Whew! What a running weekend! B-22

What a fantastic 3 days of running!

FRIDAY - 5 miles

Friday was supposed to be a rest day for me, but, as I spent so many days at the SXSW music festival, and then knee issues and workouts that didn't include Karma....  Karma didn't get much love from me.  So instead, Bruce and Meredith met me for an easy 5 miles in the greenbelt for Karma to get some fun of his choice.  Meredith brought Flyer, which gave Karma even more fun!  We had a blast, and both Bruce and I commented during our Saturday run HOW INCREDIBLY FRESH our legs felt from an easy 5 mile greenbelt run after some hard running during the week on Friday afternoon.  Knee: 8/10  (10 being perfect)

SATURDAY - 24.5 miles

The doctor has ordered me to run a mile then stretch my knee (IT Band) for a full 5 minutes before running.  That's impossible to do on a trail, but yesterday Nedra who's been having possibly similar issues met me at 5:10 and we ran 1.2 miles then stretched before our group set off for 24 miles.  The route ended up being 23.3, but with my 1.2, it got 24.5 in.   My knee wasn't very happy with me on Saturday, with shooting pains every so often.  Plus, the 24 miles felt like they took for EVER.  Probably because we purposely ran it at a calm pace of just under 8 min/miles.   Knee: 5/10

Saturday afternoon I spent eating eating eating and trying to rehydrate.  I felt hungry and thirsty when i went to bed but knew I couldn't eat anymore.  

SUNDAY - 6.2 (10km) race + 3.8 warmup/down ( i mapped it!) = 10.0 miles.

I sent this email to my boss (coach) yesterday with my plan of attack.  

Looking at the race course...

I think I'll go for
Mile1- 6:45 slow due to traffic?
Mile2- 7:00 two hills... Rt on congress and up 15th. (Don't blow up)
Mile3- 7 to 7:15 big ass hill over lamar
Mile4- 6:20
Mile5- 6:20
Mile6.2-  whatever I got left

33:40 + 1.2miles of ?? to the finish= 39:59-40:59

Looks good enough to me...  Respectable after todays run, and a knee that doesn't like cold and I don't want to aggravate it so close to Boston.

I heard no response, but this morning I reiterated it, and he felt it was fine.   

The first mile was funny.  I was running and actually laughed outloud.  Why?  Well, watch this video...

My legs felt like wobbly spaghetti strands, and pictured the scene in Bambi where she's slipping on the ice as a fawn. I thought: Oh my, this is going to be interesting! and just chuckled. Not sure if anyone heard but I thought it was hysterical as I had no pressure on myself today.

I missed the 1 mile marker, but Keith who was behind me told me it was a 6:25. Uh oh. Waaaaaay too fast. I slowed up and settled into a slightly slower pace to conserve energy with the hills yet to come. I chatted with a couple of running acquaintances, and kept things loose. Overtime, it was apparent that Chad, Keith and I had a goal of sub 40 as our 'A' goal and we ran together.

I missed the 2nd mile marker too, then finally spotted the 3rd one. 19.49 for 3 miles = 6:36 per mile.

We then turned the corner onto the faster half of the course, and trucked along. Eventually Chad made his move, silently and I knew there was no way in the world i'd be able to hang on to his pace for 2 miles, but figured I'd maybe catch him in the last 1/2 mile to 3/4 mile. (that wouldn't happen). Keith and I ran on, keeping each other loose and I tried to keep things jovial as much for him, but really for myself as well to just think about something other than the tired legs. 

Mile 4- 6:24, and Mile 5- 6:17, exactly where I had planned to be, so I'm happy with that.  Last 1 mile clocks in at 6:21, then the last 0.2 clocked in at 1:07 which apparently is a 5:04 pace. Ha!

I'm happy with my final time. I knew I had taken me 7 or 8 seconds to cross the start line so i sprinted to the finishline and snuck in at 40:06. Clicked my watch, and it rad 39:59. Official time was posted as 39:58. Too cool, beat my desired fast time by a second!

Overall I ran 6:25, which means I ran the last 3.2 miles at 6:16pace, so a 20 second per mile negative split.

Not too shabby with 24.5 somewhat hilly miles on my legs the day before!

Stats:

Time 39:58

Pace: 6:26/mile

35-39 Age Group: 24th out of 565 (timed runners) = 4.2%

Overall 150th out of 18,000+ (including everyone who crossed the start line) = 0.008 percentile ha!

Total miles this weekend = 34.5miles.

Total miles this week = 80.8 miles

22 more days to go

2 more very HARD workouts (saturday long run, and one hard weekday workout)... and it's a date with sub <2:59:59>

2009 Bandera 50km Trail Race – Race Report

Joe P, the Race Director’s course summary.
“This course is typical Texas Hill Country fare. Lots of short steep up & down with no switchbacks, seasoned with scrub and cactus that tend to bite, scratch, and sting. It is wild and it is beautiful. Panoramic views on many an overlook and creeks that tend to be dry but likely to change. The weather is temperamental and should be prepared for as such.”

Photos of the course can be seen here. Check them out so you see what the terrain looks like!

On Thursday I watched a movie called Running the Sahara. A movie about 3 runners from different places who got together with a wild idea to run the Sahara.
Map
They ended up running 4,300 miles (6,920 kilometers) over 111 days, running 50 miles a day for many of those days. My biggest takeway from the movies, was that they never gave up. And they would just run. One step infront of the other. Just kept running.

Strategy for this race was pretty loose. I didn’t really prepare for the race as an “A” race, as this was really just a fun run, and my first ever Ultra Marathon. A marathon being 42.195 km, (26.2), races over that are considered Ultramarathons, and mostly come in 50km(31m), 50 mile, 100km(62m), and 100 mile flavors. I have absolutely no clue how to run these things, what pace to hold, and what to expect. Sure, I’ve done 25km and 30km and a marathon trail race, but nothing this far. In fact, I’d never run this far before except one training run on flat roads last fall. This was not a RACE for me, simply a run to see what it would be like, and if’ I’d ever want to attempt it again.


Judging from times people had run in prior years, my goal was to try and get in under 6hours, and would be ecstatic if I could break 5:30. Ken and I were running the 50km, while Jo Dee, David, Bruce and Larry were off to do the 25km. Meredith was also doing the 50km, and it was a good thing that she had a similar plan to run a 5:30(shaving 18 minutes of her prior year’s time). She was going to be my cruise control so I got an idea of how fast one should go. Plus, being my superstar dietician, she’ll make sure I don’t die if I bonk or cramp up!

Saturday morning came early when the alarm rang at 3am. I had already packed all my different bags, pre race stuff/race stuff, post race stuff, food and drink bag, chairs, and a drop bag.
Why a drop bag for only a 50km? Well, my trail shoes are old. REALLY old. I superglued them to keep them alive for just 31 more miles. I figured it’d be smart to have a bag waiting for me at mile 21 so I could switch to road shoes if they blew up on me.
The gang showed up on time, and we promptly departed a few minutes past 4am. Next stop: Bandera, TX.
We arrived at the race site at Bandera right around 6:20am. Race start was 7:30, so it was perfect. Those short 50mins were barely enough to get everything ready, and stand in the long porta-potty line. (some things you can’t really do by just hiding behind a bush)

Weather was in the 40’s but there was a strong and chilly wind blowing from the North,so I opted for short sleeve, long sleeve, gloves and a beanie(to protect the ears)

There were 132 runners registered for the 50km when the website was last updated. At the start line, the time keeper said 3 minutes to start, and Meredith, Ken and I realize we’ve found ourselves at the VERY front of the group. Some brave souls decided to get ahead of us, which we definitely welcomed. I remember looking down at my watch and thinking, that his and my watch are very close as I had 7:27am. (this little details would come into play later on). One minute to go, then 10 seconds, then “OK GO”.
I immediately count how many runners take off in front of us: 8, then 2 more, so our little clump start at 11. I’m not looking to race, but it’s fun to have an idea how you’re doing anyway. The first 30 minutes are hell to me. I’m having a hard time warming up, and we’re hitting climbs right away. I’m glad we’re at the front, because we don’t have to worry about slow walk/runners to pass this early on.

CLICK ON THE MAP TO SEE THE FULL PROFILE. I can't get it smaller.


This course is a bitch, and as you can tell, the first 9 miles are steep, rocky, climbs. Not the idea way to get warmed up. There was a water stop right after the descent of the 2nd climb, and about 200 yards from the station, a rock got into my shoe. I stopped at the aid station and removed the sock. Meredith and Ken I think stopped too, a bit, so I didn’t have too hard a time catching back up to them.
Eventually I start to feel warmed up, and most importantly, much calmer. I’d been running really tense, and this is not a good thing on trails. I remember even telling Meredith at minute 34 that I was finally relaxed and was feeling good.
The hills are tough. Kind of short climbs, maybe 200 feet or so, but they’re steep and really rocky. I would walk every one of these steep climbs to not blow up, as I have 6 hours of running to do.
Over the first hour, of running, I counted 9 other runners run past us, so now we’re about 20th.

My nutrition strategy was to eat Gels as I usually do for my easy long runs every 45 minutes, then complement those with some secret cookies I’ve been introduced to. (Sorry, they’re a secret) The cookies prove themselves as a good time waster, because it takes me about 20 minutes to eat half a cookie. I’m hydrating by drinking out of my camebak, but again, it’s my first ultra, and I’ve only ever run with a camelback twice before, so I don’t quite know how much I’m actually drinking as I hydrate. It’s all a guess today!
Eventually I decide the pace is a little too slow for my liking and I’m in the mood to create a little separation and run alone for a bit. So I picked up the pace with Kyle, a newly introduced acquaintance. Eventually, I’d lose him too, but unsure how that happened.
Many details, and order of how things happened is fuzzy. The hills are steep, the terrain is rocky, and all I’m thinking is, just keep running, lets see what happens after 3 hours.

