Sunset Through The Trees Series, Race 1, Lake Redding Park

Today marked the first race of our small town 2011 summer race series, Sunset Through The Trees. It's a series of events covering 7 weeks and 9 events, each ranging from 4-5.3 miles with 2 special time trial points races of 1 mile and 2 miles respectively.

They are really fun, and generally the same people show up every week, so it leads to a healthy competition (See 2011 Frosty Fun Run Series, Me vs. Chris). The first and last races are on the same course, so if you improve, you're able to see tangible results from the beginning of the series to the end.
For this series, I get to represent Team MARATHON Bar, and it's my second race doing so. Heidi T. also participated tonight, so it was cool having another teammate to represent the goodness of MARATHON Bars.

Today, I made sure to stay cool and stay hydrated. The hourly temperature forecast looked to be between 93 and 95 depending when you looked at it. I knew it would be HOT, I've done these summer evening races before. I drank 9 24oz bottles of water today in preparation for tonight's activities. About an hour before race time, as Hillary W. and I drove to take our son to his baseball game, I ate a MARATHON Crunchy Honey & Toasted Almond bar.

We dropped off Bradley and made our way over to the park where the start was (the ballpark and race are basically in the same area). Hill and I walked over to the registration table, signed in and collected our race bibs. We walked back to the car and used the facilities. I met up with Heidi and we got a couple pictures in our attire (posted later). I went for a quick warm up, ended up being about .4 mi, which was plenty on a warm night.

At the start, I moved forward to the front figuring I'd be better than most of the field, and not wanting to have to expend and bunch of energy maneuvering around people. The starter said 'Go!' and we were off. I didn't want to get out too fast, but didn't want to fall back either, so I got into a pace that felt relaxed enough, but still pushing. I checked the Garmy around half mile in and saw 6:18/mi, but I didn't feel that fast. I know at this point in my training, I couldn't maintain that pace, so I kept it in the back of mind to bring it back to reality a bit. The first mile is nice and easy, relatively flat, so I clocked a 6:35.

I have a hard time with this course. It has some annoying hills on the back side of mile 2 through 3. The hills aren't anything super challenging or anything, but they're there, and they roll, and every time I get there, I'm just...annoyed. This time, I just kept telling myself, to pick it up on the small downhills and tough it out on the ups. I clocked a 6:57 for mile 2, and 6:55 for mile 3.

Mile 4 is mostly flat, but I could tell I was tiring. I knew I was under 7:00 through 3, so I just tried to maintain. I got through mile 4 with a 7:01, so still under 7 pace overall.

The last .27 to .3 I knew I needed to kick, so I put in all I had left. I closed out the last quarter mile-plus at 6:28 pace. I was "done" at the end. Pouring sweat, out of breath, light-headed. Totally worth it.

Some things I liked about this race:
1. A PR! (Previous fastest time 2/26/11 was 30:25 7:)
2. I didn't get passed by anyone after .5-.75 miles in and a couple of those that did pass were young kids (i.e. teenagers) running the 2 mile race.
3. I PASSED a lot of people during the race, including people who have previously beaten me.
4. I gutted out this annoying course on a hot day.
5. I got to have some one-on-one time with Hillary W.
6. I got to run a race with teammate Heidi T.

I'm looking forward to having Chris and Pauline join some of these runs in the next few weeks.

Now I'm enjoying some Thrifty Chocolate Malted Crunch ice cream and a Kona Brewing Co. Longboard Island Lager (Tim C.) for a post-race treat.

Pre-Race with Heidi T.

Mountain Runners 4th of July 5 Mile Run *PR*

For the weekend, my family went to Weaverville, CA to celebrate with my wife's family. A good-sized gathering with a couple families from long distances. I worked Saturday, but drove up after work. We spent the day together yesterday swimming, participating in "Kid's Day" (various events including a watermelon eating contest with a parent version at the end), and eating an American BBQ dinner of hamburgers and hot dogs. I drove home last night in order for me to be able to then drive north to Mt. Shasta this morning.

I got home about 9:45 last night, and got started getting my gear all ready. Shoes, socks, Team MARATHON® shorts, singlet and jacket, Garmin charging, iPod Nano, headphones and my MARATHON® Bars. I set my alarm for 5:45 in order to get up, get dressed, get coffee and get GOING! I grabbed my coffee to go and started for Mt. Shasta. I opted to not eat breakfast at home and eat a MARATHON® energy bar for "breakfast". Plus, I didn't want to eat at home since I had an hour drive to get there an hour before race time.

