Walkway in the Sky

Dramatic black and white

It is always nice to get back to my home town of Poughkeepsie, and it is especially nice when one of those trips coincides with a race. Aside from getting to see lots familiar faces I am always treated to interesting courses around the Mid-Hudson Valley. On my most recent trip I got to run the Treetops to Rooftops 5k which is an out and back across the Walkway Over the Hudson.

Getting a fast start.

I arrived on the Highland side of the bridge about an hour before the race and meet up with Jeff Conston and Mike Chow, two regulars in the areas running scene. I’ve raced again Mike a number of times and it is generally a tough battle. He hadn’t been racing great this spring so he didn’t know what to expect out of this race, but like me he was chasing sub 16 for 5K and planned to get out at around 5:10 pace. There were two Marist College runners on the start line along with a number of high school kids. I figured I had no shot against a couple of DI runners but I was hoping to beat Mike (he’s in my age group) and I definitely wanted to beat the kid wearing Fila finger socks.

The pack

A pack of 9 of us stuck together for much of the first mile. No one was really making any moves so after a solid first mile of 5:07 I started putting in some surges hoping to break up the pack. All this seemed to accomplish, was to tire me out and to fire up the Marist guys who took the first 2 spots soon after the turn around (1.6 miles into the race). I fell to 5th just before the final mile, and couldn’t summon any more speed out of my legs. After starting in 5:07 I had just run a 5:25 and things didn’t seem likely to improve… that is until I heard the slap slap slap of Fila finger sock boy coming up behind me and I reached down as far as I could and found the tiniest of energy reserves.

Trying to break away

My final push was not enough to catch Mike, who runs like a metronome, and who I’m pretty sure ran each mile with only a second or two variation in pace, but it was enough to stay ahead of Fila boy and a few others who were chasing me.

Suffering

I ran a 5:17 final mile and finished in 5th pace with a time of 16:19. That was 3 places worse than I did in 2011 but 18 seconds faster, so I can’t complain. Mike had a break through race, finishing just under that elusive 16 minute mark with a time of 15:58 which was good for 3rd overall behind the 2 Marist runners. Jeff Conston also ran a great race finishing in the top 10 with a time of 17:15. This is easily the fastest and deepest field I’ve seen in a Mid-Hudson Valley race in a long time. It is rare for a MHRRC race to get more than 1 or 2 runners below 16:30 let alone 3 under 16 minutes. I hope this becomes a trend in area racing. My next MHRRC will probably be during the July 19th Twilight Track Meet, I just need to figure out what I want to run.

2013 Treetops Results

A special thanks to Bob Kopac and Nin Lei for taking such great photos of the race.

McMullen Mile: A step in the right direction.

It was a dark and stormy night. No really it was, but that didn’t stop about 100 people from running in the 2013 McMullen Mile. As I’ve said many times, the McMullen Mile is my favorite race of the year. I spend all spring looking forward to racing it, and all summer thinking about what I can do better next time. I’ve had some great performances there and some truly terrible ones, like last years flame-out. This year was I was very happy with my performance even if my time wasn’t great.

The Start

The normal field of 15 or so runners was cut down to only 7, I assume because of the rain. Personally I enjoy running in the rain and was looking forward to it all afternoon. As the meet got underway the rain really started to pickup, and despite a race volunteers best efforts the inside lane on both turns were underwater. Most runners were opting to run in the second lane around the turns rather than splash through the puddles. This wasn’t to simply avoid getting wet feet, but because it looked like enough water to really slow you down if you tried to slog through it. When our race began around 8 pm the heavy rain had relented a bit but the puddles were not going anywhere.

First turn.

A runner from RIT took the early lead and I settled in to the front of the pack containing the rest of the field. As we approached the end of the first lap I thought, either the RIT kid was about to run a 61 or the rest of us were about to run a 70. Turns out he was running that fast, and I split the first 409 meters in 1:08. I contiuned to lead the pack until about 700 meters when Mark Streb went by me. Soon after that Greg Selke passed me quickly followed by Chad Byler. I wasn’t concerned about the 3 of them streaming past me as I was pretty sure I could outkick both Chad and Greg. Mark Streb is a sub 4:20 miler so I wasn’t really concerned about what he was up to.

