Jason Crowther’s Blog

Two races, in two days, and two new personal records.  Normally, I wouldn’t scheduled 2 races on 1 weekend, but I already booked the Hall of Fame Half Marathon in Utica when Sandy said that we should do the Komen Race For the Cure 5k.  I’d contemplated doing both in the same weekend previously, but always opted for the latter, since I’m by no means a speed demon at short distances.  But, with a bunch of (unofficial) speedwork under my belt thus far this spring, I had a little itch to try out my speed legs again.  So, Thursday night, we signed up.

I was a little surprised to see that the Komen Run didn’t start until 10:15, seems kinda late to me (but not that far off as the Goat also starts at the same time.)  Was pleasantly surprised that when we walked out the door to head over the fairgrounds, it was a pleasant 60 degrees.  I thought it was supposed to be cooler.  The wildcard factor was the wind.  It was howling pretty good in DeWitt.  Pulling up in the far parking lot (far side of 690 that is) we found that wind was even crazier over there.  On the walk across the pedestrian bridge, I kept a firm grip on my (favorite) Rochester Marathon cap.

After getting Sandy situated with her run/walk buddies, I headed over the starting line.  Wow, they had pace markers down to 5 minute miles.  After running the Komen many times before, I was happy to see that they’ve gotten rid of all the walkers who always to try to sneak in at the front of the queue and get railroaded by all the runners.  So, this year, it was just slow runners in the way.  I lined up at the 6:30 marker (some what ambitously) and noted a lot of folks who could maybe do an 8 minute mile on their best day.  There was some last minute race instructions that I couldn’t make out and then horn kicked things off.

Happily, the howling wind was a head wind on the way out.  Guess its been a while since I did the Komen, as they changed the course a little bit.  Rather than an out and back on the far north west corner of the fairgrounds, the course now takes a detour down the midway section before heading out to the far perimeter.  Not a bad change, but there’s some drainage culverts to keep an eye out for.  The wind was still pretty gusty, but there was one terrifically strong gust as I rounded that far corner and headed down the back stretch.  A few hats were blown off and everybody suffered through the shower of dirt kicked up.

I chugged my way down the back stretch only passing a few people, but more importantly not getting passed by anyone else.  2 more turns and I’m headed straight into the finish.  I heard the announcer call out my name and I sailed under the finish banner with my arms held high.

Right before the race, Sandy asked how long I thought I’d take.  I said “about 20 minutes”, half kidding. She rolled her eyes, yeah, whatever buddy.  After getting my timer chip clipped off, I glanced at my watch.  20:37!  Good enough for 6th in my age group and besting my previous 5k PR of 22:35.  Playing the what if game a bit, I wonder if I didn’t have the wind interference if I could have broken 20 minues.  No complaints though; I can totally live with that for a race I didn’t really train for.

I turned around and stared walking back through the course to meet up with Sandy again.  As I walked I noted that my left calf was kinda sore.  By the time I caught up with her again about half way through the course, it was geting pretty angry.  Oh, nusts, did I just kill off the half marathon I was gonna do the following day?

I tried to catch a nap in the after noon, but after some phone calls and other random interruptions, I wasn’t able to keep my eyes closed for more than 10 minutes.  So, I did some more chores and got myself to bed early.  I was really worried that I’d have to bag the half marathon.  I had trouble getting to sleep and couldn’t find a comfortable position.

In the morning, I felt pretty rested and the leg was better, but still not 100%.  I got the GI processes going, took a quick shower, packed up and hit the Thruway, Utica bound.  I got Utica about 7 and breezed through the packet pickup.  I went back to the car to suit up.  Unlike yesterday, its pretty chilly out;  about 46 and a strong cold wind on top of that.

I conveniently remembered that there are nice warm bathrooms with no lines and no waiting (as opposed to portapotties) in the train station that I adjacent to.  Still had about 20 minutes to kill, so I went back to the car and killed the time.   Ok, 15 minutes to go.  I got out of the car and decided that it wouldn’t hurt to make another quick bathroom stop.  Man, I’m glad I did, I was way more hydrated than I thought.  Leaving the nice warmth of the station again, I headed over to the starting line.

