Glastonbury Running

DeMar, Here I Come!

OK, it's time to get off the fence and make a final decision as to whether or not I'm going to tackle a marathon or not this fall.  So...for better or for worse...I've decided to go ahead and run the Clarence DeMar Marathon on September 27th.  And the time goal will be sub-3:15 (7:27 pace) for my 26th sub-3:15 marathon.

The sub-3:15 will be a rather subdued goal for me.  Heck, the original plan was to break 2:43 at DeMar!  But then the achilles tendon flared up and I pretty much gave up on any big racing efforts until 2010.  However, the last three weeks of training have been encouraging with weekly mileage totals of 70, 53 and then 64 this past week.  All of which was done with no achilles problems. 

So I decided that I can certainly run a decent marathon on that kind of mileage, but if I train for anything more ambitious than 3:15 I would probably risk triggering the achilles issue again and end up right back where I started.  Still, sub-3:15 ain't so bad.  Plus, it would qualify me for Boston '11 (I'm already good for Boston '10) and it would be marathon #31 for me, leaving me just 69 marathons short of my lifetime goal!

With about a month to go I have plenty of runway left to fit in maybe two 20-milers, but I probably won't try to do more than that.  I'll also try to hit a quota of at least 60 miles per week with little if any speed work.  That should get me where I need to be.  Then I'll toe the line with two sets of crossed fingers on the 29th!

Race Report: Living Well Series, Race #3 (10K)

As the race started, one guy shot out to an early lead and he looked young, gifted and fast.  Not only that, but he had a permanent tatoo of a winged foot on the back of his left ankle.  That's bad news. 

Then I noticed that he had another tatoo.  This one was three words in huge letters on his back, stretching all the way from from one shoulder to the other.  So huge that despite the fact that his singlet was blocking much of the letters it was still very easy to read..."PAIN IS TEMPORARY".  That's when I turned to Kevin Ford, the eventual race winner and series champion, and announced that we were about to be creamed.

However, Ford and I managed to catch the tatoo guy by the one mile mark.  Then the three of us worked each other for the next couple of miles with each of us taking a few turns at the lead.  It was pretty exciting to share the lead with two other fiercely competitive runners as we continued to push each other.  

At the 5K turnaround I managed to build a very modest lead over Ford.  Then, after we completed the hairpin turn, we were surprised to find that the tatoo guy was well behind us.  The post-race rumor was that he was suffering from a cold, so although the pain triggered by the cold was temporary it would apparently hold long enough to keep him out of contention for the rest of the race.

It was a nice ego-booster to be in the lead for all of the out-going runners to see, but then Ford bursted my bubble by passing me at the 4-mile mark with a decent amount of authority.  I had decided ahead-of-time that I would not, under any circumstances, push myself up the steep hill at the 5.5-mile mark or launch my usual finishing kick.  My achilles was still on the mend and there was no sense in risking a setback with the fall racing season fast approaching.  That meant that I needed to have a decent lead heading into the hill in order to pull off a win.

Alas, I didn't.  Instead, Ford had me by 10 seconds at the bottom of the hill which meant that the race was his unless he faltered big-time.  Unfortunately for me, he faltered only small-time and nipped me at the finish by 5 seconds.

So the win eluded me, but I clocked a 36:13 which meant that I managed a 5:50 pace over a challenging 10K course on a bum achilles tendon.  So I'm mostly pleased, but it's a little disheartening to think back on the race and realize that I had a very decent chance to pulling off a win if I put in the usual 110% effort near the end.  Howver, I'm trying to keep the big picture in mind and save my achilles for a fall marathon, if that's still possible. 

Baystate Marathon?

I just completed a nice 8.3-miler at an easy 7:55 pace with the guys and all the tendons are approaching full capacity once again.  It's nice and warm these days and geez, it's nice to actually sweat during a workout again!

The last six marathons have gone exceedingly well, so at this point I know it's crucial to commit to another race to keep the momentum going.  I've decided to launch yet another marathon PR effort in the fall (current PR is 2:43, set in February of 2008) in and one race I'm considering is the Baystate Marathon in Lowell, Massachusetts on October 18th.

I've never tried this one, but the first thing that jumped out at me about Baystate is that last year the top 15 guys all broke 2:40, which seems extraordinary.  So either the race course is really fast or the cash prizes offered by the race pulled in some of the best marathoners in New England, or both.  The elevation map indicates that there's virtually no net elevation change, and although there are lots of spikes on the map it's hard to really tell what a race course is like from these kinds of maps. 

The race caps at 2,000 runners, so I wouldn't say it's a small race but it's not a major race either, which is good since I like minimal logisitical hassles when I'm shooting for a PR.  Someday I'll get some big "destination marathons" on the calendar when I'm not concerned about PR's anymore.  I'm assuming that will happen at some point?  Maybe?

It appears from the comments on MarathonGuide.com that past Baystate runners are smitten with the race.  Multiple comments about the lack of waiting lines for restrooms at a nearby arena definitely makes for a check in the "do it!" column.  Also, the race finishes in the outfield of a minor league baseball stadium.  Very cool.

