One Training Weekend to Rule Them All

This was peak week for Marshall Mangler training. This will be the last big week of training until next year. After the Mangler I will take some much needed rest and crosstraining time and begin to mentally prepare for the arduous training cycle ahead in 2016.

Wheeling

There is no shortage of reminders of a prosperous past

Tuesday, I worked on a site in West Virginia and due to downtime I had an extra long lunch and was able to squeeze 10 miles in along the Wheeling Heritage trail in an out and back. I was still a bit sore from Sunday's 21 miler, but I got it done and felt good doing so. The Wheeling Heritage trail is a little over 10 miles long and all asphalt.  I started at mile zero and went out to 5 and back.  The first 2 miles passed a snuff factory, the smell of their product filling the air. A short jaunt up the trail and one finds himself smack in the middle of a sewage treatment facility with the trail bisecting the property. After this was a scenic stretch in downtown Wheeling. This was the highlight of the first 5 miles of the trail and also had public restrooms and water fountains.  I hope to explore the second half sometime and I hope it offers more.

All in all I'm just a runner in the wall

Wednesday I took a 2 1/2 mile run in Luna sandals around the roads near work.  I have to say the sandals felt great. I ran gravel and grass on the sides of the road when possible and they seemed to handle all types of terrain well. I am looking forward to more runs in these "flip flops".

Thursday I ran 5 miles in Oakmont and Verona. I tested out the new Hulton Bridge. It works! I got over the river dry!

North Park

After a rest day Friday it was time to get real. Real real. Extra real with real realness in every bite. ahhh..you get it.  I woke up at 2:40 AM, stumbled towards the espresso machine and turned it on. Soon I was out the door and driving to North Park. I arrived around 3:40 and managed to get 1 mile of road in before Lamar arrived to start our pre-dawn run. We began with the Orange loop around the golf course.  A few miles in and I had to make like a bear does in the forest,  more precisely that big, blue Charmin bear.

Trailrunning Tip of the Day:  Always pack some TP!

We made it back to the cars right around 5:15 when we met Lori. This was Lori's second trail run and she had decided to come out into the forest in darkness and hoof it out for an hour or two with us! Brave girl. We ran the red-blue up to the Wisconsin Shelter. We took our time navigating the ankle twisting, rocky sections with care and crossed the road from Wisconsin to the Red trail and followed it back down to the road.  Lori parted ways at that point with 6 or 7 trail miles under her belt before the sun had cared to rise.  From here Lamar and I took the pipeline climb towards Pigeon Shelter and came back around to meet Lisa just as the sky was starting to show color.

From here we ran a complete loop of Red-Blue to Red along the Marshall Mangler course route.  There were plenty of deer and the weather was beautiful for running. The trees were in full color and the trails were covered with the fallen hands of their brethren.

After reaching the cars Lamar and Lisa headed out and I put in 4 more miles at around a 9:30 pace. I was surprised to be able to hold that after such a long run. All said and done this training run was 26.2 miles in 5:45 with over 3400 feet of gain. Afterwards Tara and I met up with friends for an after noon at Phipps Conservatory and for Japanese/Korean at Oishii Bento in Oakland.  So. Damn.Good.

Lisa gave me a pack of Ucan generation to try out.  I will be picking up a pack or two for the mangler.  In 26 miles I had a little under 100 calories of tailwind in my water, one pack of Ucan in water, and a few Honey Stinger chews. With so little I still felt surprisingly strong for the nearly 6 hours out there.

EQT 10 Miler

Most of the EQT Runderful Crew

Sunday arrived and I was up at 5 AM to get ready for the EQT 10 miler race.  I hadn't planned on racing it after Saturday's huge run.  Just getting out there and enjoying the morning with friends and getting my training miles in was the goal. My legs certainly were sore still. I donned my costume and drove down to Station Square to meet up with Lisa, my race partner, and the rest of the awesome SCRR and Runderful squad. Lisa was dressed as a nerd and I went as The Doctor, which arguably could be said a nerd too. I figured on trying to hold around a 10 pace, but likely ending up walking much of the race. As long as we could stay ahead of the 15:00 mark we were good as gold.

