Jingle Ball Run in Ellicot City, MD

Last weekend I ran the Jingle Bell Run in Ellicot City's Centennial Park. I hadn't run a race since April or May during the Crystal City 5K Friday series, so I wanted to see in what kind of shape I was during the winter months.

I went with my friend, Tom, who ran with me in high school. Getting to the race was a little chaotic since there were way more runners than anticipated. This was more of a fun race than it was competetive, with there being no chipped time.

The course was slightly hilly and scenic, running around the lake. There really were a lot of jingle balls tied to people's shoe laces so you could hear when someone was approaching from behind. Ultimately I finished with a 18:49 time, which was over 30 seconds slower than my time in the spring. I also came in fifth overall, so that tells you how not competetive it was. I also learned that I need to keep my eyes open when posing for cameras.

You can see more race photos HERE.

Article Weekly Wrap Up

A weekly wrap up of all the news articles fit to print:


NPR explores the benefit of caffeine for running and racing.

Tools that will help you lose the weight you allegedly gained from one day of eating.

More fitness apps from the WSJ.

The NYC Marathon moved to Brooklyn post Sandy.

"[Y]ou are not sore because of lactic acid built up in your muscles, so stop complaining about it. You are sore because of muscle damage and the resulting chemical cascade, which increases the activity in pain nerve cells."

How the perfect playlist can help you to improve and what music to avoid.

Boston Marathon 2012: Day 3

 The day is finally here. I woke up and played "What Makes You Beautiful" by One Direction. I'm not kidding. It was my jam for the entire weekend and I'm not ashamed. (Yes I am.)

Eddie and I skedaddled from the hotel and walked past the site of the Boston Massacre (symbolism! foreshaddowing!) and onto the buses. The couple in front of me were holding hands across the aisle on the school buses on our drive to Hopinkton. I tried to sleep and I did for a few minutes, but then Eddie woke me up because he hates me and wanted to get an early start on torturing me.

Athletes Village, as they call it, is more like a refugee camp for Type A skinny people. I basically sat under a tent for three hours while trying to eat and stay loose. They have food there, but I just feel more comfortable bringing my own. The best thing I saw were Japanese people dressed up like American cartoon characters. One guy was dressed up like Minnie Mouse and he was in two corals ahead of me, meaning that he was acting a fool, mocking me, and there wasn't a darn thing I could do about it because he qualified with something like a 2:50 marathon (I'm guessing).

Since the temperature was already in the high seventies at the start time, I decided not to wear a shirt. I thought this would keep me cooler, which I don't know if that's true. (Does whicking technology help with that?) But I was sweating while waiting in the corals. I also though I brought sun screen, but I did not. That would prove to be a bad move.

My game plan was to run as fast as I could and say to hell with the temperature. Well that kind of worked. The first mile is always packed. But I just couldn't get up to the 6:50 minutes per miles that I needed to do in order to get my sub 3, so I just decided to run more like a 7:05. After mile 3, I knew I couldn't even sustain that. The train went off the tracks soon thereafter. I should've just enjoyed myself and drank a beer like some of the spectators were trying to persuade us to do, but I wanted to get a good time even though that wasn't possible for me.

The people are really the best part of this race. The runners are all friendly and very fit, so there is always good eye candy. And the spectators are all out there, handing out orange slices or cold sponges, waiving signs, or just cheering us on. I really appreciate every one of them. At one point there were two little girls making up a song about running. I wish I could remember it. It was really stupid and I loved it.

I walked a lot of the race, and I don't feel badly about it. When I would take a walk break, I could feel myself already being overheated. People would sometimes cheer me on by saying, "You can do it!" and I would think to myself, "I am doing it. I just need to take a little break right now and walk." Their hearts were in the right place though. It was so hot out there that I never felt wet even though I was sweating and drinking a lot of water because it would just evaporate. I was also trying to hit all the sprinklers along the course that I could find.

I basically just wanted to finish the race. I saved up my energy to run up the entirety of heart break hill. The best part of the race other than finishing was beating Eddie. It's on the internet, you can check it. (Hi Eddie!)

I said goodbye to Boston after eating at Black Rose. I had hoped to re-qualify again at Boston, but I missed it by a good 15+ minutes. And since I can't run another one this spring due to scheduling conflicts and registration for Boston is in early September, I don't think I can run it in 2013, which I guess is fine.

See y'all in 2014!

My poor feet post marathon. 

Boston Marathon 2012: Day 2

I woke up and sat petrified in my bed for about an hour and a half. What had I gotten myself into? It wasn't some hot piece that I was waking up beside, it was the fact that I'd committed myself to run 26.2 miles the next day, and the temperature was reported to almost touch 90 degrees.

Finally I knew that I had to get out of bed, so I decided to run a brief 1.5 miles along the wharf. Seeing everyone outside and admiring Boston's architecture and twisting roads was a welcome distraction. Working up a little sweat calmed my nerves.

Eddie and I made our way to Cambridge to visit Harvard because he had never been. There really is a crackle in the air that I can feel when walking in the commons. People there are just too smart-- I feel like they are reading my thoughts with their giant brains and are not at all impressed. We walked forever to get to a sandwich shop that I can no longer remember the name of, but I had an excellent sandwich made with real bread. Worth it.

Me with "Shoey"

Later that evening we went to the FREE (with proof of registration) pasta dinner at City Hall. It's a really ugly building, but it's decent food and the volunteers were on point. So why not?

Back at the hotel we got ready for the next day. I always feel like everything has to be perfect. I tried making little salt packets since there wasn't any salt packets anywhere in Boston. I need to order some for the next fiasco. Anyway, we got all ready for tomorrow and headed for the roof deck to contemplate our own mortality and look out across the river before bed.

Boston Marathon 2012: Day 1

The Boston Marathon in 2012 was really hot, in case you didn't know. But my only thought while waking up at 5 o'clock in the morning on Saturday to get to the airport by 7 o'clock  was, "Why am I doing this to myself???"

Getting to the airport was pretty brutal, but I slept most of the plane ride, so that wasn't too big of a deal. I arrived at the Wharf Marriott at around 10 o'clock and they already had a room waiting for me that looked over the water and right next to the metro. I already saw people in running gear, and I knew that the nerd convention had already begun.

My partner in crime, Eddie, met me at my hotel and we walked to the convention, which was about a mile from the hotel. The theme this year was ORANGE. Not like a pumpkin orange or a peachy orange, but dayglow traffic cone orange. The free shirts were nice though, they were blue with some yellow. I think they recycle the colors from last year. Look out, Boston Marathon 2013 runners, because you're gonna look crazy.

We decided to get lunch at Eastern Standard before heading off to Copley Square. It was a great meal and they had a specactular drink menu, but I was too sick to really taste anything. Did I mention that I was sick? Well I was, which meant a lot of nose blowing and not fully tasting delicious food. I still got some sort of egg cream liquor drink.

I took a brief nap and then we went to dinner, where Marco, our Brazilian server, told us everything about Boston that we wanted to know. Thanks, Marco!

Harper's Ferry Half Marathon

The Hapers Ferry Half Marathon was one of the most challenging runs of my life. Before the race even started, the director told us to treat this as an event, not a race. Ok, then. 

I woke up at half past 5AM with the expressed purpose of running a doggone 13.1 mile race. I was kind of dreading it when I woke up, and I was running it alone so the motivation to cast the covers off was difficult.  I ate an old Think Thin bar that I believe melted at one point in my car. I had no breakfast food in my apartment so things looked pretty grim. The drive up to historic Harpers Ferry, WV, was spectacular with the trees and the rivers. Coming out of DC is like taking of your suit after church on a Sunday.

The race started at River Riders at 8AM. I was running late as usual, but it did result in a better parking spot so I guess I'll never really learn my lesson. I decided not to run in the Kinvaras (minimalist-like shoes) because I hadn't gone more than 6 miles with them, and I thought some of the trail and grass runs might be rough. Therefore, I stuck with my reliable Hurricanes. This ended up being the smartest thing I've done for myself in a while.

It was a good thing that I did because this course was major. It was a mix of blacktop road, trail, grass field, brick, and lots and lots of hills. The first few miles we got to run on a grassy battlefield. It reminded me of summer camp when I was in elementary school. Following that there was more road and then a little bit of trail, but before the halfway point there was a long downhill which was a welcome comfort after some pretty intense hills. 

The only bad part was knowing that I was going to have to eventually go all the way back up. At mile 7 we actually ran though downtown Harpers Ferry, which isn't big, but there is a very long upward hill. I was running behind or along side another runner for a lot of this race and on this uphill I pulled slightly ahead only to have him regain the lead on the way back down. While running back up the hill of death towards the end, I maintained a steady enough pace to pull ahead by the finish.


Afterwards there was a great spread of bananas, oranges, bagels from Panera, pizza and beer. I think the cost was around $55 to run the half, so you really can't beat it. Despite missing my PR by a good seven minutes, but it was one of the most spectacular races that I've run. I never got bored during it because it was a 13.1 EVENT (tm The Race Director). The volunteers really helped as well. Not only did they guide us where to go, but they were all very encouraging and gracious. I can't say enough good things about the people of West Virginia.

Injury Update: Physical Therapy is an Angel

After receiving the news that I have ITBS, I went to physical therapy for a few weeks. Long story short: I'm cured! I no longer have any pain, no tinge of it even and I've completed a full marathon, a 5K and a half marathon since graduation from Gimp University.

One of the first things my trainer did was use dry needle release to loosen my muscles. No, it's not acupuncture. It's when a needle is stuck into the muscle, and the practitioner uses it kind of like a joystick to get the muscle to contract and/or release. At first I found it horrifying, but then after a few sessions I learned to love it. Not love it, but love the results.

We also worked on strengthening my glute and hip muscles. One exercise we did where I was lying down on my side and I did some leg lifts. I call it the Jane Fonda. The next one I did was where you tie a strap around your legs and move to the side. That's the one I should still be doing today because it helped the most. Then the last one was where you stand on one leg and put your leg on a slidey thing and push off at a forty five degree angle away from you. It never really did anything for me.

So there you have it. We also worked on my shoulder, which is better now but it still feels not 100%.

Injury Update: Sometimes It's For Real

At first I thought I had a sports hernia. Now I don't think so. It turns out that I might have something else entirely. Now I think I have illiotibial band syndrome (ITBS). The illiotibial band is the

"...band of fibrous tissue that runs down the outside of the thigh. It provides stability to the knee and hip and helps prevent dislocation of those joints. The band may overdevelop, tighten, and rub across the hipbone or the outer part of the knee. Each time the knee is bent or the hip flexed, the band rubs against bone"

Here is why I think I have it. I went on a long run on the Saturday about ten days ago. The outside of my right knee started hurting after running down around the Capitol. I stretched it out a little and continued. Every few miles I would have to do the same thing, but I could generally run on it with only mild discomfort. Cut to the next day when I could barely walk down the stairs. I knew nothing good could come of this, and yet I tried to run on the gym treadmill because I thought everything was just tight.

I didn't run for nearly a week. Then about six days after the injury I ran on the treadmill for two miles, stopping after the first mile to stretch. The next day I tried to run a mile with no success so I biked it.

Then I went an orthopedic doctor who said I probably have a mild case of ITBS, but I haven't had an MRI. He told me to stretch it out a million times a day and I guess gave the go ahead to continue to run... I think. He wasn't too clear on that one. But yesterday I ran two miles very slowly on the mall and I felt fine. I stretched a lot before and after (mostly doing the hip jut stretch as you see to the right), so maybe that will have to be the new normal. I'm desperate to get out there and run again since it's been so nice.

Injury Update: I overreact

False alarm. It turns out that I overreact about certain things. I thought I had a sports hernia, but it turns out that I just hurt my groin, probably from a bad turn or something weird I did with my legs. I am shortening my stride and doing some extra stretches in order to ameliorate the condition. I don't think it will be a problem moving forward.

Also my shoulder is healing. I had something like tendonitis and now I can do around 50 pushups. So I say that I'm good.

