New York City Marathon!

The New York City Marathon was an incredible experience!

So the way our family vacations tends to center around marathon running. We consider the races and the destinations and the timing and plan a family vacation around the race. It's worked out well for us, as we get to visit a city when it's dressed up for visitors and ready for a lot of tourists. We went to Boston in 2013, Chicago in 2014, and New York this year, which rounded out the U.S. part of the World Marathon Majors for me. We'd previously visited San Francisco for the Nike Women's Marathon in 2011 and Vancouver, BC for my first marathon in 2009, which is what got this marathon travel thing started. The others I've run (NYC was my 11th) have been semi-local.

Anyway, the reason I bring this up is because I wouldn't ordinarily walk 8-10 miles the day before a race. But we had 5 days to spend in New York, and the day before the race was Halloween, and my children wanted to wander about in costume. I was in New York for 2 days when I was 16 years old, and none of the rest of my family had been at all, and we had a lot to see.

That said, I was not expecting a PR (although I tried to train for one). I've been told that the sheer number of people and the various bridge-hills in this race are not conducive to a top-notch time. Thus, although I had trained for 3:30, I set my eyes reasonably on 3:45.

Needless to say, I neither PR'ed nor did I make my goal of 3:45. 

Here's how the race went:

The course was so crowded. You know how the first mile or so of a race is so full of people that you end up running more lateral than you intend to, just to get by people? This race is 26.2 miles of that. My Nike Plus at the end of the race showed 27.0 miles, and I'm inclined to believe it. There was such a mass of humanity from start to finish. Don't get me wrong - this is one for the "pro" column as well as the "con". While trying to get around a chain of five Polish guys at mile 21 is a bit more lateral than I like at this point, the energy and diversity and community within the crowd was unparalleled. 

The race starts out in Staten Island at the south end of the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge. Half the runners are on the top deck, and half on the bottom. I was on the lower deck, presumably because I was at the very back of Wave 1. I was so happy to be Wave 1, I had no problem with the lower deck experience. After they count down to the gun, the runners take off to Frank Sinatra's "New York, New York." I had no idea of this tradition, and it was fabulous. I was full of emotion. I stayed in touch with my Garmin, and tried not to overrun the first few miles. I pictured myself as a rock in a stream, and watched as what I assumed were less seasoned runners barreled past me, up and down the incline of the bridge into Brooklyn. I remember feeling very zen about this, and staying on top of my speed like a real pro. A check of my split times indicated that I overran the first 5 miles by about 15-20 seconds. Adrenaline, man. At least I didn't open it up, because I wouldn't have finished even as well as I did.

Anyway, Brooklyn was awesome. I was trying to stay between 8:04-8:10 per mile, and enjoy the scenery. The varied ethnic and cultural neighborhoods were really great, and I loved the brownstones lining the streets. It looked just like NYC in the movies. We went from a relatively industrial looking area to a gentrified-looking area with lots of young families to a largely African American area to a very hipsterish neighborhood with lots of Portland-esque beards, and then into the Hasidic area. It was amazing. I held my projected 8:10 pace quite well, but was feeling more fatigue than I'd have liked as we approached the halfway point on the Pulaski Bridge, between Brooklyn and Queens. 

As we got into Queens, I started to come to terms with not achieving my desired time, and decided to try to enjoy the scenery a bit more, and relax my pace a bit. I slowed to 8:20-8:25 and took in the crowds. Queens was fantastic. Such a loud and enthusiastic crowd of what seemed to be every variety of person imaginable. People held signs from every state and country, and some funny ones, too. "Welcome to Queens. Now get the hell out!" was one of the best. We weren't in Queens long - just a couple miles, but it had one of the most memorable sensory experiences. The super loud crowd was booming, and the runners make a left turn to get onto the Queensborough Bridge to Manhattan, and suddenly: silence. There are no spectators allowed on this bridge, which I'm guessing was about a mile long, and mostly uphill. Going from screaming crowd to the near silence of breaths and footfalls would have been eerie if it weren't kind of amazing. People complained about both the hill and the silence later, but I liked it. I train on hills, so the incline didn't bother me much, and the silence was nice. I looked forward to cresting the hill, but was met with a headwind, so it wasn't as much of a relief as I'd have liked. However, as we went down the hill (off-ramp) into Manhattan, the roar of the crowd came up and we were once again in the tunnel of sound.

