A Virtual Capitol Hill Classic 3K

Sunday was the 30th running of the Capitol Hill Classic 10K, a race which suffered a course change last year due to concerns the U.S. Capitol Police had about the hordes of runners circling the streets encircling the U.S. Capitol during a race. The old CHC course went down Capitol Hill on Independence Avenue along the south side of the Capitol in the fifth mile, turned right to run across the front of the Capitol, and then went back up Capitol Hill on Constitution Avenue along the north side of the Capitol.

This rearing proclivity was tough because of its length, a third of a mile, and its lateness in the race, during the sixth mile. In the 2007 race, while climbing this interminable hill in a fog of fatigue, I experienced what it felt like to be "running underwater." (Right: The 2007 CHC course.)

In 2008, the course changed. The start and finish line remained in Stanton Square, but the hill climb became a down and back up on the south side of the Capitol, during the fifth mile. Climbing Capitol Hill this "early" in the race, especially right after descending it, just didn't provide the same system-shocking challenge. Last year my time improved by over a minute. (Left: The 2008 CHC course.)

Local running legend Jim Hage, two-time winner of both the MCM and the ATM, described the change for the Washington Running Report in its May 20, 2007 issue:

"For 28 years, the charge down and then up Capitol Hill in the final mile has presented the 10K's signature challenge. But the course [will] be changed next year according to the race director due to security issues; one cannot be too careful when thousands of men and women in short pants troop around the nation's legislative brain center early on a Sunday morning."

The CHC has a companion 3K race, which is run an hour after the 10K race and doesn’t involve any hill. Its course winds around the flat streets behind the Capitol. I have run the 3K race three times, twice after finishing the 10K race.

Although I wanted a unique personal challenge this year, I didn’t want to mislead any racers in either the 10K or the 3K races who might follow me by mistake if I strayed off the race course. I decided to incorporate the old charge around the Capitol into a bastardized version of the 3K run, and initiate my virtual 3K race at the start of the 10K race. I would run the 3K course, but add the old 10K version of the charge down and back up Capitol Hill which circled the Capitol. This would incorporate a hill into the 3K race and lengthen it by a mile.

I took off with the 10K racers from Stanton Park and ran down Massachusetts Avenue with them to Lincoln Park. Here the 10K race heads out further east to encircle RFK Stadium before turning back towards the Capitol, while the 3K race turns back towards the Capitol right away. I had to do a lot of sideways running that first half mile in the crush of 2,100 runners, but then less than four minutes later I was all by myself as I turned west on East Capitol Street while everyone else continued east towards RFK.

Volunteers were busy setting up water stations as I ran by without a number, trying to keep my speed up now that I was running alone. I ran to the back of the Capitol and turned left on 3rd Street SE to Independence. There I turned right, just like the 3K race does, but instead of turning right a block later to run north behind the Capitol to the finish line in Stanton Park, I kept on going straight and plunged down Capitol Hill. At the bottom, I turned right and ran across the front of the Capitol, and then headed back up towering Capitol Hill on the other side.

I was definitely focused and having fun on this solitary run. My feeling that I was in a "race" kept my speed up and I attacked the uphill. Attaining the top, I ran the last half mile to the finish line in the park. I was careful to veer off before I got there, however, so no one would mistake me for a racer.

My time was 21:47. For a 3K race that would suck, at 11:43 M/M, but for a 2.86 mile race, it wouldn’t be too bad, a 7:37 M/M solo effort with a hellacious hill thrown in.

My very own Virtual CHC 3K Plus One. I finished barely nine minutes ahead of the actual 10K winner, though.

2009 DCRRC Banquet

Here's the speech I gave last night at the DC Road Runners Annual Banquet, when I was selected by the club to be the next DCRRC president.

I stand before you honored and humbled to be following up on the wonderful work of the outgoing President of the club, Ed Grant, and the sterling work of all the past Presidents of the club, and also the strong efforts of the outgoing board. I look forward to working with the new Board to continue this priceless legacy.

My first true association with the DC Road Runners Club was in the summer of 2005. I had been a club member for a few years, doing a little volunteer work at races once or twice a year, and running one or two club races each month, including the club’s monthly noontime Tidal Basin 3K, a race which dates back to the 70s. But I had never truly taken advantage of the opportunities afforded by being a member of such an outstanding and renowned running club as the DC Road Runners. I’m not talking about the 10% discount offered to club members at Georgetown Running Company, Fleet Feet or Gotta Run (actually 15% there) and other local running stores, I’m talking about getting to know the people who make up the club.

I had been running since the year 2000 when, overweight, lazy and disgusted, I went out to the curb one morning when I was in my late 40s, sighted in on the end of the block, and ran to it. And walked back. One block! It was a start!

