Eleven runners. Two vans. Two hundred and three miles. This is just one of eleven stories to tell about the Texas Independence Relay.
running
Get Ready to Relay
This weekend –yes, the whole weekend– is the Texas Independence Relay. Eleven of us will be driving from Austin to Bastrop to begin our journey. We’ll traverse the badlands of Texas on two legs from Bastrop to Houston along local roads for a total of 201 miles. The route is broken up into 40 legs, divided among the team. When we’re not running, we’ll be in one of the two team vans. I’ll be in van #2 with four others cheering runners, eating, and notably not showering. Our team gets things started at 1:30pm on Saturday March 31st.
In terms of actual running, I’ll be tackling three
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of the more difficult sections. If all remains as planned, my first run is 6.09 miles starting at 7:30pm Saturday. Next will be 6.6 miles, starting at 2:30am Sunday. … … … And my third run is 6.7 miles at 9:20am Sunday. The actual starting time for each depends on how everyone else has been doing. Barring any mishaps, the team should be crossing the finish line around 2:15pm on Sunday April 1st (27 hours after the start).
It’s going to be a lot of fun and I’ll try to give some live updates as well as the obvious post-run “race” report. Keep an eye out for Team Austinia (#292)!
2012 Cap10K Race Report
Sunday was the 35th running of the Statesman Capitol 10,000. As you no doubt remember, this year I was a member of my company’s Corporate Challenge team. We’ll get to how that went in a moment. First, anyone who has been around me for more than 5 seconds knows I like running marathons*. Half marathons are cool too. 10Ks are not really in my bag of tricks. Not one to disappoint I set a pretty aggressive conservative who knows goal of sub 40 minutes.
Cap10K Preview
Well, the Cap10K is finally upon us. On Sunday I’ll be representing the National Instruments corporate challenge team. We’re the 7-time reigning champions and number 8 is in our sights. As a refresher, the top 5 times for each team get added together, and the fastest team time wins. I’m likely going to have the ninth fastest time on our team and therefore inconsequential (per usual).
In preparation for the race, I ran 20 miles yesterday (Thursday). “Not ideal”, you say? Well it sounds a lot better than running 20 miles the day before the race. Who’s the smart one now? All that snarkiness stems from my focus on marathon training without any real concern or attention paid to the Cap10K. Shifting my long run from Saturday to Thursday was truly the extent of my 10K prep.
Ok, that should sufficiently lower expectations. Last year I ran this race in 40:55. My goal this year is to go sub-40. Cheer me on to make sure I hit my goal. If nothing else, cheer for my friend Travis who is running on his company’s team too, and his first 10K.
Go Travis!
Why The Face? – Colin in DC
In a new series called Why The Face? I’m putting together right now with no promised regularity I will point out things that are so ridiculous and out of the realm of normal that they deserve their own category.
Today’s issue of Why The Face? we visit Colin’s performance at the Rock ‘n Roll DC half marathon yesterday.
His time: 1:25:27. WTF!
Save Me A Spot!
Talk about the second marathon boom. Back in the 1970s, running was taking off and becoming the thing to do. Well we’re well into the second boom, and I think even approaching a tipping point. In recent months, several enormous races have sold out in mere hours. Not months, weeks, or days, like they used to. HOURS. On March 7th, the Marine Corps Marathon opened up for registration at 3pm. The race isn’t until October 28th. By 5:41pm it was sold out. That’s 30,000 spots. Thirty. Thousand. For the uninitiated, that’s insane.
The Marine Corps Marathon isn’t alone. Recently the trend has been to sell out faster and faster. Boston has additional limitations, namely qualifying times, which reduces the number of people who are even eligible to try to register. The New York Marathon has a lottery in place to fill its non-charity, non-elite spots. In recent years, the number of spots in the race has been constant but the number of people applying has grown like crazy. Here’s how Marine Corps compares to the Chicago and Boston Marathons (and the NYC lottery numbers):
| Race (runners) | Year | Time to sell out | People per Hour |
| Chicago (45000) | 2012 2011 2003 |
6 days 31 days 35 weeks |
312 /hr 60 /hr 7.6 /hr |
| Marine Corps (30000) | 2012 2011 2008 |
2.6 hours 28 hours 17 days |
11538 /hr 1071 /hr 73 /hr |
| Boston (20000) | 2012 2011 |
8 hours 66 days |
2500 /hr 12 /hr |
| New York | 2011 2010 2009 |
140000 applicants 125000 applicants 102500 applicants |
Not all hope is lost. The Austin Marathon, for example, has only started seeing sell out registration since 2009, and they were selling out the week of the race itself (for only 6000 spots). They even had some people registering the day before at the expo. So this isn’t indicative of ALL marathons. It just seems to be the mega races, for now. Runners may need to reevaluate their race preferences and focus on smaller races. Or hone their online registration skills.
More registrations means more dollars so I don’t really see this trend slowing down. What are the alternatives? Well, with the current systems in place, you need to be ready to go the moment registration opens on the very first day. But long term I think races are going to need to address this problem (and yes, it is a problem). Lottery and qualifying are two options. A lottery, like the NYC Marathon, puts everyone on an equal playing field for random selection. The problem there is the uncertainty if you’ll be chosen, and thus makes training and travel logistics difficult for tens of thousands of people.
