Akron Marathon Pacing and Such

Well another good mileage week has gone by again as the training for NYC continues.  Besides running almost 21 miles yesterday while pacing Mike at Akron (more below), I had a decent week. Slightly lower mileage (only 46+), but some good quality miles including a solid speed session on Tuesday and hills on Thursday.  This week brings another solid track workout followed by an 8.5 hard effort run on Thursday and a 16 miler on Saturday with 12 at pace.  Not really sure what my marathon pace should be, but I know that NYC is a crowded race, so I'm going to try and go for the 3:45 to 3:50 again. I think I'm in pretty good shape and similar to when I last ran NYC in 2011, but I was 3 yrs younger then and I was doing more mileage in a given week. I was not; however, doing any of the core work.  We will see in a month as to what works best for me. I feel strong, but you never know.

As for yesterday, what a strange experience.  I planned to meet Mike around mile 8 of the Akron course. Mike is a bald, tattoo covered guy from the Bronx that shouldn't be hard to miss.  I also told him where I'd be, what I was wearing, and he said he would be in the 4:25-4:30 area hopefully with my friend, Brett, the 4:25 pacer.  So after the runners start, I warm up and run about 2 miles over to the water stop that is about the 8 mile mark near the 3rd relay exchange to wait for him. I see all the front runners pass and cheer many friends, and I'm waiting and waiting and no Mike. I'm a bit worried, but sure I missed him.  Finally the 4:45 pace group goes by, and I decide that I must have missed him.  I addition, the 55F weather is also turning to 65F weather, so I decide to leave and hope to catch him.  I take off on the course and cover roughly 10.5 miles (at an 8:40 pace) and there on the hill is Mike - yeah! So I catch him and abruptly slow to his pace which is now about 10:40 per mile.  The sun has come out and the 2nd half of the course has a pretty brutal set of hills.  Mike is running with a girl, Megan, that he trained with and she is looking to pick it up some - so I tell her that I'm staying with Mike as promised and I do.  We then cover the last 8+ hilly miles of the course together and finish in 4:30 (his official time) accomplishing my 20+ miler and his 4th marathon for which he raised awareness for the Cleveland Rape Crisis center.  I was pretty spent when done and the woman giving out the medals was shocked that I didn't want to take one (I did pay for the race, no bandit here - so I took the socks & jacket they gave to the registrants as well as the beer!).  It was very warm at the finish (in the 70s) and I was tired - happy though when I made myself go to this morning's run to find out that nothing hurt or was out of place and my Achilles was fine as I ran an easy 6.2 miles.

The Akron Marathon is really well done and unlike Cleveland, Akron loves their marathon.  The whole city come out to cheer on the runners (there is a half and marathon relay as well) and in spite of the challenging hills in the 2nd half, runners love the race.  There is good swag, it is well attended (over 15,000 total runners as the races were sold out) and it is well managed.  The Cleveland marathon might be older, but it sure could take a few lessons from Akron and Clevelanders could sure take a lesson or two from the Akron spectator community.  There were spectators pretty much the entire length of the course including along the towpath section to where it is hard to get.  It makes a tougher course (there are no hills on the Cleveland course) feel relatively easy with all the enthusiasm in the air.

Great news regarding the scum bag here in Cleveland as he was confirmed to be the perpetrator on both attacks.  Glad that he is off the streets sorry that it had to happen.  Yesterday during my pacing duty at Akron with Mike, who gave the inspirational talk at the #TakeBackTheRun event, a relay runner came up behind us going up one of the hills.  He slowed to ask Mike if he was the speaker at the event and after saying "yes", the guy thanked him as it turns out he is the boyfriend of one of the victims.  Weirdly small world.  Well, here we are at mile 21 and they are swapping emails so that Mike can get the victim the resources she might/will need to come to full closure and get on with her life. I'm just a witness to all of this, but very proud that I'm helping Mike get his goal and kind of a peripheral part to this cool encounter.

Mike sporting his medal after the race.  How could I have missed him???

As I stated above, this week is another with some tough mileage.  I'm looking forward to it - I think.

