Blog Land Hookup

I've been sort of remiss in keeping this blog updated recently. Busy at work, you know. Also busy lamenting losing 40% of my net worth in the last six months of the Decider's and the Torturer's (aka the Great Bird Hunter) reign. Trying to map out retirement at age 82 rather than 67.

Last month I attended a blogland hookup in DC at the District Chophouse on Seventh Street (NW) that was pure blogger. The occasion was Danielle from Iowa came to town to run the National Half-Marathon, and eight of us had pre-race dinner together. The pictures just came back (I still use film which bugs people I know mightily).

(Danielle, Adam, Rebecca, Joe, Audrey, NBTR, DC Rainmaker and DC Spinster.)

The 2009 Reebok SunTrust National Half Marathon Training Program was a great success.

You might know that I am in charge of training programs for the DC Road Runners, a duty I am about to turn over to fellow Board Member Kenny Ames when I assume the club presidency next month. There are exciting training prospects in store for the club during the upcoming year.

With the running of the fourth SunTrust National Marathon and Half Marathon last weekend, the race's second Reebok Training Program, "powered" by DCRRC, came to a successful conclusion (hopefully not for good--Reebok is having some issues in this economy like everyone else). Outgoing club club president Ed Grant was in charge of the Program and directed the Marathon part of it while I directed the Half-Marathon side. Both were well-run programs, if I do say so. (Right: Samia Akbar, last year's winner of the SunTrust National Half Marathon, addresses the Reebok Training Group on the first day way back in November.)

Including volunteer coaches, during the Program at least 63 Program participants came to at least one meeting of the half marathon group at Gotta Run, the normal meeting place for my part of the program. After 19 weeks of rigorous training stretching back to before Thanksgiving, with runs that ranged from the 6-mile opening day lumber up the C&O Canal Towpath to a couple of runs of about 14 miles on the Mall near the end, at least 38 Program participants ran in the SunTrust National Half Marathon on Saturday, March 21, 2009, with times ranging from 1:22:58 to just over two and a half hours.

Additionally, one HM Program participant ran the Full Marathon. Two participants served as race staff during the race. At least two more participants spent the morning cheering on the runners. Another participant ran a half marathon in Virginia Beach that weekend while another participant ran a half marathon in California. Yet another participant ran a club Marathon and took third in her age group. Another participant ran a 10-mile race instead while one more did a Marathon Relay. (Left: The very first track workout. Jon, the third runner from the right, ran a sub-1:40 half marathon five months later.)

In addition to the Program member who finished the half marathon in under 1:25 (coach Matt), two trainees finished in under 1:40. Yet another trainee finished in under 1:45 while four more finished in under 1:55, which is a sub-9:00 M/M pace. Two more trainees finished in under two hours. One coach (the beloved Ellen, her trainees love her), who was a trainee last year, took over 11 minutes off her PR.

The Program offered the normal Saturday group long runs, held at two different locations, one in Arlington and another one in the District directed by coach Sasha, and also offered regular Monday night runs of 6.5 miles on the Mall, regular Tuesday night runs of 4 mile runs on the Georgetown waterfront, track workouts every Wednesday evening in Arlington plus a weekly morning track workout in the District. Speakers came to lecture the runners before runs at least three times. There were two social get-togethers set up by coach Rachel, as well as a pre-race dinner in both Arlington and the District. Participants formed relay teams for a club Marathon one week and the schedule incorporated two other club races, a 10-miler and a 20K race. Several coaches regularly met with participants on informal runs such as other club races or various fun runs around town. (Right: The first Monday Night Footmall run. Jay, the second runner from the left, threw down a 1:40 half marathon four months later.)

The Reebok SunTrust National Half-Marathon Training Program’s success was directly attributable to the dedication of its outstanding staff of volunteer DCRRC coaches. In addition to those already mentioned, they were John, Lauren, Emily, Bob and Jeannie. At least seven of the coaches have RRCA coaching certificates. One is a certified Fitness Bootcamp Trainer. Several coaches came from the ranks of trainees in prior Programs. Invaluable assistance was received from Full Marathon coaches Kenny, Ed, Andrew, Katie, Eric Phillips (the current director of DCFit Marathon training) and Ben.

(Left: Coach Ellen (looking at her watch) leads her group out on a Saturday morning run. Ricardo, the runner on the left, ran a sub-2-hour half marathon four months later.) Thanks to all, and especially to Reebok (Keith), the Greater Washington Sports Alliance (Britton), Fleet Feet (Shawn), the Georgetown Running Company (Max) and Gotta Run (Andre).

The club's 10K Group Training Program is currently in its fifth week, and the club's training program for the Army 10-Miler starts this summer.

What a race

The National Marathon was run yesterday. This is a great race, a must-do. A comer. Even if they did run out of cups yesterday.

I ran the infamous seven hills of hell part of this course in PG County the first year when the race strayed beyond the confines of the District. Bex was doing her first marathon and I accompanied her the last six miles. They changed the course the next year to put it entirely within the District and eliminated these diabolical hills. I still go over to PG County once a year to run those seven hills on Central Avenue/East Capitol Street for hillwork. Whomever I talk into accompanying me never runs with me again. It's like being out on a LRRP patrol over there, they are not used to seeing runners on that vast highway wasteland and the locals do not react well to their presence. During the marathon, scores of motorists, angry at being delayed by road closures, drove alongside runners on the other side of the road and yelled and gave them the finger. When I last did this run one Sunday morning last fall, Redskins fans, obviously well into their cups already, honked and shouted at us for daring to be on the shoulder of their highway as they zoomed off to their hours-long pre-game tailgate rituals at FedEx Field.

The next year I set my marathon PR in this race. I will never forget running over the Frederick Douglass Bridge into the District proper from Anacostia (SE) in the early morning gloom and, when the mist suddenly parted, seeing revealed to me the steel skeleton of the new baseball park being built, arising out of the ground by the river shore. It was a magnificent sight, my most memorable marathon moment ever in this, my second favorite marathon race (NYCM is the best race ever) .

Last year I directed the 17-week Reebok SunTrust National Half Marathon Training Program and I felt I should run the half-mary in support of my trainees. Although a couple of trainees and a couple of coaches beat me, I was gratified to get my second best HM time on the course. I liked the course a lot, with it's challenging hill being in the middle (around the seventh mile) when you're still "fresh." Its long downhill run to its ending point at RFK from the course's high point near McMillian Reservoir (where the raucous Howard University band lifts your spirits with their brassy sound and extreme gyrations) takes you through parts of the District where runners rarely go otherwise.

