Nice Place to Run: Eisenhower Park

Today was not an ideal vacation day for me, but it's a ritual many parents have to tolerate: standing in line for hours to ride a roller coaster.  After our ride on Fiesta Texas's Rattler, I asked E if he thought that 3 minute ride was worth waiting in line for 2 hours and 10 minutes.  Without hesitation, he said it was.  Despite the long lines, I think all the kids had fun.

After dinner, I left Kelly and the kids at the hotel watching the Disney Channel (the highlight of any vacation for this cable-free family) and drove over to Eisenhower Park.  A couple miles north of 1604 on NW Military Highway, this San Antonio city park offers a concentrated but satisfying trail running experience.

The south half of the Hillview Trail.  Not too technical, but a steady climb.

I took the Hillview Trail, which loops around the park.  Rocky, wide, and nicely groomed, the south half of the loop is a gradual climb to the observation tower at the top of the park.  The north half is more technical in parts and has more tree cover.  I should have started there; it was pretty dark when I descended, and my night vision was pushed to the limit, so I had to take it slow.  The Hillview Trail loop is about 2 1/2 miles.

There are some other side trails and connecting trails, as well as a paved trail that goes up the middle of the park to the tower.  The paved trail is less than a mile, and definitely wheelchair friendly.  Just be careful on the way down!

Had I arrived a bit earlier, I would have had this view from the top.

You might not want to come here for a long run.  The park only has about 5 miles of trails, and if you're like me, the loops might get monotonous.  But it's a great place for hill repeats and practice on some rocky, technical terrain.  If I lived in San Antonio, this would definitely become a favorite spot to run.

Here's a trail map.
Here's park information.

Nice Place to Run: Big Cedar Wilderness Area

I joined NTTR for another club run Saturday morning.  This is the biggest club run I've been too; over 30 people were there.  Some familiar faces, new faces, and, I later learned some I never saw!  It's a big trail system, so unless you happened by the aid table at the same time, it was easy to miss someone.

I know I have written this here before, but I may have found my new favorite trails!  Big Cedar Wilderness is on the property of Mountain Creek Community Church, which is on the highest elevation in Dallas.  The trails wind around for miles behind the church.  They're rarely flat, boast some pretty nice climbs, and you're treated to views of the surrounding area, including views of nearby Joe Pool Lake.

A hot spot for mountain bikers, some of the trails include jumps and obstacles designed for our two-wheel trail brethren.  But their presence didn't detract from our running.  On the contrary, they give us someone to blame trail litter on.  (Who dropped that empty Gu packet?  Must have been a mountain biker!)

So for hill training, pretty views, and shaded trails in the Texas heat, Big Cedar fits the bill.  I'll be back.

I pulled this picture from another web site.  I'll have to take my camera next time.

Feet in the Clouds: A Tale of Fell-Running and Obsession, by Richard Askwith

If you thought fell running referred to the common experience of many trail runners, you would only be partly right.  In British English, a fell is "a barren or stony hill."  In the UK, fell running is a long and storied tradition.  In Feet in the Clouds, journalist Richard Askwith gives his first-hand accounts of his experiences in the sport and reports of his runs, facing down some of fell running's great challenges.

Most of the fell races have a simple course and simpler origins.  It's no coincidence that many of them start from a village pub.  You can almost hear the challenge after a couple of drinks: "I bet you a round of drinks that I can run to the top of that fell and back in an hour," as he points out the window to the nearby mountain.  So many of the races, though they are short in terms of mileage, are run basically straight up the mountain and straight back down.

Of course, over the years, many of the races have become more refined, and draw more than just the patrons of the local pub.  Askwith starts running with friends on weekends, and frequents these races, taking us on a tour of fells around the U.K. and the races held on them, and walking us through a hall-of-fame of British fell runners.  The stories he tells are entertaining, but they do contribute to drawing out the book longer than I felt like it ought to be.

Anyone who has been a trail runner or has been around trail runners will get a kick out of his descriptions of the races and the racers.  A couple of examples: "Fell-runners, I was learning, see sports injuries in a different way to other athletes. . . . Pig-headed refusal to face the medical facts is a central tenet of fell-running dogma. . . . Most of them see demonstrable indifference to health-threatening agonies as a necessary badge of honour, without which you cannot really claim to be a paid-up member of the sport."  I haven't suffered real "health-threatening agonies" but have certainly seen people press on through pain to finish a race.  This piece of advice sums up a key area of wisdom for ultrarunning: "I have learnt that successful ultra-distance fell-running can have as much to do with what you eat and drink as anything else."

