Except for a very few Kenyans working extremely hard, it's impossible to make a living out of running. So better be a second job, and a passion!
Sharing a few personal notes on my journey in endurance running and ultra running. To meet you on the web if not on the road. Happy trails to all, farther and faster!
Showing posts with label Marathon training. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Marathon training. Show all posts
What a journey to rebuild after last year's 7-month forced break off running... Without even having to check on past blogs or my running log, I still remember the ease and excitement of running tempo runs of 20 miles or even 50K at the track. 20-15 years ago, I had made a habit of going to the track on Tuesdays and Thursday, before 6 am, to meet with Bob and Jeremy for a diligent track workout. Then travels, early business meetings, heavy racing, a pandemic, other priorities and, unfortunately, injuries, took over and got me off the... track, literally speaking!
When I resumed running back in September, I was so slow and the knee was so painful that it didn't seem right to rush to the track. Yet, I ran 25K at our local high school at the end of September, then a marathon in October and another one in November. Encourage by the progress in January, I pinged Bob and we've met a few times on Sunday morning since. While I'm pretty good at putting pressure on myself and not needed outside motivation to work harder, having Bob to alternate miles in tempo runs helps a lot!
2 weeks ago, we ran a 1:07:44 10-miler (6:46 min/mile). For the first 6 miles, my miles were close to 7 minutes while Bob's were closer to 6:45. Bob skipped a few laps at the end but I was able to pick-up the pace, ending with 6:37 and 6:26 miles.
This Sunday, Bob was traveling so I was by myself and decided to at least do 10 miles, or more as long as I could stay below 7 min/mile. It was quite windy, making the exercise more challenging, especially alone. I had a 14-second cushion at the 10-mile mark so continued for a few miles. Clocked 1:31:30 at the half-marathon mark, hesitated to keep pushing for 25K but felt it was enough for a workout.
I can't emphasize enough how good it is to run at the track, if you have the luxury of having one accessible to you. It's safe, it's perfectly flat and it gets rid of the dangers and distractions of running along and across streets, or even trails (although I'm a big fan of cross training on trails of course). Having the ability to check on or adjust your pace by a second or two every lap, that is every quarter of a mile, teaches you to control your pace like a machine. Being in a controlled environment, it's also easy to adjust distance based on your form or will power. Not advocating to do all your running on a track but the track is the best and optimal setup to consciously work on your pace. On my default go-to loop in my neighborhood, I don't work as hard as at the track.
Anyway, everybody has different motivations to run. But if you want to run faster, then make sure to visit the track regularly. Well, not just visit, but log laps while pushing the pace! All the best!
That nearby summit of almost 3,000 feet used to be my weekly playground. Between the focus on road and distance training for Spartathlon in 2023, then the meniscus injury 12 months ago, my last run up there was March 25, 2023. I wouldn't have remembered, I'm glad to have kept a detailed running log for 29 years! Anyway, 2 years since I went on Black Mountain, time flies so fast...
As I wrote last week in my Big Bunny 5K race report, I have to work on my endurance and hill training to prepare for my next races, this Spring. So why not right away? The glutes had worked a lot to power the pace on Saturday but I wasn't sore the next morning. Still, after all these months not running hills, or not running at all last for 7 months last year as a matter of fact, my main goal was to just go the ultra distance, with a conservative pace. So, here I go on the Mountain, last Sunday.
Incidentally, I was pleased to see so much water, first in the Stevens Creek Reservoir, then all the creeks flowing. I write this post thinking this may serve as a geological survey. Who knows, when water get much scarier in the future, most probably, it might be interesting to some to find some information about our past. Speaking of surveyors, I was thinking of my buddies whom I was running these trails 10+ years ago: Charles Stevens, Mark Williams, Chuck Wilson, Chris Garcia, ... Will a younger generation take over monitoring these trails through running?
Running wise, I managed to actually run the whole 28.5 miles, even the steep Indian Creek on the back side of Black Mountain. Very promising to still have the stamina. And some glutes to power up. And shorter strides/steps as you can see on this chart, around mile 15. Two images came back to mind wile powering up, two tips from ultra legends: Hal Korner's diesel mode, and Scott Jurek imagining his head/mind being pulled by a string.
As a matter of fact, the downhills were way more annoying, triggering pain in the left knee, dang. Here is a Relive.cc flyover.
Beyond the knee pain, the worst experience on that Sunday was an encounter with cyclists rushing down Montebello Road. Fearing those as much as they fear cars driving up, I was running up the hill on the left side of the road, against traffic, as pedestrians have to. I'm always thinking of such potential encounters so, in a turn, I was carefully running on the left side of the white stripe, in a turn. And not fast as it was steep. A first cyclist was surprised to see me. He wasn't even close to the side but deviated toward me anyway, the reflex to avoid a potential car coming up. Now, the second biker had plenty of time to see me but decided to yell at me, like I was the danger! A loud and infuriated: "Come on!" to which I replied with all my energy and yelling "F..k you!" At least the third cyclist stayed mute... Between the emotion and shouting with all I had, I had to walk a few steps to catch my breath, phew! Really, I get it is stressful to ride down Montebello at 50 miles per hour, but to act like you own the road... Disgusting behavior.
