Des News 10K today. I enjoy this race because it’s so competitive, and I got a full order of competition today! Definitely both the deepest and top-heavy Des News field I’ve run in. It’s sick how fast people ran today, but sick in a good way. It’s great to have a race like this right here in Utah. Too bad it’s all downhill, as no one outside the state gives the race any respect. But it’s a great race.

Anyway, Stacy, Seth, and I drove down to SLC on Friday afternoon. Went early so that we could take our new (used) Volvo to the dealer (only dealer in the state) to do some magical dealer-only work (ie - turn off the air bag light). Managed to escape only spending $110 for that and a few other things.

We then shacked up at the Skyline Inn on Foothill Dr., just a couple miles from the start line. Ordered in pizza for dinner and sat around and gorged ourselves on TV (we have not have tv reception at home since we built our deck–no big loss). Went on to sleep my worst night of sleep ever. Absolutely terrible beds there, plus the room was too warm (weak AC). Wished I was in nice, cool Cache Valley. Got probably 3 hours of sleep, but I was ready to get up at 4:30AM, simply to get our of that dang bed. To top off the terrible bed, the room had no coffee machine. Even our hotel in Provo, a stone’s throw from BYU, had a flippin’ coffee machine. Oh well. My nervous system was pretty amp’ed for this race, so I was quite wide awake and ready to go anyway. But it would have helped with “other things”.

Ate a banana and a couple mini-Cliff bars, and headed out to the course. Ran there, so it was about a 2 or 3-mile warmup. Conditions were cooler than I thought it might be, which was good, but still quite a bit warmer than what I’m used to. When I turned up Wakara, I noticed that we would have a favorable wind direction for that part of the race. Perhaps that helped make the race times so fast. I’m sure the nice temperatures helped too.

Took a potty stop, then warmed up a little more, did some strides, sat in the grass, and generally wasted time. Listened to a guy cuss up a storm because he realized he forgot his iPOD. Totally ruined his day. If you hate running that much, then don’t do it! This guy was angry beyond belief, though, probably one of the same people who threw a fit on Ragnar’s facebook page a few weeks ago.

Just before the race started, I bumped into an old teammate from Calvin College, Kris Koster. Kris was a freshman when I was senior. He went on to be a multi-All American, and ran around 30-flat on the track in the 10K, and under 14:30 in the 5K too. He has family in Utah, and was here for a funeral, and jumped in Des News at 5PM last night. Pretty cool to see him after 9 years, and it definitely made my day (and helped my race, see below).

Chatted with a few others, and weaseled my way into the start. I somehow ended up 3 rows deep, and couldn’t get any further up, being a 125-lb weakling and all. So I settled for 3 rows back, behind all the kids, including an 11-year-old whose mom personally insisted be up there.

They started the race right on time (this race is always very well-organized), and we roared out. Always a fast start, this Des News 10K. I quickly found myself in about 30th place or so. I got out from the crowd and wormed my way up, and was probably in about 20th by the turn onto Wakira. I couldn’t believe how far up the leaders were, and how far back I was from my “peer group”. I could see Jeff and Brad O. way the heck up there, and Seth Pilkington a little ahead of them. Leaders were almost out of site by a half mile. I figured that I was just having a tank of a race and going really slow. First mile split was 4:31. Okaaay. My goal pace for the first two miles for 4:35-4:38. I was not slow; everyone else was just extremely fast. Hopefully they would all pay.

I started running down the people that went out too hard. Knowing that my first mile was 4:31, I pretty much figured everyone went out too hard, and I was destined to win. Well, I didn’t really think that, but I figured a lot of guys would come back to me, including Jeff and Brad. One-by-one I picked people off the next few miles. Mile 2 was 4:37 (9:08 for 2 miles). The pace felt quite hard (never felt relaxed at any point), and the downhill was hurting my back. I actually accelerated more and gained more ground on the flatter sections and on the uphill sections.

Mile 3 was tougher than I remember, and actually had quite a bit of uphill. Where did that come from? But again, I gained the most ground on the uphill, so although painful, it was good for my race. I also noticed a guy in dark maroon coming back to me, and I immediately recognized the distinct stride with the high leg kick: Kris Koster, my old college teammate. It’s funny how you can recognize a stride after all those years. I was gaining on Kris, and he was the link between myself and the next pack ahead of him (Jeff, Brad, etc). Mile 3 was 4:50 (13:59 for 3 miles).

I was targeting 4:45 for the next couple miles, and then Mile 6 is always a death-march. Not that you can really “target” much at Des News. You more just load and go, and hope for the best. It’s not a cerebral race. I caught Kris during the 4th mile. “Pack it up” I said to him as I pulled along side him. Got a lot of warm fuzzy college memories. Calvin College XC was well-known in DIII for its pack running. It’s what gave us our strength, and how we won championships.  I ended up running with Kris the rest of the way, and we reeled in people together. Hit Mile 4 in 4:44 (18:43), so back to an ideal pace.

We made our turn onto the parade route, and of course by this point things were very uncomfortable. I really dislike any race shorter than 15K at this point of my running career. Too much pain, too much turnover, too much breathing, not enough rhythm. Kris and I continued to work together. Right around Mile 5, Kris looked up and said, “I lift my eyes up to the hills,” a reference to Psalm 121 “

¹ I lift up my eyes to the hills—
where does my help come from?

 ² My help comes from the LORD,
the Maker of heaven and earth.”

Words of encouragement to me and also a reminder to enjoy God’s creation that we were running in. Laboring but spurred on, we reeled in and passed a guy in red, and Jeff, Brad O., and Jon Kotter were coming back, and it was inevitable that we would catch them. Mile 5 was 4:45 (23:29), perfect.

I don’t remember, but I think we finally caught Jeff & company with about 1 mile left. I sat on the pack for a few moments to gather some strength (I’ve been feeling pretty gassed since Mile 2!), and then made a move on the inside before the turn onto 900 S. Passed everyone, but then I couldn’t finish deal, and we all stayed packed up. Made the turn onto 900 S, and started the uphill section to the finish. This part is always hard, and this year was no different. The work I’d done the last 3 miles to catch everyone was definitely set in, and I no pop.

Eventually Jeff, Brad, and Kotter all passed me back, and then ground me up the hill. I sat and hoped for a good kick. Ugghh. Not feeling the fire either. Wish I had done some 10K training, as I promised myself that I would, but the last month was just miles and tempos, nothing hard. Had a little gap from the pack at Mile 6, but was 5:05 (28:34), which actually is my best Des News mile 6 split, so I shouldn’t complain. Was 2 seconds beyond my peer group that I needed to beat, so still within striking range!

Unfortunately I didn’t strike, and those guys somehow put another 3 seconds or so on me in the last 0.2. I guess Brad is a sub-1:50 800m guy, so that doesn’t help (I ran 2:02, almost 10 years ago), but there’s still no reason it couldn’t have gone the other way for me. Kris had fallen back from my a little bit on 900 S (the uphill at altitude probably hurt him more, being a flatlander), so I remained ahead of him. Saw the clock for the first time right before I finished and realized that was going to kill my time goal of sub-30:00, and would be in the 29:30s. I had no idea. So that was good! Last 0.2 was 64s.

Was glad to be done, glad to hit my time goal, and glad to beat my course best by 49 seconds. Official chip time was 29:38, gun time was 29:39. I’ll go with chip time here. Starting 3 rows back did not help, although running 4:30 for the first mile (opposed to 4:20) probably did help.

That said, I was a little shocked to get my bum handed to me on a platter en-route to a 29:38. 3 years ago that time would have been good for 3rd overall and 2nd Utahn; this year it was good for 13th overall and ?? Utahn. Not top 3, that’s for sure. But it was all very exciting racing, and fun to work my way up in a good field like that, to recognize people as rivals and reel them in over the duration of a race, and to find an old teammate and work together with him (running with Kris was definitely the highlight of my day, by far).

Another positive was that we were all reeling in Teren Jameson over the last couple miles. Never came into contact with him, but I’m always glad just to have him visible. He ended up about 15 seconds ahead. He is running the TOU Half, so perhaps home-field will give me the advantage I need to finally slay the dragon? Jeff has owned me this year at the shorter distances (5K/10K). Perhaps we need to race another half marathon? TOU Half, Jeff? But I least I had to opportunity to make the pass in this race, whereas at Law Day I couldn’t even made contact! And thankfully  I don’t have to race any more 5K’s or 10K’s for a year or two or three. Maybe ever.

So in a nutshell, it was a PR effort, and a big course best. Great time and good progress compared to my 2007 time. I think I am on track for where I need to be to make a legitimate Trials shot. I get better as I go out in distance, so I don’t put too much stock in 10Ks (especially downhill ones), but I have every reason to be encouraged because I can compare to my ‘07 time. The big negative was not being able to finish out yet another race. Although I have not been falling apart at the end, my kick and my killer instinct has not been there at any race this year. I believe that more than 50% of the problem is just attitude and emotional fatigue from the race. True the lack of speedwork didn’t help, but most of it is mental. It can be improved.

After the race, I talked with Kris and a few other people for a while, then cooled down back to my hotel with Kris and Teren. Felt pretty good during the cooldown, and worked out most of my calf and quad soreness during the 4-mile run. Hopefully I’ll feel good on Monday…for the start of marathon training! Everything I’ve done so far this winter, spring, and summer, has led up to this point. Just get me to 14 weeks before the marathon, healthy and fit. And that’s where I am. The race is Nov. 6. I am healthy. I am fit. Just need the specific training, and to endure the next 3 months.

Ran the Blacksmith Fork Freedom Run today, a rare 15K race. I got up a little before 5AM, ate breakfast, and then grabbed my flats and jogged down to Carson’s house for about a 2-mile pre-warmup warmup. Then we all carpooled with Carson’s brother and sister, and one of their friends.

Got to the start line around 6:10, so plenty of time. We warmed up by running two miles up the canyon, and then back down, so 4 miles total. Perhaps it was too much pre-race running (6 miles total), but I needed the mileage more than the race.

Weather was pretty good. Nice and cool at the start line, maybe around 50 degrees. Didn’t see any wind while driving up the canyon, so I was not counting on the famous Blacksmith Fork tailwind. Oh well. Managed one good portapot stop, and then it was time for the race to start. Narnia did not exist this year. Actually, the two portapots were there, but the race portapots were not in front of them, so they were exposed for the whole world to see. The magic was gone. But I used them anyway.

They actually started on time, which was great compared to last year. They were really ready for the crowd this year. I took it out pretty hard the first mile. My top-tier goal was to run around 46:00, which would be 15:20 per 5K, and about 4:57/mile. A tough goal, but I split pretty close to that at Utah Valley!

First mile was 4:58, but I knew it wasn’t happening. Was working too hard and breathing too hard. The little tiny rollers in the canyon felt like big hills, and the downhills didn’t feel big enough. My running felt uncoordinated, like I was lumbering rather than smoothly gliding. In other words, I was feeling pretty flat. But from taking it out hard, I was by myself from the gun, and it stayed that way to the finish.

I thought perhaps it would get better, but the race rolled by pretty much the same the whole. I mean, it wasn’t terrible or anything, in fact it was pretty decent, but my last race was UVM, so I think I was expecting to feel like that again. Mile 2 was 5:04, then 5:06 for Mile 3. 5K was probably about 15:40.

Miles 4-6 were more of the same. Still on the downhill, but indeed we did not get a canyon wind today. In fact we picked up a slight headwind by the middle of the race and stayed through the end. Nothing major, but you notice it when you’re trying to race into it. 5:06, 5:02, and 5:14 for Miles 4-6. Not sure what happen on Mile 6, probably the headwind picking up. 10K split was probably about 31:40. Waayyy slower than UVM. I think I’ve decided that Provo Canyon is quite a bit faster than Blacksmith Fork, though.

The end of mile 7 is the big hill of the course. Tried to work the hill, and hit 5:19 for the split. The first bit of mile 8 is uphill too, and then it’s pretty flat. 5:22 for mile 8. By now I was out in the sun, but thankfully it stayed quite cool out, and was still great temperatures for racing. Mile 9 is downhill, with a really sweet downhill at the end of the mile as you approach downtown Hyrum. 5:09 for Mile 9. Then the last 0.3 to the finish was 1:29, as I tried to pick it up some.

My “official” finish time was 47:50. The timing mat was not turned on yet, so we used one of the race official’s watch time, which matched mine pretty well. So it’s all good. I definitely expected to run faster and to feel smoother, but I’m grateful to win the race, and to break 48-minutes, which is a nice barrier at the 15K distance (3xsub-16 5K’s in a row). So it was a course best and a 15K PR, and a win. Gotta take it! Josh Steffen was 2nd and Kevin Dickey was 3rd. Carson was 4th. Official times were kind of mixed up for the top people, so hopefully everyone kept a watch time.

After the race I cooled down another 4 miles with Carson and his brother Todd. We ran up the course, and about 12 different people told us, “Hey, you’re going the wrong way!” Each person thought they were being original. I usually told them that we had to go back because I left my windows down. The cooldown gave me 19 miles total for the day.

Stayed around for the awards and the raffle. I didn’t win anything in the raffle, but the prize for 1st overall was a very cool pottery bowl. It’s extremely huge. Not sure what I’ll do with it, but it’s unique and one of the nicer prizes I’ve won.

