Top of Utah Half Marathon today. I had been approaching this race wanting it to be a big effort, as it will be my last real race before the marathon in November, and also it’s an excellent course with excellent competition with excellent weather. You don’t want to pass that up. Training since Des News has been good. Lots of miles and lots of marathon-pace running. However, I knew that our baby due date was pretty close to this race, so I didn’t want to get too wrapped up in thinking about it. But our baby came on Thursday night, we were all home on Friday night, and I was granted permission to run today, provided that I came straight home!

Not a ton of sleep the last two nights, but given the circumstance not terrible either. Probably about 5 hrs each night. But I was fairly fatigued from all the running around and from coaching Stacy through the delivery. Not really physically tired, but more of the nerves being shot. What Sasha calls “neural fatigue”.

Got up around 5AM, and ate my breakfast of oatmeal with brown sugar, vanilla yogurt, and cut-up peaches. Orange juice and coffee for the road. Drove into Providence and got a sweet parking spot on the street that would give me a quick exit right after the race.

Got on one of the earlier buses, shuttled up, used the potty, and then warmed up about two miles up the canyon and back. Took another potty stop. No Narnia this year, but I did get in the fastest line. I considered using another set of hidden toilets, which are pit toilets about 300m down the canyon, but by doing so I’d be risking my life my running on a road with no shoulder with buses going in both directions. Decided it was too dangerous, and more of a Mordor than a Narnia, as far as hard-to-find magical places go.

They miraculously started the race very close to on time. I really don’t know how they shuttled 2300 runners up the canyon, and then backed everyone up to the start line, and only started a few minutes behind schedule. My only guess is that Kris Sidoway (RD) is a taskmaster. She is wicked good with that megaphone.

I knew who my competition would be beforehand, from looking at the online start list. The favorite to win would be Patrick Rotich, the Kenyan who’s been training in Provo this summer. Also there was Teren Jameson, two-time defending champ and course record holder. If I slipped up, then Steve Shepherd would be there to teach me a lesson. He’s a former Weber State runner (I think), whose had some strong showings at the Hobbler Half and Des News 10K this year, among a few other races. But I had beaten him head-to-head at Des News. Patrick had beat Teren head-to-head at several races this summer, and Teren had beaten me head-to-head at a couple races this summer. So we seemed to have a pecking order, although I wanted to overthrow. I like the half marathon distance, and I like my home course, so I wanted to let it rip and see what happens. Although Teren is much speedier and more talented than me, I’ve been putting in a lot more miles, so I figured this longer distance was my only chance to beat him this year. Patrick seems to have been racing himself into better and better shape over the summer, but I’d be willing to spar with him here in Logan. So hopefully it would be an interesting and fast race. Weather was a little warm (high 50s), but a favorable canyon wind (although not very strong).

The race started, and as I expected, both Teren and Patrick got out hard. Patrick took the lead from the gun. I wanted to keep contact from the beginning, and caught up to Teren during the mile, with Patrick a few seconds ahead. Steve Shepherd joined our pack to make three. First mile split was 4:51. I wanted 4:55’s down the canyon, so a little fast, but I’m willing to take some risks on this course.

Teren and I ran side-by-side for the next mile and eventually started closing the gap on Patrick, who was not running tangents very well (he actually got a lot better with tangents as the race went on). Steve remained on my trail-leg. Mile 2 was 5:00, the slowest split during the first 8 miles.

We caught Patrick near the end of the second mile, or maybe the beginning of the third mile. The pace felt hard to me up through now, and then it started getting really crazy. Kenyan runners are known for their crazy surging, and Patrick did nothing to dispel this notion. For the next 4 miles, we would catch him, pass him, and then he’d blitz and pull ahead with a gap. Teren made that worse by surging hard on all of the bigger downhills, and pass Patrick. Then Patrick would pass him back when it flattened, and eventually I would catch both of them. I’m not much of a surger. Steve Shepherd dropped pretty hard during the third mile.

Mile 3 was 4:56, Mile 4 was 4:51, Mile 5 was 4:45, Mile 6 was 4:49. 29:14 through 6 miles. Youtch! But I was feeling good, despite all the games. We had a tailwind for these miles. It was not a huge canyon wind, but it extended up the canyon more than usual, although it did not persist much on Hollow Rd. So definitely a helpful wind, but did not aid things as much as some other years. Probably worth 40s over the duration of the race.

After 6 miles, we near the end of the canyon, Patrick had gapped Teren, and Teren had gapped me by little. Eventually I worked my way up to Teren, and ran alongside him for a little while, but then surprisingly dropped him soon thereafter. Mile 7 was another 4:49.

After the 7-mile mark, we got onto Hollow Rd. Hollow Rd is still nice downhill, more gradual, but just as fast, perhaps faster due to the evenness of the gradient. Patrick had maybe 10-15s on me on Hollow Rd, but he was certainly not coming back. I was hoping he would slow on the hill at Mile 10, but in the back of my mind I remembered that it’s usually me that dies on that hill. My pace slowed a little on Mile 8 to 4:54, but still where I wanted to be!

Mile 9 is still all on Hollow Rd. It’s a speedy section, but I could feel my pace slowing. This mile was 5:04 for me. Patrick was running faster than that, evidently. I could feel my wheels starting to fall off. Too many sub-4:50 miles earlier, which was a bit out of the zone I’m trained to run in.

During Mile 10 we exit Hollow Rd and run on Hwy-165. Still a very mellow downhill, but close to flat. 5:05 for this mile. Well, if I can at least hold this pace, it will still average out to a huge PR. 49:09 for the 10-mile split, which is on pace for well under 1:05:00. I’m hoping that I will magically bound up the 1.5-mile long hill coming up in order to do this.

Miles 11 & 12 are the hardest in the race. The first half of 11 is still flat, but then we start going up. All of Mile 12 is uphill, and then it crests, and Mile 13 is a net downhill to the finish. As I feared, I slowed even more on Mile 11, to 5:14. But Patrick wasn’t pulling ahead anymore, so he was evidently hurting too. I laid an egg on Mile 12, though, with a 5:31 split. We were on the grid system now, and I could see that Patrick was about 2/3 of a block up from me, which is about 25-30s.

We finally crested the painful hill (but not soon enough) right after Mile 12. I tried to get my legs under me, but there was nothing there. It looked like Patrick was pulling away again this last mile. When I looked at my watch at Mile 12, I also realized that I wasn’t going to break 1:05, which was a bit of a kick in the pants, after thinking it was a certainty just a couple miles ago. But it’s hard to pull out that kind of time while plunking a 5:14 and a 5:31 as successive splits. Those really threw it off. But I bore down and did the best I could. I finally got some turnover near the end. Hit Mile 13 with a 5:12. I’ve done it faster other years, but I’ll have to take it. Again, too many too-fast miles early on.

Last 0.1 was 30s. Official time was 1:05:38, good for 2nd place overall. It would have been the course record, except I got beat. Patrick Rotich won with 1:05:10, Teren was 3rd with 1:07:35, Steve Shepherd was 4th with 1:08:37.

After I finished, I literally kept jogging, and grabbed my bag, and then headed to my car to take off back home in order to not be a deadbeat husband and father. I had arranged for Walter to pick up my prize money at the awards ceremony, so we’ll all see how honest Walter is now with 150 bucks! (thanks Walter!). Hopefully he won something good with my bib number in the raffle. I stopped in Logan to get gas (almost empty), and then realized that I grabbed the wrong clothes bag when I opened it up to grab a dry shirt, and there was women’s clothes inside! Turns out the bib number on the bag was one number different that mine, and the last name was Petersen. Bah. So I drove back to Providence, put the wrong bag back, and grabbed mine. Ended up bumping into a lot of people and chit-chatted too much, my quick exit and early return home was ruined. Still got home at 9:15AM, but I would have been 8:30AM had I not needed to turn back. Oh well. Stacy still loves me. Took Seth off her hands and cooled down with him in the stroller when I got home.

I’m happy with this race, especially given the what an eventful week it was. I felt sharp; although I paid for an aggressive early pace, sometimes it’s worth it to give a hard pace a shot. This time is an aided half marathon PR for me, beating my UVM time by 27s, and beating my last year’s TOU Half time by 64s. Moreover, I finally got my sub-1:06, which is a nice stepping stone. Now I just need to stick the last few miles and get a sub-1:05. But it was a nice race amongst other nice races for the year, and does not discourage me from thinking I can get the marathon qualifier.

I’ve had a nice string of half marathons over the span of 2009 and 2010:

• Indy Mini, May 2009 - 1:08:35 (unaided PR)
• Seattle RnR, June 2009 - 1:08:12 (unaided PR)
• TOU Half, Aug 2009 - 1:06:42 (aided PR)
• The Other Half, Oct 2009 - 1:09:50 (unaided, altitude PR)
• Indy Mini, May 2010 - 1:08:05 (unaided PR)
• UVM Half, June 2010 - 1:06:05 (aided PR)
• TOU Half, Aug 2010 - 1:05:38 (aided PR)

These are all consecutive half marathons, so it’s cool to PR every time I race (although I probably shouldn’t count The Other Half…). I’ve also had two 15K PRs and a 10K PR during this time span. So it’s been a great couple years, and I’m very thankful and blessed to be given this second lease on running, after thinking it was all over a couple years ago.

No more races until Indy in November. It’s just a lot of miles and a lot of workouts for the next two months to prepare for the marathon.

Des News 10K today. I enjoy this race because it’s so competitive, and I got a full order of competition today! Definitely both the deepest and top-heavy Des News field I’ve run in. It’s sick how fast people ran today, but sick in a good way. It’s great to have a race like this right here in Utah. Too bad it’s all downhill, as no one outside the state gives the race any respect. But it’s a great race.

Anyway, Stacy, Seth, and I drove down to SLC on Friday afternoon. Went early so that we could take our new (used) Volvo to the dealer (only dealer in the state) to do some magical dealer-only work (ie - turn off the air bag light). Managed to escape only spending $110 for that and a few other things.

We then shacked up at the Skyline Inn on Foothill Dr., just a couple miles from the start line. Ordered in pizza for dinner and sat around and gorged ourselves on TV (we have not have tv reception at home since we built our deck–no big loss). Went on to sleep my worst night of sleep ever. Absolutely terrible beds there, plus the room was too warm (weak AC). Wished I was in nice, cool Cache Valley. Got probably 3 hours of sleep, but I was ready to get up at 4:30AM, simply to get our of that dang bed. To top off the terrible bed, the room had no coffee machine. Even our hotel in Provo, a stone’s throw from BYU, had a flippin’ coffee machine. Oh well. My nervous system was pretty amp’ed for this race, so I was quite wide awake and ready to go anyway. But it would have helped with “other things”.

Ate a banana and a couple mini-Cliff bars, and headed out to the course. Ran there, so it was about a 2 or 3-mile warmup. Conditions were cooler than I thought it might be, which was good, but still quite a bit warmer than what I’m used to. When I turned up Wakara, I noticed that we would have a favorable wind direction for that part of the race. Perhaps that helped make the race times so fast. I’m sure the nice temperatures helped too.

Took a potty stop, then warmed up a little more, did some strides, sat in the grass, and generally wasted time. Listened to a guy cuss up a storm because he realized he forgot his iPOD. Totally ruined his day. If you hate running that much, then don’t do it! This guy was angry beyond belief, though, probably one of the same people who threw a fit on Ragnar’s facebook page a few weeks ago.

Just before the race started, I bumped into an old teammate from Calvin College, Kris Koster. Kris was a freshman when I was senior. He went on to be a multi-All American, and ran around 30-flat on the track in the 10K, and under 14:30 in the 5K too. He has family in Utah, and was here for a funeral, and jumped in Des News at 5PM last night. Pretty cool to see him after 9 years, and it definitely made my day (and helped my race, see below).

Chatted with a few others, and weaseled my way into the start. I somehow ended up 3 rows deep, and couldn’t get any further up, being a 125-lb weakling and all. So I settled for 3 rows back, behind all the kids, including an 11-year-old whose mom personally insisted be up there.

They started the race right on time (this race is always very well-organized), and we roared out. Always a fast start, this Des News 10K. I quickly found myself in about 30th place or so. I got out from the crowd and wormed my way up, and was probably in about 20th by the turn onto Wakira. I couldn’t believe how far up the leaders were, and how far back I was from my “peer group”. I could see Jeff and Brad O. way the heck up there, and Seth Pilkington a little ahead of them. Leaders were almost out of site by a half mile. I figured that I was just having a tank of a race and going really slow. First mile split was 4:31. Okaaay. My goal pace for the first two miles for 4:35-4:38. I was not slow; everyone else was just extremely fast. Hopefully they would all pay.

I started running down the people that went out too hard. Knowing that my first mile was 4:31, I pretty much figured everyone went out too hard, and I was destined to win. Well, I didn’t really think that, but I figured a lot of guys would come back to me, including Jeff and Brad. One-by-one I picked people off the next few miles. Mile 2 was 4:37 (9:08 for 2 miles). The pace felt quite hard (never felt relaxed at any point), and the downhill was hurting my back. I actually accelerated more and gained more ground on the flatter sections and on the uphill sections.

Mile 3 was tougher than I remember, and actually had quite a bit of uphill. Where did that come from? But again, I gained the most ground on the uphill, so although painful, it was good for my race. I also noticed a guy in dark maroon coming back to me, and I immediately recognized the distinct stride with the high leg kick: Kris Koster, my old college teammate. It’s funny how you can recognize a stride after all those years. I was gaining on Kris, and he was the link between myself and the next pack ahead of him (Jeff, Brad, etc). Mile 3 was 4:50 (13:59 for 3 miles).

I was targeting 4:45 for the next couple miles, and then Mile 6 is always a death-march. Not that you can really “target” much at Des News. You more just load and go, and hope for the best. It’s not a cerebral race. I caught Kris during the 4th mile. “Pack it up” I said to him as I pulled along side him. Got a lot of warm fuzzy college memories. Calvin College XC was well-known in DIII for its pack running. It’s what gave us our strength, and how we won championships.  I ended up running with Kris the rest of the way, and we reeled in people together. Hit Mile 4 in 4:44 (18:43), so back to an ideal pace.

We made our turn onto the parade route, and of course by this point things were very uncomfortable. I really dislike any race shorter than 15K at this point of my running career. Too much pain, too much turnover, too much breathing, not enough rhythm. Kris and I continued to work together. Right around Mile 5, Kris looked up and said, “I lift my eyes up to the hills,” a reference to Psalm 121 “

¹ I lift up my eyes to the hills—
where does my help come from?

 ² My help comes from the LORD,
the Maker of heaven and earth.”

Words of encouragement to me and also a reminder to enjoy God’s creation that we were running in. Laboring but spurred on, we reeled in and passed a guy in red, and Jeff, Brad O., and Jon Kotter were coming back, and it was inevitable that we would catch them. Mile 5 was 4:45 (23:29), perfect.

I don’t remember, but I think we finally caught Jeff & company with about 1 mile left. I sat on the pack for a few moments to gather some strength (I’ve been feeling pretty gassed since Mile 2!), and then made a move on the inside before the turn onto 900 S. Passed everyone, but then I couldn’t finish deal, and we all stayed packed up. Made the turn onto 900 S, and started the uphill section to the finish. This part is always hard, and this year was no different. The work I’d done the last 3 miles to catch everyone was definitely set in, and I no pop.

Eventually Jeff, Brad, and Kotter all passed me back, and then ground me up the hill. I sat and hoped for a good kick. Ugghh. Not feeling the fire either. Wish I had done some 10K training, as I promised myself that I would, but the last month was just miles and tempos, nothing hard. Had a little gap from the pack at Mile 6, but was 5:05 (28:34), which actually is my best Des News mile 6 split, so I shouldn’t complain. Was 2 seconds beyond my peer group that I needed to beat, so still within striking range!

Unfortunately I didn’t strike, and those guys somehow put another 3 seconds or so on me in the last 0.2. I guess Brad is a sub-1:50 800m guy, so that doesn’t help (I ran 2:02, almost 10 years ago), but there’s still no reason it couldn’t have gone the other way for me. Kris had fallen back from my a little bit on 900 S (the uphill at altitude probably hurt him more, being a flatlander), so I remained ahead of him. Saw the clock for the first time right before I finished and realized that was going to kill my time goal of sub-30:00, and would be in the 29:30s. I had no idea. So that was good! Last 0.2 was 64s.

Was glad to be done, glad to hit my time goal, and glad to beat my course best by 49 seconds. Official chip time was 29:38, gun time was 29:39. I’ll go with chip time here. Starting 3 rows back did not help, although running 4:30 for the first mile (opposed to 4:20) probably did help.

That said, I was a little shocked to get my bum handed to me on a platter en-route to a 29:38. 3 years ago that time would have been good for 3rd overall and 2nd Utahn; this year it was good for 13th overall and ?? Utahn. Not top 3, that’s for sure. But it was all very exciting racing, and fun to work my way up in a good field like that, to recognize people as rivals and reel them in over the duration of a race, and to find an old teammate and work together with him (running with Kris was definitely the highlight of my day, by far).

Another positive was that we were all reeling in Teren Jameson over the last couple miles. Never came into contact with him, but I’m always glad just to have him visible. He ended up about 15 seconds ahead. He is running the TOU Half, so perhaps home-field will give me the advantage I need to finally slay the dragon? Jeff has owned me this year at the shorter distances (5K/10K). Perhaps we need to race another half marathon? TOU Half, Jeff? But I least I had to opportunity to make the pass in this race, whereas at Law Day I couldn’t even made contact! And thankfully  I don’t have to race any more 5K’s or 10K’s for a year or two or three. Maybe ever.

So in a nutshell, it was a PR effort, and a big course best. Great time and good progress compared to my 2007 time. I think I am on track for where I need to be to make a legitimate Trials shot. I get better as I go out in distance, so I don’t put too much stock in 10Ks (especially downhill ones), but I have every reason to be encouraged because I can compare to my ‘07 time. The big negative was not being able to finish out yet another race. Although I have not been falling apart at the end, my kick and my killer instinct has not been there at any race this year. I believe that more than 50% of the problem is just attitude and emotional fatigue from the race. True the lack of speedwork didn’t help, but most of it is mental. It can be improved.

After the race, I talked with Kris and a few other people for a while, then cooled down back to my hotel with Kris and Teren. Felt pretty good during the cooldown, and worked out most of my calf and quad soreness during the 4-mile run. Hopefully I’ll feel good on Monday…for the start of marathon training! Everything I’ve done so far this winter, spring, and summer, has led up to this point. Just get me to 14 weeks before the marathon, healthy and fit. And that’s where I am. The race is Nov. 6. I am healthy. I am fit. Just need the specific training, and to endure the next 3 months.

Ran the Blacksmith Fork Freedom Run today, a rare 15K race. I got up a little before 5AM, ate breakfast, and then grabbed my flats and jogged down to Carson’s house for about a 2-mile pre-warmup warmup. Then we all carpooled with Carson’s brother and sister, and one of their friends.

Got to the start line around 6:10, so plenty of time. We warmed up by running two miles up the canyon, and then back down, so 4 miles total. Perhaps it was too much pre-race running (6 miles total), but I needed the mileage more than the race.

Weather was pretty good. Nice and cool at the start line, maybe around 50 degrees. Didn’t see any wind while driving up the canyon, so I was not counting on the famous Blacksmith Fork tailwind. Oh well. Managed one good portapot stop, and then it was time for the race to start. Narnia did not exist this year. Actually, the two portapots were there, but the race portapots were not in front of them, so they were exposed for the whole world to see. The magic was gone. But I used them anyway.

They actually started on time, which was great compared to last year. They were really ready for the crowd this year. I took it out pretty hard the first mile. My top-tier goal was to run around 46:00, which would be 15:20 per 5K, and about 4:57/mile. A tough goal, but I split pretty close to that at Utah Valley!

First mile was 4:58, but I knew it wasn’t happening. Was working too hard and breathing too hard. The little tiny rollers in the canyon felt like big hills, and the downhills didn’t feel big enough. My running felt uncoordinated, like I was lumbering rather than smoothly gliding. In other words, I was feeling pretty flat. But from taking it out hard, I was by myself from the gun, and it stayed that way to the finish.

I thought perhaps it would get better, but the race rolled by pretty much the same the whole. I mean, it wasn’t terrible or anything, in fact it was pretty decent, but my last race was UVM, so I think I was expecting to feel like that again. Mile 2 was 5:04, then 5:06 for Mile 3. 5K was probably about 15:40.

Miles 4-6 were more of the same. Still on the downhill, but indeed we did not get a canyon wind today. In fact we picked up a slight headwind by the middle of the race and stayed through the end. Nothing major, but you notice it when you’re trying to race into it. 5:06, 5:02, and 5:14 for Miles 4-6. Not sure what happen on Mile 6, probably the headwind picking up. 10K split was probably about 31:40. Waayyy slower than UVM. I think I’ve decided that Provo Canyon is quite a bit faster than Blacksmith Fork, though.

The end of mile 7 is the big hill of the course. Tried to work the hill, and hit 5:19 for the split. The first bit of mile 8 is uphill too, and then it’s pretty flat. 5:22 for mile 8. By now I was out in the sun, but thankfully it stayed quite cool out, and was still great temperatures for racing. Mile 9 is downhill, with a really sweet downhill at the end of the mile as you approach downtown Hyrum. 5:09 for Mile 9. Then the last 0.3 to the finish was 1:29, as I tried to pick it up some.

My “official” finish time was 47:50. The timing mat was not turned on yet, so we used one of the race official’s watch time, which matched mine pretty well. So it’s all good. I definitely expected to run faster and to feel smoother, but I’m grateful to win the race, and to break 48-minutes, which is a nice barrier at the 15K distance (3xsub-16 5K’s in a row). So it was a course best and a 15K PR, and a win. Gotta take it! Josh Steffen was 2nd and Kevin Dickey was 3rd. Carson was 4th. Official times were kind of mixed up for the top people, so hopefully everyone kept a watch time.

After the race I cooled down another 4 miles with Carson and his brother Todd. We ran up the course, and about 12 different people told us, “Hey, you’re going the wrong way!” Each person thought they were being original. I usually told them that we had to go back because I left my windows down. The cooldown gave me 19 miles total for the day.

Stayed around for the awards and the raffle. I didn’t win anything in the raffle, but the prize for 1st overall was a very cool pottery bowl. It’s extremely huge. Not sure what I’ll do with it, but it’s unique and one of the nicer prizes I’ve won.

So it was a beautiful day and a nice day to race. Met some new people, saw a lot of bloggers (especially at Scott’s pre-race BBQ yesterday, which was a great time), and got a little sun. A successful Saturday.

There has been a rather spirited discussion on the FastRunningBlog message boards recently, debating which downhill Utah race course is faster: the new Utah Valley Marathon route, or the St George Marathon route. I am of the opinion that nothing can touch St George. Its downhill simply special, and you can flat-out roll on that course, especially the second half. I don’t think any other course will ever touch it in terms of speed. Nothing personal against Utah Valley, or any other race, but facts are facts.

Other people, of course, disagreed with me (most notably the Utah Valley race director). They argued that the Utah Valley course has a better distribution of downhill. Although the drop is not as great, there is no Vejo hill and no Dammeron Valley hill, and the downhill is more even and mellow at UVM, thus granting less quad bashing and better times. Fair enough.

Still others pointed out the higher elevation of UVM in comparison to St George. The uphills at UVM would have a larger detriment than to those at St George. Fair enough.

After the UVM race concluded (June 12, 2010), the debate really didn’t resolve. Most people conceded that UVM might be just a little slower than St George, maybe a minute or two. I still held the opinion that it was 6-8 minutes slower, which brought on sharp disagreement. As with most running-related arguments (okay, all arguments), little progress was made over time.

This was all in good fun. I actually don’t care if I’m right or wrong, but it’s fun to talk about and fun to debate. Sorry if anyone took it personally. After all, being the fastest race doesn’t imply that it’s the best. But this whole discussion gave me enough motivation to update my Utah Marathon Comparison profile. I originally made this back in fall of 2007, right before the St George race. The chart compared the elevation profiles between 3 classic Utah marathons: Top of Utah, Ogden, and St George.  I found it interesting to look at, and it has actually helped me in race preparation. Other people have told me the same. I’ve been meaning to add other races to it, especially since more and more local marathons keep popping up.

So yesterday I finally digitized the Utah Valley course, extracted elevations, and added the profile. I made sure to zoom in very tightly to make sure I got the route exact on the road and not up on a cliff or anything (an issue with canyon races). I then pulled elevations at a 0.25-mile interval, and used a 5-meter elevation model as the data source. Most states do not have 5m models available, but we are very lucky to have them here in Utah for most of the state. This is a high enough resolution to avoid most errors due to canyon walls, plus Provo Canyon is relatively wide compared to other marathon routes (ie - Top of Utah). So the elevations should be pretty good for UVM, much better than anything you’d get off of Gmap, MapMyRun, or any other USGS-based elevation web service. I also did an extraction at 0.1-mile intervals, which gives a bit higher resolution, but I ended up settling on 0.25-mile intervals in order to match the other three profiles that I made back in 2007. Using 0.25-mile instead of 0.1 would potentially “chop” some of the hills and valleys, which actually leads to a more conservative, smoothed-out profile. But when comparing uphills between these races, perhaps conservative is good.

I also need to mention that digital elevation models are generally bare earth, meaning that things like highway overpasses do not show up in the model. After all, there is ground under the overpass, and that is what is included in the model. Road cuts, however, do show up in the model, and the road cut is obvious in Provo Canyon. Long story short, the infamous “overpass hill” during the last mile of UVM does not show up in the profile, which eliminates an entire hill. I could have fudged it in, but I left it out in order to pad UVM’s numbers against St George a little bit, and also to send a hint to get rid of that hill in real life.

Okay, enough technical gibber-jabber. The result is shown below. Click on the image for a higher-res PDF file. It’s easy to see that Utah Valley is indeed the highest elevation of all the marathons. It also has the most cumulative uphill (slightly more than St G). Again, these are conservative numbers. It has the second-highest total downhill and net downhill out of all the marathons. There are no hills as big as Vejo or as long as Dammeron at UVM, but its hills are still substantial in a few spots. Interestingly, if you compare the average finish times between all of the races on MarathonGuide.com, Utah Valley comes out as second fastest, behind St George.

The Utah Valley event is a great race, and there’s no doubt it’s a fast course. But how fast is hard to determine, and no amount of “stats” or elevation comparisons,  or time cross-references, or anecdotes can really quantify it. There are a lot of variables that go into course speed, and on top of that, every individual runner is different, and will respond differently to each course. My strength may be someone else’s weakness, and vice versa. So again, this is all in good fun.

Anyway, enjoy the new profile chart. They are fun to make, and I certainly find them useful. At some point I’ll add the Salt Lake City Marathon and Des News as well, but I think I’ve got the four biggest marathons on there for now.

Stacy, Seth, and I drove down to Provo on Friday afternoon for the Utah Valley Half Marathon. Outlook for race-day looked grim: rain, more rain, and then some rain. Oh well, that’s the story of the year so far. We found our way to the expo, then checked into our motel on the northwest side of BYU campus, and then met the StG crew for dinner. I love the social aspect of racing, and it was nice to catch up with people at dinner, and also at the finish line after the races.

Went to bed around 8:45PM, and Seth wound down relatively quickly and allowed us to get to sleep by 9:30PM or so. He didn’t wake up during the night either. Wish I could say the same for myself. When I am in “race mode”, I never need an alarm clock because my body keeps waking itself up. I never get nervous, but my body certainly anticipates a race. I was waking up about every half hour during the night, anticipating it being time to get up. Finally, I did get up at 3:14AM, so I indeed did not need the alarm, which was set for 3:15AM.

I brewed a pot of coffee, and ate a banana and the random sports bars that was with the goodie bag (think it was Snickers Marathon bar, or something). I had another banana later before I got on the bus. Drank 2 cups of coffee, which was very good quality for a motel.

Caught the StG-mobile (Tahoe) and hitched ride to the busing at 3:45AM. Hyrum had asked me to take the VIP bus and talk to the other runners on the bus, which I agreed to do since he was nice enough to comp my entry. That bus did not leave until 4:30, so I did my warmup from the mall, and jogged about two miles. Our bus left at 4:30AM, and there was only about 10 people on it. It was kind of nice actually, and I chatted with Lindsey D., MaryAnn S., and some of the other runners, and generally relaxed. Halfway up we found at that one man was supposed to be on the marathon bus. So when we got to the start line, I jumped out and grabbed a volunteer, who offered to drive the man to the start. But MaryAnn was also able to flag down a marathon bus, so the guy ended up getting on that instead.

Long story short, at this point there was not a ton of time to the start. But that is exactly why I did my warmup early. I dedicated my remaining time to standing in line for the portapot, which was quite a substantial line by now. The race could certainly improve on its portapots and staging area. But it’s all good. Only a one-star race, but it was high-quality and I was all set afterward.

I did some strides at the start line, and was feeling good. My training had been good the last month, and I fully expected to go well under 1:07, and probably under 1:06 too (despite Sasha’s predictions). I figured that if I could run 1:06:42 at the TOU Half last year, while being out of shape (running less than 60 mpw), then I should certainly be able to challenge 1:06:00 after some 90 mile weeks, even if the course is a little slower. I had expected Jeff and Hayden as my top competition before the race, but was surprised to learn at dinner the night before that Seth Pilkington was running too. At the time, I figured that eliminated me from contention, but as I mulled it over later that evening and on raceday morning, I figured I had to at least put myself out there and race him. I’ve attempted the same with Teren Jameson in past races, and although I never came out on top, I at least would surprise myself a little and have fun with the challenge. Plus, who knows what kind of shape Seth was in? If he was out of shape, or doing the race as a tempo run, or in a poor mindset, they I would have a legit chance.

