2013 and all that...

So here we are in 2013 and my grand plan for running is gradually falling apart, one missed run at a time. I started out in great form, out running in the snow, freezing cold with my new hydration system and then the really crappy temperature and conditions hit and all hell broke loose. It only takes a couple of days for things to things to really fall apart and before you know it you are horribly behind. And then I ran 3.5 miles outside on the morning of Superbowl Sunday, I was very pleased, it went well and I felt that I might just be able to get the wheels back onto the bus and get going, and then I managed to roll my ankle going down stairs to put some clothes in the dryer. Jeez, wtf, I run almost four miles in ice and snow, cross country, without issue and bugger my ankle going down stairs that I have went down literally thousands of times before...

Update January 12^th - went to see the doctor yesterday, just over a week after it happened. The nurse decided that maybe the doctor would like see an x-ray, just in case, so we did. After a while he eventually decided to join me and after a brief examination he declared that I may have some ligament damage so no running for another three weeks and maybe an MRI, for good measure.

So right now, I have a number of races in jeopardy...

Gutted...

2012 - A Year of Running

So how did my 2012 go, my first whole year of running? First lets look at my mileage, courtesy of Endomondo.

	Jan	Feb	Mar	Apr	May	Jun
Miles	29.41	17.43	54.76	89.78	70.63	57.20
Kilometers	47.33	28.05	88.12	144.49	113.67	92.05
# of Runs	13	5	14	15	16	10

	Jul	Aug	Sep	Oct	Nov	Dec	Year Total
Miles	65.05	47.48	75.63	60.34	91.80	68.73	731.46
Kilometers	104.69	76.41	121.71	97.11	147.74	110.61	1,177.17
# of Runs	21	9	18	16	23	20	180

A number or things changed over the course of the year that may help explain the changes, although one of the most notable happened in November when +Bren took up running. I'm not quite sure why it affected my so much, but it obviously did. I ran a whole lot further and a whole lot more than before. Maybe it was seeing how inspired she has been with her running, maybe her running has encouraged me to find more time for my running, but either way, it inspired me to put in more miles than any other month.

Martin Parkway

Looking back, at the start of the year, running at all was tough, just due to it being winter, although not even a particularly nasty one. In January and February I was running at the weekends and trying to run maybe one or two evenings a week, weather permitting, which obviously wasn't very often. By the first week in March, the weather had started to get not too bad during the day and I decided to forego my walking at lunchtime regimen and convert it to a trying to run at lunchtime regimen. I work in the FMCC building, next to Ford World HQ and there is a path through the grounds of the office that I had been walking around, it then became my running track, much to the bemusement of others. I tried to run two to three days a week at lunchtime with varying degrees of success, in November, after getting bored with looping around the offices I started running around Dearborn a little.

On the 30th or March I signed up for what would be the first of around 5 or 6 half marathons for the year, the Martian Marathon on April 14th, so not too far in advance, but I thought, 'what the hell'. The actual day sucked, it was cold and wet, the course while starting nice, ended up being a long out 'n' back, boring as hell, but I finished, under two hours as well. The kids also ran the kids marathon that day, which was very cool.

We did eventually manage to go and visit our friends +Stuart & +Diana in sunny Colorado, I even managed a few runs with Stu and his buddy, +Chris, but no organised race, due to logistics, etc. Colorado was gorgeous and I can't wait to go again.

Richardson Center

Another big trip was when we went out to Pennsylvania for a race deep in the heart of Amish country, which ended up being a 5k on the Friday night, followed by a half marathon on the Saturday. Considering theses were my first ever days of back to back racing, I think I done ok, but the hills really and truly kicked my arse.

Another huge event for me was Danced With Dirt as part of a five man team running in a 100k technical trail race. Each member runs three legs of four to six miles each, with me both starting off and running the messiest leg. The final, awesome thing, was running in three races with my son, looking forward to running more with the kids.

Plans for next year

I want to run at least two, preferably three, marathons next year, possibly Lansing, Garden Spot Village in PA & I'd like to do the North Country Run in Manistee national forest. As far as half marathons go, I'd like to do Detroit & Bird-in-Hand in PA, and maybe others, but we'll see. the two races in Pennsylvania will qualify me for the Road Apples award, see here. In other races, I'm shooting for the Kona Triple Crown Award, which involves running the Shamrock 'n' Roll run in March, the Kona Run in June and the Wicked Halloween run in October. I will do other various runs as and when I find see fit.

