Done.

So there hasn't been much in the way of rest for me since the big day - I took the next day off of work, but I've been back at it ever since. This is the first real chance I've had to write and it's because I'm in the car with Molly on the way back to Rochester to see my Mom again. Holy cow though, that race is amazing; and also quite peculiar.

The day started at 12:30am when I finally got to bed. at 1:30 my upstairs neighbor started playing music pretty loudly. I slept restlessly until the alarm went off at 5am. I met the team at the hotel in Boston and boarded the bus by 6:30. As we got on the turnpike we were stopped by a motorcycle cop so that 12 other tour buses could go by with their police escort. I assume that these buses carried the elite runners out to the start and it was pretty eerie to watch the motorcycle police shift positions around the buses as other traffic got close. The elite runners are from all over the world, but we regular runners tend to refer to them as "The Kenyans" because that country has been so dominate in running these past few years - though the winner of the mens race was from Ethiopia this year.

Out in Hopkinton it's foggy, cool and windy - but by 9:00 the sun has started to burn off some of the fog - the wind was there to stay unfortunately. I spent several restless hours with my fellow runners trying to keep warm, fed, water and dewatered before the race began,
but looking back it doesn't seem like that time was so dreadful after all. There was a flyover of F-15s at the starting time for the elite women and wheelchair racers. Around 10:15 the Liver Team started walking to the start line, which was over a half-mile away from where
we had been waiting. We jumped into our corral and moved along towards the start with something like 25,000 other excited/nervous runners. In the distance we can hear the voices of the man and woman that the Boston Athletic Association (BAA) hires to sort of MC the
start and they actually call out peoples names as they get to the start - not everyone's mind you, but I'd bet it'd feel special if it was your name they called out. Gun time for the elite men and
"regular folk" like us was 10:30 - or so I'm told; I've never heard a starting gun at any race I've ever done and Boston was no different. We just kept on walking and eventually a space opened up in front of us at the starting line and just like that, we started running.

Bam, I had started the marathon, except without the bam.  Now, everyone had told me that one of the multiple dangers of this particular race is that it starts on a downhill and and that combined with adrenaline and running in a crowd makes you start too fast. The trick to this course is to run consistently, and I fully intended to do that. Any of you who were
tracking me that day know that I did not. Hopkinton is pretty rural here, and over the first few miles I saw both men and women running into the woods along the way to relieve themselves. This ended up being a pretty common sight right up until we got into Wellesley I think.

At the first mile I hit a perfect 10-minute mile. At the second mile I hit 9:57, the third mile was right in there too. Sounds good right? I'm right on my goal pace of 10-minute miles right? Well, the truth is, in training I never actually figured out how to hit the pace over a long distance - I'm really more of a 10:30-11:30 kind of a guy. So by mile 3 I knew I was going way too fast, and couldn't manage to slow it down at all. So I figured I might as well enjoy it while I could - and pulled the fastest half-marathon of my life.

But before I get ahead of myself I should tell you about some of the sights along the way. At the start I saw a guy with a shaved head covered in red make-up who only seemed to be wearing some kind of diaper-thing with the words "BC Superfan" hastily written across his back. At mile 1 a spectator had stolen a sign that read "Now entering Brookline" that pissed off the crowd of runners near me - Brookline isn't until mile 22 or so. Not long after that I saw a sign for a "shortcut" with an arrow pointing at someone's front door. Somewhere in Ashland I got passed by Wonder Woman - who still looked good even though she must've been in her 50s. At mile 9 I saw a swan land in a pond and was amazed at how gracefully it used it's webbed feet to slow itself by pushing them across the surface of the water, and for a moment it was as though my consciousness could see the distortion of the water in perfect detail. All along the first half spectators had signs up with the score of the Red Sox game - but no one knew how the American elite runners were doing (we had a decent chance at winning both men and women - but ended up with third in both). In Framingham we came right up next to a rail line just as westbound commuter train passed. The conductor leaned on his horn and the sound was deafening, all I could do was raise my fist in the air and yell "GOOOOO!!!".  Then I had to stop and tie my shoe. Somewhere near here Batman & Robin passed me and had their picture taken with Wonder Women. This might sound like I'm delirious a little early in the day, but this is for real, for some people it's not enough to run a marathon, they have to add some kind of excitement to it by dressing in a costume - like say a giant Solo Cup.

The best part of the first half was Wellesley College. It's a tradition that the fine young ladies of Wellesley come out and cheer on the runners - and they do so by making the loudest noise humanly possible, for a solid half-mile. You can hear it coming from a ways away, and as I did I found myself moving to the right of the course to be closer to the fans. I had my name on my shirt and it seems that every girl out there yelled it, and damn, there isn't much better for
your motivation than a thousand 20 year old women shouting your name in encouragement. Plus, they want you to kiss them. I can't explain that part of the tradition, but many of them had signs saying "Kiss me" or "Kiss me I'm Latina", "Kiss me I'm Asian" or even "Kiss me I'm a lesbian". I'll admit I wanted to stop for a kiss (and Molly said it'd be OK - if it was on the cheek) but their energy pushed me forward and before I knew it I was leaving the best mile of the course behind.

At some point I figured out that my quads hurt - something that happened in training after 13 or 16 miles, but I this hit me at around 10 - way too early. Plus I had a blister forming. Not good. My pace was slowing some, but I still hadn't walked yet and knew that I should soon. I
walked only after the waterstop after the half-way mark, and as I slowed down to get the cup of water I felt that damned blister pop.  In that instant I was terrified of my next step, the last popped blister I had made every step after it a special agony - and 13.1 miles like that would be hell. Something worked in my favor this time though, and there was no pain. Whew. At this point I was into the tony suburb of Wellesley and let me tell you, I thought that town
would never end. It just dragged on and on and on. The high point of this (after the college girls) was seeing Molly's second cousin Randy looming in the crowd. I just looked up and there he was, I gave him a hug without thinking or slowing down and he pounded me on the back so
hard it nearly knocked the wind out of me!

Like I said, Wellesley wore on and on, and eventually I crossed I-95 and headed up the hill to mile 16.5 where the Liver Team has it's spectator area. Here Molly, Becky, Sofia, German, Jennie and Bec were waiting to cheer me on. I guess I didn't let on to them that my quads
were like solid rock because they all still say I looked great. There was time for quick hugs and a few pictures before I was on my way again. On into Newton to face the dreaded hills and their queen, Heartbreak.

