The Reeds Lake Trail Blazer run was a last minute addition to this year’s race schedule.  It was the first year for this 4th of July race and it was a fundraising run to benefit the new Reeds Lake waterfront park and trail.  I almost didn’t do the race for two reasons.  Number one, it was a funny distance (4.5 miles) so I really didn’t have a PR on the line and number two, I wasn’t feeling up to a race.

On race morning though, I dragged myself out of bed, and had a quick breakfast of a banana and toast.  My stomach was a little upset with me which didn’t help out with my mental pessimism. 

When I got to the race site, I bit the bullet and paid the extra $10 for race day registration.  I guess that is what I get for procrastinating. 

As I was waiting around at the starting line, I was having serious regrets about the race.  My legs felt tight, my stomach felt funny, it was hot and humid, the rest of the field looked faster than me, I was tired, etc., etc.  I eventually got in the starting coral, lined up behind a large group of girls who worked at the local running shop – they were dressed the same and had “G-A-Z-E-L-L-E-S” (the name of the store), painted on their backs.  I was sure that they were going to mop the course with me.

As soon as the horn went off, all my apprehension disappeared immediately.  It was amazing.  As soon as I started racing, I felt great.  I took off like a shot.  In the first half mile, I settled in behind a couple that I recognized from past races.  However, by the first mile, I was feeling so good that I decided to pass them.  As the race progressed, I continued to pick people off.  In fact, in the final 2.5 miles I passed about 15 runners and didn’t get passed once!  That group of “G-A-Z-E-L-L-E-S” women – gone.  That guy with the M-Dot tattoo and IM Louisville shirt – eat my dust.  The tall, sporty, skinny chick who was toeing the starting line – bye bye!

I crossed the finish line in 31:12 for a overall pace of 6:56 (6:53, 7:12, 6:53, 7:05, 6:16; final half mile).  This earned me 14th overall (out of 384 runners) and 5th in my age group.  This is by far the best finish I have ever had and am super happy with it.  I would have thought that 14th overall would have earned me a top 3 finish in my age group, but there was only 3 age groups: 0-24, 25-39, and 40+.  Oh well! I am super happy with how this race turned out. 

So, what did I learn?  Don’t let a sour attitude ruin a race.  Roll with punches and turn that negative energy into something positive.

Stay tuned for a full 4th of July Weekend Wrap-up.  I’ll hopefully have it done by tomorrow, but I’m too tired to work on it anymore tonight.

Or: What It Feels Like to Be an Elite Athlete

Or: I’m Famous!

Friday

I took it easy on Friday after my 10 mile run on Thursday.  I did an easy long swim before heading to the expo for packet pickup.  I got downtown at about noon which was apparently when the rest of the world decided to do packet pickup as well.  However, because of my new VIP status, my line for packet pickup was only 2 people long.  Now, before I go too much further, allow me to explain my VIP status.  The River Bank Run has a 2 Hour Club for any runner who completed the previous year’s race in under 2:00:00.  As I finished in 1:55:59 last year I was allowed into this private club. Here is a copy of the email I received welcoming me to the club.

After getting my packet, of which, I only needed my number and shirt and not the 2 dozen fliers included.  They certainly aren’t going to be winning any green status with that packet.  But I digress.  I wandered through the expo and checked out the booths.  Nothing too exciting.  Nice to see that the Grand Rapids Marathon, Brooksie Way, and 3Disciplines all had booths though.

Saturday

I woke up at 6:00, had a bowl of Cheerios and a banana and we were off.  Having done this race a few times before, I already knew where the best parking was.  We got there with plenty of spots left and plenty of time to spare.  The weather was less than optimal; cold, windy, and sprinkling, so Jennie and I headed over to the Two Hour Club room.  It was 39*F with a 29*F wind chill because of the 20mph winds out of the west.  Thankfully, the hospitality room was nice and warm.  We hung out there for a few minutes before heading to the starting line.  The weather, despite sounding miserable, was in reality perfect for the race.  The strong winds were blocked almost entirely by the tree lined roads and the only portion of the course that was open to the winds was when the wind was at our back.  In the end, there was probably a head wind for less than a mile of the entire course.

