Cha-Cha Changes

Have you read the book, Born to Run by Christopher McDougall? I just gave it to my daughter to read while she is at school (yeah, I know she has probably has more than enough to read) and I will read it again once she is done with it. But reading the book made me realize that my feet problems could have been caused by the over-engineering of running shoes. So this past week I decided that I was going to make some changes on how I run. I have not had any insoles in my shoes since I recieved orthotics early last year. I decided to not put in the orthotics in the running shoes and also leave out the insoles. I have run twice in the woods with my shoes like that and worked on running like I am falling forward, trying to keep my running steps on the forefeet. It is difficult to keep that form-the body has had plenty of time to adapt to the wrong running form. I have to constantly think about my form, to make the adjustments necessary to bring my body over the front of my feet. I have to tell myself to make quick, light steps and to increase the turnover, trying to take three steps in places where two used to do. Is it going to work? Only time and how I feel will tell.

Every ultra runner should volunteer to crew for a friend or even show up at an event and do so for a stranger. It provides you the perspective of all the non-runners who show up and crew for their friends and family time and again. I believe that it also can renew your own desire to run, increasing the commitment that you feel to just get out the door, to train and run like you were first starting out. When I first started running ultras, I did my first one alone, on the roads in Rhode Island at the Nifty Fifty. While it provided me with a good taste for doing ultras, it also clued me in on the fact that I like trails and that is what I wanted to do ultras on. So the next ultra I did was the JFK50 in Hagerstown, Maryland. When I decided to do it, I was not sure about how I was going to do, especially alone. So I asked Julie White (nee Pinkham) if she would be willing to come along and crew for me. She said yes and the rest is history. I ran and finished and Julie was awesome helping me out.
In late September, I heard from a friend that Julie had decided to run her first ultra, the 2009 edition of the JFK50. I immediately sent her an email asking her if I could return the favor and go crew for her. She said that while she had not been advertising that she was doing the run due to the fact that she was not sure she would be ready, she was more than willing to have me crew for her. Chuck Brenker was also going down to try for his eighth consecutive finish. Julie had planned on running with Chuck but he was injured and very worried about making it to the finish. Julie sent me an email on Thursday telling me to make sure that I brought along some running togs because she wanted someone to run with on part of the course.
The JFK50 starts at 7 AM for most of the runners but there is a 5 AM start for those people who do not think that they can finish in 12 hours. Both Chuck and Julie applied for and received the 5 AM start. We left for Maryland at 8 AM on Friday morning, riding in Chuck's van with my mountain bike on the back. We shared the driving, arriving in Hagerstown at 3 PM. As we were heading for the hotel, we passed the hotel that was the host for the JFK50. In we went so the the two of them could pick up their race packets and numbers. Julie bought me a neon yellow tee shirt that said Crew Support on the back. She also talked to one of the guys who were selling jackets and such, asking if he could put a jacket away with her name on it. She told him that she would only be buying it if she finished. He had no problem with that and put it in a bag with her name on it.
Saturday morning Chuck and Julie were up at 3:15 AM. I was awake also but I had the luxury of possibly going back to sleep. They had to leave the hotel by 3:45 to make it to the start for the briefing at 4:20. After ensuring everything they needed was with them they were off. I laid back down but was unable to fall asleep right away. I watched a bit of a basketball game on ESPN and then dozed until I had to get up to catch my ride at 5:45 AM. Joe Kairys, a friend of Chuck's, had met us at the hotel the night before with his wife, Selena and two of their children, Joseph and I am such a dunce, I forgot the name of their daughter. They were giving me a ride to the start so that I could pick up Chuck's van and head to the first aid station with crew access. After arriving at the start area, it took me ten minutes to find the van. I walked by it twice before I realized it was there. After a stop at a convinence store, I headed out following the directions provided by the race. They were excellent directions and I did not have a problem all day. I arrived at the aid station just after seven and the first runners were already coming through. Julie arrived somewhere around 7:30, feeling good and enjoying the run on the trail. Chuck showed up about ten minutes later, hobbling but gamely going forward. I walked with both of them through the aid station and up the parking lot road to the next trail area, making sure that they both had everything that they needed.
I headed out to the next aid area that I could access thinking that I was leaving early and would have no problems parking. Was I ever wrong! The area where crews could see their runners is not the actual aid station, but about one-half mile before it. The runners come down off of the Appilation Trail and head toward the entrance to the tow path. The place was mobbed with people standing in the intersection of the road. I found a place to park at the end of the road, hiked back up to the trail, decided that it was much too crowded and hiked up the trail. I found a very large rock that was flat on top and parked myself on it to wait for the runners. The trail at this point is a series of switchbacks coming down off of one of the high points of the course. I pulled out my crossword puzzle and enjoyed the time sitting there. Approximately fifteen minutes went by and the first of the early runners started coming by. I tried to talk to everyone that came by and all of the early runners would reply. It was not until the first of the 7 AM starters started coming by that there was no replies. They were more serious and more focused on moving ahead. Julie showed up looking great and feeling good and I fell in behind her, running down the trail to the road. She changed her socks, got a new bottle and I told her when I would next see her. I waited for Chuck, who showed up about 20 minutes later still hobbling and still going forward.
From this point the runners run on the tow path that parallels the Potomac River for 26.2 miles. My plan was to go to the Mile 38 aid station, put everything that I needed into my backpack and ride my mountain bike along the trail to meet up with Julie and Chuck. The aid station was in the process of being set up when I got there. I rode past them and headed out. The towpath was in pretty good shape, but there were area that were muddy and some puddles. I really enjoyed splashing through the muck. I met the lead runners around mile 32 and began what I would do for the next few hours-talking and encouraging the runners. Julie was looking good when we met. She had hooked up with another runner, Sue from New Jersey. They were doing a 7 minute run/3 minute walk pace and I think that it helped hold everything together for Julie. Farther back on the trail Chuck was walking. His injuries had caused him to over compensate and he was having problems with the other leg. It would continue the rest of the day. I went back and forth between the two, giving encouragement and providing anything that they needed to keep on going.
When the runners go off of the tow path, they run on the road for the remaining eight miles of the race. There was not supposed to be any crew on the road section. The race, in their notices to the crews, said that no one who was not a runner would be allowed to run on the road. So I told Julie that I would see her at the finish. I left her at the 38 mile aid station and after checking on Chuck, headed for the finish line. I thought that I might have missed her, but after going over the times in my head, realized that I was just very early. She finished strong in 11 hours, 58 minutes. Chuck struggled in, but had plenty of time before the cut off with a finish in 13 hours and 32 minutes.
The two of them were funny at times the following day. I drove the whole way back while they nursed their aching bodies. All in all a good time. Makes me want to run another one. Next year.

