Ah, the sweet sound of crushing Colin victory. This past Sunday I ran the 3M Half Marathon right here in Austin. Meant to be a tune-up race for the Austin Marathon, I didn’t have a goal when I first registered. That changed last week when I decided to go for a new personal record (1:35:11). Well, the morning of the race that changed to seeing exactly how fast I could run the race (and how close could I get to Colin’s current PR of 1:31:49). How’d things go? Let’s find out!
The 2010 San Antonio Marathon took over the streets of, you guessed it, San Antonio on Sunday. Colin flew down to run the race with me, and it was the first marathon for both of us in quite awhile — Miami, Jan 2010 for me, Chicago, Oct 2009 for Colin. The worst part has been that Colin’s been holding the title of fastest marathon time between the two of us for 13 months. From my race preview, you know my goals were to beat Colin this time and beat his best time, so really I’m racing Colin twice.
As I mentioned in my preview, all within about a five day period I discovered the Run for the Water, registered for the race, and, since then, ran the race. With respect to my training plan for San Antonio, this week I was supposed to run a tune-up race between 8 and 10 kilometers the day before my 16 mile long run. What did I do? A 10 mile (16 km) race the day after my long run. Same difference. So with this change of schedule, how did it all go?
Sunday I ran the Hottest Half Marathon in Dallas, as determined by you the people in my poll. To get it out of the way, I was promised hot, and it was hot. Ohhh it was hot.
Start: ~84 feels like 90 | Finish: ~90 feels like 99
Reflect with me, won’t you? Last Wednesday I had the fastest time in the NI 3 Mile Fun Run. My overall time of 18:54 was the best of all those who signed up and ran. Well, for every great effort there is a prize (or at least that’s what they tell you as a kid). I guess since running is something that children do, I was entitled to a prize.
In a follow-up email to the run, the
top finishers were announced and a secret raffle was done mentioning some unsuspecting winners of Whataburger gift certificates. And no, the irony was not lost on me that fast food gift certificates were given as a prize to a fitness awareness event. Maybe an indirect strategy to tempt the unfit to exercise so that they could win fast food gift certificates! Genius! Anyway, awards were promised
to the fastest participants (and as you know, this is Run for the Medal, not Run for the Whataburger) so I was sold.
Today, that award was ceremoniously presented left on a desk for me to pick up. I must say, I like it a lot. Perhaps this blog could be (temporarily) renamed to Run For The Medal and Trophy! Well, ladies and gentlemen person, here it is!
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p style=”text-align:left;”>Pretty cool, if I do say so myself! They even personalized the inscription with my name correct gender and age group. The countdown has started for next year’s 3 Mile Fun Run. Let the training begin!
In case you haven’t been keeping track of my life, I recently began working at National Instruments* in Austin. It’s been a crazy whirlwind of information being thrown my way, but it’s starting to piece itself together in my head. Just one of the adjustments necessary when moving to a company 70x larger than my last. One of the benefits of a larger company is organized extracurricular activities! Yesterday, we had a 3 Mile Fun Run.
As far as my (running) career has gone, the only “races” I’ve done have been longer distance (i.e. half and full marathons only). No 5K or 10K races here. So this 3 Mile Fun Run (note: not a 5K (3.1 miles)) is uncharted territory for these here legs. I got some quick pointers from Colin (like “deeeeeeeeeefinitely warm up” and “don’t go out too fast”) and showed up to the sign-in table.
After a few important messages, like course directions, we lined up and were let loose. The course itself was three 1-mile loops, each loop in the shape of a T. We started at the bottom of the T, headed “north”, made a right, then a U-turn at the right end, ran til we made a U-turn at the left end, and then a right to head back “south” on the long part of the T. I should mention here that all registrants had to write down their expected finish time. My estimated time was 20:59. I diligently scanned the list and figured that if it all played out as expected, I’d come in 6th (out of 57 runners).
I warmed up a little by bouncing up and down. At the start, I found myself in 3rd place and going much faster than my 7 minute/mile pace. Sorry, Colin.. 0 for 2 on your tips. Anyway, after the first lap, I found myself in first place! All I could think was “when are these other guys gonna fly by me?” After lap 2 I felt a sense of relief as I told myself “less than a mile to go!” I kept looking over my shoulder, checking for someone to come up behind me. During each of the U-turns I was able to gauge how much of a lead I had. As the finish got closer, step by step, I started to realize that no one was going to pass me.
I crossed the line with a time of 18:54, over two minutes faster than my prediction! In 1st place! That’s a lot better than 3649th place that I got at the Chicago Marathon. No word yet if I actually win a prize, but it was cool just to come in first! Not gonna lie, when we were getting the instructions before the race about the course, I was thinking that only the person in first needs to know where to go.
P.S. – It’s worth noting, this doesn’t mean I’m the fastest person at NI. It just means I was the fastest person to sign up and participate in this race fun run.
*No, we don’t make calculators. That’s Texas Instruments.
