Run to Win

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 recap for what I wrote this week last year is a little late this week, but I decided that a weekend off now and again is a good thing and went down to Boston to visit the circus. There was a lot that happened this weekend, between the heat and debacle at Chicago to the Maine Marathon and Half Marathon. This week last year, there was also a lot of racing news…

• My favorite DIII college team was ranked 23^rd in the nation after RIT placed 2^nd at the Geneseo Invitational. Across the planet, there was the Phedippidations world-wide half-marathon, which is taking place this weekend this year. In local racing, there was also the Presidential Road Race in Kennebunkport and Craig’s Cup 5k cross country race.
• Speaking of the Craig’s Cup 5k and the World Wide Half, I used those races as preparation for the New York City Marathon to great effect. I began the day with a 5k cross country race, which I then ran home from. I guestimated where the half-marathon mark would be for the world wide half and ran a 16 mile cool down all told, which brought me to over 20 miles on the day. I think that this workout was one of the best ones that I had leading up to New York City before I began my taper.
• I explained the difference between active and passive rest and why it matters to your workouts. In a slightly more opinionated vein, I shared my thoughts on banditing races, and attempted to explain why I run.
• I discovered that RIT does not hold the transcontinental record for running from the Pacific to the Atlantic. It turns out that one of my current teammates ran the relay a couple of decades ago in a faster time. It is a moot point anyway; the Guinness Book of World Records thinks that the activity is too dangerous to encourage and no longer lists it. Because running for a couple of weeks is so much more dangerous then spending your life being so overweight that you can’t fit through your door to leave your room.
• This week two years ago, I shared a story about Bobby Martin, a legless football player that was ejected from a game for not wearing knee pads. I also shared some tips about working out in inclement weather.

Don’t forget that today is the final day to enter my contest for a gift card good for 180 mp3 downloads. You can enter simply by leaving a comment on the site; I will be choosing a winner by random drawing this evening.

Rather than writing on different news notes that I have noticed from over the weekend, I thought (for the sake of brevity) that I’d just link to the interesting articles.

• Saturday evening, I went to the RIT at Bentley hockey game. RIT lost by one point, 7-6. There were probably about 8 or 9 RIT fans for every Bentley fan. It has been a long time since I have painted my chest for a sporting event, but myself and a few friends decided to be a little cold while watching the game. The night before they had clinched the Atlantic East title, so RIT was giving their 3rd string goal tender some minutes. It is only their second year as a Division I program, so they are not eligible for post-season play until next year.
• The commissioner, a few owners, the players association and a few players in the NFL sat down to chat about how to clean up some of the off-field shenanigans and negative publicity that has been plaguing the NFL the past few years. The players thought that there should be a three strikes and you’re out policy. Apparently, they feel that it is hard to be in the wrong place at the wrong time over and over again.
• In cycling news, Jan Ullrich announced his retirement and plans to be a consultant rather than a competitive biker. He still maintains his innocence, and his involvement with the Spanish doping ring was dropped, but the damage to his reputation had already been done. He is still facing legal action in Germany for “fraud against the public.”

Have you ever wondered what it is like to be a part of an athletic program that has recently moved from Division III to Division I? RIT’s hockey program is in their second season of Division I, which does not leave them eligible for the post season until next year when they finish their probationary period. However, this does not mean that they can’t try to win their division. Jim Mandelaro of the Democrat and Chronicle went behind the scenes at a recent win against UConn to describe what it is like throughout the day of the program.

The Tigers are the surprise of the Atlantic Hockey Association, but this is a weekend on the brink. Friday’s stunning defeat concerns Wilson. Immediately after that loss, Wilson and his assistants watched the game on tape until 11:30 p.m. “He wouldn’t have done that if they had won,” says sports information director Steve Jaynes. “It really bothered him.”

Wilson calls it “the most frustrating loss of the season.”

“We have to turn it around tonight,” he says.

I have only gotten to one RIT hockey game since I graduated, and that was a women’s game up here in Maine. I am planning on getting down to Boston for the last game of the season (possible for the last two games) and to watch a track meet that is also happening that weekend. I recommend taking a look at the article (linked below) if you are interested in seeing the pictures or reading the hour by hour summary of the day.

(Source: D & C » An inside look at the Tigers in their second year as a Division I hockey team)

The RIT men’s cross country team is well on its way to prominence, placing 3^rd in the NCAA district qualifying meet for next week’s race. Jesse Williamson led the way in 25:35 with a second place finish to Plattsburgh’s Matt DeShane. DeShane won the race in an impressive 25:10.

NYU won the meet with 67 points, followed by Cortland with 73 points, RIT with 102 points, and the College of New Jersey with 105 points.

The RIT women’s cross country team had their best performance in their short history, placing 6^th with a team score of 214 points. RIT’s first points were from Trisha Slicker, was 16^th overall. She covered the 6k course in 23 minutes and 09 seconds. Liz Montgomery of Geneseo won the race by 5 seconds in 21:17. Geneseo was first with 46 points, followed by the College of New Jersey with 80.

The RIT women’s team was created as a club team my sophomore year there, and has only been a varsity sport at RIT since (I believe) 2001. Both Trisha Sliker and Jesse Williamson were a part of the 2004 Coast to Coast transcontinental relay.

(Men’s Full Results – Team Results – Press Release – Women’s Full Results – Team Results – Press Release)

The new singlets for the River Road Rats will debut at the Marine Corps Marathon on October 29^th this year. The River Road Rats are the official team of the RIT Alumni.

Five gentlemen from the cross country and track teams that have graduated over the last 4 years or so will all be running their first marathon in an effort to win the team competition. I believe that they have a very good chance of doing so, since most of them will more than likely run under 3 hours and last year’s winning team averaged about 3.5 hours.

The singlets will also make an appearance at the New York City marathon a week later, but there will only be two of us running that day and we will not be competing in a team competition.

My RIT Tigers made the front page at the NCAA website this week with their performance last weekend at the Geneseo Invitational.

The RIT men’s cross country squad, ranked 23th in the latest NCAA Division III poll, finished second out of 18 teams at the Geneseo Invitational cross country meet hosted by SUNY Geneseo at Letchworth State Park on Saturday, Sep. 30. SUNY-Genseo, ranked fourth in the nation and the hosts of the event, barely nipped the Tigers, finishing with 34 team points to RIT’s 36. SUNY Brockport was a distant third with 108 points.

RIT is doing really well this year, and has been moving up the polls. I have raced in the Geneseo invitational a few times while I was in school, and it is a flat and pretty fast course. It is in a beautiful national park, and really condenses the race down to the flattest and least intriguing course that they possibly could.

(Full Results – NCAA Article – Polls)

I just got an email from one of my teammates at Dirigo, Peter Hall. He is interested in reading Coast to Coast, a book about my former teammates who set the transcontinental relay record in running from the Pacific to the Atlantic. Pete pointed out to me, however, that the record that they were shooting for was not in fact the record anymore.

I was surprised to read that the trans-america relay run record that RIT set in 1979 referred to as the record; it is not. In 1983 I was on a team called “Team St. Lawrence” which set the record, over I believe the same route, in 12 days 1 hour and 35 minutes. Our run would appear to still be the existing transamerica world record by 2 hours and 13 minutes over the 2004 RIT team time of 12 days 3 hours 48 minutes.

(Click here to continue reading…)