Boston Teaser

Really, I've been working on a Boston post. This isn't it. This is just a teaser to show I've been working on it. I've uploaded some photos and have a draft post started, but it's still a work in progress. As are all the photos we took on the trip. I've uploaded over 1,000 images online and am sorting through them to tell a pictorial story. That may take a little longer to finish. Once it's done I'll link to it from here. With the Flying Pig Marathon this Sunday I was hoping to complete my Boston post, but we'll see.

Good luck to everyone heading to run in Illinois and Cincinnati this weekend!

Food, Inc.

Don't worry, my big Boston re-cap is coming. I promise! I just still need to get a handle on the photos.

But in the meantime, I wanted to make a quick movie recommendation. We watched Food, Inc. last night. If you're anyone interested in food production, animal welfare, the American farmer, mega-corporations, or just what you're putting into your body, you should really make it a point to see this film. It's a PG rated (nothing bloody) documentary about America's food system, how it's changed in the last 50 years, how it's controlled by only a handful of too-large companies, and how it's detrimental to the health of the planet.

We have become more careful eaters in recent years, but watching this movie will have an immediate impact upon what we buy to eat, where we eat out, and what companies we will choose to avoid. When it comes to avoiding companies, I'm a pro, as it's been around 10 years since I've given Wal-Mart a dime. But, as crazy as it may sound, that personal boycott may come to an end soon, at least as far as certain food products are concerned. Wal-Mart's new "locally grown" food program may actually get me to give the OK to shopping there. That company is so large, it has the teeth to effect change, as it has with selling milk from non-steroid injected cows. As much as I dislike Wal-Mart's business practices of squashing local retailers and dictating costs to the point manufacturers are forced to move production overseas, I have a bigger problem with the near monopoly a handful of companies have over the ENTIRE food industry. I can, and have, easily avoided purchasing from one company, but to walk into any and every store and have the same products from the same food manufacturers on the shelves, that's a much bigger problem in my book.

What's the saying? "The enemy of my enemy is my friend?" Well, that's something I'm going to have to think about. Until I reach that decision, we will be shopping the farmers' market and from local growers, and you should go watch that movie!

Finished Boston

I finished the Boston Marathon in 3:19:50 yesterday, four minutes off my qualifying time. I was closer than I expected to be and am very happy with my performance. I will be working on a full race report upon returning home.

Marathon Monday

I'm awake and having some breakfast. I laid all my stuff out in the hallway last night. I kind of know what I'm going to wear today. I may tweak it last minute. The weather is supposed to be upper 30's to 40's at the start with 50's at the finish. Partly sunny. Almost perfect! My nutrition is nearly all set. I need to mix a bottle of Gatorade to sip on before the start. The course is serving both Gatorade Endurance and PowerBar Gels, both of which I use. Less to carry with me today. In an hour we're leaving the hotel to get to Boston Common to climb aboard a bus to drive us out to Hopkinton. That's going to be a long ride. I feel good. No pains in the last few days. I really hope the pains stay away today. I'm as ready as I'm going to be, so we'll just have to wait and see what happens.

Boston

My Thoughts About Running Boston

(Stream of Consciousness Style)

I still don't really believe I'm going to be running the Boston Marathon on Monday.

I'm not as prepared as I would like to be, but it will have to be good enough.

The pain in my feet and ankle tendons is unpredictable but tolerable.

The pain in my lower back is unpredictable and disabling.

I really hope my back doesn't start bothering me.

Part of me wants to just go out and have a fun time.

Part of me wants to try to re-qualify at my 3:15 time.

Part of me hasn't decided what it wants to do yet.

The hills worry me, even though I've trained on them pretty hard the past few months.

I like hills!

My feet don't like hills, particularly the downhills.

Boston has many downhills.

It's out of my hands at this point. I'm just going to run and do my best based upon how I feel that morning. If I have the opportunity to push hard, I most likely will. If I hit 3:15, great! If not, oh well.

Best of luck to everyone I know running Boston on Monday and the BAA 5K on Sunday, and everyone I don't! I'll see you there!