 

Which brings me to another perk of the Two Hour Club – premium start position.  In a field of 6,500 runners, the Two Hour Club corral is directly behind the elite athletes.  I was literally 3 feet away from actually toeing the line myself and rubbing shoulders with Stephen Shay (the late Ryan Shay’s brother), Rockford native, Jason Hartmann, and Dan Browne.

The gun went off promptly at 8:20 and we were off.  Starting with the elites was a nice perk, but not something I’ll ever do again.  Going out with them caused me to go out WAY too fast – my first mile was 6:45 – YIKES.  Plus, I would rather start further back and have more opportunities to pass people than to be passed.

Miles 1 – 5

As I said, I went out way too fast: 6:45, 7:08, 7:07, 6:58, 7:18.  About 3 miles in, the 7:00 min/mile pace group went past me.  I did my best to keep them within sight, but eventually the round yellow sign become a tiny dot in the distance before disappearing completely around mile 7.  Despite the fast pace, I was feeling pretty good.  At the second aid station, I was running along and a guy cut me off to get a water.  I was slightly peeved about it until the woman in front of him botched grabbing a cup causing the water to splash down the front of the cutter.  Karma’s a bitch.

Miles 6-10

The next five miles (7:09, 7:12, 7:17, 7:21, 7:34) was a roller coaster of mental strength.  Just after the 6 mile mark, the course turns around and starts to head back in the direction of the finish line which gave me a mental boost.  It felt like the halfway point – but it wasn’t.  When reality sunk in, I trudged along another 1.75 miles to the actual halfway point and my mental strength returned.  I passed the halfway point at roughly 55 minutes which meant that I was well on my way to another sub 2 hour race.  Then the course turned into the wind and faced an uphill just before mile 10 – there goes the mental strength again.  At the corner, just before mile 10, I saw the lovely Jennifer taking pictures and cheering.  She was accompanied by a co-worker (and fellow runner/triathlete) who came out to cheer me on (Thanks David!).  And back came the mental strength.

  

Miles 11 – 15

This is by far the hardest part of the course (7:38, 7:35, 7:15, 7:42, 7:35).  Not only is it the end of the course, but it is the hilliest portion.  Every year, the Hills of Butterworth catch me off guard and always seemed longer and harder (TWSS) than the previous year.  With the prospect of another sub 2 hour race, I wanted to keep a relatively fast pace, but I didn’t want to go all out because this was only supposed to be a C race, not an A race.  I have a triathlon in a month and didn’t want to run so hard as to jeopardize my training.   I saw my dad was at the end of his street near mile 13 cheering me on which gave me another boost of energy.  After seeing my dad, it was a quick run through the zoo before finally turning back towards the finish line.

The Final .5

The finish of the River Bank Run is one of the hardest final stretches I have ever done in a race.  The last half mile climbs 60 feet which is about a 2% grade, but after 15 miles, it feels like much more than that.  I picked up the pace as much as I could and finished strong with a final time of 1:54:38 – a PR!

 

Post Race

The race refreshments and post race party are very well organized.  The food is great and beer is cold.  I had my annual first piece of watermelon which means that summer is right around the corner.  We then headed over to the beer tent and found our friend Kelli Jo – the best beer girl ever – for some Michelob Ultra.  Not my first choice for a beer, but they are race sponsors and beggars can’t be choosers.  As I was enjoying the beer, I had someone walk up to me and ask me if I had a blog.  I said that I did and then he asked if I was Ironman By Thirty.  Holy cow! My first blog recognition!!! I’m famous!  It’s like being a rock star (without the uninhibited sex and drugs)!!  Ryan stumbled across my blog and is a newbie triathlete.  He did his first tri at Reeds Lake last year and I am sure there are plenty more in his future.  This was definitely one of the highlights of the day.

Chatting with Ryan, a blog buddy.

