My aunt is a cancer survivor and is the captain of a Relay For Life team. Relay For Life raises money for the American Cancer Society. Last year she invited me down to Pennsylvania to be part of the team. Most teams take turns walking, and walk for the 24 hours. My goal was to walk for the entire 24 hours. I did the 5 mile torch relay run, and then walked 40 miles until blisters forced me to drop out. So I completed 45 miles for the day.
This year I had commited to two different things before relizing they were on the same day. So I had karate black belt test at 1pm, at which I was assisting a young man who was testing. Fortunatly my teacher arranged the test to help me get out as early as possible. My legs were still sore from a 5k that I ran a couple days earlier. I spun on my bike for 60 minutes in the morning then we headed off to the black belt test. When that was done, we drove down to Washington, PA for the Relay For Life. My wife drove, and I slept some of the way. We got there about 7pm, and after a bit I started walking. I walked nearly continuously, taking breaks to get food, refill my water bottle (with Pepsi or Diet Pepsi), or to hit the porta johns. Even though they were playing music over the PA system, I mostly listened to my mp3 player. The walk takes place on a high school track. Each time people completed a mile (4 laps), they could get a colored paper clip to hang on a plastic string aroung their neck. You could see how many miles people had done by seeign how many paper clips they had. Last year they had little plastic feet that you got every mile. But they ran out of feet about 9 or 10pm when people apparently were grabbing handfulls. They didn’t run out of the paper clips. My wife went with my aunt and uncle back to their house about 10pm where she got to sleep in a bed. I stayed to walk through the night.
The track was kind of crowded, and I being a relatively fast walker, I was weaving around people. When it started getting dark, they lit the luminaria which are these paper bags with some sand, and a small candle inside. The bags had people’s names on them, and were to remember people who had died from cancer. It was very pretty to see all the glowing bags lining the track. I thought about my mom who died from cancer.
At one point it started raining, and I donned my rain jacket. Fortunatly it didn’t last a long time, and I ditched the jacket back at the tent.
About midnight, the track wasn’t as crowded. I had already walked 15 miles. I changed into my running clothes and started running. I was scheduled run 60-80 minutes in HR zone 1-2. So I ran for 80 minutes trying to keep my HR around 136. I actually ran for 82 minutes, and completed 8 miles. So now I was at 23 miles completed. The running actually felt good.
I changed clothes again, and started walking again. I felt okay, though I was getting kind of sleepy. At about 4am, I decided to take a short nap in my car. I can’t remember how many miles I had completed at this point. I am thinking around 30 miles. I set the alarm on my timex watch to go off in about 30 minutes. I went to sleep. I woke up about 1 1/2 horus later. Either the alarm didn’t go off, or I slept through it. I had never used the alarm function before, so it was probably my goof.
I was already kind of light out, though a little colder, and kind of foggy. I started walking again. Later in the morning, a few people were jogging on the track. I noticed most of them had not very good running form. The best running forms I has seen were from small children. I wasn’t in my running clothes now, but I thought was the heck. I had already completed 41 miles or so, and had a crap load of paper clips hanging around my neck. So I started jogging easy, and noticed the other people then all seemed to stop jogging. Whatever. I jogged for a couple miles, then started walking again. My wife, aunt and uncle showed up at maybe 9:30am and brought me some McDonalds breakfast food! I ate a greasy Steak, Egg and Cheese Bagel. Yum! Then I started walking again. At 10:30 they called for everyone to line up for the final lap. Coincidently I was 1 lap away from 45 miles. So I walked the ‘final lap’ holding hands with my wife and completed 45 miles. After various awards and speeches, it was over. But out of principle, I went out and walked one more lap so as to have beat my distance for last year. This distance is only the laps around the track, and doesn’t include distance walked to and from the tent and car. I think many people thought I was crazy or something. LOL!
My wife drove on the way home, and I got some sleep. When I got home, I jumped on my bike and spun easy for 60 minutes to help loosen up my legs. It helped some.
