Spirit of the Marathon

This week my fiancee Gina and I went to the special showing of the running documentary Spirit of the Marathon. This movie follows six runners, two elites and four mid to back of the packers, through their training for the 2005 Chicago Marathon. The two elites are Deena Kastor and Daniel Njenga. Two of the runners are attempting their first marathon. Another two are repeat marathoners, one of which is trying to qualify for Boston and the other one someone who did not start running until he was in his sixties.

The athlete I most liked hearing was Lori O'Connor, one of the first time marathoners. This is probably since she is a graduate student and likes to run alone, so I can identify with her. I really enjoyed her comments about how her friends would ask her if she was going to win.

The movie shows several parts of the Chicago marathon course. In one part you are in the front seat of the one of the lead cars motoring through the course just right ahead of the runners. There are several other clips of the four amateur runners training throughout the city and along the waterfront. Chicago is flat!

The movie culminates with the running of the marathon. The beginning of the marathon is one of the most impressive shots of the movie. The camera starts focused on the starting line and then moves upward and pans back through the pack. Even after showing what seems like an infinite sea of runners coating the road, the shot (unfortunately) ends before the back of the pack. It really shows the enormity of how popular the marathon has become and how it is possible that such a disaster could have occurred at this last year's Chicago Marathon.

A lot of time is spent on the elite runners and after hearing so much about them through the course of their training, you want to stand up and cheer as they approach the finish line. If you don't know the results, don't look it up, it's fun to be surprised. They do show the other runners throughout the race. It's amazing they were able to keep track of everyone in the gigantic field. It is very emotional to watch the other runner's finish. Any marathoner has felt their pain, elation and satisfaction and one look on their faces brings all of those feelings right back.

There are a few awkward moments. Some of the runners say some weird lines that should have been edited out. And then there is a voice over from one of the first time runners talking about an injury while the movie shows Deena Kastor recovering from an injury that had not been mentioned up to that point. But these are minor and do not disrupt the flow of the movie.

My favorite quote from the movie comes from Daniel Njenga: "Running is my job and I like my job."

I highly recommend this move to anyone, runner or not. Just watching someone struggle for and achieve their dream makes for a great movie. Anyone who is thinking about running a marathon, will definitely sign up after watching this movie. If you missed the first showing, there is going to be an encore performance in some cities, check their website for specifics. A word of caution though, bring your running shoes, you'll be so inspired you'll want to run home!

Running moment of the week:

The road to failure is paved with good intentions. 

On Wednesday morning, I woke up with an upset stomach and tried to run anyway. I got about ten feet from the house and realized this was not going to happen and ended up spending a good portion of the morning on the toilet. This kept me out of commission on Thursday as well and so I didn't hit my goal milage of 55 miles this week. No problem, you always have to keep the training schedule flexible. And actually I only missed it by 9 miles which isn't bad since I missed a day and ran short on Friday. Next week: 60 miles.

1/21 - 1/27
total miles: 45.9
time: 5:56

YTD total miles: 186.6

Training schedule for 3 Days of Sylamo

This week I sent in applications for both A-OK 50K and 3 Days of Sylamo.  Since A-OK is only two weeks before 3 Days, I'm going to treat it as a final long run.  As 3 Days is eight weeks away, now is good time to set goal milage and workouts for the upcoming weeks.

1/21 - 1/27:  The upcoming two weeks will be used for ramping up the miles.  I'll need to stretch out some of my usual runs during the week and keep doing longer trial runs on the weekends.  I'll include a tempo run and hill workout this week but no track workout until next week.  The target milage is 55 miles.

1/28 - 2/3:  Again, still increasing milage this week and including a track workout.  The goal is to run around 65 miles this week.   

2/4 - 2/10:  This week I'll be running a mock "3 Days".  That is consecutive 20 and 30 milers on Saturday and Sunday, followed a 12 miler on Monday of the following week.  Most likely, the 20 will be at Lake Thunderbird, the 30 on the road around Lake Stanely-Draper and the 12 out east on Lindsey.  In addition to the 50 miles of the mock run during this week, I'd like to run an additional 35-40 miles.  Mostly in the form of easy runs with one 7 mile tempo run.

2/11 - 2/17:  Monday of this week is the last day of the mock "3 Days".  I'll want to cut back the milage slightly this week from the previous week and run 70 miles.  Mostly easy runs, with a 14 miler over the weekend and one speed work out during the week. 

2/18 - 2/24:  This will be a week to maintain the miles and keep healthy.  The goal milage is 75 miles.  A hill workout on the weekend and a speed workout will be the only special runs this week.     

2/25 - 3/2:  A-OK takes place on Sunday of this week.  This will be my last long run and as such I should run it easy, around 4:45.  The total miles for this week should be around 80 miles. The remaining 50 miles should be mostly easy with a 10 mile tempo run on Monday or Tuesday.

3/3 - 3/9:  The focus for this week is recovery and taper.  Goal milage is around 30 miles, mostly in the form of easy road runs, nothing longer than 1o miles, and at most one run of this length.

