Steven Tursi

Umstead 2012

2012-04-02T16:13:00.004-04:00

Finishing in 28 hours 39 minutes 22 seconds

Race Report coming soon!

Race Report: NY 13.1 Half Marathon: 2:07:31 (PR)

2012-03-25T20:05:00.001-04:00

From my GPS Log

This is a cool race!

I knew my Half-Marathon PR - 2:12:55 - was kind of soft. I didn't bother setting ABC goals for this but if I had, my "C" goal would be a PR. The course - flat and fast. The weather - perfect. The venue: Nice, if small for a half-marathon.

Since WorldVision had a big presence here, I unexpectedly ran into a bunch of old friends at this race from churches I've attended in the past. In fact, no fewer than three of my former pastors were there, including the pastor who married Alex and I! It was great to see them. And, of course, it was great to see my tri club friends whose participation is what prompted me to register. Best of all, everyone that I know about - did great.

The course is silly on paper, and it's silly on the GPS log - and.. I guess at mile 10 when I ran by the starting line for the third time, running it was kind of silly too. But it was all good. Given the venue, they couldn't have done much more. They managed to figure out a course without intersections, without cross-traffic, without closing any non-park roads, and without front-runners catching back-of-the-packers on repeat sections. There were a few overpasses, but those overpasses were literally the only hills on the course. And I am strong enough on the hills that I usually passed a bunch of people going up and over the bridges. So I have no complaints.

I secretly hoped I could get a 2:05 finish (that would have been my "A" goal) but I also wasn't going to kill myself one week before a 100-mile race. Really, I just wanted to test my ability to maintain a pace, and to harden up that half-marathon PR a bit.

My plan was to go out with an aggressive pace for a half-marathon: 9:30 per mile. It's a pace that would have finish a 5K in about 29:30. I doubted that I'd be able to maintain that for the entire 13.1, but I wanted to know how long I could go at that pace. I also know the risk to reward ratio was low - if I crashed and burned too hard, it's only a half-marathon and I could always jog it in.

As it turns out, I maintained it for about 15K. At the 10K mark I caught up to Pastor James, who I hadn't seen in probably 5 years. We ran together for a few miles. As an aside, he was the only other 6'6" guy on the course that I saw - but much thinner than I. We must have looked funny running together. Anyway, by mile 7 I was starting to struggle a bit. Even though we didn't talk much, I found that merely having a companion helped me push an extra two or three miles before it just got too difficult to continue. It was in the tenth mile where I finally thanked him and said I'm going to back off a bit. Looking at my splits, we inadvertently ran a 9:15 in the ninth mile, and that may have pushed me over the edge.

At mile 10, I actually started walking at the water stop. Grabbed a couple of poweraids and a couple of waters and walked for about a minute just to get my composure back so I could finish out the last 5K strongly. A half mile later I was feeling a bit better, but not so good that I didn't repeat this at the mile 11 aid station (though the walk break was considerably less than a minute.) As you can see from the splits, I returned to a sub-10 minute pace in the thirteenth mile and had a good finish.

splits from GPS log

I was a bit alarmed by a little bit of pain in my right foot. It flared up in the last couple of miles. I've been training pretty hard lately, and I'm wondering if this last week before Umstead isn't coming at a perfect time. I ran 5 miles at 9:30 with the tri club early the next morning, but the rest of the week is all fake zeros until Umstead. Training is over, hay's in the barn, and there's nothing I can do at this point but rest up, hopefully heal up, and prepare myself for the task at hand next weekend.

But that is another post..

Pushing My Buttons - Previewing NY13.1

2012-03-23T12:09:00.000-04:00

I sometimes think of myself as a computer with buttons that you can push to get a predictable response. The better you know me the more you can push those buttons. For example, if I say, "Oh I better not have any pizza," you can very easily change my mind. Push the button by putting a pizza in front of me. That was easy.

Such is the case with the NY13.1 half-marathon. I heard about this a few months ago and took a look at the course.

what is this i don't even

Not that Flushing Meadows is a beautiful venue but if you're putting on a large half-marathon there, it's kind of.. small.. Anyway, add to it the fact that it's an hour away, it's a half-marathon, it conflicts with the NJ Ultra Festival and I thought I'd drop by, it's not the cheapest race in the world, and oh yeah it's a week before Umstead and - well - the odds of me signing up for it are remote at best.

That is, until somebody inadvertently pushed my button. I call this button the "Do it because friends are doing it button." Sure enough, there are three or four tri club people going. They didn't even have to invite me. Oh I'd like to join you guys! Umstead shmumstead - lets go run a half!!

So tomorrow morning I'm running the NY13.1 Half Marathon. It'll be fun. Actually - it's going to be a friggin' great time. Alex and Joe are coming along, and after the race we'll go to the Queens Hall of Science and spend half-a-day there, and then maybe we'll get a gyro at Fontana and perhaps maybe visit some family in Brooklyn if they're around. Definitely going to be an awesome day.

Oh, and Umstead? Check out this rationalization. If this doesn't make you roll your eyes, then I don't know what will:

"You see, this is actually a good fitness test and tune-up run. I'm going to run this race nice and hard, but without killing myself. And since Umstead is 8 12.5-mile loops, this 13.1 mile race will tell me how I should pace myself in the first lap or two. You see, I'll add a half-hour to this race's time. So if I run 2:05, I'll aim for 2:35 in the first lap of Umstead. If I run 2:15, I'll aim for 2:45. Where did I get the half-hour figure? I pulled it out of my ass! What about subsequent laps at Umstead? Glad you asked! I figure I want to slow down by about ten minutes per lap. So lap two will be 40 minutes slower than the half, lap 4 will be an hour slower, etc. Where did I get that ten-minute number? I pulled it out of my ass!"

The De Facto Training Schedule

2012-03-03T12:33:00.000-05:00

Inside the Sweat Lodge

As you can imagine, joining the Triathlon Club at my YMCA has colored my entire training schedule. In fact, it has largely taken over, and I have noticed in the last month or so of training with these guys a routine that I have fallen into. It's been great for me, because not only do these guys motivate me to work harder than I normally would, but I also have a bit of long-missing structure to my exercise routine.

I also have been successful so far in maintaining my running streak, which stands at 431 days today.

Sunday
7:15AM - Tri Club run. One of the members of the club puts together a route. We meet at Market Basket in Franklin Lakes, NJ. The route has ranged from 6 miles to 9 miles, and it's getting a little longer each week. I think tomorrow we're doing 10 miles with hills.

Monday
Lunch - I take this as my recovery-from-aerobic-exercise day. I do a mile or two running, nice and easy, usually on the treadmill, and then lift weights for 30 minutes to an hour.

Tuesday
6-7AM or Lunch (or both) - Run on my own, 4 to 6 miles.
6PM - 1-hr Masters Swim at the YMCA. This was suggested by the guy who runs the Tri Club there. For $7.50, I get an hour in the pool, with a coach who corrects mistakes in my form (of which there are many. Swimming is hard!) This is great because the class to coach ratio was 2:1 this week!

Wednesday
(odd weeks)
6-7AM - Run on my own, 3-4 miles
Lunch - 40-minute Boot Camp Group Class at work. This is often the toughest workout of the week!!
(even weeks)
6-7AM or Lunch (or both) - Run on my own, 4-6 miles.

Thursday
(ALL weeks)
5:30AM - 75-90-minute "Lake House" Spin session - we bring our own bikes and trainers, and go through a spin workout, lead by YMCA staff.
7:40AM - After spin I drive straight to work, and run on the treadmill for 20 minutes until I have to shower and, um.. work.
(even weeks)
Lunch: 30-minute Boot Camp Group Class.

Friday
5:30AM - 1-hour YMCA Tri Club Swim session. Again, a coach is there to correct form, but unlike the Masters Swim coaching session, it's sometimes a 25:1 class to coach ratio. So the coaching is still valuable, but the real value in this workout is camaraderie.
6:40AM - A bunch of us go right to the gym there at the YMCA and run on treadmills for an hour or so. I usually do 4-5 miles on this run.

Saturday
5:30AM - 2-hour "Sweat Lodge"Spin Session - we pack our bikes and trainers in the two-car garage of one of our tri club members, and we follow a workout generously provided by a top age-grouper who is acquainted with our club. This or Boot Camp is always the toughest workout of the week.
Later that day - I run, usually really short just to keep the streak alive. Today I ran immediately after the (really tough) 2-hour spin session.

Totals
7 days of running - 30 miles, 5 hours or so
2 days of swimming - 2 hours
2 days of biking - 3.5 hours
1 day of weights - 30 minutes

So that was my schedule for February and March will look really similar. I expect that as the weather improves and the light returns, things will change. We'll probably bike outside instead of on the trainer, there will be open-water swimming, and track workouts.

And yes, I am missing long runs. This will be a factor at Umstead. I have to count on the residual training effect of 150 miles at ATY + 11 hours/week of training to compensate. I will probably be walking most of the second 50. Mike Henze pointed out on the ultra list that when he does a month of walking at 11 minutes per mile, then walking 15 minutes per mile in a race doesn't feel very hard. To that end March I also am going to add a few hours of walking per week, and perhaps replace some running miles with walking, and I'm going to try to keep it either 5MPH or faster, or 5% or steeper.

2012 Calendar, and some other stuff

2012-02-01T20:40:00.000-05:00

2012 Calendar

Finalized my race calendar for 2012. Excluded a lot of races that I really enjoy doing, but with the Memorial Day burnout last year, the lesson that I shouldn't race too much has been learned. A mere three ultras this year, and - yes - three triathlons. Completing an Ironman has long been a bucket-list item for me, and 2012 will be the year I finally do it. But even though it would make an interesting story, it would probably be foolish to have an Ironman be my *first* triathlon, especially since I still don't haven't gotten the swim thing figured out yet.

