Ragnar Tennessee 2012

The only word I can come up with to describe this experience is "WOW!" Ragnar Tennessee 2012 was absolutely one of the most incredible experiences of my life. I wasn't as excited about this one beforehand because I have done them before. My expectations were not too high. But, oh man, the experience was INSANE!

Opening Credits
Let me start by thanking our sponsors for this. This team gets very generous support from ADTRAN. Without their support, this simply would not happen. I do hope that our sporting our ADTRAN gear during the race raises our brand awareness. Also, I can definitely say that our experience has drawn each of us closer and will strengthen our loyalty to one another and to the company. Our doing business with one another is definitely improved in an immeasurable way by the camaraderie and closeness developed during this event.

A special thanks to teammate Shawn Barber for putting this together. He takes care of getting the support from ADTRAN and organizing the event. Sometimes we give Shawn a hard time because, well, he's Shawn. But this dude is a getstuffdoner. He's an invaluable asset to the team. Also, Shawn raised hundreds of dollars for charity by recruiting and organizing volunteers for this race. He also raised a good bit of money to help one of his close friends who has been diagnosed with terminal cancer and lacks health insurance. If ever I'm in a bind, I hope Shawn notices. He's the kind of guy that makes sacrifices and doesn't mind asking other people to be uncomfortable in order to do good to others. I'm honored to be his co-worker and friend.

Also, big thanks to Marty McCleary and his wife. We needed volunteers to avoid paying a volunteer fee for the race. They stepped up, and have three years in a row now. When I look at the McCleary family and see the relationship between Jake and his dad, I'm filled with admiration. Man, that's what family love is supposed to be like.

Finally, thanks to McKee Foods for their allowing (and encouraging) us to use our team name "Down with OCPs" and for donating lots of Little Debbie Oatmeal Cream Pies to the cause. We had folks asking for OCPs all during the race. Word spread that there were a bunch of crazy guys handing out Oatmeal Cream Pies, and lots of tired hungry runners wanted a piece of the, well, (oatmeal cream) pie.

The Start
We started at 2:00 PM EST in Chattanooga. These relays have a staggered start to manage the logistics of the varied paces. So, the 2:00 and 3:00 afternoon start times are for the serious teams, the ones who plan to run around or less than 24 hours. I was leading off and I wanted to get our team out front early. In years past, we had won this event by over 3 hours, so I wanted that to happen again. I had no idea if we'd have competition this year.

I started quick. I had a 14.5 (really 14.8) mile double leg to start us off. I ran a 6:40 pace that felt amazingly comfortable during the first 10 miles. For the first 6 miles, I was running with a competitor. He told me that he was about the 3rd or 4th best runner on their team and that they were all strong runners. I figured I was our second or third best runner, so I knew we were in for some competition this year. There was a small hill about 6 miles in. He tried to make a move up the hill. I covered his move and stayed on his shoulder and on the down, I obliterated him. I put a good two minutes on him in the last two miles of this first leg of my opening leg.

Their strategy was to swap runners at every exchange. Ours was to swap at every other exchange. So, their strongest runner took the bracelet for the second and most grueling leg of the entire race. This leg is roughly a 7 mile leg that has over 1400 feet of climb in the last 4 miles. Brutal. Their runner caught me about two miles into the climb and put about a minute lead on me. I was completely done at the top of Signal Mountain and probably pushed too hard during this leg and cost my team some valuable time in my later legs. Oh well, we're a minute behind and handing off to our 5th and 6th runners.

Through the Afternoon and into the Night
Seeing their strategy of using a fresh runner for each leg and strategically selecting the runners, we gave that a try for some of our legs. However, through the afternoon and night, they were opening up a 15 to 20 minute lead on us. To try to help close that distance, we worked it out so that I could take a longer leg. When I agreed to do this, I had totally underestimated how much the Suck Creek Road climb had taken out of me. I've never been beaten that badly by any 4 miles ever before. I agreed and swapped from a 9.2 mile double leg to a 13.5 mile double leg. I barely finished it. I was dying at the end of it. A lot of effort for not a lot of speed! But the gap was shrinking again. Maybe more like 8-9 minutes now.

