Tobacco Trail FTM!

That's For The Maniac, not For The Win.  Sunday morning is supposed to be 70 degrees and overcast, which is much better than the 80* and thunderstorms they were calling for earlier this week.  It's the 3rd Tobacco Road Marathon, which is also our 3rd marathon in 3 months and should qualify us to join the Marathon Maniacs insane asylum.  I ran the inaugural marathon back in 2010, pulling a 4:31 in my second ever marathon and holding that PR until I broke it in Ironman.

It's no secret that 26.2 is my favorite distance, and this is one of my favorite races.  It's on the road for the first 3 miles or so with everyone running together (they do a half distance as well).  Then when it hits the trail full runners go left and half runners go right.  So you don't spend the first 12 miles running with the halfers on a crowded course only to go past the finish line and feel alone and abandoned on the second half of the course.  The trail is as wide as a one lane road, part of it is paved but mostly it's "hard packed screenings" which is a very soft surface.  The trail is flat, mostly.  It's surrounded by tall trees so there is no wind or harsh open sun to deal with.  It's a cool run through shady woods for 20 miles, then you get back on the open road at mile 23 to head back to the start/finish line.

My plan is to just go out there and take it easy.  The kids are staying with Kelley's mom until Monday, so we get to recover at home just laying around watching movies.  I'm going to try and break 4 hours again, but barely try.  I'll hold the 8:30 to 9 minute pace range as long as it feels good, then just hang out.  The trail is so relaxing it's hard not to have a good time while you're running it.    Just click off the miles and let's see what's going on.  I'm really looking forward to this one.

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From the 5k last weekend:  I got my splits off of the garmin.  Mile 1 went in 6:53, mile 2 was 7:43 (it's always the slowest), and the last 1.12 went by in 8:14 for a 7:20 pace.  The last kick at the end started at 2.9 miles into the race, so it lasted .22 miles total and I gave it a 5:07 average pace.  I did not know I could still kick that fast for that far.  Almost a quarter mile at 11.7 mph?  I've certainly never gone that fast on the treadmill or running intervals.   Looks like I need to push it a little harder the next time I do quarter mile intervals.

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I beat the price increase for a couple of other Grand Prix series races that are now showing on the 2012 race schedule.  The RunRaleigh half marathon might be my only 13.1 this year.  It's a new race that is guaranteed to be fast. It starts in a nice part of town, goes by NC State, into downtown, then through the ghetto.  There's even 5 miles on a greenway that goes through the woods where the rapists live (my joke - it's not literally filled with rapists).  But I am curious how much security they will have on the course.  I don't usually run (or drive) through some of those neighborhoods.  Fun times! 

I also got us registered for the WakeMed Distance festival 10k on May 5th.  This will be the first 10k I've ever done that wasn't at the end of an oly triathlon, so that should be fun.  It's mostly on trails that run through this soccer park, so that should be fun too.  It's Kelley's first 10k ever, so she's guaranteed a PR.  And it was only $15!  Unbelievable. 

And that's races number 5 and 6 for the Grand Prix series, of which I have to complete 6 races to be eligible for awards.  Each race you get points based on your overall finish time (not within age group), and over the course of the series they have overall and age group point standings.  So through four races, I've completed all four of them (all 5k's), and am currently sitting 3rd in my age group and 19th overall.  Kelley has competed in two of the four races and is still sitting in 7th place for her age group.  Of course some of the people above her have done 3 or 4 of the races but with lower points per race, so when everyone has finished 6 races she will be above them.  They take your best 6 races out of as many as you want to compete in, and count those to your total.  So I might do another 5k just to see if I can get more points there.  In addition to the RunRaleigh half and WakeMed Distance festival, Kelley will also have to do the 5k on April 21 and the 10k on May 20th to get her 6 races in.  Still this Grand Prix series is fun.  Seriously fun.

I had a lot of trouble finding a spring triathlon for this year.  I wanted something early in the season, but not march or april early since there will be so many running races going on with the Grand Prix series.  May 19th fit the bill perfectly, and the FS50 race is new and pretty exciting!  It's a one mile open water swim, 44 mile bike ride, and 5 mile run.  They also run a 100 mile race, which seems interesting.  You have to train for it like an ironman, but it's still 40 miles shorter than an ironman.  It's in Little Washington, NC about 2 hours east of here and has a really flat bike course and shaded run course.  I haven't done a 5 mile run in a race for several years now so that should be fun.  And we get a Sugoi tri top in the swag bag.  The other fun part about this one is that it's on a saturday, and Kelley has a 10k race on Sunday the 20th in Raleigh for the grand prix series.  Lots of racing that weekend!

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Since the kids are out of town, we saw Girl with the Dragon Tattoo last night.  Absolutely loved it!  With the kids out of town we were actually able to see a movie that started at 8 pm.  It's the little things that get exciting at our age.  The flick was funny and exciting, but I had a tough time buying the premise behind that many english speaking swedish natives with different accents.  Still, great flick.  and it was playing at the $2 theater near the house, so it was a cheap date. 

It's peanut butter jelly time!