Too much over a short time?

What is too much? Since I am older than when I started running long, does that change how much is too much? In the last six weeks, I have done six races.

The first weekend was the Strides for the Handicapped. Of course, for me that was not enough. I met Pam for a two hour run at Bluff Point. Beautiful run in the early morning. After we finished, I drove over to Camp Harkness to run the 10K part of the Strides races. I went into the race saying that I would not run hard and amazingly, I did not. I ran with Karen Short for the first three miles and then I turned around to help a lady who was pushing her husband in his wheelchair. She was struggling up a hill and I had to help. I believe that her name was Susan; do not remember his name. I helped her up the hill and she said to go ahead, that she could handle it from there. So I ran to the finish line and turned around and headed back out to give Susan a hand. I met her about a mile and a half from the finish. So I added an extra three to four miles to the 10K. I felt great and enjoyed the run.

The following weekend I decided on Thursday that I was going to run the Hartford Marathon. Julie White was running it as a training run; she is going to run her first ultra, the JFK50 in November. So I decided that I wanted to help out. The day was beautiful and and we ran the 26.2 miles in 4:22:30.

The third weekend brought the Penguin 5K. Now, five kilometers is not bad, but the Thursday before I decide to try to play with my stride, working on running on and off of my forefeet. It can be difficult and trying, but I did it and the problem was that I strained my left calf. Friday it still was sore and I was worried about running the race. Saturday morning I ran the race. During the warmups, the calf was not bad, but I planned on running easy. Fat chance! The calf did not bother me and I took off. That was bad, but it wasn't because of the calf. After the race, I turned around and ran the course again (slower). By the time I finished, my left hamstring was killing me. That took too long to get over and made the race the following weekend something of a problem.

