Camelback 4 Mile Run: June 19th, 2010

This race takes us to Fremont, Ohio. This was an all around great weekend. We arrived at East Harbor State Park Friday night, which is where we were camping for the weekend with Jessica's family. We got our tent set up and just relaxed since we knew we were getting up early the next day to drive to the race. So we got up the next day and learned that our sister-in-law Sarah was going to run the race with us, which was cool because...the more the merrier! So we got to the race, got our registration packets, and we had plenty of time to get warmed up. I was originally going to take it easy in this race since last Monday I stepped on a huge rock and my forefoot was in some pain last week. When the race started I felt no pain and my competitive instincts took over. So off I went in my trusty Vibrams Five Fingers KSOs! Here is a picture of us before the race:


This race was a 2 miles out and 2 miles back course which took us through a residential neighborhood and then out to a country road. There were about 250 runners, so another small race but we had a great time. The residents along the race coure were all out by the street cheering us on, handing us water and best of all...spraying us down with hoses...it was extremely hot and humid out so it felt great to cool down. Jess swears that if it was not for the people spraying us with hoses then she could not have finished the race. There was also some very good runners in the field. I was still on my first 2 miles out and the leader flew by me on his way back and he was really moving! I later found out that he finished the 4 miles in under 20 minutes, which is an unbelievable time. Another cool thing about this race is they had pacer runners holding signs. As long as you finished ahead of the pacer then you would have that time or better (in theory). Jess's goal was to finish ahead of 40 minutes and my goal was to finish ahead of 35 minutes. Here is an overhead view of the course, click on it to see the blown up version:


So I felt pretty good the first mile and was surprised that I was keeping about a 9 minute mile pace because it did not seem like I was going that fast. The second mile I even felt better and picked up the pace. I was worried that I would run out of gas if I kept going hard in the first half of the race, but I never burned out. The 35 minute pacer was ahead of me for most of the race. I knew I needed to catch him in order to achieve my goal of 35 minutes or better. About 3 miles in I seen the pacer up ahead. So I sped up and caught him around the 3.25 mile mark. I told him "your the guy I have been looking for!" and he just told me to finish in front of him and I would be O.K. I was happy to be at that point so I sped up and left the group that was hanging with the 35 minute pacer. I think I heard someone mumble that I had an unfair advantage because I was wearing my Vibrams Five Fingers and they are really light. Whatever it was I did not care. I was well on my way to beating my goal and there were no aches or pains holding me back this time. In fact, it felt good to be the one passing people up at the end rather then getting passed. So, as I near the end of the race I run underneath the big archway and I am getting my picture taken and I thought that was the finish line, but it was not, I still had about 10 yards to get to the finish shoot. I forgot to stop my watch right away so I think my time was 34:30!

I stood at the finish line and was excited to see Jess finish just in front of the 40 minute pacer! The only problem is that the pacer was off by about 45 seconds so Jess was just over the 40 minute goal. That is still a great time and I am very proud of her. Then Sarah came in after Jess and she did great considering it has been awhile since her last race. There was a steak dinner afterwards provided by Applebees, but we elected to bypass the steak dinner since it was morning and we had a fun day of boating ahead of us. Jessica's brother John and his wife Sara took all of us out on their boat. We anchored off the shore of kellys island and went swimming. We got to see both of our fathers over the weekend, which was cool since it was father's day.

Then Monday we went to see Caballo Blanco speak in Maumee, OH. It was really cool to hear him tell his life story. He is a very interesting guy and he has started one of the greatest ultra races of all time. It is held each year in the Copper Canyons of Mexico with the Rarámuri tribes (the running people). The winners of this race receive corn and money prizes. It has been going on for 8 or 9 years now. Caballo and the Rarámuri are featured in Christopher McDougall's book called Born to Run, which is a great book and I highly recommend it. Here is a picture of us with Caballo:

Composer Classic 5K: May 29th, 2010

This race takes us to the city of Kokomo, IN for the 16th annual Kokomo Symphony Composer Classic 5K. We were in Noblesville, IN for a graduation party and decided to run this race since it was not to far away from where we were staying. We got in town late Friday night and did not get much sleep since we had to get up early and drive to Kokomo, but we both felt awake and fresh on the way there. We got there with plenty of time to spare and it was nice to have some extra time to get ready for the race. There was a 5K speed walking competition which had 29 participants and the 5k run which had 123 participants. This is by far the smallest crowd of the three races we have done this year. It was kind of nice to not have to battle a huge crowd for a change. Also, I was surprised and excited to see someone there, besides myself, wearing Vibrams Five Fingers. The weather conditions were hot and humid and we were sweating before the race even started. Here is a pic of us before the race:


