Life, Running, and Everything

California International Marathon -- 2:56:40

2011-12-04T16:59:00.001-08:00

Today I ran the California International Marathon, in Sacramento, for the third time. This was my 15th road marathon and ended up being my 2nd fastest!

Entering this marathon was a good excuse for a family reunion and I made the decision about 5 weeks ago to sign-up for it. I have fond memories of this race from 2006 and 2007 -- it's fast, well-organized, and on a pretty course. The 2011 race didn't disappoint! The weather was perfect, the race was well-organized, and there were plenty of great volunteers.

My plan wasn't very complicated. I wanted to start off slow and gradually speed up and try to "keep it together" until the end. I knew from a recent performance test that my ideal heart rate for a marathon distance was about 165 bpm. I wanted to stay below that for about the first half and then increase my speed. Surprisingly, it worked out!

My plan was helped out by a fortuitous encounter with a friend and marathon goddess, Jen Devine Pfeifer, who recently won the Half Moon Bay International Marathon and has been a past Olympic marathon trials entrant. We ran a few miles together early on (she was running 18 miles of the race as a training run) and she told me that she keeps her heart rate at or below 151 for the first 5 miles. (We happen to have the same max heart rate.) I felt good, was taking it easy, and with renewed confidence, I took it easy and didn't worry about the 3hr 5min pace group pulling away from me in the first mile. I ran the first mile in about 7:02 and that was my slowest mile of the race.

I was feeling good, enjoying the scenery, and the spectators. I gradually caught up to and passed the 3 hour 5 minute pace group. Around mile 10, my calves started feeling tight and sore -- as if they weren't far from cramping. Oh no! There wasn't much I could do, so I continued to try to play it safe and mentally save my biggest effort for after mile 20.

Around the halfway point, I passed the 3 hour pace group. My time was 1:29:16. This was a large group of runners and I really did not want them to pass me again. I tried to mentally keep it together. About 25 minutes later, I felt like cramps were going to come on again, and I decided to eat my next energy gel ahead of schedule, at around 1:55 instead of waiting until 2:15. (My original plan was to eat one every 45 minutes.)

Mentally, I kept on telling myself to just get to mile 20 feeling OK and then I could pick up the pace. "The race begins at mile 20", I read somewhere. I tried to take it easy and feel relaxed. Sometime after mile 22, I started really focusing and tuning out everything around me. I interacted less with the crowds (fewer smiles, fewer thumbs-up, fewer hoots and hollers) and stayed very focused on staying strong and not deteriorating. It got difficult. I was counting down the miles. With 3 miles to go, I thought I had a chance of setting a personal record (2:55:52 last year in New York City), but I was just too close to getting cramps or falling apart, so I couldn't quite do it.

Finally, I saw Claire! And then Jennifer! Claire high-fived me and I heard my dad and I was very happy to see them and to be so close to finishing. I rounded the corner, got in a good sprint, and was happy to be done. Whew! 2:56:40 is my unofficial time. I'm very pleased with how the race went.

A short while later, I saw fellow running club members David and Justin. They also had very good times, but David's race wasn't nearly so smooth and he says he struggled the last 6 miles.

Here's the data for each mile marker, from my Garmin watch. I missed some of the mile markers. The #s are lap #, time, distance, and average pace.

1	7:09.6	1.02	7:02
2	20:37.2	3.00	6:52
3	6:44.9	1.01	6:40
4	6:45.4	1.01	6:42
5	6:49.2	1.00	6:49
6	6:50.0	1.00	6:49
7	20:14.5	3.00	6:44
8	6:47.4	1.01	6:44
9	6:41.0	1.00	6:42
10	6:43.0	1.00	6:43
11	6:46.0	1.01	6:43
12	6:46.3	1.00	6:45
13	6:42.4	1.00	6:42
14	6:44.0	1.00	6:43
15	6:41.8	1.00	6:43
16	6:48.6	1.01	6:45
17	13:15.1	2.00	6:37
18	6:40.6	1.01	6:36
19	6:34.7	1.00	6:35
20	6:31.2	1.01	6:29
21	7:49.8	1.23	6:21

I weighed 167 lbs three days before the race. I had been trying to lose a bit of weight, but ultimately, I failed. :-(

My Garmin data:
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/132766717

As usual, I need to thank Jennifer for taking care of Claire while I ran the race. They did the 2.61 mile fun run and Claire ran it in around 26 minutes 40 seconds, which is a lot faster than I was running when I was 9! Good job, Claire!

Half Moon Bay Pumpkin Run 10K -- 36:23

2011-10-16T22:45:00.000-07:00

I ran my favorite 10K again. The weather was cool and overcast (no rain this year) and the course is flat and fast. They had apparently the largest turn-out ever with over 900 people in all the races.

My goal was to beat my time from last year of 36:07, but alas, I was just not in good enough shape to pull it off. I had specifically been training for this race and also trying to lose some weight (164.6 lbs this morning), but I couldn't maintain a goal pace of 5:49 or faster per mile.

My splits, going by memory, for the first 5 miles were:
5:46 -- had some downhill, and at the time I didn't think I was pushing too hard.
5:47 -- hanging in there, but feeling the strain. Passed a few runners.
5:50 -- hanging in there, but wondering if I could really hold on. Was in 3rd place.
6:00 -- my heart rate felt high and I was struggling to get enough air. I started faltering. Was in 3rd place.
6:00 -- just hanging on. In 3rd place, but with a runner on my heels.
? -- right around the 6 mile mark, with just 0.2 miles left, the guy behind me surged past. I was struggling and couldn't seem to put together a sprint.

So, I was disappointed that I couldn't beat my time from last year, but I'm happy with the overall placement. I came in 4th overall and 1st in my 40-49 age group.

Claire walked / ran the 5K with Jennifer, but had a miserable time. She went out fast, apparently, with Jennifer leading the way, and Claire got side cramps and leg soreness. I didn't push her very hard to train for this and she only did two training runs recently, so she wasn't really ready.

It was fun seeing so many friends. I also brought along some fliers for the Coastside Running Club and at least a few people were interested enough to tear off a little tag that had our club's info.

Kauai Marathon -- 3:14:35

2011-09-04T22:39:00.000-07:00

I really enjoyed the Kauai Marathon! Looking back at all the marathon races that I've run, I would rank this as my 3rd favorite, after Boston and New York City, and very close to Napa Valley, San Francisco, and Oakland. I'm glad I enjoyed it, because the entry fee was the most expensive!

What sets the Kauai Marathon apart are the veritable army of volunteers and the beautiful and challenging course. I was surprised at the difficulty of the hills, but they made the race special and more interesting. I would like to run this again. (By the way, the half-marathon is considerably flatter, for those who aren't as happy about hills as I am!)

Random notes:

I didn't get to the starting area quite early enough so I didn't have time to visit a porta-potty one last time. This caused a problem in the race where I had to stop and pee for the first time in a road marathon.
There was no attempt by the organizers to sort people by pace. Naturally, there were hikers and walkers and very slow joggers near the front. I got myself situated near the front, too, so I wasn't affected much.
I did a surge around mile 11, when in my mind I was near the top of the hill and near the turn-around. I was nowhere near the top of the hill! I should have been more patient. I think I burned out because I couldn't maintain my speed later on. As I recall, I ran the first half in about 1 hour 35 minutes. Although the second half was harder, I shouldn't have slowed down quite that much.
Finished 22nd of 344 finishers and 2nd place in the 40 to 44 age group. Results here. They handed out a nice plaque. It took several hours of waiting before the awards were handed out.
It took me nearly 3 full weeks to recover from Headlands 100, so I had just one long run and then it was time to taper for this marathon!

Headlands 100 miles, 23:18:53

2011-08-08T22:24:00.000-07:00

Mor and me, after finishing, with me holding my

silver belt buckle award for finishing in under 24 hours

Summary

With great difficulty and with tremendous help from friends and support from my family, I did manage to run, power-walk, or shuffle through all 100.4 miles and 20,020 feet of elevation gain and descent of the Headlands 100. It took me 23 hours 18 minutes and 53 seconds. I almost dropped at mile 75 due to a seemingly sprained ankle, but it didn't get worse. I had a "death march" for about the last 12 miles. Otherwise, things went well -- no nausea, no falls, no chafing, one minor blister, no cramps.

Longer Version

I guess I was looking for a bigger challenge and I had seen other friends and acquaintances repeatedly conquer this type of race, of covering 100 miles non-stop on foot, often in tough wilderness conditions. Having had a good race this year at the Miwok 100K, which is 62 miles, I imagined that if I ran slower, I could last another 38 miles. After having researched many different 100 mile races, I chose Headlands 100, put on by Pacific Coast Trail Runs, because it was nearby, would likely have cool weather, and I had raced on its trails many times already. The timing worked out well, too, giving me 12 weeks after Miwok 100K to recover, build up again, and then taper off. The 20,020 feet of elevation gain and descent were going to be a challenge, though.

Leading up the race, my training went reasonably well. I ran the Pacifica 50K three weeks beforehand, and chafing aside, it went well. My peak training week was just a bit under 100 miles for a 7 day period. I was able to get in many 20 mile runs, but only one 30+ mile run. I also ran the local Pillar Point Half Marathon and did well, averaging around 6:06 per mile for those 13.1 miles.

In the few weeks prior to race day, besides hitting my peak training week of 99 miles, I was also unusually busy at work and with the Half Moon Bay International Marathon, for which I am an assistant race director and was doing the course certification. Add in family time, and I had just about zero down-time and was cutting in on my sleep. On the Wednesday before the Saturday race, I got less than 5 hours of sleep and was super-busy with work. So, in a way, by the time the race day rolled around, I saw it as a relief and a break from all my other obligations! So, I wasn't stressed about it, but I was also a bit sleep-deprived and felt quite sleepy on the drive from our hotel to the start at Rodeo Beach, in the Marin Headlands, just north of San Francisco.

Arriving around 6:10am, I was struck by how few crowds there were. With only 51 participants, this was one of the smallest races I've entered. I said "hi" to Mike Weston, who is in the Coastside Running Club with me, and Jennifer and Claire and I hung out for a bit, doing the last-minute preparations. I wasn't nervous!

Mike Weston and I, sporting our club running shirts

My plan was to monitor my heart rate and keep it at 140 beats per minute (my max is 186 bpm) and to eat every 20 minutes, around 90 calories each time, and to eat a bit more than that at aid stations, plus take in sports drink. I would take a SaltStick salt capsule every 30 minutes to 60 minutes depending on temperature and how much water I was drinking.

Soon, we were given instructions and at 7am sharp, we were off!

Starting off nice and slow

Lap 1

I felt sleepy, but I perked up once we started and I felt good and healthy and strong. I regularly checked my heart rate and tried to keep it below 140 beats per minute. I tried to imagine being in this same spot 11 or 12 hours later, going in the same direction, on the same terrain. I tried to imagine the last loop where I would be in uncharted territory, running-wise. After going up and down over a tall ridge, I arrived at the Tennessee Valley aid station, mile 4.2, for the first time in 44 minutes. I realized that this was probably too fast, but I was going by how I felt and by heart rate, so I neglected to bring along any kind of printout of my goal times. I cruised along, in the cool fog, and enjoyed the sights and the experience. I saw a large bobcat. I chatted with a few runners. As I descended into the Rodeo Beach aid station at mile 25.1, I finally realized how far ahead of schedule I was. I tried to slow down a bit for those last couple miles. Jennifer and Claire weren't there and I decided to be quick about it and not take off my shoes but just to refuel and put some Body Glide around where my shorts might rub and slather on some more sunscreen. This took just a minute or so. I saw Claire and Jennifer drive up! Claire ran out and greeted me and took a photo. I was soon on my way again, leaving the aid station at 11:44am instead of my most optimistic 22-hour time of 12:30pm.

Food in my mouth and sunscreen on my face at mile 25.1

Lap 2

The runners have reversed directions and are doing this lap counter-clockwise. So, we run into those in front of us and behind us. Around mile 38, it occurred to me that I was just now beginning a 100K. I've run two 100K races (Miwok 100K, both times) and it was an intimidating thought to be starting a race like that with 38 miles on my legs already. Well, slow and steady should get me there. I ran Miwok this year in 10 hrs 49 minutes. So, I was going considerably slower. As I was getting closer to finishing lap #2, I thought this was more difficult going counter-clockwise because parts of the downhill near Rodeo Beach were so steep that I couldn't really run it. I arrived at Rodeo Beach aid station at mile 50.2, quickly refueled, gave Claire and Jennifer a quick hug, met my friend and pacer Amanda, and departed at 5:04pm. I was well ahead of my optimistic 22-hour schedule of 6:00pm.

Amanda and I at mile 50.2.

Lap 3

Amanda and I were cruising along, trying to take it easy and not run too fast. We acknowledged that I had almost certainly run the first lap too quickly.

Amanda and I at mile 58.5

My right ankle suddenly started hurting at around mile 69. I had to walk much of the descent to Rodeo Beach and then I had a lengthy stay there, examining both feet and deciding whether or not to continue. We decided to go for it and left around 11:01pm. My 22 hour optimistic time would be 11:30pm.

Lap 4

My friend Mor, also from the Coastside Running Club, convinced me to try out my ankle and that we could turn-around if we needed to and come back. My ankle was sore, but didn't have any sharp pains. So, we continued on, doing this 4th loop counter-clockwise. I was able to maintain a decent pace and heart rate at first, but then, I started deteriorating. With about 20 miles remaining, I was barely able to run downhill due to soreness in my quads plus my right ankle. The last 12 miles became a slow painful shuffle. I fantasized about sleeping in a comfortable bed. I was mentally and physically fatigued. I was totally hating the experience. I hated running. I didn't want to ever run any kind of race again, including the Kauai Marathon in September that I had already registered for. I wanted to quit. I felt bewildered why we were torturing ourselves like this, with all these lonely tired pained people struggling in the middle of the night. I wanted to quit at the last visit to Tennessee Valley aid station even though it was only 4.2 miles to the finish, but I knew those last 4.2 miles were going to take as long as 90 minutes in my current state because it was such a hard climb and descent. I recalled at Miwok 100K (62 miles) that I ran every step up this hill. I had one short period of renewed energy and I was able to run hard for 4 or 5 minutes uphill, but then my strength fell again.

Finally, we reached a point near the top of this mountain above Rodeo Beach where the closest fastest way of stopping was to get to the finish line. The sky was gradually getting lighter. I no longer needed my headlamp. I could start to hear cheering at the finish line. Another runner or two passed us.

Finish

Jennifer, Claire, and me

Claire and me, after the finish. The race director Michael is on the right.

Things that went well

I finished my first 100 mile foot race!
My training was about as good as I could get
No nausea
No falls and only one minor stumble that I can recall
No chafing that I noticed at the time. Somehow I did get very minor chafing on my butt
Only one minor blister that didn't cause me any problems
No cramps
Equipment and clothes worked well
I seemed to be able to drink plenty. Towards the end of the race, I was urinating the most frequently, like every 30 minutes. My theory is that this was because I was drinking about the same but moving so slowly!
The course was mostly well-marked with some difficulty on the counter-clockwise direction, nearing Rodeo Beach
The aid stations were staffed well-enough and mostly supplied well-enough, with some shortages of hot soup at night. The volunteers were terrific.

Things to improve upon

It probably would have been helpful to have run one or two more 30 mile training runs.
In addition to monitoring my heart rate, I should have had a better idea of what times to shoot for at each aid station for the first lap. Ideally, I would have had something taped to one of my water bottles. Running the first lap too fast probably made the finish extra-difficult.
For the race officials: the website's aid station mileage chart had a couple of mistakes. The longest distance between aid stations was not 8 miles, but was 7.1. On another leg, the distance was really 5.9 miles and not 5 miles. So, the mistakes cancelled each other and the overall mileage worked out fine, but it's still useful to know accurate distances between aid stations.

Random data

On Thursday morning (two days before the race), I weighted 163.8 lbs.
Results are here.
Garmin data for the first 85 miles, until my battery died: here.

I need to give a huge thanks to Jennifer and Claire for driving me to the start, visiting me at miles 25.1, ~38, and 50.2, and cheering me on at the finish, and then taking care of me afterwards. I need to also give a huge thanks to my pacers, Amanda and Mor, without whom I would likely not have finished the race. And finally, thank you to all my friends and family following me online. Thanks, everyone!

Pacifica 50K -- 5:09

2011-06-19T23:29:00.000-07:00

Sorry, dear reader, but the only photo I have from the day is the above one and it wasn't a pretty sight.

But, back to the beginning, I ran the Pacifica 50K (31 mile) trail race yesterday, an event put on by Pacific Coast Trail Runs. My motivation was that I needed to do a long training run and the race organizers had offered me a free entry to this race for all the problems in last year's Woodside 50K. So, in theory, this would be a long slow run with the added bonus of lots of other runners around plus an aid station. In practice, I just knew I couldn't hold back. I tapered for a couple days, but otherwise didn't take a break in my training. I pretty much gave it my best effort.

As far as my race performance was concerned, I'm very happy with how I did, and I finished a difficult 31 miles in 5 hours and 9 minutes. I was 5th place overall, but I was the 1st-place masters (40 or older) runner, and so I'll get a medal in the mail for that. I'm not happy turning 40, but I'll take the prize. :-)

The race is all on trails of varying widths, starting and finishing in San Pedro Valley Park in Pacifica. The 50K consists of racing up to the top of Montara Mt., then back down, then doing two loops of the Valley View and Hazelnut trails, then back up to the peak, then back down, then doing a shorter loop, skipping the Valley View trail and doing the flatter easier main pathway to the back of the valley. The organizers say there is 6700' of climbing.

Elevation profile, courtesy of Pacific Coast Trail Runs

I ran most of the beginning of the race with my friend and fellow running club member, Gary. I knew or recognized a few other people, too. I tried to take it easy, and monitored my heart rate. I felt great but when my heart rate got higher than around 160 beats per minute (my max is 186 ), I walked fast on the very steep uphills. My friend Gary passed me but we stayed within sight of each other.

I recognized a very fit and very fast woman -- she had finished the Napa Valley Marathon mere seconds behind me and she's the woman in the background picture as I neared the finish line! Funny coincidence. She said her personal record for the marathon was 2:47 which is fantastic. Verity Breen is her name and she was doing the 21K race. We chatted for a bit on the uphill, but she was wearing road racing shoes and didn't have a good grip on the dirt, so I pulled ahead on the downhill off of Montara Mt.

I felt great as I reached the aid station for the first time, except I was noticing a feeling of chafing. So, let's talk about chafing....

For the last several months, I've noticed an increased tendency for me to develop chafing during longer runs. I don't know why this has started happening. I've always used Body Glide, since training for my first marathon in December of 2005. I've worn these same clothes for more than a few years now. I haven't noticed any changes in my skin. Jennifer thinks the detergent has changed recently. So, I came prepared, knowing that chafing might be an issue, and I packed my stick of Body Glide in my "drop bag". But wow, the chafing hit early and was intense. The day got warm in the late morning and I was sweating profusely. My nipples started to hurt. Even though I reapplied Body Glide around mile 7.5, I soon started seeing blood on my shirt. This may have happened in college, but I can't specifically remember ever getting bloody nipples before. My thighs started hurting, too. I started day-dreaming about running naked. I wanted to take my shirt off, but I was afraid of getting a bad sunburn if I was exposed for several hours without sunscreen in the middle of a bright day.

So, I kept going. I noticed blood mixing with my sweat and running down my legs. My thighs were on fire. But after a while, the pain disappeared. I forgot to reapply Body Glide around mile 17.5, but I did reapply it at mile 25 and got a couple band-aids from the aid station. (When I first asked for band-aids at mile 17.5 they didn't have any, but they got them ready for me when I arrived at the aid station later on.) The band-aids couldn't stick to my sweaty skin and were mostly useless.

Coming down from Montara Mt. the second time, my side began to ache with a cramp. I eventually realized that my heart rate monitor, that is strapped around my chest, was the cause so I removed it and held in my hand along with my water bottles, until I could get to the aid station again and put the heart rate monitor in my drop bag. The side cramp disappeared shortly after I took off the heart rate monitor.

The last 50 minutes or so started getting difficult, going up the seemingly endless switchbacks of the Hazelnut trail. I felt like I was on the edge, with borderline cramps. But I held it together and didn't slow down dramatically. I never felt desperate to finish although I was certainly ready to stop.

I finally crossed the finish line. Yay!

I took my shirt off, washed myself off, and assessed the damage. I had chafed skin in all kinds of places I've never had it before -- my hips, my sides, my abdomen, and even a couple spots on my privates. Yuck. What a mess. Otherwise, I felt pretty good and wasn't terribly sore or in bad shape.

Jennifer and her sister Laurie showed up and then my friend Gary finished. We all chatted for a bit and then I headed home, with my skin now quite sensitive.

