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Race Results from Thanksgiving and beyond!

Guest Review: Harpeth Hills Flying Monkey Marathon

This is a guest review from fellow Anderson runner Wray Jean Cornwell. She and friend Kathy recently completed the Harpeth Hills Flying Monkey Marathon. The race site says “not fast. not flat. not certified. flying monkey attacks.” The race is near Nashville, TN. Thanks Wray Jean for the review!

Pre-Race Thoughts

At packet pick-up we got two race shirts. One long sleeve tech, tan with brown sleeves made by Patagonia. A performance base layer, $38 retail. Then we got a cotton short sleeve one, tan with a picture of a stick figure runner on it, with only one leg and one arm. There are two monkeys flying overhead with is body parts. The packet of course had a Monkey sticker.

We decided to drive the course. We hit the wrong park first. Why have two park next door to each other with very similar names?

We stopped a mountain biker and asked if this was Percy Warner park…no, this is Edwin Warner Park…..we mentioned the marathon and he told us it’s the next park down the road. He also said, “Good Luck with that one”……whoops, that didn’t sound very positive.

So…on we go to the next park….. Well, we quickly find out what his comment was all about. Talk about “hills”….yep there’s one right after another one….with downhills stuck in there….and very, very few flats.

We come upon a runner name Johnny…..and talk to him and ask all the questions about surviving this marathon…..he continues talking to us all the way up and around a hill……doesn’t miss a beat or lose his breathing. He’s ask our PR time…and then says add 30 to 40 minutes more. That would put us around 5:30 or so. We laugh out loud….. We talk a good five minutes or so…..very nice guy.

Race Day

Very foggy morning…..very foggy. Good thing we are only 10 minutes away from the race and that we had been there before. So…we knew what we were looking for in the fog. Weather conditions 41 at start high of the day lower 60’s, foggy at the start.

The first .3 and the last .3 are cross country. It was runable….. I hate CC running. Just don’t do well…..so, I’m glad that this is short and sweet.

The course was amazing….just down right beautiful…..the changing of the leaves…..the rock formations on the sides of the hills……the winding/twisting uphills/downhills…..just a wonderful place to run. The sun shining in the trees here and there….no wind to speak of…the fog was even beautiful. Very little flats …..we ran most of the rollers and walked when the hills got a little hard. Which didn’t take very long…. Legs were showing signs of wear by the halfway mark……we knew it was going to be pure survival to finish this.

18 aid stations….one station with three porta johns…. Aid stations had plenty of stuff to drink, some had pretzels/orange slices…..one had clif blocks….we hit some aids stations twice.

We did the first 10 miles in 2 hours….. mile 15 was around 3 hours….. Our goal was to finish in 6 hours.

I hit the wall around mile 17, 18. I remember doing this…but Kathy said it differently. On the way home we were talking. She said that when I hit that wall and just stopped walking….in her mind she thought “crap”….she can’t stop now… I can’t go on ….she’s done….what am I going to do? How am I going to pull the both of us through this.

Well, I remember stopping for a moment…than I just started back running….and telling myself that we can do this…. walk/run…. walk/run….

The downhills were brutal….the hills were painful. My butt hurt/my feet hurt/my hammies hurt/my quads hurt……just keep going forward.

For me the worse time is between 14 and 18 miles. You just have so much further to go…you can’t get the miles in perspective….but once you get to 6 miles, 5 miles….you know you can do it….you start thinking about where you run and your 5 mile, 3 mile course….and you just start clipping those miles away….

The last few miles were a test of faith. Starting to run again was slow…but once you got going it felt ok….just it didn’t last that long before another hill….or a downhill that was very painful.. I remember wishing for a hill when even running some flatter areas got to be too long….and the pain would start hurting pretty badly…at that point. I wanted a hill so I could walk!!!

Our last mile…we walked some areas that we could have ran…we were over it by then. And two girls passed us. They had went out too fast or whatever…we didn’t see them in the beginning of the race…than at about 9 miles to go..there they were. We passed them and stayed ahead until that last mile area. One of the girls, had a great monkey call that she did upon arriving at every aid station…..it was great. We’d hear it from time to time before passing them…and would think, what is that?? Can it be a real monkey???

So….we come up to the last .3 miles. The girls pass us….it’s ok. Really….we are ok with it. We can see the finish line below us…..we take off from there.

Running side by side around the pine tree and down the hill (little hill)…..I feel great. Legs aren’t hurting now….I’m almost done. Woohoo, we both keep picking up our pace….side by side….we hit the finish line….DONE!!!!

5:32 was our time….extremely pleased. Never would have expected doing under 6 hours.

Post-race

What a run….it truly was an awesome day for a great run…..and I was so HAPPY that it was over. Just wanted to get off my feet and take my shoes off.

At the end….there were homemade goodies of all kinds….and door prizes, tons of them.

Awards were shortly after we arrived…..the winners also got a stuffed monkey of some kind.

Kathy and I both got a door prize, within the first 10 to 15 names called. Each of us took the race poster…it’s very cool. There was bags/water bottles/socks/gloves/hats/wine/energy powder/sticker/3 pair of Fila shoes and a few other things to choose from….. and yes, we both choose the poster.

