Jefferson College 5K Race Report- DNF

This weekend I was in action at the Jefferson College 5K and after the previous weekends success I was excited to give it another go. I knew I would be going head to head with my Roanoke Valley Elite teammate, Andrew Parkins. I knew he was going very well and even though I wouldn't beat him I knew I would get a workout in trying to hold onto him for as long as I could.

The beginning of the race... all is well.

After we pre-ran the course and chatted with some others at the start line it was time to go. The gun fired and we were off! I immediately tucked in behind Andrew with the first quarter of a mile on a downhill, we were cruising. We took a left over the Memorial Bridge which was a slight uphill and I was still holding on just fine. As we crested the bridge and headed down the other side, Andrew turned up the pace a bit and I was able to sit tight making our way to the turns leading onto the Greenway. Through the first right turn off the bridge I was good, but as we made the second turn I felt a pop in my left hip that sent a shooting pain up my body! I tried to shake it off going into the left turn on the Greenway and it popped again and this time it continued to hurt! I saw my pace slowly deteriorating and Andrew started moving ahead of me. He started yelling for me to pick it up, but I couldn't. I was broken...

The guy behind me caught up to me as I now was a minute slower than before and I tried to hang on to him just to stay in the top three but the pain became unbearable so I had to stop. Eric Fonville came rolling by and asked me how I was doing... I let him know I was OK and cheered him on. He eventually finished up third overall! Way to go Eric! I continued to walk the course as the rest of the runners came by and cheer them on. I had a lot of friends do really well in the race so I was very happy for them so it was still an awesome day to be out there.

I have had trouble with piriformis syndrome in my hip in the past and I knew that I had just jacked it up pretty good again. Now, I have to take some time off from running to let this calm down and hopefully limit my down time since I am planning on doing the Seashore 50K in mid December. I am still able to bike and swim so we shall see how it goes. I have the Star City Half Marathon in a couple of weeks, but depending on my recovery this may just need to be a large group run. Stay tuned...

Greenway Memory Miler Race Report

Yesterday was my first race back after being away from it for five months. I have gotten my training back on track and was ready to see where my fitness was as I prepare for the Seashore 50K in December.

There weather was a brisk sub 40 degree start and as I lined up I didn't know what to expect. My only goal was to treat the race as a tempo run and try to push a consistent pace. It was great to be lined up again and I was reunited with a lot of friends I had not seen all summer. It was a mass start for both the 4 and 10 mile distances and as we started, my Roanoke Valley Elite teammate, Andrew Parkins, immediately set pace at the front with Ed Dickinson hot on his heels. I knew both of them were running the 4 mile race so I let them go and just worked on keeping to my goal.

Andrew Parkins leading us out!

Settling into a comfortable pace.

So as I settled in I was just under my goal pace for the first mile and at the 4 mile race turn around, to my surprise, I was in the lead! Andrew was blistering to the finish of the 4 mile race, which he won, and cheered me on as we passed each other. I continued to keep my pace right at or below my goal all the way to the 10 mile turn around and as I looked for the second placed runner, I passed Eric Fonville well over a quarter mile behind. I passed another group of two runners a little bit behind him so I kept my pace going. At mile seven I saw Andrew cooling down and asked him if he could see anyone behind me. He said I was all alone so I turned my pace down a bit and cruised it in.

A mile to go and headed in for the Win!

It was a great day for Roanoke Valley Elite, with Andrew and I both winning our races. I am very happy with my unexpected result after such a long time off. The next two months will see me in action almost every weekend (see my training/racing calendar below) leading up to the 50K and then I will get started with my preparations for the 2015 season. With such a long time away, it feels good to be back in my element and I hope to have some more successes in the races to come!

First Place Overall!

Andrew and I pull off the
 RV Elite sweep.