The drive was beautiful, perfect temperature for a drive in the Jeep with no top. I arrived in Mt. Shasta with no complications on the drive and walked the half mile to the registration area to pick up my bib and race T-shirt. I used the facilities and then walked back to the Jeep to finish getting ready. Once at the Jeep, I realized I had left my headphones at home...no need to panic, still 25 minutes till race time and I parked in a RiteAid parking lot. I went in and bought a new pair and was back in business. I started my warmup which consisted of some jogging and strides. By the time I was ready to move to the start, the large crowd had formed against the start line, so I just kind of squeezed in right at the front. I knew I'd get passed by a bunch of people, but it was better for me than having to get back in the pack and fight through a crowd.

The Star Spangled Banner was sung, Opera-style, and the starter gave some closing instructions. I started my tunes, and the gun went off. I kept telling myself to take it easy, slow down, don't get sucked into the pack. I felt comfortable, my breathing was relaxed. About .5 mile, I looked at my Garmin, and the pace showed 6:10. Yikes! TOO FAST! So the next half mile I spent trying to slow down to a reasonable pace so I didn't throw my whole race off. My goal coming in was 7:30/mi which would be a 34sec/mi PR for this race. Plus, with my AT issues a couple months ago, I haven't really done much speed training, just trying to build up my mileage base again. I finished the first mile at 6:46, still way too fast, but OK I guess.

The next 3 miles just went by, nothing remarkable, my splits were very good though (7:16, 7:08, 7:15). I just locked in and took care of business.

Then came mile 5. After a brief (.11) downhill, the rest of the course (save the last 264 feet) is a gradual incline that is downright torturous. All said, it's about 100 feet of elevation gain over .84mi. I struggled with it 3 years ago, and I struggled again today. My pace slowed quite a bit. I knew I had to keep going though and finish strong. Looking at my Garmin results, I actually slowed to a 10:04 pace at a point during mile 5. Right near the top of that incline, I decided I would just finish it now. I started my kick with about 1000 feet to go. I started gaining on a couple guys who had passed me when I slowed. I set my sights on them and went into sprint mode. For that last portion, my pace registered as 4:48/mi. Once I was able to see the results, one of the two guys I passed was in my age group, so had I not kicked like that, I would have been 12th instead of 11th.

Overall, I had fun. Like I said before, my goal was 37:30, or 7:30 pace. I ran this race in 2008, 2 1/2 months after I started running, and finished in 40:23, or 8:04 pace. My time for a 5 mile race in April, when I was training hard before my AT injury, was 36:53 (7:22/mi). Today, I finished in 36:33 (7:19/mi), a PR by 3 minutes, 50 seconds.

Splits: 6:46 - 7:16 - 7:08 - 7:15 - 8:04 (If only I could have evened that out...)

Overall Finish:
91st out of 775
Age group:
11th out of 35

The Effects of EMS

I started in EMS as an EMT in 2001. I'm coming up on 10 years. It really has gone by fast, and even though the clientèle has changed the job some, it's still enjoyable, even with a personal career change still on the horizon.

Working on an Ambulance is a different beast. You can have a shift where you don't do much, or anything at all, to one where you're going constantly and never have a chance to see the station. I'm just now getting into bringing food to work. I haven't done that before short of bringing left overs for a meal. It becomes convenient to hit fast food because you're driving around, and you may not make it back to the station to get food.

Me and my buddy, Bradley, in fall 2006.

So many in EMS are overweight. It's not the easiest job to maintain fitness. 24 hour shifts, night shifts, eating out. It's actually kind of a vicious cycle because you gain weight, and still have to lift the same patients that weigh more than you. When you're not in good shape, it can lead to injury. When I started, I probably weighed 160-170.Once I finished Paramedic school at the end of 2005 and early '06, I was pushing 230, by far my heaviest. I was 145lbs when I graduated High School.

Over the years since high school and the first semester of college, I ran only occasionally. In March of 2008, my brother-in-law Jered started running. It was just what I needed to get started myself. I joined him on April 16 and started doing the Couch to 5k plan that incorporates walking and jogging over a 9 week period building up to being able to run a 5k (3.1mi) race without walking. I set my sights on a 5k only 3 weeks out (May 10) due to scheduling constraints. I got into better shape, but by race day I hadn't yet run the whole distance. I ended up running the 5k with a time of 24:17 or 7:48 per mile.

By the end of 2008 I had run a couple more small races, the 4th of July 5 mile race in Mt. Shasta, a half marathon in San Francisco and the Shasta Regional Medical Center Turkey Trot. Overall I lost about 26 pounds by running and around 40 total including diet changes.

November 2008 before my first half marathon

November 2009 at the finish of my 2nd half marathon

Presently I sit at 184 pounds. I'm working to get to a lean and mean 175, and maintain that weight and build muscle. I've been running since 2008 and plan on continuing as long as I can. I feel so much better when I'm running. It's better for my health, better for my family, better for my career, etc.