I was talking with a runner who had been to just about all of the races over the years who shared with me that at first the race organizers used to bus the runners out into a cornfield 3.1 miles to the finish line, and run a point to point race back to town.  What sounded at first like a great race to me was then explained a little bit further.

“The worst part was the start when you ran through the field with corn head high on both sides of you.  No breeze, stifling heat – it was pretty steamy.”

In the days leading up to the race I saw on the website that the festival was moved to Holland City Park and would not be taking place on Main Street as it had in years past.  This meant a change to the race course which I had not expected, so even though I would be running my 5th consecutive Holland Cornfest Race – 2013 would be a different race than in years past.  Perhaps it wouldn’t be as hilly I thought as I lay in the driveway stretching waiting for my buddy Neil to pick me up.  What I did know for sure was it was much hotter than the past couple of years.

The temperature was already 77 degrees two hours before race time, and the humidity was in the high 80′s with overcast skies and even a few scattered rain drops hanging around.  I had read an article just the day before that talked about hot-weather racing and that running by perceived effort instead of by “pace” was the way to go.  Just because you can run an opening mile of a 5K in say 6:00 minutes flat in 50 degree temperatures does not mean you can run one in 80 degree heat.

Or let me put it another way.  Yes, you may be able to run ONE mile at 6:00 in 80 degree heat, but you are going to have an awfully hard time running a second and third one.  We’ve covered this before, but your body’s response to higher temperature is to bring more blood to the surface of your skin to cool you off.  More blood traveling to the surface of your skin means less blood going to the muscles that are doing the work.

Less blood to the muscles means slower times.  So you need to adjust accordingly.  What seems to be right for me is 5 seconds per mile for every 5 degrees over 65 degrees.  So on an 80 degree day, I would be looking to run 6:10 pace for the 5K instead of 5:55 pace.  To put that into race time terms – something around 18:55 for the 5K instead of 18:10.  Add in a little extra humidity and I started to think that a time around 19:00 minutes flat would put me in a pretty good position in Holland.  A race where I have been fortunate to run in the top 10 overall over the past two years finishing 8th in 2011 and 6th in 2010.

My race plan came together for me on the ride up to Holland.  I was going to run my opening mile at 5:50 pace which would put me in a position to break 19:00 minutes given the inevitable drop off in pace as I heated up.  I should also at that point have a solid place among the top 10 runners and would lock-in at that point.  Try to maintain my track position and not let anyone catch me from behind.

Pre Race:  Neils’ daughter Megan was joining us this year for the first time.  New to running, Megan who is 12 had been showing a lot of promise on her school team.  This would be her first 5K and I was interested to see how she enjoyed it.  We made the 50 minute drive up to Holland and found the city park.  As we pulled in to park I noticed a large fair ground this year with rides for the kids and food vendors.

Landry would be coming up with Momma Bear after the race wrapped up for the parade and “candy grabbing” as the people on the floats and the fire trucks throw out candy for the kids.  She had been talking about wanting to go on a Ferris Wheel for the last week or so – I think it must have come up in a book she was reading at school.  So it looked like she was going to get her chance.

I checked in, grabbed Bib #2, and went off to run a 2-mile warm-up which would let me see the first mile or so of the course.

I started out at a smooth pace in my heavier trainers, 7:30 was my opening mile and by the time I reached the course marking for 1 mile in/1 mile to go I was already dripping sweat from my brow and down my shoulders.  At that pace in the winter time, I would not feel a drop of sweat until the start of mile 3.  It was definitely a hot one.

I wrapped up my 2-miles in 14:50.  Legs felt nice and snappy, but the humidity was pretty ugly.

I changed into by Brooks T7 race flats, visited with my friends Erin, Paul and his son Jonathan for a few minutes and it was time to duck into the chute for the start.

Mile 1:  As I have been doing for some time now, I had my watch set to record 1/2 mile intervals – giving me a little bit more feedback for a short distance race than simply looking at my split at the end of the first mile.  By that time in a 5K you are almost 30% of the way through the race.  A little bit late to make adjustments from there.

At the gun we got out smoothly and tucked in behind 2 young runners.  One just out of College, the other was Paul’s son Jonathan who was now 16 and running strong.  He had set a new personal best for the mile this year in 4:42.  I felt like I was in the right place and glanced down at the end of the first 1/2 mile – 2:52.  I was right on target for that opening 5:50 as the second 1/2 mile would be slightly slower having gotten over the adrenaline rush from the start.

On cue our second 1/2 mile came in at 2:58 – a 5:50 first mile.  One thing I noticed was how easy my cadence felt compared to other 5K races.  I could definitely notice a slight change in my running economy due to the track work we had been doing.  The weather however was making me feel like this was pretty much suicide pace on a hot day and I decided to gradually slow things down.  I was thinking that something like a 6:10 second mile and 6:15 third mile would let us run through to the finish, place well and not dig too deep of a hole that it would take us several days to recover from.  As Marathon training was going to be right there staring us in the face on Sunday morning.

As we started mile 2 the last thing I thought to myself was – “Don’t do anything stupid.”

Mile 2:  A young runner came past me at the mile 1 marker and huffed on by.  I compared his breathing to mine – which can tell you a lot about your competitors during a race.  He was breathing like he was in the final 800 meters of the race.  I let him slip past me and knew that I would be returning the favor pretty quickly.  We dropped back into 4th place but I did not try to respond.

Just before getting to the cone turn-around we hit the third 1/2 mile split in 3:01.  I slowed to make the 180 degree turn, grabbed a cup of water to throw over my head and another to take a quick sip.  I would give away a handful of seconds here, but not running for a PR – it really was irrelevant.  I got a chance to take a peak at the runners behind us to see if anyone was looking strong and closing on me as the course would retrace itself back to the finish.

My friend Paul was running in 5th position, 300 meters or so behind me, followed by a handful of runners who I had close to 1/4 lap of a track on.  I wasn’t worried about being caught from behind as we were all going to be slowing a bit in the heat.  I caught up to the runner who had passed me previously and slid by him as he was faltering badly.  We were running back in 3rd place – about :20 seconds off of the leaders.

At the beep we hit the 4th 1/2 mile split in 3:08.  a 6:09 second mile – 6:05 or so pace given the cone turn and water stop.  Just about right.

Mile 3:  One mile to go and it was getting pretty rough.  Always a tough point in the 5K, but I was soaked through my shorts, socks and shoes in sweat and just battling to keep my effort even through to the finish.  We hit the 2.5 mile mark in 3:10 and the 3 mile mark in 3:09.  All that was left was the final kick.

