So I haven't posted in a long time, but here's a race report from Boston this year.

My own race report is as follows.....Came to Boston with what felt like impossible-to-run-with hip flexor and hamstring pain aggravated, I think, by three hours of what I thought was LIGHT yardwork on Friday.  I limped over to the expo on Sunday morning and after sitting through a demo, decided to buy a TENS unit for $200 and alternate treatments with my ice for the rest of theday I had left to try to get runnable.  So except for meeting up with my friend Darryl Stanbrough for a few minutes for photo op at the Finish Line, that's what I did the rest of Sunday....TENSing, watching the Sox and updated weather reports and Marathon news on TV.  Woke up Monday at about 3;30 feeling at least 60% better, but still sensing major possible body problems.  My guess was that good solid training had me prepped to go the distance endurrancewise, but would I breakdown muscularly somewhere and with the forecasted early rain and 40 degrees(which I was fine with) turning to steady rain and extremely windy by 3 o'clock, would I end up in a hypothermic repeat of my Venice, Italy marathon that was such a painful, hypothermic disaster.

     I ended up leaving the hotel for the Baumann bus in two long sleeved shirts, a punched out plastic bag they had given us at the expo, shorts, calf compression sleeves, armwarmers, gloves, rainproof jacket, sweatpants sweatshirt and two hats and an extra plastic bag.  Had thoughts of wearing lighter weight racing shoes but decided to stick to my trainers.   Ate a bit of breakfast, took an Aleve and felt slightly better after the walk to the bus.   Meeting up with Darryl and his running partner Lori , I sat beside Jim O'Brien for the ride out to Hopkinton catching up with him.  He had spent most of the weekend at the hospital with his friend Carole (sp) who I think Dave and Susi may know from the DWD team from a couple of years ago.  (Jim told a Gary Lake story of his recruitment of her).  Jim and Carole had gone for a little jog on Saturday, tripped and ....compound fracture of....now I can't remember what....but Oh, man.  Hopefully she mends quickly.  

     We had about 2 1/2 hours to kill before we could think about heading for the start line so there was fidgetting with food, drink and clothing while I chatted with Robin Linfield from South Lyon for awhile and met Peter Polidori, age 75 and Dave Dugger, age 76 behind me.   It wasn't raining as we headed down to the Start line for Wave Three.  I shed the the plastic bag and my sweatclothes, but as rain started falling again decided to keep everything else on.  I thought about start at the very tail end of the wave for an uncongested stretch at the beginning like last year, but decided the further down the course I could get before the hard rain came, the better and started in my 4th corral in the middle of the wave.  Most of the start line talk, both official and amongst runners seemed to be much more about the running and the weather this year, rather than the bombing and security as things seem headed toward a new "normal".  So off we went in the rain.

     Boston's downhill beginning is a great thing for sketchy legs and to my surprise, as things loosened and the adrenaline kicked in, holding things tamped down, I felt okay.  The miles started piling up, one by one and somewhere along the line, the rain let up and I stuffed my wet gloves in my jacket pockets.  Just beyond Wellesley and all the commotion, I HAD to find a toilet, ended up in a potty behind the spectator fence, couldn't get back through the fence for a stretch and missed the 13.1 timing mat.  Oh, well. 

     Usually by 16 miles, I'm really starting to fatigue, but the effort level had been so moderate to this point that I was starting to think I stood a good chance of making it to the finish.  Up through the hills is usually a major problem for me, yet I found myself actually passing lots of people, if not moving fast.  Mile 21 is still such a relief as you head down toward the city and I had decided after about mile 18 to try for no more refueling and just go for it.  Even with all the clothing, I still didn't feel at all overheated, but by mile 3, jettisoned the soggy gloves, the soggy armwarmers, and the large extra plastic bag.  Just feeling lighter seemed to help me mentally, too.              With still the heavy rain holding off I pressed to Boylston Street and the finish in my best pace of the race and finished as strongly as I think I ever have a marathon and actually feeling like I could have run more.  Crazy. Nothing like low expectations to make you feel extra lucky.  So So 3:47:36    41st in age group of 403  avg HR 153 are the stats

    With the strong east wind off the ocean, even with no rain, the post finish line air was biting cold and I was very grateful for all my clothing and the relatively short walk back to the hotel.  An hour later, by my family's arrangement, a massage therapist came to the hotel and was that a wonderful gift.  I'm sure it's helping with recovery.  

