Run DMZ

"Seven miles ahead to something truly amazing," the entrance station ranger said as we grabbed our map and fell into a caravan of cars, RVs, and trucks twisting their way toward the main attraction. After watching one rec van careen into the oncoming lane on a sharp turn and another continually crawl to accommodate cyclists without a bike lane, we opted to go the opposite way in search of better conditions to view one glorious hole filled with calm, clear, centuries-old snowmelt. This was our third attempt to visit the southern Oregon national park. The past two trips were thwarted by wildfires, now common during summer travel in the West. The first time, the park was open but smoke was so thick from nearby blazes that it made no sense to drive that far out of our way with limited visibility. The second time, two years later, it was a wildfire itself that closed roads to park entrances. Third time's a charm We decided at literally the last minute to turn off highway 97 to...

Until last month, my only experience with San Diego’s only national monument was glancing down at Coronado through a thick marine layer and standing in a long line to use a portable toilet. I never ventured beyond visitor parking for fear of losing my place among hundreds also needing to relieve themselves. This is at the starting line of the annual America’s Finest City Half Marathon , held every August in San Diego. It begins at the Cabrillo National Monument – accessible that morning only by shuttle bus – and winds through Pt. Loma, Harbor Island and the Embarcadero before climbing into downtown and then up Sixth Avenue into Bankers Hill to finish the 13.1-mile journey in Balboa Park. It’s really a great footrace, especially with the first 4 miles all downhill.  I’d forgotten about Cabrillo National Monument until we decided to get a National Parks annual pass this summer and realized there was only one place to get one in person – a place surrounded by deep teal seas, silent ...

  The other week I was doing some deep cleaning and came across this race photo. It resurrected lovely memories from one of my most unpleasant finishes. It also reminds me of how much has changed over the years--to both me and marathons.   Note the slant of the sun . This shot was taken in the last miles of the course, with the sun already inching toward the western horizon. The Richmond Marathon used to start at 12:30 p.m. on an October Sunday to allow locals time to go to church before downtown streets closed. This made weather a wildcard. It could be the cool fall day long-distance runners dream of, or it could swampy. I got both, with heat at the start but a cool breeze at the end.    Now almost every marathon starts early morning to accommodate bigger crowds .   Note the bib number . This race had less than 500 marathoners the first time I ran it. You could sign up race day, especially if you ended up not running that much more popular marathon two hours no...

My current favorite song is  The Weeknd’s Blinding Lights . I liked it the first time I heard it, and I’ve heard it a lot since then. In the car. In the house. In the grocery store. One of my daughters theorized I probably like it because it sounds like a song from the 80s.    No doubt the 1980s music canon has proven to be far more enduring than the decades that have followed. Don’t believe me, then  read this . But, for me at least, the 1990s have shown with time to be my best decade in many other ways.    I hit all of the big adult milestones in the 1980s. I graduated from high school and college, married, had children and launched a long-term career, all before I turned 30. Those were definitely productive years, but I wasn’t at my best. I worked to put myself through  college , which led me to move through those four years with omnipresent financial insecurity and full course loads right through my last trimester. Only one friend from college—a ro...

I read somewhere that everyone peaks in a career only once or twice in a lifetime. During that time you are your most creative, productive, influential and dependable self. You are in a near-constant state of flow, and your work has a positive impact on everyone around you—both in and outside the office. Some of us peak at our first job and then spend the next 30 or 40 years chasing the same dream. Others peak late in life, having tried on a range of roles before finding one with the best fit.  I don’t think it’s a coincidence that my career peaked around the same time I ran  marathons. I need movement to think, and long runs provided plenty of it. Marathon training also requires daily discipline and excellent time management when you are a full-time employee and full-time parent. Back then I mainly ran early mornings when everyone else was asleep. I always ran alone and without music, so I had plenty of time to talk to myself about issues, both personal and p...

News outlets announced yesterday that they are changing the San Diego Rock 'n' Roll marathons finish to Petco Park -- news that is sure to please just about everyone . I worked the final aid station the first year the marathon course changed from the MCRD near the airport to SeaWorld, and it was universally panned. And I'd run the marathon for consecutive years prior. The next year the organizers added the half marathon, which greatly diluted the crowd circling Fiesta Island before the final push. And last year it dwindled even more, with the half marathoners now sounding the horn that SeaWorld sucks as a finish point. (Finishing on the backside of DisneyWorld during its marathon does too, I might add from experience.) But that's not why I'm writing this post. There's a comment from the SDTC coach in the article, saying that seeing the finish line from a couple miles out made those last miles even more difficult. “At 23 miles, all you want to do is f...

