11 days to go till Mississauga Marathon

I suppose I should actually think about the marathon and my tactics at this point. First, an update on training. In the past few weeks, I've added some speed sessions and V02 work and have pushed the pace a bit on my routine runs.

Today was supposed to be 3x1600 but since I'm racing a 10K over the weekend, I opted to just run four miles, no sense in wasting energy at this point.

For some weird reason, I was famished after my run and had a big dinner and still hungry. Wonder what's going on, some sort of pre carbo loading?

Here's what I want to do for the marathon: Ideally, run it to enjoy it and to run a strong marathon without stopping or falling part. That, for me, would be picking a reasonable pace given my on and off training this past winter. As of today, that's a 5 minute kilometre, so the target will be 3:30, sub that if I can.

Three races in three weeks, or the marathon sandwich

For some odd reason, I'm breaking the marathon training rules. Next Sunday, I'm running in the Sporting Life 10K race (presented by my employer, National Post) as part of the company team. I signed up for that a few months ago. In 14 days, my next marathon, Mississauga. Then a week after Mississauga, I run the Capitol Hill 10K in Washington DC.

Here's the thing. I intend to give more than a little effort next week. For my marathon, I think I'm picking a relatively conservative 3:30 target time. And the Capitol Hill race will be run as recovery.

Here's my schedule the last week which includes my last track workout and a race on Sunday.

Monday: rest
Tuesday: 7 miles with 8x100
Wednesday: 8 miles with 3x1600
Thursday: Rest
Friday: 12 miles
Saturday: Rest
Sunday: 6.2 mile race

Mileage update:
January: 119 miles
February: 162 miles
March: 133 miles (two sick weeks will do that to you)
April (month to date): 186 miles
Last week: 44 miles
Year to date: 601 miles

Yeah, my year to date mileage is a little low and if I kept up that pace, I'd hit the 1700 to 1800 for the year. The summer is going to be another monster running one, so I still expect I'll be close to 2000 by year's end.

Speed sessions galore

I feel like I have built up the endurance over the past month so in that sense, I'm ready for the marathon. Running at a strong pace pushing towards lactate threshold, I'm not so sure. So instead of doing just my prescribed miles, I've been heading to the track or throwing in fartlets.

On Thursday, went up to the track for the first time of the season. Yes, I've managed to skip so many track sessions. Kinda stupid but life will do that to you. Here are my splits,

5X600:
1. 2:06
2. 2:15
3. 2:18
4. 2:20
5. 2:22.

I targeted 2:20s to 2:22 so I was pretty off the first two splits

Yesterday I had 4 miles scheduled and I ended up doing just over 5 miles and also ended up turning it on a bit for about a mile. I was running on Lakeshore and seeing the rush-hour traffic, I decided to really step it up and tried to keep up with a postal delivery truck. I beat it and on the way to a 3:47 kilometre, pretty fast. It got the heart going and it felt good.

Today, Pfitzinger-Douglas program called for a 8K to 10K tuneup race, but I didn't really want to find a race, so I headed up to the track to do some V02 track work. Since I did a V02 session on Thursday and added speed to my recovery run yesterday, I only wanted to do light work. I did the following.

3x800
1. 2:58
2. 3:06
3. 3:03
(That was very bad pacing, way too fast as it was more like 3K race pace than 5K, which should have been around 3:10)

After the three, I was tired so decided to do one mile. Had to swerve to avoid a group of runners but did it in 6:07.

Here's the map, from this site that I've seen other bloggers use. Runsaturday.com.

A runner's lifelong journey

One of my closest friends also happens to be the Facts & Arguments editor at the Globe and Mail. Anyhow, she has a great touch in editing and selecting stories and I love it when an occassional running piece appears. And yes, she's an occasional runner who has a treadmill in her basement.

A nice piece in today's paper titled "Runner's high" written by Steve Kelly, a lifelong runner who says his best days are behind him but pays homage to what running has given him, from the beginnings when he found the sport before it became popular, to his glory year, which was many years ago. Here's a bit but worth reading yourself here.

Fortunately, I know that other measures are important too. Like the lessons running has taught me about myself, about my limitations and, most importantly, about my potential.

I'm glad to have read this a few days after I wrote my last post about my long distance and long term view of what running is to me.

Elephant in the room (or, trying to ignore my Boston aspirations until now)

Me at the finish at Toronto Scotiabank last year, my failed BQ attempt.


