my marathon PR... Shamrock(March 2007)

Nom	6mile	Pace	13.1mi	Pace	18mile	Pace	Chiptime	Pace	Guntime
jka	52:56	8:50	1:57:21	8:58	2:40:16	8:55	3:57:45	9:05	3:59:22

taper, taper, taper...

That's were I am. Tapering(and trying to eat right!) The NYC marathon is in 6 days. I've probably trained better for this one than for any of my previous 6 marathons. I'm hoping number 7 will be lucky for me. Ran 8 yesterday and probably won't run much this week. Maybe a couple of 2 or 3 milers. My last 20 miler was a week ago and the weekend before that I actually ran 33 miles. 20 on Saturday and then a Half marathon on Sunday. I helped pace Madia and Tracy to PR's. The 8 miler yesterday started out tough. It was very windy and then around mile 3 I felt out of fuel. But I was able to run strong after that and ended up doing it in 1:06. That's averaging in the low 8's. Maybe 8:15. I needed to break in my new shoes. So they'll have at least 12 or 13 miles on them by next Sunday morning. These are the 4th pair of Asics Cumulus I've had in a row. I loved the Cumulus 7, best shoe ever. Had a couple pair of those. Then Cumulus 8, which I ran to a PR at the shamrock marathon last March. They were ok but not as good as the 7's. And now Cumulus 9, size 11 4E. They felt great yesterday. Along with the short runs this week I also plan to swim at least 3 times. Good low impact cross training with an eye towards Eagleman, next June.

I feel ready for NYC. Only things left are to think about what to pack and to work out some logistics about how to get everybody there. The Fundraising has gone along ok, I have some very generous donors but I'm not quite where I'd hoped. Doesn't really matter though. I feel blessed to be able to help somebody while also getting a chance to run the NYC marathon. I think this is really just showing me that I can do much more to help others than I've been doing. That's one good take away from this whole experience.

This is the word for the week(I love this word, from time to time I see it and it just sort of lingers with me for a few days):

en·tel·e·chy
n. pl. en·tel·e·chies

1. In the philosophy of Aristotle, the condition of a thing whose essence is fully realized; actuality.
2. In some philosophical systems, a vital force that directs an organism toward self-fulfillment.

New word: Run-entelechy...

Race Report

* Note: I posted this report on another site.

Osprey Sprint Triathlon
Oct 6, 2007
Public Landing, MD.

I hadn't seen this race mentioned here so I thought I'd try writing a race report. This was the third year I've done this one. It's sort of small and unassuming. Almost laid back, if a triathlon can be that. No chip timing, no USAT fee, no age on the back of the leg. But a very nice venue and only 2 hours from Hampton Roads, up the Eastern Shore. Also, this race is a fund raiser for the Maryland Coastal Bays Foundation. An organization working to preserve Marylands' coastal estuaries. For me, a nice respite from Saturday morning long runs and a good way to get that last triathlon fix for the season. Anyway, I dragged my 2 teenagers out of bed to drive up Saturday morning since they had previously agreed to go. They were pretty agreeable at 5:30AM on a Saturday. So, we get to the bridge tunnel and surprise, they don't take credit cards(I never have cash and of course teenagers have no money) so I had to go in and fill out some promise to pay paperwork. Not good since I'm already starting to stress about whether we have enough time to get there, do packet pickup, rack the bike and hit the porta-potty before the 9AM start. We ended up getting there at around 8:15, do the packet pickup, body marking, find a little corner of a rack where people grudgingly give up a few inches of space. That's another thing about this race, you rack your bike, not by number but anywhere you want. I liked that idea at first but it would come back to bite me later. I always enjoy the excitement of walking with a large group of wetsuit-clad people to the swim start. Even though I'm always apprehensive about the swim. When my wave goes off I feel pretty confident and focused on the task at hand. Only 750 meters. Just relax and breath to both sides, that way I can get into my own rhythm and hopefully pull evenly with both arms. This has been a problem in the past where my right arm hurts days later because it does all of the pulling in survival stroke mode. I think I actually passed some people, getting out to the first buoy even though I kept reverting back to only right side breathing. As I'm swimming I see people beside me walking... the water is only about 5 feet deep in places, but I'm determined to not walk. I roll along and after a while, just as in every tri I've been in, I see a steady stream of orange caps go by(the next wave). Very humbling! I feel like a truck chugging along while the sport bikes zip from lane to lane. I do take solace in the fact that I got out of the water with someone from the wave ahead of mine(he probably walked all the way or learned to swim last week). The swim exit is up the steps at the end of a pier, down which you run, on carpet to T1. The carpet was white and as I ran I kept noticing little splotches of blood. This made me realize that the bottom of my right foot was hurting. Guess I had cut it on the rocks at the swim start. T1 Went well and I was off on the bike. These are all country roads and smooth all the way. I just hammered it as best I could, passed alot of people, maybe 5 or 6 passed me, all wearing aero helmets and riding nice bikes.




