June 28th - Midweek update

My overall goal for the next month is to gradually build up from a mileage in mid-30s to the high 40s by the end of July. Here's my weekly mileage over the last month:

Weekly Distance Totals (miles) May 28, 2007, to Jul 1, 2007 Printer-friendly graph Sport: Running Workout: all Route: all
Week of	12.55 |	18.55 |	24.55 |	30.55 |	36.55 |	42.55 |
May 28, 2007	12.55
Jun 4, 2007	35.40
Jun 11, 2007	35.60
Jun 18, 2007	36.48
Jun 25, 2007	22.10

I'm planning on adding between 5-10 miles this week. This time of the year is especially challenging because I'm staring down the double barrel of rising heat and rising mileage. This is the first week that we've started seeing temps in the 90s, which makes it tough to get motivated to run in the mornings. Here's a brief rundown of what I have done this week:

Mon - 30 min. functional training, recovering well after Sunday's race
Tue - 7.8m @ 7:37, crazy hot, 93 degrees, but a nice breeze.
Wed - 30 min. pool run
30 min. functional training
Thu - 8m @ 8:40, found some nice trail running
- 6m, including 3.5m (21:09) of JP Morgan Corporate Challenge
Total: 22 miles

The highlights of the week were getting back in the pool and Corporate Challenge. I haven't run in the pool for about a month now, and I forgot how relaxing it was to just zone out. Recently, I've been experimenting with using my iPod near the pool and it makes the time pass much quicker.

The race was really low key. I entered on a whim and then two days before found I had another commitment and it couldn't run. I did a longish run Thursday morning and then found out later on in the day that the evening event had been canceled, so I was free to run! Having run in the morning really emphasized the point that I wasn't going to go all out. The heat from the past few days dissipated a bit, making race conditions more bearable. I ran into a couple friends in the staging area, and then did a 2 mile warm-up with a BAA teammate. Then, I squeezed myself into the front area of the crowd and tried to stay limber. There were a lot of short speeches by the suits, which was followed by the most ridiculous pre-race spectacle I have ever seen. A tall, attractive member of the Boston Sports Club Staff proceeded to lead us through a calisthenic warm-up. I'm not sure who she was reaching, because the front 500 people that could actually see her were packed like sardines, and the people further back had no chance of seeing her. Ridiculous!

The race finally began... turns out official times are self reported. Hello honor system! I started with a conservative pace. There were a lot of guys blowing by me, some who didn't seem to be able to hold the pace. As usual, I passed a lot of runners that should not have lined up this far ahead, but its hard to blame them for lining up this far ahead with a 12,000 strong field. I settled into a groove by around the 1st mile (missed the mile marker). I made the turn at Kenmore and still felt pretty good. The next mile felt like what runners in the 5th Avenue Mile; you can see the finish line, but its literally a mile away. I started to pick it up a bit making the turn on to Boylston St., and then really hit my stride on the Charles St. I could see the time clock running and knew I wasn't going to break 21, but I was going to try to get as close as possible. I picked off runners as best as I could and crossed the line just before it hit 21:10. I missed a couple mile markers, but my splits were 12:08 for 2 miles (6:04), and 9:01 for the last 1.5 miles (6:00). A good effort and a good workout.

Race Report - 2007 New Charles River Run

Ah.... the New Charles River Run. Traditionally (well two years isn't much of a tradition), I have used this race to kick off my summer racing season. Here's my log entry from last year:

Sunday,Jun 25, 2006 Temp: 65, rainy

New Charles River Run 7.5 miles - 47:27

splits - 6:02, 6:15, 6:22, 6:34, 6:22, 6:30, 6:24, 2:58

Felt a bit like dry heaving after mile 5.

I guess dry heaving was the only thing that stuck out about this race last year! This is the 2nd edition of this recently resurrected race and it has become quite a draw for a local race... last count I believe they maxed out at 1000 runners for the 7.5m race and 600 for the 5K race. Kudos to the race director for making sure everything ran smoothly.

The weather today was perfect summer picnic weather, in the 70s, but a bit on the warm side for racing. I didn't have a goal today other than besting my time from last year. Training has been consistent the last three weeks (35 mpw average), but I spent most of last week worn out from jet lag after coming back from Alaska. I got up around 7:15 and was out the door by 7:45. Not feeling very peppy this morning. By the time I hit Greenough Blvd about 1/4 mile from the Marsh Post, the line of cars was growing, so I pulled a quick U-turn and joined the line. The proximity to the start line ended up being a boon for the warm-up. I made a beeline for the port-a-johns and luckily lined up in front of Reach the Beach teammate Ramses. We took a relaxed warm up jog together and did a quick change of clothes before heading to the start line.

There was an unusually long delay at the start line as the race director waited for late runners rushing to the start line. I chatted briefly with some folks I train with at Boston Fit, and then made my way to the third row. I spotted Josh, being his usual charming self before the start of race. I always marvel at people that can be so relaxed before the start of race. Bill Rodgers made a cameo before joking that he couldn't keep up with the fast guys, then walked back to the middle of the pack.

