Sunday, 7/14/2013 to Saturday, 7/20/2013 - Boilermaker 15K & O SPF Trail Half Marathon

I ran 4 times this week, 29.57 miles.
I biked once this week, 12.44 miles.

Sunday, 7/14/2013: Boilermaker 15K, 9.42 miles, 1:18:30, 8:20 pace, 73F, 89% RH, sunny, calm

Alas ... I didn't get any sleep on Saturday night. Christine and I got to bed around 11 PM. It was 84F in our bedroom. Once she started to snore at 12:45 AM I got up and went to the couch. I set my phone as an alarm for 3 AM but I worried that I wouldn't hear it if I fell asleep. So ... I turned on the TV and stayed up. I woke Christine up at 3AM and we got ready. We left the apartment at 4:03 AM and soon made it down the Park n Ride at the 31F exit of I-490. We were on bus 2 of the 2 buses that the GRTC organized. Wilt Alston, the president of the GRTC, checked all of us in and off we went around 4:30AM. We arrived in Utica around 7:15 AM. The Boilermaker is a point-to-point race so Christine stayed with the bus while everyone disembarked close to the start. I got my bib and soon was lost in a sea of the 14000 runners who signed up for this race. I eventually found that my fuchsia bib had its own corral which was pretty close to the start. Speed does have its advantages, though my start corral didn't have anywhere to run to warm up. Just before the race, they dropped the rope holding us back from two other corrals in front so we moved up even farther.

Looking forward .. the flag is the start.

Some random pics that I gleaned from the Utica newspaper ...

Soon the race started. First we watched others run ahead of us, then we walked, then we trotted, then we half ran and then we ran. I crossed the start line about 30 seconds after the official start. I tried to start out slow but ... as usual, I didn't. Miles 1 and 2 were at 7:54 and 7:52 pace. The oppressive heat and humidity plus lack of sleep got to me very early. I started doing a run/walk at about mile 2.5 and up the hill into the golf course, miles 3 and 4 were 8:18 and 9:03. I especially enjoyed the mile of downhill from the golf course at mile 5, 7:06 pace! I fell back into a run/walk, mile 6 was 8:21 pace as I took a gel at mile 6. I was able to gut out the rest of the race because of this. I just put my head down and endured. Miles 7, 8 and 9 were 9:55, 8:29 and 8:24 pace. The spectator support during the latter half of the race was very nice as were the 19 water stops on a hot day. I thought before the race that 19 was excessive ... not after the race! People were calling out, "Go Fleet Feet" and "You can do it, Fleet Feet" when I took my walking breaks which helped me pick myself back up to what pace I could muster.

A sweaty runner!

Meanwhile way, way up in front ... Kiper and Kiprotich jockeyed for the lead

I finished many minutes later in 1:18:07

After mile 9 I knew that the finish was a downhill which was nice, 7:32 pace over the last 0.3 mile. The finish had us split to either go right or left. There was a walk of at least a tenth of a mile before I found any water, then I had a couple of fruit cups where tasted heavenly. Soon I found the post race party and beer ... which tasted especially nice on a hot day! Now that I think back, I had no trouble with either my right Achilles or my right rib ... nice!

After I finished ...

Some of the many finishers ....

Christine's phone had died so it was tough finding her in the crowd which got worse for a couple of hours before it dissipated. But I did eventually meet up with her and our bus at the back end of the Family Greeting Area. Silly me ... I was looking in the front end.

All told it was a nice first Boilermaker. This was my first "big" race with thousands and thousands of my closest runner friends. Some Utica Observer Daily links: Sports: Boilermaker, Increased security, humid heat highlight 36th annual Boilermaker, The links may or may not open since the UOD may want to sign you up for their digital newspaper.

Officially, I did OK. Not my fastest 15K but it was what my body allowed me to do on this hot and humid day. I finished in 1:18:07, 8:23 pace, link here. I was 1979th out of 11371 runners and was 74th out of 449 in my M55-59 age group. I was not happy about the run/walk parts. I was not prepared as well as I could have been. I should have had a few more gels. But I did it!

Additional sad news: a female cyclist was in guarded condition after a bike accident after today's Musselman in Geneva, link here.

Monday, 7/15/2013: 12.44 miles, 53:153, 13.3 mph, 84F, 62% RH, sunny, calm, no stops, no pain.

A techie blog note: I finally found how to get all my links that I deposit all over my blog to automatically open in their own tab, link here. I Googled it and found it in seconds, of course. It took a bit of head scratching to figure out how to add it to my Blogger template but it was easily done once I did.

