Recent Runs

This week of running has been going all right so far. Still lookin' forward to running in the 8th Annual Pink Ribbon Classic in Ocean City (Worcester County), MD this coming Saturday (the 18th of October).

Last Saturday, not long after finishing the 10th Annual Run for Kathy 5K in Bowie (Prince George's County), MD, I went out with some friends to Arundel Mills in Anne Arundel County, MD to see "Fireproof" (my second time seeing it in about a week and it rocked as much as the first time I saw it). Afterwards, some of us went out to eat at the local Golden Corral buffet restaurant. I think I must have eaten too much too fast (or just plain old ate something that didn't agree with me), and afterwards I felt pretty sick to my stomach. Fortunately, the Good Lord blessed me with a good night's sleep and helped my stomach to settle down a little later that night. It hink right now I'm gonna stay away from fast food, at least buffets. I'm sure as some of you may know, I tend to have a pretty sensitive stomach. Sunday morning I felt a little bit better, and I was able to go to the Howard County Striders' Fall Series race (the fifth one in this series) the next afternoon (Sunday, October 12, 2008) at Atholton High School for a 5K road race (this was in Columbia/Howard County, MD). In my opinion this is one of their easier courses, and I figured I would just take it easy and enjoy the run and social atmosphere, sorta as a means of a "recovery run" from yesterday's race and stomach ache. Well, I got into the social atmosphere a bit too much just before the race startedt that I neglected to put down my water botle before the race started, and before I knew it the race started and I was running with my water bottle in hand. I didn't sweat it though, 'cause I had intended just to chill with this run. Well, the first mile on this course is a consistent and steady downhill for a majority of it, and I went through the first mile in about 6:33 without much of a problem (so much for chillin', because at that pace, I would probably end up in the lower-to-mid 20's for a 5K. I kept it going, easing off a bit, and I finished right behind my friend David (who I met back in elementary school and then met again and befriended at a local one-mile fun run in Howard County, MD several years back). My finishing time was about 20:37 on my watch and 20:38 on the clock; not to bad considering I just meant to chill and that my stomach was feeling sick not very long ago. In fact, after this run, I felt better than I did since before dinner at the Golden Corral (ironic how running seemed to help with that).

Later on in the afternoon I started to feel yucky again, plus I was feeling tired from probably not eating as much as I should have and running faster than I should have (it probably would have been better for me not to have run at all). Though, I didn'tfeel as bad as I did the previous night. I still ended up hanging out with my friends Amy, Kseniya, and Walton at a young adult ministry gathering, and shortly after that and going to the King's Contrivance Shopping Center in Columbia to go to the new Harris Teeter grocery store and Rita's ice cream stand/shop (which was the last night it was going to be open until next year some time), I started to feel better and since then I've slowly been getting my appetite back. God-willing, I can eat more consistently.

Fortunately, it hasn't really gotten in the way of my running. Like yesterday (Tuesday, October 14, 2008) I ran two one-mile repeats with a little over four minutes rest in between of walking and jogging. One of them was on the Hammond High School track in Columbia, MD and the other was on the surrounding roads and paved trails. I ran pretty well; I was happy with my first interval workout in probably a couple of months (I've mainly held back on them because of recent injuries). Here's how my times and splits were that I recall:

One-mile repeat#1: 5:37 (track)
1/4 - mile - 1:22
1/2 - 2:45
3/4 - 4:15ish

One-mile repeat#2: 5:50 (roads and bike paths, with some windy downhills and one steady uphill towards the end)
1/2 - mile: 2:51


Hopefully, I don't get hurt or sick again anytime soon, but then again it could be worse. I'm grateful I was able to get through my first mile-repeat workout in a while in all right condition.

Thank you all for reading and I hope to write back soon. Have a good night and week out there :)