Maine Marathon, Portland ME

Ducky weather. We three all agree that the weather was for the birds. And, we have photographic evidence, see bottom.

My Marathon:

The goal was to complete a marathon in Maine without irritating any prior injuries or causing any new ones, because we have a heavy schedule ahead. Goal accomplished, I believe. Nothing hurts except the stuff that usually hurts. I'll know more tomorrow, after all of the endorphins have worn off. Details:

• Time: 6:10:45. I was shooting for 6:15, so that's a fine time. But I was sixth of six in my age group, 819 of 897 overall. Ugh.
  
• Nevertheless, there is joy in Mudville (Portland) today! We're all happy and I'm havin' a beer.
  
• I used a walk/run ratio of five to one, running 30 seconds of each three minutes. Mostly. Toward the end I tried to run a little more, but often had to be satisfied with maintaining the pace.
  
• I chipped a little bit of skin off my thumb when I opened the door latch to leave a porta-potty. My first-ever porta-potty injury! It bled a little, but a little bit of blood looks like a lot in the rain. Now cleaned up and Betadined.
  
• Near the end, a woman who was walking and evidently done running, said that she was on her fifth round of the 50 states. I responded that I was only on my first round. "Well, take my advice," says she, "when you're done, don't get sucked into doing another round of 50!" Seems like she has ignored her own advice at least four times. Perhaps she was just feeling a little discouraged near the end of this marathon. Anyway, I'm already looking for other celebrations of life. Dancing with the Stars? Oops - you gotta be famous first. Marathon in all seven continents? I hear that Antarctica is really cool.
  
• Gels along the way: seven. Salt/potassium tablets: seven.
  
• Someone posted several signs of encouragement for "Pookie" along the way. Example: "Pookie - on a scale of 1 to 10 you are a 13.1." Clearly, Pookie ran the half marathon. I hope s/he did well.
  
• I started with two shirts and a running jacket, eventually tying the jacket around my waist.
  

Weather:

We three have run in much worse weather: (1) In St Charles, MO, the remnants of Hurricane Ike screeched sideways through the town as the race was starting, drenching the landscape with untold amounts of rain. Then the race, while under way, was adjusted to a 10-mile length because parts of the proper course were under water; (2) In Chicago, the race was stopped in progress because of heat - they ran out of ambulances. I did finish that one; (3) Two or three times I have finished Grandma's Marathon in temperatures above 85. I'd certainly rather run in this ducky weather than any of those. It rained most of the time but not all of the time, with temperatures in the high 50's, and a buffeting wind much of the way. I wore enough clothing and was never cold. No problem for a Minnesotan.

The rain in Maine falls plainly on my bean.

When we look back at this marathon we'll probably remember the weather more than anything else, but of course that's no fault of the people of Maine. It can happen anywhere. Every marathon has a surprise or two.

The Maine Marathon:

It's a good one, of course. Pluses:

• This was well organized. They haven't done this 20 years in a row for nuthin'.
  
• After 56 marathons I'm amazed how cheerful, encouraging, and all-out helpful the volunteers were. After all, it was raining hard on them too. Huzzah! to the volunteers. And to the cops too.
  
• At one time on the return of the out-and-back course I couldn't see a single other runner anywhere, and I switched from the right side of the road to the left, though we were apparently expected to be on the right. A police vehicle came by, and the officer said "You wouldn't mind running on the other side, would you?" I replied that I actually preferred the left side because then I can see what's coming. "Well, if you're comfortable with that, then so am I," said he with a smile. Maine hospitality, police style.
  
• They gave us a very fancy race bag filled with lots of goodies.
  
• At the finish, there was plenty of good food, even for those (like me) who finished after six hours.
  
• There was a bagpiper along the way, early in the race, playing in the drenching rain. I'm a sucker for bagpipes.
  
• The shirts were nice, long-sleeved technical in women's and men's styles, and they let us try them on for size.
  
• The course is quite picturesque, with views of the ocean (or the bay, whatever is out there).
  
• They had finishers' blankets and they put them on for you. For once, I was glad to have one.
  
• There was no doubt when the race started - they fired a cannon!