During the night, we all learned a valuable lesson...

After I finished my second double-leg, I changed shorts and took off my warm-up pants. My phone happened to be in my pants. I stuffed the pants in the back of the van and I drove away. A couple of miles down the road, my phone started blowing up with text messages and ringing! It just kept on and on ringing! We were all saying, man, that must be important! And nobody could get to my phone, so it just rang and rang. I said, "As soon as we get to the next exchange, I'm going to check to see who that is and what is wrong. I mean, it's 10 minutes to midnight. It must be an emergency." When we got there... the text was from Andy Durr, and it said, "Hey. U guys a man down?"

Doh!!! We left him behind! It turns out that in the hustle and bustle of the exchange that Andy hopped out to use the port-a-john. We all thought he was asleep on one of the van benches. So, I drove off. Lesson... if you need to use the port-a-john, tell someone!

There's caveat to this lesson, though. Don't tell which port-a-john you use.

Why can't you get out, Mark?

The Early Morning Hours
I have so many stories to tell. I could go into a lot of details about each double-leg I did and blah blah blah. But none of that matters. Through the night, Team Memphomaniacs had a 20 minute lead. We had given up hope of winning this thing. I texted a friend of mine at about 1:00 AM. "We're in second place now and we won't make up the difference." The next thing I knew, they had a 15 minute lead. Then a 10 minute lead. Then, as I was was waiting to begin my third and final double-leg, Andy comes in yelling, "I caught them! I caught them! Eric, you have about 50 or 100 meters! Go! Go! Go!" So, I took off.

There were two problems, though. First, I was DEAD TIRED. I had nothing in my legs. My legs simply would not go. They were completely dead. Toast. Second, the guy I was competing against in this leg is a 16:30 5k runner. He's out of my league. I led for about a half a mile. He passed and I was powerless to do anything about it. I was running about 6:40 when he passed. Nope, I could do nothing. I hung on as best as I could. I let him get a bit of a lead because his move was very strong. Then, I thought, "I'll just keep him in sight. He'll probably slow down when he thinks he's broken me." Nope. He kept hammering. I dropped back to about a 7:00 pace and that was all I had. Next thing I knew, I was running 7:40 and it felt impossible. During this 10.4 mile double leg, they put about two minutes back in front of us.

I felt horrible. I had let the team down. There was nothing I could do about it. Sigh. Then their lead grew back up to about 8 minutes.

It was about 7:45 in the morning. Jake was out on his last leg, getting ready to hand off to Shawn for his last leg. Shawn had asked me to take his last leg, 4.5 miles. I told him "NO WAY." I'm done. I can barely hold a 7:40 pace. I'd rather not run if that's the fastest I can go. Then, Shawn got out of the van and walked to get into the port-a-potty line. He could barely walk he was limping so badly. He had given it all he had after the prior weekend's Marine Corps Marathon. While he waited in line, I changed my clothes and pinned on a number. When he got out, I told him... "I got this." The lead was still 8 minutes. I had no idea how I was going to pull this off, but I was going to. This was a very hilly 4.5 miles, and I gave all I had. I managed somehow to run a 6:30 final mile, but I didn't make much of a dent in their lead. Maybe 40 seconds. But... We still have George!

Catching Up
Mark was not ready at the exchange, and I had to look for him and it took about 60-90 seconds. Even though I screamed for him and made a complete jerk of myself at the exchange, I totally forgive him. You'll see why later. He made up some ground also, but then he handed off to George DeWitt. George DeWitt is no doubt one of the best runners I know.

We gave George a double-leg. The first section had a nasty hill. The second section was long and not flat, either. During the first section, he chased down their 16:30 5k guy and got him in sight. He was not able to catch him, but he was looking over his shoulder at George. He was hurting and George never let up on him. When he handed off to his teammate, George just kept chugging.

