The rain and wind were picking up all night and I guess farther south they had tons of downed trees and such.  We did alright though.  By morning it had calmed down a lot.  Still very gusty, but the rain had slowed to drizzle.

We had dinner at Tony Boffa’s in Middletown on Saturday night.  Fabulous place!  If you are looking for dinner before that race, or just going to dinner, I would recommend them highly.  Delicious food, reasonable prices, and SUPER fast service.   Loved it!

The course is very hilly (at least by my standards):

See that big hill at the start?  Kills me.  The little bump at 8.5 hurt too.  I was tired right from the start of this race and fought just keep a steady pace.  That first mile and half just sucked the life out of my legs, even though I tried to have a slow steady pace, not charge up the hill.

My feet were soaked after the first half mile and I pulled off my headband a few miles in because I was getting too warm.  It was tough to judge the temperature because the wind made it so cold, but then I would get too hot when the wind died down.

Lots of water/gatorade stations on the course, two porta-potty stops, and they had gels at mile 8 (?), or somewhere near there.  The route was well marked and they had lots of course volunteers.  There was a group singing in one location.

I spotted a woman who passed me near the end of the Albany Winterfest 5K, and I tried to keep up with her, but just couldn’t.  She has a very short stride and a hard steady pace.  I really wanted to catch her but my legs and lungs couldn’t do it.  I ran part of the way with a guy who had (I think) a British accent.  At least, in my oxygen deprived state, it sounded like that.  He ended up moving on ahead of me.  I passed him at the water stops, and then he would pass me later on.  I only drank a little water.

I finished about 9 minutes slower than last year, which is a miracle considering how horrible my training has been.  I should be getting my butt out the door more than two days a week.  Also, I’m 10-15 pounds heavier, which sucks on many different levels.

I wandered around a bit after the finish, trying to breath again, while I waited for my RP to come in.  That’s when the hail started.  I moved under a tree while people began looking for their umbrellas.  Short lived, the hail lasted only 5 minutes or so.  My RP came in shortly after the hail, hitting the same time as last for her.  Obviously, her training is still spot on.

The post race food was again sponsored by Outback Steakhouse.  Chicken and steak!  Gotta love it.  They had beer too, but I forgot to go grab one.  I really wanted one this year.

The post-race food area was packed.  We were soaked through to the bone (and freezing), so we changed into dry clothes and ate our food in my room while we watched TV.  The hotel gave us until 2 pm to check out, which made the race recovery so much nicer.  Showered bodies and dry clothes to drive back home in.  Very nice.

Today I’m feeling like I was hit by a truck.  My legs feel like stone and its painful to walk.  I feel like I ran a full marathon.  My calves are killing my from all the hills.  I need more training.  I need to have my butt out the door at least three days a week, if not four.  I need speedwork.  And I need to lose weight.

Its hard to believe that just one year ago I was running the fastest I ever ran in my life.  Now?  15 pounds heavier and falling apart.  Egads.

Oh, and to make this ever better?

...WINTER WEATHER ADVISORY IN EFFECT FROM 6 PM EST THIS EVENING
TO 1 PM EDT SUNDAY...

THE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE IN BINGHAMTON HAS ISSUED A WINTER
WEATHER ADVISORY FOR SNOW...SLEET AND FREEZING RAIN...WHICH IS IN
EFFECT FROM 6 PM EST THIS EVENING TO 1 PM EDT SUNDAY.

TONIGHT RAIN WILL CHANGE TO SNOW...SLEET...AND FREEZING RAIN
ESPECIALLY AT THE HIGHER ELEVATIONS OF NORTHERN AND EASTERN
SULLIVAN COUNTY. SUNDAY MORNING THE MIXED PRECIPITATION WILL
CHANGE TO JUST RAIN BY MIDDAY. SNOW AND SLEET ACCUMULATIONS WILL
BE 2 TO 4 INCHES MAINLY ABOVE 2000 FEET IN ELEVATION. LOCATIONS
ABOVE 3000 FEET COULD GET MORE THAN 4 INCHES. ICE ACCUMULATIONS
WILL BE MOSTLY A TENTH OF AN INCH OR LESS.

