posted Sep-01-2005 02:43 PM            

I think I like medium sized races. RNR is actually a little big for me, but I tolerate it because I'm on a streak. The Richmond Marathon was perfect, too bad I was so slow!

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posted Sep-02-2005 09:11 AM            

I plan on doing my 15 mile run in Umstead--training for Inside/Outside sports 1/2 marathon October 23. So I'll be thinking of all you triangle runners in the RnR 1/2

Bob

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posted Sep-02-2005 11:31 AM            

Thanks guys!
Is emlennon still around? we have a career in common wanted to say hey!

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justjen

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posted Sep-02-2005 01:21 PM            

Sometimes I go to the Reedy Creek East Gate entrance, but there is no parking lot there--you have to park on the side of the road. You would need to go up Trenton road from hwy. 54 near the hwy 40/hwy 54 exit. The benefit is the bridle trail starts at the entrance.

Bob

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posted Sep-02-2005 08:11 PM               

You could also enter at the Ebenezer Church entrance and the Gralyn Trail will take you directly to the Bridle Trail.

[This message has been edited by swatkins (edited Sep-02-2005).]

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posted Sep-04-2005 10:23 AM            

How was the weather? Did the rolling start go off without a hitch? Much wind? Let us know.

Bob

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posted Sep-05-2005 10:02 AM            

Great race Jay.

Bob

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posted Sep-05-2005 02:15 PM            

quote:

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Originally posted by RunBobaluRun:
Jay, great job with 1:42:29 finish!! Looks like the last two miles on the boardwalk were tough--it always is when that sun starts heating things up.

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Thanks Bob and you pegged it exactly. I'll post a report later, but some highlights:

- The delayed corral start was wonderful. Each corral basically gets their own start so not only do you not have to worry about the walkers being in-front of you, you also have a clear start right onto the course. I've been in other races with corrals but where they let everyone go at once, but that isn't really much an improvement over letting folks just line up on their own. Two-thumbs up for the start.

- The weather was relatively nice. I ran my first mile in 7:48 and thought I was a little fast since my goal was 1:45. I tried to slow down but put down mile 2 at the same pace. At that point I felt really good and managed to keep laying them down at that pace and faster. So at mile 6 I revised my goal to 1:42.

- I felt great till we hit Atlantic avenue. Running into that breeze took a bit of effort. I tried to draft here and there but honestly, I feel like a bit of a poser drafting since I don't consider myself a "true runner" yet (not until I BQ). :-)

- Once I hit that boardwalk, you got it right. On Atlantic Ave, the breeze is slowing you down, but at least it's keeping you cool and you are mostly in the shade. On the boardwalk, the breeze is at your back at this point, but since you're running with it, you feel no breeze at all. And since there is no shade at this point, I really started to overheat. I pushed as hard as I could to get to 1:42, but I had to stop at the 12 mile water break, catch my breath, and dump some water over my head so I could push through that last mile.

- This is a really wonderful race. Good course, decent crowd support, extremely well organized. The few things I think they could improve are:

1) Start the race at 6:30 instead of 7:00 to help with the weather.

2) I don't know how they mapped goal times to corrals, but there was a guy in corral 5 with me that had a goal time of 2:00. I probably should have been in corral 4 since I was passing a significant number of people right up to the finish. Hopefully the organizers will look at the finish results and what corrals folks were in and make some adjustments if needed.

3) Not really race related, but they had way too many vendors crammed into too small a space in the expo.

My split times:

1 7:48
2 7:47
3 7:26
4 7:33
5 7:36
6 7:34
7 7:30
8 8:02 (walk-thru water stop and that bridge...)
9 7:42
10 7:52 (head wind on Atlantic Ave)
11 8:06 (slowed a bit too much trying to recoup for finish)
12 8:18 (walk-thru water stop, heat)
13 9:07 (heat, 1.1 miles)

Anyway, very happy with my race. It's definitely the smartest race I've run, a half-marathon PR and a 10K PR. I'm not sure what I could have done differently...

Cheers,

j.

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posted Sep-05-2005 04:49 PM            

Bob

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posted Sep-05-2005 06:14 PM            

http://www.coolrunning.com/forums/Forum8/HTML/007669.shtml

j.

