Boston bound

It's been awhile since my last post. As far as what I have been up to, Kelly and I were out in San Francisco a couple weeks ago for her to run the Nike Women's Marathon. I can not say enough about how well she ran. It has been three years since she ran her last marathon (in San Francisco as well) and in this outing she bested her last time by 20 minutes. And true to form she did it while smiling the entire time. Also, not to be forgotten, she raised nearly $4,500 for the fight against blood related cancers (I had one and they are nasty things to fight), thanks to the kind donations of many of you.

One of the many cool things we did in San Francisco was attend the Leukemia and Lymphona Team in Training pre-race dinner. At this celebration we witnessed awesome talks by both John Benoit Samuelson and John "The Penguin" Bingham. Both were tons of fun to watch and in John Bingham's case, hilarious. I found the entire weekend, and especially the dinner, very emotional. Kelly and I ran our first marathon through Team in Training in 2003. We raised over $12,000 and ran the Dublin (Ireland) Marathon, for all those people we know who had fought or were fighting cancer and to celebrate my successful completion of six months of chemo merely six months before. Team in Training is a great organization, and for any of you out there considering running your first marathon or are looking for a way to honor a loved one's or friend's battle with cancer, let me say two things: anyone can run a marathon and TNT is a great way to do it.

As for my running, I have logged nearly as few miles on my running shoes the last few weeks as I have words in this blog. Each year after my last fall marathon I take the time as a rest period. I usually decrease my miles, especially my weekend miles (which time is then spent being lazy with my kids), up my beer intake, and start planning on paper the next year's races.

I have decided a few things over this time.

1. I will run Boston. This will be my third Boston during my almost six years of running marathons. I secured my hotel reservations today and will make a long weekend of the marathon. What a great way to celebrate a 10th wedding anniversary.

2. I will throw my name in the lottery for the Massanutten Mountain Trails 100 Mile Run. This is run in my home state of Virginia. I missed the sign up last year because it filled up in an hour. Now I will try my luck in the lottery. If I do get in, it will mean quite a tough winter of long running since this race is held in May.

3. If my duties are still requested and required, I will head out to California once more to pace my buddy Jamie Anderson for the Western States 100. This time I will do a much more rigorous rain dance to ward off any wild fires that might threaten the race.

4. And I am pretty sure I will run for the third straight time in the Vermont 100.

After that I will rest, unless the Massanutten Mountain Trails 100 Mile run lottery falls through for me. Then I will try and seek out another 100 with the ultimate goal of running two 100 milers next year. I should also mention that my hope is that Kelly will choose to run the Pineland 25K and another fall marathon. I will let you know about that later.

Signing off. And don't forget to vote on Tuesday! You know for who!

The Humbling: My 5th Straight Maine Marathon

First off, let me start with some incoherent mumblings about why I subject myself to the "humbling of the marathon"? Why do I jump into this epic distance year after year, arguably under-prepared, knowing full well that I will suffer? While running distance does awaken senses that otherwise lay dormant in day to day life and the struggle of finishing does make me appreciate my time on this rotating orb even more, I really don't have a good answer for this one. When I feel like a have a good answer it is fleeting and doesn't seem to capture the essence of the reason very well. Maybe this is why I keep running these things, to figure out why I am running them...

So, as even the least astute of you could have guessed, I once more tried my hand at the marathon distance on Sunday at the Maine Marathon and came out on the other side having achieved my goal but in no way without pain. Having said that, I had a rollicking good time, running with new friends from Atayne while wearing one of their fantastically performing running shirts as well as having the pleasure of seeing another friend complete in fine fashion his first marathon.

Let's rewind. Reminiscent of last year, I did not commit to run the marathon until the day before. On Saturday, Kelly, Quinn, and I headed down to Portland and the marathon expo to sign me up. Kelly was already committed to volunteering all day on Sunday, so she wasn't running. I had thought well enough ahead, unlike last year, to not commit to a Saturday morning full of start line set-up with the race director (which totally left my legs cooked during last year's race). So my legs were pretty fresh, too fresh actually from too little training the prior three weeks due to sickness, injury, and travel. But enough with the alibis. Oh yeah, there is one more. Saturday morning I awoke with a cold which left me doubting my ability to hit my goal of qualifying for Boston, and hardly to even run the required 26.2 miles to not be listed as a DNF (aka couldn't finish). The conversation on the way to sign up Saturday went something like this:

Kelly: "Are you gonna run?"
Me: "I don't know. I really want to but I feel terrible and there is no way I can win (!!) the race in this condition."
Kelly: "So what are you gonna do?"
Me: "If I don't race can it will probably save us over $100 including race fees and babysitting during the race. I can then put this money to better use, like getting an iPhone!"
Banker (I mean Kelly): You are not getting an iPhone.
Me: Should I race?
Kelly: I can't answer that for you.