Yeah, because poor training is nothing compared to horrendous race conditions.  Snow, sleet and freezing rain.  Why don’t they throw in meteorites, werewolves, and rabid ninjas while they’re at it.

The good news?  Post race food (and beer!) is by Outback Steakhouse.  Yeah.  OUT.BACK.STEAK.HOUSE.  My plan is to double back at mile 2 and go eat until my head explodes.

My RP and I got there pretty early and spent the time deciding what to wear.  I originally wore my “night time” lycra (the thin stuff, not to be shown in public), but switched to the “daytime” lycra (much thicker, less revealing), when I got a feel for how cold it was in the parking garage (wind chill = 13F).

As a runner, I have spent a great deal of time changing my clothes in my car.  I am reasonably adept at being discreet, picking secluded spots, and making sure the coast is clear before removing clothes.  But this time?  Just as I begin to disrobe, 10,000 cars began pulling into the garage, people come walking in from all angles, and every single one of them wants to park next to me.  I had to sit there forever with my jacket across my lap, while women loaded their children into the minivans  that seemed to encircle my car.  If there were cameras in that garage, I will be arrested very soon, I am certain.  My RP, found it all very amusing as we chatted through car windows, while I waited for the spies to leave.

We finally made it out to the starting line, although I was getting hungry and wishing I had eaten more.  I had had pasta at noon but by 5 pm, my stomach was looking for something else.  Next time, bring a Gu or at least have more food on the way to the race.  Because we sat inside too long, and tried to do a quick run to the cars (for food!), we missed half the fireworks.  Damn.

The race started and neither one of us had our Garmins finding satellites.  I (thought) just hit the start button and went with the time.  About 15 seconds up the road, I looked down and saw I hadn’t hit start.  Another attempt and I was done.

The temps were freezing.  My face felt like a popsicle.  I was huffing and puffing from the start and struggling the entire way.  This race has an uphill start which just kills me everytime.

The lights in the park were very nice and I would have enjoyed them if I didn’t feel like I wanted to die.  Which I did.  Want to die that is.

I ran behind a woman with striped socks and a santa hat most of the way.  I was sure I would pass her eventually, but she was young and had been training, and I am old and have not.  Running two days a week is not going to cut it.

The end of the race felt like the last interval of a 10 x 400 set.  I was behind this heavy set guy in a yellow shirt and I thought I could pass him too.  But he had alot more left in him because he was cheering to the crowd.  All I could do was gasp for air.

Downhill finish.  Gasping for air.  Overly jammed up finish chute.  7:43 pace.  30 seconds/mile slower than this same race last year.   Bleh.  I guess the 15 pounds heavier didn’t help, nor did the low running schedule.

Dry bagels and spotty bananas.  Meh.  Not too happy with the snacks either.  We had a small taste of some chocolate in the car.

I’m not too happy with this race.  Cold and slow, and horrendously winded.  I know I could have done better if I had been watching my weight this year and training better.  I’m working on it now.  Hoping to shave off the fat again, in time for the Santa Speedo 5K next year.  :)  So far today I have eaten a forkful of chicken, a slice of a pear, and one truffle.

I’m making truffles today.  I’ve already ruined one batch.  Not enough cream and they came out like chocolate rocks.  Tasty, but not exactly what I was shooting for.  The second batch looks ok.  I’ll probably make some raspberry ones too, which I have made in a while because I couldn’t find white chocolate without partially hydrogenated oil.  Ghirardelli looks like they have changed their white chocolate formula, so I will try those.

Christmas is almost over.  I’ve almost made it through another one.

First one point about me (because I’m selfish like that).

Let me say that I had no idea that this was such a difficult thing.  I thought that I would have over 4 hours to drive between two cities that are only 20 minutes apart.  I expected to be sitting in the car most of the time, waiting for the time to pass.   As it turns out?  I was racing through town like a madman, zipping down streets, parking on lawns, arriving just in time to catch her at rest stops.  Madness.  Hats off to anyone following a runner in a marathon.

