Scratch
05-05-2008, 06:50 AM
So there I was, packed tightly with many others on a subway train headed to Broad and Olney, I couldn't even raise my left arm to see what it time it was anymore. We didn't even have proper luck to have boarded an express train, each and every stop we came to a stop, the doors would open and I would get to see befuddled looks on the people who were wondering what had happened to the usual state of subway affairs, or the runners with blue bibs on the shirt fronts whose looks were ones of dismay -- because this train was the last one that had any chance of reaching the starting line close to the 8:30 starting time.
Lesson #whatever -- next year leave at least 30 minutes earlier. Of course I knew that back up on top of the long bridge before the Broad Street exit, when I came to a somewhat dismayed stop at the end of the queue for the exit. It was then that the theme for the next 6 hours or so would be in place, traffic whether automotive or human beings on two legs.
That train was packed tight. Could hardly move. I held a Novolog flexpen in my hand, it doesn't sit securely in the pockets of the running shorts I wear and there was no way I wanted the insulin to get jostled out of my pocket unbeknownst to me. I've done that at a couple of races where my car won't be near the finish area, I just carry the insulin with me and as I run I'll every now and then switch the pen back and forth between my hands. When I registered for Broad Street on Saturday, I had put my glucose meter pack and pen up on the table while I filled out the form. A young child maybe age 4 or 5 went to grab the Novolog pen. I reached out with my left hand to show possession, and finished off signing my name to the race entry. I smiled wryly at the girl and her father who had also said something to stop the girl and I said, "Hopefully your pancreas will always work right." Then I went off to the entry line.
We finally got to Broad and Olney and poured out of the train, most all of us with a bit of hurry and pace. It was a bit after 8:30. I quickly saw the huge pack from behind and I began making my way up. I wasn't sure what was going on, eventually I saw the pace signs and I sought to make my way up the 10 minute sign. Oddly, the signs remained fixed in place while the people just kept moving forward. I asked a guy, "Is it started?" He told me yes. So I kept walking forward.
Near the starting mat, we were finally able to begin running a bit. I had no idea what was going to happen this day. On Friday, I had had a miserable short run, my legs had felt bad enough on it that I wondered if I had any business to try to run 10 miles. My longest run in nearly 3 months had been an 8 miler a week before, there had been 7.5 mile run in March, the last time I had run 10 miles had been in early February. In February I had run over 100 miles. March and April combined didn't break 100 miles. I had started doing squats and deadlifts in February and began going heavy with them late February. Great for building leg strength, killers for how much they cut into running time.
I figured I'd run the first mile at slightly over easy pace. With that I'd get a gauge of what I could do and then I'd calculate what to go for. I figured worst case scenario would be 11 minute miles using walking breaks.
With my late start, I soon discovered what my theme was going to be. I may not be a fast runner, but if you start from near the back and you aren't completely slow, you will spend your run weaving your way through people. It wasn't always bad, but sometimes you'd hit clumps of people that were cumbersome to get by.
The first mile felt easy on my legs though and it came in at 10:17. That was the first I had looked at my watch since punching the start button while crossing the line. Based upon how it had gone, I made the decision then and there that 1:40 was possible, I would just try to keep around 10 min/mile pace til near the halfway mark and then see about squeezing some more out. My biggest annoyance early on was I was thirsty. Bad enough thirsty that I knew I would have to do the first water stop because I didn't have a bottle on me. I also know that first water stops can be packed because the field hasn't spread out yet. Of course, yesterday, 20000 runners would never really spread out either.
The second mile clocked in at 10:05 and I began watching for the first water stop. I got to it unfortunately they had fallen a bit behind on the water provisions and I had to wait some. As soon as I got my cup, I pinched its top and worked on getting it down, drinking most of it and then using the last bit to splash my head with water.
I didn't like stopping like that. It felt like I had to work to make up some time along with how to me it always seems tough when you have to break stride and then start it up again. The third mile came in at 10:21 so I had given up a bit more time than I would have really liked but it wasn't bad. I worked on keeping a comfortable pace for the 4th mile and resisted the temptation to start trying to make up time on the 40 or so seconds I had surrendered to a 1:40 goal. The 4th mile would be done in 10:05 and I now figured it was time to begin working a bit harder. Just ever so slightly harder, just try to tick up the pace a tiny bit.
The 5th and 6th miles were incredibly congested feeling. It seemed like there were a number of runners who were losing pace plus around Independence Hall it was tight with everyone on one side of Broad and the turns. I found myself having to alternate between speeding up and slowing down while trying to find a path through the convulsing maze. But I got mile 5 done in 9:51 (halfway split of 50:39) although my cumulative time wasn't really registering. Seriously, the congestion of runners was forcing me to pay attention to everything around me and I didn't have any space to think about specific numbers to paces. I just knew that under 10 was good and I needed to try to keep the pace under 10. Mile 6 was 9:52. Yay.
