PLANET3RRY

It took me close to 2 months to right the review for this years Richmond Marathon. I should start off by saying that this year was the 25th anniversary for the race and I was hoping that there would be a bunch of goodies in the goody sack that you receive when you pick up your race number. I was disappointed that the goody bag was little leaner than in years past. This year there was no chapstick or other neat little tidbits, but I got over it. They did offer a hat with the “25th Anniversary” on it, but I have one just like it from a couple years ago. The other thing was the shirt, I was hoping that since it was an anniversary year, that the shirt design would be cool. Instead the design got about a 5 on my scale, it wasn’t bad, but past year’s shirts (1999, 2000) were much cooler.

The scene: Race day. Gray drives me up to Broad Street up to were the police blockades are posted. The walk to the starting line was not too bad, I got a little work out even though it was only a quarter mile away. The weather was a little chilly in the shade, but the forecast for the day was to be unseasonably warm in the upper 60s with plenty of sunshine, not good for Terry. I got up to where all the racers were standing, there was a record crowd on hand for this event and there was less than 10 minutes before the start. I looked for the posters that the pace group held up that predicts the pace and finishing time. Knowing that I wanted to finish in under 4 fours, I lined up behind the poster that read “4 hours”. The people who were the pacers for the race had a bib pinned on their back that listed which pace group they belonged to. I chatted with a guy for about two minutes until the playing on the national anthem and then we were off.

Miles 1 through 4. We started off pretty slow. There was a lot excitement at the start of the 26.2 stroll on the streets around Richmond. At about the first mile, I thought that I felt a little pressure on my bladder, ‘oh great I thought’ I have had problems with bathroom problems in the race. Anyway, I made it through the first mile without having to run to the side to pee. I probably should have gone when I first felt it and need to do that in the future. In mile two when we hop onto Monument Boulevard, there were people demonstrating for anti-abortion with HUGE sign with pictures of aborted babies. I don’t understand why they had to be at the race, they were very disturbing and think some of the the other runners expressed themselves. By mile three, I had not gotten into a grove, my urge to urinate had subsided some, but it was still there. I was now coming up to the mile 4 marker, where I would stop to get my first drink of Ultima. The turn on to Westmoreland Avenue had a ton of people cheering the runners on. I thought that I might see Jen P and the gang there since it was so close to Gray’s house, but I didn’t. I turned 4 miles around the time that I wanted being able to finish in under 4 hours. I still wasn’t mentally in the race, at this point I decided that I would go pee thinking that it would help me in getting “into” the race. Unfortunately for me, there were so many people that I could not get a chance.

Miles 5-11. I had a GU right before mile 6 and tried to say thank you to the volunteer handing me the water, but I think that I just said something unintelligent with GU all in my mouth. At mile 6.5 we came up to a Country Club and I thought ‘AHA a bathroom’. I ran behind one of the trees with my behind facing the golf course and I went to town… ahhhhhhhhhh. Mile 7 was pretty uneventful except for a runner almost tripping me by slowing down rapidly without moving to the side (faux pas). I was still on track to finish in under 4 hours, but was still not mentally in the race. I was feeling pains in my leg, but nothing serious enough that I needed to stop or worry me. Down by the river was okay. I had some more Ultima and was looking forward to the hill at mile 10 that would allow me to change my pace. Training in Knoxville makes me a custom to running hills and I find them refreshing. I made it up the hill without any problems and did feel pretty refreshed after getting to the water stop at the top of the hill.

Miles 12-16. Now that we were back on the traffic road, there were more things to look at with the cars passing by. This part of the course it gradually uphill and may be were my demise first start. At the halfway point, I ran through the timing pad at right under 2 hours. With it being this close, it I remained at this pace, I would finish right at my goal time. And if I finished in under 4:09 then it would still be a PR time. Mile 14 was the GU station and there has always been Boy Scouts handing out GU there for the runners. I think they ran out just as I was passing, I was able to get a GU but I heard complaints from other runners that they ran out. So I made it up to the bridge at mile 15. At this point, I was still not running consistently, but running okay for my time. By the time that I crossed the bridge and made the left hand turn towards mile 17, I felt like I had to stop to walk. In 3 out of my 4 marathons in Richmond, I have had to stop at this point to walk.