Not counting a few pit stops to enjoy the views, I clocked an average of 9:10 min/mile. I would have been encouraged by this start to hill training if it wasn't for the knee pain which resulted and persisted all week, hampering my weekly mileage: 28.6 miles this week versus 65.9 miles last week! I used to average 100 km per week for 9 years, but these 106 km felt like overworking... With my damage knee I might have to just do hill training while racing, and work on strength training otherwise.
From a survey standpoint, I noted that the phone booth at the backpack campground is still up, but without a tone. More like a museum artifact...
No communication but the level of the water reservoir at the top of Black Mountain is healthy at least!
The left knee is still sensitive on most of the runs, enough to contain my eagerness to returning to logging 62 miles a week, an average I hold on for 8 consecutive years, before the pandemic. Some will call that a blessing... The famous "listen to your body" adage...
This Sunday morning, after watching an impressive win of France over Italy --that would be rugby-- and working on my CFO duties for one of a non profit I'm involved in, I went back to the nearby track. As I wrote at the end of my trip report to Saint Lucia last week, we live in running paradise, here in California. Better make the most of it!
Last week, I did 6 repeat miles. Coming back from a week of slow running in the Caribbean, the first mile was sluggish at 6:40 but I eventually push the pace to run the last mile at 6:06. This week, I had in mind of running as many repeat miles, each below 6:30.
To my surprise, I clocked 6:12 with relative ease so decided that was going to be the new bar for the series. 6:09, 6:07, 6:04, all separated by the same 2-minute rest, I was on a roll! Since I wanted the series to last longer than 6, I eased up a bit to clock 6:05, 6:06 and 6:05 for the next ones. I finally got to 6:00 on repeat #8, then 5:57 for #9, running 100 meters behind a kid doing a 1,500-meter test, timed by his father. I couldn't match that in #10 (6:07) and decided that was an indication that was enough of a work out. The best news, for me anyway, was to feel the glutes so engaged and participating into the leg work challenge of the combination of an even faster cadence (my default one is already high) and longer stride (that I need to regain).
It felt exciting to be able to hold at that pace, for a big change. Even more so as I didn't feel my knee at all (but I did on the slow 8-min mile back home). That workout made me think of my Chicago marathon PR when I hold that pace (6:01) for 26.2 miles. 21 years ago, time flies, and disappear...
Overall, there is a ton of KPIs to track the biomechanics aspects of running. But when it comes to the mind and motivation, you have to listen to... your body indeed! That inner voice. The little monkey on your shoulder. The mind game...
So, short of having an objective measure on that end, sharing analytics collected and inferred by Garmin and Coros. With Coros tagging this training run as "Excessive" and giving me a punition of 92 hours until full recovery. Feeling like I got a red card on that one... when I thought I was doing something right... 🤪
Ah, these years when there was only one measure on your watch, time! Last century... A reminder of not forgetting to still run with our mind, head, soul and heart! 🤗
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Coros summary:
Garmin Connect charts:
Garmin Connect laps:
Garmin Connect zones:
Coros Apex 2 (analytics at your wrist, some while running, some, post workout):
8 am on Sunday morning, it felt surreal to be at the track. Not only because of the early hour on a long weekend in memory of Dr Martin Luther King, but because of the fog. When finding the right words to describe the scene is way harder than getting the phone out to snap a picture...
The fog was so thick that it might have tricked smoke detectors: a general alarm got triggered and sounded for a few of our initial laps.
Beyond the spectacular lightning, the day was also out of the ordinary because it had been years since I ran with Bob for a workout. We used to meet at least once a week for years, before and after the ILOG acquisition in 2008. At 5:45 am, at the Mountain View High School track, with Jeremy. Then occasionally as our work schedules and my travels got in the way. Then I stopped doing hard track workouts with my fissured tendon injury at the end of 2018. Actually, since I have a note in my running log, our last workout together was September 27, 2018. More than 6 years, and another serious injury with the broken meniscus, time flies...
I pinged Bob on Friday evening in hope he'd be able to pace me on a tempo run. I wanted to see how far I could hold a 7 min/mile pace. 10 miles? 15? Bob ran 2 marathons last year -- his 12th Boston, and Santa Rosa -- and was interested in running 10 miles.
I set the pace on the first 4 laps, then we alternated at every mile. Bob stopped a handful of times for either a pit stop, or to catch his breath. He is super consistent and was clocking 1:40 laps +/- 1 second. Slightly below my 7 min/mile goal so I did stop with him at the end of 10 miles: 1:07:42 for 40.25 laps in lane 1, I was pleased by how smooth this felt. Having a pacer makes it so much easier, thank you, Bob! I added 5.5 miles to make 25K.
This Monday, I also got back to another tradition, my run along the railway track, for another 25K. That was another habit I had in my good years, running a race distance in 2 or 3 segments, 1 or 2 weekends before a race.
