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%.