A 50k tends to fall, like other longer-than-marathon races, into the "ultramarathon" category (though given the rise in the popularity of running events, most of the old codgers and diehards reserve the "ultra-" prefix for 50 milers, 100ks, and 100 milers. There are also the ultra events beyond those, like Rim to Rim [to Rim] or 24-hour races, many of which are measured by FKTs [Fastest Known Times] rather than timing chips). For the sake of semantics, let's call the 50k an ultramarathon distance; therefore, by signing up for the Siskiyou Out Back 50k in February, I found myself cast into an area of the running universe I'd yet to traverse. And whether you're with the old timers who think I'm just a newbie dipping his toe, or with the others who think I'm off in the ether, I can now say I've completed an ultramarathon.
In training for a trail 50k, I felt a degree of reluctance in considering myself an ultrarunner because I hadn't completed a race longer than a marathon. Just signing up merely landed me on the fringe of the population, so even on the night before the race--even as I idled in the parking lot of the Mt. Ashland Ski Resort--I felt a weird nervousness and had no one with which to share it.
I planned to camp--which is popular for this event--in the lot. Upon arrival, I set up a cot and table and prepared a small dinner. I was surrounded by campers and trailers and tents of all sorts. Some families had plans to stay the weekend, some solo runners had plans to pull out just after they crossed the finish line. As the evening stretched on and mountain wind kicked up, I realized I'd set up a campsite on unlevel ground. A quick reassessment, and I'd broken my makeshift camp, folded the seats in preparation to sleep in the Prius itself, and driven to a closer location near the start line, the restrooms, and other car sleepers.
If you filed these decisions under pre-race anxiety and restlessness, I'd have to agree. The chatter among the other campers--the other experienced ultrarunners and dusty veterans--didn't contain a degree of trepidation. I'm used to the marathon speed scene, where pace and place and performance, all planned and finely tuned, can produce a debilitating fear of deviation. But these folks were talking about the watermelon slices they long for after 35 miles, or the ways backpacks and bladders stacked up against handhelds after 50k. It's not to say that others weren't concerned, but the context felt so tangibly different.
---
The resettling worked, and I rose and brewed coffee as the 50-mile runners checked in at 5:15 AM. Most did their best to "prepare" for their 6:00 AM race start, lumbering about, stretching, and working to cooperate with the bag drop procedure. Before sunrise, runners took off at a steady jog, initiating their body for hours upon hours of traversing. Not long after the 50k check-in kicked off. The sun rose, and it was a glorious, mild morning at 6,600 feet. Precisely at 7:00, 208 runners set off through the parking lot. Ultrarunners. And I was now technically one of them.
A solid pack set off through the lot heading west toward a descending fire road. We took the smooth downhill for nearly a mile before bending right onto the Pacific Crest Trail. I was warned the night before by a man twice my age of the potential for a bottleneck at this point. Not that I ran like he ran, but hopes of avoiding an early hike did push my pace. The warning didn't hold true for the first group, and we found our strides, easing through splits of 7:18 and 8:05 along the fire road, which didn't vary as we peeled off onto the PCT.
We glided through the shade of early morning--I logged another steady mile (8:08) through rolling trail that carved along the middle of a sloping mountain. The undulations woke my legs and gave me a chance to look to the left through the expanse of the valley. I had clear views into California, including Mount Shasta to the south, but I struggled to capture it at any length while navigating the tall grass, the tricks of light played by the forest at sunrise, and the inconsistent footing. It occurred to me that any trail race touting its incredible views does not provide instructions for how to race on a trail while simultaneously enjoying the scenery.
The first steady incline arrived between miles two and three where, aside from a couple of quick descents, we climbed for just shy of two miles. I slowed to 9:19 through the stretch, but quickly regained the time just after the trail crested 7,100 feet, when the course fell to 5,780 over the next three miles. The two runners ahead of me charged on, picking up speed in the downhill. I'm leery of unfettered speed on the downhill; having suffered lower back injuries in my football days, and upon shedding much of the weight from my upper body and midsection that served to pad the sport's pounding. I've come to fear the combination of impact and braking and propelling, especially on trails. With no one behind eager to fly by, I tried to remain conservative. I still logged fast miles, going 7:17, 6:34, and 6:51 up through mile eight.
Intersecting fire roads from time to time, the crisscrossing trail afforded a nice mix of early exposure and shade, and given the hour and temperature, the combination was refreshing. I found the expansive view mostly distracting, and it allowed me to speculate where the trail might go on the horizon rather than how it might climb through the denser tree-socked sections. (I did not consider what any of these factors would mean hours later upon my return, however.)
After bottoming out, the course offered fair rollers as it climbed back toward 6,000 feet. The trail leveled off just before my watch indicated the tenth mile, an announcement I enjoy because it ushers my brain into the "double digit club." In longer races, I'll often confirm that I'm too far in to give up, and too far away to get greedy. In this particular event, though, the course used this moment to punch me in the gut. At mile 10, we began a climb of 600 feet in just a mile and half. It's unrelenting, and when the reprieve does come, it's in the form of more rollers--back at 6,600 feet--that rise and fall for another mile and half, before launching you up another 600 foot climb. This pitch lasts just under three miles, but its saving grace is an arrival at the second aid station. Runners are checked in, drop bags (if used) are retrieved, and the restocking commences. I made pretty good time here, slowing from the mid 7s to the mid 8s, and topping out with two 9:00-minute splits and a decent pause with the volunteers.
