Let me tell the story of the race on Saturday.

I left home early in the afternoon; we had to juggle a little bit with our schedules with my wife, and at the end we asked a friend to watch the kids for a few hours while we were both gone, but it was OK.

The rain was pouring all the way to Laurens. It is about a 75-minute drive. It was raining so hard that I had to slow down on the interstate to about 60 mph. I was a bit worried that the race would be canceled, but the organizer said they would only cancel in case of thunderstorms.

I got to the park at 3:45. The start was supposed to be from that park at 5:00 pm. So I picked up my package (still raining hard), and I got back to my car to dress up for the race, to pin on my bib number and to attach the electronic timing strip to my shoe. Then I was just sitting there, listening to Bach's Brandenburg Concertos on the car stereo until 4:35. I ate my carb snack, drank some water, then I got out of the car. After going to the bathroom, I started to warm-up at 4:45, and I was at the start line at 4:55. It was still raining quite hard, so by this time, I was almost soaked.

The organizers had some technical issues with the timing equipment in the rain, so they had to delay the start. First they said they would start at 5:10. I tried to keep myself warmed-up, but it is sort of hard to do that without getting tired. I felt I was still ready at 5:10, but then it turned out that we wouldn't start until 5:20. I started to get upset, and I basically let myself cool down. So this part wasn't quite great.

They did start the race at 5:20. It started on an uphill, and many people just shot out from the start line. I took it somewhat easier, running more conservatively. After the top of the hill, I passed a few (obviously unexperienced) runners, and I arrived to the the first mile at 7:12. By this time it was hardly raining any more, but the pavement was full of puddles. I did the second mile at about the same pace, passing quite a few people. I felt good, and it wasn't raining any more. Still, I knew I had to be careful, so I tried not to push too hard.

The next mile was mostly uphill, and I got to the 3 mile point at 22:02. I didn't quite realized how much we had climbed, and I was disappointed with that time. I knew I needed about 7:15 min/mile to get my goal time. In fact, during the whole time, there was just one thing in my head: 36 minutes. So it looked like I had lost 17 seconds (and all of that in the 3rd mile), and that I had to get the last two miles is less than 7 min/mile pace. At that point, feeling a bit tired already, and knowing my current pace, it didn't seem feasible.

One positive sign was the slight downhill that started almost immediately at the 3rd mile marker. I also started to push, a bit carefully, but soon, I stopped doing my rhythmic 2-2 breathing pattern. (That means I breath in for two steps and breath out for two steps.) I needed more oxygen. At 3.5 mile, I started to push quite hard. I wanted to arrive to the finish line with zero energy left. I passed another few people. I got to mile 4 at 28:55 or so.

Soon after the mile marker I started to worry a bit. I felt like I started my final push ("the kick") to soon, and I was running out of energy. Especially, because another longish climb followed. I tried not to slow down, but when I got to the top, I was hurting at so many body parts, I couldn't even enumerate them. Hurting badly, I tuned to the finish straight. Just like in Folly Beach, the magical powers of the finish kicked in, and my pains disappeared, leaving just the pleasure of seeing the finish clock showing 35:30 or something like that. I crossed the line at 35:48.

The organizers cut my magnetic strip from the shoe. I wanted to tell them that I was so happy to beat my best expectation on a hilly course in rainy weather and delayed start, but only babble came out of my mouth, so I gave up. I grabbed a banana and a drink, and in 5 minutes I looked like a human once again.

I grabbed dry clothes from my car and changed into them. I walked back to the finish line. The end of the pack was still arriving. After 65 minutes race time they swept the course, closed the timing, and soon they printed out and hung out the results. I got 3rd in my age group! I got a nice pencil holder and a patch. Another pleasant surprise was that it turned out that the organizers actually measured out 5 miles instead of 8 kilometers. The difference is only 47 meters, but it means another 10 seconds or so.

My next step was not that clear after the race, but by now, I more or less decided what to do. I will probably run a charity 5K in a month, but I should train for longer distances. I must remember that the final goal is a marathon. So I'm going to follow a half marathon training for 12 weeks. There won't be any half-marathons in 12 weeks around here, so unless I win the lottery (without buying a lottery ticket), I won't actually run a half-marathon race, I will just run the distance myself in race pace to see where I'll have gotten.

I can't say how much I enjoy the tapering period before my 8K on Saturday. It's great to have energy before my runs, it's great to feel that doing my 5 mile tempo run is no problem. Training did work after all. I think I'm in a pretty good shape. I'm going to rip the pavement on Saturday.

