Prelim Result...for the ES6

Endless Summer 6 hour Run in the books...Clan Whisman ran 32+ Miles in 6 hours. Bobbi ran 8.3, Cori ran 4.15 (thanks to Elisa for running her) and I ran 20.65 and Celia volunteered at the start finish line recording runner as they cross for each lap...we raised some $ for the Semper Fi Fund and had fun...maybe next year I'll run the entire six hours.... — Thank you Capt. Mosi D. Smith.

Endless Summer 6 Hour run

Blog following family and friends...On Saturday we will be competing in the Endless Summer 6 Run as a 3 member relay team (Clan Whisman...Kevin, Bobbi and Cori running the 4 mile lap, Celia volunteering at the start finish and our friend Elisa adding some support for Cori's lap). We are hoping the one of you would step up and offer to pledge $1 for every mile we complete for the Semper Fi Fund (http://fundraising.semperfifund.org/TKORuns)...

 

Running on Vacation…

Hawai’i is amazing.  I could just end with that but that would not do it justice. 

I promised myself that I would run while we visiting friends in Hawai’i.  Now that meant taking running gear in the already jammed suitcases… it also meant signing up for a couple of races while we were there.

I got my first run just a day after arriving.  I was a 5.25 mile run up and down and back up the hills of the Aiea area near Pearl Harbor.  Bobbi joined me for the first mile and I found my way thru the neighborhood and down to the harbor.

The next day was 4^th of July. We made our way to Ko’ Olina to spend the day on the beach and I managed to get another 4.25 miles in before it got too busy.

On Saturday, July 6^th, the entire family ran the Independence 5K Fun Run/Walk on Ford Island. The course was actually a little long 3.34 miles, but I ran very fast 6:53/mi in the kilt. Bobbi ran a PR and the girls ran/walked most of it.  We ran past the Arizona and Utah Memorials and down the historic landing strip on Ford Island to finish.

We made our way to the Big Island next and I got a very nice 4.5 mile run in.  It was cool only about 55 degrees when I started and despite running at 4000ft, I felt good running 8 min/miles.

A couple days later we were back on Oahu and got another 5 mile run in around the Aiea area.

Finally on Sunday, the 14^th, Bobbi and I ran in the Coconut Chase 8K.  I ran with her and kept I good pace for her on a tough course. Despite the beautiful view, the course was contained in a park and on a bike path. 500+ people crammed on the tight path, it was not fun.  I was not very well organized.

All in all did well got over 27 miles on 6 runs and beautiful scenery to go with it.

My First Tri

My FIRST Tri….

Sunday was my first triathlon, the Tri for Environment.  The race was put on by the Annapolis Triathlon Club and held at the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center (SERC) in Rhode River, MD.  The race was a Sprint that consisted of an 800 meter swim, a 10 Mile bike, and 5K Run.

I have done numerous duathlons now so the format of event, transition, event, transition, event is not foreign to me. However, the swim is another story. I consider myself n strong swimmer. And I had not trained for the swim portion of this event very much.  So I knew it was going to be challenging. What I wasn’t excepting the diversity of the skills needed for this race.

The swim course was an 800 meter open water swim in a protected bay of the Rhode River. There were a couple things that made this a hard.  We started in the water…which means a lot of trending around before you started.  The second tough part was the jellyfish.  They were pretty bad in the very warm water.  I was following Bobbi’s advice and started near the back and out of the way so I didn’t get run over.  I sighted the buoys really well and made a nice line for the turn buoy once I was past the dock.  That is when I got my jellyfish sting on my foot and ankle…it is kind of like a bee sting…hurt and then it was just annoying for the rest of the race.  I mixed up my strokes mainly to sight the buoys and churned along about 3 inches underwater all the way (once a submariner always submariner). 

Out of the water and across the first timing mat (another 175 to 200 yards up the road) in 28:32 (counting the transition that comes out to be 2:59/100 meters, so I may have been a little faster than that in the water). 

Not unhappy with my swim (I didn’t drown or end up halfway down the Chesapeake Bay) I made the transition on the bike and out I went.  The bike was two 5 mile loops partially in the SERC property and some on the main road.  I wasn’t hard and did well, despite the very rough road sections on SERC (speed bumps, gravel, numerous potholes, etc.). I did the bike in 32:20 just over 18.5 mph. While on the bike I refueled with liquids and food and cruised into the second transition feeling pretty good by making up time on the bike with my slow swim and heading for the run.

The run…it is what I do best, right?…just a few days before I rocked the Chesty Puller 5K with a PR running 6:51/mi.  What I failed to mention (although described much differently on the race info) this was a trail run.  It has been raining every day for weeks and this trail run quickly turned into a mud run. 

A single tract trail run in which you then must navigate around, trees, roots, mud pits, slippery hills, slower runners, slippery wooded bridges, buildings and you never get a good pace. So my thoughts for a sub 8 min/mile quickly faded and I slugged along the course hoping not to fall. I finished the run a slow 28:32 or 9:12/mi. Overall, I finished in 1:28:27, 14 of 20 in the (M40-49) and 92 of 192 overall finishers.

For my first, yes I said first which means there might be more, triathlon I am not unhappy on how I did.  I know that I would need to get a lot more time in the pool to do anything longer or to get any faster in the water.  I am seriously considering doing another Sprint in September…the day after Bobbi’s 70.3 in Jamestown, Va.