I eventually find myself running alone, which is good because I really have to pee. I keep looking back to see how much separation I have from Meredith and at one point I’m guesstimating 20 seconds. So I pulled off behind a bush and did my thing. I was done a few seconds before they get there, and I can jump back onto the single track trail in the lead. Again, my comfort pace was a tad faster and I begin to separate again. We’re about 1 hour 30 in, and all I keep thinking is. “Ugh, only 1.5 in? I still need to run at least 4 more hours???” So I decided it’s time to pop my headphones in, and listen to some music. I I chose Vampire Weekend, as I want something other than my CIM marathon play listt, and I really enjoy that whole album. Light Indie Rock, playful lyrics, fun melodies. (As much as I wanted to, I never got around to refreshing the songs so it’ll have to do).

And then here’s where I would make my second biggest mistake. My watch also controls my ipod, so I can click and go to the next song, the prior song, up and down colume, pause and play. All on the same typical Timex Ironman watch you’ve all seen. (I love this iControl thing). Anyway, I look down and see 1hour 57, and that means it’s time to eat electrolyte pills and enjoy a little cookie action. So I pop some pills, drink water and have fun chewing on a cookie as I run along this beautiful Texas Hill Country. Eventually I look down and my watch says 1hr 57. dammit. I somehow stopped my stop watch somewhere along the way, so now, I have no accurate gauge of time that is easy to manage, in terms of 45 minute increments, how long have I been running, etc. So now I’m reduced to regular time, and I’m thinking at least I know we kind of started at 7:30am, so I should be fine. It’s just not as easy to manage nutrition and hydration.

I also remember looking down from about 1 hour 3, till about 2 hours 45 thinking that time is standing still. I keep popping in and out of happy and bad mental moods, and have no idea how on earth I’m going to run another 3 to 4 hours. The music is definitely helping and I sing along, replaying A-Punk over and over and over and over.

HEY HEY HEY HEY!
His Honor drove southward seeking exotica
Down to the Pueblo huts of New Mexico
Cut his teeth on turquoise harmonicas
Oh oh oh…

And then I let it play on, and I think I replayed the album about 3.5 times before I just got tired of the same 11 songs.

The course has tons of Texas Sotol Cactii , which have nice little teeth on their leaves. Over time, these long leaves hit your shins, and once in a while, you feel a good one and think: Oooo! I bet that one cut me good! I decided I would not look down at my legs until the very end to see how they fared. (This is going to sound silly, but I’m a little disappointed on how un-cut they are, considering the amount of Sotols I ran through.

We’re now about 3 hours in and I’m getting pretty tired. I’m not exhausted or running on empty by any means, but I am no longer fresh. My friends have long finished their 25km race and I’m wondering how they fared. The 20-25mph wind is blowing straight into our face anytime we’re out of the trees and in clear areas, and at one point, the wind stops me completely in my footsteps. Yeah, it was blowing, and there’s no one to hide behind. We reached this looooooong gradual climb along this telephone post / powerline. The thing must be about ½ a mile long, because it easily takes me close to 7 or 8 minutes to reach the top. This is the first time you can actually see really far ahead of you, and the single track trail is littered with 100km runners. (we share the same course, but have slightly different start locations. I’m passing many of them. They’re not slow by any means, instead, they’re pacing themselves as they’re in for 62 miles, and I’m at mile 16ish?? Anyway, I keep passing runners from here on out until the very finish. But back to the powerline. It’s long, it’s uphill and it’s a pain in the ass. As I approach the top, I’m thinking about what may be on the other side. All I know is that it’s probably downhill, and I will welcome some recovery distance after chugging up this gradual ascent. I get to the top, and see a looooong gradual decent on a very smooth, fine, soft sand jeep road! I get excited, but that doesn’t last long, because about 10 yards into it, the wind kicks back into gear, right into our faces. At this point, is where I finally got caught. A woman in her 40’s or 50s and a man had been anywhere from 100 meters to 20 feet from me over the last couple of hours, and here’s where they caught me and ran away. I’m completely fine with it. Afterall, I just want to finish, and my goal is a sub 6. “Finally, you guys catch me! I tried to pull you along as long as I could! Have a good run!” I can also see that they’re veterans; this is by no means their first 50km.

Here’s where things get a little fuzzy. I keep popping in and out of mental difficulties, even thinking about how I wouldn’t mind a slight ankle sprain or a knee injury to have an excuse to stop. But, everytime I start thinking about the 3 guys that ran the sahara. They just got up and ran, and ran and ran. They. Just. Kept. Running. And eventually, they reached the red sea in Cairo. It took them 111 days, and the equivalent of 174 marathons to do it, so surely I can do this. It brings me back to positive thoughts and I just run along.

The problem is I have no earthly idea where I am / how far I’ve gone. I didn’t really study the course other than count the amount of hills, and have no clue where the aid stations are, other than, “cross roads” is at mile 21ish and that’s where my backup shoes are, as well as a fresh cap.
I’m passing more 100k’ers. 3 minutes don’t go by without me passing or spotting another one to pass, so it keeps me busy. Many of them are walking the slightest hills, which I’m running, so I’m easily passing most. As another hour passes, I reach down to grab some more electrolyte pills, and oh no, they’re all gone and the safety pin is open. All are lost. Uh oh. Thank god I put a spare pack of 2 in the camelback so that will get more one more hour, and I guess I’ll start drinking electrolyte drinks at the aid stations too.

I had decided not to look down at my shoes until I got to crossroads so I wouldn’t put adversity in my mind. When I finally reached the aid station, I looked down, wiggled , and folded my toes and saw that the glue work was not going to hold for another 10 miles. Maybe it would, but my feet were hurting from the rocky terrain and the shoes are clearly tired, so I opt to switch to my road shoes. At the same time, I took off my beanie and put on a cap. (good move, since the sun was now high up and annoying, and it was too hot to have a beanie on) The ground feels real nice in my BrooksRadius. Sure I can feel more rocks than normal on hill climbs, and any loose rocks messes with my footing, but all non rocky ground feels great!

This is where I start looking at my watch. I don’t remember exactly what time I saw, but I’m thinking I only have 9 or 10 more miles, which should be about an hour 45 or so. This is going to put me at… hmmm… 7 thirty plus 2.5, plus 1, carry the 5… 5:15? Naah, No way. But maybe so. Probably more like 5:30, which is great!
After the aid station you do what they call the inner loop, which isn’t particularly nasty, but does have it’s fair share of rocky ups and downs, and rocky crap steps you need to deal with. I’m just thinking about the sahara boys, and thinking “just keep running, eventually I’ll be done.”

Still passing tons of 100kers, and eventually I return to crossroads for my final aid station. My friend Dan A is there, and we chat about his 25km. He ran great. I go inside and spot the volunteers mixing up a new batch of electrolytes. They’re stirring a big container of them and about to pour a few more gallons of water. “NO NO Wait!!!” I yell as I hurry over there, fill up my cup 3 times with extra strength stuff! They look at me like I’m weird, but hey, I just want the salts, I don’t want the water. I have water.
I chat with Dan a little more, and ask a volunteer where I am. He tells me I have about 5 more miles to go, but as I have absolutely no idea how fast I’m running and whats ahead of me, I figure, 14 min per mile maybe? I dunno, 1 hour 10, one hour 30 to go??? Dan looks at me puzzled because he has no clue either. I take my long sleeve off, tie it around my waist (in case I decide to put it back on) and take off. I can’t figure out when I may be done, and the restart from the aid station is especially painful. I can’t get going and just striggle along side of some 100k’ers that have hit their cruising pace. I just run along looking at my watch, and swap my music to something fresh. I continue along, and start recognizing these areas as the 25km from last year has the same last few miles finish as the 50km. The steep descents, the winding trail amongst the cedars etc. I now know I have that bitch of a climb called “Lucky” left, and know from last year that it’s a steep sucker. From the top of it, there’s maybe a mile, maybe a little over a mile to go. I’m looking at my watch and realize that 5 hours will mean 12:30pm. I’m sitting at 12:03, 12:12 etc. And now I’m thinking, you know, I may have a sub 5 here! But I don’t pick up the pace because it’s NOT a race. I see LUCKY a few hundred yards away, and a colored dot going up it. Yep! That’s it! I grab a GEL, and eat it real quick, hoping it’ll get into my bloodstream for some energy before I’m done.