March 31: Umstead 100-miler
May 10: Three Days at the Fair 72-hour
June 16: Wyckoff/Franklin Lakes Triathlon - 0.5M swim, 17M bike, 5M run
September 9: Westchester ToughMan Half - 1.2M swim, 56M bike, 13.1M run
September 22: North Coast 24-hour
November 13: Ironman Florida - 2.4M swim, 112M bike, 26.2M run

Of course, I'll probably add a couple of races 5K to half-marathon. Perhaps even a full marathon or two. But those six are the main events. And, if you're wondering, I'm not ruling out a third trip to Across The Years on December 29, but I'm not committing to it either.

January Recap

After Across The Years, I spent a couple of weeks nursing my beat up body back to health. Notwithstanding the 17 miles I hobbled after midnight in the last 9 hours of the race, the first week was about nine miles, the second week 11. Mostly just easily jogging my minimum mile per day. By MLK day, I was coming back (especially after that problem toenail fell off), and the last three weeks of the month were 19, 25, and 28 miles, giving me a total of about 104 miles in the month of January.

Regarding that other persistent issue with me, I actually ended up gaining weight in January, despite intentions to the contrary. By the last week of the month, I figured that I'd re-commit for real on Febuary first, and as a result the last few days in Jan resembled Fat Tuesday. I got that out of my system and I'm ready for some serious discipline at this point.

State of the Streak

400th day in a row of running today! There's an organization out there that tracks all known running streaks a year or longer, and as of this writing I'm own the 305th-longest running streak in America (that they know of.) How long will I keep going? Doubtful I'll make the 43.5 years of the #1 longest running streak, but I do plan on keeping this going as long as possible. The streak has kept me consistent, and I have no idea how I'll stay consistent when the streak ends - so I'm putting it off ending it as long as possible.

State of the Blog

Boy, I'm certainly not posting nearly as frequently as I used to, eh? Well, looking at the unpublished drafts, I see reports for Knickerbocker 60K and the MS Bike Ride from September that just need to be published, so I suppose I owe that to you's. But otherwise I can't promise any increased frequency. There will certainly be no blog-publishin' schedule anytime soon - my real-life schedule is busy enough as it is! There will be some things though - I'm sure this triathlon thing will motivate me to write about some insights that I have along the way.

Across The Years 72 hour: 150 miles

2012-01-07T09:32:00.001-05:00

Day 1.. still fresh. Photo by Ray K

Going to keep this report short and sweet.

By the numbers:

Approximate miles per 24 hour split:
* Thursday (9am-9am): 80 miles
* Friday: 30 miles
* Saturday: 40 miles

Approx. time on the course per 24 hour split:
* Thursday: 23 hours
* Friday: 18 hours
* Saturday: 20 hours

Things were pretty good for the first 100K, which I achieved in about 16 hours. Afterwards, I slowed down dramatically. In particular, miles 65-90 were among the slowest I've ever run. 90-110 went OK, and the last 40 in 24 hours amounted to a sleep-deprived deathmarch where I was unable to move faster than about 16 minutes per mile at best, and about 21 average. I finally reached 150 miles with 90 minutes to spare. I went to sleep and didn't wake up until after the race had ended.

It became obvious on day 2 that I wasn't going to reach my original goal of 200 miles. This is due to incredible amount of time it took me to get from 65 to 90 miles. I revised my goal to 150 miles, which seemed easily doable at the time but even that took far more effort than I anticipated.

Thoughts:

By the end of the race I was in total countdown mode, repeating to myself in the wee hours of the morning "6 laps to go, 6 laps to go, 6 laps to go." This mantra didn't keep me going per se, but rather occupied my thoughts in a very difficult period for me.

In fact, through the last 48 hours I would occasionally find myself audibly saying, "this is so hard.." In fact, it occurred to me that this was so hard that the difficulty alone made it worth doing. Yes it's fun to see my runner friends, it's fun to achieve goals, it's fun to hear the hurrahs of all my non-runner facebook friends, it's even fun to be a little competitive.. but as I staggered along muttering at 2am, I suddenly realized that I simultaneously hated and loved how hard it was. I don't want to be melodramatic, but at that point things honestly sucked ass. But there was something intrinsic about the experience of attempting something so difficult that kept me going despite the suffering that would have overwhelmed the more trivial advantages.

People talk about scenery and friends and nice weather and whatever else gets them to do these things, but honestly - you can approach ATY as something so simple - running/walking - and make it difficult enough that the difficulty itself becomes the primary draw rather than the activity or mode. In other words, I go to this thing not because I like to run, but because I like to attempt incredibly difficult tasks.

That was the insight that I had from this race.

On another note, I know this was a good race for me because even thought I feel like it was a positive experience, I am also feeling completely depleted. My aches and pains are going away and my blisters are healing, but my mental state is still such that I am not interested in racing another ultra anytime soon. This will change, of course - I'm sure I'll be ready to rip off a 100-mile finish at Umstead on March 31 - but I also am unwilling to do anything before then, nor anything too soon after.

Java: Character Encoding in char[] and byte[]

2012-01-05T17:07:00.000-05:00

We were dealing with an issue at work where some emails going to Japanese customers were coming through as jibberish. So I went into the code and noticed that, in the processing, at one point the email body gets converted to a byte array and then back as a String. Suspecting that was the problem, I found myself wondering about java's byte[] and the more familiar char[]. There are methods in the java class library for java.lang.String that convert into both  (getBytes() and toCharArray()), so what's the difference between these two primitive types?

The more I thought about it, the more it made sense that the byte array was going to be the issue. At first glance (especially for those of us in the west), a char would seem to be essentially the same as a byte. But that was before I gave more consideration to the incredibly complex and amazing world of character encoding. A byte is by definition 8 bits, so only character sets that use 8 bits can be represented as a byte - limiting you to 255 characters. The primitive data type char on the other hand (and I had to look this up) is a single 16-bit unicode character - two bytes long - and 16 bits is enough to represent 65535 unique characters - plenty for, say - the japanese character set.

To test this theory, I wrote a little program that read a string of japanese text from a file (in Unicode), then converted it to both a byte[] and a char[], then converted those back to two Strings and compared them against the original.

public void testJapaneseCharactersInIsolation() throws Exception {
\\ jap.txt contains a sentence or two of japanese text.
FileInputStream file = new FileInputStream ("c:\\jap.txt");
\\ this would look at my locale and by default try it as UTF-8
\\ so we'll instead specifically tell it to read it as UTF-16.
  InputStreamReader isr = new InputStreamReader(file, "UTF-16");
BufferedReader reader = new BufferedReader(isr);

String japanese = reader.readLine();
char[] chars = japanese.toCharArray();
String japaneseChars = new String(chars);

byte[] bytes = japanese.getBytes();
String japaneseBytes = new String(bytes);

if (japanese.equals(japaneseChars)) {
System.err.println("chars equals original");
  } else {
      System.err.println("chars fails");
  }
  if (japanese.equals(japaneseBytes)) {
      System.err.println("bytes equals original");
  } else {
      System.err.println("bytes fails");
  }
}

And the output:

chars equals original

bytes fails

Internally, we're actually using ByteArrayOutputStream without specifying any sort of encoding on the toString(), so the effect is as if we were just doing a String foo = (bar.getBytes()) and expecting foo to equals the String bar - which it will for UTF-8 - but not for Unicode. Of course, Sun (now Oracle) is smart enough to assume people like me will want to use ByteArrayOutputStream for Japanese characters, and they support an encoding specification in the toString method of the library. The next step for me would be to write some business logic that specifies the proper encoding for the dialect in use (or, preferably, find a single encoding that will work for everyone.)

By the way - Joel Spolsky is much smarter than me and has written a great article educating developers who introduce bugs by only supporting 8-bit character encoding. It's called "The Absolute Minimum Every Software Developer Absolutely, Positively Must Know About Unicode and Character Sets (No Excuses!)" http://www.joelonsoftware.com/articles/Unicode.html.

Race Report: Marine Corps Marathon - 4:48:53 (PR)

2011-11-09T19:13:00.002-05:00

This report has been sitting as a draft for weeks. What you'll read is a report from a ten-day-later perspective, not a month-later perspective. Sorry to keep you waiting.

Pre-race

Well, it's a full ten days since the Marine Corps Marathon, and I'm just now getting around to writing a report. The result was great - sub-4:49, which is a lot faster than my previous PR of 5:31. I reached my sub-5 A-Goal so strongly that I wonder if I didn't set it too modestly. The race just went really well, so well in fact that I find myself reluctant to write about it - there just seems so much more to write about in a mediocre result, where I can address topics such as what happened? What didn't work? What can I do better? However, in this case - where a race works itself out almost perfectly, I really have little to say. I guess all I could do is play-by-play? And when I have a successful race, anything I find to complain about just seems to be hunting and pecking. Nitpicking.
That was a long paragraph to say.. this will be short. So let's just do the Play-by-Play.

I ran the entire first mile - keeps the streak alive.
I quickly started walking after the first mile, in the sometimes steep hills of Rosslyn.
The "Jog-a-mile, walk a minute or two" plan worked nicely with the early hills, provided I was flexible on the mile part. If a hill happened 0.75 miles after my last walk break, I walked. No big deal.
There was a long hill around the Georgetown Reservoir that I probably walked for 3-4 consecutive minutes. Again, no big deal.

At this point I'd like to reiterate what I said in the "Stating My Intentions" post - sub-5, which is about 11:30 per mile. Plan for a positive split, aiming for 10:45 miles in the first half-marathon. Then ease off a bit, and hang on to that sub-11:30 pace as long and as late as I can.

My average pace through the first half was right where I said it would be - eleven of the first thirteen miles were within 20 seconds of 10:30, about half above, half below. The two exceptions were a 10:54 in mile 2 (mostly uphill), and a 9:56 in mile 4 (downhill.)
I made a conscious effort to ease off at the half-marathon point, and mile splits started varying more widely on the flats of the national mall. Until mile 24, every mile split was within 30 seconds of 11 flat - some were down near 10:30, others were as high as 11:27 - but all were below the 11:30 required for a sub-5. Again, they were evenly distributed within that 60 second range of 11+-30.
It became obvious to me by "The Bridge" that not only was I going to break 5 hours, I had a shot at 4:45. But when we got to the very crowded out-and-back portion in Crystal City, I knew that I was starting to slow down more dramatically.
Mile 24, on the way back to the Pentagon, was my first mile below 11:30 - it was 11:54. Mile 25 was 11:38, and mile 26 was my slowest at 12:11. Good enough though! Can't complain about that!