Turns out that the Hall of Fame Half Marathon was rejiggered a bit since last time I ran it as well.  The starting line is about a quarter mile further west on Broad Street.  Unfortunately, this area is a lot wider open.  I had a pretty serious case of the shivers waiting for the gun.  There were a lot of runners far more serious than me that were going with short sleeves.  Man, I was very glad that I brought my long sleeve shirt and gloves.  After a few plugs for other races, we were off.

I shivered a few times through the first mile or so, but eventually started to warm up.  I was little worried about my feet.  They seem to take long and longer to warm up.  Its a pretty strange feeling when your running along and can’t really feel your toes.  By the end of the second mile, everything was finally up to temperature.

The headwind wasn’t quite as strong as the day before, but cold and annoying, nonetheless.  My eyes were watering something fierce and it didn’t take long for my lips to chap.  I was happy to hit a section on the canal trail where the brush closed right in on the trail and there was little bit of a break from the wind.  I had just passed someone as we started that part who exclaimed, “wow its so nice to be out of the wind.”  I looked back with a smile on face and said, “hey, I’m not that fat, am I?” and got a few giggles in return.

Despite a pretty good number of entrants (~200), I ran most of the middle of the race alone.  Guess I’m faster than the slow pokes, but not yet ready to roll with the contenders.  After what seemed like an eternity, I ran past the Lock 20 canal park.  Phew, not much longer to the turnaround.  Here come the leaders on their way back.  Nice to see I’m not all that far behind.

After the turn around, I was very happy to be out of the headwind.  I was hoping for a big boost on the way back, but it just didn’t seem to be there.  Quite to the contrary actually for mile 7.  I just couldn’t keep up with a few people that leisurely strolled passed me.   I was little crampy, but not so bad.  I just kept slogging on and it seemed to pass.  I took a few sips of Gatorade and I started to feel back on track.

Just before mile 11, there’s a place where the canal breaks up a bit to detour around a parking lot and some railroad tracks.  There’s a pretty good little hill to climb back up the regularly scheduled trail.  I was happy to close up a little of the gap between me and some guy I’d been chasing for the last 4 miles.  He appeared to be slowing just a touch.

Just as I passed him, he asked if I had the time.  Gritting my teeth a bit, I looked at my watchand reported 1:19.  He said, wow, I think we’re gonna break 1:40.  Oh crap.  I wished him well and picked it up a little more.  I was happy that I was on that pace but really worried about the choke factor.  Come on Crowther, only 2 miles and some change to go, keep it up.

After the climb from the trail back up to Genesee Street, I was a little worried that I may have given all I could.   I heard footsteps fast approaching and heavy breathing on my heels.  The wind was now coming at a kinda strange cross angle that was blowing back and forth across the road.   I pulled my hat down a little tigher and began to grunt out the final mile.

I don’t think I sped up all that much, but the footsteps faded back into the distance.  One more uphill and one more downhill to go.  My mind is telling me that the final climb over the rail road tracks is gonna be a killer, but my body says no big deal and I power up and over without any hassles.  At the peak of the hill, a race coordinator with a stopwatch calls out 1:34:15.  One downhill to go.  Must as well give it everything, I’m not getting passed in the final stretch.  20 feet to go and the announcer welcomes me in.  I cross the mats with both arms raised, then quickly click the stop on my watch.

After getting my chip clipped, I peel back my sleeve to look at my time, 95:26!  After setting a PR yesterday, I was hoping for something in the neighborhood of my PR, not beating my PR by over 10 minutes (formerly 106:40, at the ARC last year.)

Now that the running was done, the cold wind was starting to catch up with me.  I headed over to the runners’ tent and grabbed a bagel and watched the award ceremony for the 5k race.  After confirming my time on the post race print out (to make sure I wasn’t delirious with runner’s high) and to see that I didn’t place for an age group victory, I decided it was time for a warm car and a refreshing shower at my Mom’s house.

Funny, but the next story on my blog was gonna be another waxing tail of runners funk.  I haven’t much ambition at all lately when it comes to training.  Everything feels good once I get going, but I just can’t seem to get out the door.  Maybe the few extra days off were just what I needed, as evident from the results above.  Hopefully, the good tidings of recent will keep my on track for a record breaking Boilermaker.

Here are some fun action shots from the folks over at Brightroom.  If you only look quickly, you might even mistake me for being a real runner.  Kinda pricey for prints, but I may finally break down and buy one.  It was a PR, after all.