The race itself went remarkably well. After blazing through the 1st mile in 5:55, I found a small pack of 5-6 runners and settled into a 6:15-6:18 pace. I also spotted a runner from last years race that I ran with and passed near the end, which gave me a good reference point. After passing mile 2, this dude came up on my left and proceeded to cut me off. This irksome behavior fired up my competitive juices and I ended up tailing him for the next 4 miles. Call it runners rage at being cut off. I managed to reel off very consistent splits, which was a new thing for me in shorter races. The hill at mile 5 was not as bad this year... and no dry heaving either. A curious thing happened after mile 5. One of the runners in the pack (a triathlon guy by the look of his outfit) pulled what looked liked a gel pack out and I'm thinking, "with 2.5 miles left, that gels not going to kick until after you finish." Then, in the process of downing his gel, he somehow missed the water stop and had to make a u-turn. Pity... he was looking pretty strong and to be done in by a tactical error like that was sad. Back to the race.... I started losing Mr. Agressive Runner. I was still maintaining a steady pace and just trying to hold on until the 7 mile mark and then muster a kick from there. I found I had something left in the tank and reeled off three runners before I hit the finish line. I'm not sure if I was hallucinating at the end, but I think the PA announcer was actually rooting for me at the end and really getting the crowd going. As I crossed the finish line, I looked up and saw my wife on the bridge snapping a picture.

So, I blew away my time from last year; almost a minute faster! This is really encouraging, since it was much warmer this year than last. Here are the (un)official results. The reason I say unofficial is because like last year, a handful of slackers signed up for the 7.5 mile race and then dropped down to the 5K on the day of the race. When they first posted the results, a woman had set a new world record, having run 7.5 miles in 25:10, an average of 3:21 miles! According to Josh, there was no one 18 seconds behind him either. So, my placing in the race was anywhere from 11-13th, which I'm very happy with. After the race, I lingered at the finish line trading stories with Josh and Ramses, who had an amazing race despite not running for a week. We were joined shortly thereafter by former marathon world record holder Belayneh Dinsamo. We did a fairly long cool-down run.

I want to send a special shout out to my fellow Boston Fit runners (Roger, Anuj, Mark, and Mike) and Reach the Beach teammates (Liz, Jacquie, Carolyn, Dave, Theresa, Kelli, Lindsey) for a race well run!

Here are the vital stats:

1	5:55	160/171
2	6:19	171/173
3	6:15	174/176
4	6:17	174/176
5	6:17	174/179
6	6:13	176/180
7	6:18	175/176
7.5	2:55	178/184
	46:29	172/184

Run to live or live to run?

A Reach the Beach teammate of mine forwarded me this article recently, and I thought I'd share it. The hypothesis is a revolutionary and comprehensive one, as it attempts to explain some of the physical attributes humans have developed that separate us from other apes (bipedal running, large buttocks, and relative hairlessness). Philosophically, it may go to explain why people have such a deep connection to running.

After reading the journal article (warning, its long), I noticed that the three tendons that allow us to run (plantar arch, achilles tendon, and the iliotibial band) are also the areas most often injured in runners. So, the next time you curse your achilles or ITB, just remember we probably wouldn't be humans without them!

In Depth

Exercise and fitness

Q&A

Born to run
Harvard anthropologist Daniel Lieberman on why humans run

Last Updated April 11, 2007

Peter Hadzipetros, CBC News

Every year, on the third Monday of April, 20,000 people line up to run the world's oldest marathon, in Boston, Mass. — a horrible place to run. The weather can range from rainy to snowy to unbearably warm — sometimes in the same day.

So why do people do it?

Harvard University anthropology professor Daniel Lieberman and his collaborator, University of Utah biology Prof. Dennis Bramble, argue that humans were born to run.

Their groundbreaking study, published in the journal Nature in November 2004, got the scientific community pondering the hypothesis that it's our ability to run, not walk, that sets humans apart as the world's dominant species.

Prof. Lieberman recently spoke with CBC News Online about what makes people really good runners — even though it long ago stopped serving an evolutionary purpose.

What is it that makes us born to run?

We have features in our bodies from our heads all the way to our toes that help us to become good runners — from short toes, a very stable spring-like arch in our foot, and lots of tendons in our legs that act like springs, storing and releasing energy when we run; low, wide shoulders coupled with our heads that allow us to twist our bodies and pump our arms. One of the neat things is that many of these features don't play any role in walking at all, so they're not just a byproduct of being good at walking. There's good evidence of natural selection for running.

You've focused on the role of the gluteus maximus — our big butts.

