Blog Master G

A big happy 29th birthday to my little bro, a gifted and hilarious writer, a wonderful friend, and an awesome brother to have!

The past year in brotherdom brought highlihgts such as the second annual Anderson Brothers Mustache Growing Contest, our first marathon together (we’re both training for our second together later this month), and a rockin’ Christmas and New Year’s week!

Of course, throughout the year, I get to enjoy the adventures of Pete through his blog from afar, and I’m super-psyched to welcome Pete and Sierra as New York residents later this year! Not since I was 18 have we lived in the same state. That’s 14 years, people.

So anyway, bro, here’s to you. Happy birthday, bro! Now stop making me feel so old. You know you’re old when your little bro hits 30, so let’s take this year nice ‘n slow, OK?

Last weekend I ran a crazy 200-mile relay through the mountains of Vermont. The Green Mountain Relay was one of the hardest running events I’ve ever done in my short running career: 12 people, 2 vans, 36 legs, and a weekend of absurdity.

Each runner was numbered 1 through 12 and ran 3 assigned legs. Based on the assigned legs, each runner position was ranked in difficulty — based on the hills in the assigned legs — on a scale from 1 to 12, 12 being the most difficult. I was Runner #5, difficulty 12.

Going into the race, I thought, “I’m sure it’s not going to be that difficult. I mean, I run hills all the time.”

Wow, was I ever wrong.

The difference is that I train on hills, not mountains. And this was called the Green Mountain Relay.

Taken individually, each leg was among the hardest races I’ve ever run.

My first leg was 8.2 miles nearly all up hill with an insanely fast couple miles downhill. My pace varied from about 12:30 in the steepest sections up to as fast as a 5-minute pace flying down the mountain. Incredibly, my average pace in that first leg — my best of the weekend — was 7:48/mile. Of course, I really went all out on that first leg, not really leaving anything left for the other two (wrongly thinking that 12 or so hours and a tall Guinness would help me recover).

My second leg (no Garmin data since it couldn’t locate satellites) was the worst and possibly the best run of my life: It was 6.7 miles straight up hill in the middle of the night. It was just me, an orange vest, and a headlamp in the pitch dark in the middle of nowhere around 11pm for more than an hour. I also made the mistake of eating too much, so running was, shall we say, not very comfortable.

My third and final leg on Sunday morning, after sleeping for 3 hours in a sleeping bag in a field in the middle of Vermont, was supposed to be 4.4 miles — also straight up hill — but ended up being 5.4 miles after the team van and I both missed a poorly marked turn on the course.

When you put it all together — the insanely tough 20.3 miles of mountain runs, the shuffling between exchange points for 29 hours, living in a van with 6 people for 2 days, getting no sleep, spending way too much time in porta-potties — it added up to a really big challenge. And also tons of fun and really memorable. I was exhausted for days afterward.

During the experience — running up hill with that headlamp, sleeping in a field, having to use a porta-potty again — I was cursing it and hating it. As soon as I was home and showered, though, I began considering the possibility of doing it again next year, though maybe not taking on the most difficult legs.

As I shouted to my teammates between breaths at the top of of the hardest hill of my first leg, “I think they mis-labeled the difficulty as Very Hard. It should be called You’ve got to be fucking kidding me.

That about sums up the experience. My finisher’s medal was well earned and hangs proudly alongside my two marathon finisher’s medals since the experience was as tough as a marathon.

Finally, Jen was kind enough to wake up before 5am on Sunday and head to Bennington to camp out at the final exchange (#35) for about 5 hours as a volunteer. Seeing her after a long and dreary couple days was a nice treat. After hanging out with her for the final stretch of her volunteer time, we then danced at the finish line as we waited for our final runner to cross the finish line.

Official results: 28:59:28. Average pace for the team: 8:48. Place: 32nd of 50 overall.

Rachel Alexandra @ Saratoga, originally uploaded by Blog Master G.

2009 Preakness winner arrives in Saratoga Springs.

On Sunday I ran my 4th half-marathon, and it was pretty awesome. It was the Lake Placid Half-Marathon in beautiful Lake Placid, NY — about 2 hours north of Saratoga Springs, a place that really reminded me of Lake Tahoe.

Going into the race, I had an injured Achilles tendon — likely tendonitis — so I took 3 days off before the race (which can seem like an eternity when you’re used to running 6 days a week). But the time off helped and I felt fresh and ready to rock going into the race. I didn’t have any pain in my left Achilles tendon until about Mile 12, when I developed a sharp pain and had a momentary fear that I was going to fall over and not finish the race.

But back to the beginning…

My plan to go to bed at 8pm for my 3:30am wake-up on Sunday didn’t go so well, so it was about 9 or 9:30pm before I finally fell asleep. As is the case before any big race, I slept very lightly Saturday night and never really felt like I got into a deep sleep.

Dan picked me up a little before 5am and off to Lake Placid we went. It was a little overcast and cool when we arrived around 6:30am. The race didn’t start until 8, so we were among the earliest to arrive. I liked having a lot of time to stretch, do some warm-up running, and eat some pre-race GU.

