The Fall in New York

My less than adequate result at the SF Nike Woman's Half had me searching for answers. I completed that half in 1:46:57, with several walking breaks beginning on the second or third hill. When I took these breaks, my heart was racing; definitively atypical for me. It was just plain weird considering that my first two miles were clocked at 7:30 pace and I was feeling fine. The problems started during the hills. I should note that I have run this course before and the hills, while challenging, have not humbled me as much as they did this time around.

Fast forward to November 1st. ... and my last day on antibiotics.

I take the ferry to Staten Island. I arrived at the athlete's village at just after 9am. I see that runners with green bibs are heading to their assigned corral. Damn. I still have to take my clothes to the UPS truck. It's announced that wave one is closed, same as last year. I grabbed two eight-oz water bottles as I felt thirsty. Drink one. Hold on to the other one as I do not want to have to go again prior to the start.

I head to the green corral even though it's supposed to be closed. I am allowed to enter it; I move my way forward as much as possible. It's not nearly as windy as last year. I spot Dean Karnazes; he looks thinner than I remember. I ended up waiting 30 minutes.

The horn sounds and it takes me 1:20 to cross the start mats. I plan on running as easy as possible while maintaining a decent pace. First mile is as expected due to the incline, 9:10. The second mile is mostly downhill and it should be faster. Right before the two mile marker I find myself in front of a tossed out white plastic trash bag. It's quite large and I decide to set my right foot on the middle of it. Big mistake. As my other foot landed firmly, the bag somehow wrapped itself around both of my feet and down I went, landing mostly on my hands, with my right hand scraping badly enough that it burned for two miles. Interestingly enough, I bruised my left arm and hand, scraped my left elbow and knee but did not notice it until after the end of the race.

As I was tumbling around, I saw the wall of runners forming the 3:30 group. As I quickly made it to my feet, I heard two or three people asking me if I was okay, to which I replied yes. Mile 2, 7:38. 8:24 pace so far and feeling good in spite of my right hand bleeding more than it should have as the loss of skin and the cut were not that bad. I will try to finish this "thing" in around 8:20 pace as I do not want to crash as badly as I have done in three of my six previous stints at the course.

Mile three is in Brooklyn and I am handed two band-aids; I struggle to place them on my hand while still running. Missed hitting the split button. I turn into the wide avenue and now the three corrals have merged. My right hand keeps on burning and I keep on glancing at it. Why? I don't know. Instinct I guess. Miles 3 and 4 in 16:43. Still feeling good.

I continue the easy pace; the effort coincides with the pace. The stupor from the fall has faded and I am able to clock an 8:07 for the fifth mile; I might have subconsciously upped the effort. Cool. Mile six confirms that as my watch shows 8:05. Time in the bank. Mile seven is an 8:08 and I contemplate averaging 8:10s instead of the original 8:20s. Mile eight brings me back to reality as the split is an unexpected 8:18 (10 seconds slower???). It was at this point where my feet began to ache; not badly, mind you, more like a dull ache than painful; but I saw it as my body telling me to revise my "race plan." I decided if the aches continued, or worse, got painful, that i would quit at the half.

[Mile nine has a mild incline that has wreaked havoc with my mind in my failed NYCMs as I have always got a much slower than expected split. Add the Poulansky bridge midway and you have the final nail on my coffin.]

So I decide to try Gallo-breaks (TM) in this mile. I make sure to be on the side as I do not want to be a hindrance to those who are running well. Almost as soon as I start walking I feel a gentle but firm slap on my butt. I am naturally startled. It was a European woman whom I guess wanted to encourage me to man-up and continue running. I could not help but to smile. 50 secs later I resume my running. Not surprisingly the split is slower, 8:37. I decide to skip the break during mile 10 as it has a mild decline and I am rewarded with an 8:01. Wow, I might just be able to complete it in 8:20 pace after all. It's nice to be an underachiever :-)

I take another walking break at mile 11, 8:33. Mile 12, 7:52... woohoo, nice ego boost. The Polansky bridge is coming up and I cannot help but to feel anxious. Mile 13, 8:12 and I walk the incline of the bridge, or at least for a minute. I cross the midpoint in 1:48:42. I do the math and even splits will bring me in with a not-so-bad 3:37 and change. Mile 14, 8:20.