Very pleased to feel my glutes responding and engaging into the effort. And even more so that they aren't too sore afterwards. Great sign of rebuilding. A few laps at a time. While I would concede the work at the gym, on the bike or the rower helped for sure, I still believe nothing can replace actual running to strengthen and condition your legs appropriately. But, fair and granted, with the knee still whispering, I'm forced to lighten the load and leverage the benefits of cross-training.
One more weekend to fine tune and test my endurance before Jed Smith. Coros still gives me a 3:11 marathon prediction. I believe I'm past that. At least I'm working hard to prove it wrong! And, to anyone wanting to get faster and stronger, I can't recommend enough the discipline of the track!
As you might have read in previous posts, I did resume running, training and even racing after a long hiatus due to breaking a meniscus on March 1st. After an arthroscopy on July 1 in Paris, the surgeon prescribed to wait until September. Even if he said that I would get fully back to my intense running eventually, the first days of September were quite discouraging as I could barely jog half a mile without serious knee pain. I continued going to the gym for some strength training, and doing some rowing and cycling. Eventually, I was able to log a few miles at once, only to experience more pain for a few days afterwards. On the 22nd, I decided to go to my local track and see how far I could jog: bingo, it wasn't pretty but I reached 26.2 miles again in 3:42, below the M60-64 requirement of 3:50! Granted, this isn't anything official, plus the total time was about 4:12 as I made a few stops to refill bottles, cool down as it was still warm, and check my phone. No pressure!
At the end of September I logged two runs of 20 and 15.5 miles respectively. The pain subsided so I stayed in the 10-15K range daily after that.
In October, I ran my first race, a road half marathon. The knee was ok during the race, I was more limited by the breathing while trying to maintain a 7 min/mile pace. Knee pain again for the following few days so I took the week off.
Back in California, I went back to the track on October 20th for a 3:31:47 training marathon: the last 10 miles were painful but progress! Followed by my second race of the season, a trail half marathon this time.
November 3, 3:24:52: even a better training marathon, although even more knee pain the next day...
And this Sunday, November 10, 3:17:11! I'm prouder of this one because the elapsed time is less than a minute over, 3:17:57, so even more legit. Albeit still unofficial of course. A few other encouraging stats:
Average pace: 7:31
Average cadence: 187 (Garmin) - 185 (Coros)
Average stride length: 1.15 meters (still far from my optimal marathon 1.30m-average stride of 15 years ago, but improving)
Slightly negative split by a few seconds
First and last mile at 8:15 (running through the neighborhood), all other miles under 8 otherwise, with a few under 7:30.
Nice trend even with the horizontal axis not at scale.
And so... what am I still complaining about when many work so hard all their running life to qualify for Boston? Well, it's the persisting pain which makes me wonder how hard and long I can really go. Putting the miles in seem so important both mentally and physically: I'm probably not enough expert, I still haven't found a way to strengthen my legs as much as when running. Not to mention the level of energy. But, am I damaging the meniscus fracture/tear more?
Now, is pain even an excuse? When I hear about other runners who share that they have been running in pain for many years, including with bone on bone articulations, it seems like I shouldn't complain indeed...
In August, Coros' marathon time prediction was 3:09. It is now down to 3:11. I still need to work on the glutes --well, always as a matter of fact-- but I believe the strength training is paying off. And I do see a path to beating these Coros predictions eventually, in good race conditions. But no rush, even with many steps at a time... And, yes, let me appreciate these improvements!
Run Happy as Brooks' tagline says! Speaking of which, still hot on my favorite running partners: Brooks, Ultimate Direction, S!Caps, VespaPower and GU Energy (disclosure: I still receive some discount on the last 2 brands).
I have to admit, despite 18 years of ultra trail running, I have still no all the clues about what I am doing! As the saying goes, ultra running is a barely scientific experiment of n = 1 (even when the UTMB marketing machine makes it seem like n = 8,000). When my hamstring tendon fissured after training so hard to break the M50-54 100K record, and failing, after 8 years of averaging 100K a week, I figured out that the 62-mile weeks had become too much for my body.
Then I put my hat in the Spartathlon lottery because I felt there wasn't much time left to run that mythical race before I'm getting too old (this year, there are 20 entrants older than me, the older being 71 and 14 between 60 and 64). And I got in on the first try, although I still don't feel like I totally rebuilt after the 4-year injury.
Our team coordinator who already finished Spartathlon 9 times (!) gave us an training regimen that I had never heard of before. August had to include 2 weeks at 200 miles, we had been warned in March! I was torn between the fear of breaking something again, which happened to a few other entrants from our Team USA unfortunately, and this opportunity to explore unchartered territories again and set new limits, both physically and mentally.
With such a regimen, I went into Skyline 50K with only one day of tapering and absolutely no hill training, even after a stay in Chamonix in July where I mostly ran on roads, flat trails and hundreds of laps at the track. 2 weeks later, I took 4 days off before an even hillier trail 50K, Tamalpa Headlands. Definitely not on fresh legs but a great effort and reasonable result given the circumstances. Overall 11 ultra runs in August, including one 50-miler and 7 50Ks, phew. And a record monthly total of 537 miles for August (865 km) after another record month in July of 462 miles (744 km). With a 180-mile week then a record 205-mile one.
