Race Report: You can get from there from here

The B.a.v.i.s.e.l.a is one of the biggest sporting events in the town where I live and includes a half marathon and marathon among other events. The marathon and half have striking similarities to the Boston marathon: point-to-point courses that start 42.2 and 21.1 km from the finish line, runners are bussed out to the start line via a route that messes with the runner's mind because it is far longer than the race distance, the start is incredibly narrow, helicopters hover alarmingly low overhead, the course profile is extremely hilly with a net downhill (at least the half is a net downhill not sure about the full). It was fun to re-live the Boston experience without having to run a full marathon (beginning to have major doubts about ever moving back up to the full 'thon but I'll think about that later).

The major issue for me with this Bostonesque start was that the early shuttle bus departure meant that by the time the gun went off, I had been separated from my custom boob drainer for four hours and my chest was feeling really uncomfortable. So much so that when I spotted a couple pushing a pram near the start line I started trying to figure out how to say in Italian:

Is your baby thirsty? (Qualcosa da bere per la tua bimba?)
Could I borrow your baby?  (Puo prestarmi la tua bimba?)

and ultimately decided it would all be way too weird and possibly end in police intervention so I took my large-b.r.ea.s.t.e.d self to the start line and tried not to think about it.

On the start line I tried to scope out the other women (with help from my teammates who know all the local runners) and immediately spotted two women likely to kick my derriere. After a long delay (they were waiting for the marathon to reach a certain point prior to releasing us and the marathoners were running slower than expected) we were off. First 5 km climb 120 feet (annoying mix of metric and imperial but I can only understand horizontal distance in metric and vertical distance in imperial) and I tried to play it conservative, went through 4 km in 15:50 feeling, pretty tired and glum actually. I did not feel that good things were in store.

Then we hit the long 10.5 km downhill stretch to the sea... yup, 10.5 km of downhill with a net descent of 240 feet! Those 10 km went by in 37:16 ... hmmm, now that I have calculated that split it almost seems like cheating to call this race a PB. Clearly the effect of the downhill, despite strongish headwinds the whole way, was pretty huge. This section was also extremely curvy (not unlike my lactating self... ok, ok enough about the b.o.o.b.s already), I could see all around me runners who were adding dozens upon dozens of extra meters to their overall distance by not running the tangents. Don't people realize?? Running the tangents does not necessarily mean hugging the curves - one must find the furthest point visible on the road ahead and run in a straight line towards that. As the road unfolds, keep finding that furthest point and head in a straight line towards it. At least that is my strategy for minimizing race distance, I think it is geometrically correct.

The last 7 km of this race are pancake flat and are run along the route I run about 4-5 times per week so I am intimately familiar with all the landmarks. At this point, for the first time since the gun, I saw another woman. I timed the gap between at 26 seconds. I figured I was gaining on her since I had not seen her previously. I managed to close the gap to 22 seconds and then she was gone around a bend - she wound up beating me by over a minute so clearly she had a solid last 5 km! My pace, of course, slowed on the flat but not as much as I feared. I got through the last 7 km by calculating at every km marker what time I would run if I slowed down to 4 minutes per km which was somehow very heartening for a math geek like myself. Eventually I got down to the point where I was going to run a PB even if I ran 4 minutes per km and that made me feel amazing. Splits in the last 7 km: 3:54, 3:54, 3:57, 4:00, 4:02, 3:58, 3:40. I could see the clock 100 m out and I kicked it in to try and clip my personal best which I did my ONE second. :)

Then came, by far, the most challenging part of the entire day... finding my way to the awards ceremony. I don't know if I am a skilled enough writer to capture the complexity of the finish area. It was in a large piazza by the sea. Runners entered the piazza on one side, ran away from the sea, did a 180 degree turn and finished towards the sea. The runners were separated from the large spectating crowd by barricades. Further complicating the situation was the fact that there were two parallel sets of barricades for two separate events. The awards were held in the middle of the U. Once I finished and was duly shuffled down the line to baggage pick-up, I could see of no way of storming the castle and getting to the central area. I asked various officials but the combination of their harriedness and my tired brain not understanding them resulted in me making it to the podium after the awards ceremony was over. The officials were clearly unimpressed. Awards ceremonies are a pretty big deal here, more so than I am used to and my impression is that it is in pretty poor form not to show up (and clearly the 1st and 2nd woman managed to show up so clearly it was me who was not on the ball).