So, I've got to get to the bottom of this mystery soon. I suspect that a new detergent has made the clothes rougher.

Weight in the morning: 168.6 lbs. This is an all-time high for a race, I think. I don't know why, but I've been especially hungry recently.

And here is my Garmin watch data.

Pillar Point Half Marathon -- 1:21:46 PR?

2011-06-19T22:58:00.000-07:00

David Lara and myself, after the race

I had a solid race on this local half marathon, the Pillar Point Run to Benefit Coastside Child Development Center, starting off on the fast side but managing to hold it together. The first miles ticked by at what is for me an especially fast half marathon pace, about 6:06 per mile. I checked my watch when I passed the early mile markers and I was consistent. I chased my friend and fellow running club member, David Lara, the entire race. I put in a couple of strong surges, but he picked up the pace, too. I had plenty of endurance, and never felt desperate to finish like I have for many other races. Towards the end my legs started developing this "jello" feeling, but I held on.

He finished first place, and I was second.

So, was this a personal record? On the one hand, by my Garmin watch, I ran longer and at a faster pace than ever, averaging 6:06 for 13.38 miles. (A half marathon is 13.1 miles.) On the other hand, the official answer would be "no" and that I was a bit slower than in 2009. (I skipped it in 2010.) So, was the course long or was my watch not very accurate? I'm going to guess that the course was a bit long. The race organizers don't give a USATF certification #, for example, so I don't think it was rigorously measured, but I'm just guessing. For myself, I'm going to count this as a personal record!

My Garmin data is here.

Here are the results, in a spreadsheet file that apparently has the wrong file extension, but newer versions of Excel can open it with a warning.

I weighed 166.2 lbs the morning of the race. Kind of heavy.

Miwok 100K -- 10 hours 49 minutes

2011-05-08T07:04:00.000-07:00

Short Version

I successfully ran, or power-hiked uphill, all 62.6 miles of the Miwok 100K. It took me 10 hours 49 minutes which is about 18 minutes faster than last year. I struggled from around mile 30 to 35 but I recovered (was dehydrated probably) and had a real strong finish, running almost all the uphills and flying on the downhills. The trails are tough and so all things considered, I'm really happy with my finishing time. I'm uninjured, I didn't fall (a couple close calls), and my feet came out looking about the same as before the day started. The scenery was beautiful, the weather was cool and partly cloudy (perfect!) and all-in-all, I'm very pleased with how the day went.

Thanks to Jennifer for being a co-captain at the Bolinas Ridge Aid Station all day. Thanks to my running buddies (George, Eric, Franz, and Gary) for driving in with me in the morning. Thanks to my friend Robin for running with me for about the last 21 miles.

Longer Version

The day started early, waking at 3am, to get some calories in my body and digest the food prior to the race start of 5:40am. I met my friends at 4am at my house, to carpool to the race together. George and Gary were volunteering all day. (Nice!) Eric and Franz were running the race. We picked up another runner along the way in Pacifica.

I felt somehow both calm and excited -- the day was going to be an adventure and it was impossible to know exactly how the race would unfold. But I was calm because I felt prepared and well-trained and ready to put myself to the test, the challenge of basically running non-stop for 10 to 11 hours, covering over 62 miles of mostly dirt trails, many of which are steep.

I knew I could look forward to seeing my wife and friends at our running club sponsored aid station, the Bolinas Ridge Aid Station, at mile 27 and 41. I knew I could look forward to running with my friend and fast marathoner, Robin, from mile 41 onward. I thought about how I had fallen apart the previous year and had been forced to walk even the gentle uphills. I did not want to repeat that experience and wanted to have a strong finish this time!

The Plan

I was going to try for a near constant heart-rate for most of the race, around 135 beats per minute. (My max is 186 bpm.) Hopefully this would let me run at about 10 minutes per mile on big hills. From a couple of training runs, this seemed like a very sustainable effort. If I felt great towards the end, then I would pick up the pace. I would carry two 20oz hand-held water bottles. The longest distance between aid stations was 8.9 miles, but this part of the race would be in the morning, so 40oz should be fine. I would take a salt capsule every 30 minutes and an energy gel (100 calories) every 20 minutes, plus eat some aid station food. I would drink the sports drink about half the time and water the other half.

R-E-S-P-E-C-T, and we're off!

Tia Bodington, the race director, gave a short speech about us needing to respect the course, each other, the volunteers, and the other users of the trail, and then we were off! 5:40am sharp.

The race starts on the sandy beach of Rodeo Lagoon and we quickly log-jammed at the trail head. I had positioned myself about 20% back from the front, and had to wait for maybe a minute before I could resume running on the single-track trail. Those runners not wearing gaitors (sleeves that go from the ankle down over the shoe to prevent small rocks and sand from getting in) probably got quite a bit of sand. One guy stopped to empty his shoes of sand right at the trail head.

We took a hilly and pretty tour around this Marin Headlands area, seeing the rugged coastal beauty, the Golden Gate Bridge, San Francisco, and the old military buildings here. Right away, I decided that my heart rate goal was impossibly low, and that I would end up walking too much, so I decided to keep it at around 141 instead, with more effort on the uphills and less on the downhills.

After nearly 7 miles, we returned to the starting area, again running across the sand beach. The first aid station was so inconspicuous, being set up on the back of a van mostly, that I went right by it before realizing what it was. I seemed to have plenty of water, so I decided to skip it. The first aid station didn't offer food, but I knew that, so I carried enough energy gels of my own. I was feeling pretty good, having run a bit over an hour, and climbed and descended about 1,280 feet.

Then we headed up a very steep hill with switch-backs. This was last year's finish. The race course was switched around a bit this year. I walked most of this stretch and then got to run again on the descent to Tennessee Valley. Somewhere along the way here, I started feeling a warm spot on my left big toe. Fearing the development of a blister that might cause serious problems later in the day, I opted to try to fix my shoe. It felt a bit loose and my foot was sliding around a bit on the steepest downhills. Unfortunately, after tightening both shoes the feeling persisted.

Climbing up and down a ridge (+900 feet and -700 feet), I arrived at Tennessee Valley aid station, refilled my water bottles, picked up probably 5 or 6 energy gels including a pineapple flavor which was new to me and quite tasty. The blueberry version I recalled as tasting bitter, but I wanted a variety, so I took a couple of those, too. Yes, they still tasted bad to me.

I stopped a second time a few minutes later to try to address my left big toe, by adjusting my sock. Again, to no avail, so I decided I was just going to have to live with whatever was going on there with my toenail and the corner of my left big toe.

Arriving at Pan Toll aid station, at mile 20.0, I had climbed 2,700' and descended 1,400'. The trails somehow seemed tougher than I remembered them and I just couldn't maintain a consistently fast pace, yet I was still working harder than I wanted. My average pace was around 10:50 minutes per mile, but reviewing my watch's data, it shows that my average moving pace was around 10:20. Interesting! On each of these legs, I was losing 2-3 minutes to various stops (fixing shoes, aid stations, urinating).

The scenery was especially beautiful between Pan Toll and Bolinas Ridge, especially the green hills and the views of what I think is Stinson Beach. This trail is still somewhat difficult because it's so narrow, often like 9 inches wide, and I really have to watch my step. As I got closer to the Bolinas Ridge aid station, I saw the inspirational signs that were put up. Awesome!

The volunteers who marked the course also did an especially good job here, even taking the time to flag the metal poles that were part of an old handrail, but were cut to within a few inches of the dirt. I kept on having the mental image of what would happen if I tripped and fell right on a sharp metal pole on the ground. Yikes!

Finally, I arrived at the Bolinas Ridge aid station (+1600' and -1500'), to the welcoming cries of my friends and wife. Yay! 26.7 miles and 4 hours 43 minutes have elapsed. I knew I was late; reviewing the data shows that I arrived at around 10:23am instead of my predicted 10:07am. I said "hi" to everyone and was quickly on my way.

Bolinas Ridge Aid Station, sponsored by the Coastside Running Club, at mile 26.7

Maybe 3 or 4 miles later, I started feeling much more fatigued and sore. A few people I was running with (Suzanna Bon, Tracy Dimino, David Goodin), quickly left me behind. My heart rate fell to the mid-130s. My thinking went something like this:

"I'm falling apart, and I'm not even at the half-way point. This, in spite of running harder than planned, I'm also running slower than planned!" From there, my thoughts just took a downward spiral. "I suck. I'm over-the-hill. All of that hard training didn't make me any better of a runner. Why am I spending all this time running and away from family, just to be a failure at it? I'm going to give up running as a hobby. Entering that 100 mile race in August was an expensive mistake. Argh! What a loser I am."

I trudged down a steep 1.7 mile hill to the Hwy 1 and the Randall Trail aid station where we turn around and head back to the finish line. At mile 33.9, it's a bit more than half way through the race. Garmin says that I climbed 480' and descended 1,638' on this leg.

Heading back up the hill, I tried to assess my condition. I liked the taste of salt and food. Mentally, I seemed to be fine. I wasn't excessively sore. I hadn't urinated in a while, so maybe I was dehydrated? I figured I couldn't be over-hydrated or I'd be peeing a lot. I walked fast nearly every step up the hill, running only a couple short bits, taking this time to drink lots of water and to keep my heart rate in check. I saw my friend Eric Vaughan -- awesome!

At the top of the hill, heading back to Bolinas Ridge aid station, I started feeling better. I wasn't running fast, but I was running steady. I saw my friend, Franz Dill! We cheered each other and bumped our handheld water bottles. I saw my friend Mike Weston. And then our new friend, Janeth Siva. Somewhere along here I was feeling chafing develop along my thighs, from the inner lining of my shorts. I tried adjusting my shorts a bit, but to no avail. Bummer!

Finally, I arrived back at Bolinas Ridge aid station. I was feeling OK -- tired and a bit sore, but I was holding everything together. Friends said afterwards that I looked great. My friend and running club member, Robin, was to be my pacer and would run/walk with me for the last 21 miles. I think without a word, she just handed me a stick of Body Glide. Awesome! I had told her that I might need this but then I said it would be too much trouble for her to carry it. I was so glad she had, though. I tried to discretely apply this dry lubricant to my thighs, I quickly refueled, said "hi" to everyone I recognized, and was off on the last big section of my adventure.

I caught Robin up on my status and my schedule for eating and taking salt. She caught me up on her life and our mutual friends. I tried to keep a good steady pace, remembering that last year, there were periods where I felt great and would run faster only to soon fall apart and have to walk. I tried to consciously drink lots of water. I can't quite remember when I took my first ibuprofen (a non-steroidal anti-inflammatory medicine, like aspirin), but I was feeling quite sore at the time, so I decided to take a chance. These medicines can be hard on the kidneys, but when muscles or joints are swelling, reducing the swelling can make a big difference in what I'm able to do running-wise. I started feeling quite good. So, some combination of having more water, ibuprofen, and Robin's company was working pretty well.

Arriving in Pan Toll again, at mile 47.8 (1,450' of climbing and 1,550' of descent), my average pace was around 11:35, average moving pace was 11:09, and best pace was 6:38! I felt really good.

From Pan Toll, to Muir Beach, I picked up the pace some more. There was lots of descent, which certainly helped. My average pace was 9:25 with average moving pace of 9:16. We had 234' of gain and 1,723' of descent. Robin kept me focused on short term goals and was very positive, pointing out that I was going to be much faster than last year.

Somewhere around here, I had weird heart rate incident. My watch suddenly was reporting a huge increase in my heart rate, as if I were sprinting towards the end of a marathon. Yet, I felt exactly the same! I wasn't sure if this was a battery problem or maybe a heart condition. (Yikes!) I started asking Robin "What's our heart rate now?" because I could estimate my effort based on her effort. Eventually, my watch reported what I considered to be the correct heart rate. Hmm....

Leaving Muir Beach, I started pushing even harder. I started passing people. Robin kept me focused on finding our next "victim". I caught up and passed people I had been running with many hours earlier. Even with some big climbs, like the stairs leading up from Muir Beach, I ran almost all the uphills and averaged 10:36 (10:15 moving pace). On one steep downhill, I just let loose and let my legs go as fast as they wanted, which was 5:53 minutes per mile according to my watch. I did that whole mile in about 7:22 according to Robin's watch.

Arriving at the last aid station, Tennessee Valley, I felt great and was in and out quickly. I ran nearly every step up the next big climb. Robin doesn't like to eat while running and our downhill sprints and uphill steady runs were taking their toll. Without any second thoughts on either of our parts, she said she had cramps and I kept on running. (Robin, if you're reading this, I so very much appreciated you taking an entire day to be there with me. You rocked!) The next couple miles went by quickly and I passed many more runners until I hit a short steep climb on a trail and then seemed to lose my momentum. Then I hit a strong headwind as I neared the Point Bonita YMCA. I could hear the cheers in the distance. Wow! I was within earshot of the finish line! Yay! I saw the volunteers waving me in, saying "just one more turn" and I turned on the speed and gave the last quarter mile just about everything I had left, sprinting in. The exhaustion and relief started to overwhelm me and I felt close to tears as I raced in the last half-block. Whew... that was tough! Damn tough!

I got my goodie bag (a nice vest, shirt, and Miwok bottle of beer!), took a hot shower, hung out and saw Eric and Franz finish, was joined by Jennifer and George and Gary. Ate a delicious BBQ. Ahh... that felt good.

Eric, George, and Robin (l. to r.)

Jean Pommier and me

Things that went well

Am uninjured. I wasn't even very sore afterwards and could walk downstairs with only minor difficulties the next day.
I successfully completed what for me was a long difficult race.
For the second Miwok in a row, I had an excellent pacer, a friend to run the most difficult miles with.
I managed to do a mid-course correction of problems that I was having at the mid-way point and had a strong finish.
Only minor chafing. I started developing a blister but it disappeared after a couple days. That hotspot I felt on my left big toe was nothing -- just a sensation of my toenail slightly digging in to the skin.
Taking two ibuprofen, maybe 90 minutes apart, seemed to have a large positive effect by reducing swelling and soreness and letting me run faster.
My salt and food consumption were probably as good as I can get.
No cramps.
No falls.
Didn't have to poop during the race.

Things to improve upon

More training? I only had one 30+ mile run, although it was followed the next day by 19 hilly miles, as I recall. I don't think I necessarily need (or want) to run more miles, but if I could have done some slightly longer long runs, that would probably be ideal.
More fluid intake? I only urinated 3 times during the race. After the race, my urine was yellow-ish, but not dark. *shrug* Not sure.
Had a few small tinges of poison oak on my shins. Maybe if I had brought or sought out Tecnu, this could have been prevented.
Tighten my shoe laces a bit more next time.

Random Data

Results: http://ultrasignup.com/results_event.aspx?did=10288
Garmin data: http://connect.garmin.com/activity/84463933
Weight in the morning, before breakfast: 165.0 lbs.
Weight at night, after a light dinner: 162.0 lbs.
Consumed during the race: 30 energy gels, 18-19 salt capsules, at least a gallon of sports drink, almost as much water, 2 ibuprofen, a few big handfuls of boiled potato chunks dipped in salt

As usual, I need to thank my wonderful wife for making it possible for me to train. Thank you, Jennifer!

Napa Valley Marathon -- 3:00:06

2011-03-13T22:48:00.000-07:00

I ran the Napa Valley Marathon a week ago, with the goals of experiencing a highly-regarded race, spending a weekend with family and friends, and setting a new personal record. Well, two out of three isn’t so bad!

We stayed in Calistoga, at the Best Western very close to the starting line. The night before, I took my daughter and niece to a spaghetti dinner that featured a talk by Dick Beardsley. He was famous for a difficult Boston Marathon race known as Duel in the Sun, and his talk was very entertaining.

Dick Beardsley

On the morning of the race, I got up early, around 4:15am, to give myself a chance to eat and digest my breakfast before the 7am start. Being that I was so close to the starting line, after eating and getting ready, I set my alarm again, and went back to sleep! I’ve never been able to do that before! I finally walked over the start line and here’s another first, I didn’t have to stand in line for a porta-potty! Convenient!

The race was on the small side for a well-known road marathon, with around 1750 runners. This made the task of getting to the start line and putting my drop-bag on the bus super-convenient. All the drop-bags for all the runners fit on to two busses were right next to the start line. Nice! As an added bonus, my family came and visited me before the race started. Surprise! That was super-sweet and was something that would be impossible in a much larger marathon.

Soon, we were off! The course starts in Calistoga and runs to Napa on the Silverado Trail, which is a wide two lane smooth fast paved road. There was a steady rain for about 80% of the race with brief occasional headwinds. The temperatures were very comfortable for racing. Although there is a net elevation drop, the occasional uphills felt very noticeable to me.

My plan was to use the MARCO heart-rate calculator ( http://feelrace.com/fr.pl?th=MARCO ) like I had used successfully in the Oakland Marathon last year, and to carefully monitor my heart rate and start off slowly and gradually increase my effort and my speed. I felt good and finished the first half in 1:27:50. But in the second half, I just started getting fatigued and running out of energy and my legs felt heavy. I noticed this around mile 16 and from mile 20 onward, I just felt worse and worse. My stomach felt unsettled towards the end, too, and I didn’t feel like eating or drinking.

But near mile 26, with the end drawing near, I was so surprised to hear by name being screamed. “Ron Little! Go Ron! Ron Little!”, several people were shouting. It was Franz! And his wife Jen! And then I recognized Franz’s friend Hao. Awesome! Jen said she was going to run me in, and I got my butt in gear and put in a good final push to the finish.

Jen, Franz, and Hao

I had a strong last 0.2 miles

Whew. And then I saw my family and three other relatives of Jennifer’s. Yay! That was very nice.

There were several timing mats spread far apart towards the end, and I wasn’t sure which one was the real finish line, so by my watch, I finished in just under 3 hours, but I learned later that my official time was 3:00:06.

The Good

I experienced a really good event and had a wonderful time with my family.
The marathon was well-organized and each runner received a really nice duffel bag or backpack. This is the nicest item I’ve seen given away to all runners. Well done, race organizers!
Although I'm disappointed I didn't run better, I beat my 2012 Boston Marathon qualifying requirement by almost 21 minutes.

The Bad

I missed my goal of 2:54:00 by about 6 minutes.
I had just finished getting over a flu that lasted for about 9 days. I don’t know if this contributed to my feelings of fatigue, but I’m sure it didn’t help. I missed 3 training runs, including one long run.

The Random

My Garmin watch GPS data: http://connect.garmin.com/activity/71810912

Thanks to my wife and daughter for being so supportive of my running.

Las Vegas Marathon -- 2:59:04 as Elvis

2010-12-08T22:28:00.000-08:00

Yes, that's me on the right, standing with my friend Alex, shortly before the race last Sunday morning. This being my 12th road marathon, I did something very unusual -- I knew that there was a whole Elvis division in the Las Vegas Marathon and I thought it would be fun and exciting and a new kind of challenge to run a marathon as fast as I could in a costume!

I've had this idea bouncing around in my head for maybe a year and a half but it wasn't until a couple of friends from my running club said they were going to run this marathon that I decided to try to make it all come together. I told my siblings and parents and other friends, and suddenly this was turning into a big weekend! At the last moment, my 8 year old daughter decided to come along as well. (My wife mostly dislikes Vegas and opted to stay home.) So, I got to spend a lot of time with my daughter and one of my sisters and my parents, and a little bit of time with my running club friends, and, oh yes, I ran a marathon and did pretty well, all things considered.

Prior to the race, I only did one real test run with the jumpsuit and I only ran for a few minutes in it, but it seemed fine -- lightweight, loose, and nothing felt irritating.

On the race morning, I set my alarm for 4:15am so that I could eat and digest my food in time for the 7am start. I was concerned about chafing so I used Body Glide on the usual spots (e.g., nipples, thighs, toes) and additionally protected my shoulders and collar bone, and parts of my arms where I thought the suit might rub. Alex and I walked from Excalibur to the nearby Mandalay Bay where the race started and finished. I only had my cell phone's camera, but it worked well enough to take the above picture. Then, the woman who took the picture asked if she could get a picture taken, too. I said, "Of course, I can take a picture of you and your friend", but she said "No, I'd like for you to be in it", pointing to me. Fame! Wow, well this was nice -- so poor Alex took a fan photo of me and two not-unattractive women.

A short while later, as we were making our way toward where we could leave our drop-bags (containing warm clothes or anything else we wanted the race organizers to hold for us for the duration of the race), another couple of women asked to have their picture with me. OK! And then again! I was starting to get concerned about the time. And then one more! OK, that was the last fan photo and I walked fast to get positioned for the start of the race.

As the announcements were made and a singer who "needed no introduction" started the national anthem and who at first I thought was Lady Gaga but was actually Cher, the rubber bands holding my sunglasses on came untied. Doh! Just 30 seconds before the race is due to start and my signature gold extra-large fully-UV-protected Elvis-style sunglasses were not going to stay on. I quickly but carefully got my cold fingers to re-tie one rubber band. Whew. Crisis prevented, and I was off!

