Off to the races!

Last night was track night at Reggie, but I’m not going to post about that now. I’ll save that update for Sunday night so I can summarize the entire week of training. Second, thanks to EJ for the tip about Stu's 30k...we'll see about that one. Also, there are rumors of things (reorg…) happening at work tomorrow. More on that later…

Instead, can I tell you how excited I am for the Great Stew Chase 15k on February 3^rd? It’s pretty damn excited.

Brief commercial break…

http://www.stewchase.com/stewchaseroadrace/

Now back to our irregularly scheduled post.

If you clicked the link above, you will see Tim Short of the Wicked Running Club smack dab in the center of the front page photo. He’s the one in the shades and red singlet, literally in the center of the photo. I’m there too, standing next to Tim but all you can see of me is the white stripe down my sleeve.

The photo was taken in 2009 when this race was part of the Wicked Running Club’s Grand Prix.

That’s me on the way to finishing first for Wicked (but 24^th overall) in 2009.

Back then I wore sun glasses. Since then my sun glasses broke and I haven’t bought a new pair. It’s been 4 years, sun glasses aren't made to live forever; at least not the ones you pay $10 for at a gas station. I'm over it.

Well, my shoulder is getting sore from all of this patting myself on the back about a race I ran four years ago so back to 2013. In 2009, the Stew Chase was a bit of a breakout race for me. It was my first race after spending the winter on the track with Coach Mike Toomey and Doug, Danny and Jarred.

That’s me with Danny and Jarred at Reggie back in the day! Photo by Michael Conners.

When I started running with these guys at the end of 2008, my 5k PR was 18:48. At the Stew Chase I averaged 19:22 per 5k for 3 consecutive 5ks. I didn’t know if that was “good” or “bad” but I felt good about it and it catapulted me towards more serious training, over to the Netherlands to run the Rotterdam Marathon and getting a stress fracture while trying to win the Half at the Hamptons (even without the injury I wasn't in the kind of shape to place at the race but if there's one thing I'm never short of it is unreasonable expectations).

Jumping back to 2013 for real: in December of 2012 I signed up with Mike for personal coaching because I felt that I had run really poorly at the Cape Cod Marathon and only slightly better at Manchester.

Here is commercial break #2:

http://www.mypersonalrunningcoach.com/

Hopefully my races this spring will be an advertisement for Mike. Back to the post:

So far this winter, track’s been going well. I've been hitting the hills and got in a few good long runs so now I’m getting excited to get back out there and try my legs out at a race.

As a bonus, the field for the Stew Chase seems to be shaping up nicely. Both Jarred and Suzanne (also shooting for sub-3, but at Boston) from Mike Toomey’s training group have said they’re either planning on running or thinking about it and Rich “The Hammer” may make an appearance to prep for Boston! You can also usually count on GBTC and CMS to bring some speed. Who knows, there may even be some Angry Chickens who make their way to this one. I hope to see you all at the start line!

May your training miles be ever hilly and may all your races have free beer!