As I entered the tents at the aid station, my first priority was locating a water bucket and accompanying sponges. My lazy legs sent me on a tumble during a descent near the half marathon point, and I needed some cleansing. Unlike a few I suffered during my training, this fall fortunately didn't draw too much blood, and it didn't destroy any of my equipment (bottles, glasses, hat, and watch all emerged unscathed). While I mended my condition, two eager volunteers elicited orders, topping off one handheld bottle with water and the other with electrolyte. I scanned the food table, overwhelmed at the choices many of the 50-mile runners were eagerly sampling. There were the ubiquitous banana segments, along with potato chips, gummy bears, and watermelon. I wanted no part of those, having committed to a strategy of gel packets and something called Pocket Fuel (in two separate servings) for the later stages of the race.
The training for SOB did teach me about my one aid station indulgence, which seems to be a particular kind of pop. I've had luck with carbonation before bed and after certain meals because the fizz produces an instant burp, but I struggled with cola at times, and fell victim to its inconsistency again at the first aid station that morning. Here, I felt I'd won the lottery; the ginger ale was flowing. The carbonation and sugar instantly rejuvenated my gut. It also seemed to ignite my mind. I even joked with a few of the volunteers--something about cups and party fouls and "going back to my car now," before thanking them profusely and separating from the 50 mile runners in return to the northeast.
Now back on an access road, the next three and a half miles of the course were easy downhills. My spirits were lifted by the aid station crowd, and the relief of the ginger ale helped initiate my metabolizing of the gel I'd taken just before the turnaround. I meandered along before looping back to an earlier aid station, where the course veered off onto the single track--this time on the northern side of the range--offering views of Ashland and its surrounding valleys.
I continued to clip off steady splits (7:02, 7:07, and 7:11), which slowed to an 8:25 as I climbed into mile 22. Mile 22 was, for me, akin to mile 17 in a marathon. This point offers a unique mental advantage because it's the "single digit club." Only 9 more miles until the finish! Mile 23 was a tough stretch on this course, and the pitch of the slope and the heat of the day slowed my pace to just over 9 minutes. I reassured myself that I could endure, though, because I was in the club. Just keep chipping away.
Clearly, I had forgotten the gut-check provided by the double digit club, because my membership dues for this status came with a jarring upper cut, then a dizzying one-two combination. Here, the course deposits runners at the base of the fast morning descent (mile 8, were the course had dropped 1,300 feet in three miles). I aimed to tackle the canyon with run/walk intervals, but resorted to power hiking and shuffling. 10:35; 12:55; 12:38; I bled time as the miles oozed on. Amazingly, though, I passed other runners in the process.
All I could do to occupy my mind was translate the remaining miles into equivalent mid-week workouts I'd completed so regularly during training. The watch would beep, and I'd check for reassurance: Six miles left! That's an easy Thursday morning before work, I'd think. BEEP! Five miles left! That's the core segment of a tempo workout! This translation might seem silly since my tempo workouts do not average miles of 12:55, but the naive translations did help sustain me in those later fatiguing stretches.
After topping out at 25 or so, I was able to run comfortably again. I had a steady diet of walking, though. Ultrarunners will often tell you to walk uphill to conserve energy and use different muscle groups to save your legs. At this point in the race, I walked certain flats. I even walked a few downhills. I did my walking because I needed rest, pure and simple.
I managed to run more than walk, though, and continued to dialogue with my watch regarding it's announcements. When it beeped for mile 28, I sighed aloud, "There it is! Three!" then yelled, "Make it two!" and ran on, hoping to come upon the fire road and the ascent toward the parking lot. I knew I wasn't bonking--which more than one person I passed attested to doing--because my later miles still felt pretty decent. I closed down the race with splits of 9:00, 8:17, and 8:44, before submitting to more walking on the fire road and the final climb toward the ski resort. The last stretch through the parking lot and race spectators was extremely gratifying. It was down-home, family oriented, and extremely celebratory. Everyone seemed fatigued--volunteers, supporters, and other runners--but all were proud and congratulatory.
At this point, runners were so strung out along the course that every finisher seemed to have his or her own moment in the spotlight. As I trucked through the last 200 meters, I couldn't help but smile and wave at the supporters; I knew I was the focus of their support.
---
I don't know if finishing makes me more of an ultrarunner now, or if I'll ever feel like I belong when I compete in more events of this nature. I do know that I never once thought I'm done! or Why the hell am I doing this?, both of which have been hurdles in faster road races and marathons. I know that in the four days since the event, I haven't had one bad memory or flashback of the near 4.5 hours I spent on the course. The fact that I completed the distance mattered to me when I decided to sign up and train for the event, but the fact that the experience itself will go the distance for me... that has to matter most of all.
Wednesday, July 30, 2014
Tuesday, July 22, 2014
Race or Run?
Heading into Saturday's Siskiyou Out and Back 50k event, my body is primed for a strong performance. When I consider the workouts and the numbers from this long cycle, it's hard not to invest in the notion that this has to go well. Math--and all that logic behind it--continues to vex me, but that doesn't mean I don't try to crunch numbers and project sums. This often pushes me toward a generalizing trap. If I look long enough at the recorded data, try to set it on equal sides of plus sign, I can't help but hope that Saturday equates to some kind of running boon. But running is not necessarily an equation, and the surplus is never certain.
The SOB 50k weaves around the Pacific Crest Trail departing from the Mt. Ashland Ski Resort, and remains an unknown for me. I'm also unfamiliar with the 31-mile distance. Saturday's conditions, as always, remain a mystery. Heat? Elevation? Fueling? Wildfire? Lightning (look no further than third overall Adam Campbell at the Hardrock 100 last weekend!)? Races are always subject to myriad outside factors, so I'm doing my best to avoid the aforementioned numbers trap and the "what-if" hypothesizing.
But does that mean SOB isn't a "race"? With so many unknowns--and for me, firsts--is there really a way to avoid seeing this as just another "run"? I can't help but wonder, is there a clear switch that individuals hit in order to distinguish one from the other?
