Adventures of a Marathoner: Mezamashii Part 2

In my last post I mentioned that I have been invited to Mizuno's Mezamashii project. Mezamashii is a Japanese word meaning "brilliant". Basically Mizuno letting their shoes do their advertising by giving runners a pair of shoes as they search for their brilliant run. Then, runners who receive shoes can let their fellow runners know how great the shoes are. I selected to receive the Wave Ronin. They should be here sometime this week.

Today, I had the first brilliant run I've had in some time. I had initially planned on an easy 10 miler. Then last night a friend says "wanna do 6 tomorrow?" Naturally, I accepted her offer. The park where we were to meet is ~4 miles from my house (ok, I a runner and a math nerd: the park is 4.3 miles away). So, 4.3 there, 6 with Cat, 4.3 home...14.6 miles. Ok, I can do that. Sure, I haven't ran more than 10 since Green River but I can manage 14.6 if I run slow enough.

On my uphill run to the park, I surprised myself. Splits of 7:41, 6:56, 6:54, 6:48 (not sure what pace the last .3 was at)! Towards the end of the 6 miles I was to run with Cat, she decided 7 would be better. Sure, what's another mile when I'm already doing 14? We parted ways and I headed home. After the first mile back, I decided 16 sounded like a much nicer distance than 15.6. Granted the finish was slightly downhill so its easier to go fast, but my last 4 miles were 6:51, 6:58, 6:46, 6:31! One hell of a way to end a run less than a week after my first 5k of the summer (more on that in a bit) and my longest run in over a month! I felt so much stronger at the end of the run than I have in a long time. You can't get much more of a brilliant run than that.

On July 4th, my wife, my in-laws and myself participated in the first Miles for Meso 5k. It was in a nearby town and one of the race organizers is a woman from our church whose husband died from mesothelioma a few years ago. They were able to get stellar funding and donations from sponsors so ALL proceeds went to charity.

My wife had a brilliant run of her own that day. She's training for her first half marathon (I'm finally rubbing off on her). She was able to take 2nd in her age group by running sub-30! She hasn't been able to hit that time in a few years so she was stoked! I couldn't have been more proud of her!

I didn't have it in the last mile so I missed my time goal but I still hit a 28 second PR. I won my age group and place second overall with an 18:30. I'm sure I'll be posting about another brilliant run last this week after I get the Ronin's. For now, ya'll will have to settle for some race pics!