Jetty 2 Jetty 35 miler

Pre Race:

Logistics… looked to be possibly the toughest part of this race. The RD stressed that runners should have a crew…. Well… I’m kind of a loner… and I don’t like asking for help. The race was point to point so I had no other choice there… I needed a ride or 2…

My supplies for the race.

I had my daughter take me to the start… she was not overjoyed at getting up early on a Saturday… but agreeable enough. On the way to the start we stopped… near what would be the 12 mile mark and I dropped a bottle of water.

The race started at 0830 so at 0815 I had Masey take my picture… then she gave me kiss on the cheek… and I walked off into the foggy rainy morning to start.

And yes… it was raining steadily at the start. The RD gave some very simple instructions:

“run north until you see a yellow flag approximately 2.5 miles away… then turn around and then keep the waves to your left until you see a red flag at the Jetties in Vilano Beach”

I had another bottle that I dropped at the start and planned to pick up on the way back by. Otherwise I had approximately 4 watered down gels in a flask, a flask of water, and a single gel packet. Yep that’s right… 5 gels for 6 plus hours and 48 oz of water.

The out and back

The out and back could have been called the Sandpiper 5 miler. Since we started at high tide… finding firm sand to run on was a tad difficult. We mostly ran just at the edge of the waves and yo-yoed with the waves like the bird… I chatted with an old acquaintance, Loretta, who I used to run with 10 years ago… nice to catch up and gather some intel from her since she had done the race 4 or 5 times and won the women’s division the year before.

Although I would have liked to stay and finishing with them would have been a-ok with me… After a few miles of chatting I decided that I would pick it up a little… and get some serenity and put time in the bank…. My plan being that if I fell into difficulty, or otherwise slowed down (which I fully expected), her little group would pick me up and I could hang on with them.

Not even half way

So that’s just what I did… I hung off the front of her group for the next dozen or so miles… at one point, about mile 8 or 9 with the fog so thick I could so no one ahead of or behind me… I did a quick pit stop… and by the time I started again… there was Loretta’s pack… 4 or 5 strong emerging from the mist.

So I trudged on along. I think that the teen miles were the hardest… I was tired… and yet not even half way…. No one ahead… the ghostly looking pack behind… rain… grey…

I adopted a mantra that would serve me well all day:

“Do what you can, with what you have, where you are.” - Theodore Roosevelt

Endorphins and “Apache”

The state park at Micklers landing was the half-way point… and for some reason I expected some sort of aid station there… the RD was there… writing down numbers and times but… nothing else. I asked if they had any gels… and some nice lady… part of someone else’s crew handed me one… it was like a gold nugget to me at this point.

I left them behind and was soon lost in the mist and fog again… the scene was somewhat surreal… ocean, waves, beach, sky, mist… like a painting on the wall of a study in some murder mystery movie or slightly out of focus photo.

I’d had this drab sameness for miles… and hours… then the endorphins kicked in… I picked up my pace… sang at the top of my lungs… lyrics that were swallowed up by the roar of the ocean and the pitter patter of the rain… heard by no one but me… but I was having a blast all of a sudden. I spied a lone figure ahead. Within a mile I had caught and passed someone for the first time in the race. Soon thereafter the Sugar Hill Gang came on my iPod… “Apache” I knew every word… and proved it by listening to it 3x in a row…. And rapping along.

Post Marathon Blues and bonk

Not too long after the Apache raid I caught and passed two more runners. A guy, who I found out is an Army Ranger, and a girl… the guy was having ITB trouble. They stayed within sight until the next checkpoint which was just after the marathon point. I stopped there and begged some water from the dude taking splits and soon thereafter the girl re-passed me.