I was so proud of myself that I went to work that day and told all my workmates about my run. I didn’t know New Jersey Ed at the time, because he might have told me a thing or two in his inimitable fashion about the people’s perception of such a paltry beginning, but I did know someone from Long Island at work. Like fellow Board member Ian Clements, I’m from Staten Island so us Staten Islanders have a natural antipathy towards Long Islanders. And vice versa. To them, we’re provincial. To us, they’re stuck up.

This workmate looked me over after my announcement about my running feat and asked if I lived on the world’s longest block.

"No," I said, "it’s a regular block." Already, I didn’t like the way this conversation was going.

"What did you wear for this run?" she inquired.

I said, "I wore my white cotton t-shirt, a pair of hiking shorts, and some old Jimmy Connors tennis sneakers I found in the back of my closest." I didn’t tell her about the droopy white tube socks with the blue band around the top that I dug out of the back of my dresser drawer.

I think I sounded defensive.

She looked me over and said, "You got dressed for that?"

She was my best friend. What she was telling me was–Run More. Keep it up. Improve upon it.

And I did. I ran for 33 days straight, until my knees started hurting and Shawn Fenty up at Fleet Feet just shook his head when I came in there for shoes and said, "Throw away those old leather tennis shoes from the eighties, man!" He sold me a pair of Asics. Which I still wear. Not the same pair, but Asics nonetheless.

By 2005 though, running solitary, I had plateaued. My race times were going up and my motivation was going down. I took advantage of my DC Road Runners membership to revive my running. I joined the 10-Mile Training Group Program that summer.

I’ll never forget that day. That’s where I first met two people who have been honored here tonight, appropriately so, both examples of what makes our running club great. Two dedicated, bustling persons, Susan Hage and Ed Grant.

Susan was the President of the club at the time, and she was at the first meeting of the 10-Mile Group at the Lincoln Memorial on that sweltering July morning She addressed us, the nervous crowd of newbie runners, the wannabe runners, and she challenged us that day to keep coming back in the oppressive heat, Saturday after Saturday, until we met our goals. And many of us assembled there listening to her were inspired to do just that, and become active, different, people as a result.

Ed was also there, as a coach. He too spoke, don’t you know!

Ed spoke about what we were going to do, and how we were going to do it, and when, and how he had been there for an hour already to check on that day’s route, and how he had run around Roosevelt Island beforehand to make sure it wasn’t too muddy.

From this I gathered we were running around Roosevelt Island. ALL the way around Roosevelt Island.

I didn’t even know how to get to Roosevelt Island from the Lincoln! I didn’t think you could get there without a car. Now this man with the booming voice was telling us that not only were we going to run TO Roosevelt Island, and AROUND Roosevelt Island, but we were going to run back from there, too. I thought I was going to throw up.

Susan seemed nice but I was I was afraid of Ed! What would happen to me if I couldn’t keep up? Did Ed have a SAG Wagon waiting in the Roosevelt Island parking lot?

Incidentally, I have searched my memory for this detail and can’t remember exactly, but it’s likely he threatened to report anyone wearing headphones, even then!

Although I’m poking a little fun based upon my first impressions of them, these two wonderful, dedicated leaders were both truly impressive from that very first day. Susan was very supportive of the 10-Mile Training Program, which was new to the club thanks to Kristin Blanchat’s efforts, efforts which earned Kristin well-deserved recognition that year as club volunteer of the year.

By the way, I think I remember Kristin discretely slipping her earplugs out of her ears when Ed was speaking that first day.

Ed was a bulwark in coaching us that summer. He gave us impeccable training advice and ensured our safe, injury-free progression through the weeks of the Program as we built up our base, both on the training runs and at the track workouts. And my own growth, as a runner and as a responsible club member, started right there, thanks to those two, and others I encountered that day like Kristin, and Paul Ryan my coach, and Matt Pyle, another coach of mine.

I got to know Ed and Susan better as the years went by. I worked with Ed when he succeeded Susan as club President, and he entrusted to me the task of directing the 10K and 10 Mile Programs when Kristin gave over those duties in 2007. He came to some of the training runs and offered encouragement and valuable advice.

I worked with Susan in bringing guest speakers in to the Programs to motivate and inspire the novice runners we had. Actually, I worked with Susan in bringing ONE guest speaker to the Programs, as she had an inside track to one of the most famous runners in the area, the first back-to-back winner of the Marine Corps Marathon, local legend Jim Hage. Her husband, by the way.

Jim was so accomplished that I was afraid of him, too. But whenever I emailed Susan to ask if Jim could possibly come some Saturday morning to speak to the assembled runners, she always emailed me right back with, " Oh sure, He’ll be there."

She might have even asked him, although her responses were so quick that it hardly seemed possible she had time to ask him first.

I worked with Susan again at last year’s Turkey Trot race where she taught me a lot about putting on a big race. I worked with Ed last year as a Vice President on the Board and always marveled at how accomplished he was in running the club in a time of tremendous growth and change. Membership now stands at almost 1300 persons, and he has overseen a rapid and ongoing transition to modern race-timing equipment and internet applications.

I also benefited from getting to know at least two past club presidents, Paul Thompson and Bob Platt. Last year I went to the 50th RRCA Convention in Cincinnati where both of them were, Paul as the club representative and Bob as the RRCA representative from Virginia. To the best of my ability, I tried to pick their brains to tap the fount of knowledge they both have about the club. They too are knowledgeable and dedicated proponents of the club.

I learned much from my friends in the club, especially all of the Board members who helped me so much this past year. I am sorry to see some of them leave the board, but I am excited to welcome the newcomers to the Board like Mike Collins, Elizabeth Humphrey, my friend Kevin D’Amanda, and Sasha Sibert, who has always been a reliable and trusted coach in the Programs I direct.

In essence, I stand before you now as the recipient and the bearer of the sum of knowledge of all those past leaders who have gone before me, such as Paul and Bob and Susan and Ed, who have set such a high standard for me to try to maintain or even, God willing and with the help of a dynamic board and my many trusted friends, improve upon. Unlike the recent political process where the prevailing message was Change, I am trying to build upon the good work of those who have gone before and left such a valuable legacy.

I will work towards making the club even better during my tenure, building upon a solid foundation of past good works, and I look forward to your support as we all strive for this together. Thank you for the dedication you have all have shown for the club, and for the trust you have all placed in me.

Continuity

If you were the first male back-to-back winner of the Marine Corps Marathon (1988 & 1989) and the oldest man ever to win the JFK 50-Miler, a nationally known runner and local legend, a MCM and a DC Roadrunners Club Hall-of-Famer, a Washington Post columnist and an incipient father, what would you talk about to new runners? Perhaps continuity. (Below: Jim Hage speaks. Just try running away from this guy!)

Jim Hage, having achieved all of the above accomplishments and more, spoke about continuity when he addressed the assembled participants and guests of the Reebok Training Program for the SunTrust National Marathon and Half Marathon and the DCRRC 10K Group Training Program last Saturday at Fletchers Boathouse in DC. His radiant wife Susan, former DCRRC president and currently with twins aborning, stood off to one side chatting with current DCRRC president Ed Grant. The assembled athletes, just back from their respective Saturday long runs of distances ranging from four miles for the 10K Group, to ten miles for guests like Not Born To Run, to fifteen miles for the marathoners, listened rapt to the presentation, hoping to pick up an answer to the question of how to ensure meeting their objectives in their upcoming races. For the Reebok program trainees, it was two weeks before the National Marathon weekend. The 10K Group participants had two months to go before their target race of the venerable Capitol Hill Classic 10K, with its renowned namesake hill featuring a "gut-check climb" in the sixth mile. (Below: Susan Hage is flanked by Karol, the 2007 DCRRC Volunteer of the Year and Kristin, presented the DCRRC Volunteer of the Year award in 2006.)

The answer is there are no pat answers in running and training for races, Jim said. Only approaches, and application. Speak to veteran runners, listen, and apply what works for you to be successful, he suggested. Then, to become the best, you must do it diligently and well, be confident, and then do even more of it.

Although a double winner of the MCM, he actually was only half successful, he pointed out. He ran four MCM races, expecting to win them all. Twice he finished third, being in the mix until the end when he faded. Reassessing, he took some time off and came back with a vengeance. He bumped up his training from 70 miles a week to over a hundred, and won. The next year he trained even harder, and won again. In four marathons, he led in the races for maybe a mile and a half total. But he led at the most important point in two of those, at the finish line. This was his zone of focus, he said. Always there near the lead pack, hanging back and constantly assessing throughout the races, he had the fortitude after twin failures to redouble his efforts at training and win twice.

But more importantly, even participating in the endeavor spoke about lifestyle choices runners make, he said. Looking at the assembled athletes, mostly committed and fit enough persons of varying ages, he spoke of the importance of continuing on with their lifestyle choice even past the attainment of their next objective two weeks or two months hence. Eliminate the yo-yo effect of losing such hard-won conditioning by sinking into inactivity once the objective is achieved and the race is run. Avoid having to start all over again when the next season looms. When the next race is over, take a day off. (But not two.) Then go out for a loosening up jog. Then take a longer run. Get back into training, perhaps not as intensively and intently, but don't stop training altogether, as is so common. Put a summertime race on the calendar even now, he urged.

On technical matters, Jim stressed the importance of sustenance during races. Two letters are key, he said. G-U. Take them early and often during a race. Energy during a race is very important, it keeps you thinking more clearly and maintaining focus while your body draws down its readily accessible energy in the form of stored glycogen. Replenish it with frequent energy gels before your body starts depleting more inaccessible energy stored in muscle, which breaks down the body by withdrawing this energy source. The result is the effect of hitting the infamous wall. (Above: Past, present and future. Susan Hage, past president, deep in discussion with Ed Grant, current president of DCRRC.)

The presentation was free. Nationally famous local runner Jim Hage gives back, as do so many so often in the running community.