Running Some More

Winter started off very....well wintery...this year.  I got home from work yesterday afternoon with temps still in the upper 40's.  But the forecast was for the temp. to drop and some very heavy winds to be moving in.  I knew I had to try and get a 45 minute run in, so I immediately put on the running clothes and headed out.  It was a little rainy, but temps in the upper 40's are really not bad for running.  Once I get going I warm up pretty quick.  But, the winds were starting.  Not as heavy as they would get later in the evening, but heavy enough to make running a little difficult.  Also, when I don't eat the healthiest throughout the day, it tends to create issues when I run, and working with a bunch of bakers during the Christmas season doesn't tend to lend itself to healthy eating.  However, I did make it through the 45 minutes of running and got almost 4 1/2 miles in.  Not my greatest run at this point, but I've learned to embrace the bad runs.  If I can make it through a bad run then the good runs are cake.  Making it through a bad run makes it easier to push through those rough times in races.

This weekend I'm considering adding my 10th state to the states in which I've run a race.  St. Marys, WV is hosting a 5K run.  While it is expected to be cold, the winds should have died down and it is supposed to be sunny.  Better yet, this run is scheduled for 2:30pm, so instead of driving down the night before and staying in a hotel, I can take a little road trip on Sunday and come back without the added expense of a hotel.

Running is supposed to be one of the most affordable sports to participate in.  I'm not sure I agree with that assessment.  I have yet to find running clothes that are "cheap" and the registration cost for races continues to go up every year.  For those of us that participate in "destination races", the cost of travel of hotels adds even more to the cost.  It has become somewhat of a circle for me.  Running helps me to reduce stress in my life.  It's something I enjoy that I can pretty much do anywhere I go.  But in order to be able to afford to run, I have to work a lot of overtime at work.  Working a lot of hours increases stress, which I work off by running, which means I work more to pay for the running, which causes stress, which I work off by running...well, I think you get the picture.  I don't have deep pockets by any stretch of the imagination, but I do work hard to make sure I have something in my pockets and still be able to do what I love doing.

I made the mistake of canceling my vacation day on New Years Day.  My thought at the time was that I didn't want to use a vacation day when I can save the day for another time and get holiday pay for working.  However, what I forgot, was that New Years Day hosts one of the few races being held during this time of the year.  Having run the "First on the First 5K" last year, at a point when I was just getting back in to running, I would have liked to have gotten a chance to run this race again and see how much my time would have improved running along the same course a year later.

Next stop is Myrtle Beach for the Myrtle Beach Half Marathon.  That's not until February, so I've got a little extra time to prepare for this one.  I'm hoping for some jumps over my last half marathon, and also hoping to be down to, or lower than, my goal weight by then.  We'll see what happens.

When I Was Young

This morning I had the pleasure of doing something I haven't been able to do in a long time.  As I was getting ready for work I listed to a Christmas record.  I had decided the other day that I now had a room in my house with enough room to hook up my stereo.  I have not had my stereo hooked up for several years, and haven't used the turntable in an even longer period of time.

When I was young(er) part of the Christmas morning tradition was that dad would go downstairs and put a Christmas record on the Hi-Fi (That's right...I said "record" and "Hi-Fi" in the same sentence).

I've got a stack of records at home in my back room.  For those of you who are too young to understand what I'm talking about, records are essentially CD's made out of vinyl.  I had hoped to listen to some records on Monday, but after hooking up all of my stereo components I found that the needle had broken off the stylus on my turntable.  I was able to find a shop in Columbus that still sells parts and does repairs on old stereo components (including turntables) and was able to buy a stylus from them after getting off work yesterday.  I'll spend some time over the next week listening to some old Christmas records.  Some of these records are 50-60 years old, but still in wonderful condition.  After the Christmas season I'll look at getting some of my stereo components in to the shop to be "tuned up".  I've got a lot of records and cassette tapes I want to listen to.  But for now, I like the slight crackle coming through the speakers of a record that's not quite as clear as a CD.  I brings back a lot of memories. 

