Wrapping up 2012

I haven't written any race recaps recently, but that doesn't mean I haven't been racing. For a full summary of my results this year, see the "2012 Results" tab at the top of the page.

After my average performance at the SECTC Championship race at Rev3 South Carolina, I shifted my focus back to running intending to shoot for a new marathon PR at the Kiawah Island Marathon on December 8th. In preparation for that race I ran the Richmond Half-Marathon on November 10th and the Pequot 5 Mile Thanksgiving Day race (for the 6th consecutive year).

Richmond Half-Marathon

In Richmond I wanted to run fast, and felt that I was in reasonable shape but it was just not my day. After running a good pace (at way too high of a HR) for the first 6 miles or so I began to struggle. For only the second time ever I stopped to use a porta-potty in a race when my stomach rebelled against me. From there it was a struggle over the remaining miles but I eventually stopped the clock at a shade under 1:24:00 for a reasonable time. If you took off the 1:23 of my bathroom stop I would have run faster than my half PR as of 12 months ago.

Pequot Thanksgiving 5-Miler

After Richmond came the Thanksgiving 5 Mile race that I have run every year since 2007. I felt like I would have a reasonable shot at a course PR (29:07, 2010) and went out hard shooting for a sub-29 time. In the end I came up just a little shy of 29 minutes but stopped the clock at 29:03 for 29th place, which is considered an "Elite Finisher" (top 30) due to the strength of the field the race attracts. For reference, the overall winner was a varsity runner at Villanova, the runner-up is a New England HS mile champion, and various other elite finishers ran for good NCAA programs.

Kiawah Island Marathon

The Kiawah Island Marathon came too soon, and I was seriously undertrained, but I gave it my best shot anyway. Unlike in Erie in September, I was never really on pace for my PR of 2:51:03 but I was certainly on sub-2:55 pace through the first 18 miles. At that point I began to lose contact with the group with which I had been running most of the race and started to slow slightly. I kept it together with mid-7 minute miles until the final mile where I picked off a few extra places to make it back to 20th overall. With a huge kick - my last quarter mile in 1:29 I broke 2:58 for the third time ever, and for the second time in the last 4 months!

Holiday Run for Toys 5k

The weekend following the Kiawah Island Marathon I arrived home from Clemson for winter break. I decided on the long drive home that I would run a local 5k the following morning. The morning looked cold and slightly rainy, but I made it to the race ready to run. After taking off hard in the first mile I settled in to a steady tempo for the second mile with all the confidence that I could out-kick the one runner with me. Hitting the 2 mile mark under 11:30 I proceeded to blitz the remaining 1.1 miles in 6:10 with an ever-increasing tempo. I hit the line in 17:37 for the win by 14 seconds, my narrowest of my 4 victories this year.

Overall 2012 was a very good year for me. I succeeded on my mission to win more races including 2 incredible victories at the 2-20-2 Duathlon back in February and the Lightfoot 11-miler in August, and I also became significantly more confident about my running. In all 4 of my victories, I never doubted I would be successful, even in my 2 close wins where it took some outstanding last miles in both races.

To be successful given my goals for 2013, I will need to use all of that confidence and be far more diligent with training, something I've done very well over the past few weeks being home. I'll write a post with my 2013 goals following this, but it could be a big year!

Rev3 South Carolina Race Recap

Last week, I stayed in Clemson for fall break so that I could race just down the road on Sunday in Anderson, SC. It was my 4^th Rev3 race and I continue to be impressed with their organization and the production of their events. Prior to the race, my coach and I discussed the possibility of coming off the bike around the same time to start the run. He was competing in the pro field over the half-iron distance while I would be taking on the SECTC Collegiate Championship event over the Olympic course. We knew it would be fairly close off the bike and we’d be running about the same pace for the run.

