Right on Hereford, Left on Boylston

Two weeks from the time I’m writing these words I’ll be running the 2011 Boston Marathon.  Guessing at my pace, I’ll be somewhere around mile 10 I hope, cruising through Natick among the throngs, keeping my ears open for the Scream Tunnel.  Two weeks ago I ran the longest of the long runs, 21 miles from the start line to Boston College just past Heartbreak Hill.  This past Saturday I wanted to run the remaining part of the course, most of which I’d never run.  I started at CRI on a steadily warming morning and headed up the hill to BC.  At the junction with the marathon course I saw other runners who were part of the training runs set up by running clubs and volunteer groups, but I was solo that day.  Not to worry, as the weather was great and I had enough water and fuel.

I followed the course up to the Reservoir and then turned onto Beacon Street which I’d never run before.  The scene is very familiar since I’d driven it many times but it’s quite a bit different on the sidewalk.  Groups of runners headed out passed by, each of them going over their race prep in their heads, or at least that’s what I imagined them doing.  I saw lots of landmarks that I knew in other contexts but they were comforting to see.  As I approached Coolidge Corner I remembered watching the marathon there may years ago.  I looked up casually and spotted the Citgo Sign, an important sighting for any marathoner.  I’d never quite seen it like that before.

Onward, inbound, with the Mass Pike in sight and then past, and the turn on Comm Ave.  I know this area very well from Red Sox games but it looks different without thousands of baseball fans on game day.  Seeing it on Marathon Monday should add more layers to my image of the area.  For some reason I thought it was much further from here to the end of the course, but it’s really only a mile or so.  I started looking at street signs and all of a sudden there was Hereford!  But I didn’t turn right, I am saving that for the race.  Instead I went a few blocks further and turned there, looping back on Boylston past the finish line, past Hereford again, and looped back onto the course the opposite direction.

The rest of the run was anti-climactic after completing the trek to the finish line, but I enjoyed running the opposite direction on Beacon.  I took off my wind shell and rolled up my sleeves in the warm spring sun as I climbed back to BC, then dropped down to the river.  I even had enough in the tank for some speed work for a mile or two, which felt good.  At the boathouse I did one lap to make sure I hit 13.1 miles – 2:07, not bad for my last training run.

Now I get to taper for real.  A few easy runs each week, my last one scheduled for next Wednesday. At this point I almost want to get it over with but I'll work to enjoy every minute between now and the race.  I'm looking forward to not having a long run each weekend and catching up on my spring skiing.  But I know I'll miss it, hopefully by Fall.  At the marathon Expo I'll be keeping my eye out for a nice fall marathon to sign up for.

Welcome to Hopkinton

As we drove past the sign reading "Welcome to Hopkinton" it occurred to me that we'd been driving in the van for a long time.  We started at CRI and were about to be dropped off for a 21 mile run along the course to Boston College just past the top of Heartbreak Hill.  This was going to be my longest training run for Boston, my longest run ever, actually.  I'd done 18 two weeks earlier so I felt ready, but just four weeks ago I had to walk back from a run because my ACL had seized up. There were nine runners, five who had run Boston before and four of us who'd never been to the start of the marathon.We got dropped off at 8:00, grabbed a Gu or two, used the porta-potty one more time and without even thinking about it we were running on the course at 8:15.

Because it was just under 30 degrees I was wearing wind pants and my jacket plus hat and gloves. The first 6 miles are generally downhill and I started out faster than I should have.  I was running with two women from our group and we fell into a pretty good routine. We didn't stop at the first water stop but did so at the second one where we began to separate.  Heather and Jen ran slightly faster and I hung back a bit and ran at at my target pace.  The middle miles passed under my feet easily, and I stopped briefly at each of the water stations, grabbing a handful of M&M's or Swedish Fish.

There were lots of images along the way that stuck in my mind.  The "Entering Framingham" and "Natick" signs, passing Bacon Street which seemed like a taunt at the time, the two vans of screaming women that drove along the course, crossing 128, making the turn at the fire station and heading up the hills. There were a few people that I kept seeing the whole way; I'd pass them and they'd pass me, not sure who finished first. At mile 17 I caught up to Heather and Jen, who decided to walk at 16.5.  Heather was coming back from an ankle injury and Jen walked with her for a mile and then resumed running.  She ended up finishing just a little bit behind me so she must have run the last 4 miles pretty well.

