Beginning the new cycle

Historic Half was, technically, the beginning of my newest training cycle, which will finish up with running the Erie Marathon. While I was mildly annoyed that the 10k and 5k time trials that were supposed to kick off the cycle just weren't happening (my legs were just too tired to deal with the speed I was supposed to do), all of the other workouts so far have been spot-on. Granted, it's just a week in, but still, pleased that I'm managing in.

I need to figure out a few other things early on so that I can achieve and maintain a low weight just before the race. While things are trending properly at the moment, we'll see...

3:15 (BQ-5) or better is the goal. Hopefully the pacing team will add on a 3:15 pacer this year, now that it is a BQ time, once again. I would *much* rather rely on someone else to pace me to my desired time than to have to do it for myself when it's on the speedy end of things.

Marine Corps Historic Half Marathon weekend

While I don't do many half marathons, this is definitely one I like putting on my rotation, especially as a pacer. It is reasonably local (only about 90 minutes to Fredericksburg) and is a helluva grand challenge to make sure to get it right and help the runners in the group.

I got down on Saturday a bit earlier than expected so got some lunch and then made my way over to the expo, picked up my bib and shirt, donned the remainder of my costume, and made my way around to the Elevated Running and Pacing booth. The reaction that I got from everyone as I turned the corner was priceless.

The expo is very tiny and there appeared to be barely any foot traffic the entire time. Every now and then a few people would come over to us and ask the standard questions about what are pacers, what are respective strategies are, specifics about the course, etc. A decent number of the people I was talking with asked whether I would be running the race in the costume. Alas, no -- it was going to be way too hot to do that and take the chance I didn't make the time. It's one thing for me to chance that personally, but not as a pacer.

The MCM mascot - Miles - even came over to me a couple times to get a photo. 

Unfortunately, their George Washington wasn't present -- I was really hoping to get a photo with him. And, surprisingly enough, there was actually another runner who was dressed up in what looked like an authentic Colonial outfit who quickly proceeded past -- there was no realistic catching him for a photo. 

After about 4 hours, I finally left -- went to check in at the hotel, and eventually made my way to what has become my standard pre-race restaurant: Basilico (which is directly on the course, near Mile 12).

Sunday morning finally arrived and I get out the door a bit earlier than planned -- always a good thing with the possibly tricky parking situation. It worked out beautifully, getting an end space right in front of Walmart -- nice and easy to find afterwards. Strangely enough, without having given any advance notice of the new procedure, there was a Marine posted at the corner where everyone standardly walks up the road toward the start line diverting people a couple of blocks in the other direction towards a security checkpoint they set up. (They have not had this set-up in the last 3 years.) OK, fine. Simple enough, few runners were there, and very few had drop bags anyway, so it's just a simple walk-through.

About 30 minutes ahead of the race, the pacers gathered for our usual group photo. 

We also took a couple of videos for a jump photo. Apparently we were actually well coordinated for it. Granted, a couple of us grumbled about our knees after the landing. ;-) Hopefully we can grab a mostly non-blurry image for a photo.

Slowly but surely, after we lined up spaced out in order the runners self-seeded. Some made their presence known as being part of our respective pace groups, others were just planning on being near a pacer but not "actively" a member of the group. To each their own. I had a really great group of runners.

These two ladies, who I was talking with at the expo for a while, trying to help them hone in on just what they meant by "sub-2-hour" goal (was it "just" 1 second under, or was it closer to 5 minutes under), decided they were going to give a shot at 1:55. While they were happy to have the photographer take our photo pre-race in the corral, they quickly rethought whether it was a wise call, since it indelibly pegs their goal. I didn't get their bib numbers and can't make them both out across the different photos we're in on the course. One of them didn't make the sub-2 goal, and I don't know about the other one. While they stayed with me for a decent amount of time, I think Hospital Hill was the biggest culprit.

Somewhere around Mile 1, once the initial crush had spread out and we were clearly a coalesced group I asked people in the group to give me an "Oorah!" and it sounded like I had a good couple of dozen people. Great!

