Bill Menees's Blog

I finished yesterday's Country Music Half Marathon in 1:45:37, which was over an 8 minute PR for me. It was also much faster than my 2:14:47 last year. Just about everything went right, including the weather. It rained all morning right up until the start of the race, but then it stopped. During the race it stayed cool and overcast, and the wind was very mild.

The only thing that went wrong was I accidentally started off in corral 4 instead of in corral 5 with the 1:45 pacer. I somehow got ahead of the rope when the corrals moved forward. So I ran an 8:20 pace until the pacer caught me in mile 4, then I hung with him until the end (at a little under an 8:00 pace). Overall, it probably did me some good to start off slower the first 3 miles. I hadn't done any warm-up since I was trying to stay out of the rain as long as possible.

Here are my final splits and stats from the race:

• 5K: 26:01 (8:23)
• 6Mi: 49:02 (8:11)
• 10Mi: 1:20:13 (8:02)
• Finish: 1:45:37 (8:04)
• O'All: 1335 / 21398 (6.2%)
• Sex: 1040 / 7921 (13.1%)
• Div (M35-39): 162 / 1249 (13%)
• Age Grade: 57.10%

Last year, the CM Half was my first huge race (>5000 people), and it was exciting because of all the fanfare. But this year, I guess I'm just older and more crotchety because I found all the fanfare annoying. It really made me appreciate small, quiet local races that have no expo, crowds, corrals, chips, bands, buses, spectators, charities, certification, or cheerleaders. I like quiet running with beautiful scenery.

My next race is the Wild Thang 9 Mile Trail Run in Long Hunter State Park this Saturday (May 3, 2008). My next big, long-term goal is the Greenway Marathon on October 4, 2008.

Labels: Running

I wrote a little iGoogle gadget today that displays a user's total distances from RunningAHEAD.com. It uses the scripts feature that you can access from your RA Tools menu. The gadget is not fancy, but it allows you to set its title and the log ID for the user you want to track. You can add multiple instances of it to your iGoogle page if you want to track multiple users.

Click the following link to see a screenshot and optionally add it to your iGoogle page: RunningAHEAD Distance Totals

By default, it will show my log totals, so you'll probably want to change it to show your own or someone else's. Click "Edit Settings" off the drop down menu in the gadget's upper right corner to change the title and log ID. The log ID is not the person's RunningAHEAD user name. It's the long hexadecimal string from the user's summary page URL. For example, the URL to my log summary page is http://www.runningahead.com/logs/23fbfe3407d54034bb604d607cb56919. So the log ID for me is 23fbfe3407d54034bb604d607cb56919.

Note: A user must have their log shared publically (i.e., for everyone to access it) in order for the scripts to work. So if your log is private, then you won't be able to use it with this gadget.

Labels: Running

Yesterday at the Walk & Roll - Focus on Abilities 5K, I came in third overall and first in my age group (M30-39). So that's two age group awards in two weeks! This time I hung around to get the award, and it included more in gift certificates than I spent on the race. Making a profit on a race is cool. I'm really glad I decided to run this one. I hadn't planned on it, but the opportunity presented itself at the last minute.

Unfortunately, my age group award streak will be broken this week at the Country Music Half Marathon. I'm in corral 6, so there will be 5000 runners starting ahead of me. It seems highly unlikely that I'll be one of the top three men in the 35-39 age group. Last year the top three in that age group finished in 1:18:45 or less, which is 35 minutes faster than I've ever run a half. They were all in the top 25 runners in the CM Half. It would take a miracle of Biblical proportions for me to run that fast this weekend.

Labels: Running

At Saturday's Purity Moosic City Dairy Dash 10K I got my first age group award! Or at least I qualified for it. I came in third in my age group (M35-39), but I didn't know it because I had to leave immediately after the race to take my son to swimming lessons (indoors!). The official results weren't posted until three days later, so I didn't find out until yesterday that I'd actually placed. I emailed the RD, and he said he'd mail me my award.

I realize this is minor in "the grand scheme of things", but it's pretty motivational to me. It makes the hard work seem a little less hard and a little more satisfying. Hopefully, this won't be the last age group award I get!

Overall, my running is getting better. I'm running faster, smoother, and finishing stronger. My pacing is getting better in my training runs and in my races. And I've lowered several PRs this year:

• 5K = 22:44 (7:20) at the Tom King 5K
• 10K = 48:12 (7:46) at the Purity 10K
• Half Marathon = 1:53:58 (8:42) at the Frostbite Half

Next up is the Country Music Half Marathon on April 26. I'm hoping for another PR there, of course.

Labels: Running

Since I'm such a newbie, I'm always worried about my pace. So I was happy when Runner's World sent me a free pace chart. But after using it for a while, I decided I wanted two different pace charts.

I wanted one chart with only the most common race distances I run, so I could keep it out for easy reference. And I wanted another chart with lots of distances for those rare occasions when I get to run a 15K or a 30K.

So I made a spreadsheet that contains both versions, and I exported them both as HTML. The results are linked to below. Enjoy!

• HTML chart with common distances (5K, 10K, half marathon, marathon)
• HTML chart with lots of distances (2 mi - marathon)
• Excel spreadsheet with the above charts

Labels: Running