This spring and summer, I've had my share of disastrous training runs. There's been various kinds of botched fueling and hydrating and grueling climbs at unbreathable elevations. I've fallen--twice this cycle--in the middle of 20-plus mile runs. Feeling the sharp pain of road rash, coupled with the sight of dirt and blood, makes the ability to regain composure in a remote location, hours away from the car, a difficult process. What choice is left? You start running. The pace of some of these less enjoyable runs has been all over the map. I've walked up hills I'd sprinted up just weeks before. I've slogged through botched speed work, soggy shoes, and sweltering temperatures.
I've also experienced sustained fits of joy. I slewed elevation climbs, slaughtered down hills, and stabilized intervals. I managed to run for over three hours in a childlike stupor, hardly believing in the existence of time or conditions. I can only hope to replicate and prolong the joy during the race, but with such varied experiences, it's almost silly. If there is a switch between run and race, some omnipresent finger is perpetually testing its durability on me. If this authoritarian flipper is failing to distinguish days or events, why should I force myself to?
And so when my dear mates and family members wish me "good luck" in my "race" this weekend, I continue to politely thank them. But I take a second to remind them that this can't be about racing and it can't be about luck. It's another run--like those before it in principle, and like all those subject the crucible of the given day and time and meal and moment.
So where's my mind?
Simply, I will try to feel good. I will do what I can do when I can do it. I will ask my body and hope that it responds.
I will complete, and also compete. Yet, my competition is with the steps I take, not the splits I make. Analyzing it any more just seems, for me at least, like a recipe for disaster.
The SOB 50k weaves around the Pacific Crest Trail departing from the Mt. Ashland Ski Resort, and remains an unknown for me. I'm also unfamiliar with the 31-mile distance. Saturday's conditions, as always, remain a mystery. Heat? Elevation? Fueling? Wildfire? Lightning (look no further than third overall Adam Campbell at the Hardrock 100 last weekend!)? Races are always subject to myriad outside factors, so I'm doing my best to avoid the aforementioned numbers trap and the "what-if" hypothesizing.
But does that mean SOB isn't a "race"? With so many unknowns--and for me, firsts--is there really a way to avoid seeing this as just another "run"? I can't help but wonder, is there a clear switch that individuals hit in order to distinguish one from the other?
This spring and summer, I've had my share of disastrous training runs. There's been various kinds of botched fueling and hydrating and grueling climbs at unbreathable elevations. I've fallen--twice this cycle--in the middle of 20-plus mile runs. Feeling the sharp pain of road rash, coupled with the sight of dirt and blood, makes the ability to regain composure in a remote location, hours away from the car, a difficult process. What choice is left? You start running. The pace of some of these less enjoyable runs has been all over the map. I've walked up hills I'd sprinted up just weeks before. I've slogged through botched speed work, soggy shoes, and sweltering temperatures.
I've also experienced sustained fits of joy. I slewed elevation climbs, slaughtered down hills, and stabilized intervals. I managed to run for over three hours in a childlike stupor, hardly believing in the existence of time or conditions. I can only hope to replicate and prolong the joy during the race, but with such varied experiences, it's almost silly. If there is a switch between run and race, some omnipresent finger is perpetually testing its durability on me. If this authoritarian flipper is failing to distinguish days or events, why should I force myself to?
And so when my dear mates and family members wish me "good luck" in my "race" this weekend, I continue to politely thank them. But I take a second to remind them that this can't be about racing and it can't be about luck. It's another run--like those before it in principle, and like all those subject the crucible of the given day and time and meal and moment.
So where's my mind?
Simply, I will try to feel good. I will do what I can do when I can do it. I will ask my body and hope that it responds.
I will complete, and also compete. Yet, my competition is with the steps I take, not the splits I make. Analyzing it any more just seems, for me at least, like a recipe for disaster.
Thursday, July 17, 2014
Like Father.
I'm the first to acknowledge the traits I've inherited from my father, much like he is quick to pinpoint the characteristics he shares with his. It seems to work this way on generally universal levels, whether through nature or nurture, regardless of the tumult or tenderness.
So while I'm charging headlong into fatherhood, I've been alternating between the small picture and the big picture. On the day-to-day level, I am currently operating with my newly adapted trail-runner mentality: I will take it as it comes. Uphill, downhill, altitude, you name it and I'll adapt to its conditions. Unlike road running, I can speculate that parenting involves a variance of expectations based on a multitude of factors. Pace and strategy can't possibly hold or adapt with any consistency, so at this point I think the answer is to take things in stride and react from moment to moment.
Big-picture wise, I've recently had to consider the possibility that my fatherly--and my father's--features will both influence him and emerge from this creature. More than previous generations of my family, I've benefited from the influence of education, travel, and technology. While it may all be relative, in some senses, these factors have without a doubt altered the landscape of the lineage. As a result, sometimes I feel I'm taking note of the distinct differences rather than the similarities. Pastimes, preferences, even politics--all of these influences have shifted through the unfolding of time.
I wonder if his grandmother will tell him, "You remind me of your father." I wonder if his grandfather will tell me, "He's got a bit of my dad in him." Will the piss and vinegar trickle down? And what about his mother? What will we gladly--graciously even--attribute to her?
When I consider what elements could last and what might get lost, I'm both hopeful and happy at the details of my ruminations. Behind the basic parenting decisions, the standard operating procedures, and the instinctual paternal reactions, there might be some glimmers of residual ugliness--traces of those qualities I swore I'd never replicate but that I obviously can't completely shed. It's hard to deny that kind of proverbial elephant in the room. But likewise, behind conscious decisions there will be a continual reinforcing of the good things. And those good things come from the values I've inherently made mine.
