Author: Mike

Who Let the Dogs Out?

3 Comments

On a spur-of-the-moment decision, Ev and I decided to take our friend up on his offer and head down to North Carolina for Thanksgiving. 10 hours after deciding, we commandeered my brother Vince’s car and were on the road. Despite some traffic we made it down to the small town of Lexington, NC with plenty of time to help get things ready. A delicious meal ensued.

As with all my weekend adventures, I look forward to running in new places. Lexington would offer its own beauty and uniqueness that sets it apart from the usual DC paths… and so much more. Allow me to paint the picture for you: it was 8am on a clear Saturday morning. The grass had frosted slightly overnight and the air was refreshing in my lungs. A great day for a run! As is customary, I mapped out my route the night before in a simple out-n-back fashion so not to get too lost.

Was that a left or a right?

Turned out to only be 5 turns out, and 5 turns back. Pretty good. Nothing like that garbage above. As I began down the first of what would be many, many (oh-so-many) hills, I took note of how fresh the air smelled and how peaceful it was. That is, until I met… ::insert ominous music:: …Charlie. I’m sure Charlie is very nice once you get to know him, but he was a bit too friendly. This is a better representation of Charlie, but picture him without the boat anchor and hear him roaring at me.

Good Grief

I should mention that the dog-leash business in North Carolina must be in the tank, because maybe one in five was kept off my heels. So anyway, Charlie was the toughest of my battles. His prison warden old lady owner stepped out onto her porch and yelled “Charlie, git over he’ya RIGHT NOW!” Charlie wasn’t having it at first, but then backed down and returned to his den home.

Really he caught me terrified out of my mind off-guard. I kept an eye out for more encounters. The next “friend” greeted me around mile 4 right after a tough uphill. I took a page out of Cesar’s book and intimidated the IAMS out of her. As I continued, feeling good as I cruised through hill after hill and narrowly escaping fending off a few more canines, I felt the ground shake. SHAKE. It was a cataclysmic bark from a massive rottweiler. For a second I thought my long run was going to turn into a speed workout until I realized this behemoth was the one-in-five who was restrained. Although, I think he was only “restrained” because he chose to be. He could have torn the tree he was tied to along with him after me if he wanted.

G Zuss, he is huge...

Well, the rest of the run was smooth. I considered finding another route back so to avoid any more encounters but decided to brave it. Fortunately all my good friends headed in for lunch (or found another unsuspecting runner.) Maybe that’s why I didn’t see anyone else…Monster

The Details:

Lexington, NC Chase Run:

Route

Distance: 16 miles
Time: 2:08:27
Pace: 8:01 min/mile
Average HR: 164 bpm (183 max)

 

The Hills!

 

Brutal Hills, perfect for training for the Miami Marathon...

 

 

The “Why Not?” Marathon

5 Comments

“Hmm, should I run the Marine Corps Marathon on Sunday?”

That’s what I was thinking starting Thursday of last week, three days prior to the race. Before Thursday, I

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didn’t consider it for a second, having just completed Chicago less than 2 weeks before. Well, after Chicago went so well and my legs feeling solid, the thought of running it crossed my mind.

Thursday came along, I got off the metro on my way to work, and I was greeted with a 14-foot tall Marine Corps Marathon tower used for marking off part of the course. Well that got all kinds of thoughts walking jogging running through my head. “Can I actually run another marathon so soon?” “Should I run another marathon so soon?” “Where is Carmen San Diego?”.

So the idea found a comfy spot in my head and stayed there all day and night and then into early Friday morning. At this point a coworker (we’ll call her Beth) mentioned that she knew someone (we’ll call him George) who had signed up for the race but might not run it. Fate! I then annoyingly dutifully asked “Beth” to check with “George” if he was going to run every hour on the hour. She patiently annoyingly responded to each of my queries with “no, I haven’t asked yet” or “he hasn’t decided yet”. The day wore on and I never did get an answer about “George”.

Well the idea that made a nice little home for itself in a cozy duplex in a nice part of town in my brain made it clear that it wasn’t going anywhere. I told myself it was still up in the air if I wanted to run it, but that was just denial. No one who is on the fence would then scour Craigslist every 10 minutes hitting [refresh] to see if someone was offering up a bib number. In the meantime I had some other pro/con discussions with a few people I trust more than my own judgment. We decided that the pros amounted to: fun and the medal. The cons came down to: injury. There were other thoughts like “am I recovered enough from Chicago?” and “if so, am I in marathon-race shape?”.

