Brown Cross Country

Time: 47:59
Distance: 11.33k
Pace: 4:14
Map

It was fun running with the Brown xc team this morning at their morning practice. Hopefully it wasn't an NCAA violation as that was certainly not the intention. I guess most NCAA violations are not intended other than to find loopholes in the system.

The guys were running various distances ranging from 4 to 7 miles depending on age and competitiveness. I opted to run in the second group as the guys up front were absolutely hammering right out of the gate. I had us open with a 4:22 kilometer which is at least 30 seconds faster than I normally start. It took me about 10 minutes to get my 27 year old muscles going. We ran a familiar loop that briefly hits the trails of Blackstone Park and then finished up along the (Blackstone) Boulevard. I was content to finish up at 11k as I had to hit the road for a store visit in Plymouth, MA.

Visiting Providence & Brown

Time: 75:15
Distance: 17.54k
Pace: 4:17
Map

I ended my day of store visits with Rhode Runner in Providence, RI where I used to buy shoes during my time at Brown. The manager is now Pat Moulton who ran at Providence College and was a year older than me. He and my good buddy Pat Tarpy had a great battle to the finish at the New England Championships one year that Brown ended up with the team title. Fun memories.

After the visit I headed up to campus and park near the OMAC (athletic center) where I was able to sneak in the back and change into my running costume. I had chatted with @78barnestweet earlier in the day about where the boys were working out. The team was doing some mile repeats down at the Brown Stadium.

I got in 45 minutes of running on short St. Ray's before arriving at the track to watch one of the final workouts before the Heps Cross Country Championships next Saturday at Princeton. I won't be able to make it down to Dirty Jersey so it was nice to see the crew while in town. I became pretty fired up after hearing the three clap beat during the workout. My pace dropped considerably during the 20 minutes of running clockwise around the track. I fortunately felt pretty good despite the considerable amount of running I've done this week. The trick is staying healthy.

CVS 5k Race Recap

Time: 61:13
Distance: 8.46 miles
Race: 15:01, 21st place

W/u: 20:16 for 2.42 miles
C/d: 25:56 for 2.93 miles

The morning activities at Kim's house consisted of drinking coffee, eating toast and watching the horrible feed of the Philadelphia Half Marathon. It was a good attempt to view, but the coverage sucked for the most part. A former runner at Providence College, Richie Yeates, and his girlfriend, Corrinne, also stayed at Kim's last night. The four of us departed for the race about 90 minutes from gun time.

Meagan and I prior to racing in Providence. She didn't even mind that I had just warmed up and was sweaty.

I settled in at the elite athlete's tent and felt a little out of place. Other athletes there included Kyle Alcorn, Molly Huddle, Sara Hall and more. It was fun to catch up with some of the guys from the Ivy League who are looking to qualify for the Izumo Ekiden in the middle of October. About an hour out from the race, Richie and I started our warm up around downtown. We ran into Leo Kormanik who is married to one of Meagan's good friends from Atlanta. My legs were feeling pretty good, but still a little tired from all the travels.

Jeff talking to me about a race plan. Go out hard, eyes up, don't die.

About a half hour from the start, I ran into my coach Jeff Gaudette who was hanging out with Meagan. Before the race I also got to catch up with my old college coach John Gregorek. I did some light stretching, a few long strides and prepared myself for the hurt and burn of the race. The two other times racing here I was through the mile around 4:42-4:45 pace and just off the tail end of the lead packs. My goal today was to be positioned a little closer to the mix and hang on for dear life.

I started the race in the second row behind a couple munyans (a pair of Kenyans who had a particular ill odor). We sprinted down the opening hill and I tried to run as comfortably as possible, never settling for the first 1k. I kept inching my way closer to the main field and was in good contact through the mile in about 4:35. It was quite brisk but I was where I needed to be with people around to chase. I moved up a few slots the next couple of minutes and came up on Richie Yeates just as we turned onto South Main St. I gave him a little slap on the ass and some words of encouragement. The field was stringing out a bit and I tried to keep Andrew Fuller from Rome, GA in my sights.

Through two miles I was running on the right side of the road using the tangents to my advantage. I believe I hit the second mile mark in 9:30-9:35 which means I slowed significantly, but was still feeling decent. I rallied as best I could for the uphill finish and continued to catch runners with about 1k to go. At the bottom of the hill I was a few strides back from a group of three guys. My legs weren't responsive enough and they ran away from me a bit. Also, another Ivy Leaguer, Sam Luff, rolled by me at the three mile mark that we hit in about 14:25. I ran strong to the finish, but felt like I was walking up the hill and I just missed cracking 15:00 minutes by a second (last year I finished in about the same time).

Me trying to minimize the damage just after the 2 mile mark.

