Kenya’s Olympic Marathon Teams Announced

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Why I Run…

Not accepted for the 2012 ING New York City Marathon, just like 2010 and 2011. But, as long as I stay injury free, I now have guaranteed entry into the 2013 race!

I’m thinking that my November fallback plan will be to run the Chicamauga Battlefield Marathon in north Georgia on November 10th. Another option might be the Harpeth Hills Flying Monkey Marathon in Nashville on November 18th, but this race is also becoming very hard to get into.

If we can workout all the details, Chicamauga could be a great option for our whole family (aka Team Agee) since they also have a half marathon and kids marathon.

I’m not sure what is going on with the ING New York City Marathon “Opening Day” today, but they are now saying that lottery results will not be officially released until tomorrow, April 26th. It appears the ones who were selected have already had the race fee hit their credit/debit cards, and nothing has come through for me. Guess that means it is unlikely I was chosen for 2012, but at least I’ll get guaranteed entry into 2013!

Update: (From Examiner.com) – Unfortunately, most runners will have to wait until Thursday to see if they have a spot in next November’s race.  So many people went to the NYRR website to check the lottery results that the system went down.  Some runners, however, learned that they’ll be headed to New York in the fall because the entrance fee was charged to their credit card on Wednesday.

WOW. She looks amazing!!

She looks like she is flying!

I wish my form looked SOMETHING like that!

The ING New York City Marathon – Tomorrow I should find out whether or not I was selected in the lottery for the 2012 ING New York City Marathon. Since I’ve NOT been selected the last two years, I’m not really expecting anything different tomorrow. However, if my streak continues then I’m eligible for automatic qualification in 2013 because of the three-strikes policy. They are ending this method of automatic entry in 2014, so I’m glad to be squeezing in just under the wire.

Skechers Sets New Pace on Sponsors (WSJ)

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Even though this is a lighter week leading up to the Country Music Marathon, today’s schedule called for a 6-mile tempo run which included a 1-mile warmup, 4-miles at half marathon pace, and 1-mile cool down. Coming into this morning my legs were fairly tired because of a 2.5-mile run with Kate late yesterday afternoon for the ING Kids Rock Marathon followed by P90X Legs & Back with Olivia last night.

The temps this morning remained cool and quite comfortable with a little bit of cloud cover. Nathan and I met at the Edwin Warner Nature Center and ran our 1-mile warmup on the Harpeth River Greenway. We continued down the greenway for the tempo portion and on into Bellevue. As I’ve said before, my target pace for the 500 Festival Mini Marathon (a week from Saturday) is 6:42. With this in mind I wanted to average around this pace and since my legs were already tired I tried to think about this like the last 4-miles of the race. Nathan took a little bit of a head start since he wanted to run at a slightly slower pace, however he ran really strong and there was no way I could catch him.

Most of the first two miles were relatively flat and the splits were 6:37 and 6:38. Even though my pace was good I didn’t feel that great. Not bad, just not as comfortable as I would like. Miles three and four were mostly in Bellevue and contained a few hills. This caused me to slow a bit for mile three with a 6:40, but I was able to finish out with a 6:35. Still felt ok, but not fantastic.

On the bright side I was able to hold pace even though I had tired legs and was never fully comfortable during the tempo portion. Nathan and I joined back up for the 1-mile cool down which felt great after the hard effort.

Today was also the first time in a while I’ve run with a heart rate monitor. My coach John had asked me to train with one for a while so he could monitor my heart rate during different types of runs. Not sure what he will think about this one, but my heart rate was actually lower than I was expecting during the tempo sections.

Tomorrow is a day off, which is gonna feel strange, but I know my body needs it to get ready for Saturday.

Beast Mode….ON!

500 Festival Mini Marathon Long-Sleeve Shirt – As great a race as this is (and it is fantastic), they’ve had really, really pathetic t-shirts over the last three years:

• Three years ago the shirt was cotton, but almost the entire thing was screen printed, and was about as soft as a cardboard box. 

• Two years ago they switched to a technical material, but again it was covered in screen print, and it had the texture of a burlap sack. Might be good as an exfoliator, but not for running. 

• Last year they had a softer technical material, but again it had a solid screen-print on the front that was bigger than my head, which ended up making the shirt stiff and uncomfortable.

