Dialing in the Commute Pace

We will run 16 miles this weekend, a half marathon being conducted by NYRRC on Sunday morning with 2.9 miles added before the race. Since we are still recovering from the 20 miler, we are to run this one at commute pace. This will be a good exercise in maintaining the pace while surrounded by other competitors.

I have devised a plan of sorts for the marathon and this is it:

7:40 (7.67 minutes / mile) x 16 miles = 2:02:43
7:10 (7.1667 minutes / mile) x 4 miles = 28:40
6:50 (6.8333 minutes / mile) x 6.2 miles = 42:21
Total Time: 3:13:44 (average pace: 7:24)
Time needed to qualify for Boston: 3:15:59

So I will just run 7:40's for the whole 16 miles. It will be a good exercise in learning what the pace is. When you run often enough, you can get a feel for how fast you are going in terms of pace. It gets so you don't need a watch or GPS system, you can feel that you are going a 7:30 pace, or 8:15 pace, or faster or slower than you should be going, just from experience. So after banging out 16 7:40's come marathon day my memory will hopefully serve me and when I start running I will be able to simply remember how fast it feels like I should be going, at least until I get a chance to check at the first clock (I won't wear a watch).

There will be clocks every mile at the race so it will be good practice for the marathon - you can use the clocks to monitor your pace every mile, so you can make adjustments if you are going either too fast or too slow.


Getting back to the plan. Running 7:40 pace for 16 miles will be no problem. I ran the 18 miler at a 7:28 pace and felt pretty good afterwards. So decreasing by 12 seconds per mile will hopefully give me a reserve of energy for the last 10.2.

Increasing to 7:10 for 4 miles, which will consist of 1st Avenue from 59th Street up to the Bronx will be easy as well. I have run 2 races at 6:36 pace for 4 miles. I have run half marathons at that pace (a 7:11) or better (a 7:03). So with the boost from the crowd on First Avenue speeding up to 7:10 will be no sweat. Actually keeping myself in check and not exceeding 7:10 will be the bigger problem.

Finally the 6:50 last 10K will be the true test. I have run two 6:49 pace 10K's, one in Connecticut in January as part of the Boston Buildup series of races. That was an extremely hilly course, much worse than the last 6.2 of the marathon. On the other hand, the weather was cold and much more conducive to running than the warm weather we've had for the marathon the last few years. The other one was a 10K in Central Park, I believe an identical time down to the second (I just looked it up, the Healthy Kidney 10K on May 20, 2006, 42:20 net time, 6:49 pace, same as the Buildup race).

Well I will have a 2:15 cushion if I do the first 20 miles correctly, or 135 seconds, or 22 seconds per mile, so I could simply do 7:02's and just come in under the wire. That is close to my PR pace for a half marathon, which is more than double the distance than the last 6.2, so pretty doable.

"Rudy" this Saturday Night!

When: This Saturday night September 30th, 7 p.m. (movie and dinner will start around 7:45).

What: "Rudy", the inspiring true story of a young man determined to play football for the Fighting Irish.

Who: You and your friends.

Why: To raise money for these cute kids:

Click here to watch the kids run. Your donations make it possible!

How: Send me an email at bob@highlyquestionable.com and donate $20 online to Coach Pete. You will need his last name, Kenny, as in "Oh my God, they killed..." and his entrant number, which is 43104.

Donate here and now!

Where: 1634 Lexington Avenue, Apt. 3B, Spanish Harlem, New York, New York. Cross street is 103rd, which is where the 6 train stops (right across the street).

What to bring: $5 to help us pay for all the great food and beverages, and your $20 donation if you couldn't get a chance to do it online. If you want to drink alcohol you can, but you must bring your own. TFK members are discouraged from drinking, since we will be running a half marathon early the next morning. Unless they are faster than me, than they are encouraged to get drunk so I can have a chance to beat them! Might I suggest Jaegermeister?

The Fare: Chicken cutlets a la Mama Kenny, potatoes of some sort to represent the Irish side of the family, salad, bread, veggies, other treats too numerous to name (because we haven't thought of them yet). If you are a vegetarian and have any special requests, let us know and we'll hook you up with something good.