Now in Queens, mile 15 is one of the least enjoyable in the course as the area is mostly industrial and it includes the upslope of the Queensboro bridge. Again, I follow what has proven to be a "wise" strategy, walking the inclines, and picking it up on the declines. Mile 15, 8:29. Mile 16 has a very nice decline and I expect to bank some time; I also expect not to take a break. But I wasn't counting on spotting what looked to be a bill stuck at one of the expansion gaps in the bridge. I look to my sides to make sure that my u-turn will not result in an accident. I pick up what ends up being three folded bills (2-$20s and 1-$10). Even with this slight "detour" I manage an 8:01 (I expected it to be faster- oh well).

I am now in first avenue where both sides of the road are lined with huge crowds screaming their lungs out. I spot a pair of arm warmers and I bend down to pick them up without losing stride. Mile 17, 7:41... damn, to run this kind of split at this stage was a good omen. I take a gallo-break but start picking up the effort when I am running. My left knee begins to ache (later on I figured the pain came from the bruise I sustain in the fall). Mile 18, 8:02. Mile 19, 8:17. Mile 20, 8:20. These three miles had a moderate headwind, so I expected to see faster splits once we headed back into Manhattan. Mile 21, 8:20; this mile includes a brief stint in the Bronx.

I was proven right once I entered Manhattan. Mile 22, 7:50. I am tired, but not nearly as tired as I was last year at this mile. Note: I am still taking gallo-breaks in the inclines. Mile 23, 7:50. Mile 24, 8:20... I can only guess that this was steeper than how I "saw" it.

I now am running in Central Park. I seem to remember that once I crest Cat's Hill that it is downhill until turning on Central Park South. Mile 25, 7:50. I am weaving in-and-out to avoid fading runners.

I turn on CPS and I struggle to make a decision whether to take a break this close to the finish. I chose what has worked so well so far. Mile 26, 7:50.

At this point I was under the impression that I was going to be able to break 3:34... I run as fast as I can for the last stretch. It is a net gain of elevation with moderate rolling hills. I complete this section in 1:32. I am spent but more than satisfied. I have just ran a 3'18" negative split in the NYCM. Not bad; not bad at all.

Monthly mileage 16 weeks before NY: July=128, August=133, September=95, October=92. Coincidence that my volume and fitness dropped quite a bit right after I was bit by a tick? I think not.

Thanks for reading and keep on running.

The Gravity of the Downhill

The decision was made. To evaluate on the course whether or not to chase another BQ. This course has been good to me with two BQs (3:12:32 and 3:14:XX), both with HUGE negative splits; I knew the second half was much faster than the first. If I "felt" it, the goal was to run around 1:41:30 for the first half and negative split the second half by two minutes or more.

The day dawns cool... it's in the 50s in St. George. It can only be much cooler at the start, some 2500 feet higher. It is: 39F. It feels cooler than my other two BQs. I made sure to hydrate well the previous day. No need to repeat Berlin. I learned my lesson.

I somehow land too close to the start. And we're off more than two minutes early. I am wearing a long-sleeve throw-away shirt and gloves. I am breathing-in through my nose as I remembered that it helps to warm up the cool air... my nose hurts from the cold air... after five minutes, I switch to breathing-in through my mouth... much better. First mile is clocked in 7:33, what? It felt way too easy. I feel the need to reign in the pace. Next mile is a 7:40; much better, methinks. It is still dark and my body is warm enough to throw away the LS T.