I would also like to try and do some cycling and maybe try a duathlon at some point. There is a good one which involves a 5k run, followed by a 20k bike ride and finally a 5k run.

I want to try to do some more trail running, I ran Dances With Dirt and had a blast, so more of this, please.

30th Fifth Third Turkey Trot; 22nd November 2012

Myself & Gordon before leaving home

Up bright and early on Thanksgiving morning for our second Fifth Third Bank Turkey Trot. Myself and Gordon were going to be picking up a friend on the way, but he lives very close by, so no big deal. The forecast was for very mild weather, so I opted for just regular running shorts and a short sleeved shirt, the only thing was going be the waiting beforehand and the walk back to the car after, but I'll take being cold then rather than too warm on the run. The drive downtown was kinda scary due to extremely heavy fog, but it didn't hang around for long.

We parked at a  lot that my friend Chris uses regularly, it was $10 but the Lions were in town and even the car park guys like to make some money once in a while, that's capitalism for you. We had a ~10 minute walk down to the starting line at Campus Martius, which was uneventful. We decided to hang around inside of the Compuware building and avoid the crowds and the cold.

Hiding with Chris in Compuware,
avoiding the cold.

With about 15 minutes to spare we decided to head down to the starting line, I guess we knew it was going to be busy but didn't quite realise just how busy. We started in the group called 'Blitzen' - expected 8:00 to 9:30 minute mile pace, but there was all kinds of runners around us that it didn't really matter, even more importantly they, it started 15 minutes ahead of the next group. There were an awful lot of announcements going on, but due to terrible acoustics we never understood a word of them. we then got the national anthem, just as the sun was rising over Windsor, which was kinda cool, and then we were off.

The start, as usual with these things was bedlam, with slow people and dog owners deciding that they should start at the front, and fast people that ended up at the back for some reason, the bottom line is that people are flying everywhere, while you try and dodge around others. The few streets at the start are quite tight and wind quite a bit, which makes for an overall interesting and slightly terrifying experience. The route is pretty much three long out and backs, with some messing around at the end. Much as I tend to not like the out and backs, the crowd (waiting for the Thanksgiving Parade) and the variety of runners with costumes, etc, make for an interesting race. Myself and Gordon both had inexplicably sore knees, but that is the joy in running I guess. We did stop at one point to see if Gordon could stretch and get rid of the pain, but to no avail and we kept on going.

Bedlam

What with this being the 30th anniversary of the race, the Parade company, that put on the race decided to give out medals and this was really killing the end. We rounded the last corner only to be met with a throng of people. So much so that we weren't even sure at which point we crossed the finish line, a disappointing end to a cool race. I'd say it took easily 10-15 minutes to actually get our medal and get inside for a snack. Snacks were very underwhelming, with some water, a cookie, a bagel and the worlds smallest banana. Chris was a little behind us a got nothing, again, very disappointing.

I did hear while trying to get to the end that there are more races on Thanksgiving morning in the US than any other day of the year and that the race in Detroit is the biggest of them all, at around 20,000 runners, so I'll cut them a little slack, but not too much.

I finished around 54:44, but to be honest it was a bloody mess at the finish line, I didn't even know where the line was it was so busy. According to the official stats, I was 91 / 384 in my age group and 1224 / 7695 overall, which I'll take quite happily. This race was never about doing a PR, it is just a cool thing to do on Thanksgiving morning and cooler to do with Gordon.

How Endomondo saw it - http://www.endomondo.com/workouts/109167489
How my Garmin saw it - http://connect.garmin.com/activity/245685006

Looking up Woodward, to the starting line &
we were nearer the front...

The best present ever

So I turned 46 on 10th November 2012, no big deal, just another birthday, but this one ended up being a little different. Now I'm not really one for presents and don't really ask for much. From my kids I just like wee things, like a book or something, from my wife, same kind of thing, nothing fancy, but his year she went all out. Bren decided last week that she wanted to start running and on the day of my birthday, we ended going out together for the first run of her Couch to 5k plan. This is the best birthday present she could possibly have given me and I am rooting for her. I know that it is going to be tough, but I promise to be with her throughout this stunning task.