     The Boston crowd was impressive given the weather and for my money, Boston and New York are just the best. 

    On the flight home, I ended up in the same row as Robin Linfield.  She had had a good run in 3:50.  Jim O'Brien had 3:41, Darryl a 3:49, my friend Harold Wilson, age 82, a 4:18 and of course Graham, with a screaming 3:32.   Cab ride home to Brighton when Chris, my wife, was picked to sit on a jury at the last minute and couldn't fetch me from the airport.

Hope to see everyone soon.

Tom 

Allez, Allez

Well, it was NOT another of those typical frozen February weeks for training these past few days. Michigan winter training was replaced by some running in France this past week. While long pants were still required for early morning runs, there were no freezing temperatures in Celsius OR Farenheit. Fun runs all on the streets of Bordeaux and Nimes and on the shores of the Mediterranean in Nice but maybe the very best was in the French countryside near Fontenay Le Comte on a beautiful morning with Jen Fracassi while visiting her mother Charlene and Jen's four delightful and welcoming children Katie, Gabi, Joey and Ellie (who gave me a drawing). They are Americans there for the school year and they're finding the cultural differences a fascinating learning experience.

Back to a frigid 20 mile run here at Kensington yesterday carrying an extra five pounds from the past week's fabulous cuisine. So worth it.

Depths of Winter

So, another week of winter training. Repeated snowfalls, but again and again the guys and gals at Kensington Metropark keep sweeping off the snow almost as soon as it falls to keep the trail as safe as possible for us. Nothing remarkable really for the past week as I attempt to catch up to the training schedule after starting this training cycle later than usual and with the Paris Marathon earlier than usual. The swimming on my two off days is still feeling good.

Fortunately, there have been still no significant injury issues to date and a nineteen mile run today felt surprisingly easy. The knees were nearly painfree today. The next two weeks will be more challenging in terms of getting in the daily runs as we leave for France next Thursday night for eight days. What will running in 30 degree warmer weather feel like anyway? A preview of April in Paris!

Winter Training -Footprints In The Snow

With the left knee still sore at the holidays, it was time to determine if a spring marathon was going to be a possibility or just a nice thought. That is to say, I felt like I needed to start the training cycle and see if upping the mileage would make it better or worse. At the same time, I met with Clarice Brown, Chris's old boss, the physical therapist who had made my first custom orthotics four years ago for a new pair. After nearly five thousand miles my old ones have definitely given me admirable service.

Mostly, so far, so good. So, on the horizon is the Eiffel Tower-- the Paris Marathon is the goal on April 10th. I'm a few weeks behind my usual training plan, but we'll see.

It's bitter in these parts. 4 below zero for the run this morning with sticky, then icing eyelashes that actually started to limit my visibility toward the end of the run.

Joining a fitness center three weeks ago, I have been heading over there on the mornings of the two off-running days of the week, mostly for the swimming which is still a struggle, but hopefully improving slowly.

On another optimistic note, the days are getting longer and we're all getting more Vit D. Yeay!

ING New York City Marathon, then Sidelined

After a good stretch through the summer's triathlons and the fall marathons, I finally pushed the envelope a bit too much again and find myself out of action with a sore left knee and this week a bad back.

