It was raining and the course was really tough at the end. The first 5k cruised by really fast — I came out at a blazing 6:43 first mile pace, then slowed it down to 7:01, and 7:00 for miles 2 and 3. My 5k split was almost exactly on pace with my Silks & Satins 5k time (21:07).
I kept on cruising on the 10k course past the 5k finish turn and clocked in a nice 7:02 in the 4th mile.
Right around there was the 10k course turn-around point. A witch on a bike led the front of the pack. I got a rush of adrenaline when I realized that I was looking at the front of the pack — the leaders of the race — and that I wasn’t far from the turn-around point myself.
So I started counting runners: 1, 2, 3... By the time I’d counted a dozen runners, I felt myself getting more excited and picking up the pace even more since the reality of being in the top 25 started to sink in. 13, 14, 15... I was almost to the turn-around point and could now see runners making the turn. 16, 17, 18…
I was in 19th place! I got a rush. It was a total trip to realize that I was among the top 20 runners! And all I had to do was hold my pace and my position another couple miles and change — maybe even pass another runner or two in the final mile.
Keep your eyes on that witch (not the biking witch, but the fellow runner dressed like a witch I’d been tailing most of the race), I told myself.
Mile 5 is where the race started to get really tough and the hills at the south end of the course took a toll. Up on your toes, spring off each step, shorten your stride — that’s the strategy I read about recently for hill running. It was working. And all my recent training where I’ve been seeking out hills was paying off. I was gaining on the witch and another woman in front of me.
In the final mile, the course flattened out for a stretch, then I realized that we still had to scale back up the biggest hill of the course that we’d cruised down earlier. Springing off my toes, I could see the runners in front of me falling back. I passed the witch and the other woman who’d been in fron of me. 18, 17…I was in 17th place and had only about 8/10th of a mile to go!
I was feeling strong and increased my pace after the monster hill. I clocked in a 7:12 and 7:10 pace in the last two miles.
In the final 0.21-mile stretch to the finish, I caught a glimpse in my periphery of one of the two runners I’d been pacing trying to make her move. Time to turn it on. My signature move is a sprint to the finish line, so I gave it all I had left, maintaining my 17th place as I cruised around the final turn — thanks, Kyle, for cheering me to the finish! — and across the finish line in 43:37!
Unfortunately, Jen had to work today, so she wasn’t able to be there or run the 5k, as she’d wanted to do, but it was fun to see the likes of Betsy, Gabi, and other TnT runners this morning.
What Jen and I did get to do today, though, was hang out during a fire alarm at the SSPL, then enjoy a delicious lunch (and photo shoot) together at Four Seasons.
Despite the weather and despite my slightly slower than anticipated pace (thanks to the hills) — the McMillan Running Calculator predicted that, based on my awesome 1/2 marathon performance a couple weeks ago, I could handle a 6:57 average pace (in ideal conditions) — I’m elated with my overall finish place and time. I was 12th among men and 6th in my division.
Friday, October 24th, 2008 · Comments Off on Happy Birthday, Dad!
A big happy birthday to my awesome Dad! My whole life you’ve been the most supportive and encouraging father a guy could ask for. You’ve always been there for me and Peter, as friend, father, and mentor — from life lessons on Pacheco Valle benches to football on Stanwood Way. We’ve always known we could count on you, and yours and Mom’s belief that we could do anything has always inspired us to live life as fully as possible. Jen and I miss having you around Saratoga Springs, but are happy that you’re back in California where you feel more at home.
Andersones tres @ San Francisco Giants Game · AT&T Park · June 2, 2008
We love you, Dad! Happy Birthday!
Anderson Posse in Pacheco Valle · Circa 1987
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 (Yes, I’m reusing the above photo from the birthday blog post I wrote for my bro this year since I wanted to use something old school and it’s the only one I have handy at the moment.)
Comments Off on Happy Birthday, Dad!Tags:photos 2008
 Today was a picture-perfect fall day. The morning fog rose over the trees as we drove south to Albany for the U.S. Marine Corps Reserve 1/2 Marathon — my third half-marathon and second in the past 3 weeks — which shares the second half of the Mohawk-Hudson River Marathon course, one of the fastest in the country (and top qualifier for the Boston Marathon after the Boston Marathon itself).
At the start of the race, the fog still hovered as 500+ 680 participants stretched, bounced, and prepared for what would likely be a personal record (PR) for many of us. It was my first race without my iPod — there was a strict no headphones policy — so it was just me and nature for 13.1 miles.
