Evening Reunion

Distance: 5.31 mi.
Time: 44:03.
Pace: 8:18.

This is the first time I have run on a Monday in over a month. With Adrienne back from cobra-charming in India, we put together a decent group to run easy from the Dowd. It was great to have Thomas back out there, and even better to have my running buddy back. I was glad to keep the pace easy and relieved to get my weekly mileage off to a head start.

Running With The Chicks

Warmup: 3.2 mi in 25:13.02 - 7:55 ppm.
Workout 1: 6.45 mi tempo in 42:13.17 - 6:33 ppm.
Cooldown: 1.8 mi in 15:31.8 - 8:47 ppm.
Workout 2: 10 x 1-min hard/easy in 9:08.07 - 7:05 ppm.
Cooldown: 0.7 mi in 6:47.4 - 9:26 ppm.

I once again made plans for the Tuesday that involved meeting some friends at the Dowd and doing a tempo run with the Charlotte Runners. At this point I feel like I'm combining the best aspects of both groups - the CRC and Charlotte Runners - but we may have to get to that in another blog post.

A few things were different today. Thomas, unfortunately, is temporarily on the shelf after aggravating his glutes. Hopefully he won't be out for too long. Danielle and Alison Reed also joined Michelle, Matt, and I. We warmed up through the speed loop again but didn't see anyone this time, and Jaskot called it a day. So it was just me and the girls as we headed towards the Metropolitan.

The Charlotte Runners didn't start off late this time - they were already moving towards us as we all just sort of took stride and went with them. The loop is just over 5 miles and the girls actually wanted to do a 6-mile tempo, so I told them I would try to hold 6:30 pace or so and run back up the hill on Edgehill (across from the main CMC entrance) for an extra mile or so.

There's one runner in this group, Evan, who usually holds a pretty quick pace. A few others tend to start off probably a good bit faster than they should. There are some good runners in this group, for sure, but I'm not sure that trying to race each other every week is really what they need. With Michelle in tow, I headed up the hilly part of the loop that includes Edgehill and Queens Road East. I heard Michelle saying something about trying to use the small downhills, but I was just trying to keep Evan and the other frontrunners in my sights, knowing we had a flat section (Selwyn Avenue) coming up. The first mile went by in 6:39, the second in 6:26, and the third in 6:20. I caught up to Evan, who actually stopped abruptly right near Queens U, and the other leader, who I found out later to be Cody Case. I was feeling ok but my feet were hurting. After over 420 miles and my first marathon, I finally retired the second pair of Nike Air Pegasus 28s. Today I was running in the aforementioned Lunar Swift, and they don't quite fit the way I prefer. I could see painful blisters in my future.

Despite the foot troubles I tried to press on. Cody pushed me a good bit on the back side of the booty loop, but as planned I turned up Edgehill to tack on more miles. I slowed down a bit through here, as the tempo, the foot pain, and the elevation rise finally caught up to me. I doubled back down Granville and another of the Queens Roads (who can keep track, really?) before finishing the loop at the back of the pack. The girls were already here; I had added on an extra mile-and-a-half instead of just a mile. Oops.

Alison, Danielle, Michelle, and I grabbed some water and cooled down. Michelle somehow talked me into doing some minuters after this. Danielle was done for the day and ran home, and we coaxed Alison into joining us as we headed over to the speed loop. For this I just tried to maintain some turnover and not do anything crazy. We encouraged each other as the three of us just stayed together. Mich kept joking that my watch was off because the fast section seemed to be taking forever. We did 10 minuters - 5 fast, 5 slow - and then I jogged back to the Dowd in the rain, glad to be done for the day.

Dowd Sauna

7.04 mi in 00:52:29 - 7:27 ppm

I met the group at the Dowd for some easy miles today that weren't really all that easy. We had a huge group but the conditions just keep getting tougher out there. I wanted to be able to go shorter than most of them - closer to 6 or 7 miles - so when it became clear there was no plan as to our running route, I shot up front and set the pace. I had us turn from the Booty Loop down back towards Freedom Park so I could run on the greenway and go back up Morehead to the Dowd. If anyone wanted to add extra there would be ample opportunities to do so.

Well, I set a quicker pace than I should have, and suffered a bit for it. Too fast for an easy day. There was a 7:21, a 7:16, and a 7:24 in there before I slowed down and let someone else lead. Given the weather conditions those paces surely must equate to 7-flat or better on normal days. Perhaps I should start taking the weather into consideration when calculating my pace....or better yet, just stay at the back of the pack next time.

..Second Dowd Run

7.63 mi in 00:57:21 - 7:31 ppm

I made it back to the Dowd again. This time it was Paul, Caitlin, Caleb Boyd, Kevin Ballantine, Matt Jaskot, Compton, and several more. David Brinkley even showed up; he's usually there every day to lift and decided to run with us this time.

We ran part of the Booty Loop and passed Anne Marie as she was doing another pick up run - which she nailed. I should add here that things really do go better for her when she doesn't run with me. I might be faster but she's a much smarter runner.

Caitlin, always the leader, took us down the greenway and then back to the Y before going off to do more. Compton discussed the possibilities of a fall marathon and then randomly disappeared. Paul, David, and I mostly ran together and discussed various training plans as well as a bit of race strategy for the upcoming RFYL 4-miler.

Great Harvest Bread 5K

Location: Piper Glen
Warmup: 2.30 mi in 18:05/8:05 ppm
Race: Unofficially but according to the Garmin - 3.16 mi in 19:07/6:02 ppm; officially 19:08, 32nd overall/12th in age group.
Cooldown: 3.37 mi in 32:22/9:35 ppm

I woke up angrily at 5:35 a.m., crawled out of bed about eight minutes later, and then made some oatmeal. I can't eat much before a race but oatmeal seems to be working pretty well so far, as long as I have close to a couple hours to spare. Game time is 7:30 so I was on schedule. We were instructed to park in the Calvary Church lot behind the shopping center and walk down. When I arrived at 6:30 there was already a large crowd. I expected Eggers would be fashionably late as usual but figured Brinkley might be here, so I sent him a BBM. I waited a couple minutes then started walking down to the race site after not getting a response.

I went to pick up my chip, fiddled with it on my shoelaces for a good five minutes, and then took my turn in the Porta-Jon. I milled out for a bit hoping I'd find one of my boys. I figured Dave was probably already warming up, and I needed to do the same, so I gave up and headed down the greenway. Most of the crowd was back at the race expo behind Trader Joe's, or running around on the course, but I did see a few people with race numbers on their chests running down the greenway. I ran into my college teammate, Dezi Kabouris, and John Fillette on the walk down but other than that I hadn't seen anyone I knew.

I jogged down the course a bit, with about fifteen minutes til start time at this point. Here I ran into Emily Barrett, who basically summed up her feelings as follows: "Dude I am not feeling this course, man!" I wasn't really that worried about the course, but I was ready for things to get interesting. I wanted to start off slower, but not get too far behind, and then be prepared to go like heck. With a roller-coaster opening mile there was a decent chance I could start off slow and not have much left.

I got back and realized I had a 0% chance of getting a good starting spot after looking at the crowd at the line. I went to drop off my outerwear and my car keys in a bush somewhere, and it was here that I ran into a very panic-stricken Daniel Eggers and David Brinkley. It turns out they had thought the race started at 8 and as a result were just now arriving. It's always something with those two. They tried to get in as much of a warmup as possible, and I did some striders while the race director said a few words.

I felt like staying away from the crowd at the line did wonders for my nerves; I was able to get loose, think about strategy, and politely explain to my body what I was about to put it through, which was preferable to standing around surrounded by 600 people and listening to some dude talk. However, in the future I'm just going to have to shove my way through before the start, because I now faced a situation that was not quite desirable: I was standing on the sidewalk, elevated from the pack, with a set of cones, some wire, and a box directly in front of me. There were 75 people directly to my left and another 500-plus behind them. Going around the outside before the start wasn't an option because we have to cross the timing mats. I wasn't worried that my time would be affected, because the chip doesn't register until we cross the line, and it's the chip time that's official. But I was worried about knocking someone down or tripping over a cable.

The race director gave the starting command for the baby joggers - I had forgotten about them - and forty-five or so seconds later gave the command for the rest of us. What happened next was pure chaos, at least for me. I sidestepped a cone, jumped down off the sidewalk right in front of someone, nudged the person in front of me, and hurdled a small child. THEN, I crossed the timing mats and pressed "start" on my watch. I found a little bit of space but in front of me I also found massive amounts of people who had no interest whatsoever in starting off at 6:00 pace, which is what I had in mind. I thought about getting back on the sidewalk and passing as many people as possible, and when Eggers did exactly that right in front of me, I followed him. We darted back into the crowd, ahead of about 30 more people, and then crossed Elm Lane.

I passed Dezi - at least I think it was her - and slid in behind Dave and some other guy up yet another hill. "Hey Dave," I said, "do you realize this is our first race together?" He said, "yeahhh man" in a tone that suggested he wasn't interested in talking to me at the moment. Imagine that? I had finally managed to program my Garmin to show my "total average pace" instead of "instant pace," and I looked down at it to see I was averaging about 5:50 pace. I slowed down some, or to put it more clearly, the next giant hill I ran up slowed me down, and then I settled into a groove. My Garmin beeped before the mile marker and read "6:01." I knew it would be foolish to try to hang with Eggers and Dave at this point, but they were still right in front of me. I was racing with a couple of older guys, one guy about my age - and one guy dressed in a kilt. When we came to a downhill I let my long legs go and passed about 6 people; when we went back up the hill I faded a bit and they all passed me back. And that's how it would go for the next mile or so.

We looped around a curve on Bevington, and up ahead I could see the fluid motion of Daniel Eggers' stride leading this pack of about 20 around the turn and - you guessed it - up another hill. The Garmin now read 6:04 average pace and I was still feeling all right but my mind started playing tricks on me - the guessing game where one wonders if it's really worth all this trouble just to break 19 minutes. Right about that time the guy in the kilt passed me again, and I made up my mind about something: regardless of what happened from here on out, there was no effing way I was going to lose to a guy in a kilt.

We stepped off Bevington and into another neighborhood and down another hill. As we prepared to climb again I made a point not let anyone pass me this time. There was a man who looked to be in his late forties that had been racing with us the whole time, and I motioned with my right arm for him to come join me at the crest of this hill. I heard him say, "I'll get there when I can." We turned back on Bevington, side-by-side, and exchanged words of encouragement with less than half a mile to go (at least that's what I thought...). Up, down, up hills we went and I let him get ahead of me. There were several people within reach and I knew we had a downhill coming. I relaxed briefly...and then dropped the hammer. I flew past the older guy and about six or eight other people and then began bearing down on Danielle Crockford. My mind knew that I had to turn into the shopping center before the finish, but my body and my Garmin thought the race was over. My sprint down the hill sapped me. The older guy and about three other people I had passed scooted right on by me. I limped into the finish and hit the stop button on my watch.

Hitting the watch before crossing the mats...is bad form! 

As I composed myself and handed in my chip, I noticed everyone around me talking about how their Garmins measured the course long - some by as much as a tenth of a mile - and that there was no need for us to turn in to the shopping center. For whatever reason, the consensus was that the course was a little long. I wanted to break 19 minutes and actually ran 19:08, so I was not pleased with this new information. I quickly realized, however, that even if this was a true 5k I had still run faster than I did a week ago - on a course that's much tougher than McAlpine, to boot. So I was pretty happy. I cooled down with Eggers, Brinkley, Billy Shue, and Richard Harris (Eggers eventually thought it necessary to dart off in the woods ahead of us, for some reason).

The buzz surrounded this race - and the GPX series, in general - could not be denied. There was a palpable excitement in the air, and I made a note of this as I thought about my immediate future. The next race is June 4, and I will be there. I'm either going to need a haircut or a headband between now and then, and apparently I need a CRC singlet so Jamaar Valentine will take my picture.  'Til next time, folks.

Race Results
Garmin details

2010 Thunder Road Marathon

As discussed, this race recap is from the viewpoint of an injured spectator, not a competitor.  That said, I'm quite pleased with how things turned out, as I was able to hit six different spots along the course without ever getting stuck in traffic.  Since my parents had already planned to watch the race, they agreed to come with me and help me support my friends.  So, who are those friends, exactly?  I'm glad you asked.

I've only met Jordan Kinley, and while I was curious to see if he could break the course record of 2:24:20, I had a feeling I'd never see him as he would be too far ahead of everyone else.  There's Billy Shue, who ran about a 2:43 in this race last year and has steadily improved since then.  Then there's Daniel Eggers and David Brinkley, familiar names to anyone who reads this blog, both with stated goals of breaking 3:10 in order to qualify for Boston.  Then there's Mike Oelz, who has dealt with nagging injuries but unlike me was smart enough not to run through them.  Oelz had told me several months ago that he just wanted to be around 3:30.  Finally, there was Philip Martin and Justin Riddle - two childhood friends of mine who decided to take on this task as a new challenge and said their goal was to simply finish after being a bit banged-up going into the final week.

With my parents in tow, I had a course map and a tentative plan to follow everyone.  I knew Rob Eggers, Daniel's dad, would be at mile #5 - the corner of Providence and Sharon Amity - and I hoped to run into him so that we could coordinate our viewing activities.  We made it there shortly after 8 and, by the looks of how fast the runners were that passed us, had just missed Kinley and the other leaders.  There were a LOT of runners moving well - mostly half-marathon competitors, for sure.  I met Danielle Crockford and her husband Chad at the CRC Halloween party, where we shared marathon goals and they basically gave me lots of good advice.  She came by with Brian McMahon, the 3-hour pacer, and some other runners.  I watched them pass and kept my eyes peeled.  I was looking up toward the turn when I heard Brinkley shout, "Hey Jason - Happy Birthday, buddy!"  I turned around and saw him wave at me, trotting along at a comfortable 7:00 pace-per-mile.  My mom got a kick out of that.  About a minute passed and I began to wonder if we had missed Eggers.  I thought it odd that he and Dave wouldn't have tried to meet and run together at the start and, knowing Eggers, realized he probably showed up too late to get a good spot in the corral (it turns out that's exactly what happened).  Not long after that, he passed by with the race shirt on his chest and a goofy smile on his face.  Oelz spotted me in the crowd and shouted my name not long after that, and when we saw Philip and Justin we cheered for them before leaving to go to the next spot.

I drove well out of the way to avoid course traffic and made it down Selwyn Avenue to where Queens crossed it on the Booty Loop.  I got there just in time to shout, "Let's go, Billy!!!" as Mr. Shue streaked by in an orange-and-black blur.  Here I found a large group of Queens girls cheering the runners and passing out noisemakers and balloons.  I retrieved a little plastic clapper and took the time to elicit sympathy by explaining to the girls that I had planned to run in this race before being injured.  Awww, you poor thing!  The course was still jam-packed with runners as the half wasn't quite finished.  I spotted Brinkley and cheered for him as he reached out and slapped my hand.  When Eggers came by I informed him that David was about thirty seconds ahead, and later found out that he had closed on him before having to stop to urinate.  We hopped back in the car and scooted over to the South End area to the intersection of Camden and Tremont - just before mile #15.

We got to the corner and there was a group playing Christmas carols right in front of Pike's Restaurant, a South End favorite.  My mom was greatly amused and started snapping pictures of them.  She enjoyed it so much, in fact, that we had a hard time pulling her away later.  We missed Billy Shue but caught some of the other front-runners, as well as Danielle and Brian again.  Running with them was a guy in a CRC singlet that I'm pretty sure was Kevin Ballantine.  I cheered for Danielle and noted that they were way, way ahead of Eggers and Dave, who were nowhere in sight.  If that group is pacing for 3 hours then my boys were going to be cutting it close to break 3:10, I thought.  I spotted them, running together with no one else close at the moment, and cheered wildly as they came by us and turned up Tremont.




Eggers, in front, with Brinkley on Camden Avenue on mile 15.

 David told me later that Eggers caught him somewhere in the Morehead Street-Berkeley Avenue section and that they ran together through miles 13-15.  Shortly after they passed us in the spot above, they agreed to part ways.  "I looked down at my watch and saw a 6:39 mile so I decided to hold back a bit," David told me later.  After starting slow, Eggers was beginning to gain ground.  My parents and I, along with Rob, drove over to the intersection of Parkwood and Davidson - just before mile 20, I believe - to cheer the boys on at what was no doubt one of the more desolate stretches of the course.  There was a man playing music on loudspeakers at the intersection, and once again I made it to the corner just in time to cheer on Billy Shue.  He looked like he was zoned in but was all alone by a wide margin - no one anywhere near him on either side.  I had no idea what place he was at the moment.  As the other runners came through, mostly alone, several looked confused as to which way to go so my mom took it upon herself to start pointing up the street and shouting encouragement.  The Brian-Danielle-Kevin group passed us again and we cheered them on.  I was pretty sure Danielle was the second female at that point but there were several women that looked to be within striking distance of each other for the title.  When Eggers came past us this time, he was a lot closer to them and was passing a lot of people.  We shouted and hollered as he came through, knowing he was doing well, and waited for David.  I finally spotted him about a minute later and began to worry about him.  I knew he would finish but he looked like he was beginning to question things.  The 20-miler was his longest run so he was about to enter uncharted territory.  I shouted at him to stay strong and remember all that training...

We made the short drive up Parkwood to catch everyone again at the corner of The Plaza, just before mile #22 - I think.  When Brian and Danielle approached, I told my mom not to cheer for Brian because he was the pacer.  We both shouted encouragement, then Brian turned around with a crap-eating grin on his face and said, "Yeah, thanks!"  - to which my mom replied, laughing, "Not you, her!"  I doubled over in laughter before quickly composing myself - because there's our boy Eggers!  Holy freakin' cow!  He was several minutes behind Brian and Danielle at mile 15 and was now right on their heels!  He was passing people like they were standing still and looked like he wasn't even breathing hard.  We got back in the car, afraid we might miss him at the finish from trying to find a parking spot uptown, and when we drove by the runners on Parkwood we were able to shout more encouragement at David.  I could tell he was slowing down but I now realized he had been running well under 7-minute pace for most of the early part of the race, so I was confident he could still break 3:10. 

Thanks to my dad's extensive knowledge of the area, we found some shortcuts and a VIP parking spot on Davidson Street for the finish.  As a few runners came through I looked up at the big clock and saw "2:52," meaning we weren't too late.  I found Eggers' wife, Katie - who is about eight months pregnant with their first child - plus her sister Kristen and Dan's mother.  Let the waiting begin.  I couldn't see very well so I moved up the chute a bit and found Emily Barrett and Kati Robertson, who told me that Jordan won the race easily but missed the course record by 26 seconds - a bit cruel - and that Billy ran a personal-best time of 2:41 or so and finished fifth.  Several of the other front-runners were out-of-towners and one of them was 50 years old, which is very encouraging to those of us who just turned 29. 