First Big Week

Well, after Sunday's race, most runners would have taken a few days break, but no, I am in the midst of marathon training and I'm feeling very good.  This week has been an indication that my fitness is right where it needs to be.  After taking Monday off, I ran a strong track session on Tuesday, an easy recovery run on Wednesday, a strong tempo run on Thursday, an easy 3 mile Event on Friday, and 20 this morning!  After tomorrow's 6 mile recovery run, I'll be at 48 miles for the week.  First week up in the high 40s for the week - and I feel good.

Thursday's tempo run scared me a bit as I didn't think my tired and sore (thanks to Meredith and Cindy and our Wednesday morning class) legs would cooperate, so I was very surprised to see the tempo miles done at an average 8:05 pace with the last mile being at half marathon pace.  And I survived!  My legs actually felt better after the run than they did at the start.  Good sign, I believe.

Friday night, I participated in a special event run organized by the Cleveland Moms Run this City group in support of two women who were attacked on the near west side in ate August/early September.  This was a 3 mile run and over 600 runners/walkers, etc showed up.  The event was 

given a great deal of press and PR and it was very uplifting and empowering. Thanks to the group that organized the event.

This morning I ran my first 20 miler and I doubt that I would have done this on my own, so thanks to Anne, Jen, Kara, and Kathy.  We did it and I feel better for it.  And in an overall time of 3:12 (first three miles slow and last three on the trails (so slow), I feel like I ran well and strong.  Legs were tired at mile 15, but at mile 20 (and now), I felt better than I did on any long run this summer.  Here's to hoping that this bodes well for NY as well.

Now it is time to head back down to Edgewater Park and watch a couple of crazy friends participating in the North Coast 24 which is a 24 hr run done by running a 0.9 mile bike path loop and cover as many miles as you can in 24 hrs.  Twenty mile might seem crazy to some, but frankly, that is nuts!

Erie Half Marathon

Last Sunday, I ran the Erie Half Marathon once again.  This was the 2nd time that I have run this race, but since it is almost the exact same course as the Presque Isle Half, I am of course incredibly familiar with the course.  The course differs in that the start/finish area are 3 miles off and in the fall race, there is a concurrent marathon as well.  Because of its calendar timing, its flat course, and the promise of cooler weather, the marathon is usually a sell out as many runners from the surrounding areas (Cleveland, Pittsburgh, Buffalo and even Toronto) flock to Erie to run a BQ.  Also because of its calendar timing, this BQ can be used for two subsequent Boston entry years.  This is an extremely well run (directed) race and the Erie Road Runners club is top notch.  They are so good that they even drove to Cleveland to deliver a well earned Masters award (more later).  

Not needing a BQ, but in the midst of NY marathon training, I was again using the race to see exactly where my training was at.  I knew after HTC that I was in better shape than last year on my way to the Monumental Indianapolis Marathon, but you never know.  A number of members of my local Cleveland Second Sole Running group were participating in both the half and marathon events with three hoping to BQ and one running her first marathon.  I went to my summer house in Chautauqua as it is 45 min from Presque Isle, and we (my friend Chris from Cleveland, CHQ, and 2nd Sole) went to the small, but surprising Expo on Saturday afternoon and then joined several of the 2nd Sole runners for dinner at the local Olive Garden.  Food was so-so, but the company was excellent.  The three running marathon the next day were nervous, but all were ready.

The next morning Chris and I left at the ungodly hour of 4:45 and set out for Presque Isle.  We got there by 5:45 as instructed and were able to use the bath house bathrooms without any lines and go to the starting area quite easily.  Chris has originally intended to run the marathon but had been a bit injured and turned to lots of cycling over the summer (her forte as she is an awesome cyclist) so she was still starting with the marathoners intending to do a long run.  After all, she is joining myself and our other summer training friend, Mary Pat, in NY for the marathon.  She ended up running 19 miles which was uplifting and the motivation she needed.  She started with our other friend, Christine, who was doing her first marathon and had an incredible plan in mind.  I must say that I have never seen a first timer pace themselves so well in a marathon.  So well, in fact, that she ran her fastest miles in the last 10K and Chris and I missed her finish which was a strong 4:27.  So strong in fact that she ran a 2 min negative split in her first marathon!!!!!

