Philly Marathon (26.2 Mi)

Philadelphia, PA

A near-death experience on the infamous Chinatown bus, an entire landscape of hotties, & full-body soreness would all describe my 1st marathon experience down in Philly. Not having raced anything farther than a half marathon, my plan was to go out conservatively hitting consistent 7-7:15 min miles for the 1st 20 or so and then hang on for dear life!

I was definitely spent by the end but had a great race and enjoyed the historical aspect of the course. Running through the streets of Philly just blocks from where the declaration of independence was adopted and where our constitution was signed added some significance. Can you imagine how peculiar it would have been back in 1787 to look up from the constitutional debate in independence hall to see some 6000 people running down the street?!

I was a little disappointed they didn’t start the race in waves, but as they say, pura vida. All I remember was being stuck right in the middle of this mass herd of people as we practically walked up to the starting line. Packed like sardines, it was a good minute into the race before I could even start weaving around other runners. Wouldn’t it make more sense to at least line the runners up by projected finish times? Sure there were signs but it turned into a big free-for-all which didn’t help me after I spent an hour trying to check my bags.

The course timing didn’t make any kind of sense either. None of the mile markers seemed to be right on. How is it that I ran mile 6 in 4:19 and mile 7 in 9:15 when my pace remained consistent? I guess it’s about as random as the runners who decided to stop on the side of the road to take a leak in broad daylight 500 feet from a police officer.

Just when I thought I had seen the last of my timing dilemma, I was cheated out of an extra 66 seconds at the finish. Apparently the USATF takes the “gun time” as the official race time. This doesn’t even make sense to me though when every runner is issued a timing chip so your time is clocked when you cross the starting and finish lines. So my official time according to USATF standards was 3:09:59, 66 seconds slower than my chip time but still fast enough to break the 3:10:00 qualifying standard for Boston next spring with a whole second to spare! Overall, I placed 376 out of 6179 runners and 56th in my age division. Not bad for a high profile race that draws world-class competition.

I qualified for Boston, but barely and could have run a better race. I probably made about every mistake that you could possibly make in pre-race preparation. Tapering was an issue for me in that I just couldn’t bring myself to do it. I was so apprehensive the week leading up to the race…an 18 miler the weekend before and short steady state runs up through Friday pre-race.

That in combination with the rest factor hurt me competitively. Friday night I stayed in NYC with a good friend from Wyoming. Clubbing and the other festivities I partook in that night left me pretty drained the day before the race. Not only that but I went cheap in Philly and stayed at the Bank street youth hostel. Let's just say the drunken German boys who came stumbling in at curfew didn’t help my cause.

Besides the few gripes I had about the race logistics, it was an all around good time. I plan to run Boston next April but after that I’m not so sure if I’m going to be up for racing many more marathons. I think I’m more of a 5k/10k guy. Not only do the long runs eat up half your Sunday but I really didn’t enjoy the race itself past mile 20 or so (besides the guys standing on the side of the road pouring their own version of race-aid from a Sam Adams keg!). We’ll see but I think I’ll enjoy some cheesecake and cheap wine for now!

Brighton Mass 5k

Brighton, MA

I made the trek down to Brighton on Saturday to get out and to run something at race pace. This was a great community event put on by the Samaritans of Greater Boston to support their suicide prevention programs.

This was a USATF certified course that started at Artesani Park and ran along the Charles River. I finished the course with a time of 17:54 which wasn’t bad and good enough to place me 4th overall. Like I said, I just wanted to get out and run something at a fast pace.

I’m pretty sure I’ll be making the trek up to Philly to run the Philadelphia Marathon in November. If I end up racing, it’ll be my 1st marathon ever so I’ll get to test that out. It’s also a qualifier for Boston next spring which is the whole reason I’d run it in the 1st place. We’ll see how things pan out over the next couple of weeks.

Ollie 5 Mile Championship

Boston, MA

After some great runs up in Maine last weekend and a powerful speed workout on the track Wed, I went into my 1st road race out here on the East Coast pretty well prepared. The course itself was on the South Boston Waterfront and offered spectacular views as we ran along the coast looking out over Pleasure Bay. The entire course was flat with exception to one hill that was more of a knoll in comparison to anything back West.