I took the first mile relatively easy and immediately started acknowledging the spectators. "Elvis!" "Go Elvis!" "It's the first Elvis!" were some of the many many cheers directed my way. I tried to stay in character and act as I imagined Elvis might act based on a few YouTube videos and whatever vague memories I had of his movies and interviews. I would lower my voice and say "Thank you... thank you very much" over and over. I would raise one hand, kind of like the Queen-of-England gesture, and nod my head over and over again. It struck me how much of an icon Elvis still is, and what a positive aura he has, that thousands of people would be so happy and excited about seeing some guy run as him. So, I kept it up. In the first 13 miles, I must have done my little response about 200 times. I'm sure it helped that I was the first Elvis, out of possibly hundreds of Elvi.

The first half of the race went mostly up and down Las Vegas Blvd ("the Strip") and was lined with thousands of people, many of whom were there to see the race and a few others who had probably been up all night. Around mile 11, I heard "Ron!" called out and I saw my sister and daughter! Awesome! I veered over slightly and high-fived my sister. It was a very brief encounter but I really really enjoyed seeing them there. I wish I could've stopped and given my daughter a big hug but I was on a mission!

Click to see a video of me at mile 11

Some of my fellow runners said "hi" or asked me questions about my shoes (Brooke's distinctive Green Silence lightweight racing shoes) or wished me luck with my costume. I think as early as mile 5, I started running with a guy from Vancouver and we chatted about the race and our running histories. We had very similar time goals (sub-3 hour) and we ended up sticking side-by-side until around mile 23!

Near the half-way point, the race course has returned to Mandalay Bay and I'm feeling kind of worn-out and the thought crossed my mind that running a half-marathon wouldn't have been such a bad idea. But I was determined to give this race my best effort. No half measures! Live life to its fullest! So, I followed the signs for the full marathon and veered away from the finish line.

The crowds of spectators quickly disappeared. The red cliffs off in the distance were pretty but basically we're in the dry boring suburban environment. Soulless. This is an out-and-back section and I saw the front-runners returning as well as some of the wheelchair racers. (The fastest racing wheelchairs are much faster than the fastest runners.) There were bands and groups of high school cheerleaders to break up the monotony. The cheerleaders and aid station volunteers were great and really smiled and cheered us on, and I received lots of Elvis-inspired adoration from them. I couldn't respond to everyone, but I high-fived anyone who stuck their hand out and I did the usual "Thank you, thank you very much" line.

I eventually noticed a Santa Claus runner in front of me! Wow, that guy was hard core! I thought his costume was considerably more difficult than mine because he had a red Santa cap and his red coat was closed up to his neck. I was slowly gaining on him. Around mile 20, he pulled over to pee and I passed him. I was now the first-place runner with a costume, as best as I could tell.

Somewhere around mile 18, I think, for no particular reason as far as I could tell (slight wind?), my left bell bottom kept on getting snagged on my right foot. Annoying!

Past mile 20, the course got progressively more mentally difficult. There were many turns and twists and another out-and-back and my calves were getting tired and sore. I felt side cramps. My stomach felt weird -- kind of full. I stopped eating my energy gels every 35 minutes. Finally, around mile 23, I hit a real low point and I was running low on energy and my body was slowing down. I was trying hard to just "keep it all together" and last until the end. I took another energy gel even though I didn't feel like eating it. Maybe it was the slow-down period or maybe it was the energy gel, but I did start feeling stronger again.

Slowly, ever so slowly, the final miles ticked by. I was getting desperate for the race to finish. My watch showed about a half mile left and I decided to make a last big effort and I picked up the pace and started passing people. I turned on to Las Vegas Blvd again, but I still couldn't see the finish. My watch showed 26.2 miles -- where's the !@#* finish line!?! I passed the mile 26 marker. Damn it! My watch was off, which I should have known if I had remembered to check it against earlier mile markers. (There were mile markers about every 2 miles.) I was fading again. I had put in my last big effort too soon. A few runners passed me. Finally, the finish line came into view. Whew. 2 hours 59 minutes and change -- not too shabby!

A reporter of some kind asked to interview me and I gave a quick interview -- not staying in character and I don't think I offered anything particularly interesting or insightful.

My Garmin race data is here. You can see a map of where I ran and my pace.

I'm pleased with the results and this has been a really good running year, too, with my fastest 10K and marathon times. As of this writing, the official results have me at 48th place out of 5166 finishers overall and 10th out of 574 in my 35-39 age division.

I want to thank my sister and my parents for watching my daughter and spending the time to come and see the race. Thank you!

Walnut Creek 10K -- 36:08

2010-11-25T22:07:00.000-08:00

I didn't take this Walnut Creek Turkey Trot 10K race very seriously and signed up at the suggestion of my sister-in-law. So my wife and two of her sisters ran or walked it and it was fun that they cheered me in a couple of spots where the course double-backed on itself. The race went surprisingly well and I essentially tied my personal record from October but on a slightly more difficult course.

After about the half-way point, after the 5K runners split off, I ran with this one other guy. (Tim Keenan is his name according to the results.) I stayed close to him and just off of his shoulder. Around mile 4, I felt stronger or he was slowing down slightly, so I passed him. The thought crossed my mind that maybe I should just stick behind him for a while longer since we were already on a fast pace and that I was likely to tie my P.R. But I passed him and then he stuck with me. There was some mud and slippery dirt paths around this point which slowed us down. Near the finish he passed me and I didn't feel like I could respond. Going over a pedestrian overpass, my legs felt weak and I couldn't help slowing down further and he pulled away.

Then, suddenly, within a tenth of a mile of the finish, the 10K finishers merged with the 5K finishers in a bit of a log-jam which added many seconds. I ran on the dirt, weaved in-and-out of the joggers, put my hands on a couple of people's shoulders so that we wouldn't collide, jumped over orange cones in the dirt and sprinted towards the finish. I heard a guy say, "whoah, there goes one of the elites." I had to laugh to myself at that!

Finally I crossed the finish line and chatted with the guy who I had been running with. He turned out to be 10 years older than me! Inspiring!

Results:

http://www.changeofpace.com/Results/WCTT10/10KOVER.htm

I came in 4th overall out of 829 finishers. (Update: the results changed since first being posted and I'm now listed as 5th of 833.) I think that's my best placement in a largish race. 1st place in my age group, too, although I was beaten by 5 seconds by a guy who was 10 years older.

My 1st place age group medal

I thought the race was well-organized and provided a good well-marked route with plenty of volunteers. Except for the congestion at the end, it's a good fun fast course, at least for the front runners. The organizers mailed the above medal to me.

New York City Marathon -- 2:55:52, PR

2010-11-12T21:54:00.000-08:00

Short Version

My most ambitious goal was to run my fastest marathon, this being my 11th, in 2 hours 55 minutes, which would shave off about 4 minutes from my personal record set at the more difficult Oakland Marathon last March.

I basically succeeded and had a great race, running all 26.2 miles through all five Burroughs of New York City, along with 45,000 other runners, in 2:55:52. That's an average pace of 6:43 per mile.

I did struggle for the last several miles and was slowed by crowds of other runners during the first mile, but overall I'm very pleased with how the race went. Sitting on the plane writing this, the day after the race, I'm happy and uninjured.

Longer Version

My training has gone very well and has been focused on this race for about 3 months. I've run every day with rare exceptions and sometimes twice a day, peaking at around 75 miles a week. In mid-October I ran my fastest 10K race ever, solidly beating my previous best from four years ago, so I knew I was in decent shape for a very good race.

Jennifer, Claire and I flew out on the Tuesday the week before Sunday's race, for a wonderful family vacation. I ran every day in Central Park, taking it easy and tapering off for the big race.

Expo

I went on Saturday late morning and the convention center was enormous, but they had run out of most medium-sized shirts, so my goody-bag had a large nicely-designed dry-weave long sleeve running shirt. I wanted to buy a jacket, but they didn't have any in my size, although they're available online, so no big deal.

Race Day

I had to meet the bus at the main New York Public Library at 6am. Since this was more than 3 hours before my 9:40am start, I packed a breakfast to bring with me and eat on the bus. I walked out of the apartment, which was just 1.4 miles from the library, and headed for the subway.

In spite of doing a mental checklist and trying to have everything together, I had forgotten my GPS watch and heart rate monitor! Doh! (Note to self: when you think of something that you forgot late at night while you're lying in bed, get up and take care of it then!) They were sitting on the kitchen counter instead of being in my drop-bag. Fortunately, Jennifer's cell phone was on and she heard it and let me back into the apartment. (We had only one set of keys.) OK, 5 minutes delayed, and I'm out of the apartment again.

Along the way, I came across a couple of guys hailing a cab and they were holding their distinctive marathon drop-bags, so I asked if I could join them in the cab and they said "yes". I met Jeffry and his 83 year old dad, Norman. Wow! Norman said he was intending to finish in "8 or 9 hours, depending on my knee." I looked to see if he actually finished the race, and I don't see him in the results, unfortunately. Jeffry congratulated me for the San Francisco Giants having won the World Series and he paid for the full cab fare. Very nice of him!

I arrived at the bus area shortly before 6am. The last buses left at 6:30am, so I was fine, time-wise. The lines were not long at all and I was soon on a bus.

I happened to sit next to a guy from Stockholm, Sweden, who was running his first marathon. We talked about our plans and he said he was aiming for three and a half hours. I was pleased to look up his results and see that Johan Hult, #4234, finished in 3:31:04. Congratulations, Johan! Next to him was a woman from New Zealand. This marathon attracts a world-wide crowd!

After much congestion of buses and maybe a 90 minute bus ride, we arrived to Staten Island. The starting area is a mini-city with three large separate areas, each with their own starting line! Yes, this race is so big, that it needs three separate starting lines. There are three waves of runners, with each wave having 15,000 runners, separated by 30 minutes.

We were asked to drop off our drop-bags by 8:10am. Our drop-bags contain everything we wanted to keep and have for us at the end of the race. Well, the race doesn't start until 9:40am, so that would mean shivering in the cold without our warm clothes for about 90 minutes. I correctly guessed that 8:10am was on the early side and I held on to my things until around 8:25am at which point I left my drop-bag and walked towards my starting corral wearing only my throw-away clothes -- a couple of old long sleeve cotton running shirts and an aluminum-foil-like space blanket.

Slowly, so slowly, the start time draws near. The corrals closed at 8:55am, at which point no more runners are allowed to enter the corrals. I was positioned near the front. The loudspeakers were repeating messages like warning us not to urinate from the bridges. (I've heard that the spray can hit the runners on the lower bridge -- yuck!) Then I felt the urge to pee one more time. Dang it! The porta-potties were only about 50 or 60 feet behind me, but we were jammed in. It would be a struggle to get there. "Do I really have to go? I just went 15 minutes earlier!", I told myself.

Finally, we are allowed to move forward towards the start line which is about a third of a mile away. And I realized that yes, I really do have to pee. There were a bunch of trees and bushes and I was one of many guys to take advantage of this last opportunity before the race began. Unfortunately, as many as a thousand runners walked and jogged past me in that 30 seconds, so when I rejoined the stream, I was much farther from the front. Doh!

Many announcements were made, Mayor Bloomberg wished us luck, the Chilean miner who was trapped underground for 69 days and who ran in the tunnels every day said he was happy to be there, the national anthem was sung, and then, we were off!

The Race Is On!

I experienced a lot of congestion in that first mile and had to slow down repeatedly and maneuver around runners. I was trying to take it easy, and to keep my heart rate low. As is normal, my heart rate monitor doesn't accurately report my heart rate in the first couple miles. The first mile took me 7:37. Ouch. I know this was the first mile and slowest mile (hopefully) and it was uphill on a bridge, but still, I would've preferred it be about 30 seconds faster because my overall goal pace was around 6:40 per mile.

Here's a cool time-lapse video of the start:

The early miles passed easily. My heart rate was low, below my target of 152 beats per minute (my maximum heart rate is 186), but my pace was faster than my goal pace. I started wondering if I should run slower because I was going to shatter my personal record at this rate, or I was going to crash and burn at the end.

I tried to take in my surroundings and to interact with the crowds, but mostly I was rather concentrated on my running. I felt some discomfort in my left foot around mile 5, like a cramp of sorts, and I tried altering how my left foot was landing. The thought crossed my mind that this is all it would take to knock me out of the race -- some kind of weird random problem. Fortunately, my foot returned to normal. I did promise myself I would get new racing shoes if my body would please just make it through this race!

The half-way point came and I was feeling a bit tired, but had lots of energy left. All systems were go! I tried to gradually increase my effort. Slight hills would slow me down. Aid stations would slow me down a bit. But mostly, I was keeping up a good pace and my heart rate was increasing gradually.

Somewhere around mile 20 I started to feel more tired and my calves were a little sore and I felt some twinges of cramps in my side. I decided to eat an extra energy gel, which I picked up from a volunteer. My original plan was to eat an energy gel every 40 minutes, but then I sensed that I needed more salt and calories and my stomach felt fine.

At the aid stations, I alternated between a cup of sports drink or a cup of water, about every two miles. I never felt thirsty and I never felt full, exactly.
The weather was quite cool and I don't think I was sweating much.
There were occasional gusts of wind and my hat started blowing loose, so I turned it around and wore it backwards.

Around mile 23, as we were running on 5th Ave. next to Central Park, I suddenly started feeling much worse. My legs started feeling heavy, my calves started feeling very tight, and I started slowing down. I tried the technique of focusing on another runner and sticking with him or her, but it just wasn't working. I thought of friends who I knew were likely following my progress and that was motivating; I just used those thoughts to keep pushing as best I could.

It felt like at the time that my pace was plummeting, but looking at the data, it wasn't horrible -- 7:15, 7:07, and 7:08 for those last three miles. Still, I was falling apart, and if I could have run a little slower earlier on, or perhaps kept my heart rate down a bit towards 162 beats per minute, maybe I could've shaved off a couple minutes on those final miles.

I was looking for Jennifer and Claire and our friend Lisa and her daughter Elena, but I didn't see them. There were a lot of onlookers these last few miles.

Finally, finally, I crossed the finish line. Whew! I felt faint. I received my medal and a photographer took my picture. I ambled on down the street, very slowly, towards the truck that contained my drop bag. It was a long walk! The highest-numbered bibs were first, which made sense, since the slowest runners might be most in need of getting their stuff first. My bib #1488 meant that my drop-bag was in the 2nd farthest truck and so I had a very long walk. And then I had a long line to wait in since so many people with low-numbered bibs were also finishing then. Looking at a map, it appears that I walked from 67th Ave. to 77th Ave., before exiting Central Park and then I had to walk from 77th Ave. back down to 67th Ave. next to Central Park before meeting up with Jennifer and Claire. I was sore, tired, and ready to eat!

I was very grateful that my friends and family came out to see me and for all the many friends and family who I knew were likely thinking of my race and wondering how it was going and following me online. Thank you, all! It was very helpful and motivating.

Data

I attempted to press the lap button of my watch each time I crossed a mile marker. This table shows my lap #, lap time, lap distance as measured by my watch, and average pace for that lap. Garmin's site has a map and a playback mode for my race: http://connect.garmin.com/activity/56472062

1	00:07:37	1.00	07:35
2	00:06:30	1.01	06:27
3	00:06:47	1.00	06:46
4	00:06:43	1.02	06:34
5	00:06:20	0.98	06:27
6	00:06:27	1.01	06:22
7	00:06:32	1.01	06:27
8	00:06:30	0.99	06:35
9	00:06:35	1.01	06:31
10	00:06:19	1.00	06:18
11	00:06:41	1.02	06:35
12	00:06:28	1.01	06:23
13	00:06:32	1.01	06:27
14	00:06:35	1.01	06:31
15	00:06:43	0.99	06:48
16	00:06:41	0.93	07:10
17	00:06:32	1.01	06:27
18	00:06:28	1.00	06:29
19	00:06:31	1.00	06:31
20	00:06:45	1.02	06:39
21	00:06:51	1.01	06:46
22	00:06:37	1.01	06:33
23	00:06:49	1.01	06:45
24	00:07:15	1.01	07:12
25	00:07:07	1.02	06:59
26	00:07:08	1.05	06:46
27	00:01:33	0.22	07:07

Things that went well

My training and tapering and preparation all went really well.
My race execution went mostly pretty well.
No injuries.
No blisters or chafing except for my right big toenail which rubbed a bit too much on the top of my shoe. I felt something like a feeling that it had snagged on the top of my shoe during a descent off of one of the bridges, so it's got some redness, but I don't think I'm going to lose it.

Things to improve

I probably should have slowed down a bit for some of the earlier miles and limited my effort by both heart rate and by pace. I ran mile 10 in 6:19, for example, and even with some downhills, that was probably too fast even though my heart rate was fine.
I ate an energy gel every 40 minutes. 30 to 35 minutes might have been better.
I should have taken care of my final bathroom break a little better. If I feel the slightest urge to pee before the marathon starts, I need to trust my body and take care of that sooner rather than later.
Go to the expo earlier -- they sometimes run out of items!

Random data

Weighed 163.0 before flying to New York City. I had been trying to lose weight and I may have lost a couple pounds. I weighed the same, practically (163.2) two days after the race.

Pumpkin Run 10K -- 36:07

2010-10-17T15:28:00.000-07:00

Wow, the years are flying by. I've been running steady for just a little more than 6 years now and today was my 7th consecutive running of this local 10K. And my daughter is now 8 years old and ran her 2nd 5K this morning. Double wow!

I've been focusing more on the longer races in the last few years, so this will be the only 10K I run this year. I wanted to make it count! Since my marathon training has been going very well for the upcoming New York City Marathon on November 7, and since I've been doing some weekly speed work, I thought I would aim for a personal record and try to beat my time from 2006. My plan was to use my GPS watch and to run at an average pace of 5 minutes 52 seconds a mile.

I jogged around the elementary school to warm up and then with just a few minutes to spare, I did a couple of fast "strides" to get my heart rate up. Soon, we were off! A whole bunch of guys sprinted off the starting line but I knew better than to try to keep up with them. There are always a bunch of people who go out way too fast. I glanced down at my watch, and I was one of them. :-) I slowed down a bit after the first tenth of a mile and tried to settle into a comfortably fast pace of just under 6 minutes a mile. At the mile 2 marker, my time was 11 minutes 40 seconds, which was fine. A little while later though, I was finding this pace to be too difficult and I couldn't help slowing down just a bit and my average pace was creeping up and it settled in at 5:55, according to my watch. I knew if I could just hold this effort, that I would at least match my record.

The lead pack consisted of 4 runners followed a couple hundred feet back by a guy whom I'll call "Skinny" and then I was right on Skinny's back. Skinny had asked what the elapsed time was at the mile 2 marker and I told him. A short while later, since I was drafting off of him, I suggested that we help each other out and try to catch up to the pack of 4 and that he could draft off of me next. He said "ok" and I passed him and then expected him to stay with me, but he kept on dropping further behind. I thought I was about the same pace as when I was behind him and I wasn't getting any closer to the lead pack. Oh, well, so much for that plan! So now I'm in 5th place.

Over the next couple of miles I just couldn't gain on that lead pack and I was starting to struggle to maintain my pace. It was nice after the turn-around to see so many friends and familiar faces. Lots of encouragement was offered and I appreciated it and I tried to respond a little bit, but my breathing was quite labored. Then, around mile 4, one of the guys in the lead group started dropping behind. I soon passed him. I was now in 4th place.

Around mile 5, another one of the leaders started slowly falling behind the other two. I saw my daughter and wife in the 5K and they cheered me on. Yay! I came across the last aid station, staffed by my friends from the Coastside Running Club, and they cheered me on boisterously. Yay! Finally, nearing mile 6, I gained on the 3rd place runner and just as I was about to pass him, I kicked up my pace a notch and my heart rate sky-rocketed. I wasn't going to be able to hold on much longer, but I just needed to keep this up for another minute.

I didn't look back and I sprinted around the final corner and down the finishing chute. 3rd place! I looked at my time. Personal record!

I recovered a bit and chatted with the two winners, one of whom was a fellow Coastside Running Club member, David Lara. Congratulations, Dave! He had come in 2nd. Remarkably, the winner was a 50 year old guy from Burlingame. That gives me hope for the future! (Of course he was probably a much better runner when he was my age, but I'll try to ignore that part.) Then I started jogging back along the course to find my friends and Jennifer and Claire.

