Chips and Salsa 1/2 marathon recap

Race Recap:

Just another wonderful Albuquerque fall morning in the valley, even though fall is just a few days away.  The half marathon was set to start at 7:00am, but as we all know, it was a little late.  The course was the same course as last year, but with the help of high school volunteers, our half marathon race would have a little detour.  This slight detour would add about seven-tenths of a mile to the course.  Nevertheless, I was okay with the mishap, and just kept my effort consistent as well as my pace.

After the mishap in the first mile, I ran the rest of the race on my own.  I clocked off my splits at around 5:15-5:24 per mile (more precise splits below).  With that effort, I finished the 13.8 mile race in 1:13:22.  All-in-all, it was a pretty good day.  This race was a great tune up, and fitness indicator for New York City.  With that long of a "tempo" run under my belt, and with about 6 weeks left, I'm starting to feel pretty good about New York.  Just a few more weeks of marathon specific workouts, and the only test of this teacher/runner will be assessed on November 4th.  This race distance would've put me in the ballpark of 1:09:40 at 13.1 miles at altitude.  With that time, it's nothing to be too proud of, but it proves to me that I still have the strength to continue marathon training and perform at New York.

Sorry for the short recap, I'm just a bit tired these days.

Half marathon splits: [9:22 (1.7ish miles), 5:12, 5:17, 5:22, 5:24, 5:17, 5:21, 5:11, 5:14, 5:23, 5:18, 5:22, 5:01, 35 seconds) 1:13:22 - 13.8 miles - 5:19/mile average.

Pre race with Jesse Espinoza (National Guard Team Member)

Finishing the race.

Our little awards ceremony: (from left) Todd Nickerson, Kelly Nickerson - 2nd place female, Me - 1st place male, Arlene Espinoza - 1st place female 10k, Dana Patton, Lauren Patton

Chips and Salsa, and the Lobo Invite

Well, it's that time of year again in New Mexico, when all the roasting of Chile occurs and the smoky sensation fills the air.  Fall always brings such invigorating tastes to our palates.  The idea of roasted green chile added to every salsa dish is more of a treat than anything else.  I got my first taste of fresh chile this season when one of my students made me a pint of homemade salsa.  The school I'm at is considered a rural area - Los Lunas, so you can only image farmland and openness.  Well, there's farmland, but I'm pretty sure most of my students DON'T live on a farm milking cows at 4 in the morning.  But I am sure they make a lot of their meals from scratch, as well as the tasty salsa that was brought to me a few weeks ago.

That jar of salsa will be a precursor to this weekend's events!  The Chips and Salsa half marathon is an event I've done 3 times since living in Albuquerque, and have had a great time out there.  Two 3rd place finishes and a 1st place finish are notched onto my belt from that race.  And this year, with the slight lack of training, I still plan on claiming the title and all it's perks that come with it (a pay check).  Either way, it's going to be a great race, and another workout towards my New York City Marathon.  A race recap should follow quickly. 

Another race that happened without mention was the 2012 Lobo Cross Country Invite on August 31st.  That race was an eye opener for me and a few other guys on the Dukes TC.  I was more nervious going into that race than most other races I've done.  One reason for that, was the fact that I felt out of shape, and unprepared.  The other reason; is the idea that with shorter races I am more out of my comfort zone and cannot keep up with the speed needed to race against these young college kids.  But the "veteran" running experience I have would play to my advantage.

The race was originally going to be an 8k cross country race done at night, "under the lights".  Well, being a cross country race was all that was correct about this invite.  Many people called the race "a great success", but the men's 8k ended up being about 3.9 miles long, and not the proper distance.  No one really knew that until after the race as the results would show an incredible time.

Allen Wagner flew out from Hawai'i to race this thing, and was hoping to whip on some college kids.  The race strategy was to go out conservative and pick off all the whippersnappers that went out too fast.  I was going to follow this plan, but once the gun went off, everything just flew out the window.

After about 800 meters, I found myself towards the middle to back of the pack with a slew of idiot college kids in front of me.  I knew I was better than this and decided to move up towards the front, after all, cross country is my specialty.  I ended up racing pretty well and pushed through the hard parts as best as I could.  With the leaders just in front of me I knew I could finish in the same position as last year (5th place), but I was hoping to finish higher as I assumed we had more ground to cover.  But of course, I was wrong and the race was ending before I even knew what was going on.  It felt a little anticlimactic, especially since the entire cross country race was in the dark, and not many people were out on the far ends of the course.  However, there was a sudden roar of people towards the finish, but I was expecting the race to last a little longer, so the enthusiasm from the crowd didn't force me to "kick" to the finish.  I was a lot more happy with the idea that the race was shorter, and a marathon runner (whose almost 30) can still keep up with these whippersnappers...  Until next time.