I climb Lucky, PAINFULLY climbing it as fast as I can. There is no more walking up hills to conserve energy. This thing is steep, your head as you climg is about 2.5 to 3 feet from the ground, as you’re so tired and crouched over. I pass 2 more 100kers on the climb, and then at some point around here I see 12:20pm on my watch. I’m going to have to REALLY step it up now if I’m going to get in under 5 hours. How far off is my watch from the real race time? 30-45 seconds is a looong time when I have such little time get to the finish. I eventually reach the jeep trail and I’m now looking at my watch every 30 seconds or so. I remember seeing 12:26 and thinking. I am going to have to run sub 7 min miles to get a 3:30 half mile to squeeze in. I see the last aid station and they have a sign that says 0.5 miles to go. I crank up the tunes to it’s loudest and start running as hard as I can. Man this is going to be close. Mer’s husband, Paul is on the side of the road and I yell at him, I don’t think I’m going to get in under 5. I didn’t hear his response, but assume it’s something to cheer me on. I’m running for my life. 12:28... Where is the stupid barn??? 12:29… I am running and now just thinking, FORM MIKE, just like on the track, run with good form, (which allows me on the track to run even faster in the last lap of hard workouts). I am easily going faster than 5km pace. I’d say close to a 6 min pace. It’s definitely faster than when we run the last mile of our weekly long runs hard and those have clocked in at 6:13… 12:29:15. WHERE ARE YOU BARN??? There it is!! Oh man, this is going to be close… I’m giving all I got, a left, then a right, then a dip down and over a dry creek bed, and then a final left before 40 yards to the finish line. The clock is small but eventually I spot it… 4:59:36-37-38… I’ve got it!!! I’m in under 5!!!!

I finished officially with a 4:59:43 and was astounded by it. I seriously only wanted a 5:30 or 6 hour run!!!

About a 30 minutes later, I decided to go ask if they have a preliminary list of finishers so I can see if I cracked the top 20. They direct me to some laptops for self-service, and HOLY SHIT!!! I’m seventh!?!?! What ??? Oh my god!! I’m 7th and there’s one woman in front of me so I’m 6th overall Male!!! That means I get and AWARD for SURE!!!! Top 5 get prizes, and then 1st place for each age group, 20-29, 30-39, 40-49 etc.
WOOO HOOO!!!!

Not too shabby for a skinny road runner with minimal preparation!

This called for some post run beers, Capital Cowboy Pizza and lots and lots of smiles on my face for the rest of the afternoon!!!

Can't wait to do it again next year, or, do I go for 100km!?

What did I learn from this:
- I am much fitter than I ever imagined.
- 100km is a very very long way, because 50km was a very long way.
- 5 hours of running will bring many thoughts to your head. Real stupid ones, real good ones, real somber ones, and real positive ones. It's up to you to suppress the bad and hang on to the good.
- If you just keep at it, eventually you'll get where you want to be.

4:59:43 is 9:38 min per mile, or 6 min per KM

THE END

Fitness is indescribable.

The crappy part about a Friday night race, is you come home, and you're still 'wired' from the race and the post race festivities, but you know you gotta get up at 4:20 the next morning for the Saturday long run. Fosrtunately, we're in recovery week, so tomorrow's only 16 instead of 24 miles. A whole Hour and 10 minutes less.

The title to this post is silly. However I don't know how to ex pres the right title. I thought about the word Magical, Awesome, So Cool, great, crazy... but none seemed to fit the bill, so really it's indescribable.

2 years ago I ran the Zilker relays. (10 miles, between 4 people running 2.5 miles each) I had been running for 1 year, and when i crossed the finish line, I had run two and a half miles in 15:32 and had given it everything I had. And so what's 'indescribable' is the feeling you get. You finish, you're super proud of your time, and you think to yourself: Wow, i gave that every single ounce of energy I had. There is no way in the world I could ever run this any faster. That was my absolute best.

My 1 year anniversary of running had just passed, and I think I was around the 600 mile mark for total running. Now, I'm sitting a almost 4,000 miles logged, including 1500+ miles of base building over the 5 miles of intense base building, a few (failed) marathons and other races under my belt.
My team and I decided that we would not go 'all out' today and risk any silly injury, or kill ourselves, as our goal is December 7 in California. We wanted to run a good time, but not kill ourselves, and that's exactly what I did. (Not sure if they did that too, but I stayed true to it).

Race time was at 6:30. Met up with Ken at 5:15pm and ran the course to get acquainted. Jeez Louise is it hot at at 5:15pm. Ugh. And i got a nasty side stitch at mile 2 that literally made me walk the last couple hundred yards. Not encouraging. I sat down, stopped drinking and just relaxed. About 35 minutes before the start a bunch of us took off for another lap around the course, which was a good thing. These days 5 miles is a much better warm up distance than just 2.5!

anyway, I'll cut to the chase... Ken and i mapped out the 1/4 mile and 1/2 mile spots on the course. I wanted to know where these were, so I wouldn't go out way too fast or way too slow. HI clokced in at the half mile: 3:01 (6:02 pace). Too fast, as I had planned on a 6:20-6:30mile, but I'll take it as I'm actually feeling really good, and hadn't gone over what I would call 70% effort. I did consciously slow down '1 click' as I knew I didn't want to keep that pace, and that's apparently not what my rabbits thought, as Damon, Ramon, and others slowly drifted away. Charles was still ahead to about 20 yards away (up a bit from the 10 yards he had from the very start, so he became my sole rabbit). I kept my pace, clocking in at around a 6:10 for mile 1. Fine with me as I'm really not running for time, and instead running on 'feel'. 70%-80% of effort is good, anything over 80% is bad.

Mile two included 2 climbs. The first is a nice little climb inside the nature center where I could sense people around and ahead of me were clearly laboring more than I was. (Have I mentioned i love hills?) On all our runs, I make it a point to keep pace on hills, and so this one is easy. I kinda of wanted to give it my all at the top of the Nature Center Climb, but... this race is not my goal, and I quickly tell myself i don't need a hamstring pull, calf strains, or any other silly injury. Especially since i have a long weekend ahead of me, and then hill training begins!

Mile 2 hits, didn't check on time, but now all we have was a downhill 1/2 mile to the finish. I kept my stride at a comfortable level, keeping the same rabbits ahead of me, and making sure I'm at 70-80% of effort. I'm actually feeling great. It's weird to describe, but I'll try... so here goes:

Sure, I'm moving at a decent clip, but in no way am I laboring, and I'm thinking... "you know, this is probably close to the time I had 2 years ago..."

Eventually, i turn the last corner and look down at my watch and look at the clock above the finish line. I realize I've got a shot at beating my record on this course. So I picked up my pace, to a "perfect form" stride out, but not full out stride out, just one of those "push down on the gas pedal a bit" type of pickups, and I run in with a time of right around 5:26 or so, 5 seconds faster than 2 years ago!

Am I super proud of my time? no, not really.
Am I happy? HELL YEAH! I didn't ever take it over 80% of effort and I cruised in for a faster time than 2 years ago!

This is why Fitness is so cool/magical/indescribable! two years ago, I finished and I wanted to crawl into a gutter and die. This year, I finished... sure I was winded, but I knew I had TONS in the tank, and was proud I took it easy yet still beat my time! Anyway, if you're a runner, you know how that feels... You never think you could possibly get faster, but then, a couple seasons later, you beat that seemilgy unbeatable time! t's such an indescribable feeling to think that you are soooo much better than just 2 years ago! (it's what keeps us coming back, right!?)

The coolest part is that two years ago, 5 months later I would go on to get so so close to my Boston qualifer time after this 'Herculean' effort to get a 15:32.
So this makes me feel really REALLY good with 4 months of speed work, hills, and a ton of "just get stronger" workouts left!

Ok, it's 10:20, and hopefully this typing has made me tired enough to fall asleep soon. Tomorrow's going to be a loooong day with running then Texas football at 6pm, and most importnantly tailgating starts at 1pm!

I did it! I signed up! Who's with me?!?!

I signed up for the Timberline 26.2 Marathon today.
Saturday, September 13.

The beautiful course follows a stunning segment of the Pacific Crest Trail from historic Timberline Lodge high on Mt Hood to shimmering Timothy Lake nestled in the high Cascades. There is a 3,000 feet net elevation loss - yeah, it's like running downhill! Every finisher gets a custom medal and memories for a lifetime.

So who's with me? They also have a 1/2 marathon on Sunday, and I'll commit to running the half as well, if anyone wants to just run the half.

The Maze - 30km Trail Race - Race Report

18.6 miles. Farther than I've gone any other week since the marathon in February.

My goal was to have good time, and run a good solid effort. The Maze, The Loop, and the Saint are highly popular and very competitive, bringing out all the fast guys, so I knew that all I was going to do was race against time.

Having run the 10km version (1 loop) 2 times before at right around 51 minutes, I decided that a good goal would be to run 3 loops at 57, 54, then as fast as I could. That would put me in at around 2:45.

I went and looked at last year's times for people and saw some names i recognized around there. Obviously you have no idea what their goals were last year, but it's a decent starting point.

So my goal was as follows(and no, I didn't have a "super secret goal" as we all often do.):
Sub 2 hours 50 = Happy
Sub 2 hours 45 = Very happy
Close to 2 hours 40 as possible = ecstatic.

How did I do?
3 Loops:
Loop 1: 00:50:11
Loop 2: 00:50:35 (included a quick pit stop at my bag to get my iPod for lap 3)
Loop 3: 00:49:56
Total time 02:30:46 !!

Loop 1 was tough to control. Adrenaline was flowing and I had a friendly rivalry (that blossomed at the Toughest 10k a few weeks ago when a friend beat me by a few minutes as either i ran the wrong course long, or he ran the long course short. All I know is, I passed him, and he never passed me back) that had me keeping pace with him.
He was keeping a pace I knew I wouldn't be able to sustain for 3 loops, and also knew that I was committing trail race suicide, for a 3 loop race. NEVER go out too fast. NEVER. There was one water stop about half way through. I had my water bottle, and the weather gods were smiling today, 62 and not humid, so I didn't have to stop, just ran right by the stop, but the other 4 guys all stopped. I built up a good 15 second lead or so, then slowly stretched that to where I was out of site. Came in for loop one at 50 mins and wow, that was fast. Waaay faster than last year's 1 loop race. I'm an idiot. A quick stop to refill my water bottle with water and I was off.

