2009 Annapolis Ten Miler

Back again at this classic race today (my 4th time, I think?) with 5,499 of my closest friends. Usually it's insufferably hot and humid but we were fortunate to have temperatures and humidities both in the low 70s today.

Watch time: 1:58:32/Garmin time: 1:58:40
Official chip time: 1:58:24 (11:50 min/mile pace)
Previous best on this challenging course: 2:01:24 (2005)

So exactly a 3-minute course PR. I'll take it! The entire 3 minutes can be accounted for by not walking up ANY hills this time (for the first time on this course), and indeed, there are several tough ones. I did walk for a short while several times at water stops, just to gulp down some water, but limited it to just as long as necessary to drink-and-go.

Still a long way off my ten mile PR (different course, cold weather, 2007): 1:48:52

On the final hill on the Severn River bridge, there was an overweight teenage boy really struggling and I started badgering him to get up the hill: "C'mon! We're going to run up this hill! Count to twenty and we'll be there! Lift up your chin and you can breathe easier! Use your arms! Look, just run to that flag and we're done!"

Mostly it helped take my mind off myself, of course, but it kept me going!

He did great. I passed him later but found him after the finish line and shook his hand and congratulated him.

I felt strong the whole race, very positive mentally, and got a great technical long-sleeved running shirt at the finish line that I'll wear often. Also nice to see some old friends at the start and on course!

A good day for running, and a solid training run in the bank!

Don't like

"Race Day Packet Pickup (each) : $10.00"

Oh well, won't be registering for that race either.

10k for Bari

Today I ran my local Oxford Day 10k for my Israeli triathlete friend Bari, who was unable to run hers due to the death of her mother-in-law. So Bari, credit yourself with another 10k in your race log.

Unfortunately the humidity really knocked Bari for a loop today and she was only able to slog around the course in a sweaty dripping 1:05:15 (10:31 min/mile pace). Those desert-dwellers just can't take it, can they? They're so evaporation-dependent. Here on the Eastern Shore we laugh at evaporation.

Saint Michaels Sports Boosters 5k

I won!!!

Well, I was first in the eldest age group (50+) of female participants at our local tiny town 5k race (perhaps 50 runners and walkers) that started two blocks from my house out in front of the elementary school where my girls go to school. But I ran pretty hard (NO Garmin, just my watch but it didn't help with no mile markers out on the road - glad I had it because there was no finish line clock at all) and finished in 29:05, my 2nd fastest 5k. I think I was the slowest runner that didn't take walk breaks, though.

Of course I had to double-check the course distance when I got home from the satellite map and it seemed to be accurate. I hope that means I've fully bounced back from my protracted lung disorders of this year and I'm ready to start running a little faster again!

I was awarded a $50 gift certificate at one of the nicest clothing stores in town, too! Hooray, I'll go out and spend it this week on something fun!

Congratulations to Noah Wood who completed his quest to run a race in every Maryland county within 6 months - and who also won the race easily. Well done!

Chesapeakeman photos

Dave getting his bike ready:

Dave and Bill with their game faces on:

Heading out just before the start on the revised course (recognize the Eagleman swim exit?):

Seconds prior to the start of the two-loop 2.4-mile swim in Hambrooks Bay, a downpour began that fortunately stopped just before most folks came out of the water:

We volunteers tried to ensure that everyone could find their own transition bag and get changed for their bike leg smoothly:

Fathers Day 10K

Today I had a 10K on the schedule to complete in order to maintain my standings in the Annapolis Striders Championship Series. My legs weren't outright sore, fortunately, but they didn't have much zip today, which is not a big surprise. About 1:05:20 on a warm very humid morning was as fast as they wanted to go today. Average heart rate was 172, which tells me I could have picked it up maybe one notch or two, but the necessary "oomph" just wasn't there.

It was hot enough running that I saw one old guy cut the course right in front of me, which I found rather shocking! I don't know if he got a finish time, and I didn't get his number, so it's just as well.

