Run to Win

Just like last week last year, most of what I wrote this week centered around the Boston Marathon. This week I described what happened as opposed to what was coming up.

• The website updated automatically as I ran with text alerts, notifying the site about my disappointing finishing time. I missed out on all of my goals, so while the race was a failure it was still well worth running.
• Getting home from the race was far more difficult than running the race. The Nor’Easter left a good portion of New England in a state of emergency. I couldn’t take the train home because the tracks had been ripped up, so I had to take a late bus back to Maine. When I got here, there was no power anywhere in the area except for the penitentiary and the local peeler bar. It took me 5 tries to find a way home where the road wasn’t blocked due to downed trees and power lines or due to flooding, and I only live a dozen or so miles from the train and bus station.
• I continued the April series on Mind Games by sharing a lesson that I learned during the marathon and that directly led to missing my goals during the race. You should never let fear overcome your common sense. I was afraid of the conditions that I might face rather than looking at the conditions that I was facing, and this led to overdressing and being way too warm for a majority of the marathon.
• I described my Boston Marathon experience in pretty good detail, breaking up each part of the experience into a separate article:
  1. The Athlete’s Village
  2. The Race (including a mile by mile breakdown with splits.)
  3. Post-Race
• In running news unrelated to Boston this week last year, over 5000 runners had issues with the heat during the London Marathon. (Conditions were much better this year, with finishing times amongst the leaders dropping by as much as 2 minutes.) Some shot putters saved a woman’s life during a track meet when they looked across the street and saw that her building was on fire. They had to talk her out of trying to stay in the building to find her cats and shared their warm up clothes with her since she wasn’t wearing anything other than her undergarments.
• This week two years ago, I got back to my animated exercise series by describing how to do a bridge. I later expanded on that by discussing the benefits of the bridge as an exercise. I recommended that you always run facing traffic, unless there are local laws to the contrary. I also continued the series on the New Rules of Lifting by discussing the twelfth and thirteenth rules.

This week last year was centered on my preparations for the Boston Marathon.

• I began the week by discussing my taper and race goals, which wound up not being feasible no matter how realistic they may have began as.
• I quickly began to wonder whether the Boston Marathon would be rained out or not. This led to the very relevant question, is it possible to run a PR at a race like Boston? Obviously, that is going to depend on the individual’s level of training and their previous personal best, but this article delved into some of the factors that might make it easier or more difficult to run a good time in the race.
• For a bit of a history lesson, I explained where the name “Heartbreak Hill” came from. It doesn’t actually refer to the difficulty of the hill, because let’s be honest, it isn’t that impressive. The first time that I ran in Boston I didn’t even realize I was on it and had to ask when we’d get to it.
• With 1 day before the marathon the weather forecast began to improve. It looked as though the Nor’Easter was going to go through before the race and only make things miserable while everybody waited around in the athlete’s village. I republished an email from the BAA about how to avoid Hypothermia for anybody that might be interested in the kinds of conditions that had been expected originally.
• In running news and completely unrelated to Boston, I also wrote about how Tim Montgomery was looking at jail time for his involvement with steroids.
• This week 2 years ago, I saw a dumb woman at the gym try supersetting a leg press with a calf press. That strikes me as a quick way to hurt yourself. I also continued through the New Rules of Lifting by discussing the tenth) and eleventh rules.

Thank you for your well wishes and congratulations, everybody. I will have plenty to say about the race and how it went, but it will probably take a few days to get everything available. I will try to get back to everybody that posted a comment or emailed me, but it will take a little while. Maine is basically in a state of emergency.

I called my wife an hour or two after I finished the race (I wanted to make sure she was out of class) and discovered that her classes had been cancelled and that the power had been off and on all night and all day.

When my friend dropped me off at the train station, I discovered that the tracks had been washed out and that the trains were cancelled. Thankfully, he wasn’t too far away and had his phone on him so I was able to get a ride to the bus station.

The highway was flooded in a few places, and there was no power in the Portland area. Driving through Portland is very eery when there are no stop lights, no street lights, no house lights, and temporary stop signs everywhere. One of the only places that had power was the local peeler bar (which seemed pretty busy for a Monday night) and the blocks around it.

I also had to try taking four or five different routes to get home, because the roads were all blocked off. I’d get going one way, and have to turn around and try another. When I got home, I discovered that my picnic table had been blown off of my deck and into a tree. I suppose that that is better than into the brook on the other side of the tree.

Things had not significantly improved today. Roads are still closed, power lines are still lying in the street, the area is still flooded, and rumor has it that the storm is heading back.

