DORK!

A customer came in to my bike shop today in search of a stem that would allow him to sit up higher than he is now, in an effort to relieve some of the neck/back pain he experiences after almost every ride he takes. Remember, we're talking about battling actual pain here. I pointed him in the direction of our wall-o-stems and he found one that fit the bill. He showed it to me, I confirmed it should do what he wanted it to, then he waffled. He was most worried about what other cyclists would say about the stem, as he has a "really nice" bike and this particular stem was "kinda dorky".

My stepson and I went on a bike ride together on Monday of this week. It must be said here that I am what some have called a "gearhead". I have all the bells and whistles...sweat-wicking jerseys, cool new Lake shoes, a Garmin 305 with cadence sensor, a beautiful, stealthy matt-black Giant OCR machine, and credit cards for easy access to post-ride refreshment. The boy chooses to ride, despite the fact that I have built him a sleek, similar-to-mine, stealthy, aluminum bicycle, an old, steel Univega 12 speed, that doesn't even have a "granny gear" that would give him, at least, the option of going uphill without pushing his heartbeat into the "danger, danger, Will Robinson" zone. He also rides in jeans, a button-up regular shirt, and battered running shoes. To other "serious" cyclists, he probably looks like a "dork".

The difference between the two is that...only one of them gives a flyin' rat's patooty about the dork label. This got me to thinking about those of us who run...long...and slow.

Perhaps you read it. There was a recent article in the New York Times about whether or not us "plodders" belong in official marathon events. For your perusal, that stoopid piece of drivel is here. I have toyed with responding to this piece of crap but, thankfully, do not have to. My friend Jewelz has done so, with eloquence. I can add nothing more to what she has posted here...after she mastered the NYC Marathon course, slowly...but SURELY, earlier this month. Then, out of the blue, my friend Kari struck similar notes in her most recent blog post, when she spoke of just getting out there when you feel like... just getting out there.

The way this stuff played out? My bike shop customer ended up buying his "dorky" stem. Despite my near-pathological aversion to ever being called a "salesman", I convinced him to take this health-improving little piece of hardware home for his own physical good. I thoroughly expect a "thumbs up" report from him soon, despite of what his "friends" may say. My stepson pretty much mapped out our ride course on Monday, and it included some serious hills. Despite my "gear", he kicked my butt. I am glad he waited for me at the top. Because he did, I sprang for the "afters" .

And then, there's this. If anyone of you out there is dreaming of running a marathon, but thinking you just can't commit, because you'll be slow, or your friends or family, or both, won't get it, or they'll think you're NUTZ...or that you won't be considered a serious runner because you walked a bit, or took a bit "too long", NONE OF THAT MATTERS.

For those of you training for your first marathon (my favourite people on the planet)...good on 'ya! It's a big deal, no matter how long you take. It's about the distance, and your resolve...not about the time. It's NOT about looking "cool" when you cross the finish line. You probably won't. I never have.

Gotta run!

LONG-TRAIN-RUNNING

A running friend asked me recently how I do so many marathons without burning out. She wondered how all the training that goes into the effort doesn't make me crazy. She's no stranger to the game, having run five mararathons herself so far, with three more scheduled for the next month or so. However, for some reason, she wondered how I handle it all. So...here, for the first time ever, anywhere...here...are my "secrets".

#1. Tame Your Goals

The first marathon I ran was Vancouver, BC, in 2003. I took it to heart when our National AIDS Marathon Training Program coaches told us that the goal for first timers should be to do nothing more than finish. If my fading memory serves, I finished that bad boy in something over 6:30. It was not fun. It was cold and rainy. I had never felt such pain. But, after crossing beneath the finish banner, where my sweet wife and hot soup were waiting, my first thought was, "What's next?" I had achieved all that I had come to do. There was no beating myself up because of my time. I still don't beat myself about time. Would I like to be faster? Sure. Do I stress about it? Not for a minute. My marathon goal remains today what was back then, 30 marathons ago. Finish.

#2. Respect the Distance

Ever since Vancouver I have had a reverence for the sheer majesty of the 26.2. In my mind, the distance is always in charge. I will never "beat" it. My goal has been to manage my experience over the distance to the best of my ability. That ability, by the way, may be way different on event day than it was during training. Over time I have learned to live with that disparity when it makes itself known. Some days I'm just a little bit better at doing that than other days. I go into every race knowing that this is the one that could kick my ass. Instead of trying to lash out first, I try to make friends with the task at hand, and ease myself through it. I have gotten much more adept at managing my races, and going with the flow. However, doing so has never, not even once, been anything remotely close to easy.