What did I learn? First and foremost, slowing down, finally! Thanks (!) to a constant muscle fatigue, and having to adapt to the heat and running at night,
Second, I feel I indeed gained some mental strength in the process. Finding the motivation to run through the hottest part of the day during the weekends, or later at night after busy work days was a bigger deal at the beginning of the month.
And a few logistical tune up around chaffing prevention or running through a few blisters with some taping.
One thing I didn't do from the recommended training plan is the sleep deprivation part which consisted in alternating 2-hour sleep breaks with 2-hour runs/walks, for 48 hours. I'm already sleeping less than 6 hours most often, I believe sleep deprivation won't be the biggest obstacle on race day. Hard to do while working another full time job anyway.
Overall, I peaked at 82 miles/week for the first 8 months of 2023, a new threshold which I didn't know I could sustain.
Tapering now? Not quite yet according to the boss! He unveiled the September program which still includes 100-mile weeks until we travel to Greece. Yikes, I was eager to ease up after August... Well, 100-mile weeks after 180 to 200-mile ones, maybe that's easing up! ;-)
Most important now is not to break, not to get injured. While racing the Stevens Creek Reservoir half today for instance!
I was already one year into my ultra running journey when I jumped on the blogging bandwagon, a trend which many have left since for other micro post social platforms. 15.5 years, this is another form of commitment, and endurance. For 11 of these years I posted every week in average. Between the pandemic and my recent 3.5-year long injury, I went for weeks, sometimes months, without posting, short of running-related updates. At times I thought I might be done as my sport medicine doctor feared the injury was going to turn chronic. I've still so much to rebuild but I'm at least getting back to some solid running which is encouraging.
We are only mid September and I already logged 2,000 miles this year, much more than the 1,260 in 2019 or even last year's total 1,800. For 8 years (2011-2018) I logged 3,200 miles a year, or an average of 100K a week, but maybe it became too much, in my mid 50s. Some actually log much more, but maybe not at the same intensity. Or, again, at that age. I'm right above 85K/week right now and not trying nor risking to push farther this time. I wish there was more formulas and analytics out there to figure out the right goal, but our body is so complex, it's the perfect time to remind ourselves that "ultra running is an experiment of one." A useful quote for the coaching business as well, as it states the importance of personalized training strategies.
Without a specific training plan but always races in the future to set my mind on, I decided to celebrate this milestone with... an ultra of course! While many may need either aid station support or motivation to complete an ultra, I have the chance to actually run and enjoy ultras on my own. Out of 485 ultra runs I have in my log, only 181 (39%) have been races. The other 300 have been mostly solo, a few group runs, like Fat Ass format. For these past golden years I used to run between 30 to 38 ultras a year. Then it fell to 15, 12 and 19 during the injury. I'm back at 20 year to date, steadily rebuilding up...
Now, in these statistics, I'm using the mathematical definition of ultra, that is any run longer than a marathon. For some hard core ultra runners like AJW (Andy Jones-Wilkins), a 50K, even an hilly one, is barely an ultra. Since I'm a few years older, I'll dare to disagree. With such thinking, and the advent of 200-mile races for instance, where to draw the line? I get he is teasing us, certainly there is a wide range of variability within our sport, most notably between the terrain and distances. With this preamble, and the fact that my upcoming races will be on asphalt, I went for one of my local favorite flat easy 50K, from Cupertino to Palo Alto's Baylands, mostly on the Stevens Creek Trail and through Shoreline Park.
Nothing epic and worth a long post, just another good training run, for the love of... work! I even managed to not have to stop my watch for the first half, a bit of a fate with some major artery crossings. For that reason, I only stopped to take pictures on the way back. The out was actually much harder because of some strong head winds along the Bay. Not counting the time stopping to refill my bottles and take picture, I ended up right on an equal split (twice 1:58). With the first mile being the first one (8:04) as it takes me more time to get the machine going these days and mile 30 being the fastest at 7:10.
7:10 min/mile... Close to the pace that Aleksandr Sorokin hold for 24 hours to improve his world record to 198.6 miles, this weekend, at the European Championships! For 25 years we all thought that Kourous' record was untouchable and there you are, a late comer to ultra running, someone I've heard might have been a smoker even, killing all records from 100 miles, 12 hours, 24 hours and more. He already has a Wikipedia page which is sure to get longer! You see, although I felt I had a good run given the circumstances, speed is relative...
Even after more than decades in the Bay, I'm still like a kid when seeing pelicans. Such majestic birds that I rarely saw live, if ever, in my childhood in France.
Another blessing of living in the Bay Area, Steve Patt could tell you how many hundreds of these North American birds he has spotted in the area. (Sorry for the poor light reflection, picture taken through the window of the historic Sea Scout Base.)
