Ocean Drive Marathon Race Report - 3/29/15

I just finished up the Ocean Drive Marathon yesterday, a point to point course from the tip of Cape May up the shoreline to Sea Isle City, about 20 miles away. It mostly goes up Ocean Drive, which is just to the right of the Garden State Parkway, along the boardwalks and promenades in the sleepy ocean towns there. There was also a companion 10-mile race that went part of way up the course, from Cape May to North Wildwood, which we would be running with until then.

I had some pretty high expectations for this marathon, considering the issues I've had with my last few marathons. Even though my PR stood at 4:28, I knew I had a sub-4:00 marathon in me and I was all in for it today. It led to me having a lot of nerves just before this race started, more than I can remember having pre-race in quite a while. Even though I knew I could hit 4:00, it would take everything going my way, and even then I knew just how hard I would have to push to get there. I tried to just tell myself to trust my training and visualized how happy I was going to be to finally achieve what I worked so hard for, taking all those winter runs in sub-zero, snowy conditions. I reminded myself that this was more the fruits of my labor than the labor itself.

I got to the course around 8:00, an hour before the gun, and got a nice, free parking spot next to the Congress House, just a couple hundred feet from the starting line. I could see already that this was going to be a small race, which is definitely my preference. I don't need cheering crowds everywhere, as much as I need to get through the first few miles of the race without tripping over runners all around me. The weather was as perfect as you could ask for in Cape May in March: chilly but sunny, temperature of 30 degrees with "only" a 10 mph headwind. (Why they don't run this race from Sea Isle City to Cape May instead, so that annual headwind becomes a tailwind, I don't know.) I wore my base top to block the wind with a hoodie, running pants with leg compressors underneath, hat, gloves and sunglasses, with Saucony Kinvara 5's as my racing shoes. I felt chilled pre-race, but comfortable once I got going.

The scariest part of a race is often the starting line.

All the race organizers and volunteers were as friendly and helpful as could be, as were the other runners - there really was a tight-knit community feel to the race that I liked. I spent the hour before the race Being Nervous: some light jogs to warm up, stretching, pacing around here to there, two trips to the porta potty, going back and forth to my car to get this thing or the other. Like I was telling another runner there, I was used to getting out the door to my house in the morning and just running, not standing outside and waiting an hour to do it! Come on!! I was chomping at the bit to go!

But there's nothing quite like a nice ocean view to calm the nerves.

Yeah, I've lived by views like this for years now, but it never gets old.

Finally the gun sounded (at 9:00 SHARP, which I appreciated from my experience with other races!) and I was off. We headed down Ocean Drive, running by these gorgeous Victorian houses on the shore. According to Wikipedia, Cape May has one of the largest collections of late 19th century frame buildings left in the United States, and we saw a huge chunk of nice ones there. They're aren't the *nicest* ones - we'd have to go through the Historic District for those - but they're still not too shabby for all the beach tourists that come here. Even though I didn't take pictures myself on this run (I wasn't going to stop for *anything*, much less pictures!), I'll throw in a picture from another website so you can see what I mean.

(Photo from Dancing 'Cross The Country)

I knew that to hit sub-4:00, I would need to run at a pace of 9:10 per mile. So my plan was to start off slow, around 10:00 for the first mile to warm up, then down to 9:30 for the next two miles or so, and finally ease into a 9:00 - 9:10 pace. But I was still having a hard time keeping my nerves in check (plus the fact that I had kind of warmed up already with my pre-race jogging), and my first mile actually came in too fast, at 9:19. But I slowly reined myself in after that, putting on a spoken-word podcast instead of music on my phone (a little trick that works great for me), and clocked 9:26 for mile 2 and finally down to 9:50 for Mile 3. I knew saving myself in the early stages was going to be a huge key for me to finish strong.

By this point, we were leaving Cape May and taking the causeway up to Wildwood. It was around here that we took a fairly steep bridge out of Cape May to the parkway (which I was expecting, having driven this bridge to get here), but then not long after we went off to Ocean Drive, we hit an even steeper bridge somewhere in the marshlands there. Not sure what the name of the bridge was, but I was cautious and took it slow. It felt ok even though I hadn't done any hill work prior to the race. There wasn't much to look at the next few miles, just marshes and open space. So I focused on my podcast and hitting my times, which I did really well - 9:17, 9:32 (where the steeper bridge was), 9:10. This was about the point where I finally started to feel decently strong and think that I could really pull this off.

We got to the Wildwood boardwalk at this point, which is a really cool old boardwalk, even if most of the shops were still closed for the cold season. I'd really love to take the family there sometime this summer. I'm going to appropriate another photo here. Imagine this with most of the stores closed and *way* fewer people, and that's what I saw.

Could you imagine trying to run a race with this many people in the way?

There's something about running on the boardwalk boards that my legs didn't like, so I stayed on the narrow strips of concrete on the sides of the boardwalk that you see there during this stretch. It was one of those little things that vaguely feels like cheating even though it totally isn't. My times were looking good, and I was already starting to shave some seconds off from my "warmup" at mile 3 - 9:05, 9:03, 8:56, 8:59. Since I am a huge geek, of course I'm doing math in my head, calculating how many seconds off goal pace I was at ever mile in my head *constantly* and getting excited as I was getting closer. It's just how I roll.

It may have contributed to a mistake I made as I crossed mile 10. It was the finish line for the 10-milers as well as my 10 mile mark, and since I wasn't paying attention (computing my pace in my head instead), I accidentally ran over the 10-milers finish line instead of staying in the marathon lane! People were cheering for me when I didn't earn it, and I had to wave off a 10-mile medal someone tried to put around my neck. "I have no time for your pithy trinkets - there's still running to be done!", I didn't really say. I then had to cut through a crowd after the finish line to get back with the marathoners. I had these sudden visions of race officials pulling me off the course and telling me I was disqualified, but they didn't seem to care all that much. So, hooray for apathetic race officials, I guess!

We went over Beach Creek Bridge and onto Nummy Island here (yes, that's really the island's name), with more marshlands. Not the most exciting scenery, but I was just focusing on time and hydration at this point. I kept the hydration strategy simple, making sure to hit every water stop along the way, with only half a bottle of water on my belt to take energy gels with. I had brought a straw from McDonalds that I cut in half with some scissors, and used the two straw halves to drink water as I kept moving, where I could get every last drop out of the cup rather than splashing half of it on the ground as I tried to throw it in my mouth. I had more than one race volunteer remark on it as I sped by, impressed with the trick. (What a grizzled, weathered running veteran I am!) But I was more impressed with the volunteer staff, who always had water ready, was super friendly, and clearly had experience doing this. (I'd go so far as to call *them* the grizzled, weathered ones, but I'm not sure if they'd take it as a complement.)

If you run this race, be prepared to see lots of this.

Times were still looking great so far: 9:04, 9:02, 9:02, 9:07, and 9:12 up to mile 15. (Are you bored with all these numbers yet? I'm not! Did I mention I'm a huge math geek?) Also worth noting is that I hit my HM split at 2:00:45, which would be a PR if I were running a half marathon. I'm not sure whether that technically counts as a HM personal record, but I'm going to count it since I'm awesome.

This is when I got to Stone Harbor, with a little horseshoe in the course where there was a rest area with bananas and oranges. I gratefully shoved a banana in my mouth and an orange slice in my pocket and moved on. This was definitely the worse part of the course - we were running through this sorta boring residential area where streets were numbered starting with 110th Street, working all the way down to 1st street. I can't adequately explain to non-runners how deflating this sort of thing is. You're subliminally thinking things like "Yay! One block down, only...ONE HUNDRED AND NINE to go??" Between this effect and the weather climbing up a few degrees, I was starting to feel some fatigue setting in. Even though my times were holding steady - 9:19, 8:59, 9:02, 9:03, and 9:10 through mile 20 - it was definitely taking more perceived effort to hold it there. This was around the time I switched the podcasts off and the music back on. I went with Radiohead, and it definitely gave me a boost. I ate an energy gel and tried to let the tempo guide me home.

I liked where I was through mile 20 - still only 30 seconds or so off of goal pace. But that confidence from mile 6 and 7 was gone. I was reaching that decision point that every runner who's trying for a certain goal knows about: do I have enough in me to make it to the end, or not? I've had runs where I've answered "yes" and crushed to the finish, and times where I've answered "no" and the wheels start to fall off once the psychological edge was gone. (And in other marathons, miles 21 and 22 have always been where the wall starts to come into play for me.) But today, I honestly didn't know. I told myself there was only 10K left, to take it one mile at a time, and hold on and keep my chances alive.

And that's exactly what I did - 9:05 in mile 21, 9:12 in mile 22, 9:08 in mile 23. I wasn't making up a lot of ground, but I wasn't losing any either. I finally passed 1st Street (thank God!) and got over TI bridge okay into Sea Isle City (it was a little like Cape May, with lost of Victorian houses, but definitely a sleepier town with more muted colors.) I was passed my usual marathon breaking point, still only 20 seconds off goal pace (which I could achieve with a good kick at the end), and even though I was almost out of gas, I was getting more and more optimistic. But then, disaster hit -- 94th Street!? More numbered streets until the end!? AAAUGGHHH - just kidding, I didn't care about the streets. I was barely paying attention to the scenery at this point, just absorbed into myself, trying to will myself to this goal.

But then, at the mile 24 marker, I feel a sudden, really sharp cramp in my upper left leg. It was so shocking that I involuntarily stopped (which was the absolute LAST thing I wanted to do at that point!) I had to spend about a full minute stretching out and making sure I was ok - it was tender, but I was good to go ahead. However, I knew when I stopped that my sub-4:00 dream was over. :( I would try to finish strong though, and maybe get somewhere between a 4:00 and 4:01 time, but my cramp just wouldn't allow it. This was the part of the race I planned to run at 9:00 or faster, and I just couldn't push myself above 9:30 at that point. Times were 9:33 for mile 24 (my cramp hit at the very end), 10:40 for mile 25 (this is where my stretching break killed me!) and 9:33 for mile 26, all along the long, empty Sea Isle City promenade. It was so straight and flat that I could see the finish line from a mile away, which was a huge mental boost at that point. I managed to put together a kick at the end at an 8:29 pace, which gave me a finish time of 4:02:53.

Imagine this, with a big inflatable finish line at the end.

I have to admit, it hurt being *so* close to my goal and not quite getting there, because of something I couldn't control. But my happiness at shattering my PR by OVER 25 MINUTES far outweighs that! *Finally*, I felt like I mostly put things together in this race, and the results speak to that. There's minor things I could have improved, and maybe any one of those things might have been the difference between 4:03 and 4:00, but this race gives me a ton of confidence as a runner. Overall, it was easily the best race I've ever had. Even aside from my personal victory, I would definitely recommend this course for people who like small races and don't mind a little weather, like you'd see here most years. If I can come back and have my revenge on 4:00 in another year, I will.

The obligatory Bling Shot.

Cape May Marathon Training, Part 1 - Running Schedule

Hey, it's me again! Writing another post only a few days after my last one! I should get a medal and free t-shirt for *that* accomplishment.

I thought it'd be a good idea, now that the Atlantic City Marathon is a happy memory and I am in the middle of planning for my training for the Cape May marathon (they're calling it the "Ocean Drive Marathon" now, I see, but I'll keep calling it Cape May because I am a stubborn curmudgeon), I thought it'd be a good idea to talk about how I'm going to approach this marathon. What I'm using is the basic template I've used for my other marathons, with a few new wrinkles thrown in to keep the likelihood of injury lower this time. This is going to be a three part post - today, Part 1 is going to delve into my actual running schedule. Here it is in the frame below:

(If your browser has trouble with the iframe or if you don't like that much scrolling to the right, you can open the sheet in a separate tab here.)

Since I'm 22 weeks away from Cape May on March 29, 2015, this is a schedule I've divided up into five phases, with each phase lasting 4-6 weeks. It's loosely based on a system called the Pfitzinger (or just "Pfitz") system, with my own tweaks thrown in based on what works for me and what doesn't. Phase 1 is basically a buffer filled with soft runs designed to get my base mileage back up. (Despite the fact I just ran 26.2, my week-to-week mileage has been very inconsistent the last two months and needs to be built back up before I start any serious training). Phase 2 is about building physical endurance for the rest of the training ahead. Phase 3 focuses on building my lactate threshold (more on that later). Phase 4 is race preparation, gauging how far I've come in the other phases to help determine my goals and strategy for the race. And Phase 5 is my taper, where I strike a balance between letting my body heal enough to have my best chance on Race Day, versus staying sharp and not losing any of the fitness gains I've achieved.

Got it? OK, let me explain each phase in a bit more detail:

Phase 1: Base Building - if I were better trained from before, I would skip this phase and jump right into Phase 2. On the other hand, if I were training for my first marathon, this phase might be even longer than 6 weeks. This is all about acclimating my body to run the long distances day after day in training without killing myself for the rest of my training (or the rest of my work day!) This is *not* about setting PR's - if I'm running fast enough to even threaten a PR, then I'm doing it wrong. Easy runs, lots of stretching, lots of stops to take pictures. I'm just getting my body used to going out there 5 days a week and putting forth an exerting effort. I don't ramp up by mileage by more than 20% week to week - any sharper of an increase is asking for an overuse injury.

The types of runs you see here are:

Recovery - these are short runs done at a relaxed pace. Don't try to adhere to a given pace when doing these runs. What I read from Pfitz is to go no higher than 75% of your maximum heart rate, but since I don't like to wear a heart rate monitor, I keep things at a really slow run (a jog, basically).

General Aerobic - These are slightly faster than recovery runs, but still shorter than long runs and slower than other efforts. These will be run 15% - 25% slower than my goal marathon pace (for Cape May, a 4:00 marathon is 9:10/mile, so this works out to 10:33 - 11:23 pace for me. If you want to figure out your own target paces, you can use an online calculator like this one.) Again, this isn't a time for PR's - if I'm debating on whether to speed up my pace on one of these runs or slow down, I'll lean towards slowing down.

Medium Long - these are run at my long run pace (10% - 20% slower than MP), but over a shorter distance (11-15 miles). I try to use these runs to do mini-simulations of my race, doing things like practicing hydration and fueling, simulating bathroom breaks, and so forth. I take them more seriously than recovery or GA runs, but I still listen to my body and don't press myself if I don't need to. I don't do these runs too hard, even when I'm feeling fresh, because the effort could easily drain me for the rest of the week's training. And yeah, I may still stop for the occasional nature pic to put on Instagram. I'm a sucker for that stuff.

Phase 2: Endurance - this phase is a bit more intense than Phase 1. Now this is less about increasing my mileage and more about making myself stronger through my training, both mentally and physically. I have a lot more runs that are targeted for specific purposes, and this is the part of the training where I try to improve myself in my training every day in some way.

Long Run - these are run at the same pace as the medium long runs (10% - 20% of marathon pace), but over a longer distance (15+ miles). I focus on hydration, fueling, etc. here too, but I also pay more attention to warming up, starting out the run at recovery pace. These are run on Sunday so I usually have stiff and tired muscles, and these runs teach me how to run at a focused pace even when I'm tired.

Speed (w/strides) - this is the first type of run where I try to vary my speed within the run. The goal is to make myself faster by running faster. The more I do these, the better of a "kick" I'll have on race day (which means my burst of speed over the last few miles of the race). What I do is start with a few miles of warmup (which is just an easy run, not unlike the general aerobic pace), and then for intervals of 50 to 150 feet, I'll do an all-out sprint as fast as I possibly can - some folks call these "intervals" or "fartleks". (Insert your favorite "fartlek" joke here.)

I'll give myself something like a count of 10 or 12 (depending on the length of the stride) before stopping to cool down. I try to let myself rest fully with a slow jog between each run so I can keep good form when I do each stride. (I'll talk about form in another post.)

Phase 3: Lactate Threshold - Lactate (or lactic acid) is what your muscles produce during a hard workout that generally gets metabolized by your muscles. When you produce lactate faster than your body can process it, you've reached your lactate threshold, and the lactate begins to turn off the enzymes in your muscles that produce energy. In a marathon, that means you start to slow down and hit The Dreaded Runners Wall. What I'm doing in this phase is mixing in targeted runs that are near that threshold pace in order to train my body to raise that threshold. A raised threshold means being able to run for longer without hitting The Wall at the end.

Lactate Threshold - On these runs, I want to run for at least 20 minutes at my lactate threshold pace (which is roughly my 15K to half marathon pace - around 8:45/mile). The threshold run is sandwiched by a warm up and cool down that gets run at an easy pace.

Phase 4: Race Tuning - What I want to do here is solidify the gains I've made in training so far and give myself confidence. I want to come away with a good mental idea of what I'm capable of in the upcoming race by simulating the race as closely as I can.

Marathon Specific - these races are direct simulations where I run at my marathon target pace (9:10/mile) for a set number of miles. I try to take these just as seriously as I do my race. If the race is going to be on a hilly course, for example, I try to find a hilly region to run this one. If it's at a early or late start, I want to start my runs around the same time. I'll put on the music that pumps me up and get on my bad-ass running clothes - the whole thing. I don't stop my Garmin if I have to take a bathroom break, for example, because the clock on race day won't stop for me that day either. The main goal is to prove to myself that I can do the time I targeted in a month or two, which is HUGE to mentally know on Race Day. I do still sandwich the MP run between a slower warmup/cooldown period though, to keep some freshness in my legs for the rest of the week's workouts.

VO2 Max - VO2 capacity means your body's capacity to transport and use large amounts of oxygen during a run. When you pick up your speed drastically, after a minute or two your body responds by picking up its VO2 capacity, and this is the sweet spot where you can train your body to increase this capacity more. It's a secondary factor to the other things I've trained on, so I usually save this work for near the end of my training cycle. These runs are a lot like my lactate threshold runs, except the intervals are shorter (but longer than the intervals in my speed training), in order to target my VO2 capacity. The intervals in these runs range from 1/2 mile - 1 mile each and are run at my 5K pace (around 8:00/mile). I usually take about 3 minutes between each of these intervals to cool down with a jog, just long enough for my heart rate to come down, before starting the next one.

Phase 5: Taper - A taper is a chance for your body to respond to all the training you've done by making itself stronger and well rested so it's ready to perform at its best on Race Day. A good taper cuts back on the mileage starting at three weeks before the marathon, all the way down to less than half of what it was doing the week before the race. There's no new training ground broken here - you've more or less trained yourself as much as you can up to this point. You want to do just enough to keep yourself physically sharp while resting your body as much as you're allowed to. What you DON'T want to do is skip this phase and leave yourself well-trained for the race, but too tired to actually run it.

So that's how my running training works. Thanks for sticking with me this far! In Part 2, I'll talk about my stretching regimen, and in Part 3 I'll go to my nutrition plan. Hope to see you then!

Atlantic City Marathon Race Report - 10/19/14

So I've concluded that I'm a terrible blogger. Sorry I haven't written in a while. I've had a lot of life events that have gotten in the way, and also some plain old laziness too. But on the bright side, I'm still running! And I just finished an awesome race a couple of days ago! So let's forget all the unpleasantness of my blogging laziness and talk about that instead!

We'll start by backing up to early this summer. We were able to move into a new house in June, a house I discovered on a long run one Saturday morning, when I happened to see a sign posted on the front lawn advertising it. I selected the route to run that morning on a total whim, and by sheer coincidence it took us to our new home! It was bigger than our old place, located just down the road from our church, and was in the school district that Jacob wanted. We moved in back in June, and it wouldn't have happened without my running habit! Yay, running!

Soon after we moved in, I knew it would be time to start some hard summer training to get ready for the Atlantic City marathon in October. My PR was 4:28:20 at the Disney Marathon in January, but I knew I had a sub-4:00 time in me, and I figured Atlantic City was the perfect place to go for it! The first few weeks of training went fine, but after that I just had problem after problem with training. A foot issue, a calf issue, *and* a quad issue all hampered my training this summer, as well as some insane hours with work projects that made me shut down runs or left me too tired to run after late nights. As a result, I put in maybe 50% of the mileage I planned to put in for training for AC - not good. I wasn't even sure I would run the race at all until last weekend, when I decided to run a 20-miler to make sure I had the endurance to make it. I made it (barely), so I decided I would set my expectations low and give it a try.

With my whopping one week taper time, I did almost no running at all - just a little 3 miler to keep myself loose. At the expo on Saturday, I found a sweet deal on some Brooks Adrenaline shoes that felt great, so I picked them up. They're a tiny bit snug in the shoe width, but much lighter than my Ghosts, so they might make for some nice racing shoes - I just need to break them in and see how they feel.

So on race day morning, I decided to set my expectations very low. My 20-mile run last week was at slightly over a 10:00 pace, which would translate to about a 4:40 run over 26.2. I didn't think I would have a chance to even PR, so I just decided to see how I feel when I start and play it by ear. I'm usually obsessive about planning my splits and calculating my pace, so this was a HUGE leap of faith on my part. But I felt like pushing myself beyond what I was trained up to was just asking for injury. This would just be a "fun run" for me (and yes, any definition of "fun" that includes a marathon is a very loose definition.)

The race was an 8:00 start, and I got there around 6:45. I found a decent parking space at Caesar's casino and took the skyway through the casino and meandered to the boardwalk. I get out and see a gorgeous sunrise coming up over the beach that I have to go and get a picture of - but as soon as I start walking out there, I felt a bird poop spray right on the front of my warmup jacket. There's two ways of looking at something like that:

(1) "This is a bad omen. My race is doomed to be a disaster. Get back in your car, drive back home, and crawl under your covers NOW."
(2) "Phew! Now that the unluckiest event of the day is out of the way, it's all downhill from there! I'm going to have an awesome race now!"

Since I had already paid $100 to run this race, I chose the latter point of view. I pushed onward to the beach and got my pretty pictures.

(You'll notice I left out pictures of the bird poop. You're welcome.)

After that, I did a little stretching to ease my nerves and milled around the boardwalk until race time. I also learned my lesson from before and avoided the energy shots, sticking to a caffeine-free energy gel a few minutes before the start. There appeared to be around 1,000 or so runners at the starting gate, roughly the same number I saw when I ran the race before in 2012, so a lot smaller than my last couple of races. It wasn't cordoned off into corrals, but it was still a very orderly and quick start after the gun went off. The first 5-6 miles went by in a blur, partly because that was the part of the race that went behind buildings and convention centers, (which is about as boring as it sounds), but mainly because I was making a concerted effort NOT to look at my pace. But when I finally looked at my Garmin after mile 6, much to my surprise, I saw that my easy pace was actually a 10:00 pace, faster than I was running even last week! I was feeling good and just decided to stick with it as long as it lasted.

The support and volunteers were fantastic for the race, just like they were in 2012. I had no problems with fueling up and hydrating as I ran, and they were super quick with filling my water bottle when I asked for it. I found myself looking at my Garmin more and more after mile 10 and focusing on holding the 10:00 pace I started with. I knew 10:00 per mile over 26.2 miles would be a 4:22 finish and a PR, but I tried not to get too excited. But soon, the wind would (literally) grab my attention. The gusts got up to 35 MPH and felt really severe, like there was a hand pushing me back by my chest as I tried to run. My bib threatened to come untethered from my shirt, and my cap did fly off maybe 3-4 times. It wasn't until after I told myself "The next time my cap flies off I'm sticking the damned thing in my pocket," that my cap stopped flying off my head. It was a pain from mile 10 until mile 15 or so, running south through Atlantic City and Ventnor City, but I knew when I ran the other direction after mile 20, it would feel good to have it at my back. When I wasn't chasing after my cap, though, I was enjoying the gorgeous fall morning on the boardwalk, where the scene was just beautiful. It always makes the race for me.

Miles 15 through 20 were mainly a loop through Margate City, a nondescript suburb. It didn't compare to the scenery of the boardwalk, but there were a LOT more people there cheering us on than there was 2 years ago. A lot of folks were leaving church as we ran by and were cheering us on in their Sunday clothes, which was kind of cool. I was doing a good job of holding my pace, but I felt a touch dehydrated, so I tried to drink more and hoped I wasn't too late to avoid a bad last few miles. After mile 20, I came around the hairpin turn, and a couple of miles later, I was back onto the boardwalk for the home stretch and the wind at my back! But this was where I started to feel my lack of training. What felt like the same effort I was putting in for a 10:00 pace was actually showing up as a 10:30 pace on my Garmin...then 11:00...then worse. I was mentally fighting myself, making all those mental bargains you make at the end of a long run: "Just stop and walk this next block and then I'll run the next five." I was holding on, but barely, as I came onto the boarwalk at mile 23.

It was right around then that I heard a small plop as I ran, and then almost immediately slipped on the boardwalk and fell forward. I managed to grab a pole on the side of the boardwalk before hurting myself, fortunately. A second bird poop incident! This one missed me by a few inches, but almost caused me to have an injury. I steadied myself, and before my body had a chance to enjoy not running too much, I started right back up again. I found some loud music to carry me through the last few miles - I wasn't going any faster than 11:00 anymore, but the only reason I was running at all was willpower. I knew I could still get a PR - I knew at the time it was 4:28:something, but I didn't know exactly what, just that it was going to be close.

I just kept putting one foot in front of the other until mile 25.5 or so, when I mustered what I could to pick up my pace. After mile 26, I looked down and saw 4:27 - I could really do it! I sprinted that last two tenths of a mile for all I could do (which turned out to be an 8:14 pace!) and flew across the finish. I darted over to the results table, barely stopping to stick an orange slice in my mouth, because I wanted to know if I pulled off a PR. I checked my phone and saw that the Disney PR was 4:28:20. My Garmin showed a finish of 4:28:23, but that was for an extra .07 miles, so...? Finally, after a few minutes, I saw that I had a chip time of 4:28:15 - I broke my PR by a whopping 5 seconds! Considering all the injuries and missed training, I couldn't have been happier. In fact, I think my brain was probably lacking some oxygen when I took this selfie:

Here's all the deets as recorded on my Garmin, if you're into that kind of thing. I was on a cloud the whole drive home (despite a scary and weird incident recovering the car I parked at Caesar's earlier, which maybe I'll talk about another time). Instead, I'll post another picture of my bling! It's big and gaudy, just the way I like 'em.

So, yeah. Great race, great course, great day! This is what I pay $100 for in the middle of summer. Next up is the Cape May marathon in March, and I'll be ready. I'm going to spend the next week planning that one out, and hopefully this time I won't forget to blog about it! Thanks for reading!

RACE REPORT: 2014 Disney Goofy Challenge

(Broken promises.)

So yeah, I promised a new post "next week" a few weeks ago. I got sidetracked by my vacation plans, and my job trying to get me to wrap up a million loose ends before that vacation, that I was never able to squeeze in the post. But hey, one of the beauties of having an infinitesimal readership is that when you break promises like that, you have nobody to answer to!

So let's get to the race report! This was for the 2014 Goofy Challenge, which is running a half marathon through Epcot and Magic Kingdom on Saturday, and then turning around the next day to run a full marathon through all four Disney parks the next day. I'll start a couple of days before on Thursday, when we finally hit the road for Orlando. My wife has a fear of flying, so we always drive to our vacations, and this time was no different. We started right after the kids got out of school that day and drove straight through the night into Disney, getting there around 10 AM. The reason we drove straight through was (1) we are cheapskates who don't like spending money on dinky hotel rooms somewhere in South Carolina, and (2) we were so freaking excited to get there we didn't want to stop! We made it to our resort, Coronado Springs, was able to get an early check-in, and after a few hours of gawking at how pretty the resort was and unpacking in our room, we hit Hollywood Studios on no sleep. The kids loved it, but I knew I'd be paying for it in the morning at the HM starting line. I kept trying to drop subtle hints that hey, maybe we should leave the park early and call it a night, but the family was having none of it. And they were having such a good time that I didn't have the heart to tear them away.

(Hannah, in her self-described "movie star pose".)

So we finally crawl back to the room for me to get a few hours of sleep. My original plan was to wake up at 3:00 AM for the shuttle (the HM started at 5:30), but I decided to sleep in to 4:00, figuring I had just enough time to make it on the last shuttle if I did this. And it worked out pretty well: I woke up, ate a bagel with peanut butter for breakfast, washed it down with cold coffee, got my running clothes on, and made it out the door by 4:20 and on the shuttle at 4:40. The only problem was, in my sleep-deprived haze, I forgot my running bib and didn't realize it until I was on the shuttle! For any non-runners reading this, the running bib is the sheet of paper with your number that you pin onto your clothes when running a race. It has the chip on the back that lets the officials track your time as you cross checkpoints and the finish line. I had no idea if I would be allowed to run the race without my bib, and I didn't want to find out. So when we got to Epcot for the start, I told the shuttle driver I would need to go back and get my bib, and would there be any way for me to get back once I got it? The driver said sure, he would wait for me to go back to my room and take me there himself (what an awesome guy!) So that's what happened: I sprinted back to my room (a warmup for my race, I told myself), got the bib, and made it back to Epcot a little bit after 5:00. After walking a half-mile to the park itself, going through security and bag-check, and walking another mile or so the starting corrals, I got there barely in the nick of time. I didn't even have time to fully stretch before our corral was walking towards to starting line and we were off.

Originally, I had planned to make the half marathon the race I would go all out for, and then take it easy on the marathon the next day. But the conditions for the half marathon were miserable: 75 degrees (before the sun was even up) and 100% humidity with no rain. So after a few miles at my goal pace, when I felt myself already flagging from the muggy weather and lack of sleep, I made a decision to conserve myself on the half and put more effort into the full. I skipped the extra caffeine and slowed my pace to something easy, just focusing on keeping myself moving and getting to the finish line. Unlike my series of unwise decisions in Philly, this turned out to be the right decision. While my splits were positive, I was able to finish the race without bonking.

While my Garmin showed my time as 2:08:01, my official chip time was 2:12:27. Since my race PR for the half is 2:09:58, I'm not sure whether I PR'ed this one or not. It's the first time I've seen such a huge discrepancy between Garmin and chip time. Considering the bad conditions, I'll give myself a PR, but with a Barry Bonds style asterisk beside it. I know I can run a sub-2:00 HM, so hopefully I can shatter both times sometime this year and quiet the critics ;)

(Next on Sportscenter: was the Garmin illegally tampered??)

So after crossing the finish line, I got set up to take the traditional "I just finished my race, look at my shiny medal!" selfie, when I looked down and noticed the little trails of blood on my chest. That's right, kids: I forgot to pack the nipple guard! So rather than subject my Facebook friends to the aftermath of my chafing, I decided to take my shirt off (it was drenched with like 10 pounds of sweat anyway) and took my pictures shirtless.

(HEY LADEEZ)

After recovering and stretching for a bit, I made it back to my resort and spent the rest of the day maxxing and relaxing at the pool with Hannah. The clouds broke, the day settled into what would be a nice summer day for Jersey, and I found an awesome water slide at the resort, so All Was Well.

After a huge buffet meal that evening at the Grand Floridian, where I loaded up on pasta and bread, I finally got a decent night's sleep ahead of my marathon. I woke up a bit earlier on Sunday, had a more relaxed time getting ready, and didn't forget the bib this time! But I did forget to wash the bloody tech shirt from yesterday's run, which I was planning to wear again for the marathon. I decided to go shirtless for the whole run this time, despite the fact that today was going to be a bit cooler than yesterday. I got a few stares on the walk to Epcot, and one of the crossing guards asked me "Aren't you cold?" I guess 55 degrees is frigid weather if you're from Florida. I said "No, I'm from Jersey!" and got a few laughs from the people around me.

Once I got through security, I was able to meet Damaris, one of my RWOL and Facebook running friends. This is one tough lady. She runs through asthma, runs through leg pain that will take surgery to fix, runs through the death of her pets - runs through everything, basically.