#3 Train Smart

I know so many runners who simply have to get out there practically every day. For me, that's just not practical. The AIDS Marathon folks started me out at two maintenance runs and one long run a week. I have hardly ever run more than that. I may have run four days a week twice in nearly eight years of training. Over that time I have never had a serious injury. I have never had to take one day off because of excruciating pain. Honestly, I would like to run more. There are times I see other runners running and I wish I was running, too. There are many days there's nothing I'd rather do than run. I am willing to set those days aside in hopes of just being able to run until I'm 100.

#4 Run Your Own Race

The hardest part of doing this is when everyone else in your race is leaving you behind. I know this because it happens to me every time I run a marathon. Despite the warnings from all the experts, the temptation to go out too fast when the starting gun sounds, because everyone else is doing it, is monumental. I, however, have really learned how NOT to do this. I will admit it is difficult to convince myself EVERY time that I will be happy for my choice later. A lot later. But, it has ALWAYS proven itself out. I cannot recall the last race I ran in which more people passed me over the last six miles than I passed by. It's a feeling worth waiting for...and a far better feeling than most of the speed demons of 20 miles ago are experiencing.

#5 Go a Little Crazy

The previous "secrets" are long on control. This one is not. I dream a lot about where I might run next. I am slightly, but only slightly, embarrassed by how much time I spend doing just that. I spend way too much time online, searching for destination races for myself, and keeping up with where other runners are running, for inspiration. I find nothing more motivating than paying the registration fee for another event. I hate paying for a race I don't run. Once I've paid my money, there's a 99% chance I'm gonna be there. I get an adrenaline rush when I score cheap airfare, hotel room, hostel bed, and/or car rental. To that end, I subscribe to a long list of services that let me know when there are savings to be snagged. I snag as many as I can.

So. This is just how I handle this marathon thing. I don't claim to be a coach. I am thrilled that some find inspiration in what I've done so far. If anything I've left here strikes a chord with you, I am grateful for that. Hoping to pay forward the inspiration I have drawn from so many.

Gotta run!

THE TROUBLE WITH DAYS OFF...

...is that I spend most of them dreaming about where I'd like to run next.

It's a combination of loving living out of my suitcase (I've always wanted to be a flight attendant. Really!), wanting to fill my head with as many amazing sights and stories as I can in the 2nd half of my life, and my new found joy, meeting up with other distance runners. Oh, yeah...and the whole actually running thing. I like that, too...except on race day mornings, when I relentlessly question my own sanity.

As I prepare to wind things up on the 12 in 12 in 5 weeks in Santa Barbara, I have already become kind of antsy about 2010. I need goals. Until yesterday's day off, I had tentatively planned only four marathons for next year. I say tentatively because of current economic times. Part of the new challenge will be just how to work the airfare thing, for May's trip to Trieste and Prague and October's to Athens. One of those tickets will be funded largely by Virgin Atlantic frequent flyer miles. That gets me to London. From there it's a hop-skip-and-budget airline-jump to Italy. Then back to London from Prague, via another cheapo carrier, and back to SFO via Virgin. Greece is going to be a whole other kettle of fish. I might actually have to "go retail".

That's three of next year's races. The fourth is the brand new Oakland Marathon, on March 28th. Until they came up with this one I considered San Francisco my hometown marathon. But Oakland's practically next door, so I've gotta do it. I've already run most of the course while training for other events. Most of the rest of it I've done on my bike.

Yesterday I added the fifth.

Back in March 2004 I travelled to Los Angeles with a good friend. We threw our bikes in the back of his big red truck and headed south to do the Acura LA Bike Tour. It's when the organizers of the LA Marathon allow cyclists to ride the marathon route before the runners. It was a great bike ride, but, after completing it I swore I would NEVER run LA. It was one ugly, ugly course. Sorry, guys...but, I speak truth here. Yesterday I ate my words. They have changed the course. It now runs from Dodger Stadium to the beach in Santa Monica. I think I can deal with that. The new LA Marathon is set for March 21st...the week before Oakland.

I've done back-to-back marathons once before...this year's Salt Lake City and Big Sur. Next year's Trieste and Prague will be one week apart. I think I'll be okay with LA and Oakland...especially since Oakland will require no travel.

Starting to feel like I may have enough planned for 2010, but you never know. If I spend enough time searching online for other events, with cheap red wine by my side, I may just press the "enter now" key another couple of times.

Gotta run!

KICKED MY BUTT...AND EATING MY HAT

This morning after grocery shopping I had to carry the goody bags up the 29 steps that lead to my apartment. While making that climb I had to pause for a moment...to thank my legs for still doing what they were meant to do. I put them through a grueling test yesterday morning, namely the Dean Karnazes Silicon Valley Marathon and, admittedly, there were moments then that I was unsure they'd be able to cut the mustard.

