2018 Race Reports – Mark Kaufman

Terry Ryan Memorial 10k – 11/18/18

Ok, so it’s just a 10k, and our very local, 17th Annual race, starting at the high school my kids attended and that I pass every day to commute to NYC, but I still want to talk about this race. Because it’s the first one I’ve completed since early May!

Broke my collarbone the end of May; threw out my back in September (note to self: don’t rush the kettlebell workout; respect the cannonball); tried to do an Olympic distance tri two weeks later but simply could not run.

Back got better, trained up a bit, and I really had no idea how fast I could run – because of the disrupted season and a less than stellar half marathon in the spring and of course the passage of another year. “Getting older,” I think it’s called.

So I do my warmup and strides, and I’m at the starting line with LOTS of little kids in the front (visiting from another school where Ed Beglane is the principal, eager to do the 5k), with two of the Killer Bunny Runaways Team, guys who run together three days a week.

With Ned Towle and Amish Kapadia. Guess who doesn’t like the team name?

And we start, and I can’t help but laugh at all these kids!, a lot to dodge, and my buddy Dietmar plows ahead, short sleeves dark blue shirt and steady bounding until he’s gone from sight (he takes 1st place for 40-49), and another guy Daniel in a lighter blue running jacket and baseball cap (he takes 2nd OA), and somewhere way ahead is a bright blue sweatshirt (turns out it’s my local, annual nemesis, James- with whom I’ve swapped places on the age group podium every year)

The day before, I ran one loop of the course, and now that I’m racing I’m running a lot harder but it feels solid, panting but solid, and I’m still smiling (which both Coach Debi and Juan had told me was good for running). I can’t help but marvel at this little woman in bright orange zooming past me and I’m in the middle of and ready for the long hill up Broadway until we turn left at the nursing home (get a shout out from Lisa and Greg) and glorious downhill to Tompkins, left and up up up, there’s Rory directing traffic, and those back roads by Dietmar’s house aren’t so bad the first time, and the .3 mile straightaway back to the school (I had measured it during yesterday’s run).

And the next loop of course is harder but for once I’m not wishing I could stop, this second loop ain’t so bad, up Broadway again and past Lisa and Greg again and it’s hard work and even though I’m not looking at my watch I know this not as fast as I’ve been in the past. But this is The Best I Can Do Today, and truly accepting that is terrific. The season of no-racing is over.

Suddenly at Mile 4 1/2 my left calf cramps up, and I had felt this at the end of the prior day’s workout, and if this were the beginning or middle of the race season I would stop to avoid compounding the injury, but NO, I’ve been sidelined by injuries all season!, this is my last race and I am going to do the best I can, and I’m hobbling through it, feels a lot slower but ends up being the same pace as the prior uphill mile, and some guy with a gray beard (my AG?) and wearing yet another shade of blue is running behind then beside me and I will NOT let him beat me, I want that podium more than he does (if I can’t catch the bunny ahead of me I will run away from the monster behind me) and I find the juice to sprint harder, and I hear Rachel shout my name and I FINISH.

Results: 43:53 (but to be honest, it’s really 5.9 Miles/9.5 km; 17 years of the same, short course; so it’s 7:26 min/mile avg.). 10/64 overall. 3/12 age group (meaning, 50-59); a tiny bronze medal, hurray! I never even see James Cochrane’s face until the race is over – so, this year, he takes 1st in AG.

Glad to confirm that I can train at 9:00+ minute per mile, and still race at sub-7:30s. Not my fastest – actually, my slowest – but the fastest I could do today. Great to run through my l’il town and see folks I’ve known for years. A satisfying finish to an interrupted season.

Long Island Half Marathon – May 6, 2018

The best part of this race was hanging out with training buddy, tri guy Ziv Abramowicz, both before and after the race. If I hadn’t signed up with him, I might not have run.

The Friday before this Sunday race, I went to the doctor to address an asthmatic cough. I hadn’t thought of myself as allergic, but asked the doctor to check when last I was there, and sure enough, a year and two weeks ago, I’d been treated for the same thing. I guess the change into spring is a trigger. Anyway, this time I got antibiotics as well as steroids, and a cough suppressant, and by Saturday morning, I could run again.

The park in Uniondale was nice enough, and the race was well organized, but UGLY. Miles of the Jericho Turnpike, Wantagh Parkway and Carman Avenue? Really? And just to confirm these really were highways closed for the race, I ran past a dead cat on the shoulder at one point.

