Garden Party

I went to a road race on Saturday and a party broke out. At least that's what it felt like. How many November Indiana days can you enjoy clear, sunny, skies and temps starting around 50 and headed to the upper 60s? The race organizers for the Indianapolis Monumental Marathon and Half-Marathon were definitely blessed by the running gods. This had originally been my 'A' marathon for the year, but after nagging injuries over the summer that plan was scrapped, leaving to kids events, which got scrapped, which led to me saying, what the heck, I'll just run the half.

Watching the forecast leading up to Saturday, I struggled  a little bit deciding just what to wear. Only running the half, I wouldn't be on the course that long, but still didn't want to spend a significant amount of time trying to warm-up. As it was I opted for my normal race kit with no extra cool-weather gear, which turned out to be just the right decision. Based on my estimated time, I was placed in the seeded corral, which I very much appreciated with the reduced crowds. While we were waiting for the start I ran into a youth triathlon friend and we talked about our goals for the day. He was planning on going a bit faster than me, so I gave my well wishes and slid a little further back in the crowd. When former Olympian and American Record holder Bob Kennedy issued the run start, I took off at an moderate pace. At the first mile marker I was spot on. The course wound through downtown Indianapolis showing off some the cities' finer features. As we headed out of downtown, I came up on a co-worker who was running the full. We ran together until the race split around mile 7, sharing running stories about work and other races. All the while we stayed right on an even pace, just a little below my target time for the day.

After the split, I continued north through the Meridian-Kesseler neighborhoods and was feeling good so I picked up my pace about 10 seconds per mile. Around 9.25 we turned south onto Meridian St and started to deal with a headwind blowing between 15 and 19 mph! Up until that point, I was right only my target pace give or take a bit, but the wind was really taking a toll on me. I tried a few times to hang on to a group and draft for a while, but my conditioning seemed to be revealing it's true level at about the same time, and I was not able to stay with any of the groups. I knew that my family was waiting around mile 12.5, so I just hung in there. I was looking forward to having the kids there cheering, because they had never seen me race before. That was just the boost I needed and was able to get my pace back on track and close out to finish in 1:44.38, just 20 seconds under my estimated finish. At the finish one of the volunteers was Alex, a guy I ran my first half with in 1991 and hadn't seen since.

After my finish we hung around for a few hours cheering people from our home town. We saw some but not all. The kids got to congratulate one of their swim coaches, which is why we missed a couple of our neighbors. We have to apologize to Brad, who we gave up looking for because we were sure he must have already finished. After reviewing the results, we gave up on him probably about 2 minutes before he came by. I can justify it by saying we were sure he was already done.  Wrapping up the day, we waited for our friend Elyssa, who was running her first marathon. As it turned out she had some cramping early in the race, but hung in there and finished strong, The kids ran the last mile with her and then we hung out for a few minutes with she and her family before calling it a day and heading home.

I have to say I was impressed with my estimation of my fitness level. Looking back at the race, I believe that I was really only conditioned to race a 10 miler (as further evidenced by my post race soreness), but given the weather conditions I was pleased with my result. The family will be running the local drumstick dash on Thanksgiving, but it's back to the drawing board for my next goal race. I saw somegood candidates at the race expo, but need to sit down with schedules and make some decisions.

So we went to a road race and a party broke out. There were lots of people, good entertainment, some  food, and some great times and conversation shared with friends.


Artist for Song in Title: Ricky Nelson

Face the Change

I made my plans for the year, changed them after some nagging injuries, changed them again when I started building back up, changed them again when the kids said they wanted to run an event, then changed them again when the kids switched their focus to swimming. I think the spinning wheel of change has come to a stop. Yesterday I plopped down the money to run the Indianapolis Monumental Half-Marathon, so there is no turning back. Since the event is this coming Saturday, that shouldn't be an issue.

I've gone through a number of other changes in my running lately, so I'm not sure what to expect from the race. For starters, while I was dealing with the injuries, the run-net community was full of discussion around Christopher McDougall's book "Born to Run" and barefoot running in general. With all of the excitement, and looking for anything that would get me back on the roads, I came very close to heading out the door sans shoes, but could never quite do it. I did get some new shoes, and switched from the Asics Gel-Landreth 5, a neutral cushioned shoe, to the Mizuno Wave Elixir 4, a lightweight trainer. I've always been a fairly efficient mid-foot striker so I thought the transition would be straight forward, but while my previous annoying pains have gone away, they've been replaced with new soreness in my calves that is obviously from adjusting to the new shoe geometry.

