A quick check of the Marathon Maniacs stat board had me ranked at number 184 in terms of total marathons with a total of 86, but since I hadn’t updated my stats in a while, I was curious how far I’d jump once updating my stats.   After updating with the 10 missing races for this year, I jumped up to spot #155.

100 marathons is currently good enough for #144, however to crack the top 100 you need 118 marathons.

I’ve got four more on the schedule for this year, so it will actually be a down year for me from last year (16 vs. 20 respectfully).

Not sure what the next goal should be after reaching 100, still pondering.

Here’s where I’ll be next:

10/3 St. George

10/24 Frankenthon (Directing, not running)

11/1 New York City

11/15 Rock and Roll San Antonio

12/13 White Rock (Marathon #100 if all goes well).

Hope to see you there.

We’re planning on taking home a lot of hardware tomorrow morning.

Afterwards we will journey to the Big Jud’s hamburger stand where they sell 1-5 lb hamburgers and a 15 scoop, 5 toping ice cream sundae. If you finish any one of these you get your picture on the wall.

Here is my son holding the dog big-ass mixing bowl:

We’ll let you know how the Ship does and if any big burgers or huge sundaes get taken down

The Frankenthon keeps getting better and better. We’ve signed up two new sponsors this week:

• Rogue Equipment is a local Austin, TX running store specializing in running shoes, technical apparel and accessories. They will be providing a 10% discount to all participants in the Frankenthon as well as $100 gift certificates to the overall male/female winners and male/female masters winners.
• Performance Wellness is a local Austin, TX massage, chiropractor and overall athlete heath group that emphasizes improving your health in an effort to reduce the risk of pain and illness in the first place. They will be providing free massages after the marathon to all participants as well as gift certificates for an hour massage for the overall male/female winners and male/female masters winners

Just a reminder that the Frankenthon takes place this October 24th, 2009 (the Saturday before Halloween) at Brushy Creek Lake Park, which is in Cedar Park, Texas (just north of Austin).

We have a cap of 150 runners, so sign up today and reserve your spot. (Note: entries are transferable, we’d love to have you run, but if you can’t make it you can give/sell your number to another runner)

Finisher’s items include: Frankenthon Monster Tech Socks, Long Sleeve Tech T-shirt, Monster Medals.

It will be a frightfully good time, so come join us in October.

Frank

There is a new marathon coming to town.  I will be making my first attempt to put on a marathon with this years Frankenthon Monster Marathon.  I’ve been directing a 12 race 5k series in the summer, the Sunstroke Summer Stampede, which is about to finish up it’s 6th year.  This has been very enjoyable to me, but I’ve always wanted to put on a marathon as well.  The Summer Stampede has been a more low-frills type of race, but for the Frankenthon we are going to try and put on a top notch marathon with great goodies, certified Boston Qualifying course, chip timing and other exciting things to ensure you have a frightfully good time.
We’re going with a monster themed race and will be running the Saturday before Halloween, which this year falls on October 24, 2009. The course will be mostly flat with a mixed paved/crushed granite trail.  It will cover three 8.75 mile laps.

The overall winners (male/female and masters) will each receive a free pair of Mizuno shoes as well as other goodies.  We’re looking to do something special for the last male/female finishers as well.

We will provide long-sleveed tech shirts and tech-socks for all entrants.

Age groups awards will be 3 deep in 5 year age groups.

Come out and run, or come volunteer, I can for sure use the help.

Hope to see you out there.

Frank

The Mickelson Trail Marathon was going to be a good trip for me. I would finally redeem myself for the previous South Dakota debacle and actually take my son to see Mt. Rushmore, I would get a trophy for finishing the 50 states and have a nice vacation with my family. We got up super early on Saturday morning (4am) to catch our 6am flight to Denver and then onto Rapid City. We picked up our car, at a Subaru dealership, and headed up to Deadwood.

We attended the 50 States Marathon Club reunion meeting, where we got to see Leanhorse Productions (race directors) hand out awards to Roger Biggs (500th Marathon), Darwin Weimer (100th marathon) and Denis McCarthy completing the 50 states. Since Denis wouldn’t officially complete the 50 states until Sunday he was unable to join Jack Brooks, Fifi Wright (sorry Fiona we didn’t get a picture of this), and myself in receiving our 50 States Club awards.

