Tonight, after 11 hours at work, I ran another 5k. It was my first cross country, so I wasn't really expecting great things.

The results surprised me to say the least. I did the distance in 28:14, a PR by 19 seconds with plenty left in the tank, but that wasn't even the best part.

We have a lot of quality high school running programs in the area. With several big private school teams and the public school teams that want to show them up, the competition can be fierce. Unfortunately, so can some of the coaches.

While on course I caught up to a young girl, high school aged, and figured out really quickly what her name was and where she went to school because her looney toons coach was yelling at her. I am not an experienced runner by any stretch, but I can't imagine the path to great results is paved with screams and comments about disappointing times.

As I caught up to her we were around 1K to go and she was gassing bad. I slowed down and just kept talking to her, pointed out where the turn to the finish line was, and urged her on. When we hit the final turn I just said,"Now stretch out your stride and go get it. Kick! Kick! Kick!" She took off at a pace I couldn't keep up with, she seriously pulled about 10 strides on me in the last 100 meters.

She was ready to cry when she was done. It was her first 5K of any kind and she was so relieved. It felt great to help her and see what happens when you get her back out of her own head and some alive for that last push.

BTW, I hope her coach chokes on his whistle. What an a-hole. Every kid I saw wearing that same uniform looked more like they just went 10 rounds with Tyson than ran a simple 5K.

-Tim

Been quite around here lately. I guess everyone, like me, has been busy doing all the things that summer brings. Unfortunately for me, summer brings work, so training has been a little hit and miss lately.

I have a stretch of a week or so that I know my schedule will give me the time to train to my peak for my next 5K. It is the Flying Pig in Pennington, NJ on August 13th. It will be my first cross country race, so I am not expecting a PR for the distance.

The great things that I am looking forward to is the opportunity to run with a few kids that grew up in the youth program I help with and the race is in a park that I ran all over as a kid. The comforts of good friends and a familiar place should make for a great evening of running, no matter what the August weather has in store for us.

I am getting psyched up already. 16 days and counting.

Some of you may remember my blog/rant from a while ago about the rubbosh I see as I go on my daily runs. Well, after getting some advice, I have decided to go forward with the idea of planning a day that we can all go for a walk along our favorite running route and clean up as we go.

I work for a home improvement company and I will work my connections to see if I can even arrange to supply trash bags for the project.

The Plan:

Tentative Date: May 16, 2009 (the weekend before Memorial Day)

The Location: EVERYWHERE!!!

The Concept: Go for a long walk with fellow runners and friends along your favorite running routes and help beautify it. Cleaning up sidewalks, clogged storm drains, and picking up trash will help to make our home towns and trails even more enjoyable as we enter the summer.

I will work my contacts through work for supplies and support as well as getting in touch with companies that support our sport. If anyone has any suggestions, advice, or would like to help plan, please get in touch with me.

I ran the third 5k of my life today and I think I did pretty well. the RNS Run in Atlantic City, NJ benefits cancer and heart patients at a variety of up and down the jersey shore.

I got off to a rough start, still not used to the whole running in a crowd thing. Stumbled a few times while weaving in and out of the slower people that started in front of me. Once I found some open ground I really got into a good groove.

I ended up starting my kick late because I didn't rememebr to look at landmarks on the first half of the out and back course. I ended up not going until I could see the cones, maybe 300 or so meters out.

I ended up crossing the line at 28:30. Knocking another almost 2 minutes off of my previous PR from mothers day.

I can't wait until the next one. I think my training is right pace to achieve my marathon goal at Disney in January.

In one of my past blogs I ranted a little bit about the trash I see along the road while I am trying to enjoy my daily run. Now that the weather has broken a bit it seems like there is more than ever.

I think I have a simple, yet effective solution that can work for everyone everywhere and I would like to hear some opinions.

My idea is to pick a date that runners coast to coast and beyond can share to clean up each of our little corners of the world a bit. The process would be to put on a pair of gloves and bring a trash bag or two with you as you head out on a common or favorite personal running route through town or around campus if you are a student that traisn on the track normally. Instead of running, we all just walk and pick up the little bits of trash that we all see and normally run past daily.

I don't think it would be a big deal for most of us to take up a rest or active rest day by helping the enviroment. It is a simple activity that all ages and levels of runners can participate in equally, to help build some more community among us.

The impact can be as big or little as the local runners care to make it.

What I would like to know:

Will college/high school/ junior high/ running clubs be interested?

Does anyone see any problem with the basic idea?

What time of year would be best for a clean up day? Should it be one date coast to coast that we cna all share and brag about? Or would having multiple dates throughout the year or region by region be a better fit?

Does anyone think this is the kind of idea that can grow and maybe become an annual event for the running community?

Thanks in advance for your time and opinions. I am hoping that with a simple, grass roots approach, we can all have a hand in helping our towns, our enviroment, and inspiring the next generation to be responsible for the planet we all share.

-Tim

Well, for the second year in a row I get to feel the disappointing side of having to apply to the NYC marathon.

I got the word today that my application was not accepted. I am very disappointed about this.

Right now I am planning to continue my focus on training and I will pick a different fall marathon to be my first.

Feels crappy right now, I live near and love visiting New York City. Some day I will run through the streets there, but I think it is going to be a long time before I spend the money to go into the lottery to participate.

Maybe I will just have to run my guts out in the spring and see if I can qualify for Boston. Running through beantown in a Yankees cap should get me some attention. lol

The 2008 Komen Race for the Cure for the Central and South Jersey area is being held on Sunday, October 5th, at great Adventure (Six Flags to you non-Jersey folks)

I have started a team for my family to help the Komen foundation in their quest to educate and find a cure for this terrible disease.

I will be the sole member of my team running the 5K, while my brother, father, and mother will be participating in the 2.5 mile walk.

I wanted to ask anyone who cares to help to sponsor me for the 2008 Komen Race for the Cure. I just set up my "team", that will be made up of my immediate family, to help the Komen Foundation fund raise to research for cause and cure and to educate about Breast Cancer.

This is a cause that means a lot to me, my mother is a breast cancer survivor. I am sure if most of you think for a minute you can think of a woman in your family or circle of friends that this disease has touched or maybe even taken.

Please visit my team page and make a donation if you can: http://events.komencsnj.org/site/TR?pg=team&fr_id=1020&team_id=4560

-Thank you for your support
-Tim

On my runs lately I have been working on some of the method and technique that I lack as a typical newbie to running.

My latest adventure is into a modified warm down method that I read about online.

Since I committed to my traing more seriously after new years, for my warm down I have simply stretched and gone for a 1 or 2 mile walk after my runs.

The new step is that instead of just walking I am mixing in jogging and short "sprints"(hey, they seem fast to me. lol). The idea is to develop more "fast twitch" muscle fiber through the sprints as well as provoking my body to recover more quickly by rolling the pace up and down with the jogs mixed in.

So far it seems to be a fairly easy process since the blocks I run are fairly regularly sized. Walk a block, jog a block, walk a block, sprint a block, walk a block, and so on.

According to the reading I did I should start seeing some level of results with in a week or two at my current mileage.

I have 3 weeks until my next 5k, I am pulling out all the stops in persuit of my 27:00 goal.

I am signed up for my next 5K. On June 22nd I will be venturing to Atlantic City for the RNS 5K Run/Walk with my whole family. Proceeds go to cancer research.

This will be my third 5K and my first serious shot at a sub 28 minute time.

The rest of my family, including my cancer survivor mother, will be doing the 5K walk.

I am gearing up my training in hopes of peaking at the right time.

Pray for me, I don't have as much free time to train as I would like thanks to work. I will put in the time I have and aim to achieve.

Been feeling a little under the weather the last few days, but I decided to get back to running today anyway. I took the few days off to do some more reading and see if I could decifer some of the information about being a better runner that I have collected.

Well, a lot of my reading came together today. I focused on one of the big things that came up in several articles I have read. I concentrated on lowering my arms while I ran.

Such a simple change made the most massive of difference. My breathing was better, my whole body seemed more relaxed, and I felt much more in command of my pace.

Today was a short run, but the results were night and day. Normally I do my pace training runs in the 9:15ish range(my goal marathon pace), today I managed to do two miles at an 8:45 pace and I actualy felt like I had a lot left in me.

I can't believe such a small change could mean so much.