My preference would be to have qualifying standards, either based on time or race history. For example, to register for, say, the Chicago Marathon, you would either need proof of X number of other marathons. This could promote smaller marathon registrations en route to a larger race. Otherwise, it could require people show proof of running one (or two, etc) half marathons prior, more from a safety perspective. Like, first show you can safely run a half marathon, and then you can register for this marathon. As a last qualifying option, which isn’t really ideal either, would be to mirror the Boston Marathon: set certain time qualifications to be met in another race before registering for the race you want.
No matter what the changes are, it remains that changes need to be made. Again, ultimately this is a good problem to have. More people running means better health, more notoriety, and hopefully better-managed events. It’ll be interesting to see what happens. Until then, let’s keep training for the Vermont Marathon (which, as it goes, still has an open registration).
Corporate Team Tryouts: Results Edition
Early in February I gave a preview of the team tryouts to earn a spot on the National Instruments Corporate Challenge team for the Capitol 10K. Well race day finally arrived. With seven people trying out for four spots, it was sure to be competitive. I had done my research and knew who would beat me and who I could out run. My research did not leave me feeling very reassured.
The biggest difference, as Colin pointed out, is that for the tryouts, I’m racing against people and not against the clock. In all my other races, it’s always me versus the clock. That completely changes the strategy. Time is steady. People are not. In any case, the group jogged 2 miles to the track as a warm up. We got a brief review of the rules from MC Rich, took a group photo, and got lined up.
The Serious Seven: Me, Misha, Ryan, Joel, Justin, Mike, Paul
From the start the group broke into three factions: 3 in the lead pack, 2 in the middle, and 2 falling behind. I was in the “2 in the middle” group, which meant only one of us would be getting a spot on the team. Unfortunately for me I was hanging with Misha, who is known for having a lightning fast kick (aka speed burst at the end). After the first lap, the lead group had a solid gap ahead of Misha and me. I decided in the second lap I needed to try to put some space between Misha and me or I could be in serious trouble later.
By the end of the second lap I was creating some distance but terrified (and paranoid) that there would be a late surge to knock me out. For some reason I thought doing this would be a good idea, maybe to psyche out the competition… or because of other, undiagnosed reasons.
We cruised through the next lap and at each turn I tried to gauge my lead without hinting at my fear. Around lap four is when I noticed that third place (Justin) was falling off the lead group. He was one of the people I considered much faster and catching him was out of the question. Over the course of the next lap I was able to pass Justin to slip into third. Again, my inexperience racing actual people left me worrying that I was now just a sitting duck. I tried to hold it together and maintain a solid pace and make him work for it if he wanted to pass me back.
The final results show I was able to put some decent space between Justin and myself (see above, Justin in distance). Misha had a tough time with the pace, but to his credit he ran his first ever marathon 10 days ago in 3:13. In Austin. The big news though is that I MADE THE TEAM!! My third place finish means I’m the 9th fastest person on the ten-person team. Overall I’m most happy about redeeming my crash and burn from last year.
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p>Based on my Garmin saying 3.33 miles, I averaged a
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6:19 min/mile pace. Not bad, especially considering I’ve been doing approximately zero speed work since mid January. So with the tryouts behind me, it’s back to marathon training.
Austin Distance Challenge Recap
Crossing the finish line of the LIVESTRONG Austin Half Marathon also marked the end of the Austin Distance Challenge. Five races spanning from early October to mid February, pitting Austin’s finest runners against one another in a little royal rumble friendly competition. Part of what I love most about living in Austin is the number of races that start right out my front door. In all I ran the IBM 10K, Run for the Water 10 Miler, Decker Half Marathon, 3M Half Marathon, and the LIVESTRONG Half Marathon.
The whole ADC was broken into two tracks: the Half Challenge and Full Challenge, which was determined by doing the LIVESTRONG Half or Full Marathon. Got it? Good. I chose the Half Challenge because I had bigger fish to fry later in the year and didn’t want to get beat up by the Full Marathon.
This was my first foray in to any kind of race series. It was a lot of fun working towards a progressive goal with each race only part of a larger challenge. Bottom line is it was a lot of fun. From a runner’s standpoint, I wish there were more of a social aspect to the competitors, either in an online community or in person at scheduled meet-ups. I think it would have created a fun element of competition through the interaction of the runners.
So how’d I do in the Austin Distance Challenge? Duh.
I actually only won my age group. Overall I came in 7th place, behind some crazy fast people. To brag be fair, there were a few races where I held back a little (like running 8 miles home from the IBM 10K or running 4 miles home from the LIVESTRONG Half), but I don’t think it made much of a difference in the overall standings.
Would I do it again? Definitely! But not this year. I’ll be out of town for one of the races so I can’t complete the entire challenge. It’s too bad since they added a sixth race to the series. Maybe next next year!
2012 LIVESTRONG Austin Half Marathon Recap
Brutal. That’s the only word I can use to describe the LIVESTRONG Half Marathon course. Where other races have rolling hills (or all downhill), Austin’s half course goes for long, endless, steep hills that suck the life out of any runner’s legs. But I was considering this race as just a training run for the Vermont Marathon, so no pressure. I just wanted to run 7 minute miles, which comes out to 1:31:46. Piece of cake…
Austin Half Preview
Sunday will be my first running of the LIVESTRONG Austin Half Marathon. I’ve done the full twice before (including my second ever marathon and last year). I’m not really looking to set any land speed records here. However, this race is going to have all kinds of secondary goals attached to it.
