Run to Win

It has been an interesting week since winning the Cox Sports Marathon this past Sunday. Thanks for all of the comments and congratulations over the past week. It has meant a lot to me, whether it has been in person or on the phone, through email, comments on this site or on others. It’s been a pretty good week that way, and I appreciate it a lot.

Now that my goal marathon for the Spring is out of the way, my next goal is to finally run a sub-16 5k this Summer or Autumn. I have 3 races targeted starting in late August, so my priority for the rest of this month is to recover from a relatively tough training schedule over the past 6 months. It has been one of the most strenuous winters in terms of how much work I managed to get in since I graduated from college, and was well worth it. Now, my body needs a little break.
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This weekend saw the first running of the Cox Sports Marathon in Providence, Rhode Island, along with the Willow Tree Half Marathon and the New Balance 5k.

The weather might have made for a slightly tough 5k, but it was ideal for long races such as the half marathon and the marathon. The average temperature was in the low 50s with a high of 54°_F (at least by noon.) The race got off to a wet start with a gentle drizzle that turned into a mist early in the race.

The temperature noticeably warmed up once the precipitation stopped, but the sky remained overcast and a slight breeze throughout most of the race kept the runners from getting too over heated.

Being the inaugural running of the race, all of the winners of all three races were guaranteed course records. After the race, one of the race promoters asked me to email her some suggestions on how they can improve the races next year, so I am going to intersperse my suggestions along with this race report in the hopes that it can help out another race director that is trying to get a new race going.

The Expo

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The Road Runners Club of America has elected their new officers and board members this weekend, and Mark Grandonico has been elected as the Eastern Region Director. Congratulations, Mark! Mark is currently the president of the Maine Track Club and has been on the RRCA Audit Committee for two years.

(More Info: RRCA - Photo Credit: Don Penta)

I now own a marathon course record.

This week last year and two years ago was a busy one. This week this year I am on my way to Rhode Island to run a marathon. Have a good weekend!

• This week last year, I finished up the series on Mind Games by discussing how how your body controls your thoughts. In a reversal from what you usually hear, it’s matter over mind.
• I also asked how well you can you can estimate the duration of your runs when you head out the door. Getting lost is not such a bad thing, but it can be stressful for your loved ones when you don’t come back when you are supposed to.
• Asafa Powell came down with tendonitis and had to miss a few weeks of racing. This year hasn’t shaped up to be very good for him either, as he is out right now with pulled muscle in his chest.
• In other running and track news, Justin Gatlin worked out for the Buccaneers in an attempt to turn his track speed into NFL speed.
• I described (and showed a video for) how to do the “300″ workout, which was a right of passage for the actors in the movie. Very tough, and not something that you’d want to do regularly.
• This week two years ago, I continued my animated workout series with instructions on how to do a swiss ball bridge, continuing the discussion on swiss balls throughout the week with why you would use a swiss ball in the first place and the difference between balance boards and swiss balls. Discussion about the Coast to Coast book continued, with a few reminders about the contest to win a free copy as well as a review of Coast to Coast. There was also the first guest article here at Run to Win, written by the photographer on the Coast to Coast relay. I continued my thoughts on the New Rules with the sixteenth and seventeenth rules.

Well, it has been a very busy day as I prepare to head down to Providence this weekend for the Cox Rhode Island Marathon. I ran an easy 2 and a half miles at lunch time to stretch the legs out, and despite my best efforts to leave work 15 or 20 minutes early I was in a groove and wanted to finish the project I was working on so I left 15 minutes late. (This is not unusual, unfortunately.)

My plans for the weekend originally called for staying with a friend and his brother down in the area. My friend decided to buy a house today, though, so he didn’t really want to go down. Not a problem, because I had another friend that was running the marathon and I was going to split a hotel room with him. Unfortunately, he got injured. So I was back to staying with the original friend’s brother, but he is now going to be out of town this weekend. I found that out tonight, so I got a hold of my injured friend and he canceled the hotel room this morning. It made for an interesting start to my evening. I did sort out my hotel arrangements eventually, though, and I’ll be staying at the original hotel after all. Hopefully I can still take advantage of the 3:00 checkout time.

If anybody is going to be in Providence this weekend and wants to try to meet up, send me an email or leave a comment on this article. I will try to check it before I leave tomorrow morning, and will probably check it tomorrow afternoon or evening after I get to the hotel.

I do not have an overly specific race plan for this weekend. My original range of goals involved an 8 minute span, but since one of my teammates did so well in the Olympic Trials that I now have about a 2 minute goal span. I am going to aim for running at around 6:00 to 6:10 pace and hoping that if I do wind up blowing up in the latter stages of the race that I at least run a PR. That shouldn’t be too tough, and if everything breaks well for me then I’ll make my goals.

As you can see from the elevation profile, there’s a few good climbers but the course never gets over 150 feet above sea level. I’m hoping that my winter hill running through the snow will make this seem like a flat enough course with just enough variation to keep my muscles from getting overworked.

I had a couple of good weeks at about 60 miles since I ran ING Georgia, but my cold came back in the past week and I have been fighting off my cough. It is mostly gone now and I don’t expect it to be a factor during the race, but it did cause me to taper a little more than I would have liked to have before this race. Better to be a little undertrained than at all overtrained, though, so let’s hope I feel nice and rested come Sunday. There have been plenty of phantom and taper pains over the past week or so, but I don’t expect any trouble from my legs on Sunday.

Wish me luck!

Don Penta and David Colby Young’s photos and videos are now all online for this year’s Safe Passage 5k.

You can view them over at Maine Running Photos.

Here are the links:

• Photo Set 1: Pre-Race & Starting Line
• Photo Set 2: Finish Line (First Half)
• Photo Set 3: Finish Line (Second Half)
• Video 1: Interviews & Starting Line
• Video 2: Awards Ceremony

As mentioned earlier, you can also preview Beth Rand’s photographs of the race if you are interested in purchasing any of the ones that she has taken.

(Photo Credit: Don Penta)

About a month or so ago I was in touch with a gentleman at Ball Dynamics, a Colorado based manufacturer and distributor of the FitBall^® product line. They sell a variety of swiss balls and medicine balls and accessories, which should be a staple in any athlete’s home exercise equipment.

In exchange for this review, they sent me their Pressure Points™ product, which are a couple of hard rubber balls that are used to put pressure on various parts of your body when there is nobody around to massage you. There are 20 points on the body that are the most sensitive and conducive to acupressure. These points were chosen by acupuncturist and program creator Marc Coseo. Along with the two balls, the package comes with a poster to help you find the 20 different points and a DVD that leads you through finding each point within about a 30 minute timespan.

The packaging for the product recommends that you use the Pressure Points™ system to warm up muscles before athletic activity and to help relieve muscle soreness or back and neck pain. Prior to receiving this product, I have used similar methods as what are described to self-massage some of my muscles, especially on the bottom of my feet.
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