Running out on Highway 61

I ran the Park City Marathon on August 23, 2008. It was lots of fun, very pretty, and it didn't take long to recover from it.

I ran from the apartment to the University of Minnesota campus, then along East River Road. It was warm.

Ran with friend at 6:30 am. Felt pretty bad the first mile and settled in after that.

Ran with H.R. at 6:00 am. Enjoyable run.

Ran with H.R. Nice crisp morning. Wore Pearl Izumi jacket and felt just right.

I ran alone at 8 pm. It was supposed to start raining but didn't, and instead was windy but still quite warm. I ran three miles, the first in 8:56, the second in 7:34, and the third in 7:50, total 24:20. I felt pretty good, could have opened it up a bit more, but felt like that was plenty for me.

When I'm under the gun to get a workout in, it's hard to give adequate time to a warmup and cooldown. I need to build those in, though, because at the very least they will increase my mileage and hopefully result in better running.

I was unloading from a recent move and set up some computer speakers. When I removed most of the speakers from the bag they were in I saw my running watch, long since lost. It was very pleasant to find it because I've wanted to start tracking my running time more carefully. So this was the first run involving a watch in a long time.

"Rest". The word goes in quotations because I was going to run with H.R. but I saw the rain outside at 5:50 am and thought, "He's not going to go. I'm not going to go." So I didn't, and later he emailed to apologize for missing the run, saying that he woke up ten minutes late and I was already gone. Already gone indeed.

I didn't get as much sleep last night as I need. I dragged myself out of bed and made it outside. Surely after yesterday H.R. would be out at six and for me to miss him would be lame. So I was outside his apartment right at six but all the lights were dark in his apartment. I waited around for ten or so minutes and headed back to our place to grab my watch, which I had forgotten, and my mp3 player.

I decided to only run 4 miles in order to run longer tomorrow. I signed up for the Mt. Rushmore Marathon last night and since that's on October 4, I need to get a long run in tomorrow--maybe 4 hours? I wonder how that marathon will compare with others I've done in the past. I'm going to shoot for 4:30 in the marathon, with the expectation that the main idea is to finish and keep some momentum going into winter training. That's definitely going to be the hardest time of year to keep in shape.

The weather today was cool but not cold. I probably could have worn just a t-shirt. I ran the 4 miles in 37:20, with splits of approximately 10, 9:10, 9:30, and 8:40.

I listened to the last half of "Songs for Silverman" by Ben Folds and the first few tracks of "OK Computer" by Radiohead. I like Ben Folds less as the years go on.

I went out with H.R. at six a.m. It was dark and cloudy outside with intermittent rain. We ran out toward Como Park, stretching after three miles. We then ran through Como Park to Como Lake and around the lake. H.R. had never run more than about six miles, I think, so it was cool to see him get it done.

The entire run felt fine, except that I couldn't find my hydration belt and hadn't set out any fluid. Ten miles is probably my upper limit for running without drinking anything. So by the end of this run, I was not ready to head right back out for another 6 or more miles as I had originally planned. Oh well.

I didn't track the splits perfectly because I don't know how far a mile is once we're at the park. Our runs out to the park and back from the park to the complex were around 9:20 a mile. I think we were a bit slower than that inside the park. So I'm putting 9 miles as the distance even though I am not 100% sure.

So there wasn't a great lot of running this week, but I felt pretty good during the runs. I feel as though I am legitimately "in shape," with some kind of base from which to train more. That said, this is relative to my former lack of fitness eight or so months ago. 

I slept in until seven but headed out on my own. I decided to make my way to the Minneapolis Diagonal Trail, a little stretch along the Grand Rounds trail. I hadn't been on the trail until this morning, and it turned out to be really nice. I am approximating the mileage because I haven't been on the route before, but I was about 27:45 out and the same back, for a total of 55:30. I think I may have gone a bit further than 5.5, but I don't think I went 6. It's hard to know.

The weather was a bit cool for my t-shirt only, but after a few minutes it was comfortable. 

