TGIF

It's the middle of the night, and I just ran 8 miles in 1 hour, 14 minutes, and 29 seconds. I think I get a donut for that.


That's getting the Friday ass kicking off to a good start.

The Toughest Race I've Ever Run: Nightmare on Broad Street

This Sunday at 8:30am, a gunshot will go off at the intersection of Broad Street and Somerville Avenue in northern Philadelphia, and 30,000 runners will charge southward 10 miles to the Philadelphia Navy Yard. Unfortunately, but for no one's fault but my own, I will not be joining them. The Broad Street Run is, according to its website, the largest 10 mile race in the United States. Last year, it was the toughest race I've ever run.

The Broad Street run billed as a flat, fast course through the diverse neighborhoods along Broad Street. And it probably would have been, had the weather not taken an unfortunate -- in my humble opinion -- turn.

Last year's Broad Street Run took place on May 2, 2010. I registered for it on February 22nd, after wavering back and forth for a few weeks and waiting to see if vacation plans would conflict with the race date. Last winter, training was a challenge as Central Pennsylvania was bombarded with more snow than Wisconsin, Minnesota, or upstate New York received. I had been running about 5 miles at a time, and probably no more than 15 miles a week before the double-blizzards that hit the week before Valentine's Day, and running was sporadic at best through the rest of the month.

However, I redoubled my efforts in March, increasing my distance back up to 10 miles by the end of the month, giving me all of April to focus on running it faster. (I didn't know about tapering "back then".) My goal was to finish the race in an hour and a half. I'd achieved that twice on training runs in York and come very close to it on a few other runs, and I thought that Broad Street would have both the disadvantage of a crowded field and the advantage of a flatter course with a net downhill. I was clearly ready for the distance.

What I was clearly not ready for was dramatic shift in weather. I'd run 10 miles on the Wednesday morning immediately prior to the race (like I said, I didn't know about tapering), and the temperature was in the low 50s. But, an unseasonably powerful heat wave moved in during the latter part of the week and by Friday it was in the upper 80s. On Saturday, after packet pickup at Lincoln Financial Field, Chris and I sweltered through one of the hottest baseball games I've ever attended. The forecast for Sunday was no better: It was predicted to be in the mid 80s and extremely humid by the race's 8:30 start time.

I admit, I was scared. Not even my favorite carb-loading dinner, Ravioli at Pietro's Brick Oven Pizza, my traditional one pre-race beer, and cool refreshing maple ice cream at Scoops Deville could reassure me. It was, I feared, the last meal of a condemned man. Have I told you I like to over-dramatize things?

I took what precautions I could against the heat. I got up several times in the middle of the night to drink extra water (One of the volunteers at the expo, who I also heard along the course, just yelled "HYDRATE! HYDRATE! HYDRATE! IT'S GOING TO BE HOT OUT THERE!" over and over, which has become a running joke amongst my wife and I.), I filled one of the bottles on my hydration belt with coconut water to restore electrolytes, I liberally applied sunscreen, and...and...well, that was about it.

I left the hotel to board the Broad Street Line subway at about 6:00, hearing that crowds made it difficult to get to the start. At this hour, this was no trouble at all, although there was a decent crowd already there when I arrived. The early arrival was a positive and negative. On the plus side, not to be gross, it gave me plenty of time to rid myself of the excess fluid I'd consumed the day before, despite long lines for the impressive number of restrooms available. On the negative, it gave me a long time to sit on Broad Street without my iPod and think about how miserable this race was going to be.

And, it was miserable -- one of those days where I was sweating profusely well within the first half mile. The course is a visually interesting cross-section of Philly that passes by or through Temple, City Hall, Little Italy, and the Sports Complex (Go Sixers, by the way!) before it's terminus at the Navy Yard. Crowd support along the whole route is unbelievable. There was army of smiling volunteers offering water, Gatorade, and encouragement. Still, it felt like the race would never end, and I did see many participants, either due to frustration or injury, head off the course to any of the numerous subway stations along the route. The main thing keeping me going as I melted was my ever-increasing desire to hurl my oft-maligned Garmin Forerunner 201, which was become more and more out of sync with the mile markers on the course, into the Delaware River.

I eventually did finish in 1:38, well below my goal, but quite satisfactory under the circumstances. I did not hurl Garmin, which said that I had run over 11 miles in a 10-mile race, into the river, since another GPS wearer reminded me that if I'd meandered back and forth on the course to frequently hit water stations or run through the fire hydrants that the city had opened to cool down runners, that it was feasible that I really had added an extra mile. D'oh!

Garmin lives on to frustrate me to this day.



I sat for about 15 minutes, completely exhausted, on the steps of one of the Navy Yard, re-hydrating and eating before Chris made her away across the crowded finishing area. The Broad Street Run, though three miles shorter, had been unquestionably more challenging than the '09 Philly Half, my first half marathon. According 6ABC, 36 runners were taken to local hospitals during the race and one man collapsed at Pattison Ave, almost within sight of the finish line, and over a million cups of water were dispensed. Although I felt like I was wise to not push myself for a 1:30 finish in these conditions, I also don't think i would have finished if the city had not opened the fire hydrants. Between the hydrants and the multitude of water stops, there is nothing negative I can say about this race as an event.

I'd looked forward to a chance to compete in the BSR again in more favorable conditions, and as the 30,000 journey down Broad Street this year, I wish them luck and will regret that I am not among them.

Power Outage

The last week of running has really been a struggle. Last Thursday, I had a decently-paced 7 mile run, but a lot of stuff hurt: ankles, quads, knees, calves.

Yesterday, similar levels of discomfort and a slower pace.

Today, run/walked 5 miles with a family member. As we chatted, we walked more than I normally would have, but that's ok. What concerns me is just how dead -- completely exhausted -- my legs felt, making it 3 of my last 4 runs in which I really haven't felt very good. I wasn't in any pain today, but there was just no strength at all in my legs.

Of course, Saturday was a notable exception to this budding trend. A very good (for me) 5K, during which I felt winded from keeping up a faster pace, but otherwise pain-free and feeling great.

I haven't really run a good fast 5K since my IT Band flared up (and since healed) in January, and I'd been having some very good runs prior to the Mud Chasers run two weeks ago, but I don't think I'd over-trained.

Maybe the weather? It's been in the high 60s and very humid the past two mornings, quite the change from the 40s on Saturday. I hate running in the heat, as I've said many times, and I'm wondering if just not being used to it yet has taken its toll.

Or, maybe it's just a coincidence. It's not supposed to be easy, after all.

For now, I'm just going to rest for a few days and hold off till Friday or Saturday, and also start taking vitamins again since I'm probably not getting enough of something or other. (Chris read me a list of symptoms of low iron, and that sounded pretty much like what I'm going through).

I do have a few blog ideas that will probably be more interesting than this post, too.

Slow News Day

(This is how I felt on today's run.)

Today was a struggle. I didn't really feel like running this morning, and it was foggy to the point that I felt my usual morning route would be unsafe. However, a quick scan of weather.com revealed that this might be my best opportunity for a run this week (the forecast has since improved), so when I saw that school was closed, I headed over to the high school and ran my usual route.

I got 7 miles in 1:07, my usual pace for this distance but not up to par with what I've been putting up recently. Whatever. But worse was how my calves, feet, and quads hurt the whole way. I'm not sure if I hurt myself on the mud run, am sore from racing my 5K harder than I'd planned, or if I just need to either stretch more or take some time off.

The weather was a 180-degree change from Saturday, too. It was about 63, which is certainly not scorching, but much warmer than I'm used to and super, super humid. I got a little relief at mile 6 when it started raining, at which point it seemed to cool down considerably. I debated adding an 8th mile, but as I passed my car I decided that 7 miserable miles were enough.

Interestingly, there were big slugs all over the sidewalk for a good deal of my run. I wanted to get a picture of one, but I didn't want to stop. Since there were no slugs up near the school where I was parked, I posted a picture of this turtle, which I found in our yard several years ago, instead.

Race Report: Northeastern High School Honor Bus Benefit 5K

The Northeastern Honor Bus program was founded to give World War II veterans in northeastern York County a chance to visit, at no cost to them, the World War II Memorial and Arlington National Cemetery. The program was based on a similar program in Mechanicsburg, which in turn traces its lineage to an educator in Ohio who raised money to fly veterans to DC to see these memorials. I suspect there are similar programs throughout the country; the last two times I visited Washington, there were bus tour groups of World War II veterans there.

I think it's a very worthy cause. Today, the men and women involved in that war effort are likely the grandparents of people reading this blog. It's easy to forget that 65+ years ago they helped save the world from perhaps the greatest evil mankind has ever produced. The WWII Memorial is still relatively new to other memorials in DC, dating back to only 2004, so many veterans have not the opportunity to see it.



