Monday, May 01, 2006
Big Sur Results - or my experience with running with the Kenyans
Saturday night we all got together for dinner at an Italian restaurant called Goomba's. My friend Neale made reservations for us, but since our party had grown to 12, the restaurant split us up into two parties. It is a nice feeling knowing you don't have to run a full marathon distance as our banter during dinner was light and funny. This was also the first opportunity we had to finally all hook up and meet our newest team member, Lesley. As you could imagine, we take our relaying very seriously, months and months of practice, with untold hours spent on the trails conditioning our bodies for peak performance, analyzing topography of the course in order to assign the proper person to that leg - yea right.
I met Lesley and her husband Steve during the Expo in Boston and knew immediately she'd do fine running with us. As we all stuffed our faces with food, we did talk about expected finish times, as our resident geek engineer, Angelo, worked up some finish time scenarios for us. Basically, the range was anywhere from a 2:48 to a 3:02 finish time. We also decided that I would start off, then hand off to "Buttercup" (Lauren), then Angelo, Meghan, and finally the new girl :)
As we left the restaurant, we stopped at an old art deco movie theatre that was having Japanese dummer's play - very inspiring music. Oh, early in the evening as we were waiting for our table, I saw Ultra-Man, Dean Karnazes, step into a boutique next door to the restaurant, so I grabbed Lauren and took her over to go talk to him. Dean is the best, I know he recognizes us from the Bay Area as well as from the Boston Expo, but such a super cool dude, the salt of the earth. If you haven't picked up his book, you should -.
Angelo, Lauren, Meghan and myself all piled into one room, we hit the sack pretty early as I needed to be up at 3:15 am to catch my bus to the start of the race. Yikes, that's so early. I worked my way to the school as the buses for the relay runners was separate from the marathoners. The bus ride took about 70 minutes up Highway 1 and I was glad to finally get there. The start of marathons are so much fun, the air is full of electricity, people are excited, some are wrapped in solar blankets to keep warm, others are taking inventory of all of their stuff that they will be bringing with on the course. The music is blaring loudly, and the announcer is telling us to start staging ourselves on Highway 1. I checked my long sleeve shirt, and stripped down to my customary singlet and shorts. I am very superstitious on how I dress for a race, and it doesn't matter what the outside temperature is, but I always wear the same things.
I was going to take advantage of my relatively short leg this morning, (I later found out they extended the distance because of a land slide on Highway 1) and really blow it out. As the announcer was introducing the elite runners from Kenya, I came up with a quick plan in my head, wouldn't it be nice to actually beat these dudes for at least one mile? There is no way in hell I could keep up with them, but maybe for the first mile, I could blow it out and beat them. As the wheels were spinning, and I convinced myself I could beat the Kenyans. See what a lack of sleep does to your mental synapses? Ok, screw it, I am going to do it, run like hell. Even if I blow up, I can muster enough strength to finish up my leg and hand off to Lauren with a relatively quick time split.
Since I lined up in the very first corral, I was able to see most of my friends who were actually running the marathon, I hugged my training partners, Neale and Patrick, as they lined up (both did awesome by the way), saw, Scott, Moselle, I didn't see my good friend, Deb, but she also had a fantastic marathon.
Countdown to the start of the race, someone from the military sings the National Anthem, they release 26 doves during the anthem, I am deeply touched - very patriotic. 30 seconds to start, I looked over and saw the Kenyans, damn they look fast, even just standing there. Bang, the gun goes off, and so do I! I remember one dude, Relay runner takes off like a bullet, no way in hell I could keep up with him, but 200 meters into the race, I find myself all alone, I am right behind the pace car, with the camera focused on me, where are the Kenyans? Ha, they are all behind me, I have that stupid grin on my face as I am barreling down the hill. So, this is what it feels like to be in front of the elites. I am doing it, I am beating the Kenyans, even if it's just a short distance, I am beating these dudes. As I quickly approach the first mile, the gal reads out my time split, 5:30 - crap, that's really fast considering I have 4 more miles to go, and thus ends my fantasy. The Kenyans blow by me at mile 1.2
It was fun while it lasted, who can say, they actually beat a Kenyan? Now mind you, we are talking apples to oranges comparison, but don't let that get in the way of my sense of reality. For at least one mile, me, Joe Dito, was actually beating a Kenyan in a race. My sense of exuberance was short lived as I knew I had a 4 more miles to cover and I was already in oxygen deprivation for going out so flippin fast.