[Update: We drove to a store in the evening and I had a chance to drive the route and measure the distance. It was around 3.1 in one direction. I did feel pretty good this morning so maybe my perception wasn't off for once.] 

I woke up at 5:50 am for the morning run with H.R. I have a psychological impediment to getting up at 5:45, even though it takes me a little more than 10 minutes to get ready for a run. It's going to be 15 minutes when it's winter.

H.R. and I took Como Avenue east for a mile and then went through the neighborhood streets that are immediately west of the St. Paul Campus of the University of Minnesota. I wore shorts and a long sleeved t-shirt, and felt just right. We made our way to the campus and did a loop on campus before heading back to Como Avenue and home. I think we were somewhere around four miles, although it could be a touch less than that. I'm going to call it 3.75 since we ran it in 35:45 or so. Each journal entry I take makes clear to me that a Forerunner is in my future, because I don't enjoy writing estimates in for mileage. At the same time, can I really justify it? Is it going to make a material improvement to my training, given that I have very simple training goals right now? Tough call. The technophile and materialist in me will eventually win out, I am sure.

I ran this morning knowing full well I had agreed to run in the afternoon with a friend from school. He ran in college and has been faster than me. I like the idea of training with a variety of people, some gazelles and others turtles. I haven't ever been a competitive runner and so I don't have that natural competitiveness about pace. But I do feel motivated by not wanting to slow people down or looking foolish, so a little faster pace than I usually do seems to be helpful. But it's probably unhealthy to run with fast people every day.

When we stepped outside of the school to start the run, it was 80 degrees and sunny. We ran the first mile in about 9 minutes, I think. The next couple came in at about 8:30 each and the next couple were 7:30 each or so. We ran about 6 miles and then stopped to try and get water at the building that houses the crew team's gear. The crew team was out on the Mississippi, coach riding in a boat along side, talking to them through a megaphone. I bet that gets old.

I sometimes felt strong, other times exhausted. The doors to the building were locked, but we found two drinking fountains along the side of another building and started running again. I made the last mile with not too much left in the tank, but kept pace with the two guys. We made the 7 mile run in around an hour, maybe a little less. That's faster than I usually go.

I can count on one hand the number of times I've run twice in one day, so this is uncharted territory. Anyone reading this who does it regularly, I'd love to know any insider tips for staying fresh through both. 

Two last thoughts: first, I need to sleep more (I'm tired and fairly irritable); second...I can't remember what the second one. Refer to the first. 

I took a day off from running today. I was intent on running three miles in the morning, something easy, but I got to bed late again and thought the additional sleep was worth more than the recovery run. I'm not sure whether that was right, but I have felt a little tired today in my quads. Other than that, it's like any other day. That's a good sign. Maybe I'll try a double workout one day a week or something.

We did the usual route along Como Avenue and through the St. Paul campus. Two others joined us, M.C. and A.T., both from the complex. We ran the usual pace, maybe a touch slower than usual. Having never run cross country, it's fun to run in a pack like that. There's a momentum about it that somehow pulls me along. I would love if it was convenient to be in a running group at one point.

The route was 3.9 miles, and I don't know how long it took us. I didn't set the watch out with my stuff, so when I got dressed I would have had to go and open a drawer to sift through other things and get the watch. This would have created too high a risk of waking kids up, which is the worst scenario.

It was about 60 degrees out. I wore a long sleeved running shirt but definitely didn't need it. I felt a little sore from Tuesday's double workout, but it didn't affect the run. 

No run today. I did walk 18 holes of golf, and felt pretty tired after that, but a different kind of fatigue for sure. Tomorrow I'm hoping to run for 3 hours, regardless of distance. This will make it logistically easier. I haven't had a ton of sleep this week so I hope I can get up and complete the run.

I slept in until 8 am, and hung around with Julie and the kids until about 8:45. I decided that with the marathon two weeks away, a three hour run might be overdoing it a bit, so I resolved to run 2 hours instead.

