Recap: NYRR NFL Back to Football Run

The $35 registration fee for the NYRR NFL Back To Football run got participants a Nike Dry-Fit technical race shirt and a very fun race.  The shirts also came in women's sizes  (uncommon for NYRR race shirts).

The pre-race festival was a fun.  It autograph sessions with a few NFL players as well as a kids fun area.

Folks lined up for autographs.

Children's fun area

The football themed start/finish line featured NFL team flags and yard markers in the final stretch.  Boomer Esiason was there to get the 3000 runners started!

Football themed start/finish line.

3000 runners awaiting the start!

The race started at 7:30 PM and took a different course through the park than most NYRR races.  After a quick fun four miles, we were offered plums and bagels by NYRR staff.  I finished in 34:29 for an 8:38 average pace.  Alek finished in 36:30 with a 9:08 average pace.  Full results can be found on the NYRR site.

Nighttime finish line!

Playlist: NYRR NFL Back To Football Run

On Thursday, August 30, 2012 nyrr is holding the NFL Back To Football 4 mile run.  The race celebrates the return of football and the Giants.  In honor of the Giants, my playlist includes songs from Superbowl Halftime shows where the giants were contenders (1987, 1991, 2001, 2008, and 2012).

If you're interested in running this race, you can still register in person at the NYRR HQ or tomorrow in Central Park before the race starts.

This is a 47 minute playlist.  I've been having some hip pain (more on that later), so I made sure I had enough music to go slowly if needed.


Somewhere Over the Rainbow Israel Kamakawiwo'ole
What a Feeling Film Musical Orchestra
Step By Step New Kids On the Block
Walk This Way   Run-DMC
Bye Bye Bye *NSYNC
Jaded Aerosmith
American Girl Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers
I Won't Back Down Tom Petty
Free Fallin' Tom Petty
Party Rock Anthem LMFAO
Like a Prayer Madonna
Sexy And I Know It   LMFAO

Recap: Perk Up Half Marathon

If you eat hills for breakfast, then the Perk Up Half Marathon is your race!  It rivals the Sleepy Hollow and Fairfield Half Marathons in hilliness.  Running tough courses is fun because knowing that there will be no personal records, you get a chance to take in the scenery.

The race expo was in the gymnasium of The Perkiomen School.  It was a small but well organized expo.  Runners could choose between blue and purple shirts.  They also allowed last minute size swaps.  The race shirts are A4 brand technical shirts - good shirts for running.  The design, including 13.1 on the left sleeve is pretty nice.

Perk Up technical shirt.

The race started Sunday at 8:00 AM, also at the Perkiomen School.  The school asked runners to keep off the well manicured lawns but they had a lot where they allowed us to park.  In addition there was plenty of street parking.  With a field of 450 runners, over crowding wasn't really an issue.  The school was also kind enough to open one of its buildings to allow use of the bathrooms.

Lot open for parking.

Although I went to the expo for packet pickup, race day registration and pick up looked to be super easy.  There was a table not to far from the start line where anyone could easily grab their packet and return unneeded goodies to their car before the race start.

Race day registration table

The race started just in front of the school.  The start line was marked with banners and a DJ played music just in front of the start area.  There was plenty of space in the line up area for all of the runners, including Alvin a beautiful Golden Retriever who had his own bib!

Getting Ready to start!

Start area is full, but not cramped.

Alvin the half marathon dog!

The race started promptly at 8:00 AM.  Even though we didn't have full closure on all of the roads, there were many wonderful volunteers directing traffic and making sure that cars passed slowly.  We were running on back country roads that weren't very busy so traffic was generally not a problem.  

The course itself was beautiful.  With streams, horses, lakes, butterflies, and small bridges it was almost easy to forget the hills!  

Stream just after the 2 mile mark.

The course went up the road next to the stream.

Horses at mile 4

Coming down the hill from the horses

Lake on the course

By the 12th mile, the hills were finished.  The finish line wasn't visible until the 12.75 mark.  The finish area was also well organized; there were bananas, oranges, bagels, soft pretzels, and pizza on the school tennis courts.  The finisher medal is cute though I would have liked to have the year on the medal as well.  Maybe since it's the first year's medal it'll stand out as they add the year later. Collector's item!

Finished!

Medal closeup

It was a beautiful, well organized, fun race and the weather was perfect.  By noon, I had an email with my results.  I finished in 2:14:11 with an average pace of 10:10.  Full results can be found here, although the csv format is a bit hard to read.

