really good throughout. I will say that I used up some extra energy trying to maneuver through the large field of runners (largest field I have ever had in a race yet). I ended up sprinting nearly the last 0.2 miles and finished the 10K race in a time of 53:17 for a pace of 8:34 per mile. I finished in 563rd out of overall 1,911 finishers (top 29%), 392nd out of 908 male finishers (top 43%), and 50th out of 104 in my 25-29 age group (top 48%)

I will post some pictures of the trip in the next day or day as I have not had a chance to upload the photos yet.

Til Next Time

The Evil Peacocks!

Greeting Fellow Runners



Well, another month has come to and end. I ended up having my best month ever as far as total mileage ran goes. I finished the month of February with a total of 92.2 miles and honestly felt like I could have ran even more. I felt great throughtout the entire month and suffored no real injuries other then my left knee hurting a little from time to time. The month of February also included my FIRST EVER half marathon as I completed the Ocala Half Marathon in 2:14:43.



I now look forward to future PRs and record months. I will have numerous 5Ks that I plan to run thorughout this year, plus so far I know I have a 10K that I am running on March 14 (Winter Park Road Race), the Jacksonville Marine Corps Half Marathon on October 3, and my FIRST EVER full marathon on January 10, 2010 - Man, am I anxiously awaiting that day.





To start the month of March, I went out for a 8 mile run. I decided to switch up my route for a little variety and turned down some roads that I had never been on before (by foot NOR by car). I ended up turning down some old abandoned looking dirt road that was very peaceful. However, after getting about a half mile down theis road I look ahead and what do my wandering eyes see? 3 Peacocks standing in the middle of the road! (I later found out they were peahens as they were females - thank you google) These birds were just staring at me as I approached with caution, and man did they look EVIL. I have very limited knowledge on peacocks and did not know if they were mean, agressive animals or not. So I proceeded with caution and VERY SLOWLY passed them and kept going. They did come towards me a little bit, but I did not give them a chance to get any closer then necessary. Apparently this road ended about a quarter mile later and I had to turn around and come back by them again. They were still there and I repeated doing the same thing as before. Ended up being a nice little comfortable run of 8.11 miles in 1:16:32 for a pace of about 9:25 per mile. I also did receive my book in the mail yesterday (Marathon: The Ultimate Training Guide by Hal Higdon) I read the introduction last nice and found what little I have read so far to be good. Now let's just hope the rest of the book is as good or better.



Next week, I will not be home as work will take me to Cincinnati for the week, then I come back and have my 10k on Saturday immediatly after getting back in Florida. I am looking forward to the trip as I think it should be a fun, interesting experiance (Sorry Crystal for leaving you alone with the circus). I plan on doing some nice runs while there, and for the first time ever I should be able to go for ONE run in TWO states as I cross the border into Kentucky on a run.

ALSO - I just wanted to let everyone know that I have decided to join TEAM WORLD VISION. If anyone is interested in helping me raise money, please visit my fundraising page at
http://www.firstgiving.com/thecrazyrunner Any donation would be greatly appreciated as this is a great way to help children around the world.

Well, that will bring today's rambling to an end.



Til Next Time

Another week down.............

Greetings Fellow Runners (I really do owe a thanks to Steve Runner of Phedippidations a big thanks for the opening)

So, another week of February has went by and my consistency for the month continues. I finished the week with a total mileage of 23.64. Now, my mileage for each week in February is: 23.65, 23.51, and 23.64. This brings my total for the month to 70.8 with 6 days left in the month. Also, my year to date total is now at 127.9 as I am on my way towards my goal of running 1,000 miles in 2009.





I also ordered a new book today, which will be my first ever running book and I think my first ever non fiction book (other than a college textbook). I ordered the 3rd edition of Marathon: The Ultimate Training Guide by Hal Higdon. I am hoping this book will help prepare me for my first full marathon in January 2010 at the Disney Marathon. This also should help, because I was already planning on using one of Hal Higdon's marathon training plans prior to ordering this book. If anyone else has any advise for me on this ventured, I would love to hear it.





In my podcast listening I have finally caught up. I have now listened to EVERY episode of Phedippidations, 4 Feet Running, Running To Disney, and The Runners Round Table. Now it is on to both Trilogy Running and Running From The Reaper. Unfortunately, Running From The Reaper only goes back as far as episode 79 on iTunes. So if anyone knows where one could obtain episodes 1-78, please advise.

Well hopefully I will end the month on a positive note, and I SHOULD end the month with my highest running total yet.


Til Next Time

Short Update

Greetings Fellow Runners

Well February is half gone now, and my running has been pretty decent and very consistent so far.

So far for the month I am at 47.2 miles with 8 runs. Each of the 2 weeks have been 1) 23.65 miles and 2) 23.51 miles. This puts me on pace for 94 miles for the month, which would be the most I have ever ran in a month. So far for the year I am at 104.3 miles, which is behind on my goal of 1,000 for the year - BUT I WILL CATCH UP!!

I would like to give to shout out and thanks to Nik and Dan over at 4 Feet Running. On their recent episode of their podcast (Episode 54) they read from my Ocala Half Marathon race report and put a link to my blog in their show notes at www.4feetrunning.blogspot.com. In case you are unfamiliar with Nik and Dan or 4 Feet Running, they are a husband and wife who produce their own running podcast. Their show is great show. The 2 of them are hilarious and there show is very entertaining while also adding insight into the sport of running. If you have not already, I highly recommend that you head over to http://4feetrunning.blogspot.com/ and check out the blog and podcast OR go to iTunes and subscribe to their podcast there - You will not be disappointed!

Well after recently talking to my friends in Tennessee and finding out that they are both planning on running their first ever full marathon in January at the Disney Marathon, I have decided that I too will join them and also attempt to run my first ever full marathon.

If anyone has any training tips or advice for me on my first ever marathon please do not hesitate to let me know.



Well all, that will do it for this entry as I will keep you updated on future training and events.

Til Next Time

Ocala Half Marathon - "You Can't Take Away My Dignity"

Greetings Fellow Runners

So, I ran my FIRST EVER half marathon on Sunday morning.

On Saturday afternoon, me and the family went up to the Ocala Hilton and picked up my packet with my bib and timing chip. While there, we checked out the SMALL expo that was set up. There really was not a lot to it. I did however pick up another pack of Sport Beans and purchased a pair of Lock Laces. I will say these are nice as now I no longer need to worry about my laces comming undone (which was a major issue with my Asics 2130's - I love these shoes but the laces are horrible!)

I started my morning on Sunday waking up around 5 and with getting ready and driving there, I arrived to the race around 6:30am. I met Grant there who was registered for the 5K that morning. It was cold as could be there (for FL standards anways) as it was only 30 degrees! The Full Marathon was to start at 7, the half at 7:15, and the 5K at 7:30. This is a small town still as there were like 80 people running the full, 225 running the half, and something like 150 or so running the 5K.

The race started pretty much right on time and I was off and running. I finished mile 1 in 8:49, which was to fast of a pace. At about 1.8 miles in (according to my Garmin) I was passing a lady who was listening to her iPod and singing along to it. Actually, it was more like she was belting it out then singing it - it must be nice to have that kind of lung capacity! As i got up to her she was singing Whitney as I heard her singing "I believe the children are the future........" I kept on going and tried to not laugh as I did not want to use extra energy. After having passed her and was a good tenth of a mile beyond her I could STILL HEAR HER singing "....YOU CAN'T TAKE AWAY MY DIGNITY!" I reached the 5K mark in about 28 minutes and was feeling great! I was feeling great still, even though the ENTIRE 4th mile was completely UPHILL! Despite the hill, I kept going at a steady pace and reached the 10k mark in around 57 minutes. At this point I had to go to the bathroom. I will leave out any details for your benefit, and just state that going to the bathroom when you are cold is not a very pleasent thing.