So that's how it played out. Pretty much as good as it gets for me. I was able to just zone out and run without issues. I would have preferred not to drop off my pace so much in the last 5K - but, like I said - that's just hunting and pecking.

Post-race, with a PR and a smile.

On Big City Marathons

No doubt about it, MCM is a popular race - to the point that it's crowded. I've heard people talk about this before. There were always people around. 20-30 within a 20-30 foot radius of me - constantly. And, in the last ten miles as people started struggling - slowing down, walking - there was a lot of jockying for position and weaving my way through the groups who were sometimes moving 5-6 abreast. It got really bad in Crystal City with the two-way traffic. I know this reads like I'm complaining and I guess I am, but to complaint is really not my intention. I just feel like it's important to point out - the course and field is such that a mid-pack runner will have a lot of company at MCM.

These are some tough MoFos, who did the entire marathon with these packs. Notice the crowds - this was at mile 5.

But also, that's one of the draws of these races. I had not run a big-city marathon in a couple of years. Big City Marathons (BCMs?) are .. a pain in the ass, but a worthy pain in the ass. Logistically, they're a nightmare. Took us three hours to get back to our car after the race. You have to deal with hotels, and expos, and a million people.. Plus they're expensive.. It's just so much easier and more pleasant to run on the trails, or to run a small low-key event. But there's something about a BCM that I crave.. to the extent that I start to feel a void if I go long enough without one. Taken in moderation, the crowds are exhilarating. The crowd support at MCM in particular is really good - more so than Chicago. There were people lining the course pretty about 80% the entire race after Rosslyn. And they were all cheering and holding up signs and having a good time.. I really llike that.

In an uncharacteristically non--crowded moment. of the race.. What a course!

But, like I said, it's just too much effort to do that all the time. It's been two years since my last BCM, and that is probably a good interval. So far, among the BCMs, I've done Las Vegas, Philadelphia, Chicago, New York, and now Washington DC. My next BCM will likely be NYC in 2013.. which is perfectly timed for that two-year interval.

Awesome medal! Maybe second-best after Big Sur!

Splits:
05K 0:33:26 33:26
10K 1:06:22 32:56
15K 1:39:17 32:55
20K 2:12:22 33:05
25K 2:46:46 34:24
30K 3:21:46 35:00
35K 3:56:50 35:04
40K 4:32:39 35:49

Stating My Intentions: The Marine Corps Marathon

2011-10-28T22:20:00.000-04:00

My "A" goal for this race is sub-5 hours. That's very aggressive, as my current marathon PR stands at about 5:30. I can run all day long averaging 15 minutes per mile, but maintaining an average of 11:30 for 26.2 miles (pace for sub-5), is a much different story.

Unfortunately, as solid as my training has been, I don't think I've had enough long runs to be capable of a negative split, so I intend to plan for a positive split - which means going out a little too fast and banking time. I'm thinking about running 10:45 or so per mile, with a run 10/walk 1 pattern, through the half-marathon point (My half marathon PR's pace is about 10:15, all running), then ease off a bit, perhaps to 11:15, and hang on as long as I can.

At some point - hopefully late in the race - the 5-hour pacing group should catch up to me, moving along at 11:30 per mile. My plan is to let them catch me, then do everything I can to keep up with them through the end.

So that's my plan. My twitter account should actually be updated automatically when I cross 10K, 20K, 30K, and 40K - so you can follow me there (@stevetursi) on sunday morning and get up-to-the-minute updates. No matter what happens, come back next week for an exciting report!

Race Report: REACH 5K Mahwah: 25:48 (PR)

2011-10-25T12:27:00.003-04:00

There are two 5K races within 5K of my house, both run by the REACH foundation. One in Hillburn (next to Suffern), and the other across the NJ border in Mahwah (but, also next to Suffern). I've done the Hillburn 5K twice (reports here and here), but never the Mahwah race, until this past Sunday.

The Mahwah race is located in Darlington Park, home of two town lakes for swimming in the summer time and - as far I know - largely vacant the rest of the time. Having never been there, when I saw it was the location for the race, I was surprised to see it even was even big enough for a 5K. It turns out there's a lot more to the park than from what you can see from the road. However, it isn't *that* big, with the 5K course requiring two laps around the entire park.

Driving into the park on the 49ºF overcast morning, I saw that there were hills there, all gentle. Nothing to concern me. Once I was checked in, I found my coworkers (Hertz is one of the event's sponsors) and, after a quick 2/3 mile warmup jog, hung out with them until the race start - by then the sun had come out and temps were on their way to the upper 50s. All in all, a very nice day. I wore a tank top and shorts - though most others had at least long-sleeve shirts.

I set up a playlist for every 5K, and because I go so fast in these races I tend to play it very loud - so if any coworkers tried to talk to me during the race, I had no idea. But I was part of a few of us who managed to stay close together, even leapfrogging each other, such that at least 5 out of 10 of us finished within a minute or two of each other. In fact, I think every one of Hertz's participants ran sub-30! wow!

3 minutes into the race, after I've settled into an 8-minutes-per-mile pace, I was surprised to see everyone turning off the asphalt and running up a very short but steep hill and then across a grassy field. Obviously I am not intimidated by trail-running, but nobody told me this race would be off-road? Anyway, I figured that was probably a race anomaly and charged up the short hill, passing other runners like they weren't moving and catching my breath on the other side. Then, a tenth of a mile later, there was another hill just like it. A quarter later, another hill. I charged them all. And then there was actually a trail section, about a third of a mile long, complete with a couple of mud bogs and a few roots. I was breathing super-hard here, not much over a mile into the race, and worried that I wouldn't be able to sustain a sub-9 pace after a 7:55 first mile. I was running around 8:30 through there and really struggling. I recovered a bit after returning to asphalt and finishing the first lap.

It wasn't long into the second lap when I knew I was clearly redlining, and I started to lose confidence that I would be able to maintain this intensity to the end - trails or not. I tried to back off the pace a bit but for some reason I found that very difficult, probably because I get so caught up in the competition. So I figured I'd just hang on as long as possible and see what happens. At the second mile (8:15 split) I knew I was close to my limit, especially with that trail section coming up. A water stop preceded it, so I grabbed something and didn't even swallow - just swished it around and spit it out - all over my shirt. Laughing at my slobbery tendencies and enjoying the coolness of the water, I momentarily forgot my pain through the first hill and the rooty part. But the bogs came and I just had to stop. At mile 2.5, I took a walk break before the very last of the steep hills.

Taking the walk break was a risky but not uncalculated action. By the 2-mile mark it was clear that my "A" goal for the race - 25 minutes - was not in the cards, but the "C" goal of a new PR (previously 26:49) was easy if I just held it together. And if I really pushed, perhaps I could break 26. So that was on my mind when I took the walk break. I sometimes cannot get back into a groove when resuming, but fortunately, it paid off - I resumed running when we got to the asphalt with a half-mile to go, faster than ever. Passing back many of the people who flew by during my breather, my pace gradually accelerated until I was at nearly a sprint towards the end. My mile 3 split, which included the walk break, was 8:43 - but the last 0.13 miles according to my GPS watch were run at a 6:30 minute per mile pace!!

Anyway, despite missing my "A" goal (and I tend to set them so high I can't remember ever actually achieving an "A" goal), I have to say I'm pleased with this result. I feel like I'm actually starting to graduate into the higher ranks of these local races - my finish was 70th out of about 250 - but tenth in my age group (top 10!). A mere 30 seconds-per-mile faster pace (we're talking 8:18 to about 7:45 here, folks) would have put me in the top 3 and have been sufficient to win an age group medal. Holy crap!

Next up: Marine Corps Marathon, this upcoming weekend.

Obligatory I Haven't Posted in a Month Post

2011-10-14T09:58:00.001-04:00

It's the middle of October and I haven't posted anything in a month. Usually this means things are going bad but that's not the case, quite the contrary. Weight loss is still stagnant but otherwise I'm still running every day, and even manged a 53-mile week last week. My pattern has been alternating between high-mileage and low-mileage weeks, which seems to be working for me. I'm pretty damned tired at the end of a 53-mile week and a few days of 3-milers seems to re-energize me.

In other news, new 3-mile treadmill PR on Wednesday: 23:41. I have a 5K sponsored by my company a week from this Sunday and I'd like to PR there (current 5K pr is 26:49), which means I won't likely hit 50 miles next week either. The following week is the Marine Corps Marathon, and again no 50-mile week but I do intend to run the race hard. Definitely a PR effort.

Looking forward to November, I registered for the Knickerbocker 60K again. That'll be a fun easy training day. Then - nothing until ATY. 200 miles!!

Going to keep this short and sweet today. Things are, after all, busy. (which is why I haven't posted in a month!)

Mid September Check-in

2011-09-15T10:59:00.000-04:00

After reaching my 1000th mile in 2011 on September 1st, I hit some sort of wall. I suddenly felt weak, and my left leg in particular was bothering me. I decided that I would take a week of down-time, which I hoped would re-energize things and get me going again.

Daily mileage September 1-15

From the chart above, you can see that I dropped my mileage dramatically on September 4 and didn't start increasing it again until the 9th.. giving me 5 solid days of rest. It definitely helped. I no longer feel "beat up" and the left leg feels better, though not 100% yet.

Daily Mileage August 22-31

Weekly Mileage since Aug 1. Note that week 38 is only half-finished.

My training has been really consistent lately, and the weekly mileage, while relatively low compared to most ultrarunners, is actually rather high for me, especially since long runs have been completely absent. The chart is typical of a "base-building" phase in training, and I've felt that this solid block of 29-mile weeks has been very beneficial. I've really never had this kind of consistency in my training, and, I think as a result, I've felt much more comfortable in my daily runs - week 37 notwithstanding. I can't remember the last time I dreaded going out. And the motivation to keep the running streak alive no longer feels like a burden.

That's the good news.

The bad news is that I'm still lacking long runs. Like I said in the previous post, I used racing as a means to getting long runs in, but now that I'm not racing as much, they've become largely non-existent. The last time I ran a mere half-marathon was way back in July, during a race. This fall I'm running the Marine Corps Marathon in Washington DC and this winter I'm running ATY. Both races respect the fact that I am building a solid base, but demand that I start getting those endurance muscles going again. Which is why I'm planning on doing a nice long run this weekend.

Speaking of ATY, I've set a goal of going 200 miles in the 72-hour race. I'll have more comments about that in a future post, but if I'm going to have a hope of reaching that goal I'll need long runs and a reduction in weight. I'm shooting for 239 lbs by December 28th.

Weight Chart halfway through September.
Diamonds are daily weight. Red line is trend.
Floaters are bad; sinkers are good.
Dashed yellow line will hit 239 on December 28th.

From my weight chart, you can see that I slipped a bit during and after labor day (which coincided with the decrease in mileage), but as you can see I'm back on track and another solid week of this will create some serious momentum.

August 2011

2011-09-01T10:33:00.001-04:00

One of these pairs have been used in a trail ultra. Can you guess which?

Pleased to report a solid solid month of August.

Training

131 total miles, my second-highest total of the year - and that is without any races!
Sub-57 minute 10K split on a training run (PR)
3 interval workouts, all with 800-meter or longer intervals
Four ascents of Bear Mountain

Weight Loss

August was a bit of a roller coaster. The net result, however, is positive - I was 288 on the first day of August, 281 today. The trend isn't quite as dramatic, but still positive - down about 2 lbs.

The red line is a 20-day weighted moving average

Notice that both of the roller coaster bumps on the right side of that graph occurred on the weekend. That is an issue - but the bigger issue is avoiding overeating at night, where I commonly have two or more full meals. I feel that avoiding that will cause weight to drop very, very dramatically. Another thing worth noting is that, in the month of August, I avoided pizza entirely. Pizza is kryptonite to me- one of those foods that I simply cannot stop eating after the first bite. So.. the last time I had a bite was July 24.

September

One effect of not racing in August is I don't have the long runs - I tend to use marathons and ultras as my long runs. Not only is this an expensive and time-consuming way to do things, but as I found in the spring, racing too much leads to burnout. So I need to add them back in - they were conspicuously absent in August (the longest run was just over ten miles.) To that end:

Do at least two 20-milers.
Continue running every day (streak is currently at 246 days and there's a good chance I'll pass 1000 miles in 2011 with today's run.)
Go at least 150 miles, with at least 32 miles each week, and at least 40 miles on the weeks I do the 20s.
Get the evening eating habits under control.

Outlook

Looking forward to the fall, I'm currently registered for only two races - the Marine Corps Marathon on October 30, and Across the Years 72-hour at the end of December. While it's likely that I'll add another race or two, I'll be reluctant to do so. I think I raced too much in the spring and was burned out by Memorial Day - causing the disaster DNF at Pineland Farms where I dropped at mile 20 simply because "it sucked."

So I've already decided that I'll say "no" to more races. Instead, I'd like to take the races I run more seriously. Perhaps as a result of racing too much, I've started taking a far-too-casual approach to the races I run. I don't like taking these things too seriously, but I also recognize that they deserve more respect than I've been giving them. Depending on how September goes, I'll likely give myself aggressive "a" goals for MCM and ATY. Possibilities are churning in my mind. I look forward to sharing them with you as they become more clear.

Sweat Science on Running Every Day

2011-08-19T09:49:00.000-04:00

Every now and then somebody much smarter than me articulates an opinion in a way that my inferior intellect is incapable of doing. That is what just happened when reading the Sweat Science blog, written by Alex Hutchinson. The article was called "Decision Fatigue and Workout Planning", and he explains the reasoning behind exercising seven days per week in the context of decision fatigue.

In terms of my current fitness goals, six days would be plenty and possibly even preferable to seven — but as soon as you introduce that element of choice, every morning suddenly gets much more complicated. Should I take my day off this morning? How tired am I? Is it going to rain? How do I expect to feel later in the week?

The scenarios he describes are in-line with my personal experience of 5 day/week workout schedules, which I've never been able to maintain for more than a month or so. However, when I decide I'm going to run 7 days per week, I become incredibly more consistent - I've been running 7 days per week for all of 2011 so far. This type of schedule obviously applies only to a small subset of runners, but Hutchinson and I are apparently both part of it. He concludes thusly:

Being flexible and fitting in exercise when it’s convenient may sound good in theory. But for me, at least, my will power isn’t strong enough to do that on a regular basis.

You can read the article here: http://sweatscience.com/decision-fatigue-and-workout-planning/ He also has a book. I read it a couple of months back and recommend to all readers: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/006200753X.

Race Report: Wakely Dam Ultra 2011

2011-08-02T10:56:00.002-04:00

I ran the Wakely Dam Ultra in 2009 in a time of 10:52. My official time in 2011 is 10:00:20.

I have been very casual about my races lately. I'm not taking them nearly as seriously as I used to. There are positive and negative results to this attitude. While I really appreciate the fact that I can toe the starting line of an all-day event without any stress and unconcerned with my ability to finish it, a race like Wakely Dam demands at least some respect. With a relatively short distance of 32.6 miles and small amount of elevation change at 4000ft, it's easy to forget that this is indeed a rather difficult race because of the endless technical singletrack and the relentless rolling hills. I wrote all that to write this: I showed up to the starting line with everything I needed to finish, but without reading anything about the race, just as a refresher. I didn't even read my own race report from 2009. Someone introduced themselves to me early in the race, telling me they read it, and asked if I had handled my chaffing issues. I had handled that issue specifically, but there were other details in that report that would have been helpful to have remembered in 2011. In retrospect, I wish I had re-read it.

Fortunately, those details resulted in mere inconveniences rather than serious issues. The only real issue I had would not have been avoided by reading a report or two. Since the beginning of June, my heart rate has been abnormally high during my runs. It has been very frustrating seeing all aspects of my running suddenly decline. My speed, my endurance, and my hill-climbing ability are all significantly worse than they were in May. I will have another post about that topic specifically, so I won't go into too much detail here. But suffice it to say that it had a profound effect on my experience at Wakely Dam this year.

The first ten miles came and went. It's the hardest part of the race in terms of hills, but it's also early when we're all fresh so I just went slow and easy, so much so that I assumed I'd have a negative split. In miles 8-9 there is a pretty significant (read: endless) climb that kind of wore me out because it was just grinding - and it probably was the beginning of the end of my hopes for a great race. I had an elevation profile posted in my 2009 report. If I read it, I would have been reminded of this, and prepared it.

Miles 10-15 are when we really start to get rewarded with spectacular views of pristine undisturbed remote lakes that, frankly, can only be viewed by folks willing to hike a half-marathon each way. It is incredible. I refilled my 100-oz CamelBak reservoir for the first time at mile 10, from a gentle cascade right below a beaver dam, in what may be the prettiest part of the course.

It was in mile 15, however, when things started taking a turn for the worse as I was moving really slowly - even to the point of stopping and sitting on hills. The trail through this section was also technical enough that I didn't feel safe running it - my fatigue may have contributed to this mindset - and the steep rolling hills really took a toll here. Miles 20-25 in particular were like a bad movie - they seemed to take forever. In mile 25 or so I stopped and refilled my CamelBak for a second time, and suspecting that at least part of my performance issues were due to dehydration, really focused on drinking as much as I can. It was nearly empty again by the finish. (that's 300 oz of water for those of you keeping track, a number that doesn't count another half-gallon of water I drank before the race. Regardless, I was still nastily dehydrated at the end.)

After mile 25 I started to feel like the end was close enough that I could really push, and perhaps just persist my way to the finish line. So I started to force myself to run as much as I can and powerwalk the rest - and while there were still a few 16-minute miles in the last 10K, all the 25-minute miles were behind me. As was the case in 2009, I began to wonder If This Race Will Ever Freakin' End.

I finished feeling totally spent and unsatisfied with my 10-hour finish. I really thought I could break my 2009 time by two hours - as it was, I took a mere 52 minutes off. Which, while 52 mins is nothing to spit at, the chaffing problems I had in 2009 were really nasty and took at least an hour off the time I would have had back then. (That part I do remember.)

My experience at the 2011 Wakely Dam Ultra will have an impact on my schedule for the rest of the summer. Specifically, I ended up skipping the Burning River 100, which was scheduled for the following Saturday. Wakely Dam basically proved something that I've been suspecting since my performance decline in June: I don't feel like I'm ready for another 100-mile attempt right now.

This report would be incomplete without a word of gratitude towards the race directors, both former and present. After ten years, RDJim, the founder of the Damn Wakely Dam ultra, decided that the 2010 race would be it's last. Thankfully, someone else stepped up - RDKim! She and her husband Doug took over, added their own unique flavor, and kept the race going. And from my perspective they did an awesome job. They're heros to everyone who has or who will ever run this special race - because there really is nothing else like it anywhere.

Here are a separate post with a few dozen pictures from 2011: http://stevetursi.blogspot.com/2011/07/photos-wakely-dam-ultra-2011.html

Here is my report from 2009: http://stevetursi.blogspot.com/2009/07/race-report-damn-wakely-dam-326-mile.html

Here is my GPS data from 2011: http://connect.garmin.com/activity/101243169

Photos: Wakely Dam Ultra 2011

2011-07-27T08:59:00.005-04:00

The Wakely Dam Ultra is held on an uninterrupted 32.6 mile section of the Northville-Placid trail through the West Canada Lakes Wilderness Area from Piseco to Wakely Dam. There are no cross roads. There is no aid. Even the finish line, a 17 mile drive from the nearest town on a mostly-dirt road, is pretty remote by New York standards. Runners provide for all their needs. This usually means carrying your food with you and taking / treating water from streams.

Following are photos I shot with my camera. I didn't take too many, so I included a bunch taken by my buddy RJ, who I think really did a good job capturing what the trail was really like. They're in no particular order.

I'll post a regular paragraph-form report sometime in the next week.

My photos:

Mile 10, the first time I stopped for water

Beaver dam holding back the lake in the previous photo, below which the cascade I took water from.

Runners milling around the starting line.

Cedar River dam at mile 23. Built in 1903 by a logging company, it has been abandoned and looks to my untrained eyes ready to fail.

The dam is for 31 miles the only man-made thing we see that isn't a hikers bridge, lean-to, outhouse or trail marker.

The bridge over the dam looked just a little unsafe. (Not part of the course.)

Another runner saw me taking pictures of this spot and offered to shoot one with me in it. The next three pictures were taken from this same location.

So due to the incredible rain we had in march, a bridge that was here was washed away. These ropes replaced them. Reports from as late as May indicate that this crossing was impassable. But as you can see, the water level declined significantly.

Typical Lean-to from the course. A ranger was hanging out here and some runners were talking to him.

16.2 miles to the finish!

The trail marker we followed

Here's the warning that the bridge is out.

The starting line is at the end of the road.

RJs Photos. Curious about what the course looks like? Here's the answer:

As you look at these photos, keep in mind that they do a good job representing the majority of the 32.6 mile run. If you're expecting mostly smooth soft California singletrack with a few rocky sections, you'd be mistaken.

Lots of fallen trees.

When the bridge is out, we cross the beaver dam instead! Seriously.

RJ!

When I saw this bridge was out, I just plowed through the creek. Didn't see the replacement bridge 100ft to my right.

The replacement bridge.

Stay on the right side of this bridge..

The gate at 50K. Still about 2K to go.

Because of construction, we couldn't do the glorious dam crossing at the finish. This is what we did instead.

Results

Thoughts on day 200 of my running streak

2011-07-16T11:02:00.001-04:00

My signature, etched into a snowy track on running streak day 15

"The official definition of a running streak, as adopted by the United States Running Streak Association, Inc., is to run at least one continuous mile within each calendar day under one's own body power (without the utilization of any type of health or mechanical aid other than prosthetic devices).

"Running under one's own body power can occur on either the roads, a track, over hill and dale, or on a treadmill. Running cannot occur through the use of canes, crutches or banisters, or reliance on pools or aquatic devices to create artificial buoyancy."

Today was my 200th day in a row of running.

The other day I found myself telling a coworker, "I run every day. I never miss a day of running."

And frankly, I'm kind of proud of that. Really. It feels good to be able to honestly and truthfully say "I never miss a day. Ever."

It may not be the best way for most people to train, but for me it works. Consistency has always been my weakest trait and, being the kind of guy who likes to tackle my demons head on, running every day forces it. And, after 200 days, I finally feel like I can honestly say I've been very consistent.

And, just maybe - a little manic. For example, if I run in the morning, then by that afternoon it starts to seem like a long time since I've gone on a run. I find myself having mini panic attacks that I didn't run yet today. "Oh wait, I did that 6am thing. Never mind."

Of course, the opposite effect is that if I didn't run early, then I get stressed out as the day goes on while I try to figure out how to squeeze my run into the continuously fewer hours I have remaining. Runs those days tend to be in the 1-2 mile range because that's all I have time for. Sometimes I'll have Alex and Joe in the car, and I'll pull up to a track and have them hang out while I knock out four laps really quick.

I thought that by now I'd have some sort of routine going, but it really hasn't materialized. The closest thing is that since I now work at a facility that has showers and treadmills, I often run at lunch these days - and the main thing that gets me down there (instead of to the cafeteria) is the streak. And when someone invites me to join them for lunch, I won't hesitate to go with them in an instant and just plan to run later. So - no routine.

Still, streaking is not without its issues.

There was day that I was sick.. really laid up. Called in to work. Honestly thought I'd be giving up the streak that day. But in the afternoon I found the energy to go to Joe's lacrosse game, and while I was there I ran around the field a few times until my garmin registered 1 mile. Probably still had a mild fever at the time. My speed suffered dramatically for a month after that, and even now I don't feel like I'm back to the speed I was at before this little stunt.

Another time I was intentionally fasting and dehydrating myself in the last three days of a weight loss contest. But before the final weigh-in, on a three-day food fast and a 15-hour water fast, I put on long sleeves and ran a mile in the sun just to sweat out a few more ounces before the weigh-in - which coincidentally kept the streak alive. I won the contest, and there was a big prize that made it worth it. But, wow. That wasn't too smart.

I have gotten my mile in the day before ultras. I have gotten it the day after ultras. In an ultra, I make sure to run a continuous mile early in the race before starting a run/walk cycle, just to keep the streak alive. If it goes overnight, I'll make sure to run another continuous mile soon after midnight for that same reason. And, the next day, I run again, regardless of how tight my legs feel, or how blistered my feet are.

These are the kinds of issues that I deal with when maintaining a streak. But, even at 200 days my streak is still minuscule. There is an organization of streak-runners that I can join, but only at the associate level until I reach 365 days. There are members of that organization who's streaks are approaching 45 years. I'm sure that to them, the issues I've dealt with seem rather minor. And they will seem minor to me too, if my streak lasts half that long.

With a little luck, we can look forward to another post like this on December 28th, when my streak reaches 365 days.

If you're interested, please click here to see the run I did on my 200th day. It was 4.59 miles, easy pace, with a 300ft hill climb in the middle. I'm a tiny bit under the weather today and that definitely contributed to the run's difficulty.

Three days at the fair 48-hour: 102.9 miles (PR)

2011-07-12T19:20:00.001-04:00

My awesome pacer Marge!

I know it's counterintuitive, but the more I run the short-loop timed races, the more I enjoy them. These races give back what you put into them but also so much more. What we lose with the disadvantage of non-trails and repetition we get back in so many other ways. Time on the course melts away as we walk and run with dozens of good friends who are out there with you. The RDs can afford to put a lot more resources into one grand aid station, as opposed to a dozen more-limited aid stations. But for me personally, there's a low-pressure "let's just have fun running for two days straight" vibe to these makes for some really fond memories of pleasant weekends.

Real-deal aid stations

Back in May (over 8 weeks ago now!) I participated in the Three Days at the Fair 48-hour race at the New Jersey State Fairgrounds in Augusta. The race consists of a 0.8578 mile loop, almost completely asphalt and negligible but not unnoticeable elevation change. It is part of the McNulty Family's NJ trail race series. There are 6, 12, 24, and 48 hour races, with a new 72-hour option added this year. I ran this race in 2010, its inaugural year, where I completed something just south of 100K in the first 25 hours of the 48-hour race before going home (other obligations forced me to leave early.)

Other obligations also affected this year's race for me. I intended to sign up for the 72-hour race but was unable to get that extra day off work. That was the original constraint. Then, a few weeks before the race, I received and accepted a job offer at another company. My transition between the jobs occurred the weekend of the race - that is - my last day at my old job was the evening before the race start. I had my exit interview, said goodbye, went home to grab some camping equipment, and went straight to the race location to set up my tent. The next morning, I would be off.

The new job, however, would also affect the race. It would start on Monday morning, and the race ended Sunday morning. Wanting to be well rested for the new job, I declared before the race started that I would finish on Saturday night regardless of my mileage. This would allow me to get two decent nights worth of sleep before starting work. I would run the race like it was a 100-miler, going non-stop through the first night until I achieved the distance. I gave myself a 36-hour cutoff, figuring that by 9PM on Saturday night I would have to get some sleep or risk being a mess on Monday morning.

Tent? I don't need no stinkin' tent!

I set up my camp near the restroom and slept very well while the 72-hour runners, who started at 9 that morning, were going around me all night. At 7am I rose and relaxed, ready to get started. At 9am we were off and I was very surprised at how well I was doing against the rest of the field. Even with walk breaks every lap, it felt like I was in front of the majority of the 48-hour runners, perhaps even in the top 10. I was in fact alarmed by it, and forced myself to take some extended walking breaks even though I did not need them. But the fact of the matter was that when I was running, it was far too fast - around ten minutes per mile. By mile 20 the inevitable manifestation of going out too fast started to rear its ugly head and I backed off the pace significantly. But, at mile 23 I saw that a marathon PR was in reach, so in the spirit of "you only live once", I ran hard for that 5K and came through the marathon split in 5:30, a five-minute PR. My lap split at mile 26 was 9:09!

The next 30 miles were spent recovering from the first 25. I was in a pretty bad way after running so hard at the start and everything I might have gained I lost times three. There were two consecutive laps that took a half-hour each, followed by another 30-minute lap five laps later. There were also practical concerns. My high-quality mountain hardwear backpacking tent, which had been sitting in storage for years had fallen apart on me - the glue holding the floor to the walls dried out and was failing. I would have been fine by myself but my wife and kid were coming that day to hang out and camp, sleeping in the tent. I called her and told her to go to Costco and pick up whatever looked good to her. When she did arrive, I had to set up the tent for them, which took the better part of an hour. The first day was thus 65 laps before I finally went to sleep myself sometime after midnight.

Getting me going on day 2

I awoke after about six hours sleep and started again, doing about 20 miles worth of laps all between 14 and 25 minutes, with a long lap of two hours thrown in for good measure (sorry, don't remember why.) Writing this now nine weeks later I don't remember much about this section, except that I passed the time hanging out and talking to friends. The 24-hour runners had arrived and their fresh legs gave all of us a little extra energy, but I imagine most of this time was spent just cruising along the best we can, clicking off laps.

At some point on Saturday afternoon I saw my friend (and friend to all ultrarunners everywhere) Marge hanging around. She was coming off an injury and due to volunteer starting a midnight. After an hour or so, I saw her just standing around and invited her to walk a lap with me. Marge probably ended up doing 25 laps with me, pacing me for miles 80-100! It was totally awesome hanging out with her for this period, and while I have little memory of what we actually talked about, I do remember that we had a great time and that those last 20 miles went by quickly.

Oh, so regarding the last 20 miles. Like I said, they went by quickly. But remember when I also write I'd go only 36 hours or 100 miles, whatever comes first? Well, when I was at 90+ miles when the clock stuck 36, I definitely wasn't about to stop! Besides, I ended up sleeping that first night, which negated my main reason for needing sleep the second night. So we kept going. The last ten miles felt like they went by as fast as the first ten. After 116 laps (117=100 miles), Race Director Rick said, "Let's make lap 117 your fastest!" "I already have a nine-minute lap!" "So?" He threw the hammer and I had to catch it. I cursed Rick and took off, initially a pretty good clip, but I gradually increased the speed until I was going at a full sprint at the end. The lap was exactly 8 minutes! Marge couldn't believe it (and later said she had a hard time keeping up!)

The clock after I crossed 100 miles

The time was something like 12:30am on Sunday morning. I sat on the ground and just stayed there, probably until 1. Finally, I hobbled back to my tent and slept. Woke up the next morning and did four more nice slow laps and finished the race at 102.936 miles, which was good enough for 13th place in the 48 hour, out of 34 starters.

Immediately after lap 117 (100 miles)

Where have I been?

2011-07-08T14:02:00.000-04:00

Well, look at that. Steve starts a new job and suddenly his blog is neglected into oblivion. Five hundred and thirty-something posts and then, nothing. Well, I must admit that things have indeed been busy but a two-month drought of posts to this blog is downright inexcusable. For weeks, millions of you have been sitting on the edge of your seats waiting for a new post and I'm sure some have allowed doubt to set in. "Will Steve ever post again?" "Have we seen the last of Steve's brilliant writing??" And now, I humbly present to you, This - a post with essentially zero content and pointless rambling with empty promises of real content to come. Because, really. There are things going on and stuff I want to write about. I've had profound insights into a lot of topics these last two months and if I don't document them here they might as well not exist! I might even have a rare java-related post or two just to bore the socks off all of you who can't care less and shock the socks off the rest of ya's. But there are definitely topics in running that I want to talk about, too. And, of course, at least three race reports from May that I still need to write. So stay tuned! (Here comes the empty promise..) There is great stuff to come!

Good luck to all my friends who are running Badwater on Monday and Tuesday next week! Have a great time!

Miwok 100K - DNF (Missed Cutoff)

2011-05-12T08:59:00.000-04:00

The Miwok 100K (62 miles) was held on May 7, 2011 in the Marin Headlands north of San Francisco.

I am not, as is my custom, going to go into a detailed account of my race. Instead, I'll just report the facts, acknowledge a few people, and post a bunch of pictures that will speak for themselves.

The facts: I completed 34 miles with 7200' of gainin 9:05. I felt very strong initially, and even though I slowed down on the uphills, they never got difficult. I did get very week on the downhills, such that by the end I couldn't manage to maintain even a 12-minute per mile pace for more than a few minutes without a walk break - downhill. The first 15 miles or so went extremely well, and it wasn't until the section between Tennessee Valley and Pantoll when I started to feel the effects of the distance and downhills. However, the climb up to Pantoll, supposedly the longest of the race, felt positively easy. I took it nice and slow, of course.

After Pantoll, I was treated to some of the most amazing trail running I've ever seen: soft smooth rolling singletrack through grassy meadows with views of the ocean 1800' below. After five miles of that we went through the Bolinas Ridge aid station and were then treated to a fireroads through a forest of coastal redwoods that were so tall as to be simply unreal. After a few miles of that, the trail drops dramatically off the ridge down to highway 1, which is where I missed the cutoff and was pulled from the race.

It was great to see many friends at this race - Jeff and Linda, Rick, Sean, etc. - Dusty, you're awesome for sending me encouraging texts during the race - and to people like Jenny and Russ who I know online and said hi. Because of the out-and-back course, it was also fun to see the front runners who I admire so much doing what they do best and making it look easy.

Ok! Pictures!

Got my bib!

Rodeo Beach - where the race starts

Another view of Rodeo Beach. The hill behind it is the second big
climb. The course continues to the hills on the horizon there.

My father at the Nike Missile Site turned into a museum. Mile 1 is on that hill right behind.

Not part of the course, but nearby.

That hill on the left, 720', is the first climb with incredible views of the Golden Gate Bridge.

The coast just south of Rodeo Beach (not part of the course). Lighthouse at the end.

Previous photo, but from the other side.

Near the bottom of the first climb

Looking back towards that lighthouse, halfway up the first climb

First climb is pretty much the only asphalt of the course

The road has an 18% grade!

Above the top of the GGB's towers!

Cruise Ship going under the GGB at 6am.

Singletrack Ascending a small hill at mile 5-6

At mile 7 we come back across the beach with that has the starting line.

Near the start of the second big climb

We go by this tiny cove after climbing a hundred feet or so

Later on in that second climb, we hit a staircase.

Looking back after a good ways up the second climb, we see the starting area
and the first hill on the extreme left.

Looking north from Tennessee Valley.

Looking east after the climb out of Tennessee Valley

Miles and miles of amazing singletrack between Tennessee Valley and Pantoll

Between TV and Pantoll - The singletrack

Singletrack between TV and Pantoll

Fireroad on the way up to Pantoll

As we climbed to the higher elevation, suddenly the enormous
coastal redwoods appeared. These trees can be 350+ feet tall!!

After Pantoll, we come out into this grassy meadow which overlooks
Stinson Beach and Bolinas Bay, 1800' below.

This went on for five miles

It was the most unforgettably enjoyable trail
I've ever head the pleasure of running on.

There's an amazing scenic drive right above the trail, by the way..
perhaps too scenic for this fellow.

This trail alone was enough to make me want to come back.

After the meadow, it turned into miles and miles of more redwoods..

Map of portion that I did

Elevation profile

GPS Data:

Time:	09:05:51
Distance:	33.92 mi
Elevation Gain:	7,194 ft
Calories:	5,860 C

Timing

Time:	09:05:51
Moving Time:	08:44:01
Elapsed Time:	09:05:51

Avg Pace:	16:05 min/mi
Avg Moving Pace:	15:26 min/mi
Best Pace:	07:17 min/m

Elevation

Elevation Gain:	7,194 ft
Elevation Loss:	6,741 ft
Min Elevation:	2 ft
Max Elevation:	1,867 ft

Race Preview - Miwok 100K

2011-05-04T15:25:00.000-04:00

Not a bad place to run all day long

"The Miwok 100K is very hilly (approximately 10,000 feet of cumulative elevation gain) with spectacular views of San Francisco and the Golden Gate Bridge, Mt. Tamalpais and the Point Reyes National Seashore. The course is a modified out-and-back, consisting of mostly fire roads and single-track trails with less than four miles on roads. The race is extremely competitive at the front, a rewarding challenge for the mid-pack and a glorious long day in the forests and fields for those not in a hurry."

I have been looking forward to the Miwok 100K for the last six months, and I'm thrilled that it's finally here. This is the "A" race that I've had all spring, and all of my training has been leading up to this.

However, this race will be one of the hardest I've ever run. I will constantly be running against the clock, trying to avoid being pulled from the race for being too slow. Going for me is a strong training season where I've not missed a single day of running and I have two very strongly-run 50-mile races under my belt. Going against me is the fact that, regardless of how much I've improved this year, I'm still likely to be the largest guy out there. Even though I've literally never been this lean or well-trained for an ultra, I'm still at least 50 pounds overweight.

Staying ahead of the cutoffs

I am 100% positive that I can complete 100K with 9500' of climbing. The question is- can I do it in the 16.5 hour time limit allowed by the race? Here are the intermediate cutoffs:

Randall Trail - 33.9 miles - 8 hours 15 minutes - 14:36 per mile pace
I'm worried about this. My 50K (31 mile) PR was set in March 2009 on a largely flat completely asphalt course. I finished it in 6:47, averaging a 13:06 per mile pace. I was about 15lbs heavier (~290lbs) then and not as fit as I am now - I'd easily PR a 50K if I was running one this weekend. The big unknown for this weekend will be the hills. Can I average 14:36 per mile when I'm climbing 4000'-5000' over 33.9 miles?

Pan Toll - 47.8 miles - 12 hours 25 minutes - 15:35 per mile overall
If I make it past 34 miles, I can afford to slow down a little (not a lot) before the next big cutoff a half-marathon later. My 50-mile PR - 12:21 - had a 14:49 per mile pace - but again, that was with half the elevation change that this will have.

Tennessee Valley - 57.6 miles - 15 hours 5 minutes - 15:42 per mile
No doubt about it - this will be the crux of the race for me. If I'm close on the 48 mile cutoff than I'll have less than three hours to complete these ten miles, which is normally easy but not after 50 miles. It'll likely be getting dark by now so there will be a lot of psychological crap going on. I'll really have to focus to make it.

Finish - 62.6 miles - 16.5 hours - 15:48 per mile
Making it past Tennessee Valley will be tremendously relieving, and that relief will color my last five miles. I still have to stay focused because the stakes at this point will be as high as ever, but at least I'll be smiling.

Itinerary

I fly into San Francisco Airport late Friday morning. I'll check in on Friday afternoon, race on Saturday, and then hang out with my parents on Sunday. I fly home on a redeye Sunday so I can be at work Monday morning.

Weather

Looks nice! As of this writing it'll be mostly cloudy in the morning, which then clears up. Probably fog, especially in the A.M. High: 61ºF. I'll take it.

Links

Live webcast: http://www.ultralive.net/miwok/webcast.php

Karl Meltzer doesn't think I have a chance: http://karlmeltzer.com/2011/05/miwok-100k-coming-saturday/

Photograph is by Flickr User Mindgrow

2011 Hook Mountain Half Marathon: 2:12:55 (PR)

2011-04-18T16:31:00.000-04:00

On April 10th, I ran the Hook Mountain Half Marathon for the third time, and finished in a Personal Record time of 2:12:55. This was my fourth PR in as many weeks.

