Category: Running

They’re off! The race started at 6:00 this morning. I probably won’t know the results until later today or tomorrow when it comes out in the newspaper. I am not able to go to the finish line and see it end.

It was easy to see who the winners will be. There were three African men that stood out. They seemed to know each other and may be from the same country. They warmed up together and did not seem to understand the instructions in Spanish.

I caught up with them (in the car) at kilometer marking 12 and they were already 1 kilometer ahead of everyone else. They had just gone through a water station. One grabbed sponges for all of them and the other two grabbed water. I am not sure how water is done in races outside of our area here in México, but we have water in bags. You are able to load up on several bags if you want. You don’t have to fight with cups. They all shared the water and sponges around. They looked like they were having a good time.

They were running 5:30 miles (3:25/Km) at the 12 Km. mark. I imagine the pace will pick up at the end. There was no one even close to them. It will be a race between the three in the final kilometers.

I have been running pretty consistently. Not four or five days a week, but I have been able to get back into running three days a week. I was sick this weekend so did not feel like running at all. I should be able to get back into it tomorrow. Planning an easy 40 minute run.

My three days a week have been about like this. One day of 30 minutes, one day of 40 and one day of an hour. I have freed up one day a week that I should be able to run on. This will only last for a month so I am going to run as much as I can on that day. It will probably be my long run day as I don’t normally have anything planned on that morning except for the one appointment that kept me from running in the first place.

About mid way through July I will start training for my next half marathon. I am very excited about my training program. The last time the goal was to just finish, so I did not do any speed work. Though I ran a ton, I really had no base when I started. Now I have a good base and I know what it is like to run 2 and 1/2 hours at a time. I will not be experiencing anything new in this training, I will be just be building on experience. I think that alone will help me get my time down. Couple that with the speed work I will be doing and I may end up with around a 2 hour finish.

Registration is open for the Phedippidations Half Marathon. This is a “virtual” half marathon. You can run an official half that weekend and turn in your time, or you can just map out 13.1 miles on your own and run alone. The point is not to have a race against 10,000 other runners, but that 10,000 runners will be running together that weekend. Join us. Join the fun.

Well, a marathon is being run. But I am not running in it. Maratón de la Marina will be run June 18 from Mérida, México to Progreso. It seems like it will be an official distance (unlike any other race I have run here).

I will not be running in this marathon for three simple reasons, the first of which is the most frustrating. I did not know about this race until now. Just 2 weeks before it is to be run. Though, I have to say that I have gotten more warning on this race than any previous race. Normally I find out about a race 1 to 4 days before they run. Therefore, no training for specific races are done. I just hope to find a race and then jump in.

The second reason is that all races here are run on Sunday. This one will be no exception. Starts at 6:00 am. The best possible time I could hope for would be well over 5 hours. That means church would be over before I could get from Progreso back to Mérida. Out of the question.

Which brings me to the third reason. I am no where close to being trained for this. I am focusing my efforts right now on staying running and in a few short weeks I will start training for my next half marathon, the Phedippidations World Wide Half Marathon.

I have been very bummed about running since the half a couple of weeks ago. But the desire to run again has come back this week. I have been getting back into my other exercise programs since the half too. I had backed off of my main exercise (Tae-Bo) to dedicate to the running in preparation for the Indy Mini.

I now have my next half to train for. This will be the Phedippidations World Wide Half Marathon on the weekend of October 7 and 8. This will be a “virtual” race. We will all either run an official half during that weekend, or we will map out a course and run it on our own. Very much like I did the Indy event.

Join us for the race. You don’t have to be a listener to the Phedippidations Podcast to participate. One of the goals is to get new runners involved. As time goes on, the race directors will have training programs available. They will offer registration so you will be assigned a number, there are even plans for t-shirts for the event.