Race Reports – Page 5 – BEYOND DEFEAT

RACE REPORT: 114 NJ Half Marathon – 1:43:25

Posted on May 17, 2015 by admin

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Why run a Half Marathon 2 weeks after Paris? Because the ‘Dad Posse’ and I do it as a tradition, that’s why. Spoiler alert: Ed couldn’t make it.

Jim and I set off from mighty Manhattan on Saturday afternoon. The weather was perfect.

We met Mike (and his son Kevin, who is also quite an athlete) at the Expo before heading to Val’s in Rumson for some post race nutrients. This place was awesome. Old school family restaurant… you know, the kind of place where you get a starter salad automatically with your main entreé.

The rest of the night was spent in Mike’s backyard drinking a few beers in front of the fire pit. Perfection.

RACE DAY

Mike’s wife Kara dropped us off a few blocks from the start. It was a bit chilly, but would warm up during the race no doubt.

I met Abbe and my cousin Gillian at the start (they were spectating) to say hello. Then, I ran into Aunt Margie, Charla, and Lindsey who were all running. Aunt Margie was doing the full, so she had her game face on.

In my corral I of course ran into my teammates. We were all chatting about goal times when someone asked me mine. “I have no goal, just here to run.” Hearing that, my friend Hannah asked if I would pace her. She was running the full and needed to hold 8’s. I told her no problem.

The gun went off and the team surged.

We saw Abbe and Gillian at Mile 2 and they looked very puzzled as they had no idea I was pacing Hannah.

We were nailing our splits. 7:55’s to 8 flat the whole time. I was having a good time pushing Hannah and helping her where I could. I was trying to hit the tangents as precisely as possible so I was instructing her as to when to move left or right.

At mile 11 we picked up Kate who would pace Hannah the rest of the way through her full marathon. I hung with them until the half marathon turn off, wishing them well.

Sex/ Age	Bib	Overall Place	Age Place	Finish Time	Pace/ Mile	AG %
M37	4451	327	38	1:43:25	8:01	61.00%

After the finish we headed over to a tiki bar that was 200M before the finish line. It was a perfect place to watch all our friends come through. There were a number of Gotham City Runners hanging with us as well.

Mike and Kara had us over for a quick bbq before we all headed back towards the city. It was a great weekend! Thanks to the Farley’s for hosting!

Big ups to my Aunt Margie who rocked a 4:19 marathon!

RACE REPORT: 113 Paris Marathon – 2:51:37

Posted on April 19, 2015 by admin

Posted in All, Race Reports, Running 8 Comments

Our adventure begins on a jet plane headed to France. Abbe had always wanted to run the Paris Marathon and I had never been to France (of course I like to run as well) so we entered the lottery and both got in. I’d like to tell you ‘I know a guy’ and that’s how we both got in, but it was just fate.

I really enjoy overnight flights as I imagine myself living back when air travel was glamorous. I savor my meal, drink my red wine and wonder what adventures lay in store. Once the meal is over I take a sleeping pill and voila, minutes later I awake at my destination. People often misread the warning label on modern sleeping pills. It says don’t drink wine while taking them, but what it really means is don’t drink ‘too much’ wine.

We arrived at our hotel on Avenue Marceau the next morning at 10. We dropped our bags off and then hit the streets.

Spring in Paris is pretty magical. Avenue Marceau is lined with beautiful trees blossoming with white flowers. We picked a place just down the block on the corner to sit outside and have some lunch. Abbe’s folks Linda and Dave joined us, they were staying just down the block and were part of our cheer squad.

After eating Abbe and I ventured into the Paris Metro in search of the marathon expo. I was immediately impressed by the Metro. Keep in mind, as a 15 year resident of New York City, I question everything that is not New York City. Trains were coming every 2 minutes, were not crowded and it was clean and calm. What was this strange land? We even transferred 3 times flawlessly. I felt at home, immersed in the Paris infrastructure.

The race expo rivaled that of the New York City Marathon. It was massive and it seemed every running company was representing. As I got my bib the older man handing it to me said in an accent, “You came all the way from America to run!? Bon Chance!” I nodded with a smile and realized I was mirroring the experience I normally have in New York as I marvel at all the out of town runners.

Abbe and I secretly hoped we would run into one of our Runner Army friends at the expo but alas, we were far from home and saw no one familiar. We headed out and back into the metro, embracing the 70 degree weather we were experiencing.

Once we showered and unpacked we made our way to the hotel lobby we had a drink and waited for Maura. That’s right, Maura from NYC (and Ireland), Gotham City Runner and a dear friend was popping over from her stay in Ireland to cheer us on. She arrived just past 5 and was ready to go have some fun in Paris.

We set out towards Georges V (or as I like to say Jorge Sank) and landed at this fantastic pizza place. It wasn’t NYC pizza (of course, who would even hope to find that outside of the city) but a brick oven version that rocked. After dinner we kind of bar hopped around the neighborhood (we were by the Arc de Triomphe).

SIDENOTE: One of the things I picked up on and love about Paris over NYC is that all of the outdoor seating faces outward. Imagine an entire corner bar with seats and tables looking out, as if the streets themselves were putting on a show.

The next morning Abbe, Maura and I set off down the Seine for our 2 mile shakeout run.

It was a blast and we saw many runners doing the same. My legs felt pretty good but they didn’t feel fast by any means. My mind wandered and wondered if I could pull off this PR attempt. We popped into a cafe for a quick breakfast… double espresso and a croissant, something I would repeat every day from here on out. Something I would come to love dearly. So simple, so delicious and so perfect.

Our goal for the day was to stay off our feet if possible. We met the Lewis’s and hit the Metro, making our way toward Ile de la Cité (City Island). We ate at another fantastic place that was definitely not suited for the vegetarian crowd. There were giant spits of chicken and pig in the front, and yet there was a clean and modern ascetic to the place. Bravo.

Walking along the Seine and into City Island was breathtaking. It really is a beautiful city. Not sure if any of you know this, but I went to Art School? I was an Art History minor and seeing Notre Dame in person was horrifying (as I relived all the papers and tests) and superb, looking up at the many facets and sculptures adorning it.

Big ups to Professor Joe Basile. Throughout this trip I thought of your wisdom and how it still resonated. From all of the architecture to basically everything in the Louvre information and historic facts poured through my head and I thought… “JOE!” Thanks for being a great professor and friend.

We hopped on one of the Seine boat tours soon after so we could get off our feet. We toured the many bridges that crossed the Seine, each one quite different in design and time period. Pont Alexandre (a crowd favorite) is probably mine as well. We also cruised past the shining star of Paris, the Eiffel Tower. Did you know that until it was built in 1889 the Great Pyramids were the tallest human made structure in the world?

After our tour we needed a refreshment. We saw in the distance one of at the few irish pubs that Paris houses ironically named ‘Galway Irish Pub.’

You see, Maura is from Galway specifically and knows everyone who lives or lived there. Seriously, we went there with her in 2013 to run the Connemarathon and she’s like the Mayor. Unfortunately, the person who founded this pub passed away many years ago so we didn’t get a name. It was indeed a great pub though!

As dinner approached we headed back in the direction of our hotel. We needed some carbs and the restaurant across from Dave and Linda’s place, Cafe Ceasar had been around forever. It was jam packed with runners fueling up for the night! We had to come back in an hour so… we had a drink across the street. I am a sucker for a European Heineken on draft, it’s so much better. When we returned we all had a fantastic meal. I chose the penne with bolognese sauce and was thoroughly full and quite happy.

We three went back to our hotel to rest up. My mind was at ease. Everything I had done up to this point was a perfect execution of my plan. 3-4 months of solid 6 days a week running. No triathlon cross training. Don’t do anything stupid; i.e.: rollerblading, random soccer game, break dancing on a whim. Eat tons of carbs the two weeks leading into the race. Get good sleep. All I had to do was race the race and unleash my legs, which were dying for some speed. Sweet dreams my dear runner friends…

RACE DAY

We awoke to a beautiful sunny 45 degree Spring morning. I felt great and had some oatmeal and an espresso. My start was at 8:47, two minutes after the Pros. At 8 sharp I gave Abs a kiss, said goodbye to Maura and did a quick warm up over to the start, which was strategically a few blocks away.

