Tuesday, June 15, 2010
On the Sidelines Again
Less than 4 weeks til my next half marathon and I'm not running...... yet again. 2010 has not been so kind as far as running is concerned. My latest setback is a wicked head/chest cold. One minute Saturday afternoon I was fine and the next I was all stopped up. Got a sore throat that night and the cough started the next night. Trying to fight this off with over the counter decongestants. Hopefully I'll be back on the road in the next couple of days.
Tuesday, June 8, 2010
Houston We Have A Problem
Day 2 into the Chevron Houston Marathon/Aramco Half Marathon announcement that they are going to a lottery system for the 2011 race and the locals are still buzzing. I personally have very little history with the Houston race but it seems like every year they seem to come up with some bonehead decision to top the prior year's bonehead decision.
From where I stand, it seems like the race has a real identity problem. Last year was the first year that the race put separate caps on the half and full marathons. The caps were at 11,000 each. Sounds reasonable so far, right? The bonehead factor with that was that they allowed transfers between events even after the cap was met for one of the races. So what happened last year, people wanting to run the half marathon after the half reached its cap of 11,000 simply signed up for the full and then paid the $10 administrative fee to switch from the full to the half. Every other race that I've seen with separate race caps do not allow transfers once an event has reached its capacity. I somewhat thought this was merely an oversight by the race last year; however, with the same caps in place this year and the same transfers between events allowed, it seems clear that Houston doesn't really want to cap the half at 11,000. With that said, I don't know if they don't think the marathon would hit the 11,000 mark on its own. Otherwise, I don't see why they would just not allow switching between events, similiar to how they experimented with allowing race transfers between individuals but discontinued that process.
Another solution to Houston's filling so fast would be to eliminate the half marathon. That is kind of hard to do this year as the race is once again the mens and womens US Half Marathon championship. It would be difficult to have a 1/2 championship without an actual 1/2 event. Once again, there is an identity crisis.
I initially planned on running 2011 Houston 1/2 marathon as most of my running group participates in the event every year. When the lottery was announced, my initial thought was should I sign up for the full lottery and have better odds of getting accepted versus the half lottery which one would expect would have far more entrants. Upon further review, I think I'll just sit Houston out again this year. Thanks Houston for keeping things interesting!
From where I stand, it seems like the race has a real identity problem. Last year was the first year that the race put separate caps on the half and full marathons. The caps were at 11,000 each. Sounds reasonable so far, right? The bonehead factor with that was that they allowed transfers between events even after the cap was met for one of the races. So what happened last year, people wanting to run the half marathon after the half reached its cap of 11,000 simply signed up for the full and then paid the $10 administrative fee to switch from the full to the half. Every other race that I've seen with separate race caps do not allow transfers once an event has reached its capacity. I somewhat thought this was merely an oversight by the race last year; however, with the same caps in place this year and the same transfers between events allowed, it seems clear that Houston doesn't really want to cap the half at 11,000. With that said, I don't know if they don't think the marathon would hit the 11,000 mark on its own. Otherwise, I don't see why they would just not allow switching between events, similiar to how they experimented with allowing race transfers between individuals but discontinued that process.
Another solution to Houston's filling so fast would be to eliminate the half marathon. That is kind of hard to do this year as the race is once again the mens and womens US Half Marathon championship. It would be difficult to have a 1/2 championship without an actual 1/2 event. Once again, there is an identity crisis.
I initially planned on running 2011 Houston 1/2 marathon as most of my running group participates in the event every year. When the lottery was announced, my initial thought was should I sign up for the full lottery and have better odds of getting accepted versus the half lottery which one would expect would have far more entrants. Upon further review, I think I'll just sit Houston out again this year. Thanks Houston for keeping things interesting!
Wednesday, June 2, 2010
Medicine Bow Half Marathon
I had about 10 weeks to train for Medicine Bow after running back to back half marathons in DC and Wilmington in mid March. My plan was to follow a 6 week training plan that was published in an earlier Runners World magazine article. That never happened. I did train and did most of my longer runs on trails and hills at Huntsville State Park, I never got overly excited about training for this race. I think alot of it had to do with the fact that I knew that it is nearly impossible to simulate high altitude conditions when you train at sea level. Its also difficult to find hills that seem to go on forever. There are plenty of difficult grade hills in the area but nothing that goes on as long as some of these hilly away races.
Air travel to Denver and the car drive to Cheyenne went smoothly. After checking in at the host hotel/expo/pasta dinner location, we made a 25 mile westerly drive to the start of the course at the Lincoln Monument exit between Laramie and Cheyenne. They had a sign at the exit indicating that this was the highest point on I-80 in Wyoming at just under 8700 feet. There was still snow on the ground in areas. We drove the entire course, something that I rarely do before a race. I learned that drving and running a course is a totally different experience.
We headed out before 5 race morning for the same rest area for a 6am race start. This is one of the local laid back races that I am starting to enjoy more and more. There was a flour line marking the start; no chips or timing mats to be found on this course. The course was an out and back and there was one aid station to serve you in both directions. I was initially concerned about having to navigate 2 cattle guards twice on the course; this turned out to not be an issue because I was walking by the time I approached the first cattle guard.
