Bob's 2006 ING NYC Marathon Blog

New Team, New Blog

2007-04-15T20:24:00.000-04:00

I have left Team for Kids and joined a new team, here is the link to my new blog:

Race with Purpose

My Interview with Ian Benardo from American Idol

2007-01-25T01:00:00.000-05:00

I ran into this guy near Union Square in December of 2005. He recognized me from MySpace and knew I was involved in making the show Highly Questionable. He was the first person to ever recognize me on the street from the show, so when he asked to be interviewed I was happy to accommodate him. It was kind of a strange coincidence that I just so happened to have the HQ mike and camera with me at the time. To add to the weirdness, an NYU film student and his girlfriend were hanging around at the time, so I was able to get him to work the camera. I interviewed a few other people before finally finishing up with Ian. We made the Love episode and put it online on Valentine's Day of 2006, but Ian didn't make the final cut.

Last night I watched American Idol, and at the end saw Ian on the previews for tonight's show. So I scrambled to find the tape on the off chance that he might be featured prominently. I knew he was an interesting character and would likely speak his mind to the judges, and he didn't disappoint. So I edited the video together and threw it up online on YouTube and MySpace to see if people trying to find video of him might stumble upon it. Here it is. Note that the opinions expressed by Mr. Benardo are not shared by the Highly Questionable producers (we both love our parents very much).

The Manhattan Half Marathon: A Race Inconveniently Too Cold for Al Gore

2007-01-22T20:22:00.000-05:00

Fat lot of good all those much ballyhooed CFC's and greenhouse gases did yesterday. This is from the New York Road Runners Club website's race report:

Weather: 21°F, fair, 32% hum., wind chill 14°F

Not sure what is "fair" about 14 degrees, but I suppose we all had to run in the same weather, so I guess I can't complain too much.

The night before I didn't have a good dinner, I had some jalapeno poppers while watching basketball at a bar called Rumors on 8th Avenue between 55th and 56th. Then I went to hang out with my friend Farrah and watched 3 episodes of "Dexter" on Showtime on Demand. It is an amazing show, starring Michael C. Hall from "Six Feet Under". Definitely check it out if you haven't already. I think it is actually going "off demand" on January 23rd (they tend to run for limited intervals), perhaps the DVD will be released soon.

After the "Dexter" mini marathon of mayhem I headed toward the subway, stopping at Japas 55 which was right around the corner to perform a couple of songs. I did "Folsom Prison Blues" and "I Walk the Line", did a good job as usual. Somebody was celebrating a birthday so I scored a piece of cake. Not sure if that would help me the next day or not. Got home at a fairly reasonable hour, 11:30, asleep by midnight.

Woke up at 7:30 and headed over to meet my friend KC to give her race number to her. That is a good way to guarantee that you will actually roll out of bed and attend the race, to impose upon yourself an obligation to show up such as delivering a race number and timing chip to your friend and teammate. I also had KC call me at 7:30 as a failsafe. So I showed up and met her outside the Met and we headed to the start.

My attire was running shorts with long running pants over them, running socks with normal cotton socks over them, my grey technical shirt that they gave us when we registered for the 2006 ING NYC Marathon, with my Team for Kids singlet over that, and a fleece top over all of that, which I intended to take off for the race, but wound up wearing because it was so damn cold. I had on new high tech earmuffs given to me by my nephew Charlie for Christmas and a hat. Finally I had a mismatched pair of gloves, well one black marathon glove and one blue sock. That's right, I emulated the fashion of many homeless people here in the city, and had a sock on my right hand (the left hand had to go on the glove because that's the hand I use to grab water with, so I needed the fingers on that side).

I ate a chocolate Gu before the race, which was better than nothing, and certainly better than the honey bun fiasco (see earlier post). I started out fast, weaving in and out of traffic. I did the 2nd mile in 7:00, which is very fast because that mile includes Harlem Hill, the toughest one in the park. After that I maintained about a 7:15 pace until Mile 10, at which point the wheels came off. :-(

Prior to that, around Mile 6, a girl with a pink hat was running near me and I got in front of her and used her to maintain my pace. This is a good method to use to make sure you don't lose your concentration, as I am prone to doing on occasion. It is easy to accidentally slow down if your mind wanders. So I pick somebody that is going a good pace, get in front of them, and if they start passing me or if I hear their footsteps getting closer, I know to speed up a bit. So pink hat girl was behind me until Mile 10, at which point she scooted by me. I was starting to get fatigued, so I let her go. I kept my eye on her until mile 11.5 or so at which point I couldn't see her anymore. It was then that Jack & Philip from my team passed me (I had passed them earlier). Around mile 12 (90th street), KC passed me, asked me how I was doing, I told her I wasn't feeling it and she should go on without me.

Mile 12 was pretty rough, that is the 2nd toughest hill in the park, Cat Hill. I felt like slowing down and walking up it, but I pushed myself to keep running, albeit at a slow rate. When I got to the top there was a water stop, and I did grab a water and walk as I drank it, so that gave me a bit of a respite. Then I started up again and tried to speed up and finish strong which I was able to do. When I hit th 13 mile mark, the clock read 1:39:00, so I decided to try and speed up and beat 1:40, which would just entail doing the last 0.1 in less than 60 seconds. My time was 1:39:52, so it took me 52 seconds to go 192.5 yards or 577.5 feet, or .109375 miles, for a pace of 7:55 minutes per mile. It felt like I was going pretty fast, and that is really not that fast for me, which goes to show how bad I was doing at that point.

After the race I stopped at the school on 103rd street between 5th and Madison where NYRR gives out the awards and free hot chocolate for the rest of us. I saw pink hat girl and commended her on her great race. We talked a bit about football (her pink hat had the 'C' logo for the Bears) and marathons and I emailed her info on Team for Kids and a link to this blog, so perhaps she'll read about herself here. So thanks to you again pink hat girl, and good luck to Da Bears in the Super Bowl!

Today I was pretty sore, especially in my calves, but I'll recuperate in a day or two. So overall it was a kind of humbling experience. I always thought I could roll out of bed and run a half marathon without really training, and I guess I did to some extent, but I did not perform anywhere near my potential. But now that I'm back in the swing of things, I'll keep improving and do better next time! :o)

New York Half Marathon

2007-01-19T18:26:00.000-05:00

This Sunday there will be a half marathon held in New York's Central Park, and I will be running in it. I have only run 3 times since December 22nd - 1.57 miles, 7 miles and 1 mile. :-( Pretty sad.

The "I Have a Dream" Speech

2007-01-15T02:07:00.000-05:00

I am happy to join with you today in what will go down in history as the greatest demonstration for freedom in the history of our nation.

Five score years ago, a great American, in whose symbolic shadow we stand today, signed the Emancipation Proclamation. This momentous decree came as a great beacon light of hope to millions of Negro slaves who had been seared in the flames of withering injustice. It came as a joyous daybreak to end the long night of their captivity.

But one hundred years later, the Negro still is not free. One hundred years later, the life of the Negro is still sadly crippled by the manacles of segregation and the chains of discrimination. One hundred years later, the Negro lives on a lonely island of poverty in the midst of a vast ocean of material prosperity. One hundred years later, the Negro is still languishing in the corners of American society and finds himself an exile in his own land. So we have come here today to dramatize a shameful condition.

In a sense we have come to our nation's capital to cash a check. When the architects of our republic wrote the magnificent words of the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence, they were signing a promissory note to which every American was to fall heir. This note was a promise that all men, yes, black men as well as white men, would be guaranteed the unalienable rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

It is obvious today that America has defaulted on this promissory note insofar as her citizens of color are concerned. Instead of honoring this sacred obligation, America has given the Negro people a bad check, a check which has come back marked "insufficient funds." But we refuse to believe that the bank of justice is bankrupt. We refuse to believe that there are insufficient funds in the great vaults of opportunity of this nation. So we have come to cash this check — a check that will give us upon demand the riches of freedom and the security of justice. We have also come to this hallowed spot to remind America of the fierce urgency of now. This is no time to engage in the luxury of cooling off or to take the tranquilizing drug of gradualism. Now is the time to make real the promises of democracy. Now is the time to rise from the dark and desolate valley of segregation to the sunlit path of racial justice. Now is the time to lift our nation from the quick sands of racial injustice to the solid rock of brotherhood. Now is the time to make justice a reality for all of God's children.

It would be fatal for the nation to overlook the urgency of the moment. This sweltering summer of the Negro's legitimate discontent will not pass until there is an invigorating autumn of freedom and equality. Nineteen sixty-three is not an end, but a beginning. Those who hope that the Negro needed to blow off steam and will now be content will have a rude awakening if the nation returns to business as usual. There will be neither rest nor tranquility in America until the Negro is granted his citizenship rights. The whirlwinds of revolt will continue to shake the foundations of our nation until the bright day of justice emerges.

But there is something that I must say to my people who stand on the warm threshold which leads into the palace of justice. In the process of gaining our rightful place we must not be guilty of wrongful deeds. Let us not seek to satisfy our thirst for freedom by drinking from the cup of bitterness and hatred.

We must forever conduct our struggle on the high plane of dignity and discipline. We must not allow our creative protest to degenerate into physical violence. Again and again we must rise to the majestic heights of meeting physical force with soul force. The marvelous new militancy which has engulfed the Negro community must not lead us to distrust of all white people, for many of our white brothers, as evidenced by their presence here today, have come to realize that their destiny is tied up with our destiny and their freedom is inextricably bound to our freedom. We cannot walk alone.

As we walk, we must make the pledge that we shall march ahead. We cannot turn back. There are those who are asking the devotees of civil rights, "When will you be satisfied?" We can never be satisfied as long as the Negro is the victim of the unspeakable horrors of police brutality. We can never be satisfied, as long as our bodies, heavy with the fatigue of travel, cannot gain lodging in the motels of the highways and the hotels of the cities. We can never be satisfied as long as a Negro in Mississippi cannot vote and a Negro in New York believes he has nothing for which to vote. No, no, we are not satisfied, and we will not be satisfied until justice rolls down like waters and righteousness like a mighty stream.

I am not unmindful that some of you have come here out of great trials and tribulations. Some of you have come fresh from narrow jail cells. Some of you have come from areas where your quest for freedom left you battered by the storms of persecution and staggered by the winds of police brutality. You have been the veterans of creative suffering. Continue to work with the faith that unearned suffering is redemptive.

Go back to Mississippi, go back to Alabama, go back to South Carolina, go back to Georgia, go back to Louisiana, go back to the slums and ghettos of our northern cities, knowing that somehow this situation can and will be changed. Let us not wallow in the valley of despair.

I say to you today, my friends, so even though we face the difficulties of today and tomorrow, I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream.

I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: "We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal."

I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood.

I have a dream that one day even the state of Mississippi, a state sweltering with the heat of injustice, sweltering with the heat of oppression, will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice.

I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.

I have a dream today.

I have a dream that one day, down in Alabama, with its vicious racists, with its governor having his lips dripping with the words of interposition and nullification; one day right there in Alabama, little black boys and black girls will be able to join hands with little white boys and white girls as sisters and brothers.

I have a dream today.

I have a dream that one day every valley shall be exalted, every hill and mountain shall be made low, the rough places will be made plain, and the crooked places will be made straight, and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together.

This is our hope. This is the faith that I go back to the South with. With this faith we will be able to hew out of the mountain of despair a stone of hope. With this faith we will be able to transform the jangling discords of our nation into a beautiful symphony of brotherhood. With this faith we will be able to work together, to pray together, to struggle together, to go to jail together, to stand up for freedom together, knowing that we will be free one day.

This will be the day when all of God's children will be able to sing with a new meaning, "My country, 'tis of thee, sweet land of liberty, of thee I sing. Land where my fathers died, land of the pilgrim's pride, from every mountainside, let freedom ring."

And if America is to be a great nation this must become true. So let freedom ring from the prodigious hilltops of New Hampshire. Let freedom ring from the mighty mountains of New York. Let freedom ring from the heightening Alleghenies of Pennsylvania!

Let freedom ring from the snowcapped Rockies of Colorado!

Let freedom ring from the curvaceous slopes of California!

But not only that; let freedom ring from Stone Mountain of Georgia!

Let freedom ring from Lookout Mountain of Tennessee!

Let freedom ring from every hill and molehill of Mississippi. From every mountainside, let freedom ring.

And when this happens, When we allow freedom to ring, when we let it ring from every village and every hamlet, from every state and every city, we will be able to speed up that day when all of God's children, black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual, "Free at last! free at last! thank God Almighty, we are free at last!"

How to Become Speedy

2007-01-05T00:07:00.000-05:00

Some people have asked me how I have become so fast, knowing that I started out, umm, not so fast. They had heard that my marathon times have improved dramatically since my first one, here they are:

San Diego Rock n Roll June 2001: 4:53:40 (11:12 pace)
ING NYC Marathon November 2004: 4:41:20 (10:44)
ING NYC Marathon November 2005: 3:57:34 (9:04)
San Diego Rock n Roll June 2006: 3:38:15 (8:19)
ING NYC Marathon November 2006: 3:26:17 (7:52)

So I thought I would share some tips based on what I think made me get faster.

1. Join a running team

The most dramatic improvement was between 2004 and 2005, and the change came about because I joined the New York Road Runners Foundation Team for Kids. I had joined to get into the marathon (I had lost the lottery), and I wasn't certain if I would go to all the practices, but once I started attending them I was hooked. If you're like me and have trouble motivating yourself, your teammates inspire you to roll out of bed in the morning or leave work on time in the evenings to show up for the group runs.

That is nothing new, the idea that training more will increase your running ability. In addition, you can take advantage of your team's diversity to increase your speed. With a running team, especially a big one like Team for Kids, you have all different runners of different abilities. You will have people slower than you, people the same speed as you, and most importantly, people a little bit faster than you. As the 2005 season progressed I kept my eye on people that were a little bit faster than me and as I got into better shape I challenged myself to try and keep up with them. I would pick people I admired from afar, people I knew had done several marathons with good times, and would aspire to join them for a run sometime and see if I could keep up with them. I would just join their group during one of the shorter weekday practices (it's not a good idea to try and make a move up in pace on one of the long weekend runs in excess of 10 miles I figured). I remember one key run when I ran with Mark & Spencer & Eugene & others in the 9:00 pace group, it was a Tuesday or Thursday night, and I think we did 5 miles at a bit below an 8 minute pace. I pushed myself harder than I had ever done before, but I managed to keep up, and I stayed at or close to their level (when I was healthy) for the rest of the training season.

2. Speed work

Interval training or speed work once a week is key to getting faster. Again it is always good to run with your teammates (see Step 1). This year the guys and I in the 8:00 pace group would always race each other during the speed workouts and I have no doubt that helped us all get faster by for the marathon. Scott, Spencer, Pete, Greg, Erik, Nathan, Rich, Jeffrey & I were there week in and week out at the Tuesday night speed workouts, racing one another up and down the park drive between 72nd and 102nd streets, and we all had similar impressive marathon times between 3:17 and 3:28 or so.

Speed work involves running fast for short distances, doing several repetitions during a workout. For example we would would often run fast from 90th street up to 102nd street (about 0.7 miles) and then jog around to cool off, yet keep moving, for 2 - 3 minutes, and then run back to 90th Street at a fast pace. We would repeat the back and forth between 3 to 5 times. Ideally you should run your last interval as quickly as the first one (I never did, I always tried to "win" the first couple and would be gassed at the end - don't imitate me in that regard).

3. Compete in Races

When most people talk about getting faster, they mean recording faster race times. And like any other activity you might engage in, if you want to improve at it, the best thing is to actually get out and do it. Practices on your own and with your teammates (see Step 1) are all well and good, but they are not races. The only way to get good at races is to actually sign up and do them. I run a lot of the smaller NYRR races that are held nearly every week and I think they are quite helpful toward increasing your speed. There is nothing like the presence of other competitors to motivate you to run faster.

Ultimately though, the beauty of running is you don't have to beat other people, you really only need to improve upon your own times. So your goal at each race should be to PR (set a personal record). An exception would be if you are doing the race as part of your training program for a bigger race, such as the 18 Mile Marathon Tune Up held by the NYRR 6 weeks before the marathon every year. Otherwise you should go in conscious of what your PR for that distance is and try and beat it. If you've never run that distance, figure what a good time goal is based on your paces for races of similar distances and give yourself a goal. Then come up with a plan on how to beat it. I like to give myself round numbers as goals, such as a 1:30 half (beat it in October), a 20 minute 5K (missed it by 6 seconds in November), and a 40 minute 10K (beat it in December). But again it all depends on your ability, so your goal may be a 5 hour marathon, or a one hour 10K, or a 2 hour half. Just set the bar a little bit out of your reach so you'll have to work for it.

I hope this helps. If anybody has any additional ideas, feel free to post a comment.

You Guys are Great!

2006-12-29T09:46:00.000-05:00

Great job everyone! Donations are pouring in!

Here's the 2nd marathon preview again!

Here's the 1st one!

Finally, here's the link to donate!!
Last name Kelly, Entrant 72936

You all rock!!

