The Oprah Line

Coming off the high of my PR (and the fact that I ran faster than Oprah -- by just seconds, but still), I came across this 2007 Salon article on the topic of the Oprah Line.  The article was written by someone whom I suspect is/was a legit speedster; in article, he argues that the Oprah standard diminishes the accomplishments of "real" marathoners who run marathons to win.  (It's funny -- he's talking about a running boom in 2007, but this could have just as easily been written in the last three or so years.)

When Oprah expanded the sport, she also lowered the bar for excellence. For the previous generation of marathoners, the goal had been qualifying for Boston. Now, it was beating Oprah. Her time of four hours and 29 minutes — the Oprah Line — became the new benchmark for a respectable race. (That was P. Diddy’s goal when he ran New York.)

Once the supreme test for hardened runners, the marathon became a gateway into the sport. Soon, gravel paths were crowded with 5-mile-an-hour joggers out to check “26.2 miles” off their life lists. Team in Training, which raises money for leukemia research, promised to turn loafers into marathoners in 20 weeks. I met a lawyer who started running because, “They say if you can run a marathon, you can do anything!” The marathon was no longer a competition. It was a self-improvement exercise.

I have to say: I hate this attitude.  One of the things that I love about running marathons is the many reasons that people run -- for health, in memory of loved ones, to raise money for charity, to BQ, to win the purse.  I've run five of these at this point, and, honestly, the only person that I'm racing is myself -- a la ghost mode in Mario Kart.  Yes, I do want to eventually qualify for Boston. Yes, I would love to run a marathon in under four hours.  But, that's going to take some time.  Just finishing a marathon is an accomplishment, and I will always be in awe of people who can run marathons in close to two hours. And, I'm just as in awe of the people who trained their hardest and got themselves across the finish line in a time that they're proud of.

Rock 'n' Roll USA Race Recap: 2014

My fifth marathon is in the books!  (It's kind of a crazy thought that I've run five of these at this point.)

I set a few different goals going into the race.  Based on my training, I thought that these were easily attainable:

• Run a consistent race
• Beat my marathon PR of 4:39
• Cross the Oprah Line

My reach goal was to run a 4:00 race.  I didn't hit that time this year, but it's definitely a possibility for my next marathon based on my training and today's race.  (I have to say, running three 20-milers this year worked so well.)

After running the half three years in a row, I decided that it was time to give the marathon course a try. The first half of the course continues to be my favorite -- I was even happy to run through Rock Creek Park this year.  I think it helped to know the first half of the course really well.  I knew where the hills were, and I knew where I could use the downhills to my advantage. There were a few times when I looked down at my watch, to time when to take my gels, and had to tell myself to slow down because I was in this for the long haul.

The marathoners and half-marathoners split around Mile 12, and it's one of the strangest things about the race. This year, there were about 16,000 half-marathon finishers and 2,700 marathon finishers -- and it's very obvious at the split.  It wasn't terribly difficult to find running space during the first half of the race, and it was pretty awesome to have so many people around for the first 12 or so miles.  When I continued onto my 13th mile, I could count the number of people around me. 

The second half of the race looped around Capitol Hill, down toward the Mall, and around L'Enfant Plaza.   The crowd support thinned out near L'Enfant Plaza, but the marathoners seemed to have a special bond and were very encouraging.  

After L'Enfant Plaza, we continued down into southwest DC.  We ran pass Fort McNair and around a very empty industrial zone before an out-and-back on South Capitol near Nationals Park.  That leg felt long for some reason and was hillier than I expected.  At this point in the race, I kept whispering to myself "There is no wall" because I felt like I was seconds away from crashing.  Running across the bridge into Anacostia was painful (thank you, metal portions!) but I actually made it across without too much trouble.  Once I saw the 20-mile marker, I knew that I only had 10K to go.  (At some point, even though I tried to stick to the tangents as best as I could, my watch ended up being 0.30 miles ahead of the mile markers.)  

The Anacostia trail was a dead-zone (more so than some of the earlier parts of the second half). On any other day, I could imagine it would be nice for a leisurely run or walk.  When you've run 20 miles and need people yelling at you to run faster, it's not the best thing in the world.  Thankfully, one of my coworkers did part of her training run to the trail and met me around Mile 22 to push me along for a bit. It was a much needed boost!  

The last two miles felt like they went on forever.  There were a few final hills along Minnesota Avenue that I just did not want to deal with.  RFK is clearly visible from the final bridge, and I felt like there were miles between me and the finish line. I high-fived one of my good friends as I pushed through toward the finish and crossed the finish line feeling a really happy and only a little loopy.

So, here are the splits:

(Mile 16 -- I wish!  We ran under a tunnel during that mile, which definitely confused my watch.)

Officially, I ran the marathon in 4:29:06, averaging about 10:16 per mile.  This is my new personal best, and I beat Oprah by seconds!

