Keath - Ramblings From The Road

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Not-Really-A-Race Report: Torchlight 5k

July 22, 2010 Keath 3 comments

From the get go, this was certainly not what we expected! Mostly in a good way.

Coming to Minneapolis, we knew there was slim chance of participating in any races. There’s a 5k and 10k this Saturday morning¹, but it’s at Lake Nokomis Park, about 12 miles outside of downtown, and the whole reason we came to Minneapolis was for Flugtag. It would really suck to drive out for a 5k and then get caught in traffic or not be able to park and miss the event we came here for. Priorities, people!

So when we were at REI last week, shopping for wicked stylish headgear to protect us from the Egyptian sun, I literally tripped over a sign advertising the Torchlight 5k; a through downtown Minneapolis at 7:30 PM on a Wednesday. With music and beer² afterwards! We even get a registration discount for being REI members. Why the hell not?!

When is a race not a race?

We started to get suspicious when the clerk handed us two bibs with no indication of which one was for who³. I didn’t exactly expect chip timing for a community race operated by Lifetime Fitness, but I figured they’d at least want to know who was who. So I asked her. Apparently this has never been an issue for them before, so we figured we’d stop harassing the girl who’s job it is to sell hiking gear and instead send an e-mail to the race coordinator.

Turns out, Lifetime Fitness takes “fun run” to a whole new level! They have a clock at the start and finish, but there’s no timing at all. Just come and run! And hang out afterward, please. Okay, cool. Not what we expected, but fair enough!

This is completely new to me. Every “race” I’ve ever done – even the first little 4th of July fun run in Manchester, VT and the series of odd-ball distance fun runs put on by a running club in Redding, CA – had timing. To me, that’s what made it a race as opposed to a group run. It may not be accurate. It may not be perfect. But an Attempt Is Made. And it’s recorded somewhere. And it’s Official. But not here. This is Just a Run. For FUN.

And a good thing there was not timing, too. When we got to the race fun run last night, there were people everywhere, finding parking or hopping off rerouted buses, registering, picking up bibs, finding the start line five blocks away from registration, and so on. Plus all the people setting up on the sidelines for the Aquatennial Parade. Pretty clever, actually; “kick off” a parade with a 5k fun run and all the runners have a crowd cheering for them.

Also, race directors take note: Instead of port-a-potties lined up horizontally with individual lines for each, they were across from one another at the end of a dead end street with one line feeding in to the corral. Quick moving, nobody stepping in front of anyone else, and easy-in, easy-out action. Bonus points for whoever came up with that plan.

For and event we thought was a small community run with minimal support, there was a hell of a turnout. We were thinking maybe a couple of hundred, but there were easily over two thousand people running. Way to crowded to really try to “race” anyway, so as we neared the start line we completely understood why it was a fun run. It’s as if they’ve done this before…

The Run

My wife and I had decided that since it was a fun run it would be fun to run together. For us, that means me going her pace⁴. But after three days of intense heat and humidity, when we realized it was still going to be pretty moist at the 7:30 start, we decided to just go with the pace of the crowd.

We shimmied up to the start line – the crosswalk across Hennepin Ave at 12th Street – and broke in to a gentle trot along with many other people. With the exception of a few dozen people who apparently lined up at the back of the pack so that they could bob and weave through slower runners for three miles, it went fairly smoothly.

The route starts just heading north…eastery…ish along Hennepin, hanging a right at 3rd Ave to Portland, then out 2nd Ave and back around Mill City on the River Parkway. I should just upload the map, eh? … Just a moment … there you go.

Click for Zoomable MapMyRun Map

Love the way the Garmin thinks I was running on top of buildings. So, yeah, as we cruised along River Parkway there’s an awesome view of the river as well as the faster runners crossing Stone Arch Bridge. It was around this time that we realized we’d been here before.

Complete Tangent

We stayed briefly in Minneapolis somewhere in the middle of 2006. We used an RV park in Maple Grove as a base while Ceridwen flew out to a conference in Washington. Apparently, during this time I visited the Mystic Lake Casino, which is where we’re staying this time around. At some point, we brunched⁵ at Hell’s Kitchen, which is now in a completely different building across the street. We also strolled along River Parkway and believe there may have been another building there at the time, blocking the now wide-open awesome views. But that part could be in a different state. Our documentation of 2006 is not stellar.

Back on Course

A short time later we, too, were making a sharp right turn on to Stone Arch Bridge. It was around this point that a group of four frat-ish guys caught up with us, blasting 80s dance tunes from a pair of computer speakers strapped to one of them with duct tape, wearing matching denim daisy dukes and brightly colored trucker hats. And shoes. But that’s it. I think they scared small children.

I tried taking a photo of Ceridwen mid-bridge, but, well, it was still pretty crowded and didn’t exactly work. Nobody went overboard and nobody got hurt, though, so that’s good. Post bridge, we were on the brick streets of Hennepin Island Park with a final turn to the finish. All in all, a great course, despite the heavy crowds. Everyone looked to be having a good time, which is really the point in a fun run, right?

How Not to End a Race Run

The finish line is where the good things ended. The first water was 100 yards further along the road, with no signs or volunteers or information of any sort. They had a series of bins, maybe 25 yards apart, in the middle of the road, filled with rapidly melting ice and the occasional empty bottle. After the third or fourth bin, we came to one that had drinking water left in it. It certainly wasn’t being restocked. And of course, since nobody had a clue when the next drink would come from, we all grabbed two or three bottles while to worked our way to Nicollet island where the “post race party” was.

Finish line food for the runners was handled via the bridge to Nicollet; runners used the road while spectators used the pedestrian sidewalk, keeping them from our valuable bananas, Marathon bars⁶, bagel chunks, and nut rolls. Once we were in the park we were able to spread out a bit and figure out a way to set down the snacks and try to actually eat something. There was no doubling back to grab something when you might want it; now or never, kid-o.

The post-race party featured a half way decent band that kept trying to do songs well beyond their singer’s abilities (or perhaps just outside his style) and a series of sponsor tents. Including towels with Toyota logos you could dip in ice water IF you signed up for their mailing list. Yeah. No.

We found a quiet corner, got a few more glasses of water with our MGD 64 beer tickets, and watched the sun set over the river while we waited for our Daily Mile friend Cristy to find a parking space and catch up with us for a late dinner.

So, I can see why a lot of people hate this race. It’s not a race. I can also see why a lot of people enjoy it – it’s certainly a fun run, despite their inability to organize a decent finish line. I’m still a bit in shock at the whole thing – not was I was expecting in so many ways. But, if I were a stationary person and lived in Minneapolis, I think I’d make it an annual thing. Now that we know what to expect, it’s lots of fun, and we know to skip the post-race party so we can actually see part of the parade.

Show 6 footnotes

Race Reports 5k, fun run

Supporting Local Businesses (and 5k Friday)

July 9, 2010 Keath 1 comment

Crass Consumerism

In case you missed it, I live in an RV. It’s 34 feet long and has lots of storage for an RV, but significantly less storage than, say, your tiny Brooklyn apartment. Certainly less than your Arizona suburban McMansion. So my wife and I don’t really buy much “stuff” – and when we do we try to replace existing stuff rather than just adding new stuff. Compared to the average population, we are probably far less consumerist than most, but certainly not as enlightened and “no-need-for-earthly-things” as we’d like to think we are.

We also hate crowds and pushy sales people. And by pushy I mean sales people just trying to do their job and see if we need anything. Amazon is our friend.

The point? We don’t go shopping often. Certainly not multiple stores in one day. But when we do, it’s usually for a product that we’ve talked about buying for ages and are going around in circles trying to figure out what we need. Eventually, reality sets in and we realize that we need to go to a store and actually touch, poke, prod, wear, shake, or otherwise manhandle the product options in question.

Which is what we did yesterday. A noble quest for racing flats, come to it’s inevitable conclusion a mere eight months since we started talking about it.

Duluth has an awesome running community, which supports lots of races all over the North Shore all year round (i.e. not just Grandma’s Marathon). And they’re lucky enough to have two pretty good local, independent running specialty stores; Austin-Jarrow Sports ¹ and Duluth Running Company. We started at Austin-Jarrow, so we could enter the Brooks Ghost 3 promotion. Ceridwen fell in love with the Saucony Grid Type A4 right away, tried a few others, and we bought the A4s. I tried the Brooks Green Silence, which I went in thinking I’d love, the Men’s Grid Type A4, a few other Sauconys, and even a cross country spike shoe, but wasn’t convinced yet. At Duluth Running Company, they had many more options, plus they had Dillon, who runs for University of Minnesota at Duluth and is willing to tolerate (and intelligently answer!) my questions.

I tried on about a dozen different shoes, mixing and matching and putting about a mile on their treadmill, and finally settled on the Brooks Racer ST4. It’s not the lightest race flat I tried on, nor the flattest, but they were the most “right” feel and are about 90 grams lighter than my Adrenaline GTS trainers (that I’ve been running in exclusively since I got rid of the $12 Reeboks I picked up in 2006). I went in thinking that a racing flat should feel like a track spike, but without the spikes. Once I let go of that notion, I wasn’t sure what I wanted, just that I wanted something lighter for races and hard track workouts. It took a while, and I’m wicked grateful for DRC’s friendly and patient employees, but I got there. So, as much as I hate brand loyalty as a consumer concept, Brooks wins again!

Remember Leo!

In short, new shoes!

Oh, and a little bonus; they have a camera set up by the treadmill to do a gait analysis; something I’ve wanted to do but never had the patience to wait in line to do at an expo. The girl who helped me pick out my shoes in Vermont three years ago did so my examining the wear patterns on my flip flops, but the camera showed that I’m actually a very neutral runner. Maybe I’ve learned how to run flatter? Maybe my flip flops weren’t the most scientific indicator? Who knows, but at some point I suppose I ought to try out some neutral trainers to possibly replace the Adrenalines. But I’m a little scared to try something new when this has “worked” for so long. We shall see!

5k Friday

So yesterday, the woman² who blogs at Weight In Vain decided that she wanted to start something called “5k Fridays” to try and see how fast she can do a 5k, something she hasn’t done since starting running longer distances. I’ve been thinking the same thing to a degree – I want to focus more on shorter distances and getting a baseline time is a good place to start. I don’t know if I’ll do this every Friday – after all, expecting to see measurable change within a week might just get frustrating, but I’ll be participating at least once a month, if not more.

So, here we go, week one, in the aforementioned fancy new shoes (now at a total road mileage of 4.1), along Scenic Route 61 on the North Shore of Lake Superior in Knife River, Minnesota.

19:34.72

As good a starting point as any. Not quite my PR, but faster than the Solstice run I did a couple of weeks ago. I was actually pretty impressed by my splits; an even 6:20 on miles 1 and 2, then 6:14 on mile 3 and 0:39 for the final stretch. Less impressive, but certainly interesting, is my heartrate for this run.

When I initially set up my heart rate zones in Garmin Training Center last week, I was worried that using 204 as my max might have been a mistake. That’s literally the maximum heart rate that the monitor picked up in any workout since I’ve started using it. It seemed like getting in to Zone 4 would be an impossible task. And yet, today, running a route I’ve run dozens of times³, I not only hit Zone 4, but blast right through Zone 5. And then exceed 100% for a moment. God I love science.

If you haven’t read Weight In Vain before, check it out. And feel free to join in on the 5k Friday fun!

Show 3 footnotes

General Blogginess, Training 5k Friday, gear, goals

Stalking My Mistress

July 7, 2010 Keath 1 comment

Okay, yeah, I’m mixing metaphors here. Technically, me and the marathon are in a trial separation, but thinking more about it and the marathon is really more of my mistress. The training keeps me away from my wife more than I’d like, no matter how amazingly awesome I plan my week. And it’s really the only thing I spend significant amounts of money on other than my wife¹.

On the other hand, my wife knows all about my mistress and has, at times, even encouraged me to go see her again. So, uh, I guess we have an open relationship there.

But this post isn’t about the marathon. I am not currently planning another marathon until at least March of 2011. I am not going to run the inaugural Layton Marathon in a final attempt to qualify for Boston. I am not going to “surprise” my wife with a trip to New Hampshire to visit her family with the true agenda being the Smuttynose Rockfest or another go at the New Hampshire Marathon. I’m not even going to consider any of the two dozen marathons happening on 10.10.10. I’m even turning a blind eye to the Lithia Loop Trail Marathon in Ashland, a mere 186 miles through the Deschutes National Forest from Bend, where we’ll likely be living at the time. No third running of the Philly Marathon, which would border on letting it become a Thanksgiving Tradition^® with my family²

But, as you can tell, I’ve been peeking. And researching. And idly saying “hey, hon, this marathon looks interesting. Oh, no, I’m not thinking of registering. Just sayin’ it looks neat.” I need to stop that.

Shortly after my post-Grandma’s³ commitment to step off the obsessive compulsive marathon train, we got our monthly mail drop, which included an issue of Running Times with a feature on this specific topic. The short version of the article is to quit obsessing with marathons. Most of us, eventually, will get to the point where we know that we can finish the race, but plateau performance-wise. Typically, this is because we can’t dedicate the time to both get in the miles necessary to improve our performance and still have the energy for the speed work and other skill drills. It goes on to sing the praises of trying to improve performance at shorter distances (though acknowledging the psychological challenge most of us face training for “just a 10k”) instead of just “training through” them on the way to a marathon. Which is exactly what I want to do. I had the conclusion, but not the “how I landed here” logic, which Jonathan Beverly nailed in his article.

There’s even a little sidebar (at the end of the online version) outlining suggested miles per week, long run range, and speed workouts that you should consider a goal for “serious” competitive efforts. Granted, I’m not even in the 5k range for total mileage except during the core of a marathon ramp up, but I’m working on getting there. On the other hand, I’m not really going for “serious competition” either – I’m going for “serious personal best efforts.” If I hit more age group awards on the way, that just makes it more fun.

The hardest part of training for me has always been the speed work, hill work, and other drills. It’s the one thing that’s really tough about traveling all the time⁴. While it’s pretty easy to plot a route for a run, those routes aren’t always appropriate for specific workouts. It’s psychologically tough to do measured sprints on the same course you normally go a stead pace on, but I’m getting better at it. Tracks are usually a more focused option, especially when doing a workout where GS accuracy ain’t gonna cut it – or will take an hour to program – but not every community I stay in has a public track. I’m also a big opponent of driving to a run, and try to minimize that behavior, especially when the run would be shorter than the drive. And hills, well, let’s just say that not all hills are created equal. I have yet to find something to top Sidney Lanier Bridge in Brunswick, GA for a steep, steady, safe hill of a decent distance⁵.

But these are all excuses. And they can be overcome.

I currently only have one 5k on the calendar for the remainder of 2010, but I can probably find another later in the year. (Anyone know a good central Jersey Turkey Trot?) And nothing it going to happen with my 10k goals unless I sign up for one, right?

So, step 1, stop stalking the marathon. She wants nothing to do with me and is seeing other men.

Step 2, set more concrete goals for shorter distances;

A sub-19:00 5k (by the end of 2010?) PR is 19:18, May 2009, with a 20:41 average in 14 races over 3 years
A sub-40:00 10k PR is 40:34, March 2009, a 44:15 average in 6 races
Just PR in a half marathon PR is 1:37:46, January 2008 – I’ve only run three halves, one of which was a trail run
Enjoy running I don’t ever really not enjoy it, but letting myself get frustrated by goals I don’t have the time to realistically achieve had been dampening my spirit

Step 3, come up with a plan to achieve said goals. Training plans ain’t just for marathons. My running “career” started very disorganized; run a 5k with two days’ training, run around the same loop at the same pace for a few weeks, sign up for a half marathon, run with a group a couple of times but engage in no real plan, decide on a full marathon five months out with a double pump (10k + 5k), IT band injury, and half marathon along the way, in that order, and then start taking training plans seriously.

Oi.

Has anyone else successfully broken their addiction to running the same distance over and over (whether it’s a marathon or not)? How did you do it? Any tips or tricks to stay focused?

Show 5 footnotes

General Blogginess 10k, 5k, half marathon, rambling

Happy Anniversary to ME

July 4, 2010 Keath 1 comment

Not my wedding anniversary, mind you. My running anniversary. Nobody in my family sends me a card or calls to wish me well. There are no flowers (except by occasional coincidence), and, well, my wife doesn’t really care if I remember it or not.

But I do. Because it’s so frickin’ easy to remember when I started running. Or rather, when I started running “for real.” July 4, 2007. It’s that easy. My wife and I were parked for the summer in Dorset, Vermont, and somehow caught wind of a “Fourth of July 5k Fun Run” next door in Manchester. It seemed like it might be a hoot, so we signed up on July 1 (or maybe June 30), headed out to the park for what we, at the time, enthusiastically called a “training run” on the 2nd, gave it one more go on the 3rd, and then showed up on the 4th with no clue and no expectations.

Reminiscing

Prior to that race I had run only for short, unhappy periods of time on the treadmill at a gym in Phoenix which my wife convinced me to join under the guise of frequent rock climbing¹ and getting less scrawny². The treadmill was a warm up that I begrudgingly trotted along for the requisite time according to my prescribed beef-cake-o-matic training plan. Before that, I think I ran only in case of emergency save for a brief stint on my school’s cross country team in 9th grade, where I regularly strolled (yeah, strolled) along the course to ensure I had enough energy for a final sprint so I’d only be second-to-last³ in the meet. In hindsight, I am not proud of any of this.

As one might surmise by the term “Fun Run” and the fact that unless you live nearby, you probably haven’t heard of Manchester, VT, this wasn’t a huge event. It was organized by the city rec department, started and ended in the park, and if memory serves, it didn’t involve any road closures. There was, however, local ice cream at the finish line, something I was bummed to later learn is not common throughout the running world⁴. The small field is probably part of what got me hooked.

Despite not having a clue what I was doing and having to take more than one walk break in a five kilometer race, I managed a 24:04 time, which was 21st in the 89 person field and, much to my surprise, third in my age group⁵. Which got me a medal! Imagine what I could do if I’m able to run the whole distance?

In To the Rabbit Hole

Lacking a clue, I took that enthusiasm and ran the same loop over and over all summer, with the exception of a couple of runs with a training group for the Manchester Maple Leaf Half Marathon that I had signed up for. And somehow, my goal to run a full marathon by the end of 2008 turned in to my wife planning our route through Austin, TX so I could run the 2008 Austin Marathon in February.

At my one year anniversary, I found myself in London when the first week of July rolled around. I didn’t outright celebrate, per se, but I had found two 10k races in town; the July edition of the Regents Park Race series on Saturday the 5th, and the Wimbledon Windmilers Jim Braben Memorial Run on Sunday the 6th. So why not run one? I ran the Regents Park Race (in the rain) and on the way to catch the bus⁶ a German kid asking for directions to the Victoria & Albert managed to convince me to run the Wimbledon run as well. So the next morning I took the tube to Wimbledon, ran another 10k in the rain, and managed to get back in to central London before too many tennis fans started swarming the streets for the Wimbledon Men’s Final.

At year two I was in Medora, ND, where, oddly enough, there isn’t a large running community. In fact, the entire community consists of keeping the town a pseudo-historical restoration and tourist destination. They had a parade and did a nice fireworks show, but running was purely recreational. Fortunately, the week prior, we were cruising the Trans-Canada and managed to stop at Sun Peaks resort near Kamloops, BC for an awesome Canada Day run called Jo’s Road Race.

Today

And now, at the close of my third year of running, I’m near a town with a pretty strong running community that completely lacks any sort of 4th of July run. I ran the Knife River Solstice Run last week, which was wicked fun⁷, and there’s a bunch of other races nearby in the coming week, but I’ve got nothing on my plate until we get to Denver in August. I’m suddenly feeling unfulfilled, despite not intentionally commemorating my start of running career hobby habit addiction.

Ah well. I’ll have to settle for running along the beautiful scenic route 61 with nobody but me caring how fast or slow I’m going. And maybe a love song.

Show 7 footnotes

General Blogginess about, history, me, reminiscing

Heart Rate Training, Part III

July 3, 2010 Keath No comments

Today’s Lab: Practical Applications of Heart Rate Training

Time to put my money where my mouth is.

Or practice what I preach.

Or at least follow through with the training technique I was so fascinated by in May that I wrote a two part manifesto on the subject. (If you missed it, click here for part I and part II, matey!) In order to call my runs “heart rate training” I need to not only know the approximate rate my heart is beating, but be able to tell at a glance if I’m in the “zone” I want to be in for that workout. Or that part of the workout. Right? That’s where silly technology comes in.

But now, Part III, In Which Piglet Finally Put His Desired Heart Rates in to His Fancy Watch

So, first off, I did a little more research and learned that the technique for calculating heart rate zones based on your heart rate reserve (the difference between your measured or estimated max heart rate and your resting heart rate) is referred to as the Kavornen method, and there’s actually quite a bit out there on the topic, once you know what term to search for.

But on to the fun stuff. My particular brand of Fancy Watch is a Garmin ForeRunner 405, but the same general instructions should work for the 305 or 405CX or any other Garmin watch that is compatible with a heart rate chest strap and the Garmin Training Center. One would imagine that other brands have similar features.

Step 1

All the mystical things that your watch knows about you are specified in the Profile… dialog. You can specify your age and weight which GTC uses to come up with ball park pace and heart rate zones, but you can also enter custom zones to use for both training and data charting. To get to your profile, hit CTRL-U (probably -U on Mac?) or select your Profile from the User menu.

Step 2

Once you’re in your profile you get to see all the lovely things that Garmin knows about you. Or thinks it knows. Feel free to correct anything you ignored when you first installed it (or update your weight based on all those pounds you shed running fifty mile weeks). Obviously, make sure your gender is right. Don’t worry about sharing details; this data isn’t part of the data that GTC exports or transfers through the Connector. Your secrets are safe with your watch.

Unless you post them to the internet like I just did. Now that you all know how much I weigh, you also know my birthday. I expect gifts. Or at least a witty e-greeting.

Step 3

Alright, yeah, we’re still technically on step 1, but I’m not writing professional technical docs here. I get to be a wise ass and you get to enjoy it. Or mock me for it. Your choice. I opted for one step per screen shot, okay?

The values that matter are your resting heart rate and max heart rate, indicated by the classy and subtle circles below. My understanding is that not all ForeRunners support the Kavornen method, so if you don’t have a resting heart rate field, that’s why.

You should note that when you fill in your resting heart rate, the “% of Max” bullet under the heart rate zone values suddenly changes to “% of HR Reserve” – pretty nifty, eh?

Step 4

You can go about this three ways, two if you don’t have a resting heart rate field;

Leave resting and max heart rates blank and enter your heart rate zone thresholds as manually calculated minimum and maximum values.
Leave just the resting heart rate blank and select “% of Max” to enter your heart rate zone thresholds.
Enter your resting and max heart rate values and select “% HR Reserve” to enter percentage thresholds based on the zone thresholds of your choice.

I worked my way backwards from zone 5, but that’s kind of irrelevant. If it’s not immediately obvious, you select the zone of choice from the drop down, pop in some values, and then move on to the next zone. Repeat until all five zones have values you like, and hit the big, sexy “OK” button.

Note that once enter the percentage values, future visits to ye olde user profile will have converted these values to their calculated bpm values.

Step 5

Send it all to your watch. Wheeee!

Step 6

You can now create all the heart rate based workouts your heart desires. Be prepared for incessant beeping if you slack off. Irritation will get you moving faster. (Or, hopefully, slow you down when appropriate.)

Practical Application

I took this out for a little spin last night on a five mile run gone wrong¹. Important lesson learned; make sure you know which zone you’re selecting! My gentle run turned out to be a techno fest of “you’re heart’s too slow” as I tried to keep up with a zone 4 target for five miles.

Show 1 footnote

Training garmin, heartrate, knowledge, tips

Race Report: Knife River Solstice 5k Run

June 26, 2010 Keath No comments

If a guy gets beaten by a woman who doesn’t pass him but simply can’t be caught, did he still get “chicked”?

The Race

The Knife River Solstice Run is put on as a fundraiser for the Knife River Rec Center and has a huge amount of support for such a small race in a small town. This is how a local race should be run. The course is accurate, they’ve got enough staff to handle the field, they involve walkers and kids in integrated events instead of tacking them on as an afterthought, there’s no swag bag full of fliers and junk you don’t need, there’s recycling bins for plastic and compost bins for banana peels, they control the chute to keep finishers in order, they enforce USATF racewalking rules¹, everyone’s upbeat and friendly, people actually cheer for every finisher, there’s door prizes donated by local businesses but they don’t drag out the distribution for hours, they scale age groups and prizes to the size of the field, and they have fun, unique prizes instead of cheap generic medals or trophies. (How’s that for a sentence?)

I really liked everything about it. The course was awesome. Hilly, but awesome. It was an out and back course that wraps around the residential area of Knife River. After a short flat straightaway, there’s a short length of single-track trail (full of fun mud puddles) climbing uphill to a park near the expressway. From there we have a short rolling series of hills before a drop back down to the starting elevation, a left turn to a bit more than a quarter mile climb of 120 feet, and then a descent over that 120 feet of elevation until the turnaround point. And then we do it all in reverse. Really nice, challenging course and a nice way to explore the back roads of Knife River, such as they are.

Before the 5k, there was a 2 mile race-walk along the same course, but, obviously, turning around at the mile mark. Prizes were given for race-walk winners as well as the 5k winners. Since it was a relatively small field (maybe 150 total between runners and walkers), they used ten year age categories up to 59, plus an “over 60” group, and only gave awards for the top in each group represented. The awards, however, were awesome locally made pottery; mugs for age group winners and plates for the overall male and female finishers. Plus a bunch of locally donated door prizes given out at random after the awards². All in all, a fun run, a good crowd, and awesome community support.

Oh, and to top it off, there was a Rec Center worker taking race photos which she’s going to post to Picasa for everyone to enjoy. For free. Take note, race directors, on another reason why not to hire MarathonFoto, BrightRoom, or other such overpriced mediocrity.

I think one of the court marshals was also babysitting for a runner. Or maybe they’re a couple. Kind of unclear to those of us who are the interlopers to this community and didn’t already know everybody. But it’s Minnesota, so everyone is wicked friendly and welcoming anyway!

Wait, Where is Knife River?

Knife River is on the North Shore of Lake Superior, about 13 miles northeast of Duluth, MN. If you’ve ever run Grandma’s Marathon, Knife river is the first community you go through, from about mile 2 until mile 9 or so. It’s got a population of about 2000, but being along the Scenic Drive it gets a lot of tourist traffic³, and thus it is home to a few tasty restaurants, hotels and resorts, a trendy coffee shop, an awesome chocolate shop, and assorted other miscellany we haven’t discovered yet. It’s also got a nice pebble beach in a fairly protected harbor next to a marina operated by the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources.

Apparently, the first known total-loss American shipwreck on Lake Superior occurred at the mouth of the Knife River. The town itself was initially established as a copper mining town, but the quality of the ore in this area was poor, so they turned to logging, then eventually to commercial fishing. And now you can buy yarn, fudge, and corn to feed to animals in a petting zoo, all within ten miles of one another. Go figure.

My Race

Actually, before my rambling, a quick word on my significant other. Last night at midnight (okay, actually this morning at midnight), Ceridwen ran the Midnight Sun Midnight Run 5k on the waterfront in downtown Duluth. She wrote a guest entry this morning as a race report. She ran this Solstice Run as well. On about two hours’ sleep due to some post-race restlessness and early morning bikers revving up for their morning ride. However, she managed to finish not too far off from her time last night. Yup, two 5ks within nine hours of one another on 2 hours’ sleep. Both at times she’ hasn’t been able to hit in over a year. I’m so wicked proud of her it’s a little nauseating.

Go, girl, go!

At the same time that the bikers were waking my lovely wife, I was mozying over to register. One of the organizers was pinning past years’ results to the wall. I took a look and was cautiously optimistic about what I saw. There were maybe three to four high school or college kids each year coming in sub-19, plus Kathleen Monaghan, a surgeon from Duluth, that’s apparently a local superstar. She’s 42 and came in third last week at the William A. Irvin 5k that’s attached to Grandma’s. She also routinely finished just behind people who have reached the Olympic trials.

In other words, unless there was an influx of track kids, I had a fairly good chance of placing, certainly of placing in my age group.

When we started out, I quickly found myself running along side a woman who I could only assume was Kathleen. The pace was comfortable, but knowing her finishing times I didn’t want to stay there too long. I hung in a pace behind her and when we reached the trail portion, I slowed up just enough for another guy who was right on my tail to pop in between us. I kept up a pretty respectable tail on the two of them through the 75 foot climb single track, but they were pulling ahead. When we leveled out, the two of them stuck together as their lead on me grew.

By the time I passed the first mile mark – at 6:03 by my watch – I was really feeling last week’s marathon. And that’s the point of the long, slow 120 foot climb. I certainly lost ground on the way up, where the course marshal congratulated me on making it up the hill and pointed out that it was downhill from there. (To the turnaround, of course, meaning I had to get back uphill to him.) Although I thought I had a strong hold on third, I took a glance back on the turn and saw that the fourth place runner was closer to me than I was to Kathleen and her shadow.

I pushed to make up some ground on the downhill, only to lose it again on the way back up the hill. I think fourth-place-guy passed me on the way up the hill, but I tried my darndest to hang on to him. He was just a few paces ahead at the two mile mark – a slower, 6:49 split – but grew that to maybe ten to fifteen paces by the time we hit the singletrack again.

We came out of the woods and on to the final stretch – hitting mile three in a 6:27 split – where the wind that was at my back for the starting gun was now in my face. I picked it up a bit at the end but didn’t have much left. I couldn’t catch him, but I was damned if I was going to let the clock flip over to 20 minutes.

Final time: 19:48 by my watch – they haven’t posted results yet, but I think that’s within a second of the official clock and about 18 seconds behind third place. However, third place was only 17, second place was over 40, and first place was Kathleen. So I was the third male finisher and first for 30-39. Which is good enough for a mug! Nothing beats pottery rewards! And frankly, I’m pretty impressed with my pace for such a hilly course and only one week post-marathon⁴. It’ll be interesting to see what I can do if I focus on 5k work for the SkirtChaser in Denver.

This might replace my Harpoon BrewFest Road Race stein as my classy boubon mug. Because I'm that damn classy.

After the race, second place guy (I really need them to post results so I can put his name in here!) pointed out that we got chicked. My wife loves this term, especially when she chicks people while wearing a skirt or dress, triply so when they make comments to their friends about not wanting to be behind the girl in the dress. But neither of us were ever ahead of Kathleen. I was at her side for a few moments, and he held a pretty close shadow for more than two miles, but she never passed us. It was her race from the gun.

So did we get chicked? I vote no. We just lost to an awesome runner who happens to be female⁵.

Show 5 footnotes

Race Reports 5k, minnesota, race

Compression!

June 25, 2010 Keath 2 comments

Apparently, there’s such a thing as too much of a good thing. As with most thing, compression must be used in moderation. In hindsight, this is kind of a “duh” moment.

Those of you who follow my DailyMile may recall that between the Sunburst Marathon and Grandma’s I made several mentions of a Mystery Pain in my leg. Fortunately, it went away and didn’t bother me during Grandma’s (though just about everything else did), and it wasn’t until Sunday morning that I put two and two together and realized the culprit.

Compression socks.

As Harry Belafonte says, “I got carried away!”¹ After races or hard runs, I usually spend the evening in compression socks. I put my legs up if I’m loungin’ and maxin’ and wear them around with actual shoes². Often, I’ll even sleep in them after a particularly long run or race.

This is not wise. After Sunburst I think I wore them all day, through the night, and drove 600 miles all the next day in them. I may have even spent Sunday night in them. And then proceeded to pop them on again after every run for the next two weeks, regardless of length. The theory was that if I reduced my recovery time from each run as much as possible I’d be as ready as a could be for two marathons 14 days apart.

Wrong-o. The mystery pain in my right leg, which popped up on every run between the marathons and only encouraged me to stretch, roller massage, and wear those damn socks more, magically vanished when I started tapering and stopped wearing the socks constantly. Callooh! Callay!

So, yeah, the moral of the story is not to overdo the compression thing. Good for probably a few hours post race, but not a good idea to live in the for a week. The manufacturer (SmoothToe, in my case) claims that you can wear them all day and reap many magical benefits, but they also claim that a $10 shipping and handling fee and subscription to a sock-of-the-month club is still a “free” pair. Eh.

That is all. Except, if you didn’t catch it by the exclamation point in the title of this post, but it’s supposed to be sung to the tune of Danzig’s Posession. It’s been stuck in my head all week since I had this sock related epiphany.

Show 2 footnotes

General Blogginess knowledge, minnesota, tips

Race Report: Grandma’s Marathon

June 19, 2010 Keath 2 comments

The Race Itself

Grandma’s is one well run race. It’s a beautiful course, a smooth rolling route with no killer hills, full of awesome volunteers, and lined with incredible spectators! Yeah, the expo was pretty blah and I wasn’t exactly thrilled with the shuttle driver (could’ve just been my guy’s attitude), but the race itself was wicked awesome. I pretty much recommend it to anyone – even if you don’t run, come cheer, drink, and hang out.

The first 19 miles of Grandma’s Marathon is run on Scenic Drive along the North Shore of Lake Superior. As you might surmise from the name of the road, there’s tons of views over the lake. It was a beautifully clear morning, so there were boats out on the river and miles of clear views. At the end of the scenic drive we swing up on in to town, first along a residential neighborhood where many college students live, then in to downtown proper where the race goes along brick-paved Superior Street, and loops back around to finish in Canal Park near Grandma’s Saloon & Grill.

Along the scenic route there are water stations every two miles (starting at mile 3) and I didn’t expect to see many people outside of those volunteers. Boy was I wrong. Aside from people just hanging out on their front yard, there were crowds near every cross street where people could sneak down from the expressway, plus several groups of people who’d hop on their bikes or brave the expressway in a car to pop out over and over again, presumably following a friend or family member in the race. (My favorite was a guy wearing an umbrella hat who was cheering on his son, but stuck around for at least a while after his son passed, encouraging the rest of us and asking us to keep an eye on his son.)

In addition to the obscenely enthusiastic spectators, a few of them were in costume. Highlights; a small army of people in Elvis costumes dancing to what I can only assume was an all-Elvis playlist, three guys in Victorian drag who kept popping up along the racecourse, and a man in a chicken suit on a trampoline just behind a sign that said something along the lines of “dance for candy runners!” as he danced to the Chicken Dance.

Favorite sign: “RANDOM STRANGER I AM SO PROUD OF YOU!”

When we hit mile 19 the water stops started being every mile and the spectator swarm in between them became non-stop. People bring their lawn chairs, kitchen furniture, and/or living room couches out to the course to cheer people on. And perhaps offer them a drink. Not just beer, mind you. That’s so cliche and Philadelphia¹. Duluthians offer up margaritas, rum & coke, and mysteriously unidentified “shots.” Not to mention all the home-made water, fruit, and candy stations.

Mad props to the dozen or so folks to run their garden hose out to a street-side ladder and strap a sprinkler of to the top for runners to cool down under. Especially the guy near downtown that apparently rigged up a permanent double spray rig complete with it’s own shut-off valve. Yeah, I was pretty jealous of the rig.

The volunteers at every water stop were awesome. And there were tons of them. Some water stops did themes or costumes, but they were all quick, spread out, and did an awesome job. It took six or seven miles for the field to spread out to a reasonable rate, but the volunteers at the even the first few stops were able to keep up with both the dehydrated runners and ridiculous levels of enthusiasm.

The finish line area was a bit chaotic; the food and friend meetup was on one side of the corral while the gear check pickup and post-race party was on the other side, requiring multiple crossings of the corral. To top it off, getting back to the shuttle busses required crossing the runners still on the course in their last half mile. There’s got to be a better layout. But that’s about my only gripe. Aside from the bus driver lying to me and the fact that it took twenty minutes to get outside of Duluth.

Bittersweet Irony

So if you’ve been following my recent folly of three marathons too close to one another, you’re aware that when I ran the Sunburst Marathon in South Bend I realized it was an evil humid day and shooting for a PR was Not a Good Idea. I slowed up and just ran without worrying about pace with the intent of not burning myself out so I could push hard at Grandma’s. In the intervening weeks I decided not to shoot quite so high and target a 3:20 instead of 3:10, starting slow and picking up on miles 5-20 to hopefully finish strong.

Short version: I finished Sunburst more than 15 minutes faster than Grandma’s. And while Sunburst felt like a nice easy run, I felt like I fought for every mile of Grandma’s. My second slowest marathon ever. Even slower (albiet by a minute) than the New Hampshire Marathon I did just a few days after getting over swine flu last fall.

Me, enthusiastic and happy, at mile 5.4, before the Dark Times. Before the Empire.

To be lengthier, I started off strong and on pace. I ran the first five miles nice and slow, hanging pretty close to a 7:50 average – a little fast according to plan, but far better than starting out at 6:50 when targeting a 7:15 even pace. After mile five is where I was supposed to pick it up to 7:33 miles. I never quite hit that target, but I was still holding pretty solid to finish 3:30 or shortly thereafter. The highlight of the race was mile 5.4 where the Best Spectator Ever² took this photo of me. And it went downhill from there. Net downhill. Ba-dum-ching.

Around mile 9 I started slowing up a little each mile. Nothing in particular hurt and I wasn’t exhausted or anything like that. I just couldn’t keep it going. And to top it off, around mile 15 I apparently developed a hell blister on the middle toe on my left foot that caused agonizing pain every other step. The walk breaks got a little ridiculous at that point, but I managed to resist the urge to give up at any of the three drop out points and am glad I did.

Somewhere in the last 10k, as the downtown crowds got louder, drunker, and more excited, the blister apparently popped and I was able to trudge on without the pain. A woman in a lawn chair even yelled at me to remind me it was fun. Just what I needed at the moment. In fact, a lot of spectators are really good at connecting with individual runners and telling us exactly what we need, especially when we’re not doing too hot. It was like having thousands of close friends helping to coach you along. I think it weren’t for them and my wife’s encouraging text messages I probably would have given in to the urge to curl up in a shrub and cry. Yes – it sucked that much. For a few miles I actually hated running today. I’ve never hated running before³.

At the finish line I was chatting with some people I was running with some folks from DailyMile that I’d met the night before and was reminded that I still finished and sometimes that’s all that matters. I also realized later, when I was reviewing the results, that even though I missed my personal goals, I’m “settling” for a time that’s still in the top 50% of the age group, gender, and overall field⁴.

But there’s still a short list of things that should be self evident to normal people but I had to learn the hard way:

Five weeks is not enough time to train to any significant performance improvement.
Forgetting to eat anything for nine miles is dumb.
I probably need more sleep. In general, and particularly the week of a race.

My final chip time was 4:03:47, 1949th overall (out of 5597 finishers), the 1484th guy (of 3456), and 607th in the open (19-34) age group (of 1344). I’m glad I did it, but I think me and the marathon need a trial separation. We’ll keep in touch, but also see other race distances; I think I’m good for 2010.

Show 4 footnotes

Race Reports crash and burn, marathon, minnesota, race

World Class Event. Small Town Charm.

June 18, 2010 Keath 1 comment

So they claim. Didn’t realize Duluth was a “small town,” but I guess compared to other cities that can handle a 9500 person marathon and 5000 person half along with a 1500 person 5k, it’s pretty small. But it’s certainly a city. A pretty cool, mostly industrial city three hours from anywhere else right at the tip of Lake Superior.

I wasn’t originally planning on running Grandma’s Marathon. I had planned on the Sunburst Races Marathon in South Bend being one last shot at qualifying for Boston in the open division, but it was not to be. (See my race report for an Ode to Humidity.) But somewhere between Kentucky and Indiana ¹ my personal trainer, coach, cheering department, and occasional reality check² found Grandma’s and thought it would be a good back-up plan to Sunburst. Which turned out to be a good plan, given the 94% humidity in South Bend. Knowing that Grandma’s was coming up two weeks after Sunburst helped me let go of the “race mentality” and really enjoy a nice long run in preparation for tomorrow.

So here we are. In Duluth, the day before. It’s been pouring rain on and off for the two weeks since we got here so I didn’t get a lot of running in (never mind the whole recovery/taper thing) but we’ve been living at an RV park right on the race course ³ and the miles I did were right on the course. As a result, I’m pretty intimately familiar with the first 9 miles or so (which is where the “hills,” such as they are, are). Hopefully, this will help me keep on pace for something new.

My Plan

As far as I can tell, Grandma’s has no pace groups. So I’m going to try an approach recommended by Coach Patrick at MarathonNation; Negative Splits, but not really. Miles 1-5 are done at 15 seconds slower than target. Miles 5-20 are done at 5 seconds faster than target, and the last 10k is done right on target. Because I’m precise like that.

EDIT: They DO have pace groups! My starting pace is in between 3:30 and 3:20, so I won’t be with them, but it’ll good to have them as indicators.

I’m also going to try and be realistic and not burn myself out again shooting for a BQ time. It’s not going to be as humid as South Bend, but we’re probably starting at around 80% humidity and reducing to maybe 50% by the three hour mark, which is still pretty humid. So I’m shooting for a 3:20ish, which would still be a PR for me and make me very happy⁴. Following Coach Patrick’s plan, that would be five miles at 7:53, then fifteen at 7:33, and the final stretch at 7:38, which just looks so much more appealing than 26 even 7:15 miles.

Yup. So that’s the plan.

