2013 Trenton Double Cross Half Marathon – race recap

November 9, 2013ianesenior 11 Comments

2013 Trenton Double Cross Half Marathon

The motto for today’s race was ‘do no harm’. My wife and I are a week out from the 2013 Philadelphia Marathon and we decided to sign up for this race as a way of practicing running together under race conditions before the marathon next week. Usually we wouldn’t schedule a race this close to a big event but seeing as this was just over a week from the big day which would allow for a couple of extra rest days and the fact that one of use has done something ‘Goofy’ in the past we thought we could pull it off.

What a great race. I will go through the details in this recap but overall it was such a nice event. Very easy expo, great souvenir race shirt, easy logistics (well somewhat), close to home (20 minutes from my house) and the sun was shining. What more could we ask for?

Packet pickup took place on Thursday and Friday (although they pretty much set up the expo again outside the stadium this morning). It was pretty easy to get the packets picked up and I did so for me, my wife, my (future) brother-in-law Mike and a work colleague and her husband. I was pretty much in and out of the expo in under 25 minutes and that included a tasting of some kind of chocolate milk(?) and picking up a couple of odds and ends at the National Running Center stall for my wife and Mike.

Easy packet pickup

A small expo which was not overwhelming

A half zip top which is a change from just a race shirt

Race day morning weather called for temperatures in the low 30s getting up to the low 40s. It was every bit of the low 30s for sure when we set out. Mike met us at our house at 6:30am and we drove to the Pennsylvania side parking lots and took the 10-15 minute walk across the bridge over into Trenton, New Jersey. The race is called the ‘Double Cross’ as you cross the Delaware River twice during the run. First from Trenton, NJ over to Morrisville, PA around mile 4 and then back later in the race around mile 6.

It was a chilly start and we were all pretty numb in our fingers and toes despite all the winter gear. Bag check was not complicated and the port-a-potties were plentiful. The race was to start at 8:00am and the 10K at 8:30am. There was a slight technical hitch at the start line and the race started about 8:10am. Not a big deal but we were standing there a little longer than planned. For some reason they set up the starting chute between two banks of port-a-potties which made us shift up more towards the front of the line as it was kind of, well, stinky…

Arriving at Arm & Hammer Stadium before the start

Lined up in the starting chute waiting for the gun

The announcer did a great job of describing the sights we would see as we ran around the historic area. This is in the area where General George Washington crossed the Delaware River in December 1776 to defeat the Hessian forces in Trenton, NJ (this is a history lesson coming from a British expat with dual citizenship). There was a group of Revolutionary War re-enacters at the start line with pipes and drums too trying to get everyone into the spirit. After the National Anthem the gun (or probably a musket) went off and we set out on the road.

It was strange running on these streets as these are the roads that I travel to and from work everyday and I never really get to see them at this pace (or from the outside of a car) and it was nice to look around a bit more at the surrounding areas. My wife and I set off at a planned pace of 10 minute miles using Galloway walk breaks with intervals set at 4:00/0:40. This was to be practice for the marathon next week. We ran together at the Philadelphia Rock and Roll Half in September and paced around 9:10 per mile but today as said earlier the plan was to ‘do no harm’ before next week.

Early selfie in the first couple of miles. Sun low in the sky but still chilly.

A running selfie in the first couple of miles.

The route took us through some of the historic sites around Trenton and past the State Capital building, Thomas Edison College and some of the surrounding neighborhoods before heading us out and across the historic ‘Trenton Makes, The World Takes’ bridge across into Pennsylvania.

A trip around historic Trenton

Trenton Makes, The World Takes…we run

Crossing the State lines

Crossing the bridge…don’t look down

Made it to our ‘home’ State

As we ran across the bridge we noticed that it wasn’t paved and that it was a metal grid which you could see directly straight down. Two things crossed my mind…(1) don’t look down and (2) thank goodness I’m not on the barefoot/minimalist shoe bandwagon. Ouch. The bridges were not very long and once we crossed into PA we took a small route along the river (past the parking lot with my car) and up just beyond the Delaware Canal (at which point we were able to recognize where we were in relation to where we usually train) and then down alongside the river up to the second bridge. This was probably the most crowded part of the race as we were merged with the 10K runners for this period. Once we crossed the second bridge (my wife and I snuck onto the sidewalk at the edge of the bridge (which was just a wooden boardwalk and still not paved) we split again from the 10K runners as we reached mile 7.

Speaking of mile markers they were all a little off. Don’t get me wrong, the race was indeed a half marathon (my Garmin said 13.16 which was close enough) but the mile markers seemed off. Myself and many people around me had their watches beeping at a mile distance about 0.1 miles before we reached the mile markers. This happened consistently through mile 8 when suddenly we were ahead of the mile marker at mile 9 then behind the mile marker at mile 10 again. It didn’t make much difference to my wife and I running with our Garmins but I’m sure if you were to run with just a stop watch your head must have been going crazy as your splits would have been all over the place.

Between miles 7 and 9 there was a pretty big hill as we ran a loop around Cadwalader Park. It was a nice run. The surrounding neighbourhood had lots of old historic houses and I have to say I really enjoyed the scenery throughout. As we turning out of the park we were getting close to the last 5K of the race which had us run up Route 29 and up into Arm & Hammer Park home of the Trenton Thunder baseball team. We entered the stadium in right field and ran the warm up track to cross the finish line in front of home plate. It was great that they had the announcer over the p.a. system announcing everyone crossing and even had the stadium big screen showing the runners running in. It was very much like running through the stadium at the ESPN Wide World Of Sports during the Walt Disney World Marathon earlier this year with the only difference being a 50 degree difference in temperature and this being at mile 13 vs mile 19. My wife and I crossed the finish line together in 2:06:59. We actually ran under the 10 minute pace (around 9:40 minute pace) but both felt good coming through the finish.

The medal itself was really nice. It was big, heavy and detailed. A nice touch for a race only in its second year.

At the finish line with our medals

The 2013 Finisher Medal

Myself, Mike and Shari

It was already a great day for us but we got to witness a couple more great things today also. Firstly there was 5-year-old Anthony Russo who broke the world record for being the youngest person to run a half marathon. Wow. He ran alongside his mother for the race and sprinted the last 200 meters to the line to the roars of the crowd.

5-year-old Anthony Russo running with his mother

The finish line in sight and all on the ‘jumbotron’ for the crowd

A 5 year old Half Marathoner. Impressive!

The other wonderful thing to see was a friend of my wife, Abby, as one of two guides leading a blind runner to complete his first Half Marathon. Way to go Abby, it was inspiring watching you run in.

Abby running as a guide entering the stadium

Once we had seen all the excitement it was time to grab our stuff from bag check and make the trek back over the bridge (our 4th crossing at this stage) back to the PA side of the Delaware River to pick up the car and head home for a nice hot shower and lunch with the family.

Mike and I showing of our race shirts and medals

Mike and I showing of our shirts and medals

This was a great race which I would highly recommend to anyone. There are a couple of challenging hills at mile 4 and mile 7 but the rest of the course is relatively flat and there is plenty to see on the course. This may be one I return to next year.

Thanks for reading.

2013 Run The Bridge race recap

November 4, 2013ianesenior 5 Comments

2013 Run The Bridge

Yesterday I took part in the ‘2013 Cooper Norcross Run The Bridge 10K’ race. This is a race across the Benjamin Franklin Bridge spanning the Delaware River between New Jersey and Pennsylvania and then through the streets of Camden, New Jersey and along the waterfront before finishing in Campbell’s Field home of the Camden River Sharks baseball team.

This was the first time I have run this race although my wife has run this the last two years and my father-in-law has also run this event a few times. This was also a 10K race and I do not seem to run many of these. My PR for a 10K was set back in August 2011 of 52:07 at the Philadelphia LiveStrong Challenge. I hadn’t run a 10K race since then. I had it in the back of my mind that I was going to see how I felt given that I was 16 weeks into marathon training and if I felt okay I was going to go for a new PR. I wanted to see what I had in my legs going into the marathon and still I had a couple of weeks left for recovery and rest (the dreaded taper) before race day of the marathon.

We set our clocks back on Saturday night which provided an extra hour of sleep (not that I really took advantage of it) and the plan was to meet up with my father-in-law, my sister-in-law and her new fiance (see what I did there Mike?) at a central meeting point and drive down to the starting line together at the baseball stadium to pick up our race numbers and packets. Needless to say not all of us set our clocks to the correct time (not mentioning anyone in particular) but the good news is that we were all together before the race with our numbers on and ready to go.

All of us pre-race with the Benjamin Franklin Bridge as our backdrop.

I had done a 10 mile training run early on Friday morning and the weather was great. I was running in a t-shirt and shorts. What a difference a couple of days make. I woke up to find it was about 40 degrees and the wind made it feel about 10 degrees less. I dressed in my winter gear (tights, long sleeve shirt, gloves and a beanie). I wasn’t sure if I should wear an half zip over my t-shirt but I thought if I was pushing it I was better a little too cold than too hot as that would impact how I felt during the race.

Meeting the Camden River Sharks team mascot ‘Finley’ the shark before the race

We wished each other luck and headed for the walk to the start line. I wanted to get a little ahead so I wouldn’t get stuck in the pack and everyone was fine with that (they probably prefered that but I’ll say it was to encourage me, right?). The start line is at the base of the bridge on the New Jersey side. It’s probably a half mile walk from the stadium up to the start line. I had not eaten before the race so I had a Gu (yummy Salted Caramel) with me and a bottle of water and headed out.

I had turned my Garmin off when I was inside the stadium bathrooms as it had lost its signal and when I went to turn it back on it crashed. I rebooted it twice on the walk up to the start line. No good. Uh oh. I had also forgotten to stretch while I was getting my gear together and checking my bag. As I still had a few minutes I pulled over to the side of the road, rebooted my watch a third time and did my stretches. Third time was the charm with the Garmin. Well, almost. It had reset itself completely. I quickly set the watch up from scratch and changed the display to what I needed for the race (Distance/Time/Average Pace) and headed to the start. Once at the start line you actually had to jump a barrier to cross to the start line. I did that very carefully.

Wearing an extra layer at the start line waiting for signal to go.

There was a decent crowd at the start. I think in total there were about 3,200 runners. What you see from the start line is the climb up the bridge. Nothing too exciting really. It was pretty crowded. Having run the Golden Gate Bridge earlier this year and having driven this bridge many times I remembered that you cannot really see much over the sides especially from the center lane of the bridge which was where I started. The starting horn sounded and off we went. Not much time for selfies or bridge shots when you are aiming for a PR so this will pretty much be a recap and you’ll have to take my word for what I saw on route 🙂

View from the start line

The run up the bridge was pretty crowded as expected. It took almost the first mile to really start spreading the crowd out so there was quite of bit of weaving for me at the begining. I know it’s a bad habit of mine but I wasn’t as far up as I really needed to be among the pack of runners. Once I had reached the crest of the bridge for the first time I was able to let loose a little on the downhill section. I was wearing my Jeff Galloway Gymboss timer but I ignored the first couple of walk breaks as I wanted to get into position for the race and I felt okay. I was pushing hard but it was comfortable.

The turnaorund is at the base of the bridge on the Philadelphia side and then you are faced with running back up the bridge again. Honestly I just put my head down and didn’t think about the incline. I was running comfortable and it didn’t seem to bother me. There was a water stop on the way back across the bridge so I took my first walk break which was a little out of sequence but I took it for the full 40 seconds and then headed up the bridge and down into Camden.

Once across the bridge the race seemed to be pretty flat for a while. There were a couple of turns and I wasn’t sure when the next water stop would be so I took a walk break only to find the water stop around the corner. Ugh. Well, never mind, I can run and drink at the same time but I am useless at making the trash with an empty cup while running. As we were now running on the city streets and were sheltered from the wind it started to feel warm. I was still wearing my beanie and gloves so I pushed my sleeves up a little and rolled the beanie up to let me ears out.

The race along the streets was fine and then we turned and headed towards the navy yards entering it through a back entrance. This took us up to the waterfront where we ran alongside the pier where the SS New Jersey now stands as a museum. At the waterfront the wind picked up and I’m glad I had my warm gear on. From there pier the race headed up a small incline and down back to the streets of Camden. My time was going well and I felt that it was going to be possible to run a new goal under 50 minutes. We turned to the left and I saw the stadium and was thrilled that I could see the finish line location up ahead and my time was great. What I hadn’t done was read the course map correctly. D’oh! We didn’t run directly back to the stadium but took a turn right and ran around some rehabed condos and approached the stadium from another angle. Was I going to make it in goal time?

I entered the stadium into right field and the finish line was in left field. I dug deep and ran to the finish line. I hit my watch and it read 49:08:55 (49:09 was my official time). I felt great. I didn’t hurt and I made a goal that I set myself. Here is my Garmin file with the map and my splits http://connect.garmin.com/activity/399334028.

New 10K PR

The event was run for the benefit of the Larc School. The students of the school were on hand to hand out the medals to the runners. From there I grabbed my water and goodie bag, picked up my checked bag, stretched and headed down to the finish line area to wait for everyone to finish. I grabbed a good spot and was able to cheer everyone on and get some great pictures of everyone coming down the chute to the finish line.

A big shout out to my father-in-law who was running a race after a lay off from running for about a year. He looked good and said he felt good after the race so I’m pretty happy about that as is he. Mike and Rina ran into the stadium with smiles on their faces (I think they knew I was taking pictures) but as far as I know they had fun. Mike is running with my wife and I in next week’s Trenton Half Marathon so I am looking forward to running alongside him for the first time then. I like racing with family and friends. It is rare that I really go all out for a PR but as I made my goal today I felt justified for being solo. There will be many races I run to be with others but there are the occassional challenges I set myself. Today was one of those days and it felt great.

Mike running in

Looking good – my father-in-law running in

Rina – all smiles

The race itself was fun. There was no expo for this race. Packet pickup was from a local running store in South Jersey but seeing as none of us were able to get there we did race day pickiup (as it seems most people did). There was also a walk and a Kids race but as I was running I didn’t get to see how these went. Everyone seemed to have fun and the ability to park in the stadium parking lots, walk up and get your number on the day and check a bag was really convenient. I’d recommend this race for anyone looking for a fun 10K.

New 10K PR –
2013 Benjamin Frankling Bridge Run

Thanks for reading.

Marathon Training – Week 11

September 29, 2013ianesenior Leave a comment

Week 11 Training

So week 11 is now in the books. This on paper was the longest week in terms of mileage. 5 runs of 5, 8, 5, 8 and 18 miles respectively. As it was, I felt good this morning during the long run and had a little extra time (I guess I got up too early!) and sneaked in a couple of additional miles to make the long run 20 miles. I guess three 3 training runs of 20 miles isn’t going to hurt me during my marathon training as long as it is not excessive and I do take the designated rest days.

I missed Monday’s cross training session as I still felt tired after last weeks long run. That being said I also had an impromptu rest day on Thursday as when I stepped out of bed my ankle felt a little funny. I strapped it up for the day in a support bandage and by Friday it felt okay and I tried to make up my Thursday mileage which I did with no issues. I ended up running Friday, Saturday and Sunday for mileage of 5, 8 and 20. It’s almost as if I was planning to run the Dopey Challenge or something….oh, wait!!!

Interestingly today I finished my 20 miler and I took a quick look at my compression sock on the right foot. It had started to fray a little at the heel along the seam. I took a quick picture and sent an email to ProCompression asking about the warranty as I had only worn this pair twice (for the Rock and Roll Half Marathon a couple of weeks ago and today). Within 5 minutes I got a response from customer service on the West Coast. They asked my order number which I gave them and within 10 minutes they had written back and said that a replacement pair was on the way. That is amazing customer service seeing as it was 9am here on a Sunday morning and 6am over on the West Coast. I was impressed.

I will need to skip cross training tomorrow as I plan on taking a rest day after today’s long run. My wife is heading to Long Island next week to run the Diva’s Half Marathon so I will be unable to use Sunday for my long run. I will therefore be running Tuesday through Saturday (5 days straight). Luckily it’s a step back week and my long run is only 13 miles.

Today officially marked 100 days until the Walt Disney World Marathon weekend. Lots of exciting things to do between now and then.

Countdown to Marathon Weekend (runDisney)

5 weeks until the Benjamin Franklin Bridge 10K

6 weeks until the Trenton Half Marathon

7 weeks until the Philadelphia Marathon

100 days until the Dopey Challenge

Thanks for reading.

2013 Philadelphia Rock ‘n’ Roll Half Marathon race recap

September 16, 2013ianesenior 9 Comments

2013 Philadelphia Rock ‘n’ Roll Half Marathon

Yesterday my wife and I ran the 2013 Philadelphia Rock ‘n’ Roll Half Marathon. This was my 10th half marathon and it was the third time I have run this event. I first ran this back in 2011 and this was the first half marathon that I ran under 2 hours. Last year this was the first race that my wife and I actually ran together as a couple (we were practising to see if we could stick together as we were training for the Walt Disney World Marathon). We looked forward to this weekend having signed up early.

This was the old Philadelphia Distance Run, a race that I never got a chance to run in. There have been many changes to what was a very famous race and there seemed to be quite a bit of bad press recently about this in the local media. As an average runner who is fairly new to the running I was unaware of the history of the event and reading some of the local stories and their viewpoints I learned quite a bit. Nevertheless, for most runners in the field this was a day to run a half marathon, the weather was perfect and people went out to run their own race.

Race Expo

Race expo and bib pickup

I attended the race expo and bib pick up early on Friday afternoon. As usual it was at the Philadelpha Convention Center. Brooks is the big sponsor here so took up a lot of area on the floor. Brooks does a good job of entertaining the runners in attendance and this year was no different. They had a lot of space provided to the official race gear although I didn’t pick up anything for myself this year. They did have some shoe advisors there and I spoke briefly with one of their ‘shoe experts’ about my shoe wear pattern. He provided some advice (he said my shoe wear indicated I had tight hamstrings…more on that later).

Official race gear (Brooks are the main sponsor)

Official race gear area

At the side of the race gear the Brooks team had set up some fun areas with games, rides and a gait analysis ‘submarine’. As you can see from these pictures there was quite alot to entertain visitors and plenty of Brooks themed giveaways.

Ride the ‘Shoe’

The Brooks ‘Submarine’

I visited the Brooks gait analysis (I’ve worn Brooks Adrenaline shoes 2011) just out of curiousity. I ran on the treadmill while they took video and analyzed my gait. Luckily they came up with the Adrenaline’s as the best fit for me (phew…I have 2 pairs on the go and 1 in the box waiting) and also said I could look at the Brooks Trance (more cushion) or the Brooks PureCadence (less shoe) as an alternative stability shoe. Good to know at least.

Getting a ‘check up’

Going to the expo early on Friday afternoon before the mania of the weekend race day meant that the expo was pretty empty. I’m used to expecting to work my way through heavy crowds and so I kind of breezed through the expo fast.

Vendors at the expo

Vendors at the expo

Without the heavy crowds I was able to stop at a couple of booths and ask questions. I had a couple of questions for the Garmin folks about my new Garmin 310XT and I was able to stop by a few booths of races I was interested in. I’m pleased to say that the picture of my wife and I is still used on the backdrop of the Atlantic City Half Marathon (my 15 minutes of fame). I saw the folks at the Trenton Half Marathon and checked out the medal we will be running for. I also stopped by the ‘Hot Chocolate Run‘ booth…just because. That is a 15K I will definitely be signing up for 🙂

Hot Chocolate 15K booth

Chocolate fondue…enough said

I couldn’t leave the expo without a little Rock and Roll picture opportunity…sorry for this one.

Elvis has definitely left this building

Race Day

I set up my gear the night before as usual. We were starting in Corral 8 with a 2 hour time goal for this race. Both my wife have I have half marathon PRs in the low 1:50s and so we pick this time as an average run time for half marathons and are usually in the same corral.

Ready to roll with my Team runDisney shirt

My wife and I were up early and out the door, picking up my sister in law Rina and her boyfriend Mike at 6.20am. Thankfully there were no traffic incidents on the way down (this is Philly…it can be bad any time of day) and we were able to squeeze into a really small parking space in the Art Museum district. The race starts and finishes by the Philadelphia Museum of Art (as does the Philadelphia Marathon in November). If you are not familiar with Philadelphia these are the steps that Rocky famously ran up in the movie back in the day. The statue from the movie ‘Rocky III’ sits at the base of the stairs and makes an ideal photo opportunity. Here we are with Rocky ‘rocking’ our ProCompression socks.

‘Eye Of The Tiger’

Bag check wasn’t a problem. We were given clear bags at the expo to check gear and the race instructions advised that no other type of bags would be accepted in bag check. I guess this is now the new normal since Boston. We had no difficulties pre race as there were plenty of porta potties and the lines were no longer than typical for a race of this size. Around 7:45 we headed to the corrals (for an 8am start). There were no announcements telling everyone to get to their corrals and none of the volunteers were checking bibs for the correct corral placements (I guess I am spoiled by my runDisney races). There were not as many announcements from the stage as there were in prior years as I recall. This may be due to the recent news that the sponsors cut appearance fees for the elite athletes a few weeks before the race (see my earlier comments) so I don’t recall hearing from anyone famous at the start line as in prior races. After the National Anthem the countdown for the race began.

My wife and I pre-race

Looking towards the start line from Corral 8

Looking back at all the corrals behind us waiting for the start

The temperatures were great for the race. High 50s going into the low 60s. As the gun went off we set off with me doing my regular run-walk intervals and my wife running ahead a little. I would catch up with her after each break and she would take every 3rd or 4th break with me. We were just about a half mile into the race when the lead runners were already coming back to us at mile 4 on their way up the Parkway. We were about 12 minutes behind the gun time when we crossed the start line.

One thing we noticed on the course was a lack of water stations. The first water station was fine but there was a long break before we reached the second. When we got there the tables were empty. No cups, no water and no volunteers. That was not fun. It was near mile 3 and I could have done with some water. There was a stop just ahead but no volunteers were there to let you know that. It was a little disturbing until I knew that. The road at the first station with Gatorade was awash with spilt Gatorade and you could actually feel your feet sticking as you ran through. A very weird situation. As usual there were bands along the route althout not all were in the Rock ‘n’ Roll theme.

Mummers play along to the crowd on the route in the city

Once past mile 4 we were out of the City and up by the river. This is a really nice part of the course. It is the 8 mile loop which takes in East River (Kelly) and West River (Martin Luther King) Drives. You run out along Boathouse Row, cross the Schuylkill River at the Falls Bridge and run up West River Drive back up to the finish line in front of the Art Museum steps.

Running along Kelly Drive around mile 6 or 7

The run along the river is very calm and relaxing. It is quite shaded so this made it very enjoyable. There were a couple of bands out along the river to entertain us. Not much water again. The first water station was on the left side of the road which I didn’t see until almost too late and I made an awkard dash across all 4 lanes to get some water. Not what I like to do but I needed some fluids. There was a water and Gu station at mile 8 just before we crossed the river.

Making the turn at the Falls Bridge

Running up the West River Drive gave a good view of Boathouse Row. It was fun to watch some of the crews out training on the river.

Boathouse Row

This is the same area where the City runs many races in Philadelphia including the Philadelphia Marathon and the Philadelphia Tri. Although there were some bands along this side of the river too (inlcuding an incredible bag pipe rock band…yes, you heard that right) it was pretty quiet and peaceful. There were quite a few high school cheerleader squads out to cheer us along which was nice. I have to admit that I feel the crowds in November at the Philadelphia Marathon are deeper and louder.

West River Drive starts to camber severely to the left and then suddently severely left as you run up towards the finish line. It is a slight uphill but you could definitely feel the lean to the sides more than the hill up on the way back in. Around mile 12 the shade of the trees goes and it is a run up the hill towards the finish line. We were looking at a finish time around 2 hours as we reached the last mile but we kept the pace easy and decided not to sprint to the line as we are half way through our marathon training for Philly and already a little achy. We crossed the finish line holding hands and finished in 2:02. Not a bad time and 3 minutes faster than last year so we were both pleased.

Our results.

Showing off the hardware

As we crossed the finish line the temperatures had risen and it was getting hotter. We grabbed a couple of bottles of water each. We remembered from the year before that once you left the finish chute you couldn’t get back in and there was no water outside of the finish chute. So this year we made sure to grab extra. In the finish chute there was so much food and as we remembered from last year we barely were able to carry everything out. This year we wised up and grabbed and empty box by one of the food tables and used it as to grab what we needed and carry out the finish area.

For some reason the soft pretzels and bagels were hidden under plastic sheets and there were no volunteers handing them out. Had we not seen someone helping themselves we would not have known it was there. I need my bagel post race. Next up, chocolate milk. I’ll run extra miles for that. Yum. As you can see we got our fill.

Our box of post race goodies. I refueled well

We sat at the finish area, stretched and waited for Rina and Mike to finish their races. We caught up on Facebook and shared some photos. The tip from the Brooks shoe guru about tight hamstrings had me stretch quite a bit before the race and I noticed I wasn’t scuffing my feet so much. Thanks for the tip. I recognized Jennifer from ‘The Final Forty‘ blog at the finish line and said a quick hello before heading out to gear bag pick up.

We didn’t have to wait too long for Rina and Mike as they made good time and finished around 2:50. A great run for both. It was also Mike’s first half so that was a great to celebrate with him.

The whole crew with our medals

Overall it was a fun day. Would I do it again? It’s a local race, the weather seems to cooperate and I always like running down along the river. However, I may look to mix up my Fall schedule next year and run some new races and places.

Thanks for reading.

June 2013 – month in review

June 30, 2013ianesenior Leave a comment

June 2013 – Nike+ Summary

A couple of days late but I’m on vacation so that’s okay.

127 miles this month. A pretty light month in terms of activities. Just one race, the San Francisco Half Marathon, which my wife and I ran as part of our 10th anniversary trip. That was a great race. You can read my recap here.

2013 San Francisco Half Marathon

Whilst on the trip to San Francisco I did my Dopey run. There is still chance to sign up for the race as it is open through July 31st or until all the spots have been filed. Head over to the event page or my Facebook page to see some of the great photos that participants have been submitted.

Dopey and me in San Francisco

I’m on vacation this week and so I’m taking advantage of the time to run with my wife and my boys. The weather is cooler than last year (i.e. not great) but it’s perfect for running and biking. I’ll take a little rest after vacation as my training for the Philadelphia Marathon starts in mid-July. Once that starts it is all go all the way to the finish line of the Dopey Challenge next January.

I did sign up for a couple of races which will be new ones for me this fall. The Cooper Norcross Benjamin Franklin Bridge Run (a 10K crossing the Delaware River between Camden, NJ and Philadelphia, PA) and the Trenton Half Marathon (crossing the Delaware River between Trenton, NJ and Morrisville, PA). It sounds like I like to run bridges, but after running the Golden Gate Bridge who can blame me?

Running the Golden Gate Bridge

Have a happy 4th of July.

2013 San Francisco Half Marathon recap

June 20, 2013ianesenior 3 Comments

2013 San Francisco
Half Marathon

As I had previously mentioned in an earlier post my wife and I signed up for the San Francisco Half Marathon as part of our 10 year wedding anniversary getaway. Nothing says love more than 13.1 miles together starting at 5.30am.

We arrived in San Francisco early afternoon on Thursday (thank you US Airways and Mother Nature for our 3 hour delay) and once we were done checking into the hotel set out to explore the city. Now, when getting ready for a race the best thing is to get acclimatized (adjust to any differences in weather and time zones) and pretty much take it easy and stay off your feet before the race. Well, you don’t know our family. We don’t miss a beat. Always on the go and this was no exception.

We tried to start our trip off like typical tourists and explored the city. We jumped on a cable car which would take us up the streets and end at Fisherman’s Wharf. FAIL…the cable car broke down (lost hold of the cable) about 2 blocks after we started. They have a no refund policy and rather than wait to start all over again on another trolley we started what would be a pattern for us for the whole visit. We walked. Did I mention that San Francisco is quite hilly? Really? I hadn’t mentioned it yet? We very quickly discovered why people take trolleys…the hills are kind of steep. Not to be too disheartened we joked that thank goodness we run marathons or we wouldn’t have been fit enough to make it to the top of the streets.

We continued much in this vain throughout the weekend. Walking up and down hills including the climb up to Coit Tower. Quite a few steps in addition to the hills. By Saturday lunchtime we had to find a place to sit down for a break as walking down the hills had left our legs a little shaky…and we had a half marathon in just over 12 hours.

As I mentioned in my previous post we ran every day where were there too. What a great way to get out and explore a city. So yup, we were being really sensible just before running a half marathon. We had run the 2 days prior to race day just under 11 miles and had walked even further. Throw in some massive crazy hills and towers and we were text-book how not to behave before a race. Go us!!!

Okay, back to the race. After we toured Alcatraz on Friday (yes hills and stairs not to mention sea legs) we walked along the Embarcadero to the Concourse Exhibition Center for the Expo. Another genius move by me was to look at the map and say it looks walkable, not too far. Umm, try just under 4 miles and we had already run 5 miles and been on our feet all day. This is beginning to sound like how we do a runDisney weekend…my wife’s motto is “No Sleep Until Philly”. So we walked and walked (again, just a few hilly bits to conquer).

The Expo itself was nice, fairly low-key and not too big. I was surprised that being such a big city and a key event that there were not too many national vendors. I don’t recall seeing some of my favorite vendors like ‘One More Mile’ or ‘runDisney’ or major manufacturers like Garmin, Brooks and others. Overall, and my wife agreed, this seemed a very low-key event. In fact when we were talking with locals in the shops and restaurants and most of them seemed completely unaware there was a marathon going on over the weekend. The Embarcadero was decked out in flags for next month’s America’s Cup event and there were just a few marathon flags around the start line at the junction of the Embarcadero and Mission Street. Typically you see the signs of setting up, for example tents and port-a-potties but we didn’t see any en route to the Expo. In fact we changed our Saturday run plans to see if we could even see the start line (we didn’t). I’ll touch upon that later when I share the details of the race organization.

Having been on our feet most of the day we made up for our energy spent walking by pretty much eating all the samples they were giving out at the Expo. Well, when in Rome…The official race store was nice and both my wife and I grabbed a couple of tops. Lucky for us as San Francisco was colder than we anticipated and we found ourselves wearing our new gear over the next couple of days. The packet pickup process was pretty easy but the shirts were tiny. Everyone seemed to have to move up a size or two. I ended up with an XL shirt and my wife moved up to an S. People were saying that the shirts were too tight and one lady I spoke with said she couldn’t get here head through the top (it wasn’t that bad and I cannot recall her having a giant head!) Anyway, the shirts were nice long sleeved and looked cool. The Half Marathon was teal with yellow detail and the Full Marathon was the reverse. They both looked nice. We both got a race bag which was to be the only bag allowed to bring into the starting area for security reasons and there was a place to write down our bib numbers on the bag. I actually think this was a great idea as I always worry about just attaching a paper tag with a safety-pin to my bag which is identical to everyone elses. Nice touch.

We didn’t spend too much at the Expo but I bought a cool shirt that will remind me of the weekend and I will be wearing that as I run along the New Jersey Boardwalk this summer as it looks pretty cool. Finally on our way out of the Expo we got to see the finisher medal (which was the same for both the first Half Marathon and second Half Marathon) and were pretty pleased with the size despite it being smaller than the Full Marathon (for obvious reasons). We are pretty much spoiled with our runDisney bling and it has caused us to have high standards 🙂

My Expo purchase

Skipping forward to race day (Sunday 16th) we got up around 3:45am as they had asked everyone to get there 30 minutes early for extra security procedures. We also had decided to walk to the start line which was about 1 mile from the hotel. We were in good company as we seemed to be on the streets with lots of other runners (the hotel lobby was a popular meeting place I guess) and a few people were actually running to the start line as there warm up. The weather was a nice temperature. I had been worried that it would be cold by the Bay as previous years race recaps had mentioned the wind chill and cool temperatures and I was certain we would be cold up on the bridge. Last year the bridge was all covered in low cloud and certainly looked cold and that was in July, a full month later than this year’s race. Both my wife and I were dressed in t-shirts with a half zip top. I as usual was wearing my thin gloves.

Security was pretty smooth, just checking our pretty empty bag. Shari brought her mylar wrap from the 2012 Philly Half Marathon to keep her warm at the start and we lined up for the port-a-potties and headed to the corral with no problems. The Full Marathoners went off in Waves 1-3 and we were in the first Half Marathon wave in Wave 4.

Greetings from Wave 4

We went off smoothly and the first thing I noticed which brought a smile to my face was that we were running alongside palm trees (although planted in the middle of the road) and I just thought, hey, this is California. It’s a nice day for a race. The sky was as crystal clear as you could get. No clouds anywhere which was very much a surprise.

Yup, we are in California

As we rounded the Embarcadero, past Fisherman’s Wharf and onto the Marina we got our first glimpse (thanks to the clear sky) of the Golden Gate Bridge off in the distance. It was still about 3-4 miles away but clear to the eye. We continued on past the Marina, Fort Mason and Crissy Field and made our way up towards the entrance to the Bridge. One thing my wife and I noticed was the distinct lack of water stations and restrooms along the route. My wife pointed out that a lot of people (more than typical) seemed to be carrying water/hydration belts. They obviously knew better than we did. When we did get to the water stations the paper cups were very small, bigger than shot glasses but not much. We found ourselves grabbing two at a time when we saw a water stop. However, this did not stop us from enjoying ourselves.

A beautiful clear morning

Heading through Fort Mason

Did someone say ‘hill’?

At this point I should mention that this is the first long race where I did not use the Jeff Galloway method. I have been running progressively further without talking walk breaks just to see how I would fare. While we did walk through water stations and stop for pictures I pretty much ran the whole race. I’m sure I will be doing some form of run/walk for the Dopey Challenge next January it was good to see that I was able to keep motoring on without harm.

Once we hit the Bridge it was photos galore for my wife and I. It was a mixture of great weather, great views and great company but I was pretty giddy like a school boy up on the Bridge. I was running along holding my iPhone up in the air taking photos as I ran, taking photos of my wife and I and some running selfies. I just had a smile on my face from ear to ear. It was fantastic. I had grown up with images of the Golden Gate Bridge in my house growing up (my parents had visited San Francisco in 1979 and had framed photos of the skyline around our house) but here I was actually seeing the Bridge AND running it. My wife was also enjoying her self. We took plenty of photos of her jumping in the air (great for the knees mid race).

Clear blue skies

A nice place for us to run

The little lady

Happy to be here

Getting good at taking ‘Selfies’ while running

We finished the first span of the Bridge and arrived at the vista point on the Marin County side where we stopped to take in the view and take some pictures with the Bridge as our backdrop. At this point in the race we bumped into our friend Mayela who was running the Full Marathon with her friend Yasmin (her first Full Marathon). Small world for sure. I kind of had a feeling we would bump into her. It’s what we do 🙂 Anyway, we took photos together and they headed off and we got down to some seriously cheesy photo opps like only we can do 🙂

Yasmin, Mayela and Shari

Cheesy Photo 1 –
The Couple’s Jump Shot

Cheesy Photo 2 –
The ‘Solo’ Jump

Cheesy Photo 3 –
The ‘Balance Beam’ pose

We grabbed a gel, some electrolyte drink and some water and headed back over the Bridge. We soon caught up with Mayela and Yasmin and ran the rest of the length of the Bridge with them. This included some very nifty over the head backwards photography by me as I was running (I was getting very accomplished in my running photography). We left Mayela and Yasmin as we reached the end of the Bridge and headed off up the hill (yes, a big one) up to the Presidio.

Running with friends
(over head shot – see my hat)

At this point there was a water station at the top and it was warmer than expected due to the clear weather around the Bridge (#overdressed) and we stopped to grab some electrolyte drink and water. I noticed as I approached that they had run out of electrolyte and were ‘mixing’ up a batch of powder and water…that explains why the electrolyte drink tasted funny. It wasn’t premixed and seemed to have been made up of different concentration at each station. That made me grateful the cups were not that big after all. After taking 3 cups or so of water (equivalent to about 1-2 in other races) we started our descent down by the coast line at which point I actually ran out of space on my iPhone and couldn’t take any more photos. At least I got the good views in before I ran out of space. My wife also has an iPhone which we used as back up but most of the views were in the first 10 miles of the race so I didn’t feel too disappointed.

Views down from the Bridge – Awesome

Loved this race.
I’m still smiling.

As we were running down the hill and then up to some of the residential areas I overheard a runner talking and struck up a brief conversation with him. Of course the British accent was what caught my ear. When I asked him where was he from? He said he was from the North of England…me too! Where in the North? He said Leeds…me too! Again, small world. Thousands of miles away I bump into a local fellow 🙂

After the Presidio we ran through some residential neighborhoods which were quite hilly but nothing as bad as in the center of the city and they were pretty manageable and we made a turn into Golden Gate Park which was the finish of the First Half Marathon and where the Second Half Marathon started and joined the Full Marathoners.

As we finally split off from the Full Marathoners and turned towards the finish my wife and I ran down the finishers chute towards the line hand in hand. This was our anniversary trip after all. As we crossed the finish line we received our medals and headed to the finishers area for our mylar blankets and refreshments.

At the finish in Golden Gate Park

The post race food was different from the usual Philadelphia soft pretzel I’m used to. Irish coffee (yes real Irish coffee with whiskey and whipped cream), scones from Panera Bread, Hawaiian sweet rolls, organic Greek yogurt as well as fruit, natuaral chips and granola. I like West Coast finisher foods!!!

Real Irish coffee

Tasted really good.

We stopped quickly by the Rose Garden in the park for a picture and then headed to the buses which would take us back to the start line and our walk back to the hotel. The walk back (again another mile) was a good way to rest and relax and keep moving. We didn’t really pay much attention to the second Half Marathon out on the course but we did notice that it must have been tough for the Full Marathoners to be running past the first Half finisher area in the park and seeing everyone ingesting alcohol and fancy foods. They would get theirs at the finish (along with chocolate milk, my favorite post race treat, which we didn’t get…and I wanted :-)).

After a quick shower we headed back out as we had a full plan for the rest of the day and the next day. First up, the Walt Disney Family Museum.

The Walt Disney Family Museum
in the Presidio

Running and Disney…who would have thought they go together 🙂

We are now planning our next destination race.

2013 New Jersey Marathon recap

May 6, 2013ianesenior 10 Comments

New Jersey Marathon 2013

Marathon number 5 is now complete. It wasn’t pretty but I got the job done. I finished in 4:04:53. My goal was 3:55:00.

New Jersey Marathon Result

I had high hopes going into this race that I could earn a PR. I had run just under 4 hours (3:59:05) in last year’s Philadelphia Marathon and had successfully completed the 2013 Walt Disney World Goofy Challenge and survived the extra distance. The New Jersey Marathon course was considerably flatter than the previous two marathons and I was just coming off a PR at the 2013 Atlantic City April Fool’s Half Marathon (1:52:43) in similar conditions, however, my PR was not to be on the day.

Am I disappointed, a little, but I am still proud that I ran 26.2 miles and finished standing up with a smile on my face ready for my next marathon.

I finished with a smile on my face

Firstly I must give kudos to the Race Director Joe Gigas for a fantastic job in running this event. Despite all that has happened at the Jersey Shore in the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy (needing to change the actual route of the marathon) and the recent events in Boston (increased security at the start and finish areas) this went off without a hitch (to the observer) and even the weather cooperated. Joe and his team did a great job in getting everyone prepared for the race and for the last 10 weeks leading up to the event regular race director updates were sent out to participants. Each update focused on a specific aspect of the race day and preparations and I kept revisiting them to make sure I was prepared. This included updating security concerns in light of recent events. Thanks Joe and all your volunteers.

As with most races run after Boston the race directors and runners have encouraged each other to wear blue and yellow in support of Boston. As I checked in on Facebook after arriving at the start area I checked in to ‘A Sea of Blue and Yellow on the Jersey Shore – NJM honors Boston’.

I set up my gear the night before. My blue and yellow Boston colors and ‘Red Sox’

The race itself was different from my last marathons. First of all there were around 2,300 entrants in the marathon. Philadelphia had around 12,000 marathoners and Walt Disney World had around 20,000 runners so this was a much more scaled down event and that did make a big difference out on the course. There was more space to run and the weaving in and out of runners was pretty much limited if at all.

The start was held at Monmouth Park racetrack. I got there early (around 6am for an 8am start) to avoid the traffic and road closures for the Long Branch Half Marathon which started at 6:45am and which followed the same route for the first 11 miles.

As I was there early I went and sat in the pavilion which meant we could sit inside a heated area and use indoor bathrooms (nice). Just after 7am I headed out to the bag check. This was a point to point race so if we wanted a jacket or other personal item we had to get it on the trucks so they could leave for the finish line before the roads closed for the marathon.

Staying warm inside the pavillion prior to the race.

I guess due to all the Full Marathoners staying warm indoors the lines to the port-a-potties were non-existent. Awesome. They did get a little busy nearer the start of the race as people started to leave the pavilion but still no long lines. I had chosen this race over doing the Broad Street Run in Philadelphia together with 39,999 of my closest friends and thought about my experiences there waiting in line to go and hoping I didn’t miss the start of the race.

Seriously, no lines? When was the last time you saw this at a race?

It was getting near 8am so I sent my wife a good luck text message (she was running the Broad Street Run) and headed off to Corral ‘C’. I had packed my gear bag in the truck and was wearing a throwaway old sweater with a short sleeved T-shirt underneath. Shivering with my teeth chattering I wished I had decided to wear a long sleeved T-shirt as it was colder than I had expected based upon the forecast as there was more of a breeze than anticipated. As we were all assembling into our corrals, as if by magic, the sun came out.

The National Anthem was sung by a marathoner who was celebrating his 100th marathon. This was followed by a short burst of Neil Diamond singing ‘Sweet Caroline’ as we celebrated running for Boston.

I had planned to run 3:55 and had made myself a pace band and taped it around my left wrist beside my Garmin. I lined up in the corral between the 3:50 pacer (with a very well coifed moustache) and the 3:55 pacer and waited for the gun…or in this case the bugle horn (we were at the race track after all) and off we went.

This is where I should have known something was a little off. I passed the 3:50 pacer within the first mile. My first ‘oops’ of the race. I tried to settle into a good rhythm using my Run/Walk interval of 4:00/0:40 and for the most part I was running very even splits (see the chart below). One thing that I did notice was that my heart rate was elevated around 170bpm (I wear the Garmin heart rate monitor). I put this down to adrenaline at the start of the race and looked for my pace to settle. Usually it is a little high within the first mile or so until I get into my rhythym and then it rises and falls between walk breaks (usually ranging between 135bpm-165bpm). For some reason no matter what I did my heart rate stayed between 165bpm and 170bpm. Strange.

The course took us through many neighborhoods along the shore and there were still reminders of Hurricane Sandy. Some empty houses jacked up on stilts, houses with construction equipment out front, some stores still boarded up and burnt out. It puts lots into persepctive. The course itself had to be significantly altered this year as there was no Boardwalk. That was sad. To see broken wooden studs all along the shoreline where it is usually a great place to walk/bike/run. It is close to Memorial Day and the traditional start of the summer season and where there should be lots of foot traffic here. There will be none for while. But as they say, Jersey Strong. The tag line for the race is New Jersey – Up and Running and there we signs of revitalization and renewal showing hope amongst all the destruction.

Getting back to the race itself, I seemed to be running steady if a little ahead of schedule for about the first 8 miles with no problem. Yes, my heart rate was elevated but I wasn’t suffering in any way. Around mile 8.5 I got passed by the 3:50 pacer. Oh well, that was not to be achieved today. I just had to get my head down and keep going.

As I was running around mile 12 I was at the water station when I heard a volunteer say some ‘choice words’…in other words a pace group was heading in their direction and it was a big one! I looked over my shoulder and sure enough there was the 3:55 pace group. I didn’t think I had slowed too much so I thought as long as I could stick with this group I would be good for my goal. For the most part it was looking good until I reached mile 15. There were lots of turns on the course as we stretched out the route to make the distance and everytime I thought we were near a turn around there was another turn and a sea of runners off in the distance. Whoa. It took me back to the never ending twists and turns through the ESPN Zone during the Disney Marathon. It was a nice course to look at but the turns seemed to knock the wind out of me.

Here are my splits. You can see that I was pretty consistent miles 1 to 14. In fact I ran the first half of the marathon in 1:55:31 at an average pace of 8:49. I seemed to slow a little through miles 15 through 19 reaching the 30K mark in 2:47:55 which still had me on pace to finish sub 4:00. But then I slowed considerably from miles 20 through 22. Around mile 22.5 I got passed by the 4:00 pace group and my times dropped to my worst pace for the last 3 miles. My new goal was then to finish before the 4:05 pace group!

So my PR was not to be but still my final time was quicker than my first two marathons. I know I can and will do better in future and that I have to work on my first half pacing so that I achieve the elusive negative split. I ran the second half in 2:09:22. About 15 minutes slower. A friend of mine suggested I may have overdone it on my energy gels. I usually alternate between the full shot of caffiene and half shot of caffiene gels but for this race I took the full caffiene gels all the way. Maybe that was a reason for the elevated heart rate, maybe not. I will have to work on that for the next race.

Mile splits

I still had a fun time. If I can finish knowing I gave what I could and still feel like I want to do it again then that’s a win. Plus I got a great shot of the famous ‘Stone Pony’ in Asbury Park. I may not have been ‘Born in the USA’ but I was ‘Born to run’ (sorry bad Bruce reference).

I knew I had missed my PR so I had to stop and take this photo

26.2 miles is still an achievement and completing the distance is a proud moment for someone who still considers themselves a new runner. I never tasted such a nice salty pretzel as I did at the end of this race, although at that point I will admit it hurt to even chew. I grabbed my bag from the gear truck and took the long walk to the shuttle back to the start line. The long walk kept me moving and really helped. I drove home, hopped in the shower, uploaded my run and headed out to meet the family. I felt good. It was a great day.

Marathon Medal (Front)

Marathon Medal (Reverse)

This is a race I would recommend. It was great weather, great size and great organization. I would love to run this again on the original route along the Boardwalk when the Shore is fully restored. And I’m sure that will be sooner than later.

Thanks for sticking with me. I know this was a long post. 🙂

April 2013 – month in review

May 1, 2013ianesenior 1 Comment

April 2013 – Nike+ Summary

I’m posting this a day late but there is quite a lot to look back on this month.

This month I logged 145 miles, logged a new Half Marathon PR, signed up for a new Disney race and began tapering for the New Jersey Marathon on May 5^th.

Spring is definitely here and I clocked more miles outside than inside than I have since the beginning of the year. I’m glad to be outside again although my podcast listening is falling behind (a decent trade off).

My new half marathon PR at the Atlantic City April Fool’s Half Marathon on April 7^th is pretty much down to me chasing my wife who is more often than not leaving me in the dust these days. The weather for the race was perfect and the flat course and pace I was able to maintain gives me confidence that I can achieve my goal in the upcoming New Jersey Marathon. 🙂

runDisney also announced this month an addition for the 2014 Walt Disney World Marathon weekend. The new Minnie themed 10K race and the new ‘Dopey Challenge’. Needless to say I am in. I signed up to run again with Team Up/Autism Speaks and hope to beat my fundraising of just over $3,400 that I raised for the 2013 ‘Goofy’s Race and a Half Challenge’. Wish me luck.

The end of the month sees me in the last week of my taper with only a few days left before the New Jersey Marathon. Looking back at my mileage from month to month I am actually 40 miles or so less than March which was the peak of my training. That feels about a week less of running. I need to learn for future events that I cannot eat as if I ran that extra 40. I’ll worry about that for the next race 😉

The taper itself has not left me frustrated like people often say but the strange thing about running significantly less mileage and catching up on sleep (days without an alarm wake up call!!!) have left me achy and feeling exhausted. Running is definitely a daily energy boost and all the aches and tiredness is hopefully just a sign of my body recharging before the big day. I actually feel refreshed and good about this weekend and hope to meet my goals. If it works out it works out, if not I remember I am not an elite runner and there will be other races. It’s about overall long term health and enjoyment. PR or no PR I will still have run my race, met the distance and earned my medal (and dessert)…although I will be trying as hard as I can for that PR.

(If you want to follow me during the New Jersey Marathon my Bib number is #2492)

Hopefully I will be feeling fit and healthy and have a nice race recap or two at the end of May.

Thanks for sticking with me.

(If you want to support me as I raise funds for Autism Speaks you can do so at this link. Thank you.)

Running for a cause other than yourself

April 30, 2013ianesenior 3 Comments

On Sunday my wife and I ran a local 5K race to help raise funds for my friend Mike as he trains to race for Team USA at this summers Maccabi games. Anyone who knows me knows that if I have a plan I stick to it somewhat religiously. If someone in our family talks about weekend plans in the future I pretty much look up my calendar and see what run I have planned. I guess that’s my nature. My wife would tell me to loosen up a little. I guess it’s my profession to be measured and disciplined but sometimes you do have to have a little fun. Of course when I am at Walt Disney World it’s all fun.

Anyway, with a week before I run the New Jersey Marathon I am hitting the last part of the taper and resting up for my best efforts on May 5th and I was being extremely careful in my preparation as this is my ‘race’ for the year where I am going for a goal, but this was for a friend and I wanted to make sure I was there to support. I wasn’t going to run hard during the race but take it nice and slow to keep loose and have fun.

The weather was perfect. Clear sky, light breeze and cool temps in the 50s. I dropped my eldest off at his Sunday morning class and took the double stroller to run with Asher (and his Best Pal).

Taking it nice and slow with my race crew

Shari and I both wore our new ‘Boston Strong’ shirts and we were glad to see that many of the people there were also wearing Boston gear. Runners are their own support group.

I started at the back as I was the only one running with a passenger, mind you I was lucky I noticed just before the start that I was on the wrong side of the start line which would have put me at the front…oops. Shari went off with the main pack and ran a new 5K PR (just over 24 minutes). As the say in Boston she is becoming a ‘wicked fast runnah’. She makes it look good.

My little red haired ‘wicked fast runnah’

I took it nice and slow chatting with Asher all the way and asking him to tell me the directions of each of the arrows on the course. He was a good navigator and I made it back to the finish line running 10 minute splits. Asher was more excited to see his Mommy at the finish line although he had fun peeking through the window in the hood of the stroller to make sure I was still there during the race. Mickey, I am pleased to say, behaved beautifully.

Asher with Mommy and his Best Pal

We made it to the finish line. Asher already re-carbing for his next event.

After the race was over and we had said goodbye to everyone we headed over to Dunkin’ Donuts for coffee (me) and a treat (Asher) as promised. It seems I do run on (or at least for) Dunkin’.

Asher ‘earned’ his treat after all his hard work during the 5K

Once I have completed the New Jersey Marathon next week I will be getting ready to hold a virtual 5K to raise funds for Autism Speaks and hopefully get closer to achieving my fundraising target for the 2014 Dopey Challenge. (Watch this space, the medal looks awesome).

Raising funds for charity sometimes feels harder than the actual training itself. In addition you feel a little extra pressure to make sure you achieve the goals you set out for yourself so you don’t let everyone down. It’s tough and hopefully your family, friends and colleagues understand why you repeatedly ask for sponsorship.

When I decided to run the Goofy Challenge last year I actually signed up for the race before I signed up for a charity. I had made the choice to run the Goofy well before I signed up for the event. It was after I had registered that I began to think that running such a high profile event made me feel a little like I was showing off and I thought that it would be more of an achievement if I ran for a cause other than my own ego. Around the same time that I registered my niece was diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder. This led me to join up with Autism Speaks and run with them them at Disney. I had run enough miles for myself it was time to run for someone else. I had the shirt below made for the occasion, although it will need to be updated this year as I go from Goofy to Dopey 🙂

My 2013 Goofy shirt courtesy of ‘One More Mile’

The back of my shirt for ‘Team Sadie’

If you would like to follow my progress please sign up to follow this blog. If you would like to contribute to the cause you can do so using this link.

