Bucks County Marathon – Race Report 2012: Part 2

Bucks County Marathon – Race Report part 2: Now what?

If you haven’t read Part 1, you can find it here.

After learning of the NYC marathon cancellation we finished our meal at the restaurant and headed home. Once we got home we dumped our bags in the hallway and exhaled. It was a relief to not have to get ready for a race that had suddenly become the center of frustration and anger for several million New Yorkers. For my kids this meant firing up the computer and PS3 for some video game time and for the wife it meant updating Facebook and seeing what she missed in the last hour and a half on Pinterest (just kidding sweetie). For me it meant finding another marathon… and fast!

I realized once word of the cancellation began to spread there would be 47,000 or so other runners looking to hop into a marathon in the next few weeks. Any races that had space available would fill up fast. Philly’s marathon was already closed to registration so that wasn’t an option (though they would later open up 3,000 slots for NYC refugees for the bargain price of $200). As luck would have it, the race director for the Bucks County marathon (and my new best friend) was able to get me into his race which is about 45 minutes north of my house. I was already planning on attending the race in a Gatorade capacity to support the event, the only difference now would be I’d be running in it as well. Even better I had two more weeks to recover and heal, giving myself an even better shot at breaking 3 hrs. All was right in the world.

Race Day

Yes, I’m excited but I’m also flippin’ cold so let’s get this thing going!

I showed up early race day morning to deliver a few things for the race then spent the remaining time in the car with my race day photographer trying to stay warm. There was a good amount of frost throughout the park and the temp was about 30 degrees with a forecast high in the upper 40′s. With a good amount of cloud cover that morning, gun time approached and the car thermostat hadn’t budged so I stuck to my original wardrobe selection (siglet, shorts, gloves and arm-sleeves). I just planned on being chilly until the start.

Race start to mile 2

As silly as this might sound, we had wave starts even with a field size of less than 450 runners. The initial pavement section and the very narrow towpath just wasn’t conducive to a mass start. We went out in groups of 50 and being in wave one I didn’t have much traffic to deal with until..

Mile 2 thru 13.1

After the first mile and change we left the park area and hit the towpath. This was also the last time I would see pavement for another 23 miles. A point I want to make at this point is that I had prepared for a full pavement, large scale marathon while Bucks is a great small town, trail race. Every marathon I’ve ever run (and practically every training run) has been on pavement. So while Bucks is an outstanding race, it wasn’t what I had prepared for physically or mentally.

Racing this course was a challenge, to say that parts of the towpath were narrow would be an understatement. There was just barely enough room for two runners to run side-by-side in many sections of the course. In fact when running on the river side of the towpath I could easily see how a misstep would put you in the drink.

Between miles 2 and 5 a pack of about 10 runners formed around the lead woman and by the splits we were hitting we all seemed to have the same sub-3 hour goal in mind. Running with the pack, along with the challenges of an unfamiliar trail course, made me have to focus on my footfalls and surroundings more than I’ve ever had to before. There wasn’t more than a step or two of maneuver room within the group I was around so I tried to hang toward the back. It was a bit nerve wracking to be honest. While there were good stretches of packed dirt and cinder there was also sections of gravel, some post Sandy rocks and branches and the occasional cleared (but too close for comfort) downed tree. Adding in some Horse droppings and the occasional dog-walker made the first 13 miles mentally taxing. The first 13 is when I’m usually holding back and conserving my energy, here I was clocking good splits but it was taking more effort than it should have, and I knew it. There wasn’t going to be as much in the tank as expected during the second half.

Mile 14 to 19

After the turn around I spent a mile or two running with the lead female Justyna Wilson who was coming off a first place women’s finish in the inaugural Trenton Double Cross Half-Marathon the weekend prior. We talked for a bit, both of us looking for a 3 hour finish time that neither of us were able to achieve (she got a bit closer than I did on her way to a solid women’s 1st place finish).

As you can see from the splits on the left, Mile 17 was when the course was starting to take it’s toll on me. My Inov-8 150′s which are stellar on pavement were “less than optimum” on the course. I could feel some hotspots developing on the bottom of my feet and my left hamstring was starting to tighten up. I kept leaning hard on the pedal for mile 18 but when the mile 19 split came in at 7:15, with my hamstring beginning to prevent me from maintaining pace, I knew getting in under three hours was most likely out of reach. It now became a matter of holding on to that PR and managing my left side.

Mile 20 to Finish

I had passed the 20 mile marker and a few minutes went by without hearing the familiar “beep”. I looked down and my watch was dead. After looking at the data post-race it was apparent that the tree cover made connectivity to the GPS satellites sporadic. The additional searching drained my 4+ year old Garmin to zero. On the positive side, I didn’t have a constant reminder of missing my sub-3 hour goal. The down side was there weren’t any clocks on the course so I was flying blind and going purely by feel. I basically ran as hard as I could while not allowing my hammy to affect my form.

The final mile was a circular trip around the park so with about 8/10 of a mile to go you past close enough to the finish to see the clock. A solid PR was still there so I finished strong, taking 18th overall and 3rd in my age group. In checking the results recently, I noticed that everyone who finished in front of me was younger than I was. Granted the two guys in my age group were only a year younger but it still counts

Post Race details coming soon in part 3.

Bucks County Marathon – Race Report 2012: Part 1

Note to readers: I’m publishing this race report many weeks after writing it. With all the changes and obstacles that had to be overcome to get to race day I wanted to make sure my emotions weren’t clouding my perspective. Hope it was worth the wait.

- Rob

Buck County Marathon Pre-Race

What I experienced in the training, preparation and execution of running my 2012 fall marathon I’m confident would send any type-A, obsessive compulsive runner to the psychiatrist’s couch. It got weird early and never let up, but in a good way. I’ve discovered the best learning experiences occur and my most fond memories are created when I venture well outside of my comfort zone. The farther, the better. It’s there where you have no choice but to let go of whatever preconceived plans and expectations you have and you give God an opportunity to intervene and send you in new directions.

Jules: This was Divine Intervention! You know what “divine intervention” is?
Vincent: Yeah, I think so. That means God came down from Heaven and stopped the bullets.
Jules: Yeah, man, that’s what it means. That’s exactly what it means! God came down from Heaven and stopped the bullets.
Vincent: I think we should be going now.

While not completely intentional, this has been a major theme for the whole year. In fact I’ve been so successful in venturing outside my comfort zone recently I’d say with a high degree of confidence that I am now somewhat lost. I seem to be in the midst of a continual out-of-body experience without a compass to find my way back (…but in a good way?) along with a dead GPS on my wrist (more on that later). We’re not talking hallucinations here or scenes from a Quentin Tarantino movie, but weird none the less. With all that in mind let’s begin.