Exiting the hotel into the streets of Paris, I was emotionally overwhelmed for the first time in a long time before the start of a race. The gorgeously perfect weather, amazing architecture and more importantly everything I had been so focused and deliberate on the last 4 months was coming to a climax. The marathon (or an Ironman for that matter) is like going into battle. You never know what lay in store for you on the battlefield, all you can do is prepare, and I was prepared.

It was so well organized and very easy to find and enter my corral. I saw from the bibs that I was a long way from home, no USA tags to be found and yet, these were my people… runners. Looking around at everyone we all had the same look in our eyes, nodding quietly saying in whatever language was spoken, “Good luck out there, kill it.”

The sun was poking it’s head up over the buildings and I thought, ‘This thing is gonna get hot.’

My wave went off without a hitch and we set of barreling down the Champs Elysees. The sun was reflecting off the pavement and the obelisk of the Place de la Concorde cut through the morning sky off in the distance, guiding us like a compass. My legs felt free, hitting a 6:15 pace effortlessly.

My goal pace was a 6:25 – putting me across the finish line in 2:50. “Baker, but you seem to be going too fast?” True, but everyone is different. I normally fall to pieces during miles 21-24 no matter what kind of pacing I attempt. Therefore, I ‘bank time’ in the beginning. Most runners are opposed to the banking time strategy, but it works for me.

Back to the show! And a show it was as I knew my friend and fellow athlete Dougie was tracking me in NYC at 4AM while he was on his trainer ride. I thought to myself, ‘Dougie is tracking me so let’s give him a good race to watch.’ This also helped keep me motivated, knowing that Dougie would most likely start yelling at his laptop were my pace to falter.

Running along side of the Louvre was way cool. It was a long dark passageway. We were on the Rue de Rivoli, a street with a lot of shopping, which also had lots of cheer squads. As the miles ticked off easily I was hitting 6:17, 6:21 and 6:17. I saw Dave in the crowds as it’s very easy to hear your English speaking cheerers amongst a sea of Frenchmen. One of the words I would hear one thousand times during the race was ‘Allez’ which means ‘Go’ in French.

On Cheering: It was surreal and refreshing to not understand most of what people were screaming at you during the race. All you knew was that people were in the act of cheering and not saying things that might upset you like, “You look great.” “Last uphill.” “Come on you can do it.” “Almost there.” which are most likely false statements. Here in France I just zoned out and pretended they were saying anything I wanted them too. To me ‘Allez’ became ‘Tacos.’

I broke the race up into 4 parts… we were now going from Part 1 (city to Park A) to Part 2 (Park A) and were at mile 6. I was excited to see what these big parks flanking Paris were all about. My pace was still right around 6:17 or so. Perfect. I was also trying to have some fun and enjoy my surroundings, something that many of my friends told me to do. The Park, Boise du Vienesse, was very pretty but I really didn’t get to spend too much time seeing all of it. All I knew is that we went from city streets to wooded streets.

At mile 7.5 I saw this beacon of neon orange. It was Maura, exactly where she said she would be in her 2014 Boston Marathon jacket. I ran over and gave her a high five. It rocked to see her.

The next few miles were uneventful as I just held on to my pace, running through sunlit park streets. It was hot now, approaching 10 o’clock and I knew as we exited back into the city it would get rough. Section 2 of 4 was now complete. Section 3 was all city, then entering the final Section 4 which was the Park on the opposite end of town. Allez!

Something happened at mile 11-12 that almost ended my day. I was running hard in flying V formation with 3 guys, I was in draft position in back. We were running down hill and I couldn’t see the street too well. Just then a speed bump came along and I jammed my front leg into it stumbling forward and causing a lot of panic amongst my fellow runners. I corrected my form and everyone nodded, knowing we had just missed a ‘domino effect’ disaster. I admittedly dialed it down a touch right there as my heart was racing.

I hit the half at 1:22 and smiled knowing that I was having the race of my life (thus far) but that dark moments certainly lay ahead.

We cruised around a crazy crowded Bastille before making our way onto and along the Seine. At this point someone yelled in a french accent “Yea, go Gotham City, go Batman!” I threw my hand up in typical fashion laughing at the same time. Batman… Gotham City has so many other notable landmarks and cultural institutions but I guess ‘Go Metropolitan Museum of Art sounds dumb.’

On music: The bands in the Paris Marathon trumped the NYC Marathon ten-fold. No contest in fact. Every mile there were these pseudo marching bands playing rock songs with heavy, heavy tribal drums. No band lacked a good horn section either. It was very inspiring and the volume was at the perfect level as well. Sometimes in NYC it’s so freaking loud it knocks you around.

Miles 12-18 are run along the southern edge of the Seine and there is no shade aside from some car tunnels you run through. We were passing all the notable landmarks and it was quite breathtaking. I tried to enjoy it, although the now piecing pain in my quads made it tough. Paris, I now realized, was not a flat course and had some major downhills that I was now feeling. I was still holding a 6:20 pace but didn’t think so at the time.

At mile 19 we started making our way into Boise de Boulogne, the final Section of the course, which would also be most challenging. My legs were on complete fire now and my mind started wandering into dark places, wanting me to quit or stop running. I knew this moment would come, the real battle of the race, and did my best to fight on. My Dad’s birthday was the next day and I knew he was watching me from where ever he might be. I used him as inspiration and kept my feet going. ‘There is no pain, only glory.’ I welcomed uphills at every turn!

Mile by mile was how I was going to get this thing done. Miles 19-21 were 6:34, 6:41, 6:35… I was slowing up and fighting to stay with it, especially with the heat. I lost 2 minutes at Miles 22 and 23 as I stopped to stretch my quads. It helped a lot doing so, and got me from mile to mile. I also knew at this point that my 2:50 goal was out the window and started getting pretty down on myself. I even thought about walking the rest of the race.

I was having problems with reading my watch, trying to figure out what my time was when a race clock came by. It said 2:40:xx and I had just over 2 miles to go. “What?” I thought. I could do this. I could pull it together and get this shit done and maybe, just maybe get close.

I picked it up even though my legs were in crazy pain (good pain, not someone injured tweaked pain) calves feeling like they were going to pop out of my body. I hit a sub 7 for mile 25. One to go.

The blinding hot sun was beating down on me. I was pouring water all over my body and directly onto my calves to numb them, which had been working!

7 flat for mile 26.

I turned a corner to finish, the Arc dead ahead, and was ecstatic to see a 2:53 on the clock (I started 2 minutes after keep in mind so that meant 2:51 for me.) I had PR’d by 3 minutes and was just shy of my 2:50 goal! I started laughing out loud and let out a “Fuck.” Paris almost killed me.

Sex/ Age	Bib	Overall Place	Age Place	Finish Time	Pace/ Mile	AG %
M37	3263	432	254	2:51:37	6:32	72.00%

I wandered toward the Arc and our hotel. I few of the locals congratulated me. The sun was out and I was walking barefoot in a park just next to the finish, it felt fantastic.

I found Linda and Dave back at the hotel. We had become friendly with all the staff and my friend Camille came over to congratulate me. “Fantastic Chris! Sit down, do you want something?” “Thanks Camille, yes a beer and a sandwich please.”

We sat outside as I relayed the race info to my in-laws. We became concerned though as Dave saw Abbe at the Half and she wasn’t having a good time. Evidently it can be a very crowed race (54,000 runners) the further back you start.

Thankfully though, we found her. She had PR’d as well and broken 4 hours! It was time to celebrate.

Dave, Linda, Abbe Maura and I went out on the town. First to a cute spot right down the block (Le Grand Corona) where we sat outside having booze. Then, we had a fantastic french meal at Chez Andre. We finished the night at the hotel bar, happy as clams.

—

Big ups to all the runners who ran Paris, it was a tough day out there. Congrats to my wife who nailed a sub 4 with a huge PR! Congrats to my fellow teammate Hannah who also PR’d.

Thanks to Maura, Linda and Dave who were our super star Cheer Squad!

This race is evidence to me that if you are dedicated, focus on the training without making excuses (like, this winter was crazy rough) you can pull off an epic race. Someone who inspired me to train hard and stick with it no matter what is my friend Claire. She trained her ass of this Fall and wrecked the Chicago Marathon with a huge PR and a BQ. Thanks for the push my friend.

Running the streets of Paris was something I won’t soon forget. Thanks Paris.

RACE REPORT: 112 Rock n Roll DC Half – 1:26:35

Posted on March 20, 2015 by admin

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As the 3 o’clock hour approached at work, I changed out of my suit and into civilian attire. I bounded down into the subway heading toward Penn and blending in with the masses already commuting home.

Abbe and I met at our normal spot, the ‘Secret Place to Wait for the Train’ that we had discovered a few years ago. We were both very exited to get out of Manhattan for the weekend… our mini-vacation. Our train was called, we boarded and then departed right on schedule. We enjoyed a bottle of wine and a movie while we quietly cut through the afternoon landscape.

The D.C. Metro has quite a few flaws, one of them is that in order to exit a metro station you need to re-enter the metro card you originally used in the turnstile. If for some reason you do not have enough money on the card, you cannot leave. You are trapped in the subterranean abyss forever, roaming aimlessly station to station. Or, in my case, fueled with anger you hop the turnstile like a (smooth) criminal.

Once we surfaced, our hosts for the weekend Amanda and Alex met us and lead us to dinner at Lavagna. The race was the following morning so we fueled with pasta and of course, red wine. This race fit in snugly to our Paris Marathon training plans. We were to run the race at marathon goal pace and not ‘race’ it per se. This meant that we were mentally a bit more relaxed. Once I found out that Alex was also a ‘watch guy’ we proceeded to highjack the conversation splitting the table in two. All of us were in bed around 11, dreaming of a rainy, windy race morning.

RACE DAY

I decided to wake up with 15 minutes to spare (before we had to leave for the race). Abs and Amanda had been up for an hour already having breakfast, which I opted out of. I sipped some much needed coffee before Abbe and I headed out for our 2 mile warm up to the Start. It was 40 degrees and rainy but we were unfazed.

Nearing the Capitol and feeling slightly goofy I got into my commentator voice and started with, “We find ourselves in the Nation’s capital, home to freedom and the American way. Where bills become…” “Chris, not now!” from an Abbe who was not feeling my improv. Our timing was actually perfect. We jumped into our corrals and immediately started the race! I would later find out that although it looked like I was in corral 1, they had already released two corrals so this was technically corral 3. A minor setback.

The first few miles were spent navigating through runners and trying to get my pace up to 6:25. At the only out-and-back on the course, which happened to be mile 3 I finally hit my pace mark. I also saw Abs on the other side and gave a shout.

Miles 4 to 6 are spent in Rock Creek Park. It was wooded and quite a nice place to run. We wouldn’t notice it until the Finish, but by now we were soaked through from the rain. There happens to be only one really nasty hill on this course. It is at mile 6 as you are leaving Rock Creek Park, it’s a doozy. The reason it poses such a challenge is due to the fact that for the first 5.5 miles you are running on flat terrain then, out of nowhere from around a bend, you hit this hill like it’s a wall. The beauty of it all was that there were posters of fallen military along with people lining the entire hill holding giant American flags. They were on the course at times, so if you were hugging the turns tight (as I was) you ran through the flags. It was touching and very epic.

Back on the streets of our Nation’s capital, I kept plodding along at a 6:30ish pace. My legs were starting to feel the miles. One of my mantras is, “Just give it all you’ve got on this day.” I tried to hold true to the statement and just started clicking miles off one-by-one.

Passing by Mile 11 I got to see Amanda and Alex cheering. It was raining pretty hard by now and those last 2 miles couldn’t come soon enough.

I finished in 1:26:35 with a 6:37 pace. Or did I?

I was slightly off from my projected 6:25, but I was satisfied.

Sex/ Age	Bib	Overall Place	Age Place	Finish Time	Pace/ Mile	AG %
M37	1279	154	21	1:26:35	6:37	70.02%

Standing in the middle of a large uncovered parking lot my body temperature dropped rapidly. I went from a sweaty “Wow I just ran a great race, boy am I thirsty.” to “Get me the hell out of here and into a hot bath.” Looking out across the barren wasteland of a parking lot, I could make out off in the distance a glimmer of hope. Was it a mirage? Am I seeing things? I walked toward the light and as I got closer my instincts had proven correct, it was indeed a covered beer tent.

I took shelter and honestly really didn’t want a beer, mainly because my hands were numb. Not long after after my arrival Abbe showed up, also cold and wet. As soon as Amanda, Alex, Jason, Amber and Erik showed up we bolted out of there making our way to the Metro.

After showering we all headed to lunch for some much needed refueling. Later that day we went to Gregor and Jenny’s place (neighbors) as they were having a St. Patrick’s Day party! Gregor made one of the best Bloody Mary’s I had ever had, and I am picky. That night we all met back up and went out to eat. We were celebrating the race, but also the fact that Jason was now officially a Doctor! Our friends Jordan (another Doctor) and Katie (who PR’d in the race) along with Bradley and Christin also joined in. Drink of choice for the evening… Old Fashioned(s).

It was a helluva day for sure. Big thanks to our hosts Amanda and Alex!

In conclusion I submit this Runner’s Anecdote.

Sunday morning while having coffee Abbe decided to check the race results to see if perhaps I had won my age group. Personally, I thought there was no way based on my time and the volume of runners (15,000). A round of excitement and laughter erupted from Abbe’s side of the room. “Honey, it says here that you ran a 1:10 and came in 7th overall!” I started to question my Garmin. We all started trying to figure out how this could have happened. There were no other Christopher Bakers (obviously), no other Bib Number mix ups and there wasn’t even someone who ran my supposed 1:26:35 time in place of me. Did I run a 1:10? I mean, you get to a point in a run where your mind is on another plane…

In the meantime why not post the results to social media, right? What is wrong with the image below showing my final splits?

Not only did I run a fantastic Olympic level Half Marathon, I also shattered the world record for the mile three miles in a row in my last split. Go me!

After writing a letter to the race organizers, they adjusted my time to reflect that on my Garmin so that the true 7th Place winner can bask in their glory. No trophy this time Baker…

RACE REPORT: Manhattan Half Marathon – 1:28:21

Posted on January 27, 2015 by admin

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I normally don’t like to pay money to run around my backyard, but since my Aunt Marge (in charge), cousin Cat and Charla were coming in for the race, I was game.

They all converged on my apartment around 6:30AM. We had some coffee, formulated a game plan and were out the door by 7. They got to meet the Gotham City Runner crew, those that were racing anyway, at the start. The weather was great. During my warm up this gal screams “BAKER!” and nearly gave me a heart attack. It was my friend Rachel, also running the race. Right after that I ran into Abbe who was just running around the Park to get in her miles.

As I was stretching before heading to my corral, my old running friend Rowland popped up! We became friends because we run the exact same pace. Seriously people. During 3 of the 4 NYC Marathons I have run, around mile 3 I always look over and there he is, hitting the same numbers. This even happened randomly in Boston 2012.

He and one of his friends (I think he said his name was Doug) and I entered our extremely packed Blue Corral a few minutes from start time. I had run 8 miles the day before (and have been running 6 days a week) and wasn’t really sure how I wanted to handle this race. While chatting with Rowland he said, “I would be happy with anything under 1:30.” Hmmmm… I thought. “Yea me too.” And with that we were off. It took us 20-30 seconds just to hit the start mat, that’s how packed it was!

My legs felt pretty heavy, so I just kept a pace I liked. As we rounded the bottom of the Park things were still pretty congested. It wasn’t until we were up past Cat Hill that it opened a bit. I looked to my right and there was Rowland and Doug. For the rest of the race, the three of us acted as team, running in V Formation. We ramped our pace from 7:15 to around a 6:40 at times, passing people like F-15s.

At Engineer’s Gate I saw Uncle John cheering and gave him a shout.

Then, barreling down Harlem Hill we saw Abbe coming the other way and gave a shout. I looked over at the guys and said, “That’s the Mrs.” At the top of Harlem Hill we were kind of murmuring how we were disappointed we had to come back around and run it again.

We also saw Craig who was snapping photos for GCR!

I had no watch on, so I was just running to run. It was great. As we hit the 6 mile mark back at the start the clock read 40:xx.

