2012 Annual Christmas Run

Every year our small group of runners get together for a "special" run just prior to the holidays. Last year, some of our usual members were unable to participate for various reasons so our numbers were down. But we made a nice comeback this year, with eleven people showing up.

Our annual Christmas run involved two elements, a short run and a stop at our local watering hole, the Arch Street Tavern, to toast the year and remember those runners not with us anymore. Our short run this year was on a course we refer to as "The Zimmerman (aka "Z" man's) trail. We lost Doug Zimmerman several years ago. This course was one of his favorite routes and is entirely on the west side of the Connecticut River. 

In past years, we've run on a course that goes over the Connecticut River called "The Cherico Trail" in memory of Dave Cherico, who we lost back in 2001.  This route is a little bit longer and crosses the Charter Oak Bridge.

So in memory of Doug and Dave, we wish everyone a safe and happy holiday season.

Ken

Sorrow in Newtown

As many of you know, I live in Connecticut. During my work Christmas party yesterday afternoon, I learned of the tragic events of the morning at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, CT. I was busy working all morning and hurried off for a lunchtime run before my Christmas party. It's not that uncommon for me to wait to read the newspaper later at night and to not watch television until returning home. I typically play CDs in my car and therefore missed any reports on the radio too. So I was totally shocked and saddened to hear that a lone gunman had killed so many people, including 20 children under the age of 8.

Many people experience loss in their lives, but to lose a child is the hardest thing to deal with. You're not suppose to outlive your children. As I thought about the parents of these children, I couldn't help think about how my wife and I lost our son, Brian, who was born three months premature and died shortly after birth. No matter what the cause of death, the pain is excruciating, with very little relief, despite the efforts of family and friends to comfort. This is a fraternity that no one wishes to be part of, but so many are.

 

My advice, being a member of this fraternity, is to seek professional counseling, join a bereavement group, and try to honor your loved one is a special way. Twenty-four years have passed since my son's birth/death and events like this hit you in the gut. It took a long time for us to learn how to cope with things. However, we found comfort in being around others who had experienced the loss of a child at birth or shortly thereafter. Only they truly know what you're going through. That's why we went to bereavement meetings for a long time.

Let me finish this post by sending my love and condolences to all the families that lost loved ones in this terrible incident.  

Ken

Manchester Thanksgiving Day Road Race-2012

WARNING: This post gets a little graphic and gross so read on at your own risk!

Well, this year's turkey day race turned into a bit of a bust for me. My training and conditioning was messed up by my fire crew assignment and Wiffle ball leg injury in September. Then at about 2:00 am on Tuesday morning, November 20th, I woke up with Montezuma's revenge from both ends. I'd venture to say that this experience was close to my colonoscopy  preparation purge and possibly broke my regurgitation record from back in college. I won't say the cause of the purging back in college. You can fill in the blanks yourself.

I almost bagged the race, but early Wednesday afternoon, I started to feel like a human again rather than a  spurting volcano. That evening I actually ate something. Can you believe it? Granted, I was still drinking stirred, not shaken ginger ale. So at 7:30 am on Thursday, November 24, I got up, put on my running clothes, ate a piece of bread, grabbed a bottle of water, and headed over to Main Street, Manchester at 8:50 am, to park and stretch before the 10:00 am race start.  If you leave early enough and you know where to go, you can usually find a real cherry spot to park near the start of the race. Keep in mind people, that this race gets about 15,000 runners and maybe twice that many spectators so this is big.

I parked in one of my favorite spots right behind a local bank right off of Main Street. Then I was treated to this drunk guy taking a pee just outside my front window. He didn't even notice me sitting in my car. Yes, I looked the other way. Several minutes later, I headed to the starting line to make sure I could get into the under 40 minutes carded area. If you show up a little late, it's almost impossible to get into the reserved starting areas with the mass of humanity trying to get to the regular starting area.

I reached the under 40 minutes area and handed my access pass to one of the security people at the gate at 9:40 am. They even had some policemen near the gates to try and keep the peace. After some stretching, I slowly moved up to the area closest to the temporary barrier. Before I knew it, the gun went off signaling the official start of the race. I felt okay, but nervous that my body might actually rebel against me for daring to run the race. It was too late to turn back now so off I went along with the other 14,999 runners and probably 3,000 unregistered runners. The number of unregistered people running was undoubtedly higher this year given that the race committee shut down registrations on Monday because the 15,000 mark had been reached.

I started conservatively at a pace that felt just under 8 minutes per mile. At the 1 mile mark, I confirmed that indeed I was running around a 7:50 pace, about 35 seconds per mile slower than last year. That was okay though because I didn't want to repeat my spurting volcano routine on the course. I passed the 2 mile mark at around 16:40. Not too bad considering that mile is almost all up hill. Miles 3 and 4 were similar in pace, as I settled into a semi-death march behind several Spandex-wearing ladies. Okay, I used these sights to help motivate me. Shoot me.  As I turned the corner onto Main Street, I tried to pick the pace up, given that the last half mile was mostly down hill. I finished at 37:29 minutes, approximately two minutes slower than last year. Well, at least I made it to the finish in one piece. Here's hoping that next year turns out better.

Did anyone else run a Turkey day race?

Ken

I'm back!

It's been a while since I've posted here. Sorry about that. I've been very busy with my writing and running. Unfortunately, someone hacked into my email account and caused AT &T to lock me out of my email and other things. I then had some problems getting back into my blogs.

