What the heck was that?!

As you may know, I've been running for over 20 years. By now, I thought that I have felt any of the random niggles, aches, or quirks that arise while running. (Mercifully, I've not had to deal with any of the more major problems that hit others.) Well, tonight disproved that notion.

While doing my long run on the treadmill at the gym, with just one more minute left to go, it felt like something came loose on/in my left pinky toe. I've never hopped off the treadmill and onto the static ledges as fast as I did right then. I was pretty sure I didn't break the toe; I kinda thought the minor pseudo-blister I had on that toe decided to peel off. Walking normally was not possible at that point; I had to position my foot slightly awkwardly to avoid putting pressure on the toe. I was anxious enough to get to the locker room, get the sock off, and see "the damage." (And it was a double whammy, because I had forgotten to put on Band-Aids (aka "nip tape") before starting up, and when I looked down and saw my shirt, there was a rather astonishingly large splotch of additional red; I had never had as much of a streak as I did tonight -- eek! Amazing how much it looked like I had been bleeding, considering there was absolutely no blood visible on my body at all.)

Finally I got the sock off, and I couldn't see anything problematic. No bleeding, no peeled off blister. No idea what actually happened. And walking normally is not problematic now. Just glad this didn't happen while I was pacing; it would've totally killed things for me and the group.

Run Rome the Marathon - Starting area

This looks like it will be an extremely impressive starting zone. (Well, we won't be starting INSIDE the area depicted here, rather just outside of it.) The Fori Imperiali comprise several public squares built upwards of nearly 2100 years ago. The Fora of Caesar (46 BC), Augustus (2 BC), and Trajan (113 AD – the last and biggest) are three of the most notable ones, serving as political, religious, and economic centers of the Roman Empire. This is very different than what the Roman Forum was: smaller and which  pre-dated the Imperial Forum by about seven hundred years.

In the background of this photo, and away from which we will be running at the start of the marathon, is the Colosseo, the largest amphitheatre ever built. The Colosseum hosted spectacles from gladiator fights to public executions drawing enormous crowds. Animals were housed within the Hypogeum underneath the Colosseum, and gladiators prepped for their battles there, too, all being raised up into the arena.

It looks like one could take many hours to explore this area. I'll definitely need to make my way through here during my trip!

NYRR 12-Miler

Like last year, I was able to join the NYRR Pace Team for the 12-Mile Training Run in Central Park. They just started using the sort of pace flags that you see at more international races than you do domestic. How does it stay in place, since it obviously isn't connected to a backpack, like London uses? Simple:

It was EXTREMELY awkward donning this top, which has a simple loop in the back that the pole goes into, and a spot for a clip at the bottom of the flag to connect, after first putting on the jersey. Once it was on, though, it was comfortable enough -- it didn't chafe at all and wasn't at all restrictive. It does seem a little awkward (and potentially pricey for NYRR) to fully launder the tops after each run that has pacers. While we keep our pacer shirts for each race, we hand back the pacer flag, pole, and "sports bra" after finishing the race. And the flag really worked well. Yeah, it was tapping lightly against my head, but that wasn't as annoying as expected. No wind today, so it wasn't a wind sail. And I only brushed tree branches once -- not bad.

While I was originally set to pace 9:43/mile (a 4:15 marathon pace), given one of the pacers for 10:18/mile (4:30 marathon) had to drop, leaving a first-time pacer solo, I was asked to move back to co-pace with him. Michael Thomas did a great job!

It was a very warm day, and the Central Park runs are very tricky, because of the constant rolling hills. Everyone with us seemed to be having a good time, many of them sticking with us the whole time and blasting past us near the end to finish well ahead of the goal time -- exactly as we want for everyone in the pace group. In the end, we finished in 2:03:02 -- right in the window we were shooting for (with 2:03:35 being the exact goal).

Getting back to the subway to get back to my car (parked in Queens) was simple enough. Except for crossing over Park Ave., very highly trafficked by tons of runners and bicyclists, thanks to the annual Summer Streets program that closes down the road to vehicular traffic. One of the signs in the subway was amusing enough to snap a pic:

(IYKYK)

And an interesting display in the 51st St. station where I transferred between the E and 6 lines:

Trekking back to my mom's place, though, took an insane amount of time. The roads going east on Long Island are just parking lots -- ugh! So glad I no longer live up here. I feel sorry for anyone who commutes on the highways here; they're dreadful.

Hopefully I'll manage to make it back onto another couple of pace teams for NYRR races/training runs in the near future to help build up my pacing record for NYRR. We'll see.

Best of luck to everyone running the NYC Marathon in about 10 weeks!

Officially a Gladiator!

When you hear the term "gladiator," do you envision these types of gladiator?

Or, if you were watching reality TV in the U.S. in the '80s, maybe these are the gladiators that come to mind?

Well, while I am now officially a gladiator, this is the more appropriate image that should to come to mind:

This was one of the photos from the 2026 Guinness World Record-setting pace team from Run Rome the Marathon. I'm thrilled to be joining the group for the 2027 marathon. This will be my first time in Rome. I'm looking forward to seeing the sights during the marathon, and then spending the rest of my time in the city seeing them at a bit more of a leisurely pace. And, of course, eating spectacular Italian food. 

While I've been part of international pace teams before, they have always been for domestic marathons that included folks from overseas (generally Miami Marathon and Marine Corps Marathon). This will be my first time being one of the foreigners on a team. I'm looking forward to meeting my co-pacers and, even more so, meeting the hundreds or thousands of people I'll be helping to navigate their way through the 26.2 miles of an iconic race, be it within the pace group I get assigned, random additional runners along the course, or participants that stop by our booth at the expo.