Back in April I had a fast enough half marathon time to qualify me for guaranteed entry into the NYC marathon. It was really exciting for me to get into NYC in 2012 since it was exactly 25 years since I ran it back in 1987. It was also my son’s 18th birthday on race day so we had a family mini-vacation planned for that weekend, we were all really looking forward to it.

Spring turned into summer and some exciting things started happening. I became an ambassador for Gatorade and got to met Greg McMillan who mixed up things a bit with my training and put together a custom training plan for NYC. As a result during the summer and fall months I spent a lot of time working with local training clubs and educating athletes on Gatorade’s latest products along with hitting the pavement hard and adapting to my new training plan. It was honestly the hardest working summer for me since 2004 where I was going to Grad school, working full time, and also consulting on the side. I remember taking text books with me on the family vacation that summer (yikes!). Also the record heat we were experiencing in the Northeast this year made all the additional speed work that much more challenging.

It was then in the late summer when I started having some hamstring issues. It wasn’t due to a pull or a specific incident, but just a tightness in the upper part of the muscle where it connects to the pelvis. This has been a reoccurring issue for me the past few years that usually works itself out with some rolling on a tennis ball and sitting on a heating pad during work hours. It was mostly on my left side and looking back I know I wasn’t as aggressive in treating it as I should have been. Over time some tightness then developed in my mid-hamstring area and during a few speed workouts I could feel some twinges shoot down my left leg all the way down to my calf. It wasn’t enough to cause a gait change or hamper my workouts much but I knew it wouldn’t get better on it’s own without some professional help.

By this time it’s early October so I’m getting concerned as race day is about four weeks away. A couple of appointments with a massage therapist did wonders but as most of you know, hamstrings take a notoriously long time to heal. My last massage appointment has 10 days from NYC and at that point I was just hoping things would just fall into place. Since I seem to always have issues leading up to a major marathon, I looked at this as just another obstacle. I mean it wasn’t like some apocalyptic event was going to hit us during race week, right?

Enter Sandy

In the days prior I saw the forecasts and listened to the typical “worst case” estimates but I honestly thought it wasn’t going to hit us. Since Jim Cantore and crew at the weather channel are always hyping up the most recent weather blip I didn’t pay too much attention to it. I realize the forecasters have the health and safety of all of us at heart but the cynic in me just can’t get passed the conflict of interest between alerting the public and the higher viewership the Weather Channel gets along with the higher ad rates they can charge. I continued to work on race day planning and preparations and focused on what I could control.

Landfall

“I’d keep playing. I don’t think the heavy stuff’s gonna come down for quite a while.”

Thankfully there were just some sporadic power outages in my area and no notable damage. As you’ve seen from the news reports though, millions of others weren’t so fortunate. I have many relatives and friends in North Jersey and Long Island. Suffice it to say all the reports of power outages and damage you heard on the news was not over stated, in fact I’m very surprised there wasn’t much outrage in the media regarding the response of FEMA and other federal agencies. I can’t say I’m surprised though, media outrage has become more of a political tool than genuine concern for human suffering in recent years.

On the Wednesday prior to race day, the extent of the damage hadn’t really sunk in yet for me so when the New York Road Runners (NYRR) and Mayor Bloomberg announced the marathon was going to go on, I was excited. I thought the mayor and the NYRR would be in the best position to determine the feasibility of holding the marathon, unfortunately no one factored in the desperate conditions that many New Yorkers were currently in.

It was evident over the next day or two that the marathon had become a symbol of government mismanagement and New Yorkers were now using it to vent their anger and frustration. The negativity and anger had reached a point were I sat down and spoke to my wife about the concerns I had for my safety out on the course. I’d love to say it was out of concern for the suffering (my family among them) that had me thinking of not running, but in all honestly it was the potential of violence from protesters that gave me pause. NYC has no shortage of radicals and nut-jobs that wouldn’t give a second thought to hurting others if it supported some political agenda or protest.

On Friday afternoon we were having dinner at a local restaurant a mere 30 minutes from taking the drive up to NYC when my mother-in-law called us to say the race was cancelled. All four of us (Myself, my wife and two boys) were relieved. We decided to just head home and enjoy the free weekend.

Relief quickly turns into frenzy in Part 2 as I start the search for Plan B.

Philadelphia Rock ‘n’ Roll Half Marathon – Race Report 2012

Philadelphia Rock ‘n’ Roll Half Marathon Pre-Race:

With the race just a short 20 minute drive over the Ben Franklin Bridge, not much race prep was needed. The expo was in the Philadelphia Convention Center which is common and convenient for the big Philly races. I drove in on Saturday and walked a few blocks to the expo. I got into the registration area, picked up my bib and headed in to the expo to check out the vendors. As soon as I left the registration area I found myself in what had to be one of the largest race-related apparel shops I have ever seen, it was huge! Competitor, which took over the race a couple of years ago, is a for-profit organization so I wasn’t terribly surprised but the amount of apparel was quite impressive.

It was great to be able to meet up for a bit at the expo with a Daily Mile friend (don’t worry Marcie, I won’t put our picture on the blog ). We had a great conversation about marathon training, race day strategy, and the overall chaotic state of our lives. It’s funny how you tend to be more conservative in your advice to others than you give to yourself, and Marcie caught me on this when she asked me, “OK, now how are YOU going to run the race?”. We had a good laugh because she’s seen my training and past race reports and knows I tend to have one speed on race day. I did have in the back of my mind that I wasn’t going to put myself in a position to jeopardize NYC in November and if I had any warning signs during the race I’d shut it down. That being said there was no reason given good weather that a PR wasn’t possible, in fact I was expecting it.

Race day morning was uneventful. Got up, got out the door and found a good parking garage about a mile from the start. I wanted to get in about a 2 mile warmup and 2 mile cool down so I figured if I parked far enough away it would force me to get the mileage in for the day to count as a long run. It worked out perfectly as the garage was right next to a Holiday Inn which allowed me to use a proper restroom before heading to the start.

Pre-race tip for Big Philly races: Don’t line up at the first porta-potties you see on the Ben Franklin Parkway, walk further down toward the art museum. I saw the lines at least 20 or 30 deep at the first set while the potties by the art museum had no line at all. This was true last year at the Philly Marathon as well. This is because 90% of the runners are heading west on the Ben Franklin Parkway and usually line up at the first row they see.