There’s always a surge of energy at the start of a race, so I ran out fast with the pack before settling into my own groove and tailing another runner for the first 8 or so miles. Seeing Jen jumping and cheering for me around mile 7 was a welcome surprise and helped me charge past some of the runners in my pack. I ate my first GU around mile 6 or 7, too, which helped me maintain the strong pace, which, at that point, I felt like I could hold all day long.
Things started to get rough around mile 9 or 10 as I felt my body running a bit low on energy. So I ate my second GU. It was a good feeling, though, that I was mostly passing other runners, and not the other way around.
I powered on home to the finish, getting passed by only a couple runners in the file mile+. But I ended up sprinting past them before the end in my signature charge to the finish line (4:57 max pace in final sprint):
New PR: 1:36:10 (7:20 average pace)! I left my previous PR, which I’d just set three weeks prior at the Saratoga Palio, in the dust by nearly 4 full minutes (and 8 minutes better than my debut half in Nashville).
I placed 87th overall (out of 500+ 680) in a fast field. I’m not sure yet where I placed in my division, but the guy who got 3rd in my division ran a 1:30, so I wasn’t too far behind him.
Big thanks to my wonderful and supportive wife for being there to cheer me on bright ‘n early on what’s a work day for her.
On Sunday when I ran 20.11 miles to complete Week 8 of my second marathon training plan, I reached another insane milestone in my new running obsession: I’ve run more than 1,000 miles in 9 months!
Here’s a fun chart that shows my rapidly increasing mileage over the past 4 months:
Sunday also marked my weekly mileage record: 54.42 weekly miles. In 5 consecutive days (Wednesday to Sunday). On the heels of my second half-marathon. After a 3-day work trip to Philadelphia. All that and I’ve been working some crazy hours lately — last night we launched major new releases of our flagship products for the first time in 3 years.
Inspired by guys like Dean Karnazes — whose career highlights include unfathomable accomplishments like running 50 marathons in 50 days; completing 199-mile 12-person team runs — as his own team; finishing the first-ever South Pole Marathon; running the 100-mile Western States Endurance Run in less than 24 hours — 10 years in a row; running the Badwater 135-Mile Ultramarathon from the lowest point in North America to the highest point in the contiguous U.S. — I’ve really pushed my body to the edge lately (though not nearly to Karzazes extremes!).
I recently read Karzazes’ Ultramarathon Man, a truly inspiring read, which I encouraged my bro to read. He read it in less than 24 hours and he told me it changed his life. He nailed the review of it that I never got around to writing.
So back to my mileage…
Since I started running 12/26/2007, I’ve racked up the following:
167 runs
1,026.007 miles
519.14 miles June 2008 through September 2008 (average of 32.45 miles/week)
129.79 average miles per month, June 2008 through September 2008
181.24 miles in September 2008 (average of 45.31 miles/week)
And guess what? It’s been just over 3 months since I hit the 500-mile mark, and the 100-mile milestone was only 3 months before that.
Believe me when I say that never in my life did I think I’d log more than 1,000 miles in less than 9 months — in my first year as a distance runner.
Along with feeling great, having incredible focus in all things I do, and constantly challenging myself to improve my pace, I love hearing that my running has inspired so many of my friends. Megan has joined TnT and is training to run her first marathon (in Maui!). Another friend told me this week that I’m his role model, which was really moving and unexpected — and leaves me kind of speechless.
So I’ll keep on running and doing my best to inspire all of you to do what you never thought possible. 🙂
Last weekend I ran my second half-marathon and Jen ran her second 5k (now she’s run twice as many 5ks as I have!). The weather was perfect and hundreds of people showed up here in Saratoga Springs for the third annual Saratoga Palio memorial race to benefit the Melanie Merola O’Donnell Scholarship Fund.
If you check out the half-marathon race results, you’ll see that I placed 9th in my division of 22 and 62nd overall of 354 finishers. Though I missed the very aggressive goal I had set for myself, I’m mostly pleased with my 1:40:05 time (7:39 pace and 4:49 faster than my first half-marathon in Nashville), a new personal record (PR) and not bad for a guy who just started running this year.
I came out pretty fast (a no-no in long races — 7:13, 7:12, 7:09 over first 3 miles) and was maintaining a solid 7:20 average pace over the first 8 miles. Then I slowed to 7:52 in mile 9, back up to 7:35 in mile 10, way down to 8:56 at the mile 11 hill, 8:30 at mile 12, and a strong 7:38 finish in mile 13.
Despite all the GU I was pounding (2 pre-race and 1 every ~45 minutes), my lactate built up and I had to slow down at that 9th mile. I managed to speed up in a few stretches toward the end, but the hills going up Excelsior and then North Broadway kicked my ass.
