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Old First Ward Shamrock Run

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Location:

Buffalo,NY,

Member Since:

Aug 15, 2010

Gender:

Male

Goal Type:

Local Elite

Running Accomplishments:

Personal Bests
  • 1500m : 4:43 (May 2001)
  • 1 mile: 5:18 (August 2012) 
  • 5k: 17:39 (December 2003)
  • 8k: 30:02 (June 2003)
  • 10k: 37:21 (November 2003)
  • 15k : 59:48 (July 2012)
  • 10 miles: 62:39 (February 2002)
  • Half-Marathon (Covered Bridges): 1:23:29 (June 2002)
  • Marathon (Wineglass): 3:04:42 (Oct 2011)
  • Half Ironman (Tupper Lake): Swim 38:19, Bike 3:01:xx (with flat tyre change), Run 1:58:xx, Total time 5:44:44 (Jun 2004)

Short-Term Running Goals:

General Goals for 2013

  • Break 3 hours as Boston
  • Mile in 5:00
  • 5k in 17:30

Results and my 'A' Races for 2013 (Click for Race Report)

  • Y-10 10 Miler (February 9)
    • Goal: 63? (honestly, no idea)
    • DNS
  • Boston Marathon (April 15)
    • Goal: 2:57
    •  Time: 3:12:46
  • Springville Stampede (May 9)
    • Goal: 18:36
    • Time: 18:28
  • Chase Corporate Challenge 3.5 (June 6)
    • Goal: 20:30
    • Time: 20:30
  • Brian Moorman PUNT Foundation Blackbird 8K (June 19)
    • Goal: 30:00
    • Time: 30:03
  • Boilermaker 15k (July 14)
    • Goal 58:00
  • Mueller Mile (August)
    • Goal 5:00
  • Run into Buffalo 15k  (Sept 2)
    • Goal 57:30
  • Troy Turkey Trot 10k (Nov 28)
    • Goal 37:00

Long-Term Running Goals:

  1. Sub 3:00 Marathon
  2. 17:00 5k
  3. 1:20 Half-marathon

Personal:

Originally from the small town of Galway, NY (near Saratoga), I currently live in Buffalo, NY.  I'm a community pharmacist  I  graduated from the University of Buffalo School of Pharmacy with my pharmD in 2007 and my PhD in 2011. I'm married and have 2 dogs (Sadie, a lab, and Ralphie, a Eskie mix).  We enjoy anything outdoors from Backpacking and hiking to snowboarding.

my photojournal, and I will run

Favorite Blogs:

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Miles:This week: 0.00 Month: 0.00 Year: 0.00
Sadie's Lifetime Miles: 298.30
Ralphie's Lifetime Miles: 346.60
Race: Old First Ward Shamrock Run (4.5 Miles) 00:29:28, Place overall: 74, Place in age division: 12
Running MilesSwimming YardsBike Miles
5.600.000.00

Old First Ward Shamrock Run 8k, or, Batten Down the Hatches

This race, held in the “Irish District of Buffalo” is the second largest race of the year after the 10k+ finisher Turkey Trot.  This year it hit the cap of 5500 registrants, it’s getting pretty big.  The course is held in an older industrial part of the city and the course is mainly flat with the old hills coming from some pretty big overpasses.

The main goal of this race was to see what kind of fitness I was in after the wacky winter we’ve been having.  I was hoping to be under 32 and ideally closer to 31.  If I hit that mark, I made it through the winter in ok shape.  To make matters worse, I tweaked by lower back last Sunday so I ended up not running at all during the week except for Friday. Kind of messed up my week and motivation. It was probably 80% back to normal. Not fully healed but good enough to not slow me down.

The morning of the race a STRONG cold front moved through putting the whole area under a high wind warning.  When I got to the race the wind was a sustained wind from the southwest at 40mph with gusts hitting 60mph, not the ideal for a fast time.  In addition, the wind knocked down a power pole on the course about at the 4.5 mile mark causing a last minute course change (shortening it to 4.5 miles instead of 5m).  In any other city, the race would be postponed but we are too hardcore in Buffalo and the Race Director and scoring team did a great job dealing with the weather.  This includes laying on the timing mats to keep them from blowing away!!

Mile 1 (6:06): After an easy mile warm-up, I line up and we are off.   With the wind, it felt like an easy job despite pushing under the 6 min mark.  The steady wind was ok but the gusts were pushing us into each other, the curbs, etc.  Felt great and settled in

Mile 2 (6:17): We are still with the wind and moving fast and easy at 6ish pace.  At about the 1.75 mile comes what we were dreading, turning back into the wind.  Paces plummet and runners weep.

Mile 3 (6:56): Fully into the head wind it was brutal.  It was a struggle to keep forward momentum with the gusts.  We move into packs drafting off each other trying to hide from the wind.

Mile 4 (6:55): Suffering and ready to be done.  Going over a large exposed overpass our pace rose to over 8:00 briefly. A lot of passing back and forth as people go out into the wind to try to push.

Last 0.5 (6:15 pace): Now we turn back with the wind and kick it home.  Let it push us the pace dropped back to race speed.  Dropped the last 0.15 miles to 5:30 pace to outkick a group of 4 trying to get me.

Overall: 29:27 (6:33 pace). 74th of 3850 overall and 12 of 386 in my age (25-29).  I was beat, it was the worst conditions I or anyone I talked to have ever raced in.  Some called it dangerous. Kind of disappointed with my time and place but the conditions made it very tough to judge my shape.  A bunch of people that finished near me ran 1:04 to 1:06 at a 10mile race in poor conditions (snow, slop, and wind) 2 weeks ago. If I’m in that kind of shape, I’d be pretty excited.  Also got to finally race in my new racing flats (Mizuno Musha), I like them a lot and had no issues with them. Excited to try them out some more.  I’m looking for a 5k to run in the near future in hopefully better conditions.

Mizuno Musha 3 Miles: 4.50Brooks Adrenaline Red Miles: 1.00
Night Sleep Time: 0.00Nap Time: 0.00Total Sleep Time: 0.00Weight: 0.00
Comments
From Jake K on Mon, Mar 05, 2012 at 15:02:57 from 155.100.226.54

Chalk it up to a hard workout... its tough to race in those kinds of conditions. That's the thing w/ early spring / winter road races, you never know what kind of conditions you're going to get. I think its a good plan to find another 5K in the near future and hopefully you'll get a decent day and that will give you a real sense of your fitness.

So what's worse - snow/slop/wind combo or just HURRICANE WIND? :-)

From Nate on Tue, Mar 06, 2012 at 08:16:52 from 67.20.217.152

I always figure that even a bad race is a good workout as long as you don't hurt yourself. I'm already planning to run a nice 5k at the end of march. The nice thing about Buffalo is that once March hits you have your choice of at least 3 races every weekend within a 40 minute drive. Very active racing.

I'll take slop and wind over Hurricane Winds any day. I've never been so frustrated as trying to run a decent workout when the wind is pushing you around like you're a leaf.

Thanks for all your the support!

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