Along the way on the Bob Graham Round.

A key thread through the book follows Askwith's pursuit of the ultimate fell running challenge: finishing the Bob Graham round.  This is not a race run on a specific date, but a course on which runners summit (and descend) 42 Lake District peaks, covering a distance of about 72 miles, in 24 hours.  Based on his descriptions, this is much harder than it sounds.  I'll save you the suspense: he does finish, but it takes him several tries.

As I said, Feet in the Clouds seemed overlong.  But I did enjoy his profiles of the fell running legends.  As I read I thought about how much fun it would be to write a book about the races and runners I have met in my short, quite limited trail running career (career?  That sounds funny.  You know what I mean.)  In the North Texas Trail Runners, and people I have met from Tejas Trails, and others I have read or heard about, there are plenty of great stories that could easily fill a book.  Maybe someone like Askwith, with his writing talent and a passion for trail running, will take on such a project.  In the meantime, it's fun to read about American trail runners' counterparts across the Atlantic.

Back on my feet

I know you're supposed to rest a bit after a marathon, but since White Rock I have gone 18 whole days without running a step!!  Ugh!  Excuses?  Not really.  Just 1) lazy, 2) tired, and 3) lazy.  Plus, I don't have a running plan in place right now.  That's the main reason.  If I don't have a plan laid out telling me what to run today, I tend not to run.  I have decided not to run the Bandera (100K)/Rocky Raccoon (100 mile) combo I had said I would run (back in October).  I'm thinking my next run might be Cross Timbers (50 mile) in February.  Yes, as I crossed the finish line at the last one, I swore I'd never do it again.  But after coming in last place and nearly setting the record for the slowest time ever on the course (report here), I feel like I have to redeem myself.  Plus, I can probably beat my time from last year!

So this morning I slept in, but I did get out and run 8 miles.  I returned to my hilly route.  I didn't run there for several weeks leading up to White Rock, since I was focused on upping my pace.  If I go to Cross Timbers again, I will definitely have to be doing some hill work.

More importantly, whether you're running, sitting on the couch, flying or driving to see your family and friends, have a very merry Christmas!  I pray that Jesus will be more real to you than ever this year!

White Rock Marathon 2009: A New PR

What a perfect day for a marathon!  It was in the low 40s at the start, and very overcast, with very low hanging clouds.  Cold enough to chill you while waiting at the start, but not so cold that you needed to bundle up much.  Once we started running, of course, I warmed up quickly, and never felt too cold or hot.  Wind was not much of a factor this year, like it was last year.  A bit of a breeze hit us in the face across the lake, but for the most part it was calm.  Shortly after I finished, the sun came out and the clouds disappeared, warming quickly and making me thankful that I was not still out on the course.  All in all, pretty ideal conditions for a race.

So how did I do?  First, the good news: I finished, with no injuries to speak of.  One small blister on my left forefoot, sore feet and legs, and a very tired body, but all of that will heal quickly.  No need for medical attention or physical therapy.  What a blessing to be able to run!  (One other physical item: I remember to put anti-chafing cream on my feet, but not on other parts.  That red streak on my shirt will look lovely in the finish photos!)

More good news: This is about as fast as I have ever run!  I set PRs (personal records) for four distances.
My previous 10K PR: 47:54.  Today: 47:28  (26 seconds)
My previous half marathon PR: 1:57:34.  Today: 1:39:56 (18:38)
My previous 20M PR: 2:40:33.  Today: 2:37:23 (3:10)
My previous marathon PR: 3:51:38.  Today: 3:35:32 (16:06)
I also beat my White Rock time from 2008 by 27:44.
I'd say that's quite an improvement!

So the bad news: I have made no secret that my goal for White Rock was to qualify to run in the Boston Marathon.  To do so, I have to run in 3:20:59.  I have been training pretty hard, but for the last several weeks, looking at my pace times during training runs, I knew I was unlikely to meet my goal.  I figured that even though I had a pretty good shot at meeting a new PR, my chances of qualifying for Boston were probably 30% or less.  Nevertheless, I started out with a 3:20 pace team, which means I was following a runner with balloons on a stick who would keep a steady pace fast enough to finish in 3:20.  As long as I could stick with him, and cross the finish with him or shortly after, I would meet my goal.