I soon saw the first place woman in the 10K. Wow, she was hauling! I learned later that she was the daughter of a running club member, Ken Hitchner. Nice! I saw Mor Hirsh finishing strong, followed closely by Robin Miller, who was barely holding on to 2nd place with the 3rd place woman right on her heels. Then I saw running club member Amanda Jurinen, running strong. And Jen Wilcox. Finally, there was Jennifer and Claire! They were running the 5K which starts 5 minutes after the 10K. I turned around and ran in with Claire. Good job, sweetheart!

A little while later, Jennifer's sister Lisa finished the 10K and so did our friend Cathy. It was a lot of fun seeing so many friends and family members at the race today.

I hung around after the race for a while to get my age-group reward of a blanket / poncho combo that was nice and would make an excellent picnic blanket since it was water proof on one side and warm on the other. Afterwards, I had pumpkin pie and coffee at Jen Wilcox's house. Claire had spilled sprite on herself and was cold and wet, so Jennifer headed home first, along with her sister Lisa and our friend Cathy.

Was an excellent morning!

Random data:

I weighed 164.6 lbs this morning right after waking up but before going to the bathroom. (Yes, these details are useful to me!)
I woke up at 6:15am and ate a small-ish bowl of cereal, half a banana, and some coffee.
The race started at 8:15am. I arrived at the school parking lot around 7:30am, which was fine.
I need to remember that there's a porta-potty in the field behind the school that doesn't have a line.

These are all the times I've run this race, including today. The columns are 1) overall place. 2) gender place. 3) age group place. 4) my age. 5) time. 6) pace. 7) date.

15 15 6 33 0:41:18 6:39 10/17/2004

6 6 3 34 0:37:35 6:03 10/16/2005

4 4 2 35 0:36:46 5:55 10/15/2006

3 3 2 36 0:37:28 6:02 10/14/2007

5 5 2 37 0:37:09 5:59 10/19/2008

4 4 1 38 0:37:12 6:00 10/18/2009

3 3 2 39 0:36:07 5:49 10/17/2010

Update: The results have been posted. Wow, there were 217 finishers in the 10K and a whopping 358 finishers in the 5K. I didn't realize there were so many runners! And as my friend Bill points out, there were some very fast 50-year old runners including the overall winner, Shawn Gallagher. And 80 year old Camilo Geronimo finished in 45:14 with a pace of 7:17 per mile! Wow!

Woodside 50K -- 4 hours 54 minutes

2010-09-04T18:13:00.000-07:00

Every 50K finisher received a coaster; this is a picture I took of mine.

I ran the Woodside 50K today, put on by Pacific Coast Trail Runs. My goal was to treat this race as a kind of "do over" of the Sequoia 50K that I ran about 5 weeks ago which I felt like I had executed poorly, mostly because I ran too fast early on. Unfortunately, today's race was largely simply a repeat of that Sequoia 50K with the added challenge of overcoming some kind of cough or flu.

I signed up for this race last Monday and then soon started feeling fatigued and slightly feverish. By Thursday night, all I wanted to do was sleep and rest. I stayed home from work on Friday and pretty much spent the whole day in bed, trying to rest and recover as much as I could. I didn't run on Thursday or Friday. I decided to prepare and plan for the race but to be willing to back out at the last minute if I felt too sick.

The day started early, waking at 5:40am to eat a breakfast of about 600 calories -- granola cereal, soy milk, banana, and coffee. When I arrived at Huddart Park, off of Kings Mountain Road in Woodside, I was surprised that the main race organizers hadn't arrived yet. Eventually, they did but then announced that the 50K and 10K would start at 9am rather than the expected 8:30am.

As I was getting ready, I had trouble getting my heart rate monitor to work. I eventually gave up and put it in my trunk. I guess the battery had died. Bummer. I had been planning on mainly pacing myself by heartrate.

9am eventually came around and I positioned myself about a third of the way back from the start line and we started off across a lawn and quickly got onto a trail. I really wanted to take it easy. I started having a slight "wardrobe malfunction" where my shorts were overloaded and kept on falling down, so I had to take 3 energy gels out of one of my back pockets and hold them in my hand instead. Fortunately, I had decided to carry one 26 oz water bottle instead of two 20oz bottles, so I had a free hand. Problem solved.

The weather was cool and there was lots of shade and the trails were lovely and easy to run on. I was liking this quite a bit more than the Sequoia 50K, which was much rougher. We came upon the race director who said "make a right on Crystal Springs Rd". OK. Why is he telling me this? In hindsight, I should have asked, "is the turn flagged?" Unfortunately, the answer was "no". A couple of us ran right across the road, which had no signs and continued on the trail on the opposite side. We headed up a steep hill and a short while later heard and saw a large group running on the road. I called down, asking if that was the 50K route. Yes, it was. Damn it! I and the other runner, who would eventually be the first place female, turned around and I found a way to climb down an embankment and get on the road. I think this delay added 3 or 4 minutes. We came across one of the guys who had been marking the course and he didn't apologize, but offered the excuse that "this is what happens when we try to mark the course 30 minutes before the start." Sigh.

I caught up to the large group of runners, who were led by a guy who had run this race several times before, so he knew what to do. We headed up a steep single-track trail and although I felt like could run a lot faster, I bided my time. I didn't want to miss any more unmarked turns and also I wanted to be sure to take it easy.

Eventually, a much faster runner caught up to our large group (I was at the tail end) and I thought, "OK, now's the time to make my move". I didn't want to get bunched up at the upcoming aid station plus I felt like I could easily run faster, so I said "on your left" and rapidly picked up the pace and passed 5 or 6 guys. The fast runner behind me said he was in one of the other races (17K, I think) so he soon passed me.

At the first aid station, I asked how many 50K runners were ahead of me. 2. Presumably they were much faster than me and didn't take any wrong turns, so I never saw them.

This was mostly an out-and-back course, with 8.9 miles being the longest distance between aid stations. I was relieved when I took my last sip from my 26 oz bottle, that within a minute I arrived at the next aid station. So, that worked out well -- I never really ran out of water.

As far as my illness was concerned, I think I was mostly over the worst of it. I felt a little dizzy once and the brief periods of heat got to me quickly, but since most of the run was shaded, I only felt overheated a couple times. I had to walk or even stop 4 or 5 times when I had coughing fits. It was certainly annoying, but I suppose the coughing only added a minute or two to my time.

I started struggling around mile 20, feeling fatigued and slightly nauseous. I drank a cup of Coke at the last aid station with 4.6 miles to go, hoping to feel better, but I immediately got a side cramp instead which mostly stayed with me until the end. Most of the last miles were thankfully downhill and I just tried to hang on and keep on moving. I started having to walk the uphills, even some of the gradual ones. But I was moving pretty well on the downhills and passed a lot of the runners of other races who were finishing.

Finally finally, I entered the parking lot and soon was within sight of the finish. Whew. Yay. 3rd place. 4 hours 54 minutes. There were around 60 runners in my race.

So, on the one hand, I was happy that I was able to finish the race and do relatively well, yet I was disappointed that I ran so similarly to the Sequoia 50K. I feel like I still don't have the knack for pacing myself or training right or something. I feel like I am so much worse at the 50K than I am at the road marathon and I'm not sure what to do about this to get better.

Anyway, I'm grateful to be uninjured and to be in good shape and able to run for so long. I don't feel particularly sore either. I'm grateful to my wife for letting me spend half the day on this. At least she got to see Green Day in concert tonight while I watched Claire. Thank you, again, Jennifer!

Sequoia 50K -- 5:00:38

2010-07-25T16:34:00.000-07:00

I ran the Sequoia 50K (31 mile) race last Saturday, which is a rather tough hilly trail race that winds its way around Joaquin Miller Park and Redwood Regional Park in Oakland, CA. This was only my 3rd race at this distance. The organizer of this race is a company called Pacific Coast Trail Runs and they hold about 2 events a month, mostly in the Bay Area.

My goal was to have a good 50K and to hopefully set a personal record at this distance, beating my time of 4 hours 53 minutes for an easier 50K I did three years ago. I was hoping to finish closer to 4 and a half hours but definitely not slower than 5 hours.

I finished in exactly 5 hours with a lot of slow-down towards the end. Oh, well! I didn't get injured or fall down or lost, although I did run the 2nd of these two large loops in reverse, because I didn't see one critical turn.

The day started early, with my alarm going off at 5:45am to give me plenty of time to eat and digest my food and get ready for the 8:30am start of the race. I picked up my friend and running club member Jen Wilcox along the way and we arrived exactly an hour before the race began. It felt good to not be rushed!

I was a bit disappointed when I saw the sign-up sheet for the 50K and there were so few runners -- I estimated 35. I hoped maybe some more would sign up that morning.

It was great seeing another friend and running club member, Franz Dill, and the three of us hung out for a bit before the race began. Then, we're off! It was us 50K runners and 30K runners together, heading off from this lovely meadow and soon up some steep trails.

The trickiest part of long-distance racing is to set the right pace. I want to finish as quickly as I can but I know that if I run too quickly early on, I'll set myself up for disaster later on. I wore my heart rate monitor and decided to not go above 166 beats per minute on the hardest uphills and then I would try to relax and recover on the downhills.

I settled into the back of the front group and the leaders soon were out of sight. I didn't know who in front of me was in my race or in the 30K. I think there were 7 guys in front of me at the time.

We soon hit the first aid station, called Moon Gate, at mile 2.8. I was carrying two 20oz water bottles but I had already drank maybe 15oz so I filled up one water bottle at the aid station and was soon on my way with about 30oz total. I didn't eat any food from this aid station or any other -- I carried my own energy gels.

Some of the downhills were quite rough and at times so steep that I was hopping down, braking at each step. It felt slow and dangerous and I tried not to think of what would happen if I tripped and crashed into some rocks or tree roots.

Soon enough I arrived at the "spur", flagged with orange flags. This is a 10K out-and-back that we were instructed to run once, which would give our first big loop a distance of 30K. Being out-and-back, this gave me a chance for the first time to see my competition running towards me. I could tell from their bib #s which race they were in and we greeted each other as we ran past one another. When the leader of the 50K ran by me, I checked my watch to see how far ahead he was. I was in 3rd place and about 3 minutes behind the leader. My 30oz was almost gone and I filled up completely at the Canyon Meadow aid station, departing in good spirits and with 40oz.

I soon came across Franz who was not far behind me at all. And then Jen, who was 1st place female! Way to go, Jen!

Returning to our large loop required a big climb (on the Toyon trail, I believe) and I ran almost all of this. I monitored my heart rate and although I felt the effort, I thought I could keep this pace for a long time. I didn't feel at all like I was sprinting or doing anything excessive. I continued drinking my sports drink and eating a Gu every 20 minutes. I passed 2nd-place runner, Mr. Hawaii (based on his shirt), on this Toyon trail and we greeted each other and offered encouragement.

Back on to the big loop, possibly on the West Ridge trail, I caught up to the front runner and we greeted each other and I asked how things were going. He said he felt terrible, and was repeatedly puking in his mouth, and had had diarrhea that morning. He said he was going to drop at the 30K. I offered him a ginger lozenge, but he said he hated the taste. I wished him luck and passed him. I'm now in 1st place.

I started passing more and more of the 20K runners who had started after us at 9am and who didn't have to run that 10K spur, so I was catching the slowest of them. I caught up to a 30K runner, named Hugh Bosely, and we chatted a bit. For some reason he pulled ahead of me on the flatter parts but then I would start to pass him on the uphills. I think this was because I was letting my heart rate rise and was pushing harder on the uphills but then I instinctively knew I needed to relax more on the flatter parts. I wonder now if a smarter strategy would be to perform more like I did at the Miwok 100K and just stick with a maximum heart rate.

Eventually, I passed Hugh and I didn't see him again. I ran through the Moon Gate aid station again and I knew I had a very short distance to the start / finish area where my food was stashed and where there was another aid station, so I didn't stop at all.

At the 30K mark, I asked a volunteer to please fill my water bottles with sports drink in one and water in the other, and I went to get my "drop bag". This whole process took 3 or 4 minutes which felt way too long. I wish I could've had my drop bag right at the aid station, but they set up the aid station after the race starts. Maybe if I had had replacement water bottles ready-to-go, I could've saved a bunch of time, too. Anyway, 2 hours 44 minutes have elapsed, and I'm beginning the 20K loop.

Right away, I feel like something is not right. I start feeling twitches and my right inner thigh clenches real hard briefly. Oh, no, not cramps! I stopped completely and rubbed and massaged my quads for a bit and then start running / walking uphill. I immediately took another salt capsule. To this point, I had only taken 3, which felt OK because the heat felt very manageable and I didn't think I was sweating profusely. From here on out, I took a salt capsule about every 20 minutes, to keep the cramps at bay.

My strategy quickly became one of survival and to just keep on moving as best I can and to avoid getting "lock down" cramps which would prevent me from running or walking. My average heart rate fell to about the mid 150s.

I reached the Moon Gate aid station and completely filled up with fluids since I was about to begin the longest stretch between aid stations -- 7.6 miles. There were many other runners heading towards me at this point. (I keep on calling our route a "loop" but it's more of a figure-8 with a small loop glued on to a big loop by a short stick.) I thanked the volunteer and continued on. Although I didn't yet realize my error, I made a wrong turn and had begun running my 2nd loop in reverse. There were no signs. The aid station volunteer didn't stop me or warn me. Although I had run correctly through this aid station earlier, there are a lot of turns in the race and I didn't remember this one!

So, more than a few runners ask me if they're running the wrong way and I said with confidence, "No, I'm on the 2nd loop of the 50K. You're not lost." Finally, after one guy insisted that I was running the wrong way, it dawned on me that I must have missed a turn. Crap. Well, there was no way I was going to run back who knows how far! The best I could do was to move on but now I had a significant new challenge. The course was flagged with a minimal set of flags to guide us to make the correct turns at intersections. But if two trails merged into one, there wouldn't necessarily be any flags there because we were instructed to run straight unless we see a striped flag. Unfortunately for me, running the trail in reverse frequently had me arriving at forks in the trail where I had to stop and look carefully both ways and try to remember which way I had come earlier! Sometimes I was lucky and I could see other runners coming from the right direction. Sometimes I could see that there would definitely be a turn coming from one of the trails and so the lack of flags meant that I shouldn't go that way. Once there was a hiker who pointed me the correct way. Another time I remembered some distinguishing feature. I think once I just had to guess. In the end, I didn't make any further mistakes and I stayed on the course.

When I encountered other runners (they were all in the 50K now), I started telling them I was running the wrong way by accident and I gave them my mileage so that they might know where they were in the race, relative to me. I came across Franz and Jen, who both looked good and strong.

I arrived at the Moon Gate aid station one last time, coming from the wrong direction and the aid station workers said they had heard about me. I asked if any 50K runners were in front of me. "One or two" she said. Oh, well, was to be expected. I filled up with water in one bottle; I wasn't thinking clearly and I actually probably didn't need any more fluids. I trudged along as best I could, still running slowly. I got another strong twinge on this brutal downhill, but I knew I was getting close.

Finally, the meadow opened up, and I picked up the pace and I saw the finishing area with a tent and flags. I saw a child get up from under a tree and start running toward me. Claire! And Jennifer my wife walking towards me. I was so happy! Claire started running with me towards the finish line, but I was moving pretty quickly and she couldn't keep up for long. Whew! Done! 5 hours and 40 seconds was my official time. (Results.) I finished in 2nd place. Franz finished shortly after me. I saw Jen finish, first place female!

Jen Wilcox, first place!

Ron, Jen, and Franz. There was a big smear on

my camera's lens that I didn't notice until later.

What went right

I finished a tough 31 mile trail race, running almost all of it.
I was uninjured.
No blisters or chafing or sunburn or poison oak or blackened toenails.
I came in 2nd place overall out of 31 finishers.
My equipment performed well. I wore Inov8 trail running shoes in a race for the first time and they did great.
I had a pretty good time!

Things to improve upon

I should have run a little slower for the first 30K. I'm guessing if I had limited my heart rate to 160 bpm on the uphills that I would have been in much better shape for the last 20K. The cost of falling apart is so high!
Maybe I should've taken more salt earlier.
I need to be more careful about taking turns when I'm at an aid station. It's easy to get distracted and Pacific Coast Trail Runs has a lot of runners getting lost in each of their races. I'm guessing 20% deviate in some way, on average.

Random data

Here is my Garmin GPS data. You can click on the little green icon to play back my run and see my 2nd loop being done in reverse. So sad!
Weighed 165.6 lbs that morning.
I peed once, briefly, during the race. Could I have been dehydrated?

Miwok 100K -- 11:07:52

2010-05-03T20:57:00.000-07:00

Success! It was the most difficult physical thing I have ever done, and I struggled and suffered for several hours towards the end, but I managed to run, walk, or otherwise cover on foot the entire 62.4 miles of the Miwok 100K race in the beautiful Marin Headlands, just north of San Francisco. This was the longest race I've ever run and was my 5th ultramarathon. It took me 11 hours 7 minutes and 52 seconds. (Results here.)

The morning started early, waking at 2:50am to eat breakfast (~600 calories) and meeting at 4am at my house with Franz Dill and Eric Vaughan so that we could carpool to the start. We left just a few minutes after 4 and arrived at our parking spot around 4:55am as I recall.

After getting our bibs, standing in a lengthy bathroom line, and doing final preparations, we walked out to the beach for the start of our big adventure! How would the day go? Would I even finish? Was my plan to stick with my heart rate goal going to work? (I had adapted my Oakland Marathon heart rate strategy to this race, starting off slow and gradually speeding up, with my average heart rate being what I ran my last 50 miler at.)

My head was so wrapped up in the race, plus I was somewhat sleep-deprived, that as I was walking to the beach with Franz, I told him, "Let me check if I locked my car." I walked back and became concerned about my mental state -- not only was the car not locked, the driver door was wide open and the inside lights were on. Sheesh! I locked up and hurried out to the start line.

The start of the race course was a bit different than in previous years and did some "busy work" of running up and down hills in two separate out-and-backs in and around Rodeo Lagoon until arriving at the first aid station at mile 6.2. An early indication of the treachery of the course happened at mile 3 when the woman in front of me caught her foot on a root and immediately went down, face-first. I stopped and she got up with bloody knees and said she was all right. That made me think to be extra careful today and I went on.

Around mile 6, as I was heading down the steep hill that I had just run up, I started feeling some soreness in my left achilles heel. This had been bothering me on and off all week. I was able to run fine, but it would seem to stiffen up and get sore when walking around the office or at home. A similar problem had previously hit my right achilles heel and that had put a stop to two long runs, so I knew this feeling could get much worse. I tried imagining ice being against my left heel and for it to calm down and/or warm up. I felt it on and off but then after mile 12, the feeling disappeared and never came back. Weird!

My thought at mile 12 -- "Oh, 50 miles to go. It's like I've warmed and am just starting a 50 mile race. Oh, boy. I feel more than warmed up -- I've actually put out a good deal of effort so far!"

The descent down to Muir Beach was brutal. Was just so dang steep. Some guy rocketed past me. Whoah. There's no way he could keep that up. I passed him on the next uphill and said to him, "You must really like to run downhill." "Yeah, I do" he replied. I didn't see him do that again, though! And he never passed me again either.

The trails and views in general were just amazingly beautiful, especially for the whole morning. With a nearly full moon to the west and the sun rising from the east, I don't think I could imagine a more beautiful scene. It was a feast for the eyes. I felt very alive and excited and happy for most of the race.

My arrival at mile 28.4

Arriving at the Bolinas Ridge Aid Station for the first time felt wonderful. I had been looking forward to this for miles, or in a way, all week! I had paid to fly my dad up from southern California and my sister and wife and daughter and a half-dozen friends were all kind enough to spend their day here volunteering. I had volunteered at this aid station for the previous two years and was also excited about seeing the race from the other side of the aid station table!

Some of the many volunteers at the Bolinas Ridge Aid Station

The 7.2 miles to Randall Trail aid station and then back to Bolinas Ridge again for another 7.2 miles took a lot out of me. For the first time, on the long steep descent to Hwy 1 where the Randall Trail aid station was, I felt real soreness in my quads. "Oh oh," I thought, "I have a very long way to go." Turning around and walking / running uphill again was a relief and I felt much better. I saw Eric Vaughan and he was looking good and we offered encouragement to each other. I saw Franz and he was looking more haggard, but was in great spirits and we high-fived each other (well, bumped water bottles, since each of our hands held a water bottle).

I started passing people more regularly now. I caught up to my friend/acquaintance Bree Lambert who was having a really rough time. She told me she had been sick and was going to drop at Bolinas Ridge (mile 42.8). I wished her luck and pressed on.

The trails were lush and gorgeous

The second trip through the Bolinas Ridge aid station was great. I got to see my daughter again, see my wife, give my dad a hug, and pick up my friend and pacer, Amanda Jurinen. We quickly headed out.

We got to Pan Toll aid station OK, with Amanda falling once but not hurting herself. She did most of the talking but I caught her up on what had been going on and how I was feeling. "So far, so good. Definitely getting tired and sore, but hanging in there."

