My First 5 Miler

Today I did the Westfield 5 Mile Turkey Trot.

Howard, my friend from high school, was interested in doing some races with me. I joined the New York Road Runners Club, so I'll be doing some races next year in NYC. This will be cool because Howard lives in New York and, as a doctor, he's often on call and can't make it out to the 'burbs to run in circles. Since it was Thanksgiving and he was going to be in NJ this weekend, I signed up for a race in NJ and invited Howard, my brother, Mike Low and a few other people.

My brother had a hot date last night so he was unable to wake up in time to make the race. Mike Low wasn't planning to make it to the race, but early this morning he called me and I reminded him about the race and he decided to join us. So, it was me Howard and Mike.

Yesterday, I went to Marty's Reliable Cycle with Natalie to look at cyclocross bikes. She wants to get a Lemond Poprad, but nobody seems to have one for her to try. Marty's is the coolest bike shop around, so we went to see if they could order one or if maybe they had a bike that was almost as cool. Before we went to Marty's we went to another bike shop which I think sucks, so I won't link it here. I'll just call it CycleCrap. CycleCrap had an indoor cycle that was really cool. It was the CycleOps Pro 300PT:


(click to enlarge)

It had a huge range of resistance, it was very quiet, and it had a great display with lots of data. Unfortunately, it was $1,900. I decided I needed to get a trainer, but I wasn't going to buy it at CycleCrap, so we went to Marty's. They had the CycleOps Fluid² which I had seen there before, so I got that. It lets you use your own bike, which is nice since you'll be using that on the road anyway. I tried on some clipless pedal shoes and they were really cool, but they're very expensive and I'm not ready to make that jump yet. The guy at Marty's told me I should get a new tire for the rear wheel because the trainer is going to shred the tire and it's not smart to shred the kick ass tires I have on there now. So, I bought the trainer, a $12 tire and some tire changing lever thingies.

I have never changed a tire before. What a pain in the ass. I wrestled with that friggin tire for 45 minutes before getting it all back together. My hands were covered in grease. Anyway, I got everything set up and put the trainer and my bike in my bedroom. Here's a couple of pics:


(click to enlarge)



(click to enlarge)

This morning before the race I rode the bike and watched about 45 minutes of a MythBusters episode. It was very cool. I kept my cadence at around 75. I was pretty sweaty at the end. I really liked being able to watch TV while riding and it was nice not having to worry about cars running me down. I also enjoyed not having to find appropriate clothing for riding in 35 degree weather.

After a shower, I suited up for the run with some Silkjohns pants (a former customer, now retired), stretchy wind-breaking pants, a wicking t-shirt, and a micro fleece top. I also put on some running gloves and a wicking skullcap. I was ready for action.

I ate a slice of whole wheat toast with a little bit of peanut butter and 4 blackberries on it. I don't like to eat much before a race. The bike ride got my legs warmed up and got my blood moving. I felt pretty good.

I drove out to Westfield with Mike and met Howard there. We got our free t-shirt and our bibs, stretched a little bit and then headed to the starting line. I set my Forerunner for a 9:30 minute mile, but I didn't really pay too much attention to the "virtual partner". We started out with a 9:00/mile pace and slowly picked up the pace to around 8:30/mile. Howard was moving at this pace the whole time and I had no trouble keeping up. I had a little bit of cramping on my right side, but nothing I couldn't push through. Somewhere around the 3rd mile we lost Mike. I was doing surprisingly well. For the last half mile, I tried to kick it up to 7:30/mile. We had a strong finish. After the race, I felt awesome.

We got some water, gatorade and chicken noodle soup. They had a raffle, so we stood out in the cold for about 30 minutes while they read the results. The prize was $100 cash, so all the runners were standing around in the cold in their sweaty clothes waiting to hear if they won. None of us won the cash, but we did get a $15 coupon for RoadID.com. Wahoo!!

Anyway, I think the pre-run bike ride really helped loosen me up. Also, I think my new sneakers may have helped a little. The guy at the running store in Virginia told me to get a half size bigger than my last pair of sneakers. He said your feet swell when you run. I think he was right because I can remember feeling like I was losing circulation in my feet during a race. I felt fine for the entire run. I think I'm ready for a 10K. Running rules.

My time was 43:52 - this is my first 5 Mile race. This is a better pace at 5 miles than my last 5K. I'm pretty happy with this time.

Westfield 5 Mile Turkey Trot - Bib # 497
Westfield, NJ
November 26, 2005

Overall Place: 398/681
Age Place: 27/42
Gender Place: 283/408
Pace: 8:46

Complete Results

...and I'm Just Getting Started.