"The Hills Are Alive...."

Ok, perhaps the hills were not as bad as the Austrian Alps, but it felt that way at times today. Consequently nobody broke into song at the end of today's little 20 mile jaunt to New Jersey and back to Manhattan. Ok, hang on, the snow in the mountains is reminding me I need to put ice on my legs. I am contemplating taking a Ghetto Ice Bath TM, which is an ice bath for those of us too poor to have a bathtub. I will put two bags of ice and water into a trash can lined with Hefty bags and put my legs in there and that will do the trick. That way I can bring it into my room and continue writing this entry while my legs soak / freeze. I will be back...

Ok the legs are in the trash can which is half filled with water. Not too bad, although the water is not too cold. Now it's time to add 2 bags of ice. Hang on a second....

Hmmm, bag number 1 deployed, this is kind of starting to suck. Not too psyched about adding bag # 2 to the mix, since # 1 dropped the temperature of the water about 12 degrees in 5 seconds. Ok, time to be a man, un momento por favor...



Aaaaaararrrrrrggggggggggggggghhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!!!!!!

There will be a momentary delay...

Ok, we have a few kinks to work out in the Ghetto Ice Bath TM, namely the tendency for your feet to freeze out of proportion to your legs. When I had a bathtub I used to lie in there, add water, and then take a block ice and press it against the affected area (last year, my hip). With the Notorious G.I.B., your feet are immersed in the ice as well, and they don't like that too much.

In case your wondering how long I was immersed in there, it wasn't very long once ice bag # 2 was introduced. Perhaps that was a mistake? Anyway, it was 2 minutes or less. :-( Ok, I'm going to plunge them back in now and time it, we'll see how long I can last.

Wow, 24 seconds! That was lame. Is it possible that my ice is colder than 32 degrees? Did I accidentally buy dry ice? It feels wet. Hmmmm.

Ok, so I won't be marketing the G.I.B. to running stores, but I think it actually would come in handy for interrogating prisoners. Seriously, 24 seconds was all I could tolerate and, although I'm no Navy Seal, I can handle pain fairly well. Note to self: bring cyanide capsules with me if we ever go to war against a country with a lot of ice.

Garden State

We began our run on 165th Street and Riverside Drive and ran over the George Washington Bridge into The Garden State. New Jersey gets a bad rap as being polluted, but the park where we went running along the Hudson River was quite beautiful. And hilly. Did I mention there were a lot of hills?

My goal is to qualify for Boston, so I joined a splinter faction of th 8:00 group and we decided to run faster than the rest of them. The 8:00's were going to do 8:15's so we planned on doing 7:45. The first mile we went too fast I thought, although my watch (which I never wear) said it was 8 minutes plus. I felt we were going 7:20ish, so either my watch, or me, or the mile marker was wrong.

After that we slowed down to a more normal pace. I started lagging behind once we hit the big hills in Jersey, and 3 of the guys I ran with went ahead, leaving me and a guy named Brenn behind. I was ok with hanging back, as we were told to save energy to race the last 3 miles, so that's what I did.

Once I got to the half way point, having seen the 3 speedsters coming back towards me after the turn around, I decided to increase my pace and see if I could catch them. I caught up with Coach Pete who wasn't feeling it, but the other two did not falter and I never caught them. I ran with Pete until Mile 16.5 or so and then took off, a little in advance of where the 3 mile "race" was supposed to start. I'm sure I sped up overall over the last 3 compared to the first 17, which felt nice, but I wasn't entirely sure of the split.

I finished in 2:50:06, an 8:31 pace. I wanted to go about a minute per mile faster, so this seems to put an end to the Boston qualifying prospects, unless the differences from the marathon are enough to explain the disparity. The hills were the main thing that slowed me down, and they are much larger than the ones we will encounter on the NYC Marathon course. I was running with a water bottle, something I won't do on race day (a water station every mile). It was pretty hot and humid today, conditions not likely to exist on Marathon day. So perhaps if you add all of these things up and consider that I still felt well at the end, I might have an outside chance.

All of a sudden I cannot keep my eyes open for some reason, going to take a nap. More later...

