UltraBrit

2009 - August thru December and Recap for the Year

2009-12-27T13:48:00.019-05:00

It's been a while since my last entry here so here is a recap:

I completed the rest of the Norwalk Summer Series and ran the New Haven Labor Day 20k. In September I made my annual trip to England to run the Great North Run. This year I added the Robin Hood half marathon to my schedule, which was challenging since I ran it the morning after arriving in England. I ran it pretty well despite the jetlag. The Great North run was the following Sunday and despite feeling a little off I was still able to post a PR.

My major race of the fall was the Steamtown Marathon in Scranton, PA. I was hoping to qualify for Boston in this net downhill race. I planned out my race strategy with the goal of having about 2 minutes in the bank for the last few miles that had a few hills. I was surprised by some of the small uphills that did not show up on the elevation chart, but for the most part is was pretty flat with some nice downhills. I experienced a few of my usual hip and ITB pains at about 15 miles, but was able to push on. At the 20 mile mark I had serious doubts about making it within the 3:50:59 qualifying time, but was able to talk myself through it. I still had 2+ minutes in the bank and I knew that where was no way that I would need all that time for the last 6 miles. I had two uphills ahead of me, but they were both followed by downhills so I didn't think I would need to slow down by that much. Once I got to the hills I was happy for the challenge and knew that I was almost done. I was able to finish the race in just over 3:48 and qualified. I was thrilled! I signed up for Boston the next day! I'm very happy that I signed up early since it filled up by November.

After Steamtown I was right back into taper mode with the New York City marathon coming up in 3 weeks. I got to run this marathon with my best friend, Jill. We had so much fun and really made the most of it. We took lots of pictures and took the time to visit with family and friends along the way. We finished it in 4:14, which was our goal time.

Since then I have greatly reduced my mileage to recover from the marathons. I have been experiencing some hamstring and ITB pain in my left leg for a few months now and can't seem to get it to go away. I will continue to work on my hip and ITB issues as I start to build up mileage for my spring training for Boston.

In 2009 I ran a personal record of 56 races, which included 3 marathons, 5 half marathons, a 25K, and two 30k races! In previous years I tried to make it to 52, but always fell short due to injury. I was able to increase my weekly mileage significantly over the summer when I was training for Steamtown with no injuries. I also incorporated multiple runs several days a week, which felt really good. I also greatly improved my summer running in 2009, which may be as simple as the addition of a running hat. The highlight of the year was qualifying for the Boston Marathon, which is something I never would have dreamed of a few years ago. I ran my first marathon in 2005 with a time of 4:23, the next in 4:21 and then after a fall back with injury was then able to return with a 4:05 in NY in 2008 and a 3:52 in New Jersey earlier this year. This has been a very successful running year for me. I am looking forward to another great year in 2010, which includes the running of the Boston Marathon.

2009 was also a great year for meeting new friends and continuing to develop friendships with existing friends.

2009 Recap:
56 races
3 marathons
5 half marathons

PRs:
Marathon - took off 17 minutes
Half marathon - took off 17 seconds
20k - took off 7+ minutes
also PRs in 3.5 miler, 7 miler, 9 miler, 11 miler, 5k, 10k

Pam and I warming up at the start of the New Jersey Marathon

New York City Marathon

Jill and I after New York City marathon

Steamtown marathon

2009 Norwalk Summer Series 7 miler and Utica Boilermaker 15k

2009-07-13T18:43:00.029-04:00

2009 Norwalk Summer Series 7 miler and Utica Boilermaker 15k
July 11th and July 12th, 2009

What a wonderful racing weekend! It started off with the Norwalk Summer Series 7 mile race in the Rowayton section of Norwalk. Most of the usual suspects were in attendance as well as a special appearance from George and Kellie.

George and I started out running together for the first few miles and then I pulled ahead. We got to see Gail out on the course twice as the route went by her house. Ikuko, who is nursing a foot injury, was also on the course working at one of the water stations. I caught up to Steve and chatted with him for a little while and also saw John, who had started out up ahead of us.

The temperature was pretty moderate, but I still started to feel pretty hot later in the race. I knew that my pace was close to a best for this race so I really wanted to hang tough. There were quite a few people around me so I made it my goal to keep up with or pass as many as I could in that last mile. I did finish with a course PR.

2009 Summer Series 7 miler race results

Mile 1: 8:08
Mile 2: 8:21
Mile 3: 8:22
Mile 4: 8:09
Mile 5: 8:18
Mile 6: 8:28
Mile 7: 7:47
Total: 57:32
Avg Pace: 8:14

Frank

John and Frank

Sherry and Frank

Roy and Dana

Kellie and Steve R

Kellie

Don

Maria and Petra

Kellie and Erica

Kellie, Kate and Erica

Jeanette and Tony

Kaz

Roy and Frank

Rob and Emmy

Kate, Emmy and Rob

Brian and Lindsey

Steve M

Steve R and Brian

Christine

Kellie

Steve and Lindsey R

LuAnne

Kaz

John

Steve M

Sean and Maria

Jeanette

Emmy, Rob and Roy

Jeanette

Anton

Terry

Lindsey with her first place trophy

Dorrie, Ikuko and Sean

Steve and Lindsey R - with car key that they thought they lost

Sue

2009 Utica Boilermaker 15k

After the 7 miler Tom and I headed up to Utica, NY for the Boilermaker 15k. Jeanette's friend, Joyce, was nice enough to invite us to spend the night at her house that night. The plan was to get to the expo before it closed at 4:30, but they ended up closing shop early due to the threat of a hail storm. Jill and Joe had picked up my race package and Tom and I picked up his for the 5k. I was very disappointed about not having the chance to purchase any souvenirs for this race. After picking up our stuff we headed to Joyce's house in Rome, NY. We pulled in right after Jill and Joe. It was our first time meeting Joyce and her boyfriend, Dan, so we introduced ourselves in the driveway and then they welcomed us into their house. Shortly after that Jeanette and Tony arrived. Joyce was putting on a pre-race party for her Roman Runners Running club so we all got to be special guests at this party. This group of people were so nice and so much fun to hang out with.

Joyce's wall of bibs

Joyce's medals and finishing photos from marathons and ultras

Joe, Jill, Jeanette, Tony, me and Tom

Roman Runners flip flops

Joyce displaying a beautiful strawberry dessert

Jill and Joe posing with their race tattoos

Tom showing off his 'ink' and his 'guns'

My tattoo

Tom, Jill and I

Dave and Gary

There was a big thunder storm with lots of rain overnight, which left the morning a little cooler. Race day morning, Dan and Tony went with Tom to the start of the 5k and the rest of us headed out about half an hour later for the 15k. Joyce led the way to get us close to the finish area and then we took at bus to the start. I was a little nervous about the course because the elevation profile showed several long hills and I was coming off the 7 miler the day before.

The weather was going to be relatively mild for a July day, which was a big relief for me. We met up with some of the Roman Runners briefly and then headed over to the starting area. It was pretty cool to see the thousands of runners all around us. There were almost 12 thousands runners registered for this race.

Once the gun went off we gradually walked towards the start line and then slowly picked it up to a jog. From the very beginning we were treated to lots of cheering spectators and local bands playing for us. I started out with Jill and we went the first few miles weaving around people to get to a comfortable pace. I was a little concerned since my left hip and hamstring felt very tight. We were shooting for a 9 minute pace, but at this point I felt like our mid-9 pace may end up being too much for me. However, I really wanted to stick with Jill as much as possible and figured that my leg would work itself out. As we came up on the golf course with the big hill I wanted to back off a little more to relax before the hill. I hadn't realized that the first few miles had already been uphill. Joyce had told us out the thrill of runninng around the golf course and we weren't disappointed. The runners run up the left hand side of the course uphill while the faster runners are coming down the hill on the other side. Jill and I were still passing many runners on the way up. Once we got to the top of the hill we then got to see all the slower runners on the other side going up the hill. The view of the course overlooking the water was really spectacular. We grabbed for some water and as I started the downhill I looked back and couldn't see Jill anymore. I wanted to continue to run with her, but also knew that this was a great downhill section to really open it up. At this point I had forgotten all about my tight left leg and was just enjoying the moment. I passed by a Roman Runner and said hi and that I knew Joyce and I continued on down that beautiful hill. Further down some spectators were yelling 'no more golf course for a year' as if the golf course was a thing to be dreaded. I loved it and wished we could run through it again.

I slowed up a little on the straight away and still didn't see Jill so I decided to just run my own race. I was so happy that those first few miles of uphill really didn't seem bad at all and the downhills seemed to just keep coming. We had several sections of the race that were nicely shaded and some with some sun. However, the day wasn't too hot or humid and there were tons of water stations.

I couldn't believe how quickly the miles were going by. Before I knew it I was in the last mile. I knew that there was a slight uphill towards the end, but couldn't remember what the last .3 was like. I do remember Joyce saying that it's easy going after you hear the bagpipes. As soon as I saw and heard them I had a huge smile on my face. The last .3 ended up being all downhill so it was a very nice finish. I also heard Tommy on the sidelines in that last stretch yelling "Go Katey!". What a wonderful race this was to run.

Mile 1: 9:27
Mile 2: 9:14
Mile 3: 9:13
Mile 4: 9:29
Mile 5: 7:45
Mile 6: 8:21
Mile 7: 8:44
Mile 8: 7:53
Mile 9: 8:13
Lsst.38: 2:38
Total: 1:20:58
Avg Pace: 8:38

2009 Boilermaker Race Results

Tommy on race day morning

After the race we all met up and hung out at the post-race party for several hours.

Joe and Jill

Tom

Jill, Joe, Kate, Tom and Jeanette

Joyce and Dan and Roman runners

Kate and Jill

Dan and Joyce

Tom being Tom

Dan and Joyce

More of the Roman Runners gang

Joe, Jill and Kate posing for the Roman Runnerrs Calendar shot

Kate and Tom

Jeanette and Tony

After the post-race party we headed over to Mickey and Luke's place for a pool party. We met more members of the Roman Runners club and had a great time. What wonderful people!

Jeanette, Jill and Kate

Tony massaging Tom, while he takes a nap

Kate Jeanette and Tom

Norwalk Summer Series 5 miler and Fairfield Half - June 27th and 28th, 2009

2009-06-29T16:02:00.019-04:00

I'm a little behind on my race reports here. This was another 2 race weekend with the Norwalk Summer Series 5 miler on the Saturday and the Fairfield half on Sunday. I always dread the Fairfield half because I don't deal well with long distances in hot and humid conditions. I decided that I would race the 5 miler and then take it easy in Fairfield. I ended up with a course PR for the 5 miler, which might be partly because it wasn't as hot as in prior years. As usual I started out at a decent pace and got to see Roy pass me by early on. Some time around the 2 mile mark Anton passed me and I made it my goal to try to stick with him. I was close to letting him get out of reach a few times, but late in the race I was able to pick up my pace and pass him. Since I'm writing this a few weeks later I can tell you that he's beaten me in the races since then.

Mile 1: 8:04
Mile 2: 7:35
Mile 3: 8:13
Mile 4: 8:19
Mile 5: 7:52
Total: 39:51
Avg. Pace: 8:01

Anton and Kate

Kate, Sean and Ikuko

Christine

John

Maria

Sean

Jeanette

Don

Amy and Sherry

Amy, Sherry and Brian

Alicia

Petra

Roy, Frank, Rob, Emmy, John, Jeanette and I

John

Steve and Lindsey

Alicia

Joe

John

Lindsey

Don (and Kaz)

Brian

Maria

Frank

Amy

Christine

Joe and Roy

John

The Fairfield half marathon was also a great race for me. I got a course PR due to the much cooler conditions. I started out towards the back of the pack and had no expectations. Cindy and Jan were with me for the first mile and we ran it slowly and gradually moved up as we went along. Shortly after that they went on ahead and I decided to take it easy. I found the first few miles to be tough with the sun, but after about 3 miles we hit some nice shady parts with a light cool breeze and got some nice downhills. I focused on powering up most of the uphills and recovering on the downs. I had fun catching up to and passing many of my friends on the course. I got to see Karl, LuAnne, Kaz, Sean, Kellie (and her sister), barefoot Rick, Don and Christine. The last 3 miles were a struggle since we had lost the shade and there were still many little hills to deal with. I thought that I might have overdone it with the hills earlier in the race, but was able to hang in there. I beat my prior best Fairfield half time by about 11 minutes.

I had a great time hanging out with my brother, Jan, Cindy, Jeanette and others before and after the race. I was also thrilled to meet Eliot and Ilana for the first time. I got to see many people that I know, but was also disappointed that I didn't get to see everyone that I wanted to.

Mile 1: 9:25

Mile 2: 8:53

Mile 3: 9:18

Mile 4: 8:46

Mile 5: 9:46

Mile 6: 9:14

Mile 7: 9:14

Mile 8: 8:20

Mile 9: 8:25

Mile 10: 8:30

Mile 11: 8:58

Mile 12: 8:42

Mile 13: 8:28

.17 : 1:17 (7:20 pace)

Total: 1:57:17

Avg Pace: 8:54

Eliot, Ilana and I

Torpedo and Brian

Margaret, Jan and Cindy

John running off into the distance

Don

Pete

Pete, Kate, Jan and Cindy

Pete and Barefoot Rick

Barefoot Rick's missing shoe!

Bob, Tammy and Karen

Jan with her trophy!

Larry and Kaz

Branford Road Race 5 Miler - June 21, 2009

2009-06-22T09:20:00.007-04:00

I have mixed feelings about the Branford road race. I love the town of Branford and love to run the race with my brother, but most years I tend to struggle with it. I think it's because it's one of the first races in the season that is over 3.1 miles that is run in hot and muggy conditions. I thought that I would have an easy time of it this year since it wasn't too hot and there was some rain in the forecast. However, it was more muggy than I expected and my hamstrings were still really tight from a Thursday night weight lifting class. You would think I would have recovered by Sunday morning, but no such luck. It didn't help that my hamstrings tightened up right at the beginning of class which resulted in me lifting weights for almost an hour with my muscles all tensed up.

I ran the first mile of the race pretty fast with Cindy and Pete by my side. Shortly after that the hamstring tightened up and I had to back off. Cindy went off ahead and Pete stuck with me. I'm not quite sure why he subjects himself to my whining every year, but he always does. I took the hill in the beginning of mile 3 pretty well, but couldn't maintain that intensity. I also started to get hot spots on the pads of my feet at the base of my toes, which didn't help matters. My muscles loosened up a little and I managed to pick up the pace in the last half mile. Usually Pete lets me beat him, but his time I told him to take off so I could chase him in. He took off and flew around the corner to the finish. This was a great motivation for me to charge after him. Granted, I had no chance of getting anywhere close to catching him, but it did make me finish very strong.

I finished 478 out of 1,593 and 14th out of 133 in my division.

Congrats to Andrea who placed 2nd in her divison and to Kristen on her PR.

My GPS watch splits:
Mile One: 7:35
Mile Two: 8:13
Mile Three: 8:31
Mile Four: 8:43
Mile Five: 8:08
.03 of a mile: :10
Total: 41:20
5:03 Miles at a 8:14 pace

My regular watch:
Mile One: 7:42
Mile Two: 8:15
Mile Three: 8:33
Mile Four: 8:45
Mile Five: 8:07
Total: 41:21

In 2005 my pace was 8:03, then 8:32 in 2006, 9:04 in 2007 and 8:47 in 2008. At least I'm now going back in the right direction.

The Fairfield half is coming up next Sunday and I am totally dreading that one. Every year I swear that I don't ever want to run it again, but I always end up coming back for more. I guess I must either like to torture myself or just strive on the challenge. I also have the Norwalk Summer Series 5 miler to run the day before that and the forecast is for the temperatures to be in the 80s both days! Pete is planning to run some of Fairfield with me again this year, but might go off ahead after a few miles. Maybe I can hold off on my whining until after he has gone ahead. ;o) I hope that some of my other friends will tell him that I don't always whine when I run - only on hot days and coming off injuries.

Brian, AKA Unknown Sweetheart

Emmy, Sue, Alice and Pete

Emma, Sue, Alice and I

Cindy and I

Cindy and George

Me and George

Alice, Pete, Sue and Emma

Alice, Pete, Me, Sue and Emma

June 12th-14th, 2009 - 3 Races in one Weekend again!

2009-06-13T11:21:00.024-04:00

Another 3 race weekend! It started with the Friday evening Cook Your Buns 3 mile +/- race at Tod's Point in Greenwich. It was a rainy and dreary day, but by race time the sun had come out and it was a little muggy. I got to hang out with some good friends before and after the race. John and I also ran a small part of the course as a warm-up. The course is run on grass, trails, asphalt and a small beach section.

Once the race started I ran with George until we were able to catch up to John G. The three of us ran together for a while and then I went ahead for the final part of the course.

My splits:
Mile 1: 8:17
Mile 2: 8:19
Final .86: 7:03 (8:11 pace)
Total: 23:39
Pace: 8:16
2.86 miles

Cook Your Buns Race Results

Tony T (massage therapist) and Me

Emmy and I

Tommy and Katey

Kate and Frank

Frank and Emmy

Luis M

John and Emmy

Frank, John and Emmy

George

Emmy and Sean

Tom, Frank and John

Luis

Luis and his family

Mickey

Me coming in towards the beach section

George and John

Wow! It looks like I'm running really fast!

Frank'n burger

John

John and I

John

Kevin, Annette and Tommy

Frank

The next race of the weekend was the Norwalk Summer Series 3 miler. It was a little warm and muggy, but not too bad. As usual I got to hang out with many of my friends before the race. It was nice to see my former boss, Steve, and his daughter, Lindsey. Lindsey, who is 16 years old, has been running well in high school and her dad was expecting her to run strong in the race. The days of him running slowly to run with his daughter are long gone. He now has no chance of keeping up with her. It was also nice to see Frank's daughter, Katie.

It was Emmy's birthday so I spent much of the time being goofy with her by constantly wishing her a happy birthday.

I was disappointed the John had not showed up for the race, but at last minute as we are lining up at the start he made his entrance - pulling an 'Emmy'!

The beginning of the race started out pretty fast due to the slight downhill section coming out of the school. Luis was just ahead of me so I was hoping to keep up with him. However, even as we started to go uphill our pace was much faster that I am used to. We were just coming out of the high 6s into the low 7s! At this point my legs felt a little tired and I was struggling with the humidity. I backed off and let Luis go around the 1 mile mark and at that time Roy came up from behind. I asked him to trip Luis for me, but all he did was encourage me to try to catch him on the hills. ;o) Sherry passed me after about a mile and a half and then Rob, who missed the start, passed me in the last half mile. Those last two miles felt like a struggle, but I was still able to get a PR for that course.

Upon finishing the race I went over to see how Lindsey had done and found out that she had won the race for the women!! I was so happy for her. She had to sprint to pass and beat the second place woman on the finishing stretch.

We all hung around for a while after the race to chat and check out the standings. Don didn't have the trophies with him, but he still went through the process of announcing the division placements. I placed 3rd in my division.

My splits:
Mile 1: 7:16
Mile 2: 7:59
Final .99: 7:41 (7:48 pace)
Total: 22:57
Pace: 7:41
2.99 miles

Norwalk Summer Series 3 miler race results

Katie and Katey

Frank and Dawn

Roy and Frank

Sherry and Emmy

Brian, Steve and Lindsey

Lindsey, Kate and Brian

Sherry and Don

City of Norwalk Proclamation for Mother's Day 10k Race

Monica

Katie, Frank and Dawn

Birthday Girl - Emmy

Jeanette

Evan, Frank and Katie

John, Sean, Ikuko and Evan

John, Sean, Ikuko, Kaz and Evan

Jeanette

Rob and Roy

Steve, Steve and Lindsey

George B, Emmy and LuAnne

Luis

Frank

Jeanette, Kate and John - Showing off our Vermont marathon shirts

Emmy and Rob

Rob, Emmy, Frank and Katie

Frank

Rob and Emmy

Sean and John

Roy

Brian

Don

The 3rd race of the weekend was Run for the Rock 5k in the Black Rock section of Bridgeport. I was happy that it was a cool morning.

I met up with Kellie, Cindy, George and Brian and later saw Cathy, who I hadn't seen since last October.

We started out the race a little too fast as usual, but in telling George that he still didn't seem to want to slow down. We were running at less than a 7 minute pace at the time. We did manage to bring it back down to the mid 7s later on in mile 1. Cathy passed up and pointed up ahead to Cindy and Jan and told us that we should try to keep up with Jan who is pretty fast. She zipped up ahead of us and was running close behind them, but I wasn't able to pick up the pace. My legs felt a little tired, but my breathing was pretty good. I wanted to play it safe and save myself for the hill that everyone was talking about at the beginning of mile 3. We were running along side the water for a while until the end of mile 2 and then turn away from it to head up that dreaded hill. At this point George was along side me and Kellie was a little behind, but George told me to go for it. I tried to take the hill strong to see if I could make up any distance between Cindy, Jan and Cathy. Once at the top of the hill I knew that the only one I might be able to catch was Cathy, but I wasn't sure of that either. At the last turn for the homestretch Marty was there with some kids cheering for us. He specifically told them to cheer for Kate and that I'm the local race photographer when I'm out with injuries. I looked up ahead to see two young boys and then Cathy. I pushed the pace to get to the kids and told them not to let me beat them and sure enough they sprinted like a crazy and blew by me and Cathy. I know had one last chance to see if I could catch her too. I pushed it as hard as I could and passed her with about 3 strides to go for the finish. I did apologize, but she seemed to be happy for me. George and Kellie finished pretty close behind me.

We all hung out and chatted for a while afterwards. Upon checking the results I saw that Cindy and I were going to place in our division and thought that Cathy would too. I would have felt bad if my sprint at the end would knock her out. Luckily, it worked out so that all three of us placed and got trophies. Jan also placed first in her division.

My splits:
Mile 1: 7:37
Mile 2: 7:54
Mile 3: 7:47

Final .11: :35 (5:27 pace)
Total: 23:53
Pace: 7:41
3.11 miles

Run for the Rock Race Results

Brian

Kellie, George and Cindy

Bruce

George

Cindy and Maria

Dawn, Brian and Brian's dad (Richard)

Jan, Cindy and I

Cathy

Monica and Jan

Cathy

Cindy

Cindy, Jan, me and Cathy

MMRF 5k Race in New Canaan - June 7, 2009

2009-06-07T22:04:00.006-04:00

I was not familiar with this race, but once John told me about it I decided that it would be a great race to run to support a great cause.

The day started out to be quiet warm and sunny - not exactly perfect weather for running. I met up with John and he introduced me to his friend, Meg, and her son Charlie. We chatted for a while and took some pictures. I looked about to see if I could see Kristine Lilly so I could get a picture with her, but I wasn't able to find her. She did speak briefly before the race started, but at the point I'd put my camera back in the car.

John warned me of the long run back along route 124 and the lack of shade later in the race, but I forgot to ask him about any hills on the course. John started out fast and I hung back a little knowing that he'd slow down soon enough. ;o) We saw Bob G on his bike at two points along the course. The first mile or so seemed to be mostly downhill so I was wondering if we were going to have to pay the price on some uphills later, but I'm somewhat familiar with the area and couldn't remember any hills. Luckily, there were no major uphills to speak of. I enjoyed running the last mile or so right behind a 14 year old and tried to encourage him. He ended up taking off at the end and finished very strong. He was also nice enough to acknowledge my support and shake my hand after the race.

This was a great race and would recommend it to others in the future.

Charlie B

Meg and Charlie B

John G, Meg B and Charlie

John G and Kate

John G and Meg B

Kate and John G with medals.

Four Races in Five Days - May 21-25th, 2009

2009-05-28T07:56:00.058-04:00

RFR Corporate Challenge - May 21st
Weston Memorial Day Weekend 5K - May 23rd

May 24th

I have run 3 races in a weekend a few times in the past, but I'm not sure that I've ever taken on 4 races in 5 days. My left leg (ITB and calf) were still a little tight since my marathon, but all blisters have healed and nothing hurt. I didn't expect to race all the races, but hadn't decided which ones to take easy yet.

RFR 5K Walk/Run

The first race was the RFR Corporate Challenge 5k on Thursday evening. There some pressure to run well in this race since some of my co-workers had a spreadsheet setup with every one's expected finish time. I was listed to be the 2nd female to finish behind Amanda who is in her early 20s! Allison was also expected to run close to my pace and I knew that our order could go either way. I can accept being beaten, especially by a friend or co-worker, but always want to push myself to run the best that I can.

We all gathered at the town center by the registration area. I have been working with / coaching a co-worker, Charles, who was not used to running on the roads. I was looking forward to seeing how he would do in the race. I had been going on lunch time training runs with him on hilly routes to get him used to running hills. I was also wondering how Tom would do since he had been struggling with side stitches in his training runs.

It was a hot and muggy night and I had forgotten to bring my water bottle. However, I didn't think much of it since it was only a 5k race. We all lined up for the start and the gun went off. I immediately see Allison take off and pass a lot of people to take a quick lead for our women. She was also ahead of Steve, which surprised me. I tried to catch up to her, but got stuck in a crowd. After a few minutes I had lost the crowd, but still wasn't able to join her. She was way up ahead of me and I saw that I was running a 7:10 pace at the time. At this point I realized that I was really thirsty and wished that I had my water bottle. I ended up spending the entire race dealing with dry mouth and difficulty swallowing due to bad allergies. However, on a positive note, my legs felt good and the first mile seemed to fly by. At the end of mile one I could see Allison, Steve and Jim a little ahead of me. My goal for now was to keep them all in my sights.

I was able to close the gap a little on the large hill that was in the beginning of the second mile. Amanda caught up to me at that point, but then backed off a little. I finally caught up to Jim, but he then surged ahead and caught up to Allison. I gained some more ground on the downhill, but was still quite a bit back from Allison. On the last turn before the finish I caught up to Jim who encouraged me to go for it. I turned it on and sprinted out the final stretch to finish about one second behind Allison. Jim then finished shortly behind me and Amamda shortly behind him. Amanda had also struggled with bad allergies, especially on 5th street in mile 2.

Despite still feeling very thirsty I decided to go back out to see how Charles and Tom were doing. I was happy to see Charles coming into sight before I got to the corner of the home stretch. I told him in was doing really well and that he could now sprint it out to the end. I was amazed at how fast he went. He flew by and passed a bunch of people and finished very strong. I was so proud! I then went back and cheered for Vivian and pretty soon saw Tom coming down that stretch. He also looked good and strong and finished with a kick. I went out a few more times to encourage a few others and then went to meet the group.

For our men's group Brian came in first followed by Tom L and then Steve.

Some of the group headed to Bobby Valentine's while Vivian, Charles, Tom and I stuck around for the awards. We didn't expect to get an award since we were told that the only category was best 3 finishers overall and some of our fastest guys weren't available for this race. However, they started calling out winners in the female divisions. We were the first place team for masters (over 40) women - myself, Christine and Claudia. We then received second place team for open women - Allison, Amanda and Vivian. I also took first place individual for masters women. Vivian and I was very happily surprised to have done so well. We were now dying to get to Bobby V's to show off all our awards to the guys in the group. My friend, Jeanette, and her husband, Tony, also joined us for dinner.

My GPS splits:

Mile 1: 7:24
Mile 2: 8:09
Mile 3: 7:18
Final .08: :31 (6:32 pace)
Finish time: 23:23
Average Pace: 7:36
Listed race pace based on 5k distance: 7:33

Results

Commonfund group photo:

Jim and Tiffany

Allison, Jim, Tiffany and Keith

Brian and Ethan

Tom and Charles

Vivian with Women's Open award bag

Me with my individual masters award bag

Me and Vivian with all 3 awards bags

Vivian, Tom and Charles

Weston Memorial Day 5K Road Race

Race number two was the Weston Memorial Day run on Saturday morning. My heart wasn't into this race because I didn't know of anyone who was going to be running it. The race is also somewhat hilly and it was a warm and muggy morning. However, it didn't take me long to see George. I also saw Dawn beforehand and she asked me about wearing an ipod. I had not seen anything stating that ipods were not allowed so we both opted to use ours. Shortly after that I saw a sign on the door of the school that had the no-ipod symbol on it. I went back to my car to return mine and passed Dawn who had just put hers back in her car also. I lined up at the start line with George and they announced that ipods were not allowed on the course and that they would hold them for the runners until they finished. At this time some people turned theirs in and others tucked them away - to use later. A woman next to me put her headphones in her fanny pack and indicated that she would still wear them despite the rules.

George usually runs at a mid-eight minute mile pace and I considered running this pace with him to have this be an easier race for me. However, we both ended up running at about a 7:40 pace for the first mile. Right after we passed the mile mark the women with the fanny pack had her driver's license and a credit card fly out of the pack. Several of us tried to let her know that, but her music was too loud so she didn't hear us. More than a quarter of a mile later when we were running along side her we let her know. She was concerned at first, but when we told her that a lady in her driveway at mile one might have picked them up for her she continued running. Then at the halfway point Jim was taking bib numbers of those with headphones to disqualify them, but at this point the lady's fanny pack was moved to the front and was blocking her bib number.

George opted to back off shortly after we passed Jim and I continued to try to keep up the same pace. The course was tough with some hills and I knew that there was a hill towards the end heading back into the school. However, the hills weren't especially steep and my legs felt really good. I was able to maintain a steady pace and finished strong.

My GPS splits:

Mile 1: 7:42
Mile 2: 7:34
Mile 3: 7:46
Final .11: :56 (6:37 pace)
Finish time: 23:58
Average Pace: 7:38
Listed race pace based on 5k distance: 7:45

Results:

George and his friend

Andie, Paul, Ronnie and their friends

Andie, Paul and I

Marty

Bridgeport Hospital Home Run5K Run, Walk & Wheelchair Race and a Children's Fun Run

Race number 3 was the Bridgeport Home Run 5k. I was really looking forward to this race. This would be Tom' second race of the season and I knew that Kellie, Jeanette, George and many other friends would be there. The race is run on a flat and scenic course that runs through Seaside Park in Bridgeport and ends on the warning track of Harbor Yard baseball stadium. The weather was nice and cool with a gentle breeze.

