Cheating the System

Today was the ING NYC Marathon Tune-Up. An 18 miler around Central Park. I had some qualms about doing the race since my left leg was bothering me, but I decided to give it a shot. I probably shouldn’t have done the race since not only was my leg bothering me, but I also have a slightly pulled muscle in the left side of my back. I did that yesterday when I ran the 5th Avenue Mile.
I woke up at 5am to eat breakfast and then drove into the city. Miraculously I found a parking spot close to the start within a few minutes after pulling off of the FDR Drive. I even had time for a quick nap in my car before the race started. As I started to jog easily to the starting line, my leg felt a little stiff and my shin was hurting a bit. My shin pain always seems to flare up worse than usual after I take a couple of days off.

I started out the race feeling ok, definitely not great. I know I went out too fast and my leg was a bit painful. To compensate, I kind of just zoned out and ran. There were many runners around me but I put up a wall of space around me such that I didn’t see or hear anything except for the double while line passing beneath my feet. I was comfortable in this zone and ran like this for one complete loop though the park.

At the start of the second loop, Jay a fellow member of AGTC caught up to me (we met and spoke at the start) and we started chatting while we ran. This pulled me out of my reverie and got me thinking more about my pace and leg. It was probably just as well though as I noticed my leg was progressively starting to bother me more. I told Jay to go ahead since I could tell my pace would soon be slowing down considerably. By the time I got to approximately 8 miles I knew it was all over. I stopped to walk and began to look for a place to cut through the park so I could get back to the east side. I wandered around for a few minutes to rest and saw that I couldn’t cross where I was since a lake was in my way. I then continued south doing a slow trot hoping I was closer to the 72nd Street Transverse than I was to the 102nd. It was disconcerting seeing so many runners pass me as I was struggling along at such a slow pace. As it turned out I was only a few hundred yards from 72nd.

Once I was at the 72nd Street Transverse I decided to continue around the bottom of the park instead of cutting across. I did this for two reasons. The first was I started to feel a little better and the second and more important reason was I didn’t want to tempt myself into cutting the loop short by going across 72nd. I figured if I could continue at a slow pace, perhaps I could finish the race and get my Qualifier (I only have 3 of the required 9 for the NYC Marathon). By the time I got back around to 72nd on the east side I knew I was really done. I didn’t even think about continuing on and exited the park. I went to a cash machine and then grabbed a cab back uptown to my car. As I watched the streets go by I knew I made the right decision. It would have been very painful just to walk the distance back.

On the way home in my car, I realized why I had regrets about not finishing Lake Placid earlier this year. I know because while sitting in my car, I started to feel regrets about quitting the 18 miler. The reason for the regret is because after I stopped racing, I know longer felt any pain or discomfit. I was feeling ok, which gave me the illusion that if I kept going I could have finished it. If I am feeling ok now, shouldn’t I have been able to go on? Realizing this I quickly came to grips with the fact that sometimes stopping in a race is the correct decision. The ghosts that haunted me about stopping have been exorcised from my mind.

I also learned something else about myself today. I know I will never cheat in a race or when it comes to qualifying for the marathon. I was giving thought to how bad it would be to register for a race and have someone else run with my chip so I can be scored and get a NYC Marathon Qualifier. I never seriously considered it, but the thought did cross my mind. Today I could have sat in my car or in the park for a while and then made my way back onto the course and cross the finish line. It would have been easy to do. I know now that no matter how easy it may be to cheat like that, I won’t do it. I need to earn my place to the starting line and if quitting today means I won’t have enough qualifiers for next year’s marathon, then so be it. Better I make it there by earning that right than to get there by cheating the system.

September 29, 2007 Observations

While walking home from the dry cleaners today, loaded down with a ton of clean laundry, I walked past an obese woman with a cigarette dangling out of her mouth. This is unfortunately, not an uncommon occurrence, but what was remarkable about this woman was the t-shirt she was wearing. Written on it was Health Walk to find a cure for Diabetes (or something to that effect). I found it kind of ironic that she could wear such a shirt given her current state and appearance.

