A Boston to remember

I ran the Boston Marathon on Monday. Seems like a simple enough statement. One that might not need a back-story. But then again, all races have a story to them. Actually, all runs have a story to them. Races just seem to have more of a story because we put more pressure on those runs to perform well. Boston was no different.

I trained for this race. Again, seems like a simple statement that would seem pretty obvious because it's referring to a marathon. But I don't normally train for marathons. I just run when I feel like it, as fast as I feel like running, and try to fit it into a schedule with two jobs. For whatever reason, sometimes the planets align and I run hard and feel good during a race. This time though, I really wanted to break three hours. It was a very doable goal considering my time from last year: 3:00:37. It was a PR by over 10 minutes but having the nagging 37 seconds made the PR bittersweet.

I had specific training runs that were done on certain days to make sure that I was ready to run fast and once again gain a new personal best. Hopefully one that started with a two...

As the race neared I was sure I was ready. All my training was done at a pace well exceeding the 2:59:59 pace and I was thinking I might be able to pull an even better time than just squeaking by under the clock.

Then race day came. I woke up to temperatures around 73. Last year at the same time, the temperatures hovered in the 40s. We had gotten emails the day before warning of record temperatures and the race officials even allowed us to defer until next year if we wanted. I knew it'd be toasty but still didn't think as much of it as I probably should have. Just standing in the waiting area waiting for the race to start I had already begun sweating just wearing a tank and shorts. By the time the race started at 10 am I was already pouring small streams of water on myself to keep cool. I'm not sure what the official temperature was at the start but I'd guess around 80.

I decided rather than gunning all the way, I'd just relax and roll for the first half. I didn't want to do anything stupid, so I didn't push. Not even a little bit. I sipped water, sipped gatorade, took my Enduralytes on schedule, and without even trying was staying right around the pace I needed to. People around me were looking rough. Normally, I don't see people walking before the halfway mark, but Monday, they started walking at 10k. I guess somebody passed out a bit behind me and the person directly behind me started yelling, "Medic!" We all passed the word up the field until we saw the golf cart ambulance rushing past us.

The half mark came perfectly timed at 1:29:58. And I was still feeling relaxed and not like I was pushing it even a little bit. But the morale around me spiraled downward. People were complaining like crazy about the heat.

After 15 miles I was still around my target time but started to feel a little tired prematurely and my legs felt surprisingly heavy. I ate another gel and went back to feeling fine, though, the effects didn't last long. After 19 miles or somewhere around there, it was pretty obvious the heat was taking its toll on me, and I slowed dramatically. I did my best to keep running, and to keep my nutrition under control but after another couple miles it was pretty clear this was not the day I would break 3 hours. I crossed the finish line cramping and tired in 3:14:20. Pretty far off from what I wanted to do. Oh well, the rest of the Boston trip with Katie was awesome.

Some numbers on the day:

It was the hottest Boston ever

The winning time was 2:12 and change, 10 minutes off last year's 2:03

4,000 dropped out before the race started

Another 500 or so deferred until next year

About 1,000 dropped out during the race

Roughly a tenth of the field ended up in the emergency tent

150 or so went to the hospital by ambulance

3 were still in critical care as of yesterday

And one had to be revived.

...I think I'll take the missed PR

Quick post run afterthought

There are a lot of times when I'm really tired, or the weather is terrible, or I'm just not feeling a run at the moment; not because of injury, just unmotivated. And I'd say about 99% of the time I force myself to go outside, tell myself to quit being a baby and just start running. And out of all the times I've forced myself to run unwillingly, I have never once come back from a less-than-ideal run and thought, "I feel worse than when I started."

I always feel better after a run.

Time...

I've never valued time to run before. I mean, I've always enjoyed running, but TIME to run has never been a "serious" problem before now. When I was in school, I had time before class, between classes, after class, between work. It was just a matter of squeezing it in whenever I could. And as long as I didn't waste a lot of time between things I didn't really have a problem with it.

Then there was that whole skip across the country thing. All I had was time. Four straight months of nothing to do but run. Oh to have that luxury again. I've picked up a second job at Potomac River Running, the running store pretty close to my house. It rules, and I like that I now have people I can actively engage in super nerdy running conversations with, but it's added some kind of craziness to my schedule. The only time I can feasibly get a run in is before my tree climbing job....at 4 am. Now I know how some of my running friends who have recently had babies feel; micromanaging time down to the microsecond.

It's a good lesson to learn, but I thought I'd have quite a few years before had to be more responsible with my time.

In other news, the book is doing well, and people are liking it! Even better, the people that say they like it, done have a last name that starts with 'Mc' and ends in 'Glade.'

If you haven't picked it up yet, don't be afraid, it'll be entertaining at the very least.

Amazon.com....'Six Miles Per Hour McGlade'

Check it out and tell a friend or two.

Clothes.

I don't normally post too much about gear (other than socks). But I've had two finds recently that were surprising to me, so I'm going to write about it.

I'll go with the oldest first. And when I say oldest I mean OLDEST.