Finish:  I hung in close enough to see the winner cross the finish line ahead of Jonathan by a handful of seconds.  Not risking anything I decided to just gradually press on the accelerator and end at about 90% effort.  Not an all out sprint, but a fast-finish to wrap things up in a strong fashion.

18:56 was our time – 3rd place finish, our highest ever in Holland and we had accomplished what we had set out to do which was take home our 5th consecutive Age Group Award from the Corn Festival.

Post Race:  I was able to see both Neil and Megan finish the race before I went out for an easy 1-mile cool down.  On the way back I ran next to Sandra who was running her first ever 5K race.  She had to stop to walk a couple of times as we chatted over her last 1/2 mile, but I was able to tell her about how I started running, all the places that it had taken me and how much she would be able to gain from the sport if she was just able to stick with it during the period of time (just starting out) when it is the hardest, and the most people quit.

I ran her all the way to the last 200 meters and then dropped her at the cones so she could speed to the finish on her own.  The announcer called out her bib number and name as she ran under the finish arch and I smiled.  Hopefully it marked the start of something great for Sandra.

At the awards ceremony I got a nice surprise as when I was called up to the stage the announcer said, “And in first place in the Male 45-49 age group category …. wow, that is a fast time …. Joe Marruchella.  Joe comes up here every year to race with us, thank you for being here.”

Landry had quite a time at the festival this year.  Not only did she get on the Ferris Wheel with Dad – and I have to be honest, I had my doubts about how great she thought the ride would be once we got to the top.  But she LOVED seeing the park and all the rides, animals at the petting zoo and people down below.  She is such a big girl these days closing in on her third birthday now just a little over 2 months away.

We had some great local barbeque, and Landry played on the playground going toe to toe with some of the big kids before it was time to get going back to Austin.  Moving the festival to the City Park was a great move by the organizers as it seemed like there were close to twice as many people there as last year.

So in our last race before we age yet ANOTHER year at the end of July, we wrapped up a pretty solid age 45 year or racing.

We were blessed enough to start and finish 13 events from the 5K to half-ironman, set new PR’s in the 5K, 5-mile, Half Marathon and Half-Ironman, age group in 11 out of 13 events and miraculously win two of them.  In a year where I focus constantly on the one event we had to miss – the Houston Marathon due to injury – I have to remind myself that we had a pretty successful last 12 months.

It is really easy to fall into the trap of focusing on the negative and poo-poo the positive when you are training and racing.  But it is just as important to look at the positives and not always dwell on the misses.

That said, just two weeks ago I registered for the Houston Marathon in January of 2014.  I know me well enough to know that I cannot see the word Houston, hear anyone mention the city or even see the Astros in the box score and not think about my missed race last year.

For me to say that I have something left to “prove” at this point is pretty silly – Prove what?  To whom?  But when it is all said and done and we are no longer running marathons, I don’t want to have to think about Houston as the race that got away from me.  Fast or slow, PR or not, I am going to cherish just being at that starting line healthy and I am going to run my ass off.

See you in January Houston Marathon.  12 months late, but better than never.

2 mile warm-up, 8X 800 Meters at 10K effort with 200 meter recoveries, 1 mile cool down. An 8-mile workout with 4 miles at 10K effort or 3:10-3:15 per 800 with 80~ seconds of rest between reps.

I took the warm-up a little slower than usual for the first mile, then pushed the pace just a hair to finish right around 8 min./mile.  Just enough to shake loose, get a nice sweat going – which wasn’t very difficult on a 77 degree morning with 88% humidity and then loosened up a bit with some drills on the football field.

Never having done any track work before this training cycle – I am starting to really enjoy my mornings running on the surface.  There is something about sliding into those race flats and pounding away at the surface, no thought of incline or decline, soft trail or hard asphalt – it feels a little bit like a tuning fork going off inside of you with every stride.  What I thought was going to be “boring” has turned out to be anything but.  On another date in the fall, when temperatures are cool and there is no wind I’m kicking around the idea of having a couple of guys trade off 400′s pacing me to see if I can run a 4:59 mile.

My running partner David showed up so I would have someone to pace with – but David has been struggling with a low-grade fever and some congestion – as it turned out he was a little bit under the weather and after the first set of 800′s – he was off of the pace, hanging :05-:08 behind me for most of the workout.

We were a bit on the slow end of the first two 800′s, but then as I decided to run them on my own we settled in nicely:

3:16, 3:15, 3:11, 3:09, 3:11, 3:11, 3:10, 3:08

What does this mean?  Not really anything to be honest.

Some believe that 800 repeats are a good marathon predictor.  Bart Yasso and the “Yasso 800″ workout has become a popular way for marathoners to estimate their potential on race day.

That workout specifically is 10X 800 Meters with an equal rest interval as your 800 meter time.  You take the average time in minutes of your 800′s and convert it to hours and minutes – that is your marathon potential.

So for example – if you are able to run 10X 800 meters in 3:05 and you take just 3:05 of recovery (jogging) between sets, your marathon potential is 3 hours and 5 minutes.

The workout we did this morning was not really the same thing.

8 repeats instead of 10.

1/2 rest instead of a full rest in the time of each repeat as we were only running 200 meter rests or about 80 seconds of recovery.

Instead of running the “fastest we could to finish all 10 in the same time” – we were simply choosing 10K pace as a guide.

I could have for sure run the workout faster, I could have for sure run more than 8 repeats and with almost twice as long a rest period between the repeats, who really knows how fast I “could” run this workout.  Add in some warm weather and you just have way too many moving targets mixed in there to take anything away from this workout as an indicator.

The last factor is we are still about 13 weeks (more than 3 months) away from race day.  With good health we will continue to get stronger and build our aerobic base even more leading up to Cottonwood.  So for now, I’ll just file this one away and not think about it too much.

As for Yasso’s as an indicator?  I’m not really sold.  I think that the workout is more of a reality check than a projection.

What I mean by that is to say that if you CANNOT run 10X 800′s in 3:05 then it is very unlikely that you can run a 3 hour 5 minute marathon at our current fitness level.  But just because you CAN run 10X 800′s in 3:05, I do not think that means that you WILL run a 3 hour and 5 minute marathon.

You still need all the other factors to fall into place:

Fitness – you have to do all the long work, tempo work and hill work.

Health – you have to be pretty darn close to 100% healthy on race day.

Fueling – you have to be dialed in with your nutrition and hydration.

Pace – you have to run a smart race.  Do not go to fast early and you have to execute.

Fight – you have to be willing to hurt during the final 10 kilometers of the marathon.  If you give up even a hair, you won’t make it.