Miles 17-20 I suddenly got a hunger pain in my stomach. I needed food, in a bad way. I am thankful for the people that set up table that offered food like gummy bears, pretzels, cookies, etc. for the runners. I started to eat everything that was offered and I felt temporarily better. At mile 18 I was mentally finished. I was ready for the race to be over and I was ready to meet up with Jen and Gray and go HOME! I had never been mentally in the race and now physically, my body was done for the day. I was not sore, but I was out of energy… the tanks were depleted. I mustered my way to mile 19 where I met Jen and Gray. I told them I wanted to quit and that I wanted to go home. Jen P encouraged me that I had gotten this far and that I could make it to the finish line. Gray encouraged me by saying that it was his long run and he didn’t want to miss it. So with Jen P saying “yes, you can” and Gray saying “yes, you better”. I struggled a little farther. I knew there was a pretty big hill at mile 20, so for the last part to the hill, we ran to hill so that I could walk up it, I didn’t care. At the end of the hill were the abortion people again. Who cares… all I knew that there would be GU soon.

Miles 21-26.2 Gray and I meandered through the first part of course and there were a bunch of people cheering Gray. Go Gray! He’s so popular. At mile 21 they had a photographer around a corner and Gray and I came walking around the corner and snappy-snappy, they took my picture. With my head down and walking, I joked with Gray “oh, yeah, I going to want one of those pictures”. We both laughed and the picture is pretty pathetic. After mile 22 the course goes back onto the traffic roads and they have one lane coned off for the runners. Gray decided for me that I should run 8 cones (or something like that) and walk 2 cones. This seemed to work for a while, there was even a point at which I was able to run a little farther than 8 cones. Another part of the course it that at Mile 24 the course is no longer shaded from trees, the last 2 miles are essentially in full sunlight which can make things so much worse. And it did. The day was pretty warm anyway and the sun didn’t help. I struggled to the last mile were I walked the first quarter mile and even stopped to stretch my legs. I wasn’t concerned at my time, I didn’t care, but I thought that I would stop and give myself a little refresher before I finished. The last three quarters of a mile the course is entirely downhill, so once you get started there is no stopping. I finished in 4 hours 27 minutes and 06 seconds. I was met at the finish line to Jen P, Pete, Janet, Jason Turner, Troy Phelps, and Gray followed shortly. I was happy that was over and I have decided to run a different fall marathon in 2003.

Talk about being nervous, this is it, down to last few days before the race actually starts. I saw on the website that there are about 3200 people registered for the marathon at this point! That is a BUNCH of people. Also the weather looks like it is going to be unseasonably warm (in the 70s), so we will see how that affects the runners. Well, next update should be my marathon review.

Kudos to Jim Monihan who finished his first 5k last month! Go Jim Go!

I find that even though I am spending more time in front of the computer, I am getting less fun stuff and more work done, but that should be the case. Unfortunately, I have not been able to keep this site updated like I wanted to.

Classes for me are going well. This week is the week where the second test of the semester are given, so I am in the middle of them. So far my grades aren’t too bad, but this is when it is supposed to be easy right? My Teaching Assistantship is going well, I am doing a bunch of grading, but I am pretty pleased that it has not been interfering too much with my studies.

Marathon training is slacking a little. I have not put in the miles that I wanted, but I am getting the pace that I was hoping for. Maybe I won’t be so burnt out by the time the marathon comes around, which is only a few weeks away. It looks like I am going to break the 500 mile mark for the year at the pace that I am going!

I had to get into this whole school thing before I had a chance to update my website. Luckily enough, the computers here at UT have Front Page and FTP, so it may not be so long between updates! YAY!

Well, let me update on school, since it is the biggest, newest thing right now. I am taking 10 hours (or 3 3credit courses and 1 1credit course) and working as a teaching assistant for a undergraduate Probability and Statistics for Engineers class. So far, the classes have been really good and the homework, not too bad, but still challenging. I am definitely the oldest person in my office (in Glocker) but what did you expect.

The ferrets are all doing well. Skip is great, active as always. He doesn’t care for being home by himself for so long, but we are playing with him in the morning and evening. If we could just harness his energy!

