Normally the Black Hills are a runner's paradise - once you get over the elevation and hilly terrain - with cool summer temps and downright cold weather at night. Not this summer! It seemed like the temperature did not reach 80-90 degrees only a few days throughout the whole summer! That made daytime workouts tough, but luckily I was able to get quite a bit of quality morning and evening training time in.
Here is a recap of my racing from last Spring through the summer:
On Saturday, April 7 I ran the Missouri Valley Christian Academy Race for Christ 10k on the bike trails in Yankton. It is a small fundraiser for a local Christian school and was the first official 10k road race that I have ever entered. The race went over the Meridian Bridge before going out and back on the Brokaw Trail through Yankton. It was extremely windy on this day, but I took an early lead and just pressed on as hard as I could until the turn-around point. I ended up winning by quite a bit with clocking of 38:15 - a PR since it was my first 10k :)
I was planning on running the 5k at the Sioux City Relays on Saturday, April 14. I was pretty excited since I was almost sure I would get a PR and hadn't raced on the track in 2 years. Unfortunately severe weather moved in about an hour before the race and the meet was cancelled.
Saturday, April 21 saw me compete in my second ever Steeplechase event at the Northwestern Invite in Orange City. I felt horrible throughout the race, had no rhythm, and barely got over water pit barrier on most laps. I had never so badly wanted to drop out of a race but I wouldn't let myself quit and finished. Not even sure what my time was.... but I know it wasn't good!
On Friday, April 27 I drove to Brookings EARLY in the morning to run the Arbor Day 5k. This race is the first of the year for the Brookings-based Prairie Striders Running Club yearly calendar. The PSRC does something really neat by tracking results from all of the races that they sponsor and assigning points based on your finish. Then, if you run at least three of their races, you are eligible for year-end prizes. I decided that I wanted to run as many of these races as possible in 2012 so I drove up to run it.
I finished in 19:00 on an windy and cold morning (one thing I learned from my year at SDSU is that the wind can really blow in Brookings - especially around that campus which is on the edge of town!). This got me second place overall, behind the biggest runner I've ever seen! The guy who won had to be at least 6-7 or taller! He had just run the Boston Marathon the week previously so I guess beating me in a little 5k was his cooldown :)
The next day, Saturday, April 28 I competed in the RiverRat 1/2 Marathon in Yankton for the second year in a row. Usually I wouldn't recommend running a 1/2 the day after a hard 5k but I went into this race treating it as a long run/tempo workout. Well, that plan went out the window as soon as I found myself out front all alone about a mile into the race.
I stayed alone out front until mile six, when another runner caught me and ran in my footprints for the next 4 miles, until he took off and left me. It ended up being Bruce Allen, a talented runner from Flandreau who I recognized from previous races. Bruce had a strong push to the finish and won by about 90 seconds. I ended up in second, in 1:23:43, a new PR. After talking with Bruce I found out that he too had just run Boston the week before! I didn't feel so bad then considering I had just run a hard race the day before and he had a full winter of marathon training to fall back on.
The second week in May was a little bit crazy with lots of packing, traveling, and running. Once again I ran a 5k the day before a half-marathon. Friday, May 11th saw me travel up to Brookings to run the Scotty Roberts 5k, part of the Prairie Striders series. I did my best to "jog" through the race since I was running the Brookings 1/2 the next morning but my competitive side took over and I ended up pushing to a 4th place finish in 18:16. Some family camp friends, the Abrahams were gracious enough to let me sleep in their basement Friday night in preparation for the Saturday 1/2.
Saturday, May 12th brought the annual Brookings Marathon and Half-Marathon. I have never competed or witnessed this event but it annually gets rave reviews online from participants. Not to mention, my college coach, Randy Fischer, was 5-time winner of the Brookings Marathon and still holds the race record from 1979!
It was a perfect chilly morning to race. My hands were numb the first few miles and then in gradually warmed up but never got too hot. I felt great the first 5 or 6 miles, then miles 7-11 were a bit of a struggle but I felt great again the last couple miles on the way to the finish. I ended up finishing 5th in 1:23:24.... another new PR, 19 seconds faster than I ran the RiverRat race 14 days earlier. It was an interesting race for me as I settled into the 5th position about a half-mile into the race and eventually by about mile 3 there was so much distance between the runners ahead of me and behind me that I did not see any other competitors the entire rest of the race. The fan support was great however; lots of cow bells! I can see why this race gets such great reviews. The organization and support and volunteers were all superb. I definitely want to go back and run the marathon in the near future.