The other stuff:

• The Route: As attractive and engaging as it was, for much of my 6-hour race the route was shared with plenty of vehicles going 35-45 MPH, and in a few places there was really no shoulder, or the gravel shoulder was six inches below the edge of the road surface. I really, really didn't like sharing the road with that many vehicles - I felt very vulnerable, running on the right with vehicles coming from behind. There were times when a vehicle had to pass within two feet, and I had a guardrail preventing me from moving over.
  
• The out-and-back course had us on the right side almost all of the time, so any slant was always to the right, and there was often a slant. This has been a problem for me sometimes, resulting in bursa pains in knees or hips, though happily those problems didn't show up today.
  
• The timing "chips" (strips) were attached to the runners' race numbers (bibs). They are supposed to be vertical, on the sides of the bibs, but someone had mistakenly attached them horizontally, along the bottom ant top, so we runners had to pin the bibs on at 90 degrees. That's a new one for me. Dopey.
  
• The race allowed a runner to specify an address for an email to be sent automatically when the runner finished, but the finish times in the received emails were wrong. I don't know for sure, but both the race numbers and those emails could be the responsibility of the timing company, rather than the race committee. If so, I wonder if that timing company will be back.

For the Record (whining):

• The right-side sports hernia barely showed up at all. Tomorrow may be a different story.
  
• The hip flexors or adductors (I can't tell which) on both sides started to hurt around mile 10, and kept hurting. The right side was worst, and became a limiting pain. They got worse when I ran, and better when I walked, although they still hurt some when I walked.
  
• Knees were cold but there was little pain.
  
• The left glutes or hamstrings hurt a little but were not a limiting issue.
  
• Nothing else hurt. Even with the rain, my feet are fine. Muscles are tired but not nearly as tired as they would be if I had gone faster.

Splits: 13:07, 13:22, 13:09, 26:36 (2 mi), 13:35, 13:38, 17:32 (porta potty), 12:49, 14:19, 13:14, 17:28 (porta potty and med station), 13:56, 13:59, 14:33, 14:18, 14:14, 13:03, 15:24, 13:09, 16:10 (porta potty), 13:00, 12:50, 15:03, 14:10, 18:10 (1.22 mi), total 6:10:45, average pace 14:08.

News Stories:
WCSH Channel 6, NBC
Portland Press Herald Newspaper


Ducky weather. These mallards are finding something to eat in the rainwater on a mowed lawn:

Schwinn Elliptical Again

The sports hernia did get a little irritated by last Sunday’s race, so it’s back to the elliptical, which seems to have no effect on the hernia. I do miss running, though.

Stats: 25:44 minutes, 6.74 avg MPH, 2.89 "miles," 67 avg RPM, 373 calories, 121 avg heart rate. That’s what the machine said at the finish. Let’s do some calculations:

67 RPM x 60 = 4020 revs per hour. Divide by 6.74 MPH to get 596 revolutions/mile, or 8.9 feet per revolution. That’s 106 inches per revolution, or 53 inches per “footfall.” However, one foot actually travels only about 17 inches per “footfall,” so the makers of this machine somehow figure that the elliptical motion can be multiplied by three to get equivalent distance. Are they doing bike distance? Naw - I could go a heck of a lot farther than 2.89 miles in 25 minutes on a bike. I wonder if that calculation changes with the resistance setting - so far I’ve only used the machine on the highest setting.

373 calories in 25:44 is 869 calories per hour, which is a very high rate for me. I wonder if it’s true. I was sweating pretty hard though.

25:44 minutes = 0.42889 hours. Multiply by 6.74 avg MPH, get 2.89 miles. OK, that calculation is as expected. The HR of 121 is about what I would expect. It should be in the 130's at that level of effort, but medication holds it down a little.

The Schwinn A40 made a lot of noise this time, a creaking noise on every left-foot downstroke. Later I moved the machine slightly, to a different spot on the floor, and the noise went away. More research required.

Stacy died today. What a tragedy.

Mostly organic:

MMRF Race for Research

Once a year the Multiple Myeloma Research Foundation holds a money-raising 5k run/walk around Lake Phalen. It’s a fun event. I’m still trying to get past a sports hernia, so I only ran 30 seconds of every two minutes, but that amount sure felt good! The course was re-routed slightly because of construction, so it was probably about 2.9 miles instead of 3.1. I finished in 36:56, for a pace of 12:44. Not speedy, but enough to finish just ahead of the only other guy in my age group.