The gun went off and we began the small climb towards the West End Bridge.  At mile 1 I was surprised to see we had a 9:30 pace and my legs were loosening up. In the back of my head was the thought that this would be the opportune time for a tempo run if my body was in good enough shape to safely pull it off. Aid Station 1 was a little after mile 2 and our awesome friends Suzanne (AKA Wonder Woman) and Lori were volunteering. Selfies and water and hugs were had. Mid-race hugs should be at every race!


We began picking up the pace dropping into the sub 9's and I felt good still. What the hell!?  I asked Lisa what her course PR was. She said around a 8:24 pace.  I looked at my garmin and crunched the numbers.  I asked her if she wanted to go for a PR and said it was still possible in that we weren't too far off pace wise. We began modestly accelerating and I think it is safe to say neither of us really felt it too bad until maybe the last 2 miles. That said, we were not going to get Lisa a PR on that day and both of us could care less.  We ran a much faster race than either had anticipated. Lisa recovering from the Chicago Marathon and me from a long training run.

 All said and done we finished with a pace of 8:38 per mile. I don't know if it was the bow tie or the sonic screwdriver or maybe the fez, but it felt like a miracle in it's own small way.

At the finish volunteers were ushering us to keep moving after the finish line. I did not know until shortly after why. Lisa asked if I saw the guy being treated by medical personnel. I hadn't.  She did. They were giving a man CPR. Unfortunately the end of this story is not a happy one.

My sincerest sympathies to the family and friends of Michael Kovacic.

If there is a lesson to be learned it is this: Life is short and one never knows how short it may be. Love those around you, care for yourself and others, and seize the day.  Don't put off showing your love to the world because in the end that is what we leave behind. The care and love we bring to the world is what is immortal in us and it is the best we have to offer. 

 

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Gear up for the cold months ahead with a sweet Runderful hoody and tech long sleeve! The ladies cut long sleeve has a v-neck.   The order is open until 10/25/15. Details and ordering info is at the bottom of the blog page.

Akron Marathon Race Recap

A friend of mine is a running coach and has done a lot of biking and weight lifting in the past. She now mostly runs. We were talking about how good running is for us mentally and psychologically when I asked her this question:

What do you think it is about running that makes it different than biking or lifting as far as therapeutic value?

Her answer is perfect.

"I think it's the beating your body takes, It strips you bare and makes you look deep within to push beyond everything you thought you were incapable of bearing or accomplishing. It's just you and your body...no weights, no bike...just you and your legs. I've been told that I run with my heart and I believe that to be true..." - Coach Suzanne Natter


Saturday I ran with my body and heart at Akron and was stripped bare.

I was fortunate enough to leave work early Friday. It was just a short 1 1/2 hour drive to Akron. Once at the expo I got in touch with Ryan to see where he was and he came up to meet me.  The expo was easily navigable. It was a bit smaller than Pittsburgh's which worked to my advantage as I was not looking to spend much money.

We spent a few minutes in the expo, in which I mostly bought beer glasses, and then headed out to look for some food.  We ended up getting about a 2 mile walk in up to Angel Falls Coffee and back for sandwiches and kombucha. By the time we made it back downtown Don, Paul, and Lori were checking in to the hotel. Ryan and I went back to the expo and met up with them. My corral assignment was wrong. For some reason I was put in C instead of A so I had that sorted out at the pacer booth. 

Looking for some good food in downtown Akron? Urban Eats inside Musica on Market Street has great coffee and food.  We ate dinner here. I had a pear and brie wrap that was just plain amazing.  Then it was off to then hotel to prepare and try and get some sleep.

Race Day

We dragged our backsides out of bed at 3:40 AM and got some breakfast. The Hilton Garden Inn was very accommodating. They had set a breakfast out at 4 AM for race day and allowed checkout at 2PM giving runners time to come back and shower.  I had half a bagel, coffee, and OJ.

After driving the 5 minutes to the race area we parked and headed up to gear check, which was at a parkade right by the corrals. We met Brianne and her husband Marc and shortly after all headed to our corrals.