I kept my head down for the first hill and made it up without much trouble. There was some more walking before the second one, but I made it up that one okay too and it was in here somewhere that bunch of high school kids did "The Wave" in time with me as I passed. Just
before Heartbreak I saw my friends Ski and Kath. Ski is a great runner and he asked me if I wanted help up Heartbreak. I told him yes and he jumped onto the course in his jeans and sambas, shouting to his wife that he'd be right back. Up we went and man that hurt. Just before
the top I saw one of my recent clients and gave her a good surprise.  Ski talked me through the last bit before jumping out at BC and handing me into the care of the rowdy, likely drunken, Boston College students. I've been told that the course quiets down here but not today. No, the BC kids shouted nearly as loud as the Wellesley girls. This really helped me through mile 21, the "Silent Mile".  I was also glad that my already abused quads didn't react badly to the  downhill after Heartbreak which is another classic problem for runners on this course. I was pushing ahead to mile 22.5 because Bec was there to meet me there and run me in from there. To my relief she was about a half mile early and was wearing a shirt that read "GO ANDY".
This seemed to resonate with the crowd because for the next 4 miles I was met by cheering spectators yelling "GO ANDY!" - I can't describe how much this helped. Down into Cleveland Circle we went and saw Karla "The Sartor!" cheering for me.

Now we're in Brookline for sure and the course straightened and leveled out for a bit. Somewhere in here we saw Brandy and Ryan, and to my surprise Brandy jumped in and ran for a spell too. Ryan followed along on his bike taking video which I might post if he ever sends it to me. Seeing them was pretty awesome. At the last water stop the I used I recognized one of the volunteers as a someone that I had had about 3 dates with about 6 years ago - I just gave her a big hug for the hell of it.

I keep talking about how good it is to to see friends and have the crowd on my side for a reason - I wasn't sure if I'd finish. I knew I had it in me mentally, but my legs were really messed up and I was hurting bad. I worried that at some point I'd hit a hill or something and my legs would just stop and I wouldn't be able to finish. It happens to people, and seeing my friends pushed me on.

Just before Citgo Hill (bridge really) we passed a guy running with flag of the US Navy held above his head on a short flagpole. I gave him a "Go Navy!" on my way by. Into Kenmore Square and I had 1 mile to go.  To my right were people just out of the Sox game including
former Liver runners Rhianne and Corrine, then on my left The Sartor appeared again! But I wasn't there was still more to do, and so on we went.

Out of Kenmore Square the course takes you underneath the overpass of Mass Ave, and so there's a short downhill and uphill that feels like a mountain, and then it's that famed right Hereford and left on Boylston It's not as easy as that because of course hereford has an
uphill that crests at the left turn. But we made that turn and the finish line was in sight! But damn, it seemed so far away. Then on our right was my family again! There to cheer me into the last quarter mile! I made it across that line with a smile on my face and the official clock read 5:11.22.

After that is was off to get my finishers medal, foil blanket and bag, and I met Molly and my family back at the hotel. There I saw all my Liver friends and heard the story of their runs. Some were remarkably good, while others had sadness, one guy passed out just after  Heartbreak Hill and didn't finish. Two of our runners were injured and finished the course just as they were finishing disassembling it, one earned her medal with  a time of over 9 hours!

It's really hard to sum up my emotions about this day and this run, there really is just too much to say. It wasn't just this one day, it was all the days in the last four months that brought me there. The training for a marathon is a marathon itself, and this one had ice storms, snow, cold, blisters, old friends, deadlines, fundraisers, holidays, a round of layoffs, sick mothers, sick grandmothers, new friends, fights with state licensing boards, bloody nipples, and chafing to name just the high points. This time I really saw how life goes on while you're training and that can derail your whole plan, which makes it all the more meaningful to run the marathon behind a man with a shirt that reads: "Stroke survivor - 50th marathon" or "Cancer survivor, 50th marathon in 50 states". Or running alongside the guy with obvious signs of Parkinsons Disease, or the blind runner with his guide, the woman with a prosthetic foot, the man with two prosthetic legs, the Iraq War vet in his hand-cranked wheelchair, and even the couple in their 60s running with a rubber tube tied to each others waist so that they wouldn't lose each other. All these people have a story at least as interesting and challenging as the one I've been
telling you these past few months (probably a better one really) and we all came together and did the same course, under our own power, and it doesn't matter if we did it in 2:08 like the Kenyans, or in 9 hours (because it's impressive to do anything that physical for that long).

So I'd like to thank you all for sticking with me these last few months - and for reading this far into this rambling novella I'm writing. Your kind words and financial support have been a great help to me, and to the Liver foundation. I'd like to thank everyone that called my name while I was running, I tried to mention all of you that I know of in this blog and if I missed you I'm sorry. It's been a great journey, and I wish you all the best of luck in your own lives.

One last thing, people keep asking me if I'll do it again next year.
The answer to that is yes.

There are pictures here:  http://web.me.com/andyhint/Canaveral/113th_Boston_Marathon.html 

Why. (3 of 3)

So the Why. blogs have tried to tell you about my motivations for committing to the arduous task of running this marathon.  First I tried to explain why running goes with charities, and then I tried to explain why I chose this particular charity.  Today I tell you why I run.  

Many of you who know me from my middle and high school days know that I was a swimmer and didn't much care for running.  That was true right up until I moved to Boston, and then something new happened. 

Peer pressure.

I fell in with a group of great people who were runners and one night at Charlie's Kitchen we got to talking about one of my new friends marathon training and that's when I realized that nearly everyone around the table had already run one.  In that moment I knew that there was nothing that I could do that would equal the experience that they all shared - except to run a marathon.  Later that year the opportunity came up and I knew I had to try.  

So peer pressure is what got me started, but that won't get you across the finish line and then into another race.  What is it that keeps me running?  It's simple really.

I run because I want to live.

I want to live to be 100 and I don't want to have to rely on medical science alone to get me there.  I know that one of the secrets to a long life and healthy mind is staying physically active, and running is the best way that I've yet found to do that.  Swimming and biking are great, but require an extra level of preparation that in the past have kept me from doing them on a regular basis.  Running gets me up and going, and as a bonus I often get to see parts of the world that I wouldn't normally.  Things like; sunrise, sunset, Venus, a waning Moon, ice-covered trees, budding trees, house demolition, house construction, bag pipes, installation art - all of the ebb and flow of the world that I live in.  It also gives me time to touch base with all of the great runner buddies that I have, most especially the one who sicced the peer pressure to run on me in the first place (I'm looking at you Bec).  And it is something that I can constantly improve on and use to give myself another challenge, which is how we prosper in life.  I intend to cross that finish line tomorrow, and it will not be easy, but knowing that it is one part of a larger journey, life, makes it a tiny bit better.

As always, I love you all and appreciate your support of me, my family, and the Liver Foundation.  Please be safe in your lives and your endeavors, if you think of me tomorrow please wish me luck, but know that what I do is easier than what many others have to on a daily basis.  

Now you know Why.

.

Why. (2 of 3)

So, I don't really have anyone in my life that has liver disease. As far as I know there's no history of it in my family, none of my close friends have it, and as far as I know I'm not particularly at any great risk of getting it (knock on wood), so why am I running a marathon to support the American Liver Foundation? Well, there's two reasons.