(Damaris, pictured alongside some creepy shirtless dude.)

Soon enough, we were off and running. I felt a lot better at the start of this race than the race the day before, but I still knew I'd be paying the price for those 13.1 miles the day before at some point. So I decided to start off reeeal slow, walk all of the water stations (whether I felt like it or not), and gradually increase my pace between the water stations. Now, walking water stations is something I never do, because once I stop running, it is really hard for me to start running again. But I was hoping a slow start combined with this strategy would help make it easier for me to start running when I needed to. And it worked out great! The splits below speak for themselves.

I was really starting to fade once we hit Hollywood Studios near the end. But I didn't bonk! And I set a new marathon PR by a solid 10 minutes! (Chip time was 4:28:19, Garmin time was 4:28:27)!

I wish I had more pictures from the race, but almost all of them came out crappy on my phone. Except, randomly, of this one I took at Animal Kingdom of a goat:

(The bib was a cute touch.)

This picture serves as proof that I was not the goat of this race. <rimshot>

So I had a great time! I know that I could potentially run much better than 2:08 for a HM and 4:28 for a FM, but they're both better than I've ever done in race conditions, and especially in these conditions (horrible weather on Saturday and running after a HM on Sunday). This proves I learned from my blowout in Philly and became a better, more adaptable runner for it. I feel really strong and confident heading into 2014 that both of these records will fall. My attitude is totally different than it was a couple of months ago, and I'm really excited to get back out on the roads running while the weather's still cold.

Unfortunately, I still don't have solid plans for what race will come next. We're saving for a house this year, so I might not get to run a race at all until 2015. But I'm hoping to sneak at least one half and one full into my calendar, just to give me an endpoint for the training I want to do (and to give me a shot at new PR's in both races, maybe even sub-2:00 or sub-4:00 times). I also want to break 2000 miles in running this year (I ran 1528 in 2013). And above all, I want to stay injury free and lose the mini-spare tire around my waistline (so I'll probably have to shop around for an ab workout to do around my running).

My running future looks as bright as the Florida sunshine! More to come later - I promise. ;)

(Obligatory picture of the bling.)

December 2013 Wrapup and Goofy Challenge Preview

It's pouring rain outside. I wish I was running.

So it's been a while since my first post! With the new year about to start, it seems like a good time to catch up on all things running.

After the Philly Marathon, I had about a month where I've done almost no training. Part of it was our Texas vacation, part of it was a general malaise after the disappointment of Philly. I said I was over it, but I don't think I really was. I would wake up in the morning to go out for my run and then find it easier to stay in bed. Usually, I can fight that feeling off and get my butt out of bed anyway, but lately it's been hard to say no. Whatever the cause, it couldn't have come at a worse time, with the Goofy Challenge at Disneyworld coming up in a couple of weeks. 

Here's the damage in weekly mileage totals post-Philly. (As a comparison, when I was training for the marathon, I was trying to average 50-60 miles per week.)

Week	Mileage
Nov 18-24	6.55
Nov 25-Dec 1	5.00
Dec 2-8	12.38
Dec 9-15	16.01
Dec 16-22	29.03
Dec 23-29	37.79

At least things have begun to pick up for me the last couple of weeks. I got a new pair of Brooks Ghost 6 as a Christmas gift to myself this year, which definitely helped. There's nothing like a new pair of running shoes sitting in the box, begging you to take them out for a spin, to give you motivation to get your ass in gear. Here's the obligatory #shoeporn pic:

Fortunately, it doesn't look like I've lost too much fitness. I just finished a nice 21-mile run yesterday, and earlier this week I was able to get in a 10 miler at sub-9:00 pace. I'm not quite feeling as strong as I was a couple of months ago, but I don't think Disneyworld will be a disaster either. 

I've debated in my head for a while how I should approach the Goofy Challenge. It's a half marathon on Saturday, January 11, followed the next day by a full marathon on the 12th. Should I go all out for the full marathon and blow off the half, or go for the half marathon and not for the full? Or should I put some measure of half-effort into both races? I've decided that, given the crappy month I've had and the heat I'm probably going to have to deal with in Florida, the best thing to do is to treat the half marathon as my Real Race. My current half PR is 2:09:57, so I'm going to try to at least beat that. I'd *like* to go sub-2:00 since I've done it before in training, but after last month, I'm not going to let myself get my hopes up. I'll see what the weather's like that day and adjust expectations accordingly. And then I can take the full marathon the next day easy: walk the water stations, take a few pictures along the way, or maybe pace a friend. Then I get my bling and enjoy the rest of my vacation!

Coming up next: my running goals for 2014. I'm still making up my mind on those, so I'll put those in a separate post later this week.