Vitamin I and inflammation

Today's long Lester run was going to be a challenge. Eighteen usually isn't so tough, yet I knew this one would be. You see, I've been mighty sore lately. Mighty sore. Ever since the fortnight-ago Cleveland Marathon, every muscle and joint screams at me for any and every little movement. This is expected for a day or three after a race, but not two weeks. Such soreness is compounded when one runs another race (the Medina Half-Marathon) six days hence. 

Now, six days after that, the cumulated soreness has only gotten worse. Yesterday I ran the usual ten miles, and then hiked three at Hinckley, and I was hurtin' for certain. In order to recover enough to run long today, I took three Vitamin I (aka Ibuprofen) tablets. This is more than I've taken in years and years; I don't even take a single one very often. But I felt I had to reduce the inflammation. 

It worked... But only for a while. I felt decent and maintained a pretty good pace with the group for the first twelve miles. Then most of them were done, and it was just me and Shannon Barnes for the last part. That last part was increasingly painful. I suppose last night's Vitamin I was wearing off. Although it's possible that I may have been able to shuffle or walk another two, Shannon and I decided to call it quits at sixteen. 

Here's the problem: the week ain't over yet. I'm scheduled to run on the Towpath with my friends Larry Orwin and Dave Gajewski tomorrow, and possibly Hinckley on Sunday. Woah is me.

2026 Medina Half-Marathon Race Report

When you're slow and you don't know it, you run most of the first six miles with the 1:55 pace group, thinking that the pace is easy and maintainable. The damp, cool weather ain't too awful. But then you notice that each time you slow for a hill or an aid station, they get farther and farther ahead.

When you're slow and you don't know it, training partner Shannon Barnes comes up from behind around halfway, and you try mightily to stay with her, but she floats away - far away - before the mid-race conversation is completed.

When you're slow and you don't know it, your friend John Hnat comes up from behind around mile 10, and you begin another conversation that also gets cut off as this friend floats away as well. 

When you're slow and you don't know it, you think, at least mile 13 is downhill, and you should be able to smoke everyone around you, and you sort of do, except for Julie Boggs' son, Ben, who manages to run his final mile much faster than you.

When you're slow and you don't know it, you finish in 1:56 and change (winning your age group), and you may as well be happy about it. It beats being sad.

The Medina Half is the race where everybody knows your name. It's great to see all your friends there in their native environment. It's also great when your wife and daughters show up to cheer you on.

Photo: Veronica Dancer

Plan C

Last week, whilst obsessing about the weather forecast for the Cleveland Marathon, I began to consider a Plan B. The thought process was sorta like this: if things don't go so well for your 'A' race, run another one soon, while you're still in good shape.

Yeah, that sounds good, but what if 1) things do indeed not go so well, but 2) you are slso so beat up that you don't even want to consider some other Plan B event? That means it's time for Plan C.

What's Plan C, you ask? Damned if I know.

I do have the Akron Marathon in September. Not to mention the Medina Half tomorrow. For that latter one, I'm still beat up, and the weather looks bad once again (rain , not heat this time).

Cleveland Marathon Race Report

They can't all be gems. I am finding myself saying that more and more these days. Especially today.

After 13.1 miles (in ~1:56), I was already doing the marathon shuffle.

After 18 miles (about 2:41), I was in death-march mode.

At about 20 miles (around 3:03), I was starting to re-examine my life choices.

It would have been a good day to have someone suggest going to breakfast after the Half. I'd been running much of the first 12 miles with Eileen Meisler, and that part hadn't gone too poorly. I was jealous, however, when she and the other Half-Marathoners peeled off to finish, whilst we Marathoners had to soldier on. That's when it began to get hotter and hotter. Although there were some nice, shady sections, the heat just kept building.

Despite all the Gatorade, gels, and salt-sticks, that heat got to me. The entire second half was awful, especially the last 10K. I suppose it could have been worse, as it has been for a few of the past Cleveland Marathons, but it was pretty bad today.

I finished in 4:13. I'd been hoping for sub-4. It wasn't in the cards today. Although they interviewed me at the finish line ("You may have won your age group. You are an inspiration to us all!"), I later learned that I was second, not first, in my ancient age group.

To add insult to injury, I became the proud recipient of a parking ticket when I got back to my car in the 81F heat.

Thanks to Larry Orwin for coming downtown to witness my exciting finish!

Photo credit: Larry Orwin

More on Plan B

Temperatures be like, 55, 55, 55, <<all month long>>, then suddenly 85 on the day of the race. Weather can have a profound impact on marathon performance, and this Sunday, I'm afraid, will be no exception. Most of us don't get to run too many marathons throughout the year, and we need to train for months to run one. Thus, it's particularly concerning to see a forecast such as the one we have for this weekend.

By the way, there's a typo in the post title. It should read, Moron Plan B. There. That's better.

Dan, what do you mean by Plan B, you ask? Excellent question. As I mentioned in a previous post, Plan B is for times when your Plan A Marathon doesn't go quite as well as planned, and you want a second chance to run a decent marathon whilst you're still in marathon shape. This is not to say that I'm in the very best marathon shape possible right now. But since everything's relative, I believe I can say that I just might be the best I've been in a while.

Here are a couple of my candidates for a Plan B. They come shortly after the Cleveland Marathon.

MISH Waterfront Marathon, June 6 in Gladstone, Michigan.

The Maratime Marathon, June 7 in Manitowoc, Wisconsin. 

They both sound nice, but they're a fur piece. I guess I'll wait until after Sunday's Cleveland Marathon to decide what to do.

Peek and Peak

Five days out from the Cleveland Marathon, I peeked at the weekend forecast. The weather is important to me, because I am peaking for this race and I want it to be a good one.

Alas, it does not look so good: the high for the day is now forecasted to be a toasty 81. This wouldn't be quite so bad if it came along in the summer, when we're used to training in warm weather, but not when it's been well below average for weeks and weeks. Those cool morning temperatures have felt pretty good. 81 will not.

I should have had a Plan B. Oftentimes, I do. For example, last fall, I ran the Columbus Marathon, where the weather was bad, and as a result, my time was slow. My Plan B race came two weeks later at the Veterans Marathon. I ran a little better at that one. But this time, there is no Plan B; it's do or die in Cleveland, probably the latter. 

There's been a whole lot of yin and yang this season. After Sunday's decent race, yesterday was a slow and easy day. Today's track workout wasn't bad, though. After a cold start, my friends and I ran the 10 x 400 5K workout, and I was reasonably happy with my run. After they all left, I was alone on the track once again. 

But not totally alone. My shadow joined me, and I was happy to have the company. He needs to get into better shape, though.

Dan and his shadow

Moms Rock 5K

A wardrobe malfunction can have many possible causes. 

One possible cause is this: you put on some tights that you haven't warn for three years and you wouldn't be normally wearing tights when it's fifty degrees but since you will be walking around the zoo all day after the race, you figure you should wear something that works for both running and walking around but you learn that the waistband elastic of the tights is shot but you can keep them up by tying the drawstring, so of course the knot comes undone and your tights are falling down at about the two-mile mark, causing you to stop and re-tie it, just when you ought to be running at your fastest because it's downhill here.

Other than that, the race was okay. As usual, I was slow and slower on the uphill sections, which included most of the first half of the race. Coming back down, I wanted to unleash the beast (after all, we were running at the zoo), but that wardrobe thing slowed me down. 

I finished in 25:58. That's not too bad, but the course was a bit short. Better that than long, I always say. After a while, I checked in at the results tent and learned that I won a miniature daisy planter for being first in my ancient age group. But when I got home, my name isn't showing up in the results. I'm working on this...