The Running Thread - 2018

[Slogger]

Atlantic City Marathon October 21st

Dear Atlantic City Marathon,

It's not you, it's me. I was interested in getting to know you in April of 2016 after you enticed with me thoughts of a fast, flat half marathon course, nice weather, great after party, and fun. You didn't mention anything about it being cold or windy during my get to know you visit and I left feeling let down. 35 degree temperatures, 40 mph wind gusting to 60 was not in the race brochure.

But you wooed me back again. Come celebrate your 60th Anniversary on the historic Boardwalk, run a fun, flat, and fast marathon course in perfect October weather, experience a great after party, and see Atlantic City shine in all her glory. So your vendor had a mix up with the shirts and you have to mail them out to the runners at a later date. No problem.
So the weather changed overnight and dropped over 20 degrees. Hey I've had worse. Cooler weather meant a lot less crowd support. That's okay, I don't need signs, DJs, or beer stops at every corner. Well the beer stops would be nice, but again, not going to let that drag me down. A five minute jog through a tunnel on the course that blocks all GPS signals and messes up my distance and pace? No worries, I've got an excellent pacer keeping us on track. And the tunnel was a nice break from the wind.

I really enjoyed the Boardwalk, the friendly and frequent water stops, the volunteers, the pacers, the 60th Anniversary medal, and the afterparty. I enjoyed seeing first timers get to the finish line and celebrate their accomplishment. I also enjoyed nailing my projected pace through the first 13.1 miles and not even breaking a sweat or feeling tired. I enjoyed the numerous steps and benches that were available to lay on during the final miles of the course. I don't think I enjoyed the mysterious pain that swept through my lower back and right hip that made running and even walking excruciating starting at mile 17. That's not your fault, and it was nice of so many people to come up and ask me if I was okay. Do you think my response of "I'm okay, I'll finish" was too gruff? Glad I stopped to help others during running events, because apparently I was the one looking like I was in distress today.

I don't think I enjoyed watching my pacing, my PR, and my positivity go down the drain. 4:52:59 was not even close to the goal I set 6 months ago when I signed up for this race.
But the pacing and pain issues are on me. I will get stronger and do better in the future.

So here's the thing and there's no way around it. For some reason you continue to invite your friend Mr. Wind to our running dates.
Mr. Breeze would have been nice.
Ms. Gentle Tradewind at the beach would have been okay.
But Mr. All-Day-Wind-Machine blowing 25 mph to 40+ mph gusts that sent sand, debris, signage, and small children all over the place was a bit too much. One time I'm pretty sure I was running forward and ended up moving backwards into a nasty headwind. Hope one of the Race Photo people captured that Kodak moment.
It seems like there is not enough room for me in this relationship given your infatuation with all things wind related.
I'm going to take my slice of pizza at the finish line and start seeing other races in other towns.
It's really for the best.

Wishing you happiness and no hard feelings.
Your friend,

Slogger

 

[jmasgat]

@Slogger Best race breakup ever!

 

[OldSlowGoofyGuy]

I nominate @Slogger for the most entertaining post of the year!

I see you have Myrtle Beach listed for 2019. Be prepared for more wind. At least the course is more or less a loop, so you get equal amounts of head and tail wind. Unfortunately the year I did it (it was in February then), the tail wind kicked in from mile 18 to the finish.

It seems like a common theme that races with Island/Beach/Ocean/Gulf/Bay in the name tend to be windy, at least on the east coast.

 

[Kazrak]

ATTQOTD: Closest I've ever gotten to an open course was a couple "Walk for Wishes" runs that involved one crossing of a not-busy street. (The return route went through an underpass.) I have been on runs on trails/paths that were shared with cyclists and uninvolved pedestrians, but that's not the same as sharing it with cars.

 

[garneska]

So I need to start trail running now. Was planning on a state park on Saturday until I saw a trail race near where my folks live, so I signed up for 15k at Serenbe. I was planning on 10 miles on the trail so I get a supported trail run. It was convenient as I needed to go to my folks this weekend anyways. It seems all those trail runs right now have been races, however am not trying to kill it this time. Just want to enjoy the trail.

 

[FFigawi]

Are those mock turtlenecks??? shudders...I hate all turtleneck type collars. Feel like I'm being strangled.

Yes, they are. I hate my MCM shirt. The design is wonderful, but I only wore it once because of the mock neck.