Today, my thoughts are with friends and fellow runners who are in Boston running the grand old daddy of marathons. I can't lie that I wish to go there one day. In fact, there's a good reason why I didn't write much about my failed BQ attempt last fall -- it hurt too much to think about it. Maybe it's about time I confront that.

The first time I thought seriously that I could somehow make it to Boston came even before I ran marathons. I got back into running in 2004 and started serious road racing in 2005: That year, I fell in love with the sport and by that fall, I'd done my first two half marathon with a 1:35 and 1:34. Here's a thing about that time -- until I had raced 13.1 miles, I never really thought I could do well at long distance running. But I saw that if you doubled a 1:35 half and added 10-15 minutes, I was within striking distance of a BQ.

That 3:10:59 has been that holy grail for me, and as I ran my first two marathons in 2006 and 2007, my sights were set on 3:20, a time I thought would be a building block toward my ultimate goal.

Last spring, almost a year ago, I made my breakthrough, running the Flying Pig Marathon in a sub 3:20. I felt fantastic and strong and even with all the hills of Kentucky and Cincinnati, I powered through the last miles. That, and faster 5K times told me I could perhaps start thinking of making my BQ attempt.

I took a break after my spring marathon but made a commitment to ramp up the training and mileage and I set a hometown marathon -- Toronto's waterfront -- as my venue to make the attempt. In the four months, I have never put so much into a single effort. My mileage was just way more than I was used to: 6 days a week of running, 14 milers on a weekday, 20+ milers, countless track and tempo work. And I was true to the program with no exceptions.

I will not deny that I was in the best shape of my life. Could I have done more? Undoubtedly yes, but time is a massive commodity I have in short supply.

Scotiabank Toronto Waterfront Marathon is a bittersweet experience. I was hitting all my splits, it was clockwork. But when I hit the 37K mark, with only three miles to go, calf cramps and subsequent walk breaks took an entire summer's training away from me. I wasn't able to make it to my next goal of 3:15 which would have BQed me for 2010.

Funny, walking home from the race, I tried to come to grips with a wide range of emotions, but I can only describe myself feeling resigned. What an odd feeling. I knew that there was so much not in my control that day, like the heat or a lack of the promised 3:10 pacer. I knew I had run a strong strong race on a warm day, and I had learned so much by running alone about what I could do. I knew I also had to learn more about dealing with the pain associated with running a marathon.

I don't think the summer of training was a waste. There are definate gains I made during those 18 weeks that I bring to myself today -- some sort of reslieance and the ability to run through exhaustion.

So I'm in the taper for my sixth marathon, and last night, I watched a video on Runner's World shot at the Charles River. The reporter was asking runners who were running Boston about getting the BQ. One thing resonated with me. It wasn't the advice to pick the right training program, or doing speedwork three times a week. It was this: You have to keep on trying.

Mississauga Marathon is on my comeback route. I'll run it once again humbled by the distance, I'll aim to run it wisely, with a strong pace and improve upon hydration and fuelling. I'll take a few easy weeks after that, but by June, I'm going to build up the mileage. I've rested and thought through the mistakes all fall and winter, and even just started running again for the love of it, and I've come to grips that BQ is not the sum of my running. It's a milestone, but not getting it won't make me any less of a runner. I've run too many miles in the past five years to make one race one that defines me.

That said, my next birthday in August just bought me another five minutes. So might as well keep on trying.

I guess the taper has begun

Oh yeah, did I mentioned I finished my last 20 miler before the marathon, so I believe I can call the taper now.. I have a 11 mile run tomorrow, but the work is in me. As I said earlier, I'm not in optimal fitness but whatever.

What is kinda nice is that I ran it pretty much like I wanted to. Started out at a slower pace and ramped up so the last 7 miles or so was done at sub 8 minute miles, sub 5K. And the final time of 2:42 is a lot more impressive compared with my last 20 miler done in 3:01 (okay, that was the day after I did two road races, but ...)

My thought is this. I'm actually doing okay. I may reevaulate and see if if 3:20 makes sense.