By the time the start rolled around, it had warmed up a bit, the skies had cleared, and the scene was set for a beautiful day of racing in the mountains.

Like any mountain race, Lake Placid was a really hilly course, and I’d read that the hills were killer. I actually enjoy rolling hills, and there was a super-fast downhill at Mile 3 that allowed me to simply fly down it, clocking in an early 6:35 pace in that mile.

In the early part of the race, I quickly fell into a solid pace, staying as close to 7-minute miles as I could. The weather was perfect, I had tapered and carb-loaded perfectly, and my heart rate monitor showed I was running around a comfortable 164 beats per minute. I was flying and knew from early on that I was going to have an awesome race. I even got a little choked up with a case of runner’s high at one point.

I ate my first GU Roctane of the race around 35 minutes when I felt my glycogen level depleting a bit. It gave me the boost I needed to keep going strong. Around mile 6.5 or 7 as we continued up a slight hill, I noticed that the runners ahead of me were starting to lose steam. It seemed early in the race for people to be slowing down, but I’ve seen in so many races that people go out way too fast and don’t pace properly (as was the case for me in my first marathon when I had no idea what I was doing).

So passing people is always a nice confidence booster. I kept pushing strong through the turn-around point around Mile 8.5, where I grabbed another GU from one of the nice volunteers (the volunteer support for the entire race was superb). It was at the 1-hour mark when I ate my second GU Roctane to give myself another power boost and to maintain my solid pace.

The hills were starting to get to me around Mile 9 and 10 (7:20 and 7:10 miles, respectively), and I’d heard that there was a bitch of a hill at Mile 11, so I wasn’t looking forward to that. Sure enough, the 118 feet of elevation gain in that mile (with a loss of only 11 feet) slowed me to my slowest mile of the race (7:45 pace). I ate my third and final bonus GU somewhere around then, even though it’d only been about 20 minutes since I ate the last one and I knew I wasn’t going to be running for more than another 15.

I was running out of steam around Mile 12 when the Achilles pain struck, but one guy passed me around that point, so that motivated me to pick up the pace for the final uphill battle. The Mile 13 ascent into the Olympic Oval finish was just cruel — the elevation went up 120 feet from 1,748 to 1,868 feet, and I felt like I wasn’t running much faster than a walking pace.

At the top of the hill, though, as spectators began to cheer, I got my final burst of energy to turn it on for the final loop around the oval and across the finish line in personal best time. Showing my alumnus pride for Team in Training with my purple singlet, I also benefited from the added cheers and support throughout the race. At the top of that final hill, someone shouted, “You’re the first Team in Training runner!” So even though I didn’t fund raise for this event, it was a good feeling nonetheless.

For a tough, hilly course, I’m especially proud of my new PR — official time: 1:34:24 (7:11 average pace), placing 38th overall out of more than 1,200 runners. I shaved nearly 2 full minutes off my last half-marathon time, which I set on a much faster course than Lake Placid back in October.

View my mile splits and other data here or below:

The player view of the race on the Garmin Connect site is especially awesome since you can watch my speed, elevation, and even heart rate throughout the race.

Back in Saratoga Springs that day, Jen was busy taking more than 2 minutes off her own 5k PR, too! So big congrats to my 5k specialist wife!

We celebrated the banner day with Alexis and Justin in Lake George — shopping for the girls and cocktails for the boys, followed by dinner overlooking the lake.

Now if only my Achilles tendon would heal in time for my next race…

Vassar Library, originally uploaded by Blog Master G.

At 10-year reunion.

Jewett House – Vassar, originally uploaded by Blog Master G.

My home for 3 years. Enjoyed this beautiful view this weekend for our
10-year reunion. Good times!

As I just posted on my Facebook status update:

proud to have logged another record month: 215.8 miles in May! And that even with missing 4 running days between foot injury and Gloucester/Boston trip. Today’s 15-miler included nearly 1,900 feet of vertical gain (and drop).

The trip last weekend to Glocester to hang out with Patricia, then Boston to visit Shrey (with a brief stop to see Dan, Shira, and baby), was tons of fun. I really miss the ocean. And Jen and I loved getting out of town for the long weekend. I have some pictures from the weekend (beyond what I already posted via my iPhone), which are still on the camera — along with lots of other photos I’ve yet to download. My main computer decided to stop talking to my camera, so I need to fix that, or just download the pics to my laptop.

Back to my record running month, what does a 215-mile month look like on a chart? A little something like this:

My 23 runs ranged from 5.01 miles (5/14/2009) to 21 miles (5/10/2009).

My training plan has me heading into a 70-mile week next week, but given that Jen and I have our 10-year Vassar reunion coming up next weekend, somehow I doubt I’ll be doing that 22-miler on Sunday after our class dinner Saturday night. Ah well, at least I have a fall marathon to look forward to — either New York City in November (if I get in) or Hudson-Mohawk in October — after San Francisco in July.