woodle.org

Eurotrip Recap

Wed, 21 Dec 2011 15:22:00 -0600

What follows are my reflections on a European trip from November 4th to 14th, 2011, one month after its completion. The updates preceding this one contain additional pictures a race report from Athens.

Before we start, my flight out of DFW to Madrid was delayed 3 times: 6:45, 7:15, 7:40, and 7:50. This plus adverse weather had the effect of reducing an 8 hour layover to 5 hours, preventing any thoughts of leaving the airport in Madrid. By the way, it’s a nice airport with very cool architecture. The service at the cafes wasn’t good but the Aceite de jamón was great.

The best things in Italy were food and family. My sister Nicky, her husband Harley, and their 1-year old daughter Quinn were around to keep me company and show me around Vincenza’s local attractions. It’s a small town but everyone is friendly, especially the small shop owners and apartment dwellers in Nicky and Harley’s neighborhood. The wine and olive oil flowed freely.

The views from the apartment were breathtaking. Despite the rain and clouds each color was vivid and visibility was high. Their balcony wraps around 3 sides of the building and a bedroom is lofted above the living room. In the below picture, their apartment is the red portion of the building to the left of the windows. It was great.

On day two we went to Venice, where I had the “Special Toast.” I laugh just typing it, but it was literally the best meal of the trip. On the other hand, it cost us about 10 Euros just to sit down, 6 Euros per class of wine, and 8 Euros for the “Toast.” Worth it once but never again. The pictures from within Venice didn’t turn out very well because it was dark and rainy, and the only things I liked about the city were the architecture and Plaza San Marco. The little shops were too touristy and most of the food is available outside of the city for a fraction of the cost.

Day three involved a car ride through the Alps towards Munich and 28 Euros worth of tolls. Ouch. The Austrian countryside was beautiful, with the roads carved into valleys filled with small communities and grape farms. I’d love to spend a week in one of these towns relaxing with the locals. By the way, Austria had the best highway rest stop I’ve ever seen. A cappuccino and beer are the best things in the world to break the monotony of a 6 hour ride.

In Munich we stayed at a Wombats hostel in a room with only the 3 of us plus the baby. We were within walking distance of the local Augustiner brewery and the City Center, which contained, among other things, the Hofbräuhaus and Rathaus-Glockenspiel. We spent a lot of time in these areas drinking Dunkels and Lagers and eating brauts. Unfortunately, I was only in the city long enough to explore that which was within walking distance, so I missed out on a lot that Munich has to offer. I’ll be back.

From Munich I said goodbye to Nicky and Harley and boarded a flight to Athens. There was no agenda for Day 1, so I decided to walk to the hotel from the bus stop at Syntagma Square, which is adjacent to both Parliament and shopping in The Plaka. On this first night I ran into a lot of graffiti left over from the riots but in general the city was calm and the only broken windows were at Starbucks. The views, smells from street vendors, and people were amazing, but nobody had a damn clue where my hotel was. I lugged my backpack around for 3 hours while walking about 8 miles before finally stumbling into someone who recognized the street name. It wasn’t in a bad location, but the street was only two blocks long and sparsely populated.

Once in my hotel I unpacked and met my room-mate Jim, a retired ultra-marathon runner from Florida. We made the trek to the 5-star hotel (not ours) occupied by the other half of the Marathon Tours group and took in the best views of the city over some Metexa and Ouzo.

The next day we toured many of the sites of Athens, including several hours at the Acropolis. The views were phenomenal but renovation scaffolding was all over the place. I can’t even begin to recite all of the history I learned during the trip, but I’m sad to report that Pheidippides was not the man to run 25 miles from Marathon to Athens to announce Greek victory over the Persians - it was just a messenger whom nobody remembers the name of. I suggested they call him “Brent” as a placeholder but it didn’t go over well… at least Pheidippides did run a 150 mile stretch at another point in time.

At this point it’s probably relevant to mention the race. It was cold, rainy, windy, and sitting around for 2 hours before the start was less than fun. Regardless, I kept high spirits during the run and never hit a wall. The official pictures weren’t worth purchasing and my camera-holder stayed at the hotel because of the weather conditions so I literally have no pictures of myself before, during, or after the race. That, my friends, is my biggest regret of the trip.

