Country Music Marathon - a humbling experience

Just finished Rock & Roll race #4 and have to say, it was a doozy of an experience. I was humbled by nature, the course and being a bit lax with my training.

The weekend started with an ominous weather forecast that projected severe thunderstorms for Saturday.

By Friday these predictions were proving to be rather accurate and Competitor Group had to devise a contingency plan as the storms were showing lots of lightning activity and possibly tornadoes. Definitely not something you want the nearly 32,000 runners signed up for the event to be stuck in.

The plan leveraged the design of the course. There were two places where race organizers could re-route marathoners in case the weather turned nasty and that's exactly what it did.

After picking up my bib at the expo Friday after work ended, I took some time to tour downtown Nashville. It's the state capitol and has some great, historic buildings. I knew I'd be seeing these sites during the race but they would go by fast. That night, Jen, Jocelyn and Debbie, all alumni from our Bay Area Team in Training group, and I got together for BBQ on Broadway street, which is the main drag in Nashville. This is a great place to go at night as it is filled with nightclubs and there's live rock and country music pouring out of each club. We ate at Jack's BBQ and had traditional Tennessee, Texas and Kansas City tastes, all for under $20 each. Excellent stuff.

As usual, I couldn't sleep the night before the race, but this night in particular we had the extra worry over the weather. It looked like the first storm would hit at midnight and be swept out of the area by around 5am. Turned out to be correct and so we opted to walk to the start line from our hotels.

The start was in Centennial Park, south of downtown where Vanderbilt University is located. The park has a life-size replica of the Greek Parthenon that made for a very appropriate backdrop for this event, as 2010 is also the 2500th anniversary of the marathon - or at least the fabled run by Phiddipedes from Marathon to Athens to announce victory by the Greek army.

When the race started it was a gorgeous morning. Blue sky was everywhere with just a small scattering of clouds. It was muggy which was about the only foreshadowing of what was to come.

We began by running past Vanderbilt and into downtown, then headed south to music row. This is where many of the Nashville recording companies have their offices including Sony Records who has the current hottest country star - Carrie Underwood -- and Chrysalis Records who I remember as the label for many of the bands I listened to as a kid growing up in Texas.

On the way out of music city row a spectator cracked me up when he said, "You're less than a mile from the nekid people, so keep goin'." By this, he meant a bronze sculpture at the end of the street called "Musica" that symbolizes the power of music to free our souls.
Nekid people - gotta love the south.

We then worked our way down Rosa Parks Blvd. and out to a nice park and paved trail that ran along the Cumberland River. Very scenic and serene. But by mile 17 I was starting to tire.

One thing you should know about the Country Music Marathon that the course profile doesn't really give you a good sense for - it is very hilly. None of the hills are very steep but the hills keep a-comin'. Here is where my training failed me.

Since the Dallas Marathon I concentrated mostly on distance training and keep up my mileage - I failed to incorporate hill training in my regime. It's a stupid mistake because I love hills and normally make them a big part of my program but I think I got a little complacent, feeling that the constant cadence of races in the Rock & Roll series would serve as my long runs and basically keep me trained up. Dumb. There was a big gap between Dallas in early March and Nashville in last April. I did do the miles but I think too early. I did my 20 miler - the gorgeous SF to Tiburon run - 4 weeks before Nashville and I think that was too long a taper.

After mile 17 I just couldn't hold my pace and with each hill I grew more and more weary. I knew there were hills but thought they would be mostly over by mile 11. Nope. They came about every 2-3 miles. The one at mile 20 really sapped me and the remaining miles would be a slog. They were also tough because there were very few people out cheering along this portion of the course and we had to pass the finish area knowing we had 6 mile left. While difficult, this portion of the course was very pretty. It went into Shelby Park and around some ball fields. There was a very pretty lake here with a stone bridge in the far distance.

All through mile 20 the skies moved from clear to grey and were now turned darker and darker. As I turned around in Shelby and started to head back toward the finish the rain began but was very light at first. However by mile 24 it was coming down more steadily and it was clear it was heading in a bad direction. At this point, the race organizers and Nashville police chose to step in and started to re-route marathoners from the mile 20 point directly back towards the finish. There were a few very disappointed runners, obviously but this was clearly the right call. And I applaud the cops for their stern approach. One got in front of an obstinate runner and said, "It's either back toward the finish or jail. You're choice." The runner turned around.

From mile 25 on the rain just escalated from here. With 0.3 of a mile to go I looked over the river towards downtown just as a lightning bolt struck the AT&T building.
That's less than a mile from the finish.

