Android On The Run

Catching up... Myrtle Beach Half Marathon

2011-03-23T22:02:00.002-04:00

Now that a month and a marathon have passed since I did the half in Myrtle Beach, I figured I better follow up over here...

Executive summary: Gun time 1:37:50, chip time 1:37:23... new PR by almost 2 min
19th/196 age group (M40-44), 168th/3128 overall

I've often made the mistake of getting myself caught in between just having fun and racing all-out, and end up really doing neither. But I dare say this was a weekend that I managed to do both. Myrtle Beach has long been a favorite in the Wilmington running community, as it had been the closest marathon until the Wrightsville Beach Marathon started up last year. The recipe for fun was there... Shawn would "just" be doing the half, having already crossed SC off the list... Holly would be making her annual pilgrimage to Myrtle Beach... and our friends Audrey and Dave would be down from St Louis.

Race morning was a mild 55F, but at the beachfront condo we could see a pretty good breeze in the trees, even at 5am. Wind was going to be a factor in some way, but we just didn't yet know how. An easy 15 minute drive had us parked within easy walking distance of start/finish by 6am. About 2/3 of the way through that easy walk to the start, I realized that I left my race number in the car! Thus came my inadvertent warmup jog as I headed back to get it. I was supposed to find my sometimes-training-partner Sami before the start, but she never made it to the designated meetup spot, and at just under 5 feet tall there was no hope of finding her in a crowd.

I've been focused most of the winter on training for Shamrock Marathon, so in a lot of ways this was a train-through race. No real taper, with a 21-miler two weeks before race day, and 17 the week before... but at the same time Coach Kristen had thrown some half-marathon pace runs at me as well. Those runs weren't real encouraging, as I was struggling to hold 7:35s for just 4-5 miles at a time. Between that and keeping the big marathon picture in mind, I thought anything under 1:40 would be pretty optimistic.

When the race started, it was surprisingly easy to find running room even though the half was not at all seeded (unlike the full on the other side of the street). I managed to settle in around a 7:30 pace until the first turn about 3/4 mile in. That's where I finally saw Sami, and edged over to that side of the street. I had to pick it up a bit to hang with her as she was down around 7:15 at that point, but it only felt like so much work. I could feel that heat was likely to be a factor, as it was feeling a bit toasty in the tailwind. We ran together until the water station just after 2 miles... 7:30/7:13

I lost Sami as I walked that water station, and would watch her disappear up the road and lock herself in with the 3:10 marathon pace group. I decided I'd see what I could hold... put some time in the bank and maybe end up with the ugliest PR ever. After all it's still a PR, right? I locked in a good pace as the sun came up over my left shoulder. Crosswind was manageable, and I stayed aerobic. 7:20/7:21/7:29, got me to 5 in 36:53, just under my race PR at that distance.

I thought the turn into Market Common would bring more headwind than it did, probably because I was expecting NW and Mother Nature had already come around to north. A longer walk through the 6-mile aid station to do a gel, but otherwise I pressed on. I will say I liked this new section in Market Common because it provides a really good spectator spot out on the course, something that the old MB course largely lacked. Around the square and back out the way we came, with the 8-mile mark coming just as we got back out to the oceanfront. Starting to get some more Z4, but keeping it just out of the red... 7:21/7:26/7:21

Now it's starting to get warm, and the oceanfront high-rises are a mixed blessing. The shade is nice, but in places the wind is getting deflected in a really nasty way. I'm thinking it's a little early to push through too hard, but somewhere in the 10th mile I end up settling right on my threshold...165bpm. 7:24/7:22... can't touch my 15k PR, but a huge unofficial 10-mile PR of 1:13:47, 2 solid minutes under my split at St Louis last year, and 4 min under my official 10-mile PR from Broad Street in '07.

In the 11th mile, the high-rises are a bit more dense, and the wind that's getting deflected is tough. It's gusty, it's inconsistent, and this is the part of the race that's getting painful. At about 11.4 is the split where the marathoners continue up Ocean Boulevard, and the half makes the turn inland toward the finish. The injured Audrey and local running buddy Frank are cheering at the split, and would later share differing opinions on my pace. Just after the turn is the last water station... I walk it just like I did all the rest, and hope I'm good to go to the finish. We're in full sun now and I wished I had taken another cup to pour down my back. 7:32/7:40, still right on my threshold.

Right around the 12-mile mark I'm trying to figure out who is up the road. Is that... Sami? Can I catch her? It's the last mile, so tailwind and heat be damned I'm digging for whatever is left. I later found out she was too, because I never could take any real time out of her in the last mile. That last turn into the familiar quarter-mile-of-Jersey barriers... round a curve to bring the finish line in sight... there's no catching Sami, and no breaking 1:37 but I don't have much in the tank anyway. 7:27 for mile 13 and 0:58 for what Garmin called 0.13 miles. I'll take a solid PR on marathon-trained legs!

In the chute Sami is beyond ecstatic... "did you see what we just did?!" I'm not sure who had been the bigger sandbagger in the weeks before the race, but we both crushed it. Coach Kristen met me with a high-five and "F**K yeah, dude!" The rest of the morning was spent on race-weary legs cheering home finishers... especially Shawn, and later Holly.

I wasn't done for the weekend, knowing I had 33 miles on the bike on Sunday. So my recovery when we got back to the condo was about 10 min hip-deep in the ocean. Talk about cold!

Nothing too too fancy about the Sunday bike ride. I started close to the front and we quickly shook out a group of 7, which also included triathlon buddies Steve and Katie, and Holly's husband Jim, all 3 of them on fresh legs. I did a lot of work, but was feeling the effects of the half in my legs at quite a few points. I'd say I'm just lucky that Katie was there, or else Steve probably would have split the group. Averaged just over 19mph for the ride, which was actually my longest ride since B2B last November.

If you're still reading, I salute you. Now back to running, and on to Shamrock!

Quasi-short Shamrock Marathon report

2011-03-23T22:01:00.000-04:00

Someone remind me to never, ever do that again.

Official finish: 3:49:34 gun time, 3:47:13 chip time, 694/3159 overall, 538/1883 men, 91/310 M40-44

Splits and brief comments...

7M: 59:47 (8:32 pace, think it was a tenth long)... Planned to hold 8:45s for the first 3, but the tailwind changed that. Ran myself out of the 3:50 pace group almost immediately, and felt good enough not to back off. All tailwind out to the turnaround at 5.7 miles. The turn seemed a bit far, because 1-5 were dead-on, but then 6 was at 6.1. A little slow in mile 7 to do a gel, throw away the gloves. Also let a cute runnergirl in obnoxious shamrock shorts take my pic when she saw me on her way out.

13.1M: 1:51:38 (8:29 sector pace)... Had to fight the headwind here, especially for the bridge over Rudee Inlet just before 10, and then a mile and a half on the Boardwalk. Luckily, the concrete surface didn't hurt my legs that badly. In the 13th mile it turned into more of a Z3 race, and I did subtly feel it.

18M: 2:34:59 (8:52 sector pace)... Second gel just after I crossed the mats at halfway, and a quick stop at 16 because I was well-hydrated. Just before 16 I gave the hashers a big "on-on!" and told them I'd be back in an hour. That's also the left turn onto Shore Drive, where there are no spectators, but tunes being blasted at a couple of points, signs with "Confucius say..." and leprechaun jokes, and most important, no headwind.

Finish: 3:47:13 (8:47 sector pace)... Turned into Fort Story... and the wind... at mile 19. These were the tough miles and the Garmin data show that I started to hit the wall in the 21st mile. Switched over to Honey Stinger chews for my nutrition. After the lighthouses at 21, we were done with the wind. BUT...walk breaks were still more frequent, and there was the extra few seconds to enjoy that beer from the hashers just before 23. Sometime after 23, I saw Shawnie on her way out... she wasn't a happy camper. :( Covered the watch up and pushed for whatever I had, and now looking back at the numbers it's a good thing I did. Didn't worry about how much I was slowing down, or how high my HR was getting... just got to the finish, where Holly and Keri were cheering.

After... I could barely move, but I knew I couldn't stop. According to Holly and Keri, I was having issues even forming coherent sentences. That really was all I had. Pretzels looked better than a banana in the chute, and I found my way into the tent for Yuengling and Irish stew. By the second beer, I had color beyond salt-tracking, and was coherent enough that nobody was worried about me passing out or falling asleep in the shower, so I went to get cleaned up so I could come back and see Shawn finish.

Shawn is working on me for Big Sur, and I know there's not much point in doing 21 miles and NOT doing a marathon, but other than that I think I'm pretty content to stick to the half.

Race Report: Beach 2 Battleship Half-Ironman

2010-11-16T18:25:00.006-05:00

THE LONG STRANGE TRIP:
I'm Ron and I don't swim worth a damn. But after watching a couple of triathlons back in '06, I thought I'd try it out. The swim in a sprint tri seemed a smallish price to pay (well, as long as it was a pool swim) to get to push myself on the bike, since there ain't much bike racing to be done around these parts. So in January 2007, I signed up with the YMCA Triathlon Club here in Wilmington, and entered my first tri.

The next 3 months were something of an adventure, even if it seems sooooo small now. Just like in Kung Fu Panda, I think the TriClub swim coaches learned that "there is now a level zero." And that was defined as "Ron! Get your face in the water!" Somehow I made it through that mini-sprint at the end of March. But somehow, the words "never again" managed not to come out of my mouth.

After a couple weeks, I decided to re-up for the rest of the season, because I was addicted to multi-sport, but more importantly the people in the TriClub were such a positive and encouraging bunch. The rest of 2007 and 2008 would involve more sprints with pool swims, and volunteering at the first Beach 2 Battleship tri. It was at the first B2B, as a lot of folks from our club were hanging around watching the mid-pack and back-of-pack finishers, that Swim Coach Todd planted an idea in my mind. He thought I could do a half-ironman, and sold it to me on the basis that the swim is a much smaller chunk of the race, compared to an olympic and most normal sprints. It sounded crazy... but not as crazy as a marathon!

So then hatched a plan... I would do White Lake sprint in May 2009, and if I could get along with open water, look at working my way up to the half there in 2010. Well, we all know how well it worked out with me in open water that time. DNF... hired Coach Kristen... back to the scene of the crime, to complete an Oly where I had failed in the sprint. And then came the decision... I would take my first shot at 70.3... not at White Lake, but at B2B... in the salt water.

PRE-RACE:
The usual hectic build-up to a major race, but at least I was familiar with my choices of where to eat, and sleeping in my own bed. Water temps were a little scary, especially knowing it would be low tide just before race time. Oceanside had dropped to 63F and the sound side was fluctuating between 56 and 61. Thought about neoprene booties and hood, but (1) the expo vendors sold out too quickly and (2) nothing new on race day, right? When I did my shakedown ride on Friday afternoon, my bike computer was dead, so throw in a last-minute detour to replace batteries before bike check-in. Had about a 45 minute sitdown with Coach Kristen to talk about nutrition and tactics. Carb-loaded at Fat Tony's downtown, then spent the evening organizing my gear/transition bags and watching Talladega Nights with Shawn.

Saturday morning started at 5:15 for an 8:30 race start. Left the house just after 6am, and got parked near T1 by 6:30. Made my way through the checklist (body marking, drop off T2 bag, set-up T1) quickly enough that there was time to be nervous. Finally hopped a shuttle to swim start at 7:30, and got there in time to see the full-distance field coming by. Between the swimmers and the docks there were 3 dolphins heading the opposite direction. The wind was already kinda nasty, and what was really telling was hearing that the first of the full-distance people would be out of the water around 52-55 minutes. Compared to 38-39 minute first-out-of-the-water times the last 2 years, we knew it wasn't a good day.

THE SWIM: (43:34, 65th/84 in age group, 529th/676 overall)
When I had finally gotten into my wetsuit, it didn't seem too bad because the sun was getting higher. But then comes the problem of wading into 62 degree water (if that, one soundside observation was showing 56-57F) and then WAITING... for five minutes before our wave went off. It was a much different animal than walking into 70 degree water and just getting on our way, as with my last 2 practice swims. I did a "Tarzan" for the first 20-25 strokes just to lessen the shock of putting my face in the cold water for the first time. And then I realized what would be the biggest challenge...the chop. The tidal current was starting to pull...weakly even if it was in our favor. The wind was directly opposing it, which made for some nasty chop. It seemed like every time I tried to sight I'd get smacked in the face by a wave. The first 200 yards were, indeed, a "WTF?" moment. But then one of the kayakers was pointing to get me out toward the middle of the channel. And THEN I picked up the turn boat. Suddenly I had a lot more trust in my sighting, and would only sight every 3-4 breaths. Just before I got to the turn boat, I started passing people. Once I made the turn I was in very familiar territory, but a lot more traffic as I was back into the thick of the next wave of swimmers. It was annoying and it was cold, but there was no question that I'd make it. Just don't get kicked in the head (tricky when you come up on the odd guy doing breaststroke). When I got to the ladders, it took me a couple of tries to get on because my feet were too numb to know if I was getting a rung! I got up on the dock and ran around the corner to find my swim partner Lori, who was working as a wetsuit stripper. She whipped the wetsuit right off of me masterfully, without yanking off my timing chip or my tri shorts, then helped me up, gave me a hug and some words of encouragement, and sent me on...

T1: (10:53)
A 300-yard run into the actual transition area is long enough, but on freezing-cold feet? I'm sure my shuffle step was a thing of beauty, but at least I couldn't feel how rough the pavement was. As I crossed the main road onto the sidewalk, I saw Shawn in the crowd. She told me later that I had a huge smile, and I stopped to give her what was probably quite a salty kiss. When I got to my rack, I realized just how crazy cold it was. Even though I tried to dry off my feet and arms, socks and arm warmers never go on that easily. But I was sooooo cold, it was 10 times harder with hands shaking and fingers not working. In retrospect I wonder if I wasn't mildly hypothermic coming out of the water. Shoes went on fine, but even the Garmin was tough to handle with cold hands. Tucked my nutrition in the back pocket of my tri top, sunscreened my face, tried to wiggle gloves on. Packed swim gear back into my T1 bag, and I was off... hopefully the slowest transition I will ever have.

THE BIKE: (2:45:13, 18/83 AG, 116/666 OA)
If I was cold it didn't last long. The bike started out with mostly headwind and my big challenge here was not to get too worried about my actual speed. But I couldn't seem to get my HR down out of Z3. I figured that would be ok in the headwind, as long as I wasn't pushing the edge of Z4 the whole time. About 30 minutes in I realized I would not see much Z2, so HR be damned, it was time for a nutbar just as we got on that nice stretch of I-140. It was crosswind, and I'm sure I gave up a little time using the first mile as my feed zone. It was a different feel from last year, since I was actually in the pack, rather than getting a head start courtesy of a relay swimmer. But there were only a couple of slightly dicey moments as I came up on people. First hour of the bike averaged 19.6mph, better than I even expected. Then came the northbound leg out Hwy 421 and onto some rural roads, pretty much into the wind. Here I was just trying to stay smooth and not fight the wind too much. The turnaround at mile 36 came up at 1:51 and I realized my A-goal of a 2:50 bike was well within reach. The last 20 miles had a nice tailwind, and it was tempting to drop the hammer. But I resisted the temptation and just rode smooth and strong the rest of the way. I think I spent as much time in Z2 as in Z3 for that section, but that tailwind was just enough to keep the speeds strong. Tried to keep my cadence above 90 for the last couple miles, and didn't fight the bridges. Rolled into transition with an eye-popping (for me) time and hoping I had saved
enough for the run.

T2: (5:15)
Never really clean in a point-to-point race because you're working out of a bag rather than having it laid out. Off with the gloves and arm warmers, change the shoes, grab the run belt (Spibelt with my nutrition already in the zipper pocket), sunscreen my arms, then throw the bike gear back in the bag before I was off. I saw Coach Kristen in T2 and got a high-five out of her. Told her what my bike split was and she yelled back "I told you!" She told me to go on after I said a few griping words about the swim. :)

THE RUN: (2:00:35, 23/80 AG, 146/647 OA)
This one was mostly about slow and steady, stay hydrated, and don't do anything I'll end up paying for before it's over. Clearly I started out well hydrated, because my time includes the better part of a minute in the portajohn not 100 feet past the run start timing mat. Just as I got out to the access road into the Battleship, I saw Shawn, now properly armed with cowbell! :) I think my first couple of miles over the bridges might have been a bit quick... 9:19 including the potty stop, then 8:39. Just before the 3-mile mark we hit Water Street downtown, and I had to consciously hold back so that the crowd energy wouldn't make me start pushing too hard. Still, the crowd energy, what with so many people I knew and even the TriClub running the aid station at mile 3/10, was amazing. It's a home-race advantage that just can't be beat. Once I got past downtown, I found the sweet spot... generally holding 8:55 while running, and taking most of a minute walk break every other mile through the aid stations (at least the ones I got fluids at). The bridges in the last 2 miles were just about survival, and I just stayed on pace... brought it home solid even if it didn't feel that strong. I saw Coach Kristen smiling bigger than life and came over to the barrier to high-five her... and she told me that Shawn was up ahead (with the requisite obnoxious cowbell). Shawn couldn't have been more than 50 feet from the very spot that I jumped out in the road as she came to the B2B finish line last year... and where I asked her to marry me at the Battleship Half last week.

I crossed the finish line with a time of 5:45:27... 24th of 80 finishers in my age group, 171st of 648 overall finishers. Next year there is a certain appeal to B2B because it will be 2 weeks earlier, with water temps closer to 70F. But after Shamrock Marathon in March, I think I'll want some more time to not have to train hard.

If you're still reading this, I salute you!

Wrightsville Beach/Wilmington YMCA Sprint Tri

2010-09-27T20:46:00.000-04:00

Never underestimate a milestone. The Wilmington YMCA Triathlon at Wrightsville Beach was my 2nd open-water tri, and I had done just about all of my open-water training in Banks Channel, swimming along the docks.

THE SWIM: 1500m in 31:10, 111th of 113 in my age group, 656th of 705 men
This would be my first time actually swimming ACROSS the channel. The first 300m or so got me a little freaked out. It was cross-current, and suddenly felt like such a vast expanse of water. I was redlined and went for the lifeguards, just so I could grab on to a surfboard and take a moment to collect myself. Of course, this put me in an annoying little eddy that I would have to fight my way out of when I started up again. But soon I found the current, and got into a comfort zone, at least enough that the second sharply-angled leg (at least it was mostly downcurrent) didn't bother me nearly so much. Some annoying chop at the end (when the wind is directly opposite the current, it doesn't take much) but I made it.

THE BIKE: 12 miles in 32:18, 19th/113 AG, 81st/705 men
Solid and strong all the way, might have had more if not bottled up in the 1.5 miles worth of no-passing zones on this course. I knew I had to save something for the run, but did I save enough?

THE RUN: 5k in 24:04, 38th/113 AG, 178th/705 men
Hot and slow, but steady... splits were almost even. I've got to remember that it was, in fact, hot... and I'm not the same runner that went 21:55 off the bike at Azalea in March.

Total time with transitions: 1:31:20, 73rd/113 AG, 335th/705 men

Go! St Louis Half-Marathon

2010-04-16T12:13:00.003-04:00

The executive summary...
1:39:12, new PR by almost 3 minutes on the toughest half course I've ever tackled.
Official 6-mile split: 46:17
Unofficial 10-mile split: 1:16:38

The long version...

