Rob S.

Send Message

Block

Add Friend

So Saturday morning I tackled another duathlon.  This one at Sea Isle City. 
Friday night we headed to the event late at night and bedded down at Ocean City.  My friend's brother has a beach house at Ocean City which was great since we didn't have to worry about lodging.  We got to the house around 11p and went right to sleep.  We got up at 4:30a to a downpour and feared the worst for the actual event.  Grabbed my oatmeal and rolled right out of the house.  By the time we got to Sea Isle City at 5:30a it was overcast, but their beach never got rained on.  Thank goodness, because I didn't bring any of my rain gear.  When I go to the beach I expect sun, not rain.  We got dropped off with our bikes, grabbed our numbers and racked our bikes, and proceeded to wait for the the start at 7am.  I hate waiting for anything so I walked around the beach for awhile. 

They kicked off the duathlon and the elite tri guys right on schedule.  The first run was up and back the boardwalk for a distance of two miles.  My running partner forgot all of my pacing instructions and took off like a rabbit.  I kept her in my sites for the entire run but couldn't catch her.  When I got to the first transition I grabbed my bike, my shoes, and helmet headed right out.  The transition area to the mount area was a long distance, which is a real pain in bike shoes.  From the time I left the transition area it was another 90 seconds before I could acutally mount the bike.  The ride was a short 9 mile up and back, but the road was real patchy, and it didn't allow for real good acceleration.  The back part of the ride was head wind.  The ride was ok, but the dismount again required about a 100 yard run to the transition area (next year I will just remove my shoes and go sockfoot).  Transition was quick.  Dumped my helmet and shoes, grabbed my running shoes, a bottle of water (turned out be smart decision since there was only one water stop on this run), and downed a couple of sport beans.

The last run was just under four miles.  I decided I wasn't going to break any records today, so I paced myself well and proceeded to just run the whole distance.  The work my  chiro did on my foot and hamstring was great so I didn't experience any pain on the whole event.  The last mile is down the boardwalk and you can actually see the finish line when you get to about 1/2 mile.   There were a lot spectators out for the event, and it was great to see all the marines.  I spent a lot of the second run thinking about my dad who passed away several years ago, but was colonel in the Marines during the Korean War.  I decided to dedicate the race to him.  I finished the race strong, actually regretting that I hadn't pushed a little harder earlier, but what can you do.  I finished third in my age group (M55-59), and my running partner actually finished second in her age group (F40-44).  We waited through the medal presentations, but were disappointed when we found out they were not giving bling out to duathlon age group winners.  Oh well, other than waiting a long time for no bling, at least we got meet a lot of great people.

We rode back to the beach house in Ocean City (about 14 miles) in about 40 minutes with all our gear on our backs.  I headed straight home to Wilmington since I wanted to try and get some chores done.  This was a great event and I'm sure I'll participate next year,  I'll just work harder on running with my bike shoes. 

OK, my first half marathon wearing the PostOP-PR shirt is in the books.  It was a great day for a race.  The weather was perfect, the parking was perfect, the festivities were awesome.  My time was ok.  The course is nice but includes four hills that are back breakers.

The race starts at 6:15am for slow marathoners, followed by a 7:00am for the rest of the marathoners.  The relay runners start at 7:05am.  They only allow 2,000 participants total for all three events.  The half marathoners started at 7:20a. 

The first two and half miles follow the Christiana Rivers and loop around the shipyard.  It is a nice flat run, and I kept a fairly decent early pace.  The next two miles slopes upward toward the main part of the city and then a short downhill to the Brandywine River.  You then run around the Brandywine River and cross the swinging bridge and then head up a steep mile long hill toward the Art Museum.  My running partner decided at this point to up her stride and proceeded to incredase her pace.  Needless to say, I let her take off without me.  I would see her two additional times before the finish line, but had no aspirations of keeping her pace.  The hill was the best part of my run, but then I had to figure out how to run flat.  In addition, I was surrounded by a lot of people doing the run-walk method, and they must see a sign on me saying -- Please stop right in front of me!  Three times people decided to brake  right in front of me.