Final Day to Order DVD & Another Preview Video

2006-12-29T03:16:00.000-05:00

Here is a 2nd (out of the 4 on the DVD) marathon video, I apologize about the quality, but again it is compressed to be viewed on the web. The quality on the DVD is excellent. With the DVD you will get this video plus the 3 other ones set to cool songs, all the footage being of you (maybe) and your teammates (definitely) running the 2006 ING New York City Marathon with Lance & Shannon Miller. Someday long into the future your kids or grandkids may doubt grandma or grandpa (you) when you say you competed in the NYC Marathon with the 7 Time Tour de France winner. They may even conclude that you are suffering from delusions and use that as an excuse to have you committed to a nursing home involuntarily. Buy your DVD and keep it as proof! Do you know what they do to old people in those places? Better safe than sorry.
You will also get several other videos - approximately 50 minutes of content all together. Oh just buy the damn thing already. You've never spent $30 drinking during an evening? What did you have to show for it afterwards? A bad hangover. I used to routinely bet $30 and even more than that on a single hand of blackjack. Do you know how long a single hand of blackjack lasts? Under a minute. $30 is less than half of what Nathan Miller tips each of the 14 doormen and maintenance guys in his building for Christmas every year. How many $30 toys did you buy for your kids this Christmas that they have already stopped playing with and WILL NEVER TOUCH AGAIN? I am so sick of you people. Buy the video or I will hunt down all 960 of you who have not yet bought it and MAKE you buy it. Do you think I'm joking? I'm going to start at the top of the alphabet and work my way down. So Abbie Bookman, if you haven't gotten your video by midnight tomorrow night, don't be surprised when your doorbell rings at 12:01 and I am standing there with a machete and a DVD. Do I sound like I'm kidding? Try me.

Please make your fully tax-deductible donation on behalf of last name Kelly, Entrant 72936!
Donate $30 for Mary-lynn Kelly here! Now! Last ch ance!

Did I mention the money goes to kids? Free shipping? Enhanced probability of entering Heaven or your religion's equivalent thereof upon your death?

Click below to see 2nd marathon preview video
Preview video # 2 and final one

Thanks in advance to those who donated or will donate soon! The rest of you I'll deal with later.

DVD Preview

2006-12-27T00:23:00.000-05:00

Here is one of the 4 marathon videos, set to the tune "Clocks" by the amazing band Coldplay. The other 3 songs are from the Garden State soundtrack. The quality you'll see here is in no way comparable to what you will see on the DVD, this version has been compressed for quick viewing on the web. The real version is of DVD quality. :-) In any event this sample is just here to give you an idea of what the marathon footage looks like.

To order the DVD, donate 30 here, last name Kelly, Entrant 72936. Offer expires Friday at Midnight!

Click here to watch video:
2006 Team for Kids New York City Marathon

Only 3 days left! It's for the kids!

Your Face is my Case

2006-12-23T19:19:00.000-05:00

Went home to Connecticut for the holiday after my surgery yesterday, sitting here at my Mom's computer putting ice on my face. Hopefully I won't need Jackie Chiles to represent me, as I'm pretty sure all went well. My face is still numb but the doctor says that is normal.

I've been watching the TFK DVD over and over again, it is quite mesmerizing. If you haven't bought it yet, you can still acquire it by donating on behalf of Mary-lynn Kelly, Entrant 72936. This last viewing I counted the occurrences of different TFK'ers in the marathon video and came up with 272. That is a pretty good number and many people show up more than once. If you didn't wear your green TFK shirt for whatever reason you probably are not in it. But anyway, we got better than 1 in 4 team members in the video, so there is a decent chance you are in it, or at least somebody you know well. I stuck a shot of Lance and his entourage in there, so you can say you have a video of yourself competing in a sporting event with Mr. Tour de France. Also my brother's roommate got a good shot of our teammate and Olympic Gold Medalist Shannon Miller on 5th Avenue.

Other videos on the DVD:

- The TFK trailer that inspired some of you to join the team back in June.

- The "I've Been Everywhere" video with footage from many of our training runs in the New York area.

- The Run with the Rabbits Video.

- The never before seen Bronx Zoo Kids Race Video, set to the tune "The Lion Sleeps Tonight" by The Tokens.

- "Beer Mile 2006 - The Quest for Corporate Sponsorship" - Watch it now before it becomes all commercialized just like the Super Bowl!

- The Poland Spring 5 Mile Kickoff featuring special guest Lance Armstrong (Pete Kenny).

- "Meet Tyler Darby", an interview with your inspiring teammate, triathlete, pilot and cancer survivor.

- The 23 Miler from 2005

- Finally there is a special video I made for Megan Cannady which was not finished in time for the initial release of the DVD but I've added to the most recent version. Megan is the 6 year old daughter of our teammate Jill, who had to defer her entry to the marathon until next year when Megan fell ill. Eugene Koenig and I went to the Kids' Cross Country Race in Van Cortlandt Park the week after the marathon and made a video to inspire Megan to get better. I finished it a few days ago and sent it along with a race shirt and some Christmas gifts purchased with Coach Adam's money from his Thanksgiving promotion. I'll tell you more about that after Christmas, we don't want to spoil the surprise for Megan (you never know who might be reading this blog). :o)

Going Under the Knife

2006-12-21T23:27:00.000-05:00

Tomorrow, Friday December 22, I will undergo surgery at Elmhurst Hospital in Queens, NY. They are going to take that pesky cyst out of my jaw, and the tube that was in there the past several months to irrigate it. Hopefully things will go well. There is a small risk of damaging the nerves in there which could cause me to lose feeling in my face, either temporarily or permanently. That is something that has me really worried. :-(

All right, I have to focus on eating & drinking, I have 27 minutes before I am supposed to start fasting and as those of you who have dined with me are aware, I am a very slow eater. Wish me luck!

What Not to Eat 15 Minutes Before an 18 Mile Run...

2006-12-18T13:51:00.000-05:00

Many of you probably already knew this, but I learned the lesson the hard way. Stayed out too late again the night before the Hot Chocolate 15K, which was turned into a 10 miler, which my friends and I were going to convert into an 18 miler since we plan on running Miami on January 28th. So after getting 4 hours of sleep I found myself in the tobacco / Red Bull store downstairs, and after grabbing a small Gatorade I thought to myself I needed to eat something if I was going to be doing a long run. I looked around through the various treats they had for sale, and this one seemed the most substantial and least disagreeable (a sad commentary on their wares).

Walked over to the park, met some fellow TFK'ers, and started eating the Honey Bun. It tasted good, very sweet, which I like. I was commending myself for my excellent choice. Surely I would run 18 miles without a problem.

The first 6 miles or so were ok, kept it at a 7:15 pace or a little faster, which was my goal for the 18 miler (I can run 10 miles much faster than that). I never ran a 10 mile race before, but my PR for 15K is a 7:00 pace. That was another crushing near miss, I wanted to post a sub 7:00 pace, needed to go about 5 seconds faster. I tried to ratchet it up in the last 0.3 that day but felt like, no, knew I was going to hurl, so had to slow it down considerably. I actually made it to the finish without vomiting, but narrowly missed my goal.

So here I was taking it relatively easy (I am faster than I was 6 months ago when I did this PR, I'm sure I could have done 6:45's without trouble based on my last 2 races). At mile 6 or so I started getting a bit sick to my stomach. Around this time I burped, as I had been doing a little more than usual this race. But this burp brought with it a little bit of vomit-like liquid from the digestive tract, not sure what the technical word for this is, but my brother calls it "burping up a donut". So that happened and I tasted the honey bun and thought to myself, "Hmmm. Maybe that wasn't such a good idea." The rest of the race I kept the pace but wasn't too happy about life in general. In the last half mile my teammate Phillipp passed me, and of course I couldn't let him get by without a fight, even though he wasn't doing 18 and did not have a Little Debbie Cake as his pre-race meal. I'm fairly certain Phillip wasn't out until 3:30 the night before singing Johnny Cash songs at a bar in midtown Manhattan. But I still figured I'd try to catch him. I snuck up behind him and drafted him for a while, but then he saw my shadow in front of him and looked around to see me there and sped up a bit. Then this other joker comes by and tries to pass Phillipp which makes him go even faster. But I kept close enough to beat him by chip time, so I accomplished that part of my idiotic mission, but of course I was ruined at the end and couldn't do the extra 8 miles. I don't think the little race really affected that outcome, the die was cast when I downed the honey bun, my stomach was reeling from that fiasco all day.

Lessons learned:
- Sweet pastries are not a good pre-race meal.
- Never do anything that you don't ordinarily do before a race.
- If you want to do extra mileage in conjunction with a race, do it before the race starts and not afterwards. That way if your competitive fire gets the better of you during the race, you don't have to worry about exhausting yourself too much to tack on the extra miles at the end.

Joe Kleinerman 10K

2006-12-10T17:38:00.000-05:00

As you may recall, I tried to break 20 minutes at a 5K on Thanksgiving in a driving rainstorm, but just missed, finishing in 20:06. Somehow I got the idea in my head that I should try to do the 10K in 40 minutes, which is somewhat illogical since your times are supposed to increase exponentially as the distance gets greater. But I always like to shoot for round and / or meaningful numbers (4 hours, qualify for Boston, sub 7:00 pace, etc.) So off I went.

The sleep situation was not good, went to bed around 4:10 a.m. Also I don't really recall eating dinner last night. On second thought there was food at the second party I attended, in somebody's home on the UES. (UES stands for "Upper East Side" for those of you in other parts of the country. That is where "The Jeffersons" moved when they got sick of living in Queens next to their racist neighbor, Archie Bunker. It is a magical place where fish don't fry in the kitchen and beans don't burn on the grill. It does, in fact, take a lot of tryin' just to get up that hill. Thankfully however, as long as we live, it's you and me baby, there ain't nothing wrong with that. And yes, there was pie at the party at well, pecan to be precise.)

At the party they had more donuts than I have ever seen at one fiesta held by people in their 20's on a Saturday night. I had a cookie, made by one of the guests, which was quite good. And I had some chips and dip. There was a bit of a design flaw in the set up however - the chips were atop the television while the dip was on the counter between the kitchen and the living room. I would grab a chip and walk 4 steps over to the dip, make some magic happen, eat the dip laden chip, and then make my way back over to the TV. I didn't really feel comfortable grabbing the dip receptacle and bring it over to the TV set, and every square inch of the counter top not occupied by the dip bowl was covered in donuts, so moving the chips was not a viable option either. So I made the best of the situation and got a little exercise as I ate, possibly burning more calories than I was consuming, which would not help me during today's race (to the extent eating potato chips and sour cream and onion dip actually helps at all to begin with).

The day before the race had started off well, with the breakfast of champions, an egg and cheese croissant from Burger King, plus 6 French Toast Sticks. Mmmmmm. During the rest of the day, before the donut party, I ate a bag of Utz brand Cheez Curls and some pretzel rods. That was it. :-(

Ok, the morning of the race arrived and I got up and drank a bottle of water and got a Gatorade from downstairs. The guy sells me small bottles of Gatorade for $1 while the rest of the world pays $1.75. He loves me, what can I say? I drank that on the short walk over to the starting area. One of the good things about living in my 'hood is that I am a short walk from the 102nd Street Transverse in Central Park where many of the races start and end.

This week I got in position at the front of the race (it took me only 9 seconds to get to the start). I decided since I came in 93rd last week that there should be roughly that many people in front of me and no more, so I felt like I belonged. Mary Wittenberg said a few words about Joe Kleinerman, the man for whom the race is named. I didn't know much about him so I googled him and found out he was quite an influential character in the running world (Mary had mentioned some of his accomplishments and innovations in her speech). I saw her assistant, my friend Alice, looking radiant as always standing next to Mary, which was nice. They then brought out a European woman who once won the NYC Marathon to blow the horn. In NYRR world the words "Get Set" and "Go" do not exist. It is "On Your Mark" and then the horn blows. And off we went.

We went counter clockwise which forces you to go up the two nastiest hills in the park, and Mile 1 takes you almost all the way to the top of the worst of them, Harlem Hill. I didn't really know what to do about that in terms of strategy. I could attack the hill and risk tuckering myself out for the rest of the race, or just take it a bit easier and save my energy for the other 5.2 miles. I decided to go with Plan A. I didn't attack it that hard - I posted about a training run I did during the summer where I essentially ran up it as fast I could go and was pretty spent at the end of it. So I knew I wasn't going to do that again (I do make some correct decisions on occasion). Anyway the result was pretty impressive. When I got to the 1 mile marker which was about 50 yards from very top of Harlem Hill a bit before the 102nd transverse the clock read 6:31. With my 9 second differential that was a pretty incredible 6:22. I felt pretty strong after that but must have lost something along the way because I actually ran slower the rest of the way (my average pace wound up being 6:24, and don't do the math now, you'll spoil the ending of the story). But I was confident anyway, because I felt like if I could do Mile 1 in 6:22 that the other comparatively easier stretches could easily be done in that time or better.

At mile 2 the clock read 12:51, for a 6:29 mile. At mile 3, the clock read 19:11 for a 6:20 mile. At mile 4 the clock read 25:33 for a 6:22 mile.

At mile 5, the clock read 32:00 for a 6:27 mile. At this point I had to put my thinking cap on to see if I could break 40, as I now realized I had 7 minutes and 59 seconds to traverse the final 1.2 miles. I didn't do the math fully but got the sense that if I did a 6ish pace I could do it. By this point I had summited Cat Hill already, and it was substantially flat and probably even net down hill the rest of the way so I was pretty confident. I actually got passed by 3 or 4 people and didn't really pass anyone myself, which was disappointing. I didn't really kick it into overdrive until I made the turn onto the transverse and got within sight of the clock and saw 39:50. At that point I went into a sprint and crossed the line 5 seconds later, beating 40 minutes by the big clock by 5 seconds, with a net time of 39:46 (a PR by quite a wide margin). My previous PR was a 42:20 which I had done twice before: once in January at the Boston Buildup race in Darien, CT and at the Healthy Kidney 10K in Central Park in May (a 6:49 pace). The CT one was far more impressive because of the absurd hills they throw at you to get you ready for the Boston Marathon (I didn't do Boston, the races were open to everyone).

So the last 1.2 mile stretch was done at a 6:28 pace. It felt like I was going at wildly divergent speeds throughout the race, but in fact the splits were very close:
Mile 1: 6:22
Mile 2: 6:29
Mile 3: 6:20
Mile 4: 6:22
Mile 5: 6:27
Last 1.2: 7:55 (6:35 minute / mile pace)

A 6:22 up Harlem Hill is much faster in effort terms than the rate I achieved on the last 1.2 so I can only conclude I did run out of gas to some extent at the end. Perhaps I will eat a dinner the night before the next race and sleep more than 3 3/4 hours. :-)

My relative rank was a bit disappointing, I finished 227th this week after finishing 93rd last week. I attribute this to the 10K being a more popular distance among serious runners than last week's 4 miler turned 5 miler. Obviously since my pace was comparable for a greater distance (6:24 vs. 6:19) I should have actually had a higher percentage finish all other things being equal. So I think my explanation is correct, the competition was not equal, it was much tougher this time out. So instead of beating 98.2% of the field I only beat 95.4%.

Here is the 411 on Joe Kleinerman from an obituary written about him when he died 3 years ago on November 14th, 2003. One thing Mary mentioned not discussed in the blurb is that Kleinerman invented Age Group awards. I was somewhat surprised on the dearth of info on the Internet about him (no Wikipedia entry), from what Mary said he sounded quite interesting. Here is what there was:

"Kleinerman was among the founders of the organization [NYRR] in 1958 and in 1970 he was there to help Fred Lebow stage the first New York City Marathon, run entirely in Central Park. He went on to assist Lebow in turning the race into today's world-famous five-borough spectacular.

Kleinerman was also a strong proponent of women's long distance running and in 1967, he joined Vince Chiapetta and Nina Kuscsik, in leading a national movement to allow women to run races longer than a mile.

In recognition of his long devoted service to the running community and to the organization, the lobby of the New York Road Runners building in Manhattan was dedicated in his name in a ceremony this summer attended by many of his long time associates.

Joe Kleinerman was born Jan. 12, 1912 in Spring Valley, N.Y. and grew up in New York City. At 13, he began to run after his older brother Mike took him to the Millrose Games. In 1941 and 1942 he finished 10th in the Boston Marathon. The Millrose Athletic Association named him an assistant coach in 1941 and head coach in 1967.

One of his lasting legacies to the sport he loved is the Joe Kleinerman Scholarship Fund created by New York Road Runners this year. The college scholarship will be awarded to a New York City Public School boy and girl track athlete beginning next spring."

TFK DVD Special

2006-12-04T20:10:00.000-05:00

Donate $26 now on behalf of Mary Kelly, Entrant # 72936, to receive your 2006 TFK DVD! Offer valid through this Thursday night 12/7 at midnight!! Then the price goes up to $30 so act soon! DVD will ship on Monday December 18th and will include all your favorite TFK videos in DVD quality with new unseen ones as well! Remember if you donated $25 to Amy Dold back in September your copy is already reserved.

Donate Now!

5 Mile Race

2006-12-02T16:46:00.000-05:00

NYRR held a 5 mile race today in the park. I went out the night before to a few bars, spending the most time at one called T.G. Whitney's, singing karaoke. I was quite a hit, performing "Folsom Prison Blues", "I Walk The Line", "Roadhouse Blues" and "Ring of Fire". By the time I went to bed it was about 4 a.m., but luckily the race started on the 102nd Street Transverse, a 5 minute walk from my apartment. So I got up at 8:57 and left the house by 9:11 a.m.

