Race Report: 2012 Dreaded Druid Hills 10K

I guess I talked a little too much smack after the Dreaded Druid Hills 10K last year, because they made the course tougher this year.  Well, that and I'm running half the mileage if that I was running at this time last year, but mostly I'm sure it was just that the course was tougher.

Of course, it's all fun and games at the start of the race:

(The two druids were hilarious.  And they can have their stinkin' hills back.)

(Do you like my sexy compression socks?  Yeah, I don't particularly like them, either.)

(And we're off.)

(Do you see me near the front of the pack?!!!
Well, except for all the many, many other people ahead of me that aren't in the picture.)

(You can see the druids running. One of them, at least, disrobed during the race.) 

And then...the pain.

I've never taken a walk break in any race shorter than a marathon, but I took three today.  There's a really disheartening point in the race at about the 2.5 mile mark (I tried really hard not constantly look at Garmin) where I had climbed a big hill and was running down a very long steep incline, and volunteers said "Stay the left".  Yup, we had to go back up it.  The course was more of an out-and-back compared to last year, but I got to about the four mile mark feeling pretty good, and sort of died.  I also made my classic mistake at the beginning of the race:  I started out in Jackass Mode, weaving through the crowd and passing people.  In this case, it probably wasn't the difference between having to walk a little and not having to walk, but I need to get back my feel for pacing and I especially need to be smarter if I run this one again to take a more conservative approach at the beginning of the race, which is hilly compared to most local races but nothing compared to the toughest parts of this course.

I credit the race directors, Falls Road Running, for a tougher course this year, but still most of this bonkage is on me:  much less mileage and a lot less hill work put in.   All things considered, I'm pretty happy with my 1:00:34.  I was hoping for a little better, but anticipating slower.  From here, I can see that I need to decide my running strategy for the rest of the summer, but that's another blog post. But know this, today the Dreaded Druid Hills got the best of me, but I will be back again next year, hopefully coming off another marathon finish and ready to improve on this showing.

(The finish line is always a welcome sight.)

(Sadly eating my post-race watermelon.)

Thanks to Chris for all the pictures, and for driving us home while I whimpered pathetically.  Now it's my turn to put on m spectator hat (It doubles as an Orioles hat) and cheer her on in tomorrow's Baltimore Women's Classic.

Losing the Arms Race

Remember the blog post where I mentioned that I was going to try to start lifting again after getting completely out of the habit earlier this year after being pretty consistent with it ever since 1999?

Or the one where I berated myself for not starting lifting again and resolving to do better?

Oh, good. I don't either.

And I haven't. Got back in the swing of lifting, that is. I used the weights for the first time since July.

I've had enough trouble motivating myself to run over the past few months, let alone lift, but now the pressure is on. I have a beach trip coming up at the end of the year, and I admit I am motivated mostly by vanity. I know I won't get back all or even most of the strength I had before (which, I admit, wasn't that much!) and I'm very ectomorphic without much muscle mass even at my "peak" of lifting regularly (2006-2009), but I think I can tone back up a little by the end of December.

The goal is 3x a week, probably Sunday, Wednesday, and Friday, until after the marathon and then every other day after that.

Too Late, He Hit the Panic Button

I know you're getting tired of hearing this, but I had the best of intentions this week. I knew this was probably my last chance to pound the midweek miles and still have a chance to taper properly. I ran a tough 4-mile hill workout on Monday, and was fired-up to get out again on Tuesday night. The crisis of willpower that's haunted me over the last month was over.

But then, I started coughing. By the end of the day my throat was swollen and hurting quite badly, and I knew a run was out of the question. On Wednesday afternoon, my doctor hooked me up with a ProAir inhaler and prednisone, both of them steroids, and they made a huge difference almost immediately. Though I felt much better, I still felt like I had too much tightness in my chest, so I put my run off until this morning.

Since a winter storm (in October!) is barreling toward us as we speak, scheduled to drop 6-10 inches of snow tomorrow, I decided to make this my long run, which was scheduled to be 12 miles. I ran 12 miles in 2 hours. Not bad, in and of itself.

For a variety of reasons, most of which have been under my control, I clearly haven't done what I've needed to do to be ready for this marathon. For most of October, nailed my long runs but managed only one or at most two midweek runs.