At the seven mile mark we ran through a nicer old neighborhood in the city and then over to Little Italy.  My toes were really bugging me since they hadn't healed well from the last major event I did two weeks ago.  I plodded along for the next three miles, running as well as possible.  Getting lapped at this point by some of the elite marathoners (they run the same course twice) was extremely disheartening to the psych, but I continued.  At mile 11 I was back running along the river, my toes were very aggravating at this point but I knew I could finish and I also knew that my running partner would be waiting for me (she gets my free beer).  As I rounded the turn away from the river at the 12 mile mark, the last major hill was just daunting.  It was just putting one foot in front of the other, and plodding to the center of town.  The last half mile was downhlll and felt pretty good, but I was a little worried about getting a charlie horse before the finish line.  As I hit the train station with .2 miles I decided it was time to finish strong.  I was able to pass several half marathoners and several relay runners right before the finish line.  My running buddy was yelling at me to finish strong, so I had to hightail it across the finish line.

I had registered with a time of 2:40 to finish this race, and I finished in 2:40:11 so I shouldn't be too disappointed.   The good thing is I have no pain in the feet (other than the toes), or knees, or hips.  So I got my first PR (2:40) while running for team PostOp PR.  Not my fastest, but I'll take it .

So today was my third running of the Philadephia Broad Street Run.  So got up at 4:30am this morning and downed a bowl of oatmeal.  Got myself packed and ready.  Since I was expecting hot and muggy weather I didn't think that sweats would be required.  I went outside to grab my sunglasses (don't do any runs without them) and lo and behold it was raining.  That was a surprise, so I grabbed some disposable ponchos that I keep on hand.  Sure enough, Susan, my running buddy, arrived at my house at 5:20a on the dot.  We hauled up to Philadelphia, and arrived at the parking lot at 5:50a.  Just a side note, it is really great to have someone that drives to these events.  Especially after the event, not sure how I could get my feet to respond to the accelerator and brake.

So we caught an early Septa train up to the starting event.  This is a 30-minute train ride, and the train is packed with early runners wanting to get situated before the big start.  So at 6:30a we are sitting on the field wondering why we are here this early.  Five visits to the johnny-on-the spot for Susan, and three for me, validated our early arrival.  I would have had additional visits but I found that men have an advantage and can use the "wall" to take care of themselves.

When we tried to leave the field at 8:15a and get out to Broad Street to get to our corral we found that we were blocked  by about 2,000 other runners.  The actual start for our corral was around 8:50a and we eventually merged onto the crowded street and got over the starting line.  This year they used a timing chip built into the bib which is more effective than the shoe version. 

So we got across the starting line, and started to jog, then stopped, restarted several time, until we finally broke into a consistent jog.  The weather had turned from wet and cloudy, to muggy and temperatures in the 80's.  We tried to stay to the left where there was more shade, but found most of the fire hydrants were spraying the crowds from the right.  After two miles I had a good gait and was feeling full of myself.  We were going at a 5k pace.  Too fast for me.  I was already developing brow sweat, and feeling heated.  I slowed down and took about a minute off my pace.

At the three mile mark, we hit the firs****er stop, and I grabbed gatorade by mistake, and my system felt horrible.  Mile 4 and 5 were brutal.  I told my buddy to head out and set her own pace, which is much faster than mine, and kept jogging but a reduced level.  The reason this event is so neat, is that the streets are lined from start to finish with people cheering you along the way.  At the five mile mark, I got adopted by five young women.  They asked if they could help pace me for a couple of miles, since I guess I must have looked pretty pitiful.  They talked about their parents, and how they wished they could get them out running.  They were a lot of fun and kept my mind off the run for the next thirty minutes.  I started downing a few sport beans every mile to stay energized.  When we got past City Hall at mile 6, I felt rejuvenated, and felt like I would could finish the race, and who cares about the time.  At mile 8, I said goodbye to my girls, and decided to pound out the next mile.  The last mile I decided to finish strong.  As I ran through the entrance to the Naval Yard, I almost collided with a group of people who didn't realize the finish line is another quarter mile within the Naval Yard,  I crossed the finish line, looked at my time.  Not great, but I did creep under two hours.  The heat took it's tole.  They were a lot people being carried away in ambulances.  Hopefully they will recover quickly after getting some fluids.  Amazingly enough they did not give out finisher medals this year.  So I can't even add in more bling to my collection. 

So I crawled back to Susan's car, and the legs were really pounding.  We spent about two hours getting out of Philadelphia, and back home.  Ice water is my best friend today!   Hopefully the weather will be a little cooler for our next event, a half-marathon in Delaware in two weeks.

Thanks for listening.  BTW, I did skip the Ginos.  Can't stand the site of liquid cheese.  In Delaware, the real home of the cheese steak, they only use authentic cheese.