Pro Football HOF Enshrinement Festival 2 & 5 Mile

Harold, Alan, Patti and me       Harold Dravenstott photo

That's the official name of the race. Good thing I didn't spell out Hall of Fame; we could have had Post Title Overflow.

This would be the second week in a row for a large and prestigious five-miler. This time the race was the Canton Football Hall of Fame Five-Mile. I met up with Patti Tomasello and Harold and Alan Dravonstatt for the ride down to football-land. Like last week, it's a fur piece. Unlike last week, the weather actually did decide to cooperate. As we arrived, we all noticed that it was relatively cool, and, more importantly, not humid.

Like last week, my goal was to keep the miles under seven minutes. This really shouldn't be such a big deal for me; I do my weekly tempo training runs at this pace. As it turned out, the first mile was fine, and the second mile, very downhill-ish, was screaming fast. Even mile three was okay, but mile four was uphill, and it was my first over seven minutes. Could I hold it together for the fifth?

This race is in the Ohio-Subway Challenge Series. Since I used to participate in the series, I was familiar with the race and the competition. It's the same old group of arch-nemisises: Ron Legg, Al King, and, in my very own age group, Don Cassidy, Vince Russo, and Doug Hradek. We all pretty know the general pecking order, and where we each fit in that old food chain. (Like that? Doing my best to mix my metaphors here.)

I thought that Alan and I would run pretty much together, but I didn't see him after the first half-mile. I also didn't see Don after the first half-mile; he was moving fast, and was well up ahead by the first mile mark. I did see Vince for pretty much the entire way. I caught up with him around the McKinley monument - mile three - mumbling 'hey Vince' as I went by. That was about all the conversation I was capable of.

Vinced passed me back a short time later, saying, 'you probably have another thirty miles to run when we're finished.' My brain tried to say something like, 'no, I'm no longer running so many miles.' Unfortunately, this came out of my mouth something like this: 'noarghh!' I noticed, however, that Vince was breathing very heavily as he tried to maintain his slight lead.

Not that I wasn't doing the same thing. But it was good to know that I was making him work. I passed him once more around the four-mile mark. It felt like I was pouring it on for my final mile, but in reality I was only maintaining that seven minute pace. Then came what's known there as 'Heartbreak Hill': a short but very steep hill leading to the finish,

Trying my darndest to stay ahead of Vince, and also to keep my overall time under thirty-five minutes, I somehow managed to (barely) do both. I finished in 34:49 by my watch (34:55 on theirs). That was good for second in the age group, well behind Don, but just ahead of Vince.

This was much hillier than last week's run, but also much less humid. And about 3/4 minute faster. Looks like cooler/less humid wins. Now I will take a week off from racing, before my next big push.

Johnnycake Jog

Here I am prior to the start. Thanks to Chip Jenkins for the photo

As I've been fond of telling anyone who will still listen to me, the very first Cleveland Marathon in 1978 was also my own very first marathon. Similarly, the very first Johnnycake Jog 5-mile in 1977 was my own very first road race.

Back in those days there weren't nearly so many road races as there are today. I remember going in not knowing what to expect. I drove up with my training partner, Paul Coleman, in his conversion van. The reason I remember that little detail is because of the aftermath.

It was a hot one. Ninety-five daggone degrees. And that year they held the race at one o’clock in the afternoon. In the heat of the day. Relentless sun beating down. Mad dogs and Englishmen. Cook an egg on the sidewalk. You know all the sayings.

I wish I could remember my time. I do remember how I nearly collapsed due to that heat. When I came back to Paul's van, my skin was bright red from heat - not sunburn. And it seemed that I just could not cool down. Paul, who felt nearly the same way, opened the cooler in his van and got out some large blocks of ice that we proceeded to rub all over our bodies. Funny how you remember something like that.

Thirty-seven years later, it seemed as though this time would be different; cooler temperatures were in the forecast for Sunday. Too bad they were wrong. It was still hot, sunny, and extremely humid.  I drove that long trip to Painesville with Chip Jenkins. I saw Becky, Mike and several other acquaintances once we got there. I also saw plenty of other top-notch runners as well.