Loop 2 started and I immediately hooked on to a guy in a blue shirt. He was maintaining a nice cadence and I was just happy to keep[ up with him. He ran the steep hills, but i continued my trail race strategy of walking the steep ones. It's all about heart rate, and not using un-necessary leg energy. History repeated itself in that Mr Blue stopped for water, and I didn't need to so i ran away, and never saw him again. Eventually, one of the guys that ran the first part of the first loop with me caught up saying "Man, you're one tough guy to catch". We quickly realized that we knew each other through being in the same trail run invite email. So Travis and I had a connection and now worked as a team instead of rivals. I still lead the way, pulling him along and we came in at 50:35 for Loop 2, and set off for loop 3. I'm tired by now, but heck, lets see how long I can hold it. Travis is tired too. He just ran Boston Marathon 2 weeks ago in 3:11, so he can't be in prime shape. We quickly came up on a guy in a black shirt and black shorts. I quickly nicknamed him Mr Black and we struck a conversation with him. I continued to pull Travis, but let Mr Black pull me. Mr Black was running up the steep hills, but I would walk them, and Travis followed my strategy. Within 15-20 seconds we'd be caught up with Mr Black. I found myself congratulating Mr Black on his hill climbing abilities. "Wow! You are BEAST!" "Holly cow, you climb like a champ!". it was fun, and it gave us something to do. He told us he mountain bikes those trails all the time, and I think he wanted to show us he could run up them all. I'll be honest, this guy looked tough as nails. He wasn't slouched over, he wasn't breathing hard. Just a strong locomotive moving along. Eventually, on one of the bigger hills, he got a nice lead with us, and i think both Travis and I hit the low point in our race. We, well more like I, as I was pulling Travis, let Mr Black go. I was going to blow up if I tried to hold his pace for the last 3.5 miles. We stopped briefly at the midway water stop, i poured the water i had in my water bottle over my head to cool off, and refilled to the top. Travis grabbed a couple of cups and we were on our way. Eventually Travis took the lead as I faded, and kept yelling at me "Come on"... "COME ON, MIKE", and I did what i could to latch back on to him, but as we met a slight incline I would fall off, he'd take a 10 yard lead, and yell again "Come ON, Mike". I don't quite know how i did it, but I kept with him even though my legs seriously had nothing left. I kept looking at my watch, and knew i only had 14 minutes, 10, 8, may 5 more etc. And it is now that we had caught back up with Mr Black. He still looked strong, at least stronger than I felt, for sure. Travis was a stud. he kept pulling me, telling me to keep up, and we pressed along, lapping people by the dozens. Eventually we came upon the big wall. A 8 to 10 foot sever hill that is almost vertical. You can either attack it at full speed to get up, or, you can go really slow, and walk up it somehow. During Loop 2 I joked with Travis and told him the only way was to speed up like crazy on the flat to get up by the momentum. I also told him we had to make sure we didn't get stuck in a "walkers" traffic jam on Loop 3 on the wall. So as we approached the final turn before the hill, Mr Black slowed, and we both yelled like ARMY drill sergeants: "GO GO GO GO GO GO GO GO GO GO GO GO GO GO!!!" We must have scared the living crap out of Mr Black, because he sprinted and we sprinted and we all made it up. (it probably doesn't sound as funny written, but trust me, it was funny as hell how we both just started yelling GO GO GO GO GO GO! ha!

At this point we know we're about 5 minutes out, and Mr Black starts to show weakness. Sure he helped us and pulled us for quite a ways, but hell, when i war, you take what you can. Travis pulled ahead of him, I did all i could to stick to Travis and not get caught up in Mr Black's slower, and very inviting, pace. Travis yells out: "COME ON GUYS", to which i respond in a quiet voice: "I'm right behind you; lets go." I'm not quite sure where I found the reserves to forge ahead, but we were able to put about 23 seconds on Mr Black at the finish line. (I'll never know if he had planned on running all the hills, or if I 'egged' him on, but I'm pretty sure that was his mistake. I kind of felt pretty proud of myself for using that strategy to wear someone down. ha!)

Anyway, i gave it all I had, layed every ounce of energy I had into those last 2.5 miles and came in at just under 2 hours 31 minutes. Never dreamed of that good a time! Especially not after Loop 1's crazy fast time. Turns out, it wasn't that crazy after all.

On to the Loop (30km) on Sunday, June 1!

Rocky Hill Ranch 25km - Race Report

(Click on the pics to enlarge them)

I picked Kerry up at 4:50am, and we headed out towards Smithville (Next to Bastrop) for the 25km Rocky Hill Ranch Trail Race. They also had a 50km, and 50-mile flavor, and all three distances ran on the same trails. We got to the ranch at 5:55 and hung out in the car away from the chilly morning and visiting rest rooms for pre race… well you know.

Other than simply having a fun timeout there, my time goals for this race were as follows:
To run sub 2 hours 17 minutes, with my stretch goal being to run as close to 2:10 as I could.
25km is 15.53 miles, and the longest I’d run since the marathon in February was 12.5 with the Boston group on mostly flat grounds 3 weeks prior, so this was going to be a nice test.

The strategy is to not kill myself on Fat Chuck’s, a healthy but conservative pace for the first 10 miles, then let it loose in the final 5.

The race consists of 3 or 4 mean climbs up “Fat Chuck’s” to start, then it goes into the Pine trees for a weaving, and weaving and weaving and up and down and up and down, and left and right and left and right and up and left and down and right type of a spaghetti trails. The gun went off at 7am, and I was in the front group. I didn’t know what to expect out of the trails and didn’t want to get stuck behind a bunch of slower runners on a single trail, so for the first 2 minutes, I just made sure I was within site of the leaders. I had no expectations of being able to be a top contender, as there are trail runners that are simply put, way better than me. As we approached Fat Chuck’s climbs, I counted 23 runners ahead of me. I figured:”If this is truly a maze of trails in trees, where you can’t distinguish between a runner ahead or behind you running on a close by trail, I should at least have idea of where I stood at the start. As we approached the first climb, I quickly dispatched of a clump of 5 or 6 runners that slowed considerably. I kept trucking up the first incline, and then started to speed walk up the steeper portions.

I traded spots with two or 3 runners that were intent on running these climbs, as I was clearly the faster runner on the down hills. Unless you’ve done a warm-up run (which I hadn’t), I’m not sure why anyone would run up these nasty little climbs. Climbs where the ground is loose river rocks of assorted sizes. My heart rate shot up as I came upon each climb, and there was no reason to start off that way.
So, I’ll hurry this race report up. 2 mins in, hit Fat Chucks, an additional 7min and 30 seconds later, I’d hit the top plateau, and was now cruising towards the pines, settling in to a healthy (but not debilitating) pace. By this time, I’d passed 3 or 4 more guys, and we hit the pines trees. A single-track maze. I figured by now, I was around 17th, and slowly at about 35 minutes into the run, I had passed 2 more and was 15th, and all alone. No one in sight ahead of me, no one in sight behind me.

There were to water/aid stations on the course advertized as 5 miles in and 10 miles in. I figured a 2:17 would require about 45 min splits on those. I came in to water stop #1 at 50 minutes. Not good, but I also knew that the pace I had maintained was well faster than a 50 min – 5 mile, and no trail aid station is precise. I continued along, popping Hammer Gels when I felt depleted, all the while running along. There’s really not much to tell other than I saw no one ahead of me, and no one behind so I had no rabbits to chase, and I was no one’s rabbit. I popped in one ear piece for my ipod at 65 minutes in. Until then, mentally, I’d been fine, but I kept popping in and out of thinking about how “I had to pass 4, 5, or maybe 6 runners to finish in the Top 10” and settling into that great running trance where all you think of is the twisting and turning of this roller coaster ride, concentrating on the steps ahead of you with a completely blank mind. I eventually reached a big open space. When I mean big, I mean maybe 20 football fields / zilker park type open space. I could see a runner pop back into the trees on the other side as I started my trek across the field. He was maybe 3 of 4 minutes ahead, but I also knew he was a 50km runner, so no threat for me. I picked up the pace in this open field as I quickly thought of war and battle fields where you want to get out of the clearing, so the enemy can’t see you. I ran a good sub 7 minute mile pace across this field, looking back every minute or so to see if anyone was behind me. Last thing I wanted to be was a rabbit for anyone. Luckily I reached the tree line in the distance, look back, and saw no one. Phew!

The 2nd water stop was about a minute in from there, and I refilled my water bottle (as last time), and popped a piece of banana in my mouth. Thank you Jennifer and Papa for working that water stop. It was a nice surprise to see a friendly face!
Again, back into pine trees, zigzags, and slight undulations on the course. It’s not that it’s as killing as a big, nasty 100-meter climb, but it certainly takes a toll to run on these rollercoasters.