At the fire station I was entering familiar territory - I'd run this stretch of the course many times so I knew what was ahead.  There are three main hills and the first one went by moderately quickly.  On the second hill I started feeling a little cramping in my calves, something I have dealt with in the past and probably should have stopped to stretch but I knew the end was in sight. So I changed my stride a bit to help my calves and started up Heartbreak Hill.  If it wasn't for the cramping it would have been no problem, but it wasn't bad.  I crested the hill and someone said that the finish line was only a few 100 yards ahead.  I saw a crowd of folks and a line painted on the road.  Some people cheered, a kid handed me some St Patrick's Day beads, I hit the stop button on the watch and stopped running for the first time in three and a half hours.

I felt surprisingly good after the run, no knee pain, legs and hips alright, and just a bit of cramping in the calves.  I'll work on my hydration and start my taper which should help.  I've got the hard work out of the way and I'm feeling strong enough to make it the starting line in good shape.  The run this weekend left me feeling sore, but confident for Patriot's Day weekend.  I felt good enough at mile 21 that with a little stretching I could have run another 5 miles.

Right on Hereford, left on Boylston, here I come!

One Month to go

This past Sunday I ran 13.1 miles along the Charles River and it was an "easy" long run.  I've got two more long runs before the marathon; 21 miles this weekend on the marathon course (Hopkinton to BC) and then another 13-14 the following weekend.  The weekend before the marathon is a short run (6-8 miles) and then taper until the big day.  It's getting closer, and I'm getting a little anxious about not doing anything new or different that would risk injury.  The legs are feeling pretty good and I want them to stay that way for another three weeks.

The run this weekend is a dry run for the marathon - I'm going to be using the same clothes, socks, shoes, etc.  The forecast is for temps in the 30's and sunny, hopefully the race day will be a little warmer than that.  But there's no rain (or snow) in the forecast so that's a plus.  This weekend is the time when all the fund raising (Plug! Plug!) groups stage a supported run along the route.  I've never seen the start of the course so it will be great getting some experience on the downhill at the start.  Runners say that the downhill is the hard part, so it's important to me to know what to expect.

I'm trying not to look past Patriot's Day.  I have all sorts of plans for the spring and summer but I'll just have to wait and see how I feel after the race.  I may never want to do one of these again or I may sign up for a fall marathon.  Let's get one finished before I worry about that.

Light at the End of the Tunnel?

I'm basking in the glow of an 18.5 mile run yesterday. I'm also sitting with an ice pack on my left knee as a preventive measure, but otherwise feeling pretty good.  I took a full week off after the last long run, skied up to Tuckerman Ravine the following Saturday, then did a few easy runs last week.  They were treadmill sessions, 3.1 and 4.3 miles, and my knee felt pretty good.  I've started using an ITB compression wrap that seems to help alleviate the pain and inflammation.

This past weekend was the NATO Telefest at Mad River Glen, an event I've attended for the past 10 years or so that I wasn't prepared to miss.  We skied all day on Saturday and I drove home Sunday morning, getting home by noon and starting my run at 1:00 PM. It was pretty warm, but there were some cold breezes so I ended up with more clothing than I needed.  I chose to run along the Charles River on the bike path, parking the car on the Cambridge side and looping up around the Beacon St bridge.  That would be close to 15 miles, and depending on how I felt I would add another loop.  At around 2 miles I felt a little discomfort, not quite pain, from my left knee and I was worried that this would be another disappointing run.

But nothing else happened. Headwinds along the Boston side of the river were a pain, but I made it through to the Harvard bridges, then Elliot St, then Arsenal St, still feeling pretty good.  As I crossed the river at Beacon I was feeling pretty positive, thinking that 20 miles wasn't out of the question.  The next stretch was a bit taxing, as it seemed to take forever to hit 10 miles according to my watch, then the rest of the mileage ticked by slowly.  I was keeping a steady pace, just over 10 minute miles, and my MP3 player was helping me ignore the time.  Running on dirt was also a big help, and I'm sure my knees are thanking me for that today.

At the Elliot St bridge I did some quick calculations and figured I'd be around 14 when I got back to my car.  Since I wanted to run further than that I had a few options but decided to just continue the loop and then run a second, smaller loop to add mileage as needed.  I could feel that I needed more fluids at this point and was cursing the fact that my belt only carries two bottles, not four.  Food wasn't a problem but liquid certain was beginning to affect me.  At the car I decided to keep running rather than stop for the Gatorade I had stashed in there, reasoning that the last two times I had problems with my ITB it was after a stop.  Up til now I hadn't stopped at all on the run, just a few jogging in place moments at traffic lights.

So, the second loop started and I passed by the Science Museum again, then along the windy Boston side of the Esplanade.  There were times I just put my head down and watched the path in front of my feet just rolling by.  Slowly.  I knew the pace had slowed down but it really didn't matter to me; I was still running 10:35s and that was fine.  Across the Mass Ave bridge (go Smoots!) and looping back towards my car as my watch ticked to 18 miles!  Woo hoo!  I had broken yet another barrier that I'd placed in front of myself. At this point I was out of water and I felt my calves beginning to cramp up a little.  Rather than push on to 20 miles I decided to loop across Memorial Drive and shoot for 18.5 to finish.  That would be a success for me.