The Bimbler's Bluff 50K. I had not run this race before and had been looking forward to running a course that Jerry Turk had laid out. It had rained the day before, so the course was wet and muddy. Just what I like. I have written about this race so I will skip the facts and just say that I again enjoyed the run.

Taking a trip to run a race is normally a solitary thing for me. Carol does not go to races and pretty much does not like to associate with runners. She is not hostile toward runners; she just does not like running. So when she goes with me, it is pretty neat (at least for me). We took a trip to Washington DC with four other couples, taking Amtrack down and back. Riding the train is an easy way to travel. No worries about traffic, staying awake, able to eat and drink when you want and, on the plus side for me, being able to play a game of cribbage or two. Carol was going with to be able to see some of the sights-she had no intention of going to the race. So the Run Geek, Run 8K was a lonely run for me. NOT!! I ran from the hotel to the race start, ran way too fast for the first 4 miles and died in the last mile (8K = 4.98 miles). Came in fourth in my age group; not bad but the other people in our group did pretty good. An age group first, two seconds and two thirds. Not too bad for our little group.

Last weekend, I tried to run the Stone Cat 50 miler. So this was the final straw, at least for how I am feeling now. The biggest problem going into this was work the week before. I had to work second shift and two of the days I worked to 12:30 am and 3:00 am Wednesday and Thursday, respectively. Friday evening I left work at 9:30 to drive up to Ipswich, MA. I got to the hotel by 11 PM and was in bed by 11:30. So when I got up at 5 AM, I was pretty tired still. I did not feel bad and did not think that it would affect how I ran. The race started at 6:15 and I felt pretty good. The course has changed since I ran it 8 years ago, with more single track and starting and ending in a different place. Running through the woods in the early morning (it was very cold-I had planned on wearing one lightweight poly shirt and ended up wearing that shirt plus another lightweight poly shirt plus a light jacket shell. I kept them on, even when it warmed up a little later in the morning) was awesome and I was moving better than I expected. The first loop went by in 2 hours and 10 minutes. I went through the start/finish and headed back out still feeling pretty good. About one-third of the way through the loop, I slipped on a rock and twisted my right knee. It was, at the time, a minor pain and I kept on going. Unfortunately the pain stayed and continued bothering me, with the pain increasing the farther I went. I started having to walk for stretches. When I would start running again, it took a couple of minutes for the knee to loosen up enough to actually run without a limp. Another problem that was occuring was that I was favoring the right knee and unbeknownst to me, I was hurting the left knee. But I am getting ahead of myself. I kept on trying to run only to have to walk to relieve the pain. I took the one Advil that I had, but it did not help. By the time I finished the second loop (in 3 hours and 10 minutes) I had pretty much decided not to continue on. The guys at the aid station tried to convince me to go back out and I started, but turned around immediately and went looking for Gilly, the race director. He convinced me to do the 1.2 mile loop that the marathoners do at the beginning and that gave me a finish in the marathon with a fleece as the finishers gift. I left soon after and my left knee started to let itself known almost as soon as I got into the truck for the ride back. I will be visiting the doctor to have both knees looked at.

So did I do too much in such a short period of time? Is it just age creeping up on me? I am not sure yet, but I do know that I want to get back out there and run. I will just have to do like Pam for a little while and limit my running for a little bit to shorter runs. Once I can.