Here is Relive.cc fly over video to situate this run in the parks, with a few pictures on the way back (click on this URL or the image below). By the way, I have no idea how Relive is displaying an elevation of 2,000 feet while he highest point on this run is 250 feet. Even Strava's 570 feet is suspicious enough. Room for improvement! As for the calorie count, 1,700 seem on the low side for 31 miles (I just compensated with 400 calories, #fatisyourfuel as we say with Vespa Power!).
I'll miss those running Dick Collins Firetrails 50 next week but hope to see many at our Grand Prix finale at Ruth Anderson on October 8. Most likely an October Fest for my beer drinking buddies! ;-) And a Speed Fest for a handful, I'll write more about this shortly.
PS: 90,000 solar panels on this carapace over Google's office.
Wow, as I start writing this race report, I imagine it to be a long one. Such a legendary race and event, so many memories coming back, and so many new memories formed which I want to capture in writing. Oh, and so many pictures too with Agnès and friends attending as well. And videos for a change... I have so much in my mind even several days later, I could have created 3 posts so, again, be prepared for a long one. Hey, you don't have to go through all of it anyway, there is no test afterwards! ;-)
I. Leading to Boston
First, I was asked what motivated me to come back so I had to recall what went through my mind back in September 2015, when we put our application in. Several things as I recall. First, the yearly appeal of being part of this unique race, the oldest marathon with 121 editions so far. Second, the fact that I had gotten a good qualifying time during the 50K Nationals when I passed the marathon mark in 2:45 on my way to my 50K PR of 3:18. Third, the opportunity to visit a few friends we have in New England, a trip which got Agnès particularly excited. Fourth, that was going to mark a return to Boston after 10 years. Last, but not least, after the stroke of March 2016, there is a sentiment of 'do it while you can', the same motivation which got me into UTMB this year.
10 years have passed since my last Boston, wow, time flies! 10 years during which I ran 140 ultra races, a passion for ultra running which relegated the marathon distance to a long sprint... I've ran 61 50K races but only 22 marathons, time to give that mythical another try.
For those who follow-me, what led to Boston has been a strange preparation to that distance and format. In January, I prepared for a 24-hour track race I had at the end of February but, in the meantime ran a solid 50K road race the first weekend of February (3:19:59), then won the Masters division at the 50K trail Nationals 2 weeks later, only to falter on GI issues with a very disappointing 111 miles at the Riverbank 24-hour race a week later. I didn't race in March, with my main goal being to break our American age group record at the 100K Nationals the week before Boston and that led to a fiasco with some exercise-induced asthma and having to walk 50K to finish, and win the Masters division again short of a competitive field. With that asthma incident, I had no expectation whatsoever, or rather, a broad range of them, from running a strong race if my lungs could hold on, or just finishing, again.
Per my previous post, I went for 11 miles in Bloomington, IL, at 7:20 min/mile and felt ok but not over-confident with either my lungs or legs. But, in any case, it felt good to have my name on the 2017 roster!!
II. Pre-race
There is a lot going on with running Boston and such a huge international event. A 3-day expo to accommodate more than 30,000 runners coming from all over the world, this is big. Traveling and staying in Boston over that Patriots' Day weekend is quite a logistical nightmare in itself. The oversize of these events is one thing which makes me love the ultra races and sense of community even more.
Sneaking in before the weekend crowds...
To immerse myself even more into this incredible crowd and vibe, I offered to help one of my sponsors, GU Energy, for a 4-hour shift at the expo, and what an experience this has been! I was in charge of the GU Gel, GU Chew and GU2O/Roctane tasting bar and I've helped out quite a few runners hungry for extra calories and nutrition tips! I've been fueled with so much success and consistency by GU and GU2O for the past 10 years, I couldn't help sharing my passion for these products made in Berkeley, California!
It was also fun to visit the booth of my main sponsor, Brooks, who, despite ending up way at the end of the hall at this expo dominated by the main sponsor, Addidas, still managed to set the bar pretty high; so high that you had to look to the ceiling to catch these slow-motion animated running bots:
And the usual Brooks humor...
If there is something really serious Brooks folks are after is to make running fun, hence the Run Happy tag line and mantra! ;-)
Then, Bay Area and RRCA official, George Herbert Rehmet:
On Saturday, we went with the friends we were staying at to Concord to visit the National Historic Minute Man Park, a good way to learn about the American revolution which led to the foundation of our country, especially that heroic battle of April 19, 1775. Great American history lesson for me, I know, 101 level. Anyway, I ran back to their house, running 5 rolling miles close to marathon pace which was a great confidence builder, yet, at 6:30 min/mile, raising questions if I could sustain an even faster pace for 5 times that distance.
On Sunday we went to the beach and, while the water was frigid cold, the air temperature reached 84F which felt really hot especially to the locals who had snow a week earlier!
In the evening, the weather changed, with some rain hitting us as we were still enjoying dinner outside. Definitely a different weather pattern than California... We even got a hot running conditions warning from the race organizers in our mailboxes on Sunday, asking that we planned on taking it easier, hydrating a lot and running slower than our initial targets. I've always said that, despite the overall elevation loss, Boston isn't the place to aim at a PR (and this is confirmed by analytics of course, like in this Runner's World article).