Sounds like a better option for after the race then.

I'll stick with body glide and vaseline then. They've yet to really fail me.

Chamois Butter works great too

 

[PkbaughAR]

ATTQOTD: All my races have been on closed courses, greenway’s, trails, etc. except for the celebration 10K this past Saturday. There were cones, lots of cones, and several officers directing traffic and helping at many intersections. But then there were unmanned intersections where the cars ended up inside our running lane of cones, with 5K walkers, and 10K runners It was odd to say the least, but thankfully not really dangerous.

 

[dis_or_dat]

ATTQOTD: The Golden Gate bridge and most of San Francisco was open but there were a lot of cones and police officers to direct traffic. Explains the 5am start!

@McNs I've always wanted to visit New Zealand, even before The Lord of the Rings. It looks gorgeous. Also, all those tourist posters in Murray's office from Flight of the Conchords didn't hurt!

 

[McNs]

TMI back at ya.....I use diaper rash cream on long runs, especially in the summer, to deal with very specific chafing in this region. Works well.

Congrats on your race!

Thanks

I used an aerosol called Trislide - it worked really well on the areas I had applied it to. The aerosol bit means it is cold going on though, plus there is the whole directional spraying challenge. It is more hygenic than a stick though so it has that going for it... Main learning though is there is another area that needs managing on super long runs!

QOTD: Good morning folks! How often do you run a race on a "open" course? If you have, do you find traffic to be a issue?

ATTQOTD: We used to have a local half that was somewhat open. Certain parts of the course would be open to traffic, but the roads were rarely traveled except for locals so not much of a problem. Saturday I was on my bike leading the race kinda like a pace car deal. Well the course had a lot of u-turns and on one of them I was paying attention to a road that turns onto the road we were on before the turn since its a highway. Well as I start to turn the 1st place runner yells "CAR CAR CAR!!!". Slammed on my brakes right as the car cruises on by. That was a close one! I think if he did not warn me it would have been way to close, either a ditch the bike or hit the car type deal. I suggested to my buddy that next year we look into having volunteers at the major roads to direct traffic to avoid this situation. Also a little my fault for not making sure a car was not coming from behind. Lesson learned.

In other news, I am finally starting to get over my cold. Thought I could get a good run in this weekend and it was going well until mile 8. I suddenly felt really weak and sat for a minute or two. Tried to run a few times and it was a no go. Very long walk back to my truck. It was a fail of a long run for me.

Last announcement: It's Bama week!! Top 5 match up at night in Baton Rouge! The cajun microwave is pulled out of storage, the hype has been building for a week already! Its going to be a wild day Saturday. Looks like I will need to arrive on campus around 4 or 5 AM to secure my tailgate spot. I will discuss more as part of the Friday Fun Day question. Bama fans, lets have fun this week. I know its unlikely we will win, but I would have lost a lot of money so far if you would have told me we would be at the spot we are at now lol. GEAUX TIGERS!

The Waiheke Island Half Marathon is on open roads. They do stop traffic at the start, and as it is lso the road that goes to the ferry to the mainland some locals get a bit tetchy with the delay. Fortunately traffic isn't really an issue though and there is room to run and have cars go past.

Your last announcement made zero sense to me but I'm guessing it is football related???

ATTQOTD: The Golden Gate bridge and most of San Francisco was open but there were a lot of cones and police officers to direct traffic. Explains the 5am start!

@McNs I've always wanted to visit New Zealand, even before The Lord of the Rings. It looks gorgeous. Also, all those tourist posters in Murray's office from Flight of the Conchords didn't hurt!

It's a pretty cool place to live but sooo faaaar from everywhere. We (me, Mrs McN and kiddos) are not good at making the most of what we have here as our holidays have been to the USA for the last 5 years! In saying that nature travels aren't really our style, we all love Disney and Mrs McN is an expert shopper, so the US fits our vacation style well...

Conchords is terrific but sometimes the caricatures of the three Kiwi's is a little close to reality...

 

[MissLiss279]

Columbia Gorge Marathon Report (10/21/18)

Beautiful!! Fall colors were out. Race officials said it was the best weather they’ve had in the 10 years they have run the race. Started in the mid-40s, highs in the low 70s and sunny.

