So, I had this plan to run my very first Marathon ever here in NYC this year. I ran my nine NYRR races last year and volunteered multiple times. Early this year I got the e-mail that I am eligible to register for the 2015 NYC Marathon, I logged into my account, plugged in my credit card number, paid $227, waited, made my decisions for baggage, got injured (again), waited, and cancelled my entry. Just like that. Well, as always, this is all on me again, because I was being treated in PT for a strained quad in my left leg and still decided to run the Brooklyn Half. After that I promised my physical therapist that I would not run for at least three months which would have been until around end of August. Considering that to that day I had not been able to run a half-marathon without getting injured I thought that I was so not ready to run a marathon. Maybe for fun? Just for fun? Nah. As I told others, I am running not to socialize or be part of a fun event. I'm there to challenge myself, to race others, to always giving my utmost best. I have a goal for my first marathon and it will not be "just finish." Don't laugh but I do want to finish with a 3:30 time, i.e. an average pace of 8 minutes per mile. Crazy? Maybe. But it is a goal. So, yeah, I cancelled, kissed my money good-bye (warning: rant coming up in a few paragraphs down), and deferred my entry until next year.
Photo by MarathonFoto
With the marathon out of the way, I couldn't just sit at home that weekend and pout (well, it was one of my children's birthday and we had a over-night Halloween party that weekend anyway and I was tasked with making pancakes and waffles, which was one of the reasons why her friends really, really, really wanted to come over for a sleep-over, i.e. I really couldn't have run the marathon without letting her down - maybe my injury was a blessing in disguise?) so I ran at least the Dash to the Finish Line 5k aka "The Other Way to Cross the Marathon Finish Line." I did the same two years ago and I am proud to report that I gained enough fitness to match and beat my results from that year and was finally able again to run an average sub-7 mile in a race. Last time I did that was in the spring. I finished in 21:19, ran on average 6:52 minutes per mile, placed in the top 500 out of almost 10,000 finishers, 28th out of 500 finishers in my age group, 3rd in my team.
Photo by MarathonFoto
Compared to two years ago, this year's iteration of the Dash was massive (Edit: I have to take it back; it was pretty much the same then as it was this year). Ten thousand registered runners for a 5k! You can imagine that the first mile was really crowded and nobody but the runners in front was able to really run. The last two miles were a lot better and running through the streets of Manhattan (unfortunately, one block short of running through Time Square) and having tons of people cheer you on was awesome. The course seemed to be quite easy especially since it felt like it was going downhill most of the time, but it was probably just flat in general. All in all, it was a worthy substitute for the Marathon on the fun scale. Wait, did I just call a marathon a fun race? I do not want to regret these words in November next year! Better get myself into the right mental state.
Here is hoping that 2016 will be the new and better 2014. While I still have four more races coming up (over four consecutive weekends starting on the 22nd of this month) I doubt that I will get any PRs or awards this year. I just want to finish my 9+1 (not actually needed because I am guaranteed for next year due to my cancellation, but just for the sake of achievement) and do the NYCRUNS winter series which is always a lot of fun.
Now to my rant. Why do I have to say adieu to my money that I spent on a race that I cannot run due to illness, injury, or what not? This year I got lucky and got into the Credit Union Cherry Blossom 10 Miles race in Washington D.C. but had to cancel due to my persistent problems with my quads (and I couldn't really justify the expenses of traveling there and renting a hotel room etc.) Luckily, the organizers offer a forum where sellers of race entries can find buyers and a web site where you can officially transfer your registration to somebody else. You were able to do this until a certain time before race day, i.e. plenty of time for the race director to plan accordingly for the big day. It sounds so easy and I just cannot come up with any reason why that cannot be done for NYRR events. There are probably a few caveats, like encourage and enforce that an individual entry is not sold for more than it cost the original buyer, but it seems to work very well at the Cherry Blossom. NYCRUNS offers something similar to their members. You can cancel up to two races per year for whatever reason (up to a week before the race, and with doctor's note up to one day before race day) and get race credit for it. They even absorb the costs of the loss of runners that cancel last minute. Again, NYRR, why can't you offer something similar? It's not like you don't have the money and means to at least try something like that. Think about it! Many runners would love to have a service like this, I bet!