2010 Fools 50K

Two times around a course consisting of a variety of terrain on multiple trails. That is the Fools 50K course. The second race of such distance I had pre-registered for. I did not run the first, but had every intention of running the second, no matter what might happen physically.

The day began dry but finished very far from it. The first loop, consisting of roughly 15.5 miles, went very well, and saw a nice group of us Medina runners sticking together in a pack and enjoying ourselves. We had some sloppy sections. We walked up some hills. We ran WAY too hard down some others. Sometimes we would spread out, but would eventually re-group. By the time we hit the mid-point we were split in half, and that's the way it would stay. For me anyway.

The rain really began to fall right as I was finishing the first loop. My aches and pains were beginning to show themselves too. Plus another most unwelcome pain: my back. That's the one that really did me in. It was like Last Chance all over again, only worse. Ladd and I were running together for a bit on loop two, but I was just slowing him down, so he took off to see who he could catch. I just kept moving as best I could. Every step seemed to send pain shooting from my back down my legs. It was all I could do to not stop.

Eventually, a very upright posture, combined with a very short choppy stride, kept me moving at a slow pace. I was running up hills I would have walked just because walking hurt more. I had a few chances to drop out, but knew that wasn't an option. With the rain falling steadily and the trail turning to swamp, I just hoisted the hood of my rain jacket over my head and pushed on.

The final trail of the course, Salt Run? I think, was especially bad. Lots of ups and downs and the trail was 100% mud. I couldn't wait to finish, but knew I had about three miles to go. It was pretty tough to keep going. Somehow I managed to pass three people on that final section. They must have been feeling even worse than me! The worst part of that last section, mentally, was that as we began it, there's a point where you pass within sight of the finish line. It was right there, but it wasn't. My finish time was 6:35:03, a new PR for a trail 50K by 11-ish minutes.

Chuck, armed with my camera, was out and about on the course taking all kinds of race photos. They can be viewed in an online album here. Again, many thanks Chuck for coming out on a crappy day to stand around and watch muddy people run by!

2010 S.A.R.C. Shamrock 15K

After having an absolutely HORRIBLE run at Last Chance, I knew I wasn't going to be able to run a 50K the following week at the Green Jewel. So I decided to instead crew for the other Medina runners taking part, and giving Chuck my number so he could run instead. I had a great time being Mr. Manager for the runners, keeping track of everyone's order and pace, what they needed, and taking LOTS of photos, which are posted here. But, spending a beautiful day driving around watching runners left me with a longing to run. Fortunately, there was a race the following day: The Shamrock 15K put on by the Summit Athletic Running Club.

This race is 9.3 miles of down, flat, and up. Lots of hills as it begins and ends at Woodridge High School in Cuyahoga Falls. The course took us down into the Cuyahoga Valley and back up, running the sometimes nearly vertical hills on Steels Corners! The weather was once again amazing, with lots of sun. Definitely shorts weather! I started off strong, and feeling good, stayed strong. I didn't know how my feet and ankle were going to treat me with all the downhill impact, but they let me run. I finished in 1:07:11, averaging 7:13 per mile. This was a HUGE PR over my one previous attempt at the distance from 2006.

Next up: Fools 50K? (If I can squeeze it in)

2010 Last Chance For Boston

Now that it's the week before Boston, I'm going to try to get caught up on my race reports. First up is the Last Chance For Boston Marathon, held on Sunday February 28, 2010. There was much talk within the MCRR about sending a large contingent down to run, as it was just down the road in Dublin, OH. I was in at first, but with my aches and pains I developed in the 24 Hour, I decided I probably shouldn't run it.

For whatever reason, I got it into my head to register to run the marathon the day before. That was a decision I would come to regret. Just like all my long training runs, the pain in my feet, ankle, and now my lower back, hit me hard. Where as just a few months earlier I could go run 26.2 without barely thinking about it, I was hobbling around the one mile loop course nearly as badly as I was in Morganton. It was all I could do to keep moving and finish.