Back in November, when I stayed on the lower deck and chatted with Coach Kristen for a while on the B2B awards cruise, Go! St Louis Half-Marathon became pretty well established as my A-race for the spring. Now I know that at that moment, I still didn't fully realize what else was already happening on the upper deck, or would happen in the 5 months since. ;)

In the winter racing season, Kristen kicked my butt in run training, partially aided by this El Nino winter that kept me focused on running, instead of wishing I was on the bike like I had at times last winter. I put up some stout numbers, including a 1:07 in the 15k at Gasparilla in February... but some little detours in March had me going into St Louis feeling like I had the speed, but not the miles, for a really strong halfathon. I was pretty sure that my A-goal of 1:37 was gone. Mind you, much like Gaspy, a PR was almost a lock, but if it was the highlight of my weekend it would have to be considered a fail.

Shawn and I got into town (literally from opposite directions, thanks USAirways and Frontier!) Friday afternoon, and my old running buddy Audrey picked us up at Lambert. With Audrey's wrestler-corrupted-into-running fiance Dave in tow, we hit up the expo and then started the grand beer/food/sightseeing tour of St Louis, which went from Growlers Pub on Friday night all the way through to Ted Drewe's after dinner on Sunday night. Along the way was a tour of the Anheuser-Busch brewery, the journey to the top of the Arch, plenty of Schlafly beer, enough pasta and St Louis-style pizza to feed a small army at Joey B's on the Hill, and a meetup with Shawn's friend Kecia for some of Obama's favorite pizza at Pi. I think it may take me half of tri season to work all that off.

Sunday morning was a bit warmer than expected... close to 60, which isn't quite ideal racing weather for me. Dave had the hook-up on parking, so we didn't have to leave until a bit after 6am for a 7:00 start. Chilled out with Shawn until about 10 minutes before the race start, then made my way to an appropriate start with both the 3:20 marathon and 1:40 half-marathon pace groups. The race ended up starting a few minutes late, but that wasn't a big deal. I was across the start line in about 30 seconds, and quickly settled in with the group.

The first 2 miles were pretty flat, down Market and then turning south a couple blocks short of the river...then heading toward Anheuser-Busch. Mile 1 came up on schedule at 7:35, and mile 2 at 7:36. The third mile included the first water station, and a couple of turns as the course snaked thru the brewery. With a total of nearly 13,000 finishers between the two races, this section of the course got a little tight, and I was up on the sidewalks a couple of times just to find daylight... 7:49. Out of the brewery and onto Lynch to start the 4th mile with the first legit hill of the race. This was my first real serious push into Z4, and I knew it was "on" when I remained solidly in Z3 going down the hill back to Broadway... 7:29. Heading back up Broadway it was amazing just how far back the rest of the field stretched. Yes, I was looking and I had drifted way over toward the median, even knowing that Shawn likes to run on what was the opposite side of the road and would be hard to find. A pothole that nearly turned my ankle was the wake-up call I needed to get back to my race, if I was going to have a good day. There would be plenty of time to find Shawn later. 7:27... finishing the "easy" part of the race in 38-flat.

The turn up Chouteau held the next nasty hill, and I was taking more frequent looks at the Garmin, knowing I'd be in Z4 but not wanting to be pushing too hard against my threshold at this point. At the end of the 6th mile was my brief moment of crisis... in my haste to get my GU, the zipper on the mini-pocket on my Mizuno shorts was stuck! I wasn't sure how this was going to fly, so I got my Gatorade and went on, semi-resigned to the idea I might have to make do without gel. Heading up Olive is where the hills got nasty... not very steep, but looooonnnng. Miles 6/7/8 were 7:35/7:25/7:39. Disaster was narrowly averted at the end of mile 8, when I took a few moments to walk calmly and get that pocket unzipped to get my GU. Guess I coulda made do with Hammer Gel at that point too. Of course, I got at my gel as I was rolling into the aid station with *gels*... water would have to wait almost a quarter mile. WTF were they thinking?!

In this 9th mile, I started to ease ahead of the pace group. Of course, this is also where my quads started to hurt a bit. At least it was that "working hard" kinda hurt, as opposed to the burning of dehydration from my first halfathon. There were a few more spectators on Forest Park Avenue headed out toward the turnaround near 10, and that was starting to feed my energy. Coach Garmin said 9 and 10 were 7:37 and 7:34... some quick math as I looked at the clock at the actual marker told me I hit 10 in 1:16:38... a new PR at that distance!

So I had PR'd 10 miles and barring a major collapse, had a halfathon PR in the bag. But I still needed a fairly special 5k to meet my B-goal of 1:40. It was time to go racing. Accordingly, I picked up the effort a little bit and would spend most of the remaining 5k on my threshold. Mile 11 went by pretty nicely in 7:22. But I had the full sun on me, and low 60s is a bit warm for me to race in the sunshine. At the water station, I drank a cup of Gatorade, then a cup of water, and then dumped a cup of water on the back of my head and neck. Between that slowdown, and a sun-baked climb of an on-ramp as we transitioned from Forest Park Ave to Market Street, the 12th mile would be a 7:41. The water station just after 12 would be a bit quicker... drank the Gatorade, then just took one cup of water to pour on my head. The rolling hills would have their last big hurrah, a dip by Union Station, and then one sadistic uphill after that... so nasty that the race director put the jog to Chestnut at 18th, after which we still had to climb some more before finishing with the last block (maybe 2) downhill. Mile 13 in 7:08 per Coach Garmin, and then kicked in at a 6:32 pace. (total race distance per Garmin was 13.18)... last 5k per race clocks in 22:34.

Finished at 1:39:39 on the clock, 1:39:12 on the chip... almost a 3-minute PR, and that's going from a dead-flat course (Shamrock, only Myrtle Beach is flatter) to the most challenging half-marathon course I've run, and not PR weather for me at that. Not bad for a boy who felt "fast but undertrained." Chalk up halfathon #14 or 15.

Waited a few minutes in the chute for Audrey and Dave to finish, after which we collected our Chick-elob and headed back to their place to get cleaned up. A big cheer on the drive home when Shawn txt'd to say she made halfway and her ankle was still feeling ok. We would venture out to find her on course between 20 and 21, and then back downtown to see her finish. As good as I felt about taking 3 minutes out of my PR, I'd have to say it's on equal footing (at best) with seeing Shawn overcome her bum ankle to slay the beast that was Go! St Louis, and check off marathon #16 and state #15.

Now I have a little time to chill, but I know bike and swim will re-assume center stage sooner than later. I'm 7 weeks out from Tour de Cure, and the channel is up to 63 degrees. Coach Kristen is hinting strongly that the Cervelo will be out on Saturday, and the wetsuit on Sunday. Philly (olympic) Tri in June... B2B Half in November... Charlotte Thunder Road half-marathon in December. Philly in November is tempting, even (especially?) as a drink-beer-and-sherpa-for-Shawn function, but the planning schedule shows me on graveyards that weekend, so even tho I technically could swing it (you know, a little va-cay), one or more individuals will probably have a hissy-fit.

Gasparilla Distance Classic 15K

2010-03-05T04:03:00.002-05:00

Ahoy mateys!!

About a year ago in all the pre-B2B scheming with the Tampa Tri Posse of Two, I was all but dared to partake in this year's Gasparilla festivities, tho originally to the tune of a 15k on Saturday and a half-marathon on Sunday. Somewhere along the way we came to our collective senses (running at least), and my weekend would become the 15K on Saturday, followed by the marathon relay on Sunday, where I teamed up with Shawn, Linae's husband Joe (in full Jack Sparrow costume), and their friend Molly. Working backwards here, the marathon relay was just an all-around fun time for all involved, which may or may not be recapped in a separate RR.

Now for the 15K, I'd say it was originally supposed to be an A-minus race, with the Go! St Louis half just 6 weeks away, but I knew it would be a legit PR opportunity given that my 15K mark was so soft (previously 1:13:44, lowered to 1:11:08 last month). That said, after easing me into it after the first of the year, Coach Kristen sure seemed to be training me like it was an A-race for the past month or so. She thought, based on my 5K effort coming off B2B, that I was capable of 1:08 in this race, and accordingly she had me throwing in about 10 minutes of goal race pace on almost every run for the last few weeks.

Executive summary:
1:07:12! Hit the halfway point in 34:13.
Mile splits per Garmin:
7:14/7:20/7:21/7:17/7:12/7:12/7:09/7:13/6:56(!)/2:15 on the last .32

Going into this race I had been thinking a lot about the weather, because the forecasts had been calling for fairly solid NE winds, which meant it would be right in my face for the last half of the race coming up Bayshore. Other than the wind and the first hints of rain moving in when I hit the last half-mile, the weather was perfect... overcast, upper 40s... just warm enough not to need a 2nd layer, just cool enough that I wasn't looking to throw away my gloves.

The other effect of the wind played into my favor. It got me to talk myself and my coach out of a serious negative-split strategy. Kristen had told me to aim for goal pace (7:20) going out, maybe 7:10s if it felt good and I could hold low/mid Z3. Then I'd try to hang on coming back, mostly watching for the lactate threshold just so I wouldn't blow up completely.

When I went to line up, I worked my way up thru the crowd, and kept going when I hadn't seen any pace balloons faster than 9:00/mi... before I knew it I was about 10 rows behind the barricade separating the sub-1:00 people from us, the unwashed masses. I asked around, and a couple people I talked to said they were aiming for ~7:15/mile paces, so I figured I was in the right place.

The race went off right on time, and the crowding was fairly minimal early on...actually just enough traffic to keep my pace sane. Made the turn off of Platt Street and headed down toward Bayshore, and the Garmin said I was sub-7:00 pace but still in Z2. Half-mile came up at 3:37. Got onto Bayshore with a 7:14 first mile and I thought I was in business. The tailwind was less than I expected... and just enough that it actually got kinda warm fairly quickly. From there I tried to settle in, but was higher in Z3 than I wanted while just barely holding goal pace. Mile 2 was 7:20.

In the 3rd mile I couldn't seem to keep it out of Z4 anymore, so I just tried to keep it on the lower end. Mile 3 was 7:21 with a gel. In the 4th and 5th miles, the story was the same... just trying to maintain low-end Z4 as best I could while staying on pace. I hit the halfway point in 34:13 (it was good per the Garmin), knowing that I could meet Kristen's A-goal for me if I could maintain pace (which I wasn't so sure about), but figuring my B-goal of sub-1:10 was still very makeable. I guess there was just enough form-focus to let me hit 7:17 and 7:12.

Coming back up Bayshore wasn't too bad until just after the 5-mile mark, where there's no longer anything between us and the bay. I drafted whenever the opportunities presented themselves, and let my HR drift farther up into Z4, but staying just off what I had perceived to be my threshold in a previous race (luckily it's close to the high end). Mile 6 came up as a 7:12 again; could I really do this? The 7th and 8th miles were where I started to notice the bad pavement on Bayshore. Cutting tangents on the right was also limited by a very uneven and raised white line marking the bike lane (also very unforgiving for bikes, if ya wanted to cycle on Bayshore!). I knew I would have to be careful, even tho I was pushing hard. But Mile 7 came up as a 7:09, and Mile 8 was a 7:13 with what would be my last water stop and a few cautious steps.

After the 8-mile mark, I didn't want to go into the red too early. Fortunately, this race shares a finish line with the marathon, the 5k, and the half-marathon. I knew that 2-mile for the 5k was 1.1 to go, and at that point I tried to dial up whatever I had left. But of course, this is where I realize that this part of Bayshore is not asphalt, but concrete. Really unforgiving concrete. Talk about a painful end to the race! About a half-mile to go and it starts raining. At the 9-mile mark I see the Garmin click the lap...6:56! I was just ticking over 1:05, could I actually BREAK 1:07? Unfortunately there's not another gear. Under the Davis Island Bridge... then the barricades start... there's Linae cheering, and I'm not sure who's more amazed with my time. Crossed the line at 1:07:21 on the clock, 1:07:12 chip time.

I think the wind... both the forecast and then it being a bit lighter than expected... actually played in my favor. Otherwise, I might have left too much on the table by splitting too slow early in the race. I think Kristen having a good handle on what I could do, training me appropriately, and getting me to believe in that possibility, played a huge role in making it happen. I wonder what may be in store for St Louis in April... if I haven't peaked too early here.

William Craig 15K and soft PR's

2010-01-24T12:25:00.002-05:00

The long and short of it is the weather was perfect (clear and 40F), and the execution of Coach Kristen's game plan was pretty good... the end result, even tho it was a B-race, was a 1:11:10, taking a good 2 minutes out of my soft former PR at this distance.

My old "official" PR was 1:13:44 at the same race (different course) two years ago... and unofficially, I've got several splits around 1:13-flat in halfathons and the last time I did Broad Street. I knew this one was more than ripe for the picking, and probably didn't have to "race" for it.

Kristen wanted me to start off at 8:15 pace the first couple of miles, then build to 7:45s in the middle of the race, and push 7:30s in the last couple miles. I knew if I followed her plan, I would PR (yes it's THAT soft!). Chip timing was a good thing today, as I was off to the side and had just re-tied my shoes when the race started, and that meant a couple extra seconds getting my gloves back on. The first quarter, maybe half mile was all about finding a pace to settle into. I might have used a little bit much as I hit the quarter in about 1:51. By a half mile, I was settled in a lot better then I hit the 1-mile mark in 8:00. Maybe I can pull off the
progression, only a bit faster than prescribed.

So I tried to hit 8-flat again for the second mile. Finally I had broken enough of a sweat that my HR monitor picked up properly, and I had enough feedback to know I was in the low end of Z3. It came up in 7:48, but where's the first water station? It would be at about 2.6, and now that I didn't quite trust things I decided that was the time to take my GU. Trust me, cold GU that you decide to use seconds before you hit the aid station is not the fastest fueling proposition. And it showed... the 3rd mile was 8:14.

Now this would be the telling part of my race... can I get what Kristen wanted? I tried to settle in at that 7:45ish pace for a bit. Mile 4 and 5 came up in 7:42 and 7:46, with my HR dancing on the edge of Z4, but I felt good and I was passing people. The 6th mile was 7:36, how well could I take this down?

In the 7th mile I caught my South African running buddy Charles. For almost 5 years now, he's been kicking my butt on the hills on Tuesday nights, but my race day ritual is that I catch him, pass him, and pull away. I slowly closed in, and as I passed him I said "you knew that was coming." A few seconds later, he tells me "you knew this was coming" and surges past me. I just kept my effort steady, but that led to a couple more leapfrog exchanges... I knew he would pay for those surges. Mile 7 was 7:29, and now I was solidly in Z4 but still below threshold.

At this point, I knew Kristen wanted me to push... "not hammer, just think strong." I tried to stay on the threshold through the 8th mile, and did a pretty good job at 7:22 and I started to pull well away from Charles, right on schedule. The last bit was a battle of how deep I should dig, and I went ahead and let myself go into the red here. My 9th mile was 7:12, and I knew a third of a mile was a long way to kick. So the last bit turned into more of a build, but I did eventually max out... 1:58 for the last 0.32mi, and a 1:11:10 total time.

Sooooo this begs the question going into my A-minus race at Gasparilla in a few weeks... how much more do I start to use, and how soon? I'm guessing I could start out quicker, but I don't know that I would be able to build to the same late-race paces as today. I want to go sub-70, and I'm pretty sure I can... Coach Kristen thinks I can do 68. Of course, Florida weather could throw any of that out the window. :/

2009 by the numbers

2010-01-08T02:51:00.003-05:00

Swim distance: 205850 yards (that's almost 117 miles, WTF?)... up from 94500 yards in 2008
Bike distance: 4113.8 miles... up from 2203 in '08
Run distance: 726.5 miles...DOWN from 978.5 in '08

Races or events: 15 (started, finished 14)
Half-marathons: 3
15K: 1
10K: 1
8K: 1
4-mi: 1
5K: 1
Sprint tri: 2 (includes the 1 DNF)
Intl tri: 1
Tri relay: 1 (bike leg of 140.6)
Bike events: 3 (30-mile, century, back-to-back century)

PR's not involving a new distance: 4 (1:42:11 half-marathon, 45:18 10K, 21:13 5k, and 1:01:51 Azalea tri)

States raced in: 5 (AZ, SC, VA, NC, NY)... one of those was a new addition, guess which one?
Tri-DRS encounters: 5
Dead encounters: 4, or 1 depending how you look at it (2 I already knew, 1 wasn't yet Dead at the time)
Blogger encounters: 5
Blue Moons handed out after Beach 2 Battleship: 4
Bike miles to get to said Blue Moons: 3 (after I had 112 on my legs!)

2010 races already signed up for: 5 as of Jan 2 2010
Flats on the bike: 1 (still can't believe that one, of course it would be the rear!)
Weather goats sacrificed for good race-day conditions: None

Anything I've got too much decorum to mention here... priceless!

2009 Highlights and 2010 Goals

2009-12-29T20:38:00.003-05:00

Shamelessly stolen from the Tri-DRS list

1. What one word describes your 2009 season? Does it match what you said last December in anticipation of this year?

Evolution. This was the year that I finally started to feel like a triathlete. My first couple years of tri, I was never quite sure if I was a runner that biked or a cyclist that ran. But this year, even tho I still struggle with the swim, it became clear to me that I do it all as one sport. This time last year, I expected an evolution, but not this exact one.

2. What one word comes to mind when you think about your 2010 season?

Crazy!! WTF do I think I'm doing in a 70.3? And this work-schedule-dictated planning that will probably entail most of my tris being out-of-town. But it's still not as crazy as some of what's been bantered about for 2011. Guess we'll have to get to that when it comes.

3. What was your greatest thrill or joy this year from training or racing?

Ah, from training or racing. Gotta keep us on topic. I'm not sure how to keep this one different from #5 but I'll see if I can frame it. Going back to White Lake and fighting some tricky conditions to survive an Olympic swim where I couldn't get through a sprint just a few months before.

4. What was your biggest disappointment this year from training or racing?

One very bad day in May... for which I found redemption in September.

5. What was your favorite race in 2009?

The race, the whole race, and only the race? Shamrock Half-Marathon. Wasn't sure 7 days out if I'd be able to toe the line, raced an 8k the day before, and ended up JFR-ing my way to my halfathon PR. This race weekend is the one item Sharpie'd on my 2011 calendar... the distance, however, is in pencil. ;)

My favorite 90 minutes of a race? Club Wars International at White Lake... from the time I made it around the second turn buoy on the swim, until T2.

My favorite race, as in the entire race event? Beach 2 Battleship, on and off the course. A solid bike leg for my relay team, where I had never felt as good on the bike as I did the first 75 miles... and an all-around fun weekend and the most awesome Tri-Dead encounter. :)

6. What is your race schedule for 2010?

Moving right along and staying on topic...

Feb: Gasparilla weekend... 15k Sat and marathon relay Sun
Mar: Azalea sprint tri
Apr: Go St Louis half-marathon
June: Philly Tri (oly)
Aug: Hammerhead Oly?
Sep: Wrightsville Beach sprint
Nov: Beach 2 Battleship Half

That's just what is committed, or practically committed. Coach Kristen will help me fill in the gaps, I'm sure.