3/10 - 3/16:  This is race week, I'll run less than 7 miles before Friday (the first day of 3 Days) in the form of two runs, one about 5 miles and another of only 2 miles.  Together with the race, this week's miles will be close to 100 miles.

Running moment of the week: On Tuesday of this last week, Chisholm and I ran for an hour on the trails at Lake Stanely-Draper.  I've run on the Jeep road by the lake and the paved road around the lake since December's ice storm, but this was my first time on the trails since then.  This area sustained a lot of damage from the storm, especially in comparison with the trails at Lake Thunderbird.  At Lake Stanely-Draper,  there were several large limbs cut down and moved off to the side of the trail.  Some of the trail has been rerouted and it appears to me that a southern portion of the green loop has been abandoned.  At Lake Thunderbird, it is hard to find any evidence of the ice storm.

1/14 - 1/20
total miles: 45.1
time: 6:04

YTD total miles: 140.7

Running goals for 2008

It's a good time to write down my running goals for 2008.  Putting these in writing should help me stay on task to realize them.

1. 2500 total miles for the year - Originally I thought running 3000 miles the year I turn 30 would be pretty cool, but then I did the math and realized that this would mean 250 miles a month.  That seems a bit much. 2500 miles for the year still averages out to slightly over 200 miles a month, which is more than I ran the last three months of 2007.  Seeing as I have never kept a running log for an entire year, a side goal is to just keep track of all of these miles.

2. Feel strong throughout a 100 - In all three of the hundreds I have run, somewhere around 10:00-11:00 PM I start to lose it and end up walking a lot of the rest.  I don't think I'll be able to run an entire hundred, but feeling strong in the dark like I did last weekend in Bandera is possible.  I haven't entered into a hundred yet but I'm considering running the Heartland 100.

3. Time goals - I don't have any time goals for specific races and since trail runs vary so much in difficulty a time goal is always secondary to feeling strong throughout the race.  But two overall time barriers I would like to break are 3 hours in a road marathon and 4 hours in a trail 50K.  Potential races: Andy Payne Memorial Marathon and El Scorcho 25K/50K.

4. 7 days / 7 50Ks - This might not happen this year as I already have a lot going on this summer (i.e. getting married) but I would like to push myself on a solo multiday long run sometime before we leave Oklahoma.

Running moment of the week: Trying to navigate the muddy jeep road around Lake Stanely-Draper without getting my shoes full of mud while tied to two dogs who could care less if their paws get muddy.

1/07 - 1/13
total miles: 23.6
time 3:15

YTD total miles: 95.6

A new year, a new ultra

To start the year off with the right foot, Gina and I ran in the Bandera Trail Run in Hill Country State Natural Area outside of the small community of Bandera, Texas.  Gina ran the 25K and I ran the 100K.  There is also a 50K.  The 100K consists of two loops around the park and the 25K consists of the hardest part of the loop.  It was my first time ever at this distance, so I set a PR.  The course was much more runnable than the horror stories I heard going into the race.  One local had even told that I would need to rock climb at some point during the course.

We camped at the start/finish area the night before the race, arriving just in time for the pre-race briefing and dinner.  The amount of pie on the dessert table was a sight in and of itself.  There was even a gigantic birthday cake decorated like the course for the race director Joe Prusaitis.  I was able to fall asleep easily in the tent and since the race didn't start until 7:30 AM, we both got plenty of sleep.

Once the race started I thought was in for a day of hurt.  After an initial grassy half mile, the race soon climbs up Sky Island.  Then after dropping quickly off of the back side the race goes up and over Ice Cream Hill.  Both of these climbs and descents are short, but steep and littered with rock of all sizes, none that stay put.  All of this in the first 5 miles, I was starting to believe the hype.  Luckily, after the first aid station (Nachos, I have no idea on where the name came from) the race becomes very runnable for the next 12 miles.  By that time the sun had come out in full force, it was 75, I was getting sunburnt and looking forward to some more hills so I could walk a bit.

The middle portion of the race was uneventful, just putting in the miles and trying not to kick any of the rocks too hard.  I came around the first lap right around 5 hours.  The most memorable part of the race was leaving the second to last aid station (Crossroads) at 5:00 PM.  The sun was really starting to go down quickly, air temp was really cooling and my energy level was rising.  I ran the last 9.2 miles in 1:53, I know a 12:17/mile pace may sound slow, but the last part of each loop contains three of the five major climbs and after 53 miles just speed walking the hills felt fast.  In the Arkansas Traveller I also felt an energy surge as the sun went down, but was able to maintain the pace to the finish.  With the shorter distance in Bandera, I was able to keep feeling strong to the finish line.  I came in second overall with a time of 11:22:22.

Gina also really enjoyed the race and we will probably consider running it next year even though it is a long drive from home and even though it's in Texas.  Getting ready for the race we packed too quickly and forgot three essential items: sunblock, baby powder and ibuprofen.  We need to be more careful next time.

12/31/2007-1/6/2008
total miles: 72.0
time: 12:38

YTD total miles: 72.0