I figured I’d write another year-ending blog post to get lost in everyone’s RSS and Twitter feeds.
Overall, I ran 1,650 miles in 2018 in 233 hours, 58 minutes, and 41 seconds (that’s an average of 8:31 min/mile pace).
I’ve divided this post up into four parts – short distances (5k and shorter), medium distances (>5k to half marathon), long distances (the marathon), and some discussion about all the running that was not racing (which represented 95.5% of my running).
Credit: By Kalle K kallek – https://unsplash.com/photos/HnWoAM0bMec, CC0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=61792052
Short Distances
My racing calendar traditionally has two 5ks, three 3.2ks, and one 1 mile. Since 2013, one of the 5ks has been the Bockfest 5k. This year was not a PR(23:13; my prior PR was 23:04). This was a course PR on a difficult course, though. In 2017 and 2018, the other 5k has been the Batavia Bulldog Blast 5k. This is an easy 5k on a fast pancake-flat course, and I made another PR there of 21:46. Even better, I won my age group and was 7th overall!
Another short distance I race is a 3.2k (ish) cross-country series. This is a series of three off-road races operated by the NKU XC team, and the third of the series, the Brian Rohne XC Championship, is named in honor of my brother. He ran for NKU prior to his death in 1993. Out of the three races, two of them were PRs – the first and the third. The second happened to be 3 days after the Bulldog Blast 5k. Apparently, I won my age group in one of those, too!
The only other short distance I run is the Little Kings Mile. I ran the one mile course in 6:39 this year, a nice improvement over last year’s 6:55 on a similar course.
Medium Distances
I had three medium distance races on the calendar this year, the Hudepohl 14k in September, the Honor Run Half Marathon in November, and the Hungry Turkey Half in November.
The Hudepohl was a breakout race. For years, my long races have been slower than an 8:00 minute/mile pace. This time was different. All my paces were sub-8:00 minute/mile, and the overall pace was 7:28! This was my first race as a 40-year-old, and I was 13th in my age group, about 10 minutes behind the AG winner. I looked at the M34-39 results, I would have also been 13th, but I would have been just under 20 minutes behind the leader.
The Honor Run was a freezing cold race, and I had some GI issues. It was a PR with a 1:42:33, was 10th in my age group (of 57 people in my age grou) and 61 overall (of 859 total runners).
Late in the season, thanks to targeted advertising on Facebook, I ran the Hungry Turkey Half a day shy of two weeks after the Honor Run. I had some of the makings of a bad race – some stomache issues at the beginning – but the race itself went well. I PRed again with a 1:39:35, won my age group (of 19 people), and was 27th overall (of 461 people).
Long Distances
The only race longer than a half marathon that I’ve run is the marathon. I ran the Flying Pig Marathon in early May. I set out with the primary goal to finish the entire race running, with secondary goals of sub-4:00 and sub-3:45. I was unsure of the time-based goals because I used several online calculators to help predict my time to pace the race correctly, and they ranged from about 3:40 to 4:09. I also saw another runner who ran his 20 mile long runs in about the same time as me – 2:57. He ran his marathon in just over 4 hours. So I was pretty happy to cross that finish line in 3:45:14 after fighting through the last 7 or so miles under yellow-flag conditions (and you know, first wall).
Training
The year kicked off with marathon training – I used Hal Higdon’s Intermediate 1 Marathon Plan. It’s a good plan, and it feels like it’s designed to break you down and rebuild you better, faster, and stronger.
The summer training was a little less focused, partly because I went between plans, until I started the Hal Higdon Advanced Half Marathon in the late summer.
Throughout all the training, I kept with a mostly-regular (twice weekly) set of form drills that are outlined in Meb for Mortals. I also added squats on the same day after my run, and these tended to align with my two harder days of the week (not to be confused with my longer days).
I learned a lot about training in general from my marathon training. After a particularly rough training run that just kicked my ass, I started to do these things with a little more intelligence: high-carbohydrate meal on the night before, Gatorade Endurance during the run with an appropriate amount of gels (I started with Gu, but ended the year with Gatorade Endurace Gel, which I think taste better). I also learned more about recovery and bought some compression socks. After that same ass-kicking training run, I could barely stretch and my calves looked like I had something crawling under the skin.
What’s Next?
Not one, but two marathons! I’m signed up for the Glass City Marathon in Toledo, Ohio on April 28, 2019. The second will be a fall marathon. I was originally thinking of the Air Force Marathon, but the past few years of weather has me reconsidering – the race was Black-Flagged this past year. Perhaps the Columbus (Ohio) Marathon in late October (the weather is usually pretty good around that time of year). The summer will be filled in as usual with the Bulldog Blast 5k and NKU XC Series. I’ll probably run in the beer series again (I was reconsidering, but they truly are fun races).