Leesburg 20K - great run, great event

I probably had the best race event of my very short running career.  Somehow or another I managed to eat right the day before, rest enough, fuel myself in the AM, not drink too much fluids before hand, not start out too fast, manage my fuel and fluid intake during the race, and had enough juice to finish strong.  The net result is that I averaged an 8:39m/m pace, well under my 8:59m/m goal.  And the bonus is that I had a lot of fun doing it. Best of all, I had a great "event test" run with my new Newton's and I am pleased that they didn't let me down!

Up through around mile 4 I can claim all of the credit, but then I managed to hook up with some good company that was compatible with the pace that I wanted to set, we had good conversation, and we able to encourage ourselves to a strong finish.  I’m not sure that I would have run as strong as I did without them. It was a lot of fun and it felt really good to run with them.

My goal had been to do my first mile at somewhere around a 9:30 pace, which I did, then steadily but slowly improve on that as I felt stronger, start running harder after mile 8, with hopefully a nice kick during the last mile. And things turned out pretty much according to plan:

Mile 8: 8:46

Mile 9: 7:46

Mile 10: 7:45

Mile 11: 8:03 (ran into some traffic)

Mile 12: 7:38

Last 4/10 of a mile: 7:59 pace

Somewhere around mile 4 I connected with “Sarah”, a 40-something woman who it turns out is a very accomplished runner, having already run the MCM twice.  We seemed to share the same goals for the event so it was easy to run with her.  Then around mile 7 I became aware of 2 guys that were drafting us and at first I started asking them if we were holding them back, but they insisted that it was more like we were pulling them along and we were  doing fine setting the pace.  As soon as we finished mile 8 I started kicking it up a bit, helped somewhat by the slight downhill  that we had and as soon as we finished that mile I was almost afraid to let my companions know that we just did a 7:46 split. But they were cool with it and ok to continue at that pace, and so we did. By the time we got to mile 12 with 4/10 of a mile to go, I wanted to see if I could push to the finish, and everyone started humping it up a bit more.

Sarah’s young son had joined us around mile 11.5 told us that we had this little bridge go over, then a 90 degree turn to the finish.  But unbeknownst to me, as soon as we turned that corner we had a bit of a hill…  Ok, it was not much of a hill, but I was pretty close to running out of gas and dealing with a hill was not something that I was looking forward to.  As soon as we hit that corner, one of the guys that I was sprinting with at time just took off on me.  It’s like he fired a new engine and just took off up that hill.  I started to take off after him, thinking that yeah it would be fun to finish with him, but as I started to amp it up, discretion took over – I wanted to finish the race…. not fall flat short of the finish line, or worse yet, hurt myself.  So I finished, strong, albeit not as strong as he did – but hey, I can play the “age” card; I probably have 10 years on that guy.

My right Achilles was somewhat tight the rest of the day and today (the day after), so I’ve been icing it after walking Reece (my dog), and wrapping it from time to time for support and warmth.  No stretching or serious exertion.  The running group (Potomac River Running, a group that I’ve gotten to know) invited me to join them on Tuesday afternoon for a group run, but I’m not sure that I should.  We’ll see come Tuesday PM.  I want to do 16 miles this weekend, so I need my feet, ankles, calves, Achilles,hams, quads, etc., to all be in good shape!

I do want to send a shout out to the Potomac River Running (website: www.prraces.com) group that organized this event. I haven’t run that many events, but the Leesburg 20K was one that I thought was one of the best managed events that I have participated in.  The sign-in at 6:00AM was seemless, plenty of porta johns,  a well organized start, a nicely marshaled route, lots of hydration, and a well managed finish line.  Best of all, I had a great time (both figuratively and literally).

69 more days to the MCM !!!

568 miles on a pair of Newtons

After putting 568 miles on a pair of Newton Motion running shoes, it was time to replace them.  I almost feel like I could get another 100 miles or so out of them, but my feet were starting to feel a little weird and I am sure that it was due to the shoes wearing out.

