Asbury Park Race Photos

Since this was an 8 loop course, the photographer had excellent opportunity to snap enough pictures of everyone, especially the dopes that were doing all eight loops. One of these days I am going to actually buy an official race photo. Considering the price of race photos usually rival the cost of race registrations, I have never come close to pulling the trigger on one. Here are some of the official race photos, including one I poached from a friends Facebook page:

At the Start

Mrs. P bringing in the first loop

Coming in the transition area

Flyers, Colleen,Sarah & I

Scott about to lose his hat

Sandy getting the transition

Somewhere around the 7th loop

Finish line

1st Annual Asbury Park Marathon Relay

Today I ran the 1st Annual Asbury Park Marathon relay. This race is put on by the NJRRC, who also manages the NJ Marathon and which I happen to be a member of. The race director sent out emails months ago introducing this race to participants in the last NJ Marathon. The race is a relay which consists of teams of up to 8 people. There was also the option of registering as a "Team of One". Registering early and being a member of the NJRRC got me into the race as a Team of One for $30, so it was hard to pass up considering it is towards the end of my Philly Marathon training cycle. There was also the added bonus of Mrs. Progman registering a team consisting of several friends and family. And I was able to talk a couple of other marathoning nutjobs, including Flyers26, into running it, so it all but guaranteed a good time.

This race is an eight loop course which I knew would be a bear mentally so companionship was key in not going crazy. Luckily my buddy and experienced marathon pacer Colleen was also running today so I hitched onto her for most of the race. My approach to this race was just to run it as a slow training run. The weather forecast was for cold, rain & 20 mph winds, so I was not looking forward to it when I woke up Sunday morning. I had a great run though, ran comfortably through the entire thing and finished in 4:26:51.

Perfect weather forecast for Race Day (um, not)

Mr & Mrs Progman (first time we got to run together in a race!)

Me with Flyers26 post race showing off the hardware
Former college roommate and Mrs. P teammate Sandy

Colleen & Sarah, my pacing team for most the day
Mrs. P & her brother and teammate Scott
Mrs. P, sister in law Beth & Sandy
Joanne & Tara from Mrs. P's team
Coming into the convention center for the finish

Playing Catch Up

Wow, no blog posts in September - I'm lame. Does't mean I've stopped running though. I logged 187 miles in September and have already run over 1500 miles in 2009, surpassing my 1401 total miles in 2008. I had a back pocket goal of 2009 miles in 2009 but that doesn't seem likely now unless I crank it up a couple of crazy notches (hmmm...). I've got the Asbury Park Marathon next weekend and then the Philadelphia Marathon in November, so if I can keep from getting injured, who knows.

So, my September recap, in pictures:

Mrs. Progman rocking the Susan Koman 5k at Great Adventure (#3082, so proud that she is not wearing a MP3 player):

My new Fall Marathon Hat - the Brooks Nightlife hat - It is far brighter than the much uglier RRS Sports Hat I retired this year, I love it:

Me running a 20 miler with ShoreTurtle last weeked (picture shamelessly poached from his site):

That's it. Hope to have some cool Asbury Park Marathon photos after next weekend.