So it was a beautiful day and a nice day to race. Met some new people, saw a lot of bloggers (especially at Scott’s pre-race BBQ yesterday, which was a great time), and got a little sun. A successful Saturday.

There has been a rather spirited discussion on the FastRunningBlog message boards recently, debating which downhill Utah race course is faster: the new Utah Valley Marathon route, or the St George Marathon route. I am of the opinion that nothing can touch St George. Its downhill simply special, and you can flat-out roll on that course, especially the second half. I don’t think any other course will ever touch it in terms of speed. Nothing personal against Utah Valley, or any other race, but facts are facts.

Other people, of course, disagreed with me (most notably the Utah Valley race director). They argued that the Utah Valley course has a better distribution of downhill. Although the drop is not as great, there is no Vejo hill and no Dammeron Valley hill, and the downhill is more even and mellow at UVM, thus granting less quad bashing and better times. Fair enough.

Still others pointed out the higher elevation of UVM in comparison to St George. The uphills at UVM would have a larger detriment than to those at St George. Fair enough.

After the UVM race concluded (June 12, 2010), the debate really didn’t resolve. Most people conceded that UVM might be just a little slower than St George, maybe a minute or two. I still held the opinion that it was 6-8 minutes slower, which brought on sharp disagreement. As with most running-related arguments (okay, all arguments), little progress was made over time.

This was all in good fun. I actually don’t care if I’m right or wrong, but it’s fun to talk about and fun to debate. Sorry if anyone took it personally. After all, being the fastest race doesn’t imply that it’s the best. But this whole discussion gave me enough motivation to update my Utah Marathon Comparison profile. I originally made this back in fall of 2007, right before the St George race. The chart compared the elevation profiles between 3 classic Utah marathons: Top of Utah, Ogden, and St George.  I found it interesting to look at, and it has actually helped me in race preparation. Other people have told me the same. I’ve been meaning to add other races to it, especially since more and more local marathons keep popping up.

So yesterday I finally digitized the Utah Valley course, extracted elevations, and added the profile. I made sure to zoom in very tightly to make sure I got the route exact on the road and not up on a cliff or anything (an issue with canyon races). I then pulled elevations at a 0.25-mile interval, and used a 5-meter elevation model as the data source. Most states do not have 5m models available, but we are very lucky to have them here in Utah for most of the state. This is a high enough resolution to avoid most errors due to canyon walls, plus Provo Canyon is relatively wide compared to other marathon routes (ie - Top of Utah). So the elevations should be pretty good for UVM, much better than anything you’d get off of Gmap, MapMyRun, or any other USGS-based elevation web service. I also did an extraction at 0.1-mile intervals, which gives a bit higher resolution, but I ended up settling on 0.25-mile intervals in order to match the other three profiles that I made back in 2007. Using 0.25-mile instead of 0.1 would potentially “chop” some of the hills and valleys, which actually leads to a more conservative, smoothed-out profile. But when comparing uphills between these races, perhaps conservative is good.

I also need to mention that digital elevation models are generally bare earth, meaning that things like highway overpasses do not show up in the model. After all, there is ground under the overpass, and that is what is included in the model. Road cuts, however, do show up in the model, and the road cut is obvious in Provo Canyon. Long story short, the infamous “overpass hill” during the last mile of UVM does not show up in the profile, which eliminates an entire hill. I could have fudged it in, but I left it out in order to pad UVM’s numbers against St George a little bit, and also to send a hint to get rid of that hill in real life.

Okay, enough technical gibber-jabber. The result is shown below. Click on the image for a higher-res PDF file. It’s easy to see that Utah Valley is indeed the highest elevation of all the marathons. It also has the most cumulative uphill (slightly more than St G). Again, these are conservative numbers. It has the second-highest total downhill and net downhill out of all the marathons. There are no hills as big as Vejo or as long as Dammeron at UVM, but its hills are still substantial in a few spots. Interestingly, if you compare the average finish times between all of the races on MarathonGuide.com, Utah Valley comes out as second fastest, behind St George.

The Utah Valley event is a great race, and there’s no doubt it’s a fast course. But how fast is hard to determine, and no amount of “stats” or elevation comparisons,  or time cross-references, or anecdotes can really quantify it. There are a lot of variables that go into course speed, and on top of that, every individual runner is different, and will respond differently to each course. My strength may be someone else’s weakness, and vice versa. So again, this is all in good fun.

Anyway, enjoy the new profile chart. They are fun to make, and I certainly find them useful. At some point I’ll add the Salt Lake City Marathon and Des News as well, but I think I’ve got the four biggest marathons on there for now.

Stacy, Seth, and I drove down to Provo on Friday afternoon for the Utah Valley Half Marathon. Outlook for race-day looked grim: rain, more rain, and then some rain. Oh well, that’s the story of the year so far. We found our way to the expo, then checked into our motel on the northwest side of BYU campus, and then met the StG crew for dinner. I love the social aspect of racing, and it was nice to catch up with people at dinner, and also at the finish line after the races.

Went to bed around 8:45PM, and Seth wound down relatively quickly and allowed us to get to sleep by 9:30PM or so. He didn’t wake up during the night either. Wish I could say the same for myself. When I am in “race mode”, I never need an alarm clock because my body keeps waking itself up. I never get nervous, but my body certainly anticipates a race. I was waking up about every half hour during the night, anticipating it being time to get up. Finally, I did get up at 3:14AM, so I indeed did not need the alarm, which was set for 3:15AM.

I brewed a pot of coffee, and ate a banana and the random sports bars that was with the goodie bag (think it was Snickers Marathon bar, or something). I had another banana later before I got on the bus. Drank 2 cups of coffee, which was very good quality for a motel.

Caught the StG-mobile (Tahoe) and hitched ride to the busing at 3:45AM. Hyrum had asked me to take the VIP bus and talk to the other runners on the bus, which I agreed to do since he was nice enough to comp my entry. That bus did not leave until 4:30, so I did my warmup from the mall, and jogged about two miles. Our bus left at 4:30AM, and there was only about 10 people on it. It was kind of nice actually, and I chatted with Lindsey D., MaryAnn S., and some of the other runners, and generally relaxed. Halfway up we found at that one man was supposed to be on the marathon bus. So when we got to the start line, I jumped out and grabbed a volunteer, who offered to drive the man to the start. But MaryAnn was also able to flag down a marathon bus, so the guy ended up getting on that instead.

Long story short, at this point there was not a ton of time to the start. But that is exactly why I did my warmup early. I dedicated my remaining time to standing in line for the portapot, which was quite a substantial line by now. The race could certainly improve on its portapots and staging area. But it’s all good. Only a one-star race, but it was high-quality and I was all set afterward.

I did some strides at the start line, and was feeling good. My training had been good the last month, and I fully expected to go well under 1:07, and probably under 1:06 too (despite Sasha’s predictions). I figured that if I could run 1:06:42 at the TOU Half last year, while being out of shape (running less than 60 mpw), then I should certainly be able to challenge 1:06:00 after some 90 mile weeks, even if the course is a little slower. I had expected Jeff and Hayden as my top competition before the race, but was surprised to learn at dinner the night before that Seth Pilkington was running too. At the time, I figured that eliminated me from contention, but as I mulled it over later that evening and on raceday morning, I figured I had to at least put myself out there and race him. I’ve attempted the same with Teren Jameson in past races, and although I never came out on top, I at least would surprise myself a little and have fun with the challenge. Plus, who knows what kind of shape Seth was in? If he was out of shape, or doing the race as a tempo run, or in a poor mindset, they I would have a legit chance.

Weather conditions ended up being quite excellent despite my concerns during the week. The rain had temporarily let up, and temps were in the low 50s, maybe upper 40s, which is perfect. In the rare times I could sense a wind, it was usually in a favorable direction (tailwind). So as long as the rain held off, it would be about perfect, other than perhaps an occasional slippery spot in the road. But I figured that Ryan Hall broke the American record in similar conditions, so perhaps a little rain wouldn’t hurt either. It ended up just sprinkling occasionally for the first few miles, then steady rain for the middle miles, and then dry for the last few miles. Other than getting soggy, and some chaffing, I don’t think the rain hurt me much, and was actually quite nice at times.

The race started about 15 minutes late. I wasn’t surprised, since I figured that sync’ing the marathon start and the half marathon start would be kind of difficult. So 15 minutes isn’t too bad, plus it allowed the sky to lighten up a little bit. It was sprinkling here and there, but the air felt good.

It was finally time to start, and they counted down from 10, and then fired the gun. I wanted to get out quick, and apparently so did everyone else. We had a pack of 5 for the first two miles (me, Jeff, Aaron Metler from St George, Seth Pilkington, and some other guy I didn’t know who turned out to be Brad Osguthorpe). The first mile was mostly downhill with one little uphill (I think). We hit it in 4:55, which felt brilliant. Ted was there reading us splits, which was nice, and he continued to do so until Mile 8 or 9. I knew from previous workouts that 4:55 feels pretty good on a downhill, and I intended to sustain this pace in through canyon at least.

The second mile had a substantial hill that showed up in the elevation profile, so I was expecting it. We covered it in 5:16. Still feeling good, and ready to start ripping on the downhill, now that the main uphill was behind me. After two miles, Aaron decided the pace was a bit much, and he packed off, leaving us with a remaining pack of four runners. (Aaron went on to finish in 1:07:36, which is a massive PR for him, great race).

And rip the downhill we did. Mile 3 was 4:41, and felt like walking. I commented that it was either short, or we’re really moving. In looking at the race afterward, it turned out to be the latter. Followed it up with a 4:50 for Mile 4. Just haulin’. Great downhill stretch.

By now I was in a major groove, a sweet rhythm. In my races this year, none of them catered to my main strength, which is hitting a pace and sticking it with a good rhythm. Yes, I am a rhythm runner, not a strength runner, not a surging runner. Indy was just too windy to find that groove until it was too late, and Law Day was too hilly and too twisty to find that special cadence. But so far UVM was perfect, and I found myself stuck in effortless 4:5x miles. It was a great groove.

For the first few miles, our pack dynamic involved Seth and Brad doing most of the leading, and Jeff and I on the trail legs. There was no wind to speak of, so drafting was not a factor, but I was happy to tuck in and try to hit decent tangents. The shoulder of the road had these annoying rumble-strips, and I was a little concerned about all the concrete, but mostly I just focused on keeping the pace and feeling smooth.

Mile 5 was 4:58. Right around here, Jeff started dropping back a little bit. I encouraged him to close the gap, but he continued to drop off, so I set my attention solely on Brad and Seth. They both looked really strong, and neither was breathing hard. But then again, neither was I.

Mile 6 was 4:56, and our cumulative time was 29:39. Probably about 30:40 for 10K or so, which is cool (my track PR is 30:45, and my downhill PR is 30:27 from Des News). With just three of us in the pack, I was putting myself out front a little more, and not just tucking in. Wind conditions were still good, although we’d hit a small headwinds once in a while.

Mile 7 was 4:53. My legs and lungs were still feeling absolutely brilliant. I held off the urge to make some sort of move; it was way to early, and I made a pact with myself not to do anything until after Mile 10. Plus, Brad and Seth were still looking effortless. Somewhere in here we left the canyon and got into the valley, but still on a nice downhill. I was starting to seriously believe that I would not only break 1:06, but would also break 1:05 (a secret pre-race goal of mine).

Alas, that was the final sub-5 mile we ran. Mile 8 was 5:00. Mile 9 degraded to 5:04, although I still felt very good. Somewhere in here Brad suddenly dropped off. It surprised me a little because he looked so good, but with four miles to go it was a two-man race between myself and Seth Pilkington.

After Brad dropped, the pace actually slowed quite a bit. I think the reason was three-fold. 1) the downhill was flattening out; 2) legs had some fatigue from the downhill pounding; 3) I think both Seth and I relaxed a little once it came down to just two people, plus I knew we had sub-1:07 and then time bonus in the bag. The last few miles almost felt like a waiting game, just getting ourselves in striking range of the finish.

Mile 10 was 5:11, the slowest split of the day. I started feeling a little frisky and antsy, and threw a couple test surges to try to push the pace a little. Seth responded to each one with little apparent difficulty, and after that I was content to sit and wait for the race to play itself out. In retrospect, I wish I had surged a little harder and longer, and made a better attempt to win the race right here. But that’s how it went down. Mile 11 ended up at 5:04, so a little bit faster to reward my efforts.

Mile 12 was 5:10. It felt like I should still be sub-5 pace, as my lungs were still feeling easy, but my legs were getting heavier, and the turnover and spunk didn’t seem to be there (for some reason, hmmm).

After we hit the 12 mile mark, Seth finally played his card, he gained about a second of separation on me before the overpass hill with 0.75 miles left. I ground up the hill, and managed to keep the gap from growing too much, and then worked the downhill as well as I could. But the gap widened, and I could tell that Seth had me beat, both physically and mentally. At this point I was looking mostly forward to finishing the race, and keeping it close and respectable (not a good mindset, by the way). We made the turn into the mall, and I knew we were almost there. He was still pushing hard, and I was still chasing, but not closing at all. He probably had 3 or 4 seconds on me. Saw the 13 mile marker, and the split was 5:07, which was good given the overpass hill.