7. What are you goals for 2010?

(1) Knock off my soft 15K PR... and see if I can get some conditioning to go with this free speed, so I can take some real time out of my halfathon PR.

(2) Be strong for 70.3 miles in November. Get a realistic picture of what other insanity I may be up for after that. (see the end of #5A)

(3) Have fun!

That's all I know right now...

Has it really been a year....

2009-12-07T05:17:00.006-05:00

...since I showed up on Tri-DRS, barely thawed out from 2 hours on the bike in 35-degree weather, and decided to become an active participant in the list? Of course I couldn't make a quiet entry... I just had to go and pick on a girl who griped about being cold on her run.

In some ways it seems like it's been eons... in others it was only yesterday... but who can sum it up better than the Dead... "What a long, strange trip it's been!"

For all of 2008, I still felt like a runner among cyclists, and a cyclist among runners. That continued (at least the latter) into 2009... and it was quite the distraction from half-marathon training. Kinda tough to train for a good halfathon when I was wishing I was in the saddle every time I saw a group of cyclists pass by while I was on a training run. And we still weren't going to talk about swimming.

Then came summer, and a revelation. I was on a long run, and saw some of my TriClub buddies on their bikes... I yelled out to them that I'd rather be in the channel. A few more ugly runs and I told Coach Kristen that I was just a cyclist that kinda swims. (And I still "just kinda swim" thank you very much.)

My racing season is over, but this year held a lot of firsts...

-- first open-water tri
-- first Olympic-distance tri (became one and the same after my May debacle)
-- first century ride
-- first back-to-back century rides (well... 108 + 92)
-- first Iron-distance bike leg

I even PR'd three of the 4 distances I ran... the one exception was an 8k, where I mailed in a windy last 2 miles, knowing I had a halfathon the next day. BTW, that halfathon was a PR. I no longer feel like a runner among cyclists... or really a cyclist among runners. I'm a friggin triathlete now. Which is not to say that I *like* the swim. Still, I now own a wetsuit, and even wiggled my way into it for a swim in 65-degree water the day before B2B... for no good reason other than to get out there with the DC-to-Florida Tri Tribe... ;)

No good ever comes of the sun going down early. And I won't say much about any days living in infamy. I'll just let this be my opportunity to kick off the inevitable barrage of posts that reflect on the past year, before the sunsets start getting later again.

And now, before I have to set goals and look forward to my 2010 racing season, I'll take some time to chill out and look forward to the late afternoons getting a little brighter...among other things. :)

Belated RR: Seaside Shuffle 5k on 11/22

2009-11-27T18:31:00.002-05:00

The short version: Not bad for bike legs... must be the free speed!

I wasn't really sure about this one leading up to it, in part because of a doom-and-gloom weather forecast a couple days ahead of the event. Fortunately, the rain held off just long enough to get the race in without getting wet on Sunday afternoon. Actually the weather was ALMOST perfect... cloudy, 55 degrees. I say almost because there was a 17 mph wind that we would have to fight on the returning leg of this flat out-and-back course.

So what did I have? I'm still on bike legs, just 2 weeks after my B2B relay... and I got workouts in while I could in the couple of days right before the race, because I had no intention of racing in miserable weather. On the plus side, I'm down to 140 lbs, from 150-155 that I was carrying in my spring racing season. I knew it could be a 21, or it could be a 25... decided to just see what I had. The dream time of a running Rush fan is 21:12... but I wasn't sure I had the running legs for it.

The fun thing about a 5k is there's no strategy, just go out hard and hang on. The down side is that, done right, they hurt! I knew I would have to go out hard just because of the headwind on the way back. When the horn went off at 1:45pm, it took me about 200 yards to get sorted out, even in a smallish field (just over 100 guys; the women's race was separate, 45 min earlier). Checked in with Coach Garmin at the half-mile point... 3:19, just about on the money for that 21:something. With the tailwind I was almost feeling too warm in long sleeves. Mile 1 came up at 6:40, a little worrisome because in my PR race my first mile was 6:30, on the way to 21:33... and I knew I would have to deal with wind.

Through the S-curve just after the 1-mile mark, just trying to keep pushing. I hit halfway at 10:32, not quite the trend I wanted to see. Local beer-store owners Jason and Leigh were handing out water (but no beer, WTF?) at the turnaround, and Leigh said "Good job, Ron! You still got runnin' legs!" Now it was time to fight the wind. I tucked in behind a bigger guy for a few seconds, but he was slowing down a bit too much. Pass and go up the road, see if I can catch someone else. Hit the 2-mile at 13:32, so I must be finding something. Can I still pull out this 21:12? I dunno... this wind is tough.

Out of the S-curve, that final straightaway is so long at over 3/4 of a mile. And there was nowhere to hide from the wind, even tho it wasn't coming off the channel. A little bit of drafting where I could, and then with ~500m to go I caught the South African Charles, who knew I would be catching him in the second half... it always works that way. I hit 3 miles at 20:30, just how much kick do I have here?

Only so much because I've been working really hard in this wind, the answer came back. I was digging pretty deep, but saw those fateful seconds tick by. I missed by ONE DAMN SECOND... 21:13. But then it's time for the best part of this race... the after-party. I'm all about some pizza and beer... good beer at that, thanks to Lighthouse. :)

It's a new PR by 20 seconds, but it's all weight and no training right now. Still, pretty encouraging for my upcoming running season. Just think when I actually start training... as long as I can keep this free speed.

Beach 2 Battleship... Ending the season in style!

2009-11-11T21:35:00.002-05:00

Wow... it's been a while since I actually wrote, yet so much has happened.

September saw me complete my first Olympic-distance tri, at the very scene of the crime where I had problems with open-water in a sprint. It still wasn't a fun swim, but that just meant more people I could pass on the bike. It felt so good to clear that hurdle, but there was little time to rest. After all, by that time B2B was just 8 weeks away.

My focus had been on the bike for a couple of months now, getting me ready to do the bike leg of a 140.6 relay at Beach 2 Battleship. But I realized that fun was just as important, and the race was something of a backdrop for that. Thursday afternoon, the Florida Tri-Girls(tm) rolled into town, with their DC compatriots not far behind. After a hectic Thursday night and Friday hanging with them, AND taking care of pre-race logistics, I would get up far too early Saturday morning. I was far from rested but it was time to get down to business.

The morning started off cold, and I knew the warmup would be a bit slow to happen. Fortunately, my teammate Erik is a hella fast swimmer, and that would save me a few minutes of waiting around in the cold. Still, I spent some time hangin' with half-distance athletes and staying warm as long as I could... then got down to my cycling gear and dropped my bags. Knowing that it would be in the 60s by the time I finished, I opted for shorts, my short-sleeve Purdue jersey (Boiler Up!!), arm-warmers, and full-fingered gloves. It was the first time I had used arm-warmers, but let me tell ya, they are awesome.

While the swim was going on, I had some time to talk trash with relay competitors in transition. Nothing malicious; a good time was had by all. The first few swimmers started to show up on the run into transition... and Erik was maybe 10th out of the water? Of course, some of those were doing the whole enchilada and would head into the changing tent, so once the chip transfer was made I ended up the 3rd bike out of T1. Talk about a different perspective on tri!

After a few twists and turns in the first mile, which enable the cyclists to get off the island with minimal disruption to traffic, I settled into a good rhythm. Coach Kristen said to settle into z2 for the first 60-90 minutes of the ride, then pick up to Z3. I found that Z2 was good for roughly 20mph in the light crosswind/sometimes headwind. Near the 10-mile mark we hit a 12-mile stretch where we were on a closed lane of an Interstate. Smooth like a pool table, just a light headwind. I was keeping my HR down, and doing my best to take advantage anytime anything large passed in the open lane. General idea here was 22-23mph, picking up to 24-25 whenever I was using the peripheral draft from passing trucks.

Mile 23 is where the course turned back north... get some nutrition and settle in for some light crosswind. The course headed north and west out to about mile 60. Once I hit mile 30-35, my HR was drifting up into Z3. Thanks to Kristen's advice, I could tell myself that was ok... and just listened to my legs. I hit the halfway point in 2:41, and I had never felt better on the bike.

At mile 60 the course turned east-northeast, with just a couple of rolling hills that really wake up some different muscles. The crosswind was increasing, as it had come around to the southeast. Mile 65 was the special needs aid station... I didn't know what to expect because I didn't hear the Naval Reservist with the radio call in my number. But sure enough, by the time I brought my bike to a stop, a volunteer was already running up with my special needs bag. I had eaten a nut-bar after the first hour, and done a gel at mile 48... still plenty of gels on board, take on a second nutbar, refill a Gatorade bottle because the HEED they had on course tasted like crap. It was also warm enough to roll down the arm-warmers, but I decided to keep the gloves until I got back on smooth pavement.

That turn back onto smooth pavement at mile 73 came with a price... we were now right into the teeth of the headwind, which had picked up to at least 10-15mph, and that's what we would deal with for the final 39 mile straightaway. The 20.6mph average I had to that point would become a distant memory. A quick pit stop at mile 84, and then the most difficult part of the ride. I was fighting to hold 18mph, HR was drifting up into high Z3. The numb left toes that persisted for the first half of the ride had abated, but now my right arch was starting to hurt. I was pretty pleased tho... several relay competitors that I thought I had nothing for, had still not passed me. Only one got me at mile 95.

The last 10-12 miles were hard... I had been hoping to hammer it, but that felt way too risky in this wind. Instead I just maintained a solid Z3 effort a little bit longer... and let it drift up into Z4 here and there in the last 5 miles or so. The last bridge was just painful after 111 miles... and I didn't have much attack in me at that point. I might have left some speed on the table there at the end, but I can't complain about rolling in with a 5:45 bike split.

I got my chip to relay teammate Heather and sent her on her way into what would be a rough marathon for her. Then I managed to find Florida TriGirl Shawn, who had been hating life on the bike (she came into T2 on her half just a couple minutes ahead of me... but remember 6:30 of the full was just 4:40 of her half), and gave her some words of encouragement to take with her on the run.

Then it was time to get into some dry clothes and walkable shoes, kick back with a beer, and cheer on my friends who were racing. There's a whole different vibe when you're watching an Iron-distance race, and athletes are racing into the night. I was moving between T2, the finish, and even shuttling across the river to and from downtown until after 11 at night, when Holly from the DC contingent finally brought it home for her first 140.6 finish. What a moment for her!

The party would continue into Sunday, but by Monday it was back to reality, with a lot less scheduled training to distract me from said reality. That's where the post-race blues come from, and had left me at a semi-loss for words until now.

Oh, I did take just enough time out from the party on Sunday to get registered for next year's B2B Half... I am officially crazy.

Breaking through... and burning it up

2009-08-29T20:47:00.001-04:00

It's been an interesting week, and strangely left me with only one sport where I'm gaining confidence: the swim. The local YMCA is in its annual shutdown week to do its repairs and re-painting, so no pool swims available to me this week.

Two Sundays ago, I had gotten in the Channel with Coach Kristen... actually an "extra" workout that I requested, and making up for an earlier rainout. Unlike previous channel swims, where Kristen usually swam or kayaked alongside me, she swam ahead and got her workout, waiting for me at strategic points to throw the next drill at me, or escort me out into the stronger current for a bit. The result was my longest channel swim to date, about 3/4 of a mile. I was thinking, for the first time, that I could do the local sprint (swim is 1500m in the channel, with the tide) if I really wanted to.

Fast forward to this week... Wednesday morning I hit the channel with my TriClub buddy Sami, fresh off her hellacious adventure at Nationals in Alabama and determined to never take the easy way out of currents in training again. I learned while swimming with her that Kristen was dead-on when she said I was faster than Sami... but Sami is more confident. The balance worked out well, and by focusing on staying with a partner, I had more productive things to focus on than any nerves related to being in open water. The current was weak, but there... and we swam both with and against it, for a total of almost a mile. I was happy with my swim and then headed off for 42 miles on the bike.

Thursday would be a high-noon, high-tide meetup, involving me and Kristen and two others much closer to her pace. We would all be on our own swimming "laps" of her "pool"... it was 250m out to the end of the last set of pilings, or 300m out to "Red-18" which is a channel marker. There was boat traffic in the channel and I was well and truly on my own, so I decided I'd turn each lap short at the end of the pilings unless the others were nearby. I got in 3 "laps" or 1500m, then swam out just enough to meet up with Kristen as she finished up her 4th. Call that a mile after it was said and done. :)

Two huge confidence-building swims in a row, and pretty well-timed since my next tri is just over 2 weeks away... so I think I can't get sunburned? I had done 2-3 hr rides lately without using sunscreen, but somehow my brain forgot that those were early morning rides, rather than 1pm on a treeless barrier island, with 45 min of sun exposure already on the books! Not to mention I had worn jerseys or tri tops that covered more. So my 2:20 on the bike covered 42 miles, with the primary result being a sunscreen FAIL! The outer half of my shoulder blades is still an angry red, as is a narrow sliver near my waistline where that pair of tri shorts rode lower than all the others, and my tri top rode up. Ouch!

So along with all this new-found confidence from my channel-swimming hat-trick, chalk up a hard lesson learned and rest assured that I'll be polluting White Lake with sunscreen a couple weeks from now.

First, a fail... then re-assessment, and now re-commitment

2009-06-18T19:47:00.003-04:00

I haven't said much because I wasn't sure what I was going to do with it.

The first weekend in May was my first attempt at an open-water race at the White Lake Sprint. I say attempt and not race, because I didn't make it. Long story short: panic in the first 250m of the swim, get pulled out, race over.

White Lake is an awesome venue... the race director calls it God's gift to triathlon. It's a spring-fed lake with a sandy bottom... only 9 feet deep at its deepest, and half the time you can actually see the bottom. But when a 15-minute swim the day before the race is actually the sum total of my OW experience, that's NOT enough for this still-newbie-to-swimming.

That afternoon I had a slow and hot, but very therapeutic run with my sometimes-cycling-partner, who is a hella swimmer, personal trainer, and aspiring tri coach. The beginning of this month, I hired her to coach me.

The end goal? White Lake Half, May 2010.
The checkpoint goal? Club Wars (olympic distance), at White Lake in September 2009
The fun goal? Beach 2 Battleship 140.6 relay in November. Yes, I'll be doing the bike leg.

She did a max power test on me on the bike, and used that to map my HR zones. Pretty accurate on the bike, and was useful for the Tour de Cure a couple weekends ago. On the run, we still need to work with it.

I'm already seeing results in the water tho. Coach Kristen has been having me swim in the channel 1-2 times a week, just to get comfortable with open water. I'm only doing 500-700 yards at a shot, and it's not a steady progression where each swim feels better... BUT, Kristen said she noticed the difference, and our Wednesday swim was the best I have felt in open water. It was another 500-yard affair, but until she threw the 10 strokes hard/10 strokes easy at me, I woulda been game to do a second lap.

She said she might start messing with me on future OW swims. Hence why I didn't complain about multiple incidents of contact in the pool today.

Shamrock... one of those days

2009-03-27T16:20:00.002-04:00

Actually, two of those days, when you really look at it. The Shamrock Half-Marathon was my 9th half since November 2007, so needless to say I was looking for some ways to shake things up. At Myrtle Beach, I took on the half on Saturday, and a 30-mile bike event the following day. My change of pace at Shamrock was the Dolphin Challenge... which included the 8K on Saturday and the half-marathon on Sunday.

I've got to admit... I enjoy the hell out of Virginia Beach. Right on the ocean, a big city that doesn't feel like one... I could totally live there. So it was a matter of time before I did a race there, and something about the overrated Rock-n-Roll experience in Labor Day heat and humidity was thoroughly unappealing. The Shamrock course wasn't uber-scenic itself, but going through Fort Story and past the two Cape Henry lighthouses scores quite a few points with me. The Shamrock races are well organized, and just about the right size (the half was capped at 7500, and there were about 2500 marathoners), so I whole-heartedly recommend them.

On the racing side of the equation, I can't say I came in with a lot of confidence. My massive PR in that sprint tri a week earlier didn't agree with some of the nerves in my foot, but two semi-frantic sessions of ART gave me enough confidence to at least attempt it. I figured I had used up my "A" race and would just take the Shamrock weekend one race at a time, with minimal expectations.

In spite of the lack of expectations, I made a bold decision about the 8k... I would go out hard, looking for a PR if I could get it. It might have led to an ugly half on Sunday, or even a DNS, but so be it. The temps were about right (40ish) but there was a fairly stiff breeze off the ocean. The start was crowded, and some people didn't seem to heed the pace signs when they lined up. I guess it was better than a total free-for-all, because by the end of the first mile I was running pretty free. The first 2 miles were just under my PR pace, but then came the turn out onto the Boardwalk. I gave up some time in the 3rd mile and by 3.5 miles, it was apparent that a PR was not in the cards. So I backed off and cruised to the finish at what might be a good halfathon pace. Finishing time was 37:56, and then I quickly headed for the warmth of the finish tent, where the Yuengling was flowing freely. :)

Before I finished the 8-block walk back to my hotel, I paused for my first ice bath of sorts. Tri shorts and bare feet got to meet the 45-degree waters of the Atlantic. It stung quite a bit initially, but after about a minute it wasn't bad. Only problem was that the wave action was a bit much, and I was only able to maintain about knee-deep, when mid-thigh would have been best for me. The end result was that I lasted about 6 minutes in the ocean.

For the half-marathon on Sunday, I refused to set a goal time. I would just have to see how it felt. However, I resisted the temptation to put the cell phone in my run belt so I could stop and take pix of the lighthouses. Staying just 2 blocks from the start has its advantages on a 33-degree morning... I didn't venture into the great outdoors until about 12 minutes before race start. Fortunately, the winds of the previous day had died down, and the sky was crystal clear, which made that 33 just about perfect for racing. I decided I would JFR, but I would break the race down into segments of 5 miles, 5 miles, and 5k where I would check in with myself via the Garmin.

I was still on the curb when the horn sounded, but well placed to step right in the corral and get moving. There were a few surges of working too hard to find some daylight in the crowd. The first premature check of the watch came at mile 1... 7:37, which confirmed that I needed to settle into a sane pace. I took note of the hashers at mile 3... a bit too early for a beer, but would I want one when we passed by again at 9.5 miles? The stretch of Shore Drive through the woods was adorned with signs... bad jokes, useless trivia, and even not-so-family-friendly "Confucius say" lessons to keep us entertained. Another premature check-in at Mile 4 when the 1:45 pacer caught me... I found that he was taking his charges out too fast. Mile 5 is when the math would be easier, and I got there in 39:14, and was feeling pretty good.

The middle part of the race was through Fort Story... a bit drab and the lighthouses are on a high spot at mile 8. I just stayed in my rhythm as best I could, but wasn't sure what I was on to. I decided I better check in with myself at mile 9, to make an informed decision about whether I'll have a beer when I get to the hashers. I was at 1:10:30... time for a PR bid to take precedence over beer. The crowd gathered at Shore Drive and Atlantic Ave. (that 9.5 mile point with the aid station and the hashers) energized me and I really started to push. Mile 10 came up at 1:18:15... I was getting ever-so-slightly faster.

