Running with Eric

With the racing season starting next week, here is a preview of some of the races I plan on running in this year. Hopefully I will add some more August and September races (and perhaps a fall marathon), but the spring looks to be mostly set.

• March 15th – Running Of the Green
• April 13th – Webster Trail Classic
• April 27th – Seneca 7
• April 29th – Run our Trails April
• May 4th – Medved Madness
• May 18th – Vale of Three Falls 10k
• May 25th – Buffalo Marathon
• May 27th – Run our Trails May
• June 11th – Dirt Cheap Trail Race Webster
• June 24th – Run our Trails June
• July 4th – Lancaster 4th of July 10k
• July 13th – Boilermaker 15k
• July 29th – Run our Trails July
• August 26th – Run our Trails August
• September 30th – Run our Trails September
• October 19th – Many Lite
• October 25th – Scare Brain Cancer 5k
• November 7th-9th – Dirt Cheap Stage Race
• November 27th – Buffalo Turkey Trot
• December 13th – It’s a Wonderful Run

In 2024 I ran 20 races (two more than last year), including two full marathons. I ran in the Buffalo Turkey Trot for the 13th year, but also ran some new races such as the Seneca 7 (which I will be returning to next year).

While I did not manage to get a marathon PR this year my two finishes were the second and fourth fastest marathons that I have ever run. Additionally I finished the year with some quick times in the 5k, 10k, and 5 mile that were my lowest times since 2015.

Hopefully 2025 sees more races, and even faster finishing times.

With the racing season starting off this month, here is a preview of what I plan to be running in the coming year. As always, this is subject to change.

• March 16th – Running Of the Green
• April 28th – Seneca 7
• May 8th – Dirt Cheap Trail Race
• May 19th – Vale of Three Falls 10k
• May 26th – Buffalo Marathon
• June 9th – Lake Placid Marathon
• June 22nd – Webster Trail Classic
• July 4th – Lancaster 4th of July 10k
• July 9th – Run our River 5k
• September 14th – Mill to Mill 10k
• September 22nd – Unlimited Breadsticks Half
• October 12th – Can Lake 50
• October 19th – Scare Brain Cancer 5k
• October 20th – Many Lite
• November 8th-10th – Dirt Cheap Stage Race
• November 28th – Buffalo Turkey Trot
• December 14th – It’s a Wonderful Run

2023 was a good year for running. I ran 18 races this year, three more than last year, and the most since the start of the pandemic. I ran two marathons, a large number of trail races, and half of these events were over 15 kilometers or longer.

The highlight of the year was obviously the Buffalo Marathon where I ran the distance in my quickest time ever and made a 13 minute improvement upon my PR.

I finally ran in the Boilermaker, but my favorite new race for the year was Many Lite in Letchworth. This was a great trail race with wonderful scenery at a fantastic distance.

Hopefully 2024 brings more of the same. I am already looking at running three marathons next year, so it is already shaping up to be a fast and busy year.

With the yearly racing schedule kicking off this weekend with the Running of the Green, here is a look at my initial plans for a race calendar this year. My actual schedule feels uncertain as ever, but here is a look at where things stand today.

• March 11th – Running Of the Green
• April 23rd – Flower City Half Marathon
• May 9th – Run the River 5k
• May 21st – Vale of Three Falls 10k
• May 28th – Buffalo Marathon
• July 4th – Lancaster 4th of July 10k
• July 8th – 0SPF Half Marathon
• July 26th – Dirt Cheap Trail Race
• August 9th – Dirt Cheap Trail Race
• September 9th – Webster Trail Classic
• September 24th – Unlimited Breadsticks
• October 1st – Wineglass Marathon
• October 21st – Scare Brain Cancer 5k
• November 3rd-5th – Dirt Cheap Stage Race
• November 23rd – Buffalo Turkey Trot

I ran 15 races this year, and while that is still significantly short of what I was running before the pandemic, it is almost as much as the past two years combined. I ran multiple marathons this year for the first time since 2019, and ran a number of new and interesting courses.

Of the six trail runs that I did this year, five of them were 10+ miles, and four of them were courses that I have never ran before.