I quickly went into survival mode and worked on my cadence and leg turnover. I knew my pace was slowing down a bit as more and more of the elite runners were catching up to me and passing me. A couple of guys right at mile 4 told me to hang in there, I was almost done - we chatted for a bit and I told them I just came off of running Boston a couple of weeks ago, and that I was a bit tired (didn't mention my running with the Kenyans though). The relay exchange point couldn't have come sooner, as I rounded the bend, I saw the sign, exchange point 200 yards ahead, finally! I picked Lauren out and I could hear her, come on Dito, let's go, I passed off the baton to her and off she went. Phew, I was done, thank God!
As I cooled off a bit, I made my way up to the highway and watched all the marathon runners go by, I yelled and cheered for all of them as their work was just beginning. I saw Patrick and Neale and Tom, jumped in with them for a bit and ran with them. They all looked good and relaxed. I later saw Deb go by, Brian, then Moselle. Now the only bummer about running this marathon as a relay is the transportation back to the start. They held the buses back until 10:00 am - logistically speaking, they had to do it as the race takes place on Highway One, and they can't block the Highway with buses making wide turns, so that really sucked. I spent a whole bunch of time in the back of a bus, I did meet some nice people though and told my usual corny jokes, met a gal from Texas who also ran Boston so we bonded.
The buses finally started to move slowly at first, but as we got closer to the end of the marathon, we caught up to the walkers, then finally some of the runners. At mile 22, I saw Moselle running, and she asked me to join her on course, I figured, why not. I talked the bus driver in letting me off, legally she wasn't suppose to, but did me a favor, I arranged someone to have my bag of clothes (cell phone, wallet and iPod too) to the bag pick up at the end. Thank you by the way! I hopped out, and ran with her and Mike. Mike jogged in from the end to meet Moselle at mile 20 to help her run her in. Moselle looked real steady, her pace was consistent, and she was smooth, me, the marathon veteran that I am, tried to offer up words of cadence and pace, but I am sure she was saying to herself, shut the f**k up and just run. I guess you had to be there.
Moselle did pass a bunch of people on her way to the finish line and finished quite well on one of the toughest courses in the nation.
I peeled off and I tried to find the rest of my relay team, the finish line was full of people, luckily, I saw my mates, and they told me the outstanding news, we finished 5th overall, and 1st in our division! As a team, we ran a 2:55! Damn we are two for two! We hung out by the stage as they awards ceremony was going to be starting at any time. This was going to be especially nice as we had some hometown support in the crowd. They finally called us on stage and all 5 of us were presented with these really cool plaques, as well as a huge bottle of wine. I am beginning to dig these relay events, it really pays to have really fast friends!
I personally want to thank Lauren, Angelo, Meghan and Lesley for being outstanding team members. There is no way Burlingame Track Club would have the success it enjoys if it wasn't for those folks. Again, job well done.
I met Lesley and her husband Steve during the Expo in Boston and knew immediately she'd do fine running with us. As we all stuffed our faces with food, we did talk about expected finish times, as our resident geek engineer, Angelo, worked up some finish time scenarios for us. Basically, the range was anywhere from a 2:48 to a 3:02 finish time. We also decided that I would start off, then hand off to "Buttercup" (Lauren), then Angelo, Meghan, and finally the new girl :)
As we left the restaurant, we stopped at an old art deco movie theatre that was having Japanese dummer's play - very inspiring music. Oh, early in the evening as we were waiting for our table, I saw Ultra-Man, Dean Karnazes, step into a boutique next door to the restaurant, so I grabbed Lauren and took her over to go talk to him. Dean is the best, I know he recognizes us from the Bay Area as well as from the Boston Expo, but such a super cool dude, the salt of the earth. If you haven't picked up his book, you should -.
Angelo, Lauren, Meghan and myself all piled into one room, we hit the sack pretty early as I needed to be up at 3:15 am to catch my bus to the start of the race. Yikes, that's so early. I worked my way to the school as the buses for the relay runners was separate from the marathoners. The bus ride took about 70 minutes up Highway 1 and I was glad to finally get there. The start of marathons are so much fun, the air is full of electricity, people are excited, some are wrapped in solar blankets to keep warm, others are taking inventory of all of their stuff that they will be bringing with on the course. The music is blaring loudly, and the announcer is telling us to start staging ourselves on Highway 1. I checked my long sleeve shirt, and stripped down to my customary singlet and shorts. I am very superstitious on how I dress for a race, and it doesn't matter what the outside temperature is, but I always wear the same things.
I was going to take advantage of my relatively short leg this morning, (I later found out they extended the distance because of a land slide on Highway 1) and really blow it out. As the announcer was introducing the elite runners from Kenya, I came up with a quick plan in my head, wouldn't it be nice to actually beat these dudes for at least one mile? There is no way in hell I could keep up with them, but maybe for the first mile, I could blow it out and beat them. As the wheels were spinning, and I convinced myself I could beat the Kenyans. See what a lack of sleep does to your mental synapses? Ok, screw it, I am going to do it, run like hell. Even if I blow up, I can muster enough strength to finish up my leg and hand off to Lauren with a relatively quick time split.