Kathy did an amazing job today, she held on and pulled me through some tough times. It was great running with my best friend. I’m even more happy that she didn’t quit at some point. I know she truly thought about doing that. I’m so glad that she didn’t. I would have finished without her, but it would have taken me an hour longer for sure. Thanks girl!!

So everyone….if you don’t mind a “few hills”, this is the perfect race to do. Totally a “must do” marathon, great race director, plenty of good humor and great freebies.

Thanks Wray Jean!! Don’t forget to send me race reports if you’d like them posted!

Technorati tags: race review, Harpeth Hills, Flying Monkey, Marathon

Training Analysis, Part 2

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As I continue to review my training throughout 2007 here is the second installment of my attempt to provide thoughts, insights, and other information from it for you. I trained for 3 major events this year, the Indy 500 Mini Marathon, Bears of the Blue River 10K, and Midsouth Half Marathon. Read part 1.

After the Mini Marathon, I took it easy for a few weeks training wise and ran a couple of races. (I started this blog on May 28th). I wasn’t training for anything specifically until about mid-June. I raced each Thursday night with the Anderson Road Runner’s Thursday Night Point Series. This was a 2.64 mile race that was run every week around Shadyside park in Anderson. They provided good opportunities for speedwork but didn’t always fit well into the training schedule. My overall mileage was still pretty low and not running very many 5 day weeks. This was all just base-building workouts with a couple of races thrown in for speed!

I didn’t actually begin the Cool Running 10K Advanced Workout until the end of June. The advanced program is for runners averaging 40-60 miles a week and who expect to run between 34 and 40 minutes. It includes more speedwork and pace work. This was the same program I have used in previous years with good success.

I missed the first 3 weeks because of my lack of planning ahead. I decided to begin training for the Bears of Blue River 10K because I had enjoyed it both times I’d previously run it and also because it was a money race! I always enjoy getting money!!

I hadn’t missed a lot of training and my mileage wasn’t too far off what was required up to that point, so I jumped right in. Throughout the program I was able to train a lot more consistently than during the Mini training. I ran 5-6 days a week and maintained about 30 miles a week training. My mileage peeked at 44.

Even with the improved consistency I still missed a lot of the speed work and some of the longer runs or changed the schedule around. This plan mostly did speed work on Mondays and Thursdays with a long run on Saturday. This fit pretty well with my schedule, except for the Thursday races. I mixed and matched my speedwork. For example, one week I was supposed to do a 14 mile run on Saturday with 8×800 on Monday with 6-7 hills on Thursday and race a 5K on Saturday. There was a group running 15 on Sunday so I did that, and ran 6×1000 meter repeats on a set of hills called Spaghetti Bowl at Mounds on Weds. We missed the Thursday night run because of vacation! My thought was to combine the speed workout and the hill workout into 1 day and not need to run two different workouts. This wasn’t brilliant! Each workout has a specific purpose and benefits. Mixing the two doesn’t necessarily reap the benefits of both. I also missed a couple of long runs, one weekend I was in KY for a wedding and didn’t have the energy and time for the 12 miler. Another weekend was a 5K race in the points series, so I rode my bike the 11 miles there, raced the 5K, and rode my bike 11 miles home. It was a good cross-training day.

Most of my “bad” pain was gone and everything was looking good for me, I thought. I felt like most of my runs were solid, turning in decent interval splits based on my goal pace, even though some of my actual race performances weren’t especially exciting. I wasn’t coming close to my PR at any distance, but did run some of the same races as before at the same or better times. Most noticeably an almost 2 minute PR at the Buzzards Roost 10K and and only being off my Chesterfield 10K time by 20 seconds from last year. Both without any real rest time.

Everything felt great going into the race. I took it easy during the Thursday night race, but early in the week I had been having some stomach concerns. Nothing major but my stomach felt a little queasy before, during, and after running. It had pretty much gone away by Thursday.

However, on race morning we made 2-3 bathrooms stops during the hour drive to the race. This wasn’t normal pre-race jitters but was diarrhea. Not good before a race of any distance! I’m guessing by race time I didn’t really have any nutrients left in my body! This pretty much negated much of my training. But I think we all know that we can’t always plan for everything and that sometime extraneous issues affect our running.

You can read my full race report, but my time was 43:02 with these splits 6:37, 6:22, 6:59, 6:44, 7:20, 7:30, 1:27

Don’t get me wrong, I was very frustrated with my performance. I was glad that my legs felt fine during most of the training and that my body was able to handle the stress of summer training and competition.

Graph it!

This is a graph from my online training log.

Technorati tags: Training, Analysis, 10K

Race Review: Drumstick Dash

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First, Happy Thanksgiving!! I hope you and your family have a wonderful day of giving thanks. I know I am thankful for much, includes my wonderful wife, friends, running, and you my fellow runners and blog friends!

In my first-ever Thanksgiving Day race I completed the 4.5 mile Drumstick Dash hosted by Tuxbro in Broad Ripple (Indianapolis). According to their website over 5,000 signed up for this 5th annual event.

