Sunday, March 15, 2009

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

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