I also saw a good amount of improvement to my speed within this year. The first two races of the year were disappointingly slow. However I finished the year with course PRs at Webster Trail and Wineglass, and followed that with my fastest 5k in four years and the quickest Turkey Trot since 2015.

Hopefully next year is mostly more of the same, but starting out in better shape in the spring, and with a plan to finally get a new marathon PR instead of just coming close.

With the 2022 racing season kicking off this weekend, I finally feel confident for the first time since the start of the pandemic to make some long term plans. While I am sure there are more events to come in the fall, for the first time since 2019 here is a tentative plan for the year…

• March 12th – Running Of the Green
• April 24th – Flower City Half Marathon
• April 30th – Allegany Adventure Run
• May 22nd – Vale of Three Falls 10k
• May 29th – Buffalo Marathon
• July 4th – Lancaster 4th of July 10k
• July 9th – 0SPF Half Marathon
• September 10th – Webster Trail Classic
• November 4th-6th – Dirt Cheap Stage Race
• November 24th – Buffalo Turkey Trot

2021 was not quite the triumphant return to running that I had been hoping for with only nine completed races this year. While that is more than I ran in 2020 this year was still overly impacted by the pandemic where some spring races were postponed into summer and a few others didn’t happen at all. Somehow I only managed to run two trail races all year.

Still there were some highlights this year as well. My return to the marathon distance went much better than expected and I also completed my first triathlon since 2017.

I am hopeful that 2022 will be a return to a full racing calendar with a mix of trail races, marathons, and triathlons filling out the year.

Not much to wrap up on the 2020 racing year. Pretty much everything was canceled, and I was out of shape on the few races I did run. I only ran seven races on the year, and every last one of them was on trails. A few races were deferred to 2021 (Running O’ The Green, Flower City Half, and Buffalo Marathon) and hopefully they happen, but at this point I suspect that next year’s racing calendar my be a bit light as well. But hopefully still more than seven races.

I ran 23 races in 2019 including three marathons. The race I am most proud of running was Sehgahunda, as it is a race that I had been considering running for a number of years before finally completing it this spring. I don’t think that I had any distance PR’s this year, but most of my results were still faster than I was in 2018. Here in winter it has been a full month since my last race, but 2020 should be full of plenty of running…

My yearly plans call for 20 or more races, so it is about time that I at least get some of them onto a calendar. A lot of the fall is still uncertain, and I am sure that I will run a race on at least one weekend in June, but here is what I am planning on running so far…

• March 16th – Running Of the Green
• April 17th – Dirt Cheap Trail Race
• April 28th – Flower City Half
• May 5th – Grand Island Half
• May 8th – Dirt Cheap Trail Race
• May 18th – Sehgahunda Trail Marathon
• May 26th – Buffalo Marathon
• June 4th – Rochester Corporate Challenge
• June 12th – Dirt Cheap Trail Race
• July 4th – Lancaster 4th of July 10k
• July 10th – Dirt Cheap Trail Race
• July 27th – Battle at Bristol Half Marathon
• August 14th – Dirt Cheap Trail Race
• September 4th – Dirt Cheap Trail Race
• September 22nd – Rochester
• October 6th – Wineglass
• October 12th – Can Lake
• November 8th-10th – Dirt Cheap Stage Race
• November 28th – Buffalo Turkey Trot

With the year coming to a close it is time to look over the past year of running. I ran 23 races this year so my racing miles remained high even as it felt that my training miles were lower than in years past. I completed a few new races this year including a 25k, a 14 mile trail race, a taco eating race, and a duathlon. I didn’t set any personal records at the standard distances, but I did improve upon previous years on the trails at Mendon Ponds and Bristol Mountain.

So far the only race on my 2019 calendar is the Buffalo Marathon, but I am sure that there will be plenty more…

With another running season set to start, it is time to start laying out my plans for the year. Unfortunately there is still a lot of uncertainty with my race calendar, but the following races are all within the plan.