I couldn't find Nathan but got as close to the front as I could. Usually he is easily visible due to his height and tendency to wear the TFK green at races and a white hat, so when I didn't see him I assumed he wasn't in attendance.

The race started and was forced to weave in and out of the slower runners who annoyingly line up near the start of th race (you are supposed to line up near large umissable signs that reperesent your pace per minute). The big clock read 6:59 as I passed mile 1, with a 31 second lag between the gun and when I crossed the start, that meant a 6:28 mile. Mile 2 went faster as the clock read 13:20, so that one only took 6:21. I grabbed water and took a little slip between 1 and 2, not taking much time at all. I had gotten a small Gatorade at the deli downstairs and drank that en route - for a 5 miler I didn't really need more hydration that that, except for the fact that my mouth gets kind of dry when I run.

The Mile 3 marker read 19:39, so it that took me 6:19. Mile 4 contained the notorious Cat Hill, the biggest one we would have to contend with during the race, and at that marker the clock read 25:59 even, so I did that mostly uphill mile in 6:20.

I then performed the calculation and to beat my goal I needed to do a 6 minute mile (my goal was to beat 32:00). I actually knew I had some kind of lag between chip and gun time so I could break it fairly easily, but I figured I would make a push and see if I was physically capable of running a sub 6 minute mile and beating the big clock in 31:xx.

I thought about our training, when we frequently do speed work and do 1 mile intervals, sometimes between 72n and 90th, other times between 88th and 102nd (not quite a mile). So I was in familiar territory - this was the spot where I would often race my teammates so I just thought of it as another event. The strangers I saw ahead of me I pretended were Nathan, Erik, Avi, Pete & Greg, the guys I had raced all summer long. Some tall dude passed in front of me, so I spent a couple of hundred yards drafting him. When we got to the big downhill (which was the hill we walked up last week at the 60K), I moved around him and started hauling it towards the end (about a quarter mile to go). I ran strong, some guy passed me, I passed him back, he passed me, but it kept me going and prevented some other guy whose footsteps I could hear from catching us. I took the corner sharply making the turn onto 102, cutting off some guy in the process, but he just went out wide and went ahead of me from behind. Oh well, not going to beat him. Sped up even faster for the final 75 yard sprint to the end, and crossed in 32:06.

So my last mile was 6:05 which I was pretty happy about. I finished 93rd out of 4,993 entrants, my best percentile finish in a race ever (top 2% - actually 1.86%). My average pace per mile was 6:19. When I did this race last year, injured from the marathon and the 60K, I did it in a 12:45 pace! I have no healthy 5 milers to compare it to, but I ran it faster than my fastest 4 mile pace, which was 6:36 (done twice essentially, I also did a 6:37). I even ran it faster than my fastest 3.1 mile time, which was 6:28 (done twice).

There is a 10K next week, it will be interesting to see how well I do. Oh yes, and Nathan did run but was in disguise, he finished well ahead of me in 75th place with a clock time of 31:41 (25 seconds better), but on the chip he only beat me by one lousy second. Bastard! (He started very close to the front, only a 7 second lag vs. my 31 second lag. And we both beat Claire, the fastest woman on the team, who beat Lance (and us) at the marathon, so that was fun. :-)

60K

2006-11-26T04:02:00.000-05:00

Finished the 60K alongside my friend Moffat in 6:24 and change, a 10:20 pace. Feeling pain in the top of my right foot / ankle area, my friend Melissa says it is likely tendonitis. It is similar to the shin splints I felt last year, but kind of odd it is only in the right leg.

Thanks to Russ for running 18 with us, Bob Lenahan for running 25.2 or so, Dave for running the first 12 (or was it 16?). Thanks to KC for bringing the Entemann's cake & Melissa for bringing the cheesecake, Lydia for the chocolate chip cookies and Ava for bringing the pizza. Thanks to Dave Wakeman, Kenny Hill, Kim Levandoski, Annie, Amy & Lisa Dold, Dave Handelman, Farrah Buchanan, Coach Pete, Stella Dellamora & Julie Dao for coming out to run and/or cheer us on.

Great job by Nathan (5:35), Tom (5:55?), Peter K (6:18), Eugene (6:48) and Alan (6:54)! The real results will take a couple of days to be posted since there were no chips involved.

The only bad thing is we didn't get trophies as the NYRR promised us on their website, they gave us ribbons instead. Everybody complained so hopefully they'll rectify the problem.

Turkey Trot Results

2006-11-24T00:43:00.000-05:00

230 people finished the race, I came in 12th. Amending my previous report, my time was actually 20:06. As I thought, I didn't leave any hardware behind, 4 of the 11 people who beat me were in my age group. If I want to win trophies I am going to have to get older or get faster! The guy Ryan Pancoast wins every year it seems and his sister Sara won for the women this year.

Overall Finish List

    Place    Name                    City               Bib No Age     Age Group        Time      Pace
       1    Ryan Pancoast           Stratford  CT         962   23 ***** M 20-29        16:41    5:23/M
       2    Mihail Alexandru        Stamford  CT          823   31     1 M 30-39        17:27    5:38/M
      3    Robert Barker III       Wallingford  CT       825   31     2 M 30-39        18:06    5:50/M
      4    James Harrison          Orange  CT            901   16     1 M 13-19        18:13    5:53/M
      5    Joseph Simoncek         Milford  CT          1051   36     3 M 30-39        18:29    5:58/M
      6    Andy Marguis            Milford  CT          1105   16     2 M 13-19        18:48    6:04/M
      7    Erik Baker              New York  NY          824   37     4 M 30-39        19:12    6:12/M
      8    Brandon Carius          Stratford  CT         843   21     1 M 20-29        19:27    6:16/M
      9    Male Smith              Storrs  CT           1064   41     1 M 40-49        19:39    6:20/M
     10    Kevin Woodin            West Haven  CT       1030   27     2 M 20-29        19:48    6:23/M
     11    Gary Dubois             Milford  CT          1087   49     2 M 40-49        19:52    6:25/M
     12    Robert Scofield         New York  NY         1050   36     5 M 30-39        20:06    6:29/M
     13    Antonio Desousa         Danbury  CT           867   52     1 M 50-59        20:10    6:30/M

Turkey Trek

2006-11-23T10:01:00.000-05:00

Ran a 5K in my hometown of Stratford this morning. Drove down to the center of town in Nathan's car from my parents' house where I slept last night. I registered, got a doughnut and my race T-shirt, and headed back to the car to keep warm. When I left the comfort of the finely engineered German automobile, the outside temperature displayed on the dashboard read 39 degrees Fahrenheit. I was wearing shorts with my TFK T-shirt and a regular sweatshirt over it.

The race was pretty small compared to the last one I did 2 1/2 weeks ago: instead of a cannon, the race started with a guy yelling, "Go!" I moved toward the front of the pack pretty quickly and hung out there awhile. When we made the turn of the out and back we were running into a stiff headwind. Did I mention it was raining too? I was in front of this big guy but slowed down to let him pass me and drafted him. That is the one lesson I learned from watching the Prefontaine movie "Without Limits". Drafting is good! Especially when there is an 18 mile an hour icy wind coming directly at your face.

My goal for the 5K was to break 20 minutes. My previous PR was 20:43, which was actually a 3.2 mile race in Prospect Park. Apparently they couldn't make a 3.1 race out of it, it had to be 3.2. So anyway I finished strong, as I heard some footsteps behind me which kept me motivated to keep whoever it was from passing me. As I approached the finish line I could see the first digit of the time on the big clock was a 1, and the 2nd digit was either a 9 or an 8, couldn't tell, but as I got within 50 feet or so the 1 turned into a 2, and I crossed the line in a somewhat disappointing 20:04. That was a 6:28 pace, which wasn't too bad considering the miserable conditions. The sub 20 5K will have to wait for another day. :-(

I'm not sure if I won an award or not, didn't stick around to find out. There weren't too many people who finished ahead of me, but unfortunately they all seemed to be guys in their 30's. My arms were completely frozen almost, so I walked around for a couple of minutes and then got in the car and headed back home. 5 minutes later I was in the shower dethawing. My mom told me I was in there for a long time, words to the effect of "The hot water heater only holds 30 gallons!" But it felt good and I got the circulation back in all my extremities.

Let the fueling up for the 60K begin!

Beer Mile Results: Nathan & Wendy Win!

2006-11-19T12:50:00.000-05:00

Nathan Miller won the Beer Mile going away, shaving 1 minute off of last year's time and beating Craig Schortzmann's course record by 37 seconds. Wendy Popovich, who provided the beer and enough food to feed an army, was the woman's solo champion with a time of 9:52. Courtney & Martine won the women's relay with an impressive 8:39.

Apologies to those who showed up but couldn't wait around until the course was clear. There were a group of 7 year olds playing soccer on the infield and we had to wait for them to leave for fear of trampling them.

Here are official results:

Nathan Miller 6:43
Dave Darcy 8:32
Courtney Leborious & Martine Gorevic 8:39
Dave Wakeman 8:43
Pat Farrell 8:44
Russ Artman 8:44
KC Cohen & Craig Schortzman 9:12 (7:12 plus 2 minutes of penalties, 30 seconds a beer)
Janelle Nanos & Meredith Morville 9:40
Kenny Hill - 9:44
Wendy Popovich 9:52
Peter Karoczkai 9:57
Sarah Kearney 10:00
Gareth Frost 10:02
Vin Reilly 10:04
Timmy Higgins 11:36
Hilary Dorinson 11:45
Liz Doyle, Ciel Vanderveen DNF but a valiant effort in going for the prestigious individual title instead of the relay!

Great job everyone & the video will be available soon!

Photos Available Today!

2006-11-17T07:28:00.000-05:00

Visit Jeff Carpenter Studios on the web to see if my roommate got a shot of you during the marathon. Click on the Team for Kids logo to get to the photo page.

For just a $20 donation you will get the digital source file emailed to you, for $35 you will get the digital source file plus an 8 x 10 print. All of the money goes straight to team for kids.

Donate on behalf of me, Bob Scofield, entrant number 20832.

If you want more 8 x 10 prints, just add $15 for each one to your order, so $50, $65, etc.

If you desire other kinds of prints you can do those on your own using the digital source file and your own printer or take it to a commercial printing service (or contact Jeff Carpenter at jeff@carpenterstudios.com and inquire about other options he has available for sale, such as framed prints).

Thanks Jeff for all your hard work!!

Beer Mile - Final Details!

2006-11-15T19:33:00.000-05:00

Here are the final details on the Beer Mile:

DAY: This Saturday November 18th

TIME: 2:30 p.m. arrive by this time for check in, stretching, preliminary beer deployment and the singing of our national anthem.

WHERE: Riverside Park - Enter at 72nd Street and walk towards the river, past the statue of Eleanor Roosevelt (don't make eye contact with her), past the dog run on your left, through the tunnel, take a right down the ramp and you will see the track on your left.

If you attended the 18 mile or 23 mile TFK training runs this place should look vaguely familiar.

WHAT TO BRING: If you were one of the 20 or so people who emailed me directly in the past few weeks to announce your intention to run, beer will be provided for you, otherwise bring your own (you will need 4 cans of beer for the race). Cups will be provided.

Also bring money to attend the after party fundraiser hosted by Liz Doyle at PD O'Hurleys, 72nd street and Broadway. Fee a $10 donation to TFK, lots of drink specials and cheap food, college football on the TV, etc.

WHAT TO WEAR: Dress in running gear that you are willing to have soaked in beer.

WHAT NOT TO WEAR: TFK singlets, shorts, jackets, etc.

THE RACE: 4 beers in 1 mile, 1 at the start and 1 every quarter of a mile (2 laps) after that.

There will be two heats, the women will start promptly at 3:00 p.m. so Brittany can make it to the OSU vs. Michigan game, the men will start immediately after the course is clear of all debris.

Women's favorites and odds brought to you by Mohegan Sun (if your'e not on this list don't worry, just show up and you'll be in the race):

Brittany Ekleberry 1 1/2 to 1 - Ran the NYC marathon in 3:55:49 and attended Ohio State University, ranked the #8 party school in the nation while she was in attendance. Since Britt's departure, the Buckeyes have slid precipitously in the rankings.
Sarah Kearney - 2 1/2 to 1 - Ran a 4:01 marathon but admittedly was taking it easy on her injured hamstring to be ready for the real race on Saturday.
Meredith Morville - 3 to 1 - A member of the 11:00 pace group, but she had a keg party as her fundraiser, which I think bodes well for her beer drinking abilities.
Nicole Katz - 3 1/2 to 1 - Ran a 4:12 marathon but stopped in a pub on 1st Avenue for 25 minutes and drank 5 beers while watching the NFL pregame show on FOX.
Julie Dao - 4 to 1 - The fastest marathoner in the field, but Vegas oddsmakers are ufamiliar with Julie's drinking resume.
Erin Strout - 4 1/2 to 1 - She's got the speed and the party school pedigree (PSU) to go with it.
Liz Doyle - 5 to 1 - Representing Team Fireass, Liz will have to count on her years of training at Florida State University tailgating parties to overtake her speedy competitors.

The Men (again list is not all inclusive, all are welcome):

Nathan Miller - 1 1/2 to 1 - The odds on favorite, last year's runner up has added some impressive accomplishments to his resume since then, including Half Ironman and a 3:17 marathon.
Dave Darcy - 2 to 1 - Coach Dave has been conducting studies to analyze the scientific correllation between beer consumption and running ability. Ok, I made all that up, but it sounded good.
Pat Farrell - 2 to 1 - In addition to passing me in Central Park en route to a 3:24 NYC marathon, Pat showed up and displayed some prodigious pounding prowess at our fundraiser on Wednesday night.
David Handelman - 3 to 1 - An Israeli import, one of the things that brought David to America was the prospect of winning this coveted title and bringing it back home.
Vin Reilly - 3 1/2 to 1 - Not the speediest man in the field, but he cohosted the keg party fundraiser and that is a good thing.
Russ Artman - 4 to 1 - Another veteran of last year's race, Russ famously stated that this event would be held in 2004 rather than 2006 when interviewed at the finish line. He has logged countless hours during the offseason at Dive 75 building up his tolerance, and is ready to redeem himself.
Peter Karoczkai - 4 1/2 to 1 - The globetrotting triathlete and marathoner has seen and done it all and is looking to add Beer Mile Champion to his impresssive list of accomplishments.
Kenny Hill - 6 to 1 - A bit of an unknown, Kenny put up a respectable 4:28 at the NYC Marathon but will have to show some incredible chugging skills to take out Nathan & Pat.

Sorry if I missed you, feel free to post a comment and tell us why you will be the next Beer Mile champion. Smack talking is highly encouraged!

Treble a capella Performance this Monday!

2006-11-12T15:17:00.000-05:00

Come see my marathon teammate and friend Beth St. James sing on Monday night 11/13 at 7:30 p.m. at Bar 9, on 9th Avenue in Manhattan between 53 and 54th streets. Here is a video from a show they did in February, that's Beth playing the part of Slash's guitar...

Sweet Child O' Mine

Hope to see you there!

Race Report Part 2: The Finish & Kerry

2006-11-11T12:45:00.000-05:00

When we left off I was in the park and struggling, and I continued to do so. But once you're in the park you're on familiar turf if you've been training there all summer and you have less than 3 miles to go, so you pretty much know you're going to make it. My friend Craig who I ran with last year ran with me for a bit, which was a great boost, so thanks to him. :-)

Then I started getting caught by my pace group members, first there was Greg. Interestingly enough he started off fast, then Nathan, Erik and I caught him at mile 20, we cruised ahead of him, Nathan & Erik maintained a good speed finishing at 3:17 and 3:18, but I died and Greg caught me. He had some encouraging words and wound up finishing 1:22 better than me.

Next was Coach Pete who I had caught up to in Brooklyn and sped ahead of with William, the guy who was going for 3:15 with me. Pete went by me just at the point where we peel off from the Park Drive to turn southeast and head out of the park. He finished exactly 2 minutes ahead of me, so he must have picked it up and went by Greg too.

11 days before the marathon is when I first learned how Kerry had died. She was a girl I met in the summer and was just starting to get to know when she was killed in a tragic accident in July. I hadn't heard from her in a while and tried emailing her in October to see how she was. I got a reply from her sister with the bad news but no details. It wasn't until I spoke to the sister on the phone that I learned that Kerry had actually died the last night I spoke with her, roughly 5 hours after we had gotten off the phone.

Kerry was a bright, beautiful and sweet girl. She had some problems I think I could have helped her with, but sadly there wasn't enough time. She was an athlete in school, a swimmer, and we had talked a lot about the triathlon which I had just completed the weekend before our last meeting. So I put her name on my shirt and let the crowds of New York cheer her name, something I'm sure she would have experienced for herself someday if things had gone differently.

As I approached the end of the race, I knew I wouldn't qualify for Boston, so I took my time running from Columbus Circle to the finish line and listened to the cheering of the fans. It was a big inspiration all throughout the race having people yell her name to me, and now I will always think back on this positive experience and remember Kerry.

Photo Fundraiser

2006-11-09T23:44:00.000-05:00

These are a couple of samples of the photographs my roommate took at 5th Avenue on Sunday. I will go through the photos this weekend and come up with a list of people for whom he got photos and then early next week all of those photos will be available on his website, Jeff Carpenter Studios, for viewing and ordering.