Somewhere shortly after Pan Toll, I started falling apart. I was feeling "out of it", light headed, very fatigued, very sore, and slightly nauseous. I started to hate the taste of the energy gels. I spit out a chunk of PayDay candy bar that I had tried to eat. My heart rate fell. I felt like I wasn't too far off from really being in trouble, like fainting. It's safe to call this a "low point". Unfortunately, this "point" stretched on and on and on and I got back my strength only briefly at times. I could run downhill and on level ground but was walking more and more of the uphills. A few people passed me between here and the end. Mostly, though, Amanda and I ran / walked alone. I was somewhat surprised at how spread out everyone was and that for many miles, we saw no other runners.

Somewhere along here, I had a running-related existential crisis. I thought to myself, "Why am I doing this? Why did I spend so much time training for this race in order to be out here suffering? Let's just finish this #@!* race! " In the 5 days since the race, I've softened my view. If it were easy, it wouldn't be a challenge! Almost by definition, there are going to be difficult periods. I like being in good physical shape. I like knowing that I can take on and overcome huge challenges. I like the idea of being mentally tough. For example, when I say that I'm nervous and excited about an upcoming race, I'm not really that nervous. I don't really get nervous any more about anything, in that I don't get sweaty palms or a racing heart rate. I take stressful situations in stride almost always. I think running has reinforced this positive behavior.

I had a strong finish, at least, pulled along by the nice downhill and being in sight of the parking lot at the finish. I want to give special thanks to Amanda for running/walking the last 19.6 miles with me and giving me company during all those low points. She helped me stay on course, too. I might have missed this one turn if it hadn't been for her.

So happy to have finished! Finally!

I was so very happy with relief to have finished. I was close to tears. It was wonderful having my dad and sister cheering me on as I was descending to the finish line. Thank you, Jessica and Dad!

I'll repeat myself a bit, but below are various good, bad, and random things that happened that day.

The Good

The weather was pretty good. There was a bit of wind in the late morning, but all-in-all, was just a gorgeous day.
Never ran out of water. I had been worried about carrying two 20-ounce water bottles because that might not be enough to go the longest distance between aid stations -- 7.2 miles. But 40oz was plenty.
No cramps! This is my first ultramarathon, out of the 5 I've done now, with no cramps! I guess all that walking paid off. :-)
I was probably well-hydrated.
Didn't get injured.
Didn't fall down. I stumbled hard twice, and almost fell on my face, but I got my other leg under me just in time. Both times, this really wracked my body temporarily and threw off my rhythm. When I went to bed after the race, I kept on running in my mind and I couldn't fall asleep because I kept on dreaming that I was about to fall down. Sheesh!
Mile 6-12, my left achilles was feeling sore on the downhills. I was worried that it would get much worse. I was very happy that after 12 miles it had apparently "warmed up" and didn't bother me again.
My equipment performed well. I used the same gear at Dick Collins' Firetrails 50 mile race last October. My Garmin 305 watch warned of a low battery towards the end of the race, but it lasted for all 11+ hours.
No blisters or chafing at all. Wow! Again, Body Glide worked well.

The Bad

Felt fatigued and slightly nauseus and had to slow down from around mile 49 to 60. My heart rate fell to the high-120s whereas before I was sticking with my plan to gradually raise it from 133 at the start to 154 at the end and to average 146 beats per minute. (My maximum heart rate is 186 bpm.)
I had forgotten that the first aid station at mile 6.2 didn't have any food or energy gels and I had only brought 5. My friend Eric Vaughan gave me one before the start. Thanks, Eric!
Got a few touches of poison oak, including a small patch on my face. This in spite of having taken the precaution of using IvyBlock in the morning and Tecnu after the race (although not on my face). I guess with running all day, too much time had passed for these otherwise reliable products to be effective.

The Random

Weight in the morning, right after waking up and before breakfast: 164.4 lbs
Weight after getting back home that night, after eating a light meal at the finish line: 160.4 lbs
Ate a big bean & cheese burrito the day before. I would've preferred less fiber, but I was at work and this was a handy place to eat. I'm not sure if this contributed to having to poop during the race. I was out for 11 hours, so it's pretty normal to have to poop!
During the race, I had salt caked to my face. I kept on wondering if I was taking in too much salt or if I was slightly dehydrated. I couldn't tell! I thought maybe I was dehydrated because I felt crappy and fatigued and I loved the taste of salt. I licked my lips and could taste the salt from my sweat and it tasted great! So, was I dehydrated? Or did I have too much salt?
I took 20 Salt Stick capsules for the day (one every 30 minutes except I forgot to take one after the first 30 minutes) plus roughly 30 Gus and assorted bits of aid station food.
My peak training week was 94 miles. My longest runs were 31 miles or so, but I only did two of those. Once, I ran 31 miles on a Saturday and 19 fast miles the next day. I did a weekly track workout that consisted of 3 miles of very fast running, doing intervals of different distances.
Somewhere around mile 50-something, Amanda was running behind me, I heard a loud hiss, Amanda screamed, and I turned around to see a sizable snake slithering on to the trail. It might have been around 1.5 inches in diameter and several feet long. Whoah! As if the race wasn't difficult enough as it was! We continued onward without stopping.

Ways to Improve

I think I'll go for a constant max heart rate next time, like 145 bpm on the uphills and 135 bpm on the flats, after a suitable warm-up period. And when I'm feeling good in the last 20 miles or so, I should still take it easy and feel like I have something in reserve, because the cost of falling apart is so high, I want to not fall off that performance cliff.
More longer runs. The Oakland Marathon interfered with my training somewhat in that it took a couple weeks to recover from the race which was at the end of March. I wish I had had one 40-45 mile run and a couple more 30+ mile runs. I think that would've prevented some of the painful soreness and the fatigue.

Other Race Reports

For a short tale of epic suffering, there's my friend Franz's race report.
Anton Krupicka, the 1st place male, wrote a wonderfully detailed race report.
Devon Crosby-Helms, the 2nd place female: race report.

Finally, as usual, the person I need to thank the most is my wonderful wife, Jennifer. Thank you! It took almost every Saturday and Sunday morning for at least an hour and sometimes 5 hours (and once around 9 hours), to get in my long runs. I couldn't have overcome this extremely challenging event without her support.

Oakland Marathon -- 2:59:03 PR

2010-04-02T21:19:00.000-07:00

Picture credit: SF Chronicle

Short Story

I ran my 10th road marathon last Sunday, the Oakland Marathon, and I set a new personal record for this distance of 26.2 miles, finishing in 2 hours 59 minutes 3 seconds. This marathon had a substantial hill from miles 5 to 9.5, so it was not a particularly fast course. I came in 9th place out of 946 finishers.

I genuinely enjoyed the race and interacted a lot with the crowds for at least the first 22 miles or so. My calves started tightening up around mile 17.5 and I was worried about cramps and ate an extra Gu, but I held on, and finished with a huge sprint.

My sister Jessica came out and saw me in 3 different places. I saw her twice (miles 4 and 21) but I was too focused towards the end and didn't notice her.

The marathon was extremely well organized and had good crowd support. Thank you, Oakland! I highly recommend this event.

Longer Story

I signed up for the Oakland Marathon months in advance after hearing about it from a friend. (Thank you, Bill Budge.) I wasn't sure how to approach it until it was still a few weeks off because I gave my best effort in the Maui Oceanfront Marathon at the end of January and my big goal for the year is the upcoming Miwok 100K on May 1. Since I was disappointed with how I did in Maui and since I recovered quickly from that marathon, I had a secret plan of racing Oakland smarter and faster and giving it my all.

My main strategy was to not just say I was going to run slower at the beginning and kind of "go by feel", but to really be careful. The same friend who told me about the race, Bill Budge (thanks again!), had found this online innovative marathon pace calculator called MARCO. It's a simple website and unfortunately doesn't have any citations about how it calculates the goals, but given your maximum heart rate and goal time, it will spit out a chart showing a goal heart rate and goal pace for each mile, starting off slow and building up to a strong finish. My goal was to use the Oakland Marathon as an experiment and to follow this MARCO plan.

I did. And it went really really well.

The first two miles felt so slow, like I was out for a fun run with friends. In hindsight, I think this was the best thing I did in the race. My first two miles took me 7:14 and 7:18. I started getting worried that I was running too slow, and I wasn't certain if my heart rate monitor was accurate enough. My target heart rate was 147 bpm. Compare that to Maui where I ran the first four miles all under 6:30 pace, with a heart rate in the 155 to 160 range.

Around mile 4.5, I saw my sister, Jess! She had walked the short distance from her house to see me there. I had told her I would be there, but I wasn't sure she would come out to see me. Thanks so much, Jessica. She even recorded a little video.

The big hill was from about mile 5 to mile 10. I monitored my heart rate and constantly told myself to take it easy. I had a long ways to go still. My maximum heart rate (until this day) was 183 or 184. My goal was to be at 161 by the half way point. I was steadily passing runners.

Finally, the big downhill came. Miles 11 and 12 took me 5:56 and 6:08, which were my fastest 2 miles of the race. Then the half-way point came. I consciously tried to increase my effort a little bit here, to get my heart rate to 161 or so, and I was surprised to run mile 14 in about 6:18. Too fast! I think that was my only real mistake. I was going by heart rate and ended up running too fast, compared to my goal pace.

Around mile 17.5 I started feeling a distinct tightness in my calves. I started worrying that I could cramp up and fall apart like I've done before. I ate my next energy gel ahead of schedule and when I saw one being handed out at an aid station, I grabbed it and ate that a short while later. My stomach felt fine with the extra Gu and it probably helped me maintain my energy.

Somewhere along here the marathon route merges with the half-marathoners who started an hour and a half after the marathoners. I was happy for their company! I couldn't always tell who was in the half-marathon and who was in the marathon. The organizers gave us little tags to pin on our backs saying "half" or "full", but not everyone wore one.

I saw my sister again! I was very surprised this time. I figured she would go back to bed! She took a video at mile 21. Thanks so much, Jess! I high-fived her this time.

Rounding Lake Merritt, I was struggling more and more to maintain my pace and I was feeling much less comfortable. My calves were hurting and I had to really focus on keeping going. An older half-marathoner passed me and I decided to take a risk and speed up and stick with him. I've used this strategy before in long races. I imagine that I'm drafting off of them, but probably the most benefit is psychological. I let my heart rate sore into the 170s. I was red-lining and couldn't take much more. Just 15 minutes left. I was going to set a PR if I could only keep this up. The old guy slowed down on a downhill and I passed him. I recognized another runner who had passed me earlier. I kept up the pace. I was on his back. I passed him. Someone told me I was in 8th place. Whoa!!! Really? I didn't trust him. I kept up the pace and my heart rate was sky-rocketing. I passed a woman that I was pretty sure was the 1st place female. "Awesome job" I grunted. She replied, "way to go". I glanced at my watch. 183 beats per minute. Maximum heart rate with still maybe a quarter mile to go. Oh boy. This will be interesting. I rounded a corner. The finish line! All I could focus on was to sprint to the finish and ignore the pain and my pounding heart and keep moving as fast as I could.

whew...... wow..... so happy to finish.... 2:59:02 is what I think my watch read at the time. Personal Record! I got my medal. Yay. Had some professional photos taken. Got a free massage. Nice!

The red sports drink didn't always make it into my mouth.

Marathon personal record: 2 hours 59 minutes 3 seconds. 9th of 946 finishers. 3rd of 114 in my age group of 35-39 year old males.

Results: http://results.active.com/pages/searchform.jsp?rsID=90449

Garmin watch GPS data for Oakland Marathon:

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/28414633

Garmin watch GPS data for Maui Oceanfront Marathon:

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/24077868

I also set a new maximum heart rate of 186 beats per minute.

I got a chance to meet Scott Dunlap after the race. He came in 5th overall and wasn't even racing the whole thing. He said his main focus is the Boston Marathon in 3 weeks. Wow.

Accomplished runner and prolific blogger, Scott Dunlap

The SF Chronicle took a nice photo of me before the start and asked for my name. I'm in the caption! Pretty cool.

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/object/article?f=/c/a/2010/03/28/BUNQ1CMKE6.DTL&object=/c/pictures/2010/03/28/ba-marathon29_0501408049.jpg

MARCO Marathon Calculator:

http://eifler.com/

166.4 lbs -- my weight on race morning, after waking up, but before breakfast. I had eaten lots of salty foods the day before and felt well-fed and well-hydrated.

No blisters. Did have some chaffing on my thighs in spite of using Body Glide. Not enough, I guess. Or I could've put it on after arriving in Oakland.

All-in-all, was a great race. The organizers mailed me this nice trophy -- it's 6.5" tall and 8.5" at the base.

Thank you to my many friends who did many training runs with me -- Amanda, Jen W., Mor, Robin, Bill, etc. But most of all, thank you, Jennifer, for letting me have the time to train for and participate in this race.

Maui Oceanfront Marathon -- 3:08:21

2010-01-24T17:22:00.000-08:00

Many months ago, Jennifer and I were trying to think of a good place to go for a family vacation and for me to run a marathon. I think it was Jennifer who found the Maui Oceanfront Marathon and eventually we agreed that the schedule worked and I went ahead and signed up for it.

This would be the 9th road marathon for me. My goals were as follows, in order:
1. To run fast and do my best!
2. To set a personal record for this distance which meant to go faster than 2:59:36 that I did in the California International Marathon in 2007.

3. To have a guaranteed entry into the New York City Marathon, bypassing their lottery system. This required 2:55:00 for the marathon or 1:23:00 for the half marathon. Thanks to my recent Pillar Point Half Marathon time of 1:21:05, I was in theory already set, but that marathon is small and poorly organized in terms of their online presence. They still haven't posted the correct results yet, for example.

My training had gone well. I felt strong. The weather was beautiful, although much warmer and more humid than I was accustomed to. Looking the course elevation profile, I had concerns about all of the short hills. It was looking as if the cumulative elevation gain was just as much as San Francisco Marathon, for example. This might not be a fast marathon and my goals might be too ambitious. Well, that's always part of the excitement, to run a new course for the first time.

Race day! I woke up at 3:05am and got ready and met the bus at 4:05am. The course is point-to-point, so the buses were available to transport us runners from near the finish line all the way to the start line. As usual, I tried not to think about how long the bus ride is, knowing that I was going to have to return all this distance on foot!

The marathon began at 5:45am following what we were told was a traditional Hawaiian good-luck sing-along, complete with a conch shell starter-gun. The course began at the top of a somewhat steep road, so running slow at the beginning was practically impossible. After the initial downhill, I began monitoring my heart rate regularly. I was feeling good, the air was cool, and given my ambitious goals, I decided to take a risk and let my heart rate climb to 160 early on. In the previous couple of marathons, I mostly stayed around 155 beats per minute for the first half. Well, I ran mile 2 in about 6 minutes flat, so I think in hindsight, going solely by heart rate here was a mistake! My fastest goal pace was 6:40 per mile, so starting off with a 6 minute mile was way too fast.

I was on pace for 2:50:00 for the first 6 miles or so. By the half-way point I was on pace for 2:55:00 which was my original goal. Somewhere around here I saw a whale come to the surface of the ocean on my left. Nice! There was a nearly constant onrush of cars on the main highway and they created a head wind in addition to being noisy and occasionally foul-smelling. The hills were surprisingly long and noticeable and they slowed me down, of course.

I was in 2nd place until mile 15 or 16. I had probably already started slowing down and a runner passed me. But at mile 18 I started falling apart badly and my 6:40 per mile average pace fell to 8 minutes per mile. The heat really hit me. I was having difficulty breathing and had developed a side cramp. I decided to stop and walk for 30 seconds to try to get my breathing under control. I never fully recovered, and I pretty much stayed at 8 minutes per mile to the finish. I ran by Claire and Jennifer in the last couple miles. They cheered me on as Claire was finishing her 5K. Thank you, Claire! Finally, finally, I crossed the finish line with a time of 3 hours 8 minutes 21 seconds (7:11 pace) and I came in 4th of 225 entrants and 189 finishers. The results are here.

Rylan ran really well in the 5K and came in 1st in the 19-and-under division with a time of about 27 minutes. (8:56 pace or 8:58 pace, I think.) There were 131 finishers in the 5K and 5 boys in his division. Here's a photo of him at the podium, next to a tall skinny teenager who towers over him.

Lisa did super well with a time of 26:32. (8:31 pace, if I recall correctly.)

Jennifer ran with a heavy backpack from the finish line for 2 miles, met Claire, then ran with Claire to the finish. Claire came in 6th of 10 in her age group (females, 19 and under), but didn't receive a trophy because only the top 2 runners in that age category receive trophies. Claire averaged about 12 minutes a mile.

All the races had the same finish line, but different starting points. There was the marathon, half-marathon, 15K, and 5K.

Random notes:

My weight 4 days before: 162.8 lbs
My weight 2 days after: 162.0 lbs
I ate an energy gel every 30 minutes, which might have been just a tad too much. I sometimes didn't feel like eating it.
For this marathon, I did not take any salt capsules because I have doubts that they can actually prevent cramps for this kind of race. An ultramarathon is much different and I intend to still take salt capsules for those.
We splurged and I got a nice massage a few hours after the race. I think it helped. I was sore for a few days afterwards, but I never felt injured or super-stiff.

Pillar Point Half Marathon -- 1:21:05 PR

2009-11-22T10:33:00.000-08:00

The weather was perfect and cool for the 6th annual Pillar Point Half Marathon and I've run it every year and every year I've gotten a bit faster. This time, I wasn't sure I could improve on my time of 1:24:26 from last year which is a pace of 6 minutes 27 seconds a mile. I had done very little speed work and just not very many miles since my 50 mile race on Oct. 10. My 10K race on Oct. 18 was good for me, but was still quite a ways off from earlier years.

When I parked my car that morning, I happened to park next to David Lara who beat me last year by about 20 feet. He had since improved dramatically, so if he had a good race, I wasn't going to be a contender for winning today's race. That's fine, one less thing to worry about! Another fast guy in our club, Thomas Setser, also showed up, who is a champion college runner in cross country and track.

Many other friends from my running club also showed up which was great to see.

My plan was to try to improve on my time and to take a risk and to carefully monitor my heart rate. I wore my Garmin 305 GPS watch with a heart rate monitor. Soon, we were off!

I started off a little quick but then soon settled down into a good rhythm, trying to keep in mind that I had a long ways to go. I kept tabs on my heart rate and overall pace. Thomas took the lead immediately and David passed me very soon after the start. I remained in 3rd place for the remainder of the race.

The 2nd aid station, near the 10K turn-around point was coming up and I wanted to get some water, but the guy wasn't ready. He started filling a cup for me, but there was no way I was going to stop and wait! "I'll grab water next time!" I blurted out as I raced by. I did get water at the next aid station and then once more later on -- so two full cups was plenty for this distance and the cool weather.

We got on to the dirt trails and the course was very well marked with chalk and yellow flags. Good job organizers -- this was the best marked dirt portion of the race yet. This part is out-and-back and I saw Thomas in the lead still followed very closely behind by David. When I turned around, I was somewhat surprised to see my friend and club member Franz Dill somewhat close to me, like maybe just a few hundred feet. "Wow, he's running fast today; I didn't know he had this much speed in him!" Shortly behind him was the first place female and also a club member, Robin Martin. My watch was showing 6:19 average pace since the start of the race. Not bad, I thought! I was feeling the hard effort, but still had lots of gas in the tank. This was around mile 5.

Soon we got on to the residential loop. The volunteer at the turn said "turn left at Railroad St. something something Myrtle?". I knew the route and turned left on to the street, leaving the paved trail. But then, maybe my mind was fogged by the effort or my eyes were blurry from sweat or something, but I saw the that the two lane road went down to one lane and it looked like a driveway of sorts. There were no course markings since leaving the paved trail. What to do? I felt like I needed to turn right even though there was no chalk on the ground. I was on Myrtle St. "Oh good, that's what she said to turn on, right?" Then I got to an intersection, again with no course markings. I kept on going straight. "Hmm... they could really use some course markings out here." Then I got a bad feeling that I had turned too early. Suddenly I saw Thomas and David dart across the street about a block ahead. Crap. I had turned too early. The actual course was on a parallel road.

When I got to the next cross street (3rd St.), I made a left turn, running backwards on the course and away from Thomas and David. I got to Central Ave., which was the street I should have been on instead of Myrtle and then did a quick turn-around. I hoped I hadn't cut any distance. I would be so disappointed to have such a good race and hard effort (and $35 or so) spoiled by a mistake like this.

Here's a map of the area showing the correct route and my route.

And my Garmin GPS data is here, but it looks like you need to be a member of Running Ahead. (It's a useful site and free; you can track your workouts there.)