I also observed several kids stop next to my neighbor’s house to admire freshly poured concrete. My neighbor just had his sidewalk redone and the wet cement seemed to draw the kids in like a very powerful magnet lifting a load of metal. You could see the desire to write their names in the cement in their eyes. Who actually doesn’t think about writing their name in freshly poured cement? I suppose the desire comes from knowing that the mark you leave behind has some permanence. It is not every day that cement is poured and when it is, it will most likely be there long after we are gone.

Perhaps the most important and happiest observation I made today came when I watched my son play goalie during his soccer game. The kid has so much heart. He is always smiling when he plays any sport. The most poignant moment for me came when the ball was hit towards the goal and my son dove for it, grabbed it and rolled over. As I was watching this play unfold I was saying in my mind “dive for it”. That is just what he did. It is exactly what I would have done. I was struck at how I was watching a mirror of myself out on that field. This moment in time resonated inside me and I suddenly felt all choked up. It made me think about how much our personalities are due to genetics as opposed to the environment in which we are raised.

Amputation

I saw read this story today, about a man finding a leg in a human leg in a smoker that he bought in an auction. The smoker had been sold at an auction of items left behind at a storage facility. It turns out that the leg belonged to some guy that decided to keep it after it was amputated because of a plane accident.

I’ve always said that if I ever have a body part removed I am going to request that it be given back to me after it is removed. After all, it is mine. I should be entitled to it even if it is no longer connected to my body. I don’t think though that I would have forgotten about it such that it would turn up inside an item that went to auction of abandoned possessions.

I don’t know what I would have done if I found the leg. I suppose I would have called the police as well. The question would be, what I would have done with it had no one claimed it. Perhaps I would have boiled it down to the bone, polished it and kept it.

Yom Kippur Ultra Marathon

Well, this was really called the Staten Island 6-hour run, but it was also held on Yom Kippur so I think my name is appropriate. The day started out heavily overcast and foggy, for which I was glad. It was kind of warm and running in the sun would have been a drag. The course was in Clove Lake Park along a 2 mile loop. It wasn’t actually a loop, but consisted of a single straightaway with a loop on each end of it. There were only two minor hills, but I’ll tell you once you started running 30+ miles they began to feel like mountains, especially when you were trying to maintain an even pace.

I had two goals for the day. The first was to see how far I could go without food or water and the second was simply to see how far I could go. I ran for the first hour without taking anything in. I was running really well though, so I decided that if I wanted to keep doing so, it would be in my best interest to start eating and drinking. So much for my Yom Kippur fast.

For a while I was running with the same people loop after loop. I kept trading places with some guy wearing the number 3 for a while. Eventually though I dropped everyone around me as I was able to maintain an even pace and even slightly quickened pace. Pretty soon I was started to lap the other runners. In fact I lapped everyone except the first 5 finishers. I came in 7th place overall. The 6th place finisher was the winning female runner who only had about 1 mile more than me. I ran a total of 38.4 miles. Short of my goal of 42, but I was very happy with my finish. In fact, this was the best I’ve ever finished overall in any race I’ve ever done. Perhaps I have a future career in ultra running.

I didn’t have any profound thoughts while running. I didn’t get bored and I never really felt like stopping. I just felt like running and I did all that I was capable of. I did think that I went out a little too fast, judging by the way I started to slow down at the end. I was glad it wasn’t a 50 mile race, because another 12 miles would have been very painful. I have no regrets though as I wanted to see what I could do. Since there was no set distance or finish line, I could quit the race anytime I wanted. I stopped running one minute and thirty seconds before the 6 hour mark. Towards the end of the race, you were transitioned from the 2 mile loop to a shorter .4 mile loop to facilitate scoring. I did one small loop, and saw how little time was left and decided to get a jump on the massage tables rather than to add a quarter mile to my distance. Unfortunately, they weren’t doing massages and were stretching instead. I decided to go for it anyway, which was a mistake as the next day my hip flexor was feeling irritated. I think if I did get stretched I would have been fine the next day. It’s ok now though and I’ll probably start running again tomorrow.

