Time: 62:30
Distance: 9 mi.
Easy run in the Glover trails from George's house. The trails were a little bit sloppy, but we got in a decent effort. And I raced George at the end... We're still waiting for the determination from FAT timing.
Time: 113:00
Distance: 17 mi.
Finally the Marine Corps Marathon is upon us. Jordan and I came up woefully short in our preparations, but we didn't want to miss getting involved by helping out Team MJ. If Meagan and Jilane ran well maybe we could lul them into a false sense of security about a future OJ vs. MJ matchup. (Okay... kidding, kidding.) The plan for the day was to help pace Jilane and Meagan through the first 16 miles of the marathon just around 3:00 (6:52/mile) pace.
Jordan came over to Colin's to drag me out of bed and head down to the start of the marathon, near the Pentagon. We made it down to the start line in enough time to jog a little bit and get a decent spot near the start before a howitzer shot announced the commencement of the race. The race conditions were nearly perfect, but it did take a couple of miles to get warmed up and going (the race is hilly through about the first 10 miles).
The start of the 2008 Marine Corps Marathon
We enjoyed running together through the first 8 miles at which point Meagan (and Jordan) had to make a pit stop. I ran with Jilane through the next few miles from Georgetown out past the halfway mark over by East Patomac Park. We were a bit quick through the half (1:27:30) but Jilane seemed relaxed and I was even trying to pull in the reins a bit after a few miles under 6:30. I let her go at 16 miles with confidence that she was on the right track, but I wouldn't get any update until I saw her finish. She ran a great second half (about 1:30:50) and finished in 10th! Meagan had a rough stomach day, which I can definitely sympathize with, and had to stop around 20 miles.
Splits: 7:03, 7:04, 6:31, 6:25, 6:34, 6:44, 6:55, 6:31, 6:45, 6:23, 6:25, 6:47, 6:34 (1:27:30 half), 6:42, 6:42, 6:32 (1:46:35 at 16 miles)
I was very glad that despite not fulfilling my marathon goal, I could help Jilane out, and her hard work paid off. I felt fine and was having a lot of fun being in the race, despite a bit of hamstring tightness. Once Meagan reached 16 miles Jordan dropped out as well and we walked back to the Iwo Jima memorial for the finish.
For a lot more on the day, see Jilane, Meagan and Jordan's logs, as well as the full race results.
Time: 51:21
Distance: 7.5 mi.
Steps near the beginning of the Archibald-Glover Trail
Early morning run from Jilane's summer place at Massachusetts and Wisconsin NW. She took me to the Archibald-Glover trail that leads down to Georgetown and the Capitol Crescent Trail. I ran the length of the trail I only ran a few minutes on the paved Capitol Crescent Trail before turning back.
Time: 40:00
Distance: 6.5 mi.
Target: 5 mile tempo in 5:30s or faster; don't lose to any women (pretty awesome, huh?)
Race/workout: 5:33, 5:30, 5:26, 5:28, 4:59 (26:56)
I went down to DC for the weekend and on Saturday evening headed out to the Rockville Twilight 8k near the Stern's house. I--as Darkwing Duck--ran the first few miles with Ben "Sir Quackley McDuck" Stern and then kept on the pace as he dropped back a bit. I didn't really prepare for this mentally or physically, illustrated by the 12ish minute warmup with the whole Duckberg All-Stars team, lack of any stretching, and starting a few rows back. I had stomach issues from about 1/2 mile into the effort and got blisters about half way through the race, but overall it was probably good to do this. Also, they had very nice complimentary refreshments afterwards.
I finished in 25th and while crossing the line after the first woman but (because the times are listed as chip times, rather than gun times) I beat her in the results.
6. 159:09 DUCKBURG ALL-STARS (31:50)
===================================
1 26:56 Darkwing Duck M 23
2 28:50 Sir Quackly McDuck M 23 (Ben Stern)
3 33:22 Dewey Duck F 23 (Jilane Rodgers)
4 34:17 Flintheart Glomgold M 23 (Christian Tabib)
5 35:44 Miss Emily Quackfaste F 23 (Kelly Powell)
Time: 60:00
Distance: 8.5 mi.
