Gold Medal Challenge - Part I

Currently I am spending my weekend in Wisconsin. I am participating in the Icebreaker's Gold Medal Challenge. This interesting event has a number of races held at the Pettit National Ice Center in Milwaukee.

Running around the ice skating ring at Pettit National Ice Center

In addition to a 5K which I just found out took place on Friday afternoon or evening, the key events are a half marathon held on Saturday and a Marathon held on Sunday morning. Those running the half get a bronze medal. Those running the full get a silver medal. And those running both races get a gold medal.


Of course I am trying for both. Otherwise I am not sure I would have endured the 5 hour drive to get here.

This morning I run the half. Because of the number of participants on the 1/2 marathon,they actually hold two races on Saturday. Mine started at 7:00 AM and I have to say I had a ball.

The course is the outer track on the ice skating arena, right outside the ice ring. A half a marathon requires 47 and 1/2 laps. The very center of the arena has two ice squares; one for hockey and one for free ice skating. Almost right from the start we got to see a group of kids playing hockey and another group of kids doing pirouettes. The speed skating ring had a Zamboni running around that brought some excitement to the run.

1/2 Marathon Bronze medal

The track is very nice. The inner area is used for fast runners, so with the exception of my time passing, I spent most of my time on the outside. A group of volunteers hand you your water bottle on request and take it at the next lap, about 2:20 min later. The race is chipped and a large LCD projector displays runners and their lap count. You can also ask for your count and get it on the next pass.

About an hour into the race, the Zamboni was done preparing the speed ice ring and a small number of speed skaters in Flash Gordon-like outfits took on the course for additional entertainment.

The time went fast. I completed the first race in 1:50:05 (8:25 min/miles), finishing 71 out of 111 runners in this wave. My overall place will be higher, since the organizers requested that the faster runners participate on the first wave (and had to finish in under 2 hours). Leaving the second wave for those that either didn't want to get up early or run slower. (Note: final tally placed me #80 or 222, certainly a better number.)

Because of the venue, the indoor wheater conditions were great for running. The temperature and humidity controlled environment helped not just keep the ice solid, but also the runners form overheating. In fact, after I finished I decided to stick around to see the second wave start from the bleachers. I didn't last long. Between my wet clothes and the frigid temperatures I left after they had done no more than 4 or 5 laps.

Breakfast at The Broken Yolk

Following a tradition of mine. I asked a volunteer for a local breakfast establishment and was directed to The Broken Yolk, a little whole in the wall/college type of place where you order at the counter and can get breakfast all day. For just $12 I got chocolate milk and a large plate containing three eggs, hash browns, sausage, toast and a side of bacon that had no less than 6 strips. Yeah... I was hungry.

Now I am back at my very cheap hotel room icing my ankle (which has been bothering me a tad since the New York Marathon last November) and watching the South Carolina primary on CNN making time until tomorrow's marathon. I will make sure to follow up with a post soon after the race.

New (Awesome) Homepage for Zoom! Yah! Yah!

Last year I run the prestigious Zoom! Yah! Yah! marathon in St Olaf's college in Northfield, MN.  A friend just forwarded to me a link to their ver awesome new homepage.  How about that handsome fellow right in the center of the page? 

I am still trying to get into the year's, but am still number 15 on the wait list on a race that takes a few over forty runners.  At this point it seems like a long shot, but my fingers are crossed.

An Interesting Week

It was a very interesting week indeed.  Just a few hours after establishing a PR on a 13.1 mile training run, I haver chest pains and shortness of breath and ended up at the ER.  Seven hours later and after many tests completed in between episodes of being almost completely unable to breath, I am diagnosed with pericarditis, a swelling and irritation of the thin sac-like membrane that surrounds your heart caused by a viral infection.

