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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.