From the picture above, it looks like they’ve finally come up with a more minimal design that is striking. Have no idea about the material, but this looks like a big improvement for 2012.

Well, it is finally Country Music Marathon race week and honestly this feels much different than any other marathon race week so far. Normally I’m in the final part of my taper (bouncing off the walls) and very nervous about my strategy or an ambitious time goal. For this race the “goal” is to actually run my slowest marathon so far. As the 4-hour pacer I’m supposed to finish the race between 3:59:00 and 3:59:59. This would be my slowest finish time by 6 minutes (3:53 in my first marathon – Chicago 2009) and slower than my last marathon (3:12 – NOLA 2012) by 47 minutes.

All of this leads me to a bit of uncertainty about what Saturday will be like. Part of me thinks this will be like a long, slow, training run and that maybe I’ll be able to enjoy a marathon for a change. Another part of me wonders how well I’m going to deal with being on my feet for almost 4-hours in the aerobic heart-rate zone when I have never done a run this long before (by time). Whatever the case, it is guaranteed to be a new experience all the way around, and I’m looking forward to it.

While this week will not be a complete taper, my total mileage M-F has been slightly reduced the past two weeks. For this week I’ll actually be taking Wednesday off in addition to my normal Sunday rest day. Today’s schedule called for 4-miles easy with 4 x 100m stride outs at the end. This morning was cool and windy with temps around 40 degrees. I wish that the cooler temps would hang around for a while, but weather predictions are for temps in the 80s on Saturday (Yuck).

Since I will not be running on Wednesday, I decided to do today’s run in my Saucony Hattoris. This was a solo run through Bellevue, and I really just made up the route as I went along. I didn’t really feel comfortable during the first two miles, so my pace lagged around 8:45. At the beginning of the third mile my legs finally started to feel good and my pace dropped to just under 8:00 for the final two. I finished up with stride outs in the Bellevue Church of Christ parking lot which felt a bit strange due to the strong winds. One direction I was getting a good push and the other direction was like running with a parachute behind me.

Overall, it was a good easy-paced run that I hope will get me ready for a harder effort tomorrow.

Beast Mode…ON!

The Country Music Marathon weather forecast looks NASTY! Hoping this changes before Saturday.

You’re gonna be a great pacer man!

Thanks Brother! I’m really looking forward to it…and a bit nervous 🙂

Our group run today was a preview of the first 8.5-miles of the Country Music Marathon (CMM) course. The plan was to meet at Dan’s house and run 1.5-miles to Centennial Park where the official start line is located. My schedule called for 12 to 14 miles today, so Nathan and I met a bit early to run some easy warmup miles on Belmont before joining the group at 6:30.

Our warmup plus the 1.5-miles to Centennial Park ended up being around 4-miles at a very easy 9:00ish pace. Once we reached the park, Dan asked me if I would run with him from that point forward at his planned race pace (8:00). Most of the rest of the group wanted to run a bit easier, so I was happy to join him. The two of us along with Nathan ran the rest of the way together and averaged around 7:45 splits while we were on the CMM course.

This was a highly enjoyable run, with great conversation, in absolutely perfect weather conditions. When Nathan and I were warming up it was cool and raining pretty steady. By the time we reached the park the rain had stopped and the temps were fantastic. I wish that we could save today’s weather for next weekend. The 7:45 pace was comfortable throughout, and I was quite pleased at how good my legs felt. It was another one of those mornings where I felt like I could have run for a long time. Once we got back to Dan’s house I was right at 12.5-miles, so the three of us did a 1.5-mile cool down on Belmont before heading out to Fido for a delightful breakfast with the group.

I was glad to get one last preview of the course before leading the 4-hour pace group next week. Even though I’ve run most of the first half many times before, there is now a section on Granny White Pike that is new to me. This part is gonna be tough for those that are pushing their pace. It has 4 or 5 pretty good hills before getting back to Wedgewood and Music Row. Overall, the changes they made to the route last year have increased the difficulty of an already challenging course. I hope that I’m able to help some runners with a sub 4-hour (or 2-hour) goal to make it through these tough spots and stay on pace to the end.

Beast Mode…ON!

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Very interesting video that highlights the running of Scott Jurek and includes segments with the late Caballo Blanco (Micah True) and Christoper McDougall (Born to Run). Fascinating presentation of how his interaction with the Tarahumara changed his view of running and what it means to him. 

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