Here are the splits
1 5:26
2 5:31
3 5:31
4 5:30
5 5:20
6 5:25
7 5:10
8 5:07
9 5:07
10 5:02
11 5:08
12 5:08
13 5:01
14 5:04
15 5:03
16 4:51
17 4:59
18 4:59
19 5:04
20 5:29
21 5:25
22 4:42
23 4:53
24 4:59
25 4:44
26 4:55
27 4:42
28 4:56
29 4:55
30 4:44
31 4:53
32 4:49

2:43:32

Ready for the big run

It's mid week and I've done what I would consider a strong 10 miler and a follow-up 7 miler tonight in a good strong pace. I feel like I have enough cardio to carry me for endurance running. I have a few more days till my last 20 miler, which I'm looking forward to.

I'm going to try to simulate this run a little, make sure I get enough fuel in me and maybe take a pitstop midway to refill my bottles. I'm hoping to run the first five miles in a steady pace and hit some sort of 5 minute kilometre pace by the mid-way point. Would like to run 10-16 in a faster 4:45 then cool down with slower running. Part of me is thinking of throwing in a few extra miles to bring me closer to 35K or 23 ish miles. We'll see.

And now, back to training

I was just looking over my training logs for the mileage I've lost to my cold/flu in the past month. It was pretty bad, one of the longer bouts of sickness I've had in the middle of marathon training

March 2 - March 8: 43 miles
March 9 - March 15: 20 miles (first cold, took four days off, then probably came back too soon, raced 5K)
March 16 - March 22: 15 miles (second cold, ran two days)
March 23 - March 29: 32 miles (felt blah for most of the week but able to run 30K race while still weak)
March 30 to April 5: 50 miles (cold just about gone, did two races on one day, then a 20 miler the day after)
April 5 to April 12: 46 miles (some muscle soreness early in the week but by last three days, feeling close to normal)

So now I have one more week of hard training before the taper. I've lost out on a month of quality work but at least my mileage is back to normal. The four races in a month in the end will have to do for pacer and tempo work. That will do.

Next week, a few challenging runs plus a 20 miler on the weekend. I'll be in DC so I may do the 20 miler on Saturday so I can enjoy the rest of the weekend with R. Then, the taper arrives.

Four weeks out and a different view of the marathon

This is a truely weird feeling I have right now -- I'm four weeks until my next marathon and I'm not feeling the excitement I usually have. The best way to describe it is what I felt going into last year's Marine Corps Marathon, a month after finishing the Toronto Scotiabank Marathon.

In other words, I have a decent amount of basic training in me, but not to the point where I think I'm going to all-out race the distance. My winter has not been great for training than last year for Flying Pig. For one thing, I narrowed it down to a 12 week program, and if you do that, you have to be on the ball for the entire nine weeks leading to the taper. My big flu/cold three weeks back took me way off track and now I'm feeling great in health but nowhere near where I am capable of on a fitness and running level. Tomorrow's 17 miler and next week's 20 miler are coming up and I'm sure I can get through them but not at one of those, I'm feeling great, bring on the marathon type runs.

Long story short, I think the type of training I've done is sorta like what I did for my first marathon in Chicago. It was plenty of mid-level mileage but lacking in all the quality work (tempos, marathon pacers, trackwork). I ran that marathon in 3:35 even though I targetted a 3:20.

Yes, I've done four road races in the past month, including a 30K race that I ran at a 3:20 marathon pace (that's a confidence booster for sure) and a few speedy tempo like races (one 5K at 20 minute pace, and two LTs last Saturday).

So am I ready for an all-out race at Mississauga? I don't think so, and I even think if I went for a 3:20 I could end up hurting a whole lot. Yes, I do think I've gained a lot of experience in my five marathons I've run that would get me through a sub 3:30. And I do think that 3:25 would not be out of the question. But I've learned to respect this distance and I think I see Mississauga as a chance to be the springboard into a spring and summer of heavy training. If this sounds silly, this marathon is the warmup for fall season.

Anyhow, I'm thinking a 5 minute kilometre or a 3:30 is the realistic approach. It will have me comfortable through 30K and let experience get me through the final 6 miles. Even during my run today, I was thinking that maybe even a 3:45 would be great so I could just treat the race like a ultra long Sunday run, and maybe hook on to a pacer and enjoy the company of other runners.

I have ambitious goals for the fall, including running two marathons and making another real attempt at a BQ. I've already signed up for Marine Corps but I don't think it's the A-race.

But now, leading to the peak week of training, I'm gonna reconnect to simple running and leave all that wonky running jargon (farklets, tempos, track, pacers) for another day. Tomorrow, gonna just run, and that's good enough for me.

