Half marathon #9

Last weekend's race:

Capital City half marathon (Columbus, OH), April 18, 2008

Clock: 2:00:22
Chip: 1:59:04
Pace/mile: 9:05

My second best time ever. On the other hand, the Thunder Road 1/2 in Charlotte was my 3rd best time, and was much, much hillier, so that was probably more of an achievement.

The temperature was great – in the 50s – but it was windy as heck. It was a big loop, and yet it felt as if the wind was against us more than half of the time.

The course was great. It went through some of the more interesting parts of Columbus: past shops and coffee houses, into the historic German Village section. Very cool.

It was also a pretty flat course. Central Ohio is pretty flat (although not as flat as Northern Ohio), so it was pretty easy going.

Very enjoyable.

Half marathons #1-8

I was about to post about my 9th half-marathon, and realized that there's no information here about the first 8. So let me do a quick recap:

#1: Staten Island, October 15, 2006

Clock: 2:19:45
Chip: 2:14:58
Pace/mile: 10:18

(Note: "Clock" time is the official start of the race. "Chip" time is the amount of time from when a runner passes the start line until he/she passes the finish line. In races with thousands of people, it can take awhile to get to the start line.)

#2: Manhattan, January 21, 2007

Clock: 2:13:03
Chip: 2:05:19
Pace/mile: 9:33

#3: NYC Half Marathon, August 5, 2007

Clock: 2:11:12
Chip: 2:05:43
Pace/mile: 9:35


#4: Grete's Great Gallop, October 6, 2007

Clock: 2:09:15
Chip: 2:06:53
Pace/mile: 9:41


#5: Staten Island, October 14, 2007

Clock: 1:55:57
Chip: 1:54:18
Pace/mile: 8:43


#6: Thunder Road (Charlotte, NC), December 8, 2007

Clock: 2:00:59
Chip: 1:59:59
Pace/mile: 9:09


#7: Manhattan, January 27, 2008

Clock: 2:07:50
Chip: 2:04:12
Pace/mile: 9:28


#8: Bronx, February 10, 2008

Clock: 2:03:20
Chip: 2:01:05
Pace/mile: 9:14

Wishing Well

Last Friday I was saying goodnight to my friend Brian, who was about to run a marathon in a couple of days. As he was walking off, I realized that I wanted to say something encouraging about the race, but didn't have a good phrase on hand.

• "Good luck" – Hopefully the race won't involve any luck.
• "Have a good race" – Not bad. Sounds like what you say when someone's going on a picnic, but not bad.
• "Break a leg" – Um, no.

I'm really not sure what to say to someone, or what I want to hear, before a long race. I feel like we runners could use something short and pithy like "break a leg," but I can't think of anything.

• "Show 'em how it's done!"
• "Go long!"
• "What are you, nuts?"

These all have their points, but... not quite.

Any suggestions are welcome.

Fight the Power

I've seen a number of articles recently about under-represented groups in running. There are really cool articles about African-Americans in running, people who run with prosthetics, and legally blind people like David Patterson, the new Governor of New York State.

There are also articles about non-skinny runners, slow runners, and other people who don't fit the standard image that we all picture when we think "runner".

All of that's good, but I'd like to bring up another under-represented and (I would argue) oppressed group within the running community. I feel very strongly about this, because I'm one of them.

I'm talking about Runners Who Are Not Morning People.

Seriously, what's the deal with all of these peppy early morning runners? Oh, sure, they like to bitch and moan about their schedules, but it's clearly just bragging. "Man, it was tough waking up at 4:30 so that I could eat a full breakfast, do my taxes, and read the rest of War and Peace before hitting the road at six."

Six? Six?!? The best thing I'd like to say about six in the morning is that it was still 4 hours before I woke up.

Six. Give me a break.

Many of you reading this (... he writes, as if it's more than 2 people ...) may fit into that morning-runner category. Let me try to make this a little clearer. Here's what you think you're saying:

"I love going jogging in the morning when the air is brisk, and you can feel a certain crispness in the breeze. I love it when the roads are empty, and the clear light is filtering through the quiet, slowly waking world."

Here's what a person like me hears:

"I am completely insane. I hear voices and they tell me what to do. At any moment I may take out an ax and attack you. Coo-coo! Coo-coo! I'm a little teapot, short and stout... Wait! I'm receiving an important message from the Planet Zirqon!"

Unfortunately, the running world is dominated by morning people. They set the times for road races ("Let's make it at 7 am, so that everyone can really enjoy themselves! Hold on a sec... I'm receiving another message from Zirqon."), and there's nothing that the rest of us can do about it.

Why does this happen? My personal suspicion is that they have their planning meetings in the early morning too. I'm picturing a meeting of 4 chirpy, happy morning people sitting around a table at 5:30 in the morning, having already decided on the calendar, as the first non-morning person drags him or herself in in a desperate bid to stave off the inevitable. ("Gosh, Sally, it's a shame you weren't here earlier when we figured out the entire year's schedule. But now that you're here, let's go running!")

This week's long run

Introduction

Okay, this post got a lot longer than I'd intended, so I'm going to break it up with big bold headers, so that anybody who reads it (yes, all both of you....) can skip the parts that don't interest them.

Every weekend I try to do a long run, usually between 8 and 11 miles depending on weather, mood, time constraints, etc.

On Saturday, Spring went streaking through NYC, which was both exciting and frustrating. ("Ha ha, you like this guys? The warm weather? The soft breeze? Well enjoy it, suckers, because a glimpse is all you get!") I celebrated the warm weather with one of my favorite runs.

