My Experiments With Life
It was a chilly chilly day many many moons ago in February, and I was on my way to Ashland, Wisconsin, with dear friend Bryant to participate in my maiden cross country skiing race: The Book Across The Bay. Couple hours into our drive and almost near the Black Cat Coffeehouse, the Facebook app on my iPhone became the platform for a very brief conversation with dear friend in lower Michigan, Jess.
Following the debacle in mid-July with Great Lakes Endurance folks in relation to the Grand Island Trail Half Marathon, the decision to not participate as a runner in the Porcupine Mountains Trail Half Marathon or any other race organized by the said folks ever again didn’t cost me more than a few brain cells. Contact me in person or in private, if need be, and I will gladly share the details and more importantly, the lessons I learned from the experience.
Continue reading … “2014: Mount Bohemia Trail Running Festival”
I don’t have a specific reason or a story as to why I signed up for this race in early July, except that I was looking for half marathon events to get the count up to ten, and I wished to keep as many such events in the Yoop as possible. Marquette Marathon, not too far from being a home area event, seemed to satisfy all such requirements with the added bonus of a new point to point — mostly downhill — course, making it a very good candidate to test my legs in different conditions and potentially earn a new PR.
From time immemorial to first week of May 2010, Isle Royale National Park was something that just existed in signs (boats, roadside and in Houghton county airport), in others’ travel journals hidden in the far — and sometimes dark — corners of the internet, in photographs, and often as a figment of my imagination. And one day, in a fine watering hole that a bunch of us frequented with more regularity than the four seasons winter of Yoop, dear friend Jaime asked Nils and myself if we’d be interested in going to The Island as part of the Queen’s crew. I don’t recall neither Nils nor I neither thinking much nor flinching before saying yes (well, it was more like YES!).
While I wouldn’t need more than the fingers in my two hands to count the number of Copperman Triathlons I have been a part of as a spectator or as occasional volunteer, there aren’t enough digits to count how many times I wanted to be part of it as a participant — at least since its 2012 edition.
Hancock Canal Run marks the completion of a full year since I took to running half marathon distance, and the first of its kind — half marathon at the same location — that I have participated more than once. It was quite the experience last year. Given the self-imposed goal to run ten half marathons in 2014, this year’s edition — #5 in 2014 — would serve as a good checkpoint for more than one reason: overall improvement in this distance class since last year; improvement in this distance class in 2014; and a guesstimate of available room to improve with five more half marathons before the 2014 season ends.
Run The Keweenaw, A Festival of Trails marks the completion of a full year since I took to organized trail running, and the first of its kind — trail running of the same distance and at the same location — that I have participated more than once. Remembering how much fun it was to be a part of the festival last year — running in one part, photographing the other two, and fantastic experiences and friends gained — signing up for this year’s edition was a no brainer. Given that the event consists of three races of increasing distance and trail complexity/technicality, and taking the banked training miles into account and some advice from the race organizers, participating in the first two events while photographing the last leg would turn out to be a natural progression (and a very good decision).
I am not exactly sure as to why, at least at the time doing so in mid-May, I signed up for this race: there was no peer pressure, and I didn’t know any of my friends that had signed up either. Looking back, and thinking more about it, it probably had something to do with the event being in the general home area, finding a reason to keep running, and having driven up and down the scenic course many many times before, the need to traverse it by foot: getting to know some more people in the community along the way.
Continue reading … “2014: Lake Trout Festival Half Marathon”
Following my lack-luster performance in Cellcom Green Bay Half Marathon, dear friend Andi suggested that not using gels in longer runs might have played a key role in lack of sufficient energy towards the end, and dear friend Rob diagnosed my running posture and not only identified potential causes for such poor performance but also suggested a set of exercises that, if I kept at them consistently, would help change the way my body was spending energy during such runs.
