Category: running

10 Dec

Oranges and Oranges

On Sunday, I was in exactly the same shape as I was on June 5, 2011.

On both days, I ran a 5K in 22:46, and did each race while wearing orange shoes. The only difference this time was that I was inaugurating a brand new pair or awesome race footwear:

This new pair has a long way to go to live up to the legacy of its predecessor. In 2009, the old pair was on my feet for five personal records — every single race I ran that year. That included lowering my half-marathon best twice (1:49:45 then 1:43:08), my 5K best twice (21:34 then 20:24) and establishing a record for a four-mile race.

Of course, that’s also the same year I ended up with a stress fracture in my foot, but I completely blame that on my training shoes. Who could be mad at these?

Now I just have to make sure I continue getting in better shape, unlike the months following June 5 last year. To say that I got lazy would be an incredible understatement.

I think I’m much more committed right now though. Tentative next race — February half-marathon in Jacksonville (though I won’t rule out a 5K before then).

By cjhannas running shoes Uncategorized
01 Dec

West Coasting

I think the statute of limitations for talking about a vacation is one month. At least, that’s what I’m going to say since I’m writing about a vacation I took sliiiiightly less than a month ago.

I went to San Francisco to run the U.S. Half Marathon, which even though I was expecting hills and certainly didn’t train as much as I should have, was harder than I expected. It probably didn’t help that after cruising through the first three miles of the race at 8:15 mile pace, I ran a 7:06 in mile four. Up a giant hill. Whoops.

My time of 1:58:26 was by far my worst ever. But it was still an immensely fun run:

Another thing I’m going to use as an excuse for my less-than-record performance is that I spent the two days before the race walking all over the city — not exactly ideal for resting the legs. But I don’t regret that at all. About 18 hours before the race I was near Coit Tower, a 210-foot structure sitting atop Telegraph Hill. I read about a scenic set of stairs climbing up to the site, and with no regard for the half marathon, I didn’t hesitate to climb them.

The view from up there is spectacular. To the south, you’re eye-level with the tallest buildings in the financial district:

To the west, the city stretches out along the bay to the Golden Gate Bridge:

Alcatraz is off to the north, and the Bay Bridge linking San Francisco to Oakland is east of the site. I have some pictures of the Bay Bridge from way up high, but I think sunrise was a little more picturesque:

I ran over the Golden Gate Bridge and back as part of the race, which was a pretty cool experience. A tour on my first day in the city provided a slightly more relaxed view:

I almost left without taking a ride on the iconic cable cars. Originally, I had planned to walk the roughly 3 miles to the Giants baseball stadium and then the Metro to the airport, but somehow I didn’t factor in that my legs wouldn’t be so up to that plan on the day after the race. Fortunately, the cable car route covered most of the distance:

The stadium itself was pretty cool, even though I couldn’t see much of the inside (being the off-season and all). But it was interesting to see how it fit into the surrounding neighborhood, and gave a glimpse of what the area around Nats Park may look like soon. Of course, you can’t go wrong with any place that has an entry gate named after Willie Mays:

I’ll have to go back for a game some day.

By cjhannas running travel Uncategorized
10 May

Watch Yourself

Things in my running life sometimes happen in freakish ways.

In 2009, I got a stress fracture in my foot, and a week later ran what is still by far my fastest 5K. You may remember that earlier this year I tore a meniscus in my knee while boarding a Metro train and couldn’t run for weeks.

I’ve done a few half-marathons on ridiculously little training and finished in surprisingly good times.

A duck laughed at me when I ran by. Twice. And now, a watch I have put through all kinds of torturous conditions broke when I set it down on my desk:

Those of you who have seen the area on my dresser where I kept this watch might be saying, “But Chris, don’t you have another watch that usually sits right next to this one?”

Yes. Yes I do. The other one is a GPS watch, which I adore, but mainly use for longer runs and those in which I don’t know the landmarks for mile points. The now-broken watch was perfectly suited for shorter runs of two or four miles, with the exact information I would want to see on each screen and easy to use buttons I never have to think about.

(Wait, is it crazy that 99 percent of my runs cover even-numbered distances? I will not run five miles on my own — four or six, pick one.)

But all is not sad in watch land. Obviously I can use the GPS for shorter runs, but after a trip to REI this morning to get a new “other” watch, the extremely helpful salesperson told me the one I want is going on sale next week. Score.