For the Runner’s World Article on Yasso 800′s visit:  http://www.runnersworld.com/race-training/yasso-800s

We’ll have plenty of tests over the next 13 weeks that we need to pass before we decide that we are going to go for it on race morning and leave Cottonwood Canyon at 6:50 pace instead of some other pace …. but for today, I’m feeling pretty good about where we are headed, but I am a long way away from making any proclamations.  For now, we’ll simply leave it as – to be continued.

Once on the 3rd Saturday in June and once on the first Friday Night in December.

It gives me a good barometer as to our fitness, any improvements that we have made and if my training is lacking in a certain area.

Comparing race times across different courses, different times of year, different weather makes it difficult to get any concrete sense as to how fit you are or how well you raced.  But on Saturday morning I know quite a few things about what we are going to face.

The course is going to measure 3.15 miles in length.  Just slightly longer than 5,000 meters.

We are going to climb 225 feet during the race, making it one of the more challenging 5K courses that I have run.

The temperature is going to be approximately 82 degrees at the start of the race.  Adding to the challenge of running a fast time.

I also know that there are going to be somewhere between 6 and 10 runners out in front of me over the first mile, if we run well, we will have a chance to claw our way back into the top 10 overall.  And if we execute our splits to the best of our ability we should run a time between 18:50 and 18:59.

In looking at the last two years in Holland we ran nearly identical races.

Last 4 Years at Holland Cornfest 5K

In 2011 we ran our course record 18:53.  In 2012 an 18:57.

The difference being our final 1/2 mile and kick as I felt myself ease up off of the gas just a hair last year knowing that we were racing the very next day at the Lake Pflugerville Triathlon.  This year we will not be racing the following day, so we will be going full-out and run through to the finish.

The one thing I am interested in seeing is if being in an ascending period of our training will make a difference or not in Holland as opposed to coming off of a Spring Marathon as we have been in the past few years.  In 2010 and 2012 we were coming off of Boston in April and were running only 35-40 miles per week.  In 2011 we had not quite yet kicked off NYC Marathon Training and were again averaging 35 miles per week or so.

This year of course we have a September date with Big Cottonwood – so we have been running mileage in the mid 50′s for several weeks now.

We have also been doing track work for the first time over the past 7 weeks which may have improved our speed just a bit going into Holland.  The downside to all of the increased work is that our legs are going to be far from fresh on Saturday morning.

Coming off of yesterday’s 19-mile long run in 75 degree temperatures we are anything but rested.  With workouts on Monday, Tuesday and 800′s on the track on Wednesday I am going to run our Thursday miles at a very slow, easy pace and then stay off of my feet as much as possible on Friday to hopefully trick our legs into feeling fresh on Saturday.

Fatigue will not likely show up early in the race, but the final mile, which features some late climbing before the final 2/10 of a mile that rewards runners with a downhill finish is going to test us.  To be honest, I am not going to put too much stock in our performance in Holland.  Sure I hope to run well and I would love to shave a few seconds off of our course PR.  But given the course, the heat and being in the midst of an aggressive Marathon Training plan – I’m not quite sure what to expect.

There have been times that I have raced during marathon training and been completely flat.  Others where I ran a tremendous race.  But flat or fresh, fast or slow the race on Saturday is going to be a great workout, running a little bit longer than 3 miles at just a tick under or tick over 6 minutes per mile on a steamy hot, hilly course.  With a 2-mile warm-up and a 2-mile cool down, we are going to have a great 7 miles to put in the bank to follow-up with a shorter long run of just 14 miles the next day to wrap up another week of 55-56 miles.

Then things will jump up a bit for the next month our weekly mileage hitting 67.3, 67.3, 54.6 (cut-back week), 68.3.

After another cut-back week of 54.6 miles we will then creep into the 70-73 mile per week range until we taper.

Comparing things to our preparation for NYC – we will be running 7 runs of 20 or more miles instead of just 5 and topping out in the low to mid 70′s this time around instead of the 65 we averaged before running our PR in Gotham.

I’m not sure that we are going to have any big indicators that will let us know for certain exactly where we are prior to race day such as a half-marathon tune-up race 4 weeks prior and even if we did, given the heat here in Texas, our time wouldn’t really mean a whole heckuva lot from a projection standpoint.

Instead we are going to have to trust our training, rely on past performance coming out of our training cycle and hope that the combination of weather that promises to be possibly 35 degrees cooler than we have felt on our skin in more than 3 months and a downhill course will combat the nasty reality that we will be racing at more than 9,000 feet elevation.  Should those two factors create a “neutral” day for us in Utah, which is my hope – I’m starting to really like our chances of breaking through that 3 hour barrier for the first time.

But for this week, we’ll continue to do what we do, just keep taking things one day, one workout and one mile at a time.

It will be our first time running Holland in the 45-49 year old age group after placing first the last 4 years among the 40-44 year old runners.  One age group is wide open this year with us moving up – another one hopefully is about to realize that there is a new guy in town to be dealt with, and he doesn’t plan on going anywhere anytime soon.

Saturday morning.  Boom goes the dynamite.

There are some serious racing advantages to be gained after a tough summer of slugging it out on hot days while training for a fall race or a race in a different part of the country that is going to feature cooler temperatures.  The downside of summer training of course is that it tends to complicate things quite a bit.

Hydration, Pace, Duration, Gear, Sunblock, Body Glide, Sock and Shoe changes on long runs …. all are things that in the winter training in Austin I never pay much attention to.  I know that on a cool morning I can run 8-10 miles with nary a sip of water.  If I am able to hit a water fountain or two I’m good up to 15-16 miles without any worries.

But this time of year when the coolest part of the day from a temperature perspective occurs at 4:00 a.m. and it is already 72-75 degrees with humidity between 82 and 88% – things are a little bit more dicey out there.

There is always the treadmill alternative I suppose – but for me – that conversation is really a non-starter.

With the exception of running two hours earlier this spring during a 12-hour treadmill challenge for Back on My Feet I have not stepped on a treadmill in over two years.  Not once.

572 runs, 4,652 miles – and all of them outdoors.  In the two years before that I ran on a treadmill twice.  Once the day of my 25th High School reunion where I had just enough time on the hotel treadmill to get in my 14 miler (brutal) and another marathon training run I couldn’t skip in Iowa in the winter with frozen streets and high winds outside.  That’s it.  Two times in four years.  It’s just not for me.

Running is meant to be done outdoors.  At least in this part of the country here in the 512.

For the folks here in Austin and the rest of the South/Southwest we all should be just about through our heat acclimation period.  but with temperatures dipping back into the 40′s this week in the Midwest and East early in the mornings – I am quite jealous by the way – I thought this would be a good time to share the following 10 tips to help cope with rising temperatures.

1.  Know your Body:  Weigh yourself before and after your run.  After your run make sure you drink 16 ounces of fluids for every pound that you lose during your run.  This is not “weight loss” – this is dehydration.  Take this very seriously.

2.  Run Early:  If you are not a morning runner, you might want to become one from June-September.  Here in Austin even on the hottest summer day reaching 105 degrees will fall below 80 again overnight.  At 5:00 a.m. the temperature is rarely higher than 77.  Better still, if you can have your run completed before the sun reaches the horizon you are even further ahead of the game.

3.  Sun Protection:  Morning running also removes the need for sunscreen if your run is shorter than an hour or so.  If you do have to run in the heat of the day, apply a sunscreen that is a “non-drip” variety.  These are designed so the sunscreen will not get into your eyes as you sweat.  SPF #15 or #20 at a minimum.

4.  Hydration:  During your run make sure you are drinking every 15-20 minutes.  I plan my routes so I can hit a water fountain or pass by the house where I leave a bottle in the driveway with electrolyte replacement every 2 miles.   For me on most runs that means I am able to drink a bit every 14-16minues.  If you carry a water bottle or belt with you, drink at the start of your even miles.  It will give you something to look forward to.

5.  Clothing:  Wear light-colored, technical clothing that is moisture wicking.  If you are running in cotton it will trap your sweat against your body and will not allow for evaporation – which helps cool your body.  You will also be prone to chafing as the material gets wet and heavy.

6.  Anti-Chaffing:  Apply Body Glide or another anti-chafing product liberally and everywhere that skin meets skin.  Moisture in the form of sweat is just like running in the rain.  If you do not prepare for it properly it will lead to chafing and blisters.

7.  Slow Down:  This is science guys, not opinion.  Less blood to your muscles = slower pace.  Don’t fight it and try to be a “hero” or “heroine” – slow down and enjoy your run.  This is especially important on your “easy” or “recovery” days.  If you need to run 8:30′s on a recovery day and the temperature is 50 degrees – it requires a certain level of “exertion”.  You do not run 8′s on that day because it will not let you get ready for your next workout right?  So to hold 8:30′s in the summer, you have to “work just as hard” as you would to run 8′s in 50 degree temperatures.  Follow me?  It is about the effort – not the watch.

For me it is :05-:10 seconds for every 5 degrees above 65.  If my pace per mile for an 8 mile run is typically 7:10 at 65 degrees or less, I will adjust my pace to run at 7:25 on a 77 degree morning.  I finish the run feeling the same in July as I would in November – and my fitness level is EXACTLY the same.

8.   Adjustment Period:  “They” claim that it takes two weeks for the average runner to adjust to running in the heat.  That to me sounds about right – one trick however is to make sure you are also out “in the heat”, not just going from your air-conditioned environment to the running trail and back.  I make sure to do yard work and spend some time “in the heat” when I am not running to help with this adjustment.

9.  Run Naked:  Now, now – we talked about this before.  By “naked” I mean no GPS and no iPod.  I do this frequently when the summer arrives to help me simply “enjoy being out there”.  This has helped me not be so conscious of every mile split and think about pace on every run.  Without my Garmin beeping at me every mile I simply run by feel.

If the heat and humidity is forcing me to dial back my pace so be it.  I run by the effort I want to expend instead of by time.  If you know how a “Hard” vs. “Moderate” vs. “Easy” run is supposed to feel – you are ready to embrace “Naked Running”.

10.  The Dreadmill:  Look, if it’s simply too damn hot out there – it is.  If you need to do a speed workout or a hard interval workout to train for a race and it is 100 degrees outside – be smart.  Last time I checked our gym it was about 70 degrees at Fitness 19.  That is definitely a better option than skipping your workout all together or even worse, putting your health at risk.

So there you have it guys.  And for those of you doubting this and still trying to nail all your workouts.  When I was training for the NYC Marathon back in 2011 – we had one of our hottest summers in recorded history in Austin.  My approach to training was a bit different then, no track work, very little speed work – just volume and hill work.

I NEVER ran a long run faster than 7:50 pace that entire training cycle.  Some of them were in the 8:00-8:10 range.

I ran 7:11 on race day.

So as much as we would like to always be able to run in perfect weather conditions – that just isn’t the reality of the sport.  Embrace the seasons, let it help with your training adaptations and lastly, don’t get too worried about a flat workout here and there – especially in the early portions of the summer.  That is just part of the deal.

But on that first cool morning when you take off the layers and are just standing at the starting line in shorts and a singlet -  a slight shiver waiting for the gun – when you cross that mat, take a moment to reflect on all the tough runs you put in the books over the summer.

You will feel like Superman/Superwoman – and you will crush it out there.

Anything in that 14,15,16 mile range is challenging, but not anything all that different from what we ask ourselves to do on a Wednesday morning during marathon training.  Maybe just an extra mile, two or three.  But once you get to 18 miles you are talking about having to worry a little bit more about what you eat the night before, making sure you have a little something in your stomach before leaving for the run.  Taking some nutrition with you in the form of gels or blocks and making sure that you have access to water and/or electrolyte replacement along the way.

I run my long-runs at Marathon Goal Place +:60 seconds – meaning for Big Cottonwood – we are shooting for 6:52 pace for 26.2 miles on race day, which translates to somewhere around 7:45-7:55 pace for our summer long runs training for a Fall Marathon.

If we were training in cooler temperatures, perhaps 7:35-7:45 would be a more accurate target.  The idea is to get used to being on your feet for an extended period of time.  Working on your nutrition plan and coping with fatigue.

It helps me to start the run with somewhat “tired” legs, having run a medium intensity workout the day before my long run.  This also helps get the body, mind and spirit in the right place for long run training.  If I was fresh, coming off of an off-day before my long run, hopping into an 18-miler in 7:15 pace would be a little bit challenging, but nothing to terribly de mandingat this point in our cycle.

But the marathon is a funny race, faster in training is not ALWAYS better.  You need a solid mix to get the potion just right.  By running an 18 mile long run :30 seconds per mile “too fast” – you are robbing yourself of 9 minutes of training and adaptation.  9 minutes of being on your feet later in the run when you are physically and mentally ready for it to be over.

9 minutes may not seem like such a big deal, but on race day at Marathon Goal Pace I will cover 1.38 miles in 9 minutes.  When you think of it along those lines, 9 minutes is quite a lot.  If you add in the degree of difficulty coming off of Friday and Saturday runs as well as a pretty hairy track workout on Wednesday – now you are getting the full benefits and adaptations from marathon training.

So as I dressed, ate a bagel and drank some EFS before heading outside I took some stock of where our legs should be and how we should be feeling on a warm 75 degree morning with 90% humidity that was increasing.   Pressure dropping, it sure seemed like we were going to get some rain while we were out there.  All the better I thought.  If you don’t train in it, you can’t race in it.

Friday’s workout was 10 miles – descending pace by :10 per mile finishing at 7:00 min./mile prescribed by coach.  The goal was to start at 8:30 pace and then decreasing by :10 to 8:20, 8:10, 8:00, 7:50, 7:40, 7:30, 7:20, 7:10 and finally 7:00 flat.

Our times were:  8:26, 8:16, 8:10, 7:59, 7:48, 7:40, 7:28, 7:20, 7:10, 6:56.

A little bit fast here and there, but for the most part, pretty solid.

Saturday’s workout was 9 more miles in a 3 X 3 X 3 format.  3 miles warm-up, 3 miles at Marathon Goal Pace (6:50), 3 miles cool down.

Our times were:  8:18, 8:03, 8:01, 6:45, 6:45, 6:39, 7:33, 7:36, 7:32.

Another quality effort, just a touch fast on the Marathon Goal Pace miles – but again, close enough to feel good about our pacing while we are still adjusting to the hot, humid and windy mornings here in Austin.

Sunday’s run gave me a lot of flexibility regarding which route I was going to take – I have a somewhat endless amount of 6 mile, 8 mile and 12 mile options.   It makes runs in that 18, 20, 22 mile range a lot more fun than they could be if I had to circle the same loops or run the same areas every single weekend.  I decided that I would hit the 8 mile hill route to warm-up, carry my running hat with me and see what the weather was going to do.  If it started to rain, I would probably stick to the roads and avoid the trail so I did not have to battle heavy shoes filled with mud and dirt.

But if it stayed dry, I would then loop by the house, change out my socks and shoes into dry gear (from sweating in the humidity) and then hit the trail for the final 10 miles and run on a softer surface.

I got my answer as I approached mile 8 as the sky opened up and I was soon drenched from head to toe.  No trail for me.

Heading back home to change out my shoes seemed a little bit silly at that point, so I made a quick decision to head over to the neighborhood golf club and run the course there that would take me up to about mile 14 or 15.  I could then pick a route home to work a few final hills and turn this into a long-run that featured a lot of uphill climbs and downhill bursts.

I had not run the golf course since training for the Houston Marathon last year – it is not something I do often as the golfers are not very happy about having a runner out there while they are playing.  I typically have only done this in rainy weather or with thunderstorms in the area as I know the course will be empty – which was the case on Sunday as I saw only a few members of the grounds crew tending to the course.

It was a nice distraction to count Holes instead of miles and despite having to run through ankle-deep water on a couple of occasions at the bottom of a few deep descents – the run was about as enjoyable as it could be in a downpour.  I was able to get ice-cold water every couple of holes to stay hydrated exiting the course with just the 3 mile loop back to the house.

Sunday Elevation Chart

My math was just a little bit off as I was returning home and ended up tacking on an extra 385 yards to the run to finish it off at 18.2 miles.  The same “extra” distance that the marathon demands.

2:22:43 – 18.2 miles – 7:51 pace.  Spot on perfect.

So with 14 weeks to go until race day which includes 8 more long runs of 19, 20, 20, 20, 21, 21, 22, 20 I am pretty excited about our prospects come race day.  I feel like with another few long runs and a taper we are pretty close to ready to go right now.  An enviable position to be in with more than 3 months left to prepare.

The physical piece is close, the mental piece is where we need to still do some sword sharpening.  Right now I know we can run the first 20 miles of that race perfectly.  The next 14 weeks are all going to be about the final 10 kilometers.  In the end, the marathon is all about the last 6.2 miles.

Everything else is just the warm-up.

Shortly after my first mile a couple of other runners showed up, dropped their water bottles and car keys on the infield and started in behind me.

2-mile warm-up, a bit of light stretching and drills and then it was time for the workout.

3-miles of “in and out” 100′s – where I would run the straightaways of the track at just under 5k pace (5:40min./mile) then float the next 100 meters around the curve before settling back in to 5:40 pace for another 100.  Repeated for 12 laps or 24 cycles.

My usual training partner David was not at the workout on this morning – his toe had been bothering him a bit on Saturday after we completed “The Monster” – a workout that deserves its’ own post sometime soon – so I was not surprised to be running alone for the workout.  On any other day I would have been down about that prospect, but on May 29th it seemed fitting.

38 years ago on this same date, Steve Prefontaine would run his final race, winning of course at Hayward Field where he was undefeated at any distance longer than a mile.

As I finished my first set of 100′s my coach called me over to correct my form.  I had clocked the first mile including the floats at 6:20 with a goal of 6:18.  Wind was gusting close to 25 mph, so I felt like I pretty much nailed it.

Coach noticed that I was cutting my stride a hair short, making my plant leg land too far “under” my hip, which was putting more shock on my lower legs.  Instead she wanted me to remember to bring my knee up just a bit higher so that my bent foot after striking the ground would pass by my planted foot closer to knee level, and not below it.

I ran the curve practicing this adjustment and ran my second mile at the same effort in 6:16.

I ran the final mile of the workout in 6:14.  Faster still even though I was working hard to stay “even”.

A tough workout, especially one done alone with nobody to pace with – but I was able to focus in on the task ahead of me and tick them off – 6:20, 6:16, 6:14 and had plenty of gas left in the tank.

What should have served as a big confidence booster for me coming off of a really tough week last week just felt “blah”.  Thundering along my final 400 around 5:35 pace should have been invigorating – the buzz usually lasts almost all the way through my mile long cool down.  But not on this day as my thoughts traced all the way across the country to Coos Bay Oregon where a family will be mourning the loss of their son today and as will the small blue collar town on the coast.

In Eugene, the same thing will be happening at track workouts, pubs and around the University of Oregon campus where people remember Pre.  An American Distance Runner that made running “cool”.   A sport which to that point and to some extent even still today is a lot of things, but “cool” isn’t necessarily one of them.

Pre ran the way that most of us wish that we could.  I’ve come to accept that running and especially the speed at which we run is relative.  There really is no slow.  Just degrees of fast.  People often say to me - and keep in mind, I am by no means an accomplished runner, or one who is particularly talented or gifted – I just tend to work at it harder than some others.

“I’m not fast like you are” or “I’m not a real runner like you”.

To me, a runner is anyone who is working as hard as they can to approach their potential.  By that I mean, if your genetics, age, injury history, mechanics and training allow you to approach a 9:00 minute mile and you do your absolute best to improve that to 8:50 …. then you are every bit the runner I am as I try to improve my marathon time by a handful of seconds per mile to break 3 hours.  Or to take just :03 off of my 5K PR to break 18 minutes.  We are working just as hard at the same exact pursuit.

The pursuit of excellence.

When I say that Pre ran the way that all of us wish that we could, that sentiment is captured perfectly by Bill Bowerman’s Eulogy taken from Steve Prefontaine’s funeral service:

“All of my life – man and boy – I’ve operated under the assumption that the main idea in running was to win the damn race.  Actually, when I became a coach I tried to teach people how to do that.  I tried to teach Pre how to do that.  I tried like Hell to teach Pre to do that… and Pre taught me – taught me I was wrong.

Pre, you see, was troubled by knowing that a mediocre effort could win a race, and a magnificent effort can lose one.  Winning a race wouldn’t necessarily demand that he give it everything he had from start to finish.  He never ran any other way.  I tried to get him to.  God knows I tried.

But Pre was stubborn.  He insisted on holding himself to a higher standard than victory.

A race is a work of art.  That’s what he said.  That’s what he believed.  And he was out to make it one every step of the way.

Of course, he wanted to win.  Those who saw him compete and those who competed against him were never in any doubt about how much he wanted to win.  But how he won mattered to him more.

Pre thought I was a hard case.  But he finally got it through my head that the real purpose of running isn’t to win a race.  It’s to test the limits of the human heart.  And that he did.  Nobody did it more often.  Nobody did it better”.

Maybe that is why as badly as I want to run well at Cottonwood and I am training harder than ever before to give myself the best possible chance of breaking through 3 hours on race day – more than anything – I just want to run a race that I can be proud of.

To test the limits of my heart in a way that a now 62-year-old Steve Roland Prefontaine might glance with respect at the slight middle-aged runner from Austin TX, the same height he was,  7 lbs. lighter with hair much shorter - running the final 385 yards pouring every ounce of energy into the pursuit of excellence.

To be better on that day than I have ever been before – 2:59 or not – to me, anyone that sees me race that day will know that I was there and that I could not have run that race even one second faster.  In my eyes, that is the definition of a runner.

At the time of his death Steve Prefontaine held every single American Record from 2,000 meters to 10,000.

Pre started 153 races in his career and won 120 of them.

In High school he broke 19 different records.

Just last summer, 40 years after he set the mark, Olympic Silver Medalist Galen Rupp finally broke Pre’s 5,000 meter Olympic Qualifying record in 13:22:67.   Prefontaine’s record time, the oldest track and field Olympic trials record on the books was 13:22.80.

Somehow I have a hard time believing that head-to-head Pre would not have found a way to dig down and summon the strength to find those 13/100′s of a second.

Go Pre.

We have completed 15.90% of the total mileage on the plan so far and 17.95% of our scheduled runs.  As our daily mileage increases and our Sunday long runs move from 16 miles up to 22 miles, soon the mileage % will surpass the number of runs completed % and then finally during the taper they will normalize and equal each other.

It is interesting to think about a training cycle along those terms, but one that is well put together really is about consistency and periodization.  Build the strong foundation (number of runs, consistent approach day after day), then force the adaptation (higher mileage, tougher and faster workouts), then recover and get the machine ready to peak for race day (taper period).

I don’t usually look too far ahead when it comes to these things as I have found that it is better for me to simply focus on what is immediately in front of me instead of some workout 8 weeks away that right now might look pretty daunting.  Just stay the course, run the workouts that you have scheduled and leave the door every morning with a purpose.

Jack Daniels, PhD is one of the strongest believers of that tenet – every run should have a purpose.  Even if that purpose is simply active recovery from one tough workout prior to another.  But you should never run a workout without knowing specifically what you are trying to accomplish.  Akin to Coach’s comment about not boarding a plane to Baltimore if you want to get to New York …. you want to be sure you are dialed in and aware of what you are trying to get from each session so that you end up in the right place on race day.

Thursday’s workout was my first hill repeat session for Cottonwood.  Due to the downhill nature of the course, Cottonwood in many ways will be the most challenging marathon I have ever attempted.  That is not to say that a fast time is not possible on such a course.  In fact, if run correctly, the downhill elevation change can produce a fast marathon time.

But just like everything else about the marathon – that will not happen by accident.  If runners do not prepare for the grinding downhill course – late in the race, all of that “braking” that is being done by the large quadricept muscles will take their toll and it will be impossible for the runners to hold pace over the final 10 kilometers of the race.  This is something that happens in Boston to runners year after year after year.  Everyone worries about the “Newton Hills” and “Heartbreak Hill” – but the reality is that for many competitors it would not matter if those hills vanished from miles 16-21 of the course.  The downhill start from Hopkinton to Newton for 14 miles is what sapped the strength from those runners.  By Heartbreak you can just stick a fork in them because they are done.

That was us in 2010.  I had plenty of “want to” at that point – unfortunately, I just didn’t have the strength left in my legs.

Ever since, we have incorporated hill work into our training and that has never been a problem since.  But for Cottonwood, this preparation is even more important as we will be losing close to 4,000 feet of elevation from start to finish.  About 3X that of Boston.

Big Cottonwood Elevation

Today’s workout called for:

3 miles warm-up

8X downhill at 10K pace (Half-Marathon effort) followed by a recovery jog back to the top

1 mile Marathon Goal Pace home.

Our repeats with a target of 1:40 (6:08 pace) came in at:

1:41,1:40, 1:41, 1:41, 1:41, 1:42, 1:39, 1:39, 1:39

After our final recovery jog to the top our Marathon Goal Pace Mile (Target of 6:47 as it was slightly downhill), came in at 6:41 – which looks great on the training log, but actually frustrated me as I needed better restraint and focus to not run that mile :06 fast.  That will come with time.  I will do better on the next one.

All in all just another brick in the wall so to speak, but an important one as we prepare with great focus and specificity for Cottonwood.

As it turns out we are exactly 1,000 miles away from the starting line on September 14th.  Not that I am counting or anything.

But with only 15-20% of the work done to this point – I have to say that I like where we are right now.  An enviable position with 16 weeks remaining until race day.

More than 1,300 runs, covering more than 12,000 miles and I can count on one hand the days that really made a difference.

May 2, 2009 – Pittsburgh Marathon I.  October 17, 2010 – IBM Uptown Classic.  November 6, 2011 – New York City Marathon.  March 18, 2012 – Shamrock Half Marathon.  December 7, 2012 – Lights of Love.

Those were all days when I took my first strides across the starting line “Thinking” I could do something and by the time I crossed the finish line I “Knew” that I could.

Everything else is just a blur of workouts, training runs and races.  But those 5 days are the reasons why runners continue on.  Keep searching.  Keep training.  Keep pushing.  You hope that every time you have one of those days, it is not your last.  That there will be one more out there in front of you that will make all the hard work, early mornings, runs in the heat, wind and rain worth it.  Breakthrough moments.

The funny thing is, none of those moments for me have ever occurred while I was training.  They are unique to race day.  I have been trying to articulate this to people who ask me what it is I love about racing and I have never been able to explain it properly.

Training runs are for race day.  They are not about posting workouts via social media so everyone can tell you what a beast you are or for throwing it up on Facebook to impress others.  They are simply a means to an end for me.  They are the price of admission to those breakthrough moments.  None of which would have ever occurred without the dues-paying workouts.  The non-glamorous stuff like 4:45 a.m. alarm clocks and 8 miles at 7:52 recovery pace like I ran this morning.

Then finally – I got an e-mail from Coach Carmen who put it perfectly about the value of sticking to your planned workouts.  Not doing more to impress people (even yourself) – the idea behind running your training plan and racing your race.  Not mixing up those things and going faster during training to prove something to someone.  Even you.

She wrote:

“What I find to be the biggest mistake marathoners and half marathoners do in their training is not training the right paces.

At this point your longer, faster intervals should be easier than if you were training for a 5k or a mile, much easier.

So the tendency is to do them faster. Please don’t. I will not be monitoring this, but I will try to give you the right paces and you will be responsible for following them or not.

Why should you stick to the paces?.

Simply because is the pace you want to target.

For example, if you want to go to NY, you will not take a plane that will land you in Baltimore right?  Same concept.

The excuse I always get is “but if felt easy, so I did it all faster”.

Of course it will feel easy (and is a good thing),  it’s only 1/10 or 1/20 of the marathon distance. But it is giving you the right adaptations. Is the right plane to take.”

After assigning times to me for each of my workouts she added:

“Again, discipline is one of the most important traits of good marathoners. You all are hard workers, but so are all the other people in your races, only you can decide on whether you take this to the end or not”.

We all place extra emphasis on being “tougher” than the other runners that we are competing against or “wanting it more” than the rest of them.  But the bottom line is out of the men and women who are toeing the line at Cottonwood looking to run something close to three hours flat, they are all tough.  They all want it badly.  They are all talented.  They will all be prepared.

The test for me will be whether I can run these next 98 workouts and 1,015 1/2 miles of my training plan intelligently.  Running my assigned paces as assigned.  Not faster and not slower.  Can I take my recovery days seriously.  Take care of my body.  Eat right.

Can I run easy when called for even when it feels like I could go faster.  Actually, especially when it feels like I could go faster.

I feel like I am ready for this now.  For this approach.  To trust my training.  Do not more than asked and certainly do no less.

In the end all I want to be sure of is that I get on the right plane.  Once I’m there in Salt Lake City, standing at the top of Cottonwood Canyon with 26.2 miles to go – I will have plenty of time to show off just how tough I am.  How much desire I have, how badly I want it and how talented I am.

I just don’t have to prove that day after day during my training.  That is a recipe for over-training, injury or both.

All I want is just one more breakthrough moment.  Here’s to it happening on September 14th.

“Finish without walking” – Philadelphia 2006

“Qualify for Boston” – Pittsburgh 2009

“Run for Dom” – Boston/Pittsburgh 2010

“Requalify for Boston” – Austin 2011

“Run a best-ever time” – New York 2011

And now 2:59:59 is the goal at Cottonwood.  There is no fallback position, no “B” and “C” goal for that race.  If I run well things like a new PR in the marathon and re-qualifying for Boston will take care of themselves.  The math is pretty straightforward.

26 miles, 385 yards in 179 minutes and 59 seconds.

6:52 min./mile pace.

That is one of the things about road racing that I love so much.  It is in fact very uncomplicated at its core.  Sure we tend to muck it up as humans do.  Assigning all types of if this, then that propositions to it.  But in the end whether it is hot or cold, windy or calm, the course is long or short, my legs feel fresh or flat – all of that is just noise.

26.2 miles, 6:52 pace.

Period.

So going into this cycle I knew that I needed to do something different than I have in the past.  I was able to take more than 50 minutes off of my marathon time over the past 6 years and was able to PR in New York City by just under 7 minutes – the last marathon I truly got a chance to “Race” as Boston in 2012 brought 88 degree temperatures on race day and we just trotted that one in to err on the side of caution.  Houston earlier this year – well, that has been well documented as we missed the race due to an untimely strain to our left Achilles.

Running the requisite mileage is something that I think everyone who knows anything about training for a marathon understands is an absolute necessity.  You need the strength, stamina and mental toughness that comes only from running several long runs of 20, 21, 22 miles to be ready for what is coming on race day.

But the one area that I could look at as a “missing piece” in my training was true speed work or track work.  It is something I had never done in the past, and if I was really serious about making some changes in my training and not just “talking about doing it” like many athletes do – I needed to do it and do it now.

That was the reason for meeting with Coach Carmen Troncoso – talking about her philosophy in preparing runners for road races, and how we could take my current level of fitness and race experience to the next level.  Most things you really want in life don’t come to you because of dumb luck or by accident.  It is pretty close to a miracle that I ran a Boston time in my second ever marathon as a self-coached athlete with less than 2 years of running experience.

Since then I have learned a lot, made my fair share of mistakes, analyzed them and improved.  But how can my knowledge base compare to someone who has been training, running and racing at an elite level – first as a collegiate runner – then as a Masters Runner at the national level for more than 30 years?  Perhaps just maybe, she might have a thing or two to teach me.

But as I have been posting my workouts in my training logs I am starting to get a lot of questions from my friends and peers.  Why that workout?  How hard was that to execute?  What are the benefits?  How does that speed work help on marathon race day?

All great questions – and ones that I pondered myself before I started to work with Carmen.  Fundamentally there are three key benefits to speed work (track workouts) for marathoners.  Greg McMillian posted a great piece about this in Running Times.

1) Short, fast repeats improve your running economy (the amount of oxygen consumed at a given pace), and improved running economy is very important in the marathon. Think of it as getting better gas mileage–you can go longer before running out of gas.

2) Short, fast repeats break the monotony of training. Often, marathon training starts to put runners in a pace rut. Fast repeats challenge you to turn your legs over and help avoid the “marathoner shuffle.”

3) Short, fast repeats allow you to insert some volume of running at a pace that is significantly faster than marathon race pace.

