12 posts tagged “marathon”
This is a great article that summarizes recent study results regarding deaths in marathon running... it is fantastic!
If you ever have someone pester you about how "unsafe" it is to run marathons, this is the study you will want to quote.
Havybeaks recently posted this response to a Trail Running Blog Tag from Scott Dunlap and Paul Charteris. I figured that I'll give it a go as well but, like havybeaks, my answers are more general in nature than trail specific:
1. Most memorable moment on the trails… was the 2007 WDW Marathon in early January (race report). I went out way too fast in very hot/humid conditions and thus dropped of my goal pace at about mile 14 but the experience of a marathon + Disney was awesome. I'd recommend it to any runner. I ran a 3:51:44.
2. Best new trail I discovered in 2007… I dunno really. I did find a new six mile route from work but its more of a convenience route rather than a great route.
3. My best performance of the year was… I did not run many races in '07 and the ones that I did run weren't all that fast (i.e. no PRs this year except for the marathon). Of the races that I did run, I think that I performed the best at the Seaside Half Marathon in early March (race report). I ran a 1:38:07 which was only 30 seconds off my PR for the distance. I hope to train and run a 1:35:00 half mary this year in order to qualify for the CF National Running Championship.
4. I do not know how I previously survived without… my Amphipod Hydraform Handheld Pocket handheld water bottle (gear review). I used to run with a regular handheld water bottle and I found that the round cross-section of the bottles would lead to hand cramps on my longer runs. The ellipitcal cross-section bottles used by Amphipod solve this problem and the pocket on the handle works great for gels, ID cards, or credit cards.
5. The person I would most like to meet on a trail in 2008... While I wouldn't be able to keep up to his pace or run as long as he can, I'd love to see Scott Jurek out on the trails/roads (earlier post regarding Scott). This guy's ultrarunning preformances are just amazing.
6. The race I am most excited/scared about in 2008 is... the Bataan Memorial Death March Marathon at the end of March (original post). I'm running/slogging this one with a team from my work. This isn't a regular mary; the course goes through the high desert terrain of White Sands Missile Range, N.M., conducted in honor of the heroic service members who defended the Philippine Islands during World War II. In the division our team is entered, we will be completing the distance while wearing BDUs, hydration packs, and combat boots.
Most of our motley crew gathered early this morning for our first training run in preparation for the Bataan Memorial Death March Marathon. Our group is pretty diverse when it comes to running experience so we're starting out nice and easy. We've got 37 weeks to get ready so we're in no hurry - yet.
We ran an easy four mile out-and-back down to and then along the beach. Being an early morning run it was comfortable and it was gorgeous down at the beach. On the way back we managed to see three or four Bluntnose stringrays and a Nurse shark all looking for breakfast no more than twenty feet from shore (note to self... this is a bad time for swimming).
I'm really not used to training along with others as I haven't done so since my early college years (ten years ago) but it's nice to unplug from my iPod and be able to talk to someone.
I don't expect that we'll have a big group out every day but we surely started out well.
I was pretty much on track for my running this week... only a mile short from my planned mileage:
- Tuesday - 5 miles
- Wednesday - 5.5 miles
- Friday - 11 miles
- Sunday - 11.5 miles
- Weekly total - 33 miles
I was supposed to run the final three miles of my long run today at MRP but I wasn't able to even reach my MRP in a mile and a half! I decided to cut the run a little short and give it another shot next week. This workout is much harder than I had bargained for.
I also started using the Advanced Workout mode for my Forerunner this week. I'm pretty impressed with the feature(s) on the whole but with a few small reservations.
- While I had scheduled my Advanced Workouts via the Garmin Training Center s/w, it did not appear on my Forerunner as scheduled for that day. I was forced to scroll thru my workouts to find the right one for the day.
- I realized that you must program a final undeclared step in your workout or the device stops the timer for you when you're complete. This could work great if your on a track but I rarely run courses that are exactly the right length for the workout (i.e. I got shortchanged a few tenths of a mile at the end of each workout).
- I'm not sure if it's possible to abandon a workout in the middle but continue running. If I program a workout that is just way too hard for that particular day, I'd like to be able to cancel the workout with a single switch action but allow the device to continue recording/reporting for the remainder of my off-the-script run.
Although I didn't do any speed work this week, I've decided to stick to
Yasso 800s for my speed work workout every other week. These workouts
seem more enjoyable than other workouts (I'm not sure why) and I like
the correlation between Yasso800 pace and estimated marathon completion
time. It just sucks that I should probably be working on them at the
track... although maybe I can set-up a custom Advanced Workout for my
Forerunner that let me do the workout while staying off the track.
I've got another movie recommendation to consider the next time you're at the local movie rental store or to add to your Netflix queue.
Set in the early '50s, Saint Ralph is the story of Ralph Walker, a fatherless 14-year-old with a seriously ill mother, who attempts to win the 1954 Boston Marathon. Ralph believes a miracle will bring his mother out of a coma and that winning Boston would be such a miracle.
From a runner's perspective, I found the training and running techniques used in the story to be very interesting. These were the days when marathoners didn't fuel during the run, the field of runners was very small, and training methods were rarely based on any type of science. I can't imagine running a 20 X 1 mile interval!
What also makes this movie even better is that it is Canadian (I know, when was the last time a good movie was actually produced and released in Canada... and please don't say Men with Brooms). Not only is the movie Canadian made but it also takes place in Canada... Hamilton, Ontario, to be exact.
