Well I was planning on doing this drawing Friday night – but it looks like there is an emergency at hand!

WOW! The thing is almost sold out! Ok… so the drawing is …. now! And the winner is… #3. I used Random.org to generate the number… their total existence is dedicated to the true randomness of random — so I hope all can trust that I’ve done it fairly. I wish I had more to give away I really do because I’d like to give everyone one.

Regardless if you’ve got a free entry or not… I truly hope to see you out there on June 2nd. I should be hanging somewhere around the 1:40-1:50 pace groups depending on how I’m feeling that morning.

Congrats Sally Hathaway! See you at the Hospital Hill Run 2012!

(And if you are going to register I suggest doing it today or tomorrow at the latest because it looks like it will probably sell out by this weekend)

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(If you are looking for a free entry to the Hospital Hill Run see the bottom of this post)

Ok… so I’m just sitting here at the moment, having a nice glass of wine, writing on my blog — the great news is that I’m training hard, right now. I didn’t run tonight and didn’t run yesterday but – yes! I am training hard!

So I took two days off. It is warranted and believe me, over all else – it is NEEDED! I ran the second leg of the three legged monster the Heartland 39.3 series which consists of 3 half-marathons in 5 weeks. Well the first two are done and now a welcome 3 week break until the next run. Because of this extended break I’m taking a couple of days off and more-so really because my body has demanded it. Oh I’m not feeling too bad, but after the Kansas Half-Marathon this past Sunday, my legs were a little sore and then disturbingly in the evening my right heel began to exhibit a peculiar behavior while I walked around — it felt like a tendon was flapping around loose in there! Sounds scary; (and it is actually) when things are normal they’re normal, and when things hurt they hurt… but when things feel just downright weird you uneasily wonder. Well thankfully I never had any pain, and as I’ve tried to go extremely easy on it – it hasn’t been a problem since. In conclusion though I could yes, tell that one week after my new half-marathon PR had been established at the Rock The Parkway run that I wasn’t quite 100% a week later. I was 90% or so… I felt ok and still ran the half in 1:50:38. Not bad.

Well because of this “weird” sensation I decided to take 2-4 days off completely. I’m on day two now and feeling fine. Yesterday though I was driving home from work and it was a beautiful day out. I really wanted to go out running. I knew I would enjoy it and gosh was the weather nice… just perfect. No though, no. Rest is needed. This was one day after the race and I KNOW I will benefit more from sitting on my butt than I will going out there and logging some trash miles. Yeah, I said it… trash miles. You’ve heard of them before but weren’t certain where they go? That would have been them.

Now don’t worry, I will hit the trails soon enough (and believe me I’m itching now) and training will continue; this rest will have been an important part in it in the long run (haha) I’m certain.

Well what am I training for? Many many more runs. A lifetime of runs. Two in particular at the moment though – the Running With The Cows Half-Marathon and the 39th Annual Hospital Hill Run.

The Running With The Cows will be the third and final leg of the 39.3 series. I’m looking forward to see how the series all wraps up!

The 39th Annual Hospital Hill Run will be my 6th consecutive running of it and I’m looking forward to it just as much as ever. I plan to write more and more about it as it draws closer, but tonight I have something special to offer you. Maybe you’re on the fence about running it or just trying to find out more information about it (I do have some Race Reports written about it)… what would make you run it for sure what would make you pull the trigger? My site is frequently hit up as a result of the search phrases: “Hospital hill coupon code” and the like.

I can offer FREE — that’s right ABSOLUTELY FREE ONE SINGLE ENTRY to the Hospital Hill Run. It doesn’t matter if you’re running the 5k the 10k or the Half-Marathon. Any distance will do. The race is coming up and from what I’ve heard it’s now nearly 75% sold out.

Ok, so what do you have to do to get this free entry? Not much. All you have to do is leave a comment on this blog entry and tell me why you’re running Hospital Hill this year. Any reason will do of course – there are no wrong answers, I’m just genuinely curious! BUT THERE IS ONE CATCH!!! I will not give away an entry unless there are at LEAST 9 total unique visitor comments! So what you might possibly need to do is leave a comment yourself and then have a friend of yours leave a comment and so on and so forth. Hey… 1 of 9 odds is pretty good right? And uh, its pretty easy to tell if you leave all 9 yourself. Just be sure to include your email in the process (it won’t be shared).

So, why are you running (or wanting to run) The Hospital Hill Run this year?

