TCF to Jacque, Naomi and John Phillips, 11/15/08 6:44pm
Jacque, we had a nice race, the three of us did it together and finished together. Not our fastest, but still a fun day. Better weather than we expected, no rain and by the finish we even had sunshine. The "official" finish line photos should be great fun, as we had David Matthew between me and Naomi, with John on her other side. Dave and Rhonda Morales may have gotten some photos, here's hoping they share them with us.OK, here's the times, in the usual format of time, Garmin distance, "adjusted" pace per mile
1 - 15:23 1.02 15:04 (stop for Naomi to remove jacket caused me to miss mile mark)
2 - 14:25 .99 14:33
3 - 14:19 1.00
4 - 14:13 1.03 13:48
5 - 14:14 1.01 14:05
6 - 14:11 .98 14:28
7 - 14:18 .99 14:26
8 - 14:19 .99 14:27
9 - 11:24 .80 14:25 (Mile marker was .2 off correct location)
10-17:32 1.20 14:36 (Extra distance was correction of #9 in course markings)
11-15:36 1.01 15:26 (Naomi shoelace)
12-16:17 1.01 16:07 WALL
13-15:40 1.01 15:30
.1 - 1:40 .12 13:53 Total 3:13:39 13.16 milesWe had FUN, and isn't that at least as important as PR? BTW, if Richmond accepts wheel chairs for their Half, we agreed this would be a GREAT race for Tony in his wheelchair. Very flat course, he would have no hill problems at all. Tom
Naomi "reply all" 7:24am 11/16/08
OK - let's be totally honest. We started out amid a clustered pack of run/walk/saunterers - John had a little delay joining us but put in a fast Mile #1 and caught us shortly. It would have been miserable to do the race without him - since Tom and I went to Richmond to enjoy the race with John. As for me, I started at a usual early-race pace 14:15 ish, felt pretty good, plus stops for taking off jacket and replacing #. But as we went around the track of the Richmond Athletic field by The Diamond (about mile 3.5), I started into one long Bite Me Race (this was NOT a race with a Bite Me Mile, it lasted for at least 6 miles). But I thought if we could keep up the same pace, we'd at least have a good time, not a PR of any kind, but not bad. The neighborhoods were really pretty with Fall leaves, a really nice course, a few residents (this is not a race for large neighborhood groups out - that's Baltimore) and very nice homes; and I stayed just a half step in front of the guys "just 'cause" - at least until my shoe lace got really tight about mile 9 or so and I stopped briefly to loosen it.
By that time, I had gone through all the excuses I could think of why this was the world's second worst event ever (second only to the Chicago Distance Classic in 2007). Let's see: 2 glasses of wine Friday eve, not a full night's sleep that night, a very clear hope that the 100% rain would not only come true but that the threatened thunderstorms would call the race - I was really hoping for this all the way to the start - so the mental prep was nowhere to be found, having to wear the race shirt because I forgot to pack a well-worn shirt, not stretching before the race, having a really tough workout with my trainer Friday who focused on the glutes and quads, changing the order of my race snacks and Gatorade sips, and I am sure I have forgotten some of my excuses/observations.
But the guys were so sweet and decided they'd pull me through. So we smiled for all the photographers as a trio of crazy AARP-eligible walkers and wandered at what felt like a 20-minute mile pace! Mile 12 was an "Oh My Goodness" mile, I cannot believe it is a 16+ minute mile because I thought I could have watched a whole episode of Food Network Challenge during that mile. Then we saw Dave and David Matthew at the top of a tiny rise and David Matthew jumped out into the road to do the race! Between two gentleman and a grandson - I had a GREAT last 1/2 mile.
So the bottomline is I had a really bad race, had a pair of gentlemen so sweet to pull me through and cross the line together and have achieved an objective: getting my grandson to think "doing a race is really cool." Now he wants to do "the whole 13 miles with you Grandma." That's a few years off.
Anyway - thank you BIG TIME to my husband and our friend! (And Brittney and I are going to talk tomorrow AM - no more major core workouts right before an event.)
John Phillips "reply all" 1:06pm 11/16/08
Now along comes John to weigh in. John started out with a big morning from south of hell- i notice my wonderful new water belt - the yellow rain jacket (My dog left my belt back in Arlington for me and the rain coat held keys, bottle of water, gels, etc). John sat in traffic for 40 minutes waiting to get off the exit - after telling my friends which exit to take I took another one - bad move. and of course, this is after leaving my bibb at Josie's place and then going back to get it. I had a bibb for a Marine Capt which worked out fine - he was there waiting for me as I ran up. When I got to the ups trucks, the race had already started and yes I missed the mats. I ran as fast as I could b/c I missed the mat and made record time... well it could have been that way... but instead I caught up with my friends - and I was so happy for that. I have not been working out much the last two weeks - dumb move on my part!! among many.. but it turned out to be a good day with good friends and I was glad I caught up with them twice (once at the beginning and the second when I had to hit the porta Johns) - i would say that it was a great weather day and agree with Tom - yes this would be a great half for Tony!To me doing this with my friends far outweighed any pR - especially since I had to run all the way to the end since I really missed the first mat - BIG deal but it does give us a fun story to tell for a long time... shall we tell it in mixed company??I got the medal, the t shirt, a respectable time per my GPS of 3:09:54 and distance of 13.19 - hmm. oh well..but most important - I enjoyed fellowship of my friends... and it was cool to be with grandson and grandparents whose faces beamed with delight..a nice massage free afterwards helped too the 8 k would be nice recovery next yr for some and half for others - have an informal alumni party!
There was an extra benefit from this race - at least some of us now have an "official logo" for use with our racewalking correspondence.
Near or beyond 60?
T
GEEZE
A
M
Old is just a word!
The evolution of the logo was described in the following email exchange with Alice Till, another racewalking friend who has persuaded us to join her in Bermuda for the "Bermuda Triangle" on January 16/17/18, 2009.
Our mascots: http://www.geezecats.com/ GeezeCats (geez kats) n. Slang 1 Some cool old guys. 2 Aging hipsters, hepcats.
How did this all get started? (Alice, remember you asked)
Someplace about mile 10 of the 11/15/08 Richmond Half Marathon, as Naomi, John Phillips and I were pushing, pulling and prodding one another to keep going, the name occurred to me, and I told Naomi she was walking with Team Geezer. (Referring then, now and until time immemorial solely to John and myself, it never occurring to me to apply any such sobriquet to my lovely wife.) The name seemed somehow even more appropriate yesterday when I saw this photo, which Naomi had taken about mile 8 or 9 of the Richmond Half.
We even became featured in a video at that race, perhaps the cinematic debut of Team Geeze, admittedly due solely to our being with Naomi. http://davemorales.org/2008/11/david-and-the-richmond-marathon/
More to come, but that's enough foolishness for this morning.
Near or beyond 60?
T
GEEZE
A
M
Old is just a word!
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