1. I knew from the past few years of volunteering with the team while Molly was training that they are a well-organized group that views its' marathon team as an important part of it's fundraising effort and supports it accordingly. I'm really impressed at the well-organized long runs, options for mid-week runs (hill runs and track work - though I don't do the latter), the team coach, and that they've developed good community relationships which has lead to free access to a physical therapist. The day of the race there's a ton of support on the course and afterwards. Each month there's a team meeting which allows you to better know your teammates, gain training tips, get fundraising ideas and get a feel for how we're doing as a team to reach the larger fundraising goal. Plus, these meetings always had a component that taught us about liver disease. All in all, the American Liver Foundation is really there for it's runners, if I've ever had a question or problem there's always been someone there who can help me with it. Also there are a lot of returning runners who are not only helpful to new runners, but also are very welcoming and friendly. The fact that these people come back year after years means to me that the ALF is something worth coming back to. The sum of all this is that if an organization is going to go to all these lengths to maintain its running team on such a professional level then it must mean that it's conducting its own business on the same if not higher level.

2. It's a good cause. I know that there's a lot of good causes out there, especially when you talk about diseases, and I am not the person to tell you that one is better than another, but trying to stop liver disease is one of the good ones. Liver disease comes in many types and strikes a broad range of people, most people think liver disease is caused by drinking too much or being overweight, which is true in the case of fatty liver disease or alcohol-induced liver disease, but these are only part of the story. In our team meetings we heard about people coming down with liver disease who were otherwise healthy active people (one had ironically just run the marathon for the ALF before being diagnosed). We also heard about kids who contract biliary atresia shortly after they're born. This isn't a hereditary condition, doctors suspect that it is viral but that hasn't even been proven yet, and what's worse, without early detection (as in the first 3 months of life) biliary atresia is fatal. Another scary one is autoimmune hepatitis, which is when your body suddenly and unexpectedly starts attacking your liver as though it was a foreign bacteria. Doctor's don't know what causes that one either. There's something like 80 different liver diseases, each with their own cause, symptoms, treatments and effects. The liver is the common factor to them all and so the ALFs research into understanding how the liver works helps fight them all. In that way helping with their research actually helps cover my own (and your own) health in a broad number of ways.

With that, I am 3 days away from completing this journey. Stay tuned for the 3rd part of "Why."

Why. (1 of 3)

As I've said before, a lot of strange things go through my mind when I'm running. One of the most common for me is wondering why other people aren't running when I am. Many days I see people dressed for going to Temple or out to breakfast and I don't wonder about them so much since they've got something else going on and are all dressed up anyway. But a lot of the people I see are just regular people who, in my mind and at that moment, may as well be running. It's an "I'm doing it, why aren't you?" kind of thing. I'd like to point out at this point that when I'm not running and I see someone who is running I think that I should be running too - even if I'm on my way home from a long run - so I may be going crazy.

Naturally there are plenty of reasons that people aren't running. They could be unable, unwilling, uninterested, just have done a run, or any of thousands of other reasons that I won't go in to now, after all, running isn't for everybody. The only people that I don't question while I'm running and thinking along these lines are the homeless. Once I was running down the street and internally wondering why about everyone I passed, and then I saw a homeless guy and didn't wonder at all about him. I simply asked myself what I had that he didn't (apart from the obvious) and I knew it straightaway; energy. I live a kind of life that provides me with enough energy to get through my day of work and have enough extra that I can spend it on running ungodly distances. And if my usual diet isn't up to the task, I can afford to buy more food. The homeless guy might have the time to run 12 miles, but if he's scrounging for food then he certainly doesn't have energy to burn on running what is a net zero gain of distance (since I always end my run where I start it).

In this way training a marathon is somewhat like giving to a charity. I have extra time and energy that I choose to put into running. I also make enough money throughout the year that I can give some extra to a charity or two, which I'm happy to do. I'm not going to get any buildings named after me, but I give what I can. I'm willing to sacrifice some of my time, energy, and money to help what I think is a good cause, and I think it's the idea of mutual sacrifice that makes allies of running or walking and charities. I mean, it doesn't make a lot of sense to run for a good cause, the act of running doesn't help people with liver disease get any better; the money that is donated to the Liver Foundation does though. And so I take on two burdens; one is to run the equivalent distance from Marathon to Athens, and the other is to raise a significant amount of money for the American Liver Foundation. Many people don't see the value in either endeavor, but you my dear friends, family and supporters, do. For this I thank you. I am inches away from hitting the financial goal, and mere days away from the race itself. It is with your help that I've come this far and no matter what happens on the 20th, you have my gratitude. I understand that you have placed a lot of faith in me, and I will not let you down.

13 days.

The Home Stretch?

Wow, so I ran 21 miles yesterday, and boy that was a hell of a thing.  I'm pretty impressed at how you forget what it's like even though you've done it before.  

Basically the day went like this, early out of bed, meet the team at Boston College, and then take the bus out to Hopkinton for a team photo, and then a run back to where we started.  Believe me I know that seems like a lot of work just to get back to where you started, that was on my mind the whole ride out.  We took the group photo and everybody just started walking to where the starting line is supposed to be and then we just started running without any fanfare to speak of.  The weekend 3 weeks before race day is an important one for everybody training for the marathon and so between the other charity teams in the area and qualified runners I was one of over a thousand people running the course and never out of sight of other runners, which is a big change from our regular runs.  

Like I said last week, my body is up to the challenge of completing the marathon and so it's the  psychological challenge that I had to beat on this run.  So, I divided the run into 3 parts, 1 unknown and 2 known.  Part 1 is mile 1-9 and the unknown because though I've driven it before I've never run it.  The second part is mile 9-16, we did this part on the 16-miler, After that it's 16-21, which includes the foreboding Heartbreak Hill.  This division worked pretty well for me, the first 9 were mostly downhill and so I took it slow to keep energy in reserve, plus at this point in training I can run just about any 9 mile stretch even if I haven't seen it before.  The next bit was tougher as it includes both the highest and lowest points between the start and Heartbreak - this section really dragged for me, but might not on race day as it includes a mile of screaming coeds at Wellesley College.  The Final 5 miles weren't too bad really, even though it had those 2 big-assed hills and then the Heartbreak.  I read on someone else's blog that when faced with these hills you should just put your head down and go (kind of like not looking down when you're on top of a cliff), which worked pretty well for me.  I made it up Heartbreak with some energy to spare and was glad to see my teammates there.  

The day started grey and in the 40s, but we ended with a cloudless sky and tempts in the 60s.  Nice.  The funny thing about a one-way marathon is the tan lines, the right side of my neck and my right arm got a nice burn (not too bad) that was earning me calls of "redneck" by my friends all night.  I got to mile 21 in about 4:06, which is slower than I wanted it to be, and did include some walking, but I know that I could do the remaining 5.2 within the hour (unless I bonk on the way down Heartbreak).  Everybody talks about an extra kick of adrenaline that they get on race day, and I'm looking forward to seeing what that will do for me on the big day.

