Progress this week

I've had a bit of a roller coaster in the past week, but things are starting to look up.

I was getting some nasty dehydration issues a week ago that I was never able to overcome.

It seems like Tuesday tipped it off. Whatever I ate for lunch was causing me some cramping and dehydrated me before the track workout. I don't think I ever fully recovered from that. After that, Bastille Day 5K was a flop. Then Friday night's 10 miler was supposed to be an "easy" run with Jason, but it was far from easy. The humidity hurt. Could've been worse though, I guess I could've been hurled over on the side of the path sticking my finger down my throat...?

Saturday's 18 was the low point... I didn't get a lot of sleep Friday night, and I swear everything I drank to rehydrated myself went in one end and right out the other end.
I was supposed to do a long workout with Mike and Jason, but pulled the plug before we even kicked it off. It was a good thing too. I would've died. I instead hung back and still had a death march in the last few miles. That was my ugliest and most difficult long run in a month.

A couple good nights of sleep, and swamping my system w/ fluids put me back on the map though...


Monday night's tempo was great. Whatever recovery I did since Saturday worked wonders. It was the first time in a while that I actually felt fast + strong. Splits were 5:49, 5:40, 5:47, 5:44, 5:30, 5:34... (those are Chicago miles, so #'s 2 and 5 are short by probably 6 to 8 seconds).... but the important point is, I did the same exact workout a couple weeks earlier in some nasty heat and pulled a positive 30 split. This week, the weather was slightly better and I was now a negative 28 split... and had gas in the tank. That was a big and much needed confidence booster after some of the recent garbage runs.


Wednesday night we did a time trial at the track for Claudia. Goal was 3200 w/ laps 1-5 @ 82, #6 @ 81, #7 @ 80, #8 sub 80.

We loosened up with 4x 200 @ 36+37's w/ 200 outs. Then a 5 minute recovery.

3200 went 79.6, 82.5, 82.7, 83, 83.5, 80.9, 82.4, 75.9 = 10:50.7 First 200 was a little fast, and a couple of the laps with some strong head winds in the final 100, but otherwise it was about as perfect as we could've run it.

Topped it off with 4 nice 400's @ 73.4, 72.2, 71.4, 70.4 w/ 60 rest. I think I was actually more happy with the 400's than the 3200 - each was 1 second faster than the prior.

That was a very cool workout! I'm going to try it at least 1 more time before October.


Saturday will be my first long run w/ hills. Going out to Waterfall Glenn. We're going to run two laps of the Xtreme 10's route.

They can't all be winners

I've had a couple solid weeks of training... I'm back towards 60 miles/week, with some quality work. I’ve had a couple decent tempo and track workouts, albeit slower than I'd like. Some very good 15/16 mile runs, which included progressing the pace towards some sort of "marathon goal pace" for at least a few miles near the end of those runs.

I am still feeling some tightness in my hip, but it seems to be manageable. I haven't had a massage in about 3 weeks and am probably due for one, and I'm still getting acupuncture once every other week. My sleeping patterns are horrible right now… I’m barely getting 7 hours.

That said, I've had a reintroduction into racing as I've participated in 3 events in the last 2 weeks. All three have been very humbling experiences. In spite of some ultra conservative goals, they all fell short of my expectations - and I have lame excuses as to why they weren't good races.


6/27 - Old Man Mile @ 5:04
Goal was to go sub-5. I don't care what happened earlier in the day... 4:59 was still a conservative goal. Instead, a very poor showing for my 1-mile debut. 5:04 was slower than my fastest mile, which was about 5 flat in a track workout... and far from what I'm capable of, which should easily be sub 4:50.
It was a fun experience, considering I've never raced anything that short before. It was over so quickly though! I mean only 5 minutes. I’m used to dragging it out over hours. I felt like there wasn't even a chance to get into a rhythm. More like "just run a fast 800, then hang on to as much discomfort as you can for the next 800, and try not to die." Unfortunately, I was a great big giant pussy about it... I was trailing a small pack, and then I mentally caved. After 800, it was either hang or be done and run comfortably... I chose the latter. The excuse was, I ran 16 miles at a solid pace in the morning, then spent the day at the beach, and even had a few beers. It was a long day, and I was tired... so I told myself after 800 that I didn't care. But of course after the fact, I did care! 2 weeks later, and I’m still pissed about it. 19 miles total that day, and I was still a pussy.

