Cupid's Chase 5K race report
or how I caught a cold, missed a turn and still PRd

Previous PR: 21:17, Goal: 21:00

The backdrop for the race was less than ideal. I was in prime form for last Saturday, and the race got postponed due to heavy snowfall in Columbia, SC. Last week I had tapered extensively. So I wasn't really sure what to do this week - and since at the beginning of the week, I wasn't even sure I could race this weekend, I decided to resume vigorous training, and skip tapering altogether. My training plan for Saturday reads: "Long run 9 mi @ 8:49 or 5K race".

Add to this that I caught a nasty cold, with sore throat and mild chest congestion in the middle of the week. This kind of thing have never stopped my training, but it costs a little power, too. Really, I'm not trying to make excuses, because the race was actually quite fine. I just want to point out, that I was quite pessimistic.

My wife dropped me off at the race. It was (at last) warm enough to run in shorts and t-shirt! It was a beautiful and sunny morning, but not too hot. I warmed up, and I lined up at the front row. There were only about 50 people running - this was already a postponed race and it was to be low key originally anyway. (I knew there would be no mile markers either.) I settled into a fairly fast pace, with four runners in front of me - including one girl. After about 3/4 mile I passed a guy on a downhill. I though he would pass me back on the next uphill, but he didn't, and he finished a good 40 seconds behind me, even though I almost gave him a gift position (see below).

By the time we got to the halfway point, I lost sight of the runner in front of me, and I ran completely alone. The course didn't have many volunteers. In one intersection, where we were supposed to make a right turn, there were no volunteers, no police cars, nobody. There was an arrow sign on a stop sign, but it was on the right, and naturally, I ran on the left side of the road. I wasn't careful enough, and I missed the turn. After a little while, I heard the volunteer in the previous intersection, and the police officer another block ahead (proctoring an earlier part of the windy course) shouting: "You missed a turn!" I stopped, confused, and then they pointed out which street I should have taken. I turned around, and I ran to the right direction. I think that I lost about 30 seconds here.

When I ran back to the right street, the guy behind me caught up. He was right on my back. I felt totally devastated. I knew I wouldn't run under 21 minutes with the extra 30 seconds, and I also lost my drive a little bit. I just wanted to get over with the run. Nevertheless, I decided I wouldn't lose my position in the race. So I still pressed on, and I got rid of my follower. It was hard to do my usual mental game of dissociating myself from the pain I felt.

When I got closer to the end, I saw my time wouldn't be too bad after all. When I turned into the finish line, I knew that I had a chance to PR. So I pushed a little harder and I got through the finish line at 21:11. A six second PR with my missed turn!

Post-race food was the usual thing for small local races: muffins and bottled water. Good enough for me.

The course was not too hard, but also not particularly easy with many rolling hills, typical of Columbia's residential neighborhoods. To be able to run this time with the given circumstances suggest that I might not be that far from my sub-20 dream. That is good. Also, my missed-turn-mishap didn't cost me a position (I finished as 4th overall, 3rd male). But I am *so* disappointed thinking that if I didn't miss that turn, my PR would read 20:xx now.

Family logistics was extremely complicated today with one car and a postponed race, so my wife showed up to pick me up before I could have received my award. The main organizer lady promised me that she would hold onto it - I will call her office on Monday.

It looks like I can run this weekend, but I don't have much optimism. I caught a cold, and for a change, I haven't tapered this week, but instead I've been training quite hard. I will also run an easy 4 miles tonight, and I will skip only one day before the race. Even though my base physical condition is definitely better than it was last summer (when I ran my current PR), I am not at all sure I can PR here and now. It is still damn cold outside, about 10 F lower than it should be this time of the year. It is freezing every night. And the weather forecast is about the same for next 10 days.

The 5K on last weekend was postponed due to heavy snowfall in Columbia. (It virtually never snows in Columbia, so this was quite an event. My younger daughter is 3 years old, and this was the first time she has ever seen snow.) The race is rescheduled for next weekend, which sucks big time. I'm still not sure how I can participate. I feel strong and prepared. Even though I woke up with a headache on race day, later I ran 8 miles at sub 8-min pace, which is pretty good. I guess I had to run the frustration out of myself.

My tentative race schedule for the first half of the year:

4/3/2010: Resurrection Run 5k. This will be the race where I plan to reach ~20:30.