Queensborough Bridge: 

As we got into Manhattan at mile 16, my foot started to really hurt (I've been having low levels of pain for about 6 months), so I slowed way down. I tried to maintain 8:40-8:45 from here. Still, although I felt a little panicked that I wouldn't finish in under 4 hours, I thought there was nothing to do but enjoy the city, so I tried to conserve energy by at least staying consistent. In this particular pass through Manhattan, we were running up First Avenue, which is very long, very straight, and has some gently rolling hills. The visual was pretty exciting: crowds of people 5-deep on either side of the road, and a river of colorful heads bobbing up and down ahead of me for miles. I kept my eyes on the horizon and looked for the Bronx up ahead. 

As we crossed the bridge into the Bronx, the crowd changed, but the energy was great. The Bronx looked less densely populated than Manhattan, but the streets were lined with people cheering us on. There were a couple of musicians singing hiphop music, and some street dancers entertaining the crowds. We weren't there for long, but we passed the 20-mile mark up there, and there was a crowd gathered around that milestone cheering extra loud. Shortly thereafter, we crossed the last bridge of the marathon. There was a woman at the foot of the bridge with a sign saying "The Last Damn Bridge". I laughed out loud, and wished that I'd stopped to take her picture. (I needn't have worried - this may have been the most photographed sight on the course. I saw quite a few on Instagram). I was working hard as I approached the zenith, and two nice guys were right at the top offering encouragement - "Nothing but downhill to Central Park!"

Once we were back in Manhattan, we ran down Fifth Avenue through Harlem and some of the best crowd support of the race. The guy in front of me slowed to a walk, and a man on the sidelines, apparently reading the man's name off his shirt yelled out "I know you're not stopping here, Darren. You just gonna keep on running Darren!" Darren and I both picked up a little speed.

Central Park

At the north edge of Central Park begins a gradual incline. Oddly, this felt great to me, and I picked up a little speed. I'd been slowing to something like a 9:00 mile at this point, and I gained a bit of energy here, from about mile 23-24. At mile 24 the course started going back downhill, and my soleus (calf) went into spasm. (Fun fact: my calf has done this three times before, and every dang time it's been at exactly 24 miles). I pulled over to the side to stretch a bit, and walked for about a quarter mile before picking back up to a run. Everything was fine, but I logged a 9:45 that mile. Mile 25 brought us to the south end of the park, running past a handful of buildings all apparently named Trump. People appeared to be dropping like flies. I'm not sure I've ever seen so many people throwing up and collapsing in the last mile of a race. I'm sure my mind is exaggerating it, but I felt just fine plugging along at a 9:00 pace at this point. We turned north back into the park, crossed the 26 mile marker, and I accelerated as much as I could to get into the chute.

When all was said and done, I clocked a 3:56:39, squeaking in under 4 hours, but feeling quite good. The long walk to get the poncho (or to bag check for those who chose that option) was certainly a trek, but I wasn't complaining. I think it's good to shake out the legs a bit with a good walk.

 

Finish Line!