Thankfully, all this didn't happen until AFTER a couple of fun and successful marathon efforts in Denver and New York City with NYC being the goal race. Denver was a most enjoyable trip with everything at the time seemingly done well within myself as far as the race itself went. Slight soreness of the left knee was only noticeable a couple of days after. The major race problem was having to take two long potty breaks at seven and sixteen miles, the first time I've ever needed even one of those during a race. Since I was doing it basically as a trainingrun for New York, I was happy with a finish time of 3:53 and change. The altitude only seemed to really get to me over the last five miles or so or maybe I was just stetched out by then. Kelly and Austin were great hosts, arranging some terrific places to breakfast, lunch and dinner. AND---Kelly ran her first half marathon on not all that much training that she managed to sneak in around all her PhD work and dragged Austin to 2:07 in the upper third of her age group!! The weather was nearly perfect, cool at the start, but quickly warming, then sunny and warm for the postrace.
New York City's weather, on the other hand seemed much more questionable heading into our midweek trip there, however. Delayed arrivals by nearly every Thursday flight meant that Gretchen, flying in from Seattle, missed getting to the Broadway Billy Elliott show with Chris and me on Thursday night. With all the cabs tied up because of the rain, we ourselves (Chris and I) only made it to the theater dry and on time by taking one of the bicycle rickshaw things officially called pedicabs. Fun and maneuverable, but definitely a slightly more dangerous way to navigate the streets of the City. Friday and Saturday rain continued off and on with a five mile race in Central Park for me Friday morning followed by a test subway trip to the Staten Island Ferry----I felt like I needed to figure out where I needed to go for the race and the girls were nice enough to come join me. In the afternoon-- some shopping and a trip to MOMA for us all and then the girls headed to the Met to take in the opera after we ate at Picholine on Friday night.
Probably the most exciting thing to happen for me, though was an elevator encounter. Elevator? Ah, Yes. We were staying at the Hilton New York City on the Avenue of the Americas (Seventh Avenue) just south of Central Park and this must be where ING, the major race sponsor was housing the elite runners becuzzzzzz, jumping into an elevator on the ground floor (and we were staying on the 43rd) it became clear that one of the occupants was Meb Keflezighi, last year's winner. I didn't get all autograph goofy and I never actually called him by name, acting all cool and everything, but just said I'd be pulling for him on Sunday as I left the elevator, WHERE-UP-ON, he asked my name and wished me a good race. A wow moment for me. Saturday was low key with some shopping and a trip to MOMA, an early pasta dinner at Trattoria del Arte and early bedtime. Usually, I fall asleep easily the night before a big race and then wake up at 3 or 4 unable to sleep anymore. This night I was wide awake until at least 11, then up at 3 but I've never felt that sleep before a race is really all that kind of a critical deal. So, up and awake and bundled in five layers or so, I ate more than usual and then off to the Ferry. Met a nice couple from Dallas in the lobby also headed for the race and we shared a cab, a ride on the ferry and a bus and walk to the staging area. It was pretty frigid and we all appreciated all our clothing, but the excitement level was amazing with 45,000 of us assembling at the foot of the Verrazano Narrows Bridge, the huge suspension bridge which spans the mouth of New York Harbor. Once the sun came up it got a bit better but the wind still made it cold. I think they pull off the logistics of this thing impessively wel, though, for such a big event. It's a three wave start--15,000 runners per wave spaced a half hour apart, starting at 9:40 am. I was assigned the first wave because I'm so speedy and after loading into the corrals at 8:55 literally tons of clothing shed by us all and an exciting start, I crossed the start line ONLY three minutes after the horn sounded.