The above photos were cropped by me so obviously they will look even better when Jeff gets a chance to work with them in Photoshop.

For a $25 donation, with all proceeds going to Team for Kids, you will get the high resolution digital source file and an 8 x 10 print of your marathon photo. Unless your photograph appears above or below, there is no way to know yet whether we got your photo or not, so don't donate yet.

Jeff didn't get into position until roughly 1 p.m., so this is the first person he photographed, Anne Perl De Pal, who crossed the 35K mark at 2:55:45, or at 1:05 p.m.

And he ran out of memory at 4:06 p.m. and had to stop. So if your 35K time was over 4:53:30, he didn't get you. That is the time of the last runner Jeff photographed, Betsy Friedman-Palmieri and now Blogger is doing that weird thing where it won't let me upload photos, but I'm just thankful it let me put these 3 up there (it is somewhat tempermental on the whole "upload photos" thing).

So if your 35K time was quicker than 2:55:45 or slower than 4:53:30, I'm sorry but he probably did not get your photo. And I say "probably" only to recognize the chip vs. gun time difference, so there is a minute or two margin of error there.

And if you were in that 2 hour window as most people were, he still may have missed you due to the crowds, light, bad luck, etc.

So check back here on Sunday and if your name is on the list I would encourage you to wait to see Jeff's photo when it comes online before buying the Brightroom photos, since Jeff's will be better, cheaper, and all the money will go to the kids!

If your time falls outside the window I would say go ahead and see what Brightroom has to offer. But first, if you were faster than Timmy Elsner, I would go to the Yahoo Group and check out his wife Aimee's mother's photographs, she is also offering her great shots as a fundraiser.

Sorry again that we couldn't shoot everybody, I will get back to sorting through the photos and making the list.

TFK Training Video

2006-11-09T01:59:00.000-05:00

You Probably Thought I Was Joking....

2006-11-07T20:57:00.000-05:00

If you have not read Race Report Part 1, check it out now.

Here are some amazing pictures taken by Aimee Elsner's mother that show what I was talking about on First Avenue. You see me (or don't see me) drafting behind Nathan, then emerging on Erik's right to run along side them debating passing them, then deciding to stay put and moseying on back behind them again. Look at pictures 46 - 52 to see one confused runner...

Hmmm What to Do....

Race Report Part 1

2006-11-06T18:30:00.000-05:00

I missed my goal by about 10 minutes, here is a detailed report. I made a few mistakes along the way during the race, but I think the big problem was not training hard enough, which I can easily enough remedy for next time.

While we waited at the start, me and my slightly sub 8:00 brethern (Nathan, Greg, Erik, William, Scott, Spencer, Jack, David & Philip), I realized I had to pee. We were sitting around waiting at the gate that segregates the Green starters 4,000 and lower between those with higher numbers. On the other side of the gate the sub 4,000 numbered guys were going over to the fence and peeing, but on our side of the gate there was a bunch of audio & video gear set up, manned by a crew of technicians. Somehow I don't think they would have appreciated it if I went over there and did my business. So I planned on waiting until they let down the gate and I would head over and do my business.

Unfortunately we had thousands of people pushing us from behind when the gate went down, so I had to choose between peeing and keeping with the group. I knew I had to pee at some point and better to do it before the race started, so off to the trees on the median between the access road and the highway I went. By the time I finished there were hundreds of people between me and the rest of my pace group, and no way for me to maneuver up to their position.

So I wound up having to decide whether or not to hang back and just run the 7:30 or 7:40 pace I planned on doing in the beginning or trying to catch my pace group. I decided it would be better to be with them, as we had helped each other stay on target at Westchester, so I had to race to catch up with them. My 2nd mile was run at a 6:40 pace, which is really not what you want to be doing. Running fast burns lactic acid more quickly than when you run slow, so I was already starting to do damage that I would pay for later.

After that I slowed down to about a 7:15 pace and was in a pretty good groove. I then caught up with William, Coach Pete and Scott. I then had another decision to make since I was actually going a bit faster than they were. To slow down and run with them, or just keep going at the current speed. I decided to stick with them, and we stuck together for a while. William and I then went ahead, since we both had a 3:15 goal in mind, while Pete & Scott did not (they are both under 30 and would need a 3:05 or 3:10 to qualify for Boston, which was a bit beyond our current abilities, so they weren't even going to attempt it, which was smart on their part).

Somewhere around mile 5 or 6 my friend from college Mike Shanahan passed us. He told me I needed to speed up to qualify for Boston, so at that point I could have left and followed him. But I told him that we planned on speeding up at the end and were in ok shape. He took off and I stuck with William (Mike wound up qualifying with a 3:14:28).

I lost William at one of the water stops, as I tend to take my time there, especially when there is also Gatorade involved as there was at this one. I ultimately wound up catching not only him, but Nathan, Erik and David as well. The 5 of us ran together all the way from mile 7 in Brooklyn into Queens, and over the 59th Street Bridge into Manhattan.

We told David, who was running his first marathon, to take off his earphones and stop listening to his Ipod, so he could hear the crowds when we got to Manhattan. As always that was an amazing thrill. I saw my friends Jeanne, Suzanne & others as we got off the bridge and that was a huge lift to all of us. At that point David kind of took off, or dropped off, not sure which, and it was Erik, Nathan and I running up First Avenue.

At the Mile 16 marker I was 2 minutes off the pace (4 minutes by the clock but it took me 2 minutes to get to the start). So I knew I needed to speed up and make up that time. Erik suggested we keep it under control. We ran mile 17 at a 7:20 pace and he said "too fast" but I actually needed to make up time (that would have bought me 9 seconds), so I was kind of wondering what to do. To keep doing the 7:30's and hope to make up the 2 minutes in the park? Or speed up now and lose these guys. There was a humorous stretch while this debate was raging in my head where I would run behind Erik and Nathan, because they are big and good to draft off of, then decide I needed to run ahead of them and move to go around them, then decide to stick with them and run along side of them, and then say to myself, well if I am going to stay with them, I might as well draft them, so I would move back behind them. This happened a few times during mile 17, it must have looked quite peculiar.

If you have never run a marathon before, you lose the ability to think clearly in the latter stages. It is tough to do math, and even harder to make decisions based on math. So this is what I was going through at this point, and I don't think I made the wrong choice, as I don't think I could have made my goal based on how I felt at the end.

At mile 20, just as we got onto the Willis Avenue Bridge, Nathan turned to Erik and I and said, "Let's race this bitch!" He and Erik sped up and I began to lag behind, since I was not feeling as strong as they were (plus it was uphill and I am not as good as Erik is on the hills - Nathan's speed I attribute to him simply being in better condition than either of us). I wasn't too far behind them throughout the Bronx until we got to the next bridge back into Manhattan. That also involved a hill, and I struggled going up it and lost some more ground to them.

As we made our way through Harlem, I could still see them, but they were slowly but surely pulling away. And then it just became surely as they were gone and I was on my own.

At mile 23 I got a boost as I saw my teammate Diana, who actually had to drop out of the race and off the team due to an injury back in the summer (see previous post "All Shook Up" for details of that incident). And then a guy who was on the team last year, Luke, pulled up alongside of me and ran with me for a bit, trying to inspire me to speed up. I told him I couldn't make my goal anymore and had kind of gave up on 3:15, so he said, "So what, go for 3:20!" So this was a big help, as I resolved not to quit and put up the best number I could. Thanks, Luke!

I started having pain and soreness in my lower back and hips, and I attribute this to the one big shortcoming of my training, which was my failure to keep up with the core training exercises. Coach Adam has always stressed the importance of training your abdominal & hip muscles, as they will keep you going in the late stages when everything else starts breaking down. Yesterday I found out first hand what that was like. My legs are really not that sore today, but I was having trouble keeping myself going, and I think if I had a stronger core I would have been able to sustain my pace better.

So I walked through 2 of the water stops, not even the entire water station, just for 5 or 10 seconds each one, then got moving again, albeit slowly (there was some shuffling involved).

More later about the finish and Kerry, the girl I ran the race in memory of at the marathon...

3:26:17

2006-11-05T20:55:00.000-05:00

That was my "official time", I believe it took 2 minutes to get to the start which would make my net time 3:24:17, which means I missed qualifying by 8 minutes and 18 seconds. Oh well, there is still almost 2 months left in the year to try again, I think I'll give it another go. :-) Well, that is a PR (personal record) by about 14 minutes which I am pretty happy with anyway. :-)

Off to sing at Arlene's Grocery, 95 Stanton Street, country music karaoke with a live band. It should be fun!

Thanks for all your support,

Bob

Beer Mile 2006

2006-11-01T21:06:00.000-05:00

PLACE: Riverside Park Track, where we met for the 18 mile and 23 mile runs.

DATE: Saturday November 18, 2006

TIME: Arrive at 2:30 p.m. to get ready, race will start promptly at 3:00 p.m.!

THE RACE: At the start of the race, you drink one 12 ounce beer. You run 2 loops of the track (1/4 of a mile) and then drink a second 12 ounce beer. You run 2 more loops, drink a 3rd beer. 2 more loops, a 4th and final beer. Run the last 2 loops to the finish.

THE RULES: 1. Bring your own beer. Since you will need 4, get together with friends and enlist somebody who is good at math to find the least common multiple. For example, you can buy two 6 packs (or one 12 pack), which will be enough for you and two others. Cans are preferred since they seem much less dangerous to law enforement officers.
2. The beer will be poured into opaque cups to be supplied by the organizers at the start of the race. Feel free to bring your own cups. Ours are red, it may be helpful to avoid confusion if you bring different colored cups.
3. When being filmed or interrogated by police do not mention "Team for Kids" or "New York Road Runners Foundation" ("The Craig Schortzmann Rule").
4. Due to the enhanced probability of vomiting, no snot rockets are allowed ("The Russ Artman Rule").
5. No physically interfering with other runners ("The Lisa Dellamora Rule").
6. No tackling allowed ("The KC Cohen Rule").
7. No pre-drinking of the 4 race beers allowed.
8. Dispose of your beer cans after filling your cups.
9. If you do need to vomit please move over to the infield and do it there. If there are a group of 8 year olds playing soccer on the field like there were last year, make every effort not to vomit on the children.
10. Due to the fact that there will be more than one woman this year, there will be a woman's champion as well as a men's champion, with amazing prizes for each (amazement not guaranteed).

There are more rules that will be made up between now and then.

If you are interested in competing please email me some of your drinking accomplishments (drinking game experience, Playboy Magazine Party School Ranking of the University you attended, amusing anecdotes), and running accomplishments (if any). This information will be used to create profiles for all the runners in order to aid the fans and oddsmakers.

And I caution all of you to take it easy at this Sunday's marathon, to insure that you will be healthy for The Beer Mile. Good luck!

Meet Tyler Darby

2006-10-28T14:32:00.000-04:00

I went to the Grete's Gallop with the hopes of filming her talk with the Team for Kids, but she wound up not doing it this year. Luckily I ran into Tyler Darby, a new member of Team for Kids with an amazing story to tell. Click play below to watch it. For more on Tyler, visit his website:

Tyler Darby's Triathlon and Marathon Fundraising Site

The Beer Mile

2006-10-25T19:09:00.000-04:00

Here is a video for your entertainment if you are a contributor or marathon runner enjoying the tapering period. Last year, on the Saturday after the marathon, a group of runners gathered for a race in Riverside Park on the West Side of Manhattan. Contestants were required to drink a beer at the start of the race and each quarter of a mile thereafter, for a total of 4. There was a team comprised of a runner who doesn't drink and a drinker who couldn't run, but to make things equitable a stiff time handicap was imposed on them, to make up for the fact that the runner did not have to deal with the carbonation and other issues associated with trying to run quickly after chugging a beer.

HQ Sports - Beer Mile

Add to My Profile More Videos

There will be a 2006 Beer Mile in the same location, date & time to be determined.

The Westchester Half: What a Difference a Year Makes

2006-10-24T23:06:00.000-04:00

Last year I ran this half marathon in 1:41:32, a 7:45 pace. I came in 79th out of 564 finishers and I was very happy, as that was my new personal record by a wide margin. Earlier this month Team for Kids did the race again, and I beat last year's time by 12 minutes and 39 seconds, completing it in 1:28:53, a 6:45 pace. I finished 32 / 685, and since 2005 my pace increased by 1 minute per mile!

One bad thing is I let the two guys visible over my left shoulder catch me and beat me, the one in the white shirt by 5 seconds (Scott), the guy in TFK green by 1 second (Coach Pete). They actually beat me by more than that on official time, but I am going by chip time, since they started before I did.

I'm not exactly sure what is going on with my hair in this photo, but it may hold the key to understanding my success. There was an analysis of my hair / hat situation in the post on the Nike Half Marathon (see the archives for August). I ran this race entirely hatless and ran 18 seconds a mile faster. Coincidence? I think not.

We ran tonight, and actually got lost in Central Park, which is kind of incredible when you consider we have been training for 16 weeks now. Actually we weren't lost so much as we missed a turn, which happened because I wasn't listening to the instructions before we started. My bad. :-(

Saw Doctors Concert

2006-10-17T21:16:00.000-04:00

A group of TFK members and I went to the Nokia Theater on Saturday night to see The Saw Doctors perform. They are the band that graciously allowed us to use their inspiring song "To Win Just Once" for our charity's videos. So I encouraged team members to get tickets and come to the show, to help pay them back for their generosity.

A good sized group showed up, myself and 13 others. Plus we made a couple of new friends while there, along with a few enemies (some rude girls that tried to stand in front of us after we had already staked out some prime real estate - I got rid of most of them, but sadly one particularly scary one lingered for the whole show). The band played many of their classic tunes including "To Win Just Once" and "Hay Wrap" (the song "The Beer Mile" video is set to). The band gave an impressive performance, especially considering their equipment did not make the trip down from Buffalo, after the massive snowstorm of 2 nights before. They played with instruments borrowed from the opening act and still did an amazing job. A good time was had by all!

Thanks to all that came out!

Let the Tapering Begin!

2006-10-14T16:29:00.000-04:00

Did the 23 miler and feeling good. In the middle of a G.I.B.(see prior post), due to a little tightness in my calves. It is not as cold as the last ice bath so I am tolerating it better (used only 1 bag of ice this time, that seems to be the way to go).

We ran slower than commute pace which was the plan, averaging 8:30's for the first 10 miles. I believe we were between 8:30 and 8:45 the whole rest of the way as well. I ran with a small videocamera and got a lot of good footage the first 16 miles, so that was worthwhile. I actually wound up cutting out a bit of the run, maybe 1/2 mile because I stopped to do some shooting of TFK'ers we had caught. I decided to let my group go ahead to the terminus of the first 60% of the run and catch up with them when they turned around.

Tonight, actually in just a couple of hours we are going dinner followed by a Saw Doctors concert. The event is standing room only, which some would argue is not ideal after 23 miles, but that's the way all their shows are. Plus it will help in the long run to be up and moving rather than sitting down and getting stiff muscles.

Unfortunately there is no time for a nap, so we will be dragging by evening's end. When "Hay Wrap" comes on, the extremely upbeat final song, we may lack the energy to jump up and down as is customary. It will be interesting to see how long I can stay out tonight and with what effectiveness after today's run.

So I accomplished my mission, got 23 (or 22) miles in without hurting myself, so now I'm feeling pretty confident about getting to the starting line on November 5th healthy and well trained. Qualifying for Boston is definitely possible, although it will be close. It will require a lot of effort and some luck with the weather, but mainly it will be a question of guts and being able to tough it out and race the last 10K.

Thanks to all my teammates, as always on these long runs I get bored during the long stretches where I don't see them. This was the case on the west side coming back with about 3 miles go go, when I was about to commit suicide from boredom. Then we came around a little bend and we saw the 12:00 pace group up ahead in the distance. So this gave me something to look forward, catching up to them and chatting with the people I know, so again thanks to all of you.

23 Mile Run

2006-10-11T08:31:00.000-04:00

The 23 mile run will occur this Saturday, the longest of our training season. Last year I brought a video camera and Coach Adam and I shot footage of people during the race. I edited it together, put it to "To Win Just Once" by The Saw Doctors, and it was shown to the team at the Pasta Dinner the night before the marathon.

Here is the video, take a look for a preview of this weekend. Don't worry about the run, if you can do 20 miles, you can do 23. I would just encourage everyone to take it easy, you never want to go faster than commute pace on Saturday, and slow it down more if you feel the need.

Get this video and more at MySpace.com

Oops! Part II: The Solo Run

2006-10-01T16:59:00.000-04:00

Just got back from my 16 mile run, which actually turned out to be 16 miles, surprisingly enough. The big problem when I would train alone, as was the case for my first two marathons (4:54 and 4:40), was actually doing the long runs. Even when I would summon the initiative to leave the house and hit the road, I would often curtail the duration of the run. But I found a way to stay motivated and do the whole thing, and here's how it went...

I live at 103rd & Lexington, so I just walked over to 102 and the Park Drive on the east side and stretched near the ball fields and got going. I noted the time of day, 2:14 (2/14 is Valentine's Day which is the mnemonic I used to remember), and started my running watch as well. I planned on doing two 6 mile loops and maybe a 4 mile loop, or maybe just a couple of reservoir loops (only 3.14 miles, see I was already thinking how I could make it shorter).