I miss the third mile marker, but I am still running by feel and the pace seems easy enough to sustain for 26+ miles. The fourth marker approaches and I hit the lower-right button on my nike watch. It reads 14:39... WTF??? Gravity is really helping this ol' legs. Breathing could not be better. I feel elated. Sustain even effort, mile five: 7:27. Perfect. Mile six, 7:15... shit, too fast. Will I pay for it later? Mile seven, 7:17, even after consciously trying to slow down. I dream of crossing the line in sub-3:16. Ha Ha Ha!!!

Ahh, but doom looms not far from here. The Veyo hill... this is the most difficult mile in the race; thankfully it comes at a relatively early stage. Even so, it does humble me. My heart rate goers up considerably; some runners pass me. I smile as I see a decent 8:35 split for this mile. If memory serves me right, the next mile, even though not nearly as tough will be a slow mile. I am proven right as I clock an 8:15.

The next mile was a surprise as I did not think I was running THAT slow: 8:10. No matter, I banked plenty of time in the early miles; or so I think. Mile 11 comes in at a disappointing 8:22. I keet the faith and plod on. Mile 12 is a sub-8, 7:51. Close enough. Mile 13, 7:36... YES!!! I cross the half-way point exactly where I pictured myself being, 1:41:30.

I am feeling strong. Nothing can stop me now. I know this course; AND I know it well. Ha! Mile 14, 7:50.... hmm, not what I expected to see. Mile 15, 7:26, much more like it.

I seem to remember that mile 16 is screaming fast. Again, I am right: 7:11 (my fastest split of the morning). It was during this mile that the 3:20 group passed me and I let them go. I did try to stay close to them though.

Mile 17, 7:28... and I am feeling the pace; my heart feels stressed. I pushed the effort a bit to stay close to the 3:20s. Mistake? Maybe. Mile 18, 7:30, but the effort was too great. My breathing is labored. My mind is struggling. Soon after the 18 mile marker I see a decent pair of hills in front of me. My weak mind suggests to take a walking break. After all, walking is human no? Ahh yes, but running is divine!!! (stole that from a T-shirt). The 60 second break feels wonderful to my tired mind. I continue running. BUT wait, now my my legs are aching BIG time, particularly my toes and my quads. True, my knees had been hurting for most of the first half, but the pain was nothing compared to this. I am pushing it, really. Before I crest the second terraced hill I decide to take another walking break. This time it only lasts 30 seconds. Deep inside I know I am done. I continue on. Mile 19 is a not too slow mile at 8:13, but the damage is done. I am done. FINITO. I walk again. I try to jog but even a slow jog is quite painful to my lower body. I calculate that I can slog 10 minute miles for the rest of the "race." My legs refuse to comply, and my walk/shuffle gets me an 11:15 for the 20th mile. Where the f*ck is the shuttle van. Please come and pick me up. Poor me.

I continue the death march while what seemed to be the entire field passed me. Mile 21, 13:25. I am actually surprised it was that fast as even my walking was slow. I ask a volunteer at an aid station if the have any codeine... morphine will do nice thank you. Alas, they didn't even have aspirin. Mile 22, 12:56 and I finally see the shuttle. But at this point I am too damn close to hitch a ride. So I plod on.

The 3:30 group had passed me long ago. Now it was the 3:40 group to do the same. I start to "run" and surprisingly my body is cooperating. I no longer feel the unbearable pain of yester-moment. The three slogging miles must have been enough that my legs recovered. Mile 23, 8:34... Damn, I never thought I would feel good at seeing such split; well maybe at the Veyo mile, but not here. I take another walking break. My legs feel revitalized. I give chase to the 3:40s. I catch them and then some. Mile 24, 7:50. Another walking break, and the 3:40s pass me... AGAIN. I push the pace... manage to pass them and feel like screaming to the group to follow me of they were feeling good. I don't. Mile 25, 7:56. No walking break this time. My foggy mind thinks I can come in below 3:37, not realizing I need sub 7:15 pace to achieve this.

I am passing people left and right. The mile seems LONG... finally I see the 26 mile marker, 7:15, WTF??? I guess I am fully recovered. I would close with a 1:29 for a final time of 3:36:58.