I tried to quietly get my award and leave but they were having none of it. Yup, they did a SECOND awards ceremony in front of the whole piazza and thousands of spectators with JUST ME on the podium. Ok, yes, I have a large enough ego that I like people to know I am a fast runner. I admit that. But honestly... awards ceremony for JUST ME in front a huge crowd.... not my style. I have not felt that awkward and uncomfortable since my first high school dance as I stood against the wall wearing glasses and braces conspicuously NOT being asked to dance (Question: Everyone seems to have sob stories about how uncool they were in high school. Everyone. So who WERE all the well adjusted cool kids in high school? My theory? No one. Those kids who were perceived as "cool" were equally uncomfortable and awkward and did not think of themselves as being "cool"). Sorry, huge tangent.

Anyway as they did the award ceremony, I imagined they were saying: "And in third place, the canadian who was too slow and moronic to make it to the podium on time...." (they were NOT saying that... ) and that made me smile and not look quite so awkward (I hope).

So, at last, I have BEATEN my arch rival, even if only by one second on a bit of a cheater course. Whatever, I'm celebrating it!

Race report: In brief

Time: 1:20:50
Place: 3rd
Fastest km: 3:35
Slowest km: 4:02
Goals achieved: 2/5
Babies borrowed prior to start to drain my very milk heavy chest: 0 (but oh how I wish...)
Award ceremonies missed due to my stupidity and incompetance: 1
Extra award ceremonies held JUST for me: 1
How much I wished I knew Italian for, "please just give me my prize and I'll go quietly on my way without doing another ceremony": oh...so...very...much.
Satisfaction: extreme.
Fatigue: profound.

More later.

Marathon Training on a Budget

This post is not about money, though speaking of money, now that I have been dropped by my running shoe sponsor (who shall not be named and shall not be blamed... can't complain about 5 years of free shoes!) I am SHOCKED at the price of running shoes! Since when are decent running shoes without even extra forefoot cushioning 110 euro?? Don't know if it is because 5 years has gone by since I last bought running shoes or because prices are higher in Europe/Italy than North America but seriously, I remember paying $110 CANADIAN dollars for really amazing running shoes.

But no I am not budgeting money here, I am trying to budget mileage. Once my spring half marathon is over, I will start focussing for my fall marathon. The last time I ran a marathon, I ran 110-130 km/week and did 9 long runs in preparation of 24, 24, 25, 28, 28, 30, 32, 33 and 38 km. This time around I essentially want to put myself on a mileage diet. Put another way I want to try and cheat, run a marathon in a time that satisfies me with minimal effort. Yes, I would like some gain without pain please and while we're at it, a side of free lunch!

It's not that I'm lazy (I am but that is not the principal motivator here) the issue is that 9 months after my section, my body still does not feel ready to run real marathon mileage. Whenever I get over about 100 km/week or over 25 km on a long run, I can feel a deep ache in the pelvic/groin area. It's hard to describe exactly where but it seems to be somewhere around the pubic bone. I always recover so I don't think it is a stress fracture, my intuition (blind guess) is that it is related to the surgical scars which are still healing. Anyone else out there have a similar experience after a c-section? How long did it take for the pain to resolve completely? Anyway I am hesitant to put my body through the type of marathon training I normally do and as a result I am trying to create a marathon training program on diet mileage.

So... my question to myself is, how low can I go? How little work can I get away with? The problem is that my endurance is not easily come by. I have natural speed but no natural endurance so high weekly mileage and multiple long runs have always been a necessity to run my marathon goal times. My hope is that the following will allow me to run a time that is personally fulfilling: mileage cycling between 75-105 km/week and six long runs of: 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 38. It's a little bit skimpy for a runner who is not naturally endurant but I am hoping this diet marathon training plan (marathon lite?) will be well tolerated by my still uncertain post c-section body.