My race started well, for about 5 meters I was actually leading on the swim! I had started on the far left of the field and stayed on the shallow side which meant I could easily run further than everyone else. My lead was short lived, however, and I rapidly faded to the back half of the pack, settling in for my longest swim in a long time. The swim ended up being about 1.1 miles – not too good when it’s the weakest leg for me. I was out in 35:54 and, with a decent transition, hit the bike course. I could feel the lack of recent cycling (and swimming) but I did my best on the bike passing a couple of teammates (Lee and Nick P.) along the way. I couldn’t quite hang onto a small group that formed early on but I entered T2 just behind one of the two other riders. In the end, I managed a 1:07:15 split which was just 33 seconds shy of my time last year and was good enough for the 3^rd fastest split by a Clemson Tiger on the day. I felt good starting the run and passed an Auburn athlete (Robert) early on who had seemingly thrown in the towel for the day. I knew that he usually ran sub-36 minutes off the bike so I should not have been catching him, but he was jogging along with one of his teammates well placed in the women’s race.

I hit 6:16 at the first mile and felt good so I continued along, passing several more runners on my way. Mile 2 in 6:27 brought me to the start of a very hilly out-and-back section that caused me to slow slightly to 6:45 miles for the next two. With almost no one near me – ahead or behind – at the turnaround, I became slightly complacent in the final two miles relinquishing to some fatigue and slowing further to 7:12 and 7:02 for miles 5 and 6. With about half a mile to go, I realized Robert had left his running companion and taken to running his best. I made him work to catch me, running my last few hundred meters in an ever-quickening 46 seconds (5:10/mile), culminating in an all-out sprint up the finish chute. Unfortunately, Robert got me at the line officially by 0.167 seconds, however having started the run a few seconds back, I can say I had a faster run split. My run of 41:09 was the 2^nd best put up on the day by my team, and is a significant improvement upon my disastrous 44 minute run at Rocketman back in August.

Overall, my race was average. I could have swum better, I could have biked faster, and I definitely could have run faster – but with almost no consistent training lately it was acceptable. Heading into the triathlon off-season my biggest goal is to be more consistent in training. I race okay with little training, but I know I can perform at a much higher level if I get out and put in the miles regularly. I made a good step in the right direction this week, logging my first 40+ mile running week since February.

I have some big goals for the next 12 months so stay tuned for a preview!

Erie Marathon at Presque Isle Race Report

This past weekend I travelled up to Erie, PA for the Erie Marathon at Presque Isle. I really can’t say anything bad about Erie or about the race. My goal heading into the weekend at a bare minimum was rather simple; qualify for the 2013 Boston Marathon.

As I posted in my post on Friday evening, the desire to run Boston again next year came about when I visited Wellesley over the summer. Driving along the marathon course made me want to run again. The only problem was that I didn’t have a qualifying race recent enough for next year’s race. The registration period for the Boston Marathon began last week and continued this week with their new rolling process admitting the fastest runners first. To be on the safe side, in case the race fills this week, I knew I had to run a race before this week to qualify. A quick search led me to the Erie Marathon and I soon signed up. 

Erie Marathon at Presque Isle Preview

It's Friday evening, I'm lying in a hotel room in Erie, PA ready for what will be my 4th marathon on Sunday morning. The decision to run a marathon in mid-September came suddenly about 9 weeks ago when I visited Wellesley, MA for the first time since the Boston Marathon back in April. Driving parts of the marathon course gave me the urge to run Boston again next year but there was just one problem, I don't have a Boston qualifying time in a race recent enough to count for next year's event! That meant I needed to run another marathon (well) in order to get into the 2013 Boston Marathon. I was, and still am, planning to make a concerted effort to break my PR of 2:51:03 at the Kiawah Island Marathon on December 8th, but there's a very good chance that Boston registration will close before then. The two-week registration period began last Monday and is essentially a rolling process for those who have qualified by more than x-minutes faster than their qualifying standard for the first week before being open to all qualified runners in the second week. If the field has not been filled by the end of the second week, then registration remains open on a first come, first served basis until the race is filled. To be on the safe side I chose this weekend as the last realistic chance I had to qualify and be guaranteed to get into Boston provided I run under my qualifying standard of 3:05:00.