Kellie was hoping to get her average pace down below an 8 minute mile so I was planning to run most of the race with her. I was thinking that the pace would be just a little easier than all out, but pretty close to it. Marty had written 2 races in 2 days on my bib, which I thought was a nice personal touch.

I also saw Sue, who is a new running friend that I met at the April Fool's race in Easton recently. Kellie's friend, Heather, was also there with her husband and kids. Her husband was signed up for the 5k race and the kids were signed up for their first kids race. Brian F was also there and I gave him a hard time for not being in touch with me since I ran in the NJ marathon last month.

We lined up near the front of the pack and were shortly on our way. Kellie and I ran side by side at about a 7:40 pace in the beginning. This was faster than I expected, but Kellie seemed to be comfortable with it so we stuck to it. At one point George ran up to us and joked around about whether or not we were aware that it was actually a "race"! He then backed off and let us go. Jim G was along side us for much of the first mile and then he started to pull ahead a little. At about 1 and a half miles in I saw Sue up ahead and was thinking about whether or not I would be able to catch her later in the race, but she looked very comfortable in her pace and didn't seem like she was going to slow down. I mentioned her to Kellie and she encouraged me to go for it after the 2 mile mark. However, Jim was behind her and I knew I'd have to catch him first. I wasn't totally confident about how much I could push it and didn't want to crash and burn at the end so I just picked up the pace a little without trying to go all out. I knew at this point that Kellie easily had her sub 8-minute mile pace accomplished.

Once I got to the turn to enter into the ballpark Marty was there to encourage me. He told me this was great training for the last .2 of a mile in my upcoming Steamtown marathon that would help me to qualify for Boston. That made me smile and gave me an extra kick for the end. I picked up the pace and sprinted the last stretch. I was not able to catch Jim or Sue, but did finish very close behind them. Kellie then finished shortly after that. George, Jeanette and Tom came in shortly behind us.

We hung out on the bleachers for a while after the race. Kellie got a massage from Tony and we just sat around and chatted. I looked around for Sue, but she had left already. We stuck around for the awards ceremony and Sue had won a trophy for 3rd place in our division. I picked up the trophy for her and wrote to her later that evening to tell her that I had it.

My GPS splits:

Mile 1: 7:43
Mile 2: 7:46
Mile 3: 7:31
Final .11: :42 (6:17 pace)
Finish time: 23:43
Average Pace: 7:37
Listed race pace based on 5k distance: 7:40

Results:

Tom, Me, George, Kellie and Jeanette

George

Start - Photo by Heather

Me in the pink (Boston Buildup) shirt - Photo by Heather

Kellie posing for the camera - photo by Heather

Jeanette in the pink (Boston Buildup) shirt - Photo by Heather
Her husband is in the grey shirt crossing the line.

Tony giving Kellie a massage

Jeanette and Tom after the race

Jeanette, George and Tom

Tom, Brian and Larry

Maria and Petra (they ran 3 races in 3 days)

45th ANNUAL JIM FIXX GREENWICH MEMORIAL DAY RUN

Race number 4 was the Jim Fixx 5 Miler in Greenwich. I was dreading this race because it is a tough hilly race to run in the heat and especially as the last race of a 4 race weekend. However, I was looking forward to it because of the challenge of it and I knew that I would see some other friends here. I also have great respect for the late Jim Fixx.

When I got to the race I saw Roy, Mike T, John G, Luis, Bob G and Maria and Petra. I made sure to tell Luis that the race was 5 miles since in most races he tells me afterwards that he gets confused as to the distance and that messes up his pacing. It was nice and cool early in the morning, but it was rapidly warming up. I lined up with John G, who had run in the Vermont marathon relay the day before. His team came in second in his division behind some younger men. They did improve on their time significantly from the prior year and were happy with their performance. I wasn't sure how John and I would run after running hard the day before.

The beginning of the race is a short downhill section and John G went out ahead of me. I was amazed that he was running a pace in the low 7s. I kept close to him and shortly after the hill I caught up to him. I wore my ipod for this race since I didn't see anything saying that they were banned. I always take great pride in keeping the volume very low so that I can be safe and hear what is going on around me. I passed the test with flying colors - I was able to hear John's nice soothing breathing sounds as I ran along side him.

At the one mile mark he realized that he was going faster than he expccted so he slowed it down a little. I haven't run the course for a few years so I couldn't remember where the hills were, but knew there were quite a few of them. The run through Bruce Park and nice and had some shade, but shortly after that we started to hit some of the hills and lost the shade. At one point I was struggling going up a hill and was considering walking up it. I figured that I'd run hard in every race this weekend and deserved a break, but then I looked down and saw the number 68 spray painted on a drain cover. I looked down at my bib and saw that my bib number was 68. That was all the motivation I needed - I decided that this was my hill and instead of walking it I would take it strong and get it over with quickly. As I charged up the hill a guy turned to me as I was about to pass him (and several others) and he made a comment that I was running the hill very well. I told him that it was my hill and I continued on at that pace. Shortly after that we had a nice little downhill section, followed by another hill. Another guy said that I was running well and I asked him if the hills were over yet. He chuckled and said that he didn't want to answer that question and then said that it's because there were more hills to come before we made it to the top of Greenwich Avenue for the downhill section. I felt better knowing what I was up against and continue on happily.

When I finally got towards the top of the last hill I saw Luis up ahead. Again, I knew it was him because of his calves. I said hi as I came up alongside him and he said he wondered where I was. He thought that I had been ahead of him the whole time. I thought that catching him here was a good sign that I was going to beat him, but as soon as we turned onto Greenwich Ave he took off down the hill. I felt very tired and was struggling to keep close to him. I wanted to go a little faster, but was afraid that I wouldn't have anything left for the last part leading to the track and then the lap around the track. The piece leading to the track was shorter than I thought and the finish line was much earlier on the track than I rememebered. As soon as I saw where the finish line was I took off on an all out sprint and passed by a few people and managed to finish one second behind Luis. I congratulated Luis and introduced myself to his wife who was waiting for him at the finish. I was very happy with my performance in this race and greatly improved my time over the other two years that I ran it.

This turned out to be a really good weekend of racing. I ran consistently in every race and was always close to running by best times. I had so much fun and am very glad that I took on this challenge. I have also looked at the calendar and see that I have another 4 race weekend coming up along with a few other weekends with 2 races.

My GPS splits:
Mile 1: 7:34
Mile 2: 8:08
Mile 3: 7:54
Mile 4: 8:34
Mile 5: 7:21
Finish time: 39:31
Average Pace: 7:54

Results:

Roy and John

Mike, Bob G, Doug G and Jenn G (plus one to be named later!)

Bob, Mike, Doug, Jenn and Kate

John G

John G

Maria and Petra

Me, John and Ikuko after the race

John G, me and Bob ( I wore my ultrabrit shirt especially for John G)

Me and Ikuko wearing our New Jersey marathon hats

Roy, John and Ikuko

Roy and Rob

Me and my bib hanging over the cover that was spray painted with my number on it on 'my hill'.

Accelerate Your Life 5K - May 17th, 2009

2009-05-17T19:15:00.015-04:00

I woke up on Sunday morning to the sound of the rain. The forecast had said that it would be cool with some showers. By the time I got to the race the rain had stopped and it was just a little chilly and windy. I chatted with John and Bob while we waited for others to arrive. Karen and Jim thanked me for promoting the race on facebook, not that it did much good since we was still only had 39 runners. A little later Kellie arrived so we took some pictures and then went out for a quick jog to warm-up. When we got back Jeanette joined us and we dropped off our top layers and headed to the start line.

The first mile was mostly downhill, the middle was mostly flat with a few small hills and then there was a hill before the last turn for the finish. My left leg was still tight from the marathon, especially my hamstring, but the easy downhill start allowed me to relax and let it stretch out a little. John was by my side briefly in the beginning and then I could hear the soothing sound of his breathing behind me for the next half mile or so. After that I pushed ahead a little and saw who I thought to be Luis up ahead (see my Spring Equinox race report). I was eventually able to catch up to him and he said he thought it was me coming up behind him. I told him that I thought I recognized him by his calves! We ran side by side for a little while and I was wondering if I could keep up with him until the end, but I ended up being able to pull ahead. For such a short race I was surprised that I was struggling and constantly looking for that final hill so that I could get to the home stretch. I did pass several guys in the last mile or so and ran pretty hard on that hill. Once the hill was over I knew that I could keep pushing to the end. I managed to finish strong and was very happy with my time.

Also see Luis' race report

Mile One: 7:30
Mile Two: 7:42
Mile Three: 7:52
Last .10: :40 (6:42)
= 23:45
7:40 average pace

Once I finished I cheered for Luis, Kellie, Bob, John, Dawn and Jeanette. We then all had drinks, bagels and chatted until it was time for the awards. I chatted with Luis for a while who told me that he thought is was a 5 mile race! Kellie placed first in her age group and won a gift certificate to Runner Roost. Way to go Kellie!

http://www.clubct.org/Results/09Results/09AYLRes.html

Bob and John

Karen

Kate and Kellie

Kellie and Kate

To be used for next year's t-shirt design! ;o)

Bag 'O Bagels from LizSue Bagels

Jeanette, Kellie and John

Jim being reflective!

Luis (in the middle)

Kellie claiming her prize 'money'

Kellie

New Jersey Marathon - May 3, 2009 - Another PR!

2009-05-04T06:05:00.024-04:00

New Jersey marathon weekend
May 1st thru May 3rd , 2009

Tom and I took Friday off work in order to get to New Jersey early enough to miss the rush hour traffic. We arrived in the early afternoon and checked into the Ocean Place Resort and Spa. Shortly after checking in we went for a walk along the boardwalk. It was a little chilly and there was intermittent drizzle. However, it was still a beautiful sight. We then headed to the Expo to pick up my bib, chip and shirt. The Expo was pretty small and setup in a tent at Pier Village. I did not buy much at the expo, but did manage to get suckered into buying a pair of $60 'Aline' insoles.

View from hotel on Friday afternoon

Tom and I on the boardwalk Friday afternoon

While in the Pier Village area we saw a restaurant that had Hibachi tables so we made a reservation for dinner. The dinner there was excellent. Afterwards we walked back down the boardwalk to go back to the hotel and saw that the finish line was setup. We took a few photos there and of some people who had a bonfire setup on the beach.

Posing at the finish line on Friday evening

Bonfire on the beach

The next morning we got up pretty early and headed to Amy's Restaurant for breakfast. I couldn't believe that they had two menu pages just for omelets! Again, we made a good choice and enjoyed a great meal.

We then went out to meet Pam and her family. We saw Pam running towards us on the boardwalk and quickly introduced ourselves as she ran to catch up with her daughter, Meagan, who was running an out and back 1.2 mile race. We proceeded on to the finish line and met up with her husband, Alex, and their other daughter, Jerilyn. We stayed with them for a while as we watched all the kids races. Again the weather was a little chilly with some drizzle here and there.

Me and Pam on Saturday morning

Pam's daughter, Jerilyn, running in a race on Saturday morning

Pam's daughter, Meagan, running in a race on Saturday morning

After that Tom and I decided to take a tour of the course. I really couldn't remember much of it, but there were certain parts that looked familiar. I remembered the small 'hill' (about 32 ft incline) over the water right after mile 3/16, the lake at mile 8/21, the windmill on Ocean Ave, and the tiny loop at mile 10/23. However, the part I remember most is the train station with the candy aid station - Yummy!

Lowest course elevation: 11 ft /3.4 m
Highest course elevation: 39 ft / 11.9 m
Net course elevation gain / loss: 0 ft / 0 m

After the tour of the course Tom went out for a run and I went for a walk along the boardwalk.

Photos from my Saturday afternoon walk down the boardwalk

Tommy going for a run on Saturday afternoon

We then went back to the hotel and took a dip in the jacuzzi and a quick swim in the pool. We went back out along the boardwalk and saw that they had added banners to the start/finish line so we took some photos there and then headed out for dinner.

View of the start/finish line setup on Saturday afternoon

View from the restaurant on Saturday evening

This was to be my second time running the New Jersey Marathon. I ran it last in 2006 in a time of 4:21. In the few months leading up to that race and during the race I was experiencing blister problems on the arch of my right foot, which cost me a few minutes. I have not had that problem since then until about a month ago. I have been putting a moleskin patch on this area the last few times that I ran a long run so I opted to do this again for the marathon.

Tom, Pam and I went to the start area together and lined up with the 4 hour pacing group, which should have us running a 9:09 pace. The race was supposed to start at 7:30am, but as we were waiting to start they announced a 15 minute delay due to a traffic accident on the course. Pam and I decided to take this time to hit the loo one more time. When we got back to the starting area word had it that it would be more of a wait. It was just about 8am when we finally got started. Due to the mass of runners, which also included all the half marathon and relay runners the first mile was very congested. We were running slower than a 10 minute pace. I was getting a little frustrated trying to stick with the group so I decided to make my own way through the crowd and let the pace group come back to me later. This worked well and the group came back up to me as I reached for water at about one and a half miles into the race. However, shortly after that the pacers started to go much faster. I kept looking at my watch and saw that the overall pace was down to under a 8:50. I decided to back off and let them go ahead so that I didn't crash later. A few miles later someone had mentioned that one of our pacers had gone to use the facilities and that he was still behind us, which made me feel better. In these first 5 miles the temperature actually felt a little warm and muggy, but certainly nothing to complain about.

Tom was cheering for me shortly after mile 5. I told him that I was on target for my goal and that the pacers were running too fast. Some where around mile 6 our pacer at the front had slowed down and the one at the back had caught up. At this point I felt like the whole group was now on target. We ran by the lake at about mile 8 and had a slight hill after that. I welcomed the incline and it provided some additional motivation and energy for some reason. I also knew that the gummy bears were not too far away. Pam and I continued to run close to that group until about mile 10. By this time the temperatures had cooled down to a very comfortable level for running, but there was constant drizzle and a strong head wind at times.

After the mini loop at mile 10 we took a turn to go back up Ocean Boulevard and the thought of heading towards the boardwalk made me pick up my pace and feel really good. I knew that there would be lots of spectators there and that Tommy would be cheering for me near the 13 mile mark. I saw Tommy, switched water bottles with him and told him that my time was 1:55 at that point.

I was extremely pumped up and felt very good and strong. I decided to pick up the pace a little more and see if I could get closer to the 3:50 mark than the 4 hour mark. I ran between an 8:30 and 8:50 pace for the next four miles. I saw Tom again shortly after mile 18 and told him that I had hit mile 18 in 2:38. I kept looking at my watch for my average pace, but knew that it was off since my watch splits weren't exactly the same as the mile markers on the course. In hindsight I wish I'd worn pace bands - one for 4 hours and one for 3:50, but I've never looked at them when I've worn them in past races.

