PR PR PR PR PR PR PR PR

Hey, guys. Yes, I'm still running. No, I haven't been posting. I suppose that's ok. :) I've just been so busy, and things are only getting worse. Starting the first Monday in October, Handel's Messiah rehearsals are on Mondays, so the Monday after work schedule goes drive home, pick up family, drive to gym, take family home, drive to rehearsal... ugh. Still running though! Heh.

I had posted about this in the health thread, but I picked up some Newton Distantia shoes and was easing into them. Things were going FABULOUS, my runs were amazingly fast for me, and I was real happy. I'd switched to running in only the Newtons, did my long run on Sunday, a regular run on Tuesday, and a 7-miler on Wednesday... on the 7-miler, I noticed my toes were hurting a little, but when I finished, my foot was in horrible pain. I was limping around for days.

So I stopped running for a week. I did a quick one-miler on the treadmill, which went good, and the next day I tried the Newtons again, only to be in the same pain I was in before. So I took another couple days off.

I've run 45 miles in the Newtons so far, but bought some more Nike Pegasus's, the new model, 28. The new model is a little more padded in the insole, which has helped with my pain, meaning I'm back running again.

I'm still in pain walking around, especially barefoot, but I've found I can run in the Nikes with minimal discomfort. I did a long run yesterday, 15 miles were scheduled, and I thought I'd be doing 16. It ended at 15.5, which isn't too bad. I felt pretty good, and made sure to throttle myself down and walk a few times to make sure I wasn't overdoing it.



I ran 15.5 miles in 2:44:21, 10:38/mi and felt GREAT afterwards. In fact during the run, at quite a few moments where I remember being fatgued on that particular route, I still felt fresh. So that's good news, indeed.

Then there was this morning.

This morning was simultaneously the worst and best 5k I've run. It was the Bishop's Pumpkin 5k run to benefit the American Red Cross, run at Bishop's Pumpkin Farm in Wheatland, CA.

It was just organized badly. With exception of running in a large group of people, every benefit of running a real race was missing. If I'd known this ahead of time, I would have been a bandit and saved the $25 registration fee! Seriously, there were no bibs, there was no clock, no water stops. The course was mostly on tractor roads with soft ground. Prizes were given for the top 3 male, female, and child finishers, and the only way they knew who these people were is they caught the finishers as they crossed the line!

The worst part was the fact that it wasn't even close to 5k. My Garmin measured 2.61 miles when I crossed the finish line, but I was there for a 5k (and for time), so I ran 3.1 miles anyway. Why?

After two years, I finally got a 5k PR!





Splits
Mile 1: 7:43
Mile 2: 7:49
Mile 3: 7:40
.1 Mi: :49 (8:14/mi)

3.1 Miles, 24:03, 7:49/mi average, 328 calories burned

Interestingly enough, my last 5k PR of 25:09 was on a short course as well, it was only 2.95 miles. Rather than calculate it out and take the longer PR, I wrote down the false time, which gave me something more to aim for. It was tough, it took 2 years to finally beat! Today, I did it.

I'm running another 5k next week, this one properly measured out and better organized. I'm also hoping for another PR. It'll take a lot more work, but I think I can do it. I'm also not going to run this race again.