The MS Runner

Running While Battling Foot Blisters, Leg Cramps, Black Toe Nails - and MS

Archive for June, 2009


A Brief Race

Published June 29th, 2009 in Undy 5000 | 4 Comments »

This past Saturday was a new race this year to Denver called the Undy 5000 5K to help fund colon rectal cancer research.  The hook is that you get a pair of boxer shorts instead of a tee shirt, and there were probably 25% of the people “dressed up” in some form of underwear attire.  Most were pretty tasteful, and at least the ones that were a bit risque, they had the bodies to pull it off.

I was hoping to do around an 8:00 mile pace for this run, and I ended up doing a 8:16 pace.  I didn’t really prepare myself properly for this race, and it didn’t even start until 9:00 am which by then was already 75 degrees.  Usually for a short race like this, I warm up with an easy 1 mile jog, and  then I do some strides to get the heart rate going.  But it was already getting hot so I decided not to do anything, which wasn’t too smart.

The first mile I started out and did a mile in 7:37 which really killed me right there.  Between the first and second mile, I wore out and did it in 8:34.  I even stopped at the water station and walked a bit.  The third mile I did in 8:22, and the last tenth of a mile I smoked it at a 7:15 pace!  Wahoo.

A Great day for a Run

Published June 14th, 2009 in Rocky Mountain Half Marathon, Left Hand Brewery | No Comments »

Another half marathon is run and done and today was a great indication of how much training means to a successful run.  I haven’t run very  much in the last three weeks and when I did run, I didn’t push myself.  Today was the Rocky Mountain 1/2 Marathon, and I knew going into it that I wasn’t fully prepared.

One thing about this run that I didn’t like, is that they don’t start until 7:30am.  I know that I would have done much better if it had started at 6:30, or even 7:00 because it really got hot the last half hour or so of the run.  I ended up taking a few walking breaks in the last 4 miles, so that alone probably cost me 3 or 4 minutes.

My final time was 2:02:54, which is the slowest half marathon that I’ve ever done.  But that’s okay.  I was hoping for around 2 hours, so I didn’t miss it by too much.  I ended up with the following stats;

I finished 616th out of 1497 runners and 352 out of 585 males.

The good news is my knee felt good and they had some great beer at the end from Left Hand Brewing Company.  None of that Michelob Ultra Light crap that are at some of the runs.

The predonderance of pondering

Published June 7th, 2009 in Miles, Rocky Mountain Half Marathon, Undy 5000, Red Wings, Tigers, beer, training, Running | 2 Comments »

Next week is the Rocky Mountain 1/2 Marathon in Denver, and my goal for this one is to just break 2 hours.  I haven’t been running a whole lot since my last 1/2 marathon, which was only 3 weeks ago, and I can sure tell.   But that’s okay.  This was never a target run or anything like that, just something to keep the adrenaline going.

The Detroit Red Wings are playing well at home, and lousy on the road.  They are up 3 games to 2, and game six is in Pittsburgh.  As much as I would like to see them win at home, they need to get it over with now.

We finally got cable the other day.  Now my question is, “do I now have DVR, and can I get rid of my VCR”?  My dog Miles chewed the cord on my VCR anyway, so it’s not like I’ll miss it.

How do so many people think that what President Obama is doing is so great?  His massive, massive spending is going to ruin this county.  Soon we will all have to send the government over half of our paycheck.  Shit, I already send my ex-wife almost half my paycheck.  He wants government run health care?  The government can’t even run the post office or Amtrack effectively.

Not to be outdone, but the Detroit Tigers are in first place.  I haven’t been following them yet (it is still hockey season), so I don’t know if they are a good team, or just that there are so many bad teams.

Why is it that I cringe at the beer store when my favorite beer is about $8.00 for a six pack, but when I go out to the bar, I’ll not even think about paying $4.50 for one pint?

Did I ever mention that Tom Brady of The New England Patriots is great?  I think that if I were gay, he’d be the one.

There is a 5K that I’m going to sign up for and it’s coming up soon.  It’s called the Undy 5000, and instead of  getting tee shirts, you get boxer shorts.  This run is really going to be “brief”.