For the first race in a long time, I feel that my training investment really showed some dividends.  In addition to keeping fairly active over the winter (mostly running and weights at the Planet Fitness down the street) and a somewhat unprecedented 6 full course trainging runs (including some in hellaciously crappy weather), I was able to pull in a fantastic 71:09!

Here’s the stats breakdown:

• 71:09 is a 7:08/mile pace.  That amazes me.  I can honestly say that I didn’t feel like I was going that fast.  I think that doing a bunch of speedwork on the treadmill helped the most in this area.
• If you’ve been following my tweets, you seen that I’ve been incrementally improving my time over the training runs.  I thought I was doing pretty good with 75:12 last Saturday.  A race day improvement of 4:03 was mind boggling.
• Using the Mountain Goat’s website, I tracked down my previous PR, 80:26 in ‘07 (missed the ‘08 race due a work emergency.)  Whoa, that’s a PR improvement of 9:19.

Even with the rather hilly training route that I use for my dailies, I don’t think they’re a good substitute for the real race course.  Pounding up Stolp, to the peak of Onondaga Park, slogging up Colvin, and the final major climb in Thorden Park, are the only real ways to get ready for race day.  I was able to charge up Thorden hill with far less reservation than in the past.

The Goat certainly isn’t the Boilermaker yet (though I’m pretty much required to say that being a native Utican), but I’m happy to see that its growing every year.  The real way to tell how well a race is doing is to watch the spectators; not the ones and the start or finish (those people are there to support their running family and friends), but those folks out in the middle of the course, who’s houses you run by (or those you block in their driveways.)  It was great to see more support in the middle of course that I’ve seen before.  I was particularly touched by all the nice comments from the church bound families in their Sunday finery on Landon Ave.

Job well done and many thanks to all who do all hard work to put a great race day experience together, including:

• the Mountain Goat Organizers – I should really try to help out more (beyond running the volunteer sign up page.)
• Syracuse Police – thanks for keeping us safe out there and calming all the folks who were gonna be late to church because of the blocked roads.
• Syracuse Track Club – thanks for keeping everybody interested and yelling at everybody to mind their road manners out on the training runs.

With the Goat in the bag, I’m gearing up for the Hall of Fame Half Marathon in Utica in 2 weeks.  I think I’m in pretty good shape, but I plan to bang out some long miles on the Erie Canal trails to get my legs used to stone dust trails again.  After that, I don’t have any race booked until the Boilermaker, though I may throw in some random 5k’s (Paiges) or 10k’s (Swamp Rat, F’ville) as the budget allows.

A surprisingly good time.

Bright sunshine beating down on my me while I sat in my office at home this morning was enough to lure me out for a run. I’ve been trying to get motivated for the last week or so, but I could never get into the mood.

So, I suited up with my normal winter gear: tights, a running shirt, a long sleeve t-shirt, my trusty windbreaker, my old navy jimmy cap, and gloves. As I shut the door and headed over to my car, I had another one of those what the hell am I doing moments. I’m leaving a perfectly warm (well, warm enough anyway) house to go run outside. Something strange about clearing your car off to go running. Anyway, the feeling quickly passed and I was on my way over to Green Lakes. I’m happy to report my new commute to the Manlius Center Erie Canal Trail parking lot is about 7 minutes.

Not so surprising, there were only 2 other cars in the lot. I dumped out my pockets, retied my shoes, and got out of the car to stretch a little. Caught a bit of the breeze, and figured that was quite enough stretching and started off.

Everything started off good. Actually, really good, considering its only the second time that I’ve run in ‘08. Rt. 290 is clear. I make the turn off the road at the trailhead onto 3″ inches of snow from the night before. I’m a little worried about the ascent. I’m very familiar with the ruts on the hill up to start of the loops. I soon find that if I keep my stride short, its not too slippery. About 3/4 of the way of up, I can feel my lungs starting to burn because of the cool headwind.

Soon enough, I’m at the top and plodding down the trails I love (and hate) so much. Sounds corny, but everything does look radically different in the winter and snow. Basically, everywhere normally waist high in brush is flat to the ground. I was worried it would be hard to stay on course, but there were about 10 sets of prints under the new snow and few sets from earlier today.