Only 0.1 mile to go, but then the unexpected happened. There are two turns in the whole race course. The first was into the mall at mile 12.5, and the last was into the finish, at mile 13.0. This last turn was not marked (that I could see anyway), and there was not a soul present to inform us of it. Seth ran on by the turn. I paused as I started to go by, and realized that it looked suspiciously like what should be a final turn. How else would we finish? But there was nobody there…a bit confusing. Confusing enough to make me hesitate long enough to see someone sprinting toward me waving his arms and yelling. I literally stopped and yelled, “is this the turn??”. “YES!” was the response. Seth was still on his current (wrong) path, but in yelling distance. I yelled at him once, with no response, and then again, louder (I am not much of a yeller, especially after 13.0 miles at 5:00/mile pace. This time he heard me, and I waved him back to the correct course. He came back, and waved him in, past me, and then we both ran into the finish line for the last 0.1 miles. Seth officially was 1:06:05.0, and I was officially 1:06:05.9, but it reality he had 3 or 4 seconds on me.

So that’s what happened. The whole sequence of events took just a few seconds, so it was a lot of split decisions. But if I could do it again, I’d do it the same way. As far as why I’d give up an easy win like that is simple: it would not have been a real win. True, I would have come in 1st place, but I would not have won. I love competition, and I love winning. I love them both too much to win in such a fashion. The plain truth is that Seth had me broken and defeated, and he deserved to win the race. It would not have been right for me to be standing on the podium in front of him. It is not acceptable for a race this large or of this caliber not to have the course marked and not to have a volunteer out there, so I don’t view it as “tactical error” either. My only wish was that I could have run faster and competed better, but Seth was the better runner this day. Furthermore, Christ, who I claim as my Lord, said “In everything, do to others what you would want them to do to you.” (Matt 7:12), and also “If anyone desires to be first, he shall be last of all and servant of all.” (Matt 9:35). In other words, to put the needs of others above my own, and to be a good neighbor, and to serve others. I feel that if I had gone on to “win”, I would have actually “lost”, and it would have certainly been a hollow victory. I did not want an asterisk by my placing, nor did I want to describe my race as “First place, but…”. So for all of those reasons, it was a pretty easy decision. I had a fairly similar situation with Logan Fielding at the TOU Half in 2007, and I wished it could have gone down differently (Logan took a wrong turn, and I went on to “win” the race).

So yeah, official time was 1:06:05, but my last 0.1 was 53s. Usually I cover the last 0.1 in about 30s (or under), so I imagine we both would have been around 1:05:40 if not for the mishap. But I’ll just have to break 1:06:00 at the TOU Half later this summer. I think UVM and TOU Half are pretty similar in speed. UVM might be slightly faster, but it’s hard to say.

I’m thrilled about this race. I knew that I could run in the 1:06:00 range, but it’s always exciting to go out and execute. And it’s simply an awesome feeling to run that fast for that long, and to match strides with people that I really respect and view as my superiors. I don’t know what kind of shape Seth is in, but I have never come close to running his times, so it was great to compete against him to the end, and have a shot at winning. I don’t know Brad at all, but apparently he had run 29:3x at Des News, so I was happy to beat him. And after the pounding Jeff has given me at our last couple head-to-head races, it felt good to beat him too. Any given race, you just don’t know the outcome until you run it. And Jeff and I really could probably switch off every race. This race just happened to be my turn.

After the race, I chit-chatted with folk for a little while (again, nice to see people out there and catch up). Then I cooled down by running back to our motel, about 4 miles. I didn’t realize how shot my legs were until I did my cooldown. Ouch! Hamstrings were especially shot.

Next race is the Blacksmith Fork Freedom Run 15K on July 3. It’s a fun local race, and I look forward to seeing how fast I can run 15K. I’m definitely looking at trying to go sub-46:00, given that it’s a net downhill. And then I will do the Des News 10K in July 24. Huge 10K, with huge competition. Goal of sub-29:30. And I actually plan to do a 6-week 10K training cycle, to see what kind of shape I can get into, and to break up my training before I go into the final 12-week stretch of marathon-specific training. I just hope that I can continue to find time and desire to train hard. This is difficult at times for me. But races like UVM help me get pumped and keep the fire burning, at least for another few weeks.

I ran the Law Day 5K in Salt Lake City this morning. Chad invited me onto his team, and we decided to make a family day out of it, with brunch and the Salt Lake City Zoo afterward. We got up at 4:45AM, ate breakfast, and scooped Seth out of bed and straight into the car seat, still in his PJ’s (hoping he would fall back asleep…he didn’t).

Got to the U of U campus at 7AM, parked, found Chad, got my number, and then warmed up. Ran about a mile with Chad, and then I met up with Sasha and Jeff, and we ran the whole course. I’m glad we did the whole course, because there are lots of little turns, curbs, bumps, and other nuances. I would describe the route as “goofy but fun”. The first mile is mostly uphill, and then the last two miles are mostly flat or downhill. And lots of turns, did I mention that? But the course was well-marked, and I never had any issues during the race.

This is a team competition between law firms, and Chad had assembled a group of ringers to beat the beat the other law office’s group of ringers. It was myself, Jeff McClellan, Josh Stephan, Emily Bates, and Lindsey Dunkley on our team, going against Teren Jameson, Nate Hornok, Albert Wint, Sue Nielson, and Devra Veirkant on the other team (forgive my spelling on all names, or if I missed anyone). We all matched up pretty well, so it would be a toss-up. The winner is based on cumulative time of all 5 team members. Last year’s competition was decided by only a few seconds. Obviously, I was most worried about Teren, but was also concerned about Nate Hornok, as he is quite fast at the 5km distance. On my team, I expected to get stiff competition from Jeff.

I finished the warmup, and was surprised to see how many other runners were there. Several hundred, a good turnout. Found an empty bathroom inside, and finished up that whole business. Did a few strides, and they were ready to start the race. (after a lot of talking).

They started the race with a gavel, and Teren immediately tore off at a mad pace on the initial downhill part. Jeff was hot on his heels. I didn’t go out with them…because I couldn’t. It was pretty much beyond my full sprint. There was some other guy ahead of me as well, but I passed him after about a quarter mile. The race turned left, and started going uphill. I just tried to keep them both in reach.

We wound around campus. All of the turns made it fun, but I had no idea how fast we were going. Seemed too fast though. I managed to make up some ground on Jeff and Teren and got within a second or so of them, but then they extended their lead on a short downhill section. Then we had a fairly long, straight uphill around the one-mile mark (which I missed), and I closed a little bit on them again. At 2km the course turns right and starts going downhill. Teren and Jeff extended their lead again on the downhill and started to gap me pretty good. I was running about as fast as I could, but it wasn’t fast enough. Kind of the story of the race. And I’m not sure why I was running the uphills better than the downhills.

And that’s pretty much how the rest of the race went. Teren and Jeff were running up front, and I was chasing, chasing. Lots of twists and turns, lots of downhill, but also some flat stretches and uphill segments. It was kind of a whirlwind. I felt pretty good, never felt like I was tanking or losing my form, but I just couldn’t catch them. I never really gave up the idea that I could close the gap, until about 1km left, and by then the lead had gotten pretty big. I finished the race strong, and came in about 20 seconds behind Teren and Jeff. It was actually a pretty good race to watch. Jeff was obviously running with some fire and enthusiasm to try to take down Teren (when you’re at the top, you’re a marked man). Jeff even made a move and passed him during the last mile, and I thought he might get it. But Teren was able to finish off the race, and ended up a couple seconds ahead of Jeff. But it was a gutsy and strong performance on Jeff’s part. Good race by Teren too. The guy definitely knows how to race, and when to turn it on.

Jeff and Teren finished a few seconds under 15:00, and I came in at 15:16. Turns out that Nate Hornok was hot my heels, as he finished in 15:20 or so. I think he was probably closing a bit on me, and just ran out of road. Speaking of running out of road, due to these fast times, we all suspected that the course was a bit short. The route is usually certified, but part of the route is in a construction zone this year, so they had to throw something together, and when that happens it’s usually not accurate. But better short than long, in my book. Less running.

It was a beautiful morning to run. Perfect weather with clear skies and no wind. I enjoyed this race and felt pretty good. Results are still being sorted out due to a timing issue, but it looks like we won the team competition. The top 2 runners on each team pretty much canceled each other out, but we gained a lot with our first woman finisher, Lindsey. Good race also by Josh, who I think beat Albert for the 3rd male slot.

Oh, and splits? I have none. Both miles and kilometers marked, but they were the tiniest little signs ever. Humorous, actually. I like racing splitless, so I’m good with it. But each marker was a little 4″x4″ card on stick. The only one I caught was 2km, and I was at 6:25-ish.

Enjoyed brunch and the zoo after the race.

Warning: long, boring race report. Read at your own discretion. I had free time to burn on the airplane, so got a little bit too wordy.

I arrived in Indianapolis on Thursday evening. Stayed with my sister and her family, and got to hang out with my niece and nephew, which was nice. On Friday, my parents came over, and my dad and I went to the expo and checked into my hotel room. Then we went out to eat at TGI Fridays, and I ate way too much. After dinner, I went back to the hotel room by myself and just hung out. My assigned roommate was a fellow named Scott Schmick. Turns out that he was a former DIII runner as well, a UW LaCrosse alum. He now goes to MSU for grad school. We shot the breeze for a few hours, until it was time for bed. Seemed like a good guy, fun to talk to, and we had similar PR’s and goals for this race and for the marathon as well. Plus it’s always fun to play the name game with other former DIII runners.

Saturday morning I got up at 5:30AM, in preparation for the 7:30AM start. I usually like about 2 hours to eat, digest, and fully wake up before a race. Ate a banana, an apple, and a Lara Bar, and brewed some coffee. At 6:40AM, I headed down to the street and jogged over to the NCAA Headquarters, which served as the elite staging area. We got the comfort of an indoor facility, plus nice bathrooms and a gear drop. I warmed up with Scott and his teammates from Lansing, about 2 miles. Felt pretty sharp.

And the weather…gotta mention that, as it would be a big factor. Temperature was in the upper 40s. Perfect. Skies were overcast. Perfect. No rain or threat of rain. Perfect. Wind was 20 mph out of the west, with 30 mph gusts (based on tv reports). Imperfect. Hey, I guess you can’t get perfect conditions all of the time (or even most of the time), can you? To have a great race, several things need to happen:

• Great training
• Great health
• Great competition
• Great course
• Great temperature
• No wind
• Little or no precipitation
• Race-day magic

If these factors do not all align, you can still have a very good race, but not that perfect race (we only get a few of those over a lifetime).

Out of these factors, I had decent training (but not great). My health was good, finally. Competition would be there. The course is magnificent. Temps were perfect. Precip was perfect. Wind was very bad. Race day magic yet to be determined. Fortunately, it is a loop course, so I would not have to face a direct headwind for more than half the race (less than that actually). The wind was coming out of the west, and the race primarily goes west to start (headwind), then north a little bit to the track (crosswind), then a loop on the speedway (all directions), and then the route comes back east the last 4 miles to finish (tailwind). If I had a pick a wind direction, I’d much rather start with a headwind, and then finish with a tailwind, than the other way around. At least I would have the wind at my back at the point of the race where I’m the most tired and broken, and could face the wind while fresh. So I was hopeful to still have a very good race.

Anyway, that’s my tangent on race factors and on wind. About 15 minutes before the race start, I headed down to the start line, did few strides, and then waited for the race to begin. 35,000  people run this event, but you can’t see beyond the first few rows behind me, so I just accepted that fact on faith.

They started the wheelers, and then the runners’ start was 5 minutes later. I lined up on the inside curve, knowing the race started by curving left. All the Kenyans (about 8 total) lined up on the right. Sure enough, when the gun went off, I found myself running next to my roommate Scott, sharing the lead. That was fun, for about 30 seconds. Then I started feeling the wind, right in my face. I was quite happy when the pack of Kenyans finally merged over, and I quickly tucked in.

My strategy was this: since it was windy, I anticipated the race would be slow and tactical. I would simply tuck in behind the pack, let everyone else do the work on the first half of the race, and then I would take off and blitz the field the final 5 miles, for the easy win. It sounded good in my head.

The first mile went exactly to plan – 5:16 for the split. Very slow, very good. The wind would tire these Kenyans down soon enough. Then the plan went awry! The pack of Kenyans ran a 4:50 straight into the wind. I did a 5:04, and felt like I was standing still. And that was it, race over as far as Top 10. The pack was just gone. Gone. It was quite a site, and a quite a humbling feeling to get dropped so hard by “real runners”. It’s the difference between real elites and whatever the heck I am. My hotel roommate Scott and another American runner were working together a few seconds behind the lead pack, but they were fast getting dropped too. I was a 5 seconds behind those two, and gapping with every stride. There was no one behind me. And I ran most of the rest of the race like that, until around Mile 9. No man’s land, not a good place to be on a windy day. But I would try to make the best of it.

The rest of this race report should be less detailed, as there is much less to say. Basically it became a battle of me vs. the wind, and just trying to get to the tailwind section of the course in one piece.