At the car I stopped for the first time in 3 hours, waiting for my knee to lock up in pain.  But nothing happened, it still was a bit tender but no real pain.  A very positive sign.  I got the Gatorade from the car and spent a little time stretching, then drove home.  Getting out of my car at home I experienced some real cramping of my thigh, to the point where I couldn't walk or even shuffle, I just had to stand and stretch in place until the pain subsided.  At home I drank lots more, ate some, and stretched for 20 minutes.  Then I sat in an ice bath for 5 of the most painful minutes I've ever experienced.

Today I'm feeling pretty good, muscles and joints mostly fine, with a little tenderness in the ITB. I've been applying ice and taking some Ibuprofen to keep the pain and any swelling down, so far so good.  Not sure when the next run is coming up, tomorrow or the next day, but I'm actually looking forward to the 20 miler in two weeks.  If that's not success, I don't know what is.

Frustration and hope

It's March 2nd and I'm suffering through another bout of ITB tendinitis after a painful run last weekend. I felt fine for the first 3-4 miles of the run, then a little pain in my knee.  I slowed down due to the pain and it didn't really bother me so I didn't think much of it.  I was alone at the third water stop (at 7.5 miles) and I stopped to stretch a bit and as soon as I started running again I felt a strong and familiar pain in my left knee; the ITB tendinitis was back.  This was similar to the previous week when I had a similar pain after stopping briefly to stretch at 15 miles into the run.  I was preparing myself for the push to an 18 mile day and now I was stuck 7.5 miles from my car.

A car pulled up and a fellow asked if I was hurt (I was) and wanted a lift back to my car.  I almost took it but I knew that Heather and Errol were still out on the route and I didn't want to disappear.  I told him I was OK and started walking back to see if things would loosen up.  Heather caught up soon and we exchanged phone numbers so I could call if needed.  Since my walk might be long I popped into a Dunkin' Donuts for a hot cocoa and kept walking.  Errol caught up with me and we chatted a bit then he took off.  The walk to the fire station at the corner of Washington St and Comm Ave went slowly and a little painfully, but at times my knee felt OK.

On Comm Ave I started doing a walk/run combo, eventually running up to 15 minutes at a time with a 5 minute walk in between.  The uphills were the easiest, I ran all three major hills up to BC.  The downhill was much more difficult and painful, and I ended up walking most of the way down Lake Street before running the last half mile to CRI where I met up with Errol and Heather.  My knee wasn't screaming in pain, but I could certainly feel the familiar sensation of an inflamed ITB.

At home I stretched and used my foam roller, which didn't offer any immediate relief but at least made me feel like I was doing something.  My brother suggested a cold water soak, and I lasted all of about 1 minute in the tub.  Maybe the water was too cold, maybe I'm a wimp. Either way, it was certainly invigorating.  I kept ice on the knee for much of the afternoon, took some vitamin I, and rested.

So, here I am, 7 weeks from the marathon and I haven't run more than 16 miles.  I'm disappointed, frustrated, but still hopeful.  I know that rest is the most important thing for me, not pushing myself through painful miles that will leave me limping and useless.  I will be adjusting my pace and trying to avoid stopping during long runs, which seems to be a trigger.  The foam roller is my friend, and I just picked up an ITB compression band which I'll try out on shorter runs.  Walking eventually allowed the knee to loosen up and I was able to run on it, at least for some distance after the problem showed up.  I know that if it happens during the marathon I have options besides just stopping, and that makes me feel positive.  I also know that I'm fit enough to make it 26 miles if I have no relapse of the injury.  So, I have my work cut out for me and that is to arrive at the starting line uninjured and in the right state of mind.  After that, who knows what will happen but I'm going to be at the start line no matter what.

February Grinds On

I'm beginning to comprehend the reality of marathon training for Boston when you live here in the snowy northeast.  What used to be relaxing, shorts and t-shirt mornings along the Charles River are now bundled up and uncomfortable runs while fighting headwinds, icy streets, and dwindling light.  Where I used to be able to just throw on some shorts and a t-shirt I know have to find all my cold weather gear, check the forecast, and sometimes ramble though knee high snow to reach the cleared street on the other side of my work parking lot.