AFTERMATH

I am standing by the finish and I see this guy who is beaming with pride so I ask him how he did. He says: 3:38, and you? That is great; I ran 3:37, I respond. He says: congratulations. I say: thank you, but I was aiming for 3:20. He says: don't be ashamed. I say: I am not ashamed; I am disappointed.

WHAT WENT WRONG?

My guess is that because I have not done all that much speed work, I was not efficient with my stride, particularly for a downhill course. I was not light on my feet. IOW, instead of landing and quickly pushing off with the ball of my foot, I was landing with my heels and rolling the plant of my foot and finally pushed off with my toes. Oh well. Lesson learned :-]

Thanks for reading.

Das Kapital

No this post has nothing to do with Marx. I just wanted a clever title :-)

On Tuesday, I arrived in Berlin's Tegel Airport not knowing that the exit was just a few feet away after leaving the plane. The luggage carousel was right next to the gate. I happened to connect in Frankfurt and the passengers were mostly businessmen; they just had carry on luggage... and I made the mistake of following them. As it was, I had to wait until my bag was transferred to the lost-and-found to retrieve it. Aside from the inconvenience of waiting an extra 45 minutes, the minor mishap was not all that bad.

I had a full night of sleep. Awesome. Jetlag? What is jetlag?

On Wednesday I went to Postdam for a few hours. Nice little town. Ran 6 miles in the evening with two at ~7:30 pace. Still sleeping pretty well.

On Thursday I took a 2.5 hr train ride to Dresden... came back to Berlin at 9:20pm.

On Friday I ran four easy miles. Then I picked up my bib. The only thing worth mentioning is that the t-shirt was not included. If you wanted one, you had to buy it in advance. I have way too many t-shirts; I did not get one.

Saturday, I did very little walking and rested as much as humanly possible.

********

On Sunday morning I feel fresh and alert, ready to tackle my conservative goal of hitting sub-3:30.

I make it to the start with about 20 minutes to spare. I take one of four hammergels. I feel thirsty so I have about 10oz of water. The mass of runners is pretty amazing. European runners are faster than the average American runner. I am in the fifth corral(3:15-3:30) and it takes me close to three minutes to cross the start.

My breathing is easy; I am relaxed. I had figured that I needed just under 5 minute klips, but a "whole" five was much easier to keep track. I expected to make up the few seconds during the last 2.2 Ks. After all I was not really racing it this time and expected to have plenty of energy at 40K.

By the third K I was about 28 seconds behind and was rather close to the 3:30 pacers. Even though I would cut the deficit by a few seconds, the 3:30 group managed to inch further away from me. I just could not get into a rhythm that allowed me to stay closer; in fact, the two times I tried widening my stride, I felt the effort was too great and went back to the LR-effort.

The race was so crowded, it was difficult to get to the aid stations w/o slowing down significantly or stopping all together. I am used to getting the cups from the volunteers and keep going at the same speed as I approach the station. Not here. I was forced to grab a cup from the table. And the fact that the cups were made of plastic, made it impossible to squeezed them w/o breaking them.

By the 16th K, I knew that I was not feeling it on that day. I blame it on a rookie mistake. I blame it on poor pre-race day hydration. I should know better than that. Sure, the crowded aid stations probably took away a minute from the final time. Sure it was relatively warm. But what I feel made it tough was that my legs felt fatigued. A fatigue that I suspect was due to under-hydration.

At this point I had to make a decision. Do I keep on running or do I use a strategy that some purists may frown upon, and that is to take 60-second walking-breaks. I decide to salvage what could turn out to be a death march past 30K and opt for the breaks. They will start at 22K, and continue every three Ks.

I did stop at 22, 25 and 28. But I was feeling too tired so I cut the distance to two Ks. I was losing about 35 seconds from the original pace; acceptable to my tired body and mind. Breaks at 30, 32 and amazingly... after taking hot tea (yes, the Germans have hot tea at aid stations) I felt this boost of energy so I decided to go an extra klip to 35; it must have been the sugar in the tea. I think it was around this time that I saw this man with his legs bathed in blood (really bad chafing???); and the guy just kept on going; needless to say, I was inspired.

