Charlotte's 7th Annual Thunder Road Marathon is calling on area neighborhoods to take part in its “Neighborhood Association Challenge” to support the thousands of runners who will take to the streets of Charlotte on Saturday, Nov. 12, 2011.
Monday, August 29, 2011
Charlotte marathon seeks noisy neighbors
Tuesday, August 9, 2011
Attention Blue Ridge Relay participants
Blue Ridge Relay Information Meeting and Discussion Forum, plus BRR Team Gear Deals
9-10 a.m. Saturday, Aug. 13
Whether you are brand-new to the crazy sport of running or you’re a seasoned veteran with thousands of miles of pavement, concrete, and dirt in your wake, you will probably want to go ahead and put this race on your “to-do” list.
The 208-mile Blue Ridge Relay (BRR208), which is one of the longest running relay races in the United States, takes place in the picturesque Blue Ridge and Black Mountains of Virginia and North Carolina and has been named the second-best road race (behind the Susan G. Komen Race Series) in the Best of 2010 edition of Blue Ridge Outdoors Magazine. Here’s the best part: There are still a few spots left for this September’s race.
Due to the fact that an exceptional number of this year’s participants hail from the Charlotte area, the kind folks directing this year’s race will be visiting TrySports to hold an information meeting just for you. Believe us when we say coordinating 12 people (among 120 teams of 12 people) to move across 208 miles of the scenic North Carolina High Country -- on foot, sometimes in the dark -- is no easy task. Knowledge is equal to safety and speed in this fantastic adventure. So come join us at TrySports on Aug. 13 to learn more about this great event as well as to ask questions, share experience, or swap stories with the people who know all about this race. TrySports will also offer one-day-only specials to participants in this year’s race to outfit your team ... . Please email justinbreland@trysports.com with questions or to RSVP for this event.
Wednesday, June 15, 2011
Odds + ends for my running friends
Here's a rundown of several upcoming local races and events that might interest you:
- The sixth race of the 2011 Run For Your Life Grand Prix Series is the Summer Breeze 5K, which is set for this Saturday, June 18, at Freedom Park (1900 East Blvd.). Women's start is set for 7:30 a.m., with the men going off at 8. The staggered start allows men to cheer for the women as they finish, and vice versa. Cost is $25 in advance or $35 or race day. The event will double as the Carolina's Club Championship. See the race website for all the details.
On Saturday, June 18, the Home Run 5K Run/Walk will be held on the McAlpine Creek Greenway 5k Cross Country Course at 8711 Monroe Road in Charlotte. If you're unfamiliar with the trail, "there's a challenging hill in the middle, a beautiful lake at the end, and both straight shots and curvy parts." The 5k run will start at 9 a.m. and the 5K walk will start at 9:10. Register for $20 in advance or $30 on race day (walkers pay $15). Proceeds benefit the Carolinas CARE Partnership, which provides comprehensive AIDS resources and education for people living with and at risk for HIV and AIDS in the Greater Charlotte region. More race details: Click here.
- The new Run For Your Life Summer Track Series (formerly the Charlotte Track & Triathlon Club's Trenton Guy Sr. Summer Track Series) continues Tuesday, June 21, at the Myers Park High School track. Registration begins at 5 p.m., with the first event at 6 p.m. All ages and abilities are welcome. The entry fee is $8 for adults for a single-night pass, or $25 for a season pass (series runs every Tuesday through June). The events in order are: 50m, 100m, 1 mile, 4 x 100m relay, 400m, 800m, 200m, and 2 mile. For details, click here.
- If you're looking for a fun smaller race this month, consider the Upgrade 5K & Kids Fun Run at Birkdale on Saturday, June 25. The 5K is at 8 a.m., and the Kids Fun Run follows at 8:45 a.m. It's being put on by UpGrade Lifestyle Inc. of Huntersville, and will start at the Birkdale Resident's Club, 8915 Devonshire Drive (also in Huntersville). Cost is $20 in advance or $25 on race day (kids' race is $5). Proceeds will benefit the Rheumatoid Arthritis Foundation. UpGrade employs a couple friends of mine as trainers -- professional triathlete Kelly Fillnow and two-time Olympic Trials marathon qualifier Megan Hovis; both of them will be there supporting runners on race day. Details: Click here.