7/4 - 4 on the 4th @ 22:40
Here's a great idea... let's go run 16 miles hard the day before a race (slowest mile was 6:50, average was sub 6:30)... then hit the beach, get all dehydrated, watch a bunch of fireworks down at Grant Park, eat very little, drink no water, drink a ton of alkihol, get drunk, then go to bed after midnight... then get up at 5:45 am to run a 4 mile race.... Serious, I was still drunk when I woke up, and I felt like a crumpled up $1 bill at the starting line. A couple mile warm up shook some of it out of me, but it didn't stop me from having a terrible race. It was a miracle I didn’t puke! 5:30's for the first couple miles, then 5:50's for the second couple.... hence 22:40 when I should've easily gone sub 22. I really had no goal at the starting line, other than get back to bed ASAP. This was pathetic.

7/9 - Bastille Day 5K @ 17:01
I should've PR'd this race. My 5K PR was (and still is) 16:55 from Oakpark in April 2008. Last year I ran 16:57 at Bastille Day. I'm long over due to reset the 5K bar.
Admittedly, this race is usually a heater, and avoiding a fade in the conditions is almost impossible. I thought to myself that this year might be different though... it was only like 75 degrees (better than 85!). Yeah, think again.
I'm really not sure why, but throughout the day I had some stomach/digestion issues going on. I’ve actually felt it all week long. I had a big salad for lunch and in hind sight, this probably killed me. After lunch, I wasn't able to hold anything in my system. I became very dehydrated well before the race. Even on a warm day, this would’ve been a mix for disaster. And of course, going into the race I thought about this all too much. More than likely, I probably convinced myself that this was going to be my excuse and it was OK to bonk.
I hung with Chris and Michael through the first mile... we rolled 5:19. Jason and a couple others were slightly ahead of us. Sub 16 guys had their own pack up front. 5:19 was slightly faster than I wanted, but I didn't feel too horrible. Thinking I had some time in the bank, I decided to relax and back off slightly. I let Chris and Mike go... Second mile was 5:27. Maybe I pulled back too much? But I was still doing fine. Just holding that pace would’ve given me a sub 16:50. Mile 3 was a bomb though. My gut was wrenching and only gas pedal I had was the kind that desperately required a pit stop... and I was badly in need of it. My body was done. Towel was thrown in. Mile 3 was a 5:40, and there was no kick. 17:01. I don't care how out of shape I was a month or two ago... and I don't care how many track workouts I haven't had... I should've been able to walk this thing backwards faster!
(A shout out to Mike and Chris – Huge PR’s! Nice job guys!! I wish I could’ve been there with you.)

SO, ripe with excuses... 3 disappointing race. The good news is that I'm starting to feel good about running fast again. Bad news is that I still have a lot of work to get back to where I was pre-Boston.

I need to start acting like a competitive runner again. I need to kick the excessive toxins out of my system, eat better, and definitely get more sleep. If I'm going to train hard and run races, I can't give myself any chances for excuses to enter my head.

Talk is cheap. Time to get to work.

My next race is in 2 weeks: Waterfall Glen Xtreme 10 Miler. It's a tough and hilly course, and generally very hot. Unfortunately, I haven't had any hills since April... and that heat will be a bitch... so, I'll probably be happy with anything under an hour. If I can pull my shit together though and everything clicks, I should be able to go sub 58.

Is it Hades or Haiti?

Which ever it is, it's pretty hot there... and it's just as hot here too!

Weather in this city is shit. Chicago has 2 seasons: Winter and Summer. We go from bitter cold to blistering hot over night. OK, that's a lie. There's like a 2 week window on either side when we get pleasant 60 degree temps. All other times of the year, we're either below 50 or above 80.

Last week, I was bitching about having to run in TWO SHIRTS. This week, every run is a shit show with 90+ degrees. That switch got flipped last Friday. Summer's here until mid October. Now I'm not complaining - because I do looove the heat and the summer - but man, I feel like that heat's gonna kill many of my hard workouts this season.