And there he goes!
On a different but very similar note, my youngest kid ran his very first race last weekend at the Ronald McDonald House Fun Run. He was so excited to run and he was the first one to be up and running that morning, waking everybody else up. It was a quarter mile run in Central Park and hundreds of elementary and middle school children met up that morning for some fun in running. He was very sure of himself that he would cross the finish line first but in the end he came in fourth in his heat. Due to the number of children, they were subdivided into age groups (one group per year of age) and then each age group was divided into heats of sixteen children. So, only 16 kids were running at a time and since it was not scored there were no winners. Wait, no. Everybody was a winner and got a ribbon as award. The real awards were only given to the top fundraisers. Now I want to convince him to join the children's run after my next race, the Race to Deliver, and then keep me company on my training runs so he can build up to a 5k. He is only 7, so he's got plenty of time, and there will be plenty of races in our neighborhood for him to participate.
Apropos Race to Deliver 4 Miler: I ran this race last year where I ran my fastest pace in an NYRR event. This would be a good opportunity to make it my best race for 2015 as well, no? Anyway, I found this video on YouTube that covers this race and you can see yours truly for a split second at the 10 second mark and for a bit longer at the 25 second mark. Just look for the bald head sporting a pony tail!
Half-Marathon, that is. Half-Marathon that I finished without the need to see my doctor afterward. That is a major accomplishment, I must say. I don't think I was really ready to run a half-marathon, yet, but since I was kind of impressed how I finished the Bronx 10 Mile I thought it couldn't go that bad. I definitely did a lot better than in Brooklyn! I was sore, thanks to the hills, or in specific that ONE hill, and a bit dehydrated but I think I did okay. I expected a bit better than the 8 minutes per mile average pace but I really do not want to complain. Again, I want this to be the first half-marathon that does not make me run to PT again. I do have a bit of a persistent pain in my right quads but it is nothing compared to what I endured after any of the previous halves.
Chugging up the hill Photo by MarathonFoto
How did it really go? It was hard. A lot harder than I anticipated. The details, as always, are in my Garmin Connect account. My plan was to keep the average pace at around 7:30 minutes per mile which I was able to do quite well for the first eight miles but then the big hill loomed. I didn't expect it. The course was different than 2 years ago and brought us down to the water for the 6 1/2 miles back to the stadium. Unfortunately, after running on the boardwalk for a while we were forced to climb around 100 feet over a mile, starting an hour into the run at around mile 9. That took the wind out of my sails and despite the following downhill sections I did not recover. I just made it somehow. Here are the splits, according to my Garmin. Due to the width of the road and the number of runners it was impossible to run the tangents perfectly.
7:13
7:15
7:26
7:19
7:26
7:35
7:29
7:43
8:22 (this is where the hill started...)
9:02 (... and it continued into mile 10)
8:12 (luckily, there was downhill here)
8:40
9:42 (another hill)
1:29
Photo by MarathonFoto
Just from these number you can tell that I suffered the last four miles. It is what it is. The Staten Island Half is definitely a race that requires a lot more preparation than what I was able to pull off. The route was scenic after around mile 6 1/2 when we turned onto the boardwalk all the way until around mile 10 when we went back to the road and at the end through some industrial neighborhood. The finish line was inside the SI Yankees' ballpark, which I thought was great.
I couldn't linger too long after the race so the way home was torturous. On the ferry I became nauseous and all the way home I shivered most of the time. I realized that I probably didn't hydrate myself enough throughout the race. My shirt was drenched and I only started to drink water in the last few miles and that only because I needed those stops to get through the race. I admit, I stopped and walked at a few and took my sweet time to drink. Another reason for the mediocre pace at the end.
