The initial runs
My apologies as I haven't been keeping up with the blog as much as I would have liked. Been a bit busy with family coming into town for a wedding. But I did want to back track a couple weekends ago to the initial timed runs of my 2018 training schedule.
Although I've been putting in a bunch of training miles already, my first warm-up was actually one of my most enjoyable experiences: a one mile fun run with my son, Asher. He's a part of the run club at his elementary school and had been training up to do this run as part of his fall season. After watching the older kids join the main crowd to do the 5K, we wait and are brought to the starting line for the one mile run. Asher is off like a shot -- it took a good amount of effort to keep up with him that first quarter mile or so, let me tell ya! Eventually he slowed down a bit and we had a good run/walk the rest of the way... took us about 15 minutes. But the best part was being able to do it with the bubs, and seeing him enjoy an activity that has had a much deeper meaning for me.
The next day was my first official timed race of the Dana-Farber warm-up season: the Atlanta 10 miler. The 10 miler is a nice, relatively flat (by Atlanta standards) course through the heart of Midtown. Of course, it's always nice to have good company on these things, and in particular amongst the 6,000 fellow runners out there with me on Sunday morning was none other than Carri Gaudion, my other fellow Atlantan DFCM member. Through her efforts this year, she'll eclipse more than $100K in lifetime fundraising -- an absolutely awesome number! She and I talked a lot about our training thus far, things we could do to help get the world out beyond the core base in Boston, and of course, scheduling a training run in the near future. We wished each other best of luck, loaded into our respective waves for the start, and we were off.
Being very much in preseason, and admittedly not in prime running shape yet (football season tends to do that!), I wasn't expecting much in terms of a time. I figured if I could come in around 1h:45m - 1h:50m, I'd be happy. But as the miles started to tick off, and I kept running between 9m:30s - 9m:40s, and was wondering if I had gone out too fast? I was trying to get myself to slow down at the top of Cardiac Hill, but the legs just wanted to go and my pace didn't feel like I was forcing it. So I decided to trust my body through the ups and downs of the trek eastward towards Piedmont Park. And the miles kept staying consistent. It wasn't until after mile #8 that I noticed that a slow down was occurring... not surprise because I hadn't run past 8 miles all pre-season thus far. But there was still more than enough in the tank to come home in under a 10 min./mile pace -- 1:39:17 officially. For the start of the running season for me, that's a result I'll take all day long, and encourages me to push myself not only to raise as much as possible, but to run the best time possible come this April!
The next day was my first official timed race of the Dana-Farber warm-up season: the Atlanta 10 miler. The 10 miler is a nice, relatively flat (by Atlanta standards) course through the heart of Midtown. Of course, it's always nice to have good company on these things, and in particular amongst the 6,000 fellow runners out there with me on Sunday morning was none other than Carri Gaudion, my other fellow Atlantan DFCM member. Through her efforts this year, she'll eclipse more than $100K in lifetime fundraising -- an absolutely awesome number! She and I talked a lot about our training thus far, things we could do to help get the world out beyond the core base in Boston, and of course, scheduling a training run in the near future. We wished each other best of luck, loaded into our respective waves for the start, and we were off.
Being very much in preseason, and admittedly not in prime running shape yet (football season tends to do that!), I wasn't expecting much in terms of a time. I figured if I could come in around 1h:45m - 1h:50m, I'd be happy. But as the miles started to tick off, and I kept running between 9m:30s - 9m:40s, and was wondering if I had gone out too fast? I was trying to get myself to slow down at the top of Cardiac Hill, but the legs just wanted to go and my pace didn't feel like I was forcing it. So I decided to trust my body through the ups and downs of the trek eastward towards Piedmont Park. And the miles kept staying consistent. It wasn't until after mile #8 that I noticed that a slow down was occurring... not surprise because I hadn't run past 8 miles all pre-season thus far. But there was still more than enough in the tank to come home in under a 10 min./mile pace -- 1:39:17 officially. For the start of the running season for me, that's a result I'll take all day long, and encourages me to push myself not only to raise as much as possible, but to run the best time possible come this April!
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