Everyone always mentions that! The gluteus maximus is actually quite fun because it is the largest muscle in the human body and actually plays very little role in walking at all. You use it when you bend over and have to raise yourself up from being in a flexed posture, from climbing stairs and things like that. But actual walking requires very little effort from that muscle and it turns out it plays two key roles in running. One of the things that makes running different from walking is you're leaning forwards in running, you're always falling. I actually often say that running is a controlled fall. Before your leg hits the ground, your gluteus maximus contracts very strongly and helps stabilize the trunk on your pelvis, on your hips — it keeps you from falling over. The other thing it does is help slow your swinging leg down so it hits the ground properly. What's neat from my perspective, because I not only study running but the evolution of running, is that we can see traces of the gm in the human skeleton. Its origin leaves a big huge scar at the top of the pelvis. It looks like the gluteus maximus got really big around two million years ago.

Others have argued that running played no major role in human evolution. Why do you disagree?

People haven't argued that it played no role. I think they just ignored it. Everybody's focused on walking. There are several reasons. Walking sets us apart from the apes. Walking is truly, deeply fundamental to being human, to being a hominid, and I don't disagree with that in the slightest. The other reason people have not really thought much about it is that we have generally thought of ourselves as really bad runners, and that's mostly because people tend to think about speed. The very fastest human beings in the world — the ones who win gold medals at the Olympics — can run about 10 metres a second, for about 10 seconds, and then they run out of gas. Your typical quadripedal mammal can go about 20 metres a second for about four minutes. I think people are still processing our idea but nobody's come out with one shred of evidence to the contrary and I think most people have had to admit that we are on to something because we are phenomenal runners, it's just we're different kinds of runners than people have been thinking about. We are long-distance runners and endurance runners and we have all kinds of features that enable us to do it and our performance capabilities are outstanding. We can outrun pretty much any mammal in the world, particularly when it's hot and dry.

Why are we still good runners if we haven't needed it for so long?

Actually, 20,000 years ain't so long at all. That's my first response. My second response is that's not how selection operates. Evolution will only get rid of something if it has a selective disadvantage. I would argue that many of us don't need our large brains, either. The fact of the matter is that modern medicine, modern life, technology, culture — all those things enable us to do just fine without natural selection operating. I do believe though that perhaps for millions of years, natural selection did weed out those people who were not good athletes. And so I would imagine the variation in athletic abilities is probably increasing — so that the slow ones, the unfit ones, the ones with poor cardiovascular capabilities — whatever the feature is, if there's a heritable aspect to it, there's much less cost to being unfit and poorly designed now then there used to be.

What were the advantages for early man to being able to run long distances?

Well, I think it has to do with hunting or possibly scavenging, or both. Imagine you're homo erectus two million years ago. You think you are technologically unbelievably sophisticated, because what you have available to you is a sharp stone and you can take that little sharp stone and make yourself a sharp stick. That's it. That's the technological prowess of homo erectus two million years ago. And you've got a hungry family and you want to bring home the bacon, so to speak, and how are you going to do it? You're not just going to walk up to a wildebeest and shove a spear into it because the wildebeest is going to kick you or gore you to death. If you do that a few times, the chances of you getting kicked in the stomach are very high. Big large African mammals are dangerous — even incredibly stupid ones like wildebeest. But what can you do? You can simply chase after it, with a club or a sharpened stick or something like that — and within two to three hours, in the heat, you can — because quadrupeds who can't sweat to cool off overheat quickly when they're galloping. All you have to do as a runner or hunter is to keep that wildebeest or kudu above a trot for long enough and the animal will be unable to kick you or gore you with its horns. It will be easy to dispatch.

What did we as an evolving species give up to gain this ability to run?

Climbing. I think that the big compromise was climbing. It is very hard to have some of the features that are very useful in running and also have other features that are useful in climbing. For example, having low, wide, decoupled shoulders — difficult when you're a runner because you have to twist your body from your head to your pelvis. Climbing animals don't often have tendons. Tendons save a little bit of weight but they mostly act as springs. They're not very useful in walking. Having long toes are a real problem if you're running. I'm not sure if they're a problem walking, but they're really useful if you're climbing trees. I see no reason why you can't be a walker and climb trees. Being a runner and an arboreal creature is really hard.

What role does the skull play in running?

I happen to be a skull guy, so I tend to focus on the skull. It's not so important, but there are lots of interesting little clues in the skull that tell us about running, the most important, I think, being the semicircular canal system, the organs of balance. Humans have much more sensitive semicircular canals than do australopithecines or apes. They act as great gyros; they sense angular acceleration in the head. When you walk, your head doesn't move around very much, but when you run, your head really bounces and jiggles around enormously because you're basically like a pogo stick. There are huge forces of acceleration acting on the head so those more sensitive semicircular canals that we find in the genus homo are surely related to running; they're not related to walking.

Did you get into this line of research because you like to run?