Bimbler's Bluff

7 hours, 22 minutes. Going into the 2009 Bimbler's Bluff, I was worried about my left hamstring. It still was sore when I ran on Thursday and I was worried that it would flair up during the race. Turns out that except for two times, once when I first started and once later in the day when I semi-turned my left ankle, it did not bother me. Unfortunately, I had stomach issues. I have not ever had stomach issues during an ultra. But this time it was a problem from the start. When the race started the weather was great. Temperature was somewhere around fifty degrees with a breeze under clear skies. I ran with my North Face pack on with the bladder full of water and a hand-held bottle with Gatorade. At the start my stomach was feeling bloated and queesy. I thought that it was just pre-race jitters although I felt calm enough. Around the back of the school yard and across the street to head into the woods. The golf course crew was out blowing the leaves off of the greens, sending the vibrant oranges, yellows and reds swishing through the air as we ran by in the woods. With the worry of my hamstring, I started out near the back and took it easy heading down the hill. With the rain on Saturday, the trail was wet. Certain areas had large puddles, mud was evident everywhere and the rocks were slippery. The rocks, by the way, were plentiful, sharp and of various sizes. The bottoms of my feet protested vigorously. It become very painful to run on the rocky sections of the trail. But the biggest problem was my stomach. Everytime I drank or ate anything, I felt bloated and nauceous. I kept hoping that it would pass, but it never did. Knowing that I had to eat and drink to make it through the race was disheartening based on how I felt each time that I did. I spent some time walking to get past the queasiness a few times. Later in the race, I discovered that if I passed gas, it seemed to get better and I was able to run pretty well. Of course, I could not pass gas each time that it occured. I left the fourth aid station and was told by another runner that the last aid station was five miles away and then three miles to the finish. That was wrong. I figured I could do five miles in just over an hour so when it became one and a half hours and still going I knew that I had been misled. It was actually eight miles to the aid station. It just took a bit longer. I passed a gentleman on a horse while on the trail. He stopped the horse in the middle of a big puddle to allow me to pass. Me being me, I was plowing through the puddles, enjoying the feeling of splashing water on my legs. The gentleman commented that I must be cooling off my feet. I replied that I did it any chance I could. The cold water felt great on my battered feet. When I had started the race, I thought that eight hours would be pretty good for me. Seven hours and 22 minutes was better that I expected considering my state of fitness. Mr. Bimbler put on a fantastic race with some great volunteers out on the course. I look forward to improving my time next year (or some time after that).

Doin' the stupid

I had planned on running twice in the woods this past weekend. Dummy me that I can be, I did not go either day. Friday I decided to run the Run with the Penguins 5K in Mystic since the race director is a friend. I would do the race and then run the course again to get in some easy miles. Then Sunday I would go out to North Stonington and run on my favorite trail. Friday at work I was able to get out for a run at lunch time and I decided to see how well I could do running on my forefoot. I read 'Born to Run' and realized that my feet problems could probably (this might be stretching things a bit) be blamed on too much cushioning in my shoes and running the wrong way. So why not give it a try, slowly, to change my running style. So Friday I gave it a try. It was not very comfortable and I had to concentrate just to keep it going, but I did it. I also strained my right calf, which seemed to get worse as the day wore on. So Saturday morning it still was sore and I told myself to keep it low key and just jog it out, hoping that it would ease up with the warm up. When the gun went off for the race, I actually took it easy at the start. Unfortunately, I did not keep it easy and by the time the race hit the farmer's field (with some very enjoyable mud) I was moving faster and ignoring the signals from my leg. But what I did not realize was that my left leg was trying to compensate for the right leg and by the time that I was in the finishing stretch, my left hamstring and left abductor were making quite a bit of noise. Do you think that hearing that noise, I would not go for the extra run? Of course not. Just who do you think I am? After getting home and getting cleaned up, I went out with Carol to do a bit of shopping, hoping that the hamstring would loosen up a bit. That did not happen. So Sunday on the trails also did not happen. I am nearing fifty years old and I would think that I should have the ability by now to learn from my mistakes, but in the case of running it does not seem so. I ran this morning to the fitness center and on of the trainers, Ben, showed me some stretches that have help it already. I ran easy for seven miles and with the stretches, I am hopeful that I have not put my 50K in jeopardy. We will see.