The gun goes off and I bolt out of the gates. For trail runs I like to run the first mile pretty fast to get into the trail before it backs up. I didn’t think this trail had any single track but I figured better not to risk it. The start is downhill which allows for some fast running. I am in the lead for about 1/4 mile when someone comes up to me and says “I don’t plan on winning I just wanted to be in the front for a little while”. He then drops to the back, about 1/2 mile in, two guys pass me and I give up any chance of trying to stay with them. I hit mile one in 5:59 and am about 30 seconds behind. Whoa. I don’t think I’ve ever done a first mile that fast before. Probably not a good idea, but hey, “Fly and Die”.

The next miles seems pretty short and I clock a 6:02 even though I wasn’t running that fast. Mile 3 seems about right, but mile four would be long to get us basically back on track. I think they put the mile markers near bridges so it would be easier to set them out versus where they actually went.

0-1: 5:59
1-2: 6:02
2-3: 7:06
3-4: 7:45

So far the race has had a fairly easy grade but over the next couple miles we’d pick up the climbing. It never really looked like you were going up, but my heart rate was 10-15 beat higher than normal for the same effort, and I wasn’t ever really able to get back into my preferred pace until we start going back down.

4-5: 7:27
5-6: 8:15
6-7: 7:44
7-8: 7:49
8-9: 7:42

The trail is really pretty and the weather was great. The light drizzle kept us cool and the course was very well maintained. I wondered how bad it would be once we caught up to the half marathoners, but so far so good. At one point we went through an old train tunnel and it was pitch black inside and you ran to the light. This was pretty cool.

9-10: 7:39
10-11: 7:26
11-12: 7:37

We are approaching the half and the climbing starts in earnest again.

12-13: 7:58

I hit the half in 1:37:28. So if I can come under a 3:15 I will pick up a rare negative split.

13-14: 7:55

We’ve crested the hill, this is great. Hello sub 7:00/M miles, where have you been, it is good to see you again.

14-15: 6:55
15-16: 6:54

I’m looking in vain for a porta potty, and the realize I am in the woods… I make it one more mile still on the lookout for a rest stop. Finally decide it isn’t worth it and dash into the woods.
16-17: 8:08

I feel great now and start to open it up a little bit.

17-18: 6:52

From 18 to 20 there is the biggest climb of the day and I’ve started catching the half marathoners, so the trail starts to grow crowded, and the footing is getting sloppy in a few places.

18-19: 7:24
19-20: 7:50

After getting my doors blown off in the first mile, I’ve decided that I wanted to finish in the top 10. At this point I figure that I am somewhere between 13-15 or so, and so I decide to start pushing the pace as I can see a guy about 2 minutes in front of me. I decide to do my best Sandy impersonation and just start reeling people in.

20-21: 6:52
21-22: 6:27

I’ve picked off 2 people and a spectator says that I am in 12th place now. Okay, so now I now, I’ve got to catch two more. I see the victims off in the distance and figure that I can nab them over the next four miles.

22-23: 7:09
23-24: 6:58

I’ve moved into 11th place and I start thinking about maybe go under 3:10, but some quick math says it would hurt too much and sub 3:15 still counts for Boston, so no heroics from me, but I am going to catch one more person.

I put on a nice sprint past my final victim quickly open a 30 second gap on him. I think he is demoralized as he would fade to finish 4 minutes behind me over the last 2 miles.

24-25: 7:05
25-26: 6:55

As I approach the finish line I see my family and pull my son out of the crowd and we finish together. We walk through the shoot and I put my medal on his head, he asks “Do you think everyone thinks that I ran the whole marathon since I’ve got the medal?”. I tell him that it’s quite possible.

26.2: 1:24
========
3:11:32

I did get my 4th or 5th negative split ever, a nice sized 4 minute one. This goes against everything I believe in, I clearly didn’t try hard enough in the first half.

It turns out that a couple of the people in front of me were relay runners, and so I wound up in 7th place out of 371. In turns out I actually would be all but 2 of the 38 relay teams, which was good enough for 2nd place in my age group and I got this unique rail spike as the age group award. Vance would pick up 3rd place in his age group in the mini and Scott notched his 2nd sub four hour marathon in a row.

It turned into about an 8.5 mile run and it felt great.  I really enjoy running in New York, especially when it isn’t a million degrees and super humid.   Perhaps I will go again tomorrow.

I highly recommend that anyone who tries P90X does go full out for the 90 days. I was able to see a lot of improvements and got kind of ripped for the first time since college. I’ve backed off a little and given up some of the ‘rippedness’ at the price of staying sane and getting some sleep, but I wouldn’t change anything about the first time through.

