sports

This morning was Raleigh Rocks, a half marathon starting in downtown Raleigh. It was my first half marathon this season, and finished in 2 hours and 14 minutes. That's 5 minutes better than when I did this race last year, but well short of my best of 2 hours and 2 minutes (in November last year).

To be honest, I had underestimated the race and just didn't train enough, especially in long runs. I started the race well, with a consistent 9 minutes/mile speed, something that I wanted to try to break my PR. But at mile 4 or 5 I started slowing down -- I just clearly wasn't ready for this speed. One point of light: this time I made sure I didn't start overly fast. In previous race my splits for the first 2 miles or so would be around 8 minutes, way to fast. Miles 7 and 8 starting to get difficult, and miles 9 and 10 through the greenway did me in. It didn't help that after 10 miles or so I started getting blisters on both feet, something that doesn't usually happen to me. My feet may have been still soft from a fairly brutal training run in 2,5 hours of rain and mud two weeks ago.

Still, it was fun to race a half marathon again and Raleigh Rocks is a very well organized race. I particularly liked that there were clear mile markers every mile. Up to the next race, May 17th in Cary, NC, and yes, I will step up my training in the next 6 weeks.

This morning I ran my first race of the season, a 5k in Durham called the Great Human Race. It's a charity run to raise funds for local charities, and there was a very friendly atmosphere.

Next week is my first big race, the Raleigh Rocks half marathon, so this was a nice way to get back in the rhythm. My result was 24:55, about a minute faster than my previous best. So even though I'm getting old I can still keep up!

For the first time in a week the weather was nice. The endless rain has stopped and while it was cold at 8.00 am, when the race started the sun had come out and it was perfect running weather. The race was well organized. It has a clear emphasis on the charity element. There were no mile markers but at mile 2 a volunteer called out the intermediate times, which was very helpful (mine was 17:44).

The race started at the Durham Bulls ballpark.

I never knew what exactly "cross country running" is. Well, tonight I ran a cross country course, and I know now what it is. It was the start of the March series, a weekly run organized by NCRC at the Cary Academy, not too far from my work.

Cross country is "a sport in which runners compete to complete a course over open or rough terrain. The courses used at these events may include grass, mud, woodlands, and water". There was no water in the course we ran, but it was nice varied 5k course with a few small hills and nice trails through the woods behind the Academy. My time was about 27 minutes, based on people finishing just in front of me (I need to get watch battery replaced).

These runs are fun to do, with a friendly group of people. There were about 40 runners tonight.