Monday's tempo was brutal. Easily mid-80's. 5 mi, averaging probably 5:50's... excluding warm up and cool down. Most of the other guys went 6 or 7 miles. I have no idea how they managed. At least I managed to negative split the run as the last three miles were sub 5:45.

Last night, Chris and I struggled through 10x400's. The surface of the track had to be about 90-95 degrees. I was dripping buckets of sweat the moment my heart started beating north of 120. We were pretty steady though... splits were mostly 74-75's. A couple 73's. The heat took it's toll and we had to go from 60 sec recoveries, up to 75, then 90 seconds by the last couple.

After both of those hard workouts and a 9 day streak... my longest in probably 3 months... my hip has tightened up a bit. Not horrible, but defintely to the point that I need to give it a break. Taking today off. Hopefully a little rest will get let me bounce back on Friday feeling fresh.

Slowly but surely the rabbit returns

I've now had 3 weeks back in the 40's, and so far so good. No new injuries. Still some tightness in my hip, but the pain is significantly less aggravating than a few weeks ago. For the most part, my runs have all been "painless" (I don't want to say 100% pain free, but the pain has definitely been less noticeable)... So far, a successful come back from some very garbage post-marathon/injury mileage.

The only major problems is that I still feel physically out of shape. My cardio is no where near where it was. Just lots of easy runs, no major quality or speed... but my fitness is starting to show improvement and a come back.

My diet has consistently been garbage lately too. I'm easily 5+ pounds heavier than when I ran Boston. That's not a bad thing... but I feel like I need to give up some excess junk like cappuccinos, garbage carbs, alkihol, eating out, and too much cheese. Too much fat. I need more lean. Oh how I love my cheese though! At times, I think I'm single handily keeping Baker Cheese in business.

One noteworthy run: Last Saturday's 15 miler was much easier than the previous 15. It was during the first hot day of the year too (easily 80 w/ some intense sun). The first several miles were around 7:15 pace... then Claudia and I started to slowly pick it up. About 6 miles were at 6:45 or faster. I felt strong the whole way... though the dehydration and lack of gatorade hurt by the end. That was my first "solid" run in months as I actually felt my endurance coming back.

This week I should be above 50 miles. A good tempo run tonight, another 15/16 at the end of the week... and get this... an Old Man Mile on Saturday night. ...Sure to be a shit show given my lack of speed lately, but fun nonetheless.

Electric Boogaloo Wins Again!

MC200

My EB posse and I competed in a relay race from Madison to Milwaukee to Chicago last weekend. 203 miles, 36 legs split between 12 guys (14, including 2 VERY dedicated van drivers).

We won for the second year in a row. 20hrs, 43 min. A blazing 6:08 pace!

On a side note: A 203 mile relay race is a pain in a ass! When you're running, you're trying to maintain 1/2 marathon -or faster- pace. When you're not running, you're driving to the next exchange area where runners cycle through the line-ups. All the while, you're crammed in a sweaty, stinky, trash filled van with a bunch of other dudes... The only time for stretching is when you're out cheering for teammates. Warm-ups and cool-downs are a joke. You get no sleep. Food is garbage. Your body is constantly in race mode (ie, very dehydrated and shitting non stop). After 15+ hours, it takes a huge toll. You get extremely sore, tired, slap-happy, and cranky.... and you have to keep racing!

Last year, we ran with 9 guys (rotating the line-up 4 times each). This year we ran with 12 guys (3 legs each). It was significantly hotter last year, which really took a toll on our 4 legs... Simple math would say that it should've been easier with 12 guys this year, than 9 guys last year.... but I swear this year was equally, if not more difficult than last year.

Maybe for me, it's because I'm still just coming back after Boston and my hip troubles? Maybe I just didn't like being late in the line-up, and waiting longer for my final leg? Either way, last year or this year... the final legs hurt! There's something about staying up for 36 hours while doing intense physical activity. It isn't what I'd call fun. We were all pretty spent by the time we got to the finish line at Montrose Harbor.

Of course I can whine about it after the fact... but the victory was totally worth it! The sweet's not so sweet without some bitter.