- Charlotte Running Co. and Carolina Sports Clinic are launching a new evening race for Independence Day weekend: the first annual Charlotte Firecracker 5K, set for 7 p.m. Sunday, July 3, on a fast loop course through Charlotte's Olde Providence neighborhood. This family-friendly race will be followed by a pool party featuring music, food and drinks. Cost is $20 through June 26. Race website: Click here.
- 10Ks are rare in Charlotte, so it's nice to see that the OrthoCarolina Classic is back for its second summer after a successful inaugural event last August. The race's 2011 date is Saturday, Aug. 20, and the official starting area again on the corner of Randolph Road and North Colonial Avenue. The 10K starts at 7:45 a.m., plus there's a 5K that goes off 15 minutes earlier. The events are designed "to promote and encourage active families and healthy lifestyles ... while raising awareness for the OrthoCarolina Research Institute." Cost for the 10K is just $25 through July 31. Last year, 186 runners completed the 10K (170 ran the 5K). Race website: Click here.
Monday, May 9, 2011
New River had ups and downs. Mostly ups.
Just over a mile into the New River Marathon on Saturday, I hit a wall.
Then I hit another one at Mile 5, and another one at Mile 13, and another at Mile 16, and another at Mile 17.
I guess this is what I get for signing up for a marathon that runs through the Blue Ridge Mountains.
To give you some sense of the hills that confronted me and the approximately 200 other brave souls that tackled the course this past weekend...
...OK, so you've heard of (or run up) the Boston Marathon's legendary Heartbreak Hill before, right? Set between the 20 and 21 mile marks, it is the last and most difficult of the four famed "Newton hills." Heartbreak rises 88 feet over four-tenths of a mile.
The first of the climbs at New River comes 1.3 miles in. The ascent lasts a mile and is 308 feet. The second of the hills starts at Mile 5 and goes up 122 feet over seven-tenths of a mile. Hill No. 3 is 12.9 miles in and climbs 187 feet over seven-tenths of a mile.
But it's the final two hills -- mountains, actually -- that are the real doozies. The first starts just after Mile 16 and features a 174-foot ascent (more than twice as much elevation gain as Heartbreak) over about 320 meters (less than half the length of Heartbreak). The second climb, at Mile 17, is virtually identical. In one section, there is a 16.1 percent grade.
Boston has Heartbreak Hill, but this was Bodybreak Hill. Mindbreak Hill. Soulbreak Hill.
Of course, all of this is information I could have pulled right off the NRM website months before I actually ran the race. And I mean, it's not like I didn't look at the elevation profile before signing up, or after signing up, or the day before the race. But looking at spikes and dips on a graph and turning a corner to find a strip of road that seems to disappear up into the clouds are two very different experiences.
Anyway, I'll spare you the typical details about the ride up, what I had to eat the night before, packet pickup, pre-race prep, etc., except to say that the place my buddy Shawn Matthews and I stayed in was adjacent to a complex that could have stood in for Camp Crystal Lake from the "Friday the 13th" movies. And our room? It had no TV, no phone, no fridge, and no indoor plumbing. (OK, I'm joking about that last part.)
The only thing worth noting about the 35-minute drive to the start Saturday morning is that I tried and failed several times to get my Garmin to power up. But to make a long story short, my friend Emily Knudson came up to me right before the start and offered me hers. I set it up to pace me to a 3:30. I'm laughing thinking about that now (spoiler alert: I ran a 3:46).
So if you're reading this, you're almost certainly a runner, and if you're a runner, you're almost certainly competitive.
Not competitive in the sense that you are fast and you train with Jordan Kinley or Caitlin Chrisman or any of the other local elite runners whose names you routinely see at the top of the results after a big Charlotte race.
What I mean, rather, is that you have a competitive streak. Whether you run 4-1/2-minute miles or 14-1/2-minute miles, you have a strong desire to be more successful (i.e. faster) than others. You enter races, and more often than not, you are trying to set PRs.
Run enough races and you will tend to see the same faces -- or the same backsides, at least -- during them. Similarly able runners who you'll run by, or who will run by you, or who will run next to you. Runners who you use as targets. Runners who you want to beat.
For me, one of those runners is a young woman named Jinnie Austin.