Playlist: Perk Up Half Marathon

My August half marathon will be the Perk Up Half Marathon on Sunday, August 26 in Pennsburg, Pa. The course is hilly, so I'm expecting this race to take a bit longer than my 2:03 record.  My playlist is 2.5 hours long.  It begins with some slower tempo songs so that I don't burn myself out before the hills.

When Your Mind's Made Up Glen Hansard
We Laugh Indoors Death Cab for Cutie
Awake My Soul Mumford & Sons
Smile Like You Mean It The Killers
She's So High Tal Bachman
Drunken Lament Ludo
The Motivation Proclamation Good Charlotte
Crash the Party O.K. Go Oh No
Airplanes (feat. Hayley Williams of Paramore) B.o.B
Glad You Came The Wanted
A Praise Chorus Jimmy Eat World
Happy   Lit
Sweetness Jimmy Eat World
Pumped Up Kicks Foster the People
Po folks Nappy Roots
Smile Weezer
Someday The Strokes
Paper Planes M.I.A.
Party Rock Anthem LMFAO
Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go Wham!
Risen O.A.R.
Rabbit Heart (Raise It Up) Florence + The Machine
Aeroplane     Red Hot Chili Peppers
On Top The Killers
You Only Live Once    The Strokes
Girls Just Want to Have Fun Cyndi Lauper
Raise Your Hands Rock Kills Kid
Sexy And I Know It LMFAO
Gotta Get Up from Here Ellie Lawson
Like a G6 Far East Movement
Build Me Up Buttercup The Foundations
Good Life  OneRepublic
Hit Them Up Style Blu Cantrell
On Top the Cage O.A.R.
Up In Here DMX
Dog Days Are Over  Florence + The Machine
Live Your Life (feat. Rihanna) T.I.
Feeling This Blink-182
Raise Your Glass P!nk
Darts Of Pleasure Franz Ferdinand
Happy Endings  The All-American Rejects

Running FASTER!

Are you a new or veteran runner who wants to speed up?  I've sped up a lot over the 20 months that I've been running. (Has it only been 20 months?)  A few things have helped me go from a 13:00/mile down to an 8:30/mile at race pace.

• Lose weight if you have any to lose.  I've lost 65 pounds.  According to Runner's World, you will drop about 2 seconds per mile per pound lost.  For me, weight loss alone was enough to increase my speed by 2 minutes/mile.  Even if you don't have a lot of weight to lose, a handful of seconds over a race distance can give you the minute you need to hit a new personal record.

• Run fast.  Build intervals into your training schedule so that your body can get used to running at a faster pace.  I like 200m (1/8 mile) intervals followed by a 400m (1/4 mile) recovery period.  You should run the 200m at your estimated 1 mile race pace.  You can jog or even walk the recovery distance.  Just get back out there fast when its time for the next interval.  You don't need a track, many watches will allow you to program an interval cycle in.  My Garmin 305 beeps whenever its time for me to switch gears based on the custom settings.  Its good to avoid needing to constantly check your watch.

• Run hills!  Don't have a watch or track to do intervals?  Find a hill.  Run up it hard then jog slowly back down.  Repeat.  Hills definitely help with speed.

I've spent the summer following a modified version Hal Higon's Intermediate Spring Training plan.  The plan incorporates hills and intervals with varying distances.  I lengthened the suggested long run distances each week so that I could maintain my ability to run my monthly half marathons.  Speed training while I'm not actually training for a marathon has worked out well.

Running: real world applications

Most runners run just to run.  It isn't the norm to run to a destination unless you can shower there.  After all, who wants to be a sweaty mess when they have somewhere to be?  I've found that it is useful to be able to run all out for ten minutes!

This happend last week.  We park our car in a garage about 6 blocks from home.  Monday night, the garage attendant accidentally took our car keys home.  Unaware, we arrived at the garage at 10:40 Tuesday morning planning to get the car for an 11:00 appointment.   The garage attendant on duty couldn't find the key.  After a few minutes of searching, he called the Monday night attendant who admitted to taking it home.  He said he'd bring it back in 15 minutes.  This would have had him arriving with the key at 11:05.  At 11:00 when he still wasn't there, I took off as fast as I could without my running shoes to pick up the spare key from home.  I got back to the garage about 7 minutes later.  The key "thief" still hadn't returned the key.  With the spare in hand, we were only 25 minutes late to the appointment.  I only regret not returning home a bit earlier.

