Miles and "The Fred"

Deano's Railroad Circus and the Hot Ash Chasers

Lots of stuff happening in KPH running-land these days. Summer break is about to end for me, and I'm going out with a bang. Mileage is starting to ramp up for marathon training, and I'm heading into uncharted waters. After three straight weeks in the low 60s, I finally broke out with a 71 mile week this past week. With the weather finally getting cooler, I'm starting to feel pretty good.

I also had the challenge of rearranging a training week to fit in another relay race (The Fred Meijer 200 Mile White Pine Relay, which I will get into shortly). I wanted to at the very least get in a medium-long, and a long run in before heading to Michigan for the relay, but I wanted to make sure I was at least somewhat fresh for my relay legs, which I was planning on using for tempo/half-marathon pace and goal marathon pace work, and I really was anxious to see how I responded.

The week looked like this:

8/8-8/14

Monday: ~14 mi @ 8:33, which was when the weather finally got cool, and this really felt good

Tuesday: ~5 mi @ 9:44

Wednesday: ~16 mi @ 8:10, this was a fantastic LR, and proof that I am finally recovered from my funk from a couple of weeks ago

Thursday: ~5 mi @ 8:58

Friday: Leg 1 - 5.06 mi @ 6:19, Leg 2 - 9.45 mi @ 6:48

Saturday: Rest

Sunday: 6.6 mi @ 8:43

Total: 62.3 mi

"The Fred"

When Madison to Chicago ended, Catherine and I were so excited about the experience, we immediately wanted to do another one. We got on the web and found an inaugural race starting in Grand Rapids, MI, and travelling on an old rail-trail to Cadillac, called the Fred Meijer White Pine Trail. We would then circle Lake Cadillac, and head back to Grand Rapids on the same trail. It was the exact same format as the Madison to Chicago race - 200 miles, split up into 36 legs. However, there was one fundamental and important difference: this one was railroad themed.

Relay legs were called spurs. Vans were called peanut roasters. Relay teams were called crews. And so on. It was really clever. Our crew name was "Deanos Railroad Circus and the Hot Ash Chasers." Awesome.

Our captain Rene wanted us to each choose a rail-lingo nickname to use as well. I chose the very appropriate "Mileage Hog." Catherine chose "Eagle-Eye". You can see the railroad definitions for these names here.

Catherine and I headed out from our home in Wilmette last Thursday afternoon and headed for Grand Rapids, to meet up with our team. I was feeling very strong from good rest during the week, and I was having some strong training runs going into this event. We hit horrible traffic leaving Chicago, and arrived late to the dinner, which was fine, since everyone was running late. We met almost everyone on the team, and I got a good vibe immediately - everyone seemed super excited to be there, and it was fun being able to share my experience from the Madison to Chicago race last June.

Once dinner was over they busted out the gear, and it was SHARP. First of all, Rene and her husband Dean had individualized bright yellow technical shirts made, which was perfect since we would be running at night, and it also would be easy to spot your teammates from a distance. The design on the shirts was really sharp - it had our team logo on the front, and on the back, our nicknames, what number runner we were, and a spot to put our spur numbers and distances. Very cool.

The shirt from the race organizers was equally sharp. It was a long-sleeve Patagonia shirt with a zip-up top that was extremely comfy. When I wasn't running, I had it near me at all times, it was really nice to have on when it got cool out during the night spurs.

The next morning we chowed down on the continental breakfast provided by our hotel and headed over to the staging area. When we arrived, Rene and Dean, had EVERYTHING organized to a T. I mean, they literally thought of everything - personalized bins with our names on them to put stuff that easily stored under the seats, team signs on the vans, binders with exact turn by turn directions to each exchange...it was really impressive.

Catherine starts us off

Catherine and I were in peanut roaster 1, and Catherine would be running the first spur. I was running the fifth, which was great, since I could get off and running pretty quickly.

The other thing that was GREAT, was that the entire team was there for the start. The other roaster even hung around after having breakfast and cheered the runners in roaster 1 on. It instantly unified us as a team, and I actually got to spend a little time with everyone on the team, which was really awesome. This really did make a huge difference in our team spirit.

We had some pretty good runners in our roaster. Most of the girls were running in the 7:45-9:00 range, with Catherine at the faster end of that spectrum. Dean was a former cross country runner in high school, so he was certainly no slouch. And I did OK too. :)

Spur 5 - 5.0 miles

That goofy, shit-eating grin can only mean one thing...it's time to run.

When it came time for me to run, I took off like I was shot out of a cannon. Just like leg 1 of Ragnar in June, I saw 5:5x on the Garmin and had to reign it in immediately. The goal was to run this controlled, somewhere around 6:20-6:25 pace. I felt like a 5 mile run would be a decent indicator of my half-marathon fitness without blowing my load all on one run. After the hot start I really needed to chill and run easy for a bit, and I still managed to clock a 6:32 for the first mile. I felt fantastic, this was really going to be easy.

Still trying to even out my effort, mile 2 came in at 6:19, which was a little surprising, as I really felt under control and not trying to work too hard. It felt MUCH easier than the 4 mile race from July. I saw my teammates cheering near the third mile and the adrenaline surged me to a 6:17. I was really picking it up after that and needed to slow myself down again. Mile 4 came in at 6:19, again, felt fine, like I was running a controlled tempo.