Soccer, my outdoor team won the tournament for the summer session, and I have the Tshirt to prove it!

Marathon training is going okay. I really have not had a set routine on getting miles in, so we will see how that is going. I was injured at the end of August and did not run for about a week. I had gotten hit in the ankle and it was pretty tender for a while.

Well, wrapping up for now…

Today is the official start of my Marathon Training for Richmond (November 9th). On Today’s plate is a nice 3 mile jaunt providing that it is not super hot and humid outside.

Typical marathon training programs consist of 5 types of runs (Rest, Easy, Tempo, Interval and Long). most of my friends think that I do long runs all the time, which is not the case. Long runs are the staple of any training program, as they teach the body how to deal with lactic acid build up in the muscles. Lactic Acid is the by product of the body creating energy and is a component on what is lovingly called as “hitting the wall”. Easy runs are just what they sound like, head out the door and run at a comfortable pace. Tempo runs are faster but are less than a running pace you would do during a race. Interval training is the beast of them all. Interval training consist of running intervals of fast pace for a short distance and then a short recovery run then repeat as necessary. The goal is to run longer intervals with shorter recovery run, this is basis on how to run faster longer. I don’t have to worry about training for hills, because everywhere in Knoxville is a hill.

For myself, I am planning on running 4-6 days a week with at least one Long run, one day of rest and two easy days. The other days will be filled with cross training, tempo and interval depending on my schedule. I usually count soccer as a short interval (speed) training though it would be ideal to do intervals on a track. I plan on running a few races over the course of the training months, they count as interval as well, but I won’t be doing very many of them because of shortage of extra cash since I am going back to school. I am planning on doing the 2nd Mr. Arfns Run in October in case anyone is interested.

Training Motto: Four (hours) for Four

PERSONAL RECORD @ RICHMOND MARATHON

Official Time: 4:09:03
Marathoning: the triumph of desire over reasoning

Going into this race I was very scared. I was very undertrained for this race. With the injury to my hamstring, I had not started training when I had wanted to and thus did not get the high mileage in that I was hoping for. I was well under 100 miles of training under what I had done for the previous marathons. It was not until Gray (like the color) reminded me that it is better to be undertrained then to be overtrained. Point Taken!

Race day found it to be a little warmer than the year before, somewhere in the upper 30s. My “plan” was to walk the first minute of every mile, thus allowing me to have a strong finish for a PR time (under 4:15). Also, the course was slightly changed due to a change in hotel sponsorship, so now it would be a long downhill finish, but the course would be essentially the same. My goals were to 1) Not hit the wall until after mile 16 (where I had hit the wall the previous 2 marathons); 2) Have a PR time of under 4:15; 3) The Ultimate Goal - Under 4 hours!

I started off the race slow, my first 2 miles where averaging 10 min miles. I also shed my sweatshirt by mile 2. There was a sign for the the dad that was running his 24th Richmond Marathon (iow: he’s run ALL of them). At mile 4, I saw Jen P and Christiana and I was feeling pretty good, I was running about a 9:35 mile. Nothing exciting happened until Mile 8, when we saw a deer bolting in the opposite direction, alongside the river. At Mile 10, I surged up a steep hill that is not on the course elevation map, a surprise to unsuspecting runners. It felt good and it gave me a time to work my legs a little. At Mile 13.1 (Halfway) I estimated my time to be 4:20, which would not get me a PR, but would be better than my Myrtle Beach time. Not concerned about the estimated time, I thought if I could make it over the bridge, I would be doing pretty good and would be happy with the race.