Back before I started blogging, I kept an online weekly diary for my track club's marathon training program. The first few months, I never received feedback. Then I wrote the following post and everything changed. People started commenting - praising me, even - on a very active message board. After having a conversation this weekend with a friend who maintains you aren't a real runner until you pee or poop on yourself, I decided to rummage up that 9-year-old piece to repost here. File This One Under TMI (Too Much Information) Way back when my sister and I were planning our first marathon, we relied primarily on word of mouth for training tips. With each new piece of information, we’d mull over the possibility -- falling behind pace; overdosing on Gatorade; running in rain -- and adjust our expectations accordingly. (We would also, unfortunately, encounter all of these situations and then some that October morning.) About three weeks before the big day, my sister called. ...

I used to think it was just me. Then I started following a good many running bloggers and realized that I’m not the only one that seems to be struck by a significant injury soon before a big event. Here’s what I think happens. We invest a lot of hope and money into a big “A” race, or even a B race that sells out quickly, and we promise to follow the marathon or half marathon schedule to stay healthy. But maybe we get ambitious and ramp up the mileage ahead of schedule or start the schedule midway through without a proper base. Then, what starts as a niggling ache in our foot, ankle, shin, knee, quad, hamstring or hip becomes bona fide pain as we build up mileage. We realize this is maybe going to take more than a day or two off to heal. So we take ibuprofen and give it a week when we really need to give it two or three. But that long of a layoff could spell trouble so we “modify” our routine but continue to put undue pressure on our knees, hips, feet and thus make matters worse. Instea...

Not sure how I feel about an editorial in the New York Times that questions the ubiquitous charity fundraiser walks in most urban areas and many suburban ones. I've done both charity walks and run on behalf of a charity, and they are both similar and different. And, even if they annoyingly violate basic race etiquette or use a charity to do an end run around a sold-out race, charity runners (and walkers!) deserve a certain amount of respect. It is not easy to ask for money, especially in this economy, and many have personal ties to the cause they are supporting. On the other hand, consider this passage from the piece: In the charitable ritual that has evolved, two sides expend energy, but only the sponsors’ efforts directly aid the poor. The others’ is pure sweat equity that goes nowhere but down the necks of the participants. Consider, too, the public resources expended: the rescue squads and medics along the way, the police sealing off urban arteries, the snarling of traffic. We ...

Shortly before we moved to San Diego, a friend gave me a copy of Runner’s World with an article about this unique 10k held on a military installation. The challenge was to make it through a military-style obstacle course without losing your shoes or your shorts. It was called a Mud Run. Now, of course, every major metropolitan area and many minor ones host their own mud runs, and they typically sell out quickly. In the past five years, those dirty 5ks and 10ks have evolved into events like the Warrior Dash and Spartan Race series and perhaps the most difficult to date, The Tough Mudder . I admit I’d never heard of the Tough Mudder franchise until someone contacted me to see if I’d help promote it on this blog. Entry fees are on par with an expensive marathon, and something tells me by the time you finish the 10- to 12-mile course, you’ll feel like you’ve just finished a grueling 26-miler. The Finals in December in New Jersey sound particularly demanding. I’ve done a lot of thinking ab...

As you work up to longer distances, it can be easy to forget what it was like the first time you ran a mile and then a 5k and then a 10k and so on, whether it was in a race or in your backyard. You get picky about the T-shirts, stashing the cotton ones deep in a drawer. Medals don’t mean as much unless they're different or from some exotic place. Even among new-runner bloggers, eventually the shorter race posts get short shrift to the marathons and ultras and half and full Ironmans. There’s an implicit message that you’ve moved on to bigger and better things. I used to hold a similar attitude once I began running marathons , but a few people recently reminded me of what I'd already forgotten a few years ago -- that feeling of accomplishment when you push past a new barrier. Yesterday two of the women that I run with on Saturdays completed their first half marathon. They sent a great photo of everyone wearing similar T-shirts, big smiles and medals at the finish. I’m thinking ...

When I read someone's bonked in a big race, especially an Ironman or ultra, I often ask in a comment: Did you take painkillers before or during the race? They almost always say yes. I ask because I once had a terrible experience with the drug during my last marathon and have since done a lot of research. Most recently, an article in The Los Angeles Times underscores the dangers of taking over-the-counter painkillers during heavy-duty exercise , like a marathon or ultra. Researchers have been using Western States participants as guinea pigs and discovered something every endurance athlete should know. After the race, runners who had taken ibuprofen showed signs of mild kidney impairment as well as mild endotoxemia, a potentially dangerous condition in which bacterial toxins present in the large intestine get into the bloodstream. . . . The drug also failed to help performance or recovery, the researchers reported in that paper and others. Both groups of runners reported equivalent a...

The other day I got an email from someone who went on a well-positioned rant about today’s marathons. He noted that his finish time 20 years ago at the Carlsbad Marathon (then the San Diego Marathon) had him finishing toward the back of the pack; today, he’d finish in the top 5 percent. I saw he sent his commentary to a bunch of people, but paid it no mind until some of the others started to weigh in. I’m not going to name any names, but most of you who regularly read Runner’s World would recognize them. Why, some wondered, has the industry allowed Boston to stay the only qualifying marathon? Now I’m wondering too. Should we have more races that require qualifying times, particularly smaller marathons that could use a boost in prestige? And should we leave the bigger, sure-to-sellout events to anyone who can register quick enough?

