100,000 miles for AT

[Mursilis]

Not a fun run this morning. 5.1 miles in pouring rain, 50F and windy. Yuck.

I admire that you ran in that sort of mess. I'd have been on the treadmill, which I loathe, but I loathe cold and wet even more!

+11 last night
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[drteming]

7 miles.

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[TraumaRN]

I admire that you ran in that sort of mess. I'd have been on the treadmill, which I loathe, but I loathe cold and wet even more!

+11 last night
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It makes it easier when you know you are taking 3 days off afterwards and I don't own a dreadmill. Moreover since my 50K race is in January I've gotta prepare for the worst. Plus my mantra.

Hard training days make for easy race day.


EDIT: And I'm at 48.6 miles for the last 7 days. Hence the 3 days off.

 

[ControlD]

6 miles.

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[Megatomic]

It makes it easier when you know you are taking 3 days off afterwards and I don't own a dreadmill. Moreover since my 50K race is in January I've gotta prepare for the worst. Plus my mantra.

Hard training days make for easy race day.

All of this. Right on TraumaRN.

I finally got back on the ball yesterday, 4.5 miles @ 8:40 pace. I have a trail marathon this coming Saturday (quite impromptu) so I'm in forced taper mode now. No big runs this weekend. Shooting for sub 4.

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[TraumaRN]

All of this. Right on TraumaRN.

I finally got back on the ball yesterday, 4.2 miles @ 8:40 pace. I have a trail marathon this coming Saturday (quite impromptu) so I'm in forced taper mode now. No big runs this weekend. Shooting for sub 4.

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Thank you! I've got 3 more 20+ miles run on my slate before my 50K so they are all going to be full race dress rehearsals. Aiming for 22-24 miles on monday forecast is 45F, and rain. Should be fun and a great gear test.

 

[Megatomic]

6.3 miles on trails today. It was sunny and breezy, temp of 81. Nice day in the park.

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[Megatomic]

6.8 miles this morning.

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[ControlD]

Ran a four miler at Ohio State this morning. We got to finish at the 50 yard line in the stadium which was pretty cool! I guess there were 10,000 runners which made this the largest inaugural run ever in Ohio.

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[Megatomic]

Holy crap that's a lot of runners. The biggest race I've ever been in had just a few hundred participants in it.

 

[drteming]

8 miles off road.

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[ControlD]

Holy crap that's a lot of runners. The biggest race I've ever been in had just a few hundred participants in it.

That's because you are busy doing things like 50k+ races. The common folk (me) can generally handle things like 4 miles a little easier! Plus, people are OSU crazy in this state which tends to get big crowds.

 

[Megatomic]

That's because you are busy doing things like 50k+ races. The common folk (me) can generally handle things like 4 miles a little easier! Plus, people are OSU crazy in this state which tends to get big crowds.

Would you be willing to describe a race like that here? I can't be the only one stunned by that number of people in one event, it's either gotta be mindblowingly exciting or a total drag.

 

[ControlD]

Would you be willing to describe a race like that here? I can't be the only one stunned by that number of people in one event, it's either gotta be mindblowingly exciting or a total drag.

Sure.

First off, this is a chip timed race so there is a RFID chip embedded in your race bib which starts timing you when you cross the start line and stops when you cross the finish which is pretty much needed in races of this size.

I have run a few races with around 5,000 runners so I was somewhat prepared. Before the race starts, runners are supposed to find their corral. Those corrals are marked by your estimated mile time, so for example I lined up in the 8:00 - 9:00 area. When the race starts, the runners go off staggered by their corral. Yesterday the corrals were 1300 people deep.

Once you get going there is a lot of slower traffic to navigate, mainly because people tend to not pay attention to the corrals. Personally, I like that part of the race. Constantly scanning the crowd looking for ways to pass slower groups of runners keeps me engaged and makes the race fun. Slower runners and walkers are encouraged to stay to the right, and for the most part it worked yesterday. The course was wide enough to handle 10,000 staggered runners.

I also tend to treat the large races as a bit of a social event. I like to talk with people (I ran most of the race with my wife yesterday) a bit and enjoy myself. We had 20 mph winds yesterday so I don't think many people were looking to hit PRs, most were out there because of the venue and to have a good time. Mission accomplished!

My wife tends to run longer race distances than I do. She did the Columbus half marathon last month. I believe between the half and the full marathon there were about 20,000 people (maybe more), so this was a small one for her. I think the shorter distance made this a much more congested race though.

 

[Megatomic]

RFID in the bib huh? I'm used to the ankle bracelet things if any are used at all. Must be a lot cheaper that way. I suppose if you treat it as a social event primarily you can have a good time at an event like that. I should try to do one, a big 10K maybe.

Thanks for the description.

 

[Barfo]

8 miles off road.

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+4

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[RagingBITCH]

RFID in the bib huh? I'm used to the ankle bracelet things if any are used at all. Must be a lot cheaper that way. I suppose if you treat it as a social event primarily you can have a good time at an event like that. I should try to do one, a big 10K maybe.

Thanks for the description.