The highlights of the course included a small water fall. The waterfall really started to flow during the race when the sky above opened up and it started to pour. I liked having the rain hit me, but the drawback to that though was it made the dirt path just to the inside of the paved trail all muddy. I like running on the dirt to take some of the pounding off of my legs. There were also plenty of ducks and ducklings along the course. At one point a whole posse of baby ducks was in the middle of the course. It was like an obstacle course having to run around them; they certainly weren’t afraid of the runners passing them.

I knew a couple of people in the race that I met during previous ultra marathons, including the winner Byron Lane. We are both sponsored Hammer Nutrition athletes and posed for pictures together after the race with our awards. Hopefully, he will send a copy of the pictures to me soon so I can post on my blog.

I know I said in my previous post that I was going to back up this race with the Westchester Triathlon the next day. There was no way that was going to happen though. I could hardly sleep during the night from the minor aches and pains I accrued from the race. I know if I would have even attempted it, I would have suffered badly and probably not even finish in time. I decided what was the point in that? Also, I was gone all day and going to the triathlon would have meant I would have been gone two days in a row and would have deprived my wife the use of our car, which she needed to use. So all totaled it just didn’t make sense to go. Instead I took my kids to the YMCA where we all swam around for an hour or so. A much better way to recover.

Cool Nights

I’ve run for the past three perfectly cool nights with my son Lucas riding alongside me on his bike. It was pretty cool having him with me. This desire to go with me is new and he is determined to make it 3 times around Prospect Park without stopping. So far we’ve only gone twice around, but I think he will be ready for a 3 lapper when the weekend rolls around when we can go during the day. It won’t be at night, so he wouldn’t be getting as tired towards the end of the second lap.

Our weekend ride though will have to wait for another weekend. On Saturday, I am doing the Staten Island 6-hour run. It will be held on Yom Kippur, which will make this in my mind, the Yom Kippur Ultra Marathon. My plan is to do it without food or water in observance of the holy day. I discussed this with my coach, who thinks that such a plan is foolish. I’ll see how it goes. If anything, I’ll just drink some water so as to not send myself to the hospital due to dehydration. I wonder how this will go. The day will be nice so I suppose it will be better than my fictional account of a Yom Kippur marathon from two years ago. Oh and before I forget to mention it, I plan to back up my ultra marathon with the Westchester Triathlon on Sunday.

I guess you can say I am spending two days to taper for the YKUM. I took Thursday off completely unless you count a little bit of canoeing on the Gowanus Canal. My friend Tim invited me to a party to benefit the Red Hook Boaters, who offer a free kayaking program in Red Hook. I was more than happy to spend the 25 bucks to go to this party to support Tim’s organization. If it wasn’t for him kayaking beside me a couple of years ago, I never would have done the swims to Hoffman and Swinburne Islands. We made tentative plans for him to be escort for a swim from Sandy Hook to Coney Island. Today I just did an easy 1500 yard swim. I feel ready for tomorrow.

Survival of the Shawangunks 2007

I survived. That is what I have to say about this race. I’ve done it before, but I never had the feeling of surviving a race as I did this one. Well perhaps I have felt like that before, but this race is freshest in my memory. Nothing went particularly wrong during the race, it just felt extremely tough. During the first run segment I even considered dropping out. However, I couldn’t let myself do that. The sting of DNF’ing at this year’s IM Lake Placid was still fresh in my memory. Dropping out of two races in a row would have been the start of a bad habit.

I guess it is all just a matter of knowing how to endure. Someone just told me, that if there is one thing I am able to do well, it is to endure during tough times. I guess I always manage to pull myself through difficult circumstances, even if the process of making it through them is at times ugly. Well, so much for philosophy.

