A Balance, Redefined

Crack of Dawn 8K

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Location:

Vestavia,AL,USA

Member Since:

May 31, 2007

Gender:

Male

Goal Type:

Other

Running Accomplishments:

Marathon Top 10 Finishes: 7 Bridges ('15), Utah Valley ('13), Salt Lake City ('08), Top of Utah ('07), and St. Louis ('04). Ran around the equator (24901.55) in 4,388 days.

Personal Records
Marathon 2:39 (SLC '08)
1/2 Marathon 1:12.30 (Provo River, aided '08)
10K 34:16 (Track, sea level '00)
10K 33:15 (Des 10K, aided '08)
8K 25:32 (Crack of Dawn, aided '13)
5K 16:44 (Track, sea level '00)
5K 16:07 (Running of the Leopards, aided '12)
 

Short-Term Running Goals:

NYC Marathon November 3, 2019 done 

London Marathon October 3, 2021 done

Tokyo Marathon March 3, 2024!!!

And my largest challenge to date, raise $20,000 for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society in honor of my cancer survivorship and in memory of those lost to blood cancer...
DONE! $26,403.70

https://pages.lls.org/tnt/al/london2021/awende

Long-Term Running Goals:

Enjoy being a Masters Runner.

Get under 3 hours one more time...

Personal:

Grew up outside Chicago and joined the blog while I lived in Salt Lake City. Now living outside Birmingham. I am married with two daughters. Wife thinks I'm crazy for doing marathons. And yes I am crazy I'm a scientist for a living...

Click to donate
to Ukraine's Armed Forces
Miles:This week: 0.00 Month: 0.00 Year: 331.25
RM 090416 Lifetime Miles: 136.06
Saucony Type A Lifetime Miles: 200.18
Nike Vaporfly Pink Lifetime Miles: 122.22
Saucony Ride #37 - Black Lifetime Miles: 56.50
Saucony Ride #38 - Neon Lifetime Miles: 53.50
Saucony Ride #39 - Grey Lifetime Miles: 59.50
Brooks Launch #38 - Grey Lifetime Miles: 65.25
Brooks Launch #39 - White Lifetime Miles: 57.50
Brooks Launch #40 - Blue Lifetime Miles: 54.00
Race: Crack of Dawn 8K (4.91 Miles) 00:25:31, Place overall: 2
Easy MilesMarathon Pace MilesThreshold MilesVO2 Max MilesTrainer 1 MilesTrainer 2 MilesRacer MilesTotal Distance
11.000.000.000.000.000.000.0011.00

This has been a crazy and tough year, mostly because of the changes at work/life. Definitely not because of hard track work or tough tempo runs... In fact such a large percentage of my runs have been between 8 and 10 minute pace I was starting to get some serious doubts that I could even break 3 hours at UVM. The good news is even without the structured workouts this year today turned into a huge confidence boost for next Saturday.

 

The last time I ran an official “8K” was in 2004! When I ran a 28:49. My PR was in 2000 running at the Washington University Invite as a Knox Alumni and that was a 27:24 on the golf course in Forest Park. So I really didn’t know what to expect although with the downhill I was hoping to break the PR but over a decade later and a bit removed from collegiate running :) I really did not have a gauge for the day.

 

As far as this downhill goes, I’ve run a number of times down Emigration and probably 100 times down City Creek and though I’d driven up Mill Creek a bunch of times this was my first time running the road there. It is a screamer. Because of another crazy week at work my plan was to just use this run as a workout. I know that is a bit of a discrepancy with the goal of a PR above but downhill… Also, I ended up staying up preparing for a garage sale until 1am the night before. Then got up at 4:30am to head to the start. Got to number pick-up right at 5am and then did the unthinkable. I ran to the start.

 

Now partly because of my sleep deprived state and partly because I wasn’t paying attention I took a wrong turn up. I turned at the light right by the Olympus shopping center to head up. Luckily I figured this out and got back on course by cutting through the neighborhood. This did add on an extra mile + so my warm-up was just over a 10K. The missed turn really got my heart pumping and I pushed the pace for the warm-up more than I should have but ended up getting to the start with only 5 minutes to spare so things workout for a reason. Here’s the image of that portion.

  

Now at the start I saw Allie and James. It was good to talk to them briefly. I really feel so disconnected from the blog lately as I have really barely had time to post much less look in on people. I apologize for that. I did notice a few guys that looked like they would work me but just decided to go for it. Because of the blood pumping from the warm-up I started quick. I was in the lead for about half mile and then Tim Stringfellow passed me. I did not know who he was but he looked strong and I figured that was the end of it. I stuck like glue to him the rest of the time in the canyon he had about 5-10 seconds on me at any time. Then as we passed the booth at the mouth of the canyon I caught him AND pulled ahead. I thought I had it at that point but out of know where he came back and I was broken. He buried me and put a 22 second gap on me in the last half-mile or so. Ouch! I might as well have been walking at that point. I’m just very happy he was there because he pulled me to a nearly 2 minute (aided) PR!!! Final time was 25:32 on the Garmin, but I’ll take the 25:29.52 the chip gave me! Image and splits below.

Here are the splits for if the image is removed later...
5:03!!!
5:07
5:16
5:07
4:59 (5:29 pace)

 

RM 090416 Miles: 0.01Saucony Fastwitch Miles: 11.00
Night Sleep Time: 3.00Nap Time: 0.00Total Sleep Time: 3.00Weight: 0.00
Comments
From Jake K on Mon, Jun 03, 2013 at 11:21:40 from 67.177.11.154

Nice job Adam. You balance the craziness of life quite well... nice confidence booster for UVM.

From bgrun on Mon, Jun 03, 2013 at 16:02:51 from 68.251.32.50

Only you would do a 10k warm up for a 8k race on 3.5 hours of sleep. Actually that's probably why you did it.

When I checked in to see results and saw the posts from the 1st and 3rd place winners I told people at dinner that you had taken 2nd. Glad to see that I spoke the truth. Congratulations and BEST WISHES for next week.

Loved your statement "things workout for a reason"

From Jason D on Mon, Jun 03, 2013 at 23:25:40 from 24.1.80.94

Nice job, Adam. You seem to make the crazy academic life and running work. I'm not familiar with the terrain out there, but I appreciate the graphs. And don't you get bonus points for a 10k warm up with that much ascent :) I'm lucky to gain *156* feet!

From Adam RW on Thu, Jun 06, 2013 at 22:52:28 from 155.101.152.142

Thank you for your support. Yes it was a fun race. Probably not many 5 mile downhill stretches in Indiana for you Jason... Still trying to keep the balance but it has been a hectic year and it is not even half over.

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