I think that is related to it. I started getting interested in the problem when I was a grad student working towards my PhD and Dennis Bramble, the fellow with whom I am collaborating, was the person who first put the idea in my head. We started fooling around and playing and looking at fossils in the late '80s. He works on general mammalian locomotion and I work on the evolution of humans and so it was a nice mix. As soon as I started thinking about it, it became a no-brainer. I thought about it and Dennis thought about it from every possible angle, and I just don't see how we could possibly be wrong — and that's a dangerous thing to say in biology and evolution — but I think it's one of those ideas that just strangely got missed. There's just so much evidence and it's so obvious to anybody who starts looking at humans and the ability to run long distances — it's just one of those interesting biases that crept into our culture and into our scientific thinking.

That must feel pretty good — that your hypothesis had such an immediate impact.

It's really odd. Really, I'm interested in epistemology — I'm interested in figuring how you figure things out. I'm not really known in human evolution as a storyteller. I'm more interested in understanding underlying biology that enables us to make inferences about evolution. And so, this has cast me in a sort of uncomfortable role, which is performing a hypothesis about why we are the way we are. But I have to say, it's quite fun. I just came back from some physical anthropology meetings and there were lots of talks where people are thinking about running and they're thinking about running in the spinal column and in this and that and the other. Somebody presented really neat data that humans are actually much less costly runners than previous studies have shown. There are many things we don't know — when modern human capabilities evolved — and that will be fun to flesh out. It could turn out, for example, that homo erectus was a good runner but not as accomplished as humans — it was sort of selection had started but hadn't finished the job. There's not enough evidence yet.

Recovering well! Week of April 16-22

My previous marathon attempts have usually been followed by the post-marathon strut. All you marathoners know what I'm talking about; the following day you find sore muscles that you didn't even know you had. Somehow, I've managed to escape that fate this go around. I am a bit surprised given all the downhills on Boston .... but I'm not complaining.

Here's my week in review (Apr. 17-22)

Tue	20 min. pool run
Wed	5m (10:41 - 120/135), nice easy run with wife
Thu	5m (9:41 - 125/135), recovery run
Fri	off
Sat	10m (11:27 - 123/159), recovery run with wife
Sun	3.9m (7:56), training run

Total: 50 miles, including the marathon.

Overall, I'm very happy with how this week has been going. The pool run helped get the blood flowing post-marathon day 1. After that, the slow easy runs seem to be loosening my legs without adding any undue fatigue. The 10 mile run on Saturday was a little tougher than expected, but the temperatures also shot up into the mid-70s, so it was a little preview of the upcoming summer training cycle... ugh!

Since my recovery has been proceeding ahead of schedule, I've decided to really target the Boston Run to Remember as my goal race and really give it an honest effort (instead of holding back in preparation for a goal marathon). If the weather holds up, I think I can run a PR with the mileage base I've built up and a couple more targeted workouts geared towards the half. So, I signed up today for the James Joyce Ramble 10K, just to assess my general condition. It will serve as a good tune-up race for the half and it will also be my 1st 10K race in 15 years (gasp!). This will be an interesting experience. They have various readings of James Joyce throughout the course, but I doubt those will put me in any transcendental state to help block out the pain. Look out for my race report next week... I guarantee there will be pain involved!

New American Debut Record in the Marathon

Wow... this kid is going to be good! And not a headline to be seen on espn.com.

Sunday, April 22, 2007 12:23:00 PM

Hall best of U.S. bunch

Sets American debut record in seventh place

By Dave Ungrady / WCSN.com

American Ryan Hall teased the London Marathon audience for about a half-hour Sunday when he led the race from miles 18 to 23. Would he be the first American man to win the race? Would he set a record for the fastest marathon debut for an American?

No and yes.

Hall faded in the final three miles to finish seventh in two hours, eight minutes and 24 seconds, less then one minute behind the winner, Martin Lel of Kenya. But his time comfortably eclipsed the American marathon debut record of 2:09:41 by Alan Culpepper and Alberto Salazar.

"It was hard to know if I was going to break that record, the paces were so sporadic and kind of all over the place," Hall said by phone from London. "It would have been fun to go under 2:08. I'm just pleased with how I ran the race. I feel like I gave myself a shot to win and establish myself as a world-class marathoner."

Hall, 24, said he was surprised to hold the lead as long as he did. "I just wanted to go the lead to tease the race a bit and engage in the race," he said. "I wasn't intending to lead that long. But no one wanted it. It was fun."

Leg fatigue prevented Hall from maintaining his lead to the finish. "At 22, I just felt like I wanted to get to the next mile," he said. "The last two or 3K felt really long. My legs were just tired. I wish I could have gone with them. It wasn't quite in the cards. I learned a lot out there. The biggest thing was just how to spend my energy. I wish I hadn't been leading. I could have been tucked in and thinking about the last two miles, thinking about the last push. Once you're in the lead and guys go by you, it's hard to respond."

