Month: December 2022

Letsrun Bans

I got banned from Letsrun several times this year. All for a bit of light taunting of the thin-skinned moderator George Malley (aka ‘malmo’). In November it was simply for saying one word: Winstrol.

In the early 2000s Malley admitted to trying the banned steroid, late in is running career although he said he didn’t compete while taking the the drug and that it didn’t help his performance so he stopped.

Thing is George is a known liar and his story line is incredulous. Like Bill Clinton saying he didn’t inhale marijuana while smoking with friends in the 1970s.

My latest ban, for 10 days for saying three names: malmo, greg, deno (latter two are apparently also serving bans). Not that I’d want to associate with either greg or deno, two long-time trolls who post all the time. A 10 day ban for a “low quality post.” Get serious drug cheat George Malley, you should be better than that.

Smirk and eyeroll.

Running and Races

By then very end of the year next week I’ll have put in about 2,800 miles of running and and another 300 km of XC skiing. I really got into the skiing in January and February last year and did my first race in 8 years. That was rough!

I classify races as A, B, and C. A races are major events, which means some specific training and a taper or cutback. I did five of those centering around two marathons. The half was by far my best, at 1:21 and 90.6% age grade. Although this was nearly three months into the new year it was my first real race of 2022. As build-up races I only did a 10K as a fartlek/progression in January (39:45 at altitude) and the 20K ski race in February.

I tried mixing my base training a bit (or a lot) by doing a personalized version of the Norwegian system, double threshold-type workouts twice a week. Did that for six weeks, building from 3X4 minute easy tempo in the morning/6X 1.5 minute hill reps in the afternoon to 6X 5 minutes (getting closer to threshold) and 8X 2 minute at CV effort on the hills. I think that worked and plan to try again in 2023.

Other than that, the marathons were key for 2022. And what can I say, I feel just everything went right training-wise, I just didn’t break through for sub 3. I wasn’t too upset about not making it at Boston with just over 3:00, finishing maybe 80 meters short (actually went long due to tangents and all but that’s Boston), but the 3:01 last month in the wind and rain at Indy was somewhat devastating for several weeks. I’m over it now.

The next most important races were the USATF events, following last year’s epic bronze and team for Club Cross Country. Other than the marathons, these were the main focus for 2022 and I wanted to help our team win the age group Grand Prix championship, scored as the five in the eight race series (going back to the 2021 Club Cross Country championship last December).

It was a year of coulda woulda shoulda for me, but the schedule timing did not help! The first race, USA cross country, in San Diego was only four weeks after Club XC (about two to five week earlier than usual), just after our planned holiday trip and I did not want turn it (both my running and travel plans) so quickly. So I did not go. If I had run that I would have had another good chance at a individual medal and we would have scored enough points for a team win. The next best opportunity the was 5K road championship in February, but similar schedule limits and I had some important work obligations that week.

Missing those two races cost us the team championship, because we could have scored well enough to hold off Shore AC in September. (note it didn’t center around me, as others didn’t show up to some of the races, but had I done five races instead of four for the 2022 season, we’d have won the series). That was a second bitter pill, especially since our team took finishing second in 2022 as a big loss, not winning second. A third bitter pill.

Nevertheless, of the races that I participated on we won at the half in Syracuse, placed 3rd in for the 12K in New Jersey, and nabbed another 1st at home in Boulder, probably the last time we will have the full strength top three with, Mark, and Tim, and me. Individually in those races I was 2nd, 3rd, and 6th (catching a bad cold just before the 5K in Boulder–bad timing there).

I had two other big races of note, bucket listers. Bloomsday 12K in May, and Bix 7 (which I had run once before, more than 40 years ago!) in which I won my age group. Those were fun, and to tell the truth, I’m looking more to those types of races (and maybe going for age group course records) than the USATF events.

Have plans for a few of those in 2023!

The 2022 USATF Club XC championships in San Francisco will be one to remember. It was all about the storm. Northern California is known for it’s mild climate, but winter storms do role through from time to time. Locals had been saying that that this had been a wet autumn but they were grateful to have the moisture in this drought-parched region.

Much Ado About the Shoes

Prior to the race, most of the chatter was about which shoes to wear on the venerable but varied course at Golden Gate Park. The USA Championships have been held there several times since the mid-1980s, the last was in 2015. San Francisco was generally considered the premier destination trip for adult and masters cross country runners. It’s a fun city to visit and the course is challenging but fair. Some 2,000 runners open and masters runners participated in the last one, and they had to split the open races into two heats of 500 because the course can’t handle more than that for a single race.

Back to the shoes, there was sharp debate on what to wear, traditional cross country spikes or flats, new super road shoes (e.g., Nike Vaporfly or Saucony Endorphin Pro), or trail shoes. Everyone seemed to have an opinion. However, the weekend forecast called for heavy rains and wind on Saturday morning, with the heaviest at 10 AM, which would be in the middle of the men’s 60+ race.

I brought my new spikes, fucshia colored Saucony Kilkenny, a new pair of spike less flats (same type), and my old Adidas Adizero 4, pre-super shoe era which I use for the roads in 2019. And those had already been fitted with a couple hex screws in case it was slick. So much ado about shoes!

