Tuesday, February 27, 2007

18 days and counting






It's 18 days until the Valley of Gold Half Marathon in Tucson. This is a marathon put on by John 'the penquin' Bingham. He's a columnist in Runner's World Magazine and author of several fine books on running. I hope to start this run with Javamom. We started the New Times 5k together back in November and she's been training really well for this. If you haven't read her blog, I would encourage you to do so.

Today, I have a home inspection to attend to in Mesa, which is conveniently close to a canal. I plan to do 6 miles on the canal after the inspection. The weather should be ideal. 65-70 degrees and clear skies. This is a canal I haven't run before, so I'm excited about that. Hopefully, I'll get some interesting pictures.






Update: As I was getting my gear ready in the Fry's Parking lot and worrying about my left knee, it dawned on me that it's not the time to be adding mileage. So I decided to do my normal 5 miles. The canal path was in great shape. The weather was perfect with a slight breeze. Lately my legs and knees feel tight for about the first 1/2 mile and then I start to get into the run. My Ipod Nike + doesn't record splits, so if I want to know my splits I have to memorize them. Fortunately, this is a good way to while away the time during the run. I finished the first mile in 11:30 and then the subsequent miles were run in 11:50, 12:40, 12:20 and 12 minutes flat. I ran 5 miles in 1 hour, 13 seconds for a pace of 12:01.






Here's some pictures I took.






A view of the canal from Broadway looking south.




A large backyard with their own horse riding arena. You can see 3-5 jumping fences.



A very large fish. They place them in the canal to eat all the growth that they don't want. I believe this one is taking a siesta on it's back. Or maybe it's just dead.





7 comments:

Michelle said...

Yeah, so close to race time!!

If you do meet up with Lisa, give her a huge, giant hug from me!!!!!!!!! She and I have been friends through message boards (non-running) for a couple years now, but I have yet to meet her. I hope someday she and I will get to meet and maybe run a race together!

bigmike600 said...

Pat
You are getting to be a master half marathon runner. You should be proud of your accomplishment. Good Luck on this one and I hope you get the chance to lead it as well.

Phil said...

You've come a long way Pat. It wasn't too long ago that you were wondering how you'd run a mile, now you're sneaking in 6 milers when you get the chance.

Anonymous said...

Hey pat, good luck with the half-marathon in Tuscon, I was thinking about doing it, but I think I might shoot for the Whiskey Row Half on Cinco de Mayo this year. Nice pictures, and i'm going to say that fish is definitely taking a siesta.

I have the Nike+ system, which is not configured which kinda stinks since i don't have accurate stats, but if you go the Nike+ website you can get your splits on there. The little dots in the run, they record each mile for you.

J~Mom said...

You betcha, we will start out together. There is another blogger and then I have one friend running it,too. I really can't wait!! When are you and the family going down? Aaron and I are going sometime Saturday afternoon. YAY!!!!!

Thanks for the blog mention, that was fun to come over and read that! :>)

Spark Driver said...

That is a nice looking piece of water.

I think the fish is dead Dude.

pika said...

Pat, what do you mean by the Nike+ not recording splits? When I upload my data and click on "My Runs" to analyze a recent run, there are little dots on the line that - when I mouseover - will give me the mile number and the pace for that mile.

Also if I press the center button along the way for information, that dot is on the line as well.

It doesn't give me the split as I'm running - only my current pace, but I usually do the math in my head to keep me busy.

Good luck on the upcoming half - and take care of that knee!