However, my feet were aching. And 35K is a long distance so the breaks became every two Ks once again. Even though I was still taking the same 60-sec breaks, I was running faster as my 2-K splits were very close to 10 minutes. I struggled whether to take a break at 41 or not. After all the finish was so darn close. I wussed out and took a walking break. Funny thing is that I still managed a 5:48 for the last 1.2 Ks (7:48 pace, including the 60 seconds walking).

I was so tired when I finished. But I was in one piece. No discernible injuries. Interestingly enough, the piriformis has not bothered me of late. Probably because of trigger-point therapy. I did get three separate bouts of PF flare-ups; fortunately, they did not lasts more than 10 seconds.

The following day my legs were in fairly good shape. Very little soreness, if any. Were the walking-breaks the reason? Probably so.

**********

The numbers: 45th Marathon completed. Chip time=3:33:57 Splits=1:45:33/1:48:24 +2:51 split; Fourth Major (missing London)

Sundry

I caught the Phantom a couple of weeks ago; it was just as good as I remembered it; or it might have been better as the special effects were definitely improved. Grade: A

On Saturday I went to see Julie and Julia, more so because I love any movie with Streep than because I love cooking. Meryl was her usual self, outstanding as Child, even while she let slip a personal quirk here and there. Who would have thunk it that she could play a much larger woman than herself (as Child was quite tall, who incidentally was quite sexual- something I would have never guessed). This was achieved by filming her with much shorter women... and men. The juxtaposition of the two Js worked quite well. Amy Adams mannerisms reminded me so much of Meg Ryan, there were times I was confounded to "see" a different face. The movie focused on their lives, lives that were almost opposite yet shared a common bond: great food. If you haven't seen it: what are you waiting for? Grade: A-

Running has been hit or miss; more miss than hit. I have been averaging low mileage as it relates to marathon training. My long runs have been non-existent and my legs are taking much longer to recover. Any speed I had seems to have evaporated into thin air. I often find myself fatigued, which leads me to rationalizing not running for that day. Still, I remain optimistic that I can do a decent showing in Berlin (3:30-3:35) depending on how I feel that day. I do know that these "ruts" tend to hit me from time to time; they run in cycles. The difference now is that the rut is lasting longer than average. Grade: C-/D+

On a positive note, it was suggested that the soreness may be due to the low mileage... and Fran just may be spot on. So as he aptly put it: just run! And I will. I intend on running at least six days a week with a mini-taper week before Berlin.

Cheers

Only in LA

Yesterday, on my way to the beach, I casually look to my right (on the 10 FWY) and I see five cyclists riding on the freaking FWY!!!! WTFX3??? Now this was definitely not a sanctioned ride, and although the traffic was stop-and-go I could not believe my eyes... those guys had some major iron b*lls...

OAN, and after my last rather unsuccessful run, I had trepidations about today's run... even while I was aware that these "bad" runs come in cycles, I could not help but feel sadden... especially when one considers the impending three marathons looming in my not-too-distant future...

On to today's run... I started slowly and had a 9:10 split for the first mile... hmmm, not THAT slow... the second mile was a blistering 8:30 [insert your favorite ironic emoticon]... then the next .75 of a mile was run at low 8ish pace... I suddenly had a stroke of genius; I decided to go sub 7 for a half mile... boom, 3:29 (right on target)... ah, but I wasn't done... I kept the effort and completed ONE mile at sub-7... aren't I wonderful??? :-) I fully recovered; well not really, but my HR was ALMOST back to normal... stretched, as I old age has taught me an important lesson: and that is that my aging muscles NEED to be stretched :-)... I start running, and pick up the pace; this time I am hoping to run 1.5 miles at sub-7 pace... 3:25 (half mile split) and I am feeling PREETTTYYY good... THANK YOU... then I note a 3:26 for the next split; still well within my goal; but the effort is becoming labored... the third half-mile split is a not-too-shabby 3:27 for a 6:52 overall pace... Boy do I LOVE running FAST (relatively speaking of course) :-)

The workout: 7.5 miles (7:55 pace) with a one tempo mile in 6:53 and 1.5 miles @ 6:52 pace. Ended it with a cold Sierra Nevada...