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posted Sep-06-2005 10:55 AM            

HOWEVER, there are some reasons. I don't know how to take in water and Gu on the run, so I have to stop. I need to practice drinking and fueling on the run. I think I'm going to set up a table outside my house and set out a bunch of Dixie cups of water on it and practice running back and forth drinking on the run. I had to stop and pee in the woods, so I lost a little time there. My stops probably cost me 5 minutes.

My 5K was in 30:00, which is slightly under 10:00 pace (Hey, I never claimed to be fast, OK?). My 10K was at 1:02, almost exactly. My 10 mile was 1:44. I'd lost a little time off the pace by then, but still should have been able to finish by 2:15. Thus, I ran the last 5K in about 42:00! I was NOT expecting that.

I felt great the first 4 miles, crappy the next 4 miles, then OK for 2.5 miles, then like hell for the rest.

I agree with Jay's assessment of the start and support. I like the wave start much better than when they release all the corrals at once. One booth I particularly enjoyed at the expo was the Mindstryke booth. Lots of funny race shirts, such as "Fartlek: Just let 'em rip" and "Runners are cool: Be cool". I think their website is just www.mindstryke.com.

The finish this year was much better organized and flowed much better than last year. Last year we got all bunched up and there was some stopping and standing. Not OK if your legs are cramping and you panic in crowds.

I still recommend this race as a great one and lots of fun. The bands were fun and there is GREAT spectator support.

Now, if anyone has any tips for banishing that post-race letdown, I'd love to hear it. Oh, my race # was 9876, and my husband was 9877 (he PR'ed by 4 minutes, the jerk).

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posted Sep-06-2005 10:59 AM            

Anyway, my point was, let me know if you'd want to meet up for some long runs.

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posted Sep-06-2005 11:25 AM            

What is your next race? The half marathon October 23 (run partially in Umstead) could be your come back! When I ran the RnR last year I was disappointed and had a much better race in the Umstead 1/2 last year.

Bob

[This message has been edited by RunBobaluRun (edited Sep-06-2005).]

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posted Sep-06-2005 11:49 AM            

I think that when I get in a race situation, I get distracted by the other runners. I start to pay attention to what they're doing instead of paying attention to my own run. So I think I need to race a lot more this fall. I've been avoiding 5K's because I'm so slow. But I'm going to run the Women's 5K on the 24th (to benefit Interact), so that will be my next "race".

I need some advice on when to run my next 1/2 though. I want to run the Mistletoe in Winston on Dec 3. I had a PR there in 2003 of 2:06. I think if I continue to train and be disciplined, I can PR again this year. Would it be better to focus on that race and not run the I/O 1/2? Or should I run the InsideOut half too?

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posted Sep-06-2005 12:43 PM            

quote:

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Originally posted by runramy:
I need some advice on when to run my next 1/2 though. I want to run the Mistletoe in Winston on Dec 3. I had a PR there in 2003 of 2:06. I think if I continue to train and be disciplined, I can PR again this year. Would it be better to focus on that race and not run the I/O 1/2? Or should I run the InsideOut half too?[/B]

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I would say run them both, but I am prejudiced because I like the I/O 1/2. I guess the real factor should be whether you think you want to run 2 halfs or just one. I would warn you that the I/O 1/2 is not a PR course, but you probably already know that because you run in Umstead regularly. The road portion of the I/O 1/2 is also very hilly, so keep that in mind.

Good luck and have fun.

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posted Sep-06-2005 01:25 PM            

Bob

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There will come a point in the race, when you alone will need to decide. You will need to make a choice. Do you really want it? You will need to decide."
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posted Sep-06-2005 02:00 PM            

Bob

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posted Sep-06-2005 02:12 PM            

I'm still around. . . sort of. I'm STILL having issues with my stress fracture, and I just had the doctor tell me to take another month off. . . so I can start running again in the beginning of October. I'm so aggravated!

So how is VSH working out for you? Have you ever worked with Sarah Carotenuto? She's in my class and works there part time, I think mostly just on the weekends.

Hope all is well with you! I hadn't heard that the umstead trails were dangerous in particular, although I guess they could be since a lot of times there's not that many people on them. . . maybe it depends what time you run. . .like I wouldn't really be bothered running on the hiking trails on a saturday or sunday morning, but at dusk I probably would avoid it. Maybe something happened there recently that I hadn't heard about.

Liz

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posted Sep-06-2005 03:21 PM            

I am still on the plan, but I am running a few miles less than the 70 mpw. I will be hitting the 70 starting next week. This week is a semi-taper because I am running the running leg of the Duke 1/2 Ironman this coming Sunday and I do not want to embarass myself in front of my team. Next week will be the first 22 miler of this session, with 3 more to follow before November 12.