I find that as I write this, I'm essentially coming to grips with the fact that the things I impart to my boy will come in response to or as a result of absorbing life. And for me, I can pinpoint much of this to a personal infatuation with the paternal bond, one that has sustained my Romantic sensibilities for much of the past 15 years. The father-son backpacking debacles, the casting lessons, the wining and whining and wailing--the goading and teasing and ritualistic recreation I've used for stability must have come from somewhere.
As I see it, my grandfather sketched his parenting strategy by hand, copying as best he could what his father had drawn in raising him. When I was announced, my father began to jot his own, penning a version that, over time, he likely lent to a XEROX machine to facilitate the process. My version might have the touch screens and clouds and pixels of modern technology, but given all that's occurred around this rush toward modernity, I just don't know to what extent the creation will resemble what preceded it.
But might say this about anything, at any point, right? It doesn't mean it won't be there.
So while I'm charging headlong into fatherhood, I've been alternating between the small picture and the big picture. On the day-to-day level, I am currently operating with my newly adapted trail-runner mentality: I will take it as it comes. Uphill, downhill, altitude, you name it and I'll adapt to its conditions. Unlike road running, I can speculate that parenting involves a variance of expectations based on a multitude of factors. Pace and strategy can't possibly hold or adapt with any consistency, so at this point I think the answer is to take things in stride and react from moment to moment.
Big-picture wise, I've recently had to consider the possibility that my fatherly--and my father's--features will both influence him and emerge from this creature. More than previous generations of my family, I've benefited from the influence of education, travel, and technology. While it may all be relative, in some senses, these factors have without a doubt altered the landscape of the lineage. As a result, sometimes I feel I'm taking note of the distinct differences rather than the similarities. Pastimes, preferences, even politics--all of these influences have shifted through the unfolding of time.
I wonder if his grandmother will tell him, "You remind me of your father." I wonder if his grandfather will tell me, "He's got a bit of my dad in him." Will the piss and vinegar trickle down? And what about his mother? What will we gladly--graciously even--attribute to her?
When I consider what elements could last and what might get lost, I'm both hopeful and happy at the details of my ruminations. Behind the basic parenting decisions, the standard operating procedures, and the instinctual paternal reactions, there might be some glimmers of residual ugliness--traces of those qualities I swore I'd never replicate but that I obviously can't completely shed. It's hard to deny that kind of proverbial elephant in the room. But likewise, behind conscious decisions there will be a continual reinforcing of the good things. And those good things come from the values I've inherently made mine.
I find that as I write this, I'm essentially coming to grips with the fact that the things I impart to my boy will come in response to or as a result of absorbing life. And for me, I can pinpoint much of this to a personal infatuation with the paternal bond, one that has sustained my Romantic sensibilities for much of the past 15 years. The father-son backpacking debacles, the casting lessons, the wining and whining and wailing--the goading and teasing and ritualistic recreation I've used for stability must have come from somewhere.
As I see it, my grandfather sketched his parenting strategy by hand, copying as best he could what his father had drawn in raising him. When I was announced, my father began to jot his own, penning a version that, over time, he likely lent to a XEROX machine to facilitate the process. My version might have the touch screens and clouds and pixels of modern technology, but given all that's occurred around this rush toward modernity, I just don't know to what extent the creation will resemble what preceded it.
But might say this about anything, at any point, right? It doesn't mean it won't be there.
Wednesday, July 2, 2014
As Luck Would Have It.
By and large, I've been blessed with great physical health. I've been symptomatically cursed by nagging impact injuries, but overall my post-football running condition has remained strong and stable. I've faced no surgeries, donned no casts. I have a lot of PT and deep tissue billing on my Visa statement, pamphlets of prescribed cross training, a gym membership, health coverage, and walking boot. But overall, things progress successfully. And as I've been saying lately, when it's good it's good.
And it is good.
I swapped stories with a few in the running community who opted to tackle the ASICS-sanctioned Boston 2 Big Sur Challenge, and these chats always stoked my curiosities. Why would you opt to run back-to-back marathons? More importantly, How the hell do you do it? This year represented the 5th year of the event, which invites 250 participants who qualify for the Boston Marathon to add the Big Sur Marathon their calendars. In all years except 2014 and 2009, the challenge has allowed for 13 days rest between events. In the first and fifth year, however, the break spanned just 6 days.
Enter: me. Ambitious, relatively healthy, and naively in love with distance and mileage. I signed up for the challenge knowing a return to Boston after PR-ing during the 2013 terrorist attack was a given, and wrapping the Big Sur element of the challenge in as somewhat of a pilgrimage to my proverbial "home," the central coast being the place I (then a nonrunner) completed my undergraduate education and, quote-unquote, "found myself."
Enter, again, me. Ambitious? Naive? These are terms that lead to... injury. Following a solid showing at the 2013 Marine Corps Marathon (2:50), I let off the gas long enough to relax the muscles, then put the pedal down hard enough to strain them. I engage in a serious battle with Achilles tendonitis, and found myself digesting a steady diet of "cool it, man," "non-impact cardio workouts," and magical remedy known as "7-second eccentric heel drops." This recovery plan led to rapid fat loss, often obsessive-compulsive gym excursions, and maniacal cardio endurance. (It likewise had a transformative effect on my brittle personality.)
But this brand of health did bring about healing, and I found myself quickly logging healthy miles at normal speeds. Then, after a solid 16-miler with too many fast folks in February, I felt serious pain in my right heal. On a Tuesday, during the last week of the month, I was diagnosed with an early-onset stress fracture and confined to a walking boot.
---
I set out to maximize my gym access, exploiting all perks of the free wifi, complimentary coffee, 5 AM openings, two varieties of Spin class, and even did some sad aqua jogging reps in a beanie at daybreak. I refused to relinquish my B2B goal; it became a test of survival.