From the pictures you can probably see that I pretty much wore the nubs off the mid-foot area and the area just in front of (towards the toes) is completely slick (when new there were some grooves and a bit of a raised area – all gone now).  And in the event you can’t tell….  the new shoe is on the left…

I switched from the “Motion” model that provided something that they called “medial posting” to offset pronation, to the “Gravity” model, which is supposed to be a neutral shoe.  I really don’t know that I have a pronation problem, so if I go back to “neutral” perhaps I might learn something.  When I made my original purchase, the helpful store clerk recommended the Motion model because it provided a bit more “support”, something that might be helpful to me since at the time I was complaining about dealing with Plantar Fasciitis – I’m not sure where that support is provided, but it’s supposed to be there somewhere.

With the recent arrival of my new shoes and a 20K event this weekend (Leesburg 20K – Virginia), I have spent some walking time in them, then a short 2 miler, and today a hillier 6 miler. The new shoes feel great! And after this last run, I can definitely feel the different shoe symmetry in my calves. This may also be due to the fact that the new shoes are “new and unused” vs the “old and worn out” ones that I’ve been in for a while.  I’ll do more walking and run at least another 6 to 10 miles in the new shoes over the next 4-5 days before the event.

I’m looking forward to seeing how I do in the event itself – I didn’t have a chance to run any events in my previous Newtons so I’m looking forward to see how I feel after 20K and what kind of time I can post.

4 days to the Leesburg 20K  [UPDATE:  here is a link to the Leesburg event:  http://runningthrutime.blogspot.com/2013/08/leesburg-20k-great-run-great-event.html  ]

74 days to the MCM

Why do we run marathons? I did a survey

It occurred to me that people that run marathons might actually be certifiable nuts...  So I did a survey few weeks ago to attempt to find out why we do it. Why do we run marathons?

As I go through my own training for my second marathon, I find that I keep asking myself the question "why am I doing this?" Not because I have doubts or lack of desire, but simply because I have become very interested in why it is that we put ourselves through what we do. There is a lot of training, lots of miles, lots of time, tons of discomfort, it costs money, injuries happen, and so on. And we do it just to run 26.2 miles with 100's if not 1,000's of other running nuts. What drives us to do it?

I hosted the survey at http://whydowerunmarathons.blogspot.com/2013/07/why-do-we-do-it.html which asked 4 basic questions:
1) an open ended question: What drives you to want to run a marathon?
2) How many have you already run (options are 0, 1, 2, 3, and 4+)
3) What is your age group,
4) and Are you Male or Female.

If would like to contribute your thoughts, just go to http://whydowerunmarathons.blogspot.com/2013/07/why-do-we-do-it.html.
  - 4 questions, totally anonymous, take you 60 seconds.

Summary of results so far:

First the demographics

• 48% of the respondents have run 4 or more marathons, 
• 15% are thinking about running their first, 
• 15% have previously only run one marathon, and 
• the remaining 12% have run between 2 & 3 marathons. 
• *What might be key here is that 60% have run two or more!! 
• 33% are in the 40-49 year old range,  25% in the 30-39 age group,   19% are 50-59,   10% are over 60 years old, and the remaining 13% are under 30.
• 62% male, 38% female  (I believe this number is a little skewed, since my personal observations is that at least half the runners in my marathons have been women, if not more)

At a very top level, it seems that we run marathons for a sense of accomplishment; it is a challenge, and we want to see if we can do it. It is a difficult enough of a challenge to not be taken casually, thus providing the sense of accomplishment upon its completion, and for some people, the need to do it again.

To paraphrase some of the general themes that I’ve received:  I want to see if I do it.  I gave birth to a child, can I run a marathon? I’m the only one in my office that will run 26.2 miles. I ran one marathon, can I do better in another one? If I run a marathon (or more than one) I will impress my friends… and so on in that vein.  

The “Can I do it?” trend was typical for first timers or it was a “bucket list” thing along the lines of “several people in my social circle have done it, therefore I need to do it too”.  But for the 15% that have only run one marathon, the phrase “I did it, I survived, I’ll never do it again” was pretty consistent.

