I am training for a 50k race in October (the John Holmes Trail Run ). It will be my first Ultramarathon. I decided to go up in distance rather than taking another shot at the marathon. Perhaps I had some lingering doubts after my first and only marathon experience. In any case, after working hard all summer and with a lot of speedwork under my belt, I felt that it was time to ease back on pace for a while. Besides, Ultra training should give me a nice endurance base should I decide to train for another marathon.

Sunday I capped off my second 70 mile week with a 26 mile trail run at San Felasco Hammock Preserve State Park. I ran on the hiking trails, the horse trails, and the mountain bike trails. There is a surprising (for Florida) amount of elevation and terrain on some of the more remote trails.

Dailymile gives me a nice weekly brag sheet:



I think my training is going well. I hit a low spot last week after slogging through a few 4 am workday runs. The weekend trail runs have kept me going, though. I am amazed by how much more quickly I can bounce back from a 20-mile training run than a few months ago. I have finished 5 runs of at least 21 miles since July, with many runs over 10 miles during that time.

Now I plan to scale back for a week in order to recover. Then I am going to try to get in one more long day (5 hours and close to 30 miles?) before the 50k race.

My goal? Finish the race and hopefully still be running during the last few miles.

The Melon Run 3 mile race is held in Gainesville, FL on the 4th of July. I am a bit delinquent posting a race report. There isn't much to say, it was HOT and HUMID as usual. I handled the heat much better than last year, mostly by mental preparation and by doing some heat training in the weeks leading up to the race.

This year I ran 17:41 and won 1st in my age group.

The Melon Run always draws a big crowd of the local talented runners.


Photo by Race Pace Photos.


Photo by Race Pace Photos.

I am still road racing in my Inov-8 Bare-X Lite 150 shoes.

Awards included an actual watermelon!



Race results available here: http://www.floridatrackclub.org/race-...-run-2013/

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"...