It felt SO good to run, but I won’t run again until the marathon next Sunday.

For the record: The “sports hernia” is still there. No pain, really, except a little in the first 30 seconds, but it’s lurking there. Also, the right knee with PFS did hurt a little. Ah well, the price of an enjoyable life.

I’m discovering that some people don’t think that a sports hernia will heal by itself - that surgical intervention is usually required, as with other hernias. I hope not - I’m working on the stretches, exercises, and massage.

Splits: 11:08 (probably about 0.8 mi), 12:31, 13:17 (1.1 mi), total 36:56.


Sunshine and myself with our medals:

Walk with SCV Runners

Saturday, Sept 24, 2011:

St Croix Valley Runners, every Saturday 7:00 am, Stillwater’s Northland Park. This morning I walked briskly with George and my sweeties for just over 41 minutes, probably about 2.5 miles. Lovely walk, nothing hurt.

Tomorrow is the MMRF Race for Research in Phalen Park. Registration begins at 9:30, race/walk at 11:00.

Friday, Sept 23, 2011:

Another “run” on the A40 elliptical today, 25 minutes, 328 calories, 2.81 miles. That’s a lot of calories for just 25 minutes, a rate of almost 800 calories per hour. The highest rate I reached on the expensive machines at Anytime Fitness was 650-700 calories per hour, so I’m not sure whether to believe the A40. On the other hand I did work pretty hard and got quite sweaty. Further, the A40 was set to the highest resistance setting, so maybe ... The machine is new to us, and it may take a while for me to have confidence in it.


Dinner: Chicken with mustard, tomatos, sweet potato, squash, relish, cherries, all organic:

Three Days Later

I feel great! We three had planned to a "double" in a couple of weeks, a marathon in New Hampshire on Saturday and another in Maine the next day. But last Monday, the day AFTER the Presque Isle marathon, I really didn’t feel strong enough to run another one that day. Would it be any different two weeks from now? Probably not.

For that reason, and because we have several more marathons on the schedule this fall, we have scratched the New Hampshire marathon and will focus on the one in Portland, Maine in eleven days.

We now have a nice new Schwinn A40 elliptical trainer, which arrived Monday and which we assembled yesterday. This morning I put in 20 minutes of fairly vigorous exercise on it, racking up 213 calories. Neither the machine nor I experienced any problems. There was a little bit of squeaking (I think it was the machine, not me) but it went away. After a little more experience with the machine, I may post a review of it. So far it’s pretty good.

As I think back on my blog posts it seems like there has been a lot of whining about injuries, especially lately. I do need to log that information for future reference, but at least for a while I’m going to put it at the bottom of the post, unless it really is the headline. As of today, the pain in the right-side adductors / hip flexors is entirely gone, as expected. The sports hernia (abdominal wall strain) on that side is detectable but not painful. That’s the one of most concern in the long term. I have located a couple of web pages describing sensible, appropriate treatment for the sports hernia and have put together a recovery program which includes stretches, specific exercises, and self-administered massage. We’ll see how it goes and if I stick to it.

Meanwhile, today is a masterpiece!

Presque Isle Marathon, Erie PA

An unqualified success. I was worried about this one, because of injuries that might reappear, but so far so good. So very good. This was the 55th marathon and 37th state since my myeloma diagnosis in 2003, and the 28th marathon and 21st state since starting on the pomalidomide investigational drug in March of 2008.

The Marathon Itself:

• Very well organized - it went smoothly.
  
• Aid stations were a mile apart, twice as good as the two miles offered by most marathon.
  
• Race officials on bikes passed me many times - they were doing a good job.
  
• Parking was totally organized - follow the flashlights, shut up, and park! No one got their choice of a place to park, but that was no problem, because every spot was close to the start.
  
• Some of the aid stations had a theme: At Mile 5 (and 18) it appeared to be a hillbilly theme, and at another location the Boy Scouts ran the station.
  
• The course follows the paved roads circling Erie’s Presque Isle, a state park, and is exactly a half marathon in length. Marathoners just do it twice. As the T-shirt says, marathoners do it longer.
  
• The park is incredibly beautiful, covered with huge trees, mostly cottonwood, but there were large acorns on the ground here and there from a type of oak that I didn’t recognize.
  