The endorphin rush was going full force in the last 5k, as I tried to wrap my brain around the thought that I was having one of those truly amazing running days that don't come around that often. The math told me I could back off a bit and still get my PR, but there was no backing off for me. I knew there was beer less than 5k away, and I was attacking the course and having fun. The Cavalier Hotel sits on a high spot, and that meant just a little hint of pain at about 12.2 miles. Out onto the Boardwalk for the last half mile, and I tried to wake up some quiet spectators and clear out the CO2 with a Robin Williams-esque "Goooooood morning Virginia Beach!" There was no great sprint to the finish, because I had been pushing hard for the last 4 miles. I crossed the stripe with a triumphant fist-pump in 1:42:11, taking just over a minute out of my PR. And for the second morning in a row, I had a well-earned Yuengling bock in my hand by 9am. Now THAT is what it's all about.

Will I do the Dolphin again? Probably not. But Shamrock is on my must-do-again list. The iffy foot did fine, even tho my legs were really tight for a few days after the race. And I'm still amazed that I nailed down a solid PR even with a half-racy 8k on my legs from the day before.

I've been doing PRs in halfathons without really working that hard for them. This one was harder work with the race the day before. But now the running goes on the back burner, in favor of a few tris and most importantly, the bike leg of a 140.6 relay at Beach 2 Battleship.

Azalea Tri... letting it all hang out

2009-03-17T05:12:00.003-04:00

Race conditions were definitely less than ideal, and left me a bit concerned about the ability to meet my time goals. I came in hoping for 5 minutes (yes, five) improvement over last year's time... a minute on the 300yd swim (I had gotten under it by a minute in training), 3 minutes on the bike (yes, I've found that kind of speed on my tri bike, especially in good weather),and a minute on the run (my bricks supported this and then a little bit). But at a drizzly 43 degrees, I didn't feel very confident about hitting thatbike split, more than anything else.

With the pool swim, this is a time trial race full of hurry up and wait if you're not a fast swimmer. Or in the alternative, there's too much time to over-think things. I think I used it to my advantage this time around, because I saw some of my friends in the open category coming back off the bike... keeping jackets on, and one in gloves whining about how brutal the bike was. At that point I made a quick trip back home to grab some gloves. Had it been wet, gloves would have just cost me transition time, but I figured they would be worth the time in the cold but semi-dry conditions.

Finally got off the wall about 2 hrs after the first swimmer... and it was probably the most tame pool swim I've done, out of a small sample of 6. I was focused on keeping the stroke long and strong, and not using too much energy. I do open turns (not necessarily well) and that gave me a chance to look up at each turn, and I always had a decent amount of daylight around me. Pool swims are always better that way! I picked up the effort a little bit in the last 75 yards or so, but not too much. I got out of the water fresh(!) in 6:15, not quite the 6-flat I was looking for but still down from 6:42 last year. Down the flight of stairs and out the door to the mats for an official 6:36 (vs. 7:11 last year).

The run to T1 is about 300m, and bare feet on cold damp pavement/concrete were not the most fun thing. I know I gave up a little bit of time putting on a jacket, and more time putting on gloves, but I think it was a necessary evil. Otherwise a decent transition.

Out on the bike I was not feeling too too cold, so I think the jacket and gloves were worth the transition time. I was dancing on the pedals a bit more than usual coming off the turns, because I didn't want to try to push through the turns on damp pavement. The only upside for biking on this day was the relative lack of wind. The wind we had was cold, not in our face much, but never at our back either. I spent a lot of time holding 21-22mph, keeping my cadence solidly in the 90s. Passed plenty of people even with the time-trial setup, and nobody passed me. :) Timing and scoring problems mean I didn't get a bike split, but I think I saw 27:00 as I dismounted... 27:36 rack-to-rack.

Nothing remarkably good or bad about T2... and no split to evaluate either. My T1+bike+T2 was 31:55... last year was 3:46 plus 29:54 plus 1:25, so just over 3 minutes improvement this year. And if my estimation of the bike time is correct, my transitions were a few seconds quicker than last year...even with the gloves.

The first part of the run was, well... interesting. That cold bike ride had left my toes numb, most notably the big toe on each foot. It took me a good half mile, maybe 3/4 of a mile to really get to feel my toes again. I settled into a solid pace, and I could tell the aggressive approach to the running half of my brick workouts has been paying off. I was able to pick it up with a mile to go. Finished up strong, with a total time of 1:01:51 (down from 1:07:18) and a run split of 23:21 (down from 25:03 last year).

This race hit my B-goal just about on the nose. My late and uber-ambitious A-goal of 1 hour had to be abandoned as soon as I saw the weather. There's room for better weather on the bike. There's room for improvement on the swim. But how badly do I want to improve on the run?

Saturday night I did end up with an issue that has remained one, tho not as significant. Foot pain/discomfort. It felt like I had a matchbook or something under the pad of my left foot. I say the pad because it's not quite the ball of the foot... more behind the middle 3 toes. I've iced and taken advil, and Monday I paide a visit to my chiro/ART guy. What the heck is going on with my foot, and how much running will I be able to do with it? I would be inclined to try giving it whatever rest it needs, but I have the Dolphin Challenge in VA Beach next week. If ya don't know, that's the 8k on Saturday and the Shamrock Half-Marathon on Sunday. I really hope I don't have to pull the plug on this one. :(

Myrtle Beach... stuck in the middle of strategies

2009-02-23T16:48:00.002-05:00

I know I'm a week after the fact, but I still haven't figured out whether the Myrtle Beach Half-Marathon was a successful race effort or not. I wasn't quite sure how to approach this one on race day. The original plan was that I was just having fun, because I knew I would be extending my fun into a 30-mile bike ride (don't call it a race!) on Sunday. But there was a part of me that would have loved to seek redemption for my failed PR attempt at RnR Arizona.

The end result is that on Saturday I was caught firmly in the "in between" but I learned something in the process, both by making a right decision during the race... and by taking a lesson away after. I started out with the idea of seeing how holding 7:55 would feel (my PR is 1:43:20, or a 7:53 pace), then decide if I could pick it up from there.

The weather was perfect (overcast and 55 degrees, with very little change during the race for the half-marathoners). Alas, that was a few degrees warmer than forecast, and since my backup plan was geared for rain, the long-sleeve shirt I had for dry weather even left me a bit overdressed.

Anywho... after hitting my target in the first 2 miles, and slowing a bit in a bit more social third mile, I never really got it back. My 5-mile split was 40-flat, and that's when I pulled the shirt sleeve down over the Garmin and decided to JFR. Running buddy Frank, who is definitely faster than I am, had passed me just before the 5-mile mark, but he was much closer in sight than I expected when I hit the 10-mile split at just over 1:20. I think that motivated me to work a bit harder in the final 5k, but only for so long because I smoked Frank before we got to 11. A bit of headwind coming up to the 12-mile mark made life more difficult. That was where I had to remind myself that there's no PR to be had on this day and a bike event on the next.

Finishing time was 1:45:40 gun, 1:44:56 chip from posted results, 1:45:04 on the Garmin. Close look at finish photos shows the clock at 1:45:46, so I guess I can chalk up a 1:45:02. Makes me wonder what the deal is with these D-tags. :/

What I did right during the race was making the decision, albeit a late one, to JFR. But by going back and forth between racing and truly running for fun, I think I put in more effort than I got back in results. The lesson for future races is not to do any of this in-between stuff. Either just go out there and have fun, or go b*lls-to-the-wall for the best time I can get.

Which still begs the question of how to handle the Dolphin Challenge in VA Beach next month. That's part of the Shamrock race weekend... the 8K on Saturday, and the half-marathon on Sunday. Do I let it all hang out in the 8K and race the half with whatever is left? Do I sacrifice the 8k and go for a good time in the half? Aggregate times will be ranked, but I don't think there are any awards for it.

Famous last words: "Wonder if I've got a 1:40 in me today?"

2009-01-23T01:28:00.003-05:00

The answer was no.

Here's the executive summary of my Rock 'n Roll Arizona Half-Marathon adventures last Sunday:
Official finishing times...
Gun: 1:46:22 (the finish pics would say 1:46:26)
Chip: 1:44:50 (I had 1:44:59 on the Garmin and thought I stopped it late)

5K: 24:13 (long)
10K: 48:01 (just about right)
10.2 mile: 1:18:24 (mat was right at the 10-mile marker)

Went out aiming for a 1:40, even tho I was probably only trained for something in the '41s, under good conditions. I was hitting my splits early, but once water stations came into play I was splitting for something more like 1:42-flat, which would have been a solid PR. Heat and hydration became factors in the 7-10 mile range, and I couldn't really hold pace anymore. When I hit 10, I knew that if I gave it everything I had for 5k, there was a 50/50 chance I'd PR. That wasn't enough for me so I just backed off the gas and cruised the last bit. The highlight of the race was just past the 12-mile mark, when I saw the chalkings of the Phoenix Hash House Harriers. I did pause at their beer check, and enjoyed a dixie cup of cheap beer while they sang a dirty hash song. :)

In retrospect, I could have played it safe and gone out for a 1:41-1:42. I was trained for that, but I'm still not sure that temps climbing so rapidly into the 60s would have allowed me to hit that mark. At best, I might have come away with another "a PR is a PR" performance, and those are only so much fun.

Not sure if this will cause me to revise my plan for Myrtle or Shamrock. Either one of those courses is a PR course on the right day, but I've got other plans besides the halfathons on those weekends.

Finally bit the bullet

2009-01-12T20:52:00.003-05:00

My swimmer and my runner are only penciled in so far, but I've signed up for the full-distance B2B relay. My goal is a bike split under 6 hrs, but I'm sure that's subject to revision once I get thru the upcoming string of halfathons (through March) and my first open-water tri (White Lake sprint in May).

I gotta say the new bike is nice... and FAST! Did a short club ride (total 15 miles, with the middle 9 miles prone to degenerating into a time trial) on Sunday... broke away from the group and put about 3 minutes on a handful of guys that I usually ride WITH. I'm hoping that any revision on my B2B time goal is DOWN! :D

Happy Xmas to me! (a little early)

2008-12-23T04:27:00.003-05:00

Before Santa Claus got a chance to show up, I did my part to keep the economy moving this holiday season... and hopefully it will keep me moving quickly in tris in 2009, especially the bike leg of a Beach 2 Battleship relay.

I've had her out on a couple of rides already, and it's niiiice to cheat the wind like that! Not to mention this bike fits like a glove... a good aero fit without being too too aggressive, tho I have room to get an even more racy fit if I want it.

Battleship Half Marathon 11/9/08

2008-11-11T22:46:00.002-05:00

I know I'll never do an Ironman, except as a relay. I know I'm in no jeopardy of being fast enough to qualify for Boston in the next 12 years, not that I think I'll do a marathon. But what I seem pretty well able to do is the half-marathon... the Battleship North Carolina Half-Marathon was my 5th half this year, 11th overall, and another return to the scene of the initial half-marathoning crime.

I realized somewhere along the way that I still hadn't specifically trained to run a fast time in this one, and wasn't even sure I was in as good a running shape as I was back in May, when I set my halfathon PR of 1:43:45 in Indy. Then again, I think the last time I specifically trained toward a goal TIME in a goal race was for Broad Street in the spring of 2007... and I had still taken time out of my half PR three times since then.

Obviously, I would need everything to be just right. Mother Nature mostly took care of the first part of the equation for me with clear skies and a temp of 51 at race start, and warming up to about 60 at the finish. That was only 5-6 degrees cooler than the Philadelphia Distance Run was in September, but with me that's 5-6 very critical degrees. The only down side was the west breeze that picked up as it warmed up, which meant about a 12-15 mph headwind on the final bridge at mile 12. I had never NOT run a PR at Battleship, and I knew the weather would not be a valid excuse for not PR-ing this time.

I lined myself up with people that I knew were close to my speed, and once we got going the mission was to just "run to daylight" and get enough room to run freely in a field of just over 1000 runners. I was trying to keep tabs on April, who seems to have had my number in the few local races we've both done this year, mainly because she was easy to track in a tie-dyed Bob Marley shirt. I ran across my young running buddy Cliff, who was doing his first half-marathon... I think he liked the idea of having someone to pace him, so we ended up running together. Tried to keep things sane over the bridges in the first two miles, and we settled in to about a 7:45-7:50 pace... right on target to get into the 1:42's. It felt good, so I knew I could go for the PR.

Heading into Greenfield Lake Park (which based on feedback from last week's triathletes, we locals don't appreciate enough), we started to catch some people. I told Cliff we were right on track, because now I had a good sight on at least 2 people I should be able to beat. As we caught the first one, I said "Andy's out too fast in a half, who woulda thunk it?" He gave a laugh, knowing full well he would pay for his early pace later. I was splitting for a PR at 5 miles... 38:56 on the Garmin or 39:20 at the marker, vs. 39:48 at the same point in Indy. I did my best to cut the many tangents on the winding scenic drive around the lake, and watched that tie-dyed shirt get closer and closer. We caught April just after the 7 mile mark, and actually worked our way through quite a pack of runners between miles 7 and 8. By mile 10, I knew I would have to be careful about when and how much I picked it up, but I was still on that PR pace... 1:18:25 on the Garmin or 1:19-flat at the marker, under my old split of 1:19:20.

Getting into the last 5k of this race is a bit tricky because you leave behind the scenery of the lake for a lovely petroleum tank farm along the Cape Fear River, and that west wind meant we got to enjoy all the smells too. Just after 11, we got passed by swim coaches Jay and Todd. Something doesn't sit well with me about getting beat by swimmers, no matter how good they are as all-around athletes, but Cliff was struggling a bit. I set the stage for my finish at least, by asking Cliff if he had done any mile repeats in his training. He said he had, but I wasn't too convinced.

Through the last water station at 11.4... up the ramp onto the Cape Fear Memorial Bridge... fight the wind, climb the hill, enjoy the view of downtown, don't fall on the grated drawbridge (very fresh in our minds after running buddy Tracy fell in the tri last week, breaking her nose and a couple teeth)... Once we were back on concrete and got near the 12-mile mark, I asked Cliff about those mile repeats again... told him that if he had one in him, it's time to go. Then, I dropped the hammer. My last mile was my fastest (again I found a 7:20...I love this downhill finish!) and I got in at 1:43:20. Didn't get in the 42's like I wanted, but a PR is a PR.

So that's my 4th half-marathon PR in 6 attempts over 53 weekends... and yet another that I didn't really specifically train for. The closest I ever get to speed work has typically been my hill repeats every other week... tempo runs are pretty random and spur-of-the-moment. My mileage base is a bit lackluster with 20-25 mi/wk and long runs semi-consistently in the 8-10 mile range. There's plenty of cross-training with 1-2 days on the bike and 1-2 days in the pool, but I'm really not sure how I do it! Then again, none of my shorter-distance PRs have been touched in a year.

Up next? Run at the Rock (7-mi trail race) on 12/6, then the Rock-n-Roll Half in Phoenix on 1/18

Beach 2 Battleship half/full distance volunteering

2008-11-07T21:06:00.002-05:00

This Saturday Wilmington and Wrightsville Beach hosted the inaugural Beach 2 Battleship triathlon, which had both iron-distance and half-distance options. It's not an M-dot race, but all 500 spots in both races filled within a week of registration opening back in January. It all happened so fast I couldn't get a relay organized in time. So that's how I came to be a race volunteer.

The course really showcases this part of NC very nicely. The swim courses were salt-water, but instead of the ocean, they were in the channel behind the barrier island that is Wrightsville Beach. The bike courses went across Wilmington as quickly as possible to mitigate traffic concerns, then a loop out on the flat country roads before finishing back at the Battleship North Carolina, which is across the river from downtown Wilmington. The run course was the Battleship Half-Marathon course (double loop for the full), which includes 3 bridges, downtown Wilmington, and a loop around Greenfield Lake, whose cypress trees and Spanish moss all seemed to draw rave reviews from the athletes. As a first-year race, it wasn't without its glitches, but Setup does a heck of a job and will have most, if not all, of it fixed next year. Some dark spots on the run course... a need for more river taxis to shuttle athletes from the finish line back to the parking downtown, and some long traffic delays for the locals were the most significant problems.

What I saw during the course of the day was amazing. It started with the electricity that I felt before the race from seeing where they had set up traffic control points...the perfect weather for the race (cloudless Carolina blue skies, 40ish at race start, 60ish by 10 am, and reached 70 in the afternoon)...then led to really wishing I had gotten that relay together as I drove a support vehicle on the bike course. After putting in 15 hours as both volunteer and specator, and realizing I had little room to complain about a long day, I was proud yet humbled, tired but inspired, and generally a bit awestruck. And I realized once again why I love being a part of the YMCA Tri Club here. Not to mention I have to smile every time I read a race writeup from one of the competitors, because they all seem to be so pleased with the volunteers.

On the bike course, my cycling partner/swim coach Kristen and I did replenishment for the aid stations, basically shuttling surplus from the earlier aid stations in order to make darn sure the last ones had enough refreshments. And that proved critical, because a lot of athletes were NOT taking the Heed, which might well be the worst-tasting sports drink ever invented. We got to the 6th and final aid station ahead of the big cluster of full-distance riders, and jumped on the line with our fellow Tri Club members who manned this station. They were having a lot of fun with their "tailgate party" theme, all decked out in their favorite NFL/NCAA football jerseys (or referee's uniforms in some cases), blasting "jock rock" over a PA-quality sound system, and there was even a cheer squad helping them out!

After we spent a good 90 minutes helping them with the busiest part of the race, it was on to the T2/finish area. I was grabbed to help out with a couple things, but spent most of the evening with other Tri Club people, cheering on the finishers. Seeing the way that elation showed through exhaustion on a lot of these athletes, the family bonds of so many of them having their kids run them to the finish line, and sharing high fives and even a few hugs over the fence with our Tri Club buddies... it was all a lot of emotion. I stayed there with a group of about 10 of us, until our last Club member finished just after 11pm... right at 16 hours.

Along the way, another of the swim coaches tried to tell me I should think about doing a half-distance tri. He even tried to make it sound appealing, on the basis that the 1.2 mile swim is a much smaller part of the race than the 750m in a sprint or 1500 in an olympic tri. Between the fact that it IS still a 1.2 mile swim and that it would involve open water, I don't think this idea has any legs. But knowing the kind of support we give each other in training, on course, and at the finish line, I would tend to think this idea has more legs than ever attempting a marathon.

At the end of the day, I'm just proud to have been a part of this one in the way that I was, and casting an eye toward relaying the full next year. Of course with my luck it'll be 45 and raining.

I've been shifting from bike to run, but not sure how well I'm trained. We'll find out Sunday.

11/9 - Battleship NC Half-Marathon
12/6 - Run at the Rock (7-miler)
1/18 - Rock 'n Roll Arizona Half-Marathon

2/14 - Myrtle Beach Half-Marathon?
3/21-22 - Shamrock Sportsfest Dolphin Challenge? (8k + HM)

6/6-7 - Tour de Cure - Cary/Southern Pines, NC

TriWhat?

2008-10-14T04:36:00.002-04:00

That was the name of my relay team last week at the Pinehurst Triathlon, and it proved a very successful finish to my "Summer of the Bike." My running buddies Tracy (faster than me) and Melissa (one helluva swimmer, but also faster than me on the run) joined me for this one, and it turned out better than I think any of us expected.

