Lake Clinton 30

So Chicago came and passed. Tecumseh was a no-go after I messed up my knee mountain biking, forcing me to take a complete month off of running. Besides all that, training had been going fairly well for this race. I had a couple of set backs, including a lower back injury that forced me to take 8 or 9 days off. That put a damper in my training, but at the same time, it provided a perfect time for rest from which I came back with renewed motivation. For about 3 weeks, I was following a very detailed training program which had me up to about 50 miles per week. I got in some long runs at Clinton that actually were at a solid pace. I ran at the Chilly Chilli 4.37 mile run and ended up finishing 2nd in about 26 minutes.

After a pair of 20 milers @ Clinton, I ran 25 miles at Darien in 3:08. I ran the first 10 miles with Kelly at about 8:15 pace, but ran the final 15 by myself around 7:00 pace. Near the end, I got a few under 7:00, including one at 6:40 and another couple sub-6:50. It was this run that had me feeling quite confident about Clinton.

The week before the race, I ran one loop of the course in 1:13:50, a personal record for myself and a time that had me considering going after the course record the following week. I definitely had self doubts as last year’s winner and course record holder, Logan Martin, was returning and appeared to be primed for another win. Also in the race were Joel Lammers (winner of countless 50k’s and 50 milers), Matthew Condron (Illinois Ultra Grand Slam Winner), and Christine Crawford (course record holder for the women). Also, Patrick Berger, the winner of the fall Chicago Lakefront 50K run was there so I assumed that the pace would be fast from the get-go. This was encouraging because it meant that I would have somebody to run with, but at the same time, I knew that there would be a fast pace from the start and that we would have to run the hills hard to finish well.

Kelly and I drove to the race, arriving around 7:00 am. Sam, Nonno, and Nonna also were coming to watch and pulled up about 10 minutes before race start. I felt incredibly spoiled because I never get a crowd for these races and now I had 4 present with Mom and Dad on the way. I was especially motivated to run well for Sam as he is a young soccer player that is interested in running. I hope that one day he will run long distances himself as I consider him to have plenty of motivation and talent for him to do well.

In the meanwhile, I joked around with Kelly near the start, warmed up, and tried to get comfortable before the start. The RD made a few final announcements and pointed out Logan Martin (who appeared very confident and looked very strong) along with Christine Crawford (whose resume is pretty intimidating by itself), who were last year’s champions and current course record holders. After a final countdown, the gun went off and us runners were on our way.


Immediately, Logan shot to the front, followed closely by another runner that I did not recognize. Both of these two were moving pretty fast so I decided to follow them closely. We took a left out of the parking lot and started straight up a steep uphill that was on the road for about 200 meters. From there, we hopped onto the single track trail. Entering the course, Logan led with the 2nd place guy just behind him. I was about 10 yards or so behind the 2nd place guy and when I checked to see who all was behind us, I noticed that we had already created a considerable gap on the rest of the pack. It was a bit intimidating, especially knowing that there were at least 4 very good runners that had either beaten me by considerable margins in the past or I had not raced against before, but had some very respectable races to their resume.
As we got into the woods, Logan quickly moved out of sight while I managed to keep an eye on the 2nd place runner. As we reached the 3rd mile, I started making up some of the distance he had originally put on me and passed him soon afterwards. Meanwhile, I noticed Patrick Berger lurking behind us in the woods and I expected him to make a move on us very soon.

However, I was feeling incredible by now and had no problem running these familiar hills. I didn’t really stop to walk any of these hills and although this frightened me, I moved up them with such ease that I did not think that running these sections would come back to haunt me. Also, it felt good to already be in second place and to be closing in on the former course record holder.

As I was coming into the first aid station at mile 5.5, I was “welcomed” by Logan’s sister, who strongly encouraged me to slow down. I laughed at her and told her that I would do my best to take it easy out there. I scooted down a steep downhill where Sam and Kelly were waiting for me at the bottom. I shot a quick joke at them, but did not stop. I grabbed a BOOST from Kelly and drank a couple sips before getting rid of it and grabbing my water bottle. I also took this time to rip off my shirt as I had forgotten to take 2 of them off before the race start! Off course, absent-mindedness plays its role once again. I felt really good at this point and glanced ahead, noticing Logan heading back into the woods, figuring he could not be more than 40 seconds ahead of me. Knowing that he was so close, I once again took off after him.

