The winter season seems to wear on my inspiration to log the mileage more and more each year. This year was no exception especially being so unseasonably cold. With spring officially kicked off the race calendar literally seems to have a 5k on the docket every weekend somewhere in the immediate region. At first blush the volume of races is overwhelming since spring has magnetism drawing runners into the race scene fast and furiously. As you can guess, my race calendar is getting decorated with more races than years past all in stride with run commute mileage bulking up a nice training base every week. We’ll find out how well integrating run commuting into a training plan fits in the journey to break some long standing PRs this year.

First Place Baby
This past weekend, our little guy turned one. As part of the celebration lacing up the racers, loading him up in the jogger and racing with him in the local Shamrock 4 miler was only fitting. At first I was a little shy about racing with the jogger. Entering the “baby jogger” division has not been my typical route for racing since my focus has been on marathons until recently. At the starting line, I quickly realized the baby joggers were being given a separate start. What a relief. The last time I raced with my daughter in the jogger we were stuck spending every bit of energy weaving through the crowd.

Before the race a friend asked if I’d ever run on this course before. To which I answered, “Nope”. He smiled and said it’s all easy on the way out over the first two miles. Now the way back (mile 3) is really tough is all he said. I remember thinking, “How tough could this really be?”. Now I’m on the line and the gun goes off. Just like he said the first two miles were fast. I was experiencing the great feeling of chasing the pace car in the lead (given our 2 minute head start on the open race). As we headed to the turnaround, the lead runners in the open race were starting to pass by. We were moving along, but they were flying. It was cool to see the race from this perspective. None of them were pushing a jogger so I knew I was still leading my race.

Then we started the climb (mile 3) back toward the finish. Really my friend wasn’t kidding about how challenging this was. Add pushing about 40 extra pounds of weight to the race equation and I’m telling you my legs were burning. Just when I thought I couldn’t take much more the grade started to level out to an easier climb. From this point out all I had to do was keep my son’s Cheerios cup from flying out the side to jogger. We almost lost it once between the three mile mark and the finish. Not something I’m usually thinking about mid-race, but it made me laugh to myself.

After a couple more winding hills we wrapped down to the finishing stretch. By this point I was pretty confident that we were winning our race. All we had to do was navigate over the multiple speed bumps on the finish stretch and cross the line. Finishing this race I was happy to share the experience and win with my son. First birthday. First place. First race. I’m still smiling thinking about it. While I’m sure he doesn’t remember it all happening. I’ll have the memory for a lifetime.

Weekly Mileage Report

Monday – 13 miles (round trip into Uptown and Dilworth over fall commute routes)

Tuesday – 10 miles (Met Charlotte Running Club Group for Intervals)
Warm Up: 2.5 miles
3 x 12 minutes at 6:20 pace: 5 miles (estimated)
Cool Down: 2.5 miles

Day 76
Wednesday – 10 miles (short commute mixed with training run)
Run to shops and dinner – 3 mile (roundtrip)
Training Run – 7 miles

Day 77
Friday - 8 miles
Run from Studio to Mailbox: 4 miles
Run from Mailbox to Studio: 4 miles

Weekly Commute Mileage: 11 miles
Total Commute Mileage to Date: 736.5 miles

Tip of the Week
Spring time equals race time. Be cautious to give yourself enough rest and recovery time between racing. Racing is a ton of fun. Watching from the sidelines during peak race season with an injury is not.