Virginia Ten Miler Race

I am only running one race this year. It is the race that first got me interested in running, the Virginia Ten Miler Race. This 35 year race is always held on a Saturday late in September.

At one time this was a well heralded race, drawing such top notch runners as Bill Rodgers, Frank Shorter, Jeff Galloway, and Catherine Ndereba. However, in recent years the number of participants has dropped off and it has become more of a fun race for local runners. Two years ago, new leadership took over the race organization, with the goal of returning the event to world class status.

One of the things that has been done is the hosting of a spaghetti dinner at packet pick up on Friday night. They have invited in a special guest speaker each of the last two years, to boost interest and try to increase the number of runners.



This year's guest was Joan Benoit Samuelson, the Marathon Gold Medal winner of the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics. She is of particular interest to me, since we both grew up in the state of Maine. I had a nice conversation with her about running in Maine and the challenges that a northern climate brings to runners. She ran in the race the next day and won the women's division, which was nice.

There also is a 4 mile race (started in 1999) that goes on at the same time. A lot of runners go for that distance rather than the longer number of miles. There also is a children's mile race that is run the same morning. With all of the participants totalled, there has been a dramatic increase in the number of people involved and the effort of the organizing committee is evident. This year there were 733 Ten Miler entrants, up from the 509 who ran 4 years ago.

The last two years my time has slowed down despite an increase in the number of miles that I run in preparation. My goal was to stay close to my time of a year ago, which was 1:50:46.

The race course starts with a steady mile and a half decline, which when combined with the adrenalin rush brought about by the atmosphere, can put the unaware runner in a bad position for finishing the race. Experience has pointed out my limits and I know that I will run easier later on in the race if I take the beginning slow.

The course is known for the hills that are friendly when running down them but that become your enemy when you are tired and face climbing back up. The race is run on an "out and back" route, meaning that you run out for 5 miles and then return on the same five miles. This means that you get to "enjoy" the challenge as well as the benefit of each hill. The unique challenge here is that you face the friendly decline at the beginning of the race, when you are fresh and can easily get worn out in going out too fast. The hill sucks you down at a pace far faster than what you are used to. Pay back comes at the end of the race when you are already worn out and you have to climb this same section to cross the finish line.

I run purely for fun and try to keep pace with my goals. It was probably due to this that I finished within 34 seconds (19 seconds in actual running time) of what I had run a year ago. This certainly was acceptable and made for a fun day.

At the end of the race I knew that I should have run faster than this pace. I felt that I had not managed my pace quite as well in the middle miles as I should have. A discouraged runner had appeared along the route and I stopped to encourage them. The timing of this was not the best for my race plan. With that in mind, I ran another 10 miles the day after the race. This post-race run was 5:14 faster than during the Ten Miler, despite my fatigue. However, this second run was very encouraging and I am glad that I did it.

September miles

The key to running goals of high numbers is consistency. This actually goes for most long range goals of life. No one run is going to "make" or "break" the overall goal but each and every run becomes important as you put them together.

September is an important month for me in my running. This is the month of the local Virginia Ten Miler race. I always plan to run this race, this year for the sixth consecutive time. This means solid long runs in preparation, but then tapering of miles later in the month. Hopefully I am able to get in my 100 miles for the month.

Here is the number of miles run for each day of the month of September:

2nd 4.12
4th 4.04
6th 5.29
7th 1.17
9th 5.77
10th 5.45
11th 4.00
13th 2.61
14th 10.00
18th 2.39
19th 5.25
20th 4.01
21st 4.27
22nd 4.53
23rd 4.00
24th 4.21
26th 1.00
27th .35 Warm up for race
27th 10.11 Virginia Ten Miler race with a separate report
28th 10.00
29th 4.28
20th 3.19

This totals exactly 100.0 miles for the month of September. I am trying to make that number my minimal amount to run each month and now have a streak of 6 consecutive months in which I have reached that goal.

Miles For the Last Half of August

I am making up in reporting some miles that I put in during the last few weeks to bring this blog up to date. For reading benefit I will do them in individual entries.

The last part of August went like this: 10.0 miles (17th), 1.05 miles (18th), 3.68 miles (19th), 4.0 miles (20th), 3.52 miles (21st), 10.0 miles (24th), 1.11 miles (25th), 11.36 miles (30th), and 5.73 miles (31st).

This gave me 111.1 miles for the month of August and totals 838.6 miles for the year.

A solid run

My schedule is changing for what I am needing to accomplish each day. As a result, I am needing to run at different times and may depend more heavily upon the weekends for mileage.

Today I ran 10 miles. This was an extremely solid run and came after a day off from running yesterday. When it comes time for racing, this "day off" is something I need to focus on. As I understand it, it is wise to take the second day back off and then run a light run on the day before the event. This gives you the most benefit of being in peak condition the day of the race.

In any event, my time today as just a normal training run was FASTER than what I raced in the Virginia Ten Miler last year. This bodes well for my training.

My early total is now at 798.1 miles. With well over 4 months left in the year, this is a solid place to be for running 1,000 miles. I am also now ahead of the 2,000 KM pace too, which is my new focus goal.

Solid running week

The week has progressed with solid runs. I have personally had to make some adjustments in regards to several areas of my life, which has affected the time schedule that I have for runnning. That works fine as it is a check for how serious I am about keeping my goals.

This week I have had runs of 4.01, 3.82, 3.63, and 5.44 miles. That being mixed in with a couple of days off and I will need a solid run over the weekend to keep pace with my goals.

I have now completed 5 years of running since I started on August 13, 2003

My mileage for the year is 788.10.

Pushing ahead for the 2,000 KM goal

My running continues to be steady and strong. Over the last week, my times have also been consistently solid for where I have been at. Hopefully this will pay off for my running in some way.

I did a run to town and back last Saturday. This was 5.56 miles down in solid time ....a break at the Community Market and then the run back. The route that comes back is uphill, which means the other run going out is downhill. With the break in time, it is always slower and a harder run coming back. Never the less, it is an excellent work out.

Sunday I did an easy 2.19 mile run followed by 5.20 miles on Monday. Tuesday I did not run and followed that on Wednesday with 5.26 miles. I later ran 2.31 miles again that day. Thursday was 4.06 miles, Friday 4.04 miles and then 5.29 miles this morning.

August is shaping up to be another solid month. I now have 771.20 miles for the year and am ahead of my projections.

The end of July and starting August

It is hard to believe that the summer is moving along so quickly. At the same time, as I record miles from running each day I can see that the year is moving right along.

The runs that I have recorded in the last week of July were for 3.42, and even 10.00, 4.06, 3.55, 1.20 (before the rain of a thunder storm hit), 5.27 and tonight's 4.31. There was a rest day thrown in there for good measure but I still had a good week.

For July I managed to run 123.3 miles for an average of 3.97 miles a day. This well passes the goal of 3.39 miles a day that I need for running 2,000 KM in the year. Of note as well is the fact I have now run over 100 miles for 4 straight months, which is a record.

In evaluating my running, I need to hold at this amount of running for a while. My fear is that if I add too much mileage, I will get injured. Since I was only averaging 2.74 miles a day last year, this 3.97 mile average is quite a jump.

I am extremely thankful for my health to run.

The total miles run so far in 2008 is now at 731.72 miles.