Sound the horn! We found a potential bib on Craigslist! I emailed back and forth a few times, hemmed and hawed if I really wanted to run, got the last “go for it” from Ev (Thank you!!) and set up a time to get the race number from him. I picked it up Saturday, about 20 hours before the race mind you, and headed back home.

The last decision to make was one I attribute to Colin and a forum posting that he read, and something I hadn’t considered. Should I wear the timing chip? The Marine Corps Marathon allows bib transfers, but that day was well passed. It could be a bit sketchy for me to register and then have a faster friend (ha! None of my friends are faster than me!) wear my chip to get me to qualify for Boston. For the record, I decided not to wear the timing chip.

As for the race itself, I got there bright dark and early, met up with “Beth” and team (“George” included) for a bit, and then was off to the races (pun? I think so). I felt fine for the first 8 miles through Georgetown and started to tighten up around the halfway point. I was able to run through 20 miles and then hit the wall. I would have only been able to run until 19, but a glorious spectator was giving out fun-sized Snickers. I did some research and can only tell that not enough work has been done on the study of Snickers being a superfood, but it boosted me to run for another mile.

MCM 09

The marines were awesome as always, and the course and weather were beautiful. As tired as I felt late in the race, I’m very happy I ran it. While living in DC, this has felt like “my” race and I didn’t want to regret letting it pass by. Next on the plate is Miami on January 31st, for which training begins in about 10 days. Gotta keep a race on the calendar to stay motivated! 🙂

The Details:

2009 Marine Corps Marathon:

Course (PDF)

Distance: 26.2 miles
Time: 3:57:42
Pace: 9:03 min/mile
Average HR: Didn’t wear HR Monitor

It Got Worse

1 Comment

I mentioned the course for the GCF Half Marathon couldn’t get worse. Ha! They accepted my challenge

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and made it worse.

I can't believe it's worse!

I can't believe it's worse!

<

p>Now it’s 3 laps!

Chicago

9 Comments

Chicago!  Land of Opportunity!  Might’ve made that up, but it got the ball rolling.  Just got back from the Chicago Marathon and there’s lots to tell.  Let’s back things up a bit: exactly 15 days before the race we started checking out Accuweather for the preliminary weather report.  Nice!  50* and clear skies.  As the race approached, the weather was all over the place, so we gave up.   All told, it was unnecessary worry.  Race day came and the sky was clear.  Clear and 31 degrees…as in -2*C.  We headed out of the hotel in our gloves, hats, and 55-gallon trashbags for warmth.  We looked like a black, shiny Grimace.

Colin and I were in Corral B, starting in a reserved area for the top 5,000 runners.  That means we’d be chased by 35,000 people!  Talk about motivation!  We got special treatment by “qualifying” in a previous race, and not on our good looks like you probably assumed.  Understandable.  Our goal for the race was 3 hours 30 minutes.  My previous best was 3:37 and Colin’s was 3:43, both from last year’s Marine Corps.  We saw the 3:30-pace group (8-minute/mile) and decided to stick with them, no matter what.  Early on we focused on staying with the group and keeping warm.  Starting in downtown we got to run through the enormous buildings.  Unfortunately about half of the first mile is underground, effectively incapacitating all GPS watches and throwing off any reliable splits.

Luckily, we chose a hotel right on the course, so Ev and Brittany were able to fall out of the hotel to see us at mile 1.5.  They could scurry 3 blocks over to mile 2.5, and then run inside to stay warm.  Yay fan support!  (Note: After the race, they said we looked like crap early on.  We blamed it on the cold.)  Speaking of fan support, the entire 26.2 miles reminded me of the finish line of other races.  There were just so many people cheering the whole time, even in the semi-Ice Age weather.  The first 7 miles took us from skyscrapers to the burbs up by Lincoln Park.  To this point we were both feeling strong, but I pointed out that we should be feeling strong after only 8 miles, with another 18 to go.

