Run to Win

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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In a continuing collaboration with Scott over at Straight to the Bar, we will be writing about some things that you might be able to do locally throughout the month of April. This week I will wrap things up by sharing some ways to find local races, especially inaugural races.

What is an inaugural race?

Inaugural races refer to the first time that a race is run. That could mean the first race in a series, but it usually refers to a race that has just been organized for the first time. Brand new races can sometimes be hard to find, but it can be worth it when you find a good one.

Why would you want to run an inaugural race?

The best reason to run a local inaugural race is so that you can become a streaker. If the race lasts, and many races don’t, then you can become one of the few people who have run in every single one year after year. After a decade or so, the race organizers will usually start recognizing the folks that have supported them year in and year out.

Another reason to run in an inaugural race is that it may not yet be very popular so it can give you a good opportunity to compete in a good race in a small crowd. That might mean that you can score an easy age group award or even set a course record, which is always worth bragging rights.

One thing to be aware of, though, is that races don’t always get things right in the first year. If the organizers are experienced then you won’t have anything to worry about, but you may want to arrive early and with plenty of your own amenities just in case it takes a long time to register or there isn’t adequate water or post-race refreshments.

How can you find an inaugural race?

There are a few ways to find out about them, and you can use these methods equally well to find out about established races if you aren’t sure what is in your area at any given time of the year.

1. Join a local club, team or running group and make sure that you get their newsletters and are on their email lists. You’ll get notifications about new races and requests to volunteer pretty consistently. Up here, the Maine Track Club is very good about keeping its members informed of any upcoming races or volunteer needs.
2. Keep an eye on your local USATF chapter. I keep track of both the New England and Maine websites and goings on. If you live outside of the United States then you will obviously want to follow your local governing organization instead.
3. Visit a local running shoe store. They may have a bulletin board available for race directors to pin their flyers, and will at least advertise any races that they are involved with or are sponsoring.
4. Go to other local races and always peruse the table set out for fliers belonging to other events. Any race director worth his salt is going to get his race onto the tables at as many other races as possible to drum up some interest. Especially in small local races, there usually aren’t any fees so it may be the only marketing that a new event will be able to afford to do.
5. Subscribe to a local magazine (in my case, New England Runner) and keep an eye on the race calendars listed in the magazine. You can also check their websites. The bonus of subscribing to a regional magazine is that every month or two you can read about the local news and look for pictures of people you know or race against.
6. Look for races on running websites such as MarathonGuide.com, , Active.com and similar sites to see what shows up near you on their calendars.
7. Subscribe to Google Alerts for keywords about races in your area. For example, you might set up a weekly search for “races in Portland, Maine” for local races near me.
8. Keep an eye out in your local newspaper for articles about new races. Most sports sections will list upcoming events on at least a weekly basis.
9. Last but not least - ask fellow runners what they’ve heard of. Runners are a pretty chatty bunch, and if your running partners are starting their own races they might know somebody who is or have at least heard of a new race in your area.

So those are the methods that I use to find out about new races, or any races in my area. Sometimes they can be tough to find out about until after they have happened since new races tend to have small budgets and their is not usually a lot of word-of-mouth buzz around them.

Is there anything that I’ve missed that you think aught to be included on the list?

Leave a comment below.

This week last year was filled mostly with racing news, and what wasn’t racing was related in some way to swimming.

• I offered 9 methods for counting laps in the pool. I usually use the buoys on the lane dividers.
• A revolutionary in the shotput in the early 50s, Parry O’Brien died of a heart attack this week last year while he was swimming in a masters 500m freestyle event.
• This week 2 years ago, I demonstrated how to do pushups, suggested that you ride your bike with traffic, discussed tapering for a 10k, and first learned of the Endurance 50 Challenge. I also continued my thoughts on the New Rules of Lifting with the fourteenth and fifteenth rules.

The Safe Passage 5k was this morning, with little to no wind, a clear sky, and cool but warming temperatures. There were 392 finishers. Ethan Hemphill led a string of 4 Dirigo runners to win the race in 15:29, with Suzanne Ray taking the women’s race in 19:07.

The race raised almost $11,000 for Safe Passage, an organization that provides educational resources to children in Guatemala City. The race was started by and now memorializes the Safe Passage founder Hanley Denning, who passed away in a car accident before the 2006 running of the race.

(Full Results - Race Photos)

One of Trevor Graham’s athletes that has tested positive for steroids has had her career restored after appealing the drug tests. Her case has been under review and appeal since 2006. LaTesha Jenkins can now compete again now that she has both won her appeal and WADA has dropped it’s appeal of the overturned charge earlier this week.

The decision makes it official that Jenkins is the first athlete to beat the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency on a drug charge. The two-time world medalist tested positive for the steroid nandrolone at a meet in Brussels, Belgium, in July 2006.

A three-person U.S. arbitration panel had ruled against the USADA in December. It said results of her test were compromised because both European labs testing her sample violated international standards that require the tests be run by two different technicians.

While it is hard to give any athlete that is caught and that was coached by Graham the benefit of the doubt, I am glad that Jenkins has managed to come out on the winning side of this argument. While I hope to see effective measures against doping put into place, I don’t want that to come at the expense of the athlete’s rights. Any time that a lab does not follow every rule and law for the safe and secure handling of any samples from an athlete, then that sample needs to be disregarded.

(More Info: ESPN)

What do you do when you aren’t motivated to run, or when your schedule gets interrupted and you have to miss a workout? If you are like most runners, then you try to make up that workout later in the week. I definitely recommend against doing that, especially when you are tapering for a goal race such as a marathon.

With Boston out of the way, the Spring marathon season is under full swing. Over the past couple of weeks, I have been getting a lot of questions emailed to me from people who are wondering how best to taper, and what they should do about missing workouts for one reason or another.

In general training, if you miss a workout, then just move on. You really don’t need to worry about 1 or even 2 missed workouts as long as you don’t try to double up later in the week. There’s no reason to risk an injury for one workout. If you are consistently missing workouts, then you should look into rearranging your schedule (either running or otherwise) so that you can find a way to get your workouts in when you are supposed to.

If you are tapering for a race, then any individual workouts that you do are designed just to keep your legs fresh. You aren’t going to get a lot of additional fitness in the last few weeks before a race, while you can easily prevent yourself from recovering from any lingering muscle damage. Trying to double up your speed or long runs right before your race can also prevent you from properly hydrating or restoring your muscle glycogen stores so that you can race at peak efficiency.
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I have uploaded my photos from the women’s Olympic Marathon Trials. I have not had time to title or tag them all yet, but they are in chronological order if you’d like to browse through them.

You can view the entire set by going to:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/45929840@N00/sets/72157604682112162