20in24

I have been remiss in not posting a 20in24 race report. Since I will be sittings on a plane for the next six hours, here goes.

The experience was great except for the driving rain that started around 10 pm and last straight through to around 6 am. I of course had to run the midnight shift during a torrential downpour. I was soaked straight through before I even left the start line.

Other than that, it was a friggen blast. Seriously. I would do it again in a heart beat.

The highlights:
* We had a good team. Everyone stuck around between laps
* The environment was awesome. There was a great vibe happening in the tent city
* Well stocked rest stations, lots of food.
* I got about 5 free tech shirts
* The weather up until the point where it started to rain. It was a beautiful day, a bit warm, and windy as the rain started to pickup

The bad shit:
* The rain. I dont mind the rain - to a point. When it's driving in sheets, and you're out on the course for an hour and a half, it gets old. Quick
* Sleeping in my truck from 1:30 am to 6:30 am. My tent was leaking. Everyone's tent was leaking. Thank god I have an SUV
* My running was horrible

First lap, I felt like shit. My hip hurt. My back hurt. I had to walk a few spots
Second lap, I can remember. the back pain was gone though.
Third lap. WET. And my stomach was KILLING me. Not sure where that came from.
Fourth lap. SLOW. And my stomach was still bothering me.

The fourth lap was painful. I was tired. My feet hurt. My hip hurt. But the weather had cleared up and it was a very nice morning and there were tons of people out on Kelly Drive. I saw alot of familiar faces out there - Linda and Lauren, the crew from the Fishtown Beer Runners manning their "Beer Stop Aid Station."

I havent run since. That was about two weeks ago. I needed a break. Then I got sick. So, I am hoping to jump back into it this  week. I am on my way out to Vegas and the weather is going to be beautiful, so I'll try to squeeze in a few runs between hangovers.

And since I am going to Vegas, I will not be able to run The Blues Cruise 50k this Sunday. And to be honest, I am not heart broken. The weather is predicted to be on the high side, and I havent done jack shit in two weeks. I think this race would be 8 hours in the pain cave for me.

I am on an airplane, about 30,000 ft off the ground. US Airways wants to bend me over for Wifi access. I wonder if the stewardess is going to pass out vaseline before they jam it up my keister.

I dont know what's worse: The PA system on airplanes or the PA system on the older Septa Trains. The pilot just made some sort of announcement I couldnt hear a word of it. For all I know, he could have just told me that were trying course and flying to Fiji and I would be none the worse for wiser.

I Got Chased by a Racoon

Seriously. I was sitting in the backyard and I got chased by a raccoon. Little bastard snuck into the yard and I chased him around the front of the house, until he stood on his hind legs and stared at me with those little beady coon eyes. Then he turned around and started after me. I ran like a sissy.

Amen

I am on a mission. A mission from God. Well, not quite. It's not that I don't believe in "God" or some derivation there of, it's just that I don't think God is all that interested in the fact that I need to a) lose 25lbs by the Spring and/ turn some of this copious amount of body weight into muscle. I think he/ she has bigger fish to fry. Like the government shutdown. Or figuring out that whole chicken or the egg thing.

"I'm on a mission from God"

I have a plan together, comprised of some weight training and some other cardio activities. I've decided to lay off of some other stuff that I kicked around, like Yoga. As much as I would like to give that a try, I need to really focus in on this goal, and I have found that the key to success is to become really good at 1-2 things, not mediocre at 4-5 things. The law of diminishing returns. I am also giving running a bit of a break, just to mix it up, and to give my hamstring/ piriformis some downtime. I hopped into a spinning class for the first time in months earlier in the week. One of my running compadres teaches a crossfit/bootcamp type class weeknights and that might be something to try out. I am not a big fan of classes where I can't tie-in some sort of complimentary benefit. At least with spinning, it gets me prepped for Spring Mountain biking. I tend to spend most of the spring on the mountain bike. Not sure why, it's just always been that way. 

Breaking News: My Father Trims His Nose Hair.

When I woke up this morning, I said to myself, what the hell am I thinking running this race only two weeks after a 50k? Then I wondered why my cat looks particularly extra furry in the morning.

On the furry scale of 1-10, she's an 11.

I managed to snag a bib at the last minute and so with a bit of hesitation, I got my ass out of bed this morning and headed into the city to run this facocta race. Thank christ I have an office in the city. It offer alot of convenience for races in the city. And I dont have to piss in a bottle in the back of my car when I have to squirt.