On to more important matters.

Shorter story: my partner kicked serious marathon ass!

Longer story:

We had a seriously cold night last night, so it was 40F this morning at the start of the race.  This was actually good, I think, because my partner gets too warm in hot weather (yeah, after I sent her on the wrong long run route in 90+ weather).  This race is a small one  (~500), and a good route.  Overall it is downhill, but is largely a flat course with nothing too steep.

I brought my camera to gets some pics of my partner but when I went to turn on the camera at the start, it said “no memory card”.  Dammit.  So no good start pics.

After the they started off, I ran (well, walked fast) across the park to see my partner run past, but I never saw her in the crowd.  So I headed to my car to begin the race across town with everyone else.

I got to mile 4.5 and waited with the rest of the crowd.  I did the math in my head as to when I thought she should appear.  I had this fear that something had happened and that she wasn’t going to show, but sure enough she did.  Right  on pace!

Just before she showed up a guy dressed as an olden days Native American ran by, barefoot.  He was bare chested and was all painted.  He had a Mohawk haircut, and wore like a loincloth kind of deal.  I don’t think he was really a Native American, but I’m not sure.  He gets props just for doing it barefoot.

After she was gone I headed out on the road again with a caravan of other cars to the next stop, which was along the Mohawk river.  It was kind of funny, because everyone just kind of followed everyone else to each of the stops.

I had a chance to get to a Rite Aid and buy a new memory card for the camera.  I saw my partner again at mile 8, which was the big water station and finally got some pictures of her.  She looked pretty damn strong at that point, and she was running with a fellow who had run about 70 marathons already that year.  I think his goal was 85 for the year.   He looked like he was in his 60’s.

I raced on to the half-marathon point.  A little trickier to find the access point because it was tucked away in a small neighborhood.  Halfway through, she looked a damn lot better than I did halfway when I ran it.  Still smiling too.  :)

I really had to put the pedal to the metal to get to the next crossing point.  In fact, when I got there, I could just see her heading off down the trail.  I wanted to hand her a fresh gatorade, so I ran after her.  You wouldn’t believe how hard it was to catch up to her.  I traded off her empty fuel belt bottle for a full one, received my scolding for running on the stress fracture, and headed back towards the cars.

I skipped the next view point, and barely made it to the next one as she came running past.  Back up to the road and off to the mile 19 spot.

At mile 19 I waiting for a while because I was really far ahead.  I saw the barefoot guy come running by and he was really struggling.  I don’t know if it was his feet or just his whole body, but he was not moving very fast.

My buddy came up (still on target for her pace, I could set my watch by it!).  She looked more tired now and she said her hip was hurting a bit.  I knew this same soreness from our long runs.  But her step was still lively and she was on pace.

The next view point was at mile 21 where the runners headed off to the bike path and would be inaccessible until mile 25.5.  I had brought my folding bike in the trunk of the car, in case she wanted road support during that time.

She said she was tired when I finally spotted her.  She walked for a moment to drink some gatorade, but she said she would be ok by herself.  Inside I knew she would be (I saw her do those horrendously hot long runs), but I wanted her to know that she could have me there with her if she needed it.

So off she went, and I headed for the boat launch area on the Hudson, where she would come out.  I got there ahead of her and waited with other folks while some very tired marathoners appeared.  One guy had seriously bloody nipples.  Made me cringe just to see it.  Other people were definitely not thinking straight.  A water station guy offered some water and the guy waved him off, but then took a cup from the woman behind him.  I can’t even count the number of people who asked how far the end was.

A guy showed up wearing the Burger King costume, with the giant plastic mask like in the commercials.  He had a big thing of fries and was holding those out with water to people.  Most folks steered clear of him, but some took the water, and one woman took the fries.  A young kid was riding his bike and stopped to do chin ups on the bars by the path.  The Burger King saw him and ran over and started doing them next to him until the kid was laughing to hard to continue.

