Category: News

All Things Considered, Not That Bad!

Today I ran the New Balance Fifth Avenue Mile in 6:09. Not great, but not that bad considering this intense summer of work!

Today’s race was my slowest Fifth Avenue Mile ever, but I didn’t legitimately train for it as I had hoped to do. My last time running this race was 5:51 in 2018, so this race was 18 seconds slower. However, I’m not too bummed about that, and I’m actually slightly impressed that I pulled off a 6:09 because I’ve been really pressed to get in runs and workouts amid working nearly seven days a week with early calltimes, while training for a fall marathon.  I don’t have the kind of time some people do to train!

Here are my unofficial results per my Garmin:

Like last time, I jogged from my home area to get to the starting line around E. 80th St.  That was a 1.43-mile run that I lazily did at an 8:29 pace — not too fast, and not super slow. It was cloudy, almost as if it could rain. The humidity was 70%, the dewpoint was 61, and the temperature was around 72. It didn’t feel all that humid, but they were suboptimal conditions, especially considering my lack of training.

I wasn’t sure what would happen in this race. My last run — a 10-miler on Thursday — had me running my last mile at a 2022 “record” (per Garmin) of 7:16. I had some sense that might be my upper border for this race, unless sprinting overcame me. But my training has been mostly longer runs often of 8 miles or longer, and I’ve only sporadically added in hills and sprints, pretty much in ways that unlikely had measurable impact. My calltimes have been such that I would get into Central Park often in the 5am hour, and it was a desperate race to get in my mileage before a 12-hour day on a TV show coupled with voiceover orders after. If I didn’t feel like a long run, instead of opting for a short run, I’d hit the gym, which I generally couldn’t also do on running days. It’s a wonder I didn’t end up injured after all this, because I’ve been getting by with about 4 hours or so of sleep too many nights!

My math was that hitting 71st St. at 3:00 meant I was on pace to possibly run this race in 6:00. Drilling down, my math was that at the 1/4-mile mark, that meant running a 1:30. I thought it unlikely either of these events would happen, so I also figured that a 1/4-mile 1:45 and a 71st St. 3:30 would mean I was on pace for a 7:00 mile.

After the gun went off, it actually took me about 30 seconds to cross the start line. I was surprised by that, but not unnerved — it just meant the clock wasn’t that telling about my actual pace. My watch was a bit hard to read with respect to my current pace, but I figured that somewhere vaguely around the 3/4-mile mark I was at 4:43. This was telling me that I could try to speed things up. I know I’ve powered through fierce sprints at the ends of these races, and I actually enjoy them. I ended up putting on those jets again with one of my classic “super sprints” around the sign for 200 meters to go (perhaps not as impressively as I might have liked), but it had to help. I probably ended this race was some gas still in the tank, but that I didn’t expend it all was because at the beginning, having not trained, it was difficult to mete out my energy, especially considering the first part of the race with exuberant runners is downhill, and I’ve learned not to go too fast at the start of this race.

I’m carrying more muscle than usual (not to say I’m at a fully health weight), weighing for this around 186.8 lbs at the start. (About 8 lbs heavier than last time.) This added weight probably slowed me down a little, but it’s hard to blame my weight for the slower time. Although not having trained is the most important factor, the humidity and warm temperature also played a factor, perhaps the scariest factor in the leadup to this race as I felt it would dictate how good or bad I felt running this.

As I write this recap, I’m wondering if next year I can run this race by focusing solely on it and not on any marathons. We’ll see!

Canceled the NYC Marathon 2013

I just canceled my entry into the NYC Marathon 2013.

This is the first time I’ve canceled a marathon.  I was a couple weeks behind in official training, and the training I’ve done thus far has been minimal.  My extremely busy work schedule was the biggest reason why I wasn’t able to train.  I’ve been working since May about 5 to nearly 7 days a week. Getting up regularly before 5am, 4am, even once before 3am and working long, unpredictable hours on different productions led to tiredness and left me unmotivated to get out for runs, even when I had the time to do so.  I’d lost most of my fitness since my 3:38 Boston Marathon in Spring 2013, so I was training from the beginning and the mountain of training ahead of me in light of lots of unpredictable work seemed insurmountable.

I realized that not-training for the marathon would mean I wouldn’t feel the building psychic pressure to get in greater and greater miles of running during the week, especially during a very hot NYC summer.  I would be saner, happier, and likely healthier without marathon training.  If I canceled the marathon, I could still run, but I wouldn’t be trying to achieve an ambitious goal in an unforgiving schedule that rarely concedes to the time and energy demands of marathon training.

I had been trying to take some time off from work this week to reset my health a bit, but I ended up working five days this week in high-paying jobs that were not in my interests to refuse.  It was in this period that I got the idea to cancel the marathon as a step to get healthier.  Immediately it felt like a good decision.  I’d have to eat about $225, but I’d get guaranteed entry into the NYC Marathon 2014 should I want to do it.

I gave the decision a few days, and moments ago I canceled the marathon for this year.

Fortunately I waited to sign up for the Philly and Atlantic City Marathons.  I was tempted to run both of them this year.  But before signing up for either, I remembered from last year when I ran these two marathons with the NYC Replacement Marathon between them — all in four weeks’ time — that I was really irritable when it came to doing all three, and that there were real expenses when it came to choosing to do so.  Also concerned I might end up injured training this year, I held back on signing up for these other marathons.  And it’s a good thing I didn’t, now that I know I won’t be doing NYC or any other marathon.

My next steps are to see how I bring a different kind of fitness back to my life.  I’m looking at bringing a new balance in my life if I can.

Well, That Happened!

A Race!  Boston Marathon 2013

8:19s  |  26.2 miles  |  42~48°F

Today I ran the 2013 Boston Marathon.  I completed it in 3:37:59 (8:19s).  Definitely not one of my faster marathons, but at least I got to finish!

I’m actually writing this entry on Sunday, April 21, 2013, and backdating it.  I’ve just gotten around to writing it, after a tumultuous week of news surrounding the tragic events that happened about an hour and ten minutes after I finished the marathon.  So some of the information in this entry may seem futuristic relative to the publication date.

Official Stats per BAA.org

Bib No. 5653 (Wave 1, Corral 6)

Splits:

5k 10k 15k 20k Half 25k 30k 35k 40k
0:22:45 0:46:22 1:09:30 1:33:41 1:38:46 1:58:10 2:25:12 2:53:22 3:24:45

 

Finish:

Pace Projected Time Official Time Overall Gender Division
0:08:19 3:37:59 3:37:59 10638 7608 3242

 

Unofficial Stats per my Garmin 610

The day started off with relatively ideal conditions.  It was mostly cloudy but the sun was peeking out.  It was cool but not too cold, with a forecast for the race to get up to about 56 degrees — optimal for me.  I was at the runner’s village with Elizabeth Corkum, who was also running it, set to pace her friend and running teammate Cip.  They weren’t able to rendezvous at the village because of poor cell phone signal and low cell battery, but eventually found themselves in the corral.  Elizabeth’s more remarkable stories of the day are here: Ode to Boston | Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3

I wasn’t feeling all that great this morning, which is generally a good thing for me in terms of racing because I tend to do fairly well when I feel bad in the morning.  It was mostly a less than comfortable feeling in my digestive system but nothing that really terrified me.  I wasn’t sure how I’d race today.  I had not really put much strategy into the race this time, relying mostly on my 2011 Boston Marathon experience when I ran 3:15:16 (7:27s).  I did not think I would achieve that level of performance this year; instead, I estimated I’d finish around a 3:25.

I ended up in Corral 6 in the first wave, which started at 10am.  My impromptu strategy this time was to do a bit of research: I recalled how fast these first miles leaving Hopkinton could be, even without effort, so I decided I would run slowly out of the gate to see what that might do for my later effort.  This included slapping kids’ hands on the right side of the course, which I thought would help to slow me down a bit.  In my first miles I was mostly in the mid-7:10s without much effort, with a couple of slowdowns when I took a bathroom break during the 4th mile and stopped to loosen my laces in the 5th mile after having an intensifying tingling sensation in my left foot.  The sensation didn’t relent so I decided I’d just see if I could deal with it while running and see if it would go away.  It eventually did — I think sometime during the 10th or 11th mile.  (I wondered if hydrating myself had any impact in the tingling going away because the loosened laces didn’t seem to help!)

My pace started to slow around the 8th mile, going into 7:20s territory and then quickly moving up past 7:30s up to an 8:00 for my 15th mile.  During this time, I ticked off one of my things to do : get a kiss from a Wellesley girl or two.  I found a spot where I thought I could get kissed on both cheeks by two girls.  I got one kiss and quickly left.  It was only after then that I realized that it was more the point to kiss a Wellesley girl than by kissed by one.  Darn!  Well, maybe I’ll try next time.

Once I ran 16 miles, I saw the game change for me.  In my most recent training runs, I’d been able to get my 16-mile runs down to close to two hours, and here I was hitting that just about on the button, just a few seconds to maybe a minute slower than that pace.  But from this point I realized that’s when things will get really tough with this race (what with the Newton Hills just ahead, plus the challenging last 10K), so I wasn’t expecting myself to hold to that pace, especially since my recent training had tapered too soon quite accidentally from being trapped in an unrelenting work schedule.  Sure enough, it was after this point that my splits changed from sub-8:00s to ultra-8:00s, ultra-9:00s, and even ultra-10:00s!  (There was one notable exception on the fast and exhilarating downhill off of Heartbreak Hill when I ran a 7:53.)

As far as the Newton Hills, the first one seemed the longest.  The next two are a bit of a blur, with the downhills of these three seeming quite long.  If I’d had more energy for these hills, I might have tried to shave off some time on these downhills.  The fourth and final hill, Heartbreak Hill, indeed starts at the traffic light with a little bump, and concludes at a curve where I think there’s another traffic light.  I was crawling along but didn’t stop.  It was really fun getting some energy back on the long downhill out of Heartbreak Hill.

The Citgo sign is a welcome sight implying that you’re really close to the finish.  You see it from a bit back then you don’t … and then you do.  This second time you see it is more promising.  However, there is a highway overpass of a very steep grade at this point in the race (steep to me at this point, that is!), so that’s to be remembered.  From 2011, I remembered how hard all of the remaining hills were to me but this time they were a little less difficult except for this one.  I was really drained for a lot of this 2013 race at the end.  Crawling along in the ultra-9:00s and 10:00s, I wanted to stop but kept myself motivated enough to put one foot in front of the other and by reminding myself I’d only be running about 18-20 minutes more.

Elizabeth’s boyfriend Chris was near the end of the course, so that was also a motivator for me.  He didn’t know exactly where he’d be so that was going to be a bit of a challenge for me to pick him out, so I didn’t lose too much energy trying to find him.  He was going to be positioned near the underpass inside the last mile — this underpass below Massachusetts Avenue was across the street from our hotel, The Eliot.  In the end, I missed Chris, and I continued on toward the Hereford turn and then to Boylston.

On Boylston, I picked up my pace just a bit, with my strategy being to sprint only once I hit the last cross-street, Exeter.  I came upon an older man running in front of me whose shirt claimed he was 60 or so, and not wanting him to beat me, I made sure to pick up the pace enough to get by him.  When I hit Exeter, I turned on the gas, and I ended up robo-sprinting through the finish line.

Since it was so helpful in 2011, I did the same this year and held the hands of some volunteers while I walked the intersection to get water.  I picked up water, Gatorade, a heatsheet, medal, and other nourishment, all moaning a bit with my calves really aching.  Once I accumulated all of my stuff, I decided to rest my legs a bit by stepping each one at a time on the lower rail of a security gate, with a volunteer making sure I was okay.  I was, though I was aching.  I then made my way over to the buses to get my bag, then off to the family reunion area.  At some point I called Chris to triangulate with him.  I decided to head over to his general area on Massachusetts and Commonwealth.

The route wasn’t as direct as it could be because of the road closures, so I hacked my way a bit in our hotel’s general direction.  I ended up being near the finish so I turned down I believe Exeter and ended up very near the finish line.  I was walking along the south part of the race, right in front of Lord & Taylor.  It was in front of Lord & Taylor that I encountered a disturbing mass of people, pretty much sealed in like sardines with almost no room to move.  The sidewalk was packed with about 3-6 rows of people watching, with only about two rows of people getting by near the wall of the store — and they were hardly moving.  We would take babysteps every few seconds.  I had two thoughts around this time: 1) if a bomb went off here it wouldn’t be pretty, and 2) why are there not police officers regulating the flow of people here?  It was definitely unsafe.  Where I was ended up being I believe diagonal from each of the bombs that were to go off minutes later.