On our way back into the city Colin and I found we were getting a little too far ahead of the pace group.  We took the opportunity to refill water bottles around mile 10 by walking the water stop and reloading.  By the time we were back up to pace, the group was only a few steps in front.  The pace group was less than consistent early on, which worried us a little; not so much that we’d be going too slowly, but more that we didn’t want to use too much energy early on.  I guess they felt our fears through some running ESP because they started hitting their splits.

We saw Ev and Brittany again at mile 12.5 for a much-needed boost!  From there we hit the half way point at exactly 1:45, which made me a little more nervous considering our track record of finishing long races (read: fall apart and struggle to walk…).  Into Greektown we saw some generic-named restaurants, Agora-this, Zeus-that.  It was actually the quietest part of the course as we got out near Malcolm X College.  Colin dropped back again to… get more comfortable, while I stuck with the pace group.  He actually caught up pretty quickly, around mile 16.  If I remember correctly, not much happened until mile 20, when Colin said that we can wait about 2 miles to see how we’re feeling and maybe pick up the pace.

BAM!  Felt like I got hit in the face with a 2-by-4 by the ridiculous crowd support entering Chinatown.  For a second I thought we actually ran into the REAL China based on the number of people.  I estimated there were anywhere between a few thousand and 1.4 billion people cheering us on.  Well that was all the motivation we needed to pick it up.

From mile 21 until the finish, every mile split got faster. We realized that’s how you’re supposed to run a race, and not do what we did in Nashville.  The miles (for me) went 7:53, 7:48, 7:47, 7:42, 7:29, 7:28.  Yes, I was able to finish the race with two sub-7:30 miles.  Makes you wonder if I had more in the tank.  Well stop wondering.  I didn’t.  During this time, Colin took off on me.  I could see him the whole time, but I couldn’t make my legs go fast enough to catch him.  He ended up finishing 34 seconds ahead of me.  In order to minimize his victory, it took him 12,448 seconds and it took me 12,482 seconds.  Virtually identical.

Chicago 09

I finished in 3:28:02, a full 2 minutes ahead of my goal and 9 minutes faster than my previous best!  Wow!  Amazing!  Out of sight!  Tubular!  Radical!  Colin finished in 3:27:28, an unheard of 16 minutes faster than his previous fastest time.  The race was great, the weather cooperated, and we both did exceptionally well!  Next on the docket is likely the Miami Marathon at the end of January.

The picture is straight, we just can't balance right now.

The picture is straight, we just can't balance right now.

The Details:

2009 Chicago Marathon:

Course

Distance: 26.2 miles
Time: 3:28:02
Pace: 7:56 min/mile
Average HR: Didn’t wear HR Monitor

How Hot is the Sun?

2 Comments

And the traveling weekends continued. To recap, it was Maine, then New Jersey, and then Florida, making 3 weekends out of 5 (and a 4th out of 6 coming up).

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Heading to Florida was exciting for more reasons than I can list. But I’ll try:

  1. See the family.
  2. Go wedding venue shopping

Ok, so that’s 2 reasons. You can’t deny that they are very good reasons.

Getting down to it, the run in Florida was terrible awful horrible tragic unfortunate less than ideal. It actually drove home the fact that I would not be moving to Florida at any point while my running career is even mildly active. Why is it so bad to run on pancake-flat roads in close proximity to the beach and barely ever a drop of rain, you ask? Because it is hot. Not just hot though. It is raining-rocks hot. This is what the sun must feel like.

I started out feeling pretty good. I noted that the outdoor thermometer said 78.6* and humidity was 77%… in the shade. I couldn’t tell if the sweat started before or after the front door closed behind me, but it took approximately 3 seconds for the beads to begin forming on my forehead. From the get go I went out too fast, not because I pushed too hard, but because I was going at my normal pace instead of dialing it way back for the heat.

At mile 5 I gave in to logic and reason to take a break rather than push the limits of heat exhaustion. 5 minutes later I was back at it, feeling rejuvenated… for about 30 seconds. Then I remembered that it was 93 degrees in direct sun with no breeze. 2 miles later I took another break under I-95 in the shade. As the creature of habit that I am, I decided to stop 2 miles later at a gas station. I wound up finishing at a little over 10 miles instead of the prescribed 12, which was a bit disheartening. But then I realized I was still outside and couldn’t imagine taking one more

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step.