I kept plugging along, and eventually reached what they call Tunnel of Pines. A long and straight jeep trail where you can see a good 100 yards ahead before in gently veers left or right for another 1 or 2 hundred yards, and again and again. Probably 1.5 to 2 miles of this straight jeep track. Each straightaway was either a hard rocky ground, or pine needles, each with a long, slight uphill climb that rewards you with a pretty quick drop, only to be greeted by another long steady climb. FINALLY at 1:48 into the race I spot a human ahead of me. He’s what, 200 yards, 250 yards ahead, so I do some math and think: I’ve got 30 minutes of running to go, I’ll slowly gain and pass him over the next 20 minutes, then still have up to 10 minutes to burst away from him so I don’t have to outkick him at the finish. The theory was sound, until my rabbit all of a sudden stops. “What the hell are you doing? You’re my rabbit. You’re supposed to drag me along as I reel you in, but instead you’re stopping??” I catch him and spot him reaching down to his ankles, feet area. I ask if he’s ok, and he says: “Yeah just pulling my socks up. “
I pass him and increase my pace by maybe 10 secs per mile just to make it a little challenge for him to stick to me if he wants to. But he doesn’t. A 90 degree turn shows another (and last) 200-300 yard straightaway climb, and half way through it I look back to see where he is. Nowhere to be found. Good.
I eventually reach an arrow leading into “The Miracle Mile”,
and as I enter this, I decided to burst out a good 2 minutes of attack, just in case the guy tries a comeback. I don’t want him to be able to see or even hear me now that we’re back in the maze of pines. Miracle Mile does not mean it’s a mile to the finish, far from it. More like 2.5 miles to go. I know I’m close as my watch is showing 2:04 and I know I have 6 to 16 minutes left of running. I pick up my pace to not leave anything on the course. The climbs are steeper and longer, but what goes up….. must come down, so I’m rewarded with fun fun descents that I’m taking at frantic paces. A trip, slip or toe stub, on a descent and I’ll clearly be flying a long way down to a mean crash.

Aha! Another human in the distance! I’m now 13th ( I think) and need to pick off as many as possible! It’s a “she” and she’s coming and going out of site in the maze, but I’m clearly gaining fast. I’m 30 yards from her as I reach a steep descent. I yell out: “How fun is this!?!?!” as I am flying down the trail with no regards to safety. She looks back, sees me and just stops to get off the trail. There's nothing else she could do as she was a turtle and I was an -unsafe- cheetah. "Thanks!" I say as I pass and quickly disappear ahead of her. Her face looked tired but not dead.
30 seconds later I come up on another runner, another woman. Within a couple of minutes I’ve caught up to her, mostly because she is "dead", and walking the climbs. I tell her: “There’s a woman probably 30 seconds back. Grab on to my heels. Let’s go!” she digs deep and finds some energy to run again, but I’m clearly stronger and will end up putting a minute on her over the last 4 minutes of the run.

I’m out of the pine trees my watch says 2hrs 12 minutes, and now just looking to clear each little prairie hoping to spot the start/finish campsite. But, as it is with every other trail race, the finish line is never “just one more turn" or "one more hill away”. It seems like an eternity, and my clock keeps ticking away. I... MUST... BEAT... 2:17 is all I’m thinking as my legs are burning and I’m giving it every… single… ounce… of energy I can muster. I finally spot the campgrounds and continue this max speed to the finish.
Final time 2 hours 15 minutes 11 seconds. Nice! Not quite a stretch goal of 2:10, but almost 2 minutes under my goal. I’m ecstatic.

Kerry’s goal earlier this week was a 2:30. But then, she had second thoughts and emailed me telling me it may be too fast. I replied asking her is she was W.E.A.K or H.F.C (her, self-proclaimed description of herself meaning “Hard F#%^ing Core”, when she finished her first 50km race.)… it obviously worked as she replied with the correct answer to my challenge!
As I’ve not hit my stretch goal, I figure she’ll come in around 2:36-2:38, as the course was deceivingly challenge. I learn that the woman I pulled at the end is first Female finisher so I have high hopes for Kerry. She make it in at around 2:31:20 or so, and once results are in, it turns out she got 2nd overall Female for the 25km, and a nice award to bring home! Nicely done and truly HFC!!

The rankings (or Age Groups if you will) are simply: Under 39, and over 40 yrs old (masters division).
I ended up getting 7th overall and 5th once you removed the two masters ahead of me!!
A weird rule of how they award out Top 5 overall and top 3 masters keeps me from bringing home hardware too, but it’s all right. Never in my dreams would I have expected a TOP 5 finish!!!

(Maybe some of Kerry’s HFC’ness is starting to run off on me??!)

The trek towards getting back into full fitness continues, and after this event. The speed won’t be there anytime soon, but stamina, fitness and endurance is all I’m after until August, and, I now feel like I’m at around 50-60% of where I need to be, come end of August.

Next up, a couple of weeks of continued base building and then the Rogue Trail Series starts with the 30km Maze the first weekend of May. Top 20 will be a feat there!

Click here to see many more pictures of the Ranch and the trails of the course.

The Toughest 10K in Texas - Race Report

I went out and ran the “Toughest 10Km in Texas” this morning. (10km = 6.1 miles, for my metric readers) A cute name, but I don’t think it lives up to the “toughest”. However, one must give credit where credit is due. It’s certainly not an easy course, and it has 3 tough hills to climb, and is almost constantly up and down.

I decided this morning (mostly due to the good songs that energized me on the way out there) to test my fitness, but not kill myself or re-aggravate any lingering IT Band issues. The first four hundred meters or so are around a baseball and soccer field so plenty of space to “jockey for a position” before you jump into the trails. I think I came into the trail system around 30th. Didn’t want to get stuck behind slower people on the single man trails, but also didn’t need to get crazy.
It’s weird, in these semi short trail races, if you’re going to pass people, it’s usually between 18 and 30 minutes in. It’s all the yahoos that are simply not seasoned for what’s ahead and lack the trail hills training. You then may pass a few more in the second half that are fading. Over the course of the race, I passed about 12 to 15 people or so, and only 1 runner passed me. That’s pretty much close to perfect in terms of my strategy.

I took a Hammer gel 30 minutes in to have fresh legs for the 2nd half. For what I think was mile 4 and 5, I ran with anbother guy, alternating who was the rabbit. We never caught anyone, and never got caught either. I eventually ran away from the guy, and ran for quite some time on my own, just hoping to spot a rabbit ahead of me to catch.
The 5K and 1 mile walk merged into the 10K race with about a mile to go, so it got a little confusing to figure out who was a struggling 10k’er, and who was a 5k runner. No offense to the 1mile walkers, but you people stood out like golfers on a rugby field.

I’m happy with my last mile. I kept the pace, and kicked a bit towards the finish, coming in at 48:27. It’s hard to compare 10k trail races, as none are precise in distance and certified, but if it was correct, I marked a new record by a minute and a half. Not bad for my second week back after a 6 week injury layoff.

After the race, I found out that there was a little discrepancy on some overall times as apparently many people ran a shorter distance by missing a turn or two. I think that’s pretty accurate, as I know I passed on guy around 16-17 minutes in, and he never caught and passed me, but he was announced as 2nd in his Age Group with a time that was 2 minutes faster than mine. Also, not to take anything away from this other lady, but I got beat by a woman in the 55-59 age group by 4 minutes!!
What WHAT!!??!?!?!? :)

No big deal though, as I'm only 2 weeks back from my 6 week injury and testing:
- my fitness level
- my legs on tough hills
- my stamina
...and my Age Group finish and personal time are what mattered today.

I definitely have plenty fitness to gain back / room for improvement, but overall, I’m very happy with my performance this early in the season!

The course was great - I'll be back next year!

Trail Runner

I've signed up and paid for a few trail races, and also am eyeing a couple of other ones... (Links to the races are over on the right column.)

So far, I've paid for:
**April 12 -- The toughest 10K in Texas (Saturday) PAID
A short 10K in the some very rocky and hilly private trails. Should be a fun one. Who else is doing this one?
**April 19 -- Rocky Hill Ranch 25K (Saturday) PAID
Kerry and I are going to drive ou to Smithville to run this race. Apparently, this is what the trail look like out there. I can't wait! Anyone else want to run it?!
**May 4 -- the MAZE 30K (Sunday) PAID
**June 1 -- the LOOP 30K (Sunday) PAID
**June 29 -- the SAINT 30K (Sunday) PAID
I've run the Maze and the loop before, but only the 10K version. The difference is, the 30K is three loops, while the 10K is 1 loop. The Saint is a new course, but is on the trails that the Toughtest 10K is on, so at least I'll get acquainted on April 12. Are you in too?

Other races I'm considering.
**Jul 19 -- Captain Karl's 6hour (Sunday) Not yet Paid
The event starts at 7:00 PM and the winners will be determined by most laps/miles run overall, with a cut-off time for your last lap at 12:30 am (6 hour race). The trail will be marked with glow sticks, ribbons, signs, flour, and maps for your safety and convenience. Check out the link on the right, for pictures and video of the course. This should be a fun one! I think it will require a tent to camp in after the run. I'll probably quit after 3 or 4 hours. (30-40km)
**Sep 13 -- Timberline Marathon 26.2 miles (Saturday) Strongly Considering
Go look at the pictures on the link to this marathon. Just scroll down the page taht you get to from the link on the right. It looks like a really fun marathon, and I would run this at an easy long run pace. By September, I should be running 90-100 miles a week, and 26 miles shouldn't be a big deal. I'm looking for someone to join me on this adventure. Who's interested? Seriously!
**Dec 7 -- California International Marathon(CIM) Almost guaranteed that I'll run this one. (It's in Sacramento)
This will be the race that my marathon training group will focus on, and we'll all fly out and race as a group. It's one of the fastest courses in the country, and this will be where I either qualify for Boston, or visit their medical facilities so I can compare to Austin medical staff!

The only race I'll actually run at full speed will be the CIM. All others I'll run for fun, at an easy comfortable pace. If you've never run a trail race, I strongly recommend you at least register for the MAZE 10k, then register for the other ones if you like it. There's no way you won't like it! It's not hilly. Come say hi after the race. I'll be the one with a few fold out chairs, and a cooler of beer.

