The Army 10 Miler…it certainly felt longer…

I knew my season was coming to an end…partly because of the calendar and partly because my injury was in dire need of some rest/recovery…but I HAVE to do the Army 10 Miler. I’m so bummed that for the past 10 years I’ve been in DC that weekend for work and DIDN’T race it (because I was an unmotivated fat body) but once I finally did it last year, there was no way I miss another one.

I will say that I went into this year’s race with no expectation. Finishing wasn’t an issue but finishing in a decent time was. I had no aspirations or vision of beating my PR, I just wanted to get through the race and be in decent shape when it was over. Luckily, this year (on J’s suggestion) the hotel I stayed at was only a 5 minute walk from the start of the race. A quick trip to the expo on Saturday (once you’ve been to a major expo like Boston or Chicago all the other expos are kind of lackluster) and then a chill day off the legs.

I never thought I’d say this, nor did you ever think you’d hear me say this, but I got to the race…too early! Since I stayed so close, it really only took 5 minutes to walk over to the start. I mean ya, it was great to be able to hit the porta-potty one more time but I literally had 40 minutes to stand around and wait. See the waiting part is what drives me insane (idle hands and all). As I moved up to my corral, not having anyone to chat with, I just kept thinking about the race “will it be slow?”, “how slow?”, “will I be upset with the result?” and my personal favorite “why didn’t I just stay in bed?”. Well, nothing to do now but wait for the cannon to go off and see how I felt.

Finally it was my corral’s turn and I made across the start. Even though there were somewhere around 30k runners, my corral seemed to get off without issue and I settled into a decent pace. Well, a little faster than decent…I glanced down at my watch at the ½ mile mark and saw I was running on a 6:35. Whoa, that is not a good idea. I keep this up and it’s gonna be a tough day and no sooner did I say that to myself did it feel like a hand grenade went off in my lower back/pelvis. Sonuva! Really?! The injury had to flare up now, not even a mile into this race?! It’s not like I can quit, or like I’m gonna. I’m at the start of a huge race filled with other former and current Soldiers, not to mention Wounded Warriors. Suck it up buttercup and keep running. The one “hill” of the course is running up the on ramp onto Arlington and then it was time to find a zone and run…and by find a zone I really mean “zone out” and try to get the run done. I figured the best way to go through the race was to see it in 3 mile chunks and then if I have anything left in the tank lay it out on the last mile.

Miles 1, 2, 3 – 6:47, 6:42, 6:35

I know the 1^st mile went by too fast but after “zoning out” and focusing on just running…I noticed that I hit the 2^nd and 3^rd mile markers on a 6:42 and 6:35 pace respectively. Ok, maybe this isn’t too fast after all and I can hold this. Either the injury got better or I got numb to it but I started to feel ok.

Miles 4,5,6 – 6:42, 6:47, 6:42

As I kept glancing down at my watch I noticed that I was running a sub 7 pace…and then I had that conversation with myself. Yes, I might feel like garbage but…I might be on track for a PR. I couldn’t remember exactly what I’d run it in last year but I knew I hadn’t run sub 7’s. Really? My season has been ending on a bad note and I could set a PR at the Army 10 Miler? Ya, I hurt but not enough to lay off the gas and not shoot for a PR. I hit the 4 mile marker and saw that my GPS read 4.3 miles. Although I didn’t realize it at the time, that .3 miles difference would throw off my mile/pace for the rest of the race but since I’m dumb and can’t do math I just forged ahead thinking I was knocking down a sub-7 minute mile and was gonna crush this race…unless the wheels fall off and my back exploded (on a side not, while I notice very little when I race I DID notice that gas was $4.69 at a gas station I ran by…good lord that’s expensive!). At the start, I did see some guys I served with back in the day. I didn’t say hello because I hadn’t seen those guy in over 10 years and I thought it would be awkward to just walk up and say hello…but I could’ve sworn I heard one of the yell “pick it up Dutch” when they went pace me at the turn at 6.5 miles. Well, I’m sure not gonna slow down now.

Miles 7,8,9 – 6:49, 6:51, 6:56

The way the course was laid out, you run by the 6 mile marker, hit the turn and then hit the 7mile marker. Although the morning was brisk it was now the sun was out and it was starting to get warm. Especially since there was no shade and that light Under Armour shirt I had on was making me even hotter. Well, good reason to run faster now…I wanted this to be over. At the next water station I grabbed a cup of ice water and poured it down my back. Sonuva that was cold! But it had the desired effect of cooling me off and it woke me up to boot. Now the last 3 miles of the race is on Interstate 395 approaching the Pentagon. It is boring, hot and on a highway that’s a steady climb but you can see your destination off to the right. I was excited to hit the off-ramp from I-395, the 9 mile marker and the turn onto Jefferson Davis Highway into the finish.