I traveled to the event with the Rayl family (Brian, Kelly, and Logan), all three of them completed the race! We all ran good races and had an excellent morning together!

The race began at 9am between Broad Ripple High School and the shopping plaza with the Running Company (event sponsor). The high school’s electronic sign said the temperature was 32 degrees, the car thermometer read 38, and the official temperature from Tuxbro says 37. So it was somewhere in the mid-30’s with gusting winds at the start. Due to the wind I wore tights and a long-sleeve shirt and other runners were wearing as little as a singlet or shorts all the way to a guy in a parka and pants! It spit rain a few times and afterwards there was some white stuff falling too!

This race includes a turkey chase so we watched the 6 foot tall turkey ride through the crowd, high-fiving everyone, before he got about a minute running head start. His captors (female and male) later finished the race 39th and 83rd (respectively), but their sprint from the start netted them some type of award. There were also some great costumes!

I ran with Logan for the first mile which ended in a neighborhood but included some of the major thoroughfares of Broad Ripple. We took it out at a comfortable pace and kept it relaxed while the large crowd sorted itself out. They had people holding signs with pace times at the starting line so that you could line up in some type of order, which made for a pretty decent starting pack. We came through the first mile at 6:22.

The entire course was on roads, so nothing too exciting happened. There were some people along the streets cheering, but not a lot. The streets were a little wet from yesterday’s rain which caused some puddles in little dips and the side of the road. One concern was that we were all taking the turns pretty close to the curb and there were leaves collected in the gutters which made it a little slippery. Logan pulled away from me and I came through the 2nd mile at 6:28.

A water stop was available at about 2.5 miles which was also at the top of a hill. Nothing real serious here, but just something to make you think about your stride and pace. I took it in stride and I don’t think it bothered me too much. Throughout the race I was continually passing people while only occasionally being passed as well. Right after the water stop was the turn off point for the short course. They offered two distances the 4.5 (which was timed and scored) and a 2.6 mile course which was not scored (they had a clock so you knew your time). I came through the third mile at 6:36.

This next mile wound through a neighborhood circle. Going into the neighborhood I could see the runners coming back out. They were probably the back of the first packs. During this 1/2 mile loop. I threw in a surge to try and catch the next pack in front of me. I continued passing groups of people as we turned onto Broad Ripple Ave and came through the 4th mile in 6:38.

The last 1/2 mile had a slow downhill, a quick uphill, and then a nice downhill finish! The finish line wasn’t marked overhead with a banner or anything so I wasn’t sure exactly where it was. At the top of the hill two, what appeared to be, college runners took off for a sprint finish. The first guy took off and the other one yelled at him and then chased him down. It was funny to see, but didn’t really inspire me to try and sprint to the finish! I did pick up the pace and passed a good amount of runners in this section to finish the half-mile at 3:08. My overall time was 29:14 (6:30).

I’m completely fine with that time, I had no expectations and haven’t done much running or any speedwork for a few weeks. It would have been nice to beat Logan again (I beat him at Pop Weaver 5K), but oh well!! There was lots of food and water at the finish area. Starbucks, the Noodle Company, and the Sunflower Market were all giving products away. The Running Company had an amazing sale, but most of the stuff had already been picked over. The event shirt was a very nicely done black, Brooks Technical shirt!

All proceeds from this event benefit the Wheeler Mission in Indianapolis. The race slogan was Move Your Feet So Others Can Eat!

Overall this was another great event by Tuxbro.

Technorati tags: Race review, Thanksgiving, 4.5Mi

Race Results from Nov 17 and an Upcoming Race!

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Race on November 24th

Christmas in the Park (Brazil) begins at 10am at Forest Park in Brazil, IN.

Race Results from Nov 17

Turkey Chase 7K was won by Jeremiah Vaughan, 18, in 23:56 (5:30) about 5 minutes ahead of second place. Pam Mertz won the female division in 28:57 about a minute ahead of second place and 33rd overall. 171 completed this 4.35 mile race.

DINO Series Race #7 15K was won by Zach Eichel of Indianapolis in 55:45 (5:58) about 30 seconds ahead of second place. Tracy Cahee, of West Lafayette, won the female division in 1:05:31 (7:01) about 3 minutes ahead of second place (who accidentally started 2 minutes late) and placed 24th overall. 164 finished the 15K event. 5K was won by Lance Nelson, of Indianapolis in 16:48 (5:24) about a minute ahead of second place. Logan Campbell of Greenwood won the female division in 22:13 (7:09) 3 and 4 seconds ahead of second and third places and 36th overall. 164 finished the 5K event.

Vincennes Family YMCA Trotting Turkeys 5K was won by Scott Mullins in 16:23 (5:16) about a minute ahead of second place. It looks like Emily Brown won the female division in 23:19 (7:30) about 20 seconds ahead of second place and 17th overall. 101 completed this event.

Yesterday’s Run

I did an easy 5 miles yesterday at Mounds State Park with Brian. I was still tight from Saturday and the ball of my foot is still hurting. We ran it in 40:46, but it felt harder than that pace warranted.

Technorati tags: race results, 5K, 15K, 7K

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