There was also a secondary thread that was goal oriented (similar to “accomplishment”, yet different); by scheduling to run a marathon, the goal was to train and exercise accordingly with the net goal of staying fit.  In other words, the marathon itself was the reward, the party, for all of the training. By having the implied obligation to run the event, it became compulsory to train for it, and therefore lead a reasonably healthy lifestyle.  This may be what leads runners to participate in multiple marathons. It may also be that the event (the marathon itself) provides a sense of purpose in one's life.  This was implied, but not specifically stated, (I am grossly paraphrasing and reading between lines here): "I am going to run a marathon and I will surround my everyday life with those things that support achieving that goal".

Some respondents are naturally competitive (and obviously naturally athletic) and their reason for running a marathon is continuous improvement. Can they do better. This group just loves running, is good and accomplished at distance running, and in general loves the atmosphere of a marathon. One respondent wrote to me about the mystery of the event, i.e. there is no telling what is going to happen between the starting line and the finish line (and it’s true – 26.2 miles is a long enough of a distance that anything can happen, be it weather, event organization, personal fitness or injury, and so on).

Another thought that seemed to be streaming in was that everyone enjoyed the buzz and activity surrounding a marathon.  Runners all seem to like the excitement before the start of the race, the support during the event, and of course, the finish line events.  In large marathons there is a carnival atmosphere that just amps up the buzz and excitement.  Obviously, many smaller marathons have little, if any buzz, and is targeted to the serious and hard core athletes.

One response that struck home with me (because we are in the same age group and apparently share the same thought) discussed the desire to run because people that he’s known are now dead or very unhealthy due to life style choices and his goal was simply to live a healthy life right up to the day that he keels over during a run. (I know that sounds morbid, but I agree – I’d rather drop on a trail or a road during a run than in a nursing home….)

But the striking result of this survey was the number of repeat marathoners. 60% of the respondents have run two or more marathons (48% have run 4 or more!!).  This flies in the face of the fact that running a marathon is very hard and sucks so much out of your body, plus it demands so much attention to training.  Obviously, there are exceptions for those individuals who are naturally athletic and have the right genes. 

30 years ago the average finish time was 3 hrs 30 minutes. Today it is at least 60 minutes longer, if not a bit more.  Any runner that is out there hoofing it along for over 4 hours (and I am one of those) is in danger of doing damage to their body – there is so much that can go wrong.  The prevailing wisdom is that after 3 hours of running we are starting to significantly break our body down.  I suspect that those runners that are repeat marathoners are running sub 3:30 events. In hindsight, I should have asked that kind of question in the survey...

But my overall conclusion from the responses that I've received is that the key reason that so many people are drawn to running a marathon is because it is hard, but it is doable, and when you succeed and cross that finish line, there is a tremendous feeling of self accomplishment.  And apparently that leads to the wanting to run another one…

My own reasons have changed a bit, but not by much.  My first marathon was simply a personal call to a challenge.  My running level had amped up enough for me to consider that yes, I would like to attempt to run a marathon.  At a physical and mental level, a marathon is a difficult, yet reachable objective that forces me to train for it, i.e. exercise, and to eat sensibly. I get to apply a level of "mind over matter" to get through the tough spots (of which I have many) and succeeding in that, I believe, makes me a better person.

To me a marathon is a very individual event; oh sure, there are people that cheer me on towards my endeavor, run with me, and so on, but on marathon day only me, my endurance, and my legs will carry me from the starting line to the finish line - it's all me - no one else can run it for me. And being able to cross that finish line is a very personal achievement.

And guess what?  I'm going to run my second marathon on Oct 27 - the Marine Corp Marathon, and I am very excited about it! And I'm totally expecting to run a third marathon at some point after that.

