New Castle Mini Marathon

I will start off by saying this, so far, this is by far my favorite Half Marathon out there.  My opinion of the course is a little bias, just because it is exactly what I like in a race, the course will make you honest with yourself by the end.

So to start off, the New Castle Mini Marathon is hosted by a company called American Multisport and the town New Castle.   The course itself is mainly on the main roads and most of the scenery is the local neighborhoods for the first half, the reason you don't get dulled to sleep is because of the hills, oh there be hills.  After you get about half way done, you do take a trip by the Indiana High School Basketball Museum, and the last 3 miles or so is on the towns bike trail, don't think you got away from the hills because they never go away.  It is a very challenging course, but even with the amount of hills I heard many people saying they set a PR, I did last year as well.

Speaking of last year, I did win, I did PR, I just really loved the day, but this year was a little different.

Starting off the race, I knew there were a couple guys faster and that I would have some competition around me.  Started off good, I held back and actually tried to run a controlled first mile, as I watched my team mate James Garner take off like a rocket.  I felt good, I was sitting 5th sometimes 6th, the guy running with me kept putting surges on ever since mile 2, but little did he know I had been running some major hills.  About mile 4 or 5 there was a nice long hill, I took advantage of it to break his spirit, never even looked back I knew he was in pain after that one.  Then it happened, that one stomach pain you don't want to feel while you are miles away from anything.  Mile 7 was about a minute of pace, then I hit a long down hill, and that shook everything loose.  I ran off course a couple blocks and hid in some bushes, and let the diarrhea roll, and took a sock off and yep, didn't know what leaves were around me lol. After that I jumped back on course with a vengeance.  One by one I started picking everyone off that had passed me, running some of my fastest miles of the day, dipping down around the 6 flat range.  I don't know how long I was in that bush, but it must have been a while.  After burning a couple quick miles down I start recognize people that were around me earlier in the race, then I see my team mate Luke Bivens, so I put down a little more speed and catch at about the 11 mile mark.  I stop and slow down and joke with him a minute, and discuss on whether I should try to catch the guy in the red shirt.  The guy in the red shirt was the same dude that was surging on me earlier in the race, thought about it for a minute, told Luke good luck and I was off to the races.  As I am tracking him down, with about 2 miles to go he definitely had a solid minute and some change on me, so I definitely had my work cut out for me.  Every time he turns a corner he gives a little look, I know he knows I am coming, and I am coming fast.  We come off of the trail, there is maybe a half mile left, and he still has a good 150 - 200 meters on me.  I just keep on it, I just kept pushing, we make the last turn and it is about 200 meters to the finish.  I just unload everything I have, 50 meters to go I pull up beside him and he matches me stride for stride, after a couple steps he can't hang on.  So I got my place back and beat him by one second.  In the end, it wasn't my best race, but that final half was definitely eventful.

After the race they had a nice awards banquet, which the awards included glassware, and I never complain about a new mug since I am a collector such things.  They also had music playing and plenty of food to chow down on, like sausages wrapped in pancakes.  Also, they had all the times posted up pretty quickly so you could see how you did compared to everyone else, or in case you missed your time, and this was a chip timed event, as all of their events are.  Will I come back to race again?  Most likely unless I find something I absolutely am craving to do that happens to fall on the date of this event.

This was also the first time I managed to show up to be part of a team group picture.

Okay so my training for this week.  As I will be at a 50% taper this week, but an odd thing happened with this week as well.  I got an invite to do the running leg of the Ironman this weekend and I just couldn't turn it down, but also I currently have a cold so who knows how much running I will actually get done, as this is going to already be a late posting.

Monday - 1 hour run
Tuesday - 1 hour run
Wednesday - 30 minute fartlek
Thursday - 3 mile run
Friday - off
Saturday - 13.1 mile race
Sunday - 1 hour run

Introduction

Hi, my friends usually call me Tom.  I'm a husband to a loving wife, have 2 sons and daughter, and am currently trying to add to the litter.  I work as a welder for company called Progress Rail, the jest of it is I help manufacture locomotives.  In my free time I like to have a good time, play a little Hearthstone, World of Warcraft, League of Legends, Heroes of the Storm or Mario Kart , have a fire and some craft beer, enjoy a good movie, especially "The Wars", and obviously go out and pound some dirt with others and suffer for miles!  The latter is probably where most of the people who may be reading this know me from, and most of you know of me because I'm a kilt runner.


Why do I run in the kilt or skirt, as some of you like to joke about, but it's not funny!  I'm just kidding, if you really know me I love to laugh.  Hell here is a pic of me carrying on with some of friends on my race team Ragnarok at the New Castle Mini Marathon.

There are a few reasons why I rock the kilt, first one I have for you is that I have a Scottish heritage, easy enough reason.  The second being, I have always been one to draw attention and honestly on't care if I am or not, but I do enjoy a good shocked face from time to time lol.  The next reason, I came across Sport Kilt randomly and said why not, tried it on, and loved it better than the running shorts I have been wearing for the last 20 something years.

Next question!?!?!  Oh the war paint.  Yes, well it is an ancient tradition of the Scotts, as most of you may recall from Braveheart, which I get called quite often, his name is
William Wallace by the way lol.  The simple side of it is, it was a color that was easily made, it was their warrior tradition and I consider every race a battle, no matter how long.  It is not only a battle with the ones you race with, but with yourself. 

Now for the real question why you may be reading this, why did I create this stinking blog, that is most likely clogging up your news feed.  I am often asked what do I do for training, how do I eat, how should I start training myself, what beer do you like lol.  Those questions and more will be answered in due time.  Also, you will be able to comment on my blog, so at anytime you do have a question you would like to ask me go ahead and post, I will check often.  On that note, I do want to state I am no way a trained professional on diets, athletic training, or anything of the sort, but I have been around the block so I can at least share my experiences and may be a few people in the world can learn from mistakes.

So that is the intro, if you would like to know more, just ask and I will see if I can answer.

Now to get into the training program for this week I guess, now I am at a weird spot in training, I have been in a high mileage period, but I am starting to taper towards a 24 hour race in Lisle, IL.  Christmas in July 24 Hour it will be by far my farthest race ever, but I am going to have to hit 100 miles so I can get my first belt buckle!  So next week is my 75% taper week.

Monday - 1.5 hour run
Tuesday - 1.5 hour run
Wednesday - 45 minute fartlek, 5 minute warm up, 5 minutes on, 3 minutes off
Thursday - 1.5 hour run
Friday 1.5 hour run
Saturday 1.5 hour run
Sunday 1.5 hour run

I will say that I don't always stick to my schedule, life is life and sometimes it tells us we can't run.  I am the type to just stick to my schedule, if I miss a workout because my child needs me, then so be it.  Chalk it up as a needed rest day, and don't look back.

Well that is all for this week, follow me on G+, Instagram, Facebook, Runkeeper and Athlinks to keep up if you are interested.  Next week should be a review of race I did a few weeks ago!