Bridge of the Goddess Half Marathon 9/19/15

What a great race! This one falls six weeks before the New York Marathon, and I'd heard it was a spectacular debut race last year, so I decided to sign up some time ago. As it happens, it fell right around the time I'd decided my training runs have been a little flatter than they ought to be, so I'd been adding a little more texture to my runs over the last couple of weeks.
I'd intended to keep this one fun and not super competitive, although you never really know how you'll be feeling on-course, but I did a pretty good job of not killing myself out there, and pulled off a respectable time, too.
The course boasts over 1,000 vertical feet along the 13.1 miles, and I am inclined (pun intended) to believe it. I was not aware of running on any flat at all. The nice thing was that the hills were rolling, but not insubstantial. 
The Columbia River gorge is really breathtakingly beautiful, and the whole race was visually delightful, even when we were running along Highway 84 (separated from cars by a barrier). The day was amazing. Nice, wispy clouds to accentuate the pretty sunrise (we were encouraged to be there by 6:30, as the race started on a bridge and they had to close off traffic).The course was an out-and-back along the Oregon side of the Columbia River Gorge. There were a couple of tunnels where we passed under the 84, so we got to take advantage of both the overlook to the Columbia and some nice, shady, hilly climbs. One section at about 3 miles was the "stairway to heaven", which sounded worse in the description than it really was. I'd expected single-track bottleneck, but it was a nice, well-maintained, wide staircase. No trouble at all other than the quad burn that comes with climbing stairs. It was even monitored by a very friendly and enthusiastic volunteer.
I felt pretty good, and didn't worry as people passed me. I figured that even if I did feel like racing, I wouldn't kick it until mile 10, so I remained calm on course and enjoyed the scenery, and tried to go for even-effort rather than any particular time. When I started seeing the front-runners coming back from the turnaround point, I realized what a fast, competitive field it was. I decided to plug along at my non-aggressive pace.
As I neared the end, the race took us along the main street in Cascade Locks. Running on public streets can be a problem in some races, but the many volunteers and polite folks on the sidewalk kept it moving along nicely, and I was able to accelerate to the finish line.
I finished in 1:49:06, which is rather a slow half for me, but I am super satisfied with it. I was able to maintain an average speed of 8:13, which is just about 8 seconds slower than my desired speed in NYC in a few weeks, so I feel like I'm on target. I came in 32 overall out of a field of 640, and 5th in my age group out of 97, so I've got nothing to complain about.
Thanks Hammer Nutrition for the gels, anti-fatigue caps, and always for the Recoverite. These keep me running happy!

Belated Race Report - Whine On The Vine 7/19/15

I love X-Dog Events. I discovered them the first spring we lived here, which would have been early 2007, when I ran the Dirt Dash. For years I've run several races a year with X-dog, and have seen them grow from a pretty small operation that seemed to run out of an old school bus to the still small but glorious operation it is today. They were doing obstacle runs before obstacle running was a thing. Not that obstacles are *my* thing, but I'm willing to crawl over, under, around, and through some stuff to get where I'm going.

A few years back, X-dog offered their last Tillamook Burn race, as the private property on which it was held was sold. Bummer, because that was a hell of a challenging 7-mile run.

In its wake, however, we got the Whine On The Vine Adventure Run. This one is held at the lovely J Albin winery in Hillsboro. (FWIW, I'm always surprised this is Hillsboro - it must be the very bottom left corner of it, because it feels more like Newburg). This year was the third annual WotV event. The first year, I failed to follow the course properly and almost accidentally came in first place. I skipped a really big hill, and had to back-track until I found the people I'd been running near in the first place and picked the course back up. Disappointing, but so it goes among really rugged trails. 

Last year and this year I followed the course better and fared relatively well.

At J Albin winery in July, it is very dry and dusty. This year it was especially so, as we had a very hot, dry summer here in Oregon. As we weaved back and forth through the grapes, we kicked up a lot of dust. Usually after the grapes, we head out into a large, open field and traverse 3 or 4 obstacles. This year, it was so hot, and the race organizers opted to forego a couple of the obstacles and head us into the forest sooner. They elongated the forest part of the run to make up for the lost mileage. The terrain in the forest is beautiful. Sometimes the path is one-person wide, sometimes less than that. Blackberry bramble and even one instance of barbed wire threatened the shins as we went up and down the steepest hills. I fell twice, which is not unusual on this kind of path, although it was a little comical this year, as my two falls were about 20 feet apart. I'm sure the people running near me thought I might be one of the obstacles.

As tends to be the case in these races, starting off slowly worked to my advantage. As we got to about mile 3 of the 5.15-mile course, I passed many of the people who blasted by me in the first mile, and by the time we got to the Redneck Slip-n-slide (a big tarp running all the way down a steep hill, manned by a few volunteers with hoses), I was the third woman. I didn't gain any position after that, but I did keep third place female (and passed a few men on the last mile).

In the end, I was just the right combination of muddy, bloody, and dusty, and ready for the complimentary finish-line mimosas.