Me jogging lap 3

I made a move past Greg in the first turn of the final lap after having practically jogged a 72 second 3rd lap. I had let Chad get about 2 seconds ahead of me and Greg about 1 second ahead of me, but thought they were both within striking distance. I closed to within a stride or two of Chad and felt like I was going to be able to roll right past him, but he found some new life with 200 meters to go and held me off all the way to finish. If you look at the splits below you’ll see I was right thinking I could close faster than Chad and Greg, the problem was I only ran .045 seconds faster than Chad on the last lap and I needed to run 1.6 seconds faster than him.

1.6 seconds too slow.

While I didn’t run as fast as I would have liked, I was very happy with a 3 second improvement over last years time. Considering last years weather and track conditions were perfect, I was getting more than 4 hours sleep at a time, and generally doing more running than I was this time around a 3 second improvment feels more like a 10 second improvement. I also haven’t run so many sub 4:40 miles that I can just dismiss them because they aren’t low 4:30′s. I haven’t mentioned Kenny’s performance in the race, because I think he would just as soon forget about it. Instead I’ll refer you to my post from a few months ago talking about his awesome marathon win in 2 hours 35 minutes.

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Complete Results

    Name        Splits        Age  Time
  1 Mike Kurvach              23  4:25.09
      1:03.454 (1:03.454)  
      2:10.738 (1:07.284)  
      3:18.943 (1:08.206)  
      4:25.088 (1:06.145)

  2 Mark Streb                23  4:30.59
      1:08.800 (1:08.800)  
      2:18.351 (1:09.552)  
      3:26.641 (1:08.290)  
      4:30.582 (1:03.942)

  3 Chad Byler                30  4:36.75
      1:09.126 (1:09.126)  
      2:18.901 (1:09.776)  
      3:29.710 (1:10.809)  
      4:36.750 (1:07.040)

  4 Joshua Perks              38  4:38.31
      1:08.662 (1:08.662)  
      2:18.717 (1:10.056)  
      3:31.308 (1:12.591)  
      4:38.303 (1:06.995)

  5 Greg Selke                23   4:40.6
      1:08.925 (1:08.925)  
      2:18.569 (1:09.645)  
      3:29.914 (1:11.345)  
      4:40.606 (1:10.693)

  6 Justin Niebel             28  4:48.48
      1:09.586 (1:09.586)  
      2:21.540 (1:11.954)  
      3:37.503 (1:15.964)  
      4:48.476 (1:10.973)

  7 Kenny Goodfellow          23  4:54.16
      1:09.191 (1:09.191)  
      2:20.998 (1:11.807)  
      3:36.709 (1:15.712)  
      4:54.156 (1:17.447)

So far behind

I am very far behind on logging all the goings on related to Roadkill Racing. But this time it isn’t because of laziness, I have a very good reason.

My little ladies.

I do have a few quick updates. I ran a new 400 meter PR 56.78 seconds and I am hard at work training for the McMullen Mile after a week off of running for family time. I’m post some riveting running related items soon I promise!

The thrill of victory… twice.

Everyone knows that distance runners are slow lumbering beasts, while soccer players are quick agile cat-like creatures and to prove it my soccer playing coworker Inis challenged me to a 100 meter race. More accurately, I challenged him to a 100 meter race after listening to him talk smack for 2 days about how he could easily out sprint me. He was lecturing anyone who would listen on the difference between fast twitch and slow twitch muscles, and he would use his abundance of fast twitch muscles blow past me in short race. The timing for the race could not have been better. On Thursday afternoon we were having a once a year all building meeting. Immediately following the meeting everyone in the office went out to the back parking lot to witness the big race.

To no one’s surprise the race did not go his way, but that did not stop his smack talking. He has now challenged me to a 50 meter race, which I have agreed to, on condition that if I win he cannot talk while at work for a week. I don’t think he is going to accept.