Philadelphia Rock ‘n’ Roll Half Marathon Race Start:

It was nice to be in corral 1. While it wasn’t a seeded placement and only based on the estimated finish time I submitted, it was cool to be upfront. The elites were just in front of us and it seemed that most of corral 1 was filled with running teams from NYC. I counted a good 5 or 6 teams from Brooklyn, Central Park and the like. The weather was really nice, there was a cool breeze and the temperature was comfortable. If I was greedy I would say I would have taken another 10 degrees cooler but after the summer we had I wasn’t complaining. The gun went off right on time and we took off headed into the heart of Philadelphia.

Miles 1 thru 4

Only the first four miles take you through the city and the rest of the course takes you up and down the Schuylkill. As long as you can get out in front of your corral as you head into the city you’re OK. If you get caught in a large pack of runners (or the dreaded pace groups) you can get stuck and spend some time and energy navigating around runners and avoiding getting bumped or tripped up. I had planned going out at about a 6:30 pace but I felt good and let my legs dictate the pace a bit. First four splits were 6:20, 6:23, 6:29 and 6:21.

Miles 5 thru 9

At the mile 5 marker you pass the Art Museum where the Rocky statue stands arms raised to cheer you on. The course is very flat and the only flatter course you’d find in the area are probably down by the shore where the only elevation you get is when you pass over bridges. Heading north on Kelly Drive is very scenic, there weren’t a lot of spectators on this part of the course but I was pretty ambivalent about it. I was just enjoying the shade, cooler temps and locking in my pace. The only split that wasn’t in the 6:20′s was mile 9 as we hit the only elevation on the course as we crossed over Falls Bridge to head south on MLK drive.

Miles 10 to Finish

Had less shade, warming temps and splits in the mid 6:20′s as I came around the corner of the Art Museum toward the finish. Knowing I had a PR in hand I just maintained my pace rather than fight off any runners who had spent the last 12.9 miles saving themselves for their finish line photos. I crossed the finish at 1:24:30, 44 secs off my previous best. I knew in my heart that had this been my ‘A’ race I probably could have dialed it up and got in under 1:24 but it wasn’t worth the injury risk or the risk to my training schedule for extra recovery time (see Marcie! I was conservative!). I’ll save a sub-1:24 for next year…

Philadelphia Rock ‘n’ Roll Half Marathon Post Race:

Got a solid PR, some good confirmation of my training and a chance to push myself hard in the heart of my NYC training schedule. As of 9/23 I’ve got six weeks of training left with two of those being recovery weeks. Still a lot of wild cards are out there but a day doesn’t go by where that sub-three isn’t on my mind so the next six weeks will be very focused.

Wild Half Marathon – Race Report 2012

Wild Half Marathon Pre-Race:

It took 16 months but I finally ran this race. I originally registered in April 2011 for the then 2011 Wild Half Marathon. Unfortunately Hurricane Irene had similar plans for a weekend trip to Wildwood, NJ and decided to pay a visit on race day resulting in a cancellation of the race and our family weekend getaway. Fortunately all of the 2011 entrants were given a free entry into the 2012 race and our motel had a nice hurricane friendly deferment policy so we were all set for our in-state vacation this year.

In the interest of full disclosure, this was originally planned as a race weekend masquerading as family fun time (now wipe that look off your face, like none of you have ever done that). After waiting for almost a year and a half I can honestly say I was looking forward to the fun more than the running. This summer my schedule has been completely bonkers, sleep has been at a premium and I had fought a bad head cold all week so I needed some downtime. Add to that my oldest son is entering into his last year of High School so at this time next year we’ll be saying goodbye to him at some college campus. All of that made for a perfectly timed trip for all of us.

We drove down early on Friday afternoon. Part of the race package included free weekend admission to Morey’s Piers which are three large piers with rides and a waterpark. We arrived at the hotel, dropped off our bags, made a quick trip to the expo and then ‘hit the boards’. I don’t want to make this into a vacation report so I’ll try to sum up the non-race part quickly. The rides and waterpark were fun for all of us (even the teenagers), we had a blast. We also spent some time exploring the boardwalk and parts of that were fun too. On the downside, once you spend a couple of days in Wildwood you’ve seen pretty much seen everything. Also some of the boardwalk shops (and their clientele) were… how would my boys say it?… a bit ‘sketchy’. While we had fun I can honestly say we probably won’t return. There are plenty of better beaches, better rides and more family friendly towns in NJ to visit. Glad we went but been there, done that.

While the hurricane activity remained in the Gulf Coast region, this race weekend still had some eventful weather. We experienced the most intense lightning and torrential rain storm I’ve ever seen. Saturday night starting at about 8PM until about two the next morning was unreal. It sounded and felt like the strikes were hitting the motel sign outside our window. The thunder wasn’t making a ‘boom’ sound but instead a sharp, loud ‘CRACK’ along with a blinding light. We were honestly afraid to go too near the windows. Needless to say trying to get to sleep for a 7:30AM gun time was a bit challenging. Also having to reset the hotel alarm clock very 20 minutes or so due to the power going out kept me occupied between midnight and 2:30AM. Things eventually quieted down and I dosed off for what turned out to be a 3 hour nap.

Wild Half Marathon Race Day:

When you can see the air, that’s usually a bad sign.

My loving, supportive wife got up with me at about 6AM and we walked to the start together (did I mention she was loving AND supportive). We knew better that to wake the dynamic duo so we slipped out quietly. First thing that hit me as I opened the hotel door was how thick the air was. High humidity and barely a cloud in the sky… lovely. Temps in the mid 70′s were of little comfort as I thought “Again! Really?!?!”

This race was put on by CGI Racing which holds a couple of Half’s and Tri’s in the NJ/PA area. This is a for-profit company and while I’ve done one other race with them I noticed more this time how frugal the race seemed. The expo had maybe six vendors if that and while some of you may see that as a good thing it felt a bit weird. There were plenty of volunteers and a good crowd at the start though as we lined up and the gun went off promptly at 7:30AM.

Start to Mile 2

The course takes you over the boardwalk for the first mile and a half. I was a bit concerned that morning about traction but it had rained so hard the night before that the boards had a decent grip to them. The biggest problem with that first part of the course was as you came off the boards and onto the street there was an ankle-deep, 20ft diameter puddle you had to run through. Made for a steeplechase feel for the next mile as the water drained from your shoes. What made this it even better was that we ran though that same puddle again around mile 9 (Woo Hoo!).

Middle Miles

Around mile 3 I really started feeling the humidity and a pace that started out in the 6:30′s moved up to the 6:40′s. As I anticipated I was back in heat management mode as the weather made for the limiting factor on my pacing for the rest of the race.

