Looks like it may be a Laborious Labor Day Weekend!

Well I ain't beatin' around the bush on this one, I intend to spend a good portion of Labor Day Weekend hopin' to get in at least three road races, each one for various reasons!!!!!

First, tomorrow mornin' (Saturday, September 1, 2007) I hope to get up really early and head over to Crisfield, Maryland for another Somerset County event. This weekend they are having the 60th Annual National Hard Crab Derby in Crisfield and in addition they are having the 28th Annual Mike Sterling 10K as part of the festivities (I think I got the years on these events right, please correct me if I am mistaken)! I enjoy Crisfield and I have had good experiences running there for McCready Health Services Foundation's Founder's Day 8K in May of 2006 and of this year. Last summer around Labor Day Weekend, I stayed with friends in Salisbury, Maryland (it's in Wicomico County, not too far from Crisfield), and came for the Mike Sterling 10K. However, it had been really rainy and some parts of the course were flooded so Mike Sterling, the gentleman who the event is named after, helped set up a quick improvised 5K Fun-Run where we simply went out-and-back on Route 413, starting and ending in the Depot area of Crisfield. This year, hopefully the weather will not be so rough and I can get the full Mike Sterling 10K experience. Running events in Somerset County, Maryland seem hard to come by, at least for me as I live almost three hours away.
Hopefully after the race, I can make it to Winter Place Park in Salisbury to watch Salisbury University's Cross Country Teams compete in their first meet of the season gainst some other schools. It will be great to see the coaches and some old team mates. In addition, I may see some other friends from college as well if time permits. After that I may do an errand or two and then head back to the Crab Derby for an armwrestling contest. I've always had fun arm-wrestling and I seem to do all right with it. This will probably be my first offical match, so I think it will be interesting, I hope I do not get hurt!


Sunday, I hope to be back home because... I FOUND A RACE IN PRINCE GEORGE'S COUNTY TO DO!!!! WHOOHOOO!!! Prince George's County is one of two Maryland counties where I have not run in a running event yet, and I hope to make it. It is in the Greenbelt area of Maryland and it is called the Larry Noel Greenbelt 15 & 3K. It is put on by the D.C> RoadRunners (hence the image near the top of this post). It is on Sunday evening (September 2nd), and I hope to make it and have a really strong finish! I have never run a 15K (I decided to be courageous and try it over the 3K, even though I would probably perform a little bit better at that distance int he shape I'm in), so it should be interesting. My best ten-mile time is 1:04:42 thereabouts, and I can only assume that maybe my 15K (which is about 9.3 miles) split was somewhat close to under an hour. I do not think I will be going at any PR pace, but you never know and I certainly want to do better than just sloggin' my way through it! Of course, what's really improtant to me is that I participate and have a good time!

Monday mornin', Labor Day (September 3rd) I am thinking of running in another Carroll County 5K. The Eldersburg Rogue Runners are helping to put on the 4th Annual (yes, I think it's the fourth one) Labor Day Rogue Race 5K which starts and ends around Liberty High School in Eldersburg, Maryland. I ran this last year not feeling well and I started off in the back, running about 20:03 on the clock and about 19:59 on my watch. I do not think I should have too much trouble surpassing that performance this year, however, if all goes as planned, I would have run in a 10K two mornings before, and then a 15K the evening before, so I'm not worrying about it too much. I want to do it because I like the event and the rather hilly course!

With these races in such a short time I hope to do them all fairly conservatively, building up my pace throughout. Like with the Mike Sterling 10K and the Labor Day Rogue Race 5K, I wanna maybe go out at around 6:30ish/upper 6:20's for the first mile, and then gradually start to build so that I hope to have a strong finish. For the Larry Noel Greenbelt 15K, I hope to go out in maybe 6:40/6:50ish, and then ever so slightly increase my pace throughout the race to have a great finish.

I'll see how this goes, I hope that I do not get hurt (granted I take time to stretch, eat, sleep, and recover well among other things). I think what's really important is that I get that Larry Noel Greenbelt 15K race in because I have not run in a running event in Prince George's County yet this year, and it's been about a month-and-a-half since I've run in any Maryland counties that I have not run in this year. I just gotta stay focused, stay healthy, and stya prayerful that everything works out. I think I'm at a level of fitness where if I act smart and pace well, this can really help strengthen me.
Since I will probably be so busy goin' to and from races (not to mention that I will probably be spending time with friends and family this weekend at some point), I may not have time to get anotehr good post up on how I'm doing until into next week sometime (not to mention have photos ready either, and hopefully I will take some)!

Thank you all for reading, encouraging and I hope everyone has a wonderful Labor Day Weekend :)