George caught the other runner very early in the second part of his double-leg. I thought George would put a good 5 minutes on this second guy, but I have to take my hat off to him. This guy gritted and suffered. You could see it on his face. He was HURTING. He managed to keep George in his sight. I totally admire the effort that guy gave to keep George close.

When George came to the finish of his double leg, he handed off to Mark with less than a 200m lead. I really believed that we were toast at that point. Their guy shot out of the exchange and caught and passed Mark very early. Mark told me that he just wanted to keep him in his sight. This leg was another hilly 6.4 mile stretch. Mark kept him close. Then, on one of the hills, their dude started walking up the hill! That gave Mark insane energy and hope! He closed the gap, and then on the next hill, Mark hammered the up and blew past him. Then, when Mark got past him, he didn't look back! He just ran as hard as he could, hammering the hills because he knew it was that guy's weakness, not knowing how much distance he was putting between him and their guy. When Mark got to the exchange, he had opened up more than a two minute lead in about 10k! And Mark completely collapsed at the exchange from exhaustion. That was the gutsiest run I've ever witnessed in person. MARK FREEMAN IS A BEAST!

Then, Mark handed off to Andy Durr, the closer. We knew that their second strongest runner was going to anchor and finish. Could Andy build enough of a cushion during the first part of his double-leg? We were on pins and needles and have been since about 8:00 AM! Andy added to Mark's lead during the first part of his double-leg. Then, their fast guy took over but Andy had over two minutes and less than 6 miles. Durr ran very hard and kept the lead. What an effort! The lead was shrinking, but safe. We saw the "One Mile to Go" sign, and Andy's lead was a good 200 meters, and he kicked it in! The lead was NOT shrinking by much at all! Andy was moving! With less than half a mile to go, the lead was still nearly 200 meters. Then, there were some turns through downtown Nashville, and we lost Andy and his competitor.

I hopped out of the van and ran to the finish to see Andy win, to see if there would be a sprint. I ran past several of the other Memphomaniacs, and Andy had passed but they hadn't seen their guy. I ran to the finish to congratulate Andy. It turns out that their guy had taken a wrong turn and finished ahead of Andy. But he never passed Andy, and Andy ran the correct course. What!?!?

So, the Race Director, not wanting to DQ the other team, claimed that the city blocks should be equal distance and that both teams would be considered first place in the Ultra Division. Now, there is no way they ran the same distance at the end. No. Way. The lead that Andy had was not going to be made up in the distance left. And, there is no route they could have taken which would have been equivalent. They cut the course short. The Race Director made the wrong call. Period.

But, we're okay with it. No money on the line. We wanted to break 24 hours. We ran 23:55, and there is no way we would have without those guys pushing us.

That was far and away the best race experience I've ever had!

Conclusion
I cannot say how much I appreciate all of the guys on this team. Those two days were great. Every one of those guys is a quality human being. Every. One. We talked about everything from work (yeah, we did talk some shop) to family to bathroom habits to port-a-john disgustingness to racing strategy to length of hair (Andy, really, you're OK!). We talked about Jesus, creation, the kings of Israel and Judah, the prophets, and Samson. Great times running and not running!

26.2 Questions: Long Run Pace?

I've been pacing long runs for participants in Fleet Feet Huntsville's Rocket City Marathon Training program. During these runs, I've gotten some very good questions about marathon training that I'd like to address with the next few posts on this blog. The head coach for the program is David Rawlings. Assisting is Christy Scott. Christy is an RRCA certified coach and has written the running schedules that the participants use. I want to preface the next few posts by saying that am just a dude who decided to run a marathon in less than 3 hours, has run 7 marathons, and has read a few books on the subject. I am not an expert. I defer to Christy and David for individual advice during the program and welcome their opinions and corrections to anything I say here. But I hope I can offer some insight that is based both on experience and knowledge.

I believe both David and Christy would agree with me that there is no "one size fits all" training program.  We all have different abilities, goals, available time, and reasons for running a marathon. All of those affect your training for a marathon. However, there are some fairly fundamental physiological principles that any training program should be based upon. I'll try to provide some comment and application of these principles. Your mileage may vary. Ok, disclaimer done...

