My buddy Big Al mentioned he was doing a race called the Sehgahunda Trail Marathon. I looked into it. It was brand new and it just sounded like fun. The medal (a handmade thing with and arrowhead and beads) looked really cool. And also marathon runners got a hoodie. And it wasn’t expensive. Also, this was the inaugural race. I thought it would be cool to run the very first one. It really wasn’t in my training schedule, but I figured I could run it easy. So I registered.
This was the first marathon that I really didn’t train specifically for. I just decided to run it in the middle of all my Ironman training. I would run it as a long training run. I didn’t even taper for it.
The race took place in Letchworth State Park. Letchworth is known as the Grand Canyon of the East. The race would go from the Northern point of the park, down to the Southern point of the park. 90% of the race was on hilly, technical single track trails.
I got up at 4:30am, got everything ready that wasn’t ready the night before. I ate a PB&J sandwich, and drank some Pepsi. We were out the door by about 5am. It was me, my wife, and our dog Issa. The drive was about an hour and twenty minutes. I just followed the GPS. I missed a turn into the parade grounds, where we were supposed go. I had 3 other cars follow me, thinking I knew where the heck I was going. We did get turned around, and found the park. I checked in, got my bib (#45), and my hoodie. I went back to the car, and started getting all my stuff put on: Garmin 305, chest strap, bug spray, road id (crap forgot my road id), mp3 player, more bug spray. I filled my water bottle with Pepsi which I would carry in a lumbar holster. I filled my pockets with Carb Boom gels.
I wore my X-Ray jersey. I needed the pockets. I had planned to wear a shirt saying Running For Ethan, but I didn’t get a chance to make one. I had made an Iron-on of the design, but decided that if I tried to iron it on to a tech shirt, it would likely melt the tech shirt. And I still needed pockets. I will make one and wear it for a shorter more visible race.
I ran into a running friend Rick who does ultras (a Wakely Dam veteran). I wasn’t surprised to see him here. We talked for a bit. Then I found Al. Al was getting his stuff together. I borrowed his bag spray and sprayed some more on. I did not want to get eaten by black flies!!!
Al and I headed for the bus that would take us to the start. Then Al remembered his Garmin was sitting on top of his car. He has already lost one or two Garmins by forgetting them on the roof of his car.
The bus ride was fun, and we chatted and enjoyed to scenery which included some hot air balloons.
We arrived at the starting location, and I got my ankle strap timing chip. I made a last trip to the restroom. A girl asked if there were restrooms along the course. I told her yes, that they were brown with green tags hanging from them. She started saying she had been worried about them. I ended up having to explain I was joking, and I was referring to the trees…
The solo marathoners started at 8am, and the relay teams started at 8:30. We were given the final instructions. We lined up at the start, and we were off. 91 runners started the solo marathon race. The trail started out where were could run two abreast. But then it narrowed to a single track. I started out towards the back since I planned to run easy. I got my mp3 player and started running. I passed some of the slower runners and settled into a comfortable pace. I found myself running with my friend Rick. We took turns leading, and I talked away. He took a spill over a root, and needed to walk for a bit. So I kept going. I fell into pace behind another guy, and I listened to music. I eventually slowed down. I was trying to keep my heart rate about 130pbm (my HR zone 1-2). I walked the steeper and longer uphill parts to keep my HR down.
The check points/aid stations were located at miles 6.1, 8.6, 15.4, 17.7, 19.4, 21.9, 23.2 and 24.2 .The biggest gaps were between the start and the first aid station, and from the second to the third aid station. I just ran from aid station to aid station, refilling the cola in my water bottle. All but the last two aid stations were on these out and back side trails. They were all uphill to the aid stations. The trails to the early aid stations were through tall grass and mud. These were my least favorite parts of the course. I usually walked up these hills.
The first check point/aid station was at 6.1 miles. They had cola, so I added it to my Pepsi. Not as good, but oh well. I started running again…actually it was more of an easy jog. I saw Al coming up the hill to the aid station as I was on my way down.
I hooked up with Rick for a bit, and then dropped him again. On some of the other check point out and backs, I would see Rick coming up the hill as I was leaving. Then I didn’t see him till finish.
I just ran easy, taking my time at the aid stations. It was a very warm day, so I would pour a cup of water or two over my head to help cool myself down. I continued to drink cola, and take gels every 4 miles.
At the mile 15.4 aid station I met a couple Wakely Dam veterans that were working as volunteers. I had run with Chet a bit at one of the Wakely’s. I got my special needs drop bag here. I had put some Fig Newtons and bananas in there along with a 20oz Pepsi. I didn’t touch the Fig Newtons or the now baked bananas. I refilled my water bottle with the warm Pepsi and added some ice.
