This Blog will serve primarily as a log for various races run(Road and Trail), biking adventures, hikes, going over the gear I used and liked(or didnt like), and also to help me keep track of what I did while preparing for different goal events.
Below is one of the better images of me from the first race of this season, The Calhouns New Years Day 5K 2015. This was, of course, the first race of the season this year, but my venture into running started a little before this, but not by much. I'm currently 45 years old and just finished up what I consider to be my first ever "full" season of running in 2014. I didnt run my first organized race until I was 42(a month away from 43 at the time), The Hops For Hope 5K in Knoxville. My time was 24:45 with a 7:58 pace. Come to find out, that wasnt too aweful bad a time for someone who didnt have a clue what they were doing. Of course, I also briefly remember thinking that 5K's were the only thing besides marathons that there were to run. After also running a Tough Mudder in October 2012 with a couple of friends(and an Iraq War Veteran we picked up at the start who was going to run solo), I had made the commitment to continue to run, workout and improve my overall health.
The next Spring, with the encouragement of a friend who was also a runner, I signed up for something at that time that I still couldnt quite grasp. A seven mile trail race. When he first told me he was running it, I thought, seven miles? on a trail? running? It seemed completely ludicrous. Surely this was the pinnacle of endurance for runners around here, right? The race itself was an absolute blast though, even in road shoes(trail shoes? they make shoes just for trails?). I had another decent run on the trail doing better than I had expected to do, and to my surprise, I didnt die. Thats all it took for my competitive nature to take over.
Over the course of 2013 I ran a handful of road races, all 5k's, which included the Pilot Fireball Classic on July 4th weekend where I was able to turn in my first sub seven minute pace finishing at 21:34 and a 6:57 overall pace. I also went on to run a handful of trail races as well, none of which were as short as a 5K. Turns out trail races werent for the casual runner. By the fall of 2013 I had built up enough confidence to try longer runs by signing up for the Norris Dam Hard Trail 25K which I finished in exactly three hours and the Big South Fork 17.5 mile trail race which I finished in 2:50. Not stellar times, but I finished both and most importantly learned a ton about myself and what it took for me to run those distances.
By the beginning of 2014 I had made up my mind to run as much of the Knoxville Track Clubs "Treadin Troddin Trails" Series as I could to try and see where I fell in competitiveness. The biggest difference I found in trail racing was that race pace was slower. By as much as a couple of minutes usually which was fine with me because the distances were longer and the hills were higher! Without going into detail on every trail run in 2014, I'll summarize by saying that once again I learned a lot about myself and what it took to run for hours at a time instead of minutes of time. I had a couple of races that I didnt run anywhere near as well as I expected, but towards the end of the season especially, I had a couple of great finishes. The last Trail race I ran in 2014 was the Norris Dam Hard Trail 25K which I had run the previous year in exactly three hours. This past year I finished over a half an hour faster at 2:28 and 6th overall. In the end, I was greatly encouraged to finish the 2014 season 3rd in points in the Treadin Troddin Trails series
Overall, the finish at Norris along with a couple of good road half marathon finishes(1:36 at the Secret City Half in Oak Ridge Tn), a new P.R. on a 5K course(20:29 at the Regal Entertainment Autumnfest), and a couple of "first in age group" awards in the Law Enforcement Memorial Run 5K and the Heels and Wheels Duathlon as well as a Masters podium finish at the Rock and Root 30K Trail Race really have me pumped up for the coming season!
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