Elite Jogging For Dummies

It's Monday night now, far removed from Saturday's race.  I'm in Los Angeles for the next few days with my wife and baby.  I lived in LA for eight years, I have friends here that haven't yet met little Jack.

Today I took Heather and Jack on a walk up to the place where I first started to run again, in March of 1997.  While I ran competitively as a sprinter when I was young, it was not until a couple of years after college, at 25, that I started to run distance with any conviction or dedication.  I was hopelessly out of shape at that time.  It had been a long time since I had done anything good for my body on a regular basis. 

I used to live at the base of the Hollywood Hills in Studio City, next to a place called Wilacre Park.  One bright day I strapped on some ancient running shoes handed down by my Dad, dawned an aged pair of cotton sweat pants, pulled on a cotton t shirt and headed out the door. I ran up the steep trail made of broken pavement toward a small meadow.  I covered less than a half mile.  I reached the meadow and doubled over, dry heaving.  A woman came over to me and asked if I was ok. I don't remember my response, or if I responded.  I just needed to rest a while. 

But a couple of days later, I went out again.  And a couple of days after that, again.  And so on and so on.  I trained like a beginner, but I was passionate.  I loved the idea of being a runner.  In April of 1998, I ran my first 26.2 mile race, the Los Angeles Marathon.  I finished in an elated, cramped, totally wiped 3:38.

On Saturday, I ran my tenth marathon, St. George.  I basically average about a marathon a year.  I know many people who run many more marathons and I suppose if I raced the distance more often, I might perform better.  But I have a kind of reverence for the marathon, it is so unlike any other race, and it keeps me from jumping into the mix very often.  It's the big dance, the culmination of my season.  While the marathon is filled with factors beyond our control, it is also ultimately a reflection of everything we have done to that date, good and bad.  You can certainly run under your potential in the marathon, but it's extremely difficult to run beyond your preparation.  Preparation can make up for a lot. 

If I look at the season as a whole, my preparation for this race did not start well.  I look back at my training logs from March through June, filled with pockets of very little running, the symptoms of nagging injuries, SI joint, IT band, hip pain, back trouble, tendonititis in the ankle.  A biomechanical mess. One little issue after another.  But swimming and stretching and simply wearing the right shoes all seemed to help. I wonder if the arrival of our little Jack may also have focused my efforts, to make the training time more valuable.  Heaven knows I don't have much time to train. 

In fact, I wasn't even planning to run St. George until August 28th.  I had been denied a spot in the lottery and jumped into the New York Marathon instead. NY sounded great, but was my second choice. I wanted to run a course I knew a few things about and could potentially run faster than last year.  I also wanted to be able to run with the bloggers that I know. 

  My stated goal for this race was to run faster than last year.  This was not a sure bet.  Based on my Hobble Creek Half in mid-August, which was only about 10 seconds faster than last year, I didn't have much more fitness.  But I did have a solid five or six weeks of training after Hobble Creek. I think that must be where 90% of my preparation came from. Remarkably, after a season of problems, my body did what I wanted it to do through September, handling the increased mileage and intensity with few complaints.  There was hope.  I thought I could go sub 2:35. Sasha said 2:32.  I thought he was insane.

So . . . the race.  The pace group we assembled was supposed to be pretty big, but ended up being lean and mean.   Our goal was 1:18ish for the first half and let loose after that.  The group  made all the difference in my race. Specifically, Ted's contribution was huge.

So here's how it went on this cool, cloudless morning for Marathon #10.  (Sorry if the

Mile/Split	Comments
1) 6:02	Nice and easy from the start: pace group is Ted, Cody, Chris Rogers, and me.
2) 6:09	Small uphill here.  No problems.  Pace feels easy.  Carol Cabinillas tucked in for a bit.
3) 5:50	A downhill appetizer, but just a little.  The first aid station with the elite bottles was totally dark and no one handing anything out. I stopped to look for my bottle, but was just wasting time. Jumped back into the race and caught up.
4) 5:51	A very sensible pace for us here.
5) 5:49	I think this is where we caught Scott Browning.  Ted and Cody could see his ponytail swinging ahead of us.  My vision isn't that good.
6) 5:34	Veyo is now in sight, and we're hurtling toward it.  Guy from Canada tucks in. He's clearly speedy. I think he said he missed the start of the race.
7) 5:38	This pace is comfortable, but danger lurks ahead.  Elite bottles are hand-delivered here. I had attached a CarbBoom gel to each one and just took a swallow when I grabbed the bottle. Better than sucking down the whole packet.
8) 6:31	Pulling ourselves up Veyo.  I separated from the group briefly, not because I was trying to pull away, I just didn't feel like it was necessary to back off intentionally. I was fine with keeping up the same effort as we were already running.
9) 6:20	Too slow here.  Should have picked it up. James Barnes is in sight, we'll catch him soon.
10) 6:09	Ten miles in 60 minutes flat. Good pace for us. But Dammeron Valley is not done with us.
11) 6:22	Is this the last hill?
12) 6:00	No it's not the last hill.
13) 5:49	Reached the half in 1:18:40 something.  We're a little slow, but no problem.  This is a negative split course for me.  The group separates here, I pull away from Ted.
14) 5:42	Starting to descend. Passing and getting passed.
15) 5:28	Geronimo!!!  I hear the wheelchair guys go 45mph through Snow Canyon.
16) 5:28	Still truckin'.  I feel pretty good.  Occasional thoughts of a portapotty stop.
17) 5:30	Good splits for 17 and 18.
18)  5:27	Cruising toward the overpass.  This is the loneliest part of the course, in my opinion.
19) 5:52	Trying to figure out what my 20 mile split will be and do all kinds of other maths beyhond my abilities at that point.
20)  5:34	20 miles in 1:57.  Negative split territory. If I can hold a 35 minute 10k, I may be able to do something decent.
21) 5:27	My last fast mile. I also vomited some foamy Gatorade. Felt great.
22) 5:46	My right calf decides to strike up a conversation about  spending the rest of the morning mingling with the spectators. Calf problems are my nemesis in the marathon. The cramps are giving me some concern.
23) 5:41	Just 5k to go.  Sub 2:35 is in the bag, 2:34? 2:33?  I can't do the math at this point.
24) 5:43	Hanging in there.  Just two miles.
25) 5:50	Slowing down, but effort is still steady.
26) 5:55 27) 1:20	At mile 26, my calf stopped chatting and sta, started screaming. In fact, after taking the hard left turn to head toward the finish, it seized up like a vise grip.  I stopped, not voluntarily, but because my leg would not move.  Next thing I know, here comes Ted right behind me, saying "come on, let's go, let's finish!!"  He could have just  blown past me and thought nothing of it. It's a race, after all.  But he basically dragged me out of a paralisys and got me going.  I managed to get running, pain free somehow.  We decided to finish together.  It was a great way to end the race. We somehow squeaked in under 2:33 on  I was 2:32:59, Ted was 2:32:58.

 So Ted is basically my hero for the weekend.  He survived a car wreck, which is the #1 most important thing, but what he did on the course should not be overlooked.  He gave huge encouragement early to our pace group, especially Cody.  He treated it like a team experience.  We are all competitive, but the ultimate goal is simply to do our best. Ted helped all of us do our best in this race.  I would not have finished in under 2:33 without his help, I know that.  It was the hardest part of the race and he took the opportunity to lend a hand.  Very selfless. 

So this was a PR by almost 5 minutes over last year's performance.  A couple of months ago I wouldn't have thought it was possible, but it somehow came together on Saturday.  I'm enjoying a couple of days off from running.  Still soaking up the experience and reading about all the amazing performances on the blog. Congrats to all.