Geez, jumping right back into Green Lakes loops probably ain’t the smartest thing to do. My legs felt like lead after the second hill. I enjoyed skipping down the little hill into the first open field. Everything was going great. Until I caught that chilling wind in my face again.

Before, I knew it I was the hell hill (all the 1st Marathon folks know which one I’m talking about.)  I remember the first few times I ascended it way back in June last year, and feeling like someone jumping on my chest when I made it to the top. I took it pretty easy; about 3/4 of the way up, all those months off caught up with me. I trudged onward and upward, but I was panting pretty good at the top.

The big decision was to go straight ahead and stick to the short loop, or go for the full loop around the Serengeti. Go big, or go home, I thought as I rounded the turn to head out for more punishment. I was happy to be on the relative flat plains, but not so happy with the wind ripping across the wide open.

Not sure if its my imagination, but the snow seems to be getting deeper.  Taking a quick peek at my feet, I’m pretty surprised that they’re not really snowed over yet; and even more surprising is that my feet aren’t even cold.  I just passed the power lines and started down the hill to the Vista Trail. I was little nervous when I saw some of the foot prints from previous runners start to get elongated. Yep, there’s a bunch of ice under all that snow. Weeee!

I was a little too paranoid to enjoy the vistas of the Vista trail, trying to remember where all those craters were. A couple spots I remembered being slippery when wet were just as tough in the snow. I began the descent into the gorge that marks the middle of the trail. Wasn’t nearly as bad as I thought it would be. The ascent back up the other side was as tough as I remembered; maybe just a little more. A few more turns and I was ready to bomb down the hill to the start of the loop and down to the trailhead.

Oh the fond memories, of more than once meeting up with a very stubborn skunk on this part of the trail. He managed to park himself right in the middle of the trail and he was the gate keeper, no letting anyone past. No amount of screaming, arm flailing, or rock flinging seemed to encourage him to move on.

Flashing back to the present, I feel gravity starting to speed me up regardless of the relatively cautious pace that I’m trying to stick to. There seemed to be just about enough snow to even out those annoying ruts that bothered my knees so much the first runs out here. Wow, I can finally get a better view of that abandoned car I’m always meaning to check out.

I’m up to a pretty good clip now. Right as I duck back into the treed section, I see a big splat mark in the snow. Looks like someone found some ice. Thankfully, it wasn’t me.

Another fast right, and I was none-too-soon headed back down to the trailhead and paved road. Again, found memories of stumbling down this hill after spending hours and hours running around on the loops. Hard to believe that I’ve run the same hill when its over 90 degrees and now when its less that 30 degrees.

I clicked the stop on my watch as I returned to my car. 1:01:49, I think that’s pretty good considering how little I’ve run lately. I’m actually pretty impressed that I didn’t bag out somewhere in the middle. I think now that I’ve got a decent run under my belt, I may be a little more motivated try to get back into more regular running. Now, all I just have to hope that the weather will cooperate.

If you’ve run a marathon or thinking about running a marathon (either dreaming or are seriously committed) keep an eye out for Spirit of the Marathon. Its a documentary on the history and modern evolution of the sport. I’m not a big sports history buff (yawn), but this was interesting and light hearted enough to hold my attention for the whole hour and half (two hours if you count hanging around for the DVD extra type stuff post show.)

After delving into the races origins, and early competitions in the Olympics, the story focus on folks training for the 2005 Chicago Marathon at various levels (first timer- lone trainee, first timer- group trainee, repeat marathoners, late onsets, and elites.) I felt right at home with the group first timer group trainee. I almost got choked up at times reliving some of the physical, emotional, and spiritual challenges of both the training process and race day that the profiled runners endured.

A large population of the Syracuse running community made it out to the show (thanks Fleet Feet for the heads up!) including the most of the class ‘07 1st Marathon. A few of which are getting ready for the fast approaching Boston Marathon. I’m still amazed that I trained with these amazing athletes.

At this point, I still don’t know what I’m gonna do in ‘08. Seeing the movie brought out both good and bad memories. I was thinking about giving up on the marathon distance and concentrating on speed at half and shorter distances, but now I’m jonesing for the high of crossing the marathon finish line again. Gonna have to get serious soon if that’s the idea!

Unfortunately, I think in theaters, the movie gonna was a one shot event; keep an eye out for it on DVD.