Allez Spencer!!

I am truly sorry that I will not be in Chicago tomorrow to join Max as he paces/cheers Spencer in the Chicago Marathon.   I have had some of my greatest marathon moments pacing Spencer.  First, I ran miles 7-18 of Spencer's first NYC Marathon with him.  Then I ran miles 1-19 with him in the Hamptons.  Both were great days, both were great runs.  It is worth taking a moment to acknowledge that this blog and the Antitrust Marathon are products of the twisted minds of Spencer and (ultra marathoner) Philip.  The rest of us were lucky enough to be brought along for the ride.   I envy Max his pacing duties and wish Spencer a spectacular day!! Go Spencer!!

Goodwill and Reminiscing

On my way out the door to Chicago to visit with Spencer and, hopefully, to provide some moral support for a few or 15.7 miles of the Chicago Marathon course.  I spent the morning finally moving out the door years worth of clothes for Goodwill.  I do not kid when I report 8 blazers, 1 suit, 27 shirts, 15 pants, and other sundries took their final trip in my car.  Something about a bad internet shopping habit, a few too many Jos. A Bank "buy three get 17 free" sales, and an atypical and every changing body shape put me in this pickle.

While checking the pockets for $100 bills (none, I am sorry to report), I found the following gems:

1. An agenda for Friday, 3/11 -- of what year, I have no idea -- that included "class prep," "Liu letter," "swim," "run," "class," "Utah car rental," "Utah hotel," and "R__ & A__ paper."  Glad to report that of those I covered class prep, class, the swim, the letter, and the paper.  Has me wondering what fun I was planning in Utah!
2. Business cards from a big DC firm that was my counterpart in my last episode of law practice, together with an executive from a company for which my firm was conducting an internal investigation.
3. An agenda from a campus visit from a state school in the southeast where I gave a job talk before landing in my current position.

I also gave away 5 pairs of running shoes with plenty of life in them for casual use but little for running use.  They included the black-and-orange Asics Hyperspeeds that carried me for 26.2 miles in the Marine Corps Marathon (2011, 3:03:46) and Big Sur Marathon (2012, 3:20:change).  I have yet to find a pair of shoes that I love as much as I did those.

Randon Thoughts on Chicago Marathon Expo

I was in a mellow mood when I sauntered into the marathon expo this morning.  I played hooky today, slept in a bit and cabbed to the correct entrance of McCormick Place (the east building of the new expo center which is actually on the west side of South Shore Drive).  So my walk was about a block instead of 3/4 of a mile if I had driven.  Very efficient check in system, scanning a bar code sent me to station 34 which had my chip, and then a longish walk through the festival of commerce to get my check bag and tee shirt.

I actually spent about 45 minutes and $250 at the fair loading up on a heavily discounted pair of Kinvara 4s (now one model out of date), a long sleeve winter running shirt for me and my daughter, and a new running hat, gel, and cotton throw away gloves.  Browsed the various foreign and domestic marathon booths (I'm still leaning toward Budapest for our next antitrust marathon), picked up everything from microwavable fried rice (gluten free!) to string cheese and all manner of sample bars and tschotckes.

Then cabbed back to my neck of the woods for a Japanese lunch and the final massage and chiro adjustment.  Glad my tibia is back in the groove but that adjustment really hurts.  Back home, 20 minutes on the bike and a slow mile on the tread completed my race prep.  Tonight is laying out my stuff and packing the bag for L to hand me at mile 8.5. 

Tomorrow is taking it easy at a family bat mitzvah and then heading home to meet Max and a fine pasta dinner at Sappori trattoria. 

Over lunch, I enjoyed the complementary marathon edition of Chicago Athlete where I learned that there are 8 guys who have run all 36 Chicago marathons.  (Started in 1977 but no race in 1987 because no sponsor).  Half are still close to their original times with the rest anywhere from high 5s to low 10s.  This was inspirational in several ways including validating the notion that if I have to walk I will be walking.  I also learned that was passes for celebrity runners in Chicago is pretty sorry.

So now a day of heat ice rest and then either a rousing ramble through my backyard and/or a second induction into the marathon Hall of Pain.

Excelsior.

Goeff Roes on Recovery

Some here at RP blog may know the name Goeff Roes.  He is an ultramarathoner, a sometime Alaskan, twice voted ultrarunner of the year, who has won a good number of the major US ultras and set a number of course records along the way.  It may still be the case that Roes has won every 100-miler he has finished; I recall one year, when he was first breaking into the scene in a huge way, that he won -- and set records in -- four 100-milers throughout the year.  (Maybe not all four of them were records, but at least two were.)  He proceeded to break the record in the famous Western States 100 the following year.

Goeff Roes hasn't been racing much recently and I had wondered what happened.  This short column in Ultrarunning Magazine answers that question in a way that is not irrelevant to many of us here at RP.  Goeff Roes is working his way back, slowly, step-by-step.  Here's looking forward to seeing the man who I consider the greatest ever in US ultrarunning back on the leaderboard.