As soon as I saw LP Field I found a bit more speed knowing I was almost there and wanting to get in before the rain got much worse. As I entered the corral I heard a spectator call out my name, turned and there was Alex, also an alum from our Bay Area Team in Training team. He had finished the half and stuck around to cheer us on, despite the rain. Good to see him.

Between the finish and now (Saturday afternoon) the weather just went from bad to worse, then much worse.

I got back to my hotel before the rain started making it difficult to even see across the street, but that happened right outside my window. Lightning strikes in the Nashville area escalated from here recording over 850 strikes between 1:10 and 1:15pm - yep, that's a 5 minute timeframe. Doppler radar showed a string of clouds over the Nashville area that were showing rotation but none so far had turned into Tornadoes. Mississippi wasn't so luck as 5 tornadoes had already touched down there - and the storm that created those was coming our way.

After showering and slipping into a pair of Skins recovery tights - what a feeling! - and downing a PowerBar Recovery Bar, I got a call from my wife back in California who was super excited as she was able to watch me finish the race - live from the Competitor.com web site.
I had no idea they had added this capability - so cool! Hope they have this for all the rest of the Rock & Roll series.

Oh yeah, many of you know I'm not a big fan of country music so I wasn't sure about the band-per-mile on this run. Well out of all the bands playing on the course only 4 of them were playing country music. Everyone else was playing rock or folk. Sweet!

Next weekend is The Relay - a 199 mile team race from Calistoga, CA to Santa Cruz. This will serve as my recovery runs from Nashville. Wish us luck. We're team #4 "Are You There Yet?/SMS" and we're sponsored by PowerBar.

After The Relay you can bet I'll be revising my training program in preparation for Rock & Roll San Diego in June. While it's not as hilly as Nashville, to quote The Who, I won't be fooled again.

Thanks to all of you who have supported me thus far through my quest to complete the entire 2010 Rock & Roll Endurance Series. We've raised over $6,000 thus far but I have at least $4,000 to go. If you haven't made a donation yet, please follow the Team in Training Donate Today link at the top of my blog today!

Special thanks also to my sponsor PowerBar for all the nutrition and empowerment they provide.

New podcast interview - Running with Ghosts

Hey gang, a new interview with me has been posted to iTunes. It's with the very informative and entertaining podcast, Running with Ghosts, by quotidianlight. This interview is a bit different than the last. We certainly talk about next year's crazy goal of running every event in the Rock & Roll Endurance Series, talk a bit about my sponsor PowerBar, and how I got into Team in Training and the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society for which my fundraising goal is $10,000.

Please give a donation today.

What's different this time is that we focus on running and nutrition and the fact that both I and the interviewer believe in a diet that is low in carbohydrates. We both share our nutrition routines a bit but also talk about preparing for feats of endurance. I highly recommend giving it a listen.

After my interview, keep listening as our host talks through her ultramarathon in the Marin headlands. This is where I did my first ultra, too, so it was great hearing someone talk through this event.

A big reason to listen though, is that she talks through her nervousness before the race, her nutrition planning and gear selections. Then as she describes her time during the event, she relays how core training (like walking lunges) and cross training played a crucial role in completing her event.

Its really quite interesting to hear her diary of running and I highly recommend subscribing in iTunes today.

Have a great holiday!

Thank you New York!

My 19th marathon was a tremendous treat as it was the largest US marathon - the ING New York City Marathon. It took me four years to make it to New York because I chose the lottery route and was a three-time loser. You see to get into NY you have to either qualify - it's harder than Boston; join a charity team; or win a spot in the lottery. It was a serious challenge qualifying for the Boston Marathon, which I did at Cal International Marathon in 2007 with a time of 3:19 (1 minute to spare) but my NY qualifying time was 7 minutes faster. Yikes.
I could have raised money to get in but I am devoted to helping the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society and they weren't an official charity for NYM so my best route was the lottery. NYM's lottery favors people from NYC and the state of NY so my chances of getting in as Californian weren't so great. But they have a great policy that if you don't get in through the lottery three years in a row, you are automatic the fourth year. Hello 2009.
I travel a lot for work so we were able to use Hilton Honor points to secure free nights at the Waldorf-Astoria for the weekend and were off to Manhattan.
The weekend started with a trip to the Marathon Expo at the Javits Center, a massive convention center on the East side. Here I learned that more runners from outside the US participate in this event than those from within our own borders. This was very apparent as the corrals for international participants were packed and a million different languages could be heard. It was quite an experience.
Once inside the expo the Asics NYM official merchandise area was enormous and flooded with athletes wielding credit cards like ninja throwing stars.
I quickly made my way to the Competitor.com booth to officially sign up for the 2010 Rock and Roll Endurance Series - the whole series. As you can imagine, the folks working the booth were a bit surprised at my request but quickly pulled out the form and off I went checking off every single box. Yep, it's official. No backing out now!
The Competitor crew were great. They showered me with 2010 event t-shirts and wished me well. See y'all in Arizona in January!
There was an extra special treat in the Competitor booth - super star triathlete Sarah Reinertsen. She's an amazing challenged athlete who completed the Ironman Championships in Hawaii and was later a contestant on the CBS reality show, The Amazing Race. I so admire, Sarah, as she lets nothing get her down and proves every day that we can overcome any adversity through perseverance and heart. She was a delight to talk to and I picked up a signed copy of her autobiography. What a story.
Next up with saying hello to the PowerBar crew, especially the Team Elite managers. I'm very proud to support this organization who has been such a big supporter of Team in Training. They invited me to a victory party the night after the race. Sweet!
Next up was a quick visit to Runnerworld.com's booth where actor Anthony Edwards was spreading the word about Shoe4Africa, a great charity to help the youth of Africa.