That said, I'll run it again next year. I have to work more on my longer distances and get more mileage under the hood. My next half marathon is scheduled for January 24th, next year. It will be the Fred Lebow Manhattan Half, the first to maybe finally get qualified for the NYC Half in 2017. I did put my name in the hat for the 2016 version of it, though. Let's cross fingers and knock on wood.
Last Sunday was my third consecutive participation in the NYRR Bronx 10-Mile run and I think this time I enjoyed it the most. After a long stretch of injury-related breaks and slowly-but-surely, but still far from where it is supposed to be, regaining of my fitness to the levels seen a year ago, I finally managed to run a 10 miler wisely. I did not start off too fast. I did not push myself too much in the first three quarters. I even aimed for an average pace of 7:30 minutes per mile and was never disappointed that I actually dipped down to that at times. In short, I raced with the knowledge that I have to obey my body. Temporary pain is okay,
just don't turn it into permanent pain.
I wrote about this twice already, so I won't repeat too much about how not so flat the course is and that the ups and downs in the first three miles really suck when we have to run them again in the last three miles. The underpass under Fordham Road broke me last year, this year it was just a little dip in my pace.
For the first time I also noticed, and enjoyed tremendously, the serenity of that short stint down and back Mosholu Parkway. It's a around the half-way point of the race (miles 5 1/2 - 6 1/2) where things just quiet down and I was able to refocus myself for the last half. It was a bit of a bummer that it was all over just 7-some minutes later and we went back south on the Grand Concourse. Just before we turned left on the incline I gave myself a little speech of encouragement to get me through the last three and a half miles. I guess it worked.
Picture by Marathon Foto
Since I switched from Endomondo to a Garmin Forerunner I now have maps that I can embed as well. On my Garmin Connect page you can find everything you need to know about this race.
In the end I crossed the finish line in 1:12:33, an average pace of 7:15, which places me in 845th out of 9349 positions in total and 72nd out of 516 for my age group (which, by the way, was upgraded to 45-49 this February). Considering that I ran a 46:46 in a 10k just three weeks ago, which is a 7:32 mile, I think I am improving at a nice clip.
A couple of random notes about this race: a few people ran the the Bronx 5k first and then ran the 10 miles. One of my club mates actually placed third total in the 5k and then ran a 6:45 average in the long race. That is quite a feat and dedication. On a different note, Peter Ciaccia, president of events, was greeting all runners right behind the finish line and gave out high-fives. I thought that was pretty cool.
This was my first posting after so many months and I owe a bit of race recaps and some volunteer experience. I hope I'll get to that in the next few days, before my next run, the Staten Island Half.
Here we are again. Back to the doctor and physical therapy. Races to be forfeited, training to be missed, fitness levels unavoidably to decrease. I tried everything I could to not to get to this point but, obviously, I tried too hard and stopped a bit too late. It all started with a left knee/hamstring pain that flares up after running and keeps persisting after rest. It does go away slowly, but too slowly for my taste. When I saw the doctor about this three weeks ago we didn't come to a good conclusion and we are trying a lot of different things in PT to figure this out. For good measures I also threw in the reoccurring pain in my right hip and for that we actually figured out what it most likely is: a labral tear, i.e. a bit of cartilage that covers the rim of the hip socket is damaged. I still have to get x-rays and maybe an MRI to be certain but looking back on when the pain started many, many years ago (12+ miles non-stop on a kick scooter) I think I agree with this assessment. That, at least, will not stop me from running. So, as soon as the hamstring (or knee or whatever it is) problem is under control I'll be back on the road.
