Racing

After having a great 10 miler on Sunday, I had a 5K circuit race the next Saturday. If it wasn’t a circuit race, I would not have gone because I was already signed up for a half marathon the very next day. I wanted to do well for my Fleet Feet team, so my strategy was to really try for the 5K and take the half marathon easy.

Who’d have thought that a set of 100-metre repeats would be perfect preparation for a hilly 8-mile trail race?

But that’s the way it turned out. For the first time since cross-country days in England, I found myself flying past people on the downhill stretches of the Greenland Trail race – and there were a lot of them.

Only 6 over-50s got under 5 minutes in the mile at the USA Masters Indoor Track & Field Championships - and our own Dave Albo was one of them.

In the 55-59 age group, living legend 58-year-old jazz trumpeter Nolan Shaheed won in 4:43.72 -- good enough to have won gold in the younger age-group and a massive 30 SECONDS clear of the silver medalist!!! Someone check my math, as I don't believe the numbers (result below).

M50 1 Mile Run
1 102 Cannon, David M51 Club Northwe,Seattl 4:43.89
2 118 Chantry, Stephen M53 Colonial Roa,Willia 4:45.89

I can't believe there were WALKERS in Grave W's way at the start of the LA marathon!

Grace's report also gives me a shudder with her description of the shoulder-to-shoulder mass of "runners" she had to deal with.

I had a weird moment at the start of the Sharin' O' the Green 5k. I lined up in the front row, the gun went off -- and a yellow shoe came bouncing through the ranks. Now, blame the fact that I'd "just" got off the plane back from England or whatever, but for some strange reason I thought it was mine...

I've not been very disciplined since finishing my last 2007 race, which was the North Face Endurance Challenge in San Francisco. That was my first ultra, at a distance of 50k. I didn't bother with my usual semi-attention to calories over the holidays, and packed on a few pounds. Come January, my long runs involved stretches of walking, and were sporadically sprinkled in my "training schedule."
Weird. You wouldn't think I was trying to work up to 50 miles in April, as an attempt to qualify for the Western States 100, huh?