Once the escape from the boot became reality, my wife took over the coaching duties. She wisely prescribed (a mere) three days of running per week, which included the walk/run protocol from the fine folks at Kaiser's Sports Medicine department. I was allowed zero training on a track, zero speed work, and only one "long" run which started at 6 miles. With no mid-week increases, I was allowed to increase the long-run distance to 8 the following weekend. Under the same instructions, I netted 12 the next.
The plan to return to Boston remained in tact. I proceeded gingerly, nervous that even the slightest wrong move would jeopardize the final outcome. The weekend before Boston, I was allowed to run 16, and permitted to extend the distance a tad if the body cooperated. I netted a slow 17 mile training run, which wrapped a mere 8 days from the 118th Boston Marathon.
That's right. When the rest of the diligent marathons enter weeks of tapering, I was desperately grabbing whatever I could find to pad my trek to Boston.
---
Our trip to Hopkinton came wrapped in a modest vacation, and with my coach by my side, I managed to follow the schedule through our days in Portland, Maine, and Portsmouth, New Hampshire. I fudged a few miles on a morning run in Maine, but mostly adhered to the "off" day instructions with intense elliptical intervals at odd hours in hotel fitness centers. I tried not to fret or overanalyze Boston amid all the hoopla my friends and the event provided; I seriously wanted to survive the journey. I wanted to emerge from the experience on both feet, smiling.
And I knew Hopkinton was a long way from Carmel.
Boston
Boston becomes more and more special to me with each experience. There was a time, before I knew that having children was a possibility, that I thought the word Boston held enough import for me to give it to a kid. Boy or girl. It is a wonderful place.
Then I ran an unplanned PR there in 2013. Then two brothers destroyed the purity and sanctity of the running event by ending the lives of four innocent bystanders and one vigilant MIT campus police officer. The idea to return to marathon was more of a compulsion; it would happen, and it would either be a triumphant, competitive push to nab another PR, or gallant parade.
With the injury casting so much doubt over the race, I know my plan should been based on simple perseverance, but it wasn't. You fall in with the company you keep, and Boston, like other seeded races, corrals its runners into thousand-person herds comprised of, more or less, the yous with the means and desire (and health) to travel to Hopkinton.
With hopes to hold 7-8 minute miles, I launched out at the starting gun and watched all my ability brothers fly by, steadfast and diligent in pursuit of their own unique goals. I tried to remain cautious, given what Stephanie had trained me for and what doctors had insisted all through the winter I might realistically endure.
By mile 3, I began compiling a mental list of the things I'd underestimated. First on the list: my ability. I was clipping off 6:30s with nary hitch or glitch. And while I knew it might certainly make for a painful (read: sore, not injured) recovery, I'd likely be no worse for the wear.
Another 2014 underestimation was the heat. I'm typically a cooler runner, and don't sweat profusely or feel like I might eventually overheat. In Boston, by mile 9, I began dumping aid-station water on my head and neck to cool down. It wasn't, by any means, close to what runners endured in the awful humidity a few years back, but my need to cool certainly surprised me. Race starts at 10:00 in mid-April can do that, I suppose, whether or not your run 5 days prior includes tights and gloves and sub-30 degree breezes.
And like anyone familiar with the pomp, circumstance, and fragility of the Boston Marathon, I underestimated the course. The water dumping at mile 9 coincided with alarm bells sent off from receptors in my quads. The continuous downhill out of Hopkinton--the simultaneous braking and propulsion required on the descent--shocked my system. Unlike many storied Boston athletes who dread the sight of Heartbreak Hill, I was ecstatic to reach Newton and relieved to enjoy an ascent that seemed to stabilize my body and mind.
The pace didn't slow until Brookline, a stretch I've come to loathe as a distance runner. A good friend calls it the longest four miles in the history of road racing, and his words bounced off the echo chamber in my brain for the half hour I spent there. At that point, with my quadriceps again screaming, an actual finish line goal began to form. I wanted to hold the finish time, if at all possible, to sub-three. My rationale for such an ambitious goal in this situation, I figured, emanated from the fact that no one--not even me, really--thought I'd get as far as I did in the first place.
Given my mental list of underestimations, it didn't seem too far fetched.
That left turn onto Boylston Street, unlike 2013's blurry cloud of speed and grit, was crisp and incredible. I creaked down the center line, smiling, waving, and urging myself toward that 2:58 mark flashing overhead. I passed the same flags I distinctly recall from 2013--those from the grainy post-blast video footage. The people surged, yelled, clapped, and cheered. They seemed so fearless and resilient and proud.
It's odd to describe now, in retrospect. Boston 2014 wasn't my fastest marathon--not by a long shot. In fact, it was the slowest since my first attempt at CIM in 2011. But felt like the most significant run I've ever completed, especially in its final moments. It was a confluence of emotion--communal, social, spiritual, and personal. I wept uncontrollably, removing my glasses and blubbering through the thank-yous and hellos at the finish line. I did my best to hurry along, wanting nothing more than my wife (and my compression socks).
The first leg of the challenge had ended. I was upright, on Boylston, and looking for some kind of recovery product that might whisk me off to Big Sur, ready for more.
I ran both races with an ultrasound photo of the boy.
Big Sur
The B2B Challenge is certainly a test of strength and training and will, but my decision to tackle the races had nothing to do with physical or mental training, endurance, or mettle. I made it so personal.
I saw the challenge as a work of literature, a cathartic return of spiritual and emotional validation. With the impending arrival of our son, the experience also became a punctuation mark for the end of one journey and the bridge into another.
Marathon training, in the traditional sense, doesn't really apply to my plight or the back-to-back challenge. My goal heading in to the next race was simply to stay loose. So, the morning after Boston I "enjoyed"a sickening shake-out jog with my pregnant wife. Barely holding her pace, she led me three miles through the picturesque suburban streets of Hopkinton.
I hated it. But it helped. Immensely. And it led into a nice stretching session before heading to the airport.
