Explore Your Limits 10k

I had not planned to run in the Mountain Junkies’ Explore Your Limits this year. I had already picked out a handful of races that I was going to run the first few months of 2014. I have really enjoyed running at the Explore Park, but I just need to limit myself on paying too many race entry fees. After sitting down in January to decide what races I wanted to enter this year, I came up with a list of 5 races I definitely wanted to take part in during the first half of the year.

 This list consisted of the Montvale 10 Miler, the Mill Mountain 10k, the BlueRidge Half-Marathon, the D-Day Memorial 5k, and the 25k at Carvin’sCove. The Mill Mountain race would be the only repeat (including distance) from last year. I would be trying the 10 mile course in the Montvale race, as opposed to the 5 mile race that I had run for the past two years. The last three races listed above would be brand new to me. These include a 5k around the D-Day Memorial in Bedford, in which I have very strong family ties. I would also be taking part in the most difficult half-marathon course I will have ever run and my first race longer than a half-marathon (on a trail too).

So, needless to say my plans for the first half of the year were going to keep me very busy. But was the Explore Your Limits race was getting closer, I had a strong desire to take part in the race again. So, with just a few days till the race, I broke down and registered. With the Montvale 10 mile race coming soon, I knew I needed to spend Saturday morning getting a good trail run in. So I figured that there would be no better way doing it that with a few hundred Mountain Junkies!

After reviewing my race recap from last year’s Explore Your Limits race, I remembered how I had got to race too early and ended up sitting in my car for 30 minutes trying to stay warm. So, I decided that I didn’t need to leave the house until around 8am, in order to get to the race and get my packet. In order to get out the door then, I knew I needed to get up between 7:00am to 7:30am. So I went to bed knowing that I had to get up before 7:30am, to make sure I had time to eat and pack my bag. What happened next was crazy.

The boys came into our bedroom and woke us up. I glanced at the clock and saw the “20” in the minute’s section. Of course, I was too tired to pay much attention to the “hour” reading. I guess I assumed it was 7:30am, so I stumbled out of bed and went to the kitchen, while the boys climbed into our bed to snuggle with Mommy. I made my pre-race cup of coffee, bowl of oatmeal, and grabbed a banana. Then I sat down in front of the computer at the kitchen table and enjoyed my breakfast and coffee. After a few minutes of browsing Facebook and eating my breakfast, it was time hop in the shower.

As I went back in our bedroom, Anna said, “What are you doing?” I said, “I’m getting in the shower.” Then she said, “It is 3:30 in the morning!” What!? In my sleepy stupor, I failed to realize it was 3:20am and not 7:20am. This was not my brightest moment. Anna asked why I didn’t realize the sun was not up yet. So, after eating breakfast and drinking the majority of a cup of coffee, I had to lie back down in bed and try to sleep for a few more hours. Luckily, I feel back to sleep very quickly. The next time I woke up, I was sure to check entire time on the alarm clock!

I woke up again, ate another bowl of oatmeal, drank another cup of coffee, browsed Facebook again, and hopped the shower (talk about Deja vu). As planned, I made it out the door by 8am and to the park by 8:30am. There was plenty of time to get my packet, pin my number, and take a short warm-up run. It was very chilly on this March morning. The temperatures were going to be below freezing up until race time. So, standing around waiting on the race to start was not too much fun. But after a short wait, we were off running.

After having run my best 10k time last year at this race, I told myself that I was not trying to beat any personal records. I went into the race with the game plan of running a comfortable race. After dealing with a couple injuries the past few months, I just wanted an uneventful race. Even more important, I didn’t want to be dealing with any extra pain for days after the race. So, with this in mind I told myself that I was not going to look at my time once during the race. I would hear my watch beep for the mile markers, but I was not going to peak at my time or pace.

The first mile of the race is mostly on a wide gravel path and the majority is downhill. It is very easy to fast and pay for it later in the race. I made myself start very slowly. As much as I hate having a bunch of people fly past me, I just ignored them. I even enjoyed the views of the Roanoke River as we ran adjacent to the river on the lowest section of the course.

By the time we made it to the single track, most of the faster runners were well out in front of me. This gave me the ability to take my own pace without feeling like I was holding up everyone behind me. As we started a section of incline, my side started hurting a little bit again. This is something I have been dealing with for the past few months. The doctor believes that is scar tissue from my surgery last year. I wouldn’t say it is painful. It is more of a nagging issue and it feels like someone is just sticking their knuckle right below your rib cage.