Relatively early in the race (Mile 4-ish?) there was a local store (Paul's Bakery) that had a tent set up on the side and a large flag where I could see in advance they had donuts. Heck, yeah! I made it clear to my group that I was going to get one (kinda hoping that at least one or two would feel comfortable enough to follow suit) and I drifted over to the side, stopping briefly to pick up one of the donut holes (cinnamon sugar). Mmm... delicious. And not even another mile or so later, we made a turn at another donut shop that foolishly didn't set up anything on the side. They totally missed out. (And so did we, because the exhaust being piped out from their shop smelled WONDERFUL.)

And somewhere inside downtown Fredericksburg, there was a table with a display of cupcakes. I had no concept that it was there! I didn't know until after the race was done and I was looking at one of the MCM feeds of videos from the day. Darn! I would've gladly swung over for one.

Thankfully, the pacing strategy was spot-on the whole time. We gained a lot of time on the early downhills, gave back only a small amount of it on the early uphills, and had plenty of time available to give back on the evil Hospital Hill. It always surprises me that it starts so far into Mile 10 that it does -- about 10.7 -- half a mile later than I thought. Enough so that the times that I expected for Mile 10 and Mile 11 were actually flipped -- with Mile 11 being the slower mile.

Finally, we crested the top of the last part of Hospital Hill (right over I-95). I told everyone that they needed to finish in front of me -- they were allowed to have a finishing kick (where I was just a moving clock at that point -- one of my fellow pacers' lines) and that I expected to see everyone running as hard as they could over the line.

We made the last turn, and less than a half mile later, we were at the finish. I actually managed to get some good air in the jump that I did as I crossed the finish line. 

One of our Team Leaders Emmy got a bit of video... just after the jump (which the photographer didn't capture, either, despite having gotten plenty of air).

The announcer was very complimentary about how spot-on I was for my timing -- always nice to have that.

After getting my (minimalistic) post-race "goody" bag -- one of the worst ones I've ever gotten: 2 bottles of water, an electolyte tablet (which had to be broken in half, difficultly, to be able to get into one of the bottles), a banana, fruity "granola" bar, and "veggie sticks". I'm glad I thought to bring down a Muscle Milk and had it in the hotel fridge for when I got back.

Given that it's a 6am start, it's a nice early finish -- no worry about spending some extra time to cheer on the finishers for a bit before heading back to the hotel to shower and change.

Somehow the traffic returning back north of 95 was flowing -- it took me less than an hour to get to the Original Pancake House, which has become my traditional post-race brunch after this one race. Why not my usual cheeseburger? For one thing, I tend to wait until I have a decently longer distance done before I do that sort of lunch. Given what I get at OPH, there's not a huge amount of consistent logic, I must admit. Because what do I get at OPH?

Amazingly enough, there was zero wait to get the table. (Highly unusual for a Sunday morning, especially one that had such great weather as we were having.) This apple pancake is just heavenly. And, yes, I paced myself well enough to finish this in the one sitting.

And they have t-shirts available for sale. While I didn't purchase any, there were definitely a couple of them that were totally apropos for the moment.

Brief costume reprise

I'll be pacing for the Marine Corps Historic Half Marathon on Sunday (currently slated to be the 1:55 pacer). The weather looks like it will be HOT, though with a 6am start, hopefully it won't climb much out of the 60s by the time my group finishes.

One of the mascots for the Historic Half, though, is this familiar fellow. I figured it would be amusing for me to reprise my costume from the Boston Marathon this year during the HH's expo. So, if you're coming to the expo, keep an eye peeled!

Given those race-day temperatures, though, it will be too hot for me to wear the costume during the race itself and expect to finish in the time that my group is aiming for. For that, I'll be in the same pacer t-shirt that all of the other pacers will be wearing.

Flying Pig Marathon weekend, part 3 (race 4 of 4)

After a standardly restless pre-marathon night, it was time to get ready and head on out. Looking out the window, despite it still being totally dark, I was able to see that it was raining quite a bit, thanks to the White Castle parking lots puddles lit up by street lights. Ugh. While the temperature was great for running (50F), I really hate standing around in the rain. Fingers were crossed that the rain would lighten up or even dissipate in advance of then.