The guy I had just passed appeared to not be as beat as I figured and he caught up with me soon afterwards. We did not talk much, but I learned that his name was Mike Christensen and that he was relatively new to ultras. He was actually doing the run to train for a sub 3-hour Boston, which was coming up in 3 weeks. He was training for the hills and figured that Clinton would be suitable. I have never run Boston, but can only imagine that Clinton’s single track trails were a tad bit steeper than those on the roads of Boston.

At mile 7, the course crosses a field where you can see a little less than a quarter mile ahead of you. We spotted Logan scampering across the field maybe a minute ahead of us. Again, this was very motivating because I assumed that by working together the two of us would have little difficulty making up this ground. We kept at it even as we lost sight of him as the course turned into the woods. Soon after we pulled into the end of the first loop, and came out of the woods. Just as we popped out, we saw Logan leaving the parking lot, probably about 1:30 in front of us. Mom and Dad were here now and it was motivating to see them. I was in high spirits and joked around with them for a little bit. I also heard Logan’s sister telling us to slow down, now with even more intensity. I joked around with her for a second, but stayed in stride. Mike took it easy at the aid station, re-gathered himself and took off after me. I grabbed a BOOST from Kelly, but only took a couple more sips, giving me a total of about half a BOOST in me. I left with a gel and took off up the hill to start loop #2. We finished the first round in 1:15, only a minute off my PR for ONE loop on the course. This had me a bit worried, but my legs were still feeling good enough for me to keep going. I felt exactly as I had hoped to at this point and my pace proved it. I felt some warning signs at mile 12 and 13, but I honestly was not concerned. It was so minor that it was not worth slowing for.

I pulled into mile 15 still moving quite fast. I still felt great and although we could no longer see Logan, his sister was right by the entrance to the next part of the trail so I knew that he was still close. She was still giving me a hard time, which further enforced the notion that he could not be far ahead. I don’t even remember if I even drank a BOOST at this point, I’m really not sure what I was thinking, but somehow forgot how much I needed to consume while on this course. During my training runs that were just 2 loops instead of 3, I would take a full BOOST and some gels after EACH loop. By now, I had barely consumed one full BOOST and because this was a race, I was obviously expending more energy now.

Whatever gotta catch Logan. That’s all I’m thinking. Mike and I are talking less and now I’m walking a few more of the hills. Still moving at decent pace, but I could feel it slowing just a bit. Around 17 ½ miles, I told Mike to take over the front. I had been in front of him since mile 3 and was a little frustrated with myself for having him hang behind me the entire time. Of course, I can’t blame him, I wanted to lead, but its frustrating to think just how much of a difference something like that could have made. Of course, Logan was out front all by himself, but by now I knew that he was the better runner and that I would need to run with somebody else to at least keep him close.

I kept Mike fairly close for the remainder of the loop, but his 10 yard gap quickly became 15, 20, 30, and eventually 50 yards as we came into 20 miles. I figured that I would gut it out, but told myself that I needed to regroup if I was going to finish respectably. I hadn’t quite given up on a strong finish, but I walked a considerable amount around the aid station. For some reason, I hardly took any food again and tried to move quickly on to the next lap. I had some pop, but that will only do so much. Sam and Dad were waiting at the top of the first hill, but I was hurting so I didn’t say much and honestly couldn’t really hear what they were saying at this point anyways. I had run the 2nd loop in 1:20, only 5 minutes slower than the first loop. I was at 2:35 at this point and still figured that I had a shot at the course record, whether or not that meant beating the current race leader. 4 hours was a lofty goal, but I thought I could still do it. Plus, I had to have been a decent ways ahead of the next runner. At the top of the hill, you can pretty much see a half mile back and despite my slow pace, there was nobody close to me.

Once I got into the woods for the final time, I started to really fall apart. I almost considered going back to get food, but I was already a half mile into the course. I walked up a hill, got to the top and just fell down. I pretty much collapsed. I sputtered around for a bit and got in a bit of a haze. I was low on fuel and knew it. I wanted to just stay on the ground, but I knew that was not a viable option. After resting for about a minute or two, I regrouped and started running a bit slower down the trail. I was very tired and was obviously hitting the wall pretty hard. After lollygagging for a couple miles, Matt Condron passed me at about mile 23. I was still struggling considerably and was actually quite surprised that it took so long for him to catch me. But he showed no signs of weakness and I lost sight of him just a few minutes later. I had to take a knee for a second just to regroup. The hills were killing me and I was barely making it up them this time. I figured that I would be mentally strong enough to hang on, but my fuel tank was just too low at this point for me to get anything going. I had a gel but that wasn’t enough.

