Monthly Archives: November 2008

Week in Review

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Last weekend’s time change made it a little easier to get up in the morning for a run.  But by the time I get home from work… its pitch black.  That’s no fun either. Even with the earlier sunrise I still found a lot of excuses not to run.  Talk about temperature contrasts though… geesh.  After last week’s race I walked around in a sleeveless shirt but after this week’s race I was looking for more dry layers to put on.

I ran Monday 3.25 miles on my Metrodome loop. It took me a meandering 24:35 to do it, but it was warm and sunny.  The temperature was around 50 and it felt pretty good.

I stayed up pretty late Monday night writing a blog post – not a smart idea because I was really tired and slept in Tuesday morning. Plus I had to be at work extra early to make sure our students handled the election without any problems. Everything went smoothly and at 4:30pm when I left they were at 76% voter turnout without counting the absentee ballots.

We stayed out late on Tuesday watching the election returns with friends.  And I had another early morning with a meeting on Wednesday. Pretty much everyone there was exhausted – it was a school related meeting and our referendum passed!

Luckily the weather held out for one more day. Thursday I got a nice 4 mile run in on my Park-Downtown loop.  It was raining but in the 50’s so it felt really good actually. I ran it in 30:07.  I’m glad I got one last run in with pretty nice weather.

I skipped Friday so I would be well rested for Saturday’s race.  It snowed though.

Saturday morning was the USATF-MN XC Championships. It was a 10k on a cold (32f) morning.  It was snowing when I woke up but the ground was just really soggy.  I ran the 10k in 43:09 on a pretty hilly golf course.  More on that later though!

Sunday was a nice cold 8 mile run.  The temp was around 27 when I left and it was snowing off and on throughout the morning.  We met at the Sibley House and ran south along the Minnesota River for a nice, fairly easy hour.  The final time was 64 minutes.  This was my first time on that trail and it was fairly scenic. I was surprised at how good I felt after the 10k.  My toe still hurt a little bit but nothing major.

Total Mileage:

Running – 21.5 miles

Biking – 22.3 miles

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Race Review: Rocky’s Run 8k

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The Rocky’s Run 5k & 8k brought back a lot of college memories for me.  I’ve done a lot of trail races since college, but this is the first “cross country” race.  So many things about it were similar to a cross country meet.

Location – a golf course, we ran on a few golf courses throughout my career, most notably the Notre Dame Invitational.

Format – this event was a 5k and 8k.  The women’s USATF race was the 5k and the men’s was the 8k – just like in college.  NCAA men run a 10k championship race, my alma mater was NAIA so we stayed at the 8k all year.

Weather – this was like an early season race, warm and sunny! My first collegiate 8k was at Purdue on an extremely hot morning.

Team – This was part of the USATF Team XC series.  We cheered for our female teammates (and Kirk who ran the double so he could score in the Grand Prix) and they cheered for us. All of the other factors heightened the team feeling.

Ok, but what about the race? This was my hardest workout since Twin Cities so I pretty much had no expectations going into it.  When you have no expectations you can come out happy! I ran a 34:40 which is just at 7 minute pace and we actually cut off a little piece of the course.  How does a golf cart mislead the race leaders?? I finished 44/87, just missing the top 50%. But I was a 1:20 faster than the average!

The course was fairly hilly, nothing major but lots of little ups and downs that wear on you over 5 miles.  The course had a lot of turns and made numerous loops (see picture).  Since this was my first year here I had no idea where in the world we would be going next, except for seeing the string of people ahead of me, occasionally.

I think I may have been a little dehyrdated.  The sunny conditions took some out of me.  The nicest thing though was how short the race felt compared to the marathon. And the rest of the day I wasn’t sore or tired.  What a nice feeling.  It did help that I had an hour to lounge around after the race talking with Nathan and Mike, while we waited for AAA to retrieve Nathan’s car keys for him!

Another little highlight of the morning was the fact that the Rocky’s Run raises money for the University of Minnesota’s Women’s Cross Country Team‘s scholarship fund. After the 5k it was announced that their Varsity team won Big Ten Championships! You can read more about the story of Rocky here.

[tags] Rockys Run, University of Minnesota, XC [/tags]

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Finish Line in Sight – Go Vote!

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After what has really become a marathon election season – the finish line is finally in sight.

I’m not going to spend a lot of time on metaphors or make any profound policy statements, but who will make the best president for runners?  I haven’t heard anything about their policies in relationship to my running.  Will my times improve under a McCain presidency or an Obama one?

My guess is that since Obama is part Kenyan, that he’d be more inclined to support runners and help improve my time.  Or maybe McCain’s small government conservatism would reduce some of the beaurcratic weight off my shoulders and I could knock off a few minutes…

But seriously… make sure that you get out and vote today (unless you already did, then stay home and don’t vote 2x’s).  We each have personal convictions and beliefs that guide our decision and we are so fortunate to be able to vote that everyone should stand in line and make their choices.

If you vote your convictions and have a rational reason for your choice than we can be friends still, even if our votes differ.  Just don’t be a hater and be mean towards those who disagree.

One last time – GO VOTE!

[tags] 2008 Election [/tags]

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