AT&T Austin Marathon 2008 - Revitalized

”Something wonderful is about to happen to you.” Fortune Cookie from a week ago Monday 2/11/08.

There are many personal things I set out to do in this latest marathon, some of which I described loosely below. I’m not one to write down too many personal things for the world to read, but I think this could benefit others looking to rebuild in some type of endurance sport. Who knows, maybe it applies to other things as well.
My marathoning career so far has been less than stellar. I know dozens of people who would welcome the times I’ve posted in my marathons, but anyone who knows running, knows that it’s a relative sport. Fast to one person, isn’t necessarily fast to the person that posts the time. You set your own goals, and whether it is to run a sub 3 hour marathon, qualify for Boston or simply finish, you set your own personal goals.

You set your own goals… but train, gain and build as a team. Whether you train on your own all the time, or in a group setting, I firmly believe that you gain from a team, whether your team is a friend running next to you, or simply someone on the sideline, or an unknown runner that crosses your path on a trail.
This was never more pronounced than on Saturday morning when I went out to run my 3 or 4 mile leg-stretching run, to get the blood flowing and loosen up the day before the race. The weather was a pretty crappy (for Austin standards) 42 degrees, drizzly, dreary day. Normally, the hike and bike trail around the lake is overcrowded with weekend joggers, serious runners, dog walkers, cyclists and other types, but Saturday it was deserted at 10am. As I started my run, I felt a weird connection to the people I came upon. Almost everyone of these few runners would let out a small smirk, had a focused look in their eye, or was wearing past marathon race gear. We all knew why we were out there, and what lied ahead the following day. The interesting thing is, I did this run a year ago to the day. In 2007, it was a beautifully sunny day, and I was so emotional that I almost had tears in my eyes as I crossed other marathoners. But this year my goal was entirely different, and most of all, I know had 3 battle scars to show for and no longer a rookie.

After my Dallas marathon in December, I have never felt so low in my running career. I know it’s only been 2.5 years, but it’s been 2.5 years of hard training, and I honestly considered for a few days to take a long break from running, just get away, maybe even drop the sport all together.

It all started a year ago yesterday, when I pulled my body to the absolute edge of destruction, and still kept going for another 3 miles seeing 20 feet of tunnel vision, flirting with blackouts, and then came the dreaded full body “cramp down” that sent for 90 minutes to the finish line first aid tent. My time goal had been an obsession for the months prior to, and I can tell you that every single time I run past the North entry of the Capitol building, I think of that day in February of 2007, when it all slipped away from me 1,200 meters from the finish line. But it was my first marathon, and I was glad I finished, and I have looked at my finisher’s bib and my medal almost every day since.

I have a cork board in my office full of running maps (greenbelt), running macros (training schedules), pace charts, my medals dangling, and all my race bibs hanging off one nail one on top of the other. Then there’s the AT&T Austin Marathon 2007 bib, and Medal. Those two have a separate spot on that corkboard. The bib is on its own, the medal hanging next to it. For the few people who have seen the corkboard, surely the bib and medal represent a proud moment. Why would they not. But to me, they have never meant that. Sure, I’m proud to be part of the 0.25% of the population who has run a marathon, but that bib and medal represented Unfinished Business. Over time, I have sat at my computer and stared at those two things hundreds of times, reliving the "what-if's", re-strategizing, and planning how to finish what I set out to do.

Promptly after Austin’07, I knew I had to get my ass in gear, refocused and committed; so I signed up for Chicago along with Nedra and what we later would come to find out was a group 20 or so determined Austinites ready to kick some butt in October. I trained harder than I ever for that marathon. I ran the track workouts like I was possessed. I ran the long runs strong. I secured a nice little running team for our mid week 8-10 or even 14 milers. (who runs 14 milers on Monday at 5:30am before work? We did.) We wanted Boston, we wanted strong PR’s and I can tell you that had I had my day, there is no doubt in my mind I would have shattered my pre-requisite 3:15:59. Coach Sisson even said about 1.5 months ahead of the race that he could see a 3:05 in me based on how I was running. Confidence was oozing out of me. There is not a workout, or a long run I could not dominate. And then came the heat, and my Chicago race was destroyed. What had taken 24 weeks to build, was destroyed in 54 minutes (7.75 miles).

Licking my second wound, I signed up for Dallas, and my coaches wrote a new macro for me to get re-geared in 2 months. Primed, oiled and ready… this machine would kill it in Dallas. But adding another 9 weeks of training to 24 months was hard. It took its toll mentally, and well, Dallas was yet again, a failed attempt at <3:15:59. I simply didn’t have “it”. Mentally, I was drained, but more important, my morale was devastated.

So the road for me has now changed. Yes, that elusive Boston marathon is still a goal, but the wounds have taken their toll. Since December I’ve run a trail race that I loved, run the long runs with the marathon program, but then treated the rest of my running as a hobby. I’ve barely looked at my splits when I have shown up to track workouts, the weather has decided whether I get out of bed or not, and pace hasn’t mattered one bit. Anyone who runs with me nowadays knows that “Mike is on vacation”.
Anyone who has raced a marathon knows that it’s 90% mental, and I need some serious time to recharge. Fun trail runs, stress free long runs with the marathoners, meaningless track workouts, all for the sake of slowly determining if I really like running, if I really want to do this long term.

So I signed up for the Austin Marathon a few months ago, but didn’t really tell many people. (My coaches Ruth and Steve didn't even know till they saw the medak around my neck that I was running.) It wasn’t a race, and not something I was training for very hard. It was a place where a dream had begun and ended, and what has sometimes felt as a place where the curse began. But this time the goal was different. No Boston, no time goal, no stress, and no pressure. As stated previously, my goals were to: 1- not end up in the medical tent, 2- run the entire thing, and 3- have fun. All these being obvious parts of the bigger goal of slowly rebuilding mentally.

Based on recent prior long runs, I was pretty sure I could hang with the 3:30 pace group for a good 20 to 22 miles. An 8 minute mile is right around my easy long run pace, so it made sense to run with them, as it turned out JJ, and Jo Dee, and Mark, and David, and several other people I knew and they knew, where running there. The cannon went off and pretty quickly, I realized I would do myself no good by running with others I knew. After all, to rebuild mentally I just needed to prove to myself that I can remain positive throughout, and this journey was best experienced alone.
I was going to have a good time, and the best way to have a good time on a three and a half hour adventure, is to seek out the positives and embrace them, and so I did…. And…I actually enjoyed myself. I had conversations with complete strangers, but not about pace, and time, and goals, but about running stories… about Geezer’s fantastic food free marathoning, about my friend on the sidelines dressed up as a hot dog that had overcome a long battle with back issues…

My friends were on the course, and they were fantastic. KP in the French Fries costume, Tim the Hotdog man and Heather “the butterfly?” or “fireworks on her head”? Shorey, Kris, Kerry, Tim, Carrie and company on their bikes. The Rogue crew on Lake Austin… Nedra, Trey and others. Coach Amy on Exposition, Bryan, Brandon and Jill on Great Northern, the Rogue water stop (thank you all!). Sharon at 19'ish? (what a surprise!) Every runner always tells you how appreciated it is to see a friendly and familiar face on the course. The sight of seeing someone that cares, having taken time out of their lives to support you cannot be described, so unless you’ve experienced it, you don’t know what these "thank you's" mean.

I went and heard Dick Beardsley speak on Friday afternoon at the Marathon Expo, and one of the takeaways, I took from him was to find the positive in things you see and use it to pull you along.
There were posters that people had put on the side of the road with inspirational quotes, and encouragements to their families. I took those posters and found the positive in them, sometimes thinking for several minutes about who that person they were cheering on could potentially be, and how much time and effort they had spent preparing. The “Blue Thunder” posters on mile 23 and 25 were a nice surprise. I’m not even in Panther’s Blue Thunder training group, but I am an adopted friend, so those posters oozed energy into me. Some of the water stops had nice signs, random people waved things. I took positive energy from everything.

Coach Amy also gave a speech, and my take away from hers was to live “in the now”. She has the fortune of having the “toughest on the course when facing adversity” story I have ever heard, so she must know something! And I did live in the now. So much so that I had planned to run without a stopwatch. I wanted to leave my watch in the car, but I figured it was best to have a sense of time before the run, to appropriately plan out bathroom visits, get to the starting corral on time etc. After mile 13, I waited patiently to dump my watch with the next person I saw on the course. So at Mile 16’ish, Bryan and a couple of other colleagues from work were on the course, I threw my cap, gloves and watch to him. A little later, I tore my 3:30 pace band off, and decided to just enjoy my run. It was the best thing I could have done.

I continued to run, and thanked hundreds of people. I thanked everyone I could that was on the course. “Thanks for coming out”, “thanks for the support”, “Appreciate you being here”, “thanks for getting up early today”, “thanks for bringing out your dog!”, “thanks for the support”. What I thought might work out to just pass the time, quickly blossomed into this energy treasure chest. People were thanking me for being out there, they were cheering me on, they were telling me they were happy to be there. It was great, and for a good 8 miles, this had my brain in autopilot! When I ran by the Mile 18 Rogue water stop, I knew a good 8-10 people in there. I was loving life. I’ve never felt so good after 18 miles, and I let them know it! I saw the cycling crew again around 22 ( I think) and they claim I looked great!, other people as you can see in the comments in the previous post said I looked great and was smiling. Outside I was smiling. Inside I was smiling. I easily get an A+ in this class.