Overall

Overall, I am very happy with how the race went.  I really didn’t have any firm goals going into this race.  The PR was nice, but not necessary.  I guess, if anything, my only goal would have been to stay under the 2 hour mark – check.  One lesson I learned was to not start with the 2 Hour Club in the future.  Sure, I’ll take advantage of the hospitality room and private bathroom, but when it comes to starting, I’ll position myself in a more realistic pace group to prevent myself from going out too strong.

Official Results

Total Time:	1:54:38
Overall Place:	597 / 5461
Gender Place:	516 / 3055
Age Group Place:	91 / 410
Run Pace:	7:24 min/mile

Misc

In elite racing news, the US swept the field for the first time in the past 2 decades taking the top 13 spots!  It doesn’t hurt that A) Ethiopia’s Siraj Gena (the favored winner and recent winner of the Rome Marathon) never made it to GR due to Visa issues and B) the Kenyan men traditionally do not perform well in the colder weather.  Go USA!

Fifth Third River Bank Run winner Andrew Carlson, far right, talks with third- and second-place finishers Nicholas Arcininga, left, and Brett Gotcher after the race. (Courtesy of the Grand Rapids Press)

Also, Jennie spotted a few characters that finished just ahead of me.  First, I give you body suit man:

 

He ended up a finishing in 1:47:55 (6:56/Mile).  Maybe the suit is aero dynamic.  Regardless, I don’t think I’ll be giving it a try.

He was followed up by our second costumed friend of the day; Eagle Man:

Thanks for reading!

As promised, a full race report from my Martian Marathon weekend.  It’s long so grab a drink, sit back, and enjoy!

Pre Race

Let’s start at the beginning, Friday afternoon.  The plan was to leave Grand Rapids at 4:00 and head straight to the expo in Dearborn.  With the car loaded up, we got right on the road.

The drive wasn’t as bad as expected and we made it to Dearborn faster than Google estimated.  It’s not speeding if you are going with the flow of traffic right??

When we got to the expo, we were greeted by one of the many Martians I would be running with on Saturday. 

 

They really went wild with the Martian theme.  Each of the mile markers was an inflatable Martian – you could buy your own too if you wanted.  They also had alien antenna headbands and other UFO-related memorabilia for sale.  It wasn’t a huge expo, which made it easy to get in, get my number and T-shirt, and get out.  Instead of doing the traditional race packet with a plastic bag and bunch of flyers that eventually get thrown out, they did a virtual packet.  This meant that they gave everyone a link to a website that had PDFs of all the brochures and coupons that you could view and print out if you wanted.

After getting everything I needed, we took a few minutes to drive the beginning and end of the course.  We really couldn’t drive the whole course because part of it was on a bike path and apparently it is frowned upon to drive down them. 

Once we drove the course a bit, we headed to Jennie’s parents’ house for the night.  It was after 8:00 when we got there and we were starving.  We heated up some noodles and sauce for a quick and easy pasta dinner.  I was eager to hit the hay after dinner as it was going to be an early morning.

Race Night

I slept pretty well for a race night.  As is normal for race nights, I didn’t sleep very soundly.  I think part of it is the anticipation of the race and the other part is fear of oversleeping my alarm.  As I mentioned in my previous post, I had an eerie dream foreshadowing the outcome of the race.  I woke up with a start at 4:30 AM from an extremely vivid dream.  In the dream, I had just finished running the race.  When I crossed the finish line, the timing clock was broken, so I had no idea how I did.  I felt okay during the run, but figured that I had run a 3:45-ish race.  For some reason, in my dream, the official results were only posted in the newspaper, so I had to wait to see my time.  When I finally did see my time, I was shocked to a see a time 3:34.  When I woke from the dream, I was completely exhausted and felt as if I had really run the race.

Race Morning

5:00 AM rolled around a lot quicker than I would have liked.  I crawled out of bed and had a quick breakfast of bagel with jam and yogurt.  After eating, I actually went back to bed for about 20 minutes while I digested.  I went back and forth deciding on what to wear.  I brought both shorts and tights as options because although the weather has been very nice, it has still been dropping into the 30’s at night resulting in cold mornings.  I decided to go with the tights although I probably could have made it with the shorts.  The field was split with about half the runners in tights and half in shorts.