For the basic 5K's around here, the majority use the D-tags that go around your laces. The last few really big races (Twin Cities, Chicago) both had the tag glued to the back of the bib. I guess it prevents people from forgetting to detach it or losing it on their shoe. Bib gets them entry to the start, and alleviates some of those headaches. Based on looking at it, it's gotta be more expensive than the D-tags, so you'll eat that cost in the race fees. But unless it's a corraled, wave start, and you don't start at the front, you can pretty much kiss a PR or an actual race effort goodbye!

+46 since last post

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[TraumaRN]

+26.22

So there it is. Full marathon done as a training run/full dress out for my ultra in January. To that end the weather made it miserably miserable. Windy gusty and 42F when I started. Which progressed to driving rain showers, gusty winds, poor visibility, and 39F for the last 6 miles. 50/50 split of roads and single track trails. Hydration and food checked out fine. Gear was great with no failures despite the rain. No chafing or blisters. Did get a bit hypothermic on the drive home from the soaking wet clothes but nothing too bad. And physically besides soreness I feel pretty good. Never even hit the wall. Time was pretty much in line with expectations. 4:40. Never forced my pace. Faster splits on road than trail but thats expected.

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[Megatomic]

2.4 miles last night. Race week taper plus streaking is a tough line to walk.

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[Mursilis]

+31 since my last post. Slowly tapering for my marathon on Sat. Might've found a pace partner on Facebook, which is great - need someone to keep me from starting out too fast and to keep me distracted from the miles!

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[Mursilis]

Before the race starts, runners are supposed to find their corral. Those corrals are marked by your estimated mile time, so for example I lined up in the 8:00 - 9:00 area. When the race starts, the runners go off staggered by their corral. Yesterday the corrals were 1300 people deep.

Self-assigned corrals drive me nuts. Almost no one is honest about their expected finish time, especially the people worried about missing the race cut-off, and they all line up at the front to get an extra head start on beating the sag wagon. Numerous running friends who run sub 4:00 and lined up properly in the Marine Corp Marathon a few weeks back complained about having to spend the first five miles dodging walkers(!) who lined up ahead of them. That's why I'd never do the MCM for any sort of PR attempt - a mass start (with no separate waves) with 25K runners is just a frustrating mess, at least for me.

 

[TraumaRN]

Self-assigned corrals drive me nuts. Almost no one is honest about their expected finish time, especially the people worried about missing the race cut-off, and they all line up at the front to get an extra head start on beating the sag wagon. Numerous running friends who run sub 4:00 and lined up properly in the Marine Corp Marathon a few weeks back complained about having to spend the first five miles dodging walkers(!) who lined up ahead of them. That's why I'd never do the MCM for any sort of PR attempt - a mass start (with no separate waves) with 25K runners is just a frustrating mess, at least for me.

I agree completely. In one season of running I already figured out that I hate big races. People aren't honest. Besides tough mudder this summer my biggest race was a halloween 5K about 2,000 people. The RD actually corralled people by time. I went with the first group which he called "the top 50 or if you want to win this race" and I still was dodging slower runners for the first half mile I probably would have been 10-15 faster if I hadn't been wasting motion on moving around others. Frustrating. I finished 36th out of 2000 so I was in the right place but I must have passed 100+ runners. My 50K in January is a multi distance race that is capped at 400 runners for all events so that's absolutely awesome as far as I'm concerned.

 

[Mursilis]

I agree completely. In one season of running I already figured out that I hate big races. People aren't honest. Besides tough mudder this summer my biggest race was a halloween 5K about 2,000 people. The RD actually corralled people by time. I went with the first group which he called "the top 50 or if you want to win this race" and I still was dodging slower runners for the first half mile I probably would have been 10-15 faster if I hadn't been wasting motion on moving around others. Frustrating. I finished 36th out of 2000 so I was in the right place but I must have passed 100+ runners. My 50K in January is a multi distance race that is capped at 400 runners for all events so that's absolutely awesome as far as I'm concerned.

Yeah, I've rarely heard complaints of course crowding at ultras!

A big race CAN be manageable if the RD actually uses a wave start AND enforces corrals. Disney has massive events but they also use wave starts and fairly strict corral placement, and corrals are based on past results, so you're not getting into the higher corrals if you don't have the results to back up your expected finish time. As a result, I didn't find their marathon to be too bad. Sure, it was crowded at points, but you could move up fairly easily if you wished. Unfortunately, every race doesn't use results-based corrals and wave starts.

 

[ControlD]

I don't have a huge problem with slower runners in the wrong corrals even though it would be nice if people paid attention. What bothers me is walkers, peole with baby strollers (unless they are fast runners) , etc. being in the runner's corrals. There is no excuse for that.

 

[TraumaRN]

I don't have a huge problem with slower runners in the wrong corrals even though it would be nice if people paid attention. What bothers me is walkers, peole with baby strollers (unless they are fast runners) , etc. being in the runner's corrals. There is no excuse for that.

Baby strollers are generally a nightmare on courses. They leave a bad taste in my mouth for another reason, I got chicked in that Halloween 5K I mentioned by a 29 year old mom pushing a stroller, I just quite couldn't catch her at the end and she finished about 4 seconds ahead of me.

In other news, back out there on some tired tired legs today and put in another 5 miles in legit cold weather, wind chill was 20F. Despite running the marathon yesterday in training, I managed 9:50 pace that never felt too hard.

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