As I prepped for Shamrock, my level of focus was just so much better. I've trained for both marathons during two of the busiest times of work I've ever had, but while I used work stress as motivation and looked forward to my nightly runs in January and February, in October it became a reason not to run. In hindsight, I think my IT band injury was the best thing that happened to me. I was running very good 16 or 17 milers, right on schedule, and then WHAM!, I could barely even do 5 right after the injury. It made me work really, really hard to get back. I didn't get all the way there, but under the circumstances, I think I did the best I could.

This time? I did a great job staying ahead of schedule all summer and had some great long runs in September and October, and maybe I rested on my non-existent laurels a bit too much during the week and I definitely feel a little burned out on this running thing right now. I certainly took advantage of every possible excuse. I guess it helped that I hurt my knee in late January, a month and a half before the race. This fall, I ignored the warning signs till it was almost certainly too late.

I have to run 26 on November 20th. I ran just 16 this week. And even with my 20-mile long run last week, I still got only 26 miles total last week. If I were a wiser man, I would probably switch to the half marathon. I'm just going to do the best I can on race day, even though it won't be very good even by my Shamrock Marathon standards. With a little bit of walking, I made it through 20 miles just one week ago. As long as I don't let my endurance decrease any further, I think I can finish this race in the approximation of one piece.

My plan? Officially I should be tapering, but I'm going to try to have a last tough week of midweek runs, and then get a last good long run of 18-20 miles. I'll try to follow that with another good week of shorter midweek runs, and then my last long run is scheduled for 8 miles. To make up for the abbreviated taper, I'll do probably do two 2-mile runs and a walk during the last week instead of the two 3-mile runs.


Wow, that was a downer. In summary: Cats...playing football!

Failure & Antonement

This weekend turned out to be a washout as far as running was concerned. 14 on Saturday turned into 10, and I got up to re-try this morning only to find it raining fairly hard at 6am, with a 75% chance of storms at 7am. Back to bed.

It's probably for the best. I'm humbled and ready to listen now, Hal Higdon.

I'll run four miles on Tuesday. I can find time for that, even though this is looking to be a very busy work week. Seven on Wednesday. Four on Thursday. Saturday calls for 15, and that will be a big challenge. Hopefully I'll get lucky with the weather -- both in terms of having a cool morning to run it and the rail trail not being a swamp.

I think my best bet is starting at Hanover Junction, running 4 miles north, turning around, and then running back to Hanover Junction, 3 miles south and then back will make it seem the least oppressive, give me a chance at the midpoint to refill bottles, and also not leave me 7.5 miles away from my car if I bonk again. Since the rail trail is boring, Shuffle will be a must. If it rains a lot this week -- and the forecast says it will, then I'll be trying to wring 15 garbage miles out of Manchester and York Haven.

I'm not trying to save the galaxy...just run 26.2 miles.

Note: This cartoon is not meant to imply that Hal Higdon is small and green or a stick figure.

Saturday Long Run: Four-Mile Failure

I was scheduled for 14 miles today. I stopped at 10. The big, black clouds and increasingly booming thunder that was being down on Manchester just gave me an excuse. There was no way I was going to be able to finish 14 miles today.

My confidence is kind of shaken right now. I'm not sure if I should try 14 again on Monday or just wait until next week's long run, which is 15 miles. I know that 'm probably over-reacting to one bad long run, but I'm not sure I could have gone 11 today, much less 14.

I don't want to panic. There are a few extenuating circumstances that I have to be sure not to repeat this coming week and beyond:

1. I ran 10 humid miles on Saturday, and then we were without power on Monday and Tuesday. Since we didn't have plumbing and I had to go and work from my parents' house, I didn't get out for a run either of those mornings. Of course, both days were cool and beautiful. I got out 10 in on Wednesday, but didn't have time on Thursday. I need to get more than one midweek run in or I'm setting myself up for failure.

2. I need to eat healthier on Friday nights. Pizza, beer, ice cream the night before long run isn't going to cut it. I know...pretty obvious, right?

3. I need a little bit of luck. One of these weeks I'll have a Saturday morning that's not oppressively humid, right?

4. PT Exercises. I do my IT band stretching and foam rolling before every run, but I need to get back to doing the step-ups, step-downs, balance exercises and core exercises. In October 2010, I bombed pretty badly on my 7-mile leg of the Baltimore Marathon Relay. That bad run was a wake-up call that I was a long way from ready for the Philly Half. I came back strong and ran the best race of my mediocre career. There's a lot of work to be done, but I have the benefit of time.