As a half marathoner, we started 30 min after the marathoners and I lined up with another 2nd sole buddy, Craig, and off we went. I knew that Craig was in great shape as he had made it through an excellent training cycle without any injuries and he was asking all the right questions about taper and fueling.  Not really sure how I was going to run, I set my sites on running at least a sub 1:45 (I ran 1:44:44 in July) and hopefully a sub 1:43 (I ran 1:43 and change last year).  I also hoped to stay strong through the entire 13 miles.  Of course, the weather cooperated in that it was in the low-50s at the start with relatively low humidity, so things were looking good on that front.  Craig and I ended up in the same pack for the first 7 miles after which I looked at my watch and was a bit scared since I was moving right along at a 7:40 pace.  Not sure that I could hold it, I dropped back a bit letting Craig go.  I re-grouped around 10 miles (my pace never really dropped off, but it felt like it did) and hoped to finish strong.  I did lose a bit in that last mile, but not like last year where I completely lost it with two 8:15s for miles 11 and 12, and I was able to give it everything I had finishing in 1:40:59 (net time).  I was psyched as not only have I not broken 1:41 (or even 1:43) on that course, I have not run that fast since the Houston half in January, 2012 at which time I was training for a half, not a full. That time as good enough for 114th out of 1003 overall finishers and 3rd (soon to be 2nd) in my AG and 7th Master.  Hopefully this can translate to a positive NY race.

My overall splits were as follows (and I had 1:41:59 on my watch):

Mile 1 - 8:00          Mile 6 - 7:34          Mile 11 - 7:40

Mile 2 - 7:38          Mile 7 - 7:33          Mile 12 - 7:52

Mile 3 - 7:36          Mile 8 - 7:41          Mile 13 - 7:43

Mile 4 - 7:32          Mile 9 - 7:35          Mile 0.17 - 1:17   

Mile 5 - 7:37          Mile 10 - 7:39

As for kudos to the Race Director, my running buddy, Karyn, who won our AG with a super strong 1:34:37 was beaten by some women by 4 seconds for overall Master.  Karyn questioned this as she saw no women near her and with a 4 sec differential, this women must have been right in front of her.  In looking up results for this women on Athlinks and other sources, it showed that she repeatedly ran around a 2 hr half.  Hmm, that is a big PR.  So we waited for the photos, and lo and behold, the Masters Female Winner was a "Guy"!  Karyn kindly brought this up with the RD, who investigated, realized she was right, and drove her award and other swag to her here in Cleveland.  Karyn deserved that award as she ran an awesome PR herself, and the RD just made me want to run more Erie races every year as he did the right thing!

In the end, it was a great day for all the 2nd Sole runners - the three looking for BQs made the times (although with the craziness of Boston entries, they may not get in :( ), several PRs were run (Angel, Brittany, Karyn, Craig, Christine) and several AG awards were had.  Erie, we will be back.

The 3Bs

Decent week last even if my heel is still bothering me some on and off.  I guess I just learn to deal with the Achilles/PF/whatever that I have since it seems to go away once I get running and it isn't curbing my speed, I just wish I didn't feel it at all.   Getting in to see Dr Leo is tough at this time of year since everyone around here is clamoring for a fall marathon whether it be Akron or Towpath or Columbus, but I did get an appointment the day after Erie - a day late is better than never and I know I'll make it through Erie as I ran the same course back in July on the same foot! with the same issue!  I did have a decent thirds Progression Run on Saturday (30 min real easy, 30 min moderate effort, 30 min moderate-hard effort) but I really wanted to get the last couple of miles down closer to 8 min and I just couldn't get there.  It was warm last week (temps in the 90s), but Saturday morning it was around 70F although quite humid (98%) and it did rain after the turn around (5 miles).  10 miles in 90 min is a good run since the first few miles were all around 9:20.  Yesterday my foot/Achilles really bugged me and I was tired in spite of the cooler morning.  I did run a hard workout effort on both Tuesday and Thursday and I'm back to my core class and working with Jake. I guess I can say I was a bit tired.