I could do little else but walk the uphills, while jogging the straight sections, and surviving the downhills—which were becoming increasingly difficult. At mile 24, another runner passed me. He was certainly running strong, but a mile later he was walking on the trail. As I passed him, he told me that his IT band was toast and that it was the end of the race for him. I struggled into the aid station barely moving down the hill. Sam, Kelly, Nonno, Nonna, and my parents were waiting at the bottom and as soon as I got there I started stumbling a bit and my vision got blurry. I honestly thought I was going to collapse again, but I leaned onto Kelly to keep me stable. Of course this was the worst possible time for this to happen to me. Mom was not too excited and immediately urged me to drop out.

I got into the aid station, where the volunteers were very supportive and offered to help in every possible way. I had to sit for a minute to wait for my thinking to clear up before I responded to them. When I did talk, it was a little slow and probably a bit slurred. One volunteer asked me if I wanted some type of sandwich, but said it would take 5 minutes to make and I really did not have that time. In a very worried/bewildered/slightly comical (at least for me) tone, she asked me if I had ever run this far before. I started laughing and explained to her that I had run 100 miles before so I think that this I had the basic experience.

I ate an entire peanut butter and jelly sandwich along with some other random candies. After about a minute, I started feeling considerably better. I saw Joel Lammers come in and pass me while I was sitting. Just as I was finishing my food, Christine Crawford was pulling into the aid station. I knew she was going to pass me, but wanted to at least have her push me a bit so that the last 4.5 miles were not at a complete walk. Plus, with the food I felt so much better than before and was able to start running again. Christine passed me about a quarter mile after the aid station.

Despite how I was feeling at mile 25.5, my condition was improving. I was running slowly, but at least I was running again. And luckily I knew the course because it made the past couple miles go by faster. I came in through the field around mile 27 just ready to finish. With about 2 miles left, another runner came behind and passed me. I tried to keep up, but was not quite as fast at this point. He slowly pulled ahead of me, but I did what I could to keep him in sight. At a mile left, I saw Sam waiting for me on the trail. I had always hoped that he would finish this race with me, obviously in much better condition, but it was nice that he was there anyways. I did what I could to run up the remaining hills and finally reached the downhill leading back to the parking lot. The fam & Kelly were there waiting for me and it was nice to see them. I mentioned to Kelly that I was so ready for post-race Olive Garden. I jogged across the finish line in 4 hours and 36 minutes.

Overall, I was a bit disappointed as I ran my slowest lap ever at Clinton over the last 10 miles. I suppose that I gave it a shot, but my mind was in all the wrong places and was unable to focus on important things such as nutrition and minor pacing issues. Looking back on the race, I believe I would have done much better had I consumed many more calories and hydrated a bit better. Also, I should have taken it a tad easier during the aid stations to allow my body a brief rest before going out and chasing the eventual course record holder. Blah blah blah blah. Wow, that was boring. Just had to throw that out there. I guess its best to write about my mistakes now so that I learn from them in the future.

Going into the race, I wanted to see if I could break 4 hours, 2nd goal being sub-4:05. Now I know for certain that sub 4 is possible (barely), but I will have to be smarter if I give it another try.

Another pre-race goal (although I was not banking on it) was to win. This was pretty foolish looking back on it and I now realize that Logan was not going to be beaten. Great job to him for setting the record (again) and to Christine for her run.
Me and Kelly post-race @ the Olive Garden!

Race results @ http://www.secondwindrunningclub.org/RaceResults/2009/Clinton09.htm

Chicago Marathon!!

Ok, this report is well overdue. About 6 months overdue to be exact. But I had spent so much energy and given such a time commitment to this event for the past few months that this version of the Chicago Marathon meant so much to me.

I had run the Kettle Moraine 100 mile relay(31 miles) over the summer and the Ragnar Relay in August, but Chicago was the big race of 2008. In fact, it was my first big race since Tecumseh of 2007. So, 10 months without any racing! After racing nearly every month in 2007, this was quite a bit of time off for me. Of course, I had the IT/hamstring issues that had stuck with me since the past winter—this being the main thing that kept me out of competition. However, this did give me time to reevaluate my training and develop myself a bit more as a runner.

Training pretty much began in May when I started “preparing” for Kettle. Matt and I ran a 20 miler at Clinton 2 or 3 weeks before Kettle and then did the race. June training was moderate with a couple long runs, but things did not get really interesting until July. During July, I put in two 70+ mile weeks, only took 4 days completely off, and started doing work on the track—mostly mile repeats. Unfortunately, all this effort led to shin splints and a near stress fracture to start off August. Matt got me back and running in September when we started pounding out 20 milers. We did 3 of the in a span of one week and I also managed to fit in a few track work outs with the rest of the tri club.