After arriving at the starting area and dropping off my gear bag, I made my way into the corral. By that point, the rain was generally gone, at least temporarily. I sidled in with the 3:15 pace group, as that was my reach goal for the day. I know the drill and figured on what to expect (and wasn't worried about water stop strategy, since I was carrying my own), so it was really just a matter of keeping up.

We finally headed on out, and slowly but surely over the course of the first half mile, I get increasingly separated from the pacer. Pretty standard, especially with the number of people that were around me. So long as I could keep him in sight, I would have the opportunity to slowly work my way up to him. 

However, with the early hill of the initial bridge that we were going over, I knew at Mile 2 (but didn't really want to acknowledge yet) that there was no way that I would hit 3:15 on the day. My legs just really didn't have it, and I had much more severe hills yet to come.

Bit by bit, I was a little slower. And over the course of the first several miles, I had the 1:40 half marathon pacer and one other full marathon pacer (3:20?) pass me. Sigh. And then I hit the biggest hill around Mile 6-8. Yeah, just pull it back and enjoy the run. 

There was one point, after I was swallowed up by the 3:30 pace group around Miles 11-12 where we were descending and all of a sudden every exhale was a big cloud of steam. It was definitely an unusual sight for me, especially in the middle of a race.

During that first half of the race, the rain came back. Enough so that I never really contemplated taking my phone out to take photos along the course. Mercifully, some of the best signs were captured by other people. Especially at the Bacon Station!

Being able to have some reasonably crispy bacon a couple of times on course just past half-way... heavenly. Very much breaks up the cloying sweet of the ShotBloks that I use on-course.

Soon enough, there was more uphill to handle.

And then there were some great inspirational signs posted for about a half mile around Mile 18. Unfortunately, with the rain, I didn't take any photos of them.

As I was nearing the end of the race, I checked my watch a few times to see what I was on track for. Somehow, my watch kept showing a predicted finish time of 3:30, despite the fact that the pacer (who started behind me) had passed me a while ago. Was the watch wrong, or was the pacer just going too fast?

Turns out, it was the watch that was wrong.

In the end, I finished in 3:35:22.

I didn't yet have my challenge medal, though, so after collecting the post-race food and drink (and being expectedly disappointed with the pizza that they had as part of it) I went in search of the correct booth for getting my 4-way challenge medal and extra cheese tab. I wound up passing by it because of poor signage, but was eventually pointed back the right way. With that in hand, I went to gear check to collect my things, went into that same nearby loading bay, and once again changed into a dry shirt, donned my Boston jacket, and took out my umbrella, then making my way back up to the carousel which had a great view of the Finish Swine. I asked a couple of people up there if they would take a photo of me with my medals, and make sure to get the Finish Swine in the shot. Well, they got some of it.

By far, the cutest marathon medal I've gotten to date. (And the other medals were generally the same design.)

The day's medals:

And all of the medals for the weekend:

Back at the hotel, showered, changed, and warm, I had some of the post-race food from the past two days, especially the multiple Muscle Milks so that I could get some quick protein in my system.

After a few hours of resting and relaxing, it was finally time to go out for dinner. I had foregone figuring out a place to have a good cheeseburger because I figured my post-race meal would be the Skyline Chili 5-way. Silly me, I never bothered looking up the hours of the location I went to -- it was closed. (!) OK, what to do?

Well, turns out that only two blocks away, there was a place where I could get some chili mac.

The place is very spacious, had the Nationals-Reds game playing on a huge screen, and even had a bookcase of communal games available to play. Trying to figure out how to order on their website was just not working for me (it kept on coming up as if I was planning on picking it up to go, not order at my table), so I gave up and just ordered at the bar.

That was REALLY very good. Mac & Cheese topped with a really good Cincinnati-style chili and a heap of shredded cheddar. Om nom nom.

