A Quick Trip to Lousiville

I made a quick trip to Lousiville, Colorado, that is. That's a bedroom community for Boulder. I have a court case that is winding down in Denver, and I was there on Thursday and Friday for it. I stayed in Louisville, where I used to live when I was a State Patrolman. (Left: Harper's Lake in Louisville is especially pretty early in the morning.)

The last time I was in Colorado I got quoted by the Boulder paper. My viewpoint is that it's never a good thing to see your name in the paper. I was on damage control when I got quoted. (Right: There's a nice view of the Boulder Flatirons from atop Davidson Mesa. Photo credit P.)

My trip to Colorado gave me a chance to run with my friend P again on Davidson Mesa outside of Boulder. We had a nice hour-long run on Friday morning of six miles in the mile-high air. It's beautiful scenery out there.

(Left: There were still a few Cherry Blossoms left on Saturday at the FDR Memorial.) And then it was back to the real world. I flew into Dulles on a Friday evening flight and got home at 2 am on Saturday morning, in plenty of time to make my 9 am Saturday run of six miles with the 10K Training Group. (Right: Roosevelt Island in the Potomac is especially pretty in the morning.)

Cherry Blossoms Redux

I ran around Haines Point today at noon because that's where Sunday's Cherry Blossom 10-Miler went. I was intrigued by the comment in Jim Hage's write-up of the race that around Haines Point, "the blossoming cherry trees nearly formed a tunnel." Well, yeah, I can confirm that. Imagine running through that kind of scenery in a race, with the sparkling blue water of the Potomac set off by the lush pink petals of Cherry Blossoms in full bloom. (Right: The Jefferson Memorial across the Tidal Basin.)

(Left: M and L run under a canopy of Cherry Blossoms along the Tidal Basin a week ago. L, having just turned 60, started running in January and turned in a 1:23 at the Cherry Blossom 10-Miler. Whew.) The Cherry Blossoms are becoming wizened, for sure. A week ago they were glorious, now they are merely very good. They have definitely peaked and are starting to blow off the trees, but maybe it will still be showy this weekend in Washington. The viewing was still good today and the Tidal Basin was full of tourists out on rented paddle boats. I'll leave you with some more pictures of last Wednesday's run. (Right: Can any readers identify this beautiful and evocative little monument in the city of big monuments?)

Finally got in my twenty

The Cherry Blossom 10-Miler was held on Sunday in the rain. I've run this venerable, world-famous race four times, which I thought was enough, but they changed the course so completely this year that I might have to do it again someday. It's like a whole new race.

I did a virtual 10-Miler on Sunday in its honor, starting off at MP 7 on the W&OD Trail behind my house at 8 am. I ran westbound and hit 10 miles at 1:28:54 (8:54). Seven of my ten miles were in the 8:50s so I was being consistent. This is where the genius of my plan came into play. I was now at MP 17 and there was nothing I could to do but turn around and run (or walk) back. No backing out now. Twenty miler! Fooled you, sucka!

I had never before run out west on the trail this far from my house. There are hills out west, unlike the flat eastern part where I usually run from MP 7 to MP 0. Oy. (Left: On Saturday's run of six miles along the Potomac with my 10K Group, I started thinking that it was time to do my first twenty for the year. Photo credit J.)

It wasn't pretty coming back, especially the seventeenth through nineteenth miles where my pace dropped to the mid-9s. Thinking about home spurred me on the last mile and I brought it home at 3:00:06 (9:00). Which would be my second best twenty-mile race (I have run three). It was the furthest I have run since last September, when I PR'd at the Charm City 20-Miler at 2:59:10 (8:58). The Chicago Fun Run last October doesn't count, as I didn't run for twenty miles there because the No More Running Police intervened (among other reasons).

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.

Cherry Blossom Run

The Cherry Blossoms are in full bloom. They're beautiful this year.

I took my work running group on a run around the Tidal Basin yesterday at noon. We did a lot of sideways running to avoid the crush of tourists. Much of our running was on the gentle bank that slopes up from the footpath around the Tidal Basin where all the Cherry Blossom trees that were part of the original gift from the Japanese government shortly before WWI were planted.

It was me, M and L. L is doing the Cherry Blossom 10-Miler on Sunday and he has been training diligently. He looks strong. He just turned 60 but he keeps very active. A couple of years ago he hiked for six days through the Grand Canyon and down a side canyon. Alone.

M is the fast one in our group. He was frustrated at having to slow up so much for the crowds, and at me for stopping to take pictures, so he took the lead. He cleared a path through the tourists for us. L ran up next to him and told him he only got one point if he bowled over someone under four feet tall, but two points for anyone taller. Three points if he knocked them into the water. M was born in Germany and I don't think he recognized that as humor. He stared at L. (Photo credit K.)

This was definitely a buddy run. I kept calling out, Hey, M, aren't they beautiful? He would intone each time, Sure. My humor also was wasted.

For a noontime workday run, let's see any of you top it.

Turning right while looking left

I was not hurt but last night it finally happened after 8 years of running. I got hit by a car.