And this dialogue went on the entire trip to Portland (I only asked once about the iPhone) and even into the expo where I proceeded walk around looking for inspiration and motivation for an hour before committing to race. This time was not lost, however, as I chatted with good friends and even met the good people of Atayne, including Rebecca (who seemed to really run the show), Paige, and Mike (who was described as the "sugar daddy" of the operation...I am guessing this has to do with money...I should have asked him about an iPhone). All very nice people whose mission it is to save us from ourselves by cleaning things up and dressing us in nice, clean, environmentally appropriate (meaning less harmful to the mother ship) clothing. And having worn their stuff on Sunday, I give it two thumbs up for wicking ability and for keeping itself looking sharp and crisp during my entire trip around Portland.

Anyhow, I did sign up with about a half an hour left in the expo. On the way home we got some healthy grub from O'Naturals, I dropped Kelly and the kids off at the Cumberland Pumpkin Festival, and I went home and consumed as many freshly picked apples as my stomach would take to help ward off my sniffles.

The apples apparently worked. Also, the fact that I got a few hours more than my standard 5-6 hours of snooze time probably didn't hurt. I awoke a couple hours before the race feeling pretty good but not entirely out of the woods, downed a couple pills, and then headed to the race to get ready for the day. We arrived at 7 AM for our volunteer prep at the Atayne tent (Kelly worked from 7:30 - 2:30 while I joined her at her water stop around noon), our babysitter met us, and then Kelly headed out to do her work. I stayed behind and met Jeremy (check out Sunday's article about him in the Maine Sunday Telegram), the founder of Atayne and native Mainer, who is now living in my home state of Virginia. I was planning on joining Jeremy and his buddy Mark for the 26.2 miles, or as long as we could stay together. Having never run with either of these guys, I had no idea of what to expect. Jeremy apparently had been training hard, and had a marathon PR (destroyed by end of the day) of around 3:23, while Mark was playing it humbly saying he would be happy to hang on with a finishing time around 3:15.

As we lined up, both Jeremy and Mark donned their game faces and iPod headphones, leaving me wondering how this whole thing was going to play out. I had never run with anyone wearing headphones (I am not against them, it just isn't something I use on race day), so I really wasn't sure of the etiquette like do I try to talk to them during the race of just leave them along. (As a side note, I never did ask them about their respective soundtracks. If either of them read this, what were you listening to?) Anyhow, maybe I should have paid more attention to all the pages that Runner's World and Running Times (mirror images of each other now that Rodale bought them) fills with iPod related stuff, but as the race started the iPod thing was no issue as both guys seemed to hear me just fine.

Many of you who have run many miles with me know that I am a talkative runner, hopefully respectfully so and not to the point of being annoying. Well, there was very little rumblings out of me on Sunday as the cannon propelled us to a first mile split of 7:25 which progressively got quicker to a 6:50 by mile 4 and then settled in to an average of about 7:00/mile until the latter stage of the race. All in all the pace was pretty consistent with some mile below and others just above this average pace, but much better than the 7:17 required to hit a Boston Qualifying (BQ) time of 3:10 for the youngest of runners. I had learned just a couple days earlier that my BQ time was now 3:15 since on race day in 2009 I will be 35 years of age. These extra five minutes would prove fortuitous as I paid for these quick early miles over the last 10K.

The three of us, Jeremy, Mark and I, got along swimmingly as we progressed from Portland through Falmouth, Cumberland, and then Yarmouth. Mark had a tendency to surge forward at points (which could be indicative of smoother pacing on his part) but we always tended to come back together. At the half way spot we were all together with a split time of roughly 1:33, well on pace for a sub-3:10. The trip home is a little tough with a few good uphills but overall a net descent which for me left my quads absolutely destroyed. There is one hill around mile 17 which rises only a couple hundred feet but completely squashed me on Sunday. After that hill things seemed to disintegrate for me. Mark pulled ahead of Jeremy and me while we slowed our cadence trying to save our legs for the top. At the top Jeremy was in much better shape than I was. Shortly after that he kept up his pace while I fell off mine enough to lose touch with him but keep him in my field of vision.