I had recently read an article in Runners World about side stitches. Since my pain is very similar to side stiches, I decided to try one of their recommended tips for dealing with this type of pain. They suggested that you exhale at the same time your opposite foot strikes the ground. I started concentrating a lot on my breathing and it seemed to help. I don’t know if it was just taking my mind off the pain or if it was actually helping relieve the pain. Either way, I was able to make it through the next couple of miles pretty comfortably.

The worst part of this course is that the 10k runners actually share the same first 5k as the 5k runners. So the 10k runners get to see the finish line, only to have to dive back in the trails for another 5k. It was sort of nice to know that I had made it to “halftime” very little discomfort. I finished the next couple of miles at an easy pace and I started to think about what my actual finishing time was going to be. After my 53:38 finishing time last year, I figured with my slower pace I was probably going to be well over an hour. I expected to see an hour and twenty minutes on the clock as I approached the finish line. So you can imagine my surprise when I turned the last corner and saw 58 minutes on the clock.

I came through the finish line with a time of 59:11. I was very happy with this time because I had run my own race at my own pace. I felt reasonable good for just having run 6.2 miles through the woods. I am very glad I decided to run this race at the last minute. It was a beautiful morning to be running through the woods with a bunch of other people. Sometimes it is nice to not being running by myself on the trails. As always, the Josh, Gina, and all of their volunteers put on a great race. I had some good food and enjoyed visiting with some friends after the race, even though I didn’t win any door prizes! I look forward to doing it all over again in a few weeks on my home turf! Until next time, keep on runnin’!

2013 Trail Nut 10k

I have always heard that it didn’t really matter what you ate the morning of the race, as long as you ate something that wasn’t going to upset your stomach in the next few hours. I have read that what you put in your body the day before a race is far more important. So in the past, I have always tried to drink plenty of water and eat a high carb dinner the day before races. For some reason, I decided that my pre-race dinner this time would consist of fried catfish at Mama’s in Montvale. This turned out to not be the wisest decision I have ever made (mistake #1). I will explain this more when the time comes.

I was looking forward to the Trail Nut race this year, just because I enjoy running on Bedford trails and I really like Falling Creek Park. Having run this race last year, I would have the opportunity to compare finishing times. This race would be my 5^th Mountain Junkies race of the year and the last RNUTS race I would take part in this year. I am going to skip the last RNUTS race at Carvins Cove in June. The only race distances for that race are 25k and a full marathon. Having backed off my long runs over the last few months, there would be no way I would be able to get ready for distances like that.

 

So, I started my morning with my usual bread and banana breakfast. Although my Nutella was out of date, so I had to use peanut butter on my bread. I chased that down with a nice hot cup of black coffee and some water. Once I was showered and dressed, I headed to Falling Creek Park. It only takes me about 15 minutes to get to this park, so this is one of the closer races I will run this year. I got to the park about 20 minutes before race time. I had just enough time to do some light stretching, listen to the pre-race talk, and head to the starting line. I probably should have run a little bit to loosen up my legs because later in the race (mistake #2). My legs would began to tighten up later during the run.

After giving the half-marathon runners a 10 minute head start, the 10k runners were sent on our way. Even though I live fairly close to the park, I had not run on the trails there since last year’s Trail Nut race. Somehow, the course was still pretty familiar in my head. I had decided to push my pace early to get in front of some of the slower runners before we got into the wooded single track portion of the race. So I had about 200 yards to make a move. Once we ducked into the woods, I joined a group of runners moving at a pretty good pace. I wanted to average sub 8:30 minute miles for the entire run and after glancing at my watch, I realized I was going much faster than I had planned. The first 3 miles went by quickly while I was running in a group averaging around 8:00 minute miles (mistake #3).

"don't puke, don't puke, don't puke..."

 

After mile 3, I began to get very nauseous and my thighs started to get really tight. This is about the time I realized I had made mistake #1 and #2! I had to back off the pace I had set in the first few miles to try and make my stomach and legs feel a little better. This did improve my legs, but my stomach would never improve. It was the sickest feeling I have ever had running a race. At one point, I started looking for large trees to hide behind while I puked. I tried to concentrate on the trail and the next turn, in order to get my mind greasy fish sloshing around in my belly! I told myself that if I stopped, I probably would still feel awful. So there was no use in stopping at this point. The damage had already been done.

