Update of the last few races

My buddy Chris took this photo of me after finishing the 4th Annual Marriotts Ridge High School Mustang Stampede 5K in Marriottsville (Howard County), Maryland on Sunday, March 29, 2009

Hey there everyone; it's been over a week since I've posted and since then I've done three 5-kilometer (approximately 3.1 miles) races. The first one of these I did was a mere few days after I had that stomach bug, and it was the first annual Break-in the Bypass 5K Run in the Greenmount/Hampstead area of Carroll County, Maryland on Sunday, March 22. I was going for low 21's, maybe mid-20's, and I was blessed to have done quite better. It had some fairly challenging, gradual hills on the open out-and-back course. I went through the first mile in 6:06, which surprisingly did not feel as hard as I thought it would. I slowed to about 9:56 at the half-way turn-around point. However, there was a nice downhill just after this turn-around and it helped me keep up a great momentum, and I ended up running a little faster the second half to finish in about 19:42 (the clock got me at 19:46, and I expected that since I started about four seconds late since I started a little later than I meant too, 'cause I started in the middle of the pack and I was not really paying as much attention as I should have to the race start :)- The post-race was fun; I saw a few friends and got to catch up with them. It was a nice come-back race from a stomach bug as well as my first 5K run in almost two months.

The next Saturday (March 28, 2009 I ran another race in southern Maryland: The 4th Annual "Keep Your Colon Rollin' 5K" at a new location at the Jefferson Patterson Park in Saint Leonard (Calvert County), Maryland. The evening before, I went out with my roommates to a new local Mexican restaurant in Baltimore County, MD and the food went down fairly well (it had been one of my first times in a while I've had Mexican food; I tried an inexpensive torta and it was delicious). However, the next morning I had like four bowel movements before the start of the race. I won't go into anymore detail about it, but it was not diarrhea and I was not feeling sick. In fact, I think it was definitely better for me to get that out of my system. Needless to say, my "colon was already rollin' pretty good" by the time I got to the "Keep Your Colon Rollin' 5K" :)-
This race was on a cross country country course with various terrains (in fact, according to one person, the terrain changed six times just within the first mile. Well after the running through that first mile in about 6:09 and fighting to keep my balance through some of it, I believed them.
I remember starting off on a field, going onto a paved footpath briefly, and then coming into a pretty muddy section of the field, and then there were some dirt trails too I think just before the first mile mark. Then, I think shortly after the one-mile, we ran through the sand briefly on this beach and crossed over this small wooden bridge. That was one of my favorite parts of the race, just because of the scenery.
Not long after the beach, there were some fairly short, but somewhat challenging hills. This one hill in particular was a lot of fun going down it towards the water, but just after the turn-around at the bottom, coming back up it was pretty tiring. After that, we ran straight along this field, which was kind of weird because it was sloping to my left and I felt like I was kinda running sideways. I didn't realize it (or maybe I did and I just don't remember it), but apparently I ran by a cannon around this point, because I checked the website for the Calvert County Health Department (http://www.calverthealth.org) and it showed a photo of me running by it while I was checking my watch. And on that note, as this stretch of field gradually descended downwards, I went through two miles in about 12:39, which was a little slower than I wanted to be because I was trying to break 19:30, and for a 5-kilometer (approximately 3.1-mile distance), it takes about a 6:17-per-mile pace to do that and I was going at about a 6:19 pace. It was a bit of a slow-up from the 6:09 pace I went out at, but at that point I was just getting ready to finish. Though, I knew that if I stayed under a 6;20 pace, I would finish out a little faster than teh 19:42 I had run the previous Sunday at the Break-in the Bypass 5K in Carroll County, MD. However, I felt that my energy was beginning to wane. Fortunately, my buddy Perry was catching up to me and this helped motivate me to keep pushing. Not long after the second mile, like fourteen minutes-and-some-odd seconds into the race, we ran close to the finish area and I thought that maybe the course was way short, but the course kept going around that field we ran through near the beginning... The one with the slippery mud where I almost fell like at least three times!
Well, as I ran around this field, I knew I was getting closer to the finish. I felt a bit frustrated and anxious as I tried to pick it up, but I could not seem to speed up as the slippery mud seemed to mess up my momentum. Fortunately, I got through this section of the field without taking a face plant, and once I made a right turn back onto that paved path we ran on at the beginning of the race, I was able to pick up the pace a little bit again (even though I was pretty tired trying to hold my balance while running through some of the more challenging parts of the course). Towards the end of the path, I went through two miles in about 19:02, and I knew if I really worked at kicking it in, I could beat last week's 19:42, and as I made a left onto the field with the finish line on the other side of it, I dashed across it, hoping and probably praying that I would not fall and I crossed the finish line in 19;35. I was pretty happy with that time and that I had run about seven seconds faster than last week on a fairly challenging cross country course (well mainly challenging because of the wet conditions). And wouldn't you know it, I don't think I was having quite as many bowel movements for the rest of the day than what I had that morning (if any). I guess that "Keep Your Colon Rollin'" kept my colon from rollin' a bit too much :)-
I really liked that course despite how slippery it was in some areas. I'm glad I was able to run like I did, and Perry ran well too after two or three weekends in a row of running one-to-two races with a couple of marathons thrown in. There was a barn building we all hung out in before and after the race, and I thought it was a nice place, and the park seemed pretty with a great view of the water right near by (and it was overcast also).