My Ninth 5K

I just got back from Virginia where I did the 3rd Annual Freeze Your Gizzard 5K Cross Country Race. The emphasis here is on "Cross Country". It was in a park about an hour west of Fairfax, VA where my friends live. I guess I should know that "Cross Country" means running out on the grass, through the mud, up and down hills, over roots, and all the while looking out for ditches you might fall into, but it never occurred to me before the race. My friend, Dave, was advised by his doctor not to run, so I didn't get to compete against him, as planned, but it was still a lot of fun. The cold air and many hazards presented new challenges to me and it's possible these were the factors in my seemingly growing time in these 5Ks, but more likely it's that I haven't been really working out lately. I've been really busy with shipping satellite radio orders, traffic tickets, servers that crash and force me to fly back from trips to other parts of the country, and all sorts of other things that distract you from exercising. I've also been eating without caution. I'm a total bum. If you have any words of motivation, please share them. Also, my back is starting to hurt and I think it's related to the pounding on my spine while running. This should be a good motivator to lose some more weight, but I'm really so swamped with work that I don't have the energy right now.

Enough complaining. I bought some new sneakers down in Virginia. They're basically just this years version of my old sneakers. I like them. They're very cool.

My time was 27:55 - I don't know if this is good for a Cross Country 5K... but, I DID come in 3rd place in the Men 30-34 Division, so that's cool!

Freeze Your Gizzard 5K Cross Country Race - Bib # 533
Leesburg, VA
November 19, 2005

Overall Place: 83/278
Age Place: 3/11
Gender Place: 65/141
Pace: 9:01

Complete Results

...and I'm Just Getting Started.

Daily Dose

I'm going to try to post what I've done on a daily basis. The upside will be that I'll be more inclined to actually do something because people might be watching. Hopefully, I won't look like too much of a slacker.

So, I just got back from the gym and I ran 6 miles. This is the farthest I have ever run. I ran for an hour and after the cooldown the treadmill was at like 5.87 miles, so I add a couple of minutes and made it an even 6 miles. Pretty cool. I took it fairly easy. I was going for distance, not speed. My legs are all warm now and my lower back is also a little hot. I'm having a little trouble walking. I'm gonna go stretch.

A friend of mine told me today that she's taking a Couch-to-5K class. I think that is so cool.

My Eighth 5K

Yesterday I did the Giralda Farms Run 5K. I was supposed to be in North Carolina for the weekend, but a work-related emergency brought me back home early. I was signed up for the 5K before I decided to go to the thing in NC and I was just going to let my spot go to waste. Also, because I was home, I was able to go to a 30th birthday party for my friend Sharon. The party for Sharon was planned after I bought my tickets to NC so I was pretty bummed I wasn't going to make it to her party. It all sorta worked out this way. I got to go to Sharon's party AND I got to do the 5K - I can reschedule the thing in NC for some other time.

Anyway, since I was partying the night before, I woke up a little hungover. I had a low-grade headache and I could still taste some alcohol in my breath. Even though I've been reading otherwise, I'm starting to think that running is the cure for a lot of things. Got a cold? Run it off. Got a headache? Run it off. Feeling down? Run it off.

The Giralda Farms Run 5K is organized by the Rose City Running Club. It's at a corporate park in Madison. It's pretty hilly. At the beginning of the second mile, the hill was pretty steep. I'm not making excuses - it's just hilly. I ran the first mile in 7:47 and then hit the long hill. I felt pretty good the whole time. I didn't get the cramp in my right side. I did stretch quite a bit before the race. I didn't wear my GPS or listen to music. It was just me and the sound of my breathing. And, normally, you would have some spectators on the side to cheer you on, but this was in a corporate park, so it was pretty quiet. There was one girl running near me who was making all sorts of comments and jokes. She even started singing at one point. She definitely was not trying hard enough.

After the race, I got some gatorade, a bagel, a couple of bananas and an apple. I love post-race food. My headache was gone and I felt great. Running rules.

My time was 26:14 - about 50 seconds slower than my best time. This is my best time for a race I've run while hungover.

Giralda Farms Run 5K - Bib # 92
Madison, NJ
November 13, 2005

Overall Place: 119/315
Age Place: 4/7
Gender Place: 93/178
Pace: 8:27

Complete Results

I'm about to go to the gym and see how far I can run continuously on the treadmill before I get bored.

...and I'm Just Getting Started.