There were about 115 teams in the race. We started at 4pm with 4 other teams. The 110 other teams started a little earlier in the day. Starts were staggered so that slower teams went earlier, and ideally everyone crossed the finish line relatively close to one another.

Our goal was to 1) claim overall victory in the race for the second year in a row, and 2) be the first team to finish line, road killing everyone else.

Our line-up:
1 - Johnny Lance Romance
2 - Pflipper Kepler
3 - Monster Martineau
4 - Kfan...dell
5 - Paulie Johnston
6 - Mark the kid Wehrman
7 - Hi Guy wanna be, Chris Woods
8 - Dan the hairless McDowell
9 - Eric Shak 'n Baker
10 - Verdo Giorty
11 - Jason Creamer
12 - Rabbit


After the first couple legs, only 1 of the teams starting with us put up a fight. The other teams were very respectable, but we were averaging sub 6:00 min miles through the first 2 rotations... that's kind of aggressive, given a 203 mile race!

Courgar Running Club became our challenger. They're from the western Chicago burbs... a bunch of college and high school punks with muscles made of rubber. We were the old farts (or at least in their eyes)... but with miles and marathons of experience on our legs.

Through the first rotation, the Cougars were actually ahead of us by about 20 seconds! The lead had exchanged number of times. We knew it wasn't going to be easy, but we didn't think it would be this intense. We were actually sweating it. In spite of having a few very solid college runners though (even faster than us), the cumulative distance running favored us. We knew eventually at least some of their team would crumble. It was just a matter of miles and time.

By the end of the second rotation we were up by about 3 minutes, and running in some steady rain and humidity. Far from a comfortable lead, given there were 70+ miles to go... but it was a small improvement over the first rotation.
Late in the second rotation, the Cougars technically disqualified themselves by illegally changing their line up. That didn't really matter to any of us though. We still were adamant about beating them. This thing had gotten ultra competitive. Emotions were flying. We were sweaty, soaking wet from the rain, and had ~7 hours uf running ahead of us. Both teams were clearly stressed. The easy road kills were starting to roll in at this point, but that no longer mattered. We wanted Cougar blood, and they weren't going down without a fight.

Going into the last few legs of the race, we held the lead but it was difficult to tell the spread... it could've been 5 minutes... 10 minutes...? We weren't sure. The kicker was they had some solid studs for closers. In the first leg, they sunk about 3 minutes on Jason and I over 15 miles... which meant they could handle sub 5:30's without a problem, and possibly do it again. We needed a 10 minute lead to feel comfortable.

I had no idea how much cushion I had as I took the final leg. I got the baton from Jason and just started rolling with a constant eye over my shoulder. I was tired and dehydrated. I knew I could maintain 6's, but I needed to save a little energy in case I had to throw down 5:30's. It was like an invisible hand behind me at all times. In my mind, all of the previous 20 hours and 195 miles had come down to 2 runners and 8 miles. At finish though, the sweat went for naught... we claimed the victory by about 22 minutes! All but 1 road kill was caught by the end... but it didn't matter, because Back2Back baby!


Ultimately our experience did prevail. I mean come on, our average marathon time between all 12 of us is probably 2:50 - and we all have MULTIPLE marathons under our belts. What do they got... a few 5Kers?? I definitely give them props though. It was close, and could've probably been closer. Give them a couple years though, and those cougar cubs will grow up to be menacing lions.


We inked ourselves into the Great Midwest Relay / MC200 Results once again:

Year - Overall Winning Team - Time - Distance
2005 - Fleet Feet Chicago - 20:42:51 (6:27 pace) - 192.4 mi
2006 - Stephanie Skladzien - 21:52:44 (6:54 pace) - 190 mi
2007 - Victorious Secret - 19:55:45 (6:17 pace) - 190 mi
2008 - Fleet Feet Electric Boogaloo - 21:31:40 (6:27 pace) - 203 mi
2009 - Fleet Feet Electric Boogaloo - 20:43:37 (6:08 pace) - 203 mi

3 out of the 5 years running, our Fleet Feet team as dominated this event.

