AdventuresInMissingThePoint.com

People are weird.  And, that’s a good thing.

In the past 12 months, I ran nine races; six were marathon distance or longer.  I’m not trying to say that I’m a badass [runner].  I’m trying to say that most races I ran are with experienced, and relatively well-trained runners.

The first thing I noticed running Peter’s Canyon Trail Race #2 — a three run series hosted on Thursday nights, all with 5 mile courses — is the lack of running etiquette.  I ran up the first hill with a woman exhaling like I would imagine a hippopotamus would sound on that hill.   The second hill I ran with a dude who had a beeping watch, for tempo.  For the love of man, shut that friggin’ thing off!

That’s when I noted why I was there: for fun. On our 12.3mi 4:56am 7/8/09 run, jeff made the comment that the 5 mile race is like a happy hour for distance runners.  Just enough to wet your appetite, but still functional after the event.

The event brought together two runners from different ends of the spectrum in our running club, LT and Wendy.  LT is an ultra-beast, to put it humbly: his goal is to run 100 miles 9 times in ’09 and 12 100-mile races in 2010.  This race was his first single digit mileage race, and he placed in the single digits (7th) to boot!  And, this was Wendy’s first race back after 6 weeks of injury recovery, who also won: she is still still injury free!

Sam, LT, Lori, Skip, Wendy, Pete, and E-Rod at the finish line. I have a patriotic number, 1776; go 'merica! Photo from Wendy. Photo Artist: dre

As for me, it felt great plowing up the hills, relative to the roadie pack I was in.  It felt fun to “only pace” for 5 miles.  It was great to employ running psychology again, bursting past runners so they wouldn’t pace off my heels.  I grabbed some adrenaline from the crowd in the last half mile, and I crossed the finish line around 6:00/mile, a pace that is somewhat of a memory to me.

Change is good, and so are happy hours.

On Friday, MichelleM repeated last year’s marathon in El Moro with the 2nd annual event, now named the “El Morothon.”  With over 25 runners in participation, the El Morothon was a “running party” spread out on three loops in El Moro canyon.

Jimmy, my friend from the Purdue Tri Club, drove down from Hermosa Beach to run with us.  It was a fun way to catch up with Jimmy.  He has spent a lot of time this year crewing and preparing his wife for her big ultra-cycling event this summer: the 500 mile Race Across Oregon.  On Talk Like a Pirate Day, he is also going to pace his friend in the Angeles Crest 100 mile trail race, for the final 25 miles.  It is quite interesting to see Jimmy go from hard-core semi-pro triathlete putting in massive training hours to what he terms now “getting out for 10-15 hours a week of working out.”  In one sense, it is quite a transition; in another sense, it matches that easy-going part of his personality.

Jimmy and I running the first loop, the Perimeter, of El Moro canyon. Photo Credit: Greg

The El Morothon is a blur to me.  I remember the dumb-founded look of a few hikers when jeff showed them on a map the 20 miles we had just ran and the remaining few we had left to end our quest.  I remember seeing the beautiful, yellow mustard with Michelle with 4 miles to go.  I remember blazing an amazing 11:30/mile pace with zipper q. because we could, as he says, “smell the stables.”  What I don’t remember is the joy of running with 25 people in the majority of the run.  Re-grouping at turns with the electricity of 25 energetic runners, just out for something to do that day.

El Morothon Runners between the first and second loops.

This is what I enjoy most of clubs: gaining second-hand experiences while enduring another task or challenge at hand.  In some ways, it is weird that (road) runners are paying over-priced registration fees to gain this experience.  It is even more awesome when an individual organizes this out her own benevolence, in this case Michelle.  Michelle not only planned the loops, which allowed people to run whatever amount of the three different loops each with planned starting times, she also provided PB&J’s, fruit, potato chips, and other refreshments!

Michelle, only two time finisher of the El Morothon. Photo Credit: Eric

Age Group winners zipper q. and I looking normal, because of fatigue, in a picture in the El Morothon with our pacer, Lori. Photo Credit: Michelle

Viva la revolucion!

