Chicago Marathon, Part II

I love Chicago. If it wouldn’t be such a drastic change in lifestyle for my kids, we’d already be living there. Since we can’t live there yet, we do our best to make a trip at least one time a year. Fortunately, we have some very close friends who live there and as an added bonus, they don’t mind us staying with them when we come into town. This weekend it would be Jen, I, my cousin Tim and Aunt Marilyn who would be guests at Casa de Papczun for the weekend. We all agreed that we would take it easy in the City on Saturday, doing our best to stay off our feet after we hit the expo in the morning. The Chicago marathon Expo is the expo’s of all expo’s, but the highlight for me was meeting Ryan Hall and his wife, Sara there. Jen and I were just strolling down a side aisle and there they were, at a booth promoting their Foundation called “Hall Steps Foundation” signing autographs. What caught me off guard was how few people there were there. It was as if nobody knew who he was and it seemed like the Marathon organizers didn’t know he’d be doing that because that guy of all guys should have taken center stage at an event like this. I quickly pulled out my race bib and asked him to sign it. I also shared with him that I had been telling everyone who said they wanted to follow my progress online that I had registered under the name Ryan Hall just so they could see a great time! They both thought that was pretty funny but unfortunately Ryan withdrew his participation from his race earlier in the month so he wouldn’t be giving me that US Marathon record that I was looking for!


Race day as they all do came pretty early on Sunday with us getting on the Metra and getting downtown at 6:30. The forecast for the day predicted temps in the mid 80’s with clear skies so I knew the weather wasn’t going to be any help at all. Typically, I really like it to be down in the mid 40’s at start time. This day we’d be starting in the low 70’s. That’s great weather for spectators, not so good for runners. My first impression of the Marathon when we got into the start corral was man, this is incredible. There’s something about being a part of 38,000 runners who are all sharing a common goal of trying to finish a marathon that is hard to fully express in words. The other element that made the experience so incredible was the tremendous spectator support that was out there on the course. It wasn’t like other events that I’ve done where there have been spotty spectators at best. Chicago was non-stop people from start to finish. Each neighborhood that I ran through had its own identity and its own unique way to celebrate the runners. Whether it was dressing up in costumes, making signs, playing instruments, or handing out candy along the way, each spectator I passed made this marathon unique. One of my favorite moments was running through the northside of town and there along the side of the road were some people holding what had to be a 12’ tall cutout of Brutus Buckeye. I had to shout out “OH” and there was on cue a thunderous “IO” response. A lot of runners near me laughed and one even commented how cool of a saying that was. Of course it is.

The excitement and energy of the crowd wasn’t going to be enough to carry me through all the remaining miles on this day though. I knew that by the time we got to mile 13. The heat was catching up with me and of course, the lack of any real training miles in my legs would be my real limitation. I told myself at that point to just try to get to mile 17 and than evaluate what to do at that time. I knew Jen would be in that general area and if it was going poorly, I could call it a day then. Mile 17 came and although I was suffering, I was able to play a mind game with myself that I was finally down into the single digits of miles left in the race so there really wasn’t that many more to go. Funny how after you’ve run that far those 9 remaining miles seem short. That would be a game I would play in my mind for the remainder of the race as well as giving in and walking. I began that at mile 18. I’d walk a little bit and then run for a little bit. Honestly, my legs felt relatively fine and I wasn’t noticing any pain where my fracture occurred but it was I just getting tired. I hadn’t done any type of cardio work for longer than 2 hours and the way this day was going, I knew it would be closer to a four hour effort to reach the finish. I knew there was no dishonor in walking though as there were a lot of people walking at this point in the race. I had seen people walking as early as mile 10 so I knew I was ahead of a lot of people out there. So the remainder of my race would be walking for a while and running for a while. I’m actually surprised that I finished as quickly as I did because it felt like I was doing so much more walking than actual running.