Shoelaces, a rock and the dogs Part 2

I was unfortunately unable to get back to this until now. So last Tuesday I went for a run in Vermont up Mt Kearsarge and over the top, running a total of around 9 miles in three hours. Carol dropped me off at the trail head on Hurricane Mountain Road at 9:30. The day was humid but relatively cool. Waking up that morning the temp was in the low 40's. The sun was in and out among the clouds with a slight breeze blowing through the trees. I threw on the back pack with the water bladder in it, kissed Carol good-bye and headed up the trail. If you have ever hiked or run in the White Mountains, you know that the trails are loaded with rocks and roots, which can make for a interesting run. The trail started going up right away, with it being runnable for a bit. As the grade got higher I settled into a good paced hike, keeping my eyes on the trail for the best line to go up. Fifteen minutes into it, I started hearing voices. I caught up with a group of ten hikers of various ages headed up the mountain. I greeted them and continued on my way. About five minutes later I felt my left shoe lace loosen. Now I wear Salomon trail shoes that have a slide on the laces and the laces with the slide gets tucked in the pouch on the tongue. I have never had any problem with them before. I looked down to see what the problem was and the lace had broken! I have never had a lace break during a run. Mostly they break when you are tightening them. So the lace had worked its way out of most of the eyelets, making for a problem putting it back in. I finally, with the use of a twig from the ground, was able to put it back into one of the eyelets. I decided that that was the only one I was going to thread it through and just tied it off at the bottom of the laces and pulled it tight. It felt comfortable and did not feel loose on my foot. I could hear the group that I passed drawing nearer, but could not see them yet. It had taken me about ten minutes to fix that and I was anxious to continue on my journey. The trail continued to be steep with plenty of loose rocks and the roots of trees popping up off the ground trying to draw my toes under them so as to send me flying. I was sweating pretty good due to the high humidity, but felt pretty good. I was making sure that I took a good swig of water every 15 minutes or so. An hour into the run, I crested the mountain. There is a climbable forest fire lookout tower at the top. It is bolted into the rock crag at the top and provides an awesome 180 degree panarama. I was regretting not taking the camera with me. I spent less than five minutes looking around and headed down the other side. The trail markings up to this point had been pretty good, with the trail not having too much deviation. But going down the other side, the trail became harder to see (in certain places) and the yellow markers were far fewer (or at least seemed to be). I was running more, with breaks to climb down the really steep patches. Ten minutes into this downhill, the shoe lace on my RIGHT foot loosened. What do you know!! The shoelace had broken! I immediately stopped and was able to grab it so that it only went through one eyelet. Who has ever had two shoelaces break during a run? At least I was able to minimize the damage and get back to running within five minutes. As the slope leveled out a bit, the ground got a bit mushier, with a small lake/pond that looked to be prime moose sighting territory. As luck would have it, I had no luck. Since I had no camera, it would not have mattered. At this point I really had a problem with finding the trail. It seemed to disappear into the mush and I could not see where it came out. There was no markings on the trees. I turned around and headed back to see if I might have missed something. I found the tree with the last yellow blaze and I had not missed anything. Back to the mush I went and started looking around for any indication of where to go. Along the edge of the mush, I noticed what looked like a footprint in the goo. I followed the edge of the goo, stepping on exposed roots around to some large ferns that I found out, when I pushed my way through, covered the trail and hid it from view. For the next thirty minutes, the trail would go for a bit and then disappear from view, hiding under the brush and growth that overhung it. The trail was on a pretty continuous downward slant with mud and water interspersed among some pretty runnable conditions. I came upon a rock garden with plenty of good sized boulders among the ankle turners. As I ran through, I stepped to the right to go between two boulders and brought my left foot up and ran it right into the left boulder! My knee solidly connected with the rock, causing the trees to blush from what came out of my mouth. It felt like, along with the pain from the impact, to numb a portion of my left quad. I knew that if I stopped it would tighten up and would be very difficult to keep going. So with blood running down my shin, I hopped and hobbled my way down the trail. I had started taking my Succeed tabs one hour into the run and was due for the second set. So I grabbed an ibuprofren tablet also and took one of those with the Succeed. I still do not know if it did any good, but the leg did loosen up. In fact I was running pretty good when all of a sudden two dogs came barking and snarling up the trail toward me. Scared the shit out of me. Of course the dogs belonged to someone who was back a couple hundred feet from them. He called them and they backed away. He spouted the standard line, "Don't worry, they don't bite." Maybe not, but sure looked like they wanted to. This was about twenty minutes after the rock and I decided that I needed to finish this run quickly. Unfortunately, I would have problems with finding where the trail went again. It delayed me and made me go back and forth a few times trying to decide if I had missed something. I finished in three hours and Carol was not at the pickup spot. She got lost trying to find the lot. So I started running down the road thinking that I was running toward where she was coming from. Ten minutes later I found out she was coming from the other direction. Once she found me and I got my knee cleaned up, I was glad to be done but also looking forward to when I could go out again. Of course, first off I have to find out about replacing the shoelaces.

