Ultra Runner = ME

On June 6th I became an Ultra Runner by running my first 50k "Another Dam 50k".

Dan, Charles, Ladd, and I went to the Dayton area to run Another Dam 50k. Dan and Ladd had ran many other ultra events, but for Charles and I this would be our first. My goal was to "finish".

The day started out with rain, rain and more rain! All the way to Dayton it rained and poured. By the time we arrived in Englewood the rain stopped and it was humid as could be. The temps didn't go too high it was just very muggy all day! The course was a 7.8 mile loop that we were to run 4 times.

Off we went, Charles and I had decided we would run this together. The first part of the course was a mile or so in the sun with no wind or air movement as we ran on the side of the dam, then there was about a 1/2 mile of downhill on a curvy road, after that we were on dirt trails 4.5 miles a short grassy meadow run and more trails. The trails were nice except where they were very muddy, which about 1/2 of them were, during the muddy parts you had to be very careful not to slip (which I assumed by the end I would face plant in at one point or another).

Our first loop was our fastest at a 1:17. At the end of this loop we refilled our bottles and got back on the trail. We joined up with a few other guys in the 2nd loop and they let me lead through the trails (which made me feel really strong!) Charles started having stomach problems at this point, we saw Ladd and Dan starting their 3rd loop as we were finishing our 2nd, we refilled, sprayed for bugs and refueled (I should have used my inhaler but forgot...) back to running. Charles had some real struggles in the first 2 miles of this loop and asked me to leave him many times before I did. So at this point 18 miles into the 31 miles, I was all alone. I started taking pictures, texting and running, had a few short phone conversations with friends and when no one else was around I listened to music from my phone (because I had no headset, I turned it off each time I passed another runner) . Ran into Dan and Ladd at the midway aid station got a hug and a kiss. With about one mile left in lap 3 I had an asthma attack... a little scary as I was alone.... finally back to the start line and my inhaler. I felt better and quickly started my 4th lap, and asked a few volunteers to tell Charles that he was not allowed to quit. I was so excited to start this lap as I would soon hit my most miles run ever (up until this point 26.2 was the furthest). I was running across the dam when I saw Charles on the bottom path of the dam I yelled at him to not quit and keep trying hard, he yelled a few things back at me but I couldn't hear him. I then saw Ladd and Dan about 1/4 of a mile behind Charles, they were finishing their final lap (when Ladd found out that Charles was right in front of him he took off to catch him and did about 1/2 mile before the finish, Ladd and Dan gave Charles a little pep talk and he was back on his way). In the 4th loop I figured out that if I didn't walk up every hill I might be able to break 6 hours so I really pushed it and this was my second fastest loop with a 1:28.

I finished strong and in 5:55 (1 hour after Ladd and Dan). (Charles had a great 4th loop and finished strong also.) I never got to the point where I questioned my decision to do this event, I really enjoyed it and my body was no worse for the wear! It was an excellent experience and I am looking forward to my next one!

My BQ Cleveland Marathon, May 16, 2010

The Cleveland Marathon is not my favorite marathon even after it was my pr last year and now again this year and also my Boston qualifying marathon. BUT this worked out perfect this year to run it again with my 2 50k's in March and my 2 half marathons in April and the Illinois marathon 2 weeks before. This is the best trained and prepared I have been for any marathon yet and I guess it showed.
I got my normal marathon amount of sleep the night before waking up about 2:45 am and finally getting out of bed about 3:45, I just can't sleep the night before. I got out of bed and did something I've never done on race morning, I went for a 1 mile run at 4am to get things moving, I also ran 4 miles with JN the day before. Note for next year, leave by 5:15 to get into parking at the Galleria.We arrived with less time than last year and got a group picture but missed quite a few people. My plan was to run with Dan H. for this marathon knowing that if I could stay with him I would be in great shape and it worked. We ran well into mile 21 together before I told him to go, we also ran most of it with a lady named Michele Sollenberger which stayed with me to about mile 24. I needed to run this at a 7:38 pace and we were running in the 7:20 range for a long time which built a nice little cushion, we crossed the half way point at 1:36 :05 and the 30k (18.6 miles) at 2:17, where I was starting to get a bit tired and a little soreness in the calf and hamstrings, but I still ran and felt good til about mile 24 + where I saw Marsha and I was getting slower but still moving decent. Jeannine was supposed to meet me at mile 24 but didn't meet me til mile 25 and of course there is when my hamstring started to act up when ever she tried to get me to speed up, it didn't work but having her there to run with kept me from walking longer than I would have, I walked through a water stop and she is trying to get me moving and tells me if I don't walk again til the finish that she will run any morning for the next month at 5 am. We'll see about that but I made it in at 3:17:45 with time to spare, Dan ended up with an incredible 3:13. It was a great day for all of us, Marsha ran the half just 1 minute shy of her pr and just 2 weeks after her 2nd best marathon, Charles finally broke the 4 hour mark with a 3:57, Tara had a pr in her half at 2:20, Dan Daubner ran his 1st marathon in 3:55, Janet pr'd by 10 minutes with a 4:12, Connie ran a 3:12, Debbie Sheel ran a pr at 3:31 and some others. Now I just need to get Marsha to qualify so we can run Boston together next year.

