I ate spaghetti for dinne last night, and then went to bed about 8pm. I set the alarm for 3am. We needed to be up in Niagara Falls Ontario early enough to find parking and get my runners packet between 6 and 7 am. And I wasn’t sure about the parking.
I tossed and turned and didn’t sleep well. I finally got up about 2:45 and shut off the alarm. I took a shower, and got dressed for the race. I was going to be wearing my Elvis costume for the race.
I ate a quick breakfast of a peanut butter & jelly sandwich and a diet pepsi. We got out the door about 3:45. We got on the New York State Thruway heading west. We stopped at a rest area, and got some more breakfast at a McDonalds. It was early and the race didn’t even start until 10am.
The border crossing was a cinch. There were no other cars there at all. We tried the parking lot down by Table Rock, but there was no one there, and were concerned about getting the car towed if we just left it there. We left there and headed up to Fallsview Casino. The parking here was only $5. And if we joined the players club, it was free. So we parked here. We met another runner who was heading over to the Brock Plaza Hotel also. So we walked together talking about running. He was working on running 50 marathons in 50 states. I mentioned I was trying for a BQ, he asked about my previous running times. He proceded to tell me I wasn’t fast enough to run a 3:30 marathon. He was a nice guy other than this.
We found the Brock. I got my runners packet, and then waited at the Starbucks. The race shirt was great! A tech shirt, and it wasn’t covered with advertising at all! It was about 6:15. We were supposed to meet Shirley aka Hammergirl, and catch the 8am bus. I wasn’t sure what time she was planning on being there. She came shortly before 8am. We caught the bus, and arrived at the starting area about 8:15. And the race doesn’t start until 10am. The forecast said the temps for the day would be 36-47 degrees. It was chilly. They had tents that the runners could gather in to stay warm. I was wearing sweats over my Elvis costume. I hung out with Shirley, and some girls that were planning on running with her. Shirley was going to be the 2:45 pace bunny.
At about 9:45, I finally stripped off my sweats, put them in a bag, and put them on the bus to be transported to the finish.
We all headed over to the start line. Shirley and the girls headed towards the back of the pack. I saw a 1:40 pace bunny (too fast), and a 1:55 pace bunny (too slow). I line up about a third back from the start, closer to the 1:55 pace bunny. I wanted to start off not-too-fast.
After the national anthems, we started running. I turned on my metronome watch. As I crossed the start line, I hit start on my Garmin 305.
I was running a little fast, and focused on slowing down, and staying around 7:45-7:50 pace. After a couple minutes, I remembered the metronome. It was vibrating away on my wrist at 90bpm. I started to focus on matching my cadence to the metronome.
I was passing people, people were passing me. The water stations were all located just before the mile markers. They all had water & gatorade. I normally like to grab a couple cups of water, or a cup of water and a cup of gatorade. I like to pour one water over my head, and drink the other cup. But I managed to get only gatorade at the early stops. I figured out the people at beginning of the line have water, and the end of the line have gatorade. The problem is that you don’t know where the dividing line. As the race the race proceded, the racers spread out, and the the water stations weren’t so crowded. Since it was chilly out, I didn’t miss pouring the water over my head too much. Each station seemed to have a different flavor of Gatorade. At each water station, I walked while getting water, and while drinking it. Only about 10-15 seconds. Then I walked for about 20-30 seconds when I passed the mile marker. My pace was averaging out to about 8:00 minute/miles, or just barely faster. I did manage to take some pictures along the way.
Somewhere around the middle, a girl running in front of me pointed back on the ground saying theres $10 on the ground. I looked back and sure enough there were a couple Canadian $5 bills. I went back, picked them up and shoved them in my pocket. Hey, $10 is $10!
During my walk break just after the one hour mark, I downed some sport beans. This was my longest walk break.
I really missed my mp3 player!!! At this pace, people don’t talk much. I could have really used some distraction from the tedium of running.
Somewhere around the 2/3rds mark, were started running into a strong cold headwind. It was tough to actually keep my pace below 8:00 minute/miles. It took effort, but I did it!
As the race went on, I started to have doubts whether I would be able to hold this pace for 26.2 miles. But I also thought that I hadn’t tapered for this race as I would the full marathon. That this was a training run, and it was supposed to be hard.