The good news is that as a viral infection it just needs to run its course in one or two weeks.  The bad news is that I have the Team Ortho Monster Dash 1/2 marathon in just 6 days and the New York Marathon a week after that.  The former is the fifth of five events I have signed up with Team Ortho for the year and one in which I have been engaged in no small amount of trash talk with another runner, who we will call Daniel, and to which I can't possibly not show up.  The later is well, the New York City Marathon.

During my time at the ER, I had a chance to be fed, and this being a blog about food and running I thought I should give them an appropriate review.  With a co-pay of $100 for the ER, I thought the price of the meal was pretty stiff.  More so given the quality and lack of choices.

The appetizer of ice chips lacked flavor and was the only item served for several hours.  The only other item served as hors d'oeuvres was pasty like syrup that tasted like medicine, since it was.  These are probably planned to make anything following it like heaven.

The main course was a turkey sandwich on wheat (no chips other than ice chips) although it was served with a nice cold carton of 1% milk, a suggestion of the sommelier/nurse.  The bread was fresh and the turkey moist.  If the mayo and mustard were home-made, it must have taken them quite a long time in the kitchen to put them into the little pouches.  This must be the reason why it took so long to bring the sandwich.

Dessert was a vanilla pudding served in a plastic cup that took a lot of work to open, more so given their insistence on me wearing an oxymeter on my index finger at all times (perhaps a hidden camera strength test?)  Again, after seven hours waiting, it tastes pretty good.  Still, I would definitely advice against visiting this establishment at all cost.  While the service was excellent (particular kudos to nurse Bridget who waited on us), it was rather slow.

Anyway, I leave the ER still with some shortness of breath.  It was interesting that instead of mints, they give you Ibuprofen that you have to take for a whole week.  I did and it did nothing for my breath.

Six days later, my doctor clears me to run the Monster Dash on Saturday.  I am wearing a mast created by artist extraordinaire Mat Ollig, which surprisingly neither bothers me during the run nor affects my performance.  I give it all my might and it pays off.  While my official time is yet to post (interference thanks to my insistence on running wearing chips from all the Team Ortho races for the 2011 series).  I finish 13.1 in record time for a 1/2 marathon race.  My final time is 1:42:53 (7:47 min/mile).  Most important, 15 seconds ahead of my trash talking buddy (a good 15 years my junior).  Then again my time is not yet official, so the tables could soon turn.

The race was indeed terrific.  The course was changed just a few weeks before the race and moved from Minneapolis to St Paul.  The new course was all downhill (I believe they said 400 foot drop) and vey fast.  Notice the green line on the elevation chart below.  It was also very well organized with lost of entertainment (including the costumes worn by the runners) and with excellent weather.

 
This race also served as a retirement run.  I retire my shoes after 400 miles and my pair of Saucony Hurricane after 71 runs had reached that milestone (pun absolutely intended).  They were good shoes and accompanied me for four of the five Team Ortho races.  May they rest in peace.

To top it all, we followed the race with breakfast at Elsie's, a bowling alley that has become a post race tradition of ours.  Their breakfast is traditional American, but perfectly executed.  I opted for the off-the-menu Eggs Benedict with sausage patties instead of Canadian bacon (as if that was really bacon).  This breakfast has proved to replenish all the carbs and calories lost during any distance run.

So an interesting week indeed.  Now another week of tapering before the New York Marathon.  Hoping for less excitement there.  I leave you with some of the costumes we saw at the race.  Not even the best ones, but a fair sample I was able to capture at the finish line as we were waiting for our friends to join us.

Three devil girls who agreed to post with me

The drag while running with this must have been incredible

One of my favorites

Of course I had to capture this one.  Was her name Siri?

Out

Out of breath from a recent cold I haven't quite shaken off
Out of shape from not having run for a week
Out of time having spent half my morning on the net and having all kinds of thing to do
Out of my mind, since I have a 1/2 marathon in a week and the NY Marathon in two and I should be tapering
Out of excuses...
Out the door because I am a runner

And the result paid off with a nice PR.  13.1 miles in 1:40:43 (7:41 min/mile).  Nope, this wash;t a 1/2 marathon just a 12 mile training run that I thought I'd stretch to 13.1 for the fun of it.  And boy am I glad I did.