The bike segment of the race went reasonably well. I pushed a bit hard and almost managed to match my time of last year. I was only slower by about 90 seconds which wasn’t so bad considering I have practically no bike miles in me this year. I paid for that effort though on the first run. This is where I thought seriously about dropping out of the race. My legs felt like lead. It was like I was running through knee deep mud. I worried about bailing out of the race in the middle of nowhere, which was one of the reasons why I kept going on. I was in “Survival” mode early. I just decided if I could make it through the first swim things wouldn’t be so bad. I got through that first 4.5 miles in 48:26, which was almost 10 minutes slower than last year. If you had handed me the application to do this race again during this run, I would have torn it right up.

I was very happy to make it to the first swim. The water felt cool and refreshing. I even swam it faster than I did last year by 4 minutes. The cold water against my legs worked wonders. I felt so much better when I came out of the water. I didn’t run as well as I did last year, but at least the dead feeling was out of my legs. I started to enjoy myself while running through the trails.

One of the things that made this race very enjoyable was that my support crew met me at several points during the race. Andrea and Brian had come up with me and my friend Rob to take care of our bikes. I had no idea that they would also meet us at various points on the course to take pictures and cheer us on. For the first time I have some really cool candid pictures of me doing a race.

After completing the second run and second swim, I really started to feel better on the 8 mile run. I even thought I had a chance to catch my friend Rob who had left me in the dust right after we got off of our bikes. My time for the 8 mile run was 1:09; only 1 minute slower than I was last year, even though this year was considerably warmer. Had the run been a couple of miles longer, I would definitely have caught him. Rob had 10 minutes on me after the first run, but at the finish, he was only 4 minutes ahead of me, which amounted to the differences in our swim times. I was glad that he was in front of me because it gave me a challenge. I wanted to see if I could catch him. He was the better man though and he beat me fair and square.

At the finish line our crew was there once again to lend us support. Andrea was kind enough to prepare a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. It was a nice, big, goopy PB&J which was oozing jelly. Some of it fell to the grass and quickly attracted several bees. I sat contentedly eating the sandwich along with the bees enjoying their newfound jelly.

The post race BBQ was as great as it is every year. I had a couple of beers, chicken, ribs and corn on the cob. It was great to relax after the race with a bunch of friends and just kicking back. I know I will be back again next year.

A Case of the Mondays

I know it is Tuesday, but I am suffering from a severe case of the Mondays. I guess that is what happens when you have as good of a 4 day weekend that I had. It was a combination of quality training time on my own and quality play time with my kids. The weather was picture perfect. It was the type of weekend you wish you could bottle up and open up every now and then.

The weekend started off with an early run through Prospect Park. I did an easy 8.5 mile run under cool, clear blue skies. It was nothing like the running I did in Spain just a week previously, but for living in a big city it was as quality as you can get. Afterwards, I ate lunch with my kids and their cousins and then took them to the Red Hook Municipal. We played in the water and surrounding park for hours. When we returned home my wife was wondering where we disappeared for so long. Everyone was having fun so I told her we just didn’t feel like coming home. After I did take them home, I headed back to the Red Hook pool so I could do some laps. That swim made it the third time in a week that I visited the pool. Unfortunately, this past weekend was the last time it will be open until next July. It is so sad that good things have to come to an end. Now I am back to swimming at an overcrowded and overheated pool at the YMCA.

Saturday morning I went out for an easy 50 mile ride. I needed to get this ride done in time for me to take my family to a Yankee game at 1pm. I didn’t think I would go 50 miles when I started and was only hoping to get around 30 miles in. Fortunately though, I found a couple of other athletes that I was able to draft off of which kept the ride interesting. This was especially true when I a serious Olympic distance athlete named Fred rode up upon me. He was going at a swift pace, but I was able to get on his rear wheel. We then proceeded to zip around Prospect Park at an average time of 9:30’s for each loop. At one point we started speaking to each other (that’s how I knew his name) about the races we were doing and our training. He lived out in Breezy Point, which explained why I didn’t recognize him from all the time I spend in the park. Anyway, he just happened to ride around the park enough times to get my distance up to 50 miles. I was really glad I ran into him, because riding behind him took at least 30 minutes off the time I would have spent to complete my 50 miles. When I returned home, I quickly showered and ate and then it was off to see the Yankees vs. Tampa Bay. Luckily we got to see the one game that the Yankees won over the Labor Day weekend.

