Run to Win

Olympic 5,000 and 10,000 meter runner Kara Goucher has announced that she is going to make her marathon debut at New York City this year, and that she has been planning on running it since she rode in the media vehicle during last year’s race.

“Last year when I watched the race first hand, I decided I wanted to run in New York,” said Goucher. “The ING New York City Marathon is one of the most prestigious, and the course is challenging, so I’m excited for my first marathon to be this one. I have a strong emotional connection to New York, as it is where I was born, where my family lives, and where my father passed away. This one will be personal for me and my family.”

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Just a quick note that if you entered the lottery for the 2008 New York City Marathon, the results are available. Just do a search for your name in their entrant database:

http://webapps.ingnycmarathon.org/entrantsearch/

Good luck for anybody that tried to get in through the lottery!

Thinking of running in the New York City Marathon, but don’t want to wait for the lottery to find out if you get to run? If you belong to the New York Road Runners, then you may be used to obtaining a guaranteed entry by competing in at least 9 of the 50 events put on by NYRR each year.

This year, if you want to qualify for the 2009 New York Marathon, then you will also have to volunteer for at least one of the 50 other events that NYRR puts on.

The volunteer requirement was initiated in 2008 to support NYRR’s community service mission and our goal of encouraging volunteerism among our members. In addition, adding to our corps of race volunteers will help NYRR meet the NYC Parks and Recreation Department requirement to ensure a safe and cooperative race environment at the more than 50 events NYRR stages each year.

I think that this is a great change. Volunteering at races is a lot of fun, and perhaps by exposing people to the joys of being involved in the other side of the race they will be able to recruit some new folks to regularly help out at events.

And if people don’t feel like volunteering and resent this new requirement? They still have options. They can always try to get into the race through the normal lottery system. They can also try to run the qualifying standard for guaranteed entry before they register, which at the moment stands between 2:55:00 and 4:13:00 depending upon your age and gender. There are also charity options for guaranteed entry.

I ran the marathon in 2006, and I really enjoyed almost everything about the race. The NYRR put on a good event.

(Further Reading: NYRR Member Requirements - General Requirements & Application)

After a few days off from the site to run the marathon (during which time I got a lot of traffic, surprisingly enough), I wrote up my thoughts and experiences from New York City while Scott began the next month’s topic on injuries.

• The first thing to note about New York City was that the crowds disappointed me. Until the last few miles, I have never seen that many people that had so little interest in what they were watching. I’m sure that they were more animated for the leaders ahead of me and for the crowds behind me, but I have never once had so much trouble trying to get a crowd to react to me. On the whole, though, the race was a lot of fun and I really enjoyed the experience.
  1. Pre-Race Experiences
  2. Race Experiences
  3. Post-Race Experiences
• In other racing news, RIT placed 3^rd at regionals, while the women’s team had a team-history best 6^th place finish.
• Scott began out month of injury articles by discussing the difference between strains and sprains, as well as the most common causes of each and (more importantly) how to recover from them.
• Dean Karnazes used New York as his final marathon in the Endurance 50. Of course, as soon as he finished he decided to run home from New York. He didn’t make it, but he’s still been busy over the past year.
• This week two years ago, I answered a common question that I am asked about whether you should lift first or run first? I try to lift first whenever I can, unless there is a workout-specific reason to swap the two. I also reviewed the GMap Pedometer. It has been updated quite a bit over the past couple of years, but it still lags behind some of the other solutions that are out there and that are much better. A third article that I wrote this week two years ago discussed how important it is to act like a child on occasion in order to stay fit and healthy. Getting burned out is so much more difficult when you are actually enjoying what you are doing.

The following race recap was written by Ryan Pancoast, who traveled to New York City to watch the trials this morning. Ryan is an illustrator who maintains a studio in Stanford, Connecticut. Last weekend, Ryan set an almost 20 minute PR in his second marathon. For more information about Ryan, to see his online portfolio or to hire him for some custom work, visit his website at: www.ryanpancoast.com.

Wow. As I’m writing this, I feel as if I am in limbo, somewhere between amazement and sadness. The 2007 Olympic Marathon trials in New York City was both a testament to the strength of the human body, and a sobering reminder of its frailty. I don’t know how exactly to approach this race, or why I feel compelled to be so philosophical. But today has affected me in a way that has left me emotionally drained and curiously, ready to go for a run.

I should focus on the amazing athletic performance that I witnessed. The 2007 OT was the greatest race I have ever seen in person. I went into the city with my former coach from Bunnell High School, and we got to the west side on Central Park at around 7:15. The sun had not yet risen, and the air was cold; perfect marathoning weather in my opinion. I hoped that the rain would hold off, both for my sake, as I didn’t want to huddle under an umbrella, and also for the sake of the race. I felt that if it rained, the pack would stick together longer and the best marathoners may not make it to Beijing if the 26 miles turned into a kicker’s race.

