Johnny's Runnin' O' The Green Race Review

   Well what the heck? My life has gotten so freaking busy! I should've kicked this race review out last week. But my days off were spent running my sheriff's deputy recruits into the ground and making sure mom gets to her doctor appointments. 

   The Johnny's Runnin' O' The Green is a five mile road race that's held every year in my hometown of Rochester, NY. Typically it's ran the Saturday before St. Patrick's Day, unless the holiday falls on a Saturday, then it's run then. For many of us here this race represents the first race of the running season. Rochester has a strong running community that runs many winter racing events. But those are usually through snow and ice covered trails and streets. Not the kind of conditions that a runner can let loose in. So this race is our chance to stretch our legs after most of the white stuff has melted. Even though most of the snow is usually melted that doesn't mean that this race is without weather related challenges. This was my seventh time running it and true to form, it was cold and rainy. I remember one year it was clear skies and 75 degrees. But that's way out of the norm. Even with the weather challenges, by the time this race rolls around everyone who runs could care less because they just want to race again after the long Winter!

   I'm no newbie to racing. This was my 67th one and after a dismal Fall suffering from a back injury I wasn't planning on getting too hyped up about it. I decided the night before that I was going to get up two hours before the race's start time, have my usual bagel smothered in crunchy Peter Pan peanut butter (the only kind there is), some hot Starbuck's coffee (anything else is pond water) and set up my race music playlist and pin my bib on. Take my time and enjoy the morning I thought. 

   Unfortunately I set the wrong alarm on my iPhone and it never went off. I'm the type of guy who can only stay in bed for so long. But I forced myself to lay there in bed for what I thought was before my planned wake up time. I literally jumped out of bed when I finally glanced at my iPhone and saw that I had 45 minutes to get to the race! I think that I actually tapped into the Speedforce like my favorite superhero the Flash does as I did everything that I originally planned to do in two hours in just 20 freaking minutes! I was a blurry, hot mess! Always set your gear up the night before! When will I learn?

   I made it to the start line with just 10 minutes to spare! Good thing I don't live that far from downtown and was able to smoothly park in the same garage that I have a parking pass for work. I was anxious to try out my new Garmin 220 watch's GPS tracking feature during the race. The watch is supposed to send data to Garmin Connect which posts a link on FB where interested people can track your race progress in real time. Unfortunately as with most of my experience with Garmin related software, it sucks. Apparently the watch isn't compatible with my iPhone 4S! I was majorly annoyed!   

   Regardless of my irritation with my watch I was determined to have a good race. At the very least the watch did function properly keeping time and pace! I've been focusing on following 80/20 heart rate training and was just happy that the watch was picking up and recording my HR data. Like I said this race is very popular and I think this year saw roughly 1300 runners toe the start line. Every year that I've ran this race I look for the timing pad or banners and never manage to find them? It's definitely chip timed because it's embedded in the bib. But how they mark the start I don't know? Maybe just by gun time start?

   The race itself was great. My speed isn't anywhere near what it once was before my injury. But I still managed to average a 8:21 mile pace finishing in 41:45. I love this course because it's a simple out and back. Not a lot of twists and turns, a wide view of the Genesee River from the Ford St. Bridge and the turn around point at the University of Rochester. I ran pretty strong the first three miles. But after that some of the hills destroyed me. It's never about beating other people. But it's nice to say that I consistently passed other racers throughout the race! This one was for mom and other friends dealing with cancer. So I had lots of motivation to draw on. My temporary suffering palled in comparison. My HR data was a bit shocking. It showed that after that three mile mark my HR maxed out for quite some time. Hopefully this 80/20 training won't ruin my speed too much! That evening I took the family out to one of our favorite Irish restaurants for authentic food and of course a pint! You just can't keep an Irishman out of an Irish bar on St. Patrick's Day weekend! If you're ever in town and want to experience a truly Irish race check this one out and give me a call! I'd love to run it with you!

   Work has been challenging. I knew that taking the lead PT instructor's job was going to require some extra work on the side. I think it's so important that I even insisted that I be at every training back when it started. But man it's just crazy trying to record, track and analyze 27 different recruit's test data! Not to mention develop remedial training plans for their weak points! It's everything that I thought it would be and I'm passionate about it. So I don't mind the extra work. I now have even more respect for coaches! Thanks Judy! I must be doing something right because they went from only about 30% passing the initial sit-up, push-up and 1.5 mile run test to more that 80% passing the same mid-term test! I was screaming like a banshee and lost my voice that day. But it was so worth it to see them improving. Some of the big time supervisors even showed up to offer support! Just under three weeks left to make that 80% turn into 100% so they can keep their jobs!

   My mom's been a real trooper going through a lot of waiting and testing to see how far along her lung cancer has progressed. Her first biopsy turned up non-cancerous. But due to her smoking history it most likely is. Apparently this non-cancerous result can happen occasionally. The procedure just took a wicked toll on her. It was a long day for everybody involved. Thankfully she recovered quickly. The initial diagnosis is that due to the tumor's tricky location it's going to be considered stage two. The next step is radiation and chemotherapy. She had another less invasive biopsy done today to determine what type of cancer it is. We'll be setting up her treatment schedule probably sometime next week. It's going to be a crazy two months. But I'm getting good at being flexible. The prognosis is good that this isn't going to be a repeat of my dad's short nine months after his diagnosis.

   As I said I've been fooling around now for about two weeks with that 80/20 heart rate training. It's so strange to run so slow for 80% of my training. It almost feels like walking. It was somewhat amazing to run ten miles though and feel incredible after into the following day. Even at my trained up peak after double digits I'd get some residual soreness and tightness directly after and into the next day. I know that it's going to be a slow process. But theoretically as my body adjusts to the training I should be able to go faster with lower heart rates. It'll be an interesting experiment that I'll keep everyone up to date on!

   Other than running my life a mile a minute, everything's at least moving forward. It's definitely one heck of a ride! Have a great rest of the week and let me know if I can help!