Surftown 1/2 Marathon Week! Week of 9-8 to 9-14

And so begins a super fun stretch of races for me.  I did one race in July (RWB) and one in August (R4K), purposely skipping some races and while I was running, I wasn't racing.  That ends this week, as I'm continuing my Surftown streak.  My first Half Marathon ever in 2011, and I've run it every year.  Results below:

2011:  2:12 - #586 of 818

2012:  1:56 - #496 of 1261

2013:  1:43 - #193 of 1614

So I have my work cut out for me if I'm going to see some improvement this year.  My basic goal is to shoot for sub-1:40, which means a 7:38 pace or better...I checked my mileage leading up to last year's race and I'm well above where I was.

Monday, 9-8 - 5 Miles (Trail/some Road) - Wheeler XC Trails and neighborhood roads, NoSto.  An hour of karate this morning, and this afternoon?  Soph's first soccer practice of the year!  I know the coaches and most of the kids, so they know that I run the cross country trails during practice.  Pretty cool getting shout outs on a run.  I started on the trails and meandered onto the streets next to the school, and finished up with a solid effort on the "Wheeler XC Straightaway" trail, 2/10 mile in 1:10, and a 200M on the overgrown gravel "track" in 36.  Next stop?  Two segments a bit over a mile from the school...

Tuesday, 9-9 - 3 Miles (Road) - Mystic Roads.  Had some things to do in Mystic, so I decided to do a short run there.  I remember there being a segment called "Barfing Mystic Pizza," which is the best title for a segment I've ever heard of.  If you know of one better, please let me know!!!  On paper it looked like the segment went from just before MP, and ended at High Street.  Did it in 29 seconds, then looped around and did it in 30, or so I thought...no dice.  I was running at a mid-5 pace up the hill, and slowed too soon.  Soooo...I'll have to hit it again!

Wednesday, 9-10 - 5 Miles (Road/Beach) - Misquamicut run to the beach.  Great day.  I was on my way down to Misquamicut to clear the beach gear out of our storage locker, when Jeff texted me about going for a beach run.  Perfect!  Nice day at the beach, breezy and uncrowded, Mike B. would have loved it!

Thursday, 9-11 - 4-ish Miles (Road) - Mystic segment hunt.  Segment Wars!  Game on!  I went to Mystic to take another stab at the "Barfing Mystic Pizza" segment, and a segment entitled "Mystically Painful."  Got them both.  Tied the BMP segment, which gave me the CR (Strava?  Ruling?), and owned the other segment outright.  One of the fast Mystic dudes, Mathew R., went back out and snagged two back from me a few hours later.  Good fun, and I'll see if I can hang with his times (probably not though)!

Friday, 9-12 - 3 Miles (Beach) - Charlie Stavros race, serving as conemaster and split caller-outer with BLS.  Showed up and helped unload some things, and wasn't planning on racing, as I'm running Surftown on Sunday.  Beth came down on her bike, and decided to run with me down to the jetty to drop the turnaround cone.  Squinting into the Sun, it looked like the runners started promptly at 6, and I started my stopwatch.  Just like last year, it was super fun seeing all the runners approach, get to cheer them on and call out their splits.  Great turnout, and Beth took pictures while I timed the race.  After the last runner made the turn, we waited for a few minutes and then ran back to the start.  Great night for a beach run!

Saturday, 9-13 - 2 Miles (Trail/Road) - Dog Jog with Henry.  Love my dog.  He flips out when I say "Dog Jog!" to him.  Cruised out the door with Henry and ran trails across the street, then a bit of road down to the creek so he could swim for a bit.  Got home, dropped off the dog and headed to Westerly for Surftown packet pickup.  Passed Mike B. on the road, and ran into Faith and Joe, who were volunteering at pickup, and Paul, Don and Suzan, Jeff and Matthew, etc. and got to chat about Sunday's race for a bit.  I initially wasn't too keen on the shirt, but it's pretty cool:

Here we go (again)!

I'm going to do the same thing I did last year, to beat the traffic.  Come in the back way through Weekapaug, park at Seaside, and jog the 2 miles to the race start as a warmup.  It totally worked last year.  Mystic segment update:  Mathew R. has reclaimed pretty much every segment in the last couple days.  I'll take some shots at those on Tuesday, as the race is tomorrow, I'm working Monday, and I'll need to chill out a bit before Pisgah next weekend...

Sunday, 9-14 - 16 Miles (Road) - 4th Annual Surftown Half Marathon Warmup, Race and Cooldown. See separate post!