I think this was the 1st year that the race had become a USATF sanctioned event meaning that there was some great top-level competition in a near-world-class venue. It was really interesting because the pro athletes and the “average joe’s” (aka me), all started at once off the same starting line. I think it goes without saying, 3-time Boston Marthon Champion Uta Pippig kicked my ass!

I went into the race with the goal of running sub-30 min for the 5 mile course. I think I got just a little too excited starting off the same line with all of the pro athletes and blazed my 1st mile in 5:24. A little too fast and it actually cost me in the long run. Had I gone out slower I could have run negative splits and would have faired a lot better. In the end though, I clocked a 29:35 exceeding my goal and had a blast running my 1st race here in Beantown!

Lander Half Marathon (13.1 Miles)

Lander, WY

After a hard week of training and some tapering right before the race, I fared really well in this year’s half marathon. I have horrific memories of running this race for the 1st time last summer not knowing what I was getting myself into and bonking out at mile 10. This year I went into it well prepared and with somewhat of a strategy.

For the first 6 miles I hung with the pack of 4 front-runners who took us out at a pretty good clip. It was Joe from the ski team, a couple of Lander women (who apparently had qualified for and ran the Boston Marathon last spring), and some other dude I didn’t know. The 1st half of the course was mostly uphill with more of a rolling hill succession. I thought it was kind of funny because I would eat away at them on the strong uphills and then let them pass me on the downs until we finally hit the 2nd to last climb around mile 6 where I opened up a spread between us.

So there I was, taking off with the race not even half-way through the course. Once I hit the downhill stretch, I was hauling ass! I couldn’t help but opening up even more with Adam, Kelly, & Ashley cheering me on as they gave me “feeds” along the course. What can I say, I felt great and I went for it! Towards the end of the race, as I looked back I had put at least a ¾ mile spread between me and the 2nd place finisher. My legs were numb but damn it felt great!

I finished out with a time of 85:37 which handed me the race title though I know I could have finished a few seconds faster. GI problems at about mile 8 necessitated a 5 second pit-stop on the side of the road…if you know what I mean! All of my roommates where there and Tess even finished her 1st half marathon! Quite the step up from the TJC 5k! In all, I had a great race and can’t wait to start training for the next one!

Sunrise Stampede 10K

Longmont, CO

This was the 3rd year that I’ve run this race. The views of the front-range along the course are amazingly beautiful and keep me coming back every year! This year I finished in 39:02 which was faster than my time last year but 5 seconds slower than my Boulder time 2 weeks ago.

All in all, I had a good race though. There were a few things that factored into my sluggishness. Namely, not getting off work until 11 the night before and driving down right after that. I pulled into Longmont around 2am leaving me 5.5 hours of sleep in the back seat of my car. Not exactly the best pre-race strategy but sometimes you have to make sacrifices to make things work. My finish was good enough for 3rd in my age division and 23rd out of 505 10k finishers.

Bolder Boulder 2006 (10K)

Boulder, CO

Well after only 1 week of good training in the states, I faired pretty well for this year’s boulder. I just got back from spending two weeks in Costa Rica where I didn’t run much at all. For one, every time I went out for a run, I was so miserably hot that I couldn’t run as intensely as I needed to and secondly, I was on vacation. After all, how could you pass up $1 beers and $.50 happy hour? ¡Pura Vida!

The race actually turned out pretty decent and I shaved 43 seconds off my time from last year. I ran a 38:57 which isn’t very fast comparatively to other runners in my age division but it’s pretty fast for me. The racing conditions were optimal this year as there was a little sun and no rain to speak of. I actually arrived a little later than I wanted to and started in the back of my wave. Things ended up turning out alright though.

The house I stayed at the night before was definitely pimped out. Boulder at its finest. This pad had to have been worth ½ a mil easy. Everything was brand new and I was just amazed with the size of their plasma TV in their living room. Wow! It reminded me of the show “Cribs” on MTV. It’s great when you have connections through your friends! Jake’s parents are awesome! Nothing like shooting pool and carb-loading, drinking beer that is, before a race! We also had a fabulous spaghetti dinner in Longmont with Rachel & Christi. Those two have great taste when it comes to selecting restaurants. ¡Buenísimo!