The Joe Nation 2007 NYC Marathon Log

Twenty!
<Trumpet>
Joe, that's great. Twenty says: Yeah, of course you're going to do it, now it's
just a matter of goal-setting. A reasonable goal, a stretch goal, and that
secret goal you don't tell anyone about.

A reasonable goal, a stretch goal, and that
secret goal you don't tell anyone about.

Hmmmm

Let's see.....
five hours
four and half hours
and (======= )

Joe((Some time before sundown)Nation

I'm as impressed as hell.

I know that the uphill from CPS to Tavern on the Green is tough. But not for our Joe.

Go, kid.

I'm doubly impressed. The writing and the doing.

Once you've completed the marathon, you've got a dandy little book there, Joe.

I'll bet you plan to break four hours, but that'll be our little secret. Shhhh.

So what's the plan from here before tapering-off? Another 20? 20+?

So last night was the last running class.

I learned a lot. I would have learned a lot more if I hadn't missed or skipped about five sessions. (See: Personality Characteristics - Ability to burn money.)
I learned how to do intervals of a 1/4 mile, a 1/2 mile and a full mile.
I learned I don't like to do intervals but that the difference they make to your running strength is amazing.
I learned that I can be in a group of people for ten weeks and not make a single close aquaintence. What an odd person I am.
I learned a stretching routine that evaporates almost all of my potential soreness sites and I've trained (forced) myself to do it.

I was semi-officially the slowest person in the Advanced Intermediate Class. Tuesday night we did a 5K with the Advanced group and me starting first and the Intermediates right behind us. I finished about ten seconds behind the Advanced group. (I tried hard to catch the last two runners but couldn't make up any ground in the last mile.) I did a 29:06 which is not a personal record for me but a good run. 9:20 mile.
The first runner in the Intermediates was a full three minutes behind me.
Three minutes in a three mile race is a lot. So that made me feel pretty good.
I am also more than twenty years older than most of the people in both groups. (See possible reason for being an oddball.)

Joe(or maybe there is no reason at all)Nation

A month to go 'til the NYC marathon! I went back to page 1 of this thread.
Keep reporting, Joe.

(and, ps; a couple of picture postcards left Cville Tuesday bound for your niece's school).

This is so exciting!

I had kind of a meltdown today. Nothing serious, I think I am still recovering from last Friday and the speedy routines of this week didn't help. I did a fast three mile on Thursday morning and thought I would do a 13-15 this morning, but instead I went back to bed and slept for four and half hours.

Short run tommorrow, Today's long run on Sunday.

========

Years ago when I was biking and running, I would gripe about how much stuff you had to put on in order to go ride a bike.
Special shoes with clip-ons to snap onto the pedals.
Special sox.
Special shorts with a built in asspad.
Special jersey with pockets in the back for holding extra water (this was Oklahoma)
Riding goggles for the sun beating down on the roadway.
Riding gloves to protect your hands while gripping the bars for six or seven hours.
and, of course,
your helmet with the built-on mirror.
To say nothing about all the crap I had on that Carabella.
A pump. Two water bottles. A back bag with extra tube and patch kit. AND a computer to tell you how far, how fast and how long.
And then a nice layer of Bullfrog Sunscreen over anything exposed.

I used to laugh when I got ready to go run.
Sneakers. Shorts. Hat (Maybe) Any white socks in the drawer and a dab of Bullfrog on my nose and I was headed for the Arkansas RiverTrail.

Well.
These are different days. (Sigh)
I do have really good shoes (992s from New Balance) and Nike socks and I sweat bullets over the fit and grip of them.
I have real running shorts that are more silky than I care to comment about.
Because they have no pockets I wear a shoulder wallet (left shoulder) which is just big enough the apartment/building keys, a credit card, a MetroCard and a rolled up twenty and a five.
On my other shoulder I wear my Zen player with the three hours of music and six books.
I have on my head one of my battered hats(LifeIsGood) and I wear sunglasses unless the start is pre-dawn. My headphones fit snugly in my ears.
I have started wearing a Fuel Belt which has four bottles on it filled with Endurance Gatorade (very salty) um.. it tastes really good about at about twelve miles.
And in the back pocket of the belt I have to shove six or seven gel packs of GU (strawberry energy snacks.) yum. Really. Yum. Or that could be the twelve mile effect as well.

Anyway it used to take me thirty minutes to get ready for a ride and three minutes to get ready for a run.
I'm back to needing thirty minutes. (Not including the Stretching.)

Here I am

Joe(Robot Runner)Nation

Seriously, Robo, that's a lotta gear.
I don't even like wearing a shirt.