(Sometimes, you're just better off staying in -- or hiding under the -- bed.)

More Trail, Less Fail

I spent the week silently seething with rage over my highly unsatisfactory -- No! -- disgraceful run on the York County Heritage Rail Trail last week.

So, desperate for revenge, I set out southward from Brillhart Station determined to avenge my death!

Well...ok, the above isn't really true. I was ok with my run last week, but was hoping to do a little both in terms of preparation and distance. And I didn't really die. If I did, you'd be spared further blog posts, obviously.

Anyway, the part about heading south from Brillhart Station is true. It was a relatively cool, overcast morning, and there was even a nice breeze -- which the tall trees around the trail completely blocked. It seemed much more humid on the trail than it did otherwise, and so I think on mornings like this, where clouds are keeping the sun from just beating down on me and the actual temperature isn't too bad, I should probably stay off the trail and just run on the roads here in Manchester.

My preparation was a little better than last week. I remembered to both bring and charge Garmin, which worked really well on this relatively straight course. Although it would lose signal quite often due to (I'm guessing here) weather and the thick vegatation (Geez, Brian, you're making it sound like you were running in the stinkin' Amazon Rain Forest.), it seemed like it would "catch up" when the signal came back. That doesn't work so well on my twisty neighborhood courses, since Garmin assumes a straight line from where it lost signal to where I am when it picks it back up.

Because running on the trail is A) safer than running on the road since I don't have to watch for cars and also B) more boring than running on the road since I don't have to watch for cars, I decided to bring my Shuffle. Here, I failed again. I'd forgotten to charge it, and even though I have a USB charger on my phone's power cord, apparently a Shuffle of this generation needs to be plugged into a computer to charge. D'oh.

Overall, though, this was a nice run. I ran for seven miles, going past Hanover Junction, last week's turnaround point, and turned around. This worked out nicely. Since I take a pit stop at this access point to refill my bottles and eat some Sports Beans before setting out again, it made the run back seem a little shorter than the run down.

Here's a picture of Hanover Junction. as seen from the south.
Abraham Lincoln's train changed tracks here on its way to Gettysburg for the Gettysburg Address.

Until about mile 12, when my legs started saying "Hey Brian, we don't want to do this any more." I had sweating buckets for the whole run, but I was drinking water and (at that point) watered-down gatorade, and I'd taken a salt tablet before the run and at my pit stop, so I didn't think I was dehydrated or in danger of heat-related injury. I told my whiny legs to shut the hell up, and made i back to Brillhart and the safety of my car. In doing so, I abandoned a crazy plan, hatched at mile 10 when I briefly felt like I could run forever, to head a bit past Brillhart and turn around to add a 15th mile.

(This is what the rail trail normally looks like.)

(And here's what it looked like after I sweated my way back to my car.)

I'm really happy with this run. 14.13 miles in 2 hours and 19 minutes, for a 9:50/mile pace. It's my longest run of the summer (by .13 miles), but my pace for my only other 14-mile run of the summer, on July 15, was 10:00/mile, so this is a pretty nice improvement.

Time to eat the donuts.

People are Still (sort of) Jerks
Like last week, I said "hi" to everyone I passed. However, for some reason I got more responses today. I have several theories:

1. People who were on the trail last Saturday read my blog entry and realized that they are, in fact, jerks.

2. I appeared less creepy than last week. I didn't wear the visor today. Maybe the visor is creepy.

3. People saw how much I was sweating and didn't want to make me angry.

Further testing is needed.

Fail Trail

I've christened today's run "The Fail on the Trail". It wasn't a bad run, it was just kind of a meltdown of preparation and mental sharpness on my part.

Like I've said in most of my recent entries, I'm not really starting my marathon training yet, since I'm shaving the first few weeks of Higdon's Novice II because I'm already ahead of the mileage, but I was still hoping to get a longer long run in this morning. 14 was my goal. I thought I'd run on the rail trail, because it would give me a change of scenery and, if I started at Brillhart, the opportunity to stop and refill my bottles at the turnaround point at Hanover Junction. Brilliant! Since I wanted to beat the heat and be on the trail around 6am, I laid all my clothes and paraphernalia out the night before. That's not just preparation, that's extraordinary preparation!

