Another Kona run, I'm think I'm over them and I suspect I won't be doing too many more. Same 10k course as usual, not as cold as usual, really quite pleasant. Myself and Gordon started in the first section, he left me fast. I maintained a fairly good pace.
Parking and packet pickup on Friday night was a breeze, big improvements over last year. They even had a choice of race shirts, now when do you ever see that.
Bren had her first competitive 5k on the Friday evening. after which we had a couple of beers and a nice meal in a local hostelry, that we discovered when we were in town for the Garden Spot Village half in April. We went back to the hotel and hit the sack, after checking that the alarm was very definately set for 6am. Bren wasn;t sure if she was going to be coming for the race due to her IOMS* from her 5k. I also grabbed a couple of bananas on our drive over as a per race snack.
6am, the alarm went off, I grabbed my kit, got Bren up and off we went. Got there nice and early and got ourselves parked and ready to rock. The race was going to be a little bigger this year, but due to good organisation, you couldn't really tell. Conditions were absolutely perfect, beautiful blue sky, start time temps at around 45F. I had my virtual partner pace set for 9:09 which would get me in at sub 2 hours, but all I really wanted was to come in faster than last year (2:06:46), which would mean a sub 9:39 pace. The main thing is, in any race is to finish uninjured.
We wandered around a little before the start, soaking up the atmosphere, we ended up with more time than we anticipated due to the awesome parking. I enjoy pre race anticipation, especially when everything else is done and all you have to do is get started, all very cool.
So off to the start, as usual there was the whole milling around thing, waiting for the last minute speeches and anthems, etc. The horn went and we were off. I knew the course well and remembered how nasty a fair amount of it was from last year.Owing to the usual start line business, ie people walking at the front of the pack, groups of two & three people running together in a line, hills etc, my first mile was my slowest of the race @ 8:58, which on a good day, isn't too shabby. During the second the pack spread out, significantly and I managed to find a gap and enjoy it, between this and a long, gradual downhill, I hit my fastest mile @ 8:09.
Reasons to be chuffed
I wanted to try and beat last years time, ended up 13 minutes ahead of last year, my second fastest half marathon time overall & my first sub 2hr marathon of 2013.
My splits are nice and consistent, my fastest mile was mile two (8:09), my slowest was mile one (8:58), other miles varied by only a few seconds either way, my average being 8:37.
I fuelled almost exactly the way I wanted. Started with a GU about 15 minutes beforeand a couple of bananas before the race, alternating sips of water & gatorade during the race and a GU after just over an hour.
No unshceduled walking, which killed me last year.
Reasons to be miffed
What is it with runners playing music through smartphone speakers; a) sounds horrendous; b) what makes them think other people share the same tastes in music - solution, use headphones or don't listen to music, please.
Slow runners and walkers starting at the front of the field, jeez people, can you not just start nearer the back, please, huh?
* IOMS - Most people suffer from DOMS a couple of days after exercise, not Bren, she gets IOMS (Immediate Onset Muscle Soreness, as opposed to Delayed)
Random pics from a great couple of days
Bren, before her 5k, trying to look
like it is after her 5k...
Hot air balloon take off before the 5k
The end of the kids 1 mile dash
The start of the 5k
The buggey responsible for leading off the 5k
The finish chute
Balloon flight on the morning of the half marathon
Very chuffed post half marathon
with medal and Road Apple award
So how did my 2012 go, my first whole year of running? First lets look at my mileage, courtesy of Endomondo.
Jan
Feb
Mar
Apr
May
Jun
Miles
29.41
17.43
54.76
89.78
70.63
57.20
Kilometers
47.33
28.05
88.12
144.49
113.67
92.05
# of Runs
13
5
14
15
16
10
Jul
Aug
Sep
Oct
Nov
Dec
Year Total
Miles
65.05
47.48
75.63
60.34
91.80
68.73
731.46
Kilometers
104.69
76.41
121.71
97.11
147.74
110.61
1,177.17
# of Runs
21
9
18
16
23
20
180
A number or things changed over the course of the year that may help explain the changes, although one of the most notable happened in November when +Bren took up running. I'm not quite sure why it affected my so much, but it obviously did. I ran a whole lot further and a whole lot more than before. Maybe it was seeing how inspired she has been with her running, maybe her running has encouraged me to find more time for my running, but either way, it inspired me to put in more miles than any other month.
