RATW Update

Sorry for the lack of updates on race across the window, but I've been tired. I'm currently about 30 miles into day #5. Yes, I'm typing this on my blackberry while riding.

I've gotten at least 50 miles in every day, including a 56 miler yesterday which I capped off with the brooklyn half marathon. I ran a 1:36:xx to finish off 2/3 of a half ironman.

I can't wait to finish up this last 80 minutes and then go back to bed!

RATW - Day 1

I've been up since 4 am and I'm completely exhausted. I've been ingesting a steady supply of caffeine, but it seems to only be keeping me from passing out, not giving me any energy.

After taking off most of last week (although I did run 1.5 mile repeats up Gore Mountain on saturday), I jumped head first into Race Across the Window. We started yesterday at 11 am, but since my shift is from 5-8 am, I didn't have my first ride until this morning. I got up at 4, packed my backpack and rode through the darkness from Brooklyn to JackRabbit in Manhattan. When I got there, the store was completely dark save the lights in the front window. Shane was furiously pedaling shirtless in an empty store.

He let me in and while I readied for the my turn, he finished off his shift on the bike. After a quick calibration, I was off and riding. Shane stretched and showered while I clicked of the first of my miles. Just under and hour into my ride, I looked out the window to my left and saw Bev's smiling face. We let her in the store and she quickly volunteered to go get food for me and coffee for Shane. She returned with a couple bacon, egg, and cheese breakfast sandwiches and a Mt. Dew. I quickly ate half the sandwich and started ingesting the sweet sugar and caffeine.

Bev kept me entertained, while I tried to ignore the fatigue in my legs. Killer showed up to bring Shane more coffee and chat with us. I waved to several passersby as they stopped to read the info on RATW and watch me pedal. Roz showed up a short time later with cupcakes, but unfortunately I had already met my quota for sugar and didn't really want one. Roz snapped some pictures and then I finished my shift mashing the pedals.

I ended up logging a little over 50 miles and averaged 18.5 mph. The first couple hours weren't too bad, but after that, things started getting uncomfortable. Hopefully wearing better shorts tomorrow will relieve some of the pain.

A HUGE thanks to Bev, Roz, and Killer for coming by this morning. It really helped get me through. Tomorrow I do it all over again...

It hurts so good

I'm sore. Ridiculously sore. I'm in pain. I'm hobbling.

And I'm loving every minute of it.

I have an entire year to think about Boston. By the time it actually comes around, I might explode from sheer giddiness. Saturday I was just another marathoner. Yesterday, I became a Boston Qualifier.

BOSTON BOUND!

3:05:17, 28th overall, and 7th in my AG. I'll type up a race report later, but here are my splits:

Mile 1: 7:13
Mile 2: 6:59
Mile 3: 7:00
Mile 4: 7:19
Mile 5: 7:04
Mile 6: 7:15
Mile 7: 7:09
Mile 8: 7:03
Mile 9: 6:14
Mile 10: 6:42
Mile 11: 7:04
Mile 12: 7:13
Mile 13: 7:19
Mile 14: 7:09
Mile 15: 7:08
Mile 16: 6:53
Mile 17: 6:58
Mile 18: 6:53
Mile 19: 7:05
Mile 20: 7:02
Mile 21: 7:01
Mile 22: 7:11
Mile 23: 7:18
Mile 24: 7:15
Mile 25: 7:02
Mile 26: 7:08
Mile .2: 1:27

I was fairly consistent with my pacing. You can see where the hills were (both up and down). Although miles 16, 17, and 18 weren't anything super steep. I like seeing strong miles late in the race.

Almost Finished

Taper Tuesday

4.5 relatively easy miles tonight.

I'm going absolutely crazy. I need to run this race now. The taper is killing me. I'm just ready to run...5 more days of doing very little. I'm ridiculously antsy.

The good news is, the weather is looking better. Right now the forecast is a low of 44 and a high of 64. I just hope it stays that way.

Coach Cane and I discussed a strategy for the race last night. If I stick to it and do what I think I can, Scott will be a very happy person come sunday afternoon.

Hiking at the Delaware Water Gap

Today I took a group out to the DWG for one of my last trips for AS. It was the first time I'd been out there hiking since last fall. The weather was perfect and I had a good group, which always makes things more enjoyable. We went up the usual red dot trail to Mt. Tammany and then wound our way back down the blue trail. Instead of returning following the stream, we turned and retraced the route back up to Mt. Tammany and down the red dot trail. Not a lot of wildlife, but we did come across a large snake (probably a rat snake) that was laying on the side of the trail. I think the total mileage for the day was somewhere between 7 and 8 miles. Not too bad.