It was a real thrill for my wife to meet him and he couldn't have been more humble and personable. Chatting with him was more like sharing experiences with another runner rather than being in the presence of an Emmy winning actor with an incredible resume. What a guy!
We took the next two days to see Manhattan and rest up for the race.
Race day started with a subway ride followed by the Staten Island ferry. It was pitch black out and as we crossed the water, the Statue of Liberty stood out from the darkness in majestic blue and white.
I think the ferry listed a little to the side and everyone rushed out to take a picture of Lady Liberty. Wish I had my real camera that day. The Blackberry camera just didn't do it justice.
After we docked we all made our way to warm buses that took us to the runner's village to await the start. It was drizzling a bit as the sun rose and Dunkin Donuts served as savior for us all by providing lots of warm coffee and pink and orange knit caps that were just the trick to keep the cold out.
The wait wasn't too long before we were in our corrals and listening to the national anthem.
NYM did a fantastic job with the start line. There were 42,000 runners this year and they split us into three waves of 15,000 each (that's the entire San Diego Rock and Roll Marathon per corral). These waves were further split into three color groups who each took off down a separate path for the first 8 or so miles. This start really kept the crowding to a manageable level and allowed us in Wave 1 to start running within the first 100 yards.
We crossed into Brooklyn which I didn't know from Newark until I got a patented experience. About half way through town out of the throngs of cheering supporters came a man with classically Italian looks and a cross expression who barked, "Hey, look what you're doin' to our streets. Get outtaheah!" He said it in jest (I think).
The crowds kept coming through Queens, over into the upper west side and on through to Harlem. Huge kudos to the Harlem crowd who provided the best music of the day (of course). It started with a killer gospel choir who were belting out inspirationals and ended with classic funk tunes from The Gap Band and Kool in the Gang. I think I logged my fastest miles in Harlem. Thanks, all!
We only got a brief encounter with The Bronx as took a quick left turn going from one bridge to the next and back into Harlem. Would have liked to see more but had a date with Central Park ahead.
As I waited in the corral for the start, I met a fellow Texan who was running his third marathon and first NYM, a woman from Anchorage running NY as her first marathon and a veteran NYMer from Connecticut named Amy who was hoping for a personal best. As the gun went off we all separated but weren't far apart most of the way. At about mile 17 I caught back up with Amy and we fueled each other for the remaining 9 miles. We were stride for stride through manhattan as we ran along the west side and into Central Park.
It helped a lot to have someone to pace with as we both held faster and stronger paces than we would have alone.
We turned the corner at the south end of Central Park as the crowds grew thicker and just as my energy was running low, there way my lovely wife leaning over the railings cheering for me. That was the boost I needed at mile 25.
Like most marathoners I am usually just holding on at mile 25 but Reesa gave me the lift I needed to pick up the pace and with Amy shortly ahead I was able to catch her with 0.2 to go as wel crossed the line under 3:30 - a PR for Amy, a third best for me.
Heat sheets and bottles of water were my usual solace as we worked our way up the long finisher's shoot and out. It was a fantastic run. The weather was ideal - in the low 50s all day an overcast.
To top off the experience, I popped over to the PowerBar party that night, after dinner with friends and got the rare opportunity to congratulate NYM winner Meb Keflezighi who finally returned a NYM victory to a US runner. I'm definitely patriotic about this but this win was all Meb.
He is an incredible runner, inspiration and role model for many of us runners. He was very gracious in his victory and even mentioned how those of us who run for Team in Training - beating up our bodies to help fight blood cancers -- are an inspiration to him. What a guy.

Run the ING New York City Marathon next year by entering the lottery today!