Why are the roads so sticky?

I was out for a run this morning and thought about the  handful of friends that I know who were down at Fort Wadsworth on Staten Island waiting for the New York Marathon to start.  It was a chilly day, the sun was out, pretty good race conditions all in all.

So, as I was running I thought back to my first marathon.  It was back in 2002, and I wasn't really what I would consider a good runner at the time.  I had actually started running to try to get into shape (I wasn't very fit back then).  A friend of mine at work, when I told him of my attempts to run, was quick to add support and motivation.  He helped me get my mileage up to a whopping 4-5 miles.  Then up to 6.  Before I knew it I was running 8 miles on my long runs and wasn't feeling too terrible.

Then, one day my friend is in my office and before I knew it I was signing up for the NYC Marathon lottery.  Mind you, I had never run a race before - ever.  Not a 5K or 5 miler.  Nothing.  And I was a little apprehensive to say the least when I discovered that I had made it in.  So I kept on training, adding miles to my long runs, but looking back I had no idea what I was doing.  I had no idea what speedwork, or tempo runs were.  I ran at the same pace all the time.  All in all it was really a terrible training plan.  But, before I knew it I was on a bus heading to Staten Island for the start - wondering what the hell I had gotten myself into.

This is where everything becomes a blur.  I ran 4 marathons after this first one (New York again 2 years later, then Chicago and Nashville ).  I can recall quite a bit from those races, as I think about it.  But my first marathon - my first race of any kind - I can't recall much at all.

I remember being in Fort Wadsworth trying to stay warm.  And when the announcements were made to start making our way to the start, that's where it all pretty much goes fuzzy.  I don't remember much of the start on the Verazzano Bridge at all.  I remember absolutely nothing of running through Brooklyn, or crossing the Queensborough Bridge.  And while I recall it on my second NYC Marathon, I don't remember the huge crowds on First Avenue as you come off the Bridge into Manhattan.  Even running down 5th Avenue and coming into Central Park is a vague memory.  Hell, the finish is something I can't even remember much of at all.  (Although I do remember being really happy that I could stop running!)

What I do remember, the only thing that I can clearly remember, is wondering why the hell the road was so sticky through the water stations?  Having never run a race of any sort before I had no idea what was causing this.  Every water station, by the time I got there, was a sticky mess.  Every mile or so I was so confused as to why the road was sticky.  I could hear it with everyone running through.  I could feel the soles of my shoes sticking to the road.  It made no sense at all. 

It took me 18 miles or so to realize that it was the Gatorade from the water stations that was spilled all over the road from discarded cups.

That's it - that's the only memory of my first marathon....my first race ever.....that I can recall.  The sticky roads.  

As I thought about this this morning I got a good laugh out of it.  I had absolutely no idea what I was doing as I trained for, and participated in, that race.   Nutrition on long runs? Nope.  Hydration during long runs?  Average at best.  Pre-race nutrition?  Pretty poor.  Nutrition during the race?  I think I carried 1 gel with me for the entire race.  I'm not sure how I got through it to be honest.

Oh how times have changed.

I'll be watching the live coverage of this years marathon this morning and I'll be tracking my friends online.  Good luck to everyone who's racing today.

A Ride, a Run, and an Opinion

Seeing as my knee has been feeling better (thankfully) I was signed up for Grete's Great Gallop 1/2 Marathon - a race in New York's Central Park put on by the New York Road Runners.  I was pretty excited to race this after almost an entire summer off of racing and competing.  My running in the week leading up was good, and I threw in a tempo run on Tuesday to see how my pace and endurance was.

It was terrible.

My heart rate was through the roof, and I was going 30 seconds slower than I was during tempo runs in July.  It was quite demoralizing.  Not that I should have expected miracles to occur, but I thought I would have been in a better place than this. 

Saturday morning arrived, and my wife JL  (also running the 1/2) and I were mustering around the house getting ready for the race.  JL has been having some IT band issues, and long story short she wasn't up for race.  As I had resigned myself to using this as a training run instead of a full-on race, I had no problem bagging it and staying at home.  I figured I'd run on Sunday (today) and get a good ride in the books instead of running on Saturday (yesterday). 

Great ride.  Weather was perfect: cool, slightly overcast, and low humidity after a week of tremendous amounts of rain in the New York City area.  My road bike and I really enjoyed the morning (my TT rig is in mothballs for the off-season).  On the home stretch, about 5 miles from my house, I saw a guy walking his bike on the sidewalk.  I slowed down and asked if he was okay.  He said yeah, but his rear tire was flat.  I stopped and asked if he needed a tube or anything.  He waffled a bit, explained that he thought he damaged the valve at home pumping up his tires, and that he was fine and only had 3 or so miles to go before he was home.  He didn't have a spare tube and was fine walking.