By now my heavy legs no longer felt heavy. This whole running 6 days a week thing has been strange and exciting for me. I have only ever run 3 days a week with my highest mileage being in the 35 mile range. I would be at 45 miles this week after completing the Half and my legs have never felt better (overall, not in current race time). There hasn’t even been the slightest hint of pain or injury. Enough! Back to the race.

Miles 8, 9 and 10 happened to go by pretty quickly. The sun was out and it was a beautiful day! We were taking turns leading and following each other and by now aside from a cheer when we ascended a hill, there was zero talking. I was having a blast.

At the last mile we all fell apart a bit. I was feeling really good so I started pulling away. I had 7 or 8 minutes left to get in under 1:30 and my mind was spinning. By now we were catching up with the back of the race so there was a lot of ‘bobbin and weavin’ going on. I ended up finishing in 1:28 and change.

Sex/ Age	Bib	Overall Place	Age Place	Finish Time	Pace/ Mile	AG %
M36	122	130	17	1:28:21	6:45	67.86%

I found Craig, who was now at the finish taking pictures and hung with him before setting out to find my family. Uncle John, cousin Gillian, Dave and Lindsey were all cheering about 100 meters from the finish. Right as I found them Aunt Margie cruised by on her way to a sub 2 finish, followed by Cat! This was Cat’s first Half Marathon and I was very proud of her for not only completing the course, but also finishing in a very respectable time! Shortly after Dave’s wife Charla finished. That was our cue to head back to my place where Abbe was making a breakfast pizza. Whaaaat? Yes, pizza for breakfast, try it sometime.

After showering we all went down to Kinsale to celebrate. It was a great finish to the week. Congrats to all!

RACE REPORT: 103 Eagleman – 5:21:22

Posted on June 11, 2014 by admin

Posted in All, Race Reports, Triathlon 2 Comments

Last season was a bust for me due to my ongoing knee problem. I only raced 1 (that’s right 1) triathlon! My friend Doug suggested we rock Eagleman 70.3 to set off the season. It would be his first attempt at the distance and I was excited to be a part of that.

We left might Manhattan at noon on Saturday. In tow we had Doug, his fiance Danika (also a friend of mine) and his youngest daughter Madison. Madison has already rocked out a few triathlons at the age of 8! She wanted to see what a 70.3 was all about.

We had a fun car ride down and got to Cambridge with 2 hours to spare before bike check-in closed. The river looked peaceful and I was pretty excited to get my swim on the next day.

Back in the car, we had 20 minutes until the Belmont Stakes and a possible Triple Crown were to take place. We found a spot called Jimmie and Sooks and posted up with a few beers. Maddie had a Mountain Dew. As it turns out they had a few great pasta options on their menu so we opted to chill out there.

SIDENOTE: For those of you not familiar with Maryland crab country, we were in teh heart of it. I grew up eating Maryland Blues and I was so pumped to eat some after the race. Jimmie is a male crab and a Sook is a female.

Cambridge is a small town and so hotels are sparse. We found a room 30 minutes away in the lovely town of Seaford. Once there we did the usual pre race set up… mixing drinks, laying out clothes and setting alarms.

I slept kind of okay. One positive sleep related thing that happened was when I awoke thinking it was go time and I actually (after checking the clock) had 2 more hours! Wooooo!

RACE DAY

We woke up at 5 and were out the door by 5:15. Both Doug and I did not feel hungry, a great sign. In all of my races, especially the more recent ones, I have mastered this. Setting up the glucose stores so that you need minimal fuel for the morning sets the stage for a good day.

While in transition they made the announcement that wetsuits would be illegal as the water temps were over 76.1 degrees. (This sets the stage for what lay ahead weather wise.) I was pissed for a hot second and then shrugged it off. The Choptank River looked nice and I was psyched to just splash around with my fellow triathletes. I have never been a solid swimmer and so I make up for it on the bike and run. Better to chase then to be chased. The only thing that pissed me off was that I wanted to swim topless (woooo0) and then they announced everyone must wear a top. Gotham City Runners’ tri kits aren’t in yet, so I was going to wear a running top after I got out of the water. Now I had to wear it for the swim. Whatever.

Doug and I were in like Wave 11 almost an hour after the 6:45 start so we just chilled out watching the swimmers. I ran into my friend Pat who is a local NYC runner I know who races for the Flyers.

I don’t know what my deal is, but I had zero nervousness going into this, like nothing. Maybe this comes with experience? Maybe it comes from me not giving a damn and just being excited to race? Whatever it is, I liked the feeling.

5 minutes until our wave start they announced that you in fact now did NOT need to wear a top. Great, thanks for the heads up guys. No way I could get my race top for the bike and run back up to transition and back in time for the swim start. Oh well.

We made our way into the water and bobbed around in the 4 feet deep water for 5 before go time. Doug and I did a fist bump and wished each other well right before the gun went off.

I just dove right into the chum and started calmly swimming. The sun was up, the water was refreshing and I was pretty excited, but not crazed. I focused on form and really felt good about the progress I was making. The shirt I was wearing was definitely creating drag.

There was some jostling here at first but I found an inside lane and just did my thing. I didn’t mind not having a wetsuit at all.

The swim was a rectangle missing one of the small sides. The first ‘out’ portion seemed to happen fast, each buoy coming along steadily. As we made the turn I noticed that Doug was right next to me. He is hard to miss as he has full sleeve tattoos. We swam along together for the whole second, shorter turn around side of the rectangle.

We turned again and were on the homestretch. This is where I had some trouble. All of a sudden these two big guys started zig-zagging in front of me. Now, I may not be a fast swimmer, but I am pretty good at sighting and accuracy and I basically needed to get ‘over’ these dudes. I got kicked a couple times and was also hit in the small of my back pretty bad. That one pissed me off a bit but I kept my cool. Shallow water martial arts battles are not part of the triathlon experience.

I had lost Doug once all water trouble started. I finished in 47 minutes. 5 minutes slower than expected. That’s what you get for swimming 3 times in 6 months during training. My longest bike rides (2) were 35 miles and 22 miles so I didn’t know what to expect on the bike either.

Entering transition without a wetsuit was a first and I loved it. It was so easy.

As I was running out of T1 I got overly excited when I saw Danika and Madison and when I went to wave I lost control and dropped my bike. Rookie move Baker!

The bike course was a blast. Fast and flat. We had a headwind the whole time which was a bit of a problem. I was clicking through miles every 2:30 or 2:45. At Mile 10 I caught up to Doug. He was doing great holdin it down. I pressed on.

Soon after this guy in front of me points down at the road as if to signal a pothole. It was a 7 foot long black snake crossing the road! That was a first. No, I did not run over him, I went around. I thought for a hot second it might be a cobra or something and latch onto my calve, ending my race.

We were riding through and around the Blackwater Nature Reserve and we were ‘out there.’ There were also lots of Eagles and Hawks flying about which was really cool! There were times when some of them felt like they were flying with me. Now we know why the race is called Eagleman. They should create an Ironman in Africa and call it Lionman.

By mile 20 or 25 the heat was kicking up off the pavement. My nutrition was great, legs slightly sore but all-in-all doing fine. I was worried about the run though. If it was already this hot and I had another hour on the bike it was gonna be a scorcher.

At mile 30 I was pretty over the bike ride and ready to run. My quads were hurting and the heat was getting to me. I think the monotony of a flat course was getting boring too.

When mile 40 hit something weird happened. I got a second wind or something. Or I equalized? My pace even jumped from 20 MPH to 22-23 MPH. Whatever the reason, I’ll take it.

Doug and I were wondering why they gave us 2 bibs when we checked in. Well, I ripped my bib getting off the bike, so that second one came in pretty handy. I also tacked on a few extra minutes in T2 trying to get that squared away. I also slathered (good word) a new batch of sunscreen on.

As soon as I was away from T2 and on the road I kind of went, “Holy Shit.” It was 90 degrees, 100% humidity and not one piece of shade or cloud to be had. It was here, within the first mile or two I actually contemplated quitting. It was that bad.

At the first aid station I hosed myself with water, ice water and sponges. I told myself to just take it one aid station at a time and that’s kind of how it went. I would start running, and mind you my legs felt awesome and my energy and nutrition couldn’t have been more perfect, and just try to get to the next station before I dried up.

Anytime I saw a sprinkler left out by good Samaritans I ran through it. Kids with garden hoses, bring the noise I’m down. I would be dry and on fire again a 1/4 of a mile past the water stations.