We stood at the 2.5 mile mark with a fairly large crowd of supporters who had started to line the course. The Brooks-Hansons supporters were already there with their cardboard cutouts of their teammates, and many had painted their faces with the distinctive red and yellow checkerboard pattern. When the pack finally passed us, they were so fast and the light was so low, I didn’t see a single person I recognized; just a mass of humanity running at (a pedestrian) 5:30 a mile. We dashed across the park to see them 3 miles later, where the pace had significantly dropped, separating six men from the chase pack and the rest of the field. All the favorites were there for the first few laps: Ritz, Hall, Abdi, Meb, Browne, Culpepper. Leading the chase group was Sell, Fasil, and Kannouchi.
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Ryan Hall broke the men’s marathon olympic trials record by over a minute in his dominating win over the rest of the field this morning. He ran 2:09:02, beating Dathan Ritzenhein by 2 minutes and 5 seconds. Brian Sell was another half minute back, securing a position on the Olympic team with a 2:11:07. That is over 3 minutes faster than his previous best.

The pack ran together for 17 miles, when Ryan Hall broke out with a 4:32 18^th mile. Nobody in the race even came close to him after that. Dan Brown was running in 3^rd place for a long time, but some cramping in his calves caused him to drop back. Khalid Khannouchi finished in 4^th place to secure the alternate spot on the team.

I was a little disappointed with the streaming video of the race. It took me until after 9:00 before I could convince the website that I was trying to watch the race from the United States, so I only got to watch the last 8 miles or so. I am looking forward to the race highlights on NBC at 2:00 this afternoon so that I can see what happened in the early miles.

Update: My condolences to the family of Ryan Shay, a former Notre Dame runner who collapsed half an hour into the race and was dead on arrival at Lenox Hill Hospital. (Read more at NBC Olympics)

New England Runners:

• 07. Nate Jenkins, Lowell, MA, 2:14:56
• 19. Matt Pelletier, Warwick RI, 2:17:17
• 28. Patrick Moulton, Rochester MI (formerly of Pelham NH), 2:18:35
• 54. Steve Meinelt, Winchester MA, 2:22:40
• 61. Terrance Shea, Cambridge MA, 2:23:44
• 83. Casey Moulton, Pelham NH, 2:28:29

The full results are now available online at: USATF Olympic Marathon Trials Results

This week last year I began my final preparations for the New York City marathon and completed my marathon preparation series.

• I finished up the series on rest by describing how to time rest during a workout. I described different types of rest, and gave a few tips that I use to measure my rest as I am working out.
• I got out in my neighborhood for my first Halloween run. The nice thing about Halloween is that drivers are being careful as they drive. The not so nice thing is that there are twice as many drivers as usual. I did not run on Halloween this year, though, as I felt a few days off after my marathon were called for.
• I described how the starting corrals work at New York City. It is a good thing to understand how they work, especially when you want to run with a friend in a different corral. I also provided a guide for how to single me out and cheer for me at the race. The article is made more useful by the fact that it linked to quite a few resources for cheering for any runner, and not just me.
• This week two years ago, I wrote about planning your workouts. You are much more likely to stay on track if you know what you are supposed to do ahead of time. I also wrote about The Bike Shop, where children can build their own bikes and learn how to maintain them in an effort to teach fitness and responsibility. The owner “sells” the bikes for $5 to local kids, teaches them how to maintain them, and brings them on group rides. If there is not a similar program in your community, perhaps you could consider starting one?

Casey Moulton
Photo #58 by Don PentaTomorrow morning, the men’s Olympic Marathon Trials will begin at 7:35 EDT. 179 men have run qualifying times to compete in the event, and only 3 of them will be able to continue on to the 2008 Summer Games in Beijing.

The race will be more interesting than usual because only 138 of the athletes have qualified by running a marathon. This will be the first marathon for some of the other 40 runners, who were able to qualify for the trials this year by running a fast 10k or 5k.

The only way to get an “A” qualifying standard was to run a sub 2:20:00 marathon. A sub 2:22:00 marathon, 13:40 5k, or 28:45 10k would qualify for a “B” standard, which gives an athlete the right to compete in the trials but not to any assistance getting there.

NBC will be covering the event throughout the day (as well as the New York City Marathon on Sunday) and will be streaming the event over the web from start to finish. There will also be a recap on your local NBC affiliate from 2:00-2:30 p.m. EDT.

The course starts at 5^th Ave and 50^th, and takes a 1.5 mile trip through the City before getting into Central Park. The course inside of Central Park consists of 5 loops, the first of which cuts through at 72^nd Street and the rest of which follow the outer loop. The race ends at the Tavern on the Green.

Here are a few relevant sites to check out tonight and tomorrow morning before the race starts:

• Watch the Race - at 7:25 tomorrow morning a link will go live from this page that will begin streaming the race over their website. The Olympic Trials are free; if you want to watch the marathon on Sunday, then you will have to pay $5.
• List of Eligible Athletes - all of the athletes that have run a qualifying time (and where) and are eligible to compete this weekend.
• Runner Bios - learn more about the race favorites.
• NBC Olympics Marathon Page - News and links on the trials by the broadcasters.
• USATF Marathon Trials News - News and links on the trials by USATF.
• Course Map (pdf) - download the course map.

We have a very strong crowd this year, so I hope that Central Park can provide some good entertainment and that it will bring forward the 3 best contenders for next year’s games. I really hope that we can bring home a medal or two in this event.

Good luck to Casey and Patrick Moulton! They both ran their qualifying times at the Freescale Austin Marathon in February of 2006. I’m not sure if I have ever raced Patrick, but Casey has beaten me pretty handily a few times.