The marathon started about 2.5 miles from the finish line (the half started and finished at the same location). The first 4.5 miles were on an old road that is only open to foot/bike traffic - very scenic with lots of trees for shade, but also many areas to view the gorge. There were also a couple of tunnels on this section! The next 8 miles took you to the turn around and was on an open road. The race officials did make sure to tell us to run against traffic and that that this wasn’t a heavily trafficked road. There were some cars. Most were very respectful of the runners and would slow down and scoot over. There was at least one car who apparently was not happy we were running on their road because they did not slow down or scoot over too much even though there was plenty of room to do so and no oncoming traffic. This course also had uphills that were 2-3 miles long with maybe about 700 ft elevation gain for the longest uphill. The plus was that this was an out and back course, so anything you ran up, you would also get to run down.

I really enjoyed this race. It was a little short by my watch/footpod - 25.7 miles. This course is also not a BQ qualifier. I think I heard because traffic may not be stopped at some road crossings??? There were people stopping traffic at the turnaround and the one big road that we crossed, but I did hear from friends that they about were stopped at one crossing to let cars go.

Ran with some friends for this race. @LSUlakes my time was 5:12:06.

 

[MissLiss279]

Kansas Rails-to-Trails Extravaganza 50k Report (10/27/18)

I had signed up for this race a while ago because I had a pretty good discount for it, I knew lots of people running it, and I’ve wanted to run a 50k; however, I wasn’t sure if I would actually run it - it was the week after I ran a marathon which was the week after an ‘A’ effort half marathon, and it was homecoming (and the opposite direction of the football game). When the game time was announced that it was a late 7pm game, I thought that I might be able to do both! After my marathon, I was feeling pretty good, so I thought I would give it a shot.

The weather was looking to be pretty good. It was going to start out cool and then warmup to low 70s (kind of hot for running). The course was mainly on a crushed limestone path, a Rails-to-Trails path that was really well maintained, hard packed, with no large rocks. The race started in Ottawa, KS and was on a paved portion of the trail for 3-4 miles (out and back) in town before heading south. The trail was very pretty heading through trees that over hung the trail and provided shade. There were two manned aid stations - the first one you hit twice, once on your way out and then on your way back in, the second was at the turnaround for the 50k.

I made a pit stop at the first aid station, and then I ran too fast for 4 miles to catch up with a couple of friends - I knew this was not a good idea, but I couldn’t stop myself. The last section of trail before the turnaround was more exposed with not as much shade and the sun was more directly overhead and it was getting pretty warm. With about 7 miles to go I started to take short walk breaks at every mile. My heart rate had gotten pretty high for a bit, and then once I took that first walk break, I just couldn’t stop myself from taking short ones each mile. The sun was more in line with the trail, so there wasn’t as much shade on the way in, but at least it was at our back and not in our face.

I was able to finish in 5:52:09, which was under the 6 hours I was hoping for!

I ate a little bit, got in the car, drove 2 hours to my house for a quick shower, and then drove another 2 hours to my football game. I got there right after kickoff, but right before our first touchdown!

This race also offered a half, full, and 100k for the first time this year, as well as their normal 50k, 50 mile, and 100 mile races. If you’re looking for your first Ultra or a relatively ‘easy’ Ultra, I would definitely recommend this race. Very flat and not technical.

 

[apdebord]

Yes, they are. I hate my MCM shirt. The design is wonderful, but I only wore it once because of the mock neck.

My husband HATES turtlenecks, so he took his MCM shirt to a tailor and had them put in a zipper to make it a quarter-zip. Now he wears it all the time!

 

[TheHamm]

ATTQOTD (Monday):

I have had one shared course, and I had no idea it was shared, and I am still not convinced it was supposed to be! 6/10km were through neighborhoods, and there were plenty of people trying to get in and out of their house. I live in a town that shuts down roads all the time so I get it, it is annoying and people do not plan. However, there were several inconsiderate drivers that almost took out runners, which would be the main reason I would recommend the course with reservations.

Follow up on previous QOTD:
As I typed I was going to run the full 10 miles as my weekend plan, I felt a bit more like I had to do it. Guilt? Accountability? I do not know, but it worked. It may have been an easy out question for LSUlakes, it was not an easy out for me.

