10K First Place and new PR!

Saturday was the Moses Lake Police Department 10K Run For Your Life fun run. I had a goal to come in at 41 minutes (a 6:36 pace). It was a down and back with a turn around half-way for the 5K runners. From the start of the race I quickly fell into third place with first and second far ahead of me and fourth far behind me. My first mile was a bit to fast (6:23 mile) so I slowed down a bit so I could finish strong. At 1.55 miles (the 5K turnaround) I was surprised to see the two runners ahead of me turn around - they were 5K runners! From that point on I held a commanding lead of first place for the 10K, but more important to me was hitting the 41 minute goal.

Miles 2 and 3 were just about perfect on my pace (one just below and one right on the 6:36 pace). But mile four I began to feel the work I had put in for the first three miles. I slowed down a bit to hit a 6:46 pace. With only two miles to go, and no one near me, I started pushing harder to hit my goal. Mile 5 and 6 came in good with just under a quarter mile to go to the finish. I saw the clock on the finish line from about a tenth of a mile away ticking closer and closer to 41 minutes. With a sprint to the end I watched the clock tick: 58, 59, 00, and I crossed the finish line as I saw the number 01 show up. Even my GPS watch agreed: 41:01. I had missed my goal by 1 second! Excited about first place, but disappointed at how the one second mocked me at the finish line.

However, I had forgotten something very important about the race timing. It was chip timed. My time didn't officially start until I crossed the start line, which apparently took me three seconds to do! My official time from crossing the start to crossing the finish was 40:58!!!! I had beaten my goal time by three seconds and blown my old 10K record out of the water by two minutes forty seconds! Getting first overall was nice, but not nearly as exciting as improving my 5K by so much! I still need to cut 1:58 off my time to qualify for second seed on bloomsday next year, but I'm getting much closer!

(this race was probably much easier to win as there was also a triathlon and a duathon happening at the same time that pulled several of the competitive runners out of the race. Also many of the faster runners in town are training for a marathon together and race day was a rest day on the marathon schedule so they either ran the 5K - like the two who were ahead of me for the first 1.55 miles, or didn't run at all. Either way - first is first :-D)

15 miles!

New distance record today, 15 miles! I started out with a near perfect pace (7:25ish) for the front five miles, this helped as I got near the end I was still able to run faster than my goal pace! The first 14 miles went great without any trouble at all! The last mile was hard, but being so close to the end pushed me to keep going, I even finished with a 7:16 mile on my last mile by just pushing myself to finish! 15 mile time - 1:49:41, pace: 7:18 mile! I feel great!

Next week the long run is 16 miles! I have 5 more weeks of increasing distance before I taper for three weeks and run the marathon! Less than two months until the big race!

Marathon Quotes

Mike Fanelli, running club coach:

"I tell our runners to divide the race into thirds. Run the first part with your head, the middle part with your personality, and the last part with your heart."

Jacqueline Gareau, 1980 Boston Marathon champ:

"The body does not want you to do this. As you run, it tells you to stop but the mind must be strong. You always go too far for your body. You must handle the pain with strategy...It is not age; it is not diet. It is the will to succeed."

Unknown:

"At mile 20, I thought I was dead. At mile 22, I wished I was dead. At mile 24, I knew I was dead. At mile 26.2, I realized I had become too tough to kill."

Don Kardong:

"No doubt a brain and some shoes are essential for marathon success, although if it comes down to a choice, pick the shoes. More people finish marathons with no brains than with no shoes."

Scott Douglas:

"In the first half of the race, don't be an idiot. In the second half, don't be a wimp!"

Broke the 5k 20 min mark!

Today I ran my first 5k under 20 min, my official time was 19:47 or a 6:22 mile! The only training I have been doing was for a marathon, but this 5k provided the opportunity to skip a session at my conference for work to do something far more fun - run!

My time was good for third overall, second male and first in my age category, no medal, they gave out a blue water bottle for first in age category!

According to my distance time converter, it estimates that my marathon time should be around 3:09:27! Probably a bit lower than it would actually be, but much lower than my both my 3:30 goal and 3:15 hope! Keep running!

Bloomsday Results:

Official results are in for the Bloomsday 12K:

Tyler L Wallace
Finish Time: 0:53:24  Overall Place: 826 out of 47,841 (top 1.7%!) Ran with a pace of 7:09 per mile The average pace for 28-year-olds was 13:45
Placed 38th among 846 people the same age (top 4.5%) Placed 5th among 433 people from Moses Lake, WA (top 1.2%) Placed 551st among 37,819 people from Washington (top 1.5%) Placed 1st among 26 people with the same last name (top!!!) Placed 701st among 19,205 males (top 3.7%) Placed 29th out of 323 among 28-year-old males (top 8.9%) Placed 169th out of 2,152 people in your age group (top 7.8%)

It was a great run with great weather. The first mile was a bit slow weaving around the people, but it was lots of fun overall. I ran at a good pace and finished very strong! (and almost vomited twice after crossing the finish line!). Doomday hill was not as bad as people say it is, probably the worst part was seeing it coming! But once I was on it, not to bad. I was very happy with the run and it was only 24 seconds off my goal, which considering the slow first mile as I weaved around several thousand people, I can be happy with it!

My next race will be the spring fest 10K in Moses Lake! I hope to improve on my PR of 43:28! In the mean time, I'm taking a few days of recovery, then back on marathon training!

Ready for Bloomsday

Yesterday I ran 10 miles. It was the longest run since my half marathon when I hurt my foot (and still finished with a 7:12 mile!) It went great. My longer runs are now made up of 3 and 4 mile loops with a water station set up in my front yard that I pass each loop. The excitement right now though is not the 10 mile run that I did in 1:12:29 (a 7:14 mile), but my first bloomsday race is this weekend!

Bloomsday is an odd distance - 12K or 7.46 miles, but it is a race that (I'm told) every runner in the northwest must run. So I am signed up to run the race - along with 54,000 other runners! I am starting in the third wave (yellow) which I had to qualify for. I doubt this will be an annual race for me, but it is a race, like the marathon, that I will be excited to have in the "done it" list! My goal is to finish in under 53:00 or a 7:06 mile. Earlier this week I ran 5 miles at a 6:48 mile, so I'm optimistic. I found a race calculator that says I should finish right at 52:00 or a 6:57 mile, but that doesn't count doomsday hill which is a one mile hill towards the end of the run!

I will post once I have results from Sunday's run!

Start Week 4

Today marked the start of week 4 with just under 15 weeks until the Moses Lake Marathon! Monday is almost always an easy 8:00 mile for 3 mile run. So far I have been able to stay on track with the running schedule! Today's run was great, three miles (especially at the 8:00/mile pace) is starting to feel real easy and short - very encouraging when the goal is 26.2 miles at a 7:30/mile pace! I have also joined 2 running groups which should be fun - one on Saturday mornings and another on Wednesday nights (which I won't be able to start for about 4 more weeks). This put an extra 6 miles on last Saturday's run which gave me 11 miles on Saturday! With only two weeks until Bloomsday I've rearranged my training (two posts back) to allow rest days in preparation and recovery from the 12K race. Short list of unrelated ramblings in today's blog, but that's the update!