I crossed the line in 4 hours and 32 minutes. That was 45 minutes slower than I thought I should have finished. My only consolation was that my cousin Tim finished 30 minutes slower than his goal time and Pat finished 40 minutes slower than his goal time. We all agreed that if we had been running the race solo, that we would have quit that race. This was by far the worst marathon that I’ve ever run but it’s also the one I’m most proud of. Although I wasn’t physically prepared to run this race, mentally I was able to persevere and make it to the finish line. I’m officially retired from marathons now. I think I’m better suited with how little time I seem to have these days to run ½ marathons and shorter events. However, as I’m sitting here in a Columbus hotel the night before the Columbus Marathon (Jen is running the ½), I’m getting the itch again. Maybe another shot at Chicago next year?

Here is the data from my Garmin for the day. The first two miles are bogus data as my watch was having trouble dialing in with all the tall buildings we were running next to.

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Chicago Marathon, Part I

It has been a long time since I've sat down to blog anything. So long in fact that I wasn't sure I would remember my username and password here but fortunately, I was able to retrieve it from the back of my mind and here I am...sitting at my laptop typing away my 2010 year. My big (and only) goal for the year was the Chicago Marathon which occurred last weekend (10.10.10). From my initial registration in early February, it's all that I've had on my mind. Turn a corner in my house and there was a copy of the route staring me in the face. Open up the cabinet door to grab a snack and there was the route map asking me if I really wanted to grab an Oreo. No matter where I turned, Chicago was staring me in the face. So knowing there was a hefty registration fee on the line, I decided I'd try to find a way to get to this marathon healthy for a change. Some reading this post might remember that I have a poor history with marathons. Training for Columbus in 2008 I suffered a stress fracture in my Femur and was only able to complete in the 1/2 marathon. Cleveland 2009, had IT Band issues, started suffering at mile 10 but gutted it out to finish in under 4 hours. Then in the fall of 2009, I suffered a hip flexor strain which set me back but on minimal training leading up to it, I completed the Columbus marathon in 3:38. My goal for Chicago was to get there healthy and finish faster than 3:30. In the back of my mind, I was hoping that my training would go so well that I could get a Boston Qualifier which for me would be finishing faster than 3:15. No pressure though, the real goal was just to find a way to get to Chicago healthy.


So mapping out a plan and working with an old friend of mine who helped coach me during my bicycle racing days, the plan was to stretch out my training so that in lieu of a typical 20 week training plan, I would slowly build up over 8 months so my body would have time to adjust to the increased mileage and this would also give me ample opportunity to rest. Going through the spring the training was going great. I was shedding pounds and becoming a stronger runner. I entered the Cleveland 1/2 marathon and ran a PR time of 1:38. Mid-distance runs (5 to 6 miles in length) were becoming easy. I was feeling that running tempo's at 7:30 min/mile were becoming too easy. That was a good feeling.


Unfortunately, that feeling was about to change in mid July. I had just completed a tough hill workout and on my next day's recover run, I noticed some soreness in my shin. Not thinking much of it I continued on my run and chalked up the soreness to a tough workout. That soreness lingered on for the next several weeks so at the end of July I decided to breakdown and go see my sports medicine physician just to see if there was anything serious going on. Sure enough, there was trouble in River City. Doctor said the x-rays didn't show a fracture but there was signs of the bone trying to heal in the area where I was having some pain so that was an indication of some micro-fractures. His recommendation, back off on weekly runs but still try to get my long runs in. Sweet Chicago was still on track! The next big run after this appointment was a 15 miler. I've taken to doing all of my long runs down in the Valley on the Towpath. Although it's an out and back route to get the mileage in, it's always a softer surface than the road, there's plenty of drinking fountains and bathrooms on the route so it's a lot like running unsupported like I would in a long road race. I have to believe that if the bone wasn't fractured before that run, it certainly was afterwards. In hindsight, what I should have done was not to do the long runs but keep up with the small runs and do those on a treadmill. I knew at that moment, that any great time in Chicago was most likely out of the question. My only hope was to get back on the bike, renew my membership and the gym and try to cross train until I could get healed up enough to start running again. It took about 4 weeks before I could really start running again but it was slow tempo, short distances and on a treadmill. Before I knew it, the Akron Marathon was staring me in the face and I had previously registered to run the 1/2 as a test for Chicago. I find it funny that when I registered, I thought it would be a test to see what kind of time I might be able to aim for but this time, I was running it to test my leg and to see if I could even run Chicago at all. The aim was to run slow and try to finish pain free. I finished in 1:48 which wasn't horrible and I only had mile soreness in my leg. I saw that as a win-win situation, I knew I could run Chicago and I thought I could put together a good time.