The heat caught up with me soon enough. I'd kind've hoped to keep all my miles under seven minutes. Didn't happen - beginning as soon as mile two. Even so, I thought I might still be able to break 35 minutes as I turned onto Mentor Avenue for the final straight, flat and hot, hot, hot final mile and three quarters into the sun.

Would I be able to pick it up? In the words of grandson Malcolm, nope. I kept loping at the same old just-over-seven-minute pace to finish in 35:38. That turned out to be good for second in the geezer division and one second ahead of third.

Maybe I'll get faster NEXT time.

A Midsummer Morn's Steam

My first thought at 3:55 am is this: I slept well, but not enough. The air conditioning (it's the latest thing) helps. We try to hold off turning the darn thing on as long as we can, but yesterday we gave in, and of course kept it on for the night.

As I start ambling/stumbling around the house, I shut down the A/C and proceed to open windows and doors to let the cool night air in. The only problem is that the night air is not the least bit cool. After all the nice cool weather and rain, Summer has finally arrived. With it comes the warm, humid nights that I'm not very fond of. Not that I'm fond of the humid ninety-degree daytime heat either. But it would be nice if it cooled down at least a little more at night.

The coffee takes longer than I had hoped to have its desired effect. I don't get out the door until - get this - 6:15 am. What did I do for those two hours? I checked email, turned on the tv to check the weather, did some push-ups, fed Rosy the cat and rubbed her belly... all the usual stuff that could be accomplished in 30 minutes if I'd put my mind to it.

But that's the key. With the coffee not working as speedily as I'd like, I have no mind at all.

I'm about 45 minute too late for the country road course that I used to do regularly, and wanted to get back to but haven't been able to because I haven't been getting up and out early enough to get onto the course early enough to beat the traffic on those country roads that I can't stand and is somewhat dangerous so instead I have to do what I've been doing instead for a while now, and that is to run up to North Park and five times around and back to make it a ten-miler. Don't you just love that sentence? I don't know what got into me, but okay, I'll return to English now.

The heat is stifling, and the sun has only begun to rise. The humidity is so high, I'm sweating before I even take my first step onto our street.

I've run my first two miles in seventeen or so minutes - faster than my usual early miles. But it's time to start moving even faster - down to sub-seven pace. Yes, it's tempo time again. I've been just barely making it through these workouts - defined by me as three or more consecutive miles at sub-seven pace. And they don't seem to be getting any easier. The steamy weather doesn't help at all.

I do two miles, the ones leading up to the park, in 13:30. That's pretty good, and I think those miles are fairly accurate. Now I have two miles to do at the park, which consist of five laps around the lake, along with the short trip there and back from the entrance.

I know that I've got to do the first and last laps, which include the there and back parts, in under 3 minutes, and the middle three laps at sub-2:40 each. To summarize, I make it through each lap with no more than a second or two to spare.

I've accomplished my mission - over three miles (actually, four) at sub-seven pace. And now the heat and humility have really gotten to me. I stop to stretch and get a drink of water.

It's really tough to get moving again, but somehow I even do an extra couple miles on my way back, for a thirteen mile morning. Another (barely) successful tempo run. A decent amount of mileage. Probably a record number of buckets of sweat.

After yet another run in the still hotter afternoon, I'm ready for a day off.

When to Back Off

I thought I was finally getting smarter.

The smart people say that you need to back off your hard training when you feel an injury coming on. After all those years of running, I never really figured out how to do this. It seemed as though the injuries would come on suddenly and without warning... and then I was stuck with them. This wasn't all that bad, because I was fortunate enough to spend most of my time injury-free.

But the last couple years were different. Now I was spending most of my time:
a) about to become injured (but I didn't know enough to back off).
b) injured.
c) recovering from injury (but a new one was probably coming on, so go back to a).

I didn't like this. So around the beginning of this year I made a conscious decision to run a bit less, and to try to get a little smarter about this injury thing. I was going to back off when I felt an injury coming on. I wouldn't worry about losing fitness or about my weekly mileage numbers.

It worked. By no longer worrying about training for marathons, my weekly mileage was also no longer a concern. It went from around 70 miles per week - my "standard" for many years - to 50 or less. And as a result (I think), I haven't been injured for over six months. What a relief after those injury-prone years of 2011 and 2012.