This year I directed 20-week Reebok SunTrust National Half Marathon Training Program again. We had great turnout each week at our usual meeting place Gotta Run in Arlington, and incredible coaches. (Thanks Matt, Lauren, Ellen & John, and get better soon Emily!) I know a lot of the trainees ran the race and did well, and I know Ellen, at least, had an incredible 11-minute PR. Ellen, a trainee last year, developed an incredibly devoted following amongst her charges as a coach this year.

Since I had run the marathon and had a good HM race on the course already, I saw no need to run either race again. I wanted to learn more about administering a big race so I contacted the race administrators and asked for SAG Wagon duties. Racers know what the ominous SAG Wagon is. Those interesting duties will be the subject of a future post.

Anatomy of a Ten-Mile Race

The Al Lewis 10 Miler in Kensington, MD, is a club 10-mile race in early January that tests a runner’s early season, or cold season, endurance. It’s free for club members, or $5 otherwise. The course is on an asphalt bike trail that runs alongside Beach Drive, which is closed to traffic on weekends. The bicyclists hold sway on the road while runners labor on the trail as it tracks alongside a small creek and wanders up and down lots of little roller hills.

The Half-Marathon Training Program I coach for was in its ninth week when we ran the race. The instructions were to run it as a supported training run, "non-competitively." It was our furthest distance up to that date.

I ran it under the same circumstances last year, except that no one else from the HM Program showed up. I was disappointed then with my 1:22:44 (8:16) finishing time, a bottom-half showing. Club races are tough.

This year was bitterly cold, just like last year. Many Program runners were there and I started the race with a couple of fast women from the Program, J and K. We passed the first mile in 8:21, which consisted of a several little downhills that were going to become uphills in the last mile.

I could tell that I was holding J back so I told her that I couldn’t keep up and to go ahead. I never saw her again and she turned in an excellent 1:18, second in her age group. (J, Matt, and another Program runner, Jo, on a recent training run. All three finished many minutes ahead of me.)

I settled in with K. She is very competitive and she hung right with me and didn’t slow me down at all. I was glad to run with her.

Club races have a predictable rhythm to them because you run against the same folks all the time. And guess what. The order of finish rarely changes.

During the second mile I went by a fellow near my age and speed that I always overtake at about this stage of a race. He dislikes me because once, when he was wearing Texas running shorts (the ones with the white star on a field of blue with red legs), I muttered "Texas sucks," as I went by him. The devil made me do it. He heard me and now he works hard at not letting me pass, so I had to go by him very quietly. He didn’t look up from his reverie when I passed so as another famous Texan once said, Mission Accomplished.

That was my fastest mile at 8:03. I logged the third and fourth miles at 8:23 and 8:17. I was following K’s lead by half a body length.

Running right on our heels was another fellow about my age and speed that I dislike because he acts so stuck up. The few times I have made an attempt to talk with him he has stared at me, responded pithily to my particular comment if it was in the form of a question, and then looked away. In races I actively try to beat him. He’s a Republican because he wears shirts with conservative slogans. I'll bet that he listens to Rush Limbaugh.

He passed me but didn’t open up any distance between us with his pass. A mile later I passed him back and powered on a short ways but couldn’t shake him. He was quickly back on my heels once more and soon passed me again. I settled in behind him six feet back.

I pointed out to K the spires of the Mormon Temple in the distance, peeking over the treetops, the course’s Kodak moment. We hit the bottom of the big hill where the course veers up a residential street to its turnaround point. As I clung to the Republican on the hill, I lost K who couldn’t take the hill in as forceful a manner. I was sorry to leave her behind but this was personal.

Laboring up the hill behind the Republican, I counted familiar faces coming back down it. Kevin, who would finish second, chasing the leader and ultimate winner. Last year’s winner, who would finish third this go around. Program coach Matt, who would finish fifth in 1:02. Program participant G, who ran a 1:31 in last year’s Half-Marathon and who would finish this 10-miler in 1:15.

Two club runners I knew ran by and said "Hi" to the Republican. I ran up alongside the Republican and smartly asked him if he thought those two club members were boycotting me by not shouting out a greeting to me also. The Republican didn’t even look at me as he ignored me. I went on by him for the last time.

A half mile up the steep hill was the blessed turnaround. I did the fifth mile in 8:23.

Coming down the hill, I checked out the competition. K was pushing up the hill gamely, not too far back. S, a very competitive Program runner, was back a quarter mile, working hard on the hill. Coach Lauren was back of her, running up the hill with two of his trainees. Another trainee, normally a strong runner, was walking up the hill with her head down.

I re-entered the trail at the bottom of the hill and tried unsuccessfully to pick up my pace. The sixth mile passed in 8:23 and the seventh mile in 8:28. Three or four male runners picked me off and went by. I told one passing runner, trying to be humorous, that there was a wise guy in every bunch, and he retorted that I looked like I was in his age group and I wouldn’t be catching him. He was right on both counts.

I heard a female runner approach and she pulled alongside. I thought it would be K but I was surprised that it was S, in the throes of a monster negative split. She had come from a long way back.

I pointed out a guy in a grey shirt 30 yards ahead who was flagging and told her that she could catch him. Pointing to my grey shirt, she said, "I already caught the guy in grey that I wanted to catch." Aww.

But S did press on, leaving me to contemplate being beaten by a runner I actively coach. It would be a first (J is coached by Matt). I passed the eighth mile in 8:34.

Then Lauren pulled up alongside. He had really made up some ground, doing 7:20s since the turnaround, he said. Whew.

Lauren ran ahead and caught up with S. I chased those two the penultimate mile, which passed by in 8:33. Lauren ran on but I started gaining on S and passed her a half mile out. In her inexperience, she had run a 9.5 mile race rather than a 10 mile race, and was finishing the last half mile on pure grit.

I ran hard up the short rollers of the last mile as best I could, doing it in 8:33. I saw the finish clock in the distance reading 1:23:50. I sprinted and thought I ran by it at 1:23:59. When my time was later listed officially as 1:24:00 (8:24), I became disproportionally disappointed. But the difference between 1:23 or 1:24 doesn’t much matter as much as that I was 76 seconds slower than the year before.