Martin Parkway
Looking back, at the start of the year, running at all was tough, just due to it being winter, although not even a particularly nasty one. In January and February I was running at the weekends and trying to run maybe one or two evenings a week, weather permitting, which obviously wasn't very often. By the first week in March, the weather had started to get not too bad during the day and I decided to forego my walking at lunchtime regimen and convert it to a trying to run at lunchtime regimen. I work in the FMCC building, next to Ford World HQ and there is a path through the grounds of the office that I had been walking around, it then became my running track, much to the bemusement of others. I tried to run two to three days a week at lunchtime with varying degrees of success, in November, after getting bored with looping around the offices I started running around Dearborn a little.
On the 30th or March I signed up for what would be the first of around 5 or 6 half marathons for the year, the Martian Marathon on April 14th, so not too far in advance, but I thought, 'what the hell'. The actual day sucked, it was cold and wet, the course while starting nice, ended up being a long out 'n' back, boring as hell, but I finished, under two hours as well. The kids also ran the kids marathon that day, which was very cool.
We did eventually manage to go and visit our friends +Stuart & +Diana in sunny Colorado, I even managed a few runs with Stu and his buddy, +Chris, but no organised race, due to logistics, etc. Colorado was gorgeous and I can't wait to go again.
Richardson Center
Another big trip was when we went out to Pennsylvania for a race deep in the heart of Amish country, which ended up being a 5k on the Friday night, followed by a half marathon on the Saturday. Considering theses were my first ever days of back to back racing, I think I done ok, but the hills really and truly kicked my arse.
Another huge event for me was Danced With Dirt as part of a five man team running in a 100k technical trail race. Each member runs three legs of four to six miles each, with me both starting off and running the messiest leg. The final, awesome thing, was running in three races with my son, looking forward to running more with the kids.
Plans for next year
I want to run at least two, preferably three, marathons next year, possibly Lansing, Garden Spot Village in PA & I'd like to do the North Country Run in Manistee national forest. As far as half marathons go, I'd like to do Detroit & Bird-in-Hand in PA, and maybe others, but we'll see. the two races in Pennsylvania will qualify me for the Road Apples award, see here. In other races, I'm shooting for the Kona Triple Crown Award, which involves running the Shamrock 'n' Roll run in March, the Kona Run in June and the Wicked Halloween run in October. I will do other various runs as and when I find see fit.
I would also like to try and do some cycling and maybe try a duathlon at some point. There is a good one which involves a 5k run, followed by a 20k bike ride and finally a 5k run.
I want to try to do some more trail running, I ran Dances With Dirt and had a blast, so more of this, please.
So I turned 46 on 10th November 2012, no big deal, just another birthday, but this one ended up being a little different. Now I'm not really one for presents and don't really ask for much. From my kids I just like wee things, like a book or something, from my wife, same kind of thing, nothing fancy, but his year she went all out. Bren decided last week that she wanted to start running and on the day of my birthday, we ended going out together for the first run of her Couch to 5k plan. This is the best birthday present she could possibly have given me and I am rooting for her. I know that it is going to be tough, but I promise to be with her throughout this stunning task.
As usual I had to technologify the whole process and downloaded a c25k app from the Google Play store, the first one sucked and ended up going with this one from the guys at Active.com. Over the past week and a half I have watched Bren go from being a very reluctant runner, to a avid running blog reader and writer too, although she is keeping it quiet right now.
Couch to 5k is a 9 week program, designed to take a coplete novice runner, from nothing to running for 30 minutes solid at the end. It starts as a run/ walk program, with increasing running duration and decreasing walking duration, three days a week. We have commited to do it on Saturday mornings, Monday nights and one other session midweek. I am super impressed that Bren has taken this on.