So that leaves me here, in a hotel room in Erie, 9 weeks later.

Recap of Recent Races

It's been a long time since my last race report back in May. I've tried to keep my results page up-to-date since then but I just haven't had the chance to write up any race reports. Here's a summary of my results in the main races since I took 3rd in the Shamrock Duathlon:

May 28th - Jim Fixx Memorial Day 5 Miler - 31:58 - 12th place, 2nd AG

This race was hot. I wanted to use it to get back into running fast over longer distances before Rev3 the following week but it turned into a sufferfest after about a mile and a half. As I had done towards the end of the Shamrock Duathlon, I almost threw up - but this time I was only a mile into the race. My best guess is that I was slightly under the weather for both races and simply couldn't handle being pushed to the limit.

June 2nd - Rev3 Quassy Olympic - DNF (crashed on bike)

The Rev3 Quassy Olympic race was supposed to be a longer race to get in some racing before hitting the local sprint circuit hard over the summer. I came out of the water with a reasonable swim for me around 28:20. Rain had intermittently been soaking the course throughout the morning but I came out of transition confident and ready to fly on the bike. Less than a mile into the bike, before I had even got my feet into my shoes, my race was over. I hit the deck at the first turn and sliced open my left knee. I wanted to continue, especially having never DNF'd a race before, but a second look at the gash in my knee left no doubt as to what the smart decision was. I was transported back to the medical tent where the volunteers were extremely nice. One doctor even managed to put the 3 necessary stitches in my knee under the tent in the cold. Later that afternoon I snapped the picture to the right. I was fortunate to only require 3 stitches but it would still take me out of being able to run for a little while.

Shamrock Duathlon Race Report

Yesterday, May 20th, was the Shamrock Duathlon in Glastonbury, CT. It really marks the beginning of my summer race schedule with no more than two weeks between races now until September, and likely no more than three until my entire year of racing culminates in November!

Heading into this race I knew several things. One is that I'm pretty good at duathlons but to be among the best in the country I still need to improve on the bike, and even on the run as well. If I'm going to be competitive at Duathlon Nationals next spring I'll have to run sub-17 for the first 5k and then keep up on the bike. Another thing I knew was that my run form is slowly returning after my Boston Marathon / Collegiate Nationals double 5 days apart last month. On Thursday I felt great in my track workout clicking off 400s in 80 seconds on less than a minute of rest. Finally, along with the first part, I knew I'd be reasonably competitive, but whether that meant top-3 or top-10 overall would depend entirely on the competition. I was certainly hoping for the former, especially after discovering my race number was 3, my second single digit multisport number this year!

Running by Feel

We live in the age of technology, much of which can provide valuable information about our training. It has never been easier to share workouts and files between coaches and athletes, but along with technology comes an unnecessary reliance on it.

To start off, let me preface this by saying that I am a data nerd. I am the kind of person who gets a little frustrated when I forget my HR monitor for a run, it doesn't want to work, or if my cadence sensor on the bike is having a fit and doesn't pick up that day. Spreadsheets, numbers, times, distances, are my thing. I wrote my supplemental essay on my college application about how numbers play an integral role in my life. When a friend shared this article on Twitter the other day, I laughed at the workout personality given for my zodiac sign:

Marathons

Why we run them and some advice to make the most of it!

Hundreds of thousands of people choose to put themselves to the test every year by running a marathon; all 26 miles and 385 yards of it (or 42,195m for all you metric folk). Anyone who has experienced running a marathon can probably remember their first one. In most cases, my own included, the last hour or so of running in that race was likely the most painful athletic experience they had suffered through to that point.

Quite simply, people should not run 26.2 miles as fast as they can simply for the satisfaction of having done so. Yet the marathon market continues to explode and not only do we punish ourselves, we pay for the luxury of doing so. Consequently, the market price of a marathon can tell us the approximate utility, or "satisfaction" of running a marathon, which would be around $80-$100 for most, and up to $150 for some of the bigger marathons. Taking away the perceived value of the "free" t-shirt and other swag, we are left with the market value for 26.2 miles of consecutive running so that we can say we did it. Why is it, then, that the market value for such an activity is upwards of $70, $80, or even $100 dollars?

