06/07/08: Bloomin' Four Mile

I think I need to find me some P.F. Flyers, the better to run faster and jump higher with; I know I need to find some friendlier weather but it's only June - it's going to get worse before it gets better. For the Dallas Running club's Bloomin' Four Mile race it was 79 degrees and 77% humidity which made for a heat index of about a jillion. Not that it would be any better, but I wonder if they've ever considered having one of their summer runs in the evening.

I had a plan - run the first two miles very conservatively and try to pick it up over the second half of the race - but several things went awry not the least of which was not following the plan very well. I ran the first two miles in about sixteen minutes, which would qualify as very conservative if the temperature was about twenty degrees cooler, but today it was a faster pace than I was expecting for the entire race. Which meant there was much walking and gnashing of teeth over the last two miles but at least there was more teeth-gnashing than there was walking. The second, and third (out-and-back course), miles traversed the dreaded shaky bridge which has been my main source of motion sickness for the past ten years. Maybe I should start taking Dramamine before running at White Rock Lake.

Actually after a long walking break in the third mile - longer than intended as I decided to walk to the mile marker and I was further away than I thought - I decided to forget about the race (except for staying on course and stopping at the finish line) and just run intervals for the last mile. I ran hard, like near-sprint hard, for 100 steps (counting one foot only) and then walked for 60 steps. I did three sets and then jogged the rest of the way in, finishing about 35:06. Which isn't an auspicious start to a new (birth) year but does mean I have lots of room for improvement.

I was expecting to run with some relay club members but I didn't see any of them at the race; there was a happy hour the night before that I guess wound up being happier than anticipated. I did see Grapevine Mike, who actually lives in Dallas County but who I know from running in Grapevine. I hung out with him some before the race and more after the race but not so much during the race as he finished well ahead of me.

While hanging out after the race I tried one of the many free Accelerades they had available. My flavor of choice was fruit punch and I should keep in mind that it was warm but I wasn't too impressed and I'm not in any hurry to fork over cash money to give it another try. For now my carbohydrate-and-protein drink of choice remains Nesquik although I'll pass on that, too, if it's served warm. I drank the dregs of the Accelerade after I got in my car and drove off in search of breakfast. You can tell the racing season's hit a lull when you get back to your car after a race and your windshield doesn't have a single brochure on it.

05/25/08: Mad City Half Marathon

Thirteen.1 Notes on the Mad City Half Marathon

1. The half marathon starts at 7:25 at the state Capitol building - fifteen minutes after the full marathon and twenty minutes before the quarter (and personally I think these subdivisions are getting silly) marathon - and finishes at the Alliant Energy Center maybe three miles away. So I had to get to the finish line a little after six to catch a shuttle to the start, which is why I'm not a big fan of point-to-point courses.

2. I hadn't planned a strategy for this race so when I saw the 1:50 pace guy lining up near me, I decided to stick with him for as long as I could. If I could hang for ten miles, I'd be happy no matter how crappy the last three miles were. Unless my death was literal rather than figurative, of course.

3. I ran this race two years ago in 2:xx:xx on a day when it was 79 degrees and 72% humidity. Today it was more like 63 degrees and 54% humidity, which is one of the reasons I came back. The other is that I like Madison; it's a cool city.

4. The race started promptly and it also started downhill, which is nice on a point-to-point course. It's a moderately hilly route although it does have two long, mostly flat sections: along Lake Mendota around miles six and seven and around Monona Bay and heading towards the back of the Alliant Energy Center, towards the finish. Although they do throw in one last nasty little uphill just before you turn into the parking lot.

5. I wouldn't say the crowd support rivals Boston but I was surprised by how many people were out cheering early in the morning.

6. The first part of the course goes northeast from the Capitol along the isthmus separating Lake Mendota from Lake Monona before turning around and returning to downtown via Johnson and Langdon Streets. So a lot of the downhill in mile one turns into uphill in mile four, I think.

7. The University of Wisconsin section of the course goes along the Temin Lakeshore Path and along some roads on the west side of campus, including past Camp Randall Stadium. Which is fine by me; if they took us through the main part of campus we'd wind up running some hills worth bitching about.

8. I don't remember much about miles eight through eleven but what I do remember is mostly bad - a short out-and-back around Vilas Park, which I hate out-and-backs and wish they'd find a way to eliminate it; running up a pedestrian bridge late in mile nine to get across North Shore Drive; and noticing about halfway through mile nine that I'd already sped up to my "God I want this to be over with!" pace, which isn't a good pace with 4.5 miles still to go.

9. I made it through mile eleven in 1:31:44 (8:20 pace) before cratering and losing contact with the 1:50 people.

10. The last two miles weren't totally horrible, just mostly so. There was some walking but I ran more than I walked.

11. I actually had a quick left after mile thirteen. I guess that was the payoff for dogging it those last two miles.

12. The medals for all the races just say "Mad City Marathon" and are color-coded by race (red for marathon, yellow for half, white for quarter); in addition, the name of the actual race run is printed on the (also color-coded) ribbon. Marathoners sometimes bitch when the shirt or medal doesn't distinguish between the various distances.

13. I grabbed a bottle of water at the finish line, but didn't bother food. I didn't even go all the way through the line - I didn't see anybody carting around anything that looked particularly appealing.

13.1 1:54:31.

05/15/08 & 05/17/08: Katy Trail 5K & Warbird 10K

I ran the Katy Trail 5K on Thursday evening in Dallas and the Warbird 10K on Saturday morning at the Warbird Brewing Company in Ft. Wayne, Indiana. I’ll probably run the Katy Trail 5K next year while I’m not too likely to come back and do this one but that’s only because I’ll probably lose track of the date, or not be able to get a flight, or to to try a different race elsewhere. It will have nothing to do with preferring the Katy Trail 5K over the Warbird 10K; in fact, I like both races and prefer the Warbird race to the Katy Trail one.

While neither race is particularly small, the Katy Trail 5K dwarfs the Warbird races (which include a 5K in addition to the 10K; both races start together) by about 4,000 or so to slightly less than 1,000. I count this as a point in the Warbird’s favor – I prefer races in the 500 to 1,000 range. They’re large enough that they’re probably going to have good support and a reasonable postrace scene but not so large that you spend as much energy weaving through the crowd as you do running the damn race.

Everything else being equal, the Katy Trail course blows away the Warbird course as it’s scenic, shaded, urbane. The Warbird course runs along some rural-for-now land south of the city along open roads that don’t offer much protection if the day is bright and windy. Which today was, with the sun coming out from behind some early morning rain clouds just as the race started. What isn’t equal, of course, is the number of times I’ve run either of these courses, what with this being the first time I’ve been in Ft. Wayne (hometown of Charlton Heston’s character in “Planet of the Apes”) as opposed to having run along Turtle Creek Boulevard and up and down the Katy Trail about a jillion times each. I like running both those places but I like running new places more as long as they don’t suck, and the Warbird course wasn’t that bad.

The Katy Trail people promote the postrace picnic as much as they do the race – they have tons of sponsors, most of them local restaurants (many of them high-end), provide food. One of the advantages of being at least still moderately fast is that I can be done with the race and down to the food before the lines have had a chance to build up. This year Strong’s Everyday Tavern provided bitching bar-be-que ribs; I also had pizza from Campisi’s and Rocco’s, baked ziti from Terilli’s, and pasta salad from Holy Ravioli, I’m pretty sure. The beer, which I didn’t bother with because I was still slightly hung over from Lazy Bones the night before, was Michelob Ultra. They’ve been the title sponsors for the past few years; the first year I had it I thought it was horrible but every time I’ve had it since, I’ve been pleasantly surprised that it didn’t suck as badly as I remember it from that first time. I guess I have to grudgingly concede that it’s mediocre.

