Far Better Result

So after the debacle that was the Hot Chocolate 15K, I was excited to get that bad taste out of my mouth so I was ready to jump into my first Atlanta Track Club race of the year, the Heart and Soles 5k in Decatur. Well needless to say things went much smoother than the last race, so I am happy to say there will be no complaining from me in this entry.

Maybe it had to do with the great marketing done by the ATC lately, but damn there were a lot more people than last year's race. The race, itself was split up into 3 waves which were grouped by predicted times. Group A was for the 25 minutes and under crowd, group B for the 30 and under crowd, and group C for the rest of the field. Talked into it by my homeboy Charley, the guy in the picture with me, we ran in group A. Charley finished in a very respectable 29:57, which is not bad considering the guy doesn't have time to train accordingly and also ran on a bum knee, but Charley is good at inspiring me, so I followed suit.

Feeling pretty good beforehand, I came quick out of the blocks and within a few hundred feet my legs started to get a little heavy. I think for the most part that was my fault for not warming up properly, but after about a mile or so I started feeling pretty good, so I began to pick up my pace as well as I could without burning myself out. I think one thing that some runners can be guilty of is not doing enough hill work, because it seems like a lot of people that I pass are on hills. Now I understand that some runners may want to take easy routes with slight incline, but a great way to building leg strength is to run on hills. Well fortunately this race featured a downhill finish so I hit my kick (perhaps a little sooner than I should have) and finished pretty strong albeit a little out of gas towards the end.

So I finished in 25:02 officially, 17 seconds slower than last year, but I was at least able to enjoy the race and be satisfied with my performance. Well on to the next race, Spring Has Sprung 8k/15k and I'm a little unsure as to which race to run, but I am kind of leaning towards the 15k to get prepared for the Georgia Half Marathon next month. Well happy running and thanks for reading.

Saturday It Begins

So thanks for anyone that read my most wordy entry to date, and those who've read any previous posts. Well this entry is a bit more low key and less wordy, basically detailing the upcoming 2014 Atlanta Track Club calendar. It's also a good time to train and fine tune myself for some bigger races like the Georgia Half Marathon in March, the famous Peachtree Road Race in July and of course my Super Bowl, the Las Vegas Rock N' Roll Marathon in Las Vegas in December. Hopefully I don't end up getting my ass ate up like the Broncos did last Sunday. 

Well Saturday is the first of some of my favorite races, the Grand Prix Series by the Atlanta Track Club, the Heart and Soles 5k in Decatur, Georgia. I enjoyed the hell out of this last year mainly because I set a PR in a 5k. Unfortunately I don't believe this upcoming Saturday will be quite as fruitful, because of the weather, my foot, and a tight hamstring, I haven't been running and training as much as I should. It's an excuse, but ah what the hell I think it's quite valid in this instance. With that said I still expect a very strong race as well as some really fast runners which is good since I can let them pace me and do most of the work haha. I'll be honest I pace a lot in races, I think it's a great way to maintain and be able to keep certain paces, but I think the best and most honest way of pacing is to go by what you're body is telling you. If you've run long enough, you start to pick up on hints on when to kick it into gear and when to bring it down a notch.

Well didn't expect to go into pacing, but there's an extra treat I suppose. Thanks again for reading, happy running.

P.S. For those of you kind enough to read this who would like to sign up for the Atlanta Track Club, here's the site

Atlanta Track Club

Lesson Learned

So hello again to everyone out there reads the blog and I thank you once again from the bottom of my heart, now with that said on to the first race of the new calendar year and my goodness did that shit suck...I mean bad. Now for those of you who know me well enough, you at least know that I don't like to whine a lot about certain things and races being one of them. I'll be honest I just would rather let other people talk about that stuff for me, I guess in my head it makes me seem like a bad ass or something, but gee whiz that was the roughest course I've endured.

Now for those of you familiar with these "gimmick" races and I use the word loosely, because I can't come up with another term to accurately describe these type of races. This race happened to be like one of those electric runs or those color races and so on and so forth, this was called the Hot Chocolate 5k/15k because of the free chocolate and hot cocoa that they give out before, during and after the race. So I decided to do this on a whim that I'd get to run another race with the lady, but I also wanted to impress her sister and mother by doing the 15k rather than the 5k (also because I'm training for longer distances). Unfortunately they were done well before I finished so I didn't get to spend time with them, but that wasn't the part that really peeved me and I'll admit shame on me for being more prepared for the race itself because this race course was a motherf...well you know.

I normally have a bit of a pregame ritual where I eat before I leave for the race and then I just listen to music and stretch while I get into a mental zone of sorts(yes I know), but this time was a little different. I didn't get to have my normal pre race snacks because I was in a hurry to get there in time to see my girlfriend and her family start their race. That sort of threw things off, but this one of those easy ass "gimmick" races where people show up and eat chocolate and run/walk a 5k/15k. No big deal. Well I go through my usual pre race ritual where I isolate myself and stretch out and listen to music and did that for about 15 minutes before my race started. After all that it's time for me to join my corral and get a good spot for the start, then it hits me, what the hell am I doing in the fastest group? I mean I was a schlub in a sea of fit individuals and I'm sure they too were wondering what the hell I was doing there too. As my 7th grade track coach used to say anytime someone got outrun by someone, "You got doo doo on your legs". That's precisely what happened next and not say I'm a blazing fast runner, I'm not, but I've never been left behind by so many people, which really demoralized me.

So not only was overmatched, but on top of that the course was brutal. I kept thinking about how much I hated the person that designed the course while having to deeper maybe than I've ever had to. (Sighs) yeah shit was terrible, but I managed and survived the ordeal and was pissed off pretty much the rest of the day. Quite the humbling and miserable experience.

With that said it was a humble reminder that you're maybe not as good as you think you are and that you shouldn't underestimate any type of challenge be it great or small. So thanks for listening to my whinefest and happy running.