There were many, many little creek crossings! Getting across the water was never a big deal. They were very narrow, and you step on a rock, and go across. No biggie. The thing was for every creek, you went down a hill, crossed the creek, and went up a hill on the other side. And I am guessing there were dozens of them. These add up.
At the next aid station I was experiencing some chafing in my sweat soaked compression shorts. I asked for some Vaseline, but all they had was body glide. I took one of the tiny sticks, and went off to side. I mashed up the stick as best I could, and was rubbing all over down there. It helped! Next time I need to remember Vaseline! On the way down from this aid station, I tripped over a root but caught myself from falling. But this triggered a nasty cramp in my inner thigh on my left leg. It really hurt! I walked for a couple minutes, but it wasn’t helping. So I decided to run, and it didn’t hurt any worse, so I kept running. Slowly the cramp let go.
More aid stations came and went. The people were great. At the mile 23.2 aid station I got some ice and was sucking on it. Then I poured some water into it, and it was so good! I dumped the cola out of my water bottle, and filled it with ice water.
Now I was running on a dirt road, mostly up hill. I walked the steeper parts, and jogged the moderate parts. A mile later I arrived at the mile 24.2 aid station. They were giving away these Honey Stinger candy things. They are like natural energy gels or something. They have honey in them, and were really good. I ate a handful and the guy gave me a small bag of them. All the volunteers at the race were great!
Then I started running again. This next part was on a rail to trail type path. I caught up with a guy in front of me who was walking, so I slowed to walk with him for a while. We chatted. We took turns walking and running. We came to a paved road. We were close to the finish. We jogged easy up the hill, and around a corner. I could see the finish line in the distance. I pulled out my digital camera and was going to take video of my crossing the finish line. I was still feeling pretty good, so I picked up the pace and ran ahead.
So I am running towards the finish line holding my digital camera up taking video. I see a guy up ahead. I think I can catch him. So I start sprinting. I cross the finish line almost the exact same time as him. The results showed that I beat him by less than a quarter of a second. I finished in 6:08:08 in 42nd place out of 91 starters. My wife also got video of my sprinting to the finish line. My Garmin data later showed that I hit a 4:34 minute/mile pace here. It’s funny to see the video of me sprinting holding the digital camera up.
Thirteen people DNF’d. I am guessing due to the heat and the difficulty of the course. That’s one out of seven who did not finish.
My wife seemed to be enjoying watching the runners come in. She got harrased by bugs, and didn’t enjoy that part. Issa seemed to really enjoy all of the people, and they people seemed to like her. She’s a cutie!
I got a hamburger, and some fresh cold Pepsi! Then I sat and relaxed. I waited and got video of Rick finishing. Then I got to sit and relax some more. I went back for another hamburger, but they were out…so I ate a veggie burger and some cookies and some pasta salad. I was hungry. My Garmin said I burned over 3200 calories. I also ate a roast beef sandwich out of own cooler.
After a while Big Al brought his 7:00 pace group in at about 7:18. A little after his time goal, but they finished and all seemed happy. I got a video of them finishing also. I hung with Al for a while he got food. Then my wife and I packed up the car, and headed home. We stopped at Walmart and bought a couple bags of ice. I went home and took a nice ice bath to help my legs recover. I planned to stay in there for 15 minutes, but only made it to 10 minutes. It helped though!
My finish at the Sehgahunda Trail Marathon-my point of view
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OD3yB75tOuI
My finish at the Sehgahunda Trail Marathon-my wife’s point of view
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Ln6TwA1Sfs
My Garmin data:
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/34983955
My aunt is a cancer survivor and is the captain of a Relay For Life team. Relay For Life raises money for the American Cancer Society. Last year she invited me down to Pennsylvania to be part of the team. Most teams take turns walking, and walk for the 24 hours. My goal was to walk for the entire 24 hours. I did the 5 mile torch relay run, and then walked 40 miles until blisters forced me to drop out. So I completed 45 miles for the day.