Weather conditions ended up being quite excellent despite my concerns during the week. The rain had temporarily let up, and temps were in the low 50s, maybe upper 40s, which is perfect. In the rare times I could sense a wind, it was usually in a favorable direction (tailwind). So as long as the rain held off, it would be about perfect, other than perhaps an occasional slippery spot in the road. But I figured that Ryan Hall broke the American record in similar conditions, so perhaps a little rain wouldn’t hurt either. It ended up just sprinkling occasionally for the first few miles, then steady rain for the middle miles, and then dry for the last few miles. Other than getting soggy, and some chaffing, I don’t think the rain hurt me much, and was actually quite nice at times.

The race started about 15 minutes late. I wasn’t surprised, since I figured that sync’ing the marathon start and the half marathon start would be kind of difficult. So 15 minutes isn’t too bad, plus it allowed the sky to lighten up a little bit. It was sprinkling here and there, but the air felt good.

It was finally time to start, and they counted down from 10, and then fired the gun. I wanted to get out quick, and apparently so did everyone else. We had a pack of 5 for the first two miles (me, Jeff, Aaron Metler from St George, Seth Pilkington, and some other guy I didn’t know who turned out to be Brad Osguthorpe). The first mile was mostly downhill with one little uphill (I think). We hit it in 4:55, which felt brilliant. Ted was there reading us splits, which was nice, and he continued to do so until Mile 8 or 9. I knew from previous workouts that 4:55 feels pretty good on a downhill, and I intended to sustain this pace in through canyon at least.

The second mile had a substantial hill that showed up in the elevation profile, so I was expecting it. We covered it in 5:16. Still feeling good, and ready to start ripping on the downhill, now that the main uphill was behind me. After two miles, Aaron decided the pace was a bit much, and he packed off, leaving us with a remaining pack of four runners. (Aaron went on to finish in 1:07:36, which is a massive PR for him, great race).

And rip the downhill we did. Mile 3 was 4:41, and felt like walking. I commented that it was either short, or we’re really moving. In looking at the race afterward, it turned out to be the latter. Followed it up with a 4:50 for Mile 4. Just haulin’. Great downhill stretch.

By now I was in a major groove, a sweet rhythm. In my races this year, none of them catered to my main strength, which is hitting a pace and sticking it with a good rhythm. Yes, I am a rhythm runner, not a strength runner, not a surging runner. Indy was just too windy to find that groove until it was too late, and Law Day was too hilly and too twisty to find that special cadence. But so far UVM was perfect, and I found myself stuck in effortless 4:5x miles. It was a great groove.

For the first few miles, our pack dynamic involved Seth and Brad doing most of the leading, and Jeff and I on the trail legs. There was no wind to speak of, so drafting was not a factor, but I was happy to tuck in and try to hit decent tangents. The shoulder of the road had these annoying rumble-strips, and I was a little concerned about all the concrete, but mostly I just focused on keeping the pace and feeling smooth.

Mile 5 was 4:58. Right around here, Jeff started dropping back a little bit. I encouraged him to close the gap, but he continued to drop off, so I set my attention solely on Brad and Seth. They both looked really strong, and neither was breathing hard. But then again, neither was I.

Mile 6 was 4:56, and our cumulative time was 29:39. Probably about 30:40 for 10K or so, which is cool (my track PR is 30:45, and my downhill PR is 30:27 from Des News). With just three of us in the pack, I was putting myself out front a little more, and not just tucking in. Wind conditions were still good, although we’d hit a small headwinds once in a while.

Mile 7 was 4:53. My legs and lungs were still feeling absolutely brilliant. I held off the urge to make some sort of move; it was way to early, and I made a pact with myself not to do anything until after Mile 10. Plus, Brad and Seth were still looking effortless. Somewhere in here we left the canyon and got into the valley, but still on a nice downhill. I was starting to seriously believe that I would not only break 1:06, but would also break 1:05 (a secret pre-race goal of mine).

Alas, that was the final sub-5 mile we ran. Mile 8 was 5:00. Mile 9 degraded to 5:04, although I still felt very good. Somewhere in here Brad suddenly dropped off. It surprised me a little because he looked so good, but with four miles to go it was a two-man race between myself and Seth Pilkington.

After Brad dropped, the pace actually slowed quite a bit. I think the reason was three-fold. 1) the downhill was flattening out; 2) legs had some fatigue from the downhill pounding; 3) I think both Seth and I relaxed a little once it came down to just two people, plus I knew we had sub-1:07 and then time bonus in the bag. The last few miles almost felt like a waiting game, just getting ourselves in striking range of the finish.

Mile 10 was 5:11, the slowest split of the day. I started feeling a little frisky and antsy, and threw a couple test surges to try to push the pace a little. Seth responded to each one with little apparent difficulty, and after that I was content to sit and wait for the race to play itself out. In retrospect, I wish I had surged a little harder and longer, and made a better attempt to win the race right here. But that’s how it went down. Mile 11 ended up at 5:04, so a little bit faster to reward my efforts.

Mile 12 was 5:10. It felt like I should still be sub-5 pace, as my lungs were still feeling easy, but my legs were getting heavier, and the turnover and spunk didn’t seem to be there (for some reason, hmmm).

After we hit the 12 mile mark, Seth finally played his card, he gained about a second of separation on me before the overpass hill with 0.75 miles left. I ground up the hill, and managed to keep the gap from growing too much, and then worked the downhill as well as I could. But the gap widened, and I could tell that Seth had me beat, both physically and mentally. At this point I was looking mostly forward to finishing the race, and keeping it close and respectable (not a good mindset, by the way). We made the turn into the mall, and I knew we were almost there. He was still pushing hard, and I was still chasing, but not closing at all. He probably had 3 or 4 seconds on me. Saw the 13 mile marker, and the split was 5:07, which was good given the overpass hill.

Only 0.1 mile to go, but then the unexpected happened. There are two turns in the whole race course. The first was into the mall at mile 12.5, and the last was into the finish, at mile 13.0. This last turn was not marked (that I could see anyway), and there was not a soul present to inform us of it. Seth ran on by the turn. I paused as I started to go by, and realized that it looked suspiciously like what should be a final turn. How else would we finish? But there was nobody there…a bit confusing. Confusing enough to make me hesitate long enough to see someone sprinting toward me waving his arms and yelling. I literally stopped and yelled, “is this the turn??”. “YES!” was the response. Seth was still on his current (wrong) path, but in yelling distance. I yelled at him once, with no response, and then again, louder (I am not much of a yeller, especially after 13.0 miles at 5:00/mile pace. This time he heard me, and I waved him back to the correct course. He came back, and waved him in, past me, and then we both ran into the finish line for the last 0.1 miles. Seth officially was 1:06:05.0, and I was officially 1:06:05.9, but it reality he had 3 or 4 seconds on me.

So that’s what happened. The whole sequence of events took just a few seconds, so it was a lot of split decisions. But if I could do it again, I’d do it the same way. As far as why I’d give up an easy win like that is simple: it would not have been a real win. True, I would have come in 1st place, but I would not have won. I love competition, and I love winning. I love them both too much to win in such a fashion. The plain truth is that Seth had me broken and defeated, and he deserved to win the race. It would not have been right for me to be standing on the podium in front of him. It is not acceptable for a race this large or of this caliber not to have the course marked and not to have a volunteer out there, so I don’t view it as “tactical error” either. My only wish was that I could have run faster and competed better, but Seth was the better runner this day. Furthermore, Christ, who I claim as my Lord, said “In everything, do to others what you would want them to do to you.” (Matt 7:12), and also “If anyone desires to be first, he shall be last of all and servant of all.” (Matt 9:35). In other words, to put the needs of others above my own, and to be a good neighbor, and to serve others. I feel that if I had gone on to “win”, I would have actually “lost”, and it would have certainly been a hollow victory. I did not want an asterisk by my placing, nor did I want to describe my race as “First place, but…”. So for all of those reasons, it was a pretty easy decision. I had a fairly similar situation with Logan Fielding at the TOU Half in 2007, and I wished it could have gone down differently (Logan took a wrong turn, and I went on to “win” the race).

So yeah, official time was 1:06:05, but my last 0.1 was 53s. Usually I cover the last 0.1 in about 30s (or under), so I imagine we both would have been around 1:05:40 if not for the mishap. But I’ll just have to break 1:06:00 at the TOU Half later this summer. I think UVM and TOU Half are pretty similar in speed. UVM might be slightly faster, but it’s hard to say.

I’m thrilled about this race. I knew that I could run in the 1:06:00 range, but it’s always exciting to go out and execute. And it’s simply an awesome feeling to run that fast for that long, and to match strides with people that I really respect and view as my superiors. I don’t know what kind of shape Seth is in, but I have never come close to running his times, so it was great to compete against him to the end, and have a shot at winning. I don’t know Brad at all, but apparently he had run 29:3x at Des News, so I was happy to beat him. And after the pounding Jeff has given me at our last couple head-to-head races, it felt good to beat him too. Any given race, you just don’t know the outcome until you run it. And Jeff and I really could probably switch off every race. This race just happened to be my turn.

After the race, I chit-chatted with folk for a little while (again, nice to see people out there and catch up). Then I cooled down by running back to our motel, about 4 miles. I didn’t realize how shot my legs were until I did my cooldown. Ouch! Hamstrings were especially shot.

Next race is the Blacksmith Fork Freedom Run 15K on July 3. It’s a fun local race, and I look forward to seeing how fast I can run 15K. I’m definitely looking at trying to go sub-46:00, given that it’s a net downhill. And then I will do the Des News 10K in July 24. Huge 10K, with huge competition. Goal of sub-29:30. And I actually plan to do a 6-week 10K training cycle, to see what kind of shape I can get into, and to break up my training before I go into the final 12-week stretch of marathon-specific training. I just hope that I can continue to find time and desire to train hard. This is difficult at times for me. But races like UVM help me get pumped and keep the fire burning, at least for another few weeks.

I ran the Law Day 5K in Salt Lake City this morning. Chad invited me onto his team, and we decided to make a family day out of it, with brunch and the Salt Lake City Zoo afterward. We got up at 4:45AM, ate breakfast, and scooped Seth out of bed and straight into the car seat, still in his PJ’s (hoping he would fall back asleep…he didn’t).

Got to the U of U campus at 7AM, parked, found Chad, got my number, and then warmed up. Ran about a mile with Chad, and then I met up with Sasha and Jeff, and we ran the whole course. I’m glad we did the whole course, because there are lots of little turns, curbs, bumps, and other nuances. I would describe the route as “goofy but fun”. The first mile is mostly uphill, and then the last two miles are mostly flat or downhill. And lots of turns, did I mention that? But the course was well-marked, and I never had any issues during the race.

This is a team competition between law firms, and Chad had assembled a group of ringers to beat the beat the other law office’s group of ringers. It was myself, Jeff McClellan, Josh Stephan, Emily Bates, and Lindsey Dunkley on our team, going against Teren Jameson, Nate Hornok, Albert Wint, Sue Nielson, and Devra Veirkant on the other team (forgive my spelling on all names, or if I missed anyone). We all matched up pretty well, so it would be a toss-up. The winner is based on cumulative time of all 5 team members. Last year’s competition was decided by only a few seconds. Obviously, I was most worried about Teren, but was also concerned about Nate Hornok, as he is quite fast at the 5km distance. On my team, I expected to get stiff competition from Jeff.

I finished the warmup, and was surprised to see how many other runners were there. Several hundred, a good turnout. Found an empty bathroom inside, and finished up that whole business. Did a few strides, and they were ready to start the race. (after a lot of talking).

They started the race with a gavel, and Teren immediately tore off at a mad pace on the initial downhill part. Jeff was hot on his heels. I didn’t go out with them…because I couldn’t. It was pretty much beyond my full sprint. There was some other guy ahead of me as well, but I passed him after about a quarter mile. The race turned left, and started going uphill. I just tried to keep them both in reach.

We wound around campus. All of the turns made it fun, but I had no idea how fast we were going. Seemed too fast though. I managed to make up some ground on Jeff and Teren and got within a second or so of them, but then they extended their lead on a short downhill section. Then we had a fairly long, straight uphill around the one-mile mark (which I missed), and I closed a little bit on them again. At 2km the course turns right and starts going downhill. Teren and Jeff extended their lead again on the downhill and started to gap me pretty good. I was running about as fast as I could, but it wasn’t fast enough. Kind of the story of the race. And I’m not sure why I was running the uphills better than the downhills.

And that’s pretty much how the rest of the race went. Teren and Jeff were running up front, and I was chasing, chasing. Lots of twists and turns, lots of downhill, but also some flat stretches and uphill segments. It was kind of a whirlwind. I felt pretty good, never felt like I was tanking or losing my form, but I just couldn’t catch them. I never really gave up the idea that I could close the gap, until about 1km left, and by then the lead had gotten pretty big. I finished the race strong, and came in about 20 seconds behind Teren and Jeff. It was actually a pretty good race to watch. Jeff was obviously running with some fire and enthusiasm to try to take down Teren (when you’re at the top, you’re a marked man). Jeff even made a move and passed him during the last mile, and I thought he might get it. But Teren was able to finish off the race, and ended up a couple seconds ahead of Jeff. But it was a gutsy and strong performance on Jeff’s part. Good race by Teren too. The guy definitely knows how to race, and when to turn it on.

Jeff and Teren finished a few seconds under 15:00, and I came in at 15:16. Turns out that Nate Hornok was hot my heels, as he finished in 15:20 or so. I think he was probably closing a bit on me, and just ran out of road. Speaking of running out of road, due to these fast times, we all suspected that the course was a bit short. The route is usually certified, but part of the route is in a construction zone this year, so they had to throw something together, and when that happens it’s usually not accurate. But better short than long, in my book. Less running.

It was a beautiful morning to run. Perfect weather with clear skies and no wind. I enjoyed this race and felt pretty good. Results are still being sorted out due to a timing issue, but it looks like we won the team competition. The top 2 runners on each team pretty much canceled each other out, but we gained a lot with our first woman finisher, Lindsey. Good race also by Josh, who I think beat Albert for the 3rd male slot.

Oh, and splits? I have none. Both miles and kilometers marked, but they were the tiniest little signs ever. Humorous, actually. I like racing splitless, so I’m good with it. But each marker was a little 4″x4″ card on stick. The only one I caught was 2km, and I was at 6:25-ish.

Enjoyed brunch and the zoo after the race.

Warning: long, boring race report. Read at your own discretion. I had free time to burn on the airplane, so got a little bit too wordy.

I arrived in Indianapolis on Thursday evening. Stayed with my sister and her family, and got to hang out with my niece and nephew, which was nice. On Friday, my parents came over, and my dad and I went to the expo and checked into my hotel room. Then we went out to eat at TGI Fridays, and I ate way too much. After dinner, I went back to the hotel room by myself and just hung out. My assigned roommate was a fellow named Scott Schmick. Turns out that he was a former DIII runner as well, a UW LaCrosse alum. He now goes to MSU for grad school. We shot the breeze for a few hours, until it was time for bed. Seemed like a good guy, fun to talk to, and we had similar PR’s and goals for this race and for the marathon as well. Plus it’s always fun to play the name game with other former DIII runners.

Saturday morning I got up at 5:30AM, in preparation for the 7:30AM start. I usually like about 2 hours to eat, digest, and fully wake up before a race. Ate a banana, an apple, and a Lara Bar, and brewed some coffee. At 6:40AM, I headed down to the street and jogged over to the NCAA Headquarters, which served as the elite staging area. We got the comfort of an indoor facility, plus nice bathrooms and a gear drop. I warmed up with Scott and his teammates from Lansing, about 2 miles. Felt pretty sharp.

And the weather…gotta mention that, as it would be a big factor. Temperature was in the upper 40s. Perfect. Skies were overcast. Perfect. No rain or threat of rain. Perfect. Wind was 20 mph out of the west, with 30 mph gusts (based on tv reports). Imperfect. Hey, I guess you can’t get perfect conditions all of the time (or even most of the time), can you? To have a great race, several things need to happen:

• Great training
• Great health
• Great competition
• Great course
• Great temperature
• No wind
• Little or no precipitation
• Race-day magic

If these factors do not all align, you can still have a very good race, but not that perfect race (we only get a few of those over a lifetime).

Out of these factors, I had decent training (but not great). My health was good, finally. Competition would be there. The course is magnificent. Temps were perfect. Precip was perfect. Wind was very bad. Race day magic yet to be determined. Fortunately, it is a loop course, so I would not have to face a direct headwind for more than half the race (less than that actually). The wind was coming out of the west, and the race primarily goes west to start (headwind), then north a little bit to the track (crosswind), then a loop on the speedway (all directions), and then the route comes back east the last 4 miles to finish (tailwind). If I had a pick a wind direction, I’d much rather start with a headwind, and then finish with a tailwind, than the other way around. At least I would have the wind at my back at the point of the race where I’m the most tired and broken, and could face the wind while fresh. So I was hopeful to still have a very good race.

Anyway, that’s my tangent on race factors and on wind. About 15 minutes before the race start, I headed down to the start line, did few strides, and then waited for the race to begin. 35,000  people run this event, but you can’t see beyond the first few rows behind me, so I just accepted that fact on faith.

They started the wheelers, and then the runners’ start was 5 minutes later. I lined up on the inside curve, knowing the race started by curving left. All the Kenyans (about 8 total) lined up on the right. Sure enough, when the gun went off, I found myself running next to my roommate Scott, sharing the lead. That was fun, for about 30 seconds. Then I started feeling the wind, right in my face. I was quite happy when the pack of Kenyans finally merged over, and I quickly tucked in.

My strategy was this: since it was windy, I anticipated the race would be slow and tactical. I would simply tuck in behind the pack, let everyone else do the work on the first half of the race, and then I would take off and blitz the field the final 5 miles, for the easy win. It sounded good in my head.

The first mile went exactly to plan – 5:16 for the split. Very slow, very good. The wind would tire these Kenyans down soon enough. Then the plan went awry! The pack of Kenyans ran a 4:50 straight into the wind. I did a 5:04, and felt like I was standing still. And that was it, race over as far as Top 10. The pack was just gone. Gone. It was quite a site, and a quite a humbling feeling to get dropped so hard by “real runners”. It’s the difference between real elites and whatever the heck I am. My hotel roommate Scott and another American runner were working together a few seconds behind the lead pack, but they were fast getting dropped too. I was a 5 seconds behind those two, and gapping with every stride. There was no one behind me. And I ran most of the rest of the race like that, until around Mile 9. No man’s land, not a good place to be on a windy day. But I would try to make the best of it.

The rest of this race report should be less detailed, as there is much less to say. Basically it became a battle of me vs. the wind, and just trying to get to the tailwind section of the course in one piece.

Mile 3 was 5:23. This was a bit discouraging, although frankly I was surprised that it was even this fast. 16:18 for 5K. I knew that the route would turn north soon, and I would get a cross-wind rather than a head-wind, so this thought kept me going. Sure enough, we turned north at about 3.5 miles, and the cross-wind felt beautiful. The hard gusts still knocked me back at times, but it was still much better. 5:13 for the Mile 4 split.

The course turned west again, and virtually all of Mile 5 was straight into the wind. Hit 5:27 for this mile, my slowest split of the race. 26:24 for 5 miles. The encouragement I felt at Mile 4 quickly turned into discouragement. I came into this race thinking I could break 1:07, but would I even break 1:10?

But despite the hardships and discouragements, I actually didn’t feel too bad. Frankly, I’ve been beaten up by the wind far worse in previous races (Great Salt Lake Half in 2007 and Striders Half in 2009 were far worse). And holding sub-5:30 didn’t seem too bad given the conditions. Again, I’ve done far worse in the past. I’ve found that virtually any runner can “fake it” in pristine conditions, but hard conditions (wind, rain, hills, etc) always reveal gaps in fitness and weaknesses. So that fact that I felt strong after 5 miles of dealing with the wind probably meant that my training had some substance. I suppose our hard winter and equally hard spring helped condition me to run in adverse conditions, moreso than others years. Typically I wilt in bad conditions, as I am more of a rhythm runner than a strength runner.

The route turned north on Mile 6, and even had a short east section with tailwind. Very short, but it hinted at what was to come. 5:10 for the Mile 6 split. Then 32:43 for 10K. I was getting sick of this yo-yo pacing, and it was hard to gauge what kind of time I was headed for. I was still assuming here that I wouldn’t break 1:10. Still nobody near me, either ahead or behind. I just kept trying to push. Calves and hamstrings were getting tight, but that is normal, and I still felt decent.

I entered the Speedway at the end of Mile 6, and began the 2.5 mile loop on the race track. This portion of the race was tedious last year, but I liked it better this year simply because going in a loop made the wind vary, which was interesting. Mile 7 was primarily going north, and then west on the first curve. 5:23 for the split, not great. Mile 8 was mostly going south on the backstretch, so a crosswind, somewhat better. 5:20 for Mile 8.

At point I’m still thinking sub-1:10 is a stretch, but I also knew the best part of the race was coming (the part with the tailwind). Much of Mile 9 I had tailwind, around the second curve, and then out of the speedway. As I left the track, I could feel a couple runners coming up behind me. Both good and bad; it’s not good to get passed, but perhaps I would have people to run with and push me to the finish.

Hit Mile 9 in a 5:10. Let the yo-yo pace continue. The two guys behind me caught me, and one guy passed me. I pushed to stay with him, and ran behind him for about half a mile. The other guy never passed me, but he was still there. Hit 15K in 49:03. Mile 10 was a 5:05. That’s more like it! 52:34 for 10 miles (5:15/mile pace). I now realized that I would certainly break 1:09, and might beat last year’s time. Having a new goal gave me a lot of encouragement. My hamstrings and calves were yelling at me, but the tailwind helped a lot and my legs still had a little pop in them. Perhaps if I could keep running sub-5:10, I could salvage a somewhat respectable time.

The guy who passed me eventually dropped me, but I was still holding off the second runner. Still running east with the tailwind. Mile 11 was 4:58. Dang. Made me feel better about getting dropped, as the other guy must have been under 4:55. I know realized that I had a slim chance of breaking my PR of 1:08:12. I almost couldn’t believe it, with how up and down the race had gone so far. I kept pushing hard, trying to run more 5-minute miles…

And succeeded mostly. The route turned south-southwest, and I had a favorable cross-wind, other than some random gusts. Hit Mile 12 in 5:03. Kept pushing. The runner ahead of me was still pulling away (dang, he’s moving!), but the runner behind me was still…behind me. The route turned east again and the last 1.1 was with the tailwind. Tried to put the hammer down. A PR seemed very possible, perhaps even sub-1:08, if I could finish with a 4:5x mile?

Mile 13 split was 5:01, and then I took it on in. 27 seconds for the last 0.1. Finish time was officially 1:08:05, good for 12th place overall and a 7-second PR. I had no idea of my placing the whole race, other than knowing that I was well out of the Top 10. I ended up 62 seconds out of 10th, and the money. (10th place was actually my hotel roommate Scott, 50 second PR for him). So I placed similar to last year, but unlike last year, I wasn’t really close to the Top 10. The competition was very good this year, with higher-caliber Kenyans than last year, and good local runners too. I think last year was actually an outlier, with slower times than usual, and this year was more normal.

If you had told me a week before the race that I would fail to break 1:08, I would have been really disappointed, and probably threatened to quit running. I was that sure of my fitness. But under the circumstances, I have to take what I can get, and I’m pleased to come out with a PR, after running that many miles over 5:20 during the race. I was pleased to be able to push through, not give up, recover from getting slapped in the face with wind, and still have enough spunk and pop to be able to take advantage of the tailwind at the end and finish strong. I think other years (including last year), I would have been broken, and just limped in. So the race was a success in all those regards.

My one regret was not being able to pack it up with a group. I wish I could have run with the two runners ahead of me (although I would have had to push hard early on to keep up). Or I wish I had gone out slower and packed it up with the runners behind me. Being able to trade miles while going into the wind would have been invaluable, and would have conserved more energy for the second half of the race.

At the same time, I’m forced to acknowledge that I’m not “there” yet. Even if I spot myself a full minute for the wind (which I think would be liberal), I still need much improvement before I’m a quality-enough runner to hit that sub-2:19 mark. Am I in sub-2:22 shape? Probably. But sub-2:22 is a long ways from sub-2:19. I really wanted to see 1:06:xx at that finish line to give me the confidence that 2:19 is possible. I do still think it’s possible, but I need to improve. I need to get faster, to get stronger, and to get even better at running in adverse conditions (may have to deal with bad conditions during a marathon, after all). The wind today definitely hurt, but it was not a killer to those who were truly fit, judging by the finish times. A truly fit runner will just plow through the wind, heat, rain, hills, or whatever else the day throws at them. A less fit runner will feel adverse conditions much more.

Looking forward, I’ll take a week of rest, and then get back to it. Will probably go back to the bread-and-butter of long tempos, while trying to increase my mileage up to 90mpw. We’ll see where that gets me for Utah Valley Half, my next key race. The downhill will aid times at UVM, but my goal there is more oriented toward competition rather than time. But I need to be fit enough to compete with ferocity.

Results are HERE.

Recently I had the pleasure of creating the event maps for the Cellcom Green Bay Marathon. This event, held in mid-May, consists of a marathon, half marathon, “mini” marathon (2.62 miles), and a marathon relay. The course is flat and fast, and good prize money brings in good competition year after year. Another distinctive about the race is that it starts and ends at Lambeau Field, and being a rabid Packer fan, I think that’s about the coolest race venue ever.

For this event, I created separate maps for the marathon, half marathon, and “mini” marathon, and also an “event-wide” map that shows all of the routes on one page. I included the marathon relay on the marathon map.  One of the challenges of mapping an urban marathon is getting the street annotation to be complete, and look good at the same time. For this task, I used the Maplex labeling engine, an ArcGIS extension. Maplex worked wonderfully for my first pass on the street labels, and although I still had to do my fair share of manual labeling and tweaking, Maplex definitely helped create a higher-quality product.

I’d love to run this race one of these years. If I can’t get a Trials Qualifier time at Chicago this fall, I’ll likely take another stab in Green Bay next May. Based on the elevation profile, the course should be a flier.

Went to Utah State for the Mark Faldmo track meet. I had signed up for the 5000m as an open runner. This was my first track race in 9 years, so I was a little nervous. Fortunately, it’s a pretty low-key invite.Got there early in case the meet was running fast, and indeed it was ahead by about 30 minutes. I warmed up for 2 miles, used the potty, etc etc. The 200m finished, but then it took a while to get the women’s 5000m going, and then finally it was our turn.

There were only 7 runners that ran the race, but one of them was Brian McKenna, Utah State’s top runner. He’s the WAC xc champ, and made nationals this fall. He recently ran 14:30 for 5K on the track, so definitely my superior at this distance. Fortunate for me, he’d already run the 1500m, so was not fresh. Unfortunately to me, I suck at the 5000m, and was at the end of an 80 mile week.

Chatted with Brian before the race, and we agreed to trade some laps and try to run 72s/lap. I was actually a bit dubious of my ability to do this, with lack of speed work, plus an intense sun with temps in the low 70s, and a decent wind going into the backstretch. Conditions were less than ideal for a distance race. But I figured my options were to run with McKenna, or run by myself, so I chose the former. I tried to alleviate the heat some by dunking my head in the steeple pit right before the race. Felt great at the time, but I was bone dry by the 3rd lap.

Gun went off and about 4 of us packed up quick for the first 200m, but then I managed to get around everyone and tuck in behind McKenna. First lap was a 74-75 or so, which was too slow, plus it felt awful. McKenna and I cleared out the pack on the 2nd lap, and were through the 800m in about 2:25, so about a 70s split. Quite a bit faster, but it actually felt good.

After 800m, I took the pacing duties for the next two laps, and we hit 4:50 at the mile. Pace was feeling hard, but sustainable for the time being. Brian took the lead back (and I was grateful to tuck back in and let him take the wind), and we hit a couple more 72-73’s for the next two laps.

At just less than halfway through, I started feeling…less than good, and McKenna dropped me pretty quick. He kept running 72-73s laps, and I dropped back to 75s/lap. I went through 3200m in 9:46, so 4:56 for the 2nd mile. This drop in speed is the 5K equivalent to a death rattle.

McKenna was soon on the verge of being long gone, and I was fast wilting from the heat and from fatigue. Man, it was hot! My left calf, which had been giving me trouble for the last 10 days, decided that 2 miles was enough, and started misbehaving with 4 laps to go. It hurt, but not too bad, and I was able to deal with it. So it goes.

Lap 9 was a 76, and then a 77. Things were going downhill, but at least I was close enough to sense the finish and find some hope in that. McKenna now was approaching a 100m lead on me, and no one was close to me from behind. I was about to lap a couple runners, though. I didn’t grab splits for the last two laps, but they were about the same as the previous two, in the 76s range. I just gritted to the finish the best I could. 15:27 was the finish time (McKenna was 15:05), which means my last mile was something like a 5:05. I was never great at finishing track 5K’s.