It was an interesting race, with plenty of little dramatic moments. Lauren finished almost a minute ahead of me while S finished about half a minute back and K came in a minute later. (S, Lauren, K, moi.)

BBB

Tuesday night was the half-marathon group's Bridges, Beer & Burritos run, minus the beer and burritos this week because nobody had time to go for social hour afterwards. Usually Emily, at least, is good for this part but she couldn't come this week.

The BBB is a mid-week four and a half mile evening run created by Rachel for the HM Program. It leaves at 7:15 every Tuesday evening from Iwo Jima and runs past Arlington Cemetery, across Memorial Bridge, past the Kennedy Center, along the Georgetown waterfront, over Key Bridge and back into Rosslyn. Then, usually, it's off to Chipolte for a Dos Equis and burrito. Come join us sometime.

I wanted a good, hard run because recently I have been accommodating back-of-the-packers in training runs, which I am happy to do, but I had a hankering to air it out. When I arrived, there were four trainees and two other coaches, Katie and John, so with such a favorable pupil to coach ratio, I felt free to do my own thing . K was there, who I knew had run sub-eights in the Turkey Trot 5-miler I recently worked the finish line at, by finishing that race in 39 minutes. So I said Let's Go to her and off we went at a good clip ahead of everyone else.

It felt great, rapidly traversing those big chunks of waterside real estate with reflections of the bright multi-colored holiday lights often dancing off the waters of the Potomac alongside or underneath us. K was game, breathing hard as we went but never falling off the swift pace. She said she was glad I came because usually she runs alone ahead of the pack. We were back at Iwo in 37 minutes (8:14), panting and sweating but feeling fulfilled. The rest of the group came up a few minutes later.

A good, hard run by gorgeous scenery with good friends is great for the soul.

Another Saturday, another run

The Saturday morning run with my half-marathon training group was an eight mile-out-and back, from Gotta Run down in Pentagon Row in Arlington up Washington Boulevard by the Pentagon to Memorial Bridge, over the Potomac and into the District down the Mall in a straight shot past the Lincoln and the Washington to the Capitol and back. Matt took his fast group on a further excursion up Capitol Hill and around the Capitol to add a ninth mile.

Meanwhile, at the secondary meeting place at Fleet Feet in Adams Morgan, Sasha led a dozen runners eight miles down into Rock Creek Park a ways and then back again. They vanquished a formidable hill, the Calvert Climb, in the last mile coming back. This is the brutal hill where my BQ dreams died last year when I ran the National Marathon (an 11:04 twentieth mile in a race where my average pace was 8:48).

It was a perfect morning for running because although it was cold, it was still and clear with no wind. Although the brutally frigid temperature with an icy wind didn't arrive until the next day, it was still plenty cold if you weren't moving.

I know because as a favor to a race director, I then went to Belle Haven Park south of Alexandria on the Mount Vernon Trail to perform finish line duties at a club race down there that kept me occupied until early afternoon. This duty made me plenty chilly since I was sweaty and damp from my seventy-three minute run. Over 200 racers enjoyed this free (for club members, $5 for non-club members) half-marathon race, thanks to nineteen frozen volunteers who stood around like blocks of ice. These cheerful and willing volunteers are the backbone of club racing. I wonder though, what kind of thinking went into scheduling this 13.1 mile race in December?

Track Workout

Speed workouts make you faster in races. My best year racing , 2006, when I set or came close to all my PRs, I did track workouts once a week pretty much all year. That speed work that year made me run at age 54 like I was 48 again, when I started racing.

So last Wednesday evening, after doing six and a half miles on the Mall on noon, I went to my club's regularly scheduled weekly track workout so I could lead my half-marathon training group in the prescribed workout, three single-miles at a ten-mile race pace with a 400M recovery jog between each split. The target race is in mid-March and we're trying to build up the group slowly, so no one gets injured.

The regulars from the half-marathon Program were there. A bunch of marathon Program trainees were also there, and coaches Katie, Eric and Andrew led them on their rounds.

Matt was there, the fast coach in my Program. He's a modest guy who isn't whippet thin like many obvious runners. He gets the competitive, fast trainees who always run faster and faster at the end of training runs to show how bad they really are. But Matt always finishes right behind them on their shoulder, smiling and talking, no matter how much they crank up the pace at the end. Then they enter a race with him and he crushes them. Last year our best trainee did a 1:31 half, an outstanding effort. (He went to all the track workouts.) He finished ten minutes behind Matt.

I was a little sore from my earlier run but it was a nice evening for running, cool and not windy. The group was happy with eight-minute miles and we took turns leading, putting the burden on a new pace-setter each lap to figure out a two-minute turn (I know, a 400-meter track is about three yards shy of a true 440, but we try not to get totally obsessed at these workouts).

We hit each mile at a pretty steady pace, about 7:50. The very last lap of the workout, the competitive juices started flowing and a couple of the participants announced that they intended to nail a 7:30 last 1600. So with half a lap to go, off three of us went on our horses. Matt didn't come along on our ending sprint as he, in fact, is not competitive in that way. Just fast. The fit and fast woman in the group, a triathlete by preference, led the charge and I was hard pressed to stay glued to her shoulder.

But I did.

Are You Ready for some Monday Night Footmall?

It has a catchy name, Monday Night Footmall. Sasha designed it.

Each Monday night while half the adult population in America is parked on couches or barstools sucking swill and watching Monday Night Football, a dozen runners in the nation's capital are toiling down the National Mall while looking at passing national monuments shrouded in shadows.

Sasha created an alternative mid-week medium length run for the Saturday long run in the Reebok SunTrust National Half Marathon Training Program we both coach in. She directs the show out of the Fleet Feet location in the District.

She created this Monday night Mall crawl last year during the first year of the Program. The 6.5 mile evening run along the Mall leaves from her apartment building near the Watergate at 7:15 p.m., runs down 23rd Street to the Lincoln, up to and around the Capitol and comes back.

It started its second season this past Monday. I left my work late, 2 miles from its starting location, intending to join in. With only 15 minutes in which to get over there, rather than do 7:30s (traffic lights? What traffic lights? I'm a runner!) to try to get there in time, I ran over to Judiciary Square, grabbed a Smartbike, bicycled over to nearby Foggy Bottom where I dropped the bike off at a return rack over there, and ran up just as the group of twelve other runners was heading out under Sasha's tutelage. A pretty good first turn out.

