ODDyssey Half Marathon

I was hesitant to sign up for the ODDyssey half marathon as I figured I would be in full triathlon training mode at this point and didn't want to risk an injury. After getting some great training in while I was in Myrtle Beach and attending the open water swim clinics at Camp Ockanickon, I was feeling really good about my triathlon training progress. Plus coming off my impressive Broad Street time, I wanted to keep my running speed up. I figured that doing another half marathon, my third one this year, should only help with my triathlon training. I knew a lot of my friends from the WPR were doing it too which influenced my decision.

As the race date got closer the temperatures and humidity began increasing. I think we were spared the worst of it by having an overcast sky at the start of the race, but the humidity had people sweating pretty good in the first mile. I went to put my sunglasses on but they fogged up immediately so I just left them on my head. I started off well with a pace around 8 minute miles and was running near Heeju for the first few miles. That wouldn't last for long as I ate her dust when she blew past me around Mile 4. When I came up from Mile 3, Arwin was at the circle taking pictures of the WPR runners. As I went to wave for the picture, I noticed that I was running right next to Flint from the WPR. We ran together for a little bit and talked about how the humidity was going to be a killer. I wasn't sure if I could keep the pace up or not with the humidity.

We passed the Please Touch Museum where the the start and finish line was located. As we wound down onto West River Drive, there was Alon cheering everyone on and taking pictures of the WPR runners. The first water stop on West River Drive was being manned by Students Run Philly Style volunteers including Matt and Rich. It was great to see some familiar faces for some extra motivation.

As I was running along West River Dr, my pace started quickening. I decided to go with it and see if I could keep it up as the course was pretty flat there. When I came to the first turnaround I saw that Dan was just ahead of me. I caught up with him around the half race mark. We jockeyed back and forth for next three miles. That's when the humidity, and probably the Plyo workout that I had done two days prior, made my legs very heavy. By the last turnaround on West River Dr, I had to do some run/walks to give my legs a break. I was able to get it going again until I hit the big hill at the 12.5 mile mark. I only walked once on the hill and for a few seconds at the top to catch my breath. Once my lungs were ready, I got the pace back up as I passed Arwin in the circle again. I knew that a final sprint would get me a time under my goal time of 1:45:00. I had good long strides going and could see the clock ahead. I  hit my goal with an official finishing time of 1:44:43. I knew I had it but it's another race where I left time on the table with having to walk which was disappointing. I need to get that cleaned up and run a complete race.

ODDyssey has a great post race bash. Sly Fox was pouring free beer into beer glasses provided by the race sponsors. I took advantage of this nice race benefit and got my money's worth of Sly Fox. I almost stayed too long as I wanted to get a free post-race massage. They were closing up the massage area when I stumbled over, but one of the therapists took me in and I got a awesome 10 minute massage on my legs. It felt incredible and I wish I would have gotten one before the race. The race medals are pretty cool replicas of the Liberty Bell and have a bottle opener built into the medal. Very cool!

Bullying the Broad Street Run

The Broad Street Run in Philadelphia is one of my favorite races. It's a fast 10 mile race and starts out with a gradual downhill for the first five miles and then flattens out for the last five miles. I have always posted my fastest paces in Broad Street. The race sold out 35,000 spots in 4 hours so it's definitely become one of the most popular races in Philly and maybe even the US. I was lucky when I signed up that I got right in and registered when the registration opened on February 14th. Some of my friends had to wait through server crashes and general slowness when they tried registering. This year's race was extra special for me as the date marked the one year anniversary of my left knee surgery. I was nursing a pulled quad in my left leg, another softball injury, so I had an ace bandage wrapped around my quad to keep it stable during the race.

The race set up very well this year in that it was overcast at the start and a tad on the cool side. I got onto the subway fairly quickly and got to the start with plenty of time to warm up and use the bathroom. I was put into the third corral for the start which is always nice to be with faster runners. This race can cause traffic jams of runners if you get into a wave with a lot of slower runners. Right on cue, Dan met me in the corral prior to the start. The start was very smooth and the runners thinned out pretty quickly. Dan took off and I just tried to manage a pace with the flow of the runners around me. I didn't see the first mile marker but when I got to the second mile, I noticed that my pace was 7:30 minutes per mile. My first thought was here I go again, starting out too fast and knowing that at some point I won't be able to keep that pace. My goal was to finish under in 1 hour and 20 minutes which is 8:00 minute miles. I just kept at it mile after mile and my pace was still the same.