Speaking of my post c-section body, if anyone has favorite exercises for core strengthening for runners that they would like to share, I'm listening. My core has never been weaker. All I know is the plank position (and I can barely do it... it's truly pathetic). I'm looking for exercises I can do by myself, at home with no particular equipment. Thanks!!

3 months for 3 seconds & ponderings on the Italian Road Running Scene

In November I ran my first post partum race, a half marathon... why mess around with a 5 or 10 km?? Somehow I pulled off a 1:23:53. I was thrilled. Sure it was 3 minutes slower than my personal best BUT I was *only* three months post partum. I thought for sure faster times, and possible a personal best, were just around the corner. Fast forward three months... to last week-end actually when I ran my second half marathon post partum. Actually first let me emphasize that I trained arduously in the intervening three months. So... after three months of hard training with expectations of great things I toed the line and improved by... 3 seconds. Yup, 3 months of training for 3 seconds. The course was similar to November i.e. pancake flat with the obligatory short stretch of cobblestone to remind us all we are in the old world. The weather was ideal. I was mentally tough (normally that is my biggest problem). I finished on my knees (literally... on the aforementioned cobblestone) so I am sure that I gave it all I had on that particular day so my question is why didn't I have more? I am going to write this off as a noisy data point for now and hope a downward trend emerges in my next race.

On the other hand it was a fabulous, warm, sunny day and I got to run a fun race (past a bonafide castle and medieval city wall) in a city dating from the 1200s (this is so very strange for a Canadian!) and hang out with baby and hubby afterwards so really no true complaints. It also gave me the opportunity to further my study of the differences between Italian & Canadian road racing.

First, let me say there is NO bureaucracy like Italian bureaucracy. I could go on ad infinitum (and probably will eventually in another post) about the hoops I jumped through to get signed up with FIDAL (the Italian Athletics Federation). I'm talking flaming, spinning hoops many meters above the ground the likes of which most circus lions have never seen. But my point is that many races here require that one is a member of FIDAL (which entails much of the previously alluded to bureaucracy) and, in my naive opinion, this results in a racing community which tends to not include the recreational jogger. Go to any large city Canadian half marathon and the peak flow of runners crossing the finish line will occur somewhere between 1h50 and 2h00. Granted this was a small(ish) half marathon (650 runners) but I was shocked to glance over at the race clock at 1h55 minutes and NOT see masses of runners crossing the line, in fact there was just the tiniest of trickles. The quintessential lady/man with baby jogger was nowhere to be seen, no dude running backwards (yes, there is almost always one in Cdn races), absent was the person trying to break the world half marathon while juggling record (it's called joggling... yes, I'm serious), I didn't see the 85 year old woman finishing phalanxed by her children and grandchildren, nor the walk/runner who had just had a quadruple bypass last month and, to be frank, I just didn't see the masses of people who are just slow but really, really love running. I have to say the whole scene felt incomplete without these members of the cast. I guess it is not worth it to these people to hurdle the obstacles involved to be able to race here (hoops, hurdles, whatever). To be fair there are also "non-competitivo" races here and these require little if any bureaucracy but somehow it's not the same as having everyone, the whole cast and crew on the same start line.

On the other hand the prizes here are amazing and best of all, useful! Medals are great. They're fun. They made me really love running, when I was 10 years old. Now that I am 35, not so much. It seems here, in my limited experience, that standard practice is to give away groceries. Yes, food! How awesome is that? I am not talking some token items of dried fruit or granola bars. I'm talking sugar and flour and juice (almost 3 L baby!) and fresh garlic and garlic paste and pasta and some kind of gelatinized meat I have never seen before and am slightly frightened by. Useful, consumable prizes. Very nice indeed. And, 300 euro for running a1:23:50, not a bad day's work!