5/22/2010: Going the Extra Mile 5k or
5/29/2010: Jailbreak 5k. The former has the advantage that it is the same course as this weekend's run. Of course in case I can actually participate. This will be the race I might have a chance to go sub-20, although it is almost more likely than not that something will delay the progress.

Most people work on the sub-20 5K for several years, so even if I don't reach it this year, it is not a tragedy.

Last night I was forced to return to the beautiful Riverfront Park. We used to live by it, and I ran there nearly every day. It is a park between the Columbia Canal and Broad River/Congaree, on a very long peninsula in the river. I almost forgot how cool it is to run there. Last night, I drove to the university track to do my last speedwork session before the 5K less than 2 weeks from now, but the track is (still) undergoing resurfacing (just like last week, gr...). So I drove to the park and ran 8 times 1/4 mile fast, with recoveries, warmup, cooldown, etc. Even though it was quite cold a drizzly, the park is still great. I wish we lived closer.

Training goes quite well. I am not that good with my lactate threshold, but in fact it is hard to judge it from training alone. My next race is not until February; my secret dream of racing a local 8K last weekend totally evaporated due to family budget constraints. Anyway, I guess it is not unreasonable to only race when I have a chance to do my best - the weekend race was still too close to the marathon to perform 100%.

I'm thinking about my next marathon already, and maybe (depending on many things, like real life) I will run the 2011 Kentucky Derby Marathon. Nothing earlier for sure.

We have a cold wave here in Columbia. I still managed to do all my run this week outside. Every single day I ran in sub freezing temperatures and in the dark, occasionally in the wind. I can't decide if I hate the cold or the treadmill more... I guess I'll try the treadmill today.

I'm slow... can't hit my goal times in tempo runs. I can do the intervals just fine, so maybe the problem with the tempos that I'm trying to do them over very hilly terrain. I guess I won't really know it until February 13th. That is my upcoming 5 km race. I really would like to go under 21 minutes.

It was too cold here last evening, but I still rode my bike to the university track to do my speedwork. Only to find the track closed. I actually still know how to get in, but a police car was circling the parking lot, so I decided to go home instead of getting arrested. :) I thought I would drive back in the evening. Then I decided to take some smaller back streets to get home, because it was still rush hour, and I got lost, so much, that a half an hour later I found myself on the street where I work! By the time I got home, I had ridden for more than an hour in sub freezing temperatures. I was so frustrated that I skipped my intervals...

I'll make up something today (instead of resting), but I might opt for the treadmill. I hate cold. I think I hate cold more than the treadmill.

I started training for a February 5K. It doesn't go that well. My speed is not where I want it to be. I have a chest cold, but I still run with it. My experience is that it goes away faster if I run. Indeed, today I already feel better than yesterday.

I run much more in a fast(er) pace than for the marathon training, and in fact more than for previous 5K training cycles. We will see how it works out. I follow Hal Higdon's advanced 5K training plan, which I don't particularly like, but I haven't found anything better.

First 3 miles since the marathon. Left foot hurts, like hell... just like the day after the marathon. I guess I'm not fully recovered yet. Though I ran an 8:30 pace, and it felt easy. Tomorrow is speedwork. I have decided to run a 5K in Columbia (home town) in February instead of repeating the Folly Beach race. I will also have an extra week to prepare.

Kiawah Island Marathon Race Report

Goal time: sub 4-hour, 9 min/mile.

I got up at 3am in Columbia, because I had a 2 hour 30 minute drive to Kiawah Island on the coast. Staying on the island was way over our budget, and staying in Charleston wouldn't have made a huge difference about when to get up. But this was OK: I had time to have a big breakfast, etc. At 4am, I got into the car, and I drove to Kiawah. I parked the car at around 6:15, dressed up in the car (shorts, T-shirt and my sport sweatshirt with zipper, and a cap), packed my small backpack (some food, Gatorade, etc.), and I got on the shuttle to the island. This was a bit interesting, because there was only one road to the island, which was totally jammed, so it was around 7:00am, when we got off the bus on the island. I'm not sure how everyone made it to the 8:00 start.

I had time to pick up my bib (no line!), bathroom (long line, but nothing compared to the ladies'), and have some sandwich and Gatorade. Then I ventured to the start at 7:45. I linen up at exactly the 9 min/mile board. This turned out to be a bit of an issue later, because incredibly, I passed about 500 people in the first two miles, who apparently had no idea how to line up. This is actually a really bad thing, because it will encourage me to line up ahead of my goal in my following marathons. I had some small talk with some people, but mostly, I just focused.

At exactly 8:00am, the officials started the race. We only started running maybe 30 second later, and it took us almost two minutes to pass the start line. The first two miles were quite crowded, and I just tried to not waste too much energy on winding around people. Still, as I mentioned, I passed *many* people, including some walkers!

Mile 1 - 9:09
Mile 2 - 8:52

It looks like the crowd wasn't that big of a problem after all. If it wasn't for them, I might have gone out too fast!

Mile 3 - 8:50
Mile 4 - 8:48

I didn't stop for Gatorade until mile 4. I found the aid stations way too crowded, besides I didn't want to stop for bathroom break. I didn't realize until mile 4, that I forgot to bring a straw. So I just stopped for 10 seconds to drink.

Mile 5 - 8:42

Before the 6th mile marker, there was another aid station, where I decided to be adventurous, and try to drink while running. I had read all about it. So I tried the technique (squeeze the top of the cup and drink from the side), and it worked! It was so easy, I was wondering why anyone has trouble with it. By this time, the crown thinned out, and I was running comfortably. I took off my cap and unzipped my sweatshirt.

Mile 6 - 8:19

This mile marker was almost surely early on the course. I had to hold myself back, and I freaked out a bit when I saw this split.

Mile 7 - 9:37

As I said, this mile was "long".

Mile 8 - 8:59
Mile 9 - missed the marker
Mile 10 - 17:25
Mile 11 - missed the marker
Mile 12 - missed the marker
Mile 13 - 26:48

I was in a groove. I drank Gatorade at every aid station. The end of the first loop was on a golf cart path, and it was again a bit crowded. I don't understand why they have to start the half and the full marathon at the same time.

Mile 14 - 8:57

Finally we got rid of the half marathon runners. My legs started to hurt a bit. We had to run on the right side of a road, and maybe because I mostly train running on the left side, it didn't feel great.

I picked a woman, who seemed to have run my pace, and she looked like an experienced runner (how do you tell?). I decided to pace off of her.

Mile 15 - 9:09

Shoot, she is too slow! I passed her and went ahead. I started to pass runners.

Mile 16 - 9:01
Mile 17 - 8:49
Mile 18 - 9:17
Mile 19 - 9:03

I didn't feel great here. The effort seemed to be harder than what the splits reflected. I also started to be afraid of the wall. Especially, because the longest I had ever run was 20 miles.

Then I saw here again. The woman I passed at mile 15. How did she pass me? She was like 300 feet ahead of me, but I recognized her by her unusual stride. What should I do? I am almost at mile 20, I feel fine, maybe I can pick up the pace just a little.

Before the next mile marker, I pulled her back - it wasn't her. :)

Mile 20 - 8:36
Mile 21 - 8:31
Mile 22 - 8:38

These miles were magical. I experienced a runner's high that never before. I felt I was flying. It felt like running was no effort. I was smiling to everyone, even laughing out loud at one point. I felt an incredible euphoria, and I I was one with nature.

Mile 23 - 8:40
Mile 24 - 8:37

The high was gone, but I still felt fine. I did perceive the effort though, which got harder and harder. I still passed many people. I felt for the ones, who I saw struggling, or stopping for walking.

Mile 25 - 8:28
Mile 26 - 8:13

I couldn't believe it was only a little more than a mile left. It was a rather long one, but I hadn't crashed, and in fact, I felt almost liberated. After halfway to the next marker a runner, who I passed asked me: "How much longer?" I cheerfully answered: "About a half of a mile." He groaned and stopped running.

We tuned into the finish line. The crowd was amazing. It was an emotional moment for me. I saw the finish clock turning 3:53 - it was great. I passed the line, smiled, got my medal and a plastic warmer sheet. I went to the bathroom and I called my wife.

My chip time is 3:51:24, with 1:57:19 at the half point. I am absolutely satisfied with this especially because I was able to finish strong. I probably could have achieved a better time if I started out faster, but this was my first time ever running more than 20 miles, so I didn't want to risk crashing. But at least I know that I am not nearly close to my potential.

I don't plan to run another marathon for at least a year. I want to concentrate on shorter distances while I'm still relatively young, and I want to run a sub-20 minute 5K in the near future, optimally in 2010. But if I'm still healthy after that, I'll be back to the marathon distance.

My real life is crazy this week, and I'm running a marathon in 3 days. If the weather forecast is right, it will be raining (ugh...). I feel good, but I do have some weird pains here and there. I run 5 miles easy today, 2 miles *very* easy on Friday, and Saturday is the big day!

I did a second 20-mile run a week ago, and it went much better than the last one. I did get tired, but I ran negative splits (my late miles were faster than the early ones), and my last mile was the fastest of all. I needed this run very much to boost my confidence (as well as for physical endurance training).

Last week we took a little 3-day trip to the mountains of South Carolina. I still managed to get almost all my miles in. (Except for the last 2 miles of a 6-miler one night on a treadmill in the hotel - that was Thanksgiving night, and my gastrointestinal tract didn't like running after the feast.) It has still been a hard week with 39 miles total, and up until the long run it was one of the hardest weeks of training. The long run, yesterday, was only 15 miles, and it felt really easy. I had to hold myself back and constantly remind myself that I shouldn't exhaust myself in training. I have to start to save for the marathon, which is in two weeks.

The race reports from Runner's World's Marathon challengers have started to flow in after weekend's Richmond Marathon. [here]
To tell the truth, it is quite a bit scary, that many, if not most of these people, who used the same training program as I, crashed and burned in the marathon, and ran much slower races than they wanted to. OK, the journalists of Runner's World were fine, maybe even great, but I'm talking about the individuals, who bought into the training program (see the "Comments" section). AFAIK they used the same plan that was published in the magazine, and they received all kinds of additional benefits.

Am I going to be OK?...

To add to my fears, my left shin is not perfect. It doesn't hurt as much as it used to, when I skipped those 5 days of training, but it does hurt a bit when I start to run, for the first 6 miles or so. When the run is less then 6 miles (like yesterday, 5 miles), it hurts all way. But I can't afford to skip more training, especially, because it doesn't seem to cure my shin splint. I just suck it up and train on it.

Have I become a maniac? Last night I did my mile repeats at the university track in POURING HEAVY RAIN. The water from above wouldn't affect me that much, but it was less pleasant to run in occasionally ankle deep cold water - and I had to run some relatively fast laps (1:49/400 meters), and a lot of them! (16 fast laps and 20 slower ones - 2:15/400 meters). I was circling the track in the dark, in the rain, for one hour and fourteen minutes.

Fortunately my left shin seems to be holding up. Nevertheless, I won't play with fire and I'll keep myself to the 10% decrease in mileage I decided a few days ago.

I retired my Asics shoes after last night's run. I was a worthy last training for them. It's time to pull out my Adidas pair that I bought months ago in a sale!

The thing that most runners fear the most: injury. I had a sore set of muscles in my left shin, close to my knee, that didn't go away from one run to the other. It usually got better during the run, disappearing at around the third mile, and then later, at around the sixth mile. Then I ran 7 miles last Tuesday, and the pain stayed with me for the whole run, and it got to point that I couldn't maintain correct form at the beginning, because of the severe pain.

I had a rest day on Wednesday, but the pain didn't really seem to get better by Thursday, so I reluctantly admitted that I was injured. I skipped the rest of last week, finishing the week with an appalling 11 miles.

Man, did it feel great to run 6 miles this morning! I got up at 5am, so I could finish my hour long run before my daughter was about to go to school at 7am. I hate to get up early, but now I feel like the drug addict who got his fix.

I decided to make some changes in the training plan. I keep the paces, but I reduced the length of each run by about 10%. This way I will peak at about 45 miles, which is not much more than last healthy week (43 miles). I only have two weeks of hard training left before the taper sets in, and I will do it with virtually no increase in mileage. My longest run will be another 20-miler, instead of 22. I did a 20 mile run last weekend, during which I got dehydrated, and it was *miserable*. (I suffered for the last 5 miles and I had to walk a good portion at the end. It may have contributed to my injury.)