I rounded City Hall and knew to keep an eye out for Ed Rendell as he's usually around the Union League cheering on runners. He was a little further south of the Union League but I got in a high five with Ed as I went by. My 7:30 pace continued through miles 6, 7, and 8. By the time I hit the ninth mile, I thought that I still have a lot of gas in my tank and was feeling great. I picked up the pace for the last mile. I passed the stadiums and was quickly in the Navy Yard. The Finish line is a little hard to see in the Navy Yard but I had an idea on how far up it would be so when it came into view, I went into sprint mode to finish strong. I could see the clock and knew that I would easily be under 1:15. My final time was 1:14:25. My last mile was right under the 7:00 minute mark. It was a very satisfying and gratifying race.

After the race I gather with some of my friends from the West Philly Runners at the Dunkin Donuts tent in the Navy Yard. Everyone was stoked about their races. We were all debuting our new WPR tech shirts which were easy to spot on the race. I noticed James in his shirt around Mile 8 and we chatted briefly until he went on. Unfortunately, I was unable to attend the WPR post race celebration because I was heading out for vacation to Myrtle Beach. Needless to say, I was beaming the whole drive which made the nine hour drive go by in no time.

Cobbs Creek 5K

The Cobbs Creek 5K (http://cobbscreek5k.com) is a race that is co-sponsored by the West Philly Runners. All funds raised from this event are dedicated to outdoor recreational activities within Cobbs Creek Park for children and youth. The running group had worked with the park staff to clean the trails in the weeks preceding the race. The course was in great shape and was part asphalt and part trails in the park. The race attracted 150 participants on a gorgeous Saturday morning. I didn't really train for the 5K as I was deep in training for longer distances races coming up, so I figured I could use it for some speedwork.

I started the 5K at a pretty quick pace. Once I got onto the trail, it was a little more difficult to navigate on some of the gravel patches and potholes in the trail.  The runners were spread out pretty good by the end of the first mile. I was running on my own with no one close in front or behind me. I think I was doing slightly under 7:00 minute miles for the first two miles. There was a slight turnaround near the second mile mark where it was easy to see how far in front and behind people were. I looked back and saw Heeju and Flint were about 100 yards behind me. The third mile was a little tougher as I was kind of winded but continued at roughly the same pace. As I came down the final stretch, I could see a runner pretty far in front of me but didn't see anyone behind me. Knowing I really couldn't catch him, I settled in to finish comfortably. When I was able to see the clock, I picked up the pace to finish the race in 22:30. I think the final times in this particular 5K were a little slower than a normal 5K since we had to navigate the gravel on the trail.

The West Philly Runners had a great turnout that day and stole the awards show. Aaron Roche and James Ceronsky finished 2nd and 3rd in the Men's division (and overall). Heeju Sohn and Julia Wroebel came in 1st and 3rd in the Women's division. I placed 14th overall and I was the Master''s Champion as the fastest finisher over 40 years old. I did get some gift certificates for winning my division, but the only trophy's that were presented went to the first place Men's and Women's champions, not the old people division. Heeju and I, pictured below, were looking good sporting our blue shirts and black shorts before we went to get our awards.

As the post race award ceremony wound down, the West Philly Runners gathered for a group photo op after a successful race all around...

Doylestown Duathlon

In preparation for my Olympic triathlon, I noticed in an email from Mid-Atlantic Sports of a race named the Doylestown Duathlon. I thought this would be a good race for me to try out to help me to prepare for the triathlon. The duathlon is composed of a 5K run, 25K bike ride, and a second 5K run. It's almost the same distance as a sprint triathlon except it starts with a run instead of a swim. You do have to be a USA triathlon member of pay the $10 one-day pass fee.