I checked the always reliable weather.com (please consider the italics to be the sarcasm font in this case), and noted that today's low was predicted to be 67 degrees. Awesome! Anything under 70 is a gift I'll gladly accept. But, when I scrolled through the hourly forecasts, none of them showed lower than 74. D'oh! That's not terrible, but a little warmer than most of my summer early morning runs. With that in mind, I considered lowering my distance goals a bit, but instead decided that the shade of the rail trail and the built-in refilling stop would be too much of an advantage to give up.

Alarm went off at 4:30, and I'm ready to be out the door at 5:20. Clockwork. Except for one little thing...I saw that I hadn't put the plug from the charger into my Garmin fully, and it had less than an hour of charge.

FAIL

I like to have Garmin, despite its inaccuracy, since it lets me monitor my pace without having to resort to math, but this wasn't a critical error -- I still have my trusty Timex Ironman Triathlon (no sarcasm here, I seriously love this watch). No problem, everything was still going smoothly. I got to Brillhart station at 6:00am, and headed southward on the trail. I was running along, everything was going fine, and I don't need Garmin when I have an awesome and reliable stopwatch... that I forgot to start.

FAIL

A bit discouraged, I started my watch. I'm estimating I was only 3-4 minutes into my run before starting it. Not the end of the world, but I bet Meb Keflezighi never forgets to start his watch.

I quickly noticed that the humidity was humiditating rather heavily, but luckily the trail has a great amount of shade and it was mostly overcast, anyway. Of course, I'd opted for the visor, even though under these conditions it's unnecessary and even a minor detriment.

mini-FAIL

Within the first mile, I was already sweating profusely. In fact, people following me on the trail probably had to swim for it. My route turned out to be not as well-thought as I'd planned. You see, Chris and I had biked this same section of the trail on Tuesday night. This had the unfortunate effect of making it seem like it was taking forever to get anywhere while running. On a bike, the Howard Tunnel seems just a few minutes past Brillhart Station. Today, it seemed light years away (Really, it's about 2 miles from where I started/finished.)

FAIL

(Isn't it pretty? Doesn't it look humid?)

Once past the tunnel, things seemed to take a turn for the better. Using my now-running chronometer and the mile markers on the trail, I could tell I was running about a 10-minute mile pace, and I started feeling better, or at least getting used to how gross I felt. There was one close call where I thought I saw a snake coiled on the trail ahead of me (EPIC FAIL), but fortunately it turned out to just be a branch with some leaves.

I reached Hanover Junction in approximately an hour. It turned out to be between and six and seven miles away from Brillhart. I took a short break to drink some water and refill both of my bottles, and then headed north (to FREEDOM!)

The way back didn't seem to take as long as the way down (In reality, it took the same time or a few minutes longer.) I was still laying down between 9 and 10 minute miles and, since the trail is picturesque but really just running in a straight line, was bored out of my mind. All I could focus on was watching for the next mile marker, just wanting to get this one over with. Finally, it seemed, I reached the cool relief of the tunnel, which was just a cooler but more humid spot on this humid run.

(Crap. Is it "Come into the light, Brian." or "Don't come into the light, Brian"?)

From there, though, it was easy. Just two miles to go. As I reached Brillhart Station, my watch read 2:03:10, so I'm estimating my full run at 2:07. It turned out, according to the distance reading from Tuesday's bike ride, to be 12.76 miles.

Good enough.

Also, People are Jerks
As I ran, I said "hi" to everyone who passed. Maybe 1 in 10 returned my hello. I don't expect to become best friends with people I meet on the trail, but I'm running, they're running, isn't the bond of shared suffering enough to warrant a friendly greeting?

Several people have told me that they've noticed that solo female runners usually won't say hi to a lone male runner. Do I look like a creepy stalker? I've never stalked anyone, and I really don't think I'm that creepy looking. So thank you to the two ladies who did return my hello, you reassured me a bit that perhaps I don't look like an axe murderer. And even if I were, where I would hide an axe while I'm running?

There was one guy in particular that I thought was a jerk. He was definitely a better runner than me, catching up to and passing me after starting at Brillhart a few minutes after me and then pulling way ahead of me. I said hello as he passed, and was greeted by a stony silence. At what I believe to be the 5-mile mark (based on a previous bike ride along this course), he turned and passed me going the other way. I said hello again, and this time was glared at for my troubles.

Well Mr. Cool, I'll have you know that while you may be (much) faster than me, I continued on to Hanover Junction and back again, and I believe that makes me the better man.

So, that's the end of today's rant. Am I off-base here? What's proper running etiquette in this situation -- hello or no?