Tuesday, May 5, 2009

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)
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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