I probably will not run the marathon course again (but I'm very open to running the half in 2015).  I do like that it covers all four city quadrants, and compared to the Marine Corps Marathon, showcases DC well.  (There's a nice mix of monuments and neighborhoods.)  I thought that so many parts of the second half of the course were mentally taxing -- especially a lot of the winding sections along the same streets and loops around some of the more deserted parts of the city.

I don't have a post-marathon plan.  I'm running a local 5K in two weeks mostly just as a way to encourage myself to get back into running after a much deserved break.  I entered the lottery for the NYC marathon, but I think I want to work on running a fast half-marathon in the next year. We'll see!

Marathon No. 5: Weekly Round-Up (Week 14)

It's March 3rd, and this is what things look like in my 'hood:

Schools, the DC government, and the Feds are all closed today; my office has a very nice work from home policy, which I'm taking advantage of for the second half of the day.  

The snow is beautiful, but these cold temperatures are enough to make me worry about marathon day conditions.  Here's hoping for a sunny, 50-degree day...

I'm into the second week of my taper.  So far, it's been very nice to run fewer miles and not stress out about having the "right" conditions for a long run.  I know, I know...you're supposed to train in everything but, after many weeks of long runs in freezing temperatures, I'm looking forward to packing away my running tights.

Here's what things look like for this week:

Monday - Off, stretching 

Tuesday - 4 miles

Wednesday - 3 miles

Thursday - 3 miles

Friday - Off

Saturday - 8 miles

Sunday - 3 miles

Marathon No. 5: Weekly Round-Up (Week 13)

I must say that I've really lucked out with the weather on my 20-mile runs.  Yesterday was absolutely gorgeous -- about 40 when I started, clear, and eventually reaching 60.  Hopefully, things will be just as lovely on race day.

Of the three 20-mile runs, yesterday's was by far the hardest.  I ran over to the U.S. National Arboretum, which is one of my favorite parts of D.C. It's a little out of the way (great for a long run), but it's beautiful.

History lesson! These columns were part of the original east portico of the Capitol.

Looping back downtown and heading back to my apartment (basically miles 15 through 20), I started to overheat and felt sluggish.  It was a feeling that I really hadn't experienced on the other longer runs that I did.  (Granted, last week's feelings of just wanted to be at home was caused more by the fact that it was freezing and raining more than being actually tired.)  Of course, with this last 20-miler, the hard part of training is over.  At this point, I start my taper and just have to focus on recovery, nutrition, and getting to the start line injury-free.

Here's what the week looks like:

Monday: 3 miles

Tuesday: X-Training

Wednesday: 6 miles

Thursday: X-Training

Friday: Off

Saturday: 12 miles 

Marathon No. 5: Weekly Round-Up (Week 12)

Half-way through Week 13 is a great time to write the recap of Week 12, amiright?  

This is it -- the last "hard" week of training.  Honestly, I couldn't be happier because it means that I'm about a month out from race day.  I feel prepared, and I'm excited to see how it goes.  Last week, I don't think I ran nearly as many miles as my training plan says, but I did a few of my runs much faster (and felt good so there's that).  I did my long run on Saturday between binge watching House of Cards. It was a cold, rainy, generally miserable-looking day; around the Capitol, I ran into the Cupid's Undie Run.  Considering that I was wearing far more clothing that a lot of those runners, I figured that things could have been much worse and kicked myself into gear.  

So far this week, I've done a tempo workout and an easy three mile run (outside and in shorts!). Tomorrow, I'll run four miles, and, on Saturday, I'll run my last 20-miler of training.  And, it looks like the weather is going to be perfect this weekend.  Spring feels so close!

The Great CSA Adventure: 'Shrooms (Weeks 5)

It's Wednesday again, which means I picked up another batch of fresh veggies and other treats.  This week, Glen's Garden Market prepared the bags so I also got a dozen eggs from a local farm.  I'm a little overwhelmed, but I have a plan: frittatas.  Also, these delicious carrot cake pancakes are happening with all of the carrots that I've picked up over the last two weeks.  (I made these once before after a run, and I assure you that they are amazing.) But, back to recapping the last week's haul.

Week 5 wins for being the week for which I knew what to do with just about everything in the bag:

Stayman apples

Portobello mushrooms

Shallots

Lettuce

Rutabagas 

Pea tendrils 

Raw honey

Spiced nuts 

I had mushrooms over left from previous pick-ups and, with the lettuce, I got the brilliant idea to make lettuce wraps for my post-run lunch over the weekend.  In fact, it was such a brilliant idea that there was already a recipe on the internet that included just about everything that I wanted to use.

Some assembly required.  I also learned a very good lesson about how much siracha I should use as a topping. 

Marathon No. 5: Weekly Round-Up (Week 11)

Last week, I planned to run 36 miles.