You don't have to be a marathon runner to love this movie (although I only stumbled across it because I am a runner). While Ralph uses running to work towards his miracle, the story and characters of this movie are really great. My wife even had to admit that she enjoy the movie despite initially rolling her eyes at "another running movie."
It looks like I’ll be off to New Mexico next March to participate in the 2008 Bataan Memorial Death March Marathon!
The Bataan Memorial Death March is a challenging march through the high desert terrain of White Sands Missile Range, N.M., conducted in honor of the heroic service members who defended the Philippine Islands during World War II, sacrificing their freedom, health and, in many cases, their very lives (Bataan Death March).
We are fielding a team from work for the National Guard Light Team category. This category is a military “guard” team consisting of five members that must cross the finish line within 20 seconds of each other. Folks competing in any of the military categories must be in uniform for the duration of the march (including regulation combat boots). If the team loses a member during the race, it is disqualified.
I’m pretty stoked about the event. I’ve got all types of questions and concerns regarding the event and our team but I’m sure everything will be sorted out once we get the team all together (we haven’t been able to get together yet).
So I have not been on the road too much since finishing the WDW Marathon. Here's what I've been running over the past three weeks:
- Week 1 - Nothing. All my mileage was done walking while visiting the parks at WDW.
- Week 2 - 15 miles over three days. Roughly five miles per run before work.
- Week 3 - 15 miles over two days. Completed a 9 miler on Friday morning in ~35F weather. This was the first time I decided to wear my running pants in Florida (and it was a good choice because the wind was killer).
The first half of the course went quite well; I was in the first corral, I was lined up with the Clif 3:30 pacer and was able to stay with him and his posse for 14 miles, I kept a sub 8 pace for the first half, kept to my hydration/nutrition plan, and managed to high five a bunch of Disney characters as I ran through the Magic Kingdom.
Things started to go wrong at about mile 14. I started slipping away from the pace group and this is when I realized that I would be unable to keep up my pace for the long haul (I should have realized this from the start line).
Between mile 21 to the end my pace further slowed to 9:50 min/mile. The run thru MGM Studios was pretty cool with the many Disney/MGM characters standing about to greet us runners. I did feel a bit intimidated as Darth Vader and his Stormtrooper guards loomed over me as I took a water and gel walking break immediately following one of the aid stations. Just around mile 26 I managed to see my wife in the rather large spectator crowd watching a bunch of sweaty and sore folks stumbling towards the finish line.
I managed to cross the finish line in a chip time of 3:51:42 with an average pace of 8:50 mins/mile.
One of the best parts of the race was the Monday evening afterwards.
I spent Sunday afternoon thru Friday afternoon visiting all four parks at WDW with my wife and sons; it was a great time (more posts to come on the fun we had).
Overall the marathon experience was fantastic and I feel that I may have spoiled myself by having WDW as my first completed marathon (I had a bad experience in Ottawa in 1996). The spectator and WDW cast support was fantastic, lots of great places to run through, the organization was done very very good, and my family was able to turn my marathon into a great vacation. I'm not sure if I can swing next year's WDW marathon but I'm defiantly thinking seriously about it.
Photos to the right (from the top):
- I am running down the ramp from Cinderella's Castle. I was running pretty good at this time (although my fake smile for the photographers had already faded as I figured that my picture had already been taken).
- In this one I've got Mt Everest in the background as I ran thru the Asia section of Animal Kingdom. This is around the time that I realized that trying to stick to my goal 8:00 min/mile pace despite the rather warm and humid conditions had been a really bad idea.
- Here I am running thru MGM and Piglet is in the background.
- Here is a photo my wife snapped of me as I neared the finish line. The Canadian "cast" in Epcot handed me their mini Canada flag when they saw my 'Canada' hat. It was pretty cool to hear the many "Go Canada" cheers in the last mile.
- And finally here I am crossing the finish line. While the clock says 3:52:19, my chip time was 3:51:42.
I've stumbled upon a few interesting running-related stories while out on the run and listening to some podcasts in the past few days:
Hanson brothers SOS Marathon Training Plan - Steve, from the Phedippidations podcast, talked about his new moderate and consistent marathon training plan on his latest podcast. This plan is better known as the Hanson's Something of Substance (SOS) Marathon Training Plan (Here's the Running Times article). This plan is very different from the standard Higdon or Galloway training program as it has six days of running per week, focuses on getting used to running at your marathon pace, and the longest long run is only 16 miles! Steve has been working at breaking a sub-4 hour marathon and he hopes this program will get him to that goal. I think the plan is pretty interesting (I'm especially interested in the @Marathon Pace workouts) but I'm going to stick with my regular plan for the time being.
Joggler - While listening to the RunningPlanet.com podcast, I learned about Perry Romanowski, a marathon runner that juggles the entire marathon and he's done this 22 times already. He's even pretty fast (with a joggling PR of ~3:22). His next plan is to joggle thru some Ultras and even complete a Ironman Triathlon while juggling. This episode might not make you faster but it will make you smile.
So I'm into my taper now and I'm actually finding my weekly mileage a bit more than expected. We'll see how things go through Xmas week.
- Monday - 5.5 miles
- Tuesday - 5.5 miles
- Wednesday - 6.5 miles
- Thursday - 6.5 miles
- Saturday - 5 miles
- Total weekly mileage - 29 miles
