Running with Eric

On Thursday morning I ran the Lancaster Fourth of July 10k for the ninth year. I finished in 58 minutes which was slower than last year.

This race is always far too hot, and this year was probably worse than normal. I ran the first mile in 8:04 at which point I realized that my hope of a sub-50 time wasn’t going to happen. After the second mile, any thought of going fast had mostly faded away, and I slowed down to a long distance pace. In fact my first two 10ks in the Buffalo Marathon were pretty close to what I ran here.

I finished the first 5k in a bit over 27 minutes, and even stopped for water once or twice on the way back. I kept things slow and steady until I was approaching the finish line.

My next race is the Dirt Cheap race in Webster Park next Wednesday.

On the Fourth of July I ran the Depew/Lancaster 10k for the 8th time. With the oppressive heat, this was one of my slower times on the course taking 56:14 to finish.

The first two miles went pretty well at an 8 minute pace, but after that the heat started to catch up to me. The worst part was (as always) the fourth mile down columbia. While much of the slowness was due to the heat, I wish my finish had been closer to previous years.

Next week I am off to Europe, so it will be awhile until my next race.

On Tuesday morning I ran the Depew/Lancaster Boys & Girls Club 10k in 50:57. This was quicker than last year, but a few minutes behind my PR from 2015.

I am never prepared for this race and it is always too hot but I started well, finishing the first mile with a 7:20 split. I mostly held the pace for the second mile, before the heat started to catch up to me. I crossed the half way point in 23:25 and was still averaging a sub eight minute pace at the four mile mark. While I am disappointed in not finishing in under fifty minutes, this was still my second best time after many years of running this race.

I finished in 209th place, and in the top quartile of runners. My next race will be the Rochester corporate challenge next tuesday.

I only got in a single practice run in the past two weeks, so I knew going into the race that I was unlikely to match my PR from last year. Still I had hoped to do better than the 53:50 that I finished with.

After the first mile I had already fallen behind my pace from last year, but through the first two miles I was still on track to finish under 50 minutes. Around two and a half miles my knee started hurting and I knew that I was going to be in trouble. By the 5k mark I was over 25 minutes, and around 3.5 miles my knee started to be in serious pain. I was considering walking a bit, and was concerned that I wouldn’t even finish in under 60 minutes.

Mile four is often the hardest part of this course, but instead of being in trouble my knee pain went away and I finished the final two miles in pretty good shape. The middle two miles had been enough to kill my time, but it turned out to not be a complete disaster. Hopefully I can get some actual workouts in before the Shoreline Triathlon.

On 4th of July I ran the Depew/Lancaster Boys & Girls Club 10k and finished in 47:30. This is 5 minutes quicker than I ran the same race last year, and a much larger improvement than I was expecting.

Despite the heat, I got off to a good start and was able to keep a steady pace. Overall I ran at a 7:39 pace and had pretty even splits. Typically the heat gets to me in this race when running the fourth mile down Columbia, but the whole race was so warm that no stretch felt any worse than any other.

My next race is back to the trails on Wednesday, where I will be running a course in Webster Park. In the past I have ran this course in 65:47, 61:18, 62:06, and 60:24 so I would love to be able to finally break the hour mark on this course.