Monday, March 3, 2014

Frozen Penguins and more

Pretending to be all upbeat
between miles 11 and 12
Photo by Ken Shelton
I mentioned in a previous posting that I was scheduled to run a half-marathon as part of my training for a 10k. My Endomondo training plan keeps changing (adjusting?) the distances from one work-out to the other and the long run for last Saturday kept on changing from 9.1 miles down to 7 point some miles and eventually (and somehow luckily) back up to 9.3 miles. So, how much more effort would it be to run 13.1 miles in a race setting compared to a leisure 9.3 miles on a beautiful Saturday morning? Well, more than my naïve mind thought but not as much as it could have been. I knew I was risking the health of my left IT Band again and I knew that it is also possible to muscle through a 13.1 miler without proper training but with a certain cost.

All the way in the back
This was the first time in my running career for me to be a bit nervous about a race because I knew I could risk being able to finish up my 10k training and everything else after that (proper half-marathon in the late spring, some down time in form of some casual racing during the summer, and then into marathon training for the fall). This time, though, I did not overdo anything the week before the race. I took my rest days seriously, tried to eat proper food and get enough rest the night before. Two of those three did not quite work out - guess which ones? The start of the race was at 10am which gave me plenty of time to go through my morning routine, catch the tram and train to Shore Road Park down in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn, and I arrived with plenty of time to spare to watch the ending of the 5k that happened right before and to warm up properly. I was debating with myself if I should shed the long pants and run in shorts or not. My always daring side tempted me to just run in shorts - it was a beautiful day after all, the temperature was in the mid-20s, and there was very little wind - but my cautious side reminded me that this was just going to be a long run with a slow pace. In the end I took off the pants but left my long-sleeve shirt, gloves, and hat on (the hat went off after 5 miles into the race). I just had to be a bit hardcore, I had to.

The route was a very simple one: we ran 2 1/2 miles out, came 2 1/2 miles back, out another 4 miles, and back again 4 miles, i.e. we ran under the Verrazano Bridge four times and had constant beautiful bay views on one side and stinking car traffic on the other side. This is the first NYCRUNS race, by the way, that I started at the back of the pack because I took my sweet time to get my gear in place and use the bathroom and I learned, that it really doesn't matter one iota if I start in the front or the back. It all works. Once the race was on I got into my usual rhythm quickly. I planned to keep an 8 minutes/mile pace but realized very quickly, that I rather kept my pre-injury 7:30 mile pace without problems. For the first 8 miles, that is. Once I crossed the 8th mile marker my lap times went from 7:30 to 7:45 to 8:00 and I finished the very last mile in 8:15 minutes/mile. This time, though, this was not caused by any mind tricks or an aching knee. It was pure exhaustion due to the fact that I never ever trained properly to run relatively fast for so many miles and my quads started to tell me that there was very little left in them. My mind almost fell for it and once I passed mile 12 I was very close to just walking the last mile but I decided that I was not going to give the person running behind me the time of the day and let him/her (I did not turn around to see what was going on behind me) pass me without putting at least some effort into it. In the end, I must admit, a handful did overtake me but I never stopped for a break or slowed down to a walk. This time, I did not repeat what happened in Staten Island a few months ago.
Made it!
Photo by Ken Shelton

I finished in 1:41:59 hours which is equivalent to an average pace of 7:47 minutes per mile. I placed 58th out of all 326 finishers and 12th out of 36 in my age group of 40-49. This is a three seconds improvement over the Staten Island Half last year! I am rather proud of this achievement because it shows that there is a lot left in me once I really do train for a half-marathon. I was exhausted, my quads were screaming, and my left IT band did hurt for the next two days (at the hip, not at the knee, luckily!), but I got through it without major issues. I do have to watch my left achilles tendon, though, because it has been acting up a little over the last couple of weeks and this half-marathon probably made things a bit worse. Ice will do the trick and by Friday I should be back on the road finishing up the last two weeks of training for the upcoming 10k race on the 22nd.

Currently I am reading "Running on Empty", a biography by Marshall Ulrich about his attempt to break the world record in running across the United States from San Francisco to New York at the age of 57. It is a fascinating read how such a feat is possible in the first place and sometimes I see myself as somebody who would do something "stupid" like that as well. When I read his words I can feel the excitement of testing your limits and the temptation to press further and further. That's one of the reasons why I did an entire half-marathon instead of a simple 9.3 mile training run. But then on the way home after the race, legs aching, hips burning, mind and body running on very little, I wasn't able to read one bit further in his book. I just didn't feel it anymore. I was tired and felt like somebody who just threw up all night because of a stomach bug and now is confronted with a plate of food in front him (Ulrich's book being the food here.) I could not see myself doing this ever again. That did not last very long, though, since I am now ready to sign up for my next one and the marathon is still on my to-do list for this fall. It will hurt and I will be extremely miserable afterwards but knowing and accepting this beforehand makes me get though this a lot faster and my mind recovers quickly. Off to the next challenge!

Next few races on my schedule:
I am also scheduled to volunteer at the NYC Half on March 16th with my fellow NY Flyers team mates, the NYCRUNS Mother's Day 5k on May 10th, and the Brooklyn Half on May 17th.

Happy running!
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