The organizers like to tout the SVM as a flat and fast course. All I will say on the subject is...take a look at the elevation chart from my Garmin readout after the race...and you tell me if that's flat...or not!

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/17096081#

I believed the pre-race hype, thinking I might stand a good chance of a new PR here. It was not to be.

Here is where I eat my hat. Prior to the race I bitched (technically different than whining, although don't press me for the distinctions) a bit about San Jose not really being my favourite place to run because of its lack of up-to-snuff scenic beauty. Now I will concede this was an attractive course, pretty much from start to finish (it was an out-and-back so accomplishing that was only half as difficult as it would have been if it was a point to point or a loop). San Jose's Willow Glen district is a delightful residential area, blessed with near-bucolic tree-lined streets. After about mile 5 we left those streets and took to the Los Gatos Creek Trail, following, as you have figured out, the LG Creek. This was pretty much the way it was...as we looped around Los Gatos High School's track and made our way back to the outskirts of Willow Glen. It reminded me a lot of last month's Rochester Marathon course that paralleled the historic and gorgeous Erie Canal. There was just a bit too much canal then...and a bit too much creek yesterday. It's sort of like running the Napa Valley Marathon, past vineyard after vineyard after vineyard after...well, at some point I say "Enough with the vineyards!! Pour me some damn wine!"

While working on the first 13.1 miles of the course I had a sneaking suspicion that I was, for the most part, climbing. Not what I had expected. Finished the first half at the high school in 2:29. Was hoping for more like 2:18-2:20.

Upon leaving the jubilant half marathoners back at their finish party, those of us goofy enough to choose to run all the way back to San Jose, when there were buses available at the school, were confronted with the biggest hill of the course so far. This is also when we climbed out of the near-constant shade and into the glaring sunshine. This is late October, right? Should it really be in the mid-to-upper 70s? Serious?

Having figured out that the first half was nothing but a climb I mistakenly decided that, because the 26.2 course was an out-and-back, the back part would now be downhill. Perhaps I could make up some time and turn in a negative split and maybe even break the 5:00 barrier again. This is where the course designers threw us for a little loop, again. Even though we were indeed retracing many of our steps, the course took us UP some new, steep, long hills. Not a lot. Just enough to dispell hopes of a PR.

Mr. DooDoo Head started talking to me somewhere along here. He's the guy in my head that doesn't think I can finish these things in times like these...or ever, actually. (I co-opted his name from my young friend, Evan Williams, in LeRoy, New York. Seems he has a Mr. DooDoo Head, too. Press on, young man, DDH does NOT get to win!).

From about mile 18 to 21, thoughts of beers and sausages danced in my head. I cast them asunder after that, realizing that if I were to dump out now I'd have to run two marathons by December 7th to successfully finish the 12 in 12, and I'd rather finish this one and have only ONE left. Geared down from my 4:1 run/walk intervals to 3:1, sucked it all up, and pounded it out.

Finished the 2nd half in 2:45...having gone from 5.3 mph average in the first half to 4.8 in the second.

There were free fish tacos, rice and beans at the end. That was awesome. The finishing medal was a bit disappointing. How about putting a little thought into it, huh?








Afterall...this is what my fellow Goon, Mad Dog, got for running the Marine Corps Marathon the same morning...








Drove the 50 miles home in some major pain...but luckily, not injured. Just dog-tired. Had a hour long hottub, followed by margaritas and bed at 6pm. Slept eleven glorious hours. Feeling almost human again. Time now to map out strategies for Santa Barbara International Marathon in six weeks...and the celebrations to follow.

BTW...like my new socks?

Gotta run!

THANKS! I NEEDED THAT.

I will be honest. I have not been looking forward to this Sunday's Dean Karnazes Silicon Valley Marathon.

Physically, I feel great, now that I've had a couple of days to rest up from Hell Week last week at work. Mentally, I'm thinking I'm kind of in control of most of those faculties, despite a slight increase in what some have called "senior moments". It's not even that I'm tiring of running marathons, because I am not, even though the SVM will be #30 overall and the 11th since last December. Trouble is, this weekend's event is in San Jose. California. Not, sadly, Costa Rica.

With apologies to friends and others with whom I am acquainted who happily call the Bay Area's largest city "home"...I'm just not fond of the place. I've lived in California for long enough (since 1967) that I remember when San Jose was pretty much a bigger version of Fresno...or Phoenix, Junior. Since taking part in marathons in such inspiringly beautiful places as Budapest, Barcelona, Seattle and Salt Lake City, I've become somewhat of an eye-candy addict. Consider next year's schedule, so far. Trieste, Prague, and Athens.