So it wasn’t an amazing race or anything, but I came out of it fairly satisfied with both the time and the effort. It was good for me to try to run with a national-caliber collegiate runner, and the heat, wind, and elevation certainly tinkered with my time some. I would have liked to have been in the low 15’s, but I have to take what I can get on the given day. It was a little discouraging to run slower than my solo First Dam Run effort last November, but I know I’m actually way ahead of where I was then. I still think that sub-1:07 is still worth going after in Indianapolis, and hopefully the next several weeks of training, plus sea level, plus better conditions, plus a little more moxie will allow me to click off 5:05/mile for 13.1 miles. We’ll see.

Went to the Logan Zoo with Stacy and Seth afterward, and then I grabbed 5 more miles when we got home to finish out my week. The calf hurt, but was runnable.

The next two weeks of training are big for me. I plan on two 85 mile weeks, with two good workouts each week. I hope it’s all worth it, because training is hard work.

Note: In a futile attempt to spice up this blog (ie - get more than one posting per year), I’ll be re-posting my race reports for this year, originally posting on my training blog. Hopefully this series of race reports will turn into a good story in itself, where I qualify for the Olympic Marathon Trials at the end of the year. We’ll see. But most good stories start out with very humble origins, and the race described below certainly showed me how far off I am from the OTQ.

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Today I ran a local race, the Smithfield Shamrock Shuffle 5K. By “local”, I mean, “race that I can run to from my house”. The Smithfield Rec Center puts it on along with the Cache Sun ‘n’ Snow Runners. I like running the S’n'S races, because they know how to put on a race and they are nice folks. Plus, this race was only $5, and you get $1 off if you wear green. So I wore green.

I slept in until 7AM today, and then got up and decided to do a short run to get some extra miles early (since it was supposed to snow later), and to try to shake out some of the crud in my legs. I ran from my house down to the race start line (about a mile), and then ran the 5K course. The first half mile is a pretty decent uphill with about 125 ft of gain. I run it several times a week over the course of my daily runs, and it’s no fun. The next 1.5 miles is a nice, fast downhill. The route loses about 230 ft during this stretch. The final mile is a gradual but noticeable uphill, about 70 ft of climb over the mile. Due to the uphill start and uphill finish of this loop course, I rank it as a moderately difficult route. Not as hard as Striders 5K, but certainly much slower than First Dam Run, TOU 5K, Heart of Holladay, Draper Days, and courses like that. For my shakeout run, I just did the route pretty slow. Felt like garbage.

I went back home after the first run (about 5.5 miles total), ate breakfast, read, drank some coffee, and put some finishing touches on the new Wasatch Back Relay maps. Typical Saturday morning stuff. At about 9:15AM, I realized that I should probably get back down to the Rec Center and register, since the race starts at 10AM. I found a few dollar bills, stuffed them in my tights, and headed down.

Registered, warmed up a little more, talked to some people, met some new people. The typical pre-race stuff I really like. Eventually, the race management herded us all up to the start line, and they got the race going, pretty close to on time.

Being a small, local fun-run, a few kids bolted out to the front, most notably a junior high girl and a junior high boy. The girl faded pretty quick, but the boy kept putting distance on me (keep in mind we’re going up a 4% grade hill). I just tried to run steady and not too hard, especially since I wasn’t really in the mood to run hard today. Near the top of the hill, before the turn, I started reeling the kid in. I was kind of feeling sorry for him, knowing that he would certainly die a painful death the rest of the race, but was also waxing nostalgic a bit for those days of my own youth, when I could just sprint up hills without fearing the consequences.

We turned the corner from 600 S onto 1000 W, and uphill turned into downhill. I passed the kid, and just tried to keep a strong push on the downhill, and also regain my breath at the same time. Soon, I couldn’t hear any footsteps behind me, and I knew the rest of the way would be a time trial/workout. I hit Mile 1 in 5:16, which was faster than I thought it would be. Turns out that I have a favorable cross-wind/tailwind. Garmin time matched pretty well with the road mark. Cache S’n'S use a wheel for a lot of their courses, so they are usually pretty accurate.

The downhill flattened out a bit as I neared Hyde Park, but then the route made another right turn onto 4400 N, and I had another mile or so of fairly big downhill. I just tried to enjoy the ride, knowing that I was going to get uphill (and a headwind) for the last mile. My Mile 2 split was 4:57. The crosswind was not favorable in this direction, which slowed it down slightly, but not much.

Right after Mile 2, I turned the corner onto 300 E. Now it was a gradual 1% uphill, and also a mild to moderate headwind. I wasn’t feeling too motivated to finish out the race with a bang, so just tried to run steady and reasonably strong. And behold, I made it back to 600 S, and turned the corner. Hit Mile 3 split in 5:23.

At this point, I had about a 2% uphill to the Rec Center/Skyview parking lot, and then a left turn into the lot, and into the chute. Pretty much just coasted in, victorious, but lazy. I averaged 5:30-pace for the last 0.1. I ended up stopping at the beginning of the chute, but the finish line was at the end of the chute. So my garmin time was 16:21, but my offical time was 16:27, since I walked it in. Ah well.

Second place was a Mountain Crest freshman, about 17:30 (good effort). Surprisingly, the 7th grader who rabbited out so hard was 3rd place with 17:50. I was actually quite impressed, given his age and race strategy. Kid probably has a future with running.

I never felt that great during the race, and wasn’t really in the mood to race, but that’s why I thought it would be good to do a race. Sometimes I need a little push like that. My next race (Striders Half) will hopefully be a little bit spunkier, and then my third race, a peak race, I’ll hopefully have all the cobwebs kicked out and fire on all cylinders. My achilles has been concerning me since early February, so I’ve backed off on speedwork, tempos, hills, and strides, which certainly hurt 5K speed as well, but my endurance is still pretty good. Hopefully the speed will come around. I’ll have to see how my achilles responds to racing flats and a race effort, and gauge my future training off that. I’m hoping I can start getting back into some quality work again. The achilles has not been hurting while running lately, but is a little sore to the touch when I push on it the right way.

After the race, I talked to some more people, met some neighbors, etc. Decided to stick around for the awards, and glad I did, because I won an exercise ball in the raffle, and then a $20 Al’s gift certificate for 1st place. Not bad for a $4 race that I didn’t even need to drive to.

After awards, I joined up with the Red Rooster and with DaveS, and we shuttled up to my house, where I changed my shoes, and then we cooled down for 6 miles by doing an out-and-back to Smithfield Canyon via Summit Dr. During the time of the awards, the weather really took a turn for the worse. The wind picked up about three-fold, and it also started snowing. The first part of our cooldown was just terrible, as we were going straight into the wind, but then it got better after that, and the last four miles were decent. I’m just glad it wasn’t that windy during the race.

Anyway, kind of a “beh” start to the racing year, but that’s how I wanted it. Time to eeeaase back into racing, so mission accomplished.

It’s been awhile seen I’ve posted a new map, although the reason is for lack of time rather than lack of material (a good thing!). But I’m trying to get back into blogging on a regular basis. For new visitors to the site, I periodically like to showcase some of the latest products created by my race course mapping business, Marathon GIS.

This week’s featured map is from the Smoky Mountain Relay (SMR), a 205-mile overnight relay course in North Carolina in early May. Like its name suggests, the course undulates through the peaks and valleys of the Smoky Mountains as it weaves its way from North Mills River to Bryson City.

From my mapping, the course looks to be both beautiful and challenging. It has much more dirt road and trail than your average overnight relay, and the route will take runners to a lot of wild places. It’s the opposite of “urban”.

And quantitatively, the Smoky Mountain route may have a higher difficulty factor than any other relay course I’ve mapped. Looking purely at cumulative elevation gain (gross uphill), the SMR route tallies 26,700 feet! To compare, Ragnar Wasatch Back (Utah) features 14,562 feet of gain, the Wild West Relay (Colorado) boasts 16,459 feet, and the Red Rock Relay (Utah) offers 12,918 feet of gain (although RRR’s 18,275 feet of gross elevation drop can be pretty tough on runners).”Challenging” might be one word to describe the SMR, others might prefer “Himalayan“.

What I love about overnight relays is that they are all unique and each one offers just a little something different to its participants. Some relays are flat, some are hilly (or mountainous). Some offer beautiful vistas of canyons, some the shade of forests or a cool breeze off the ocean. Some are close to home, others are in remote locations.

The SMR course has a lot to offer relay enthusiasts, particularly those that thrive on adventure, have a distrust of pavement, and enjoy challenging terrain. Those that participate in the SMR will finish the race with stories to tell and good bragging rights. I can tell you that the maps have been a lot of fun to make (still in the process of making to the leg maps, actually), and I love doing maps for remote, hilly courses like this one. In terms of cartography, the terrain just leaps off the page, and I try to highlight the natural beauty and ruggedness of the course on the maps. There are not many roads to label on the maps, but I let the terrain and the landscape speak for itself.

It’s been awhile since I’ve last posted. I simply haven’t had time, and blogging is about dead last on Maslow’s hierarchy of needs. However, this morning I’ve got an extra hour to kill before it’s light enough to go out and run, so I’ll give it a shot. If I can think and type fast enough to click “Publish”, this thing will get out there, otherwise it will stay buried in blog limbo forever, with all my other drafts.

So what’s new? 2009 was a great year for me, personally, professionally, and also in terms of running. This is a running blog, so I’ll try to focus on the latter. But I will note that during this past year my baby boy had his first birthday, we moved from Logan to Smithfield in order to be closer to our church plant, and my small business, Marathon GIS, once again doubled in volume. I also began taking Enbrel to control the ankylosing spondylitis (A.S.), and it has worked wonderfully; I now have very few (almost none) disease symptoms, and no side effects to the medication. God has blessed our family, and I look forward to what 2010 holds in all those avenues of life.

For running, 2009 surprisingly turned out to be one of my best racing years of my life. Perhaps the best, better than 2007 even. I’ve debated just that internally (see bottom of post).  I came into the year with very few expectations. 2008 was absolutely awful, as it was the year A.S. reared its ugly head and really put me in a world of hurt (literally). I ended up being able to do a few races (and do pretty decent), but I still had large questions on my ability to train and to stay healthy. I did not know if I still had “it” or not. 2009 answered all of those questions: yes, I could control the A.S. Yes, I could stay healthy all year. Yes, I could run decent mileage without problems. Yes, I still got “it”.

My total running mileage for 2009 was nothing special: 2650. That’s right about a 50 mpw average, which is solid, and apparently enough to get a lot done. I made the most of my miles by doing a lot of long tempo runs. I didn’t do a ton of intervals, especially the second half of the year, and I had success in spite of that, suggesting that tempos are the bread-and-butter of training (or at least my training). If you have time to do one type of workout, do tempo runs.

Here’s the breakdown of my 2009 in racing.

• January 17 - Painters Half Marathon - 1:11:31 - 2nd place
• April 4 - Striders Half Marathon - 1:13:10 - 2nd place (horrendously windy!)
• May 2 - 500 Festival Mini Marathon - 1:08:35 - 11th place (PR!)
• June 27 - Seattle Rock and Roll Half Marathon - 1:08:12 - 5th place (PR!)
• July 4 - Blacksmith Fork Freedom Run 15K - 48:14 - 1st place (PR!)
• August 29 - Top of Utah Half Marathon - 1:06:42 - 3rd place (PR!)
• September 19 - Top of Utah Marathon - 2:23:07 - 1st place ($$$)
• October 18 - The Other Half Marathon - 1:09:50 - 1st place
• November 7 - First Dam Run 5K - 15:25 - 1st place

My first couple races were only so-so. But my training and racing really took a turn for the better starting in May with the Indy Mini Marathon, and a big PR there. This timing also corresponds heavily with me switching medication over to Enbrel. I started Enbrel in late March, and it took several weeks to ramp up. When I was just taking NSAIDs, I was still having a lot of stiffness in my back and hip, and also inflammation in my hamstring insertion points which really hobbled my stride at times. Once the Enbrel cleared all that up, I was able to run without a hitch in my stride, run harder and faster during workouts, and fear injury less.

The races in Indianapolis and Seattle were a lot of fun, and really good experience. I enjoy traveling, and it was great to get down to sea level and experience those courses. I really learned how to drop the hammer and race a half marathon. Invaluable. Those two consecutive PRs built my confidence, and help make my year.

The Top of Utah Half was another big race for me. I had not been running much mileage beforehand, although I was doing up-tempo pace nearly every day. I think that “brisk” pace (about 6:00/mile) day-in and day-out helped me run a really fast half without doing much mileage. I would not recommend that kind of training for a marathon, but it worked out for a half. It was an aided course, but I managed to hang relatively close to the 1st and 2nd place runners. The 1st place guy is a 2:16 marathoner, and the 2nd place guy ran under 2:19 at Chicago a couple months later, so it put my performance in perspective and encouraged me that perhaps I could run under 2:19 if I trained harder.

The half marathon PRs were big highlights of my year, but the biggest highlight was winning the Top of Utah Marathon, our local race here in Logan. I entered this race almost as a whim, and intended just to go out there, have fun, and finish a marathon. I didn’t get my training much above 60 mpw, which for me is quite low for marathon training. And I didn’t bother with any interval workouts; I just did a lot of long tempo runs and about 5 formal “long runs”. Again, those tempos proved to be the key, and although I didn’t get in many 20-milers, those that I did run I always made sure to average well under 6:45/mile pace or faster.

I had run the TOU Marathon 5 times before, but had never done that well. Back in 2003, I ran 2:35 and took 2nd place, but I had not approached that time or placing since then, despite numerous attempts. Over the years, I had many marathon successes at Ogden, St George, and Park City, but was never able to find that same success at my local race. So I did feel that I had something to prove at TOU. In addition, TOU had just raised their prize money to be 5 deep, with an increase to $1500 for 1st. I knew this would bring in lots of competition, and several Kenyans.  I love competition, and looked forward to that aspect. Sure enough, on race day there were many good runners from around the state, plus four Kenyans from out-of-state. It looked to be a great race. With that kind of competition, on my home course, it was impossible for me not to get my competitive juices going, and all my previous thoughts of “just finishing” were out the window. You can win my first race report HERE, but in a nutshell, around Mile 10 I decided to try to go for broke and try to win the whole thing, and that’s just what I did. One-by-one, the pack dropped off, and then I left my last competitor around Mile 14 with a big surge. The whole race felt great, and I loved every minute of it. It felt awesome to beat all of the “out-of-towners”, and “win one for the locals”. And indeed, racing can be an act of worship, and to this day I give God the glory for the opportunity and ability to be out there competing.

After TOU, I did a couple more races as “icing on the cake”, but in actuality, my real season ended with the marathon in September. Looking back at 2009, and comparing it to 2007, I think it was as good of a year, if not better, than 2007. I had two big half marathon PRs (three if you count the downhill TOU course). These half marathon times were a couple minutes faster than what I was running in 2007. It was a bit of a monkey off my back. In 2007 I ran three marathons, 2:26 (1st place) in Ogden, 2:18 (2nd place) in St George, and 2:22 (53rd place) at the Trials. This past year I only did one marathon. It was not my fastest ever, but it was about my third fastest ever, and most importantly, it was a win. So I had one win in 2007, and one win in 2009. The 2:23 at TOU was a better race than my 2007 Ogden, and really not a whole lot “slower” than my 2007 St George. A 2:23-low at TOU converts to a high 2:18 at St George. So all in all, I feel like my marathon level in 2009 was pretty close to what I was running in 2007, despite running 40% less mileage (60 mpw instead of 100 mpw).

I only ran one 5K in 2009: a time of 15:25 in what was essentially a solo time trial. This is pretty close to my best 5K in 2007: 15:23. And that 2007 time was done on a net downhill course, whereas my 2009 time was a loop course, so one could easily argue that the 2009 time is the better of the two. In fact, I will argue that.

So in summary for 2009 vs. 2007:

• Much faster in the half marathon
• Slightly slower in the full marathon
• Slightly faster in 5K
• One marathon win for either year
• Similar amount of prize money for either year

It could be a wash, but I’m going out on a limb and saying that 2009 was better than 2007, especially since I was able to do more on less training. Definitely per-capita, a better season. 2007 had previously been my “best season”, thus 2009 is my best racing season ever. So there you go.

So what does 2010 hold? I hope it holds some good things! I tend to alternate really good years with really cruddy years. 2003-2005-2007-2009 were all really good. 2002-2004-2006-2008 were…not so good, filled with slow races and/or injury. We’ll see. But from 2009, I feel that breaking 2:19 in the marathon and qualifying for the 2012 Olympic Trials is a real possibility. I really think I can do it if I can:

1. Continue to stay healthy
2. Use the same principles as I learned last year (long tempo runs)
3. Run a bit more mileage than last year (~90 mpw instead of 60 mpw)…but not too much more!
4. Hit the right race with the right weather to qualify (ie - get lucky)
5. Continue to keep my life in balance. I think when I elevate running to a higher priority, everything suffers, including running! When I take it too seriously is when injuries and frustration abound. Priorities need to stay: God - family - work - running. I was able to keep good priorities and balance in 2009, and know that all facets of my life benefited from that, including my race times!

If my health, or the training, or the good race conditions are not there, it will not happen, so I need everything to align. And obviously if the A.S. flares up again, or if Enbrel stops working, it’s Game Over. But I do think I can handle the training and hit the time standard; I would have laughed at anyone one year ago if they had suggested either of those things.

I plan on only one marathon this year. I think I’m pretty much through with multiple marathons, and one seems like an awfully good number these days. It’s about all I can handle mentally and emotionally. Marathon training is just so draining and time-consuming. With family and work as higher priorities, I just don’t have it in me for more than one long ramp-up per year. But I do have that one in me.

However, I do plan to do several key half marathons, and continue to try to improve my PR. Who knows, maybe I can even hit 1:05, and not have to worry about a marathon? But in any case, getting my half time down under 1:07 will be good for my confidence, and is essential to breaking 2:19 in the marathon (after all, there are very few people who can break 2:19 that can’t break 1:07).

The plan for this year is to do “maintenance” through the winter (our weather is too awful to train seriously during the winter), and then do a base-building phase, followed by a short 5K/10K phase. I expect I’ll jump in some races in Ogden and SLC during the early spring, and try to get in a few 5Ks and attempt to hone my speed before turning my attention to the half marathon later in the spring and early summer.

I am definitely running the Indy Mini again this May as a big PR attempt. I am waffling 50-50 on doing Seattle again in June, as the Seattle course is not as fast. If I don’t do Seattle, I may do the Utah Valley Half in June, since there will be very good competition there ($$$), and it would be a good opportunity to work on my racing. Utah Valley is a downhill course, so the time won’t mean much on my resume, but good competition trumps all, in my opinion.

I will likely do a short 10K cycle in late June through July with a focus race at Des News 10K on July 24. And then from August through early October, I will transition over to marathon-specific training.That would give about 10-12 weeks of marathon-specific training, which is plenty given that my base should be pretty good by then. Again, I can only mentally handle a relatively short amount of time doing high mileage. For my fall marathon, I am looking at either Twin Cities (Oct 3), Chicago (Oct 10), or Detroit (Oct 17). My preference is Chicago, because it is the fastest course. But in all honesty, the decision will likely come down to family matters and travel plans. We may be traveling for a wedding in early October, so my race decision will probably hinge on those logistics. But at least I have several viable options.

I can’t tell you exactly what 2010 will hold. I can tell you that I’m content and grateful for 2009, and if my running was forced to end due to injury or other event, I would be content with my “career” and move on with life. But for now, I still have the ability, and I still have the drive, and I wish to keep using these God-given talents. I look forward to training and racing in 2010!

It’s been a great year for running so far. I have stayed injury-free all year, have PR’ed in the half marathon twice in a row, and then followed that up with a PR in the 15K. And these are lifetime PR’s, not post-A.S. PR’s. But with these early summer races now done, the rest of the year is wide open, with lots of options.

So what’s next? Well, for one thing, we still need to sell our house and buy a new one. That’s Thing1. And Thing 2 is to get the incentive and motivation to train hard again.With my both my family and my mapping business growing, it’s hard to find time to run, and also hard to find the desire at times. I do best when I just sign up for race to get a tangible goal, and then train in bite-sized chunks. This also helps prevent overtraining, as my training cycles are shorter and more defined.

Having kids changes things

I think I did well during April-June in balancing running with life. I never got mileage out of the low-70s…but I set a couple of nice P.R.s. A question everyone has to ask themselves is: “Is it worth it?“Is the training time and wear and tear on the body worth the reward? Is the hours and hours away from family worth those digits that you see up on the finish line clock, or the numerical rank of your placing you see later in the results? The answer will vary from person to person.

For me, I do think it’s worth it, when I can balance training 60-70 mpw with the rest of my life. My first priorities are my relationship with God and then my family. This family relationship also includes being a provider, which entails working. I choose to work extra in order to allow my wife to stay home with Seth, and am happy to have this opportunity. Suddenly, running becomes “low man on the totem pole”, relegated to 4th or 5th priority in my life (in the past it was much higher). If I spend much more than an hour per day working out, my priorities quickly become out of whack, and running eats into other areas of my life where it should not go. My time is precious, and I guard it jealously. Since Seth was born, I have had to set firmer boundaries, get up earlier, and manage my time better.

By far the best way to get in those extra miles in the evening…

I’ve said this before in this blog, but I do not know what the future holds, whether it’s with my family, my work, my health, or my running. Will I even try to qualify for the 2012 Marathon Trials? I honestly don’t know. Part of me wants to, and thinks I can do it, but another part of me questions whether the sacrifice is worth it. “Can do something” and “Should do something” are two completely different things. Ultimately, my goal is to discern God’s will for all things, and then follow it. Where running falls into that, I do not yet know, as it is just one small piece of my life.

Avid reader Jon has posed the question as to why I have not updated the blog in over two months, despite apparently having much to post about. Well, several factors are at play:

• Heavy load at work (recession, what recession??!)
• We are selling our house (hard to type with paint and caulk all over my hands)
• I’d rather see my wife and kid than write a blog post (fatherhood does change things)
• Lack of literary inspiration (I get dumber every day)

Well, my wife and son are in Michigan for another day, work happens to be slow right now, and the house is clean and perfectly staged, so that clears most of my obstacles, other than my dumbness, but I’ll just have to work with that.

In any case, it’s been an eventful couple months in my world of running and racing. After running 1:13:10 in the snowy windstorm that was the Striders Half Marathon, I was able to ramp up my training, get some quality workouts in, and prepare somewhat adequately for the 500 Festival Indy Mini Marathon. Weekly mileage leading up to Indy was 36 (missed two days from being sick), 72, 69, 55 (race week). I got a few decent workouts in, but kept it pretty simple: just some tempos, fartleks, and mile intervals.

Indy turned out to be a perfect day: great temps, no wind, and a very flat, fast course. I ran some of the early miles too aggressively for my fitness level, but managed to stay steady during the second half and keep all miles under 5:20. The race yielded a huge 50-second PR of 1:08:35.

The only downer was that I ran most of the race in 10th place, then got passed around Mile 10/11, but then closed hard on another runner who was dropping back, but could not seal the deal. I got outkicked, ended up 11th, and lost out on $100. Now, I can almost care less about $100, but it’s more about what the money symbolizes. It represents the value the race puts on a certain placing. 10th place is worth $100, and 11th place is worth nothing. In addition, the depth of money always drives the depth and competitiveness of the field. If I place in the money, it means that I out-competed my peers, and perhaps even some people faster than me. So for me, winning money indicates that I competed well against the field, and it is competition against others and against myself that I seek.

Unfortunately, when analyzing the Indy race, I feel that I did not “want it” enough. I think I could have beaten my competitor with a decisive surge with 600m left, but did not have the inner drive to make myself hurt enough to do it. I’ve found over the years that kick is always there, it’s just a matter of engaging that extra gear.

Other than that, Indy was a great race, and a nice breakthrough. It was nice to get a half marathon time that I knew I was capable of. The race itself was well-organized, and by far the biggest half I’ve ran (35,000 people). The course was not terribly pretty, but was insanely fast. I thought running on the Speedway would be really cool, but that part ended up being the most mentally difficult, and rather grueling.  The track doesn’t look so big on TV, but it takes awhile to run a 2.5 mile loop at 12mph, rather than driving at 200mph. You can read my full race report HERE.

Immediately after Indy, I had targeted the Seattle Rock and Roll Half Marathon for my next key race. I wanted another half marathon PR attempt, I wanted it to be at sea level with good competition, and I wanted it to be someplace fun. Seattle was perfect, and I have several good friends in the area who I could visit. In addition, when I contacted the race management, they were very gracious, and I was able to obtain an elite spot in the race. Perfect!

In terms of training after Indy, I decided it would be wise to regroup, and spend a few weeks in base-building mode. In the past, I’ve been caught in the trap to “keep the ball rolling”, and do hard workout after hard workout, and race after race. I ended up re-building a base for the rest of May. Mileage during this phase were 60 (recovery), 72, 60 (sick for a day), and 71. Typical workouts were “slow” long tempos, and fartleks.

The “slow” tempo is something that I introduced for the first time, and I ended up really liking it, and I think it helped build aerobic fitness. Basically the idea was to do a 11-12 mile progression tempo, but not ever push the pace too hard. I would start at 6:15/mile and end up around 5:45-5:50/mile. I would pick a pretty flat, easy course, and focus on just hitting a good rhythm and feeling good. I figure hills are great, but you need to learn to run strong on flat before you can run strong on hills. In other words, focus on the bare foundations of running…which is running. It’s simple, but effective. I also like fartleks during this kind of base phase, as they are good workouts, yet are not too stressful on the body or on the mind, since there are no time goals to hit.

Beginning in June, I kept the mileage about the same, but ramped up the intensity. “Slow” tempos were replaced by MP and LT tempos. Fartleks were replaced by intervals at CV or LT pace. I also added more strides and 30-second hill charges after workouts to work on economy, form, and turnover. My June weekly mileage totals were 73, 37 (sick for half the week),  70, and 58 (race week). All of my workouts were really good, although no single run was longer than 16 miles (no need for a half marathon!). Each week my interval workouts and tempos were really strong and consistent, and gave me a lot of confidence, despite not racing since Indy.

The end of June finally rolled around, and I was excited to finally fly out to Seattle. The flight was short, the hotel was great, and I was able to meet and chew the fat with a lot of great runners and other people at the hotel. Along with getting to know several current elite runners, I also got to meet Todd Williams and Ed Eyestone, who work with the race management. A lot of good conversations, and I soaked in all the knowledge I could, plus they were all just really fun people.

You can read a full, very detailed account of my race HERE. In a nutshell, once again, weather was perfect with great temperatures and little wind. The course was more difficult than Indy, with several large hills, but still had enough speedy sections to get a good time. Indeed, I ended up with a 20 second PR over Indy, and ran 1:08:15, good for 5th overall and 3rd American. Moreover, I will end up with a hefty chunk of change for this placing, which vindicates my Indy experience somewhat. So I left with very positive vibes.

Some races you get a PR, but not a great placing. Other races, you place high, but the time stinks due to weather or topography. And sometimes you get both, and those are great days. I did have a goal of breaking 1:08 at Seattle, but I think I ran as well as I could given the course and the fact that I was all alone most of the race. Perhaps at Indy that effort would have been under 1:08, but I will have to wait for another day and another course.

And lastly, one week after Seattle I jumped in the Blacksmith Fork Freedom Run, a local 15K on July 4th. This race is pretty low-key, with a net elevation drop (although is at elevation). I’ve been wanting to do it for a while. Seattle was obviously still in my legs during the first few miles, but eventually I worked out the kinks and rattled off a pretty good race and took first place. Like most people, I rarely race the 15K distance, so a new PR was ripe for picking as well, and I got it with a time of 48:14 (or so…the timing chips were wrong, so I used my watch time). The full race report is HERE.

Now it’s time for a little breather. I feel like I put in a series of good training cycles, and now it’s time to rest, lower the mileage down to 40-60 mpw for a while, and then rebuild a good base.

Recently I had the opportunity to create a course map and elevation profile for the Canylonlands Half Marathon. This is one of my favorite races, and I’ve participated in either the half marathon or the 5-mile event for five of the last seven years. My familiarity with the courses would definitely be helpful in creating accurate maps, but I also felt particularly obligated to present the striking beauty of the course through cartography.

Fortunately, the state of Utah has the best GIS data clearinghouse I’ve ever used: the Utah Automated Geographic Reference Center (AGRC) and associated GIS Data Portal. From this website, users are able to download many datasets, include 2007 1-ft color aerial imagery and 5-meter digital elevation models…for most of the entire state…for free. Finding data at that resolution, currentness, and cost is truly amazing, and for that reason I love the AGRC and love making maps for locations in Utah.

The 1-ft color imagery allowed me to zoom into the route very tightly (about 1:1000), and precisely digitize every tangent of the route and closely simulate its certification. This helps makes the elevation profile and the mile markers more accurate.

But the 5m elevation model was the real gem. For most of the United States, the best you can get is 10m resolution. In some places you can get no better than 30m. So to get 5m resolution for a tiny town in the middle of Utah is remarkable. I should note that 2m DEM’s are publicly available for some locations in Utah.

What a 5m DEM provides is better hillshading, which is the backbone of this particular map. Every ridge, canyon, drainage, and other topography are sharply defined, even at large scales. This not only makes the map more vivid, but allows it to be blown up to larger scales (and larger prints), and still look wicked good. In addition, the extra resolution of the 5m DEM accommodates better profiling, especially in narrow canyon areas. For much of the Canyonlands race, runners are tucked right up against a huge sandstone cliff. This can really mess with an elevation model, which tends to interpolate/average elevation values in steep areas. With a higher-resolution DEM, this effect is lessened.

The final maps turned out well, in part to the quality of the underlying data. I ended up making an overall map, an elevation profile, and zoom-in views of the start line and finish line. The race management also printed a poster version of the map, which is available for purchase here.

Canyonland Half Marathon poster

Map showing zoom-in view of finish line

I’ll admit it, I have a tendency to to write or say something about training, and then completely go back on it and do something else. Sometimes it will be years later when I change my mind, other times it will be within a matter of days or weeks.

Some examples:  I used to think it was best to keep speed-work days pretty short. Later, I figured out that was the worst thing to do, and adopted doing Big Workouts, where the total mileage for the day is 14-16 miles. I also at one point thought that short intervals were a great workout; later I dropped that idea in favor of long tempos. During the peak of my running, I thought that days off were an opiate for the masses. Now I think they can be necessary to maintain the balance of life.

My most recent flip-flop is that I’ve already bailed on the training plan I outlined in a recent blog post. I had decided that since my body can’t handle high mileage anymore, I would do all hard workouts and a large portion of my total volume on the elliptical machine. I still think the concept was good, but it turns out that pragmatism was lacking.

In a nutshell, I hated it. After three weeks of going to the gym every morning, dripping sweat all over the elliptical machine, and, yes, getting some great workouts in, I had the following revelation. I am a runner. I run so that I can run…longer and faster. I run because I enjoy the feeling of running. I run because running is intrinsically good. When I replaced running with elliptical, training ceased to be enjoyable, and I very quickly lost all motivation. My end-goals were the same as before: racing. But the process of getting there had changed, and it turned out that the process is as important as the result. I found out that if I destroy the process and replace it with something else, I no longer want the result, and I quit altogether.

It was an interesting little journey, and I’m okay with the results. So the little cross-training experiment failed, big deal. I am now back to running every day. And I’m happy. Spring is here, the weather is beautiful, and it’s great to be alive, get outside everyday, and run. My training is not terribly structured right now, but I get a little tempo once a week or so, throw in some doubles when I’m motivated, and now I’m actually starting to feel the hints of fitness, much like how my lawn is showing hints of green. Perhaps in a few weeks or few months that hint will bloom into the real thing.

My body is holding up fairly well. After much deliberation, research, and consultation, I decided to start Enbrel, a biologic medication that treats Ankylosing Spondylitis (A.S.) and other auto-immune diseases by dampening the immune system and stopping inflammation before it even happens. It can actually slow or halt disease progression, opposed to NSAIDs, which treat only the symptoms (similar to putting a band-aid over a gaping wound).

After two weeks of Enbrel, I am not pain-free, but my hamstring tendons have improved greatly, my knee pain/stiffness has subsided, my hip pain has vanished, and my feet are “good enough”. A fair amount of foot pain and back stiffness remain, but it is tolerable. So I am encouraged by the early results, especially since it usually takes several weeks or months to realize the full effects of the medication.

The main downside to Enbrel or any other drug in its class is that it makes me more susceptible to getting sick. As a trade-off to eliminating pain and inflammation, I must now carefully monitor my health and my actions, which includes not to over-exerting myself. In other words, even if Enbrel forces the A.S. into remission, it’s not a free pass for me to run like crazy and do the kind of mileage I did before. Training 100+ miles/week often straddled the thin line between brilliant performance and crashing with sickness, fatigue, or injury; it’s truly a strain on the body no matter who you are.

That said, I am optimistic about training and racing. In the past, 70 or even 80 miles per week was pretty easy on my body, and I think I could handle that without compromising my immune system. But there is still a long way to go to even work myself up to that point. For now I am content to enjoy the spring and a fresh start on running. Mileage and performance are not in the forefront of my mind, but I’d be lying if I said I never thought about it.

But my current goals all revolve around the present and near-future, and I am not looking past May. I am running the Striders Half Marathon in Ogden in early April, mostly as a tuneup and exploratory race for the Indy Mini. Striders is a good course and a fun race, one that I’ve won before. I look forward to revisiting it and seeing how close I can get to my previous times. Four weeks later I will have the Indy Mini, and then beyond that I have no idea! In any case, I hope to have a fun spring and summer with running, and perhaps try a few races I have never done before. Happy training everyone.

I’ve gotten away from showcasing race course maps on this blog, so I figure it’s time to get back to my roots (the blog is named “Marathons and Maps” for a reason).

Recently I finished up a mapping project for a new race called the Palm 100, which is a 100-mile, 6-runner team relay race that hugs the Florida Atlantic coast from Fort Lauderdale to West Palm Beach and back. This race, which is on March 28th, is different than many of the other relays that I’ve mapped, in that it is not overnight, and there are no fixed exchanges.

This yields tremendous flexibility. Teams will decide the the length of each leg and location of relay hand-offs, as long as good discretion is used for the sake of safety and the rule book is followed. This is a new and novel idea to me, and as an experienced relay runner, I like the concept.

From a mapping standpoint, the Palm 100 is unique in that the route had to be exactly 100 miles. The precise distance is very important in certified 5K’s, 10K’s, half marathons, and marathons, but is usually not a concern for long-distance relays. In other words, it usually doesn’t matter if the race is 185.7 miles or 185.6 miles or 192 miles or … you get the picture.

I had to refine my mapping in order the pin the Palm at 100.0 miles. Much of the race is on sidewalks and paved trails, and I was able to use high-resolution aerial photography to zoom in very tightly (up to a scale of 1:900) and digitize the route right on those walkways. With my mouse, I attempted to take every tangent and turn every corner just a runner on the ground would. The end result was the most precise relay course I’ve captured to this point. I have no doubt that it is as close to 100.0 miles as you can get with an on-screen capture method.

A couple years ago, I thought I had it all figured out. Marathon training was simple: just do 2 big workouts per week (15+ miles), an easy long run, and fill the rest of the days with easy doubles until I hit 100+ miles for the week. It was a formula that took my marathon time down from above 2:30 to under 2:20. And I expected it to work into the future.

Getting hit with ankylosing spondylitis (A.S.) has changed everything. My body’s old limits are no longer valid, and the disease has imposed on me new limits. Through trial and error (most error), I’ve figured out that if I go over 50-60 miles/week, I start to break down. Mostly it’s the tendon injuries that sideline me.

I had been holding out hope that I would be able to at some point resume my old high-mileage training, and get back to marathons. But just recently I’ve finally accepted the fact that A.S. and marathoning don’t mix, and my condition will likely prevent me from ever running how I used to again. Yes, it was a bit of a sad realization, but it was actually more liberating than anything. Once I accepted that as a fact, I felt like a weight had lifted off my shoulders, and I was free to look at and pursue running from a different perspective. The pressure of being what I once was is gone, and now I can look forward to running becoming something new.

Clearly hard marathon training is now out of the question, but I had proven this past year that I could still successfully train for and run quality races at the 5K through half marathon distance. So that is where my focus will now lie. If anything, it’s getting back to my roots, as I was a 5K/10K specialist long before I had even dreamed of running a marathon. I’m excited at the prospect of the shorter distances, of different types of training, and of potentially even setting new PR’s that I’ve neglected over the last several years.

So in essence I need to relearn how to train. I had figured out marathon training, but now I need to figure out 5K/10K training, and specialize it for running with A.S. with the training load I can handle. For now, the centerpiece of my training will not be running, but the elliptical machine. I’ve found over the last year that it is possible to get an excellent workout on the elliptical, and my heart rate elevates to levels similar to running while on the machine. When I push hard on the elliptical, I often get my HR up to near 180, which is 90% of my max. Seems good enough for most types of training!

My new staple elliptical workouts are 10×3-minutes hard, with 1-minute recovery, and 2×15-minutes hard, with 5 minutes recovery. These are designed to simulate CV and MP workouts. As I get stronger on the elliptical, I plan to extend the time of the “tempos”.

Perhaps the best aspect of cross training is that since there is no pounding, I can recover faster and work out more frequently. Rather than doing 2 hard workouts per week, I will be able to do 3 hard workouts per week. I firmly believe that I can achieve a high state of fitness from cross training like this, and that it will translate to good races.

Of course I will need to run too, but for now I’m just doing 2-3 miles/day on the weekdays, and a 9-miler or so on Saturday. Once the weather warms up, the snow melts, and I get more daylight to work with, I’ll add a second 4-5 mile run with the jogging stroller in the evenings after work. Adding doubles will give a total running volume of 45-50 miles/week, along with a cross training volume about 5 hours/week. This cross training volume I convert to 30 “miles”, based on the approximation of 10 minutes on elliptical = 1 mile running (Jack Daniels suggests 1 unit of cross training = 2/3 unit of running) . So the end result will give me up to 80 “miles” per week of total training volume, which is certainly sufficient to run some nice 5K/10K/half marathon races.

Some of you readers (assuming I still have readers) may wonder, why isn’t 70-80 miles/week good enough to run a marathon? Simple: I’m not doing any long runs or big workouts. Everything is short and sweet. A huge part of marathon-specific training is geared to adapt the body to handle of pounding and fueling of a race longer than two hours. It is that type of training I’ve determined I can no longer handle. No more 20-milers, no more huge tempo runs or interval workouts, no more runs over 60 minutes in duration. Dropping those kinds of runs, I believe, will keep me healthier, but they will also prohibit me from really doing any race longer than a Half.

So marathons are out, but other races are in. And I’m excited about it. I feel like it’s a fresh start and a new challenge. And is this to say I won’t ever run a marathon again? No, it’s just saying that I won’t ever train for a marathon…in the near future. I could easily see myself taking this training plan, adding one longer run (16-18 miles), and then jumping in a marathon for fun. But it would have to come at the end of the season, and would have to be dialed back with lowered expectations.

But who knows what the future will really bring? I’m just grateful for everyday out there I have to run and be active. I look forward to trying to PR at the Indy Mini Marathon in May, and to perhaps running the USATF LDR Circuit again this summer.

Note and disclaimer: I am not a doctor. I am not associated with Padma Basic or Euconugenics. I am just a guy with ankylosing spondylitis, trying to find any and all treatments that can help control the disease. My statements below are not authoritative, but rather reflect my own experiences with Padma Basic, and nothing more. Please consult a rheumatologist when implementing any change of treatment to your own disease.

Well, it’s been a month since my Part 1 Review on Padma Basic. I have finished my supply of the product, meaning I’ve been taking 6 tablets/day for 30 days in an attempt to suppress my ankylosing spondylitis. Time to discuss results.

Frankly, for the first three weeks I experienced no change whatsoever. I wasn’t exactly disappointed with this, as my expectations were not that high to begin with (given my lack of faith in alternative therapies). However, during the final seven days of using Padma, my neck and shoulders became noticeably less painful and stiff, especially in the morning. Pain levels went from about a “3″ to a “1″ or even “0.5″.

At the same time, pain and inflammation in my feet and toes subsided somewhat, probably from a “3″ to a “2″. I experienced no change in my lower back or my bothersome left hip. I also noticed no change in my chronically cold hands while running outside.

So it’s safe to say that results were mixed. Yes, my neck feels better right now, so it could be because of the Padma, or it could just be the natural ebb and flow of my ankylosing spondylitis. Simply put, with A.S. some days are better than others, and some weeks are better than others. My final week of taking Padma was certainly a “good” week.

My own conclusion: I will not continue taking Padma, simply because I can’t afford the $85-$100/month pricetag, and the results weren’t sufficient to justify the price. That’s still a lot of money in my world for something that is not proven to work (especially in today’s economy). Fortunately or unfortunately (depending on your view), prescription medication combined with insurance costs much less, and is proven to be effective. Even the biologic medications, such as Remicade and Enbrel, can often be obtained with less than $100/month, with insurance and financial aid from the respective drug company.

But to bring up the biologic drugs brings up a reason to try Padma Basic or Padma 28: through my own experience or through my literature review, I have not found any discernable side effects. Many side effects of the immuno-suppressant drugs or NSAIDs are downright scary. With Padma, I experienced no gastro-intestinal discomfort, no orange skin, no sensitivity to sunlight, no compromised immune system. This all observational; I did not have any testing done (liver, kidneys, etc.), so please take my lack of perceived side effects for what it’s worth. I also encourage readers to go through the literature review and links from my first posting; I have yet to see mention of side effects from the studies I’ve looked at, but that does not mean that don’t exist. So in a nutshell, my own experiences were positive, but please be responsible and be cautious when trying any new medication or any especially any non-FDA regulated supplement.

But pushing aside side effects (or lack thereof), Padma’s benefits to me were subtle at best. Perhaps Padma could be a viable option for people with very mild auto-immune diseases. Also, I think to truly test Padma better than I just did, a person would have to use it for 6-12 months. One month was probably not long enough to get the full effects. But then again, most of us with ankylosing spondylitis simply do not have 6-12 months to fool around, as permanent joint damage can occur in that kind of time frame. That is reason enough to go with a form of proven medication prescribed by a rheumatologist as front-line treatment; there is simply too much at stake to bank on an alternative therapy as the main treatment.

So to summarize, I took Padma Basic for 30 days to help suppress ankylosing spondylitis. I found:

• No side effects
• A small but noticeable reduction in neck/shoulder pain and stiffness
• A very small reduction in foot/toe pain
• No change in lower back/hip pain and stiffness
• Not convinced that improvements were necessarily directly from Padma
• Found the cost prohibitive
• Feel that a longer term of use would be more conclusive

I would love to see some real studies done with Padma Basic/28 on various auto-immune arthritis’s. How does it really compare to the anti-TNF drugs? Let’s see some real numbers, double-blind trials, and other methods that will hold up under scrutiny.

I would also love to hear back anecdotally from other people who use Padma to inhibit TNF and control rheumatoid arthritis, ankylosing spondylitis, psoriatic arthritis, Chron’s disease, and others. Does it work for you? Please leave your comments, questions, and experiences. I hope this blog can be used as a resource for auto-immune sufferers who are investigating Padma and looking for real-life experiences about it.

It’s a new year and time for more racing! I usually don’t run many races in January, but this year I decided that it would be a good idea to get out of northern Utah for a few days to get some warm temperatures and clean air. Several of my friends ran the Painters Half Marathon in St. George, UT last year, and it looked like a race worth trying. What primarily drew my eyes to it are that it is a rolling loop course, it is USATF certified, and it has decent competition.

The fact that it is a loop course is important to me. In my humble opinion, there are way too races out here in Utah that are point-to-point downhill screamers. They all start up some mountain canyon and funnel you out to the city in the valley below, usually dropping 1000′ or more. Is it beautiful? Yes! Will it give you a meaningful time? No! And the relatively high elevation of these races (~5000′ above sea level) just complicates things even more. We Utah runners inevitably end up standing around after the race discussing what our time is really “worth“.

It was much simpler back in the flat, low lands in Indiana and Michigan, where I began racing as a high school and collegiate runner.  A 15:30 5K was “worth”…15:30. My time was simply taken at face value (you are what you run), and I always had a good assessment of where I was really at in my training and racing. In Utah, a 15:30 5K could be “worth” anywhere from 15:10 (if you normalize to sea level level) to 16:30 (if the time came from a downhill course). It’s very confusing, and at times very unsatisfying. While it’s nice to witness the beauty of our surrounding mountain canyons during races, beat the high elevation, and get a fast time, ultimately I can never count my Utah PR’s as “real” PR’s. Perhaps if I had done 100% of my running out here I would feel differently, but all of the racing I did in the midwest while growing up has set my perspective.

So to summarize: Loop courses are good. They yield times that I can take a face value. Furthermore, getting down to a lower elevation is good for the same reason. And it’s all worthless without USATF certification and the security of a correct distance. The Painters Half provided all of these incentives with its certified, loop route that averages around 2600′ above sea level.

My wife and I were glad to leave the smog of Logan on Thursday morning. These red air days get really depressing after a while. We were rewarded to clean air and temperatures hovering near 60 in St. George. The trip was already worth it!

Race day morning was chilly, but perfect: sunny, upper 30’s, and no wind. Temperatures during the race climbed into the low 50s, and was quite suitable for shorts, singlet, and gloves. The half marathon had just over 1000 finishers, so it was a good size. Competition up front looked good; there were several guys who I knew could run near 1:10:00 or in the mid- to low-teens. I myself thought I could hit around 1:11 to 1:12, based on some recently workouts and my total training volume. I thought I had some chance of winning, but so did four other guys. Due to some tendon issues and setbacks, I had been scaling my weekly mileage back to the 40s, including  a fair amount of elliptical cross training.

The race ended up going really well for me. We started with a pack of seven at the 2nd mile that drifted to a pack of four by the 5th mile, and a pack of two by the 7th mile. That pack of two included myself, and I felt strong and snappy through about Mile 9, but then the distance of the race wore on me and my pace slowed, from about 5:20/mile to 5:30/mile. My competitor, Jeff McClellan, did not slow whatsoever, and cruised to the victory with a time of 1:10:59. I chugged in with a 1:11:31, which I was count as both a “January PR” and a “post-A.S. PR”. And thankfully, I don’t have to figure out what the time is “worth”, since it is worth exactly what it is: 1:11:31. But this race gave me confidence that I can go under 1:09:00 and get a lifetime PR later this May in Indianapolis, provided I get in some good training.

I would do the Painters Half again. I thought it was fairly well-managed. The course had a lot of hills, but none were too steep or too long. It was not an extremely fast course, but it was not slow either. There were a lot of 90-degree turns, which slowed things down, and also threw off everyone’s GPS units (sharp turns really mess up the distance accuracy of Garmins…but that’s what certification is for), but other than that I liked the route a lot. It was not monotonous, and snaked its way through several different neighborhoods, bouncing on and off the local trail system. There were several very nice views, some cool red rock outcrops, and a bridge crossing over the Virgin River. The race started and finished at the Dixie Center, which featured a huge amount of easy parking and lots of bathrooms (very important!).

Good times, and perhaps I’ll be back.

Note and disclaimer: I am not a doctor. I am not associated with Padma Basic or Euconugenics. I am just a guy with ankylosing spondylitis, trying to find any and all treatments that can help control the disease. My statements below are not authoritative, but rather reflect my own experiences with Padma Basic, and nothing more. Please consult a rheumatologist when implementing any change of treatment to your own disease. 

As those who read my blog know, I’m been dealing with an auto-immune disease called Anklyosing Spondylitis (A.S.). In a nutshell, A.S. incites my body’s immune system to attack my own cells and cause inflammation, most notably in the lower back, hips/SI, and neck. These are all distinguishing markers for A.S. In addition, it has also caused swelling and painful inflammation in my toe joints, as well as a variety of tendon-related injuries.

And reportedly it only gets worse over time. This is certainly bad news for a 29-year-old guy like myself, supposedly entering my physical prime. It almost makes it worse being a competitive runner. I felt like I was finally coming into my own and making real progress as a marathoner over the past couple years. The 2:18:09 at St. George and 2:22:34 at the Olympic Trials four weeks later were real high points, and I felt like I had the ability to break 2:18:00 or even 2:16:00 on an unaided course. All I needed was time and continuity of training.

When the A.S. diagnoses was revealed, a lot of my hopes went down the drain. But I did keep a mere fragment of hope: If I could find a way to control the A.S. (and the tendon injuries that go along with it), then I would be able to resume training at an elite level, find my body’s true limits, and achieve my goals. Thus began my search for the treatment(s) that would work for me. I am open-minded: drugs, diets, herbal remedies…my main interest is in finding something that works.

Do date, the most effective treatment I’ve tried (and still use) is simply NSAIDs. Meloxicam has been effective in reducing pain and stiffness, and has not caused any gastrointestinal damage (yet). I take the tummy-protector Omeprazole to reduce acid and help out my gut with the NSAIDs. Also, I am doing the No Starch Diet (NSD), which supposedly reduces disease activity through eliminating all starches (wheat, rice, potatoes, legumes, processed foods, etc.). NSD indeed has helped dial back my pain levels by a couple points, but so far has not been a panacea. Right now, I view it to as a complement to traditional drug treatment, and not the primary treatment in itself.

I have also tried fish oil, ultrasound, and various supplements. They all basically did nothing other than make me wary of alternative treatments and throwing my money away. With NSAIDs plus NSD, my pain levels most days are around a “2″. I have daily stiffness in my neck, and intermittent stiffness in my lower back. My left foot has been constantly inflamed and sore for the past year, and I have experienced numerous tendon-related injuries. I am doing “okay”, but would like to do “better”…and I would also like to reduce the amount of NSAIDs I need to take, in order to preserve the long-term health of my gut.

So that is a rather long intro, but it lays the foundation that:

1. I suffer from A.S.
2. I have several ways to treat A.S., none of which are perfect
3. I am constantly looking for new treatments to try. Anything that can take off a point or more of pain and inflammation levels is worth trying, especially if there are no side effects.

A couple months ago I read a press release on the Spondylitis Association of America (SAA) website. It was about an herbal supplement called Padma Basic. The press release stated:

First, we look at an “exotic supplement” called “Padma Basic”. The “Dear Pharmacist” column in Tulsa World reports, “It works for rheumatoid arthritis by calming an overactive immune system that is bent on destroying cartilage and bone. The destruction occurs thanks to TNF (tumor necrosis factor), which signals the attack. Padma contains an herb “Pterocarpus santalinus,” which inhibits TNF and T-cell proliferation in a similar way to prescription drugs like Humira, Remicade and Enbrel. It could improve inflammatory conditions among them, Crohn’s disease, MS, rheumatoid arthritis, ankylosing spondylitis and psoriatic arthritis.” 

Whoa! That’s an eye-catcher to me! The release states that the herb has potential to inhibit TNF (and therefore slow or halt A.S.) similar to the very powerful biologic drugs available. These biologic drugs work very well, but they have many side effects and are very, very expensive. The press statement gave me a great interest in Padma Basic, so I started googling for anything I could find on it.

Padma is an ancient Tibetan herbal formula manufactured by Padma, Inc. in Switzerland under international pharmaceutical standards. It is sold in Europe as an OTC drug known as “Padma 28″, but in the U.S. it is distributed by EcoNugenics as a herbal supplement not regulated by the FDA. The only difference between Padma Basic and Padma 28 (beside their name) is the presence of 1 mg/tablet of aconite in Padma 28. This does not really affect the formula, and the function between the two is exactly the same.

With my wariness of herbal supplements in mind, I needed to be convinced to even try Padma Basic. But as it turns out, quite a body of objective research exists that validates using Padma for a variety of applications and ailments, including:

• peripheral artery disease (Atherosclerosis. 2006: Nov; 189(1):39-46)
• angina (Herba Polonica. 1986: 32; 107-114)
• stroke (Europ J Neurology. 1998: 5(suppl1); p. S9)
• hepatitis (Phytotherapy Research. 1993: 7; 224-247)
• arthritis (Int. Journal of Immunotherapy. 1991: 2(3); 143-147)
• ulcers (Nowiny Lekarski. 1992: 2; 40-44)
• AIDS Related Complex (Internation Congress for Infectious Diseases. 1988. Rio de Janeiro)
• multiple sclerosis (Phytotherapy Research. 1992: 6; 133-136)
• dental root canals (Forsch Komplementarmed. 2006 Feb; 13 Suppl 1: 28-30)
• recurrent infections (SchweizZschr fur Ganzheits Med. 1992: 7/8(Suppl 1); 22-23)
• inflammation (Inflammopharmacology. 1999: 7(1); 47-62)
• antioxidant (Redox Rep. 2000: 5(1); 17-22)
• antimicrobial (Research in Complementary and Classical Natural Medicine. 2002:9; 346-351)
• immune modulating (Inflammopharmacology. 2004: 12(4); 373-89)
• TNF / IL-inhibiting (Eur Cytokine Netw (0) 15: 203-9)
• 

I perused many of these journal articles (see links for yourself), and became even more interested. Although there was nothing directly studying the effects of Padma Basic/28 on ankylosing spondylitis, there were indeed many studies that indirectly stated that it could help in a variety of ways, including reducing inflammation, improving circulation, and inhibiting TNF.

The results of the Bernacka et al. (1991) study on juvenile rheumatoid arthritis, published in the Journal of Imunotherapy, were particularly encouraging to me. The group of children who were given Padma improved in both symptoms and laboratory tests without side effects during the six-month clinical trial. It was a very small study, but enough to stir more interest and hope in me that Padma can help dampen my overactive immune system.

So I believe it is worth a try. I plan to take Padma Basic for 30 days, and report my findings in a full review on this blog. Of course I have no delusion that this is some sort study; rather, it is merely my own personal experiences with Padma. Everyone’s form of A.S. is different, and different treatments will help different people. But my goal is that through this review and the followup review that other A.S. sufferers can find pertinent information, and be exposed to the option of Padma.

The kind people at EcoNugenics were gracious enough to supply me with a 180-tablet supply of Padma Basic. It arrived yesterday (January 2nd), and I have begun to take it. My dosage is two tablets 30 minutes before each meal (6 tablets/day). I am still taking meloxicam and omeprazole, and will continue to do so unless my pain drops down to a 0 or 1.

I plan to be as objective as possible when reporting the effects of Padma. My hopes are that it will:

1. Reduce or eliminate stiffness in my neck
2. Reduce the pain and swelling my left foot
3. Allow me to take fewer NSAIDs
4. Help the circulation of my hands and feet, which are constantly cold

So come back in 30 days for a full report of results!

It is officially winter now, but up here in northern Utah we’ve been in the throes of winter for several weeks already. Sub-20 degree temperatures, icy roads, and snowy hummocky sidewalks have quickly become the norm. Back when I skied a lot, this would have made me jump with glee. But at this point skiing is an aside, and I am focused on being a husband, a father, and runner. And all this snow is very, very bad for running.

I managed to get through my shin injury in October, and had a great November and early December. Mileage crept back up to the mid-60’s, and I was throwing in a weekly tempo run or two at about 5:40-6:00/mile pace. All in all, I was feeling good and fit, and excited to slowly increase my mileage over the months. Then winter hit. And motivation dwindled. And my body began to ache in various spots.

Some of the aches and pains are due to A.S. Others are due to running on slippery, snowy surfaces. And others are a combination of both, ever reminding of the fact that I cannot train how I used to, that once I hit 70 miles/week I’m an injury waiting to happen.

So far I’m still healthy enough, but I can feel protesting in my left knee. And I constantly worry about my shin flaring up again, or my foot flaring up again. If only it were spring, then things would be better…but unfortunately today is only Day 5 of winter.

Deep breath. Whew. It really doesn’t matter. That’s what I remind myself. There are no races of any importance until May or so. There is absolutely no reason for me to push into higher mileage; there is no reason for me not to back down and relax; there is no reason not to take days off or cross train when I feel my body protest the rigors of training. It will all come together in due time.

And so what if my breakdown point with A.S. is now 60-70 miles/week, rather than 100+ miles/week?  I must make do with what I’m given to work with. It’s in my nature to push whatever limits I can find. And I will continue to do so during the near future with running. I will run the most mileage I possibly can in search for the next P.R. and in search of a 2012 Trials qualifier. But if that limit is lower than what I would like, I just need to accept it and make the most of that volume of training. The keys are patience and adaptability.

Next race: The Painter’s Half Marathon in St. George. This race is mostly an excuse to for my family to get out of Logan and get some warmer weather down in St. George. But at the same time, I would like to run well, perhaps in the 1:10:-high range or so. Hopefully this race will keep me motivated enough to keep hitting the roads, treadmill, elliptical, and weights…but still keep it all in check and stay healthy.

It’s been a short but sweet racing season with a little symmetry to it, as I ran my first and last races in Moab. Last week I completed The Other Half, the sister race to the Canyonlands Half Marathon.

This was an interesting race, primarily because I had not run more than a few miles over the last 3 weeks. My shin issue, which was later diagnosed as Tenosynovitis (inflammation of the tendon sheath), kept me confined to the elliptical for the preceding weeks. Although nothing is as good as running, my 60-90 minute sweat sessions in the gym kept me fit. However, I didn’t appreciate this out until around Mile 8 of the race, as I was quite nervous before the race and during the early miles that I would just utterly bomb, or that my shin would flare up and make me drop out.

But the outcome was quite good: a time of 1:14:02 and 1st place overall. Can’t complain, especially given the circumstances. I knew my initial goal of sub-1:12 was out the window, so I went out at 5:40-pace the first couple miles, and pretty much held that effort the entire way. You can read my full race report with gory details here.

And I loved the course. The first six miles feature small rolling hills in a redrock canyon along the Colorado River. This stretch is pretty fast. But then the canyon opens up to Castle Valley, and displays amazing views of the LaSal Mountains in the background and large sandstone monoliths in the foreground. Very inspiring. However, the terrain also changes from here to the finish to large rolling hills, and the course gets considerably harder during the second half.

Fortunately, every uphill had downhill on the other side, and I actually thought the more challenging second half of the race was as fun as it was beautiful. The race finishes on a nice downhill into Sorrel River Ranch, a resort spa nestled along the Colorado River. The race had a lot of “frills” (which I don’t care much about), but it was also well-managed: the expo was easy, they started the race on time, and it was a closed course. The jacket, pint glass, finishers’ medal, and beer garden were just gravy, but a nice touch I suppose. But really, the course and the scenery were the stars of the show. I may be back next year, hopefully in better health, to try to get my 1:12:00.

Little Seth proudly wearing daddy’s finishers’ medal

But that’s it for me for 2008. Despite being injured to laid up with with an A.S. flare for most of the year, I did manage to squeeze in 5 races, most of which were pretty good considering my fitness. What’s next? Well, my shin has greatly improved since the race, and I’m starting to run again. If things go well, I’d like to build a big base throughout the rest of the fall, all winter, and into the spring. If I’m going to do another marathon, I’d like to do things right! Reading “Once a Runner” and “Return to Carthage” has inspired me to be patient, as the main character Cassidy was patient. Staying cool and calm, building a big base over a period of many months, will make my next marathon a great one. No sense in jumping the gun.

Right now I’m about 75% sure I’m going to sign up for the Indy Mini Marathon. My next big race will be the Indy Mini Marathon. Registration is in, so now it’s a matter of good training and praying to stay healthy. The Mini is a flat, fast half marathon course near sea level, plus I will be in town that weekend to visit my family, so it would be a shame not to go for a PR. Beyond that, if things are firing on all cylinders I would like to find a good marathon in late May, and perhaps make a run for the Trials.

With having ankylosing spondylitis, it is so hard to plan far ahead into the future. As a “normal”runner, it is hard to stay healthy as it is, but A.S. greatly increases my chance of tendon injuries, not to mention the background back and neck pain. Yet, dreaming and planning is something that makes me love running and love life. I don’t think I can give that up. So while I eagerly make plans and scope out potential races with one half of my mind, the other side duels with it and tries to prevent me from too much disappointment and letdown. It’s a hard transition, but I don’t think I will ever truly give up dreaming.

Oops, I did it again. During my Monday tempo run, a slight pain in my lower shin transformed into inflamed, swollen mess. Why did I bother finishing the workout? Why not just jog it in? Did I seriously think it would just “go away”? Well, apparently I did. D’oh!

Regardless of my delusions and mistakes, I am left with what appears to be a moderate case of tendinitis in my shin. I’ve had tendinitis in my upper hamstring before, and it was not fun. But this already seems to be way better than my hamstring injury, or the groin strain I had a couple years back. It seems that injuries that occur higher up take longer to heal (groin, hamstring, etc.). Walking with this shin injury is not too bad, and I can already run a little bit after only a couple days. With the hamstring and groin injuries, it was a couple months before I could run.

So how to treat this? The past two days I have been religiously:

• Icing, with both stationary ice packs and with ice massage.
• Scraping, with Gua Sha tools.
• Massaging, by just putting some oil on my shin, and then using deep strokes with my thumbs from the top of my shin down to my foot.
• using my TENs unit, a little device that reduces pain and perhaps increases circulation through electrical pulses.

On Sunday, I am seeing my massage therapist, and hopefully she can work some magic. Also, I’ve ordered a Zensah compression sock. I don’t know how much compression will help, but it’s worth a shot. Anything that allows returning to running without re-injury is a good thing.

My worst fear is missing The Other Half, or just limping through it. I figure I can supplement a full week of training with cross-training and still run at full potential in Moab. If I miss two weeks, I could probably still run so-so at Moab, but would miss too much “real” training to continue entertaining ideas of a December marathon. Basically, I would be done for the year after the half marathon. If I miss three weeks or longer, then Moab will become just a vacation, and I’ll have to be happy with the three races I was able to run this year.

But I am optimistic. In order to keep fit and keep my edge for the upcoming half marathon, I’m trying to get an hour of cross training in every day, and will attempt some interval and tempo type workouts as well. For cross training, I use my mountain bike, the elliptical machine, and the arc trainer machine. The arc trainer in particular is a fantastic workout. I get gassed on it after about 10 minutes. But nothing beats running.

The question I always ask myself when I get an injury: is if it is purely a running injury, or if it is because my Ankylosing Spondylitis? A.S. has a tendency to attack muscle insertion points, thus A.S. sufferers are more prone to “injuries” such as plantar fasciitis and tendinitis. In my case, yes, I think there is a good chance that A.S. set the stage for this bout of tendinitis, but if I were not a runner it would certainly not be inflamed to its current extent. So the two work together as a one-two punch. A.S. weakens the tendons, and running blows them up. I imagine this is just something I will have to deal with as long as I run.

New rule: if I feel any sort of new pain, I abandon the workout. This a basically a repeat of my hamstring tendinitis from earlier this year, so strike two on me.

Kind of a miscellaneous blog posting today, but I’m in the mood.

So what’s going on in my neck of the woods? This past Saturday I ran my first 5K in well over a year. I won the Top of Utah 5K with a time of 16:17. It was a fast loop course, and supposedly certified (although I could not find it in the USATF database). I was hoping for under 16 minutes, but I’ll take it. It was a weird race though; I never felt like I was straining, and kept pushing the pace, yet I had no speed. All of my mile splits were within 3 seconds of each other, I hit a slight negative split, and I felt like I could have kept going for 10K. So although I was not happy with my leg turnover, I was pleased with how strong I felt. 5K’s usually hurt a lot more. My full race report is here.

Next up is The Other Half, a half marathon in Moab on October 19th. I would like to break 1:12 on this rolling course. My 5K time alone gives me a thumbs-down that I can actually do this, but on the other hand I don’t think my solo 5K effort is representative of what I can do in a half marathon (where my lack of burst won’t be as big of a hindrance). Furthermore, I feel like my training is just hitting stride. After a couple weeks in the mid-60s, my mileage for the next 3-4 weeks will be in the mid- to upper 70s, and perhaps will hit 80. This includes two big workouts per week as singles (14-16 miles), a Saturday long run, and easy doubles the rest of the days. Standard fare, but tried and true. I’ve found that racing success is largely a function of training time. Stringing together many consecutive weeks of consistent mileage and solid workouts will yield fast times when it’s time to put on the flats. It’s not a glamorous concept, but very true.

This weekend I will be captaining an aid station at the Bear 100, our local 100-mile ultra run. The race starts at Logan Dry Canyon and traverses through the Bear River Range all the way to Bear Lake, Idaho. I am in awe of ultra runners. I have no aspirations (or delusions) of joining them, but enjoy serving them at the aid stations. This year, my station is at Richards Hollow (Left Hand Fork of the Blacksmith Fork). It looks like it will be a beautiful day, and my wife and 2-month old son will be coming as well.

I enjoy the aspect of volunteering, simply because it shows the other side of races, and allows us to give back to the race and to other runners. As a competitive runner, I usually do nothing but take, take, take from races. Volunteering helps me counter that consumer-ish attitude (and also helps me appreciate volunteers more from the races I run!). If you’ve never helped direct, administrate, or volunteer for a race, I highly recommend doing so. It will make you look at races completely different, and you may be less likely to complain the next time something at a race irks you.

In honor of the upcoming Top of Utah Marathon this weekend, today’s topic is about the other race in the event: the Top of Utah 5K. This race is especially of interest to me this year, as I am running it. TOU will be my first 5K since July of 2007, so compound that with my rather “interesting” training this year, I’m not quite certain how I will do.

Fortunately, I do know a few things about the race:

1. It is certified, so I can expect it to be the correct distance
2. It is a relatively flat loop course, so I can expect decent times that actually mean something (ie - not downhill).
3. As part of my sponsorship of the Top of Utah Marathon, I’ve created a course map, so it will be one of the few 5K races out there that actually has a decent map that show the exact turns and the elevation profile.

Most of the maps I make are for relays, marathons, and half marathons; very few short races have the budget or real incentive for maps. However, there is one really nice thing about making a 5K map: scale. What is scale? Think of it as “zoom-factor”. Large-scale means “zoomed in”, small-scale means “zoomed out”. Scale can be represented by ratios, such as 1:6000 (large scale) or 1:100,000 (small scale). Since a 5K loop route does not take up much geographic space relative to a marathon or relay, I have the luxury of creating a large-scale map on a small page size (8.5×11″). This means that I get to show tremendous detail, including aerial photos and crisp turn locations. You just don’t get that on most small-scale maps.

From the elevation profile, it’s easy to see that the elevation does not change much during the race. There is a short, abrupt hill around Mile 1.6 (200 S to 100 S), and very subtle uphill on 300 N, and then a short, abrupt downhill near the finish. The last block (0.1 miles) is on an uphill, but who’s counting at that point?

But all this is getting nit-picky; the course can be more concisely described as relatively flat and fast. Although I am still building my base, I hope to at least challenge 16:00 for a finish time. Seeing 15:5x at the end would be great, but I could live with 16:1x as well. It’s hard to find concrete expectations. I do know that the first half should be faster than the second half of the race, due to topography, so I hope to hit 4:5x on the first mile, 5:0x on the second mile, and then see what I have for the end.

Should be fun! (and way easier than the Top of Utah Marathon).

Back in June I thought this year for racing would be a complete wash. In fact, I did not know if I would ever run competitively again, due to the plethora of arthritic ailments brought on by Ankylosing Spondylitis (A.S.).Fortunately, things have turned around for me a bit, to where I’ve been able to run again, and even get into some semblance of shape.  I am not pain-free yet, but am “good enough” to train and do some speed work too. My key challenge was to learn how to manage the A.S., which I have done so far through diet and occasional use of the NSAID meloxicam. Right now I am taking 2-3 meloxicam (brand name: Mobic) per week, and that is enough to make me feel pretty good when I get out of bed in the morning.

Thanks to eliminating all starch in my diet (the “No Starch Diet”, which will be a blog topic of its own soon), the pain in my hip, SI joints, and low back stiffness have basically disappeared. The swelling in my foot and stiffness in my neck (particularly in the mornings) is all that remains, and that is what I take the meloxicam for. If the diet continues to work over time, I hope to eliminate all NSAID use completely.  But for now I’m thankful that I’m taking it a few times per week rather than everyday. I’m sure my stomach will thank me as well.

So despite a horrid first half of the year, I’ve been salvaging a short racing season after all.  I’m not nearly in the form I was last year, but I’m still having a lot of fun, and thankful to God for the opportunity to run again. On August 2nd, I ran a local 10K (for $5!), and placed 3rd with a time of 34:55. I was quite happy with this considering that I had about a month’s worth of training at 30 miles/week at this point (plus the birth of my first child three days prior).

My second race of the year was August 23rd, the Top of Utah Half Marathon. I won this last year, so it was a little humbling to be completely out of contention, but I still enjoyed myself immensely, taking 6th overall with a time of 1:12:12.  Mileage was around 50 mpw at this point, with some speed work.

After a week of recovery from the half marathon, and then missing some time due to sickness the following week, I’ve finally boosted my mileage again, and will be sitting around 65 mpw for awhile. I’ve managed to catch a little bit of the old fire, and have the desire to train again, and to excel in races. This fire had been missing for awhile. I’ll reach 75-80 mpw in the next couple months, which I never thought I’d would even want to do again.

Upcoming races include the Top of Utah 5K on September 20th, The Other Half on October 19th, and another local 5K (The First Dam Run) on November 1st. The Other Half is a half marathon in Moab, and is a fairly big race. It is a challenging, rolling course, with no elevation drop (rare for Utah). The course record is a low 1:12, and I’ve made it my “season goal” to break that record. If I can run 1:12 or faster on that hard course, and if I am reasonably pain-free, then I will consider continuing to up my mileage and running an early December sea-level marathon, most likely St. Jude.

Several people have tried to convince me to run St. George, but I am not for several reasons:

1. I have nothing left to accomplish there, other than to win. I cannot win this year with the training I have done. Therefore I will not traumatize my body for no good reason.
2. The injury risk is too high on that course with the amount of training I’ve done.
3. By deferring a marathon for two months (December vs. October), I will give myself training time to race a much better quality marathon.  True, I could probably break 2:30 in my current condition at St. George, but I gain more by training longer (uninterrupted), and running under 2:25 on an honest course like St. Jude.

Much of this is speculation right now, but that is where my thinking and heart are at. St. George was tempting simply because I really enjoy being at the race with my friends and peers. But to actually race it would be a bad idea. Plus, I’ve always wanted to run The Other Half, which is reportedly a beautiful, challenging course.

I do not know what the future will bring, but I have enjoyed the races I’ve been blessed with doing already, and look forward to running more.

The other day I read an open letter to race directors posted on the Complete Running Network blog. The general premise was that all race directors should have chip timing, good food, lots of porta-pots, good cups, good age group awards, good online maps, and good beer. In other words, cater to the people paying the entry fees. Makes sense.

The article was written in a fun way, was an entertaining read, and certainly made some good points…yet I disagreed with the spirit of it.

Why are races expected to cater to our every whim? Why do we need rock bands along the course, beer at the finish line, a fancy website, fancy t-shirts, and other amenities? I view all these amenities as consumer-driven. Runners demanded them, and race directors obliged. As a result entry fees are raised. Runners raise cain and demand even more “value” for their money (since we’re paying more, we better get more “stuff”). Race directors accommodate this to stay competitive. Prices go up. Runners/consumers get even more demanding and picky. It seems like a perpetual cycle to me. Will there be a “bust” at some point?

And it’s getting absurd. The other day, I paid $75 for the opportunity to run a half marathon (I won’t name names, as this is getting to be a pretty typical price these days). It made me sick to write the check, but in the end I caved simply because I really, really wanted to race the course. Oh, but I get a “free” jacket and “free” beer at the finish, and a bunch of other garbage. What happened to just racing?

Here’s what I want from race directors: Just line us up and fire a gun. And do it on time. And make the race $10.

I don’t need rock bands, I don’t need beer, I don’t even need food at the finish (I can pack my own banana, thank you). I don’t need high-tech t-shirts, jackets, or vests. A cotton t-shirt is fine, although I’d like to opportunity to “opt out” in order to further lower my entry fee. Chip timing is nice, but not needed. We managed to survive quite some time without chips, after all. Rather than putting time and effort into the amenities and pampering, please just make sure the total course distance and the mile markers are accurate.

I realize that I am in the minority in these sentiments, but this is my blog, and I am an expert in my own opinion. Why do I race? I like to be around other runners, the pure community of the event. Moreover, I like to compete: against others and against myself. I get a thrill out of putting myself out there against my peers, and against my own willpower, pain levels, and personal records. Prizes are nice, and I keep them as mementos, but they are not why I race. The same goes for t-shirts and other memorabilia. But I certainly don’t enter the races to drink beer and listen to really bad live bands (I can do that at home for much less than $75, thank you).

I, for one, would like to see a return of “minimalistic races”. Low entry fees, low technology, few amenities, with an emphasis on competition and community. Anyone with me?

This will be an unusual race report, as not only did I not run, but I did not even go to the event. Last year my wife and visited Washington while the Northwest Passage Relay was in progress. I thought the course looked beautiful, and decided that I wanted to run the race next time around. Earlier this year, I sponsored and registered a team under the name of MarathonGIS.com / Fastrunningblog.com, and started making plans. However, a couple things stopped me from making the trip:

1. My wife getting pregnant, and the due date being uncomfortably close to race day
2. My current A.S. flare preventing me from running for several months, plus making my day-to-day ability to run very unpredictable.

So I bailed early on, but stayed on as the team captain and logistic manager. I’ve organized 5 relays now, and team member Dale described this one perfectly: herding cats.

We had:

• runners from 4 different states, with multiple airline schedules
• all out-of-state runners flying in the morning of the race
• another runner who couldn’t make it to the course until 8PM on raceday
• a very small pool of potential volunteers (ended up buying 2 of the 3)
• multiple runners bail out due to other commitments
• last-second ringers bail to join other teams (thanks)
• a last-minute start time change from 4PM to 2PM
• a total of 9 runners actually toeing the line (supposed to be 12)

Putting together the vans and leg order became a cerebral puzzle that looked like a chess match versus a Google spreadsheet. It also reminded me a little bit of the logic portion of the GRE test: “Runner x, y, and z are flying from Utah at times A, B, and C. Runners t, u, and v are already in-state, but live in three different towns, and runner u has to work until 5PM. The 5:15 ferry has a 90% on-time rate. Runner y’s favorite color is blue, and Runner v hates hills and is allergic to peanuts. Our start time is 2PM, and Van 1 will be to Exch 6 by 6:15PM. Determine the leg order.“

Fortunately, I did well on the GRE, and our logistics for this race ended up coming together in the end as well. Van 1 made it to the 2PM start on time, Runner U caught the ferry and made it to Exch 11 in time to run his first leg, and the 9 guys on the team ran their guts out, and by all reports, had a fabulous time. Whew! The only real mishap was Van 1 putting itself in a ditch during Leg 2 (will post pictures when I get them). Fortunately, a kind passerby pulled them out.

Not only did the team run their guts out, but they managed to take 2nd place out of 153 teams (20:31:02, 6:39/mile), and came within 6 minutes of pulling off and upset and winning the race outright. Congrats to Runningshoes.com, with their winning time of 20:25:17 (6:37/mile). Not bad for a 6-man ultra team!

Lessons learned for future relays:

• a 12-person team is not necessary.
  • fewer people creates more room in the van
  • fewer people allows you to use a car, truck, or SUV if you want to save money
  • a faster person running extra legs will always be faster than adding slower people just for the sake of having 12 people
  • you can bond more with fewer people, and also develop a “underdog mentality”

Thanks a ton to Dave, Dale, Craig, Andy, Cody, Tim, Matt, Mark, and Aaron for their good spirits and fast running!

Andy, Matt, Aaron, Tim, Dale, and Craig (photographer: Dave)

Cody hands to Andy at Exch 30.

Van 2, also a drying rack and dormitory. Gotta love the smaller team.

Another year, another Wasatch Back Relay. This year my company, Marathon GIS, helped sponsor not one but two 12-man relay teams. Co-sponsors were the Fast Running Blog and the St. George Running Center. We divided up our pool of runners into the “blue” team (fast) and the “white” team (faster). (The general idea is the FRB / St. George Running Center racing team’s colors are blue and white…).

We had no problem assembling an ensemble cast of quality runners, thanks to the pool of talent available on the Fast Running Blog. And we needed everyone in that pool, since we suffered numerous injuries and bail-outs to key runners (including myself) during the approach to the race. Thank goodness for our alternates! Although I had my doubts at times, we did end up toeing the line with 12 runners on each team.

We had high aspirations for the white team to contend with perennial powerhouses BYU and Weber State, and perhaps win the race outright. The blue team also had a good chance at Top 3.

It turned out that Weber did not field a team this year, but BYU brought the house. From the gun, it was BYU all the way, and our white team was simply outclassed by a superior (and younger) gene pool. The result: 2nd place for the white team by about 35 minutes. Kudos to BYU. Maybe next year!

Our blue team outpaced the Runners Corner mixed team, Peak Endurance, and the 26.2 Running Company down the stretch to finish a respectable 3rd place, nearly an hour behind the white team. Great job guys!!

However, we did experience victory on the timed Ragnar leg, as the white team’s Seth Wold blitzed up the 4.0-mile, 1700ft ascent in…(not kidding)…29:06 (7:16/mile!). That was 2:30 (38s/mile) ahead of the 2nd place BYU runner. I believe he broke his own record from last year. Awesome job Seth!

Unfortunately, I could not run due to my foot (and total lack of fitness), but was happy to help out by driving the Blue team Van 1. I brought my trusty video camera and shot as much footage as I could during daylight, adding my own witty and charming commentary where I could. (note that witty and charming commentary completely evaporates on day 2). I’ve uploaded the string of videos to YouTube for everyone’s enjoyment. Sorry about the poor quality, but YouTube is lame like that. You get what you pay for. Also, sorry for no video transitions, theme songs, or other movie magic. Time is money, and I’m a lazy, lazy man. But for the ’soundtrack’, you can just listen to our awesome mix tape playing in the van instead.

2008 Ragnar Relay Wasatch Back Top Teams Results (546 total finishers)

1. BYU Cross Country: 17:19:34 (5:45/mile!)
2. Fast Running Blog / St. George Running Center “white”: 17:54:16 (5:57/mile)
3. Fast Running Blog / St. George Running Center “blue”: 18:54:03 (6:17/mile)
4. 26.2 Running Company: 19:29:49
5. Peak Performance: 19:32:13
6. Runners Corner: 19:41:01

Alright, long time no blog. I figure it’s time for an update. Most of what is below was copied and pasted from my training blog, but I figure it might reach a different audience here.

So why haven’t I been blogging? Simple, I haven’t been running. The last few months have been one “injury” after another. What started with hamstring tendinitis morphed into a monster that included SI pain, hip pain, low back pain, mid-back pain, neck pain, swollen sausage toes, and a swollen, sore forefoot. The forefoot is what really knocked me out of running. And I hate to say it, but I lost the fire over the last few months. The cross training suddenly became not worth the effort. Fitness is all gone.

My foot problems was initially, and wrongly, diagnosed as a mortons neuroma. After the digits and top of the foot started swelling, I pretty much knew that was wrong, and so did the podiatrist. We did a battery of blood tests, and I came out positive for HLA-B27. Given my chronic SI joint problems over the three years, combined with the sausage toes, the blood test, and even the insertion-point injuries (plantar fasciitis, hamstring tendinitis), I knew in my mind that Ankylosing Spondylitis would likely be the fit to the puzzle.

This is not answer I liked. Who wants a chronic, degenerative disease? But I would not know for sure until I saw the rheumatologist, something that apparently takes a long time to do (I couldn’t get in for four weeks; some people tell me I’m lucky).

Okay, now for the copy and paste part.

Finally had my rheumatologist appointment today. Got the official diagnoses of Ankylosing Spondylitis. No big surprise, but I supposed it’s nice to get a dx in some ways.

No, ankylosing spondylitis (A.S.) is not the name of a dinosaur. “Ankylosing” means stiff or rigid. “Spondylitis” means inflammation of the spine. So ankylosing spondylitis is a chronic arthritic disease that causes the joints and ligaments along the spine to become inflamed. If left untreated, the spine can completely fuse, causing the person to lose mobility (hence, the “Ankylosing” part of it). A.S. is most common in men in their 20s. The cause is not quite known, but it appears to be genetics (HLA-B27 gene) combined with a trigger event (probably some sort of gut infection). Most people with A.S. have HLA-B27, but only about 10% of people with HLA-B27 have A.S. So the environmental trigger factor is a large role.

Their is no cure for A.S., but it can be treated into remission. Exercise, NSAIDs, DMARDs, and anti-TNF meds seem to be all there is at this point. The exercise is important to keep the joints mobile. Move it or lose it. Swimming is best for obvious reasons, and running is often frowned upon because of the jarring (but for the record my doc said that running is okay if it doesn’t hurt). NSAIDs treat the symptoms by killing the inflammation, but does not stop progression of the disease. They also tend to tear apart the stomach and fry the liver if taken for a long time. DMARDs (Disease-modifying anti-rheumatic drugs) can slow down disease progression, but haven’t been shown to be terribly effective with A.S. Kind of a hand-me-down from big brother rheumatoid arthritis. Anti-TNFs (tumor necrosis factor, biologics) suppress the part of the immune system that is attacking the body. Biologics can repress or completely halt the disease, and seem to be the most promising for A.S. However, they also increase the chance of infection, and perhaps even some types of cancer.

Diet has also helped a small percentage of people deal with A.S. to varying degrees. Low-starch and No-starch diets are definitely on the fringe of the treatment, mostly (IMO) because there is no money for doing non-drug research, plus pharmaceuticals can’t make any money if people just stop eating bread. But the diet has a small but fanatical cult-like following among lay-people. In any case, it is proven that some foods cause inflammation, and some foods reduce it, so it is a safe bet to pursue that kind of diet just for general health and to help things along.

Anyway, this is long, but it’s as much for my therapeutic benefit as for anything. My symptoms aren’t too terribly severe on the grand scale. Judging by x-rays and flexibility tests, I have suffered no joint damage or no beginnings to fusion either. This is good. Since A.S. isn’t terribly well-known, most people can go over a decade without getting it diagnosed, and by that time they may have already started to fuse (once you fuse, you can’t go back). In my case, I think my hyper-sensitivity to what is going on in my body due to being a runner helped get me into a series of doctors and start asking the right questions and getting the right tests. I can track my A.S. timeline back to June of 2005, so it’s been going on for three years at the longest, which is pretty quick for a dx.

And it turns out that my clusters of “running injuries” may not be entirely from running, and are better explained as A.S. flares. It also turns out that A.S. often affects muscles and tendons near insertion points, so my plantar fasciitis and hamstring tendinitis would also be common A.S. symptoms. Of course, running didn’t help most of these things either. And A.S. also commonly causes “sausage toe”, which is what it sounds like, and is what I have going on with my feet (currently preventing me from running). Timeline:

• 1994 - June 2005: No injuries whatsoever. Nothing, nada. No back pain.
  
• June 2005 - November 2005: SI pain, lower back pain, patellofemoral pain (runners knee). Ran through most of it, then took a couple months off after St. George.
• December 2005 - February 2006: perfectly healthy, resumed running
• Feb/March 2006 - August 2006: SI pain, lower back pain, patellofemoral pain (other knee), groin strain, plantar fasciitis. No running for 5 months.
• September 2006 - December 2007: pain-free, blissful running
• January 2008 - June 2008 (ongoing): hamstring tendinitis, SI pain, sore/stiff lower back, stiff mid-back, neck pain, swollen toes, swollen forefoot.

So it’s been alternating healthy - flare - healthy - flare. I am now in my third flare, by my count. This is definitely the longest, although I don’t know that it is more severe than what I went through in 2006. So the A.S. may be ramping up each time (bad thing), but I am not sure. It would sure be nice if I left this flare and had another 15 months of quiet.

My rheumie thought it would be best to start with a prescription NSAID to wick out the inflammation. Everyone’s version of A.S. if a little bit different. If mine follows the pattern of flare - healthy - flare, then I can probably get by with taking NSAIDs as needed. However, if things don’t ever get better, and it seems to be progressing, then he will want me do go on an anti-TNF, such as Remicade or Embrel. I’d rather not do this, as it is very expensive (~$20,000/year). With insurance it is something like $100-$200/month, depending on the drug.

So now I am taking diclofenac. Ibuprofen is quite effective on me, so hopefully this will be too, and shrink my foot down to a normal size. My next appointment is in 3 months, so until then it will just be the NSAID (as needed), exercise, and a healthy diet.

Will I run competitively again? Maybe. If I can, I probably will, but if I can’t life will go on. I know I can be happy and fulfilled without running, and it is not my identity, but I do enjoy it, so I would obviously like to be able to at least go out and run 6 miles pain-free with myself or with my friends. But this whole ordeal has served to remind me that my hope is not in the present with this broken body, but my hope lies in God and in His promise of a future and an eternal life.

19“Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. 20But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and rust do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. 21For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. -Matt 6:19-21

Well, it’s been a long road back from the hamstring tendinitis injury (but not nearly as long as plantar fasciitis). I’m not quite out of the woods, but am happy to be back running at least a few miles every day.

It’s amazing how hard a 7:30 mile seems after an injury layoff, but I take some comfort in knowing that I experienced similar issues when coming back from my PF/groin strain in 2006. I remember struggling with a 10-minute mile on the treadmill during rehab back in 2006, and wondering how on earth I would ever be able to run twice that fast for a 5K. Yet within a year I was able to average 5:15/mile for 26 miles. So my 8-minute miles right now don’t seem so bad, as I know I can still have a successful racing season in the summer ahead.

My recent hamstring injury is a tendinitis (inflammation of the tendon) where the hamstring muscle connects to the ischium (butt-bone). I have seen this referred to as “hamstring origin tendinitis“.

I first felt the injury on Dec. 25th (merry Christmas). It was quite minor, and I could run on it without much difficulty. I classified it in the “owie” category, and figured it would go away on its own after a few days. And maybe it would have.

But on Dec. 27 I attempted a 8×1000m interval workout…and pretty much destroyed the hamstring by the 6th interval. Within a span of a few minutes I went from being able to hold a 5:00/mile pace to having to walk home.

What what the root cause of the injury? I think it was a combination of all of the below (in ascending order):

• XC skiing for the first time in a year on Dec. 23. This made me pretty sore for the following week, and worked muscles that hadn’t been used in a long time. Consequently, I was running (and doing hard workouts) on weakened, sore legs during the next few days.
• Running on snow. We had a big snow storm on Christmas Eve, and my next few runs were on solid snow and ice. This slipping around is no good for the joints and muscles, and probably put unnatural strain and torque on already-sore muscles.
• Attempting to train hard for Houston. Looking back, I had just run two all-out marathons within a month, and what my body needed most was a break and a period of base-building. And that was my original plan after Trials. But then I received the opportunity to race the USATF Half Marathon Championships in Houston as a funded athlete. That was an offer that I couldn’t refuse at the time, but now I wish I had. Rather than letting my body fully recover and returning to easy mileage, I was out there doing tempo runs and interval workouts on weakened legs and in less-than-ideal weather/road conditions. Talk about setting the stage for an injury!

Obviously (looking at it after the fact), I could have avoided it all by turning down the Houston race, and just running easy mileage during the harsh winter months. But I think if the roads had good footing and if I hadn’t tried introducing a new activity (XC skiing) during heavy training, I might have stayed healthy as well. In any case, I learned not to try to train for a major race during the winter, at least as long as I live in Logan! I’ve learned that a period of easy running, core work, and weight lifting is probably the best winter training plan for me. With no winter races, I won’t feel like I need to “force” workouts.

But the good news is that I’m feeling about 95% healthy now. Here’s what I did to recover from the hamstring tendinitis:

• Rest. Running was not an option. I also took a week off with no activity, as even elliptical seemed to hurt it at first.
• After I realized it wasn’t getting much better with pure rest, I started Physical Therapy. I saw a licensed PT at our local sports med facility. I’ve done this before and think it’s a good idea for anyone with lingering injuries. My treatments:
  • Heat
  • Ultrasound
  • Stretching the hamstrings
  • Stretching the hips (these were really tight!)
  • Strengthening the hips, glutes, and hammies
    • Theraband activities / 4-way hip machine
    • Stability ball hamstring curls
    • Face-down leg raises (glutes)
    • “Walking” while sitting in a rolling chair (great hammie workout)
    • Hip sled (glutes, hammies, quads)
  • Resumed “safe” cross training:
    • Recumbent bike (non weight-bearing, did this the most early on)
    • Stair-stepper
    • Arc Trainer (great workout)
    • Elliptical (once inflammation was gone)
• Deep massage. This is helpful if you have an LMT who can get in deep to where the hamstring connects to the ischium. It is kind of a precarious spot, and you should first have an LMT that you trust and feel comfortable with. I got about three good massages, and it helped clear up a lot of the initial inflammation.
• Chiropractic. I saw my DC right after the injury, and my hips were way off. I think this was yet another factor that contributed to the injury. Correcting any misalignment (through PT and chiro) is necessary for a permanent fix once you get the inflammation down and resume running. The same goes for muscle imbalances. Getting rid of the inflammation is one thing, but resolving the root issue is another.

Now that I am back to running a little, I way to stay injury-free! This, of course, means taking things slowly. However, I know I can increase fitness faster (and safely), by supplementing with cross training. Another strategy I am starting to use to increase running volume while keep risk low is by breaking up my runs into short doubles. For example, rather than doing one 6-miler, I will do two 3-milers. The best way to get better at running is to run a lot, and doubles are great for that. Plus, the longer the run, the more battering and fatigue you get. Doubles help mitigate this, as fatigue and breakdowns in form do not set in as much on the shorter runs.

My primary goals for the spring are:

• Kick all remaining symptoms of the tendinitis
• Gradually increase mileage back to the 100+ mpw range
• Lose all the weight I gained (about 8 lbs)
• Resume real races by the end of May

It’s been a really crappy winter, but I have high hopes for it being offset by a great summer and fall! free real ringtones tone | download free mobile real ringtones t | composer free nokia ringtones | free u.s cellular ringtones | mp3 ringtones converter | send free ringtones to your phone | free cellular one ringtones | cell download free phone ringtones | free yahoo ringtones | free sprint real ringtones | music nextel real ringtones | yahoo ringtones free download | ringtones verizon wireless | free cellular phone ringtones | e315 motorola ringtones | free real tone ringtones | free ringtones | free ringtones converter | free real ringtones for verizon | cingular free music ringtones |

Many people think that GPS is always used to map routes, but this is far from the truth. When I create race course maps, I almost always capture the course remotely using high-resolution aerial photography. Rather than engaging in time-consuming and costly travel and GPS capture, I can sit in the comfort of my office and on-screen digitize the route very accurately and precisely. I don’t have to worry about satellite connection, tree cover, and topographic obstructions. In the end, it saves the client money and creates a quality product that can be trusted.

But the cool thing about digitizing data in a GIS is that you can later convert the data to a GPS-ready format, and load it into your GPS unit for easy GIS-based navigation. For my mapping, I tend to store and edit my data in either shapefile (.shp), MS Access geodatabase (.mdb), or an ESRI file geodatabase (.gdb). While these are good formats for GIS consumption, they do not help GPS users, but I can export to a more universal, “friendly” format, such as Keyhole Markup Language (.kml), which is similar to XML. Many software programs can read and convert KML files, and it can be used to make data GPS-ready.

Most people’s GPS units can accept GPX format, which is also similar to XML. Thus, to get my GIS data into a GPS, export to GPX would be optimal. However, no GIS software that I’ve seen (yet) converts directly to GPX. But most GIS software can import and export KML, and KML is easy to convert to GPX. So the general process is:

1. Convert your GIS format to .kml format. I use Manifold Systems to do this, but there are several free plugins for ArcGIS that can do this as well. Just search Arcscripts for “kml”.
2. Convert the KML to GPX. There are several programs that can do this. I personally use GPS Babel for all GPS conversion tasks, and Babel handles KML to GPX (and vice-versa) very well. Also, I do know that Garmin Trackmaker Free works for this, but I have not actually used it myself.
3. Load the GPX into your GPS unit. Every GPS software will be a little bit different, but people have had a lot of success loading the files I’ve given them with Garmin Mapsource, so I know it at least works with that. But GPX is a pretty generic file type, and I expect compatibility to be pretty good.

Many participants have been contacting me and requesting the Ragnar Relay Del Sol route. The race is coming up in a few weeks (Feb 29-Mar 1), and they want to import the course route and exchanges into their GPS units to help them prepare for the race, navigate the van, know exactly where the exchanges are, and avoid getting lost during this 24-hour, 190-mile race in the desert.

Due to popular demand, I’ve decided to just post my GPX files here. Over the next few months, I intend to post and make public the GPX files for all seven Ragnar relays.

• Download Relay Del Sol KML files (for Google Earth)
• Download Relay Del Sol GPX files (for GPS)

On February 12th Ragnar Relay announced the addition of three new races to their ever-growing armada of overnight relays. These races will take place this year in Washington D.C. (Sept. 26-27), Austin, TX (Oct. 24-25), and Daytona Beach, FL (Nov. 14-15), joining their existing races in Utah, Arizona, Washington, and Wisconsin/Minnesota.

As with Ragnar’s other races, I have the pleasure of making the course maps for the new relays. From the mapping standpoint, it appears that once again Ragnar has devised three more fantastic routes that will showcase the best of the areas they go through.

I was particularly impressed with the Maryland-Washington D.C. route, about half of which consists of the C&O Trail along the Potomac River. It’s looks truly beautiful, and you can’t beat running on a designated footpath. No traffic=good running.

Cumberland, Maryland to Washington D.C. (September 26-27, 2008)

San Antonio to Austin, Texas (October 24-25, 2008)

Tampa to Daytona Beach, Florida (Nov. 14-15, 2008)

(All course maps by Marathon GIS)

The Utah USATF has released the preliminary LDR Circuit schedule for 2008. At these point, I imagine the schedule is still fairly tentative, but my initial reaction is that I hope that they either add more races or reduce the number of races we need to run from 8 down to 6 or so.

Key changes from last year:

• Only the Striders Half Marathon is on the Circuit, rather than all five Striders races. This really shortens the racing season, but increases travel time for people coming from Ogden or Logan.
• No more Salt Lake City 5K. Not big deal, especially since this wasn’t a money race, and shouldn’t have been on the Circuit to begin with.
• No Judges Run 5K this year.
• The Sandy Classic 10K has apparently been replaced by a mysterious “Provo” race on July 4th. This is probably good, because the Sandy and Murray races were only a few miles apart, whereas any race in Provo will bring in a different crowd and/or reduce the commute for Circuit members down there. In general, I’d like to see more races in Ogden, Logan, and Provo in order to extend the “boundaries” of the Circuit and invite greater participation.
• The Great Salt Lake Half Marathon has apparently been voted off the island. This race is disliked by nearly everyone, but it’s been on the Circuit forever. I disliked it mostly for the stench of the lake. Still…it is one of the few honest, certified half marathon courses in Utah. As it stands right now, 8 of the 11 races lists for this year are record-ineligible (ie - downhill). Potentially 9 of 11, since I don’t know anything about this Provo race.

We’ll see if they add more races. As it stands right now, the Circuit this year strongly favors those who get out and run every race (ie - Sasha), particularly the limited number half and full marathons. Right now there are 10 possible races to run, and you can score your top 8. Not a whole lot of wiggle room.

Due to the injury bug biting me in the butt (literally), I’ve had to cancel my spot in Houston Half Marathon (U.S. Half Marathon Championships). So what is the definition of a “bummer“? The definition of a “bummer” is having full financial funding to run a championship race on a flat, sea-level course…and then getting injured and not being able to use the money. Bummer.

Yes, I could think of better times to get hamstring tendinitis. If this had come a few weeks earlier or a few weeks later, I would have been in the clear. However, I can also think of worse times to be injured. January in Logan, Utah is not exactly a great time and place to be trying to train hard. Some days I’ve been almost thankful to be safe inside on the elliptical, basking in my own sweat, opposed to slipping, sliding, and freezing on the cold, icy roads. Not mention being more prone to cold and flu viruses, which I had to fight off in late December, right before I got injured.

Now that I have canceled my entry and detached myself a bit emotionally, I can look at my training over December and what my training would be like right now, and realize that injury aside, maybe a mid-January race was not meant to be anyway.

I recovered pretty well from Trials in early November, but in some ways 10 weeks between a major marathon and a major half marathon is pushing it a little bit. The whole recovery, base, and workout buildup felt just a little rushed. Would I have had my optimal fitness level for this race?

On the top that, the quality of my workouts dropped significantly in December, as did my total training volume. Part of the problem was snow: lots of it. If you can’t get good footing, it’s hard to get a proper workout in. The other problem was getting sick. This messed over three weeks of my training. Recovering from illness forced me to drop my total volume, and also suspend hard workouts for a little while.

My tendinitis (probably caused by running in the snow) was simply the final straw. We have received unprecedented snow over the last couple weeks. As I trudge through and slide around on the calf-deep snow, I look around at the unplowed roads and think, “How good would my training be right now, even if I could run?” Seriously. Yeah, I can complete runs in the snow, but not fast. My aerobic fitness would have been good, but I don’t know what kind of “race shape” I would have been in.

Even if I had stayed healthy, my fitness would not have been as good as I would have liked, due to poor training conditions and missing time from illness. How well would I have run at Houston? Impossible to say for sure. Perhaps it still would have been pretty darn good. But probably not as good as it would have been if it were during a different time of year.

Is it impossible to train hard in Logan for major races during the winter? This winter it sure seems like it. Perhaps this is a lesson for me not to pursue January races. Perhaps winter should just be used for building base and for skiing. Or perhaps it was just bad luck. In any case, I’m already looking forward to spring: warmer weather, longer daylight, good footing, and better training. I’ve gotten over the disappointment of not being able to race Houston, and am now just looking forward to running and training hard again.

Product: Nike+ iPod Sport Kit
Prices: $30.00 (foot pod & iPod receiver). iPod nano and Nike+ shoes sold separately.
Rating: Very Good 8.3/10.0

Read the full review at The Final Sprint!

Many trails near of my home in northern Utah are steep, rocky, and foreboding, requiring heavy tank-like trail running shoes that can withstand the punishment of the terrain — and protect my feet as well. Many of these dedicated trail running shoes weigh up to a pound apiece in order to offer high levels of support and protection.

However, there are times in my trail running when I don’t quite need that level of stability and “armor”, but rather, I want speed and agility.

Read the full review at The Final Sprint!

When I think “Garmin“, I automatically think “GPS“. For this reason, I was a little surprised to find about Garmin’s latest fitness monitor, the Forerunner 50. It measures speed and distance NOT by GPS, but rather by a foot pod, similar to the Nike + iPod Sport Kit, Suunto Running Pack, and Polar RS800sd. This is a deviation in how most people perceive Garmin, but they are well-respected in general for all of their products. Would the Forerunner 50 follow suit?…

Read the full article at the The Final Sprint!

Well, 2007 is officially over. Something that I enjoy doing is looking back over the year and assessing how my running went, and whether I hit my goals or not.

2007 total mileage: 3765

• Not too shabby here, probably the highest mileage I’ve done in any year by over 1000

2007 performance goals (written down on 1-1-07):

1. 5K under 15:10 — Not quite. 15:23 was my best in ‘07. I think I was in sub-15 shape, but never got the right race and right day when I was really fit.
2. 10K under 32:00 — Got this one, with a 30:27 at Des News. Although this is an aided course, it was also a warm, humid morning, and I was pretty close, or ahead of, some pretty fast dudes. I decided to count it as a PR.
3. Half Marathon under 1:10:00 — Got this one three times, with a 1:09:27 at Striders Half, 1:09:33 at TOU Half, and 1:10:00 at the first half split of Trials.
4. Marathon under 2:25:00 — Got this one twice, with 2:18:09 at St. George and 2:22:34 at Trials.
5. Top 3 in LDR Circuit — Got this one, as I took 1st in the Circuit
6. Win over $1000 in prize money — Got it 3 times over. Winning both Ogden and the LDR Circuit really boosted this from my original goal.
7. Stay injury free — Fell short of this goal with only one week left in the year! Bah. Fortunately I think my current injury is much less severe than previous injuries.

2007 race review (18 total races started and finished)

2-10-07 Striders Series 5K 16:36 3rd place

• This was a meaningful race to me, as it was my first race back from injury. Not only was it great to be back, but I exceeded my expectations for time and placing, and even won some money!

2-24-07 Striders Series 10K 34:47 4th place

• Not my best race of the year or anything, but solid. Definitely the most challenging 10K I’ve run!

3-10-07 Striders Series 10-miler 55:20 2nd place

• This was a strong effort on a tough course. Didn’t quite have enough gas for the win, but felt good about this one afterwards.

3-30-07 Relay Del Sol 19:10:57 2nd place

• Team relay. Probably the most fun I’ve had during an event like this, with the highlight being trying to chase down the Google corporate team. Out of all relays I’ve done, it wasn’t my favorite course, but is probably my favorite team.

4-7-07 Striders Series Half Marathon 1:09:27 1st place

• Big breakthrough race for me here. A PR by over 3 minutes, my first overall win in recent memory, and then the feeling of just running away from the field can’t be matched. One of my best efforts and “on” days of the year.

4-28-07 Striders Series 30K 1:45:18 1st place

• This was a rather fun race. The first half was more of a tempo run, but then Bob Thompson put the hammer down and started to torch the rest of us. My win here is a bit misleading, since I got it from Bob pulling up with a calf injury, and then sitting and kicking on Steve Ashbaker. Very “un-Pre” of me. I probably deserved 3rd, but it was still a fun, memorable race.

5-19-07 Ogden Marathon 2:26:24 1st place

• This race I’ll remember and cherish for a long time. It was very much an “on” day, and all cylinders fired for me from start to finish. Days like this are rare. I broke my St. George PR, won $1100, and got to feel what it’s like to win a marathon (probably the best part).

6-22-07 Wasatch Back Relay 18:29:29 3rd place

• We assembled a great team for this race, and challenged BYU and Weber for the first 12 legs. Came out 3rd in a good field, with a really strong time. I was not in the best shape after coming back to training slowly after the marathon, but had some good legs.

6-30-07 Logan Peak Trail Run 5:29:37 5th place

• You know you’re twisted when you do a trail marathon as a fun run. I ran the entire race with Cody, and we had a really good time and saw some beautiful landscape. My first trail race. I was bleeding at the end, so it was a success.

7-4-07 Sandy Classic 10K 33:01 3rd place

• So what do you get when you run a 10K 5 days after a trail marathon? As turns out, the worst race of the summer. I was a total mental weakling here as well. However, getting pummeled by Hobie Call served as a motivator, and I upped my training after this race.

7-21-07 Draper Days 5K 15:23 3rd place

• Yet another shorter race where I was a mental weakling. Not a bad race by any means, but I was kind of disappointed in my tenacity. Am I only good at half marathons and marathons?

7-24-07 Deseret News 10K 30:27 5th place

• Finally, a 10K where I ran tough. This was easily my best “short” race of the year, and redeemed the sub-par Draper and Sandy performances. I was happy to be even 30 seconds within the likes of Trevor Ball and Simon Sawe, and I got a PR out of this race as well.

8-18-07 Great Salt Lake Half Marathon 1:10:22 3rd place

• I’m usually a fairly conservative racer, but took a gamble this race by going out with Teren Jameson and Pat Smyth in 15:00 for 3 miles. I ended up backing off, but still hung on to run strong time in a tough headwind. Probably would have been an outright PR without the headwind. Got a lot of confidence from this race, which would be important for Trials.

8-25-07 Top of Utah Half Marathon 1:09:33 1st place

• I did this local race at end of a 100-mile week as an interval workout: 4 miles @ MP, 2 minutes recovery, 3 miles @ MP, 2 minutes recovery, 2 miles @ LT, 1 minute recovery, 2 miles @ LT, minute recovery, 1 mile @ LT. Due to perfect conditions and tailwind, splits were blazing. I was actually second, but Logan (who was on pace for 1:08:00) took a wrong turn near the end. I had no idea until people at the finish told me I had won. Huh.

9-8-07 Alta Peruvian Downhill Dash 8K 21:46 1st place

• An absurd time on an absurd downhill course. Where else can I average 4:21/mile? Fun race though. I pushed it really hard the last mile and thought my legs where going to burn up and fall off (last mile was 4:10). I was sore for a full week afterward.

9-15-07 Top of Utah Marathon 2:39:22 7th pace

• The sole function of this race was to help pace several people to under 2:40:00. My friend Jon made it, and Adam came very close as well. Even though I was not “racing”, I have a lot of good memories of this race, and really enjoyed helping other people try to get their goals.

10-6-07 St. George Marathon 2:18:09 2nd place

• What can I say about this one? Perfect weather, perfect competition, and my body responded with it’s “A” game. My best marathon to date, and an absolute thrill to get the qualifier for Trials. Lot of other great PR’s by friends that day too.

11-3-07 Olympic Marathon Trials 2:22:34 53rd place

• By the far the highlight of the year and beyond. Although my time was slower, this was a better performance than St. George, despite having just 4 weeks recovery. It always feels good to run the race of your life when it matters, and I managed to do this 3 marathons in a row (Ogden - St George - Trials).  Running with the best was an unbelievable experience, and no matter what happens with my running in the future, this was an experience that I can hold and cherish for years to come. The only experience that has come remotely close was winning XC nationals in 2000. I felt blessed to run this race.

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Looking back, it was a great year. Hopefully I can follow it up with an even better year next year. First 2008 goal: get healthy and running again! But here are a few more goals for the upcoming year.

2008 Performance Goals:

1. 5K – set a PR (sub 14:48).
2. 10K — break 29:30 at Deseret News
3. Half Marathon — 1:06 or lower on unaided course
4. Marathon — 2:17 or lower on unaided course
5. Placings — Top 10 at a U.S. Championship race
6. Mileage — 4500 total miles

Happy New Year!

I was pretty excited when I got the 3rd-generation iPod nano; the possibilities for running were great. However, I lacked one critical accessory: a good protective case and armband.I soon found that the DLO Action Jacket solved my problems. The neoprene case is designed specifically for the 3rd generation (4GB/8GB) iPod nano, and comes with a 180-degree rotating belt clip and an adjustable armband. The Action Jacket retails for $30, but I was able to find it for as low as $18 (plus free shipping!) on Amazon.com. Colors are available in black, white, or pink. I personally like the black…

Read the full review at The Final Sprint! 

When I made the jump to running with an mp3 player, I quickly noticed two things:

1. Running with music is fun and motivational.
2. Stock headphones that come “free” with most mp3 players just don’t get the job done.

As a result, one of the first accessories I purchased were nicer, more comfortable, more stable ear clip headphones. Even these never quite fit my ears right and tended to jiggle around. Perhaps I should have first looked at a pair of Nike sport headphones.

I recently had the pleasure of testing the Nike Flight and the Nike Vapor sport headphones. I enjoyed both models, and each offered a unique set of pro’s and con’s.

Read the full review at The Final Sprint! 

Well, it’s almost playoff time for football season, and after watching some Packer history DVDs, I was inspired to do another quotes blog. This time all of the quotes come from the late, great Vince Lombardi. Let’s face it, the man had a way with words.

And yes, all of the quotes are in reference to football, but can be easily applied to running or life in general. That what makes them so good. Underneath each Lombardi quote, I’ve posted my own commentary and what it means to me in terms of running and/or life.

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“A man can be as great as he wants to be. If you believe in yourself and have the courage, the determination, the dedication, the competitive drive and if you are willing to sacrifice the little things in life and pay the price for the things that are worthwhile, it can be done.” — Vince Lombardi

I’ve said this before, but “reaching the next level” for runners takes a conscious decision and it takes sacrifice. I’ve given up or greatly limited some of my loves, such as skiing or beer, for a much greater good and a concrete legacy. I don’t really miss most of it either. And I think part of becoming a great runner is believing in yourself and believing that the dedication and drive will pay off with rewards in the long run.

“Dictionary is the only place that ’success’ comes before ‘work’. Hard work is the price we must pay for success. I think you can accomplish anything if you’re willing to pay the price.” — Vince Lombardi

Similar theme to the last quote, but emphasizing that the only way most of us will achieve our goals is to work our butt off. I look at guys like Brian Sell and Peter Gilmore as inspiration. They take on tremendous training loads, but it has paid dividends for them. I have seen dividends in my own running as well. When I did not value hard work and hard training, I was a 2:40 marathoner. Now, as I see it, I have just now learned how to train hard, and I am already a good 20 minutes faster. How many other 2:40 or 2:50 marathoners are out there that are just a big training cycle away from becoming a 2:20 marathoner? How many 2:25 marathoners out there are a few training-filled years away from becoming 2:15 marathoners?

“Fatigue makes cowards of us all.” — Vince Lombardi

Lombardi said this before the ‘67 season, before the Packers won their 3rd straight championship. The reference was that late in the game, if a player (or team) is fatigued, they will not be able to show guts; they will not win. So he trained his team like mad during the summer to make sure they were better-conditioned than any other team, and could therefore perform in “crunch time”.

Similarly, a runner’s ability to surge or to beat down the competition is based on their conditioning. Guts mean nothing if you are not in shape to use them. There is nothing better than making a bold move late in the race, and having the confidence and conditioning to finish it with authority. The alternative is hanging on for dear life, just counting steps and waiting for the race to end. Been there, done that, don’t like it much.

“I firmly believe that any man’s finest hour, the greatest fulfillment of all that he holds dear, is that moment when he has worked his heart out in a good cause and lies exhausted on the field of battle - victorious.“– Vince Lombardi

Nothing beats being utterly exhausted after a race during which you’ve given your all. And nothing beats the feeling of walking around like a wounded soldier during the following week of recovery after a marathon. Enjoy your soreness, it’s well-deserved.

“Individual commitment to a group effort - that is what makes a team work, a company work, a society work, a civilization work.” — Vince Lombardi

Nothing beats a team. When you are running for something bigger than just yourself, it is easy to get motivated, to do that extra bit of training, and to push harder than you’ve ever pushed during a race. That is why a lot of people have trouble training on their own after a good college experience. That also may be why the Hansons are having so much success. They don’t have fancy altitude tents or a glamorous place to train, but they have over a dozen people out there pushing each other and supporting each other. That will go farther than altitude training ever will. I hope that the new FastRunningBlog.com racing team can support and push each other in a similar way, and make each other into better runners.

“It’s easy to have faith in yourself and have discipline when you’re a winner, when you’re number one. What you got to have is faith and discipline when you’re not a winner.” — Vince Lombardi

If you can survive the hard times and “trials by fire”, you will come out a better runner. Injuries and “off times” are not times to lose the discipline, but times to really use it. Again, a team or other community and support will do wonders when things look bleak.

“Life’s battles don’t always go to the stronger or faster man. But sooner or later the man who wins, is the man who thinks he can.” — Vince Lombardi

I know plenty of runners who are very talented and very fast, but they don’t believe in themselves. One will never win unless they believe and set themselves up into position to win, through training or in the race itself.

“Once you agree upon the price you and your family must pay for success, it enables you to ignore the minor hurts, the opponent’s pressure, and the temporary failures.” — Vince Lombardi

Success comes at a cost, but once you concede and accept the rigors of hard training, it actually gets easier. I’ve found that a 100-mile week is no harder than a 60-mile week in some ways. I think most of that is psychological. You accept your training as what it is, then put your head down and do it. Once that resolve is made, little aches and pains, tiredness, and an occasional ho-hum workout just become things that you accept and move on over. Hard, high-volume training also forces you to prioritize and manage time more. Yes, I don’t quite have much free time anymore, but what would I have been doing with much of that free time? Watching TV? Now I keep what free time I do have as constructive as possible, in order to utilize and take advantage of every waking minute.

“Perfection is not attainable, but if we chase perfection we can catch excellence.” — Vince Lombardi

Dream. Dream big. Set high goals and chase after them. If you fall short, so what? Chances are, you’ll still hit better race times and finishes than you did before! And what is there to lose?

“Success demands singleness of purpose.” — Vince Lombardi

This is an unfortunate truth, and is why the best runners are generally professionals. Ie - they do not work full-time jobs. I wonder for myself if I’ll ever need to (or have the chance to) quit my day job. The thing is, I really like my vocation, plus realize that a person can only hope to make a living as a runner for a relatively short number years. I imagine if I were ever presented to chance to go after running with “singleness of purpose”, I would probably still work about 20 hours/week just to keep my mind occupied and my skills sharp. What else is there to do while I’m not running?

Completely across the spectrum, this quote also brings up the idea of specialization of training. In order to become a very good marathoner, you must do marathon-specific training. This singleness of purpose within training may mean that you won’t fulfill your potential in the 5K, but it gives the best chance in the marathon. And vice versa for a 5K runner. Deliberately pick your races, pick your training methodology, and “run with it”.

“The difference between a successful person and others is not a lack of strength, not a lack of knowledge, but rather a lack of will.” — Vince Lombardi

I’ve already hit on this, but running is one of the few activities out there where one can really make huge improvements simply by wanting it bad enough. From desire and motivation comes very hard training, and from hard training comes fast race times.

“The harder you work, the harder it is to surrender.” — Vince Lombardi

It’s nearly impossible to give up during a race if you’ve prepared thousands of miles of training for that race.

“We didn’t lose the game; we just ran out of time.” — Vince Lombardi

Or a rephrase for running would be, “I didn’t lose the race, I just ran out of road”. I think we’ve all had that happen, a race where things go bad in the middle, only to have a second wind and be eating people up at the end…and the finish line is curse rather than a blessing. Although I was hurting, I do wish I had an extra mile for the Trials race. People were coming back fast, and I ran out of road.

“The measure of who we are is what we do with what we have.” — Vince Lombardi

Not everyone can be an elite runner or a professional runner, but everyone can certainly play out the cards they’ve been dealt. Doing so with fervor usually leads to fulfillment as well as a few surprises. This quote also reminds me of Jesus’ parable of the talents (Matt 25:14-30), which is obviously about more spiritual things. In any case, we should live our lives as stewards and develop what assets we’ve been given to our utmost, whether that is faith, running, parenting, vocation, or other things.

“The quality of a person’s life is in direct proportion to their commitment to excellence, regardless of their chosen field of endeavor.” — Vince Lombardi

I sometimes wonder if people think I live a lower “quality of life” because I’ve given up a lot of recreational time in order to toil and train so much. In truth, it’s just the opposite. By pursuing a dream and developing my running talent, my life is richer than it ever was. 40 years from now, I won’t remember donuts I’ve eaten, parties I’ve gone to, or extra hours I’ve slept. But I will certainly remember the feeling of winning Ogden, qualifying at St. George, racing with the best at Olympic Trials, and whatever is yet to come. Not only is the process of getting there enjoyable and fulfilling, but so is the legacy and memories that will be left.

“The real glory is being knocked to your knees and then coming back. That’s real glory. That’s the essence of it“. — Vince Lombardi

For me, this past year of running was made so much more sweeter by how awful last year was. While being sidelined by various injuries for 5 months, I sometimes doubted if I could race again, but thanks in part to the encouragement and support of others, I managed to keep at it and was eventually rewarded. It takes a time of darkness to really appreciate the light.

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And one more thing…Go Pack!

Well, since the new server is up and running, I can get back to blogging!

I’ve had a few weeks to mull over the USATF’s recent decision to revamp the OTQ standards for the men’s marathon. My initial blog posting was my knee-jerk reaction that I wrote a few hours after reading about the decision. Since then, I have heard many good (and bad) arguments opposing various aspects of the new standards. And it has given me a lot to chew on. Here are my current thoughts on the issue:

• Adding a Half Marathon qualifier: good. No change of opinion here, and most other people agree with this one too. Also, taking away the 5K qualifier: good. I don’t think anyone took up the offer this time around anyway. So what remains is a 10K qualifier at 28:30 and a Half Marathon qualifier at 1:05:00. A lot of people still dispute allowing runners to qualify with a 10K, but I think this year’s 10K runners (Browne, Rohatinsky, Carney, Gonzales) more than proved that they belonged (not that Browne had anything to prove, but he did qualify via 10K). Yeah, 10K times are not the best indicator of marathon times, but I do think they are a good indicator of marathon potential. Tim Noakes notes in Lore of Running that most elite marathoners are elite 10K runners as well. You need to have a good amount of leg speed to go under 2:10. And 28:30 is pretty darn fast. Sub-28:30 represents our top-tier runners. Encouraging our top-tier 10K runners to move up to the marathon should produce at least a couple top-tier marathon runners. I think this year is already proof of that with Rohatinsky and others making impressive debuts.
• Getting rid of “aided” (downhill) courses as qualifiers: good. I hold to my initial assessment of this as well, with a few concerns. Interestingly, this is the least debated of all the USATF decisions, as I have read very few voices of dissent on throwing out courses like St. George, Steamtown, and CIM. Although I’m fine with qualifying somewhere other than St. George, out of love for St. George and other local downhill races, I hope that they can find a way to stay relevant among top-tier runners around the state and region. Prize money is usually a good way to stay relevant. It would be a shame if all of the sub-elites that typically run St. George abandon the race for “legit” courses. Another concern brought up by others is that USATF may be playing “god” with what courses are legit, and what courses aren’t. At first I was not too concerned about this, but now it gives me bad vibes. Although I support Boston, New York, Twin Cities, and other point-to-point courses being exempt from the new rule, I would like to see some firm protocol or criteria being set in place for other exemptions. Just being a major marathon shouldn’t be the only way in. What about all the other small, local point-to-point courses that do not traditionally produce “aided” times? Do they get the shaft, while New York gets in because…well…it’s New York? I would like to see a way for smaller point-to-point races appeal their way in or get voted in by something more democratic.
• Getting rid of the “B” standard: good. I hold to my original position. I don’t think anyone should have to pay their own way to Trials, or that runners should be treated differently because of their qualifying time. Just pick one standard, and go with it. If you make it, great, if not, tough.
• Lowering the standard to 2:19: good. I hold to my original position that this will be a good thing for American running…with an asterisk. If we can qualify 200 people in 1984, we should be able to do the same in 2012. And most arguments stating, “so and so wouldn’t have qualified with this standard, and that would have ruined their careers” are garbage. For instance, Jason Lehmkuhle (of 2008) and Brian Sell (of 2004) would have qualified with their half marathon times. The most famous dark horse, Trent Briney, would have been within seconds of qualifying in 2004 with his half marathon time. However, after reading a lot of these counter arguments, I do have some concerns.
  • Runners need a reachable “carrot” hanging in front of them to keep motivated. The USATF just took away many peoples’ carrot and moved it far out of current reach. This would be a major blow to the motivation of many. I could go on a tangent about the “quitter mentality”, but in truth people need sets of intermediate goals to step to in order to establish themselves and move on to the next goal. Where is the “intermediate” goal for the 2:25-2:30 marathoners? How do we get a guy who ran 2:23 to keep going, when the “big carrot” is still 4 minutes off?
  • Marathon training takes extreme dedication and sacrifice; there needs to be some sort of incentive. In short, we need more “carrots”. I am totally fine with a 2:19 standard, and potentially fewer participants, if the incentive provided by the “B” standard can be replaced by other races and events. That way the USATF would meet their goals of making the Trials be a truly “elite” group that can push for medals, but still continue development of younger runners, sub-elites, and regional runners using proper, sustainable incentives. With more “carrots” to chase after, the Brian Sell’s, the Peter Gilmore’s, and the Trent Briney’s can continue their development from sub-elite to elite, and be able to make the push up front. Take away those carrots, and I am a little afraid of what could happen. Probably 4-8 more good years of American running, and then when Hall and Ritz get old, we may be back to 1996.

So the crux of the whole matter is replacing the incentive of Trials with new incentives that are reachable to 2:22+ runners. Easier said than done, right? But let’s think of it this way: the Trials occurs every four years, and it is the focus of many aspiring marathoners. This has been “taken away” for a lot of people. But if develop “big races” that occur every year, there could be a world of opportunity.

For instance, the US Marathon Championships occur every year. Well, this year it happened to be Trials, but every other year it is more accessible. “US Marathon Championships” sounds pretty cool, but the problem is that most people don’t even know about it! I think one potential solution is to market and make the US Champs into a “big deal”. Make it highly visible, give it more press, make prize money 20-deep. Make it something notable to put on your resume. Make a time standard of 2:30 to get in the race, and make that known to everyone. Perhaps make it a team event, like US XC Club Nationals, where the best USATF-sanctioned marathon teams can win bonus money with cross country-style scoring. I believe that adding prestige and innovating scoring to the existing US Championship race(s), including the Marathon, Half Marathon, 25K, 20K, and others, could provide the incentive to continue development for a lot of runners.

And what if the USATF doesn’t do anything to “replace” Trials? Do we just sit on our hands and complain? Do we wait for the “government” to help us out? Do we quit because it’s too hard? No way! During the mid-90’s when two brothers in eastern Michigan noticed that U.S. distance running was in a wretched state, they didn’t just complain and wait for the USATF to fix things! They took things into their own hands, started supporting, coaching, and developing young runners, and now the Hansons are sending a runner to the 2008 Olympics! I firmly believe the development of American runners will come from the bottom-up, not the top-down. In other words, it is up to us, the grassroots; it is not up to the USATF to trickle down money to the little guy. I think the Hansons program is a model of what can happen on the grassroots level, when people just decide they want to help with the development of distance runners. Brian Sell going to the Olympics is about the best thing that could happen for American distance running. He may not win a medal (although I won’t count him out), but the Hansons will grow stronger, and more “Hanson-clone” teams will spring up, because the model works.

So my final point is that we can either sit around on our hands moaning, complaining, and waiting for the USATF to do “right”, or we can get up and do right ourselves. Don’t like how races are administrated? Join a race committee or start a new race doing things how you see it. Want to develop runners? Join a club, mentor a runner, get into coaching, or financially sponsor a developing runner. Want to run fast yourself? Find other like-minded people, support each other, and train your butt off.

End of rant. As usual, discussion and dissent are welcome. That’s what keeps the wheel turning, right?

In the expanding world of hydration products, nuun has separated itself from the pack with their quality portable electrolyte tablets. It is dissolves quickly, is sugar-free, is convenient to use, and tends to have a mild, pleasing taste…

Read the full review at The Final Sprint!

For those of us thinking we need to get under 2:22 to qualify for 2012 Olympic Trials, think again! And for those of us “borderline” runners thinking we can get an OTQ at St. George, think again! Race Results Weekly recently posted an article about the official new OTQ Marathon standards for 2012.

Here’s the kickers in a nutshell (or maybe a kick in the nuts, based on your opinion):

• No more “A” and “B” standards. One time fits all now.
• New time standard: 2:19.
  • Can also get in with 10K (28:30) and Half Marathon (1:05)
• “Aided” courses no longer acceptable
  • New “approved” list with all “acceptable” marathons (to be released shortly).
  • Elevation loss of no more than 1 meter per kilometer
  • Start and finish of point-to-point courses have to be separated by less than 30% of the race distance (ie - <7.9 miles for marathon)
  • Special provision to be made for Boston, New York, and other point-to-point or non-record eligible courses that do not traditionally produce fast times

I am sure this will be a controversial subject for many. My opinion? (this is a blog, after all) I think these are all good things. That may surprise my three readers, since I myself qualified at St. George this year, and am not currently capable of breaking 2:19. But here’s why I like the changes:

• It’s for the good of America. I’m a patriotic dude. Tougher time standards will challenge American runners and stimulate improvement. 2:19 is the new 2:22. 2:15 will become the new 2:18. 2:11 will become the new 2:15. And increasing the number of guys in the 2-teens will push the very top guys even more. As a result, I predict we will see more American runners under 2:10 and contending at major marathons.
• No more “B” qualifiers. This equals fair treatment for all runners that qualify. Everyone who makes it will receive comp travel. Everyone will receive elite fluid service. Everyone gets the same living and racing conditions.
• Half marathon qualifier standards equals more opportunities. Most people can only do a couple good marathons per year, so opening up half marathons as qualifying venues should open more doors. Halfs are easier to recover from, so they can be attempted more often, and if you get bad luck with your marathons for the year…well, better luck with the half!
• No more debates about downhill courses. They are a non-issue now. Forget about it. The writing was on the wall anyway. I love St. George and Top of Utah as much as anyone, but again, I think this is for our own good. This will also take tailwinds (or headwinds) out of the equation, since most true point-to-point courses will be “banned”.

What does this mean for those of us dreaming to break 2:22? Well…recalibrate those dreams to 2:19! I am basically a 2:20-2:21ish marathoner right now. Four years from now I sure better be 2:18 (or faster)! And that is what I train and dream for. The bar has been raised; let’s go after it and be part of the American resurgence of marathoning. See you on the roads.

Earlier this week the USATF published the complete set of splits for every runner for the 2008 Olympic Marathon Trials. Ordinarily splits would not be a big deal, and in fact they’ve had 5K splits available for quite some time now. What makes these splits unique is that there are 50 of them!! Due to the fact there was a timing mat every 5K (plus the finish line and half marathon mark), and that the marathon route was a 5-lap course, the 5K split mats picked up splits for all the other times each runner passed over them. Pretty nifty.

Being numbers geek, I naturally plunked all of my own split information into a spreadsheet and went to work. And being a map nerd, I naturally plunked in the elevation profile as well to see how the hills influence my splits.

The above chart shows a lot of what I already knew: I slowed down during the race. Duh. But due to the better resolution of the splits, I could see exactly where and by how much. It looks like someone flipped a switch in me right after 15 miles that said, “You run slow now!” Splits dropped abruptly from sub-5:20 to 5:30+. The good news is that I had nothing slower than 5:53-pace. There was a 5:48 in there, but then pretty much everything else was all faster than 5:40-pace. This is all helpful to me, since I did not wear a watch during the race.

I thought an interesting overlay would be to add the elevation profile, my previous split pace, and my overall pace to a graph. This would answer the question: how much did the uphills slow me down (and uphills speed me up) throughout the race?

My elevation profile isn’t quite calibrated with the USATF certification, so it is a little shifted in places. Plus, the pace graph is shifted a little forward, since it is the pace of the previous split. BUT, the relation between the two major hills of the course with my pace is quite obvious, and kind of cool to look at. You can see the same pace pattern for the last four laps of the race (the first lap we were all steadily accelerating due to the slow start).

From the graph, I can see that early in the race I was running 5:00-5:05 on the downhills and 5:20-5:25 on the uphills. Late in the race, I was managing ~5:15 on the bigger downhills, but 5:40-5:50 on the uphills. From training in Utah, I am a pretty good downhill runner, so it doesn’t surprise me that I could hold it together better on the downs, even late in the race. That is a result of training specifically for St. George, and I did notice during the race that I passed or made up ground on quite on few runners during the downhill sections.

Although I didn’t hit a real Wall during Trials, it is obvious that fatigue worked its way into my legs after Mile 15 or so, and the repetitious hills worked me over as the race progressed. Clearly, I have work to do on my strength and endurance.

But that’s it for thinking about Trials! It was a blast to run, but it is past, and now it is time to look forward to the future: more training and more big races!

I competed. I ran to my utmost. It’s over. I’m happy.

53rd place and a solid time of 2:22:34, I could not ask for much more. It’s hard to believe I was coming off injury and barely running 3 miles/day a full year ago. What a year. This year has made me a firm believer in what solid training and commitment can do. I spun my wheels and basically neglected my running for 5 years after college. Now at age 28, I feel like I am just getting started. What will next year hold?

I posted a complete, detailed race report on my training log HERE. But in a nutshell I’ll just say that this was one of the thrills of my life. Running with that thick of a pack, in that electric of an atmosphere was unmatchable. The closest I had experienced before was XC Nationals. But this was so much bigger, so many more spectators, and so much more on the line.

The USATF and NYRR did a great job and treated us like kings. Some people complained about certain things, but the way I see it, we are just running. We produce no tangible product. If someone wants to give me anything, I am grateful for it, and treat it like a gift. (that said, I’ll take all the “gifts” I can get!) So thanks again to all involved in making this weekend happen.

Everyone who participated has there own unique story to tell. I would find them all equally engrossing. I’ve seen so many highlight reels at this point, but yet remain glued to the screen while watching the NBC Sports replay coverage online.

Not all stories are good though. The story of Ryan Shay breaks my heart. I did not find out until about an hour after the race, while sitting on the bus before lunch. I was just shocked. I think all runners feel it, whether we were there or not, whether we ever met him or not. My thoughts and prayers go out to his wife and family.

As a geographer and a runner, one of my pre-race rituals is to make my own map and profile for the course I am about to run. For me, making maps is enjoyable, soothing even, and it really helps me get a bearing on a course and form a strategy. Just as in school, where you learn more by writing down notes yourself, I learn more about the course by making by own map rather than just looking at the map supplied by the race website.

One of the course aspects strongly emphasized by all the mapping I do as Marathon GIS is elevation change. Creating a strong false-color elevation model as the backdrop of a route will show the location and magnitude of all hills, ridges, peaks, and valleys with a quick glance. And hills are probably the most important component of the 2008 Olympic Marathon Trials race, which will be held in New York City on November 3, 2007.

The marathon trials course starts by looping through Times Square, and then circumvents the interior of Central Park 5 times. I have never been to New York City (a sure disadvantage for me), but word on the streets is that the Central Park loops are very hilly, and the constant barrage of rolling undulations will strongly influence the race, favoring runners with strength and the ability to accelerate on uphills. The existing course maps are very well-done, but do not show an elevation profile or indication of where the hills are.  I decided to put some work in to see for myself what I am up against, and compiled the course map shown below:

Judging by the false-color elevation (green = low, red = high), it is evident that the Central Park course is indeed quite hilly! How hilly? That can be quantified through the Elevation Profile, shown under the map. According to my elevation measurements, there is just under 2000 feet of total (cumulative) elevation gain and loss! However, the total relief of the course is only 80 feet. This means that none of the hills are particularly large…but there are lots of them! And since it is a 5-lap course, we will run the same battery of hills over and over…and over and over.

The map itself is 24″x36″, and its purpose it to plot out and hang on a wall. It is an ideal size for presentation at an expo or information meeting. The entire map was composed in ArcMap 9.2, and the final layout was done in InDesign CS2. Since this was a relatively “rough and dirty” map, I did not use Illustrator at any point.

The false-color elevation model is derived from a 10-meter digital elevation model (DEM), as are the elevation profile chart and statistics. The underlying aerial photography, which nicely shows all of the buildings of the city and trees of Central Park, is 1-meter NAIP. Water features are highlighted by using multiple-ring buffers and gradient fills. Something new I tried on this map was a cartographic trick presented by the ESRI Mapping Center Blog for creating “expressive” directional arrows as polygon features rather than simple line graphics. The arrows turned out nicely, and will be a technique that I will continue to use on future maps.

I did use Illustrator (CS2) for the elevation profile graphic, but in a new way. Rather than creating the raw profile in Microsoft Excel and then pasting into Illustrator, I experimented with creating the raw profile directly in ArcMap, using the improved graphing tools of v.9.2. I then exported the profile to a .jpg image, placed the .jpg into Illustrator, and tweaked the Live Trace feature until I got a satisfactory result. I then cleaned up and modified the profile artwork, added some effects, and dumped it into the InDesign layout. Quick, but effective. It is definitely a fresh look from my previous profiles, and I am pleased with it in that it does not look like it came straight out of Excel.

So enough of the nerdy technical details. It is unfortunate that I will not be able to tour the course until November 1, only two days before the race. Nothing beats gaining familiarity by actually running and racing on a course, but I hope to use this map and profile to at least get a sense of what I am in for. I will post my thoughts on how the course will actually impact my race and my strategy later this week, as well as my other miscellaneous thoughts on the trials race.

First off, just let me say: Yeeeaaahh!! 2:18!! NY here I come!!

There, that feels good. For anyone who missed it, the 2007 St. George Marathon was an absolute gem of a race, not just for me, but for the vast majority who participated. I can’t even count the number of PR’s of just the people I know. Unreal. And yes, a PR at St. George is a PR. Maybe not as impressive as a PR at Boston or New York, but 26.2 is 26.2, and a PR is a PR. There are different types of PR’s (downhill PR’s vs. flat PR’s; elevation PR’s vs. sea-level PR’s; young man PR’s vs. old man PR’s, etc.), but those who PR’ed at St. George should be proud. It was an amazing day to run.

Looking back at my earlier dilemma of whether to run St. George, Chicago, or Twin Cities, I get chills and cravings for an I.V. when I think about what would have happened if I had picked one of those big, sexy, mid-western marathons instead of my tried-and-true “local” race. One American qualifier at Chicago (who is stud of the world for doing that, by the way). No qualifiers at Twin Cities. If I had chosen one of those races, all I would have qualified for was a bummer.

Instead, I chose my local race, St. George. It was a no-brainer. The whole trip cost my wife and I a total of $175, thanks to having friends down there to stay with (thanks again, Clyde and Mik’l). And it yielded an 8-minute PR and an all-expense paid opportunity to toe the line with America’s best in New York City on November 3.

True, St. George gets no love, exemplified by the fine thread on LetsRun.com. Some of the criticisms are valid, other criticisms are elitist LetsRun.com drivel, typical for that site. But it probably provides a pretty valid cross section of what most people outside of Utah think of St. George. People who have never run the race exaggerate how “easy” it is. They describe it as “cheating” even. Run the race first, then criticize it. On the other end of the spectrum, Utah natives and long-time St. George participants exaggerate the difficulty of the first half of the course, and tend to play up the effects of altitude and downhill battering.

The truth of St. George lies somewhere in the middle. Most of the uphills do not show up the course profile, but there is over 400′ of climbing, mostly in the first half. The second half of the race…is ridiculous in its speed. If you are trained for hills (both up and down) you will fly. If you are not, you may not even finish. Flat-landers beware. I think the elevation has almost no effect on the downhills, and only moderate effect on the uphills. A well-trained Utahn will most assuredly run a huge PR at St. George. In my opinion, an elite runner will finish 2-4 minutes faster at St. George than at a flat, sea-level course, depending on their downhill aptitude.

By qualifying at St. George, I did not earn any respect, nor did I expect it or think I deserve it. I plan to go out and earn respect in three weeks at Olympic Trials, and in my subsequent racing over the next few years. I have a nice PR of a low 2:18, but for now I always have to follow it up with, “…at St. George“. It’s definitely a bit of an asterisk, as far as elite running circles are concerned. But I did not run St. George to earn the respect of LetsRun.com. I ran it because it made the most sense.

• It is the closest race to where I live (ie - I can drive there in a few hours).
• It is one of the top 20 largest marathons in America, ensuring great competition.
• They treat semi-elite runners very well (water bottle service, separate staging, etc.).
• The weather is virtually always excellent and reliable in the desert in early October.
• It is the fastest course in America. Who would not want to run the fastest course?
• It was my best shot at an “A” qualifier and a free trip to NYC.

So given its proximity and the speed of the course, why would I not run St. George? Why would I not want an “A” qualifier? If the USATF says it’s legit, then it is legit. Period. It would have been insanity to drop a couple grand to take myself and my wife out to some strange huge city and run a 2:40 in hot, humid conditions. I know this is retrospect, but I can’t help patting myself on the back, along with the other 16 people that qualified in the desert this weekend. St. George: 38 degrees at the start, 50 degrees at the finish. Slight tailwind most of the race. Even without the massive downhill, St. George had perfect conditions, and it was a PR day, the kind of day that makes runners salivate. Throw in the downhill, and it gets even more fun.

So yes, I am looking forward to “proving” myself on some flat and rolling sea level courses. Personally, I think I can run even faster if I hit a fast course like Chicago on the right day with the right pack. Right now, I am eyeballing Twin Cities for next year, which is the USATF Marathon Championships. I hope to make an impact. I’d also like to travel and do some big-time races such as the Fifth-Third Riverbank 25K in Grand Rapids (mid-May), as well as something like the Crim 10-miler or the Utica Boilermaker. I think one of the primary steps to becoming elite on a national scene is to travel to national races and mix it up with people better than me. Good butt-whippings make a person strong. Oh, and so does training like a mad-man, which I plan to do as well. I’ve got 100-mile weeks mastered; it is time to try 120 mpw in 2008.

Adjusting for the downhill speed of St. George, right now I consider 2:20-2:22 guys to be my peer group, and like all races, I hope to out-compete my peer group in NYC. And if I can knock off some 2:18 guys, that would be great too. I am certainly not content with 2:18, whether I ran it at St. George or at Boston. The reason we train and race is to perpetually get faster. St. George this year was an important step in my own journey, but certain not the end.

It seems that in the world of hydration systems, there is always give-and-take and compromise. The small, light packs may not carry enough water. The bottle-based belt systems require use of hands and often make you stop in your activity during use. The hands-free, bladder-based systems tend to bounce around too much and cause discomfort.

Personally, I tend to gravitate toward the bladder-based hydration systems, such as those made by Camelbak or Ultimate Direction, because I can use them in full stride during my runs. I hate having to stop, pull out a bottle, and then put it back before resuming my run. However, all of the bladder-based hydration systems I had used in the past tended to have a heavy weight, poor center of gravity, and a tendency bounce around. Over the duration of a long road or trail run, this not only proves to be annoying, but can also cause chaffing, discomfort, and alteration of my stride.

This past month I have had the pleasure of testing the Camelbak Octane 8+ hydration pack…

Read the full review at The Final Sprint!

Several competitive runners over the last couple days have asked me, “How on earth do you run 100-mile weeks?” In all cases, this was not a snide question, but an honest one. These people realized that they could make performance gains by training more, but were at a loss on how to do so. Training 100+ miles per week is not an easy endeavor, and can leave runners fatigued, frustrated, and/or injured if done improperly. However, if successful, this high-volume training most often leads to marathon breakthroughs, and is necessary for those wishing to become elite or semi-elite.

Some personal history: I tried several 100-mile weeks back in 2003 and 2004 with little success. They merely made me tired, I was unable to do any sort of quality speed work, and I ended up running my worst marathon in 2004. This summer I revisited high-volume training, but this time I was able to handle the load rather easily and still incorporate long, high-quality, intense workouts twice a week. The result was not just better workouts, but better race performances and better recovery. Not to mention I am experiencing fewer aches and pains than ever, and am the healthiest I have been in years.

So what was the difference? What did I change to turn 100-mile weeks from a drain to a delight? Here are the keys:

• Build a big base over a long period of time. If you’ve been running 60-70 miles/week all winter, building to 100 miles/week by summer will be a natural progression rather than something to dread. Build up to it slowly, no more than 5 miles/week on average. Personally, I like to increase mileage every three weeks, and then maintain for two weeks, then increase again. This keeps things nice and slow, and reduces risk of injury and fatigue.
• Turn easy days into doubles. Running 16 miles is hard. Running 8 miles is easy. Running 8 miles twice is also easy.
• Make easy days easy, and hard days hard. It’s okay to run those doubles I mentioned in the above bullet at a very slow pace. It’s common for me to do my easy runs at 7:30/mile pace, and even occasionally dip to slower than 8:00/mile. The point of these runs is to build aerobic volume, get the blood flowing, and recover from your hard days. When you do work out, make it worth your time by employing Tinman’s Big Workout philosophy.
• Get up early. For many, finding time to run a couple times each day is as big of a challenge as finding the energy. I’ve found that getting up at 6AM or earlier creates all sorts of time!
• Get quality sleep. Take naps. Your body heals and grows stronger while you sleep. I make sure I am in bed by 10PM (which makes the above bullet, getting up early, a lot easier). And since I am up early and done with my run early, I usually have time for 30-60 minutes of napping before I roll into work at 9AM. It is not uncommon for me to pick up an extra 7-8 hours of naps over the course of a week. I sincerely believe this “8th night” of sleep is one of the absolute key elements of high mileage. In general, shoot to average 9 hours/day of sleep, including naps.
• Take a “day off”. Sometimes you have to run less to run more. Make sure you get one day per week of very little running. For example, I only run 4-6 miles on Sundays, and often take multiple naps. It is truly a day of rest and rejuvenation. Relative to other days of the week, this is a “day off”, but I still get in a few valuable miles, enough to get the blood moving. I know plenty of other runners who easily get over 100 miles/week while taking one day completely off.
• Eat healthy and hydrate always. Recovery and fueling is key during a demanding training program. Think of your body as a high-performance car. You don’t give a Ferrari regular unleaded, you give it premium! Keep a water bottle by you at all times. Consume a sports drink immediately after running. During meals stay away from processed foods and junk foods, and pursue fresh fruits and veggies, whole grains, lean meats, and other healthy foods. This will help reduce recovery time and give you more energy, not mention keep you trim.
• Extra credit: work an easy, flexible job. It is quite taxing if you have to be on your feet all day at work. And those naps are hard to fit in if your job has a rigid schedule or long hours. In order to sustain high-volume training for a long period of times (weeks and months), it really, really helps to have a job that lets you sit on your butt all day in cool air conditioning, and has flexible hours to allow you to come and go as you please. One such job is “Professional Runner“. For those of us who aren’t so lucky, “Self-Employed” is probably the next best thing. My job, “GIS Specialist“, is very conducive toward running, as is my laid-back office (and I am grateful for that!). Most people aren’t going to change jobs just for running, but if you already hate your job, maybe here’s one more reason to quit!

Looking back, I now realize that my previous attempts at 100-mile weeks were done improperly. I hadn’t built a big enough base, my average runs were too long (not enough doubles), my easy days were too hard, I wasn’t sleeping enough, and I wasn’t eating healthy enough. I was unable to perform quality workouts, and received no benefit from the mileage. But utilizing these tips have helped my running blossom this year, and I hope they will be beneficial to you as well.

Part of the fun of being a marathoner is picking out your races each year. Another aspect of marathoning that is both fun and important is designing your strategy once you have registered for the race. Personally, I use elevation profiles to help me with both tasks.

An accurate elevation profile will show runners the nuances of gradient throughout a given course layout. Within 5 seconds, a viewer can answer the questions:

• Is the course hilly or flat? Is this course fast or slow?
• Does it give me a good challenge or is it too hilly?
• Can I achieve my goals on this course?
• How should I race this course?
• How should I train for this course?

When I create elevation profiles in support of my race course mapping, I aim to make them as clear and non-misleading as possible. After all, the profile can be one of the major factors that influences a runner to run the race. Every race has its own “personality” that should match up with the strengths and preferences of individual runners. Personally, I like downhill courses, but if the profile shows too steep of a downhill, I will not run it out of fear of injuries and diminishing returns on my finish time.

Three marathon courses in my fine state of Utah that offer fast, downhill layouts are the Ogden Marathon (May), Top of Utah Marathon (September), and the St. George Marathon (October). I have raced Ogden twice, Top of Utah four times, and St. George once, and they are all good P.R. courses — provided that you have trained for downhill!! If you have not engaged in a lot of downhill training, all three courses will eat you alive. I love these three races, though, and highly recommended them, especially St. George.

Since Top of Utah and St. George are both coming up within the next month, I decided to create a graphic that compares the profiles of the above three races.

Looking at the comparison, it is very clear that St. George should by far be the fastest course. Not only does it have the greatest elevation loss, but it is also at the lowest average elevation above sea level. Interestingly, St. George has the greatest elevation gain as well, as neither Ogden nor TOU have any hills even approaching the Vejo hill along Mile 8. The 400′ of total climbing at St. George is certainly nothing to sneeze at, and it really forces runners to train for both ups and downs.

However, it is NOT clear from this elevation comparison which is the faster course between Top of Utah and Ogden. Based on the total statistics and the profile line itself, it appears to be a complete wash. They both have virtually the same gain and loss, but are distributed differently. Personally, I like Ogden better, because much of the downhill is during the last 8 miles, whereas Top of Utah is rolling to flat during the last 8 miles. For me, this at least makes Ogden mentally easier. However, the top times at TOU tend to be faster than those at Ogden year after year. And if you poll 100 Utahns, most will tell you that TOU is faster. But when I look at the course profiles and evaluate my own experiences, I think they are almost identical in speed.

I wonder if TOU’s faster times are a result of simply being a fall race, whereas Ogden is a spring race? Training during Utah’s winters is often harsh, and perhaps most people do not get into peak shape until autumn. I think this could easily cause a “time bias” in favor of Top of Utah.

What do you think?

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One final note of interest: The first 3.5 miles of all three races have identical elevation drops and gradients. Beyond being a cool coincidence, this fact is also useful in that you can uses your experience(s) in the other races to determine how fast to begin a race you have not run yet, or not run recently. First example, I ran 5:28/mile for the first four miles of the Ogden Marathon last May. Using estimates of fitness gains since May, and the fact of analogous gradients between courses for miles 0-4, I have determined that I should run the first four miles at St. George at 5:20/mile pace.

It’s been awhile since I’ve showcased a race course map, but the approach of autumn means lots of great fall races! My most recently completed project is the Fall 50, a 5-person, 50-mile relay that takes place on the beautiful Wisconsin shorelines of the Door County Peninsula on October 20th. The race can also be run as an ultra event.

Just from mapping the course on aerial photography, I could tell that the race is very beautiful, and wanted to showcase that by creating beautiful maps that make people think of fall colors. Do do this, I created a color ramp for the false-color elevation that consisted mostly of yellows, oranges, and reds. Another key feature of the maps is the ample shoreline, which I portrayed using the technique of coastal vignettes (multiple-ring buffers). The final touch was using the race’s maple leaf logo as the exchange symbol, which I did by vectorizing the logo in Adobe Illustrator and then exporting as an .emf, which can be imported into ArcMap as picture symbol.

In all, I was pleased with the outcome, and enjoyed creating maps to fit the unique “personality” of the course.

I frequently listen to the Dave Ramsey Show (and encourage anyone else with an interest in personal finance to do so as well). Each show, Dave reads a “Quote of the Day”, and most of them are pretty inspirational and worth chewing on. Dave’s quotes the last several days have been especially good, and I’ve swiped them and posted them below with some of my own musings regarding their application to running.

“Talent is cheaper than table salt. What separates the talented individual from the successful one is a lot of hard work” - Steven King

There is a host of pedigreed, talented runners out there who do not come remotely close to their potential. On the other hand, I’ve seen an even greater number of unheralded runners develop into great marathoners. Some of them (*gasp*) didn’t even run track or cross country in high school or college! Whether your goal is sub-4:00, sub-3:00, or an Olympic Trials Qualifier, you will make your greatest gains through sheer workload. Find the right mix of consistent training volume and intensity, and pursue it with passion, and you will soon find yourself burying those who are supposedly more “talented”. (although I think that the ability to push yourself and show intense drive is a talent in itself).