Inspiring Teammate

Check this guy's website out, he joined our team this year, he's got an amazing story. Visit the Transformation page where he shows photos starting with when he was just plain out of shape, to images of him after undergoing all of his cancer treatments at the hospital, to what he looks like now while competing in triathlons and training for his marathon.

Tyler Darby's Page

If you have to run 20 miles tomorrow or have other troubles weighing heavily on you, just keep in mind what Tyler went through and you'll realize that everything is ok.

20 Miler To Do List

Here's a list of things to do, it will be a miracle if I can manage to do all of them. In brackets for each item is the likelihood that I will actually remember to do it.

1. Get running clothes from the laundromat [100%, all running clothes in hands of my laundress, running naked not an option]
2. Drink Gatorade all day [86%]
3. Eat something! [95%]
4. Rest [20%]
5. Go to sleep early [7%]
6. Bring Gu or Gel or Cliff Blocks to the run [14%]
7. Bring a water or Gatorade bottle (or 2) to the run, one to drink before, one during [pretty good about doing this, there is a 24 hour store that sells Gatorade that I have to walk by on my way out, 92%]
8. Put on watch and track the time (I uncovered my 5 year old watch, see post on my first marathon for the story, it still works) [I haven't worn it in years and I remember most things by force of habit, so this one is going to be tiny decimal which shall be rounded down to 0%]
9. Lay out clothes the night before so I am not scrambling in the morning [35%]
10. Bring video camera and blank tapes [87.5%]
11. Bring change of shirt & flip flops [60%]
12. Bring Vaseline [18%]

For a report on a 20 mile run already accomplished by Jessica from Boston, take a look at her great blog, which has not yet been linked to on the TFK website. Take a look at her other entries, her enthusiam is great!

http://runjessicarun.blogspot.com/

Good luck to all my teammates tomorrow and if I missed something, let me know: bob@highlyquestionable.com or just leave a comment.

"Gump" fundraiser cancelled

We are still on for the other events, scroll down for information on "Rudy" on 9/30, "The Natural" on 10/7 (baseball night, if one of the locals are in a playoff game that night, we will watch the game), and "Remember the Titans" on Friday the 13th of October, the eve of the 23 miler.

The 20 Miler

I mentioned earlier how important last year's 20 miler
was (see previous post, below). Ok, I know the regularity with which I update this blog is a bit absurd since that post went up 7 hours ago, but I think this might be helpful for some of my teammates to know about before the big run.

To add to what I mentioned before, last year Coach Adam had said something to the effect that my 20 miler performance would be indicative of what I could do the first 20 miles of the actual marathon. Furthermore, despite the additional few weeks of training followed by 3 weeks of tapering, that I would not get faster between the 20 miler and the marathon. I took that to heart and decided to move up to the 9:30 group and give it my all that day, which resulted in a 2:54:28.

Today I recalled Adam's words and went back to check my marathon time to see what my split was for the first 20 miles of the race. Sure enough it was 2:57:06, pretty close to my 20 miler time, and certainly not faster (2:38 slower in fact). I then got to thinking whether what he said was universally true or not, so I looked on the 20 Miler Database in the 2005 Yahoo Group and found some other times. (Last year when people finished the 20 miler team members wrote their times on a big flip chart in magic marker and Coach Erica McNally painstakingly converted the times to paces for everyone). Not everybody did it, but 78 people did, which I figured would be enough data to see if there was some kind of relationship. So I then looked up all of those people's marathon times and added that to the spreadsheet.

Ok, math is not really my forte, nor is putting accents over French words, so let's all pretend that there is one over the 'e' in "forte" for the moment and move on from there. I emailed my friend Nathan, who is a good guy to know when you need help with something. When I told him I needed to run the 60K to qualify for the marathon, he emailed me back his completed registration form 5 minutes later (there is the picture of us with our trophies after finishing the 37.2 mile run). In additon to his loyalty and speediness he also has some serious math skills, so I figured he was the right guy to try and make some sense of all the numbers I had plopped down on this Excel schedule. Sure enough he emailed me back with an analysis in about 20 minutes. Ok don't be frightened when you see this, this is his job after all, it was no big deal.