Until next time.

By cjhannas running Uncategorized
18 Mar

So That’s What Fast Looks Like

About a quarter-mile into a 5K this morning — my first race back from injury — I passed Haitian Olympian Moise Joseph. The race was to benefit orphans in Haiti, and he and a few others were there to meet with runners.

As soon as I passed him, I started crafting this post in my head, thinking I would follow up that information by stating the obvious: If he ran at my personal-best pace, he would probably barely break a sweat.

I clicked through the first mile at 7:10, a pace slightly slower than my record but ridiculously fast for how out of shape I am right now. About two minutes later, my joke became all-too-real when Joseph came up next to me and we had a nice conversation.

CH: “You aren’t even sweating, come on!”
MJ: humble laughter

We talked about the weather, and how he was expecting it to be in the 70s (it was more like 50), but that it was actually really nice for a race. He asked me if I was shooting for a particular goal time and I told him I was just coming back from injury and hoping to finish with no setbacks.

“Oh perfect, getting back for racing season.”
“Yeah, feeling great so far.”

He wished me luck and jaunted off in a way that only the ridiculously fast can pull off, disappearing from my sight in no time while looking as if he were barely trying.

My last two miles were slower (8:04, 7:54) to finish in 23:57, but given that I struggled a bit through a two-mile run the other day, I will certainly take that. I signed up for this race literally two days before I hurt my knee and thought back then there was little chance this would be much of a successful run. But it was great, and I can’t wait to get out for the next one in a month or so.

Happy running.

By cjhannas running Uncategorized
16 Nov

Precious Medals

One of the great feelings after finishing a marathon or half marathon is going through the food area just past the finishing line and finding all kinds of delicious things to stuff in your starving face.

But before you get there, there’s a person handing out medals to all the finishers, something you can dangle around your neck to show everyone you survived the ordeal. Some of them are pretty cool looking, others are a little lame, but I put them on display just the same.

I was shocked to read in the latest issue of Runner’s World that according to respondents in their poll, only 29 percent kept their finisher’s medals, and just 16 percent held onto age group and other awards. (For those who aren’t familiar, races often give prizes to the overall winners as well as to the top finisher’s in sub-categories like Men Age 20-24.)

Now I’m not wearing my medals around to social events, but I certainly would never just throw them away. I keep them on top of my dresser, right next to my running watches and keys where I’ll see them before every time I go out for a run.

My collection is pretty varied. In the back, there’s a trophy showing that in 2006 I came in first place in my age group in a 5K. I especially like that one as a sign of humility since that was by far my worst 5K time ever, and I only came in first place because I was the only one in my age group who entered the race.

That same year I was on a little bit of a quest to win more age group awards, so I tried to cherry-pick smaller races where my chances might be a little better. Didn’t quite work out as I planned, but I do have a nice 3rd place medal from the Vienna Elementary 5K.

The rest are more legitimate — 2nd place in my age group from the much more contested Herndon Festival 5K (a personal best at the time), then the string of medals from my five half marathons and one full marathon.

By far the coolest one is from the 26.2 with Donna Half Marathon — not confusing at all — which I did in 2009 just weeks after returning to running from a stress fracture. It’s the one in the middle here:

My newest one is on the right. I’m not going to lie, it’s the ugliest one, but then again the race was sponsored by McDonald’s so I’m not sure we should expect more.

By cjhannas McDonald's running Uncategorized
15 Nov

Run, Neb, Run

I’m just going to throw this out there — last weekend rocked.

The big event was traveling to Richmond to run a half marathon, which seemed like a bit of an overly ambitious task given that I hadn’t exactly trained a ton for the race. In case that sounds like I’m just being humble, consider that when I set my personal best at this distance two years ago I was running about 25 miles per week. There have been several months this year in which I didn’t run a total of 25 miles.

With that in mind, I started the race with my sister-in-law Bethany, as we worked towards a somewhat lofty goal of finishing in 1 hour 50 minutes. The last time we ran a half marathon together was when I did get my best time (1:43:08), and this course was much flatter, so at least I had the right conditions going for me.

In the first mile Bethany asked me how I thought our pace was:

C: “Good…a little fast maybe.”
B: “Fast?! I was thinking slow.”