(If you would like to leave a comment I've been told that it may be necessary for you to temporarily allow 3rd Party Cookies - it's not my thing... it's seems to be a Google Blogger thing... For example, if you use Chrome as a browser, go to "Settings", scroll down to the bottom and select "Show Advanced Settings", select "Content Settings" in the Privacy section, and then un-select "Block 3rd Party cookies...".   I would not recommend leaving your settings that way, so be sure to reset it back to block 3rd party cookies.)

Tough week

This was a tough week for me – I did a two-fer (two runs in a day) on Tuesday, hill repeats on Thursday, then a very hilly 7 mile trail run on Friday, and capped it with a 15 miler on Sunday. In total it was 33 miles for the week, which I know pales in comparison to what serious runners put in, but it is was I was comfortable doing.  I usually run 5 days a week, but this week was only 4 – my right Achilles has been a little tight, so I am trying to exercise some measure of level headedness and not overdo it to the point of not being able to run.  My mantra this year has been to stay uninjured.  Besides, the runs that I did were very productive and touched on all the elements that I wanted.

The mistake I made however was on Saturday.  Feeling the need to do something physical, I went down to the gym with the thought of doing some light upper body work – which led to also doing some leg work (leg curls, leg presses, calf presses), and because I felt so empowered, it led to a more rigorous workout that I ought to have considering that I was going to run 15 miles the next day.

I did the run, but it was so very much not my best run by a long shot.  My legs were totally toast after mile 10.  I started to feel the effects of my legs  not having the juice as soon as I hit my first significant hill around mile 7.  My legs just did not have it to run up that hill – so I sucked on a Gu and walked up most of it.  The Gu helped and I seemed to be ok of the next series of modest hills.

I had run up from my apartment into Great Falls Park and then up a trail into River Bend Park.  The trails were beautiful and I thoroughly enjoyed that part of the run.  I was on trails that I had mostly not been on before, was navigating by dead reckoning, and it was a blast.  At one point, knowing that I was heading towards the Potomac River I wound up on the trail that switch-backed its way down a reasonably high ridge (probably a 200 ft drop in elevation).  I remember thinking that if this trail didn’t drop me where I thought it was going to that I was going to have to run back up that switch-back, something that I did not think my legs were going to appreciate.  But fortunately I did wind up at a trail that runs along the river that would take me back to Great Falls Park.  The first picture is looking back upstream on the trail I was running, and the second is in the direction that I'm going. (yes, that is the edge of my finger on the left frame - I could crop that out, but...)

I like running on trails for a variety of reasons, but I am learning that trail running is very different than road running.  First of all you have to pay attention to the ground and what is in front of you.  Secondly, you have to make sure that 

you pick up your feet.  There is no such thing as “gliding” like I try to do on hard packed surfaces.  And finally, it is really hard to appreciate your surroundings.  So as a result, my times on trails suck because I’m enjoying where I am and I’m still learning how to run on uneven trails.

The route back home involved a lot of uphill…  coming out of the park there is a 200 ft elevation uplift over a bit more than a mile.  I’m on an asphalt road at this point and it is just a smooth grind up and out of the park area.  I just chugged up the road at a steady pace, somewhere around a 9:45m/m pace and felt ok.  I got a bit of relief for the next couple miles and then had an uphill challenge for the next 4 miles, with the last ½ mile being the steepest. I sucked another Gu down at mile 12 and that helped some, but on that last ½ mile I was suffering (a very slow 11m/m plod).  At one point I almost fell on my face as I tripped on the edge of sidewalk slab.  I managed to catch myself, but I had the thought that if for some reason that I hadn’t, I would have just laid there for a while to rest up some….

