Steamtown Marathon Part Deux

I’ve had some time to reflect on the events from this past Sunday and wanted to produce a list of pros and cons from my first Steamtown Marathon Experience.

Pros:
 Pre-race notifications were great, although I had to find them first(find the asst race director’s twitter page and click on the link to the newsletter.
 Website tracked weekly entries until the race was sold out.
 Lots of options for hotels and restaurants in the area that were not $200/night
 Held a pre-race meeting at the expo talking about the course
 Race morning there were tons of busses ready to heard everyone 45 min to the start line
 Forrest City Middle School was well organized. We had a guy with a sign saying “Follow me”, cheerleaders screaming cheers and handing out water.
 There were plenty of volunteers and water stops along the way, even random water stops
 At almost every water stop there were 2-3 port-o-pots (I’m a guy, I pee in the woods)
 They had plenty of photographers along the course and even after the finish line
 They gave us a plastic bag to put our food in.
 They had showers for us at a local college

Cons:
 Stupid Mother Nature made it 30 degrees at the start.
 The expo was lacking in merchandise to sell.
 The goodie bag included one crappy pair of really small orange sunglasses from an eye doctor, and lots of junk paper.
 The start line wasn’t spaced out enough, took almost a minute to cross the start.
 I didn’t know your ‘official time’ is clock time, not chip time.
 There were no energy gels on the course, just apples and oranges (and gummy bears that I only noticed after I passed them) Good thing I bought some gels at the expo
 I found my new best friend/running partner Tim’s name but could not find him on Facebook to thank him.

I found some pictures also! http://www.runphotos.com/browse.cfm?race_id=192&bib_number=665&searchword=&subFind=Find+Photos

My legs have been pretty beat up these last few days but I went out last night and did a real easy 3 miles. The first mile was slow, and downhill. I felt like my dad running. (limping mostly) Then the road flattened out and went slightly uphill and I could pick up the pace and work out some of that lactic acid and I actually felt pretty good at the end.

Steamtown Marathon Race Report

The weather report for Scranton, PA was 40 degrees at 8am rising to 65 by noon. Perfect day for a run. The drive from Harrisburg to Scranton took about two hours but just flew by because of all the fall foliage on I-81. The leaves are not changing as dramatic in Harrisburg as they are just a few miles north.

We arrived at the Expo around 2:15pm. Scranton HS is this amazingly modern high school with crazy colors and curvy lines. Parking was a disaster. There was a pee-wee football game going on and I heard students were also taking SATs Saturday. We drove around the entire school before finding a parking spot around back that probably wasn’t really a parking spot. Entered the Expo and went to pick up my packet. Number 665. Got my tee shirt and poster and went to walk around.

Reading different blogs and hearing people speak about compression socks I wanted to pick up a pair for myself. Apparently everyone else heard about them also because there was only one pair left and they were $35! For socks? Really? Oh well. I bought some Gu packets and a pair of cheap running gloves. They had a sign up that said it would be 30 degrees at the start! Thanks to Steamtown for not charging more than $2 for a pair of gloves.

We left the expo and went to the hotel to check in. The Super 8 was maybe 15 minutes from downtown Scranton. What a dump! But for only $55 a night, I didn’t complain (much). They said they were going through renovations. The hallways smelled like shit and the bathroom was so dirty!

We went to Arby’s next door because it was around 3pm and we haven’t eaten since breakfast. Having a 36 week prego with me, she has to eat every couple hours. Couple things off the dollar menu felt kinda good. I waited an hour and went on a light 3 mile run around the area.

The race committee hosts a pasta dinner the night before but we didn’t feel like driving back to Scranton just to eat some pasta. We ended up going to Ruby Tuesdays one exit down at the base of Montage Mountain (ski ‘resort’). We wanted to go there mainly because of their delicious salad bar. Apparently everyone else decided to go there also. I think we waited longer for an table then it actually took to order and eat!