As I cruised down the hill on the return trip down North Broadway toward the finish line, though, I busted out my signature move — an all-out, insanely fast sprint to the finish (nearly 5 4:35 pace at the 13.1 mark, according to my Garmin) as soon as I saw the clock ticking toward the 1:40 mark. It felt pretty incredible and as if I was flying. I was running so fast that my earphones fell out of my ears and a guy I passed cheered me on.
There’s nothing like the feeling of finishing a race and having your friends greet you and cheer for you at the finish line. It’s one of the reasons I’m hooked on running.
Big congrats to my lovely wife for rocking her second 5k and also setting a new PR!
The course was beautiful, of course, and covered many of the roads where I do my training runs.
 Jen and I have now been to Portland, Oregon twice — both over Labor Day weekends. The first trip was Labor Day weekend 2001 when we were living in San Francisco. And the second trip was earlier this month when we went for our friend Katie’s wedding. We’ve loved it both times. Portland is such a beautiful, awesome city. The first time we went, I called it a green version of San Francisco — it’s a city filled with trees. And, of course, it’s nearly as progressive as SF, too.
Katie’s a friend from San Francisco who relocated to Portland shortly before we moved to Saratoga Springs. Also at her wedding were three of our other SF friends, Tiff, Miguel, and Jeanine. It was a short trip, but an awesome one. We arrived late Friday night and left early Monday, but we packed so much action into that weekend that it seemed much longer. And it’s always tons of fun hanging out with the SF crew.
Katie and Alex’s wedding was great. It was on their farm outside Portland. The groom arrived at the ceremony on a pony with the “Bonanza” theme song playing. Their two Bernese mountain dogs, Blueberry and Sailor, were the ring bearers and performed well. There was a horse drill team performance shortly after the ceremony. Katie and Alex then did a “victory lap” — Katie on horseback and Alex riding his bike. Then Katie did a ride-by bouquet toss (Jeanine caught the bouquet).
It’s not often one has the opportunity to attend a wedding with so many unique elements, and we’re glad we made it. Big congrats to Katie and Alex!
Hugh, Jen, Gabe, Happy, Stella, Niki, Jami – January 7, 2007
How awesome is this photo that my buddy Seth (of Niki Rossi Photography) took? This was just a random Sunday evening party we had at our place one winter night last year. And yes, I even wear Hawaiian shirts and shorts in the winter.
Thanks for sending it, Niki!
The other thing that’s striking about this photo — besides the obvious point of how great it is — is how rotund my face was! Compare my face in the above photo with a more recent one, like this.
This morning’s 8-mile run puts me at the 900-mile mark! What a difference running 900 miles in less than 9 full months makes, eh? 🙂
Some people think I’m crazy — and many of you have told me so — for running as much as I do. I know it’s a little nuts that I went from 0 to marathon with just 5 months of distance running.
And that I’m now following an intense training schedule — the Pfitz 55/18, an 18-week plan that peaks at 55 miles in a week — from an excellent book called Advanced Marathoning (follow that link and you’ll see that most of the book is available online, which I just discovered). As the title suggests, it’s not exactly a book for beginning runners or people who’ve only run one marathon and have been running less than a year (like me). But I like a good challenge.
I was pleasantly surprised when I recently re-read this Runner’s World Ultimate Marathon Training Plan and realized that, based on the runner type descriptions, I’ve gone from beginner to advanced marathoner in the course of about 8 months — a journey that apparently takes some people “three or four years:”
Advanced You’re a running veteran, someone who’s been at it for at least three or four years and logs 35 to 40 miles a week. You’ve regularly, if cyclically, included serious interval training in your regimen. You’ve raced them all from 5-K to the full marathon and now want to score that most prized runner’s achievement: the PR, the absolute fastest 26.2 miles you’re capable of.
Craziness aside, others of you, including some I’ve never met but who read my blog, are inspired by my new found passion for running.
Either way, it’s a great feeling to know that I’m both crazy and inspirational.
Last week we were in Portland, Oregon hanging out with llamas and partying with some of our San Francisco friends who were also there for Katie’s wedding, so I missed my scheduled 15-mile run.
This week I was determined not to miss my long run, so this morning I ran 17 miles to complete Week 5 of my intense training for my second marathon. Toward the end of my run, I started thinking about what goes into making a 17-mile (or longer) run. Quite simply: A lot of preparation, food, and hydration.
Here’s what helped me have an awesome run this morning:
Ingredients:
3 slices of mushroom pizza with side veggies & homemade-by-wife creamy salad dressing for dinner
Plenty of Body Glide (to prevent chafing in other key areas) & sunscreen
2 Chocolate Outrage GU Energy Gel packs (after 45 and 90 minutes of running)
3 podcasts (Real Time with Bill Maher; PRI’s TheWorld: Technology Podcast from BBC; 60 Minutes), followed by some techno, rap, and Tom Petty to power me through the final miles
144+ ounces (1.125 gallons) of liquid (20+ oz. water, 12 oz. OJ, 8 oz. coffee before run; 40 oz. Gatorade & 20 oz. water during run; 16 oz. Gatorade, 20+ oz. water, 8 oz. coffee after run — and counting)
1 post-run PowerBar Protein bar
20 minutes of post-run lower body soaking in ice bath (for muscle recovery)
1 bowl of cereal for second (post-run) breakfast
An iron-willed resolve not to stop running until reaching the goal
Directions:
Mix together all ingredients in proper order and don’t stop running until you’ve reached your goal mileage (hydration breaks are OK, which I did after 10 miles, as well as once before the 10-mile mark and once or twice after).
Yield:
Record mileage week: 47.33 miles
2,108 calories burned (more than the average person eats in a day)
2 hours, 23 minutes of running
Solid training pace of 8:24/mile (not to be confused with my goal marathon pace, which is quite a bit faster)
Satisfaction of one awesome run
Here’s the run data for today’s run from my Garmin Forerunner 305 (I reviewed it here):
One of my goals lately has been to work on even pacing with strong finishes in the final miles. From page 120 of Advanced Marathoning:
These basics of marathon physiology indicate that the best strategy for the marathon is relatively even pacing. If you run much faster than your overall race pace for part of the race, then you’ll use more glycogen than necessary and will likely start to accumulate lactate. If you run much slower than your overall race pace for part of the race, then you’ll need to make up for this lapse by running faster than the most efficient pace for another portion of the race. The optimal pacing strategy, then, is to run nearly even splits, taking into account the idiosyncrasies of the course you’ll be running.
If you scan down the Avg Pace column above, you’ll see that my pacing is pretty damn even — with a steadily increasing pace in the final 3 miles (8:06, 7:54, 7:47).
It’s also cool to see that my peak speed this morning was 10.5 miles per hour. Sweet.
After a 5-month hiatus (I warned you: summers are busy), our Saratoga Wine Club reconvened last night at Mara and Vinnie’s great new place for a night of action-packed wine tasting, delicious food, and good laughs. The new format combined the tried and true hidden wine in a paper bag method with a new one: put all the second bottles of each hidden bag on display (unopened) and guess which wine you’re tasting. It worked nicely, except it was really tough to guess.
Coming off a victory at the last wine club / my birthday party, I turned it around for a last place finish last night, going 0 for 7 on guessing which wine was which (as did Steve, but mine and Jen’s bottle of wine scored lower overall, so that was the tie breaker that earned me the booby prize: Wine Tasting for Dummies). I celebrated, nonetheless.
Big thanks to Mara and Vinnie for hosting a really fun evening! And congrats to Annette and Todd on their victory — not too bad, Todd, for winning at your first wine club.
(By the way, apparently that Hawaiian shirt I’m wearing is my official Wine Club shirt: I realized after the fact that I also wore it at our last one / my birthday party this year.)
Summers are crazy here in Saratoga Springs — they zoom by in a blink and everyone’s usually incredibly busy. We’re on the go so much we can barely stop to assess what just happened — let alone blog about it. But now that fall’s here, I’ll try to be better about blogging. 🙂
We got tons of rain this summer and it didn’t really feel like summer until August. It’s rainy again today, but has also been summer-hot the last few days.
Jen and I managed to have an action-packed, banner summer. Here are some highlights of what we’ve racked up in summer 2008:
1 Master’s in Library Science (MSIS) – woohoo! congrats to my wife on finishing her degree!
1 set of friends with a new addition to the family (Nina) – congrats, Alex and Cati!
4 trips to the track (just a third of our record 12 visits last summer)
5 6 awesome trips in 5 months, April through August (Nashville, San Diego, Maine, Atlantic City, Puerto Rico, Oregon)
337.9 miles, June 1 through August 30 (starting with my marathon; not including Jen’s miles)
Today was the 8th Annual Great Pumpkin Challenge 10k (also a 5k on the same course) in Saratoga Spa State Park. It was my 10th road race and my first 10k. I placed higher than in any previous race I’ve run: 17th place overall (out of 200+ runners)! I’m pretty happy about that.
