I have one free entry to give away to the Jingle Bell Run 5k in Washington Park on December 14, 2008.

If you’re interested in running the race for free click here for details and then drop me a line. First come, first served. When the race is no longer available it will be removed from the list.

The free entry is no longer available, stay tuned for more though!

A few thoughts. Why is Rocky’s dog wearing a shirt? I should do a few winter 5k’s in full sweats, like Rocky in this picture. I bet it would only slow me down by about ~20 seconds and it would demoralize those runners that I defeat! I forgot that Rocky did his running in Converse All Stars. I actually have a pair, just like the one’s that Rocky is wearing but low tops. When I put them on, I always am amazed that people used to play basketball in those shoes. They have no support and no cushion, had to have hurt, but I guess they didn’t know any better. I should try and run a 5k in them sometime.

Week of Training:

11/17 - 0
11/18 - 0
11/19 - 4 Miles
11/20 - 7.1 Miles
11/21 - 4 Miles
11/22 - Brighton Turkey Trot 5k, 8.2 Miles Total
11/23 - 16 Miles on The High Line Canal Trail

39.31 Miles Total

This was my first week of the taper for CIM. Rather pleased with the 5k on Saturday, I was thinking of the race today. When I was coming to the finish, I saw the clock, it read 17:52, I started picking up my pace, hoping to break 18. However, I also noticed that DJ Tidal Wave was playing Leona Lewis’ Bleeding Love, come on, how’s that going to fire me up, no wonder I coasted into the finish. If I DJ Tidal Wave had some AC/DC blasting through the speakers, I hit 17:59, no sweat!

Yes, you can make fun of me, since I am able to recognize that artist and the name of the song that was playing as I finished my race.

Race results here.

Ventured out to Brighton, Colorado this morning for the Brighton Turkey Trot 5k. Brighton is beautiful this time of year, so I wanted to be sure to check out the town. I left Denver at 7am, filled up my car with gas and thought to myself when was the last time I filled up my car for <$20, and my gas light was on.

I arrived in Brighton a half an hour before the race, picked up my packet and did a two mile warm up. Slipped on my Brooks T4 and headed to the start line. At the start, I saw my friend Mike Q, who has the worst blog in the history of the blogosphere, serious Mike, update that thing! Mike ran a 2:48 at the Chicago Marathon, so my race plan was to keep Mike in check and in my line of sight.

The race started promptly and of course I was immediately behind about 20-30 kids who took off sprinting. Normally, I try to run my first mile “slow”, but I had trouble reading my Garmin due to sun glare, so I just went on feel. I hit the first mile in 5:39, a bit faster than I would have liked, but I wasn’t worried. At this point Mike was a step or two behind me and Scott K. another friend of mine from old Rocky Mountain Road Runner track workouts was about 3-4 seconds ahead of me.

The second mile was in 5:51, Mike and I were running shoulder to shoulder and a step behind Scott K. At this point in the race, both Mike and Scott picked up the pace a bit and I couldn’t respond. I ran the third mile in 5:53, to finish in 18:02. Mike beat me by six seconds and Scott beat me by 11 seconds.

Going into the race, my goal was to break 18. Thus, I am happy with my performance. It’s actually the second fastest 5k that I have run post college. I wasn’t sure to what to expect, since my last race was the Denver Marathon.

I got asked quite a bit what my goal time is for CIM. It’s really hard to quantify and I am not going to throw a number out there, the altitude and the course will hopefully enable me to run a fast time. Plus, when I see that the lady who won the Denver Marathon ran 12 minutes faster at the San Antonio Marathon last week, that definitley pumps me up! Also, knowing that I stayed close to Mike Q. is a good sign, although his strength is the distance races, but still a good sign as he is a good runner.

Overall, happy with the race. If could do it over, I would have liked to have come through the first mile in 5:45, that probably would have enabled me to break the 18 minute barrier with a more evenly split race. Also, I didn’t get tough when Mike and Scott started to gap me on that third mile. I also didn’t throw in a kick with a tenth of a mile to go, sort of let myself cruise to the finish.