Who ranks as the highest? . . . [The] one who is always at peace regardless of the other person’s disposition. –Buddha

I find goal-setting for the amateur interesting.  Goals are evidence that humans are optimistic about the future. People realize they have a possibility to change, for the better.  But in the realm of the world, attaining your goal is no different than not attaining it.  I am taking that into consideration for my “A Level” race this year, the Chicago Marathon.

Instead of having a result-oriented goal, I want to focus on the journey.  There’s a danger of becoming a slave to a workout schedule; however, I think there are benefits to it.  My goal for this next 16 weeks is to learn more about what Tim Noakes calls “Your Experiment of One.”  Since I ran the Old Goats’ 50 Mile Ultra, I have enjoyed 10 weeks of unstructured running fun — mainly just Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday while traveling on the weekends.  I rest again this week, not running at all.  Then it’s off to set some structure!

I plan to focus on a standard Tue, Wed, Thu, Sat, and Sun run schedule.  I want stay with my newer habit on Tuesdays with the Dawn Patrol.  Wednesdays and Saturdays will be slow recovery runs.  Thursday will be speed, and Sunday will be distance.  Adding a 1-week recovery in a 4-week cycle makes the schedule fairly orthodox to Runner’s World and Hal Higdon templates.  For additional orthodox ways, I’ll probably use Burt Yasso’s method to set my goal pace 12 weeks into the 16 weeks of training.

A big yay for the Type-A!  . . . but I really just aspire to:

• keep learning what works for me;
• be healthy;
• have some fun experiences;
• have the best amateur goal in the world, E V E R ! ! !

At the beginning of March, I realized the string of March holidays in 2009 would have an additional to pre-game the celebration.

• 3/13: Friday the 13th
• 3/14: Pi Day
• 3/15: Ides of March
• 3/16: John 3:16 Day
• 3/17: St Patty’s Day

That’s cool.

My upcoming running A-Level race is the Old Goats (OG) Ultramarathon.  I signed up for the SJT 50K on Pi Day to help train for the OG.  I jokingly said that I was going to go for a 7hr 29min finish time, so I could finish at 3/14 1:59pm, i.e. pi is aproximately 3.14159.  My goal for the SJT 50K was to cruise, to have fun, to check out the Candy Store Loop (a section of trail), to be in great company, and to enjoy quite possibly the most entertaining race directior, Baz.

The race start was actually 7am, not 6:30am, like I thought.  My time for an Absolute Record, as opposed to a PR, shifted from 7hr 29min to 6hr 59min for a 3/14 1:59pm finish, which is actually closer to my real PR, 7hr 11min.   My absolute record and personal record could jive that day!

I still didn’t really think anything of it.  I just ran, munched on some food (including Pop-Tarts), talked to some people, saw some great views, etc.  I was just going for miles, so I didn’t even have my Garmin set to read out a pace or the actual time.  I just had mileage on my read out.

Nearing the finish, I checked to see what time it was. . I did have a barbeque later that day to attend.  No way!  It was 1:24pm, and I had 4.5 miles to go!  Some days you have to take the cruise control off.  It was on.

I can’t believe it; he’s inspired by math!

Fellow SCTHz, E-Rod, said the quote above after I reminded of him my 1:59pm goal. . . I told him, “I think I can do it!”  After getting to the last aid station, I told Keira, who of course was excited.  She told me, “You are going to do it!”  You kind of have to know Keira’s personality, but her positive spirit is so easily catched by all around her.

Off I went; I didn’t look back.  Unfortunately, I went too fast.  I just couldn’t bear to stop and wait three minutes.  I sucked it up, and I finished at 1:56pm, with an absolute record finish time, 3/14 1:50 ish, 3.1415.

Leaving 2 or 3 more decimals on the plate, for some continuous improvement goals.  It’s what we do.

Thanks to jeff smith, my co-pilot that day, who influenced me to record this amazing event.