Presque Isle Half Marathon

This is the 8th time that I have run this race and in the last few years, it has really grown.  In 2009 there were just over 750 runners and this year there were 1335 finishers (only 1150 were recorded according to the web site but many of the unrecorded runners were early walkers).  The course is very flat, but the peninsula is pretty and you can catch sites of the city of Erie, the lake, and even some wildlife if you are good.  The tough part about the course being flat and a bit boring is that your mind can wander if it isn't on task, and I often have found myself there during this race.  Often that is due to the weather (always seems to be warm (often hot) and humid) and the fact that the scenery can be a bi redundant.  I've run times all over the place on this course as I'm not always in a great place in July for running, I've been lazy in June, or I've come off injury.  It is also July and usually fall race schedules have not yet started to ramp up.  This year felt like it really was no different other than the fact that I felt like I might have more fitness than I realized and if the weather was pretty good, I thought that I just might try to "race" (as much as one can "race" in July) and see how it goes.

Presque Isle is a 45-50 minute drive from Chautauqua, so the three of us (myself, Mary Pat and Chris - women that I train with here all summer), had to leave at o'dark o'clock) 5 am! to get to the start area in order to register, hit the bathrooms, etc. before the race begins promptly at 6:45 am.  The start used to be 7:30, but as the field got larger and we were blessed with a couple of years where the temps were in the high 70s, the Erie Runners Club folks (they direct the race and do a darn good job of it) moved the start time to 6:45 am.  Yes, that is before even 7 am which is a rarity for most northern races and requires those of us who drive a ways (and many folks come from as far as Pittsburgh or Cleveland or Buffalo) to get up and leave when it is still dark.

MP, Me, Chris in a bad selfie

This year the weather has been very weird. A couple of weeks back we had nothing but heat and humidity, but this past week, we had a cold front go through with lots of rain and lows in the 50s!  Believe me, running in 58F weather and 90% humidity is way better than 70F weather and 90% humidity.  It rained pretty much all day Saturday so we had no idea what was to be in store for us in the morning.  As we left CHQ and headed down to to Presque Isle (and it is indeed down as we are at 1300-1400 ft at CHQ and  580 ft  in Presque Isle), the temperature crawled up to 68F and the humidity was on the rise as well (we found out later it was 88%).  When we warmed up, we decided we need to lessen our load by losing a layer, and I ran in a bra top and skirt for the first time in years.  I was real glad I made that decision and I'm also glad that no one was looking at this 50+ yr old woman.  I'm sure the pictures will be most interesting.  It turned out to be a great decision as I was completely drenched at the end of the race and was glad to have brought dry clothes.

I wasn't sure where to go with the race, so I started off at what felt like a slow pace with a controlled heart rate (8:09) and then I just let it go from there.  No where along the course did I feel like I was over doing it as I just ran how I felt.  For the most part, the course is indeed flat, but if you look at the profile, you will see the subtle ups and downs throughout.  My mile times were pretty consistent, but I did drop off in the last couple a few seconds per mile while holding my HR steady.  (The last mile does run deceptively up just a bit and it is evident in those few seconds as you tire).  I tried to finish as strong as I could and came in with the 2nd fastest time that I have run on the course (with the fastest time being in the September race so the weather is/was better) in the summer.  I beat last year's time by 1:15 which lets me realize that while I feel like I am struggling, I am a lot further along than I thought.  

Statistics from this year were interesting: 2nd AG (F50-54), 172nd Overall, 38th Woman; 7th Master.  Last year, I was also 2nd AG, 179th Overall, 41st Woman; and 10th Master.  The same woman who beats me every year did it again (she ran a 1:39 so kudos to her), but I'm not as far behind as I was last year as she ran the same time then!   

PS I just looked at last year's data from my Garmin, and although I thought it was "cold" last year, the weather recorded was actually 66F and 88% humidity.  So pretty much the same!

PPSS As an aside to my blog, the alleged friend of the Boston Bomber was found guilty today on several counts and could be sentenced to as many as 25 yrs in jail.  I'm still torn as to how I feel as he may or may not be just a "friend" protecting a "friend", but then again - the jury did separate the charges and they seem to have gone through them very methodically.

It's Getting Better

Yup, this is often how I feel after a good run in the morning.  The last few days have been stressful as I was involved in a 125th Anniversary/Birthday Celebration of a club that I belong to here in CHQ.  Lot's of activities to be organized, coordinated, etc. and somehow I ended up as a co-chairman of the celebration portion of the event.  The great thing is that this club is filled with overly capable women who know how o take charge.  That can be a tough dynamic as we all want to get it done, raise money for scholarships ( as an organization, we raised over $87K last summer to sponsor students in furthering their development as artists, musicians, and dancers) and we do not like to fail. As part of our 125th year, we also had a Silent Auction designed to take in the most $$$$ and I think I'm gad not to have been in charge of that.  Major kudos to the two women who were as they made it happen and didn't seem to ever lose their cool.  That part was tough for me (the not losing one's cool) and I did it.  I want things to go so right all the time (there is that type "A" personality and why I run in the first place).  No catastrophes, no disasters, and we survived with lots of help from those more than capable women.  Thanks to you all.

Running was better this week as well.  The weather has been very strange as it has not been as hot as it was earlier (late June/early July) but it sure has been wet with lots of thunderstorms and severe weather.  This leads to cooler temps but high humidity in the morning.  The good news is/was that when I did my long run this past weekend, the weather was absolutely perfect for running - the temp was cool enough (58F) that I never noticed the high humidity (88%).  I chose a route that had me run the hills n the latter half and I was more than able to handle them without even feeling it.  This made me happy and hopefully that means I have turned the corner before I am scheduled to run the Presque Isle Half Marathon in Erie, PA next Sunday.  I've run this race the last six years since those are the last six years that I have been here for the race.  It used to be that either my daughter was too young or I wasn't here yet for the summer to run the race.  It is a one loop, flat course on a peninsula that juts out into Lake Erie.  It has grown from a few more than 500 runners to close to 1500 last year.  Last year, the weather was also absolutely perfect in that there was little or no humidity and temps in the low 60s.  The year before, the humidity was close to 100% and we ran between thunderstorms.  In fact, we actually watched a thunderstorm come across Lake Erie as we were finishing and it chased us from the finish line to our car!  I've also raced, not race, ran as a progression run, ran an easy run - you name it over the last 6 years, and I'm not sure yet what I'm going to do this year.  I'm looking forward to seeing what Sunday brings and what I decide to do on race morning!

Boston Bomber Revisited

So the first of the trials/questionings of the alledged friends/accomplishes of the Boston Bomber are coming to a conclusion this week, and I'm really not sure what to make of these "kids".  Yes, they are indeed kids, the same age as my daughter and also students at a Massachusetts university, just as she is, and in a way, their actions dictate those of naive, idealistic kids. Tazhayakov, the first of these friends to stand trial, admitted disposing of a backpack and laptop belonging to the bomber and then telling the FBI where to find and recover the said backpack.  His attorneys are arguing that his admission should not be allowed to convict him since they were alledgedly obtained in a interview with the FBI when Tazhayakov felt he couldn't leave the custody of the FBI.  This is where I disagree with his "defense" even though I know he is entitled to one. You cannot make me believe that his actions were just not those of a kid simply caught with his hands in the "cookie jar".  The same friends also admitted that the bomber met with them a month before the incident and told them he knew how to make a bomb and discussed various forms of martyrdom with them.  I know these are kids and as college kids we all live in our own "dream" world so to speak where we believe in very purposeful ideals and basically don't sway from those ideals.  Shoot, many of my friends in college felt strongly about this or that, but never enough to act in a terroristic way and hurt/maim others.  I think that even the parents of these kids believes they did wrong as one stated that his son needed "to pick his friends and acquaintances better and pick the right ones".  Why are their actions any different from friends of Terry McVeigh's or the sibling that turned in the unibomber?  I guess that I'm waning over time, but their is still no excuse for their actions or the actions of the bomber himself.  I'm inclined to be in the camp that they should all rot in hell.