Around the time I was finishing up, I noticed on the big screen that it looked like it was pouring at the baseball game. That was less than 1 mile from my position. Damn! I didn't bother bringing the umbrella this time, because I thought it had finished up for the day. After delaying leaving for about 10 minutes, it was somewhat lighter rain, and I felt guilty about just hogging the table for 4 that I was at (despite the fact that there were plenty of tables available and no one was waiting for a seat). Having paid, I put my glasses in my jacket pocket and walked reasonably quickly the several blocks to my next destination, trying to hug as tightly to buildings as possible, and go underneath any overhangs I could find (which wasn't many). Finally, I arrived.

Of course I was back for more! How could I not? This time, dark chocolate brownie and flying pig tracks. Ooh, that was a great combination. As cute as some of the cakes were in the display case, there was no passing up ice cream.

My pick-up for the airport the next day wasn't until 12:45pm, so I had plenty of time to walk back to Skyline for that chili for lunch and then get back to the hotel. On the way, I came across another one of the city's pig statues.

Over at Skyline, I ordered the 5-way and, naturally, had to surround it with my 4-way with extra cheese, as one does...

Well, the chili had some meat in it this time, unlike with the cheese coney on Friday night. But the spaghetti was (not surprisingly) well past al dente, and I could really tell that there was much in the way of beans or onions. There certainly was no missing the heaping helping on cheddar. Given the fact that I had a $10 gift card from my race registration that covered almost the entire meal, I can't gripe about the cost. But if and when I come back, and especially if I have a gift card for Skyline, I'll find someone else to hand it off to and just get a good burger for my post-race meal, as per normal.

Amazingly enough, though, despite not trying at all for time during the first three races, and having not gotten anywhere near what my true goal was for the marathon (though it being a pretty darn good time on that hilly a course two weeks after completing the Boston Marathon), I managed to finish in 3rd place in my age group for the 4-way challenge with extra cheese!

If I were actually trying during the first three, and had more manageable expectations (and therefore a slower start) for the marathon, I might have actually been competitive for 2nd place in the age group.

I don't know what we'll be getting for AG awards, but as I understand it, once they finalize the placements, they will be mailing out the respective awards.

Sweet! (Or should that be "soo-weeeee-t!"?)

Now to prep for my last race of the season... the Marine Corps Historic Half Marathon, next weekend. This time, I'll be pacing the 1:55 group.

Flying Pig Marathon weekend, part 2 (races 2 and 3 of 4, plus other events)

The morning started off with a light rain that dissipated by race time. But given what the forecast was for later in the day, I had a decent amount of stuff put into the bag I dropped off at gear check, to include a dry shirt, my flip-flops, a poncho, and my compact umbrella. Boy, were these all good calls.

When I first saw this lady in the Flying Pig costume, it wasn't from the front, so it was unclear to me if she was actually planning on running the 10k in this outfit. Nope, she was one of two dressed up this way to cheer on the runners at the start/finish swine and hold the finish banner for the winners. 

The plan for the race was to take it reasonably leisurely and finish in about 1 hour, to include any photos I wound up taking on the course. Since the race started at 7am and the 5k was set to start at 9am, that was still leaving a large amount of time in between.

Right as I was moving off from taking this photo of the Roebling suspension bridge and putting my phone away, I noticed my friend Jacque in the pack that was proceeding past that point. (See last month's Boston Marathon and Jan 2023's Dopey Challenge posts to see some of our other exploits.) Quickly enough, I fell in with her and her friend Kelly (whom I've met previously) and continued running the rest of the course with them.

While there isn't a huge amount of stuff to photograph on this course, there was certainly one stand-out landmark that I couldn't pass up (as I didn't expect that I would actually be getting out far enough over the weekend to do so).

A couple of miles later, and we were done. 59:33 -- pretty much what I had set out to do; nice!

I made sure to take all of the post-race food and beverage that was being offered, including two of the Muscle Milk cartons. Despite not partaking of them right then, I knew they would come in handy after the marathon.

Kelly had commented on wondering how she'd meet up with her college-aged son who was also running all of the events to see how he did. Right after she said that, as if on cue, he called out to her, just on the other side of a fence. He did very well (about 36 minutes) and needed to get his result officially listed. I went to the gear check to add the food and beverage into my checked bag and handed it back in for the 5k. Jacque and I soon moved off to the starting area for the 5k (which was only a couple of blocks away), as Kelly needed to pull back a bit on her pace. 