I really can't write about this year's race without referring to last year's. I've never worked in a race so hard as I did last year at this race. For some reason, that day I was able to dig deeper than I ever had and pull out the kind of performance that was more guts than training. My time, 2:17, was a dramatic PR and I was left tired for a couple of weeks afterward.

Going into this year's race, several factors were in play:

I was in better shape
I had just run a 50M the week prior, and another 50M three weeks prior
I could not afford to be tired for a week or two after this race, so..
.. I would not "kill myself" in this race.

Quick Synopsis
I went out feeling comfortable but was concerned about my pace which was very fast for me, especially on the hills from miles 4-6. To compensate, I took walk breaks on a couple of the later hills, but it was too little too late and I had to get out of my comfort zone to maintain reasonably even splits for the balance of the race.

The course
This half marathon is sometimes mistakenly referred to as a trail run because of the hills and the fact that it's not all asphalt. This course is all roads. The hills are relatively steep for being roads, but not so much that your Honda would have a problem ascending them. If this were a real trail race, the steepest longest hill would be rather mild. And there is nothing remotely technical on any part of the course.

The Course

I break the course itself into three sections: The first section, which is four miles, are completely flat, and include most of a lap around Rockland Lake plus a mile on the auto road. The second section, miles four to nine, continue on the rolling hills of the auto road south and then east of the lake until going through a col and steeply descending down to the Hudson River. This Hudson River portion is the only non-paved part of the race, and includes 1.25 miles of completely flat dirt road ending with a not-so-subtle paved hill to a turnaround, where you return down the hill, back on the 1.25 miles of flat, and then steeply back up to the col. This steep hill is the race's namesake and it's what everyone talks about in the post-race tent. The third section descends the rolling hills with a couple of short but steep rollers back to the lake, where runners finish with two miles of completely flat asphalt again.

The course is thus about 60% flat, 40% hills, and 75% asphalt, 25% dirt. Most people don't consider it a PR course.

My race
My goal time for the race was simply to beat last year and run even splits. I knew I was in better shape and could match last year's time without exhausting myself. My goal was to thus set a new PR and figured the race would be a success if I could run even splits at the end as at the beginning.

Splits taken from my Garmin

Section 1 - too fast
There is a concurrent 5K run and walk that starts at the same time as the half. The start is thus very crowded and difficult to navigate. It spread out sufficiently after a mile, so I settled into a groove and tried to maintain 10 minutes per mile, which was easy - too easy. I was alarmed when, in my third mile, I found myself running sub-9:30. I tried to ease off the pace but still had a 9:39 split for that mile. Mile 4 was still a tad too fast at 9:50.

Section 2 - still too fast, paying for it
In mile 5 the hills started and I still went too fast on the harder terrain, getting a 9:45 split. I was concerned to find myself quickly passing people when going up hill. Because of the kind of training I've been doing lately, I expected to be strong on the hills, but not like this. I didn't expect to be so dramatically stronger than the flat-terrain sub-10 runners, and took it as a warning sign. Mile 6 is where we descend Hook Mountain, which is a half-mile long and very steep, so I wasn't surprised or concerned to do it in 9:16. My aggressive hill pace caught up to me on the flat section by the river, however, and found myself struggling to maintain a 10-minute per mile pace. In particular, the hill at the turn around nearly reduced me to a shuffle, but I managed to stay strong and run these three miles in 10:00, 10:06, and 9:50. But by the time I returned to the steep hill, I was ready for the walk break.

The hill at Hook Mountain can be broken up into two parts, divided by a caretaker's house. The lower portion has a hill that ascends sharply from the river but flattens out for a few hundred meters until getting to the house. The upper portion is just as steep as the lower but without any flat, so it can start to get real long towards the top. Feeling like I needed to pay the piper for the early-race speed, I took a walk break on the hill (but not the flat) of the lower portion, which allowed me to recover enough to run the entire upper portion, albeit slowly. I clicked off mile 10 right at the summit of the hill, having done it in 11:48.

Section 3 - holding it together
Continuing to run after the top and after catching my breath on a brief downhill, I returned to the rollers of the auto road and just tried to stay as comfortable as possible. I didn't feel like I was going to be able to maintain 10 minute miles at this point. I was pretty tired, however, and never could get back into that easy groove I had early. I even took a brief walk break on one of the rollers, which again made me feel a lot better. Mile 11 was 10:20, the slowest mile of my day (not counting the Hook itself.)

Mile 12 is all either downhill or flat. I did it in 10:01. By now there didn't seem to be anything in between "Pushing The Pace" and a walk break. I would have liked to slow down to 10:30 or 11:00 but for some reason I wasn't able to. Mile 13 was more of the same, and I did it in 10:05. I would have liked to walk some of these last sections but, with the end so close, I figured I'd just keep going.

About to Finish with Caden and Joey. Photo by Carl Cox.

The first time I saw the finish line clock, it read 2:12:30. I pushed hard to the finish to get in under 2:13. According to my Garmin, my pace after mile 13 was sub-9:00.

Results

This was a great race for me. I accomplished everything I wanted. I pushed hard and felt it the next day, but not so hard that I'll feel it in a week. I beat my time last year by about 5 minutes. I came home with a PR. And, every one of my miles (up and down Hook notwithstanding) were within 21 seconds of 10 minutes, which is about all I can ask for. I did pay for my early enthusiasm, but the numbers indicate that even the mile where I took a brief walk break was only 42 seconds slower than my fastest (again, not counting the Hook itself.) If I could change anything, I would try to keep the splits even more even. I wonder if I kept my pace in miles 3-6 at around 9:55, if I could have kept the pace after 10 at around that pace as well.

By the way

I had the pleasure of running this race with a few dozen of my coworkers. In fact my company paid our entry fee and gave a nice tech shirt to all of us. It also gave a decent-sized donation to the race's charity. The vast majority of my coworkers did the 5K, and a couple of them came in the top 20. Four of us did the half-marathon. It was great fun!

2011 Umstead 100 - 50 in 12:21 (PR)

2011-04-13T12:19:00.000-04:00

The 2011 Umstead 100-miler, in which I took the 50-mile finish, was one of the more interesting races I have ever run.

Pre-race hanging out

One of the nice things about the Umstead 100 Mile Endurance Run is that the race director generously awards a 50-mile finish to anyone who goes at least that far. Umstead is the only race I know of with this policy - where one can enter a 100-mile race, go 75 miles, and not get a DNF. That's very friendly of the race organizers and frankly is consistent with the spirit of friendliness and hospitality that makes this race so wonderful.

Quick Synopsis

For the first 4 hours, I was running a 100-miler. Then, at about 20 miles in, I decided that I would not make it to 100. After nearlt dropping at mile 25, I convinced myself at mile 28 that I would not drop but go the last 22 miles and "Take the 50." Then, at about mile 38, I experienced a remarkable recovery which I used to both come from behind the 8-ball to attain a Personal Record at the 50 mile distance and at the same time consciously and intentionally sabotage any possibility that I could last 100 miles.

Detailed Report

Lap 1 (12.5 miles in 2:46), "Wow, look at everyone running away." Started like any other ultra for me. The first lap was uneventful. Spent a few miles with Meredith and Ethel and enjoyed the sunrise. Pre-dawn darkness seemed to have an unusually negative effect on me. Not much else to say.

Lap 1. Photo by Tammy Massie.

Lap 2 (3:02), "I feel horrible, I stepped in horse shit, and took a faceplant." Suffice it to say that this lap went really badly. My condition deteriorated dramatically; much faster than it had in the 50-mile race I ran two weeks prior. I felt some lower-back pain and had a very negative disposition. It seemed far too early in the race to feel so bad, and that something must be wrong. I tried to convince myself to drop when the lap was over at mile 25. The negative disposition wasn't helped by the fact that, 9 miles into the lap, I stepped in horse shit. And, at the end of the lap, I tripped on something and took a very hard and painful fall, exacerbating my desire to drop. Had it not been for my wife's encouragement to continue, I may have done exactly that.

Lap 2. Photo by Ginette Portera

Lap 3 (3:35), "Let me go do the Airport Spur, and see if I feel better." The Airport Spur is a short out-and-back at the beginning of the loop. On the way back it comes within a half-mile of the start/finish area, which makes the idea of "just doing the airport spur" a rational strategy to assess my condition - figuring that if it doesn't improve I can just return after 3 miles. I used this same trick last year and it worked well. This year, it still worked, but in a different way. I didn't feel any better at the end of the spur, but I couldn't get myself to return either. So I made a deal with myself - don't DNF now, and just do the 50. It got me to continue.

I don't remember much more of this lap, except that many people passed me. By the numbers, this was my slowest lap by over a half-hour! At the end of it, I knew that I was about 30 minutes behind my PR pace for 50 miles. I told my wife I was stopping at 50. She agreed that it was probably a good idea to save myself for Miwok on May 7th, which is my primary "A" race this spring.

Lap 3

Lap 4 (2:55), "This is my last lap, so let's kill it." On the airport spur for this lap, I caught up to Meredith and Ethel, and spent about a half-mile walking and jogging with them. I felt great; in fact, a tremendous amount of energy was just begging to be released. So I started running ahead of them and felt really strong. For the rest of this lap, I tried to run as much as I could. Knowing this would be my last lap, I decided to Leave It All On The Course. Because I had just run 37.5 miles, I didn't think I could make up the half-hour required to get a PR, but I was going to run as hard as I could anyway. So I ran. I ran down hills hard. I ran up hills. I ran flats without walking breaks. I got in and out of the mid-lap aid station as fast as I could. In fact, it was at that aid station I realized that a PR was in reach, perhaps even 12:15, so I pushed even harder. I ran in the hilly Sawtooth Section. When I felt the pain I kept running. I caught a bunch of people who passed me in lap 3. I normally am not the one passing people, and it felt good.

Smiling because I'm about to finish lap 4. Photo by Tammie Massie.