2011 Big Woods Run - Race Report

Yesterday was race day at Fairbault, MN.  The event is the Big Woods Run 1/2 Marathon.  This is a trail race that starts on a road (about 1.5 miles), then moves to flat trails and around mile 4 or 5, starts a hilly terrain.  Not quite what I saw at the Afton Trail Run in 2011 (which that year because of the MN State shutdown had to be moved from a State Park to a ski park and had brutal hills), but certainly hilly.

The day was windy and cold at the start, but the sun was up and as soon as you got in the woods, the wind was barely noticeable and the temperature seem to raise a bit (probably the running).  The route is full of turns, and it is a beautiful trail, but my eyes were kept right on the ground.  More so after seeing two of the runners kiss the floor after tripping on a root.



I also enjoyed the fact that the first 1.5 miles (and thus the last) are on the road.  This allows you (if you have the energy at the end, and I did) to pick a few runners and pass them on the final stretch.  That forces me to pick it up and push through on the last mile.

This is a terrific run, fun, not too big (about 300 people) and well organized.  I do have, hover a major complaint.  While the race is a ChampionChip Timed, it appears they only use the chip for the crossing of the finish line and not the start.  As a result, if you are towards the back of the pack when you cross the start line, you get a few seconds added from the time the gun goes off (or a siren in this case), to the time you finally cross the start run and start running.  Since we were all the way in the back, for us it was about 50 to 55 seconds.

I confirmed this using both my GPS and Mike's watch.  His was 55 seconds off and mine was 50.  Here is a link to my results.  You may notice that the start and end do not coincide.  But that's because I could not get a satellite signal on time to get a position with the GPS.  That, however, doe snot affect the time, since it does not need a satellite to know the time.

So my official (incorrect) final time is 1:54:05, but my actual (correct) time as measured by my GPS is 1:53:16.  This small difference is important because my time last year was 1:53:33, so with my time this year was 17 seconds faster.

All and all it was a very nice race.  After the race we opted to stay for the soup, bread and cookies which warmed my belly and felt great.  I honestly only signed up this year because Mike suggested it.  And while the town where it is hold is a tad far (just over an hour south of the cities), I think it is worth the drive.  I would definitely do it again next year and perhaps try to shave another 17 seconds :-)  

Gold Medal Challenge

Well, I didn't make it this year to the Zoom! Yah! Yah! Marathon.  This is the very fun and very fast indoor Marathon that is held at St Olaf College in Northfield, MN.  There are only 44 spots and a lottery is used to draw up runners.  Not only I didn't make it, but I got spot 20 of 21 runners in the wait list.  Pretty much no chance of running it this year.  Pitty...

My friend Scott was trying to convince me to run the Sandbox Indoor Trail Marathon on February 13.  I am just not sure that it will be held...  Their website is still showing data for last year and the race director did not reply to my email regarding next year registration.

So looking for alternatives I stunbled across the Gold Medal Challenge.  This event included a 1/2 marathon on Saturday followed by a full marathon on Sunday (Jan 21-22).  Both are held at the  Pettit National Ice Center in Milwaukee.  Seems like a good replacement for Zoom! Yah! Yah!

It will also be good training in preparation for the Milano City Marathon in Milan, Italy, for which I already signed up and around which Sharon and I will be building our vacation next year.

I was disappointed about not making the list for the Zoom! Yah! Yah!, but it seems are already looking up!

Team Ortho Minneapolis 1/2 Marathon

Man, was I happy on sticking with my decision not to run a full marathon again on a summer day.  I made that decision a year ago after having a miserable run at the Team Ortho Minneapolis Marathon.  In fact, at the time, the decision had been never to run another marathon.  However, once the fog left my head (or perhaps came back) the decision was modified to never run another summer marathon.