From this training, I could feel the improvements. I had more energy on longer runs and my short distance speed was certainly improving. I had a significant amount of pep in my stride and covered short distances running the majority of the distance hard. Some of the training may have been a bit excessive and may have led to further shin splints, knee issues, and other IT problems, but . . . I certainly felt ready and confident on race day.

Matt, Jon, Travis and I all met in the A Corral for race start where we joked around with each other and did our last minute prep for the race. We caught up with Zach Gingerich, who once again claimed to be using Chicago as a training run. At this point, I was unaware of just how fast Zach actually was and figured that I could keep up with him for the race. Had I realized that he would go on to run a 3:12 50K (Chicago Lakefront ‘09), I would have not given keeping up with him a second thought. The fluke of Tecumseh last year was not going to happen again today.

With 5 minutes to our race start, the elites were lined up and sent off. Shortly afterwards, it was our time to go. It was really something to be situated in the ‘A’ Corral as it only took me 10 seconds to get to the starting line, compared to the 8 minutes in 2005. We took off at what I thought was a conservative pace. Due to the weather, I had changed my pre-race goal from 2:45 to 2:50, meaning that I would be shooting more so for 6:30 miles than the original 6:18 pace.

Although Jon and Travis had planned on to run with the 3 hour pace group, they were right next to us as we crossed mile 1. We crossed exactly as 11:00 showed up, meaning that our clock was at 6:00. Take the 10 seconds it took us to get to the start and we had just run a 5:50 first mile. 40 seconds too fast. Ouch.

At this point, Matt and I pulled ahead of Jon and Travis and took over the lead (for the club). I knew that we might be going a bit too fast, but we both still felt really good. After all, Matt and I started out too fast for all of our 20-milers so I figured those runs would have prepared me. Of course, I did not take the heat into account. Bank temperature readings were already showing temps in the low 70’s.

At the 5K mark (18:56, 6:07/mile), I felt that we may have been going too fast. I was getting warm and although my legs still felt good, I knew I would have to slow down if I wanted to cross in under 2:50. I mentioned this to Matt, but he said he was still feeling good so shortly afterwards, he started putting distance on me. This was so tough for me to do. The two of us are extremely competitive with one another and it killed me to let him get ahead of me so early. But the thought of catching up later kept me motivated.

For the next couple miles, I was able to keep Matt in sight and passed the 10K mark (38:30, 6:13/mile) only 20 seconds behind. Although I still felt strong, runners were passing me at this early stage in the race. I caught up with another runner and we both agreed that we would save ourselves for later in the race and allow people to pass us now. We worked with each other for a bit and from time to time, one of us would pull ahead while the other would catch up later.

Soon after, I heard somebody shouting my name and looked over to see Annie in the crowd! It was great to see her there since I had not even talked to her @ ISU in some time. Of course, now that both of us were over 2 hours away from campus we were finally reuniting. At least for a few brief moments.

From here to the halfway mark, I really screwed up any chance I had at going under 2:50. I was so concerned that I was not going to catch Matt that I let it get into my head and affect my race. Once he left my sight, it was very difficult for me to stay motivated. I felt as thought I would catch him, but as the miles passed and I grew more tired myself, the doubts kept creeping up.

Also, this part of the course went through many neighborhoods and everybody seemed to be blasting their music. Plus there were many sections that were heavily crowded and the noise + the people got me overly excited. I would start running harder in these sections and be winded further down the road. I also let this get the best of me and left the runner I was with earlier fall off behind me. I crossed 15K in 58:33 (6:31/mile) only 1:01 behind Matt, but that was enough distance for me to be unable to catch sight of him and still had no idea where he was on the course.

By the halfway point, it was getting real warm and I could feel the heaviness start to sink into my legs. There was one last crowd that really pushed me up the hill to the halfway mark (1:23:36), but by the time I reached the top I really could feel my body starting to lose it. I heard my friend Hannah call my name and was really excited to see her at that point, but at the same time the disappointment from the way my race was unfolding kept me from enjoying that as much as a I normally would have. I could run the final half in 1:26:24 to reach my goal—a time that should have been more than attainable, but by starting out so hard, I knew that there was no way I still had that finish in me. By now, I was setting my sights on 2:55 and eventually 3 hours flat.

The next couple of miles got really tough. I remember slowing down around mile 16 and feeling completely spent. I kept running, but by now people were regularly passing me. Some of the women from the top 100 spots now moved past me—and it looked as though they were in for a very close race. Of course, they were not with the elites, but this was the second group of female runners and they were looking at a sub 2:50 finish.