The weather in early-April can be iffy but with the winter that we had, I felt that it should be good for this type of race. It was a cool day but certainly not as cold as the St. Petersburg race, tolerable by all means. I got up to Lake Nockamixon early on Saturday morning to make sure I left plenty of time to pick up my registration stuff and get my transition area ready. Once I got my bearing on the course setup, I brought my bike into transition and started setting up. Not really sure what I was supposed to be doing, I watched other people setting their gear up. I chatted with a few people and felt that my bike and everything were good to go. I waited for the pre-race instructions and then got ready to start in the race. This particular race had a first-timers wave so I signed up for that start and was grouped with other first-timers, people over 50, and the Clydesdale division (I think it's anyone over over 225 lbs.). The only downside was that we were the last wave to go off although I think there were only four waves in front of us. The other odd thing I thought was the race was chip-timed but there was no starting mat, just some guy telling us when to go.

I wanted to start the 5K off with a good pace but not get out too quickly. That only lasted for about a half-mile. I was in the back of a pack of 8 runner at the front of our wave. I felt the pace was too slow so I started picking them off one by one. Eventually, I got right up behind the wave leader around the end of the first mile. I could tell he didn't want to give up position as he picked up the pace as I started pushing him. Unfortunately for him, he winded himself out by the end of the second mile and I cruised past him. I kept my pace strong but I also got a little winded with about a half-mile left. For my own confidence sake, I really wanted to be the first person from my wave into the transition. I succeeded in posting the fastest time in my wave with a run of 22:41.

The transition to my bike was smooth but maybe I took my time a little too much (1:16). I got onto the bike course and started out pretty well. The course featured rolling hills so there were some good uphill sections. I have a decent road bike but I could easily see how superior some of the other bikes were as I was being passed by some people as if I was standing still. The back end of the course had a couple big hills that slowed me down as I tired from the biking. My bike time was a much slower time of 59:13, which when compared to others in my wave was 7-8 minutes too slow. I got back into transition and dropped my bike off and got out to start the last run.

The last 5K was a bit of a challenge, especially at the start. Just changing from biking to running takes some time to get used to so I tried to manage my pace until my legs were back into running mode. I know I will have to practice this as I'll be in for the same thing when I do the triathlon. My legs finally caught up to what I wanted them to do and I finished the last 5K run well. I passed several people again and finished in 24:19. After the results were all tallied, I came in third among the first-timers wave. I placed 133 out of 248 people.

My running time was comparable with the finishers ahead of me, but I got killed on my bike time. It's good to know where my strengths and weaknesses so that I can work on areas that need improving. Plus, I'm pretty new to biking so I had some ideas on how to improve my biking for the triathlon. The bottom line on this race was that it was a great learning experience and I felt that I performed well for being a first-timer to a multi-sport event.

DC Rock 'n Roll Half Marathon

This would be my second Rock 'n Roll event in the calendar year and would earn me my first Heavy Medal from the Competitor Group. I'm signed up for two more of their half marathons, Philly in September and San Antonio in November. I had some company with me this race as four other people from the West Philly Runners were also doing the half-marathon. Dan and Mike were doing the full-marathon, while Julia, Casey and myself were doing the half-marathon. The race was scheduled for St. Patrick's Day, March 17th.

We left Philadelphia at 1PM on Friday to get down to DC before the Expo ended. Since this was a Saturday race, the Expo was closing on Friday night. Dan, Julia and Casey rode down with me and they stayed with one of Julia's friends. I just got a room in Crystal City by Reagan Airport as the rooms were pretty inexpensive in that area. We made it to the DC Armory where the Expo was being held and it was a zoo. The traffic outside was crawling along and we weren't totally sure on where to park. Of course, we parked where there were a bunch of other cars, and got a ticket because we weren't supposed to park there. We were in and out of the Expo quickly as we all wanted to get something to eat and get settled where we were staying.

I got down to my hotel and checked-in without any problems. I planned to meet with my friend Shane for dinner. Shane had recently moved from LA to DC for a job. His wife and children are still in LA but will be moving out soon. Shane and I grabbed some dinner in Alexandria and he offered to give me a ride to the race the next morning. After a quick dinner and agonizing over some of my NCAA tournament picks, I settled in for the evening at my hotel room.

