One down, one to go

This Saturday was the Hamptons Marathon, which I ran for the Lustgarten Foundation.  It was the smallest marathon I've run, with around 700 people running the marathon, and about 6500 people total running the marathon and half marathon.  As a result, there were times when I could only see one runner ahead of me, which made it feel more like a casual jog than a race. While I had an overall positive experience, there were definitely a few things that stood out to me that could be improved. 

First, while I'm sure it's a great charity, Lustgarten did not do a very good job of organizing the people running on its teams.  I got my singlet two days before the race, and there was nothing sent to anyone running to let us know if people were meeting up beforehand.  Turns out we had a table around mile 18 sponsored by the charity, but didn't find out until I hit mile 18 and someone said that it was our table. 

The biggest disappointment was that there was no way to meet up with anyone else running for them beforehand.  I ran into one person who was running for the same charity solely because he realized I was wearing the same shirt as he was.  We never saw anyone else.  

We stuck together for the whole race, as it turned out that he was running his first marathon, had a goal time in line with my goal to take this race easy so I'm still set for NYC, and neither of us felt like spending 26.2 miles alone.  Because of the small number of people, there were points in the race when we were the only two people visible, which definitely made it a challenge to keep going.  The lack of crowd running made it easier not to get pushed into a pace I didn't want to do, but at the same time, it also made the race feel more like a training run than a race.  

In any case, I came in around 5:10, which is much slower than my PR, but about where I targeted to make sure I didn't hurt myself in the race.  I had some type of flu for about 3 weeks that knocked me off my training for the month of September, so to be honest, I was apprehensive about being able to finish the entire race.  This always seems to happen in September, whether it's illness or injury.  Going to have to kick this pattern eventually.  

So, marathon #3 in the books...now on to #4 and then the challenge of half Ironman training in winter.  Go time!

Time to get serious

Between my last post and now, a ton of things have happened.  I signed up for a second fall marathon which I'm running for pancreatic cancer research, I did my first sprint tri, and I signed up for an Ironman 70.3 with a group of friends.  This is quite the jump from a sprint.  I've got until February to train, as we're making this a destination race and going to Ironman Panama, but this will definitely be a new chapter in my distance event experience.  Beyond the obvious jump from marathon training to a very long tri distance, all of the training for this race will be in cold weather, something I usually avoid.  Should be interesting. 

In order to keep myself on track, I'm going to try to get back into posting here, as I'm sure I'm going to rack up a ton of learning experiences along the way.  

For now, I'm chugging along with NYC Marathon preparations (although my long runs have been interrupted by vacation and a terrible cold), ramping up for the Hamptons Marathon in just 3 and a half short weeks, and starting to plan out how to turn that marathon base into a good start for this tri. 

Here's hoping I get used to running in the cold come November.  

New Year's resolution: touch my toes

So, my resolution may be a bit on the side of hyperbole, but one of my main goals for this year (ie-this year's NYC Marathon) is to take a much more balanced approach to training. I want to take all aspects of it seriously, which I've broken down to mean building a base starting in March/April and consistently holding that through the start of official training in July, taking time to stretch properly so I don't end up with the random end-of-May and end-of-August injuries I somehow end up with, mixing more crosstraining (luckily I have that bike!), and finally starting to work on speed. I happen to hate exercising in the cold, and the beginning of the year is also my most busy time for work, so the first thing I decided to tackle is a bit of flexibility. Enter Bikram yoga. Originally started on a bit of a lark (thanks, Groupon), I actually got to enjoying hanging out in a 105 degree room for an hour and a half at a time and pushing myself until I felt like passing out. While I don't really have any comments on all of the supposed health benefits that you gain from Bikram (claims range from less stress to quicker metabolism through a whole range of random things), I will say that I saw definite progression in being able to hold the actual postures. It was pretty difficult to get through the first few classes, especially when all of the New Year's resolution crowd started coming. Classes with 70 people in the room made it difficult for my lanky self to fit without constantly smacking into people. The current plan is to pick back up with my second Groupon (3 months this time) after some of the New Year's crowd thins out. This will probably be in early March, when work has also calmed down enough to hold to some sort of schedule. Pretty excited. After that, warming temperatures mean it'll be time to turn some of these goals into action. Will sit down and write out more specifics soon, partially as a way to focus myself, and partially as a way to guilt myself into making sure I actually do what I say.