As we got closer to the falls and the finish line it seemed to get colder. As I passed the 11 mile mark, I made an effort to pick up my speed. This wasn’t easy running into the cold headwind. But I did get it up a little. As I approached the 12 mile mark, I slowed took a picture, and only walked for maybe 10-15 seconds, then started running again. I tried to pick up my pace as much as I could. Only 1.1 miles to go. This last two miles was supposed to be downhill, but didn’t seem like it. Most of the guys around me had also pickup their pace. I was able to pass some of them though. I caught up to one guy as was about to pass him when I looked over and said “Are you going to let a guy dressed in an Elvis costume beat you?” He replied that he would cross the finish line with me and get his picture on the front of tomorrow’s paper. True to his word, he picked up his pace and crossed the finish line along side me (actually a split second behind me). I thought about doing the Wazzu kick (jumping and clicking your heels together). But I finished with people around me, so the photographer probably wouldn’t have gotten it. And when I was right at the finish line, I saw the photag was right there actually focusing farther down the course with a long lens.
I stopped my Garmin 305 which read 1:41:53 just a little after I crossed the line. Way cool!
They cut off my chip, gave me a finisher’s medal. I went to the food. I was disappointed by the food at this race. I am used to a buffet style thing with pizza, hot dogs, doughtnuts, pasta, bananas, and stuff like that. But here they simply gave each runner a plastic bag with a banana, apple, piece of bread, cup cake, and a granola bar. WTF? I need frigging calories!!!! I ate the cupcake, banana and bread. I couldn’t eat the unsliced apple because of my braces.
I looked at the results pages, and it showed my chip time as 1:42:49. WHAT? But my Garmin said I came in under 1:42. I figured it out later. I used the training mode, and set it to 1/2 marathon @ 8:00 pace. But the Garmin slightly exagerates the distance, so it thought I finished before I actually crossed the line. It then displays some sort of message, and I think it pauses the timer during this. So I lost part of a minute.
We watched the runners come in and cheered then on. They announced the lead runners for the full were about a mile out. About 10 or more minutes passed and no elite runners. Close to 15 minutes after their anouncement, the winner came and crossed the line. I think he finished slower than 2:30.
We waited for Shirley to finish. She came with a couple of her runners, and was right on target for her 2:45 time. She was all smiles and looked great. I got some great pictures of her. She did a Wazzu kick right in front of me, but I didn’t get the picture as I wasn’t expecting her to stop right in front of me. We met Shirley and exchanged congratulations.
My wife and I walked back to the car…Okay I sort of hobbled a bit. We drove to a nearby Dairy Queen. Using the 2 Canadian $5 bills I had found, pluss a few Canadian dollars my wife had, and also couple American dollars, we bought a couple Ultimate Burger meals. I wolfed down the food. Soon we were on road driving home. I slept most of the way as my wife drove.
Later last night, I ran another 7 miles on the treadmill at 8:30 pace to fill out the 20 miles that I was scheduled to run.
Pictures:
http://www.kodakgallery.com/I.jsp?c=63s6442n.a6pyienb&x=0&y=vyoeh8
Garmin 305 Data:
http://trail.motionbased.com/trail/activity/4322615
I stopped into the running store last night and picked up my race packet. I registered as soon as registration opened, so I was hoping for a low number. But apparently they give the numbers out alphabetically. So I ended up as #65. Aww…thats okay I guess.
I tried to go to bed early last night, but only managed a little bit early. I tossed and turned all night running the race in my sleep. I ran more miles in my sleep last night than I did in the actual race.
The race started at 9am. I still needed to pick up my timing chip. I had the alarm set for 6am, but got up at 5:45. My stuff was all together already. I got out of the house at 7am, and got to the race site before 7:30. I got my timing chip, and then waited. I talked to some of the other racers, and looked at some thier bikes. There were some cyclocross bikes, but most people had mountain bikes. Some had skinnier tires, and aerobars. Hmmm… I will have to look into that! I also met a few friends that showed up to race, or volunteer.
I planned on trying my metronome watch, but when I pulled it, the screen was blank. Hmmmm… Maybe a button got bumped and it killed the battery. Oh well. I put it away.
After the race instructions, they had us line up. I lined up toward the front thinking that I would pace the faster runners (not the fastest).