• March 17th – Johnny’s Runnin’ O the Green
• April 11th – Dirt Cheap Trail Race
• April 21st – Flower City Paddle Triathlon
• April 22nd – Flower City Half Marathon
• May 9th – Dirt Cheap Trail Race
• May 22nd – Rochester Corporate Challenge
• May 27th – Buffalo Marathon
• June 13th – Dirt Cheap Trail Race
• July 4th – Lancaster 4th of July 10k
• August 15th – Dirt Cheap Trail Race
• September 5th – Dirt Cheap Trail Race
• November 9th-11th – Dirt Cheap Stage Race
• November 22nd – Buffalo Turkey Trot

From April through November I ran in 20 races this year. Along the way I set a new PR for both the half-marathon and full marathon distances. I finally ran the corporate challenge, came last in a triathlon, and ran many many trail races.

Hopefully 2018 is just as exciting…

I missed all of the March races this year after going to Asia for two weeks, but I still plan on doing plenty of running in 2017. Here are the races that I am committed to so far…

• April 12th – Dirt Cheap Trail Race
• April 29th – Flower City Paddle Triathlon
• April 30th – Flower City Half Marathon
• May 6th – Grand Island Half Marathon
• May 10th – Dirt Cheap Trail Race
• May 28th – Buffalo Marathon
• June 11th – Keuka Lake Triathlon
• June 14th – Dirt Cheap Trail Race
• July 4th – Lancaster 4th of July 10k
• July 19th – Dirt Cheap Trail Race
• August 16th – Dirt Cheap Trail Race
• September 6th – Dirt Cheap Trail Race
• September 17th – Rochester Marathon
• October 7th – Can Lake 50
• November 10th-12th – Dirt Cheap Stage Race
• November 23rd – Buffalo Turkey Trot

With December upon us, my races are largely done for the year. Since March I ran in 18 races for a total of 197 racing miles. This season I set a PR in the half-marathon and 50k, and in the spring I ran my first races at the 15k and 19k distances.

I also improved my personal course record on both of the triathlons that I had raced before, while also improving my time on many of the trail races. Although this summer also saw my first DNF.

Hopefully I will be running even farther and faster in 2017.

Earlier this year I ran in the Right to Run 19k in Seneca Falls. The race itself is an homage to the nineteenth amendment which gave women the right to vote and had its roots in this small town in the finger lakes. Partially as a result of this branding, there were a lot of women in the race.

This was noted at the starting line when a special shout out was given to the men who choose to join in this race. At the time I thought that this wasn’t all that unusual as it felt like the women usually outnumbered the men. In fact, every previous road race that I had run in 2016 (Runnin’ O’ the Green 5 mile, Spring Forwards Distance Run 15k, and Flower City Half) had all been majority female.

Over the course of a full year this pattern evened out some as most races I participated in were closer to 50/50

But for the half marathon (the traditional distance closest to 19k) a different pattern emerged. In addition to the 19k, the women outnumbered the men in both half marathons I ran this year. At three further events (Buffalo Marathon, Shoreline Triathlon, and the Rochester Marathon) a 13.1 mile race was held concurrently and all of these events were also majority female.

In fact I looked for every Half Marathon I could find anywhere in the Buffalo, Rochester, Syracuse, and Finger Lakes areas and every single one of them was majority female. In fact women made up over 59% of the field in all but two of these races.

I don’t know why the gender split is so large, but women have definitely proven that they have the right to run half marathons…

This weekend is the Flower City Challenge with a paddle triathlon on Saturday, and a half marathon on Sunday. Unfortunately the new pair of shoes shown here are not quite broken in enough to be used this weekend.

Last year I started off the triathlon with a 5k run in 23:03, which was quick enough that I am going to have a hard time beating that. However, on the bike I should be able to make up some time. Last year’s bike ride was such a disaster that I realized I needed to buy a bike that actually works. I would love for my bike time to be under 1:20, but I have gotten very little practice in so far this year. As for the kayaking, I have not gotten any practice in since August, so whatever happens there is what happens there.

I have not actually raced a half marathon since last year’s Flower City Half so any improvement on last year’s time would be a PR. Given how well I felt a few weeks ago in the 15k, I plan on going out with the 1:45 pace group. Even if I fall off the pace a bit, that should still set me up to do better than last year.