So we lined up at the starting line and the race was off. The course was 1.5 miles long so we had to repeat it. Normally I don't like covering ground that I have already covered, but it was kind of cool to see the leaders as we passed by them on the second loop. I also got to see Jess as I passed her and gave her the thumbs up. The race was on a road that ran through the park. There was geese everywhere and we had to dodge them and all their shit that was on the road. I felt great during the first mile and thought I really had a chance to finish in under 26 minutes which would have been a great time for myself. About 1.5 miles in I started getting some calf pain. I might of pushed it too hard during the first mile. The pain was not bad until about 2.25 miles in and then it really slowed me down. At that time a little kid passed me up and all I could do was laugh. I could not finish strong and got passed up by 4 people on the home stretch, that was kind of disappointing. Here is a pic of the race course:


When I finally got into the finish shoot I realized that my time was actually pretty good. I finished at 26:15 which is a personal best for me since I started minimalist running. I walked back through the course to give Jess a little motivation for finishing the race. She actually did very well too finishing with a time of 31:16. After the race we stuck around for the awards ceremony. To my surprise I finished second in my age group, I was shocked when they called my name to come up and get a ribbon. I really hope there was more then 2 guys in my age group...LOL. Most of the people there knew each other and clapped for the winners. When my name was called a silence filled the crowd. Jess was the only one cheering for me, but we both had a good laugh about that. Here is a pic of us after the race:


There was a few members of the Kokomo Symphony Orchestra there. They played music before, during, and after the race. Not the usual type of music you hear at a race, but "when in Rome." All in all it was a good run. Different then the other two we have done since there was not many people there and it was in a park. It was a nice change and we both set our best times of the year. We also had a great time seeing a lot of Jess's extended family over the weekend. We do not get to see them to often but we always have a great time when we do. Our next race might be the Camelback 4 mile run in Fremont, OH on June 20th. One funny thing that I forgot to mention about the race we did in Chicago, right before the run some guy was weaving through the crowd of runners with a cigarette in his mouth asking if anyone has a light. The irony makes it worth mentioning even though it might be one of those 'you had to be there' moments. I will leave you with a pic of me after getting my second place ribbon:

Commit To Be Fit 5K: May 1st, 2010

This race takes us to the great city of Columbus, OH (Buckeye country!) for the Commit to be fit 5K. The main event at this race was a half marathon, but they also had a 5K and we decided to do that since we are far from prepared for a half marathon. The night before the race we stayed with our friends Seth and Tania who also were running in the 5K with us. We got to bed early and got a good night sleep, which is a good thing since we were getting up at 6:30 AM.

We got up and left for the race with plenty of time before the start, so we thought :) When we got to the area where the race started there was a ton of people everywhere and we were trying to fight our way to the parking garage. Stuck in all the madness we parked about 10 minutes before race start time. We quickly scurried to the start area where we heard the announcement of "2 minutes until race start"...made it, phew! There were no porta potties in sight and of course a few of us had to go, but we held it throughout the race. Here is a picture of jess and myself before the race:

It was really overcast at the start and appeared like it was going to downpour, but the rain held off right until the end of the 5K. Before I describe the race I need to provide a little more information. Our friend Seth has two pair of Vibrams Five Fingers and wears them often. Before the race he had only walked in them and never ran in them. He decided to run the 5K in his Vibram Five Finger KSOs since he did not have any running shoes. I explained to him that running in this barefoot style can cause major calf pain the first time out. So the race started and I immediately lost the other three as there was a ton of people running this event. Then out of nowhere about a quarter mile into the race I see Seth fly by me. Oh boy..I thought, I remembered the first time I ran in Vibrams and went a mile and a half and the calf pain the next week was severe.

For some reason I just was not feeling great during the start of the race. I pretty much just maintained a steady hard pace the whole time. At Chicago last weekend I was speeding up and slowing down a lot. We got about a mile and a half into the race and the half marathon runners split off and headed in another direction. It almost made me feel like I was doing the jog of shame in that split off, but like I said before, I am definitely not prepared for a half marathon yet. To make things worse right after the split off I got passed by the Nestle Quick mascot! Oh well, i just kept pushing on. I caught up to Seth at mile two along a river path and he ran with me for a little ways then I picked up my pace a little so I could finish strong. Here is a satellite view of the course:



As I got on the last straight away of the race I looked at my Garmin 305 and realized there was a good chance i was going to beat my time from last weekend, which surprised me since I thought I was doing bad at the beginning. My watch said I was at 3.05 miles and it seemed that there was still a good distance to go. When I realized the course was not correct (longer) I stopped my watch. Another runner with a Garmin said the course was 3.25 and not the real 5K distance of 3.1 miles. I also realized I stopped my watch before the actual 5K distance and I still had .05 miles to run to get my true time. I crossed the finish line and then went off to the side and ran the last .05 miles setting my time under 27 minutes! I came in at 26:46. The official time according to the results page online is 27:52, but like I said the course was long. I came in 210th place out of 1869 runners overall. Jessica came in at 604th place out of the 1869 runners at a time of 33:01. So we both did pretty good for our second 5K. On the results page our names are switched because we were wearing the wrong tags...even though Jess begs to differ...LOL. Seth came in after me and then Jess came in and then Tania who is pregnant and did a great job finishing the race. All in all it was a good race and a great time! Seth was having a little trouble walking from the calf pain but after a day or so he has recovered quite well. Here is the photo of all of us after the race:


It turned out to be a great weekend. We got to see our friends Luc and Jen that we had not seen in a long time. Also we went to a Kentucky Derby party at our friend Caseys house. Finally we ended up hanging out after hours at our good friends Shawn and Jackie's place with some more of our friends. I would declare our second 5K on our running tour of the mid-west a success. Next stop is the 16th Annual Composer Classic 5K in Kokomo, IN on May 29th. We are going to be in Noblesville, IN that weekend for a graduation party and decided to hit up the 5K.

