Motivated to Succeed

11:00 AM - Went running with Emmy at Loumar (.30 mile loops). Mild out. Temp about 50 degrees, though very windy. Gusts of 20+. Felt like I was running in place at some times. Mile splits were: 

• Mile 1: 8:41
• Mile 2: 8:13
• Mile 3: 7:57
• Mile 4: 7:04

5:30 PM - Rainy Monday. It was snowing this a.m. while I was at school. Had to stay after for tutoring and then zipped home to Emmy. We headed to the track for a recovery run. Temperature was about 47 degrees. The rain had stopped before we went running and started up right after we finished. Ran nice and slow. Ran 4.25 miles and then walked a lap. Ended up finishing in 38:40. Found a discus too which was sweet. It was wooden. 

Total Time: 38:40 Total Distance: 4.25 miles Average Pace:  9:06/ mile

5:00 PM - Ran with Emmy at the track in my Vibrams. Everything felt nice and relaxed, minus the fact that at end I realized Vibrams had been too tight and I had some TOFP on my left foot. Lasted about 4 days. When compensating I managed to roll my ankle which made things worse. Trying to rest up for BPAC 6 Hour next weekend.

Total Time: 50:00 Total Distance: 6.25 miles Average Pace:  8:00/ mile

5:00 PM - True to form I couldn't take more then 3 days off. Hobbled through about the slowest 4 miles I've ever done. Somewhere in about 38 minutes I think. Pain was present but not persistent nor progressing. Maybe things are on the up and up. Trying to stay off my foot as much as possible.

6:30 PM - Long walk with Emmy from the house down Jason St. into down via West St. and then up Tyler St. almost to Nanno's. Walked 4.4 miles in 1:24. Felt great after a long day at work. Almost spring vacation!

8:00 AM - Buffalo, NY : Drove out on Saturday with Emma to Buffalo for the BPAC 6 Hour distance classic, my first ultra and our first longer race together. Stopped in Utica to have lunch with Jonny at Panera. We finally got to Buffalo around dinner time and spent the better part of an hour trying to locate where the Amherst Pepsi Center was. Our GPS took us in the wrong direction and it turned out it was only 1.0 mile or 3 minutes of driving, from the hotel! Aggh! Then went to a family-style spaghetti restaurant to carbo-load. Got back to the hotel around 10:00 pm and slept til 6am.

Woke up and the wind was howling. It was insane. There was a high wind WARNING (not just an advisory) and later in the day on the way home it even said on the highway to adjust your speed because it was hazardous. Wind was howling at a sustained 25-30mph with gusts well over 40mph. We got dressed in our layers and headed out to the starting line. Got there and got our numbers and then waited in the car until it approached the "go" time. Emm and I decided to go nice and slow and we were just going to stick together and both play defense against the wind, and provide moral support to just keep truckin'.

Got to meet Shelley and James Viggiano which was really nice. Shelley and James are ultra runners and Shelley is the RD for the Mind the Ducks 12 Hour race next month that we are doing. I thought it was funny that after the race she said "Your voice is different then I was expecting!". Not sure if this is a good thing or a bad thing.

Emm and I started off near the back and took it nice and slow. Emm had only done one long run over 10 miles this year (maybe ever?) and that was 16 miles she did in 4 hours back in February. I knew she could do it though. We stuck together, though for two hours there was sleet/hail blasting our faces like metal shavings. It hurt to look up, and we just shuffled along as best we could because when it comes down to it, Griffins are not quitters and we were determined to succeed! 

It seemed like a smaller field than last year's results made it out to be. I'd say only 65 or so runners this year, but boy were they full of energy and spunk! There was a guy wearing a girl's jacket that just kept running and ticking off those laps! There was a guy we called "Rhasta man" with long dreads that ended up in 4th place overall, and there was even a power walker. Everyone was so friendly and as we plodded along people kept saying words of encouragement and it really helped.

During the latter laps with Emm we started a couple games to take our minds off the miles. We named movies in order of the alphabet, and then animals. Is it ever hard to think of animals for letters "Q" and "X"! After 8 laps (we finished the 8th around the 5:40 mark) Emm decided she finally needed to stop for good. I was so proud of her. Her knees and hips had been hurting since about 3 hours in and she just kept going!

I headed out for one more. I kept plodding along and it turns out my last lap was the 19th fastest lap for lap #9. That was neat. Ran it in 41:00 something. I kept pushing even after the 6 hour mark and just wanted to get to the finish line. Some guy I passed with .2 to go decided he didn't want to be one-upped by me and surged back and sprinted to the line. I was just holding my 11:00 pace and barely made it. Every step in the last 250m hurt and my right calf was getting increasingly tighter. Finally made it and while the guy was trying to take my chip off my calf seized completely up. Took about 5 minutes before I could hobble/walk again.