Mile 3 was 5:23. This was a bit discouraging, although frankly I was surprised that it was even this fast. 16:18 for 5K. I knew that the route would turn north soon, and I would get a cross-wind rather than a head-wind, so this thought kept me going. Sure enough, we turned north at about 3.5 miles, and the cross-wind felt beautiful. The hard gusts still knocked me back at times, but it was still much better. 5:13 for the Mile 4 split.

The course turned west again, and virtually all of Mile 5 was straight into the wind. Hit 5:27 for this mile, my slowest split of the race. 26:24 for 5 miles. The encouragement I felt at Mile 4 quickly turned into discouragement. I came into this race thinking I could break 1:07, but would I even break 1:10?

But despite the hardships and discouragements, I actually didn’t feel too bad. Frankly, I’ve been beaten up by the wind far worse in previous races (Great Salt Lake Half in 2007 and Striders Half in 2009 were far worse). And holding sub-5:30 didn’t seem too bad given the conditions. Again, I’ve done far worse in the past. I’ve found that virtually any runner can “fake it” in pristine conditions, but hard conditions (wind, rain, hills, etc) always reveal gaps in fitness and weaknesses. So that fact that I felt strong after 5 miles of dealing with the wind probably meant that my training had some substance. I suppose our hard winter and equally hard spring helped condition me to run in adverse conditions, moreso than others years. Typically I wilt in bad conditions, as I am more of a rhythm runner than a strength runner.

The route turned north on Mile 6, and even had a short east section with tailwind. Very short, but it hinted at what was to come. 5:10 for the Mile 6 split. Then 32:43 for 10K. I was getting sick of this yo-yo pacing, and it was hard to gauge what kind of time I was headed for. I was still assuming here that I wouldn’t break 1:10. Still nobody near me, either ahead or behind. I just kept trying to push. Calves and hamstrings were getting tight, but that is normal, and I still felt decent.

I entered the Speedway at the end of Mile 6, and began the 2.5 mile loop on the race track. This portion of the race was tedious last year, but I liked it better this year simply because going in a loop made the wind vary, which was interesting. Mile 7 was primarily going north, and then west on the first curve. 5:23 for the split, not great. Mile 8 was mostly going south on the backstretch, so a crosswind, somewhat better. 5:20 for Mile 8.

At point I’m still thinking sub-1:10 is a stretch, but I also knew the best part of the race was coming (the part with the tailwind). Much of Mile 9 I had tailwind, around the second curve, and then out of the speedway. As I left the track, I could feel a couple runners coming up behind me. Both good and bad; it’s not good to get passed, but perhaps I would have people to run with and push me to the finish.

Hit Mile 9 in a 5:10. Let the yo-yo pace continue. The two guys behind me caught me, and one guy passed me. I pushed to stay with him, and ran behind him for about half a mile. The other guy never passed me, but he was still there. Hit 15K in 49:03. Mile 10 was a 5:05. That’s more like it! 52:34 for 10 miles (5:15/mile pace). I now realized that I would certainly break 1:09, and might beat last year’s time. Having a new goal gave me a lot of encouragement. My hamstrings and calves were yelling at me, but the tailwind helped a lot and my legs still had a little pop in them. Perhaps if I could keep running sub-5:10, I could salvage a somewhat respectable time.

The guy who passed me eventually dropped me, but I was still holding off the second runner. Still running east with the tailwind. Mile 11 was 4:58. Dang. Made me feel better about getting dropped, as the other guy must have been under 4:55. I know realized that I had a slim chance of breaking my PR of 1:08:12. I almost couldn’t believe it, with how up and down the race had gone so far. I kept pushing hard, trying to run more 5-minute miles…

And succeeded mostly. The route turned south-southwest, and I had a favorable cross-wind, other than some random gusts. Hit Mile 12 in 5:03. Kept pushing. The runner ahead of me was still pulling away (dang, he’s moving!), but the runner behind me was still…behind me. The route turned east again and the last 1.1 was with the tailwind. Tried to put the hammer down. A PR seemed very possible, perhaps even sub-1:08, if I could finish with a 4:5x mile?

Mile 13 split was 5:01, and then I took it on in. 27 seconds for the last 0.1. Finish time was officially 1:08:05, good for 12th place overall and a 7-second PR. I had no idea of my placing the whole race, other than knowing that I was well out of the Top 10. I ended up 62 seconds out of 10th, and the money. (10th place was actually my hotel roommate Scott, 50 second PR for him). So I placed similar to last year, but unlike last year, I wasn’t really close to the Top 10. The competition was very good this year, with higher-caliber Kenyans than last year, and good local runners too. I think last year was actually an outlier, with slower times than usual, and this year was more normal.

If you had told me a week before the race that I would fail to break 1:08, I would have been really disappointed, and probably threatened to quit running. I was that sure of my fitness. But under the circumstances, I have to take what I can get, and I’m pleased to come out with a PR, after running that many miles over 5:20 during the race. I was pleased to be able to push through, not give up, recover from getting slapped in the face with wind, and still have enough spunk and pop to be able to take advantage of the tailwind at the end and finish strong. I think other years (including last year), I would have been broken, and just limped in. So the race was a success in all those regards.

My one regret was not being able to pack it up with a group. I wish I could have run with the two runners ahead of me (although I would have had to push hard early on to keep up). Or I wish I had gone out slower and packed it up with the runners behind me. Being able to trade miles while going into the wind would have been invaluable, and would have conserved more energy for the second half of the race.

At the same time, I’m forced to acknowledge that I’m not “there” yet. Even if I spot myself a full minute for the wind (which I think would be liberal), I still need much improvement before I’m a quality-enough runner to hit that sub-2:19 mark. Am I in sub-2:22 shape? Probably. But sub-2:22 is a long ways from sub-2:19. I really wanted to see 1:06:xx at that finish line to give me the confidence that 2:19 is possible. I do still think it’s possible, but I need to improve. I need to get faster, to get stronger, and to get even better at running in adverse conditions (may have to deal with bad conditions during a marathon, after all). The wind today definitely hurt, but it was not a killer to those who were truly fit, judging by the finish times. A truly fit runner will just plow through the wind, heat, rain, hills, or whatever else the day throws at them. A less fit runner will feel adverse conditions much more.

Looking forward, I’ll take a week of rest, and then get back to it. Will probably go back to the bread-and-butter of long tempos, while trying to increase my mileage up to 90mpw. We’ll see where that gets me for Utah Valley Half, my next key race. The downhill will aid times at UVM, but my goal there is more oriented toward competition rather than time. But I need to be fit enough to compete with ferocity.

Results are HERE.

Recently I had the pleasure of creating the event maps for the Cellcom Green Bay Marathon. This event, held in mid-May, consists of a marathon, half marathon, “mini” marathon (2.62 miles), and a marathon relay. The course is flat and fast, and good prize money brings in good competition year after year. Another distinctive about the race is that it starts and ends at Lambeau Field, and being a rabid Packer fan, I think that’s about the coolest race venue ever.

For this event, I created separate maps for the marathon, half marathon, and “mini” marathon, and also an “event-wide” map that shows all of the routes on one page. I included the marathon relay on the marathon map.  One of the challenges of mapping an urban marathon is getting the street annotation to be complete, and look good at the same time. For this task, I used the Maplex labeling engine, an ArcGIS extension. Maplex worked wonderfully for my first pass on the street labels, and although I still had to do my fair share of manual labeling and tweaking, Maplex definitely helped create a higher-quality product.

I’d love to run this race one of these years. If I can’t get a Trials Qualifier time at Chicago this fall, I’ll likely take another stab in Green Bay next May. Based on the elevation profile, the course should be a flier.

Went to Utah State for the Mark Faldmo track meet. I had signed up for the 5000m as an open runner. This was my first track race in 9 years, so I was a little nervous. Fortunately, it’s a pretty low-key invite.Got there early in case the meet was running fast, and indeed it was ahead by about 30 minutes. I warmed up for 2 miles, used the potty, etc etc. The 200m finished, but then it took a while to get the women’s 5000m going, and then finally it was our turn.

There were only 7 runners that ran the race, but one of them was Brian McKenna, Utah State’s top runner. He’s the WAC xc champ, and made nationals this fall. He recently ran 14:30 for 5K on the track, so definitely my superior at this distance. Fortunate for me, he’d already run the 1500m, so was not fresh. Unfortunately to me, I suck at the 5000m, and was at the end of an 80 mile week.

Chatted with Brian before the race, and we agreed to trade some laps and try to run 72s/lap. I was actually a bit dubious of my ability to do this, with lack of speed work, plus an intense sun with temps in the low 70s, and a decent wind going into the backstretch. Conditions were less than ideal for a distance race. But I figured my options were to run with McKenna, or run by myself, so I chose the former. I tried to alleviate the heat some by dunking my head in the steeple pit right before the race. Felt great at the time, but I was bone dry by the 3rd lap.

Gun went off and about 4 of us packed up quick for the first 200m, but then I managed to get around everyone and tuck in behind McKenna. First lap was a 74-75 or so, which was too slow, plus it felt awful. McKenna and I cleared out the pack on the 2nd lap, and were through the 800m in about 2:25, so about a 70s split. Quite a bit faster, but it actually felt good.

After 800m, I took the pacing duties for the next two laps, and we hit 4:50 at the mile. Pace was feeling hard, but sustainable for the time being. Brian took the lead back (and I was grateful to tuck back in and let him take the wind), and we hit a couple more 72-73’s for the next two laps.

At just less than halfway through, I started feeling…less than good, and McKenna dropped me pretty quick. He kept running 72-73s laps, and I dropped back to 75s/lap. I went through 3200m in 9:46, so 4:56 for the 2nd mile. This drop in speed is the 5K equivalent to a death rattle.

McKenna was soon on the verge of being long gone, and I was fast wilting from the heat and from fatigue. Man, it was hot! My left calf, which had been giving me trouble for the last 10 days, decided that 2 miles was enough, and started misbehaving with 4 laps to go. It hurt, but not too bad, and I was able to deal with it. So it goes.

Lap 9 was a 76, and then a 77. Things were going downhill, but at least I was close enough to sense the finish and find some hope in that. McKenna now was approaching a 100m lead on me, and no one was close to me from behind. I was about to lap a couple runners, though. I didn’t grab splits for the last two laps, but they were about the same as the previous two, in the 76s range. I just gritted to the finish the best I could. 15:27 was the finish time (McKenna was 15:05), which means my last mile was something like a 5:05. I was never great at finishing track 5K’s.

So it wasn’t an amazing race or anything, but I came out of it fairly satisfied with both the time and the effort. It was good for me to try to run with a national-caliber collegiate runner, and the heat, wind, and elevation certainly tinkered with my time some. I would have liked to have been in the low 15’s, but I have to take what I can get on the given day. It was a little discouraging to run slower than my solo First Dam Run effort last November, but I know I’m actually way ahead of where I was then. I still think that sub-1:07 is still worth going after in Indianapolis, and hopefully the next several weeks of training, plus sea level, plus better conditions, plus a little more moxie will allow me to click off 5:05/mile for 13.1 miles. We’ll see.

Went to the Logan Zoo with Stacy and Seth afterward, and then I grabbed 5 more miles when we got home to finish out my week. The calf hurt, but was runnable.

The next two weeks of training are big for me. I plan on two 85 mile weeks, with two good workouts each week. I hope it’s all worth it, because training is hard work.

Note: In a futile attempt to spice up this blog (ie - get more than one posting per year), I’ll be re-posting my race reports for this year, originally posting on my training blog. Hopefully this series of race reports will turn into a good story in itself, where I qualify for the Olympic Marathon Trials at the end of the year. We’ll see. But most good stories start out with very humble origins, and the race described below certainly showed me how far off I am from the OTQ.

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Today I ran a local race, the Smithfield Shamrock Shuffle 5K. By “local”, I mean, “race that I can run to from my house”. The Smithfield Rec Center puts it on along with the Cache Sun ‘n’ Snow Runners. I like running the S’n'S races, because they know how to put on a race and they are nice folks. Plus, this race was only $5, and you get $1 off if you wear green. So I wore green.

I slept in until 7AM today, and then got up and decided to do a short run to get some extra miles early (since it was supposed to snow later), and to try to shake out some of the crud in my legs. I ran from my house down to the race start line (about a mile), and then ran the 5K course. The first half mile is a pretty decent uphill with about 125 ft of gain. I run it several times a week over the course of my daily runs, and it’s no fun. The next 1.5 miles is a nice, fast downhill. The route loses about 230 ft during this stretch. The final mile is a gradual but noticeable uphill, about 70 ft of climb over the mile. Due to the uphill start and uphill finish of this loop course, I rank it as a moderately difficult route. Not as hard as Striders 5K, but certainly much slower than First Dam Run, TOU 5K, Heart of Holladay, Draper Days, and courses like that. For my shakeout run, I just did the route pretty slow. Felt like garbage.

I went back home after the first run (about 5.5 miles total), ate breakfast, read, drank some coffee, and put some finishing touches on the new Wasatch Back Relay maps. Typical Saturday morning stuff. At about 9:15AM, I realized that I should probably get back down to the Rec Center and register, since the race starts at 10AM. I found a few dollar bills, stuffed them in my tights, and headed down.

