Dear Tom: live strong and long!

Tom, we need you, your smile, your love of running, your support to go the extra mile! You gave so much to many of us, runners, it was nice to come and support you for this very special Metro Silicon Valley marathon. The 11th edition of this marathon in San Jose and the 11th for you. 20 years of running marathons and ultra marathons. What a string and what a courage from you given the circumstances.

Yellow, the color of hope

What a colorful party you got going to accompany you for these last 5 miles of your progressive marathon. Music, bells, cheering, friendship, personal stories, camaraderie, team and club spirit, perfect weather, all the components were here to build long lasting memories.
Better than words, here are almost 200 pictures to remember this moving experience: ONLINE PHOTO ALBUM. Including quite a few pics from our personal one-on-one with Tom, as he wished and asked for before the start:
And you will see in the album that some are ready for Halloween, this week!
So many familiar faces from your club, the San Jose Fit, and our club the Stevens Creek Striders, you had more than 100 people today caring for you, Tom, and wishing you courage to keep the fight like you already did admirably so far. What a lesson for us and yet another source of inspiration!

More can be found of on you in:

1. A Mercury News article this week,
2. My Rio Del Lago race report.

And photographer and journalist Mark Tantrum walked these 5 miles with us to make a special coverage and story of your adventure in the Saratoga News (scheduled to be published/released on Tuesday 11/4). Check it out!

The Striders

I am less familiar with our "cousin" club of San Jose Fit, the Fitters, so can't list all your friends there but the Striders were well represented: Charles, Peter, Penny, Peggy, Michael S, Michael , Christina (who had run the half in the morning leading blind runner Sharlene Wills in 3:13), Dennis, Robin (who also ran the half in the morning) and Alison, Amanda, John, Bill (just out of Church), Brian and Sophia (who drove from Monterey in the morning) and probably others I'm missing.

After the 5 miles from Blackford Elementary to the finish, we hanged over for a while, with Tom catching his breath and encouraging more Fitters getting to the finish line. Then, like wild animals freed up from their cage, we ran back to mile 20, crossing the last runners on our way.
In addition to the Fitters and Striders, I had also invited the Ultraholics: Adam Blum joined us around mile 23 (he ran the half in 1:29, including taking pictures!) and Rajeev and Anu joined us at mile 25, at the park Tom took a well deserved 5-minute break.

Overall, I walked and ran 14 miles today. Like Tom put it in our one-on-one, "you probably never ran that slow" but that's forgetting about my 5-hour Phoenix marathon of 2003, with my first major exercise-induces asthma crisis. Breathing difficulties which make me appreciate even more Tom's accomplishment of today. With 30 hilly miles yesterday and 51 flat miles in Miami last week, I'm going to taper a bit this week before the Helen Klein 50-miler of next Saturday.

For the love of running which Tom exemplifies! Tom, live strong and long, please...

PS: Tom and Mark Williams at Last Chance aid station on the Western States course, June 2006:

Miami Beach: a flat run

Hi from Florida, hi from Miami Beach! Another state with palm trees. Another state with a strong Native American history (14,000 years ago!) and hispanic background (500 years ago). Another state with a lot of sun, which produces many fruits and produce to the rest of the Nation. Another state on an ocean. Many similarities with California. Actually, many people imagine Florida and California are alike, but that is not knowing North California.
I went for a run right after checking in this Saturday evening at the Loews Hotel. Putting in miles after a day on a the plane felt good. Actually, it made me realize how I appreciate our nearby hills in the Bay Area, the variety of our trail system, as well as the cool temperatures at night, and the relatively dry air.

The boardwalk is interrupted by numerous private accesses of the beach front hotel and apartment complexes, huge buildings facing the Ocean and giving some depth to the flat and straight beach. I ran partly on the beach on a mix of soft and packed sand section
Overall it was a very flat run, despite the errands of my Garmin. I knew that tracking elevation was not the device's specialty, but it was an 8.5-mile out and back and the profile does not really reflect the symmetry. Besides, I surely did not go under sea level! Anyway, the scale is less than 50 feet so, compared to my usual runs in the hills and mountains, it was a flat run indeed.

This Sunday evening, I ran 10 miles in 1:07, including a few on the sand and against a pretty strong headwind. I ran most of them on the very nice boardwalk though, a mix of concrete and wood floor/board which reminded me "les planches de Deauville." Still the same flat profile, maybe a good tune-up and preparation for Helen Klein 50-mile in two weeks.

The 24-hour IAU World Cup in Korea

Wow, check the final results, my French compatriots did quite well in Korea this weekend (the World Cup was organized by the International Association of Ultrarunners).

Men (team final standing):

1. Japan
2. France
3. Russia

Women:

1. France
2. Japan
3. Germany

On the men side, Ryochi Sekiya from Japan covered the most ground with a total of 272.443 km, followed by French Fabien Hoblea with 266.152 km. 272.443 km, that's 169.3 miles, or exactly what I ran over the past 3 weeks since Rio Del Lago. 3 weeks or 24 hours...

In the women division, the French "dream team" took the first three places: Anne-Marie Vernet with 238.762, Anne-Cécile Fontaine with 238.328 (quite close!) and Brigitte Bec with 229.818 km. I have seen Brigitte win the 2008 French Nationals Road 100K in Sologne two months ago. (Picture from the album posted by the iau.org.)
The total field was 106 men and 55 women, kudos to all!