At 9am, the race started, and I took off. I was moving a good pace. I was breathing heavily. I ran up the hills, where last year I walked up the hills. I took a 20 second walk break at the 1 mile mark, then started running again. The trail wasn’t muddy this year, but still had a lot of up and down. Actually there is only one section that is flattish, and it zig zags back and forth. In the last stretch, I was running a slight downhill, and according to my Garmin 305 I was running at 5 minute something pace. Wow!
Since I had arrived early, I got a prime spot for my bike, and made the transition in 21 seconds. I ran in put my helmet on, walked my bike to the road, and mounted. I got onto the trail which is crushed gravel. That stuff just sucks energy. I had people on cyclocross bikes passing me, or even on other mountain bikes. I was watching my bike computer for my speed and how much distance I have covered. Then I realized that when I pulled it off my other bike last night, and stuck it on this bike, I hadn’t recalibrated it for the slightly smaller wheels. So the speed/distance would be exagerated. Oh well. Soon I was off the main path, and going around this small pond. Last year it was a total mud pit. This year it wasn’t. It was dry, but it was still tough going. When I exited here, I crossed the road, and was onto a singletrack trail. Every little bump on this trail shook the bike. It is tough to pass people on the trail. Last year I passed some people, but this year, I passed no one. In fact I let some people by. After a while I was back on the gravel trail headed into a head wind. Despite the head wind, I managed to get the bike moving faster than I had on the earlier part of the course. I guess my legs were recovering from the run, or I found my groove or something. In the last couple miles we turned off the gravel trail on a road. It was a slight uphill where I passed a couple people. Then there was a downhill where I tucked on got some speed up. At the bottom the road turned to gravel with a sharp left turn. I started wide right cut across the inside of the corner without braking, and passed two more guys. I had some good speed going and passed a couple more people. It was all downhill back to the transition. I drank some Gatorade from my bottle. We are required to dismount the bike on the road, and walk into transition area. I shoved my bike into the stand and took off running. According to the stats sheet from the race, this transition on took 19 seconds!
It was tough to run. My legs just seemed so fatigued. I walked up the first steep hill that I ran earlier. I started running with the incline lessened. It was about this time when I realized I was still wearing my bike helmet. I took it off and handed it to a volunteer and told him I would get it on the way back. I forced myself to keep going. I walked up the short steep sections. I passed some people during this part. As I passed the volunteer, I got my helmet back and ran to the finish line.
According to the preliminary results I finished in 1:07:49. I ran the first 2 miles at a 7:04 minute/mile pace. I rode the bike section at 16.7 miles per hour. I ran the 2 mile section again at 8:02 pace. I finished 40th overall, and 5th in my age group. This was much better than I expected. I was suprised to see that only one woman finished ahead of me (by 25 seconds). I seem to remember being passed by various women. Apparently I passed them back.
By comparison, I finished last year in 1:22:28. The course was muddier last year, but I was much faster and stronger going into this years race.
I would have had to cut about 6 minutes off my time to make the top 3 in my age group. Next year I will be 45 and in a new age group. Looking at the results, I would have had to cut about 8 minutes off my time to make the top three in the 45-49 age group. Ouch!
They had various food for us. I ate part of a banana, and a bunch or pizza then headed home.
My duathlon starts in about 3 hours. Just ate my PB&J sandwich , and am drinking my diet pepsi.
Overall, this race is not very important to me. There’s no medal. Only the top three people in age group, plus the top three overall get little trophies. And being a 44 year old male which is a tough category in about any race, I am not likely to be near the top three. Next year I will be 45, and hopefully fast, and POSSIBLY have a chance…maybe. But this year I am hoping to be in the top half of the standings.
So why in the heck didn’t I sleep well? All night long I dreamnt I was running or riding in the race. Sheez..I did more mileage in my sleep than there are in the actual race!
My plan is to line up toward the front and try to keep pace with the faster runners, and then go from there. I have run 2 miles at 6:52 pace in training. But that was on a TM, not on a muddy up and down trail. But I know I can go pretty fast. Last year I ran the first 2 mile section at about 8:45 pace, and the second time I did at 9:39 pace. I am much faster this year.