Eventually I freed myself from the pedestrian traffic and made my way along Boylston.  Lots of “Congratulations!” were uttered to me as I’d walked from the family reunion area, and they continued even to this point.  I reached Hereford and all this time I’d been looking to see if I’d see Elizabeth and Cip finishing, but given what Chris had said about their time I figured it would still be a while.  I thought about turning down the west side of Hereford but there looked to be so many people, I didn’t really want to endure navigating another mass of people.  So I kept going along Boylston until I got to Massachusetts Ave., and I saw Chris waiting for me at Commonwealth.

We talked outside the hotel there at the corner for a bit.  Chris said Elizabeth and Cip had just passed by, and sure enough soon after we got simultaneous text messages alerting us that they’d finished.  It must have been three minutes later that we heard an enormous boom.  I only remember one boom, but Chris remembered two.  I looked to the police officers there who were regulating traffic and they seemed to look at each other, but we all carried on a moment later as if that-was-that.  While it did sound like an explosion, I didn’t know the city very well so I figured it must have been loud sound on a construction site or something.  It sounded like a dump truck hitting a pothole, which is a very loud sound.  However, it sounded about ten times louder than that.

Chris went off to grab some lunch and I went up to the hotel room.  Chris had left the TV on and I was watching The Talk on CBS and nourishing myself when suddenly breaking news came out.  That sound I’d heard indeed was an explosion.  In fact, it was at the marathon.  Early reports were of limbs.  It didn’t sit well.  I first thought it must have been some tragic explosion of an oxygen tank at a medical tent.  It wasn’t long before I realized it was something else.

Eventually I got a call from Elizabeth from Cip’s phone.  Elizabeth hadn’t been able to reach Chris and since her cell phone battery was dead she had to use her friend’s phone.  She said she had just finished about three minutes prior and had to run away.  She was definitely in a state of excitation and I remained calm and asked her to remain calm.  I figured it was all over — of course I didn’t know but I didn’t doubt that.  She explained that the route back to our hotel was cut off now, so she would go to Cip’s hotel near Boston Common (the other side of the finish line from us) where she could also recharge her phone.  Chris, who’d just gotten Elizabeth a burrito, was with me before he decided he’d see if he could walk over to her hotel to get her.  He did, and meanwhile I got out messages that I was safe to those I knew who knew I was running.  I did that nearly the entire time Chris was gone, when he came back with Elizabeth.

It is about there that my story ends.  The only eerie thing for me is that I was on Boylston minutes before the explosions, but I just don’t recall how long before.  I’m guessing it was about ten minutes before.  The next eerie thing — I described as “chilling” — happened to me two days later when news got out that they had footage of one of the bombers laying down a backpack … footage taken from Lord & Taylor.  When I heard Lord & Taylor mentioned, it hit me a bit since I’d been there.  I remembered how packed it was, how some people were standing inside the glass entrance presumably out of the crowds, and how empty the store seemed despite being, I believe, open.

I ended up fixating on the news, staying in bed all day Friday from about 6:50am until the capture of the second suspect late that night.  I was interested in the news.  I don’t think I was traumatized by the events, but the last two nights (Friday and Saturday) I’ve dreamt of bombings and even a bombing at a race.  I think that must be more from the impression of the news than the actual events, but I can’t be sure.  I’ve had some other symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder but I don’t really think I exhibit the condition, just more a confluence of things in my life coming together around the same time as this.  We’ll have to see how this continues to unfold.

So that was much of my 2013 Boston Marathon experience.  Wild.  Marathoners in the last five months have been through a lot.  From the cancellation of the 2012 NYC Marathon and the bad blood toward marathoners Hurricane Sandy sponsored, to the bombings of the 2013 Boston Marathon and the support its marathoners got, such an apolitical activity as marathoning seems to have become political.  I’m hoping it’s only a blip in the history of marathoning and that marathoning can get back to its normalcy.  Before the bombings, marathoning had long had a symbolic value, but after these bombings its symbolic value has increased manifold.

To see photographs from my 2013 Boston Marathon, click here.

To read an article from the Times Ledger in which I was interviewed about the 2013 Boston Marathon bombings, click here.

For a second article appearing in the Times Ledger, along with some photographs I provided, click here.