I met Gray at Mile 15 just before the bridge. We ran across the Bridge where we saw Jen P, Christiana, Kat, John, Jo and Deanna! Thanks Guys! At mile 18, I told Gray, “This is the point where I am usually pissed off” but not today. I successfully ran past the bridge, past where I stopped to walk in previous years. I had pushed the wall back (which was Goal #1). The question now was “when will I hit the Wall?” I was still managing a good 9:35 pace. After the hill at mile 20, I started to think that possibly a PR time was evident. I was running strong, I had not hit the wall yet, and I was “feeling” good. I did decide that I would consume more Ultima at the water stations, not water, which was making me feel “heavy”. I had about 3 Ibuprofen at Mile 22. I figured that if I was going to make it, I would need some medication, so why not 3 and why not now? I still managed to keep the 9:35 pace going, what helped was that there were plenty of trees shading the runners from the morning sun. Gray told me that at Mile 24 he was going to wait for some of his runners that went through the RAC training program, that was fine with me. I was more into the groove and not really concentrating on talking, I was using Gray for motivation and for pacing (thanks Gray). Just before the Mile 24 water station, we came out into the full sun, which I was worried about the sun draining too much energy. Doing the math in my head on whether I could make a PR or not, I worried that the sun would drain to much out of me too soon and that I would not be able to keep the pace needed be under 4:15. At mile 25, it was just before the 4 hour mark and I figured out that I could do a 15 minute mile and still make the 4:15 mark. I ended up flying on the downhill finish, because I could not slowdown and cruised into the finish line at 4:09:03 (net). Thanks to Jen P for keeping me upright and filling my belly with food and drinks. Now… to break 4 hours.

Training Motto: Reach the Beach
My training was a little different for this race. I ran half of what I ran for the previous Richmond Marathons, but I did have three 20+ mile runs including a 22 mile trail run in December. I believe these runs helped me with stamina as I did not hit my wall until mile 24, but in terms of speed I was a little slow. I bumped into a friend of mine from Virginia and ran with her for the first 18 miles or so. The weather wasn’t bad as forecasted, little to no rain, overcast but the wind was murder. From mile 8 to about 17 there was a head wind to fight and the bonus was that from miles 8 thru 10 the headwind was 15-20 mph. The course was pretty flat and the volunteers were very friendly, no music though. No “Chariots of Fire” for inspiration! Another race and no PR, I finished much stronger than my previous 2 races, so it made up for it in the end. I was happy with 4:23:35.

Training Motto: Deja Two
My training campaign was called “Deja Two”. And was it! I hit the wall at the same place and I finished about the same time. Overall I started slower than last year, which was actually my plan all along. Do some negative splits and I would have plenty of juice at the end to finish strong (i.e. 3:55 or so). No such luck, I was VERY inconsistent the first 6-7 miles. My pace per mile was nothing short of a catholic mass, up down- up down. By mile 9 or so I was in a grove and more relaxed. I was also having shoe problems, they didn’t feel right nor would they stay laced. I couldn’t understand it, they had been my training shoes for the marathon and on race day (of all days) they were part of my bad race day. By mile 14 I could feel my legs starting to go. Why so I early I thought? I had even been eating GUs for energy. I dunno.

I met Gray (like the color) at mile 19 and by then, my legs were shot! I also wanted to run barefoot because my shoes where pissing me off! I struggled through the last 6.2 miles by stretching my legs at least twice a mile, if not more. So I finished at 4:18:31. Like I told myself at mile 7, not every race has to be a PR. I won’t mention my shoe problems I had, oops I already did. They saw Gray’s trash can as soon as we got home.

Training Motto: Do Not Feed
In November 2000, I ran the Richmond Marathon is 4 hrs, 15 min and 55 sec. (officially). What a challenge that was! I did survive with little pain and discomfort, one huge blister and some tight muscles. I was running great, especially for the 1st 1/2 of the marathon. Mile-7 came quickly, the 13.1 marker was a nice sight. I was set finish right around 3:45 and then I hit my “wall” at mile 17 and it went down from there. I slowly made it to Mile-21, where I decided to WALK-AND-DRINK as much as I could through the water chutes. Then somewhere around mile 22, my friend Gray (like the color) found me on the course and ran in with me. After running 20+ miles, when your body wants you to stop, it sure was nice to have someone to help you along. As I got closer and closer to the finish line, I could hear people cheering (for all runners) but I could only focus on that finish line. The last few yards to the line, I was bookin’-it, with a serious case of tunnel vision. Once across the line, Jen was waiting for me, what a great thing to see. I have already signed up for the 2000 marathon in Richmond and training started July 17th. I am anticipating that I will finish somewhere between 3:55 - 4:10 hours.