In three words: satisfaction, socialization, and culmination.

Recent Training and Summer Preview

With the close of the spring semester, I am now heading home to Connecticut for the summer. My goal this summer is to put a big emphasis on solid, consistent training in order to perform at my best in races and to have a great base heading into the fall SECTC (Southeast Collegiate Triathlon Conference) season.

Recently, my training has been a bit inconsistent, from being injured and demoralized by not being able to run leading up to the Boston Marathon, to being slammed with waves of school work that completely threw off my schedule. In the past week, however, training has been improving and I've swam and biked each three times in the past 6 days, simply alternating days. Yesterday, I also added my second run since Collegiate Nationals, and made it through the hilly 6 mile trail route still on my feet and at a reasonable pace given the terrain. With a 2500 yd swim workout coming up today, I will have swam a personal greatest distance for 7 days of 9200 yds, biked 116.5 miles on 3 rides, and run 10 miles in a week with essentially no planned running. I know that if I continue to execute my workouts consistently over the next several months, I'll see some stellar times in races this summer!

Collegiate Nationals Race Report

In the days following the Boston Marathon I experienced the usual post-marathon stiffness and noticed that my quads and calves really did hurt that much more from all the downhill, but there was something else too. Two days after the race, on Wednesday afternoon, I received an email from a Clemson teammate exclaiming how it was just 2 days until Collegiate Nationals!

I knew it was a crazy plan to begin with, but crazy is right up my alley. I sacrificed my scoring spot on the Clemson roster because of Boston so my Nationals performance didn’t really mean much, but I had no plans of just going through the motions either. My plan was to go as fast as possible, just 5 days removed from a marathon.

Boston Marathon Race Report

Monday’s Boston Marathon went down in history as one of the hottest and toughest in the 125 year history of the race. The field as a whole was the fastest ever after the improved entry process allowed the fastest qualifiers into the race first. With my 2:51:03 qualifying time from Miami a year ago I was given bib number 1154, the 1054^th number assigned to the amateurs in order of qualifying time.

I arrived at the Athlete’s Village early, around 7:15am to be safe and in doing so actually got to drive right up to Hopkinton High School to be dropped off by my mom. Despite my early arrival there were already hundreds of other runners milling about preparing for the race. It was by no means “hot” at 7:15, but I was perfectly comfortable in just a short sleeved shirt. Around 8:45 I got up from the spot I had secured in the shade for some water. In the sun the heat hit me like a ton of bricks and by the time I had made my way down to my corral at 9:30 the temperature had officially reached 80 degrees at the start.

At the start I walked into another Clemson runner who lives in the same apartment complex as me. He told me that he had been hoping to go under 2:40 and still wanted to run a fast time despite the heat. I had no intention of going out very fast at all but my hopes of beating him seemed to be dashed by hearing about some of his training. My workouts had been pointing towards a 2:45 for me in good conditions, but that was before an untimely foot injury 12 days before the race that left me unable to run until race day. Under good conditions, though, I would have likely still been able to go under 2:50. With the extreme heat I made my goal to simply finish running down Boylston Street.

Race to the Rock Race Report

A few days ago I was entirely thinking that my next race would be the Boston Marathon. In a way it was, is, and will be but yesterday I participated in the Race to the Rock on Clemson's campus to benefit the library. Now you may be wondering how it could possibly not really count as a race. It's quite simple, I ran the 5k as miles 14, 15, and 16 of my 20 mile long run.

The race began at 8:30 am. My plan was initially to run 15 miles before the race and just over 2 miles as a cool down afterwards. I figured that meant I'd be heading out from my apartment at around 6:20 am. I ended up starting my run at 6:48 am, so it's rather impressive I managed to get the 12.7 miles in that I did before the race started.