I followed her… and kept her in sight for a few miles but the wheels were coming off. 10s in the early 20s had given way to 10:40s in the mid 20s which turned into 12s by the early 30s. I walked a couple of times for a few steps just to rearrange my junk in my pockets but I knew that if I walked… 12s would be 15s immediately so on I trudged. At mile 32 I ate the last bit of gel I had left… followed by my last swig of water. I had rationed out my meager supplies the best I could and said aloud “well, no more logistics to plan for now… just finish you idiot”

So that’s just what I did… Roosevelt’s words in my head and more than once on my lips.

My guess at a finish time was 6.5 hours… and I’d come in a little ahead of schedule

When the finish line came into view… I was happy, yes… relived, not so much… I was hoping that my kid was there to meet me…

Post Race

My biggest fear for this race was not finishing the race… but… instead in my 16 year old daughter finding me at the finish. I had programmed my GPS to get her close… and shown her a map… satellite photos.. street views… of exactly where I would be. I guess I should have printed all this stuff out…

The first words I spoke upon finishing were “can I borrow a cell phone?”

I was going to call my daughter and tell her *not* to drive on the beach as I had instructed her to do… but instead… wait for me to walk up to the road… with all the rain… the sand was a bit sticky and I did not want to get stuck. When I got her on the phone I asked… “Were are you”

She replied “on the beach… and I think we are stuck”

I said “What beach?”

She said “I don’t know”

Now this is where I almost lost it…. I’m tired.. and cold… and cranky… bonking… and now my 16 year old…. And my Suburban (2 Wheel Drive BTW) is stuck on a beach… and not on the same beach I’m on…

I managed to take a few deep breaths and not bite my kid’s head off….

Long story a bit less long… a race volunteer drove me around until we found her… and my Suburban… up to its running boards in the sand…

We dug for a while… and a few minutes later a nice gentleman in a 4WD pulled us out.

Epilogue

All in all a good experience for my 1st Ultra… The weather, while it was dreary, was really perfect for running. I dressed right for the weather and race. My nutrition and hydration plans need some work… and I need to learn to give more explicit directions to my teenagers…

I have not been near as sore from this effort as I have from marathons I have done in the past but I have been really tired… I guess I had some blistering issues on my left heel as well.

2009 Recap and 2010 Goals

1. What one word describes your 2009 season? Does it match what you said last December in anticipation of this year?

Volume

Not what I anticipated last year... I thought I'd make a run at a BQ this year....

2. What one word comes to mind when you think about your 2010 season?

RATS

3. What was your greatest thrill or joy this year from training or racing?

Getting up every weekend morning before daybreak... training for hours... then an afternoon nap. Days like that are a pure joy.

4. What was your biggest disappointment this year from training or racing?

Hmmm... gotta dig deep for this one... which is evidence that 2009 was a good year... I guess taking a wrong turn at the Breast Cancer Marathon in February and missing a PR.

5. What was your favorite race in 2009?

I had better races... but the Amelia 1/2 IM was the most fun.

6. What is your race schedule for 2010?

1/16 - Jetty 2 Jetty 50k
2/13 - Iron Horse 50 miler
3/27 - Guana River Run 50k
6/13 - RATS
10/3 - Atlantic Coast Triathlon 1/2 IM


7. What are you goals for 2010?

Continue #3 above
Complete #6 above
Race bikes during the summer

2009 totals:

Run - 1,534 Mi
Bike - 4,782 mi
Swim - 1.7 mi (3 races)

Begin Weight - 196
End Weight - 186

Big start to the New Year

I got off to a pretty good start... albeit a little slow.

Had to travel on New Year's Day so I only managed a trainer session at 10:30 PM.

Saturday morning I ran 18... My heart wanted to do the group ride but... had some mechanical issues with my road bike.... did get another PM trainer session

Sunday morning... I got up for the group ride again... 80 miles scheduled... bike ready to go. It was 29 freakin degrees at 0700.... I read Brian's NYD report for motivation... http://nyvelocity.com/content/2010/bear-and-back it did not work... I could not bring myself to bundle up in enough clothes to keep warmish... not to mention that since I live in Florida, I have no cold weather gear to speak of so I would have looked like a homeless dude on a Lemond. I did manage to get my running tights on... wearing running tights make me feel like I should be on a trapeze or high wire but... I digress...