By 6:00, we were out the door and on our way.  Well, we were on our way after I scraped the frost off the car windows.  The beginning of the drive went smoothly, but traffic was horrible close to the race.  The main road was reduced from 3 lanes each way down to one lane each way.  We knew this ahead of time from driving around after the expo, but I didn’t think it would be that bad at 6:30 in the morning.  We sat in traffic for what seemed like forever.  By the time we got to the parking lot, it had been closed because it was already full.  We ended up parking at a meter and walking a few blocks to the starting line. 

It was rapidly approaching the race start time of 7:30.  As I got closer, I saw the line porta potties had lines about 40 people deep and it was already 7:15.  Thankfully, all I needed was a tree and there were plenty of those available.

I was at the starting line and ready to go at 7:20.  I cut it pretty close getting to the line on time, but thankfully everything fell into place and I didn’t seem overly rushed.  The race started off promptly at 7:30.  There wasn’t much fanfare or anything.  The race director simply said “Ready… Go!”  No starting gun or sports horn.

Jennie was able to snap some photos of me right as I started and at the 1 mile mark.  I was glad I had the tights at this point because I was freezing.  This would be the last time I would see Jennie until the 11 mile mark.

Miles 1-3

The course wound through some neighborhood streets for the first 3 miles.  I tried to take it easy and not let myself go out to fast.  This meant checking my ego at the starting line and not caring if people passed me.  This ended up being a difficult task because both the half marathon and full marathon started at the same time and there were over twice as many half marathoners than full marathoners.

Miles 4-6

After the first 3 miles, we made our way to the out and back portion of the race.  The next 10 miles out and 10 miles back were on a park road.  This made for a flat course with plenty of scenery.  However, because there wasn’t any crossroads or neighborhoods, there was hardly any spectators.  It was easy to go a mile without seeing a single one.  Also, portions of the road seemed very crowned and I was constantly moving left or right to find the flattest surface to run on.  I kept to my philosophy from the beginning and tried to take it nice and easy.  Still a long way to go and I didn’t want to burn out early.

Miles 7-10

We lost the half marathoners at the 6.5 mile turn around which really thinned out the crowd.  At mile 7, things started to go down hill.  My left knee started to hurt – a sharp pain on the outside of kneecap.  It hurt like hell, but it wasn’t really affecting my stride so I trudged along.  It still hurt at mile 8 and I was worried that I was going to have to stop and end my race.  The pain was reminiscent of a knee injury I had following my first marathon 5 years ago which grounded me for a couple months.  Thankfully, by mile 9 the pain had lessened a bit and by 10 miles, it was gone.

Miles 11-15

As I approached mile 11, I saw a familiar sight in the distance; a red car and my beautiful wife. 

   

Not sure where this smile came from; I was hurting at this point.  I gave Jennie a hug as I passed.  She told me that I was doing great and that the leaders had just past by.  I admit that at the time I didn’t believe her that I was doing great – I felt like crap.  I had my Garmin on, but I rarely (if ever) look at during a race.  I use it more as way to reflect on the race rather than tool during the race.  I actually managed to avoid looking at it until I hit the 26 mile mark. 

As I got closer to the turn around, I started to believe that I was doing better than I thought.  The leaders passed me going the other way when I was nearing the 12 mile mark which meant they were only about 3 miles ahead of me.  At the halfway point, I had a surge of mental strength and was feeling much better about the race.

On my way back, just as I was nearing mile 15, I spotted Marathon Don (race director from the Grand Rapids Marathon).  He has an absolutely amazing resume: 188 marathons or longer, all 50 states, 21 countries, all 7 continents 3 times, 82 consecutive months with a marathon or longer.  As I got close to him he let out a “YAY Grand Rapids Marathon” (the shirt I was wearing) yell.  I gave him a high five as I went by and told him he was doing great.  He ended up finishing 4:14, 48  minutes faster than his marathon 3 weeks prior.

Here are Marathon Don and I after we passed each other.  Look for the red shirts.

