St. Malachi 2 and 5 mile 3/13/2010

I ran my PR marathon time 2 weeks ago and my second 50k also a PR a week ago and was a bit tired all week and wasn't going to make a decision on this last weekend til the Thursday. I knew racing would be hard after the previous 2 weekends but I felt pretty good after a pace run on Thursday night so I decided to run St. Malachi with Jeannine and Janet but when I went to sign up I missed the deadline for online registration by less than 12 hours so now the price goes from 17 to 25 race day, easy decision for me. I, in the back of my mind knew I should not race but I don't listen to that voice but this helped me come to decide I should not race but I still decided to go and pace Jeannine in the 2 mile and run the 5 mile for fun. We got a little lost and and thought we may miss the start of the race but we got there with time to spare. There were 1252 runners in the 2 mile race and we started near the front, hit mile 1 right about 7 minutes and I had told JN that she needed to break 14:30 before I decided to pace her so we were ahead of schedule and were passing people most of the race and coming into the finish we were chasing a guy that looked like a body builder with a long pony tail, I kept telling JN we couldn't let this guy beat us, he did but not by much, we finished in 14:05 with Jeannine coming in 26th overall out of the 1252 runners and 2nd in the 19 and over age group. Her award is being mailed to her as we didn't think to hang around for the awards plus there were over 3000 people at this race. Janet finished in just over 16 minutes. Then we were going to run the 5 mile for fun and JN was running it with a friend from school. We had to wait for her friend to get her bib from her brother in law and we missed the start of the race by 10 minutes and weren't even sure where to turn as we went out to run the course. Soon after we took off we caught the tail end of the race and passed many as we jogged the entire course in 47 minutes. Janet and I ran about 30 yds. behind Jn and her friend and during the race saw a few others running the race, saw Bob, Connie, Patrick and later found out Jean B. was there also. It was fun to run in a race as a bandit and pacer and not have to give it my all but still get a good run in.

7 weeks since my last post, wow where to start

It's now March 7 and I have got a little lazy about our running blog. I took almost 2 weeks off after the New Years 24 hour race and haven't wrote anything since and have run 4 more races since then. Feb. 6 a small group of us ran the rec. centers Frosty 5k. Frank and I ran this race together pushing pretty hard and finishing in 22 minutes on a 3.3 mile 5k course that was snow and ice covered. Marsha had to skip this race because she was sick and Jeannine ran it with her hubby in 27 minutes. Dan Daubner ran his 1st 5k ever in 24+ which was impressive with the conditions being so bad. Later that day Dan and Jeannine both have this itch to do another 5k, I said I'm doing another in March, JN says too far away so the 3 of us sign up for the Chili Bowl Classic in Cleveland the very next weekend. 700 runners at the starting line so we start close to the front and I took off fast to avoid the crowd and 2 miles in look back and there is a huge gap behind me, slightly snow covered roads but the fist mile was downhill giving me a 6:03 first mile and a 22nd overall finish and third in my age group at 19:47, Dan Daubner does great also finishing in the top 60 or so and finishing with a 21+ minute new pr, Jeannine did great to finishing just over 23 and 116th of 700. Now 2 weeks later we were running the Last Chance for Boston Marathon/Half with a huge Medina turn out, 20 runners and quite a few spectators, 8 new pr's of the 20 and Matt young winning the whole darn thing in 2:46 I think. Having 2 weeks off in Jan. I felt that a cold winter bq was gonna be tough so I changed my goal to trying to pr and break 3:30. Frank, Roberta and I ran some of the first 6 miles together and Frank and I almost the first half together. I felt good all day hitting the first half in 1:43 and catching all my friends running the half before they were done, Jeannine pr'd the half with a 1:47 with Charles just 39 seconds in front of her and Dan Daubner hitting his debut half in 1:45. I finished just where I wanted in 3:29:12 with Charles and Jeannine each running a mile at the end with me and JN pushing me hard to break that 3:30 goal. Marsha also had a great new pr breaking her previous best my 12 minutes and running a fast 3:53 which by the way was my bib number for the marathon. Before the race started CE, MC and I set up a mcrr table and a sign for almost all the Medina runners out there on the course. I'll see if I can name all the Medina runners there, Ladd, Marsha, Charles, Jeannine, Janet, Lillian, Frank, Roberta, Connie, Bob, Suzanne, Dan Daubner, Dan and Heather DeRosha, Angie , Jan, Matt, Rachel, Coleen and Tim. We also had Chuck there crewing for Lillian and some help with the rest when needed and Angie's husband Christopher taking tons of pictures of us all and Phil too. It was a great time had by all getting to see everyone so often on that one mile loop. 6 DAYS AFTER THIS MARATHON I ran the Green Jewel 50k in 5 hours 3 minutes. While sitting at dinner Friday night with Chuck and Lillian I mention to Chuck that he should skip his idea of the Shamrock and his 21 mile plans and come run in Dan's place in the 50k since he was passing on this one because of his aches and pains. Dan still took us all and crewed us all day which was great and tons of help. We had a Medina car full with Dan D., myself, Chuck, Dan H. and Suzanne all going. It was probably the nicest day so far in March, starting in the low 20's but warming to near 40 by the end, another great race and another pr in 2010.