In order to hit our goal time, we needed to keep a pace of about 8:23 per mile. Our first mile time — 8:45. We picked it up from there cranking out 8:04, 8:04, 8:07, 8:41, 8:07, with watch-less, psychic Bethany guessing our sixth mile time exactly on her first try.

From that it seems like things were going great, but we were asking each other after each mile, “We can’t actually hold this pace, right?” Fortunately we slowed down a touch for the next three, going 8:13, 8:37, 8:25.

In Raleigh in 2009, I went ahead after mile 7 and felt great picking up the pace straight through the finish. This time, I left Bethany with a high-five after mile 9 and as I surged ahead immediately felt like I may have made a poor move. My left knee started hurting and I could feel the effects of all those early fast miles catch up to me quickly.

Fortunately, as I walked for a second at the water stop in the next mile (8:24), the knee quieted down a bit and my brain was able to convince my body that with just three miles to go I should just suck it up and go. I also did some quick math and told myself that if I could just keep them under 9 minutes, I could reach what seemed like kind of a crazy goal just an hour earlier.

The result was closing out with miles of 8:20, 8:14 and 7:52, and covering the final tenth of a mile in 42 seconds to finish at 1:48:41 overall. My second-best half marathon ever on easily the least training.

Given that my best time came after a ton of training and was followed two weeks later by a stress fracture in my foot, maybe there’s something to this whole non-training thing. Though as we walked to the car after the race, I couldn’t help but think, “Man, what if I had trained more?”

Maybe next year.

And next year I think may be a requirement. My aunt and cousins in Richmond were awesome hosts, giving us a ride to the start line at 6 a.m., feeding us and cheering us on. They had as much fun as we did, and it was great to experience that with them.

Another highlight, my brother’s forethought when signing up for the race. They gave us the option of putting our names on our race numbers, which means random spectators on the course can call out your name and give you encouragement. I didn’t have mine on there, Bethany had her name, but Ben, who ran the full marathon, went with this:

Go Neb!

By cjhannas family running Uncategorized
05 Nov

Shaping Up

A year ago this weekend I ran the fastest half marathon of my life. Three years ago I ran a marathon.

Today I ran two miles and then had to walk two miles home. The whole point of the run was to push the tempo and wear myself out (I can run 8 miles at an easy pace), but it’s still safe to say that I’m not in ideal shape at the moment.

My fitness level isn’t exactly a new revelation, but after today’s run I did get a different perspective on what I’m going to do about it.

A few weeks after running the half marathon last year (a 1:43:08 in Raleigh, NC), I was starting to ramp up my mileage to train for a full marathon when I came down with a stress fracture in my right foot. Being the genius that I am, I ignored what to most would be conventional wisdom and ran a 5K with the injury. It was my fastest 5K ever (20:24), but definitely not worth the pain that followed.

I sat on the couch for nearly eight weeks while the foot healed and went from being in the best shape of my life with great fitness habits and a sense of momentum to being completely and utterly lazy. Unfortunately, nothing about the rest of this year has shaken that attitude (the ridiculously hot summer did not help).

What worked last year was running a half marathon in the early spring, transitioning to 5Ks through early summer and then focusing again on the half for the fall.

A few weeks ago I officially canceled plans to run a half this fall (see fitness, lack of, above) and decided I needed to follow last year’s playbook to get things back on track: Run a 5K at the end of this month, and use that as a springboard to getting in half shape for a late-winter race.

But walking home after failing in today’s run I realized I have been thinking about the wrong plan. I’m not in spring 2009 shape, but rather more like where I was in the fall of 2008.

I had just moved back from Florida where a combination of sleep deprivation and a lack of race motivation meant that I could barely run four miles at a time before being absolutely exhausted. That laziness can in some way be traced to the foot injury I battled all through 2007, which caused me to not run at all the prior winter (’07/’08).

See a pattern? Foot injury + healing time + slow return to running + lack of good habits = out of shape autumn. That’s how it was in the fall of 2008, and only today did that click in my head.

So now it’s time to look at what I did that fall that got me in good shape for the spring of 2009 and all the success that followed. Good thing I kept a log of all of my runs.

High-five to 2008 self.

By cjhannas running Uncategorized
21 Oct

Read Like It’s 2009

Yesterday was all about catching up with posts from this year.

