Silicon Valley Marathon

Check out my cool medal! Today I ran my first marathon of the year. I started out a few months ago thinking I would try to qualify for Boston, but after two months of visits to my physical therapist, an emergency family trip to Michigan, and all the other things that conspire to ruin a good training plan, I scaled back my 3:30 idea to maybe just running a PR. My best marathon time was my very first marathon last year in San Francisco. I had to beat 3:47 so I wore a 3:45 pace band.

The first half went exactly as planned, running a very consistent 8:35 pace. The weather was cool, I was comfortable and the course was flat. At the halfway point we ran around the Los Gatos High School track where the half marathon ended. I was only 30 seconds behind plan at the halfway point and figured I could make it with a good second half. I took fluids at every single aid station, knowing the heat would be an issue late in the race. I felt good at 18 miles, and even at 20 miles I thought I could still stick my 3:45 goal. But the legs would not respond. I finished in 3:51, six minutes off my goal.

I had forgotten to bring a couple salt tablets which would have helped keep me loose and avoid the stiffness that sets in during the final miles. As it turned out, I had real difficulty recovering after the race. I was hydrated, but had lost electrolytes, and I needed sodium. It wasn't until a few hours later at home that I finally started feeling better.

My finish time convinced me not to try and qualify for Boston at CIM in December. 21 minutes is too much to cut in seven weeks. I will probably run the Big Sur half marathon on Nov. 9, then turn my attention to ultra training or off season triathlon training. I was reminded again today that the marathon is way harder than a 50K. Always respect the marathon.

Paso Robles Splash N Dash

This weekend I entered one of the smallest races I have ever done while visiting my in-laws in Paso Robles. Just a week before the Silicon Valley Marathon, I was tapering and thought a 500m swim and a 5K run was just the right combination of aerobic effort and speed work.

There must have been less than 20 people signed up for the event. No age groups, no race bibs, just a few people of all ages gathered for some friendly competition at the Kennedy Fitness Center. They have a really nice 50m lap pool which I had swam in before. I was in the first wave with a high school girl who I was told was crazy fast, a woman who swam for UCLA in her college days, and a couple of guys clearly older than me.

I was the last one out of the pool in my heat. It was a great reminder that despite the huge improvements I had made this year in my swim times, I have a long way to go to be competitive in the swim. I was so far behind that when I started the run, I could only see one person ahead of me on a long stretch of road. I didn't realize the first half of the run was uphill. I passed one guy who was clearly suffering but there wasn't another runner anywhere near me, so I decided to just make it a decent tempo run.

I have no idea where I finished in the standings, and I don't care. I didn't even get my final time. I just love to compete and enjoy doing different events. This was my 19th or 20th race of the year. The variety of events and the different locations have made it very fun and interesting. I'm not sure I'll do another Splash N Dash anytime soon, but it was great to do a race just for pure enjoyment.

My History Setting Record

At first, I thought this story had nothing to do with the triathlon, but then I realized it has everything to do with it. The other day my parents told me they had chatted with my high school track coach, Keith Spraugh. He told them my conference pole vault record of 13' 1" set in 1980 will never be broken. That's because the conference has just been disbanded.

First, I didn't know my record was 13'1". I was sure I jumped 13'6" at regionals my senior year so I don't know where they got 13"1". But I won that meet with that jump to go on to the state finals. It's easily my biggest sports moment in high school. I placed a disappointing 9th at state that year. I had started the year with the goal of winning the state championship. I even dropped varsity basketball that year as starting point guard to train the entire year for the pole vault.

Second, I knew I had the school record but assumed someone had beaten it by now. And I had no idea it has been the league record for the past 28 years! 13 feet is really not very impressive. But I attended a small private parochial Class C school, so the competition was not that great. My twin brother and I were the only two kids that could jump over 12 feet in our league and we were unbeaten our junior and senior year.

The sad story is that my high school in a Detroit suburb closed its doors a few years ago, a sure sign of troubled times in Michigan. Now to hear the entire conference has ended is a real reflection of a depressed economy in Michigan.

But just to put my accomplishment in perspective, the national high school record is 18'3". Top high school kids today regularly vault over 17 feet. In 1980, my senior year, the world record was 18"11 1/2". The world record is still held by Sergey Bubka of Ukraine with a vault of 20 feet 1 3/4 inches. Bubka entered the world stage the year after I graduated from high school, and went on to break the world record an unbelievable 35 times.

So what does this have to do with the tri? I realized I've had a work ethic since high school. I've never been an exceptional athlete. I just work harder than most people, and triathlon is just a ton of work. Except for the decathlon, the pole vault requires more cross-training than any other event. So it comes as no surprise to me after all these years that I decided to do the tri.

Still, I'm amazed I've held a record for 28 years and didn't know it. And it will never be broken. That's kind of cool.