Memories of Christmases Past

I'm not sure that it's accurate for me to use the word "Memories" when talking about some of these pictures, because some of the early pictures I don't remember.  But in going through some photos I came across several pictures that were taken during the Christmas season that I thought I'd share.

Christmas 1968 at the Burkhardt grandparents' place.  I'm the one in the light colored suit standing in front of my mom.

I'm on the left in the white turtle neck.  This was taken at the Lyon grandparents' place on Christmas Day of 1970 or 1971.

This would have been taken at the Burkhardt grandparents' place with all the aunts, uncles and cousins.  I originally thought this was a Christmas photo, but it may not be.  Based on the size of my brother sitting on my mom's lap, it would have been taken in 1970.

Taken at the Lyon grandparents'.  Possibly around 1971.  In those days Santa would show up to pass out some gifts.

Taken at the Burkhardt grandparents' in 1972.  I'm the one in the puke green suit (But that was stylin' in those days) and back in the days when we used to get dressed up to go to the grandparents' on Christmas Day.

Earlier that same Christmas at the Lyon grandparents'.  How do I know it was earlier and not later?  Two things..first of all my brother and I are still wearing are suit coats.  Secondly, that was the "schedule" on Christmas Day....the Lyon's in the morning and the Burkhardt's in the afternoon.

Not only was the suit a nice shade of puke green...it was pinstriped puke green.  But remember...1972

Obviously, part of the Christmas tradition were pictures in front of the Christmas tree.  All of these were taken at the Lyon house.

These two were taken at our house in Groveport.  The tree was always in the corner by the front window of the house.  The smell of fresh pine and fresh baked Christmas cookies are part of what I have always loved about the Christmas season.

This picture was taken at the Groveport United Methodist Church at the Christmas Eve service.  I'm in the back row wearing the white shirt.  My brother Kevin is directly in front of me wearing the white shirt and dark tie.  My sister Tammie is standing next to the piano in the blue dress.  I think  you can see the top of my brother Mike's head right in front of Tammie.  He's the blonde kid with the yellowish shirt.

Christmas of 1984 at Grandma Burkhardt's house.  I enlisted in the Army and left the Monday following Thanksgiving that year.  I was in Basic Training, stationed at Ft. McClellan, AL then.  

Christmas time 1986 in front of the Käthe Wohlfahrt Christkindlmarkt in Rothenburg Germany.  1986 was the only year when I did not make it home for Christmas.  But to be at one of the most famous Christmas markets in the world during the season made it a special Christmas.

My nephew Alex and "Santa" at the Meijer store on Sawmill Rd.  If you shave away the white beard and cut the hair, you'll see that this Santa has a strange resemblance to me.

My nieces Bailie and Kylie with Santa at the Dublin Justice Center in 1998.

A Tale of Two Half's

No, the title does not contain a grammatical error...I meant to say Half's and not Halves.

At the beginning of this year I made a resolution to run two Half Marathons.  I had chosen the Cap City Half Marathon in May and the Columbus Half Marathon in October.  I did complete both of those Half Marathons, as well as two others.

As I was going back and thinking about this past year, and everything that's happened, I realized something.  In the Cap City Half Marathon I recorded my slowest Half Marathon time.  Now, that's not really surprising.  I had not truly run or trained for an event like that in quite some time and I had also put on some weight during my two year hiatus.  But, I completed it, and that was the goal.

I also realized that the Columbus Half Marathon, the 2nd that I had resolved to complete in 2012, was the fastest half marathon time that I have ever recorded.  Again, not completely surprising, as I had been training a lot more to prepare for this run.  However, it was a little more surprising because it beat a time that I had set back in 2009 when I was three years younger, had been running a lot longer, and was in the process of training to run my second full marathon.

In between the first Half Marathon of the year, and what would end up being the third of four Half Marathons for the year, I dropped a good bit of the extra weight I'd gained and trained a lot harder to prepare.