Garmin Connect Activity for 12.44 mile bike around the streets of Webster

My darling Christine had her therapist appointment out in Webster so I loaded my Trek FX 7.2 on the car. I biked out down Phillips Rd out to Lake Ave, back on Salt Rd and then around the Xerox complex for just under a hour while she had her appointment. I definitely didn't want to run today since my thighs were a bit tight from yesterday's Boilermaker 15K.

Tuesday, 7/16/2013: 6.2 miles, 53:20, 8:36 pace, 90F, 46% RH, sunny, calm.

Garmin Connect Activity for HHH 10K around the streets of Irondequoit

Yes, it's hot, hazy and humid. It's July. Yes, I could have stayed inside and let the couch win. But ... I didn't. I dallied a bit but I got out there for a nice and easy run on my usual 10K route. I had to stop about halfway to get some grit out of my right shoe. But I stopped I started sweating. It was tough getting back to running. As soon as I stopped back at the apartment I started to sweat. A couple glasses of cold water, a fan and a cold shower cooled me down. My darling Christine cooked up her delicious BLTs ... yum!

Our apartment has a wall air-conditioner in the living room which we don't run because it is mostly ineffective unless we run it 24/7. It doesn't reach the bedroom plus we don't want huge RG&E bills. So ... our bedroom was 86F last night. Just a bit uncomfortable ... enough so that we don't even want to touch each other.

Wednesday, 7/17/2013 - Friday, 7/19/2013: Life, heat and humidity get in the way.

Wednesday was a rest day, Thursday was a "shoulda" night, Friday was "vollie" night for packet picket at Fleet Feet Ridgeway for the Shoreline Multisport Festival this weekend and packet pickup out at The North Face in Victor for the 0 SPF Trail Half Marathon on Saturday. I am not running the Shoreline Half Marathon on Saturday but will be running the 0 SPF out in Victor instead. Shoreline Half .. been there, done that twice. I needed a change of pace plus I have never run the Crescent Trail.

Saturday, 7/20/2013: 2 runs of 0.55 and 13.4 miles, 73F, 73% RH, overcast, a bit of a breeze if you could find it.

The hot weather broke over night but not the humidity. I heard the rain and dreamt of running a trail race in the race. I woke up around 6AM. Soon my darling Christine and I were down opposite The North Face for the first 0 SPF Trail Half Marathon.

Garmin Connect Activity for Warmup before the 0 SPF Trail Half Marathon
I got out for a little warmup run to get my legs warmed up.



The race started promptly at 8:04AM. The course was your basic out and back. It all a bit of blur but here is what I remember. The start was uphill and warmed us up quickly. There was a lot of ups and downs as the trail wound across some roads, between houses, alongside businesses, into the woods for lots of singletrack and open fields, across wooden bridges along with the usual amount of mud, dirt, roots and rocks. As I ran towards the turnaround it seemed that there was a lot of down and just knew that there would be a lot of up on the way back. I knew I was near the turnaround when I saw runners coming back toward me. I had a slice of watermelon at the turnaround. By now I was kind of tired. But I walked what ups I had to and ran the flats and downs. The last hill named Spark Hill because of the high voltage tension wire on it was never ending. But eventually I did get to the finish line after 13.4 miles and 1597 feet of climb overall. I managed not to fall but I did catch myself once.

Within 1 mile of the start

Gustavo shouted "Hey, Doug" and snapped this picture

Walking up Spark Hill

Turn right and it's all downhill from there to the finish!

The finish line in sight!

I finished in 2:46:16, 47th out of 120, link here. I was 4th out of 9 in my M50-59 age group. I was spent when I got done. I had the usual post-race food: a couple slices of pizza, a banana and some pretzels. Christine moved up the car so I could change into a well needed dry shirt. It was cooler but still humid so I was drenched with sweat. It started to pour during the awards so we all huddled underneath the tents which was kind of comical.

Meanwhile out at Hamlin State Park the Shoreline Half Marathon and 5K (day 1 of the Shoreline Multisport Festival) were held at the same time. A downed tree from the storms last night caused the re-route of both races.

A huge tree down

Some of the trees down in Hamlin State Park

I assumed that the same cooler but still humid weather was out in Hamlin. 434 runners completed the Shoreline Half, line here. 200 runners completed the Shoreline 5K, link here.

Later, Christine and I just lazed around. We battled a sudden infestation of flies with a fly strip from Walgreens which worked on about half of them. We don't know how they got in all of a sudden. They stay by the open screen window in the dining area by the day or by a light source at night.