Did I mention that Maddie had made the best sign ever?

It was an out-and-back course and I could see all of the people in the earlier waves coming past. I wanted to scream, “Where is the turn around! How far? Is there a pool?”

Since it was flat and in open fields you could see the runners ahead way off in the distance. It was surreal. The worst part of the course was between miles 5 and 6.5. It was the greatest distance between water stations and you could really feel it. Total march of death.

I hit the turn around and started taking Coke at aid stations from here on out. I knew my pace wasn’t my best, which was slightly upsetting as I had a good bike split, but at this point I just wanted to complete the race.

I saw Doug at mile 8 and we hooked up a high five. I was psyched for him as he was coming off a stress fracture and was going to walk it if the injury reared back up. He was running and in good spirits.

Soon after I saw my friend Derek followed by Pat.

It was somewhere around 1PM at this point and the heat was insane. I was being conscious as well to my vitals, making sure I wasn’t going to pass out.

I finished in 5:21:22, 9 minutes from a PR. All in all I was happy to have fought the battle and come out alive. That is now the hardest run I have ever done.

Sex/ Age	Age Place	Overall Place	Swim 1.2M	T1	Bike 56M	T2	Run 13.1M	Total Time
M36	91	584	48:09	2:33	2:43:10	4:38	1:43:02	5:21:22

I hung out in the athlete’s food area scarfing some black beans and rice in the shade. Soon after I heard Doug’s name announced as a finisher and I went to find everyone.

Next up… celebrate. We hit up a good old fashioned Maryland Blue Crab joint. I taught the group how to pick apart the shells and even Maddie was doing great. Once we were done we headed back home to NYC, ready for some sleep!

—

The part of the Ironman, the battle, is what I like most, even when it’s kicking my ass. Out there on the course, I didn’t see ‘fit’ people or overly athletic bodies. What I saw were warriors, using determination and mental strength to get them through the day.

Congrats Doug for killing your first 70.3!

And to all of you 70-84 year old people I saw on the run, you are my inspiration.

RACE REPORT: 102 Boston Run to Remember Half Marathon – 1:22:45

Posted on May 31, 2014 by admin

Posted in All, Race Reports, Running 1 Comment

Abs n I caught a late afternoon train on Friday, barreling due north towards Boston. I love train rides. You can bring your own food and beer, plus the odds of a crash are pretty low. There is also something timelessly romantic about train travel.

Arriving in Beantown we noted that it was a bit cooler than our weather apps had let on. This would be helpful for Sunday.

Abbe works in the food industry so she is always looking for cool places to go. She heard of this place Uni, where head chef Tony Messina set up an intimate sashimi bar.

We sat at the sashimi bar where Tony himself was at work. He had a small, but expert team, of people preparing sashimi at lightening speed and accuracy. It was great to watch.

We had the chef’s tasting menu, on his recommendation. Being a traditionalist, I have to admit that I was skeptical at first. As the first amuse arrived, a non-alcoholic tomato water martini with caper berry, my skepticism was swept away. For the rest of the night, dish after dish, I was blown away by Tony’s combinations. One of my favorites was the Smoked Uni Spoon (Sea Urchin, Maine) Quail Egg Yolk, Osetra Caviar, Chives. Without going through each of the 15 dishes I will let the photos speak for themselves. It is rare that I am totally amazed by a restaurant, but it is as if Tony has invented a new way to view food. I highly recommend stopping in.

Back at the hotel we met up with Jessica, one of Abbe’s best friends who had flown in from North Carolina for the race for some cocktails.

On Saturday we first walked to the expo, which is in the same venue as the Boston Marathon, to pick up our bibs.

Since we had all day in Boston we played tourists. We all love history and so we decided to walk the Freedom Trail. It was awesome, not only historically, but also as a great way to see the city. Some highlights were seeing Paul Revere’s home and the Old North Church. We even had lunch at the Green Dragon, a place where Paul himself hung out plotting against the British.

We lounged around Boston Common for awhile before heading to Cheers for a drink. My Dad loved that show and watched it all the time when I was a little kid, and so it was a bit nostalgic.

We decided to go chill back at the hotel until dinner. I have a hard time ‘chilling’ so I went to the hotel pool and did laps. I got in about 3/4 of a mile before my time ran out and I needed to get ready for dinner.

Our next food adventure was at Scampo in the Liberty Hotel. Italian (of course) as we had to carbo load! We once again got to meet the chef and some menu advice. The highlight of the night was mozzerella with king crab, cocktail avocado & green mustard oil. It was nuts! I choose garlic and anchovy pizza as my main and was not disappointed at all. Once again, I highly recommend stopping by Scampo if you are in Boston.

RACE DAY

Woke up quick, at about noon…

I was really up at 6AM, after a night of weird race dreams where I was late to the start. Our hotel practically overlooked the start so we had loads of time to get there. Still full from the dinner before (a great sign on race day) I housed a banana and cup of coffee and was ready to go.

Weather could not have been more perfect. 55 degrees, overcast with a light breeze.

There were no corrals at this thing so I just stood around at the front. The Boston Police had their pipes band there and they did a rendition of Amazing Grace that brought chills up my spine. Run to Remember is a tribute to all fallen police officers. I had a few friends who work for the NYPD back home and so this tribute race felt right.

The gun went off and we blasted into a speedy frenzy. I was running naked again (no watch) and so just ran at what I felt a reasonable pace. I had no expectations going into this thing. The only thing I wanted to happen was to not have a ‘bad’ race.

At mile two the clock said 12:10 which means I was going way too fast.

We were running through the historic downtown area and it was very cool passing all the monuments. Miles 2.5-4 had this crazy straightaway stretch. I just put my head down and ran. By now we were in single line race formation and spaced out around 15 feet apart.

We hooked a right and cruised over a bridge toward MIT for the 5 mile out-n-back along the river. Once over the bridge runners took a right, ran for a mile then turned around headed back toward the bridge but kept going another 1.5-2 miles to another turnaround point. At the first turnaround I was exhausted (similar to Brooklyn the week before) but saw that there were not that many runners in front of me. Cool!

As we headed back toward the bridge I got to see Abs and we gave each other a wave!

Past the bridge we ran past around 2 squad cars, all flashing their lights with the officers in front, representing all the districts on Boston Proper. I gave salutes to all.

Finally, we reached the last turn around point. It was here that somehow, someway out of nowhere a new surge of energy came my way. I started passing people with renewed zest! That’s right, I had zest! I even saw Abbe again!

The miles were ticking off quick. Soon, I was crossing Harvard Bridge back to Boston.

My nutrition was spot on too. I didn’t even have any Gu. So meaning, my meal the night before of garlic and anchovy pizza was perfect.

I rocked through the last 2 to 3 miles and it was kind of a blur. I was using my old mantra, “There is no pain, only glory” and it seemed to do the trick. I was overriding all thoughts of fatigue.

The last straight away back over the bridge is a doozy. It seems like 1/4 of a mile but it is actually closer to a mile.

I finished in 1:22:45, which was 1 second faster than the Brooklyn Half last weekend! How weird is that!

Sex/ Age	Bib	Overall Place	Age Place	Finish Time	Pace/ Mile	AG %
M36	793	24	8	1:22:45	6:19	73%

I grabbed my medal and then went to watch Abs finish. While doing so I heard, “Chris?” It was a former coworker from Rolex who happened to have family running too. Small world!

Abbe, Jess and I hit the hotel to shower and prepare for lunch at the Barking Crab.

What is the Barking Crab? Only my favorite place in Boston, that’s all. Seafood meets outdoor bar meets dive bar meets beer equals fun. I housed a set of crab legs and a few beers in celebration of being 1 second faster than the weekend before. I’m kidding, I celebrate any race just because it’s a celebration of being alive.

We hopped a late afternoon train outta there back to mighty Gotham.

RACE REPORT: 101 Brooklyn Half Marathon – 1:22:46

Posted on May 18, 2014 by admin

Posted in All, Race Reports, Running 1 Comment

I like being sporadic. I think we all need to be more sporadic. I decided last minute to pop a train down to my alma mater (MICA) and hang with my friends Alex and Will for something called Artwalk. It’s a blast. Just envision the largest art opening you can, paired with food and booze campus-wide. If you are a creative, it will inspire you tenfold.