I received my first pair of running split shorts for my birthday. My 19th birthday. They were fairly standard and made by Asics. I liked them immediately and wore them for almost every run leading up to my first marathon. I ran the race in them...and two other marathons. And a 24 hour race. I wore them for about 90 percent of the trans US run. I didn't even notice them wearing out. I just kept wearing them. I continued to wear them for countless runs between the end of the long run up until last Sunday.

After being shredded by so many miles I've decided to retire them since they now rub my legs somewhat uncomfortably. But thank you Asics for making a short that lasts this long.

On to the NEW discovery. The NTS mid weight hoody by Smartwool. This piece of clothing is the most versatile thing I've ever worn. It's great for a run in the mountains when you have no idea what the weather will be like. I received it a couple months ago but didn't discover what it could do until recently.

If you want to wear it just as a long sleeve it works well for that. Getting warm? Roll up the sleeves and unzip it a little bit. BAM! Wicks sweat away and keeps you comfortable. Getting chilly ears? Hood it! The hood is scuba style, so while it does look like its from the future, it does stay up very well. Hands getting a bit cold? Pull down the sleeves, hook your thumbs into the sleeves and curl your hands. I was blow away by all this stuff even though it looks like a standard base layer. Wild stuff.

In other news, the book seems to be taking off which is a very good thing. People who bought it right away are just finishing it and so now I'm getting the first round of reviews from people. So far, everyone likes it. : ) If you haven't heard yet, I wrote a book, it's called Six Miles Per Hour and it's on Amazon. Check it out and tell everyone you know!

Holiday Lake 50k

The Holiday Lake 50k is like no race I've ever run. It's a trail race and I've done those. It's a David Horton race, I've done those as well. It's listed as a 50k but is actually about 33.5 miles, I've even run races that are listed as one distance and end up being a little long. I have no problem with any of these things. My problem is with road marathons. And that is how this race is run.

The trails are mostly flat, and the course is fast. This fact meant I had no opportunities to take any walking breaks except while I was choking on a Gu on my way up a small steep incline. Even though normally I have huge problems during races that are run faster, today wasn't one of them. I felt good and had very few issues.

The start of the race, as with all Horton races, started with the National Anthem and a prayer. I have to admit, we sang the worst sounding Anthem I've ever heard. We must have changed the key 15 times in the 3 minute song. It sort of just turned into a monotone reciting rather than an actual "song," as the word might be defined. Yet, as this group of 300 or so non-singing runners stood in the wee hours of the morning, everyone did our best to sing the National Anthem. And I have to hope that counted for something. No one was "too cool" to give it a shot. I liked that.

Anyway, the race consists of a loop around Holiday Lake and when you get all the way around the lake, you turn around and do it backwards. Not literally running backwards, you retrace your steps. Thought I'd clarify.

The first loop went well enough and I finished it in 8th place, in 1:56 ish for maybe 16ish miles.

See, in a Horton race theres a lot of "ish" moments. The miles are never exact. ISH miles. If you ask him about a section and he says it's flat, just assume it's rolling hills. Flat-ISH. If a climb is listed as being a big climb, it means it's hell-ISH. And there's always lot of food so there are always dISHes. Last one. It was Holiday Lake, so there were probably fISH in there. Okay I'm done.

Regardless of how many actual miles the loop is, the way back was fairly uneventful. I traded places with a few people, some people passed me, and I passed some others. At the end of the race I PRed by 1 hour and 12 minutes, finished in 6th place and in 3:59....ISH.




-- Patrick

Finally done.

So stoked. When I got back from the run across the US in April of 2010 (man that was a long time ago) I started writing down accounts of my trip. I had this blog, that more people followed than I was aware of; but I also had a personal journal I had written in as well as a ton of memories. I wrote them down mainly for myself. When I'm a dinosaur someday, around my 115th birthday, I wanted to remember everything that happened and everything I went through. But most importantly, I wanted to write it so I could remember all the people that helped me cross the country on foot.

After I finished it, it was very rough but when I got to the end I realized that it was more of a story of good people rather than another "running book." After letting a few people read the super rough edition, I recruited the help of several other people to help me edit it and publish it. Here it is, the done copy, ready to be read.

http://bookstore.xlibris.com/Products/SKU-0096050049/Six-Miles-Per-Hour.aspx

-- Patrick

So stoked. When I got back from the run across the US in April of 2010 (man that was a long time ago) I started writing down accounts of my trip. I had this blog, that more people followed than I was aware of; but I also had a personal journal I had written in as well as a ton of memories. I wrote them down mainly for myself. When I'm a dinosaur someday, around my 115th birthday, I wanted to remember everything that happened and everything I went through. But most importantly, I wanted to write it so I could remember all the people that helped me cross the country on foot.

After I finished it, it was very rough but when I got to the end I realized that it was more of a story of good people rather than another "running book." After letting a few people read the super rough edition, I recruited the help of several other people to help me edit it and publish it. Here it is, the done copy, ready to be read.

http://bookstore.xlibris.com/Products/SKU-0096050049/Six-Miles-Per-Hour.aspx

-- Patrick