The Vanish-R is a super lightweight racing flat from Altra.



Getting a shoe this light seems to guarantee that there are some compromises and tradeoffs.

These shoes remind me a lot of the Mizuno Wave Universe 3 from (many) years ago...



Both are lightweight. So extremely light! Both have a plate-like thing inside. Both have only a small amount of foam and very little cushion. Both have a very similar amount of ground feel. Neither are particularly comfortable. Neither are my favorite shoe.

The Inov-8 Bare-X Lite 150 are still my favorite racing shoes.

But since the Wave Universe and the Bare-X Lite 150 are no longer available for purchase, the Vanish-R could be a good option.

It is nice to see Altra adding some more minimalist shoes to their lineup. Another Altra that I am interested in checking out is the Escalante Racer (not to be confused with the Escalante). On paper, it looks like it is just a little bit more shoe and could be the sweet spot like another one of my favorite shoes, the ST series from Topo Athletic.

For the 2020 Gate River Run, the national 15k championship race, I traveled to Jacksonville with a friend the night before the race and we stayed at the race hotel. We were able to pick up our race packets and enjoy the expo without feeling the rush of race day morning. We had dinner and a beer at Intuition Ale Works on Friday night which was happily not crowded at all. The beer was excellent. I highly recommend Intuition if you are in the area.



The Hilton is almost exactly 1 mile away from the starting line... a perfect distance for warmup before the race... which we needed because it was cold and windy! This was my first Gate River Run that wasn't warm and humid and it was fantastic. With temperatures in the 40s at the start and the sun rising in the sky, no hat or gloves were needed and it was perfect weather for racing.

I did a good job of sticking to my race plan and not going out too hard, targeting 6:30 per mile based on my fitness level. In the last set of neighborhoods I had a tiny rough patch and fell off the pace a little bit before I was able to muster and charge towards the bridge.

The wind was ferocious throughout the race and if the Hart Bridge wasn't challenging enough, the strong headwind was the final battle. Coming over the top of the bridge I saw I needed to run sub-6 minute mile to go under an hour. I tried and tried but it took a long time to get moving again. The wind kept slowing me down even on the downhill.









I finished 153rd male overall, 10th in my age group, with a finish time of 1:00:10, averaging 6:27 per mile. This was my second-fastest River Run. I feel really good about this performance and I am looking forward to big gains next year.




Gate River Run 2020 was held on March 7. Results are available:
https://my.raceresult.com/148877/results?lang=en

PDF full results:
https://my1.raceresult.com/148877/RRP...mp;lang=en


T-shirt, medal, pint glass, top 10 percent finisher hat, and race shoes (Topo ST-2):

This year the race start and finish venue was downtown Gainesville, FL. On Sunday morning parking was no problem, with many city lots reserved for racers to park. The weather was nice and course was great.


Photo by Enoch Nadler


Photo credit: LifeSouth Community Foundation


I enjoyed my free beer in the biergarten which was placed right by the finish, so we could watch the rest of the finishers while we hung out and enjoyed the day. They race provided some delicious free food that included burritos and donuts from local food trucks.


Photo credit: LifeSouth Community Foundation


I ran as well as I could have hoped, finishing in 1:27:59 (avg. under 6:45 per mile). I won my age group and brought home a bag of locally roasted Sweetwater coffee as the prize.







The Five Points of Life Half Marathon took place on February 16, 2020. Race results are available at:

https://drcsports.com/race-results/169

2020 provided another perfect race day for the Lloyd Clarke Sports Newnan's Lake 15k. Weather was sunny with temps in the 40s at the start.

I didn't find any photos of me racing, but I did take a photo of the lake before the start.



I am really happy with my race. I finished about a minute faster than my stretch goal, with a time of 1:02:01 (or 6:40 per mile).

The shirt this year was great -- tech fabric with long-sleeves:



Life isn't getting any easier in the Masters division around here. Four guys over 40 were ahead of me.

The event was held on January 25, 2020. Race results are posted here:

https://results.rmraces.live/Start-2-...5k/results

The Lloyd Clarke Sports Race Series is a grand prix of three races:

Turkey Trot 10k 1018
Newnans Lake 15k 2019
Trail of Payne 10k 2019

This is one of the few years where I was actually able to run all three races. This post will be a combo post for the series. Trail of Payne 2019 was the final race and I am pleased with where I am on my comeback to fitness after a pretty tough year.


For the Turkey Trot I decided to wear a turkey costume and have a good time. I finished in 43:41 (avg. 7:02 per mile).



For the Newnans Lake 15k I have no pictures! But I finished in 1:04:15 (avg. 6:54 per mile).

Trail of Payne 10k was enjoyable on a nice cool morning. Finish time was 40:59 (avg. 6:45 per mile) which was good enough to win the overall Master division.


Photo by Cathy Bester


Photo by Cathy Bester

One of the neater trophies I have received:



Race series finishers received a nice pint glass: