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.

The Club Dilemma

Recently, my local running club held a meeting to discuss the future direction of the club. The meeting was hosted by the founder of the club who was acutely aware the club had naturally evolved over the past four years. It was time to re-evaluate the purpose of the club.

I didn't attend, but sent an email expressing my view. I joined the local running club to find like-minded people who I could train with, race with, and keep me motivated. Over the last few years, I have made great friends, learned a ton about training, and enjoyed the comraderie that only runners share. Over the course of time, the club also developed a logo, a web site, newsletter, club gear, and kept a record of Grand Prix points so club members could compete on a level playing field.

Then the club decided to take on the organizing of a local race, then another, and this year was considering launching another local race. We have raised money for charitable causes, given scholarships to local high school students, and generally given back to the community. The trouble is, that's not why I joined the club. I really just want to train and race. Philanthropy is important to me, but I prefer not to mix it with my training and racing.

So we find ourselves at a crossroads, and I re-evaluate why I seek the fraternity of fellow athletes. I know I never would have considered the triathlon, attempted the marathon or ultra marathons if I had not joined the running club in the first place. I have found some great training partners for the tri and running, and we have had a really fun time. The friendships have been very special.

In the end, I think we all have very similar priorities. Family first, then work, then working out. By the time we get to working out, there isn't much time. Maybe once the kids go off to college, I'll have more time...to run.

Sentinel Triathlon Results

I wasn't exactly ready for a race today, but I had missed the Triathlon at Pacific Grove a couple weeks earlier and wasn't ready for tri season to end, so I decided just a couple days ago to do the Sentinel for a second year in a row. It helped a lot to have my friend Doug who raced with me last year encouraging me to do it again with him. This was my 5th race of the season.

Part of me didn't want to do the race unless I had a chance of beating my not so impressive time of 2:49 last year. I thought my swim had improved considerably this year, but I wasn't spending as much time as I would have liked on the bike and I've been going to physical therapy for three weeks now to help loosen up a really tight external rotation of my hip flexors. Geez, that sounds like an old guy thing.

Conditions were about perfect. 60 degrees at race time and about the same water temp. I felt comfortable throughout the swim but my wave (45 - 49) seemed to thin out rather early and I felt like I was swimming almost entirely on my own as we turned around the end of the Santa Cruz pier. Stepping onto the beach I glanced at my watch to see I was nearly five minutes ahead of my split last year. I was stoked.

I have never perfected the art of getting out of a wetsuit. Even with the wetsuit peeled down to my waist, it's like trying to get out of a straight jacket in a bad magic show hanging from a burning rope. T1 just sucks.

I kept my bike computer on my average speed. I knew the course well, so all I had to do was equal or beat my 18.6 mph last year. On Hwy. 1 we were met with a brisk headwind. All I could do was hammer the downhills at 30+ mph and look forward to a tailwind on the return. The loop through the parking lot toward the end is a bone jarring ride. It felt like either my back or my bike would snap as I rattled through that section.

I finished the bike in 18.5 mph, so I knew I had a better overall time going than last year. Now if I could just run 8-min. miles like I did last year, I'd finish with a decent time. But less than two miles into the run, my left glute and right hamstring started cramping. I was ready to quit but I have never quit. I stopped for 10 - 15 secs. to stretch my legs, and that seemed to help. Still, I struggled the entire run. Both feet were numb and I wasn't going at the pace I wanted just to avoid injury.

I crossed the finish line but was so delirious I couldn't read the time on my watch. I finally figured out I finished in 2:45, exactly my goal time. That meant I improved dramatically on the swim this year. I'll have to tell my swim coach all the work is paying off.

All in all, I'm really pleased with my tri season. Two full Olympics, two shorter ones, one half ironman, and Aluminum Man in Maui. I feel like I have put some experience under my belt to tackle a bigger prize next year.

Splash 2 Dash Winner!