I saw Jennie again around the 15 mile mark.  I was feeling pretty good, better than I was at 11 miles.  I think it was all mental and I was finally on the home stretch.  I managed a strained smile and double thumbs up as I cruised by and told her I would see her in about 10 miles.  I know.  It would be more like 11 miles, but 10 sounded more manageable.

Miles 16-23

The next 7 miles or so was a struggle.  My legs were starting to hurt, but I was feeling mentally strong enough to keep myself going.  I got passed more than I did the passing which is sometimes hard to absorb, but I was rolling with the punches.  I started chanting in my head, “Just keep running. Just keep running. Just keep running, running, running. What do we do? We run, run..” (ala “Just keep swimming” from Finding Nemo). 

I walked through my first aid station at around the 19 mile mark.  I had, up until this point, been alternating water and Gatorade at each aid station and was able to jog through them.  By this point, though, I slowed to walk and grabbed one of each.  They must have been running low on Gatorade mix because it was really watered down; almost to the point where you couldn’t tell if it was water or Gatorade.

Miles 24-26

After mile 23, the course finally changed and I was finally done with the back portion of the out and back.  The next miles wound through Henry Ford Community College and U of M Dearborn.  Unfortunately my knee pain was returning which was slowing me down again.  Part of the last miles wound along a bike path which included two wooden bridges.  It was a weird feeling running over the bridges.  They were nice and cushiony and it felt good on the legs.  However, they were slightly bouncy so it was a weird feeling if more than one person was on the bridge at the same time; sort of like running on a trampoline.  The worst part of the whole course was at mile 25.5, the biggest hill on the entire course.  Seriously?  After 25 miles of flat course, they decided to put a hill at the end.  Not cool. 

At the top of the hill, I caught up with 3 other guys.  Only one of the guys was actually running the marathon.  His two friends were just helping to run him into the finish.  They offered me some encouraging words which was very helpful at that point.

The Finish

When I made the second to last turn, a little over a quarter mile from the finish, I finally looked at my watch for the first time.  It said 3:30! I couldn’t believe.  I turned onto the final stretch and gave it all I had left.  I saw Jennie cheering me on a few feet from the finish line.

  

I felt awesome as I finished.  All of the pain had vanished – at least momentarily.  I crossed the line in 3:34:19 (chip time) which is a 12:43 PR over my Grand Rapids Marathon last October.

This was by far the happiest I have felt after a race in a long time.  I was riding high on the emotion of a huge PR.  I was pretty tired too, I guess, as witnessed by the fact that I must have fallen asleep standing up.

Post Race

After the race, the pain in my knee came flooding back.  I hobbled over to the refreshments tent which was poorly located because you had to walk through a muddy, uneven area of ground that was torn up from construction work.  It wasn’t a huge offering, but they had pizza, fruit, and bagels.  I had a slice a of pizza and grabbed a banana before we headed back to the car.  I’m not really one to hang out too much after the race and wanted to get back and take an ice bath.

Jennie picked up a bag of ice and 6-pack of Bell’s Oberon for me at the gas station on the way back to her parents’.  I road home with it on my quads before I used it for my ice bath.  We also stopped at Subway for a couple of oven roasted chicken breast subs.  That was my mid race craving.  At mile 22 or so, all I wanted to eat was this sub.  Is this what I have come to?  Now my marathon cravings are relatively healthy foods?? In the past, my cravings were greasy, fatty, unhealthy foods (taco bell, pizza, french fries, etc).

The Rest of the Weekend

After the festivities of the morning, I made sure to keep moving to keep my muscles from tightening up.  Despite the sore knee, I worked on helping Jennie’s dad build a new fireplace surround.  We made a bit of progress on Saturday afternoon before taking a break to enjoy some Buddy’s Pizza.

On Sunday, I woke up more sore than Saturday.  Thankfully, the soreness on Sunday was more the usually sore muscle feeling.  The pain in my knee had finally subsided.  We continued to work on the fireplace and finished that afternoon.  Here is the finished product.  It is a nice step up from the previous shelf mantel.