Eventually my partner emerged.  She looked tired but still very good.  Not half as exhausted as most of the people.  She took water from the Burger King.  :)

I raced to get to the parking garage so that I could see her finish, but I missed her by about 5 minutes.  I was standing at the finish when I heard her voice behind me, talking to someone about the race.

She really did a fabulous job.  Her pace was smack on the target pace that she had gotten from McMillan.  I know how I felt after my last marathon, and she didn’t look like I felt.  Even better?  She beat my best marathon time!

Did I mention this was all in the Vibram Five Fingers?  Yea, she started wearing them to see if they would help her shin splints (which they did).  It was fun hearing people ask about them.

I must say I am so very proud of her.  This is the person who, a year and half ago, was struggling with a 10:40 pace in a 5K and had no intention of ever running farther than that.  Today, she beat that pace in a marathon.  A marathon!   She ran through horrendously hot long runs, she beat down shin splints, and even drove to Cape Cod to run our 20 miler.   Another running loon is born.  :D

At least, she had better be.  If she is reading this, she had better be sitting at breakfast and not be sitting up surfing the web the night before the marathon.

The weather channel says 40F at race start and 55F at the finish.  Its going to be a glorious race.  :)

We went and picked up the race packets today.  I returned my chip to the chip-collecting woman.  The race shirt was a lovely orange and black technical shirt.  Like its-Halloween-and-I’m-a-pumpkin-orange-and-black.  Sigh.   I guess I can wear it under something.   And yes, I paid my money for the shirt, I’m going to use it, so there.

I will be seeing my partner off at the start, and then spending the morning chasing through town to the various stopping points to see her race by.  Extra water and Gatorade for her in case she needs it.

She’s going to do great.  All her training was superb and her midweek runs have become blissfully speedy.  :)

Good luck to other folks racing tomorrow.  I know there’s a lot of you!

1) I beat my 5K PR, taking 3rd in my age group

2) My running buddy beat her PR, taking 3rd in her age group

3) They had gooey chocolate cupcakes with thick fudge frosting at the end of the race

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Sadly, there were no cupcakes.  :(

Fortunately, the running was very good.  :)

We had a beautifully flat course that we have trained on so much that we could have run it blindfolded.  It gave us a great opportunity to see just how fast we could go when the conditions were right.  It was 55F but overcast and a bit chilly, which was perfect weather for a race too.

My buddy had an injury recently and we were trying to nurse it back gently so she wouldn’t carry it into marathon training.  I think we figured she would run if she could, but walk when it hurt.  At least, that’s what I thought the plan was.

My final time was 21:16 (6:51 pace), which exceeded my wildest expectations.  I was breathing hard after the first half mile and I was afraid I was going to crash, but I didn’t.  Shocked the heck out of me.  I haven’t seen the full results posted anywhere yet, but last year had about 160 runners and about 15 in my age group.

I kept thinking about the speedwork and how my lungs felt there, and I knew I had alot more to go before I actually died on the course.  Maybe that’s what speedwork does for you.  Maybe it teaches your body and your mind how far that final line really is.

I tried looking at my Forerunner during the race but couldn’t make out the numbers.  I was afraid that looking at it too much would break my stride and slow me down, so I waited for the mile markers to hit the lap button.  But there were no mile markers!  I thought those were required on a certified course?

I knew my final time needed to be 21:42 or better, and when I rounded the turn into the parking lot to the finish, I saw 21:00 roll over on the clock and I said (out loud) “I f#@&ing got it!”.  I hope the children didn’t hear me.  :D

I was walking back to the finish area (after getting some water and recovering a bit) and there was my running buddy walking out of the chute.  She had run her ass off (as usual) and beat her PR.  She’s only about 5 minutes behind me now, despite the injury.   Hmmmm.  :)

There was more fun to come.  While we ate food and walked around a bit, they were busy putting the bib strips up on the board to figure out the placing (in a roped off area).  Gender and age groups had coded stickers, so if you could see your time (how good are your eyes?), you could figure out what your placing was.  Looking at the board, I could only see two red squares that were faster than me.  Shock!  My buddy spotted her number and we could only see two in her group faster than her.  Shock!

