High Rocks Celtic Knot 5k

As I ran up the hill through the graveyard I could hear the young woman's footsteps behind me. She was catching me. The rhythm of her foot strikes was much faster than mine. She had been steadily gaining on me for the last half mile. When we started up the hill, I was maybe 30 yards in front of her. As we were running up the hardest part of the hill, she was going gaining fast. I tried to hold her off but she went by me quickly. She was the third person to pass me. I said "Good Job", she said nothing. Two other runners had passed me early on in the race. I was doing good I thought, I was just amazed that she had passed me on that hill...

(The race is over time to cheese for the camera)

I had so many friends at this race it wasn't funny. My friends Kenny and Manon, K1 and his daughter, K2, Sandy, and Dad.

(Kenny and Mark "It's just a 5k")

The Celtic Rock 5k took place in downtown Lewisburg. It was to benefit a girls school in Pocahontas County. http://highrocks.org/ It consists of a very twisty course that starts on Church Street. The course is rolling with numerous turns. The pinnacle of the race is about a half mile climb up to the top of the Civil War Cemetery. This takes place about 2 miles into the race. After the hill you wind down a grassy slope and through a parking lot before arriving back on Church Street for the flat straight finish.

(Go Sandy Go!)

A few things to point out, is that the high rocks girls put on the race and post cheerful signs all along the course. They also cheer the runners on. They had ample refreshments after the race. The course was a little short coming in at 2.9 miles and there was some difficulty following the course near the end. Erica, the race director is very responsive and plans to address these issues next year.

(Look at this smile caused by running)

Since I knew so many people at this race, you start to think about the story behind the runners. It really is not just people running in a race. They are there for a reason. Some are trying to turn over a new leaf, others to lose weight, showing others the joy of running, and some to achieve new records. Each person is out there working for goals whether they are obvious or hidden.

(Slow and Steady)

It was a fun race and we had good weather. I ended up running the 2.9 miles in 20:42 which is pretty good for me considering there was a significant hill in it. I was hoping for a top 10 finish and I made it by placing 7th out of 30 runners. The usual suspects beat me, Todd, Bruce, Michael... These are guys I see in all the local races. I'm getting a little better each year though...

(This is what it is all about right here)
Thanks to K2 and Bill for the video.

Running for President

On the morning of Super Tuesday a few weeks ago, Erin was in the car with her mommy going to school. They were listening to the radio. Erin said "Mommy wow those people must really be in shape if they are going to run in all those states today!" She literally thought they were going to physically run in all those states that day. Coincidentally, she and her sister had been on a run with dad a couple days before. She is also saying that she wants her cb/radio handle to be "runner" or "runner up" now.

A January Update

So what's been going on? Well, deer season sort of took over most of December then there was the Christmas festivities. I began lifting weights before Christmas and have continued to do so till now. I've put on about 4 pounds since early December so I hope that is from the weight lifting and not anything else? My running has been cut in half. I'm getting in 2 or maybe 3 quality runs a week. Last weekend I ran 20 with my buddy Lee. It was a beautiful run from Lewisburg out into the countryside. I ran my mouth the entire time and it went by fast. We ran slow doing it in about 3:33. Afterwards I had the usual completely consuming lactic acid burning pain. But after about 30 minutes it was gone and I got back to normal. I spent the rest of the day shopping Lowes/WalMart and then coming home to finish my inside steps.

This week I ran twice. Once around the Hinton loop in about 33 minutes (4.3 miles) and once to Talcott from PS and back (11.25 @ 8:04 pace). I'm not necessarily getting any faster right now but I seem to be recovering from my runs very quickly. Probably due to the fact I'm resting several days in between! My plan right now is to keep with the weight lifting, and try to do a long slow run every other weekend. In this case, long would be more than say 12 miles. I hope to do long runs till March and then focus on getting faster with track work once a week. I'm not going to run a spring marathon and one of my favorite races, the Blacksburg 10 miler doesn't look like it's going to happen. So blah on that. I am really looking forward to my two team events tentatively scheduled for April and July (Greenbrier River Race, and Scenic Mountain Tri).

We are in the midst of winter now but running sort of combats the weather in a way. You pick the days that are somewhat nice and you run and you feel better.