Sunday, May 27, 2007

Exultant! Triumphant! Sore!

The race is over! I ran consistently, walked only at the water stations and smiled pretty much the whole way through. My 'chip time' was close to my prediction:

5:33:21

Details and photos to come - this one was taken a half-hour after crossing the finish line and eating a plateful of donuts.

Sunday, May 20, 2007

Race day details


The marathon is this weekend!

Sunday, May 27, is coming fast. Several of you have asked me about where to watch the race. Let me just say that I watched the marathon for a few years, then joined relay team, and now I'm running the whole deal. So, just beware of what you're getting yourself into: this is a really fun, inspiring community event.

People to watch for

The wheelchair racers are pretty amazing. A guy runs the race every year dressed as Flash Gordon -- look for the tall guy in head-to-toe red spandex with gold lightning bolts on his head. Make sure you see the elite runners at the head of the race at least once, they are so cool to watch. At the bottom of Battery Hill the Taiko drummers are set up to provide plenty of motivation for the big climb up to Battery Park. Runners' bibs are different colors for marathoners, half-marathoners and relayers. Except for the elite runners, the bib numbers are assigned at random.

I will be wearing a dark pink t-shirt, a tan and gray baseball cap, sunglasses, and black shorts. I haven't decided yet whether to put my name on my shirt - any thoughts on that are welcome.

Logistics
About 7,600 runners will be on the race course Sunday - marathoners and relayers included. I've heard that as amany as 40,000 spectators will be out as well. Hopefully the information below will make it easier for those of you who plan to be in the city for the race:

Parking:
Do not attempt to park near the Waterfront or near Battery Park. If you can bike in, that's probably a good choice. (Secured "valet" bike parking is available at Battery Park and Waterfront Park.) Drivers should look to park near or east of downtown - the city garages on Cherry Street are a good bet. Meters will be off because it's Sunday.

Starting line:
The wheelchair racers start at 8:00 a.m. sharp. The gun for the marathon goes off at 8:05 a.m. The race starts at Battery Park, with runners facing south down Battery Street and then turning the corner onto Pearl Street. I will be around Battery Park somewhere by 7:20. The starting line will be a frenzy, but if you want to say hi before the race, you can find me for sure at the gas station on the corner of Park and Battery at 7:45 a.m. After that, I'll be lining up on Park Street for the start. Along Park Street, they'll hang signs for different paces -- I'll be up near the 12-minute pace sign.

Finish line:
The elite runners will cross the finish line around 10:30 a.m. I will not be among them. Look for me closer to 1:30 p.m. No joke.

The race course makes a big loop of Waterfront Park: it comes in from the Coast Gard station on the bike path, follows the boardwalk nearly to the Echo Center, makes a sharp left onto the grass, then loops back a 1/4 mile on the walking path to the finish line. The "infield" area created by that loop is a fun place to watch the finish, but I've heard they're going to be stricter about crowd control this year.

There will also be a large video screen set up somewhere at Waterfront Park that lists the names of runners who have finished - so if you miss the actual finish line drama, you can find me soon after.

Party:
In Burlington's tradition of every-weekend-a-festival-for- something, there should be plenty of good times in Waterfront Park for the finish line party: food, ice cream, music, tons of people laughing, crying, passing out in their aluminum blankets. I think the party goes till 3 p.m.


Where to find me during the race
These are the times you can expect me to cross through popular spectator locations. I could be late arriving at any points - especially later in the race.

8:05 a.m. STARTING LINE, Battery Park
8:40 a.m. Church Street - going uphill (Mile 3)
9:53 a.m. Church Street again - downhill (Mile 9)

10:41 a.m. Oakledge Park, south end (Mile 13)
11:05 a.m. Top of Battery Hill, Battery Park (Mile 15)
12:11 p.m. North Ave, Flynn School (Mile 20.5)
1:17 p.m. Waterfront boardwalk (Mile 26)
1:20 p.m. FINISH LINE - Waterfront Park (Mile 26.2)

The area around Battery-Church Street-Waterfront is ideal to see the runners several times without having to walk far yourself.

Helpful links:
Vermont City Marathon web site
Race course map
Race day weather from WCAX

Also!
On Saturday there's a Sports and Fitness Expo at the Sheraton - open to the public, lots of vendors giving out free stuff and some cool speakers and presentations. At 11 a.m. and 1:00 they're giving a slide show of the race course. More info

Wednesday, May 16, 2007

Monday, May 14, 2007

Week 16: Taper madness

While you probably won't find this condition in the DSM, "taper madness" is a term I heard this weekend that describes the slightly frenzied condition of marathoners who don't know what to do with all the extra time on their hands. (Top ways to fill time: having paranoid thoughts of injury, and emailing people about paranoid thoughts of injury.)