Pinehurst hits at a time of year around here that can be interesting for wetsuit considerations. Typical water temps are 75-77 degrees, just barely wetsuit-legal. I figured everything would be ok, and so did Melissa, until we heard the day before the race that water temps were more like 70. She got more and more skittish as she talked to more of the swim gurus, but we both guessed it had more to do with their reactions to her non-wetsuit approach than the prospect of swimming in water that cold. Either way, it made for some pretty interesting pre-race discussions!

On race morning, the water had dropped to 68.5 degrees, and the air temp was as low as 45 as we set up transition. The result was a lovely steam fog rising off the lake, which would end up making sighting difficult for the swimmers. By 8:15 when the relay wave went off, the air temp was into the 50s but I kept warm as long as possible while I waited in transition. I didn't ditch the jacket until Melissa had been in the water close to 20 minutes. I was able to pick her out as she approached the TA... the girl without the wetsuit is easy to spot in a sea of wetsuit-clad guys that had gone in the earlier waves! The chip transfer was clean and I was out with the bike... Melissa had done the 1500m in 21:51, fastest in mixed relay.

It had been about 45 minutes since I had done my short warmup ride, but fortunately it was getting warm enough that I didn't need multiple layers. Race traffic was tricky for the first 10 miles of the bike course, before the faster and slower riders sorted themselves out. Several times I'd make a pass, only to catch another rider ahead of me not making his pass as quickly... sometimes I'd have to fall back, other times I'd force 3-wide if we actually had a 12-foot lane! Uphills that I slogged up at 10 mph last year, I was holding 12mph and looking kinda midpack... downhills that I needed for recovery last year, I kept attacking until I ran out of gears. On passing the 5-mile mark, I punched up the computer and saw I was less than 15 minutes off the rack. But can I hold it? Competitors' times from the race last year made me think 1:15 would be a good time on this course (23.8 miles), but I was splitting for 1:12!

I knew I didn't have to run, so I kept pushing. Through mile 10, I didn't lose as many positions climbing as I gained descending, so it couldn't be half bad. I was doing everything I could to keep out of the drafting zones and get my passes done in 15 seconds, which is more than I could say for some others. By halfway, most people had sorted themselves out... but I did get passed by 4 riders in what looked like a damn paceline on a rough stretch of road. At mile 15, I was just under 45 minutes... but I knew there was a long gradual climb ahead of me. Actually, one hard push and then a long false-flat where I was laboring at 14mph on last year's ride... this time, I held 15-16.

Finally found some real flat and a bit of downhill, and then it was back to the steeper rollers that I rode on the way out. About 5 miles from the finish, I hear "Nice job, Ron" from a rider that's passing me... it's Nick, the running coach from the TriClub. That was all I needed to dig deep for whatever I had left on the last bit of the ride. I'd attack the downhill and pass Nick... but he would pass me on the next climb. It went like that until the course got a little flatter in the last 2 miles... at which point I pulled away while he was probably thinking about getting ready to run. Actually, it seemed like a lot of people were thinking that, as I saw a lot of coasting with unstrapped shoes even a mile out from the bike finish, while I was in attack mode all the way to the end. Official bike split: 1:10:58 (2nd mixed relay)

Into the transition area, get the chip to Tracy, and then rack the bike as she heads out on the run. I'm thrilled beyond words when I punch up the computer and see 1:11:56 rack-to-rack!
I spent the next bit rehydrating and BSing with Melissa while we waited for Tracy. Then we hear the first relay team being announced with a 2:11 finish... found out they were mixed like us, but not much I can do to match their 59:13 bike split! Melissa and I find Tracy on the home stretch of the run course, but she's not happy. "I think we got DQ'd for my headphones." She finishes with a 44:19 (2nd in category) for the 10k run, putting us on the board at 2:18:53. We're 2nd at that point, but had to see what the USAT officials would end up doing.

After a long and semi-nervous wait for the 4-hr race time limit, the penalties were posted and we got dinged 2 minutes. Even with that, we were still 2nd in mixed relay by a solid margin! Say what you want about only doing one sport instead of all 3, but I see tri relay as a really fun opportunity to ride competitively! I'll do my own sprint tris, but relay is definitely my ticket into the longer events as even the 750m swim in an open-water sprint is more than I care to do.

Up next? I'm back on the run, with the Battleship Half Marathon as my next race.

Good riddance to summer!

2008-09-23T01:04:00.002-04:00

Yes! It's been that long since I posted. And it's also been about that long since I raced. Other than the Tour de Cure in June, I went over 3 months without racing, and that's never happened since I started running back in 2004.

The summer was your typical miserable Carolina summer, with humidity that left your socks squishing audibly in your shoes at the end of anything resembling a long run. Easy paces required tempo effort, and race effort would look more like a tempo run on the stopwatch.

Needless to say, in spite of getting semi-racy legs back under me with my best sprint tri yet in August, and a craptastic 5k race that I'll count as my 3.3-mile PR, I knew I would probably be a bit undertrained for the Philadelphia Distance Run.

When I opted for the 500 Festival Mini-Marathon back in May, instead of the Broad Street Run, the quasi-deal with my Philly friends was that I'd come up for PDR. Some have asked me why I don't just visit them without a race going on, and I realized the answer: It takes a race to burn off even half of the good food and beer I always manage to consume when I'm up that way. Bottom line is that having a fun weekend was a higher priority than setting a PR. I'll save that nonsense for Battleship.

The summer heat finally broke early in the week, and we had beautiful weather (both at home and in Philly) heading into the weekend. Saturday might have been the better day to race... at times during my shakedown run, I was almost wishing I had brought gloves. Sunday morning was a few degrees warmer, plus I didn't have the benefit of being away from the city. Still, it was one of the better mornings for running in September, even in Philly... and I did have the benefit of being away from NC.

The early pace wasn't supposed to be racy... I was aiming for something around 8:15/mile, and then I would adjust from there. Once the traffic jam at the start got sorted out, I decided to make mental note of my splits (based on mile markers) because I also noticed that the electric fields associated with high-voltage lines (transmission lines, subway lines, etc) will mess with the accuracy of a Garmin. The first mile was 8:12, and the 2nd was 7:52. Still that's 16:04... and then I seemed to lock in just above that 8:00/mile threshold. Official 5k split was 24:51.

As we headed up the Parkway and past the Art Museum, I realized that my long run on my very first trip to Philly was about 10 miles of this race course. My splits were still really consistent, just above 8:00/mile. Official 10k split was 49:51 (2nd 5k in 25:00).

I used my PowerGel at the water stop just past the 10k mark. This part of the course, right along the Schuylkill River, is quite scenic but difficult for spectators to access. I started to think a little too much about some of my long runs over the summer, where I was mentally done after 8 miles. When I was approaching Falls Bridge, where we cross the river, I got a bad feeling when I looked across the river and down to see the runners ahead of me. Knowing that, and that the Art Museum sits up on a big hill, I knew the last miles would not be easy. The emphasis was no longer about who I could catch, but rather who I could hang with. I was already starting to dig a little deeper, which I didn't want to do until after crossing the bridge, but still looked ok on the stopwatch. Official 10-mile split was 1:20:41.

There's not much elevation change on this course, so the organizers only tell you the elevation at the start and finish, and what the highest and lowest elevations are. Thing is, the lowest spot on the course is at mile 9, just after the bridge... and the highest spot is just before the finish. Not to mention that the shade of the park is gone in the final half mile. It was all about hanging on at this point...and it did show up in the times and I think I was getting passed a lot more than I was passing. Finishing time was 1:46:30. (last 5k in 25:49)

The Philadelphia Distance Run was taken over by Elite Racing a couple years back, and it's evolving into a Rock 'n Roll race. That in itself isn't bad, but I dare say the two RnR races I've done have been overrated. Sure, this race had 6 or 8 bands on course. But even tho the Mini up in Indy is NOT a RnR race, it had way more bands and on-course entertainment! And I'll have to deduct a few more points from PDR due to the lack of beer at the finish. At least at Broad Street, the local club tailgates are easy to find (and crash if ya know somebody!). I'm thinking next year will be the final leg of a Philly trifecta (BSR, PDR, and the Philadelphia Half-Marathon)... but then, if only my May calendar wasn't too full to pull that one off!

Tour de What-the-hell-was-I-thinking?!

2008-06-14T15:34:00.002-04:00

These updates just get more and more overdue. One really hot long run last summer, I said I was going to spend this summer focusing more on the bike, and less on running. But it definitely got to the intense part quickly... my closest Tour de Cure event was last weekend, and the cause of the American Diabetes Association is close to home, as I have a cousin and a grandfather with diabetes. This Tour was a good one, with 400 riders doing various distances, and over $150,000 raised for ADA. :)

Tri training had given me some time on the bike thru the late winter/early spring, but by April I still hadn't gone longer than 56 miles. TdC would be back-to-back 75-mile days! So I had to change gears (no pun intended) pretty quickly after I ran another half-marathon PR in Indy on 5/3. That was a fun race that I really should have written up, but I think I was too busy on the bike... stepping my long rides up to 68 and 93 miles on consecutive weekends.

Going into the Tour, I still hadn't done long rides on back-to-back days, and I certainly wasn't trained for the earliest 100-degree days on record in the Raleigh area. And while I got through both days, and put in nearly the exact same time in the saddle each day, the rides couldn't have been more different.

Saturday's ride strung out really quickly, and I spent most of the first half of it riding with/pulling for my friend Melody, who's a fairly new road biker and just wanted to do the 75 on Saturday and be done. Once we hit the tougher hills, I finally took her up on the suggestion to ride ahead. About 50 miles in, I got in a paceline with three riders from Team Campbell, and we had a good ride until the last long hill on the north side of Oxford, just a few miles from the finish. There's nothing that saps your energy like climbing a hill in full sun and 100 degree heat. Usually heat is more manageable on the bike because you're creating your own breeze, but not so much at 9-10 mph.

Sunday was a different animal, as I spent most of the first half of the ride in a paceline that was about 30 strong. My riding buddies from Saturday were all there, with at least 3 more of their teammates, and we were all in a decent spot when the group split on the hills near Falls Lake. At the rest stop just after halfway, people were really starting to take their time in the heat. I was about to head off with my friend Tracy, who was grabbing her snacks/drinks and getting back on the road quicker, but found that I had a tire going down. I had to spend some extra time at bike tech because my problem was that the rim strip had worn away near the valve stem opening. I figured I might end up solo after having to switch out 2 tubes and a rim strip, but the Campbell group waited for me. :) One of them said "you've pulled too hard for us to leave ya." The pace was slowing a bit over the final miles, as the distance and the heat started to really wear on some people... and Morrisville traffic was a bit mentally trying as well. They told me to stay in the shot when it came time to set up their formation finish for the cameras at the finish line... another very nice touch by a great bunch of riders.

The heat really was the big deal. I think I'm still trying to re-hydrate, but I never got into difficult territory strength/endurance-wise... probably because it was too damn hot to ever push very hard. Partnerships that happen on the road are often fleeting, but over the course of 100 miles together, Team Campbell really took me in as one of their own.

My first Tour de Cure certainly won't be my last. Hopefully it will be the hottest tho.

From the end of the earth...to the end of my endurance

2008-03-27T00:30:00.002-04:00

I'm pretty sure that 3 days in the Outer Banks of NC was not the best of preparation right before a long-course duathlon. On the flipside, that did make 3 of the 5 days before the race turn into rest days, so at least I was properly tapered. (I don't think a 4.8 mile run and a 2-mile walk to and from the tip of Cape Hatteras is enough to blow up a taper!)

Living here at the coast, I'm kinda limited in my hill training. The best I can really do is take my bike with me when I know there are group rides to jump in on during my trips to Raleigh. One benefit I have here is plenty of opportunities to ride in the wind, but it still messes with me quite a bit! Trying to fight both hills and wind on Saturday, not so pretty. But a lot better than my last duathlon!

My "B" goal was to complete the race in 3:15 (never did set an "A" goal), and my "C" goal was just to finish! Remember, my longest (time) event was that 30K last September, which took almost 3 hrs and almost put me into the ER.

In all the multi-sport events I did last year, I ended up feeling like I used up too much on the bike, which led to a lackluster run. At my last tri, the run was my most competitive sport, but I wrote a lot of that off to the wind disrupting my bike. This time around, I knew I couldn't use up too much on the first run. So I went out easy... real easy. I got back in 41:33, with plenty left for the bike and another run.

On the bike, the headwind took away the benefit of the first half being a net downhill. It was also where 2 of the 3 real climbs were, but I was bagging some roadkill. In the second half of the bike course, I would give up a few positions. I think a lot of it was not knowing how much I needed to save for the second run. Off the bike in 1:45:47... average speed 17.6 mph, not so impressive!

The second run was not at all pretty. I walked thru the aid stations, and it didn't help that the flavor and/or strength of the Powerade was absolutely hideous! As hard as the second run felt (3 minutes slower than the first, and NOT easy!), the splits will show it was my most competitive leg of the event. Tells me that maybe I did something right.

The end result is I "kinda" met my B goal... 3:15:42. IF I want to make a serious improvement in other events this long, I know I'll have to train with the same intensity that I would for a marathon... if I did marathons. Wait a second! There's a reason I don't do marathons.

Next big race is a half-marathon in Indy on May 3rd. We'll see in the next couple weeks how serious I actually want to be about it!

2008 (so far): Feast or famine...

2008-02-20T18:13:00.002-05:00

Or sometimes both in the same race!

There's no better way to start off the year than with a PR. Just after New Years, I ran the Ocean Isle Beach Half-Marathon, a race that's really challenging for a flat course in perfect weather, because its long straightaways and small number of runners (112). Long story short, it was yet another half-marathon PR that I hadn't really trained for... 1:44:29. Can't beat that!

Two weeks later was a short-course duathlon, and we can forever argue where I made the smartest and dumbest moves. It was a chilly morning, and rain was intermittent as we were racking our bikes and doing other pre-race prep. I was feeling a little under the weather already, and not real sure if I shoulda been doing it. About 15 minutes before race start, it made up its mind to rain steadily. Unfortunately, I didn't feel like there was any going back at that point, so I started the race. The first run was pretty miserable... 5k in a sucktastic 24:40 that felt like it shoulda been faster. My transition was really slow from having the bike shoes and helmet covered up and a plastic bag over the seat, and trying to change shoes when I could barely feel my fingers! For the first 2-3 miles, the bike didn't feel terrible, but it's really easy for me to be going too hard on the bike and not realize it. The rest of the way to the turnaround it was harder to keep my cadence up, get air, anything. The snot rockets were starting to fly as well. Headwind didn't help on the way back, and now it was getting really difficult to see. The sunglasses were covered with water, but I left them on because I sure as hell didn't want that water in my eyes. Coming in to the bike finish, the second driveway of the school led to transition, while the first led to the lot where my car was parked. Guess which one I decided to take. DNF. If I was smarter, it woulda been a DNS.

Two weeks after that (we're up to Feb 2 now) was a local 15k run. Having only done one 15k before, that PR was pretty soft... 1:14:57. I'm sure I hit 15k faster than that both times in the Broad Street Run and at least my last half-marathon, so I'd have been peeved if I didn't PR this one. My mileage was not so good the previous couple of weeks, because of the cold that finally hit me full force right after that duathlon. Small problem at the start... the person I chased for the first half of that HM told me she wasn't really racing this one, and people I never imagined should be in front of me just shot ahead. My goal was to hold 7:50 but my first mile was 7:22. The first 4 miles were probably closer to 10k pace... and the next 3 miles I was able to settle in around 8:00. The last 2+ miles, I really paid for my early pace, but I was really thankful to have Carol with me to keep me pushing. Ironic thing is she was part of the reason for going out too fast. Even after the sucktastic final miles, I came away with a PR.. 1:13:44.

So what's next? I'm off to New Orleans this weekend to see my old running buddies Ryan and Jill, and run the Mardi Gras Half-Marathon. I know Mardi Gras is long past, but I guess the police need this long to recover to work the race! Anywho, after setting personal-best times at the last two half-marathons I ran, in spite of not really training for them, I have no such aspirations this time. My intention is to have fun, and most likely pace Jill for the first half of her marathon.

I'm not all that serious about training now, like I had been the last couple years. Yes, I do run and race a lot, and seem to be back on the every-other-week program. But it finally is about the fun (like it was supposed to be last year, and I had to knock myself back to that reality when burnout set in during the summer). Will it stay that way, or will the "new conquests" like a long-course duathlon (March 22), or Tour de Cure (June) get the better of me? I know I'm going to have to push my limits, as the du involves an 8k run, 50k bike, and another 8k run... and Tour de Cure is back-to-back 75-mile bike days. The challenge is figuring out how much is enough!

9/29: YMCA/Wrightsville Beach tri

2007-10-02T11:36:00.000-04:00

Re-writing history: "Two If By Land..." (and one if by sea)

The Wrightsville Beach tri is an unusual sprint... the swim is 1500 meters (published distance... maps out at 1300m in the water, swims like even less due to current). Either way, the distance and the open water are a bit much for my sensibilities, so I put together a relay team. First I recruited Erik from the Tri Club... he would be the swimmer, and the initial plan was that I would bike and run. But as my running deteriorated through the summer, and I thought more about that Salem Lake 30k, I decided it would be best to find a runner... and my Roadrunner pal Angie was happy to step in.

Race morning was perfect... just a little chill to start but plenty of sunshine to warm things up as the day went on. Erik liked the 80 degree water temperature, and Angie and I got to spectate from the transition area for a bit. The relay teams went off in a wave behind all but the novices, so we got to watch and cheer for some of our friends that were doing the full tri on their own. Erik had a good swim, even tho he struggled a bit with what was a long (300 yards) run into the transition... a check of the splits shows that I got out on the bike in 9th place out of the 32 mixed relay teams.

I can only begin to tell you how good I felt when I got out there on the bike. Didn't have to expend physical (and especially mental) energy on the swim; didn't need to worry about saving anything for the run... just go like hell! I spent most of the time in the aero bars, and kept my cadence up around 105. I shifted onto the big chain ring almost immediately after I crossed the drawbridge about a half mile into the ride, and I noticed it was still on the big ring when I got it home in the afternoon. Mostly rode in the middle of the stack in back...tailwind or what passes for downhill around here saw 24-25 mph. The little bit that was straight into the headwind, and the biggest of the slight rises, I maintained 17-18... but most of the time I was 20-22. The two waves (and 3 of 4!) immediately ahead of us were all women, so I was bagging a lot of roadkill. The 4 in-category roadkills were the most important ones, and I had the best ride I've done... 12 miles in 36:02 mat-to-mat, so a solid 20 mph average.

I almost tripped over a couple people in the transition area, but I got to the rack and got Angie on her way in good shape. After changing shoes and hanging around for a little bit, I made my way to the finishing straightaway to see some of my Tri Club buddies finish (those that we didn't roadkill) and then I tried to run Angie in. She had a personal-best 22:09 in that 5k, and our final time was 1:21:28. That was good enough for 2nd place in mixed relay, and we each got a beer mug for our efforts! So it's not really multisport hardware, but it is hardware from a sport other than running... and that's a first for me!