Mile 7 was where I put a little hurt on myself. Nothing acute, but again it was the theme of weaving and working my way past people dropping off the pace. A few surges by me to get through people resulted in a time of 9:38 and it was a tough 9:38 with the constant speeding up and slowing down. After that it seemed to thin out a bit again and I eased back some with the 8th mile, doing it in 9:50. But I was starting to hurt some.
I knew I wasn't going to get to coast in to a sub 1:40. It was going to be work. And it seemed to be crowding up again. Also during this time there was a woman who a couple of times would pass me, then slow down and I'd have to get around her. I was getting a bit frustrated by that when again she veered across in front of me some and I moved out to the right. From there she kind of kept drifting right and then spoke to someone running up in front of her. This caused that person to turn her head back and she began drifting right some due to that, pushing the woman and me more to the right. And drifting towards a clump of runners on the right. The two women were exchanging greetings and the one in front turned her body so as they could slap each other's hands. Frustrated at being pushed right along with the two of them dropping pace in the process, I put on a surge and with needed to split between those two and the runner clump to the right, I ended up jostling the two women some. Sorry, it was a bad situation.
Behind me I could hear me being called a jerk. Again sorry, but it was a situation that the two of you created some. So I ran hard for a while to get them behind me and the 9th mile clocked in at 9:42. I was hurting now with the weird fartlekky nature of the last few miles and I had begun having twinges of cramps in my calves. Every now and then, I would feel a sharp jolt in a calf muscle. The problem was that the water stops areas were nightmares. I knew I probably needed water badly but I feared that using one it would be too much temptation to slow up and I figured there wasn't much margin for getting that sub 1:40.
Just before the Naval yard it goes uphill. My calves began playing funky music up that hill. Cramp jolts were becoming more frequent. Got over it. Downhill. I'm trying desperately to hold it together. I know a final sub-10 mile split assures me of breaking 1:40. I wish there was video of the final 100 yards when my calves were alternating cramping. **** I musta looked funny as ****.
But there it was. The finish. Hit the split button. Oh that's right, I can stop everything too.
1:39:39.
All right.
Good run for me.
-----
Blood sugar at 6:53 was 131. I took 1u of Novolog then to help with the excitement and adrenaline.
Race start was around 8:30.
That turned out to be a bit too conservative. At the end of the race, blood sugar had gone up to 237. I probably should have checked my blood sugar after I got off the subway train, but I had just wanted to get going. Oh well. I think dehydration and the blood sugar was probably to blame for the cramping in the last mile.
Lesson #whatever -- next year leave at least 30 minutes earlier. Of course I knew that back up on top of the long bridge before the Broad Street exit, when I came to a somewhat dismayed stop at the end of the queue for the exit. It was then that the theme for the next 6 hours or so would be in place, traffic whether automotive or human beings on two legs.
That train was packed tight. Could hardly move. I held a Novolog flexpen in my hand, it doesn't sit securely in the pockets of the running shorts I wear and there was no way I wanted the insulin to get jostled out of my pocket unbeknownst to me. I've done that at a couple of races where my car won't be near the finish area, I just carry the insulin with me and as I run I'll every now and then switch the pen back and forth between my hands. When I registered for Broad Street on Saturday, I had put my glucose meter pack and pen up on the table while I filled out the form. A young child maybe age 4 or 5 went to grab the Novolog pen. I reached out with my left hand to show possession, and finished off signing my name to the race entry. I smiled wryly at the girl and her father who had also said something to stop the girl and I said, "Hopefully your pancreas will always work right." Then I went off to the entry line.
We finally got to Broad and Olney and poured out of the train, most all of us with a bit of hurry and pace. It was a bit after 8:30. I quickly saw the huge pack from behind and I began making my way up. I wasn't sure what was going on, eventually I saw the pace signs and I sought to make my way up the 10 minute sign. Oddly, the signs remained fixed in place while the people just kept moving forward. I asked a guy, "Is it started?" He told me yes. So I kept walking forward.
Near the starting mat, we were finally able to begin running a bit. I had no idea what was going to happen this day. On Friday, I had had a miserable short run, my legs had felt bad enough on it that I wondered if I had any business to try to run 10 miles. My longest run in nearly 3 months had been an 8 miler a week before, there had been 7.5 mile run in March, the last time I had run 10 miles had been in early February. In February I had run over 100 miles. March and April combined didn't break 100 miles. I had started doing squats and deadlifts in February and began going heavy with them late February. Great for building leg strength, killers for how much they cut into running time.
I figured I'd run the first mile at slightly over easy pace. With that I'd get a gauge of what I could do and then I'd calculate what to go for. I figured worst case scenario would be 11 minute miles using walking breaks.
