State to State = New PR

State to State 2010 has officially come and gone, and it couldn't have turned out any better. After having one of the hottest summers on record in the Miami Valley Region and record breaking temps last week, a cold front moved in 24 hours in advance of the race dropping the temps by over 20 degrees. Sunday morning started off around 50 degrees and sunny. 7:58am everybody is in the starting corral about 15 feet behind the starting line. 7:59am, Spencer, Jessica, and I are about 3 feet from the starting line. (A lot closer to the front of the pack than where we usually line up) 8am gun goes off and we all lunge forward, nice thing about being that close to the front is you don't hit the wall of people stumbling over each other. 8:52am at the half way point, turning around and feeling great. 9:45am crossing the finish line. A new PR 1 hour 45 minutes. I beat my previous course record by 18 minutes.

As always State to State was fun. It's nice having a larger/small race in our town. It looked as though the sponsorship was down this year. The starting/finishing chute wasn't done up as much as years past. There also weren't any gels this year. For some reason there was only one band this year along the course, 2 years ago we had a band about every mile. Even without all the bells and whistles, we still had our awesome mobile cheering squad, at 4 different locations along the course pushing us on.

Next year 1:30...............maybe?

worry less. smile more. accept criticism. take responsibility. listen & love. don't hate. embrace change. & feel good anyway

Glenn

Getting it in Gear

What the heck. I only have 2 weeks till the State to State Half Marathon and 6 weeks till my first Ultra Stone Steps 50k. Where has the time gone? First mistake. I didn't plan out my shorter weekly runs. That means outside of my long runs on the weekends I have only ran a handful of times over the past 2-3 months. Mistake number 2 lack of sleep which means I've been cutting my long runs short. I only have 6 weeks left and have only topped out at 18 miles. I should have hit 26 at least once by now.

Calm down Chris......Look on the bright side. You still have 6 weeks. The weather is getting better. I can get out there and log my short runs without the fear that I might spontaneously combust in the heat. Gonna log 20+ miles tomorrow morning with Spencer pacing me towards the end. I have plenty of time.

Ok so maybe my finishing time won't be as good as I had hoped it would be, but I know I'll at least finish which is all I'm really worried about. I just want to get out there and meet some new people, get myself introduced into the world of ultra trail racing, and most of all just have a great time.