JSK, Johnny G and Jeff G catching up post race.

I am pleased with the race and how I handled the quick early pace. Given my travels and lack of any real workout in the last few weeks, this is exactly what I needed. It was fun having people around to chase and a group of runners to work with. I cooled down with a group of guys including Frank Tinney (14:22, 8th), Andy Biladeau (14:06, 5th), Mike Maag (14:42, 12th), Zac Hine (14:43, 13th), MacKlin Chaffee (14:48, 16th), Sam Luff (15:00, 20th) and Richie Yeates (15:34, 31st). We were all in pretty good spirits and had a chance to run through Brown's campus.

MRN and Jeff G posing on the Main Green at Brown.

JSK with Bruno or as the Finns would say Karhu.

Track groupie.

The rest of the morning was spent up on College Hill with Jeff and Meagan. We enjoyed a family breakfast at Louie's Diner, walked around Brown's campus, took in Thayer Street and checked out the bookstore. We eventually made our way back over to Kim's house where football was watched and some work was completed. It was great catching up with Jeff and seeing some of our old stomping grounds.

Later in the evening Molly Huddle, fresh off her 5k American record on the track and title on the roads, came over with two bottles of wine. We waited for Kim to arrive with Roisin McGettigan and Ryan Graddy. It was a great low key evening with three incredibly talented world class runners who make Meagan and I look like chumps. I hope some of their talent rubbed off on the two of us.

CVS 5k Course Preview

Time: 33:49
Distance: 4.18 miles
Pace: 8:05
Map

After being home for less than 12 hours it was time to get back to the airport for a quick flight up to Providence, Rhode Island. Originally this trip was scheduled for Meagan to race some top competition at the post-collegiate level, but her foot is still banged up. My plan was to go and race as well, but not on an extremely competitive level. I have run this race twice before in the past and this year it wasn't all that interesting to me. I had to change that focus a bit when Meagan was out and the emphasis shifted to my race.

Meagan and I were on the same flight from Charlotte to Providence as a number of other guys racing tomorrow. We were all bussed to the race hotel and given some brief instructions. I ended up going down to the lobby to find a group of high school runners excited to see someone dressed for a run. They thought I needed a course preview and had planned on running with them. Since I was the only guy to show for this "official" preview I didn't want to let them down. We jogged from the hotel over to the start line and continued on the course. They knew the course for the most part. I had to tell them some of the turns just after the mile marker which I was sure to give them a hard time about.

I finished the run at the packet pickup tent and got all my goodies. I even ran into the old Brown Track & Field coach, Bob Rothenburg who is hands down the most well connected person in the Rhode Island running scene. We had a great time catching up and he told me about a high school cross country meet that he is directing with over 4500 kids attending. After our chat I did a few strides and jogged back over to the hotel with Pezz.

After showering and cleaning up, Meagan and I headed down to the Providence Place Mall for a bit. We walked around, tried to shop, ate a snack and then left for the hotel again. We took a taxi to Kim Smith's house where we were staying for the weekend. My hope that some of the Kim Smith and Keith Kelly (roommate) magic would rub off on Meagan and I. The rest of the evening was pretty tame.

Check out this little video of Keith who had a great love for the sport and can convince anyone that Providence is the training/running mecca of the world.

Track and Field Videos on Flotrack

My Best Workout Ever

I was reading through an old log, an activity that I do rarely, and I found my best workout. Ever. I started this blog in the fall of 2007 and have kept it pretty updated through the highs (marathon wins) and lows (injuries) that come with training. Back in the spring of 2006, when I was a senior at Brown, I kept a hand written running journal. I was fairly consistent with my recording through a successful season of training and racing indoors and outdoors.

I wanted to share my best workout that took place on April 18, 2006 at the Brown track in Providence, Rhode Island. It was a workout that told me I was ready to run with any miler in the Ivy League. The workout that I did was 5 sets of 500m (300 jog), 300m (200 jog), 200m (200 jog). However, I was supposed to have much more jogging rest than I actually took. I misunderstood the workout because of the various interval differences and rest distances. I think I it was supposed to be equal jog to the interval, but I'm still not sure. All I know is that off shorter rest, I still killed it.

The splits were:
Set #1 - 75.4 (98), 44.0 (66), 31.4 (72)
Set #2 - 77.9 (102), 45.6 (70), 30.9 (75)
Set #3 - 77.5 (110), 45.7 (70), 29.9 (77)
Set #4 - 78.4 (108), 46.1 (70), 30.7 (73)
Set #5 - 77.8 (114), 45.4 (71), 30.2

On the 500m, I would come through 400m in 61 or 62. The 300m and 200m were run at 60 to 61 pace. I remember feeling tired, but fast on each interval. In my log I wrote "Managed the workout but didn't feel too sharp." At the time most of Brown's team was injured so the workout was done alone. I only realized that I had "messed up" the workout when a group of 5kers (Neely, Burke and ??) were doing the same workout, but were taking much more rest. I doubt I'll ever touch this workout again.