In total I ran four  Half Marathons in 2012.  In 2013 I will run five Half Marathons (Myrtle Beach, Lexington, CapCity, Philadelphia and Columbus).

I've now run races in Ohio, Michigan, Indiana, Pennsylvania, New York, North Carolina, South Carolina, Florida and Nevada.  In March I will add Kentucky to that list and will be 20% through my goal of running a race in every state.  

A Little Glimpse At My Christmas Lights

This video was shot while it was still somewhat light outside.
 

This one while it was darker.
 

Four Half Marathons

Well, I finished my fourth half marathon of 2012 and made it back to Columbus without too many problems.  I went in to the Las Vegas Rock and Roll Half Marathon a little nervous and a little excited.

Nervous because I'd never done this long of a run at night before.  Now, when I say night, the run started at 4:30pm (by the time my corral made it to the starting line and got going it was more like 5:10pm).  But I wasn't quite sure if I'd be able to prepare the way I normally would for a run of this distance.

Excited because, although my training was a little rough, the last few weeks of training leading up to this run had gone well, and my speed had continued to get better on my long runs. 

I went in to this run swearing that I was going to do it "just for the fun of running the Las Vegas strip at night" and not set any goals.  Just have fun.  But, like any other run, once I got moving there were goals starting to enter my brain.  Two goals actually.  One was to run the entire half marathon without walking (something I have yet to accomplish) and the other (which got in to my head at about mile #5) was to record a personal best time for a half marathon.

I'll let you know right now that neither of those things happened in Las Vegas. 

I got a little more nervous about things when I started reading reviews of last year's Las Vegas Rock and Roll event on line the day of the race.  It seems that they had several major issues with the race in 2011, and many of the runners were not happy.  Some were so unhappy with the event that they swore never to run another Rock and Roll event ever.  Not only did this make me nervous for the run that I was planning on doing that evening, but also for the other two Rock and Roll Half Marathons that I've already registered for next year.  But, having read the website for this event, as well as some emails that had been sent out, it appeared that the organizers had taken a lot of steps to improve the experience for the participants and deal with those issues from last year.

Overall, I think they did a pretty good job of handling the event given the number of runners that were participating.  At nearly 30,000 half marathoners, the registration was actually down quite a bit from last year, but it still made for a very large event.

Anyone who is familiar with Las Vegas knows that traffic along the strip is quite heavy, especially in the evenings.  But not on this evening.  The City of Las Vegas shut down the streets starting about 1/2 mile south of the "Welcome to Las Vegas" sign, all the way in to and including the streets of downtown Las Vegas.  There wasn't a single car moving on those streets from before 3pm until after 8 or 9pm on Sunday afternoon and evening.  This makes me understand a little better why the registration fee for this half marathon is the most expensive in the world, according to Runner's World Magazine.  The number of Las Vegas Police Officers it takes to shut down that many major roadways in a city like Las Vegas costs a lot of money.  Add to that the staff to run such an event and all the other perks and it makes for an expensive event to put on.  Now, at anywhere from $165-$195 per runner times 30,000, I still don't think they lost money on the deal, but I really can't complain about the registration cost after seeing all that went in to it.  I've run the Disney World Half Marathon, which was almost as expensive, and didn't feel like I got near the experience for the money I spent.  If someone told me that I had to run another half marathon for that price but could choose between Vegas and Disney World, I'd choose Vegas.  Like I said, I actually felt like I got some value for the money I spent.  Having said that, I don't plan on running an event that expensive again. 

Getting back to the actual run.  I started off doing pretty well.  By mile #2 I had settled in to a 9:46 per mile pace.  Much faster than I had anticipated.  I kept telling myself that I needed to slow up a little, but just didn't do it.  I maintained that pace pretty steadily until about mile #8 when I started to slow down.  My legs were starting to get pretty tired and feeling heavy at that point.  At about the 11 mile mark I couldn't run any more.  I stopped to walk with the intention of walking five minutes then running five and keeping that going for the last couple of miles.  That didn't happen.  After five minutes of walking I tried to start running again, but my legs would not cooperate.  At that point I was still on pace to run a personal best, but I knew then it wouldn't happen. I could not run any more. 