This was another race that was getting arranged with the help of my company, Tata Technologies, in much the same way as last years Detroit Free Press Marathon relay team last year. This year the half was the longest was the longest distance under offer, which suited me down to the ground. My son, Gordon, had also started doing longer distances as part of training with his school cross country team, so he wanted to run it with me. This was going to be our first long run together so I was looking forward to it. Gordon also contacted one of his friends, Yu, from his middle school cross country team and he was going to be running with us as well. The plan for this race, what with it being Gordon's first half and his friends first race since the spring, was to finish and still be ambulatory.
Up bright and early at 6am, grab a quick snack and get ready to head out to pick up Gordon and his friend at his friends house and then a 45 minute up to the Oakland University for the race. The field was going be significantly smaller than at Detroit, so getting parked near the start line shouldn't have been a problem. Hmmm, not so much, one lane into the car park meant that what should have been a leisurely drive up, packet pickup and a wander around for 45 minutes before the race, became kind of hectic and rushed, not the best start, but hey, you have to play the hand you are dealt and not necessarily the one you want, right? Work colleagues wanted all the runners from the company team together for a group photo, which we missed, ho hum. Anyway, off to the start and we were ready to rock.
Conditions we absolutely perfect for the race, a little cool, beautiful blue sky. The course, recently voted one of the best fall half marathons in the US, was apparently going to be a little hilly, with a mix or road and trails with plenty aid stations throughout. We lined up near the back of the pack as it was bloody mobbed and we couldn't fit in anywhere else, it did mean that we were going to have to navigate the walkers, etc, but what the hell.
The first four miles went well, although it took a while for the pack to really start spreading out. I could tell that Yu was starting to feel it but didn't want to let on, he just asked if we could take a very short walk after a water station and kept on going from there. The following miles were interspersed with pleasantly wooded trails and rather long nasty hills. Every aid station became a progressively longer walk, but all kudos to Yu, he stuck it out and kept going, even when it became obvious that he was struggling.
Looking at the elevation profile before the race showed that while the first half was mostly downhill, it did mean that the second was obviously going to be uphill, and it was, quite impressively at some points, but we got there and took pleasure looking back down them afterwards. I felt good pretty much the whole race although I did experience some pain in my left inner calf after about 7 miles, which stayed there for the rest of the race, although didn't actually become debilitating We got a view of the finish line with about 1/4 mile left to go and Gordon flew ahead of me, which I guessed he would as he had plenty left in the tank, I also cranked it up a notch and finished strong.
All in all a fun day, glad we did it.
Race Reflections
Beautiful course, nicely varied with trails, hills, etc.
Well marshaled
Plenty of aid stations (almost too many, but you can never have too much of a good thing)
Lots of enthusiastic spectators
Lots of music, even a bagpiper at one point which was very cool
Running with my son was very cool
Extremely cool medal, very cool translucent inlay, the picture really doesn't do it justice.
So Bren read the article about the Amish runners in Runners World a few months ago and suggested that I try it. Bren doesn't generally suggest runs, she more, kind of, puts up with them, but I had a feeling that this would be one she would be interested in. You see Bren, is fascinated by the Amish people and their way of life & this run, taking place in the heart of the Amish in south eastern Pennsylvania, would suit us both. It was going be quite a short, rushed weekend, but it was going to be worth it. There was also an option of going for the Fire Company challenge, ie run in both the 5k & the half, so I like a fool went for it.
We left home on the Friday morning, pretty much as soon as the kids got on their school buses. I suspected that I had bitten off more than I could chew and that we weren't going to manage to make the start of the 5k, bur we made good time and headed straight to the packet pickup area. I had already gotten changed in the car on the way over, so no messing around there. We parked right across the road from the area, but it was very busy. I was picking up for both races, but that was no hassle and everythting went very smoothly, if a little slowly.
Packet pickup line, not as bad as it looked
They were also having hot air balloon take offs in the field next to the expo area which gave us something to look at while in line.