I decided that the right thing to do was to up my karma ante for the fall.  I got of my bike and told him to get the rear wheel off.  As I gave him a once-over while we introduced ourselves I noticed that, while he was wearing bike shorts, he was wearing a cotton t-shirt, running shoes, and had flat pedals with toe straps.  It was a decent Specialized road bike, but he was most likely new to the whole cycling thing.  No problem.  5 minutes later I had burned a tube and a CO2 cartridge, but he was up and running and on his way.  Come to find he's the village Judge for my little hamlet.  Hopefully he remembers my name if I ever get into a spot of trouble.

Anyway, Sunday (today) came and I got in a good run.  Only 8 miles on the trails, but I didn't feel like I needed to do any more than that.  I was out for just under an hour and it was great looping through the Leatherstocking Trail section near my house.   The Paine to Pain trail 1/2 Marathon was being held today - I ran it last year, but again, no more racing for me this year - and as I'm familiar with the course it was fun to see all the marking and signage up ready for the athletes.

A nice hot shower later (again, cool temps today) and I did some bike maintenance: new tires on my road bike, and I swapped cleats from JLs' old road bike shoes to her new ones.  A busy, busy weekend!

Oh, and an opinion

This past week, in two days time, I experienced not only an idiot driver on my morning ride but also an idiot cyclist while on the way to work. The idiot driver, while acknowledging that he saw me, felt it prudent to do a u-turn in the road requiring me to lock up my brakes to avoid hitting his car.  At the light that he was then stopped at I asked him if he even saw me (yeah, I got a little lippy).  He said "...yeah, there was plenty of room....shut the f*** up".  Okay, thanks pal - have a nice day!  And to make matters more interesting there was a village police cruiser right behind me during this whole thing.  Clearly not interested in the illegal u-turn or the fact that there was almost an accident.

The next day on the way to work I was crossing the road (with everyone else in downtown Manhattan) outside of Grand Central Terminal.  We had the right of way, and the walk sign was lit.  Yelling to the left of me caused me to pause, as a cyclist in a full racing kit comes weaving through the crowd of people yelling at us to stay out of the way.  Excuse me?  Really? 

In the battle between cyclists and car owners, EVERYONE needs to play nice.  It's unfortunate that the idiots on both sides of the argument make it difficult to find a happy, medium, ground.

Toughman Half Iron - Recap from the Bike Course

As my knee injury earlier this summer caused me to pull out of my last few races this year, I decided to help my friend Rich and I worked the bike course for the Toughman Half Iron triathlon this past Sunday.  I've know Rich for a number of years, and train with his tri club.  Rich is also the race director of the Toughman triathlon, and the mastermind behind it's inception 3 years ago.

It was a little tough mentally on Saturday as we were out marking the bike course - putting up signage and chalk-painting the roads.  I had a few moments where I would think back to last year (when I raced the Toughman) and would think that I should be home resting and hydrating.  But, alas, not this year.

So, Sunday morning my wife JL and I headed out early to our section of the bike course and awaited the other volunteers so that I could assign duties and positions along our section of the bike course.  It was really a perfect day for racing.   Cool.  Overcast.  Dry.  Really just about idyllic conditions.  My volunteers started to arrive and once we were all gathered I went over the key points that were covered in the race captains meeting the previous day: What corners were going to be troublesome, where traffic was going to be an issue, and what corners we would have police assistance. 

I sent everyone on their way, and JL and I waited with another volunteer at our section for the race to get underway.  We were located at about the 24-25 mile mark of the bike course.  I had a sheet of the estimated arrival times for the leaders, both overall and for the subsequent waves, and as the time for the estimated arrival of the leaders came upon us, we split up and headed to our stations. 

Here came the leaders.  Damn….these guys were really moving.  The leader came by and I barely saw him as I stopped cars from coming out of a parking area and waved him through.  He was just a blur with the sound of his disk wheel announcing his arrival.  The gent in 2nd place at the time came through a few minutes later and was really dropping the hammer as well.  Ah, to hold a Pro Card and to be able to devote more time to training!

Then, things got nutty.  As the bulk of the athletes came through it was an hour-plus of constant activity.  Cars and traffic (not everyone as understanding as I would have liked) were getting thick.  We were stationed just outside a popular deli - a favorite oasis for us on long rides.  But also apparently a favorite early Sunday morning stop for coffee and a New York Times.  When I said that people weren't always as understanding as I would have preferred, I wasn't kidding.  A few people, when I asked if they could park across the street instead of in the parking area directly in front to avoid delays and for the safety of the athletes, looked at me as if I'd asked them to chop off one of their hands.  Upon their departure they were quick to spin their tires and spit gravel up as they departed to show what a massive inconvenience the extra 2 minutes had cost them.  No matter.  The primary objective was the safety of the athletes and that's what drove every action that morning.

In the end, even circling our section of the course behind the sag-wagon to pick up signs was fun.  We got back to the race site and were able to see some of our friends who had raced (a couple nice finishes, including a first place AG win for my good friend K.C.) and had a chat with our friend Rich - who finally looked much more relaxed as his 3rd year of Toughman was shaping up to the biggest and best so far.