With only two weeks between Akron and Chicago, the only thing I could do was be optimistic.

Part II of Chicago Marathon coming tomorrow night.

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Miner's Blog Update

I have no idea if there is anyone out there in the blog-o-sphere who bothers to read this blog or not anymore. More timely updates would probably guarantee more readers. Since my posts have in general been sports/fitness related, I will avoid filling in details from the past several months like Christmas, Elves & More, New Years, etc. If you really want to know the details, check me out on Facebook.

Having made the transition last year to 'runner', I felt it was time to make a shift back to more generalized training. What exactly does that mean? To me, it means having a good balance in several different activities. Fitness should be more than cardio and it should mean more than being able to run 26.2 miles or riding my bike 100 miles. All those are great goals from specific sports, and I have had fun achieving them both, but with my two sons getting older, I'm really having to find the need for better balance so that they can grow up with having a father around...something that I wasn't given the pleasure of having until later in life, but that's a story for another day. (I think my careful use of punctuation has avoided a run-on sentence there but it looks like I pushed it to the limits!)

In 2010 I will only be running one marathon in the fall. This Monday I registered for the Chicago Marathon that happens on October 10th. In my previous training experiences, I believe that I need a substantially long training block which gives me lots of rest periods to get me to the start line healthy and in peak physical condition. I have had some type of injury at the two marathons that I've run which kept me from performing at my best and the third one I had to completely cancel due to a stress fracture in my thigh. By picking a marathon in the fall, I have 10 solid months of training time to get me up to the long training runs that I need to complete it while not hurrying the process and putting my body under any additional stress. What I like about this concept is that it also allows me the opportunity to get back on the bike. I never really got off the bike but there's a huge difference between commuting to work and riding with my buddies from the race team. I have no intentions of racing this year as I don't think I can sacrifice Saturday's and Sunday's away at the races but I look forward to joining the team on the ritual Thursday night training rides out at Middlebranch. For anyone who has ridden with the team there, those efforts are more difficult than 90% of the races that I have ever entered.

So, as I mentioned previously I wanted to have a more rounded fitness routine. So far I have only addressed running and cycling, not quite well rounded yet. I'm happy to say though that I now have a membership at my neighborhood gym (The Natatorium in the Falls) where I am swimming three days a week and doing some strength training. I'm hoping to also start lifting with Tim House at his local fitness local (a.k.a. his basement)as he has a lot of experience and can help guide me in the direction that I need to become well rounded. So how do I do this while still not sacrificing time with my family....early morning workouts. I am at the gym or in my basement by 5:00 a.m. to get it all in before work. It makes for a long day but I'm willing to live with it.

Until next time,
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Columbus Marathon

This past Sunday was the 30th annual Columbus Marathon. This was my second marathon attempt this year, the first being in the spring in Cleveland. Having run the half marathon in Columbus last year, I knew what to expect and I wasn't disappointed. Cleveland has a lot to learn from other cities. From Columbus, they can learn how to put on a great event. Plenty of free swag, a great, safe course, plenty of fluid stations and most importantly, lots of people out cheering you on. Of course, Cleveland struggles here in that they run their event downtown and in the business districts where people don't live. Nobody wants to drive to actually cheer on strangers running...do they?

After losing 8 solid weeks and the majority of my long training runs due to an injury, I had no real expectations other than trying to make it to the finish line. (For example, in lieu of running 40-50 mile weeks, I was running 8 to 20 mile weeks. Lost lots of opportunities there to increase fitness levels). Sunday morning I woke up early feeling good, ready to tackle the days challenge. For me, that usually means trying to calm the nerves and get some food in me. This time around I had no problems. I think I finally got my thinking right in that all I was doing was going out for a long training run. Nothing less, nothing more. This took all the stress away from me for the day and I think that helped big time when I approached the start line that morning.

