The past few weeks

My time at RW is drawing to a close and I’ll be moving on (literally) in about a week. There will be many conclusions written but I’m ready for some new chapters.

First, a quick recap of the last two weeks, I raced the Emmaus 4 miler with a crazy strong field. I ran much faster than I expected PR’ing through the 5k (20:25) in the 4 miler.

The next week was off to Boston where I had my first marathon experience, though not running, and it was quite eye opening. Just to see a city completely taken over by runners was amazing (perfect civilization perhaps? Everyone I met had accomplished this amazing goal and I could not help but be impressed. I sat next to Boston runners on both planes and there is nothing quite like being a part of the fellowship of runners. I might actually have free housing if I ever feel like going out to Bend, Oregon.

I watched the race from the pressroom that had 4 large screens and an old-fashioned wipe board to keep splits. The sound of typing filled the room. There were plenty of mutters of “what is he doing”. I was lucky enough to film the press conferences (the Ryan Hall clip is some of my handy work).  By far it was a great experience. Needless to say, I have the bug. I want to go back to Boston but next time I want to be running it.

Wednesday after Boston, I ended up going to Philly for the Penn Relays with Flotrack. Spent three straight days talking on camera about the fast races. My Lady Vols swept the distance relays. It is so odd to think that I race against Phoebe Wright in high school. Virginia’s Robbie Andrews killed in the 4x800 meters.

I actually stood feet away from Bolt (yes, he is really that tall). The fans were so loud. You could not hear the announcer or the gun. He brought the meet to a standstill.

Which brings us to this week. It has been fairly calm considering it is finals week for me. I’m on a bit of a taper before my half (pikermi?) on Saturday. The rest of the web department (yes, we tend to run together) is just getting back into form after Boston.

I’m nervous/excited (nerexcited) about Saturday. I’m really interested in seeing what I can do. Training has been going exceeding well (thanks RW Challenge Plan). My goal was 7:30 pace but the last few weeks HMP has turned into 7:00 flat without much effort. Tempo runs have been going as quickly as 6:30. I did a 15-mile long run at 7:30 pace.

My main goal is not to go out too quickly (Negative Splits as Bart Yasso always suggests). Terrence Mahon (Kastor and Hall’s Coach) told the crowd at the NYC half to start out slower then expected pace-so I think start out at 7:30 and if feeling good start to drop. Goal time is ideally is 1:30, would be happy with a 1:40 and would love to break 1:29. Those all might be lofty goals.