Last week, I ran 20 miles.

And, I'm okay with that.  Because it was so cold this weekend (that, and I'm losing interest in layering up and sticking warmers to my feet and hands), I did my second long Yasso 800 workout: 10 half-mile intervals (with recovery intervals) switching between a 4:10 and 4:20 pace (per 800 meters).  It was challenging, but I felt strong throughout the workout; it's a nice confidence booster to know that, assuming that everything goes well until race day, I can likely finish between 4:10 and 4:20.

Since I ended the week with a 10 miler, I'm going to move my 16-miler to this weekend and follow with my last 20-mile run next weekend.  During the week, I'm going to run easy.  I went to the Y this evening to run on the indoor track, which was actually nice.  I mean, it must be one of the tiniest tracks in DC (21 laps on the inside lane for one mile) but it beats running outside.

Around the Interwebs: Where People Run

So, this is cool --

Using aggregated data recorded on RunKeeper (so many running apps!), someone created maps that show the most popular running areas in several major cities.  From Flowing Data:

What about all together? Not only is it fun to see, but it can be useful to the data collectors to plan future workouts or even city planners who make sure citizens have proper bike lanes and running paths. [...] The maps below are what I got, mostly for American cities, but there are a few European cities in there too (alphabetical order). If there's one quick (and expected) takeaway, it's that people like to run by the water and in parks, probably to get away from cars and the scenery. In the smaller inland cities, there seem to be a few high-traffic roads with less running elsewhere.

Thanks to Steve for sharing! 

Everything is a Lie: Biomechanics Expert Debunks Treadmill-Running Myths

We've all see this, right?  The incline to which you're supposed to set your treadmill to mimic outdoor running at various paces?  Well, apparently, incline doesn't matter (sort of):

In his famous treadmill study, Jones tested experienced runners at six per-mile paces (9:11, 8:03, 7:09, 6:25, 5:51, and 5:21) while they ran on a treadmill that was either flat or inclined by various amounts. Setting the treadmill at a 1% incline made the effort equivalent to outdoor running only to those running 7:09 pace or faster. Let’s face it: Most of us are slower than that. You’re correct if you believe that treadmill runners don’t encounter the “cost” of moving through the air around them (because they don't move; they stay in one place). But it simply doesn’t add up to anything significant unless you’re running 7:09 pace or faster. What else can Kerrigan teach us about treadmill running? That the biomechanics, contrary to what many believe, are essentially the same as overground running. “We had to do a study on that [here] to convince the National Institutes of Health to fund some of our other work,” she told Runner’s World Newswire. “People have a bias against treadmill running--that real runners don’t do it, or that it changes your leg movements. It’s all garbage. We found some minor changes, but they weren’t the ones people expected, and they don’t affect anyone’s running biomechanics.”

So, the only downside of treadmill running is the monotony! Sweet!

In response to this recent development, Runner's World tackled other treadmill myths, including:

1. If you have sex on a moving treadmill, you can’t get pregnant: MYTH. You can, and probably will. Trust me on this one.  

6. Grasping the bar on the front of your treadmill, making a “revving” motion with your right hand, and saying “Vroom! Vroom!” isn’t cool: MYTH. It’s the coolest.

9. Falling on a treadmill is dangerous: MYTH. Falling on a treadmill ishilarious, as George Jetson and any number of YouTube videos demonstrate. 

So, there you have it.  Everything you learned about treadmills is basically a lie.

The Great CSA Adventure: Squash (Weeks 3 & 4)

I didn't anticipate how quickly the CSA pick-ups would arrive each week.  I mean, technically it's a fixed day - every Wednesday - but that means that the Wednesdays are flying by faster than I can eat my share from the previous week.  This means that I should be hosting more dinner parties or making more soup or something...

Week 3 included butternut squash, onions, kale, lettuce, sweet potatoes, radishes, Macintosh apples, and a few bonus goodies (chocolate chip and cherry granola and a chocolate bar with pretzel bits, both locally produced ).  In addition to salads, I added kale to post-workout smoothies (my favorite combination so far is kale, blueberries, bananas, and pomegranate juice).  I wanted to use the butternut squash as a pizza topping, but, instead, I roasted it with shallots and tossed it with pasta.  Quick and delicious.

Week 4's basket included beets, cremini mushrooms, shiitake mushrooms, spaghetti squash, popping corn, and a cake bite from Cakelove in DC-- which was decadent and a "sometimes food."  

I tackled the squash on Sunday.  I've used spaghetti squash as a taco filling (trust me, it's works) and would have been happy to do that again.  But, courtesy of Bountiful, which is becoming one of my favorite vegetable-focused cookbooks, the squash was served as the "noodle" in a very simple dish with meatballs (but, let's be real here, actual pasta is amazing). 

And, look, I still have kale!

I was very pleased with how it turned out.