Below is a chart. To the left of the left most vertical line (not the axis, the one labeled zero) you see only 5 data points. Those 5 are the only people who ran faster during the first 20 miles of the marathon than they did during the 20 mile training run. The other 73 dots represent everyone else who recorded their time after the 20 miler. They all ran the first 20 miles of the marathon slower than they did the 20 miler.

According to Nathan, some things you can take away from the chart and the underlying numbers:

"1) Expect to run a 13 minute 'slower' 20-mile leg when you actually run the marathon.

2) The 'slower' the pace group, the worse the 'lag' (the formulas are on the charts)."

In addition, some further delving into the numbers may shed some light onto the 5 backwards performances. Marla "Flash" Weinstein I believe was injured for the 20 miler with ITB issues, a problem she had substantially worked out with Dr. John Schneider by marathon day. So that explains her faster 20 mile split vs. 20 miler time. Our resident photographer Omar was another one of the 5 who sped up on marathon day. I checked his photos from the 20 miler last year and he took 81 pics while running, many of which he appeared to stop for several seconds to take. Some of them were even elaborately set up, i.e. people posing together on the George Washington Bridge, shots of Omar (which would have involved him stopping, giving the camera to someone else, etc.) Omar snapped 74 pics during the first 20 miles of the marathon, all of them apparently taken on the fly. I conservatively estimated that the difference in these approaches probably cost him 10 more minutes during the training run, which would turn his 2 minute gain into an 8 minute loss. Perhaps there are other explanations for the other 3 increases in speed as well.

The reason I wanted to explain away the speed increases is because Nathan says the correlation of the data goes up dramatically if the outliers can be ignored, which increases the predictive power of the model. I also wanted another excuse to look at Omar's marathon photos again. :o)

The plan for last year's 20 mile training run was 15 minutes commute and 3 minutes warm up, a 5 to 1 ratio. The first 20 of the marathon called for 16 miles of commute and 4 of warm up, a 4 to 1 ratio, so the plan was to go faster on marathon day.

The weather on the day of the 20 miler was similar to that on marathon day, perhaps a few degrees cooler, although factors that may counteract that are the presence of all the fans, and water & Gatorade stations every mile on the marathon course.

What the Hell does all this mean?

It means you want to do well on Sunday, because your performance at the 20 miler, plus about 13 minutes (less if you are in the faster pace groups, more if you are in the slower ones), is what you can expect to do for the first 20 miles of the marathon.

According to the plan we will commute for 17 miles and race the last 3. Adam advises taking your commute pace down a notch, 30 - 60 seconds, in order to have the energy to race at the end.

So everybody get a good night's sleep on Saturday and fuel up with food and Gatorade endurance formula (lemon lime) all day.

Last year's 20 Miler Part 1

On Sunday we will do 20 miles, the second longest run during our marathon training program (we will run 23 on Saturday October 14th). Last year's 20 miler was a big turning point for me. I had made a move from the 10:00 group to the 9:30 pace group. I felt that if I could keep up with them I might have a chance of breaking 4 hours at the marathon. I was successful, finishing it in 2:54 and change, which would have left me with over an hour to do an additional 6.2 miles (a 10:29 pace), certainly doable.

I actually did the 2005 twenty miler in 5 fewer minutes than it took me to complete the 18 miler 2 weeks prior. I ran the 18 miler with my teammate Jenny and I felt I had a lot left in the tank at the end. We did a little over 10 minute miles the first 17 and I felt good and decided to speed ahead, and broke 8 minutes on the last mile. That was what made me confident enough to move up to 9:30's for the 20 miler. I was only in that pace group, which consisted primarily of Jeffrey Carlson and Danielle Sallah, for that one run. The next practice I joined the 9:00's before splintering off into our little 5 person 8:45 faction with Sonia, Craig, Amy Dold and Russ.

My goal on Sunday is to be able to average my BQ (Boston Qualifying) pace for the whole 20 miles (7:29).

Breakin' the Law, Breakin' the Law!