We were a pretty tight bunch all the way to Lincoln, aided by the need to wait for lights at busy intersections, but on the Mall the group started to string out. It was a delightful night to be out running, cool, crisp and clear.

Up the Mall we journeyed, passing close by Vietnam and past World War Two, the Washington Monument, the various Smithsonians, the Statue Garden, and the Museum of Art. One of the group turned back here, frustrated at her lack of conditioning and the fact that she was last by a lot. I was running with her, and gave her explicit directions on how to get back, using the well-lit Constitution Avenue to achieve the diagonal street Virginia Avenue so as to travel back to near the Watergate by the most direct route.

Then I ran hard for a bit to catch up with the next couple of runners further up. Up ahead further I could see three more of our group, running together. Sasha and the lead pack were long gone from sight.

I ran with the couple the rest of the way. Both lawyers, I think they married but I'm not sure. They both were married, that's for sure. It's funny how conversations with strangers both give you information and don't.

In any case they went to law school together. And the woman had run in the same snowy marathon I had, the Inaugural Frederick Marathon in March, 2003, when it had snowed six inches during the race. My memory of that difficult run is very delightful, hers was very non-delightful. It's funny how perceptions differ.

The man was having real difficulty with the distance, so our progress was slow. The woman and I kept doubling back to collect him again. Eventually we made it up Capitol Hill, around the Capitol, and back down the Mall, cutting over to Constitution Avenue near the White House and using Virginia Avenue ourselves to shorten the distance a little. The man took a nasty tumble on a broken piece of sidewalk in the dark and, running with two lawyers who were probably married, I started thinking about liability as he lay on the ground for a bit holding his knee. But he professed to be okay and after awhile we proceeded on to the end of the run where everybody else was waiting for us. I loaded the injured party up with gratuitous advice about icing the area of discomfort, taking anti-inflammatory agents, resting the offended appendage, applying heat after 48 hours and making sure to call his doctor as a precaution. I told him my name was John Brown and I lived at 100 Main Street in Anytown.

Six and a half miles in seventy three minutes. It was a Mall crawl. I hadn't broken much of a sweat but my real workout was in getting over there on a bike, timing my pedaling on each block to make each light. DC has lights that count down the seconds left in the cycle, a device that absolutely promotes red-light running (you know, if you see the counter showing three seconds, you floor it).

I didn't get to chat with anybody in the front pack, but I sure got to know the folks in the back pack. It was fun.

A blogland hookup

I had a nice hookup for lunch with Not Born To Run on Saturday at Teaism in the District. Since she does tris now, she really should be known as Not Born to Run, Bike or Swim (or maybe Not Born to Whatever). She had a real nice post recently about losing her Mom, and it was good to catch up with her for an hour.

I was late. I couldn't find parking nearby so I finally parked over near my work across the street from Georgetown Law and ran from there to Judiciary Square, where I jumped aboard a DC Smartbike and bicycled the rest of the way to the restaurant at E and 8th Streets. Jeanne's observation as I rode up was that all I needed was to add swimming and I'd be a tri-athlete too.

It's funny the difference between men and women. I spent the hour bemoaning the fact that I hadn't brought my cable lock so we had to sit by the window where I could watch my bike, parked outside. NBTR instead was worried that I didn't have a helmet. (Helmet? What helmet?)

I grew up biking all over the hills of Staten Island on my trusty red Schwinn without a helmet. I delivered the Herald Tribune every morning and went to the corner candy store for an Almond Joy bar every afternoon on my bike without mishap. Gears? What gears? (Ain't this a thing of beauty? My Schwinn didn't have any front brakes, though. )

Even the Smartbike has three gears. While we ate, I saw another Smartbike user ride by my forlorn red and white bicycle parked on the curb, sans lock. I felt like rushing outside and waving to him. Sort of like back in the early 60s when VW owners always beeped at each other when they drove by one another. But he had on a helmet so I didn't point him out to Jeanne. Show-off!

After sixty minutes of delightful conversation during which we solved many of the problems of blogland but none of the difficulties of the real world, I bicycled back to Judiciary Square to return my bike to its rack and then went in to work for a few hours to do some administrative work on the half-marathon program I direct for my club. Jeanne is hard at work training for her next race, the Blue & Gray Half-Marathon in Fredericksburg. She is fresh from a 10K PR in a race last week. She looks great.

What I forgot to tell Jeanne is that I have the same birthday as her Mom had, April 15th, Income Tax Day. It's unforgettable.

Do you suppose I really need a helmet?

Anatomy of a group training run

This morning my Reebok SunTrust National Half-Marathon Training Group met up at Gotta Run as usual and ran the same hilly 7.5 mile route we reconnoitered two weeks earlier. Only this time, to throw in the element of surprise, we ran it backwards.

Because it was the Thanksgiving holiday weekend, we had a low turnout. The Full Marathon training group wasn't meeting at Georgetown Running Company, so we picked up a runner from it plus another runner who had importuned the Program Director to get into the sold-out Program, and been told to come join our group.

Coaches Jeannie and Ellen mounted up four troops and went to the north on a 6.5 mile run past Memorial Bridge and Roosevelt Bridge to Key Bridge before returning. The area up there was secure and they got back intact.

Eleven of us, with Coach Lauren leading the way with the main group, went west on Army-Navy Drive towards the barrier of the elevated highways penning in Pentagon Row and then south up Ridge Road. Coach John, who had been late in saddling up, joined us on this climb up the ridge line. Coach Matt and J, both dressed lightly in shorts and technical shirts on this chilly morn, the better to move fast, split off on a secondary route on the ridge line and vanished.

The main group pushed on, huffing and puffing from the exertion of running up a tall ridge so early in the run. We were moving swiftly at the onset, to preserve the element of speed and surprise.

Atop the crest, the air was still and afforded a clear view deep into the city of Washington. No unusual activity was noted there on this holiday weekend early morning.

Pressing on, we attained the high point where, two weeks earlier, we had continued straight and came down off ridge to the creek far below it. This time we took a sharp left turn and ran down Restaurant Row, which we had previously come back up on upon the return two weeks ago. This foray into a populated commercial center was uneventful as the businesses were shuttered due to the early hour and nobody was about.

I took advantage of the quiet to find out about the two new members of the squad. The marathon trainee was an experienced runner and was loping along easily. She had glowing things to say about how the Full Marathon program was being run. They had been on several successful runs in the Georgetown area with no mishaps.