Shoelaces, a rock and the dogs

Carol and I took off for the White Mountains to recharge our personal batteries for 5 days. It was part recovering from a long, busy summer of no real time off, with me having some long stretches without any days off. Besides the fact that my work schedule changes every week from first to second and then back again, not having days off with Carol meant that we rarely saw each other for a long period of time. So we were also reconnecting to each other. We arrived up at a friend's house on Lake Conway in Conway Centre, NH on Saturday afternoon, taking our time getting there. Frank and Lori own this beautiful home with its own private beach. The house has 5 bedrooms, with the two bedrooms upstairs having two beds in each room. There are 3 full baths and one half bath. The basement is set up with a TV and DVD/VCR player in one part and a game area in another part. There is a gas stove in the basement, a gas stove on the front (facing the water) porch and a wood fireplace in the main room. The main room consists of a well equipped kitchen with an island, a formal dining area on the back side of the room, a informal eating area and a living room/den area by the fireplace. There is plenty of windows and a small deck area off from the main room. It is a well appointed house. Outside there is the beach with a fire pit, picnic table and chairs, and a cabin. The cabin is left over from when the property that they own was part of a summer camp. They keep up the cabin to use when there is an overflow of guests. Another six people can sleep in there. The place is phenomenal! Frank and Lori are very generous in letting us stay there. Frank was there when we arrived working on winterizing parts of the cabin and pulling out the swimming raft and the pier where they moor their small boat during the summer. When we told him that we would be going to the grocery store, he told us to see what was in the house first and use what ever we could so that he would not have to trash it. So when we went to the store, there was a few things that we did not have to get. It was nice to reacquaint ourselves with the Conway/North Conway area. We were going for a hike on Sunday, so after sitting out at the fire pit with Frank for a bit, we decided to retire for the night (besides it was starting to cool off quite a bit). Sunday morning dawned with the temp at about 38 degrees. Not freezing, but pretty cool. Sunny and clear. Carol is not as avid a hiker that I am, so we headed to Crawford Notch to take a hike up Mount Willard. It is a relatively easy hike up to the peak at 2804 feet. We took it easy going up, stopping twice just to rest a bit and arriving at the top after about 90 minutes. We sat on the rocks with the other hikers, fed a chipmunk some nuts (he actually stuffed the nuts into his mouth and waited for another nut until his mouth was full) and enjoyed the sunny day. Going down took us only an hour (who says downhill is hard?) and then it was back to North Conway so that Carol could enjoy something she likes-shopping. By the time we were leaving North Conway, my left groin muscle was starting to really bother me. I had not felt anything while hiking, so it was confusing as to why it was being bothersome. I was worried that I would not be able to bike on Monday or worse, not be able to do a long trail run on Tuesday. After a very late dinner Sunday night and a couple of ibuprofen, I went to bed hoping it would be better in the AM. Monday morning it felt better but not that much better. I changed the rear tire on the bike (I got a flat while it was on the car rack. Something must have been kick up and it went right into the tire). After changing the tire, I did a test ride. The groin was sore but not so bad that I couldn't ride. So I told myself. I went out and rode for approximately 60 minutes out into Maine. At that time I decided that I needed to turn around because the groin was getting tight. No pain, just uncomfortable. On the way back, I passed a gentleman who had come out of a side road. He decided to attach himself to me and enjoy an eight mile ride in my slipstream. I guess he had been out for a while and enjoyed his rest to finish his ride. He was going to the same area that we were at, I did not mind at all, so it worked out for him. The groin was okay after the ride, so maybe I had strained it while hiking and the ride helped work out the kink. So now I am getting to what I started to write this about: a run up Mount Kearsarge and down the other side. A little over 9 miles, which considering my endurance right now seemed to be long enough. But I have gone on for a bit, so I will save the good stuff for the next entry, hopefully tomorrow.