Race morning started at 5am when my alarm went off. I heard lots of doors opening and closing and knew it was time to get up. I dress and we jump in the car for the 15 min drive to the finish line. Being a point to point race, we all loaded in school busses for the 45 minute drive to the start line 26.2 miles away. They did a great job with cheerleaders there cheering, handing out water bottles and just wishing us well.

We all sat around in the gym for about an hour till it was time to start. It was an extremely brisk morning but I still felt comfortable wearing shorts, a tee shirt and my newly purchased running gloves.

There is a huge downhill within the first mile and everyone does the ‘Steamtown Shuffle’ down it. “Don’t go out too fast” and Don’t try and bank time” was the theme from everyone this weekend. Everyone was passing me the first few miles but I was on my pace and knew I would be fine. I’m not going to go into detail here about every mile and what happened, because I really don’t remember. I kind of just zone out and try to keep my breathing in check. There were some bands and lots of people cheering so that made time fly by also.

I noticed around mile 12-13 that this guy and girl were waiting at a port-o-pot and she just jumped in front of him. He stood there for a few seconds and just started running again. I said to him “that’s pretty cold, leaving here there like that.” He said “I’m not with her, she just cut me off.” So we continued on, talked about race goals and whatnot and he was shooting for the same time as me. So I asked him “do you want to run together and we can work together?” Thankfully he said yes and it was a combined effort. He is also a math teacher so I let him do all the math for our calculated finish.

The miles just seemed to fly by. I remember hitting the ½ way mark in about 1:49 which put me right on track for my 3:40 finish. I didn’t know until waiting in the gym that no water stops would have any Gu. I only brought two with me. I took one at the 13.1 mark.

We hit the 20 mile mark and I took my second Gu. We kept asking each other how we felt and honestly, I felt amazing. A slight pain as I could feel a small blister forming on my right foot but that’s it.

Those of you that have run a marathon before always talk about ‘hitting the wall’ and honestly it didn’t even occur to me that I was going to hit one until about mile 22.5. I started feeling it in my quads and him flexors from running downhill for 20 miles. There was also a huge hill around this time that thankfully was filled with people but that was my worst mile split at 8:55 (besides the first mile where we were so backed in and I had to keep dodging people).

Another 3 block hill in downtown Scranton at mile 25.5. Just cruel. Tim, my new running buddy told me that I was 15 seconds back from hitting my goal of 3:40 so I told him I’m going to push it and I’ll see him at the finish. I powered up that stupid hill only to notice that the finish line was still at least ½ mile out. My legs were trashed. My HR was through the roof and I had to wait till that came down to make my final push. I hit the finish line in 3:40.45. I was happy. Start the cramping.

Tim finished about a minute behind me and we got are pictures taken together at the finish line (coming soon). Hips, quads, calves, hamstrings, all throbbing in pain. I had one of two options, 1) sit on some chairs to the right or 2) stand in line and get some food. My total calories consumed were a mere 200 so of course I opted to wait in line and eat something. I knew if I sat down I would never be able to get up anyway. They were handing out shopping bags and I asked Tim “what the hell is this for? A puke bag?” Nope, just for food. Good. I had nothing to throw up anyway. Loaded up on food and found my wife. I sat down in the grass for a good 30 minutes, just trying to stretch and eat something. When we finally decided to leave, she tells me she parked 4 blocks away. Oh what an awful walk that was. Luckily she parked next to the place we could take showers at. Of course the showers were up 3 flights of stairs. Just mean!

Showered and dressed I hobbled my way down the stairs, got in the car and found the nearest McDonalds to chow down! I deserved it!

It was a great race and a very positive experience for my first (of many) marathons! My sister already signed up for Pittsburg on May 15th so I guess that’s my next one!

Final stats: Chip time 3:40.45 8:25 avg pace. 45 of 85 M 25-29

If I were an old man or a woman, I would have qualified for Boston!

