Seven Mile Bridge Run - April 25 2009 - 39:13

This past weekend my favorite race took place. I have had a nagging Achilles pain that has not let me train and has been very frustrating so I took two weeks off to try to be healthy for this race. However, it appears that two weeks wasn't enough.

The race, as always, was beautiful...running that bridge feeling like you own it and seeing the spectacular view on both sides is very inspiring. I took off very relaxed not wanting to kill myself. But, I found out that I had taken off a bit quickly after passing the first mile. "5:20" shouted the lady standing on Mile marker one, I slowed down a bit after hearing that because I new I would later pay for it if I continued at that pace.

And so I kept pushing and felt my Achilles was not healed and was bugging me as I ran. Either way, I just kept going - I know, bad idea.

I passed the 10k mark at 35:30 which I again was surprised by because I was definitely not expecting to run this fast considering the lack of training. I must say though that we had a tail wind on our backs which I think explains the fast time. I finished in 39:13, I could have pushed a bit more and broken the 39 mark but I could feel my achilles was hurting so I decided to tone it down a bit at the end.

I was happy to have won my age since I got the special 7 onyx figure which I have won the past 3 years. My splits were as follows:

Mile 1 -> 5:20
Mile 2 -> 5:36
Mile 3 -> 5:57
Mile 4 -> 5:49
Mile 5 -> 5:47
Mile 6 -> 6:06
Mile 7 (.8) -> 4:40



Now, I will take time off until I completely heal, so it might be a while before I write again...

Catching up...

I was looking at other friend's blog's and noticed it had been a while since mine had been updated. I have ran some races since my last report but the last few weeks have been somewhat disappointing. I have developed a pain in my left Achilles tendon which has forced me to stop running for about two weeks!

However, I will head to Marathon, Fl later today to run the 7 Mile Bridge run on Saturday. I have absolutely no expectation whatsoever, just hoping to be able to finish and leave it all out at that bridge.

Some recent results:

ING Georgia half-marathon: 1:20:20
Cooper River Bridge Run: 36:40

A1A Fort Lauderdale Marathon - February 22 2009 - 2:52:48

So after running a decent 5k at Tropical - 17:10 -, running the ING Marathon with Anna and running another 5k at Nova, it was time to run a marathon. I had decided to run the A1A after pulling that muscle back in January and feeling that I wouldn't be well prepared for ING Miami.

My training for this race was pretty solid even though I still felt that I could have done a better job by doing more speed work and training more with Jonathan. Either way I felt that I was in much better shape than in November when I ran NYC Marathon.

The night prior to the marathon was a bit of a fiasco due to a lack of planning on my side. I did not sleep as well as I would have wanted but waking up the morning of the race was not hard and I didn't feel any lack of sleep - I slept about 3 hours. Anyways, race morning came and I was feeling great, I had everything organized had eaten breakfast, gone to the bathroom, drank plenty of liquids.

Headed to the start and saw plenty of friends who were running the Half. Jeffrey was running the half and shooting to run a 1:25 which was right around what I wanted to pass the half point. Therefore, he wanted to pace with me so we both started the run together. We started running the first miles averaging 6:30 pace which felt fairly comfortable. The only thing was that my legs did not feel fresh, they felt tired and somewhat sluggish. At about mile 8, the half and the full split off and I was running alone with only two runners in sight by about a minute or so. My stomach had not been feeling great since the first mile and I was feeling the need to go to the bathroom....I could not take it any longer so at mile 10 I had to make the stop and go to the porta-potties. It was a quick stop. I felt better after going to the bathroom but still did not feel great.

I crossed the half point at 1:25:54 and was already feeling tight and was starting to get worried since this wasn't a good sign. I knew I had to be mentally strong and keep pushing miles 15 and 16 didn't feel great either. However, after mile 16 I got got some sort of energy boost and began feeling better and running smoother. This lasted until about mile 20 were my legs began to tighten once again. However I was able to remain close to the pace until about mile 24 were I was breaking up. The last two miles were tough and painful, I ran them in 7:04 and 7:16 and finished 7th overall in a time of 2h 52m and 48 s for a personal best.

Marathon Splits:
First Half: 1:25:54
Second Half: 1:26:54

I was satisfied with my performance even though it didn't feel like I ran a great race.

With Anita after the ING Marathon.



















Hellians at Sallarulo's 5k