Until now. Even though the mileage is down, I've tried to work on the intensity. Every Tuesday is track workout day, and I have also tried to get in one or two tempo runs, or a race, each week. And now I'm experiencing a bit of plantar fasciitis in my right foot.

It's not bad. Maybe if I back off, it will get better faster. Maybe I'll be smart about it. But then there are some races coming up. And I don't want to lose this fitness....

New Stuff

The whole gang - just before the start    thanks to Marsha Clifford for the photo

Those of us who've been around awhile are well aware that the Half-Marathon is the new Marathon. Those who've been around even longer know that 5K is the new 10K. Believe it or not, 10K's used to be one of the more common race distances. Now I'm here to tell you that 21 minutes is the new 20 minutes for a 5K goal.

There was a time - not all that long ago - when two (count them, 2) 5K's in a row at sub 20 minutes were the goal. Even sub 39 minutes for the 10K was doable. As recently as 2006 I was still doing 39 and change. There were some 41's in 2007 and 2008. It looks like the last time I broke 20 minutes in the 5K was at this race (the Medina Twin Sizzler) in 2010. In fact, as far as I can tell, my last sub 21 was that year as well.

Not that I'm obsessed with numbers in general or specifically with race times. I'm much too far gone for any of that. Pilots say that any landing that you walk away from is a good one, so I've been going along those lines with my 'any race that you finish in vertical fashion is a good one'... But dad-gum it if I would really, really like to have a good race once in a while.

Well, it happened. At today's Medina Twin Sizzler 5K, I decided to concentrate on, and only do the 5K. For one thing, I've never done well at the 10K. For another, more important thing however, Veronica and the Grandkids are visiting, and I wanted to get back home relatively early so as to spend time with them. So I figured it's best to not even worry about that second race this time. Recent speedwork and tempo running haven't hurt, and it all turned out as well as could be expected.

It was warm and extremely humid. The Medina square was alive with activity. The whole gang was there. There was, as usual, a good sized bunch of runners at the start. The first mile was down, then up for a 6:44. The second was also hilly, but slower, for a 7:08. The final 1.1 miles - mostly downhill - were 6:55, for a finish time of 20:49 by my watch. That was also good for first in my ancient age group.

Now the question must be asked: can I knock a minute off this time for my next 5K? And then do two in a row for a sub-40 10K?

Nah.

My Edge

When I lived in Michigan, I occasionally ran with a guy in our neighborhood named Terry Elsey. Terry is about my age, and we were already getting a bit long in the tooth at the point in time when we ran together. In his prime however, Terry had been one of the fastest guys anywhere. I learned a few things during our runs. Here are a couple of them:

1) You could pick up discarded Marlboro packages, collect the UPC's, send them in, and receive some pretty neat stuff. Over a couple years, I wound up with backpacks, a roller duffle bag, cargo shorts, and other things that I can't remember. Terry, having more and longer experience with these pickups, got even more stuff. Marlboro stopped the program about ten years ago.

2) It's good to have "an edge". We would do a run through Farmington Hills that I had figured was something on the order of 11.7 miles. "I call it eleven," said Terry. When I told him that he ought to record his running data more accurately, he said, "I convince myself that I'm running slower and fewer miles. That's my edge."

When Terry ran a race, he knew subconsciously that he could run faster than his training log indicated. It must have worked for him; he sure won his share of road races.

My edge for many years has been that I ran a lot of miles. Sure I trained hard as well, but I always thought that when I lined up for a race, I had at least one advantage over my peers: that I (generally) ran more than they did. I was at least somewhat competitive, so it worked, although not as well as Terry's edge worked for him.

Now that I've retired from marathoning, I've cut back on my overall mileage. After years of seventy mile weeks, I'm now doing about forty to fifty. The really good news is that I've now gone about six months without a major injury. It's possible that there's a relationship there, somewhere. But aside from that bit of cheer, I think I may have lost my edge.

The plan had been to get faster at shorter distances by training faster for those fewer miles. I'm working on this. Both last week and this week I managed to get in both an interval workout and a tempo run. This is pretty much the kind of training I'd been planning on and hoping for. So maybe my new edge can be that I run fast nearly all the time.