Last 10 miler

I did my last 10 mile run of training today. It felt effortless. I was taking it easy, but still cruising at around 7:30 pace. I'm not trying to mentally set myself up for disappointment, but I feel really, really good about next weekend. Running has just felt easy the past couple weeks. All the work has been done, so now its just staying loose and then laying it all out next Sunday.

Race Across the Window: Going Nowhere Fast

Now accepting Donations

More details are forthcoming, but I am joining fellow City Coach riders for Race Across the Window to benefit Young Survival. Here are the details:

On Tuesday, May 26 eight riders will begin a simulated 3,000 mile relay on a Computrainer situated in the window of Jack Rabbit Sports' Union Square store. We'll ride continuously for over a week, until we've completed the stationary cross country ride. The event is being held as a fundraiser for the Young Survival Coalition. Young Survival Coalition (YSC) is the premier international organization dedicated to the critical issues unique to young women and breast cancer. YSC works with survivors, caregivers and the medical, research, advocacy and legislative communities to increase the quality and quantity of life for women diagnosed with breast cancer ages 40 and under.

You can follow news on Twitter and Facebook. Here is the link if you feel compelled to donate.

Cervelo: Closer to completion

I just ordered a 12-23T 10 speed cassette. The Cervelo will be on the road soon. Hopefully very soon.

Double Wednesday

Shaun and I went out for an easy 5.5 miles at lunch today. We left the office and did an out-and-back on the West Side Highway.

Run Club had Speed Series out of Paragon tonight as well, so I jogged out to the track with them and did some relatively easy speed work. I did 4 X 800m at about 6:45 pace.

The best part is that after almost a year, I finally acquired a pair of Nike Lunar Racers. I've been using the Lunar Trainers for quite a while now and I really love them, but this was my first time in the Racers for any extended period of time. I'm contemplating using them in the Poconos Marathon, but I need to get a couple more runs in them and see how my body likes them. They were really great last night on the way to and from the track and doing the 800s.

Tapering

Tapering is always interesting. If you have trained right, tapering leaves you antsy. You second-guess everything. You feel like you should be running more. Your metabolism is screaming. You go out on a run and feel like you should be running faster. Nothing feels right. You can run 999 marathons and the taper still doesn't feel normal on the 1,000th one. You've been putting massive miles, fast laps on the track, and pounding mile after mile on the pavement on Saturday and Sunday mornings. Then all of a sudden, you dial everything back. Your mind doesn't know how to react.

That's where I'm at now. I know the taper is what I need to recover, build up, and be ready for the marathon in a week and a half. But it feels weird. It feels too easy. I did around 6 miles last night and about halfway through I ended up hammering the end of the run. It just felt easy...too easy. I have to keep myself under control and keep dialed back. Its never a bad sign when a fast run feels easy, but I need to not push myself. I need to allow my body to recover and be in top form.

11 days...

Onwards!

This is a super sweet animation. I give you "Onwards" Presented by Nike.

Onwards from AKQA on Vimeo.

Back to the pool

My legs were trashed, so it was time to get back in the pool.

I did a quick bicep/back workout and then hopped in the pool. I thought I would be a lot more out of shape having neglected the swim a bit, but I felt fairly comfortable. I definitely lost a little speed, but I was still able to fairly easily swim for 30 minutes. It actually felt good to get in and swim.

Last Long Run...Nailed it.

I headed out on my final long run before the Poconos Marathon. The skies were gray, the streets and were wet, rain was lazily falling, and my legs were sore from the trail race. Nevertheless, I had to get in a long run. I wasn't sure exactly where I wanted to run, but started a long loop around Brooklyn before realizing that I needed to stop in at the Runners' Station. Knowing I only had an hour and a half before the Station closed, I cut the loop a little short and headed for the Williamsburg Bridge.

I powered through the bridge and cut across Manhattan, picking up speed with each step. After my legs loosened up a bit, I felt strong. I made it across and down to the Station about 45 minutes into the run. I made a quick stop in to talk to Vinnie and then started back out around Battery Park City and the bottom of Manhattan. Cruising along, I kept feeling faster. I went over the Brooklyn Bridge and then returned to the island via the Manhattan Bridge. I cut through Chinatown back to the water and ran north to the Williamsburg Bridge. I headed back west until I got to the base of the bridge and then charged up and over. The last mile and a half home felt easy and I finished with plenty of gas left in the tank.

I cranked out 18 miles at about 7:30 pace on very tired legs. Not only that, but the terrain was much harder than anything I will see at Poconos. This run made me feel much, much more confident in my race in 2 weeks. Now its time to taper...

You forgot to mark the trail...

Shaun, Marissa, and I went out to do the Muddy Marathon in New Jersey. Shaun and I were going to do the half marathon, while Marissa was doing the quarter. We got a late start driving out there and once we got there, we couldn't figure out where we were supposed to go for registration. There was no signage (this will be a reoccurring theme). By the time we figured it out, we were 20 minutes late for the half marathon. So, that mean all three of us were going to do the quarter marathon. While waiting on the start, I changed clothes and hydrated.


The start of the race was signaled by a simple "Ready? Go." by the race director. I had toed the starting line, and with the small field size, I was off and running out front with Shaun right behind. We had walked part of the course earlier and knew the first section was very runnable, so we decided to try and build a lead before the technical sections slowed down the field. After running across a parking lot to the cheers of a couple 10-year old kids (not) directing traffic, Shaun and I tore down a nice downhill of about 150 yards. We swung a 180 at the bottom and started back up the same hill on another trail. We slowed the pace and powered through, although I was feeling the effects of a late night with friends. Shaun went into the lead, and as I labored up the hill, she gave words of encouragement from ahead.

Once the hill was crested, it was a short jaunt before we were back in the woods. At that point, I had caught back up to Shaun and we were tearing through the trail with a decent lead. We ran down the trail and turned off to the left to go over a small stream. The course followed the shoreline for a short bit before merging with the stream for about 15 yards or so. Once we came back out of the stream, we were in uncharted territory, as it was the end of the part of the course we had walked. We lost the trail briefly a couple times, but Shaun and I worked as a team to find the markers and forge on. I took a few glances back to check how far back the rest of the field was and could barely see them through the trees.

The course merged with an existing trail and Shaun and I once again picked up the pace as the trail was flat and again very runnable. As we approached a cliff, arrows on the ground directed us onto an old road that went uphill. We had been instructed that the one "tricky" part of the course would be on this road. Shaun and I were on the lookout for the correct trail to turn on. As we came to what I thought was the trail, runners from the half or full marathon were crossing the path and turning down another path. We were told not to take that path, so Shaun and I continued on the road.

A couple runners who were on their second loop ran by and we asked them which direction we were supposed to go and they told us the course followed the road we were currently on. We passed a couple of other unmarked trails and then got to a point where the road headed downhill. We know that was wrong, so we stopped and started looking around for the course. I ran up the side trails for awhile and only noticed arrows pointing in the opposite directions. We started back down the trail on the way we came and eventually ran into a couple more runners who were also lost. Eventually a group of 6-7 of us were searching the area for the correct path. After about 15 minutes we finally ascertained that the turn was right next to where the runners were crossing the trail. The description of the turn we got prior to the race was confusing because we were not told that both turns were at the same place.

Back on the trail, I sped back up and passed many of the slower runners who had taken the correct turn or realized we were lost and were able to make the correct turn with us. The trail followed a ridge line and as I rounded a corner to find myself running on a slab of rock about 18 inches wide. At the edge of the rock, there was at least a 150 foot drop with no barrier. It was a bit unnerving to know that if I had been flying around that corner, I could have stepped wide and fallen a long, long way. A short distance later I entered a clearing and found the one aid station on the course.

I stopped a grabbed a quick sip of water and then asked the volunteer (a 12-year old kid who didn't really seem to want to be there) if I was going the right way. He pointed me to the trail and the group of us charged ahead. I blew out of the trail and back onto the old road trying to make up lost time. I followed arrows painted on the ground as I flew down hill. Soon, I was no longer seeing any course markings. I slowed down and started scanning my surroundings. A couple more runners caught up to me who now joined the search. We found nothing, so once again we were relegated to back-tracking again. We retreated back up the old road where we found a side trail on the left. We headed up the trail looking for some sort of course marking. Nothing was found, so we returned to the road and tried to decipher some course markings that we knew were not meant for the part of the course we were looking for.

As I became more and more confused (mad), a runner came from the trail that acted as the exit from the aid station. She directed us toward the trail that ran along the ridge line with the 150 foot drop. We arrived back at the aid station and found that there was a trail that went out of the back of the aid station, away from the old road. The kid at the aid station directed us to the wrong trail when we arrived earlier. We had all just ran part of the course twice and explored large portions of other trails and road due to misdirection given to us by the kid. I was furious as I plowed through the woods. There was no more trail. It was all bushwacking and looking for course markings.

At this point there were three of us that were in the general vicinity of each other. I was leading with a girl 20-30 yards behind me and another guy trailing her. The guy behind her was running the half marathon and was on his second loop. We thought he could give us some insight on the course, but unfortunately, he was as clueless as us. We were constantly losing the course. The course was marked with a mixture of lye on trees, flagging tape, and various arrows painted on rocks/stumps. However, these markings seemed to be getting fewer and fewer as we progressed on the course. My progress consisted of running a little ways and moving back out in front of the two runners behind, losing the course markings, slowing down to look around, stopping, the other runners catching up, all three of us wandering around the trees looking for a marking, me finding a marking, and then start running again. This happened over and over again.

The three of us finally reached a point where the course went straight up a very steep incline. Just the type of thing I love. The course went almost directly vertical for 30-40 feet on dirt and rocks. I started scrambling up the hillside, and although my breathing was labored, I felt great. When I popped up above, I couldn't find any more course markings. The duo behind me eventually climbed over the ledge and we all searched together. Eventually the guy who was on his second loop thought he remember the way, so we ran through the trees and various weeds onward without seeing any markings. I was hoping the foliage I was running through didn't include any poison ivy, oak, or sumac, but it was much, much too late to really worry about that. After a 100 yards or so, we came upon another vertical section of the course. This one was almost all dirt, but did have a course marking at the bottom. Once again, I scrambled to the top quickly and began searching for the next course marker.

Just as the girl behind me made it up the embankment, I spotted a marker and we set off running, leaving the half marathoner on his own. The course moved onto to trail, which increased our pace and made it easier not to get lost. Several times we came to forks in the trail and had to take a guess as to which way to go because the trail was marked or previous ground markings had possibly been rubbed away. Eventually we came back to the aid station, which now had no water, and we were instructed which way to go--down the trail we had previously taken under misdirection.

I ran the quarter mile down back to the old road and took a left. This time we actually knew where to turn off the road to take the correct course. I knew at this point I had less than 1.75 miles left and figured the confusion was almost over. I thought wrong. The girl and I turned off the old road and headed down an embankment, taking care not to slide down the loose dirt. When we reached the bottom we found another pair of runners wandering around the forest trying to figure out the course. I found one course marker on a tree, but we couldn't locate another. The four of us searched furiously. The other duo started to backtrack and move off to the south saying they thought the direction I was going was incorrect. I knew they were wrong because they were headed in the opposite direction of the one course marking I found.

I wandered aimlessly about 50 yards in a direction I thought could be the course when I stumbled upon a marking on a tree. I yelled back to the girl and started jogging forward. She caught up as I found another marker. Then, once again, we couldn't find the course. After a few minutes of wandering the trees, the girl spotted a piece of pink flagging tape. So we ran to it. And then couldn't find anything again. She spotted another. And another. So we started following flagging tape. There was no explanation as to why the course markings changed to flagging tape, but at least we were following the course again--hopefully. We ran past a couple of deer stands and some "No Trespassing" signs, which made me a little unsure of our route, but flagging tape was the only thing we could find to follow.

The ground underfoot was becoming softer with every step, eventually giving way to some muddy areas that we tried to step around. Stepping around soon became moot as the course wound through large boggy areas. I just embraced it and plowed through. The girl I was running with was a bit more reluctant, but she had no choice. Sinking up to mid-shin, I could only hope I had tied my shoes tight enough to not lose them in the slop. We forged through the sections and then eventually came out onto a grassy area. The girl commented she was glad to be done with the mud.

We rounded a corner and I realized where we were. I pointed out to the girl that we were at the base of the first big downhill where we did a 180 to head uphill at the beginning of the race. We passed the turn and then faced a long uphill. I looked up and saw several runners struggling up the long ascent. They were all walking. I put my head down and started my assault. It was slow, but I was running. I could hear the girl right behind me. We passed one of the runners and I saw two more ahead. By the time I caught the second runner, I had put some distance between myself and the girl. The incline turned and I passed another guy who was walking. The ascent flattened slightly and I spotted Marissa ahead ducking under some trees to follow the course.

I caught up to her and we both complained about the course as we ran toward the finish. We rounded the fence from the baseball field together and then I ran ahead to the finish. I finished 3 seconds ahead of Marissa. I knew I had been out on the course for a long time, but since I didn't wear a watch, I had no idea how long.

The course was 6.5 miles. It took me 2:01:08 to finish. I still have no idea how far I actually ran, probably between 8 and 10 miles. Countless time spend stopped or wandering around aimlessly. It was the worst marked course I've ever run. To put things into perspective: I started ahead of Marissa, yet I still passed her twice during the race. I was ahead of Shaun the last time we saw each other. I went the right way. He went about 3/4 of a mile the wrong way. He never "passed" me, yet he finished almost 30 minutes ahead of me. There wasn't a single runner that didn't get lost on the course. I feel fairly sure that if the course hadn't been so confusing, Shaun and I would have finished 1-2 in the race.

The course was great. The course markings were terrible. However, there was post-race BBQ, beer, and plenty of door prizes. I walked away with a stomach full of foot, a pint glass, some recovery stuff, and a large bottle of hammer gel.

Would I do the race again? Yes. However, I'd expect to get lost and just have fun. If the course is better marked...well then I'll go balls to the wall and see if I can win.

Awesome