Good to see the familiar friends at this race again, of course: Dave, Janice (3rd place AG), Mike, Jeanne, all the usual crowd was there! Fun times!

This video reminded me

. . . about the heartbreak of marathons.



Kayoko Fukushi, the fastest female half-marathoner in Japanese history, covers the last track lap of her inaugural marathon no faster than I run. Of course, she fell down three times in the final lap in order to run that slowly.

My last race this year

Preface: Yesterday my right quad was feeling crampy for a few moments while we were walking around town, and it made me limp for half a block, but it quickly subsided and I thought no more of it. Silly me.

Today I went to the 29th Anniversary 15K, a race put on by the Annapolis Striders at the beautiful Quiet Waters Park in Annapolis, Maryland. I had never been there before, though I had often been in the area, and I've missed a lovely gem! I definitely plan to return to make use of the 6 miles of jogging/biking paths that wind through the woods, along with the nice-looking playground!

My running buddy Dave carpooled over with me - it was nice to have the company and the navigational assistance.

I had been hoping to finally break the 1:00 10K barrier in this race. However, the Race Gods had other plans for me.

It started well - cool (~38*F) and no winds made for good running weather through the woods. However, the terrain was considerably hillier than I am accustomed to and there were slippery wet leaves on the trails - which brought my pace down slower than I had hoped.

First three miles:
1: 10:17 (okay, maybe I'm too slow for a 10K PR today, let's keep running and see how it goes - ouch, stop and remove a stone from shoe, don't slip on the wet leaves!).
2: 10:14 (that's better, but maybe we'll work on a 15K PR today instead of 10K. Walk to get in some water at the aid station).
3. 9:58 (let's see, 3 miles in 30:31 - I'll have to have a huge negative split to go sub-1:00 in the 10K, but I'm game to keep trying, I'm feeling good).

At Mile 3.5 things ground to a halt.

It felt like my right lower quad cramped and then suddently it was too painful to fully straighten my knee. I could only limp along slowly, in considerable pain. Several runners were nice enough to ask me if I needed help, but no, there was nothing they could help with. Fortunately the course looped around close to the car and the finish line at 4.0 miles so I pulled out of the race.

I was able to see Dave make his excellent finish under 1:20, however! Well done! It was a really great event and we're planning to go back and train on those hilly trails later this winter, since there are no nice rolling hills like that anywhere around home in our county.

But first I have to fix this little lameness issue I have. I'm thinking it was some type of quadriceps cramping and tear. While the muscle was cramping it would have pulled on the patellar tendon enough to make it acutely painful at first. That pain subsided after about 20-30 minutes enough to walk fairly comfortably, and now it's just a low-level ache.

A quadriceps muscle pull is a lot better option than any kind of major muscle or tendon damage or tearing, so I'm going to work under that assumption for a few days and see how it goes. Keep your fingers crossed for me!



If you've got any other diagnoses or advice for me, I'm all ears! Naturally I'd like to resolve this quickly and without further incident!

The PR that almost got away

First of all, I wasn't sure I was even well enough to start this race. I went to Acute Care yesterday but they were closed! I didn't think two weeks of a sore throat (and a severe one for a couple of days) was bad enough to go to the emergency room for (and I didn't want to sit around there for four hours on Thanksgiving just to get a prescription) so I went home and continued with my own signature home remedies. I guess they worked because I finally woke up this morning able to swallow without pain! Hurrah! So it was Go Time for the 10k.

Old PRs:
Track mile, unofficial, 2006: 9:23
5K PR from November 2005: 30:26 (have only done a couple 5Ks since then and not for time)
10K PR going into today's race: 1:00:41 from 28 April 2007 in Oxford, Maryland
10K record on this course from 2006: 1:03:24

This race, the YMCA Run for Hospice, is a fairly casual small-town race that goes out of my own Y, so I try to do it every year. I was really hoping to finally break the one hour barrier on a 10K, and solicited some advice from my favorite triathlon email list, TRI-DRS.