We hung around for a bit and it was nice to get some pizza and food and replenish. Emm went to the car and blasted the heat. I found out I was 30th place and had earned a medal (medal to the top 30 finishers). I was only 2 miles behind Shelley and James and 5th overall in my age group. Emm ended up with 1st place in her age group (37th overall) and won some nice and yummy cookies. (They did not survive the 6 hour trip home).

Results were pro-rated as long as you finished the last lap. Emm logged 26.00 miles (26.4 total though) in 5:40:54 and I logged 27.492 miles (29.65 total) in 6:22:31. So proud of both of us!

We got in the car and went to a really awesome Barnes and Noble that had a fireplace in the cafe. Fueled up for the long drive home. Stopped for Chinese at "The Great Wall of China" which had the best tasting General Tso's chicken I've ever had. Finally got home around 9:20pm and boy did I underestimate the slope of the front yard. The two of us looked like 80-year-old nursing home patients as we staggered up the yard and then took the steps one at a time trying to just get inside. Had a shower and passed out on the floor and then finally off to bed.

BUT, my wife is now a marathoner and I am an official ULTRAMARATHON Man :D. So neat! Can't wait for the Mind the Ducks 12 Hour! 

3:00 PM - I slept about eight or nine hours last night. Got up this morning and yeow! Hobbled around the house. A bit sore, though not as sore as I thought I would be. I stretched a bit. No painkillers though. Don't think anything is injured. Still getting used to the fact that I am now an ULTRAMARATHON MAN! Went to the Ashuwillticook Rail Trail with Emmy and went for a recovery walk. She was sprite and lively and wanted us to hunt down and overtake an older retired couple up the path a bit. I tried walking as fast as I could but it hurt. She managed to catch them before the turnaround, but not me. It was a really fun walk. 

Total Time: 53:00 Total Distance: 3.10 miles Average Pace:  17:06

6:30 PM - After Emmy got out of work we went to the bike path for a recovery jog. Laced up a new pair of Brooks Addictions. I love these shoes and it has been a good 6 months since I laced up a new pair. My shoes looked to glow in the dark as we jogged down the path. Emm felt pretty good, just a bit of a pain in her left knee on the outside. I told her to self-monitor and if it started to hurt more then we'd stop and turn around. She said it started to feel better as the run went on so I think that it is just an ache and pain from running a marathon! Ran nice and easy and then picked up the last mile to 8:30 pace, then 8, then 7:30 and final sprint right around 6:00/ mile pace!

Total Time: 49:39 Total Distance: 5.04 miles Average Pace: 9:51 

9:30 AM - Blustery and cold. 40mph winds out there. Lucky for me I was not running 6 hours today like I had on Sunday. Headed over to Taconic High school and went to jog on the track, but the track team was there. Did some loops around the school instead for the first 3miles, and then the last mile on the track. Funny story of the day was when I was watching the high schoolers practice javelin and the wind took the javelin after this kid threw it and just pushed it down to the ground. Total throw had to be like 10'. Reminded me of when our high school went against the kids from Tully, NY (Lopez Lomong was there). Lopez Lomong lapped us like 3-4 times in the distance medley relay and then threw a jav like 150'. Our lone thrower had never thrown one in his life and managed a mere 34' and got the school record. Haha. Felt a bit tired today. Miles were 9:05, 8:25, 8:28, and 7:22.

Total Time: 33:34 Total Distance: 4.04 miles Average Pace: 8:19/ mile 

7:00 PM - Went for an Easter jog this afternoon with Emm before dinner. We went around the block, 3.4 miles in 30:00. Things felt fine and the sun was out, but it was a bit warm. This jog actually hurt more then last weekend's ultramarathon. My legs feel a bit dead, especially when having to pick it up to 8:30 pace. Emma was a speed demon tonight. After dinner we went for a walk and did 2 miles up around a newer development area and back again. Total for the walking portion was 40:00. Total of 5.4 miles for the day. Just starting to rain now. Back to work tomorrow.