I'm pretty happy with my performance.  No blisters and the new shoes and socks held up well.  I was very sore at the end but the tightness in the backs of my knees didn't hit until mile 16 as opposed to 13 like last week.  At mile 9 I took off a layer of clothes and found that I had a bloody nipple; nothing new for me but you hope the body glide will keep it at bay, I'm starting to consider medical tape for the big day.  That's the blood on my shirt that I'm pointing out in the picture up there.  I love the shirt I'm wearing, it gives you the last set of directions that you need on race day, right on Hereford Street (uphill, grrr...) and then a left on Boylston, where the finishing line will be in sight.  Can't wait for that.

A day later I'm still in disbelief that I ran the 21 miles yesterday, but I did.  I didn't obsess about it, in fact when my alarm went off that morning I couldn't remember what I had to do that morning.  No, I just did the math on what was in front of me; one 9 mile race, one 7 mile race, 5 miles uphill, and don't stop.

Three weeks from tomorrow.

The Training Goes On.

So, it's been a while since I last reported in about the Chuck Stratton sighting. Since then I've come back to Boston and mushed on with training. I have to say though that until last night I felt like I was sort of going through the motions. Not surprisingly the long the day after I got back wasn't great, I was just out of energy completely. The next day was a fun 5K with my friends called the Ras na hEireann that is in Davis Square which was a lot of fun, as was the after party, especially since it was nice enough to sit in the sun all day!

After that though it was back to the grind of work and training and it was just hard to get into it all. I did my usual runs that week just fine, but wasn't feeling the old excitement and energy that I had been. That Saturday was a particularly tough day because I was I was planning to do 16 only to find that FitCorp was only set up for 12 miles, and only had one water stop! The water stop was at mile 3, so that meant that I had over 10 miles without water when there normally would be about 3 in that time. That's a hard way to go when you're not prepared. Fortunately I'm on a team with some damn good teammates. Out in Brookline I fell in with some of the other Liver runners who were going to 16 as well including this guy Adam that I've been getting to know over the past few weeks.  He was hitting a pace that was good for me and when it came time to commit to the 16 miles he offered me water from his fuel belt.  I can't tell you how much that helped me, nor how much I appreciate him for giving me water.  He was also very encouraging and walked with me a few times when I felt that I couldn't run.  Great help to me.  I made it to the end of this one tired, but surprisingly I wasn't sore or physically drained, the problems I was having were in my mind.  I hadn't regained the belief that I could finish the run; I had lost some faith in myself and I honestly think it's because of not getting enough rest.  I wasn't getting the "reset" that a good nights sleep gives you. I ended that 16 miles slow, but still happy because I had diagnosed my problem and all I had to do to fix it was stay in bed.  Nice.

I did that pretty well Saturday night and into Sunday morning (not quite into the afternoon).  Monday's run was pretty cold and upwind which is no fun.  I woke up yesterday feeling like my legs were still tired from Monday and Saturdays running and so was really worried about the hill workout at FitCorp that night.  I started late but settled right in to the rhythm of uphill to downhill and before too long was getting the feel for efficiently burning energy on the way up and recharging energy on the way down again.  When I got done I felt like it had been over too fast!  I felt like I hadn't done enough of a workout even though I had.  This is a really weird feeling that I didn't try ruin by running extra, that's a great way to ruin your training schedule.  

Now it's Wednesday morning and an off day.  I have 6 miles tomorrow before the big 21 Miler on the course on Saturday.  After this week I think I might actually be ready for that.

In related news, I got fitted for new shoes at my local Marathon Sports, and they switched me out of the Saucony's that I had been wearing for years and into the Asics Gel Fortitude 3. So far, so good!

In other news, my Mother should be getting out of the hospital today!  

Motivation.

It's really strange to be home while one of your parents is in the hospital; it means the time in their house has an emptiness to it.  We spend the day at the hospital and then Dad and I go home and he checks the messages on their answering machine and we go through the calls, most of which are for Mom, though not all of them know that she's in the hospital.  One of the calls this week was from the wife of the former pastor of the church we went to in Youngstown checking in on Mom and reporting that her husband had just had a heart attack.  This was hard to hear with all this other stuff going on; the good Reverend was quite a nice man and had been like a mentor figure to my father. 

I've been awful torn about going out and running, it seems like there's always something I should be at the hospital for, and it's hard to find the motivation to pick a new running course in a town that I'm unfamiliar with as far as running goes.  I have run though and the course was kind of a natural for me because all I did was pick a landmark that was familiar to me and then head for it.  I picked the High Falls and it works out that that an out and back is about 8 miles, and that's just what I need  now.  You can see my course by clicking here, though my newly calibrated watch tells me it's longer than what the Google thinks it is.  The section along the river is pretty good, but the genius urban planners here didn't make it a priority to preserve that trail all the way along the river, so I did have to run through the city for a bit of it, and downtown Rochester isn't as friendly or nice as Comm Ave or Beacon Hill.  Sunday's run went just sort of OK, but I made it through fine.  I planned to run the same route in the morning yesterday, but various things pushed that to the afternoon.  

Around 1:30 or so yesterday Mom complained about being too hot, so I stepped to the back for the room to see about setting up a fan for her.  I looked up from wrestling with that to see a Man standing at the door to her room.  He was probably in his 80s, dressed sharply in a blue blazer, shirt, tie and khakis, and had an obvious energy to him that made him seem much younger.  He was clearly waiting to be invited in which I did, and in three short motions had crossed the room to where my mother sat, dropped to one knee and was holding her hand before I knew it.  I was surprised by this partly because of his speed, but also because I had no idea who he was!  He knew Mom though and mentioned Becky, Dad and I as though he knew us.  I introduced myself and we shook hands, but he didn't give his name, so I asked him who he was as politely as I could.  He looked me straight in the eye and responded:

"I'm Chuck Stratton," and coolly turned back to my mother.

"The Reverend Stratton?"  I asked in disbelief.

He turned back to me, "Yes the Reverend Stratton, just let the ramifications of that sink in." 

I did.  

This was our pastor from Youngstown who I hadn't seen in 15 years or so, and who I had assumed was lying half-dead in a bed somewhere else in this hospital.  My father and I both tried looking him up but couldn't get the lady at the front desk to tell us he what room he was in, damnable privacy laws.  

"Wait, I thought you had just had a heart attack?"  I said to him.  He glanced away as though he was deflecting bullets with nigh-invulnerable skin and said:

"I did have one.  About three weeks ago.  I'm fine now."  He sounded as though he were the Black Night saying "It's merely a flesh wound" when his arm had just come off.  

After that he said a few more things to Mom, we introduced him to the Deacon of my parents new(er) church who was in the room and he was gone just as quickly as he had shown up.  Leaving me floored in his wake.  How did this man who had had a heart attack seem younger than the man I had looked up to all those years ago?  

When I told my Dad about it he likened the experience to the Disciples seeing Jesus after the resurrection.  I don't know about that, but I could see that this man was unstoppable, and it filled in me a desire to be the same.  After my Dad showed up I went for my run, adding a half mile to it despite winds here being in the 35mph range.  