“Success is the maximum utilization of the ability that you have” - Zig Ziglar

How do we truly rate success in running? Is it breaking a certain time barrier? Finishing high in a race? Beating a particular rival? I think all those things can factor into success, but the most important criteria of success is simply meeting your potential. Not everyone has the genetics to win races or place in age groups, but everyone has the opportunity to push themselves to their limits, to answer the question: “What is the best I can be?” Reaching your maximum potential transcends any race time or placing. It is independent of age, course layouts, bad weather, or sore knees. It should be what we ultimately pursue. The times and race finishes will follow.

“There’s only one way to succeed in anything, and that’s to give it everything” - Vince Lombardi

How bad do you really want it? Are you willing to sacrifice and push the envelope in order to achieve greatness? How bad do you really want to qualify for Boston? How bad do you want to break 3:00? 2:40? 2:30? 2:20?

These are the types of questions I regularly ask myself, and challenge the readers of this blog (all three of you) to ask themselves as well. The legacy of your running and the stories you accumulate will last longer than the pain of any workout or the sugary taste of those Friday donuts. For myself, I have decided that it is worth sacrificing most of my non-family free time to run, stretch, do core drills, and get extra sleep. It is worth watching my diet and eating healthy. The yard looks like trash, but I am fit. Socializing can be done while running. Beer is good, but Olympic Trials is better. Sleeping in on Saturday is nice, but reaching for my maximum potential is done while awake.

It’s difficult to stay inspired and motivated during hard training cycles. I personally struggle with the “little things”, so need some motivation along the way. Hopefully these quotes will inspire you as they’ve inspired me. No more brurgers until I qualify. Happy training!

Vegetarians may want to look away…

Today I’m here to describe the wonders of the “Brurger”. What is a brurger, you ask? A brurger, also known as the “hambur-brat”, is a fascinating mix of wonder-meats. The core unit consists of a hamburger patty, cheese, and a Johnsonville bratwurst, all tucked into a standard hamburger bun. The bratwurst is first cut in half, and then split along its longitudinal axis before mounted on its greasy beefy base.

However there are a plethora of variations and enhancements can can be performed to the standard brurger. One nuance is simply additional condiments. We have tried salsa (Tex-Mex Brurger) and blue cheese dressing (Fatty-fat Brurger), all with great success. Another novel idea is adding fry sauce (Utah Brurger). *Note* for those who don’t know, “fry sauce” is a mixture of ketchup and mayo, and is generally only found in Utah for some reason.

Furthermore, the standard brurger can be built upon by simply adding more meat, for instance bacon (Pig Brurger), a second bratwurst half (Br-Brurger), a second hamburger patty and a second bratwurst half (Double Br-Brurger), or a chicken breast (Noah’s Ark Brurger — give me two of every animal!). Most of these variations are experimental and not recommended for people who want to live past age 60.

The best brurger I’ve ever had was just last week, while camping with my wife and a friend in northern Washington. After my first “Standard Brurger”, I decided I wanted something more, and soon invented the “Br-Brurger”. The layers were: bun, bratwurst, cheese, patty, cheese, bratwurst, bun. Although it dripped the largest amount of grease I’ve ever seen, it ended up being about the best thing I’ve ever eaten.

So what does this have to do with running, you ask? After all, this is running blog. Well, the brurger’s history roots deeply into the realms of running. The original brurger was invented by myself and several friends after the 2004 Canyonlands Half Marathon. After working ourselves over in this early-season half marathon, we all decided that we deserved something “special”, something that would replenish our depleted calories and fat stores. Being a Wisconsin native it seemed logical to me that bratwurst should be involved. One thing led to another, and after some group collaboration the first brurger was born in the campground at Arches National Park.

The brurger soon become a traditional post-race meal. The deal is that you have to “earn” it. Usually a half marathon is sufficient, although special exceptions are allowed as well, such as long journeys and reunions with friends.

While in training, I keep my diet pretty tight: a lot of vegetarian cuisine, lean poultry, and fish. However, at times I feel it appropriate to let loose and celebrate, whether it’s finishing a tough race or enjoying the companionship of friends. For me, the brurger symbolizes the balancing of rigid training with celebration. Eating healthy is definitely beneficial for running…but something you just gotta unbuckle the belt and enjoy!

And while I’m off-topic, go Packers!

I have lost count of the total number of road, track, and cross country races I have participated in since I began running at age 12. My best estimate is somewhere between 250-300 races. However, my total number of trail races is a bit easier to tally: zero. Yes, although I frequently do training runs on dirt single-track, I have to admit that I was still a trail race virgin at age 28.

That changed a few weeks ago when I completed the inaugural Logan Peak Run, a trail marathon in the local Bear River Range outside of my town in northern Utah. I convinced my training buddy Cody to sign up for the race with me, and our plan was to run together the whole way and simply finish (while hopefully having some fun in the process)…

Read the full article at TrailFit!

Al Gore was right. Along with the unfortunate polar icecaps, we are experiencing relentless heat up here in the usually cool realms of the northern Utah. Although our temps normally dip down to the 50’s at night, I’ve been waking up (in a pool of my sweat) to upper 70s. This is bad. Did I mention I get up at 6AM? Did I also mention I usually do a second run at 6PM? Here’s an inconvenient truth: running in 95+ degree temperatures sucks! (And so does living in an house without air conditioning…).

I usually prefer to do high mileage (80-100 miles/week) during the summer because:

1. I have more time to run during the summer
2. There is more daylight to train in during the summer
3. There are more races, and therefore more incentive to train, during the summer.

Last summer was beautiful. No 100-degree days that I can recall. However, I was laid up with about 17 different injuries and didn’t run a step from May through August. What a waste.

This summer is a different story. I’m healthy and motivated to hit those two-a-days and those 100 mile weeks, but the weather is turning into an inhibitor. An inhibitor that I’ve been ignoring.

Despite the intense sun and soaring temperatures, I’m still hitting my mileage, still getting in all those evening doubles, and still booking those Big Workouts…perhaps against my best interests. Dehydration is surely a factor, and a dangerous one at that. Fatigue and lethargy are also in the mix to bring me down. Perhaps I should bag it during the summer and do my high mileage during the winter and early spring.

But nay, I say we press on.

High mileage is doable in the heat, and so is high performance amidst all that volume. Here are my keys to achieving high mileage during the height of summer:

• Drink water like mad. Yes, dehydration is an issue while training in the heat, but fortunately there’s a cure: water. I keep a water bottle next to me a work all day and will go through it a couple times before I clock out. This helps me recover from my morning run and preps me for my evening run.
• Gin and tonic, hold the gin. I’ve been avoiding alcohol like the plague lately. The funny thing is that it doesn’t even sound good. Whenever I think I may want a beer or other “adult beverage”, I just think about my morning run approaching in 10 hours or so, and any urge disappears. I can’t afford the performance hit of a diuretic, not in this kind of heat.
• Nap so much it embarrasses your dog. As if logging 80-100 miles/week isn’t tiring enough, the heat completely removes any remaining energy and ambition. Combat this with a solid 8-9 hours of sleep at night, plus naps whenever you get the chance. Last Saturday, I managed to take two separate naps within a span of 4 hours, a new PR. I think increased sleep is key (in tandem with increased hydration) to maintain high performance during a stressful time.
• Never miss a morning run. The earlier the better. Better to get up at the crack of dawn and take a nap later than to miss your window of heat-free running. For double-days, make the morning run twice as long as the afternoon/evening run.

High mileage during the thick of July is quite doable with a bit of discipline. Keep hitting that water bottle and remember that autumn is right around the corner!

Have you ever wondered what it’s like to run for an NCAA cross country powerhouse? Have you ever wanted an inside look into the minds and workouts of a D-I national contender? “Running with the Buffaloes: A Season Inside with Mark Wetmore, Adam Goucher, and the University of Colorado Men’s Cross-Country Team“, by Chris Lear, brings all of those perspectives, and much much more…

Read the full article at The Final Sprint! 

Once you’ve been bitten by the “relay bug”, it’s hard to keep away from team running events. My first overnight relay experience was the Wasatch Back Relay (Utah) in 2005, and I had a fantastic time. Since then, I’ve gone on to run the Wasatch Back two more times, and also the Wild West Relay (Colorado) and Relay Del Sol (Arizona).The Wasatch Back is a particular favorite of mine; the fact that it starts in my “back yard” and traces its way through some of the most beautiful areas in Utah keeps me coming back again and again. For the 2007 race on June 22-23, I rounded up my MarathonGIS.com team again, fresh off of our 2nd place finish at Relay Del Sol this past March. Our goal for Wasatch Back: Top 3 and a finish time under 18 hours.

Read the full article at TrailFit! 

Documentaries have become an increasingly popular and powerful movie genre, with a variety of titles such as “Super Size Me”, “Fahrenheit 9/11? “Roger and Me”, and “Spellbound” gaining both cult status and mass appeal.

However, the special interests of runners have been largely neglected, and I’ve been left wondering, “Where’s my running documentary?”. My wait ended earlier this year with the release of “Dancing the Bear: A 100-Mile Journey of Personal Exploration“…

Read the full article at The Final Sprint!

18 hours, 29 minutes, and 29 seconds after departing the start in Logan, UT, the MarathonGIS.com team crossed the finish line in Park City, UT to finish 3rd place out of 296 finishers in the 4th installment of the Ragnar Wasatch Back Relay.

This performance equates to a blistering average pace of 6:16/mile over the 177-mile course. The high-altitude course (elevations ranging from 4500′ to 8900′) traverses the scenic backside of the Wasatch Range, and features cumulative elevation gain/loss of 14,232ft/11776ft.

The combination of heat, altitude, lack of sleep, muscle fatigue, and mountainous topography makes the Wasatch Back a challenging endeavor year after year, and we were quite happy with our accomplishment. Weber State and BYU proved to once again be strong opponents, and swept the 1-2 spots for the 4th straight year, with times of 17:40:40 and 17:51:51, respectively. Running stores 26.2 Running Company and Runners Corner rounded out the Top 5, with 19:18:18 and 19:25:25, respectively.

We were hoping to challenge BYU or Weber a little bit, but this did not happen. However we were proud to be the first non-college team to break 18:30. This is not an official record or anything, but we’ll take what we can get!

Thanks to Dan Hill, Tanner Bell, and the rest of the Ragnar Relay staff for their flawless logistics and dedication to providing “the best”. Thanks also to the hundreds of volunteers who sat or stood long (and often late) hours, directing runners, vans, and providing aid wherever it was needed. And thanks to all the participating teams whose enthusiasm and competitiveness make the event what it is.

Well, the Wasatch Back Relay is almost upon us. This means three things:

1. Time to start rummaging around the basement for headlamps, coolers, reflective vests, and other miscellaneous debris
2. Time for a team member to call me to say “I can’t run” due to:
• Injury
• Sickness
• Work
• Dog attack
• Some combination of the above
3. Time for me to go into emergency find-a-runner panic mode.

Every (and I mean EVERY) relay I have run, we have lost runners with less than two weeks until the race, and have had to find last-minute ringers. Fortunately, our ringers are generally pretty fast.

This year, with one week to go until Wasatch Back, our entire original team was still intact. I started to get nervous. Something seemed wrong.

With three days to go (ie, yesterday), our entire original team was still intact. Now I am sweating nervous. This is definitely not right. We should have had one, nay, two runners drop by now. Was someone just not telling me something??

I decided to pick up the phone and make some calls. Turns out one guy was indeed “out” due to sickness and scheduling, just nobody knew about it until now. Good thing I called! As usual with these situations, he was very apologetic, but I never hold these kinds of things against people. Get 12 runners together, probability and statistics dictate that at least one will get injured or sick during the time preceding the race. It’s just a fact of life with runners.

So I learned that we were down a runner at 8AM Wednesday, about 56 hours before our start time. With travel time and planning, we realistically had about 24 hours to find a replacement runner. And not just any replacement, but a runner of 2:40 marathon caliber or faster. A tall order. But this is where things got cool.

Within the hour, our team set the search process in motion. Like clockwork, we networked through phone, email, and blogs, through cellular networks and through cyberspace.

Perhaps our most useful asset was the FastRunningBlog, an online training blog community that most of our team participates in. There are many fast runners on the Blog, and a large number of them live in Utah, which makes them available targets. Blog friends were contacted, as well as friends of friends. Over the next several hours, I received many “no” answers from potential canditates (most people already had a team). But sure enough, by 4PM Wednesday (8 hours later), we had our 2:40 marathoner. Our new teammate was the friend of a friend and is on the FastRunningBlog as well. The system works.

Panic mode is over.

On that note, since joining the FastRunningBlog, my network of runner friends has greatly expanded. I feel like I know half the runners in Utah now. And it’s not just an online thing (which would be exceptionally nerdy), but I see these people face-to-face at most of my races. The Utah running scene is a small pond, now made even smaller by the Blog. From Logan all the way down to St. George, connections and contacts have been made. New friendships have been established, and there’s new places to stay while traveling.

And it’s a heck of a lot easier to fill relay teams!

Most of us are accustomed to sugared sports drinks - Gatorade, Powerade, Cytomax, and others. Although the sugars provide glycogen (energy) that can aid us during long runs, for many athletes it is “too much” and leads to stomach cramping and/or crashes in energy.Ultima Replenisher electrolyte drink offers an alternative to traditional sugar-bearing sports drinks, and if you’ve had bad experiences with Gatorade, Powerade, or Cytomax, you may want to check it out.

Here are a few of Ultima’s most appealing characteristics…

Read the full review at The Final Sprint! 

I remember my first experience with energy bars, well over 10 years ago. I recall being somewhat curious and even a little excited about this new concept. I thought to myself, Will it boost my performance? Will it give me boundless energy?

My eager optimism crashed as soon as I began it to eat it. I managed to scarf down the dense, chewy mass, and proceeded to get a gut bomb that lasted the duration of my run. In the early days, some of those bars were terrible!

Then I discovered CLIF Bar. Conceived as an idea in 1986, debuted in 1992, and incorporated in 1997, CLIF Bar has chewed its way to the top as a leading maker of energy bars…

Read the full review at The Final Sprint! 

Well, it’s official, I’m running the St. George Marathon as my fall OTQ attempt. I contacted the good people at St. George Leisure Services on Tuesday, and they were happy to let me in, especially since I had to cancel my registration last year due to injury.

So why did I choose St. George over Chicago and Twin Cities? Simple, the benefits far outweighed the costs. Not to mention a nearly 2:1 majority vote for St. George in my poll. One of my favorite proverbs is “Iron sharpens iron, so one man sharpens another” (Proverbs 27:17), and I received a lot of good advice and feedback from my running peers that I valued while making the decision.

In the end, it came down to teammates. If I run St. George, I knew I would be shoulder-to-shoulder with several Wasatch Running Center teammates, as well as with several other friends that I consider “teammates” even though they happen to wear another singlet.

Two horses working together can pull a heavier load than the sum of the loads pulled by individuals. Similarly, teammates working together can accomplish much greater things than individuals. At my NCAA cross country championships, I noticed that people who qualified as part of a team tended to perform better than people who qualified as individuals. The individual qualifiers almost always had fewer allies, less support, and less motivation. Team qualifiers, on the other hand, were supported by each other, ran for a greater cause, and benefitted from pack running. I look forward to doing some pack running with my WRC teammates and others at St. George, and helping pull that OTQ load.

And its not just the people running in the same pack as me, but those running at all speeds. Thanks to the FastRunningBlog community and other contacts I’ve made, I will likely know well over 25 people running St. George. I want to be there with them before the race, to see them finish, and to celebrate their races with them.

Finally, if I travelled to Chicago or Minneapolis, it’s unknown whether my wife would be able to go with me or not. That’s no good for either of us. By running St. George, I know that she will be there with me.

I’m already pumped for the race. 2:20 or bust!!

It is essential to track and monitor your body’s performance and response, as well as the surrounding elements to which you are exposed, whenever you are participating in outdoor activities such as trail running, hiking, backpacking and fastpacking. GPS technology provides information such as speed, altitude, and bearing, but often requires athletes to carry yet another device and is generally incapable of providing weather-related information.

Casio has introduced the Pathfinder Series as a way to disseminate vital information to trekkers using the low-profile and convenient platform of a wristwatch. I recently had the pleasure of exploring the 3V model of Casio’s Pathfinder PAW1300 Series and tested it on several types of training runs and within various environments…

Read the full review at TrailFit!

So I’ve made a decision: I’m crossing over to the “nerdy side” and will soon be buying a Garmin Forerunner 205. Ah yes, now I’ll finally be able to to measure my runs to two decimals and take quarter-mile splits. I’ve elected not to get the heart rate monitor (ie - the Forerunner 305), simply so that I can have more speed and distance stats simultaneously available to me on that glorious, honkin’ huge watch face.

We runners sure love our nerdy gadgets, and it’s been getting worse and worse. And thanks to the distractions of iPods and Virtual Training Partners®, our social running will further spiral as well. Thank goodness for running blogs and the wonderful social interaction they provide (heh heh).

But the real question is: which is nerdier, the Garmin Forerunner 205/305 or the old Casio calculator watches? Although the Garmins score points with pace alerts and a customizable screen, the calculator watches have that irresistible ’80s retro flair. Hmmm…I’ll have to ask my Virtual Partner® and get his opinion on this one.

On Wednesday, January 24 of this year I heard a chilling story of a local runner who was struck and critically injured by a vehicle while running in a bike lane along a low-traffic road. At the scene and for hours afterward, emergency personnel were not able to identify her.Just this weekend on en route to our marathon, we were forced to take a long detour. The main mountain pass to our destination was completely closed down, a rarity since it is a U.S. Highway. While sitting in traffic and listening to AM radio, we learned that a cyclist was struck by a vehicle, resulting in a large accident that killed both the cyclist and several occupants of the vehicle.

These are stories that have come from my own backyard in the past 6 months. And they are not just stories, but are real accounts of factual events and they hit close to home. Tragic events such as these hurt my heart and make me wonder, “What if this happened to me? How long would it take for my wife to find out? Hours? Days?”

Recently I began wearing a Road ID simply because I couldn’t stand the thought of being unidentified in an accident and what that would do to my wife…

Read the full article at The Final Sprint! 

Wow, the Ogden Marathon went unbelievably well for me! Between setting a PR and course record (2:26:24) and winning the race, it was a thrilling experience. Now I’ve got a new training cycle ahead of me, and after running some 5K and 10K races, it’s back to marathon-specific training. After my Ogden performance, I firmly believe that I can meet the “B” Standard for Olympic Trials, and potentially even the “A” standard. Ogden, after all, is not known as a blazing course, due to its topographic layout and average elevation of 5000′ above sea level. In addition, fighting warm temperatures and running solo nearly the entire race indicated to me that I can go faster with better conditions.

The question therein lies: which fall marathon should I do to qualify? Seeing as to how I want to train as long as possible, and the end of the qualifying window is October 7, my options are three: St. George (Oct 6), Chicago (Oct 7), or Twin Cities (Oct 7). I’m at a bit of loss of which one to do, so have compiled a list of pro’s and con’s.

St. George Marathon - Pro’s

• Probably the fastest of the three courses; highest probability of hitting the “A” standard here
• I’ve ran it before and am familiar with the course
• Many of my friends are running it, and I will have support and potential carpooling options
• Thanks to new friends made from the FastRunningBlog, I can likely get free lodging
• Closest race, least travel = least stress
• Saturday race = preferred

St. George Marathon - Cons

• No prize money. Yes, I’m that shallow.
• Course is fast, too fast even. Feels like cheating. I’ll doubt my ability to run well at NY if I scrape by with a qualifier here.
• Weakest field of the three races. Yes, there is strong competition, but not nearly as thick and bloody as Chicago or TCM. Highest probability of getting stuck by myself here.
• Higher elevation than the other courses.

Chicago Marathon - Pros

• Sea level (well, close enough)
• One of the fastest courses in the world - flat. I’m a rhythm runner, and I can get in a great rhythm here.
• Thick, thick, bloody competition. Top 30 would be a brilliant effort. Lot of advantages to working with a pack.
• I’ve got a lot of old teammates in Michigan who run this race. Potential lodging and team running opportunities.
• Big marathons are sexy.

Chicago Marathon - cons

• Potential expenses. I don’t see anything on their website about Olympic development. I’d be a very small fish here and would probably have to pay most of my own way.
• Long travel = stress
• Virtually no chance of winning any sort of prize money. Yes, I’m that shallow.
• Risk - it would be shameful to travel that far and spend that much money, and then have bad weather or a bad race and not qualify.
• I hate the Bears.

Twin Cities - Pros

• Like Chicago, very close to sea level
• They appear to have some sort of Olympic Development program…potential expenses paid?? (need to inquire)
• Bigger than St. George, but smaller than Chicago - the best of both worlds. There will be excellent competition here, and yet I’ll still have a shot at Top 10.
• Good prize money here. They give bonuses for hitting “A” and “B” standards, but achieveable prize money for Top 10. Yes, I’m that shallow.
• I have some family in the Twin Cities, so potential lodging

Twin Cities - Cons

• Looking at the profile, this is the slowest course of my three options. This is a big con.
• Long travel = stress
• Potential expenses.
• I hate the Vikings.

So what do I do? In any case, I figure I should contact Chicago and Twin Cities and see if I can get any expenses paid. If not, it’s a no-brainer: St. George. But even without considering expenses, my brain is telling me “St. George”. It has the fastest course, surest qualifier bet, least travel impact, and most friends and loved ones in vincinity. It’s just not as sexy as Chicago, is all. There’s just something about the idea of running 5:15-pace with a pack of twenty people, all clawing after the same thing, surrounded by hordes of cheering spectators, that appeals to me.

Obviously, I can think myself into circles here. Fortunately, I have a little while to decide. In the meantime, your comments and insights are appreciated in this decision-making. Perhaps I’m missing something?

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Garmin, Suunto, Timex, Adeo, Polar… and the list goes on and one. In today’s saturated market of fitness toys there is a plethora of gadgets available that can measure running stats such as pace, distance, heart rate, and more. The gadget companies respond by releasing increasingly innovative products that offer features of increasing quality and quantity.

The Polar RS800sd (speed+distance) may have just trumped them all. Using a foot pod to measure speed and distance, and an ECG-accurate transmitter to measure heart rate, the RS800sd running computer offers enough features, analyses, and bells-and-whistles to make your head spin. I recently had the pleasure of taking this unit for a “spin”…

Read the full review at The Final Sprint! 

Due to the facts that it’s two days before the Ogden Marathon and that I’m rather bored right now, it seems appropriate to post a map, profile, and discussion of the upcoming race. Only this time I’m going retro: rather than creating a nice, new, shiny map and profile, I’m electing to post some of the earliest work I’ve done.

I made the map below back in winter of 2004 for “personal use”, and then modified it when Ogden changed their course in 2005. My race course mapping business, Marathon GIS, was just an idea that point, and the sole purpose of this map was to make something more informative for myself than what was on the website at the time. The map was created using Manifold Systems v6.0. No Adobe Illustrator, no Photoshop, no ArcGIS, just 100% Manifold. The map looks very crude to me now (embarassing even), but at the time I thought it was pretty cool. Fortunately, my hardware, software, and cartography/graphic arts skills have increased quite a bit over the past three years.

Likewise, the profile I made for the Ogden Marathon was not “prettied up” in Illustrator, but was a 100% product of Manifold + Microsoft Excel. However, even this crude profile effectively shows the layout of the race course and its unique characteristics.

The couse can be broken out into any number of distinct segments, depending on whether you are a “lumper” or a “splitter”. Today, I’m feeling more like a splitter, so I’m dividing it into 5 topographic segments.

1. Mile 0 to Mile 8.25 - South Fork. Virtually all downhill, at a nice, mellow average gradient of -1.16%. The race gets off to a fast start on this segment, especially since weather is always nice and cool early in the morning up the canyon. Resist the tempatation to get out too fast. Instead stay comfortable, enjoy the downhill, and preserve your glycogen.
2. Mile 8.25 to Mile 14.5 - Pineview Part 1. Regretfully, the downhill dissipates into rolling hills as the course starts to circumnavigate Pineview Reservoir in Ogden Valley. Most of the hills are not steep or long, with the exception of a sharp climb around Mile 14. Quite enough to slow you down though. The key here is to stay relaxed, get the most out of aid stations, and recover whenever you get a downhill. Average gradient for the segment is +0.21%.
3. Mile 14.5 to Mile 17.25 - Pineview Part 2. After the large hill around Mile 14, the course flattens out again, and you even get a slight downhill for awhile. This is a good portion of the race to recover from the rollers and get your rhythm again. It’s the “calm before the storm” (-0.25% average gradient), as the next segment will be a downhill quad-burner.
4. Mile 17.25 to Mile 24 - Ogden Canyon. Downhill quad-burner, with St. George-like gradients in places. You know you are in for a ride when you look down from the top of Pineview Reservoir dam. Pretend you are a drop of water and let gravity flow you into Ogden. This segment is where most people find out how well-trained they are, but it is a good opportunity to fly. Around Mile 23, Ogden Canyon burps out the runners into the valley, and resumes a more gentle downhill along the Ogden River Parkway. Average gradient for the entire segment is -1.8%.
5. Mile 24 to Mile 26.2 - Ogden City. With glycogen depleted, quads mashed into a pulp, and running in more “gravity-neutral” conditions, many runners struggle to hang on to the finish. Plus the heat kicks during this part of the race. Mile 25 is still a very slight downhill, and then the remainder of the course to the finish is essentially flat. Thankfully, no uphill finish in this race. Average gradient for this segment is -0.16%. Be resilient, douse yourself with water at aid stations, and finish strong!

The Ogden Marathon has potential to be a fast course, but has to be run “just right”. If you run a poor strategy, or are not trained for hills, the course can turn into a big hurt. I negative-split this course by about 20 seconds back in 2005, and still believe that an even or slightly negative split is the best way to approach Ogden. This means being conservative during the first 8 downhill miles, and then maintaining effort around Pineview. If your legs aren’t trashed by Mile 17, you can throw down some serious splits through Ogden Canyon, which is where you can get back all of the time lost in Ogden Valley, and then some.

It should be great field at Ogden this year, not just upfront, but deep into the ranks as well. This will be my 10th marathon, and marks my first marathon back from injury, so it will be especially meaningful to me. Good luck everyone!!

Sometimes plain water just isn’t enough for the hydration needs of running. As you sweat, you lose water and electolytes, which both need to be replenished during the hydration process. Traditional sports drinks, such as Gatorade and Powerade, have offered viable electrolyte replacement drinks for years, but their high sugar content translates into an unsavory aftertaste in the opinion of a variety of testers. Moreover, hydration packs are particularly difficult to clean after holding sugary sports drinks.In an effort to address these issues, CamelBak recently introduced their Elixir Electrolyte Enhanced Hydration as a convenient, no-sugar, no-mess hydration alternative…

Read the full article at The Final Sprint! 

Trigger Point Technologies hit a home run with their TP Massage toolkit, which is designed to release trigger points, restore muscle elasticity, and improve biomechanics for runners, cyclists, and other athletes. For me, TP massage as been key component of returning my body to health and my recent rise in running performance. (see my full review on TP Massage Ball).

Another oft-overlooked aspect of injury prevention, performance, and biomechanics is core strength. Many runners will be willing to train for hours and hours each week, but fail to put any time into improving their core — the result of this neglect is sometimes poor biomechanics that propogate into injury.

While actively recovering from my barrage of injuries in 2006, I dedicated myself to improving core strength, both during phyical therapy and at home. From wobble boards and stability balls, to simple crunches and bridge exercises, I consistently invested about 15 minutes per day into my core muscles. And it has been time well spent, as I have logged over 1400 miles in 5 months and set several big PR’s…all while staying injury-free.

The TP Stability PODS are designed to increase core strength through challenging balance and symmetry. They come as a set of three different-sized, concave, foam…er…pods (for the lack of a better description). The differential heights of the three pods represent three difficulty levels (I, II, and III). In other words, it is much harder to find balance with the tallest pod than with the shortest pod, which engages greater work in the core muscles.

Those who use wobble boards and stability balls will immediate see the challenge and utility of the TP Stability PODS. Due to their concave shape and foam material, it’s pretty difficult to find your equilibrium while using these things! I enjoyed using the PODS to spice up my normal core exercises, such as my “bridges” and “bird-dog” poses. I found that I was unable to hold my stability poses as long when using the PODS, and activitated a more intense workout compared to without them. This new challenge was quite welcome, as I was getting rather bored with my exercises lately.

The PODS also play well with other apparatus. For instance, doing pushups with my feet on a stability ball and hands on the PODS was a great full-body workout. There are other inventive POD exercises that can be done in synergy with a stability ball or even the TP Baller Block. Just as you can intensify just about any core exercise by using a stability ball, you can further intensify any core exercise by applying one or more Stability PODs to any of your points of contact with the ground.

TP Technologies has also developed a series of POD exercises specifically for runners. They are essentially various forms of one-legged knee raises and hip abductions that stimulate balance and symmetry. While these exercises won’t engage an intense “burn” or anything, they do activitate the deeper muscles of the core, which are often under-developed. I’ve been performing these balancing exercises 3-4 days/week for a couple months now, and have noticed a sizeable improvement in my balance, and have been able to steadily increase my balancing time on the POD. These exercises remind me much of the wobble-board poses I had performed during formal physical therapy sessions while rehabbing a groin strain, only I’m not being billed $150/hour by some therapist.

Trigger Point Technology’s Stability PODS should be considered by any athlete looking to prevent injuries, rehab injuries, or simply increase performance. There is sooo much good training and rehab that can be completed right at home. A set of PODS sells for $26, which is