Hall's time in the also caught his agent, Ray Flynn, a former world-class distance runner, off guard. "It was pretty incredible for a kid at this age," Flynn said. "We did not think he would be in the position of being in the lead when you have Olympic champions and world record holders in the race. It was a tall order."

Hall will ease back on his training during the next months before he begins preparation for November's 2008 U.S. Olympic qualifying race in New York. His coach, Terrence Mahon, said Hall will not run for one or two weeks and will then swim and bike for at least another two weeks before he returns to running.

Hall said his next competition might be the U.S. national outdoor championships in June.

Two other prominent U.S. runners failed to finish the race. A blister forced Meb Keflezighi, who won a silver medal in the marathon at the 2004 Olympics, to drop out at near the 16th mile. The blister appeared in the same part of the foot as one that appeared following a race in early March.

Khalid Khannouchi, a former marathon world record holder and the 2002 London Marathon champion, also dropped out of the race. A series of injuries has slowed Khannouchi over the past few years.

Boston Marathon 2007 - Bracing for the Storm

The run I remember best took place in a pelting January rainstorm -- a nor'easter that turned treacherous when the temperature dropped to the mid-20s. Kelley and I had emerged from the woods for a brief roadside run before ducking back onto a trail. At that moment, a state trooper drove by. Even after slowing to 10 miles per hour, he could barely contro his car, which slip-slided on the black ice. He rolled down his window and yelled at us: "Get off the roads, you crazy idiots."

- Amby Burfoot, running with John J. Kelley (the last BAA winner of Boston)
May 2007, Runner's World

Yes, us marathon runners are crazy idiots... I would guess if you polled all the runners on Monday, 95% of them would have run Boston even if it was snowing. This edition of the Boston Marathon was overshadowed by the threat of a Nor'easter. I spent the days leading up to marathon obsessing over the weather forecast and trying to figure out what to wear on race day. My fellow Boston bound blogger summed up the quandry most eloquently: "You should see it, I've packed half of the running gear I own. It's ridiculous. How the hell do any of us know what to expect? We need to have plenty of clothing options." I couldn't have said it better myself! After awhile, I just stopped checking the weather report because it was making me nervous. But before I delve into the race report, I just wanted to share briefly my experience at last year's Boston Marathon

Boston Marathon 2006
After falling short of qualifying for last year's Boston Marathon, I opted to raise money for my University and entered as a charity runner. On the one hand, I felt like I was taking the easy way out, but the money was going towards a worthy cause and I liked the idea of training with a community of runners working towards the same goal. 4 weeks before Boston, I ran a 1:28 at New Bedford and felt confident I could take a crack at qualifying at Boston. Here was my 2 months of prep leading up to Boston:

Weekly Distance Totals (miles) Feb 13, 2006, to Apr 17, 2006 Sport: Running Workout: all Route: all
Week of	12	21	30	39	48	57
Feb 13, 2006	12
Feb 27, 2006	18
Mar 6, 2006	46
Mar 13, 2006	34.65
Mar 20, 2006	33.85
Apr 3, 2006	28.40
Apr 17, 2006	26.20

Boston 2006 brought with it perfect weather and I was pretty psyched at the start. However, I severely underestimated the human gridlock over the first 10 miles. I quickly realized at the beginning that it was going to be tough. Being that far in the back, there was no one running my pace. I spent the first 10 miles or so swerving through traffic, passing runners. I expended too much energy and I had nothing left for Newton Hills. I was very happy to see my friends at my apartment and buddy Joel ran (he was ready to run it, I wasn't) the last 3.5 miles with me. I broke the tape at 3:30, much slower than I expected, but still not too bad. On the positive side, someone said that I probably passed at least 10,000 runners on the way to Boston. The crowds were just amazing, constantly spurring you on. As I crossed the finish line, I vowed to qualify for 2007.

The calm before the storm: lead up to Boston 2007
After Austin, I've been able to stay in reasonably good shape. I had one low mileage week, but again, I was confident after running a PR (need link) at New Bedford. Here's how the last 8 weeks shook out:

Weekly Distance Totals (miles) Feb 19, 2007, to Apr 22, 2007 Sport: Running Workout: all Route: all
Week of	9	18	27	36	45	54
Feb 19, 2007	21.90
Feb 26, 2007	32.80
Mar 5, 2007	7.50
Mar 12, 2007	29.30
Mar 19, 2007	26.30
Mar 26, 2007	39.93
Apr 2, 2007	28.44
Apr 9, 2007	17.49
Apr 16, 2007	31.20

OK, so the mileage totals aren't great.... I think it works out to ~25mpw in the 8 weeks leading up. However, I was able to get in all the long runs and I was filling in the gaps with a fair amount of cross training.