Here's copy from the Electric Boogaloo Twitter:

8:12 AM Jun 12th - Time to cowboy up!
8:34 AM - 40% chance of precip in Milly - WAU - KEE tonight - we might be able to out-run this thing.....PJ's house at 11 bells, the party begins.
10:00 AM - In 6 hours, we'll be burning the streets of madtown!
10:39 AM - Waiting for the other boogalooers.
11:47 AM - JoJo, the boys and the vans are headed to Madison.
11:53 AM - Getting lost on a detour.
12:05 PM - Kathy just mooned a 'Benz.
12:18 PM - Approaching Schlongburg... no time to stop at Ikea tho.
12:41 PM - Listening to one of Ken's cds. awesome!!
1:01 PM - J - you have to see a doctor about that.
1:24 PM - Made it to the land of cheese.
1:51 PM - Saw road sign for gentlemans club: chasin chubbi's.
2:03 PM - I'm been driving 3 hrs from Chicago, you just have to get into it.
3:02 PM - Wally World done. Death star approaching the hotel.
4:04 PM - And were off, lance is bringing up the rear.
4:53 PM - Phlip closed the gap.
5:50 PM - Lance picked off 2, Phlip took 1, monster took the lead.
6:35 PM - 2nd place after leg 5. The cougars are feeling confident. Suckers!
7:03 PM - Van 2 is killin time.. Cw is getting ready.
7:24 PM - Stride for stride through 6.
8:06 PM - Is Dan killing cougar?? Time will tell if we're allowed to mark our 4th road kill. Still havent caught the earlier runners.
8:08 PM - Baker shakin and bakin! Dan gave him 1:30 lead... Cougars are for real right now though.
9:27 PM - Pulling away slowly, new roadkill have been sighted.
10:45 PM - Through 1 rotation- tight race, Cougars brought out the college boyz for the last legs.
10:52 PM - We've got a race! Thru the first 12 runners, we were 20 seconds in 2nd place. They got solid closers!
11:42 PM - After 14 legs we're back about 2 minutes.

12:03 AM Jun 13th - After 15 we're up about 3 minutes.
1:46 AM - Thru 18 - 15 secs up. This is going to be work.
2:39 AM - 20 seconds up after woods... both teams got lost for about 2 mi!
3:17 AM - After Danny boy, solid minute.
3:58 AM - Man down on Cougar's!! They're moving runners up 1 slot. Lance's guy will go 4 legs.
3:58 AM - Thru baker, Verdo had a 245 lead.
4:01 AM - Verdo's guy down, so their studs slide up. Pay attention to your competition!
4:16 AM - Verdo put the smack down. about 4 min spread.
4:18 AM - Their guy is getting stopped by a train crossing!!!
5:23 AM - Competition DQ'd. We are still trying to finish first though.
5:25 AM - There's no trying about it. we MUST beat them to the finish line!
5:26 AM - Lance was in the toilet when his leg started. About 4 min spread.
7:19 AM - Up by 4 min over the DQ'd Cougars after leg 27.
7:27 AM - Cougars DQ'd when injured runner went down, then illegally changed roster.
7:27 AM - ~40 roadkills out there to be had. We must finish first.
8:03 AM - Last leg for van 1. ~5 min lead. Less than 30 roadkill left.
8:04 AM - FF rock steady in our sights.
8:32 AM - Entered ILL.
8:49 AM - 22 to go.
9:13 AM - 15 to go. Go Dan.
9:18 AM - Why so serious, Robert?
9:20 AM - Road killing at its best right now!!
10:04 AM - Dan picked off 8, 7 to go Baker.
10:06 AM - Watchin some talent.
10:30 AM - Three legs to go. At least 8 minute lead.
10:48 AM - 3 more roadkill ahead. They have 22 min lead.
11:22 AM - Somehow we got a girl in our van. And she immediately started stripping!
11:30 AM - Another road kill down.
12:00 PM - Last leg. Go get'tem rabbit. Our championship awaits.
12:12 PM - Roadkill sighted. Robert it's yours.
1:00 PM - Back2back.
3:09 PM - After party at Emerald Loop 6:00.

A reintroduction to Lactic Acid

Last night was the first time I've run "fast" since the week before Boston, or about 2 months. During that previous tempo run, my hip tightened significantly mid-run and I was reduced to a painful walk.