This will be brief. As I’ve mentioned (and mentioned (and mentioned)), I’m considering running the National Half Marathon on March 20th. Currently, the one factor holding me back is cost. Here’s the breakdown:
| PRO | CON |
| No Travel | $93 Registration |
| Finisher’s Medal | $93 Registration |
| Great Sense of Accomplishment | $93 Registration |
| Meet Up with Old Friend | Wake Up Early on a Saturday |
And there you have it. A pretty unimportant decision to be made, and
an over-the-top analysis of something that you couldn’t care less about.
So please vote! And leave comments if you’re feeling generous 🙂
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The ING Miami Marathon was Sunday in hell Miami. It was hot and humid, which I would expect for Florida, though I was hopeful for some sort of mercy. Well, mercy came in the form of 93% humidity, 72 degrees at the start, and cloudy. Thanks for the clouds? Anyway, Colin and Barrett woke up at 3:30am with me, and we all got into the car by 4am to head down to Miami. They were troopers, considering Colin and I picked Barrett up at the airport at 3:30am the night before. They picked up some sign making materials at the Expo on Saturday, but wouldn’t let me know what they’d say. The suspense!
A few pre-race observations:
After parting ways with Colin and Barrett I found myself next to some old lady (see #4 above). The race started on time and surprisingly smoothly. For the uninitiated, trying to get 14,000 people moving from a standstill can be difficult. It’s kind of like bumper-to-bumper traffic, where you start going, get excited that you’re making progress, and then slam on the brakes to avoid a fender bender. Well I didn’t have to worry about bending any fenders on this day. I did, however, have to take a pit stop about 0.4 miles into the race, which hurt the first mile split, but you can’t argue with nature. Pretty quickly my energy began to drain, blamed on the humidity, because what’s a race report without blaming something on the elements. I made it through the first 10 miles pretty smoothly, running down South Beach (where more people were still out from Saturday night, see #2 above), though there was another stop. Around mile 10 I heard my name (though “Mike” isn’t really the same as if my name were “Cosmo”) so I looked over my shoulder and saw someone I went to high school with (also named Mike.. see what I mean? Cosmo.) We briefly chatted before the race, just saying that we should meet up, but it never happened. We caught up on life as much as you can while running through a rain forest and knowing you still have to run 16 miles. I continued on after about a 1/2 mile back on pace, but it was so just so random that it had to be told.
I planned to see Colin and Barrett a little after Mile 12 and then a little after Mile 13. This was what I was waiting for, getting to see the clandestine (SAT word) signs. I saw Colin and then Barrett about the same time they saw me, about 100 yards away holding signs over their heads. Both are pretty much just inside jokes, so after all this hype, you won’t give a “lol” or even a courteous “ha”. Anyway, Colin’s said “3:27:28 Or I’m Still Faster”, referring to how he beat me in Chicago by 34 seconds. That got him a nice little spray from my water bottle. Barrett’s was less of a jab saying “Mikey: 8 | Barrett: 0”, as this was my 8th marathon and he’s run none (yet). I rounded a few corners and the Half Marathon course split off to finish, leaving far fewer runners on the course with me, and far fewer fans on the sidelines.
From there I headed south for what seemed like 100 miles through very pretty neighborhoods. I caught a bit of a runner’s high from about mile 14 through mile 18 at which point I said hello to every police officer directing traffic and every spectator out watching the race. At one point pair of runners pulled over to answer their phone.. Nature was calling.. but rather than a porta-potty they found nothing. They pretty much stopped next to a wall and became friends with that wall very quickly. About 50 yards away was a couple families watching the race, and two young girls (12 years old?) saw what was happening, whispered to each other, and laughed while turning away. I called them out on it and shouted “You don’t need to look!”, resulting in immediate embarrassment as their faces turned red as an embarrassed twelve year old girl.
As I was nearing the finish, around Mile 23, there’s a little out-and-back onto a bridge where we went half way across the bridge and then turned around. As you turn onto the bridge, it begins to curve and the only thing you focus on is the 90 degree incline. The bridge just goes straight up about 200 feet. Well, it would seem that the race director has a sense of humor. As you approach the rockclimbing wall of a bridge, you start to see there’s an underpass that loops around under the incline, flat as a pancake. I didn’t find it amusing, though I was grateful for the turn of events. I saw Colin and Barrett one more time right at Mile 26 as I approached the finish and picked up the pace as much as I could. Though I probably lost 14 pounds of sweat during this steam room marathon, I finished strong and got the medal. And let’s face it, that’s what matters. I had to take 3 pictures of this one, because it might be the coolest one ever. It spins! Twice! My finishing time was 3:35:45, about 7 minutes slower than Chicago, but the conditions were much tougher. I did run the second half 5 minutes faster than the first, which impressed me, and should impress you too!
The Details:
2010 Miami Marathon:
| Distance: | 26.2 miles |
| Time: | 3:35:45 |
| Pace: | 8:14 min/mile |
| Finishing Position | 273 out of 2913 (top 9.4%) |
“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
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.
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:
| Distance: | 26.2 miles |
| Time: | 3:57:42 |
| Pace: | 9:03 min/mile |
| Average HR: | Didn’t wear HR Monitor |
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.
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 Details:
2009 Chicago Marathon:
| Distance: | 26.2 miles |
| Time: | 3:28:02 |
| Pace: | 7:56 min/mile |
| Average HR: | Didn’t wear HR Monitor |