The photo above was at a point when I was feeling pretty bad and it shows. I really just wanted it to be over. But there were too many people I knew there so DNF'ing wasn't an option. I just had to keep moving. My back was the worst. I could deal with the feet and ankle, but the back was sending pain shooting down my legs and leaving me with no strength at all. So I just limped along.

My finish time was 3:55:07, which was under my 4 hour goal time and not a PW, so I had that to be happy about. But that was all. I shouldn't have run it. It really messed me up for the rest of the week, and I had the Green Jewel 50K the following weekend. That was a no go. I was able to get my number transferred to Chuck, who went out and ran great!

Mrs. P had a good run in the Last Chance Half Marathon, running a 2:23:47. She had some pains requiring her to slow down, but at least put on a happy face!

Negative Split in the Pool

Today was a first! Got my first negative split in the pool during my lunchtime swim. First 400 meters = 10:53, second 400 meters = 10:47! I'm not sure how it happened. I wasn't trying to do it. Although I've been trying to start more conservatively and finish stronger, I wasn't making it a point to neg split, but it happened. I'll take it! These half mile swims at lunch are finally making me feel like I'm improving.

Easter Egg 20

20, as in twenty miles on the Buckeye Trail in the Cuyahoga Valley NRA/NP. (Not sure which it is exactly anymore, a National Recreation Area or a fully fledged National Park) We were up and running just before dawn, a large group of around 40 people, with the barest minimum amount of light to see where we were stepping. Temperatures in the bottom of the valley and ravines were a little on the chilly side, but up on the rim of the Valley and on the hilltops, add another 10 degrees to make things very comfortable. I would find myself longing for those cool spots later in the run. I forgot my Garmin and Ladd grabbed one that hadn't recharged yet so we were running blind with no sense of time or distance. Fortunately, the scenery kept my attention during the run. That and making sure I wasn't going to trip on anything!

Dawn breaking on the run.

Brown was still the prevailing color, but that will soon change.

Believe it or not, it was pretty sturdy.

Blue Hen Falls

Signs of Spring were poking out of the ground.

Ladd climbing the Piano Keys ahead of me.

Soaking my aching feet in the chilly waters of the Cuyahoga River.

Looking upstream towards I-271.

A beautiful run in beautiful weather, though uncomfortably warm towards the end. But it beats snow or cold rain any day! We finished in just under 5 hours by our estimate, with an extended break at the turnaround point. I'm looking forward to getting back down there and running that route again.

And just as an update to the BIG Swim post, I neglected to add my data. I did indeed end up swimming the full Ironman distance + a little bit, 2.5 miles, in 1:58. Everything felt great and I had a very enjoyable swim. Hope I get more of those!

BIG Swim

I'm still trying to get a handle on all the things I have going on and get back into my blogging routine, but it's still hard. However, I had a HUGE swim yesterday I wanted to note. Rather than hitting the pool for just a half mile at lunch, schedules worked out so I could go after work for a long swim. Something that has been lacking so far this year. I have one 1.25 mile swim under my belt, but nothing else in that range, so I wanted to do at least 1.5 to 2 miles, if not my full Ironman distance.

Cutting to the chase, I felt GREAT yesterday! Everything was working together like a well oiled machine. Still, I wasn't that fast, but I felt fast! My breathing came easy and regular and I didn't need to think about it. My strokes were smooth and even. I was able to maintain a freestyle stroke for the most part and only used the breaststroke when I needed a rest. I didn't dilly dally de-fogging my goggles and just kept going with limited visibility. The only problem I had was some cramping in my toes and feet, something I've always dealt with during longer swims. I don't know why. Maybe it's a lack of foot strength? Whatever the reason, I just eased back on my kicking and was able to work through it. My shoulders were SO tired afterward, I thought I was going to be in for a world of hurt this morning. But fortunately things aren't too bad today.

Getting ready for a nice 20 mile trail run in a little bit. The weather has been OUTSTANDING this week and I want to enjoy as much of it as possible. Happy Easter!