The reason I signed up for SVM, honestly, was because it fit in my 12 in 12 schedule...as did another marathon, in the aforementioned Fresno. Fresno's farther away, and my travel budget has been, shall we say, "challenged" a bit, of late. So, San Jose, got the reluctant nod.

Having copped to all that...it's probably no surprise that I have been in serious need of inspiration. With just a handful of days to go til I line up on the starting line again, I will concede, I have found it.

Last weekend, like most October weekends, was chock-full of marathon opportunities. Denver, Toronto, Duke City (ABQ), Kansas City, the Baystate, Amsterdam...and right here in the Bay Area, with the Nike Women's Marathon, San Francisco, there was no shortage of choices. However, I had to work. Fortunately, as I follow/friend/tweet/Facebook/Flork/DailyMile /Just Finish hundreds of other runners online, there were dozens of people I "know" who were free to run. It was to them I turned for "spark" for my upcoming endevour.

Upon getting home Sunday evening I immediately began searching for post-race information. Found out that a few had posted new PR's...while a few others had narrowly missed out on their's. Read amazing stories about half marathoners who travelled far, not sure they were going to cut the mustard, who proudly pulled it out in the end. Also read of fellow running club members kicking butt (as they always seem to do!) and posting times I will not even allow my mind to entertain as remote possibilities. Read of people stunning themselves with unexpected BQ's. Also found written evidence of people "blowing up" at mile 20, but pressing on, crossing the finish line in tears...of pain...and joy. Understandably, inspirational.

I also found a few reports of runners who came up short, I hasten to say, THIS TIME, who did not finish, or achieve their lofty goals. To those who DNFed...believe me...I feel your pain. I did that, after travelling thousands of miles to run Budapest. It remains a painful thorn in my side today. I will, however, go back, and tame that course, one day. Instead of beating myself up with that "failure", I now relish the chance to return and set the record straight. To those with goals you did not meet, believe me, there are simply days when, like "sh#t happens", "marathons happen"...and they get to win. I've run in 29 of these things, never knowing until about mile 22-24 whether or not I was going to finish. There's always another marathon to run, if you're game.

I am ready now to lace up my Brooks Beasts this Sunday, spurred on by those of you who got out there and did it, regardless of the outcome, last weekend. Cheers.

San Jose, here I come. Just hope I know the way!

Gotta run!

VFF UPDATE

Earlier today I informed the Twitter and Facebook worlds that I was not planning to run today at all. Last week at work was especially taxing. It included an outdoor cycling event Saturday that kept me on my feet for 12 hours. Then I worked Sunday. Had "decided" I was not going to run, and would instead let my lower extremeties recover more today from last week's toiling ..until I heard the weather forecast for tomorrow. The Bay Area is expecting, what the weather-goofs call , "remnants of three Pacific typhoons"to converge upon our little slice of heaven...bringing upwards of 2-6 inches of rain in one day. Now, I will say, I don't really mind running in rain...but not typhoon remnants!

I was also thinking my left foot needed, despite the prospect of 26.2 miles on October 25th (Silicon Valley Marathon), a little extra time off from running. Early last week I tried to get 10 miles in in my Vibram Five Fingers...but bowed out at 8.5 because of a nagging little pain in the ball of my left foot. I decided this morning, after hearing the weather forecast for tomorrow, and a quick appraisal of my left foot's condition, that today would have to be the day to get out there.

Was first going to do it in the trusty Brooks Beasts, as that's what I'll be running the marathon in San Jose in, but, based on how good it has been feeling to run in the VFF's, decided today would be a good one to try for a 10 miler again.

Set off at about 10:30am, under grey, cloudy, there's-soon-gonna-be-a-kick-ass-storm-here clouds. Perfect temps. The clouds were so thick the Garmin 305 struggled a bit to latch on the satellites. Started to run before it had actually accomplished that mission, and started the timer, too. About a half mile in, everything lined up just right.

The run, in short, was a total joy. Running through the Berkeley Lagoon area, down to the Emeryville Marina, and then back home along the waterfront....validated my love of running here.

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/16015207

I did 10 miles in 1:52:56. The first five took 56:39....the second, 56:15. Negative splits! Nice. Mr. Garmin says I burned nearly 1400 calories...and my bathroom scale says I'm under 180 again...finally.

I really wish I could dump the running shoes for good, but, as much fun as today's run was, I don't think I could have done more than 10 in the VFFs just yet. Still taking it slow. Santa Barbara Marathon is the first weekend in December. I'm thinking that may even be too soon for my first VFF marathon. Stay tuned.

Currently having a little taste of Laphroaig Single Malt. Medicinal, you understand.

Gotta run!

BLIMP SIGHTING ON ST. JOHN'S BRIDGE...