The next decision to make was which direction to run. My first instinct was to go the same way the team went, clockwise, but I decided that since I need work on hills it would be a good idea to run the other way. Running counter clockwise brings the two nastiest hills in Central Park, Harlem Hill and Cat Hill into play (you run down them the other direction). So I was going to make things a lot harder on myself on purpose. Train hard, race easy, that's what Coach Alem always says! The temperature was a balmy 68 degrees Fahrenheit.

Off I went, and again my goal was to duplicate my goal pace for the first 16 of the marathon, which will be 7:40. I did the first 6 miles in 46:01.53, which is 1.53 seconds off the total target time and less than a half second off the pace.

The second 6 miles was much slower, thanks to a couple of lengthy water stops. I stopped at the fountain at the SW corner of The Sheep Meadow, where an elderly Japanese gentleman was taking his own sweet time enjoying our fine public water. He seemed to be a tourist and I am not one to bother our visitors from foreign lands, so I let him enjoy our tasty New York City waters, fresh from the Catskill Mountains, and waited patiently until he was finished.

I stopped for water again on the east side by the boathouse and had a hard time finding the water fountain, which I knew was there (somewhere), but was hard to see (it was in plain sight). So that cost me a minute or so. And then there was a stretch where I kind of just lost concentration for a bit and slowed down, no excuse for that but it happens.

Ok so my second loop time was much worse, 52:18, an 8:43 pace. During one of the many daydreaming moments on that leisurely loop I actually came up with a good plan for the last 4, so at least something was accomplished. Being something of a masochist (as all runners are to varying degrees) I decided that another trek up Harlem Hill would be a grand idea. Of course the math would not work out if I ran up to 103rd, but before I dismissed that idea I calculated that I could do 4 if I stopped by 84th Street rather than running back up to 102. And that would have the added bonus of having me finish near Jamba Juice on 86th & Lexington, which is where I usually go to get a recovery drink after a long run. I congratulated myself on my brilliance and only then realized I was running close to a 9 minute pace and woke up from my trance.

So for the 3rd and final loop I decided to speed up since I had dug myself a hole on Loop 2. And then this guy had the audacity to try and pass me, which doesn't happen to often when your'e doing 7:40's in the park when there's no race in progress. So I decided I was going to let him stay in front of me, but not get too far, and then I was going to take him out on Harlem Hill.

So I had him in my sights as we were approaching the second big incline, the super long one that doesn't end until it reaches the top. That's when I decided to make my move. There were also two women that we had come upon at that point that were moving pretty briskly also. He passed them going slightly faster than they were and was 15 feet in front of them when I kicked it into high gear. I took off my hat and started flying up the hill, not quite as fast as I could run, but pretty close. I was breathing very heavily, not as bad as during the 1 miler yesterday, but we were getting pretty close to maximum effort level. I maintained the pace up to the pinnacle, turned around, and saw that he was a good 100 feet behind me.

I reached the 1 mile mark (102 on the west side) and noted the time 8:30. I was a bit surprised when I saw that, because I was motoring up Harlem Hill, at least in terms of effort expended, so I was expecting something faster. But then I just chalked it up to the hill and it made me realize that big hills like that one really slow down your time considerably. After making that realization I started feeling a lot better about last week's time, which was a minute off the target pace for the whole run. But here I had just done 1 mile up an awful hill as fast as I could go essentially, and lost 50 seconds to the pace. So overall I considered this a helpful piece of information to have.

I got to 84th street without incident, in 30:37.23, or 7:39.03 pace. So as Meatloaf says, "Two out of Three Ain't Bad." I hit the pace within 1 second per mile for the first 6 and the last 4, and helped promote tourism and good international relations while on the 2nd 6 miles. And I gave myself another much needed incline workout, tangling with Harlem Hill and Cat Hill 3 times apiece.

There will be a third installment in the "Oops!" miniseries of blog posts (today was an eventful day), which will include a video from Grete's Gallop, which I will post later. Even though I missed the race I managed to make it over there and spoke with some of the TFK'ers who were hanging around after the race had ended. Coming soon...

Oops!

2006-10-01T14:01:00.000-04:00

Ok, I slept through my alarm this morning and missed the race. That's the first time that ever happened to me, but now I am going to buy a new alarm clock since we don't want that happening on marathon day. I woke up and right away I realized that it was much later than it should have been because (a) there was way too much activity outside for it to be 6:30 on a Sunday morning and (b) I felt way too rested. Sure enough my clock said 10:44, more than 4 hours than my first alarm was set to go off (yes, I actually slept through 2 distinct alarms, 1 hour apart). The race started at 8:45 so I was pretty much screwed.

Heading out to do the run by myself, only now instead of cool and wet with teammates and frequent manned water stations, it will be just me alone in the sun and heat. Sigh...

Dialing in the Commute Pace

2006-09-30T04:52:00.000-04:00

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!

2006-09-28T00:40:00.000-04:00

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...."

2006-09-24T16:19:00.000-04:00

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

2006-09-23T16:21:00.000-04:00

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

2006-09-23T12:50:00.000-04:00

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

2006-09-20T14:56:00.000-04:00

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

2006-09-19T22:39:00.000-04:00

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

2006-09-18T16:31:00.000-04:00

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!

2006-09-17T12:48:00.000-04:00

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!

2006-09-14T16:27:00.000-04:00

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

2006-09-13T14:31:00.000-04:00

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

2006-09-10T17:46:00.000-04:00

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!

2006-09-09T23:18:00.000-04:00

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

2006-09-05T19:25:00.000-04:00

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

2006-09-02T19:56:00.000-04:00

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.

Nike Half Race photos & 2006 Marathon Photo Fundraiser Announcement

2006-08-31T22:58:00.000-04:00

Ok, for those of you who don't know, there is an organization called Brightroom, and they take photos at races and then sell them to participants. I am a bit too cheap or perhaps not vain enough to spend $25 for photos from a race that is less than 26.2 miles long, but you can take a look at some of them for free by following the below links.

Me running, hat in hand, during the last couple of miles. Towards the end of races I always take my hat off and hold it in my hand. I think it makes me go faster. Not sure about the physics behind it but it seems to work:
Bob No Hat

Me on the West Side of Manhattan running as fast as I can in the rain:
Bob Getting Soaked

Me running in Times Square. It almost looks like neither of my feet are touching the ground. Not sure if that is correct form or not. Will definitely lose sleep tonight contemplating the ramifications of this picture:
Bob in Midair

Just entering 7th Avenue from Central Park looking happy. This is the middle of the race and note that at this point the hat is still on, albeit in the unorhtodox backwards position favored by juvenile delinquents and Ken Griffey, Jr.:
Bob Backwards Hat

Me and a bunch of TFK members awaiting a free post race massage, from left to right Tom Storey, Me, Erik Pena, Nathan Miller, Greg Roelants. Note the hat has returned to its original, normal position with the bill pointed forward, yet it is a bit askew. There is no reason for the askewness, if that is even a word, that is just an unfortunate accident:
Bob Hat Askew

Feel free to purchase as many of the photos of me as you like for your home, office, Bob Scofield shrine, or indoor shooting range; any place is a great place for a $20 photo of me. :o)

2006 Marathon Photo Fundraiser

As a way to circumvent the gauging done by Brightroom and to help reach my fundraising goal last year, I had my roommate shoot photos of TFK members during the marathon. We put them online and offered an 8 x 10 print plus the computer source file in exchange for a $25 donation. As you can see, Brightroom at this half marathon would charge $19.49 for an 8 x 10 print plus $34.99 for the high resolution digitial source file, for a total of $54.48. Also, my roommate was concentrating on TFK members exclusively, so the shots tended to be much better than the group shot and crop technique favored by Brightroom.

Here is a link to Jeff's website where the photos still reside if you want to kill some time at work this afternoon after your bosses hop in their BMW's and speed off to the Hamptons at noon for Labor Day day weekend. Jeff was set up at about Mile 21 in Harlem I believe, and it was about 70 degrees at the time, so you will see people bearing down when the going is starting to get really tough. [Note - disregard the instructions for donating on his site, they relate to last year only].

http://www.carpenterstudios.com/TFK.html

If you like Jeff's work, check out his framed prints on the site and other services provided (headshots, portraiture, etc). Giving him extra business is a nice way of thanking him for his generosity in donating so much time to the team last year, between the shooting, and cropping and making the website. This will also all but guarantee that you get a flattering picture taken at this year's marathon. ;-)

Have a great weekend and see some of you runners at the 10 mile "Fun Run" hosted by Coaches Deana & Danielle on Saturday.

TFK Video

2006-08-29T02:22:00.000-04:00

Here's a video I edited together from footage shot by documentary filmmaker Christian Regnaudot, myself, Eugene Koenig, Coach Adam and my ex-girlfriend Be. It was used as a promotional tool to get people interested in joining the team, and a lot of people seemed to enjoy it. Anyway, take a look, it does a good job of summarizing what the program is about.

Click here to watch video:
TFk Video

I am a fan of DVD's and director's commentaries, so I will explain all the shots for those people who have seen the video numerous times and were wondering what they were looking at:

The first scene is of Laurie Adelman who was on Team for Kids last year, right after finishing the race. Laurie's net time was 3:37:40, which qualified her for the Boston Marathon, a great achievement.

The Music

The song is "To Win Just Once" by a great Irish rock band called The Saw Doctors. They are very popular over in Ireland and have a small but fiercely loyal cult following here in the States. I was going to type a big explanation of the band, but the Internet, God bless its little heart, did it for me, so here it is:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Saw_Doctors

I got permission to use the song from the manager back in November for a video I edited from footage Coach Adam and I shot at the 23 mile run. We showed it at the pasta dinner the night before the marathon and the song inspired people while the images reminded people of their accomplishment at the 23 miler (if you can run 23 miles, you can run 26.2, trust me on that one).

When we did the promotional video you have just watched (watch it now if you haven't), I felt we needed permission again, so I simply went to a few of their concerts in the spring of 2006 and approached the composers themselves. I spoke to Leo at a show in New Haven, CT and he said, "Brilliant!" and spoke to Davy at a show at the Irving Plaza here in New York and he said, "Great, as long as it's for charity, no problem!" They are very accessible, down to earth guys, as is the entire band, and we all appreciate their generosity in letting us use the amazing song.

If you enjoy their work here is a link to their website, the song can be found on the CD "To Sing a Powerful Song" which is sort of a greatest hits collection, and the two live albums, "Live on New Year's Day" and "Live from Galway".

http://www.sawdoctors.com

The Kids

I went to two events featuring the kids running after the marathon, one was a slightly over 1 mile cross country race held in Van Cortlandt Park in the Bronx, and the other was an indoor Jamboree held at the Track & Field Armory in the Coogan's Bluff area of Manhattan.

At the outdoor event there were two separate races, the girls ran first and then the boys. So you see shots of the boys finishing, and the "Braveheart" shot as I call it of all the girls running across the field at the camera.

Eugene Koenig went with me to the indoor event, and I interviewed some kids and coaches while he shot. So the shots of the red-headed kid stepping down off the podium prematurely, and the kids running around the track, and the 100 yard dash and the very excited girl collecting the blue ribbon, are all from that race. Many Team for Kids members were there that day handing out ribbons (Dave Edwards, KC Cohen, Oscar Sloterbeck), and helping out in other vital ways (Nancy Shanley, Jennifer Arozamena, Frank Brown) and I'm sure I'm forgetting somebody.

The sign thanking TFK was made by children from P.S. 140 in the Bronx, whose running program has been supported by Running Partners for two years now, with the funds we raise. I got a chance to talk to Alan Day, the coach of the running team there, and he also expressed great appreciation for our efforts. He told me the kids get a lot out of the program and particulary look forward to events like the Jamboree put on by the New York Road Runners Foundation. He mentioned one kid in particular who really improved in school after joining the running program.

The Team for Kids Marathon Training Program

The next part of the video showed various scenes from our training program:

- Coach Adam speaking on the bullhorn at our 23 mile run, the longest one we do, 3 weeks before the marathon

- Coach Danielle checking people off on the list at one of our practices

- Coach Dave timing some runners as they finish up at the Engineer's Gate at 90th Street and 5th Avenue, where we meet for a lot of our runs. You can see Cliff Sperber, the Executive Director of the NYRR Foundation, as one of the runners who passes Dave.

- Nancy Shanley and Beverly Gayle finishing their 23 mile run

- Amy Dold & Sonia Song, two members of my pace group finishing the 23 mile run. As you can see, Craig and I were no where in sight, as we had stopped to go to the bathroom at about the 13 mile mark and tried in vain to catch up with the two speedy women for the next 7 miles. Here is a tip for you runners out there: don't try catching up to your pace group if you spend two minutes in the bathroom after running 13 miles with 10 miles to go. We sped up and caught them at mile 20, and then died a slow and painful death the last 3 miles.

Another interesting thing about this scene is I always tend to put Amy Dold and dogs in all the videos I make, so when I found this footage while sorting through Christian's tapes I was understandably delighted to find a scene with both Amy Dold and a dog in the same shot (note the Boxer playing soccer with the little boys on the left side of the screen).

- Next shot also at the 23 mile run, of Coach Alem exhorting us on before the run (this was probably at 6:45 a.m.).

- Volunteer Anthony Chang, who graciously let me borrow his bicycle for the NYC Triathlon last month, and Coach Erica, over on the east side of Manhattan, the best attended of the water / Gatorade stops during our 23 mile run. Shout out to Suzanne Guziec for going to the market and buying more Gatorade with her own money after supplies ran out.

- Jenny Arden joking around trying to explain her name to Amin Jai, one of the support staff of the team. This section of the orignal footage with sound is funny to watch because apparently Amin was really tired as it was early in the morning. So here he was having trouble with the name Jennifer Arden, and then he walks up to a guy I know who is named Jakob Hirzel, from Switzerland, and yes, hilarity did ensue:

AMIN: What's your name?

JACK: Jakob Hirzel

AMIN: Ummmm....

JACK: [Laughs, takes clipboard, writes his own name down]

AMIN: Boy am I tired....

Marathon Day

One of the nice perks we get as Team for Kids members is special buses to the start of the race. Everybody must take a bus to the start and the NYRR provides that service, for an extra fee, but typically you don't know anyone on it with you and you have a long & lonely ride to the start. On the TFK buses you get to sit with your teammates who you have bonded with over the last several months, and it was very enjoyable. So there is a shot of Coach Pete talking to my buddy Craig on the ride to Staten Island, and then a shot taken out the window of the entrance to the starting area. Then a shot of Pat Padden, the 2nd fastest man from Concord, Massachusetts, in Brooklyn during the early stages of the race, probably between miles 3 and 5.

- Then you see a shot of a group of my friends and pace group members, Farrah Buchanan, Russ Artman, Sonia Song & Amy Dold. We had run together for the first 16 miles of the race, but I had fell back about a minute at that point (this was shot by my ex-girlfriend at the 18 mile mark).

- A shot of the Team for Kids logo plastered on a light pole with some bright green streamers.

- My friends Farrah and Moffat hugging at the finish, their times being around 3:49.

- 2 brothers from Utah, each doing their first marathon. Things are going to get mushy here, but here is why I threw these guys in there. Autumn Backman's mother reported seeing an inspiring sight of somebody running back after crossing the finish line to run along side a fallen friend, which she had photographed. Autumn posted the message to see if any one would be interested in the photo, and Tasi Young posted this reply:

"I’m seriously in tears remembering this moment.

I pulled something in my knee right around mile 22 and the pain went up into my hip. I went from a good race pace to a hobble/hop. My brother encouraged me but I just couldn’t keep up with him and at mile 25 I couldn’t see him any more. I was frustrated and in a lot of pain. I just kept thinking the finish line would never come and I knew when I did cross I would be late and alone. It was all I could do to stiffen up my upper lip and not let emotion take over.

Then of course I see my brother running back for me. I know it sounds cheesy but at that moment everything seemed to change. We started this together almost a year ago and now we would cross the finish line together on our first marathon. The pain and dejection evaporated and was replaced with joy and love for my brother, the race, and the cause. I couldn’t couldn’t hide my smile.

T.J. grabbed my arm and pulled me out of my hobble and we finished with our hands in the sky.

My brother is my best friend, he is a year my senior, and we would have never run this race without his zeal for life and determination to do great things. This moment is a great representation of his care and love; there have been many times in our life where he could have left me behind, but he has always come back for me.

Thanks bro!"

- Ok, and we're back. Sorry about that. :-( Dawn West with my close friend Beth St. James to the left and in back of her with Jeff Hunt from Tampa, Florida.

- Marla "Flash" Weinstein and my buddy Nathan Miller showing off their medals.

- A guy whose name I don't know, but if you dye your hair green, you're getting some airtime!

- Lauren Wibmer flashing a brilliant smile. At least one guy told me he joined the team on the off chance that he might meet her, so that was a good pick by me.