Just finished reading a great piece by Matt Fitzgerald on The Art and Science of Marathon Pacing . It explains some of the physiological reasons behind pacing and how what works at shorter distances tends to fail at longer ones, particularly marathons and ultras. My best marathon times all involved running negative splits, in which I ran the second half faster than the first. Sometimes this is due to crowding in the early miles or flatter terrain in the second half. Rarely was it pure skill on my part. Consider this passage: There’s a large and possibly crucial difference in the fitness levels that elite and non-elite runners bring to the marathon event. It’s plausible to me that the more modest a runner’s fitness level is, the more likely it is that he will achieve his fastest time by running somewhat aggressively in the first half and then “hanging on” in the second half. Put another way, it’s plausible to me that the smaller the difference between the most comfortable pace a runne...

Interesting piece in today's Wall Street Journal about attempts to bring the Rock 'n' Roll franchise to New York City and the resistance the Competitor Group's encountered to host a Bronx-only route in the spring. Is One New York Marathon Enough? When I ran the New York City Marathon years ago, there was a record crowd of 32,000. Now it's 45,000. And I think I paid $60, compared to up to $250 today. Plus, if you ran at least a half marathon under a certain time, you got in as long as there were still slots, and for no additional cost. Now, you have to pay $11 just to get lucky. A lot has changed. San Diego has the same problem with neighborhoods that go before the city council each year demanding the Rock 'n' Roll Marathon be rerouted away from them. In addition to traffic hassles, runners tend to generate more trash and noise than you might think. They also spend a lot of money on themselves that ends up being a huge boon to local businesses. Personally, I...

Not initially, at least. Here are a few things I've discovered in my many years of running. 1. Technical clothing stinks. Yes, it wicks away moisture better than cotton and it generally makes you look more slim, but synthetic fibers hold in smells. They also don’t respond well to regular detergent. If you don’t wash your running clothes quickly, with special cleansers and often, the smell sets in and is “reactivated” next time you sweat. 2. Headphones are uncool in races. The USATF has relaxed its headphone ban in most of its sanctioned races, leaving it at the race director’s discretion unless it’s a championship race. The same safety issues remain, but enforcement proved too difficult so now we usually are free to move to music. However, the earlier ruling and vocal opposition and non-compliance from primarily mid-pack and back-of-the-pack runners created a division within race ranks. Fair or not, there’s an unspoken perception that frontrunners don’t need the assistance for mo...

The two biggest road races in San Diego are the Rock 'n' Roll Marathon in June and America's Finest City Half Marathon today. I haven't run the AFC in several years, but this morning I found myself maneuvering around traffic jams at 5 a.m. and then surrounding myself with AFC runners the rest of the morning. I volunteered to host the San Diego Track Club's post-race tent at the expo, which entailed buying select treats, loading up the car with items from the SDTC shed and hauling everything to our site before the first runners came through. That included the frozen grapes and chocolate milks in the photo above. Everyone was hard at work by 6:30 a.m., setting up displays and sorting fruit like these two young gentleman above. Our site, pre-setup. I needed three other hands to set up the tent and thank the complete strangers who came to my aid. After I had set up the regular and soy milk, frozen grapes (green and red), organic baked items, Red Vines and individually ...

Where to start? The woman who fell on her face and mumbled “I gotta finish!” even has blood poured from her mouth? The woman who puked right in front of us, or the one that obviously barfed just before and hadn’t bothered to wipe her chin? Or how about the gal who cramped up and just collapsed in the street, screaming in pain? The countless men with blood-soaked shirts? Or, the talk of our table: this one runner on course for a 3:45 finish who was literally foaming at the mouth?! Actually, there were several mouth foamers, but this woman’s was like none I’d ever seen. And I’ve seen a lot in my 35 years of running. Such were the observations from the Mile 25.4 Aid Station during today’s Rock ‘n’ Roll Marathon in San Diego. The San Diego Track Club was in charge of seeing all runners were properly hydrated for the last .8 miles to the finish at Sea World. At the very end, we even offered our leftover turkey rolls, which all went to some very hungry stragglers. Yes, we got everyone at the...

I just read this week's Personal Best column in the New York Times on the lack of scientific proof that specific types of warm-ups work any better than others before a race. Back in my competitive days, my pre-race ritual included several sprints for 10k or under races and about a mile jog before a half marathon. Then, I made the typically rookie call to "save my energy" and not run at all before a marathon. Suddenly, that became the norm and I merely walked and did some static stretches, if that. I'm curious: What is your warm-up routine for, say, a 10k? Is it different for a marathon? Here's the NY Times piece for reference: The Right Way to Warm-up Is (Your Answer Here)