My goal is stay healthy through running and go onto raise funds for other events in the future. My hope is that in 2015 (a long way off I know) that I get to run the Boston Marathon for Autism Speaks if they have places for the event. I’m not a ‘wicked fast runnah’ and this may be my only way to that great event. I know that if I get there to run for others that will be my personal BQ.

Thanks for reading.

(If you want to follow and support my friend Mike you can do so at this link)

2013 Atlantic City April Fool’s Half Marathon recap

April 8, 2013ianesenior 9 Comments

‘An elephant, a purple tutu and an unintentional PR’.

This weekend my wife Shari, my sister in law Rina and I headed down to Atlantic City, NJ to run the Atlantic City April Fool’s Half Marathon. Shari and I had run the inaugural race in 2012. It was a fun weekend and so we signed up again together with Rina which was to be her second half marathon after Walt Disney World this last January.

We don’t really have a choice ‘NOT’ do to run in this event, after all we were part of the advertising campaign for this race which we discovered at the expo for the Rock & Roll Half Marathon in Philadelphia last September.

Shari recreating her pose

The weather this weekend finally was seasonal and so we headed down early on Saturday to get our race packets (packet pick up was at the Revel Casino and Hotel) and then headed over to Ocean City, NJ so that the boys could have some of their own fun at the amusement rides on the boardwalk. They had a blast. I on the other hand broke my own rule about fun fairs (which is that Mummy does the rides and Daddy holds the bags). Let’s just say I never want to see a ‘Tilt-a-Whirl’ ever again. Not a good idea to lose your sense of equilibrium the day before a race. Anyway, once everything seemed upright we headed back towards our hotel with a carb-loading stop at one of our favorite Italian restaurants before heading in for a reasonably early night.

Tutu’s and Jester hats available for race day during packet pickup

We had booked our hotel (Marriott Courtyard) when we signed up for the race as it was close by Bally’s Casino and Hotel which was the start/finish line last year and what was on the initial information we had. The start/finish line was moved back about a mile to the Revel Casino and Hotel so this called for a walk of just under a mile to the start line early Sunday. It was a little chilly as we left our hotel and we were all worried we were not dressed appropriate but better to be too cold than too warm when running. We huddled into the lobby of the Revel with all the other runners to stay warm. One advantage of such locations is that there are real bathrooms available pre-race and somewhere warm to stand. A nice luxury on a chilly morning.

Shari and Rina wrapped up before the start of the race

Warmth and marble bathrooms pre-race at the Revel Hotel and Casino

As we shuffled out to the start line with the rest of the runners we bumped into our friend Mayela who we first met at last years race. She looked like she was dressed for summer and made us even more concerned we were dressed wrong with our multiple layers. Oh well, too late now.

Mayela, Rina and Shari at the start line

Following the singing of the National Anthem the race started promptly and off we went. My plan for this race was to take it steady and run easy as my goal was to use this as a training run with the New Jersey Marathon just 4 weeks away. I didn’t want to overdo it. The last time I had run with Shari was at the Walt Disney World Marathon back in January and we had previously run the 2012 Philadelphia Rock & Roll Half Marathon and Hershey Half Marathon together step by step from start to finish. I thought we would be doing the same and was looking forward to doing so as last year we both ran our own race here (and both PR’d). What I didn’t expect was my little red head in a purple tutu to go off the start line like Lightening McQueen!!! What the heck?!?!

This was unexpected. I wasn’t quite prepared and I spent more than half the race just trying to keep Shari in my sights. Luckily she was easy to spot all in purple with a tutu. I felt good running and was monitoring my heart rate to make sure I wasn’t exerting too much effort. It was a nice sunny day and so I settled into a good rhythm and got my head in the game. Once we left the Boardwalk in Ventnor, NJ we headed through Margate, NJ past Lucy the Elephant to the turnaround just inside of Longport, NJ. The course is pretty flat, in fact the only ‘hill’ was the ramp up to the Boardwalk at mile 8.5 on the way back into Ventnor. On the way out, I would say I was around mile 5, I saw the leaders running back towards me. I tried to kid myself that they must have been running the 11K race but no, they really were that much faster than me.

Lucy the Elephant (Margate, NJ)

During this race I was still experimenting with my run/walk ratio ahead of the NJ Marathon. I had gone from 5:00/0:30 which I used for almost all of 2012 and through Disney to 4:00/0:35. However during the race my Gymboss interval timer malfunctioned and I had to fix it on the run. Delicately handling the device so not to lose the battery I removed and replaced the battery and reset the device all while moving at a consistent pace. I am not sure how long I was running but probably missed a walk break. I moved the interval to 4:00/0:40 so I could have a little more time to bring my heart rate down during walk breaks and soldiered on.

I saw Shari after the turnaround heading in the opposite direction and later saw my sister in law who yelled that Shari was beating me by a lot (thanks for the support Rina). I finally caught up to Shari just before we turned back onto the Boardwalk. We pretty much were close together until the last half a mile when annoyed by my constant chit chat she told me to go ahead. We finished within seconds. I ran 1:52:43 and Shari ran 1:52:54. I had PR’d by just over a minute and Shari PR’d by over 5 minutes. Awesome stuff. I looked at Shari’s splits after uploading her run to Garmin Connect when we got home and she was consistently within a few seconds of 8:30 a mile all through the race. I had a negative split (maybe my first) and that is the only way I was able to catch up with Shari.

We had told my in-laws that we would probably be around the 2 hour mark but thanks to the purple speed demon we were ahead of plan. At around mile 12.5 I passed my in-laws coming to the finish line with the boys. I gave a quick yell so they could see me but I was a green blur to them. Luckily they were able to catch Shari just as she ran past as a purple blur. We crossed the finish line and again bumped into Mayela who finished about a minute or two ahead of us. We quickly grabbed some water and food and headed to see the boys. They were so excited to see us and I think more excited that we brought them food. Everyone seemed to be having fun while we waited for Rina to finish.

We did it!

Finish line fans

We were all full of soft pretzels, bananas and Gatorade (and Micah was full of ice cream….before 10am) as we waited for Rina and cheer her on to the finish. After a couple of false alarms (we saw pink in the distance but the runners were not pink) Rina came into view. Everyone was excited for her, no more so than her Mom and Dad who came down with the boys to the finish line to watch. We cheered here on in all her pink tutu’d glory as she PR’d by almost an hour in only her second Half Marathon.

Rina sprinting to the line

Great weekend, great race and a nice start to our race season. I am very proud of Shari for her run yesterday. She kept me on my game. I wish she was my official pacer for the NJ Marathon next month as I actually go for an intentional PR (no pressure). I am sure we will run races together again the whole way and look forward to running the San Francisco Half Marathon in July with her. Very proud too of my sister in law Rina. I guess I’ll have to get my own tutu for upcoming races. It seems it’s a necessary accessory for fun and fast races. 🙂

Sisters rocking the tutu look

philly2goofy

…and all the miles in between

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Race Recap

2013 Trenton Double Cross Half Marathon – race recap

2013 Run The Bridge race recap

Marathon Training – Week 11

2013 Philadelphia Rock ‘n’ Roll Half Marathon race recap

June 2013 – month in review

2013 San Francisco Half Marathon recap

2013 New Jersey Marathon recap

April 2013 – month in review

Running for a cause other than yourself

2013 Atlantic City April Fool’s Half Marathon recap

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