And finally my racing partner down the stretch of many a training run, Alan Gardner, and his victory dance. At practices, he would always catch up to me and pretend to be a commentator of a race, "It's Bannister, it's Prefontaine, Bannister, Prefontaine, neck and neck." He was Ban and I was Pre and he always won the sprint to the end, as he has a top speed greatly in excess of mine. At the end of the marathon I actually caught sight of him on Central Park South, with less than 0.4 miles to go, and contemplated trying to race him to the end one final time. But I knew I would break 4 hours if I didn't try anything stupid so for once during my "Tin Cup"-like running career I exercised some self restraint and did the smart thing and let him go. He wound up crossing the finish line 14 seconds ahead of me. :-(

Ok so that's it, hope you enjoyed it, if you'd like to donate follow the directions over on the right side of the page. You might as well do it now, because I have a lot more sappy stuff to hit you with over the next 3 months. ;-)

The Nike Half Marathon - Negative Splits

2006-08-27T15:05:00.000-04:00

Today in Manhattan the New York Road Runners Club and Nike put on an excellent half marathon. It consisted of a loop and then some of Central Park, exiting the park and continuing down 7th Avenue to Times Square, over to the West Side, along the Hudson River, past Chelsea Piers and Ground Zero, and finishing down in historic Battery Park.

Team for Kids was running the race as part of a 16 mile run. We were to run 3 miles before the race and then start at the back of the pack and run the half marathon. Some of the faster members and I decided to skip the 3 miles and enter our preferred corral locations and start the race from there.

Many of my pace group members had more legitimate reasons than I to skip the extra 3, since they had run 12 or more miles the day before at Bear Mountain. I skipped that run for a couple of reasons, mainly because I am trying to avoid downhills as it causes some discomfort on my jaw in the wake of my surgery. I had the same procdure done back in March and the constant pounding of running on the road while training for and then competing in the San Diego Rock n Roll Marathon in June had caused me problems which I won't get into. This is why they had to essentially redo the surgery, under general anesthesia this time, 2 weeks ago. So on Saturday, at 6:30 a.m. when the person who was giving me a ride called to say our car was bailing due to inclement weather, I decided to stay in bed and rest for the half marathon. I suppose I could have arranged to get picked up by one of the other people going, but then I would only be able to run up the mountain and would have been forced to walk down it. I heard tell later that they ran sub 6:00 miles down the mountain, which could have caused the surgeon's brilliant work to come undone in a very painful way. Plus it would have caused my friends to wait 36 minutes for me to come back down before they could have left, assuming I could safely execute a 12:00 pace. Finally, my surgeon is going to take the stitches out on Monday, which I'm sure will hurt plenty, so back to bed I went.

In order to do optimally at the race I felt I had to skip the 3 miles beforehand, as doing the 3 from what I understood would put us in the back of the pack at the start. Ironically, the 3 mile run concluded in ample time whereby we could have gotten into our preferred corrals, so we would not have been impeded by a large crowd of 10,000 people for the first mile. We still would have suffered the competitive disadvantage of having run 3 miles beforehand, but 16 miles were on tap in the training program, so perhaps that would have been the better way to go. The 3 miles were a bit hilly, incorporating Harlem Hill, the largest one in Central Park, but it is really not that significant, nothing compared to Bear Mountain (and would have been uphill for the most part, so not too tough on me).

Here are a few considerations that drove my decision to deviate from the program, which I don't do lightly as I am a believer in it. One was, the race was being televised by the local ABC affiliate, WABC-TV, Channel 7. I assumed the commentators of the race were given some kind of information regarding Team for Kids, so I figured the more chances they had to see us out on the course, the more free publicity we might get. Actually I assumed nothing, I wrote an email to one of the TFK administrators asking if they had spoken to WABC and let them know our story, didn't hear back but I hoped that they did. We wear bright green uniforms, so I would have hoped that somebody on the team would be spotted during the race and the commentator would have said something to the effect of, "There's a TFK member, they are running the NYC Marathon in the fall to raise money for kids. To find out more to support this great cause, check out www.teamforkids.org." Who knows if anybody even watched the broadcast or not, as it started at 7 a.m. on a Sunday morning, but anybody who is a big enough fan of running to be tuned in might be intrigued enough to look us up and donate a few bucks.

My second reason was I wanted to race it to see how well I could do (ok, that doesn't really help the team at all). But in some respects, I think I do enough in terms of helping other members of the team, and attending other people's fundraisers. There is an interesting dichotomy, in one respect you are trying to help the kids as much as you can, and I think in that regard few would argue I pull my weight. And then there is the marathon training program component, which is largely personal in nature to the team member. I like to help my team members in that regard as well, at practices and even in races. I actually stopped in the marathon last year to help a guy in my pace group who was struggling and ran with him from miles 19 to 24 until he was able to actually run off on his own and finish ahead of me. We both broke 4 hours, so I have no complaints about helping him out, I like to think he would have done the same for me. So every once in a while I like to do something that I think is in my own best interest, and today I wanted to see how hard I could run at the end of a race.

My plan was pretty simple, and that was to start slow and finish strong, while attacking the hills in Central Park. With hills early and none late, I figured there was no real reason not to go hard up the hills. On marathon day it's a different story, as the last 6 miles is predominantly uphill, so you don't want to kill yourselves on the earlier hills. But the trail on the West Side is flat as a pancake, as was 7th Avenue and 42nd Street, so I made it a point to pass people on the hills in the park.

I also had to slow down on the downhills, which there were quite a few of, since we went in a clockwise direction (the two largest hills in Central Park are Harlem Hill and Cat Hill, both of which are uphill only when going counter-clockwise). One added thing I focused on going down hill was to let my arms dangle by my sides. There is no real reason to pump your arms going downhill the way you do when you usually run, so it is a good idea to give them a break on the downhills and conserve energy for the uphills and flats.

For you non-runners out there, a "split time" is a time for a smaller portion of a race. At today's race they measured splits at 5K (3.1 miles), 10K (6.2 miles), 15K (9.3 miles) and then of course at the end of the race, which was 13.1 miles. So the last distance where you could calculate a split was the final 3.8 miles. Split times are valuable tools for judging your performance. In the Team for Kids program the philosophy is to achieve negative splits, meaning you run faster in the later stages of the race than you do at the beginning. I had never really achieved this before. If you've been reading this blog you know my splits in my first marathon were terrible, 2:02:32 for the first half, 2:52:34 for the second half. That is very ugly. That is a case of running way too fast for the first half and then dying during the second half, being reduced to walking in tremendous agony towards the finish.

There are two ways to run negative splits. One is to run very slow, so slowly that you don't fatigue yourself at all, and then speed up at the end. The other way, which is what you want to try and achieve, is to run as fast as you can while still being able to increase your speed at the end. That is a delicate balance to try and strike with not too much margin for error, but it's what you have to strive for if you want to be the best you can be. In the second method, you are likely to experience some degree of pain and fatigue in the last part of the race, at which point your determination, will and heart come into play.

At the end of races I always find myself debating whether to try and push myself to go faster. It is often difficult to gauge what you are capable of doing in the final stages. There is a risk that if you push too hard you can pull something, or vomit, causing you to lose time or even not finish at all. At one race in the past year I tried stepping it up the last 0.2 of a 6.2 mile race and very nearly threw up. I had to slow down a bit until the feeling subsided and I missed my time goal by a few seconds. Sometimes that is a legitimate concern, but most other times I found myself complacent and tired and content to just breeze in without trying to get that "kick" at the end.

Typically after those races where I didn't push myself to the brink at the end I was pretty dissatisfied with myself. So recently I resolved to always push myself as hard as I could towards the end. Today I did the best job I ever did of that. I resolved to run the last 3.8 faster than any of the other splits. Right about the time I crossed the mat for the 9.3 mile split, it started raining. It actually felt nice and kept me cool, allowing me to skip the last two water stops. As I approached Ground Zero there was a bagpiper on the side of the road playing "God Bless America", which also gave me a bit of a lift. After that, to inspire myself to keep pushing, I kept thinking about Steve Prefontaine, the great American runner from the '70's with an iron resolve and some of his famous quotes:

"To give anything less than your best is to sacrifice the Gift."

"Somebody may beat me, but they are going to have to bleed to do it."

And then I focused on the people surrounding me, speeding up when I heard footsteps to keep people from overtaking me, and targeting people in my sights who it looked like I could catch.

I had never run a 3.8 mile race, since I don't think they even exist, but here are my personal records for comparable distances, expressed in minutes per mile pace:

3.2 miles (a 10K lengthened 0.1 miles to fit the course in Prospect Park, Brooklyn): 6:28

4.0 miles: 6:36

Many people would think it impossible to "PR" (personal record) at a distance after having raced 9.3 miles, but here is what I was able to do today:

Splits in minutes per mile:

First 3.1 miles: 7:14
2nd 3.1 miles: 7:15
3rd 3.1 miles: 7:43
Last 3.8 miles: 6:28

I actually did the 3.8 miles at the end today 16 hundredths of a second faster than the entire 3.2 mile race in Brooklyn.

So I was very happy with myself, having established a PR for the half marathon distance of 1:32:31 (overall 7:04 pace) I finished in 434th place out of 10,294 finishers, beating 95.8% of the field. But more importantly I did a negative split, and was able to step up and overcome the pain and fatigue and run close to my top speed for an extended distance, 3.8 miles. My legs are sore, but no pain or bleeding from my jaw, so overall I'm feeling great about the whole experience. If I am going to qualfiy for the Boston Marathon this year and be able to run it with my friends who are already going to be in the race (KC, Amy, Ben, Allyson & others who may still qualify yet), it is going to require me to run to the limit of my physical ability and beyond at the end. I am going to have to average a 7:29 pace for 26.2 miles, something I attempted 2 months ago in San Diego but failed. But I think I passed a big test today in terms of will and determination, and running a smart race in terms of pacing, so now I just need to focus on racking up the miles without getting injured and I will have a fighting chance.

"A lot of people run a race to see who is fastest. I run to see who has the most guts, who can punish himself into exhausting pace, and then at the end, punish himself even more. Nobody is going to win a 5,000 meter race after running an easy 2 miles. Not with me. If I lose forcing the pace all the way, well, at least I can live with myself." - Steve Prefontaine

Movie Fundraisers

2006-08-25T12:29:00.000-04:00

I will be hosting a series of dinner & movie fundraising events, to be held the night before our long runs in September & October. I am lucky enough to live in a 1,300 square foot photography studio / 2 bedroom apartment, with a 7 foot wide movie screen and a kitchen the size of the entire studio where I previously resided. Cost is a $20 donation made online, and a $5 cash contribution at the door to defray the costs of the food & drinks. Gatorade, water & soda will be provided as many of the guests will be doing a long training run the next morning, so if you want to drink anything stronger feel free to bring it with you.

There will be a different inspirational sports movie shown each week, with a menu related to the theme of the film in some way. On September 30th, Coach Pete will be preparing the food (perhaps with an assist from Mrs. Kenny), for a screening of "Rudy", the true story of a determined young man with no athletic talent who pursues his dream to play football for The University of Notre Dame.

Guests, significant others, friends, relatives are welcome, just let me know how many. Each event will be limited to 25 guests, so sign up quickly. Once I email you back and let you know the event is still open, then go ahead and make your donation (or donations if bringing multiple people). For the first event, "Breaking Away", the donations will go to Sonia Song, Entrant Number 41170.

The first event will be held on Saturday September 9th, details below:

The Film: "Breaking Away" (1979) Ranked #8 on the American Film Institute's 100 Most Inspiring Movies of All Time. Dave Stoller, having just graduated from high school in Bloomington and not having any plans for the future, becomes obsessed with the Italian national bicycling team and spends all his free time training and winning races. He and his other aimless friends have many humorous clashes with the Indiana University kids, until the Dean of the school invites Dave and his friends to field a team in the Little 500 bike race to settle their differences. Winner of the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay for 1979, and one of my favorite all time movies.

The Fare: Pasta and meatballs, just like the ones the Italian-obsessed protagonist feeds his cat, whose name he changed from Jake to Fellini, much to his father's chagrin. There will also be salad, garlic bread, fruit & prosciutto for appetizers, and other tasty treats as well. The meatballs will be courtesy of my Mom & brother who did a bang up job for our "Sopranos" parties back in March. Guest Chef Sonia Song will be contributing the pasta main course for those all important pre-race carbs.

The Venue: Lexington Avenue & 103rd St in Manhattan (we'll email you the address after you donate). The 6 train stops directly across the street from my place.

The Time: Saturday September 9th, 6:30 p.m. appetizers will be available. Approximately 7:00 salad & dinner will be ready, with informal seating in the kitchen and in the studio surrounding the movie screen. Movie to start at 7:15, ending at 8:55 p.m.

How to sign up: Email bobscof@gmail.com first with the number of people you wish to bring to make sure it is not sold out. When I reply you can go ahead and donate online, using the link and entrant information on the right side of this page, and then your spot will be reserved. Show up with $5 per person and any alcoholic beverages you wish to consume (not recommended for people doing the next day's long run, encouraged for those of you who aren't!)

Fundraising update and TFK on TV

2006-08-24T13:08:00.000-04:00

I have raised $535.00 so far. Thanks to me, my parents Ralph & Betty, Brian & Julie, Gina, Allyson, Regi & last but not least, Alice, my biggest contributor not related to me by blood or marriage. Just for that I am going to talk favorably about her as I run along side her hero Lance Armstrong on marathon Sunday. When we get to the park I'll hand the 7 time Tour de France Champion Alice's phone number and say, "Well Lance, I see you're struggling a bit, so this is where you and I part ways. Give Alice a call, you won't regret it! See you at the finish!"

I have to raise $1,000 by September 15th, so if you haven't donated yet, act now. The demographics of my contributors are a little startling, 2 married couples, 4 women and no men. Come on fellas, time to step up! I will buy a beer for the first guy to donate the next time I see him out on the town.

We will run the Nike Half Marathon in New York this weekend (Sunday morning at 7 a.m.) Come out to watch in person and cheer us on, or watch it on Channel 7 (WABC). My teammates and I will be clad in our bright green shirts, you can't miss us. :-)

The Need for Speed

2006-08-23T11:44:00.000-04:00

Last night we did intervals as our Tuesday night workout. This is how you develop speed. The longer the race you are training for, the longer the distance and the greater the number of repeats you will do. We did 4 one mile repeats, from 72nd street to 90th street, running at "race pace", which is the speed at which we would race a 10K. When we got to 90th street we would do a recovery jog/walk on the bridal path south to about 86th street, then run at "warm up" pace down to the boat house, then jog for 100 yards to 72nd street and race for a mile once again back to 90th.

On my first interval I went faster than I should have, closer to a 6:20 mile than a 6:48 mile (my 10K race pace). On my 2nd one I stopped for 5 or 6 seconds to ask my friend if she was ok, it looked like she was heaving over on the sidelines during her recovery jog between the boathouse and 72nd. She said she was ok and I took off to try and catch my pace group members. I started flying faster than I had ever ran before. I flew by the 12:00 mile group, weaving in and out of people, then the 11:00's, 10:00's, 9:00's, and caught up with the 8:00's and went by them, finally getting pretty close to Pete who was well out in front of everyone else. He had not run the first inteval with us, so was fresher, and he had not stopped for several seconds like I did, but I still wanted to see if I could catch him.

As I passed someone he said "Go Bob!" and I turned and said, "Shhhh!" as I knew I would never catch Pete if he knew I was behind him, because he would just go faster. So my plan was to sneak up behind him and then pass him at the last minute. I made a tactical error at that point. I should have stayed directly behind him but I saw a group of people in the middle of the rec lane and an opening on the left (Pete was on the right). So I thought I might scoot up the left side and pass him, while hopefully the people in the middle would block me from his vision. As I made my move he looked over his left shoulder and I started laughing and put my arms over my face to conceal my identity but he knew what I was up to and he said, "Come on, let's go!" and took off. Of course I couldn't keep up, having tuckered myself out just to get that close, so I finished about 10 seconds behind him. He later wrote us that he had done sub 6:00 miles, so that was probably the fastest mile I ever did, even factoring in the stop at the beginning.

The above image is from a scene in "Top Gun" as almost everybody knows (I recently met somebody who has never seen the movie, which I found surprising). As the Top Gun competition is heating up, Maverick (Tom Cruise) and Goose (Anthony Edwards) say to one another, "I feel the need. The need for speed!" They are a team, Maverick is the pilot and Goose is the "R.I.O.". I'm not exactly sure what the "R.I.O." does; in the movie he is primarily there for comic relief. They go up in the air for that day's simulated dogfight, when they discover to their horror that their head instructor, Viper (Tom Skerritt), is flying against them for the first time. Maverick, in an effort to get in position to "kill" Viper before their competitor Iceman can, pilots his plane through Iceman's jet wash and loses control, causing their plane to crash. Maverick was cleared of responsibility, but it was not his first questionable decision during training. Earlier he pursued Jester below the hard deck, the lower altitude limit imposed upon the pilots during the exercise for their own safety.

There is a bit of Maverick in myself and many of the runners of the team. As marathon runners we tend to be "Type A" personality, competitive types who never shy away from a challenge. Often times I find myself disobeying our coach's instructions and running too fast. In some ways it is understandable, as running faster is the way to increase your overall speediness. But for instance with last night's workout, the point was to do all 4 intervals at the same speed. I ran top speed the first two, then slowed down to a bit below my "race" pace for the third one, and wound up running much slower than that in the 4th interval. So it is questionable whether or not I derived the full benefit from the workout by going off the reservation for the first two repeats, or if I would have been better served by doing what I was told and doing all 4 at the same prescribed pace.