All that means, though, that I won't be able to race (due to the lack of training) until at least the end of February. I already missed the 5/10 miler and the Fred Lebow Half in Central Park a couple weeks ago and I will miss the Riverside Park 5k in a week, and most likely the NYRR 4M in Central Park at the end of next month. I hope to be able to run again in 2-3 weeks and that should give me plenty of time to prepare for the Washington Heights 5k on March 1st without getting injured (while running a pathetic pace.) I added a handy little widget to the right side of this blog that shows you my race schedule for this year. It will be modified and added to as needed.
This Sunday I am scheduled to volunteer for the Super Bowl Sunday Gridiron 4M in Central Park. I thought I should earn the +1 for the 2016 Marathon as soon as possible to avoid the rush. Then the following Wednesday I will be part of the 2015 edition of the Empire State Building Run-Up. This is an event that had been produced by the NYRR since its inception but the ESB management company decided not to renew the contract for this year and gave it to my all-time favorite race management company NYCRUNS. This is a paradigm changing decision because over night the ESB Run-Up changed from an NYRR-produced event with all its pomp, glitter, and polish to a, hopefully, a lot more laid-back, fun, and just awesome NYCRUNS production. As soon as I heard about this change I offered my time to volunteer. I just have to be part of it. This is going to be awesome. Plus, I'll get $25 in race credit! I will write about this experience in a later entry, for sure!
I'll be resting for a while. Hopefully, you all will keep on running!
Happy new year, everybody. I slacked off a bit to keep my blog updated so this is going to be rather long entry again. I've got three races to cover, give an update on my injuries, recap the year, talk about my running resolutions for 2015, and finally mention a bit about my planned races in the new year. Let's not dawdle and jump right in, shall we?
Race recaps
Since I missed all of winter racing last year due to injury I am glad that things are better this year. I am planning on running all of the races part of the NYCRUNS Winter Series (two of them in Riverside Park, one on Roosevelt Island, and one in Central Park) and getting a head start on earning guaranteed entry in the 2016 NYC Half. So far I ran two of the winter series races, the 5k in Riverside Park and a 10k on Roosevelt Island, and my last race to finish up the 9+1 for the 2015 NYC Marathon, the NYRR Ted Corbitt 15k in Central Park. Due to problems with my right ankle and left hamstring I wasn't in tip-top shape and pretty much neglected any training and just ran the races. Considering the lack of mileage I think I did pretty well:
NYCRUNS Winter Running Series 5k, 11/30/2014, Riverside Park, net time 20:35, pace 6:38, 26th out of 458 finishers total, 6th out of 42 finishers in my age group
NYRR Ted Corbitt 15k, 12/13/2014, Central Park, net time 1:03:50, pace 6:51, 254th out of 4,468 finishers total, 34th out of 308 finishers in my age group
NYCRUNS Winter Running Series 10k, 12/21/2014, Roosevelt Island, net time 41:21, pace 6:40, 28th out of 479 finishers total, 5th out of 45 finishers in my age group
I am especially proud of my 6:51 pace in the Ted Corbitt because I redeemed myself from the not so good outcome at the Bronx 10M. I met a teammate of mine, Chris, in the start corral and we talked about how we planned this run to be. He said he was going to run a 6:30 pace more or less, while I was aiming at a 7ish pace, so I just latched onto him and didn't leave him out of my sight. I also made a point of not overtaking him (there were a couple of opportunities to do so) because I wanted to leave this to the end of the race where I would come from behind, surprising him. Unfortunately, the hills in the second loop of the course put an end to this plan prematurely and I had to let him pull ahead while I struggled through the last couple miles. The course was a 4M loop, a 5M loop, and some through Central Park but the hills, especially the Cat Hill, makes it challenging. I definitely need a lot more hill work, maybe a few training runs in Riverside Park or the Harlem Hill in Central Park would be a good idea. The next half marathon I am signed up for is 2 complete loops of Central Park, all hills included. Fun! Here are the split times according to Endomondo:
6:44, I struggled a bit with my phone and the armband, the start was on the 102nd St traverse
6:23, nice and easy, rolling hills
6:48, first edition of the Cat Hill
6:34
6:55, for some reason I slowed down as soon as I took the corner from the traverse back to the West Park Drive. That was entirely psychological.