Seekonk, MA

Time: 68:17
Distance: 9.59
Pace: 7:07
Map

I put in some miles with Graddy this afternoon once he got done with his big medical school exam on the heart. He was hoping to put in about 20 miles on the day, but I would not be joining him for the duration. Tarpy unfortunately couldn't make it over for the outing as the same blond/female/Olympian mentioned in that post was having an epic shopping spree.

Graddy and I ran one of the standard loops we used to do while running for Brown. "Seekonk" takes you from the campus, across the border and into Massachusetts where our former coach John Gregorek lives. The loop doesn't go past his house or anything but it's still cool to have runs that cross borders. I was thinking while on this run about how crappy some of our loops were. As a team we ran a lot along the Blackstone Blvd which meant that nobody wanted to run there if we had the opportunity to go elsewhere. The Seekonk loop has large portions next to busy streets and crowded intersections. It was never a concern running these routes when there were 20 guys around, but running them solo or with a small group is questionable.

I felt a little sore during the run but nothing out of the ordinary. Tonight I'm going to Craigga's for dinner.

Louie's on the Mind

Time: 26:12
Distance: 3.51 miles
Map

I didn't get in as many miles this morning as I would have liked but that's how things worked out. Instead of the extra minutes I met up with Rick Marshall at one of the better dive diners in the world. Louie's is still as grimy as ever, but the food never changes. The prices are still the same as you can get a grilled muffin, eggs, coffee, french toast, fruit cup and hash browns for the low low price of 5 quid. I'm not sure how much 5 quid is, maybe Wee Man could tell you, but I hope it's not that much.

CVS Downtown 5k

Time: 94:09
Distance: 12.51 miles

Shakeout: 13:51 for 1.65 miles
W/u: 22:00 for 2.75 miles
Race: 15:00 (<-- results)
C/d: 27:59 for 3.27 and 15:19 for 1.74

Race day morning started up on College Hill with a short run to shake out the legs. I proceeded to shower up and walk down the hill several hours before the race. A quick stop was made to Starbucks for some coffee and then I walked over to the Capitol. I'm glad that I got to the race early because it gave me a chance to see former Brown coach Bob Rothenberg and his wife Anne. They were volunteering at the race because they are quite possibly the most well connected couple in the RI running community.

There was still much time to spare but luckily I saw Stephanie Pezzullo (Pezz) beforehand and we hung out in the grass field. Tanya showed up a bit later with Sara Hall (Bei), Jenn Rhines (three time Olympian), and a few other elite women (those with actual shoe company contracts). It was cool seeing the elite men hang around the start of the race gearing up for what is more or less a low key race.

I had two goals on the day which were to run in the 14:30s and qualify for the Ivy League Ekiden trip to Japan. Prior to the race the team coach, Jack Fultz, pre-selected five athletes (Steve Sundell [Columbia], Michael Maag [Princeton], Ben True [Dartmouth], David Nightingale [Princeton], Thomas Morgan [University of Kentucky]). You might be thinking Kentucky, that's not an Ivy League school. Well, it's known as the Ivy League of the south, or so I'm told.

Anyway, those five runners were already on the team and four of us were racing (Lucas Meyer [Yale], Zac Hine [Cornell], Murat Kayali [Yale], myself) in Providence. The hitch in this whole thing is that only eight guys make the team. Six athletes run in the ekiden (Japanese relay race) and two are alternates who run a 5k on the track. Thus, I had to beat one runner on the day.

The race started and I was hoping to go through the mile in 4:35-4:40, but I came through a little slow in 4:42. It was cool hearing the three clap cheer of my former Brown teammates. Watch the video below and you can see what I'm talking about.

Track and Field Videos on Flotrack

I was just off the pace of a big group I should have been up with. The leaders only ran 4:30 for the first mile which meant my positioning was fine, just a little slow as a result. I hoped to remain focused over the next mile and catch some of the guys who went out to fast. I was running behind Christian Hesch and an older dude in a green jersey (there is some debate as to whether the runner was Sean Wade. He doesn't show up in the results, but I'm almost positive that it was Wade). Going through the second mile mark I think it read 8:24 which was clearly wrong. Hopefully it was 9:24 and just a minute off but who knows at this point.