With the weather finally getting nice, it is time to look ahead to the upcoming running season. These are the races that I am planning on running from this weekend through July…

• March 12th – Johnny’s Runnin’ O the Green
• March 26th – Spring Forward Distance Run
• April 13th – Dirt Cheap Trail Race
• April 23rd – Flower City Paddle Triathlon
• April 24th – Flower City Half-Marathon
• May 18th – Dirt Cheap Trail Race
• May 29th – Buffalo Marathon
• June 15th – Dirt Cheap Trail Race
• July 4th – Lancaster 4th of July 10k
• July 17th – Shoreline Triathlon
• July 20th – Dirt Cheap Trail Race

With the Turkey Trot now complete, I am more or less done with my running for the year. I am extremely happy with how the year turned out. I set a new PR for the five miles, 10k, half-marathon, and full marathon distances. Further it was my first year completing a 50k, and a half ironman. Additionally I also completed ten trail races and a Ragnar Relay.

Hopefully 2016 goes just as well…

I have two races planned for October, a 50k and a 5k. This is both my longest, and my shortest race of the year.

First the 50k race is around Lake Canandaigua and will be my first ultramarathon. My goal time for the race is six hours, but it is possible that it may take me as long as seven and a half hours. After the disaster of the Rochester Marathon it is clear that I will slow down at some point, so my plan is to take the advice of the crowds and walk up the hills, even if they find me early on in the race. Additionally there are a limited number of water stops on the course so I will be carrying water with me in this race for the first time ever. So far I have only 4 miles of practice running with a water-pack so hopefully that does not cause any problems.

My second race of the month is the Brick City 5k at RIT. Oddly this will be my first (and possibly only) 5k of the year. I would really like to break 20 minutes, but that may prove difficult with all of my training for the last year focused on longer races.

Starting with the Shoreline Triathlon on July 19th my next two big races are both triathlons. I completed the Shoreline Triathlon last year so my goal is to beat my previous time.

To improve my time for the swim, I have joined a group to help me improve my form. Unfortunately I will only get to go once before the Shoreline race so it won’t be much help this coming weekend.

My time on the bike should improve as I have just bought a new bike. My new ride is not only lighter with skinnier tires, but also has gears that all work reliably. Currently I am having an issue with keeping air in the rear tire, but I hope to have that sorted out by race time.

The run is the one section of the triathlon that I have actually been good at. All of my running times have been down so far this year, so hopefully that trend continues.

In August I will be competing in a longer triathlon as I race the half distance at the Peasantman Triathlon.

I started this year with the goal of finishing last in a race, and so far that hasn’t happened. I have been pushing myself, but my times are all going down. I ran a half-marathon the day after paddle triathlon, and instead of doing poorly finished with a PR. I ran an early season full marathon, and got another PR. I ran a 12+ mile trail race and again finished fairly well.

The distances for my July races will be a bit shorter, but after that I am going back to challenging myself again. In late August, I will be racing in my first half-ironman distance triathlon. In September I will be running a Rochester marathon that is far from flat and a 200 mile relay race in the Adirondacks. In October I will be running a 50k race for my first ultra-marathon.

Next up is the 4th of July 10k, a race I have run 5 times before. First running in 2004, and then the past 4 years I have finished in 63:24, 65:12, 60:14, 55:54, and, 52:31. My goal for this year is to be under 52 minutes, but if the weather is cool (which it probably won’t be) I think attempting to get under 50 minutes is plausible as well.

On Sunday I will be in Buffalo for my first Marathon of 2015. After the Rochester Marathon last fall this will be my second marathon, and there are a few things that I am looking to do differently.

During my last marathon, I remember being disappointed when the 4:15 pace group passed me around mile nine, as my plan had been to maintain a 4:00 pace through the first half of the race. This time my plan is to go out much slower at a 10 minute per mile pace which will put me between the 4:20 and 4:30 pace groups. If I can keep this pace up for at least the first twenty miles then I should be in good shape.

At this point the weather for Sunday is still a bit uncertain, so it is hard to say how quick I predict that I will be. At the very least my goal is to PR and improve upon my time from last fall.