Ides of August

Well, it's not as bad as Julius Caesar had it (and it's not even the same month), when he got stabbed 23 times, but this has been a crazy month, and as his fate was forewarned, so was mine...

Our lease at the infamous Dukes Headquarters in Downtown Albuquerque was coming to and end, and I was still jobless.  I had a feeling I would get some interviews as the 1st day of school approached, but I wasn't too concerned about it.  And finally, the interviews came rushing in, and I got a job offer to teach 3rd grade in a small town just outside of Albuquerque called Los Lunas.  I took the position with 2 days until school started.  And, with my classroom a complete mess, my loving girlfriend - Arlene and her family came to the rescue.  I got most things situated within the class, before the chaos of the first days of school began, and then before I knew it, school was already in session.

Most 1st year teachers are never prepared for everything that lays ahead of them.  And I completely agree with that.  Right now I'm trying to stay afloat and hope I can generate the best educational experience for these kids as possible.  After the first day of school, we had a quick staff meeting, and we were informed that on a normal A-F grade scale, my school is performing at a "D", and more than 50% of the students are BELOW proficiency, when compared to the rest of the state.  I'm thinking to myself how completely different this year is going to be when compared to the experience I had student-teaching at S.Y. Jackson elementary school and their nearly 92% proficient school rating.  It's like night and day.  Raymond Gabaldon Elementary school is on a completely different level, but it's going to be my new home for the next 180 days:

As you could imagine, my running that very first week of school (August 14th-18th) was, lack there of.  And because of that, my sanity was starting to fluster with overwhelming amounts of emotion.  I almost lost it with the amount of unpreparedness I had for that first week of school.  But, I got through it, and this last week without incident.  In fact, this past week went very well with school and with running.  Almost an erie parallel between the two.  And today, I got my 22 mile long run with mile repeats with 1 minute rest. It went up on Tramway (6000 ft. alt.):

4 miles easy, 4x1 mile, 8 miles easy, 2x1 mile, 4 miles easy [5:27, 5:22, 5:19, 5:17], [5:17, 5:11].

I know this year is not going to be easy, and I know I won't get the mileage I really want, but with proper fine tuning of my daily schedule, I think I can mange some good training, and preform well at New York City.  It'll be interesting!

The Next Endeavor - NYC Marathon

After a nice week off of running, and allowing my legs to get back under me, I am now setting my sights on the Big Apple.  The  ING New York City Marathon is 4 quick months away, and I am already pinning up the race route on my bedroom wall.

I have never been to New York City, so this should be a very interesting trip.  A brisk 26.2 mile tour of the 5 boroughs lies only a few months away, and as these summer months are still sizzling away, I know the race is just around the corner.  I've finally started to do some workouts, and increase my mileage a bit.  It's going to be an interesting marathon build up, as my base mileage wasn't as big as it's been in the past, but I think I'll be adding more speed into my workouts, and some more hill running to better prepare me for the hills/bridges in New York!  The Big Apple - here I come!

Grandma's Marathon Recap

I wouldn't say it was a GREAT race, but it was a great effort for me!  A 2:22:44 finishing time, and a 15th place finish are in the record books for the 2012 Grandma's marathon.  And of course, I wish it went a lot better...

After the race(from left: Dana, Lauren, me, Arlene)

The entire trip was another great experience, as Arlene and I flew into Minneapolis, MN. and drove up to Duluth.  We also had some really great friends in Superior, Wisconsin that were excited for everyone to be up in Duluth racing the marathon.  John and Ariel Heitzman use to live in Albuquerque with their manly 2 yr. old baby, but decided to move back to the midwest to raise another child (Ariel is pregnant and will be due in August) in the fertile lands by lake Superior.  So, it was great to see them the entire weekend.

Well, I guess I could talk about the race now.  I had my usual, half-awoken nights rest, until about 3 hours before the start of the race when I can official get out of bed and begin the pre-marathon routine.  It's nothing special; just oatmeal, coffee, and enough liquids to stay hydrated, as the forecast would be warm and very humid.  Arlene and I went to the Starbucks downstairs for breakfast and nervously ate in our hotel room.  Over 90 percent humidity would be waiting for us at the starting line in Two Harbors, so the required guzzling of water and Powerbar drink was essential during breakfast as well.  I would find myself nibbling nervously on a Powerbar as well.

