Saturday was perfect for racing at the Lloyd Clarke Sports Trail of Payne 10k, held at Paynes Prairie Preserve State Park. It was a brisk morning, with temps in the 40s at race start and a nice fog rising off Lake Wauburg.



Before the race, I felt good and ready to run.



On your marks, GO!

This year was my first time running the Newnan's Lake 15k organized by Lloyd Clarke Sports. The course is relatively flat (there are a number of long gradual inclines) but generally is known to be a good place to get a fast time! The weather is almost always cool like it was for the race in January. We had temps in the 40s at the start and a bunch of runners ran PRs (Personal Records). To top it off, the weather warmed up nicely for the awards ceremony. It's a great time of year to be racing in Florida.

Going into the race I was hoping to run under an hour for the 15k. For some reason I had "6:22 per mile" in my head as the pace I needed to hit that time. I became a bit discouraged during the race because my splits were slow and every time I clocked a 6:30+ mile I knew I was falling further and further behind. I pushed miles 6 and 7 with a 6:17 and 6:18 and then did my best to hold on. Meredith DeFranco passed me on her way to win 1st place female and I tried to catch her but she was on a mission and ran fast and strong to the end.

When I caught my first glimpse of the finish clock it read 59:50, so I sprinted like crazy, finishing just under an hour at 59:57. That works out to 6:26 per mile. I didn't quite break into the overall awards but I did win my age group and feel great about my race performance.

This is most likely a lifetime PR for me since I didn't race these longer distances when I was younger.



Newnan's Lake itself provided beautiful scenery:



Official results by Half-Mile Timing posted here: http://www.halfmiletiming.com/Datafil...3/Results/

I finished my first marathon! Here I am crossing the finish line of the Jacksonville Bank Marathon with a chip time of 3:26:14.


Photos copyright brightroom, Inc.

I received a nice finisher medal and t-shirt. Some people may wonder about wearing minimalist shoes for 26.2 miles, but I have to say that the lightweight Inov-8 Bare-X 150 shoes were just great for this race.



For those interested in more detail, allow me to describe the events leading to an event that I can only describe as the "Full Body Cramp"...

I'm still catching up on race reports...

Lloyd Clarke Sports put on a great 2012 Thanksgiving Day Turkey Trot 10k race here in Gainesville, Florida. The weather was perfect with temps in the 40s at start time.

I slipped on my New Balance Minimus Zero MT00 trail shoes and took a few strides and remembered just how much I love those shoes. The MT00 is an extremely lightweight, zero-drop shoe but possibly has some durability issues, so I have been saving mine for races only.

I improved over the previous year's Turkey Trot by 43 seconds and since I ran smarter this year, the race was so much more enjoyable. The plan was to go out under control, just try to stay nice and smooth. I think I executed well, felt strong through the 2nd half of the race, crushed mile 5, and had a great finish kick. Just like the previous year, the final mile required weaving and dodging to avoid the Fun Run walkers and little kids who were finishing along the same course... but this year I was ready for the obstacles and it didn't really slow me down very much.

I finished in 39:44, was 7th overall, and earned first in my age group. Mile Splits: 6:20, 6:37, 6:36, 6:34, 6:10, 6:17, 1:10 (average 6:24 per mile).

Official results posted here: http://www.halfmiletiming.com/Datafil...Trot12.htm

I caught a photo of the light up board showing my finish time and overall place:



Bobby Burk with some of the Lloyd Clarke Racing Team members (Stephanie McGrail, Dan Clark, and Meredith DeFranco) helping to hand out the awards:



Here is a picture of the really nice race t-shirt with my New Balance Minimus Trail MT00 and finisher medal:

Earlier this year I received a pair of Samsons from Altra Zero Drop Footwear to review. I never managed to put together a formal review until now, although I did share my feedback in various places around the Net such as Barefoot Ted's Minimalist Runner Google Group, my twitter feed, and the social running site dailymile. Over the last year I have been too busy running to spend very much time blogging. A few weeks ago I had logged over 200 miles in my Samsons so I figured it was time to sit down and write the review.

Here is what my Samsons looked like fresh out of the box:



I had very high expectations for the Samsons. They were going to be the perfect minimalist shoe, similar to Vibram FiveFingers, but without the VFF toe pockets.

Here is what my Samsons look like after 200 miles of running: