Posts Tagged ‘races’

Hiccup

First, the Monday holiday condensed my work week, so the Carnival of Running will appear tomorrow. My apologies.

Next, you may have noticed a dearth of training updates since last Tuesday, and that’s because I developed lower right leg pain soon after my 5k. This time it’s not a shin splint, nor my chronic peroneal tendinitis. It’s difficult to pinpoint, but it seems to originate in my arch, and long distances spread the soreness and stiffness to the top of my foot and up the outer side of my right leg.

I took 4 days off, ran 6 miles on Saturday, then tried a long run on Monday, but I gave it up after about 20 strides. I could have continued, but it was immediately obvious I would have to quit before reaching double-digits, so why aggravate it?

Took Tuesday off, and ran 6 today at an 8:29 average pace. Felt OK, and I’m using a lot of ice. Bottom line: My focus is just getting through the next couple of weeks. I don’t know what will happen to my marathon plans. Common sense would dictate resting until I’m 100%, but there’s no way I could restore that lost training and run a decent race. Anyway, the message I’m getting after six lower leg injuries in three years is that it might be time for me to become 5k-10k Guy and leave the longer distances to the indestructible old dudes and you young pups. If so, it’s moderately disappointing, but jeez, you can’t say I didn’t keep trying.

I get moody when I can’t run, so this morning’s jaunt was soothing. I took my blood pressure afterwards and got a reading of 102/43. I knew that couldn’t be right so I took it again and got a 100/52. Maybe I’m dead.

The Great Funny/Viper Challenge

OK, I think I’ve done something stupid.

No, no, I haven’t hurt myself again. I was roaming the blogs yesterday and I came across this post by Viper. He mentioned his training for the Tallmadge Memorial 5k (being held, strangely enough, on Memorial Day) and how he planned to best his PR of 23:28. He has been building mileage, but feels he is currently shy of what he needs to set a new mark. He was looking to motivate himself.

So, naturally, I got the brilliant idea of helping out both Viper and me. I also run a 5k on Memorial Day each year, appropriately called the No Excuses 5k. So I challenged him to a virtual race and he accepted.

My advantages: My 5k PR is exactly one minute faster than his, and I ran my last 5k in 23:08.

His advantages: Viper has run two consecutive 20-mile weeks and will increase. I’ve run about 12 miles in the last six weeks, total. His track sessions are already sub-8-minute miles. He’s also about 20 years younger than I am.

It’s entirely a friendly competition, I’m a good loser, and it’s only for bragging rights, but I am devoted to exercising my bragging rights when I win them.

Anyway, I went out for my first post-challenge run this morning. I arrange my return from injury the same way each time. There is a 1.75-mile loop around my neighborhood that I run every other day until I can do it in under 14 minutes (8:00 pace). Once I’m able to do that, I upgrade to a 2.4-mile loop until I can run that sub-19:15.

This morning I ran a 14:18 (8:10 pace), which is much better than I have any right to expect, but my stamina is AWFUL. If I had to run a 5k tomorrow, I’d be very lucky to go sub-27.

So I’ve got three whole weeks to chop about 3 1/2 to 4 minutes off my 5k time. HA HA HA HA! Now that’s funny.

The Missing Ingredient

The Santa Speedo Run finally gets the one thing it has always needed…women. Read the story here, and view the “jumping jacks” video here, if your eyes can stand it.

Training Forward

I’ve always selected my target race first, then worked my training schedule backwards from it. That worked pretty well as long as I stayed healthy, but after a few injuries it cost me quite a bit of money in lost race registrations and training program fees.

Since the goal now is not just to run a marathon, but to run one under 3:36, I don’t see any point in selecting the race first, then trying to fit the training into that timetable. Instead, I’m training to run as many 8-minute miles as I can possibly string together. Once I get myself back close to my half-marathon PR time (1:41), then I’ll start thinking about races and schedules.

So, managed a pretty good tempo run today – six miles in 48:23.

No Excuses

Too old to win anymore? Here’s one race that levels the playing field for veteran runners.

The Buzz Oates No Excuses 5k in Sacramento, California, is the brainchild of Rich Hanna of Capital Road Race Management. Some of you may recognize Rich as a great but unheralded ultramarathoner. He won a silver medal at the World 100k in 2001, and he’s still formidable at age 43. Last March, he won the Bidwell Classic Half Marathon, then went out the next week and placed fifth in the Way Too Cool 50k with a time of 3:39 (for comparison, ultra legend Tim Twietmeyer finished 50th in the same race).

Rich’s No Excuses race automatically adjusts each runner’s chip time for age and sex. For example, the time of a male runner aged 22-29 would receive no adjustment, but a 76-year-old woman would have her time reduced by 15:09. The race website has a page that explains how the handicap is computed for each age.

You don’t have to understand the system to enjoy the results. A large-screen TV is placed at the finish line so runners can see how their age-adjusted time has moved them up or down in the rankings. First place, or any other place, can change well after the first runner has crossed the finish line. This year a 17-year-old male was the first to finish, but he ultimately ended up in 10th. The age-adjusted winner was a 68-year-old woman who ran a 23:11. You can compare the raw results here with the age-adjusted results here.

There are no age group awards. Instead, the top 50 age-adjusted finishers receive a plaque. As the race goes on, the runner currently in 50th place is sent to sit in the Buzz Oates Hot Seat, which is a comfy recliner donated by a local store. As more people finish, the person in 50th changes, and is sent to the hot seat. Whoever ends up in 50th place when the race is over wins the recliner!

If you’re not lucky enough to win an award or a recliner, at least everyone goes home with a prized No Excuses t-shirt. On the back it reads:

“Why I Didn’t Win the Buzz Oates No Excuses 5k – Check all that apply” then lists various excuses, including:

• I didn’t want to give anyone low self-esteem.
• Global warming.
• I can hide, but I can’t run.
• Too many slow-twitch muscles.
• Galloway method didn’t work.

The age-grading didn’t do me much good. It pushed me in front of 24 runners, but it pushed 49 other runners in front of me. The beauty of the race is you only have to get older to improve your time. That I can handle.

The Agony of De-Feet

The Boston Marathon. The Peachtree Road Race. The Fifth Avenue Mile. And now, the Glamour Stiletto Run.

Laugh if you will, but the next time you find yourself complaining about blisters, black toenails and bunions after a training run, think of how you would feel after running that same distance in high heels.

That’s just what 150 women did in Amsterdam in the latest incarnation of the Glamour Stiletto Run. The race covers 350 meters in the heart of Amsterdam’s upscale shopping district, with a nasty 90-degree turn early on. The winner receives a 10,000 euro shopping spree. The catch is that you have to wear heels of 3-4 inches. No platforms, pumps, espadrilles and, especially, no running shoes.

Stiletto races are becoming all the rage in Europe, with races of varying lengths in Denmark, Poland, Russia and Germany. This British TV report will give you a good view of the proceedings, but this Dutch report includes the pre-race expo and post-race shopping.

It doesn’t appear the idea has caught on too well on this side of the ocean. A stiletto run in Mexico City limited participants to “women by nature” and was met with protests. Last year’s Amsterdam run spawned a heated exchange on (where else?) Manolo’s Shoe Blog.

But we prefer to avoid the social and cultural implications of a high-heeled race and focus our investigatory powers on a different question: ringers!

Tamara Ruben, the winner of the Amsterdam stiletto race, is an international-class athlete in the 400 meter high hurdles, finishing fifth in the SPAR European Cup.

It’s a short hop from high hurdles to high heels. If the amateur nature of stiletto runs isn’t protected, we can expect other European nations to field ringers. The Ukrainian contingent would be particularly formidable.

Running with the Chowhounds

Most runners choose races based on the location, the terrain, the crowds, or the reputation. I often choose them for the food.

For years I ran a nasty, hilly 5-mile trail race because of the post-race pancakes and sausage. The California International Marathon serves up warm tomato soup, but this pales in comparison to the hearty minestrone ladled out at the Big Sur Half Marathon on Monterey Bay. The one race where I could have used some hot soup—the rainy and cold Mayor’s Midnight Sun Half-Marathon in Anchorage, Alaska—we instead received fruit and fresh bread.

The strangest “food race” I ever ran was the America’s Finest City Half Marathon in San Diego. Somewhere around mile 10, next to the volunteers distributing water and electrolyte drinks, there was a group of guys around a grill handing out hamburgers.

After the race, they served beer. But the city of San Diego frowns upon alcoholic beverages in Balboa Park, so race officials had to set up a tiny, fenced-off area where you could drink your beer. Imagine, if you will, a large mob of sweaty, beer-drinking runners, crammed shoulder-to-shoulder, fenced off from friends and spectators in a public park. It was like a beer refugee camp. (The race no longer serves beer, “because of liquor liability and insurance issues.”)

Some races heavily promote the post-race food to attract entrants. The Hartford Marathon touts its distinction as the home of “some of the best post-race food in North America,” according to The Ultimate Guide to Marathons. Race organizers have even published the post-race menu on their Web site, which includes organic spinach orzo salad with roasted vegetables, homemade apple crisp with fresh whipped cream, yellow rice and beans, and grilled plantains.

What are your favorite race food memories? Worst (or wurst)? Share them in the comments section and I’ll run an update to this column in the future.