The bike part, I will just go. I averaged 13.6 mph last year. Not bad considering I had just bought the bike a week before, and had only ridden 3 times in the previous 13 years or so. I think I will be fater this year. Will I be able ride at the 17.6mph of the fastest riders in my age group…I doubt it.
I am looking forward to the Niagara Falls Half Marathon next weekend. I think that will be more fun. Nice steady miles. These shorter sprint things…I am just not used to them I guess.
Anyway…I am awake!
I have been playing with running with a metronome to improve my cadence. In the short time I have been doing, it feels like my running has improved. The metronome I have been using is a Seiko DM50 and it clips onto my treadmill. But I wanted something to take with me during a race. I thought a watch with a metronome function would work well. But searching around, I could only find one. It is called the “Feel The Beat” Pulsating Metronome Watch. It is not inexpensive. But since it seems to be the only one that I could find, I ordered it. I does have a vibration mode too which is cool. That way when I am running a race, it will not be beeping and annoying everyone around me.
It came in the mail yesterday. The instructions that came with it are sparse. It said if the display is not showing, charge it for 1 1/2 to 2 hours, otherwise charge it for 1 hour. It also said to make sure the plug is pushed all the in. It also warned not to reset the watch while it is charging. There was also a warning not to charge the watch for more than 2 hours.
I plugged it in, and charged the watch for 2 hours. The display was still blank. I pressed various buttons, but couldn’t get it to display anything. I thought maybe it didn’t charge…maybe it was a bad plug or something. But then I noticed a little hole on the back of the watch labled reset. I pushed a pin into the little hole, felt a click, and the watch came to life.
To setup the watch, I pressed and held the SET button until it beeped. The bpm value began to flash. Using the up/down buttons I set it to 90. Then I pressed the set button, and it asked if I wanted to 12/24 hours. I set it to 12h and pressed the SET button. Then it let me set the hour and minutes the same way.
I set it to vibrate mode by pressing the MOTOR/BEAT button. It displayed [1]. This the vibrate mode. I toggled it to “on” using the ON/OFF button. I pressed the MOTOR/BEAT again, and now it displayed [2]. This is the beep mode. I set this to “off” and pressed the MOTOR/BEAT again to finish.
To start the metronome I simply pressed the START/STOP button. I pressed it again to stop the metronome.
The beep is relatively quite compared to my Seiko DM50. It was hard to hear on my treadmill with the TV going, and the fan blowing, and the whir of the treadmill, and pounding of my feet. But I wanted to use the vibration mode. I was was wondering was the vibration would feel like. It is similar to a pager, except it seems to be softer. It is also a short pulse. It took a couple minutes to get used to syncing my running with the pulse instead of a beep.
I ran 5 miles with the watch in vibration mode. Not sure how long it will last. The specs on the website say 14 hours at 60 bpm. I have it going at 90bpm. And I am not sure if their number is for beep or vibration mode. I guess I will find out in a week and a half how it will do during a half marathon. Maybe I will charge it up and wear the thing for 3 1/2 to 4 hours to make sure it will last that long.
Tonight my scheduled run was a one mile warmup, followed by 10 miles at 8:00 pace. That is the pace that I am planning on running the Las Vegas Marathon in December to qualify for Boston. So far my runs have been short and fast, or long and slow. This was the first real test of how I might fare during a marathon at that pace. I survived it! It wasn’t that bad.
I ran the warmup gradually increasing the speed. Then I began running the faster miles. I started out at 8:00 pace. My right calf was cramping from the beginning, and left over from my last workout. I was using my metronome to keep my cadence at 90. I took one minute walk breaks each mile, and then dropped the running pace to 7:47 figuring it would average out to 8 minute miles roughly. I watch a DVD of ChiRunning during the first 5 miles. After the first 5 mile were done, my new metronome watch was done charging. So I got it set up, and tried it on. I set it to vibrate mode, and ran my last 5 miles using the pulses to keep my cadence. The ChiRunning dvd ended and I watch the last part of Adventures In Babysitting on TV.
Soon my 10 miles was done. It wasn’t as hard as I imagined. My heart rate was mostly in the 160’s. It touched up into the low 170’s towards the end. I have little doubt that I will be able to hold this pace for the Niagara Fall Half Marathon in a week and a half. Whether I will be able to hold this pace for a full 26.2 mile, that remains to be seen. But I still have 6 and half weeks for that!