Race Preview: Columbia, SC Marathon 2012

Feb 21, 2012 by Greg Fowler

I don’t remember the exact date last year when I heard that a marathon was coming back to Columbia, but I was very excited.  The initial announcement described a point-to-point race that would cross the Lake Murray dam, head down one of my favorite scenic roads, Corley Mill Road, and eventually end up in downtown Columbia.  I liked it.

Unfortunately, the final approved official route turned out to be totally different. I’m assuming logistics and getting two different counties to cooperate proved too difficult.  The new route is a two-loop adventure around the hills of downtown Columbia.  I’m not a fan of two-loopers, but I was already mentally committed when I found out about the change.  I also wanted to support the local race.  No travel expenses is an added bonus.

The Course

My previous two marathons were away from home and did not afford me the chance to run any sections before hand.  They were also really flat – Kiawah Island and Myrtle Beach. This race, though, is just down the road and will have more hills than I care to see in one day.

The other week, my buddy Craig and I traveled to downtown Columbia, and with map in hand, set out to preview the route. We ran the loop once, and when we finished, I can’t say that I was super excited.  Don’t get me wrong, I liked the route and the scenery, but my thoughts were more like “Oh crap, this is going to hurt”.  This is one hilly loop.  And we get to do it twice!  Here’s the elevation map, courtesy of the official web site:

If you have run the Governor’s Cup half marathon in Columbia, then some sections of this race will look familiar.  In fact, the loop is very similar to the Governor’s Cub, just in reverse.  So, instead of up Blossom, you get to go down.  Instead of down Gervais St, you get to go up.

The race will start and end in the Vista area of Columbia, near the Columbia Convention Center.  We’ll travel through the University of South Carolina, Shandon and Lake Katherine areas, slog up Trenholm Rd and Gervais St, weave back through USC, do it again, and then finish up at the Convention Center.  In my opinion, there are two brutal sections of this course.  The first is a a 4 mile stretch that starts just past miles 7  & 20 where the course bottoms out at Lake Katherine.  You must then climb Trenholm Road and Gervais St. You get a brief break as Gervais nears Milwood. Then the second rough spot  it is up Gervais St. for a half mile or so starting just past Harden St. and ending with the left turn onto Pickens St.  At the point, we’ll be entering the USC campus area again, and I’m hopeful there will be a crowd pick-me-up.

Click here for the course description on the official site.

Weather A Factor?

Besides the hills, a race date of March 10th has me slightly concerned.  This has been a mild winter, and I’m a afraid Famously Hot Columbia might rear its ugly head with some heat.  My February 2011 Myrtle Beach Marathon heated up too much and caused me problems toward the end.  This race is weeks later, so we’ll see. The 7:15am start should help.  On the other hand, we’ve had snow and ice in mid March, too!

Strategy & Goal Time

As you can see from the elevation map, there is not much flat to this course.  Since the hills will kill my pace, the strategy will be to let loose on the downhills.  This has led to problems in the past, so I’ll have to be careful.   When I first thought about running a 3rd marathon, I wanted to improve upon my last marathon time of 3:47, maybe approach 3:40.  Well, after experiencing one loop of this course, I am resetting my expectations.  I will be extremely happy if I break the 4 hour mark.

Wish me luck!

POFIFOTO!

 

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Race Preview: Lexington Race Against Hunger 10K 2012

Feb 13, 2012 by Greg Fowler

I took a break from posting for various reasons.  I’ll try to do better.  On with the show…

On February 25, I’ll return to the scene of my first organized race, the Lexington Race Against Hunger.  In 2009, I entered because the timing and location were right for me.  Now, I enter because this race is one of the best races in the midlands of South Carolina.  Here’s why:

1.  Great cause.  Many, if not most, organized races benefit charities.  The beneficiaries of this event are local organizations whose missions are to feed the hungry.

2. Great Course. This is one tough 10K.  Mile 3 is especially tough with a trip up Main Street Lexington and then another tough stretch up South Church Street.   Here’s the elevation map:

  3. Great race T-shirt.  The race shirt is a quality long sleeve cotton tee. At least it has been the last 3 years.  Hope they don’t make a liar out of me and change it up this year!  I have plenty of short sleeve t-shirts but never enough long sleeve.

