David's 2008 Summary

Well, it is March 2009. I guess it is time for me to write up my race summary for 2008. I should have done this in October or November, oh well. With it being so long since last year’s races I am not sure what to write.

Overall it was a good race year and I accomplished the last of my running goals. However, I’ll start with a couple negatives. The main ones I can think of are the three races I missed. The “Murphysboro Applefest 5K” was one of these. The flyer I got said it started at 9:00 in the morning. I wake up, get ready, and just leave the house when Marvin calls me from the race a little before 8:00. He tells me the flyer was wrong and the race was going to start in a few minutes. He was lucky and left right after work. He would have had to wait a long time before a 9:00 start but barely made it for the 8:00. That was very frustrating. The next two races I missed were because of work. I work the 3 to 11 shift and was mandated to work the midnight shift the night before the races. I guess technically I could have ran them, but it would not have been good. The really bad thing is I had preregistered for them. The first one was the “DuQuoin 5K” I really liked this race and was not happy I missed it. The next one was the “Tunnel Hill 10 mile”. I was upset I missed it, but also a little relieved. After all, it is 10 miles. It is a nice race with a great course, but it’s 10 miles. One good thing for the last two races is I did get the t-shirts.

Last year did have many positives. I set a new personal record in a 3K and a 5K. My 3K PR. is now 10:56 and my 5K is 19:18. I did run faster in quite a few individual races too. One of my best races was “Steeleville Firecracker 3K”. I accomplished a lot at this one race. I set my new PR, finished in the top10, and I finally beat Marvin in a legitimate race. I don’t think I can do any of those three things again. I placed first in age group at “Union County Colorfest Biathlon”. Also at Union County I won the $165 bicycle seat. I am not sure if that is really an accomplishment, but it is pretty cool. I placed third in age group at “Millstadt Biathlon”. I posted my best times at our weekly summer ½ mile interval training. That may have been the day the high school band was practicing at the football field / track where we run and I didn’t want to look bad. The last big positive was Marvin and me winning age group at the “Quincy Regional Crime Stoppers Midwest Monster Adventure Race”. It was a long exhausting day but I would do it again. If you look at the results overall we came in third and the two teams in front of us were from Quincy. I think that makes our win, and third place overall, even better.

Here are a few totals for 2008.
Mileage ran: 305
Exercise bike mileage: 937
Mountain bike mileage: 34.34, not sure if I added estimated Adventure Race in there
Road bike mileage: 2029.9
I’m kind of proud of my road bike mileage. I had a couple rides over 50 miles. My farthest ride was 56.81. I would like to do a century sometime.

I’m not sure what my goals are going to be for 2009. I think my job is going to interfere with my training and races. We are very shorthanded so the overtime is getting worse and screwing up our personal lives. Anyway, I would like to do better in races this year. I am moving up in age group so I think the competition is going to be worse. It seems the older one gets the more the hardcore guys participate. I haven’t even started running or biking yet this year and it’s the 10th of March. By this time last year I had been doing stuff for a month or so. Wow, I’m starting to feel bad. Well, I better finish this so I can go do something. See you on the road!