During the two miles of my worst issues, I clocked 10:00 minute miles. This would really hurt my goal to average sub 8:30 miles. Although at that point, I was just happy to not see my dinner again! Before I knew it, I was passing the 6 mile marker and I knew the last 0.25 mile was going to be a climb out of the woods. So I pushed myself to the finish in order to shave a little time off my time. Once I popped out of the woods, there was a nice 50 yard trot downhill on a grassy surface. I spotted Anna and the boys up on the hill cheering (that always makes it easier to finish strong). I came across the finish line with a time of 56:20.48. Since the course was actually 6.5 miles, that made my average pace 8:40 minutes/mile. So, I didn’t make my goal, but I did beat my last years’ time of 58:59.43 (9:26 minutes/mile).

 

After eating some food and drinking some fluids, my stomach and legs started to improve. This race turned out to be one of the more mentally challenging races I have run, due to my stomach and legs. I am definitely lying off the fried foods for pre-race dinners and warming up better next time. As I mentioned before, I am not running in the last Mountain Junkies RNUTS race this year and I do not have any scheduled races in the near future. I think I am going to run in the Lynchburg 10 Miler in September and I would like to run another half-marathon in the fall sometime. I guess I will figure out those races after I enjoy the summer with my family.

This coming weekend, my beautiful wife will be running in her first 5k ever! I can’t wait to stand on the sidelines and cheer her on for a change. I am so proud of her for putting in the difficult treadmill runs late at night, in preparation for this race. I will be writing another post that will cover Anna’s race, so stay tuned.

2013 Mill Mountain Mayhem 10k

This is an another post for a recent race. This one took place at the beginning of April at Mill Mountain. I really need to get better about writing these race follow-up posts sooner. I guess late is better than never...

 

The idea of running to the star on Mill Mountain and back down made me nervous. That is the basic layout for the Mill Mountain Mayhem 10k race (6.35 actual miles) that the Mountain Junkies put on every year. Since I do not live too close to the Mill Mountain trail system, I had never run any of these trails. So I was definitely going into this race blind.

Anna and the boys were going to the race with me that Saturday morning, so that always adds to the stress of getting to the race. I love having them at the finish line for races. There is no one else I would rather see than their smiling faces after a long run. But in order for that to happen, we have to get the boys up, dressed, and in the car by 7:30 a.m. Since Anna stays home with the boys now, we do not have a lot of practice in these exiting procedures.

On this morning though, everything went pretty smoothly. After we got on the road and making the 40 minute drive to the trails, I continued to stress about what shoes I would wear in the race. For the past few months, I had been taking all my trail runs in my New Balance MT10 minimalist shoes. But not having run on these trails before, I wasn’t sure how many rocks would be out there. I had some thicker shoed road running shoes in the car too. But by the time we had made it to the race meeting area, I had decided to just stick with what I had been doing and use the New Balance.

 

Since the boys hadn’t eaten breakfast, Anna just dropped me off at the starting area and took the boys to get something to eat. I didn’t have a lot of time to warm up. But after the pre-race talk, the runners had to hike up a ½ mile trail to get to the starting line. So, this walk was enough warm up for me. This course had over 1,300 feet of elevation gain and I was going to need all the energy I could keep. The first mile was up a paved section of road. There nothing like starting your first mile with a hill climb. This paved section had me concerned with my choice of shoes, since I had not run with these shoes off the trails at all. I was surprised how comfortable they were during this part of the race though.

After the first mile, the path turned into the woods and onto a single track trail. Just a little while into the trails, I realized that I had made the wrong shoe choice. The trails were littered with thousands of rocks, ranging in size from gravels to basketballs. This would not have been such a big deal if I wasn’t trying to go as fast as possible. I had to carefully pick my foot placement to avoid sharp corners of rocks and having to concentrate on every step definitely slowed me down. I really believe my New Balance have strengthened my legs during my non-race running. Maybe I will get more used to racing in them, but now they seem to slow me down a lot.