Coach Joe Bator gave me some great advice: "Come Friday run 2 miles as a warm-up by running the first mile of the course and back again. You said there were alot of turns. When you are warming up look at the turns. Figure out the line that is straightest. Plan ahead move to the inside before the turn in anticipation of taking the shortest line. Just because there are turns it is no reason for you to run slower. Heck if done right a course with turns can be faster as long as they are not turnarounds that force you to stop. Finish your warm-up with a couple of short 10 step sprints. The goal of all the speed is to let your body know that your starting pace is not all out. It should feel slow after the quick sprints. Now - line up closer to the start than you are comfortable. Not all the way at the front, maybe the middle but closer than you are used to. Leave the watch, the water bottle, the extra jacket in case you get cold, the ipod, the gu or anything else that is not ABSOLUTELY needed, in the car."

I tried to follow most of this, but ended up with perhaps a 1.5-mile warmup because I was a little nervous about missing the start - they're kind of casual about starting times at this event.

We gathered, I moved up to the middle behind some skinny girls that were in the row right behind all the fast guys. The horn sounded and we all headed off around a series of turns in a residential neighborhood. I felt good at the start, sufficiently warmed up to run comfortably in the mid-pack and hugging the insides on all the curves. That worked!

Joe advised: "Run the first mile hard but not as fast as the earlier sprints. After the first mile settle in with those around you, if you see someone who seems to be breathing hard then you pass them. If someone seems to be not working hard and having a good time, pass them clearly you want it more than they do."

PR 1 mile split from Garmin: 8:59 - 24 seconds faster than my previous track mile PR!

I caught a glance of this and knew it was an unusually fast start for me, but I just tried to hold the pace steady and stay right there. Down the highway shoulder - I passed one younger girl and about half a mile later she passed me back, but for most of the rest of the race I was running mostly by myself with the other runners a couple hundred yards up the road ahead - which seemed too far to try to catch. Using other people to push myself forward wasn't going to work at this small race. I was running alone.

Off the highway and into a semi-rural residential area that I've run in often. The roads are rutted and uneven and that slowed me down slightly. Mile 2 in 9:30, Mile 3 in 9:39. I was running at a high effort level, heart rate well in the mid-170s.

Quick time check at the halfway mark:

Time at 3.1 miles on Garmin: 29:10 on my watch (or 29:05, below). The good news is that was a huge 5k PR and I'd finally broken 30 minutes for a 5K decisively! The bad news is that it was an unofficial time, and the even worse news was that I would have to keep running just as hard as I had up to that point to have a chance of breaking an hour for the 10k.

In the second half it started to get difficult to hold the pace. I worked hard to keep my head in the game and retain my focus. I kept reminding myself to use my arms, pull myself along, keep my cadence high by keeping my arm movements high.

I was promising myself all kinds of crazy stuff too. I reminded myself this was probably my last event of the year - finish this one well for the year and I had a long break with no events. I told myself that if made a PR I wouldn't have to run at all until NEXT YEAR. Heh. I lied.

Joe said: "If you mouth is pasty take a sip of water to wet it otherwise skip the water stops. You don't need it for 6 miles and it will just slow you down. Once you get to mile 4 pick up the pace. This is the mile we tend to slow down on, it is to far from the finish to get the pull and easy to lose focus. So FOCUS."

Mile 4 marker arrived with the one and only water stop. My mouth was indeed pasty, my throat was dry, and my breath was getting a bit ragged. I allowed myself the luxury of slowing down to get one Dixie cup, took one sip and swished my mouth out with the rest and kept running. Maybe five or ten seconds lost. Back to running hard. Glance down to check my pace - a little too slow. Pick up the effort level now. Keep the turnover high. Dig deep for the final miles.