• We saw a flock of wild turkeys, flocks of geese honking overhead, lots of squirrels, and, though we didn’t see them, there are beavers and opossums on the island too. With all of that prey, I'm thinking there must also be predators like foxes.
  
• The island was created initially by the action of waves on the shores farther west. It seems to be entirely sand, though some soil has built up within the forested areas.
  
• It is actually a peninsula, connected to Erie by a narrow strip of land just wide enough for a roadway. In French, “presque” means “almost.”
  
• I was put off by the amount of vehicle traffic on the roads that we ran, but I'll get over it. Lots of people use the park, not just us marathoners.

My Race:

I had an unexpectedly good marathon. I’m still on top of the world. I ran (& walked) slowly, shooting for six hours, and finished in about 5:52:16. This took almost an hour longer than my last marathon in July, but I went slow out of concern for a sports hernia injury (not really a hernia) that I have been nursing for four weeks, and I fully expected it to reappear somewhere in the 26 miles. It didn’t! No pain at all during the first half marathon. Later I did have a lot of pain from tendons or ligaments of the hip flexors or maybe the adductors on the same side as the sports hernia, even during the walking, but that went away whenever I stopped. This is not new - hip flexor pain has appeared in many previous marathons and is not likely to be a limiting problem.

Other stuff:

• Near the end of the race I passed by a runner wearing a Portland, Maine T-shirt. I asked him if he was from Portland, and in the ensuing conversation he revealed that he would be running the Portland Marathon two weeks from now, and also the marathon in Bristol, NH the day before that. Further, he ran a marathon yesterday! I said that he must be a 50-stater by now (finished a marathon in all 50 states) and he said that he was going around for the seventh time! “What the heck,” he said, “I’m retired.” Uff-da. (That’s Minnesota speak for wowzer).
  
• A marathoning axiom: Don’t try anything in a marathon that you haven’t previously tried in a long run. I violated that rule today, but got away with it.
  • I’ve never taken video during a race before, but I took 50 minutes of it today. It didn’t slow me up much, because I kept going, mostly shooting during the walking intervals.
  • To carry the video camera, I added a pouch for the camera on my water-carrier belt. I’ve done marathons with the water carrier before, but the pouch was new. No problem.
  • Also, I carried my gels in an empty plastic peanut butter jar, which just fit in the carrier where a water bottle would otherwise go. Also no problem - except that the gels rattled in the PB jar when I ran. Fixable.
• That left the pockets of my shorts free for whatever. I used them to carry leftover water cups and other debris to the next aid station.
  
• Some of the video may eventually show up on a Youtube or Facebook page, maybe even this blog.
  
• I took six Clif Shot Mocha gels along the way, every four miles starting at Mile 2, and salt tablets every four miles starting at Mile 4. No problem with energy, and no muscle cramps.

I dedicated this race to my daughter-in-law, who is also battling cancer right now. At the moment, her battle is considerably more serious than mine, and I do so wish her well and wellness.

Further, I ran this race for Team Continuum, a charity which helps families deal with the overwhelming costs of cancer. If you have a Facebook account, I urge you to go to Facebook.com/ERACECANCER, my fundraising account, and “like” it. There is no cost to you, and a generous donor will make a contribution.

Splits: 26:13 (2 mi), 13:18, 12:25, 13:31, 16:49 (natural break), 13:06, 12:36, 11:33, 12:53, 14:09, 26:51 (2 mi), 13:31, 13:03, 27:54 (2 mi), 13:03, 14:49, 13:28, 12:45, 13:46, 14:21, 12:25, 13:15, 16:34 (1.2 mi ++), total 5:52:16, pace 13.26.

Sunshine and me at the start, wearing garbage bags against the wind. Those disappeared just before the start. Isn't she cute?:

Double Elliptical

206 calories in 20 minutes on the elliptical trainer. Pulse rate reached 120 today - That’s more appropriate than the rate of 113 last Monday, when I spent 259 calories in 25 minutes.

After the short workout, I jogged gently in and out of a nearby grocery store, with no pains anywhere. So here’s hoping for the upcoming marathon. Of course 26 miles is way different from 200 feet.

This is probably the last post before the marathon. This time I’m taking video of the run, with a cute little waterproof pocket webcam. I’ve never done that before, but there will be a video record of the experience - I sure hope it’s a good one.


Almost entirely organic: