Season Over! Next Season Starting!

 
I almost didn't know what to do with myself Friday night.  Almost every week for the last two months I've been gearing up for a weekend race.  It felt like Track or Cross Country season in school.  Don't get me wrong, I love racing.  But I was looking forward to on an easy long run Saturday morning.  My group was going to make the 9.5 mile loop around Waterfall Glen.  No race.  Just a leisurely run.

Of course, that doesn't mean it was a breeze.  I was in fast company with some of my friends from my alma mater, Streamwood High School.  Rick Staback, who is one of my regular partners is running really well these days.  Saturday capped off an 85 mile week for him.  I might get to 85 miles in three weeks.  And Rob Chenoweth, a few classes behind me in school, is a formidable runner on the CARA circuit.  He ran 1:17 a couple weeks ago at the North Shore half, while still coming back from injury.  Robbie has been running times for the last decade that I never came close to even as a Collegiate runner. Our 4th was my regular training parter, Tom Smithburg, who has been racing quite a bit as well lately.  Thanks to Tom for taking the picture. In case you couldn't tell, I'm the one in the middle, surrounded by the two fit guys.  Fortunately, they took it easy on me.

I wrote in this space a while back that my strategy for the spring was to 'race myself into shape'.  I didn't do any real speed work during the week, and never really bumped up my mileage other than weekend races or long runs.  It was kind of an experiment.  And now that I'm done with the races I had targeted, I can reflect on the results.  If nothing else, it gave me something to write about nearly every week in this space!

For the most part, I believe the strategy worked pretty well.  I surprised myself early on by running better than I would have guessed at the Cary half in March.  That led me to set my sights a little higher for some of the other races.  Those were a mixed bag, with some highlights, and some dissapointing efforts.  The bottom line is that it generally worked out well.  Racing hard all the time can beat you up, but it can also get you in pretty good shape.  And by skipping the hard runs during the week and just racing on weekends, I did get in good enough shape to run at least one fast 5 miler, a solid 10 miler, and a half marathon I was happy with.  Along the way, I also had a slow 5k, a below average 5 miler, and one crawling 6 mile leg in the Ragnar relay as well as a half marathon I was just happy to finish.

But enough about my spring racing season.  Just like that, it's over.  And just as I started to look forward to taking it easy for a while, I realized I have more races planned almost immediately! 

So I might as well start looking ahead to the upcoming schedule.  The next race is Monday, July 4th.  The Elmhurst Running Club sponsors the 4 on the 4th, which draws some really good runners from the Chicago area. http://www.4on4th.com/4on4th/index.html .

And a week later, is an exciting race, a great fundraiser for ALS, and a unique opportunity to run a 5k at U.S. Cellular Field.  http://www.run4als.org/  There are also several other races I'm looking forward to this summer and fall, including the Rock-n-Roll half in August, The Elvis is Alive 5k, and a couple other half marathons later in the fall.

 
One race I just decided to do, at the behest of my wife, looks especially interesting.  It's a half marathon in the Lake Geneva area in October.  Just the time of year is enough reason for me to go up to Wisconsin to take in the fall colors, drink some apple cider, and visit some of my favorite spots in the area where we got married.   But when you add a half marathon to the mix, I'm sold.

Lake Geneva is a beautiful (although hilly) place to run.  This race is based at the Abbey resort in Fontana, and a  lot of folks will be making a weekend of it.  But here's the catch:  For many it will be a girls weekend.  That's because this is primarily a women's race.  Guys are invited, but we will be outnumbered. 

I'm sure there will be a few husbands running, like myself, with their wives.  And for the smart single guys, this could present a pretty great opportunity to meet some healthy women who share an interest in running.  But for women looking to get away a fun weekend, this is probably the perfect opportunity.  My wife tells me there are all sorts of spa, champagne, and pampering kinds of things planned that I know nothing about.  Like I said, I'm just tagging along for the fun.  If you're interested, here's the link. http://www.zoomarun.com/greatlakes/ 

There are plenty of other races coming up as well.  I'm sure I'll be running in plenty of them, and documenting them in this space.  Heck, I've gotta have something to write about!

See you on the roads......

Changes in Attitude.

Running was about the last thing I felt like doing when I got up Sunday morning about 5:30 after barely three hours sleep.  Any hope I had of running fast at the Rock-n-Roll Chicago 5k warm-up race went out the window when our plane home from Florida was delayed three hours because of storms.  When we finally got the kids settled down and went to bed, it was 2:30am.  I was exhausted, stiff from sitting on the airplane, and frazzled from screaming children.

But my wife had to work the race, and I committed to doing a live shot for channel 7 after the race.  So I sucked it up, threw on shorts and running shoes and forced myself out the door.  