Shane picked me up early Saturday morning and we actually got to the race course pretty early. I had plenty of time to drop off my stuff at the check-in and head out to my corral without rushing. My corral was the third one to start but I had to walk past the last 22 corrals which was a pretty long walk. Right on cue as I got there, Dan showed up and we hung out in the corral waiting for the race to start. We looked for Mike as he was supposed to be in our corral too but we didn't see him. The race got off to a good start. Dan and I didn't run together since he wanted to conserve energy for the full-marathon and I was trying for my elusive 1:45 goal. The race was very picturesque running through some of the quaint neighborhoods in DC, near the Capitol, along the National Mall and Washington Monument. One thing that I wasn't quite prepared for were some of the hills that were on the course. I had thought DC was flat but there were a couple of challenging hills on the course. I ran with the 1:45 pace group for most of the race but eventually lost them on one of the bigger hills around Dupont Circle.

My pace was really good this race and I was managing 8:00 minute miles for most of the race. I walked through the water station at Mile 11 and my right knee was bugging me a little bit so I took another short walk around mile 12. I was heading toward the Finish and of course, the race had to end at the top of a hill which slowed me down a little. I got through the hill and finished it off in a time of 1:46:15. I missed my goal again but I ran a pretty complete race. Opposite of the St. Petersburg race, the weather was warming up quickly as the race went on. I was glad that I only did the half-marathon as it was sunny and warming quickly for the people doing the marathon. Dan decided to drop down and finish the half-marathon and Casey finished just behind me. We all met in the Family area at the letter W for West Philly Runners. Mike did finish the full marathon in a time of 3:29, the guy is a running machine. 

After we all gathered and headed back to clean up. We spent the rest of the afternoon having some beers and celebrating a gorgeous St. Patrick's Day out on the town in DC. I spent one more night at the hotel in DC and we all drove back to Philadelphia on Sunday morning.

St. Petersburg, FL Rock 'n Roll Half Marathon

After running the Rock 'n Roll Philly Half-Marathon, I saw that they have a Heavy Medals program http://runrocknroll.competitor.com/heavy-medals where they give you additional medals as you enter multiple Rock 'n Roll event. I thought the heavy medals looked cool so I figured I would run some of their races this year to get some while I could also travel to places that I've never run. The first race that I signed up for was the inaugural St. Petersburg half-marathon because it's near my parent's house in Florida and I thought it would give me a nice break from the winter weather in Philly. The weather in Philly had been surprisingly mild this winter and I was able to get outside and do a lot of training runs during the winter months.

The trip to Florida got off to a rough start which would be the theme for the entire weekend for me. After boarding the plane at the Philadelphia airport, we were told that the plane would need to be deiced and that would cause us a delay. No problem I figured, so I called my parent's home phone to let them know that the plane would be late. No one picked up so I just left a message on the house phone voicemail. The flight ended up landing about 45 minutes late in Tampa. As I turned my phone on there were six voicemail messages for me. My stepfather had to be admitted to the hospital caused by a swelling in his leg from a blood clot. He recently had hip replacement surgery and then had a stroke while doing physical therapy for his hip. My mom left me a message that she wouldn't be able to pick me up and called some of their neighbors and arranged for me to get a ride with Rich and Marianne, who were going to be in the Tampa area anyhow. Unfortunately, they didn't know the plane was going to be late so they waited patiently for me to finally get there.

I came out of baggage claim and was able to spot them pretty quickly in the Arrivals pickup. They took me over to the Expo at Tropicanna field to pick up my race stuff. The Expo was right on the baseball field where the Tampa Bay Rays play which I thought was pretty neat. My only complaint with this race was that you had to pay $10 to park at Tropicanna Field to go to the Expo. We were lucky and found a spot right outside the parking lot so we didn't pay, but I had prepaid for a space on race morning to avoid any hassles. I eventually got to my Mom's house late in the afternoon and waited for my mom to get home from the hospital. After she did get home, she had to bring glasses to my stepfather in the hospital so we stopped by the hospital before going to dinner at the Inn on the Gulf. It was good to see him but he was certainly not happy being in the hospital.