This morning I wore a cotton t, not realizing how warm it was going to be.
I did nine miles and the shirt was saturated. Not to mention I was a bit
chafed in the nipples. Ouch.

Way to go on the nine miles!!!

One of the benefits of the running jerseys made out of polywhatever is that they don't seem to cause as much nipple rip as 100% cotton does. I've seen some runners at the end of a 15k (9.3miles) with two streaks of pink running down the front of their shirt. Of course, it's the shirt they give you for running the race.

One thing I left off of my equipment list is my cellphone. It's also my camera. I am seriously thinking about wearing it in the Marathon so I can let folks know where I am, then I think "Are you crazy?" Then I think I can take a lot of pictures at the start, then I think "Are you completely mad?"

Joe(Then I try to think of something else.)Nation

I was pink stripe guy at the "My Brothers Table" half-marathon some years
back.. The Lovely Bride heard me yelling in the shower when the soapy water
hit. When I told her why, she giggled.


Carry your phone in the marathon?
Are you completely bonkers?

Amen. Sure it is also a camera. But leave it at home. You will have little time for taking pictures or talking to your bookie. Just my opinion.

Yeah yeah yeah, I hear you both on the phone.

I've run four half marathons now. I've set new personal records in three of them. The one I missed (by 23 seconds) was the one I answered my cell at mile 11.

Felt awful on Friday, slept and slept, took Saturday off from running (though I worked all day) going out in about two hours to get 13 miles in.

Joe(back on schedule)Nation

marathon news - I post this with no opinion myself yet - back on that.

http://www.freenewmexican.com/National%20News/Muggy_Chicago_Marathon_shut_down_because_of_heat_4_hours_after_

don't listen to anyone, joe. take your cellphone!

(i wanna see pictures).... OK, maybe they are wiser.

Nipple rip? Ow! For real?

One of the many things they tell you as you prepare for the run is not to change much of anything. So, of course, I've changed the size of my shoes AND I took my favorite slicky slicky socks (They just look speedy!) and put them on Sunday morning for the practice run down the river. I got to the eight mile point which is right at Central Park when I felt my first blister.
My first.
I've never had one from running before. Not one. Actually, it's not technically a blister. That back of the new shoe was rubbing j u s t a little above the sock on the back of my right Achilles tendon. I stopped. I pulled up the sock. I re-tied the shoe, limped my way through about five thousand German tourists and a bunch of people doing something called "The Sight Walk" and I got on the subway.
I looked at it. It being the rubbed part. It was sore but the skin hadn't bled very much. So I re-tied the laces nice and tight and got off at 168th Street. (Actually, the subway stopped at 168 and we were supposed to get on a shuttle bus. I trotted around the corner to Ft. Washington Ave which is all uphill to where I was going @184th. The bus came around the corner right about then, so ,,,,

it was a race.

My player had "I'm sure hard to handle, yesIam." pumping and I took off up the hill. The bus driver got it right away. I used to play beat the bus on 23rd Street but I could do it there just by walking. Yesterday, I had to sprint the whole way, sneaking across red lights, and dodging past opening car doors with the bus chugging along behind me on the other side of the street.
Just then I saw them. A huge line of women walking along, wearing pink hats and pink t-shirts and they were being assisted across the street by whistle-carrying cops!! So, while the bus still had to stop to take on passengers and stop at the red lights, I got a free pass all the way up to the highest point on the island of Manhattan @184. The last I saw of the bus, he was trying to get some on or off at the big bus station at the George Washington Bridge.
Was that cheating to use the Breast Cancer Avon Walk women as my free pass?

(Note: it is good to be married to a woman. L gave me some special bandaids that women use when they have the same kind of blister/rubbed spot thingie. It feels great this morning.)

A five mile is due tonight.

and thanks to Osso for reminding me that I could die doing this.
I think they were wrong to stop the race.

Joe(stop whining, dag, you're beginning to sound like me.)Nation

How can you say that, Joe? They were dropping like flies out there. It would have been barbaric to let it go on.

That wasn't my intention - I think you are a smart racer and know how to take adequate water and gatorade, or stop if they're not available and you feel peculiar. I think it's a wakeup call to race organizers about having adequate fluids and cups on the course.

I can see why they stopped it but the whole thing is too bad; can also see argument for not stopping it.

Of course we can imagine...training for weeks and months for a marathon and then, the day of, halfway through, it's called off??? Outrageous! But let's look at it from the other side. How many lawsuits would there have been? How many grieving parents, widows, widowers, children screaming in the streets for the heads of the irresponsible officials who allowed the race to continue under such brutal conditions?
They had to make a choice and they did that. There's always going to be someone disatisfied.