One of the most amazing things about the three American Majors (Boston, Chicago and New York) is the percentage of foreign runners. This is most impressive at NYC though. Twenty thousand of the entries are from overseas and you could hear all kinds of languages and see flags from everywhere before and during the race. I had conversations with people from France, Germany, Norway, Columbia, New Zealand, Argentina and Japan before the race. Pretty fun for an old man with a lifetime in the Midwest.
Starting the race on the big bridge is just great for a couple of reasons. The view across the harbor and the Manhattan skyline is really impressive on the left, but it is also a long steady climb for about a mile and nice to do while your legs are fresh and excitement is high. They use both levels of the bridge and despite being the start of the race, it didn't feel that congested. Downhill and off the bridge was sweet too and care had to be taken to hold back the pace. Coming into Brooklyn any number of overhydrated folks ducked into the bushes (or not) and we converged with the people from the upper level of the bridge. Things were tighter through the next few miles and that was really the top concern for awhile. The worst moment in this regard came when a young woman elbowed me hard as she pushed through the crowd and dislodged my Garmin running watch from my its snap-on perch on my velcro wristband. This isn't that easy to do or so I thought and I gasped in horror as I heard it skittering on the pavement behind me. I turned into the sea of moving humanity in my minds eye seeing the headline of the Death of the Trampled Marathoner in the next day's NY Times when a wonderful human from New Jersey yelled, "I've got your watch". He'd seen what happened, been able to pick it up and quickly thrust it into my grasping hand. After profusely thanking him, I would love to tell you that I ran the rest of the race with him, but he hadn't been able to train much and dropped off soon after that.
The rest of Brooklyn and Queens were pretty even and steady as the miles clicked by and the sun angle rose a bit higher. There was some trash talking between runners from Queens and Brooklyn to pass the time and the accents were great fun. The mark for the half marathon point is just before the assent of the Queensboro Bridge and I hit it in 1:45 something feeling very good about time, pace and effort level. Things changed a few minutes later as by the middle of the Queensboro and passing a bunch of folks and being passed a lot, I felt much more drained. I hadn't expected such a protracted uphill. The trip down was nice though and then the curl off the bridge and up First Avenue was exhilerating with the masses of cheering fans and wide open street. Easy miles. By the time we crossed into the Bronx, the crowds had thinned quite a bit, most everyone was tiring but I was still passing more than being passed. Having just crossed back into Manhattan, the watch again was knocked off, again by a young female and no New Jersey savior in sight. This time though, by mile nineteen, things had thinned out enough that I was able with artful dodging to backtrack and retrieve it successfully. Relieved again that it was ticking off the (wasted) seconds, I reclipped and headed on, still feeling fairly strong. Gel management, fluid management and the lack of a need for a portapotty had all gone well and I now knew that if I didn't cramp up badly or hit the wall completely that I had a shot at a really good time. I was still high (I guess low) fiving kids along the way up until about mile 22 when I slowly went into survival mode with the left knee starting to ache slightly and the legs just trying to continue at the best sustainable pace possible. I was beginning to run on fumes at this point after a few minutes earlier having actually entertaining the idea of picking up the pace toward the end. Dream on. The fact that I had run the race in Central Park just two days before was both good and bad. On the one hand, I knew how much further it was to the finish and on the other, I knew how much further it was to the finish. By now people were running and walking very disparate speeds and attention needed to be paid to the road ahead even more than before. The 40K and subsequent Mile signs were all welcome sights, though, baby and the final two tenths to the finish I gave it most everything I had. ----Garmin and official time of 3:35:37 ----two minutes faster than my previous PR in Chicago a year ago and on a tougher course. I was one very happy dude. Very rewarding after all the training.