We were standing next to a sizable flag marking the A corral. Gradually, the rain started to get a bit more persistent. Thankfully, I was still wrapped in the heat sheet I had gotten at the end of the 10k. I wasn't planning on getting rid of it. A staffer came by and removed the corral flag (as it was in the middle of the street), but doing so left the base in place -- which was basically a metal stump weighted down by a couple of sand bags. Minutes went by and there was no sign of anyone coming to take the stump. Umm... if they don't move this, someone will kill themselves on it just getting to the start line once the gun goes off.

Finally, at what seemed like far too close a time to the actual start, the guy returned to pick up the metal stump. All was same from tripping and impaling themselves. Phew!

Then we were off! While it was a faster start than we really wanted, we quickly enough shifted a bit to the right to slow down a little without getting in people's way. We were both looking to keep as much energy as possible for the marathon while running a respectable pace for both of the day's races.

Soon, we made the turn to go into a nearly one-mile-long tunnel. Some of the brick/mural-work was really quite neat to look at. However, I didn't pause to take any photos in here.

Shortly thereafter, we were back at the same point of the 10k course where Lincoln stood tall. At that point in time, we both noticed this one man about 20 yards in front of us that was wearing long white UnderArmour boxer-briefs and no shorts. In itself a somewhat odd choice made all the more indelible because apparently he had trusted a fart sometime earlier... yep, there was a "strategically placed" brown spot on his rear. Ugh -- please keep moving away faster than us, man!

A few more twists and turns, and we were at the part of the course that overlap with the finishing kick of the marathon course.

                                            

Just like that, in 27:47, we were done. Again, we went through the same finish-area gauntlet to pick up food, drink, and heat sheet (well, I had held onto mine) and the rain was a bit heavier still. Jacque moved off to the nearby park where some of the other events would be held, while I went to pick up my bag with the intent of meeting back up at the park and then for lunch.

Having picked up my bag, I made my way into a nearby loading dock to take my time to change out of my very wet singlet and into a dry shirt, donning my poncho, taking off my wet sneakers and socks and switching into my flip-flops (knowing full-well that keeping the sneakers on for several more hours in yet heavier rain was going to cause a huge blistering problem), and taking out the umbrella - I made my way to the park. Alas, I didn't meet up with Jacque there, but would manage it later.

Nearing 10am, the next set of events went off but were certainly highly impacted by the rain.

First up was the mascot race. Several local area team and other sporting mascots came out, similar to the presidents race at Nationals home baseball games.

After a bit of milling about near the start line, without much audible notice to most of the spectators, they were off! Standard race of this sort -- run to the end of the short enclosed area, touch the railing, and run back to the start/finish arch for the win.

At the finish, Who Dey ekes out the win while Bearcat seemingly slips and falls down. (Given how much it was raining and how muddy everything was getting, this could have been a totally real fall.) But he has the classiest recovery -- without getting off the ground -- that you could have asked for.

He did the wave! Brilliant, and very funny.

Finally, we had the back-of-the-packers (Piglet, Queen Bee, and Gary) finishing up, arm-in-arm.

The mascots having finished, and the rain coming on still heavier now, several of the mascots helped the organizers set out a large blue tarp for the diaper dash. They weren't going to have infants and toddlers crawling in the mud. Naturally, though, for each young child remaining with one parent at the start line, the other one went to the other side (closer than the red line they had originally painted on the ground, visible above) -- trekking directly across the tarp and bringing with them plenty of dirt and mud, that the kids would then be going through anyway.

Naturally, as one would expect, there was a LOT of crying from the little ones. Why? What would you do if it was chilly (in the low 50s, maybe?) and very rainy? (It was progressively steadier rain, until it became a virtual downpour, though mercifully no lightning in the vicinity.) Almost all of the kids who were placed down on the tarp didn't budge. They basically looked up, crying, at their parents as if to say "Why am I here? I'm cold and wet. Get me inside and dry already!" After a few minutes marveling at this, and how a few of the adults moving about nearly fell on their heads -- and one of which was nearby with a large (yet closed) umbrella with the pointy end facing my way -- I decided I'd had my fill of this cluster and returned to the loading dock to wait out part of the time until the next event.