At mile 19 my legs started to feel very weak, the headwinds were discouraging me and I was starting to losing my motivation . I was thinking I'd made a big mistake in running faster miles from 13 to 17. I was due to take another gel at mile 22, but wondered if I should take it earlier. I lucked out and came across a station with gel - it was my brand, but not my usual flavor of GU so I decided to take just a little of it and then take my usual one at mile 22. That still didn't help with my energy levels or with the weak feeling in my legs. I kept telling myself to slow down a little and relax, but I couldn't seem to do so. Instead, I continued to run fast, but had to pay the price by taking a few quick walk breaks over the course of about 3 miles. I was mad at myself for giving into walking, but found it hard not to. I thought that I might feel better if I took a few electrolyte strips, but couldn't seem to find them in my skirt pocket. I didn't want to keep trying so I decide to wait until I'd taken my gel and then search for them again. At mile 21 as I was about to head back to the lake and I saw the mile 24 marker across the street on the Ocean Blvd and made my goal to hang on until I looped back to that marker with the thought that once I got there I'd be pumped up to hit the boardwalk again. I took my gel shortly thereafter, but still needed one more brief walk break and I even skipped the gummy bears this time around. Shortly after that I took some of my electrolyte strips and completed the mini loop to head back towards the beach. I hit the 24 mile marker, smiled for the camera and then started to pick up the pace again. There was a girl in front of me who had some wonderful friends join her at that point and they were nice enough to encourage me at the same time they were helping her. We blew by a girl wearing a very sexy leopard print skirt and that made us feel good too.

At some point over those later miles I was starting to notice some blistering on my feet. Since it was drizzling throughout the entire race there were a few spots with puddles that were unavoidable. I also have the tendency to wiggle my feet a little when my toes get tight and in doing so I moved the moleskin patch out of place, which now allowed a blister on my arch to form. However, these things were all tolerable and did not cause me much concern. I also noticed that my neck was very tight and sore, which could have been from not being used to wearing a hat or could have just been from being tense.

I was now close to the turn back towards Ocean Avenue and the boardwalk. My feet and neck were a little sore, but other than that I felt good. I knew I didn't have a killer sprint in me that I had for the final mile when I ran it in 2006, but I also knew I could finish up strong. My sub-4 hour finish had been accomplished easily, but I didn't have enough distance left to make up the time to hit 3:50. I pushed the pace as much as I could and passed quite a number of runners in that final stretch knowing that my finish time was going to blow away my prior PR of 4:05:48, which I set in New York last fall.

I crossed the line and got my medal and hat and then I paced back and forth in hopes of seeing Pam cross the line also. However, the wind and rain were making me cold and I knew that Tom was expecting me at the family reunion area. I also didn't know if I'd missed her already. I met up with Tom and went right back to the finish line, but I think we had missed her by then. We hung out in the tent for a little while hoping to see Pam's family, but to no avail. I ate a bagel, made a few phone calls and then headed back to the hotel to take a quick shower and put on some dry clothes. Alex called us back and let us know that Pam had finished in 4:12. I was so proud of her. What a great first marathon for her and run in difficult conditions.

My Garmin splits:

9:33, 8:51, 8:29, 8:44, 8:37, 8:36, 8:51, 9:01, 8:57, 9:01, 8:43, 8:41, 8:32, 8:31, 8:33, 8:38, 8:47, 8:52, 8:50, 8:55, 9:14, 9:19, 9:25, 8:45, 8:49, 8:33, 2:51 (7:42) = 3:52:39 26.37 miles 8:49 pace

Regular watch splits: (I missed many markers)

9:38, 17:26 (avg 8:43), 8:42, 8:37, 17:41 (avg 8:50), 9:13, 26:45 (avg 8:55), 8:43, 8:34, 8:28, 8:40, 8:36, 8:46, 8:52, 8:58, 9:00, 9:19, 9:23, 18:16 (avg 9:08), 8:48, 8:30, 1:42 = 3:52:39

Race Results:

http://www.compuscore.com/cs2009/may/njmara1.htm

Splits and Chip Times:

http://www.compuscore.com/cs2009/may/njmsplit.htm

I was thrilled to see the race results.

539 out of 1,726 Runners overall

16 out of 96 Women in my age group (40-44)

112 out of 692 Women overall

First half: 1:56:16 / Second half: 1:56:21 - Can't get much closer than that! ;o)

My official finish time was: 3:52:37 chip time and 3:53:41 clock time with an 8:55 average pace.

Pam's results: 865/1,726 overall, 249/692 women, 38/96 age group

Pam and I before the start of the race on Sunday morning

Pam shortly after mile 5

Me shortly after mile 5

Me shortly after mile 18

Pam and Eliot

Me heading for the finish

Back at home with my finishers hat and medal

Donnelly Dash - 3.5 Mile - April 19, 2009

2009-04-19T15:58:00.008-04:00

Donnelly Dash - 3.5 Mile
Fairfield, CT
April 19, 2009

Race Results:
http://www.hitekracing.com/results09/fair0419.htm

It turned out to be a very pleasant morning for the 5th annual running of the Donnelly Dash. The temperature about about 10 degrees warmer than expected and the sun was out.

I met up with John and Kellie before the race. I also had a chance to chat with Petra and Maria who I hadn't seen for several weeks. I briefly saw Brian, Torpedo and Dawn. Tony was also there to provide post-race massage.

Right before the race started Kellie, John and I saw Rob so we all chatted until it was time to start. I couldn't really remember the course, but knew that the beginning was uphill. I was happily surprised that the hill wasn't too steep or long. I started out pretty fast and was concerned about fading out, but I set my sights on two women ahead of me that I would try to keep up with. I was able to pass one of them and I kept the other one in sight until the last turn for the finish. Towards the end of mile 2 and beginning of mile 3 there was another hill that wasn't too steep, but seemed to be pretty long. I was determined to stay strong knowing that the end of the race was a downhill.

After the race I got a massage from Tony and then hung out with Kellie, John and Rob while we waited for the awards presentations. I was the 6th female to finish and won a trophy for finishing 2nd in my division. John also won a trophy for finishing 3rd in his division.

My manual splits: 7:33, 7:45, 7:36, 3:28 = 26:21
Official Average Pace: 7:33
My GPS splits: 7:17, 7:43, 7:26, 3:54 (7:11 pace) = 26:21
Average GPS Pace: 7:26
GPS distance 3.54 miles

John and Kellie

Kate and Kellie

Brian

Marty and Rick

Kayla, four year old finisher!

Torpedo and Tony

John and Rob

Kate

John, Kate and Rob

Tony and Kellie

John

John and Kate

Janis, Monica, Larry, ?, Patty, Kate and John

Bunny Boogie - 3 Miler - April 11, 2009

2009-04-11T15:02:00.007-04:00

http://www.clubct.org/Results/09Results/09BunnyBoogieRes.html

We had a pretty cold and wet morning for the Bunny Boogie 3 miler. Luckily, the rain held off until close to the start of the race and even then it remained pretty light throughout the race. There were a few puddles close to the finish line, but other than that the conditions were good. The rain picked up during the chocolate bunny awards presentations, but at that point we were all under the shelter of the gazebo.

This race has a 2:30 head start for women to try to get the winning man and woman to come in very close to each other at the end. For the first time in history of this race the winning woman beat the winning guy to the line. I enjoy this setup for the start as it gives me an opportunity to see the top men run by me part way through the race. At the start line I was talking with Frank, Emmy, Rob and Jeanette.

Emmy, who broke her age group record for the Umstead 100 miler the previous weekend and Frank, who missed the 100 miler due to being diagnosed with pneumonia were both concerned about not feeling well enough to have a strong race. However, Emmy passed by me within the first quarter mile and then Frank passed me in the last half mile. I tried to keep up with Frank at the end, but he was running really fast. Emmy ended up placing first in her division.

My splits were: 7:21, 7:55, 7:11 = 22:27 Average Pace: 7:29

This is a net downhill course and my time was 13 seconds slower than my best time in this race.

Photos:

Jeanette

Jeanette and John

Frank

John, Jeanette and Frank

Emmy, Rob, Kate, John and Frank

Rob and John

Rob

Chocolate Bunnies

Jim

Bob

Emmy with her Bunny age group award

Danbury Half Marathon - April 5th, 2009

2009-04-08T12:55:00.006-04:00

http://www.jbsports.com/dan09half%20results%20a.htm

This would be my 4th time running the Danbury half marathon and my first time running the race with Jill. We had run the course as a training run about a month earlier so she was familiar with it also. Jill had been staying with her father in Norwalk so we car pooled to the race. We arrived shortly before 9am only to find that the race time was 10:20 am instead of 10am. We had a lot of time to kill, but knew that we would see many friends there. We immediately met up with Brian and Torpedo and chatted to them for a while. We spent time catching up with Jeanette who has been taking some time off due to ITB pain. Jill and I also got a pre-race massage from Jeanette's husband, Tony. We also saw Don, LuAnne and Cindy.

It was now getting close to race time so Jill, Jeanette, Cindy and I decided to go to the ladies room one more time and then head outside. As usual, the bathroom line was very long and it was about 10:10 by the time we headed outside. We had to go to my car to drop off my camera and pick up our water bottles. The four of us were taking our time at the car and weren't paying attention to what time it was. Next thing you know we are walking up the street to the start line and Jill looks at her watch and tells us it's 10:20! I look at mine and it has 10:21! Oh my!!! The four of us started sprinting up the street towards the start line and as we do so the race starts and all the runners are running towards us. We weren't sure if there was a start mat to record our chips so we had to play it safe and pass all the runners to get back to the start before turning around and heading back out again. Once we did turn around we then had the task of trying to get around all the slower back-of-the pack runners to get up with the ones who would be running our pace. After about 5 minutes we settled in and laughed about the situation. I have never been late to a start and think it's especially funny since we got to the race almost and hour and a half before hand.

The course has one small loop around the Rogers park and then has a larger loop that goes through Danbury, Bethel and Redding. The larger loops goes up Mountainville Road to Reservoir Street to Route 53 and then to Side Cut Road to Long Ridge Road. There is a hill at the end of Reservoir Street and another one going up Route 53 and then Long Ridge Road has a series of rolling hills before hitting a wonderful downhill at about mile 11 to get us back to Mountainville Road and to head back to the finish. Jill has always made mention to me being a good hill runner, but we would find ourselves both walking a little on some of the hills in the Boston Buildup Series due to me having to quickly add mileage after coming off an injury. However, Jill was able to run the entire 4 miles up Wurtsboro Mountain in the 30k the previous weekend and we were both ran all the hills on this course also.

Jill and I had no specific time goals, but wanted to run a comfortable pace until the last mile. Once we got to the last mile we wanted to pick it up a little and then Jill wanted me to help her with a good finishing kick in the last stretch. The big downhill at mile 11 really energized me and gave me a huge surge of energy, but that didn't last too long. There was one last little hill right before the 12 mile marker that made me feel like I was crawling. However, right after that I knew that we had a job to do and had to pick it up a little. I could sense Jill trying to pick it up a little - although she said that it was me who was going faster. We ended up running pretty strong through the last 1.1 miles with a significant surge for the last 1/4 mile. Our splits from the course mile markers were 8:11, 8:52, 9:13, 8:56, 8:58, 9:27, 8:52, 9:16, 9:55, 9:47, 8:55, 8:19, 9:03 (last 1.1) = 1:57:43. Our official finish times were 1:58:35 and 1:58:36 with a 9:04 pace.

Upon finishing the race we saw LuAnne and Brian's friend, Dawn, who had finished just in front of us. We also saw Steve, from my work, who was pretty happy with his race. Jill and I then ran back out on the course to see how Jeanette was doing. We saw her coming towards us with about half a mile to go and she looked good and had a big smile on her face. We cheered for her and then joined her to run her in. She was feeling strong and didn't have any significant problems with her IT band.

We went inside for a while to stretch out and meet up with Cindy who had invited us back to her husband, Victor's restaurant for pizza after the race. The restaurant (Nick's) didn't open until 3pm so we had the place to ourselves. Victor and I had been co-workers back in the 80s so it was wonderful to see him again after all these years. We had a great time hanging out, talking about the race and our plans for volunteering at the upcoming Lake Waramaug Ultras. The pizza was delicious! :o)

Tony and Jill

Jeanette, Jill and Kate

Tony and Jill

Tony and Kate

Don and Jill

Tony

April Fool's 5k - Easton, CT - April 4, 2009

2009-04-07T17:00:00.008-04:00

http://www.hitekracing.com/results09/east0404.htm

I had not planned to run this race since I was signed up to run the Danbury Half marathon the next day. However, two of my friends had told me that they would be running it and I've never run it before so I thought it would be fun. The drive up Morehouse Road from Fairfield into Easton was a very pretty. The race started at Staples Elementary School, which looked like a beautifully updated farmhouse.

When I got there I saw Brian, Kellie, Richard and Donna. Kellie also introduced me to her friend, Heather. We were all surprised at how cold and windy it was and that it was raining. There were many families with little kids at this race and it was funny to see some of the kids dressed up to run in sweaters.

The rain stopped by the time the race started and the wind seemed to die down significantly also. I found the weather to be really good for running. We all lined up at the start line and tried to encourage some of the smaller kids to move back from the front line so that they wouldn't get trampled.

I started out the race at a fast pace due to being caught up in the crowd. The first mile was mostly downhill so I was very happy with the fast start. I slowed down significantly on the hill, but then picked it up again after that. My splits from my GPS watch were: 7:13, 7:43, 7:55, :32 = 23:24 3:07 miles average of a 7:37 pace.

As soon as I finished I cheered for Kellie and Heather. Well, I don't know if 'cheering' is really the term I should use since I was actually 'yelling' to Kellie that she had to pick it up and beat the woman in front of her. She made me proud by going into a full sprint and leaving the woman in her dust! Go Girl! We then back inside for some post-race refreshments. They had a great selection of bagels, prepared foods and drinks.

Kellie, Heather and I chatted while they picked out numbers in the raffle and awarded trophies to the winners and age group leaders. I was very happy to find out that I had earned a trophy by finishing 1st in my divison.

Brian

Donna

Kellie and Heather

Richard

Fred, Kate and Richard

Boston Blowout 30k - March 29, 2009

2009-03-29T17:58:00.008-04:00

http://www.clubct.org/Results/09Results/09BlowoutRes.html

The weather forecast for the Boston Blowout 30k was calling for rain throughout the morning with temperatures in the low to mid 40s. Yesterday's 30k had done a number on my feet that left me with a few small blisters and some spots that felt like they were about to blister. I put some bodyglide and lambswool on my feet and taped them, but knew that if they got wet I would more than likely get more blistering problems. I opted for a running skirt over leggings and selected a light long-sleeved tech shirt and a thin pair of gloves. I also packed my light vest with lots of ventilation, but since I thought that the rain would be light I figured I would run without it. I met up with Jill and we checked in and spent some time catching up with some friends. The rain had now started to fall pretty heavily and the wind had picked up. As we walked out to the start line I stopped by my car to pick up the vest and get a pair of gloves for Jill.