After seeing the weather report, I decided to bag the sub-3:10 attempt and just enjoy the race. I didn't need to requalify because my Austin time is good for next year as well. So, here were my goals for Boston, in order of priority:

1. ENJOY running Boston
2. High five as many kids as possible along the route
3. Run 3:14:59 or better
4. Survive Cemetery Mile

Race Prep
One of the pleasant surprises was getting this e-mail from my running club a week before:

Buses to the Start

- Similar to last year, the club buses will leave no later than 7:15AM, they are located on Stuart Street, between Dartmouth St and Trinity Place. -only current members are allowed on the buses, no guests, friends, etc. Water, Gatorade, PowerBars and PowerGels will be available.

Awesome! Another unanticipated perk of being a BAA club member. I have to admit I was embarrassed that our club bus had a police escort out to Hopkinton, but it was because the elite runners were in one of the buses ahead of us. I spent most of the bus ride chatting up Sean Clarke about race strategy. After arriving at the athlete's village, we were give access to the school so we could change and get ready. There was much ado about proper race attire, and the combined consensus of Sean, Josh Gordon, and Joe Bator convinced me that I didn't need anything more than a long-sleeve and race jersey. Compared to last year, the rain and wind seemed to dampen everyone's spirits. There didn't seem to be the usual hoopla and tension associated Boston. Maybe the weather conditions had forced most runners to re-evaluate there race goals and take a more moderate approach...

Fortunately, mother nature smiled on us and instead of the forecasted temps in the 30s, it was in the high 40s when the race started. It was kinda entertaining observing human ingenuity at work with all the different strategies people had for staying dry.... large garbage bags were very fashionable and molded into every imaginable shape.

Sean and I headed for the start line at around 9:30. I broke into a light jog while he chatted up a Frenchman running his 10th Boston... it made me wonder if I'll ever hit double digits. I made one last pit stop just before the start.... it was essentially out in the open, but this was not the time to be modest! On the way to the corral, I ran into a Reach the Beach teammate, Jacquie, who I later found out ran a very respectable 3:22! We slipped our way into the 4th corral and I soaked in the pre-race banter while trying to stay warm. There were a couple marathon snobs making snide remarks about charity runners taking the easy way in, but all in all it was very muted. Before we knew it, the gun went off and we were funneling by the WBZ TV camera. Strange... no F-15 flyovers this year.

The race
Miles 0-10
I really enjoyed this one from the beginning. The rain stopped about two miles into the race and with thousands of other runners in close proximity, the wind really wasn't an issue. I ran comfortably with Sean for about the 1st 5 miles and really had to focus on holding back the pace. Immediately, I noticed the different between this year and last year. With other runners around me doing the same pace, it was much easier to get in a nice rhythm and just zone out for about 10 miles. I made one more unscheduled pit stop at around mile 6 and lost Sean in the process. After trying to catch him for about mile, I decided it wasn't worth the effort and settled back into a comfortable pace. I had only one sharp memory of the first 10 miles; a slightly overweight fellow passed me on my right and proceeded to cut me off. Then, to top it off he let out a multiple stage fart that could have been heard 50 ft away. Predictably, I was bathed in the rotten stench in about 3 seconds. Not a peep of an apology...

Running by the Tufts Camp at mile 9 was a lot of fun; I think I was the first Tufts runner through and I got a lot of high fives as I came through. It's great to see how many Tufts people were still dedicated to volunteer despite the weather.

Miles 10-16
I hit a bad patch between miles 10-14 and could feel the fatigue setting in my legs. I couldn't explain it at the time, but in retrospect it was probably all the downhill miles up to that point. It gave me deja vu because my struggles began here last year. I consciously pulled back the pace and reminded myself that bad patches can happen and that if I kept running, I would pull through. The Wellesley scream tunnel was great, though thinner than last year. Surprisingly, the spectators made up for the low numbers by just screaming louder! After cruising down the steep downhill going into Newton, the Newton Lower Falls Wine Company came into view and I knew it was time to buckle down and do the work.

Miles 16-22
For some reason, I got my second wind heading into the Newton Hills. I don't know if it was just getting a break from all the downhill and working different muscles, or if it was just accumulated muscle memory from all the fast finish runs I did starting from this spot, but something clicked and I just started feeling better. After being passed for the last 6 miles, I started passing people and really felt my rhythm returning. The headwinds were nice because I had overdressed and the cooling breezes were welcome. I don't know if its sacrilegious to say this, but the hills really weren't that bad. I really enjoyed the downhill section that was mile 19 and perked up after seeing that split (7:11). After cresting Heartbreak Hill I grabbed a beer from a BC student, and pretended to chug it (I'm not brave enough to actually drink it!). Cemetery mile was as advertised... the crowds were sparse and the slight uphill grade makes it deceptively hard. I caught up to Harry Pino at this point, who was struggling a bit. I stopped briefly to urge him on; he said he was trying. I passed the first familiar spectator on the course just before mile 22. Peter, a lab technician in my lab, saw me and asked if he was allowed to run with me. I waved him along and I had company for about a half mile, at which point he declared, "You're running too fast, I'll see you in lab tomorrow." Too bad... I could have used the company at that point.