Random comments from this first week of the taper:

Why taper?
Basically, you've been asking an awful lot of your bones and ligaments and muscles, and they need a break before you ask your biggest favor of them yet. About three weeks before the race the taper begins and you gradually reduce the volume of miles you're running: the number of miles you run each day, and the number of days you run each week.

Perky runners - ugh
Have you ever seen people out for a run really early in the morning, or – worse yet – late at night? You think, man – you must really be psycho about running to be out here at this hour. It's almost… annoying.

One day this week I mismanaged my day and found myself still needing to run 3 miles and it was 9 p.m. The gym closes at 9:30 – not enough time to get there and finish the run. So I put on my super-reflective light-up running vest and went for a post-sunset run around the neighborhood. The shadows cast by the streetlights and the eye-rolling folks out for a late walk made me realize what I had not even suspected: I've become one of them. Pony-tail flying, dodging under tree branches, crossing in front of traffic (it IS a crosswalk), reflective vest, annoying runner girl.

"Crash" returns
I picked up the nickname Crash several years ago after a series of spills and accidents that were astonishing for their frequency and odd circumstances. But up until this weekend, I was pleased to have survived all this training without incident – no slips on the ice, no trips in the snow, no falling off the treadmill (which I did once, years ago; not pretty.)

Yesterday, I totally ate it while running on a dirt recreation path. The palms of my hands are red and scratched, but otherwise no damage. My first instinct was to laugh, but I realized quickly that it sounded like crying and it worried the passersby who just watched me face plant with limbs akimbo across a gravel path. I got up quickly with a round of, "I'm ok! I'm ok!" and kept running, a little embarrassed. The walkers pointed accusingly at rock submerged in the middle of the path. I expect the town will hear about that.

Coincidentally, I got this quote in my email today, one of the daily inspirational running quotes sent by a Marathon 101 classmate:

“Our greatest glory consists not in never falling, but in rising every time we fall.” Ralph Waldo Emerson

Sunday, May 6, 2007

Week 15: The last really long run

The 18-week training plan hit its peak this weekend, with the last of the three 20-mile runs. From here on, I run fewer miles each week until race day. And I'm thrilled and relieved to say that today's 20-mile run went very, very well:

Running the course
My intention today was to run the first 20 miles of the race course and to make it a pretty realistic dress rehearsal. I woke at 6:15 a.m., ate a breakfast of protein and carbs, got my stuff together, sipped from a glass of water, took a light nap. I walked from my apartment to the starting line a few blocks away, met a friend who is running the first legs of the relay, and we took off running just after 8:00 a.m.

Around mile 4 or 5, the course goes out on a highway, but seeing as how traffic isn't stopped for people in training as it is on race day, we went out a parallel road and approximated the distance. I only knew for sure that we overshot the distance when I plotted it online when I got home.

We parted ways when her part of the relay was over, and I kept going out to the south part of town. Runners were everywhere! Today was cool, sunny and perfect for all of us who getting in our last long run. Coming back up north on the bike path was challenging, with a strong wind coming off the lake. Even though the sun was bright, I felt so cold in some of those stretches - my fingers were white, red and swollen, and the sweat dried on my arms in salty, grimy streaks.

I passed through the halfway point and headed toward Battery Hill, which the big hill of the course. I needed to stop and stretch and I debated whether I should stop at the bottom of the hill, or push through to the top. I did make it to the top of Battery - though my run slowed to a jog to nearly a walk - and I took advantage of the public bathroom at the police station in Battery Park.

I continued north, knowing I only had 4 miles left to go and they really much better than I expected. Remembering how hard those final 5 were in my last 20 miler in San Diego, I kept a running pep talk in my head, and kept my head down, and just kept chugging along. At some points i realized I got distracted from convincing myself to keep going and realized that I just running without thinking too much about it. it actually wasn't that bad, this long run. I had picked a turn-around point in one of the neighborhoods and I knew I was close when I got there. I did have to resume the, 'don't you dare stop, you're doing fine' speech. I started thinking about what the next three weeks of tapering will be like, and adopted a nicely alliterative phrase to keep going: stretch, sustenance, sleep, speed - this is what I intend to focus on for the next three weeks, and I think I'll do just fine.

The numbers
So it turns out that today's planned 20 miles were in fact 21.2 miles. I love that .2! This was a purely accidental but auspicious distance: I just need to scrape, crawl and hurl myself 5 more miles and I'm at the finish line.

The run took me about 4 1/2 hours, which is slow, but fine. If I work really hard and adrenaline works its magic, I might finish the race in 5 1/2 hours.