As idyllic as it looked
The expo was quite small but had some cool stuff to browse, fresh Amish made food, a couple of stalls selling running shirts, shoes, etc, the new latest magic runners snake oil. As 6:15pm rolled around it was time to see the kids one mile race. We decided that it would be cool to watch as we had seen lots of little Amish kids with their numbers on, getting ready to run the race, boys in their long pants, with suspenders (braces) and little girls in their long plain dresses and aprons, many with either trendy running shoes or just barefoot. See below for a video of them towards the end of the race. Sometimes the embedded video doesn't show, can also be seen at http://youtu.be/IRIH6SrGHxk
In with the new and out with the old
So I almost broke one of the cardinal rules of racing - 'nothing new
on race day', ie race day is not the day to try anything out of your
usual routine. My old New Balance MT10's were really starting to show their age and the many miles I have put on them, so it was time to go with something new, after much deliberation, I opted for the Skechers GoRun Ride, as worn by elite marathon runner Meb Keflezighi, but I'm sure he could wear anything and still kick my @rse. I ran two miles in them the day before the 5k, so no rules broken.
The 5k
The 5k was scheduled to start at 6:30pm,but I guess they were just totally overwhelmed by the number of people running the race and parking/ packet pickup was an issue for them. It was a beautiful location to stand a wait, so wait we did as there really wasn't much else that we could do, right. The sun was starting to go down, but with the continuing balloon launches, it did provide with a couple of nice photo opportunities.
Sometimes the smartphone can take a good snap
The race started about 10 minutes late, which wasn't too bad considering. While it was getting a little cooler, ~80F, it wasn't getting any less humid, I looked around at the many Amish people in the same race, boys, girls, men and women, none of them dressed down in any way, their only concession being the latest pair of running shoes, I wondered how hot they must be feeling.
And then we were off... I, rather inexplicably, managed to set a new 1 mile PR (7:29) and a Cooper (2.5km) on this one, with the hills and the mass of people, I was very surprised. Around mile two, the humidity and the hills, really started taking its toll and I hit the wall. I was ready to walk by the time I got to mile three but managed to drag myself over the line. I was in a pack of about four of five at the end and didn't have to energy to try and beat them to the finish line. I was just plain glad to be done and with a slight twinge in my Achilles tendon, not really looking forward to what the morning was going to bring.
Official results - 105/ 510 overall, 5/ 16 in my age group
Half Marathon
Up bright and early after sleeping like crap on an air mattress in a small tent, no snacks or drinks to speak of and it was time to head over for the start of the half marathon. Not my best ever pre race preparations, let me tell you. Once there we did manage to get some fresh sugar coated donuts before the race, but I don't recall Runners World ever saying how awesome these things are for your stomach either. But anyway, the time had come to get to the starting line and get this thing going. It wasn't as humid as yesterday, but it was early, confidence was not particularly high.
There was a field of just over 1,000 people in the race, which I guess is what happens when you get a story in Runners World. So, not unsurprisingly, the first couple miles were extremely congested, but thinned out eventually. The race meandered through the local Amish farming communities, growing mostly corn, beans and some tobacco. The hills were never ending, there were lots of spectators who would cheerfully shout that around the next corner was a nice downhill, not knowing that an bitter Scotsman merely thinks, that another downhill means that there is another uphill somewhere else.
There were a couple of times on the course where you could see quite far ahead, which can be a little demoralising, but it does change to being able to see quite far behind, which does make you feel a whole lot better. At one point an idiot in a 18-wheeler flew down the right hand lane of the two lane road we were running on. He was obviously pissed about the runners and proceeded to reverse into a farm driveway, ignoring the protests of the runners.
In the last 1/2 mile I got fed up having been passed a few times in the previous mile I decided that I would try and finish strong. There was one guy a few yards ahead, so I increased my stride and went for it. I passed him, made the turn into the field heading towards the finish line, looked back and I was clear. Crossed the line ~2:06, got my medal, plenty of snacks and focused on not dying.
It really was beautiful scenery to run through, I came to the realisation during this race that what I really don't like is running uphill, or downhill.