While I've been increasing my base mileage over the last few months, I've begun to work in some speed work. I've done fartleks, timed repeats, race pace runs...all things I haven't done since I was in high school. I'm getting to the point where faster feels more comfortable, but I still don't think I really made big changes in my output. I know that I will, but need more time for the effect to really show.

Bottom line is that things have changed a lot from what I planned them to be this year, but have morphed into a greater plan. However, while I am hopeful for this weekend, I'm sure my training is not up for a great result and maybe not even a good result. It's really being difficult setting my expectation so I can have a positive outcome, which in the end is what I am really hoping for.

Artist for Song in Title: INXS

Breathing

Every so often I look at my calendar and realize what a crazy life I keep. And that doesn't even include my planned exercise. I keep the activities color coded to represent work or the owner. The average work day is probably 1/3 to 1/2 meetings, and then things get really ugly. The kids need to be at this practice or that, meetings at Church, board meetings, Jil's occasional work night... People have seen my weekly calendar view and are amazed.

But that's only part of the story. When I'm not scheduled to be somewhere, there's always additional information processing to do. There's e-mail to read, Facebook and Twitter to follow, blogs to stay up to date with, podcasts to listen to during commutes.

The full schedule and the information bombardment are a big part of my drive to run and ride. Those activities allow my time to breathe. I'm a non-iPod person during exercise, so that is the one time during my day where it's just me. The only input is natural and calming. I'm able to take in the weather, both good or bad, and the varied smells and colors of the different seasons. And mostly I can rummage through my thoughts or not. Sometimes my thoughts will be very active and other times I just lose myself in the moment with no thoughts at all....nothing but breathing.

Artist for Song in Title: Kate Bush

Happy Together

Every year brings certain milestones to us. We all experience birthdays, which of course marks our increasing age. We also experience anniversaries of many events. This past weekend was full of milestones for me. My wife and I shared our wedding anniversary and two days later, I marked another birthday. This year neither event was a milestone date, other than the passing of another year. The birthday was a normal workday with work and our regular busy schedules, but the anniversary was special, in what some may consider a little twisted.

So how was the anniversary special? It began like just like any other fall Saturday with Jil and I splitting up. I headed off to a nearby community to support Anna at a cross country meet while Jil stayed home to make sure Will got to his playoff football game on time. By the way, Anna was second on her team, 10th overall, and the team placed 3rd in their conference. Will played very well with 4 big tackles and a 15 yard kickoff return, but his team lost 20-0 in their playoff game and their season (and maybe his football career) is over. After the events, we got home and Jil and I did a couple of small chores around the house, but it was such a beautiful early fall day we decided to go for a run. As we were running we realized that even though the hour wasn't right it was the exact time of your anniversary (the hour difference is due to the addition of daylight savings time in Indiana between then and now). Running was my thing when we were married, and only in recent years has Jil discovered what joy the activity can be. We aren't able to run together much because of our busy schedules, but when we do it is a very enjoyable time. The runs provide us some time together without interruptions and when we can enjoy some conversation or just a little quiet time together.

Artist for Song in Title: The Turtles

Accidents Will Happen

I've continued to recover from my illness and I still don't think that I'm 100%. My training is getting back on track with where I was before, but all my systems are feeling completely normal and that includes my brain wanting to hit the road. Of course after I get out the door, I feel better. Without a goal race on my calendar I'm just trying to get my base to a nice level and my weekly long runs into double digits. I'll start looking for a spring goal race in the next few weeks, just so I'll have something to keep me motivated on some of those cold winter days.

The kids have had a couple of good weeks of cross country. Anna logged a couple of number one finishes on her team. At the Indiana Middle School State meet she finally recorded a personal best, going back to the same meet last year and finished about 10 places higher than last year. Will has gotten his first experiences at the 3k distance and has done pretty well. I think he is now getting to the point where he can race rather than just run the distance.

If you have been following this blog for a while, you probably know that the Indianapolis Monumental Marathon was my goal race for this year. But after a summer of fighting leg problems, I just lost too much and got started up again too late to be really ready to race. Last week we found that the USATF junior olympic cross country state meet is that same date and both kids would like to participate. Had I been racing, it would have been a difficult logistically for all of us to support each other and not feel any guilt. Sometimes accidents will happen in life, and things just work out.

Artist for Song in Title: Elvis Costello
Note: I noticed the other day that Grey's Anatomy names their episodes after songs. I have to admit they were doing it first, but I was completely influenced by Anna's suggestion to do so.