I don't know how being here for my Mom will affect my training, but I am going to try to be unstoppable.

In the Middle.

We're about 7 weeks away from the race now and I've started to have a bit of fatigue.  The training regime is long, repetitive, time-consuming and can be as difficult to endure as the actual race itself.  True, no one day of training is as hard as the full marathon, but the sum of a few weeks can be.  I'm doing my best to run 4 days a week which means being up early to run before work even in bad weather, scheduling evening runs around late in the day work meetings and deadlines, keeping a low profile on Friday night, and then being up early on Saturday for the long run.  Of course after that your day is often shot by the recovery from the run, though somehow I don't nap Saturday afternoons like a lot of my fellow runners do, but there have been days when I'd like to. 

I'm not trying to complain about all this, having done this once before I knew it going in, but its still not that easy to deal with.  I'm a flexible enough person that I can come up with a new running plan when an unexpected social or work event conflicts with an already planned run.  Alumni lecture Thursday night during Crossroads?  No problem, I can run in the morning, or do a shorter run Friday morning.  Planning like that becomes hard when the truly unexpected occurs.  Like, what if the alumni lecture puts your run off to Friday morning and then you oversleep, and then that afternoon a family medical emergency takes you to Rochester?  

Well, it means that you drive to Rochester, skip the 18-mile run on Saturday so you can go see your Mom in the hospital, and then pull an 8-mile run on Sunday so that you stay in some sort of condition.  Training is important but family is even more important.  It's hard to see your Mother in the ICU, and a run after that does help vent a lot of the nervous energy that builds up from it.  

The story goes like this, about 30 years ago Mom had Hodgkin's disease and the first treatment they tried was radiation which inadvertently damaged her left lung.  Recently this has caused her to have some pulmonary hypertension which makes lethargic at times and they've been using oxygen therapy to treat.  Last weekend she was hardly awake at all and my Dad took her to the hospital and she was admitted on Monday.  It sounded then like she might not be there long, but Thursday they admitted her to the ICU and intubated her that night.  I had been thinking of heading out to be with my family all week and the intubation was the last straw, so Molly and I drove here Friday and saw Mom at the hospital Saturday morning.  

There hasn't been much of change since then, her blood gases are acceptable and she's mostly breathing on her own, but she's still sedated and on the tube until they get some other things worked out, which means that we're sitting in the room with her and waiting for things to change.  It's been a hard two days of waiting and I have no idea how my Dad did it for the whole week, let alone for 3 years back in the 70s.  Our jobs are being very understanding and so we'll be waiting with her for another few days I guess.  I'll try to work another run in I think, but we'll see.  Like I said, training is less important than family, but I still have 7 weeks and have been doing well so far, so if this is a short interruption of my training than I should be fine.  So, tomorrow it's back to the waiting. 

16 Mile Roundup

Man, it's been quite a week.  Last week was the disastrous (for me) Love Your Liver Valentine's Day 16-Miler.  This is a special run that the team does every year as kind of a way to inject some fun into the long training season.  They encourage people to dress in V-day related costumes and then drive us out to Mile 9 on the course (roughly Natick Center) and then we run the rest of the way in.  Its great experience for us since we're on the actual course the whole time instead of doing out and back runs from FitCorp where we're on and off the course.  

That's the idea anyway but things went horribly wrong for me.  I started off okay, but because we were off our usual routine my head never really got into the run and I was struggling to stay motivated the whole time.  I walked some and then in the midst of the hills in Newton I remembered why I run and was able to get my head in the game again.  That didn't last long though because just before Heartbreak I came across a runner who was in a worse way than I was and walked with him a bit.  I got into Brookline before I realized that I was developing multiple blisters on each foot.  I made it to the end with a dismal time and feeling demoralized - honestly the feeling was familiar, it was just the way I felt during my first (and only at the moment) marathon.  That time I felt like I couldn't finish and somehow managed to after a long and arduous ordeal.

This week I've soaked my feet in epsom salts a bunch of times and all of my blisters except one have gone away.  I also had a great 7.7 mile Crossroads run Thursday so I went into this mornings long run feeling positive.  We had the choice of 14.7, 16 or 18, and I was on the fence about which to do.  My coach has set up a training schedule for me that called for 14 miles but I was kind of thinking that 16 was a challenge that I was up to.  

I've been thinking about my running pace lately, and by pace most runners mean how many minutes it takes them to run 1 mile, which is a good metric for comparing two runner's speeds.  I'm typically a pretty consistent 10 minute per mile runner which is 6 miles per hour and I think isn't too bad for a biped, though it's by no means fast on the scale of marathon runners.  Coach Brian has decided that my goal for the marathon should be 4 hours 20 minutes (which as you all know is not one of my 3 listed goals), a perfect 10 minute mile pace, but in order to do that I have to do some miles faster to make up for the miles that I will inevitably do slower.  I'm being realistic here not self-deprecating.  In order to achieve this goal I have to do some training runs faster and some realistically slower, and so Coach Brian had me set to do 14 miles at a 10:43 pace.  That wouldn't be pushing my limits much, but is still good since I did my 8 miles the other night faster than the 9:55 pace he wanted me too.

I'm going on a bit long here so I'll try to keep the description of today's run short.  It started off fine except for a intermittently ridiculous headwind that was nice to have at our backs for the return loop.  When I got to the 14 mile turn in Newton Center it was decision time on if I was going to take another swing at 16.  I felt good and so I went for it.  this meant that I got to Heartbreak Hill and the hill before it, but today that was no big deal.  The only thing that came close to being an issue here was getting sweat in my eyes (a first for that) that had me thinking of borrowing one of my Dad's old 80s style blue and red sweatbands.  I would look totally rad in that.  By the time I got to the last water stop I was definitely feeling tired and sore, but good enough to make it through the end.  And then the blister in the center of my left foot popped.  

That didn't hurt, but Damn. the aftereffects sure did.  The final three miles were very painful and I was in a constant mind game of trying to block out the pain.  Now, a popped blister doesn't hurt much on the scale of human experience, but running on one after 13 miles is way beyond the scope of my daily pain experience.  I had made it this far without really walking that much, just across a few streets and at water stops, but this blister sure derailed that effort.  I made it back to FitCorp having run most of the way, though Sheri caught me walking on Beacon Hill and ordered me to get running.  What could I do?  She's the Runner's Council Chairperson, so I ran the rest.  

There was only a little bit of blood on my sock when I got to the locker room, and an open blister hurts a lot when it gets wet in the shower, plus it looks gross (I have a picture if anyone wants to see, by request only of course).  Needless to say, I'm going to be more careful about blisters in the future.  In the end I did the 16 miles at an average 10:10 pace, well ahead of where Coach Brian wanted me to be, and I'm happy with myself because some of those final miles were at well over an 11 minute pace.  Not bad.