Why runners should tweet

This is not one of my long-run epiphanies, you know, those thoughts that occur to you when you're in the middle of a 20 miler. I think I can confidently, after blogging about running for more than three years, make this proposal to the running blog family (the RBF, as we know and love it to be.)

Us running bloggers are a real community. Although we are often separated by time or distance, there are some common themes: We love to run. We run for fitness. We train for races. We obsess over marathons and all distances that require a bib and pins. We write race reports. We log our daily miles. There's one thing I've always loved about reading other running blogs. We encourage each other, offer up advice so that although we may not run with groups, we have a group to talk back to.

I'll have to admit that in my first few years of run blogging, in 2006 and 2007, I found a pretty good community and have visited a tonne of run blogs. Over the years, my Bloglines RSS reader account has come to grow to more than four dozen running blogs. I try to make effort to read the runners I've followed  In the past year or so, I'm finding my time is stretched as I take on other work and blogging and running commitments. And while I get no shortage of visitors, the number of bloggers I interact with has fallen. Am I writing anything different? (No, not really.) Has run blogging changed? (No, not really.)

The odd thing I find is more recent run bloggers have created their own communities and spend a lot of time on each other's blogs leaving comments. But why weren't anyone finding long-time run bloggers, I thought. Communities are often closed by the people you associate with, you only discover friends of friends. I know that Blogger's new 'follow' tool is a great way to foster community but why can't we bring everyone under one roof.

RSS readers are slowly gaining acceptance as a means to read syndicated content, but leaving comments on 35 blogs means that you have to visit 35 web pages, with 35 commenting systems. It's odd and kinda hard to navigate. And, of course, what happens when you're on the go.

Twitter, of course, is the hot topic among media (I work in media, so I know the talk), we're so fascinated by it but most of us have no clue why we should be using Twitter. People love to hate it, or love to embrace it. I'm in between, as in I see it as a great tool but I'll let history decide whether it's the best thing ever.

One thing is undeniable is that it's highly searchable, live and interactive, mobile and in the moment. It's an amazing crowdsourcing tool, a cloud of comments and conversations that when tapped, can provide interesing moments, insightful commentary and, well, real conversations.

A recent example: One of the runners I follow on Twitter is @steverunner, the creator of Phedippidations, one of the great running podcasts out there. Steve Runner (Walker) is a true ambassador for running and somehow, despite the fact I've never emailed or messaged him before, though meant to, we actually got into a conversation via Twitter last month.

One morning, he noted on Twitter that he was surprised that people who follow him (more than 700) was helping to vote up his podcast. I wrote the following:

Me: @steverunner you can no longer claim only a handful of us listen in. You should follow more of us, helps get the 'conversation' going

Steve: @yumke Well said (and thanks), I'm still trying to figure out the whole "Facebook" thing too...so many social network tools, so little time!


Me: @steverunner no problem and while I have your attention, your podcast is my constant long-run companion. thanks so much for doing it


Steve: @yumke It's an honor to run with you. Merci.

What was funny is that in all my years of listening to Steve's Phedipidations, I always intended to email him to thank him for his work, but never got around to it. Not because I didn't appreciate it, but I have so much on the go. But seeing him live on Twitter, I just shot him a message and we communicated.

I manage Twitter accounts for work and my personal one (yumke) is mostly a spinoff of this running blog, with a little bit of my professional online journalist self thrown in.

I lamented to myself a few months ago that all I was reading on Twitter was about journalism (and its decline, blah blah blah). I realized it's true that Twitter is, in a way, more about who you follow than who follows you, so I sought to widen the field.. I added runners -- a whack of them.

And then it happened, my Twitter feed became a mishmash of journalism talk, AND of running logs, of weather reports and race reports. All of a sudden, I felt connected to a running community that months ago I felt I was getting far removed from.

All of a sudden, while I was booting my computer up on Sunday morning, I turned on one of my Twitter aps and saw that a dozen other runners around the continent (and a few in Europe) were preparing for their Sunday long runs. Live. How amazing is that. Not surprisingly, the folk who tweet about journalism aren't awake as early as runners on Sunday mornings. That's good to know.

And in the last two weekends, while running road races, I was able to find other runners who were preparing, cheering or finishing up the same race. It made a community feel a little smaller.