Today, at age seven, my son Cayman won the 7 - 8 yr.-old age group at the first annual Splash 2 Dash Youth Triathlon in our home town. He didn't train for it at all and it was his first triathlon. It was a 50-yard swim, a 3-mile bike, and a 3/4-mile run.

We didn't even know about the event until a few days ago. Yesterday, I took Cayman on our bikes to see the course. I explained each leg, showed him the transition area, and we rode the bike course. I think it helped him a lot. He knew where to go and knew how many laps of the looped course he needed to complete.

He was in the fourth wave, so he was able to watch other kids start in the pool, see them exit and head to the transition area. We jockeyed for position to get the first lane, closest to the transition area. I was trying not to take the whole thing too seriously, but any triathlete understands how to shave a few seconds here or there. I knew Cayman would go out as fast as possible on the swim, but he remembered to take a few breaths at the end of the pool before doing the second lap. My wife helped him out of the pool as I waited for him at his bike. I knew I could help him through a fast transition, but when he left on his bike, I couldn't tell where he was in the pack.

I ran out to the looped bike course to see how he was doing. He passed me halfway through the ride, where I told him it looked like he was in the lead! With an emphatic fist pump, he charged ahead. He passed me one more time and then I ran back to the transition area to meet him.

He was clearly in the lead coming into T2. I grabbed his bike and helmet right at the dismount area and he took off running. That was about a 4-second transition. Wouldn't it be nice if I could do that in one of my races. Just three laps around the parking lot, but he had now caught kids from the previous wave that started 15 minutes before him. He didn't realize he was only racing against his age group at that point, but the shuffle of kids everywhere urged him on.

He crossed the finish line in 23:46. Official results showed one other boy in his wave finishing in exactly the same time tied for first, but that's not possible because there was nobody near him at the finish. It was only after seeing the official times that I realized how far ahead of everyone Cayman finished. The average finishing time was around 33 minutes.

It was also great to have my wife and daughter on the course taking videos and pictures and cheering him on. We were all very proud of Cayman's win, and I would have been just as proud if he had not won, but for him to win in a field of 52 kids and beat all the 8-yr. olds. Wow, I was impressed.

Cayman was very proud of his accomplishment, but I think he expected to win. His win and his confidence inspired me. But already there are two giant differences between my son and me. He is starting the sport 35 years younger than when I started it. And he is really good.

Marathons, Triathlons, Ultras

I have already spent considerable time on long rides and runs thinking about what kind of events I want to do in 2009. The plan includes marathons, triathlons and ultra marathons. I'll probably throw in a century ride or two. But in talking through this with some training partners, I now have a better understanding of why I choose this combination of events.

For me, the triathlon is the ultimate challenge. Nothing tests your physical conditioning, endurance, and mental fortitude quite like the tri. The amount of training required to perform respectably in three disciplines is so much more physically demanding than a single sport. The effects of sleep, stretching, rest, and eating habits are exacerbated. And so many things can go wrong in a tri. So when a race goes well, it is incredibly rewarding.

I've been a runner for over 30 years and the marathon represents the pinnacle of the sport for many runners. The lore and lure of Boston alone makes the marathon a must do. But I avoided it for years. It is a test like no other. The training is hard...really hard, and it keeps you honest. For most runners, it's the longest distance you'll ever try to run as fast as possible. I have learned to always respect the marathon.

I am really glad to have found ultras last year. Through many long hours of training with friends and running events in incredible places, the ultra represents the pure joy of running. You only take on the ultra if you really love to run. Family and friends can't appreciate the ultra distances (most have never even heard of ultras). You don't run 6 - 10 hours or more for the recognition. I've never even seen a finisher's medal for an ultra. You do it for yourself, and the satisfaction in an ultra comes entirely from within. I got into ultras because I love to run, but I found training for ultras all winter took me into tri season in great shape.

I don't know if this is just my twisted way of justifying what I love to do, but it works for me.