Walking over to the garage usually takes us about 15 minutes.  Despite being a sweaty mess, I was happy that running allowed me to take quick action!

Recap: 2012 Orc Stomp Fun Run 5k

I can't imagine a better way to start Gen Con than with some fresh air and a run around a pretty state park.  Wait.  Yes I can!  Fresh air, a run around a pretty state park, and ORCS!  Thats right, a band of orcs came by for the race!

Alek and me with the friendly band of orcs

If you're thinking of attending Gen Con and want a fun run, this is your event.  The race organizer and all of the runners were incredibly nice (as I've found with everyone I've encountered here so far).  For the ridiculously low $10 entry fee, you get a shirt, some snacks, water, and even a finisher medal.  The only complaint I have has nothing to do with the event.  The morning air in Indianapolis happens to smell like oil.  I'm not sure why it does, but it makes running mildly unpleasant.

We'll definitely join this fun run on future Gen Con trips!

Orc Stomp Fun Run 5k Playlist

Greetings from Indianapolis! Today is the start of GenCon 2012.  That means tomorrow I'll be running the Orc Stomp Fun Run 5k! (I had to build at least one run into the long weekend).  Since its an orc stomp, I went for a hell/death themed playlist.  Without further ado, my playlist:

Bat Out Of Hell    Meat Loaf

Hell   Foo Fighters

This Devil's Workday    Modest Mouse

Thank You For The Venom My Chemical Romance

Love Me Dead     Ludo

Crawling Linkin Park

Satin In A Coffin Modest Mouse

Plague (We need no Victims) Lola Ray

Getting Better with Time!

After a certain age birthdays definitely lose their fun.  My favorite way to overcome my birthday dread is to run some distance to celebrate the milestone.  This year I ran a 30th birthday 30K (18.6 miles).  It wasn't a race, just a training run.  One year ago, my furthest distance was 14 miles.  While I was 29, I ran 2 marathons and 7 half marathons.  I definitely built up a lot of milage and some speed over the past year.  Realizing that I'm in the best shape of my life definitely helped put me at ease with leaving my 20's behind.

Aside from proving that I'm more kickass than I was last year, doing something healthy to celebrate my birthday helps to offset all of the food and drink laden celebrations.  A huge part of aging well (both mentally and physically) involves staying in shape.  The training runs required to build up to your age in kilometers will help to do just that!

Running your age in kilometers isn't as daunting as running it in miles.  You don't build up to a full marathon until age 42!  I'll try to keep this as a birthday tradition as long as I can (I suspect a 70th birthday 70K isn't going to happen though...).

SadPony Technical Shirts!

For my 30th, I asked people to run the Via Lehigh Valley Half Marathon with me on September 9.  In addition to agreeing to run the race with me Alek made up some Team SadPony technical shirts!  They arrived yesterday.  Look how great they are!

Book Review Nathan Lowell's Full Share

I recently finished listening to Nathan Lowell's Full Share as my running audiobook.  This is the third book in Lowell's Solar Clipper Trader Tales.  The book was better than Half Share.  This book introduced more conflict than the previous two books had, making it more interesting than the previous two.

I will confess that I did not finish the last episode of the podcast.  The book finished with much of the juvenilism that irked me in Half Share, so I gave up with about twenty minutes to go.  If you've enjoyed the first two books of this series, this one is mostly worth listening to.  The reader gets to experience Ishmael making decisions about his life on his own and preparing for the next phase of his life.  Like the other books in the series, this one is available free as a podcast on iTunes.

After finishing Full Share, I decided not to continue with Double Share, the next book in Ishmael's story.  I may return to the series eventually but I definitely needed a break.  Ishmael who started the series as a likable guy was really beginning to annoy me by the end.

This one took me 24 days to get through, although I ran fewer miles than usual during that time.

100 pushups challenge update!

Nine weeks ago, I started the 100 pushups challenge.  The program is not easy and I've felt that I needed to repeat each week at least once before moving on to the next week.  This week I'm starting week 3 for the fourth time.  Week 3 increases in intensity much more quickly than weeks one and two. In addition, the past three weeks have included quite a bit of travel and many life events making it difficult to get in all of the weekly sessions.

Despite the fact that the challenge is taking me many more than six weeks, I still intend to complete it.  So far I've gone from barely being able to do one pushup to a maximum set of 20.  Its great to see progress, even if it is slow!