Mile 10 – 6:53

Done!

The last mile of the 10 Miler is not a fun one. You come off the “downhill” of the off-ramp and then have a climb back up to the last turn into the finish. While I thought I was pushing harder and running faster, the pace/split shows the opposite. I saw the speaker stand and ran as fast as I could thinking I’d finally hit the finish…only to realize that this year they moved the finish back a few hundred meters. I literally crossed what I thought was the finish line and slowed only to look up and see the finish in the distance and had to pick it up again and run to it. As run under the finish I saw I’d run a 1:12:01, a 7:11 average pace. I guess that .4 miles difference really threw off pacing. And really….1 second?! Crap that’s gonna bother me until next year! But…another race in the bag and a PR to boot. Unfortunately, once I crossed the finish I could barely stand and walking wasn’t particularly enjoyable. I guess all the adrenaline wore off as I crossed the finish and it felt like somebody punched me in the lower back wearing brass knuckles. I was in pain…but I was happy (as that picture can attest) and I could easily muster the walk over to get my finisher’s coin. I came into a race merely wanting to finish and not embarrass myself with my time and I knocked 1:30 of my 10 Miler PR. Not bad! I gladly spent the rest of the day prostrate, eating pizza, sipping coke and chewing on Advil. I have a few races left in the calendar year but I’ll be laying off running for a month or so and I’ll focus on pacing other people for those races (or at least that’s what I’m telling myself right now…).

The Run Like an Antelope 5k…I don’t know if it was like an antelope…but I ran…

Yes, I’ve had some injury issues and yes I may have been pushing it by not just getting back to racing after the injury but that race being the BAA half marathon but to be honest I’ve been feeling pretty good. If I feel good…why not race some more. What? Makes sense to me. LOL It just so happened that there was a 5k just down the street, with a late start so I figured why not?!

It was cold and rainy. I normally run a while to get warmed up for a race but I needed to run just to get warm. Now if you remember from my post about the Canal Diggers 5k, there was the guy in full racing kit standing on the start line who had NO business being there. Imagine my surprise when I not only see him at this race, but he’s doing warm up drills at the start line in front of everybody. Even though I didn’t feel that great, I at least knew I had something to focus on when the gun went off. A few laps to get warmed up and then up to the start line. I wasn’t going to stand on the start line, I figure about 1/3 from the front was a good location to see the field and judge how I felt. I couldn’t believe that I looked up to see “Mr. Pro Road Racer” had now taken off his tank top and was gonna run shirtless from the start line! Um, do you remember my saying it was COLD?! Ok, I have no expectations for this race but I would make sure that at the very least I was way ahead of this guy come the finish. 

We start and immediately the lead pack forms…including “Mr. Pro” which means I have to be in the lead pack. The pace seemed comfortable but quick. The eventual winner took off right out of the gate so I was left with a couple 6 foot tall runners, “Mr. Pro”, a couple others and myself. I focused on putting distance between “Mr. Pro” and myself (which happened within the first quarter mile. Dude, get a clue) and when I looked up it was just the leader, the two 6 footers and me. I have this internal debate about looking at my watch for time/pace when I’m racing. I read an article about Ryan Hall doing that, thinking he was running too fast and eventually laying off and not placing at races because he got too wrapped up in the time instead of just racing. So, I settled in with these two guys. It was pouring rain and windy. I figured at the very least I could use these two tall guys to block wind and draft off as long as I could. I stole a glance down at my watch to see we turned the first mile on a 5:52. Woah! That first mile didn’t feel that fast at all. Ok, well stop looking at the watch for the rest of the race and focus on using these guys for as long as I can and keep running hard. The course was an out and back and when we hit the turn to come home it felt like someone had set off a grenade in my lower back/pelvis. I don’t fall asleep when I run but I certainly get into a rhythm and kind of zone out…but that pain brought me right back to reality. Holy mother did that suck! So I told myself “deep breath, compose yourself, you’re only looking at another 12 or 13 minutes of racing so grit your teeth and get this done”. 

