(Image of the Cross-Island Trail going through the Kent Island area of Queen Anne's County, Maryland, and this is from http://www.americantrails.org/nationalrecreationtrails/trailNRT/CrossIs-MD.html)
Greetings everyone, I know it has been a while since I have posted. I have just caught up with rehashing my memories of my running on Saturday, March 20, 2010, when the Good Lord got me through three road races on that relatively hot first day of spring! I have been doing all right. I think things at work have been going pretty solid, and Kay and I have been together for a great year now and in fact we are coming up on our 13-month anniversary :) As you may have read in the previous post, a lot of my problem in that third five-mile race in Frederick County, MD came from dry mouth that made me feel dehydrated. This was a problem that continued on as I trained and did a couple of other races in April. I decided not long after April started that I take a break from running and see what was up with that. There's a strong suspicion from the doctor that it could be allergies (the pollen has been pretty strong this year, probably from the heavy snowfall we got last winter). I also think it could be side-effects from my acid reflux medicine. That remains to be seen I suppose.
Anyway, I started back a couple of weeks ago, and it has been pretty slow. I was surprised that I still had it in me to run a pretty flat two-mile loop in Columbia (Howard County), MD in 13:44 (I mean, running anything under a seven-minute-per-mile pace lately has been pretty challenging). I was pretty happy about that. I ran about 3.5 miles on a flat track with a 5K split of about 24:08 and finishing the35. miles in about 26:56. Then, a few days later, I ran four miles on a track in 30:04 (a little faster of a pace than the 3.5 miles). My 5-kilometer split on that I think was around 23:32. Quite slower than what I was turning out earlier this spring, where I was workin' hard to just get under 21 minutes on hilly road races. And even slower than the sub-19-minute 5K's I have become pretty used to running on 5K courses of varying difficulties these past several years. It's amazing what you take for granted with your running times until you start slowin' up. My gosh, I am worried how much slower I would go in a more hilly and hotter 5K race if I am turning out times like that on a flat track and that feeling like a pretty solid workout. Ah well, I gotta start somewhere and be smart about this. The heat still seems to be drying me out a fair amount, though when it's cooler (like low 50's or 40's), it does not really bother me that much (and the wind certainly helps). I am thinking it wise this spring and summer season to not really get much into the races. I just want to train and at least build up a solid mileage base. That way, God-willing I will be in much better shape for the autumn, and then I can see about perhaps doing races with a bit more frequency in weather that would be a little easier for me to adjust too, because it has been pretty hard for me this time around to get used to this heat (and I am sure the pollen has not been the most helpful in that either).
Anyway, I actually hope to do my first race in a little over a month this coming Saturday, May 15, 2010. In fact, I am hoping to get over to the Maryland Eastern Shore for the first time since doing the 30th Annual Mike Sterling 10K at the National Hard Crab Derby in Crisfield Maryland on Labor Day weekend for this new 5K at the Terrapin Nature Center area in Stevensville, which is on Kent Island in Queen Anne's County, Maryland. There is this new Queen Anne's County Police K-9 Chase 5K, and it has geographic implications that it will occur (at least some of it will) on the Cross-Island Trail (which runs along Maryland state highway 50 throughout a good portion of Kent Island, from pretty close to the Bay Bridge eastwards to Kent Narrows). I hope that I am right about this. If that is true, then something really special may be accomplished in me finishing this particular race.