I was going to yoga class at the Community Center after work, running along a secondary arterial road, next to the curb by the sidewalk on the left side. From there I could watch for approaching traffic and if I came upon a parked car that would force me into the traffic lane when a car was coming, I could get up on the sidewalk. An SUV was driving up to a stop sign on a side street on my left that I was starting to cross.

I couldn’t see where the driver was looking because this gas-wasting Detroit monstrosity was too frickin’ tall. I now suppose that the driver was merely looking to her left as she approached the stop sign at the T-intersection, making sure that she didn’t get hit by an approaching vehicle with the right-of-way as she made a right turn onto the through-street I was running along. Pedestrians to her right crossing the side street? Let them eat cake!

A car was approaching. I guess the SUV driver decided that, having slowed for the stop sign, she should accelerate into her turn to beat the oncoming car. I was watching her vehicle and had skirted out into the roadway a little to give it some leeway but suddenly there was this wall of metal coming right at me.

"Hey!" I yelled as the bumper came into me and I put out my hands to fend off the car. The SUV was pushing me and I didn't want to fall underneath it. Really, I had nowhere to go.

I grabbed a fistful of grill with one hand and pushed off to see if I could somehow propel my body around to the side of the SUV. Its hood was too high up to try to hop onto but I used my other hand to whack it with my water bottle. The vehicle lurched to a sudden stop.

I screamed, "What’s the matter with you!" and flung my water bottle into the SUV’s bumper. It rebounded and rolled away rapidly across the road. The approaching car also stopped. I ran after my water bottle, retrieved it and stood up to glare at the offensive driver. She sat there immobile behind the wheel, face frozen, staring at me with both fists crammed into her mouth.

Fortunately I wasn’t injured, although I had jammed the middle finger of my right hand. So I couldn’t even give her the bird. What are you gonna do?

After scowling for a second, I ran off to my yoga class, after which I ran a measured mile back to my house in 6:54. It felt good to be alive.

National Marathon Course Considerations

I listened to Keith Dowling, the SunTrust National Marathon Race Director, speak at the annual banquet for the DC Road Runners on Sunday. He is a noted runner in his own right. He was the first American at the 2002 Boston Marathon, 15th overall, in a time of 2:13:28.

He was visibly relaxed, as the marathon he had just directed the day before went pretty well. You could tell though, that he was already starting to fret about the next one coming up in 364 short days. Such is the life of a major race director. (Right: Keith setting his PR at the 2002 Boston Marathon. Photo credit Alison Wade.)

The first year of this three-year old race there were traffic issues. This led to the part of the course in Prince Georges County being abandoned (a really hilly part along Central Avenue and East Capitol Street that I called the Seven Hills of Hell) and the race was brought entirely within the District.

The second year there were distance issues with the half-marathon course which ran a little long due to an AWOL course marshal. Many runners were outraged, especially those that can’t walk down the sidewalk without consulting their Garmins. Personally, I think that everybody ran the same distance, and the times were a little slow. So what.

This year there were no major problems that I know of. Michael Wardian from Arlington won the race for the third straight year in course record time and then immediately left for Knoxville, where he hoped to win its marathon the very next day. (He was leading until the last mile when he was overhauled and he finished third.)

Some tidbits I learned: The marching band placed strategically at the highpoint of the course near McMillan Reservoir was the Howard University band, fulfilling a course requirement by performing at the race. I would grade them an A+. They were good!

The day before the race Metro announced it would open two hours early at 5 am. Many runners took it to the 7 am race. The mayor, an avid runner (3:40 on Saturday), had something to do with that.

The first sponsor, Wirefly, went through a financial restructuring and SunTrust, with its rock-solid history of sponsoring the respected Richmond Marathon, stepped in.

The marathon featured running teams while the half marathon did not. The rationale behind that is to allow the longer race to have some stand-alone features, so the popularity of the half marathon doesn’t overwhelm the marathon.

The qualifying times for the race, not always popular with runners, were installed as a way to ensure that the roads reopened in a judicious fashion. Another way to achieve this is by using a rigid timetable to reopen roads, but a benefit from the qualification approach is that it ensures that everyone on the course has raced before. This eliminates running novices who show up merely trying to do 13 or 26 miles without any prior preparation, an approach that can lead to injury or even tragedy.

Tweaking the course is always under consideration. The race is a tour of the four quadrants of the city and passes by many of its numerous monuments. (Seeing the dome of the Capitol for the first ten minutes of the race, brilliantly reflecting the sun rising behind the runners, is a good start to the day.) The course currently runs past the Washington Monument but not down to the Lincoln Memorial. Changing that is under discussion.

The course was flipped around from last year’s route so it would reopen the denser NW quadrant to traffic first, not last. The sparsely inhabited SE section along the Anacostia is now run last, not earlier in the race. The traffic control officials apparently like this course the best.

It was interesting to hear about considerations of a major marathon from its director. Keith does a great job.

My personal opinion is that you gotta do this race. I mean it. Last year I thought it was really cool to run in the 9th Street traffic tunnel under the Mall during the race, where otherwise pedestrians cannot go. This year the runners ran in the Connecticut Avenue traffic tunnel under Dupont Circle, where you could never venture on foot normally. It was cool running through there even though it was uphill coming out.