Map
Started with Jilane in Amherst Woods before she headed out on the east section of the bike path. I did a short version of the Rosen Loop coming back that same way.
Time: 30:00
Distance: 4 mi.
Course jog with 6 or 7 strides in spikes.
Aerial view of the course (which used to be the remnants of a mine)
10k course map
While we were putzing around in Terre Haute, Jilane (and friends) were rocking out in Philadelphia. JR ran a nice negative split (1:46:52 / 1:37:01) to finish in 3:23:53 (well under the Boston Qualifying time of 3:40, which I think was her goal).
Time: 70:00
Distance: 11 mi.
NCAA Div. I South Central Regional XC Championship
Target: make nationals, run smart.
Race: team 2nd; 14th in 30:18.
We accomplished our goal of qualifying for nationals with no trouble as we just had to beat Texas A&M who finished with nearly twice our score. Our team race wasn't quite as strong as I think we were hoping for though with Kyle and Jake a little bit back but Leo and Erik ran very well taking 3rd and 4th. Jake and I ran together through 3 miles, about when we caught Kyle, and I ran away from them a bit.
I ran the conservative race plan well, but the way the race shaped up, I was running nearly alone for the last 4 miles. There was a pretty strong front pack that Jake and I were off by the first mile and we were in no man's land trying to catch them. In the last 2 miles it really felt like I was almost running a tempo, with almost no one to run with and knowing that we had the nationals bid locked up. Definitely could've closed much harder, which I will have to get ready to do in 10 day--this wasn't even the effort of the Big 12s race for me. Went through the first mile in 4:50, second in 9:41, fourth in 19:32 (4:51ish pace), not sure about the rest but if it is a full 10k (there are questions about the distance) I would've averaged 4:53s (meaning that the last 2 miles were slow).
Bottom line: we're headed to Terre Haute, and I'm especially looking forward to giving both Arkansas and Oklahoma State another run.
 With Jake near 2 miles... |  and starting the second loop |
1 Arkansas 37 5 6 7 9 10 27 41
Total Time: 2:28:59.10
Average: 29:47.82
2 Texas 52 3 4 12 16 17 19 44
Total Time: 2:31:00.60
Average: 30:12.12
1 Shadrack Songok Tex. A&M-Corpus 29:16.3 1
2 Francis Kasagule Lamar 29:23.4 2
3 Leonel Manzano Texas 29:30.7 3
4 Erik Stanley Texas 29:35.2 4
5 Matt Munoz Arkansas 29:36.7 5
6 Chris Barnicle Arkansas 29:37.8 6
7 Scott MacPherson Arkansas 29:39.3 7
8 Joseph Simichimba Lsu 29:52.1 8
9 Tyler Hill Arkansas 29:55.8 9
10 Festus Kigen Texas Christian 30:04.3
11 Steve Magness Houston 30:04.3
12 Shawn Forrest Arkansas 30:09.5 10
13 Nava Luis Texas-Pan American 30:15.3 11
14 Owen Washburn Texas 30:18.1 12
15 Samuel Kosgei Lamar 30:21.5 13
18 Darren Brown Texas 30:44.4 16
19 Jake Morse Texas 30:52.2 17
22 Kyle Miller Texas 30:58.5 19
49 Jay Heller Texas 31:57.5 44
Time: 80:00
Distance: 12 mi.
The Greenbelt is almost completely dried up
Drove down to Barton Springs with Jilane and did a small loop on Town Lake before the crowds were more than I could bear and then headed back to do most of the run on the Greenbelt. Nice to get out there as we haven't been doing the Wednesday runs there too much this year, but ended up wandering a little bit when I tried some new and somewhat overgrown trails about 25 minutes out on the trail. Right glute/hamstring tight again as on most recent post-workout days, but they loosened up over the course of the run. Really nice to see JR have a good run too!
Time: 46:30
Distance: 6 mi.
Nice and easy morning 6 miler out and back on the Western Ridge Trail with Jilane. Happy to keep the pace chill and get a morning shakeout.
