2012 December RMRR Race Report

4.5 mi road race  - 28:25 (6:19 pace), Avg HR 178

3rd place overall overall

I didn’t have a clue how I was going to pace this run. Other than my last race I hadn’t run fast in months. My last race was 9mi – 59:22 (sorry I never put out a race report). I put that 9 mi time in a running calculator and it said I should be able to run 4.5 in 28:21 (6:18 pace), I didn’t feel confident that I could run that fast at all. I haven’t run any speed work since early October and that 9 mile race in November. I have been running a ton of miles with a lot of vertical but slow.

Mile 1: 6:24 Avg HR 167
So what the hell it’s only 4.5 miles, let’s go for it! What’s the worse that could happen I run out of gas and run the last mile slow? Right off line I set into a fast pace, a little too fast. Once the adrenaline of the gun wore off I slowed down a bit but still felt like I was flying.

Mile 2: 6:29 Avg HR 176
The second mile hurt and I was staring get that feeling that I burned up all my matches (right Olu) in the first mile. I eased of the pace a bit and slowly started to feel comfortable.

Mile 3: 6:18 Avg HR 181
The president of the club caught up to me in this mile and I let him get 15 ft up the road before I decided to hang with him. I closed the gap and we ran side by side. Having someone to run will really boosted my motivation.

I beat my 30+ 5K time (unofficially), my split coming through the 5K was in the 19:30’s. More than 0:10 seconds off my best when I was only going for a 5K and nearly dead on the finish line.

Mile 4: 6:21 Avg HR 185
Still running with the club president sence we had been running toghether we had been passing a lot o people. I was feeling better and better with every step. It hurt but it was a different kind of hurt than that long stuff.

Last 0.5 mi: 5:46 pace Avg HR 190
Just after passing the 4mi mark I realized the race was nearly over. My muscles burned but I didn’t feel tired, I though “I think I can take a lot of pain for the next 3 minutes”. With that I just turned on the after burners and left the club president in the dust. I was right about the pain though I ran my guts out that half mile. All the way to the finish line was like a long acceleration.

I was feeling the runners high after that and for the rest of the day I was in a great mood. Surprisingly I was only of my projected time by 0:04 seconds.

Here I am at about mile 3.3 trying to get my kids to come give a high five



Ok Fine, I will come to you



This one is a little blurry but I still like it

2012 RMRR November Race

9mi – 59:22 (6:36 pace) Avg HR 178
2nd place – Trophy Series, 3rd place – Men’s overall time

This was my 3rd race with the rocky mountain road running and the first time I had the feeling that I understood the handicap system. I wasn’t really focused on this race and I was planning on just going to get in a good hard tempo run. In fact I had still run my scheduled long run the day before of 15 miles so I was hoping for a great time today. Laura Peoples and I got their a little early to get out race numbers. I was surprised to find out that I had a handicap of 40:00! One the race started I stood around for a while and then started warming up when the clock got to about 20:00. I ran a 1.5 mile warm up and then did some strides after that it was nearly time to start.

Mile 1 – 6:29 Avg HR 162
I toed the line with one other person, she was probably 17 or 18 and super fast. I kept up with her for about a half mile during which our pace was near 6:00. I thought to myself I will be dead in a few miles at this pace so I let her go on ahead.

Mile 2 – 6:49 Avg HR 168
Coming into this race my goal was to run under 7:00 pace. After that really fast first mile I backed off an slowed closer to that pace. I really didn’t feel good during this mile the adrenaline from the start had worn off and I was feeling I went out too fast.

Mile 3 – 6:38 Avg HR 176
Secretly deep down I had a goal of running under 59:59 if I felt good. I knew that I need to run 6:40 pace to do that so I said to myself let’s try it on and see how it feels. It was tough and other than that girl that left me in the dust I hadn’t seen another person till near the end of this mile.

Mile 4 – 6:33 Avg HR 179
With the handicap system if you start behind someone and pass them then you have beat them for sure. During this mile I was starting to catch up an pass people but they were pretty fast and I would only slowly pass them. I was starting to believe that I could hang on to this pace. The weather was great (40’s) the only that could beat me was the course which was lots of rolling hills.

Mile 5 – 6:35 Avg HR 183
Near the turnaround we had to run a good size hill (100 ft in about 0.2 miles). I charged up the hill and then coasted down the other side. During this mile I saw tons of runners that I was about to case down.