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Kansas Half-Marathon 2012 Medal

Completed … Unofficial Result: 1:50:41

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April, while not over yet… has FLOWN by. Those 82 days I wrote about until the Hospital Hill Run has been reduced to 43 days! While that still sounds like a lot… it’s really just barely over a month. Luckily I shouldn’t have to cram this time around or worry since training has been going extremely well. I’ve been training and running like a madman and keeping up with it well.

Had Rock The Parkway last weekend which went as good as possible… got everything I wanted which was a PR. The day and days following, I was filled with thoughts of — “wow this 39.3 is killer after all” and “why in the world did I sign up for ANOTHER race next weekend?!?!” Yep… another half-marathon on Sunday. I’ve kept loose this week though, going running 3 times one of which including a 2.5 mile route I usually do at the quickest pace I can muster, and ran the fastest yet! It has two major hills in it and I still managed an average pace of 7:11, which for me is quite good. Pretty pleased.

Now the only real dilemma is – what do I go for this weekend? Do I try for another PR? Do I take it REAL easy and just enjoy myself? That’s always hard to do… just run easy… but I might try it. I could also try for a “Kansas Half-Marathon” PR … beat my time of 1:46:29… but the couple problems with that is I feel the 2009 race in which I ran that time may have been slightly short, and I believe the course could be different this time. Hmmm… I guess I can check let me see… ok after a little investigation I have the 2009 map compared to the 2012 map… so it is quite different:

Kansas Half-Marathon route comparison

I also ran in 2008, but that was before I had my Garmin 405/Mapping agent Back then it was the “Lawrence Therapy-Works Half-Marathon” and I’m quite sure the event that year was a different course still.

After this weekend there is a 3 week breather before the tertiary leg of the 39.3 series, the Running With The Cows Half-Marathon… after that its another 3 week break and then the Hospital Hill Run. I’ll have more to say on that after this weekend. Till then… run.

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Pretty good run today, set a new PR which was pretty much my goal.

Unofficial Finish:

1:44:20    377/4018 overall, 58/262 age group.

BIG THANKS to Roger Samuel and Paul Bajich who paced the 1:45 group using Smart Pacing. They did a superb job and really helped me accomplish my goal! There’s been races where I’ve had varying degrees of success with and without pacers, but this was definitely a good one. The splits were right on the money. If I had tried to even split this thing (which is a terrible plan no matter the circumstance, at least for me) it would have been curtains after I tried to do mile 1-3 at 8:00/mi — not being warmed up. Well the pacing worked out perfectly. I wanted 1:44:59 and I got 1:44:20. More than 2 minutes better than my previous PR of 1:46:59. I even entertained going for 1:43 something… but that’s another story… maybe I’ll write up a race report?

Here were the splits:

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Training… COMPLETE! I really feel like I nailed this training. Sometimes I’ve been woefully inadequate in training in some areas (long runs) I feel… but this time I’m pretty sure I did everything right. I didn’t follow any certain schedule to a T, but I was kinda sorta halfway loosely following the FIRST program for 1/2 marathons which takes 3-4 runs per week and puts them to use. If you did the program for real you would be training like a beast. I’ve trained “ALMOST FIRST” before though (my own invention). When FIRST calls for:

10-20 minute warmup
2 x 1200m
4 x 800m
10 minute cooldown

I train:

5 minute warmup
1 x 1200m
2 x 800m
10 minute cooldown.

As you can see I’ve cooled down correctly. But I digress! Other than THAT… I did speedwork, long runs, short runs, medium runs, biking, weight lifting, sleeping, eating, resting (even when I wanted to run a couple times, seriously! I made myself rest!). You CAN overdo it of course.

I’m really excited for Saturday though. This is a HUGE race that just came out of nowhere. 7,500 runners and sold out for two months! Wow! Part of that has got to be because its part of the 39.3 series… which yes I’m signed up for so I’ll see you at the other two right?

Are you excited for Rock the Parkway? Have you done it before?

Still looking forward of course to the Hospital Hill Run coming up June 2 too! That oughta make for a 52.4 series. That sounds a lot more impressive than 39.3! It’s TWO fulls! Ok well… more soon… I need that rest ya know.

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Sorry folks, but:

It’s been a debacle in the past and looks like this year they decided to cut their losses.

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Another week just about done and training is going fairly well in the respect that – it’s going! I’m finding myself very fortunate to be finding times for runs at all with some of the insanely busy schedules I endure. I ran tonight quickly… a quick ride out to the park, a quick 5k run and another one done.

So what is coming soon? Some information about the park I’ve been running at – presented in spectacular style! It should be fun… I think I’ve teased it on here before perhaps? If not I tease it now. Not this weekend unfortunately… but hopefully sometime next week I’ll have those pages up. There’s something to look forward to eh?