I'm posting some pictures of the silly costume's from last weeks run on my other site, and you can see them here:  http://web.mac.com/andyhint/Canaveral/V-Day_16-Miler.html

16

Just finished the 16-miler am I'm waiting at the gym for Molly to finish
showering. What a day. Nice weather, but the run was kind of an
emotional disaster. Somehow I just wasn't ready to run today and that
just pervaded nearly every step of the way. Now I'm sore and have
blisters and a bloody nipple. That's right, I said bloody nipple.

More on all that later, now it's time to party

Urban Run

It's Thursday so that means another run from Crossroad's.

We had a nice break from the cold over the weekend, and Tuesday it warmed up for the snow (if you consider 30F warm), but overnight it dropped like a bad habit and at the start of the tonight's run it was near to 19F.  This caused my usual running partners to sally out and stay home.  Most of the group had already left to do the Woodland Hills run by the time I got there, so I couldn't do that (not that I would have anyway, that's way too much work for a Thursday), so I was on my own for a run.  

The goal was to do about 5 miles, which I could normally do on the river, but the wind along the river was strong and I wasn't sure that the paths wouldn't be too icy.  I decided to try out a course that I had once planned for an earlier Crossroad's run that was about what I was looking for. 

I cut over from the bar to Commonwealth Avenue, which in the Back Bay is actually more like a boulevard in the French sense of it.  There's expensive sandstone row houses down either side, and 2 pairs of traffic lanes divided by a wide, tree-lined walkway that is punctuated every so often by a statue or monument of some kind.  In the winter they put white christmas lights on the trunks of the trees so this area is illuminated in a warm light.  I headed east between the trees and into the Public Garden.  Crossing over what is apparently the worlds smallest suspension bridge (according to the Wikipedia which is never wrong) I noticed a guy clearing snow off the little ice-covered lake that the Swan Boats float on in the summertime.  I imagine he wanted to teach his kids how to play hockey here tomorrow or something - that's the Runner Mind talking again.  At Charles Street I looped around Beacon Hill and came up past the classically beautiful City Hall but neglected to look for the wind turbine on the roof that the Mayor hasn't been good at telling anyone about.  From here it was a quick run over the hill to Park Street T Station and after that I made a right onto Boylston Street.  I then cut across the West side of Boston Common and made a left to reenter the Garden from where I had left it. 

I could tell at this point that I wouldn't make the 5 miles I was looking for if I went straight back to Crossroads, so I decided to act on a thought I had had on the way in.  In order to make up the extra mileage I would run a loop around every statue along Comm Ave.  I know it doesn't seem like it would add much distance, but sometimes when you're running you just do something for the rigor of it, and ignore the fact that people might think you look crazy for doing it.  

First up was a giant statue of George Washington on his horse, and was a big loop because it's still in the Garden and has quite a formal path around it that looped me right out towards Arlington Street where I hit a light for the first time in this 3-mile journey.  It wasn't a long delay and from here it was a straight shot to all those statues and the loops they wanted me to do around them.  On I went and loop I did around:

Alexander Hamilton, slain by Aaron Burr

John Glover, Revolutionary War Hero

Patrick Andrew Collins, former Mayor

The Vendome Fire Memorial, which honors the deaths of 9 firefighters in the line of duty

William Loyd Garrison, abolitionist

Samuel Eliot Morrison, naval historian and sailor 

- after Sam I had a good long straightaway and decided to see if I could sprint it, which I did -

The Boston Women's Memorial

Domingo Sarmiento, one-time President of Argentina

and finally;

Leif Ericson, famed Icelander who may have once sailed into Boston Harbor, depending on your source....

After that I still wasn't quite up to 5 miles yet so I went past Mass. Ave to the Charlesgate overpasses and made the two rights that got me back to Beacon Street and the bar.  I felt strong in the end and sprinted again.  

It was a good run and I was glad to engage the city's beauty and history a bit more than I normally do.  Those statues that I passed range in age by over 100 years and you can tell by looking at them; not because some look old or new, but because of the way you're meant to interact with them.  The older ones are always a bronze man on a huge stone block that you're meant to walk around and observe from afar like a painting in a museum.  The newer ones have smaller parts that you're meant to walk right up to and engage in order to learn their meaning.  the Vendome Memorial has a timeline of the fire and features the names of the men who died on that corner which offers a much different experience than the Bunker Hill Monument in nearby Charlestown (hint, it's a giant stone obelisk).

The thing I'm noticing more and more lately is that when I do a shorter run (under 7 miles) I don't feel very tired when I'm done.  And today I felt that I could up my speed as I was going without getting too winded.  Something tells me that it's time for me to push harder and run faster more regularly.  Uh-oh.

More Snow Running

It's been a few interesting days of  running.  Saturday there was a break in the cold/snowy/icy weather that has held Boston in a death grip, which made for nice conditions for the run up Heartbreak.  In fact, I haven't sweat so much since I started this training as I did that day.  We hit Comm Ave.  and it was all relentless sun and mid-30s.  I even had to take off a layer, which is also unprecedented.  I felt great and even had some extra energy for the last 3 miles which is a rarity for me, especially considering that I was running by myself pretty much the whole way.  My regular running buddies were doing a different course and I didn't fall in with any random people along the way.  It worked out fine though and I had a great run that was pretty close to the 10 minute mile pace that I want to hit.

Monday was warm again, but it had iced over during the night so there were some definite icy patches along the way.  

Tonight was really great though.  Once again there was all kinds of talk about snow hitting us over night, and once again it actually hit later on in the morning.  We had a steady falling of snow all day, but not so much that the plows couldn't handle it so the Hill Repeat workout went on as planned.  It was coming down for the whole run and pretty soon after the plows went by there was a nice layer of snow, and so I tried the YakTrax again (pictured above left).  These things are really great, and I went from being really worried about slipping and sliding in the damp snow to feeling perfectly stable in no time.  We did 7 hill repeats and I'm just really happy that they've gotten easier.  Hills are a big fear of mine for this race, especially since they kicked my @$$ at the BAA Half-Marathon in the fall.  I gather that we'll be doing 7 for a while, and then 8, 9, and eventually topping out at about 10 a night.  Something tells me that will be a bit monotonous.....

In addition to just generally having a good run, it was great to be out in the city during the snow.  Everything was just beautiful and quiet and the light was awesome.  I would have missed it all had I just gone home; hmmm, I guess I need to add that to list of reasons to run a marathon, getting to run hill repeats in the snow.  

Runner Mind

In the mid-1940s rocket and jet engine technology was brand new and aviators and aircraft designers were pushing the limits of speed and altitude, the main speed goal was to travel faster than the speed of sound.  The best test pilots in the country flew across the New Mexico skies trying to breach that sound barrier, they pushed the throttle forward and accelerated to higher and higher speeds that pushed their aircraft through air that was increasingly turbulent.  Many men got right up to the edge of that barrier and only to find their aircraft coming apart on them, or they lost control and ended up plowing a furrow across a dry lakebed.  The man who finally did it for the first time was named Chuck Yeager, an already accomplished fighter and test pilot who became a legend with his transonic flight, and through many other achievements afterward.  What's remarkable to me is that the day he broke the sound barrier and set a new speed record he reported a smooth flight.  There was the usual turbulence as he sped up to close to the speed of sound, but as he got right up to it, things smoothed right out.  It was what he was expecting at all, and seems sort of anticlimactic today.  His flight had rough patches, but at the moment he was expecting the most danger things suddenly went smoothly.  