My splits from mile 19 on are very telling. Other than seeing Kelly, Riley (who apparently was the star water stop person of the day), and Quinn at the Mile 23.1 water stop and Jamie and Heather hollering encouragement (thanks guys) somewhere around mile 18-19, the last 7-8 miles were torture. After the 7:00 average pace we had held through mile 18, I slowed slightly to a 7:14 pace in mile 19 and the hemorrhaging started there. The following are my respective splits from Miles 20-26: 7:18, 7:46, 7:33(!), 7:53, 8:06, 8:05, 8:59(!!). The last 0.2 miles was run at a respectable pace of 7:30 for the adoring crowds that always gather at the finish lines of these things. In my mind during these last few miles I was witnessing a bloodbath of epic proportions. I was cursing myself for getting into this mess, constantly asking myself why I didn't commit to harder training, while at the same time I was entertaining the conflicting emotions of relief and happiness that I was almost done.

During the last few miles I lost sight of Jeremy but could see Mark only a few hundred yards in front. He was stopping intermittently to stretch out the cramps that were dogging him and I even resorted to a couple walking breaks to stretch out my legs (hence the 8:59 in the 26th mile). In the end, Jeremy busted his PR by over 13 minutes to finish just over 3:09 while Mark came in at just under 3:13 (just shy of a BQ which I am sure he will get next time around if he really wants it) and I finished about 30 seconds behind Mark. So we all got what we wanted: Jeremy and I BQ'd while Mark beat his 3:15 goal. All in all a pretty good day. But next time I will train better! I promise. This is what I said after last year's Maine Marathon debacle but I mean it this time.

Finally, I want to thank Jeremy, Mike, Rebecca, Paige, and the rest of the Atayne team and volunteers for all they did to clean up our race course and training grounds. They left Maine a better place than they found it, which is what all of us should aspire to do daily. Cheers.

Palin and Couric

So it's been awhile since I last posted anything. And right now all I am doing is sharing one of the greatest Saturday Night Live skits with you all. Watch it and cry...in a funny and sad way. I dare you to watch the real interview with Katie Couric and find any where SNL took any great liberties with the dialog. So if you are a McCain fan, ask yourself if you are ready for this person to take office if McCain kicks the bucket...

2008 Bradbury Bruiser: My Comedy of Errors

Some races just do not turn out the way they are supposed to. The morning dawned perfect with me rising naturally two minutes before the alarm sounded. I had not moved positions since falling asleep early (quarter after 11 is early for this night owl) and felt great. I can't remember the last time I got a solid almost eight hours of sleep. I just knew the race was going to be as epic as a 12-mile trail race on gnarly trails could be.

Fast forward a couple of hours. We arrives at Bradbury ready to race. It's great to see Jamie working registration. As is often the case with me, I sign up the day of the race. After the Ironman corporation took my registration fees for Ironman Wisconsin a couple years ago (my son was born the same week as the race and Kelly wouldn't let me go!), I know wait as long as possible to sign up for races. After registering, I ran into James (in a new jewel bedecked Trail Monster singlet looking dapper), said my hellos, and moved over near the start.

Present were some quick, young guys who had not been present at any of the prior Bradbury races. I knew this was going to be a quick race. After Jamie rang the traditional cowbell to start the race, the quick guys predictably raced off the front. I went with them, as I was feeling great, and hung with them for a few miles through the Laszlo trail and slightly beyond. A few guys sped up a bit and I fell off the front with a couple others, now running in 5th place. With me was Floyd, a roadrunning buddy, and another really young guy. Floyd was having a hard time in his road shoes on the soupy trail, while my Brooks Cascadias were holding up pretty well.

Around mile 5 my first stomach issue presented itself and I had to duck into the woods. As I am seasoned at this type of occurrence (!), I was back on the trail quickly having lost maybe only 10-15 seconds. I could still see 4th and 5th place in front of me and I worked hard to catch them. Within the next couple miles this darting in the woods and trying to catch back up happened two more times. I am not sure what was wrong. I might have had a touch of Quinn's stomach virus from Friday night or maybe it was the beer and barbecue from Saturday night's late meal (post-Maine Roller Derby - what a show). Either way, each time I stopped for this pit stop I lost a little more energy and focus. It was this loss of focus that hurt me the most.