My plan for the day was to hook up with the 3:30 pace group which would equate to roughly an 8 minute/mile pace. I knew that this was probably a bit too ambitious but I didn't want to sell myself short as I knew that on any other day, I could probably comfortably keep that tempo. The miles went exactly as I remember them going last year, effortlessly. There was a point around mile 6 where I contemplated leaving the group and going ahead since I felt that great. Fortunately I was able to reason that there was still a lot of miles left so I was patient and decided to wait until later in the race to make moves like that if I still felt that good. That decision probably saved my day from disaster.

I was happy to hit the 1/2 marathon mark. Not only for the mental benefit of knowing I was half done, but to also lose 9,000 runners who wouldn't be going the rest of the distance. Running solo on training runs, I don't have to worry about adjusting my stride or pace for others. Running in a large group like this I was always having to make minor adjustments as people were trying to squeeze into the smallest of holes to move up. Seemed sort of funny to me to make such great efforts for such minor gains.

Approaching the water station around mile 15 I took a bit too long to get my water and get moving again. Although I run through the stations, the pacer leading the group does not slow down at all. Not sure how they do that but I learned it's better to get ahead of them before a stop rather than get behind them and try to catch back up. Mile 15 found me not being able to get back into the group. I wasn't worried as I was only 10 feet behind them and not losing any more ground to them. This pattern would hold up until mile 18 where things slowly started to get away from me. The data below shows that at each mile, I started adding on seconds per mile. I account this to two things, the lack of training runs at these distances and not enough nutrition during the race. I had a bowl of cereal in the morning and then I popped Cliff Blocks starting at mile 3 and continued every 3 miles until mile 12. I had taken the Gu they were handing out at mile 7 but that didn't settle well with my stomach. I missed the Gu stop at mile 15 and started popping the Cliff Blocks again after mile 18 once my stomach settled down. I also learned at Cleveland to avoid the Gatorade as the mix's are a bit heavy and tend to upset my stomach as well. Instead of an energy drink, I was running solely on water. I assume at this point that I had depleted my body of the glycogen it needed and that my body was burning fat for fuel. I'd be interested in some others observations on this so feel free to send me your comments.

The last 10k were rough in all honesty. I was tired but my body just plain hurt. I was happy that my hip injury wasn't causing me problems, but now my legs, bones and joints just hurt. That's to be expected though and all you can do is suck it up and carry on. At mile 20, I certainly wasn't going to quit and run, walk or crawl, I was making it to the finish line.

Finishing this race was awesome. I was a big boy and didn't cry but it was an emotional experience. Glad to have completed it, glad to have pushed myself to my limits and glad that I had fun. I can honestly say that I had fun on Sunday.

So what's next? As of now, that's too early to say but I'm considering tapering back to only 1 marathon a year. Most likely a fall marathon so I can do all my running/training outside in lieu of on a treadmill during the winter. I'm going to continue to run and look for 1/2 marathons and 10k's to keep my fitness level but I'm also looking forward to getting back on my bike and getting back out with my friends.

Here's a link to my Garmin Data.

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11 Days to Showtime

Only 11 more days until the Columbus Marathon. You can say that I've been training for this event for over a year now since it was my intent to run the full marathon there last year but injury forced me to downgrade to the half instead. I have been running nonstop since then.

I'm beginning to believe however that marathons might not be my 'thing'. Here's my case history: Columbus 08' injured w/ fractured femur; Cleveland 09' ran marathon with an IT Band injury but I finished the race; Columbus 09', Hip Flexor strain and thigh splints. So far I'm 0 for 3 in terms of getting to my goal races healthy. I wonder how many runners get to their races really feeling good?

I'm still planning on running the race. I've worked too hard at this point to quit. The good news in all of this is that I'm finally back to running some mid level distances (14-16 miles) which gives me some confidence but the bad news is that I'm running them painfully slow to keep the pain manageable, approximately 60 seconds/mile slower than my goal pace. If I complete the race, I should expect to finish up around my Cleveland time which is just under 4 hours. That's a hard pill to swallow considering that I was on target for finishing at 3 hours and 30 minutes.

I will stop complaining now and focus on having fun which is really why I got into this thing in the first place. It will be fun running among 12,000 other runners. It will be fun seeing the thousands of spectators line the streets cheering everyone on. It will be fun to cross the finish line at the end of a hard effort. My plans are to enjoy this one and worry about the future another day.

