Best. Race. Ever. Infinity.

A good friend and the Flyers' Vice President, LG, had e-mailed me while I was still in Winnipeg to see if I wanted to join her and a couple of other friends to do the Shelter Island 10K this past weekend. In my vacationing bliss, I promptly agreed, even despite my knowing that I'd still be in marathon recovery mode with no hopes of setting a personal record. Plus, had she asked me two days prior to the race while in stress-related work overload, I'd have definitely hesitated in my agreement. I also had no idea where or how far away Shelter Island was, except that it was off of Long Island somewhere. But she said there was a nice BBQ after the race, so why not?

The race was at 5:30 PM on Saturday, so I met up with DL, SR, and LG, who had rented a car, at 12:30 in Queens, and off we went.

The Island, as it turns out, is located between the north and south forks of L.I. Our route took us out on the Long Island Expressway to Route 27 through the Hamptons. From there it was up through Sag Harbor and across to Shelter Island via a very short ferry ride (we only got lost once. Long Island isn't very well signed). The trip took about three hours but was shortened by our witty conversation and enjoyable pit stops for gas and to buy some strawberries along the way.

We got there early, but not obscenely so. The start line was in front of a school, and the registration pickup was in the gymnasium. It was well organized and everything went smoothly. We got our bibs, chips, t-shirts and goody bags. Back at the car we changed into running gear, and went to hang out on the lawn in the shade, while listening to the band playing jazz on the stage nearby. We ran into and chatted with a few other Flyers: MD, JAM, KK (apparently not doing a marathon for a change) and a few others pre-race.

As this was still marathon recovery, I had no intention of pushing myself too hard. DL also had no intention of running hard -- he wasn't planning to race until the Club Champs Race in August. As well, SR was also just getting back into the racing stuff again and wasn't sure how she'd perform, pace-wise. So the three of us agreed to run together at an easy steady pace, while LG wanted to race on her own. We placed ourselves mid-pack amongst the field of about 1200 runners, and the horn went off.

It's a beautiful course that takes runners along a shaded, tree-lined route, and along the waterfront. There are some hills to begin with, but then the course starts on a series of downhills. In fact, after the second mile, DL expressed concern that we must eventually hit a really steep hill later to make up for the amount of descent we were on. But the downhill continued and by 3.5 miles, I joked that maybe we were running in an Escher drawing that would somehow strangely take us back to the start without actually going back uphill at all. And there was more downhill and more downhill. We were running 7:30s and 7:40s without even pushing too hard. By the fifth mile, I finally mentioned the possibility that the course didn't end where it started.

And indeed it didn't. With more downhill to mile six, we then turned onto a sports field, and rounded the home plates of two baseball diamonds before heading to the finish line. We would scale a mildly steep hill to get back to the start area later.

So it's definitely a PR course, and we all loved it, vowing to return next year to race hard. But that's not where the fun ended...

We collected our finisher's medal (!) and headed to the big tent nearby. The post-race goodies out on the ballfields put the NYRR's apples and bagels to shame. There were mountains of granola bars, bottled water, blue chip potato chips, bananas, orange wedges, boxes of raisins, soda, and probably some other stuff I can't recall. We stuffed our faces with many crunchy granola bars and talked about how awesome this whole event was. We met up with some other Flyers and talked to them about how awesome the event was. After a while we headed uphill to the starting area and the car.

There, we grabbed a change of clothes and went to the school where we could shower (!!) and change. Yep, that's right, I said shower. After cleaning ourselves up and talking some more about just how awesome this event was, we loaded up the car to head to the post race BBQ...

...Which was held at the local country club (!!!)...

We got there early enough to not have to wait in line. This is what they served: Caesar salad, coleslaw, potato salad, hot dogs, hamburgers, stuffed clams, pulled pork, beans, corn on the cob, kielbasa, macaroni and cheese, and a bunch of other stuff I know I'm forgetting, as well as a free drink for runners. I had a Stella to go with my heeeaping plate of food.

We sat inside, ate, and listened to the band play while chatting about just how awesome this event was. I said that this was the only race I've ever done where I'd actually gained weight. We stuffed ourselves again and hoped the day would never end. But even the longest day of the year finally has its dusk, and we packed it in at sunset and headed off to NYC again (of course, not without getting lost again). Back in Queens, before descending into the subway, we parted ways and vowed to each other to not tell a soul about this race. It would forever be our little secret... uh... er... um...

Oops.





Oh yeah, my net time in the race was 47:40, which is a 7:41 pace... As if anyone could care about such a thing after a day like that.

Manitoba: My Second Fastest Marathon

"The course is flat - really flat. In fact, it's really, really flat. The organizers say that there are 3 places with an elevation rise of about 10 feet. I will take their word for it but I only noticed one place (at about 7 miles) where I think there might have been that much of an elevation change."

That's a description I read of the Manitoba Marathon from a comment on marathonguide.com. And yes, it is a really flat course, but I was surprised that it wasn't quite as flat as NJ.

Still, by all accounts based on my most recent half marathon, I should have set a new marathon PR. I didn't, and I have no good explanation for it. The temperature was a perfectly cool 50-ish degrees Fahrenheit (about 9 Celsius) at the start. I hadn't slept well for a few nights before the race, and there was a bit of a headwind, but I really should have beaten my previous 3:15. I might have gone out just a tad too fast, too, but not much. Could have even been the change in altitude. I also might even be able to blame a bit of my performance on not recovering enough from my sweltering Need For Speed Relay the week before, but whatever (Runner26 has a great N4S recap, by the way. We did the same leg, and she wrote a better review of it than I ever could). Frankly, I think I just didn't push myself hard enough. Maybe It was all of the above combined. Or maybe I can always find a new excuse.

I ended up with a 3:20:15 (7:39 pace), finishing 58th out of about 780 marathon finishers, and that is a respectable marathon time for me so even though I'm a bit disappointed I can't complain too much.

Besides, it was great running my hometown marathon. Winnipeg is a place I know like the back of my hand, and I was very familiar with almost every road along the way. And it was sooo great to be back in in the city for summery weather for a change, instead of Christmastime. Everything is so green and lush, and it's so clean, especially compared to dirty dirty dirty NYC. I got to do some gardening at my parents' home while I was there. Yay for gardening!

I even got out to my parents' farm for a visit. I grew up there, and hadn't been back in at least 7 or 8 years. The farmhouse has taken on a kind of abandoned feel, as my parents are only out there sporadically, and don't keep it up much. Interesting being back in my old room again, and leafing through the sketchbooks, drawings, and junk I left behind there years ago. Lots of memories.

Now hopefully I can make my poor marathon performance a memory and move toward a 3:10 like I should be.

This weekend is the Shelter Island 10K, and some friends and I are planning a trip out to partake. I won't kill myself in the race, as this is recovery week from the marathon. I'm more looking forward to a scenic run without the pressures of marathon training. At least for another week or two when training for NYC begins.

Running Goals

One of the questions I answered on the Flyers June Spotlight questionnaire was about goals for the year.

Unfortunately, I discovered that the Flyers' Spotlight page doesn't really have much in the way of space to elaborate on the goals that I have. So here's the uncut version of my goals for 2008. (OK, so I know we're already halfway done with the year, but you'll need to trust me that most of these are in fact what I thought up in January.)

1. To avoid a major injury. This of course takes precedent over all the following goals. I was smart enough to postpone Boston earlier this year with a minor injury in order to prevent it from becoming a major one - that's the kind of good sense I'm talking about here.

2. To run two thousand miles this year. That's an average of 38.46 miles per week. I'm on track to do it, and expect to hit about 975 by the end of June.

3. To set ten new PRs, whatever the distance. So far I've got five, and I think a few more are reasonable: 5k, 10M, and 1M, and possibly another 10k, or Half Marathon.

4. To requalify for Boston with another sub-3:16 marathon. This would also likely be a marathon PR, but even if it's a 3:15:59, I'd be happy.

5. To run a marathon in Canada. More recently I had decided that this would be my home town marathon, the Manitoba Marathon, in Winnipeg.

So there they are in all their glory. And I intend to knock off at least one of those this weekend. Maybe even two or three, if I'm really lucky. Off I go...

NYRR's 50th Anniversary Run

I never ran it.

I'm really not sorry about this. When I sign up for races these days, I really feel no sense of obligation, especially when they're free. So when I woke up today at 4:50 AM and saw that it was raining, I merely checked the forecast and saw that it was going to clear up later in the day. I'd rather run in dry weather than the rain, so at 5:30, I headed to the office early and got some productive work done. I checked the results, and looks like a lot of folks, including Flyers, made it out for the race. I was really psyched about the idea of this early-morning race, I just never thought too much about the weather. Oh well.

Later in the day, I ran six in the park. Interestingly enough, I attempted to duplicate my Boston-qualifying marathon pace from NJ last year... a 7:27 pace. I came close, about 7:30, but it felt like I had to really push myself. Clearly, I'm not in the top condition I thought I was. Or maybe it was just a bad day.

On a somewhat related note, I'm doing the Need for Speed(N4S) Relay on Sunday, and, if not for being part of a team, I would probably also bail on that, too. It's supposed to be some bad weather... nearly 90 degrees and Thunderstorms. Ugh.

I'm on team White. I never liked the idea of naming the teams after the Flyers' colours - it only works if there are three teams, and even then, it's kinda boring and uncreative. This year I hear we have four teams. I don't know what the fourth team is called, though. Maybe Rainbow or Diamond or Rotated Square or some silly such thing. I was thinking of offering up a team slogan for white. I though "We are supreme" would be funny, but probably only to me.

OK, enough out of me. I'm going to bed. I think I like this "getting up early" thing, and may try it again tomorrow.

Montclair 10k

Today I ventured out to Jersey to do a 10k in my former town of Montclair. When I set a new PR (42:36) at Healthy Kidney a couple of weeks ago, I felt like I could do better, so I signed up for this one. The course is much flatter than Central Park, so I was almost banking on it.

Unfortunately, a PR was nowhere to be found. The course is flatter than Central Park, but it takes a lot of turns, and it was already 70 degrees by 9 AM, a half hour before the start. The sun was a killer. I started much too fast, and by mile four, that extra energy began to catch up with me. I finished with a measly 43:03, which is a 6:56 pace, only three seconds off my half marathon PR pace... Ugh!

And I wasn't well-rested for the race. Although I took the day off yesterday, I did a 15 mile long run before heading to the Flyers' Happy Hour Friday night. I should've just run an easy 6 if I wanted to PR.

That said, I've never done well in this race, and for the most part, neither have many of my friends who have run it. At the end of the event, one of the veterans mentioned to me that few people ever set PRs in that race and he's "always thought the course to likely be a bit long". I'm beginning to think that might be true.

Anyway, it is what it is. Perhaps I'll try another 10k later in the fall, when I'm (hopefully) better trained.

Despite my race performance, it was great to be wearing my Essex singlet again, and to see my fellow club members on their home turf (or asphalt, as it is). I also saw a few Flyers who live in the area, and in general, just had a good time.