But where was Abbe during all of these adventures?! She is in Chicago for work so she is missing out on Brooklyn/Baltimore things. I hear it’s warm there right now.

I crashed at Alex and Lisa’s and got to spend some time with my godson Jackson and his new baby brother.

Friday I departed on an early afternoon train, excited and dreading the prospect of running a half marathon the next day. The distance and race in general didn’t scare me, the logistics of getting there did!

Back on Manhattan soil, I met my cousins for happy hour instead of going home and resting. We only stayed out til 9:30. I decided at 10PM that I needed carbs, so I made some Mac-n-Cheese and not even the Kraft brand, some random bodega brand! Was it still amazingly tasty? You bet.

RACE DAY

After a horrible night’s sleep and a dream in which I showed up like an hour late to a race I decided to get this party started. Waking up for a Half Marathon at 5AM ain’t pretty, but at least it wasn’t an Ironman.

I was in a cab headed down Park Ave by 5:30. I love my neighborhood early on weekends, it’s so peaceful. It’s like the calm before the storm, that storm which is New York City.

I had a thermos of coffee that I was sipping on in the cab which in retrospect I will never do again. I was quite gassy and so I gave my driver a nice tip. “Don’t ever pick up someone wearing a race bib!” No seriously, I tipped in cash, runners are nice.

Sam rolled up on me as we neared the security gates. We were not looking forward to the security screening but it was pretty smooth. Probably like 5 times faster than getting screened at the airport.

We were supposed to meet the team (Gotham City Runners) but we were a little late. I did run into Tara, Kate and Jonathan warming up. We found Maura soon after. I also ran into my friend Patricia, running her first big race since being a mom!

I jumped in my corral and waited. We had 20 minutes to go so I just kinda spaced out for a bit.

As it got closer they moved us around this bend (that messed up a lot of people who started timing it from here) and down to the start line. I was about 50 feet back from the start and kind of thought it was close enough. I wasn’t feeling particularly competitive for some reason.

I saw my friend Alex who happened to be next to me. He and I have been running similar paces for the last 4 years and always finish close together. We chatted for a bit as the race was delayed. I told him I would be happy with a 1:25. Oh, and big ups to the National Anthem performer. He was awesome and I got goosebumps at one point. Well done.

Finally we were off.

It was a bit of a speedy cluster for the first mile going down the narrow roadway. I imagined it must have felt like this if you were Luke’s crew doing the final Death Star run. If anyone tripped up it would have been a domino effect disaster.

Photo credit: Ben Ko (thanks Ben!)

I saw a lot of friends and teammates as we looped up around Grand Army Plaza and came back down along the Park.

I was running naked (no Garmin) and so had no idea what my pace was. I love doing races like this as you tend to not focus on pace, but feel. I was feeling sluggish, or at least I felt that way. Based on the timing clocks I thought I must be running 6:30’s or something close. Not a PR day.

We entered Prospect Park after mile 3. I was still feeling heavy. The route was starting to thin out now and it was much easier to run tangents.

The one thing I don’t like about running Prospect Park is simply that I am not familiar with it. I could probably draw Central Park’s elevation profile by heart if I had to or run it blindfolded. Something about not knowing the turns messed me up.

We exited after Mile 6 and headed out onto Ocean Parkway. From here it was a straight shot down to Coney Island. It is also unshaded, so can get treacherous as the sun gets higher.

As I was cruisin down Ocean I was feeling a bit winded and was like, “Where the hell is the Mile 7 marker!” As soon as I thought about it I saw it, but no, it was Mile 8! This happens every now and again where I miss a marker and it is such a great feeling! I actually got kinda fired up and increased my speed.

I started slowing passing people and my mind and my body kind of separated from each other. My legs just went.

This race picture was a mystery to me, then I remembered seeing Dougie and running over to high five him! All caught on camera!

The miles ticked off really quickly now. At Mile 11 the clock said like 1:09 or something. Doing some quick math (something I am not good at) I thought, “Hey, I’m not doing quite as bad as I thought!”

As we neared the finish on teh boardwalk I saw my friend Alex up ahead! As I cruised up along side, with 100M to go I waved and said, “C’mon! Let’s go!” and we sprinted.

I ran a 1:22:46! I was very happy as I hadn’t run a good Half in awhile. We (Alex and I) high fived and then moved on to get water.

Sex/ Age	Bib	Overall Place	Age Place	Finish Time	Pace/ Mile	AG %
M36	406	246	43	1:22:46	6:20	72.43%

Then, I hear from the sidelines, “Hey Baker!” It was my friends Mandy and Gabe! They were headed out to cheer on some friends who were running. Great to see you both!

I chilled out in the parking lot outside of the finish basking in the sun barefoot for a little while.

Abbe called me and said I was a metronome. This confused me because I thought I started off bad and finished faster. She sent me my splits and sure enough I was running super consistent withing 2-3 seconds! Strange indeed.

Next up… Peggy O’Neils for the after party. Holy smokes! When I got there it was just me, Sam her boyfriend, Daniel and Leslie but within 30 minutes the place was packed!

Not only did our whole team takeover an are outside, but almost all the other local teams did as well. It was a giant runner party complete with a live cover band! Score!

Doug and Danika popped over to say hi early on. Danika ran a great race!

So many people came by it’s hard to keep straight. I hung out with Beganics and Katie, Eissa and Nick, the whole Gotham Team (and Susan) and so many more. I even found Patricio!

We all hung out for quite some time. At 11 my cousins showed up and revealed an interesting fact. They said that when they got off the train they could smell us, like all 20,000 of us, sweaty and taking over Coney Island. We just didn’t realize it because we were part of it.

At noon we went in search of Nathan’s Hot Dogs. It wasn’t hard as we were right next to Nathan’s BUT the line was insane.

Maura and I decided to leave everyone as we couldn’t handle the line. Walking to the subway she said, “Baker, you look hungry, shouldn’t we get something to eat?” Good call. We went in search of a place with no line and came up very successful. Unfortunately our friends thought we had left and so they dipped as well. Sorry Bojana, Brian and Jodi!

My cousins found us again and we hopped around Coney. I told them that it was a New Yorker’s duty to ride the Cyclone at least once if you live here. We did just that and it was just as awesome as it has been since 1927!

Back to Peggy’s for one last drink and then we headed out. We were not only celebrating the race, but Maura had PR’d so we were being extra festive.

What a day! Congrats to all my friends and teammates who ran!

RACE REPORT: 100 Run as One 4M – 24:19

Posted on May 15, 2014 by admin

Posted in All, Race Reports, Running Leave a comment

This is my 100th race! It was also my 10 year anniversary at work… spooky.

Come along, let’s take a walk back in time and see where it all started.

Back in 2007 I didn’t run. In fact, aside from running around in general like little kids do, I never really ran. I dreaded the Mile in gym class. That year a coworker of mine ran the NYC Marathon. I went and cheered her on with some other coworkers. This was my first time investigating a running race. Arriving at First Avenue a female runner pulled over, hot, sweaty and looking like she was on mile 18 of the marathon (as she was) and puked right at my feet. She shook it off and continued running. “Whoa.” I thought. The full magnitude of what was going on started to sink in for the first time and I was in awe.

The rest of my afternoon was pretty uneventful. That would be the last time that Marathon Sunday in NYC would be uneventful for me.

The next week at work the Pres had a little breakfast party for my coworker and our department. It was great. Towards the end the breakfast the President asked aloud “Who from Rolex would run it next year?” A few chuckles erupted and as his glance came my way he simply said, “Baker will do it.” I smiled and said, “Sure. I’m in.”

Just like that my destiny would be forever changed.

I put together a basic training plan and started running a few months after that.

As the following November rolled around I became very nervous. I am intrigued by this now as I rarely get nervous for races anymore now that they are so ingrained into my day-to-day. Now, I get amped.

The race was fantastic (you can read about it here if you like).

I love this photo because 1, I am wearing pants and 2, I would later become friends with the guy next to me, Jeff, an editor at Runner’s World.

I too, got my celebration breakfast hosted by the President. He would turn out to be one of my biggest fans. Before each big race he would call me and wish me luck and after the race he would invite me to the executive floor so I could fill him in on race details. He was a great guy and I ran my first Sub3 marathon for him (race report here) in 2011. He passed away suddenly in late 2010.