As I looked up at the course it dawned on me that we were running a downhill out to the turn and now we were steadily climbing our way back up it for the trip home. I hate hills, no matter how big or small and I know it’s a mental thing with me. One of my biggest “off season” things to train is hill work and learning to love them but that’s not gonna do me any good now. I just wanted to stay with these guys and see how what I had left in me for a kick to the finish. We hit the 2 mile mark and they started to pull away. I realized that if didn’t bear down, this is quickly gonna get out of hand. I was already having the “well if I don’t come in top 3, there doesn’t seem to be anybody in my age group around me so I’ll get that” chat with myself. Nope! Not gonna do it, just eat it and run as hard as possible. As we neared the end, I guess there was some confusion as to where the correct turn into the finish was and there was a bunch up of runners. The only thing I could think of as I closed was that I had no intention of not giving everything I had. I’ve laid off the gas in the past but not today. I looked around and it turned into a flat out foot race to the finish. Thanks goodness for the slight downhill into the gate because I was running on vapor with folks closing on my heels. It took all I could do to remain standing. It wasn’t a PR but it was MAX effort and it landed me in 2^nd overall and 1^st in my age group. Not a bad day, not a bad day at all. Hopefully I can carry some of that positive energy into the Army 10 Miler this weekend…

The BAA Half Marathon...the first time I've felt fear

Rarely do I have the sinking pit in my stomach on race day. Ok, well to be clear, rarely is that pit there because of fear. Normally its just race jitters and my overblown expectation to land on the podium once the dust from the race has cleared. That however was not the case when I got up on Sunday morning.
Because my "aggressive training and racing schedule" forced a trip to the doc with a no running for 3 weeks prognosis (I've run a whopping 12 miles in that time…What? Did you really think I was going to do NO running in that time?!), most of that time either spent on my back or in the pool, I was extremely concerned about running the 13.1 miles. Not just running but…finishing. Would my back/pelvis even hold up on the run? Would running it hurt me even more? Maybe if I hadn’t signed up for the Inaugural BAA Medley at the beginning of the season (running the BAA 5k, 10k and 13.1 which got you special race numbers and a medley medal after completing all 3 races) I probably would’ve seriously considered going back to bed, but J and a number of friends were running and I don’t do well with letting people down so I just told myself that no matter the time…I just needed to finish. 

Ran into Kelly (the cute, bubbly, homeless-woman-dressing, multisport athlete known as @sallaboutme on twitter) and Matt ( a local running bud) at the start, chatted a bit and headed into the start corrals. Now I figured the best thing I could do was to get as far back as possible so I’d be forced to slow down and just run because of the mass of humanity in front of me and I’d remove all stress of running fast. The gun goes off and the slow crawl to the start begins. About a half mile in I realize that I have to pee like race horse (oh the times I miss the in-water start of a triathlon or the comfort of the saddle for easy relief but peeing on yourself while running, which may be the most difficult thing to do, is frowned upon in polite society when you’re older than 2 or younger than 65). We’re starting in the Franklin Zoo and I figure I’m screwed since you probably can’t pee in the bushes here…until I see a group of guys doing and figure it’s ok. Operation “mark my territory” over and back into the field I went. 

The start was nice and smooth, mile 1 and 2 went 8:18 and 8:04 respectively. The run felt easy and downhill, which a number of people said out loud…only to have another runner point out that the first few miles were indeed downhill…and that we’d have to run back up them to the finish…oh joy. As the course flattened out my legs started to feel good and mile 3 went by in 7:28 followed by a 7:13 mile 4. It was then that I saw Matt coming back toward me, the “I’m gonna just chill this race guy” had already hit the turn and was 1.5 to 2 miles ahead of me. What…the…hell?! Well, I now have motivation to get through this race and the thought of just finishing vanished. I HAD to catch Matt. The next few miles I just focused on form and trying to speed up: mile 5-7:16, mile 6-7:08 (where I took a Citrus Clif Shot gel for a quick sugar/caffeine boost), mile 7-7:05, mile 8-7:13. I’ll be honest and tell you that those miles were kind of a blur. I spent most of the time looking down at my watch to see pace and kept telling myself “don’t slow down…don’t let anyone pass you…and where’s Matt”. I turned mile 9 on a 7:00 flat and figured with the next turn being at mile 10 I’d surely see Matt again and be able to see how much I’d closed the gap…but no luck. Not only did I not see him but the run was catching up to me. The legs were starting to feel like I hadn’t run mileage in a while and I was getting hot. Due to the expected cold weather I was running in a light weight long sleeve Under Armour shirt, t-shirt, lululemon shorts and Zensah compression sleeves. That ensemble worked when the clouds were out with a light breeze but when the sun popped out…it was warm. At one point I considered ripping off the sleeves of the shirt just to cool off. Instead, I grabbed water from the aid station, took a quick swig and poured the rest of it down my back. Miles 10-7:12, 11-7:24 and 12-7:33 couldn’t come fast enough. At one point I thought I didn’t need to push, this isn’t going to be a PR so why don’t I just lay off a bit and relax…and then I realized that I didn’t want this run to last any longer than need be. I just wanted it to be over!
I honestly thought I was picking up the pace (granted the last few miles were uphill and running through the narrow paths of the Franklin Zoo) but the time says different. I hit mile 13 on an 8:03 pace and I was about to pop. The last .1 miles has you running into a stadium to run/finish on a track (aka Olympic style) and when I hit the comfort of the track I just pumped as hard as I could to be done…crossing the finish in 1:44:20 with a 7:57 average pace. A land speed record it was not but it wasn’t too shabby with no training. I’d love it if I really felt that way…instead…I see that I was able to turn around 7 min miles in the middle of the race and wish I could’ve held it. You know…those unrealistic expectations I have…and the what ifs: what if I started farther up in the corrals and didn’t have to deal with maneuvering around people the first few miles, what if I didn’t have to stop and pee, what if I would’ve dressed lighter. Ugh, the hindsight just kicks my butt after every race. I spent the race trying to catch Matt...and finally did... at the finish (he ended up with a 1:42, strong work!). But, but, but I can feel good that even with my back injury and the break in training, my level of fitness was still good enough to pull off a sub 8min pace half mary. I do feel better and although I spent the rest of Sunday on my back or sleeping, the run felt pretty good. Now to ramp up for the Army 10 Miler in two weeks.