Wegmans 5k Start

Next up was the Wegmans 5k, the ugly redheaded stepchild of Flower City Challenge. The “real” race is the half marathon, but as I’m in no shape to run let alone race 13 miles I decided to slum it in the 5k while Brett, Kenny and Matt ran the half.

Seething mass of humanity.

I did a bit better than I expect, but either the race course was long or I feel asleep in the last mile. I didn’t wear a watch, so the only split I had was 5:06 for the first mile. I finished in first place with a time of 16:37 and never felt like I fell apart. I may have been lulled into a false sense of running fast because I spent a good part of the middle race following my police escort past the half marathon back of the packers. It is hard to feel slow when you are flying past people, even if those people are jogging. It was a fun morning, not only did I win a jar of organic cashew butter, but I got to watch my teammates kill it in the half! 5k results here.

Playing Ketchup

What did the fast tomato say to the slow tomato? Catch up!

As I am want to do, I have neglected the blog for far too long and know I have to get caught up.

I’ll start on a positive note. I won the Daniel’s 5k for the 3rd time in 3 tries (though not in consecutive years). The people who organize the Daniel’s 5k (Daniel’s parents and friends) do a wonderful job of putting on the race every year.

: Chatting with the competition.

: And we are off.

: Cresting the hill with my escort.

: My close up.

The Daniel’s course is mostly an out and back with a lap around the track at the finish. Most years miles .5-1.5 are into a very strong headwind, and this year was no exception. I started out slowly and ran the first half mile behind a 12-year-old sprinter, then I ran the next mile behind the guy in the Yellowjacket Racing singlet. He was doing some fancy zigging and zagging so I couldn’t draft off him, but I just held my line and plowed along behind him until the turn around. I hit the halfway point in about 9 minutes and then took off with the wind and closed the race in about 8 minutes. I finished in 17:02 which isn’t a very good time for me but was 40 second better than the next guy so I’ll take it. Results here.

I did another “5k” this past weekend but it was such a poorly run race, both by me and the organizers that I don’t even want to name it. I’ll just give the low lights.

advertised as a 5 mile and a 5k race
Arrived at race to find the maps said 4.8 miles and 3.5 miles
Races were actually 4.75 miles and 3.3 miles
No traffic control on the 5 mile despite part of the race running through downtown Poughkeepsie
Race started 10 minutes late
Made to stand on the line for 15 minutes (called to line 5 of 9 didn’t start running until 10 after 9)
5 mile race started 50 meters behind 5k race so the fast 5 mile runners slammed into the back of the slow 5k runners/walkers after about 10 seconds

This was easily the worst organized race I’ve ever run and it was supposed to be my final race of the Spring season. I’m now hoping to squeeze in one more 5k before the baby comes but we will see. My allergies are so bad right now that there probably isn’t any point in trying to race anyway.

Roadkill’s Big Weekend

Roadkill Racing took the track and the roads this weekend competing in distances 5000 meters to marathon and racked up two PR’s two wins and 8 very tired legs.

Kenny kicked things off at 8 am in New Holland, PA. Then he spent the next 2 hours 35 minutes 30 seconds racing around the rounds of Amish Country. He not only crushed his previous marathon PR but he won the race and a big fat check as well. Based on his time I’m guessing he has just been toying with us in the shorter races this winter, either that or he was secretly doing tempo runs before the races ala Matt Roberts. Tons of miles and smart training really paid off for Kenny!

Kenny Winning The Garden Spot Village Marathon in 2:35:30.

While Kenny was cruising past the 20 mile mark of his marathon, Matt was lining up for 25 laps of fun at the ROC City Classic. Matt is the only person I know who had a softer 10k PR than me. How someone can have a 16 minute 5k PR a 2:40 marathon PR and a 10k just a few ticks under 36 minutes is beyond my meager understanding. Matt managed to get the finish line before Kenny finished his race (assuming both races started exactly on time) and in the process PR’d by over a minute 30 seconds finishing in 3rd place with a time of 34:21.08. I don’t have any pictures of his race but I can only assume he looked like this…

How Matt probably looked setting his 10k PR.