Have a great week y'all!!!

Musical Chairs

I have always tripped out on people who prefer vinyl records... I always dismissed them as being "stuck in the past." Apparently I am wrong (not the first nor last time). There is indeed a difference as transcribed below. Apologies to Dave for "borrowing" his most excellent explanation...

***My problem, WRT digitalization, comes more from recorded music. And the world of recorded music provides us with an opportunity to foresee the problems an all-digital distribution system of literature may have.

When the CD was first introduced by Sony and Philips in the 1980's, it was touted as having "Perfect Sound Forever". It was an immediate success. And yet many people (such as myself) still prefer to listen to LPs, in spite of the extra effort and expense required to do so. Why?

Well, first I'll bore you with the technical details. The standard CD uses a sampling rate of 44kHz, or 44,000 samples per second. But keep in mind that this is the *sampling rate*, not the frequency response. Take the standard orchestral tuning pitch of A, which is 440 Hz. This pitch is used because it's in the range of virtually every instrument in the orchestra. At a sampling rate of 44kHz, you have 100 pixels to draw this sound wave (with all its attendant overtones) in such a way to distinguish a bassoon from a violin from a human voice. Now, for reasons I could explain much more simply with pictures, electrically amplified and distorted instruments (electric guitars, voices through microphones, etc.) produce much "simpler" wave shapes (due to electronic "clipping", or cutting off the top of the sound wave) than do acoustic instruments. SO for most commercially produced popular music, digital recording is adequate. But there is a reason that whenever Sony (which owns Columbia Records) came out with a new audio format (CD, SACD, DVD-Audio, etc.) the first two recordings they trotted out were Miles Davis "Kind of Blue" and Bruno Walter's stereo recording of Beethoven's 6th - those two 1958 recordings are the best recordings Columbia ever produced in terms of sound quality, and intervening technology has only made recordings cheaper and easier to distribute, not better sounding.

But then the ubiquitous MP3 format came along. The absolute highest sampling rate of an MP3 file is 32kHz (less than 75% of a CD), but most MP3 files streamed on the internet are in the 12.8kHz - 19.2kHz range. At these rates, you're down to 30-40 pixels to draw an A(440) wave, and far less as you listen to higher frequencies (pitch increase is exponential instead of linear - going up one octave doubles the frequency). This just makes most treble clef instruments sound screechy.

The result of this is that most people who listen intently to recorded music find digital recordings quite fatiguing. I can listen to my classical LPs as long as my attention span lasts, and then throw on some jazz LPs for dessert. By contrast, my limit on a CD is approximate a Mahler symphony. But I will admit that I listen to music differently from someone who uses music as a soundtrack to their run, so while LPs are my preferred music format, I don't view that preference as universal.

At first the recording industry loved the new CD format - production costs went way down while at the same time retail prices went way up (remember in the mid 80's transition a CD would be priced at twice what the same LP would cost, even though the CD cost less to manufacture). CDs required less retail space in a store. Playback equipment was cheaper and required less maintenance. Profits soared - for a while. But then something happened.

Not only can LPs produce more accurate sound, but they used to be distributed with great covers and liner notes. Glenn Gould's liner notes on Bach's Goldberg Variations are as good as any published in those journals Chuck complains about. The RCA 1956 recording of Ravel's Daphnis and Chloe is embossed with a 16 page booklet about the ballet illustrated by a young Andy Warhol. The stereo set of Brahms symphonies conducted by Bruno Walter and issued posthumously in 1963 contains an illustrated biography of the composer written by his daughter. And I've found some LPs (Otto Klemperer's Bach Orchestral Suites and two symphonies by 20th C Dutch Composer Henrik Andriessen) which came with full orchestral scores. Meanwhile, with a CD case you got a little pamphlet with abbreviated notes in microfiche that anyone with eyes over 12 years old would need a microscope to decipher, which is still a far cry above the MP3, which is usually just a sound file with no extra material. And the RIAA wonders why they cannot achieve the level of sales and profits they had a generation ago. To me, it's quite obvious - they've devalued their product and turned it into a commodity.