 

Overall

Overall, it was a great race and a great weekend.  I couldn’t be happier with how the race turned out.  I looked back at my splits from the Grand Rapids Marathon and compared them to this weekend’s splits. I was faster on all but 3 miles.  On top of that, I didn’t “wall” until mile 23 this time rather mile 20 previously.  Also besides walking through a couple aid stations, I ran the entire race. In the past, I have usually ended up walking at least a half mile or so.

 

Official Results

Total Time:	3:34:19 (PR)
Overall Place:	93/416
Gender Place:	86/281
Age Group Place:	8/17
Run Pace:	8:11 min/mile

 

Thanks for reading and the encouragement you have all given me along the way!  Now, I have to go catch up on reading your blogs.  At last count, my folder of running/triathlon blogs was up to 51 in Google Reader.  Yikes!

First off, I want to give a huge “Thank You” to everyone who commented, emailed, called, sent a telegram or sent smoke signals after my last post. As you could tell I was in a rather pessimistic mood and had a depressed out lookout for my marathon this morning.  All that worrying was for nothing.  As many of you pointed out, I did the training, the hard part was over.  I just needed to let my body rest.  I am happy to say that I had an amazing race which included in great weather, a HUGE PR, and tons of photos.

You’ll have to wait until tomorrow (or Monday) for all the gory details and photos, but here are the highlights:

• I woke up at 4:30 am from a very vivid dream in which I ran a 3:34 marathon.  It was mildly frustrating because it was one of those dreams that you wake up exhausted from because it felt so real.  And on top of that, I felt 3:34 was unrealistic.
• Got to the starting line 10 minutes the gun went off race director yelled “Go.”  Cut it a little close, but it worked out.
• Enjoyed the beautiful weather and lovely course for most of the 26.2 miles
• Ran (nearly) the entire race for the first time.  I walked a couple water stations, but other than that, all running (or hobbling depending on how far along I was)
• Finished in (queue eerie music) in 3:34 and change!!! I can’t believe it.  It makes for a roughly 13 minute PR. I am still sort of in shock of the fact that I dreamed my time.

Now it is time to rest and ice my knee – it is extremely sore.  I am hoping that it is just tired and not injured. 

Thank you again for the well wishes.  It meant the world to me.

Today wasn’t a particularly bad day by any means.  But, for some reason, I was feeling very pet-peevey on my run today.  Maybe it was just because I was busy at work and had a lot of pent up stress.  So, I thought I would share some of my pet peeves of the day.

#1 Dogs Walking Their Owners

I am a dog person.  I have nothing against dogs.  I like dogs.  But it bugs the hell out of me when someone is out letting their dog walk them. The dog is walking wherever they want and the owner has no control over them.  I’m more afraid of the leash than the dog.  All it takes is the owner not paying attention and the dog to switch sides of the sidewalk and you have yourself a readymade trip hazard.  Today, my favorite was a woman standing in the middle of the sidewalk while her two English bulldogs were each standing on opposite sides of the sidewalk inspecting the bushes.  The only way around her (without trudging through the mud) was to jump in the street.  Ugh.

#2 Large Groups of Teenage Girls

Ever notice the smell when running past a group of teenage girls?  It is worse than walking past The Body Shop.  I think I would rather run behind a car puffing out exhaust fumes.  Yuck!

#3 Unnecessary Bike Paths

The lake that I run around (Reeds Lake) is in the process of adding a bike path around a portion of it.  To do this, they are tearing out a couple hundred trees and relocating wetlands.  It is totally unnecessary.  The entire road around the lake is a 25 mph residential road with wide shoulders on both sides of the road.  Not only that, but it is very lightly traveled.  On my run today, I only saw 5 cars during the 5+ miles I was on Reeds Lake Blvd.  During the portion of the run that was alongside where the bike path is going, I didn’t see a single car.  Another problem with the bike path is that they don’t plow the path in the winter.  So, as soon as we get snow again, everyone ends up walking on the shoulder any ways.

Ok, I am done ranting now.  I will get off my soapbox.

On a positive note, I set a new best time for my 8 mile course.  1:00:36 for 8.04 miles.  I am getting closer and closer to getting under the 1 hour mark.  My fastest previous time for the course was 1:00:50 back in November.  So, despite my pet peeves, I had a pretty good run.