There were a few turns on the bike course but plenty of volunteers to steer you right. I was pretty happy with my bike split, bike computer indicates I averaged close to 21 mph but race results say 19.6. This is probably due to the fact that T2 time, in the results, is combined with the bike time and I ran around in T2 for a considerable amount of time. Couldn't find my stuff. This was a result of not racking by bib numbers and not having enough time to really scout out the full layout of things before the race. But I finally did find my stuff and got out of T2 thinking... well... thinking, this hurts. But keep pushing because this is supposed to be where I become the sport bike. The run course is out and back. Always nice to see who is in front of and behind. Lots of motivation to not let up. Plenty of water on the course and very nice volunteers. Had a stitch in my side for a while but that went away and I was able to finish strong and feeling great. Of course, my teenagers were nowhere to be found so I'll have to rely on the official race photos if I want a finish line photo. I took almost 6 minutes off my time from last year. Just about all of that was on the bike. My swim focus from last winter hasn't taken yet. :-) Plenty of drinks(gatorade and bottled water) and good music afterward and the food was a bag lunch. Turkey, Ham or Vegi sandwich and chips. My teenagers ate my turkey sandwich. They report that it was good.

I highly recommend this race. Great community support. Great Venue(swim is in Chincoteague bay), bike and run on well maintained roads, close to home. And it always ends up being an exceptionally beautiful fall day.

________________________________________________________________________________
"My concern is not just about surviving. I would not live at any cost My attempt is to do better than just survive, but to thrive and to thrive with some passion, some compassion, some humor, and some style."
-Maya Angelou

Sandman 07

"Anything worth doing is worth doing poorly, until you can do it well." -Dave Packard (HP)

