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It Got Worse

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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

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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?

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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

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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

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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.)

The Maine Event

3 Comments

Fear not!   I was not attacked by a bear or a giant lobster.  However, I saw both (kind of… check out the pictures.  The bears (and moose) are made of solid chocolate, but keep in mind: a chocolate bear is still a bear…).  Anyway, I went for a 17 mile run while in Maine.  The weather was, well, perfect.  58 degrees, 2% humidity (based on my internal humiditometer), and not a cloud in the hemisphere.  It was supposed to be 18 miles with 14 at Marathon Pace (~8 min/mile).  Based on the route I chose, 17 is what it came out to be.  An exact 8.5 miles out and 8.5 miles back.

Lighthouse

Maine-ly (see what I did there?) because of the amazing weather, wide bike lane, and awesome scenery, everything about this run felt good.  As the sun was rising during the first mile I started to pick up the pace to get to the 8:00 min/mile mark.  My plan was to run miles 2 through 15 at that speed and use the other miles as warm-up and cool-down.  Well, when everything falls into place like it did, I actually found it difficult to go slow enough.  After a bit, I stopped fighting it.  Other than the first mile (8:15 min/mile), every mile was under 8 minutes.  Actually, there were several late in the run in the 7:30s that felt amazing.  It seemed like I always had another gear to get up the next hill, so instead of slowing down, I pushed a little harder and not because I thought I was being chased by a giant lobster.

The halfway point was the end of Cape Elizabeth in Two Lights State Park.  The picture above was taken later in the trip when Ev was looking for rocks.  (Side story: Ev and I went to Cape Elizabeth so I could show her the lighthouse and great view I saw on my run.  There were lots of people there, most of whom were staring at the ground and picking up rocks.  It turns out they were looking for sea glass*.  Well, without a moment’s hesitation, Ev started looking for sea glass.  She was quite good at it too.  If it were a game, I think she would have won.  You can see her dominating the children competition in the picture.  End side story)

Without going into too much more detail, the entire run was amazing.  Perhaps the Maine Marathon will find its way onto the schedule, but that’s for another post.  Definitely in the top 5 best runs ever.

The Details:

Portland’s 17 Mile Long Run:

Route

Distance: 17 miles
Time: 2:12:24
Pace: 7:47 min/mile
Average HR: 159 bpm (174 bpm max)

*Sea glass, for those who don’t know, is just glass that gets eroded in the ocean and washed on shore.  Typically from beer bottles and the like, it finds its way onto the sand in a very smooth condition.  That is your sea glass lesson for this blog post.  Questions can be directed to http://tinyurl.com/q6edza

Running Takes a Back Seat to No One!

2 Comments

But blogging does… Life has been busy busy this August, so some niceties had to be sacrificed. Thus, it’s been awhile since you’ve been subjected privy to my thoughts. Too bad! Because August was a huge month of miles. My most ever actually. Now that August is over, the grand total was 204 miles. I know, I know, but please, hold your applause. It definitely feels like I ran 200+ miles last month.

September has kind of picked up where August left off, though so far the intensity has fallen off a little. There was an unexpected switch up in the schedule already (future blog post to come with more details [updated]). I did get a pretty good Birthday Run in yesterday though. Scheduled for 12 miles, but I ended up finishing around 11.3. Why the shorter distance, you ask? Because it was my birthday, so I could do what I want. And because the island I was going to run on was closed (how/why/when do you close an island??), so I had to modify my route on the run (PUN!).

<

p>Tomorrow is a tough 9-miler, and then Ev and I are going to Maine! I’m excited to run in Portland, especially with 18 miles lined up. I only hope I don’t get mauled by a bear or giant lobster. I’ll be sure to carry a claw cracker and wear a bib. It should be a great time!

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Fast Food is not that cheap…

2 Comments

I was watching the news today and heard something about a recession, so I was like “wtf?? where’d that come from?”  Well, the next logical thought was, “I need to start saving some money!”  Now, I know what you’re thinking: “you’re an idiot” “brilliant!  Next in line for Treasury Secretary”.  First solution that came to me (while eating breakfast, mind you) is to cut back on the high cost of food.  What I need is calorie-dense, inexpensive meals in order to have money to stick in my mattress, because currently my mattress is pulling a higher interest rate than all most banks (dust bunnies are worth more than 0%).

The Hamdog, "A hot dog wrapped in a beef patty that's deep fried, covered with chili, cheese, onions, served on a hoagie bun topped with two fistfuls of fries and a fried egg."

Anyway, after some searching on The Google, I learned something very displeasing.  Apparently, obesity is expensive.  In fact, it’s even more expensive than cancer.  Based on this article, the US is spending ~$150 billion a year on “health conditions related to obesity.”  However, “all cancers combined cost the health system around 93 billion dollars a year.”  So it seems like saving money now by eating inexpensive, unhealthy food will actually end up being very expensive later.  Ugh, just when I was getting the hang of it.  2 out of 3 adults are overweight or obese and 1 out of 5 children are too.  That means, if you are not overweight, the 2 people next to you are.  If you are, then you have an overweight friend and a non-overweight friend.  TWO OUT OF THREE!  What if 2 out of 3 people had bad breath?  Or homeless?  or had cancer?  2 out of 3 is major.

Weight (or really, overweight) issues aren’t only a strain on your pants; they’re messing with the economy too.  Without getting into any sort of a political argument, the health care system is devoting nearly twice as much of its resources to obesity as it is to cancer.  Seriously??  How is that ok?

It’s no secret that exercise is a free (go for a walk), easy (go for a walk) solution to a major problem.  Let me tell you, if someone said I could fix a creaky door by going for a walk, I’d be out the door before you could say creeeeeeeak WD-40.  And that’s not even a big problem!  The article (linked above) mentions the problem is that obesity starts early but the health effects don’t hit until later.  Good point, but I think it’s still just problem of convenience.  Meaning, it’s just convenient to eat poorly now and push off the dangers until later.  The American way!

I don’t have all the answers, but I think a little exercise (specifically, exercise some moderation, and exercise some exercise) would go a long way.  And so I leave you with a quote:

“Those who think they have not time for bodily exercise will sooner or later have to find time for illness.” – Edward Stanley