I'm definitely bitten by this bug that we call tri. Already looking at a couple of sprints in March, and relay at this event next year. If I spend my summer on the bike, there's no telling what I'll be able to hammer out at the end of next September.

9/22: Salem Lake Trail 30K

2007-10-02T11:02:00.000-04:00

A lesson in hydration...

First off, I'm told that you have to use the term "trail" pretty loosely in referring to this race. Still, it is different given that I run almost exclusively on flat pavement... the price of living in a coastal city that's so paved over.

This 30K was my first race longer than a half-marathon, and became my "A" race for the fall when I didn't get into NYC and couldn't find a suitable alternate. Going a new distance I had conservative goals... given my half-marathon times between 1:46 and 1:50, I figured 2:45-2:50 wasn't too crazy for this race. Didn't know how much I'd fall off late in the race so I figured I'd run what felt good, but make sure it was between 8:30 and 9/mile early in the race.

Which brings me to the first problem. My half-marathon PR came on a cloudy, misty, 55-degree day. The rest of my good half-marathons were all between 25 and 45 degrees. At the start of the 30K it was a muggy and dead-still 70. The race field was just over 400 people, which can get tight on a trail that's basically one car-width. I settled into a rhythm, and along with Andy, my running buddy from Wilmington, we were arguably at the fast end of the target pace. We started out fluctuating between 8:30 and 8:50, then settled in at 8:42 for the 4th and 5th miles. I was sure this wasn't sustainable, and tried to back off a bit. Mile 6 in 8:58 was more like it.

That pace was what I tried to hold from there, even tho I dropped behind Andy after walking thru the water station at 10k. It worked until the turnaround at halfway... but that turnaround, and one of the 3 tough hills of the day resulted in a 9:20 for the 10th mile. I'll get back on track, right? Nope, now my pace is staying around 9:20-9:30. I had made the turn, which was maybe a tenth past halfway, at 1:23:00... on schedule, right?

In the 13th mile it started to get really rough. I was struggling to run a full mile at a time without a walk break. The almost 2.5 mile spacing between these two aid stations was taking a toll as well. The bonk was underway, but just after 14 I caught Andy. He told me that was the first time he had started walking... I guess his race came apart a little more suddenly than mine.

The walk breaks continued to become more frequent, and the pain more intense. At mile 17, the calf cramps started, and 2-3 minutes was the most I could run at a time. I finished in 2:58:04, and my legs were shot. But the scary part had not really started yet.

Never mind that my calf muscles continued to spasm, or that they both cramped badly as I reached down to open the tailgate on my car after the race... something about the heat of the shower back at the hotel didn't agree with me, and I almost fainted. Janell took care of me through the afternoon, and there were times she wasn't sure she wouldn't end up needing to take me to the ER. She kept me supplied with Gatorade (and pop, NOT water when gatorade lost its appeal), and whatever salty foods I felt like I could handle. It took until the evening before I really started to feel more lifelike.

The whole thing has me really questioning my marathon-ing aspirations. Half the reason I got the idea of doing a marathon was that I felt so damn good after the Battleship HM last November, and there had to be something more. Now after doing 30k, I have no such delusions. Half of my attempts to run 15 miles or more have ended with something bad happening.

I had penciled in next February's Mardi Gras Marathon in New Orleans for my first attempt. BUT... there are two sprint triathlons here in March that I'd love to do. And of course the Broad Street 10-Miler in May. Maybe the half at Mardi Gras wouldn't be so bad?

8/12: Trying tri again

2007-08-23T13:14:00.000-04:00

Let me just start off by saying one thing... triathlon is very addictive. As a triathlete, I've always considered myself a runner that can cycle. Multisport is addictive, which is one good reason I'm doing a 2-person tri relay in September. I've got a swimmer lined up, then I'll bike and run.

I'm really happy that I decided to extend my membership in the Tri Club beyond that first 3 months and my first triathlon this spring. Pool time is the real kicker here, and the coaching is still essential for me, but maybe the best thing is being around such an encouraging bunch of people.

My second tri was another "super-sprint" which is actually less than a sprint... 250 yard pool swim, 15k bike, and 5k run. Mind you, the race site said 9 mile bike, and the shirts say 14k, but this course was 9.22 miles mount-to-dismount. Not that I mind a little bonus biking. ;)

The pool time has paid off over the last 4 months. I'm way more comfortable in the water than I was back in March. But novice triathletes going off every 10 seconds is bad news. I had entered a 2:15/100m pace to get my seeding; problem was others who entered the same pace were actually swimming 3:15 pace and getting in my way, or 1:45 pace and trying to go over the top of me. Not fun at all, especially the one guy who let me know he wanted to pass, not by touching my feet/toes, but by grabbing my ankle...every stroke...for more than half a length. Basically, instead of focusing on swimming well or fast, I was focused on not getting injured in the pool. Out of the water in 5:50, across the chip mat in 5:56.

Transitions were a bit easier this time, but still need some work. Didn't worry about socks or gloves this time around, and it was warm enough not to worry about a shirt either. On with the bike shoes, helmet, and glasses... but it seems like the helmet chin strap always snaps right in, except when I'm transitioning and want to be quick with it! Had to double back too, because I got about 3 racks down the TA when i realized that I still had a towel laying across the bars.

Tris are always much more fun once my scatterbrained butt is across that mount line and in the saddle! The bike course is a bit tricky, with the first couple miles being through a residential/golf community, complete with these lovely speed humps, or as they call them, speed tables. It's a gradual bump up, maybe 8-10 feet of flat, then back down. After the first one (of a dozen or so) I found I could take them in my aero bars. First part of the course was technical and a net uphill, so I stayed on the middle chain ring there. Later on I got out onto the big ring, but kept my rear gears in the middle of the stack so my cadence stayed up around 95-100. The hardest part for me is managing my effort on the bike... it just seems so easy to use up too much energy, whereas I can almost always manage my running effort so I still have something left for the end. That and riding downhill... the balance between recovery, momentum for the next hill, and the drag that goes with coming out of aero position to shift. Still, if you look at the rankings the bike was my strongest leg again, tho not quite what i wanted... 29:12 from mat to mat, average 19 mph in the saddle.

The run was still slow for me, tho it felt quite a bit better (temps in the 70s and a lot of humidity notwithstanding) than my first tri. The course was just hilly enough to have a little bite, and it took me most of the first mile to find a rhythm. Normally I'd complain heavily about a 24:53 5k, but in a tri in warm weather, I probably shouldn't.

Final time was 1:04:19, but of course in tri there's no real basis for comparison. Maybe that's a good reminder that I should put more emphasis on having fun. Not as much "roadkill" in this tri, which could either be a matter of hills, or that I'm becoming a better swimmer.

Next up, the Salem Lake Trail 30k on 9/22... then relaying that tri on 9/29. Hrm... maybe I should think about lining up a runner?

7/7: The Tri-Span 10K Death March

2007-07-09T15:36:00.001-04:00

Half the battle of Tri-Span is setting realistic goals. For the second out of 3 years, I set my goals low and failed to meet them anyway.

Last year, I ran this race in 49:11, admittedly weather-aided. After dropping my 10K PR down to 46:16 back in April, I figured that I'd be doing well to get into the 49s again this year, even if it was more typical Tri-Span weather. But on race morning I walked out the door and it was a wall of humidity. By race time (8am) the temp was 81F, with the humidity around 80%. My goal was adjusted to 51 min.

I started the race in what seemed like reasonable company (with or just behind people I'm usually just ahead of), and running miles too close to 8 min... first was 8:03, second was 7:48 over a bridge. I've never trusted the third mile but that was 7:40... I wasn't getting ahead of where I shoulda been competitively. The 4th mile (up and over the tallest of the 3 bridges) was 9:11, and I was back with Annemarie and my running partner Carol, both of whom were taking quite a few walking breaks. Over the last 2.2 miles I succumbed to the walk-break bug a few times, realized I couldn't hang with Annemarie, and finally had nothing for Carol at the end. The time was a really ugly 52:24 (chip time, gun time 52:40), with a lot of wondering why the hell I was running this race.

I usually figure a 3-4 minute dropoff for Tri-Span if it's a warm day. My PR in the 10K was in almost ideal conditions, but I backed it up with a couple of warm 5K's. Yet I still gave up SIX minutes. What the hell is wrong with me?

Did I overtrain? In June I was doing the Tuesday hill workouts every other week, and we included those 3 bridges in 4 out of 5 Saturday long runs. Or do I just give up that much more than everyone else in the heat? Either way, I'm looking for summer to be over as soon as possible.

Yes, I'm terrible at updating...

2007-07-09T15:03:00.000-04:00

Since the last post there have been a paltry 5 races... the Cliff Notes version of 4 of them is here.

4/21: Carrboro Classic Short Course Duathlon

A rude awakening to the hills in the more inland parts of NC, tho it's not what anyone but a flatlander like me would call hilly. I went out too fast, taking the first 2.4 mile run somewhere between 5k and 10k pace, even tho the event would last almost as long as a 15k. Had a solid first run, then a decent 12-mile bike (shocked when I got down to 12 mph up some of the hills... used the downhills as recovery and coasted down at 28), and just kinda held on for the final 1.2 mile run. I need to train to get the most out of longer events of this type... fun stuff when you don't have to swim.

5/6: Broad Street Ten-Miler

A beautiful weekend in Philly, and a great race with my running buddies. The net result was a weekend of serious beer drinking with my friends, 10 solid miles with my running buddy Jill, a negative split and a PR. Maybe I could have run faster, but that would have meant drinking less beer and running the race without Jill... I made the right choice.

5/12: Son Run and 5/27: Azalea Festival 5K

Two flat but quasi-hot 5K's that I actually surprised myself. I wasn't sure how well I'd do in the heat, but I ran solid and strong times... 22:18 and 22:17. I thought this would be an indicator that I was in decent shape for the summer.

Two PRs for the price of one!

2007-04-20T05:40:00.000-04:00

The Oak Island Lighthouse 10K has been an interesting race for me over the past two years... in 2005, it was where I took a big chunk out of my 10K PR. In 2006, it was the letdown that put a 10k monkey on my back (the monkey I couldn't shake in Toronto last July; I'd have to wait until fall to get free of that one). Yet again, I came into this race gunning for a PR. I've been fast lately, and the weather last Saturday morning for this race was perfect... temps in the mid 50s and light winds, even tho what little wind there was would be mainly a headwind.

I was a little frazzled to begin with, because this was finally the year they successfully changed the race start to 8:30 instead of 9, which I found out a few minutes after 6am Saturday. I had decided then that it wouldn't be a good idea to wait until 7 to start the 45 min drive to Oak Island, knowing that I had to register and catch a shuttle from registration to the start. Once I got there everything went smoothly, and even had a bit of down time. After all, this race never starts on time.

Most of my running buddies were sitting this one out, opting for a Sunday race right in Wilmington that pays Grand Prix points... I knew Sunday's race was in jeopardy because of weather (it ended up being cancelled!). And I felt like this course might owe me one after last year. One of the few Roadrunners that made the trip was expecting big things from me... she saw me run that 21:33 5k in Myrtle Beach in February, and thought I could get close to 45 in this 10k. My goal was 46, but I'd take anything under my 10K PR (46:51 on a most-likely-short course last October).

The start is halfway up the high-rise bridge from the mainland to the barrier island. I was shocked that I was in just the 2nd row, and a bit worried that I might go out too fast. I tried to settle in early, but it wasn't until after I crested the bridge that I got myself sorted out. (One of the faster runners that passed me going down the bridge told me on Sunday that I didn't run the downhill very well...I knew it was best that I didn't) Where's the 1-mile? I don't know, but I was close to where I remembered it when 7:00 came up on the watch. Where's 2 miles? Again, no marker! Somewhere near where I remembered the 3-mile mark, I saw 22:00 on my watch, but still couldn't be sure. The first thing I could be sure of was the starting line for the 5K, which I crossed at 22:37. I'd been working a little harder than I wanted to, but still had something left. Did I have enough for the headwind? Even if I didn't, I knew I was on to something here. I'm still not sure if the lack of the 1/2/3-mile markers was a plus or a minus...

The first half of the race had consisted of the bridge, and winding through some side streets on the island. The last half was on a narrower part of the island... basically a straightaway along the only road... into the wind. By this point the sun was getting just warm enough that I welcomed what wind we had. I hit the 4-mile mark at 29:30, still in good shape. In the 5th mile, I tried to focus on the military guys I was slowly catching, rather than the lighthouse that sits at about 5.5. The 5-mile mark came up at 37:04, well under my previous best of 38:35 or even the 37:50 from that short-course PR. About then, I catch the military guys, and Michael from the Tri Club catches me. When I moved out to pass, the wind hit me especially hard. I tucked back in for a second, and Michael shot past all three of us. I followed Michael and tried to see how long I could draft. Not long, was the answer. Too bad, because he later admitted he had been drafting me for a while before he passed. Either this part of the course was more exposed, or the wind was picking up. And maybe I used up a little too much early in the race. The 5K walkers aren't moving fast enough to leave a hole in the wind for me either. The 6-mile mark was 44:45... and I was able to kick it in to the finish for a 46:16.

Which brings me to the other reason I enjoy this race. First of all, it's a Brunswick County race, which means a smaller and less competitive field. I was 14th of 155 overall, and 3rd of 15 in my age group (35-39). Instead of trophies, race hardware is an 8x10 framed print from a local artist, a different take on the Oak Island Lighthouse each year.

My main goal this year was just to have fun, but I have to admit the conquests and PRs add to the fun. Saturday, it's a super-sprint duathlon (4k run/12 mile bike/2k run). I'm a little new on the bike yet for the long course (8k run/53k bike/8k run), so better to just go like hell in the shorter race. I'm running fast and strong these days, so I'll enjoy it while I can... last December is way too fresh in my mind, when I could hardly run at all.

My first tri

2007-04-02T15:36:00.000-04:00

A year ago, I spectated at a tri... and maybe got a little bit of the bug. Six months ago, I was fresh onto the road bike, and I volunteered at another tri. It was then I decided I could suffer through the 300 yard pool swim at this Saturday's Azalea Festival Triathlon, just for the payoff of the bike and run.

I joined the Tri Club through the Y in January, so I could get the pool time in. The coaching was an absolute necessity. I don't think I would have gotten through without it, but still even as we got well into March I dreaded going in for swim practices. The last couple of weeks tho, some of the dread subsided, but that may have been just knowing that race day was getting close and it would all be over soon.

When I get out of the water... THAT is when my race starts.

A pool swim means a time trial staggered start. Couple that with a tight transition area that forced everyone to be racked up before the first swimmer was off, and you've got a lot of "hurry up and wait." I showed up at 7:30 to have my chip and be racked up by 8... but it would be 11:19 before I pushed off that wall in the pool.

I figured the swim was going to be absolutely craptastic. The best I had done for 100 in practice was a 2:15, and I didn't think that pace was even sustainable for 300 yards. Yes, it's slow. When I came off that wall, I got into a good rhythm (maybe too good i.e. too fast)... didn't even kick much at all the first 50. Got passed by someone after 100. I used that bit of a draft, but it was starting to feel more like work too. After 150 I happened to see the clock and I had only been in for 3:26...this is going better than expected! The 4th and 5th lap I'd rather forget... caught in traffic (I actually passed someone!), water in the goggles, just getting tired. At that point it was down to determination... on the last lap the first 25 was backstroke... and then go like hell for the ladder on the last 25... out of the water in 7:32. My official swim split (including down a flight of stairs and out the door to the chip mat) was 7:47.

Now it's time to race. How many people can I pass? On the 300 yard run down to the transition area, I took care of the 3 people that passed me in the pool. Or so I thought. First, I scraped my hand on the wall during warmup in the pool, and that made getting gloves and a watch on a bit painful. Second, there's nothing more nasty than a hot PowerGel that's been sitting in the sun for an hour. Not sure if socks were really necessary in a sprint, but that surely cost me a few seconds as well. Long story short, I couldn't make any of those passes stick, and had a really slow T1.

Once I got on the bike, my whole race changed. Up thru the gears, settle into the aero bars... I was a million times more comfortable than just a few minutes before. This being my first tri, I was never sure how hard I could push and still have something left for the run. So I never did get all the way out on the ragged edge. But I was passing people here and there (the time trial start spread us out). I played a mental game with myself... trying to see how low a number I could pass while on the bike (lower the number, the earlier they started!) or just how many I could pass. It was just a 10 mile ride, but the best place to open it up was a bit early so I stayed off the big ring. Still was able to pull 23mph on a flat smooth straightaway, with maybe a slight headwind. The last third of the ride was a bit dicey to say the least. We were on a well-traveled 2-lane road, no shoulder, no restriction to traffic. When cars got backed up (either stopped at a light, or not passing a slower cyclist) I couldn't get by! Time was lost there. I ended up finishing the bike leg in 30:35, and bagged 22 "roadkills" including one that started the swim 7 minutes ahead of me.

My transitions still need work. I'll give up a little bit to those who bike and run in the same shoes, but 1:37 in T2 is a bit much. Four of my roadkills got out of the bag.

Not to worry... I took them all back in the first quarter mile of the run. But the run was still not good. Even tho the legs freed up from the "brick" sensation off the bike, the effort seemed way too hard and the stride and speed weren't there. Not to mention my shoe didn't feel like it was tied that well, and running on sidewalks ain't fun either. I was damn close to 17 min at the 2-mile mark. Still bagging roadkill here and there... 14 on the run, including the 4 that passed me in T2. Somewhere in the last mile, I finally found my stride. I came around the second to last turn approaching the finish, and there was my cheering section: Janell sitting up on top of a transformer, and my Tri Club buddies with their cowbells... then the turn into the chute to finish my first tri in 1:09:27 (as the official results would show). The 5k run was 24:59... not a thing of beauty.

The stats...
300 yard swim: 7:47
T1: 4:29 (including a 300 yard run into the TA)
10 mile bike: 30:35 (3rd best in the novice category)
T2: 1:37
5K run: 24:59

The good:
I finished!
Nobody passed me on the bike.
Nobody passed me on the run.
The support from Janell, and the Tri Club folks, was priceless.

The bad:
The first 2 miles of the run.
My transitions.

The ugly:
The swim.

Janell mentioned 2 words she didn't hear from me... "never again"
Maybe not this year... I'm not up for open water. A tri with a pool swim next year? If I can get to where I don't dread swim training, maybe.

Until then, other than relay opportunities, it goes back to Yoda...
"Du or du not; there is no tri."

Mostly for my own archival purposes...
Placing: 10th novice male out of 25, (12/35 if ya count the masters), 14th of 99 total novices (m/f)

234 out of 345 men... 306 out of 611 overall (yes, exactly middle of the pack)

Long and winding road...Part 2 (Feb)

2007-03-08T15:13:00.000-05:00

We'll title this one "The Need For Speed."

Carol and I were finally both healthy and running strong enough to pull off the front of groups we were used to training with. I was so used to training at a 9:00/mile pace, but when we run together, there's this zone we get into where 8:15-8:30 feels pretty good.