III. The race
With the attack of 2013, and the overwhelming security measures since then, the race has significantly changed from the times I ran it (2001, 2003, 2005 and 2007), starting with the logistic to get to the start or along the course. We left our friends' house before 8 am, so Agnès could drop me at the Hopkinton shuttle terminal before 8:30. And it was already a warm morning per local standards...
One of my Quicksilver teammates, Amy, grew up in Hopkinton, and invited the other team members to stop by her uncle's house near the start which looked like so much better than wait inside the Runners' Village. Picture of the first wave leaving the village, with 55 minutes to cover a mile...
Unfortunately, the time to get to the remote parking lot, get on a bus and wait until it filled up, drive all around Hopkinton then getting stuck into the village until they released the first wave at 9:05, I was only able to meet the rest of the team for 5 minutes before running to the start myself. But we got a cool picture of our five representatives.
Despite the crowd, I ran into two other Bay Area ultra runners, Nike team member, Alex Varner, and Excelsior's Karl Schnaitter. Surprisingly for such an elite runner as Alex, he got a 740 bib, just 5 numbers apart from me. He must have qualified on a hilly marathon.
While 200 were separating Karl's and my bib:
By the way, would you guess what runners do before running 26.2 miles, and by a warm day? Yes, see below, run more miles to... warm up. As for me, I was just happy watching these guys running in circles and starting sweating before the gun.
I didn't want to wait for too long in the corral so I entered in just 5 minutes before 10 am and got at the back of the first corral, with maybe 700 or 800 runners in front of me. As a matter of fact, I ended up waiting next to a runner who was wearing a M50 bib on his back. He told me that, with a qualifying time of 2:43, he was the 8th seeded runner in my age group so, not being given such an age group, I deducted that I was an underdog. Hey, maybe the others didn't get their qualifying times while running a 50K... At least, I had some insights that it was going to be a tough battle for a M50-54 podium! Here is Scott Lebo, from Colorado Springs, CO:
I decided to race with my iPhone this time, and used the convenient Ultimate Direction Scott Jurek's Essentials belt for that, I was also carrying 2 Ultimate Direction bottles, one with water, one with GU2O, plus 4 GUs, 1 pouch of GU2O (I typically drink one bottle every 15-18 miles), plus 8 S!Caps, more than needed (I take between 1 and 2 every hour, depending on the temperature), but I was expecting a hot and potentially long day if I had to walk part of the course would the asthma kick in again. With all that, I definitely looked bizarre, especially among the front runners who were probably wondering if I had entered the wrong race. But I feel so more comfortable drinking when I want and knowing what I did drink, something impossible to do when you randomly grab a cup when flying through the aid stations at every mile. Besides, I saved a few seconds here and there by not slowing down at these marks.
Since I had my phone with me at the start, here are 2 random shots of corral 1 and 2 respectively.
It took me 20 seconds after the gun to cross the start line and, with almost a thousand runners ahead, I felt like starting at the very back of the pack; amazing how competitive this race is! With the bibs ordered by qualifying time, you see that there are about 100 runners within the same minute as your time, that's a lot of people to run along. For those not familiar with the course, we start running downhill for most of the first mile which makes everybody go way too fast right off the bat. While we lose more than 400 feet of elevation between Hopkinton and Boston, most of the course is rolling so you always have to rebuild momentum in the uphill sections after accelerating in the downhills, for a very tricky pacing exercise. To help, the course is precisely marked with both miles and kilometers, at least the first kilometers, then every 5 kilometers, something the international runners must appreciate.
I had lost track of Scott while navigating the crowd in the second mile but caught up with him in the third mile. After a reasonable 6:13 first mile, we were now going way too fast in my opinion, clocking 6:05, 6:04 and even 5:58 for mile 4, wow! It felt so good and exciting but I knew this wasn't so sustainable, especially on a hot day. Mile 5 was back to reason at 6:14 and even with that, we passed a runner from Japan wearing another of the M50 bibs, I was definitely in the right race! ;-) And Scott wasn't slowing down at all so I ran the the next miles, 6 to 10, respectively in 6:02, 6:04, 6:04, 6:08 and 6:09, wow! With that speed, we caught up with another M50 bib, a tall runner with an orange top, around mile 5 if I recall, and, as he and Scott seemed to gauge each other, I passed them both. I know, that was bold, too early and way too fast, but I just couldn't hold the excitement. And I was thinking of the friends who might have been following me on the web site and think "what the heck is he thinking and doing?!!"
The cell coverage was very bad at the start and I had just seen Agnès's text message that she was at the 10K mark, in Framingham, but I didn't know if she was on the left or right. I assumed the left and tried to make eye contact but she got these picture from the other side. In the years where security wasn't as tight, she managed to spot me 6 times on the course, including the start and finish, but it was only one this year. Spectating or crewing at Boston has become really hard nowadays. Yet, the locals make up for that and pretty much cover both sides of the 26 miles, really a unique experience, and more on this later in my post. Here are a few videos and shots Agnès got at the 10K mark.