Probably the most common question I've gotten during my time pacing is something like, "What pace should I run for my long run?" Or "Why is my recommended long run pace so slow?" I have at least three ideas that can shed some light on those questions.

1. One of the most fundamental principles of training is the principle of specificity. Your training needs to be specific for the event that you're training for. You need to replicate the demands of race day on your body as closely as you can without putting so much stress on your body that you end up getting injured. That's why long runs are the bread and butter of marathon training. That may not have helped with the original questions, though. Stay with me...
2. Unfortunately (Or fortunately, I'm not sure which!) the human body just cannot handle running 26.2 miles as fast as possible very often. Training specificity might seem to imply that you should run 26.2 miles over and over, faster and faster until race day. Or it might seem to suggest that you should run marathon pace at progressively longer distances until you get to 26.2 miles. However, neither approach is good. Do either one, especially while training for your first marathon, and you'll almost certainly get hurt. So how do we apply the principle of specificity?
3. Pete Pfitzinger and Scott Douglas, in their excellent book Advanced Marathoning, recommend that long runs should be 10% to 20% slower than your target marathon pace. So, for example, if you plan on running a 4 hour marathon (about 9:09 per mile), then 10% slower is just over 10 minutes per mile and 20% slower is about 11 minutes per mile. What this means is that if you run 22 miles (that just so happens to be the longest run of Christy's excellent schedule) at 11 minutes per mile, then you will have run for about the same amount of time that you will run on race day! Twenty percent slower is close enough to race pace that it promotes strong form and it gets you moving on your feet in a reasonably similar posture as marathon pace for the length of time of the marathon.

In summary, you won't have run 26.2 miles at your goal marathon pace before race day, and that's right. However, you will have a very solid training base. You will have lots of miles on your legs. You will likely be in the best condition of your life. You will have run for the same amount of time as the marathon should take.

Trust your training! Christy and David know what they're doing.

The Good Weeks

Sometimes you have good weeks of training. Sometimes you have bad ones. It has taken me quite a while to learn that a good week doesn't mean I'm Meb Keflezighi and a bad week doesn't mean that I'm back at 240 pounds and barely able to finish 2 miles. I'm still learning that. I still get cocky when my planned pace and distance feel easier than expected and very down on myself when I have to bail on a workout. But I am learning. And I learn from my good workouts and from my bad ones.

This week, I was fortunate enough to have a week full of good workouts. I think there were a lot of factors that contributed to that. Some were in my control and some were not. One was weather. I was able to workout in some really good weather this week. Second is company. I had at least one partner for six of my 8 runs this week. That really makes a difference. Third is attitude. I just wanted to run this week. Every day. I realized that my mileage was too high by Thursday or I would have doubled on Thursday, too. I had to talk myself out of runs instead of into runs.

The key workouts were two 20 milers, a track workout (4x200 + 3x400 + 2x800 + 3x400 + 4x200), and a 7 mile tempo (6:30 overall pace) run. Yeah, that may be too much for one week. But I feel great. Also, it doesn't mean I'm going to run a world record (or even a personal record) race any time soon.

Elkmont Rails to Trails 10k

First, I want to congratulate Whitney Hollingsworth for pulling off such a good race. She had record attendance this year, and Whitney is just one of the good, selfless, loving people on this earth, not to mention a very strong runner. I enjoy this race and I am thankful that I had an opportunity to support this race and cause today. I wish I had done more to help her.

I didn't plan to run a 10k race today. I was planning to join the Fleet Feet 26.2 group for an easy 15 miler and a few extra miles afterward. We were meeting in Huntsville at 6:00 AM. I just completely slept through my alarm. I totally don't remember it. I guess I turned it off, but I just don't remember. I hopped out of bed wide awake at 6:10. Oh well. Still time to go to Elkmont. So I did.