The Myrtle Beach half-marathon (Feb 17) closed out shortly after the first of the year, and I couldn't put a relay team together. So I signed up for the 5K, wondering if my speed addiction would pay off with that 21:12 5K that every Rush fan who runs should shoot for. I went out strong and fast (debatably too fast... 6:30 for the first mile), but the pace just locked in on 7:10 after that. The end result was a 21:33 and some unexpected hardware.

Being the glutton that I am, and with enough of the contingent of my running buddies feeling lazy the next morning, I found a way into the half and ran it for fun. I started well back with a running buddy who was aiming to run a 2:15, and just worked my way up through, chatting with other friends as I found them. About halfway I picked up a pace partner... we had enough of a discussion to know she was worried about what was beyond the 10-mile mark, so I committed myself to pacing and motivating her to what would be her best half-marathon by 11 minutes. I ended up running 1:52, which I don't consider at all bad for as much as I was feeling the 5K from the night before.

I was definitely having fun... feeling fast and strong. Time to take a brief break before getting serious about training for the Broad Street Run... and throw my name in the lottery for NYC. :)

A long and winding road...Part 1 (Jan)

2007-03-08T15:04:00.000-05:00

With all apologies to McCartney and Lennon, I haven't posted much about running in a long while because there has always been a lot to process.

The IT band issued back in December really put a stop to my marathon intentions. I had fought the injury for almost a month before I finally decided that I would not be able to do the marathon (Rock 'n Roll Arizona). That decision point was probably my rock-bottom moment, but it also took some pressure off so I could start my comeback.

Christmas night featured a half-drunk run at the beach with my new running buddy Carol. I think we were able to do about a quarter mile at a time before one of our injuries started talking back. But just a couple nights later we ran at a pace governed by a greyhound (a mellow 8-year-old greyhound) and we were pain-free for a couple miles.

From there I was able to ramp the miles up and went out to Phoenix in January feeling pretty confident... not about marathon-ing, but just that I could complete the half-marathon and have fun.

I started out thinking I'd just pace my running buddy Janice, but she was just 8 days after a PR half of her own, so after 3 miles she sent me on ahead. By mile 8 I was actually racing and it felt SO good. The local Hash House Harriers were out at the 12-mile mark, so I paused to drink some beer, but I finished in 1:49:41. Not a PR (that's still 1:46) but not bad for not being able to run without pain 3 weeks earlier.

Multi-sport, and Jedi mind tricks

2007-02-25T14:43:00.000-05:00

I believe it was Yoda who said "Du or du not... there is no tri." ;)

Among all the other things I need to catch my blog up with, I'm entered in my first triathlon, a sprint on March 31st. I really wanted to get in on this one because it's a pool swim, and only 300 yards. Even after a couple months in training, I don't look forward to getting up for 5:40am swim practices twice a week. Granted, I'm not a morning person, but I welcome hitting the road with my running buddies at 6am on some other days of the week.

I may never embrace the swim, but I can damn well embrace duathlons. Today was a low-key event, with maybe 30 people from the Tri Club. It was sold to us as an opportunity to practice transitions, but clearly it was an opportunity for the timing and scoring guy to train his crew.

Not a certified course, so I don't know how to use my run times as any sort of barometer, but I paid enough attention to get a few pieces of info out of it. Maybe I used a bit too much on the first 2-mile run, if it was really 2 miles... 15:00 for the out-and-back, then another :37 to get to the T1 chip mat.. The bike seemed like 2 different events... out into a nasty headwind, and I didn't know how much to save, so 16-17mph was all I was willing to fight for. On the way back, a nice tailwind, which let me pull 24-25mph a lot of the time, until I got a bit of a calf cramp from not hydrating enough. Fortunately I was able to dig my heels in a bit and ride thru it, and didn't lose much speed. The wind and the narrow bike lane (and 55mph traffic that doesn't leave any room for error) kept me from spending much time in the aero bars. I'll have to look at the results to know what the transitions were, but T1 + 10 mile bike + T2 = 35:00. Coming out of T2 I got my real introduction to the "brick." I don't think my legs freed up until a half mile into the run. Going out I was 40 seconds slower than in the first run... coming back was the same pace as in the first run. Second run was 17:47, but the placement of the finish made the course about 1:20 longer. Total time 1:08:24... and you know me... I'll be mapping the run course to see where the real 2-mile was. *lol*

I dare say it was a good first experience with multisport. Now I think it's time for a nap. I'll catch up with a more solely running-oriented post soon... there's been a lot to process in the last couple months.

Male marathoners' PMS, and ITBS

2006-12-05T23:35:00.000-05:00

It's been a trying couple of long-run weekends here.

The weekend of Turkey Day, I knew I needed to run it off to the tune of about 18 miles. With most of my other running buddies either out of town or racing, it was down to Carol and her hip was NOT cooperating. At least she biked alongside me for the first 6 miles of what turned out to be 19... I owe that woman a beer. BUT... the pace was pretty slow the whole time, which wouldn't have been a concern but for the fact my IT band made itself known after about 17.

That run did something to my chemical/hormonal balance, because it left me feeling really on edge emotionally for a couple days. At least two of my female friends said it sounded like PMS. I was going to say I probably reallllly depleted my testosterone levels.

Tuesday I had to cut a hill workout short because of the ITB... still thought it was no biggie. On Thursday my running buddies Ryan and Jill really helped me out, keeping me focused in spite of some serious girl problems. The plan was 6x800m, with a goal time between 3:40-3:45. I almost wanted to quit when the 5th one came in at 3:51.. but Jill did really well to get me to a 3:34 on my last one.

Now we fast-forward to this past Saturday. The plan was 15 miles. My running buddies Ryan and Jill would meet me at 5 miles, where Jill would join and Ryan will go ahead to the start/10-mile point. Then we would all do a 5-mile out-and-back to finish it off. Before we got to 5, my ITB was talking to me a bit. Ryan rolled out my IT before he sent me and Jill on our way. After needing a stretch break at 7, we picked up the pace and took a shortcut, meeting Ryan with 9 miles in my book. More stretching and more rolling with the massage stick, and the 3 of us were on our way. Ryan didn't want me to know we had picked the pace up to 8:20/mile... it felt better on my IT band but I could only hold it so long. The shortcut took us from a plan of 15 to 14, and turning back early took it to 13... but when I backed off after 12.5 the IT band locked up completely... we're talkin sitting in the grass crying in pain here, not a pretty picture at all.

So now I haven't run since Saturday... will try it again Wednesday. No telling what distance or pace I'll be capable of, but if that doesn't work I have an appt with a massage therapist on Thursday. I really don't know if I'll be able to get the miles in to do this marathon right, so I guess we'll just see what happens. Worst case, I can run the half, right? ;)

Another weekend, another T-shirt...

2006-11-20T13:23:00.000-05:00

Another PR! :) OK, so it's the flattest (think barrier island) and fastest(!) 5K around here... and I ran a 22:16. But DAMN, 5K's hurt!

Some might wonder why I do a race like this, as the women race separately before the men, so most of my running buddies aren't around to pace with. Easy...because it's FAST! I think I ran it just about right... 7:00/7:11/7:22/:41 on the watch, plus my reaction time at the start and theirs at the finish. See, I don't believe in negative splits in a 5K. And with good reason if you look at the last miles of my last 3 races:

Mile 3 of a 5K: 7:22
Mile 13 of a half: 7:25
Mile 6 of a 10K: 7:27

Clearly, that's what I've got once there are race miles on my legs. Can we say no fast-twitch fibers?! Still, this race was work... hammering from beginning to end.

Purists may wonder if I woulda had a 22 in me if I hadn't hashed on Saturday. This was a long-ish hash too, probably about 6 miles of forward motion after accounting for checking a few false trails. And I have a few scrapes on my legs from the woods. But you know what? I'm glad I did that hash. Good company, a fun time, good food and good beer at the "on-after." They didn't even give me too much crap for being a "race-ist" (they think racing is far too serious a pursuit) after I was outed by the hasher that made me come. (as in show up at the hash, get your minds outta the gutter, people!)

This was an intentionally "easy" weekend (but what's easy about racing a 5K?) coming off the half last weekend, because now I have to start the serious training for Rock'n'Roll Arizona. I'll be doing 18 next weekend and getting a couple of 20's in by Xmas weekend... then I taper. I just realized I almost certainly won't race until the marathon. That may prove just enough to dissuade me from doing more of them in the future.

Unfinished business...now finished

2006-11-13T12:23:00.000-05:00

Sunday was my second go-round with the Battleship Half-Marathon. Last year, it was my very first half-marathon and taught me some hard lessons. For those just tuning in, last year I went out too fast, bonked at mile 10, and just getting to the finish in 1:56:05 was a new experience in pain. And something that didn't help was running part of the course with Sam Thompson in August, as he was doing it twice for his 40th of 50 marathons... I caught the fastest part of his run and couldn't hang on a hot day. So I was left really feeling like I had some unfinished business with this course.

Fortunately, heat would not be a problem in this race. The cold front came through just before dawn, and temps would be falling into the 50s. The real challenges would be a gusty west wind, and a wet course (especially bad on the grating of the two drawbridges).

The short version: official time 1:46:29, watch time (started at the line) 1:46:09
4 minutes under my half-marathon PR, almost 10 minutes better than last year's meltdown.

Start - Mile 5: Cautious optimism
My running buddy Cari and I started out together, hoping to hang back at the start with Jill and her friends that came in from Baton Rouge. We underseeded ourselves (which may have been a smart move) but we also didn't do near as good a weave as the LA crew in the traffic. But it may be better that we lost them anyway, because they went out too fast for me, and probably too fast for Cari too. The first mile, in traffic and over a high-rise bridge, came in at 8:14. Just about what we needed. In the second mile, it felt so good to get turned east, and have the wind at our back for a bit. The second bridge was out of the way quickly, but the wet grating on the drawbridge was most unnerving. Mile 2 was 7:44 and I knew we needed to settle down a bit. Mile 3 took us into downtown Wilmington and it's really where the race needs to get its rhythm. I had some inkling of trying to catch up with Jill and John (the latter being very easy to spot with the "run hard, live easy" motto on the back of his shirt), but we just weren't taking any time out of them. Best that we didn't try harder... mile 3 was 7:50. Overall we were just about on schedule, but I was concerned that the 2nd and 3rd miles held a bit too much resemblance to the "ludicrous speed" of last year's start. In the 4th mile Cari started to slow up a bit, but then again I needed to do that myself. She didn't seem too optimistic at the base of the Ann Street hill when I asked "can ya go?" It seemed like we had it pretty locked in, and mile 4 was 8-flat. In the 5th mile I knew we had it under control, and Cari said she felt like she could hold that pace for a while. But not long after, she said "don't let me hold ya back...I'm not as fast as I used to be." I kept her "in tow" more than anything else, and I was keying on the sign when I hit my watch for the 5th mile at 8:21. But as much as I run in that area, I realized the sign was about 100 feet past the actual mark. :/ So here we are at 5 miles in 40:11 (or closer to 40-flat?), pretty much identical to last year. Can ya see why I might be a bit concerned?

Around the lake to Mile 9: Indecision
I wasn't quite sure what to do for a while... do I keep pushing for my time, or do I hang with Cari? What IS she capable of running today anyway? I remembered the call I made in the last race, and wasn't going to throw out a PR... and at the same time I knew she went on her own when she was the healthy one. So I did it kinda half-assed for a while, maintaining a pace that I knew would get me a solid PR, and just seeing if she could hang. Mile 6 was 8:02 on the watch, but see above for the discrepancy at 5. Coming into the water station at 10K, I walked it... time for a PowerGel. After enough of a walk break to down the gel and a cup of water, I looked over my shoulder and Cari was just coming in to the water stop... I ease back up to pace hoping she is back. She isn't. Mile 7 came up at 8:28. Every race has a segment that can be really demoralizing, and at the Battleship it's the 8th mile. It's a triangular add-on that takes us away from the usually shaded (today just wind-sheltered) Greenfield Lake, and back again. The westbound leg is dead into the wind today. At the turn that is the second point of the triangle, I looked back for Cari and saw she was well behind. If she couldn't hang with this pace, I knew I had to run my pace. Back down into the park, and Mile 8 was 8:02. This is the point in the race where hydration is getting to be important, so I walked the water station just after the marker. Mile 9 was 8:18... total time at this point is right at 1:13, a 2-min improvement over either of my prior half-marathons.

The last 4.1: It's time to go racing!
Well, not just yet... the last mile around the lake is largely into that headwind. And it comes out to skirt a major intersection, where they keep us on the sidewalk. Someone didn't want to get the table legs muddy when they set up the water station just before 10, so it turned out to be more of a roadblock. Mile 10 was 8:19, and I'm feeling soooo much better than last year. In the 11th mile, I'm realizing all I've got left is a 5k, and I'm really starting to feel it... and talk trash about it. My hill-running buddy Frank was taking pictures near 10.5, and I told him "Alright Frank, NOW it's time to go racin'!" Just before the marker, I caught another runner I knew. "This is where it really started to hurt last year... now it's time for me to hurt this course." Mile 11 was 8:04. I never know just how well I'll respond when fatigue is a factor, so I walked a few seconds while I got that last drink... this water stop was at 11.4, just before the ramp up onto the Cape Fear Memorial Bridge. Once I get onto the bridge, the wind was just insane. And people in front of me are struggling so badly that I can't really catch a draft for any length of time. The grating on the drawbridge is the last really tricky part of the course, and once I'm back on pavement it's about 2000m to go. That's where I started to hammer. Mile 12 was an otherwise lackluster 8:32. That leaves me at 1:37:58 on the watch... guess I can still get my goal of 1:47 on the watch, if not the finish clock. Ahead of me I see a shirt that I hadn't caught sight of for a long while... "run hard, live easy" Can I catch John and Jill? The rise in the off-ramp that made me walk one last time last year is barely noticeable. Between realizing how good I felt, and remembering how bad I felt last time, I damn near cried with a half mile to go. But this is just another half...keep hammering. The 13-mile marker comes up, and... WOW! 7:25! I didn't catch the LA crew, but I finished strong... 1:46:09 on my watch, 1:46:29 on the clock. Any unfinished business with this course is now finished. I stuck around the chute long enough to see Cari finish... right about 1:50. At least she felt good, but she just didn't feel fast.

When I finished this race last year, I could barely walk. When I finished my last half, I felt ok, but I was clearly used up. This time around, I felt good... like I could go some more. So to prove what a glutton for punishment I am, and that I have learned nothing from Janice and Sofie's marathon attempts gone horribly awry, last night I signed up to do my first marathon.

Long overdue...

2006-11-06T12:22:00.000-05:00

I know, it's terrible. I'm 3 race reports behind. I guess life kinda happened. The good news is now that I have my road bike, cycling is more a part of my cross-training (probably soon to be tri-training, but let's not get ahead of myself). The other pieces of good news are that I'm running more miles than ever (on schedule to be ready for Rock 'n' Roll Arizona in January) and I'm running stronger times than ever.

So on with the race reports, probably best as executive summaries (but I don't think I stuck to that very well, did I?)...

9/14: Wilmington Historical Foundation 5K Run for Preservation... makes it sound all important, doesn't it? I heard it called the "Hysteric" 5K, and I decided to call it the Run for Self-Preservation. Most of my running buddies were sitting this race out, since it was a Thursday evening race, and gods forbid they should skip a Thursday morning track workout. Bah! What better way to get speed work than racing a 5k?! (Can ya tell I still don't enjoy the track?) Fortunately, Sofie had the same idea I did, so I had someone to push me.

There's no way I should have run a good time in this race. First, I was only 4 days removed from my 10K PR out in Oregon. Second, it had rained hard in the afternoon, and part of the course was on cobblestone/paving bricks, some of which were a little uneven, and all of which were now wet. Third, I had enjoyed fall weather in Oregon the previous weekend, and it continued after I got back, but summer had returned... temps in the mid 70s with 80-85% relative humidity. Sofie's strategy was that she should feel like she was about to puke the entire race... I told her just don't do it in my direction, as I'd try to hang with her as long as I could. That was about 1 mile... she put about 30 seconds on me in the second mile, but then it stabilized for the rest of the race. No splits as they couldn't mark the course very well... but I ended up with a 23:11. Not a PR, but damn respectable in the heat and sometimes unsure footing.

10/8: Riverfest "Run The River" 8K... This is a small race, and deceptively tough. Nobody talks much about what a tough course it is, but it's basically the same as the Tri-Span course (look back to July for my post on that), only without the flat 2K add-on. The 3 bridges are the same. And in an interesting twist this year, weather on this warm-for-October morning was identical (within a degree) to the unseasonably cool-for-July conditions we had for Tri-Span. Again no reliable mile-splits to work with on this relatively poorly marked course, so I just had to judge based on who was around me. I kept the people in sight that I needed to, and didn't let anyone pass me that shouldn't have. I might have saved a little too much in the middle part of the race, but that's always been a challenge for me. Not to mention that you don't want to use it all up on the second (and steepest) of the 3 bridges, else that third one will bite you. I did hammer the last mile and a half to finish with a 38:49, basically exactly what my Tri-Span time woulda predicted, and my best time in a Riverfest race. The good part of this one was that I clinched my age group in the Roadrunners Grand Prix... with 3 races still to go.

10/21: the Oyster Festival 10K in Ocean Isle Beach... always seems to be a race of firsts for me. In 2004, it was my first 10K ever. In 2005, it was the first race that I really gave up on... just kinda cruising in after my running buddy Cari dropped me around mile 4. This isn't a Grand Prix race, but it's Cari's home race and this time it was her first race back after an injury. She's got her strength back, but was feeling a little under the weather. Still, she made what I didn't realize was her patented too-fast start... I hung with her and we hit the first mile in 7:26... right on schedule for me. The second mile was 7:56 with an offset headwind... and spectators were taking note that Cari was the first female at that point. Another girl got up to us and got a little racy, but turned off at the split because she was doing the 5K... I'm not sure if Cari started taking it easy for that reason, or was just feeling bad. I started to slowly pull away, and made the decision... I'd attack as long as I could still go for a PR. If I thought it wouldn't work I'd fall back to Cari and run with her. The 5K was 24:10, and I knew I'd need a negative split... maybe the wind would help. I was a little suspicious of the turnaround (thought I remembered it being a little farther out when I did this race before), and more suspicious when the 4th mile was 6:54. Still the pace felt right, so I kept pushing. I trusted the 5th and 6th miles for a nice negative split, and finished in 46:51. A check of the certification showed the course ended up being about a tenth of a mile short... but even with that adjustment it's really close to my PR. The racing first here? Too fast to enjoy the scenery, i.e. I finished ahead of the first female. I got 3rd in my age group (small race, but my age group was by far the biggest), and Cari hung in there to finish as the 2nd overall female. One of these days we'll be the same speed again... if we can both be healthy at the same time.

Next up: the Battleship NC Half Marathon this coming Sunday. It comes at a point in my marathon training where my long runs are up over 16 miles, and I'm hitting the track most weeks. There had been fleeting thoughts of running a 1:45 but the weather forecast looks warm-ish, so I might need to scale that back a couple minutes. I'm thinking 1:47-1:48 will be good, but I've got to race the big picture. If anything doesn't feel right, I'll back it off and not risk messing up my marathon training. Hopefully all goes well, and I'll be officially entering and booking flights and such by this time next week.