Once we had all our gear ready, we headed downstairs to the shuttles.  The "Elite" shuttles were scheduled to leave at 5:45am, along with the other shuttles, but I just rode with Arlene and we enjoyed the long bus ride to the start.  It almost brought back some memories of CIM, but it wasn't cold enough for me to be shivering as much as I was on that December morning bus ride to the start.  Once we got off, settled down, and completed a short warm up to sweat even more, the start would only be seconds away.

Now, since it was warm, I was going to start off conservative and attempt to finish strong.  My first mile with the large pack of runners was hit in 5:33, and felt much slower than that.  Once many runners around me saw that split, they took off and started pounding each other over the pavement.  I tried to keep my cool, and stay within myself until at least halfway.  Even trying to keep it easy, the next mile was 5:12, and I found myself in the company of 3 other runners.  Mubarak, and 2 other runners with Utah running stores printed on their singlets composed our little 4 man pack.  I took advantage of being around other runners to share the work, and we cruised along the river road clicking off the miles between 5:11-5:17 pace.

I was able to place 8 tiny 8ounce sport top water bottles on the course, and consumed them with ease.  I also taped 4 Powerbar Energy Gels to the bottles that were located at mile: 7, 11, 17 & 21.... I think.  There were a lot of aid stations, and I don't remember exactly which ones had Powerbar Energy Gels tapped to them.  Regardless, I found myself grabbing water, ice and wet sponges at all the aid stations to stay cool, and keep my head wet.  By mile 11 the small pack started to fade, and I could sense the other 2 guys, who appeared to be from Utah start to lose contact.  We came through that mile in 5:22, and knew I had to make the decision to run my own race at my own effort.

Once I ventured on for another mile, I would see that Mubarak stayed in contact, and was running strong.  He came up beside me, and we worked together until I lost contact with him.  I started to feel that bogging sensation and checked my watch after I had missed the last 3 mile splits.  15:59 for 3 miles,  that's 5:20 pace, so I guess I wasn't slowing down much.  Mubarak still carried a decent lead on me, but I wanted to stay comfortable for the next 4 miles, which would get me to the 20 mile mark, and then I would reassess myself, and start to "hammer".  But that mentality wasn't a smart one to have.

The next 4 miles were significantly slower, and I started to lose my rhythm.  And even though Mubarak stopped ahead of me to stretch out his tight Achilles, as I passed him, I went from a comfortable 5:20 pace, to 5:30's, then 5:40's and finally running 5:50's.  The 20 mile mark came, and I knew I couldn't quite "hammer" it home.  I started to think about how to bring the pace back down, and stay positive.  I was thinking so much, that when I came up to my bottle at mile 21, I passed by the table without even noticing it.  I was about 15 meters past the table, and realized that I needed that fuel, and turned around to run back and grab it.  Believe me, it was easy to stop, turn around to run backwards on a marathon course, then grab the bottle and resume pace.  I think I ran a 5:56 that mile, so I knew I could stay strong and not hit any miles in the 6 minute range.  Only 5 miles to go, and the weather started to cool as I entered Duluth.

The clapping, and screaming of a few people felt candescent, as suppose to the silence that occupied most of the point-to-point race course as Duluth approached.  The light mist of a thick cloud loomed over the last 4 miles or so of the course, and felt amazing.  I was fading, but with the help of the cooler temperatures I was able to finish stronger that anticipated.  I was now in the 5:40 range, and actually ran a 5:28 mile for my 25th mile in the city.  I was also doing the math and calculating my finish time if I could maintain a certain pace, and knew I wasn't going to venture into 2:23 territory.  And in most cases, when you attempt to do the math, it's usually a very bad sign.  But I sorta kept it together and finished relatively strong, with a 2:22.

I was a little disappointed at first, but after realizing that this is just another race, and I have many more to prepare for, I became more content.  I also was hoping that Arlene would PR, and when I saw John and Ariel, they told me how amazing she was doing and should be on 3:15 pace.  We watched by the finish, and I saw her come in at 3:14, which is a 14minute PR!!!  So, that was exciting.  And after thinking about the course, I have come to realize that I really enjoyed that course.  It's nice a slightly rolling, but can be very fast with the right conditions!  I would definitely do this race again as a late spring marathon.


Mile Splits:

1- 5:33
2- 5:13
3- 5:11
4- 5:13
5- 5:12
6- 5:11
7&8- 10:34
9- 5:22
10- 5:12
11- 5:22
12, 13&14- 15:59
15- 5:27
16- 5:19

The joy of a marathon

17- 5:27
18- 5:35
19- 5:28
20- 5:52
21- 5:56
22- 5:42
23- 5:50
24- 5:42
25- 5:28
26- 5:40

The home stretch

The pain of the marathon