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. 

Around the block

BrookLynn and Bradley chasing me as we raced around the block

I did an impromptu interval workout today. The kids and I "raced" around the block. The lap was about .25mi according to my Garmin. I ended up with 13 laps (a stop after each one) and overall pace of 6:48 for 3.26mi.

A couple of books you might enjoy...

I started reading for leisure last year. I know how to read, and I have read books before, but hardly anything outside of the Bible and required reading for school (BTW, I was out of school from 1999-2008...). I started last spring by reading The Blind Side by Michael Lewis. The movie had come out in theaters, and I heard that it was really good, and it was a sports related story, so I bought the book it from Barnes & Noble when the kids were getting to each pick out a book to buy. I read it cover to cover. Great book, and while the movie was good, it wasn't even close to the book.

Throughout the rest of the year I read a number of books. I was quite pleased with myself for this feat. One of the books I picked up from the library was a book by John L. Parker Jr. called Once a Runner. It's about a college track star who winds up getting kicked out of his college and running in the backwoods to train for a race,  trying to break four minutes in the mile. The same race I ran in high school, way back when. The same race I won the league championship and the large school championship my senior year. I got as fast as a 4:32 mile! That's crazy talk because I can't even think about running that fast short of doing it for a couple hundred feet. Anyway, I got hooked into the book. I saw that Parker Jr. had written a sequel (nearly 3 decades later!) to Once. I had to have it. I put it on my Christmas list.

That wonderful day came, and guess what? I got the book. The long-awaited sequel, Again To Carthage, was one of the gifts under the tree! Yay me! Now, just like the book's age gap, the main character is older, holding down a high profile job in a law firm, and has an age crisis of sorts, deciding he wants to compete to win a medal in the Olympic Games. Only this time, it's in the Marathon. I won't divulge any more details. Both are great books, which I would highly recommend, and can obviously be purchased at B&N, Amazon, locally at Fleet Feet, etc.

A running update. I was able to up my mileage to 18 last week. Still no complications with the AT. I'm shooting for 21 this week. I've got 8 so far. I got my Team MARATHON® Bar gear last week. I've worn some of the items during training. They're pretty comfortable. I posted to my Facebook friends a challenge to "win" some MARATHON® items:

Attention Friends:

Lots of requests to sample MARATHON® Bars. Here's how you can get some:

1. Get a picture of Matt running in Team MARATHON® Bar apparel.
2. Like the MARATHON® Bars Facebook page.
3. Upload the picture tagging Matt and MARATHON® Bar.

You'll get a 3 pack of MARATHON® Bars, a coupon for a discounted MARATHON® Bar purchase, and a Team MARATHON® Bar temporary tattoo.

I'll be running in North Redding tomorrow between 8 and 9:30 in the area of Beltline Rd. Just FYI.
 

Here's to another 300 miles!

I bought another birthday present today. A pair of Mizuno Wave Inspire 7s thanks to some birthday money from my wonderful in-laws. I'm not yet going to retire my Brooks Adrenaline GTS 10s (with roughly 300 miles on them). I'll still use them for occasional runs. Mainly though, it'll be switching between my GTS 11s and my new Mizunos.