Miles 22-finish
The downhill into Cleveland Circle was nice, but I honestly don't remember if the wind was bad at this point, like everyone was saying. After rounding the corner, I was eagerly anticipating running by my apartment and seeing Christina, my wife, waiting in front. Christina was bundled up and I think I saw her before she spotted me. I stopped to give her a big hug and then continued on. At this point, I knew I was going to finish comfortably and the fatigue I felt back at the midpoint was a distant memory. I saw friends at every mile from then on. My Reach the Beach teammates made up a raucous group at Coolidge Corner... they were banging away with their thunder sticks. I got a strange cramp in my left foot just as I was crossing Park Dr and heading towards the 25 mile mark. Chalk it up to wet socks and my feet sliding around on each toe off. My stride was pretty ragged by now... but it didn't matter, 1 mile to go. Saw Chris George just before heading into the Mass Ave. tunnel; predictably, he was on his cell phone. Really tried to soak it in going down Boylston St.

Post-Race
After crossing the finish, I lingered, waiting for Ryan to come in. He had said sub-3:30, but I took the chance that he might have run faster. I kept seeing numbers that were close... 5205, 5210, but no 5215. The cold started to get the better of me and I made a beeline for the club tent. Sorry Ryan... I tried! Maybe next year. After getting some fluids in the club tent, I shared some war stories with Sean Clarke and Paul Morrison.

This ended up being just a fun day, despite the lousy conditions. I could have definitely run faster, but this one was the one to really enjoy. After all, you're only a 1st time qualifier once. I didn't have an absolute time goal, so it was nice to just cruise and not hit the wall. I have to say this was the most enjoyable of the 5 marathons I've done so far.

I want to thank everyone who came out to cheer me on or tracked me online. It means a lot to me and really spurs me on.

Splits

Mile	Lap	Avg. HR	Max HR
1	07:30.0	141	161
2	07:10.0	158	164
3	07:03.0	158	164
4	07:03.0	159	163
5	07:15.0	166	171
6	07:03.0	164	168
7	07:18.0	160	164
8	07:17.0	162	167
9	07:21.0	160	164
10	07:24.0	161	164
11	07:27.0	158	162
12	07:17.0	157	162
13	07:25.0	159	162
14	07:28.0	159	162
15	07:33.0	159	164
16	07:18.0	154	159
17	07:32.0	162	166
18	07:30.0	163	169
19	07:11.0	162	167
20	07:30.0	164	168
21	07:38.0	164	168
22	07:14.0	160	166
23	07:21.0	162	166
24	07:23.0	158	163
25	07:37.0	159	166
26	07:23.0	163	166
26.2	01:25.0	165	166
Total	3:12:36	160	171

New Bedford Half Marathon Race Report

Wow, I can't believe it's been a month since I posted! It seems like between two ski trips, work, and suffering a minor injury, I just haven't had time to post. I've noticed that I tend to slack off posting when I get injured and I don't run as much. On the flip side, blogging when I'm injured also helps because it gives me valuable learning experiences when I'm recovering from an injury. I'm going to put in a separate post on my injury status; this post will focus on my race report from the New Bedford Half Marathon.

The New Bedford Half Marathon is a classic half marathon traditionally used as a tune up race for Boston. With four weeks left to go before Hopkinton, it draws a lot of top notch talent from around the New England area to this old whaling town. It is by no means an easy course, but it's become an annual pilgrimmage (1:15 hr drive) for me to battle winds and hills in preparation for Boston.

I came into the race with very low expectations having only run about 20 miles in the last two weeks. In fact, I debated skipping out on this race to let my left shin tendon heal up. However, by Saturday evening, I was running pain free again and decided to give it a go. Since I was likely going to be out of shape, I decided I would be happy with anything sub-1:30.

My wife gave me a lift down, and we found a decent parking spot close to the Athlete's village/school. I picked up my number and then unexpectedly ran into a couple of friends I didn't know were running the race. By the time I had put on my running gear, there was only 15 min left to go before the race. Despite the windy conditions, I left the jacket in my bag and set out for a quick warm-up jog to the port-a-johns. I bumped into a clubmate in line. Since I didn't want a repeat of last year (imagine the shear panic of hearing the starting gun as you're emerge from the port-a-john), I decided to go directly to the start line instead of warming up some more. The first two miles would have to serve as my warm-up. I located some other clubmates and decided I would pace together with another fellow, Paul, who had a similar time goal.