Powerman Alabama Race Report

Long course duathlons hurt. That’s what I came away from Powerman Alabama with. Then again, this race in particular hurts all the more thanks to the 3600 ft. of elevation gain over the 80km course.

When I picked up my race packet on Friday afternoon, I was happy to find out that I would be a single digit number for the first time ever in a large race! For the most part, it seems that athletes were numbered by their estimated finish time so I knew I’d be in the hunt for a top 10 finish as I had hoped.

The plan of attack for this race seemed rather simple; cruise through the first run, negative split each lap on the bike, and attack the second run. On paper, or in my mind, that plan seemed like a good course of action. In reality, the hilly nature of the course and sheer length of the race made it very difficult.

Powerman Alabama Preview

Tomorrow, March 25th, will be my 4th ever duathlon and 27th multisport event at the Powerman Alabama Duathlon at Oak Mountain State Park just south of Birmingham, Alabama. I am "seeded" 6th as my bib number indicates; my first time ever being a single digit number in a large race.

I seeded myself at an expected time of 2:55:00 for the 10k run - 60k bike - 10k run event which breaks down to a pair of sub-38 minute 10k's and a 1:38-low 60k bike. That may be fairly challenging, but sub-3 hours is definitely within my grasp. My aim is to pace the race perfectly such that I negative split all three legs, and therefore, negative split the race overall with my 2nd run faster than the first.

Clemson Pi Day Challenge Race Report

This was a rather impromptu "race" but it was on campus celebrating Pi Day and there was food involved so why not? The race was slated as a 1 mile run - Eat 1/2 a Cheese Pizza - and another 1 mile run. In reality I found the runs to be 0.89 miles according to my Garmin Forerunner 610, but my approximate pace and overall place wouldn't have changed so it doesn't really matter.

With the short distance of running I knew it would come down to the eating portion, something I knew I wasn't awful at, but I had no idea how I'd fair. Maybe about 50 people started the race and I took off quickly settling into 2nd place. The guy in first was running well, but I figured there was little chance he'd hold on even to the pizza station. The first run was mostly downhill, but with a flight of stairs at the end. I lapped my watch and grabbed a plate of pizza. First run - 0.89 miles in 4:47.3 (5:23/mi. pace).

GHS Centennial Half-Marathon Race Report

With 5 weeks remaining before the Boston Marathon and days quickly ticking past, I ran my final preparatory half-marathon on Saturday. The race was the GHS Centennial Half-Marathon, celebrating the centenary of Greenville Hospital Systems, not of the race which was in its first year. The course began in Travelers Rest, SC and ran 10 miles along the Swamp Rabbit Trail to Greenville. The trail is an old railroad converted into a multiuse paved recreational trail and has a slight decline over the course we ran. As soon as we entered Greenville, however, we hit a mile long climb up around the baseball stadium before descending back through downtown, up another climb, and into the finish line.

I started out comfortably, but kept in mind how my Achilles was feeling having not been able to run most of the week because of it. I lead through the first mile in 5:45 and a group of three quickly established at the front. This select group included Fleet Feet runner Jon Stoehr, elite triathlete Daniel Moss, and me. Sensing my effort level rise slightly too high, I backed off and the others slowly opened up a gap on me. When I say slowly, I mean by approximately 10 seconds per mile… which may seem like a reasonable gap, unless you’re running on a trail that has multiple sections straight enough to see a minute or two ahead of you. At 6 miles, I was about 50 seconds back but could still clearly see the runners ahead of me because, in reality, I was still only a little more than 200 meters behind.

Two-Twenty-Two Duathlon Race Report

Knowledge is power, so knowing who you’re racing against is generally a good thing. Knowing that your closest competition is likely to come from someone whose 10k PR is 3 minutes slower than yours? That leads to a lot of confidence.

The thing that I love most about races run by Set Up Events, other than the great organization, timing, and police support, is that they post the entire list of entrants for a race on the race page and keep it updated as more people enter. This is more than likely so that people can check that they are entered, but it also serves the purpose of letting athletes see who they’re up against.