Technically Brett was running for Damien College at the ROC City Classic, but I’m still going to claim his performance for RKR. He and I ran the 5000 meter race at Nazareth’s annual track meet many hours after Matt’s race. By the time our race rolled around it had turned into a beautiful spring day- upper 40′s bright sun and just a bit of wind (which for some reason still feels like a gale once you start racing it in.) Brett and I are both still chasing a sub 16 5k and we each had high hopes of accomplishing that at this race. The only other seed-time close to 16 minutes was for Matt Fedrizzi a junior from Nazareth. Matt, Brett and I talked a bit before the race, and we decided we all wanted to come through the first mile in 5:06-5:10. As tends to happen in these situations we all came through the mile in 5:02-5:04. I don’t have any pictures of this race either so I will use stock footage of other track meets to show how I was feeling during the race.

How I felt running 5:04 during the first mile of the race.

Brett was running a few seconds ahead of me pretty much from the gun, but for some reason Matt decided to run right on my shoulder for the first mile. He wasn’t really trying to pass me, and why he didn’t just draft off me I can’t really say. After 4 laps of him breathing right in my ear I started making some attempts to drop him and catch up to Brett but I was unsuccessful on both accounts. I’m not really sure what kind of pace I was running during the second mile. I know on 1 of the laps we ran a 77 because Matt’s coach (and RKR runner Rob Castor) was yelling splits but the rest of the time I wasn’t really paying attention. By mile 2 I was in a considerable amount of distress. Brett hand pulled a good 50 meters ahead, Matt was still huffing and puffing in my right ear and I was fairly sure I needed to finish in 5:05 at least if I wanted to break 16 minutes.

How I felt by the end of mile 2.

My less kind internal voice tells me that after mile 2 I gave up. The more nurturing internal voice tells me that after mile 2 I started running smart. Either way with 4.5 laps to go I let Matt go past me. I was tired of him breathing in my ear, and tired of dragging him around the track. I decided I would race for 2nd place and accomplish that with as little effort as possible. Even when I slowed way down Matt seemed uncertain if he really wanted to pass me. When he finally did pull ahead he didn’t cut over to the rail and I found my self having to run on the line between lane 1 and 2 so I could draft off him. After about 300 meters he did finally pull up to the rail, it was about that time that we went by Rob who was screaming at Matt to get moving, he has just run an 83 second 400, which was no surprise at all to me ( I was just happy it wasn’t 90 seconds.) I stayed behind Matt for the next 3 laps, and forgot all about Brett, trying to win the race or trying to break 16 minutes. The only thing on my mind was getting to 500 to go and kicking to the finish. After a few more 83 second laps it was time to make and end to the race. Coming off the far turn into the final lap I made a move past Matt and began my kick. I have no idea why I assumed I could out kick this 20 year college kid I’d never seen run before. It never even occurred to me that he might actually have a better kick than me, it isn’t like I am capable of running even a 55 second 400 when I’m fresh. But as I went by him and started the final lap (clock was just hitting 15:10) I knew I was going to beat him, I also noticed Brett for the first time and knew I had no shot at catching him.

How I felt beating some random college kid for 2nd place a tiny DIII track meet.

I ended up running the last lap in 68 or 69 seconds and finishing in second place with about 3 seconds to spare with a time of 16:18.23 (.63 seconds slower than last year). Brett won the race with a time of 16:08.18, and I owe him a beer. Can he lose his NCAA eligibility for betting a beer on a race he is running in? Meet Results Here. I’m a bit disappointed looking back at the race, not because I didn’t win or because I didn’t break 16 minutes, but because if I had kept grinding it out during the last mile of the race I would have run my fastest time in years. A few more 80′s instead of 83′s and I could have run my second fastest 5k ever. I have a 5k each of the next 2 weekends so I have will have a chance to redeem myself!

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