I had another Maverick moment at our 8 mile training run on July 22, half of which was the 4 mile Race for Central Park. We were supposed to run the whole thing at our commute pace (the race plus 4 additonal miles immediately afterwards), in my case 8 minute miles. For various reasons, I wanted to do well in the race and post good numbers on the NYRR results database. The chief reason was that I had done relatively poorly at the NYC Triathlon the previous week, only beating 21% of the field, so I wanted to go out there and put up an impressive time. I raced the 4 miles at a 6:40 pace, finishing 124th out of 3,847 people, beating 96.78% of the field. So I felt good about that showing, but was kind of unhappy with myself for deviating from the training program. After I finished the race I waited a few minutes for the rest of the 8 minute milers to finish and then stuck with them for the second loop.

The problem with going too fast is most glaring on marathon day, where it is imperative to exercise discipline in the early stages of the race. You do need to keep those competitive juices in check, especially when you get off the Verrazano Bridge and the great crowds of Brooklyn start cheering you. Running fast creates lactic acid much more quickly than running not quite as fast does, so the fatigue in your legs builds up rapidly and ruins you for the latter half of the race if you are not careful. It is better to do your racing at the end of the race, because when the race ends, it doesn't matter how tired your legs are. Running fast for the first half of the race is just going to make the second half of the marathon pure torture.

Going the Distance

2006-08-22T12:01:00.000-04:00

"Nobody's ever gone the distance with Creed, and if I can go that distance, you see, and that bell rings and I'm still standin', I'm gonna know for the first time in my life, see, that I weren't just another bum from the neighborhood." - Rocky Balboa (Sylvester Stallone), Rocky 1976

Pam Block, a member of TFK dating back to last year, organized an outing to Bryant Park in Manhattan for the last installment of the HBO / Citi Summer Concert Series. The film was "Rocky", the 1976 Academy Award Winner for Best Picture and Best Director. Sylvester Stallone was a double nominee for writing the original screenplay (see below for his inspiration), and for actor in a leading role (becoming only the third man in history to earn this distinction, Charlie Chaplin and Orson Welles being the other two).

Pam and others had brought tons of great food, wine & other treats, which everyone enjoyed. The lawn opened at 5:00 and there was a mad rush apparently to stake out a claim to a piece of real estate, so she and our teammate Danika did a great job in securing us a great spot. I'm sure their running speed came in handy during the race. Hilary was also there early and brought some excellent spinach dip, which was a big hit.

I got to meet some new members of the team, some of whom even professed to be fans of this blog, which is nice. It's always good to know that there's somebody out there! Here is another blog I learned of while there, and Danika has links to two other TFK members' blogs as well:

http://danikaruns.blogspot.com

"Rocky" is a great film and was very inspirational to all of us. Unfortunately I had made plans for later that night (that's right, 10:00 p.m. on a Monday night, that's how I roll!) So I had to leave before Rocky started training and of course the fight itself, which are the best parts. There is a strong parallel between his story and ours. Rocky is slated to compete in an athletic event which is set for a date a couple of months away and he knows he has to train hard for it, otherwise he will be in a world of hurt when the day arrives. He knows he can't win it, but he knows just making it to the finish will be a tremendous accomplishment, so that is where he sets his sights. I've run marathons after training like Rocky did (last year with TFK), and after training like Apollo did (San Diego in 2001, longest training run 13 miles). Believe me I felt great at the end last year, and felt like I had gone 15 rounds when I stumbled across the finish line in San Diego 5 years ago.

We can all identify with the scene where Rocky goes through the city and tries to run up the stairs in downtown Philadelphia, only to become short of breath and have to walk. Later in the film, after having trained more and more, he is able to run up those same steps, and he bounds into the air with his arms outstretched when he reaches the top. He knows he is as ready as he is ever going to be, and it is time to face Creed. For those of you who are training for your first marathon, this is the feeling you will get upon successful completion of our 23 mile run in October.

Thanks to everybody that came out and brought food, especially Pam for organizing, and I'll see you at the next practice!

This is the true story that inspired Stallone to write "Rocky" (taken from Wikipedia.com):

On March 24, 1975, Muhammad Ali fought Chuck Wepner in Cleveland, a fight that was to inspire the Academy Award winning movie "Rocky". Ironically, however, it was Ali's opponent who provided the inspiration for history's most famous fictional pugilist. Wepner was a journeyman fighter who had been earning his living as a liquor salesman and security guard. Wepner had been dubbed "The Bayonne Bleeder" and, although he was ranked, he was considered hapless. Wepner, however, trained for two months and although he lost on a technical knock-out, he survived all 15 rounds and even managed to knock Ali down. Sylvester Stallone saw the match on television and the concept of Rocky Balboa -- an unknown club fighter who goes 15 rounds with the heavyweight champion -- was born.

Rockefeller was a milk run.

2006-08-21T00:03:00.000-04:00

In Joseph Heller's "Catch-22", set in Italy during World War II, the Bologna mission was one that all the members of the bombing squadron looked forward to with dread. They all thought the city would be heavily defended by the Germans and that they would come under deadly attack from anti-aircraft fire when it came time to fly overhead. It was certainly not going to be a "milk run", which is the nickname for a mission where little or no enemy resistance is encountered. Fearing for his life, the protagonist / bombardier Yossarian sabotaged the intercom in his plane and convinced the pilot to return to base. Later that day, when Yossarian looked to the sky and saw every single plane but his returning in formation, unscathed, he assumed that weather had prevented them from seeing the target, scuttling the mission. As it turned out, after all the nervous anticipation and fear, Heller sums up the reality of what happened in one great sentence. "Bologna was a milk run". This is the type of irony that the great novel is laden with, you should check it out if they didn't make you read it in high school, it's one of the greatest (and funniest) books ever written.

I've mentioned in this blog how brutal Rockefeller was last year and how everyone, including myself, was scared for today's run. Amazingly I actually had a very easy time of it today, and most of the people I spoke with after the run felt the same way. The heat was not nearly as severe as last year. Today it was probably in the high 70's or low 80's, whereas last year it was 96 degrees, and felt like over 100 with the heat index. I was injured for last year's run which made it particularly tough on me, and even though I am recovering from jaw surgery, I found that I was able to run just fine. I decided to take it easy and ran with the 9:00 pace group, a full minute slower than normal, which made things a lot easier. Also the coaches cut out one of the tougher hills from our previous foray into the woods, and finally I think we had more volunteers with more water and Gatorade available out on the course.

So a good time was had by all and I'm in good health and ready for the next challenges that lay in store for us.

It could be worse...

2006-08-19T19:48:00.000-04:00

8 days post op and still experiencing some pain in my jaw. Tomorrow is the brutal Rockefller Park in Sleepy Hollow, NY. Every vet I talk to has been dreading this run, those who were there last year and felt the pain, as well as those who missed it but heard tell of what lay in store for them. But this is why we train, to get stronger, and what we will do tomorrow really pales in comparison to what some of my teammates did today in Colorado.

My close friend Jenny moved out to Boulder a few weeks ago and invited others to join her in tackling the Pike's Peak Ascent, which is a 13 plus mile run straight up to the top of the eponymous mountain. There is 7,815 feet of elevation gain throughout the race. You start at 6,295 feet, which is 7 feet higher than the summit of Mount Washington, the tallest peak east of the Mississipi River. You end at the top, which is 14,110 feet high. My friend Jenny called me afterwards and said for many periods of the race you are not really running anymore, rather just walking or hiking or crawling up a mountain.

Jenny, Eugene, Erin and Dan all finished the race in fine form and with 98% of the precints reporting, nobody was injured (you never know, you can always wake up the next day with some undetected ailment, but everybody seems to be feeling well). Congratulations to everyone, you all accomplished something that Zebulon Pike never did, and that is reach the summit. :-)

It would appear that Zebulon Pike was not the greatest explorer in American history. He was chosen ostensibly to explore the southern half of the Louisiana Purchase, but in actuality the General who appointed him wanted Pike to spy on the Spanish in what is now Texas and New Mexico. In his travels he saw Pike's Peak, but never set foot on it, only documenting it from afar. Part of his mission on paper was to find the Red River, but instead he set up a fort at the Rio Grande on Spanish territory. His men were captured, which actually amounted to a rescue, because they were dressed in summer clothes in the middle of winter and were suffering from frostbite among other things. Pike was taken to prison deep into Spanish texitory, which enabled him to make many observations about Spain's presence in the area, which came in handy when we decided to settle in Texas and ultimately take over that state and the rest of the southwest. I've actually found accounts of Pike's exploits online that paint him as the Clark Griswold of explorers, and its true that he was no Lewis & Clark, but during the expedition to Southern Colorado he actually was following orders and got lost on purpose.

2005 Humorous Posts

2006-08-18T13:34:00.000-04:00

Last year and this year our team uses a Yahoo Group to send messages to one another, about training runs, fundraisers, social events, questions about injuries, etc. Here are some messages I posted last year that got a few laughs, hope you like them:

Running Related Cleaning Tips

When you have clothes strewn across your bedroom floor, both clean and dirty, and you have doubts as to whether or not you just ran a half marathon in a particular pair of running shorts, I just learned the hard way that it is not a good idea to make the determination by taking the shorts in question and placing them directly against your nose and taking a deep whiff. I now advocate holding the suspect clothes 2 feet away and sniffing, and then moving them closer gradually, in 6 inch increments, checking the aroma at each interval.The 2 feet figure is correct for a half marathon, and becomes longer or shorter in proportion to the length of your latest run. For runs of18 miles or greater, it is best to ask your roommate or neighbor to perform the test. In other news, I just found the corn muffin that I was going to bring to the Brooklyn Half as part of a novel experiment invoving eating carbohydrates before a race. It was under a pair of pants, and I have tentatively slated it for tossing in the trash, as I don't think it will be edible on Sunday for the 30K. I will keep you all updated if I find anything else of interest or learn any more lessons this evening. Good night and good luck.

And the follow up:

Found: One Marathon Glove

I found one left-handed black marathon 5 boroughs glove during the ongoing excavation of my bedroom. I know that the right glove is lost. If somebody is in a complementary predicament please send me an email and we can unite my left glove with your right glove so that at least one of us will have a functioning pair.

And a response to a woman who announced she was unsubscribing to the group shortly after this post (this was several months after the marathon and many of us were still using the group to keep in touch and discuss offseason training and races):

"I understand you not wanting to get all of these irrelevant messages. So, should I just email you reports on my laundry situation directly? Does twice a day work for you?"

There was a flurry of emails about different marathons people were doing in early December, so I proposed this alternative for people who wanted to stay local:

Newer Marathon

For those of you New Yorkers who don't want to travel and don't like the idea of running outside in the cold weather and snow, I will be hosting an indoor marathon in the comfort of my studio apartment on the Upper East Side on Sunday December 18th. The race will consist of 7,685.33 18 foot loops around my coffee table. There will be water and gatorade stops on either side of the table (every 9 feet). Due to space restrictions the entry field will be limited to 5 people. Typical weather, thanks to an overzealous radiator, is 88 degrees Fahrenheit (31 degrees Celsius). There is no qualifying time, entrantswill be admitted on a first come first first served basis, so apply early. Coach Alem will be on hand with his bullhorn to shout encouraging words. More details to follow...

Resting for Rockefeller

2006-08-18T12:36:00.000-04:00

I'm still in a bit of a weakened condition following last Friday's surgery so I figured it would be prudent to skip the run. I showed up and said hi to some of my teammates, and did some push ups with them in my work clothes, but when they took off running I headed home. I saw my friends Alice and Michelle running by me near the Engineer's gate, didn't see them at first as I was engaged in conversation with others, but finally they got my attention as they were about to get up onto the Jackie O. reservoir path.

This Sunday we're going up to Rockefeller, which as I mentioned was very tough last year. I ran with Sonia and Craig for brief stints during that run. Later in the season I would join their pace group, along with Russ and Amy, and the 5 of us ran the first 16 miles of the marathon together. It was my first time ever meeting Craig, who does not have the physique of the typical runner. He is an avid weight lifter and in pretty amazing shape, not to mention a handsome guy, so when I first saw him on the path I figured he must be a jerk. ;-) This was a great illustration of the old saying, "Never judge a book by its cover." We exchanged a few words, and mind you this was 10 or 11 miles into the most brutal run of my life, so there wasn't a long dialogue, but it soon became apparent that he was cool, which should have made me hate him even more, but I quickly realized he was also a nice guy, so I had no choice but to grudgingly like him. :-( After the run was over Sonia took pity on me and gave me a ride to the train station, which is only 300 yards from the parking lot, which tells you how bad I looked.

There is one more interesting thing that happened on the run. Here is the post I made about the incident on our team's Yahoo group the next day:

It's all about the Hamiltons

During the Rockefeller run around the mile 1 mark I spotted a $10 bill on the asphalt, which I bent over and picked up without breaking stride. I think it may have belonged to somebody in the 10:30 group a couple of minutes in front of me, either that or they all have really bad vision. I completely forgot about the bill until later in the afternoon when I was heading down the stairs into the 86th Street 4-5-6 Subway station. At that point I saw this homeless man who frequently stakes out that location, a nice enough seeming guy with long brown hair who is usually hunched over, a little more so today than usual. I have always ignored his requests for alms in the past, but I remembered finding the bill and in my fatigue-induced haze I thought I might generate some TFK donation karma by passing the bill onto him. He was quite appreciative to say the least, but he then took a closer look at me and the way I was limping after the 14 mile run and said, "No sir, you look to be in worse shape than me, you keep it." Ok, that didn't really happen. He thanked me profusely and kept the money, and I felt pretty good about things as I hobbled onto the train.

It occurs me to now that the money might have been somebody's trainfare back to the city, but I really didn't remember when we were back at the camp after the run, my mind being preoccupied with water, food and the radiating pain in my left hip. So, to whoever lost the money, I apologize if you had to spend the night in SleepyHollow and/or walk back to New York. :o)

Bob

Trouble at the Overlook

2006-08-16T22:56:00.000-04:00

Ok there was no trouble, but there was a Team for Kids fundraiser on Wednesday night at a very cool place, which had the unfortunate name of Overlook. For those of you who don't have photographic memories and spend way too much time watching movies, that is the name of the hotel in Stanley Kubrick's "The Shining". This film still scares the hell out me to this day, but it was for the kids, so I entered the bar. Luckily there was no ill tempered guy in a maroon sweater with a bad case of writer's block offering to sell his soul for one lousy drink. No little girls in blue dresses standing spookily in front of one of the doors. No little boy riding around on a big wheel, taking time out to engage his index finger in conversation. There were no elevator doors issuing forth fountains of blood and no axe wielding madmen handing out attitude adjustments.

Not feeling too well, still a bit out of sorts from the surgery and Tuesday's run, which I'm thinking now may have been too soon. I'm starting to get some pain, but I'm going to stick with OTC medication for that and forgo the top shelf stuff prescribed by my doctor. There's a run tonight, I'm going to skip it I'm pretty sure, and try to get back to 100% for the big Rockefeller Park Run on Sunday.

Last year Rockefeller was the toughest run for me, as I was having pain in my hip flexor muscles from an injury sustained the Thursday night before. It was 96 degrees and there were insane hills at this place. Actually the whole experience was kind of like a horror movie in its own right. Nobody was killed but many of us were put through the ringer and would not soon forget that day. As our coach says, "Train hard, race easy." Gotta go, more later.

All Shook Up

2006-08-16T11:48:00.000-04:00

Today is the 29th anniversary of the death of Evis Aron Presley, the King of Rock and Roll. He died due to heart problems, not to mention his addiction to prescription pain medication. I had been taking some pills of this type the past few days as part of my recuperation from Friday's surgery, and they were pretty effective at alleviating the pain. The pills are known as Vicodin, generic name hydrocodone, and they don't eliminate the pain so much as they make you not care about it. It's almost like the pain is there and you are aware of it, but it's like it's happening to somebody else. I had taken these pills following a wisdom tooth extraction in 1995 and I had known from researching them that they were addictive (sending off to rehab the likes of Matthew Perry and Courtney Love, who is nearly indestructible when it comes to narcotics). So obviously I was going to follow the directions and discontinue their use the moment the pain stopped. Being a recovering alcoholic with nearly 16 years of sobriety I wasn't going to take any chances.

As it turned out I took my last pill at 4:30 p.m. on Tuesday (yesterday). I had to decide whether or not to run that evening with TFK at 6:45. I didn't think running while medicated would be a problem, I was worried that my jaw might not be fully healed and all the shaking and jostling of running might cause the wounds to open anew. But I figured since it had been 96 hours since the surgery and I got a clean bill of health at a checkup from the surgeons on Monday morning that everything would be ok. I also knew that on Tuesdays we ran on the softer surface of the bridal path, where the horses run, which would also cause less bouncing and impact on the jaw. I also resolved to run with people in slower pace groups which would also help matters. So I figured I had a good plan on my hands, and off to Central Park I went!

I ran with a girl on my team who is doing her first marathon, Diana, and we ran the first circuit nice and slow, and I felt no pain. The second time around, when we got to the "race" pace portion of the workout, she started speeding up, and I started speeding up, which I think all got started when some other people from our team passed us. At the end she pulled up lame and actually had to leave the practice early and head home. She told me later that she was feeling fine, which was a relief. At the time I was shaken up for a bit, but then our buddy Mr. Vicodin reminded me that things were going to be ok, so after giving her $20 for cab fare so she wouldn't have to do any walking to get home, I ran off to find some more people to run with.