The Run

Distance: 10.75 miles
End points: Prospect Heights (Brooklyn) to Coney Island (Twilight Zone)
Auditory accompaniment:

• NPR's "Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me!"
• PBS's Washington Week Podcast with Gwen Ifill (marry me, Gwen!)
• Leonard Lopate
• John Gorka's "Pure John Gorka" album

Neighborhoods visited:

• Prospect Heights
• Prospect Park South
• Ditmas Park
• Midwood
• Homecrest
• Brighton Beach
  

There are two good ways to run from Prospect Park to Coney Island. The easiest way is to get onto Ocean Parkway, which is a long, straight street that has long, tree-lined, pedestrian-friendly strips along it. I like running along these if I'm running with people who I want to talk with for 2 hours straight.

If I'm running on my own, I prefer to run through neighborhoods so I can look at houses and gawk at people. Here's how I get from Prospect Park to Coney Island:

1. Exit the park in the Southwest corner, at "Park Circle", across from the Parade Grounds. If you've been running the loop counter-clockwise (like everybody else in the park), this is the first exit you get to after you see the lake on your left.
2. Cross Parkside Avenue, and run through that odd stretch of road with ballfields on your left and the backs of Parks Department buildings on your right. Basically, this is a block-long parking lot.
3. After a block. you'll get to Caton Ave. Zig a little to the left, so you can cross it onto Stratford, the first of many England-themed streets you'll come across in this area.
4. Run along Stratford until you get to Beverly Road. Or possibly Beverley Road. The road can't decide how to spell its own name, and it changes depending on where you are. Anyway, turn left on Beverl(e)y, and run 3 blocks to Rugby.
5. Turn right on Rugby and run along this for a long way. At some point you will find that, without intending to, you are are on 14th street. Little did you know that the "Runner's High" also involves hallucinations.
6. Run along 14th. Run more along 14th. Curse the name of the stupid blogger who sent you on this route.
   
7. When you get to Avenue U, turn right. There, that wasn't so bad, was it?
8. Run along Avenue U until you get to Ocean Parkway. Please note: Avenue U is commercial, which means there are shops and people to gawk at, but it can be crowded. If it is, try running along Avenue V instead.
   
9. Turn left on Ocean Parkway. Follow it to the sea.
   

That entire run is about 6 miles. To add extra mileage, either run to Park Circle in Prospect Park and/or run along the boardwalk when you get to Coney Island.

Why I Love This Run

I love running to Coney Island, because I get to do my post-run stretch on the boardwalk, watching the waves. And then I can take the subway home.

And Coney Island is a real trip. First of all, there's all the history and entertainments: the Cyclone roller coaster, Astroland amusement park (which everybody says is going to be destroyed soon), the parachute jump, the aquarium, etc. That, combined with the beach, brings out a great combination of families, people on dates, people strutting, and folks who are just plain bored and looking for distractions.

One guy with a strong Noo Yawk accent, who arrived at the boardwalk just as I was slowing down and walking a bit, looked around and said, "man, it's f___in' great here!"

Amen, brother, amen!

Also it's next to Brighton Beach, which is largely populated by Russian Jews from Odessa. So there are all these wonderful looking, stoic elderly people sitting around on the boardwalk at any time. I also like the sound of Russian, and you hear quite a bit of it.

I'm feeling ready for the 1/2 marathon in Columbus next weekend.

Aging (dis)Gracefully

The New York Road Runners have this fun little quirk when it comes to age groups. Here are some age groups:

12-19
20-29
30-39
40-44

Notice anything? The first few span 8 or 10 years each, while the last only spans 5 years. I'm new to running – started when I was 38 – and all of a sudden I was in this age category where I was being compared to people 8 years younger than me.

It was, in a word, depressing. I'd get to the end of a race, feeling pretty good about myself, and have a few hours of euphoria before the results were posted.

Now, don't get me wrong: I'm not that competitive. I mostly run to get some good exercise and enjoy time outdoors. I run to finish a race, not to break records.

Still... I like to check my pace afterwards, and see how I did compared to other runs I've done. Basically, to see if I'm getting better or worse. And while I look at the NYRR results, there's a little column that says "Age Place", which describes where you were in your age-and-gender category.

This was always depressing. 800-and-something. 900-and-something. Even 1000 from time to time. Ugh.

A couple of weeks ago I turned 40. And now I'm one of the Young Turks in my age group, and it's a smaller group. Today my age place was 130.

I'm not any faster, but the numbers look a lot kinder. I think I'm going to like being 40.

Today's Race

Today I ran in the Scotland Run 10K. Some details:

Distance: 10K (6.2 miles)
Location: Central Park, NYC. A full loop, clockwise, plus a smidgen.
Time: 55:13
Pace: 8:54 per mile. Pretty normal for me.
Highlight: Chatting with a lovely, tall (yum!), probably too-young woman before running.
Frustration: Not getting contact info for said lovely, tall woman. Couldn't find her after the race. (She was faster than me, which is also very attractive.)
Other highlight: "french toast" bagels at the end.
Entertainment: Scottish bands, including one called the "Red Hot Chili *Pipers*". Really.

Ran into some friends from Team in Training after the race, and rode the subway back to Brooklyn with two of them. We agreed that one of the best things about doing a road race in the morning is that you feel completely justified being a sloth for the rest of the day.

And so I was.