I did join the local running store's 7am group run and enjoyed it! I ran for 4 miles with a lovely woman who pushed my pace a bit more than I expected, but then I had to veer off route to find a restroom. I eyed her jacket and wish I had asked her about it so I could get my own, it was light weight, good for our sprinkling rain, and had a hole to check her watch. I hope to find one for myself via the amazing internet.
The run also renewed my need for redundant measurements. I often use my watch and runkeeper for reasons I cannot explain. I pushed the button on my watch while trying to relayer and deleted the run data My attempt to do simple addition as I knew when I paused the distance before it was deleted really did not go well as I was trying to not be lost. I almost forgot to use the phone when we set off, so it was about a quarter mile off. Does anyone else use two measurement devices? Please let me know I am not totally off my rocker.
I am home for exactly 2 more weekends in 2018 so I have limited chances for a do-over, but I am glad I tried the group run!

 

[JeffW]

It's a pretty cool place to live but sooo faaaar from everywhere. We (me, Mrs McN and kiddos) are not good at making the most of what we have here as our holidays have been to the USA for the last 5 years! In saying that nature travels aren't really our style, we all love Disney and Mrs McN is an expert shopper, so the US fits our vacation style well...

But you are SO close to Fiji! (I will now spend the rest of the day wishing I could go back...)

 

[michigandergirl]

Is diaper rash cream better or equal to vaseline for long runs? I've found that vaseline works well for me on long runs, but as I want to reduce/minimize/avoid any chafing whatsoever in the marathon, I'm open to testing out something else that may work even better.

I use TriSlide - works great!!

 

[jennamfeo]

I often use my watch and runkeeper for reasons I cannot explain.

I also use both my Garmin and Runkeeper. I use both because Runkeeper has been there from my very first run so it has almost 6 years worth of data on it. I can't just drop that loyalty. Plus I like to hear the cues in my ear.

 

[IamTrike]

Yes, they are. I hate my MCM shirt. The design is wonderful, but I only wore it once because of the mock neck.

There should be a club for people that hate the marine corps shirt.

Conversation that should have happened

"hey you know what, nobody gives out technical mock turtleneck race shirts,
maybe we could do that, it could be a competitive differentiator"

"No Stan, no one is doing it because its stupid. Stupid is not a competitive differentiator"
​

"Maybe we could give out an extra surprise that people would actually want at the finish?"

" Huzzah Stan! beverages all around"​

 

[roxymama]

There should be a club for people that hate the marine corps shirt.

Conversation that should have happened

"hey you know what, nobody gives out technical mock turtleneck race shirts,
maybe we could do that, it could be a competitive differentiator"

"No Stan, no one is doing it because its stupid. Stupid is not a competitive differentiator"
​

"Maybe we could give out an extra surprise that people would actually want at the finish?"

" Huzzah Stan! beverages all around"​

Wait until next year when Stan brings "puffy sleeves" to the table!

 

[Wendy98]

Now that I have 5 seconds of calm in my life ...
NYC Marathon Runners: (@Wendy98, @cburnett11, @whaler8, and anyone else I may be forgetting)
I am volunteering at number pickup on Friday from expo open until 2. Will probably be browsing the expo and/or harassing the people at the runDisney booth for an hour or two after that.
I'll be at finish line baggage on Sunday, also until 2. After that I'll either be near mile 26 or somewhere else in Manhattan, depending on if anyone from my Facebook running group needs anything.
If you see me, say hi! Once I figure out what I'm wearing, I'll post it here so that I'm easier to spot.

I will probably hit the expo late Friday afternoon (flight gets in around 2). I remember bib pickup being pretty efficient. I will look around briefly, but not too long (after just doing Chicago, I feel bad forcing dh to spend time at an expo, especially when it is a 48 hour trip). I look like a runner (always wearing running shoes and GPS watch) and will have a non-running, bored dh (well, he is always looking for free beer samples at race expos).

I don't check a bag and opt for the super cool poncho. I don't know where bag check is, but remember it being a ridiculous hike to get out of Central Park and then dumped onto the road. If I see it on my way out and have any wits about me, I will look for you! My mind is crazy foggy after a race.

I start at 9:50 and hoping to be under 3:10. IDK, there are some pains going on... (an especially annoying one in my glute/butt).

 

[FFigawi]

My husband HATES turtlenecks, so he took his MCM shirt to a tailor and had them put in a zipper to make it a quarter-zip. Now he wears it all the time!

Genius!