 I went out on the Minneapolis Diagonal Trail again, which isn't terribly long. I ran up on the trail until it ended, then had to visit a restroom at Hom Furniture. I asked a sales guy if I could use the bathroom and he said yes. That was after 40 minutes or so of running.

I have a mental difficulty at some times during runs where I feel a little tired and then realize I'm only a fraction of the way through the run. I did that after 40 minutes today, realizing I had another 1:20 before I'd be done. As soon as I started running again, I felt great, though. Funny how that works.

I made my way back to the trail but instead of running back the way I came, I turned left at Gross Golf Course and over to the Ridgeway Parkway. It basically loops back to the Diagonal Trail. I ran down the hill to the end of the parkway and decided to go up the hill a few times. So I ran up the parkway and back down five times. I felt more and more tired as I did each one, but found that I was going a bit faster on each one. I paid special attention to keeping good form, trying to run smoothly. I think that helps.

Each uphill and downhill set took about 8 minutes, so by the time I was done with that, it was time to head back home. Fifteen minutes later I arrived. I have no idea how far I really went, but I'm pretty sure I was faster than a 10 minute pace, so I assume somewhere in the 13 mile range. It could have been 14 miles, but probably not more.

I should mention that with this run, I think this is the most miles I've ever run. I've been pretty close, but I think I've always ended up around 30, not much more. Had I made it out on the intended easy runs, I might be around 40, but this was a pretty decent week. 

Side Note: Running with a Hydration Belt 

I ran with my hydration belt today. It is definitely easier to run with one than to put out water, but it's going to take a while to become accustomed to it. I have an Amphipod-brand belt that has four bottles of 8 ounces each. It doesn't bounce up and down much, which was my primary concern when I bought it, and I have room in the little pouch for a few other things. Today was the longest run I have done with it. It was 65 or 70 degrees during the run. I felt like 32 ounces was fine for two hours of running, given the temperature. Of course when I got back I had to drink a lot more, but the point of hydration during a run is to keep performance high, and I think the hydration belt is answering this challenge.

What I don't like about it is the tendency for the front-most bottles to slide along the belt in their holsters. It would be nice to lock the holsters in some way, but that doesn't appear to be possible.

The other thing I don't like is the tendency for the belt to make me look like a fool. It doesn't help that the bottles are neon green. Of course, running and looking silly are inseparable. I'm not afraid to embrace my inner (and outer) running dork. I think the hydration belt is a keeper.

I think I'm getting a cold. Everyone else in the family has had it. I should have just laid in a bed with all the kids and Julie when they had it so I could catch it sooner, like they did in the Great Brain. Oh wait, that's what happens every morning when the kids come in and breathe into my face and wipe their noses on me. Parenthood is all fun, all the time.

I don't know how many of these new routes will hold up during the winter, but this one was nice. I ran up to the diagonal trail and looped back to Stinson via St. Anthony Blvd. and Ridgeway Parkway. There was a gusty wind blowing south. I felt tired still from the Saturday run. I ran it at 5 pm.

This route has the advantage of being an out-and-back run with a loop attached to the end of it, making it possible to extend the run in blocks of 2.7 miles with each loop. This will come in handy, I think.

I forgot to mention that on Saturday's run, a lady would have hit me with her car as she was driving toward the sidewalk from a parking lot. I stopped well short of that part of the sidewalk because I saw her coming, but when she finally saw me she slammed on the brakes. The look on her face was priceless.

This run was in 52:48, meaning that I ran the 5.8 at a 9:10 pace. I had to wait at a couple intersections, so I think I was safely at a 9 minute pace. I didn't push it or anything, so I am hopeful I can hit that pace for the marathon. I am less hopeful (but still hoping) I can hit something sub-9, but with the Rapid City elevation, I'm probably unwise to harbor that desire.

I didn't run today because I knew I was going to have to stay up all night tonight and write something. And I was right about having to stay up.

I was actually planning to run at 4:00 but there was a mixup with running partners and by 4:30 there was a boisterous rainstorm going on outside. I didn't bother, figuring I could pick up a couple runs Thursday, Friday, and Saturday, if necessary. It is the last full week before the marathon so it's not like I'm going to try for 20 miles on Saturday. 

No running for the second day in a row. I stayed up all night doing something for school and took a nap this afternoon. Not good.

Somehow the cold I thought I'd have didn't develop. Maybe it will come back tomorrow. Maybe I just wiped out my immune system completely and can't feel the cold ravaging me because there's no response. Maybe I'll stop talking about this.

Tip: very cold root beer is good. 

Didn't run again today. I didn't run because I had another late night, and then had junk to do, excuses excuses excuses. 

I felt antsy in the afternoon and figured it was the fact I hadn't run. I am definitely not at the point where a daily run feels like a necessity, but more than a couple days without running feels wrong.

Obvious tip: staying up all night is a last resort. 

I went running with H.R. We went up Industrial Blvd. to the Diagonal Trail, then back down toward Stinson and home again on Talmage. It took 39:30 for a pace of 8:47. The pace felt quick but not unreasonable, though my perceptions in the early morning (after not a lot of sleep) are messed up. Darkness doesn't help, either. I bought a heart rate monitor in 2005, but the watch's battery died over a year ago. I think I should get it replaced so I can start tracking heart rate and offset some of this perception problem.

The weather is just gorgeous right now. It was probably 60 when we went out this morning, beautiful clear sky, little wind. Man, winter is coming and that is not cool.

It's hard to believe the marathon is next Saturday. I'm excited to see Mt. Rushmore. I've never been there before. 

I didn't get out running today, mainly because I'm lazy, but also because the morning was occupied with Julie going to a breakfast with some friends. I take up most of the mornings with my running and it's fair that she'd be able to do something instead.

For me, the biggest problem with running after the morning time is stomach stuff. I don't run well within three hours of having eaten a meal, but I like to eat.

I ran the 5.8 mile Ridgeway Parkway-Diagonal Trail loop from my house. It took 50:25 minutes, for an average pace of 8:41. It felt fairly quick, but not at my limit or anything. I don't think I have a chance of running that pace in the marathon, though. It's hard to know how fast I should try to run this marathon. I would love to be around 9 minutes/mi, but I just don't know how I'll fare with the elevation. I did, however, switch to the Crazy Horse version of this marathon in order to run downhill instead of uphill. I think my pace will be quicker because of the switch (go here to see the differences in the courses).

It was about 55 degrees outside. I wore a long-sleeved shirt and running shorts. 

Today, I ran the Crazy Horse Marathon in the Black Hills of South Dakota. I finished in 4:33:35. Here's how it happened. 

Since we arrived here on Thursday from Minneapolis, I hadn't really felt winded except when I took a little jog on Friday (by "little", I mean about 800 meters). I think the time spent in Utah this summer made for an easier transition to the higher altitude of Rapid City. Rapid City is only 3200 feet above sea level, though (between the last sentence and this one I looked up the elevation on Wikipedia).

The race begins at Crazy Horse Memorial, a gargantuan sculpture in progress that has so far yielded only the face of Crazy Horse himself. The next step for the sculptors, according to what I read in the visitors center prior to the race, is to carve out the head of the horse, 219 feet in length or something (so Crazy Horse's horse walks into a bar...) The starting line was at 5800 feet. 

The reviews I read of the race, along with my estimate of colder temperatures at elevation, convinced me that I should wear a long sleeved running shirt instead of a short sleeved one. This turned out to be a mistake. 

I think I can probably talk about the race if I list the split times and then talk about how I felt and what happened. 

Splits 

Mile 1: 8:39 I had had a decent walk up to the starting point from where the shuttle dropped us off. I think I would have been a good deal slower otherwise. 

Mile 2:  9:19 The route loops through the memorial area, including up a few hills. This mile was slower because of those hills, and because we passed by some cows that seemed intent on running across the running path. This intention became action when seven or eight cows suddenly bolted across the dirt road we were running on. Cows are big, and runners are generally not. I was a good fifty feet from the cows that went across the first time, and then maybe 30 feet the second time. No more cow trouble after this. 

Mile 3: 8:06. No aid station yet 

Mile 4:  8:14. Finally at 3.1 or so, there was the first of way-too-few aid stations. The race featured water and "Ultima," which I think tastes like lightly-sweetened Pedialite. It's gross. I don't love Clif Shot, GU, etc., but their tastes are at least reminiscent of something people eat. It was fortunate that I brought two Clif Shots with me and a package of cola-flavored Clif Shot Bloks, which taste like cola bottles candy. I leaned heavily on these items for electrolytes and sugar because I didn’t want the repeated gagging sensation accompanying each cup of Ultima. Now that I look at Ultima’s website, I realize that the drink has no sugar. No wonder! And at a lousy ten calories per 8 oz., good luck getting any energy out of that. Yeah, I want calories, okay? 

Mile 5:  8:07. At some point in the early part of the race a tall man in an orange shirt ran by and I started to keep pace with him. I think he ran the half marathon. By this point in the race, we were heading down the George S. Mickelson Trail. The trail had mile markers in the 50s, so I think this might be a significant trail. It was beautiful and the sun wasn’t out yet. 

Mile 6: 8:02. Still with the man in the orange. Still no aid station. I’m sweating and starting to be thirsty. 

Mile 7: 8:15*. No aid station, no mile marker. 

Mile 8: 8:15*. Somewhere between miles 7 and 8 there was an aid station, making it two measly stations for the first 7.5 miles or so. Bad news. 

Mile 9: 8:26. I’m still feeling good, but maybe feeling a little parched and a little strained to be moving at this pace. 

Mile 10: 8:42. At this point, the man in orange went ahead by a bit. At 10 miles we met in with the Mt. Rushmore Marathon folks, who had major hills in their first 10 miles, even though their path was also a net downhill. 

Mile 11: 9:05. 9:05 feels about right, but I recall not feeling like I had anymore 8:15 miles in me. My legs were starting to hurt a bit, too. 

Mile 12: 8:54. At some point we ran by an older couple who had parked their van and were cheering people on. Maybe they were looking for someone in particular. Out of the van was blasting, “We Didn’t Start the Fire,” and the elderly lady was clapping in rhythm as she cheered us on. 

Mile 13: 9:52*. I missed the split, not confident that the mat I was running over was for 13 miles. 

Mile 14: 9:51*. Really, this was a much slower mile than mile 13. I don’t know how much slower, though, so I’m not going to try and guess. The halfway point was into Hill City, which is also the finish line for all the races. Mentally it’s a bit tough to run away from the finish line after having passed by. Just outside of Hill City we ran into a steep hill that I gave up on running, opting instead to walk. I was really tired by now, definitely dehydrated and my legs felt weak. I had passed the halfway point at about 1:53, set to make 3:46 for the marathon if I kept my pace through the rest of the run. Somewhere in here I pulled off my long-sleeved shirt and tied it around my waist. I’m not an Adonis like some people, and I prefer to keep my clothes on when in public. This time, however, I was certain that the sun’s presence would maybe prevent me from finishing if I kept the shirt on. Strangely, nobody catcalled me. 

Mile 15: 12:26. The road continued to go up, while my energy level continued to go down. 

Mile 16: 10:50. I don’t know what I did here to achieve this (by second-half standards) decent time. 

Mile 17: 11:23. This was the first mile of the forest service road, an offroad track with ruts, rocks, and so on. It wouldn’t have been bad at all except that it came at mile 16 and didn’t really end until mile 20. 

Mile 18: 13:36. Now I’m really feeling it, forcing myself (=allowing myself) to walk after each mile. The aid stations have been more plentiful this second half but the sun has heated me up. Every time I ran up a major hill my heart rate went crazy and I felt bad. I had to take it very slow. 

Mile 19: 12:09. I was still working from the walk-run mentality. 