I asked her about Coach Katie, whom I had sent over there when the Director had asked me to send some experienced reinforcements over to that location. They loved her over there! The one good thing about losing such a valuable veteran was that I now occasionally pick up some valuable intel from her about how things are going across the river. You learn to pick up information however you can get it.

The other newbie was a raw rookie, new to running and brimming with hope. He was running well but I worried about how he would hold up when we encountered the ridge for a second time after being out for an hour.

Joi, a reliable member of the squad, was listening to headphones, as were several other members. I had run with Joi in other Programs. I sidled up to her and asked her if she was being antisocial today.

"I can hear fine," she said. "I have the volume turned down low."

I whispered, "How was your Thanksgiving?"

She ignored me. I whispered it again, a little louder.

"It's Beyonce, and I don't know the name of the song."

The squad burst out laughing. It's good to keep things loose on a difficult run.

We ducked through the pedestrian tunnel off Crystal Drive and ran over to the underpass under the GW Parkway. The trail looped around a hillock and up to the Mount Vernon Trail but I ran straight up the hillside so I could see how the runners were progressing. The roar of jets waiting for takeoff at nearby National Airport was deafening.

Matt and J were gone, off far ahead scouting somewhere. Matt is my most experienced coach and he had specially picked J to run with him. I was sure they were alright. Lauren was leading the main group, switching the point person at regular intervals, which is good form. The back pack was starting to straggle, however. John was with the far-back runner, subtly exhorting her on to a faster pace. The rookie was between the packs, slowing down a bit. In the secondary pack were three runners, one of whom was starting to struggle.

I dropped back with her and John and his charge swept on by. S was experienced, but she was developing blisters. She had new orthotics and they weren't right. I gently suggested to her that she turn back before her condition became disabling. She knew the terrain we were in, having been with us there several times before. She was a veteran. The route from here would only take her further from our base before we finally turned for home. I was afraid she might become a liability to the run.

She asked for the most direct route back. I outlined it for her, and she understood. The tricky part was going through the pedestrian tunnel, a little-known contrivance, but we had just passed through it. Salvation for her, at Gotta Run, lay a mere three-quarters of a mile away by the most direct route back. "I'll come find you if you're not back by the time we return," I told her. "Walk if you need to."

She turned back. Her being experienced, I trusted her to get back okay.

I caught up with the rest and ran on to the front group, informing the other two coaches of S's departure. Then I fell in with the secondary pack and we settled in for the long haul. Although they were getting ahead of us now, we could still easily see Lauren's group.

Turning inland away from the Potomac, we ran up the trail along Four Mile Run. We ran by the sewage plant, an olefactory landmark that everyone recognizes. Soon we came to the bottom of Ridge Road again, at the base of its steep, long side. Two weeks ago we ran down this part. Now, after six miles, we were running up it.

Everyone did well. I shuttled between the main group and the secondary group, which was starting to really spread out. I was gratified to see that the rookie had started pushing the pace again, and determined that he could join the squad at this late date since he obviously had conditioning and motivation. At the top I doubled back and ran downhill past half the secondary group, who were running well enough up the hill. This was good training, I told them, since our target half marathon in March has its big hill at the seventh mile, although they didn't seem gratified at the moment for this good news. But John and the marathon trainee were AWOL on the big hill.

I found them down around a further corner, toiling slowly upwards. The marathon trainee was injured. She was wearing short shoetop socks and had somehow banged the unprotected inner knobby bones of her ankles together. They were bleeding slightly.

The three of us made it to the top and took a breather. She seemed okay so we proceeded back at a trot to Gotta Run by the most direct route, saving a half-mile by cutting off a serpentine series of cutbacks coming down off Ridge Road. Recovered, the marathon trainee engaged John and I in a footrace down the hill during the last quarter mile. Hmm, she won. We arrived back ahead of everyone else except for Matt and J, who had already returned, and S, who was inside the store getting fitted by Andre for new shoes.

Moments later, Lauren's group returned, wondering how we got past them. The secondary group also arrived back, and then shortly afterwards, Jeannie's group came back from their foray up north past the bridges.

A successful sixty-eight minute outing for the Program.

The next Program

Week 2 of the twenty-week 2009 Reebok SunTrust National Marathon and Half Marathon Training Program, powered by volunteer coaches from my running club, is done. Or at least the long Saturday run is over. I have to run the track workout Wednesday evening.

Last week we all met at the Georgetown Running Company, normally the hook-up point for the marathon runners. After we listened to elite athlete Samia Akbar speak about running, we went out for a 6 mile run on the C&O Canal Towpath. It took an hour and the run was along the Potomac on nice soft dirt. I created the route. Yes, it was nice.

I direct the HM Program. Today we met at Gotta Run, our normal starting point. The fast coach wasn't there so I took out the rabbits. We went 7.45 miles running up to Ridge Road, down to Four-Mile Run Creek, over to the Potomac and on to National Airport, back up to Ridge Road and home. Do you get the idea that we ran up a ridge twice? I created the route. No, it was not nice.

We did it in 1:05:02. The four runners I was running with politely let me lead and set the pace. They didn't know where to go anyway. During the sixth mile, going up 23rd Street, which I call Restaurant Row, to get onto S. Arlington Ridge Road the second time, D, who ran a 1:32 Half in Baltimore last month, pulled even. He looked at me and smiled. "Go on, go on," I gasped as I feebly waved him on. His face brightened and he lit out up the hill, surmounted it, trotted back down and came up it a second time with me. Evidently the other three didn't feel like showing off because they stayed put behind me.

Last Wednesday was the Program's first track workout night. All these fasties showed up then too. The routine was 6X400 at tempo pace. I was the fastest of the three coaches there so I dutifully fell in with the fast group. Three guys rocketed off to a series of splits in the mid-80s, and I hung with the rest of the faster group many meters back. I did 90-92-96-98-92-93. I didn't lay a glove on those three students way up in front.

Man is this stuff great or what?

The SunTrust National Marathon Newsletter

I received the SunTrust National Marathon Newsletter in my email box yesterday. Intending to delete it, I opened it and glanced at it.

It headlined 2008 as a record breaking year for the three-year old race, and posted a picture of local legend Michael Wardian threepeating in a course record time of 2:24:57. It listed both half-marathon winners as setting course records, Ezkyas Sisay in 1:06:17 and Virginian Samia Akbar in 1:16:31. It pointed out that DC Mayor Adrian Fenty PR’d in 3:40:05, and it touted essay winner Steven Babylon, who wrote about his adopted daughter who loved playing with his marathon medals, so he had to get more for her. Lastly, it listed the Featured Runner with this accompanying picture.

What a surprise. (Look, I'm wearing my Reebok shorts!)

The newsletter said that I started running in 2000 and have become a coach and running advocate as well as a runner. When I am "not wearing the tread off [my] running shoes, [I] maintain a blog about life and running in the DC area." All of that is true. Then it provided the link to my blog.

Since they didn't interview me, I can't claim I was misquoted. Which otherwise, I aways do. Keep your options open, I always say.

I sure enjoyed running the SunTrust National Half Marathon, yet I never really posted a full report about it. I already told you it was my second best time for a half marathon (my PR is 1:44:18 at the Inaugural Disneyland Half). I’m not going to bore you with a full report now, but my splits are informative, so I’ll list them. Numbers don’t lie.

The course definitely has hills in its middle part. Between the fourth and seventh miles it rises 200 feet, with the steepest climb being right at the 10K mark. Starting at the eight and a quarter mile mark, the course runs downhill to the finish, except for one more climb of about 65 feet in the twelfth mile.

I believe that to run a fast race, you have to get going right from the start--fast. My first two miles were fast, 7:41 and 7:33 (down Capitol Hill).

Then I didn't see any more mile markers til the sixth one, at 47:30 (7:55). This time included a porta-potty stop of perhaps 45 seconds in the third mile. In the sixth mile, we were into the uphill section of the course, at the steepest part. I ran over a timing mat at the 10K point in 49:22 (7:57).

The rest of the way went like this. Seventh mile 8:31 (steepest hill); eighth mile 8:05; ninth mile 8:05 (going downhill); tenth mile 7:56 (10 Miles, 1:20:10 (8:01)).

The last three miles were 8:18; 8:37 (an uphill plus I was drifting); and 8:00 (Sasha passed me by and I pepped up, thinking I might light out after her). 0:48 for the last tenth. Final Time: 1:45:35 (8:04).

It was 17 seconds faster than flat Disney World in 2006, when I was running well. It was 81 seconds slower than Disneyland in 2006, when I was at my peak. In both those races I had some gas in the tank at the end. Here, my tank was empty and I finished on fumes.

My last 5K at the Disneyland Half Marathon was 23:10 (7:27); here, it was 25:25 (8:11). That's a big difference.

Numbers don't lie. But I was thinking 1:53, so I'll gladly take 1:45.

Tru-Value Training

The Reebok SunTrust National Marathon and Half Marathon Training Program, powered by the DC Road Runners Club, is over. The race has been run and everyone was a winner in this first attempt.

I thought it was a little overpriced at $100, but I have been having second thoughts. It was overpriced for those persons who didn't avail themselves of the opportunities it offered. For the New Year's Resolution type of half-marathoners, who came once or twice and never again, it definitively wasn't worth signing up for. They should have applied the $100 towards the application fee for a gym membership instead, paid $1,000 on a yearly contract, and never gone there either. (Above, left: Sasha organized the pre-race dinner at an Italian Restaurant along the race course.)

But the program brought 16 weeks of gradually increasing, accompanied long runs. The running groups worked out to a maximum of eight runners per coach, but more usually two or three runners per coach.

Half a dozen free club races along the way were part of the package, to give the runners a feel for racing, from 3Ks to a 20K. Every Wednesday night there was a track workout, which a coach or two always attended. There is no faster way to get better than by doing track workouts. (Above, right: Matt on the right, ready to rock and roll before the race. Next to him is John, a club 10K Training Group coach with a terrible case of bed-head. John broke two hours in the half, and then won his age group in a sprint triathlon the next morning.)

The participants got a distinctive, technical long sleeve shirt. More importantly, they received three lectures, one by the ultimate race winner, Samia Akbar, another by local legend and double Marine Corps winner Jim Hage, and one by a respected local physical therapist.

The coaches created additional benefits for the runners. Sasha started Monday Night Footmall, a six mile run on the Mall every Monday evening. Matt ran Sunday club races with his group. Jeannie did extended weekend group runs, especially for those who didn't want to race the two times the schedule called for a race instead of a run. (Above, left: Sasha in the middle of her group after the race.)

That's actually a lot of value for $100. It was hard for the coaches to commit to 16 weeks of coaching less experienced runners (we all have our own personal goals that we try to achieve too) for free (we did receive some nominal Reebok merchandise). Our commitment stretched back into last year. I personally am tired and need a break. I'll get one in six more weeks, when the 10K Program is over.

I was worried that training slower with less experienced runners would severely impact my time in the half marathon. The other coaches must have felt the same way. Yet I had my second best time, and so did Matt. I don't know why.

The athletes who partook in everything the Program had to offer benefited greatly. Matt's two runners always did track. They also followed Matt's weekly plan for the long run, which reflected a lot of thought by this friendly, superior runner. Aside from Matt with his 1:21:54 (6:15 pace, 47/2640 in the race), this man and woman finished one-two in the Program at 1:31:40 (7:00, 121st) and 1:37:26 (7:26, 239th). These two worked hard and received real value. (Above, right: Samia Akbar, winner of the Half Marathon, addresses the Program at the Gotta Run Running Shop in South Arlington a week before the race. The two women in the middle had just run in another half-marathon race and met the qualifications for National. To the far left is Not Born To Run, who PRed.)

There were three runners who regularly ran with Sasha in the intermediate group and on Footmall runs. One got injured, but the other two finished in 1:58:38 (9:03) and 2:02:45 (9:22). Neither was an experienced runner with any real racing history when they started and they both did a fantastic job in their 16-week sprint to more-than-respectability. They received real value.

A couple of runners who feared the race's qualifying standard (2:30 for the half) followed Jeannie's plan and at a half-marathon in Virginia Beach shortly before the Suntrust National Half Marathon, they both smashed the qualifying standard at 2:10; 48 and 2:22:05. They received real value.

I guess the training program wasn't overpriced in the least for those who took advantage of it. This training program owes an incalculable amount to Jeannie, Matt and Sasha. Thanks, guys.

National Half Marathon-A Quick Report

The third National Marathon and Half Marathon is over! Local phenom Michael Wardian three-peated in the marathon, setting a new course record (he sets one here every year) in 2:24:59. When I left, they announced that the mayor was on course for a finish of around 3:40. That's for the full, not the half. As Mayor Fenty says of all other mayors in the world, bring 'em on. When we ran by Fleet Feet in Adams Morgan, the mayor's Dad was outside of his store cheering the runners on. A local high school band was doing a racy number up by McMillan Reservoir when we were all fagged from the long climb up there. DC is great!

The weather was perfect, overcast, 42 degrees and only a little wind. Everyone in the Reebok SunTrust National Half Marathon Training Program I am associated with did great! Matt was done in time to set up his camera and take pictures of runners as they finished. His two stars, the ones whose dust I ate at the Wednesday night track workout, both broke 1:40 (one of them closer to 1:30, I think). Sasha overhauled me in the last mile, chatted politely for a minute and then blazed off to a 1:44. I don't know everyone who ran, but one student did a 1:58 and another did about a 2:02. (Above: Sasha 200 yards from the finish. How is it that she is still smiling? Photo credit Matt.)

(Left: Me 200 yards from the finish, trying to hold on. Photo credit Matt.) My time was 1:45:35, my second best Half Marathon, 1:17 off my PR. It's a tough course so I'm pleased. Maybe I'll write more on it later but now I'm off to Charlottesville to watch some bull riding!

Busy Weekend

I have a busy weekend ahead of me. Tonight I'm going to a pre-race dinner at 6:30 pm at Bertucci's in Dupont Circle to a fete with the dedicated survivors of the Reebok SunTrust National Half-Marathon Training Program. Stop by and join us!

Tomorrow at 7 am I have a two-hour tour of the city planned. I am going on a little jaunt down the Mall from RFK past the White House, and then making a right turn to run by Fleet Feet (the first shop of that west coast franchise on the east coast) in Adams Morgan. I'm going to then sample some rolling hills as I run past the little-known McMillan Reservoir, and then I'll make another right turn and run down straight and true North Capitol Street back towards RFK. Woo-hoo!

In the late afternoon I'm going to the John Paul Jones Arena in Charlottesville to watch PBR. Don't know what PBR is? It's the young Professional Bull Riding Association and they are bringing their event to Charlottesville for the first time. I am going to watch hardy young men try to use only one hand to stay on horned, one-ton bucking behemoths for eight seconds, and then try to get off same. My second cousin is riding the bulls tomorrow. That's him in the picture, and his Mom (my cousin) is the woman in the stands, to the right. Here's a preview. Yeehah!

Sunday I plan to do my taxes. Woot!

Sunday night at 5 pm I'am going to attend the DC Road Runners Annual Board Elections and Banquet at Maggiano's in Friendship Heights. I am on the ballot for VP of Training, a newly-created position. Stop by and vote for me!

Then it's back to work, thankfully!

Watch this one

A week ago Saturday was the last training run of the sixteen week half-marathon training program my club, the DC Road Runners, provides the coaches for (including me). We were treated to a talk by Samia Akbar, a premier American marathoner sponsored by Reebok.

Following an All-American career in track and field at American University, she debuted in the marathon at New York in 2006 and placed twelfth, third American, running a stunning 2:34:14. Watch out for her at the Olmypic Trials next month in Boston!

She spoke about tapering. Everyone's different, she said.

She said to stay hydrated.

She spoke about her warmup routine, a combination of static stretches and short bursts of intense running to get her cardiovascular system elevated.

She signed autographs for everyone. She's a charming young lady. Just look at her with Not Born To Run. Old pals!

Here's the group outside of our meeting place, Gotta Run Running Shop in South Arlington, just before going off on our last long run before the big race. Do you see any grumpy people in there? They all have at least nine miles of running immediately ahead of them. Why are they so so relaxed and . . . happy looking?

Good luck to everyone in the Reebok SunTrust National Marathon and Half-Marathon Training Program who is running the race this weekend. And good luck to Samia . . . in Beijing, I hope. (Photo credit Lee.)

Back at the Track

Tonight I did a track workout with the fast group of my club's Half-Marathon Training Program, which I direct. The group (of two) is in the capable hands of Matt, who is fast. I like him very much because he is so accomplished yet unassuming, and he is also a volunteer-type guy (he was my club's Volunteer of the Year in 2002). Plus he brews beer and he gave me four bottles of home brew recently.

The program's target race is this Saturday. I'm running it and I'm so not ready. In January I did a 20K (12.4 miles) in 1:42, an 8:15 pace. That's pretty much only my silver standard because it's not sub-eight miles. But I would take it now! My club's 10K Training Program, which I also direct, started last month and for the last five weeks I have been checking in on Saturday morning at 8 o'clock with the HM Group and then rushing off to run with the 10K Group at 9 o'clock. The 10K group is comprised of more incipient runners so my long runs have been on the order of four miles in forty-five minutes. That program's fast group (of one) is handled very capably by Bob, my club's Most Improved Male Runner of the Year for 2007, so I run with the novices. One weekend my long run consisted of two miles of repetitions of walking for two minutes and running for one minute. (I know, I could run earlier or later as well, but I do have a non-running life on weekends also.) (Left: Coach Bob of the 10K Program, center in white shirt, with the fast group (the runner against the railing) at Fletchers Boathouse earlier this month.)

So anyway, tonight at the club's track workout the three in the HM fast group (Matt and his two students) were tapering down for the big race three days hence and they still left me DFL 40 yards back, sucking wind with my chest pounding. The workout consisted of ten reps of one minute on and 30 seconds off at a "moderately" fast pace after a two mile warmup.

But I finished it, and caught up with them when "we" were done (we weren't actually on the track, which was being used, we were on the nearby hilly Custis Trail). The four of us went out for pizza afterwards. At the Lost Dog Cafe in Arlington, running bridged the differences in our ages (30 years-I skew it upwards), college backgrounds (University of Colorado for me, MIT for Rita) and where we grew up (Staten Island, New York for me, Homer, Alaska for Gene).

The workout, food and company were great, but I am a little worried. I'm dreaming of breaking 1:50 (eighteen months ago I was hoping to break 1:40 although I never got there) but I hope I can do at least a 1:55 on Saturday.

Half Done

The Reebok Wirefly National Half-Marathon Training Group Program I run with on Saturdays is half over. We had our eighth long run on Saturday. (Left: Jeannie's group forming up outside Gotta Run,)

Jeannie was back from her travels (Germany, India, Egypt, Jordan and Israel, the Pakistan segment was cancelled because of the assassination of ex-Prime Minister Bhutto) so she took the novice group on a nine-mile tour of the heart of DC (Iwo, Key Bridge, the Georgetown Waterfront, Rock Creek Park, the Mall, Capitol Hill, the Pentagon). This is a woman who gets around!