The temperature was in the low 60's with a nice breeze on some sections of the course.  Most of the course was shaded, which made for thoroughly enjoyable running weather.


The gun went off promptly at 7:00 AM and with it the Elites and seeded runners.  Ryan and I were at the back of Corral A. We crossed the starting line about 2 minutes after our speedy predecessors, albeit at a much slower pace.  Around mile 3 a small group of people were setting up a makeshift aid station stocked with cups of beer and nothing else.  We laughed. Mile 3 was a bit too early for either of us to start the victory celebration.

The first 13 miles of the course stayed close to downtown. Miles 6-8 took us through the University of Akron campus area and 8-11 south and west of downtown with mile 12 at the race starting line. Here the half marathoners split off to head to Canal Park and their reward for a race well run.  Our route would take us northwest along West Market Street and it's surrounding streets and neighborhoods.   Mile 13-14.5 was a long , gradual hill climb. I found it to be fairly easy.

I had a plan to execute.  Knowing the course would be a number of rolling hills the goal was to keep below the 9:00 average pace that would secure a sub-4 hour finish. I would slow down for hill climbs and make up time on the flats and downhills thereby keeping my heart rate from spiking over and over which would bring fatigue quicker. That fatigue would surely come in later miles and I wanted to have some time banked against that probable situation.

Ryan was on board with the plan.  I could see many times he was itching to put the speed on.  A few times early in the race I broke into strides in the 7:00 range to hopefully satiate some of his speed hunger.  I don't know that it helped, but it didn't hurt my race effort. I joked with Ryan that it was like giving a treat to a dog. "Who's a good pacer? You are! Have some speed!"

At mile 16 the course left the roads for roughly 1/4 mile and winded through the Stan Hywet Hall and Gardens property, the grounds for a historic Carriage House.  It was a welcome change of scenery albeit too short. I was feeling great. We were averaging 8:45 per mile  and another 10 miles looked like a piece of cake.  At 18.5 the course began it's return path towards the city. I saw a marathon foto photographer and threw up the "hang ten." By mile 20-21 I could feel a little fatigue creeping in, but nothing too serious.  Miles 22-24 were mostly hill climbs.  Yes..that was it. The point where the battle began.

Ryan turned to me and said only 5k left.  That was meant to sound like a good thing, but at that moment he could have said 20 more miles and it sounded about the same.   I found myself walking bits of the hill climbs here and there and by the time I hit the mile 24 1/4 and flat ground I could hardly hold pace. I was slowing us down to around a 10 pace. With each mile I recalculated our projected finish time and bolstered myself with the thought that we banked enough time for this exact situation. Ryan just kept the positivity flowing and I kept crunching numbers distracting myself from the task still ahead.  Mile 25 was all downhill! We ran a 9:00 during that mile. I didn't push, opting to let gravity pull me down at whatever pace was comfortable. I felt like I might puke. That was a new feeling on a run for me.  Ryan said if you have to it's cool, let it out.  I wasn't quite there, but damn was I close.  The last 1.2 were hairy.  There was one very slight climb and a ever so slight rise coming up South Main Street.  I stopped frequently to walk. I was getting tunnel vision and feeling disassociated. Run, walk, run, walk.  Finally the course turned off of the road onto a sidewalk. 0.1 miles to go! I saw the Canal Park stadium out of the corner of my eye and felt the surge of excitement.  Rounding the corner into the stadium I could see the race clock was still under 4 hours. Ryan and I surged forward together crossing the line at a chip time of 3:57:43.



As I walked from the finish I could see one of the medical staff watching me intently.  I felt it was time to lay down. Right that second. So I did.  The grasstroturf felt lovely.  It was then the medicine man yelled at me that I had to keep moving. I staggered to my feet and went to claim the bling.  A nice medal and finisher's swiftwick compression socks! Bada bing bada bling! After entering the Finisher's Festival we met Paul and Lori and after mutual congratulations I propped my butt down on the ground. All I wanted to do was sleep.  I took a salt cap and we made our way to the beer and food tents. At that moment I swore off distance running. Twenty minutes later I was thinking about , and looking forward to, the next big race; The Marshall Mangler in November.

The Post Race Crew