I was just blown away...

I know I'm hard on myself. Part of it is due to my competitiveness and part of it is out of fear that if I don't keep challenging or beating myself up over each race performance, or lack thereof, I'll just end up fat and miserable again. Throw in that I hang with some pretty awesome athletes that podium often and there's the extra push to to try and get better/PR/place every time I get on a starting line. Its very easy to not have an appreciation or see what you've I've done when I'm so focused on the next race and getting better.

I've been beating myself up over the last few races and out of the blue I had a dear friend from high school, who I haven't talked to in ages, drop me a note.

"I admire you. I follow your posts and admire the hard work and dedication you have.You push yourself hard, set tough goals and don't give up.What's not admirable about that?...I see you accomplish great things, things that I know take tremendous daily effort and dedication, and you acknowledge your accomplishment while setting the bar higher at the same time. You constantly push yourself to be better...I just hope you look back every once in a while to see how far you have come and praise yourself for that, too. What I'm trying to say is: You are pretty stinkin' awesome!" 

That honestly, made me blush to read. I don't think I've ever been paid such a compliment, or one that meant so much. I was just blown away. While I think I've overcome a lot, I certainly never thought of my being "admirable". I just think "be the best you can be" before every training event and race. To have someone "outside" the circle of athletes notice and admire what I do and take the time to tell me...made my day...and means the world to me. Thank you LJ, words can't describe my appreciation for your note. I think I'm gonna put my feet up with a good cup of coffee and look over my race times over the last couple years...

The Buzzard's Bay Triathlon...ya, the buzzards were circling alright

Since I live in New England, the triathlon season is coming to a close (read its getting cold up here and the water even colder) so I was hoping to get in at least one more triathlon. The Buzzard’s Bay Tri was the “last” one in MA and since I've been doing well I thought I’d register (normally I'd be doing Reach the Beach New Hampshire but I wasn't on a team this year), go all out and see how I fared.

1/3 of a mile swim -  11:55
It was an in-water start that we had to swim out to. “Great warm up swim” to the buoys said the race director…ugh. I figured that since I’ve been swimming well this season I’d finally get on the front of the pack. My thinking was the water would be calmer and I could get a better stroke in order to try and be faster. Great thinking…until the gun went off and I realized I’d have to deal with ocean waves. There is just something startling about turning your head to take a breath only to be met by a face full of salt water or at one point being lifted out of the water so high that when my arm came over the top I had no water for my hand to “catch”. I felt good, not great and I was having a terrible time staying on course. About half way through it dawned on me that I was being pulled of course by the waves and would need to compensate. Turning my body about 15 degrees toward the shore made it much better…and I started passing people in both my swim wave and the wave ahead of me. I didn’t want to get too excited, I just kept trying to maintain good rhythm and keep moving forward. Unlike other races I’ve blogged about, this one had nice big buoys evenly spaced throughout the swim so I could keep focused and not feel like I had 15 miles to swim. I was trying to have a strong stroke and kick. I was concerned I was killing my legs for the bike but I did want to go all out. At the last buoy it was a hard left turn for shore, lots of rocks on the bottom and then out of the water. I tried to shallow stroke as long as I could to stay off the rocks (of course with my luck I’d cut my feet or twist an ankle or something) and got out of the water as fast as I could. I felt good until I looked down at my watch to see I’d swum it in 11:55, 2 minutes slower than my last posted time at this distance and I thought to myself “if this is my all out effort…this is gonna be a long day”. Well, the best way to get over it is get through transition as fast as I can and get on the bike. My wetsuit was almost off as I got to my bike, quick shot of clean water in my mouth to wash out the salt water taste then on the bike for a T1 of 1:35. Not bad…not great either (are you seeing a trend?).  

14.7 mile bike – 44:01, 20.5 mph pace
I just wanted to get out on the bike, get a good rhythm and start hammering. As I was getting into a rhythm... a guy on ten grand worth of bike pedaled up beside me, said “nice bike” and then blew my doors off. Oh hell no! Did this guy and me bump in the water? Had I unknowingly cut him off coming out of transition? Really, what the hell did I do to this guy? Well, It didn’t matter because now I had something and someone to focus on. I stopped looking at my speed and just focused on him in the distance and keeping him within reach. I caught the guy at about the 9 mile mark just as he got out of the saddle to push up a hill. I rode by him, in aero, as fast as I could with just enough energy to say “how’s my bike look now?”. As great as that felt, it was short lived when I got by him and that pace caught up with me. I glanced down at my heart rate monitor to see I’d been in zone 5 (180-190 heart rate) for the better part of 30 minutes and I was feeling it…just in time to hit the “hill” at mile 11. L’Alpe d’Huez it was not but it was considerable when compared to the course thus far. Nothing to do but get out of the saddle and push through. Once I got on the other side I tried to catch my breath, enjoy the downhill and take the first drink of water of the ride. Yes, I know way too late but I was totally focused on the d-bag! I kept thinking about all the articles I’ve read about “ride off the front in the bike, eat the back on the run” and feared I’d just blown my chance at a good 5k. I stopped looking at speed and was just trying to not lose more time until I could get to T2. I got into transition, gassed, a little light headed…and made a rookie mistake. I didn’t know where to rack my bike. This multisport company doesn’t use the traditional hangar racks with your number on them (they use racks that your back wheel sits in) and I guess I was the first guy back from my rack because the other bikes I was gonna use as a guide weren’t back yet. Crap balls! There’s precious time wasted trying to get back to my spot! A rack of my bike, shoes and visor on and headed out of T2 in 1:36…not bad…not great.

3.1 mile run – 21:53 7:03 pace
I started off on the run and my legs felt like jello. All I could think was how I’d messed up this race because of the effort in the water and on the bike… just in time to see another guy in my age group pass me. I made the decision to myself that even if I had a heart attack he’d be the last person to pass me today and it was time to get to work. I hit the 1^st mile marker in 7:19. Are you kidding me?! I didn’t feel great but 7:19? Ok, deep breath, let’s pick this up a bit. The best way for me to do that I thought would be to focus on and pick off the runners ahead of me. I kept looking for other guys in my age group too (might as well try to move up in that category too). I hit the 2^nd mile in 14:40 (a 7:21 mile) and was incredulous. I was slowing down? How is that possible?! I actually felt like I was getting faster by passing runners. I spent the next 30 seconds hurtling a string of expletives at myself (in my head of course, don’t want to offend the decent folks around me) about how I needed to buck up and quit being soft. I haven’t been that upset with myself in a while. I took a deep breath (well as deep as I could being winded), leaned forward and decided it was a heart attack or the finish line for me. I kept passing people and a spectator yelled “looking good Polar (folks often refer to you by your number or gear you’re wearing at races and I was wearing my Polar singlet) way to finish strong”. Looking good? I was smashed, exhausted and should’ve looked like crap. If I looked good then I must not be pushing hard enough. I could hear the announcer at the finish and kept pushing…crossing the finish in 21:53 for the 5k with a 6:56 final mile. Why I didn’t I run that hard or harder to start?! That was my slowest mile splits and 5k time on  the season.

Ya, that face...

All of that equaled a 1:20:59 on the day (and after review, not a PR because of the 14.7 instead of the usual 15 mile bike leg), 12^th in my age group and 114^th overall (out of a field of 505). Granted the field was deep because it was the last event of the year, the race was recently featured in Triathlete magazine and there was a pretty competitive collegiate division but I was hoping to do better. I have no one to blame but myself. I should’ve watched my speed/exertion more closely on the bike and I should’ve pushed harder out on the run and there was that blunder in T1. I always try to focus on learning something from each race and this one gave me lots to focus on. Even with all that I did come out of the water in 176^th place and slowly moved my way up to 114^th by the end of the day. That is something positive to focus on and now I have some things to take into the offseason to spend time on for next year…or maybe I’ll find another triathlon around here somewhere to get this taste of this one of my mouth…