Since I lined up in the very first corral, I was able to see most of my friends who were actually running the marathon, I hugged my training partners, Neale and Patrick, as they lined up (both did awesome by the way), saw, Scott, Moselle, I didn't see my good friend, Deb, but she also had a fantastic marathon.
Countdown to the start of the race, someone from the military sings the National Anthem, they release 26 doves during the anthem, I am deeply touched - very patriotic. 30 seconds to start, I looked over and saw the Kenyans, damn they look fast, even just standing there. Bang, the gun goes off, and so do I! I remember one dude, Relay runner takes off like a bullet, no way in hell I could keep up with him, but 200 meters into the race, I find myself all alone, I am right behind the pace car, with the camera focused on me, where are the Kenyans? Ha, they are all behind me, I have that stupid grin on my face as I am barreling down the hill. So, this is what it feels like to be in front of the elites. I am doing it, I am beating the Kenyans, even if it's just a short distance, I am beating these dudes. As I quickly approach the first mile, the gal reads out my time split, 5:30 - crap, that's really fast considering I have 4 more miles to go, and thus ends my fantasy. The Kenyans blow by me at mile 1.2
It was fun while it lasted, who can say, they actually beat a Kenyan? Now mind you, we are talking apples to oranges comparison, but don't let that get in the way of my sense of reality. For at least one mile, me, Joe Dito, was actually beating a Kenyan in a race. My sense of exuberance was short lived as I knew I had a 4 more miles to cover and I was already in oxygen deprivation for going out so flippin fast.
I quickly went into survival mode and worked on my cadence and leg turnover. I knew my pace was slowing down a bit as more and more of the elite runners were catching up to me and passing me. A couple of guys right at mile 4 told me to hang in there, I was almost done - we chatted for a bit and I told them I just came off of running Boston a couple of weeks ago, and that I was a bit tired (didn't mention my running with the Kenyans though). The relay exchange point couldn't have come sooner, as I rounded the bend, I saw the sign, exchange point 200 yards ahead, finally! I picked Lauren out and I could hear her, come on Dito, let's go, I passed off the baton to her and off she went. Phew, I was done, thank God!
As I cooled off a bit, I made my way up to the highway and watched all the marathon runners go by, I yelled and cheered for all of them as their work was just beginning. I saw Patrick and Neale and Tom, jumped in with them for a bit and ran with them. They all looked good and relaxed. I later saw Deb go by, Brian, then Moselle. Now the only bummer about running this marathon as a relay is the transportation back to the start. They held the buses back until 10:00 am - logistically speaking, they had to do it as the race takes place on Highway One, and they can't block the Highway with buses making wide turns, so that really sucked. I spent a whole bunch of time in the back of a bus, I did meet some nice people though and told my usual corny jokes, met a gal from Texas who also ran Boston so we bonded.
The buses finally started to move slowly at first, but as we got closer to the end of the marathon, we caught up to the walkers, then finally some of the runners. At mile 22, I saw Moselle running, and she asked me to join her on course, I figured, why not. I talked the bus driver in letting me off, legally she wasn't suppose to, but did me a favor, I arranged someone to have my bag of clothes (cell phone, wallet and iPod too) to the bag pick up at the end. Thank you by the way! I hopped out, and ran with her and Mike. Mike jogged in from the end to meet Moselle at mile 20 to help her run her in. Moselle looked real steady, her pace was consistent, and she was smooth, me, the marathon veteran that I am, tried to offer up words of cadence and pace, but I am sure she was saying to herself, shut the f**k up and just run. I guess you had to be there.
Moselle did pass a bunch of people on her way to the finish line and finished quite well on one of the toughest courses in the nation.
I peeled off and I tried to find the rest of my relay team, the finish line was full of people, luckily, I saw my mates, and they told me the outstanding news, we finished 5th overall, and 1st in our division! As a team, we ran a 2:55! Damn we are two for two! We hung out by the stage as they awards ceremony was going to be starting at any time. This was going to be especially nice as we had some hometown support in the crowd. They finally called us on stage and all 5 of us were presented with these really cool plaques, as well as a huge bottle of wine. I am beginning to dig these relay events, it really pays to have really fast friends!
I personally want to thank Lauren, Angelo, Meghan and Lesley for being outstanding team members. There is no way Burlingame Track Club would have the success it enjoys if it wasn't for those folks. Again, job well done.
Labels: running