Over the next several months, I'll be taking a look at the different places that we get to see on the course. Join me in my journey of discovery!

Achilles Fairfax Chapter Officially Launched

This past fall/winter, several of us attempted to get a new chapter of Achilles International up and running out in Loudoun County. Unfortunately, likely in large part because of the location, we never got traction with a sufficient number of athletes. So that one disbanded. Over the last many months, several people who were involved in that chapter as well as the DC chapter have been doing a fair bit of outreach in various venues to try to build up interest to start a chapter in Fairfax County. 

There are many athletes and guides who are part of the WhatsApp group -- seems like a lot more than were in Loudoun's -- so we scheduled our inaugural workout for this morning. The meeting point -- the Wiehle-Reston Metro stop -- is much more easily accessible than the prior Loudoun one. People can take Metro, those of us who are relatively local can drive and park for free in the Metro's parking garage (since they don't charge on weekends). And, depending on the planned workout and other factors (such as timing), it's not necessarily unreasonable to run there, as it is two blocks away from the W&OD Trail -- which is where the workouts will be run, anyway. For me, it's about 5 miles away on the trail -- certainly a doable out-and-back, but something I didn't do this morning because I didn't know what the workout would be. 

Turns out it was the right call. A few people needed to cancel, so we only had one athlete, Monica. She had four guides the entire time, and a fifth for a brief time early on. The workout? 70 minutes at 11:15/mile pace. Not bad -- a 10k. But I don't usually do anywhere near 16 miles on Saturdays, since my long run is on Sundays, so the extra out-and-back would have been more than desired.

When running with Achilles, athletes are only tethered to a single person. Additional guides, when available, wind up taking on different support roles. Fred wound up carrying Monica's cane. And, in part because of the conversation we had beforehand, once I heard what the desired pace was, I immediately took up the mantle of pacer.

11:15 is definitely a fair bit slower than I'm used to pacing, so dialing it in was definitely tricky. And based on how many times Monica was slowly trying to pass me and pull away, I'd say it's slower than she might have wanted to go. Each time she did, though, I flagged it to her and she scaled back.

All the numbers worked out perfectly for this workout. Given where we got onto the trail and running westbound, we had our midway turnaround point (above) when we got to the major intersection in Herndon at Elden St. We didn't need to cross over to hit the 35-minute mark. Turns out it's 5k from our starting point to this intersection. The return was just as smooth. In the end, our overall pace for the 10k that we ran was pretty spot-on at 11:18/mile.

For now, the chapter will be holding biweekly workouts, as we build membership and involvement. Hopefully there will be several more athletes joining in starting in two weeks. A mixture of desired workouts and paces would be great to have. Alas, for me, I will not be available for the next two workouts because of other out-of-town commitments, so my next jaunt with Achilles won't be until late September. While the next couple of workouts will likely start an hour earlier than we did today (it was already about 80F by the time we started after 8:30am -- way too hot), by late September, it may start turning more reasonable temperature-wise at 8:30. Time will tell.

For more information on Achilles International, go to their website. After you join up there, you can join your local chapter and sign up for workouts on the Rosterfy portal.

Big Change Coming to NYC Marathon

Anyone who has attempted to get into the NYC Marathon for a while knows that New York Road Runners has put in more varied methods for entry than probably any other marathon. One of those methods -- which is most beneficial to people who live in the vicinity of NYC -- is the 9+1 Program. In short: for those people who are members of the NYRR who finish in any nine of NYRR's events and volunteer at any one of NYRR's events during the calendar year, they get a guaranteed non-complimentary entry into the NYC Marathon the following year.

When I first started out marathoning, this was how I got into my 2nd NYC Marathon -- in the predecessor that didn't include the "+1" part. It wasn't difficult to enter the various races, so fulfilling the base requirement was a breeze. For some number of years now, though, it's gotten insanely difficult to be able to register for nine races -- despite how many NYRR puts on throughout the year -- and maybe even more difficult to land a spot volunteering at one of them.

So, NYRR has announced changes to the 9+1 Program.

In short, NYRR members will enter a drawing to be a "9+1 Passholder." Those who are selected pay a fee to be pursuing the 9+1 method of entry for the given year, and will be supported in terms of being able to gain entry into the necessary races and volunteer opportunity.

There are lots of other membership-related changes that are being instituted simultaneous with this. Most notably that there will no longer be varying tiers of membership with different sets of perks depending on the level. Definitely go to the above link to read all of the different ins and outs.

"Sports Bra" and Flag

Last year, I started as one of the pacers for the New York Road Runners. There are over 200 people on the larger team. Given how many races and training runs they host throughout the year (it's not just the NYC Marathon that they put on), it's a good thing they have that many people available to pull from to fill however many pacer slots they have for each run.

Until recently, NYRR pacers used the same thing that most race pacers do in the U.S.: small signs atop simple wooden dowel poles that are held by the pacers. Starting with their 12-mile training run next month (which I will be pacing), they are permanently ditching the handheld signs for the "backpack" flags.

We just got an e-mail providing us some details about the new system. It will be interesting to see and wear the system, because we will be wearing a vest of sorts, that effectively looks like a sports bra with a pole sticking up from the back on which the pace flag will be placed, which will be underneath our pacer singlet. Hmmm... hopefully it's reasonably comfortable and not too bad to put on and take off.