Ok, nobody really broke the law yesterday, but the Harrison police were mighty suspicious of us as we congregated in the park before our run. With so many of us milling about clad in our uniforms, the motorcycle cop that happened upon us thought somebody had scheduled a massive race without getting permits or letting anybody in on it. Finally Adam set the fellow straight, that we were just some folks going out for a little training run and after a call to his superiors we were cleared for take off.

Harrison is a quiet suburb about 30 minutes outside of Manhattan. We ran by many expensive and beautiful homes, and got to see some picturesque views of Long Island Sound (we actually saw a guy with a canvas & easel painting a picture of it, that's how picturesque it was). The people there were very friendly and all of the many runners that crossed paths with us during the run smiled and waved at us as we went by them.

The 11 miles turned out to be 11.7, and it was a bit hot, but I finished ok. The last 1.7 miles or so were somthing of a struggle, having done 18 only 6 days ago. But everything worked out in the end. We had quite a good turn out with the volunteers, who provided us with water & Gatorade, which helped keep me alive since I idiotically ran with a video camera instead of a bottle of fluids. It was a warm day and 11 miles is nothing to sneeze at, so that wasn't the smartest move of my career I'll admit.

As the season progresses it seems like the team is bonding more, and I saw a great display of teamwork out there today. The faster groups started first this time around, so the 8:00's and the 8:30's had plenty of time to eat and drink before the 11:00's and higher started filing in. Greg Roelants, Avi Kravitz and Bob Lenahan all started waiting around the finish and cheering people on, and then, not satisfied with that they actually began running back onto the course to find our teammates and accompany them to the end. I was filming the whole affair and have started editing the video, which should be ready fairly soon.

Of course the video will be included on the DVD which will ship around December 1st. I am going to extend the $25 deal for another week, so if you order now you can reserve your copy for the bargain price (it will be at least $40 if youwait).

To order simply donate to Amy Dold, Entrant Number 18916:

Donate $25 to Amy Now and Save $15!

2006 Marathon DVD Special Offer - Must Act Quickly!

With the help of my teammate Amy Dold I will be producing a DVD from all the footage I have collected throughout the season, plus stuff that has yet to be shot, including footage we will get on marathon day.

The DVD will be done in the first week of December as we will need time to edit the marathon footage. Included will be the TFK Promo and Run with the Rabbits video, which you may have seen on the web, but will be of DVD quality as opposed to the compressed version you have seen on the Internet.

Other features:
The Bronx Half Marathon
pre Rockefeller Run activities
The 18 mile run
Grete's Gallop
The Bronx Zoo run
The 11 mile run
The 18 mile run
The 20 mile run
The 23 Mile Run
The Marathon
Some of the large post race fundraisers
The 2005 & 2006 Beer Mile
Other amusing and interesting things I come up with along the way.

The cost in December will be a donation to Team for Kids of about $40- $50, depending on how well it comes out (it may even wind up being a 2 disc set). But if you donate before tomorrow at 5 p.m. (the interim fundraising deadline) you can reserve your copy for $25. You can forward this onto one of your loved ones and ask them to buy it for you for a holiday present. People who don't like to procrastinate (unlike myself) will welcome the opportunity to get some shopping done early!

To donate on Amy's behalf, follow the link and input the last name Dold, and Entrant Number 18916.

Donate here to get your awesome DVD!

Amy and I and all the great kids thank you!

Bob

Here is a link to the video from the run with the Rabbits we had at practice last month. To return to this page click the back key on your browser:

Run with the Rabbits Video

Take a look and see how much fun the kids (and my teammates) had that day. The funds you donate go to make it all possible. If you haven't given already, please follow the link below and make your 100% tax deductible donation today. Input my last name, Scofield and entrant # 20832 in the appropriate fields. It takes less than a minute, donate any amount you like, $10, $20, whatever you can afford. Your money will go to help building the confidence and self esteem of disadvantaged youths, as well as improving their health and fitness. On their behalf I thank you all.

Click to donate

Thanks again,

Bob

18 Mile George Washington Bridge Run

Today was an amazing experience, and I owe a great debt of gratitude to all of my teammates.