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posted Sep-06-2005 04:06 PM            

The only news out of Umstead a month or so ago was a jogger found an injured person near an entrance on 70. Here is a link:
http://www.wral.com/news/4783808/detail.html

I see several women run and walk the hiking trails when I'm running in Umstead. This is not to say it is safe or not safe, but it is common. I don't like the hiking trails because of the higher chance of injury--e.g. twisted ankle--so I stick with the bridle trails.

Bob

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There will come a point in the race, when you alone will need to decide. You will need to make a choice. Do you really want it? You will need to decide."
Rolf Arands
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posted Sep-06-2005 04:25 PM            

quote:

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Originally posted by runramy:
I've got some bad post race blues! I ran a 2:21:40, which made me very sad. It's really hard to train for 3 months and then miss your goal time by 10 minutes! Though I can't be too angry, as I knew at the finish I had left it ALL on the course and I had nothing left. I gave 100%

...

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A few things:

1) You finished 931/1909 for your division. That's the 49th percentile, so you're better than average!

2) You did your best. If you're not happy with anything, just try to correct it for the next race. There are always more races...

3) I wouldn't dwell on the water thing. It sounds like you may be stopping at every water stop and that isn't typically needed. You really shouldn't need to stop more than 3 or 4 times in a half-marathon. What I do when I see a water stop ahead is pull out my Gu and swallow it before I get to the stop. This should be easy to do while running. I then run past the beginning of the water tables to avoid the crowd and grab a cup toward the end, then quickly step off to the side. I slow to a walk at this point and drink down the full cup, sometimes saving a bit to wash the Gu off my hands (the only thing I hate about Gu -- impossible to open w/o getting it on your hands). I can do this in < 15 seconds easily. Even if you stop 4 times you should only lose a minute.

4) Pee break -- nothing you can do about that. Personally I ended up running this race with a little more in my bladder than I wanted, but I didn't want to lose any time.

5) I'm not sure why you had trouble at the end. I know that my speed work and hill training (mostly the latter I think) really helped me with maintaining pace. Usually my quads give out on me but this time they were fine. Also I've already done 5 training runs over 13 miles. And I was well rested. All of that helped. Perhaps you can provide some more info on how you were feeling that last few miles? Overheated? Legs tired? Racing heartrate? Just out of energy?

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posted Sep-07-2005 11:55 AM            

I cannot understand why the Western Wake Partners would want to destroy part of the beautiful American Tobacco Trail and not take the effort to give the trail a needed buffer from this pipe?

Link to Western Wake Partners project:
http://www.westernwakepartners.org/index.htm

Bob

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posted Sep-07-2005 02:52 PM            

I think there are several things I could work on:
Practice drinking water on the run, or minimizing time spent at a water stop. I have been racing long enough to wait til the last water table then get out of the way. But I kind of use the time to walk instead of getting the water down and going. I think I stopped 4-5 times, but skipped at least 3 water stops during the race.

I was mostly OK til the 10 mile mark. Actually, til 11.5 miles. I had one 12 mile training run (I used the coolrunning beginner program, since they say it is designed for runners trying to run 2:00), and that was the longest. I know I skipped at least 3 miles a week on the training plan, and I do believe that cost me a lot. DH uses the same plan to run with me, and he was great through 10 miles and then crashed and burned during the last 5K.

I just felt like I ran out of gas. This IS the best I've felt in about 18 months during a half marathon, so I'm making progress. I also need to lose weight. I am a healthy weight, but I know I need to bring down the fat percentage and get back in the gym to lift weights.

So, it may not have been perfect, but I do not regret running it, and I'm not angry with myself. I DID give 100%, and I can't hold anything against myself. Now I know what to work on.

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posted Sep-07-2005 04:20 PM            

Jump up to the intermediate program--you will do better.

Bob

[This message has been edited by RunBobaluRun (edited Sep-07-2005).]

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posted Sep-07-2005 08:13 PM            

quote:

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Originally posted by RunBobaluRun:
I cannot understand why the Western Wake Partners would want to destroy part of the beautiful American Tobacco Trail and not take the effort to give the trail a needed buffer from this pipe?

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sigh.

j.

[This message has been edited by jaysoffian (edited Sep-07-2005).]

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