My Marathon Experience

After five months of training starting with snow, ice and January’s cold wind — all the way through May’s heat, wind and rain — my running experience was capped off with successful completion of the 26.2 mile course at the Rock ‘n’ Roll Marathon in San Diego.

The San Diego race was huge! Over 26,000 runners in total, including over 4,000 Team In Training participants. There were purple shirts everywhere! Spectators all along the course enthusiastically shouted “GO TEAM!” as TNT runners passed by. And since my name was affixed to my shirt (thanks Maureen!), I often heard “Way to go, Mike!” as I ran through the streets of San Diego.

It was great to run in honor of Mike Cieslak. Mike was diagnosed with Acute Lymphocytic Leukemia in 1992. He encouraged me throughout my training by frequent email messages and also by meeting him and his father at the Amherst Bike Path after Saturday training runs.

It was also inspiring to run in memory of my uncle and godfather, Frank Beaton, who died of leukemia on June 6, 1994 — 16 years to the day before my race in San Diego.

Thank you to all the generous people who donated towards my fund-raising goal! Your contributions bring help and hope to patients and families affected by all forms of blood cancers.

Team ‘n’ Training raised over $12 million for the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society at this race!

Ready for 3:30 a.m. breakfast on race morning.

Over 26,000 runners start of the race. 4,000 were part of Team 'n' Training

8 mile mark - no problems yet!

Focusing on the race

About 21 miles down, 5 to go. Trying to look strong, but who am I kidding?!

Crossing the finish line!

Showing off my hardware!

Finished!

I completed the San Diego Rock ‘n Roll Marathon this morning in 4:25:54 — I’ll provide more details when I have more energy!

In San Diego!

I traveled to San Diego with the team on Friday. Also leaving at the same time from the Buffalo Airport was another Team In Training group headed to Lake Tahoe for their 100-Mile Bike Ride.

After the long plane ride and lunch, we walked to the huge San Diego Convention Center where they held the race packet pickup and expo. It was very well-organized, considering they had unique race numbers for 30,000 individual runners!

I picked up my packet, walked around the expo, then headed back to the hotel.

After an early dinner — at least by the local time — it was off to bed for a much-needed night’s sleep!

Tomorrow is the Inspiration Dinner.

2010 Buffalo Marathon

Unlike previous years, I went to the Buffalo Marathon and didn’t leave exhausted!

I went as a spectator, not a runner.

I went as a cheerleader, not a competitor.

I went because many of my fellow Team in Training teammates chose the Buffalo Marathon as their special endurance event — I was excited to be part of the experience. I thought it would be a good way to encourage and support my teammates, as well as give me a preview of what the Rock ‘n Roll Marathon in San Diego will be like.

At 5:30 a.m., I met the team at the Embassy Suites for breakfast. We took some pictures in front of the hotel before walking a few blocks to the starting line.

The gun went off 7:00 a.m. It was great seeing the Team in Training runners go by in their purple shirts interspersed with thousands of other runners. After everyone when by, I headed to my assigned TNT cheering location.

Fellow teammates Nancy Gates, Julie Smith, Staci Shick, Ed Barauskas and I had a great spot behind HSBC Arena where we could see runners go by at the 6.5 mile mark, and then on their return trip to downtown between miles 11 and 12. They looked a lot warmer on the second pass!

Since I knew it was going to be a hot day, I decided to bring a couple of spray bottles filled with water. They turned out to be quite popular with the overheated runners! I heard comments like, “Thanks!”, “Great idea!”, “God bless you!”, “You’re the best!”, “You rock!”, “Spray me in my face!”, “I hope there’s beer in there!”

After the last runner went by our post, I headed to the finish line to see runners complete their race — including many of my TNT teammates. I was so happy to learn that Erin reached her goal of finishing the half marathon in under two hours. That, by itself, was quite a feat in the very hot conditions. It was even more impressive: I heard that she had to wait for the infamous train to go by! Good for you, Erin, for overcoming that unplanned obstacle!

It certainly was a great and memorable race!

I’ll be traveling to San Diego after a few short workouts this week. I know my experience there will be memorable as well!

Final long training run

Today was the last long run of my 18-week marathon training program. With one week to go before the race, and a couple of 3 mile runs during the past week, today’s 10 mile distance seemed routine.

I’ve been watching the weather in San Diego for the last couple of weeks. If the trend stays the same, the weather today in Buffalo was about the same as it will be for next week’s race — perhaps a few degrees warmer here.  On the Amherst Bike Path it was in the low 60s at the start and mid-70s at the end of my run. Perfect training for San Diego.

Knowing that I wasn’t running really long today, I pushed the pace a bit, averaging 8:15/mile for a total time of 1:24:34. That’s good for me!

Tomorrow I’ll be headed downtown in the morning to cheer on my Team in Training teammates who are running in the Buffalo Marathon. After watching the race start, I’ll go to the area behind HSBC Arena where I can watch runners going out just before mile 7 and just after mile 11. Go team!

Hot Today

Since I ran 12 miles on Saturday and did a 13 mile bike ride on Sunday, I decided to take Monday off.

Today’s taper run was only 3.12 miles — a 5K! But at 82 degrees, it was easily the warmest day of the year for a workout.

I started slowly and steadily increased my pace, knowing that I’d be done pretty quickly. Here are the mile times:

• Mile 1: 8:37
• Mile 2: 8:03
• Mile 3: 7:47
• Final .12 miles: 7:26 pace

My total time was 25:24 — average pace: 8:07/mile. It’s not a great 5K time, but not too bad considering that it wasn’t a race.

Only 11 days until the marathon.

Rest Day?

I know today was supposed to be a rest day, but the weather was so nice that I decided to go for a bike ride.

I returned home 13 miles later.

Tapering to 12

Today’s long run was the first one in my “taper” phase. Last week hit the maximum at 20 miles — today it dropped down to only 12. And next week? A mere ten miles!

When I tell people about tapering, they often reply “It must seem easy to run only 12 miles.” Well, 12 miles is still 12 miles. It takes plenty of effort!

The temperature was in the upper-60s and the humidity was pretty high. I was tired going out for the first half of my run. Fortunately, I started to hit my groove around the seven mile mark.

I finished under a light sprinkle of rain, which turned fairly steady right after I was under the shelter.

My time for 12.1 miles was 1:44:44 for an average pace of 8:38.

Tuesday night is our kick-off dinner at Chef’s Restaurant. That will be fun!

Same distance, different route

Once again, my workout was five miles today — pretty much the same as Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday.

Although the mileage was the identical, I decided to try a different route. I consulted one of my favorite mapping websites — Gmap Pedometer — to find a suitable five mile course. Here’s what I came up with:

My workout was going along fine until I turned left onto Millersport Highway. This busy road is crowned to allow for rain runoff. Running down the left-hand side of the road meant that my left leg was slightly lower than my right leg due to the slight sideward tilt of the road shoulder. That small difference seemed to coincide precisely with the arthritis in my right knee, creating some real discomfort! I couldn’t wait to get off Rt. 263 and back on narrower and quieter roads that were not crowned as noticeably. Fortunately, the pain slowly went away after about mile 3.5.

I learned a valuable lesson from today’s run that I’ll be sure to apply in the race: always run down the center of the San Diego roads to avoid uneven surfaces.

Beautiful Day To Run

It was warm and sunny today (finally).

I ran 5 miles in 42:13 at an average pace of 8:26.

No aches or pains.

That’s good!