I like this idea, but it sure didn't work for me at the Towpath Ten-Ten 10K the other day. Maybe I am still a work in progress.

Towpath Ten-Ten Un-Race Report

It's so much easier to write a race report when it goes well. It occurs to me that the same is true for reading said report. At least now you know how this one is going to go.

Expectations get you every time. I used to expect to do under forty minutes for a 10K, and the only question was how much under forty could I go? Not having done too many 10K's in recent years, I wasn't real sure, but based on recent training, as well as fairly recent 5K, 10-mile and marathon races, I thought 43 or so minutes - about seven minutes a mile - was doable.

Not only was it not doable, it wasn't even close. The Towpath Ten-Ten is a 10K and 10-mile race on the paved part of the towpath in Valley View and Cleveland. It's flat, and with the solid surface, ought to be fast. I chose the 10K because I wanted to go especially fast this day. The first mile actually did go okay, time-wise. It was right around seven minutes.

But I was already suffering. The rain had tapered off, but it was now extremely humid. I'd run in humid conditions before, but that thick air was affecting my breathing more than usual this day. And then there were my GI issues, about which I won't elaborate.

I slowed to eight minute pace and that was that. Even holding on to that was a chore. I finished in a little under 49 minutes. I think that's a PW, but I'm too lazy to check. In case you're bad at math, that's six minutes slower - a minute a mile - than I expected, and 10 minutes slower than where I'd like to be.

It appears that those expectations need further adjustment.

The Key to Happiness

The key to happiness, or at least one of them, is to 'live in the moment'. I tried, without luck, to verify this in wikipedia.com, my source for all such useless knowledge. I guess you'll just have to take my word for it. Regardless whether it's an official key or not, from everything I hear, living in the moment is a good thing to do. It's little tough for me however. I'm often troubled by the future, and/or haunted by the past. I know. I sound like a Charles Dickens character.

But today, I'm trying extra hard to make my run an 'in the moment' one.

Never mind that I used to eat intervals like today's for breakfast. Never mind that as recently as last week I managed to get a few really decent runs in. Today, I'm in the moment.

Never mind that as I show up at 5:15 AM along with Alan and Harold Dravenstott and Jeanne Hejny, it's awful darn early. Never mind that it's really tough to get moving, especially to get moving as fast as I'd like. I'm running in the moment. Never mind that the times I'm doing here on the track pale in comparison with those I do on my treadmill. On another day, this might be disappointing. But not today. Today, I'm in the moment.

Never mind that each of the three sets of (1600, 1200, 800) gets significantly slower. I'm running in the moment.

And never mind that although these track times may improve a bit if I keep at them, the very long term prognosis for speed is not a good one. But that's okay.

Because I'm in the moment.

Youngsters in the Mist... and in Our Midst

Here is something I wrote for the MCRR newsletter.

We often celebrate the accomplishments of the top runners in the club. Many of these folks have been around long enough to actually accumulate some accolades. Once in a while, however, we ought to take notice of what some of our younger club members are doing.

Patrick Fisher has been in the club since about the time it started. He was just beginning high school at the time, and already had a passion for running. Many of us have had the pleasure to observe his progress throughout his high school and early college years. Pat’s coaches have had to keep after him, however; he tends to run and race too much! That’s what happens when you have a mom like Shannon and spend time around Roy Heger. Although Pat concentrates on his studies and his college running, he came around in March to win the Buzzard Day 25K race.

Many of us have also been fortunate enough to be able to watch Alan Dravenstott run, almost from the time he got started back in elementary school. It appears to be safe to say that Alan is more responsible for his dad, Harold’s running progress, than the other way around. Like Patrick’s coaches, Harold is trying hard to keep Alan from running too much and hurting himself or burning out. Now in middle school, Alan is running strong, and evidently enjoying every minute of it. So are we.

Debbie and Rob Scheel’s daughters, Emily and Elissa are still in grade school, but are already running extremely well. Debbie and Rob will bring the entire family to a 5K on occasion, and the two girls usually run strong. Like a lot of kids, Emily and Elissa have several interests. They do especially well at skating, but of course their running is still improving as well.