Marathon this Sunday! TnT is dyno-mite!

Steamtown is this weekend! I'm pretty confident that I'm going to succeed and hit my goal time. My training is going excellent thanks to the last few long runs done with Team in Training. Although I already completed my race with TnT, they still encourage alumni to come out and continue to train. My friend told me to find a guy named "Steve" and run with him because he can keep up with me. I met up with Steve, and after introducing everyone we were off. 18 miles was on the agenda.

Steve is one heavy breather! When we hit the first water stop, around mile 3, he turned to me and said "can you believe I used to be 318 pounds!" He just started walking then running and now he's about 200lbs maybe 6'1".

Around mile 9 we started hitting some hills and he slowed down. I left him. I continued on my way, stopping at the water stops and having some water and Gu. Nutrition was perfect with no stomach or ankle problems! I had to get home ASAP and finish our fence with the inlaws.

Monday morning I was off to Irvine, CA for a few days for business. It was beautiful and I took a few pics with my camera phone on the beach.





Not too bad for a camera phone!

This past Saturday was my last "long" run before the race. I ran with a woman who called herself Cindy from TnT. She qualified for Boston. What she didn't tell me is her qualifying time was 4 hours. Regardless, she made a great running partner. We chatted the entire time and ended our 14.58 miles at an 8:35 pace. That really gave me a boost of confidence for this weekend.

Another TnT alumni training for IM FL on Nov 6th returned a book to her called UltraMarathon Man by Dean Karnazes. If you have not read this book, read it. It's amazing. Don't ruin it for me. I still have a few more chapters to go. I basically read it all weekend. He's a great story teller. Makes me want to run an ultra! (in fact, i think i am going to run a 50k trail run next year)

Quickie

I'm studying for a test Friday afternoon so not much time to write a blog. But I did remember to take pictures.

Yesterday in the mail we got our baby jogger thing. This is my wife practicing at 7:30 this morning.


Monday I put the baby crib together. Not as hard as I thought it would be. Now it's full of baby stuff because the in laws are coming this weekend.


Last night we rented a Lowes truck to drop off some lumber. In laws are coming in this weekend to help me put up a split rail fence. I unloaded all this lumber right after my 10 mile tempo run. Still had my sweaty shirt on. Oh yeah, we got a hot tub too (in front of the shed) My parents didn't want it anymore so I took it off their hands. Needs water.

It may not look like a lot but those rails are 11' long and HEAVY.

That's it for now. Here is the book I'm reading (for my test) BOO!

You spin me right round baby, right round

All this marathon training has really taken it's toll on me. It's tough to put together two consecutive days of hard running. My legs just feel gassed, lead-like almost. I have done one 20 miler a few weeks ago so I know I can finish the marathon, maybe not at my goal time of 3:40, but finish nonetheless.

The past 3 long runs I have done I start to get a little pain on the inside portion of my left ankle. Maybe it's due to the curve or the road or the way I'm landing, but it hurts and it's upsetting when I hit mile 15 of a scheduled 20 miler and I have to stop and limp home. So luckily I started my taper and there are no more 20 milers in my future. I think, since the pain starts around mile 13-15, I'm going to throw in a few tempo runs at race pace and also some 'long' runs about 30 sec slower than race pace no longer than 15 miles.

Anyway, back to the title. (thanks Emz) Since my legs have been so beat I decided to go back to my winter training routine, at least for last night. The spin class. I told myself (and the instructor, who is also my Realtor) that I wouldn't be back till it gets too cold outside to ride. Well it was a beautiful sunny 80 degree day yesterday but I packed my gym bag with my cycling shoes, bike shorts, and a towel and off I went.

I really did miss it. I even remembered the setting on my bike (height N, seat 2, handlebars 4). Plus it's always fun to look at the cute girls in spin class. You just don't see that on the back roads where I ride. Just larger women in the drive-thru of McDonald's or 7-11 getting Krispy Kremes. Back to the class. I have never had this instructor before for spin. I have had her once or twice for yoga as she filled in for the regular. Her voice for yoga was so soft and nice but unfortunately that doesn't work for spin class with the music blaring. I could barley hear her sometimes so I just did what I wanted. She did keep saying "where's your breathing", and I thought to myself "in my lungs dumb ass". Then she started asking everyone what their resting HR was and we had 'homework' to check it first thing in the morning. Just sitting at my desk my HR is well below 60 so I'm fine.

After spin class the girl next to me said "it looks like you sweat enough to fill a baby pool". What am I supposed to say to that? Do I smell too? (i think i kinda did). But all I could think of was "thanks, I had a lot of water today."

Who else spins? Do you feel stooopid spinning inside when it's so beautiful outside?

Baby Shower and Phillies Game in pics

Since I wasn't invited to the baby shower and HAD to play golf instead, I didn't get any good pictures from the shower, so this is a pic of my wife 'playing with her toys' at her parents house. Nesting I think they call it.
My mother in law also made this nice bandanna for our dog, since she's going to be a big sister soon!
This pic was taken before we went to the baby shower, but I wanted to add it anyway because our cat found a new sleeping spot. Last night my dad and I went to the Phillies game. They played the Marlins and they won 10-6. We got to the stadium around 6pm for a 7pm game. There was a sign that said "no tailgating" We obviously didn't listen! Tailgating view of the stadium. They are first place in the NL East by 1/2 a game over Atlanta. Here is a view from our seats.
See our seats?

weekend recap (shit, it's thursday already)

for lack of time, here is my weekend in terrible english.

Friday i got off work at 3pm and we drove to Pittsburgh for our first baby shower. Got there around 8pm and just hung out for a little bit. I went to bed early so I could get up at 5:30am and do my long run. I was out the door around 6am and finished 8 miles before the sun came up. I ran two 8 mile loops stopping at a gas station at mile 4 and 12 to drink some gatorade I bought on the first loop and stashed in a bush for the 2nd loop (i came back to get my empty bottle) I managed to squeak out 17 at an 8:40 pace after some stomach problems (and a stop at the gas station mile 12). I showered and we were off to the golf course.

It was extremly windy on the course and the ball flight was affected by the wind. I ended up shooting a 92, but should have been around an 85 because of the wind. After we finished up, and finished a beer at the bar, we went to help clean up the baby shower. I guess I was kinda drunk or because these woman didn't have anything to drink but it just felt kind of awkward when I was in there. Too much estrogen. I helped them clean up and we went home to hang out with whom was left. I hung out for an hour or so but I had to take a nap. I fell asleep for 1-2 hours on the couch watching football but felt a lot better when I woke up. Some friends came over and we hung out by the camp fire till it was time for bed.

Sunday we woke up and decided to go to Target to return 3 baby swings we got. Funny story, we got 4 swings, for some reason they wern't coming off our registry so people kept buying them. I got a sweatshirt with the return $ because i thought it was still summer and didn't pack any pants or long sleeve shirts. Sunday was also the free Rusted Root concert. They put on a free show annually and all the donations go to some charity. They are from Pittsburgh. 7 of us packed in a van along with 5 other cars full of our friends all went in at the same time. We got there around 3pm and the show didn't start till 7:30. We played football, cornhole, frisbee, and grilled tons of food. The show started and we made our way down to the stage and had a blast. The show was in a park and we were in the first row of cars, so we could actucally see the stage from our car, but we walked down the side and ended up 6 rows back. Damn hippies! (apparently i can hulu-hoop!)

Monday we chilled around the inlaws place till it was time to pack up. We stopped at a friend's house who was having a bbq and ate some more food. We made the 4 hour drive back in record time and unpacked all our baby shit so emily can start 'nesting' (i just met her for lunch and she's going to babies r us to take some clothes back)

short week! alright!