When I finished the lap, there was little question in my mind that I was done. I had thoroughly exhausted myself in lap 4, and I felt not unlike what it feels like to run a half-marathon hard. I sat down and watched the people I had passed come in, many of whom were also stopping at 50. Being accustomed to having people watch me finish, this was a new experience. Being competitive by nature, I struggle with the fact that I am so slow, so sitting and watching for a half-hour was pretty satisfying.

Post-race thoughts

Do I regret not doing 100?

Unlike previous 100-mile attempts, this time the answer is an emphatic "no." I pretty damned happy with how I did, the main reason being I simply was not in the mood to be out all night - I had no desire to continue. this is in contrast to previous 100s where I was gung-ho about the night. This time, I was perfectly content with the idea of finishing before the sun went down and taking a PR in a shorter-than-planned race.

And that's why this race is so interesting to me. In the past I've always been overwhelmed by the pain and suffering, which caused me to drop, which in turn resulted in regret. That would have been the case had I dropped at 25. But this time I stopped at a point where I felt good and strong and in a positive mood. This has never been the case.

I am bothered that I still have yet to finish a traditional 100-mile race, but not as much as you'd expect. There will be other 100s I can run - including, of course, next year's Umstead.

On the Umstead 50

I started this post by saying that a nice thing about Umstead is that they'll gladly award you a 50 finish if you go that far. I will conclude by criticizing the policy. Despite my no-regret perspective on the 50 finish, having a 50-mile option that you can take mid-race makes it far too easy to quit, thus making a 100-mile finish more difficult. Rather than allowing people to choose the 50 mid-race, my suggestion would be to require participants to declare that they're in for just 50 before the race starts. While this would most likely have resulted in a DNF for me personally (even though I might have declared myself for the 50 before the race had the option been available), it probably would have given me a little more drive to continue past 50.

Umstead 100 mile run - this weekend

2011-03-31T17:07:00.000-04:00

Starts Saturday Morning at 6AM

Just wanted to write a quick post with a couple of thoughts about this weekend.

I'm totally in my head. I wonder if I have sufficiently recovered from the 50-mile race two weekends ago, and think probably not. My daily runs have been short and easy, and I really don't feel anything in them - but every now and then I'll take a step something in my leg will remind me that I'm not 100% yet. But then again, it might just be nothing. Or perhaps it's something that has nothing to do with anything. I don't know. I guess I'll find out Saturday.

I am pleased with Friday's hill climb - the 50-miler, which was 6 days prior, didn't seem to bother me. And Umstead will be 8 days after the hill climb - 14 days after the 50. I intentionally opted out of descending the hill climb, which would have caused the most trauma to my legs. But even without that, for a few days I felt a surprising little pain in my left knee when stepping up on something - which was obviously directly caused by all the stepping up I did that morning in Palm Springs. But now it's been a few days since I felt anything there, so whatever.

I know intellectually - and I've just got to convince myself emotionally - all I have to do on Saturday and Sunday is keep moving. Get out of my head and not stop. And what happens will happen. Last year I confidently said the worst that can happen is I don't make it to the 87.5 mile cutoff in time. Last year I was overestimating my mental toughness.

I've learned a lot in the last year.I saw at Badwater the kind of mental strength that some people have, and couldn't help but notice just how deficient I am in that area - but that was compared to what it takes to run Badwater. I think I am tougher than I was this time last year. I just don't know if I'm tough enough to finish 100 miles in 30 hours at Umstead.

I suppose it's normal to have these kinds of butterflies in the days before a big race like this.

I will try to do a few in-race updates on facebook and twitter. If you're not following me on twitter, it's http://twitter.com/#!/stevetursi.

Here's my itinerary, in care you're interested:

Tonight we're leaving (right now) and driving to Richmond, Virginia.
Tomorrow we'll drive down to Raleigh. I'll sleep in a cabin at Umstead, and Alex and Joe have a hotel for both nights.
Saturday, Saturnight, Sunday morning: run.
Sunday afternoon: drive to Manassas, Virginia
Monday: Spend half a day in D.C., drive home.

I'll post a full report early next week.

Training - Palm Springs Tram Road #5 - 55:24 (PR)

2011-03-25T20:21:00.000-04:00

Mountaintop in the morning sunlight, with the task before us still in the shade

I am in the midst of a lightning trip to California for a wedding, but I've gotten into the habit of joining up with my friend Vince every time I come here to run the Tram Road. After arriving last night, this morning I made some time to drive out to Palm Springs, which is an hour from where I stay, to run up from the desert floor to the bottom of The Tram.

The access road to the tram is 3.7 miles long and climbs about 2000' up the alluvial fan into a canyon below Mount San Jacinto, which at 10,831' is the highest point in Riverside County, and the fourth highest peak in Southern California. The bottom of the Tram Station is at a more modest 2600' or so, but that's still 2000' above the western end of the Coachella Valley floor in Palm Springs where the run starts. To put this in perspective for my friends back in New York, Bear Mountain tops out at about 1284' above sea level. Mount Marcy, the highest point in New York, is a mere 5343'.

I've yet to see a photo of this hill that does it justice. The sloped but flat nature of the alluvial fan makes it look deceptively shallow, but anyone who has driven the thing knows that car engines struggle making it up, and brakes overheat on the way down. It's a steep, tough climb.

I now have done this hill five times, and you can find a report of my fourth time up here. In the first four iterations, two ascents were under an hour, two over. My goal in the fifth iteration (and, honestly, every iteration) sounds modest until you try it - run every step of the hill. I figured if I accomplish that, breaking an hour for a third time would take care of itself.

Still on east coast time, I woke at about 3:30AM and after trying to fall asleep for the next hour, gave up and left in the dark a few minutes before 5AM. The plan was to meet Vince at 7:30. Still dark when I arrived, I found a supermarket and bought a peach and a banana, my fuel for today's run. Killed time, enjoyed the colorful pre-dawn light, and enjoyed the sunrise when it happened. When Vince arrived, we both drove up to the top and left one car up there, saving me a knee-shattering descent back to the valley. We drove back down, walked to our starting line (a gate above the visitor center), and started jogging.

Vince, who's best time going into today was 5 minutes faster than mine, started pulling away from me after a half mile. So I pulled my ipod, put my "Run FAST" playlist on shuffle, and turned up the volume.

After a mile, Vince was a mere 50 feet in front of me. That would be about as far as he ever got, but he'd get that far away after being a shadow-length away several times. I wasn't trying to keep up with him, so I figured he was cruising at an easy-for-him pace, and backing off when he felt he was getting too far from me. For my part, I suppressed repeated urges to run faster and try to catch him. I knew I'd need that energy later.

This isn't the first time that I've approached this run with a goal of running every step. As I ascended, I recognized the places that I had taken my first walk breaks in previous ascents. I took note of my relative fatigue at each one, and noticed, not surprisingly, that the hill was always particularly steep in those portions. As I got higher, I started fighting that familiar urge to take a walk break, and those urges always occurred on the steepest portions of the hill.

About halfway up, there is a short but welcome descent at a creek crossing followed by a long straightaway. The lower portion of this straightaway is the highest I've ever made it without walking, but in this case I couldn't remember exactly where. This straightaway is all "particularly steep" and I knew running the whole thing would take a lot out of me, but I didn't give myself a choice. The only way I knew for sure I'd break my record for the highest I got without walking was to go all the way to the turn. So I did.

After the turn, it levels off (which, on this road, really means still uphill, merely less steep), and a feature known to Vince and I as the "Wagon Wheel" comes into view. The Wagon Wheel is part of the welcome sign to the Tramway, and its lowest parking lots are immediately above it. I looked at my watch and saw 45 minutes to this point, which I seemed to remember tied a personal record. But I wasn't concerned about that - because, you see, the Wagon Wheel - It is a bittersweet sight.

It's nice because we're on the home stretch without too much more work, but, Vince and I both know, this is where the real work begins. The section between the Wagon Wheel and the finish is probably about a half-mile long, but it's the toughest half-mile of the course, and not just because it's at the end. The road seemingly becomes twice as steep as it is anywhere below the wagon wheel. It would be hard to run while fresh.

A hundred feet above the wheel, Vince suddenly starts walking backwards. This is where I realized he has not been holding back; he was working as hard as I was. He, too, has never made it all the way to the top without a walk break. I had my goal, however, and continued running, albeit extremely slowly. When I caught him, he started walking forward and commented about how walking can go almost as fast as running, while saving a lot of energy. I nodded. He was right; walk breaks in long races often net faster times than trying to run the whole thing. If I was running this hill for the fastest possible time, I'd probably put in intentional walk breaks. But running this hill for the fastest possible time wasn't my goal. Rather, my goal was to run this entire hill without walking.

Slowly but surely, I started pulling away from him. This, however, was in no uncertain terms due to the grade of the road at this point. It gets hellish. I convinced myself that I, too, wouldn't be able to run the whole thing - the end was just too far away, and I was feeling horrible. On the other hand, I kept managing to convince myself just to run to That Next Landmark. As I'd pass it, I'd immediately find another Next Landmark to run to. I repeated this pattern, and even as I crossed that last bridge before the last parking lot, I still assumed that I'd soon need a walking break.

With the very last parking lot to my left, I kept running up the now-one-way road to the very top. This, I'm convinced, is the absolute steepest part of the run. It was hell! But, once I was halfway up, I knew I'd make it, and even found, deep within me, the ability to pick up the pace just a little to the top. I clicked off RunKeeper and saw my time: 55:24. Huge PR!

I sat down and tried my best to catch my breath, but it took me a solid 5 minutes to breath normal again. Vince came up about 90 seconds later. He was jogging again, and happy with is 57-minute time (His PR is about 54.)

As I sit here writing this, it is 5PM, 9 hours after finishing. I can tell my heart rate is still elevated from the effort. I'm actually surprised at how much I left out on that road. The last time I felt like this was April 2010 when I PR'd at the Hook Mountain Half Marathon - one of the only times I ever felt like I "left everything" on the course. It took me days to feel normal after that. Hopefully, with Umstead next weekend, I'll feel better a bit sooner this time. (:

Windmills from the bottom