Today I’ll follow up with the best 9 posts of 2009. Like yesterday, these are in chronological order, not ranked by merit:

Door-othy We’re Not in Kansas Anymore
A debate erupts on the merits of opening car doors for female companions.

Taylor Swift: Pregnant and Confused?
I start a rumor about my nemesis, Taylor Swift, with some help from The Washington Post.

The Smell of Cheap Living
A poor choice (in hindsight) at the grocery store takes me back to a time of very cheap living. (Note: I will never ever under any circumstances buy these things again).

Peace Out
I react to the negative uproar that follows President Obama’s Nobel Peace Prize win.

In Defense of Sweatpants
A Newsweek article grinds my gears on the topic of men wearing sweatpants in public.

But the Hat Came Back
A key piece of my winter wardrobe comes back into my life, years after it was stolen by a swift, crafty blonde.

All I’m Askin’ is Please, Forgive Me
Music triggers a round of neighborhood carpool nostalgia.

Creative Confusion
Making use of elementary school artwork, and my horrendous handwriting gets me in trouble.

Do It Yourself Ping Pong
You never made your own ping pong paddle? Well we did.

I do not plan retrospectives for the other years in the archives, though there is some good material in there. Solid new stuff coming soon — stay tuned.

By cjhannas best of fashion food high school home hot dogs running Taylor Swift Uncategorized
11 Sep

King of Beards

Runners and cyclists along the W&OD Trail are either really into guys with beards, or somehow mesmerized by that amount of scruff flying by on a Saturday morning.

In a normal week, I would have shaved Wednesday before going in for my final shift of the week. But since I was sick and didn’t go to work, there was little reason to get out the razor. Add in a few off days since then, and I went out for a six mile run this morning having not shaved in a week.

It was a glorious September morning with cool temperatures and abundant sunshine, meaning everyone and their brother were out exercising. It may have just been in my head, but it seemed like more people than usual were breaking their straight ahead running looks to peek in my direction. I wasn’t wearing a funny hat or singing along to the songs in my head, so the only natural explanation is the beard.

Entering the last mile I had decided I would probably write this entry, and made a mental note to take a picture of the scruff. But somewhere between finishing the run and eating some yogurt I forgot. So as an example, here’s a picture from a few years ago:

If I had to guess, I would say that’s roughly three to four days of growth (for me, not the dog). It also appears that I may have been purposely rocking that look since the neck region is not taking part in the scruff party. Add a few days to that, with roughly 15 percent more of the lumberjack look, and you start to get an idea of what I had going on.

Not that there’s anything wrong with that of course.

When I was working in Jacksonville, shaving was quite low on my list of priorities for the overnight weekend shifts and I looked like that all the time. But then again, for a good chunk of those work days I was the only person in the building.

It’s not like the televisions, empty chairs or the police scanner cared that I was channeling my inner Paul Bunyan, and much of my interaction with the small group of coworkers was done either in a dark room or by talking to them through a headset.

People may be drawn to the facial hair, but I’m pretty sure they can’t hear it in my voice.

By cjhannas beard running Uncategorized
06 Jun

Run and Learn

Last year, I had several running goals and hit all of them.

I also got a stress fracture in my foot at no extra charge. Actually, the medical bills cost me something, so that’s not exactly true. I wonder if there is a market for a used one of these:

This year, the list is pretty short: avoid the stress fracture. So far I think things are going well. I have logged about 100 fewer miles (187 vs. 289), and have not been as focused on pushing my longer runs to unnecessary lengths.

Of course that means I’m not nearly as fit as I was last year. That was clear this morning when I ran the Herndon Festival 5k and totally crashed in the third mile.

Last year I placed second in my age group in 21:34, which was a personal best at the time. This time around I struggled to finish in 22:25 (7:06, 6:41, 7:54, :42), though it probably didn’t help that it was a pretty warm/humid morning.

That second mile was really where I went wrong. At the start of the race I saw the woman I passed right near the finish last year and figured it would be a good idea to pace off of her. But she slowed down as we went up a hill in mile 2, and I just couldn’t resist blowing by. Clearly I paid for that in mile 3 and had to just keep the feet moving through the end.

I don’t have anything else on the race calendar right now. Looking a bit ahead to the fall for a half marathon, with Denver as the early leader. At least it will be cooler for that one.

By cjhannas running Uncategorized