The first time we met, at the Corporate Cup Half Marathon in 2010, we actually ran together and chatted for awhile, but she faded in the late going and finished in 1:40 to my 1:36. A couple months later I beat her by 9 seconds in a 5K. Then the tide started turning. She beat me by more than half a minute at a 5K in August, and by 12 seconds during a 15K in the fall.
So when we bumped into each other at the starting line on Saturday, I added another goal to the list for the race: Don't let Jinnie beat me. It's funny -- it wasn't so much "I have to beat her," it really was, "I don't want her to beat me." Does that make sense?
It was nothing personal; it's just, she's a very good runner, and beating her would feel like an accomplishment.
She said she was sort of shooting for 3:40... I told her I was sort of shooting for 3:30. Then the gun went off. She was about 15 or 20 meters ahead of me for the first few minutes, then I caught her and we made small talk until we hit the first hill.
This was no small hill, as I mentioned. Before the race, most of the focus was on the big elevation spikes in the second half of the course. No one had mentioned this one -- and they should have. It included several switchbacks and blind curves, so one of the worst things about not being ready for it was I had no idea it was A MILE LONG.
I left Jinnie behind maybe halfway up it, and wouldn't see her again for 2-1/2 hours.
Every time the next section came into view, after rounding a corner or cresting a steep rise, I'd mutter a "Are you kidding me??" (with maybe an obscenity or two added in there for effect).
Then we hit the top and plunged straight back down, 246 feet down over just seven-tenths of a mile according to the elevation map. So three miles in and already my calves, hamstrings and quads were complaining mightily.
I knew this was not going to be a 3:30 kind of a day.
Still, with the exception of the brief but aggressive climb at Mile 5, most of the first half really was amazingly flat. For me, though, it had become a psychological battle of sorts. That first mountain had sapped my legs a bit, but because it also had surprised me so much, it had me constantly fearing what might be around the next corner.
The course was designed, loosely, as a figure-eight. It traverses some beautiful sections of the Blue Ridge, the New River Valley, and winds through a picturesque landscape of farms and forests. As you might imagine, it's in the middle of nowhere. At Mile 11, we looped back past the start/finish (hosted by the family-owned Riverside Restaurant), and the size of the crowd here -- maybe 100 people cheered as we ran through -- was about 25 times the size of the second-largest crowd I saw along the course that day.
This being a small race, I was pretty much passing no one and pretty much no one was passing me. Every half-hour or so I'd glance back fully expecting to see Jinnie not far back; but if she was there, she was in a blind spot.
Then around Mile 12, I ran into Jinnie's husband, Stan, a 3:03 marathoner who I figured would be good for a Top 10 and maybe even a Top 5 finish. I was surprised to see him heading in the opposite direction. As we passed each other I asked him, basically, "What's going on?" and that he replied, basically, "I'm done." We didn't get much off other than that, and as I continue on of course now all I can think of is "These hills that are coming up must be killers." I'd later find he dropped out because of stomach issues, but at the time I had scared myself into thinking he had had hill issues.
And then I had hill issues.
Suffice it to say, between the time we started climbing at Mile 13 and the zenith of the course just after 17, I walked several times for several minutes at a stretch. Not because I had hit the wall in the glycogen depletion sense, but more in the these-hills-are-so-steep-I-can-walk--them-as-fast-as-I-could-run-them sense.
I'll never forget this: I was walking up the last quarter of a long stretch of paved road in Mile 15 that seemed to go forever. Near the top, I saw the 16th mile marker on the side of the road, just before the course hung a right. I got to it, made the turn, and immediately was faced with a dirt road that would have benefited from a ladder (or an escalator, at least). I kept walking.
It got so steep in sections that I almost lost my balance. And had I fallen backward, I probably would have rolled all the way back down to the bottom. One guy plodded past me, but -- although I kept expecting Jinnie to pass me -- no one else made a move anywhere in this section.
The quad-pummeling began again after cresting the mountaintop at 17.4 miles in. Gravity did most of the work for the next three miles, although I was still way off my goal pace. By this point, I was just hoping to come in under 3:50 and avoid setting a personal worst.
Shortly after the 19th mile marker, right in the middle of yet another hill, a Jeep came down the road toward me and slowed. It was Stan. He told me I was on the last hill, and it was all flat the rest of the way (I was hopeful but skeptical). I basically replied "Thank GOD," and that I felt like toast. I think I asked if he'd seen Jinnie, thinking that maybe I missed her pass me. He said, "Nope, but here she comes."