May 14, 2010, almost 2 months since my last post.

Since my last post I have run a few races, ok maybe more than a few and I will regret not telling myself about each of them here but here are the races.
March 20 we did our annual Super Saturday in Strongsville with Marsha and I winning both 1 mile and 5k awards. I actually came in third overall in the 1 mile and Dan Daubner won our age group coming in 5th I believe.
One week later I ran the Fools 50k with Frank and Dan, 15 mile 1st loop mostly dry with the 2nd 15 mostly rain and the muddiest run I have ever done finishing in 5:44 as I recall. April brought my 2 HALF MARATHONS that I was to run around 20 seconds faster than my bq pace per Connie's instruction's. Chuck and I ran the Spring Classic together and I ended up with a 1:33:20 which was a new pr by 7 seconds then the following weekend I ran the Union Hospital half marathon for the 3rd time in 1:34:03 without my gps placing 2nd or 3rd in my age group. 3 days later we all ran the FREE Victims Right s 5k in the square. I ran most of this race with Connie and Frank placing 4th overall just behind Bob P. Now May has arrived and we are in Illinois to run the Illinois marathon where I was to pace Janet but things were not perfect. It was hot and humid and Janet cut off at the half so from mile 11 to 19 I ran hard to catch Marsha, from there we ran together until about mile 24.5 where I took off in hopes of breaking 4 hours which I just barely made it in 3:59:40. Janet, Phil, Charles, Marsha and I had a really nice get a way in Illinois. May 1 was Illinois now 6 days later we are running Medinas RUN 4 FUN 5k which is in our Subway series. I ran a 20:12 on a hot muggy evening and was the 1st subway male finisher which got me 315 max. points. All of this leads me into what I hope will be my best marathon to date and hopefully a bq to go with it this Sunday May 16, 2010.

St. Malachi 2 and 5 mile 3/13/2010

I ran my PR marathon time 2 weeks ago and my second 50k also a PR a week ago and was a bit tired all week and wasn't going to make a decision on this last weekend til the Thursday. I knew racing would be hard after the previous 2 weekends but I felt pretty good after a pace run on Thursday night so I decided to run St. Malachi with Jeannine and Janet but when I went to sign up I missed the deadline for online registration by less than 12 hours so now the price goes from 17 to 25 race day, easy decision for me. I, in the back of my mind knew I should not race but I don't listen to that voice but this helped me come to decide I should not race but I still decided to go and pace Jeannine in the 2 mile and run the 5 mile for fun. We got a little lost and and thought we may miss the start of the race but we got there with time to spare. There were 1252 runners in the 2 mile race and we started near the front, hit mile 1 right about 7 minutes and I had told JN that she needed to break 14:30 before I decided to pace her so we were ahead of schedule and were passing people most of the race and coming into the finish we were chasing a guy that looked like a body builder with a long pony tail, I kept telling JN we couldn't let this guy beat us, he did but not by much, we finished in 14:05 with Jeannine coming in 26th overall out of the 1252 runners and 2nd in the 19 and over age group. Her award is being mailed to her as we didn't think to hang around for the awards plus there were over 3000 people at this race. Janet finished in just over 16 minutes. Then we were going to run the 5 mile for fun and JN was running it with a friend from school. We had to wait for her friend to get her bib from her brother in law and we missed the start of the race by 10 minutes and weren't even sure where to turn as we went out to run the course. Soon after we took off we caught the tail end of the race and passed many as we jogged the entire course in 47 minutes. Janet and I ran about 30 yds. behind Jn and her friend and during the race saw a few others running the race, saw Bob, Connie, Patrick and later found out Jean B. was there also. It was fun to run in a race as a bandit and pacer and not have to give it my all but still get a good run in.