Belated Race Report, Newport Marathon 5/30/15

This marathon (my tenth 26.2, by the way) was a real learning experience for me. Honestly, I'll probably never do another late May marathon. Not that it couldn't be done, but I was too spread thin to give it my all. So I'll quickly make my excuses and then move on. First, with a 7th grader in band and an 11th grader in choir, there were SO MANY EVENTS and end-of-school stuff that I was all over the place trying to be a good mom. Second, my birthday is May 10, and I love cake. My birthday weekend was my last 20-miler and the beginning of my taper, and I should have been on lockdown nutritionally, and I so wasn't. Thirdly, my wedding anniversary is May 25, and my wonderful husband always makes a delicious, rich meal for me. In this case, 5 days before race day. But I wasn't going to miss it.
So when I registered for this race, I knew these would be challenges, but I figured I'd go for it anyway. If only to have a good mileage base for when it was time to start training for the New York Marathon. Sometime in April, I think, I found out that my oldest daughter had choir concerts on the 29th and 30th of May. That's the night before, and the night of the marathon. And Newport is about 3.5 hours from Portland. I considered bailing on the race, but I hate wasting money and training. I asked my daughter if I could just come to Saturday's concert and miss Friday's, but she said she really wanted me there both nights. So I did it all. I left Portland at 9:00 Friday night, got to Newport around midnight, and checked into the hotel. Got to sleep around 1:00, and woke up at 4:00 - race time was 7:00, and I wanted time to digest.
My goal during training was 3:33. I knew by race day that I wouldn't likely PR on so little sleep, but I figured maybe I would be able to slide in under 3:35. It was a beautiful day, and the course had a few rolling hills, but was mostly flat (at least in elevation - more on that later).
After the gun, I spent about the first mile warming up and finding my legs. I settled into an 8:03-8:05 pace, which I maintained with reasonable effort through mile 15. Around then, I started to feel really heavy and sluggish. I slowed to 8:15ish, and held on for another 3 miles. Mile 18 came in around 8:35, and BAM! The wall. Miles 19-26 were hell. At 21, I almost walked. At mile 22 I figured I may as well cruise at whatever I could pull off, and brought it back up to sub-9:00 for a few miles. The last mile had a slight elevation gain, and I fought for every step. I didn't walk, but didn't get anywhere near my revised goal. I ended up with a 3:47:21. I felt like a total failure for a couple of hours. Then I realized that 1) it wasn't that bad, especially for 3 hours of sleep, 2) my results don't matter to anyone else but me - it's not like my job depends on it, 3) I'd gotten PRs in my last 3 marathons - at some point I was due an off race. Finally, when checking the results, I realized that even if I'd gotten my original goal of 3:33, it would have only moved me up to 4th in my age group, instead of the 7th place I got. That helped a bit. 
And you know? I do have a good mileage base for New York. 
As for the race itself, it is a nice one. It's small - 1000 registered, 727 finished. It's very friendly. And while I'm not a big fan of out-and-backs, it is scenic. Newport is lovely: the course touched on the Cute Beach Town area, but spent most of its distance on an out-and-back along the Yaquina Bay. The biggest down-side of the race for me was that the roads are noticeably canted for run-off (it used to rain a lot here in Oregon). I felt like I was constantly looking for a flat place to run. The calf fatigue from running on a diagonal was distracting, and I'm sure I ran a little extra distance in lateral movement while I decided whether it was better to run on the middle stripe or in the margin next to the road. I could have done without the oyster shooter smell at around mile 10 (and back again around mile 20), but I get it. Quirky local flavor. The upsides of this race are definitely the casual ease of the small field, the friendly directors, the smell of the sea (oysters notwithstanding), and room to move. The race swag was nice, too. The medal was made of swirly glass, which is very pretty. The t-shirt was dri-fit and of good color and quality. There was plenty of recovery food and Rogue beer at the finish, as well as a nice, big finishers area in which to hang out. 
All in all, it was a good experience, if humbling. I look forward to kicking my own butt back in gear for my next race.