After the third stop I was unable to catch Floyd and the young kid. (Floyd would go on to run a course of his own design and finish as a DNF for getting lost...he did beat me out by a little for Best Bruise at the awards ceremony.) At this point I was all alone on the trail, feeling sapped of energy, with tons of negative vibes coursing through me. As I became more frustrated at having lost the group I had worked hard to stay with, the rain started coming down a little harder and the terrain became a bit more difficult with rocks introduced to the trail. It was just after the mid-way point that I had my first head over heals spill. As I was descending a rocky trail I tripped and landed on my right side and proceeded to roll over onto my back. I was pretty cut up and shaken by this fall but was able to get up quickly and move out. I was a bit beat up from this episode, with a couple good strawberries on the outside of my right knee and gashes on both elbows, the right one which was bleeding down my arm pretty profusely.

Not a mile later I repeated this same type of fall as I was approaching a water station. It was after this fall that DNF'ing embarrassingly started entering my thoughts. My stomach was not cooperating, I was bleeding pretty good, and I had slowed down considerably. As I was heading up one of the only straightaways of the course (a snowmobile trail that dissects the single track trails), four other runners passed me. While I was pretty deflated at this point, getting passed motivated me. I figured this comedy of errors couldn't continue any longer (I was half right) so I might as well enjoy the rainy run and muddy trails.

Besides the side effects of having loose bowels for the first half of the race, open wounds, and a wounded psyche, the rest of the race went alright. As I approached the hardest part of the course, the "O" Trail, I noticed my buddy Jeff approaching. I knew Jeff was a good runner but did not expect to see him running so well having just returned this summer from a nasty injury. I was happy to see Jeff. We ran together on the "O" trail with Jeff giving me some respectable distance; enough for me to correct a wrong turn into some deep water and stay in the lead.

It was shortly after this foray into a swamp that reminded me of Yoda's planet, that I fell for the third and final time of the day. I slipped on a wet root as I was turning, losing my footing and slamming my head into the root. When I hit I felt my head rebound and I just knew I had either lost some teeth or had a concussion. Well, I did neither. At that point I just wanted to laugh while at the same time kneeling to ask God what I had done wrong to deserve this treatment! Jeff was kind enough to stop and check on me. I told him to go ahead and he did so hesitatingly. It's good to have people like Jeff out there who are willing to give up a good race to check on the well-being of another runner. Good karma for Jeff.

The rest of the race found me trailing Jeff with no other runners near us at all. Near the end of the "O" Trail we ran into a couple guys in front of us who had hesitated at an incorrectly trail marker. We hollered at them to continue in the way they were going and I stopped to correct the marker. The "O" Trail is nothing if not cruel. What a way to end a race. It would be fun at the beginning but at the end it is maddening. As I exited onto the snowmobile trail for the final quarter mile I could see a couple runners in front of me but I just had no energy for a kick. I finished in tenth place and about 40 seconds faster than last year when I finished in 4th place. The course this year was slightly different than last year so I am not sure how much time difference that made (good or bad), but either way I persevered through some pretty trying challenges and lived to run another day (heavily bandaged).

Thanks to Ian, Emma, Erik, Jamie, James and all the other Trail Monsters and fellow runners for all their work to produce another great race. Cheers.

Back from the running dead

First, I have to apologize for not meeting up with Tommy on his journey through Portland. I had the best of intentions and attempted to muster all my buddies to run but I think my efforts fell flat. My excuses are numerous but feeble, so I will not bore them with you. I did however succeed in helping Tommy out in my native Virginia. My dad and buddy (both in the McDonald Business and big fans of the Ronald McDonald House) secured some lodging for Tommy and my dad is planning on running with him. So I will have to settle with living vicariously through these efforts. Best of luck Tommy and hats off to you. There can't be much more in life more pleasurable than undertaking an effort like this: running for a great cause that reaches thousands.

Having got that out of the way, on to where I have been. I have finally clawed my way back from the running and blogging doldrums. For some reason I lost some motivation the last week or so. This also happened last year after the Vermont 100. Right after the race I was gung-ho to run as many miles as my legs could muster. This lasted a couple weeks when I just lost the interest in logging miles. I suspect that the accomplishment of the race carries me a little and then the reality hits me that my goal race is behind me and there are no other running milestones in the near future. Next year my goal will be 2-3 100-milers to keep me jazzed a little longer. My buddy Ron Farkash of Massachusettes ran the Cascade Crest 100 just over a week ago and just a month after the Vermont 100. I think Ron got it right. Well done Ron.