This was a very important run for me, since I had not done the 16 miler when I opted to just do the New York Half Marathon that day and skip the pre-race 2.9 miles with the team. I have a time goal in mind for November 5th, to finish in 3:15:59 or better which will qualify me for the Boston Marathon in April. I had tried to do it in June at San Diego, maintaining the required 7:29 pace for the first 14 miles, but then I became fatigued and couldn't maintain it. I missed by a wide margin, 3:38:15, 22:16 away from the goal.

So now I would be increasing from 13.1 to 18, and it would be a test to see if I could maintain the pace, especially during the last few miles. I started out with the 8:00 group but after a couple of miles, Erik, Jakob from Denmark (not Jakob from Switzerland) and Spencer broke off from the pack. I scooted around everyone from my position in the back and joined the rebels. We ran up the west side of Manhattan, along the Hudson River, and up a series of tough hills in Washington Heights and Fort Tryon Park. The game plan for today was to run commute pace for 20 minutes and then step it up to warm up pace for 5 minutes. Unfortunately, one of the pickups coincided with the first set of monsterous hills. I lagged a little behind on each hill we encountered but caught up on the flat portions.

We had gone about 8 or 9 miles when we came upon the George Washington Bridge, which connects Manhattan to the state of New Jersey. At this point I had nothing left in the tank, I was physically and mentally exhausted from all of the hills we had climbed to get up from the river to the top of the Heights. But then we started seeing our teammates, many of them clad in our bright green uniforms. The coaches had staggered the starts with the other pace groups all getting a head start, so this was the point when we were starting to catch up to everybody. When we got up onto the bridge and headed towards New Jersey we exchanged high fives with many of our teammates and cheered each other as they headed back into Manhattan.

Seeing everybody was an inspiring sight and I instantly started feeling better. When I got to New Jersey and turned around to do the last 7 miles, I knew I was going to be able to run all the way back to the start without slowing down at all. Erik and I stuck together and finished in 2 hours and 18 minutes. The run was actually 18.5 miles (there was 0.5 mile mini-run around the track at the park we started in to gauge our pace that we included in the time), so my pace was 7:28, 1 second ahead of the required Boston pace. So now I am confident that I have a chance to do it, as long as I stick with the program and can continue that pace for the 20 miler and the 23 miler that loom on the horizon.

So I would like to thank all of my teammates for being out there today and giving me the strength to pick myself up and carry on to the finish. I would also like to apologize for blowing of the first 3 miles of the 16 mile run 2 weeks ago, I now realize I did the wrong thing that day. This is a team, and teammates are supposed to be there for each other, especially during the long runs. I skipped part of a big run for selfish reasons, so I'm sorry for that and I won't let it happen again.

Hope to see some of you Friday night for the "Without Limits" party co-hosted by guest chef Danika Landers. Email me at bobscof@gmail.com if you'd like to attend.

Thanks to all who came out!

The first movie / dinner fundraiser was a big success. Thanks to all who came out to support our great cause and our teammate Sonia's fundraising efforts. Good look to all the Team for Kids members at the 18 mile run tomorrow.

Have a good night!

Dinner & Movie Fundraisers

Below is the lineup for the dinner and movie fundraisers to be held at my place with the help of a different guest chef each week. To sign up send me an email at bobscof@gmail.com and you will be given instructions for donating online on behalf of the guest chef if there is still room available. Cost is a $20 donation to benefit the amazing kids that we will run the marathon for, plus a $5 contribution at the door to defray our food & drink costs.

Friday September 15th

"Without Limits" - Guest Chef Danika Landers - The story of legendary American runner Steve Prefontaine. The cuisine is being formulated as we speak for this biopic of the amazingly talented track and field star from Oregon. "Pre" as he was known to his legions of fans established American and World Records during his amazing collegiate career under the tutelage of two hall of fame coaches, one of whom, Bill Bowerman, went on to found his own sneaker company (Nike). Pre went onto represent the U.S. at the Olympics in Munich. For more info and to donate to guest chef Danika Landers, visit her blog: http://danikaruns.blogspot.com

Saturday September 23rd

"Forest Gump" - Guest chef: Rodrigo Balazero Barring a weather disaster in the Gulf of Mexico there will be shrimp on the menu: "You can barbecue it, boil it, broil it, bake it, saute' it. There's shrimp kabobs, shrimp Creole, Shrimp Gumbo..." Rodrigo actually has a few creative shrimp creations in mind, courtesy of his Uncle, a famous chef in Ecuador, so he may come up with something that Bubba never even contemplated, despite knowing everything there is to know about the shrimping business. There will be various Southern dishes on the menu to honor the cross country runner from Alabama, and some ice cream and a box of chocolates or two for dessert.