I woke up early on race day because it's almost an hour drive to St. Petersburg from my parent's house. plus the race organizers were closing the parking lot at 6:30 AM so I wanted to make sure that I was parked before then. I had kept an eye on the weather all week and saw that it was supposed to be in the 40's on race morning which I thought would be perfect for running. Luckily at the last minute, I threw my long running pants, a sweatshirt and running gloves into my suitcase. I don't know if it was really 40 degrees or not, but I'm quite sure with the wind chill it was closer to 20 degrees. It was not comfortable at all and since I knew I was very chilled, I could only imagine how the Floridians were coping with it.

The race got off to a good start, even with the cold weather, and I found the 1:45 pace group so I tried to stay with them. Around the fourth mile, I started having severe intestinal pains. I gutted it out for two more miles hoping that it would pass but at the six mile marker I saw some port-a-johns and  made the stop. The pace group was going a minute faster than they should have been at that point so I didn't lose much time and still could have made my goal of 1:45. The course winded through some neighborhood streets and then came to a park that runs along the waters of Tampa Bay. This is where it would get really cold as the wind blowing off the water was just a biting, frigid cold. I wasn't comfortable to begin with and I was really feeling it going around the St. Pete Pier. My time was slowing again and I didn't think 1:45 would be possible so I just kept gutting it out and trying to get it over with.

One the funnier things that happened during this race was that I needed to check in for my Southwest flight while the race was going on. Around the 12.5 mile mark, I had the Southwest app on my iPhone loaded with my flight info so that I just had to press a button to check in for the flight. It actually worked well and I was in the "A" boarding group for my flight back home the following morning. Nearing the end of the race, I saw the Finish line but just didn't have anything for a sprint to the finish. I gutted out a 1:48:17 time which was a slight improvement over my last half-marathon but below my expectations. After finishing, I had the race photographer picture me Tebowing as that was the latest trend. I wanted to do it right before the Finish line but there were a lot of people and it might have been dangerous.

The course was great, just the weather made it very tough run, but you can't really control that. I chalked it up as a character building race and hope that it would help me be better in future races. The post-race concert was headlined by Flo-Rida. I had previously arranged to meet up after the race with Mark Bagley who is a Delta Chi fraternity brother from UPJ and lives in Tampa with his wife Mandi. They both ran the race and we met up at the beer tent and then headed over to Ferg's for lunch. It was great catching up with them since it had been about 20 years since I graduated and last seen him.

On my way home, I called my mom to see if she was at the hospital with my stepfather. He had actually been discharged and was resting at home. I guess there really wasn't much they could do with him so they sent him home. It was good seeing him when I got back to the house after a disappointing race. I guess all's well that end's well. The next morning, I was up early again to catch my flight home.

Philadelphia Half Marathon

The Philadelphia Half-Marathon/Marathon on November 20th came about two months after the Rock 'n Roll half-marathon. I was hoping to be back to full strength but while I was training since the R 'n R half, but I realized that was still unrealistic. The pain in my calves from the natural running form had subsided, which that was certainly a relief, but the speed and endurance would still need more time. With that in mind, I set my goal to simply beat my previous half marathon time and finish around 1:50:00.

The morning of the race was cool but very comfortable for a race in mid-November. As I started the race within the first quarter mile, I was tapped on the shoulder by Dan Kennedy from the WPR and ran with Dan for the first seven+ miles.We were running at an eight minute/mile pace which was faster than I wanted, but figured if I could keep this pace then I would end with a pretty good time.

It wishful thinking on my part to maintain that pace and as we turned onto 34th street before the eight mile mark, I started fading going up the hill past Drexel University. Dan continued on and I just tried to keep a good pace going to finish the last five miles. As I passed the Philadelphia Zoo, I felt a strange sticking sensation on the bottom of my foot. It was like every step that I took, the skin was sticking to the bottom of my shoe. It a huge blister in the making. It seemed like each step was becoming more painful than the previous step. The last few miles I had to take a few walks to relieve some of the blister pain in my foot.

I came around the Philly Art Museum and had some gas to finish the race strong with a sprint to the Finish. I think I wanted to get it over with as the blister was driving me crazy. I finished under my goal with a time of 1:48:51 with an 8:18 min/mile pace. I was certainly happy with the result but kept thinking about what could have been had I not gotten that blister.