Here is my about 80% into P90X the first time:

I don’t really want to get any bigger, but I really enjoy lifting weights and I love the plyometrics workout from P90X. So I’ve start doing P90X again a few weeks ago, but this time I am not anywhere near as hard core about it. If I feel like sleeping in a day, I do and move the workout to the next day. I’ve also dropped the Kenpo workouts as I don’t feel I need any extra cardio, and this gives me an extra rest day.

Last week, after finishing my 50th state, I did a legs and back workout and pushed it fairly hard. I felt completely trashed. My heart was 10-15 beats higher than normal and I just felt weak. I went for a run that morning and just couldn’t seem to get started. I struggled through 4 miles at 8:30/M pace. I don’t mind running at 8:30/M pace, but the effort level required was about what it should be to run 6:30/M. I just couldn’t get my breathing right, and my legs felt like lead. I know some of this was residual marathon soreness and the fact I had done a legs workout 30 minutes before. But I do this all the time, normally I don’t get very sore after a marathon, and when I was hard core on P90X it didn’t really seem to affect my training runs.

The next day I struggled through another 4 miles run around the same pace. It was just brutal. I told my wife perhaps by body gave me enough leeway to finish the 50 states and now was calling in its markers.

On Saturday I decided to run with a good friend and we ran a comfortable pace for 10 miles. I didn’t do P90X Saturday, Sunday, or Monday. In fact I took Sunday totally off and went to watch my son’s triathlon. All three of us took naps that afternoon and went to bed earlier than normal.

On Monday morning’s run it became clear my body just needed some rest. I again skipped my weight workout, and went running. I was able to run 4 miles at 7:20/M pace and it felt comfortable. I was happy. This morning I woke and did plyometrics pretty hard, but I didn’t feel wasted afterwards. Then my run I started out slow and just kept ratcheting up the pace and finished in the low 6:00/Ms and an overall pace of 7:10/M.

I feel like I am coming back. Marathon in Deadwood this weekend, hopefully I can keep the positive momentum going.

The London Telegraph is reporting, what everyone instinctively knows as a child but seems to forget as they get older, that chocolate milk is awesome.

Researchers found that chocolate milkshake’s “natural” muscle recovery benefits match or may even surpass a specially designed carbohydrate sports drink.

They discovered that muscle damage was actually lower in those players that drank the milk after training than those that drank the commercial energy drinks.

Chocolate milk also tastes a lot better than Endurox, Accelerade or any of the recovery products like that. This is good news for all of us. So go for it, have a tall glass of chocolate milk after a workout, even a chocolate milkshake (while this will have many more calories, it will taste sooo yummy, and isn’t that why you run in the first place?).

A final quote for those of you on the fence:

The milk also helped reduce lactic acid levels in the blood, the compound that causes stiffness after exercise.

I know for a fact, the thing that helped me recover after getting destroyed in the Running From an Angel marathon this January was the Mint Oreo Blizzard.  mmmmmmm

I have finally finished my quest to run a marathon in all 50 states and Washington, DC. I still need to write up my official race report, but I started thinking about what my new goals would be and it got me thinking on what I’ve been lucky enough to accomplish over the last few years (since Feb of 2002). I have had a really good streak this year. Starting in January, my last 8 races, I have qualified for Boston 6 times and in the two I didn’t, I won the race (I’ll take missing out on Boston every time to win. Haha), bringing my total number of Boston Qualifiers up to 24. Of course I have benefited by getting older, I only need a 3:15:59 to qualify for the 2010 Boston Marathon, and those 5 minutes have made all the difference.

Some stats for the numerically inclined of you out there:

84 Marathons
8 Ultra Marathons
50 States
5 Countries
3 Continents
24 Boston Qualifying Times
Best time: 2:56:40
Longest marathon streak: 7 marathons in 7 weeks
Longest race: 50 miles

Marathons by Year:
2002: 3
2003: 9
2004: 8
2005: 11
2006: 15
2007: 18
2008: 20
2009: 8

So now I am thinking about what to do next. The obvious next goal is to get to 100 marathon or longer distance finishes. I am at 92 right now, so hitting 100 by the end of the year seems doable. I am also interested in running on all the continents, but that will take me a lot longer since it is sooooo much more expensive to do any of the four remaining continents that I have to do.

I’m looking for the races you all feel you must do at least once. The New Yorks, Bostons, Big Surs, St. Georges, Athens, Londons, Sydneys, Pike’s Peak, etc. I don’t care if they are easy or hard, I am looking for your favorite races.

Help me decide what comes next.

I’ve been taking it easy with some 4-5 mile runs, enjoying the cooler weather last week in California and now in Texas of all places.  I sure hope we get a cool weekend since whatever heat acclimation I had, is surely gone after this spell of pleasant weather.

So this weekend, we will be in Vermont, for my 50th state, my brother in law’s 50th marathon, my sister’s first marathon and my father in law’s 3rd marathon.  Going to be a great weekend.

Hmmmmmm. I was recently in the store when I came across this new product, and was like … wtf? Now soda has antioxidants; who knew? It reminds me of the movie Idoiocracy where everyone and everything craved electrolytes (even plants). It cracks me up to see all this junk food getting vitamins and other silly things.

So I bought a 12 pack of the healthy? diet 7UP and brought it to my office. So far the reaction has been positive (it tastes like a Shirley Temple) and everyone is excited about getting their antioxidants. But now it is healthy, since it doesn’t have super sugary grenadine and is enhanced with antioxidants.

I’m hoping the antioxidants are able to counter act the cancer causing, brain-matter dissolving nastiness of the aspartame, also contained in this nice friendly diet soda.

Now if they would switch out to sucralose I’d be a much happier camper.

Cheers.

The family and I flew into Boston, then drove up to Providence.  A very laid back Saturday finished up at a brew pub for some proper carbo loading.

The next morning we woke up and ran the race, more details to come, but the short report is: 3:15:14.

We spent the rest of the day trying to get home, many delays and one broken plane later we finally got home around 11pm and fell into bed as three tired tomatoes.

More details to come soon

Many moons later we finally get into Albany and hit the expo and get our packets. We meet Allegra for a nice dinner of Chinese food and all head back to our separate hotels. We wake up and head over to the race start. Since Paul Williams and Nancy Dasso aren’t with us, we did *not* arrive 3 hours before the start. We got there about 30 minutes before, (Scott and I were pushing for an even later arrival, but since it was going to be Vance’s first marathon and he had his sights set on Boston, we acquiesced and got there “early”).

Before the race started I saw Kelly Williamson from Austin and predicted to myself that she would run away with the women’s title (which she did by over 24 minutes). I was hoping to run with her for the first 5-6 miles and then see how I felt. I would to try and hit a 1:27-1:28 first half and then hang on. The course is fairly easy with only a few minor rolling hills and the weather was almost perfect.

There were a few Africans lining up in the front who were all going after the prize money. A couple of them say they plan on running 2:24-2:27. Then someone else says he plans on running sub 2:20 and all of their faces just fall. It is good to know that even if you can run a 2:24 you may still lose by a mile depending on who shows up, and that it isn’t just us.

The gun goes off and the Africans bolt out of the gate as do I (but more like a warthog than a gazelle). I like to run the first mile pretty quick to avoid the crowds and get into rhythm. The first couple miles go as planned and I am able to stay with Kelly.

0-1 6:19
1-2 6:43
2-3 6:29
3-4 6:34

Now normally at mile 4 I would take a Power Gel. But the most recent Marathon and Beyond had an article by Richard Benyo saying that you shouldn’t eat any carbs an hour before the race and don’t take any gels or Gatorade for the first 10 miles, as this (supposedly) is better for your blood sugar and you will run better. So I decided to abandon the strategy that had seen me through over 85 marathons and give this a shot.

4-5 6:30
5-6 6:47

So far so good, my times are about where I want them, but I feel like I could use a Gel, but not sure if I am just being a baby missing his woobie, or not.

6-7 6:42
7-8 6:41

I normally would have taken a second gel by now, and I feel my calves tightening up. Up until this point I had been running with someone who was planning on a 2:55. I decide my legs are breaking down and I need to let him go. I keep him in sight for another mile or two but then I don’t see him ever again.

8-9 6:37
9-10 6:43

About half a mile into mile 10 my calf locks up. It looks like a slab of beef, and while this is extremely interesting (or it would be if it wasn’t my leg), it hurts like a son-of-a-bitch. It feels like someone shot me in the leg with a paint ball gun. I have never cramped in my legs and so this is a new event for me. I decide that I will blame Richard Benyo for this and that I will now consume mass quantities of gel. I take 3 gels in about 2 minutes (which would turn out to not be the best idea, but I figured I needed the electrolytes bad).

I stop and try to stretch and it loosens up enough to move. I do a weird shuffle/walk/shuffle/wince/shuffle thing for the next half mile. I cross mile 11 much slower than I was hoping for but much faster than I thought I would be once my calf locked.