I saw my old friend Margaret, who was an old member of the Tri Birds. Her cheering was very encouraging and it was great to see another familiar face. By now, however, I knew my goals were out of the question and was seriously lacking motivation. I kept running however because I knew that walking would put me considerably behind and would be the final step in the deterioration for the race. I caught Shauna soon after, but barely noticed her. I was too out of it to really give anybody much attention. I just had to concentrate on putting one foot in front of the other.

Around mile 20, the guy that I had been running with earlier finally passed me. He was the one who properly paced himself and would pull ahead of me (along with hundreds of other runners on the course). Finally, just after mile 21 I started walking. My legs were so heavy that I thought I might collapse if I kept running. Besides, I was barely lifting my legs when running and any efficiency I had from earlier was out the window. Also, temps had reached 80 degrees and I was boiling! I started looking behind me, expecting Travis to catch me at any moment. I tried running every so often, but could not get back into a rhythm.

On top of all this, my IT band, hamstrings, and knees were becoming issues. I had to run a lot of the course on the side of the road earlier in the race, which is severely slanted for drainage purposes. I had to do this to stay in the shade as the sun made runners quite vulnerable in the center of the road, but was now paying the consequences for the cooler air.

Around mile 22, the 3 hour pace group caught up with me. I started running with them, but this only lasted for about 30 seconds. They were moving fast and no matter how badly I would have liked to salvage a sub-3 finish, it just wasn’t in the cards for me. Plus, the little running I did with them left me feeling dizzy and completely unmotivated. With 2.5 miles to go, I was walking in a daze, searching behind me, waiting for Jon and Travis to come flying past me. At least then I could see a friend on the course. As I was looking for them, I caught sight of a familiar face, Michael Davenport. I had stayed with Michael during our trip to the ’06 Western States and we had also shared rooms for the Ice Age 50 and McNaughton Park run. I had not seen him since I caught up with him during 2007 IM Wisconsin on the bike section so it was quite a surprise to see him at this point. He shouted to come with him and I decided this was not a terrible idea. He was stronger than me at this point, but seeing an old friend was motivating and I decided to keep running. The final 2 miles were very brutal as it is basically a straight shot back to the finish line. I passed mile 25 feeling relieved that there was only a mile to go, but still wondering if I could actually make it that far while maintaining a sub 9:00 pace. A half mile from the finish, I saw the guy I had run with pre-13.1 miles and who had passed me around the 20-mile mark and it looked like he was out of commission. Two spectators were holding him and helping him to the finish, but it wasn’t looking like he was actually going to make it there. In fact, it seemed like he was barely conscious and I am pretty sure he did not recognize me as I shouted his name once I passed him, but I really hoped that he was OK. Both of our “strategies” apparently failed miserably, but he definitely made a stronger effort than myself.

I left him with the two other guys and made my way to the finish. The marathon finishes up a minor hill (didn’t seem minor then!!) and then follows with a 200 meter straightaway to the finish. I was so thrilled to be finishing that I pumped my fist as I crossed, despite being well behind my goal time. I was done and did not have to run any more. Finish time was 3:09:40 meaning I qualified for Boston! But really, the race does not mean very much to me so qualifying really was just a minor perk to an overall disaster of a race.

My legs were absolutely cashed so I took my time in the finish area. On top of my legs, everything else in my body was completely useless. My stomach was not feeling too great and breathing-wise, I was way out of wack. I laid down in there for probably over an hour—too exhausted to even care about finding the rest of my group.

I ran into Zach who had a “bad” race with a 2:47 or 2:48, but he looked like he had just finished a pleasant jog. Jon came in shortly afterwards and we sat down on the sides-both of us were in some serious pain. Jon came in 5 minutes behind me at 3:15—a great time for his first (organized) marathon.

The rest of the day was just as interesting as the race. Because I had failed to make plans to reunite with anybody from the club that had my belongings, I was forced to ask random people to borrow their phone to call mine so that I could get a hold of either Liz or Justin. I spent two hours of searching for the group (this mostly included me walking 100 yards, sitting down for 15 minutes, complaining, and then resuming the search). After what seemed to be a lifetime of looking for everyone, I randomly ran into everyone. It was just as relieving as finishing the race as I did not have the money to catch a train ride home nor the energy to walk (don’t want to think about that one). I took the train back early, showered up, and relaxed. Chicago ’08 had reached its conclusion.
The misery ends!!