I hope to take more trips with Marathon Tours. With a shared hotel room the price was right, they took care of 90% of the headaches related to international travel, and they introduced me to a lot of culture and entertainment I would have otherwise missed. The people I met on the trip were fantastic, from the marathon “virgins” to the guy celebrating his 100th finish. Runners are required to have strange and fascinating personalities I guess, and the stories, anecdotes, and quips in this group were second to none. Bravo, runners.

2011 Race Results & 2012 goals

Wed, 21 Dec 2011 10:06:00 -0600

Bold denotes an Age Group award, Bold and Italics denotes a personal best.

Paddy Dash 5K - March 19, 2011
23:24 (#3 25-29M)

Dallas Running Club 5 Miler - April 2, 2011
37:58

Big D Half Marathon - April 10, 2011
1:53:50

Head for the Cure 5K - May 14, 2011
21:01 (#3 25-29M)

DRC Bloomin’ 4 Miler - June 4, 2011
26:59 (#3 25-29M)

Komen Race for the Cure 5K - June 11, 2011
20:10 (#3 25-29M)

Dallas Running Club Independence 10K - July 2, 2011
42:30

Too Hot to Handle 15K - July 10, 2011
1:03:46 (#3 25-29M)

The Melon Dash 5K - August 6, 2011
19:09 (#1 25-29M)

The Hottest Half Marathon - August 14, 2011
1:28:15

The Omaha Marathon - September 25, 2011
3:09:51

Athens Classic Marathon - November 13, 2011
3:19:59

Dallas White Rock Marathon - December 4, 2011
3:21:52

I started a 16 week Higdon training plan in May and it clearly improved my times. Since the Omaha marathon September I’ve only run 2 or 3 days per week and while I don’t feel like I’m losing a lot of endurance, I’m certainly not making any gains. Starting in January I’ll begin another training cycle and sign up for races in February through June, with some optimistic goals in mind.

First Half 2012 Race Goals:

5K: 18:36 (5:59 pace)
10K: 39:00 (6:16 pace)
15K: 60:00 (6:26 pace)
Half Marathon: 1:26:30 (6:36 pace)
Marathon: 3:05 (7:04 pace)

Two Marathon reports

Tue, 20 Dec 2011 22:50:00 -0600

Athens Classic Marathon - November 13, 2011
3:19:59 @ 7:38
466/6142, 140/1499 <35M

This morning I ran from Marathon to Athens, Greece in 3:20 flat. The barrel drums under the overpass at mile 23 were the most amazing thing in the world, and the crowds shouting “Bravo!” every 4 kilometers were fantastic.

This morning’s weather is worth writing about - it was 48-50 degrees with full cloud cover and consistent 30mph winds. I wore both sets of running clothes and still froze my ass off. The wind was helpfully at our back until mile 10, where it betrayed us and became a crosswind immediately prior to an 8 mile stretch of serious hills.

Once we entered the city at 32K the wind was mostly blocked and the course was downhill. I maintained a deceptive 7:37 pace for the entire race even though my legs were dead. I feel pretty good after an ice bath at least.

Dallas White Rock Marathon - December 4, 2011
3:21:52 @ 7:42
228/4572, 25/312 25-29M

The race was wet and cold and my thighs were numb for most of it. The rain started before we hit the first mile marker and didn’t let up all day despite variations in intensity. Just like in Athens I wore 2 layers, but unlike Athens I wasn’t in a foreign country enjoying the sights - I’ve been to White Rock before, and my only goal here is to complete my third marathon in 70 days to meet the Marathon Maniacs entrance requirements.

My long-term goal is to run a 3:05 and qualify for Boston, and despite only having 3 weeks rest from the last race I gave it a shot here by running with the 3:05 pacers at a 7:00 clip for 16 miles. At this point I hit the wall - quite a bit earlier than on my previous two races, and decided to just relax the rest of the way. I spent about 10 minutes total walking and stopped at the Hash House Harriers tent for a quick beer after the Dolly Parton hills.

Despite the race having a shaky history with reports of hour-long waits to cross the starting line, I don’t have any complaints for the organizers. The race went off without a hitch and the volunteers and fans were amazing despite the poor weather. The finishing tent was fun with unlimited free beer and guys walking around with cell phones available for calls to family and friends. The medal, bib, and technical finishers shirt look great as well, but they weren’t worth the high $125 price for a late entry.

Eurotrip Part 3 - Athens, Greece with Marathon Tours

Fri, 09 Dec 2011 16:23:28 -0600

Full album can be found here.

Eurotrip Part 2 - Munich

Fri, 09 Dec 2011 16:16:00 -0600

Full album can be found here.

Eurotrip Part 1 - Italy

Fri, 09 Dec 2011 15:48:18 -0600

The full album can be found here.

Omaha Marathon Results

Mon, 26 Sep 2011 12:33:00 -0500

The Omaha Marathon - September 25, 2011
3:09:51 @ 7:15
19/602 Overall
8/47 Age Group

My flight from DFW to OMA landed at 6pm Friday night and my parents were nice enough to take me to a new pub on the way back to their house. After a Spaten Optimator we made the trip to a micro brewery (The Upstream,) where I proceeded to load up on carbohydrates.

I went to sleep at 10pm and woke up at 10am — probably the first time since training began that I’ve slept so much. Saturday was filled with pasta, fruit, a birthday party, and Nebraska football. The packet pickup for Omaha’s race was really bad. The Holiday Inn convention space couldn’t have been more than 5000 square feet and the line for the pasta dinner at a local restaurant was out the door and not moving at all. I’m not sure what they were thinking trying to squeeze an entire race worth of people into a place like that but it didn’t work at all.

On race day I woke up at 3am to get some last minute oatmeal and a banana in my system, drink some coffee and walk around. I met my running partner at an Interstate gas station before heading downtown, parking, and body-gliding-up for the start. The crowd was easy to deal with and I had no problems hooking up with the 3:00 pace team minutes before the start.

My pace goals for this race were 3:00, 3:05, and 3:15, which were probably off given the terrain I’d be running on. McMillain’s Running Calculator projected a 3:06 finish, but there were extenuating circumstances both for and against me. First of all, the temperature was perfect and 30 degrees cooler than anything I had trained in. On the other hand my long runs peaked with a single 20 miler 6 weeks ago and the terrain was very hilly.

Omaha never claimed to be a flat course so I knew what to expect coming in. At the end I had ascended about 1250 feet, the majority of which was in the first half. I ran the first 10 miles with two other guys who were aiming between 3:00 and 3:15 and their aggressiveness on the hills from 7.5 to 10 caused them to lose me once I started to speed up on the decline.

There’s one important note to make regarding the hills that isn’t obvious from elevation profiles. The 3% incline from 7.5 to 9 isn’t actually the killer here - it sucks, but it was expected. The real killer is the 10% dip followed by a 10% climb immediately following that hill (9.5 on the above map.) Once I turned the corner from Frederick street onto 10th I felt like the race officials were just fucking around with me.

The first half of the run went well and when I passed the half marathon turnoff at mile 13 my watch had an average pace of 6:50, I had eaten 2 granola bars, and I felt like there was plenty of energy left in my reserves. Once those runners split away from me my mood started to dim and things became very bleak for the rest of the race.

Omaha doesn’t draw very big crowds and those that do come to the race stick to the first half. The “cheering sections” and aid stations from miles 13 to 23 consisted of just a few people, the closest runners in front of and behind me were 400 meters apart, and the asphalt on the roads was rough and broken at places and believe me I felt every rock I hit. To top it all off there were two out-and-back turnarounds that killed any sense of exploring or scenic views. This was an ugly and repetitive course, I was out here alone, and I was beginning to run out of energy. Scratch that, I had run out of energy.

At mile 19 I was slowing down but I had just passed 2 people and an observer hollered at me that I was in 9th place. I was shocked actually, because last year a 3:00 would have been #17. Then mile 21 hit and my legs felt like jello. It was painful to land a full stride by mile 23 and I was only barely managing an 8 minute pace. The 50 foot hill at mile 24 had me questioning whether it was even worth it to keep running, but by this point I convinced myself that dealing with 20 minutes of pain would be worth the sense of accomplishment for the next few years. So I pushed on, being overtaken by 10 people in the last 10K, and wrapped up the last mile in 7:52 passing the finishing clock at 3:09:59. Success.

I laid in the shade for a full 30 minutes after the race, contemplating life on the verge of tears, and unable to stand. It was a strange combination of the best feeling in my life barely overcoming the worst pain of my life. I spent a long time questioning whether I’d ever be willing to push myself that hard again, and whether it would even be worth it. A day later I’m still not sure, but my drive to run a sub-3:00 will probably take over.

I feel petty complaining about it but the post-race party at this event was completely lame. There was no beer tent and I’ve seen better sponsors and post-race goodies at the local 5Ks and 10Ks I run every month in Dallas. It was a miserable ghost town and the only thing I liked about it was the finisher’s medal. I had read the criticisms of this race prior to signing up so I’m not shocked, but here’s looking forward to a better one next time.

What a long, strange road it's been

Thu, 22 Sep 2011 14:06:00 -0500

This weekend I’m running my first ever marathon. If you know me, you know that I’m pretty serious about running and more than a little competitive. This April I set three goals for myself:

155 lbs (from 178)
20 minute 5K
Marathon

In retrospect these may have been a bit tame - I hit my goal weight on July first and have been dominating races all Summer, including a 19:09 5K in McKinney that was good enough to net first place in my age group on a hot morning. It’s safe to say that I’m less confident about my marathon than I was during these shorter races.

I followed an advanced training plan because I’m kind of a masochist with ambitious goals. It worked out for a while - I kept up with the weekly mileage and even surpassed the goals at some points along the way. All of this progress came at a great personal cost though - my social life was basically dead because of the 5am wake-up call, especially on weekends. In addition to that, I felt like my brain was rotting because all I did was run, walk the dog, work, walk the dog, and sleep. In the last month I’ve flipped all of these things around and started doing stuff again and my running has taken a nosedive.

I run when I can nowadays, which means 3-4 instead of 6 days a week and often during the hotter parts of the day I had previously avoided. I only completed 1 of the 3 planned 20 mile runs, and my final distance run was cut short at mile 14 of 18 because of Texas’ afternoon heat. I’m going into this race feeling refreshed, but unsure of myself. Enough rambling though; on with the goals!

Omaha Marathon goals - September 25, 2011
Ideal: 3:00:00
Good: 3:05:00 (2013 BQ)
Poor: 3:15:00

Here are some mildly entertaining pictures of my training. Once the race is complete I’ll post a race report, pictures, and a few retrospective comments. Here goes nothing…

Touring the Franconia brewery in McKinney, TX on September 3,...

Thu, 22 Sep 2011 13:04:00 -0500

Touring the Franconia brewery in McKinney, TX on September 3, 2011

Photo

Sat, 20 Aug 2011 10:44:00 -0500

Erica and Aaron's puppy, Roo!

My feet are taken care of

Photo

Wed, 17 Aug 2011 22:13:01 -0500

Some pictures

Wed, 17 Aug 2011 21:35:00 -0500

This is me being nerdy in my Strands

These are my new racing flats

Some race updates

Wed, 17 Aug 2011 21:31:00 -0500

The “Hottest Half” - August 14th, 2011
1:28:15 @ 6:44
15/1379 Overall
6/125 Age Group

I tapered for a full week leading into this race and ran in my new New Balance 1400 racing flats (not pictured, but they are awesome.) Simply put this was my best race ever. It was a fitting final dash in preparation for marathon on September 25th, and it gave me a good idea of what to expect. Obviously I’m not going to run this fast in the marathon but if I can manage to limp out a couple of 20 mile training sessions over the next few weeks I’ll be prepared to run at a 7 minute pace.

Also, Gilbert got to visit me at the Rahr beer tent after the race. Thanks to Erica, Aaron, and Emily for bringing the dogs down to White Rock lake bright and early on Sunday morning ;)

Melon Dash 5K - August 6th, 2011
19:09 @ 6:10
11/802 Overall
1/34 Age Group

The race started at 8:15 on a hot and humid Saturday morning. Overall, this was a great small race in a welcoming downtown McKinney community. The race organizers did a good job placing the starting line and finishing chute in a shaded parking lot safe from the blazing heat and the course was well marked. There were rolling hills in the mid section of the course which caused everyone to lose some time on the third mile, but the final stretch was thankfully down a hill.

Based on my previous 20:09 PR, I was surprised by my performance. I think the 50 mile weeks and hilly tempo runs are paying off and a 3 day taper sealed the deal. Fun note: The age group award is candy. I don’t eat candy, so sorry to all of the kids who wanted these things; they’ll be sitting on my shelf for a few years.

Too Hot to Handle 15K - July 10th, 2011
1:03:46 @ 6:50
23/1017 Overall
3/39 Age Group

I don’t remember much about this race other than the heat. It was hot. I was pretty happy with my time at least.