Now I was filled with uncertainty. I would hate to overtake either Thomas or David by potentially having taken a short cut. I just didn't know if Central Ave. was parallel to Myrtle! At the next aid station I stopped completely, drank my 2nd cup of water and told the volunteer that I thought she said to turn on Myrtle. She said, "No, I said turn left on Railroad". "OK, thanks." And I was off again. It was a quick stop, but still 5 seconds (10 seconds?) felt like a long time.

My watch showed my overall average pace as being 6:19 again. I monitored my heart rate and tried pushing the pace more. Soon, the average was 6:18. I was getting close to the finish and I pushed harder. I was starting to struggle and couldn't get enough oxygen. I sprinted towards the finish line. "Holy crap -- 1:21:something!! That can't be right." I stopped my watch. 1:21:05 -- a huge personal record. My watch showed just 12.85 miles. Dang. I must have cut distance. Jennifer and Claire met me at the finish line. I was very grateful to see them. Claire told me she came in 3rd place in the 1 mile kids' run. Good job, Claire!

I told one of the race officials about my course deviation but she was busy and didn't seem to care. Then I saw a map and fortunately, Central Ave. and Myrtle were parallel. Whew. Later, I double-checked with my GPS watch data and Google Maps and all was well. The course was just over 13.1 miles and my alternate route was only 14' shorter which is mostly mitigated by having to come to a complete stop and turning around.

Long story short -- I'm amazed that I was able to maintain an average pace of 6 minutes 11 seconds a mile for 13.1 miles. I would not have guessed that this was possible.

Pumpkin Run 10K -- 37:12

2009-10-18T21:09:00.000-07:00

8 days after my 50 miler, I wasn't sure if I was going to be able to run my favorite 10K. I've done this local event every year since 2004. But the day before the race, I felt good in our weekly 5.4 mile club run so I decided to give it a go. I'm glad I did. I was a few seconds slower than last year, and slower still than my P.R., but had a strong consistent run, averaging exactly 6 minutes a mile for the 6.2 mile course.
The results are in: http://www.seniorcoastsiders.org/2009-HMB-Results.html#DDD

I came in 4th overall, and 1st in the 30-39 age group. I'm happy!

I looked up the results for all my Pumpkin Runs:

http://zinsli.com/results/name.asp

The columns are 1) overall place. 2) gender place. 3) age group place. 4) my age. 5) time. 6) pace. 7) date.

15 15 6 33 0:41:18 6:39 10/17/2004

6 6 3 34 0:37:35 6:03 10/16/2005

4 4 2 35 0:36:46 5:55 10/15/2006

3 3 2 36 0:37:28 6:02 10/14/2007

5 5 2 37 0:37:09 5:59 10/19/2008

4 4 1 38 0:37:12 6:00 10/18/2009

Firetrails 50 Mile -- 8:10:00

2009-10-10T22:48:00.000-07:00

I successfully completed the Dick Collins Firetrails 50 Mile race today in 8 hours 10 minutes. (Average pace: 9:48 per mile.) It was very difficult (lots and lots of hills), I'm very sore, and very happy!

I want to give a big thanks to my friend "Big" Ben Voight for running the last 13 miles with me. Here's the Coastside Running Club crew that either ran or helped out today.
The weather was great and just about perfect for a long run -- lots of cool still air, a bit of mist at times, and low clouds. I'm so glad that I didn't have to contend with a lot of heat.

The race was superbly well organized and executed. The course was very well marked; I think the best-marked of any trail race I've done. The aid stations were well stocked and well staffed with friendly efficient volunteers. Thank you, volunteers! The "schwag" (goody bag containing stuff passed out to the finishers) was great, too -- a nice-looking wind breaker and a nice synthetic dry-weave running shirt. Made me think of the Boston Marathon jacket that cost $100 and was of poorer quality.

The results have been announced: I came in 23rd out of 234 runners. For nearly the entire race, I did not feel competitive with other runners. Just overcoming the challenging course and tremendous distance was the focus of my attention. I think everyone who started that morning has a lot to be proud of.

I'll jot down random thoughts and encounters I had during the race:

I ran with a couple of people for a mile or two and enjoyed their company -- Mark Matyazic, a triathlete and Rory Bosio, a 25 year old school teacher. Mark had an incredible 2nd half, running about 30 minutes faster and finishing 7:30:38. Rory ended up being the first place female in 7:54:33. She ran all the uphills! I tended to walk these and I would catch up to her eventually except towards the turn-around where she may have picked up the pace. Rory asked me during the race if I wanted to hear some jokes. That was a fun way of passing the time and I told her I'd pass them along to my daughter.
I thought to myself: "Mile 27. That's only 10 miles until I see Ben!"
I thought to myself: "Whew, 30 miles. That's a good long training run. I'm feeling the effort. Oh, man, 20 miles to go. That's so long. I don't feel like doing 20 miles. I wish I hadn't just thought about how far I have to go."
Ben: "You've only got 6 miles to go. That's only about an hour." He was right, but dang, after having been running or uphill power-walking for 7 hours, running for 1 more hour seemed very very difficult. I tried to just think about getting to the next aid station.
~3 miles to go. After the last aid station, after stopping briefly and eating a yummy salty potato chunk, I started feeling much better. Soon, I was able to see Lake Chabot again. I knew that I was getting close and that the last few miles were going to be relatively flat. I decided to really push the pace. I dumped out my water out of one bottle and kept just the 8 oz of sports drink in the other. I decided I didn't need any more energy gels. I got to around 7 min./mile on the flat sections, faster on the short downhills, and never stopped running even on the uphills. Ben fell behind and I couldn't hear him any more, but I was determined to do my best. I knew I was going to finish the race and I was so happy and so relieved. It was wonderful hearing Jennifer and Claire at the finish area and I sprinted through the finishing chute. Whew. I was so relieved and happy, that I felt emotional and teary-eyed.

Consumed during the race:

~20 Gu energy gels
1 Shot Blok package
1 Cliff Bar
1 very salty potato chunk, with 3 miles to go
1 handful of Pringles
lots of sports drink and water
16 S-Caps (salt capsules)

My weight:

163.6 lbs on race morning, after waking up and after carb loading the previous day. I was glad I was able to lose a few pounds of fat (presumably) since the SF Marathon.
161.2 lbs after getting back home after the race, after having snacked and drank a bit.

Things that went well:

I appear to be uninjured.
I didn't fall, trip, or even stumble on the many miles of rough single-track trail.
My hydration, electrolytes, and fueling went very well. Eating an energy gel every 20 minutes and an S-Cap salt capsule every 30 minutes worked well. I tried to take a good sip of water or sports drink every few minutes. I'm guessing I drank 7 to 8oz a mile.
I had fun except around miles 40-45.
I put in my best effort. I kept my heart rate in the mid-140s on average. (My max heart rate is 183 beats per minute.)
I was 1 hour 37 minutes faster than last year's 50 miler!
I was efficient at the aid stations for the most part. I had the aid station mileage chart written on one of my water bottles and I knew what I needed to get each time. I wanted to leave each aid station with 3 Gu energy gels in my pockets and with one or both water bottles filled (depending on how far the next aid station was).
My equipment on the whole did pretty well. I discovered I needed to replace my Garmin heart rate monitor battery the day before. Thankfully, it performed well. My Dirty Girl gaiters worked great and kept rocks and twigs out of my shoes. My Garmin watch reported 49.0 miles at the end, so it was "close enough" but I think it lost a mile due to all the tree cover and the curvy trail was getting broken down into longer straighter lines. Body Glide kept me from having any chafing. No sunburns. My Halo headband, which has a thin plastic strip to guide water away, worked well and kept the sweat out of my eyes.

Things to improve on:

My shoes were not quite perfect and any problem at all can cause foot / skin problems. The ends of 4 toes started developing blisters -- not so bad that they needed to be drained, though, and the skin didn't tear. (Update: 2 days later, the ends of my toes are back to normal.) The top of my left middle toe started to get painful at times on the steepest downhills where I had to brake hard on each step. I don't know if my shoes were a tiny bit too small or if my laces weren't quite tight enough or what. And my right big toe has some redness underneath the toenail which can lead to me losing it. We'll see. Otherwise, I've enjoyed these Brooks shoes very much.
I think I picked up the pace too much when Ben met me at mile 37. I knew I was pushing my heart rate up, but then at mile 40 I felt a strong twinge of a cramp in my right thigh and things were feeling delicate all over my leg muscles. I think I was very close to having a lock-down general cramping. I quickly doubled-up on the salt and energy gels, but I felt very fatigued and sore for maybe 45 minutes. It felt like a long time. Only after the last aid station, with 3 miles to go, did I really start feeling strong again.
My shorts were a little loose for what I was carrying in them. I discovered this on a training run but that was a different pair of shorts. I should've tested the exact pair I was intending to wear. It wasn't too bad, but they started falling off my bum and I had to hitch them up every 5 minutes or so until I ate my Cliff Bar.
My worst soreness and borderline injury is my right forearm! Weird! But I guess holding and running with 2 20oz water bottles was a bit much for so many hours. Oftentimes, I had to carry both bottles in one hand and so my forearm muscles might be strained. It's painful to the touch. I should do more arm exercises.

As usual, I owe Jennifer a huge amount of gratitude. I ran every Saturday and Sunday morning, sometimes for many hours, since the San Francisco Marathon. My longest training run took me 5 hours 15 minutes, to run from the Bay Bridge in S.F. to our house (32.3 miles by the coastal route). Thanks, my love!

SF Marathon -- 3:06:25

2009-07-26T14:16:00.000-07:00

I successfully completed all 26.2 miles of the San Francisco Marathon this morning in 3 hours 6 minutes 25 seconds. This was my first time running the entire SF Marathon. Previously I had run just the first half.

The weather was perfect for running -- cool and overcast. The course was interesting and the support was excellent. I loved running back and forth over the Golden Gate Bridge and through all of the city streets and up and down Golden Gate Park. Three of us carpooled, arriving at the Embarcadero Ctr parking garage at about 4:50am. It took a surprisingly long time to walk to the start, use a porta-potty (long lines) and get into our corrals. For next time, I need an additional 20 minutes. I ended up being just barely on time for the 5:31am start of my wave, wave 2. But I started at the back of wave 2 and there were lots and lots of people who didn't belong in this area and so it was a very slow start. I had to come to a complete stop shortly after I crossed the start line and there were many very slow runners that I had to navigate around.

The approach to the Golden Gate Bridge involved a steep hill, shortly after Crissy Field. I wore a heart rate monitor that communicated with my Garmin 305 watch to help me know how hard my body was really working. I knew that my maximum heart rate was 183. My goal early on was to not run too fast so my target heart rate was around 155 for the flat sections and I let it climb to 165 to 168 on the steep uphills early in the race. It was fun seeing the front runners coming back across the bridge as I was about halfway over. I had forgotten how much of an arc the bridge is and how long the uphill parts are. We were pretty much encased in fog. I couldn't see the water. But it was still fun. 3 of the 5 lanes are blocked off for the marathon.

After turning around, on my way back, I checked the distance on my watch for the first time. I was expecting it to be around 7 miles, feeling warmed up but still having a long way to go. I was pleasantly surprised that I had covered 9.3 miles already.

I was passing people less frequently now as we approached the Golden Gate Park where the first half of the marathon ended. The crowds thinned considerably after we marathon runners turned right to run west towards the end of the park and the half-marathoners turned left.

I kept glancing at my heart rate to try to keep a good steady output. I was feeling pretty good but then my right knee suddenly started feeling stiff and sore, like it was swelling up. I don't think I slowed down. Around mile 16, the feeling disappeared.

For the second half, I kept on trying to speed up. I was monitoring my average pace for the whole race and I wanted it to get down to 7:03 minutes per mile. It was slowly but steadily going down as I was gradually speeding up. I set as a goal to keep my heart rate at around 160 for the flat sections and around 167 on the uphills. I was basically feeling pretty good. At the aid stations, I usually grabbed one small cup of water and one small cup of sports drink.

Around mile 19, my calves started feeling heavy and I got small signs of cramps. Around mile 21, my calves were feeling heavy and somewhat tight. What was fun, though, was seemingly owning the streets of San Francisco. We runners were so spread out that for a time I saw just two runners in front of me, over the distance of what seemed like a quarter mile. When I approached intersections, the police stopped the cars and made them wait for me. It felt like I was a VIP, running down the center of these wide streets, crossing major streets with cars waiting on both sides, just for me!

The end was getting difficult but I was keeping a steady pace and letting my heart rate rise and rise. I was catching up to a woman who was told by a volunteer that she was the 10th place female! I passed her and later passed another woman. It felt strange being so near the frontrunners of such a big race.

Around mile 22-23, I was starting to struggle with my heart rate and heavy calves and general sense of fatigue. A guy passed me and I thought to myself, "I'm going to try to hang on to this guy. He's not going much faster than me." I felt a bit of headwind at this point, so I might as well use him to block the wind. I stuck right on his back as we got nearer to the finish, with both of us passing another 10 or 12 runners. With about a half mile to go, even though I couldn't see the finish line, I broke away and began sprinting towards the finish in a last-ditch redline effort. My heart rate shot up to the low 170s. (Again, my max heart rate is 183.) I passed another cluster of runners. I saw the 3:10 pace group which was about 2 minutes ahead of schedule. I put in a big final sprint, passed them, and ran across the finish line. Whew! I thanked the guy that I glued myself to for those last few miles and we congratulated each other. He finished right behind me; he must've been sprinting, too.

The results were posted in real-time. Nice! I was happily surprised that I did so well compared to the other runners. UPDATE: The unofficial results as of this moment have me at 84th place overall (out of 5,000+ finishers) and 9th place in my age group of 35-39 males (out of 568 finishers). Results are here: http://www.liveraceresults.com/liverc1/Default.aspx . My bib # is 2075.

Other random notes:

My cold / flu was still going on, but it didn't seem to affect me much. I still feel dizzy when I stand up too quickly and I spit out a lot of heavy yellow phlegm during the race.
I overslept a bit, sleeping through my 2:30am alarm in order to eat 3 hours before the race. Instead, I started eating at around 3:10am. It didn't seem to matter.
Weight-wise, I was probably around 165 pounds, but I didn't weigh myself this morning.

Above: my sister Molly and me. Below: my sister Jessica and me. A big thanks to my two sisters who came out to visit. Thanks, Jess, for buying me lunch.

And a huge thanks to Jennifer for making this race possible.

Lake Merritt 10K - 40:27

2009-06-28T12:48:00.000-07:00

I ran an impromptu 10K race this morning instead of doing a long run. I figured it'd be good to get some speedwork in and it's always fun to run somewhere new and to enter a race. This running club, Lake Merritt Joggers and Striders, puts on a 5K and 10K race every 4th Sunday of each month. It only costs $5 and they hand out ribbons to the age-group award winners.

So... in spite of my telling myself repeatedly not to go out too fast, of course I did. It's so hard to hold back when I'm feeling great! So, after a 5:30 or so first mile, I start slowing down and by the end of mile 2 I'm actually struggling, feeling the lactic acid burn in my legs, feeling overheated and my heart pounding, and sweat stinging in my eyes. Sheesh! I almost called it quits and did the 5K instead. (Each loop around the lake is 5K.) But I held on, slowed down, and finished in 3rd place overall.

Thanks to Bill, my friend and coworker, for encouraging me to show up. I want to run this course again and improve!

Boston Marathon -- 3:03:33

2009-04-21T23:22:00.000-07:00

I successfully completed the Boston Marathon last Monday in 3 hours 3 minutes and 33 seconds. (7:00 minutes per mile average pace.) I had a rough time the last 5 miles being just on the verge of cramps. I had to slow down a bit but I didn't completely fall apart. This was my 3rd and fastest Boston Marathon. I'm happy!

I had a great weekend, meeting friends and being surrounded by thousands of dedicated and accomplished runners.

The predicted weather for race day was cool, high of 47, with some wind from the east. The temperature sounded great, but I sure didn't need any headwind. I was cold at the starting line but quickly warmed up. Next time, I'll try to remember to bring some warm and disposable clothing to the start line.

My goal time was right around 3 hours, with a hope of setting a personal record and coming in with a low 2:59 or 2:58.

I was concerned early on during the race that my left knee would be a problem. I could feel that my left patellar tendon was getting swollen. I also knew that there was a good chance it would just "loosen up" and be fine. It was fine and I didn't feel it at all after mile 9 or so.

After the half-way point, the headwinds were much stronger but still nothing like the Boston of 2007 when we were running into the northeastern storm and had gusts of 40mph wind in our faces. Mentally, after the half-way point, I was going to try to give an "extra push". I was monitoring my heart rate closely and tried to keep it around 160-163 beats per minute. (My maximum heart rate I've ever seen is 183, so this is 87% to 89% of my maximum heart rate.) After the half-way point, I let it rise to 165-168 (90% to 92%) with low 170s on the uphills. In hindsight, I think I should've stayed steady until about mile 20.

I had written my running-club nickname, RON-O-MATIC, on the front and back of my shirt. It was a bit of fun and levity. I think I made the 'M' too narrow and a bunch of onlookers seemed to struggle to read it and yelled out "good job, Ron-o". It was fun.

Other runners in the race wore relatively elaborate costumes. These guys were all running at about a 3 hour marathon pace. One guy was dressed head-to-toe as Captain America, complete with a cardboard shield painted silver. Funny! Another guy was wearing a big clown's wig, like a rainbow-colored afro.

The hills in the 2nd half of the race seemed to knock me down more. It was as if every mile almost there was something that slowed me down. Combined with the increasing headwinds and my increased effort to speed-up, I think I set myself up for problems with cramps again. After the mile 21 marker passed by, I got a strong twinge of a cramp in my left calf. Whoa! Then I felt something similar in my right calf. I felt flashbacks of the previous year of other races where I knew I was very near having a big breakdown where large muscle groups just stopped working. I slowed down and carefully tried to stay on that cliff edge of going as fast as I could without falling off and having to do a painful walk / shuffle. My lap times for each mile dropped further -- 7:25 for mile 21, 7:13 for mile 22, then a couple of 7:23s to finish the race. Ugh. It was very difficult. I stopped interacting with the crowds or looking around much. I was very focused on just moving forward as fast as I could without getting cramps. These last 5 miles were difficult until I got within sight of the finish line on Boylston St. and I knew I was going to be OK. Whew!

Race Encounters

Around halfway through the race, a guy was catching up to me and said "hi, Ron, I know you from the running club." It was David Lara who I had such a close race against in the Pillar Point Half Marathon the previous September. Funny! He lives nearby in El Granada and he recognized me from my club shirt I was wearing. We chatted for a while. He passed me then, but I passed him later, finishing just about 2 minutes in front of him. He had a terrific race considering his training. He said he only did one "long" run of 10 miles and otherwise ran about 8 miles a day. Wow. Apparently that was enough to keep in shape from his previous marathon last December. Good job, Dave!

Around mile 24 someone yelled out and ran through the crowds a bit, "Ron Little! Ron Little! Hi!". I didn't recognize him and I was "in the zone", just trying to stay focused. But then I thought who could it be that would know my first and last name and look vaguely like this guy -- Allen Kachalia from Bonita High School. Yep! He contacted me through Facebook. Very cool. I hadn't seen him since my 10 year reunion.

I passed by Dick and Rick Hoyt again this year. This is a father and son team. Rick is the son and has cerebral palsy and can't voluntarily move his arms or legs. His dad pushes him in a racing wheelchair. His dad has done around 1,000 racing events with his son! Dick is 68 years old and pushed his son the whole way, mostly running, in 5 hours 30 minutes. Just incredible.

I passed by another wheelchair user, Jason Pisano, who also has cerebral palsy and has control mostly over just one leg. He rides backwards in his wheelchair, kicking against the ground to shove himself forward, and has two able-bodied guides walking with him. When I passed him, he was going uphill so so slowly, one little kick at a time. I remember him from the previous year, too. I think it takes him 8 or 9 hours to finish. My friend Amanda took this picture of him as he neared the finish line:

Statistics

26,331 runners had qualified and entered the race.

23,162 actually showed up and crossed the starting line on Monday morning.

22,849 (98.6% of the starters) finished.

There were 5,035 runners who started the race who were in my age group of 18-39 males. That's a big age group! When I'm 40, I'll have an advantage, being the youngest in my age group rather than the oldest. :-)

I placed 1,723rd overall and 1,176th in my age group. That's in the top 7.4% overall and the top 23% in my age group.

Busy Social Calendar

It was fun meeting friends this weekend. I stayed with a guy I met two years ago at Boston, Ron McCracken. He got me into the Runner's World party on Sunday night where there were many famous accomplished runners from previous decades, like Joan Benoit Samuelson. I met two previous coworkers and their families, and I met two friends from my running club who were also running the Boston Marathon.