This year I had commited to two different things before relizing they were on the same day. So I had karate black belt test at 1pm, at which I was assisting a young man who was testing. Fortunatly my teacher arranged the test to help me get out as early as possible. My legs were still sore from a 5k that I ran a couple days earlier. I spun on my bike for 60 minutes in the morning then we headed off to the black belt test. When that was done, we drove down to Washington, PA for the Relay For Life. My wife drove, and I slept some of the way. We got there about 7pm, and after a bit I started walking. I walked nearly continuously, taking breaks to get food, refill my water bottle (with Pepsi or Diet Pepsi), or to hit the porta johns. Even though they were playing music over the PA system, I mostly listened to my mp3 player. The walk takes place on a high school track. Each time people completed a mile (4 laps), they could get a colored paper clip to hang on a plastic string aroung their neck. You could see how many miles people had done by seeign how many paper clips they had. Last year they had little plastic feet that you got every mile. But they ran out of feet about 9 or 10pm when people apparently were grabbing handfulls. They didn’t run out of the paper clips. My wife went with my aunt and uncle back to their house about 10pm where she got to sleep in a bed. I stayed to walk through the night.
The track was kind of crowded, and I being a relatively fast walker, I was weaving around people. When it started getting dark, they lit the luminaria which are these paper bags with some sand, and a small candle inside. The bags had people’s names on them, and were to remember people who had died from cancer. It was very pretty to see all the glowing bags lining the track. I thought about my mom who died from cancer.
At one point it started raining, and I donned my rain jacket. Fortunatly it didn’t last a long time, and I ditched the jacket back at the tent.
About midnight, the track wasn’t as crowded. I had already walked 15 miles. I changed into my running clothes and started running. I was scheduled run 60-80 minutes in HR zone 1-2. So I ran for 80 minutes trying to keep my HR around 136. I actually ran for 82 minutes, and completed 8 miles. So now I was at 23 miles completed. The running actually felt good.
I changed clothes again, and started walking again. I felt okay, though I was getting kind of sleepy. At about 4am, I decided to take a short nap in my car. I can’t remember how many miles I had completed at this point. I am thinking around 30 miles. I set the alarm on my timex watch to go off in about 30 minutes. I went to sleep. I woke up about 1 1/2 horus later. Either the alarm didn’t go off, or I slept through it. I had never used the alarm function before, so it was probably my goof.
I was already kind of light out, though a little colder, and kind of foggy. I started walking again. Later in the morning, a few people were jogging on the track. I noticed most of them had not very good running form. The best running forms I has seen were from small children. I wasn’t in my running clothes now, but I thought was the heck. I had already completed 41 miles or so, and had a crap load of paper clips hanging around my neck. So I started jogging easy, and noticed the other people then all seemed to stop jogging. Whatever. I jogged for a couple miles, then started walking again. My wife, aunt and uncle showed up at maybe 9:30am and brought me some McDonalds breakfast food! I ate a greasy Steak, Egg and Cheese Bagel. Yum! Then I started walking again. At 10:30 they called for everyone to line up for the final lap. Coincidently I was 1 lap away from 45 miles. So I walked the ‘final lap’ holding hands with my wife and completed 45 miles. After various awards and speeches, it was over. But out of principle, I went out and walked one more lap so as to have beat my distance for last year. This distance is only the laps around the track, and doesn’t include distance walked to and from the tent and car. I think many people thought I was crazy or something. LOL!
My wife drove on the way home, and I got some sleep. When I got home, I jumped on my bike and spun easy for 60 minutes to help loosen up my legs. It helped some.
With the generosity of my friends, I raised $310 to help fight cancer. Thank you guys! The total raised by all the RFL teams at this particular event was over $240,000! Wow!
Next weekend I have a trail marathon, then a 3,5 mile race mid week and a mountain bike race a couple weeks after that. Such fun!
I started running almost 4 years ago. My first race was in September 2006. It was the Rochester Half Marathon. Since then I have run half marathons, marathons, ultramarathons, and an Ironman triathlon, plus some other miscellaneous races. But somehow I have never run a 5k. Or a 10k for that matter. The closest distances I have run have been the Chase Corporate Challenge which is 3.5 miles. And my company’s run walk event which has been slightly over 3 miles.
This year we decided to increase the distance of the race portion of our run/walk event to 5k. The path around the pond where we hold out event is marked with a start line and a finish line, and markings every 0.1 miles up to the finish line which is marked 1 mile. There is a gap between the finish line and the start line. We cross the gap twice in our 3 laps around the pond. So I measured the gap at 86 feet. I figured out we needed to add a total of 393 feet to our previous course. So I chalked a new finish line 393 feet passed the painted finish line.
I have come in first place the previous two years. Keep in mind our run/walk event is limited to people from our company in our area of the city. We usually get about 25 people in the race. Last year I ran the 3 miles, 172 feet in just under 21 minutes. I planned to win it again this year again. But a new guy, Greg, started with my company. He is a triathlon coach. I was talking with him, and found he had run sub-20 minute 5k’s and his best was 19 minutes flat. That is low 6 minute miles. Ack! I figured I would be getting second place this year. My plan was to try to stick with him as long as I could figuring maybe I could run a good time.