I joined the 9:00 pace people, who are closer to my speed, and ran with them for a bit, before speading up and catching (and passing) some of the members of my 8:00 pace group. So the running was working out ok, and even after the drugs wore off I didn't have any extra pain in my jaw.

This morning I was exhausted, even though I went to bed at a pretty reasonable hour, before midnight. I could barely keep my eyes open and contemplated just leaving work to go home and go back to bed. I'm not sure if this relates in part to getting off the medication (I had 10 or 11 pills from Friday night to 4:30 on Tuesday, surely it couldn't be that addictive?) Or maybe it was just a function of doing all that exercise in a still weakened condition.

Well I am feeling better now, I had a couple of Tylenol 8 hour pills this morning which are doing their job, so thankfully I am done with the hydrocodone and don't have to worry about getting hooked. I often wonder why a guy with so much going for him like Elvis or Matthew Perry would get involved with pills, but with the Vicodin, at least they do tend to alter your consciousness in a pretty interesting way. I found this hard to believe, but I read online that the Friends star was taking over 30 pills a day. Pretty shocking, and I imagine Elvis must have been doing something equally horrifying if not worse in the late stages of his life. Well anyway, I'm glad the pain is over and I don't have to worry about going down the road Elvis went down, at least for today. Have a great night and long live The King!

A Look Back - My First Marathon

2006-08-13T23:04:00.000-04:00

I didn't run today, still recuperating from my surgery, so I figured I would write about my first marathon experience, which wasn't real pleasant thanks to my poor training regime, if you can call it that.

In 2001 I was living in San Diego and was leading a very sedentary lifestyle. I used to play quite a bit of poker as a hobby, which is legal in California, so when I wasn't spending time sitting at my office, or sitting in a law school classroom, I was sitting at a table in a cardroom. That's a lot of sitting, and aside from the occasional game of golf or taking the dog for a walk, I got very little exercise. In January, the girl I was living with at the time told me that our friend Trevor was coming to visit in June to do the Suzuki Rock n Roll Marathon. She suggested that I do it as well. That idea was somewhat out of left field, as I had never been a runner, and certainly was not in any kind of shape to run 26.2 miles. I had been with this girl for several years so I kind of knew what the subtext of her suggestion was. I was in a rut and knew it so I welcomed the motivational push to try and tackle this new challenge. The next day at work I hopped online and registered for the event. I was feeling pretty confident about things. I had run a mile in gym class back when I was 16. And I had actually run a 5 mile race on Thanksgiving several years earlier, and I was a smoker at the time. I had since given up cigarettes, and while my diet consisted largely of Double Doubles and vanilla milkshakes from In N Out Burger, I wondered how hard could the marathon be?

I went to the store and bought some running shoes, and then one day after work went to the gym at our office building to try and figure out the treadmill. I got on and tried to see how far I could run. As it turns out, it was only a quarter of a mile. Oh boy. This was going to be tougher than I orignially thought. A marathon is 26.2 miles and I could only do 1/4 of one mile, with the race 4 months and 1 week away. Not only that but the 1,320 foot journey made me too sore to run the next day.

Two days later I went back to the treadmill and tried to go longer, and was able to do a half mile. Woohoo! I was making great progress. Inspired by my amazing results, when I got home I did some research and wanted to find a good goal for myself in terms of a finishing time and saw that 4 hours was kind of the benchmark for non-professional runners to try and break. So I did some math and figured out what pace I needed to run, which was 9 minute miles. On the treadmill readout that is 6.7 miles per hour, so that is the speed I would program for all of my future treadmill runs. Incidentally, this is not the correct way to determine your pace. Your pace should be dictated by your ability and not some goal you looked up online after nearly falling off of a treadmill after a half mile "workout".

Although I ultimately got into a good 9 minute mile groove, I didn't like running on the treadmill at all. It made me kind of dizzy and was incredibly boring, so after I got up to about 2 miles I decided to take the show on the road. Luckily I was living in San Diego where the weather is always pleasant, and there are some nice trails to run on that are quite scenic. The main place I used to go was Crown Point, where there is a sidewalk with markers every quarter of a mile, so it makes it easy to track your progress and monitor your pace. The path winds around Mission Bay, a beautiful body of water not far from Mission Beach and the Pacific Ocean.

On my birthday, March 11th, my then girlfriend bought me a runner's watch, which was very thoughtful of her. So now I could time myself more accurately when I ran outside (for the previous couple of weeks I would just note the time on the clock in my car and check it again when I got back, not very accurate). So now that I had the watch and I had been training for 6 weeks, I wanted to see how fast I was. I decided to run a mile as fast as I could, which is a common method of training, to mix in a night of speedwork, but I didn't really know any of this at the time. This was on a Tuesday night, when I would typically run 3 or 4 miles at the usual 9 minute mile pace. I ran the first mile in just over 7:00, and was pretty exhausted after doing that. So I just walked around and caught my breath and drank some water for about 10 minutes and then started the stopwatch and made another go at it, back toward my car, determined to break 7:00. As I got near the end I sped up quite a bit and went flying by some people on roller blades who looked at me like I was nuts. As I crossed the finish line I clicked the stopwatch off, and when I looked down I was happy to see the readout: 6:59.93! It is kind of funny to think of it now, since now I can do sub 7 minute miles for a 10k, and once did exactly 7:00 pace for a 15K (9.3 miles), but at the time those 2 seven minute miles took a lot out of me. I was actually too sore to run until the weekend, having to skip my Thursday night run. But that is one of the thrilling things about running, reaching new limits and establishing new personal records.

I was following a schedule I had found online or in a book, doing a long run on Sunday and shorter runs on Tuesday & Thursday nights, gradually increasing the mileage as I went along. I had made an Excel schedule calendar where I put the proposed miles for every day, and then would update it with the actual results (the real miles I wound up doing, which would often vary, and the times). So I was pretty well organized and was living in a city with an ideally suited climate, had a supportive girlfriend in my corner, and plenty of weeks left to get ready for the race. Sadly, the wheels were about to come off of the whole operation.

On April 15th I did a 12 mile run, which I started in Mission Bay and went all the way to the ocean and then up the boardwalk in Mission Beach for a bit, and then turned around and came back. It was unseasonably hot, and it was a bit rough so I couldn't maintain the 9:00 pace, slowing down at the end to a 10:00 pace, but still not too big of a problem in the scheme of things. However, as it turns out, this wound up being my longest run before the marathon. For those of you new to the sport, what I should have done in the following weeks, and they were all laid out right there on my handy Excel schedule, were Sunday runs of 14, 16, 18, 20 and then tapering down to 12, 5 and then the marathon. Instead I opted for 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, and marathon. Don't try this at home!

After April 15th I was not as busy at work so there was really no reason to be missing runs. School ratcheted up in intensity a bit, as my final exams and a big paper were on tap for early and middle May, but there was still plenty of time to run. I had no excuse, I just wound up not doing the long runs. I would run periodically on Tuesdays & Thursdays, 5 miles at the most, sometimes only 3. I had started playing poker again, which is something my ex-girlfriend hated and was probably the driving force behind her suggestion to take up running. After all, running was much healthier and a much less expensive hobby. I'm not sure what was going through my head at the time, I'm sure we were having some kind of relationship difficulties (we would break up 6 months later). But mainly I was just being a lazy loser. In any event, with 6 weeks or so to go before the race, I essentially stopped training altogether.

The Friday before the marathon I went for a run around my neighborhood, probably only a mile and a half. This was the first time I had run in over two weeks. Sunday was going to be ugly; I had read enough on the subject to know that failure to log enough miles was going to cost me in the later stages of the race. But our friend was in town and he was doing it and it had been built up so much that I couldn't back out now. I had made my bed and now I had to lie in it.

At the starting line I realized there was one crucial decision left to make, one that might spell the difference between finishing and not finishing, and that was what pace to run. I could go out at the old 9:00 pace and see if by some miracle I could do it in 4 hours, or slow down as a concession to the reality that I had not put in nearly enough miles. Again, I made the stupid decision and threw caution to the wind. I did the first 10K in a 8:53 pace. The next 6.9 miles I slowed down to a 9:47 pace, which is attributable in part to a prolonged uphill from miles 6 to 10. My half marathon was 2:02:32 (9:21 pace), so if I could have sped up a bit I could have broken 4 hours. But that was never going to happen, as my legs were already getting sore. This represented the longest distance I had ever run at one time before, and now things were going to get difficult. I began walking through the water stops, taking a cup or two at the beginning and then walking through the whole station and then starting to run again after having leisurely drank my fill. Once I got to the 20 mile mark things got even worse.

At the 20 mile point back then (the course has since been changed) there was this really large hill that seems to go nearly straight up into the sky. I had to walk up it and it then we went down a hill of nearly equivalent steepness, which was also painful. After that I kind of started hallucinating, which is always fun. I began talking to myself aloud, kind of a Tourrette's Syndrome kind of thing, where I would just randomly swear under my breath in repsonse to the pain. One thing that kind of helped keep me going was that the pain would manifest itself in different parts of my body. So my legs would hurt, and they wouldn't stop hurting, but all of a sudden a new and more exquisite pain in my left shoulder of all places would come to the fore. This was actually a welcome break in the monotony and was almost entertaining in a way.

Another way I tried to keep myself sane during the torturous last 10K was to do math in my head. Now that the 4 hour goal was out the window I kept revising my time goal and doing the necessary calculations to figure how fast I needed to go. Doing math in your head of this nature is tough enough under the best of circumstances, but when your brain is not working properly it is nearly impossible. My 20 mile split time was 3:29:13, and I was walking at this point, so I came up with a new plan to just try and break 5 hours, which could pretty much be accomplished by walking briskly at a 14:30 pace the rest of the way.

I also resolved that I would finish the race running, so I made the conscious decision to do a lot of walking from miles 21 to 24. After the 24 mile mark, with 30 minutes to go, I started running again, albeit much slower than before, but running nonetheless. So when I entered the Marine Corps Recruiting Depot for the last few hundred yards of the race I was moving at a respectable clip. When I crossed the finish line the clock read 4:55:06, and my net time was 4:53:40. I was very happy that it was over, and I saw my friend Trevor, as well as his fiancee and my girlfriend who were volunteering at the finish line. I got one of those tin foil heater things and a banana and sat down on a box of water bottles, which isn't optimal (you're supposed to keep walking to aovid getting sore). But I didn't much care at that point I had no energy left and could barely stand up. We went and got some free food, mainly chocolate chip cookies for me, and then made the long walk back to the car.

The rest of the night I spent sitting in a recliner in my apartment, and I was incredibly sore and stiff the rest of the week. It was probably Friday when I was walking in a manner that was not reminiscent of Frankenstein's Monster. I did have a tremendous sense of accomplishment, but was not yet in love with running. Having run alone all during my training and then enduring so much pain at the marathon itself, the whole experience was not as fun as it should have been. Consequently, it would not be until 2 years later, in the summer of 2003 that I would run seriously again.

The difference between this experience and my first year with Team for Kids (2005) was like night and day. I almost never ran alone in 2005, I always had great people to keep me company. As my speed changed throughout training, I just found new people to run along side with no problem. I never missed a training run unless I was too injured, as I didn't want to let down my teammates or miss a chance to see them again. The results were vastly different, I completed the New York City Marathon in 3:57:34, about 56 minutes quicker than my first effort. I had run New York the year before (2004) in 4:41:20, which is one where I trained by myself yet again, but actually did an 18 mile long run and did not decide to stop running in the weeks before the race. So while 2004 was an improvement over 2001, and resulted in knocking 12 minutes off my time, joining Team for Kids was the key to breaking 4 hours and joining the ranks of the speedy amateur runners.

So the moral of the story is to join a team or at least find somebody else to train with, unless you have the discipline to make yourself show up day in and day out for your scheduled training runs. Even if you are the kind of person that has that ability to drag yourself to the park early in the morning just because the Excel schedule tells you so, joining a team is going to provide you with a lot of great friends that will make the expereince much more fun and memorable.

About the Program

2006-08-12T16:10:00.000-04:00

Team for Kids raises money for running programs for kids in New York and other parts of the country. Childhood obesity is a terrible problem here in the city and all throughout the U.S. The problem is particularly acute in many of the poorer areas of New York, as some school systems don't have enough funds to have a gym teacher or any kind of physical education at all. As a result, roughly half the kids in a recent survey were found to meet the definition of obese. Overweight children tend to grow up to be overweight adults, and they are 25% more likely to develop Type II Diabetes. They are also at risk for heart disease and suffer from low self esteem and depression.

The money you donate will go to establishing after school running programs, which involves having coaches, equipping the kids with running gear, and conducting races for the kids to compete in throughout the year.

Here is a video I made for the team that does a good job of summing up the whole Team for Kids marathon training program and who we will be running for in Novemberl:

http://www.carpenterstudios.com/TFKTrailer.wmv

Missed the 12 Mile Run

2006-08-12T11:29:00.000-04:00

The team ran 12 miles today, starting in the park near the Metropolitan Museum of Art, running over to the running trail along the Hudson River on the West Side, down to Chelsea Piers and back again.

Unfortunately I had surgery on my jaw which still is painful and swollen today so I had to skip it. The surgery seems to have gone quite well and I am optimistic for a speedy recovery.

Hopefully somebody will post about today's run and I can link to it or copy & paste it, as I am curious as to how it went.

Last year it was one of the two most difficult runs all season, as it fell unluckily enough on the hottest day of last year. The temperature was over 100 degrees Fahrenheit (38 Celsius). Running along the West Side there are very few trees or buildings to provide you cover from the sun, so you just cooked the entire time. The pace selected by our coaches was not a slow and steady pace, they had us doing accelerations throughout the run, which they mercifully said we could abandon for the second half. When we got to Chelsea Piers there was no water left to drink for me and my speedy brethren who all started later. I had been trying to keep up with Greg Roelants, Sonia Song & Amy Dold, as was Autumn Backman. We lost Autumn pretty quickly and left her for dead essentially at her insistence. Amazingly she wound up finishing the run a little after us. During the second half I had to stop and walk several times, it was incredibly brutal. When I made it back up to the city streets, Helen Hostin caught up with me and gave me some Gatorade, which was a lifesaver. That gave me the energy to make it to the water fountains in the park which kept me going until the end.

Ok I am off to get ice for my jaw, I have kind of a Michael Corleone thing going on from "One" ["The Sopranos" characters always refer to the various "Godfather" installments simply by their number]. Add that TV show, Entourage, and Seinfeld to the list of required viewing for maximum enjoyment of these musings. Ok, I am freezer bound, have a great day!

"I don't think the heavy stuff's gonna come for quite some time."

2006-08-11T00:55:00.000-04:00

It rained in New York today, and hard. There was thunder & lightning and some very cold, big rain drops. It was reminiscent of the scene in "Caddyshack" where Bill Murray is playing golf with the Bishop, who is having the round of his life in a driving rainstorm. You should remember it and if you haven't seen the film, you should go to netflix.com and have them send it over right away.

It started raining at the precise moment when we began our pre-run stretching exercises. It was actually kind of pleasant running in the rain, in contrast to the 100 degree heat we had to contend with last Tuesday night, August 1st. We were supposed to do hill repeats but wound up just doing a loop of the park. Overall everybody had fun, it was one of those situations that was so absurd that everybody was laughing and having a great time. To my knowledge nobody was struck by lightning, "which is nice" (sort of a dual "Caddyshack" homage there you may have missed).

Ok, I'm starting to worry now that some people have not seen "Caddyshack". If you are going to get full enjoyment out of this blog I will alert you to some of my favorite movies that I will probably be alluding to liberally up until marathon Sunday that you may want to watch so you can keep up with all the references. Here is a partial list:

Caddyshack
Back to School
Old School
Wedding Crashers
Rainman
Rudy
Breaking Away
Animal House
Casablanca
The Godfather I & II
Goodfellas
My Cousin Vinny
The Graduate
The Princess Bride
Raiders of the Lost Ark
Braveheart
Total Recall
The first two Terminator movies
Predator
Silence of the Lambs
The Good The Bad & The Ugly
Forest Gump
A League of their Own (which will always be some variant of the line, "There's no crying in baseball.")
Back to the Future
The Karate Kid
The Breakfast Club
Cool Hand Luke

Ok, I have to go to bed, and you have a lot of work to do. Have a good night!

Running for the kids

2006-08-08T15:25:00.000-04:00

Hi, my name is Bob and I am a runner. It is sort of like being an alcoholic, only not as healthy. My legs are sore and I've been tired lately. The photo of me above is from the Knickerbocker 60K race held in Central Park last year on the Saturday after Thanksgiving. I am the guy on the left in the bright green shirt, which is the uniform of The Team for Kids. The rationale behind the brightness of the shirt is it makes it easier for our supporters to pick us out of the crowd. This was not that important of a consideration during the 60K as there were only 87 finishers (I came in 60th). It is very handy during the ING NYC Marathon, as there are 37,000 or so runners out on the course. There will be 1,000 of us out there this year, 1 out of every 37 people should be clad in bright green.

The guy on the right is Alem Kahsay, one of our great coaches. Here is a link to his website:

http://www.coachalemk.com/

He runs very fast (his best marathon time is 2:14, which is a 5:07 pace). If you live in New York City and would like running instruction, he holds a class every Monday and Wednesday I believe, check his website for details.