What Went Right

My training went well. I made all of my long runs over the last 3-4 months and most of my other scheduled runs. I topped out at just over 70 miles for a week.
My new lightweight shoes worked fine. I was a little nervous since I hadn't run more than about 9 miles at a time in them.
Wearing a heart rate monitor for the first time in a road marathon seemed useful. I liked knowing how hard my body was really working.
I wore a hat for a road marathon for the first time. I liked it. I was imagining that I was more aerodynamically efficient! Placebo effect?
Eating a Gu every 35-40 minutes seemed to work fine.
I started feeling a blister on my left 2nd toe around mile 11 or 12. I realized it was from a bandaid that I had on my big toe. In the end, it was a relatively minor blister. That was the only one.
My Garmin Forerunner 305 is a GPS watch that I use. It worked well and was useful. One cautionary note is that it reported 26.46 miles total distance. This could be because of my crossing the road back and forth, perhaps? There were a lot of runners and I couldn't always run on the shortest path through the curves of the roads. The downside of this is that the reported pace was faster than my official pace. For example, if my watch said 6:48 minutes per mile, it was "really" (as far as the race officials are concerned) 6:51 or 6:52 per mile.
I'm glad I got to Boston Commons to meet the buses at 6:20am. By the time I boarded the bus at 6:35 or so, the crowds had doubled. I really wanted to get to Hopkinton earlier rather than later, so that I could have some coffee, use the porta-potties and sit down and relax, rather than stand in line for 45 minutes.

What Went Wrong

I could have done more speedwork during training perhaps. I was taking it easy on my patellar tendon.
I weighed 166.4 lbs before flying to Boston. I wanted to lose some weight but I seem to be incapable! My body is very stubborn, apparently!
During the race, I think I should have kept about a constant heart rate for a little longer, saving a speed-up for mile 21 perhaps. Those extra 25 seconds a mile towards the end were costly and I think could've been avoided by going a bit slower earlier on.

More Photos

2009_04_20 Boston Marathon

I owe a huge thanks and I'm very grateful towards my wife for making it possible for me to train and participate this year. Maybe next year I can get Jennifer and Claire to come along!

Death Valley Vacation

2009-04-04T16:39:00.000-07:00

March 26 to March 29

Jennifer and I had a nice little vacation without Claire, flying to Las Vegas and staying for one night and then driving to Death Valley for two more nights. We got in a couple of nice dinners, a great show (Blue Man Group) and lots of hiking and running. I had a strong 20 mile run along Badwater Road and Artist Drive -- very pretty in a desolate way.

Angel Island 25K -- 3rd place

2009-03-14T14:08:00.000-07:00

In preparation for the upcoming Boston Marathon, my training schedule called for a tough run -- 16 miles with 12 miles at marathon race pace. I thought this would be tough to do solo both because of the speed (6:51 minutes per mile goal pace) and the practical matter of carrying enough water or having quick access to water. Plus, races are fun! I saw this 25K put on by EnviroSports on Angel Island and since I've never been to this island in the San Francisco Bay, I signed up.

A couple hundred of us boarded a ferry at 8:30am this morning. (I had a bit of a panic after I realized I had forgotten my wallet and couldn't pay for parking, but I took a chance in a 2 hour residential area and was ok -- no ticket.) The weather felt good and cool, with no wind or rain.

The scenery was beautiful as we crossed to the island.

The race started at 9:30am which was about 15 minutes late. I had eaten my Gu energy gel 15 minutes before the race was scheduled to start, so it wasn't ideal to have an unexpected delay. But that's OK, I was ready, had used the bathroom, and everyone was in a good mood. The race director gave us good instructions, told a few jokes, and we were off!

The 25K runners started first, with a 10 minute head start over the 12K runners. Those of us in the front were taking it easy, doing about 7 min./mile on this flat loop around the picnic area. Then we were on a trail, climbing a steep hill.

I was in 3rd place. We quickly spread out and after the first couple of miles, there were two faster guys in the front. One of them looked like a fast track runner (very thin) and he wasn't carrying any water. The other guy was really muscular and looked more like a soccer play plus ultra-runner. Then there was me and a strong-looking guy right behind me. The guy behind me stuck with me for the first few miles before passing me on a flatter area, but then when we hit another uphill, he slowed down a lot and I passed him again. He got closer towards the end of the first loop, but then I pulled away from him on the 2nd loop and never saw him again. So, mostly I ran in 3rd place the entire race.

So, we did two loops, ending up with 14.5 miles. There were lots of walkers doing the 12K and it was kind of fun passing all of them on my 2nd loop. I was passing many of the slowest 12K runners, feeling strong, and then I was done! 3rd place. 7:11 average pace. I'm happy!

I'm a bit sore and I have 6 or 7 scratches on my legs and my left ankle is a bit bruised, but all-in-all, I'm feeling good. The various minor injuries were from this big tree that had recently fallen on the trail and it was a real struggle to get through all of the branches. And this part of the trail had to be traversed 4 times in the 25K. Yuck! There were a couple of other spots that required jumping over logs, but those were much more minor.

Another random note: for the first 5 miles or so, my left foot seemed to be falling asleep. I kept on wiggling my toes, trying to fix it. Were my shoes too tight? Running that downhill seemed to wake it up and I was fine from then on.

Results are in. There were only 51 people in the 25K. Felt like more!

Crystal Springs Watershed 20 Miles

2009-01-13T09:19:00.000-08:00

My iliotibial band (IT Band) problem seems to have finally been solved! I had a wonderful 20 mile slow social run on a beautiful day last Saturday.

My running club organized a charity run in a closed-to-the-public area near the Crystal Springs Watershed. 21 runners (well, 20 runners and one bicyclist) participated and we've blown past our goal of raising at least $750 for a scholarship for a Half Moon Bay High School cross-country runner.

Accomplished ultramarathon runner, Jean Pommier, in front of Pilarcitos Lake.

Disneyland!

2009-01-01T17:07:00.000-08:00

I took Claire for a short trip to visit my parents and we went to Disneyland this past Monday. I also tried out my big new Christmas present -- a Nikon D90 digital camera.

Claire was just tall enough to go on some of the big rides. We had a long fun day, in spite of the huge crowds. (FastPass is a winner, if you stack them up every two hours.) We went on:

Splash Mountain (twice)
Pirates of the Caribbean (twice)
Indiana Jones
Pinocchio
Snow White
Jungle Cruise
steam train around Disneyland

I must have carried Claire (all 50 pounds of her) for at least 3 hours on Monday. I count that as a work-out!

Running-wise, I think I'm getting better. I've had a couple of hour-long runs in the last week on a soft sandy beach. Today, I ran 5.25 miles on a hard dirt trail but I sensed that the IT band on my left knee was getting tender or inflamed. It didn't hurt, but I was glad to stop. I'm seeing an orthopedic surgeon tomorrow who specializes in running injuries, for an evaluation of my left knee.

Oh, and I've signed up for:

Boston Marathon on April 20. Woo hoo!

San Francisco Marathon on July 26.

I'm thinking of trying to get into the New York City Marathon this year, too. Time to get training!

The Evil Business Trip

2008-11-16T22:05:00.000-08:00

So, I've developed an iliotibial band problem. It all stems back to that Pumpkin run 10K which I'm sure put a lot of stress on my legs. But then, rather than taking the next day off like I normally would, I ran 8 miles that Monday night because I had a business trip down to Los Angeles for the day on that Tuesday. So, I thought I could go for a run that Monday night and immediately I was sore in all kinds of unusual places. I should have stopped, but I persisted and ran 8 miles. To top it off, that business trip was a complete waste of time, and so I'm trying to blame that! Really, the lesson here is to listen to your body and take steps after a hard race to reduce swelling and stay limber.

Anyway, going forward to today, I've missed tons of training runs. I visited ZombieRunner.com and got a foam roller, a rolling-pin like massage device, and an IT band strap. I also have had an hour long massage therapy session. I think I'm on the mend, but mileage wise, I'm in trouble and the 50 miler on Dec. 6 is seriously in doubt. Here's how this week has gone:

Monday -- hour long massage that hurt so much that I could hardly sleep that night.
Tue. -- pathetic 2 miles. My IT band hurt from around mile 0.8.
Thur. -- 5.4 miles. Pain free, yay!
Sat. -- 5.4 miles, pain free again!
Sun. -- 6 miles. Felt a sudden twinge around mile 5.3 and then again at 5.9. I stopped immediately both times.

So, my plan is to use that foam roller and really loosen up my left vastus lateralis . And my gluts. Just sitting down for long periods makes my butt muscles burn. Sigh. Let's see how this next week goes. I'm thinking that if I can't do a comfortable 25 miles or so in the next two weeks, I'm going to have to pass on the race.

Pumpkin Run 10K -- 37:09

2008-10-21T23:57:00.000-07:00

It was a cool overcast day -- perfect for running. This is the 4th time I've run this 10K (6.21 miles), I think. I had set a personal record two years ago of 36:46 (5:55 a mile average pace) and I had hoped to do better, but realistically, given that I've done almost no speedwork this year, that just wasn't going to happen.

But first, the kid's run! Claire was a trooper and ran the whole way down two long city blocks and back. I'm proud of her!
Then the 10K started and it had some good runners. Two guys I had met at our weekly club meet just the day before, Thomas and Jose, showed up this morning due to me having invited them. They're fast! They run for the College of San Mateo cross-country team. Jose said he ran a 4 mile race just last Friday in 20+ minutes. Wow. So, he and Thomas burned up the course, placing first (33+ minutes) and second. Then the guy who barely beat me in the half marathon finished. And then another young kid. And finally, me. 5th place. 37:09. Given my training, I'm not disappointed, but I can't help thinking, am I "over the hill"? Have I run the fastest 10K I'll ever run? I hope not! Next year...

Jennifer and her sister Lisa ran the 5K which started shortly after the 10K. They did well and ran the whole thing. Lisa might have caught the running bug -- she wants to do another 5K!

It was fun seeing so many friends from the Coastside Running Club. We had many volunteers, including Ken who led the field on the bicycle, and many others who handed out water at one of the two aid stations.

Thanks, everyone! And a big thanks to Michelle for watching Claire while Jennifer and I ran.

Random race notes:

I weighed on the high side -- 167.4 lbs. It's possible that a bunch of this was water weight. I was mildly sick with stomach problems (ok, diarrhea) this whole week including the race day. Fortunately, I didn't have any problems during the race.

I ate a banana and some bread about 2 hours before the race.

I wore my lightweight 10K running shoes. My left calf started getting sore during the race. I think it's OK, but I ran 8 miles the next evening and was sore all over the place. That might've been a mistake.

Time to concentrate on building up for the 50 miler on Dec. 6.

UK Trip

2008-10-14T10:05:00.000-07:00

I had an enjoyable and productive 8 days in London and Liverpool this week. The presentations and demos went well and lots of people are strongly interested in our software. I missed my family, though, so I don’t want to do this kind of week-long work-related travel too much. Twice a year seems OK, I think. The weather was very good this week and I never needed an umbrella, as the couple of brief rain showers that occurred were during meetings that I had.

This blog post isn’t going to be a travel guide. For that, I highly recommend Lonely Planet’s London Encounter which was very useful and well-organized. The book is small enough to fit in a jacket pocket and the removable fold-out map was great for carrying around on my runs. Anyway, I’ll share a few impressions that might be outside the typical travel guide.

Hotels – not surprisingly, they vary a great deal in cost, services and quality. What did surprise me was that even the most expensive hotel, at about 220 GBP (~$400) per night charged a whopping 15 GBP ($30) for 24 hours of internet access! I mean, come on, that seems like extortion. Well, Uncle Sony paid for that at least.

Westminster Abbey – I was expecting this beautiful old church to be mostly well, a church, but its function was just as much a mausoleum and national monument storehouse. It was packed-full of monuments, coffins, and honors to various important Brits from King Henry III to Princess Diana. Many poets and writers are buried under the floors or honored with granite stones, or in the case of Shakespeare, a magnificent statue. What surprised and disturbed me a little bit was that thousands of people every day were walking on the stone inscriptions, gradually wearing them away. Many of the grave markers were entirely worn away, leaving just smooth black marble. On others, say from World War II, I could see the progress of wear showing how the stone was carved to different depths using some kind of narrow round chisel, with the deepest parts still visible and the shallow parts having been worn away by the foot traffic. I tried not to walk on the tiles that had writing on them. There was a door that had a sign saying it was the oldest door in Britain, dating to 1050! The Abbey was magnificent, inside and out. I only wished they allowed visitors to take photographs.

“Mind the gap” – The Underground is the subway system that can get you just about anywhere in London and there’s this phrase that is broadcast at every station, “Mind the gap”, that is practically a trademark phrase. It simply means to be careful about stepping over the space between the platform and the train car as you enter or exit. But it’s just so British that it’s cute.

“Look Left” – At nearly every intersection in central London there were messages on the asphalt indicating to the pedestrians which way to look before crossing. Since the cars drive on the left side of the road and since many visitors have presumably looked the wrong way and got flattened by a double-decker bus or speeding taxi, these notices are life savers. I gradually got used to being better aware of which way the cars were coming.

Running-wise, it was a mixed visit, and every single run was mostly at night, sadly.

Sunday -- It started off great, with a good strong 25.6 mile run immediately after I got to my hotel from the flight from San Francisco. I described this in my previous post.

Monday – rest day, as is normal.

Tuesday -- went well, except it was an evening run, which meant that the remaining runs for the week were likely to be in the evening, too. 8+ miles.

Wednesday -- To help build personal relationships with clients and spend some time with my coworkers, I skipped my run. Argh! I hate doing that.

Thursday -- I got in a good 14 miles in Liverpool on Thursday night in 2 hours, skipping dinner with coworkers and clients.

Friday -- I really blew it. I was so exhausted from traveling and not getting good nights’ sleep and visiting the British National Museum that I decided to sleep instead. Mistake! For one thing, I woke up at 2:30am and couldn’t fall asleep again for an hour. And then I was really off my running schedule.

Saturday – spent about 8 hours walking or standing. Visited Westminster Abbey, rode The Eye (135m tall Ferris wheel), and visited the National War Museum. My feet and knees were sore! But I had to get in a run. My plan was to run 4 hours (max 20 miles) Saturday night and 3 hours Sunday morning. Yeah, right! I did 20.4 miles, but I was sore and it started getting difficult and my left knee was bothering me. I adjusted my patella strap a few times (a strap that goes around the leg just underneath the knee cap) and took two short walking breaks in addition to my check-the-map breaks, find-a-place-to-pee breaks, and buy-some-water-because-there-are-no-public-drinking-fountains breaks. 3 hours 45 minutes later, I finished.

Sunday – As I’m typing this in the London Heathrow Airport, I actually feel fine and I did feel pretty good when I woke up. I’m mad at myself for not trying to run! Oh well, at least I got a really good night’s sleep. I don’t recall waking up at all from 1am to 8:30am and then I fell back to sleep until 9:30am. Yay, 8+ hours! This night and last Sunday night were my best night’s sleep. Maybe I should run 20 miles every night! Ha ha.

From Monday to Sunday, that’s a paltry 42 miles. However, in the 7 days from Sunday to Saturday, the total is 66 miles, so that’s not so terrible. I have to get back on track though and get in a couple of 70+ mile weeks for the North Face Endurance Challenge 50 mile race on Dec. 6.

Unintentional Long Run in London

2008-10-06T14:43:00.000-07:00

I had an unusual and good long run last night in London. I'm here the whole week on a business trip plus a couple of days at the end for myself, as a tourist. So, dear Diary, I thought I should share....

My plan was to run 18 miles. I asked the concierge at my hotel if he had any ideas of where to run and he pointed to Hyde Park on a map. But he added, with a warning, it is a little ways to get there, about 1.8 miles. I told him that was fine and thanked him. Starting at about 6pm on a Sunday evening, the streets were packed with shoppers and tourists and cars. It was slow going and I was only able to run in short little bursts. Finally, I got to Hyde Park. It was only 1.2 miles.

Hyde Park has miles and miles of trails criss-crossing it and it's a very lovely place. I ran around it and across it a couple of times when I started feeling unmotivated and tired and bored. Hyde Park has a lot of trails, but the park itself doesn't feel very large after 45 minutes of running back and forth. I had gotten almost no sleep during the entire 10 hour overnight flight. I had gone straight from the airport to the hotel, immediately got dressed and was out the door for the run, so I was feeling tired to start with. I was thinking as I got to around mile 6 that I would be lucky to make this a 12 mile run. It was just going so slowly.

I thought I might do another lap around the park and then see how I felt. I put on my head lamp as twilight was coming on and the sun had set. I was wearing my hydration pack and long-sleeve Boston Marathon shirt. (Sorry, Coastside Running Club, it was a bit chilly to be wearing the short-sleave club shirts!) There was a really nice public restroom that was well-lit and had video cameras at the entrance; I only had to find a tree once all night.

Finally, I decided to go exploring. There are many helpful maps stationed around Hyde Park and I picked an adjacent park. I think I saw St. James's Palace that had a Queen's Guard (with the big furry hats). Moving on... I saw another street map showing that I was close to Big Ben and Westminster Abbey. Cool! I head off in that direction, take some photos. Things are looking good mileage-wise -- I'm up to 10. So, I decide to run down the Thames River for 2 miles, turn around and head back, and it should total to about 18 by the time I got to my hotel.

The Thames River was lovely at night with plenty of pedestrians, lovers, bicyclists, and even a few police. It felt safe even as I got into an industrial area. I was drinking pleny of water, taking a salt capsule every 45 minutes or so, and eating an energy gel every 45 minutes, too. I was feeling good and not running too fast. I stopped to use a restroom at a gas station and he replied, misunderstanding me, "restaurant?" I corrected myself, "Do you have a toilet I could use?" 'Lavatory' also would have worked, but they don't call them 'restrooms'. Business taken care of, and I was off again. I finally turned around at some small park.

At mile 16, I suddenly felt a blister and it hurt. I don't often get painful blisters, but for some reason my left little toe got pushed against the next toe and had already lost a layer of skin. It was red, raw, and angry. It took 3 stops to get it taken care of, but I was lucky that I could transfer a bandaid from one of my big toes. (I sometimes put bandaids on my big black toenails, getting tired of explaining them to guests at our house.) The pain went away and I was comfortable again by mile 18.

Feeling good, I get to a corner of Hyde Park that I thought I recognized and I only had 1.2 miles left to go. So, it should be 19.2 for the night which was longer than planned, but fine. Around mile 20, thinking I was very close to home, I stopped at a convenience store and bought some food for dinner -- a box of healthy cereal, soy milk, and two bananas. Everything just fit into my running backpack. Yay. I continue on.

I start thinking that I don't quite recognize where I'm at. I keep looking for a street sign to verify that I am really on Oxford St., but dang it, I could not find any. They just don't do street signs here like they do in California. I stop and ask someone. He looks at my map that I was carrying and points to a spot in the air about six inches off of the side of the map in the wrong direction of where I wanted to be. Doh! He asked where I was going... I said "Great Marlborough St. eventually, but if you could get me to Oxford St., that would be great." Oh, man, how did I do this? I had somehow wrapped around Hyde Park instead of going straight. The guy thought it might just be 3 miles away. I thanked him and continued.

I still felt fine and was drinking plenty of water and not running too fast. I would have liked another Gu, but I had eaten all 5 that I had brought. Another 15 or 20 minutes later, I still don't see Hyde Park and I had taken a "short cut" to get there. Fortunately, I hadn't gotten off track yet and another helpful pedestrian pointed me in the right direction.

I came across an Underground Station (subway) and probably would have used it except I couldn't see a way to pay the fare of 4 GBP ($8) except by coin or credit card and I only had cash. It turns out that the machine takes the paper bills but with an unusually wide slot that wasn't labeled; I thought it was for a pass card of some kind. I saw that my destination was only 3 stops away, so I continued. I ran out of water but the night was cool and I felt fine. Finally... I made it to my hotel, feeling good and tired, but not particularly sore. 25.6 miles in about 4 hours 18 minutes of running. That doesn't count the bathroom stops and the grocery store stop.

Today, I felt great and did plenty of walking. It's a confidence booster that I was able to cover that distance pretty easily. Let's hope the rest of the week goes well and I don't get lost any more!

Pillar Point Half Marathon - 1:24 PR

2008-09-28T22:47:00.000-07:00

Has another year come and gone already? I really enjoy this local race and this was my 5th time participating. My main goal was to set a personal record and to run faster than an average pace of 6 minutes 30 seconds a mile for the 13.1 miles. And I did it!

Another guy showed up who was nearly exactly as fast as I was and we stuck with each other the whole race. I gradually sped up and so did he, with him running slightly in front of me for nearly the whole race. He definitely pulled me along and perhaps I pushed him, as well, since I was breathing down his neck for many miles.