It wasn't long after that that Jinnie passed me.
I tried to stay with her. But I was struggling. It was now nearing 11 o'clock, and the sun was feeling warm. Miles 20-26 seemed like they weren't shaded at all. Aid stations had been set up every two miles, on the even numbers. Because of the heat, that wasn't enough. Two miles is a loong way that late in a marathon, a looong way when you're thirsty.
Fortunately, I was able to stay not too far behind Jinnie. And the best part about staying with her was also the best part about Stan dropping out of the race: He had come prepared with bottled water and cups, and parked his Jeep in front of the marker at 21 to hand out water to Jinnie, to me, and to several other runners; he did it again at 23.
The water saved me. After the drink at 23, I ran with Jinnie for a bit; we talked about what hurt and not much else. In hindsight, I wish I could have been more encouraging to her, but I was just trying to hold it together. She got ahead again as I walked through the aid station at 24, but I caught back up to her fairly quickly. I could tell she was fading fast as we neared Mile 25.
And then she was gone.
I pulled in at 3:46:43.
I am really very proud of the fact that I never bonked in the race, that I was able to cling to about a 9-minute pace in the last four miles of a marathon that was both brutally hilly and warmer than I would have preferred down the stretch.
Jinnie came in at 3:47:55, finishing second in her age group and was the fifth woman overall. This seems like a good time to reveal some important information about her that I've been withholding: She has been having a pretty painful hip flexor issue over the past few weeks and hadn't done much running leading up to race day. Oh, and this was her first marathon -- so she doesn't have near the experience I do with marathon pacing and marathon-pain management.
In other words, as gutsy as I think my performance was Saturday, hers was 10 times gutsier.
Frankly, it was the misfortunes of Stan and Jinnie Austin saved me on Saturday. If Stan hadn't been having issues that forced him to drop, I would have completely wilted late in the race, and it would have turned into a death march. If Jinnie had been healthy and fully trained, she would have left me in the first half-mile and gone on to beat me by 5 minutes in this one, maybe more. The mere presence of someone I consider a (friendly) rival helped to push me through the final miles.
In other words, I could have skipped all of this race recap business and gone straight to the punchlines: The New River Marathon is super-hilly, and I owe the Austins dinner.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
The splits from my -- er, Emily Knudson's -- Garmin, for those who care about such things:
Mile 1: 7:49
Mile 2: 8:27
Mile 3: 8:09
Mile 4: 7:46
Mile 5: 8:01
Mile 6: 8:38
Mile 7: 8:13
Mile 8: 8:12
Mile 9: 8:03
Mile 10: 8:04
Mile 11: 7:59
Mile 12: 8:00
Mile 13: 8:25
Mile 14: 9:05
Mile 15: 8:58
Mile 16: 9:54
Mile 17: 10:58
Mile 18: 9:53
Mile 19: 8:23
Mile 20: 8:13
Mile 21: 8:41
Mile 22: 8:44
Mile 23: 8:55
Mile 24: 9:05
Mile 25: 8:55
Mile 26: 8:55
Last 0.2: 8:22
Monday, April 18, 2011
125+ area runners finish Boston Marathon