To my pleasant surprise, a lot of the participants in that next even -- the Flying Fur -- were doing the same thing.

Cute, sweet dogs, all very happy to be petted by anyone who would come near them.

Too soon enough, it was time to head on out so I could find a good spot by the finish line while the competitors moved to the start line. The man who had the two huskies, above, had his work cut out for him. These two dogs were pulling him so hard, it was very difficult for him to keep them under control, despite the fact that their leashes were tied around his waist. Clearly, if he were actually on a sled, they would have been running as if it were the Iditarod!

For some reason, though, they had closed off all of the street-level areas where spectators had been observing the 10k and 5k. Maybe it was because of the rain? Regardless, I made my way up to the carousel that had a wonderful view of the Finish Swine. And soon enough -- what turned out to be about 6 minutes after they started the race (hard to tell, since they never reset the clock), the dogs were running in with their humans close behind them. Truly an impressive sight to behold. However, given how much the rain was coming down, I didn't attempt to take out my phone to take photos or video.

Part-way through, Jacque met up with me, and she was able to take some photos under the shelter of my umbrella.

Not only were there a couple of dachshunds on the course (not captured in photo), but at least seven corgis. All of these are adorable enough to begin with, but to see them working with such fast turnover of their legs to run the mile-long course was really hysterical.

Some people certainly have dedication to their sports team. Here's one pooch who is painted to look like the Bengals' Who Dey (near as I can tell). Wow.

And here is, by far, the most impressive of the competitors. This beagle who only has two legs, with his rear legs replaced by the wheels visible below. He was loving the conditions and being out and about, regardless of how difficult it presumably is for him to get about. "Who's a good dog?!"

Despite the fact that there were still some dogs trickling in, it was close enough to our lunch reservation to head on up for some good Mexican fare. (For lunch, I was willing to risk having an excess of grease -- it would be through my system before marathon morning. Dinner I would never chance it.) We met back up with Kelly and another of Jacque's friends. On my way in the restaurant, I was just a touch too far away from the door when I reached out to grab the handle while simultaneously pulling in my umbrella and bam! I slipped and fell squarely on my rear end. Thankfully, no injury other than slightly to my pride, I was able to get myself up and inside.

We had a leisurely lunch with enjoyable conversation and really good food. (In addition to my chorizo breakfast burrito, there was also chips with both queso and various salsa.) Eventually, it was time to make my way back to the hotel to finally shower, change, and get properly warmed up. After doing so, resting, and watching some TV for a while, it was actually time again to go out for dinner. By that point, the rain wasn't nearly as bad.

Scotti's is over 100 years old, very dark, but with good food and music. Yet again, I seem to have found a really good and busy local restaurant. Shortly after I got my entree, a party of about 8 (which you wouldn't think they'd really be able to accommodate - it is a pretty tiny place) came in and sat right in front of me as pictured below -- based on what I was seeing and overhearing, it looked like the parents of two recently engaged people were finally meeting for the first time.

While I was waiting for the check, the couple seated next to me started chatting with me about the race, etc.

Amusingly enough, they would wind up seeing me only a few minutes later after I departed. For there was no way I wasn't going to get some Graeter's ice cream -- just a couple of blocks away.

Buckeye Blitz and Midnight Snack -- pretty darn good. And as I was sitting eating my cone, the couple from Scotti's entered to get their own dessert, complimenting me on knowing that I had to get this ice cream.

On my way back to the hotel, I made a few other stops.

First, just outside of Graeter's, is Fountain Square. Mercifully, there were no turkeys falling from the sky.

As a Williams College alum, my trip to Cincy would be most incomplete if I didn't take a photo of the statue of our only Williams alum U.S. President.

At the opposite end of the park, the first U.S. president to die in office.

Plenty of time left to set myself (and my gear bag) up for the marathon the next morning and just relax for a few more hours before conking out (as best possible, of course).