Thanks for visiting. After more than ten years of posting occasionally on this site I decided to get serious about blogging. That means a fresh start and a better reader experience. So this is the last post on http://www.theartofrunning.wordpress.com. From now on you can keep up with me at TheRealARTofRunning.

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The Soleus GPS watch I’ve been using for close to ten years was acting up. It took forever for the GPS to connect, the strap was broken and taped together more than a few times, and the distances didn’t seem consistent. So I started looking around for a new running watch. As I started looking at all the makes, models and features I was torn. Should I get all the bells and whistles or go basic? Having music to Bluetooth from my watch sounded cool. But did I need it? The one feature that really interested me was a heart rate monitor. I’d never used a heart monitor running but some of the podcasts I’d listened to had talked about the benefit of it. The Marathon Training Academy  podcast had a session with Dr. Phil Maffetone talking about the MAF method which used a formula based on your heart rate and age to determine your training pace. It sounded like it made sense. After checking several reviews online I decided on the  Garmin Forerunner 35. So far, after five runs, I like it. I’ll do a full review of it after I put a few more runs on it but it is easy to read, seems to connect to GPS quickly and the buttons are easy to push. More to come.

I’ve run two halfs in the same season before but this year I enjoyed them much more. I posted about the Brooksie Way last month, and two weeks ago i ran the Detroit Free Press Marathon half. I’ve run it before and always love the course.

The race starts downtown Detroit and about three miles in you run across the Ambassador Bridge into Canada. Then the course goes along the Detroit river in Windsor looking back across to Detroit. At 8 miles you take the tunnel under the river to cross back to the USA, then loop through the Mexican Village and Corktown neighborhoods before finishing downtown.  The course is lined with spectators most of the way in both countries.  Lots of fun and sights to see.

As usual, I set three goals. “A” goal was to break 2:00. B was to break 2:10, and C was to finish. At 1:56 I was very happy with my time. 24th of 246 in my age group so no complaints about a top 10%.

Next year I plan to look into some half-marathons in the Spring. They’d be good training for the National Senior Olympics. And fun too.

The Brooksie Way is a well-organized event in Rochester, MI that runs through neighborhoods, retail districts, a charming downtown and on trails through woods. It also has hills. Lots of hills. Not steep, short hills, (well, maybe one or two), but looong, seemingly never-ending hills. And somehow, very few downhills. Not sure how that’s possible but that was the feeling.

Even in the starting corral I was still undecided about what pace I would run. I know that’s not a great strategy but I was torn between racing this event versus just running it as a training run to prepare for another half-marathon I’m running in four weeks. I lined up between two pace times and thought I’d split the difference. That’s right where I finished. It was good training pace. Not too fast but not a walk in the park either. Fast enough to be in the top half of my age group which is always my minimum goal.

Now if only my hip would stop hurting…

Gold and Silver medals!

A while ago I learned about an organization named “Michigan Senior Olympics“. Their website listed all the events they hold, the qualifying criteria, and the results for each event from the last several years. I saw that the 5k and 10k races only had a handful of entrants each year in my age group, 60-64, and the fastest times were close to what I had been running the last couple of years. I also saw that the top 4 runners in each age group were eligible to go to the National Senior Games being held in June 2019 in Albuquerque NM. So I decided to try to qualify for nationals.

The problem was I was having hip, hamstring and glute pains the last few months and it was getting worse. So I started seeing a chiropractor to try to correct the problem. I’ll post about that another day but it did seem to be helping some.

Both races were being held at Oakland University in Rochester MI. The 5k was on August 14 and the 10k on August 16, both at 9:00AM. I took both of those days off work without knowing what exactly to expect at the races.

The morning of the 5k was hot and humid, fast approaching 80 degrees by 9:00AM. It was a small field of men and women most of whom looked much older than me. But there were some that were hard to tell their age. I thought a couple may have been in my age group so I wanted to stay close to them. The course started with 2 laps of the OU track then headed out to campus. As soon as we left the track we had to tackle a decent hill which turned out to be just the first of a few. The course was an out and back so as I was nearing the turn around I saw the leader was a guy that I guessed could be my competition. He was probably running a 7:15 pace and in the heat with my sore hips I was more like an 8:00.

After everyone had finished the race there was an award ceremony and I was pleased to accept my silver medal for second place. I was truly excited to be an Olympian and eligible to represent Michigan in the National Senior Games next year.

Two days later at the 10k the weather was much different. Rainy and cooler was a nice change, plus it kept some of the competitors away. I had heard that if you qualify in either race distance you are eligible to run both distances at Nationals. So the guy who had smoked us all in the 5k must have decided there was no point in running the 10k in the rain. With the smaller field, I felt confident I would medal in the 10k and was happy to accept the gold medal at the ceremony.

So with a gold and silver medal I am very proud to be an Olympian and I hope to make the trip to Albuquerque next summer to experience the National games!

This year was different for other reasons as I had other nieces and nephews running it and even a great-nephew in the fun run. They all got to experience the 80+ degree heat but they pressed on.

As far as my race time, I didn’t set a PR or even beat my last couple of years. But as I age, I am getting a little smarter about some things. Like choosing my battles or deciding it’s better to live to fight another day. So this year was a year to enjoy the views as I ran with hundreds of others through the corn fields, rolling farmland and friendly neighborhoods of Frankenmuth. A tradition I hope to continue for years.

There are many benefits to running but I hadn’t thought that finding money would be one of them.

Hollywood, California. Home of the rich and famous. And the homeless.

While visiting my son in LA this weekend I’ve been running through some great neighborhoods of multi-million dollar homes. I’ve also run past too many people who have nowhere to live except the street. Most large cities have their share of homeless people living among the rest of the population but for some reason the contrast seems greater in LA. Especially in Hollywood. How many times have you heard about people moving to Hollywood to find fame and fortune? Well, the fact is that very few find it. Unfortunately, too many spend all they have trying or they think they’ll get by off the scraps of others. And yes, some have mental problems so they aren’t thinking “right” at all.

It’s interesting to watch the tourists looking at the stars in the sidewalk along Hollywood Blvd. They “Ooh and Ahh”, point and take photos of the gold-colored stars  of their favorite actors and entertainers while ignoring the dirt, stains, and general filth that lines the sidewalk and street along with the homeless people sleeping against buildings or sitting with a hand out for change.

Seeing the extreme difference between the “stars” too many look up to and the poor that too many people look down at reminds me how truly blessed I am by God to have what I have.

i read about the Rouge-athon event put on by Tour de Troit. Run 5k, bike 10k, run 5k. Sounded perfect. And it was. I really didn’t know what to expect as far as the event itself. The registration said limited to the first 250 entrants but when I got to Rouge Park in Detroit an hour before the event, there were only a dozen or so people there. While picking up my packet I asked a volunteer about the event. He said they had 80 people register and explained the way the race works. There was a transition area where you hung your bike on a bar next to your bib number. The event is one lap around the path, then you get your bike and do two laps on the road parallel to the path, then put your bike back in the transition area and run one more lap. My GPS watch showed the lap longer than a 5k, and that was correct as I saw a sign later that read “3.3 mile loop”.

This was my first time on a bike since last summer so I knew that would be a challenge. And it was. The first lap was steady even though the few hills were a challenge. The second lap was an effort the whole way. My quads were feeling it as I downshifted to climb the hills. Several of the people I passed while running were now passing me as they leaned over their curled racing handlebars with their shoes clipped in the pedals. As I sat upright pedaling my road bike I was glad I had taken off the big basket I normally have on my handlebars. When I rode into the transition area a volunteer yelled “Ready to run on spaghetti legs?” I thought she was joking until I stepped off my bike and my legs almost buckled. The first 100 yards of that last lap were unsteady but then I got into a groove and felt good and finished strong.

Going into the event I didn’t know what would be a good finishing time, but the 1:31:30 felt good when I looked at my splits.  The running laps were all around 8:05-8:10 per mile and the biking was between 4:30-5:15 per mile. When they posted finishing times and I was 5th in the 50-59 group I was satisfied for my first Duathlon. But next year, I’ll do a little bike training.