Registered, warmed up a little more, talked to some people, met some new people. The typical pre-race stuff I really like. Eventually, the race management herded us all up to the start line, and they got the race going, pretty close to on time.

Being a small, local fun-run, a few kids bolted out to the front, most notably a junior high girl and a junior high boy. The girl faded pretty quick, but the boy kept putting distance on me (keep in mind we’re going up a 4% grade hill). I just tried to run steady and not too hard, especially since I wasn’t really in the mood to run hard today. Near the top of the hill, before the turn, I started reeling the kid in. I was kind of feeling sorry for him, knowing that he would certainly die a painful death the rest of the race, but was also waxing nostalgic a bit for those days of my own youth, when I could just sprint up hills without fearing the consequences.

We turned the corner from 600 S onto 1000 W, and uphill turned into downhill. I passed the kid, and just tried to keep a strong push on the downhill, and also regain my breath at the same time. Soon, I couldn’t hear any footsteps behind me, and I knew the rest of the way would be a time trial/workout. I hit Mile 1 in 5:16, which was faster than I thought it would be. Turns out that I have a favorable cross-wind/tailwind. Garmin time matched pretty well with the road mark. Cache S’n'S use a wheel for a lot of their courses, so they are usually pretty accurate.

The downhill flattened out a bit as I neared Hyde Park, but then the route made another right turn onto 4400 N, and I had another mile or so of fairly big downhill. I just tried to enjoy the ride, knowing that I was going to get uphill (and a headwind) for the last mile. My Mile 2 split was 4:57. The crosswind was not favorable in this direction, which slowed it down slightly, but not much.

Right after Mile 2, I turned the corner onto 300 E. Now it was a gradual 1% uphill, and also a mild to moderate headwind. I wasn’t feeling too motivated to finish out the race with a bang, so just tried to run steady and reasonably strong. And behold, I made it back to 600 S, and turned the corner. Hit Mile 3 split in 5:23.

At this point, I had about a 2% uphill to the Rec Center/Skyview parking lot, and then a left turn into the lot, and into the chute. Pretty much just coasted in, victorious, but lazy. I averaged 5:30-pace for the last 0.1. I ended up stopping at the beginning of the chute, but the finish line was at the end of the chute. So my garmin time was 16:21, but my offical time was 16:27, since I walked it in. Ah well.

Second place was a Mountain Crest freshman, about 17:30 (good effort). Surprisingly, the 7th grader who rabbited out so hard was 3rd place with 17:50. I was actually quite impressed, given his age and race strategy. Kid probably has a future with running.

I never felt that great during the race, and wasn’t really in the mood to race, but that’s why I thought it would be good to do a race. Sometimes I need a little push like that. My next race (Striders Half) will hopefully be a little bit spunkier, and then my third race, a peak race, I’ll hopefully have all the cobwebs kicked out and fire on all cylinders. My achilles has been concerning me since early February, so I’ve backed off on speedwork, tempos, hills, and strides, which certainly hurt 5K speed as well, but my endurance is still pretty good. Hopefully the speed will come around. I’ll have to see how my achilles responds to racing flats and a race effort, and gauge my future training off that. I’m hoping I can start getting back into some quality work again. The achilles has not been hurting while running lately, but is a little sore to the touch when I push on it the right way.

After the race, I talked to some more people, met some neighbors, etc. Decided to stick around for the awards, and glad I did, because I won an exercise ball in the raffle, and then a $20 Al’s gift certificate for 1st place. Not bad for a $4 race that I didn’t even need to drive to.

After awards, I joined up with the Red Rooster and with DaveS, and we shuttled up to my house, where I changed my shoes, and then we cooled down for 6 miles by doing an out-and-back to Smithfield Canyon via Summit Dr. During the time of the awards, the weather really took a turn for the worse. The wind picked up about three-fold, and it also started snowing. The first part of our cooldown was just terrible, as we were going straight into the wind, but then it got better after that, and the last four miles were decent. I’m just glad it wasn’t that windy during the race.

Anyway, kind of a “beh” start to the racing year, but that’s how I wanted it. Time to eeeaase back into racing, so mission accomplished.

It’s been awhile seen I’ve posted a new map, although the reason is for lack of time rather than lack of material (a good thing!). But I’m trying to get back into blogging on a regular basis. For new visitors to the site, I periodically like to showcase some of the latest products created by my race course mapping business, Marathon GIS.

This week’s featured map is from the Smoky Mountain Relay (SMR), a 205-mile overnight relay course in North Carolina in early May. Like its name suggests, the course undulates through the peaks and valleys of the Smoky Mountains as it weaves its way from North Mills River to Bryson City.

From my mapping, the course looks to be both beautiful and challenging. It has much more dirt road and trail than your average overnight relay, and the route will take runners to a lot of wild places. It’s the opposite of “urban”.

And quantitatively, the Smoky Mountain route may have a higher difficulty factor than any other relay course I’ve mapped. Looking purely at cumulative elevation gain (gross uphill), the SMR route tallies 26,700 feet! To compare, Ragnar Wasatch Back (Utah) features 14,562 feet of gain, the Wild West Relay (Colorado) boasts 16,459 feet, and the Red Rock Relay (Utah) offers 12,918 feet of gain (although RRR’s 18,275 feet of gross elevation drop can be pretty tough on runners).”Challenging” might be one word to describe the SMR, others might prefer “Himalayan“.

What I love about overnight relays is that they are all unique and each one offers just a little something different to its participants. Some relays are flat, some are hilly (or mountainous). Some offer beautiful vistas of canyons, some the shade of forests or a cool breeze off the ocean. Some are close to home, others are in remote locations.

The SMR course has a lot to offer relay enthusiasts, particularly those that thrive on adventure, have a distrust of pavement, and enjoy challenging terrain. Those that participate in the SMR will finish the race with stories to tell and good bragging rights. I can tell you that the maps have been a lot of fun to make (still in the process of making to the leg maps, actually), and I love doing maps for remote, hilly courses like this one. In terms of cartography, the terrain just leaps off the page, and I try to highlight the natural beauty and ruggedness of the course on the maps. There are not many roads to label on the maps, but I let the terrain and the landscape speak for itself.

It’s been awhile since I’ve last posted. I simply haven’t had time, and blogging is about dead last on Maslow’s hierarchy of needs. However, this morning I’ve got an extra hour to kill before it’s light enough to go out and run, so I’ll give it a shot. If I can think and type fast enough to click “Publish”, this thing will get out there, otherwise it will stay buried in blog limbo forever, with all my other drafts.

So what’s new? 2009 was a great year for me, personally, professionally, and also in terms of running. This is a running blog, so I’ll try to focus on the latter. But I will note that during this past year my baby boy had his first birthday, we moved from Logan to Smithfield in order to be closer to our church plant, and my small business, Marathon GIS, once again doubled in volume. I also began taking Enbrel to control the ankylosing spondylitis (A.S.), and it has worked wonderfully; I now have very few (almost none) disease symptoms, and no side effects to the medication. God has blessed our family, and I look forward to what 2010 holds in all those avenues of life.

For running, 2009 surprisingly turned out to be one of my best racing years of my life. Perhaps the best, better than 2007 even. I’ve debated just that internally (see bottom of post).  I came into the year with very few expectations. 2008 was absolutely awful, as it was the year A.S. reared its ugly head and really put me in a world of hurt (literally). I ended up being able to do a few races (and do pretty decent), but I still had large questions on my ability to train and to stay healthy. I did not know if I still had “it” or not. 2009 answered all of those questions: yes, I could control the A.S. Yes, I could stay healthy all year. Yes, I could run decent mileage without problems. Yes, I still got “it”.

My total running mileage for 2009 was nothing special: 2650. That’s right about a 50 mpw average, which is solid, and apparently enough to get a lot done. I made the most of my miles by doing a lot of long tempo runs. I didn’t do a ton of intervals, especially the second half of the year, and I had success in spite of that, suggesting that tempos are the bread-and-butter of training (or at least my training). If you have time to do one type of workout, do tempo runs.

Here’s the breakdown of my 2009 in racing.

• January 17 - Painters Half Marathon - 1:11:31 - 2nd place
• April 4 - Striders Half Marathon - 1:13:10 - 2nd place (horrendously windy!)
• May 2 - 500 Festival Mini Marathon - 1:08:35 - 11th place (PR!)
• June 27 - Seattle Rock and Roll Half Marathon - 1:08:12 - 5th place (PR!)
• July 4 - Blacksmith Fork Freedom Run 15K - 48:14 - 1st place (PR!)
• August 29 - Top of Utah Half Marathon - 1:06:42 - 3rd place (PR!)
• September 19 - Top of Utah Marathon - 2:23:07 - 1st place ($$$)
• October 18 - The Other Half Marathon - 1:09:50 - 1st place
• November 7 - First Dam Run 5K - 15:25 - 1st place

My first couple races were only so-so. But my training and racing really took a turn for the better starting in May with the Indy Mini Marathon, and a big PR there. This timing also corresponds heavily with me switching medication over to Enbrel. I started Enbrel in late March, and it took several weeks to ramp up. When I was just taking NSAIDs, I was still having a lot of stiffness in my back and hip, and also inflammation in my hamstring insertion points which really hobbled my stride at times. Once the Enbrel cleared all that up, I was able to run without a hitch in my stride, run harder and faster during workouts, and fear injury less.

The races in Indianapolis and Seattle were a lot of fun, and really good experience. I enjoy traveling, and it was great to get down to sea level and experience those courses. I really learned how to drop the hammer and race a half marathon. Invaluable. Those two consecutive PRs built my confidence, and help make my year.

The Top of Utah Half was another big race for me. I had not been running much mileage beforehand, although I was doing up-tempo pace nearly every day. I think that “brisk” pace (about 6:00/mile) day-in and day-out helped me run a really fast half without doing much mileage. I would not recommend that kind of training for a marathon, but it worked out for a half. It was an aided course, but I managed to hang relatively close to the 1st and 2nd place runners. The 1st place guy is a 2:16 marathoner, and the 2nd place guy ran under 2:19 at Chicago a couple months later, so it put my performance in perspective and encouraged me that perhaps I could run under 2:19 if I trained harder.

The half marathon PRs were big highlights of my year, but the biggest highlight was winning the Top of Utah Marathon, our local race here in Logan. I entered this race almost as a whim, and intended just to go out there, have fun, and finish a marathon. I didn’t get my training much above 60 mpw, which for me is quite low for marathon training. And I didn’t bother with any interval workouts; I just did a lot of long tempo runs and about 5 formal “long runs”. Again, those tempos proved to be the key, and although I didn’t get in many 20-milers, those that I did run I always made sure to average well under 6:45/mile pace or faster.

I had run the TOU Marathon 5 times before, but had never done that well. Back in 2003, I ran 2:35 and took 2nd place, but I had not approached that time or placing since then, despite numerous attempts. Over the years, I had many marathon successes at Ogden, St George, and Park City, but was never able to find that same success at my local race. So I did feel that I had something to prove at TOU. In addition, TOU had just raised their prize money to be 5 deep, with an increase to $1500 for 1st. I knew this would bring in lots of competition, and several Kenyans.  I love competition, and looked forward to that aspect. Sure enough, on race day there were many good runners from around the state, plus four Kenyans from out-of-state. It looked to be a great race. With that kind of competition, on my home course, it was impossible for me not to get my competitive juices going, and all my previous thoughts of “just finishing” were out the window. You can win my first race report HERE, but in a nutshell, around Mile 10 I decided to try to go for broke and try to win the whole thing, and that’s just what I did. One-by-one, the pack dropped off, and then I left my last competitor around Mile 14 with a big surge. The whole race felt great, and I loved every minute of it. It felt awesome to beat all of the “out-of-towners”, and “win one for the locals”. And indeed, racing can be an act of worship, and to this day I give God the glory for the opportunity and ability to be out there competing.

After TOU, I did a couple more races as “icing on the cake”, but in actuality, my real season ended with the marathon in September. Looking back at 2009, and comparing it to 2007, I think it was as good of a year, if not better, than 2007. I had two big half marathon PRs (three if you count the downhill TOU course). These half marathon times were a couple minutes faster than what I was running in 2007. It was a bit of a monkey off my back. In 2007 I ran three marathons, 2:26 (1st place) in Ogden, 2:18 (2nd place) in St George, and 2:22 (53rd place) at the Trials. This past year I only did one marathon. It was not my fastest ever, but it was about my third fastest ever, and most importantly, it was a win. So I had one win in 2007, and one win in 2009. The 2:23 at TOU was a better race than my 2007 Ogden, and really not a whole lot “slower” than my 2007 St George. A 2:23-low at TOU converts to a high 2:18 at St George. So all in all, I feel like my marathon level in 2009 was pretty close to what I was running in 2007, despite running 40% less mileage (60 mpw instead of 100 mpw).

I only ran one 5K in 2009: a time of 15:25 in what was essentially a solo time trial. This is pretty close to my best 5K in 2007: 15:23. And that 2007 time was done on a net downhill course, whereas my 2009 time was a loop course, so one could easily argue that the 2009 time is the better of the two. In fact, I will argue that.