Boston Jackets

The jacket of your dreams. Everyone loves the Boston Celebration Jacket, and this year the color scheme is a departure from years past of a variation of blue and yellow. There are a whole bunch of clothes from the Adidas website right now. In coming weeks there will be more and probably some stuff from Nike and New Balance, but the official gear is always fun to see when it's first introduced. I'm not sure I'll actually buy the jacket, because it's a little flashy, and I don't know where I'd wear it. On a run? To the mall? Neither occasion seems appropriate. The only venue I'd wear it would be post marathon and that would just seem like a wedding dress -- wear it once and then it hangs up in the closet. I think I'll stick to the long sleeve shirts and shorts.

Instead I'll Run These

There are two runs that I prefer to run in instead of the Rock'n'Roll Marathon that is overpriced and without a course map.

First is the George Washington Classic 10K, sponsored by Pacers Running Stores. I volunteered for this a few years ago, maybe in 2007, when I was injured. I remembering it being a well run race that had good giveaways and post race snacks. Climate change wasn't as powerful then, so it was still pretty cold. I'm looking forward to running it in shorts. I wanted to run a 38ish (likely a 38:10) I think my best 10K was 38:53 way back in 2009, but I'm sure that I can best it.

The second is the Colonial Half Marathon down in Southern Virginia. I'm not sure what really to expect from this one, only that I want/need to run a marathon before I run Boston, just to gauge where I'm at. I think I've done that for all of my other more successful races. My PR was in 2009 with a time of 1:25:37, which I'd like whittled down to sub 1:25:00. It seems that 2009 was good to me.


I have a lot of work to do, but I think that I've gotten faster. These races will be markers to see what I should run. I've taken a lot for McMillan's Race Predictor. I input 2:59 even for my marathon time just because I wanted some wiggle room. So the below race times were predicted for me by science. 

Rock N Roll: Going for Broke

And by "Going for Broke" I mean that I would go broke trying to run a lot of races in DC. Running is expensive! (But I'll get to that later.) I was ready to pay the $110 to run the Rock N Roll Half Marathon, when the race-- sans course map and three months away-- SOLD OUT. This is the first year that the ubiquitous "Rock N Roll" series has visited the District, so I wanted to see what the fuss was about. I knew that there were about 600 entries left, but I decided to wait until the next day because I procrastinate. When I tried to register the next day, I found out that the number of entries was zero. Well that made my decision easy. I think my procrastination was generated by the fact that the Rock N Roll half marathon was way overpriced and that chaps my ass.

As you can see from the screen cap to the right, the prices for the half marathon were really expensive. I think I ran the Freedom Run Half Marathon for less than $60. Granted it was an hour and a half away, but still. Paying over $75 for a half marathon really is pretty ridiculous, especially when the full marathon is only $15 more. By that logic, the extra 13 miles of race logistics are a little more than $1 more per mile? Makes no sense. And as I stated above, there is no course map, so what people are getting themselves into? The only thing I took away from this experience is that I really need to get into the race directing game.

There are a few other choices I have including the Colonial Half Marathon, which is at the end of February and the GW Birthday Classic 10-K, which is mid February. These races will put me in good position for Boston on 16 April, and I won't go broke either.

Big Deal, News Follows

According to this article, when men exercise there is a protein in our brain that is created known as BDNF, which helps promote a healthy memory. There is high levels of BDNFof those of us who exercise, therefore it's important to exercise in order to retain a healthy memory. As if you already didn't know, right? Therefore, if you want to maintain cognitive health, go move your ass.

New Year, New Shoes

When I went to the Logan Circle Pacers fun run about two months ago, a brand rep from Saucony was there with a trial pair of running shoes if we wanted to give them a spin. I decided I wanted to give the minimalist Kinvara a try and that's what I did. I noticed that I had to shorten my stride with them. I could definitely feel it in the bottom of my feet by the end of the run though.

A few days ago, following Christmas, I decided to give myself the gift of new running shoes. I waited until today (Happy New Year!) to open the package and try them on.

I went for my inaugural 2012 run around the US Capitol with these shoes and I felt great. They were really light. I felt much more focused on my stride and how my feet were hitting the ground. At the end I didn't even feel any pain in the bottom of my feet. I am still suffering from some sort of groin strain. Afterward, I iced, I stretched, and hopefully it will go away or I'll be taking a trip to the sports doc.

I still need to start training plan!