Run to Win

This week last year covered a lot of news, and I answered quite a few reader questions.

• This week last year started off with The Running Shoe FAQ, which explained why runners wear specialty shoes and what makes them different from normal walking shoes.
• I answered a question from an aerobics instructor about how to treat posterior shin splints, including what they are, how to best treat them, and how to prevent them from coming back.
• I was asked “What is the difference between swiss balls and medicine balls?” by Susan. Swiss balls are the large inflatable balls that you can sit on, while medicine balls are the small weighted balls that you can use in place of dumbbells. For good measure, I also explained what a bosu ball was.
• Some friends of mine ran the Vermont 100 mile race last year for the first time, and all three have continued on for their ultramarathoning endeavors. In fact, there were 5 guys who went to Vermont last weekend to compete in this year’s event from our training group.
• On the news front, the IAAF finally agreed to work with Oscar Pistorius to determine whether or not his prosthetics give him an advantage. I also provided a new wrap up that covered stories about new Junior American records, doping at the Tour de France, Disney’s move to ban smoking in their movies, and a study that found that obesity is contagious.
• This week two years ago, I continued my series on how to ice sore muscles by explaining how to give yourself an ice massage and how to use an ice bath. I spent a little time exploring the cost of racing and how much race registration fees can cost. I also discussed how gastrointestinal problems are affected by running.
• This week three years ago, Lance Armstrong won his final Tour. I also gave some tips about proper hydration and how to time rest intervals while lifting weights.

There are thousands of runner’s who write about their training, their racing, and their sport. Some running websites have thousands of readers, others have hundreds, and the rest have only dozens. No matter how many readers a runner’s site has, though, they can still write passionate reports about the races that they have run and the fun and adversity that they have faced.
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Photo by Ian ParlinThe Vermont 100 Mile Trail Race was this past weekend on July 24^th. The top three Maine finishers all belong run with the Trail Monsters, a running group in the greater Portland area that runs local trails every week and race in the local mountain series.

Stephen Wells was the first Maine finisher in 20:27:37.80, and was 15^th over all. He overcame cancer a few years ago and has been doing all of the endurance events that he never thought that he would do before he was diagnosed.

James Demer was the second Maine finisher in 23^rd place over all. His finishing time was 21:10:07.00. He came by to the Trail Monsters group run this evening with his daughter and puppy, but he was just walking around on the trails.

Jamie Anderson rounded out the group in 36^th place over all with a time of 22:09:55.50, which is very impressive only 3 months off of knee surgery. He wrote a very detailed race report that is well worth taking a gander at. He walks through the day from waking up at 3 a.m. to taking a short 1 hour nap after finishing and then watching more people come through the line.

Andy Jones-Wilkins won the race with an impressive 9:32 pace, almost exactly an hour off of the course record time. He ran the race in 15 hours, 53 minutes and 45 seconds. Mary Churchill was the first woman to finish with a time of 19:41:13.80. There were 142 finishers. Other Maine finishers within the 30 hour cutoff were Maurice Kelleher (25:54:00.70) and Sarah Heck (27:42:09.60).

(Full Results – Photos)

There were basically three topics on my mind this week last year. The Vermont City Marathon, the Complete Running website, and Lance Armstrong.

• I ran the Vermont City Marathon in Burlington over Memorial Day weekend last year. I had a lot of fun. You can read about the Vermont City course, as well as take a look at all of my splits for the race. I also wrote up a summary review about the marathon and how it was organized.
• At this point in the season last year, I still thought that I was going to be running two marathons two weeks apart in the Autumn. As such, I ran in the Back Cove 5k on Wednesday night despite having run a marathon on the previous Sunday. The race series has a website this year: http://BackBay.RunToWin.com
• The Complete Running website had a few ups and downs; their “running blog recents” functionality was a huge resource hog that wound up costing more than it was worth. Despite upgrades, they just didn’t have the horsepower to keep the service up. Eventually, the entire site went away to be replaced by the Complete Running Network, and has recently replaced the running blog recents functionality with an RSS feed handled by a third party.
• In doping news, Lance Armstrong was exhonerated and an impartial judge found that not only was there no evidence that he had cheated but that the entire thing had not been handled in a professional or legal manner. Lance also took Bode Miller and Dick Pound to task in Men’s Journal. He predicted in the article that the witch hunt wouldn’t stop, and he was right.

The Vermont City Marathon was the most part a very well run race. I have a detailed course analysis already written, and here I would like to touch on a few other aspects of the race.
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Here are my splits from the Vermont City Marathon this past Sunday. I did not get a split at mile 26, so the last split is actually for 1.2 miles or around thereabouts. Also, miles 7 and 11 did not get clicked until I was a bit past them as I was busy sucking down goo and getting water as I went by, which means that those two miles are a bit long and miles 8 and 12 are a bit short. You can also add a bit over a minute to my split at mile 15, since I stopped my watch while I was in a port-a-john. Here are the splits, which do a good job of reflecting the hills:
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The Vermont City Marathon has a very spectator friendly course. My fiance was easily able to see me run by 6 times. The course is also a bored runner friendly course, because there are no multi-lap segments. You do cross over the same points more than once, but only once are you going in the same direction and that is for less than a quarter mile total. There are 5 places where you actually double back on a road you went in the other direction on, one of which is a few miles long. The course is not flat by any means, but there are only two large hills. The biggest uphill stretch is going by Battery Park around mile 15, and the biggest downhill stretch is around mile 21½. The rest of the course is a series of rolling uphills and downhills where your split time will reflect the hill, but your body doesn’t necessarily notice the grade. There is only the one downhill stretch where you worry about the jarring that you are getting. Here is what you can specifically expect as you move along the course:
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The Vermont City Marathon is this Sunday. The race begins at 8:05 in the morning (unless you are a wheelchair participant in which case you start at 8:00 am sharp), and some time around 11 am I should be coming through the finish line. It is a loopy type course that looks like it will be good for spectators as you cross through a central point a half dozen times. You do not actually do a lot of doubling back, though, which is nice. It looks on the map as there is a 6 mile stretch early in the race where you do an out and back on a highway, and that the rest is a lot of small loops.

I am looking forward to the race. If anybody is in the Burlington, Vermont area then keep your eye peeled for me in my Maine-Run to Win racing singlet. Feel free to cheer me on.

*UPDATE* I was lazy and don’t have anything ready for the weekend. Catch you all next week.