Back on Saturday, September 23, 2006, I ran this new Run for the Sun/Son 2-Mile Run on the Cross-Island Trail that started and ended at Old Love Point Park in Stevensville. I really enjoyed that venue. The trail was really flat, and well-shaded (great to do things on in the warmer weather). So when I saw on MarylandRunning.Com that there was this new Race to Impact 10K Run scheduled on Kent Island on Saturday, March 21, 2007, I leapt at the opportunity to hop in this race to benefit Shore Christian Fellowship's mission trip to Peru. This race took place in Chester, MD, starting and ending by the old Club One gym building. The race went out to the Love Point Park area in Stevensville and we actually turned around where the Run for the Sun/Son started and ended. Oh that brought back some nice memories. I really enjoyed running this race, even though its length proved quite challenging. With God's help I ran a 38:51, one of my best 10K times to date. Later on that evening while I was thinking about that race and thinking about its location in Queen Anne's County, God helped use that very race to inspire me to run a race in every county of Maryland in that year of 2007 (since I had run a race in Queen Anne's County, which is relatively challenging to find year-around running events, so if I had wanted to try and run a race in every Maryland county in a year, I had just done one in one of Maryland's more challenging counties to find a race in). And that's how I got going with this blog and into paying attention to such details about the location of the races I do. Therefore, the Cross-Island Trail is a really special place for me, and every time I hear about a race occurring on it, I take considerable interest. In fact, towards the end of that year, I found out about this Jingle Bell Run 5K that started and ended near the Island Athletic Club in the Kent Narrows area of, went out to the Club One area of the trail in Chester near where the Race to Impact 10K started and ended, and then went back to Kent Narrows. That Jingle Bell Run had been going on for about several years, and when I did it in 2007, it was definitely shorter than a 5K, yet I enjoyed the course. I was fixing to do it again in 2008, but then I heard they canceled it and I do not think they have brought it back since then. That was the last time I ran a race on the Cross-Island Trail.
The last time I was there was a joyous occasion. Last July was when Kay and I celebrated our three-month anniversary, and after eating at the Fisherman's Inn around the Kent Narrows area, we hung out on the Cross-Island Trail and had a terrific time.
So many nice memories of it!
There is one area of the trail I have yet to run a race on, and that is the western-most part of it near the Terrapin Nature Center area. I have never even been on that part of the trail. I have kept meaning to check it out, and now with this new 5K this Saturday I will have the chance to do just that. God-willing I make it to and through this race, and if this race goes through the area I think it does on the Cross-Island Trail, I can say that I have run a race on all of the areas of the Cross-Island Trail in my lifetime!!!! You may think it sounds kind of corny, though if you think about how over the past half-decade, or even decade, races along this Cross-Island Trail are somewhat hard to come by (considering advertising for some of them does not seem to make it to the larger running and racing databases all that much), and also considering I have never even lived in Kent Island to pick up on this stuff word-of-mouth all the time, I think that this is something to be proud of, and certainly a blessing to be grateful for! I am looking forward to doing this!
I know I have just started back running, and before I took my brief break in April from it, my running was not that strong. Based on how I have been doing, I think a realistic goal for me would be to get under 22 minutes by a decent margin (granted that this 5K course is accurate, and not too long or too short). Either way, I want to finish. I am sure I may have my troubles out there, and I probably won't look all that great running/huffing-and-puffing, so believe it or not, I am actually planning on coming to the race in a nice suit and tie. Since this is a special occasion for me personally, I can at least try to look good (because I don't think I'll be looking that great at all once I start running, haha). I will change into my running clothes when it comes closer to the race.
I am hoping to have a nice time, take some nice photos, and enjoy being back on the Maryland Eastern Shore. The last time I was there was to visit some friends in Salisbury with Kay, and that was back in September not long after I had run the Mike Sterling 10K. I hope Kay and I can return there for future visits as well.
All right, thank you all for reading this. If you are interested in doing that inaugural Queen Anne's County K-9 Police Chase 5K, please check out: http://www.active.com/running/stevensville-md-md/queen-annes-police-k9-chase-5k-2010
I gotta get going and get up early for work tomorrow. I am going on a field trip with some of the high school students I work with to the National Zoo in Washington, D.C. I have not been to this zoo since I was two, and I probably have some very slightly vague memories of it at best. That should be interesting!
If any of you show up there, please say "hi", and I look forward to meeting/seeing you again. Please keep me in prayer as well! Thank you and God bless :)
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