Mile 20: 13:20. By now my legs were in a lot of pain and my knee(s) were weak. I wanted to quit. I was still dehydrated, though I had moments when I felt good again. 

Mile 21: 10:55. I made it this far and felt happy that there were only five miles yet. 

Mile 22: 13:35. I walked a fair amount at the mile marker. 

Mile 23: 11:17. I don’t know how I did this mile in this time. It’s not that fast but it was well in excess of the pace I was used to. 

Mile 24: 13:21. I walked for a good 3 minutes at the start of this mile. My legs were stiffening up. When I had to pull off my shoe to dump out stray rocks, I could feel how stiff my feet were. The many miles of trail, including the recently-completed forest road, had taken their toll with me inadvertently stepping on multiple rocks while running. 

Mile 25: 12:31. Miles 21 through 26 were directly in the sun. I was definitely at the end of my line. 

Mile 26: 13:37. This mile featured a fair amount of walking. In the past couple marathons I’ve taken some ibuprofen during the race, and this year I went without. The pain seemed more acute this time. 

Last .2 miles: 2:22. There was a nice little crowd out to cheer us on. I ran down the main street in Hill City and then to the finish line. I saw J. and the kids and we sat down on the shaded concrete. I made my way to a sports medicine truck and had them check me out. They had me drink some Gatorade, eat a few Triscuits, and the doctor stretched my legs while I rested on their padded table. The Gatorade tasted particularly good. 

Other Thoughts 

In terms of race management, it wasn’t my finest outing. I didn’t hydrate well in the early part of the race. Despite the dearth of aid stations in the first half of the marathon, and the poor job I think this represents by the marathon organizers (tip for next year’s organizers: if a runner hasn’t had much to drink for the first 13 miles, those aid stations for the latter 13 can only do so much), it’s my job to keep myself hydrated. I exacerbated this problem by running too hard for the first half and by wearing a long-sleeved running shirt in which I roasted when the sun came out. In other words, I take responsibility for bonking for the last ten miles of the marathon. 

Nevertheless, I am faster than I was when I ran Park City in late August, and pulling a decent first half of the marathon was a satisfying act in itself. I was also running at 5000+ feet for the duration, so a little hit in time isn’t unreasonable. I’m hopeful that a winter spent building my base level of fitness will allow me to jump back into marathoning next year. 

I learned some more about how I handle pain. I wonder how the best marathoners feel when they run. Do they have great pain toward the end, or does everything feel fine? I know I have a hard time pounding out those last miles when my legs hurt. Is the key to run at a pace that won’t hurt, or to hurt them in training so the feeling is not unfamiliar? 

During the painful times, I kept thinking, “You just have to face who you are at this moment.” That for me meant that I couldn’t pretend that I had any more 8:15 miles in me this race, and that the reasonable goal was now to run for a consistent amount of time before stopping to walk again. The little mantra may not make sense to you, but it made sense to me when I thought it. The thought also tempered any ego-driven desire to break 4:30. I came in at just 4:33, so it would have been easy to do if I had not walked so much. But the walking felt appropriate.

I rode the exercise bike for a few minutes just to give the legs a little motion. It was hard to walk down stairs today.

I rode the bike again today and didn't bother running at all. Still very sore.

I jogged from the dumpster to our apartment to see how it would feel. Still sore but not hurting a lot.

I ran 2 miles today in 20:15. My legs felt very sluggish, and my left ankle hurt. My right knee was also sore. My right knee seems to be the one that aches the most when I go on longer runs, including both preceding marathons.

I feel fatigued from the race still, but I want to get out and hit some more miles in the next few days, if only because the weather is so nice.

To compensate for the endorphins lost by not running, I have been eating a lot. Maybe I'll train to eat a lot in the same fashion that I run: nice easy eating on Mondays, speed eating Wednesdays, and a long, slow feast lasting 2 to 4 hours on Saturdays. I've read that you have to get out there and eat for long periods each week in order to allow your stomach to get used to being in action for that long. Increase your calories by no more than 10% each week to avoid burnout.