Post Race Report: No Pain, Well Trained

My Turkey Trot was successful. I was pretty excited to get back out there and run a race again, but I was a little nervous about how my knees were going to feel throughout the race and afterwards. To ensure that I could subside any pain during the run, I took a couple of ibuprofen about fifteen minutes before the race. This was also the longest distance I had run since running a marathon back on 13 September.

One thing I've learned about cardiovascular fitness by training for triathlons, is that one discipline (swimming, biking, running) can not take the place of another. I have been swimming regularly since the marathon, but it is a different kind of cardiovascular fitness. To build up your running—you need to run, to build up your bike, you need to bike. Having the mindset that your long runs are a substitute, or are going to somehow transfer over to your cardiovascular fitness on the bike—I've learned—is erroneous. First of all, you use different muscles running than you do biking, which require a different type of effort. Just because your hamstrings are well conditioned, does not mean your quads are going to take the pounding of a two hour bike ride. Trying to climb a steep grade on your ride is difficult if you have not been putting in the hours. It can take some serious wind out of your sails. That is mostly what I felt yesterday—the lack of training.

With brother Leonard

I ran the first three miles with my friend Manuel. Our first three splits were 7:10, 14:45 and 23:50. I knew that I was not going to maintain that pace (with minimal training)—despite the fact I was eager to run negative splits. Between miles three and four, Manuel pulled away on one of the gradual climbs. I wanted to finish sub-50 minutes, but I ended up with a fairly respectable 50:21. I can not complain. The good news is that my knees felt good last night and they feel great this morning! I am ready to start training for double digits again. I look at this as a training run at the end of the day.

Here I am with Manuel and Vanessa

Congratulations to friends Terry Christo for her first place age-group finish (55-59): 45:27, Vanessa Taylor's 6th place age-group finish (20-24): with a time of 46:35, Karen Leastman's PR of 52:55, Manuel Pacheo: 48:15, and my brother Len with a 1:01:04.

Here I am with age-group champion Terry Christo.