So after a grueling 4.5 mile climb, back and forth up Mill Mountain, I finally reached the star. The views of Roanoke from a top the mountain were very impressive. I had a great sense of accomplishment when I made it to the top of the mountain. At this point, I knew that the remainder of the race was going to be most downhill (although I didn’t realize how downhill it was going to be). It took me 46 minutes and 39 seconds to climb the 4.85 miles to the top of the mountain, but only 14 minutes and 20 seconds to cover the 1.5 miles to the bottom. The 1.5 mile track to the bottom was through some of the rockiest terrain on the course. There was a constant struggle between my feet, rocks, and the laws of gravity (the rocks won!). My jarred body finally pasted the finish line with a time of 1:00:59.

I don’t know if it was because of being on a new trail or the uniqueness of the elevation gain, this was my favorite Mountain Junkies race of the year. I am definitely going to run this race again next year and I can’t wait to try and better my time. I have already been searching for some better “rock” shoes, so I will be ready for next year!

2013 Explore Your Limits 10k

The Mountain Junkies 2nd RNUTS Series race was at the Explore Park, just off the Blue Ridge Parkway South of Roanoke. This was the same location as the Into the Darkness night race I ran in last October. It was a chilly 30 degree morning and I got to the race way too early. I could sleep past 6:15am because of my anticipation for the run. So I got up and ate my normal pre-race breakfast of a banana and a slice of wheat bready with Nutella. After double checking my bag, I was out the door by 7:30am. The race wasn't starting until 9am, but I thought I would get there a little early since I needed to pick up my packet. I made really good time and got to the park just before 8am. So after picking up my race packet and pinning my number on my running jacket, I had a lot of extra time. I ended up sitting in my car for 25 minutes with the heat running.

 I started stretching around 8:30am and took a warm-up run for about 10 minutes. I decided to hit the port-a-johns one last time before the race and ended up standing in line for 15 minutes. After a quick pre-race meeting, we were off to the starting line just after 9am. The two races were started 10 minutes apart. The 10k racers would leave first and followed by the 5k runners shortly after. Since I wasn't trying to set any world records, I decided to fall into the middle of the 10k pack. Once the race was started, the first 0.5 mile was through pretty open grass fields and gravel roads. This gave everyone plenty of time to sort out their positions based on their pace.

 This was my first race wearing my New Balance MT10 minimalist shoes. If I would have known how many rocks and gravels would have been on the course's route, I may have decided against wearing the New Balance. The first mile went by really fast and my split was around 7:30. That was way too fast of a pace for me to stick with for this course. The next few miles went by without much excitement. I got into a good breathing rhythm and just let myself concentrate on foot placement.

 There were several nice hill climbs that really did a number on my legs. By the halfway point the course split for the 5k and 10k courses. It is sort of wrong for the 10k'ers to see the finish line knowing they still had over 3 more miles to go. Once the course went back into the woods, I got back into a good flow. By this time, the soles of my feet had taken a good pounding from the gravels and were starting to get a little sore. So I really started paying attention to every rock on the course.

 

I kept my pace pretty steady until I came to the last of the big hills on the course. I felt myself start to fade as soon as the incline started. I was just about to give up on running the hill when an awesome lady, who appeared to be in her 40's (not that her age matters at all), pulled up beside me and said, "we can do this"! We kept our slow trot up the hill, side by side, until she finally pulled away from me with 10 yards to go. She really help me get over the "feeling sorry for yourself" feeling that was beginning to set in at that stage of the run. I tried to find her after the race and thank her. But since I was really not in my right mind when I encountered her during the race, I wasn't 100% what she looked like a after the race was over.

After finishing that last hill, there was only a short distance to the finish line and my official time was 53:35, with my first 5k at 26:01 and my second 5k at 27:35. This was my personal best time for a 10k race, beating my previous best from January by 59 seconds. So setting my personal best time on a course that was much more difficult that the site of my previous record was very rewarding. I feel like I probably could have done a little better if I picked a better starting spot and didn't choose to be content and run behind several slower runners at the beginning of the race. This just gives me more incentive to do better in my next 10k.

Thanks to the Mountain Junkies for putting on another great race. They by far have the best post-race food and drinks. I enjoyed my post-race feast and a nice cup (or three) of hot coffee on a very cold morning! The next race on my schedule is a home game for me. The Montvale 10 Miler is scheduled for March 23rd and I am looking forward to running a race just minutes for my house.