Bottom line: If you're an athlete and you compete in running, triathlons, bike races, whatever…..you need to volunteer for some local races.  Not just for the fact that it's good to pay back the effort that others have put in so that we can race safely, but for the fact that it's actually a fun and rewarding experience.  I can't tell you how many athletes, while zipping by at 20+ mph would give a quick "thanks" as they went by.  Even one of the top 10 through my zone gave me a thumbs up as he screamed past.  It's important to realize that races of any size can't go on without volunteers.

A final congrats to my friend Rich.  The Westchester Toughman was a great success, again. 

Helping a Brother Out (Sub-plot: Scoring Some Long Run Karma)

We were just getting ready to head out of town for the Labor Day weekend - my wife was out running a couple of last minute errands and I was, well, sitting around doing pretty much nothing.  I ran early with the usual crew (thankfully, the knee is feeling pretty good, so I'm thinking I'm back in the saddle so to speak) and was just relaxing.

When JL (my wife) got home, she said that there's a guy in running gear on the side  of the main road a few blocks away.  He's on his mobile phone and had his thumb out while he was running trying to hitch a ride. 

JL said that she stopped and asked him if he was okay....  His response was that he was a pilot, staying a couple of towns away, and got a call that he was to depart earlier than anticipated.  He had about 5 miles to go to get back to his hotel and he was trying to get a cab or have the hotel send a shuttle.  JL wasn't 100% comfortable just picking him up and giving him a lift by herself (smart girl) and he said he understood.  She told him that she'd tell me what was going on.

I grabbed my keys, jumped in the car, and found him about a mile further on.  He was really moving, He had his cell phone to his ear (still trying to arrange a car or pickup) and looked to be almost in full stride.  I honked, pulled over, and when I looked in the rear view mirror the look of relief on his face was apparent.

The car must have looked like a safe haven for him.  He was wearing tri-shorts, Fuel Belt and a tri top.  Our car has USA Triathlon stickers and Giant Bikes stickers in the back window, and my time trial bike was mounted on the bike rack for our weekend away.

He was very thankful, but was apprehensive of getting in the car as he was pretty sweaty, (it was pretty humid).  I told him to just jump in and not worry about it, this car has seen much worse on race weekends.  Turns out Alex is a pilot for private clients, and the client du jour was looking to leave about 3 hours earlier that they originally planned. He was in a jam and as he usually doesn't stay down this far away from the Westchester County airport he didn't know the area well enough to know cab companies, etc. 

He was 6 miles into a 12 mile run - training for Ironman 70.3 Branson - and with his flight schedule (7 days on, 7 days off) he does what he can while on the road.   He asked about a couple local races - including the Toughman Half Iron triathlon.  As my friend Rich is the race director for this race I gave him my best marketing pitch for him to do it next year.

Anyway, I got him to the hotel as quickly as possible.  Nothing really exciting about this morning except that it made me remember that it's important to give a little good karma back when you can.

Triathlon Swimming Techniques - Redux

Since my recent post on triathlon swimming versus competitive swimming, I figured I'd be remiss if I didn't do some sort of non-scientific experiment, and actually see if I could employ some of the triathlon specific techniques into my next pool workout.  I would have toyed around with things this past Friday during my open water swim but, due to the ridiculous amount of jellyfish bobbing around, changing my stroke wasn't the first thing on my mind.

I'll again preface this with the statement that I'm not an expert, and that any suggestions here are my own - my own opinions - and you should do your own research, etc. blah-blah-blah.....

Well, it was an interesting swim workout on Sunday.  Typical warm-up, some stroke drills, normal stuff.  During a pull set of 200's I started to think about the front quadrant discussion and how I wasn't , most likely, doing that.  I also thought about (as I watched myself do it) the "S" stroke and how most swimmers now don't utilize that technique.  

So I figured, what the hell.  I did the next few 200's focusing on front quadrant technique, no "S" stroke, and keeping my stroke long and extended.  

I have to admit, it was difficult at first.  I was fighting muscle memory and habit.  I had to work harder to keep my stroke even and consistent.  All of which I understood, but it wasn't pleasant.  Eventually, however, I started to get the hang of things and sort of got into a groove.

I felt my forward momentum become more constant - there were no gaps in the force being applied and subsequently there were no gaps in the drive forward.  My stroke began immediately upon my hand entering the water, whereas with an S stroke it seemed as if there was a slight delay.  That could be imagined, but the feeling of forward momentum was much more consistent here.

To make matters more interesting (or worse), I checked my stroke count.  I swear it was 1 to 2 strokes less per length than my normal stroke count (on a typical 200 with standard effort).

Again, I'm not saying that this is a full-on scientific breakthrough, but I'll certainly be spending my next handful of pool workouts focusing on changing some stroke techniques.