4.  Great pizza.  The post race food table has pizza!  It may just be local delivery, but warm pizza tastes good after a run on a cold February morning!  Also, the post race awards ceremony is indoors!  This is usually a good thing since it will be late February!

Hope to see you there. For more information, click here.

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Running in the News

Dec 1, 2011 by Greg Fowler

In case you missed them, I thought I’d share a couple of bizarre running-related stories from the past week.

Turkey Trot Gone Wrong

A couple of runners had too close of an encounter with wildlife in their Thanksgiving morning Turkey Trot:

http://www.wistv.com/story/16118890/two-runners-hit-by-deer-in-savannah-christian-churhs-5k-run

What Not to Wear

This guy caused a lock down at a San Francisco area post office due to his bizarre training gear.  If I ever go out running looking like this, I hope the neighbors do call the police (or the funny farm!).  Click this link for the full story:
http://www.mercurynews.com/bay-area-news/ci_19440928

POFIFOTO!

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Change of (Training) Plans

Nov 16, 2011 by Greg Fowler

Nick Faldo.  Ever heard of him?  Nick was one of the best, if not the best, golfers in the world in the late 80’s and early ’90s.  Before Nick was the best in the world, he was mediocre in the early ’80’s.  Oh, he was good enough to win some tournaments, but he was not satisfied with his game, so he went back to square one.  He teamed up with a little known teacher named David Leadbetter, and together they rebuilt Nick’s golf game from the ground up. Nick dominated golf for a period of years, winning 6 major tournaments.

So, what does this have to do with my running?  In my last post, I hinted at not being totally satisfied with my Governor’s Cup performance, despite setting a personal best in a half marathon. Well, next week, I was planning on starting my 16 week training schedule to get ready for the Columbia, SC Marathon in March 2012.  My plan was to follow the schedule in my Run Less Run Faster
book that I have used primarily over the last two years to guide my training.   The Run Less Run Faster system is called the 3 plus 2 program.  This training system works and has allowed me to complete a marathon and a few half marathons despite fighting foot injuries.  To briefly summarize this program, you have 3 quality runs a week (a speed work run, a tempo run, and a long slow run) combined with two cross training aerobic workouts.  Your workout intensities are based on your current 5K ability.  This system allows your body to recover between runs while maintaining aerobic fitness with the cross training.  I have a recumbent exercise  bike that I use for the majority of my cross training. Like, I said,  this program works, but to be honest, I was dreading the exercise bike again.  Even with TV in the room, 45 minutes on the bike twice a week is boring.

So, what to do?   Back to square one, like Nick Faldo.  For this training cycle, I am abandoning Run Less Run Faster and going to use a training method called heart rate monitor training.  In this training, I will abandon speed work, which gets the heart rate high, and instead run while keeping my heart rate under 140 beats per minute?  Why?  According to what I have been researching, this keeps my body in the aerobic zone, burning fat as a fuel, instead of glycogen (sugars).  Since people have much more fat stored in their bodies than glycogen, as my body learns to burn fat as its primary fuel source,  I should be able to run faster for longer.  I will work on building this aerobic base over the next three months, and then add speed work to the mix the last month before the marathon.

This training will have a couple of other benefits, too.  First, it is new to me, so I am excited about trying something different.  This will help with motivation.  Second, the slower pace of the training will be easier on my body.  I hope this helps my nagging foot problems to clear up.

There’s a bunch of science behind this training but I won’t go into it here. Instead here are the links to a few of the sites that convinced me to try this:

Natural Running Center

Freedom’s Run Training

Mark Allen Online

I’ll keep you posted on my progress.

 

 

 

 

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2011 Governor’s Cup Recap

Nov 9, 2011 by Greg Fowler

If you read my Governor’s Cup preview, you know that I would be chased by a penguin, and that my goal of breaking 1:45 was looking bleak, due to a foot injury.  Well, I’m happy to report that the penguin had a great race – he started last and managed to pass around 500 people.  I’m even happier to report that I was not one of those 500!  I managed to stay in front of the penguin by a couple of minutes, and I also managed to break my goal of 1:45 by 8 seconds, for a 1:44:52 finish.