How this relates to the publishing industry remains to be seen. Newspapers are already on life support, and for perhaps good reason (why wait for stale news to arrive at their whim when you can get it fresh online)? And clearly, many people like the immediacy and portability of digital books. Then again, the same arguments can be made in favor of MP3's. And for popular light summer reading this distribution method might work (people rarely complain about the sound quality of MP3's when listening to rock or pop music). But what about those books that you would want to take a bit more seriously; that you would prefer to read in bed or in your favorite chair without interruption? I'm not so sure I would want my only access to James Joyce to be electronic (if nothing else, it would make it difficult to use "Ulysses" as a door stop). But industries like economy and efficiency, so they will eventually prefer to move all of their publishing to a single channel, and digital is cheaper and easier for them. What will we lose? I don't think we know yet. For the vast majority of people immersed in popular culture, probably nothing (just as all but a few people consider the CD's replacement of the LP a good riddance). But for connoisseurs, there is a tangible loss that is hard to explain.

Dave Frederick***

B2B Redux

I have been slacking big time on my running... supposedly because of my PS (piriformis syndrome)... more on that at the end...

So I signed up for Bay to Breakers early hoping I could break 50 (as I ran 51:16 in 2008)...

BUT, I was not counting on being injured... suffice it to say, that the injury has improved (meaning it does not hurt nearly as much)...

I had a very conservative goal (7 to 7:10 pace)... ALAS, the day dawned warm... warm enough that my 1.5 mile "jog"to the start had me sweating...

I start right behind the elites and the centipedes (the fasts ones any way)... BUT there is this 70ish looking woman in front of me (WTF?)...

There must have been about 200 runners in front of me... BUT when the "gun" went off, I must have gone through that many people... Did they jump in? Most likely... so I found myself weaving for the first mile, 6:58 (6:48)... parentheses show last year's splits... I find myself in oxygen debt, NOT A GOOD SIGN...

I am already hurting and I try to slow down to "feel" tempo effort... find myself at mile two in 7:17 (6:53)... and I am okay as I think I can recover to have a decent showing... then the Hayes terraced hills hit me and I struggled as I never have struggled before in a race (and I am being conservative)... I want to walk so badly, my EGO hurts... I see what appears to be the end of the hills and I "jogged"it in... BUT there is one last slope, one that is so short I know I can take...

THEN, there is this short sharp downhill, that my legs are not ready for and the third mile split comes at a disappointing 8:24 (7:52)... ahh, but the terrain can only get easier, right?... no, there is a mild upslope on mile number 4... so I just "sustain" the effort... BUT my legs are spaghetti by now... mile four in an embarrassing 7:46 (7:05)... I plod on as my legs and lungs are begging for mercy... a few runners pass me... BUT I hold my place... mostly.

Mile 5, 7:43 (6:53)... WTF? I am not recovering as much as I should be... I am really hurting... was it the lack of strides? METHINKS so....

Mile 6 is a slowish 7:17 (6:28)... and I think that I should be able to knock a "noble"sub-7:15... BUT no, I can only muster a 7:24 (6:28)... and I want to give up right there and then... my EGO screams at me, telling me that there is less than half-a-mile to go... so I muster any left-over energy and finish with a 55:55, 3:06 for the last stretch (2:49)...

It takes me about 30 minutes to get back to normal as I left everything I had on that day behind...

I am NOT disappointed as I did not have it that day... MAYBE I can redeem myself on another race...

Thanks for reading...

PS: it appears that the injured muscles were the aBductors along with the piriformis... I have been stretching the culprits, and the pain is almost gone :-)