This time around, no troubles whatsoever. I was fatigued and my lungs felt like they were on fire, but otherwise no mechanical problems. My hip actually felt completely normal during the run. A necessary jump start to my training, and it turned out to be a success. I did tighten up a bit on the cool down and I'm a little sore today, but nothing like the pain I was previously having.

In the last several days, I've had 2 key runs: the "15 mile wake up call", and the "welcome back tempo".

Whenever I start to pick my miles back up, these two runs are complete bitches. My body’s not quite ready to handle the lactic acid, and by the end I’m cashed. They feel like they're some of my worst runs - but they're major confidence builders.

15 shouldn't be much different than 13 miles. If I haven't run that distance in a few months though, that extra time on my feet becomes significantly more difficult. The long run becomes a mental and physical battle as it stretches beyond an hour and a half. On Saturday, I wanted to throw in the towel after twelve miles. My feet were dragging and the last miles felt like a death march. Experience told me though, deep down I'd be stronger on the other side if I just sucked it up and focused on putting one foot in front of the other.

Likewise, that first tempo burns. After only a few miles, the intensity will leave you gasping for air and your muscles feeling like concrete.
...Last night, the first mile felt great. I was rolling. 1.5 miles, and I was getting a comfortably fast turnover. 2 miles, and still feeling alright. In reality though, only 25% of the work was done. 2.5 miles, and “Ugh.” I started having doubts of how long I could actually maintain. At 3 miles, I was dying. I couldn't breathe. I was thinking of how hungry and thirsty I was. I needed fuel. Less than 6 minutes to go though. At 3.5 miles, "Suck it up, pussy! Time to throw down." I was toasted by the end. The 75 degree heat and humidity didn't help. It was only 4 miles - a complete joke compared to a few months ago, but the reality is: a starting point for the next step forward.

The 15 miler and the LT Threshold / Tempo runs are hands down, some of my best workouts. The first time through sucked, but they built mental and physical strength and endurance. They forced me to embrace my lactic acid, and going forward I'll learn to manage it more efficiently. That was a much needed kick in the ass to get me rolling again.

3 times a charm

In the last 3 weeks, I've had 3 very deep tissue massages from the master of disaster, which have been very successful at loosening up the junk around my iliac crest... I've had 3 acupuncture sessions, which the last one had a pretty funky e-stim applied to some of the needles (my initial reaction was oouch, but it really did force a couple of the muscles to release and reset)... and I've had some success doing some of my own massage work to help loosen up my glutes a lot more.

All of that combined: my last 3 runs have all been the most pain free runs that I've had since the week before the Cary 1/2 marathon! ...that's nearly 3 months!!

I'm trying to keep a level head and keep the reins in, because I know I'm not 100% yet - there's still a lot of stiffness and soreness in my hip - but running actually feels good again and I want to roll.

All of the miles lately have been in somewhat easier, in the 6:45-7:15 range as I'm still trying to get my turnover and endurance back. This week will finally be 40+ miles again. Then assuming all system's go... there's no turning back. I'll start to reintroduce some light speed next week, MC200 next weekend, and back in the 60's in a few more weeks.

They'll call it a come back

I've been lazy about updating my running log lately. Mostly because I've wanted to chill out and ignore the training for a little while (which has pretty much been impossible). It’s all part of the recovery process after Boston.

Since the marathon, I've been trying to rehab my hip. The troubles have centered around extremely tight muscles / tendons along my iliac crest.... both in the front by the TFL, glute medius, and along the small of my back with the QL. It literally has felt like guitar strings coming off the top of my hip bone, going down into some of those muscles and towards the actual hip socket (greater trochanter).

I've gone through a number of physical therapy sessions, a lot of deep tissue massage work, and even a few acupuncture sessions. Ultimately, we still don't know what the main culprit has been, but we can say that the cause of the problem stems from A) weak glute medius, B) the tendonitis in my right ankle, which was obtained about a year ago from a subluxed cuboid, and C) the fact that I sit almost all day long while at work.

As of now, it does feel better than a few weeks ago, but its far from 100%.


