JFK50 The PreRace

With all my training behind me and 4 miles to go I wanted to get out a blog post before the race with my thoughts and feelings of how everything went and how I feel before the race.  Training started after my brief 10 day recovery from breaking two toes from a “freak” soccer incident!  1145 miles later here I am two days before the JFK 50 miler and my body has finally come around and I feel great.  I can honestly say however I have not been this nervous for a race since back in about 2002 when I was a young Junior running for Monmouth University, when I was racing for a team and to keep my spot on the roster.  This entire week my nerves have been a bit on tilt just thinking about this race, but nerves are not a bad thing.  Being nervous before this race just shows it’s important to me and that I know I put together a great training cycle and now I just have to execute for about 6 + hours.  For me this feeling is what I hope keeps me motivated all race and ready to push my hardest when the going gets tough.  It’s my body’s way of telling me that we want to do our best now just leave it all out there.  In a weird way to say, It’s a great feeling honestly that I have missed over the past few years!

As I said 1145 miles I logged over 15 weeks to get myself to the start of this race.  A lot of races, hard training runs and workouts but above all else a lot of fun.  I can’t say in my life I managed to put together this many consecutive weeks of mileage, sticking to a plan and races and as my fitness continued to improve I kept getting more and more motivated to keep at it.  It helps to have a bunch of teammates to keep me honest and moving in the right direction at all times and to always offer some great advice when I am freaking out about the race.  It also helps to have some super smart friends who can offer me some quality advice and exercises to perform when I feel my body breaking down during my taper.  And to once again keep me from freaking out!  If you’ve ever gotten to know me, I can be quite the “over thinker” “drama king” or mental case when it comes to running!  My coach called me the practice champ back in high school because I could dominate workouts in the low stress environment of practice but on race day I’d talk myself out of my race the second it got hard.  Having all these friends to reach out to and keep me level headed these past few weeks has gone a long way to helping me get to the starting line feeling confident.

As I begin to tackle my first 50 mile race I am filled with some anxiety of the unknown and of making sure I have thought of everything, excitement to tackle a new distance and run a fantastic race, but most of all filled with confidence that I have trained to the best of my ability and there is nothing left to do but let it rip. For the past two weeks I battled some issues and my taper was a little lighter than I wanted but if it gets me to the line healthy that’s all that matters.  All the work has been done.  At 630 am on Saturday November 19^th, a day I have had pinned on the wall at my desk and spent countless hours explaining to co-workers what the 50 meant in JFK 50(You are running 50 miles!?), I will line up with some amazingly talented men and woman and I will run as confidently as I can and let the pieces all fall into place.  My goals are simple:

1. Run my race
2. Don't go out too hard
3. Be as efficient as possible on rocky terrain
4. Be Mentally Tough
5. And most importantly have fun!

In the end I want to do great, but I am going to enjoy this too.  I am going to see my amazing crew who are volunteering their Saturday mornings (Ryan, Rich, & Tristram) at 3 different spots and feel nothing but joy when I run past them.  They are going to spend 8-10 hours of their day out there for me and I am so blessed.  I am also so very thankful that I was able to make it 15 weeks without a major injury and that I am able to line up for this race and be able to run it.  That in itself is a small victory and not something I should overlook.  I need to be mentally tough as I grind through the 26 miles I will run on the C&O, just a marathon on the trail, after already running 16 miles no biggie.  I need to be cool and under control early as we climb 1300 ft in 4.5 miles from downtown Boonsboro to the Appalachian Trail and be efficient on the rocky terrain as I remember the many runs I did at Patapsco and other parks getting ready.  And last of all just run my race, it's 50 miles and I need to run it the way I am capable of, and let it come to me.  There is plenty of time to make moves.  If I can accomplish all these goals, I will run the best race I capable of on Saturday.

In the end this Saturday is going to hurt and I will probably end up losing my mind somewhere around mile 35 on the C&O trail, but I am going to run my ass off.  I am going to enjoy this day and all the hard work I put in to get here but that will not for a second stop my determination to run to my potential.  I am here like anyone else to run the best race I am capable of and continue to hurt and push until I get there.  As always, thanks to everyone for your support as I continue to chase my dreams and to everyone who has offered me some advice or calmed me down over the past few weeks.  And to anyone who continues to read my blog, I love writing about my thoughts and my training and I appreciate anyone who takes the time out of their lives to read it.

Why do I run?

At first response it’s usually the same answer for me, I want to keep improving my times and I want to push my body to its limits and see how far I can take it.  And while yes that is a part of why I run, I think in retrospect it’s not the bulk of the reason.  It’s not the reason I am out there every day running 6-8 miles or putting myself in tons of pain for a workout, or running through 100 degrees heat or below zero temperatures.  The reason that I love running and I do run is the friends and family I have made through it over the years. The running community is this magical group, where you can meet a random person one day and they will without even a  second thought support you and cheer your performances.  Not just in running but also in life.  Where you can meet someone on the roads and be able to strike up a conversation without any judgment.  Running has given so much to me over the years that I can’t ever begin to repay it back.  I continue to do my best to be out there supporting friends, offering advice and just being a positive member to the running community but there is so much more it's given me.  Additionally, running is also more than just logging miles, doing workouts, pushing the body to me.  It’s also this amazing sport where a group of people who might never meet all bond together and come closer because of it.  In Baltimore I was lucky enough to find my current team, the Falls Road Racing Team and they are a huge part of the reason why I continue to run today. 

