Durbin Classic

My left foot has been bothering me all week, but yesterday I decided to test it and test my speed.  Jess, Chuck, and I met Jonathon and Ian for the Durbin Classic 5k.  It was about 34 degrees with a slight breeze from the south which just made it feel colder.  I had noticed in the past that the winning times for the 5k were just faster than 20 minutes, so I had planned to run somewhere around 21 - 21:30 and come in the top 3 or 4.

What pre-race jitters?

I made my way to the front of the group and started right behind a group of guys and about 10 kids under the age of 15.  I figured out right away, with the race being for the benefit of the Durbin Elementary School, that these kids were going to go out hard and have fun.  And I was right.  Gotta give them credit - many of them stayed up there for the first half to 3/4 miles.

About that time, four of us guys took off.  The race had both a 5k and 10k and I had no idea who was running which race.  The overall leader took off - he must have been running just over 6 minute mile pace.  After a mile or so, I made my way up to second place after running the first mile in 6:26.  Then the breeze kicked me.

My second mile dropped to almost 6:40 and I was sucking that cold air hard.  Just after the second mile marker, someone passed me and I could tell another guy was on his way.  That was about the time I could see the school and the race finish in the distance and it set in that nobody else was going to pass me.

I kept the second place guy in my sights and then made my move in the last quarter mile.  With just a couple hundred meters to go, I passed him and strided out to the finish.  It was at that point that I found out the guy who was in overall first was running the 10k - which meant I had just won the 5k in 20:27!

Striding hard to the finish

I went back to the course and cheered everyone else along.  I saw Jess and Chuck coming down the road.  I ran with Jess the last little bit, and while trying to provide inspiration to help her to the finish line, she essentially told me off.  She told me she had nothing left in the tank.  However, what she didn't know until later was that she had ran some of that second mile at a pace faster than she has done before (thanks Chuck!) so it made sense.  When all was said and done, she had actually ran a new PR in a time of 31:54!

Jess and me after the race

Not too bad for either of us, considering we only got about 5.5 hours of sleep after staying up for the entire IU game the night before.

Left, right, repeat

Selection Sunday and Running Ramblings

Today is a big day if you like college basketball - we are about 4 hours away from Selection Sunday announcements.  Being a fan of the Indiana Hoosiers, I am keeping my fingers crossed that we get a 4 seed in the Midwest, but time will tell.  All I can say is that this year's tournament is going to be a blast.  There are a couple teams right now playing as well as anyone, but really there are 15-20 teams that have a chance of winning it all.  I believe my brackets will be toast by the evening games on Thursday.

Jess has been creating a revolution with LA Fitness to get Sunday kids club hours at our location (if you are a LA Fitness member, please call the Noblesville, IN location at 317-774-0900 and tell them you want Sunday kids club hours!).  It would be nice to be able to do some of the classes on Sundays, but having children makes that difficult.  Today we split up the morning - I got to the gym right as it opened at 8 am and got 10 miles in on the treadmill, and Jess brought the girls at 9:30 to trade off so she could go to a Pilates class.  It worked, but that lost hour from the time change last night is really taking its toll on me as the day goes on.  My foot felt weak early on, but after ten minutes of running it felt fine and the rest of the run was no problem.  Think I may have to be a little more proactive with my foot stretching and warming up.

Anyway, after today I have now logged roughly 54 miles for the month.  In January and February I averaged around 83 miles per month, so I am way ahead of where I was the first two months of the year and all I can see is a big ole' "100 miles" waiting ahead.  I am also now 24 miles ahead of my pace for 1000 for the year.  I figured as the weather turned nicer, and once I started getting longer weekend runs, that the mileage would increase.  Still gotta keep the focus, understanding that I am very lazy in November and December, so I have to rack up the miles while I can before then.

Left, right, repeat