It has been an interesting weekend.

Update: A coworker sent me a link to some pictures from work before the office got closed for the rest of the day. They weren’t uploaded with a creative commons license, so I can’t post the pictures themselves here. Some of the more interesting ones include the wind blowing some trees over, the flood in the driveway (there is a four foot ditch right next to the driveway, so that is a lot of water!), and some tree trunks that broke next to some trees that were torn right out of the ground.

The Boston Marathon is tomorrow morning. That sounds strange; this is the first year that the races starts in the morning. The starting gun will be at 10:00 for the first wave of the start, rather than at noon as it has been for the past century or so.

The weather forecast is not looking good, but it is not looking as bad as it did. The latest forecast calls for it being miserable before the race starts, and gradually improving around the time the gun sounds. The chance of precipitation goes from 100% before 10:00 to 90% afterwards. It’s a trend that I would like to see widen!
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Before taking off this morning, I checked my inbox and saw this email from the Boston Athletic Association concerning Monday’s race. It contains some great advice about how to avoid hypothermia when you are running, and how to treat somebody who is suffering from hypothermia. As such, I have copied it here.

April 13, 2007

Weather Advisory – 2007 Boston Marathon

The Boston Athletic Association’s medical team recommends the following precautions and advice for participants in Monday’s Boston Marathon:

FORECAST:
The most up-to-date weather forecast calls for a predicted Spring storm on Monday, including heavy rains (potentially 3 to 5 inches), with the start temperatures in the mid to upper 30’s. Wind will likely be East (in the face of the participants for most of the race) in the 20 to 25 mile per hour range, with gusts to as much as 50 miles per hour. This will produce a wind chill index of 25 to 30-degrees Fahrenheit.

RISKS AND RECOMMENDATIONS FOR RUNNERS PARTICIPATING IN COLD AND WET CONDITIONS:
Combined with the rain, we are concerned that predicted weather conditions will increase the runners’ risks for a condition called hypothermia. As with any athletic competition, as a runner you are assuming the risks inherent with participation. It is your responsibility to be informed about the risks associated with running in the aforementioned conditions, and the risks of injury or illness will increase with these predicted conditions.

While exercising in cold weather, our bodies attempt to maintain core temperature by shunting blood away from the periphery, thus minimizing heat loss. Hypothermia sets in when the body’s temperature drops below normal, starting when the body loses heat faster than heat can be generated. Heat is produced by muscle action and shivering. Very low body temperatures can be life threatening.

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This week last year was pretty light on material, and was very sad for those of us in Maine.

• I continued my animated series by demonstrating how to do a leg press on a 45° sled. We also continued my wife’s weight lifting program.
• I talked about being able to enjoy a rain run in January and suggested that everybody try to enjoy the weather year round. Unfortunately, my weight workout followed by a run in the rain had some dire consequences. The first thing that I did the morning of my birthday was pull a muscle in my neck.
• I described the new elevation profiles offered by GMap Pedometer, a feature that is said to be coming but never seems to arrive at other google map mashup sites. You can expect some new reviews on those sites over the coming months.
• In very sad news, Frank Fixaris died one year ago today. He was a local sports analyst who was beloved by everybody who met him and who had a steel trap of a mind that could tell you anything you wanted to know about any team at any time. His smoking was what killed him, but not in the way everybody had been telling him.

This week last year was dominated by baseball, with a few fitness tips and a story about some stupid referees.

• A lot of people have found Run to Win by searching for an article about a legless football player named Bobby Martin who got tossed during a game for not wearing knee pads.
• Postseason baseball was in full swing, and I talked about 5 ways for the Red Sox to beat the White Sox and vice versa. At the end of the week, the Red Sox were eliminated.
• FIFA investigated putting RFID in soccer balls for tracking goals.
• I got up on a pulpit and complained about people that go into calorie deficits rather than eating a balanced diet in an effort to lose weight.
• I reviewed the Running Dog Sports shoe store; they have since closed up shop, though, and been folded into the Maine Running Company.
• I discussed different options for running in inclement weather.

There were also some minor tweaks and improvements done to the site, some of which I believe have been undone.

Whenever possible, get outside and enjoy the weather. It can do wonders for clearing your head, especially in the winter time when we spend most of our time indoors. When I lived in Florida, I used to set up my weight bench in the car port to my workout. I hate running inside, so most of the time when I run in the winter it can be fairly miserable out there. The trick is to find the times when it will not be miserable and make sure you get outside on those days.
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