Running “adventure miles” in our 2011 event brings us to The Golden Gate Bridge for race #3.
It was a brutal day of weather on the Golden Gate Bridge as the rain and wind made it difficult to run fast. It was more of a “go” then “slow” type of race as I had spots where I could open up the speed followed by spots where I had to shuffle or scrape my feet on the ground in order to just stand up on the course (you can check this out in the video as I had to go around the first tower 180 degrees shuffling my feet so I would not fall).

When I came off the bridge and tried to turn for the last 300 yards to the finish line, I slipped badly and fell backwards. I am glad that I did my balance reaches in the warm-up as I put my hand behind me and slid on the rain soaked surface for a few feet before I pushed with my right hand and lifted my body back up to standing position. My butt did not hit the ground, but it was close (laughing spectators said I looked a like Apolo Ohno, the speed skater). My timer and protector behind me on the bicycle said afterwards that he would have also crashed into me as well if I had fully landed on the ground. So I finally finished the race in 5:04.72 standing upright with no injuries. It might have been my slowest mile race of the year, but it was also the most fun. I had a blast.

I travel to Jackson Hole for a few days visiting friends, then Detroit for a night, then to Maine to train before returning to Florida for 5 days before we take the long trip to India (via Dubai) to race #4 in Agra, India at the Taj Mahal.

We flew from London to NY, to Washington DC, and then finally into Atlanta for the Peachtree Road Race expo. It was a packed expo (a larger hall is needed) as The Peachtree Road Race is the largest 10K race in the country with 60,000 participants.

I spent those few days training in downtown Atlanta sprinting the hills of the city. I was there on behalf of my graduated compression sock sponsor, Sigvaris www.athleticrecoverysock.com, who has their factory just south of Atanta. It was fun to share the message about the socks and hear back from Peachtree participants how well the product worked for them in the race.

I have been working out this week in Florida. We travel to San Francisco on the 13th and race on the 16th. We will be having two cameras on the bridge to capture the race, so we will make sure to have that video up for you at https://blog.OneMileRunner.com by the 18th.

Hope everyone had a great July 4th holiday!