Back out on the highway towards the finish line. Mile 5 seems to take forever. I pass one guy who has stopped to fix his shoe but he trots easily past me when he starts again. I feel resentful of the people jogging along easily at this pace when I'm averaging 177 bpm heart rate just to maintain it. But I keep the effort going nevertheless. I did my best to remember what Joe said for the final stretch: "Once you hit mile 5 you only have 1.2 to go and the .2 doesn't count, anyone can run that. Use your arms and pull."

Hmm, in the last 3/4 mile we had to re-cross the highway we had been directed to cross earlier which now put us on the wrong side. I'm puzzled. I'm still running hard and preparing to kick it into a sprint for the final half mile. But then we enter the stream of walkers and strollers in the 5K event, which forces me out into the roadway against oncoming traffic to get around them.

Then I get to the final intersection. The policeman is slow in stopping the traffic and I proceed a few steps into the intersection to wait for the cars to fully stop rolling. Then the cop YELLS at me to get back behind the line and WAIT for him to tell me when I can cross the road. W. T. F.!?!? I've NEVER been yelled at by a hired cop for attempting to cross the road when I'm in a race! I'm standing by the roadside with the time ticking away and swearing under my breath.

Finally he lets us go, but I've lost my momentum and just do my best to run hard to the finish line over the last half mile, around the walkers filling the sidewalk. I get to the finish line and there is one guy standing there tearing off the strips on our bib numbers, but there was no finish clock and they never compile the race results anyway, so I'm not sure why he was doing that. I was spitting nails and swearing my head off to my training buddy who was waiting for me there - but then I caught myself and thanked the finish line guy nicely. The last mile (including the traffic stop) was my slowest by 24 seconds - and the last 0.2 miles was fully 27 seconds slower than last year.

PR watch time at finish line (6.19 miles on Garmin): 1:00:23 (or 1:00:31 at 6:20 miles, which may have included some walking after the finish line, below). 10 seconds faster than my best 10K since my 20s, and almost 3 minutes faster than my best time on this course.

I'm pleased with my effort level during this race and reviewing my heart rates tells me that I succeeded in keeping my focus high - after the first 3/4 mile my heart rate remained steadily between 175 and 178 except for a dip to 173 at the water stop and an increase on the final home stretch.

Now I think I need to find another 10K before the end of the year to lay that sub-1:00 goal to rest, finally. Of course, losing some more weight to make that running pace easier would always help, too!

I learned later that the Evil Cop had stopped just about everyone in the race at that intersection, including one of my triathlete buddies Jim Crowley who won the race. *shaking head*

Running with Lance

Did I mention that I'll be running with Lance on Saturday? No? Did that slip my mind? Sorry, senior moment there. . . .

Yeah, he and I will be racing a 5K together.

I expect he might beat me, but you never know. (Actually I expect I'll be jogging and walking it very slowly, since I have Marine Corps Marathon the next day).

All the credit goes to Holly for setting up the gig.

I just have one question for him: "Lance, I know you're running the New York City Marathon again this year, but are you working hard on your swimming? Because you have a lot of people that would love to see you beat Jaja in Kona next year."

Uh oh

I just saw a new 5K race offered in the next town over from me. Five days after Marine Corps Marathon.

Hmm. I'd really like to try to finally run a sub-30 5K, but that may not be the time to attempt it!! But I'll probably go out just to support the new race and hobble around the course slowly.

With crutches. And an oxygen tank.

Disney triathlon done!

Just finished the Disney Tri yesterday and it was a pretty decent quasi-Olympic event with a fun 36-mile bike leg - in contrast to the horror stories I heard from last year!

I'm happy to say that I earned hardware as 3rd Athena over 40 - out of TEN! It was hot (naturally - it's Florida) and the "run" was more like a hot death-march, but I pushed on as best I could past the armadillo roadkill without ending up flat on the pavement (like more than one guy did) and I'm glad I hung on because 4th place was just 23 seconds behind me! (I was 12th/21 in my age group - solid midpack finish there!)