With the generosity of my friends, I raised $310 to help fight cancer. Thank you guys! The total raised by all the RFL teams at this particular event was over $240,000! Wow!
Next weekend I have a trail marathon, then a 3,5 mile race mid week and a mountain bike race a couple weeks after that. Such fun!
I started running almost 4 years ago. My first race was in September 2006. It was the Rochester Half Marathon. Since then I have run half marathons, marathons, ultramarathons, and an Ironman triathlon, plus some other miscellaneous races. But somehow I have never run a 5k. Or a 10k for that matter. The closest distances I have run have been the Chase Corporate Challenge which is 3.5 miles. And my company’s run walk event which has been slightly over 3 miles.
This year we decided to increase the distance of the race portion of our run/walk event to 5k. The path around the pond where we hold out event is marked with a start line and a finish line, and markings every 0.1 miles up to the finish line which is marked 1 mile. There is a gap between the finish line and the start line. We cross the gap twice in our 3 laps around the pond. So I measured the gap at 86 feet. I figured out we needed to add a total of 393 feet to our previous course. So I chalked a new finish line 393 feet passed the painted finish line.
I have come in first place the previous two years. Keep in mind our run/walk event is limited to people from our company in our area of the city. We usually get about 25 people in the race. Last year I ran the 3 miles, 172 feet in just under 21 minutes. I planned to win it again this year again. But a new guy, Greg, started with my company. He is a triathlon coach. I was talking with him, and found he had run sub-20 minute 5k’s and his best was 19 minutes flat. That is low 6 minute miles. Ack! I figured I would be getting second place this year. My plan was to try to stick with him as long as I could figuring maybe I could run a good time.
Then race day came. A young showed up and he looked fast. His name was Andrew. I asked what kind of time he thought he would run. He didn’t know, but one of his recent races was a half marathon that he finished in 1:32, or 10 minutes faster than my half marathon PR. Ok, I guess I would be getting third place. But it would be a good race!
Greg, Andrew and I were fast guys, and we lined up at the front. We got our instructions. Then we were off. Andrew was in the lead, with Greg behind him, and me behind Greg. I looked at my Garmin and was running a mid 5 minute/mile pace. ACK!!! I knew I couldn’t hold this pace. I backed off the pace to somewhere between 6:00 and 6:30 pace and let Greg and Andrew go. They stayed up ahead of me but the gap didn’t seem to be increasing much. We passed the mile mark with Andrew in the lead, Greg behind him, and me in third. I think I finished the first mile in about 6:15 or so.
I seemed to be catching up with Greg. I caught up to him at about 1.4 miles. I was nervous that I might be going too fast. I debated about staying behind him. But I looked at my Garmin, and I was doing okay. I passed him. I caught up with Andrew at about mile 1.7. Again, I was a little nervous about passing him, but I did. I passed the two mile mark in the lead. And my lead seemed to be growing. I felt okay, but I didn’t want to blow up before the finish. I kept running trying not to run too fast or too slow. I crossed the finish line in 19:58. Behind me, Andrew finished in 20:33 and Greg in 20:35. The fourth place guy finished in 21:48.
I found out later that Andrew had had to stop a few times in the last mile to either throw up or keep from throwing up. He only passed Greg in the last 100 feet or so.
Here is my Garmin 305 data: http://connect.garmin.com/activity/33956331
According to it, my heart rate hit 195 bpm. I have been using 193 as my max HR. Apparently I managed to bump it up a little higher. And my average HR was 183. I had no clue I was going that hard. It didn’t feel like it.
So for my first 5k I finished in 19:58 and averaged 6:27 minute miles. I had never run this far, this fast. My fastest race near this distance was the 3.5 mile Chase Corporate Challenge which I finished in 23:48 or 6:48 minute/miles. And I crushed that. Apparently I am getting faster. I am still not a runner! 
Oh yeah, the next day, the Greg the tri coach asked if I was a barefoot runner. I told him no. But I have been working on my running form to run like one. I run in minimalist shoes (K-Swiss Ultra Natural Runs with the insoles taken out). He said my running form looked good. Very cool!