There are many other young folks in the club; sorry to have to stop talking about them here. Watch any of them run; it’s a blast. But beware: their enthusiasm for the sport is highly contagious.

Dan's 100

Here is the list of the hundred marathons that I've done. If you get as far as the bottom of the list, you'll find some additional information.

Number	Marathon	Date	Age	Time
1	Revco Cleveland	5/14/1978	25	3:04
2	Athens, OH	4/5/1981	27	3:21
3	Athens, OH	4/10/1983	29	3:23
4	Detroit Free Press	10/16/1987	34	3:16
5	Sy Mah	3/27/1988	34	3:12
6	Chicago	10/30/1988	35	3:33
7	Sy Mah	3/19/1989	35	3:10
8	Revco Cleveland	5/21/1989	36	2:59
9	Scotty Hanton	9/2/1989	36	3:25
10	Detroit Free Press	10/15/1989	36	3:01
11	Boston	4/16/1990	36	3:19
12	Revco Cleveland	5/19/1991	38	3:16
13	Scotty Hanton	8/31/1991	38	3:29
14	Detroit Free Press	10/20/1991	38	3:05
15	New York	11/3/1991	38	3:27
16	Glass City	4/12/1992	38	3:29
17	Revco Cleveland	5/17/1992	39	3:23
18	Scotty Hanton	9/5/1992	39	2:59
19	Detroit Free Press	10/18/1992	39	3:03
20	Boston	4/19/1993	39	3:50
21	Ohio/Michigan	7/11/1993	40	3:24
22	Scotty Hanton	9/4/1993	40	3:01
23	Detroit Free Press	10/17/1993	40	3:01
24	Ohio/Michigan	7/10/1994	41	2:58
25	Scotty Hanton	9/4/1994	41	3:23
26	Boston	4/17/1995	41	3:04
27	Scotty Hanton	9/3/1995	42	2:59
28	Detroit Free Press	10/15/1995	42	2:59
29	Boston	4/15/1996	42	3:16
30	Ohio/Michigan	7/14/1996	43	2:58
31	Scotty Hanton	9/2/1996	43	3:21
32	Toe to Tow	10/13/1996	43	2:59
33	Detroit Free Press	10/20/1996	43	3:17
34	Boston	4/21/1997	43	3:05
35	Ohio/Michigan	7/13/1997	44	3:05
36	Scotty Hanton	8/31/1997	44	3:24
37	Air Force	9/20/1997	44	3:29
38	Detroit Free Press	10/19/1997	44	3:08
39	Scotty Hanton	9/7/1998	45	3:04
40	Chicago	10/11/1998	45	3:05
41	Detroit Free Press	10/18/1998	45	3:22
42	Honolulu	12/13/1998	45	3:14
43	Boston	4/19/1999	45	3:16
44	Bayshore	5/29/1999	46	3:06
45	Scotty Hanton	9/5/1999	46	3:11
46	Detroit Free Press	10/17/1999	46	3:24
47	Austin Motorola	2/20/2000	46	3:12
48	Glass City	4/16/2000	46	3:13
49	CVS Cleveland	4/29/2000	46	3:07
50	Eriesistable	9/10/2000	47	3:38
51	Towpath	10/15/2000	47	3:06
52	Martian Marathon	3/31/2001	47	3:23
53	CVS Cleveland	4/29/2001	47	3:09
54	GCM Cleveland	5/6/2001	48	3:23
55	Towpath	10/13/2001	48	3:19
56	Ocala	2/3/2002	48	3:19
57	CVS Cleveland	4/29/2002	48	3:14
58	Detroit Free Press	10/6/2002	49	3:04
59	Columbus	10/20/2002	49	3:09
60	Boston	4/21/2003	49	3:17
61	Green Bay	5/18/2003	50	3:12
62	Columbus	10/19/2003	50	3:12
63	Ocala	2/1/2004	50	3:20
64	Martian Marathon	3/27/2004	50	3:15
65	Rite Aid Cleveland	4/25/2004	50	3:10
66	Towpath	10/10/2004	51	3:15
67	Detroit Free Press	10/24/2004	51	3:18
68	Boston	4/19/2005	51	3:32
69	Rite Aid Cleveland	5/22/2005	52	3:18
70	Tahoe Triple Day 1	10/6/2005	52	3:42
71	Tahoe Triple Day 2	10/7/2005	52	3:49
72	Tahoe Triple Day 3	10/8/2005	52	3:58
73	Huntington Marathon	11/13/2005	52	3:12
74	Boston	4/17/2006	52	3:09
75	Columbus	10/15/2006	53	3:18
76	Rite Aid Cleveland	5/21/2007	54	3:22
77	Chicago	10/7/2007	54	3:35
78	Inland Trail	11/4/2007	54	3:14
79	Prague International	5/11/2008	55	3:28
80	Erie	9/14/2008	55	3:28
81	Towpath	10/12/2008	55	3:21
82	Inland Trail	11/2/2008	55	3:17
83	Rite Aid Cleveland	5/17/2009	56	3:35
84	Towpath	10/11/2009	56	3:25
85	Run with Scissors	10/25/2009	56	5:35
86	Inland Trail	11/1/2009	56	3:20
87	Boston	4/19/2010	56	3:17
88	Rite Aid Cleveland	5/16/2010	57	3:13
89	Akron Marathon	9/25/2010	57	3:23
90	Columbus	10/17/2010	57	3:16
91	Landis Loonies	1/1/2011	57	3:36
92	Glass City	4/17/2011	57	3:38
93	Rite Aid Cleveland	5/15/2011	58	3:16
94	Inland Trail	11/6/2011	58	3:22
95	Jacksonville Breast Cancer	2/12/2012	58	3:58
96	On My Own Two Feet Kent	4/21/2012	58	3:53
97	Rite Aid Cleveland	5/20/2012	59	4:06
98	Canton Marathon	6/17/2012	59	3:47
99	Run with Scissors	10/28/2012	59	5:27
100	Rite Aid Cleveland	5/19/2013	60	3:39

