Hello!

Ouch. Knees are still healing up from the trail half marathon. I decided to drop the May 14th race, and instead focus on getting my knees back in shape in time for the Chicago 10 mile run May 28th.

NEXT UP:

10Mile Soldier Field Race in Chicago, IL. May 28th

10K Dreaded Druid Hills Race in Baltimore, MD. June 25th

13.1Mile Baltimore Half Marathon in Baltimore, MD. October 15th

26.2Mile Marine Corps Marathon in Virginia October 30th

26.2Mile Disney World Marathon in Orlando, FL. January 8th

Older stuff:

May 2. 2005 – The EX2 Off-Road Half Marathon was brutal. It was described as not very technical and with a few undulating hills. Well, apparently I’m unfamiliar with the definitions of those words. You know the most difficult parts of patapsco, like where it’s so steep you could flip your bike, or where you have to try to climb up and grab onto trees and stuff to make it up? Imagine that after a couple days of rain. It was all mud, and had a lot of very steep inclines and declines. People were falling and slipping in the mud trying to scramble up and down slopes. There were a lot of logs to jump over or duck under. Constant rocks and roots in the trail so you had to watch every step. That accounted for about 3/4 of the total trail. There was a flat fire road for about a mile and a half, and they had put down straw, but it was still so muddy that your foot digs in up to the ankle almost every step, so that mile and a half felt more like 3 miles.

All in all it was the most brutal experience I have ever had. Would I do it again? Probably

Time: 2:28:23. Finished 75 out of 143 finishers, who ranged in times from 1:36:16 to 3:31:25

My muscles held up well, but my knees and ankles are killing me… Need a couple days to recover from this one.

April 17, 2005 – Wow!! My best race yet… Results are here.

I managed a 7:48 pace over 3.72 miles for a finish time of 29:01!! I finished 128th out of 817 finishers, and 23rd out of 95 runners in my division.

I shaved nearly a minute off my pace so far, so training and group runs are really paying off. Now that I have my speed a little better I’ll be focusing on distance for the next month, as I have the off-road half marathon May 1st, and the 10 mile run May 28th.

Then in June I have the Druid Hills 10k so I’ll need to really focus on hill work.

April 10, 2005 – The 8K Stop the Silence Race was awesome! Great turnout and beautiful weather. I paced myself well, working on doing negative splits. Passing people in miles 2, 3 and 4 keeps you motivated. I finished in 43:04 which is an 8:40 pace – results are posted here. My goal is to beat an 8:30 pace at the 6K Port to Fort Race next Sunday.

March 26, 2005 – The Manna Home Run 5k was a lot of fun. An out and back course that started out all downhill. Of course this means it ended all uphill, but I managed a decent time – 27 minutes 22 seconds. Results are now online.

March 13, 2005 – I finished the Shamrock 5K race in 26 minutes and 48 seconds! Not bad for 3 months after knee surgery, but I’m hoping to get my times down even lower through the year.

Here’s the link to the officail results page.

I finished in the top 50% of my division, and the top 33% overall.

It’s nearing the end of winter – and I can’t wait!

I had surgery for a torn Meniscus on December 28th, after spraining my ankle and tearing the cartilage in my knee back in July 2004. Recovery has been going well – I’m back up to 6 miles at a time on the treadmill at a 9:00 pace. Hopefully I can start doing some speed drills soon and get my time down.

I started the M.S. in Information Technologies at UMUC June 1st, 2004.