Anyhow, my laziness (lack of running only, I have been cycling) has not been all for nought. I have been able to spend some great weekend time (morning, afternoon, and night) with my kids since I haven't been running out of the house at 5 AM for a 4-5 hour run. Instead my wife, Kelly, has been doing the long runs while Quinn, Riley, and I take domestic duty. We have ventured out a couple times to bring her snacks and liquids. I like the role reversal. I think I will like spectating for her even more at the Nike Women's Marathon. I plan on grabbing a great cup of joe and watching the runners race by as I am the one who shouts the words of discouragement at mile 13, saying "Only 13 more miles to go!" Also, if you haven't had a chance to donate to Kelly's fundraising efforts and you want a chance to win a free pair of shoes, it isn't too late to check out her fundraising page. She is just $1,500 shy of her goal of $4,000 with her deadline just over three weeks ago. Give until it hurts!

And finally, I learned this afternoon that my new favorite company, Atayne, has signed on as a sponsor of the Maine Marathon. I hope I am not letting the cat out of the bag, but this was just too good to hold in. Jeremy, the founder of the company, will be at the expo and is organizing a group of volunteers to pick up trash from the course which will then be sorted through and all recyclable removed to be used in post consumer products later. Very cool. So check out the Atayne site and buy a "clean" shirt to run healthy.

As for me, I am off to bed. Got a long run to work in the morning!

Four Million Steps

This morning I was visiting a site that I have been following (www.atayne.com) and ran across the following blog post from Jeremy, the founder of Atayne, at "The Story of a Red Shirt" (buy stuff from him). Given my history with cancer, both having it myself and losing loved ones to it, as well as being a parent, I found the story of Tommy and his East Coast run to benefit the Ronald McDonald House very moving.

Any way, check out Jeremy's blog post and then find out when Tommy might be near your hometown so you can go out and cheer him on. Or figure out other ways to help him. I, myself, am looking at getting a group of runners to go out and maybe run a portion of the run with Tommy. Any takers? Tommy's route can be found on his website, Four Million Steps.

Thanks for reading.

A long run and a fall marathon

Saturday I was back at the long run, meeting up with the Trail Monsters at Pineland for an early AM run. I am guessing the group was 12-15 strong at the outset of the run at 7 AM, and included some VIPs. Many of the Vermont 100 participants were there: Jamie, Ian and Emma, Erik, Chuck, and the VIP, Rawfood Frank. If you read my 2008 Vermont 100 Race Report you will recall that I ran with Frank for the first 40+ miles of the race. He is currently residing in Connecticut but we are working on getting him to set up his raw vegan shop here in Maine. Frank was visiting for a wedding and decided to join us for a long run. It was great giving him a tour of our running grounds and hopefully we will see more of him up this way and at other New England races.

The Saturday run was good, taking just over 3:12 and covering 20.25 miles. It was a bit humid but the pace we kept was a nice training pace, especially since this was the first long run most of us had done since Vermont. The deer flies were tame, considering the humidity and recent rainfall. It was really nice getting together with everyone for a long run. I have missed these runs since Vermont, but have been quite happy in my new role of supporting Kelly in her marathon training.

Speaking of Kelly, she ran the St. Pete's 4-Mile Road Race in Portland Friday night and did well, running an 8:46/mile pace on a very difficult course around the East End. Riley also donned running shoes and ran the kid's 1/2 Mile Fun Run, smiling the entire time, just like her mother.

Yesterday I played aid station for Kelly during her 18-mile long run. She struggled a bit, as most of the run was in full sun (and on the road to boot). Riley, Quinn and I met Kelly near mile 11 and refueled her, and as "mama" headed down the road the kids and I went to eat pastries at Maine Roasters Coffee and perused the bookstore. I knew that if we saw Kelly too soon the lure of a drive home would be great (based on how she felt when we saw her the first time) so the kids and I took our time tearing up the bookstore. By the time we left and hit the road, it had been over an hour and Kelly was already home. Good thing because she said she would definitely have taken the ride home!

Today I hit the roads of Freeport solo and had a pretty good run as a follow-up to the 20+ miler on Saturday. I ran a 6.14 mile course in 43:35, which equates to a 7:05 pace. The good thing about this run was that it was done in negative splits, starting at a 7:29 warm up pace in mile 1 to a 6:50 for the final mile. It was also hot and humid, so I felt pretty good about this run. It definitely gave me some confidence for a fall marathon. I haven't run a marathon this year and so I still don't have my Boston Qualifying time for 2009, so I just might hit the roads this fall for 26.2.