It is clear that I have to forget about any goal less than 4 hours. I'll just shoot for 4 hours. In fact, now I see that I probably started marathon training a little early. I would have largely benefited from building a more solid base in fall, and then prepare for a spring, and even a 2010 fall marathon. But that's too late, I'm running Kiawah in a month, and I'm not backing off now. Most of the training is already in.

After that I already have a plan of running the "Save the Light 5K" in February, and I will try to win my age group with a time less than 21 minutes. After that I'll spend some more time on 5K races, trying to get under 20 minutes eventually, and then, I will get back to longer distances.

Here is my usual weekly report. I'm up to 41 miles per week, with my long run being 18 miles (29 km). I got a little tired at the end, but it went fine. My pace fell to 9:30 min/mile, but I should be OK as long as it is at most 10:00 min/mile. 20 miles coming this weekend.

Speed workouts are great, though I really hate the many mandatory warmup/cooldown laps, because it is really boring (it's why I hate swimming in swimming pools). I ran 10 laps for warmup and 9 laps for cooldown yesterday. In between I ran 6x800 meters with 400 m recovery in between: my 800s were all below 3:30, which is promising, as I still kept myself to the required pace for a 3:30 marathon. Nevertheless, I don't think I'm capable of running 3:30, but at least I'm more and more confident that I can run 4 hours.

Training is fine. I'm in week 9 out of 16 now. I've just started speed training today: 12800 meters on the track, out of which 3x1600 meters is fast (7:16 goal time for 1600 meters) and 400 meters recoveries in between. The rest is warmup and cooldown. Altogether that is 32 laps. It was quite boring: I was running around for more than an hour. But I did hit my goal pace every time, so things are good.

So many people run so much better, hobby runners doing marathons in under 3 hours, it seems like a sub-4 hour goal is lame... Anyway, I'm on track. Achilles is still acting up, but my cold is gone, and I did a nice hill workout yesterday. This week will be step back in mileage from 37 last week. Easy workouts are only 4 milers and the long run is mere 14 miles.

It is raining every day here, but I still managed to catch a rain free window every day. No treadmill running yet, fortunately. If it is not too cold outside, I would rather run in the rain. But if its cold and rainy, that's a bad combination.

Week 6 of the training is done, the marathon is in 10 weeks.

I had this dilemma about the my goal pace, and the last decision was to settle for sub-4:00, but I still trained like I would prepare for 3:30. I was sort of expecting to blow out, because if I'm only capable of a 4-hour marathon at this time, I thought that a 3:30-goal-pace training would result in overtraining and fatigue. I was ready to feel the effects by week 3-4 and then I thought I would switch back to a 4:00-pace training.

Instead, training went quite well. I was tired occasionally, but it is natural. In fact, I decided to shift all my training one day ahead (that would be much better for schedule) by skipping a rest day. I did that, but then I got sick (basically the same day I ran on my rest day - so it didn't have anything to do with training), and I had to skip the following day. After all, I stayed on schedule. (I intend to skip my rest day today.)

Yesterday I had my "predictor" 5K on the university track. Still having some chest congestion, and after a 30-mile week, I headed to the track. I ran 3200 meters before the actual test. So keep in mind: this was no regular 5K. If was after a long and hard week, I was still a bit sick, and I ran 3200 meters just before the actual test. Then I set off for 5000 meters, and I clocked 21:44. I am more than satisfied with this. This proves that I don't overtrain, and in fact predicts a sub-3:30 marathon.

No, I still don't think I can do that. But I think I can keep training for it. We'll see what's happening on marathon day. There are too many variables.

It is pouring rain today, and I still have a lingering cough, but I'm skipping my rest day today to get an easy 4 miles in.

Fourth week of marathon training is finished. No injuries. (Phew!) Long runs on the weekends were 6, 9, 12 and 10 miles, respectively. The 6 was easy (of course), the 9 was OK, the 12 was hard-ish, the 10 (yesterday) was easy. I was a little sore this morning, but I could run today with no problems (I won't - I have a rest day).

26.2 miles *still* sounds intimidating. Still, my longest run ever was the 13.5 miles on June 20. I have 12 weeks and I have to build enough fitness to even finish a marathon without walking! For me the definition of walking is taking more than 10 minutes to complete a mile. So I think for my first marathon, I will not aim for 3:30. It is too risky. I think I will go out running 9 minute miles (4:00 pace), and if I feel awesome at mile 20, I will speed up.