Old ramblings

Yes, an appreciation for the aesthetic value of a run is very important to me. At first, I guess I needed an ostensibly beautiful and unpopulated place like Rancho San Antonio County Park in Santa Clara County, California to help motivate me to run. Now, several years and thousands of miles later, my motivation comes much more from within--but the aesthetic is still a huge part of why running is therapeutic. Even some of my more mundane suburban/urban routes have for me their own beauty. There are sights, sounds, smells that I miss if I go more than a few days without running a certain route. When I was in California for a buddy's wedding, I mapped out a run for the sole purpose of experiencing the place where I would be, both the country side and the town. Running is now a big part of how I interpret and learn my environment.

One of my favorite runs ever was on Tuesday afternoon when I ran in a driving rain storm out around the Castle Island causeway in South Boston--there was nobody out due to the weather and I was running on a narrow jetty with water on both sides of me and water hitting me in the face and the harbor islands just faint shadows in the fog. I felt sorry for the poor slugs crouching in doorways downtown or running from cover to cover with umbrellas like the guys from the 5th floor of my building who rode the elevator down with me when I was heading out and couldn't believe I was going out running in that. "It's only water," I told them. They didn't get to know what I knew and they didn't get to experience the city from my perspective or feel physically connected to the natural world, and it was their loss.

Blah

I ran the Run for All Ages 5k in Wakefield today in a time that was slower than I ran the second half of the Lone Gull 10k seven weeks ago. Boo. I guess running a marathon and then not doing a whole lot of running for three weeks after that doesn't do much for my racing fitness. Maybe it's time to--oh, I don't know--do a workout or something. Or maybe just take up running again. That might work too.

The race benefits prostate cancer and offers prize money for men over 40 on an age graded basis, so lots of fast masters showed up. Craig Fram (51) won it in 16:21. I wound up 10th in 17:58, I think my 4th slowest 5k ever.

Anyway, it was a nice day and it felt good to run hard for a change. But I've got some work to do.

Results.

Does this mean I've moved on?

Life is a marathon, not a sprint. When I was 20 years old and an undergrad, I basically ran not at all. I ran a little for rugby and occasionally just to stay in some semblance of shape but that was about it. This pattern continued until I was 30 years old, out of shape, working tons of hours, traveling for business and my wife and I were expecting our 2nd child. Basically until I was so busy I couldn't imagine fitting one more priority into the pattern. That's when I finally decided to make the personal decision to be a runner. Now, almost a decade later, I run 3,000 miles a year while being the sole breadwinner for a family of 6, shuttling my kids all over, wiping noses and asses, taking care of a 100 year old house, helping with homework, organizing community activities and working probably 50 hours a week on a slow week.

Somehow having no free time makes me treasure my running time all the more and makes me crave something that's just for me that I'm in control of. Running is my decompression chamber.

I sometimes wish I'd gotten semi-serious about running when I was 20 years old and tried to find my true potential. I wasn't totally without talent. I wonder what I could have done, if I could have been a real animal.

But most of the time I'm just glad I'm running now and that's good enough.

Baystate '09

I need to post something just to close the book on Baystate and move on. This was a strange race for me.

On the one hand there was a lot working against me. I spent the week leading up to the race at my company's worldwide sales conference in Nashville from Saturday through Thursday--in meetings all day, drinking at night, not sleeping, not eating right and running almost not at all. My flight home on Thursday night was weather delayed, I missed my connection in Philadelphia and wound up I renting a car then driving through the night to get home early Friday. I went into the weekend on fumes and then sometime Saturday realized--oh yeah--I have a marathon to run so I'd better go pickup my race packet in Lowell. The whole week was a lesson in how not to prepare for a marathon, really.

Still despite all of that the ominous weather forecast, when I picked up Mark Hudson on Sunday morning I felt like I had a good race in me.

It all went okay at first. It was cold and windy but not really raining yet at the start. I wasn't exactly feeling lots of pop in my legs but I felt okay--I was rolling off low 6:20's with ease. I had run 2:49 on this course last year and felt like I had better overall fitness and that sub 2:48 was not out of the question. The early pace was right about on that target. Really through halfway I was running 2:47 pace. Then around 14 miles I started to really notice the cold a lot--the rain had picked up quite a bit, I'd been wet for a while by that point and the whole thing just started sucking.