6:45, back to the rolling hills
6:53, is it over soon?
7:12, Cat Hill, 2nd edition
6:53
last half mile in 3:11, back to the 102nd St traverse
That was my 9th and last one to get guaranteed entry in this year's NYC Marathon. This is exciting and I will be able to register for it in a couple of weeks. Once I pay my $200 and some I am committed and I am planning on taking advantage of the marathon training program that my running club offers every summer.
There is not much to say about the other two races. They were fun and I did as expected, maybe a few seconds too slow but it's okay. The competition was pretty stiff, I must say. Plenty of sub-40 minutes in the 10k race in my age group. One day I hope to join them.
Injuries
Ugh, let's talk about the not so good stuff. As I mentioned a few times before my right ankle and my left hamstring have been bothering me quite a bit. It didn't stop me from racing but I wasn't able to do much in regards of training between them. After the 10k I stopped running altogether for two weeks over the holidays and started again last Saturday with an easy 4M loop around Roosevelt Island. The ankle seems to be holding up but the back of my thigh, just above the knee, hurts when I step on the foot and it developed a spot that hurts when pushed deep within the muscle. The foam roller seems to ease the pain a bit so maybe I just keep rolling it out religiously. I am due for another round of Euflexxa injections anyway, so I will bring it up with my doctor. My right hip joint also flared up but this always comes and goes. I became a bit lazy with my strength training for my hips and gluts so this is definitely something I really need to pick up again.
Recap of 2014
I have been running now for two years, running races for 18 months. It's been a very good year once I recovered from ITB injury in the spring. I was able to go faster and longer. I hope I can add more to that in 2015. Here is the year 2014 in numbers:
28 races run
132.1 miles raced
764 miles run in total
8 PRs run
8 age-group awards won
5:45 best 1M pace
6:17 best 5k pace
6:25 best 4M pace
6:33 best 5M pace
6:36 best 10k pace
6:51 best 15k pace
7:03 best 10M pace
7:47 best half marathon pace
2 pairs of shoes used (and abused)
It's been a very good year. I hope my current injuries are just fleeting and 2015 will kick in with a bang. I have to catch up with quite a bit of training but the first race of the year will happen in a week already.
Resolutions for 2015
This is an easy one: treat injuries with respect. I think I did quite well last year but I probably overdid the racing part in the summer and didn't allow enough rest in between races and training. Other than that, I want to finish a half-marathon without injuries, and run my very first marathon. I also pledge to get myself a GPS-enabled running watch. I need to watch my splits with more care. All in all, I am just going to have even more fun.
Plans for 2015
I would say I will have at least four highlights this year. The first one would be, of course, the 2015 NYC Marathon on November 1st. I have guaranteed entry and I will run it. Secondly, I will also earn guaranteed entry for 2016, of course, doing the 9+1 again. Included in this will be running all five of the NYRR 5-Borough Series (excluding this year's NYC Half) to get guaranteed entry into the 2016 NYC Half. Since I volunteered for the Brooklyn Half last year I have a guaranteed spot in this year's edition, which is a good thing to have because this race sells out within a couple of days. Last, but definitely not least, I will be doing my first destination race. I was accepted into the Cherry Blossom 10 Miler in Washington D.C. via lottery. The hotel room is already booked and we are going to go on a family vacation that weekend.
My preliminary race calendar for the next three months (and a bit of a preview for the rest of the year) is as follows:
I will probably pick up a few more NYRR races and fill in the gaps with NYCRUNS events. I may also add a few more volunteering opportunities for NYCRUNS produces races since it pays the bills. I enrolled as a member so I get the added benefit of discounted entry fees and the ability to defer up to three races per year. The three most exciting events in the current schedule: Volunteering at the ESP Run-Up (this is awesome!), the Cherry Blossom, and the Marathon.