More than 125 Charlotte-area residents ran from Hopkinton, Mass., to downtown Boston Monday as participants in the 115th Boston Marathon, the oldest annual marathon in the world. About 27,000 runners representing 90 countries were on hand for the race, which featured perfect weather, a generous tailwind, and stiff competition that led to the fastest men's marathon time ever - 2 hours, 3 minutes, 2 seconds. The Charlotte area's fastest finisher was Nathan Stanford, 32, a Huntersville resident and South Carolina graduate running his first Boston Marathon. "I thought that the weather was nearly perfect with a strong swirling wind that was never really at your face but at the same time not the constant tailwind that was predicted," Stanford wrote in an e-mail tonight. "The event was, in my opinion, flawless from start to finish, and it's obvious that the people of greater Boston truly embrace this race and all of the runners who toe the line in Hopkinton. This marathon experience is one that will remain permanently etched in my memory." Danielle Crockford, 30, was the top local woman; she crossed the line in 3:14:49. Area participants ranged in age from 19-year-old college freshman Timothy Marquardt of Denver (3:38:30) to 62-year-old Ken Partel of Troutman (3:45:22). Area finishers, with age: Nathan Stanford, 32, Huntersville 2:41:14 Scott Woodbury, 29, Charlotte2:42:11 Bill Shires, 46, Charlotte 2:42:39 Michael Beigay, 32, Concord 2:44:21 Chad Crockford, 29, Charlotte 2:47:07 Michael Kahn, 31, Charlotte 2:50:41 Lance Hutchens, 33, Charlotte 2:55:54 Pete Kaplan, 54, Charlotte 2:56:36 Mike Moran, 35, Denver 2:57:59 Tom Ricks, 37, Charlotte 2:58:44 Adrian Stewart, 40, Charlotte 2:59:15 Daniel Rutter, 36, Charlotte 3:00:52 Clayton Venhuizen, 39, Charlotte 3:01:43 Christopher Bradle, 37, Charlotte 3:02:13 Chris Cummins, 37, Charlotte 3:03:22 David Price, 38, Charlotte 3:03:41 Joseph Korzelius, 42, Albemarle 3:04:19 Stan Austin, 35, Matthews 3:06:14 Rasmus Pedersen, 35, Charlotte 3:06:22 Keith Smith, 43, Charlotte 3:06:36 Bryan Allf, 53, Gastonia 3:06:54 Matthew McGuire, 27, Charlotte 3:07:11 Tony Brown, 50, Davidson 3:07:12 Robert Harbaugh, 32, Waxhaw 3:07:22 Sean Mayo, 42, Charlotte 3:08:51 Andrew Golomb, 31, Charlotte 3:09:02 Terrance Robinson, 30, Huntersville 3:09:28 Joshua Pinyan, 28, Salisbury 3:09:41 Justin McGuinness, 31, Charlotte 3:09:52 Todd Patterson, 34, Charlotte 3:10:07 Mark Cox, 41, Charlotte 3:12:18 Eric Reiner, 38, Charlotte 3:12:43 Todd Joefreda, 35, Rock Hill 3:12:47 Lee Bradley, 40, Charlotte 3:14:10 Robert Mooring, 50, Gastonia 3:14:17 Danielle Crockford, 30, Charlotte 3:14:49 Brian Sammons, 44, Charlotte 3:15:02 Robert Macki, 40, Fort Mill3:15:23 Susan Wallace, 25, Charlotte 3:15:36 Shenna Kevorkian, 28, Charlotte 3:15:44 Aregai Girmay, 51, Gastonia 3:16:31 Richard Heinrich, 48, Mooresville 3:18:55 Derek Blalock, 42, Albemarle 3:19:11 Jackie Savage, 31, Charlotte 3:20:26 Jill Rauso, 39, Concord 3:23:31 Mark McGeough, 41, Huntersville 3:24:14 Kay Brugmann, 48, Charlotte 3:24:40 Mary Dare Mayeux, 34, Charlotte 3:24:57 Lisa Sickman, 23, Fort Mill 3:25:31 Sarah Fox, 35, Charlotte 3:25:51 Joe Schlereth, 61, Pineville 3:27:54 Paul Gonzalez, 40, Pineville 3:28:11 Meredith Byrne, 26, Charlotte 3:29:00 Elizabeth Randolph, 39, Matthews 3:29:00 Andrew Quartapella, 46, Charlotte 3:29:48 Edward Morse, 47, Concord 3:30:31 Tom Patch, 51, Charlotte 3:33:12 Johanna Remes, 43, Charlotte 3:33:21 Colleen Angstadt, 34, Charlotte 3:33:32 Lisa Mire, 31, Charlotte 3:34:00 Michael Morris, 48, Matthews 3:34:39 Lisa Landrum, 39, Charlotte 3:35:56 Adrienne Rosenbloom, 43, Charlotte 3:36:13 Amanda