Once out there running things aren't so different, but they're different enough.  Some days the old magic is back, but the weeks of pounding are starting to take their toll. My legs hurt a good chunk of the week after my long runs; either from tender IT bands or cramps in my calves.  As my weekly mileage numbers climb and the long runs get longer I can sense that the body has limits.  There are plenty of folks with higher limits than mine, but it'll take me a long time to build up to those levels, if they ever happen. There's running gear scattered all over the house, and the sand and salt from my running shoes is making a mess of the floor near my front door.

This is not to say that I'm not getting enjoyment from the training.  I've run longer than I've ever gone in my life and the feeling of accomplishment with each long run is palpable. Running on the weekends on the marathon route allows me to feel part of a community of runners who all know about the first two paragraphs I've just written.  They get it, and they're still out there on Comm Ave avoiding slush puddles and dealing with headwinds.  I also got to buy a lot of new gear, which is always fun.

So we head to the end of February and I am juggling long runs with the few remaining skiing weekends I can have before my training schedule pretty much makes them impossible.  But by then the weather should be warmer and the taper will be within striking distance. The marathon itself is too abstract right now, the training is concrete.  But for now training is one foot in front of the other, which is what's going to get me through the marathon as well.

Snowy Night Run

Yesterday was a snow day, 6"-8" on the ground with the storm winding down by 7:00 PM.  I worked from home all day, being productive but feeling some cabin fever as the day wore on.  Plus, with another storm forecast for the next day I was going to be without workout for two days straight.  This was on top of not doing a long run over the weekend because I was teaching backcountry skiing for the AMC in NH.  At 8:30 PM I headed out to do some shoveling, my housemates had already done a great first pass so I was just widening the sidewalk and clearing off my car.

Well, it wasn't that bad outside.  The snow had stopped, the temps were moderate, and the streets were in decent shape.  A strange thought occurred to me; Why not go for a run?  So I finished my shoveling and headed back inside to get dressed.  Bright orange jacket, reflective vest, flashing lights on my back and arms, headlamp, reflective patches on pants, jacket, and gloves, trail running shoes; I was ready.  I started out on the road but switched to the sidewalk once I made it over to Cambridge.  They were mostly cleared but I had to pick my way a bit carefully, especially at street crossings.

I ran my usual 4 mile loop, out to Harvard Square, to the river, on the bike path to JFK, cross the river at the River Street bridge, and back home.  Going through Harvard Square was eerie, only a few people out and giving me odd stares. I was watching for cars carefully as I don't think they were expecting me.  Crossing Memorial Drive was uneventful except for clearing the snowbank and I was on the bike path.  It was in adequate shape, but I was glad for the trail shoes.  At the first bridge I worked around the sidewalk plow and got some good pavement for a bit, but it was slippery going up the slope of the bridge.

On the Boston side of the river I was the only one around.  It's surprisingly bright when the city is covered with snow and all the lights are on. I had no problem with visibility, unlike some morning runs in the dark. I stepped aside for the sidewalk plow and then dropped into his wake, just like I've done on the highway during a bad storm.  I don't think he was amused having me behind him with my headlamp but he had other concerns.  I figured if this stretch was OK, the final stretch to River St would be fine; alas, it was still filled with 4" of slush and snow, making for a high stepping gait that wasn't very fast.

On the way back up the Cambridge side there were cross country ski tracks along side the path.  At one point they went over a bench that was buried in the snow.  I made a poor choice at the last bridge and stayed on the river side of Memorial Drive, which wasn't cleared of snow and had to run 1/4 of a mile in 6" of snow and spray from the snowplows.  I was cursing myself the whole way, hoping that I wouldn't twist an ankle or do something stupid.  And I couldn't cross the road without wading through 5' snowbanks.  Oh well. At the intersection I was back on real snow and headed for home.  There was one interesting scene where a car had parked on a street that was supposed to be clear for the plows and two very large plows where waiting for a woman to move.  The lead plow was only inches from her bumper encouraging her to get moving.  No one looked happy.

Back to Kirkland and nearly home.  I had to pass a group on a narrow sidewalk with a "On your left" but they seemed confused by this. Passing Beacon St and then turning towards my house.  A few neighbors were out late shoveling and gave me a friendly but wary wave as I climbed my stairs and headed back to the warmth.

It was a great run, if not fast or far.  I would never have gone for a run like this if I hadn't been training for the marathon, but I don't see why that should limit me.  Getting daily exercise is now part of my regular schedule, no matter how it happens.  Certainly in summer it'll be easier, but I like not being limited by weather or time.  It's really just a state of mind, the human body can do most anything with the right clothing and attitude.


Please consider helping out my marathon fund raising for G-Row by clicking on the link on the upper left of this page.  I'm 1/3 of the way to my goal and looking forward to being able to concentrate only on the training part.  Thank you to everyone who has donated so far.