On the warmup run from office to the Start I felt like poo poo. Just tired and in a "you should have stayed in bed numbnuts" kinda way.

Darcy's Dad (from whom I snagged the bib) predicted a two hour finish which had me lined up in Corral #9, which is where I ran into Sue from the RRC and Mike, a veteran Pickler. That friggen corral filled up real quick and after about 20 minutes of shooting the shit, they started moving us up to the starting line. I find these rolling starts at these big races very surreal, because essentially it's a brisk walk as they start to move everyone up to the line, and then it's a trot and then it's BAM - run! Oh, and for those who feel the need to sprint the 20 yard gap between to the actual start line, welcome to 2013! We use this crazy thing called chip timing! It's all the rage! You're individual time doesn't start until you actually cross the Start line. So need to run like an asshole before you get to the Start line, although odds are good that you're still an asshole. I am just keeping it real. And some times, keeping it real is a hard dose of reality. 

I have been doing these big races for a very long time. And what I have yet to figure out is the mentality that some runners have that causes them to line up in a corral that's clearly way above their goal time. I was passing "runners" in the first 2-3 miles that were barely running. And this was happening consistently throughout the course of the race, from start to finish. These people are the type of clowns that sit in the left lane doing 55. I can tell. Stupidity is not single threaded. If you are going to walk, fine. If you are going to line up in a corral for people that are faster than you, fine. But at least stay to the friggen right so you dont get trampled.

I kindly asked them to move to the right, and this is what I get

So the bottom line is that I was in a bit of discomfort through most of the race, which is fine because it's what I expected. I didnt come into this thing thinking I was going to set a PR. I've been feeling a little less than stellar since the 50k. This was a long run for me. My weekly mileage has been low. When you're not feeling it, you're not feeling it. And it's my friggen feet. They are killing me. Today, they were the first to go on me within the first five miles. I gotta admit I was running a little scared there for a while, no pun intended. The feet were killing me and my hamstring was of course throbbing with a consistently dull ache. I slapped some music on around mile 7 and it was like someone gave me a shot in the ass with adrenalin. Don't get me wrong, I don't think I could have run a marathon, but the music definitely got me through the last half of the race.

Do I really need to add a caption for this picture?

So for the remainder of the week I am going to lay low. The 20in24 is this weekend coming up. I have to run 33 miles in 24 hours. That's four laps at 8.34 miles a piece with about 5 hours in between laps. I might try to jump into a couple of spin classes this week so I can keep the fitness level up.

Proof that Darwin was wrong

Heavy Legs

I think I over estimated my recovery time from that facocta race last week because I did 8.5 miles this morning with Delco and I felt it when I was done, especially in my feet. And my feet are always the first to go. It's not helping that I am running on dead shoes. I got 270 miles logged onto the Brooks PureFlows that I am running in now and those shoes need to be rotated out anywhere between 250-300 miles.

"My dogs are barking"

And that damn muscle thing under my ass cheek was giving me ogida again this morning. I get to go see the Doc tomorrow night for an hour's worth of what is really on par with medievil torture. If you have never had the experience of ART therapy, I highly recommend it. It doesn't tickle though.

Please Sir may I have another!

I am pulling the trigger on the Blues Cruise tomorrow so I can take advantage of the early reg fee of $65. That will be in 6 weeks. I think I am going to lay low with any more weekend long runs for a while. I got 20in24 in two weeks and I will be running 34 miles in a 24 hour span (not continuously) and I'll count that as a "long run" even though it doesn't fit the exact definition of a "long run." But really, what I am doing right now isn't following any sort of structured plan anyway. I am running my long runs on the same schedule as the group of folks I run with on weekends from the Running club. Everyone is running a marathon this fall, so we're all on sort of the same schedule for various races, give or take a race here and there.

Thinking about giving this hot yoga shit a try. I know people swear by it and one of the girls who works for us at RTD has been going to this joint in Chadds Ford. There was a point in time where I was so friggen flexible right around the time that I hit the peak of my martial arts training. We'd stretch like lunatics and just the very nature of the type of movements we'd do would naturally increase the range of motion in the legs. I could do a split at one point in time. Now, I am so friggen tight you could bounce quarters off of my hamstrings.

Poop

Since this blog is technically  called "Racetimer.blogspot" I figured I'd actually touch upon race timing. Today was the kickoff of the 2013 Fall Race Timing Season and we kicked things off with a nice little 5k for the folks at Holy Cross Academy in Drexel Hill. About 65 people, everything went off smooth. Here's a to a great season. Let's hope I don't f*ck anything up.