Was shooting for 7:20s or faster in order to PR, and started off at 7:40 min/mile in high zone 1,/low zone 2, but by mile 4, I realized (a) I was not feeling the love (not panting, but not strong) and (b) I was not going to go faster than 7:40. So I adjusted to that reality, stopped feeling disappointed, and just hung on. But by mile 9.5, here come those calf cramps again, and I’m struggling to stumble through 9:00+ Miles, and people I passed are passing me in droves, and that means they’ve been steady and I’ve not. I end up at 1:45:10 (8:02 min/mile) – my slowest HM yet, even slower than the much hillier Sleepy Hollow HM I ran 6 weeks ago “at a fun pace”instead of fastest.

Something has to change. I took “sportslegs” before the race to try battling lactate buildup, but forgot my chewable salt tablets in the car (note to self: don’t switch to the race-approved clear plastic bag in the parking lot). I had half a gel with electrolytes towards the end, but couldn’t stomach more. Maybe it’s my form; sent videos after I got home to Coach Debi, who said to work on a shorter stride and land on balls of my feet; or maybe it’s just that allergy season knocks back the best of us, including cyclist Chris Dudko (who told me that because of the pollen he had no power for his recent race, either). Maybe sessions again with the Mile Hugh Running Club. But I’d rather not give up on this distance.

Sleepy Hollow Half Marathon (3/24/18)

This is not a dramatic tale; my slowest half marathon ever; but successful in a new way.

My second race of 2018 (following last weekend’s indoor relay marathon at the New York Armory),

and my third or fourth time at Sleepy Hollow. And I had a new goal: to have fun. Not to relax, not to go easy, but to watch my heart rate, do the course and ignore the splits, see if I could listen to my body and go by feel for most of the race and then burst into flame the last few miles. I wanted to run without a terror in my heart (or as my wife’s typo suggested, and as Coach Debi would agree, without a terrier in my heart). I quietly hoped I’d sneak up and seize my fastest race – but I wasn’t worried about it.

It was great seeing lots of friends at this very local race – Zander Reyna (a fellow Killer Bunny and triathlete, and incredibly disciplined at pacing this race – “The New Zander” he calls it), and Nicholas Moore (fellow tri guy who generously took my home after the race, even though he lives practically on top of Sleepy Hollow),

Dietmar Serbee (training seriously for the London Marathon in a few weeks, ready to SLAY this course, and indeed, 2nd place for AG),

Ken Fuirst (king of the 10k, never ran a HM, amazing results), my friendly nemesis Mike Kaiser (all the way from New Jersey, who ran steps behind me at this race in 2014 until passing me the last mile, then went on to a 3:20 marathon a month later and a 3:09 in Boston the next year), and Ralph Miccio (fellow Sunday-morning cyclist , riding alongside, chaperoning the runners and warning off the drivers; so GOOD to have a friend along the entire route).

So the race itself passed as planned, and despite the 4 ½ miles of uphill straight from the start I was in control, running MY race,

heart rate was at 154 (low to mid-Zone 2 but who cares because it felt RIGHT and when I went above I was huffing and puffing so I slowed down) and the rolling hills and downhills of Route 117 didn’t seem terrible at all, and able to chat with new friends (John, from Scotland, carrying water in a CamelBak and chatting about his 150km race in Chile last October; Bob Carey, big former football player, 61 years old who beat me by a minute and was delighted to discover he took third place for his AG; and John Lombardi in the same age group who came in right after Bob ).

(Bob Casey and Mike Kaiser, awaiting their hardware.)

And those stupid corporate parking lots and the climbs back to the road weren’t horrible at all, and I couldn’t believe that it was such a short distance to get to the train station and that the climb up to the last 2 miles was much faster than I recalled, and it felt AMAZING until those last 3 miles, when I poured it on to get faster and got hit with calf cramps (this time at mile 12 i stead of mile 10– stumbling but knowing it wasn’t for long!).

(With Ralph Miccio, guardian angel on a bicycle)

I finished in 1:43:22, avg. 7:54, 4 minutes slower than my two HMs last year, 5/23 AG, 138/652 OA.

But somehow a great race.

I still want to get a PR; I still want to go as fast as possible; but at THIS race I felt great, not wiped out all day at the end, able to bike the next day no problem. It’s a different way of racing, and it’s nice to learn that I have this option. Bring on the season, I’m ready.