Saturday September 30th

"Rudy" - Guest Chef: Notre Dame Alum and TFK Coach Pete Kenny (Entrant # 43104) - an eclectic but nourishing mix of Irish fare to honor the Golden Domers and Italian food from Mama Kenny's kitchen in Queens. This is probably the most inspirational of the films on the schedule and not to be missed!

Saturday October 7th

"The Natural - Guest Chef Greg Roelants (Entrant # 4077) - A special Baseball night in honor of the playoffs and a possible Subway Series, with that night's game being shown in the other room while Robert Redford knocks the cover off the ball in the screening room. Hot dogs, apple pie, macaroni n' cheese, all of the things that make America great as we celebrate the National Pastime.

Friday October 13th

"Remember the Titans" - Erik Pena (Entrant # 47185) will be making some down home Southern food for your enjoyment of this inspiring true story of football players at a newly integrated high school in Alexandria, Virginia in 1971. Their coach, Herman Boone (Denzel Washington), teaches the kids to learn to overcome their racial differences and play together as a team. The film features a great soundtrack and is perfect to get everybody excited for the next day's 23 mile run, which will be our longest before tapering prior to the marathon.

Feelin' Groovy

Slow down you move too fast
You got to make the moment last
Just kickin’ down the cobble stones
Lookin’ for fun and feelin’ groovy - "The 59th Street Bridge Song" (Paul Simon & Art Garfunkel)

Those lyrics were our marching orders today, a 10 mile "fun" run at "commute" pace, nice and easy as our recovery week continued. We ran 10 miles, 6 in the park and then a trip to Queens over the 59th Street Bridge and back into Manhattan. Our workouts on Tuesday and Thursday were also lighter than usual to give us a chance to recuperate following the half marathon plus 2.9 on Sunday (just the half for me, see photo of me on left).

On marathon Sunday we will again run over the Queensboro Bridge, as it is also known. It comes at the 15 mile mark and is uphill the first half and downhill the second. The bridge is eerily quiet due to the complete lack of spectators. All you can hear is the sound of footsteps of you and all the other runners, with the echo bouncing off the upper roadway above your head. When you run down the exit ramp at the end of the bridge you enter Manhattan for the first time during the race. That is when you experience one of the greatest thrills of your life. As you round the corner onto First Avenue, after 1 1/2 miles (10 to 18 minutes) of relative silence, you are suddenly greeted by the cheers of thousands of spectators. If you ever wanted to know what it feels like to be a rock star, this is a great way to find out without having to grow your hair long or take a bunch of guitar lessons.

The 59th Street Bridge is a treacherous place that can ruin your race in 3 ways:
1. You can run too fast up the hill on the first 1/2 of the bridge;
2. You can run too fast going down the hill on the second 1/2 of the bridge; and/or
3. You can start running too fast once you make the turn onto First Avenue, spurred on by the screaming fans.

All of these outcomes are to be avoided, as mile 15 - 16 is too early to be ramping things up, and doing so will come back to haunt you at the end of the race.

All week I had felt pretty tired and sore, a consequence of racing too hard on Sunday. Today I was not feeling it either, kind of plodding along while we were in the park, but that was the game plan anyway, to take it easy. Once I got on the bridge however I had gotten loose and was able to run pretty well. I zipped into Queens and back, whereupon I met back up with a girl I was running with, who had been ailing a bit and was now feeling well again. The rest of the run went smoothly, and after some stretching I'm feeling much better than I did all week.

I may do a Labor Day race on Monday, I'll keep you posted.