Just last night, I came across a feed by @virtual4now in which 90+ other run bloggers have added their IDs to. I'll probably follow a whack of them.

Now, one warning: I believe Twitter has had an impact on my run blogging. I'm blogging less because I'm capturing alot of my daily training through 140 character tweets.

So my advice to running bloggers? Start a Twitter account, pump your blog RSS feed into it via Twitterfeed and start logging little updates and embed your Twitter feed into your blog. As you know, not every daily run deserves a full post, but that doesn't mean you can't log in what you're thinking, feeling or even just note the miles you put in. And don't forget to follow a bunch of runners. That's the key. If you want to find runners, see who's following @steverunner or @runnersworld. That's a good start.

Update: Forgot about wefollow.com. There are almost 60,000 people on it

More races and skipping track work

Added a few more races to my calendar but at the same time a little disappointed I forgot about the Army 10 Miler. I ran it the last two years but was too late in signing up for the October race.

That said, I was able to sign up for the Nightcrawler 5 miler, one of my favourite races of the year run around the first day of summer (the longest day of the year) and the Capitol Hill 10K, run a week after my marathon. It winds its way around the Capitol building and around RFK Stadium in DC. Another smallish community race.

There's one race I'll be able to do three years in a row. I've signed up for the Marine Corps Marathon on October 25, 2009. Yep, that's a week after a possible goal marathon. Will have to see how things go, but I wanted to give myself the option of MCM before it filled all the way up.

In my continuing acceptance that the spring marathon is not a BQ attempt, I skipped today's 5x600 trackwork in favour of a straight out 8 miler. Felt right to be doing that today. An 11 miler scheduled tomorrow.

Race reports: Harry's 8K and 5K Spring Run-Off

Okay, haven't done this before. Two races, one report. Here goes.

8K: This is the fourth time I've done this race and it's one of my favourites. Just about every year I've done it, a bunch of my friends have run on the first day. In fact, this was the race that got me bitten with the racing bug

Strategy: I had three major things on my mind while running this race. The first was that I had a 20 mile run the next day. The second was that I had a 5K race about 30 minutes after racing this. The third was, well, that I'm not quite up to race shape.

I saw my friend Sasha from my old work place -- they do a team every year. We lined up and I knew he was going to go out very fast. I told him I'd let him go ahead of me. I wanted to run this as a tempo run and so with the hils, that'd put me in the 4:15 to 4:25 range.

Here are the splits and the race info from Garmin

1K: A flat part where we're jockeying for position, actually kinda flat to down hill, although I do remember a slight uphill. I was just trying not to go out too fast but to seed myself properly. The split was 4:13

2K: This features at the end of it a huge downhill, the same big hill we have to climb at the end. Going into this part of the race, I knew I wasn't giving it all. Around this time, I was telling myself to hold back and tried to pace off a few runners. Plunging into the downhill, I could have increased the pace, but I decided to let my breathing dictate my pace. It felt comfortable.
The split in 4:15

3K to 4K: Going into this, I told my friend Sasha that I'd take it easy in the first 5, then 'race' the last three. Yeah right. The 2K to 3K was pretty flat, then starts a pretty long incline that kinda hurt. I believe the incline goes for at least 500 metres. 3K split was 4:20 and the next was 4:40

5K: The next kilometre was a slight downhill and I was feeling ok. The wind was at our back so I was feeling pretty good. Split in 4:16 and I hit the 5K mark in the early 22 minute range

6K. This had a Big downhill that you ahd to throw yourself down. Tried to be careful, didn't want to hurt the muscles too much. It was followed by rolling hills. Split in 4:13.

7K: We turned north and yup, the 52km/h wind was right in our face. Not good. Winding hills but I felt I wanted to pick it up. Did the split in 4:34

8K: Ah, the infamous Spring Road hill. It defeats so many people. It comes within the last 400 metres and lasts 300 metres of a steep climb. I powered into it and took the hill strong. I saw a friend cheering and I felt pretty good. Did the hill without breaks and stepped it up at the end. The split in about 4:34 with a few seconds tacked on at the end.

Finished the race in 35:12 which, surprisingly, is my second best time on that course out of the four times I've run it. I think holding back actually helped me a little.