So in summary for 2009 vs. 2007:

• Much faster in the half marathon
• Slightly slower in the full marathon
• Slightly faster in 5K
• One marathon win for either year
• Similar amount of prize money for either year

It could be a wash, but I’m going out on a limb and saying that 2009 was better than 2007, especially since I was able to do more on less training. Definitely per-capita, a better season. 2007 had previously been my “best season”, thus 2009 is my best racing season ever. So there you go.

So what does 2010 hold? I hope it holds some good things! I tend to alternate really good years with really cruddy years. 2003-2005-2007-2009 were all really good. 2002-2004-2006-2008 were…not so good, filled with slow races and/or injury. We’ll see. But from 2009, I feel that breaking 2:19 in the marathon and qualifying for the 2012 Olympic Trials is a real possibility. I really think I can do it if I can:

1. Continue to stay healthy
2. Use the same principles as I learned last year (long tempo runs)
3. Run a bit more mileage than last year (~90 mpw instead of 60 mpw)…but not too much more!
4. Hit the right race with the right weather to qualify (ie - get lucky)
5. Continue to keep my life in balance. I think when I elevate running to a higher priority, everything suffers, including running! When I take it too seriously is when injuries and frustration abound. Priorities need to stay: God - family - work - running. I was able to keep good priorities and balance in 2009, and know that all facets of my life benefited from that, including my race times!

If my health, or the training, or the good race conditions are not there, it will not happen, so I need everything to align. And obviously if the A.S. flares up again, or if Enbrel stops working, it’s Game Over. But I do think I can handle the training and hit the time standard; I would have laughed at anyone one year ago if they had suggested either of those things.

I plan on only one marathon this year. I think I’m pretty much through with multiple marathons, and one seems like an awfully good number these days. It’s about all I can handle mentally and emotionally. Marathon training is just so draining and time-consuming. With family and work as higher priorities, I just don’t have it in me for more than one long ramp-up per year. But I do have that one in me.

However, I do plan to do several key half marathons, and continue to try to improve my PR. Who knows, maybe I can even hit 1:05, and not have to worry about a marathon? But in any case, getting my half time down under 1:07 will be good for my confidence, and is essential to breaking 2:19 in the marathon (after all, there are very few people who can break 2:19 that can’t break 1:07).

The plan for this year is to do “maintenance” through the winter (our weather is too awful to train seriously during the winter), and then do a base-building phase, followed by a short 5K/10K phase. I expect I’ll jump in some races in Ogden and SLC during the early spring, and try to get in a few 5Ks and attempt to hone my speed before turning my attention to the half marathon later in the spring and early summer.

I am definitely running the Indy Mini again this May as a big PR attempt. I am waffling 50-50 on doing Seattle again in June, as the Seattle course is not as fast. If I don’t do Seattle, I may do the Utah Valley Half in June, since there will be very good competition there ($$$), and it would be a good opportunity to work on my racing. Utah Valley is a downhill course, so the time won’t mean much on my resume, but good competition trumps all, in my opinion.

I will likely do a short 10K cycle in late June through July with a focus race at Des News 10K on July 24. And then from August through early October, I will transition over to marathon-specific training.That would give about 10-12 weeks of marathon-specific training, which is plenty given that my base should be pretty good by then. Again, I can only mentally handle a relatively short amount of time doing high mileage. For my fall marathon, I am looking at either Twin Cities (Oct 3), Chicago (Oct 10), or Detroit (Oct 17). My preference is Chicago, because it is the fastest course. But in all honesty, the decision will likely come down to family matters and travel plans. We may be traveling for a wedding in early October, so my race decision will probably hinge on those logistics. But at least I have several viable options.

I can’t tell you exactly what 2010 will hold. I can tell you that I’m content and grateful for 2009, and if my running was forced to end due to injury or other event, I would be content with my “career” and move on with life. But for now, I still have the ability, and I still have the drive, and I wish to keep using these God-given talents. I look forward to training and racing in 2010!

It’s been a great year for running so far. I have stayed injury-free all year, have PR’ed in the half marathon twice in a row, and then followed that up with a PR in the 15K. And these are lifetime PR’s, not post-A.S. PR’s. But with these early summer races now done, the rest of the year is wide open, with lots of options.

So what’s next? Well, for one thing, we still need to sell our house and buy a new one. That’s Thing1. And Thing 2 is to get the incentive and motivation to train hard again.With my both my family and my mapping business growing, it’s hard to find time to run, and also hard to find the desire at times. I do best when I just sign up for race to get a tangible goal, and then train in bite-sized chunks. This also helps prevent overtraining, as my training cycles are shorter and more defined.

Having kids changes things

I think I did well during April-June in balancing running with life. I never got mileage out of the low-70s…but I set a couple of nice P.R.s. A question everyone has to ask themselves is: “Is it worth it?“Is the training time and wear and tear on the body worth the reward? Is the hours and hours away from family worth those digits that you see up on the finish line clock, or the numerical rank of your placing you see later in the results? The answer will vary from person to person.

For me, I do think it’s worth it, when I can balance training 60-70 mpw with the rest of my life. My first priorities are my relationship with God and then my family. This family relationship also includes being a provider, which entails working. I choose to work extra in order to allow my wife to stay home with Seth, and am happy to have this opportunity. Suddenly, running becomes “low man on the totem pole”, relegated to 4th or 5th priority in my life (in the past it was much higher). If I spend much more than an hour per day working out, my priorities quickly become out of whack, and running eats into other areas of my life where it should not go. My time is precious, and I guard it jealously. Since Seth was born, I have had to set firmer boundaries, get up earlier, and manage my time better.

By far the best way to get in those extra miles in the evening…

I’ve said this before in this blog, but I do not know what the future holds, whether it’s with my family, my work, my health, or my running. Will I even try to qualify for the 2012 Marathon Trials? I honestly don’t know. Part of me wants to, and thinks I can do it, but another part of me questions whether the sacrifice is worth it. “Can do something” and “Should do something” are two completely different things. Ultimately, my goal is to discern God’s will for all things, and then follow it. Where running falls into that, I do not yet know, as it is just one small piece of my life.

Avid reader Jon has posed the question as to why I have not updated the blog in over two months, despite apparently having much to post about. Well, several factors are at play:

• Heavy load at work (recession, what recession??!)
• We are selling our house (hard to type with paint and caulk all over my hands)
• I’d rather see my wife and kid than write a blog post (fatherhood does change things)
• Lack of literary inspiration (I get dumber every day)

Well, my wife and son are in Michigan for another day, work happens to be slow right now, and the house is clean and perfectly staged, so that clears most of my obstacles, other than my dumbness, but I’ll just have to work with that.

In any case, it’s been an eventful couple months in my world of running and racing. After running 1:13:10 in the snowy windstorm that was the Striders Half Marathon, I was able to ramp up my training, get some quality workouts in, and prepare somewhat adequately for the 500 Festival Indy Mini Marathon. Weekly mileage leading up to Indy was 36 (missed two days from being sick), 72, 69, 55 (race week). I got a few decent workouts in, but kept it pretty simple: just some tempos, fartleks, and mile intervals.

Indy turned out to be a perfect day: great temps, no wind, and a very flat, fast course. I ran some of the early miles too aggressively for my fitness level, but managed to stay steady during the second half and keep all miles under 5:20. The race yielded a huge 50-second PR of 1:08:35.

The only downer was that I ran most of the race in 10th place, then got passed around Mile 10/11, but then closed hard on another runner who was dropping back, but could not seal the deal. I got outkicked, ended up 11th, and lost out on $100. Now, I can almost care less about $100, but it’s more about what the money symbolizes. It represents the value the race puts on a certain placing. 10th place is worth $100, and 11th place is worth nothing. In addition, the depth of money always drives the depth and competitiveness of the field. If I place in the money, it means that I out-competed my peers, and perhaps even some people faster than me. So for me, winning money indicates that I competed well against the field, and it is competition against others and against myself that I seek.

Unfortunately, when analyzing the Indy race, I feel that I did not “want it” enough. I think I could have beaten my competitor with a decisive surge with 600m left, but did not have the inner drive to make myself hurt enough to do it. I’ve found over the years that kick is always there, it’s just a matter of engaging that extra gear.

Other than that, Indy was a great race, and a nice breakthrough. It was nice to get a half marathon time that I knew I was capable of. The race itself was well-organized, and by far the biggest half I’ve ran (35,000 people). The course was not terribly pretty, but was insanely fast. I thought running on the Speedway would be really cool, but that part ended up being the most mentally difficult, and rather grueling.  The track doesn’t look so big on TV, but it takes awhile to run a 2.5 mile loop at 12mph, rather than driving at 200mph. You can read my full race report HERE.

Immediately after Indy, I had targeted the Seattle Rock and Roll Half Marathon for my next key race. I wanted another half marathon PR attempt, I wanted it to be at sea level with good competition, and I wanted it to be someplace fun. Seattle was perfect, and I have several good friends in the area who I could visit. In addition, when I contacted the race management, they were very gracious, and I was able to obtain an elite spot in the race. Perfect!

In terms of training after Indy, I decided it would be wise to regroup, and spend a few weeks in base-building mode. In the past, I’ve been caught in the trap to “keep the ball rolling”, and do hard workout after hard workout, and race after race. I ended up re-building a base for the rest of May. Mileage during this phase were 60 (recovery), 72, 60 (sick for a day), and 71. Typical workouts were “slow” long tempos, and fartleks.

The “slow” tempo is something that I introduced for the first time, and I ended up really liking it, and I think it helped build aerobic fitness. Basically the idea was to do a 11-12 mile progression tempo, but not ever push the pace too hard. I would start at 6:15/mile and end up around 5:45-5:50/mile. I would pick a pretty flat, easy course, and focus on just hitting a good rhythm and feeling good. I figure hills are great, but you need to learn to run strong on flat before you can run strong on hills. In other words, focus on the bare foundations of running…which is running. It’s simple, but effective. I also like fartleks during this kind of base phase, as they are good workouts, yet are not too stressful on the body or on the mind, since there are no time goals to hit.

Beginning in June, I kept the mileage about the same, but ramped up the intensity. “Slow” tempos were replaced by MP and LT tempos. Fartleks were replaced by intervals at CV or LT pace. I also added more strides and 30-second hill charges after workouts to work on economy, form, and turnover. My June weekly mileage totals were 73, 37 (sick for half the week),  70, and 58 (race week). All of my workouts were really good, although no single run was longer than 16 miles (no need for a half marathon!). Each week my interval workouts and tempos were really strong and consistent, and gave me a lot of confidence, despite not racing since Indy.

The end of June finally rolled around, and I was excited to finally fly out to Seattle. The flight was short, the hotel was great, and I was able to meet and chew the fat with a lot of great runners and other people at the hotel. Along with getting to know several current elite runners, I also got to meet Todd Williams and Ed Eyestone, who work with the race management. A lot of good conversations, and I soaked in all the knowledge I could, plus they were all just really fun people.

You can read a full, very detailed account of my race HERE. In a nutshell, once again, weather was perfect with great temperatures and little wind. The course was more difficult than Indy, with several large hills, but still had enough speedy sections to get a good time. Indeed, I ended up with a 20 second PR over Indy, and ran 1:08:15, good for 5th overall and 3rd American. Moreover, I will end up with a hefty chunk of change for this placing, which vindicates my Indy experience somewhat. So I left with very positive vibes.

Some races you get a PR, but not a great placing. Other races, you place high, but the time stinks due to weather or topography. And sometimes you get both, and those are great days. I did have a goal of breaking 1:08 at Seattle, but I think I ran as well as I could given the course and the fact that I was all alone most of the race. Perhaps at Indy that effort would have been under 1:08, but I will have to wait for another day and another course.

And lastly, one week after Seattle I jumped in the Blacksmith Fork Freedom Run, a local 15K on July 4th. This race is pretty low-key, with a net elevation drop (although is at elevation). I’ve been wanting to do it for a while. Seattle was obviously still in my legs during the first few miles, but eventually I worked out the kinks and rattled off a pretty good race and took first place. Like most people, I rarely race the 15K distance, so a new PR was ripe for picking as well, and I got it with a time of 48:14 (or so…the timing chips were wrong, so I used my watch time). The full race report is HERE.

Now it’s time for a little breather. I feel like I put in a series of good training cycles, and now it’s time to rest, lower the mileage down to 40-60 mpw for a while, and then rebuild a good base.

Recently I had the opportunity to create a course map and elevation profile for the Canylonlands Half Marathon. This is one of my favorite races, and I’ve participated in either the half marathon or the 5-mile event for five of the last seven years. My familiarity with the courses would definitely be helpful in creating accurate maps, but I also felt particularly obligated to present the striking beauty of the course through cartography.

Fortunately, the state of Utah has the best GIS data clearinghouse I’ve ever used: the Utah Automated Geographic Reference Center (AGRC) and associated GIS Data Portal. From this website, users are able to download many datasets, include 2007 1-ft color aerial imagery and 5-meter digital elevation models…for most of the entire state…for free. Finding data at that resolution, currentness, and cost is truly amazing, and for that reason I love the AGRC and love making maps for locations in Utah.