Shamrock Half

So I have been running around comparing the Shamrock Run to New Year's Eve, and I stand by that analogy. It's a little like amateur night. Don't get me wrong, I love seeing new runners, and I love helping my clients who want to learn to run get better at it. I love to encourage them to try events, too. It's just that this one is so big and hectic and left some things to be desired. I think it will be a long time before I run this one again, if ever. 
My impressions:
Nothing can be done about the rain and wind. I've run a Shamrock now 6 of the 9 years I've been here, and 5 of them were miserably cold, wet, and windy. I knew it when I signed up, so I won't complain about that.
This was the first year they offered a half marathon. It's always been 5k, 8k, and 15k to my knowledge. I guess the rising popularity of 13.1 drove them to add the distance. And certainly Portland's largest race day (not including H2C, which isn't technically PDX) could accommodate another distance. They were right - every distance sold out. I don't fault them that. My beef is with the course. I've always done the 15k when I've run it before, which is a little boring at the start, but brings you up Terwilliger Hill (the highlight of the race) right at just the right time. You're warm, but not tired. Unfortunately, when they created the course for the half marathon, they just tacked an extra 3.8 miles on to the boring, industrial big going out Naito and back. By the time we got to Terwilliger, we were 6.5 miles into it. 
Another disadvangage of the half: they started the 15k runners at 7:45, and the half at 7:50, so there were a lot of walkers to pass. (Glad you're out there, walkers! Seriously! But all the lateral work to pass groups of four walking abreast gets old fast when you're on mile 12).
Ultimately that worked to my advantage, I suppose, because I knew not to blow my energy on the out-and-back. I kept a nice, steady 7:45 for the most part, and allowed myself to slow to 9:10 going up the hill. People were passing me like crazy on the flat, which made me nervous, but I passed many of them on the way back down. The last 3-4 miles after cresting Terwilliger at the chart house (and the bagpipe players), I picked up to about 7:15-7:20. I ended up with a 1:46:22. Not a PR by a long shot, but good enough for 5th in my age group (out of 125). 
Okay, enough bellyaching. 
This week, 20-miler number two for my Newport training cycle. Week after that, running Wildwood trail end-to-end with some of the folks from the sports center. It will be my longest distance to date. I am excited!

3 weeks later

So far things are going well for this training cycle. My first Sunday long run coincided with the Hagg Lake 25k. I did okay, but it did feel a little humbling. I certainly didn't deserve to do any better than I did, though. First of all, I let the date creep up on me, so I only did 2 long trail runs (12-12/5 miles each) leading up to the race. Not exactly the best way to prepare for a 15.5 mile trail race. Secondly, I started to get sick the day before the race. Those are the excuses. When all was said and done, I came in third in my age group (6th in Masters), and had a nice brisk trail run to kick off my training cycle. It's a really great race. I'm sure I'll want to try again next year with a little better prep work.
I'd been looking forward to trying out some of the new tools at my disposal as a Hammer Nutrition Athlete Ambassador. Actually, the tools have been available all along, but I'm starting to learn more about exactly what all their products can do. I found myself in possession of Endurolytes and Anti-Fatigue Caps, which are supposed to reduce muscle cramping and prolong endurance, respectively. I brought them to the Hagg Lake race, but forgot to put them on my person, so they sat in the car, doing me no good. Last week I had a 15-miler up and over Cornell Road. I packed my supplements in the little tube provided, and popped it into my pocket. I felt them there at about 50 minutes, about 10 minutes till it was time to take them, but by the time I got to 60 minutes, they had fallen out. No dice. This week, I ran my first "long" long run, across the St. John's Bridge and through North Portland, and I went old-school, packing my supplements in a ziplock in my pocket. I am always dubious about the causality of especially hard or especially easy, but this run went very well. My target pace was 9:08, so I was enjoying the permission to go nice and slow, but I ended up pulling off an 8:40 pace. It's a flat course, so I'm cool with that. Next week is my first 20-miler (I do 5), so I'm pretty excited about it. It's supposed to be a beautiful weekend, so maybe I'll talk Sean into riding the bike next to me. That's always fun.

New Training Cycle Begins Today!