Mile 6 – 6:30 Avg HR 181
Of Couse once we turn around we had to go straight back up that hill. Again I surged up the hill passing some runners and then coasted down the other side which was considerably longer.

Mile 7 – 6:39 Avg HR 182
Once the downhill was over and it was flat I tried to get back into my groove. The clouds had parted and the sun was shining on me and all the sudden I felt like I was overheating. I gritted my teeth and held on for dear life. The hill just kept coming and I kept on flying up them an then coasting down. I know they weren’t big hill but at 6:30 pace it doesn’t take much of a grade to put you into the red zone. This was the hardest mile of the race.

Mile 8 – 6:33 Avg HR 185
My quads were crying in pain and I was having trouble holding my pace. For the first 7 miles while coasting downhill I would see on my watch that I was at 6:15 pace and I could rest a little more. Now I felt like every up and every downhill was a struggle to keep that pace under 6:40. During this time I passed a lot of runners. They all gave me great encouragement while I went by “your doing awesome”, “you look fast today” or “go get em”.  

Mile 9 – 6:36 Avg HR 188The rolling hill kept coming and half way through this mile I was at 6:45. I didn’t know how close it was going to be or how far off my watch would be from their distance. All I knew was that I had to push hard now. Up around the corner the final bridge where the finish we started from. I passed a few more people on the final run into the finish line.


The way the handicap system works is that everyone gets a handicap based on their speed. Regardless of where everyone starts the first person across the finish line wins the race. I started more than 40 minutes after the clock started and I was the second to finish. I won a cool ribbon and a tougher handicap for the next race.

Exploring on the highline canal

While running on my local trail I said to myself “I wonder what is down that path over there”, I have run past this turn off probably 100 times because I thought it dead ended at the pond in about a ¼ mile. So I finally took that trail and it was awesome. Instead of dead ending there was a cool rock bridge between the two ponds. Finding a new trail is like Christmas for a trailrunner.

2012 Rock n’ Roll Denver Marathon Race Report

3:26:55 – PR’d by 32 seconds
Really tough day
The significance of this race to me was huge

My Record at the Denver marathon
2009 – Full marathon: 5:19, First full marathon but painfully below expectations
2010 – Full marathon: DNF. My only DNF ever which really hurt and made me take an honest look at myself
2011 – Half marathon: 1:30, I did feel like I got some redemption with this fast half but still I felt like I need to get that solid marathon done.

Early on 0-10 10 miles in 1:17:40 (7:43 pace)
I came into this race with really high aspirations, I was thinking that I could run 3:15. I ran the first 2 miles in 15:03 with some very cranky Achilles. It was about mile 3 or 4 that I saw the 3:15 pacer run by (a friend of mine). After letting the idea of 3:15 go it wasn’t long before I was letting 3:20 go out the window as well. I just thought to myself “let go get a PR”. I slowed my pace to coincide with this new goal. I was really starting to get down on myself thinking that I had blown the whole race in the first few miles. Did I just mess up this race again? I kept setting small goals like “let’s get to 10 miles and see how we feel then” which really helped break this huge task into manageable pieces.

Middle Chuck 11-20 10 miles in 1:19:39 (7:58 pace)
Once I slowed down a bit my Achilles stopped complaining but my calf’s still felt off. It felt as if they could have seized at any moment. This course had a lot of rolling hills and each time on the up I felt as if I was about to go into the red for good but I always recovered just enough on the down hills. I could tell that I was riding the edge on my threshold the entire time. Heading towards mile 20 was my darkest time with miles 19 and 20 being my slowest of the race (8:11 and 8:12). I was really thinking that I had gone out to fast and now I was spiraling towards that dreaded wall. This race was different in one way, I had advertised much more than in the past. I knew that my family, friends, classmates, fellow lost it ‘ers and my cross country team were all pulling for me. It was my invisible cheering section. I couldn’t let everyone or myself down.

Last 10K in 49:36 (8:00 pace)
Mile 20 was about where let go of that pain threshold. That didn’t mean speeding up any but it did mean stopping my gradual slow down that had been going on since mile 3. Later looking back at my HR I could see this moment, up until mi 20 my HR was pretty constant increasing slowly from 150 to the high 160’s. After 20 my HR increased a lot every mile, during this time I felt out of breath like in a 5k. The end of the course had some really long straight that I could bare to look at (I got that far to go still) so I just put my head down and ran. I ran mile 26 in 7:57 with an average HR of 180, which was really good considering they tossed in a nasty hill during the last mile. I wouldn’t say it didn’t hurt but every one of my long runs was on tails with lots of hills so it could have felt worse. Somehow I did have a small kick and managed to run the last 0.2 in at 6:35 pace (all downhill).