I ended up seeing quite a few people that I knew following the race so it was fun to chat with them and wait for the awards ceremony. Then I got in my car and made the 6+ hour trip from Brookings to Custer to get to camp just in time for supper :)
On Sunday, June 3rd I returned to the site of my worst running experience, the Deadwood Marathon. This was my first, and only to date, marathon experience and it went pretty horribly. I ran the 1/2 instead this year, which starts at the halfway point of the marathon and let's just say that I experienced 13 miles of race course that I had almost no memory of from the year before. I was a little more lucid this time around!
 |
| The majority of the Deadwood race is on the crushed-gravel Mickelson Trail. It is a beautiful course lined with pines, aspens, and birch trees. |
The 1/2 course is mostly downhill and flat with a little uphill mixed in towards the middle of the race. I ended up running alongside another runner that I was visiting with (really, it's pretty easy to visit at half-marathon pace compared to shorter interval training) and got in a little over my head for the uphill section. I backed off but then felt much stronger towards the end and finished in 9th overall (out of over 1900 runners) with a clocking of 1:23:16.... my third consecutive PR, this time by a whopping 8 seconds!
 |
| Randy and Andy Fett, friends from family camp, also ran the Deadwood Half in preparation for Grandma's Marathon a few weeks later. |
Following Deadwood, my third half-marathon in 5 weeks, my legs got a nice break as I just logged some easy training runs near camp with a couple of runs up Harney Peak mixed in. On Saturday, July 14th, I traveled to Spearfish to run the Spearfish Canyon Half-Marathon for the second consecutive year. A couple of other friends from camp also competed in the race following their week at family camp.
We ended up running late, as I usually am when it comes to getting to races, and we got to the start line BARELY before the race began. At the start it was already around 80 degrees and rising. Of course, I forgot to pack a short sleeve running shirt so like a champion I put on my long sleeve Irishman technical t-shirt and got my sweat on.
 |
| It was about 85 degrees by this point, and I was perspiring pretty heavily in my long sleeve shirt :) |
 |
| Outlaw crew post-race |
At this point there was only one more race that I had my eye on, the Custer Gold Discovery Days 5k. It fell on Sunday, July 29th this year. Last year it was the day after the Spearfish 1/2 and my legs were absolutely shot as I finished runner-up to someone that I knew I should have beaten.
This year was also less than ideal as I came back to SF to attend the Joe Walsh concert at JazzFest on Saturday night with some friends from camp. We left for Custer about 12:30am Sunday morning and got back to camp around 6. I took an hour nap, the only sleep I had in a 24-hour stretch and woke up at 7 to shower and head into Custer for the race.
At the start a few Custer High School XC runners started pretty hard so I just decided to hang on their backs and see what happened. Around the mile mark they started to slow down so I really tried to drop the hammer and passed all four within about 200 meters and just kept trying to push harder and harder. I was definitely in the pain cave at the turn-around point but I saw how much distance I was gaining on the trailing runners so I just kept pressing. I ended up cramping a little bit towards the end but really never consciously let off and won pretty handily in 18:03, not a PR but definitely the best 5k time I've recorded at elevation (Custer is at about 5000 feet). The Rose Quartz trophy that eluded me the year before was finally mine!! :)
 |
| What the heck do I do with this?!? |
So there it is... a pretty solid summer of racing and training. Coming back to eastern SD a little over a week ago makes a runner feel pretty darn near invincible after running on hilly and high ground for three consecutive months.
I have been lucky enough to get the assistant cross country coaching position at Mount Marty for this semester while I student teach. It's an exciting opportunity but will definitely put a dent in my fall racing plans. I am planning on running unattached in some of the meets to run with our freshmen and hopefully hit a road race and half-marathon or two before winter arrives.
The last week and a half has been some pretty intense mileage and training with our XC "training camp" before school starts and my legs and feeling it. It's a good kind of soreness and fatigue though, the kind that comes along with knowing that you are pushing your body and getting better. Today we ran a 4-mile time trial on the bike trail in Yankton and I finished second among the men's team. It felt pretty good to have Coach Fischer tell me he wished that I still had eligibility left to run.
Being in shape is fun, and knowing that my potential is still largely untapped is even more fun! These are exciting times. Thanks for reading, and enjoy the run!
Sooooooo...I think you should head up here and run the Monster Dash half marathon on October 27. Yeah?
ReplyDelete