I could not get my GPS watch to pick up satelites in time for the start and it took about 1/4 of a mile for it to kick in so my watch splits were all off. I also had my manual watch, which was good for the beginning and end of the race when I was able to locate the mile markers on the street. Jill and I wanted to run at a nice easy pace and to just enjoy the experience. We weren't even sure if we were going to run the whole course or if we would stop at the halfway point. We figured that we'd just play it by ear.

So with the rain pouring down and heavy winds it was pretty tough running in the beginning. We trying to avoid puddles at first, but then realized that it was pointless. I was happy to find out that the wetter my feet got the better they felt. It was like the cool water was soothing them and bringing some relief from the stinging feeling that I had experienced earlier. The small trail section proved to be quiet muddy and slow going, but I was able to follow behind Jason and find some of the drier parts to run on.

On the way down Beach road Jill and I laughed about Rob giving us permission to walk the speed bumps on this section of road. The bumps were actually like mini hills and there were 3 of them to deal with. However, we did not feel the need to walk these 'hills'! This section of the race always seems to go on forever and you feel like you will never get to the turnaround point. The good thing it is that you get to see all the runners ahead of you coming back from the turn around. We cheered for the front runners and for many of our friends such as Rob, Cindy and Ronnie. After the turn around on Beach Road the head wind was brutal and made it hard to maintain any decent pace. I believe that it was shortly after this that the rain stopped and for most of the rest of the course the wind wasn't too bad either, except for on Beach road. The rain did start up again later, but it wasn't nearly as bad as in the beginning of the race.

As Jill and I were approaching the start/finish area and getting close to starting the second loop it was time to decide whether or not to continue. My calves had been tight in the first few miles, but now felt fine and my feet were still relatively good so I was thinking that there was nothing stopping me from continuing other than just being a little tired. Jill said that she wanted to walk or stop, but also didn't really seem to have anything major that would stop her from finishing the race. When we got to the end of the first big loop Jeanette was there cheering for us. We ran the small loop and when we came out of it Jeanette was cheering for us again and ran with us for about a quarter of a mile. At that point we'd passed the point of no return and were on our way out to doing the big loop again. Thanks Jeanette for the distraction! We had run with Don briefly in the first mile of the race and had seen him again right after the first turn around. We were now wondering if he was going to complete the race or stop at the halfway point. My money was on him completing the whole race unless he was having major problems with his knee, but we weren't going to be sure until we made it to the turn around point a second time to see if he was still on the course.

At the turn around water station Andie, Paul and Julie cheered for us and provided moral support. We laughed with them and then headed back into that terrible headwind again. Jill and I were thrilled to see Don coming towards us on his way out to the turn around. Another runner joined us at this point and told us that she'd heard about us doing a 30k yesterday and said how impressed she was with us. She needed a little company and motivation to get through the final miles so she joined us. At this point my feet were starting to dry a little and now I could feel the blistered starting to form again with a bad one developing on my right arch. I was tempted to run through some puddles to get my sock soaked through again, but wasn't really sure if that would help it so I just let it be. I now went into auto-pilot with a mission to end the race as soon as possible so that I could take off my shoes and socks. We were a little past mile 17 and Jill and Kelly seemed to be having a nice chat and didn't seem to have any problems so I gradually started to pick up the pace.

We had seen LuAnne up ahead for most of the race and had run along side her once or twice, but at this point I could not see her ahead of me. I made a turn and then there she was up ahead. I decided to focus on trying to catch up to her so that it would help me to pick up my pace and get me to the finish line quicker. I was closing in, but didn't really think that I would actually catch her. We were getting to the start/finish area and would have to run the small loop one more time before being able to turn in to finish. I found myself going faster and faster as I could feel my sock rubbing more on my blister. I finally caught up to LuAnne and passed her right as we came out of the loop. I made my turn for the finish area and Jeanette started to sprint along side me while she yelled words of encouragement. After finishing the race I immediately took off my shoes and socks and then cheered for Jill and Kelly who were coming out of the loop to the finish.

Splits: 9:21, 10:01, 9:37, 10:00, 39:34 (miles 5-8), 9:53, 20:43 (miles 10-11), 10:07, 10:25, 10:16, 10:14, 9:49, 9:56, 9:01, 5:02 = 3:03:58 Official race time: 3:04:00 with a 9:52 pace.

I quickly shot over to my car to get my camera and was able to get photos of Don finishing the race.

What an amazing weekend! I got to run two 30k races in one weekend and got to do so with some great friends. Running with Jill is what really made it very special.

Jill and Cindy before the race

Don coming in from the last small loop towards the finish area

Don heading for the finish line

Cindy and Jill after the race

Me and Jill after the race

I just finished re-taping my feet

Jill - pre-race

Me and Jill

Jason and Don

Margaret and Cindy

Ronnie

LuAnne, Kate and Jill

Kelly

LuAnne

Jill and Kate

Jill

Don

Rob

LuAnne, Kate and Jill

Dawn
Jill and Kate

Jill

Kate

Don

2009 Wurtsboro Mountain 30K Race

2009-03-28T17:54:00.011-04:00

This is the first of two 30k races that Don, Jill and I have on our schedule for the weekend.

We met up at 6:30 am to make the hour and a half ride to Wurtsboro, NY. Don has been feeling some pain in his knee, but decided to give it a shot anyway. When we got to the race it was a little chilly, but much warmer than I had expected. Jill and I both opted to run in skirts and were wearing light shirts. Don, as usual, had a hat and a sweatshirt to start off with, but as we would see later in the race he ended up dropping off the hat and sweat shirt along the way. We also met up with Frank and Emmy before the start of the race. Emmy took a while to decide whether or not to run it due to a 100 miler that she and Frank are running next weekend. She finally decided to go ahead and just run it slowly.

Jill and I started out together and hoped to be able to run the entire first 4 miles uphill without any walk breaks. I had received some ribbing from some friends saying that we weren't allowed to walk. I had forgotten how much the first 2 miles of hill was 'pitched'. This made for a very awkward run with my left side much lower than my right side. I was happily surprised that my breathing did not feel overly labored and I felt pretty strong. However, at about 1.75 miles both of my calves cramped up. I had no choice, but to take a walk break. I tried to walk pretty fast, while still trying to get my calves to relax a little. After a few moments I started to run again, but my calves were still cramped up and my left hamstring and then right hamstring also started to cramp. I took two Advil and continued to walk/run, but then I started to get a crazy case of pins and needles in my left foot. This was now getting to be very frustrating, but I knew that the worse case would be me having to walk and run on and off until mile 4 and then I'd be fine. Luckily, I didn't have to do that because all the cramping went away around the 2.5 mile mark. I kept looking up ahead to see that Jill was running the entire time, which made me very proud. I picked up my pace so that I could catch back up to her and did so right before the top of the hill. At this point my legs felt very good and strong. Jill had met up with a guy called Ray and we talked to him for a little while before I went ahead to enjoy the downhills. I stayed ahead until a little after the 9 mile mark and then Jill and Ray caught up and then we ran together again.

We ran together until Ray got a burst of speed at about mile 12 and took off ahead of us. Go Ray!
Jill and I continued to run together for the rest of the race. We kept hoping for either flat or downhills sections, but it all seemed to be rolling hills. I finally saw Don up in the distance at about mile 16 and we picked up the pace so that we could join him. Jill was a little reluctant at first, but ended up sticking with me. We caught up to Don and he said that he was in need of ice as soon as he finished the race. He was now slowing down a lot to favor the knee so Jill and I went ahead. We had a pretty decent pace for those last few miles, but it was more due to us wanting it to be over with rather than due to us feeling good.

My splits: 10:02, 10:48, 12:30, 9:45, 8:41, 8:46, 8:17, 7:56, 8:22, 8:40, 8:21, 8:44, 9:12, 10:05, 9:32, 9:08, 8:43, 9:03, 5:23 = 2:51.58

Official race time: 2:52:01 and pace: 09:14

We crossed the line and then went right to my car to get some ice for Don. Once Don finished we all went inside the school to get refreshments. I went for the pizza and Gatorade! Yummy!

I feel pretty good for tomorrow, except for some blistering and hot spots on my feet. The forecast calls for rain, but at least the course is really flat.

I almost forgot to mention - It turned out to be a beautiful day. The sun was out, the temperature was ideal and there was a nice breeze to cool us down at times. The scenery along the route is really a sight to see. There are trees all around and flowing water along most of the course. At one part there was a cute little waterfall flowing down some rocks. The views along the way certainly helped to take your mind off the long distance to be covered.

Race Results:

http://www.coolrunning.com/results/09/ny/Mar28_WURTSB_set1.shtml

Don and Jill

Kate, Don and Jill

Frank, Jill and Don

Emmy, Don and Jill

Emmy - Finally decided to run the race

Don approaching the finish line.

Don icing his knee and Frank

Frank with his favorite pyramid

Empty pizza boxes

Myriam preparing to annouce the awards

Spring Equinox 8k - New Canaan, CT - March 22, 2009

2009-03-23T16:54:00.022-04:00

The Spring Equinox race was almost forgotten this year with all the craziness with the bad weather or forecasts of such resulting in the postponing of some Boston Buildup races. With no other local races on the schedule for the weekend, a few of us e-mailed Jim last week to suggest that he put on this race. Jim was nice enough to grant our wishes and put it together at last minute. I'm not much of one for running an afternoon race, but I did want to show support and thought it would be nice to get off the couch for a little while on a Sunday afternoon. I had run 16 miles on the Trumbull rail trail with Jill, Joe L, and Cindy on Saturday so it was another race with no real expectations.

It was probably about 10 degrees colder at the race site than in Norwalk. The sun had gone behind some clouds and a bitterly cold wind was blowing. I had elected to wear a running skirt, but was happy that I at least had on a long sleeved running shirt. Slowly people were starting to roll in. I talked a little with Andrea, who was there to volunteer and also chatted with John, Don and Rob. Emmy showed up about 5 minutes before race time and told us that she had won her division in the 15k in New York that morning. Frank decided not to run to the race since he was drained after a long morning in the city.

The race started out on Oenoke Ridge and then went along West Road, Turtleback Road and then back to Oenoke Ridge. I started out at a reasonable pace in the first half mile, but felt like I was stuck in the masses with us all running single file on the side of a busy road. I decided that I wanted to get away from the pack despite the benefits of the people ahead blocking the wind. I passed a group of runners and set my sights on Don, who was a little ahead of me. I continued to run with him in sight, but he gradually got far enough ahead that I figured my chances of catching him were slim to none. I ran most of the first half right behind a guy called Luis, but after the hill on Turtleback I passed him and tried to push the pace a little. Roy passed me and made a comment about whether or not we had a hope of catching youthful Don. The race was mostly downhill after Turtleback with a slight uphill in the final stretch. The sun made an appearance and the wind died down at times too. My mile splits were 8:03, 8:09, 8:26, 7:48, 7:03 (7:16 pace) for an average pace of 7:57. I finished the race in 39:29 (my watch time) right behind Roy. As I crossed the finish line Ronnie told me that she thought I was the 3rd woman to finish! What a wonderful surprise.

Emmy was nice enough to run the race with John who is just starting to ease back into racing for the season. He was struggling with some cramping in his legs, but managed to tough it out and finish the race.

We all hung out for a while after the race. We ate bagels and talked about the 30kms coming up this weekend. I'm so glad that I decided to run this race since I had such a good time. The long sleeved shirts that Jim made up for it were really cool too.

Course map:
http://www.clubct.org/Races/Equinox/Equinox.GIF

Results:
http://www.clubct.org/Results/09Results/09EquinoxRes.html

The cool race shirt

Emmy coming in after sticking with John for most of the race.

John

John crossing the finish line

Don

Neil and Andrea

Ronnie and Julie

Roy and Rob

Don and Emmy

Don, Emmy, Rob and Roy

Don, Emmy, Rob, Roy and Kate

Ronnie, Jim and John

Jim, John, Kate, Don and Emmy

John, Kate, Don, Emmy and Roy

St. Patrick's Day Classic 5 Miler

2009-03-15T21:38:00.011-04:00

This is one of my favorite short races of the year. After running many longer hilly races in the Boston Buildup series it is nice to have a short, flat race to try for a fast time. However, I was not expecting to go that fast this year since I haven't done any speed work lately and I have been working more on just increasing my weekly mileage to get ready for some 30ks and a marathon. I had run a 14 mile training run on Saturday, which is not my usual routine for the day before a race.

I met up with several of my friends and some of my co-workers from Commonfund before the race. I spent a decent amount of time catching up with John and chatting with Kellie. The temperature was a little chilly at the beginning, but I knew that it would warm up pretty quickly. It was my first race wearing my UltraBrit running shirt that Jill had made up for me for Christmas. I thought that a St. Patrick's Day race was the perfect opportunity to bring it out! ;o)

Kellie, John, Sean and I were lucky enough to get a place towards the front of the pack so that we didn't get slowed down by the masses in the beginning. We started about 25 minutes late due to some mishap in the 1 mile race that went off shortly before ours was scheduled to start. Much to my surprise, once the horn sounded I jumped out to an immediate fast pace. The adrenaline from running in a race must have out trumped the tired legs from the prior day's long run. I had heard about Amanda from my work as being a runner who ran in high school and college so I was expecting her to pass me along with Brian from our Compliance department. Sure enough, Amanda passed me very comfortably around the 2 mile mark and pulled a little ahead. My goal was to keep her in my sights and try to fend off Brian. I was able to accomplish both goals with Amanda finishing only about 20 seconds ahead of me and with Brian never passing me. Allison finished right behind Brian and Kellie finished pretty close behind her. I ran the first mile in 7:38, the second mile in 7:50, the third in 7:46 and the fourth in 7:36 for a total of 30:50. This was a course PR for me by 2 seconds, which is my second fastest 4 mile time. The race had 765 finishers and I finished 187th and 4th in my age group.

The thing I don't like about the course is the gravel section right as you head towards the finishing stretch. This is the time that I want to start my sprint, but I couldn't get any traction. Amanda later told me to run by the fence on the grass to get better speed through that part. It was also frustrating for some runners because the walkers (many with strollers) were taking up most of that pathway. However, right after this section I was able to pick up the pace and pass several people.