(Right: Wintertime on the Mall.) Sasha was out of town so I took over her intermediate group. We attached ourselves to Matt's advanced group and ran twelve miles through South Arlington at a 9:30 pace.

The area is a warren of raised highways down there and Matt showed us how to get from the north-south Mt. Vernon Bike Trail which runs along the Potomac to the east-west W&OD Bike Trail which runs forty miles out past Leesburg. The W&OD maddeningly stops a mile short of the Potomac and is a veritable dead-end.

(Left: Wintertime on the Tidal Basin.) Making your way from the Mt. Vernon Trail to the W&OD involves obscure twists and turns along the city streets of Alexandria to a pedestrian bridge over twelve lanes of I-395 at Shirlington, a charming section of Arlington comprised of restaurants and shops. This route is known for the most part only to bicyclists, who are usually the only fit people in the area who know how to get from Virginia to DC without taking the hilly Custis Trail in North Arlington. After years of talk, money has finally been appropriated to extend the W&OD one more mile to the Potomac.

Coming back we ran the eleventh mile up Ridge Road, a long steep hill in South Arlington infamous to local runners. I was leading at what I thought was a strong pace, but as I huffed and puffed up the hill looking desperately for the crest, I could hear Matt and his group members casually chatting while following along right behind me. After the run Jeannie and Not Born To Run made time to go out for coffee with me so the morning provided an excellent start to the weekend. (Right: Matt's fast group made me an honorary member last week,)

A Tale of Two Halves

I ran my fourth race of the new year this morning, the JFK 20K, an out and back on the Capitol Crescent Trail (CCT), which starts out underneath the Whitehurst Freeway in Georgetown and runs to Bethesda. This club race was offered up as an alternative to a 12-mile training run from Gotta Run in Arlington for the Half Program I direct getting runners ready for the Wirefly National Half-Marathon on March 29th.

Overall Director Ed, two coaches and everyone from the Marathon Training Program were there. From the Half Program, Matt, who coaches the fast group, and his two runners showed up. Everyone else in the Program ran 8-10 miles on the Mall with Sasha, Jeannie and NBTR, feeling their mileage base wasn't suitable yet for a 12.4 mile run in the seventh week.

At 9 am we were off. It snowed yesterday but the trail was mostly clear with a few icy spots. There's not much to say about an unvaried out-and-back course. The CCT runs upriver through the woods. I ran 52:47 going out (8:30) and 49:47 coming back (8:00) for an overall time of 1:42:35 (8:15), good for 62nd place out of perhaps 100 runners.

Matt won Program honors, placing, I believe, in the top ten or so (he's modest and won't say). Ed was next, followed I guess by his two coaches, but I don't know their names and really don't know where they placed. Matt's two runners kicked my ass, with Gene turning in a 1:34 and Rita reeling off a 1:40. I beat all the Marathon trainees. (Left: Rita and Gene with me after one of the Program's Wednesday evening track workouts. Their speed work was apparent in their excellent race times.)

I was running alone after the turnaround but four runners overhauled me in the last three miles. I kept ahead of the the guy from Texas at least, and a woman friend of mine who beat me by over a minute at the club 10-miler two weeks ago. My pace was a second per mile faster than that shorter race, so I guess I'm slowly improving. My time was eight minutes slower than the last 20K I did eighteen months ago.

I was exactly three minutes faster on the return than I was going out. I rarely do negative splits. Good race execution, you say? Nah. Ed with his 305 put it in perspective afterwards as we relaxed at the Georgetown Running Company. He reported that his Garmin indicated we'd climbed 265 feet by the turnaround at Bethesda. It was all downhill from there.

The Al Lewis 10-Mile Race

A week ago, rather than showing up at Gotta Run in Arlington for Saturday's long run, I went to Kensington, MD for a 10-Mile club race so I could be on hand for any Program member who wanted to run a supported 10-mile distance as we get ready for the Wirefly National Half-Marathon on March 29th. Although overall director Ed Grant and several members of the Marathon training group showed up at the race, no one from the Program came out. Instead, back on Pentagon Row, Matt and Sasha took out two Program members apiece on a ten-mile training run.

The race in Kensington was free ($5 for non-club members). At 9 am we lined up on the 8-foot wide bike path in the bitter 28 degree temperature and off we went on the hilly and windy blacktop trail. (Above: Another S curve. That's ice along the banks of the stream to the right,)

We ran into the rising sun the first half of the out-and-back course, along the creek bed that Beach Drive follows. This road is through parklands and a haven for groups of bicyclists, who stick to the road. Much of the creek was frozen over and the early morning sun glinted off the ice. The footpath was cracked and buckled by frost-heaves along much of its path and little up-and-down hills abounded.

A year ago I ran a major ten-mile race in 1:16:05. This low-key race was going to be very different and I lost over six-and-a-half minutes somehow in only a year.

The first mile went down in 8:06 and I knew my recent string of sub-1:20 ten-milers was in jeopardy. Speed up? How about an 8:11 second mile. I turned in my only sub-8-minute mile in the third mile (7:43), then fell off to an 8:07 fourth mile. By now I was running by myself in this sparse race run along a trail comprised of an endless series of little S turns. It was terrific for practicing running a straight line through opposing turns to shave distance off a route. (Above: The tall pointed spires of DC's "Magic Castle.")

The fifth mile (8:25) left the trail and ran uphill on city streets by the Mormon Temple and I hit the turnaround at 40:33, an 8:07 pace. It didn't get any better. (Right: This hillock is a daunting protuberance by the ninth mile.)

The second half of the race went like this. 8:01 running downhill back to the trail, 8:30, 8:36, 8:27 and 8:35 for a 1:22:44 finish (8:16 overall pace) as I tired and half a dozen runners went by me the last three miles. Only the race winner broke sixty minutes, by 18 seconds, and Ed Grant had a great time of 1:13:33 to take "Program" honors.

I finished 62/110, 52/81 among males, both rock-solid bottom-half finishes. I think I beat all the trainees though, at least one of whom captured an age group award. This was a hilly, curvy and nasty course, albeit pastoral and scenic too with its glimpses of the spires of the Mormon Church above the treetops. (Above: Race is done.)