The course was well marked with a good number of water stops (with Gatorade!). As I flew through one stop with the huge G-Bolt logo on my singlet I heard one of the volunteers call to one of his buddies “Oh Yeah! That guy’s taking the Gatorade!” Overall the course was fairly flat and puddle free. There were two bridges we crossed over twice on the out and back but the elevation was trivial.

Mile 11 to 13

By mile 11 I had passed the last runner in reach of me and I settled in on my pacing for the final two miles. There was one runner I saw up in the distance but I didn’t have any realistic chance of catching him, he had a good 30 seconds or more on me as we were approaching mile 12 and I wasn’t about to risk injury or increased recovery time in an attempt to catch him. In a ‘B’ race I was willing to just finish strong and keep runners off my tail.

With about 3/4 of a mile to go we turned into the final stretch where the course went over a cement bike path that wasn’t very runner friendly and that along with navigating around the back end of the 8k finishers made for a less than ideal finish. I did take note that the runner in front of me was getting a little closer. Then he did something you should never do, he looked back…several times. I really had no desire to try to catch him with less than a 1/2 mile to go but there was blood in the water and I felt myself unconsciously picking up the pace.

Coaching Tip: Resist as much as you can the urge to look behind you late in the race. While I’m guilty of this on occasion it results in giving the guy behind you a mental boost because it sends a signal that you’re in trouble or that you want to slow down. Either way you don’t want to give up a mental edge late in the race. Just tough it out and slam the pedal down and you won’t have to worry about who’s behind you.

The Finish

The final 200 yards was over wet mushy sand which made for an unceremonious end to the race. I had closed the gap to about 8 secs but I ran out of course before I caught the runner in front of me and crossed the finish with a official time of 1:28:30. Good for 2nd place in my age group and 17th overall in the official results.

Wild Half Marathon Post Race:

Not the race performance I was hoping for but we all had a fun weekend and any time you bring home some age group hardware you really have no right to complain. So after downing my recovery beverage along with some serious post-race hydration, I received my award and we headed back to the hotel to hop in the car and head home. My wife made the obligatory stop to pickup a Christmas ornament on the way back to the car. Memento in hand, our weekend trip was now complete and it was time to head back to the realities of soccer practices, lesson plans and long weeks. So how many days are there until June 2013?

Marlton Mayor’s Cup 5k – Race Report 2012

Marlton Mayor’s Cup 5k Pre-Race:

The Marlton Mayor’s Cup is my hometown July 4th race. This year was its fifth annual which is coincidental since I’ve tried to run it the previous four years. Vacations and family obligations had always gotten in the way. As luck would have it July 4th fell on a Wednesday and with my sister-in-law’s wedding being 10 days away we had this week free.

Marlton Mayor’s Cup 5k Race day:

For this race I actually have pictures of me as my photographer (and our youngest son) were willing to come to the race. We drove the 5 minutes to the start area and headed over to bib pickup.

The race was really well-organized, a big thanks to race director Carmen Tierno and all the folks in the township for all they did. The field size this year was a record 650 runners and considering the hot weather there was still plenty of water available on the course and in the registration area post race. It’s easy for a local 5k race to get overwhelmed by unexpected crowd size and harsh weather but the Mayor’s Cup had it all handled. We’ll need to figure out how to get Gatorade on the course for next year Carmen…

Before the race and during warm ups it was great to run into some folks I hadn’t seen in years. We got to catch up with a few friends whose kids played in the township leagues with our boys. The conversations centered around High School activities and college acceptance letters and made you realize just how many years had passed since our 8 year-olds were running around the town’s soccer fields.

Me and some shirtless, hairless High School runners. I’ve got some shirts older than these kids.

At about 8:15 I finished my warm up, downed my 01 Prime and then staked out a spot near the front for a 8:30 gun time. This is the fourth race or so that I’ve used the 01 Prime pouch before the start. In all those races I’ve had great starts so I consider it now part of my permanent race day routine.

I stayed over to the side where there was a little slice of shade. I was still sweating just standing at the start as the weather was similar to last Saturday at the Independence 10K. My plan was to go out a little more controlled due to the weather so as not to wilt in the last mile. I didn’t have a time in mind and decided to go out on feel.

Start to Mile 1

The gun sounded and in a mass rush every teenage boy in the township then bolted from the start as if they were giving away free Green Day concert tickets down the street. I made a conscious effort to hold back and not get sucked up into the sprinting hoards. About a half mile into the race the over-zealous and under-trained started falling back and the pack started to spread out a bit.

Smile for the camera!

Over the first mile the heat and humidity hadn’t unleashed their full effect yet but I was mentally preparing for when they did. I heard the beep on my watch as we passed the mile one marker. I looked down and saw 5:53, right away I knew that was too fast in this heat so I let off the gas a bit before my body did it for me.

To Mile 2

The second mile I focused mostly on pace and heat management. I hit every water stop but didn’t drink a drop. It all went on my head to cool me down. I remembered reading it can take 15 to 20 minutes for the body to process about 5 to 7 ounces of water if you are well hydrated. For a race that will last only 20 minutes I didn’t see the point in trying to take in fluids. It did more good on my head. Moderating my pace was working well, I was maintaining position on a few runners and gaining on others. I passed the mile two marker with a 6:12 split.

Mile 2 to the Finish

Either work hard or you might as well quit! – MC Hammer

The heat and humidity were starting to become a factor after the mile two split, temps were in the 80′s and with the heavy rain earlier in the morning it made for another challenging finish. While the field in front of me consisted of mostly High School boys I noticed in the distance one of the runners looked much older. As I closed on him after mile two I noticed a few grey hairs on the back of his head. A tell-tale sign of middle age and possibly in my age group. He had fallen back to me slowly for the past mile so I knew I had an advantage. As I caught up to him he made a comment about us old guys needing to get these young bucks. I agreed and shared with him my disdain for youthful arrogance. We both picked up the pace a bit but he eventually fell back as I was able to pick off a couple of slowing teens.

At about the 2.5 mile point I was jarred a bit as two High School girls went right by me in a gear I haven’t had since Reagan’s first term. Turns out that one of the girls was the three-time champ in the women’s field and she was being challenged by a younger athlete looking to knock her off her throne. The champ out kicked her and came in about 30 secs ahead of me which meant she must have run that last 1/2 mile around a 5 min/mile pace. Very impressive!

My mile three split was again 6:12 and the last tenth was under 6:00 giving me an official time of 18:55, just 12 seconds off my PR from March. Good enough for 15th overall and 1st in my age group. One thing I noticed on the results sheet was that other than a 25-year-old who finished 2nd, every other finisher ahead of me was 20 years old or younger. Lots of fast College and High School track athletes out there so being able to hold my own in that group was an accomplishment.

