Heart Mini Turns Out Great!

Well, I was not in this lead pack, but I sure felt strong the entire way!

I woke up Sunday morning and poked my head out the front door to check the weather. The forecast called for rain all day but it didn't happen. So, instead of heading back to bed, I dressed in my running gear and headed for the kitchen. I grabbed a power bar, a bottle of water and headed downtown for the 8am start. A light drizzle blanketed my car as I made my way along the river to Fountain Square...was there more rain to follow?

7:45...the rain was gone and all 3,500 of us made our way to the start. It was cool and breezy, but dry! 15 minutes went fast and we were off on our 15k (9.35mi) trek down Columbia Parkway.

Temperature was a perfect 45-50 degrees and I felt strong the entire way, but I held back at the beginning because I knew some long, gradual hills were in my future. It paid off in the end. I kept an average 7:30 pace the entire way for a 1:10 finish and was very pleased with the result, coming in 36th out of 202 in my age group and 350th overall; top 10%! Not bad for 47!

TTFN

Finally Got a Real Suit!

Ok, so for all of the years I have been swimming (which has only been about 8), I have always used the traditional tourist-style suit. You know... long, baggy with that tacky Hawaiian print. Well, with reluctance, I finally "upgraded" to a real competition-style suit; partly for comfort, but also because I wanted to see if it would truly make a difference in performance.

WOW! After 8 years swimming in a sea anchor I am now free. Just a simple equipment change shaved a minute off my 500...without any extra effort. So, I can now swim longer, faster and easier and it only took 8 years to figure it out, or maybe I was just too bashful to put one on. In addition to a new suit, I read the book Total Immersion by Terry Laughlin. A real eye-opener. They also have a good website.

Anyway, the Heart Mini 15k is tomorrow and I'm still deciding if I want to trade a warm bed for wind, rain and cooler temps, but I have until 7:00 am tomorrow to make that decision :o]

Runnin' on the River

Spring is almost here, and with all of the rain we have had the Ohio River is on the rise in Cincinnati! We are at flood stage in the Queen City, so I thought it might be cool to take a camera with me on my 5 mile lunch-time jog across the Cincinnati bridges. As you can see, there ain't much room left on the banks. Anyway, I had a great afternoon trek and look forward to the rest of the weeks' mild weather.

Training-wise, I'm probably going to run the Heart Mini-marathon later this month, a deceptively difficult 9 miler along Columbia parkway. This should ease me into the Flying Pig Half in early May. My long distance runs have become just too damn painful to continue training for the full marathon. I'm cool with that.

Time for taxes...ack!
TTFN
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