Fleishman, 31, Charlotte 3:37:12 Frederic Levy, 50, Gastonia 3:37:32 Timothy Marquardt, 19, Denver 3:38:30 Henry Ijams, 49, Charlotte 3:39:00 Kathleen Russo, 51, Salisbury 3:39:19 Hunter Purdom, 39, Charlotte 3:39:36 Kimberly Leatherman, 37, Concord 3:39:59 Richard Belcourt, 52, Waxhaw 3:40:02 Meredith Dolhare, 37, Charlotte 3:40:18 Lori Dawson, 45, Waxhaw 3:40:33 Christi Cranford, 42, Charlotte 3:41:07 Sharon Davis, 37, Albemarle 3:41:23 Laura Centofanti, 29, Charlotte 3:41:30 Chad Chambers, 35, Charlotte 3:41:39 Laura Smith, 40, Charlotte 3:42:34 Rhett Benner, 39, Huntersville 3:42:58 Brian Ratte, 47, Davidson 3:43:09 Sarah Hart, 39, Huntersville 3:43:28 Joe Howell, 55, Harrisburg 3:43:43 Henry Peelle, 55, Mooresville 3:43:45 Michele Britt, 45, Charlotte 3:43:50 Naim Bouhussein, 47, Davidson 3:43:56 Vance Beck, 51, Davidson 3:44:08 Kristi Harris, 37, Huntersville 3:44:50 Ken Partel, 62, Troutman 3:45:22 Susan Watts, 41, Charlotte 3:47:48 Jeffery Cloninger, 53, Lincolnton 3:47:54 Robert Jordan, 37, 3:48:40 Bruce Davis, 54, Matthews 3:49:06 Douglas Mays, 46, Charlotte 3:51:12 Beverly Kastel, 41, Huntersville 3:51:45 Kimberly Eagens, 30, Charlotte 3:52:12 Sarah McGeough, 38, Huntersville 3:52:25 Julia Engel, 48, Charlotte 3:54:03 Boriana Bakaltcheva, 25, Charlotte 3:55:19 Melissa Johnson, 47, Charlotte 3:55:44 Denise Derkowski, 45, Charlotte 3:57:41 Justin Andrews, 34, Matthews 3:57:58 Carolyn Hoopes, 51, Charlotte 3:59:13 Elizabeth Maner, 46, Charlotte 4:00:16 Diane Derkowski, 45, Charlotte 4:00:24 Tamyra Meletiou, 43, Huntersville 4:00:56 Charlton Armstrong, 34, Charlotte 4:01:25 Dianne Allen, 55, Charlotte 4:01:42 Frances Bendert, 40, Mooresville 4:02:05 Terry Farmer, 62, Charlotte 4:04:59 Sarah Schweppe, 23, Charlotte 4:05:20 Sharon Cleveland, 55, Waxhaw 4:06:18 Lisa Vogel, 40, Charlotte 4:08:30 Holly Townsend, 41, Charlotte 4:08:49 Gregory Foxx, 46, Charlotte 4:12:56 Lana Torkildsen, 45, Matthews 4:14:03 Talia DeGennaro, 30, Charlotte 4:19:27 Tom Torkildsen, 55, Matthews 4:20:16 Jeffrey Valerio, 49, Fort Mill4:24:18 Robert Frazer, 30, Charlotte 4:28:21 Arthur Scott, 51, Mount Holly 4:29:31 John Crombez, 45, Charlotte 4:29:39 Catherine Hunter, 37, Charlotte 4:33:39 Karen Lamb, 48, Charlotte 4:35:28 Diana Hoxie, 56, Salisbury 4:45:22 Brian Foote, 50, Charlotte 4:53:32 Darryl Taylor, 33, Charlotte 4:55:33 Eileen O'Flaherty, 48, Davidson 5:13:55 Brandon Russo, 28, Salisbury 5:20:13 Vinny Yakoobian, 43, Huntersville 5:34:48
Monday, March 21, 2011
For me, a smoking time at Tobacco Road
Ask running pundits how often you should run a marathon, and you'll get a response along the lines of this one (from Runner's World contributor Jenny Hadfield):
"Runners who want to race a strong marathon and improve performance and speed should focus on no more than two marathons a year. Running many more than that is pretty hard on the body and mind, increases your risk for injury and slower times are usually the end result. Two per year allows for a full training and recovery cycle to optimize performance and reduce injuries. This is why you don't see the elite runners racing more than two marathons in a year."
I can only surmise that her advice is good and sound. She's got a master's in exercise science, is a certified personal trainer and coach, and has authored books on running. I'm a moron who three years ago probably couldn't have run a 9-minute mile without collapsing onto the asphalt.