As for this weeks 3Bs, I'm a bit miffed this morning though about three separate issues: Badwater, Bandits and Baltimore.  Now they may not seem like they go together as they don't but they are all annoying me today.  As far as Badwater goes, the race has an uncertain future as the National Parks staff has seemingly decided to restrict the use of the park as visitors have asked how such a race can be run in the "hottest" time of year when they are advised to not do anything strenuous in the heat.  Well, come on, these badwater athletes HAVE TRAINED FOR THIS.  Wow, what a concept - training! These runners are not just deciding to run 133 miles in the desert without Training for it! Its not like today's half or even marathoners who often half heartedly jump into training, run one and are done just to check thing off the list.  These runners are serious about it.  Having helped a friend train in DV for the race one Memorial Day weekend back in 2007, I know a wee (very wee) bit about running in 113F heat since I ran 10 miler completely outfitted in my "French Foreign Legion dress", and it isn't for the faint of heart.  Somehow I do trust that the folks who run the Badwater race will figure out how to work with the park service.

Me in Death Valley - May, 2007

 http://www.nps.gov/deva/parkmgmt/upload/DEVA-Sporting-Event-Safety-Assessment-Final-8_20_14-1.pdf

As bandits go, here I am a bit mystified.  There was a local half marathon here this past Sunday in our local Metroparks.  This might be the 11th or 12th running of this race and as it is local, it is also pretty inexpensive ($40 up until 9/1 and then $60).  A bunch of members of our local running club ran as bandits yesterday, took medals, and seemed not to be bothered by the whole thing.  Granted, I ran (with other members of the group) in the Metropark as well as it is indeed an open park, but we ran on the bike path (the race was on the road), brought our own water, and certainly didn't take any medals for our trouble.  Now many of you know that I have run as a bandit - in fact, I ran Boston as a bandit, but that was back in the very early 1980s and even though that was a long time ago and many, many college students still bandit Boston, I don't know if that completely excuses it.  Shoot I entered the Akron Marathon at the end of the month to run 18 miles with a friend running the whole thing, as I didn't want to bandit.  I'm still going to take off the timing chip as I also don't want to be construed as a Rosie Ruiz with a weird time.  I think I'll just vent here and not to their faces, but I am still bothered by it as were some of the members of the group that I was running with. Yes, the Metroparks are indeed a resource to be enjoyed by all, but the race directors had to pay to have the road closed, pay for the food, the water stops, and the entertainment.  By jumping in, you effectively stole all those resources.  I know to many I am just preaching to the choir, but it did trouble me a lot and it also troubles me some that I am reluctant to speak up.  I do like these people and they have helped me settle into life here in Cleveland much better.  I guess for now, it is a whatever moment.

My final rant will not really be a rant, but a thank you to the Baltimore Ravens for releasing Ray Rice.  I know that they supported him until this morning’s video came to light, but that they acted quickly and decisively to release him immediately redeems them (somewhat) IMHO. (After all they are still the Browns, right?).    Domestic abuse isn’t funny and often just seems to be swept under the rug.  The behavior  of his now-wife to ask the NFL to go easy on him may be inconceivable to those of us on the outside, but is common behavior for anyone (male or female) in an abusive relationship.  A good friend in college was a victim of domestic abuse as she was shot and killed by her abusive husband on the courthouse steps after filing for a restraining order and divorce.  She had finally been convinced to get out only to be shot down senselessly.  So I applaud the Ravens for today's actions and I'm waiting to see if Roger Goodell at least apologizes for his ridiculous 2 day suspension.  Until today, I don't think that most of us knew the extent of the attack (she was knocked unconscious and Rice dragged her out of the elevator - wtf?), but it appears as if the NFL did.  The double standard should never apply here.

One final sad yet happy note:  RIP Truett Cathy - thanks for inventing the Chicken Sandwich.  The cows are crying today in Atlanta.