Around mile 10 I was a few steps behind him when we both grabbed a cup of water. For some reason, drinking the water interrupted my breathing and running and I slowed down briefly, but then I felt especially tired. The guy in front of me pulled away to at least a hundred feet. I put in a couple of surges of effort in the last two miles and I nearly caught up to him, but he must have increased his speed as well.

As we finally approached the finising area, I felt like I was "red-lining" my heart and I put in one last big push for the last quarter mile, but I just wasn't quite able to catch him. He sped up as I got closer and I finished about 20 feet behind him. My average pace, according to my Garmin watch, was 6 minutes 26 seconds a mile and I hit my highest heart rate I've ever seen -- 184 . I'm happy! I'm not sure of my official time yet, but my watch showed 1 hour 24 minutes 26 seconds.

Thanks to everyone who showed up and I really appreciated the shouts of encouragement during the race.

My 6 year old daughter, Claire, successfully ran the entire 3K course! It was wonderful seeing her at the finish line. Thank you, Jennifer for being there for us and for watching Claire for so long.
Thank you, George Miller, for sharing all of these photos, for supporting the Coastside Running Club, and for holding my keys! Thank you, Ken and Dave B. for coming out and saying "hi" even though you weren't running. Congratulations to my friends, Julie and Dave, Jenna-from-Pacifica, Lynn, and new club member, Margaret. And it was great seeing Franz and his family, who ran the 3K.

Headlands 50 Miles -- a difficult 9 hours 47 minutes

2008-08-10T11:34:00.001-07:00

Yesterday, somewhere around mile 30, I found myself thinking, "What am I doing out here?! I have bad cramps and 20 miles left to go." It's true, I was seeking more of a challenge and had trained for and entered my first 50 mile race, the Headlands 50 Mile whose course runs a tortuous route up and down hills in the beautiful Golden Gate National Recreational Area in the Marin Headlands, just north of San Francisco. But I'm still fighting the demons of dehydration and electrolyte deficiency.

The good news? I did successfully complete my first 50 mile race, mostly running and oftentimes walking for 9 hours 47 minutes, coming in 17th place out of about 120 runners. There were an additional 60 runners or so entered in the 100 mile race, which was held simultaneously.

Back to the beginning of the long day...

The weather was cool and foggy in the morning, with the sun coming out in the afternoon with a predicted high of 72. I had carpooled with my friend, running club member, and prolific ultrarunner, Eric and his very supportive family. At the race site, I met two more running club members, Franz and Mike. So, that's 4 of us from the Coastside Running Club in a 50 mile race!

We got to the starting area around 6:15, giving us plenty of time to get our bibs, put on sunscreen, use the bathrooms, and otherwise get ready for the big day. After some instructions about how to follow the course, the race director started the race at 7am. And we were off! How was the day going to go? 50 miles! Yikes! I tried to start out nice and slow. It was going to be a long day and I wanted to last!

The nice thing about ultramarathons is that you have to run slow and typically walk the uphills and so there are plenty of opportunities for socializing, especially early on when people are bunched together. I chatted with my running buddy Eric for a while until his heart rate monitor told him he was going out too hard.

Then I slowly caught up to a gregarious woman named Meredith from Austin, TX, who said "hi" and we talked for a few miles, mostly about how our spouses don't like to run with us. She said her husband runs a marathon in 2 hour 35 minutes!

My friend Eric passes me, flying down a hill around mile 8. "Crazy!", I thought.

The first aid station came quickly and easily at mile 8.6. My watch read 1 hour 20 minutes. I can't reliably report on any other times past this point since I only realized afterwards that my friend Eric's watch that I was borrowing (I had sent mine to be repaired) was set to pause when not in motion. This meant that at every aid station, or when I took a pee break, or walked too slow, or stopped for any reason, the timer stopped. At the end of the race it reported 9 hours 25 minutes whereas my actual time, as I learned this morning from the results, was 9 hours 47 minutes. Did I really spend 22 minutes not moving?

After the first aid station, I finished off my Gatorade Endurance that I had brought with me and began using the sports drink provided by Pacific Coast Trail Runs. It tasted like lightly flavored water. I wondered if it was not mixed to the recommended concentration. Hmmm......

Somewhere from mile 10 to 14 or so, I chatted with an older guy, Mike Nuttal, who ran the challenging Big Sur Marathon in 3 hours 5 minutes at age 57!

After about mile 16, I felt like I could pick up the pace a bit. Part of me wanted to catch up to my friend Eric, which I finally did and I was feeling great so I kept on going, passing maybe 5 or 6 more people.
Finally, I slowly caught up to the first place female at the time, Beth Vitalis from Livermore. She was also passing slower runners and we started passing people together. She was breathing hard and really pushing herself. A little voice in my head said, "maybe I shouldn't pass her just yet; I'm probably running too fast right now." We chatted for a while, learning that we were both friends with the amazing runner, Prudence L'Heureux. We broke through the fog together and were both very impressed with the beautiful coastal views of Muir Beach. She offered me a Clif Bar that she said she wouldn't need, which was very generous of her, but I declined, not wanting to take a chance with unfamiliar foods. Eventually, she recognized one of the few bystanders along the course and stopped and gave him a hug and I passed her.

Coming in to the Bolinas Ridge Aid Station at mile 28, it was great being cheered on by Eric's family again. I may have been in 5th place overall. I was feeling good, but had some warning signs. I had a very brief feeling of a cramp in one of my calves. Leaving the aid station, returning back on the trail, I almost immediately felt much worse. I had to step over a log and one of my hamstrings locked up agonizingly. "Nooooo" I thought. "This can't be happening! I have 22 miles to go!" I slowed down a lot and completely walked all uphills, even slight ones. I took another salt capsule and ate some more food and drank some more water. A couple of runners passed me. Beth passes me and wishes me luck.

It took me maybe 4 miles to get the severe cramps "under control". I had stopped several times. Once, to pull a pebble out of my shoe, the cramps set on immediately. It was like if I did any unusual movement or even if I simply stopped running or walking, the cramps would hit. Weird! I shuffled along, much more slowly than before.

The miles ticked slowly by. At the next aid station, I met Eric's family again and I told his wife, Denise, that I was having lots of cramps. I badly wanted to lay down. I was feeling hot and my breathing was heavy even when I stopped. I kept on going. I would hate myself if I quit!

The miles went by agonizingly slow. I kept on glancing down at my watch to see how far I had come and sometimes I was terribly disappointed to have gone only a tenth of a mile since the last time I had looked down. I was constantly on the edge of cramps in my legs. My side started to hurt. I tried to force myself to drink and eat salty food. I worried about the fact that I hadn't peed since about mile 16.

I had become noticeably more clumsy. At least twice, I saw a rock poking out from the ground and I intended to step over it, but instead I directly kicked it, stumbling over it instead. Another time, I intended to rotate my body around a branch sticking into the trail, but instead I solidly connected with it, which caused my whole right side and shoulder to go into a spasm of painful cramps. Finally, while turning a corner, I somehow managed to firmly step on my left big toe with my right heel. Ouch! I thought I might laugh about that later, but it hurt my toe and it was a dangerous maneuver since if I fell, I could've toppled down the hillside. Although I had several close calls, I managed not to fall to the ground. I saw a couple of other runners who had tumbled, one of whom had a big bloody bandage on his elbow.

Finally, finally, after walking up one last huge incline in between the last aid station and the finish line just 4 miles away, I started slowly trudging downhill and the finish area was in sight. I was having a major sense of deja vu, too. I felt like I was reliving both my recent Mt. Diablo ordeal plus I had recently, last May 3, paced my friend Prudence for the last 20 miles of the Miwok 100K, which covers many of the same trails. Even though I ran only 20 miles that day, again, I suffered from bad cramps over the last two miles and I couldn't even finish the race with her.

It was wonderful seeing Eric and his family at the finish line. They cheered. I was so relieved and somewhat emotional. We waited a short while for Franz to finish. Eric had just a fantastic race, finishing in 9 hours 16 minutes. Franz had great execution and was strong at the end, finishing with a sprint. Here we are in our Coastside Running Club dry-weave t-shirts.
What went right:

I finished my first 50 miler.
I don't think I'm injured.
No chafing and only one small blister that I didn't feel during the race. Yay, Body Glide!
My shoes, water bottle, hat, shorts, etc., all did well. No equipment problems.
I didn't get lost. At least a couple of others did, though, including one of the top runners.
No digestive problems. Yay. I tried not to eat very much fiber the day before and I got up early enough (4:15am) to get everything "cleared out" before the race.

What went wrong:

Yet again, I've done a long run and got dehydrated and didn't take in enough salt. I suspect the sports drink provided during the race was not at the recommended concentration.
Given that I wasn't taking in enough salt, I was running too fast in the first half. I think this might be two sides of the same coin, but I'm not sure.
I only peed twice in the race, both times prior to mile 16. I didn't need to pee after the race either. Finally when I got home, nearly 12 hours after the race began, I had to pee and my urine was a dark yellow. I weighed myself afterwards -- 160.4 lbs, down 5.0 lbs since before I ate breakfast early that morning. So, weight-wise the day went: 165.4 + breakfast + coffee + sports drink - 50 miles + lots of race-provided "sports drink" + 16 oz chicken noodle soup + 12 oz diet Coke + 8 oz soy milk + ~12oz of my own sports drink = 160.4 lbs.
I had borrowed my friend Eric's Garmin GPS watch, but hadn't double-checked all the settings. However, it was still very useful to have during the race. (Thanks, Eric!)
I had attached a piece of tape to my water bottle and wrote on it with a permanent marker the distances between aid stations and my goal times for each one, but it rubbed off immediately at the beginning of the race. Someone showed me the idea of using a laminated card instead. Or if I had put another layer of clear tape on top of the writing, I think that would've done the trick.
I should get a pair of "gaitors" that are not socks. These are sleeves that go on the ankle and then wrap down over the shoe so as to not allow trail debris to get in. Twice I stopped to pull out a twig or pebble. I didn't want to wear the gaitors that I had because they contributed to me losing a toenail on one of my middle toes about 3 months ago.

My feet, post-race. Sheesh, these black toenails take forever to grow out. One was from Boston and I think the other one was even earlier. My left middle toenail I lost in May due to pacing my friend at Miwok 100K. So, basically, my feet look as bad afterwards as before. :-) I got one blister on the right side of my right middle toe which I never felt and didn't know was there until I took my shoes off.
Thoughts on the future...
I'm just not getting a handle on these really long runs. I can't seem to take in enough fluids or salts or something. Am I also running too fast early on? It's been getting frustrating. Also, while training for this race, I did two 30+ mile runs, a bunch of 20 mile runs, and a top week of 78 miles. This takes a lot of time. It took me 5 hours 45 minutes to run 30 miles in 90 degree weather in Walnut Creek. It took me 5 hours 25 minutes to run 30.8 miles in the cooler coastal climate, going from Montara to Daly City, and back. Including recovery time, that's about an 8 hour process. That's time not spent with family. So, in addition to the execution problems of the race itself, I'm struggling with time and motivation issues. Things to think about.

Thanks
As usual, all this running wouldn't be possible without the support of my wonderful wife. Thanks, Jennifer!
A big thanks to Eric and his wonderful family for giving me a ride to and from the race and cheering me on at various aid stations along the way.

Mt. Diablo 50K -- Run, Walk, Crawl

2008-06-09T22:30:00.001-07:00

About a week and a half ago, I decided to go for this 50K race as a training run. (I was prodded by my friend Prudence who then bailed on me. Doh!) This event is put on by the Pacific Coast Trail Runs company and they do an excellent job organizing races around the Bay Area and they're expanding to other areas of California, too. I'm building up for my first 50 miler sometime this year, I hope. I've been real careful about increasing my mileage and I'm doing almost no speedwork, because I've been concerned about my left knee which gets tight and sore and uncomfortable at times since last November or so.

The weather was predicted to be warm -- 86 degrees F. The elevation gain is severe -- 4450' on each of the two 15.7 mile round-trips to the summit. The total mileage was around 31.4.

The race started at 8:30am and things felt easy at first. All 175 or so runners of the 25K and 50K races were soon on a single track trail. I think I was about in the top third of the pack. The trail was so steep and narrow that I was forced to walk behind those in front of me. In hindsight, I'm grateful that I was forced to walk because otherwise I would have run the first half even faster and been in worse trouble later. The trail was so steep for these first 3 or 4 miles that running was practically impossible and would have been very inefficient anyway. Finally when we hit a fire road I started passing some people and running more. It took me one hour to run the first 5 miles. At the time I thought, "how slow!", but if I only knew....

I breezed through the first aid station, having gotten some food (PB&J sandwich, Cliff shots) and my two 20oz bottles re-filled with sports drink. I drank all 40 oz in that first hour. I was running faster on the flatter portions and even many of the uphills. The views were spectacular and I wish I could have carried my camera to the summit. We had to climb all the way to the top of the observation tower where there was a sign with a message, proving that we had reached the summit. ("I made it!" it said.)

Now the real mistakes began. There was this very powerful looking guy running around my pace. He looked like a younger Dean Karnazes and was very friendly, greeting everyone and thanking them for stepping aside as he charged down the hill. I stuck with him. We clocked many 7 minute miles going down hills that required constant braking. We had one 6:49 mile. My right toe was jamming up against the front of my shoe, making me consider the possibility of losing yet another toenail. (I think I've lost 4 in my running career so far.) Towards the bottom of the trail as we are nearing the start/finish line and with the first loop nearly complete, I take a bathroom break and slow down a bit, and DK, Jr. disappears. As I get to the aid station at what is now my half-way point, I pass one of the 25K runners who is struggling. 2 hours 40 minutes have gone by. Time to refuel and head out. Sweat and salt start streaming into my eyes causing me to put my face under a faucet. More time wasted. I head out at 2:44 on the clock.

Disaster strikes within about 25 minutes. Tinges of cramps around my hamstrings start to lock up my legs. I'm feeling very hot and my breathing is fast and heavy. I slow down my uphill walking. I start stopping in the shade at regular intervals. I look at my GPS watch -- I've only done a little more than 18 miles. I have over 13 miles to go and I'm getting bad cramps. This sucks. I decide to continue on to the next aid station which is about two miles away. It takes me almost an hour. At one point, I feel the overwhelming urge to sit down because the cramps, now in my quads, are so bad. I plop down in the dirt, not even able to get completely in the shade. My right leg is frozen with my quads clenched painfully tight. This isn't fun; I plan on calling it quits when I reach the aid station. The spasms pass and I clamber up on to my feet and start walking again.

My watch beeps at the mile markers, giving me my time since the last mile. 22 minutes for one of these miles. 28 minutes for another. Other runners are trickling by me. This sucks so bad. By the time I got to the aid station around mile 20 or 21 and I got some food and the cool wind was blowing over the top of the mountain, I felt much better and thoughts of dropping out disappear. I think I can do this and I and jogged / walked onward to the summit.

Deja vu. Except now it's warmer, there are swarms of thousands of pincher bugs who must have hatched (?) in the last couple of hours and their squished bodies are everywhere. Some apparently are falling on me from trees. Or do they fly and then lose their wings? Don't know! I reach the summit. Finally I'm able to jog slowly on the downhills. I guess my uphill muscles are fried, but I can move somewhat downhill at least. I still have to stop and walk regularly and I still freeze up completely a few times, but I manage to clock a 13 minute mile here and maybe a 11 minute mile there. That makes me 4 to 6 minutes slower per mile on this second loop. Argh.

Finally, finally, finally I get closer and closer and closer and the feeling that the finish line is getting farther away as I'm slowing down gives way to the feeling that I'm really going to finish. The finish line comes into view. There are a smattering of claps and cheers. Various random muscles start freezing up again, giving me a good painful-looking stagger as I hobble across the finish line.

The results are in. I finished 19th of 62, taking a whopping 6 hours 55 minutes. My worst race ever, by far. Or, a really good training run! A bit of both?

It was fun chatting with these elite runners afterwards -- very friendly folks.
Here are Jean Pommier, left, and Jasper Halekas. I saw Jean recently at the Miwok 100K and he's training for the Western States 100. He ran the first half of today's race in 2 hours 13 minutes, almost setting a course record for the 25km loop. Whoops! He had to slow down significantly on the 2nd half, finishing in 5:11:21. (Nothing compared to my disastrous positive split of 2:40 versus about 4:11.) Jasper did incredibly well, winning the race in 4:48:48, with an average pace better than that of the winner of the 25K!

I got to chat with the talented and prolific runner and blogger, Scott Dunlap. He's a really nice guy and he's training for the Western States 100. This week ended the highest mileage week ever for him -- 140 miles! Way to go, Scott!

Other random notes:

I ate a lot of whole wheat pasta and drank plenty of water the night before. On the morning of the race I weighed 169.2 lbs. Wow, that's high, but maybe OK since it must be mostly water gain from my more normal 165-166. The morning after the race, I weighed 162.0. Hmm...
I ate a bowl of steel-cut oatmeal with a banana, 2 hours 45 minutes before the 8:30am race start.
My left knee felt great during the race. Yay! I seem to be injury free. I didn't have any pain or signs of injury.
No blisters. There may have been the beginnings of blisters but there's nothing now. Thank goodness for Body Glide.
My right big toenail feels a little funny. We'll see if I can hang on to it after these repeated abuses.
I used two packets of this Vespa supplement that is supposed to allow a person to metabolize fat better. I didn't feel like I was suffering from fatigue so much as battling cramps, heat, and high heart rate. So, maybe it's working? Maybe it's a placebo effect? I mean, I certainly didn't have a miracle run, so the effects must be somewhat subtle if any. The only way I can think to really prove that it works is to have a large double-blind study. Let's put it this way, I'm confident that Vespa is not a substitute for proper training! My 40-55 miles just didn't cut it given the way I ran that first half. I really should have run that first big downhill at more reasonable slower pace.

My feet actually came out pretty well, looking about as bad afterwards as they did before! Did I mention I got a little dirty out there? :-)

Boston Marathon -- 3:09:44

2008-04-26T07:56:00.000-07:00

The weather was essentially perfect for the 2008 Boston Marathon, my 2nd Boston Marathon and my 7th marathon (or longer) race.

I've been having a knee tightness problem on and off since sometime late last year. It bothered me a lot last December in Hawaii, after the California International Marathon. So, I had missed about 1/3rd of my training runs at least. I had one week of 54 miles and I think 4 training runs this year of 18 miles or longer. That's just not enough to maintain my fitness.

3 hours 9 minutes 44 seconds was my finishing time. Yeah, I'm disappointed with that. In the grand scheme of things, I know that's still a relatively fast time and that I am qualified for next year's Boston.

I really should have stuck to a 3:05 goal at the beginning but instead I was on a 3 hour pace. Given how many training runs I've missed, that was a mistake. I started fading around mile 20 and got a bad cramp in my left hamstring and right hip that I never quite recovered from, so I felt like I was shuffling along for those last 6 miles. It was difficult and dozens and dozens of runners passed me.

On the positive side, my knee didn't bother me. I felt it from about mile 2 to 9, but then that feeling of tightness and soreness went away and never came back. It was never uncomfortable even when I did feel it.

My Garmin GPS watch gave me some trouble during the race. I didn't realize how close it was to being full of data. (There's no indicator.) Around mile 2 it started warning me that it was going to get filled and then the display was nearly completely filled up with a warning for the rest of the race, making it unusable. It also started beeping at me every 10 or 15 seconds which was extremely annoying. I also forgot to turn off the auto lap timer, so that was user error.

I loved watching the women's Olympic Trials on Sunday.

It was wonderful having my parents there. It felt like it took me a day to recover from my overnight flight on Friday night and then I didn't feel like doing anything after race. Thank you, Mom and Dad, for being there, and to Jennifer for watching Claire.

For breakfast, I had a bread roll, banana, and Cliff Bar. I weighed 167.2 lbs on the Friday morning.

Inland Empire Half Marathon -- 1:26:53

2008-02-10T18:03:00.000-08:00

I ran this half-marathon this morning in Ontario, CA. The course was laid out in the industrial urban environment. There were some nice views of Mt. Baldy and the nearby snow-capped mountains, but mostly, the scenery wasn't very inspiring and there were almost no spectators. The course was on a closed road with lots of police helping to keep traffic off and there were lots of volunteers and overall the race was well-organized.

How did I do? I didn't feel real strong and felt like I struggled the second half. At least I was slowly catching people and passing them, rather than the reverse, so I guess that was a good sign that I didn't run the first half too fast. My time was 1:26:53 (6:38 per mile pace). That's almost two minutes slower than a half-marathon I ran last September. What happened? I've missed a lot of training runs since the marathon last December and there was a noticeable elevation drop and gain with this race, so those are my excuses! I'll hope to do better in the fall again. The results are in: I came in 13th out of 536 runners, 5 out of 44 in my age group. There were a couple of really fast world-class athletes who competed for the $500 prize money.