Sure enough, we had each placed in our age groups.  Hardware at last!  :)

The weather forecast say 55 F by race time, which is bumming me out because all my training has been in pretty cold weather.  I had a few days where I bundled up too warmly, to try and get myself accustomed to it.  I’m hoping that will help.   Also?  Why the heck do these people put 5K’s at 11:00 AM?  Are they mental or what?  All I can say is they’d better have good snacks.

Anyway, I’ll go and run my best.  7:09 is the pace to beat and 7:00 is my target.  Lofty goals for me.

Race and food report to follow.

Not sure.

A friend of mine, whom I have run and raced with before, says he is planning on running a half marathon in May.  Good for him, I say, because he has just started running recently (last 8 months or so), and is a flat shoe convert (excellent!), and I always figured he could do much better at running given some actual training.

Well, out at dinner the other night (when beer is being imbibed by him), we get talking about the half marathon.  He likes to talk smack as a form of entertainment in general.  Well, a little friendly banter about my being faster than him (and my running buddy now racing farther than him) and soon he is asking my PR for the half and suggesting he is going to beat it.

Really?  Because that would be amazing considering where he started.

Consider also that this fellow is in his mid 20’s and I am an old man in my…ahem…younger 40’s.  So, if he did really set up a training plan, do his speedwork, NOT drink the night before the race, I am thinking he could seriously kick ass in the half marathon in May.

Maybe kick my ass?  Egads.

So then I’m thinking, hey, what if he does train?  What if he actually does eat right and sleep well before the race?  Should I be there to defend my PR and prevent some young punk from being able to razz me about my time?

I’m thinking about it.  :)

In other news, the 100 push ups are going well.  I’ve just finished week 4. I forget how many I did this morning in total, but I think it was like 150, with 40 for the max at the end.  It was pretty tough this morning, much harder than usual.  Maybe I just haven’t gotten enough sleep.

Apparently I’ve been skipping part of the training by accident.  I printed out the miniature-sized schedule and its kind of abbreviated.  There is supposed to be a “progress test” at the end of each week, to tell you which column to use for the next week.  I had been using column three the whole time.  This weekend I will do the test and see where I am supposed to be.  Maybe I am hitting it too hard.  Given the difficulty of this morning’s workout, I would like an easy week.

I ran 7 miles last night at the park with my running partner.  This was our first run since the half marathon and it felt good to stretch out the legs.  Its amazing how a race makes you run faster on the next run.  I don’t think we’ve ever done a training run that fast.  I think it will be good to keep a faster pace on these runs in the future, good for speed and my partner certainly is capable of it.

Ah, gross thing from the run.  The park has a small, shallow pond near the facilities building, and it still had ice cover much of it although it had open water around the edges now and the ice was a bit mushy.  As we ran, there was a huge flock of seagulls flying around, and crows were out on the ice, and even two turkey vultures.  They were all pecking at things and having a grand old bird bonanza out there.  I wondered what they were eating so heartily.  As we approached I realized what it was.

Giant piles of dead fish.

Oh, yes, the city had apparently stocked the pond with big fish (probably for a tournament) not thinking that it would freeze. right. to. the. bottom. and KILL all the fish in it, leaving the rotting corpses to surface in the spring time.

On top of the ice, frozen in the ice, around the shore and in the grass, were carcasses of rotting fish in various states of decomposition and dismemberment.  Not tiny little minnows.  I’m talking 12 to 18 inch carp, bass, and we even spotted a giant northern pike about a MILE from the pond with a big bite taken out of it.  The whole scene looked like something from an end-of-the-world/holocaust flick.  Just gross beyond belief.