After many failed attempts victory was mine. I actually screamed out “Yeah!” when I finished this one.

The marathon wouldn’t be enough to quench my thirst. Small triathlons were next followed by a few Ironmans, which are my main passion these days due to their risk/reward.

Last but not least let’s talk about all of you. Almost all of you are accomplished runners, marathoners, and triathletes and I am so proud to call you friends and peers. You kick ass every weekend.

So there you have it. 100 races in and still loving it. What’s that you ask? My favorite race? Good question. Probably Ironman Arizona as it was my first full IM and it took all of me to finish.

Oh, wait, this is a race report!

I met up with the Team, the mighty Gotham City Runners (lookout for us, we will get ya) and did a quick warm up before hitting corrals. I had dreams of hitting the 6 minute mile marker like old times. This year I am back 100% injury free so everything is kind of new.

Miles 1 and 2 were pretty jammed as I was in the back of the Blue Corral at the start. As I finally pushed ahead and got some space this young tall guy (who had basketball shorts on) got mad that I passed him. All of a sudden he came from behind huffing and puffing right last me. I actually laughed out loud and in my head was like, “See you at mile 3.” Sure enough at mile 3 guess who was walking?

Sex/ Age	Bib	Overall Place	Age Place	Finish Time	Pace/ Mile	AG %
M36	124	76	69	24:19	6:05	71.27%

I finished just over my 6 minute marker and was happy. I found Abs who was also running and we shot home before heading out to meet a lot of the Runner Army for some celebratory drinks. Good times.

RACE REPORT: 099 The Reston Marathon – 3:09:51 – 2nd Overall

Posted on April 1, 2014 by admin

Posted in All, Race Reports, Running 1 Comment

I always thought it would be cool, never participating in any athletics growing up, to one day return to my hometown and race. Kind of a strange twist… I left town an artist to return as an athlete.

We hopped the train to DC Friday afternoon bags filled with beer, wine and Clif Bars. Survival is key. Arriving at my Bonus-Mom’s house everyone was ready to start scarfing pizza (they had already started on beer). I didn’t grow up here, my step-brothers did, but have spent the last 10-12 years calling it home. Role call: Christine, Ryan, Maggie, Jeff, Phil, Naomi, Cayden, Owen, me and Abs. There was much race talk as it was Ryan’s first Half Marathon. I also got to see my nephew Cayden and Owens’ awesome cheer squad sign that they had made!

Taper madness – pulling Cayden up and down the halls.

The next day Ryan, Abbe and I did a shakeout run down to the High School to pick up our bibs. One of the beautiful things about this race was that it was less than a mile from the house. It was raining and 55 degrees. It actually felt really good out and we tried to be positive for our race the next day insisting Bruce would be up there looking out for us. Dad also had a sense of humor so maybe we should have foreseen what was in store…

We met some really cool people at bib pickup. We were informed that we could drive right up to the high school and park in the lots the next morning. Score! We also found out that 15 minutes before the race they would march us out to the Start. Basically, that meant we could hop in the car 20-25 minutes before gun time which in turn meant more sleeping and coffee time.

After a quick shower we hit the Old Brogue in Great Falls for some hearty grub.

That night everyone came back over (including cousins Kelly and Ben) while Abbe prepared a pasta feast for us. Sauteed red and green peppers, tomatoes and shrimp mixed into pasta in a most harmonious way. It was perfect. SIDENOTE: After a bit of trial and error I make sure that pasta and shrimp are in all of my pre-race meals for optimum performance.

We were all in bed by 10. Not bad.

RACE DAY

Having to wake up at 6AM for a race rocks as that’s when I naturally wake up daily. Abbe had her alarm set to the tune of ‘Happy’ which in turn made me happy. We rocked some coffee, prepared some oatmeal and discussed the looming storm we were about to race in. Basically, it was going to rain (it hadn’t stopped from the day before) and turn colder by say Noon. It was also closer to 35 degrees, much different from Saturday’s 55 degrees.

SIDENOTE: In 2010 I came down to race a local triathlon. My Father, then sick with Lymphoma, had never seen me race and I thought it would be a fun opportunity. On race day the weather was almost identical. He and I stood out in the garage looking out at the rain and I bailed. My Father would never get to see me race unfortunately.

Today, on this shitty day, I was going to race in my hometown and I was going to go hard.

We headed out, trying to stay positive. It was coming down pretty hard and I kept telling us that the worst is about to be over. Liar!

We arrived at the High School and within 2 minutes of being inside they lined Marathoners up to head to the Start. Perfect timing! We bid Ryan farewell and made our way.

I was wearing shorts, 2 thin layers plus my trusty windbreaker that got me through the Connemarathon last year. I was cold but knew once I got going my body would regulate itself. They had a guy sing the National Anthem and he had us sing along to stay warm. The wind was ripping through us and we all huddled together and tried our best. I was just wishing for that start gun so I could get going. I kissed Abbe goodbye as the gun went off. We were in the very back so I had some navigational work to do. (It was a 2 loop course, 1 loop for the Half Marathoners who were starting 30 minutes after us.)

As we got out onto the main road it widened a bit and I found a good pace. I was running naked (no Garmin) AND there were no clocks on the course so I was really going Jedi-style. The next left we took put us straight into the wind and it really sucked. I had a visor on which makes all the difference in a rain storm. I don’t know how far back I was to the leaders, I just pressed forward. If I had to guess I would say we were running 7’s. My legs definitely didn’t feel as great as they dd the day before but that could also be nerves getting to me.

Passing mile 3, we were in single file race formation. I seriously had no idea what my time was and I kind of liked it.

Right before mile 4 I saw the family cheering us on! I gave a wave and then made my way down onto one of the legs on paved trails. These would prove to make the course a lot more difficult than I had expected. They were in hilly ravines with small rivers (from the 36 hours of rain) flowing over them.

We popped out onto streets for the next few miles and I was relieved. Some guy also yelled to me that he thought I was in 6th Place. Overall? What? I was now running with 2 other guys (the only guys in sight) and would continue with them the next 20 miles, leapfrogging.

The aid stations were awesome. Every 2 miles you had water, Gatorade, Gu, oranges, bananas, cookies, pop-tarts and so forth. Essentially, you didn’t have to carry anything on you. Big ups to all the volunteers who were hanging out in the downpours all day too!

Mile 8 was a small out-and-back. As I hit the turn-around I realized one of the guys in our little 3 man run squad was Lam! He and I gave a wave to each other and continued on. We also got a glimpse of the leader and he was crushing it. No way any of us were catching this guy. He had a 3-4 minute lead (and gaining) at mile 8…

By now the temperature had dropped a bit and the wind was picking up. I was soaked (and had been since mile 1). My upper body was pretty warm but my hands and feet were pretty frozen. This was the first race I had zero knee pain though, so I was so happy to be out in the soup running! Thanks Dr. Levine!

We jumped back into some trails for the next few miles and all I could think of (since there were also markers for the second loop) was ‘Holy cow, are you kidding me! The final miles are up and down these brutal little hills?!’ My legs were already deteriorating and I could hardly imagine what they were going to be like the next time around. I did see a rather large deer staring at me at one point though which was kind of cool. He wasn’t manning an aid station or anything, just doing deer stuff.

I was now in 4th Place with Tall Guy, as we shall call him, and Lam trailing close. I knew that with 13 more miles to go any outcome was still possible. As we hit the halfway marker Tall Guy turned on the juice hard, very negative-split pre-meditated. I just chuckled to myself, not because he was doing it wrong, but because I could not follow.

Nearing mile 15 Lam started to pull up towards me. We chatted for a minute as I told him how I grew up here and my house was right up the street. This also made me wonder why I shouldn’t just run home and right onto the shower. Lam also alerted me that we were running 7 flats. Cool, I’ll take it. I was back in 5th Place now. I started to wonder how long I could keep this thing going.

Back on the first set of trails I pushed positive thoughts into my head. ‘One step at a time. One mile at a time. Just keep those legs running.’ Although the rain wasn’t quite a downpour anymore it was quickly getting colder.