I just looked over the race results again and see that 3 of the people I passed in the finishing stretch were women in my age group, which resulted in my 4th place finish instead of 7th! I'm so thankful to have a good finishing kick! ;o)

Race Results:
http://www.hitekracing.com/results09/fair0315.htm

Amanda:
http://www.printroom.com/ViewGalleryPhoto.asp?evgroupid=0&userid=JMcCoy1454&gallery_id=1472104&image_id=169

Me:
http://www.printroom.com/ViewGalleryPhoto.asp?evgroupid=0&userid=JMcCoy1454&gallery_id=1472104&image_id=184

Brian:
http://www.printroom.com/ViewGalleryPhoto.asp?evgroupid=0&userid=JMcCoy1454&gallery_id=1472104&image_id=215

Kellie:
http://www.printroom.com/ViewGalleryPhoto.asp?evgroupid=0&userid=JMcCoy1454&gallery_id=1472104&tcount=777&scount=224&sku=1

John:
http://www.printroom.com/ViewGalleryPhoto.asp?evgroupid=0&userid=JMcCoy1454&gallery_id=1472104&tcount=777&scount=329&sku=1

John

Me

Dawn and Brian (AKA Unknown Sweetheart)

Some of Brian's running group

The Commonfund Gang - Me, Brian, Debbie, Sarah, Katarina, Amy and Amanda

Kellie and Paul

Me and Kellie

Vivian

Sarah and Vivian

Sarah, Vivian and Kate

Commonfund listed on the race poster

Sean and Ikuko

Don

Sean and LuAnne

LuAnne and Ikuko with their trophies!

Boston Buildup 25k - March 8, 2009 - Norwalk

2009-03-14T16:45:00.007-04:00

This has been a pretty busy week for me. I wanted to write up a race report much earlier in the week, but time would not allow. Since the race I went to see UConn women play in the Big East Tourney in Hartford on Monday and Tuesday evening, I worked out at the gym late on Wednesday and stayed late at work on Thursday to finish my taxes. I have also logged in quite a few miles of running between morning and lunch time runs.

The 25k was postponed from the previous week due to the predicted bad weather that never actually materialized. With the new date the race now fell on Don's 60th Birthday. With it being one of his favorite races it seemed very appropriate to celebrate it there. On race day morning I arrived pretty early despite having a late night out the night before and having lost an hour's sleep on the time change - Spring forward. Later Frank and Emmy showed up and asked if I'd seen Don, but there was no sign of him. She had made up a card for everyone to sign and had made a poster to display on the door of the school. We took several photos of each other and then lined up for the pre-race announcements by Jim. Jim also took the time to mention that it was Don's birthday, but there was still no sign of him anywhere.

Emmy ran with Jill and I for the first half mile, but I wanted to slow down a little so she went ahead. I felt very tired and had no energy for this race and even felt that if Jill wasn't there I would have dropped out after about 2 miles. This was very unlike me since I can usually make it fine with one bad night of sleep. However, I continued to feel sluggish and ran the course pretty slowly and took walk breaks on some of the hills. It is a very hilly course, especially for the first half so it was tough going. I did get some energy back after I took a gel at about mile 6 so after that I felt much better. And no matter how sluggish I felt it was still wonderful to run with Jill.

So after posting a bunch of PRs starting with the New York marathon and for the first few races after that I was now on a roll of getting PWs for each race of the buildup series! When I mentioned this to Jill we both laughed about it since we are both just grateful to be able to run lots of miles with out pains or injury so the PRs can be put on hold for now.

Once we finished the race we got word that Don forgot to change his clocks yet again (he did the same thing before the Danbury half recently) and had started the race about half an hour late. We all laughed about it, but were also thrilled that he had made it so that we could wish him a happy birthday. We all cheered for him as he crossed the line and then we hung out with him for a while and took lots of photos.

It was a wonderful day spent with great friends.

Roy and Brian (AKA Unknown Sweetheart)

I'm not sure who this is, but I loved his dog!

Frank

Jim working on registration

Don's Birthday card

Joe and Jill

Don's Birthday poster

Emmy and Rob eating post-race bagels

Frank listening intently

Jill and Kate

Don finishing the race

Emmy wearing her spring apparel

Rob, Don and Roy

Emmy, Rob and Don

Don and Emmy displaying the poster

Frank, Rob, Don, Emmy and Kate

Jill getting a massage

Don, Kate and LuAnne

Jim and Roy

My co-worker just started a business - Happy Tails Barkery

2009-02-18T13:45:00.005-05:00

http://www.htbtreats.com/index.html

My co-worker, Kristin, just started up a business making doggie treats. They are only able to sell and ship within Connecticut right now, but hope to expand in the near future. Check out the site. I know first hand that she's great a baking 'human treats'. :o)

Here's some info from that website:

Welcome to Happy Tails Barkery - all natural doggie treats made with love
Happy Tails Barkery biscuits are made with all natural ingredients with no artificial additives or preservatives. The biscuits come in 3 flavors: Seize the Cheese, Hint of Mint and Grapple for Apple. They come in 3 different sizes and in a variety of dog-themed shapes such as bone, dog house, fire hydrant, paw print and dog. On special occasions, such as Valentine’s Day, St. Patrick’s Day, Easter and Christmas, we will have other shapes available as well.
All of our biscuits are registered products with the State of Connecticut. Currently, we are only registered to sell to residents of Connecticut and we apologize to you if you are visiting our site from another state. We hope to expand our business in the future and we look forward to serving you then.
As required by the State of Connecticut, we have had each treat tested for nutritional value by a certified laboratory.

Seize the Cheese

Hint of Mint

Grapple for Apple

Sweetheart 4 Miler - February 14, 2009

2009-02-14T14:55:00.008-05:00

What a fabulous race! I had so much fun at the Sweetheart race this morning. I got to see many of my running friends, challenge myself on a hilly 4 mile course and come home with hardware! This race has the usual age group categories for awards, but also adds a couples award system. The age categories for couples are calculated by adding the two ages together and the times are taken by adding the two runners times together. I picked Brian to be my 'Sweetheart' so with him being 38 and me being 41 we were in the 70s division. This should be a pretty competitive category, especially since we were old for this category coming in at 79 years. However, Brian is a very fast runner and helped us to place 3rd in our division. Brian and I also got trophies for each coming in 3rd in our individual categories.

As you can see from the photos below many of my friends also received trophies and medals. Congrats to Frank, Emmy, Andie, Ronnie, and Paul.

http://www.hitekracing.com/results09/strat0214.htm

Andie, Paul and Ronnie

Boomer (Pugle - part Pug, part Beagle)

Frank, Rob and Emmy

Chris, Frank, Rob and Emmy

Chris, Frank, Rob and Emmy

Monica

Brian, Kate, Emmy and Frank

Ronnie, Paul and Andie

My trophy and medal

Frank's photos:

Emmy and Kate

Kate and Frank

Brian and Kate ("Sweethearts")

Boomer and Kate

Emmy, Ronnie and Paul

Sherry and Marty

Brian, Kate, Emmy and Frank

Boston Buildup 20K - February 8, 2009

2009-02-09T15:13:00.010-05:00

What a perfect day for running! The temperature had been in the teens and twenties for several days, but on Sunday it was in the low 50s for the 20k race. It was a little windy at times and we did have a brief rain shower, but I found the rain to be quite refreshing. The sun came out on several occassions also, but the best part about it was being able to ditch the leggings in favor of a running skirt for the day. I met up with many of the usual gang before the race and mostly discussed what to wear on this unseasonably warm February day. Due to the construction at the Southport station we started the race in a different location, but the rest of the course was the same as in prior years. I have run this course 3 times before, but never seem to remember the details and am always amazed by the number of hills. The first half is mostly uphill and the second half has some nice downhill stretches, but the downhills never seem to match up to the uphills. I ran the entire race with Jill and found myself constantly asking her where all these hills kept coming from. The hill between mile 3 and 4 from Bronson Road to Greenfield Hill seemed to be never ending. I also thought that I remembered Mill Hill between mile 10 and 11 to be short and steep, but it ended up being pretty long. However, I did enjoy the challenge and was happy to run the entire race with no knee pain and only slight hip discomfort in the last few miles.

Brian

Ikuko

Sean

Steve

Frank

Jeanette

Jill and Joe pretending to be the front and back of a horse, but they forgot to bring the costume.

Steve

Petra and Maria

Don, Ikuko, Sean, Roy and Kate

Don, Ikuko, Sean, Roy and Frank

Don, Ikuko, Sean and Kate

Big Bad Bob, Jim and Brian

Rob, Karl and Geoff

Rob, Karl, Geoff and Roy

Maria

Sean

Jeanette

Ikuko and Sean

Tony

Jeanette, Jill and Kate

Mike

Roy, Dan and Ronnie

Petra

Frank, Joe, Jill, Jason and Kate

Crazy Brits! - Tough Man 2009

2009-02-04T11:08:00.002-05:00

http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/2009/02/tough_guy_challenge_2009.html

February 2, 2009
Tough Guy Challenge 2009
Billed as "the safest most dangerous taste of physical and mental endurance pain in the world", the Tough Guy Challenge took place yesterday, February 1st, on South Perton Farm, near Wolverhampton, England. Thousands of challengers (men and women) started the endurance race, with hundreds dropping out along the way due to exhaustion or injury - broken bones, dislocations, and over 600 cases of hypothermia. Even the overall winner, James Appleton, was treated briefly for hypothermia. The course takes racers through 21 obstacles - through mud, freezing water, across ropes and burning terrain. The challenge is also a fundraiser for charity, with funds going to the Mr. Mouse Farm for Unfortunates, which looks after hundreds of retired horses and provides jobs to young offenders. Here are a handful of photos from yesterday's race.
Click on the link above to see the photos.

Stairmaster: Greenwich woman reaches new heights

2009-02-04T09:12:00.003-05:00

Stairmaster: Greenwich woman reaches new heights
Runner battles head cold in race up Empire State Building
By Colin GustafsonStaff Writer
Posted: 02/03/2009 10:47:51 PM EST

Emmy Stocker of Greenwich finishes Tuesday's Empire State Building stair climb. (Colin Gustafson/Staff photo)

NEW YORK CITY -- A stubborn cough and head cold might have sidelined lesser athletes, but it only slowed down Emmy Stocker.

Stocker, 50, was one of nearly 350 athletes to complete a mad dash up 1,576 steps to the observation deck of the Empire State Building on Tuesday in the New York Road Runners' 32nd annual "Run-Up" race.

The Cos Cob mother of three, who has competed in six previous races, finished this year's race in 95th place overall, climbing from the building's stately lobby to the 86th-floor observatory in 17 minutes, 7 seconds.

Although that's not her personal best of about 15 minutes, Stocker said she was happy to have finished after falling ill with "mild bronchitis" before another 4-mile race last

Emmy Stocker, a resident of Greenwich, is still standing after Tuesday's stair run-up at the Empire State Building. (Colin Gustafson/Staff photo)Sunday.

"Today is a day you want to stay in bed. But what can I say? I'm hard-core," she said.
Stocker said she rose early Tuesday to hop a train to Grand Central Terminal before jogging 10 blocks to the Empire State Building to meet up with her racing buddy, Frank Colella, 46, of Scarsdale, N.Y.

She also was joined by neighbor John Gibbons, husband of state Rep. Lile Gibbons, R-Greenwich, who said he took some time off work from his Midtown investment firm to cheer her on.

Stocker said the run-up was difficult this year for under-the-weather runners like her because they had to breathe musty air in the service stairwell, then get hit with a frigid blast of winter air and snow after emerging on the outdoor observation deck.

Still, the racing conditions were not enough to keep her from bowing out, she said.
"I'm not physically tired, just weak from being sick," Stocker said as she caught her breath on the top floor, a medal on a ribbon draped around her neck. "But I got through it. You just gotta suck it up and give it your all."

In this year's race, Thomas Dold, 24, of Germany, won his fourth consecutive title in the men's competition, clocking in at 10 minutes, 7 seconds. He beat his previous record by 1 second.
Suzy Walsham, 35, of Singapore, marked her third consecutive win, climbing the steps in 13 minutes, 27 seconds, despite a fall before entering the stairwell.

The women's record is 11 minutes, 23 seconds.

The event is one of the world's premier tower races, beginning with a mad dash in the lobby and finishing on the observation deck.

-- The Associated Press contributed to this story.

Weekly Update - February 2, 2009

2009-02-02T12:57:00.003-05:00

Happy Days again! Here is a happy recap for my past week.

Monday night was Westport volleyball. My knee felt pretty good for the entire game and afterwards.

Tuesday morning I went for a short run with hopes of increasing my running from 2 days a week to 3 days a week. I ran 5.15 miles and felt pretty good. My knee still didn't feel perfect, but it was more of a slight discomfort than any pain. Tuesday night was Norwalk volleyball. Again, all was well with my knee and we won all 3 games in the match!

Wednesday evening I went to spin class at the gym. The bicycle riding has been hurting my knee more so than running, but in this class I noticed a slight improvement from the past few weeks. As usual, Kellie made sure I worked hard by asking all students to follow my lead in a group sprint. It's hard not to give it 100% when she's telling the class that it's a piece of cake for me since I'm a marathon runner. ;o) After class I did some weight lifting to work on building up my calves, quads, glutes and hips and then finished with some stretching exercises.

Thursday was my mid-week lunch time run that I've just added to my schedule. I started out on a snow covered trail behind my office building and then transitioned to the roads. I didn't realize that the route I picked was almost all uphill for the first 2 miles, but the hills were moderate and it was good to go slow. I misjudged the distance of the loop and had to add on at the end by running a small loop around Wilton center. That ended up being the worst part of the run due to the large puddles at the side of the road and too much ice to run on the sidewalks. However, it was a good 4 mile run that didn't bring about any knee pain.

Friday was a much needed rest day.

Saturday morning was when I had scheduled my long run. My previous long runs had all been about 10 miles so I really needed to get in a longer run this time. The Boston Buildup 20k/12.4 miles is next Sunday so I was hoping to get in at least that distance. I started with my usual route beginning at Fox Run school and headed towards New Canaan. I wanted to change it up a little and get in more miles in this first loop so once I got to the top of Farm Road I continued right on instead of turning left to loop back around. This new route took me around the back of Waveny Park and onto Route 106. Little did I realize that the way back was on Talmadge Hill Road, which was quite a significant hill. However, I managed the hill with no problems and no aches and pains. I continued on to join up with my usual loop and was starting to try to figure out which roads to take once I was back to Fox Run School. I ended up heading to Hunters Lane and then up Ponus Ave to get in another hill. At that point I still had about a mile to go to get to 13 miles so I did a mini loop around the Fox Run area to finish up. In my past runs I had felt some knee and hip pain starting around 7 miles, but in this run I felt almost nothing for the entire 13 miles. In the last mile or two I had the feeling that my knees and knee were getting a little tired and that they might start to ache if I went much further, but that was about it. After the run I went home and did lots of stretching.

Sunday morning I went to the gym for another spin class. I'm not sure if the class was really difficult or if my legs were just tired from running 13 miles the day before. My quads felt pretty tired and I couldn't give it my all. I found myself spinning a little slower and with a little less tension on the bike than usual, but it was all due to fatigue and not pain. This was actually the first spin class in a long time that my knee felt relatively normal. After class I went through my weight lifting and then stretching routine.

It's now Monday morning and all still feels good.

Emmy preparing to run the Empire State Run-up

2009-02-02T09:20:00.005-05:00

Greenwich Time Article
Stair master: Greenwich woman set to compete in Empire State Building Run-Up
By Colin GustafsonStaff Writer
Posted: 02/01/2009 11:25:36 PM EST

(Helen Neafsey/Staff photo)

Emmy Stocker of Cos Cob will be competing in the 32nd annual New York Road Runners Empire State Building Run-Up. The race is up 86 floors from the ground floor to the Observatory Deck. Here she trains on the stairs at the YMCA.