That’s all I got for now.  3 months until marathon training starts.  I have two 5K’s and maybe (heh) a half marathon before that.  The two 5K’s are on a flat fast course that I have run a bazillion times so I am hoping (praying) to hit my 7:00 pace target.  I need to lose 10 mor epounds before then.  Please get the damn organic veggie chips away from me please.

That first big hill was HUGE.  I know that looking at the plateau, it seems like it is overall very level, but running on the course just seemed like endless uphills.  I was dying.  Our runs at the park were nothing like this.  If we just ran the steepest hill over and over again, I might have been prepped for this one.  I think I need more hill training!

We had a very early start in the morning to get down there.  I was out the door by 6:00 am.  We got there about 9 am and found a nice parking spot.  The race headquarters was at a local hotel.  Very nice place.  The race staff had bagels and coffee waiting for people.  The goody bag had good stuff in it.  We got a windbreaker for the “shirt”, a bag of brown rice, super glue, sensodyne toothpaste, a chocolate chunk power bar thing, a funky little finger pen, Tylenol, no slip hair bands (handed over to running partner), and bandaids.

The weather had warmed up to about 50-ish and the sun came out, so I dumped the long sleeve black shirt and wore my lucky race shirt and shorts.  I had my black gloves on at the start but peeled them off after a couple miles.

The splits:

mile 1 8:19
mile 2 8:11
mile 3 7:55
mile 4 8:13
mile 5 8:17
mile 6 8:14
mile 7 8:29 (it starts to hit me)
mile 8 8:19
mile 9 8:52 (see the hill at mile 9?)
mile 10 8:25
mile 11 8:30
mile 12 8:35
mile 13 8:13
mile 0.1 0:50

Total time (forerunner) 1:49:29, 8:21 pace. Not exactly the 8:05 I was hoping for, but given the hills, I was pleased with myself.

The post race food?  I think I wanted to die.  Outback Steakhouse donated and served the food!  They had grilled chicked, grilled STEAK, sausage patties, penne pasta, brown rice, rolls, pizza, and beer.  Yeah, beer.  I was walking over to the Gatorade coolers to get something to drink, and there was this funny cooler with a “beer pouring handle” coming out of the side of it.  No label.  I turned to look at the person behind me and she just had this big wide eyed grin on her face.  So I had a beer.  :)

My running buddy was still coming in, so I ran out to watch her finish. This was her first half marathon and she did marvelous, especially with all the hills.  Yea!

Then we went inside and she ate, and I had more food.  :)  The food was incredible and they had so much they we dishing out plates to non-runners too.  Just tons of food.  I ate so much I thought I would explode.  Delightful.

Just want to congratulate race directors Myriam Loor (left) & Kathleen Rifkin (right) for doing a fabulous job with this race.  This was well organized and had food like you wouldn’t believe.  Nice job!  Hills or no hills, I’m going back next year.

As usual, I felt like I wanted to die.  Lots of hills around the lake.  We ran past the Mini Ha Ha (which sounds kinda dirty) and the old fort.  I did my best to keep up, but the hills just sucked it all right out of me.  I started too fast again and was running at a 6:00 pace up the first hill.  Dumb.  That fell back pretty quickly.

Final time: 29:27, 7:22 pace, 4/11, 34/180.  See that 4th place age group?  I was 30 seconds behind 3rd.  30 seconds.  30 more seconds and I would have had hardware to take home.  Although, its possible the “hardware” was baked goods.  Not sure.

And the two that ran with me did very nice as well.  My running partner got 5th in her age group and the other guy got 4th in his group.  Just an overall good race for everyone I think.

And the most important part of the race.  Snacks.  Marvelous.  They had cookies and brownies, oranges, bananas, little sweet breads, and soup!  Some of the cookies had this thick pink icing.  I was in heaven.  This one is a do-over for next year.

Sunday was a 7 mile recovery run with my running buddy after our fantastic race on Saturday.  It may have been pushing it a little right after a race, but it was only 4 miles.  Today I’m feeling it big time in my calves and quads.  I suspect somewhere across town, my buddy is cursing my name.   :)