This isn't a "So THERE!" moment, but for those keeping score at home: On Sunday morning I ran my eighth marathon (Tobacco Road in Cary, N.C.) in less than a year and a half; since running a 3:43 in San Diego last June, I have lopped about 22 minutes off my best time; I've had no injuries to speak of; I don't feel like I'm suffering from burnout.
Well, OK -- I guess it is a So THERE! moment.
Again, though, I have no leg to stand on. I'm no expert. I just a doofus who signs up for stuff and then goes out and runs. Maybe I could be even faster and stronger and more efficient if I was running 26.2 once every six months instead of once every two. Maybe I'm doing long-term damage to my body that I won't know about till I need to get both knees replaced when I'm 55.
It's an interesting topic, though. I have a friend, Todd Hartung, who's going after all 50 states and runs a marathon roughly once a month. His philosophy is that sometimes runners set challenging goals for the one or two marathons they do a year, stress out over the training mightily, then agonize if they have a bad race. He would never recommend his regimen to others, but he does believe that the more marathons you run, the less mentally stressful they become. Plus, you don't put all your eggs in one basket. In other words, if he has a bad race, he can easily put it behind him a few weeks later -- as opposed to letting it roll around in his head for the next year.
Now, I fully understand that not everyone can afford to run a ton of marathons, and that not everyone wants to. But my point is simply that I was able to view Tobacco Road on Sunday as "just another marathon" -- and I was able to crush it.
Didn't train particularly hard for this one. Did a couple of 20-milers late last month in anticipation of doing a marathon in late March, but didn't actually sign up for the race until two weeks ago. Didn't even look at a course map beforehand.
I ran a 3:26 in October and a 3:28 in December, then ran a 50k in January. It was just time for another one.
My BQ time, for a few more months, is 3:15:59 or faster. Though I figured that that was still out of reach for me, I decided a week out that maybe I'd try to run Boston pace (7:28 per mile) until the wheels fell off, simply as a fitness test. And this is the whole reason why I used all those words up above as a setup: It was just another marathon. There was nothing at stake. I didn't spend a lot of time or money on this race, and if I had to take a DNF, I wasn't going to get all worked up about it.
Anyway, forgive the anticlimactic nature of what I'm about to say, but for the most part I bailed on this idea in the starting corral. Instead, I just gave myself one simple directive: Be aggressive, B-E aggressive. Last two marathons, I ran conservatively and finished with gas in the tank. This time, I hoped to cross the line with nothing left.
The Tobacco Road Marathon is now two years old, and experienced fairly significant growth in its second year thanks to good word of mouth (including high marks here). Numbers for Sunday's full weren't too far below numbers for Charlotte's Thunder Road Marathon, which is now in its seventh year. (1,292 ran Charlotte in December; 1,052 ran Cary this past weekend.)
It's easy to see why it's popular: The course is flat, is mostly on the forgiving packed dirt and finely crushed gravel of American Tobacco Trail, and for many miles follows a dead-straight/turn-free path. (Another interesting fact: Nineteen runners broke three hours at Thunder Road, 28 were under 3:00 at Tobacco Road.)
If you clicked on the link in the previous paragraph and looked at the course for the full, you also can see that it doubles back on itself twice. This is cool because if you have friends running it -- and I had several -- you could exchange high-fives and "good job!" comments with them multiple times along the way. This is for obvious reasons both motivating and fun.
Weather on Sunday was perfect. 40s at the start, 50s at the finish. The entire trail is lined with trees, so save for the last couple miles, wind and sun were virtually non-issues. The only problem with the 20+ miles of trail is that it's pleasant and serene, it's also pretty boring. A road crossing every few miles with a small but vocal throng of supporters. Otherwise, a bazillion trees, and not much more. Sometimes it seemed like you could see a mile down the trail (although, wouldn't you know it, the mile marker always seemed to be just around a slight bend).
Really the only thing to look at was other runners. So that's what I did. And for the first three miles, leading from the USA Baseball National Training Complex to the trail, I looked at the back of Jonathan Savage's head. He was pace leader for the 3:30 group, and he'd announced beforehand that he planned to take his charges through the half at a 7:53 average pace, slowing at that point to 8:00. I figured three 7:53 miles would be a good warmup, so I tucked in with his group. (Runner congestion was so heavy for the first three miles anyway that I didn't have much trouble holding myself back.)