Course & Conditions

I’ll get back to my trials in a minute, but first I’ll talk about the course and conditions. You can find my elevation map of the 2010 course in my preview post.  This years course made a slight detour in the middle due to some road construction.  One friend commented he thought the re-route was tougher.  I don’t really remember the old route well enough to say.  It did seem awfully hilly.

Weather-wise, I think the penguin ordered in the weather.  After a week of perfect weather, a cold front blew through the day before and brought much cooler temps and a lot of northerly wind – brrr!  The temperature at race time was around 40 degrees and windy and not expected to warm up too quickly.  This is a pretty shady run, once you get off Millwood Avenue around mile 2 1/2, so it was cooler than I like it. More on that later.

Unexpected Wrinkle

I felt good before the race.  The tendonitis in my right foot was on the wane, and I had managed a couple of runs during the week without problems.  As I warmed up by doing some laps around the Capitol building,  I turned on my Timex GPS watch to get it ready.  Normally, the watch takes 2-3 minutes to find a signal.  On this day, however, it never found a signal (a first).  Two key feature I use on the watch are automatics splits and overall pace, but with no GPS, this would not happen.  I would have to go back to old school, hitting the splits button myself after each mile marker and trying to keep a rough average of my pace in my head.

Race Time

At 8:00am, the starter sent us off.  The first mile is mostly downhill and I hit it on a 7:28 pace.  Too fast, but I expected that and slowed down a bit for the 2nd mile uphill climb.  I settled into a good pace.  The first 5-6 miles were uneventful as we worked our way down to Lake Katherine.  My biggest complaint about the race setup came around mile 2 1/2 where the first water station was not setup.  The coolers were there but no people or cups.  I don’t know if that was intentional this year, but this had been a water spot the last two years and I was counting on it.  This station was setup on on way back, around the mile 10 mark.  So, the first water station finally came around mile 4, I think, and I decided to take a GU gel at this point.  My strategy going in was to take a gel between miles 4 and 5 and then around mile 9. Since you need to take these with water, I figured this was the time.

Around mile 6,  I felt the first warning signs that this might be a painful last hour.  My quads starting protesting, and we had not even started the climb back!  At this point, I was under an 8:00/mile pace, but with a lot of big hill climbs to come and legs already complaining, I was a bit worried about beating my goal.  Remember the weather conditions?  I don’t like being cold, so  I opted to go with my long running pants and long sleeve tech t-shirt with a short sleeve shirt over it.  This was probably a mistake.  I was too hot, my heart rate was too high and I was sweating too much.  Not a good combo for the 2nd half of a half.

Second Half: No Pain No Gain

Most everyone comments on the brutal  Blossom Street hill finish of the Governor’s Cup.  While that may be the knock out blow, the setup punch is the Kilbourne Road hill from mile 8 to 9.  My mile split for that hill was 8:40, and I was about ready to pack it in and slow down, but I just concentrated on small quick strides and took my other GU gel.  I was just trying stay mentally focused on getting to Devine Street, where we’d get about a 2 1/2 mile flat to downhill break toward and through Five Points.  With no GPS giving me pace and my math skills getting fuzzy with the splits average due to a tiring brain, I figured to have any chance of meeting my goal, I needed to really pick up the pace at mile 11.  This is a downhill section of Devine Street, and I managed to hit 7:47 on that split.  I tried to maintain that to the bottom of the Blossom St. hill.

Finally, I reached The Hill – a little more than half mile to go. I remember looking at my watch and trying to figure out if I was on track, but the previous 1.5 mile surge had taken its toll, and I was not doing well.  I knew I was close, so I just hit the hill as hard as I could, which at this point was not punch.  Just don’t stop, I told myself.

One of the cruel twists to the Governor’s Cup, is the turn off Blossom Street on to Sumter Street.  You are thinking to yourself “I did it!” but you look up and see Sumter Street is still up hill until it crosses Greene Street!  In this spot, a spectator yelled encouragement to me. “Almost there, keep it up!” I wanted to smile and say “Thanks!” but I was just trying not to throw up.