It’s running and an amazing leader who bring us all together at the beginning but the team itself is about so much more than running.  Sure we train together, we sometimes talk about running ad nauseam and we go to races together.  But through that we become a family, where we spend time outside of running together.  Where we care about one another, not just about how each others training is going but how their life is going.  Where we meet up outside of running as a group and make memories.  And where we support each other in racing but also in every aspect of life.  I doubt without running I would have met any of these wonderful people who now make up a huge part of everything in my life.  But thanks to running, I am glad I have.  Don’t get me wrong, I suffer through a workout on the track to improve my fitness and run faster, but I am also suffering with my friends. Which makes it that much more enjoyable.  In the end I just think when it comes to the question why do you run, it’s important to have an answer that keeps you coming back and keeps you motivated.  For me, my running team and the pursuit of constant improvement is what gets me out the door every day and as long as I have that I will continue to love running.

Recent Running:

Since Pittsburgh I took about a week of downtime to recharge the battery and then I got right back into training.  I wanted to keep this fitness around and do some shorter races for the next couple of months before moving into Marathon training for the fall.  I ran a couple races in May and then this past weekend with some push from a friend decided to try out an aggressive weekend double, Baltimore 10 Miler on Saturday, Bel Air Town Run 5k on Sunday.

Baltimore 10 Miler - It was a hot and humid morning and I knew there would be some competition for me at this race but I wanted to get out and see what happens.  I knew Dave Berdan was the local favorite and I was just bib #4471 when it came to race coverage and contenders.  No worries I was ready to go.  One of the reasons I choose this race was 5 years ago it was my first race back to competitive running, I got 100^th place and ran 1:10:59 and I wanted to see how far I’ve come in the past five years.  So the gun went off and I got out early with Berdan, and despite it being hot and humid came through the mile a little quick around 5:15, rolled into 2 miles around 10:38 when a Howard County runner, the eventual winner Eric came by and the pace quicken.  I quickly knew I was not going to be able to handle this and fell back a bit but tried to keep enough contact in case the humidity got to anyone.  As we hit Lake Montebello(mile 4/5), it was clear I was off the pace and not getting top 2 today so I settled into 3^rd and wanted to not lose my podium place.  At around mile 6 there was a turn around so I was able to calculate I had a 50 second lead on 4^th.  With a race tomorrow I began to let my foot off the pedal a little bit, clearly way too much.  Sometimes you can get too cute in racing, today was an example of that for me.  As we rolled through the hills before getting back into Druid Lake I was feeling confident attacking the final big climb.  As I hit the final water stop I did a quick look back and saw my lead had shrunk to about 20 seconds.  Panic set in as I feared I was going to get caught as we entered the tack-on loop around the park.  I put on a big surge around one of the turns and looked back again (ugh I need to stop doing that) and knew I had it.  Rolled into the finish line 3^rd place overall to the announcers saying “In 3^rd place #4471, hold on we have no clue who that is” and then they proceeded to butcher my last name.  57:16 and 3^rd place on a hot morning, I’ll take it.  Got a pretty fun glass container and got to spend the morning with the woman’s winner Meg, trying to appear in the background of her various interviews.  

Bel Air Town Run – Sunday it was about the Bel Air Town Run.  This was my second time running the Bel Air Town Run, first being in 2014 when I got 18^th and ran 17:38.  I spent most of Saturday doing everything possible to get my legs ready for the next day.  Got to the line and the gun went off and the pace went out real hot.  Down the first hill by the corner we were rolling 4:30 pace and the leader Tyler was pulling away.  So I let him go and a pack of 3 of us formed behind him and stayed that way until the mile, 4:48.  On a hot humid morning, after a 10 mile race probably not the best idea.  After the mile the pack broke down to 2 of us, and at about 1.75 miles second place finisher Chris pulled away and I decided to not go with him.  Probably the thing I am most upset about all weekend.  I convinced myself in the moment to let him go and I’d go after him at the last big hill around 2.5 miles.  I’ll need to be mentally tougher during a 5k in the future, the race is too short for mental lapses like this. I rolled through 2 miles in 10:11 and when we got to 2.5, I was about 10 seconds back but made no move.  Rolling down the final hill I could see him finish and ended up with another 3^rd place finish with my fastest 5k 16:25 since college.  All in all if that’s the only thing I am upset with this weekend I can deal with it.  Watched our woman’s team go 1-2-3 so that’s fun and hung out afterwards and got another fun award and some money.  Overall a great racing weekend.

Up Next for Me:

My fall season is up in the air currently not sure what I will target as my peak race but I’m pretty sure I am targeting a Marathon.  As for the summer I’ll do some more local 5k’s, 10k’s and maybe a half sometime in September.

If you’d like to read more about me, I was given the great honor from the Baltimore Road Runners to be the Member of the Month for June 2016.  Get to know me better here

Lastly check out some fun pictures from the past couple weeks of racing.  And lastly I added an email section if you would like alerts for future blog posts!