The first mile was pretty comfortable and I spent much of it chatting with Paul and seeing other club member race by. I was surprised to hit the 1st split in 6:42. There was a pretty good headwind during this portion of the race, but with all the runners still bundled together, it was easy to find a place to hide. I hit the 2nd mile also in 6:42; meanwhile, Paul began to pull away. I was still feeling pretty loose and having finally fixed my heart rate monitor, which kept slipping down, I was ready for the first set of hills. The hills were tough, and I thought for sure that tackling these hills was going to come back and haunt me later in the race. I kept up pretty respectable splits for miles 3&4 (6:54, 6:59), and I was looking forward to coasting for a couple easy miles. Paul was out of view and I was sure I wasn't going to catch him. My arch-nemesis, a female runner from the Sommervile Road Runners (arch nemesis in the sense that she always seems to beat me by a couple seconds at the tape), came cruising by after mile 4, which caused me to pick up the pace a little. I spent most of mile 5 (6:29) recovering from the hills and I was sure I was going to hit the wall after mile 10 because I just wasn't in shape. Last year, I felt very comfortable at this point. There was a couple bursts of cross-wind over this stretch, as well as in mile 6. By mile 6 (6:37), I was feeling much better and gaining some confidence. The next two miles were much faster then expected (6:21, 6:18), but I had to remind myself that these were mostly downhill.

At mile 7.5 or so, the course takes a right turn and follows a circumfrential route around a peninsula. You usually get a decent tailwind on the way out to the peninsula, but you're greeted by a brutal headwind on the way back. I started looking for runners to pace with so I could get a little windshield on the way back. I remember picking up the effort here not because I felt good, but because I needed to find wind shelter. My heart rate started climbing about 5 bpm and I was sure that I was going to die in the last three miles. As expected, after crossing the 9 mile marker (6:42), the winds came. It's not so much wind gusts, but rather constant wall of wind. I don't remember how I held my pace because I was putting in a lot more effort. I kept telling myself that if I made it back to the city proper, I would be able to pull it in to the finish. This part was particularly tough because the pack was really strung out and it was hard to find any runners to hide behind. Most runners were fading at this point; every time I thought I found someone to pace with, they would start falling back. I remember seeing Paul just after crossing the 10 mile marker (6:32) and I think it gave me a target to work towards. I said some words of encouragement to him, and he said he was getting diaphragm cramps. Of course, he had done a brutal 23-miler last weekend, so the fact that he was racing was impressive enough! My HR was gradually creeping up, but I was surprised to find that I felt I could maintain the pace. I don't remember much of miles 11 & 12 (6:37, 6:45), other than I was concentrating hard on maintaining my cadence and mentally preparing for the last hill at mile 12. This last hill is not steep, but it never ends (at least while you're running it), and after battling headwinds for the last 3 miles, you really don't need another challenge! I was really hurting over on this last hill and with the headwind, it felt like I was running on a treadmill. The last 0.5 mile downhill was sweet relief. I started lengthening my stride and heard my wife cheering with about 100m to go. I was striding hard towards the finish line, eyes fixated on the official clock... 1:26:51...52... I knew I had made it in under 1:27. Watch time was 1:26:54.

So I somehow managed to run a PR by almost 2 minutes! I was still a bit shocked as I wandered around the finish line area. After seeing my splits up to mile 7&8, I thought for sure I wasn't going to have anything left, but I finished much stronger than last year. Here's my log entry from last year:

"Spent the first mile passing a lot of runners. Got into a groove as I hit the first hill at mile 2. Was pretty comfortable from then on until mile 8. Started to fatigue a bit as we made the turn onto the peninsula. Making the turn after mile 9, there was a constant 15-20 mph headwind that made keeping pace very difficult. Slowed considerable at mile 12 with the uphill and headwind towards the finish line. Able to finish strong."

Approximate splits: 7:09, 6:34, 6:43, 6:30, 6:40, 6:35, 6:35, 7:10, 6:30, 6:40, 6:50, 7:00, 6:51"

I can only think of two explanations. One, I'm still working from the base that I built during December and January and so I was in better shape than last year. Two, the last two weeks was more like a taper and so I was well rested going into the race. Last year, I ran a brutal workout the Wednesday before, so I probably wasn't recovered by race day. Regardless, I'll take the PR and hope that's a good indicator that I'm reasonably prepared for Boston. According to the McMillan calculator, it translates to a 3:03. Wow, that shower felt good afterwards... and the fish chowder really hit the spot.

Overall, there were some crazy fast times today. There's an abundance of distance talent in New England, and it's evident when you run a sub-1:27 and only come in 238/1827 runners. On a side and slightly annoying note, my race chip bugged out because when I checked the results this morning, my name was conspicuously absent. I wrote to the race director and they've now changed the results.... and gave me a 1:27:00... pissers.

Here are my numbers.... my HR was really cooking at the end:

1. 6:42 (175/207?)
2. 6:42 (no HR)
3. 6:54 (170/173)
4. 6:59 (173/179)
5. 6:29 (172/175)
6. 6:37 (171/173)
7. 6:21 (170/172)
8. 6:18 (174/176)
9. 6:42 (175/177)
10. 6:32 (175/178)
11. 6:37 (177/179)
12. 6:45 (179/180)
13. 6:38 (181/185)
0.1 0:40 (185/185)