This afternoon I also read Karno's RUN! cover to cover. Some of my takeaways from it were:

"As I ran, I thought about the unique power running seemed to have to break down barriers and unite people in strange and wonderful ways, regardless of race, creed, socioeconomic status, or age." (page 5)

"Running could unite or divide, but running in extreme circumstances - in the middle of the night, for example - had a way of bringing out peoples' true character. The good, the bad, and the hilarious." (page 9)

"But when you think of it, who isn't [strange]? We all have our peculiar idiosyncrasies, don't we? Who among us can look themselves in the mirror and honestly say they're one hundred percent normal? Let's be candid: Being completely normal is, well, abnormal." (page 67) 

Karno's tips:

1. It doesn't matter how fast you're going if you're moving in the wrong direction.

2. Even if you're inches away from the finish, never take success or granted.

3. Regardless of how distant your dreams may seem, every second counts.

4. Never, nunder any circumstances, argue with a tired woman. She is always right.

(page 89)

And my favorite, from page 227:

"That's quite a treadmill record for a nonathlete, " I said in amazement. "What's the second farthest distance anyone's covered in forty-eight hours?"

"I think it's about 190 miles, by another ultramarathoner."

"Wait a minute," I said. "You mean to tell me that this guy who's not even an athlete holds the record over an ultramarathoner by more than fifty miles?"

"I guess so," he responded.

"That must have been incredible to watch. Were you there?"

"No I wasn't."

"Do you know where it was?"

"No, I don't. You're not actually required to have a Guinness representative present to set a record, you just need third-party verification." 

6:30 PM - Sunny, 75 degrees. Today was a crazy day. Woke up at about 2am to the craziest thunderstorms yet this year.  I was able to fall back to sleep relatively quickly, but Emm was up for quite a bit. When she did fall asleep, she said she had all kinds of crazy dreams. Went off to school which was fine, some really great moments actually in my special ed class and seniors and even in the 6th grade until... it warmed up. The projected high today was 72 degrees, well above average to begin with. I remember driving into work and hearing the record high today was 90 degrees set in 1990. I was like, dang! Since when did it even hit 80s in the month of April... spoke too soon. My room in the school is set off on the west side of the building, so by the mid afternoon when I go in to teach 6th grade it has warmed up something fierce. Turns out that it was a high of 83 degrees in Adams, MA today and it felt even warmer in the classroom. I turned off all the lights, shut the blinds and everything was fine. We were supposed to be doing independent work on laptops until the laptops would not work. Our network crashed because it didn't have enough IP addresses to support all the kids using laptops. Oops! Luckily I had netflix and had an episode on China queued up ready to go. I popped it in and we just "chilled" for the remainder of class, taking notes and answering some questions. It was a good class.

Went to the track tonight late with Emm after dinner. Warmed up and did a nice 4 miles including one pick up 800 in 3:18. Then cooled off, did .5 miles of stryders and a couple more cool down laps. 6 miles total in a time of about 57:30. Hit the 4 mile a bit after 34. 

10:00 AM - Up and at them early. I think that one of the best things is getting up early on a Saturday and going for a run. Emm and I registered for the Humane Race in Williamstown for this a.m. since one of my juniors volunteers at the BHS shelter down in Pittsfield. We got there early, around 8:40am and picked up our packets. Not bad - for 15 bucks we got a load of free samples and such as well as a free t-shirt. We went for a nice slow jog 10:00 pace. Did a bit over a mile around Williams College. Saw the finish line over at Spring Street. This was the 8th annual I think. 

Tons of dogs, including a cute pointer with only three legs. Turns out he got hit by a car and the owner put a tourniquet on the leg only it cut off the blood flow and it had to be amputated. There was a crowd forming and though it looked like rain, the sun finally came out. There were about 290 humans and 200 dogs present from all shapes and sizes. There was a boy no bigger then Skyler and there was a guy as big as the Hulk. A toy chihuahua and a Newfoundland. THere were all types of dogs. Emm and I got to the start, only it was unorganized. No real start line. Ended up being okay though except they closed the road exactly :20 seconds before the start of the race.

I went out too fast. Ended up running a 7:25 first mile. And ooo the hills they burned! Ended up with a 7:47 second mile and coasted home in 8:05 final mile. Just didn't have the speed in my legs. Haven't done speedwork or hills since last fall. Oops! Plus I'm a fatty now! Emm beat me by about :30 or :40 seconds. She looked strong. No race results though the RD said. Oh well. Still was fun.

Cooled down to the car and then went to NY to watch my youngest bro Harry get his Eagle Award. Now all three of us brothers (Me, Jonny and Harry) are Eagle Scouts! Most memorable Eagle Scout Ceremony ever. It was so much fun! Such a funny ceremony too, even when I was put on the spot. I guess I read the Eagle Charge well enough.