I walked Reece for a mile after I got home, took an ice bath, did my protein shake, hydrated, iced my Achilles, etc… and all is good.  I was a little sore, but not horribly.  Achilles ok the next day – maybe we’re going to be ok.  We went to a pool party later that afternoon and someone asked me if I could run a marathon this week if I had to…  My first inclination was to say no, but oddly enough as I was finishing up my 15 miles and evaluating how tired I really was, I wondered if I had another 11 miles left in me, and I thought that yes, if I had to do it, I could.  So my answer to the question was yes… but I’d rather not, just yet… 

83 more days to the MCM!   (12 weeks)

2 weeks to the Leesburg 20K

14 miles becomes 15.3 miles…

Ok – so my goal for today was a simple 14 mile run, and to make my life interesting (and ideally simpler), I was going to run from my house to Great Falls Park and back. Seven miles out, seven miles back. A few hills, some ups and downs, and a nice 150ft hill over the last ½ mile to finish with. I figured that the last hill would be good training for the MCM since it finishes with a hill and I wanted to see just how well I handled a hill after running a long way. But it turned out to be 7 miles out and 8 and a half back…

So I get myself up well before dawn, feed and walk the dog, to my stretching, etc., and head out as the sun comes up. This was actually important since I was going to be running on roads that had virtually no shoulder and I wanted to be done before traffic woke up. As it was, there were a few times when I had to step into the ditch to avoid cars – it was not the safest route I’ve ever run. But what it lacked for in safety it made up with beauty. Tons of tree’s and lots of greenery. Since it was so early I got to run undisturbed from traffic for some good stretches and I thoroughly enjoyed it. Clean air is so nice!

 My plan was to run into the park until I hit my 7 mile mark and then turn around. But once I was in there I started thinking about re-routing myself to bounce out onto another road for the return trip. This led me to take a trail that I’d never been on before and had no real idea where it went except that it sort of started out “westwards”…. And if you’ve ever been on a trail in the woods, they never go straight for very long, and this one was no exception.

This particular trail wound up being a somewhat difficult and technical trail to run – steep, rocky, and muddy. Dark too… There was so much under and over growth that there was little light (plus it was cloudy). This particular picture was in one of the rare "clearer" areas.  Making matter worse, there was no cellular signal so the map function on my handy smart phone was useless. The GPS knew where I was, but there was no map data – somewhat aggravating…

Nevertheless, I had a fair idea of where I was and where I wanted to go and ultimately arrived at a modestly level gravel trail that afforded me some respite. But that trail detour took a lot out of me – I was pretty tired and I was not even half way through my run. The gravel trail ran north-south which I knew would intersect with a road and once at that road I was able to figure out where I was and how to get home.

Taking a lesson from my last long run, I took a 5hour energy shot at the 7 mile point and the jolt of B12 did wonders. I was able to keep a fairly good pace all the way through to the end of mile 13 where I suddenly started to sag. I started to get that “hit the wall” and out of juice feeling, so I sucked down my last GU, and trudged my way forward. Incredibly, by the time I hit mile 14.5 I was back in rhythm and finished (even doing the hill nicely) strong. That last hill was difficult but I kept on truck’n – it wasn’t my fastest pace, but I was running.

The great news is that I did the entire run without experiencing any cramping. It was very humid (97%) and I was sweating profusely. I had done a reasonably good job of managing my fuel and Gatorade intake (half a cup of watered down Gatorade every 2 miles), GU at miles 4, 9, and 13, and the 5hr at mile 7. I let myself walk while drinking so that I could deliberately savor it and swallow (ahhh nice!). Even with the slow 2 miles on that trail I averaged a 9:26 pace. After my run I did a mile walk with my dog, relaxed with an ice bath, and then an ice compress for my Achilles tendon. I was tired, but not horribly. Next week I’d like to do 16 miles and then do a little taper prior to a 20K race on Aug 18.