With my late start, I soon discovered what my theme was going to be. I may not be a fast runner, but if you start from near the back and you aren't completely slow, you will spend your run weaving your way through people. It wasn't always bad, but sometimes you'd hit clumps of people that were cumbersome to get by.
The first mile felt easy on my legs though and it came in at 10:17. That was the first I had looked at my watch since punching the start button while crossing the line. Based upon how it had gone, I made the decision then and there that 1:40 was possible, I would just try to keep around 10 min/mile pace til near the halfway mark and then see about squeezing some more out. My biggest annoyance early on was I was thirsty. Bad enough thirsty that I knew I would have to do the first water stop because I didn't have a bottle on me. I also know that first water stops can be packed because the field hasn't spread out yet. Of course, yesterday, 20000 runners would never really spread out either.
The second mile clocked in at 10:05 and I began watching for the first water stop. I got to it unfortunately they had fallen a bit behind on the water provisions and I had to wait some. As soon as I got my cup, I pinched its top and worked on getting it down, drinking most of it and then using the last bit to splash my head with water.
I didn't like stopping like that. It felt like I had to work to make up some time along with how to me it always seems tough when you have to break stride and then start it up again. The third mile came in at 10:21 so I had given up a bit more time than I would have really liked but it wasn't bad. I worked on keeping a comfortable pace for the 4th mile and resisted the temptation to start trying to make up time on the 40 or so seconds I had surrendered to a 1:40 goal. The 4th mile would be done in 10:05 and I now figured it was time to begin working a bit harder. Just ever so slightly harder, just try to tick up the pace a tiny bit.
The 5th and 6th miles were incredibly congested feeling. It seemed like there were a number of runners who were losing pace plus around Independence Hall it was tight with everyone on one side of Broad and the turns. I found myself having to alternate between speeding up and slowing down while trying to find a path through the convulsing maze. But I got mile 5 done in 9:51 (halfway split of 50:39) although my cumulative time wasn't really registering. Seriously, the congestion of runners was forcing me to pay attention to everything around me and I didn't have any space to think about specific numbers to paces. I just knew that under 10 was good and I needed to try to keep the pace under 10. Mile 6 was 9:52. Yay.
Mile 7 was where I put a little hurt on myself. Nothing acute, but again it was the theme of weaving and working my way past people dropping off the pace. A few surges by me to get through people resulted in a time of 9:38 and it was a tough 9:38 with the constant speeding up and slowing down. After that it seemed to thin out a bit again and I eased back some with the 8th mile, doing it in 9:50. But I was starting to hurt some.
I knew I wasn't going to get to coast in to a sub 1:40. It was going to be work. And it seemed to be crowding up again. Also during this time there was a woman who a couple of times would pass me, then slow down and I'd have to get around her. I was getting a bit frustrated by that when again she veered across in front of me some and I moved out to the right. From there she kind of kept drifting right and then spoke to someone running up in front of her. This caused that person to turn her head back and she began drifting right some due to that, pushing the woman and me more to the right. And drifting towards a clump of runners on the right. The two women were exchanging greetings and the one in front turned her body so as they could slap each other's hands. Frustrated at being pushed right along with the two of them dropping pace in the process, I put on a surge and with needed to split between those two and the runner clump to the right, I ended up jostling the two women some. Sorry, it was a bad situation.
Behind me I could hear me being called a jerk. Again sorry, but it was a situation that the two of you created some. So I ran hard for a while to get them behind me and the 9th mile clocked in at 9:42. I was hurting now with the weird fartlekky nature of the last few miles and I had begun having twinges of cramps in my calves. Every now and then, I would feel a sharp jolt in a calf muscle. The problem was that the water stops areas were nightmares. I knew I probably needed water badly but I feared that using one it would be too much temptation to slow up and I figured there wasn't much margin for getting that sub 1:40.
Just before the Naval yard it goes uphill. My calves began playing funky music up that hill. Cramp jolts were becoming more frequent. Got over it. Downhill. I'm trying desperately to hold it together. I know a final sub-10 mile split assures me of breaking 1:40. I wish there was video of the final 100 yards when my calves were alternating cramping. **** I musta looked funny as ****.
But there it was. The finish. Hit the split button. Oh that's right, I can stop everything too.
1:39:39.
All right.
Good run for me.
-----
Blood sugar at 6:53 was 131. I took 1u of Novolog then to help with the excitement and adrenaline.
Race start was around 8:30.
That turned out to be a bit too conservative. At the end of the race, blood sugar had gone up to 237. I probably should have checked my blood sugar after I got off the subway train, but I had just wanted to get going. Oh well. I think dehydration and the blood sugar was probably to blame for the cramping in the last mile.