When I saw several months ago that local volunteers and high school students here in Manchester were raising money for an Honor Bus program by holding a 5K, I thought it be a great race for me to run -- help out a great cause and have the chance to run a race right in my backyard!

To be honest, though, because the race was so close to home and not one that I'd heard about or gotten flyers about year after year, it slipped in and out of my mind as I considered upcoming races. It was always sort of on my race calendar to do it, but just never got around to -- you know - pre-registering. So sadly, in my case, it really took until the evening before to make a firm commitment to run this race.

We're in the middle of the rainy season here, apparently, and it was raining when I awoke yesterday morning. As I got ready to head over to the local VFW for registration, each time I would say to myself "It's not so bad out", the deluge would begin again. During registration, it was pouring, and I got what I thought was a preview of race conditions when I got rather drenched just walking to and from my car to register and then stash my goodie bag. Keeping in mind both the bad weather and the hilliness of the land here, I figured to just kind of take it easy.

However, just as the race was getting ready to start, the weather took a turn for the better. The rain let up, and local politicians who were kicking the event off kept their remarks short to take advantage of the break in the weather. The honor guard led the crowd in a rendition of the Star Spangled Banner, and we were off at the sound of the gun. Without the detriment of rain, conditions were ideal for me -- I've said on here many times that I much prefer running in the cold, and so contrary to my plan I ran the race as fast as I could in pursuit of a PR.

Despite all my fast runs lately, I fell a bit short of PR with a 24:29, but this is still a very good pace for me -- probably in my top 5 all-time, and given the wet road conditions I'm thrilled with the time and happy with my effort.

As I've kind of implied, the course itself, I feel was one of the more challenging that I've run. The race took place in Mt. Wolf and Manchester, two local boroughs located around some very hilly terrain. The course featured tough uphills and downhills steep enough that I felt the need to hold back a bit rather than risk knee injury by picking up the pace.

I was also impressed by the field. I'll be honest -- the only race I ever medaled in was a 5K in Newberry Township on a freezing October morning in which there were probably fewer than 20 participants. I took 2nd in my age group, and it might have been 2nd out of 2. This was a first year event without a lot of promotion, in a tiny borough, on a really rainy morning. Even without age-group specific awards, I thought the field might be small enough that I might have a shot at taking home some hardware. Nope! I got smoked! Which was fine...since schedule didn't really permit sticking around for the closing ceremonies, anyway. (See! Look at how I made it seem like I lost on purpose.) I'm not sure how many participants there were. I was number 92, but I don't think there were that many runners and walkers total.

I think the race organizers did an excellent job in designing and managing the course. In a small race like this that winds through small-town and suburban streets, I was a bit worried that if I was running too far behind the runners in front of me to see them, that it would be easy to wander off course, but there were volunteers at every corner to point runners in the right direction. The course did get a cheap quarter mile of its distance with a lap around the Northeastern High School track, which I think is cheating, and of course it ended on a steep uphill! (In the unlikely event that anyone who was involved in organizing the race reads this, please DON"T take these as serious complaints, they're just things I joke about).

But, other than the above-mentioned course layout pet peeves of mine, I really think this was a very nice event. The opening ceremony was well-done, the course itself was challenging and a nice tour of some of the side streets of two pretty boroughs, and there was ample food and drink after the race. Unless they can control the weather, I don't think there's anything that can be done to improve this race other than more publicity. I hope this becomes an annual event with more participants every year, even if that does totally crush my hopes of a medal.

Have a Happy Easter, and thanks again for reading.

Everybody Hurts, Sometimes

Tonight was just one of those nights. I ran 8 miles in 1:15, a good distance and good pace. But almost from the start, this was not a good run. Sure, I'd slacked a bit this week, and I can't blame that totally on weather, but from how out of breath I was feeling within the first mile, I'd have thought I hadn't run in a month.

My calves also started hurting very early in the run. This isn't completely uncommon for me, but I thought I'd done a good job stretching. By the time they loosened up and felt better at about mile 5, both of my quads were quite sore; both ankles were aching, especially on the turns; and there was a dull pain throughout most of my right foot.

After quick trip to the emergency room, medical professionals determined that I would live through the night.

A few weeks ago, I posted about how I'd unexpectedly, after a very short night of sleep and extremely stressful day of work, pulled one of my fastest runs ever completely out of nowhere. This was the counterpoint to that -- a very painful run that I didn't see coming. I'm not sure if I didn't stretch enough (I thought I did), paced myself badly, actually have some undiagnosed injury, or if it's just a case of "sometimes I've got it, sometimes I don't", which is what I'm leaning towards now.