As usual I had to technologify the whole process and downloaded a c25k app from the Google Play store, the first one sucked and ended up going with this one from the guys at Active.com. Over the past week and a half I have watched Bren go from being a very reluctant runner, to a avid running blog reader and writer too, although she is keeping it quiet right now.

Couch to 5k is a 9 week program, designed to take a coplete novice runner, from nothing to running for 30 minutes solid at the end. It starts as a run/ walk program, with increasing running duration and decreasing walking duration, three days a week. We have commited to do it on Saturday mornings, Monday nights and one other session midweek. I am super impressed that Bren has taken this on.

Wicked Halloween Run; 28th September 2012

Very cool medal, nice lanyard

As soon as they announced that this one was coming again and that the medal & shirt designs were going to be different, I knew I was going to sign up for it. Plymouth is a great little town to run around and mid-fall is the perfect time to do so, what with the fall colors, etc. I also asked Gordon if he wanted to run this one with me and he was all over it.

Got up, bright and early on race day as usual. I decided that I'd continue with the shorts, although it was a little chilly, but wear a long sleeved shirt and gloves. We were going to pick up Gordon at his moms so we had to leave a little earlier than usual, but no big deal. We got to Plymouth about 45 minutes before the start, and got parked easily, I didn't get a chance to pick up race packets beforehand, so we headed there first, and it was mobbed, c'est la vie, it's always something. The line went fairly fast and we got them within 15-20 minutes or so. It was still damn cold, so we waited in the food tent until they called us to the start.

The panels are actually purple, dunno why they
came out blue in the picture

The race was running about five minutes late, due to the huge crowds now a packet pickup, not really a big deal but it was good to see the problem getting dealt with. We met up with one of my colleagues from work, just before the start, had a chat and then it was time to begin. One strange thing here was the lack of an actual starting line, sure there was a timing mat, but typically there is a big inflatable archway at the start, all very strange. I also noticed as we were starting to line up for the start that this 10k race was going to have pacers, 4 minutes apart, which was kinda cool. I decided that sitting behind the 48 minute pacer would be a good place to start, I was hoping for a sub 50 minute finish, which would be 1:21 minutes below my current PR, so no mean feat. Plymouth is a very flat little town so I knew that if I was going to PR anywhere, it was here.

The race started nice and fast, due to everyone spreading out next to their expected finish, probably the first time I have really experienced this one. I knew that a 48 minute finish was a little too keen, but if I could at least try and keep it in sight I might do ok. Gordon ran with me, only getting stuck a couple of times, we both felt pretty good, if a little chilly, but I knew that would soon go. Matt, who was running with us, decided to pull ahead after the first mile, but we found a good pace and kept with it, putting in a solid 7:55 for the first mile. The second went even faster at 7:41 and both myself and Gordon still felt good. We passed a couple of aid stations, only briefly pausing to grab a quick drink and keep going. The race progressed better than I hoped and I kept up the sub-8 minute splits, 7:57, 7:56. By the fourth mile I knew I was feeling it, but suspected Gordon still had some pace left in him so said he didn't have to wait back for me, he could get going if he felt up to it - he sped up gradually and was gone. The fifth mile was another solid sub-8, 7:54, but by the sixth I was feeling it, and just couldn't manage another sub-8, managing a 8:08. I attempted to speed up and finish strong, but I didn't have too much left.

PR my 10k by 2:10, also PR my 5k by 1:15 on this race too, kinda cool.

Kinda fuzzy pic of myself
& Gordon

I came in at 49:11, beating my best by 2:10, 25th out of 87 in my age group and 187 out of 1555 overall, a good solid performance and one to be proud of. Gordon finished in 47:57, 5th out of 23 in his age group and 142 overall, a great performance, beating his best by over 12 minutes...

How Endomondo saw it - http://www.endomondo.com/workouts/huKKcaso1us
How Garmin saw it - http://connect.garmin.com/activity/237883576

We got very cool medals to go with suitably black and purple long sleeved tech shirts. The snack line was nice and short, and better organised than last year.