I took Wednesday off completely, but started jogging again on Thursday. I grabbed an easy four miles, and followed it with five on Friday and the same on Saturday. The goal of staying loose worked, and it allowed me to approach the race with a new and unfamiliar tactic. In the lead up, I abandoned the typical runner fare. I stripped the Garmin, changed the routes, and ran on feel.
We enjoyed a nice drive to the coast on Saturday, and arrived in time to check in and stop by the expo. As anyone who's done a few of these distances knows, these events can be awkward spectacles and sales pitch zoos. But I rather enjoyed this one. It was smaller than the massive multi-level mecca in Boston, for one. It was in the hotel, funky and local in nature, and yet also very celebratory of what the race offered: history, legend, views, solitude, and the experience of running on "the jagged edge of the western world." There was also the sideshow of B2B challenge, which provided a feeling of pre-race accomplishment. Pointing out the challenge seemed to provide a relief I was unaware I needed. And yet, by the time the evening rolled around the task ahead seemed more real then than it ever had.
Describing the race itself is a challenge unto itself. It was at times silent and lonely, at times gregarious and talkative; sometimes it was enjoyable and easy, and at others it was a grueling slog fraught with questions. The best summation I can provide comes in borrowed form. It's a detailing I heard that evening at a special event, held with Bart Yasso and all who completed the B2B challenge, that I've paraphrased here.
---
B2B is more than just two consecutive marathons. It is more than two long runs. It is more than 52.4 miles. It represents two stark contrasts. In Boston you run a storied race on a state holiday. The event kicks off at the odd hour of 10:00 AM. You toe the line with elite athletes from around the country--literally corralled with your global running equals--and you run a net downhill through wall-to-wall spectators. You are never alone. If you want a beer, you can hang with the frat crowd. If you want a kiss, go to Wellesley. Never a dull moment.
Big Sur, on the other hand, happens on a traditional race day. It's just a Sunday. You catch a 4:00 AM bus for a dark, windy drive to the Big Sur Station--a National Forest staging area--where you sit in a parking lot for around 90 minutes. Things need to move, since you're running on a highway. When the race begins, you're not surrounded by a massive throng. Diligent runners move in and out in coordination with their goals, but the only surroundings are redwoods and mossy pockets of the coastal forest. The speed isn't intense, and the difficulty of the course means PR-minded hardliners aren't necessarily flocking to run. The first chunk of the race can be laced in fog, and it's shady and cool. You roll, not unlike the sea you'll eventually parallel, and then climb, sometimes for over a mile, and often alone.
These differences can be vexing, so to cope, I made some adaptations to one of my hard and fast rules. I'm a dedicated podcast listener during my training runs, but I abide by an unplug rule during races, no matter the size, distance, or location. For this event, afraid of the dangerous isolation in Big Sur--especially in the wake of Boston--I made a playlist of various meaningful songs to help mollify my brain. And for roughly forty or so ugly minutes, I broke my rule. And though I won't do it again in an event, it was crucial here.
---
Having the music taught me three important things:
And then, in a nice jog through the inflatable tunnel, my version of the B2B story ended. A kiss from the lovely wife/coach/partner (who ran the 5k!), a stop by the special "B2B Challenge" tent (where I could not for the life of me drink more than one sip of the promised celebratory beer and had to give my post-race pasta to my hungry, pregnant wife), and a complimentary ice bath at the Treadmill running store (an unforeseen blessing that kept me out of the ocean), and we rolled back into real life.
---
I earned two handmade medals, one for the completion of the Big Sur International Marathon, and one for the completion of the Boston 2 Big Sur Challenge. ASICS also provided a finishers jacket, emblazoned with the challenge title, the year, and the slogan. Those with B2B in their Rolodex love to point out that my jackets says "6 days" when most of theirs say 13.
I also earned a healthy amount of humility during the process. Much was instilled by my injury and recovery, but more came from the sanity provided by my wife-as-coach, and the reminder that I managed to succeed alongside so many other extraordinary runners on a very un-typical build up. I am moving ahead with increasing durability. While racing (or running fit) through the challenge would be ideal, I used the races to build an extraordinary mileage base. This marathon-as-long-run mentality has set me up, nicely I believe, for the next major event on my calendar, a trail 50k looming at the end of July.
---
There are so many ways to find value in the B2B. If I were to encourage someone to accept the challenge, I would push them to see it as an intensely personal, multifaceted experience. Along the way, you have to be willing to remain loose. You'll break some rules, overstep some logic, and always adapt. In the end, you might have to couch some of the happenings as inexplicable--perhaps even sheer luck. But that's OK. That's how challenges work.
And it is good.
I swapped stories with a few in the running community who opted to tackle the ASICS-sanctioned Boston 2 Big Sur Challenge, and these chats always stoked my curiosities. Why would you opt to run back-to-back marathons? More importantly, How the hell do you do it? This year represented the 5th year of the event, which invites 250 participants who qualify for the Boston Marathon to add the Big Sur Marathon their calendars. In all years except 2014 and 2009, the challenge has allowed for 13 days rest between events. In the first and fifth year, however, the break spanned just 6 days.
Enter: me. Ambitious, relatively healthy, and naively in love with distance and mileage. I signed up for the challenge knowing a return to Boston after PR-ing during the 2013 terrorist attack was a given, and wrapping the Big Sur element of the challenge in as somewhat of a pilgrimage to my proverbial "home," the central coast being the place I (then a nonrunner) completed my undergraduate education and, quote-unquote, "found myself."
Enter, again, me. Ambitious? Naive? These are terms that lead to... injury. Following a solid showing at the 2013 Marine Corps Marathon (2:50), I let off the gas long enough to relax the muscles, then put the pedal down hard enough to strain them. I engage in a serious battle with Achilles tendonitis, and found myself digesting a steady diet of "cool it, man," "non-impact cardio workouts," and magical remedy known as "7-second eccentric heel drops." This recovery plan led to rapid fat loss, often obsessive-compulsive gym excursions, and maniacal cardio endurance. (It likewise had a transformative effect on my brittle personality.)