Anyway, I'm going to put this race on the short-list for the fall.  I guess the fact that I'm giving some serious thought to another marathon only 6 days after a grueling Boston Marathon is a positive sign!

Race Report: Boston Marathon!

Well, Boston has come and gone again and I'm pretty fired up with my finishing time of 2:55:06, which was my second-fastest time out of 11 Boston Marathon campaigns.  801st overall and 16th Connecticut finisher.  Very cool.

The difference was, not surprisingly, that I finally ran a smart race.  I ran it like a seasoned veteran instead of a clueless rookie like I normally do.  I covered the first half in a solid 1:25 then just focused on getting to the top of the Newton Hills.  I repeatedly and purposefully told myself (actually, in my partially-delirious state I pictured UCONN Coach Jim Calhoun riding a bike alongside me and yelling this to me) that the finish line is at the 26.2-mile mark, not at the 21-mile mark which is located at the top of the final hill.  So there was no need to sprint up the hills even though I felt like I could.  I have a long history of doing just that, raising my arms in victory at 21 miles in front of all the Boston College students and then proceeding to execute a death march for the next five miles and walking very sIowly through each water station.  This time I just plugged away at the hills with the goal of having enough gas in the tank to avoid walking during the final 5 miles.  And I'm proud to say "mission accomplished"!

The race aftermath was a lot less glamorous.  After grabbing my bag I immediately hiked about a quarter mile to the Park Street T station to take the T back to my car.  Then I had to stop at the Framingham Plaza on the Turnpike to take a very deep one hour nap before downing a McDonalds grilled chicken sandwich and "brownie bites" which are, by my estimation, the most delicious morsels of food in the entire western world.  Or at least they tasted like it at the time.  Anyway, that perked me up enough for a safe drive home.  But when I arrived home I discovered that my left achilles tendon is acutely painful...way beyond normal post-maraton soreness.  So I'm mildly concerned about that, but we'll see how it plays out over the next few days.

Finally, I'm happy to announce that I was part of a magnificent Team Supreme effort.  Byram PR'd with a 3:11:49 and O'Toole covered his first Boston trek in 3:12:50.  I'm very proud of my teammates and pleased to see that the entire squad (including Sattler) is qualified for Boston '10.

Disney and Shamrock 5-Miler Shots!

For pics of me at the end of the Shamrock 5-Miler click here, here, here, here and here.  Yes, that's nasty dried/frozen spittle on my chin.

And click here for LOTS of shots from my Disney Marathon which are not in the photo album on the sidebar.

Race Report: Shamrock 5-Miler

My 3rd race of the year was the Shamrock 5-Miler in Bristol, CT and to say that I was pleased with the outcome is a bit of an understatement. Not only did I show up with a high level of fitness due to better-than-usual winter training, but I actually ran a well-executed race.  I stayed focused on what I was doing from start to finish, I made sure the effort level was high throughout, I ran the tangents, I didn't get carried away trying to chase down younger runners who went out too fast, and I took the race one mile at a time. 

By the way, all of this is highly unusual for me.  Even after 21 years of competitive racing I'm still hard-wired to go after other runners when I shouldn't, my thoughts tend to drift after the halfway point and I usually allow my body to talk my mind into easing up on the effort when I start getting tired.  So the quality of my race execution on Saturday was pleasantly surprising. 

Anyway, in the end I clocked a 27:47 (5:33 pace) on a very hilly course, which was good enough for the overall win and I was almost a full minute up on the 2nd place finisher.  I haven't won a race in a few years, so I was pretty thrilled and it was a nice way to kick off the spring racing season.

I also enjoyed watching my 3 year-old and 6 year-old participate in the fun run.  Then I ran the 2-miler with my 9 year-old as a warm up for my race.  He ended up running a 17:17 and had no problem at all with any of the hills.  I'm gonna have to watch out for that guy!

Race Report: Colchester Half Marathon

Well, I'm happy to report that all the training paid off and I managed to run a solid race in Colchester yesterday.  In addition to the seemingly never-ending string of hills (some of which were pretty steep), we were forced to contend with some cold, windy weather.  But the turnout was high and the race itself was a great one.

I put in an ambitious opening mile of 5:45 just to see how many contenders were in the race, and I ended up running with a guy wearing earphones, so I assumed that he wasn't taking the race too seriously.  Around the 4-mile mark I was in the lead and didn't sense anyone behind me (I never look behind me during a race) and I started feeling a little optimistic.  I was 4 miles into a 13.1-mile race and I figured that if anyone was going to seriously challenge me I would have heard from him by then.  So I assumed that if I could just keep doing what I was doing for the next 9 miles then an overall win was definitely possible. 

Within 30 seconds of having that thought I blinked and all of a sudden Earphones had returned and he had brought two other runners with him!  So instead of a 9-mile cruise to victory I was suddenly in the middle of a 4-man lead pack moving at a brisk clip through through the Colchester farm country!