My Saturday ended with me taking the Long Island Railroad out to my brother-in-laws house in Long Beach. I was doing the John Daly Ocean Mile swim race early on Sunday and I wanted to leave my car at home for my wife and kids to drive out their later in the day on Sunday. The conditions for the race were perfect. Clear, calm seas and a large field of 211 swimmers. I was happy with the way I swam and completed the race in 35:03. This placed me 88th overall and 14th for my Age Group. I had a great time and also ran into some friends that did the race as well. After the swim race, I ate a couple of the complementary donuts laid out in the post race buffet. Actually, that’s all there was to eat along with bottles of water. Those donuts fixed me right up and gave me enough energy to do a 17 mile run later that morning. I ran to Point Lookout and back and then started on another loop of the boardwalk in Long Beach. I wanted to go 20 miles, but at the 17 mile mark, my wife had called to let me know she finally arrived at her brother’s house. So I packed my run in and played with my kids on the beach.

My son had me dig him a giant hole in the sand. I brought a large gardening shovel so I could make an adequate hole. I managed to dig a hole that was about 3 feet wide by 3 feet long and 5.5 feet deep. When my kids were in the hole they were unable to get out. It was very funny listening to my son whine that he needed help getting out of the hole. I told him you got into the hole by yourself; you need to get out of it by yourself. One of the funnier moments with the hole was when my son jumped into it and yelled as he was falling into it. Some guy a few beach blankets away from us saw him jump into the hole and couldn’t believe how he just seemed to disappear. He came over to look into the hole and was duly impressed. Besides playing around in the giant hole, I went boogey boarding with my kids. The surf was reasonable accommodating to ride in and we had a blast. It was a lot of fun to ride the waves in with my daughter right next to me on her board.

Monday was another perfect day. We joined up with another couple and their sons and headed out to Coney Island. We splashed in the surf and built mud castles until late into the afternoon. We purchase from one of the vendors walking the beach sliced Mango on a stick that was served with hot sauce. I never heard of that before, but it was delicious. After the beach it was off to Deno’s Wonder Wheel Park for a ride on the Wonder Wheel and other assorted rides. None of the kids wanted to leave and I couldn’t blame them one little bit. However, it was getting late and alas, school began the next day. We finished the day by eating pizza and ice cream and L&B Spumoni Gardens. That is a famous Bensonhurst Brooklyn establishment where they make the best square pizza you will ever taste.

Part of the plan for going to Coney Island was for me and my friend Chris to take a run on the boardwalk while our wives watched the kids. We didn’t get in that run, so I decided to go out around 8:45pm for a quick run around the park. I didn’t get much past my corner though as I decided a run at this point wasn’t worth it. I really just wanted to extend what was a perfect day; a day that was ruined only by the fact that it had to come to an end.

So I guess you can see why I am unmotivated and suffering from the case of the Mondays. With Labor Day now in the past, it is back to school, back to work, no more vacation or play time. Back to the old grind stone and all manner of things unpleasant. People bitching their Blackberries don’t work, emails not getting through, computers crashing, homework to check, bedtimes to enforce and the ever shortening day. It is just really pissing me off. Why must all good things come to an end? Who made up that rule? Why does it seem that is one rule that could never be broken? ARRRRGHHH, I need to take my mind off of it. I have good things to look forward to. I am doing SOS this weekend. I’ll be on my own, but perhaps that is a good thing. I could concentrate on the race and just worry about having a good time. In a couple of more weeks I have the Staten Island 6 hour run and the Westchester Triathlon. That should be interesting. The 6 hour run is the day before the Westchester Triathlon. It will be interesting to see if I feel up to doing the triathlon and if so, will I finish it. Perhaps I’ll just skip it. Nah, I like my suffering.

Pictures to be posted soon.