But this brand of health did bring about healing, and I found myself quickly logging healthy miles at normal speeds. Then, after a solid 16-miler with too many fast folks in February, I felt serious pain in my right heal. On a Tuesday, during the last week of the month, I was diagnosed with an early-onset stress fracture and confined to a walking boot.
---
I set out to maximize my gym access, exploiting all perks of the free wifi, complimentary coffee, 5 AM openings, two varieties of Spin class, and even did some sad aqua jogging reps in a beanie at daybreak. I refused to relinquish my B2B goal; it became a test of survival.
Once the escape from the boot became reality, my wife took over the coaching duties. She wisely prescribed (a mere) three days of running per week, which included the walk/run protocol from the fine folks at Kaiser's Sports Medicine department. I was allowed zero training on a track, zero speed work, and only one "long" run which started at 6 miles. With no mid-week increases, I was allowed to increase the long-run distance to 8 the following weekend. Under the same instructions, I netted 12 the next.
The plan to return to Boston remained in tact. I proceeded gingerly, nervous that even the slightest wrong move would jeopardize the final outcome. The weekend before Boston, I was allowed to run 16, and permitted to extend the distance a tad if the body cooperated. I netted a slow 17 mile training run, which wrapped a mere 8 days from the 118th Boston Marathon.
That's right. When the rest of the diligent marathons enter weeks of tapering, I was desperately grabbing whatever I could find to pad my trek to Boston.
---
Our trip to Hopkinton came wrapped in a modest vacation, and with my coach by my side, I managed to follow the schedule through our days in Portland, Maine, and Portsmouth, New Hampshire. I fudged a few miles on a morning run in Maine, but mostly adhered to the "off" day instructions with intense elliptical intervals at odd hours in hotel fitness centers. I tried not to fret or overanalyze Boston amid all the hoopla my friends and the event provided; I seriously wanted to survive the journey. I wanted to emerge from the experience on both feet, smiling.
And I knew Hopkinton was a long way from Carmel.
Boston
Boston becomes more and more special to me with each experience. There was a time, before I knew that having children was a possibility, that I thought the word Boston held enough import for me to give it to a kid. Boy or girl. It is a wonderful place.
Then I ran an unplanned PR there in 2013. Then two brothers destroyed the purity and sanctity of the running event by ending the lives of four innocent bystanders and one vigilant MIT campus police officer. The idea to return to marathon was more of a compulsion; it would happen, and it would either be a triumphant, competitive push to nab another PR, or gallant parade.
With the injury casting so much doubt over the race, I know my plan should been based on simple perseverance, but it wasn't. You fall in with the company you keep, and Boston, like other seeded races, corrals its runners into thousand-person herds comprised of, more or less, the yous with the means and desire (and health) to travel to Hopkinton.
With hopes to hold 7-8 minute miles, I launched out at the starting gun and watched all my ability brothers fly by, steadfast and diligent in pursuit of their own unique goals. I tried to remain cautious, given what Stephanie had trained me for and what doctors had insisted all through the winter I might realistically endure.
By mile 3, I began compiling a mental list of the things I'd underestimated. First on the list: my ability. I was clipping off 6:30s with nary hitch or glitch. And while I knew it might certainly make for a painful (read: sore, not injured) recovery, I'd likely be no worse for the wear.
Another 2014 underestimation was the heat. I'm typically a cooler runner, and don't sweat profusely or feel like I might eventually overheat. In Boston, by mile 9, I began dumping aid-station water on my head and neck to cool down. It wasn't, by any means, close to what runners endured in the awful humidity a few years back, but my need to cool certainly surprised me. Race starts at 10:00 in mid-April can do that, I suppose, whether or not your run 5 days prior includes tights and gloves and sub-30 degree breezes.
And like anyone familiar with the pomp, circumstance, and fragility of the Boston Marathon, I underestimated the course. The water dumping at mile 9 coincided with alarm bells sent off from receptors in my quads. The continuous downhill out of Hopkinton--the simultaneous braking and propulsion required on the descent--shocked my system. Unlike many storied Boston athletes who dread the sight of Heartbreak Hill, I was ecstatic to reach Newton and relieved to enjoy an ascent that seemed to stabilize my body and mind.
The pace didn't slow until Brookline, a stretch I've come to loathe as a distance runner. A good friend calls it the longest four miles in the history of road racing, and his words bounced off the echo chamber in my brain for the half hour I spent there. At that point, with my quadriceps again screaming, an actual finish line goal began to form. I wanted to hold the finish time, if at all possible, to sub-three. My rationale for such an ambitious goal in this situation, I figured, emanated from the fact that no one--not even me, really--thought I'd get as far as I did in the first place.
Given my mental list of underestimations, it didn't seem too far fetched.
That left turn onto Boylston Street, unlike 2013's blurry cloud of speed and grit, was crisp and incredible. I creaked down the center line, smiling, waving, and urging myself toward that 2:58 mark flashing overhead. I passed the same flags I distinctly recall from 2013--those from the grainy post-blast video footage. The people surged, yelled, clapped, and cheered. They seemed so fearless and resilient and proud.
It's odd to describe now, in retrospect. Boston 2014 wasn't my fastest marathon--not by a long shot. In fact, it was the slowest since my first attempt at CIM in 2011. But felt like the most significant run I've ever completed, especially in its final moments. It was a confluence of emotion--communal, social, spiritual, and personal. I wept uncontrollably, removing my glasses and blubbering through the thank-yous and hellos at the finish line. I did my best to hurry along, wanting nothing more than my wife (and my compression socks).
