PERSONAL BEST

As runners most of us strive for better times when we race. We train and strain and hopefully gain. As a self trained runner I am in the constant state of experimentation with my runs. No coach or group leader to guide me. No one telling me my mistakes or showing me my pitfalls. Formulating a training program for myself is not always easy and not always possible to follow due to the runners triangle(see previous post). Case in point the training I did for the Half Marathon I ran this past Saturday. The last long run I did was 5 weeks prior to the race. I had planned more but they simply did not occur. I have valid excuses though, trust me!!!!! Right! LOL

I train hard most of the time I am running, Taking easy days of course to balance the intensity of the overall training, but in general run hard. I have been doing a lot of out and backs of 7 plus miles along the North Shore and once a week running 3 Loops around the Lind Point trail starting from town. Both of those runs are tough to say the least. I can sometimes literally feel myself getting stronger. I am pretty adamant about getting my 5 runs in weekly. Sometimes even 6 and once in a while it will go down to 4. I am hard on myself and consider 3 runs in a week in the category of total slacking. Sick running junkie that I am!

So what to my wondering feet do I achieve, a personal best in the half marathon you see! Oh Santa would be proud of me but he is very busy making sure my son and all the other children of the world have a very merry one in "09". It was my 4th half marathon and each one the times went lower and I ran a 1:42:01 at Disney this weekend. I am quite pleased, ever though I had my eyes on a 1:40. I tried to stay with that pacing group but did not want to go out too fast and I held them in sight for the first 6-7 miles then just lost sight of them. Having clocks at every mile is awesome and I knew I was still on pace for a PB. It is always an awesome feeling crossing the finish line.

My stats where as follows: Time:1:42:01, 419th overall out of 12,434 finishers, age group(50-54) 27th out of 580 males, age grade 66.8% and 348th overall out of 5253 for males.

So the question is this. Did I under train by not doing my long runs or did I amply train and have a PB because the hills of St. John are the most awesome place on the planet to run and they reward all who suffer through their wrath? Probably a little of both I would imagine. I always tell stateside runners that a 7 mile north shore run is equivalent to a flat 10 mile run in the states because of the 3H club(see previous post) Hills, Heat and Humidity. We run in high heat and high humidity pretty much year round and in the summer and fall it is just plain brutal. So when we get up to the states and run on flat ground in much lower temperatures and lower humidity it is like having an extra jolt of what ever all those cheating athlete take that disgrace themselves and their perspective sport. What a sad state for sports when the playing field is not level and our children must deal with the multitudes of issues surrounding these athletes and the dire backlash that occurs due to ignorance, greed and ego. All boost in sports and performance are not created equal!

The next race for me will be the 8 Tuff Miles right here on St. John on Feb. 28th. I will be fully trained for that race and will enjoy every minute of it, even the ones I plan on shedding off of last years time!