I had been looking forward to the race.  It was on the Lakefront path starting at Montrose beach, one of my favorite areas to run.  And it was a Rock-n-Roll event, which always features music and fun. For this race, country singer Dan Evans, a recent finalist on 'The Biggest Loser' was playing.  He sounded surprisingly good. And he kept the weight off.

I was also planning on running with my friend Greg, who burned up the course last weekend at the North Shore half marathon, meeting his goal of breaking 1:30.   Fortunately, Greg said he'd had a rough night staying up with his newborn baby as well.   So we lowered our expectations as we met at the starting line, and took off hoping for the best.  

It was a struggle.  My watch switched into displaying a different mode shortly after the start, and there was no clock at the mile marker, so we were flying blind.  But based on the heavy breathing and burning in my lungs and legs, I felt like we were giving it a pretty good effort.  I didn't feel good, or strong, or fast, but at least it felt like a good effort.

We kept going, trying to keep the pace we had for what it was worth.  And as we neared the finish line we heard footsteps.  A runner behind us was starting to kick, and it sounded like we were his target.  So we summoned our remaining energy, and kicked to the finish ourselves.  We held him off, and crossed the line.  Looking at the clock, I was pretty bummed, but that didn't matter much.  I was ready to collapse.

We finished together, as you can see in the picture.  Our time was disappointing.  We averaged 6:35/mile, or about 10 seconds a mile slower than I was hoping for.  But that was in an ideal world.  And despite the near perfect weather, the previous night's activities made this far from an ideal condition to run in.

So I tried to gather myself quickly, and prepare for the live interview, where I was relying on John 'The Penguin' Bingham to do his usual bang-up job of talking about the race.  And that's pretty much what he did.  I did little more than point the microphone his direction.

I was just about to leave, hoping to get home for a nap, when they started announcing the winners on stage.  I paid little attention after the overall winners came forward.  But Greg heard some of the younger age group winners announced and urged me to stay.  He thought we had a chance to win.

I've always said that most age group awards really are only a reflection on who shows up on a given day at a given race.  I've run some pretty competitive races over the years where I've finished pretty far down in my age group.  

But on this day apparently not too many old guys showed up.  Greg was right.  We did win our age group.  And we got nice bags with the Rock-n-Roll Chicago logo on them.  It was the last thing I expected, but it change my outlook on the entire day.

So like I was saying, I was really excited to get up and race Sunday morning....

Hey it doesn't take much to get me excited!

See you on the roads.....

 

 

Onward! Madison to Chicago!

It's a little like a moving circus.  There are vans decorated in every fashion you can imagine.  And every stop is filled with more and more people.  But most of them are dressed in running shorts and singlets.  And they cheer and ring cowbells whenever a runner arrives to hand a bracelet to another waiting runner.

I can hardly think of a better celebration of the sport of running.  Some teams are serious.  Some are just in it for the experience.  And others are just hoping to make it from the start in Madison, Wisconsin to the finish at Montrose beach in Chicago. But all are in it to have fun.

And it's hard not to have a good time in the Ragnar Relay.  Several of my teammates, very experienced runners, were talking about how tough it is to arrange our schedules to be able to do this at this point in our busy lives.  They questioned whether it was worth it.  Until we got going.  Then everyone remembered how much fun the team concept, the running, the sights, the sleeplessness, and the sheer craziness of what we were doing can be.

What we were doing was running with a 12 person team from Madison to Chicago, through Milwaukee.  196 miles, straight through the night.  Each person runs three legs averaging about 5 or 6 miles each.  Our team, Old Souls, consisted of a bunch of great guys, and strong runners, all over 40.  We were competing in the masters division.  

My total mileage for the relay was about 15 miles, spread out from about 1:40 Friday afternoon, until about 5:30 Saturday morning.  Along the way I got maybe two hours of shut-eye sitting in the back of the van or sprawled out on the floor of a church at one of the exchange points.  We also stopped to eat some donuts and drink coffee at about 2am at that Lutheran Church outside Milwaukee where the youth group had set up a great spread as a fundraiser.

This is now the fifth time I have participated in one of these relays, and each experience is unique and memorable.  Because you shuttle from one exchange point to the next in a van with six runners, you spend a lot of time in the van with five other people.  You get to know them pretty well, if you didn't already.  I met many of these guys running the famed Hood to Coast relay last fall.  We haven't seen each other since then, but we easily fell back into the teammate concept.

Of course, there was plenty of last minute drama, as several of our runners had to drop out in the week before the race because of injury or work commitments.  Our captain, Dan Daley, was asking every master's runner he knows to join us as the last minute.  Somehow he pulled it together.  And I owe a debt of gratitude to Ray Hecker from my Elmhurst Running club for jumping in at the last minute to fill a spot. He not only ran better than he predicted, but also proved quite the photographer and gets credit for the picture above of me finishing my first leg.  