Once through the finish, it was still only about 49 degrees and breezy, and I cooled off pretty rapidly after deciding not to bother to retreive my bagged stuff on down from the finish line. But----there had been no rain all day and Chris met me with a rickshaw at our predetermined corner and got us back to the hotel through the crowds quicker than we probably would have made it any other way. The throngs of cheering people were spilling out into the street making walking on the sidewalk nearly impossible with runners just continuing to flow along the race route. Back to the Hilton. Shower. Bed. Lunch. Bed. Then actually out to dinner at Rosa Mexiano, which Austin recommended and which was great. Then a good night's sleep.

My "friend" Meb finished sixth this year. We saw him again at the buffet breakfast the next morning along with the second place finisher Emmanuel Mutai. Did not see the rescued Chilean miner who ran or Al Roker who both finished about five hours and forty minutes to great applause. All in all a fantastic trip for me and wonderful of Chris to put up with all of my prerace paranoia and postrace shuffle. Gretchen's contact driver guy, Tom Izzo, yes TOM IZZO, got us to La Guardia for another delayed (wind and rain) flight back home.

So----- four weeks after, I still have the sore left knee, a bit of a cartilage issue with the right knee and a sore back. Hopefully all resolvable. Ted says after checking the left knee at Thanksgiving that he guesses Patella Femoral Syndrome which should return to normal eventually even with no surgery, just ice and excercises. I would really rather still be able to run a bit, but I suppose a forced rest after eleven months of training is probably a good idea. We'll see.

All in all, a most satisfactory 2010 racing season with fewer races, but PR's in the 5K and marathon. Now no running for a while.

At the very least there are the Holidays and Zach and Leah for diversion anyway. Cheers!

One Week til Denver, Four til NYC

Hoping to look this good after the next couple races



No blog posts in a long time, but training has gone well. I achieved a PR at 5K in Sept very unexpectedly the day after a long run--21:32 on a measured course. The first time I've ever run a less than 7 minute pace.

In a week's time, I'll be flying to Denver to run the Denver Rock 'n Roll Marathon as my last long run before NYC on Nov 7th. Apparently Dathan Reizenhein sees the wisdom in this plan too, as I see that he has just entered Denver in his prep for the NYC Marathon as well. I'm sure he'll be right on my heels. Actually, he'll be doing the half with Austin and Kelly, but I'm sure that they can handle him.

I'm still undecided of my exact approach to the race, but I ran 23 miles followed immediately by a 2 1/2 mile walk 2 weeks ago and recovered for a 1:42:35 at the Brooksie Way half last weekend so with the altitude factoring in at Denver and another week to recover, I guess I'll play it by feel after starting out at 8:25 or so.

The Chicago Marathon was on the web this morning and I watched the beginning and the end sandwiched around my own six miles. It looked like a fantastic day for the spectators though a bit warm for the runners with 68 degrees at the start. I followed my friend Guy Marshall through his splits as he was trying for under 3 hours at age 46. Finishing time-------2:59:46. Oh yeah! And then Sammy Wanjiru's finish to win was incredible. A tremendous kick the last quarter mile.

What a beautiful fall.

Big congratulations to Ted and Angela on their engagement this weekend!!!

BTW I'm running for Doctors Without Borders and any donations in my name go thru the crowdrise.com website clicking on the GIVE tab and searching for Thomas Claflin

A First And A Third

It was a busy and exhausting week. Wednesday, I competed in the last of the three Running Fit triathlons at Island Lake (the T Rex). Zach now has an inflatable dino bigger than he is swiped by his Nonnie (with permission). After third and second place finishes in my age group in the first two races of the series, I managed a first in this one by passing the guy I needed to beat in the last quarter mile of the run just before the finish. It helped that he was slower than his times in the first two races. Still, very satisfying... So much so that I immediately signed up for another sprint tri scheduled in the same park for this morning (Sunday). Well----- this was a bit overly ambitious, especially since the marathon training schedule meant that I had just run an eighteen miler yesterday at Kensington. My body had no idea what my brain had decided and I was thoroughly humbled by fatigue this morning, six minutes slower than Wednesday, and was extremely fortunate to take third out of the eleven in my age group. I did, however, carry a bottle of wine home as a reward.

The body is spent. Day of physical rest tomorrow. Well, maybe a walk.

The Crim Ten Mile Race in one week. With no speedwork in a long time, it looks to be relatively easy but slow.


34 miles of running for the week, mostly warm and humid HR 151 two sprint tri races