So this year I did the half and truly enjoyed it.  Not only that, but I did fairly well not quite hitting a PR, but getting a second or third best on that distance finishing in 1:49:56 (route).  What's more, I was in the 86 percentile.  This is huge for me, used to finishing just above the 50 percentile in my age group.

Kudos go to Team Ortho.  By far the best organizers of races in the Twin Cities with the best gear.  Clearly practice makes perfect.  These guys are busy...

Running right in front of the Phoenix on Main Street

Got Lucky!

Barely a week after our return from Tokyo we run the second of five events part of the Team Ortho Monster Series, the Get Lucky 21K (really a half marathon).  It was a cold morning which is good for running.  In fact it was so good that I ended up finishing with a PR.  That's right, I beat my best half marathon time by nearly four minutes!

I have run exactly 13.1 miles nine times (7 of them were official races, the other two training runs).  My finish time at the Get Lucky was 1:48:18.  My previous best time was 1:51:56 (or 3'39" slower) on a training run.  My half marathon race PR prior to that was 1:53:33 at the 2010 Big Woods Run Half Marathon giving me an improvement of 5'16"!!

Perhaps radiation leaking from our recent visit to Japan is to be blamed (you know, superhero style, as in the effect radiation had on Dr Bruce Banner or Peter Parker), not that I'd like to make light of the tragedy still developing and that is affecting the beautiful people of Japan, a population that doesn't need any radiation to be superheroes.  They are proving so on the way they are handling themselves during these events.

R2T: The Lost Footage - Runs 4 Food Exclusive!

Runs 4 Food has just acquired exclusive rights to video footage never seen before of the Rails to Trails tunnel as seen from a first person perspective by one of the 2010 Marathon runners.

This video, once considered to be lost was found in the iPhoto trash folder. It is believed the video was accidentally deleted when reviewing pictures after the race. When in view mode, videos appear just like pictures and the first frame looked like a pretty bad picture and was deleted as a result.

Fortunately, a routine check of the trash folder by one of our editors raised some questions about the length of the clip. After a review, its existence was immediately brought up to the attention of this blog's management.

The clip can now join human kind patrimony along with other such videos like the JFK assassination, the 1967 sight of Bigfoot at Bluff Creek, Neil Armstrong walking on the moon and balloon boy.

Big Woods Run

Yesterday was the Big Woods half marathon in Fairbault, MN. A great trail run. I went there with Sharon, Mike and Anita (all the them run the 10K), and my mother, Bity, who served as the official photographer.

The run was fun. I heard from Tim (who was also running the half), that they had about 900 for the 1/2, 10K and 5K. I started right up front, so for the first mile or two, lots of people passed me.

The first few miles make for a fairly flat and quick course. That changes around mile 5 where some very interesting and steep inclines (up and down). You can see the elevation chart here.

From mile 2 to mile 10, I passed a coupe of people but saw a few pass me, but for the most part held my place, even when on mile 9 I took my eyes off the ground to look if somebody was coming close to catching me and hit a root that made me kiss the ground. I scrapped both my knees and right had, but quickly stood up and kept running. No biggie.

I am really enjoying trail runs. I feel the miles go faster because you are so focused on looking at the ground to avoid falling that tim passes faster. They are very entertaining. I also suspect that because of the shorter steps required, my speed increases. Perhaps something to try on paved road.

By mile 10 I was seriously pumped up. I felt great. I wasn't tired at all, so I picked up the pace slightly at a time when people where starting to slow down. The cool thing of running marathons is that half marathons are very short races to run. Easy to do beginning to end. at least in comparison to the full. The result was that I passed about 15 people on those last three miles. The more I passed, the better I felt and the more I targeted to pass.

crossed the finish line at 1:53:33. That is 8:40 per mile. In fact, while I have run 13.1 mile distances faster, I have never done it on a race, so this PR is the equivalent of an Olympic, but not world race. It is interesting how much I need to twist, search and rationalize to find a PR on my runs....