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My rambling thoughts...

I seem to be starting all of my blog updates these days with…it’s been a long time since my last blog. To be honest with you, I find myself using Facebook more these days than anything else, so if you’re interested in more timely updates, I’d recommend checking me out over there.

I’ve heard the media report in the past months that as Americans, we are living in the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression. I’m not an economist and I don’t pretend to be one but until this last week, I wasn’t completely feeling the effects of this recession that we’re living in. Last week, the office that I work for unfortunately laid off 10 employees. That might not seem like a large number until you realize that this is 25% of the entire staff. Fortunately, I wasn’t one of the 10 and I still have my job. Unfortunately, I lost the opportunity to work with, learn from and mentor to some of the greatest architects, interior designers and architectural interns that I knew. It was a big blow to the office and I can only imagine what they are all going through at this moment. Unfortunately for the State of Ohio and our great nation, these 10 only make up a small handful of people that are loosing their jobs everyday. I do not have the answers on how to solve the situation but I can only trust that our elected officials can and do so quickly. Also, if you’re looking for a new building or having your current one renovated…give me a call!

The only reason I am bring this up is I’ve been thinking a lot about the media statement about this being the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression. I am fortunate to still have my grandparents who grew up the Depression and I’m lucky to be able to have a great relationship with them. I wonder if my grandparents would have been interested in buying the new iPone or LeBron James new $160 pair of basketball shoes. I don’t have to think a lot about this because I know the answer is no. Priorities for this greatest generation were to simply live, buy food, clothes and try to keep your house. Times are different now then they were then so it's not an easy apples to apples comparison for me to make so I will refrain from doing so.

Please don’t get me wrong, I don’t condemn those who have the expendable income to get these gadgets, for those who may not, please play it more conservative so I don’t have to keep paying for your mistakes. Of all the s@#t I've had to deal with because of my parents, the lesson of being financially conservative seems to be paying off for us right now.

I’ve been asked why I’m not racing this year. Focusing on running is a good excuse but it’s not the only reason. In all honesty, I just can’t justify the economic cost this year. From the $60 USCF race license to the $20 min. race entry fee, that’s money that I’m taking away from my family for things that they could be doing. If I look at the savings for an average year of cycling, I’m already at $300 on these fees alone, not factoring in things like food, travel, equipment, etc. I know it doesn’t seem like much and in the big picture, it’s really only pennies to the dollar but I made the decision early in the year that I’d rather save that time and cost and keep it in the family, perhaps to help pay for our family vacation…which by the way we didn’t go on this year just to play it super conservative. I hope the situation will change so I can get back out there with all of you next year.

Ok, that’s enough for my ramblings right now. As you can tell, the recent changes at the office have had a profound effect on me and I’ve always treated this blog as my therapy session, whether anyone agrees or disagrees with my statements. I promise that the next blog posting will be much happier.

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Updates

I've said it more than once so far this year but this time there seems to be some actual truth to it. I am finally riding my bike again. Let me emphasize that I'm only riding, not doing hardcore 2x20's or other threshold training workouts for all my racing buddies out there. I'm happy to be just back out on the bike. I was finally able to get serious when I got back to commuting to work via bike. It's only 5 miles into work but on the way home, I can take as long as necessary. With quick access to the Valley and having both Tim and Josh living up here, it makes for a nice opportunity to get some decent miles in. My hopes are to stay consistent and to at least ride after work 2 out of the three days that I ride in by bike (I can't ride everyday due to having to drive to project meetings, pick up the kids, etc.). I most likely won't ever get that high end race fitness that I would need to be competitive this season but with no racing (other than jumping into the Chapel Races in July) on my schedule this year, I'm not worried. I only need to try to stay close to Troche and House on our training rides. Fortunately they're good 'mates' and although Troche takes sheer delight in dropping my a#$ on any climb now, he always seems to wait up.

Marathon news......I'm training for Columbus this fall. I'm not becoming a marathon junkie, only want to have a better experience than I did in Cleveland this spring. After Columbus I'd like to be able to run the giants of marathons like New York, Chicago and of course Boston. Who knows, maybe add London and Berlin to that list! I won't get ahead of myself.

See you out on the road...don't pass by too fast.

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