The Expo

We were planning on hitting the Expo today, but I’ve been wicked stir crazy lately⁵ and foolishly suggested we head in last night to avoid the crowds. On one hand, I’m glad we did, because the Expo felt crowded when it was empty and I fear what it will look like today. On the other hand, I’ve been regretting it ever since, because I inadvertently dragged My Awesome Wife along when she really wanted to stay home and veg out⁶. Problem is, I still want to see Kara Goucher and Hal Higdon speak, and maybe grab a signed copy of Hal’s novel, Marathon. And hopefully catch up with some DailyMile folks. And most importantly, I’ve got a race packet for Sam from Operation Jack who’s getting in late tonight and is going to need his bib before marathon 30 of the 60 he’s doing this year to raise money and awareness for Train4Autism. Half way point, Sam!

The Expo, overall, was pretty disappointing. Aside from the weird layout that made it feel crowded, it had no sponsor or community content. You know the block of stores selling running gear that you really shouldn’t even be thinking about the day before a race and cotton t-shirts with vaguely run-related witticism that they usually use to fill out expos with? That’s all they had. No cheerful running community chatting with people, handing out fliers for local events; no local chiropractors and physical therapists giving out coupons and random trinkets with their logos; no tasty food samples of the latest form of digestible nutrients; no spin-the-wheel-and-win-free-rice; you get the idea. The one cool thing was that SuperOne, a regional supermarket, set up a mini-grocery store of produce and the like, which it probably pretty handy for those who are staying in a hotel with no car or desire to wander aimlessly looking for food. ⁷ And Hal signing his book, but by the time I got to him he was packing up – hopefully he’ll be there today and it will be safe to venture in.

Duluth

The best part about this is how big a deal the marathon is to Duluth and the surrounding area. It’s THE event this weekend. I’ve seen television ads for big races before, but never specific ads inviting the public to the spaghetti dinner or Expo. I’ve never heard such frequent mention of a race on the radio – multiple channels and in casual DJ conversation, not ads. For the past two weeks, all over town, when people find out we’re not local they ask if we’re running the marathon. (And the full or the half? And is it your first or your fiftieth? What’s your favorite distance? Etc…)

There are banners up all through the city. The route has been marked since we got here. Every business in town that can figure out a way to tie it in is doing some sort of promotion for the weekend. Even Two Harbors, the smaller dock town near the start line has signs and promotions running all over the place. There are rumors of different bars around town having free beer for the first few finishers to show up with a bib (how’s that for incentive?). Grandma’s is selling 26.2 ounce cocktails post-race (in those cheesy plastic souvenier yards). Even my RV park owner gets in on it; he plays accordian in an Irish band (though I think he’s of Norwegian decent…?) and owns a business on the course: look for Ninety to the Dozen performing under a Norwegian flag somewhere near a Red Baron style airplane and flying saucer made from old satellites.

Did I mention northern Minnesotans are a little bit crazy? I love it here.

Show 7 footnotes

Pre-Race marathon, minnesota, rambling

Realizations

June 10, 2010 Keath 3 comments

I have come to a few realizations over the past few days.

I had zero soreness on Sunday. Granted, I pulled back and didn’t push too hard for most of Saturday’s marathon, but to wake up the next morning with no ill effects was pretty cool. That’s never happened before and it’s pretty exciting. I spent nearly ten hours on the road driving from South Bend (technically, Bristol, IN) to Duluth (technically, Knife River, MN) and the only time my body reminded me that I’d run 26 miles the day before was on the way down the stairs at the Leinenkugel Brewery tour. And that was a pretty mild reminder.
A 20 minute PR to qualify for Boston is probably a bit more of a stretch than I’ve been letting myself acknowledge. I knew it wouldn’t be an easy goal, but considering the only marathon I’ve finished faster than 3:44 was the very flat Museum of Aviation Marathon on a cool, rainy day in January, trying to best my non-MoAM time by over half an hour is way to big of a leap. Instead of trying again and having to fade back, I’ll use Grandma’s to try and add another sub-3:40 time to my log and focus on using Coach Patrick’s +/-/even splits that he has available at marathonnation.us. (Short version; do miles 1-5 at :15 slower than even splits, miles 6-20 at :05 faster than even, and the last 10k at even.) I’m thinking of targeting 3:20, giving myself 10 minutes of wiggle room to keep a PR. If I find a nice northwestern marathon in the fall I can still pick up the speedwork to train for that as my one last try for a BQ.
I really suck at pacing. This will make the aforementioned plan challenging, but spending the next week and a half focusing on practicing accurate pacing will keep me from taking on a long training run that will impair my performance at Grandma’s.
Duluth takes it’s marathon seriously. There are television ads for the spaghetti dinner. There are ads inviting the general public to the race expo. The course is already marked. Everyone who lives along Scenic Drive participates. (The owner of the RV park we’re staying at – mile 5.4ish – has a band that will be performing on race day. He also has a sweet 1927 hot rod Ford that will probably not be allowed on the race course.) It’s kind of hard not to get excited.
I have not been using the heart rate training I spent so much time researching. You’d think that after writing up a fairly lengthy two-part manifesto on the matter (part one, part two) I’d be cruisin’ the streets with a heart rate monitor reaping the benefits of awesome benefit-specific training runs. Not so much. It’s far too easy to just go out for a run and have fun. Time to get back to my commitment to myself to make every run count. Not that I want to not have fun, but for me, having a plan allows me to have Fun With a Purpose.
Duluth is further north than Concord, NH. Just sayin’.
My big toe nail has finally fallen off. I feel liberated. I cracked it back in January, clipped it back and cracked it a little further down in April, and have been walking around with half a toe nail for the last few weeks. There’s finally enough proto-nail going on that it pushed the old nail up and just gave up last time I clipped it. I commemorated this event with a new Twitter hashtag: #notasgrossasexpected. Use it often.

So what am I doing with these realizations? Reassessing my approach to next Saturday a bit, reassessing my approach to the limited training time I have between now and then, and looking forward to next Saturday a lot more than I thought I did.

In unrelated news, I learned yesterday that thanks to Homeland Security new I-9 requirements I need to make my way to an office sometime before July 16, which means either a six hour round trip road trip to nowhere or leaving Duluth before the airshow. Alas.

General Blogginess knowledge, minnesota, rambling

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