Things that I cant wait for with the start of every new timing season:

* Angry Runners complaining that the course is too short, too long, not enough water, blah blah blah
* Angry Race Directors who need a scape goat. A lack of planning on your part does not constitute an emergency on my part
* AlI the soft pretzels I can eat
* Bibs every where. All over my house.

Cheers! Because quite frankly, I am awesome.

So after I got home from my race, I slapped on a new pair of shoes and went out for a run. Horrible. The shoes were awful. I felt like poop. My calves were super tight. This happens to me on occasion with calves. It happened at the 50k as well. Eventually, the issue will dissipate if I stop and stretch periodically, but it still sucks none the less. So between the shoes and my calves, I bagged it. And I took the shoes back...

I am about to pull the trigger on the next 50k....

Run. Recover. Repeat

I did a nice little trail run tonight with the Road Runners and I have to admit that I didnt feel half bad. I stayed with the regular runners as long as I could until my legs said "No more, banana. We give up." To be honest, I think I felt worse after my last marathon, in the days that followed. I gotta lot of high fives and congrats from many of the runners tonight. That's really awesome and it's why I like running with this group of people.

So I wanna keep the good times rolling and there's another 50k that I am looking at on October 6 - Blues Cruise at Blue Marsh.

http://www.bluescruiseultra.com/

Looks fun, with a challenging course - about 4000 ft of elevation gain over 31 miles. Unlike the Labor Pains, this course is a big loop around a lake, which seems like it would be a different race for me mentally. There was a point on Sunday where I knew every goddamn rock, rut, and branch on that course. In some ways, there's an advantage to knowing the course that well - one can anticipate what's next; I was starting to think in terms of "just get to the downhill section right after the water stop" and then "once you climb up this hill you're only a mile away from the finish." Breaking up the loops into smaller segments was really helpful for me, but I think the attraction of a big loop, where there's a constant stream of new things to see, sounds really appealing. There's lots of aid stations and they are all apparently "themed." Speaking of aid, you know what would really be awesome? A St. Bernard running around the course with a barrel of beer.

Do I have to tip him?

I've always wondered what St. Bernards keep in those little collar barrels. I am hoping it's a Stout. And it would be cool if the St. Bernard had a really cool name, like Mr. Snoodle. This way, I could say "come here Mr. Snoodle, I need a beer, good sir" when I see him trapesing 'round the course. I dare anyone to tell me what would be more awesome at a race, then a friggen St. Bernard named Mr. Snoodles, with a barrel of Sly Fox around his neck.

My friend Mike wants me to run the Western States. My friend Mike also needs a swift kick in the ass with my size 10.5's. But the fact that the kid thinks I can run 100 miles shows that he has confidence in me, and that I can appreciate. The runners who do that race and some of the other more advanced ultra's arent human. They are some sort of semi-intelligent life form with a high tolerance for pain, low body fat and a really good VO2 max. I wonder if the male aliens have really big alien balls*, because you have to have an extraterrestrial set of nuts to run that kind of race.

Mike's cycling coach to Mike: "I like the way your cheeks squeeze together in your bike shorts"

 Although one could argue that running down Kelly Drive at 3 am is tantamount to running through Death Valley and I am about to do that in about 2 weeks. And I doubt I would need to carry any sort of personal self defense, like mace, in Death Valley, unless there was a decent chance of getting attacked by a wolf or a coyote. Seriously, it would be kind of cool to get attached by a wolf, just for the bragging rights. I think the convo would go something like this:

Runner: "So Frank, how was Western States?"

Me: "Dude it was awesome! Hey how was your 5k this weekend?"

Runner: "Not bad but I twisted my ankle at mile 2. I had to ice it for like a day afterwards. It's still a bit sore."

Frank: "Wow man... thats a real shame. Bummer.  [dramatic pause] Yeah, so um like a rabid wolf tried to eat me at mile 87. I had to give myself 150 stitches with a pocket knife and the drawstring from my running shorts"

I googled "rabid wolf eating runner" and this was the picture that came up. So I am going with it.

* It would be even cooler if those big alien nuts glow in the dark. Dont get me wrong; ET's little parlor trick with the glow in the dark finger is cute, but nothing beats glow in the dark genitals. Granted, I don't think glow in the dark balls are bringing dead plants back to life, or healing cuts and bruises, like ET's red glowing finger trick, but cmon- we're talking about glow in the dark balls here. Just let that settle in for a bit...