My experience in these relays is that I usually run the first leg really fast, because I have so much nervous energy built up.  That was the case this time as well.  I thought I was going to die after my first mile.  But I was forced to slow down after about three miles when I had to stop for traffic when I had to wait for a green light crossing a major road.

But we were all ahead of our projected pace for the first leg.  The second leg hit during the timeI would normally be at work during the 10:00 news.  So I was wide awake. I was running on a path near Milwaukee in pitch dark, with only a head lamp to light my way, but lots of red lights indicating other runners ahead of me.  The teams start according to projected pace.  The slower teams start earlier, so everyone finished at close to the same time.  So faster teams tend to pass a lot of other slower teams along the way. For us they served as targets, as I passed about ten of them along my 4.4 mile leg.  

Then came the dreaded third and final leg.  As the race moves along, most of us spend less time stretching and warming up before our legs.  By the time I got the bracelet after five in the morning near Racine, Wisconsin, I shook out my legs a few times and was off. Apparently it was not enough.  After running the first two legs at about 7 minutes per mile pace, I struggled to run near 8 minute pace for the final leg.  It was a beautiful leg, along the harbor, and the lake, and finishing on a nice path through the woods.  Unfortunately, I missed a turn and added a little bit of distance to the leg before a runner behind me called out and got me back on course.  

It was slow, but that it didn't dim the euphoria I felt finishing my final leg and being able to relax and cheer on my teammates without preparation for my next leg constantly on my mind.  I ran the second leg of our relay team.  This was the first time I got a chance to ride in the first van as one of the beginning legs.  Every other time I've done a relay like this, I've been one of the final runners, so you end up waiting a long time to run, and trying to save up your energy.  

It was fun being done early.  I got to enjoy some of the sights, like Tigger and Pooh cheering runners at one of the exchange points.  But one of our early runners, Dave Miller, finished his third leg and was recruited to run a fourth for an injured runner in the second van.  We were all grateful he was willing to do it so none of us had to!

We crossed the line at Montrose beach just before one o'clock on Saturday, running 196 miles in a little less than 24 hours.  As I write this, I'm not sure of our finishing place in the master's division.  We all hoped to place well in our age group, but as we finished our long day of running, we were all a little too exhausted and giddy to care much.  

Another successful relay, and another round of memories to add to the books!  Thanks guys!

See you on the roads!

 

 

 

Black Flag

I never met Zachary Gregory.  I never heard his name before Saturday.  But I spent thelast couple days wondering about him, and praying for his family.  I know little about him, other than that he was 26 years old, lived in Lakeview, and was running the 13.1 half marathon Saturday.  I'm sure he probably had plans for the rest of the weekend after the race.  

He never got to experience any of that.  Gregory was one of several people who collapsed during the 13.1 race on Saturday in the extreme heat and humidity.  The rest got some fluids, and some treatment, and were able to go home.  Gregory never recovered.  He was pronounced dead at the hospital.  An autopsy was inconclusive.

I've been in lots of races where people have lost their lives.  It's a tragic, but not terribly uncommon experience.  There is usually some pre-existing condition that contributes to the medical situation.  People die in 5k's with ideal weather conditions.  It's just a terrible part of life.  But I know it takes an awful toll on their families, not to mention some race directors I know who take these losses personally.

Yes, it was hot Saturday.  The race director sent out an email the night before the race warning runners to readjust their goals for the weather.  They added water, towel and spray stations.  And still they stopped the race an hour and 45 minutes into it.  I applaud that decision.  All the runners, vendors, and sponsors have a lot invested in a race like this.  Noone wants to cancel the race.  But safety is the first priority, and they made the right decisions throughout the morning. 

I ran with my friend Greg, who won an entry to the race in this space, and we started at about 7:30/mile pace for the first five miles, but after that, started to feel the heat.  We slowed almost a minute per mile, and stopped at every water station to make sure we got a good drink.  And still, it was hot.

Greg has two young children, including a newborn, at home.  I have four young girls myself.  I doubt either of us considered the possibility we wouldn't be coming home to those kids later in the morning.  When we crossed the finish line, they had turned off the clock.  We were under a 'red flag'.  A short time later that elevated to a 'black flag'. That means severe weather, and runners are encouraged to stop, and get off the course.  

Most I saw didn't do that, but that was a decision they made on their own.  I understand it, and sympathize.  I can relate to the invincible feeling athletes have when they are running. But, I have also witnessed the dangers we can face.  And we got another tragic reminder Saturday.

See you on the roads..............