Around the 2 hour mark I could tell I was slowing--my legs were just so cold and achy, as if I was standing in the ocean in Maine. My feet were cramping and it was frustrating because I just couldn't turn my legs over. I went through 30k in under 2 hours but I knew it was going to be a total grind from there. My condition just got worse and worse from there and by the last couple of miles I was just grinding out painful 7:30's on legs that felt like blocks of ice.



Finally, mercifully, I finished in 2:53:25, way back in 49th place. I started shivering uncontrollably within a minute of finishing with my legs and feet cramping badly. I got my cloths, changed in one of the bathrooms of the ballpark then shuffled over to Beerworks to meet Hudson and his wife and friends. Several people in the street offered me help so I must have looked like death. When I got to Beerworks it took a while before I stopped shivering but the beer and pizza went down really nicely. By the time I left Beerworks, the cold, wind-driven rain was mixing with big, wet snowflakes.

I am disappointed and I know I'm a bit of a prick for being so. It's my second fastest marathon ever and two or three years ago I would have killed to be at the point where I could run 2:53 on a bad day. But we put so much into these stupid marathons that it's tough when you don't do what you know you're capable of. I don't know why the brutal weather seemed to affect me more than some people (although less than some others.) Maybe the cumulative fatigue of the week caught up to me.

Anyway, it's in the books and I move on. Runners run. It was great to see a lot of the usual suspects of a New England Grand-Prix race and there were some inspired performances out there--Hudson ran 2:31:40 in that shit for 4th place and yet another marathon PR (the kid is an animal), Brendan Newbold tore the race apart and looks like he's just scratching the surface, and the CMS guys had a great race to take the team title.

Results.

Lone Gull 10k

photos by Ted Tyler of Coolrunning

Mark Hudson picked me up bright and early on Sunday and we carpooled up to Good Harbor Beach for the Lone Gull 10k, the USATF NE Grand Prix 10k. It was downright chilly when we left Reading, but by the time we got up there and started our warmup it was turning into perfect racing weather.

We did a little jog on the first and last couple miles of the out-and-back course with Dan Princic, Dave Dechellis and a few of the other Whirlaway guys. As usual before a grand prix race the atmosphere was festive, with most of the New England running scene on hand. Just before the start I got to chat a little with Dan Vassallo, the Colby grad now running for Adidas New England, whom I've known since he was in high school. Dan has been on fire lately and would go on to finish 2nd in 30:39.

After the usual pre-race chit chat I wisely buried myself a few rows deep on the starting line to keep from getting sucked out way too fast. The race got underway just a few minutes late and the pack of 800 runners thundered along Atlantic Road. I took it easy for the first half mile and let the crowd settle down before I started moving up through the pack to find my spot. My legs were by no means fresh, being in the heart of marathon training, but I figured if I could get through the first couple of miles without doing something stupid I would have the strength to close well. I wound up hitting the 1 mile mark in 5:45 and the race had settled down around me by that point.

I was 18:04 at 5k and starting to pick off a few more people. I passed 6 to 8 people between the 5k and 5 mile markers--it was good to have so many targets around as the pace was really starting to feel intense. Around 5 miles (photo below) I passed Robert Cipriano of Somerville RR and the 2nd place woman, Tammie Robbie of Whirlaway. My 5 mile split was 28:59.

The last mile featured no more passing, just hanging on with white knuckles. A short, steep little rise just before the 6 mile mark completely finished me off for the little run in to the finish. As I charged (wobbled) for the line I could see the clock winding toward that 36 minute mark but when I hit the finish mat the clock still read 35:56 so I felt confident I'd squeaked under. The official results had it a little closer, however.

The final tally: 79th place overall in 35:59 / 5:48 pace. Not bad for a USATF NE championships race.

It was my 2nd fastest 10k ever (granted I haven't run many of them) and my fastest 5 miler in 5 years en route. 5k splits of 18:04 / 17:55 indicate I have some good strength right now. The race itself was well done and features a beautiful seaside course. I would run this one again in a heartbeat.

Results.

If a tree falls in the woods

Today I did huge run by my standards. I rarely do anything over 20 miles--even in marathon training--and I don't think I've ever done a training run over 3 hours, until this morning. At least I think I did a big run.