5k Race to Wrigley: April 24th 2010

The first thing I will say is this is my first blog. I am going to start documenting all of my official running events. I have become a minimalist runner (running in shoes with no support or cushioning) over the last 7 or 8 months in order to rid myself of some nasty shin splints. The transition has been tough but rewarding. It is like learning to run all over again. The muscles and tendons in your feet and legs take a long time to get strong after sitting weak in shoes for most of our lives. Anyway, I could go on and on about minimalist running but I will instead get to the point of this blog.

My wife, Jessica, and I have been running for exercise and have decided to get into a few races this year for fun. We are trying to hit up some different events around the mid-west so we can travel a bit while we do this. Jessica is originally from the Chicago area and grew up a Cubs fan. So the first race we decided to do was a 5K in Chicago near Wrigley Field. The 5th Annual Race to Wrigley was quite an event. It is a charity event for the Chicago Cubs charities and this year was a record crowd of 8,300 people and raised over $150,000! We were both excited to do this run because Jessica has never run a 5K before and I have not ran an organized race event since cross country in high school (except for a 5K in Toledo, OH about 5 or 6 years ago where I was hung over and completely out of shape for, but I am not counting that one :). We decided to just do the fun run which is not chip timed, and cheaper, but I had my Garmin Forerunner 305 to do the timing for myself.

We got to the area and found an awesome parking space about a mile away from the event, which was great because we were worried that might be a problem since parking is limited and there were a lot of people running in this event. So I strapped on my minimalist running shoes, Vibrams Five Fingers KSOs, and we had a nice warm up walk to the starting point at Wrigley Field. Being a minimalist runner I was looking around trying to find another runners in minimalist shoes. I thought out of 8,300 people I would at least see someone else in VFFs or barefoot but I did not. There were a few people in Nike Frees, but those are not really minimalist shoes. There were a lot of other runners observing my VFFs and mainly they had looks of curiosity. One person asked me about them after the race and told me he was thinking about getting some for himself. Being the advocate I am I talked them up big time and he seemed excited. Here is a picture of us before the race.


So we were about one third of the way back from the starting line and former Cubs player Ernie Banks gave the crowd some words of encouragement and the race was under way. At first I was kind of taking it slow and easy since my transition to minimalist running has not included any really hard runs. The adrenaline from the race started to kick in and all of a sudden I felt great. No pains at all and I felt super light on my feet. I started passing a bunch of people. They were probably freaked out seeing some guy in weird foot gloves floating past them with a big smile. One thing this run did was help me to realize the real benefits of minimalist running. Everywhere I looked there was people slamming their feet into the ground and leaning forward from the waist, and that poor form is a big reason why so many people experience running related injuries every year. There was so much noise all around me from shoes smacking the ground and I was making no noise at all with my VFFs. So this experience helped assure me that my long and slow minimalist transition is well worth it.

About a mile and a half into the race a female runner was doing a few cart wheels to provide us with some entertainment. I had periods of time where I kind of just settled in with a moderate pace because I did not want to over do it and risk injury or set backs. I also had periods of energy where I would pass a few groups of people and settle back into the moderate pace. I started to lose a little steam with a quarter mile to go. Then something made me laugh pretty hard. I heard a guy behind me make the big throat clearing sound one makes right before they spit a huge loogie. Then I heard him let it fly and right after he spit I heard him say "ooh, I am so sorry" and when I turn my head there is a girl runner saying "it's OK" as she runs past with a super disgusted look on her face. I think he accidentally nailed her with that loogie. Anyway the race course took us through the first level concourse inside Wrigley Field and then out we came with a dash to the finish line. I finished the race in 27:18 which is a good time for me since this was the best time I have had since starting minimalist running. I am happy with my result. Here is a picture of the race course, notice Wrigley Field just to the right of the blue X:


After I finished the run I waited near the finish line and about 5 minutes later Jess came through. I high fived her as it was her first ever 5K. The furthest she has ever run before. Jess did an awesome job and we were both excited about the whole experience. I forgot how much fun that organized running events are. It is so motivational to have a bunch of other runners all doing the same thing. The running community is a great group of people in general. I have some soreness in my calves and my right foot hurt a bit yesterday, but is starting to feel better today. I guess those pains just resulted from the fact that I have not pushed myself that hard since starting minimalist running. It was well worth it. We are both looking forward to the 5K Commit to be Fit in Columbus, Ohio this weekend. I will end this blog with a picture of Jess and myself after the Race to Wrigley.