91 days to the MCM….
 3 weeks to the Leesburg 20K

Achilles issues

In early June I strained my right Achilles while running in a pair of trial shoes during a group run. It was weird that it happened since the shoe actually had a higher heal to toe ratio than my current Newtons. Nevertheless, I have been babying this thing ever since, but now I’m worried. Immediately after it happened I stayed off running for 2 days and then did only light runs for a while, icing it after each run. It usually felt stiff at the start of the run, but after a half mile or less I was fine and was able to run with no discomfort at all. It even felt good enough to do long runs including a couple of 13 and 14 mile runs. I seemed to be ok. But then one very hot and humid day I wisely chose to work out in the gym instead of running outdoors; I did some sessions on the treadmill, some core work, more treadmill – it was a great workout and I felt great. I had a lot to do, so I skipped icing my Achilles (not so wise). To make matters worse, the next day I was confined to a car for an 8 hour road trip. I ran an easy 3 miles the following day and realized that my Achilles was not happy. And I see the decision to not ice after the treadmill workout as the culprit. It’s tight, but not horrible; i.e. I can walk just fine. I just limp a little when I first get out of a chair. I notice that going down stairs gives me a bit of a sharp pain, so I’m very careful with that. But it seems that after I’ve warmed it up (blood flowing) that I’m more or less ok. I’ve rested it for a couple of days since that 3 mile run and today I did an easy run. The run was great, but I don’t like the way it feels now. Arg. I need this to get better quick! 96 days to the MCM (that’s like 13 weeks….)

Negotiating my way through 14 miles

I find it interesting how sometimes I negotiate my way through a long run.  But don’t misunderstand me, I love to run, I like the feeling of running, I love the exertion. But sometimes on a long run I get bored and it’s not enough to just be running – There is the long term view of why I am where I am in my training program, i.e. this long run fits here in my endurance training program, but sometimes it does get monotonous.

Yesterday I did 14 miles on the Mt Vernon Trail (runs along the Potomac, across from DC) on a simple 7 mile out-and-back route.  Around mile 4 I started thinking “3 more miles and I get to turn around”, then at mile 7, the turn-around point, it was “Yipee, I’m heading back!”, at mile 12 it was “17-18 minutes or less and I’ll be done!”, and at mile 13 it was “if I run faster I’ll be done sooner”….  You get the drift.  I wonder what other runners do to talk their way through the run...

I have no idea how people run without music… at a minimum the music is entertaining.  More importantly to me, the beat provides me with inspiration. Sometimes I’ll even listen to a podcast, but that tends to not help me with my cadence.  I know this woman in Michigan who recently ran the JFK 50 miler, and one of their rules is no earbuds or headphones.  She told me that she tried singing to herself, talking to whomever she could, but after 8-10 hours of running it has to get very tough.  It is not only a physical endurance test, but also a mental one.

Running on the Mt Vernon Trail was ok – it’s safe traffic-wise, reasonably runner friendly (except for all of the bicycles), no major hills, paved, and you can go a long way.  The downside however is that it follows the GW Parkway for the most part on which there is a lot of traffic.  And lots of traffic means lots of vehicular exhaust in the air, and I don’t think that’s real good for lungs, especially when you are running and sucking in lots of air. 

Even at 6:30AM on a Saturday there was what I would consider as significant traffic.  If it was windy, or even just breezy, that would help a lot. But yesterday morning was still and hot and humid.  I would have preferred to run the C&O canal path, but there has been a lot of rain and I wanted to avoid the mud.  Also, knowing that it was going to be a still and humid morning, I was hoping that the more wider-open area next to the Potomac would have been a bit cooler.  Maybe starting earlier in the AM or on a Sunday would be better.

But all good – It was a solid run, I averaged a 9:07 pace which (I think) I could easily have sucked below 9.  At mile 7, the turn-around point, I took a few minutes to pull some nutrition out of my camel-back and that process squandered some time, even though I was still moving, something that I would not have done in a timed event.  Regardless, I managed a slight negative split. 

One of the new things that I experimented with was slugging down a 5HR shot at mile 7, and I very positively felt its effects during the next few miles. My intent was to see if the B12 (the primary component of 5HR) would help me. I did the whole shot, but it’s likely that I only needed maybe half.  I did GU at miles 4, 9, and 12.  I also sipped on my watered-down Gatorade throughout the run. For tracking purposes, I went through almost 48oz of fluid (6 cups).  I felt no cramping or major fatiguing – I was tired at the end, but I could have gone another mile or so if necessary.  So far so good.

105 days (15 weeks) to the MCM!!