The next morning (Sunday, March 29, 2009) I woke up and had a few bowel movements (maybe it has been because of my recent stomach issues, recent running activity, diet/the recent Mexican food, who knows) before going to Marriottsville (Howard County), MD for the Fourth Annual Marriotts Ridge High School Mustang Stampede 5K Run that started and ended around Marriotts Ridge High School. This was my first time running this race, and while I would typically expect the rural area of western Howard County to be rather hilly, it was not nearly as hilly as I thought it was. In fact, this looped course was rather conducive to running great times, even though it was damp, overcast, cool, and sprinkly. All-in-all, I thought the running conditions were all right and no one was seriously injured that I noticed. Plus, the course was on roads versus multiple terrain like the previous day's Keep Your Colon Rollin' 5K.
I came to the race feeling tired from not sleeping as much as I wanted too, the previous day's race, as well as probably a little bit from the three bowel movements I had earlier that morning (again I was not feeling sick, I just had to go to the bathroom a lot). I had somewhat faint hopes of running under 19:30, but if that didn't work out, I was not going to sweat it 'cause I was plenty pleased with my race at the Keep Your Colon Rollin' 5K (and not to mention that pace from the second mile was even, and if not, I picked it up a little bit).
The race started on Marriotts Ridge High School's outdoor track, then out into the parking lot, and soon out onto Highway 99/Old Frederick Road that runs right past the school. Pretty much a majority of the race was on a loop of these country roads. This first mile had a couple of steady uphills at least, and a good amount of downhills and flat areas. I was surprised that I hit about 5:54 for the first mile, as this was my first sub-six-minute mile I've run since I started back running earlier on in March. Though, I was even more pleasantly surprised when the second mile (which hardly had any uphills if any) had a lot of steady downhills and I ran my second mile faster than my first to go through two miles in about 11:36. I was encouraged by this, knowing that there were going to be some steady uphills coming back towards Marriotts Ridge High School in the third mile. Indeed there were a few, but it was not as bad. As I made a right towards the parking lot of the high school, I was praying that God would help me maintain, and He did as I went through three miles probably in the low-to-mid 17:40's and finished in 18:24, my first sub-19-minute and sub-6-minute-per-mile-paced 5K of 2009! I was definitely not expecting that so soon after getting back into running earlier in the month, and it is neat 'cause it takes about a 5:56 pace to hit 18:24 for about 3.1 miles, and since I went through the first mile in about 5:54, my average pace-per-mile was barely slower than what I went out at. I thought that it would be a slimmer chance to break 19:30, and instead I ran under 18:30, over a minute faster than yesterday :) God is amazing in how He works through us and does not allow our weaknesses to get in the way of Him strengthening us :)
In addition, the Mustang Stampede 5K was significant, because as of this race I can now say that I've run a race at or in the vicinity of every public comprehensive high school in Howard County, Maryland (there are 12 in this county, with Marriotts Ridge High School being the newest, and the other 11 being: Atholton, Centennial, Hammond, Howard, Glenelg, Long Reach, Mt. Hebron, Oakland Mills, Reservoir, River Hill, and Wilde Lake). I was not trying to go after that goal, but after years of running in different high school cross country and track meets as a student and runner for Hammond High School, I guess sooner or later I would end up doing races in the vicinity of these schools if I just kept it up. I'm grateful that I ran so well for my level of fitness, in running a race at the only Howard County public comprehensive school I had not run at or near before :)

Next race I hope to do is this Saturday, April 4, 2009 on the Maryland Eastern Shore in Kent County. I'm hoping to make it to the 28th Annual Stillpond-to-Betterton Tree Run. This race is a unique distance of about 3.6 miles, and apparently you start in Stillpond and end at Betterton Beach. I've never done it before, and am looking forward to givin' it a shot :)

Hopefully I can make it to that race. I have that endoscopy that I think I've mentioned before; it's a scan/test in relation to my recent stomach... issues. My health has been holdin' out pretty nicely since I had that stomach bug the other week. This test should be interesting, as they are going to put me to sleep. I don't believe I have ever been given any kind of anaesthesia that has put me to sleep, though I suppose there is a first time for everything, like the first time I ran races in some of the counties I ran in when I first got interested in trying to run one in every Maryland county ;)

Thank you for reading and for praying for me. I hope that this procedure goes well and that I can make it to and through the Stillpond-to-Betterton Tree Run, and do some other things I have coming up in the near future (which I hope to mention in the near future). I gotta get rollin' to the doctor's office now for the endoscopy. Thank you all again for stopping by and God bless :)