After the race, Scott, Mike, Dave R. and myself ran the course again for a cool down. It was good to see those guys again.

I have a free race entry to give away to the stellar Brighton Turkey Trot 5k to be held on November 22nd. This race is also giving out a tech shirt, so what’s not to love a Turkey Race and a Tech Shirt, all for free. If you’re interested, just go to the Colorado Running Forum and review three races, and then contact me for the free entry.

I only have one free entry to give out, so first come first served. Also, keep your eyes on the following list for other races that I am giving out free entires too.

11/10 - Off
11/11 - 5.5 Miles
11/12 - 8 Miles
11/13 - 5.53 Miles
11/14 - Off
11/15 - 10.4 Miles at Mount Falcon Trail
11/16 - 20.75 Miles

50.18 Miles Total

Saturday, I headed out to Mount Falcon for a run, I’ve not run this trail before. I’ve always enjoyed hiking, but I’ve never loved it, I think it’s the pace, but I love trail running, even though I don’t do it very often. The downfall obviously is you don’t have the time to take in the sights but I like the increased intensity. However, I must admit that I need to do it more often, I woke up Sunday morning with a sore neck and shoulder muscles. It’s amazing the different muscles used when running trails, I assume you use your upper body a lot more, either that or my form is abysmal. Even though I enjoy running trails, I have to admit that I’m not a great trail runner. I’m not a fast climber and I realized this year, when running with a few others, that I’m not great on the descents either. You would think that the descents would be easy, but their is a lot of technique to becoming a great downhill runner and I think what holds me back is the fear of spraining an ankle. In the past my ankles have been suspect, in my younger days I had two really bad sprains playing basketball and two more sprains while running, thus I am probably a bit timid.

Sunday, I went out to South Boulder with Mr. Colfax, and I’m not talking about Denny Neagle either. Justin and I were meeting up with the Calorie Burning Club at 8:30am, but before the group took off we got in 8 miles at 7:30 pace. At the start the wind was really stiff and I was struggling. The group is coordinated by Olfer Bariniv and there were probably around 15 guys there today, all fast, with the exception of myself!

The group took off and ran into El Dorado Springs, back through Doudy Draw, Community Ditch Trail, then back to the Vista Trailhead. The first few miles were really slow, then we were knocking out 6:40 pace through the trails. With about 4 miles to go, I let myself slip off the group, I couldn’t hang anymore, so this was probably mile 17 for me and I was also a bit dehydrated. I ran by myself for about a mile, looked back and saw that there was a guy behind me, so I stopped and waited for him to catch up, so that I would have someone to talk to for the last few miles.

RunColo “How you doin’?”
Guy “Good, those guys are going to fast for me today”
RC “Me too, I don’t have it today”

We introduce ourselves, he tells me his name is Jeff and that he is just trying to stay in shape. We chat for about five more minutes, I then realize it’s Jeff Keil and say “Oh, you’re Jeff Keil.” Jeff was 39th at Ironman Kona this year and the 7th fastest American. I start laughing inside, thinking of his modesty, one of the top triathletes in the world! Jeff ran a 2:58 marathon at Kona, so Jeff and I are of similar speed, it’s just that he can run the marathon in the same time it takes me but first he can do a 2.4 mile swim, with a 112 mile bike ride as a warm up, so yeah, oh and I guess he ran that marathon in 108 degree weather, so to be fair he has a slight edge on me!

Jeff was a great guy, I was really impressed, I had about 100 questions I wanted to ask the guy about training, etc. But Jeff was asking all the questions, asking where I was from, my background, how much I run, what I am training for, what I do, etc. It’s pretty cool when you meet an elite athlete like Jeff and find a guy that is down to earth and a true nice guy. That made my day and it’s the great thing about running in Denver/Boulder.

I finally saw The Spirit of the Marathon, I know that every other runner saw it in the theater, but I finally got around to watching it. Two running documentaries in seven days, first Run for your Life and now The Spirit of the Marathon.

