Chasing Women Part II

My last blog got such a positive response I thought I would continue the story.  On Friday my daughter set a personal record by running a 23:35 at the Liberty Bell Invitational.  The Liberty Bell Invitational had 89 teams and more than 4,000 runners along with a mob of spectators gathered near Heritage High School in Littleton.  Despite a cold, Samantha ran strong after what was a tough week of practice.  Danny Carney of Dakota Ridge, who won his third meet in three weeks with a screaming time of 15:29, acknowledged as much in the Denver Post. 

“We did like 12 hills really fast on Tuesday, and then we did a 3 mile tempo run pretty hard on Wednesday,” Carney said.  “We’ve been doing a lot of mileage.  My coach said this is probably one of the hardest weeks.”

Of course being built to run at 6 foot 1 and 160 pounds like Carney is doesn’t hurt.  I probably had a body like that in college, but with me just trying to get my racing weight below 190 pound I always will be carrying around the equivalent of a soldier’s backpack when chasing runners like Carney in races.

“Our goal is to peak well and run well at the state meet not at the Liberty Bell Invitational” coach Mike Callor told The Denver Post. 

This too is a good lesson to focus on when you want to peak and use intermediate races to help you get there. I continue to learn by watching Callor’s excellent work with my daughter and the rest of the Dakota Ridge cross country team.

So keeping these lessons in mind, today I will again be using my “chasing women” strategy by running the Second Wind 5K with my two daughters.  Then next Sunday I will run the Fans on the Field 10K with my wife, while my two daughters run the 5K.  I don’t know if I will ever catch any of them, but maybe by the time of the Space Coast Half Marathon in November I will be setting some personal records along the way.