Less than a mile and a half in we started needing to dodge a lot of folks walking the half marathon (they'd started 15 minutes earlier); fortunately, the halfers and full marathoners went in opposite directions at the trail head. Right after the split, I surged past Jonathan and never looked back.
I wish I had some exciting things to say about the next 20 miles, but it was really just a long series of dime-store race "tactics" to help me break up the monotony of the scenery and terrain: I'd find a runner, sit right on their shoulder for maybe 400-800 meters, then move past them to focus on the next runner. I did this dozens of times, and only got passed by a few people. (The most memorable was a Galloway run-walk dude who passed me probably close to a dozen times. I commend anyone for running any marathon in any fashion, but between you and me I found it mildly annoying to overtake/be overtaken by the same person repeatedly and methodically.)
The fun part, as I said, was seeing many of my friends twice along the way. Kelly Fillnow (she was the women's winner!), Mo Campbell (she broke 3 hours for the first time!), Bobby Aswell, Kathy Rink, Troy Eisenberger, Bobby Grigg, Jamie Dodge, Peter Balletta, and Mark Ulrich (who was a huge personal help to me this weekend -- he picked up my packet since I missed the expo, and saved me an hour-plus of tedium by shuttling me to and from the satellite parking lot pre- and post-race).
Beginning shortly after the first turnaround at Mile 8, I spent the next couple hours alternating between confidence and concern. A few of my splits were in the 7:28 (i.e. BQ range), so I fleetingly wondered if I should go for it. I also worried at Miles 11 and 12 when I started feeling the first very-mild pangs of fatigue.
After seven marathons, I've generally found that if I don't hit the wall around Mile 20, I'm not going to. I have no scientific proof that this follows any logic whatsoever and I would never try to convince you that this will hold true for you. But personally, I was really antsy to get to 20 so I could see how I felt. I came through the half at 1:39:38. That was the split I was looking for. My friend Brian Sammons qualified for Boston by going 1:40 for the first half and then 1:35 for the second.
The confidence returned. And then it started fading again. So I refocused on my energy on locking onto a runner ahead of me, easing onto his or her shoulder, hanging there for a couple minutes, then overtaking them. Around Mile 16, I keyed in on an older woman who was wearing a bright Cowtown Marathon finisher tee and looked strong, and she was slowly picking people off, so I hitched a ride with her through the second turnaround. Finally passed her as we went up a long, gradual incline near Mile 21.
My goal was to not get passed in the final 6.2 miles. At this point I was satisfied I was going to avoid a bonk, and was feeling tired but OK as we moved back onto surface streets just after Mile 23. There was a little roll to this final section, and there were some turns to negotiate. The sun was also giving off some heat. A bit of a breeze now, too. Nothing killer at all, but after so much peace on the trail, it inserted a degree of difficulty.
This is the point where you start to break the marathon up into smaller increments in your head. Mile 24 = I've just gotta go eight times around the track plus the point-two. Cowtown Marathon woman comes surging past me. And now it's one foot in front of the other time. I'm also -- and I know others out there use the same "trick" -- thinking about friends and family who've battled cancer and people suffering great tragedies (like the Japanese tsunami victims right now). Thinking that what they've had to deal with is real pain, that this is child's play. In other words, Suck It Up.
Mile 24 was 7:57, and though it was my slowest mile of the day, I'm happy because I've run several marathons where my average pace wasn't that fast.
I keep my Garmin on the Virtual Partner screen, which tells me how far or behind my hoped-for pace I am, so as I neared the final turn into the parking lot of the baseball complex, I honestly was not at all sure what numbers I was going to see on the clock. I knew I had a big PR, but sensed I could be flirting with the teens -- so there was a twinge of disappointment when I came around and the display read 3:20 and rising. But that disappointment disappeared almost as quickly as it had come.
3:20:43. This was a six-minute PR. This was 29 minutes faster than the first marathon I ran, in November of 2009. This was an aggressive move on my part after a couple races where I wanted to run smooth and steady and finish feeling strong.
This, to me, was a clear sign that I can run a bunch of marathons a year, and get away with it. So there.
Monday, February 21, 2011
Asana Activewear is closing
Asana Activewear -- a SouthPark retailer focused on fitness, yoga, pilates, and running since 2007 -- will close its doors for good within the next month.
In an e-mail, co-founder/co-owner Gary Schwake wrote: "It was a tough decision, but ultimately the best given the circumstances."
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