This last point is a critical one – as this Wednesday’s workout called for 10 X 400′ at :90 seconds with :19-20 seconds of rest between repeats.

A :90 second 400 meter interval equates to a 6:00 min./mile pace.  During the workout I ticked off those 10 400′s in:

88′, 90′ 88′, 87′, 87′, 88′, 89′, 89′, 88′, 87′ – basically 5:56-5:58 pace per mile.

On just under :20 seconds of rest between 400′s – the last mile of the workout requires quite a bit of focus and effort.

This Saturday – the workout will be a 3-5-8-5-3 session.  Where the numbers correspond to the number of minutes run at Tempo Interval Pace (6:10-6:20 for me) – or 10K pace + a handful of seconds – with a rest period of 1/2 those minutes at a recovery pace.

So the workout will look like – 2-3 mile warm-up:

3 minutes at 6:15

1.5 minutes recovery pace

5 minutes at 6:15

2.5 minutes recovery pace

8 minutes at 6:15

4 minutes recovery pace

5 minutes at 6:15

2.5 minutes recovery pace

3 minutes at 6:15

1.5 minutes recovery pace

1-2 mile cool down.:

Between Wednesday’s workout of 2 miles at sub 6:00 minute pace and Saturday’s workout of just a hair under 4 miles at 6:15 pace we are able to add 6 miles of basically race pace running to our training week.  Each and every week the duration or intensity of the workouts will increase with the exception of our step-back weeks where we will dial back just a bit to make sure we stay healthy.

At the end of the training cycle we will have well over 125 miles on our legs at 10k, 5K or even sub 5K pace.  The equivalent of racing more than a 10k every week between now at race day.

With the goal of increasing our running economy, keeping us mentally sharp avoiding fatigue in just grinding out the long runs day after day,  and making Marathon Goal Pace “feel” a whole lot easier on our machine come race day.

After running so much up-tempo work in the Texas heat this summer – when we get off of that bus in Cottonwood Canyon and those 40 degree temperatures hit our skin, we are going to start ticking off those 6:52′s like nobody’s business.  The first 8 miles are going to be our warm-up, the middle 8 miles will be the start of the fight.  The third 8 miles will be the time where our will and our want to starts to be tested.

The final 2.2 miles are going to be an all-out street fight.  There are no two ways about it.  I am going to have to fight, scratch and claw for every single step to hold pace until we reach the final 400 meters.  But if all it is going to take to get there is a 102 second 400 to make it, I am going to lean on those hundreds of laps around the track this summer where we ran 86′, 85′, 84′ lap after lap after lap.

If there is one thing I learned growing up it is this.  When it comes to a street fight, never bet against the guy from Philly.

I have friends who have run 100 mile races, 50 mile races and 24-hour events in the past – something I have never attempted since I started running in 2005.  To be honest, the thought really has never crossed my mind at this point.  I still have one distance running goal that I am chasing with all of my focus and passion for the sport – and until that goal is met, or I realize that it cannot be met – I do not see me entering an ultra marathon of any shape or size.

But given my role as Executive Director of Back on My Feet Austin – I was fortunate enough to have a front row seat in the planning, execution and management of the first year race in good old 512 and I have a new-found respect for the 37 runners who participated in the Lone Ranger Ultra.

The runners showed up a couple of hours before the 10:00 a.m. start on Saturday and started to set their tents up on the Camp Mabry parade ground.  I met most of them the previous evening at Rogue Running downtown as they came in to pick up their packets and have their vitals taken by medical professionals so that their resting heart rate, weight, temperature and blood pressure could be recorded.

These benchmarks would be used during the event if necessary to make sure that the on-site medical teams could monitor athletes for symptoms of dehydration, heat exhaustion or any other maladies that moving ones body forward for 24 consecutive hours may create.

As we staged the runners, took 26.2 seconds of silence to remember the tragedy in Boston it was my finger on the horn that would start the race.  It was amazing to see the first laps turned by the athletes and watch as they focused on the miles ahead that would stretch one for a full day.

As morning became afternoon and afternoon became evening the miles continued to pile up.

At 7:00 p.m. 150 or so 5-mile racers loaded up into the starting corral for the Sunset Run and I passed over official Race Starter duties to my daughter Landry – who executed a perfect “Runners to your mark!” at 2 years, 8 months old.

As we wrapped up the awards ceremony for the Sunset Run and participants enjoyed a hot meal from My Fit Foods and cold beer compliments of New Belgium Brewery the Lone Rangers continued around the course into the dark of night.

At 4:00 a.m. when I began stirring after grabbing a couple of hours sleep, they still were making their way around the 5-mile loop with their headlamps shining the way.

I decided that after conducting the pre-race briefing for the Pajama Loop Runners prior to the 7:00 a.m. race, I would hop into the event and run with the group.  My legs were sore from standing the previous day, I was not fresh and certainly not ready to run a best ever 5-miler – but I knew better than to complain as the Lone Rangers continued around the course as our race started.

It was a small event and I quickly found myself out front behind the Gator that was serving as the lead vehicle.  I let the staff drop behind me as I knew the route and lead the second place runners around the loop.  By the turnaround point I had opened up a lead of 4-5 minutes on the 2nd place runner and I was running silently alone through the course.

I imagined for a moment what it must be like for the Lone Ranger participants to continue to run by themselves mile after mile, lap after lap.  As I passed two of the Lone Rangers who were walking the hilly section of the base together, they both let out a cheer for me as I sped past – and all I could do was smile.  What in the world was I doing that deserved their cheers?  They were the ones who were out there doing something truly remarkable.

As I hit the final mile of the race I took everything in, ran around the retired tanks and fighter jets and made my way to the finish line.  For the second time in a month I was fortunate enough to add a first place finish to my racing resume.

After I grabbed a cup of water I joined Jacqueline for a mile on her way to 75 for the event and third place overall in the Female Lone Ranger Category.  I then hooked up with Douglas Long – US ARMY – from Fort Hood for his 105th mile on the way to 110 in total and a first place finish in the event.

It was a great weekend of racing at a great venue in ATX, bringing all kinds of athletes and their families together making a difference for a great organization that helps individuals experiencing homelessness find hope, strength, self confidence and self-sufficiency through running.

Next year the event is sure to attract 2-3 times as many participants and it may very well take well more than 110 miles to win the men’s category and more than 81 to win the women’s race.  I have an amazing amount of respect for the athletes who participated this year and I am honored and humbled to have had the chance to race in their footsteps and even share a few miles with them on the course.

Austin, mark down May 10th and 11th on your calendars next year – only 363 more days left of training.