I ended up running 22 cold slow miles... hopefully just the kind of training that will get me to the finish line of the 2 ultras on my race schedule over the next 8 weeks...

Just a sucka with no self esteem...

“The more you sufferThe more it shows you really care Right? Yeah!”

-The Offspring

Woke up this morning…

Swung my legs off the side of the bed… as I fished around for my flip-flops at the side of the bed I could feel the pain in my calves… Decide… no run today

First few steps around the end of the bed… hamstrings tight… definitely not running today.

Sit down at my computer to check my email really quick… getting up is unpleasant… quads sore…. I’ll just ride the trainer tonight… no run… I’ll work thru lunch and leave early.

Get ready for work… grab my gym bag “just in case” as I head out the door.

Glance out the window a couple of times this morning… sunny…

Look out again around noon… looks nice but I’m too busy shirking… uh I mean working…

1215 I go outside and get my gym bag.

“Now I know, I should say no, but It's kind of hard when she's ready to go”

1230 I’m running… but just an easy 3 mile jog nothing more…

1240 decide to run the *middle* 3 miles at marathon pace

“I may be dumb, but I'm not a dweeb I'm just a sucker with no self esteem”

Trainer later... watching the 1992 Giro.... I don't know who's gonna win so don't tell me.

Jacksonville Marathon - a lot of road….

This was to be my 5th attempt at the Jacksonville Marathon.

It had been my first, and most painful athletic achievement, a 4:44 in 1997. What I considered to be my best endurance sport achievement of a 3:58 in 1998… a day when I cruised for 20 miles then kicked for the final 6…

I’d toed the line a couple of other times… more recently… times when, because of being undertrained and/or overweight, my finish time had started with a 5…

But 2009 was to be different… I’d run almost 1500 miles so far in 2009… and the 20th of December had been circled very early in the year as my A race….

Long runs were in the books… I’d not run them as fast, or as well as my training plan had mapped out for me but… I had done almost every one of them on Sunday afternoons after riding for a couple of hours on Sunday morning.

The weather was near perfect at 40F and windy… my weight was down 13 or so pounds since my last marathon… and even a few less than back in 1998.

All that taken into account, I had come up with a plan… I decided to run the first mile with the 3:45 pace group… then slip away up the road and try to hold them off. Apart from that, my plan was to run… not think… not about pace… or miles completed… or miles to go… just run mile by mile until the finish.

Towards that end I lined up pretty close to the 3:45 pacer… and proceed to run the first mile with the pacer just off my left shoulder. I could hear him talking with a few of the runners in his group… I then picked up my pace just a bit until I could no longer hear them.

Things were going great… just according to plan but… I had to pee…. I ran a couple of miles… putting time into the group. Then on mile 5 I spot a tree to hide behind and stop. When I emerge and rejoin the race… guess who is just off my left shoulder… 3:45 guy… I had gained, then thrown away, a minute…

It took a few miles but I finally got far enough from the 3:45 group to where I could not hear them anymore… but I had picked up a companion. We had leapfrogged each other a few times and eventually struck up a conversation… her name was Dawn, she’s a kindergarten teacher from North Georgia and she was nailing 8:30s every mile. We talked little but for the next 14 or so miles reeled in a few dozen runners and I don’t think anyone passed us.

My JFR plan was working quite well… passed mile 20 without really thinking about it… Mile 21 brought the pain, however, and it took a good deal of focus to stay with Dawn. I hung on thorough mile 22 as well. I didn’t want to hold her back… and holding on hurt too much so I put everything I had into mile 23…. I got a half step on her and tried to hold it… In my mind I was running a 8:05… while in reality I was simply working really hard and maintaining pace. Just past the 23 marker, Dawn passed me and pulled away for good.