Super-great to see Shawn and Linae there too, who found me just before the swim. Thanks for coming out, ladies!!!


Long report when I get home!

National Half Marathon

No, I haven't run it yet! I'm just up early (4:40AM!) getting ready. Here's the radar. Ugh! But not as bad as it could have been. It's 54*F with light winds. THANK YOU for the running advice and good wishes, everyone! Back later after my 29th half marathon.

---

Update: I'm home!! And finished! And I had a MOST EXCELLENT race!! Not my fastest ever, didn't break my PR from 3 weeks ago (and didn't expect to) , but it was my 2nd-fastest ever and I think it was my best-paced, best-executed race of my entire running career!! I felt pretty darned good every single mile of the course, the mile markers all seemed to arrive early (WTF!!?), and I finished somewhere between 2:29:38 (Garmin time) and 2:30:09 (watch time).

Plus I got to visit with David and Chuck at the start and Holly at the finish!! How fun!! Many more details to follow after a hot bath (no, I don't do ice baths after races unless I have to run the next day. Nooooooooo!).

Thanks to Holly for the post-race photo. FREE BEER!

Race day a'comin'!

Forecast is worsening for the National Half Marathon on Saturday. Ugh!

90% chance of showers at the start, 47*F, but light (5 mph) winds.

Frankly, it's the kind of weather that would normally prompt me to skip a road race and sleep in, since I really dislike cold rain - but I want to get my five halves done and in the bag this spring. So I've committed to seeing my racer buddies at the starting line, at the back of the pack - probably the last I'll see of them until after the finish line!

It looks like a great course this year, starting out heading down the long axis of the Mall, past the U.S. Capitol, Smithsonian buildings, Washington Monument and White House. I've lived in this area for 17 years now, so I tend to forget to sightsee around those national landmarks!

The marathon course doubles back on the half marathon course so we'll be able to see those runners heading out. One of my new goals for the race is to make it to the split just before the 6 mile mark before the elites come through at mile 15 of the marathon. If I'm having a really, really good day, I'll make it to the course re-join at the 7 mile mark before they get to the 14!!

Of course, if my shoes are soaking wet and weigh ten pounds apiece, that will slow me down. Yeah, that's it! It's my wet shoes that make me slow!!

My half marathon series

OK, I'm entered in four half marathon within a span of seven weeks:

B&A Trail Half Marathon: 04 March 07
National Half Marathon: 24 March 07
Ocean City Half Marathon: 07 April 07
Bridge to Bridge Half: 21 April 07

I just need to line up one more race within 3 weeks of that time, or do one more Personal Nancy Toby Half Marathon to make it official. If I do my own run, I'll have to document it fully with my Garmin and post it here to make it a "real half marathon".

Five half marathons within ten weeks as part of my fiftieth year celebrations. Should be fun!!! (Yeah, my idea of fun has shifted in recent years, too).

To swim or not to swim?

Chesapeakeman registration just opened up, the best little iron-distance race in the country, which is held just 45 minutes from my house.

I'm torn. I was hoping to do the almost-half-iron triathlon that they have held with it in the past, but that's not being offered this year. They are still having the 2.4-mile swim and the 2.4/112 mile swim-bike Aqua Velo.

The last two times I was in the midst of them, I said I never wanted to do a 2.4-mile swim ever, ever again. After an hour in open water with a long way yet to go it doesn't seem like so much fun any more. Sigh.

But according to local triathlete Jude Apple, "Peak high tide is at 6:04AM and it is a relatively high one at that (1.7 ft above mean low water). This means that from about 6:15 on you will have a westward (downstream) current. . . . you should have a "tailwind" the whole way."

So. . . . maybe I'll think about it again if I have really good swims at Columbia and Eagleman. Fortunately this gem of a race hasn't been discovered by the multitudes yet and registration won't close too early to decide to enter. Then again, I can always volunteer, right?