The average is 3:21:36. If we ignore the three of these that were primarily on trails (On My Own Two Feet Kent and the two Run with Scissors runs), the average is 3:18:36. I still include the Towpath/Toe to Tow Marathon because although it's also on a trail, that trail is not much different or slower than pavement.

I've had one DNF: Erie in 2003. Of course it's not included. That one upset me quite a bit, since I could have made it; I was just hot and tired, and gave up at the half. I vowed never to let that happen again. It didn't, at least at a marathon. (Don't get me started about my Mohican 100 in 2011!)

Speaking of ultras, I've done 21. Here is that list:

Number	Ultra	Date	Age	Time
1	Olander Park 24 hour (51)	1992	39	10.5 hours	51.5 miles
2	MI Fat Ass 50 (50K)	1995?	42	Approx 5 hours
3	Roadkill 6 hour (28)	1996	43		28 miles
4	Roadkill 6 hour (32)	1997	44		32 miles
5	Mohican 100M	2001	48	26.5 hours
6	Chicago Lakeshore 50M	2002	49	8.5 hours
7	Buckeye Trail 50K	2004	50	6.5 hours
8	JFK 50	2007	54	8.5 hours
9	Green Jewel 100K	5/3/2008	55	10.5 hours
10	Green Lakes Endurance 100K	8/30/2009	56	11 hours
11	Freedom Park 24-Hour	12/31/2009	56	23.6 hours	93.66 miles
12	Green Jewel 50K	3/6/2010	56	4:50
13	Emerald Necklace 100K	5/22/2010	57	10.75 hours
14	Another Dam 50K	6/2/2010	57	4:58
15	Buckeye Woods 50k	12/5/2010	57	4:46
16	Green Jewel 50K	3/5/2011	57	4:28
17	Mad City 100K	4/9/2011	57	9:31
18	Another Dam 50K	6/4/2011	58	4:43
19	Moebius Green Monster 50K	8/27/2011	58	5:01
20	Buckeye Woods 50k	11/27/2011	58	4:50
21	Buckeye Woods 50k	11/25/2012	59	4:57

These are, naturally, all over the map as far as consistency is concerned. Part of that's because of the nature of these things, and part is due to how seriously I took them.

I hope you've enjoyed these little lists. You won't need to see them (at least from me) again.