Race Report -- Return of the Shoes

Yesterday was Grete's Great Gallop, a half marathon that used to be run in celebration of the great Grete Waitz, and is now run in her memory, to benefit Memorial Sloan Kettering.  I last ran Grete's in 2004 and it was one of my great "comeback" races.  I had suffered a monumental slide after a depressing 2002 NY Marathon.  My return to form the following Spring was stopped short by an existential runners' crisis that is still too raw to write about, and had only really started to train well in August.  I was training for the Marine Corps Marathon, but without any great expectations.  Grete that year came as a surprise.  I ran hard and returned to the vicinity of 8 minute miles (8:06) that I thought I had lost forever.  Since then, I have viewed the race with great affection, though it hasn't usually fit my training schedule.

This is a similar comeback year.  I ran a disastrous Brooklyn Half, and a confidence building Superfund Run, but I really haven't felt myself for over a year.  Yesterday my goal was to see if I could hold 8:30s.  I think of that as my marathon pace, and I haven't seen it in a long time.

Short version -- victory!! Goal achieved (or close enough).  I went out a bit fast, running the first few miles at an 8:10-8:15 pace.  The good news was that my heart rate was at my usual hard half marathon level.  The bad news was that if felt hard . . .   I backed it down, and settled into what I think of as my "average" marathon heart rate (or slightly below).  The miles ticked off, and depending on whether you believe my Garmin or the official clock, I either averaged 8:29 (Garmin) for the race, or 8:36 (Official).  I felt good at the end.  I'm not going to pretend that I wanted to go any faster, but I certainly had gas left in the tank.  This is all good news for a successful (if not speedy) NYC Marathon in a few weeks.

Oh yes, the gear choice was the Kinvara 4s with Superfeet.  I felt fine afterwards.  . . Hooray!!

M Minus 7

Finished last run of any substance this morning with a leisurely eight on a beautiful crisp sunny fall day.  Now obsessing about the weather one week hence which is showing 50s (good) and rain (bad).  Next up get some of those disposable $2 cotton gloves in case the day is colder than forecast.  Then finish the short last week taper runs taking care of my dodgy left knee. 

Then the festival of commerce that is packet pick up and expo.  The trick with McCormick Place is coming in from the west so you don't end up walking an extra mile and a half (I've measured it off).  This year I'm going shopping!  If anyone wants anything, place your order now.

Still planning out my route of where my friends and family will be along the course, probably have to write the stops on my arm.  Then figuring out with Max where we will be running together and where I go into my deep dark place to finish the course while on fumes.  Last is laying out my stuff for race day and packing the bag of stuff and spare everything for L to hand me at mile 8.5 by our apartment,

For 1,095 days I have said "Not today".  One week from now, I will say "Today, I run a marathon."

Building a stronger Becky

I haven't posted lately, but I've been following everyone's successes with interest (and envy). My long road back to health can be likened more to an ultra at this point than a marathon. After multiple attempts at physical therapy, podiatry and orthopedics over the past 18 months, I'm seeing a new PT--one who I found via another running blogger. I could tell by her posts that she really trusted him, and she was traveling from Howard County to downtown Washington for her appointments, and that's pretty crazy.

This practice isn't convenient for me, nor is it in network--but I gave it a shot. My original plan was to go once a week during the month of July, but now it's October and I'm still at it. One of my previous PTs stressed the fact that if a course of treatment doesn't seem to be working after a few weeks, it's time to seek a new practice.

But I did start seeing some improvements--small, though, and not necessarily lasting--so I have kept at it. During my initial assessment, Robert noticed that I had barely any mobility in my left (bad side) ankle. Think about your knee coming over your foot during a stride--without mobility in your ankle, the kinetic chain doesn't work. In addition to my foot pain, I've been having a lot of pain down the side of my leg (peroneal tendon) so it makes sense that I was torquing it somehow.

The ankle stuff has improved with targeted stretches and some seriously painful manual work. I had a decent week of running while in Cape Cod and was encouraged. But the pain returned upon my return home, and even though treatment helped each week, it wasn't keeping the issue from coming back.

I was honest with Robert and he promised to really think about what else might be going on. While he was thinking, he and I also strategized about other things that might be getting in my way--namely the hours spent on the spin bike in lieu of running. I had a bike fit in the spring, but per Robert's suggestion I actually went a bit against the bike fitter's advice and moved my cleat as far back toward my heel as possible.

Over the past couple of weeks, Robert has done some additional assessments and discovered my lack of core and hip strength. I do a ton of (what I thought was) core work, but probably not the right core work. And I'm not surprised about my hips. So I've been learning some basic, but still challenging, hip strengthening exercises (like clamshells) and am trying to be as diligent as possible.

This week, Robert watched me run on a treadmill at PT. I've been through this many times before and the comments from the observer usually range from "Well, that's different" to "I've never seen a more biomechanically incorrect stride." I didn't get any judgment this time, but here's what I learned. I normally wouldn't post pictures of my ass for the world to see, but in the name of recovery, it's important.

So now I have even more work to do. The "vaulting" thing really throws me. How do I change that? I know that Ted and others have worked on stride changing with success, but I've tried it before and I feel like it didn't stick. Good luck to me!