This summer has been busy. I went to fight wildfires in Montana for 16 days in August. I have been running about 20 miles per week. I couldn't run during my fire assignment, but the 12 to 14 hour days helped to keep me in shape. I'm hoping to get back into race ready condition before the Thanksgiving Day race in Manchester.

Now here's some advice for all you runners out there. Upon my return from Montana, I foolishly played Wiffleball for three and a half hours straight on Labor Day and screwed my left leg up for three weeks. I couldn't believe it. Here I go for 16 days without any problems other than tired legs and I get taken down by Wiffleball. Arghhh! Hey, everyone-stick with your running stuff and stay away from those other periodic activities that can mess up your running. It's just not worth it!

Ken

The HEAT is on!

Every summer I write at least one post focused on hot weather running. I consider myself to be fairly experienced on the topic and capable of running well in the heat. This last week on the East Coast was scorching! For most of the week, the temperatures were in the mid-90's and the humidity was up there too.

I'm not an early riser so getting up at 5:00 am to run wasn't going to work for me. And if I run later at night, I tend to have problems falling asleep. Hence, I adjusted my running plans accordingly. My M,W, F noon runs with a speed workout on Wednesday were modified to two easier runs on Monday and Friday along the Connecticut River and I bagged the speed workout. I still ran the same Wednesday course only 1.75 minutes slower per mile. There are water fountains on this course so we can hydrate in route. With the shade, slight breeze, and water, it made for an okay week of training in spite of the conditions. I don't have a gym membership and hate treadmills so things worked out well. 

 

Sometimes on days like these I'll carry water with me. I'm used to doing it, but I know others don't like to do so. That's why finding a course with water fountains along the way is so beneficial. Also, I often wear a light colored cap and slap on some suntan lotion for good measure. After running, I'll cool down with a short walk in the park across from my office. There are plenty of large trees, which shade the area. I also make a point to drink plenty of water throughout the morning before my noon runs. This really helps because it's so easy to get dehydrated on hot days. After a cool shower in the basement of my building, I head upstairs to finish the day's work, refreshed, but still moist from my lunch excursion.

Don't underestimate the conditions in the summer and be smart about training through these hotter periods. It's okay to take things down a notch. You won't lose any conditioning and perhaps with the rest, you'll run even better the following week.

2012 Chaplin 5K Road Race Report

 

 

The Chaplin 5K Road Race on Saturday, June 2, 2012 was the tenth annual edition. I really didn't know anything specific about the course other than it was in Chaplin, covered 3.1 miles, and the start/finish location was at the Chaplin Elementary School. I had decided to do the race so that I could get together with a former work intern for a run, in spite of the fact I had just done a speed workout on May 31, 2012. He actually lives very close to Chaplin and the elementary school.

 

I woke up at 7:00 am on Saturday morning to the sound of rain outside. It was going to be a wet run for sure. At least the temperature was in the 65 degree F range. Anyway, it took me about forty minutes to get to this small school in the middle of nowhere. I had to be careful not to miss any turns because there were many. When I reached the school it was still raining, albeit lightly. I met up with Jared, an intern we had hired in my department a year or so and his fiancee. Jared had become a regular lunch runner during his time at the CTDEEP.

Shortly after the race started, the rain began to come down hard. It didn't take long for my running shoes to get waterlogged. Nothing like running with ankle weights/wet shoes. The first mile had a long, steep hill in it, which surprised and tired me out quickly. But I tried to keep Jared in sight. I was surprised by the number of older guys in the race too. Here I was doing this obscure little 5k, with almost as much competition in my age group as I'd find in much larger races. Unfortunately, I couldn't see any mile markers and that didn't help my pacing.  

I usually like to scope out some part of the course before any race, but that didn't happen. So I kept trying to catch people ahead and that helped to motivate me. I wasn't making too much progress though. I tried to keep up with another guy I knew, but he slowly pulled away from me. By the time I realized where the finish was, I finished the race in 23:45, a 7:39 pace. 

 

I guess I shouldn't be too surprised by my time given the circumstances, but I was somewhat. As it turned out, I finished in15th place out of 90, in fifth place in the 50-59 age group. I told you it was a bit competitive. Let's chalk this one up to experience. BTW, Jared ended up about a minute ahead of me and took 1st place in the 20-29 age group. Great job, Jared! (See our picture above after the race in front of the school.) 

Chaplin 5K Country Road Race

I finally located a race not too far from my house to run. Tomorrow is the 10th Annual Chaplin 5K Road Race.  I had been checking out various races on Hitek Racing Series website, but things got in the way or the races started too late in the morning for me. I try to run the race and give myself enough time to come home and take Calvin, my Lab, for a quick run.

I'm not familiar with the course. I do intend to check out the terrain on-line since I have the names of the streets the course follows. My goal is to improve on my 23:23 5K time from a month or so ago. Based on my recent tempo run times, I think a 22:20 or better in possible as long as the course isn't hilly.  I also plan to meet and run with one of the interns that worked for me a year or so ago. I'm sure he'll be ahead of me, which should motivate me to run faster. We'll see though.

I plan on reporting on the race sometime tomorrow evening so check back in later this weekend for the race summary. I also plan to bring my digital camera to record some of the sights and sounds of the race.