It's been a while

2006-09-12T23:26:00.000-04:00

Yes, a whole month since my last post. See what happens when it's too hot to race?

I'm freshly back from a long weekend in Oregon, and still recovering from the jet lag. The scenery and natural beauty out there is amazing, and when you throw in what a running-friendly, and cycling-friendly area it is... well, I could totally live in Portland. It's always been on my short list.

Thursday night I was running and drinking with a group of hashers in Portland... actually my virgin hash too. No, I don't think River To The Sea quite meets all the criteria here, but at least I knew a little bit about not having any rules. Good people, and lots of good beer. The beer was another recurring theme of my weekend out there.

Friday was quite a long day, as was Thursday, so I spent Saturday morning before my friend's wedding (in Eugene) sleeping late, rather than running Pre's Trail.

Sunday morning found me back in Portland, and jumping in an aptly named race, even if the concept is backwards: the Pints To Pasta 10K. OK, I know it passes a brewery early in the race, on the way to the finish at an Old Spaghetti Factory restaurant... but shouldn't we race from Pasta To Pints?! :)

It was a big enough race to have "pace signs" at the start, and I slotted in between the 7min/mile and 8min/mile signs, trying to overseed myself just enough to be ahead of most of the others that were overseeding themselves. At the start, everyone still took off like maniacs! I was working a lot harder than I wanted to be in the first mile, and a surprising number of people were passing me. It had been 2 months since I raced, and I wondered what was going on? Had I gotten that out of shape? I ran it like I used to run with Cari, and it looked a lot like the last 10k I started with her... 6:57 in the downhill first mile. I knew I needed to settle into a rhythm NOW, or I'd pay for it later. The second and third miles were relatively flat, but not Wilmington-flat... and I was passing some of the crazy folk who went out too fast. Past the brewery, past the basketball arena, and almost to the Steel Bridge... 7:45, and 7:45. Just keep it up. :) The Steel Bridge is the world's only double-deck lift bridge... and while the approach has just a little bite, it's not bad and a net downhill because the east bank of the river is higher than the west bank there. Loop back under the bridge and we're on a nice wide path thru the riverfront park. It's just warm enough in the sun to make me question the decision to wear long sleeves, but not bad. The 4th mile is 7:45... how did I do that? Midway thru the 5th mile, the pace is getting to be work... and the slight hill up off the riverfront (through the site of a legalize-marijuana rally to take place later) really had some bite. I hope I'm not giving up too much, and when the 5th mile shows up as 7:28, I wonder if it's in the right place. Much of the 6th mile is thru an area that's undergoing "urban renewal"... I've decided I'll leave everything out there this day, and I'm passing more of my competitors, as we're trying to weave our way past other runners who are clearly doing their 20 in preparation for the upcoming Portland Marathon. My suspicions about the 5-mile marker are backed up when it takes me 8:19 to get to 6. I was already in my 800 gear and that was all I had... finished strong with a 47:33 and finally! got that 10K PR monkey off my back.

The spread at the end was quite nice... pasta from the Old Spaghetti Factory, and Widmer Brothers beer. Say what you want about knocking back a beer at 9am, but my watch said it was noon (still on Eastern time). And it was a well-earned beer anyway. :D I know I'm being over-critical, but I do have one regret from this race... the Oktoberfest ale was so good, I used both my beer tickets on it without trying their IPA. I had some damn good IPAs out there, and some overly bitter ones... and if I wanted the Broken Halo bad enough, I woulda had one with lunch before my flight out of PDX on Monday. But with a 4+ hour flight ahead of me, I decided to go with the Drop Top Amber Ale... not much to that beer.

Sunday afternoon after a bit of a nap I thought about heading to the coast. It seemed like a lot of driving, and I had been there on Thursday afternoon, so I headed east to get into at least a little of the Columbia River Gorge. And I drove up Larch Mountain... the road to the top is 14 miles long, and you gain something around 3000-3500 feet of elevation. On the way up I saw several cyclists pedaling their way up. It was actually very motivating, in an Alpe d'Huez-ish kinda way. :) At the top was a viewpoint from which you could see Mount Hood and Mount Jefferson in Oregon (but not the Three Sisters), and Adams, Rainier, and St. Helens in Washington.

More on the cycling side later.

Murphy's Law of race support

2006-08-09T14:49:00.000-04:00

I just had to end up running the section of Sam Thompson's marathon run today where he was fastest, clicking off 8:15-8:20 miles. So instead of the 8 I planned to do with him, I only got in 6... and in this heat that was damn near race effort to do what I did.

I jumped in just after the 10-mile mark, hoping to run with him until he passed that point again at 18. The pace was definitely quick, but I didn't mind initially. A quick pace is rarely a bad thing when you're crossing the Cape Fear Memorial Bridge with no traffic control. At the Battleship North Carolina we reached the halfway point... the start and finish of the half-marathon course that he was running twice. Three runners that did the first half with him dropped off, and a few new runners joined in to start the second half. The pace was still almost blistering, and by now so was the heat. Before we got to the 2-mile mark on the course (15.1 for him, not quite 5 for me) I just couldn't quite hang anymore. Fortunately it was just another mile to where one of my running buddies was waiting with water and gatorade for Sam and his supporters. So with a bit less than 6 miles in the books I hopped in the van with Janice, and we headed for the point where I started... and hoped to finish... and where she would join the group.

From there (now 18 into the marathon), I grabbed some supplies and drove ahead to give them water/gatorade at 20... then back to that same point to see them come through at 23.something. I was wishing I had picked a different section to run, because the calming influence of his gf, who jumped in at 18, and/or "the Wall" caused him to back off the pace noticeably... he was running more like 9-minute miles. From there, those no longer running shuttled back to the Battleship to see him finish. If I recall, he did a 3:49... and the amazing thing is that it was his 41st marathon in the last 40 days.

You know, I really have no room to complain about a "tough day" today... even if he looked in better shape after 26.2 than I felt after not-quite-6. I'm just amazed at what this guy is doing, and really pleased that I could be part of "something bigger."

As an aside, as I'm looking to do my first marathon, I know where NOT to do my first or my 51st: Kiawah (near Charleston in SC). I'm sure it's a beautiful course, but they told Sam that he was not welcome there, because they are a resort community and "don't support (his) cause."

Must be nice to have been able to forget Hugo, or be a stuck-up Yankee who doesn't understand hurricanes. So if you're lookin' for a marathon, don't do the Kiawah Island Marathon.

Not over yet, I guess...

2006-08-04T21:14:00.000-04:00

Drama is something I don't like... something I run to avoid. So naturally when there's drama in my running life I try to be done with it. Well, I said my peace on Tuesday night, but all indications are that we as a club have not heard the last of this one. At least I have some good solid backing. Here's hoping I can return the favor for those who need it.

Long run tomorrow... will try for drama-free.

50 in 50 in 50

2006-08-02T22:26:00.000-04:00

At first glance, I thought this guy might very well be crazy. Sam Thompson is an ultra-marathoner from Mississippi, and in an effort to raise awareness and funds for continued post-Katrina relief efforts on the Gulf Coast, he's running 50 marathons in 50 states in 50 days.

Next Wednesday, August 9th, he'll be here in Wilmington, running the Battleship Half-Marathon course twice for the North Carolina leg of his journey. I plan to throw some of my $$ into the kitty, and run at least 5 of those miles with him. Maybe more if the heat/humidity aren't unmanageable.

"That" Look...

2006-07-27T21:48:00.000-04:00

My Roadrunner friends talk about a look I get... when I show up for a run and see one of any number of people, and the thought becomes etched all too clearly in my face and eyes... "Woohoo! Someone else who runs like me!"

I wasn't expecting that at the track this morning... I knew Janice and Joanne would be doing their 4:00 Yasso 800s in prep for Chicago... Janice is going for a BQ there; Joanne already has hers in hand. I don't have a race staring me down, but I figured it couldn't hurt to hit the track... maybe see if I could get some 3:40s under my belt? But would Tracy run that slow? Fortunately, Sofie was there...she's going for a BQ at the Outer Banks Marathon in November, so she wanted to run 3:45s. :) Hence "the look."

Actually, I woulda been content with getting in 6 repeats, but she wanted to do 8. The last one was ugly for both of us, but we both got there...most of them clustered around 3:40! I'm pretty damn pleased with it in the heat, and it gives me confidence that building a good endurance base will allow me to get solidly under 4 hrs when I take my first shot at The Stupidest Distance Known To Man. But where to take that shot?

I've got 3 possibilities in mind....
Jan 2007: Rock 'n Roll Arizona (my Roadrunner friends are talkin about it)
Mar 2007: Shamrock Marathon in Va Beach
Apr 2007: Big Sur (forget about 4 hrs, but a couple of the organizers want me there!)

Now if I get transferred north this fall, I think that limits me to the last of the three... stay tuned!

Since it's too damn hot to race...

2006-07-18T23:27:00.000-04:00

...there's time for a few thoughts.

When I thought about racing last Saturday late-afternoon/early-evening, it was 94, with a 103 heat index. As soon as I put away the checkbook and asked the race director how I might help out, a thunderstorm passed close enough to us that race-time conditions were 83 with a 90 heat index. Still better weather for volunteering, so no regrets there.

It's been a long time since I worked as hard in a spin class as I did tonight. Maybe that's an illusion, created by bodypump last night and running 5 miles this morning... or maybe a Canadian woman who opens the class with a track from Delerium just knows how to extract way too much effort from me?

I might run tomorrow if my IT bands aren't twinging... or I might just wait til Thursday morning anyway (another double-up day *grin*).

Next race is a 5k on 8/26... I think I'll use this time to shock my body, and see if that will stop the weight from spiking any further (163 lb today, up from 157 in April).

Tri-Span... no death march this year!

2006-07-09T01:52:00.000-04:00

Wow... what a difference a year makes. Last year's Tri-Span 10K was one of the 2 most miserable races I've ever done. The heat, the tough course, and being my 2nd race back from an injury led to a 52:51 where it was all I could do to keep running. My second worst 10K time ever.

Fast forward to this year... weather was as good as you'll ever see in July in NC. Temp at race time was 65F, humidity about 80%... 70F/70% just after I finished. Compare that to 80F/80% that is more typical of Tri-Span. Earlier, I had considered running the 5K or just volunteering for this event, especially with the planned attack on my PR last week... but the way that race went, and the good weather led me to not only run this 10K, but race it. The strategy would be to go out solid and strong in the first 3 miles (which include this bridge)... then survive the 4th mile, with the steepest bridge... and then give whatever I've got the rest of the way.

As much non-racing fun as the Deads were in Toronto, I was happy to be surrounded by more of my running buddies, and just known competition in the local running scene. I started out with a plan to just keep behind Tom, one of the better runners who I can almost hang with now. The first mile came in 7:42, almost on schedule except for being a step and a half in front of Tom. The second mile, up and over the Cape Fear Memorial Bridge, was an identical 7:42. The flat 3rd mile got tricky... I was running with Jef, who I knew was faster than me... but in retrospect I probably shoulda gone with him when he passed Tom. After 6 weeks of trash talk, Dirty Old Man Ed came along and at the misplaced 3-mile marker (8:29 for a flat mile, it couldn't be right), he and Tom started to pull away.

Later in the 4th mile, Ed started really paying the price for going out too fast, and I knew I had nothing for Tom or Jef... but I crested the second...and steepest...bridge and hammered down. More credence to the misplaced-3 theory, as the 4th mile was 8:12. In the 5th mile, I knew Ed's pause had only been temporary, so I kept after it... it's a net downhill, but we did have to get back up to the drawbridge portion of the Holmes Bridge, and I hit it in 7:41. That's 39:48 at 5 miles (vice 39:18 at 8k last week), but this week there was known competition and never any PR-ish ambitions. So instead of abandoning any quest and jogging/tempo-running/otherwise mailing in the finish, I raced to the end of this one...even tho my left knee was starting to hurt a bit from hammering some of the downhills. The last bit didn't feel bad, but after some minor adjustments to the course due to 4 years of construction being finished, the finishing straight was noticeably longer than last year...and going off landmarks to find that other gear (my 800 gear, thankyouverymuch), I didn't have a real kick at the end. At the finish, I was a bit late stopping my watch at 49:10. I guess beating my Run for Canada time was more motivation than I thought, once I saw it was possible.

I dare say that I ran my most technically sound 10K ever... last 2.2 as good as my first 2, with a bit of sacrifice to the highest bridge in the middle. I felt strong the whole way, and frankly, will probably never have a chance to run that well at Tri-Span again. Time-wise, the 48:09 at Cooper River might be more impressive, but even-splitting an obvious negative split race, not so much... and the bridges make either of these a stronger run than my heavily positive-split but still-a-PR 48:04 at Oak Island last year.

But I digress. I think I'll shut up now, but first a bigtime shout-out to my bestest running buddy Cari, who completed the Grandfather Mountain Marathon (2nd toughest in the States, behind only Pikes Peak) today. You kicked ass, Cari... and we will mark the occasion with some good beer soon! :)

A quick non-running note for Kerry...

2006-07-06T15:14:00.000-04:00

Even tho I WAS in Toronto, I still found this too appropriate a pic NOT to have someone get, what with the main one currently held by a team right here in NC. ;) And you wondered why I didn't rub it in right after Game 7... this is the lone opportunity I'll take for that.

Take off, eh?

2006-07-05T15:13:00.000-04:00

This weekend was my much-anticipated trip to Toronto for the Dead Runners Society World Conference, and what seemed like a golden opportunity for a 10K PR (or north of the border, that's a 10km PB).

I can blame the weather, as it wasn't quite a PR day (20/15 in the METAR that doesn't need to be converted back to Fahrenheit)... or I can blame a slight change in pre-race eating... or I can blame hydration, after punctuating a day of air travel on Friday with two pints of the sudsy stuff at dinner. But the bottom line is I still went for it on Saturday morning... and it just wasn't there.

A Canadian course, being marked in km (as opposed to the courses in the States, where we run 5k or 10k or whatever, but have mile markers along the way!), enables you to check your progress...or the unraveling of your race... more frequently. The only klick that hit my goal split was the second, but after 4km I was actually still hitting splits for a PR. At 5km, I was off, and I tried to pick it up at the turnaround. By 7km I knew I was going to need something I had yet to find in this race, and the long gradual hill (at least by our flat Coastal Plain and/or raised in the Great Lakes standards, Ice) leading to 8km was the final nail in the proverbial coffin. At 39:18 for 8km, I knew 48 (PR 48:04) was not in the cards, so I backed off, at least for the time being. With a half a km to go, I looked across Lakeshore Blvd and saw the site of Jeff Krosnoff's fatal crash in the 1996 Molson Indy, and decided I should kick in a little stronger than the halfathon shuffle I had dropped into... so now ya got a better finishing pic, Ice... the white-shirt-clad rebel emerging from the sea of red.

BTW...thanx to Kevin and Sally for the action pics

Sunday morning started with life-force-sucking heat and humidity... and whenever anyone complained about the weather I told them "If it was a little more humid, it'd be a lot like home." When we left the hotel it was 24/20... after the track meet was done, 30/19. I had to laugh whenever I heard talk comparing shorter events vs. longer events, esp since the longest was the Dead Mile, while to me a "short" event is a 5k. The sprint medley relay was unlike anything most of us will ever experience... we had enough skippers/runners/sidesteppers for 3.5 teams of 4. So a couple of us had to double up. The very fast but slightly injured Melanie did the opening 200m skipping leg, and I started the 100m backwards leg in the lead.

The handoff...

I pretty much held my own there, and handed off to the sidestepping Kathy for the next 200m. From there I had to bust a$$ across the infield to get the baton for the 400m sprint anchor leg. I had maybe a 6 or 8 second lead, and knew it would be tough to stay ahead of the much faster Sid. I was caught with about 150m to go, and with 100 to go I knew I couldn't bring home a win. Being able to look across and not back to find 3rd and 4th place, I cruised to the finish from there.

There were only 4 takers for the Dead Mile in the heat and humidity, and I tried to get people to bet on me to finish last. Some of them probably wish they had, as I ran a 7:01.86, and a duel with Jeff at the end resulted in my first ever DFL finish... but at least I managed not to get lapped by Melanie's even faster twin April.

Sooo that's the semi-competitive running portion of my trip in a nutshell. More pics (my own) will be showing up in the usual and not-so-usual locations in the next day or three. And Kerry, bigtime congrats on finishing your first half-IM!

Three years ago...

2006-06-29T23:30:00.000-04:00

I was married...

I wasn't a runner...

I hadn't discovered Rush beyond 8-10 songs I had heard on the radio.

Changes were already afoot at the beginning of 2004, when my (now ex-)wife made a pseudo-resolution: She was going to get involved with Team-in-Training, doing fund-raising for the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society and training to run (or more like Galloway run-walk) a half-marathon. I didn't think I'd be up for it when it got hardcore, but I figured taking part in some of the easier training would be a good way to support her, and something good to do together... but I also figured that if I was going to be getting runner legs under me, a 5K race in March might not be a bad goal for me. But within just a couple weeks (on my 33rd birthday), I was ready for more running than she was... so I took off running. How symbolic that would be.

It was only another 3 weeks before we separated. From there I struggled through shin splints and the upheaval going on in my life to run a 29:57 5k, which I might not have finished had the last half been on pavement instead of sand.

After that, I wasn't sure what I'd do about running. Hell, I needed time to let the pain in my shins quiet down. And divorce became obvious as the only possible outcome of the separation. I ended up taking a few weeks of downtime, and as I started back, I had this new connection with my friend Kristi, who was quite the runner back in the day. She gave me some coaching... got me on the Dead Runners Society list... and later introduced me to a bit more Rush. And that became a lot more Rush.

On April 1, 2005, I was finally divorced. I celebrated the occasion the next day with what was a 10k PR at the Cooper River Bridge Run.

I can honestly say that running and Rush kept me sane thru my divorce. And now you know the rest... of the (back-)story.

Mayday! Mayday!

2006-06-28T01:49:00.000-04:00

It was my intention to start this blog in May, just because the last three Mays have been significant running months for me.

As May 2004 began, I was in a sort of limbo. I was deep into a "break" after the 2+ months of running that led to my first-ever 5K race. My divorce was turning uglier by the minute, and my circle of friends was in a state of flux. On May 6th, I decided to see where I could pick up the running thing again, and it was easier to start up this time. Within a few days, and a couple more runs, an online friend of mine kinda became my first pseudo-running coach... I committed to training for my second 5K... and I joined the Dead Runners Society.

Fast-forward to "Cinco en Cinco" or Cinco de Mayo 2005... I jetted out to Tucson to attend the Dead Runners Society World Conference. Many first Dead encounters, and one repeat encounter... my first 10K at altitude was the 16th race of my fledgling running career... that and my first trail run in Sabino Canyon led to my first can't-run-at-all overuse injury.

The anniversary of both of those momentous occasions (i.e. May 2006) found me in Philadelphia for the Broad Street Run. That 10-mile race worked out so well for me in so many ways, it's hard to describe here yet I could go on for pages, even weeks after the fact.

So that's why I wanted to start this blog in May, but this site frustrated the hell outta me. Better late than never, here I am... and I'll post another shortly to better fill you in on the beginnings of my journey, and where it has taken me so far.