This is such a unique race. It's a downhill first 5k with a seriously downhill second mile (-125 feet). The entire second 5k is a gradual uphill gaining 200 feet spread over 3.1 miles. It's a strategic race, for sure. Have a  look at the elevation graph below.

Elevation of Elkmont Rails to Trails 10k

I know I'm not in shape to run a strong 10k, so I knew this would be miserable.  I've been struggling to run 5-6 mile tempo runs at 6:30 to 6:35, so how could I expect to run a 10k any faster? Also, I ran pretty hard earlier this week. So, I have plenty of excuses. But the bottom line is that I'm a little heavy and out of shape. When I began warming up, I knew it wasn't going to be a great day. It was humid and I just didn't feel great. But I'm here and signed up. I may as well go.

There were lots of fast people at this race, so I had no delusions of competing or winning masters. George DeWitt is in great shape right now in his triathlon training. Tim Vinson is getting stronger as he does every fall. And out front there was George Heeschen and Tyrone Harris. This race always draws a competitive crowd.

My strategy was simple. Let gravity do the work in the first half. If I felt like I was pushing the pace in the first half, I was going too fast. Then, I was just going to hold on as much as I could in the second half. If someone was near me, hang on to them. Maybe a more specific strategy and a definite goal would have been good.

That's pretty much what I did. I tried to keep Tim Vinson in sight and I did for most of the first half. If he faded at all in the second half, I would try to close the distance. He didn't fade. I did. I positive split this course by nearly two minutes,  which means that I completely fell apart.

I ran a 39:14 which was good enough for first in the 40-44 age group and 9th overall. My splits were 6:05, 5:54, 6:13, 6:33 (the beginning of the meltdown), 6:36, 6:39, and 1:05. I wish I had pushed a little harder in the last half, but I just didn't. I knew that a PR was out of reach. There was nobody that I  had a chance to catch and nobody had a chance to catch me. I gave some thought to breaking 39, but I didn't even hang on enough to do that. I finished this race, but I definitely quit at mile 4.

There was a young guy ahead of me. I saw Tim pass him and I knew he was struggling. He probably broke 39, and he was limping and miserable at the finish. I really admired the tough race he ran. I congratulated and hugged and complimented his toughness at the end of the race. I'll look at the results to get his name.

Just Admit It

It's time for me to just admit it. I'm not in as good of shape as I was in last year. I won't be in PR shape for any of this fall's races, either. There just isn't enough time to cover the distance between where I am now and where I was last year. So here I am accepting reality and living with the consequences of the decisions I made to become sloppy with my diet and to sleep in and thereby reduce my mileage.

But there is time to have an outstanding winter ultra season. There is time to get in shape for a Mountain Mist PR. There is time to get in good enough shape to have a very strong 50 mile debut at Lookout Mountain.(See how I've already given up on Dizzy?!? I may never run 50 miles at that race.) There is time to get in shape to show up strong at Black Warrior. I know what I have to do. Clean up my diet and run more disciplined. Simple.

And... There is time to pick out a spring marathon and sub-3 again. Why not aim for sub 2:55 this time? Any recommendations for a good, fast, reasonably accessible on a budget spring marathon?

Reality hit me today on the track. I totally bailed on my workout. I was planning to do a combo workout... 4x200m fast, 2x2mile tempo, and 4x200m fast. I did not make it. I did 4 very consistent 200m repeats at 37 seconds. Then, I did a 2 mile interval at 6:28 and 6:29. I thought I was dying, though. I knew that there was no way I was finishing today's workout. I did one more mile at 6:32 and decided to recover a bit and try the last 200m repeats. I did one. One. I ran it in 41 seconds and kinda don't remember the last 20 yards or so. I don't remember hitting my watch, so it may have been faster or slower. I just remember standing next to the fence near the finish line on the track. That was my cue to just cut off the workout. I should have been able to nail that workout, but I don't think there is any doubt that I gave it all I had.

Maybe it was the 85 degree heat? Maybe it just wasn't my day?

Fall Is Coming!

I should have posted more this summer, but then you would know how lazy I've been. My plan was to build a huge base this summer, but that didn't work out. I had some real struggles just getting up in the mornings. Since I was planning to build a large base, I didn't do any hard workouts. So, I ended up running 55-75 easy miles per week, depending on how many mornings I could get up. I did keep a fairly consistent 18-22 miler every week. I was really hoping for more miles, but oh well.

Anyway, it's time to start training for fall race season, and I've squandered away another summer. I have a plan for next summer, though. It'll be similar to last summer because last fall/winter was my best ever.

I have big, crazy plans for this fall. I'm a pace leader for the weekends training with the Fleet Feet 26.2 group. I'm planning to pace Rocket City again this year. That is so much fun! This year, it'll be more like work than it will be like fun, though. I've been asked to pace the 3:15 group. That's a stretch for me. I can run a 3:15, but it will not be comfortable like 3:30 was. The week after that, (yes, only one week after pacing a 3:15 marathon) I am planning to run the Lookout Mountain 50 miler. This may be my first 50 miler. This one doesn't have the option to stop without a DNF, so maybe I can get through it.  Big plans.

Today, I did a tempo run. It was a weird day. I'm traveling and I'm in an unfamiliar area. I googled around for a greenway system nearby and found one. I was hoping to get 5 tempo miles done. I drove to the trailhead and started running only to realize that my watch battery was dead. How on earth will I know how far I've run? How will I know my pace? How will I get in a tempo run? Ugh. So, I started and hoped for the best. My watch completely died about a mile into the run. Then, after about another quarter of a mile, I saw a 400 meter track! Nice! My workout can be saved. But how will I time my tempo run? I'll know how far, but not how fast... Here's what I'll do. I'll run back to my car and get my phone and use the stopwatch on it.

Done. So, after nearly a 4 mile warm up, I hit the track and set my phone down at the 400m start and started the stopwatch. I was just going to run by feel, hoping to run about 6:30 pace. So, I had no feedback during the run at all. I ran 20 laps (~5 miles) in 32:22 without ever looking at the stopwatch! I was terribly surprised by how accurate my pacing was! Nice. Really enjoyed the workout. 10.5 total with 5 tempo.

Let's start getting serious about fall!

Summer Running

This is the beginning of the fifth summer that I've been a runner. I'm 40 now, and the first summer that I ran was the summer after I turned 36. I know it's not summer yet, but it may as well be. We're past Memorial Day and the kids are out of school. Anyway...

The first three summers, I didn't run much. Heat zaps me more than anything else I can think of, even fatigue. I just have not been able to run well in the summer. Last summer was the first summer that I didn't take mostly off. Last summer, I maintained a base of about 55-60 miles with some fast, short stuff mixed in. That seemed to work well and improved my leg turnover.

This summer, I have a crazy plan. I'm planning to build my biggest base ever. I'm hoping to build up to 90-100 miles per week. I'm planning to do this with easy to moderately paced miles. I'll be running anywhere from marathon pace to 10:00 miles. I plan to double as much as possible and run at least a 20 miler every week. Then, I'll mix in some fast running closer to race season this fall. I got the idea from reading about Lydiard principles. We'll see how my body responds.

Today, I did a very hilly (no enormous hills, but the course was relentless rolling hills) 21 miler. Whew! It was brutal. I really enjoyed the hills, but I completely fell apart at 18 miles. I had absolutely nothing left and walked a lot of the last 2 miles. The road had very light traffic (that's what I was hoping for when I chose the route and time of day). I found myself wishing for a car to pass! At about 19.5 miles, I heard a car coming from behind me. I turned around and saw that it was a relatively late model mini-van. I was desperate to stop running. So, yes, I did. I stuck my thumb out. But he kept on driving by. I'm 0 for 1 in hitching a ride! It probably took me about 18 minutes to run that last mile and a half. I was done!

I just felt the need to run all of my energy out today. I succeeded.

Anyway, that's my interesting Saturday morning run story for this week.