Well… the Scottish poet Robert Burns once wrote, “The best laid schemes of Mice and Men oft go awry, And leave us nothing but grief and pain, For promised joy!” I thought of this quote this morning. I got up on time at 5am, had my Black Rifle CAF cup of coffee, got to the greenway on time as planned, ran a warmup mile and even had a local running group that showed up for their own training run to cheer me on at the start. Sounds good so far right? I started and was hitting my paces at each quarter mile of nearly the first third of the virtual TriSpan 5k.
McKirdy Mile Race Series
I started out back in May doing this @mckirdytrained McKirdy Mile as a way of keeping a goal in front of me and to have fun since COVID-19 was changing mine and everyone else’s plans. I haven’t trained for just a mile since I began running 5 years ago. And most of my training the last few years has been for really long distances. So my first attempt last month was 8:08 mile. I’ve steadily improved since that first attempt and today was the final of the four race series.
24 HR. YETI ULTRA CHALLENGE
I signed up for something really cool this time! It all started when @hkspence tagged myself and a few others about the @yetitrailrunners Yeti Ultra Challenge (5 miles, every 4 hours for 24 hrs – 30 miles total). That initial idea transformed into a calling up of the #trackstreetavengers ! Once we #assembled we had around 20 runners in our group and we rocked this event!
2020 Johnston Health Champions Virtual 10K
Wow! What a day! You’re looking at two guys that just both PR’d!! Yep! We’re even ringing the bells to prove it (virtually of course)!😎. My coach and friend @jim_burrows_runs agreed to meet me as we both had a virtual 10K planned for today. We both wanted to get a new PR. We did socially distance.
2020 Myrtle Beach Marathon
Myrtle Beach Marathon was awesome even with the wind! It is a scenic course which at one point parallels the ocean. I got to see my friends @kristinrunsmiles and Mikie Pylilo whom I met in Boston last year. Isn’t it cool how runners can relate so easily and became, pardon the pun, fast friends😂. Kristin and Mikie really helped me when I was a newbie last year at Boston and so I was glad to see them again and to meet Kristin’s husband Danny who was running his first marathon. I also was blessed to run with my friends Gary Lee, Tony Southerland and Wendy Boyette, who was running her first marathon too.
2019 Trophy Trot
Well it wouldn’t be thanksgiving without turkey right! Well, this turkey (yeah me) realized as I was parking my truck near the Trophy Trot event that I forgot my bib! Fortunately, the @runologie crew helped me out and got my number switched out. I’ve never done that before! But the real treat was getting to run this beautiful course with my friend and coach @jim_burrows_runs ! We’ve been on a 50 mile relay team together once but have never actually gotten to run together and at the last minute we both decided to just run this for fun. And we had a blast! Jim is a great guy and excellent runner so I try to learn all I can when this dude is around!
2019 TCS NYC Marathon
The NYC Marathon was incredible! This was my second world major and second marathon. I had trained since the end of July with three goals in mind…
A – Beat 4:29:59
B – Beat 5 hrs
C – PR
I was in wave three in the green corrals so our group had the lower level of the Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge. This made my Garmin do funky things as far as pace which made it impossible for me to know how fast I was going. So from here on out I was paying more attention to my time when I would hit the mile markers. But it also meant I was going faster at the beginning then I realized. When we got to Brooklyn it was amazing. The crowds were in full force and so supportive. Every time I’d glance at my watch after running through the crowds and getting high fives, I’d see that I was about 30-45 seconds faster than I needed to be. But it was so powerful seeing all the love we got in Brooklyn and Queens.
2019 Marine Corps Half Marathon
Lisa took this pic of me as I was coming in for a landing. I’ve been looking forward to this race for the last month. I haven’t ran in a half marathon since last October since I’ve spent most of this year it seems Marathon training, first for Boston and now for New York. And I was keen to see how much I had improved since that Ocean Isle Half which I ran in 2:16. So this was a 10 min Half Marathon PR plus I improved 32 minutes over my previous time of 2:38 when I ran the 30th anniversary 2017 Marine Corps Half.
2019 Tri-Span 10K
Well my 5th Tri-Span Race is now in the books. It has got to be the most challenging 10K course I’ve ever run due to the heat, humidity and hills (it crosses three bridges and the 2nd one is the toughest). Their description on their race page says in part “You know it’s going to be HOT so take the challenge with the humidity, heat, and hills of Wilmington!” They aren’t kidding. It’s been HOT every year. It was around 78* at the start at 7:05am and in the mid 80s by the time I finished. (See pic of my brother Chris and I turning to the finish after ascending the hill. We had both shed our shirts on the second bridge😂).
2019 Home Run 5k
Had a blast at this year’s Home Run 5k benefitting the Free Will Baptist Children’s Home. Several of my great friends from our local running group, Friends Run Together, were there.