We saw Brian and Danielle turn on MLK Jr. Blvd. and head towards the finish, and it was announced that Danielle was the top female.  In a classy move, Brian held back to let her savor the moment and she raised her arms in the air before crossing the line just under 3 hours.  I knew Eggers wouldn't be much further back, and sure enough there he was, booking it up the street.  From my spot on the side of the chute, I looked up at the clock, saw it was just a few ticks past 3 hours, then looked back at him.  I threw my hands in the air and shouted, "Boston Q, baby!  Easily!!  You're my boy, Eggers!"  With a huge grin on his face, he ran over to me and slapped my hand before heading into the chute with a clock time of 3:01:50.  I later found out that his chip time, which is official, was actually 3:00:40.  What that means to those of you not versed in race timing is that he made it to the starting line of the race 70 seconds after the race started.  In other words, he had a bad starting spot and had to fight through a huge crowd the first few miles.

All of which makes the performance that much more impressive.  A 3-hour marathon is an excellent mark, by any standards, but to me it's not Dan's time but how he did it that stands out.  He ran about 1:34 for the first half and 1:27 for the second - a negative split of 7 minutes!  His fastest mile was #23 - how often do either of those things happen in a marathon?  I feel it's important for me to recognize this, not only because it's awesome, but also because the excitement of seeing Dan do so well had temporarily washed away my disappointment in being injured.  It also helped me realize some errors I had made in training and strategy, but that will be detailed in another post.

After waiting around for a bit, I saw David fight to the finish for a time of about 3:14.  I knew he would be disappointed that he didn't hit his goal, but a 3:14 marathon debut on a tough course is something to really be proud of, and I was happy for him.  It was tough for me to see this knowing I would have been up there with him, but those feelings will also be detailed in another post that will likely have to be edited for brevity in order to maintain a PG rating.  I saw Theoden Janes of "Run With Theoden" fame come through the finish chute under 3:30, and I went up to introduce myself and congratulate him.  He was surprisingly friendly and chatty for someone who had just run a marathon.  Not long after that, Mike Oelz showed up with a look on his face that said, "Thank God this is over, and someone remind me to get some new friends."  Good race, Oelz, and don't worry, we're definitely going to make you do another one soon.  Mike is getting married next summer, so congrats to him and Emily.  We saw Philip Martin come through about ten minutes later and Justin  Riddle another five minutes after that, and everyone was hugged and congratulated by yours truly after they came out of the finish chute. 

All in all, I had a blast out there today, and I'd like to add that watching a marathon is a lot more fun than it sounds.  If you have a friend running one in your city, I strongly suggest you get out there and support him or her.  I could tell by the faces we saw - even those of runners who didn't know us - that our support meant the world to them.  Plus, it's a pretty neat way to view the city and understand the experience.

Full results here.
Daniel Eggers' excellent race recap here.
Theoden Janes' recap, in which he gives me a funny shout-out, here.
Read what the reigning two-time champion had to say about his race, here.

I'll leave you with a few quotes from what the participants told me:

"Very, very happy about (the race), Jason!!  I came in with some big goals and that helped push me to a 3-minute PR from last year on this course.  I went out hard during the first half shooting for a goal that I wasn't ready for yet and tried my best to stay with the #3 and #4 guys during the first half, but was able to stay strong and dig deep during the 2nd half to run a big PR from last year.  It was great seeing you at Parkwood-Davidson!!!"  - Billy Shue

"Basically, I made some rookie mistakes.  But I learned a lot from the race.  It took me 53 minutes to run the last 10k...which hurt me.  I know what 'the wall' feels like, but I can also say that I gave it everything I had and left everything out there on Saturday.  I've analyzed every way I should have run that race, and basically just ran it like a rookie."  - David Brinkley

"Ummm..NoDa supports runners."  - Justin Riddle

"I can't wait for you to get a marathon under your belt - it's such an experience.... I averaged 6:49 pace for my second half - whew!"  - Daniel Eggers

"First half was fine.  Brevard (I think he means Caldwell Street) was tough.  Other than that the course was fine with the exception of my legs.  Glad I did the marathon.  I know what I need to work on for training so that I can run the next one quicker."  - Mike Oelz

"A marathon is a complete physical and mental drain, but the reward at the finish is worth every ounce of pain."  - Philip Martin

'Til next time, folks - thanks for reading!