This morning I printed off my 16-week training log for the Newport Marathon. (That's Newport Oregon, down on the coast. I wanted to do 2 marathons again this year, but one needs to be close, because NYC is an expensive trip!)
I love the ritual of writing down my runs. I do almost everything online, or on my phone, or digital in some way, but there is comfort and reward in writing down my training runs. One is the visual - it's nice to see all the blank pages ahead and know that when they are filled, I will be stronger, faster, and leaner: ready to prove myself again. I also enjoy the process. As a personal trainer and fitness instructor (and mom), I pretty much spend all day, every day, telling other people what to do. It's nice to just shut up and follow directions sometimes. It's one of my favorite things about running, this quiet and compliance. I am rather high-strung by nature, and I know that running chills me out and makes me easier to deal with. All of this blank paper before me brings the promise of so much reward over the coming 16 weeks. 
My first Sunday run is supposed to be 13 miles at an 8:30 pace. But I have my first race of the year on Sunday. My first as a Hammer Athlete Ambassador (yay!), too. It's a 25K (15.5 mile) mud run, so I'm pretty sure it's not going to be at 8:30, but hopefully fast enough, and certainly fun. After that, I'll hit the roads more often than not to check my times, but I do like a good run in the woods.
The last 2 Sundays I ran Fire Road 1 to Audubon and back on Wildwood. Last week my gps gave me 12.5 miles, and this week only 12. I also did it 4 minutes slower yesterday, so my pace was not great. I had neglected to de-mud my trail running shoes, so I was running in Nike Frees yesterday, which was a hilarious slip-and-slide experiment. I never went fully down on the ground, but I did a lot of sliding. I expect more of the same (in more appropriate shoes) this week at the Hagg Lake 25K.

New Year, and I'm gonna use this blog more

Last year I was sort of getting my feet wet with writing about running. Last year I did start writing the Coach's Corner segment for Oregon Distance Runner magazine, but I neglected to spend as much time on this blog as I'd intended. I never even did a race report on Chicago. Although I doubt anyone was terribly disappointed, I do know that a few people are reading this, so yeah. I'm going to try to do it a little more faithfully now.

2015 is a productive and exciting year so far. This is the year I finally realized my goal of travelling and teaching as a Master Trainer (that's teaching workshops to other personal trainers, if you don't know), but I'm hoping to get more involved in ACE (American Council on Exercise, my certifying agency, for whom I am doing the Master Trainer gig), and continue to grow in my career.

The second big exciting thing that has happened is that I am now sponsored by Hammer Nutrition. I had been sponsored by PowerBar for 10 years, and that ended in 2014. While I was grateful for the 10 years with them, I am over the moon to be representing a company like Hammer, whose products I can use, and believe in 100%, and recommend freely. Non-GMO, gluten free, no chemical dyes. Just thoughtfully created products with the athlete in mind. Additionally, I have had the opportunity to cyber-meet many of the other team members, and it seems like a great community. I expect great things.

The third exciting thing is that I was accepted into the NYC Marathon on November 1. I knew I had the qualifying time, but it wasn't a guarantee. I am really looking forward to this HUGE race, and seeing NYC for the first time since I went with the Tigerettes at age 16. (That's my high school drill team, which was invited to perform at the USFL championship game in July of 1985. This was the third and final season for the USFL, featuring the Oakland Invaders versus the Baltimore Stars. I had to google that. Oakland lost).

Finally, I am delighted to be getting to work with the Nike Tuesday Track club, and hope to be able to continue to attract runners of all paces and abilities to learn and run together.

My next race is the Hagg Lake 25K on Valentine's Day. I haven't run trail in a while, so I guess I'd better spend the next couple weeks on Wildwood in preparation. I'm not necessarily trying to place in this one, but it's just a run I've wanted to do for some time.
Here's my race schedule so far for 2015:

Hagg Lake 25K - February 14
Shamrock Half Marathon - March 15
Dirt Dash (5 mile trail race) - April 12
Havoc at the Hideout (7 mile trail race) - May 3
Newport Marathon (Oregon) - May 30
Whine on the Vine 5-mile Adventure Race - July 19
New York City Marathon - November 1
Holiday Half - December 13

There are a few gaps in there I will need to fill. I'm sure I'll add a thing or two. September and October are too nice to let pass by.