I lined up with the 3:20 group at the start, and looked around at the lean, fit runners.  I wasn't sure my middle-aged girth would allow me to keep up with these guys.  I did pretty well for some time.  I stayed with the 3:20 pack for a good 17 miles.  I was beginning to flag, though.  Around mile 18, I had fallen behind, but I could still see the balloons and figured I was less than a minute behind him.  By mile 19, I could no longer see him, so I knew I would not be qualifying for Boston today.  As I noted before, some say that for every pound you lose, you cut 2 seconds off your pace.  My average pace today was 8:13; it should have been 7:40 to meet my goal.  If only I had lost another 17 pounds before race day, maybe I could have kept up!

I was wearing my Garmin GPS watch for the race, but I had put duct tape over the display so I would only focus on running with the pace team and not on the time or distance.  But after 19, I could feel my pace slow considerably, and EVERYONE on the course seemed to be passing me.  (I know you might think that was only my perception, but there is a handy stat on the official results page which helpfully points out that during the final 6 miles, I passed 13 runners and 156 passed me!  Those 13 were mostly people who were clearly injured and were limping along, just trying to reach the finish.)

So I took the duct tape off my watch, and payed more attention to my pace.  While before my pace was in the 7:30-8 miles/min. range, now it was in the 9-9:30 range.  I was determined to keep it below ten, no matter how I felt.  Even though the hills aren't that bad on this course, and even though I run hills a bit when I train, I was reminded that I'm not too good on hills.  Mile 18.5 to mile 20.5 is a pretty good climb; that's when people really started passing me up.  As is my habit, I had started too fast, ran too hard the first miles, and the negative splits I always wish I ran again once again eluded me.

Even though I would love to have qualified for Boston, a 3:35 finish, and a 16 minute improvement in my PR makes a pretty terrific day.  Running a race like this, I was constantly reminded of what a gift the ability to run is.  The wheelchair racers were inspiring.  When I passed the lady running on a prosthesis who was pushing a girl who had no legs in a wheelchair, I almost lost it; I nearly started weeping openly right there on the course.  And plenty of t-shirts testified that the runner was, for example, a recovered cancer victim, Hodgkins survivor, or veteran, or was running to honor one of the above.

The emotion of running is a mystery to me.  Besides the inspiring runners, the mere fact of pushing my body, of reaching a goal brings out the emotion in me.  When I saw Kelly and the kids cheering for me at the finish, I nearly wept.  I nearly started weeping when I finished.  When I found my famity later, I probably would have wept if the boys had hugged me, but no one wanted to touch stinky, sweaty Dad!  I can't really explain the emotion of finishing a race.  Maybe after a few more races, I will become inured to it.  But for now, I'll enjoy the high of the finish, and the tremendous feeling of accomplishment that comes from crossing that finish line!

One other note: I ran today in my VFFs.  This was my longest run in them.  I ran my last 20 mile training run in them, and ran the Great Brazos Relay in them.  It will be hard to go back to running shoes now.  And talk about a conversation starter!  Several runners asked me about them, or said they had some but hadn't worked up to running much distance.  I heard plenty of comments from spectators, like "Look at that guy's shoes," or "Go, barefoot runner!"  I saw one other runner wearing some; he said he used to get shin splints all the time, but since he's been running in VFFs, he never does.  My feet and calves are sore, so maybe I'm not completely built up to where I need to be, but I really believe I ran faster today than I would have were I to have run in regular running shoes.

All in all, a great day for a marathon, and, in spite of my slower-than-desired finish, I'm proud of my performance.  I finished 529 out of 4453 overall, 459 out of 2855 men, and 98 out of 506 men 40-44.  Plus, not that it matters, I finished ahead of 96% of female finishers.  (Oh, and by the way, if I were 50, or if I were a woman, my time today would have qualified me for Boston.)

Running hills in flat Texas

I know Texas isn't known for its hilly terrain. But just about any runner will tell you, if you don't find the hills, they'll find you eventually. Fort Worth isn't the Hill Country, but there's a neighborhood near me that has some challenging climbs.

These pictures don't really give the full picture.  You have to run the hills repeatedly in a short period of time to truly appreciate them!

This image captures the elevation change somewhat.  Funny how the long climb at the beginning of the run doesn't seem as bad as the short, steep ones in the middle.