As mile 18 approached my calf muscles felt like they were going to pop out of my legs and run away. Ew. Seriously, they hurt a lot. I just plugged along. I was on the heels of Tall Guy but Lam was slowly putting some distance between us. I was still waving and saying ‘hi’ to all the volunteers. They were pretty awesome.

At mile 20 as we dipped back down into the hard set of trails I started mentally psyching myself up. “Just one loop of Central Park is left, that’s all.” I was also thinking about ‘The Wall’ people hit and I decided it’s a bad way to describe it. I think it should be called, ‘When Everything Sucks and Will Continue to Suck Until you Stop Running.’

Somewhere around here I stepped in mud crossing onto a street and almost lost my shoe! Hot tamales!

At this point me and Tall Guy were leapfrogging quite a bit. I had no intention of trying to outrun him, our paces started to become erratic. I started to feel better at say mile 22. It was here that I had my first (and only) Gu. It was also at this point I passed Tall Guy and just kept going.

Up and down all these damn hills, left then right, through the woods. I wanted to walk so very bad. We were now lapping slower Half Marathoners. My mind wandered, thinking of my Dad and how were he alive how very excited he would be at this hometown race. He would be so jazzed to see not only me, but his step-son Ryan and daughter-to-be Abbe running this thing as a family. It helped put some power into my steps.

As I cleared the final hill and made my way up onto the road with 2 miles to go I set it the fuck off. “The pain you feel is only in your mind.”

I was so excited to be so close. I was also now in 4th Place and as long as I held off Tall Guy it was mine. I have never placed in a full marathon before so 4th sounded great. I passed mile 25 still flying as I noticed up ahead this fit guy in a green top and black pants. “Is that the 2nd Place guy?” (Now 3rd as Lam had passed him.) He was making attempts to run but stopped. I passed him, nodded and gave him a peace sign.

Entering the finish chute everyone kept yelling to me that I was 3rd Place! I was ecstatic, but needed to finish before I died. Just before I was to take a left onto the High School track I saw Lam running ‘at’ me. Totally confused I just waved at him and made my way onto the track ahead of him. The rain was really coming down now and there were very few cheerers towards the Finish. My family, however, was there in full effect. I could hear them before I could see them. My brother Phil was holding his son Cayden and ran down the fence line with me towards the end. I looked at the clock and with the seconds counting down to 3:10 (my Boston Qualifier) I sped up as to secure it.

Final Time: 3:09:51

After collecting my hardware I got some high fives from everyone and was then instructed that we need to go inside to the High School cafeteria because that’s where everyone was hanging out. My Bonus Mom also told me Abs DNF’d because of her IT Band and I got concerned.

It turns out the overall winner beat me by 25 minutes or so! He came in at 2:44:xx and was none other than ultrarunner Michael Wardian.

The cafeteria was great. They had pizza, sodas, coffee you name it! I found our table and gave Ryan a high five for finishing his first Half Marathon! Then, I hugged and chatted with Abbe making sure she was okay. We all hung out Family Style, taking pics and getting warm waiting for the awards ceremony. I chatted with Lam briefly and it he took a wrong turn towards the end, which is why I passed him. Once they did the overall marathoners we took off. We had an after party to go to at the house complete with burgers and dogs by Phil and potato and cucumber salad by Maggie.

My main man (nephew) Cayden, who assures me he will be faster than me one day. Dig it!

Ryan, Abs and I made it back first and Abs made us Manhattans. We had a bit of a sentimental toast, talking of Dad and what it meant for us to run this (without getting too teary eyed) and then hit the much needed showers.

Once everyone arrived the food and drinks came out. Our friends Amber and Jason also came by with their 1 year old son Erik. Erik and my nephew Owen were born 2 days apart so they kinda got along, in a no talking kinda way.

The afterparty sadly ended way too soon. Abs and I had a train to catch back to NYC and so we needed to head out.

As Jason and Amber drove us into DC at 2PM (thanks for the ride guys, seriously) it was snowing! Like, heavy stick to the ground snowing. We made our train and ended the weekend with a peaceful ride up to Gotham.

—

I would recommend this race to anyone looking for an amazing ‘home grown’ race with a challenging course. The organizers and volunteers rock and there is loads of pizza at the finish! C’mon!

Big ups to my step-brother Ryan who has proven he is ‘beyond defeat’ in running his first Half Marathon.

Abs, I will see you in Paris for your redemption race.

The 2014 New York City Hot Dog Challenge

Posted on February 21, 2014 by admin

Posted in All, Race Reports, Running 4 Comments

How do you celebrate your birthday? I like to have a bunch of my crazy friends run 3 miles while eating hot dogs.

I started my day with an 18 mile run withe the team (Gotham City Runners). It was cold, but manageable. We had a pretty good turn out, most of whom were just in for a 10-12 mile jaunt. I needed to get some more miles in due to my upcoming early spring marathon.

Coming up the west side and entering the Park, snow started to fall. It was actually quite beautiful and I happen to love running while it’s snowing out as long as I’m not trudging through 2 feet of the stuff. Guess who we passed a few times? Ryan Hall.

I finished my 18 miles then booked it over to the apartment to get cleaned up for the New York Hot Dog Challenge.

Abbe went to do recon on the hot dog carts as we were worried the snow was going to deter a few from coming out. She called me later on as I was enroute, and just like snails after a rain storm, all the hot dog carts had come out to play! Game on.

We had a small turnout this year based on weather, but there was still $360 bucks to be won.

I explained the rules to a few newcomers and then the ‘start dog’ was saluted and they began eating.

First done and off running was Neal! Kevin, Juan and Matt6 followed shortly after. Cat, the only female competitor to show, had all the time in the world so she relished the moment. Ha, get it.

As I chased after the leaders ( I was to be lead ref) I realized that running 18 miles then chasing seasoned runners and Ironmen at breakneck pace was maybe a bad idea.

AT cart 2, on 59th and 5th Avenue it was anyone’s game. Juan finished slightly ahead and took off to cart 3, a block away. I was with him. As soon as he got his dog KB and Matt6 sprinted up, ordering their dogs. Juan seemed to know that this was his moment to make a move and he did.

He finished as they were maybe half way through and took off at a sub 6 pace down 5th. It looked like something out of a crime movie with the 2 of us running after each other, especially since I was wearing jeans and a black jacket.

At cart 4 Elizabeth caught up to us. She then sped ahead to the next area, ‘Dead Man’s Corner’ notorious for stopping competitors. As Juan and I followed I saw no sign of the others.

While at cart 5 and 6, it was amazing to watch Juan in action. He wasn’t talking and very focused. He also had a very interesting technique, which I will not share as that would be giving away trade secrets.

Once again, as we took off I saw no sign of any competitors.

Down at 6th Avenue and 46th Street he was about to enter ‘The Gauntlet.’ It was a straight shot to the finish from 6th Ave to 8th Ave that included 4 hot dogs, no easy feat.

When we hit 7th Ave (cart 8) Abbe caught up and so did Matt6! I got really excited at the thought of a photo finish, a first in New York Hot Dog Challenge races.

Juan wasn’t having it though and he set off to cart 9 with a fury. All the competitors were slowing down now.

Just as Juan was finishing dog 9 Matt6 came running up. It was going to depend on that 10th dog for sure. We took off to the final cart.

Once again, as Juan was finishing Matt6 arrived and began to eat.

Juan finished and we blasted down 46th Street towards Rudy’s.

As we arrived Juan high-fived the pig and felt the sting of Hot Dog Challenger glory. Matt6 came up around 2 minutes behind taking second place. Both had course PR’s with Juan’s breaking the course record by 3 minutes! KB came up shortly after noting that he had DNFd at dog 5.

We hung out for awhile outside, then poured into Rudy’s to celebrate and await Neal and Cat.

Neal, with his blue wig and Hawaiian shirt popped in about ten minutes or so after we had been in the bar. We were now following Cat’s progress and she had just finished the 10th dog and was on the homestretch. We went out to power arch her, but she came in and said in dismay, “I puked!” She still gets an A in my book, but rules are rules and she did not qualify for the female finisher prize, meaning Juan took home all $360!

Juan, being the good sportsman he is, did give Cat an undisclosed amount of the prize money.

We all stayed at Rudy’s until 5PM celebrating as the snow came down.

Thanks for everyone who came out to compete AND our volunteer refs AND all of our sponsors, especially Gotham City Runners! This is no easy race.

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