Lead women video (they start 30 minutes before us so they can't be paced by the lead men. And the white truck carries their portable watch)
Lead men video (yes, that's 30 minutes for 10K!)
Bay Area ultra elite Jorge Marvilla, bib #43 (27th in Men, 2:24:27!):
Alex Varner in bright yellow top (82th in Men, 2:34:22):
And 3 shots with me, albeit on the wrong side of the road...
I passed the half-marathon mark just above 1:20 which was really fast in these conditions. To put things into perspective, my PR at Boston was 2:43:00 and I was 12 years younger (41)... Fortunately, I do well in the heat and that served me this time. I was astonished how, just after a few miles of running, many runners' top and shorts were drenching and could predict that quite a few would have hard time in the second half. Around mile 10, I took 2 S!Caps to be safe, and enjoyed going through the scream tunnel of Wellesley College, just before the half mark, but remained quite composed and focused on my breathing in particular, staying in the middle of the road while other runners were getting or giving high fives to the hysteric college girls. Holding your breathing rhythm is in itself a challenge as you can't hear yourself breathing with so much noise! I have to admit though that the level of encouragement gave me a chill, as well as the noise level while going through the half way point.
Mile 15 was my slowest at 6:15, followed by my fastest mile at 5:55. Again, so long for the pacing exercise on this rolling course. As a matter of fact, the 6:15 included a 10 to 15" pit stop to refill my GU2O bottle, I don't think I ever did it that quickly in an ultra, wow! With this short stop, Chris Calzetta, an ex Quicksilver teammate from Monterey, whom I had passed a mile earlier, passed me again but I caught up with him with the subsequent sub-6 mile, flying down through Newton. Now, Newton is known to Boston runners for its hills and I have to admit that I was starting fearing the infamous Heart Break Hill and slow down to 6:18 and 6:21 for miles 17 and 18, so much that the M50 runner with the orange top passed be just before the 18-mile mark. I tried to remain close behind, clocking 6:07 for mile 19 but faltered in the subsequent hill with 6:25 and 6:47 for miles 20 and 21. Of course, this is barely a hill per mountain ultra running standards, but it is a pace killer that late in the race. I had taken only 2 GU gels so far and I should have taken at least another one if not two but I was too focused on speed. I was happy to regain some speed in the next 3 miles (6:17, 6:12, 6:23) but the last 2 miles were hard and I was expecting Scott to catch me anytime now as I ran miles 25 and 26 in 6:38 and 6:59. Here I am, now lonely, in the 25th mile (photo credit to our Cupertino friend, Nancy Boyle):
With the finish line now in sight, and no sign of Scott, I rushed to the finish with my 2nd best time at Boston: 2:44:50, wow!
I was already happy with my finish time, and also the fact that I didn't cramp at all. I reached to my phone, first to take a picture of and with Chris (thanks to his wife, Colleen).
While my phone was out, I checked my result on the Boston Marathon app: I had accomplished the feat of placing 2nd in our M50-54 age group, I couldn't be more pleased and happier about this outcome, wow, I even wowed myself with that one! ;-)
Another runner stopped by in the finish area, recognizing me from last year's Caumsett 50K Nationals, the race which triggered my stroke. Patrick Bell, 47, from Richmond, VA, who was wearing an impressive low number bib (387) but had a tougher day this weekend, finishing in 2:45:27.
As for Scott Lebo, he finished in 2:58:16, 32nd in our age group, and I can imagine how disappointed he must have been for missing his goal. I'm particularly thankful to him for having shared an outlook of the M50 competition at the start, and imposed a killer pace in the first miles to get me on the right track.
Our age group winner was Tim Meigs with an impressive time of 2:41:48. With a 350 bib, he deserved to win. Here is the top 10 in our age group, quite an international panel! (And note the 2 big surges from corrals 2 and 3.)
To conclude this section, a word about my nutrition plan. I ate a GU StroopWafel 30 minutes before the start. Something I had never done before but a keeper. That was on top of a Vespa pouch 45 minutes before the start, and one just before the gun. 2 GU Chew blocks before the start as well. 1 GU gel around mile 11 and another one at mile 18. I just regret not taking at least one more, if not the two I was carrying with me. Overall, quite on the low calorie side compared to these GU cheat sheets we were distributing at the expo but Vespa did its wonder again, allowing me to take energy from fat. I also drank 2 bottles of GU2O and 1 of plain water. Plus 4 S!Caps.
IV. Post race
I was so happy I cried when falling in Agnès' arms after I collected my finisher medal and all the nutritious goodies.
I had secret hopes for such a podium in my boldest dreams a few weeks ago but, after the trouble of the 100K Nationals a week earlier, I had taken the pressure off by not expecting it and just running hard to see what could happen. My sister, a competitive diver who also provides me with the best medical advice had sent me an email just before the race: "stay cool, just run for the fun of it, get to the start relaxed and remain relaxed through the race..." And it worked out so well! Last week was actually not the fist time that I can link asthma to stress so it must be rather stress-induced asthma than exercise-induced.