Chip time: 35:12
Overall: 120/2016
Gender: 103/1043
Age group: 15/188

The 5K (course and splits here)

So, what made me run two races on one day. Well, last year, a bunch of my friends -- all photo editors from our old campus paper -- ran the 5K. Over lunch last year, Jelly, Tom, Fitzy and I decided that if so many of us were running it, maybe we should just do a team the next year. So we recruited seven of us -- including Frankie -- and named ourselves Running Copy.

Here's a pic of, from left, Fitzy, Tom, me and Jelly, from last year.



After finishing the 8K, I jogged to the gathering area and met up with the gang. Thirty minutes later, we were lining up. Four of us guys were aiming for 22:30 to 25 while the girls lined up farther back.

1K: Horn went off, and we took it easy. I found myself running with Frankie and we chatted a bit. Fitzy went storming by and we let him go. After the water stop after the first kilometre, lost Frankie but Tom was running beside me. Did the split in a (for me) steady marathonish pace of 4:45.

2K: Tom and I were running together and we were chatting. Well, I was doing a lot of chatting, feeling that if I coudl talk, then at least we wouldn't have to go out too fast. It was nice and leisurely but I felt we were giving it a little. Split in 4:29

3K: Fitzy was ahead of us by 10 metres as we hit the downhill and we plunged ourselves down. I was a bit ahead of Tom but at the bottom of the hill I let up a little so we'd run side by side. By the end of the kilometre, we'd come beside Fitzy and passed, stepping up the pace a little on the rolling hills. Split in 4:26

4K: Into the wind we went, and we paced a little stronger passing more runners. We saw a few kids ahead of us and as we hit a little hill I think Tom and I both resolved to catch up to them. Split in 4:33

5K: The last kilometre is the same as the 8K, the big hill at the end. We both noted that the nightmare of a hill was coming and we bared down. As we hit the bottom, we both stepped it up. I don't know why, maybe because my friend Lee was at the bottom (thanks Lee!) cheering us on, but I felt so very strong. I blasted up that hill, emptying my tank. It was a painful run up but I felt good, letting my heart go way up.

You don't get very many slow motion moments in your running life, but this was one of them. I remember it so clearly, the spectators cheering on strongly, me passing tonnes of runners, and myself turning the final corner with even more gas. Did the last kilometre at 4:23 pace! and the last bit at 4:15 pace. Final kilometre split in 4:23. Wow.

Finished it strong. Felt great and I'd done the double. That was a load of pain and fun, shared in the company of great friends and savoured at the pub afterward.

Chip time: 22:52
Overall: 82/1359
Gender: 73/653
Group: 12/118

Long, tough run but hit the big 50

It's in the books, my first 20 miler since last marathon training season. This one didn't go the greatest but I did the mileage, spent three hours on my feet. That's valuable training time.

I'm sure that two races yesterday took a little out of me, but I basically ran both races on a hilly course at a strong but not at an all-out pace.

What's good about the training is that my totals for this week is finally up in mileage. I was supposed to do 55 miles but have done 50 after today's run. Not bad at all.

On today's run, I decided to hit the Leslie Spit and it was pretty good. I do know that it's not a good idea to go on a three-hour run with three small bottles of Gatorade. I was really disappointed that the water fountains were not turned on yet. I'm going to have to figure out a better plan to get hydrated. I really felt weak and tired during the last 10K, which isn't good. The only consolation is that I know with proper rest and hydration I can do 30K at a good pace, as I did last week at the Around the Bay.

I'm finally coming to terms with this marathon training -- Mississauga will not be a target marathon. I'm not even sure what pace I'll do but with the lack of quality work and three weeks of training put off by sickness, I'm going to have to face up to reality that I'm not ready for an all-out effort. I'm not down to optimal weight as well.

So, the plan is to continue running, use Mississauga as my next big race, but to get me to June when I can start real training. I'm actually not that disappointed that I'm not where I am last year, just want to avoid burnout.

That was fun: Two races in two hours

Did the Harry's Spring Run-Off 8K and 5K race this morning. It was a lot of fun doing two races back to back. The second was with my running team Running Copy (that's a media-esque name, yes). The first was the very hilly 8K.
I'll write up a race report tomorrow, but the upshot of it was an 8K in 35:12 and a 5K in 22:52. It took a lot of patience not to go out too hard but I think I ran both well given a variety of factors.

And, of course, now I can look at my stats and see two races on a single day. Very cool.

After, my friends and I hit a great resto called Dr. Generosity. Highly recommend it.