7 weeks since my last post, wow where to start

It's now March 7 and I have got a little lazy about our running blog. I took almost 2 weeks off after the New Years 24 hour race and haven't wrote anything since and have run 4 more races since then. Feb. 6 a small group of us ran the rec. centers Frosty 5k. Frank and I ran this race together pushing pretty hard and finishing in 22 minutes on a 3.3 mile 5k course that was snow and ice covered. Marsha had to skip this race because she was sick and Jeannine ran it with her hubby in 27 minutes. Dan Daubner ran his 1st 5k ever in 24+ which was impressive with the conditions being so bad. Later that day Dan and Jeannine both have this itch to do another 5k, I said I'm doing another in March, JN says too far away so the 3 of us sign up for the Chili Bowl Classic in Cleveland the very next weekend. 700 runners at the starting line so we start close to the front and I took off fast to avoid the crowd and 2 miles in look back and there is a huge gap behind me, slightly snow covered roads but the fist mile was downhill giving me a 6:03 first mile and a 22nd overall finish and third in my age group at 19:47, Dan Daubner does great also finishing in the top 60 or so and finishing with a 21+ minute new pr, Jeannine did great to finishing just over 23 and 116th of 700. Now 2 weeks later we were running the Last Chance for Boston Marathon/Half with a huge Medina turn out, 20 runners and quite a few spectators, 8 new pr's of the 20 and Matt young winning the whole darn thing in 2:46 I think. Having 2 weeks off in Jan. I felt that a cold winter bq was gonna be tough so I changed my goal to trying to pr and break 3:30. Frank, Roberta and I ran some of the first 6 miles together and Frank and I almost the first half together. I felt good all day hitting the first half in 1:43 and catching all my friends running the half before they were done, Jeannine pr'd the half with a 1:47 with Charles just 39 seconds in front of her and Dan Daubner hitting his debut half in 1:45. I finished just where I wanted in 3:29:12 with Charles and Jeannine each running a mile at the end with me and JN pushing me hard to break that 3:30 goal. Marsha also had a great new pr breaking her previous best my 12 minutes and running a fast 3:53 which by the way was my bib number for the marathon. Before the race started CE, MC and I set up a mcrr table and a sign for almost all the Medina runners out there on the course. I'll see if I can name all the Medina runners there, Ladd, Marsha, Charles, Jeannine, Janet, Lillian, Frank, Roberta, Connie, Bob, Suzanne, Dan Daubner, Dan and Heather DeRosha, Angie , Jan, Matt, Rachel, Coleen and Tim. We also had Chuck there crewing for Lillian and some help with the rest when needed and Angie's husband Christopher taking tons of pictures of us all and Phil too. It was a great time had by all getting to see everyone so often on that one mile loop. 6 DAYS AFTER THIS MARATHON I ran the Green Jewel 50k in 5 hours 3 minutes. While sitting at dinner Friday night with Chuck and Lillian I mention to Chuck that he should skip his idea of the Shamrock and his 21 mile plans and come run in Dan's place in the 50k since he was passing on this one because of his aches and pains. Dan still took us all and crewed us all day which was great and tons of help. We had a Medina car full with Dan D., myself, Chuck, Dan H. and Suzanne all going. It was probably the nicest day so far in March, starting in the low 20's but warming to near 40 by the end, another great race and another pr in 2010.

Monthly Mileage for 2009

Jan. --------100

Feb. --------119

Mar. -------155

April -------126

May --------131

June --------145

July ---------162

Aug. --------209

Sept. --------165

Oct. ---------210

Nov. ---------230 most ever in a month

Dec. ---------295 most ever ever
_____
Total --------2047 miles in 2009

Ladds 2009 Year of Running Review

I just read my 2008 review and it said I would like to run my second marathon this year and maybe an ultra and those things I did. 2009 was my second full year of running and so far my best, lots of new PR's and some new distances in the mix. The only bad part of the year was a few injuries that bugged me for awhile but none that kept me from running except the one after the NC 24 that kept me off for 10 days. I am hoping for another year of PR's in 2010 and less injuries also. 2010 is filling up with races already, 4 marathons, 3 50k's and my next 24 hour race are already paid for. In 2008 I ran 33 races and this year I ran 34. I ran less 5k's this year (14) but many more longer distances with the half and full marathon tying as my 2nd most ran races at 6 each. I also upped my yearly mileage from just over 1200 miles last year to 2047 miles this year. I ran 8 different distance races and PR'd in all except the 10k which is my least favorite of all distaces, and only ran 2 in 2009.

In 2009 I ran

13 - 5k's 19:08 PR

1 - 4 miler 26:12 PR

2 - 1ok's

2 - 10 milers 1:08:12 PR

6 - 1/2 marathons 1:33:27 PR

6 - marathons 3:31:48 PR

1 - 50K 6:46 PR

2 - 24 hour 107.44 PR