One oxygen tank and an ice bath please!

Looking back

In four days I had two races, two age group awards and no injuries. I probably won’t do that again (ever) but it was a good experience to test my limits and see the after effects. I think it’s time for a victory dance so feel free to get up from your desks and join me.

Exit question: Where can I get pants like these?

Pineland Striders Independence 10k – Race Report 2012

Pineland Striders Independence 10k Pre-Race:

This was a local 10k about twenty minutes from my house so the only race related activity was filling out the entry form online a few months in advance.

One interesting thing to note is that this race came at the tail end of my first week using my custom McMillan Running NYC Marathon training plan which consisted of the following:

- Tuesday: Approx 10 miles with 20 mins in the 6:40/mile range (VO2Max)
- Wednesday: 75 min easy (9 1/4 miles at 8:00/mile), temps in the 80′s.
- Thursday: Sprint/Leg turnover workout (9 miles with Strides). Outside temp above 90 degrees.
- Friday: 40 mins easy (approx 5 miles, outside temp above 95 degrees)

Now Greg knew I had this race on the schedule and with my goal of breaking 3 hours at NYC in November I stuck to the training plan in full, not at all concerned about my time. It was forecast to be in the mid-80′s with humidity for gun time so I was looking at this as another opportunity to get in more speed work in adverse conditions.

Pineland Striders Independence 10k Race Day:

When I first checked the weather at 6:30AM the temperature was 78 degrees and with the rain the night before I knew the humidity was going to be up there. After a quick banana and Gatorade breakfast I headed out to the race which starts and ends at Shawnee High School in Medford, NJ. I got there about an hour prior to the 8:30AM gun time. Bib and t-shirt pickup was fast and easy so it was just a matter of doing warm ups and trying to stay cool for the next 50 minutes or so.

Start to Mile 2

I’ve experimented with going out harder on the 10k and shorter races recently just to see how I perform. I know that if I’m running for time my best strategy is to go out controlled and a little behind race pace and then work my way into the run and finish strong. Recently I’ve gone out hard and tried to hold on to see if I can eventually get my splits under 6 mins/mile at these distances. A PR was unlikely to happen at 85 degrees with the humidity but I was still curious so I went out hard. My goal was to get my splits in the 6:00 to 6:15 range and I hit that with my first two splits of 6:02 and 6:10.

Mile 3 to the Finish (or “Hey, it’s hot out here”)

After mile two the I was really stating to feel the heat and getting flashbacks to Boston in April. I pulled it back a bit to try to manage the heat but there wasn’t any way to cool off except to throw a cold cup of water down my back at every water stop. From mile 3 on I ran in surges. I would pick up the pace for a bit but then have to pull it back when my breathing got out of control. It was very frustrating to know your legs can go faster but your other physical systems can’t handle the load.

It’s at those times where it’s easy to get paranoid about how close someone might be behind you. At mile 2 I noticed I had a solid lead on the next runner behind me when we hit a turnaround point but when you know you’re slowing you always think someone is gaining on you. On race day I have a pretty hard rule of no looking back. I don’t look back because when I’m trailing and I see someone in front of me looking back I know they are in some kind of trouble and are starting to worry. That’s usually an opening for me and it gives me a shot of adrenaline because now they know I’m there. The whole hunter-hunted instinct kicks in and I get even more motivated to catch them.

The only time you can look back is if you’re in a hard turn and can do it discreetly. As luck would have it around mile 5 there was about a 135 degree turn as you came to the end of the school property line and then cut back to the track and the finish area. I was hot, tired and couldn’t resist so after hitting the turn and taking about 20 steps I looked out of the corner of my eye and turned my head just a bit to the left and looked… no one there, good deal. I waited another 15 secs or so and the combination of heat and curiosity got me again. I took a little harder look… still no one, great! Then for whatever reason I took one last Monty Python, whip my head around “stare” which lasted for several seconds. I saw no one at all in it what appeared to be about a quarter-mile or so of course behind me. I thought ‘OK, my place is locked in. It’s all about time now’.

Pineland Striders Independence 5k/10k Finish

As I hit the track with less than 300 meters to go I saw I was going to finish right around 40 minutes so with one last surge I squeaked in at 39:54. My splits for the last four miles were in the 6:20 to 6:45 range so you can see how much impact the weather had.

Overall I’m pleased with my performance. This was only the second time I broke 40 minutes in the 10k coming in 2nd in my age group and 9th overall. The winner of my age group came in at 37:55 so even on a day with ideal conditions I’m not sure if I would have gone under 38 minutes. No regrets on the pacing.

Pineland Striders Independence 10k Post Race:

Since I’m running a 5k on Wednesday in my hometown (a 5k I’ve tried to run for 5 years), Coach McMillan has given me Sunday and Monday off and just an easy 40 minutes on Tuesday. I had to look at it a few times to make sure I was reading it right. No long run on Sunday and two days off in a row? If I hadn’t been on a training plan I wouldn’t have let that slide and I’d probably be out there now slogging out 15 miles in 96 degree heat. Then I remembered that counting Saturday that was three days worth of speed work in a five-day period. Being prone to injury when I mix speed and too much distance I realized that Coach must know what he’s doing. What am I going to do with all my free time? I can hear the chorus of ‘Cross Training!!!’ so don’t worry, like I’d be just lounging on the couch. I may squeak in a nap though…

Scott Coffee Moorestown Rotary 8K – Race Report 2012

Scott Coffee Moorestown Rotary 8K Pre-Race:

Next race on the schedule for the USATF Mid-Atlantic 2012 Grand Prix was the Scott Coffee Moorestown Rotary 8K. This is as close as it gets to a major hometown race for me. Moorestown is the next town north from Marlton so all the pre-race planning and logistics were a breeze. Packet picket was at the local running store where my USATF team has its HQ so it doesn’t get any easier.

There were plenty of options for packet pickup starting on the Wednesday prior at the Moorestown Running Company all the way to race day morning.

Scott Coffee Moorestown Rotary 8K Race Day:

Even though I was just a 10 minute car ride from the start line with bib in hand, I still wanted to get there an hour before gun time. Main Street where the start and finish area are located is a single lane road in both directions and on a typical day there is always lots of traffic. I figured with close to 1,000 runners descending on Main Street along with their families and vendors supporting not only the race but ‘Moorestown Day’ festivities that went on until evening, there was some potential for serious grid lock.

Scott Coffee Moorestown Rotary 8K Traffic

Narrow Road + Lots of Traffic = No Movement

I headed out of the house at 7:15 for an 8:30 gun time and I’m glad I did. Once I got in the vicinity of Main Street it took me about 15 minutes to cross one intersection to get to the available parking areas behind the shops. Still had about 45 minutes to play with, plenty of time to snap some picks, warmup and get ready for the start.