The 1-ft color imagery allowed me to zoom into the route very tightly (about 1:1000), and precisely digitize every tangent of the route and closely simulate its certification. This helps makes the elevation profile and the mile markers more accurate.

But the 5m elevation model was the real gem. For most of the United States, the best you can get is 10m resolution. In some places you can get no better than 30m. So to get 5m resolution for a tiny town in the middle of Utah is remarkable. I should note that 2m DEM’s are publicly available for some locations in Utah.

What a 5m DEM provides is better hillshading, which is the backbone of this particular map. Every ridge, canyon, drainage, and other topography are sharply defined, even at large scales. This not only makes the map more vivid, but allows it to be blown up to larger scales (and larger prints), and still look wicked good. In addition, the extra resolution of the 5m DEM accommodates better profiling, especially in narrow canyon areas. For much of the Canyonlands race, runners are tucked right up against a huge sandstone cliff. This can really mess with an elevation model, which tends to interpolate/average elevation values in steep areas. With a higher-resolution DEM, this effect is lessened.

The final maps turned out well, in part to the quality of the underlying data. I ended up making an overall map, an elevation profile, and zoom-in views of the start line and finish line. The race management also printed a poster version of the map, which is available for purchase here.

Canyonland Half Marathon poster

Map showing zoom-in view of finish line

I’ll admit it, I have a tendency to to write or say something about training, and then completely go back on it and do something else. Sometimes it will be years later when I change my mind, other times it will be within a matter of days or weeks.

Some examples:  I used to think it was best to keep speed-work days pretty short. Later, I figured out that was the worst thing to do, and adopted doing Big Workouts, where the total mileage for the day is 14-16 miles. I also at one point thought that short intervals were a great workout; later I dropped that idea in favor of long tempos. During the peak of my running, I thought that days off were an opiate for the masses. Now I think they can be necessary to maintain the balance of life.

My most recent flip-flop is that I’ve already bailed on the training plan I outlined in a recent blog post. I had decided that since my body can’t handle high mileage anymore, I would do all hard workouts and a large portion of my total volume on the elliptical machine. I still think the concept was good, but it turns out that pragmatism was lacking.

In a nutshell, I hated it. After three weeks of going to the gym every morning, dripping sweat all over the elliptical machine, and, yes, getting some great workouts in, I had the following revelation. I am a runner. I run so that I can run…longer and faster. I run because I enjoy the feeling of running. I run because running is intrinsically good. When I replaced running with elliptical, training ceased to be enjoyable, and I very quickly lost all motivation. My end-goals were the same as before: racing. But the process of getting there had changed, and it turned out that the process is as important as the result. I found out that if I destroy the process and replace it with something else, I no longer want the result, and I quit altogether.

It was an interesting little journey, and I’m okay with the results. So the little cross-training experiment failed, big deal. I am now back to running every day. And I’m happy. Spring is here, the weather is beautiful, and it’s great to be alive, get outside everyday, and run. My training is not terribly structured right now, but I get a little tempo once a week or so, throw in some doubles when I’m motivated, and now I’m actually starting to feel the hints of fitness, much like how my lawn is showing hints of green. Perhaps in a few weeks or few months that hint will bloom into the real thing.

My body is holding up fairly well. After much deliberation, research, and consultation, I decided to start Enbrel, a biologic medication that treats Ankylosing Spondylitis (A.S.) and other auto-immune diseases by dampening the immune system and stopping inflammation before it even happens. It can actually slow or halt disease progression, opposed to NSAIDs, which treat only the symptoms (similar to putting a band-aid over a gaping wound).

After two weeks of Enbrel, I am not pain-free, but my hamstring tendons have improved greatly, my knee pain/stiffness has subsided, my hip pain has vanished, and my feet are “good enough”. A fair amount of foot pain and back stiffness remain, but it is tolerable. So I am encouraged by the early results, especially since it usually takes several weeks or months to realize the full effects of the medication.

The main downside to Enbrel or any other drug in its class is that it makes me more susceptible to getting sick. As a trade-off to eliminating pain and inflammation, I must now carefully monitor my health and my actions, which includes not to over-exerting myself. In other words, even if Enbrel forces the A.S. into remission, it’s not a free pass for me to run like crazy and do the kind of mileage I did before. Training 100+ miles/week often straddled the thin line between brilliant performance and crashing with sickness, fatigue, or injury; it’s truly a strain on the body no matter who you are.

That said, I am optimistic about training and racing. In the past, 70 or even 80 miles per week was pretty easy on my body, and I think I could handle that without compromising my immune system. But there is still a long way to go to even work myself up to that point. For now I am content to enjoy the spring and a fresh start on running. Mileage and performance are not in the forefront of my mind, but I’d be lying if I said I never thought about it.

But my current goals all revolve around the present and near-future, and I am not looking past May. I am running the Striders Half Marathon in Ogden in early April, mostly as a tuneup and exploratory race for the Indy Mini. Striders is a good course and a fun race, one that I’ve won before. I look forward to revisiting it and seeing how close I can get to my previous times. Four weeks later I will have the Indy Mini, and then beyond that I have no idea! In any case, I hope to have a fun spring and summer with running, and perhaps try a few races I have never done before. Happy training everyone.

I’ve gotten away from showcasing race course maps on this blog, so I figure it’s time to get back to my roots (the blog is named “Marathons and Maps” for a reason).

Recently I finished up a mapping project for a new race called the Palm 100, which is a 100-mile, 6-runner team relay race that hugs the Florida Atlantic coast from Fort Lauderdale to West Palm Beach and back. This race, which is on March 28th, is different than many of the other relays that I’ve mapped, in that it is not overnight, and there are no fixed exchanges.

This yields tremendous flexibility. Teams will decide the the length of each leg and location of relay hand-offs, as long as good discretion is used for the sake of safety and the rule book is followed. This is a new and novel idea to me, and as an experienced relay runner, I like the concept.

From a mapping standpoint, the Palm 100 is unique in that the route had to be exactly 100 miles. The precise distance is very important in certified 5K’s, 10K’s, half marathons, and marathons, but is usually not a concern for long-distance relays. In other words, it usually doesn’t matter if the race is 185.7 miles or 185.6 miles or 192 miles or … you get the picture.

I had to refine my mapping in order the pin the Palm at 100.0 miles. Much of the race is on sidewalks and paved trails, and I was able to use high-resolution aerial photography to zoom in very tightly (up to a scale of 1:900) and digitize the route right on those walkways. With my mouse, I attempted to take every tangent and turn every corner just a runner on the ground would. The end result was the most precise relay course I’ve captured to this point. I have no doubt that it is as close to 100.0 miles as you can get with an on-screen capture method.

A couple years ago, I thought I had it all figured out. Marathon training was simple: just do 2 big workouts per week (15+ miles), an easy long run, and fill the rest of the days with easy doubles until I hit 100+ miles for the week. It was a formula that took my marathon time down from above 2:30 to under 2:20. And I expected it to work into the future.

Getting hit with ankylosing spondylitis (A.S.) has changed everything. My body’s old limits are no longer valid, and the disease has imposed on me new limits. Through trial and error (most error), I’ve figured out that if I go over 50-60 miles/week, I start to break down. Mostly it’s the tendon injuries that sideline me.

I had been holding out hope that I would be able to at some point resume my old high-mileage training, and get back to marathons. But just recently I’ve finally accepted the fact that A.S. and marathoning don’t mix, and my condition will likely prevent me from ever running how I used to again. Yes, it was a bit of a sad realization, but it was actually more liberating than anything. Once I accepted that as a fact, I felt like a weight had lifted off my shoulders, and I was free to look at and pursue running from a different perspective. The pressure of being what I once was is gone, and now I can look forward to running becoming something new.

Clearly hard marathon training is now out of the question, but I had proven this past year that I could still successfully train for and run quality races at the 5K through half marathon distance. So that is where my focus will now lie. If anything, it’s getting back to my roots, as I was a 5K/10K specialist long before I had even dreamed of running a marathon. I’m excited at the prospect of the shorter distances, of different types of training, and of potentially even setting new PR’s that I’ve neglected over the last several years.

So in essence I need to relearn how to train. I had figured out marathon training, but now I need to figure out 5K/10K training, and specialize it for running with A.S. with the training load I can handle. For now, the centerpiece of my training will not be running, but the elliptical machine. I’ve found over the last year that it is possible to get an excellent workout on the elliptical, and my heart rate elevates to levels similar to running while on the machine. When I push hard on the elliptical, I often get my HR up to near 180, which is 90% of my max. Seems good enough for most types of training!

My new staple elliptical workouts are 10×3-minutes hard, with 1-minute recovery, and 2×15-minutes hard, with 5 minutes recovery. These are designed to simulate CV and MP workouts. As I get stronger on the elliptical, I plan to extend the time of the “tempos”.

Perhaps the best aspect of cross training is that since there is no pounding, I can recover faster and work out more frequently. Rather than doing 2 hard workouts per week, I will be able to do 3 hard workouts per week. I firmly believe that I can achieve a high state of fitness from cross training like this, and that it will translate to good races.

Of course I will need to run too, but for now I’m just doing 2-3 miles/day on the weekdays, and a 9-miler or so on Saturday. Once the weather warms up, the snow melts, and I get more daylight to work with, I’ll add a second 4-5 mile run with the jogging stroller in the evenings after work. Adding doubles will give a total running volume of 45-50 miles/week, along with a cross training volume about 5 hours/week. This cross training volume I convert to 30 “miles”, based on the approximation of 10 minutes on elliptical = 1 mile running (Jack Daniels suggests 1 unit of cross training = 2/3 unit of running) . So the end result will give me up to 80 “miles” per week of total training volume, which is certainly sufficient to run some nice 5K/10K/half marathon races.

Some of you readers (assuming I still have readers) may wonder, why isn’t 70-80 miles/week good enough to run a marathon? Simple: I’m not doing any long runs or big workouts. Everything is short and sweet. A huge part of marathon-specific training is geared to adapt the body to handle of pounding and fueling of a race longer than two hours. It is that type of training I’ve determined I can no longer handle. No more 20-milers, no more huge tempo runs or interval workouts, no more runs over 60 minutes in duration. Dropping those kinds of runs, I believe, will keep me healthier, but they will also prohibit me from really doing any race longer than a Half.

So marathons are out, but other races are in. And I’m excited about it. I feel like it’s a fresh start and a new challenge. And is this to say I won’t ever run a marathon again? No, it’s just saying that I won’t ever train for a marathon…in the near future. I could easily see myself taking this training plan, adding one longer run (16-18 miles), and then jumping in a marathon for fun. But it would have to come at the end of the season, and would have to be dialed back with lowered expectations.

But who knows what the future will really bring? I’m just grateful for everyday out there I have to run and be active. I look forward to trying to PR at the Indy Mini Marathon in May, and to perhaps running the USATF LDR Circuit again this summer.

Note and disclaimer: I am not a doctor. I am not associated with Padma Basic or Euconugenics. I am just a guy with ankylosing spondylitis, trying to find any and all treatments that can help control the disease. My statements below are not authoritative, but rather reflect my own experiences with Padma Basic, and nothing more. Please consult a rheumatologist when implementing any change of treatment to your own disease.

Well, it’s been a month since my Part 1 Review on Padma Basic. I have finished my supply of the product, meaning I’ve been taking 6 tablets/day for 30 days in an attempt to suppress my ankylosing spondylitis. Time to discuss results.

Frankly, for the first three weeks I experienced no change whatsoever. I wasn’t exactly disappointed with this, as my expectations were not that high to begin with (given my lack of faith in alternative therapies). However, during the final seven days of using Padma, my neck and shoulders became noticeably less painful and stiff, especially in the morning. Pain levels went from about a “3″ to a “1″ or even “0.5″.

At the same time, pain and inflammation in my feet and toes subsided somewhat, probably from a “3″ to a “2″. I experienced no change in my lower back or my bothersome left hip. I also noticed no change in my chronically cold hands while running outside.

So it’s safe to say that results were mixed. Yes, my neck feels better right now, so it could be because of the Padma, or it could just be the natural ebb and flow of my ankylosing spondylitis. Simply put, with A.S. some days are better than others, and some weeks are better than others. My final week of taking Padma was certainly a “good” week.

My own conclusion: I will not continue taking Padma, simply because I can’t afford the $85-$100/month pricetag, and the results weren’t sufficient to justify the price. That’s still a lot of money in my world for something that is not proven to work (especially in today’s economy). Fortunately or unfortunately (depending on your view), prescription medication combined with insurance costs much less, and is proven to be effective. Even the biologic medications, such as Remicade and Enbrel, can often be obtained with less than $100/month, with insurance and financial aid from the respective drug company.

But to bring up the biologic drugs brings up a reason to try Padma Basic or Padma 28: through my own experience or through my literature review, I have not found any discernable side effects. Many side effects of the immuno-suppressant drugs or NSAIDs are downright scary. With Padma, I experienced no gastro-intestinal discomfort, no orange skin, no sensitivity to sunlight, no compromised immune system. This all observational; I did not have any testing done (liver, kidneys, etc.), so please take my lack of perceived side effects for what it’s worth. I also encourage readers to go through the literature review and links from my first posting; I have yet to see mention of side effects from the studies I’ve looked at, but that does not mean that don’t exist. So in a nutshell, my own experiences were positive, but please be responsible and be cautious when trying any new medication or any especially any non-FDA regulated supplement.