I don't always feel great when I'm running -- I usually don't, in fact -- but if I'm feelling this bad I usually cut it short, but tonight I was afraid that due to weather and the holiday weekend it might be awhile before I could get back out there. So I continued, miserable the whole way.

Both during and after my run, I was reminded of another of my least-enjoyable runs: the fourth leg of the 2010 Baltimore Marathon Relay.

I was running the fourth leg of the relay, a 7-mile leg that began at Lake Clifton High School (don't ask me where that is...I was bussed there) and ended between lovely Oriole Park at Camden Yards and whatever they call the Ravens' stadium these days. The three out-of-town members of "Earn Your Donuts", Chris, my sister Emily, and myself got up very early that morning and walked from our hotel to the sports complex to meet the fourth member of our team, Ada, a Baltimore resident. From the moment I woke up, I just didn't feel great. Headache, stomach felt awful, and oh yeah, it was freezing and windy.

Since I -- the most experienced racer in the group -- had arrogantly positioned myself to take the last leg, which was one of the two longest, I had to wait several hours for the baton (actually a timing chip) to get to me. About halfway through my wait, I started to feel much better...until I started running.

The seven miles felt like 15. I was out of breath from the beginning, and all the parts of my legs that hurt tonight hurt then. I finished my leg in about 1:07, which is right around my average, but it was miserable. I marveled at people who were 19+ mile into a full marathon who were doing better than me. When I passed someone, there was no joy in it -- they were on mile 20 and I was on mile 2.



While I was busy choking, everyone else on our team ran a great race. Chris, Ada, and Emily all finished their legs of the relay well below the times they'd estimated. I didn't beat myself up over it -- there were some unique circumstances (namely, waiting around in the cold for four hours before running) that affected me that race, but it was a wake-up call. I tightened up the rather slipshod training I'd been doing for the Philly Half Marathon and ran great race, probably my best, there.

Tonight's run needs to serve as a wake up call, too. Not to train harder, since there's nothing on my schedule longer than 10K till November, but to make sure I find the time to do all of the stretches and knee exercises I learned in my physical therapy.

This was just a bad run, but if I don't do a better job sticking with my PT, I'm flirting with injury.

Tell the Story of Your First Half Marathon

Bad weather and, I must admit, a lack of motivation -- but mostly bad weather! -- have curtailed running quite a bit this week. I'll get some miles in tomorrow, most likely, but they'll be boring Manchester miles that wouldn't be worthy of a blog post, anyway.

Here's something that is. A fellow blogger, who for the purposes of full disclosure I will mention that I am married to, is looking for runners to share with her the stories of their first half marathon, as past of a larger writing project that she's undertaking. She noticed that there were books about about running a first marathon and training for a first triathlon or duathlon, but that the half marathon, which is growing in popularity faster than any other distance, was underrepresented. Whereas I would drape myself in sackcloth and ashes, she proposes to do something about this. And she needs your help:

A couple months ago, I ran the Disney Princess Half Marathon in Orlando, FL. It was a challenge and one that I am more and more proud of as the days go by.

Right before the race though, I hit the bookstore to find something to read on the way down. I bought the hubby a first marathon book for Christmas and hoped to find a half marathon version. There was nothing there, which made me slightly disappointed. When I got home, I checked on-line to see if one existed. From what I found, it does not.

So, now that I'm a tad bit out from the race, I decided to do something about it. I wrote up a list of questions regarding a person's running history and their first half marathon experience. I'm hoping to put together a book that a person running their very first half marathon can read and find a bit of advice, camaraderie, or courage from others who were once in their position. I think it would have helped me on that plane ride!

With that in mind, if you have run a half marathon and would like to help me out, please email me. I am seeking out people who have run a half marathon and would like to share their story with others. Doesn't matter to me what half, how long it took you, if you've never run before it or after it, just that you're willing to share your experience with someone who is facing their very first long race.

Please email me at christina_m_stetler (at) yahoo dot com. I hope you'll be willing to help not only me, but the thousands of people each year who are tackling their very first half marathon!

Please get in touch with her through her e-mail (above) or blog, http://nevertrade.blogspot.com/, or leave a comment here if you're willing to help.

I'm sure your story won't compare to my first half marathon, in which I swung on a vine over crocodile-infested waters, jumped over rolling barrels, and evaded a poisonous giant scorpion on my way to finding glorious treasures.


(This is why she needs YOUR help.)