Scott Coffee Moorestown Rotary 8K porta potties

Table for six, no waiting...

I have to say that the porta-potties at this race were the cleanest I’ve ever seen. I kid you not I think I was the first one to ever use these. You could have served hors d’oeuvres in them they were that clean. You know those little hot dogs in a blanket, you could have put a whole plate of those in there and no one would have thought twice about sampling one or two… Two Thumbs Up!

Race Start

The start/finish area was right in front of the Moorestown Community House which is a very stately looking building. Now I might be the only guy to pickup on this but I couldn’t help but notice how that contrasted with a very understated starting area:

Scott Coffee Moorestown Rotary 8K Start Area

Ok, we need a few more orange cones and some cheesy posts and tape...Perfect!

As we lined up for the start I made it a point to move to the front. For a race with close to a 1,000 runners this was an EXTREMELY narrow place to start. Scenic and historic yes, but crowded. You had vendors on both sides of Main Street so you were elbow to elbow for a good 1/4 mile from the start. The front of the pack spread out fairly quick but I did gently bump a few runners on the way out. Once we were in the clear and the road opened up there was plenty of room to maneuver and lock in your pace.

Really couldn’t have asked for better weather. There was a touch of humidity but the cool breeze and moderate temps didn’t make that much of a factor. As I stood in the starting chute I couldn’t help noticing who had lined up about three feet in front of me (que Darth Vader’s entrance music…) it was HER. She’s got some serious wheels and so far I’m 0 for 2. She likes to go out fast so I figured as long as I stayed within striking distance I’d have a shot. Notching a win wasn’t on the ‘must have’ list for the day, but the possibility made the race a bit more interesting for me and gave me a bit more incentive to push hard early and see how well I could hold on.

Start to Mile 2

Gun went off right around 8:30AM and off we went, a little bumping early on like I mentioned but nothing disruptive. Once the road cleared up I settled in at about a 6 min/mile pace. A little fast but I’m looking to get my pace at the shorter distances below 6 per mile. Cecily was right there about 10 feet in front of me. First two splits were 6:02 and 6:03, there was a very shallow downhill grade on that part of the course, just noticeable enough to make you aware of it. Once I got past the two-mile marker I could tell I would have to dial it back a tad. Staying around 6 min/mile was my goal to get under 30 minutes but that was a stretch, I’m not quite there yet.

Miles 3 and 4

Splits for 3 and 4 came in at 6:19 and 6:21. I looked at my watch around the 3.1 distance and I was really close to my PR time for the 5k but I stuck with the 6:20 pacing as that was really all I could give during that section. I started focusing on keeping the pace at 6:20 or less so I could come in under 31 minutes. Anything over 31 would be a disappointment so I focused my attention on keeping the pedal down.

Finish

I hit the finish with a final split of 6:01 (a 6:11 min/mile pace) for a finish time of 30:41 good for 34th out of 863 and 8th in age group out of 110. Considering the speed that showed up for this event since it was the 8K Championship Event for Mid-Atlantic USATF Athletes, I was pleased with my time and position. Not excited or disappointed, just satisfied. I finished in that 30 sec or so window that my training and fitness level dictated, but I came away motivated.

I need to get faster. Going long has always been the fun and easy part of training for me because that’s where my strength is…but I’ve never been fast. I’m talking about fast as in “when you show up and the guys in your age group get nervous” fast. I don’t enjoy speed work and my body doesn’t either. Recovery takes longer and my injury tolerance drops like a rock. It’s my weakness.

The fact is you’ll eventually plateau if you only focus on your strengths. It’s the folks who focus on their weakness, and focus to the point where it becomes their strength who can break through and reach new levels. This is true in every area of life, not just running. Looks like it’s time to get to work.

Epilogue: Tynan 3 – Savarese 0

I had her in my sights the whole race but couldn’t close on her. After mile three she put a little distance between us and as I fought to close the gap in the last mile I ran out of pavement. It was if her pink accented Bryn Mawr Running Company race outfit was mocking me the whole way (ok, that’s sounds a bit over dramatic but cut me some slack, it’s been a rough week). She clipped me today by 19 secs. Just that much more motivation to hit the track this summer. This isn’t over… (alright that WAS over dramatic but it’s my story and my blog so I’ll tell it my way).

Pushing through Pain

Change is Hard: Pushing through Pain

“Experience has taught me how important it is to just keep going, focusing on running fast and relaxed. Eventually pain passes and the flow returns. It’s part of racing.” – Frank Shorter

If you’re a competitive runner, it’s the price of admission. It’s going to hurt, a lot. Both in training and on race day it’s the one thing you can count on to be there. Most running articles, blogs and advice I’ve read really don’t dig into this but are instead centered around the physical aspects of performance because the metrics are easier to measure. Training plans and races can be analyzed and tweaked based on splits and total time. The results can then be compared to determine the best course of action. Pain though is subjective and not easily measured. We all experience it in similar ways but for each of us pain is a singular experience. Like a fingerprint, you can immediately identify it at first glance but as you look closer all the subtle lines and details make our suffering uniquely ours. What this means is when you’re pushing your effort above the 95th percentile, getting those last few percentage points are all mental and there’s no cookie-cutter road map to getting to your peak. The only guide we have to maxing out is knowing just how much discomfort we can tolerate.

A Word of Caution First

To start with let’s be clear about what I’m taking about. I’m not referring to the type of debilitating pain that signals something is wrong. Issues such as a critical physical injury, heat stroke, hyponatremia and other serious and potential life threatening situations need immediate attention and the ceasing of activity. Ignoring this type of pain will turn you from a hero into a cautionary tale very quickly, so don’t do it. The more experience you get as a runner, the better you’ll get at understanding your body’s language and the easier it will be to know if you are in serious trouble or not.

So we’ve narrowed it down. We’re talking about the”‘gut check”, “grin and bear it”, “suck it up buttercup” type of misery we deliberately subject ourselves to on a regular basis. For what it’s worth here’s three ways for dealing with the inevitable:

Accept it

Admit it, when you first feel the discomfort rising your first reaction is fear. You can hear yourself saying “I shouldn’t be feeling this so soon”, “I’m in better shape than this” or “How bad is this going to get?” All of these responses are irrelevant. The pain fairy has shown up to make your day more interesting and she’s going to hang around for a bit. The key is not to react emotionally at first because your first reaction is typically going to be a negative one. That negativity then is going to wreck your confidence, sap your energy and just dig you deeper into the hurt locker.