I didn't mean for it to be that far or take that long, really. I just set out with my Garmin aiming for "about 20" and planning to take my time about it. I headed over Bear Hill in Stoneham, past the golf course and into Stoneham center. Wound my way down toward the Spot Pond reservoir, and the Fellsway. I decided to pop into the Fells and run the orange trail which I hadn't really been on since I used to do a lot of mountain biking over there years ago. Running on the rocky, rooted single track of the orange trail is almost a different sport that road running. At times I got impatient picking my way along at 9-10 minute mile pace and a few times I popped off onto the fire roads around the reservoirs...but mostly I made my way around the entire orange trail and back to the entrance by the sheepfold parking lot and out onto the Fellsway.

There I kept going south and ran the loop around Spot Pond, back to Pond Street in Stoneham and headed the way I came. But near Bear Hill I turned onto Broadway and headed over to Wakefield Center and Lake Quannapowitt. At the Gazebo by the lake I was at 19 miles already and finally found my first water. I sucked down as much water as I could and the Gu that I'd been carrying for all 19 miles so far. I don't remember ever being so thirsty on a run.

From there I made my way down the lake shore via Main St and across the Wakefield rotary, past REI and up Salem Street in Reading to the square. I ran down Haven Street where the vendors were setting up for the street fair later today (which my daughter will participating in with her gymnastics academy), through the train station, up Prescott and home.

Garmie says it was about 22.7 miles and over 3 hours but here's the thing: my online training log at RunningAhead is DOWN right now and so I can't upload it. And I have to say I'm a little alarmed at just how much anxiety this fact is causing me. It was down before I went out--I know because I was planning to search for a route I'd created but couldn't thus the ad lib. And now it's still down. And so dependent have I become on my online tools that I can't even feel like the run is complete (i.e. be sure it actually happened) until I enter in my log and see it update my daily, weekly and monthly totals and make that tall orange bar on my summary graph representing today's run.

I need to feed my kids and shower now. I really stink. But I hope RunningAhead is up soon or I will start to freak out a little. And, yes, I hate myself a little for that fact.

Cape Ann 25k

I went up to Gloucester on Monday morning for the 76th Annual Around Cape Ann 25k Road Race. It's amazing to me that I had never run this race before, but it seems like we've always got something going on on Labor Day weekend. I'm glad I finally did--this was a fun race on a great day for a 15.5 mile run.

At the start it was pretty clear the Greater Boston Track Club would be taking home the men's team title. I found myself in a pack that included at least 6 or 7 of their bright red singlets. Within the first mile I decided I'd better cut the balloon string and let them go or it would be a pretty awful second half of the race. I did, and after a 6:24 opening mile, settled into a good groove in the low 6:30's for a while. I found myself running with Diona Fulton of the Somerville Road Runners for a few of those early miles. She was looking strong and neither of us seemed to be working all that hard.

Everything was going fine and I was okay with the low 6:30's pace over the roller-coaster of a seaside course when around mile 5 or so a guy from the Cambridge Running Club caught up to us and broke up the party. He was working awfully hard for 5 miles into a 25k and between his feet slapping the ground and his breathing like a freight train I just for some reason decided I needed to leave. And so I did--out the front door. I dropped a 6:26, then a 6:18 and a 6:17 and suddenly I was all alone, having dropped Diona and the Cambridge guy and having caught and dropped the GBTC guy who had been about a hundred yards up the road from us. I caught a few more guys going through Rockport. I had gone from about 20th to about 14th in just about 3 miles.

It's funny but at that point I was still feeling fine and so I just went with it. I saw my sister somewhere in here and she snapped the photo below. I sure don't look like I'm working all that hard.

Around miles 10 to 11 I caught a BAA guy and a Somerville guy who were running together. I hung with them for a couple minutes and then moved on up the road. I could see two more targets up the road--a Wicked Running Club guy and the women's winner, Tara Wommack of GBTC. I would eventually catch the Wicked guy around mile 13 or so, but despite closing hard in the last mile I never did catch Tara.

I wound up 10th overall, in 1:38:56. I really didn't know what to expect going in and figured 1:40 would be a good effort on such a hilly, winding course--so I am more than satisfied. And I'm even more pleased with the fact I was clicking off low 6's at the end with relative ease. Any time you can negative split a long hilly race like that it's a big confidence boost.

It was a solid effort for me and should be excellent marathon training. I saw lots of Shamrocks, my sister and brother-in-law and their baby and a bunch of the usual suspects. Overall it was a great way to spend Labor Day morning.

Results.