I went and listened to Coach Sisson’s speech last week, and one of the things I took away from his speech was to “never quit”. I must be honest… even though I ran a non race pace, I hadn’t put in the time to be fully ready, but I knew this and accepted it. However, my goal was to prove to myself that I could run an entire marathon, and I thought that if I wasn’t fully prepared, then it would pay back triple in confidence if I managed to do it. The last 3 miles were hard. Hard. Hard. Hard. But I was in no hurry, so I slowed to what I assume was around an 8:20-8:30 pace, and trotted along. No walking, No way. No walking, No Way. Left foot, right foot, left foot right foot. You want Mantras to repeat in your head, I got plenty!

As I reached the 25 mile marker I hid my emotions from my friend Jim, whom I had picked up out of the gutter by Double Dave’s Pizza on Duval. He’d had a bad day, Stomach issues, puking, walking... but I told him to run, and he did. I hope he’s happy he did. That last mile was hard emotionally. I knew I could run it, but I was overwhelmed by emotions of the prior year. I was going to defeat that demon, and I was running all the way in. I finally climbed the final hill on San Jacinto with a ½ mile to go, and now, it was just a nice downhill, and then the glorious 4 block run along Congress avenue to the finish. A run I had dreamed of for many months leading up to my very first marathon. A dream run that was disrupted. A run I so wanted to have the prior year. I soaked it all in. “Jim, lets pick up the pace and show these fans our form. We need to finish this and look good.” He complied and we ran towards the finish together. I finally could see the official time, and the competitive nature in me kicked in. “Come on Jim, let go shave some time!” as we approached the finish line shute, I felt like I had won the marathon. A year in waiting, 3 prior failed attempts at a happy ending had finally been exorcized. I smiled and I lifted my hands in the air. “Jim, raise your hands with pride! It’s not the time you’ll remember, it’s the journey it took to get here that counts!” I crossed the finish line with a chip time of 3:26:34, as I punched through the air like a cyclist winning a stage of the Tour.

Immediately after getting my medal were coaches Carolyn and Amy. Carolyn with camera on hand, and Amy. Amy knew what I was waiting for… the hug she had promised she’d have waiting for me at the finish. I hope I didn’t squeeze too hard, but man, I’d been waiting for a year for that elusive and well deserved congratulatory hug.

My running life continues.. my journey towards my goal of belonging with the ranks of Boston marathon qualifiers. Yesterday was not just an easy long run, it was a huge step towards a personal goal that I will someday achieve. There will be more failures along the way, but today was a huge boost. I cannot wait to run past the north entrance of the Capitol again, as from now it is but a distant memory, and no longer reality.

I came home yesterday, highly revitalized. And after 2 failed attempts (Chicago and Dallas) I was finally able to do something I have been wanting to do for a year… I replaced that haunting Austin Marathon 2007 bib and medal, with something I can be proud of.

The AT&T Austin Marathon

- Runing Clothes
- Gloves
- Food Gels, Electrolyte pills
- Race number
- Couple of pace bands to see what I may be doing
- Newly updated songs on the iPod
- Pre-race throw away warm clothes
- Post-race bag with water, and warm clothes
- Cooler with 12 beers anda bag of Doritos Nachos

Looks like I'm ready to go run the Austin Marathon.
A nice, stress free, run around the town.



Yes, I said run and not RACE.
Wow, what a difference a year makes.
Last year, i was a stress ball, and had been one for a week.
Tonight, it's all good. It really just feels like any other weekend long run.
Canon goes off at 7am. See you at the finish around 10:29am!

I'll be giving this a shot

Bandera 25km Trail Race - Race report

After getting up at 3:20am to let Karma out and get dressed, I was out the door at 3:48am headed to Kerry’s house to pick her up. Erin decided to come along for the day and was right on time to catch a ride too. Arrive at Kerry’s 3:59, right on time. We drive the 2 hour drive out to Bandera, Tx stopping twice for nature breaks, and got to the ranch/park site with an hour and change to spare. I was looking forward to running this, but had only done some minor preparation since we firmed up plans on Thursday to go out there and run. Thursday night Pasta, Friday lunch Pasta and Friday dinner pasta to carbo load along with some generous rations of water and electrolytes.

This is no joke of a course. Very rocky terrain, extremely technical rocky hills, with some pauses here and there of flatter, friendlier trails on which to speed up or recover. Granted, I only ran the 25km option instead of the 50km or 100km that some people are still runnin as I write this at 7pm, but still, the pace is obviously faster, and this course is not flat.

My goal is to have fun. I have no goal to run like crazy or to stress myself out, and I have no time goal other than, try and run under 2 hours and 45 minutes. Why 2:45? Well, because it sounds like a decent, and attainable time for a pleasure run. Another important goal is to not die in the last few miles like the last trail race I did in June at the 18 mile Belt, and as this run has considerably more mountain type hills to climb, I’m going to take it easy, walk the steep parts, run a comfortable pace on the flats, and have fun on the downs.


Per the map numbers above:
1- We take off and I slowly make my way around trains of slower people on this one man trail. I run on the tall grass, on the rockier sides, anything to get ahead of groups that are clearly not the pace I want to run. They weren’t going slow, but I wanted to go a tad faster. We quickly approach the first hill, a hill we’ll see again right before the finish. The surprise here is, the hills are steep. How any one runs these is beyond me, because there is no way to run up these hills. We all walk them. A brisk pace on this first one, but it’s a walk. It’s foggy so we can’t see down as we climb, but we have a good 100 yard visibility ahead of us. First descent… I’m going pretty fast, and so are the people around me, so I’m content. Not out of control fast, just a nice downhill pace. At the bottom, I continue to pass slower runners: “On your left”, “Passing on your left, Thank you!”, “On your left, thanks, have a good run!” We quickly reach the climb to the next mountain, and again, it’s steep as shit, so there’s no running. I’m walking, and I’m making sure I’m not killing myself climbing. Afterall, I’m honestly in no hurry at all.

2- I think I reach the top about 30 minutes in, and I still don’t feel warmed up. I think about taking a GU, but I only brought 4 and having taken one before the start, I only have 3, so it’s too early if I’m going to spread them out well. A steep descent were I get more comfortable with a good descent speed, and pass many runners. An almost immediate climb greets us, and I’m again climbing up the hill, walking as does everyone else. I then run along, and catch up to a lady who’s keeping a nice pace. I decide to run behind her, because she looks like she’s been out here before. When we reach the down hills, she’s flying down, and I’m right behind her. We’re a train that can’t be stopped. We pass some slower runners and as we go by, one comments to his friends: “I can’t even fall down this thing that fast!” Ha! We were flying, and a fall would have been painful! So I’m talking to her, but she’s not answering. I figure she’s stuck up, but then evenutally realize that she can’t hear me as she’s listening to music. I turn up my volume, and now she can hear me. Turns out she’s been out here many a time, and is a pleasant running partner.

3- At the bottom of the hill, she decides to let me by, and to my surprise, she eases up. I’m feeling good, having taken a GU at 45 mins in, and another at 1 hour 30. The next hill is a bitch as well. No hills were runnable. At least not for me, and now I’m alone. On the downhill, I’m flying. I’m jumping from rock to rock, analyzing the descent and I’m 3 or 4 footsteps ahed in my head just popping from footstep to footstep at a crazy fast speed. It’s fun! There’s no one in front of me, so I can “Let it rip!”.
I finally catch up to a guy that’s again, running a pace that feels good, so I decide to not pass him, and err on the side of caution and not blow up too early. His first words to me as I came up to him: “You over 40?”. Nope. “Ok”. I guess I was no longer a threat and could be his friend. He’s a nice guy, and at this point, we running along pretty flat areas and conversing about this race, marathons etc. Had I been 40 yrs or old (and in his Age Group, the story would probably have been different). We reach the last Aid Station, and I take my last GU at around 1hour 50 mins figuring I need it for the last hill more than I’ll need it for the last descent and finish sprint.

4- After a quick water stop to refill my bottle (I refilled my hand held water bottle at each station, except the first and last ones), he tells me he needs to take a leak, so I wish him luck and treck on, on my own. I'm now running along a couple of miles or so of mostly flat running on these flatlands (pictured) with no one ahead or behind me. I’m getting tired mentally, but quickly think to concentrate on my breathing.
I breathe louder: INNNN, out out, INNNN out out, INNNN out out. Very pronounced breathing, but this routine puts me into a nice running groove and pace, taking my mind out of the mental gutter. I’m now thinking… “You know, I think I’m doing pretty good here. I’m going to keep a good pace and give this a strong strong finish. Plus, i'm here to have fun, and this is fun! Let's give it our all!”.

5- I finally reach the last hill, and it’s the bitch of a hill I walked at the start. Except this time, the quads and calves are burning on my walk/climb and I’m thinking: “If someone wants to catch me, and pass me on this thing, more powre to them! I can’t go any faster.” I look back about half way up this beast but see no one. I continue climbing, and breathing loud but this time a much deeper INNNN and OUUUUUT breaths to slow down my heart rate. (Worked well in the prior hills as well to recover from the running). As I’m approaching the top, I see a person up there. He seems to be about my age.