I'm a distance runner, which means that over the years I've trained my body to be comfortable with running distances of more than 4 miles.  I don't know that I'd say that I'm good at it, but I know that if you challenge me to a 50 yard dash I'll probably lose, but a 10K I can power through and do OK.  A 5K (about 3 miles) is tougher for me, this distance is more about speed than persistence and when I'm 2-3 miles in I'm panting away and thinking that I'll never make it to 10 miles or whatever the distance is today.  But then suddenly after mile 3, things smooth out, my breathing evens out, I don't pant anymore, my legs have found they're stride, my gait is going well, and I don't feel like I'm sweating buckets anymore.  This becomes the middle part of a run for me, and it's the best part because I feel like I could do it forever.  In this stage of the run my body moves exactly how it should and it has become the vehicle for my awareness.  My mind is just being carried by my body and now acts as an almost passive observer to what's happening around it.  At this point I've entered the Runner Mind.  

If you ask, most distance runners won't be able to tell you what they think about while they run.  It takes you 3 hours to run 14.7 miles, they must be thinking of something.  They are, but in a way they're not, at least they're not thinking of anything that they can explain rationally later on.  While you're running little bits of information trickle from your senses into your mind and send you on strange journey's into memory.  The sound of a wind chime brings forward the image of a crystal resonating in time with nature, which brings to mind the image of beautiful lights dancing in the night sky, stars which in the time of Galileo were believed to be held on crystal spheres in the heavens that slid past each other creating beautiful tranquil music that filled the space around the Earth.  That music must've been very much like the wind chime I just ran past, or why else would I be thinking about them?  And what do 500 year old and outdated theories of astronomy have to do with making it up Heartbreak Hill?  

Nothing, I'm in the Runner Mind and the purpose of that is to distract your rational mind from the irrational activity that you're pushing your body into doing.  I mean really, for what rational reason are your running 14.7 miles today?  Oh right, so in two weeks it'll be easier to 16 miles.  Yeah, that makes sense.  

Its not always crystal spheres that I'm thinking of, but it's all random stream of consciousness type stuff.  If I could get it all on paper it would be as loosely connected as pages on the Wikipedia, but somehow it's interesting to me, and that's the point.  

Cold Midweek

So it has been very cold in Boston this week.  As I write this weather.com has a temp of -3º for Cambridge, which is lower that when I got home from my run last night by about 12º.  Something about cold runs must tire you out more because it was barely a 5-mile run and I still passed out on the couch until 3am.  Man that sleep felt good though!

Tuesday night was the first of the hill repeat training, which luckily saw a break in temps...it was up 33º!  Hill repeats are basically just what they sound like, a loop that takes us from FitCorp, down around the Boston Common and Public Garden, past the original Cheers, to the foot of Beacon Hill.  Then we run up and down Beacon Hill a bunch of times.  This week it was 5, next it will 6, and ascending for the rest of training.  Fun times.  There's a big crowd and since it's a repeat you never feel all that along which is nice.  It seemed very daunting the first time, but after the 5th repeat I felt surprisingly good.  I'm hopeful that this help me on the Woodland Run up Heartbreak tomorrow morning, which should see 7º temperatures. (cue ominous music...)

And off to ride my bike to work!

Running in a Microclimate

This weekend was an interesting run. The temperature when I got up was about 17 degrees, but the wind chill was registering it as more like 9. That is not awesome, but it’s not easy to tell how the wind chill is going to affect you when you’re running and I can say that I didn’t much notice the wind this time. It was a nice sunny day and conditions were such that sidewalks were mainly clear of ice except for random spots where people hadn’t shoveled enough. At FitCorp they told us that today was to be a 14.68 mile run – this was in opposition to the Liver Team schedule that had us doing 12 miles, which was much more in line with the training I’ve been doing. Jumping from 10.5 one week to nearly 15 the next wasn’t a great idea and my mid-week runs had only prepared me for the step to 12. Several other people mentioned the change in distance and several of us decided to only do the 12.

Somewhere between the car and the gym I had lost my tight running hat that makes me look a bit like a henchmen for a James Bond villain so I ended up wearing my Harpoon baseball hat instead. I felt pretty unsure about this as it doesn’t cover my ears and I knew they’d be quite cold in the 16-degree weather, but I didn’t have much choice. We started off and straight out in front of the State House we cross the brick line in the sidewalk that is the Freedom Trail, which is a line that connects important historical sites in the city, but today it was also effective at concealing a random ice chunk that was loose on the sidewalk. I hit the chunk of ice right on and turned my left ankle on it which hurt like a mother. Turning an ankle is the kind of thing that can end your run abruptly, but fortunately this time it just hurt and I could run through it, so I ran on down the hill.

Runners become very aware of climate on a micro level; we try to keep in mind which side of the street will be shady or on which part of a loop the wind will be at our backs. We run along the North side of Beacon Street the whole time as it’s more likely to keep us in the sunlight and out of the shade of the buildings on the south side of the street (which incidentally have lower property values because of being in the shade). I got to about Dartmouth Street when I realized that my right ear was ice cold while my left ear was in the sun and much warmer. Somehow though, the cold ear and the turned ankle didn’t hamper me at all, I kept right on to Cleveland Circle at a good pace and with nothing to really complain about. I downed a goo pack (remind me to write more about them in another posting) at the 3 mile mark and its extra energy boost kept me going almost all the way back to the gym.

The intended 15-mile course took us down Beacon Street like normal and out to Cleveland Circle, where we were to head off the course and do a long loop around Boston College and then back in to FitCorp the way we had come. They gave this nice little had drawn map that was not at all to scale to tell us what the course was, and once I got Cleveland Circle I checked it to see where 6 miles which was where I wanted to turn around. 6 miles was marked as being next to “BC Dorms”. Now, there’s a lot of BC Dorms and I had now way of knowing which one to turn. Just across Cleveland Circle is the Chestnut Hill Reservoir and when I got to there I was struck by how tranquil and still it was, and so rather than just run to some arbitrary point and turn around I decided to loop around the reservoir instead. It was great, very quiet, not much traffic around and once I got about halfway I could see the tall buildings of downtown Boston in the distance – a sight that is both exciting and disheartening. I was impressed that the path along the reservoir was plowed most of the way around, and where it wasn’t I could run on the sidewalk in Evergreen Cemetery. The only places that I came across ice were the areas of the sidewalk that were at times in the shadow of the thin lines of trees spaced out along the road. I’m always impressed that the difference between an icy and a dry surface is defined by such vague line as the shadow of leafless trees.

Something was working right in my head for this run and I didn’t have to spend much time keeping myself psyched up and so the remainder of the trip went on without incident. I got back to the gym ahead of the runners doing the 15 mile loop and it felt really weird that all of these people who are stronger, faster runners came in after me, but we all have to run our own race. They ran what they needed to do and so did I. In the end I did only 11.5 miles, and I wish I had known at the time so I could’ve worked in another half mile, but I’m still happy with my run.

Afterwards during stretching I had some fun conversations with the other runners and I wanted to mention how utterly insane I think Mara is. Every Saturday she runs the 2 miles from her house to the gym before whatever our long run is, and then runs home afterwards. So Saturday she ran 2 miles to the gym, 12 miles on the course, and then 2 miles home. That’s 16 miles on what’s meant to be a 12-14 mile day! She says she does it because it’s easier than parking.

Man, runners just aren’t right are they?

Settling into the week.

So it's Wednesday and I've gotten two of this weeks three runs in before the 12-miler on Saturday, and boy have they been special ones.  As some of you might know we've had some winter weather here in the Hub.  When Bec knocked on the front window Monday at 6:30 in the AM there was a nice layer of ice over every horizontal surface; I don't quite know how she made it down the hill from her house, but the important thing is that she did and so there was no turning back.  We headed out on our usual course the to river, hoping with every treacherous step that we'd hit a patch of sidewalk that where someone had had the foresight to lay out some salt.  We weren't that lucky, even Harvard hadn't thought about that.  We did make it to the river and decided not to attempt crossing the bridge ("Bridges Freeze Before Road", anyone seen that sign?) so we headed along the river on the Cambridge side.  There was a lot of running on the grass next to the sidewalk and stopping to make very deliberate steps, but in the end we made it home the better for having been out in the ice.  

Today we had some warning that conditions would be less than ideal, in fact schools started closing yesterday afternoon even though the snow wasn't meant to start until midnight.  Dawn brought with it about an inch or two of wet snow on the ground, Bec was a little worried about sleet but went out on the porch and decided that it was a great day for a run and texted her to get moving.  It was right around 32 degrees which is a great running temperature, and it was also the perfect opportunity to try out our YakTrax  which are basically like chains for your shoes.  It wasn't sleeting when we left but by the time we hit the river it was coming down pretty well; not ideal for wearing glasses.  We looped around the river and when we hit the Eliot Bridge and the turn towards home I felt good enough to keep going another bridge - an uncommon experience even in the summer - and so we went on to the Weeks footbridge.  Today ended up being a 4.4 mile run with a brisk sidewalk shoveling afterwards.  Nice.

I know they say that you shouldn't run in conditions like this, and I fully admit to the danger, but there's something really fun about it too.  We ran the same courses that we've been running all year (2008 that is) but they were more interesting and fun than normal.  I've always loved being out in the snow and running is just another fun way to experience it.  Also though, I'm in training for a marathon in April, the only way that I can have fairweather training is if I move to someplace warmer, and as appealing as that might be some days, it's not in the cards.  This means that I can't be too choosy with the weather that I run in.  Plus I don't have treadmill or gym membership so I don't have that to fall back on it.  I've made a commitment to the marathon and that means some days I've got to run in sleet, or "sneet" as I've heard the mix called, then so be it.  

First '09 Long Run...and it felt it.

Saturday was not a particularly good day for me running-wise.  Turns out it's not a great idea to skip 2 weeks of long runs, eat holiday foods, and then try to run Heartbreak Hill for the first time.  You'd think I'd be smart enough to know that, but I guess there's some things you need to learn by doing.....

This was the first of our "Woodland" runs, which are going to become a pretty standard routine for my training.  Basically we do the usual meet at FitCorp at 8am, and then get on the D-Branch of the Green Line T train and head out to the Woodland Stop and from there we run back to FitCorp.  Seems kinda backwards to go all that way only to run back to where you started early on a saturday morning, but hey, it's what we do.  

Woodland is near to mile 17 on the marathon course and starts you on what is basically a slight downhill, I'll have to learn to enjoy that as it's the last time I'll be seeing a slight downhill on this 10.5 mile run.  

Within a quarter mile you make a right turn onto Commonwealth Avenue (Comm Ave to the locals) past the Newton Fire Station, and bam! you're climbing a hill.  I'm not sure what the actual boundaries of Heartbreak Hill are, but I think it actually is comprised of 4 smaller hills that rise up and level off a bit only to rise up again.  It's the sort of thing that always seems to be almost over - but then isn't.  Hills aside, the run up Comm Ave is very pretty and scenic, which offers something to take your mind off the hills.  This part also has what I've heard called a "Carriage Road" which is basically a third lane for local traffic on the other side of a grass (snow covered) median and made for a great place to run since the traffic was light and one-way.  This area is frequented by a lot of runner's who live in Newton, and you can tell them apart from the marathon trainers by their high-tech and expensive running gear and the lack of a look of terror or exhaustion on their faces.  Kevin O'Connor, the host of This Old House, ran part of this stretch for segment on the show once.  If you've seen it and you're a Boston runner you'll find it pretty amusing.

Anyway, the hills aren't easy, but eventually I get past them and hit Cleveland Circle and realize that I only have half of last weeks long run to go, 6 miles.  Later on in training that'll be a good thing, right now it still seems like a far way to go.  It is, but I make it without too much fuss.  I'm the second to last person to get back to the gym, except for Nhu who stayed out too late the night before and so was 20 minutes late starting the run.  He wasn't that far behind me when I got back.  

I don't like the feeling that I had when the run was over.  It was a hard run but I can only blame the hills for part of it.  For most of it I have to blame myself for not training harder over the holidays.  There's still plenty of time to get ready for the marathon, but I'm still disappointed that I'm not further along.  I have to keep pushing myself so that I can work out of this low point.  

Brief Hiatus

As you may have noticed, I haven't updated in a few weeks.  Don't worry, that doesn't mean that I haven't been neglecting my training (much).  Truth is, a lot has happened since the last post, but most of it is somewhat mundane.  

I've missed the last two long runs.  3 weeks ago the run was cancelled due to the world ending in Boston.  Or at least what passes for world ending around here.  Starting the Friday afternoon before the run we got about 12" of snow, the threat of which is enough to close schools across the region, and yes that meant Molly had a half-day.  It also meant that I had a break from running in all that stuff too.  Sadly that "break" extended into the next week since we got a second round of snow the following Monday.  

After that was the chaos of family and travel that is the week of Christmas.  Between the two of us we had all the planes, trains and automobiles that either of us could want.  Rochester had at least twice the snow that Boston had, and when it wasn't cold and snowy it was raining.  That week was a bust as far as running goes.  Plus there was eating, sweet sweet eating.  

I've run twice this week and I think I'm ready for tomorrow's 10.5 miles.  I better be since we're running a big chunk of the course for the first time.  A chunk including Heartbreak Hill.  Dun-dun-dun!