But pushing aside side effects (or lack thereof), Padma’s benefits to me were subtle at best. Perhaps Padma could be a viable option for people with very mild auto-immune diseases. Also, I think to truly test Padma better than I just did, a person would have to use it for 6-12 months. One month was probably not long enough to get the full effects. But then again, most of us with ankylosing spondylitis simply do not have 6-12 months to fool around, as permanent joint damage can occur in that kind of time frame. That is reason enough to go with a form of proven medication prescribed by a rheumatologist as front-line treatment; there is simply too much at stake to bank on an alternative therapy as the main treatment.

So to summarize, I took Padma Basic for 30 days to help suppress ankylosing spondylitis. I found:

• No side effects
• A small but noticeable reduction in neck/shoulder pain and stiffness
• A very small reduction in foot/toe pain
• No change in lower back/hip pain and stiffness
• Not convinced that improvements were necessarily directly from Padma
• Found the cost prohibitive
• Feel that a longer term of use would be more conclusive

I would love to see some real studies done with Padma Basic/28 on various auto-immune arthritis’s. How does it really compare to the anti-TNF drugs? Let’s see some real numbers, double-blind trials, and other methods that will hold up under scrutiny.

I would also love to hear back anecdotally from other people who use Padma to inhibit TNF and control rheumatoid arthritis, ankylosing spondylitis, psoriatic arthritis, Chron’s disease, and others. Does it work for you? Please leave your comments, questions, and experiences. I hope this blog can be used as a resource for auto-immune sufferers who are investigating Padma and looking for real-life experiences about it.

It’s a new year and time for more racing! I usually don’t run many races in January, but this year I decided that it would be a good idea to get out of northern Utah for a few days to get some warm temperatures and clean air. Several of my friends ran the Painters Half Marathon in St. George, UT last year, and it looked like a race worth trying. What primarily drew my eyes to it are that it is a rolling loop course, it is USATF certified, and it has decent competition.

The fact that it is a loop course is important to me. In my humble opinion, there are way too races out here in Utah that are point-to-point downhill screamers. They all start up some mountain canyon and funnel you out to the city in the valley below, usually dropping 1000′ or more. Is it beautiful? Yes! Will it give you a meaningful time? No! And the relatively high elevation of these races (~5000′ above sea level) just complicates things even more. We Utah runners inevitably end up standing around after the race discussing what our time is really “worth“.

It was much simpler back in the flat, low lands in Indiana and Michigan, where I began racing as a high school and collegiate runner.  A 15:30 5K was “worth”…15:30. My time was simply taken at face value (you are what you run), and I always had a good assessment of where I was really at in my training and racing. In Utah, a 15:30 5K could be “worth” anywhere from 15:10 (if you normalize to sea level level) to 16:30 (if the time came from a downhill course). It’s very confusing, and at times very unsatisfying. While it’s nice to witness the beauty of our surrounding mountain canyons during races, beat the high elevation, and get a fast time, ultimately I can never count my Utah PR’s as “real” PR’s. Perhaps if I had done 100% of my running out here I would feel differently, but all of the racing I did in the midwest while growing up has set my perspective.

So to summarize: Loop courses are good. They yield times that I can take a face value. Furthermore, getting down to a lower elevation is good for the same reason. And it’s all worthless without USATF certification and the security of a correct distance. The Painters Half provided all of these incentives with its certified, loop route that averages around 2600′ above sea level.

My wife and I were glad to leave the smog of Logan on Thursday morning. These red air days get really depressing after a while. We were rewarded to clean air and temperatures hovering near 60 in St. George. The trip was already worth it!

Race day morning was chilly, but perfect: sunny, upper 30’s, and no wind. Temperatures during the race climbed into the low 50s, and was quite suitable for shorts, singlet, and gloves. The half marathon had just over 1000 finishers, so it was a good size. Competition up front looked good; there were several guys who I knew could run near 1:10:00 or in the mid- to low-teens. I myself thought I could hit around 1:11 to 1:12, based on some recently workouts and my total training volume. I thought I had some chance of winning, but so did four other guys. Due to some tendon issues and setbacks, I had been scaling my weekly mileage back to the 40s, including  a fair amount of elliptical cross training.

The race ended up going really well for me. We started with a pack of seven at the 2nd mile that drifted to a pack of four by the 5th mile, and a pack of two by the 7th mile. That pack of two included myself, and I felt strong and snappy through about Mile 9, but then the distance of the race wore on me and my pace slowed, from about 5:20/mile to 5:30/mile. My competitor, Jeff McClellan, did not slow whatsoever, and cruised to the victory with a time of 1:10:59. I chugged in with a 1:11:31, which I was count as both a “January PR” and a “post-A.S. PR”. And thankfully, I don’t have to figure out what the time is “worth”, since it is worth exactly what it is: 1:11:31. But this race gave me confidence that I can go under 1:09:00 and get a lifetime PR later this May in Indianapolis, provided I get in some good training.

I would do the Painters Half again. I thought it was fairly well-managed. The course had a lot of hills, but none were too steep or too long. It was not an extremely fast course, but it was not slow either. There were a lot of 90-degree turns, which slowed things down, and also threw off everyone’s GPS units (sharp turns really mess up the distance accuracy of Garmins…but that’s what certification is for), but other than that I liked the route a lot. It was not monotonous, and snaked its way through several different neighborhoods, bouncing on and off the local trail system. There were several very nice views, some cool red rock outcrops, and a bridge crossing over the Virgin River. The race started and finished at the Dixie Center, which featured a huge amount of easy parking and lots of bathrooms (very important!).

Good times, and perhaps I’ll be back.

Note and disclaimer: I am not a doctor. I am not associated with Padma Basic or Euconugenics. I am just a guy with ankylosing spondylitis, trying to find any and all treatments that can help control the disease. My statements below are not authoritative, but rather reflect my own experiences with Padma Basic, and nothing more. Please consult a rheumatologist when implementing any change of treatment to your own disease. 

As those who read my blog know, I’m been dealing with an auto-immune disease called Anklyosing Spondylitis (A.S.). In a nutshell, A.S. incites my body’s immune system to attack my own cells and cause inflammation, most notably in the lower back, hips/SI, and neck. These are all distinguishing markers for A.S. In addition, it has also caused swelling and painful inflammation in my toe joints, as well as a variety of tendon-related injuries.

And reportedly it only gets worse over time. This is certainly bad news for a 29-year-old guy like myself, supposedly entering my physical prime. It almost makes it worse being a competitive runner. I felt like I was finally coming into my own and making real progress as a marathoner over the past couple years. The 2:18:09 at St. George and 2:22:34 at the Olympic Trials four weeks later were real high points, and I felt like I had the ability to break 2:18:00 or even 2:16:00 on an unaided course. All I needed was time and continuity of training.

When the A.S. diagnoses was revealed, a lot of my hopes went down the drain. But I did keep a mere fragment of hope: If I could find a way to control the A.S. (and the tendon injuries that go along with it), then I would be able to resume training at an elite level, find my body’s true limits, and achieve my goals. Thus began my search for the treatment(s) that would work for me. I am open-minded: drugs, diets, herbal remedies…my main interest is in finding something that works.

Do date, the most effective treatment I’ve tried (and still use) is simply NSAIDs. Meloxicam has been effective in reducing pain and stiffness, and has not caused any gastrointestinal damage (yet). I take the tummy-protector Omeprazole to reduce acid and help out my gut with the NSAIDs. Also, I am doing the No Starch Diet (NSD), which supposedly reduces disease activity through eliminating all starches (wheat, rice, potatoes, legumes, processed foods, etc.). NSD indeed has helped dial back my pain levels by a couple points, but so far has not been a panacea. Right now, I view it to as a complement to traditional drug treatment, and not the primary treatment in itself.

I have also tried fish oil, ultrasound, and various supplements. They all basically did nothing other than make me wary of alternative treatments and throwing my money away. With NSAIDs plus NSD, my pain levels most days are around a “2″. I have daily stiffness in my neck, and intermittent stiffness in my lower back. My left foot has been constantly inflamed and sore for the past year, and I have experienced numerous tendon-related injuries. I am doing “okay”, but would like to do “better”…and I would also like to reduce the amount of NSAIDs I need to take, in order to preserve the long-term health of my gut.

So that is a rather long intro, but it lays the foundation that:

1. I suffer from A.S.
2. I have several ways to treat A.S., none of which are perfect
3. I am constantly looking for new treatments to try. Anything that can take off a point or more of pain and inflammation levels is worth trying, especially if there are no side effects.

A couple months ago I read a press release on the Spondylitis Association of America (SAA) website. It was about an herbal supplement called Padma Basic. The press release stated:

First, we look at an “exotic supplement” called “Padma Basic”. The “Dear Pharmacist” column in Tulsa World reports, “It works for rheumatoid arthritis by calming an overactive immune system that is bent on destroying cartilage and bone. The destruction occurs thanks to TNF (tumor necrosis factor), which signals the attack. Padma contains an herb “Pterocarpus santalinus,” which inhibits TNF and T-cell proliferation in a similar way to prescription drugs like Humira, Remicade and Enbrel. It could improve inflammatory conditions among them, Crohn’s disease, MS, rheumatoid arthritis, ankylosing spondylitis and psoriatic arthritis.” 

Whoa! That’s an eye-catcher to me! The release states that the herb has potential to inhibit TNF (and therefore slow or halt A.S.) similar to the very powerful biologic drugs available. These biologic drugs work very well, but they have many side effects and are very, very expensive. The press statement gave me a great interest in Padma Basic, so I started googling for anything I could find on it.

Padma is an ancient Tibetan herbal formula manufactured by Padma, Inc. in Switzerland under international pharmaceutical standards. It is sold in Europe as an OTC drug known as “Padma 28″, but in the U.S. it is distributed by EcoNugenics as a herbal supplement not regulated by the FDA. The only difference between Padma Basic and Padma 28 (beside their name) is the presence of 1 mg/tablet of aconite in Padma 28. This does not really affect the formula, and the function between the two is exactly the same.

With my wariness of herbal supplements in mind, I needed to be convinced to even try Padma Basic. But as it turns out, quite a body of objective research exists that validates using Padma for a variety of applications and ailments, including:

• peripheral artery disease (Atherosclerosis. 2006: Nov; 189(1):39-46)
• angina (Herba Polonica. 1986: 32; 107-114)
• stroke (Europ J Neurology. 1998: 5(suppl1); p. S9)
• hepatitis (Phytotherapy Research. 1993: 7; 224-247)
• arthritis (Int. Journal of Immunotherapy. 1991: 2(3); 143-147)
• ulcers (Nowiny Lekarski. 1992: 2; 40-44)
• AIDS Related Complex (Internation Congress for Infectious Diseases. 1988. Rio de Janeiro)
• multiple sclerosis (Phytotherapy Research. 1992: 6; 133-136)
• dental root canals (Forsch Komplementarmed. 2006 Feb; 13 Suppl 1: 28-30)
• recurrent infections (SchweizZschr fur Ganzheits Med. 1992: 7/8(Suppl 1); 22-23)
• inflammation (Inflammopharmacology. 1999: 7(1); 47-62)
• antioxidant (Redox Rep. 2000: 5(1); 17-22)
• antimicrobial (Research in Complementary and Classical Natural Medicine. 2002:9; 346-351)
• immune modulating (Inflammopharmacology. 2004: 12(4); 373-89)
• TNF / IL-inhibiting (Eur Cytokine Netw (0) 15: 203-9)
• 

I perused many of these journal articles (see links for yourself), and became even more interested. Although there was nothing directly studying the effects of Padma Basic/28 on ankylosing spondylitis, there were indeed many studies that indirectly stated that it could help in a variety of ways, including reducing inflammation, improving circulation, and inhibiting TNF.

The results of the Bernacka et al. (1991) study on juvenile rheumatoid arthritis, published in the Journal of Imunotherapy, were particularly encouraging to me. The group of children who were given Padma improved in both symptoms and laboratory tests without side effects during the six-month clinical trial. It was a very small study, but enough to stir more interest and hope in me that Padma can help dampen my overactive immune system.

So I believe it is worth a try. I plan to take Padma Basic for 30 days, and report my findings in a full review on this blog. Of course I have no delusion that this is some sort study; rather, it is merely my own personal experiences with Padma. Everyone’s form of A.S. is different, and different treatments will help different people. But my goal is that through this review and the followup review that other A.S. sufferers can find pertinent information, and be exposed to the option of Padma.

The kind people at EcoNugenics were gracious enough to supply me with a 180-tablet supply of Padma Basic. It arrived yesterday (January 2nd), and I have begun to take it. My dosage is two tablets 30 minutes before each meal (6 tablets/day). I am still taking meloxicam and omeprazole, and will continue to do so unless my pain drops down to a 0 or 1.

I plan to be as objective as possible when reporting the effects of Padma. My hopes are that it will:

1. Reduce or eliminate stiffness in my neck
2. Reduce the pain and swelling my left foot
3. Allow me to take fewer NSAIDs
4. Help the circulation of my hands and feet, which are constantly cold

So come back in 30 days for a full report of results!