Running with Eric

On Sunday I ran the Seneca 7 relay race around Seneca Lake for the third year. This year I ran leg three, and our team finished the loop around the lake in 10:29:44 which is over 20 minutes quicker than last year.

The third runner has some of the easier legs to run so I went into my first leg wanting to start out strong. The first leg was 4.4 miles of rolling hills and I paced myself as if I was running a 5k. This did start to hurt in the last mile, but I am glad that I gave it my all.

At 4.7 miles the second leg was a big longer, but it was massively downhill. This is the leg I had really been looking forward to. The first mile is fairly flat and uneventful, but then the course heads downhill into Watkins Glen. The twoish miles of downhill were a lot of fun and probably some of the fastest that I have run in years. Then suddenly there is another mile and a half that needs to be run through the town without the assist of gravity and you comparatively find yourself feeling so slow.

The final leg was a single mile and is a ridiculous thing to include in a race like this. I did my best to pretend that I was a sprinter (and actually passed a number of runners), but after the earlier miles and a full day of driving a car my legs had very little raw speed in them.

My next race will be the Run Our Trails race on Tuesday, which will be my first trail race of the year.

On sunday I was part of a Seneca 7 relay team that ran all the way around Seneca Lake. It took our team 10:51:18 to encircle the lake. This was 22 minutes quicker than we were last year despite this year’s course being slightly longer.

This year I was runner number 6, and started the day with a 4.6 mile run of rolling hills. The second leg was 4.9 miles and was my toughest run of the day. It had no dramatic moments, but was one of the longer sections of the course and was mostly a slow and steady uphill. My final leg was only 2.5 miles but it felt like my pace was pretty consistent with what I ran the first two legs.

Overall this was a fun race to do and one that I hope to return to next year. My next race is the start of the Run Our Trails Series on tuesday.

On Sunday I ran as part of a relay to finish the 77.7 miles around Seneca Lake. This was a seven person relay around the lake, and the first relay I have done since the Ragnar ADK race nine years ago.

We finished the trip around the lake in 11:13:23, which was good enough for us to just slip into the top 100 teams.

I was the fifth runner on the team which meant that I had the longest to run, with of all of my legs totaling 13.5 miles throughout the day.

The first leg was 4.8 miles and almost all of it was straight up. While it was a beautiful day to run, and ultimately not all that far, I felt like I was going to be in trouble if the full day had as much elevation as the first leg did.

My second leg was a 10k and the longest of all 21 legs in the race. Knowing that it was going to be long, I made the decision to carry water and more or less run it at my marathon pace. This was a good idea, as I came out of this section feeling strong, even if I didn’t necessarily feel fast. However after looking at my time, my pace was almost exactly what I am looking to hold in next month’s marathon so it was a very successful run.

The final leg was 2.6 miles, however I had the misfortune of thinking that it was 2.0 miles and therefore went out a bit too fast. At the point I was mostly just looking to wrap up my run having already completed the vast majority of my miles.

Given that this was a relay race my goal was actually less on the finishing time, and more on getting to spend some time with the other runners on my team (and the other FBR team). It was a great community event, and one that I am hoping becomes an annual tradition.

My next race is the Run Our Trails three mile race at Mendon Ponds on Tuesday night, which will be my first trail race of the year.