I guess not all was lost. I took advantage of the Summer-like weather and dove into the pool to cool down. Almost made it all worth it… almost. Hopefully it will only make me stronger for this coming weekend! Unlikely I’ll post again before the race, so wish me luck!!

The Details:

Florida’s 10 Mile Long Run:

Route

Distance: 10 miles
Time: 1:26:21
Pace: 8:30 min/mile
Average HR: Didn’t wear HR Monitor

Should I run the GCF Race to End Women’s Cancer?

6 Comments

So I got an email the other day advertising a new half marathon.  There are a few things I look for in a race in a sort of mental checklist.  Anyway, take a look and let me know if you think I should run it?

The race recently sent my way is the Gynecologic Cancer Foundation (GCF) Race to End Women’s Cancer.  The details are:

1) How much?  $75.  This is on the high end for a half marathon.  It is sponsored by a good cause though.

2) Where is it?  Starting line is 6 blocks from my apartment.  Score!

3) Is there a medal? Yes!

4) What distance? Half Marathon

5) What’s the course? It doesn’t get much worse…
You go down 2 blocks, make a U-turn, and back 2 blocks, then make a right, and repeat on the next block, like 5 times. Like running on a comb. Twice. Yes, the course is 2 laps…

Worst course ever? Maybe (yes.)

Worst course ever? Maybe (yes.)

Let me know if you think I should sign up.  It’s on November 8th, 2009 and I don’t think it will sell out.

You can donate here

Hey Motivation, You Can Run, but You Can’t Hide

Leave a comment

I don’t know if it’s from

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the dark mornings (sunrise after 7am, really??) or knowing that my training is coming to an end (Chicago here I come!) or voodoo, but I have had a heck of a time getting motivated to get up in the mornings to go run. Now to be fair, getting up at 6am (or earlier, much to the disapproval of Ev) is never easy. But it has become a habit for the last who-knows-how-long, so I’m used to getting up. It’s really the motivation that has been on vacation. Even on my long run this past Saturday I considered (for just a nano second) not running ::gasp:: ::scream:: ::zoinks::

Rather than give in to the Motivation-Sponge, I sought external devices. We’re not talking performance enhancing drugs or a stunt double running for me, no how! Instead, I got all technological up in Motivation’s face. Yes, we are in the Digital Age people (as opposed to the Analog Age*). To combat the shady tactics used against me, I fell back into the grips of none other than my iPod Shuffle. You may laugh, scoff, even shake your head for any number of disapproving emotions, but for me, I haven’t run with earbuds crammed just inches from my brain for quite some time (the reasons will perhaps be explained in a future post). For fear that music alone would not suffice, I upped the ante and loaded up a podcast. A PTI** podcast to be exact.

The beauty of a podcast is that I can multitask! Tackle a hill while catching up on the sports world. Sprint a mile while updating my tech-knowledge. To be honest, it beats the alternative. Here’s a little secret: to pass the time on boring runs, when the Motivation Witch zaps the energy out of me, I multiply. Get your mind out of the gutter, I practice mental math. Probably not the juicy secret you were hoping for, but I literally go through 2×2, 3×3, … , 29×29.. I usually get stuck in the mid thirties. Anyway, my newfound interest in podcasts has made multiplication a thing of the past. Sorry Archimedes.

I’m excited at the prospects of all the information I can absorb while running in circles. I’ve run for more than 167 hours this year alone (a little more than 1200 miles). Think of how much time that is! Sorry, Destroyer of Motivation, your time has expired. For now, I have an Internets-worth of information to take in. Once I finish, perhaps we’ll meet again.

The Details:

8 Miles with 3 x 1-mile Intervals:

Route

Distance: 8.04 miles
Time: 1:02:55
Pace: 7:49 min/mile
Average HR: 158 bpm (181 bpm max)

*Thanks Ev 🙂

**PTI is short for Pardon the Interruption, a sports talkshow on ESPN where two old guys yell at each other about the latest sports news.

Moving Forward

2 Comments

The response to my previous post was unbelievable. Thank you everyone who clicked the link I sent you read about my heartwarming story of a boy and girl falling in love, overcoming obstacles, and ending up together with a dorky (if not creative) engagement surprise.