If I was someone who had slept in an oceanfront room on saturday night and got up for a little walk on the boardwalk, and seen the wetsuit-clad hordes, about 8AM Sunday, just strolling leisurely down to some appointed location on the beach. I'm sure I would have thought, these people are completely insane. The ocean does not look very friendly this morning yet they're about to jump in and go for a swim. Don't the red flags mean it's dangerous to swim? So it was that I found myself among the annointed, standing on the beach waiting to run into the surf. A mixture of fear and excitement simmering inside me. I should say that getting to this point has been an interesting journey. I'm really not much of a swimmer. But for reasons which I do not completely comprehend, I've wanted to do the Sandman Triathlon in Virginia Beach, for the last 3 years. I had made a special point to come out and watch in each of the last 3 years. Each time marvelling at the physical and emotional strength of the participants, and the size and ferocity of the ocean. I say emotional strength because a stern upper lip would surely desert many in this situation. This was my 10th triathlon and I actually felt ready(another point in favor of insanity). Having swam in the ocean 6 or 7 times before this day, and the bay dozens of times. But never in surf like this. Somehow the ocean seems to know the date of Sandman and works itself into a frenzy, after relative calm in the preceding weeks. In previous years I've seen people quit at the starting line, just walk away, get pulled from the surf by the lifeguard service, go into the surf to start, fight the waves a while then give up and return to shore. I was determined not to be one of those. I don't think anyone has ever drowned but I wasn't trying to be one of those either. The swim course was off 32nd street, swim out about 75 yards, right turn around the big orange(red??) buoy then south to the next big orange buoy at 24th street, and then right turn to the beach where transition is setup. I planned to be smiling as I exited the water at 24th street. It never ceases to amaze me, when the horn blows and my wave starts to head into the water, my own feet start to move forward and I'm right there in the mix. Insanity! The only thing I remember is diving under a few waves, then looking up and noticing that I seemed to be a bit farther to the north than my green capped compatriots, so I start swimming at an angle towards the buoy, figuring I can get around it with room to spare and without alot of traffic. I sort of fight the waves a while and then notice that I'm no longer in the breaking surf, I'm out in the rolling waves and headed around the bouy. Really not sure at this point how I got there but I get around that bouy(there was a lifeguard sitting on a surfboard at the buoy) and hear the horn for the next wave to start behind me. Now I'm thinking just relax and swim, and so I do. Normally when I get around the first buoy, I'm looking for the next one, this time I decided not to even look until I had swam a while. The presence of others around me is a mixed blessing, it lets me know that I'm going in the right direction and there are others as slow as I am, but it's somewhat unnerving as people hit or kick you. This happened a few times but I just kept moving forward, trying to relax and breath. I could feel waves pushing me up and dropping me down and sometimes I could see nothing but the wave that had just gone over me. Sometimes I was side-by-side with someone for a while or I could see faster swimmers go cruising by, still just doing my little ugly freestyle. Probably not much different from the stroke I started with 3 years ago, breathing to the right side. Which was also good because I could see the beach. I seem to always revert to this in races, even though I can breath both sides in the pool. This is really not like swimming in the pool. A couple of times I get hit with a wave and instead of a breath of air I get a mouthful of seawater and I'm amazed that I can just blow it out, get another breath and keep going. I think I remember passing a boat on the left and then I start looking for the bouy, for that last turn into the beach, cause this is starting to take a long time and I am starting to get a bit tired. I don't see it but I think, just stay calm, relax and keep going. Then I do see something red in the water but it's not a buoy, it's one of those things the lifeguards carry. At about this time I notice the jet ski coming close by and shouting or waving, and I notice that the other swimmers seem to have taken a right turn, I look up and see the transition area and figure, it's time to go in. So I make my way, uneventfully, to the beach, exiting the water 1/2 a block from the point everyone else is exiting. I have no idea how long that took and at that point didn't really care. I made it! And managed to smile as I made my way to transition. Later I learned that the second buoy had blown away... Wish somebody had told me!!! To be honest, the rest of the triathlon was anticlimatic, we had a strong head wind the first half of the 14 mile ride, which turned into a nice tail wind coming back in. A few passed me, I passed more. I spent way too much time trying to put on my bike gloves at the start of the ride. Bike gloves are not necessary on this short a ride. That cost me some time. The run was grueling, but I kept telling myself not to stop. The run is supposed to be my thing... right? Again, 2 or 3 passed me, I passed a bunch. I finished in 1:41:something. Not my best effort at this distance but I'll take it. I'm firmly in the middle of the pack. In my age group 22nd out of 44(2 DNF's). As is always the pattern I was near the bottom of the pack in the swim, 36/44 better on the bike 14/44 and best on the run 11/44. So basically I operate from the back and move up on the bike and run. Out of the water 36 out of 44, ending up 22 out of 44. That's actually how I like to operate but I do plan more work on my swimming. Some day I want to actually *race* the whole thing. The after party was cool. Some folks from the YMCA are talking about doing IMUSA in 2009. I'm considering it. More on that later. The muscles in my right arm are sore this morning, testament to my broken survival mode swim stroke. But who cares, I had a great time. Can't wait to do it again. Oh, forgot to mention, I ran 15 miles Saturday for a total of 40 miles this week. I want to be ready for New York.

Rock and Roll Half 2 weeks later...

5251	JKA	Chesapeake VA		M-47	Half Marathon
Gun:	7:00:56	5k	10k	10 Mile	11 Mile	Finish
Chip:	7:07:19	26:26	52:01	1:21:47	1:29:30	1:45:11
Race Pace:		8:32	8:23	8:11	8:09	8:02

This was maybe the best race I've ever run. I think I had a smile on my face the whole way. I don't think I can say the strategy worked. I forgot about strategy and just ran. Maybe the biggest factor in that 1:45:11 was the weather. It was cooler then it had been in previous years. Or maybe the key factor was that I've learned enough about running a race like this that I understand most of the salient points and can just run and not overthink the thing. There are always huge numbers of people in this race, which I think really adds to the fun factor. This year there were about 17000 finishers. My most vivid memory is of the people who pass by. I like feeling that sense of camaraderie as you run along with and chat with, sometimes friends and acquaintances, sometimes perfect strangers. Maybe people can't be considered strangers in a situation of shared suffering. Or maybe we're all brought together by a shared goal. Anyway, this was my seventh year running this race and my fastest time, by 6 minutes. I'm very proud of the race pace listed above. It shows that I was getting faster as the distance increased. Ran the last 5K faster than the first. If I could run a full marathon like that I'd probably end up qualifying for Boston.


"If your heart is closed, then you will find behind that door nothing to light your way. But if your heart is open, you will find behind that door people who, like you, are searching, and you will find the right door together with them. None of us can save himself; we are the instruments of one another’s salvation, and only by the hope that we give to others do we lift ourselves out of the darkness into light. "

- Dean Koontz, One Doorway From Heaven

The world, On time!

Had a problem with my iPod. Sent it back and they determined that it needed to be replaced. Here's the FedEx tracking log. I think it's amazing that I can get something all the way from China, in just a few days.

Luxury????

Check this out. $40 round trip. How much Luxury can you get for $40?