Running Through Cincinnati

I have no clue why I continue to pay attention to the weather forecasters in Cincinnati.  I don’t believe that there is one who can tell me what will happen today.  I do have to pay some attention to them as I only  run outside, so I need to have some sense of what the weather will be like, but I need to pay more attention to the actual conditions.

So where did that slight rant come from?  Well, on Sunday I ran 9 miles with my second running group.  I had planned on doing only 6-8, but since the group was doing more, so did I.  I had planned on going out Monday as well, but the forecast was such that instead I planned to get some Christmas shopping done and then run Tues/Wed/Thurs instead.

Well, as it turned, the weather on Monday was cold, but otherwise fine.  I could have easily gotten a good number of miles in.  But instead, I waited until Tuesday.  Tuesday was supposed to be the day we got the first major snow fall, major for Cincinnati at least.  Instead we got less than an inch.

With snow on the ground, I set out to run 6 miles.  I love to run when it’s snowing, but the snow had finished, and this was little to no fun.  I ran on the street as much as possible as the streets were clear.  The sidewalks were another story.  So long as no one tried to clear their sidewalk, it was fine.  But when people tried to clear the sidewalk it got slightly dangerous.  As it was getting colder, the semi melted snow started to freeze again.  I am happy to report that I only hit ice two times, both downhill.

Here’s hoping for a better time today.  The weather is supposed to be in the 40′s today!

Long time and no posts, I know.  But I did want to blog about two firsts for me.

1. Reaching my first goal for the year.  You might remember that back in October I laid out a number of goals for myself for the upcoming 12 months.  The first test of these goals was the Cincinnati Thanksgiving Day Race.  This was the 99th running of the race (can’t wait for 100 next year), and is a 10k loop through downtown Cincinati and Northern Kentucky.  My goal for this year was a sub 42 in the 10k, which I corralled a few others into taking as their goal as well.  Long story short here is I crashed through that goal finishing in 40:18.  Now I need to try for a sub 40.
2. Exercising on vacation has never been a strong suit for me.  Most of my vacations tend to be in a city, so there is so much else to do that I tend to use walking as my exercise during this time.  But my most recent trip to St John USVI was different.  Going to a resort on a small island provides one with enough down time to get in some exercise pretty easily.  I was able to get in 47+ miles over the course of the week plus.  The down side was that most of it was inside on the treadmile.  I so hate running on those damned things.

Now I just need to keep up the blogging.  I should have more to blog about given that training for the Cincinnati Flying Pig Marathon is starting in ernest now.

Site of the week:  Grammers Restaurant.  A Cincinnati landmark orginally opened in 1872 which has recently reopened.  There was a great launch for Christian Morlein’s Winter Beer a few weeks ago where they opened special.  They had been closed due to the freak wind storm.

It’s been a long long summer of running.  After reviewing my Garmin, I realized that between the Flying Pig and Chicago, I logged 1000+ miles running.  Just running, no other activity included there!  So with all that, you’d expect some awesome results.  Well my results were mostly awesome but not entirely.

May 2008 — Flying Pig.  The hometown favorite race.  It’s such a fun race, and I got a personal best of 3:44, taking a full 15 minutes off my previous best.  In full disclosure that is an adjusted time as the course was rerouted due to a fire which extended the route 1/4 mile.

August 2008 — Hyde Park 5.  A recent addition to the running world in Cincinnati.  It was on a Thursday evening, which was perfect for me.  I hate Saturday races since they interrupt my training runs, and Sunday races mean that I have no fun the entire weekend.  This was a PB for a 5K in 20:49.  Never in my life did I think that I’d run that fast, but now I want more!

September 2008 — State to State Half Marathon.  Never have done this race before, but I registered to force me to taper prior to Chicago.  It’s held in Oxford, OH about 1 hour from Cincinnati.  The route is basically and out and back going from Oxford to Indiana and back with two detours on the way out into sub-divisions.  I had a goal of 1:44 starting out which would mirror my Chicago pace.  As I started everyone was passing me, so stupid me, I starting going faster, knowing full well that I’d bonk.  Well the turnaround came, and I was still going strong, so I picked it up.  I finished in a 1:37 with a negative split.  My first 1/2 so it would be a PB regardless.

October 2008 — Bank of America Chicago Marathon.  Oh Chicago, my favorite city.  Well my favorite city wasn’t too kind back.  The starting temperature was 68 degrees, but I decided to stay with the 3:30 pace group.  I felt OK at the start, but looking back it wasn’t going to be my day that day.  My head hust wasn’t there.  I made it to mile 18 before losing it.  As I was taking a gel, I literally lost it.  But I came back and kept going.  Over the last 12K I lost 23 minutes.  At least the other people that I knew at the race either dropped out or were off their PB’s as well.  And then today I understand that they raised the warning level to Red somewhere along the way.  I must have been paying very little attention at that point.  But I will be back!

October 2008 — Columbus Half Marathon.  The weekend after Chicago, what am I thinking!  I put in some slow miles the week in between just to keep moving.  After two trips to Columbus that weekend (one to pickup my stuff and one for the event), I was ready to go.  My goal was a 1:35.  This would give me a new PB AND it would get me in corral B for Chicago next year.  The cool temp really helped.  I started with the 3:10 pace group and everything was going great.  My shoelace came untied at mile 2 though.  Never has happened before.  I ran off to the side, retied it and started back.  Now I have a problem with catching up too fast after a stop, but this time I took it easy and within a half mile I was back with the group.  Somewhere between miles 4 and 5, I decided that I was feeling awesome and I would pick it up.  And I kept it up.  At mile 10 or so, I realized that I was close to a sub 1:30, so I picked it up some more.  I ended up at a 1:30:11 which was great and a new PB by 7+ minutes.

Next Race: Cincinnati Thanksgiving Day Race

My Goals for the next 12 months:

• Actually update this blog with some regularity.
• 5K — Break 20 minutes.  This should be doable.  There are lots of 5K’s in the area and I am only 45 seconds off this time.
• 10K — Achieve a Personal Best (PB) with a sub 42.  This might be more difficult.  There are few 10K’s in the area, and my current PB is 6 minutes off that, but it’s from a few years ago and before I got serious.
• 1/2 Marathon — Sub 1:30 for a new PB.  Again this might be hard.  There are few halfs in the area and since I do the Full at the Flying Pig, that takes one away
• Marathon — Just a PB.  I don’t care if it’s one second better or 14 minutes, I just want to do better.  But a 3:20 would be nice since that will be my new qualifying time for Boston.