Completing my original goal and looking back at 2009 vs 2012
The Denver marathon is very special to me for a couple of reasons. It’s quite literally in my backyard with the nearest section coming within a mile from my house. It’s also where I ran my first marathon in 5:19 which was really below my expectations. But most importantly it’s my anniversary of when I really started to pay attention to my health. The failure of the 2009 Denver marathon started the discussion with myself that I had a weight problem. The next year I lost 10 lbs but got a DNF which drove the point home, I joined lose it 3 days later. Without these failures I would probably still be in denial about my health. Every year at the Denver marathon I assess my goals and look back at my health progress. The year after my DNF (2011) I had lost another 30 lbs but had to settle for the half marathon because of business travel the week of the race. It’s been really frustrating not being successful on this course.

The weight loss was only half of my major goal that I set out to accomplish with the other being successful at the Denver marathon. Well I finally got my redemption this year and ran that same course as 3 years ago in 3:26:55 (the 40+ lbs. I lost along the way helped a bit). While running the course I kept drawing back on that 2009 experience. At mile 14 I was thinking “this is where I had to start walk last time”. At mile 19 “this is where you sat on the curb for 5 minutes”. As much as I hurt this weekend I knew that it was never worse than what I felt back in 2009.

So now I can finally say is all in one sentence:
In the last 3 years I have lost 42 lbs. and taken 1:52:00 off my marathon time.
This has been my goal for the last 3 years, 3 years is a long time.

This isn’t the end of the story, just a chapter. I still dream big and it’s time to set a new 3 year goal.

Here I am after I finished, only photo I have this year


And for the other data junkies out there…


If you’re interested in reading the race reports from those failed previous years
2009 (5:19) http://allenrunsfar.blogspot.com/2009/10/2009-denver-marathon.html
2010 (DNF) http://allenrunsfar.blogspot.com/2010/10/2010-denver-rock-and-roll-marathon.html

Training on Green Mountain

4 weeks till the marathon and I am consistently putting in around 50 miles a week. I have been running lots of speed work with the high school kids which might actually hurt my time but I am having a lot of fun coaching. Today I ran an awesome new trail which might become my favorite in the future. There are so many different paths that it’s going to take a while to explore the whole place.

Elevation Profile, 2 climbs of about 700’ each, my really tough trail does 1700’ in one 3 mile climb. This trail is nicer because I can run 80% of the time and if it wasn’t hot I probably could have run all the way to the top without stopping.


Here is the trail on my second climb near mile 7. Gorgeous blue sky today!


Here is the top of both climbs I went out over the mountain and down to the bottom on the opposite side and then ran back the same path.

Heart rate data over the years

A lot of people have commented on my low my heart rate while running. I was telling Gregg that my heart rate used to be much higher and I thought I would create a report to see exactly how much it has changed. 2006, 2007, 2008 had a combined 97 runs with a HRM while 2011 had 212 days with a HRM data.

5K race report
3.1 miles - 41:30

So last night my sister calls me as says her friend couldn’t go run the race. The race was at 6:30 pm which was in about 2hrs. I had no intention of running fast because I had plans for a lot of miles over this weekend but I decided it would be a good chance to run with my sister for the first time. She is a new runner and she is around here but never posts anything.

Her PR is around 39:00 but it was 95 F out and the starting line so she settled on the goal of running 42:00. I figured out that we needed to run a 13:30 pace to make it to the finish in this time. We went out way to fast running the first half mile at 10:30 pace which was probably my fault. After that we settled into a more comfortable walk/run routine. Our first mile was still too fast at 12:28.

With the heat and the fast first mile we lost pace in the second and third mile running 14:07 & 14:18. Luckily for us they didn’t tell the race origination that they were going to be watering the grass. The last 0.1 mile section of the park was run through the sprinklers. I felt like a kid again for that short section. I don’t know what was in that water but we hauled ass that last 0.1 mile, my watch said we did it at 7:48 pace!

We finished the race under our goal in 41:30 which I think is Laura’s second fastest 5K. Good job sis.