The course had a 4-5 mile downhill start going from 8700 feet down to 8100 feet before climbing back up to 8500 feet at the turnaround point. I knew within the first 2 miles that it was going to be a long day. Just running with the flow at the start, I was at about an 8:15 pace and my legs felt fine since I was going downhill but I definetely noticed that I was breathing harder than I should have been. Once the uphill started, I pretty much started walking. I mixed in some running but did more walking than running on the uphill portions of the course. There were very few flat areas on the course; you were either running downhill or uphill.
I think I finished this race the driest that I've been at any race. With a chilly 29 degree start and a 20 mph or so wind and dry conditions (and all the walking) my dri fit clothes actually wicked moisture as advertised.
Wyoming was my 42nd state that I've run a 1/2 or full marathon in. It was also my 50th half marathon that I've run. It was also a PW for me but a Wyoming PR for me!!!!!!!
Air travel to Denver and the car drive to Cheyenne went smoothly. After checking in at the host hotel/expo/pasta dinner location, we made a 25 mile westerly drive to the start of the course at the Lincoln Monument exit between Laramie and Cheyenne. They had a sign at the exit indicating that this was the highest point on I-80 in Wyoming at just under 8700 feet. There was still snow on the ground in areas. We drove the entire course, something that I rarely do before a race. I learned that drving and running a course is a totally different experience.
We headed out before 5 race morning for the same rest area for a 6am race start. This is one of the local laid back races that I am starting to enjoy more and more. There was a flour line marking the start; no chips or timing mats to be found on this course. The course was an out and back and there was one aid station to serve you in both directions. I was initially concerned about having to navigate 2 cattle guards twice on the course; this turned out to not be an issue because I was walking by the time I approached the first cattle guard.
The course had a 4-5 mile downhill start going from 8700 feet down to 8100 feet before climbing back up to 8500 feet at the turnaround point. I knew within the first 2 miles that it was going to be a long day. Just running with the flow at the start, I was at about an 8:15 pace and my legs felt fine since I was going downhill but I definetely noticed that I was breathing harder than I should have been. Once the uphill started, I pretty much started walking. I mixed in some running but did more walking than running on the uphill portions of the course. There were very few flat areas on the course; you were either running downhill or uphill.
I think I finished this race the driest that I've been at any race. With a chilly 29 degree start and a 20 mph or so wind and dry conditions (and all the walking) my dri fit clothes actually wicked moisture as advertised.
Wyoming was my 42nd state that I've run a 1/2 or full marathon in. It was also my 50th half marathon that I've run. It was also a PW for me but a Wyoming PR for me!!!!!!!
Bolder Boulder 10K
After having fewer than 300 participants run the Wyoming races Sunday, Memorial Day Monday had runners everywhere as over 50,000 people participated in the second largest 10K in the United States. The weather was much nicer than the largest 10K has July 4th weekend in Hotlanta I'd imagine.
We headed out early for the parking garage near the finish line. There was no absolutely no traffic driving to the finish area; the garage was almost empty as well. After hanging out in the car for awhile, we decided to find the Boulder bus that would take us to the start line. We probably walked at least 1/2 as far to get to the shuttle versus just walking to the start line. Walking directly definetely would have been quicker as the bus ride took awhile with traffic. No worries though as we were at the start with plenty of time to spare.
I'm not sure exactly how many corral starts Boulder had, but there were more than I'd ever seen for a race. They started within a minute of each other and that seemed to work fine in keeping the course moving. It was crowded the entire race but never clogged. I can definetely say that my own breathing limitations and not the course crowd is what slowed me down.
Another interesting thing about the Boulder course was the fact that both mile and kilometer markers were on the course. It got rather confusing as to where you were on the course as the mile/K number was visible before the mile/km designation. There were also timing mats at every mile marker.
We didn't stay for the Memorial Day tribute at 11:40 as we had an afternoon flight back to Houston and didn't want to get caught in post event traffic.
All in all, Bolder Boulder 10k was a fun race in a nice town.
We headed out early for the parking garage near the finish line. There was no absolutely no traffic driving to the finish area; the garage was almost empty as well. After hanging out in the car for awhile, we decided to find the Boulder bus that would take us to the start line. We probably walked at least 1/2 as far to get to the shuttle versus just walking to the start line. Walking directly definetely would have been quicker as the bus ride took awhile with traffic. No worries though as we were at the start with plenty of time to spare.
I'm not sure exactly how many corral starts Boulder had, but there were more than I'd ever seen for a race. They started within a minute of each other and that seemed to work fine in keeping the course moving. It was crowded the entire race but never clogged. I can definetely say that my own breathing limitations and not the course crowd is what slowed me down.
Another interesting thing about the Boulder course was the fact that both mile and kilometer markers were on the course. It got rather confusing as to where you were on the course as the mile/K number was visible before the mile/km designation. There were also timing mats at every mile marker.
We didn't stay for the Memorial Day tribute at 11:40 as we had an afternoon flight back to Houston and didn't want to get caught in post event traffic.
All in all, Bolder Boulder 10k was a fun race in a nice town.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