The Warbird food was neither as elaborate nor as varied but I liked it better; their beer was more varied and I liked that better, too. They had small Kobe beef burgers, chili, and pasta salad – the burgers were awesome, the pasta good, and the chili avoided because of bean content. The beer options were a red ale, a yellow ale, and a dark amber something-or-other. I had a red and a dark amber; I preferred the amber to the red but they both beat the crap out of Michelob Ultra.

Neither race was particularly successful for me; I ran the 5K in 23:53 sandwiching a crappy second mile (8:20ish) around pretty good first (~7:15) and third (~7:30) miles. I finished 29 out of 78 in my age group, 283 out of 952 men and 369 out of 1738 among all timed finishers. I ran the 10K in 50:47 (50:59 officially, and I don’t know what caused the discrepancy) and can’t say for sure what my exact placements were – they had some problems with the (non-Champion) chip timing system they used, which was compounded by people signing up for the 10K and then running the 5K. In the preliminary official results, as posted on the side of the brewery, the winning 10K time was 20:20ish – which would be a new world record by about six minutes if it was somehow allowed to stand! The results on line, which look to be much more accurate, show me finishing 16 out of 36 in my age group, 95 out of 209 men, and 113 out of 323 overall.

Two races in three days – it’s almost like the old days of, say, 1997 (58 races). Except I think I was running a little bit faster back then. Of course, I was a lot younger, too.

05/03/08: White Rock'N'Roll Five Mile

I thought the White Rock’n’Roll Five-Mile race used to be a bigger deal but some cursory research indicated that this may not have been as true as I thought. There were 541 finishers this year as opposed to 828 last year and 636 in 2006, but I didn’t run the race in either of those years. The last time I ran it, in 2005, there were 403 finishers. However, I thought there used to be a five-mile and a 5K; in 2003 I have personal results for something I called the White Rock Road Race 5K which was held the first weekend in May and I’m pretty sure it was the same race only I opted for the 5K over the five-mile. At any rate, given the restrictions of Winfrey Point, where the race is staged, I'm totally in favor of them downsizing.

There were definitely some differences between this year and the last two years, at least: no packet pick-up and late registration at Luke’s and while entrants still received a technical t-shirt, it was now a generic Dallas Running Club shirt and not a race-specific t-shirt. One beneficial difference was the weather: where race day 2007 was 73 degrees and 88% humidity and 2006 was 66 degrees and 87%, this year it was 52 and 59%. Maybe not absolutely perfect running weather (there was also a pretty good wind), but about as good as you can hope for in Dallas on the first weekend of May. Hell, I don’t know that I’ve ever worn a long-sleeved t-shirt during a May race around here before, although had the wind been calmer I probably wouldn’t have bothered. It wound up soaked with sweat by the end although I never felt like I was overheating.

Oops, just found (and remembered) another difference: the course used to go north along the lake to the Bath House, then go up Northcliff and run around that neighborhood before returning to the lake. Apparently they did that through last year; this year we ran out and back on East Lawther Drive. I thought maybe that change was due to homeowner complaints but I guess it’s just another example of them scaling back the race.

I ran acceptably well until I found the results a few days later; my self-timed 38:32 turned into a 39:04 officially as the race wasn’t chip-timed (which is probably another difference from past years) and I started well back of the starting line, with some friends who weren’t going to be running that fast. Making matters worse, I finished fourth in my age group, eight seconds behind the third place guy. Although he could have started as far back as me; I have no idea about that. At any rate, I spent the early part of the race picking my way through the crowd and ran the first mile in about 8:00, then ran the second in about 7:30. I hit the strongest head wind in the first half of the third mile and that slowed me down, I think. But I finished with two more miles at about 7:30 pace, so even though I felt like I was struggling, I didn’t really slow down. On the other hand a couple of guys passed me with sprints at the end – speeding up was not a viable option for me at that moment.

04/26/08: Blue Key 8K

I was about fifteen miles north of Phoenix when I saw the sign ELEVATION 2000 FT; it was the first clue I picked up that maybe I should have gone to Madison, Wisconsin, for the Crazy Eights 8K if I was looking for the opportunity to run fast. My mind flashed back to the map I checked Thursday, specifically the small symbol just north of Flagstaff. Highest point in Arizona, it said. 12,643 feet, it said. Mount Flatlanderyou’rescrewed, it said (I’m pretty sure).

By the time I got to Flagstaff the elevation was at 7000 ft., although I really didn’t notice much difference until I went out for a late afternoon run. Then I noticed a lot of difference as I basically staggered through 3.5 miles, getting a little lost in the process although I eventually found my way back. Still, I was shaken by the experience and it took three beers (Vienna Lager, Railhead Red, India Pale Ale) at the Beaver Street Brewery to restore my equilibrium. I had some spicy chicken penne pasta to go with the beer; it had a nice alfredoish sauce, reasonable pasta, and substandard chicken that I’m pretty sure came to the restaurant pre-diced. The meal didn’t suck, it just could have been better.

The Blue Key 8K or whatever the hell this race is called is a small, low-key, slapdash affair and thank God for that. If I’m going to have a crappy race, there’s no better place to do it than in obscurity – in this case Northen Arizona University – home of the Lumberjacks! – in Flagstaff, Arizona. There was a 5K in addition to the 8K and the races had a combined start; there were probably about forty runners between the two races. I ran my ‘8K’ in 41:30, which, given the altitude, would have been pretty good except that my Garmin reported my actual distance as 4.6 miles and my pace as an even 9:00. I hope it doesn’t sound like I’m bitching about the course being short – short is fine, especially under circumstances (like not being in great shape, like running over a mile above sea level, ect.) that make setting a PR highly improbable. If the course was long, then I’d be bitching.

Besides, the course may not have been short; it’s possible that we didn’t actually run the official course. We could have inadvertently missed an out-and-back or side loop section as the course was confusing at times and they didn’t have volunteers at every turn. Less likely, I suppose it’s possible that being at altitude threw off my Garmin. I think the distance it reported was approximately accurate, though; I’d be surprised if my overall pace was under 9:00.

I have no idea how I finished in the race – I can barely comprehend how I finished the race – and I doubt I’ll ever find out. The race had a minimal web presence for informational purposes, although it was listed on active.com, and I’d be surprised to see results show up online. Which won’t stop me from looking, of course, as poking around the internets is second nature by now.

Much as I’d like to see how I did, I’d also be interested in seeing what the split in finishers between the 5k and the 8K was. The crowd was small but included some good runners; the last time I remember being in such a strung-out chain of runners was a 5K in Arlington, Texas, in 1997 or a 10K in Idaho Falls in 1996. It’s different to be in a race that small and I’ll look back on it fondly next time I’m in a Dallas megarace.

03/15/08: Dash Down Greenville 5K

The Dash Down Greenville flies under the radar as a major Dallas race; it has no prestige despite drawing somewhere between 3,000 and 5,000 participants (2,155 chips recorded), being part of the Crosson Dannis racing series, and existing for about ten years now. Nobody I know considers it a must-do race the way they do the Dallas Half, White Rock, or the Turkey Trot. This is probably due to two reasons: must-do races tend to be later in the year and they also tend to be longer than a 5K. In addition, the Dash Down Greenville is really overshadowed by the St. Patrick’s Day Parade that takes place soon afterwards and which draws maybe five times as many people.

I dashed down Greenville for the second year in a row and the fourth time ever; my time this year (23:20) was my second-fastest ever for this race and over a minute slower than last year but also my fastest 5K thus far this year by about a minute and a half. So I can spend this week's runs obsessing over whether this particular cup is half-empty or half-full. The weather this morning was reasonable for running – 60ish in both temperature and humidity with a noticeable wind out of the northwest. The wind was strong enough, and cooling enough, that I went with a long-sleeved t-shirt – last year’s Dallas Half Marathon shirt, as a matter of fact.

It’s stupid to let organizational inefficiencies bother you in a race this size, so I guess I was stupid this morning. I didn’t like the way they did the chip dispersal, to say nothing of the fact that I hate having to pick up my chip the morning of the race rather than with the rest of my packet. They had the signs showing what chips were available in different sections of the tables hanging from the edge of the tables which meant that when the crowd got more than two-deep they were hidden from view. Had they attached the signs to the fence behind the tables, they would have been much more useful. Also, a few minutes before the scheduled race start, after virtually everybody was lined up, they decided to let a dozen or two vehicles, including one big honking dumptruck, through, which meant we all had to clear a lane for them. It wasn’t an ideal situation for a claustrophobe to be in.

The course remains the same: non-hilly (which doesn’t necessarily mean flat, just gradual, almost unnoticeable inclines) down Greenville, east on Milton, south on Northway (guess – anonymous side street), east on University, and then north on Skillman to the kiddie rollercoaster that is Southwestern Boulevard. I wish they ran this course in the opposite direction – I’d prefer having the hills early in the race – but I guess this way they don’t have to hold traffic up on Lover’s Lane for nearly as long.

After the race I used my free-beer card to get my kicks from a Route 66 amber. I drank the beer and a bottle of water, checked the posted results (256 out of 2155 overall, 23 out of 85 in my age group), and then went to prep up for some serious parade watching.

10/20/07: Double Trouble 5K & 10K

The Lake Grapevine Runners and Walkers put on the Double Trouble 5K and 10K - for an extra five bucks on top of your entry fee you can officially enter both races. I've been a member of LGRAW for two years now - I joined when I signed up for my first Double Trouble in 2005 - so I can't claim to be able to impartially critique this race. If I were critical of the event I could claim impartiality but I can't think of anything negative to say. It's well-organized, well-provisioned, promptly-run; I wish the course was flatter but I can't say the hills come as a surprise given that I've run them a jillion times over the last few years.

I thought my running was stronger and more consistent at this time last year than it is right now, and these races brought that out. I thought the weather last year was warmer but the weather almanac for the Dallas Morning News doesn't bear that out - it shows it being 47 degrees for the race in 2005, 53 in 2006 and 59 this year. Last year I ran 22:05 and 50:42; this year my 5K (21:56) was slightly faster, but my 10K (52:38) was noticeably slower as the wheels started coming off in the fourth mile. My training lapses over the summer have cost me more in the way of strength than speed.

The 5K was similar to the TCU Breakaway 5K in that I slowed down throughout the race but differed in that the fall-off wasn't as drastic (6:53, 7:03, 7:21 as opposed to 6:56, 7:21, 7:45) and I was able to muster a kick past three miles (38 seconds for the last tenth as opposed to 50 at TCU). Of course, I had motivation in this race - I knew I needed a strong finish to break 22 minutes.

In retrospect, I went out too fast in the 10K, running splits of 8:04, 8:06, and 8:03 for the first three miles before slowing to 8:18 for the fourth mile, 8:50 for the fifth, and 9:32 for the sixth, and 1:46 for the last .2 There was some walking in each of the last two miles; after seven miles or so I was getting tired of running all these stupid uphills. So, I walked some of them although I ran up the last one because even though it's probably my most hated, it's also too close to the finish line and I just wanted to be done with the damn race.

I didn't place in my age group this year - the third place time was 20:02. I had placed each of the last two years - third place both times - so I was a little disappointed but mostly I was wondering where all these aging speedsters had come from. In the 5K, I finished 7th out of 20 in my age group, 23rd out of 106 men, and 25th out of 204. In the 10K I was 8th out 11 in my age group, 37th out of 78 men, and 48th out of 153 overall. I'm thinking of running a 10K this weekend to find out how I can do if I actually focus on that race.