In the process, my mileage has been lame. I basically felt the need to take a few weeks off, while only running once or twice a week. I’ve been working out a bit more often, but otherwise haven’t been doing much cardio. I started to pick it back up again two weeks ago w/ a couple of 30 mile weeks. It's sad because I feel like I’ve gone from being on top of my game, right back to square 1... Shorter distances right now are a struggle for me.

I know it'll come back, but I have to be patient. I lumbered through the Soldier Field 10 Miler last weekend just for the sake of doing it... I was far from being able to race it, but I at least wanted to show up and place in the top 15 for my age group (stupid CARA points!). 63:32 was good enough for 14th and 94th overall.... a far cry from my 10 mile PR - set in the Cary 1/2 Marathon ~58:18.

SO, baby steps for now as things are starting to feel a little better... I’ll gradually roll some of the miles back up ahead of the MC200 (June 12-13th). After that, I still have some time before I really need to jack things up for the Chicago Marathon. October 11th is officially 20 weeks away. This will be my 10th marathon.

113th Boston Maraton

(This posting is way late for a race report, but I'll try to highlight some of the important points)

April 20th, 2009

113th Boston Marathon

2:44:24 (PR), 6:16 pace, 266 place overall, 9th from Illinois

It was slower than I should've, could've, and wanted to go.

But, I have to be pretty happy with the outcome:

• I finished the race.
• I had fun.
• I didn't have any major physical difficulties or blow-ups.
• In addition to the Newton hills, I had nasty 15-25mph head winds for THE ENTIRE race. It was steady, and it got worse as the race progressed.
• A conservative race ultimately left me finishing very strong and disgustingly fresh. I've never before experienced that in a marathon...?
• I snatched a shiny new PR: 2:44:24.

The days and 2 weeks leading into the marathon, my activity was much less than ideal... I put in 27 miles in the previous 7 days; I didn't have any speed work for basically 2 1/2 weeks; my diet was garbage... plus I felt like I was consistently sore. My hip felt like a mess. I was about 138lbs going into the weekend.

Needless to say, I was a complete nervous wreck leading into and throughout the whole marathon weekend. Concern for the weather didn't help. I had no idea how many miles my hip was going to give me, or how fast it was going to let me roll, or if it was going to completely blow up like it did in the most recent tempo run. I was going to war, and I had the very valid concern that I would do some serious damage to myself. I just didn't know where or when that potential blow up might happen. The hills AND the wind combined worked doubly against me. That said, I performed a minor miracle as I had no major pains of any kind during the race.


1st Half: 1:21:37 (6:13 avg)
Paced a good part of the first half with Jason and Dan (through about 10 miles). This helped me morally and was tactful with the early wind.
We took the first couple miles ridiculously slow due to the downward slope. It was a good strategy, as it helped me to loosen up and get ready to roll. I found it amusing that we easily had 1000 runners in front of us after the first mile. I passed most of them over the next 15 miles, and all but 265 of them were passed before reaching the end. I can probably count on 1 had the number of times I was passed after the first couple miles.

2nd Half: 1:22:53 (6:19 avg)
I was running alone for most of the second half. Before the hills (16ish), I had a stead stream of runners to pass. Occasionally, a few guys would try to keep up with me, but eventually I would drop them.
Once I got to the Newton Hills, it became fewer and far between. I had nobody to work with, and nobody to draft from. I basically was left playing a game of leap frog... jumping from one pack to the next. Cutting each of them up as I went along. When I would pull away, some of the runners would draft off my back, sucking on my energy... only to be dropped a few minutes later. Eventually there were no more packs. I then had to reel 1 runner in at a time.
To boot: The wind was steadily picking up through the hills, and significantly on the back side as I got closer to the finish/downtown/ocean. Rarely would it let up.
In spite of a much more difficult environment in the second half, I only lost about 6 seconds per mile, or 1min 22sec from my first split. Most, if not all of that loss was in the hills and being conservative on the down slope from 21-23. Some of my better miles were the last couple miles. I was defintely fatigued, but I was still able to hammer away and keep my pace. This was by far the strongest I've ever felt at the end of a marathon.

It wasn't perfect race, but all things considered for the day, it was about as good as I could've asked for.

I still question how I might have ran with a little more help in the second half of the race. I often found my mind wondering and losing focus in the hills. I was rarely, if ever being challenged by other runners. If I had some pacing, I feel like I could've run a more clean and possibly a negative split.

After I crossed the finish line, I felt disgustingly fresh. I had no major pains in my body whatsoever. I looked around and thought, "That wasn't so bad. What was I so worried about?" I even did a small cool down a few minutes later (about a 1/2 mile + some karaokes).

Who does that?? I just ran a 2:44, and then bothered to do a cool down?!

So bottom line: I may not have had fair shake with the weather and a bum hip, but I still had a very solid Boston Marathon. 266 out of 23,000+. 9th out of Illinois. If I would've used Buffalo on my registration, I would've been 1st.


Mile Splits
1 - 6:42.1
2 - 6:09.8
3 - 6:08.4
4 - 6:07.3
5 - 6:16.7
6 - 6:06.3
7 - 6:09.1
8 - 6:17.3
9 - 6:14.0
10 - 6:15.1
11 - 6:12.1
12 - 6:06.3
13 - 6:10.2
13.1 - 1:21:31
14 - 6:12.1
15 - 6:18.1
16 - 6:07.1
17 - 6:26.4
18 - 6:26.6
19 - 6:17.4
20 - 6:22.7
21 - 6:33.7
22 - 6:16.3
23 - 6:25.2
24 - 6:12.4
25 - 6:18.7
26.2 - 7:32.9 (6:14ish)
Total - 2:44:24

6 days from Patriots Day

I'm just adding it up now… and really, in spite of my hip difficulties in the past couple weeks, I'm only missing about 22 miles from my schedule. Most of which was from the Friday / Saturday that I initially had my mini blow-up... or basically, only 2 maybe 3 runs were skipped from my schedule. Bottom line there: I’m trying to reassure myself that it's really not that bad of a situation. I have 6 more days before the marathon.

Reason I say that is because I'm annoyed that I'm not getting more quality in my taper right now, but I'm at least able to run. Slower stuff hasn't been bothering me at all. Otherwise, I’m pretty much a nervous wreck and I’m reaching for whatever I can to keep a sane mine. My ultimate fear is that I’m going to be 2 miles, 10 mile, 15 or 24 miles deep in Boston… and all of a sudden not be able to bare another step.

Last night (Monday), I went about 9 miles w/ Kmac, including some strides. The pace was a comfortable 710's, going down to about 640's. I felt good the whole way.

Saturday was my last moderately long run before the marathon. 14 miles. It actually went pretty well… a similar pace to last night’s. Saturday's run was a pleasant surprise and somewhat reassuring considering Friday's workout turned into another mess.

So much for "Good Friday": I was starting to feel better through the week, so I took a shot at one last tempo. The goal was for 5 miles of tempo inside of an 8 mi run.
The Tempo started off into some nasty wind (guessing 20mph steady). First mile was about 6:10. Second mile and a half got down to about 5:50. So far so good. I felt strong and comfortable. After the turn, with the wind at the back, Jason and I rolled. We hit a 5:30 mile. Then out of nowhere in the next 1/2 mile, my hip started to tighten up again. I wasn't quite sure what to do with it. Some very sage advice from the kid: "If it's hurting, we should stop right now."
It was smart. I wasn't gaining anything from going further. My endurance and turnover were still there, but I was hitting a breaking point again. There was no sense in blowing it up this time around.

I was able to walk for about a mile, and try to relax some of the muscles and attachments around the actual hip socket, and then lightly jog the bit home. Not a total loss, but definitely not a confidence booster.

As far as the physical therapy… I'm still not totally sold on my ASTYM treatment. I think it seems to be breaking up some of the scar tissue, but it's not loosening things up the way I'd like to see it. I had my 3rd treatment yesterday, another today, and once more before the marathon. I’ve also been doing a fair amount of exercise to strengthen and stabilize my gluts.

I also think I'm in desperate need of a massage. Anyone know of a good therapist?

The clock is ticking. 6 days to go. Mentally, I feel like a nervous wreck. It’ll be a miracle if I can get through this thing.