About 8 miles in or so, my stomach started feeling "not so good" Finally around the 10 mile mark, I stopped and attempted to go to the bathroom and "remove" the problem. However I did not want to sit long and nothing felt like it was moving. So, I decided to forget about it and keep going and just deal with the unpleasent feeling. This however was the point where my run went downhill. From this point on I completed every remaining mile in a good 11 minutes or worse. At around the 11.5 mile mark I added a pain in my right hip to my already ailing stomach. I ended up reaching the 12 mile mark pretty much right at 2 hours, which was my goal upon starting the race. This was demoralizing as I had done better than this in preparation. I ended up finishing my 13.1 mile course in a time of 2:14:43 and finished in 173rd out of 225 runners. Not at all as good as I wanted to do, but I could not complain as it was my first ever half marathon, it was not to far off of the goal I had set for myself of somewhere between 2:00 and 2:10, and all the problems that I encountered on the way.

I will say that this was a gorgeous course, especially for anyone not familliar with the area. The course was filled with nice hills and horse farm after horse farm where there were even horses out galloping in the farms. I will say it was a great feeling finishing the race and getting presented with my finishers medal. I will definitely do this run again, and hopefully I can get Grant to stick to his guns and run it with me next year like he said he might do.

So to any runners out there that want to compete in a small, yet very well organized course, with super volunteers (they were even giving out Twizzlers!), and a beautiful surroundings, I recommend you try out the Ocala Marathon or Half Marathon.

Til Next Time

Thank God For My Garmin!

Greetings Fellow Runners

Well last night I went out for my final long run before my half marathon. I ended up running 11.26 miles in 1:59:53 (10:38 pace/mile). I went at not the greatest speed, but there is some reason for this.

I went out for my normal long run, while Crystal took the kids to the park by our house. Everything was going good on the run, and I felt as though I was off to an excellent start. A little over 3 miles in I was approaching the park that the family was at, and what do ya know, I see my car pulling out of the park and on their way home (even though she didn't see me coming in the opposite direction).

I then went on with my run up to the animal shelter and circle around there and started to head home. At this point it was starting to get dark and this is where I realized that I had forgotten my running light. A little bit more into my run, I decided to change things up a little bit and turn onto a road that I do not normally run on. As it turns out, this may normally not be a bad idea, but it is when it is pitch black out and I forgot my light. I thought I was doing good going around this little circle and would then turn onto the road that brought me right back to my normal path. As it turns out, I AM BLIND! LOL Somehow I passed by the turn that I wanted to make, ran the entire circle AND some and that is when I thought I was at the right spot in the circle to turn (actually I was just 1 road from where I got onto it at) This road led me a little off coarse (which I was not aware of at the time). A little bit on this road and I knew there was a problem as I am not normally on this road for this long. I now was lost, in the dark on foot and had already completed a good 8 miles of running. After running slowly from road to road trying to read the road signs in the dark (which does do much good when every single road was named Juniper Rd, Juniper Dr, Juniper Loop, etc) not sure of which road I was to turn down, I knew this could end up bad. Then, it hit me my Garmin Forerunner 305 (recently purchased) has a map feature on it that shows where I have ran. I was able to use this feature to eventually lead me back to the normal path and give me a good sense of relief. Of course at this point I was already exhausted and still was about 2 miles or so away from my house (apparently being lost uses up a LOT more energy then a normal run)

I eventually made my way back home and completed the course. I do now have a nice blister on my right foot and just hope to death that it does not bother me in my half marathon and my pursuit of breaking 2 hours.

Moral of the story DO NOT forget your light when running in the dark (especially in the shores)

Final Run Stats

Distance - 11.26 miles
Time - 1:59:53
Avg Heart Rate - 157 BPM
Max Heart Rate - 174 BPM
Calories Burned - 1,246
Avg Pace Per Mile - 10:38
Temperature during run - 70.7 - 71.6
Elevation Gained - 2,142 Ft