Then race day came. A young showed up and he looked fast. His name was Andrew. I asked what kind of time he thought he would run. He didn’t know, but one of his recent races was a half marathon that he finished in 1:32, or 10 minutes faster than my half marathon PR. Ok, I guess I would be getting third place. But it would be a good race!
Greg, Andrew and I were fast guys, and we lined up at the front. We got our instructions. Then we were off. Andrew was in the lead, with Greg behind him, and me behind Greg. I looked at my Garmin and was running a mid 5 minute/mile pace. ACK!!! I knew I couldn’t hold this pace. I backed off the pace to somewhere between 6:00 and 6:30 pace and let Greg and Andrew go. They stayed up ahead of me but the gap didn’t seem to be increasing much. We passed the mile mark with Andrew in the lead, Greg behind him, and me in third. I think I finished the first mile in about 6:15 or so.
I seemed to be catching up with Greg. I caught up to him at about 1.4 miles. I was nervous that I might be going too fast. I debated about staying behind him. But I looked at my Garmin, and I was doing okay. I passed him. I caught up with Andrew at about mile 1.7. Again, I was a little nervous about passing him, but I did. I passed the two mile mark in the lead. And my lead seemed to be growing. I felt okay, but I didn’t want to blow up before the finish. I kept running trying not to run too fast or too slow. I crossed the finish line in 19:58. Behind me, Andrew finished in 20:33 and Greg in 20:35. The fourth place guy finished in 21:48.
I found out later that Andrew had had to stop a few times in the last mile to either throw up or keep from throwing up. He only passed Greg in the last 100 feet or so.
Here is my Garmin 305 data: http://connect.garmin.com/activity/33956331
According to it, my heart rate hit 195 bpm. I have been using 193 as my max HR. Apparently I managed to bump it up a little higher. And my average HR was 183. I had no clue I was going that hard. It didn’t feel like it.
So for my first 5k I finished in 19:58 and averaged 6:27 minute miles. I had never run this far, this fast. My fastest race near this distance was the 3.5 mile Chase Corporate Challenge which I finished in 23:48 or 6:48 minute/miles. And I crushed that. Apparently I am getting faster. I am still not a runner! 
Oh yeah, the next day, the Greg the tri coach asked if I was a barefoot runner. I told him no. But I have been working on my running form to run like one. I run in minimalist shoes (K-Swiss Ultra Natural Runs with the insoles taken out). He said my running form looked good. Very cool!
After running my intervals last Monday my foot started hurting just in front of the arch. I started fearing that I had a stress fracture. I managed to do my 15 miles long run on Saturday though my foot was hurting, but in his manageable. Last night I was scheduled to do intervals. My schedule was one easy mile, then 1000m interval, then a 2000 m interval, and then two more 1000 m intervals followed by one easy mile. A total of 5.1 miles. Fearing that the intervals would reinjure my foot, I opted to do five easy miles instead. So I ran 5 miles at eight minutes 34 seconds pace. My foot again was a little sore but less sore than it had been before. Following the run, I iced the foot, and took some ibuprofen. Today my foot feels okay. I’m still wondering what I did to the foot. Maybe it was just some sort of bruise in a joint or something. I don’t know. But I have the Boston Marathon in about six weeks, so I want to get my training in, but I also want to be healthy for the race.
I went back and swam at the community center pool for the first time in a long time. I had been involved with the Master swim group for the last six months I think. That session just ended and a new session just started. But at this point I am thinking of discontinuing the master swim group. I am questioning whether I got much out of it. For the most part, I would show up, they would give me a schedule of drills to do. I would swim them with minimal interaction from the coach and then I would leave. I can get swim schedules out of a book or online. I hoped that I would get possibly some one-on-one work to help me improve my swim stroke, but the coaches never got in the water or really helped much with that. So anyway I went back to the community center today and swam for about an hour. I managed to swim about 2650 yards. It felt pretty good. I swam fairly easily, listening to my music, doing freestyle one direction and backstroke the other. I had a lane all to myself for most of the hour then for about the last 15 or 20 minutes shared it with another girl. For the most part sharing a lane wasn’t that bother some, other than occasionally while I was doing backstroke hitting her with my arm lightly or hitting the ropes.
Another benefit of switching from the masters swim program to the community center would be I can train for distances again. And also I can train on different nights that would fit in better with the rest of my training schedule.