…and something else that is coming soon. Seems like the latest craze is obstacle course type runs. There was an article about them in Runner’s World recently, the Warrior Dash to be specific. I remember the first time I saw the promo video for the Warrior Dash… I was like “woa… what is this craziness and where did it come from?” Well that year (2010) there was no Warrior Dash in Kansas City. The next year there was, and I brought it up at work to show my co-workers. One of my co-workers commented that he would actually in fact be running a race called “Ruckus” and told me all about it. It sounded quite intriguing and looked like quite a run itself.

Long story short this year there are now THREE two such events Ruckus, Warrior Dash, and (there was to have been a third…) the Commando Run.

The Commando Run is cancelled. I actually think that’s for the best though – reason being it was the same date as Ruckus. You hate to see two events going head to head like that competing for patrons. Well no matter, it’s cancelled and they’ve transferred all of the registrations to Ruckus which looks to be a stellar event! Great!

Just in case though – just in case… you’d like to run Ruckus on March 31st (that’s real soon) and haven’t signed up yet…. I’m happy to provide you with a special promo code for $10 off your entry fee! During the sign up process just enter the special code: ” runsometimes ” – and instantly get $10 off! Great huh?

You must sign up by the 28th at the absolute latest though!

I can’t make it there this year, and I can’t make the Warrior Dash either. Bummer. I definitely plan on attending one or more next year though… so, tell me how it goes?

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Well the new graphic is up… if you don’t see it hit refresh a couple times or hold shift and hit refresh… yes … now you see it?

So why is 2012 emphasized? Cause it’s not just any year… its 2012! The 39th running of Hospital Hill! My 6th consecutive, and either your first, your last, your 20th, your 2nd, or somewhere in there… in any case… I’m excited to be blogging about it again and ramping up for it. Today is basically the end of week 1 in training. Sure there’s tomorrow, and true enough sometimes I do find myself running on a Friday and tomorrow might even hold that promise… but I’ve got time to write at the moment and so NOW becomes the end of week one (don’t worry, it simply extends week 2 – no time lost!).

So… what did I get done in week 1? A fair amount… let’s see:

5+ mile run
3.1 mile trail run
3.1 mile trail run, at a 1:00min faster pace than previous…
30 min treadmill/weights.

Sounds good for a week. All I’m really missing is all I’m ever really missing… some long runs.

Only 86 days to Hospital Hill Run!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 2 months 25 days!!!!!!!!!! AHHHHHHHHH!!!! That sounds close!

Well time to train! Drink some beer… I got time… right?

You know racing season is looming closely when:

KC Marathon registration opened today!
Marine Corps marathon registration opened – and sold out in two hours!
Fort Leavenworth has FINALLY announced their first race of the season:
“SHARP SAFETY DAY 5k – 8 a.m. – Saturday, March 31st 2012 – Harney Sports Complex.”

See ya in week two! How many times have you run HHR?

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Ok… so I’ve got 3 half-marathons lined up before it… the 39.3… and one of them is fairly soon! The Rock The Parkway looms quite closely at a scant 7 weeks away. The Hospital Hill Run 2012 as you know is 13 weeks away on June 2. I’ve been training sure – but pretty haphazardly as I always do. On March 4th though, the OFFICIAL Hospital Hill Run training begins – as is evidenced here: http://www.hospitalhillrun.com/participant/training.html

They have some absolutely lovely training schedules posted and boy would I… dearly love to follow one of those. I bet if I did I could achieve whatever reasonable goal I set before myself. Alas, it’s not to be. Unless I have a death wish… and… I don’t… there is no way with my schedule I’ll ever come close to something as dedicated and time consuming as one of those training schedules. Now let me reiterate: would I love to follow one of them? Yes! Do I think they’re likely quite worthwhile? Of course. I just CAN’T!! So instead of course… I’ll do what I always do. Whatever running I can do whenever I can do it.

I plan to log it all here like always, though perhaps this year make it more visible perhaps – specific training for Hospital Hill. Three half-marathons leading up to it oughta be fairly good I’m guessing. Then we can compare my notes with yours and … well who cares… how about you just meet me for a beer at the Hospital Hill after party? Yeah that sounds good!

Now. Here’s the fun part. I CAN GET YOU A FREE ENTRY TO THE HOSPITAL HILL RUN! YES YOU! You can run the 5k, the 10k or the Half! And it’s going to be EASY to win. All you have to do is follow me here and maybe comment a couple times. How hard is that?

Look for my real training to kick off next week (I’ll see what I can manage) and – maybe you’ll start yours along with me. I’d love to train with you and see you there!

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