The first leg of the challenge had ended. I was upright, on Boylston, and looking for some kind of recovery product that might whisk me off to Big Sur, ready for more.
I ran both races with an ultrasound photo of the boy.
Big Sur
The B2B Challenge is certainly a test of strength and training and will, but my decision to tackle the races had nothing to do with physical or mental training, endurance, or mettle. I made it so personal.
I saw the challenge as a work of literature, a cathartic return of spiritual and emotional validation. With the impending arrival of our son, the experience also became a punctuation mark for the end of one journey and the bridge into another.
Marathon training, in the traditional sense, doesn't really apply to my plight or the back-to-back challenge. My goal heading in to the next race was simply to stay loose. So, the morning after Boston I "enjoyed"a sickening shake-out jog with my pregnant wife. Barely holding her pace, she led me three miles through the picturesque suburban streets of Hopkinton.
I hated it. But it helped. Immensely. And it led into a nice stretching session before heading to the airport.
I took Wednesday off completely, but started jogging again on Thursday. I grabbed an easy four miles, and followed it with five on Friday and the same on Saturday. The goal of staying loose worked, and it allowed me to approach the race with a new and unfamiliar tactic. In the lead up, I abandoned the typical runner fare. I stripped the Garmin, changed the routes, and ran on feel.
We enjoyed a nice drive to the coast on Saturday, and arrived in time to check in and stop by the expo. As anyone who's done a few of these distances knows, these events can be awkward spectacles and sales pitch zoos. But I rather enjoyed this one. It was smaller than the massive multi-level mecca in Boston, for one. It was in the hotel, funky and local in nature, and yet also very celebratory of what the race offered: history, legend, views, solitude, and the experience of running on "the jagged edge of the western world." There was also the sideshow of B2B challenge, which provided a feeling of pre-race accomplishment. Pointing out the challenge seemed to provide a relief I was unaware I needed. And yet, by the time the evening rolled around the task ahead seemed more real then than it ever had.
Describing the race itself is a challenge unto itself. It was at times silent and lonely, at times gregarious and talkative; sometimes it was enjoyable and easy, and at others it was a grueling slog fraught with questions. The best summation I can provide comes in borrowed form. It's a detailing I heard that evening at a special event, held with Bart Yasso and all who completed the B2B challenge, that I've paraphrased here.
---
B2B is more than just two consecutive marathons. It is more than two long runs. It is more than 52.4 miles. It represents two stark contrasts. In Boston you run a storied race on a state holiday. The event kicks off at the odd hour of 10:00 AM. You toe the line with elite athletes from around the country--literally corralled with your global running equals--and you run a net downhill through wall-to-wall spectators. You are never alone. If you want a beer, you can hang with the frat crowd. If you want a kiss, go to Wellesley. Never a dull moment.
Big Sur, on the other hand, happens on a traditional race day. It's just a Sunday. You catch a 4:00 AM bus for a dark, windy drive to the Big Sur Station--a National Forest staging area--where you sit in a parking lot for around 90 minutes. Things need to move, since you're running on a highway. When the race begins, you're not surrounded by a massive throng. Diligent runners move in and out in coordination with their goals, but the only surroundings are redwoods and mossy pockets of the coastal forest. The speed isn't intense, and the difficulty of the course means PR-minded hardliners aren't necessarily flocking to run. The first chunk of the race can be laced in fog, and it's shady and cool. You roll, not unlike the sea you'll eventually parallel, and then climb, sometimes for over a mile, and often alone.
These differences can be vexing, so to cope, I made some adaptations to one of my hard and fast rules. I'm a dedicated podcast listener during my training runs, but I abide by an unplug rule during races, no matter the size, distance, or location. For this event, afraid of the dangerous isolation in Big Sur--especially in the wake of Boston--I made a playlist of various meaningful songs to help mollify my brain. And for roughly forty or so ugly minutes, I broke my rule. And though I won't do it again in an event, it was crucial here.
---
Having the music taught me three important things:
- Turns out, some of that Kanye West bravado serves a purpose. (See: "Stronger.")
- Nostalgia-inspired tracks will be hit and miss. (Wade: good; Guster: bad)
- I am a Lorde fan.
And then, in a nice jog through the inflatable tunnel, my version of the B2B story ended. A kiss from the lovely wife/coach/partner (who ran the 5k!), a stop by the special "B2B Challenge" tent (where I could not for the life of me drink more than one sip of the promised celebratory beer and had to give my post-race pasta to my hungry, pregnant wife), and a complimentary ice bath at the Treadmill running store (an unforeseen blessing that kept me out of the ocean), and we rolled back into real life.
---
I earned two handmade medals, one for the completion of the Big Sur International Marathon, and one for the completion of the Boston 2 Big Sur Challenge. ASICS also provided a finishers jacket, emblazoned with the challenge title, the year, and the slogan. Those with B2B in their Rolodex love to point out that my jackets says "6 days" when most of theirs say 13.
I also earned a healthy amount of humility during the process. Much was instilled by my injury and recovery, but more came from the sanity provided by my wife-as-coach, and the reminder that I managed to succeed alongside so many other extraordinary runners on a very un-typical build up. I am moving ahead with increasing durability. While racing (or running fit) through the challenge would be ideal, I used the races to build an extraordinary mileage base. This marathon-as-long-run mentality has set me up, nicely I believe, for the next major event on my calendar, a trail 50k looming at the end of July.
---
There are so many ways to find value in the B2B. If I were to encourage someone to accept the challenge, I would push them to see it as an intensely personal, multifaceted experience. Along the way, you have to be willing to remain loose. You'll break some rules, overstep some logic, and always adapt. In the end, you might have to couch some of the happenings as inexplicable--perhaps even sheer luck. But that's OK. That's how challenges work.
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