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

Daytona 5K

Greetings Fellow Runners

Well.................I completed the Daytona 5K this Saturday and was OK with the results. I finished the race in 128th out of 533 runners in a time of 24:38 which equals out to a pace of 7:56 per mile. I've done better and worse as I think this was my 5th best time of the 14 runs I have done. Last year I finished this same race in 27:11 so that is like a 2:27 improvement.

I had went out to Grant's basketball games on the night before. Those games didn't end til pretty late and then we hit Steak N Sheak afterwards. (Nothing like eating Steak N Shake like 7 hours before a 5K race - LOL). Anyways, by the time we got back to his house and got to sleep it was right around 1am. Might I remind everyone that we had to be up by 4am to get ready and drive to Daytona. (Nothing like 3 hours sleep the night before race day!) We had to leave a little early because Grant missed the registration deadline for the run and had to register at the speedway itself. It was pretty cold waiting for the race to start (by Florida standards that is) so we were both in running pants instead of shorts. At just around 7am the National Anthem was sung and then it was time for the starting gun!

The first mile of this race takes place primarly in the pit area of the speedway. At the 1 mile mark I was in at a time of 7:53 and decided to skip the water station. We were now onto the main track of the speedway where everyone (for obvious reasons) runs at the base of the track instead of on the huge banks of the speedway which are 18 degrees on front stretch, 31 degrees on the turns and 3 degrees on the back stretch. I finished mile 2 in 7:57 bringing my 2 mile time to 15:50. The third mile was more of the same as I finished it in 7:56. Which is a 23:26 total time. I then sped up for the final 0.1 miles and finished in a total time of 24:38.

Funniest part of the race - bugging Grant because he got beat by an 80 year old woman!! (even though to be honest that woman was AWESOME. I hope when I am 80 I can run like she can. She completed the 5K in a little over 30 minutes)

Best achievement of race - Kept good steady pace throught the entire race. Most consistent all 3 of my miles have EVER been. ALSO, I was glad to pass the guy who was directly in front of me and in my tracks for the entire race in the last tenth of a mile.

Worst part of the race - The Tram ride from the parking area to the starting point of the race. MAN was this cold that wind was horrible hitting you in a tram going down Dayton International Speedway!!

Overall, the race was a good experiance yet again. I now prepare as I have my half marathon this comming Sunday.

Hopefully after that run I can give just as happy of a race report.

Til next time

Long time no blog (again)

Greetings Fellow Runners

Long time no talk to! I have just not been able to blog lately so I apologize if for any long delays in between blogs.

I have had a lot of distractions keeping me from blogging lately between tons of construction repairs going on with our roof at work and a week of jury duty serving on a murder trial just to name a couple of them

All of this should be over now and hopefully I can start to get back to a normal blog.

I just ordered my new gadget yesterday that I am so anxiously awaiting the arrival of. I finally will be getting my Garmin Forerunner 305!!!!! I am so excited - It should arrive on Wednesday! This will get me it in time before both my Daytona 5K this upcomming Saturday and my Ocala Half Marathon just 8 days after the Daytona race!

I have still been getting in SOME running lately but not nearly the amount that I have wanted to get in. So far for the month of January I am at a total of 30.0 miles. My goal for the year is 1,000 miles which equates to 83.33 miles per month or about 2.7 miles per day. So through 18 days I SHOULD be at 48.38 miles to be on pace for my goal (So as of right now I am currently 18.38 Miles behind pace). I plan on getting a long run in tomorrow though and that should help me catch up a little bit.

So, at least I am consistent ( I am behind in my running AND my blogging). But, hopefully my new toy will get me going a good amount more with some new excitement to add to my runs and some new things to blog about as I have a busy couple of weeks coming up as far as my running schedule goes.

Til Next time