Too bad, it will almost surely rain. My age group is 30-39, so I don't think I have a chance to win anything. 36 minutes would be terrific time - I'm not sure I'm able to do it. 40 minutes is my minimum requirement.

This blog must really boring. You can read about how much I ran, how tires I am and that's it. I can't imagine why anyone would read it! Training IS boring after all, except maybe for the person who trains. Maybe that's why they only show the sports event on TV.

Saturday I ran a PR distance again: 7 miles. I'm not saying it was easy, but it wasn't too hard at all. It is still a mystery to me how it is possible to run almost four times this much. Also, on Sunday, my 4-miler felt quite easy. I have a rest day today, but I feel like I don't need it. I feel fresh, my legs feel great, no soreness, no sluggishness. Maybe training does work after all.

Last night I couldn't run the last mile of my tempo run in my time goal. I was almost OK until the last (slow) mile, but I worked so hard before that, that I couldn't do the last mile in 9 minutes. Not a tragedy. I just don't understand how could I run almost 7 minute miles on my 5K, when I am barely able to do 7:30 on my training.

Yesterday I did my longest interval training to date. 8 x 400 meters + jogging in between + warmup and cooldown: 7600 meters = 4.72 miles. Of course it's not the mileage that makes it difficult, but the 8 times 400 meters of sprints. This is my week of peak mileage. Today I'll run 4.5 miles, and this shouldn't be considered long, as on Saturday a 7-miler is on the plate. That's going to be another record breaker in distance.

I ordered a new pair of shoes yesterday. I went to THE local running store first. I'm saying "the", because this *village* I live in (the capitol of South Carolina) only has one running store. They had maybe 20 pairs of shoes altogether, and they had zero pairs of my size (8). At least the clerk in the store told me that I do have neutral feet and that my self-diagnosis about the style of running shoes I supposed to use was correct. So I went on-line and ordered a last year model Asics. I got a deal on it. I hope it will work fine.

I don't know if this is normal, or I'm doing something wrong, but since I've gone over 20 miles a week (I logged 23 miles last week), I've been feeling almost constantly tired. My two rest days per week are only enough to be able to run again, but not to be truly rested.

I have to run even more this week with a 7-mile long run.

Man, this 40 min tempo nearly killed me...

I got really disappointed when I realized that on the day I planned to run my 10K in North Carolina, I will give a talk at a conference in South Carolina. Timing couldn't have been any worse. Of course there is no way I could find another 10K on the following week or even two weeks, and also nothing for the week before. So this is it. No 10K.

The best compromise is to run an 8K on the week before. So now my plan is to run the Little River Bridge race in Laurens, SC on March 28. My set goals are: 36:12 (7:17 mm), and worst case 40:00 (8:03 mm). I had to reorganize my training to taper a little before this race, so my weekly mileage and my long runs will peak a week sooner (and at a lower value, obviously).

Yesterday my 4 mile mid-week run was really hard again. This time, I wasn't too slow, but I WAS hurting. I'm wondering if this is actually the result of my interval training on Tuesdays. Maybe it takes more out of me than I realize.

I'm running a 5-mile tempo today, which means 1 mile - 3 miles - 1 mile for me. With the slow initial and the finishing parts, I still should do no worse than 40:30. I am very tempted to attempt to speed it up a little to do it in 40 minutes - so that my minimum time goal is satisfied weeks before the race on a hard course - but I must be patient, I shouldn't risk injury, so I'll have to stick to my pace as closely as possible.

Maybe it's the 1 percent incline that I set on the treadmill last night, maybe it's the boredom that affects me negatively, or possibly the increased requirement of dull concentration to keep my speed constant, but I do find it harder to run on a treadmill than outside. It is sort of funny: I'm never out of breath, but my legs aren't feeling that strong. Maybe it is just a psychological response to the fact that I don't want to do it, so my body tries to convince me to stop.

My Saturday was great: I ran 6 miles first time in my life, and although I felt tired at the end, I didn't feel fatigued. I was upbeat and happy because of the accomplishment. I felt recovered by Sunday, when the freezing rain forced me to run 3.5 miles on the treadmill. So maybe my legs were tired due to insufficient recovery from Saturday? In any case. I did not enjoy my Sunday run at all.

I have a rest day today, then another hard week ahead, although the increase in difficulty is not as dramatic as it was for last week. I will add an extra 400 meters to the interval training tomorrow (that is 7x400 now), my midweek run goes up by a half mile to 4 miles (man, that used to be the distance of my *long* run), tempo will now be 1 mile @ 9mm, 3 miles @ 7:30, 1 mile at 9mm (5 miles total!), and Sunday will be 4 miles instead of 3.5. My long run will still be 6 miles. Piece of cake.