I can’t say I fell apart in the last 3 miles… my pace slipped by 30 seconds per mile… but I was fighting the 500 lb gorilla that jumps on your back in the final miles of a marathon. I knew that I had a PR in the bag… I just wanted to be finished… but… I had one more goal that pushed me along. I’d not clocked a 9+minute mile all day… even the pee break mile had been an 8:58.

Mile 25 was a 8:59… I told myself that mile 26 would be faster and I would run the table on this mofo with all sub 9s. I used every fiber of my being to move myself along that mile but to no avail. My Timex showed me 9:06.

The disappointment was short-lived, however, as I entered the stadium and headed for the finish line.

I hit the line at 3:43:17 and change with a chip time of 3:42:57

I was really too tired to think at the finish… Just gathered my stuff up and went home.

But today looking back… I mean… what a day… what a d@mm day!

I left it all out there on the road… and that’s a lot of road….

Splits


8:09
8:06
8:07
8:20
8:58
8:21
8:26
8:34
8:25
8:28
8:39
8:29
8:30
8:33
8:34
8:21
8:22
8:25
8:16
8:25
8:26
8:27
8:23
8:45
8:59
9:06

November Totals

Run - 182mi
Bike - 404mi

Race Report Outback 1/2 Marathon

Tradition…

My daughter and I get up early on Thanksgiving and run.

The race is the Outback Distance Classic. Masey does the 6k and I do the ½ Marathon.

The night before the race I went out… wine with dinner.. then somehow I found myself sitting in a bar drinking Crown Royal well past midnight… embracing my inner John Young no doubt…

I had a goal… 13 sub 8s… but without any pressure of actually trying to run at any precise pace. The weather this year was a near perfect 50F. Being that we dressed appropriately we huddled close together and shivered while waiting for the race to start.

Once the gun went off we quickly settled into our own races. I could still see Masey just off to my right… and whipped my head around when I saw her heel get kicked in the mass of runners…. She quickly regained her balance and was on her way without incident. Soon thereafter she was lost in the crowd… and at the 1 mile mark the 6k and ½ runners parted ways.

I missed the 1 mile marker which was fine… I didn’t want to know… I heard someone around me comment about 7:30… I felt good… and just wanted to run blissfully unaware of my pace for a while.

During the second mile I passed a lone runner wearing a shirt that said “I’m running with the rockstar on chemo” as I passed I almost commented on the fact that he had lost his star… a couple of minutes later I was happy to have remained silent since… he may have lost this person to cancer… sometimes being shy and reserved keeps me from being recognized as an idiot.

I ran the next few miles with a couple that obviously run a lot… and run together a lot…

I used their conversation as a distraction tho… yet kinda wished I had some music.

I had been taking splits with my Timex but not looking at them. At mile 4 I peeked. It was a 7:35. I was shocked. I thought to myself and may have even said out loud “I’m running out of my mind”. What I know now but did not know then is that mile 4 was the slowest I’d run so far.

With that thought in mind I tried to run the next few miles at a steady pace… but I was beginning to notice that more people passed me than I passed…. But the splits kept coming in at 7:4x so not much to complain about.

By mile 9 I could feel myself slipping… whereas the first few miles had been smooth and seemingly effortless speed I was now turning my legs over by force of will and still slowing down… even if by only 5 or 10 seconds per mile.

Miles 11-13 were all above 8… but only just…

As I rounded the final corner my daughter was waiting there for me… big smile, high five, then a glance at the clock… 1:41:37 is what it read in the distance… I smiled when I knew that I could close the distance and finish under 1:42 gun time…

All in all a good day. A 5 minute or so PR… Masey was happy and we each took 2 naps later in the day.

Splits:

14:48 (miles 1&2)
7:22
7:35
7:44
7:47
7:33
7:56
7:50
8:01
8:11
8:05