Rain will end before lunch and the Old Reliable race should have fantastic weather.

OBX marathon was a wet one. Jay, I'm very sorry for your race. I definitely would look to Myrtle or VA Beach or SC for another marathon.

Bitbit, glad to see you survived Richmond. I hate those hot races!

Bob

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So, I ran in Umstead this morning. I ran one end of Reedy Creek Road to the other, before venturing out on to the Turkey Creeks.

Anyways, I ran past the Airport Overlook on ReedyCreek road until I encountered a park entrance gait. The road appeared to continue beyond the gate, but it was too dark to see much detail.

Looking at a map, it looks like Reedy Creek road continues under i-40 and dead-ends into Weston Parkway. Is the road paved and residential after leaving the park? Does it hook up to the Cary Greenway system at it's terminus?

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I knew I had it in me.

A few weeks ago I ran the Inside Out Sports 10k in 61:58 or so, and I was convinced that I would have gone under 60:00 if I'd been running the Old Reliable instead. Well, today I had the chance to put my 'feet' where my mouth is (in a different way than usual) by running the Old Reliable. Bottom line - 58:08 unofficial!

I was concerned about running today because 1) I've been on the other side of the country for most of the week, and 2) I was afraid the wind we were experiencing before the race was going to cause problems. Fortunately I never noticed any - either it died down and I didn't realize it, or it stayed a cross-wind for the most part, or it was blocked by buildings for most of the course. I'm sure not going to complain about it, though.

I'm also not usually this good at setting my pace. The crowd at the start kept me from going out too fast, and I hit the first mile split right at my target of 9:40. I pretty much held this pace for the next two miles (picking up 10 seconds), then started slowly getting faster. I don't remember what the rest of my splits were - all I remember was that I was getting further and further in front of my target pace.

There was one improvement over last year that I was happy to see. They actually had someone at each mile letting you know how far you'd come. Last year I only saw one mile sign, at it was at mile five! I did here an interesting comment from a gentleman I was running with shortly after the 2-mile split. He said he appreciated the fact that they weren't calling out the split times. He said he'd rather be demoralized once at the end of the race than be reminded of how slow he'd become all through it.

I'll be doing the Inside Out 8k on Thanksgiving, and that's going to probably be it for me this fall. And even there, I plan on running just to see what happens. I've managed to reach my two main goals for the year, and whatever happens in the Turkey Trot is going to just be extra gravy.

Well the Old Reliable turned out to be an excellent race. The new course is probably the best course in the area. The start and finish is nice and wide and one of the best views in Raleigh. I ran the jogging stroller race with the single stroller today. It was just too cold for my infant daughter. It was perfect for Jason though. He was as snug as a bug in a rug with his favorite soft blanket(weighs 5 lbs but well worth the insulation) and the wind screen. There were a few jogging stroller runners that were obviously inexperienced. They were running without wind screens and some without blankets. Not smart! Those kiddies must have been popsicles by the end of the 10K.

The race went pretty well. I probably started to fast but I get so pumped up I just can?t help it. I was at 19:50 for the first 3 miles and 26:34 for the first 4 miles. I was running all alone for the first 2 miles when the leader of the open race blew past me. I lead the stroller race by about 50 yards until the mile 4 marker. I couldn?t believe it. A guy with a double jogger was just relentless. It was VERY windy on the up hills and this guy just would not fade. He was obviously a very well trained runner. He caught me at mile 5 and just drafted off of me until we made the turn at the capital. I had nothing left and I just couldn?t chase him down. He passed me with ¼ of a mile to go. I ended up finishing about 6 seconds behind him with a 40:56. I was a little disappointed that I couldn?t hang on for the victory after leading so long but hey shaving 3 minutes off of your 10K pr in a single race is not too bad. I can totally see the difference my training is making. I only did 25 miles this week including the race today but I was much more in control of my pace. Check this out. My 5 mile split was 33:23. So that means that I ran the last 1.20 miles in 7:33. Not too bad even if it was all downhill. Anyway, I talked with the guy that beat me after the race. He said that he was an ultra marathon runner(50 miles) that trained with his two kids in the stroller for up to two hours at a time. I don?t feel so bad about getting second now. He was a fantastic runner that was obviously better than me. However, I would like to see what I am capable of once I hit 60+ mpw.

I enjoyed talking with everyone I met today. I think I saw three of you from this message board there. I hope you all had great races and I hope to see you at the next race. And yes I plan on doing the turkey trot next weekend. I didn?t get my sub 40 goal(**** close though) but that 19 goal is going down on Saturday!


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quote:<HR>Originally posted by greenehouse:

>> Old Reliable Report :
On a personal note, I managed to knock a few seconds (7 I think) off of last year's time, which resulted in a new PR, and allowed me to sneak into 3rd place in my age group, so for that I was happy.
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Greenehouse,

It was very nice to meet you also. I was a little bit pre-occupied at the time. I was trying to get my son to go Potty, convince him that he should go to his mothers violin concert, juggle the jogging stroller, and get over to NC State in 15 minutes. He wanted to see the Bell tower because he was asleep when we passed it on the run. He is a huge NC State fan. He sang the NCSU Fight song the whole way over to campus(Clean version that is).

Great, job on that race! Man you really smoked it!




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quote:<HR>Originally posted by weeleeto:
Rlemert, fantastic job, congratulations!
Greenhouse, congratulations on your 3rd place finish!
JDF, great race! 3 minutes of your 10K pr is very impressive. I enjoyed talking to you today and appreciate your advice before the race. I started a little faster than I planned, finished the first mile at 7:34. Then got into a good groove averaging 7:44 for the next 4 miles, then I did 8:04 in the last 1.2 miles ? I was shocked by that even if it was downhill. I finished at 46:33. I was very happy with that time. I?ll see you at the Apex trot next week.<HR>

Awesome job weeleeto. It sounds like you ran a very well paced race.

Overall it sounds like we all had a pretty successful weekend of racing considering some of the conditions(That VA marathon sounds like it was a real heat oven). Good job to everyone. Let?s keep it up next weekend at the 5K.




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First, thanks to all who sent me their congratulations. It means a lot coming from people who understand how hard it is to improve like I have this fall, even if they're enjoying their second cup of post-race coffee while I'm still out there plugging away. (I'll get there - except I don't drink coffee <g>.)

JDF - If someone's going to beat you, better it be one of the best. I can't imagine my kid sitting still for two hours at that age - he would be trying to climb out of the stroller well before I was ready to stop running if I'd tried to do that.

BTW - Does Jason ever stay awake for the whole race?

On a different topic, a few weeks ago someone commented about the active running community in Raleigh, and said that we were not that far behind the Macon thread in terms of postings. Has anyone noticed that we've now passed them? We're at 39 pages and 956 posts, while they're at 36 pages and 891 posts. I don't think we'll ever catch up to the BEER thread, but we're not doing half bad.