To make it to the top, Cos Cob resident Emmy Stocker isn't afraid to throw a few friendly elbows.

She hopes that competitive streak serves her well when she races up a service stairwell of the Empire State Building against 300 competitive "stair climbers" Tuesday.

A freelance writer and mother of three, Stocker will compete in the 32nd annual New York Road Runners Empire State Building Run-Up in Manhattan.

The race pits hundreds of male and female road-running enthusiasts against each other as they bound -- and sometimes muscle -- their way up 1,576 steps to the building's 96th floor landing.

"There's a little pushing and shoving along the way," said Stocker, 50, who has competed in six previous run-ups, "but sometimes you have to be aggressive to get ahead of everybody."

To train for the event, Stocker says she hits the stair-climber at the Greenwich Family YMCA for a couple hours a few times a week, but usually gets a better workout by simply jogging across the town's hilly terrain.

"The best way to prepare is running hills," she said. "Luckily, all of Greenwich is hills."

This training regimen also helps her prepare for a variety of other endurance competitions throughout the year, from five-mile road races to 100-mile marathons (her favorite event) that span across hilly, wooded terrain and often take 24 hours to finish.

That's not to say the Empire State run-up isn't a challenge.

To get started during the race, Stocker says she usually tries to begin with a burst of speed, using her arms to pull her body up by the railings and sometimes taking two steps at a time. Once near the front of the pack, Stocker says she settles into a slower, steadier pace while climbing to the finish line at the Observatory Deck.

By the time you get to the 40th floor, "your lungs are killing you, your quads are killing you, and you think you can't go any higher," she said. "But you realize you can, and you do."

While the women's record for the run-up is 11 minutes, 23 seconds, Stocker says she usually clocks in around 15 minutes.

Still, the event is more about camaraderie than competition, said Stocker, who said she enjoys seeing office workers gathering in the stairwell doorway, some with perplexed looks on their face, others cheering her to the top.

"It's not really about winning, but just challenging yourself with friends," she said.

Boston Buildup 15k - January 25, 2009 - Ridgefield

2009-01-25T17:45:00.008-05:00

I was surprised to see such a good turn out for the 15k since the new postponed date conflicted with the Winter Wonderland 5 Miler in Milford and the Manhattan half.

It was a very cold morning, which always seems to be the case with this race so we were all prepared for it. I hung out with Sean, Ikuko, Jill, Joe, Jeanette, Brian and Roy a little before the race started and then stood next to Jill, Joe and Jeanette at the start line.

Jill and I ran the entire race together with Joe close by for the first few miles. Neither Jill or Joe had been able to run throughout the week so they knew that they would be a little rusty. Joe was tempted to call it quits after 2 miles, but ended up toughing it out and running the entire race. Jeanette is only 2 weeks out from running the Disney marathon also so she was happy taking it easy also. It was a difficult race with many hills. The last two miles before the halfway turn around seemed to be all uphill, but the two miles after the turn around didn't seem to be downhill. Go figure! Jill and I like the out and back course design in this race because it gives us the opportunity too see the front runners come by on their way back from the turn around and to see some of our other friends as we came back from the turn around. We had a nice time running and chatting together and cheering for other runners as we passed by each other.

On the injury front - my knee hurt a little, but nothing significant so it was a good day!

Race Results:

http://www.clubct.org/Results/09Results/09BB15kRes.html

Kate, Jill and Joe

Roy, Jill and Joe

Anton with Icicles

Sean

Maria (in green)

Jeanette

Joe

Tony giving Ikuko a massage

Jeanette, Joe and Jill

Wind chill temperature of about 3 degrees - January 21, 2009

2009-01-21T13:29:00.005-05:00

I am so happy to report that my knee felt really good throughout the day yesterday. It also felt great for volleyball last night. I planned to do my usual mid-week run this morning and with my knee feeling so good I was really excited about it. I turned on the travel and weather channel to find out that the temperature was about 3 degrees with the wind chill. Brrrrhhhh! I put on 2 pairs of gloves, but other than that I just had my usual winter running attire. With a short sleeved Under Armour shirt and a regular long-sleeved running shirt my torso was pretty warm, except for a slight chill on my tummy. My quads were pretty cold for most of the run and my fingers kept getting cold so I pulled them out of the fingers of my gloves and made a fist inside the glove to warm them up. Overall, I felt pretty good about the temperature considering. I wasn't sure how far to run, but selected a route that could be 3.75 miles or about 5.5 miles. As luck would have it I felt a slight twinge in both knees right at the time I needed to decide which route to take so I opted for the short one. However, within a minute or two my knees felt totally fine. Instead of running the basic 3.75 mile route I figured out a way to make another turn further along to increase it up to 5 miles. I finished the 5 mile run in just under 45 minutes and felt great!

I usually do some stretching on my front steps after my run, but with it being so cold I figured I'd do all my stretching inside. However, I immediately got a little distracted and forget to do so. I did remember after my shower and did some stretching at that point. My leg still felt really good so I wasn't too worried. I think the worst thing about this morning's run was trying to warm-up after my shower. I sat on my bed in a robe while eating breakfast and watching the Australian Open (tennis) as I shivered. I couldn't stop shaking for about 20 minutes. Now that I have thoroughly warmed up everything feels good.

Injury update - January 20th, 2009

2009-01-20T15:42:00.003-05:00

My last report was a very happy one that came about from completing a 10 mile training run with very little pain on Friday January 9th.

Monday night is Westport volleyball night for me and I'm usually one of the first ones to arrive at the field house. In order to kill some time I generally spend a significant amount of time stretching my knee, quads and ITB. However, on Monday the 12th I got to there a little later than usual and started to warm up with my team right away. I found that my knee wasn't feeling so good every time I had to run and then stop short so I stepped away from my team and did some stretches. The stretching didn't help at this point, but I'm not sure if it was due to me stretching too late or because my knee was wasn't up for feeling good that day no matter how I went about stretching it. I played with entire game with some pain and discomfort.

My knee continued to feel pretty tender throughout the day on Tuesday just with walking around the office and the few times I had to go up and down stairs. I got up on Wednesday morning to go for my short run, but barely made it beyond a 1/4 of a mile before I gave it up. My knee was really sore and it felt as if something was going to tear if I continued to run. Since I'd done a warm up walk before my run I now had to walk over half a mile in the cold in order to get home and I was dressed for running, not walking. I tried to pick up my walking pace to get home quicker, but this just made my knee hurt more and made me limp. On Wednesday night I played volleyball with my knee still hurting me.

I had PT on Thursday evening and was hoping that this would fix everything. I received some massage around my knee and ITB and did some stretching, and had stim and an ice pack. Francesco also taped my knee again. However, when I left there I could still feel the same pain. I was starting to wonder if I was now back to where I was in December and would have to stop running again.

I went to work on Friday still feeling the discomfort, but I knew that I needed to run a little if I was going to be able to run the 15k on Sunday. After much thought I deliberation I finally decided to give it a shot at lunch time. I started out running on the snow on a trail behind my office. I was running very slowly due to the conditions and so that I could take it easy on my knee. It started out hurting a little through the first 1/2 mile or so, but the pain wasn't bad and nothing felt like it would snap. After that the pain started to ease up and I could feel that my leg was loosening up. I ended up running two small loops that was 3.5 miles. I was thrilled.

The 15k was postponed on Sunday so I opted to try for a long run in the snow. I knew that there was a good chance that I couldn't do the distance, but figured it was worth a shot. I would have planned to run more than 10 miles since I ran 10 last time, but the roads were pretty slick with the snow so I knew that it would be a great workout even if I didn't put in the distance. Sure enough, I found that it was a much more significant effort to run, especially uphill, in those conditions. I could feel my muscles working hard in order to move forward on the slippery surface. At one point my calves felt really tired and I wondered if I could even make it 5 miles, but they soon got used to it and things started to feel really good. Luckily, the huge hill on Farm Rd in New Canaan had a sidewalk with almost no snow on it so that piece wasn't as difficult as I had expected. I ended up running 10 miles in 1:44 on the same route that took me 1:34 when I ran it the previous week. So even though I didn't increase the miles I did increase the effort by running for longer and having to work harder with each stride. I was still tempted to run an extra mile or two at the end, but my hips were starting to hurt and that could then lead to knee pain so I opted to stop at that point.

Shortly after I got home I made arrangements to meet Tom part way from his house to mine and walk back with him. I ended up putting on a pair of trail shoes that I'd bought about a year ago and never had a chance to try out. I ran in them for a mile to meet up with Tom and then walked back home with him from there. So, I managed to run 11 miles for the day - even though I got to take a break before the last mile.

On Monday I went to the gym and did 20 minutes on the elliptical machine, went to spin class and then hit a weight machine for my quads and glutes. My knee did ache a little, but feels really good today.

Let's see how things go in volleyball tonight and with my next run.

UConn vs Syracuse - The Good and the Bad - Jan 17 2009

2009-01-20T09:41:00.004-05:00

Historic Day for Huskies:

Sophomore Maya Moore scored a career-high 40 points to become the fastest player in UConn history to reach the 1,000-point milestone in 55 games, surpassing Svetlana Abrosimova’s previous record of 63 games, as the No. 1/1 University of Connecticut women’s basketball team defeated Syracuse University 107-53.

Moore finished the afternoon shooting 14-of-23 from the floor with 10 three-point field goals, a program-best as well as a new BIG EAST record, as she picked up her 18th consecutive game with double-figure points. Her 13 rebounds also marked her team-leading eighth double-double of the season and 19th of her career.

Moore’s 40-point tally made her only the second UConn player to score 40 or more points in a game, joining Nykesha Sales who registered 46 points vs. Stanford on Dec. 21, 1997. Her 10 three-pointers also broke the UConn single-game record surpassing Wendy Davis’ previous mark of eight vs. Florida on Dec. 8, 1991.

The Huskies’ 18 three-pointers broke the program single-game record of 14, which was accomplished on three previous occasions. The mark also ties the BIG EAST Conference single-game record.

Caroline Doty went down with a knee injury at the end of the first half.

The game was very physical at times with the Syracuse players taking several cheap shots. However, UConn was up for the challenge, especially Caroline Doty who stood up to them every time they got overly aggessive.

It was a very exciting game with so many great plays and shots made by the Huskies. It was a historic day with all the 3-pointers by Maya Moore and the entire team, but it was also very sad to see Caroline go down. She had torn her ACL playing soccer in high school that left her unable to play basketball in her senior year. When she went down to the ground grabbing at her knee and yelling in pain we knew that it was probably another tear. I played back those moments on DVR when I got home and to see it all happen and hear her shouts of anguish were just devastating.

Tom and James

Caroline Doty

Friday January 9th, 2009 - The perfect ending to a stressful week

2009-01-12T12:35:00.005-05:00

I had a pretty stressful week at work last week. My duties included month-end, quarter-end, year-end and year-begin items. Thursday and Friday I had to make sure that all employees' open enrollment selections were put into the payroll system correctly. As usual, there were issues that had to be addressed and things to be clarified so I was getting a little crazy. I finalized the payroll at about 3pm on Friday afternoon, processed some journal entries and then headed home at about 4:30pm. I certainly had enough work to keep me there much later, but felt burnt out from the week and needed to cut my losses in order to come back fresh on Monday morning.

I had originally planned to run on Saturday morning and always prefer running in the morning, but I had many errands to run on Saturday and had to bake something for a party that I was supposed to attend that evening. I didn't want to cut my run short or be stressed out about getting everything done in time so I decided to run Friday night instead. I also needed a way to de-stress from my work week and figured that running right after work would be the perfect way to do so.

I headed out with a little flashing light clipped to the ipod strap on my arm and had some reflective strips on my hat, gloves and running pants. I was lucky to have a clear night with a moon that was almost full. However, many roads didn't have street lights and lights of the cars coming towards me threw off a glare that made it difficult to see. I almost tripped twice by not seeing obstacles on the side of the road until the last possible second. However, I managed my entire run without any incident. This run accomplished my two major goals and then some! Just being out on the road running helped me to feel much happier and took away my stress. I also managed to put in the miles that I needed to feel comfortable for my upcoming 15k race. I would usually have at least one 10-12 mile long run under my belt before a 15K race, but this year would be happy to get 7-8 miles due to my injury. I started out with a standard route that could be 4-5 miles, but with a simple turn here or there could be made a few miles longer. I had been to physical therapy on Thursday evening and Francesco had put some tape on my knee. I was amazed that with my knee taped I was not feeling the usual knee pain so when I got to the end of Nursery I opted for my longer route that goes into New Canaan and Darien. I headed up the big hill on Farm road and then down Route 124 past Waveny Park and still felt no knee pain. As I got to Stephen Mather I finally started to feel a little pain, but it wasn't too bad at all. The pain didn't get any worse and at one point moved a little from my inner knee to the outer knee. By the time I got back to my complex I was at about 9 and a half miles so I ran beyond my place to make it to an even 10!!! Yahoo!! My cool down walk is when my hip and knee usually start to hurt really badly so I was very happy to find out that there was no pain when I walked. I did some stretching on the steps outside my place and then went inside for some further stretching.

I am so amazed that I pulled off 10 miles. It's the first run over 6.2 miles since the NY marathon in the beginning of November. I do have some pain and tightness in my hip/knee and ITB since Friday's run, but nothing more than I have experienced over the past few months. I feel really good about this run and am now feeling much more confident about the upcoming race. I still keep hoping for a miracle cure that will allow my knee to get back to tracking correctly, but until then I will keep stretching my quads, hips and ITB and be happy that I can run at all.

As it turned out - my plans were cancelled for Saturday evening due to the snow storm, but I was happy to have already done my long run so that I could get my errands completed early in the day.

Boston Buildup 10K - January 4th 2009 - Norwalk

2009-01-06T18:38:00.017-05:00

http://www.clubct.org/Buildup/BosBuild.html

I was happy to be able to run in this year's 10k. Last year I ran this race, but was not able to run the rest of the series due to an injury. I'm starting out in a similar situation this year, but hope that I can run through the injury. I am only running 2 days a week so I hope this will allow my knee to heal.

It was great to see such a big turn out for this race. The temperature was pretty good with it being in the 30s. There was some ice on the ground in the parking lot, which made for slow going at the start and finish, but the rest of the course was pretty dry.

I got to run a little with Jill, which always makes the race much more enjoyable. It was nice to see Jeanette, who I hadn't seen for a month or so. I'd like to wish her luck in the Disney Marathon, which she will be running on Sunday.

Joe, Jill, Jeanette and Kate

Joe, John, Jill, John and John

(I wasn't allowed in this picture since my name doesn't start with a 'J'. However, we should have found Jeanette and had her join this group.)

Frank and I

Me and Emmy (One of these days we'll get Emmy to pay attention when we're trying to take a picture!)