I passed Hesch in the next section and reeled in a couple of more guys. With about half a mile to go old guy green took off and I thought I was going to lose to him. Meagan's good friend, Gabe Rodriguez, said I better not lose to Sean Wade because he's 41 years young, and at this point I was certain this was Wade. Gabe would have given me endless shit if I lost to a masters athlete. Luckily, I saved enough for the final hill which is about 300 meters from the finish. Half way up the hill Wade was gassed and I rolled past him, but was getting rolled on by two other guys making moves. Part way up the hill is the 3 mile mark (I think 14:25) and then it flattens out to the finish. I didn't think I was slowing that much, roughly to a 5 min pace, because I was still catching people. I crossed the line right at 15 minutes.

At no point during the race did I feel overly strained or lock up. I'm not sure why I ran 30 seconds slower than what I had hoped. My legs felt good and the lungs handled the effort fine. Maybe it's because I haven't gone to the well during a race effort in quite some time and I've forgotten to accept a high level of pain. Two years ago when I ran 14:44, I had run a 5k in 14:54 a couple of weeks prior. I would like to think that I'm in the same if not better shape than two years ago. Regardless, I achieved my second goal of qualifying for the trip to Japan. So I've got that going for me...which is nice.

Lucas and Zac ran great times today which you can find in the results up top. Tanya didn't have the best race, but Pezz almost broke 17 minutes.

Seeing the Sites

Time: 30:43
Distance: 4.22 miles
Pace: 7:16
Map

I was out the door and off to see some of the old sites Brown has to offer. First I ran up Hope St. from Graddy's and took a tour of the back fields that have been recently upgraded. It looks like the athletic department decided to pay a hefty some to have the grass turfed over. Being back on the fields brought back memories of my first run with Enda Johnson and Eamonn O'Connor when they spoke Irish to each other which meant I understood next to nothing.

I next hit up the Brown Stadium but it was locked up so I ran up the hill and through Moses Brown HS. It's funny how you can come back to a place and run the exact same roads without feeling like you've missed anything. Finally, I took it down Thayer St. while the traffic was low and deliveries were being made.

I had a few hours back at Graddy's before walking down to pick up my race packet with Steve Chaloner. Since I got down there early I was able to grab all I needed with little hassle. I wanted to see Bob Rothenberg but I didn't come across the feller. Hopefully I spot him tomorrow after the race.

Brown Town

Time: 60:01
Distance: 8.53 miles
Pace: 7:02
Map

I had an early flight out this morning from Charlotte to PVD that Meagan was lucky enough to take me to. Tarpy was big time in picking me up once the flight touched down in the old stomping grounds. Being back on campus has brought back so many memories and it's only going to get better when some of the fellas get here. Tarpy and I went to Blue State Coffee and grabbed a slice from Antonio's once Graddy got out of class. It turned out being a relaxing and fun morning/afternoon with two former teammates.

Graddy has a big test on Monday which means he's going to fail once the crew gets here. Anyway, he was able to escape for some minutes along the bike path. The India Point crossing is newly finished so there is a more direct route to the path. We put in about an hour at an easy clip talking about his time in Durban, South Africa. He schooled me on the four groups of people there: black, white, Indian and colored. However, I liked it best when he said his boss (an educated Zulu woman) asked him who "Hispanics" were after reading about another superior race of people.

What I've Been Doing...

...not a whole lot. I'm going to roughly fill in my runs for the last few weeks in a single post.

Fri. 5/30 - 57:14

Thurs. 5/29 - 34:11

Thurs. 5/29 - 33:40

Weds. 5/28 - 40:01 (ran a mini 5k tempo with Carrot Top in 18:32)

Weds. 5/28 - 28:08

Tues. 5/27 - 34:29

Sat. 5/24 - 22:00 to the track. Convinced Mike DeCoste it would be a great idea to run a mile in sub 5:00. Owen and I took pacing duties and led off with a 75 second quarter. Down the back stretch Coste wanted to go fast so we did. The man showed some heart and clicked off a 4:47 mile in trainers. Afterwards Owen, Hamel and I paced Craigga to a 67.7 Freeman. Yup, we still got it.

Fri. 5/23 - 35:40 to the Brown Stadium to watch Oz and Sarro run a tune up workout for Regionals. Did some light jogging on the infield with Owen.

Thurs. 5/22 - Shakeout run in the morning with Meagan. Beer mile in the evening. See post below.

Weds. 5/21 - 45:01 in the streets near Brown and down by the Blvd in Providence. Ran with Meagan up to campus and then headed down Lloyd where we ran into Oz and SarBro. They joined us for the next few miles.

Tues. 5/20 - 28:16

Sat. 5/17 - 63:03. Wow that was a good run. Perhaps that was with Geoff Thurner and Jilane in the streets of Norman.

Fri. 5/16 - 88:22. Who am I? That's like 12 miles. Ran out at Lake Draper with Jilane and Thurner. Went to the end of the dirt trail and back.