Our attitude should be to expect it. Like a boxer in a fight you know your going to get hit so don’t flinch when the blows come, because they will come and flinching will only make it worse. Accept it so you can focus on what matters.

Pursue it

In some races it comes and goes in waves, in others it’s a slow smoldering burn that builds in intensity until it’s searing. Instead of backing way, I’ll force myself to lean into it and if I’m feeling too comfortable mid-race I’ll start looking for it by pushing the pace. Our instinct when we’re hurting is to slow down until the pain is manageable, but this is a missed opportunity. You’ve been handed a motivational tool that if used and channeled properly can help propel you and keep you focused. When you feel yourself struggling keep the pedal down. Find out if this is a ‘stick around’ kind of suffering or just a ‘comes and goes’ type. Regardless keep pressing, you’ll never be able to push past your limits until you know where they are.

Pass through it

In some races it feels like we are stuck in our current predicament and when that happens panic can start to set in. If we give in to panic we initiate a series of events that is going to undermine our performance and set us up for defeat regardless of how we run the rest of the race. With each stride you are moving through an experience, you’re not trapped so don’t react like you are. Now is the time for that emotional reaction only it needs to be positive. Use visualization techniques and see yourself passing the field, setting a new PR or placing in your age group and what you’re going though now is the price you have to pay to get that. This positive feedback will keep you moving and focused on the race instead of the discomfort. Let the pain pass through you instead of letting it set up residence.

Pain Comes in Many Forms

Non-running lesson of the week: Last Wednesday was a pretty apocalyptic day for me, not physically but emotionally. I’ll spare you the details but I had to deal with a work situation that was a perfect storm of Murphy’s law, instructions not followed and some high visibility commitments. It got ugly early and didn’t get better until I headed home. That evening as I was struggling to fall asleep I had a bit of a revelation, I got to the point where I couldn’t feel any more frustration, disappointment or anger. Then it hit me… you can only hurt so much. Pain doesn’t scale to infinity even though we think it can. I accepted it, passed though it, and then fell into a deep sleep.

As I went in the next day to continue to deal with the aftermath, I was at peace with what occurred and thought about how to make the best of a bad situation. I learned, quite by accident, that every kind of pain has its limits and only has as much power over us as we choose to give it.

photo credit

Broad Street Run – Race Report 2012

Broad Street Run Pre-Race:

In the interest of full disclosure, I had no idea what was going to happen at this race. I’ve scheduled my races this year around my two marathons along with the Mid-Atlantic USATF Grand Prix races since my running team competes in those events. The Philadelphia Broad Street Run is one of those USATF events and when I saw that it was three weeks after Boston I winced as I pressed ‘send’ on the email telling my team captain I was running in it. I normally like to have at least a good month after a marathon to fully recover and even though I have bounced back quicker after each marathon over the past year, three weeks was cutting it tight.

Broad Street Run

I looked through the race guide a few days before race day and I saw a reference to the “over 37,000 runners” that were registered for the race. The last time I ran Broad Street back in 2005 there were 12,000 runners and the past few years there were about 25,000 each year. Increasing the field size 50% in one year seemed like a recipe for a logistical disaster so I planned my weekend with that in mind.

The pretzel street venders must have made a killing!

Packet pickup options allowed for a Friday or Saturday pickup. Trying to avoid having to drive into Philly on Saturday I decided to take a long lunch to see if I could run over and grab it on Friday since I figured most runners would come on Saturday…big mistake. I wound up standing in line for over 30 minutes before I had to leave for a meeting. Never even got indoors. Saturday morning I got there right around the time the expo opened and was in line for only 25 minutes since the line was moving well. I feel sorry for the folks that got there later.

If it takes longer to pick up your bib than to run the actual race, that might be a bad sign.

If Philly is intent on making this a big race nationally then they should plan the expo accordingly. Having it at Lincoln Financial Field (Home of the Philadelphia Eagles) is a good start but they didn’t utilize the available space well. Once you got into the stadium the section that housed the expo was fairly narrow and only allowed enough space for the vendors and about one lane of traffic going in each direction. It made for a lot of congestion. Also they staged bib pickup and t-shirt pickup at opposite ends of the expo to force you to walk past the vendors twice. I’ve seen this done at a few races and I think it’s bush league. If you give the runners a good experience they will be more likely to purchase from vendors. Make it difficult for them and all they’ll want to do is get their stuff and get out.

Broad Street Run Race Day:

Enough about the expo. I went into race day hoping for the best but planning for the worst. Since Broad Street is a point-to-point race there is some transportation logistics involved. If you were driving your best option was to drive to the stadium parking lots (about a mile from the finish) and take the subway up to the start area. SEPTA allowed all runners to ride for free which was a nice touch. For a 8:30AM gun time my plan was to get to the start area a little after 6:30AM since I expected a mob scene and wanted to make sure I could take care of any pre-race “issues” with minimal stress. Factoring in the drive and the subway ride, that meant a 4:30AM wake up.

It's beautiful man...sniff...

The early wake up paid off. That morning everything went off without a hitch and I found myself at the start area staring at a field filled with porta-potties and no lines. I well up a little just thinking about it.

Our gear bags needed to be on the buses by 8AM so I headed over there to remove my warm ups and get race ready at about 7:30. For me the weather was perfect, temps in the 50′s, overcast and a bit of a breeze. A little chilly for shorts and a singlet but wonderful for running. I did some warm ups and then headed to my corral about 8:10. Corrals were assigned based on time but there’s no verification process so you know how that goes. Some folks took advantage of the honor system. Also there wasn’t any corral enforcement in place so the honor system was getting abused a bit there too. Nothing egregious but noticeable.

Race Start

There was just one corral between me and the elites so when the gun when off at 8:30 we started about 2 minutes later. This worked out well because over the race there was just the right number of runners on any section without it being over crowded.

If you don’t know Broad Street it’s a fast course, downhill most of the way:

Broad Street Run Elevation

Miles 1 thru 3

I went out too fast but I realized it and went with it anyway. I didn’t have a really thought out plan since I wasn’t fully confident where I was recovery wise. I figured I would start to fade at some point so I went out hard and had the goal of holding on as long as possible. The first few miles didn’t have any spectators and weren’t very scenic so I just focused on finding a workable pace. My first three splits were 6:10, 6:13 and 6:17.

Miles 4 thru 8

These miles were fun while we went through the heart of Philly. We passed Temple University, City Hall as well as the Kimmel Center for Performing Arts. Great crowds, marching bands and mascots all around. One sore point was I could tell the folks working the water stops weren’t pros since at a few water stops it seemed we were getting funneled into a narrow lane from the crowd on one side and the water stop volunteers on the other. I’m sure it widened as bigger crowds of runners came through but it was a brief concern.

Broad Street was in pretty good shape, a few pieces of pavement missing here and there but I’ve seen worse. One section though actually felt a little slick as I was making ground contact. It must have been from motor oil residue on the surface so I moved over near the double yellow and that felt firmer. Still loving racing in the Inov-8 150′s, it’s a great shoe. I don’t think I would have felt the pavement surface change if I was wearing my old Hyper Speeds.

Splits were 6:26, 6:16, 6:11, 6:18, 6:20

Past Mile 8 to the Finish

The course was flat for the last two miles and I thought I was in trouble as my perceived effort went up a notch or two between mile 8 and 9. Being so close to the finish though gave me the mental energy to keep the pedal down along with knowing I was looking at coming in under 1:04. My last two splits were 6:22 and 6:19 giving me a 1:03:06 and a new PR.

Epilogue

Right after I crossed the finish I noticed to the side of the finishers chute Cecily Tynan was standing there talking to someone. She had a post race glow that most runners recognize immediately. Cecily must have a had a good race. I thought back to the Haddonfield Adrenaline 5k where she beat me by one second. She was probably in the corral in front of me so I wasn’t sure how she did. When I got home I saw she ran a 1:02:12. AHHHHHH!!!!!

TYNAAAAAAAAAAAANNNNNNN!!!!!!!

I think we are officially in nemesis territory here. Her Doc Ock to my Spiderman, her Dr. Doom to my Mr. Fantastic…you know Sheldon was right, it’s amazing how many super villains have advanced degrees. Grad schools should really do a better job weeding them out.

Caesar Rodney Half Marathon – Race Report 2012

Caesar Rodney Half Marathon Pre-Race:

This one was the yard stick. I wanted to go out there and see where my fitness level was so I can start putting my race plan together for Boston. There’s a lot to cover and dissect so let’s get to it.

As I’ve mentioned in a previous race report, being a Masters runner means you’re always dealing with some minor tightness/injury/pull/fatigue on race day. It’s going to be there so just plan for it. Today’s surprise was a twinge in my right glute I woke up with that felt more like a nerve issue than a pulled muscle. I might have slept in a funny position because if I moved or turned a certain way it would get my attention. As the morning wore on it felt better and I went through my pre-race warm up with no issues so I wasn’t too concerned (but just concerned enough to make it interesting). The older issue, the cramp/numbness on the outside of my left knee I mentioned last week, has improved and it’s really a non-factor at this point thought I’m still paying attention to it to make sure it continues to heal.

I brought my photographer to the race today (Mrs. Designed-to-Run) so you’ll have some better pictures. We got down to Wilmington, DE about an hour prior to get good parking and get a jump on the port potty lines. I ran Caesar Rodney last year so there wasn’t much to scope out but I wanted to get my photographer oriented so she could get some good snaps. Since I was running this as a member of a team (Moorestown Distance Running Project) I had gotten my packet on Friday from our team president so that was covered.

Caesar Rodney Half Marathon Race Start:

Caesar Rodney Half Marathon start

Wasn’t sure what to expect from myself today considering where I am in my training (heavy miles) and the one day taper (solely for injury prevention). Based on my last Half Marathon time of 1:26:36 at the Hersey Half and the more severe hill profile of Caesar Rodney, I was hoping to get under 1:26 but I wasn’t willing to take big risks to do so. Since we’re talking hill profiles let’s take a look at Caesar Rodney:

Caesar Rodney Half Marathon hill profile

Nice hill huh? It’s got about 402 feet of elevation gain over the entire course. By comparison Boston has about a 550 ft gain (but a 994 ft loss) over twice the distance. As you can see you’ve got a pretty steep down hill right out of the gate and the fun starts as you’re approaching mile 7 and go through Brandywine and Rockford Park. If you’re not making adjustments for these hills you will get burned. I’ll be giving some examples later in the post.

Since my goal was to see where my fitness level was I ran mostly on perceived effort but I was checking my splits to make sure I was getting under 6:36 on the flat portions (based on my 1:26:36 time at Hershey) but not overreaching on the downhills. Here are my splits:

Caesar Rodney Half Marathon Splits

There’s almost no way you can dial it back enough on that first mile considering the adrenaline at work and that steep down hill. Keeping it at about a 6:20 was an accomplishment. I felt good on the flat section and held back a bit. I’m really pleased with my hill splits. Considering the relentless 3-mile climb I was really happy clocking 6:47′s. I had anticipated going over 7:00 during that stretch. After cresting the peak you’re grateful for the down hill on the way in until you revisit that hill near the finish and start cursing the name of the race director. My official tag time was 1:25:14, a new PR by 1:22.

Caesar Rodney Half Marathon Finish:

After crossing the finish I found my photographer, gave her a kiss and posed for a few pics. Saw a lot of familiar faces including my good friend John Murray.

Legs are trashed but we're still smiling...

Even though he just crossed the finish line he was more than willing to pose for a quick pic. Note my blue Inov-8′s which are now two-for-two regarding races and PR’s. They felt great and performed well on the wet and slick pavement. I attribute my race performance to a lot of hard work and preparation but I have a buddy who has a different opinion. What are your thoughts Mars?

I heard Mars is now working for the Natural Running Store but I can’t confirm it and Patton’s not talking…

Post Race Analysis: How Not to Run Caesar Rodney

When I was looking over the race results I couldn’t help but notice that in my age group male 45-49 I finished 4th and the next two finishers were in my age group so we finished 4th, 5th and 6th right behind each other. I’ve cropped out the results and covered the names to protect the innocent, but see if you can look at their splits and see how our different approaches impacted our performance:

What jumped out for me is they were right out front at the start (one second difference between tag and gun time) and they went out too fast (3 mile split). Considering the hill profile of the course this is good example of where being out in front with the rabbits at the start can hurt you big time.

Bib 1558 had a 1:20 lead on me at mile 3 and a 55 sec lead at mile 10. He fell back about 19 secs per mile over that last three miles which allowed me to catch him and beat him by 3 seconds at the tape. Bib 1264 wasn’t as aggressive but made the same mistake. He had a 50 second lead at mile 3, I was 6 seconds behind him at mile 10 and I wound up with a 45 second lead at the finish.

Lesson: Going out too fast will doom you. You can’t bank time!!! Have a solid race plan and stick to your plan unless circumstances dictate you make a change. Ninety nine percent of the time the change will be to slow down.

Next week I’ll have a post up where I break down this race and compare it to races from last fall so I can get a good gage on how I’m going to handle my pacing for Boston. Stay tuned!