For Faze!

The donations have poured in over the past two days, and I'm determined to give each of my generous and supportive donators a dedicated run. My plan was to do it in the order they came in, but today something special happened and I had to switch gears.

One donation came with a request - "think goats, negative splits, and a Ty inspired playlist"

I wasn't planning on dedicating this run to Faze, but when I saw this, I knew I had to whip out my camera and change my dedication plan.

Look Faze. Goats!

Sorry, the playlist wasn't Ty-inspired, but one will be soon; it's a great idea.  Splits? Again, I wasn't planning on this being your run, but they came close-ish to negative splits.

Except for that ugly Mile 4 - almost fully negative splits.

Faze's request for negative splits may very well be due to the fact that like Jess, she's a member of Team Tinto. Remember, Team Tinto - "Kiss my shiraz!" Stay tuned to the blog in July for Fueled by Fine Wine 1/2 Marathon updates.

The run today was a five miler variation of the Dhobi run. A dhobi is a launderer and this run passes through a dhobi colony near school. The dhobis live together, collect laundry from their clients, head back to the colony and wash, dry and iron the clothes. If you get there at the right time of day, the run passes through hundreds of meters of clothes drying on the lines. It's a cool sight.

Ted joined me and we had a good strong run. Yesterday, Ted broke the Nehru Loop record. By a lot. It's going to be tough to beat. I'll keep my word from May 13's pledge post, though. Give me a good pledge and I will do everything I can to break the record to collect the pledge from you! Although Ted is tall, strong and fast, he's not a big fan of monkeys. In fact, they might be his only kryptonite. He has requested no monkeys on all runs, but today as we were passing one on my side, Ted started edging me toward it. Thinking he was just being cruel, I let him know that I wasn't too keen on getting that close. That's when he informed me (looking straight ahead) that it was because of the two monkeys on his side. "Be brave, be brave..." Narrowly escaping rabies, we continued on. The next animal encounter was with a dog that tried barking at us, but sounded like it had been smoking cigarettes all night long. He just wasn't selling it.

The final stretch home is another course and Ted managed to break that record too. You know, maybe I shouldn't have taught Ted about MapMyRun courses...or maybe I need to pick up the pace and take some records back. Challenge accepted. I'll consider it Team Tinto interval training.

This run belongs to my dear friend Faze!

I'm dedicating runs to raise money for a campship in memory of our friend Ty Taylor at YMCA Camp Miller. Click here or here to donate. Please make sure you choose the Ty Taylor Campship option. And please let me know if you've made a donation so I can thank you!

RUN STATS:

Distance - 4.98 miles
Time - 38:39
Soundtrack - Architecture in Helsinki, In Case We Die

One more animal reference (what's the deal with all of the wildlife in the city?) - today's run might be retooled into a route that becomes called the Squirrel ___ Miler. See for yourself.

Running for  a Reason 2014 Official Partner

For Michele and Lynner!

I'm a bit behind on my dedicated runs. Sorry! This run happened last Thursday. It's dedicated to Michele and Lynner! I sent out an impassioned plea for $15 to reach the $1000 milestone and they both stepped up independently to push me over my goal. Thanks so much ladies, without your help hitting the pavement is so much more difficult.

This year I've been really lucky to have a lot of company on my training runs. Most mornings when I head down to the gate to leave campus, there's someone there waiting to run with me. Given my occasional flakiness due to off nights with the baby, it means even more to me that my friends are around to help. Thanks guys!

Back to Thursday. When I got down to the gate, there was nobody there. After waiting for about 5 to 10 minutes, I took my solitude as a sign to attempt to break the Nehru Park record. When I have company, we can't really run Nehru, so I haven't been pushing myself as much lately. Since I've managed to hook all of my running friends on trying to beat the record, the competition has ramped up.  The previous link shows my March 24 attempt of 11:10, which was then seven seconds behind the record. My next effort was a massive one, taking 24 seconds off of the record, pushing it down to 10:46. That record held until April 17, when Bernie managed to steal my record away. His time? 10:45. My best time in April was a measly 12:06, so when I set out on Thursday, I knew I had some work to do.

I headed out on my 4 mile route of the park and entered with a mindset to break the record. I was focused on my pace and tried my hardest to push my limits. It felt good in the park, I was running fast and I felt like I had a chance at the record. After the last sprint to the finish, I left the park and felt tired. I mean, really tired. So tired that I stopped my run. My plan was to walk back to school and call it a day. Wednesday is my soccer night, so any Thursday run is a bonus. I quickly looked at my phone to check my time on the loop and saw two things. First, I didn't break the record. My time was 11:05. Second, I saw that I had only run 2.64 miles. I was disappointed with both.

I decided to run home despite my tiredness. When I got home, I spent about an hour analyzing my run looking for a way to cut time. I identified four areas of the run where I can try to push a little harder, but overall, it's getting hard to cut the seconds.

I hope to do it. Maybe it will be on another dedicated run. Maybe we can make a wager, readers. How much would you donate if I can break the current record? Leave your pledges in the comments of this post and when I break the Nehru Loop record, I'll collect. ;)

This run belongs to Michele and Lynner!

I'm dedicating runs to raise money for a campship in memory of our friend Ty Taylor at YMCA Camp Miller. Click here or here to donate. Please make sure you choose the Ty Taylor Campship option. And please let me know if you've made a donation so I can thank you!

RUN STATS:

Distance - 2.64 miles first, then .69 miles more
Time - 18:28, 5:49. The pace on the first run 7 minutes/mile. The last bit, 8:28 minutes/mile.
Soundtrack - The Pixies' new album, Indie Cindy!

View this Course on MapMyRun