A nice view from "The Fred"

Then, in the distance, I finally saw someone else from the relay. One of the guys from a team we started with was ahead, and I was gaining on him. Screw it, I said, I'm catching him, and I stopped looking at my watch and zeroed in on him. I managed to catch him about halfway into mile 4 and we exchanged pleasantries. By the time I got to the exchange I had built a sizable lead on him. Mile 5 came in at 6:01, and that was a little insane; clearly not the pace I was looking for. At least for four miles I managed to reign it in, but the competitive side of me won out in that last mile.

Chicken and Dumplings

After my leg, Dean took the bracelet and held the lead that I had gained, which was awesome. When we handed off to roaster 2, we decided to hang around on their route for a while, and then have an early dinner (late lunch?). We eventually drove up to Reed City at the next major exchange and found this little dive called the Seven Slot Grill. There was a picture of a Jeep on the logo of the restaurant, which initially turned us off, but we eventually settled on it, as no other places in town were really doing it for us.

The special was Chicken and Dumplings, and Catherine, Dean, Stacy and myself all had it. It was incredible, easily the best C&D I've ever had. I was really grateful though that I didn't have to run for several hours because after eating that I was FULL.

Once that was over, we met up with the other roaster and went on and on about the meal we had, which immediately made them jealous and hungry. We were planning on coming back to Reed City after our next set of spurs, so I helped Dean and a couple of members of the "support crew", Lane and Glen, set up a tent for sleeping at later in the evening.

Catherine had an out and back leg to run, and once she came back, we were on the road again, at about 6:30. By the time my second leg rolled around, it was getting dark.

Spur 2 - 9.45 miles

Getting dark, time for some night running!

Suiting up in my reflective vest and headlamp, I was ready for spur 2. It would be my longest spur of the relay, and tied for the longest one of the entire race. I wanted to run this one around 6:50 pace, which translates to a 2:59 marathon. I'm not totally on board with this as my GMP yet...I'd like to see how my next half marathon race comes out first, but I thought I would intentionally try the pace out and see how it went.

Turns out it went pretty well. Aside from being scared a little bit that I was in the middle of nowhere, I found the pace to be quite manageable. Whenever I felt like I was working too hard, I would look down at my watch and see that I was in the 6:40s pace-wise and back off a bit. Still, I consistently had to hold back, which I think is a really good sign. The adrenaline of the relay was really pushing me along nicely.

I managed to catch another runner about 4.5 miles in. He held his hand out to give me a high five which I thought was a super cool gesture so we chatted for a quick second. I told him this was about the craziest run ever. He responded by telling me he was keeping his lamp on the trail and trying to ignore everything that was out there. Good advice.

There was a really spooky tunnel on this leg about 7 miles in. My headlamp lit it up and the other end was DARK. I thought the bogeyman was going to jump out and get me.

And suddenly, it was over. I handed off to Dean and my second spur was in the books, 9.45 miles in 1:04:26, a 6:48 pace. Looking at the elevation data, I gained about 300 feet, which sounded about right, it felt like a slight uphill grade, but nothing to get excited over.

A Sudden End

Poor Dean took a wrong turn and ran almost twice as long as he was supposed to. We did manage to finally collect him though, and had some amazing pizza in Cadillac at about 11pm, and then I was OUT in the van. I slept easily, way more easily than I did for Madison to Chicago. The power of not being the captain I suppose.

We went back to Reed City to wait for the other van, and I lumbered out and grabbed my sleeping bag and pillow, ready to go right back to sleep. It had started to rain as well, and I wanted to get into the rec room they had reserved for us so I could resume my nap.

While laying around I heard some crashes of Thunder but I was so damn tired, I just figured someone would rouse me when it was time to run.

All of a sudden, the race director turned the lights on and told us that they were calling the race. Aww man, what a bummer. Too bad, I had slept awesome, I was ready to go again. The team was pretty down about it, have to admit I was as well. We started driving back to Grand Rapids, and it was close to 5am...I had slept for almost 5 hours.

The good news is that on the following week, many of us who did the relay got together and finished the last leg together, and got to attend the post race party...albeit a week late. I took the dog with, and it was a great time, and it put me over 70 miles for the week, a new personal best:

8/15-8/21

Monday: ~13 mi @ 8:37

Tuesday: ~15 mi @ 7:58 (Felt great to have a solid MLR and then follow it with a longer and stronger one)

Wednesday: ~5 mi @ 8:50

Thursday: 10/5 LT run (6:35, 6:29, 6:32, 6:25, 6:21 for the quality, 7:25 overall)

Friday: ~5 mi @ 9:29

Saturday: 18.36 mi @ 8:36

Sunday: 4.4 mi @ 9:49

Total: 71.05 mi

Next Sunday, I'm racing the Peapod Half Marathon in Batavia, IL as a tune up for Toronto. The course looks like it's got some rolling hills, with one long gradual hill that crests at mile 10, so it's not totally flat, but what is. It actually kind of reminds me of the Green Bay profile...if that's the case then I'll be in business. I think that in order to feel good about a sub-3 attempt in Toronto, I'd like to hit a 1:24 or better at this race. Ideally, I'd like to start out around 6:30 pace and kick it into gear in the second half, especially for the nice downhill in the last three miles, but who knows what the day will bring. In training, 6:30 has felt both difficult some of the time, and doable at others, and I might have to adjust on the fly, but I think if the stars align I can hit this time, and if I do, it will be a big confidence boost. We'll see how it goes!