6- I’m going to catch this guy if it kills me. I’ve gained on him on the climb, and within a few minutes I am 50 yards from him. I slow up a little, but still outpacing him to gain slowly. I’m now about 20 feet from him as we reach the big descent. I’m faster. I know I’m faster. He asks me: “Hey, is this the last hill?”. Thinking of the other guy that asked me if I was in his Age Group, and having determined this guy may very well be in mine as he certainly does not look over 40, I reply” I have no clue. It’s my first time out here, and I’ve been lost for a while. I think there’s more climbing but I have no idea.” (yeah I lied, I figured I’d demoralize him. When in war, you do what you can to beat the poor saps). But regardless, I’m clearly faster than him on this descent… I’m flying down the hill, and he’s being cautious. I know there’s only a mile and a half to go, and he might not know this. I put a good 30 feet on him, and as soon as I hit the flats, I take off. BAM! I think of the conversation I had had with Paul Terranova, trail runner extraordinaire during a morning warm up run to the track earlier the summer. The trail winds along a tree line, and I’m going to put distance so he can’t see me on the strightaways. If he can’t see me, he has no clue how far I am, so he can’t gain on me, or use me as a rabbit. (thanks Paul!). I’m killing this guy, and I’m now easily at a sub 6min30sec pace (faster than 5K pace) giving it all I got to the finish. The last mile feels really long, and I even dump out the rest of my water thinking it’ll make me light to not carry water. Ha! I finally see the barns and farm houses at the finish, and I give it all I got to the finish. A strong strong finish.

I ended up with a 2 hour 20 min time. (not sure of exact time as I didn’t start my watch at the start).
The final results weren’t posted by the time we left, and as the 100km race has a 24 hour deadline I won’t know exactly how I placed for a couple of days.
But, after the awards handout, I asked to take peek at the printout and saw my name as 10th overall.

I got 10th overall! That’s freaking fantastic!
I’m going to take a leisurely, pressure free approache to more races and decide on them 48 hours in advance more often! I'm supper excited as you can see by the long ass race report!
(I’ll post official results and times once the are posted online)

P.S. No cramps! Thanks, Mer!

Dallas Marathon - Race Report

Part 1 – Pre Race
Saturday morning, Erin came out for my 4 miler with me. I wanted to run at race time, to get a feel for the hot weather predicted for the race. It was 72 and very humid. But hey!, that’s not even close to 88 degrees and 87 percent humidity we had in Chicago, so it was just fine with me.

We then set out and drove parts of the course to acquaint myself with the hillier parts of the course, and simply be familiar with the later miles.

Mid afternoon, searching the internet for local news sites, I discovered that the cold front was in fact well ahead of schedule and was going to hit early Sunday morning. Wow, was that exciting to hear. Larry, who had agreed to pace me for the 2nd half arrived just in time to join up dinner with other Austin runners. I was asleep by around 9:30, and woke up at 5ish ready to go. I felt great, and quite relaxed. Eventually, made it over to the start area, and hung out indoors on the floor with Clemmie, Carolyn, Larry, and Nedra for an hour or so. It was nice to sit around with friends to calm the nerves.

I headed out to the race start with 15 minutes to spare, swam my way to the front to place myself just behind the 3:10 pace group as planned. Ken was there too. The weather was right around 50 degrees, so it was perfect weather for a race. A quick glance at the giant TV screen for the weather forecasted showed chance of rain and decreasing temperature throughout the morning. No big deal though. It was cool, and foggy. Perfect!

Nedra, thank you. You once told me you pack every type of running gear available to you for every trip you ever take, and I thank you for that. Because of you, I decided to bring: running gloves, long sleeved shirts, hat, windbreaker etc. to a run that was “supposed” to be hot. Because of you, I was prepared for a cold run, and even had clothing to supply to Larry to get him through the day. You rock!

Part II – The Race
The gun went off, and my plan:
...Was to run behind the 3:10 group, slowly letting them run away from me.
Afterall, I just need a 3:15:59.
...Was to take a Hammer Gel at every 4th mile, through 16, then maybe add one or two inside of 4 miles if needed.
...Was to drink waters on the course throughout, and take 3 Thermolyte (sodium) pills 15 minutes before the start, then 2 pills every hour for cramp prevention.

Here’s a map of the course Dallas Marathon Course. The plan was to run conservative up to the lake, constant around the lake, make it up the hill without losing too much time, then taking advantage of the downhill finish.


First 9 miles took us through downtown, then up some nice neighborhoods. There’s always a concern for the first few miles while you settle in. “Don’t go out too fast”, they all say.

There was no way to slow down for Mile 3. I mean, sure I could have, but there was a really steep downhill, and everyone was running the same pace, and it felt impossible to slow up. Just too many people around. But then again, it didn’t feel too fast. I was surprised when I clicked my watch.

I was feeling really good for the hilly first 6 miles, and upon cresting the hill, felt like a million bucks. I’m not quite sure why I had a fast mile 6, but I may have been a combination of starting to run along with this guy, Stan, and the crowds were really good up there.

I made sure I didn’t go too fast down miles 8 and 9, and then got to the lake front. Larry joined in around mile 10 and a half or so.
At around Mile 14, I got the worst side stitch I’ve honestly ever remember having during a run. I think a combination of taking a Hammer Gel a bit earlier, water stop, and talking a lot. The side stitch sent me into a shitty mental spell, and I never really recovered fully. I was miserable, but both Larry and Stan kept telling me to just power through it, and it would eventually subside. It was a bitch, I was breathing deep breathes, lifting arms, breathing deep, anything I could. The side stitch finally left me 2 miles later or so.

Approaching the end of the Lake swing, I told Larry, I wasn’t feeling as strong as I felt I should. He did a phenomenal job of keeping me running, encouraging me to just forge ahead. I was told to focus on the good looking girl ahead and that she was the 3:15 finish line. Surprisingly, I managed to focus on staying 20 feet behind her for a good 2 miles, and eventually even past her. The focus on form and just running felt good, but it wouldn’t last. Eventually, my 3:15 dream girl ran away, just as we ran by the Hooters water stop at 18, and at this time, I started my walking.

We approached the Dollie Parton hills. Those little dips were really nothing, but by then, I was discouraged with my legs having simply given up on me. I had no legs left. They didn’t feel heavy, they weren’t in pain, BUT, they just felt light and dead. Like they didn’t have muscles in them. Just light, unresponsive legs. I’d never had that feeling before. I walked up the first little dip. I felt pathetic, as the guys dressed as Dollie Parton mocked me, but I didn’t care.

The hills came along, and I was in trouble. I tried running, but the urge to walk was too strong. I was getting a little dizzy attempting to run, and walking was best here and there.

As you see by the splits above, these run/walk antics continued for 6 miles much to Larry’s dismay. He tried and tried to talk me into running, telling me I was still on pace (which after further analysis was accurate). I’d run multiple 20 mile runs, LAB workouts, averaging under 7 min thirty pace with no problem, but today, my legs just weren’t with me.

I was actually quite at peace with my decision to bid farewell to Boston, but felt horrible for Larry and Erin. Erin was on the course at 8 different spots, and at the 20 mile marker, I slowed to a walk and told her I was done with my BQ, but was fine with my decision. My brain stopped functioning, and I couldn’t make sense of the correlation between my stopwatch, the mile markers and my pace band. I just couldn’t make any simple math on what my finish time COULD be if I held different paces. It’s really weird how your brain just doesn’t work. You just run forward, unconcerned about anything but moving forward.

The run/walk continued, but this induced a hamstring twitch, so I pull over and gave it a good stretch. That helped. Eventually, I reached the 24 mile marker, and I decided to stop being a Wuss and start running. I didn’t walk again after mile 24, but the pace I was going felt like a 10 min mile.

Part III – The finish
I was happy to be able to see the W hotel tower through the fog that had stayed thick all morning, as I knew it meant the end, and upon the last turn, I picked up the pace a bit. W hotel was farther than it should have been. I kept running, just telling my stop that I wasn’t allowed to walk ever again, and eventually between the foggy eyesight I’d developed, I could vaguely see the balloons at the finish line, but could not make out the time on the clock. Simply no clue, and simply didn’t care! Why would I care, I was already at full sprint running my 7:53/mile, and simply was unable to finish any faster!
I crossed the finish line, and saw Ken there. He told me he had run a 3:04. WOW. He missed his goal by 4 minutes, but WOW. 3:04. WOW. I can’t wait to talk to him to ask him how I looked, how he felt, how his run went, because all I could see was his face through a tunnel of clear vision, with blurr everywhere else.

Boy was I glad to be done.

Part IV – Post Race observations
Not the most exciting of race reports, but it hasn’t really sunk in that I ran a 3:21:06. I mean, it’s a great great time, but I still haven’t digested it, and obviously, I think the disappointment of missing my 3:15:59 may have something to do with it. After all, I’m just a tad competitive in life. ;)

Summary:
I ran what I feel was a good first 18 miles. I walked a good 4 to 6 minutes. I slowed up dramatically, and still finished with a decent time. I missed my flight to Boston by 5 minutes and 7 seconds.

What have I learned?
- I didn’t really go waaaay too fast at the start I don't think, although maybe running 7:30 for the first 10 miles may have worked in my favor.
- Marathons are tough, and you relly need a mantra to repeat when in tough times. I did have one, and it affected my ability to break through the tough times.
- I have a 3:15 in me. I really believe I do, but I think I need to get stronger in every facet: conditioning, fitness, physical, strength, mental. Everything.

The real good:
- Not a hint of a cramp throughout the entire run. Nothing. That hammie twitch, but I'm certain it was due to the run/walk. Some minor cramping afterwards, but that was fine.
- Hydration i think was good, but I need to meet up with Meredith (Nutritionist) and discuss.
- Food Intake: I was real good the entire week leading up, the 2 days before, and ate plenty during the race. Again, Meredith meeting needed to discuss.

Erin, Larry - Thank you again.