Although I was able to drop Earphones over the next several miles, the other two runners proved too much to handle.  Upon taking a sharp right just before the 11-mile mark I decided to launch an all-out, last-ditch offensive and try to catch at least one, maybe even both of the two guys ahead of me.  Instead, I was faced with a 2-mile-long stretch of gradual uphill and a headwind to boot.  So despite the huge effort it seemed like the last 2 miles went by much slower than they should have.

So I settled for 3rd place, but I clocked a 1:18:39 (6:01 pace) which means I somehow managed to run the course over 2 minutes faster than I did when I last ran the race in 2000, when I was a strapping 27 year-old!  And I also noted that my time this year would have been the winning time in any of the last five CHM's.  Figures. 

Anyway, it was a challenging race in which I put in a genuinely solid effort and never mentally ran up the white flag until after I crossed the line, which isn't usually the case. So it was a nice confidence- booster with Boston only 7 weeks away!

Disney Marathon Shots!

For anyone who's interested, you can click here for shots from my recent Disney Marathon.  These are not in the photo album on the sidebar.  Double-clicking a photo will bring up an enlarged view.

"Action Sports International" apparently took about 80 shots of me during the race, and most of them actually came out pretty good!  I guess it helps to steer clear from other runners!  

2009 Disney Marathon Race Report!

Well, it's finally over and, alas, I came up short.  I crossed the line at Disney in 2:48:21, which means that the 2:40 barrier is still standing strong.  I think I ran a relatively smart race and I know that I put in as much comprehensive training as a working stiff can, but the biggest spoiler for the day was the weather: sunny and temp's in the lower to mid-70's.  Yikes!  When I started sweating at the 4-mile mark I knew that a sub-2:40 would be a super-long shot.  So the 2:40 barrier remains, at least until I take another serious crack at it in the fall.

Fortunately, that's ALL the bad news!  The good news is that 2:48, despite the fact that it's over 2:40, is still a darn good time, at least in my book.  In fact, it's my second-fastest marathon time ever and only the second time that I've broken 2:50.  I also went home with the top Connecticut-finisher honors, a solid 6th in my age group and 32nd place out of 15,000.  Geez, it's too bad my percentile in college and law school weren't that high! 

Besides the race results, Sattler and I had a ton of fun and ended up with plenty of time to relax away from the kids and careers (although we spent no less than 35% of our time in Florida pecking away at our darn Treo's).  Before race day we strolled around Downtown Disney, chowed down at ESPN Zone at Disney's Boardwalk and tackled some rather harrowing rides at Universal Studios.  We also splashed around in the hotel's pool and hot tub and had the pleasure of having an entire crew of Hooter's waitresses insist on having a picture taken with each of us (or something like that).  A full photo album of our trip is in the works!

Hand's down, the biggest bummers of the trip were (a) Sattler couldn't race because of a partially-torn Achilles tendon, (b) our plane ride home was delayed by 3.5 hours due to maintenance issues, and (c) we were absolutely incapable of finding our car in a parking lot that had more than 12 other cars in it.

My deepest thanks to Sattler who provided all-star support crew services and saved me from having to fret over any of the trip's details.  And a HUGE congrats to Jay's sister and brother-in-law!  Lez managed to conquer her first half marathon and Wayne finished his first marathon despite the fact that Pop-Tarts were his main pre-race food item. 

I was doing the "Disney Shuffle" all through the airports yesterday, but the muscles and tendons are already feeling better today. 

And a good thing too, because there are only 96 training days 'til Boston!!!

Race Report: HTC 8K Cross Country Challenge

Despite the cold temp's and wind yesterday morning, O'Toole and I took a little road trip out to the Reservoir in Farmington and jumped into a small but competitive field in the Hartford Track Club's annual 8K Cross Country Challenge. I think "challenge" is a good word to use in the title of the race, especially this year. The course has lots of up's and down's, the footing can be rocky and treacherous (with much of the rocks covered in dry fall leaves), and this year there was an extra challenge in dodging the ice patches which appeared courtesy of the arctic weather we've had recently.

This was sort of a quasi-race for me, meaning two things: (1) I didn't do any race-specific training for this event since I'm obsessively focused on preparing for the Disney Marathon in January, and (2) I genuinely didn't care about my time, where I placed or my overall performance. So I was treating it like a fast & spirited 5-mile training run with about 70 training partners. And my lack of speed training was evident since I didn't experience any of that deep, consuming, delusion-inducing exhaustion that you normally feel in a race, but I couldn't seem to summon any raw speed despite my best mental efforts to do so. In other words, I raced like a well-trained marathoner, not a seasoned 5-mile runner. Which I suppose, in light of the big picture, is a good thing.

Anyway, I managed to take 6th place in 29:56 and O'Toole was the 13th runner across the line in 31:36. So I'd say it was a decent showing for the team, particularly since the race was a state championship event with a few teams scrambling for some crucial points, and that drew a good-sized handful of very talented runners.

And now that I've had my short-race fun it's back to the grind of Disney Marathon training!