My official results, emailed to me, no less, kind of a nice touch;
Bib #: 300
Gun Time: 2:07:38.9 ( 9:41/mile)
Chip Time: 2:06:46.2
Overall Place: 430/1069
Age Group Place: 30/52 (Male 45 to 49)
The 5k & half marathon finish line
with obligatory Amish family
The much coveted award
Post race reflections/ how I learned to love the road apples
One of the many benefits of running in an area where many people travel in a horse and buggy is the opportunity to step in/on road apples. Between the guys that put on this race and another race in the same area, the Garden Spot Village Marathon, they decided that if you do both races, in the same calendar year, you will qualify for the Road Apple Award, in either 2D or 3D. The 3D version comes with real road apples stuck on the front, a must for any office or basement wall. I suspect I'm going to go for this...
Good Points
Fantastic aid stations and plenty of them, one even had mango sorbet to eat while running.
Random coolers containing ziploc bags of ice
Well sign posted and marshalled
Location, location, location, absolutely stunning
Lots of porta potties at the start, not waiting, ever
Lots of porta potties on the course
Bad points
No GU stations
The medal I received looked like I should be able to remove the outside and eat the chocolate inside, I saw other antique silver looking ones that looked way better. I suspect that they were overwhelmed and ran out of their original choice, I'll cut them some slack there.
The idiot in the eighteen wheeler that really didn't like runners, obviously nothing the organizers could do about that.
So we had been planning on visiting our friends, Stuart (http://discostugotz.blogspot.com/) & Diana ever since they moved out to Colorado 5ish years ago, but we have never actually gotten around to it. So, just after getting married, myself and Bren decided that we were doing it. We also took advantage of my Dad being here from Scotland, who is also friends with S&D, and decided that we would bite the bullet and drive over. It is approximately 1,300 miles door to door, so doable in about 22hrs.
On our first day in Colorado we went over to Golden to visit the home of my favourite beer, Blue Moon. While there we heard that Buffalo Bill's graveyard was to be found in the moutains surrounding Golden, so we decided to check it out, at about 7,500ft, I began to feel it, labored breathing, the whole nine yards.
I credit Stuart for really getting me running and this was going to be our first real chance to run together. We had planned to run with his friend, another ultra runner, Chris (http://thescenebegins.com/) and then in the Beaver Creek 10k in Vail, Colorado. I don't think that I really noticed the altitude difference due to us driving over from Michigan and not flying, hence giving my body a little more time to acclimatize.
Beautiful view on our morning run
On the Friday morning at about 5:30am I dragged myself out of bed, got ready and joined Stuart for a pleasant run on a park fairly close to where they stay. What with this being Colorado and me being from Michigan, it was a whole lot more hilly than I planned on. I did manage to keep up with Stuart & Chris on the first leg, without too much of a problem. I was then asked to lead off on the second leg, which I did so, although I was really starting to struggle with the breathing and ended up asking the guys if we could pause for a couple of minutes, which we ended up doing. We covered three 'loops', totaling about 6.2 miles, the views were well worth and it was a helluva day. I survived, but the >500ft of elevation was way more than I was used to. See here -
http://www.endomondo.com/workouts/gnTncJ5XHGw
The Friday morning run went so well, and because we decided to forego our Vail 10k, we decided that we would go for another run on the Sunday morning, on another one of Stu's regular routes, known as 'The Bluffs'. Again, up, bright and early, this time, no driving to the trail head, but starting straight from the house, it was another glorious day. This route was going to be a 1.6 mile run out, then a loop up, around then back down the bluffs, followed by the 1.6 mile straight back home for a total of >700 feet of elevation. We ended up walking two or three times on this run as I was really feeling the burn in both my thighs and my lungs, but it was well worth it. See here - http://www.endomondo.com/workouts/lgqTjPNTuwo
To conclude, it was a great trip, long overdue, to a beautiful place, to hang out with some awesome people, thanks very much to Stuart & Diana for their fantastic hospitality.
As usual I had to technologify the whole process and downloaded a c25k app from the Google Play store, the first one sucked and ended up going with this one from the guys at Active.com. Over the past week and a half I have watched Bren go from being a very reluctant runner, to a avid running blog reader and writer too, although she is keeping it quiet right now.