Suck it Up!

As I approached Greene Street, the crowd was getting heavier, forming the last 1/10th mile or so chute to the finish. I was just telling myself “nice try, but you are not going to make it today” when I was finally close enough to see the official clock over the finish line.  I was still under 1:45 at 1:44:40! Twenty seconds to go!  Shocked that I still had a shot at my goal, I dug deep and found once last  kick and passed over the chip mat in 1:44:52.  Someone hung a medal around my neck and another handed me a bottle of water.  I was thinking, “Thanks, but please get out of my way! I’ve got to keep moving and try (again) not to puke!”  I managed to make it past the refreshment tent and walk up Sumter a ways to recover and not puke.  I’ll save that for a 5K (2012 goal).

As I wandered back toward the finish line, I heard the race announcer calling out the Penguin’s finish!  Wow, that is impressive – under 1:50!.  I went over and told Dean congratulations.  I doubt he remembers this.  He looked worse than I felt.

Lessons Learned

So, I accomplished my goal and set a PR in the Half Marathon. I am not 100% satisfied, though (character flaw which I’ll discuss in future posts).  I wanted to beat an 8:00/pace, too.  I did beat the 1:45, but according to Cool Running’s Pace calculator, that is 8:01/mile.  1:44:52 is an 8:00/mile pace.  Argg.  I wanted my PR pace to start with a 7, as in 7:59.  Oh, well.  I did not leave anything on the course.

So, what did I learn?  Two main things.  First, maybe I should carry one hand held water bottle to make sure I have a some water at the right times.

Second, I need to just accept being cold and not overdress.  I think the long sleeve shirt was the right move, but I should have gone with shorts, not long pants.

Thanks for reading this far.  To see the overall results, click here.

POFIFOTO!

 

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Governor’s Cup 2011 Preview: Running with a Penguin & PR Down the Drain?

Oct 30, 2011 by Greg Fowler

Next Saturday, November 5, is the Governor’s Cup Road Race Half Marathon in Columbia, SC.  The race starts at 8:00 am in front of the State House and finishes at the University of South Carolina Horse Shoe.  This will be my 3rd time running this race and is one of my favorite events.

Below you can see the elevation map from the course.  This is from my GPS watch during the 2010 race.  This 2011 race has been re-routed slightly near the middle due to a sinkhole.  You can see the course is pretty hilly.  Basically, you work your way to the bottom near the half way point and them work your way back up.  That last steep hill at the end is Blossom Street, a killer last 1/2 mile!  My favorite part starts about mile 10 at the top of Devine Street.  From there it is a  nice 2.5 mile run downhill to the area of Columbia known as 5 Points.  Gives you a nice break before that last climb up Blossom.

 

 

Running with a Penguin

My friend Dean Schuster plans to run in the 2012 Antarctica Marathon and is raising money for penguin conservation.  To help raise awareness and money, Dean is running this year’s Governor’s Cup in a full penguin suit.  Yes, I’m serious.  Please check out his site, RunningWithPenguins.com and consider making a donation.

PR Down the Drain?

Taper is another running term that means to ease off the training before a big race so your body recovers and is ready for the big day.  If you Google “Running Taper” you will find links to many sites advising on how to taper properly for a big race.  I’m not 100% sure which one is best, but I do know what is NOT best: Injuring your foot 2 weeks before a race and not being able to run for a week.  Last Sunday, I went for an easy 4 mile trail run.  I wore my Vibram Five Fingers and felt great.  Later that night, though, I started experiencing pain in the top of my foot, about where the Five Fingers strap comes across.

The pain became worse over the next day and a half, and I went to the doc to make sure I didn’t have a stress fracture.  Doc didn’t think so and went with a tendonitis diagnosis.  After almost a week of prescription anti-inflammatory pills, ice/heat, bike, and rest, I was finally able to run 6 days later – a 4 mile test.  The foot held up OK and felt decent the next day.   Will it hold up well enough for 13.1 miles to beat my 8:00/mile pace goal?  We’ll see.

POFIFOTO!

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