I can actually pinpoint what went "wrong" with this event.  Now, don't get me wrong.  I'm not disappointed with my finish.  I had gone in to this half marathon planning on "just having fun".  I was disappointed for a short time when I realized that I had to stop and walk at mile #11, and I was disappointed for a short time when I realized that walking would prevent me from beating my personal best time.  But, I reminded myself that this was just for fun, and I enjoyed the sights of the running along the Las Vegas strip and downtown Las Vegas at night.

My mistakes though, basically boiled down to three things.  One was that I put too many miles walking on my legs in the two days leading up to this event.  I guess it really wasn't the number of miles as much as the kind of miles.  The kind of walking that happens in Las Vegas is a little different.  I didn't rest my legs the way I should have leading up to a half marathon.  Mistake #2 was that I didn't properly fuel myself during the race.  Normally I'm pretty good about taking my GU Energy Gels at the proper intervals that work for me.  For some reason, I didn't do that this time, and that was the reason that I was unable to to finish the last two miles with the run/walk that I normally would have.  Mistake #3 was a simple mistake.  One I actually realized I was making while I was doing it.  At the pre-race area there was a "Refreshment" tent, giving out free food to runners.  I didn't eat too much, but it was WHAT I ate that caused the problem.  Anyone who runs long distances knows that you don't want to do anything to cause any gastro intenstinal issues during a race.  You want to be very careful leading up to and during a race to eat the right amounts of the right kinds of food.  I had been very careful throughout the day to make sure that I ate enough to not be hungry before the race, but not so much that it would cause problems during the race.  Then, while at the pre-race area, I ate a very large apple.  Not something I should have eaten at that time, and I paid for that late in the race.

One other factor, one that I couldn't control, was the weather.  Now the temperature was great during the run.  A little warm (even for Vegas in December) at 70 degrees early, it dropped in to the upper 50's to lower 60's.  However, there were some pretty strong winds that evening.  Gusts of 35 mph can play havoc on your legs.  Especially when you put that many miles on them.  Some of the buildings helped to block the winds most of the time, but when the wind blew, running against it was not easy.

I do believe that, given my performance through the first eight miles, that I do have the capability of running a faster half marathon than I have so far.  My next half marathon will be in Myrtle Beach on February 16.  My three goals are:

1 - To run the entire half marathon without any walk breaks.  Given my performance here in Columbus in October, I know that is a goal that is within my reach.  I was so close then, and I'm optimistic that Myrtle Beach will be the place that I'll finally accomplish that.

2 - Run a personal best time.  In Columbus I ran a 2:16:28.  My times have continued to improve, and given my performance through the first 11 miles in Las Vegas, I know this is something I can accomplish if I train right and learn from my mistakes.

3 - Run a sub 2:10:00.  This would require me to average about 9:53-9:54 per mile.  Through the first 8 miles of Las Vegas I was running a steady 9:46, and at the point when I stopped to walk I was running at 9:53 per mile.  If my times continue to get better, and I run the entire half marathon and I refuel properly, and I do all those other things I need to do to prepare, this is a goal that is within my grasp. 

I'm challenging myself a little more this time around.  Usually I set an "easy" goal a "medium" goal and a "hard" goal.  This time I think two of the goals are medium to medium/hard and one goal is hard. 

My legs have recovered pretty well after last Sunday's half marathon.  I know what mistakes I made and can work to avoid those same mistakes in the future.  I've got five half marathons planned for 2013, one of which will give me another state to cross off my list of states I've raced in.  I'm not going to put the cart before the horse, but I hope that by the time I run Columbus next October I'll be setting a goal of running a sub 2 hour half marathon.  We'll see what happens though.

In the mean time, I will be registering tomorrow for the Snowflake 5K run, which will be held in Dublin this Sunday.  If I'm one of the first 500 males to finish I get a nice mug.