My Seventh 5K

I've got some pictures for this post, so you should enjoy it. I did the Somerset Home's 7th Annual Run for Runaways 5K yesterday. This is the first time I've done a 5K that I have done before. This will allow some comparison of times with greater accuracy to see how well I'm improving.

As you may recall, I'm getting ready to run against my buddy Dave, so this race served as an indication as to how well I might do against Dave. Unfortunately, I was informed that Dave has an injury so we may not get to race against each other. In any case, I asked my trainer Yaniv if he would join me in the race to pace me. I figured this would discourage me from walking and also maybe he could pick up on anything I might be able to change to improve my form/time/etc.

I picked up Yaniv and Tamar at around 9 AM and headed to Duke Island Park in Bridgewater, NJ. Here is a picture of us just as we got out of the car in the lot. Notice my pirate face - this helps you get psyched up for the race:


(click to enlarge)

After registering and getting our bag of junk (including a purple lipstick container and a bottle of gelly goo that says Rapid Release Tabs on it) we warmed up with some slow pace jogging. I don't normally like to warm up with a jog because I don't know myself well enough to know whether a slow jog would wear me out. After the jog, we went over towards the ranger station to take the final piss before the race and on the way there, we saw a pretty girl wearing a crown walking the other way. Yaniv made the rotating queen wave to the girl and she sorta laughed. We took care of business and went back to the starting line to stretch. This is a very important stretch I like to do. It stretchs the upyoors muscles in your shoulders:


(click to enlarge)

Before the start of the race, the pretty girl we had passed on the way to bathroom started singing the national anthem. She was doing so well, until she looked directly into my eyes. She must have been so smitten by my new svelt build and lost her train of thought because she immediately forgot the words and the crowd had to help her along to the end. She made a nice recovery, I must say. Now, you may think I'm dellusional and you're probably right, but I'm not one to assume that a pretty girl is sweatin' me... let alone even looking in my direction... Anyway, here she is sweatin me:


(click to enlarge)

The race started and we were right in the pack between the 7 minute mile people and the 8 minute mile people. Yaniv told me to breathe deeply and it was working... we were going a good 7 minute mile for about a mile. Pretty soon though, I was getting a cramp on my right side. This is pretty common for me, actually, but it's never been this bad. The weird thing about the cramp is that it's always on the right side and always in the same spot. Pretty soon, I was sucking wind and just wanted to finish the damn race. Yaniv was giving me time and distance cues at regular intervals. When we had about a half mile left in the race, Yaniv said something like "Look, there's only 0.5 miles left". I looked up and could barely see the people making the final turn. This was a psychological blow. With the pain in my side and my labored breathing, seeing how far we actually had left to go just made me want to walk. There was no way we were going to break our 25 minute goal. But, I wasn't going to give up, I pushed as hard as I could and finished the race. I even tried to sprint the last tenth of a mile. Despite the push, I just couldn't go any faster and ultimately, I didn't even beat my personal best. All in all, I'm okay with the time. There were a lot of new variables and I was hurtin' pretty bad. I didn't prep too much in the weeks before this race and I'm just happy to finish this race as close to my personal best as I did. Here's a picture of me about 20 yards from the finish line. Notice how relaxed I look:


(click to enlarge)

And, here's a picture of me walking after crossing the finish line:


(click to enlarge)

And, finally, here's my evaluation of my performance. I'm making the so-so hand motion here:


(click to enlarge)

My time was 25:31 - more than 7.5 MINUTES faster than last year. This is 9 seconds slower than my unofficial personal best.

Somerset Home's 7th Annual Run for Runaways 5K - Bib # 178
Bridewater, NJ
November 5, 2005, 10:00 am

Overall Place: 157/280
Age Place: 12/17
Gender Place: 121/173
Pace: 8:13

Complete Results

...and I'm Just Getting Started.

After the race we moseyed on over to the free water, powerade, bananas, powerbars and Zone Perfect bars and went shopping. Anything I eat after a 5K is always the most delicious thing I've ever had. After eating a couple of things, we spotted the pretty girl who sang and chatted with her a little bit. Turns out she's Miss Queen City. Jamie Lynn Maglietta talked with us for a bit about how she's going to be in the Miss New Jersey 2006 Pageant and how her platform is service, support and shelter for teen runaways. She seemed very nice and I wished her luck in her pageant. I couldn't help notice how much she was checking me out. I asked her if I could take a picture with her. Notice how suave I am. I have a mouth full of Chunky Cherry Crunch Harvest PowerBar:


(click to enlarge)

I know she was just shy. Jamie, if you want to get a drink or something, you can email me your phone number by sending it to jon@internection.com