Racing Season #2 Final Thoughts (part 2)

Overall, Season 2 went quite well despite starting with the disastrous group run in February.  In retrospect, even that ass kickin' was beneficial since it motivated me to get in shape and avoid further humiliation.  Here are the season highlights:

• It once again took me 3-4 months to work up to 20 miles/week with runs of over 30 minutes. I've now been running 15-20 miles/week since July.  I even ran a couple . . .50 minute runs.  I know, crazy.
• In the Crystal City Twilighter 5k I broke the 19 minute barrier for the first time Dusty Spikes era and shaved 4 minutes off my previous year's time.
• I wrote a blog post last year about how frustrated I was that I wasn't even in Hasher shape. I'm now proud to say that I've run 10 Hash runs since last February including one run with the Manila Hashers when I was in the Philippines in September.
• A couple years ago I expressed how envious I was that Marshall won socks in a road race. It took me far more attempts but 2 weeks ago I was finally able to claim age group honors  in the worst organized 5k in running history (Seriously, multiple articles have been written on how badly this race was organized).
• By far though, the highlight of the past year for me was the formation of the Dusty Spikes Running Club.  It was a sad day when Jesse had to put himself on injured reserve in late July but hopefully the club will reunite soon.

When the spikes are dusty, Winter is a very challenging season and it hasn't been good for me the past couple years.  I fully intend to keep running, but when running isn't priority #1 and you find yourself heavier, older, and injury prone, you never know what's going to happen in the off-season.  Luckily, I still haven't broken 18 in a 5k and I'm more determined than ever to not start from scratch in March.   I moved once again in May.  The Adidas spikes came with me. .  for the 10th time.

Dusty Spikes Forever! 

Racing Season #2 Final Thoughts (part 1)

Saturday's Hot Chocolate 5k will more than likely end my 2nd Dusty Spikes racing season.  I would have preferred to not conclude the season with a race that is considered an "epic failure" but honestly I'm just happy to be running races again after a 9 year hiatus.  I was able to squeeze in 4 races this year:

Crystal City Friday's 5k: 20:40 (I considered this race pre-season)
Twilighter 5k: 18:51 (I'll never know my official time though)
Crystal City Friday's Fall 5k: 18:27
Hot Chocolate 5k:  18:52

If I ever get around to posting a follow-up blog to this I'll provide more commentary on the season. Who knows, maybe I'll even have a sincere thought or include a cliche quote or two. 

Race Report: Worst 5k in History

I got up at 5:20 am on a Saturday to participate in the Hot Chocolate 5k along with 20,000 others.   This is part of a series or chocolate themed races in cities across the U.S.   If I were to go into details on how awful this race was it would be one of those scrolling blogs that no one would read.  Instead, I'll just link to this article written in the DCist yesterday that summarizes what is now being called an "Epic Fail". On to the race report. . .  .

Apparently all the good local runners have a 6th sense for bad races or didn't make it to the start due to 495 traffic (see article).  I ran 18:53 under the name Kevin Kozacek which was good for 3rd overall.  The race was sold out 2 weeks ago so I wasn't planning on running until Friday evening when I found out a friend of a friend would not be able to race. Under the circumstances I was happy with sub-19.  I ran a hard 4 mile run on Tuesday (a Pat designed Dusty Spike workout) so I wasn't complete rested.  Also, this course had two long climbs including the last 1/2 mile which has never been my forte (anyone remember the Penn St. Invitational?)  I would have liked to take a shot at sub-18 but that will probably have to wait until Spring.