I literally rushed to the massage area, passing runners going down the stairs backward as they were cramping so bad. My calves were tingling and that sort of troubled my masseuse but I asked her to press my calves really hard and deep in the muscles which she did eventually, although still not matching the intensity of my favorite Monsters of Massage. With Stephanie:
The massage really helped and I had no issue climbing the stairs back up to find Agnès waiting in the sun, and just as Scott Dunlap was getting in (3:07 finish).
In 2005, we had driven all the way up to our friends' in Andover before I realized that I had made the Top 10 Masters and we barely made it back in time for me to get on the stage at the awards ceremony. So we knew better this time and, besides, the race organization's bot had texted and emailed me an invitation to the award ceremony. This time we were staying at a hotel near Logan airport so we had plenty of time to drive there, take a shower, and be back on time for the award ceremony at the fancy Fairmont Copley hotel.
Since I wasn't blogging yet back in 2005 and we didn't see much of the ceremony back then as we got in as my name was called, I was really looking forward to the experience this year and you are in for an extensive coverage in this post. As I wrote earlier, I could have done a separate post for this post-race section and you can skip, but, if interested, that will give you a sense of what this part of the event looks like. I must confess that I was excited like a child by this opportunity to approach la crème de la crème of marathon running this Monday evening!
First, it was really cool to have a few teammates join us for some extra cheering, Pierre-Yves and his family, as well as Harris (Amy had to catch a bus back to her natal or childhood Hopkinton).
While we were waiting for the ballroom to open, Meb Keflezighi was so kind to accept photo ops and I got one myself, plus a short chat with this legendary champion who won Boston in 2014, made it to the Olympics a record 4 times and had run his last competitive Boston this weekend, finishing 13th overall and 2nd in the Masters division.
A few words from this amazing champion in this video:
There was a lot of hardware (glass vase trophies) ready to be distributed that evening.
A quick look at the gotta of marathon running:
The ceremony started with the recognition of the race directors of the 6 major marathons which constitute the Abbott X Series: Boston, New York, Chicago, Tokyo, Berlin and London, and the respective overall winners. Here are the 6 race directors:
Short video of the intro video...
After came the long litany of 5-year age group awards, starting with the 80+ who had not changed yet. Must have been really long for those who had covered the 26 miles in close to 2 hours and had finished 6 hours earlier... That being said, very impressive performances for 6 men and 1 woman in this 80+ categories, starting with a 4:14 for the first M80 (Tony Cerminaro, on the right).
As for me, it was super cool to get back on the stage, 12 years later.
There was a mixup of vases with the previous age group, fortunately quickly settled as you can see on this video:
Here is a shot of my top 10 Masters award in 2015.
I realize how lucky I have been again back then when I see that, this year, they only recognized the top 3 Masters and the third one ran 2:18:32, wow!
Many awardees overall, let me just pick and highlight a few others by order of appearance.
Boston 2017 wheelchair top 2-4 men, the multi Boston champ, Ernst Van Dyk, Ernst from South Africa, who finished in the same second as the overall winner, Hiroyuki Yamamoto from Japan and Kurt Fearnley from Australia.
Boston 2017 wheelchair champs, both from Switzerland: Manuela Schar (1:28:17) and Marcel Hug (1:18:04!!):
Masters #2 (Meb) and 3 (Rachi Kisri):
Boston 2017 female division team winners, Team Brooks-Hansons!
And with the 2017 male team winners, from the local BAA (Boston Athletic Association)
The Boston 2017 top 2-10 women
Boston 2017 top 2-10 men. Galen Rupp (left) was the first American, out of a record 6 out of top 10 this year and 3rd was Suguru Osako, one of his Nike's Oregon Project teammates who ran 2:10:28 in tough conditions for his marathon debut!! (So far, Suguru, from Japan, was a 5,000-meter world elite.)
And, finally, the overall Boston 2017 champions, both from Kenya this year, Edna Kiplagat (2:21:52) and Geoffrey Kirui (2:09:37)
Agnès and I continued the celebration with some sea food and lobster at the nearby Luke's Lobster Back Bay eatery and I was stunned that there wasn't more people around. As a matter of fact, when we left the restaurant around 7:30, most of the remaining activity in the area was about dismantling and cleaning, yet there were still a few runners getting to the finish line. Wow, what a long day!
V. Conclusion
Adding a conclusion to an already way too long report, really? Well, just to add one last wow, that Boston is still the most amazing marathon, from the exceptional tenure, the tough standards to get in which draws a very competitive field from around the world, this unique opportunity to visit Boston and New England, the super professional organization and the incredible crowd lining the 26 miles and cheering so loudly. As a matter of fact, when I was struggling in the last 2 miles, it dawned on me that the noise from the crowd was also hurting my ears and mind... Yet, such a level of support also gave me a chill at a handful of spots on the course. Indeed, a unique experience and hope to be back, but I'm going to enjoy a few very quiet miles in my next ultras in the meantime... ;-)
A passionate runner, international IT executive focusing on Professional Services, French-American and living in California since 1998, married and father of three boys.
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