And through all

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that fun and spontaneity, the running continues. I have scaled it back a bit to running 4 days a week instead of 5, to be fresh for race day. The last three weekends consisted of running in Maine, then DC, and then New Jersey. The NJ run was my last big run before tapering. 20 miles of fun through the rolling hills and townships (New Jersey is dotted with townships, though I’m not exactly sure what one is). Some of the exciting things I saw as I explored my homeland (born in NJ) included goose crossing signs, cows grazing, and mansions the size of, well, mansions. You may be surprised to hear read that I didn’t come across any items that “fell off a truck”, no one wearing cement shoes, and not a single person say “fuggetaboutit” in the entire 20 miles. Not even a single Soprano crossed my path! More common, actually, were jogging strollers and sunshine.

The run itself was awesome. I find myself enjoying rolling hills compared to pancake-flat roads, which doesn’t necessarily bode well for Chicago (we’re talking IHOP-flat in Chicago). I traveled through Florham Park, Madison, Green Village, and Chatham and then back to Florham Park. This is a far cry compared to Florida, where you have to drive 5 miles to get from the retirement home adult lifestyle community to the Botox clinic, all within in the same development… but I digress. I was hoping to see some deer or a groundhog, but no such luck.

For those of you who picture New Jersey looking like the offspring between a garbage dumpster and a water desalination plant, don’t forget it is known as the Garden State. It made me proud to say I was born in the armpit of the greatest country in the world. And without armpits, where does the garden-scented deodorant go? Go America!

The Details:

New Jersey’s 20 Mile Long Run:

Route

Distance: 20 miles
Time: 2:41:36
Pace: 8:04 min/mile
Average HR: 157 bpm (176 bpm max)

A Modest Proposal

29 Comments

So, a little background:

a) IF you know who Evelyn and/or I am, go ahead and skip this paragraph. Evelyn and I met in our 10th grade English class. As the story goes, we went to junior and senior proms together, went to separate colleges (and stayed together), and met back up after graduation in DC. In total, we’ve been dating a bit over 7 years, so I may have glossed over just a bit.

b) IF you know what a Garmin Forerunner is, skip this paragraph. I have this fancy watch. I wear it when I run and it keeps track of how fast I go, my heart rate, and even a map of where I’ve been. Every few seconds it records where I am using GPS. As the dots connect, it shows where I went. Super cool! I’ll give you a moment gather yourself… I can then hook it up to my computer to look at all the data. Information overload: check.

Anyway, the morning of Evelyn’s birthday, I went for a run (much to her disappointment, I’m sure). But not any old run. No sir/ma’am! I had big plans for this one. I headed down to The Mall to find a big area to use as my canvas. I would be my paintbrush. It was all the more amazing doing this in the shadow of the Washington Monument.

I bet I looked like a crazy person running in the dark (I started at 6am) in zig zags (totaling about 2 miles). I retraced my steps, crossed the street a few times in the same place, dropped my water bottle to mark where I need to run back to, maneuvered through trees…it was chaotic to an outsider (aka everyone).

I got home before Ev returned from the gym, blew up some balloons (lightheaded: check.), and uploaded the running route

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to my computer. She got back, showered, and then sat at the computer. Here begins the awkward endearing short story I tried to get out to explain why I needed to show her this run. Something along the lines of “Hey Ev, so I was running today, and it felt strange how I was running back and forth in the same places, but I just went with it. I didn’t think anything of it, but then I put it on the computer and here’s what it looked like. And I have something for you that I found on my run.” That’s when I showed her the map and while she looked a little puzzled, I got down on one knee and asked her if she’d marry me! And, I wouldn’t have written this otherwise, but just in case, she said yes!

She admitted that she didn’t quite get it that I actually ran the path on the screen, so I had to explain it real quick, but then all was good. Also, she thought I brought her back like a rock from my run (not too far from the truth!). We made a quick decision that we wouldn’t tell anyone until we told our families in person, who were coming to visit 10 days later. Thus, no one could know! Sorry to everyone who was duped, deceived, or misled. Don’t take it personally! And here is what the map of where I run looked like:

Proposal

<

p>For you skeptics, I didn’t follow a path or map this ahead of time. I just followed my heart (awww. swoon. love. yay. puppies.)