10-11 8:04

I am not sure I should be running on my leg as it feels fairly injured. But I have two things driving me forward:

1) I’ve already booked airfare, hotels, etc, for states #48, #49, #50 and I have family coming to #50. So if I don’t finish Georgia that all goes out the window. I resolve that I will run/shuffle for as long as I can and worst case I will crawl to the finish.
2) My father-in-law is running his first marathon and trying to break four hours so he can punch his ticket to Boston. I know without a doubt he is going to break 4 hours, but that the last 6 miles will be harder than he is expecting, but that he will man-up and get ‘er done. So I quickly calculate that if I can run under 9:00/M miles I should be able to get in by 4 hours and see his finish.

11-12 7:20
12-13 7:30
13-14 7:23

I am able to run faster than I thought, but I just can’t push off any harder. My leg has gone numb so it doesn’t hurt as much anymore, so I decide to push it a little.

14-15 7:17

Okay that did hurt a little. I take another gel and slow down a little.

15-16 7:46

I’m starting to feel the effects of the big Gel bomb I took after mile 11. I see my good friend the porta-potty and duck inside.

16-17 10:40

Back on the course nicely rested I am able to run with minimal pain. I am glad Nancy isn’t around to tell me not to be doing this. I figure my body has made me a deal, that it will stop bitching until after the race, and then it will take it’s revenge. As long as I can finish I am okay with this deal.

17-18 7:15
18-19 7:15
19-20 7:23

The miles start to click off, this course is really great. I have a feeling that Vance will be going to Boston and I think Allegra has a great shot at a PR. The marathon Gods were smiling on everyone except me, so I’m happy to take the bullet and distract them.

20-21 7:23
21-22 7:33
22-23 7:38

I start wondering if I can qualify for Boston today, but don’t think I’ve got the juice to break 3:10. Then it dawns on me, that for Boston 2010, I will be older, and I only will need a 3:15:59. So I decide not to push it too much as I know I can sneak under 3:16.

23-24 7:59
24-25 7:30

The gels attack one last time, and then we are on our way.

25-26 8:25
.2 1:26
=========
3:11:58

I finish and head straight to the medical tent and get a huge bag of ice and tape it to my leg. I wait in the massage line and able to get my massage and get back to the finish in time to see Vance clock a 3:59:32. I am very proud of him for qualifying for Boston and breaking 4 hours in his first marathon. But he has definitely earned it. He put in many 50-60 mile weeks and did the hill and speed workout needed. It goes to show you that if you work hard and train for hard goals you can reach them.

To my chagrin, I missed Allegra’s finish. It turns out that while I was rehabbing so was busy crushing his PR by 5 minutes and comes in a 3:46:04, putting Boston firmly in her sights as well. I feel that Allegra will be joining Vance next year in Bean town.

I try to stretch, ice, and walk out my leg. I go to check the results and when I come back to the table Scott has also shocked the world and broken a 6 year old PR with a 4:13:32. He doesn’t even look like he ran.

Afterwards we all go shower and then head out for dinner. I am not allowed to sit on the PR side of the table as it is already full with Vance, Scott and Allegra. I join my non-running wife and mother-in-law on the banished side.

This was a great race, but I don’t recommend not eating or geling those first 10 miles. If you need Georgia this is a great race to do. Oh yeah, last but not least, FREE beer at the finish!

We went back to Atlanta and met some friends for dinner and good time was had by all.

My leg has turned an ugly red and I clearly have done something to it. I don’t run for 4-5 days then try a mile and can’t do it, so take another 4-5 days off and try again. I’m able to make 2 miles, but decide I need some massage and more rest. It finally started feeling a little better in the week leading up to the Knoxville marathon, but that’s another story.

Two bonus pictures:

and, just for good measure:

I am pretty proud of her progress so far and know she is going to make it and become the 4th marathoner in our family.   But the last few miles of the run, and the drive home, she wasn’t super pleasant.

Luckily for her, the friend she ran with, is very nice and didn’t mind all the grumpiness.  We are taking bets on if she will be a grumpasaurus after the Vermont Marathon or if the thrill of finishing will outweigh and she will be super happy.  I’m leaning towards happy.

We ran about 3 minutes per mile slower than I would have if running solo, and I think it messed with my gait and just in general threw my body all out of whack.

My hamstrings (which are normally very tight) are now like piano wires.  I can barely bend over to try and stretch out.  I think a super hot bath followed by some forced stretching is on the agenda for tonight.

But on the plus side my sister was able to finish the 15 miles.  So, she just needs to be able to add on the next 11 and we’re all good.

My brother in law had a great run this weekend at the Big D in Dallas and ran his 3rd fastest time ever.  He has really been on a tear this year and it is great to see him kicking ass again.