The documentary focused on the 2005 Chicago Marathon, it followed six unique characters, including two elites, Deena Kastor and Daniel Njenga. The rest of the runners featured are your average everyday runners, a 70 year old Dad running with his daughter, etc. One complaint that I do have is I wish they would have featured one or two above average runners, perhaps good age group runners, guys running in the low three hours. Instead you had the extremes, the elite runners and people who are just getting into running, taking the 4:30+ to finish the marathon.

One of the runners featured was Ryan Bradley, who was a 3:10 marathon runner, obsessed with qualifying for Boston. He was injured during the filming, thus unable to run the marathon, so to be fair, they did attempt to have a solid runner in the documentary who was not a professional. However, Ryan gets to the point that I made the other day, how so many runners are obsessed with qualifying for Boston that they let it define them and you get the sense that he just wants to be able to say that he ran the Boston Marathon.

The documentary takes you through the training of Deena and Daniel, showing a glimpse of how the elites train. They go to Japan where Daniel lives, but he is also a native of Kenya, so the cameras follow him to Kenya as well. I wish they would have showed more footage of him in Japan. It was interesting to hear a Kenyan speaking Japanese, wearing the Japanese track suits and racing flats that you see so many of the Japanese elite runners wear, letting you know that he has been influenced by his new home country. Daniel’s story was the most intriguing, as you get an idea of what these Kenyans struggle with, for most of us the race is fun and an experience, however these Kenyans are racing for the cash prizes, hoping to improve their life and their families life back in Africa. Then of course they show you how the other six runners train, either via running groups or by training solo.

The footage and the cinematography were spectacular. The documentary also featured Runner’s World own celebrity, John “The Penguin” Bingham. I already have mixed feelings about this guy and won’t get into it too much, but when someone writes a running book called “ No Need for Speed“, you have to shake your head. It’s like writing a book about basketball, titled “No Need for D.” At one point in the documentary he makes a comment about how the race course is opened for seven hours and that if you finish any faster than that, you’re not getting your money’s worth. Let’s just say that the Penguin and RunColo have different definitions of the word “worth.”

The Spirit of the Marathon was enjoyable and I highly recommend it. I have heard from a few of my friends, above average runners, that they didn’t enjoy it because it focused too much on the average runner. I understand their complaints, but when the average marathon time is 4:30, good marketing is making a documentary that caters to the peak of that bell curve, not to the people in the second or third standard deviations.

11/03 - 5 Miles
11/04 - 4 Miles
11/05 - 5 Miles
11/06 - 8 Miles at 7:00 pace
11/07 - Off
11/08 - 8 Miles
11/09 - 20 Miles at The High Line Canal Trail, 7:23 pace.

50 Miles Total

My long run on Sunday, I felt great starting off and ran the first ten miles at 7:00 pace. I had thoughts of trying to do the entire run at under 7 minute pace, but sort of fell apart the last ten miles. I did my run at 1pm and the only thing that I had eaten was a bowel of cereal and a banana that morning, so I’m thinking that contributed to how I felt. I took 16oz of Gatorade (Endurance) with me and one Gu Packet, but that wasn’t enough to get me back in the saddle.

In several previous posts, I have constantly talked about how I think larger races should always give out a technical shirt for the race. Not just because I selfishly want one, but I think it’s in their best interest for advertising reasons. On my long run on Sunday, I saw three people wearing their tech shirts from The Heart Center of the Rockies Half Marathon (they give out a killer Asics Long Sleeve Shirt), I saw the 2006, 2007, and the 2008 shirt while on the run. On the flip side, I didn’t see anyone wearing a Denver Marathon shirt and that race had many more entrants but gave away a cotton shirt that no one will ever run in. In fact, I saw my 2007 Denver Marathon shirt just last week, it was in my garage, sort of gave me a laugh, I was using it to Armor All my car when I turned it over to see which old running shirt I was using.