PsychoMagnet at Georgetown Saloon - January 2nd 2009

2009-01-06T17:46:00.015-05:00

Tom and I headed out to the Georgetown Saloon to checkout Rob's band, PsychoMagnet, on Friday night. We were thrilled to see Ed and Joyce pull up to park as we were heading in. We got there shortly after 9:30pm and were shocked to see that they had already started to play. Most nights we go to see a band they don't start until after 10pm. The dinner crowd was still there and some of them were dancing. We loved watching the little kids dancing with their parents. The band played appropriate music for this crowd for the first set and then switched to more of their usual rock songs in the next two sets.

We had a great evening out. The band was awesome and it was wonderful to hang out with Ed and Joyce.

Rob

Scott and Johnny 'Thunder'

Ed and Tom

Rohan

Johnny Thunder

Eric

New Balance - the Official Footwear of the band?

Kate the groupie!

Joyce

2009 Chilly Chili 5k Run

2009-01-06T13:22:00.009-05:00

We had previously celebrated Doc. Whitney's 90th birthday at the Holiday run for kids in Fairfield, but that took place a few weeks before his birthday. This race was the first one with Doc running in his new age group. It was a tough day to run a race with it being in the single digits temperature wise with the wind chill and having to run with snow, slush and ice on the ground. Despite the harsh conditions, there was a great turnout with almost 300 finishers.

Notice that Brian comes to most races wearing a shirt from that same race from many years ago. In many cases Brian has the shirt from the first annual running of the race. No, it's not that he's that old, but he has been running for a long long time!

Larry

The Chili Pepper

Here comes Doc!

Race director, Joe Riccio, presenting Doc with his trophy for finishing first in his age group.

New Year's Eve with Chris Berardo and The DesBerardos

2009-01-06T12:29:00.008-05:00

New Year's Eve was spend at the Kicking Horse in Southport. Tom and I enjoyed a great evening of listening to great music with some wonderful friends. Here are a few photos!

The 'Professor'

Marc and Chris

Crazy Kate - December 24, 2008

2008-12-24T11:00:00.006-05:00

I hadn't run in weeks because of my bad knee, but I just couldn't take it anymore. I signed up for the Christmas T(h)ree miler last Sunday, which would be my first run in weeks. I was prepared for a very slow race with some walking if my knee hurt too much. However, the race was postponed due to weather and the race director, Jim, being sick. The weather was pretty bad. We had lots of snow on Friday, a little more on Saturday and there were flurries when I got up on Sunday morning. Instead of going back to bed I thought this was a perfect opportunity to give running a shot. There was no pressure to race and no pressure to run any specific distance. Also, with the snow on the roads I had the perfect excuse to run really slowly. It's almost 'what the doctor ordered', but not quite since I shouldn't be running at all yet. I headed out the door and set out on an undetermined route, which I could make as short as I wanted or if I made the full loop it would be about 3.5 miles. My knee hurt from the very beginning, but it did not get any worse throughout the run and it felt better for a few moments here and there. Landing on the very thin layer of snow felt really good because it softened the impact. I ended up doing the full loop and taking all the way back to my front door to make it a 4 mile run. Yahoooo!!!! I was thrilled. I did lots of stretching, iced my knee and took Advil. Over the past 3 weeks my knee has ached a lot one day and then been pretty good the next with no real rhyme or reason to which way it would be each day. Although the bad days have been gradually getting better and good days are coming more often. This run did not seem to change that at all so I don't think I did any harm.

I wanted to run this morning since I'm only planning to run about 2 days a week and today fit into my schedule pretty well. I turned on the weather channel to find out that there was freezing rain and that the roads were extremely icy. I knew that running in these conditions wasn't ideal, but I wanted to get in the run before PT and before I headed out to the grocery store. I knew that I would lose my motivation if I waited until afternoon so I proceeded to get my running gear together. Francesco called right before I headed out the door to say that PT had to be cancelled since the parking lot was like a skating rink. Now, I had an excuse to wait a little while before heading out, but I was all ready to go and was looking forward to the challenge of running on ice. Yes, I'm crazy!

I headed out and found the roads in my complex to be extremely icy. I kept going through different scenarios in my head for how to reschedule my day so that I would still get in a run. However, it came down to this being the best time. I figured that the road conditions would be much better once I got out of my complex. The roads were better, but still very slippery and a little scary. The downhill was the worst because I was afraid of picking up speed and not being able to stop. However, I took it really slowly and was enjoying the workout. I could feel my calves working harder from trying to run on the ice and trying to keep from falling. I thought it was very funny when I ran on the uphills because my feet kept sliding backwards as I tried to push off. There was a light rain throughout the entire run and the temperature was rising so I was starting to run on roads with puddles of water instead of ice. This made it safer, but also made my feet wet and my socks soggy. Towards the end I could feel my knee starting to hurt a little more - there was a funny feeling of something tweaking in there which was concerning me. The pain had moved and was getting closer to the outside of my knee when previously it had been on the inside. I was also feeling a little winded from working so hard and being a little out of shape. I decided to bring it to a walk right before I got to my complex, which gave me a 3.5 mile run. My knee hurt significantly when I first started to walk, but it gradually loosen up and felt better. I walked back to my place, stretched out, iced my knee, took a shower and then headed to the grocery store. It is now a few hours later and my knee feel pretty good.

I am planning to run the Christmas tree race, which has been rescheduled for Saturday morning.

Happy Holidays to All!

Alter Ego at Brennan's Dec 13th 2008

2008-12-17T09:49:00.006-05:00

Cheers to another fun filled night out with Alter Ego and guests!

Jon was feeling a little under the weather and needed a break from singing so Ed and Robbie came to the rescue.

Alter Ego - Tom, Hank and Jon
http://www.alteregomusic.net/
with Ed joining them on vocals

Ed (from Blind Rhythm)
http://www.blindrhythm.com/

Robbie and Eric (from PsychoMagnet)
http://www.psychomagnetband.com/

Robbie playing the guitar!

Time for a break.
Ed, Tom, Kate, Mark .... and Joyce

Back to work with Robbie on vocals

Jon

Hank (also in Blind Rhythm)

Robbie and Ed

Tom and Jon

Photos from Holiday Run for Kids - December 7th 2008

2008-12-10T17:50:00.025-05:00

The Holiday Run for Kids race in Fairfield provides an opportunity for runners to contribute toys to needy children in the area. It has also become a celebration of Doc George Whitney's Birthday. This year he will be turning 90!!! Marty made arrangements with one of Doc's daughters to get the whole family to the race to celebrate with him. Doc has always been a 'fan' favorite at our local races. He has a great sense of humor and always has a slogan or two on his race shirts to make us laugh.

I was not able to run the race due to knee pain, but this gave me the perfect opportunity to take lots of pictures. It had snowed the day before so it was really pretty out with the snow still in the trees.

The Channel 12 news team was also at the race and ran the story on the news that evening and the following morning.

http://news12.cv.net/video/AC1207RT.wmv

Pre-Race photos

Richard, Paul and Gail

Bruce and Brian

Doc George Whitney / AKA Birthday Boy

Doc wearing one of his custom designed running shirts

Marty making pre-race announcements

Doc and Marty's Dad

Mark from Trailheads.com

Mark working with his daughters

Doc with additional sign made up by his family

Doc with his family

Andrea and Paul

Marty

All Runners at the start line with Doc at the front of the pack

Ready to go

Hank and Chris

Brian and Torpedo

Brian

Monica

Gail running with her dog 'Big Monster'

Larry

Doc coming around the first loop with Mike and Donna

Chris Dickerson from the Woodbridge Running Company coming in to the finish. Finished 2nd overall.

Brian

Torpedo

Bruce

Andrea - 1st female

Paul

Ronnie

Mike

Diane

Gail and Monster

Monica

Larry

Doc with family joining him

Channel 12 News Crew preparing to interview Doc

Gail

Doc preparing to cut his Birthday Cake

MRI Results - Good News!

2008-12-10T15:34:00.007-05:00

MRI Report

There is focal soft tissue swelling along the anteromedial aspect of the patella. There is no adjacent bone contusion. There is a separate and relatively subtle focus of the subchondral marrow edema within the lateral facet near the median ridge. The adjacent patella cartilage appears intact. Both the medial and lateral menisci are intact and no discrete meniscal tear is seen. The cruciate ligaments appear normal. There is a subtle area of soft tissue edema in the lateral aspect of the knee between the lateral femoral condyle and the iliotibial band. This may represent iliotibial band syndrome as the patient is an active runner and clinical correlation is recommended. The remainder of the lateral collateral ligament complex appears normal. There is no other area of significant bone marrow edema.

I saw the doctor today and the issues seem to be more of the same with my hips being out of alignment and my ITB being tight. I am scheduled for PT with Francesco after work tomorrow.

Doc George Whitney - 90th Birthday Celebration

2008-12-08T11:48:00.005-05:00

Story from Channel 12.

More photos and my write up of the race to follow.

90-year-old man runs Fairfield 5K on birthday

(12/07/08) NORWALK - An Orange man ran a 5K marathon Sunday on his 90th birthday.
George Whitney finished the marathon just 27 minutes behind the winner. Whitney joined 106 runners for Fairfield's annual 5K holiday run, which benefits the Fairfield Police Department's Toys for Tots drive.
Whitney's daughter, along with five other family members, joined him on the run. Despite the cold weather and slippery roads, Whitney says the run was a breeze and he felt no aches or pains.
Everyone says I'm an inspiration, but I just wish I were 80 again!? Whitney says.
Video : http://news12.cv.net/video/AC1207RT.wmv

2008-12-05T12:08:00.004-05:00

Runners World
Injury Prevention: Injury Prevention
Patellofemoral Pain Syndrome ("Runner's Knee")
Here's how to prevent and treat one of the most common running injuries.
By Shelley Drozd

Forty-two percent of all overuse injuries affect the knee joint, and patellofemoral pain syndrome (PFPS), or simply "runner's knee," is the most common overuse injury among runners. It occurs when a mistracking kneecap (patella) irritates the femoral groove in which it rests on the thighbone (femur). Pinpointing a single cause is difficult, says Stephen Pribut, DPM, a sports podiatrist who specializes in running injuries. It could be a biomechanical problem--the patella may be larger on the outside than it is on the inside, it may sit too high in the femoral groove, or it may dislocate easily. Also, worn cartilage in the knee joint reduces shock absorption, high-arched feet provide less cushioning, and flat feet or knees that turn in or out excessively can pull the patella sideways. There are also muscular causes. Tight hamstring and calf muscles put pressure on the knee, and weak quadriceps muscles can cause the patella to track out of alignment. Just the repetitive force of a normal running stride alone can be enough to provoke an attack. PFPS can affect one or both knees. It strikes mostly younger, recreational runners and twice as many women as men, according to the British Journal of Sports Medicine. (Women tend to have wider hips, resulting in a greater angling of the thighbone to the knee, which puts the kneecap under more stress.) Symptoms include tenderness behind or around the patella, usually toward its center. You may feel pain toward the back of the knee, a sense of cracking or that the knee's giving out. Steps, hills, and uneven terrain can aggravate PFPS.To prevent PFPS, run on softer surfaces, keep mileage increases less than 10 percent per week, and gradually increase hill work in your program. Visit a specialty running shop to make sure you're wearing the proper shoes for your foot type and gait. Also, strengthening your quadriceps will improve patellar tracking, and stretching your hamstrings and calves will prevent overpronation. (Try the exercises below from Pribut.)At the first sign of pain, cut back your mileage. The sooner you lessen the knee's workload, the faster healing begins, says Pribut. Avoid knee-bending activities, canted surfaces, and downward stairs and slopes until the pain subsides. As you rebuild mileage, use a smaller stride on hills. Consider orthotics if new shoes don't fix the problem. "If your feet have good form, your knees will follow," says Pribut. See a doctor if the pain persists, to rule out another condition.
Doctor's Orders Work these moves into your routine to help prevent runner's knee

Hamstring Stretch: Stand in front of a chair, bench, or high step and place your left heel on it. Keep your back straight and lean forward from the hips until you feel a stretch down the back of the leg. Hold for 30 to 60 seconds, switch sides, and repeat. Perform two or three stretches per leg.

Straight Leg Lifts: Lie down, bend your left knee, and plant your left foot on the ground. Take two to four seconds to raise and lower your right leg (30 to 60 degrees), keeping the knee relatively straight with a slight bend. Do 10 repetitions, switch legs, and repeat the sequence to complete one set. Work up to 10 sets of 10 reps each.

Cow Chip Cross Country Race - Nov 29, 2008

2008-12-04T10:45:00.017-05:00

Tom and I went to Trumbull to run the Cow Chip race on Saturday. When we got there we met up with Brian, Sean and Ikuko. I also chatted with Bruce, Ben, Monica, Andie, Paul (who was celebrating his birthday) and Rob. Ikuko is just returning from being out with a sprained ankle, which had kept her from running in the New York City marathon.

I also bought a really cool pair of reflective gloves from Mark from Trailheads. (http://www.trailheads.com/)

Brian before the race

Tom, Brian and Kate before the race

It was a little chilly that morning and it was Tom's first race in the cold weather. He decided to wear shorts, a t-shirt with a long sleeved tech shirt over it and a hat. As usual, I opted for the skirt and short sleeved tech shirt. I think it's funny to see so many runners all bundled up in winter apparel when I'm just wearing a skirt and short sleeved shirt. I've always been the type to be a wimp for the cold, but running has changed all that.

The race is a slightly hilly 3.6 mile course that goes through fields, trails, pathways and even has us crossing over a small stone wall. There were some wet and muddy sections, but it wasn't too bad. The course was quite scenic and I especially enjoyed watching two cows chasing a horse around a field as we ran by. It was as if they were putting on a show for us. Tom and I ran together for the entire race, which made it a comfortable pace for me, but also kept it challenging. I found that my calf muscles were getting a really good workout running on the grass. My knee did hurt throughout the race, but at no point did it get any worse. Tom enjoyed the race, but did say that it was challenging and that he's not used to breathing in the cold air.

After the race we chatted with some of our friends and ate 'brown' food that was made especially for the occasion! The brownies were delicious! We wanted to stick around for the raffle and Paul's birthday celebration, but we had to get home for other commitments.

Since the race my knee has continued to hurt with it the worst the day after activity. I played volleyball on Monday and Tuesday, and was then limping around the office pretty badly on Wednesday. On Wednesday afternoon I went to my sports doctor, Dr Steinman, to get a diagnosis. I had xrays taken, which ruled out a stress fracture. I also have an MRI scheduled to rule out any meniscus or other damage. The doctor thinks that it is Runners Knee, which we will treat with physical therapy if the MRI results come back negative. I will work with phsysical therapist, Francesco, (http://formulaphysicaltherapy.com/) who fixed me up to run my PR in NY!

To see all running photos check out the following link:

http://www.amityactionphotos.com/mp_includes/body.asp

Me and Tom coming out of the trails

Heading for the finish line

Ikuko and Sean after the race

Ikuko, Sean and Tom after the race