On Thursday, I looked through the list of entries and searched for past results for everyone. Some had raced more than others, and some obviously had more pertinent results to the event at hand, but for every competitor I managed to find some information about a previous race. Given that there were only 44 people on race day, and even fewer pre-registered, checking everyone’s past results wasn’t a particularly lengthy task, but it certainly made me that much more confidant at the start.

The Two-Twenty-Two Duathlon was organized fairly late with registration only opening a few weeks ago, hence the small turnout, but it served as a good opportunity to get a race effort in on the bike before Powerman Alabama next month. In that sense, the extreme bike-bias in this race was very much a good thing. The race started with a 2-lap 2 mile run, followed by a 21 mile bike, and finished with another 2-lap 2 mile run. The run legs were actually about 2.08 miles by my Garmin, and confirmed as closer to 2.1 miles by the race director.

Myrtle Beach Half-Marathon Race Report

Yesturday was the Myrtle Beach Marathon & Half-Marathon and I made the trek out there from Clemson for the weekend. Originally my plan was for this to be my third and last half-marathon in my build up to the Boston Marathon in April, but I found out about a much more local race 3 weeks from now that I’m fairly certain I’ll do in an effort to drop my PR even further as it’s a net downhill course but this weekend’s time may prove difficult to beat.

So my last two races, Charleston on 1/14 and Miami on 1/29 resulted in a new PR in a great race followed by an awful race. Since Miami, though, I haven’t really had a single bad workout. By last Saturday I had built up to equal my longest training run, but cruised through it and felt great, and then I smoked a nice 12 mile threshold workout on Tuesday.

As a result, I was pretty confident heading into this race and once again I didn’t have too many goals because I wanted to just use it as a good marathon training run. I arrived to Myrtle Beach on Friday evening with a large group of Clemson FCA runners and friends, many of whom I met for the first time. Friday evening we had a group prayer and asked God to protect those of us running and to help carry us through the race. I had never done anything like that before, but I felt somewhat obligated to participate as these were some extremely kind people letting me stay with them.

Miami Half-Marathon Race Report

It’s been almost a week and a half since the Miami Half-Marathon, but if I had raced well, this would have probably been done last week, and in considerable detail. Sometimes you get to a race, and it’s just not your day. In Miami I was more nervous than I can remember being before a race, at least since high school. I could hardly sleep the night before and although I didn’t end up feeling tired during the race, I’m sure 2 hours of sleep didn’t help my case.


In a way, I had completely screwed myself over by running as fast as I did in Charleston two weeks prior. Am I really in 1:20 half-marathon shape? I happened to have a stellar race in Charleston, but if I had run 1:22 or even just under my former PR of 1:22:33, then I certainly wouldn’t have gone out as fast as I did here.


The weather was warm (70 degrees apparently) and humid (90%), but the humidity didn’t hit me until we were off and running. The start was complete chaos, and I ended up having to jump the fence to get into the seeded corral where I was supposed to be. On top of that, they then squeezed some “Race of the Americas” runners in with us… well, in front of us really which is rather an insult as our corral had to have run proven times to be there (i.e. my 28th overall 2:51:03 in the full a year ago). Finally, the organizers decided to let the elite athletes go 10 seconds before the rest of us, and had volunteers stopping us from running for that time.

Charleston Half-Marathon Race Report

I don’t believe I wrote a race report for the Charleston Half-Marathon last year, but it was two weeks prior to my breakthrough marathon in Miami and had given me a great deal of confidence. I had “accidentally” set a half-marathon PR by 7 seconds in a time of 1:22:33 after a closing 5k of 18:55.

Going into this year’s race I had a similar goal of just running a steady tempo around what I hope to run in Boston 13 weeks from now. The night before the race I pulled up last year’s splits and thought how I might be able to squeak out another PR by a few seconds if I just aimed to run every mile somewhere around 6:15.