In 2015 I raced in spikes and they were perfect, but a lot has changed in particular on the course. Roughly a third of the race would be on the 750 m horse track that surrounds the polo field. Instead of packed sand/dirt the surface had been reinforced and hardened to a near asphalt level. Spikes are not good on the track. In addition, the path stretch along JFK drive also about a half mile long had degraded and it was now rockier. The locals were recommending super shoes–I was appalled. There ought to be rules against that for cross country! This is a sure sign of the impending apocalypse. For this race I refused to wear my Vaporflys.

Travel and Pre-Race

My son Mikko had traveled to Club XC a few times, including San Francisco in 2015, and we had some great father-son trips as he was just starting his college winter break. He’s busy with work, but for the first time Tamara traveled with me to a USATF championship event and we met Tristan, who now lives in the Bay Area about an hour away.

I ran the course on Friday, and didn’t really like what I saw. I was particularly concerned about catching a spike on the trail and tripping. So no matter what I opted to run spike less. I chose to take out the spikes on my gaudy Kilkenny’s because those seemed to fit my bunion addled feet better.

On the drive to San Francisco the wind was raw but only raining lightly at first, but 15 minutes from the city it started to pour, and that didn’t let up for another 5 or 6 hours. I hung out in the car for longer than I’d like but made my way out about 40 minute before our race. Jogged easy for 15 minutes, found my teammates, and switched in the shoes to do a short tempo effort to warm up and few soggy stride outs. It was too windy to wear a ball cap so I put on my Colorado headband and stripped off my soaked ski pants and jacket less than 5 minutes prior to the start.

The Race

The women’s masters went first. We started at 9:45 and would do 8K, starting in the wide meadow for a half mile before hitting the track for a full lap, back through the meadow in the opposite direction, and then nearly a mile of the hardpack, sometimes rocky, path that paralleled the roads. We’d circle back to the track at 3 miles in, and then do a half lap before heading back through the meadow before turning back on the trail before heading back to the track for a half lap to the finish. I liked this course last time.

We lined up and the gun went off, I sprinted for just a few seconds and settled into pace, so I was near the very front briefly but at about quarter mile in the pack swallowed me up like a sea swell and I was suddenly in about 40th place–probably too far back. I made may way up gradually as we found firmer ground on the horse track. Ran past the finish line in the top 25, already some 12 seconds behind the leaders.

Joe from GVH pulled up and passed me, he’s usually a slower starter who moves up so I went with him around the track and by the time we had done our half circuit we were well into the top 20. Tony, a newly minted senior runner (and past winner of several USATF championships) went down on the sharp turn onto the meadow. He got up looking a little wobbly, as Joe pulled away gradually. I was just behind Tony and a few others on the meadow and it was here that I realized that I really needed spikes in my shoes as I slipped a centimeter or so with each stride.

It was nice to get back on the trail and we had a gradual climb before dropping on the most significant downhill of the course, as it led toward JFK. Ian (who is among the all-time leaders in the duration between sub 3 marathons (43 years!) was just ahead and he must have been wearing the Vaporfly as he was actually ski/surfing down the slickened slope. Somehow he stayed on his feet, but he too looked little shook. I think there was one other runner in the mix, I don’t remember which team, but we were in the 13th-16th position. Coming off the roads we had another slick meadow for about quarter mile and then a steep but short (50-60 meters) woodchip covered climb. I pulled away from, got to the track.

Advantage Ian. He caught me within a 100 meters and pulled away easily with his road shoes. Tony was 20 meters back, as one of the women from his club urged him to catch up. He did. He passed and kept going, passing Ian in the meadow, not falling this time.

I think I lost some ground on the meadow as both Ian and Tony pulled away, but I knew we were closing in on the finish. I don’t remember the falling/fallen tree at all. But just moments before I came through, but just 150 meters from the start line and between 1st place (maybe 1:40 ahead at this point) and 10th (50 seconds up), a large eucalyptus tree came crashing down right next to the course.

I got past that and onto the firmer trail section but I heard footsteps. I was gassed and falling back. With a mile to go David (American record holder for the men’s 65 mile, at 5:10) had caught up. We have corresponded by email and on social media for the past several years but had not met in person. I recognized him and the green uniform from his club and said hi David, good job. We had a nice gradual downhill so I was able to follow in his footsteps without expending too much of whatever I had left in the tank.

We rounded the last turn (a near 180) onto the track, navigated around a big puddle, just a half mile to go. I know David has better 800 and mile speed than I do, and those are his specialty events. I’m more 5K and up, and more on the up with 15K and half being my better distances. We were keeping a good clip, under 6 minute per mile pace, and I was happy to match his smooth stride. I did not think I would be able to outkick David in final sprint over 150-200 meters (where I prefer to go), so upped the pace as we went along the curve with 500 to go. I also did not want to start a kick too soon and waited until we hit the straightaway before ratcheting up the pace. I got a step ahead, then two.

My stomach was okay, and therein I gradually picked it up, as David’s footsteps receded. The finish still looked a ways off, but kept focus. I never hit fill sprint force, but had accelerated to that zone where you are going all-out but not straining, keeping that short one burst in pocket if needed.

15th place. Wow, I was 3rd in last year and 2nd in 2018! I think this was the deepest 60 and over field for Club Cross country ever, and it was more competitive than World Masters road or cross country events.

Last year’s winner Dan King, fell and finished only 10th on Saturday. 2021 5th place runner Kevin Ostenberg was 11th. And so on. There is just a whole new level for cross country and road racing now.

Grateful for the competition in San Francisco, and for USATF for pulling it off under less than great circumstances, and I am very happy that no one got seriously hurt out there. But I’ll also be glad to move up into a new age division in February!