It’s Official: I’m Headed to Las Vegas!

by Brandon  

I realized a few days ago that while I’ve talked about it on Twitter, I’ve never “officially” announced this on my blog: I’m heading to Las Vegas in December to run in the Rock ‘n’ Roll 1/2 Marathon!

As soon as I first heard about a marathon in Vegas that takes you right up and down the strip, I knew I wanted to do it. And then when I found out that there are a bunch of really awesome bloggers that are going to be running it, I knew I had to be there too! I think I may actually be more excited about meeting all these great folks that I am for the actual run itself 🙂

I’m really looking forward to the 1/2 Marathon in Vegas. I’ve got my first 1/2 Marathon coming up in the middle of August right here in Anchorage, which is going to be full of hills and considering the weather we’ve had lately, likely quite rainy. If nothing else, the 1/2 Marathon in Vegas is going to be FLAT. And in December, the weather is likely to be clear and cool, especially since it starts at some ungodly hour like 6am.

For those of you that will be joining the fun in Vegas, I can’t wait to meet all you fabulous people! And for the rest of you, I’m sure we’ll still be thinking of you 🙂

Photo by David Salafia

An Eventful 10 Mile Run

by Brandon  

Sunday afternoon, I set out for my longest run yet, 10 miles. The weather was just about perfect – cool and overcast. I was coming off my first 5K race the day before, and I was feeling good. The run started off well enough, but then about halfway into it, something…unfortunate…happened.

I got bit by a dog.

Right on the ass.

At least I can feel manly in the knowledge that it was a big German Shepard that bit me, and not some wimpy little fluff ball. The owners were being as responsible as I think they realistically could have been, to tell the truth. I was coming up from behind them, and went to pass them on the left. I didn’t say anything as I started to pass, but I thought I was giving them plenty of space.

Apparently I was wrong.

Just as I was passing by, the dog reached out and nipped me on the butt. Immediately after, the dog wasn’t barking or growling or trying to attack me, so I think I just startled it.

The owners were very nice about the whole thing, they apologized many many times, and kept asking if I was alright. At the time, I really didn’t think much of it. It didn’t hurt much, and there wasn’t a tear or any puncture holes in my running shorts, so I just kind of thought “no harm, no foul”, and went on my merry way. I went ahead and finished out the remainder of my 10 mile run in just over an hour and 40 minutes. It wasn’t until I got home and went to take a shower that I got a good look at my bum in the mirror and realized that the dog did more damage than I originally thought.

It really wasn’t anything that bad, but it had broken skin, and there was a little bit of blood on my underwear, so I thought it would be a good idea to get it looked at. Of course, being 4pm on a Sunday, my only real option was the ER. Have I mentioned how much I hate going to the ER? I don’t think I’ve ever gotten out of the ER in less than 4 hours. But I knew I needed to go, so off I went.

By the time I finally did get seen by a nurse, they did pretty much just what I expected – cleaned up the wound, gave me a tetanus shot (it had been at least 10 years since my last one), and prescribed some antibiotics. I asked if I had to worry about rabies at all, and they told me that in the last 40 years in Alaska, there has only been one case of a dog passing rabies onto a human, and that was out in one of the rural villages where the dog had first been bitten by a fox.

In the end, everything worked out and it looks like I’ll be just fine. My butt is a bit bruised and tender, but nothing that shouldn’t be healed within a week or so I would guess. I took away one important life lesson, though: if you are ever bitten by a dog, get the owner’s information if at all possible, even if you don’t think the bite is bad. If it’s an unknown dog, you just don’t know what its’ history is, so it’s best to err on the side of caution.

Bear Paw 5K Recap

by Brandon  
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Yesterday, I ran in my first 5K. Overall it was a really great experience, though it started out somewhat badly because they actually didn’t have my registration when I showed up. I talked to someone at the “late registration” booth and they were really great about it. They got me registered and didn’t even ask me to pay again, just trusted that my original registration would eventually turn up. You gotta love small-town races 🙂

So after I got my little registration snafu squared away, I got myself settled near the starting line.

As I expected, the whole thing was pretty low-key. They had one lane of the main road closed down for the runners. Everyone just kind of stood around in the road until the race “official” stood out at the front of the crowd and yelled, “GO!”

The first minute or so of the race was pretty bunched up, but after that everyone got spread out a bit more and there was plenty of room to run. I had initially positioned myself around the middle of the pack, but I was actually finding myself passing more people than were passing me! About a mile into the race, however, I got passed by a guy wearing a hot dog costume, and suddenly I had a goal for the race – don’t get beat by the guy wearing the hot dog costume!

Most of the race course was pretty flat, so I was able to keep up a pretty good pace. Near the end of the course was one of the few decent-size hills. By the time I got to the top of that, I was breathing pretty hard, but then I turned the corner and could see the finish line less than a half mile away. So I kicked it into high gear and finished out strong. Here I am just after coming through the finishing chute.

They didn’t have any fancy chip timers or anything like that, so they kept us lined up in the order we finished in so they could record our bib numbers. I’ll be interested to see the “official” results, since I can’t imagine that their times are very accurate. I kind of figured this was going to be the case, so I used the RunKeeper app on my phone to track my “real” race time.

Speaking of which, I was pretty excited about my finishing time: 25:35 – almost a full minute faster than I was hoping for. Hard to complain about a time like that for my first 5K.

And the best part of the race? I finished ahead of the guy in the hot dog costume! 🙂

The best thing about your first race is that it’s always a PR

by Brandon  

Back at the beginning of April, I started running using the popular C25K program. This Saturday, at long last, I’ll be running in my first race – the Bear Paw 5K Classic. The race is done as part of the Bear Paw Festival, a small-town summer festival that takes place in the town where I grew up, just outside of Anchorage.

I’m expecting it to be a pretty low-key event, so I plan to use the RunKeeper app on my phone to keep track of my “official” time, since I highly doubt they’ll be using chip timers 🙂

While I’m very excited to be running in my first race, I just wish that I had been able to do a 5K sooner. But between there not being many races up here, and how busy I was during June, it just wasn’t in the cards.

I’ve been able to run that distance for quite some time now – in fact, I’ve been busy training for my first 1/2 marathon that takes place just 5 weeks later. Actually being able to finish the 5K isn’t going to be much of a challenge for me at this point. Instead, I’m going to try pushing myself on time.

Tonight I went on my last run before the race Saturday. I decided to do a shorter run and work on my speed in preparation for the race. I ran 2.42 miles in 20:10, giving me a pace of 8:20/mile, which I was quite happy with, and something I could have definitely maintained for the remainder of a 5K. So if I calculate that pace out for the full 5K, that would give me a time of 25:50. Now, I’m really not sure about the race route. I think it’s fairly flat, but there are likely a few small-ish hills in there. Just to give myself some wiggle room, I’m going to bump that up to 26:30, and that’s what I’m going to shoot for. I’m going to try really hard to do it, but if I don’t, no big deal. I just like to have a goal to shoot for.

Even if I don’t meet my goal, like the title of this post says – the best thing about your first race is that it’s always a PR (personal record). 🙂

If you’re a runner, have you run in your first race yet, or are you a race veteran? Or do you prefer to just run for the sake of running, and don’t care about all this racing stuff?