Coffee Cake!

To celebrate my completing the marathon yesterday morning, Alicia brought me over a celebratory coffee cake! Doesn't it look gr-.... wait.... uh-ohhh, my bad.

So Friday was a bad day, the weather and a some problems at work combined to my bailing on the East Hampton's Marathon. In it's place, I decided, I would have my own marathon through Brooklyn. With this evil plan in mind, I arose at 5:30 yesterday morning, strapped on my shoes and headed out. 

The weather was actually pretty nice around a quarter after six when I made it to the streets. Miles 1-3 were down Flatbush Avenue towards Prospect Park, the into the park and south towards Ocean Parkway. Miles 3-8 are on the parkway itself and it was here that the sun came up, quite nice and quiet. There was absolutely no one on the streets. Coney Island arrived with mile 9 and I slowed the pace up on the boardwalk so that I could enjoy the view of the ocean at dawn and the march of old Russian women, like Cold War apparitions clad in translucent plastic hair wrappings, smiling and waving to their friends. 

I turn down the long pier with the fishermen and I see a small Chinese man struggling with this thing he just caught... It's called a Sea Robin and I have never seen a fish like it, definitely some unique adaptations. It's about 4-5 inches long with HUGE side flippers, about the size of my entire hand as well as these specialized spines along the sides of it head that is uses to crawl around. I first though it was sitting on top of a crab, they looked so much like actual legs! Well anyway, this is so interesting I stop running and just stand there watching as the man starts rummaging through his bag. I'm not much of a fisher, but I could tell that the fish had swallowed the hook, and that sucks because it's near impossible to get out, 9/10 you just have to cut the line. The elderly man finally removes a pair equally ancient needle nosed pliers from his backpack and proceeds to expertly handle the fish with his free hand. (You can't quite tell from the picture but this thing's got all kinds of extendible spikes on it's back and sides) Using the pliers I expect the man to either just cut the line and toss the fish back or delicate extract the hook. (To me, this was clearly not an 'eating fish' although admittedly, Asians and Stephen can have differing views on what can be fooded) Instead, the man just goes to town on the under side of the fish use the pliers to just grab, twist and tear off chucks of the fish!!! NO! I didn't see this coming! What was the thought process? "Oh man, this living thing has my five cent hook! I gotta get that back!" Anyway, I actually couldn't watch, it was pretty messed up, just something about the pliers, ugh, a little too Hostel for me. 

So I head back out, after a loop all the way to the of the boardwalk and back I've returned to Ocean Parkway at mile 12. My original plan was to reloop the park head up to the brooklyn promenade cross the brooklyn bridge - - yeah, not going to happen. Instead I meandered the side streets for a while and turned up back in prospect around mile 22. Perfect. A loop around the park made mile 25 and low and behold! The Farmer's Market! I had actually planned on this, I walk over to the nearest cider purveyor and pick up 2 pints of delicious goodness from the ice-bath and hand the lady my five-spot. When the retirement-aged woman turns back around to hand me the change I return to her the now empty pint bottles... 

"Wha?" She says, a shock of whispy  blonde hair flutters free from her hair-tie as if to punctuate how little she grasped the situation. "What just happened?" 

I smile demurely and in a little humorous miracle actually let rip an  enormous   burrrrrrrrrppppp. Now my siblings can tell you, I never burp, ever, it's just not my 'gift' in life. So she smiles with a "My! I think that's the best compliment anyone has ever given me!" I wave and shuffle home, my leg muscles now full of what appears to be boiling water, used syringes, lead weights and the angry ghost of one messed up looking fish. 

Final verdict was 26.5 miles in a little over 3:40, not bad at all. I actually felt physically great when I walked home, I just had no willpower left over. I enjoyed a 20 minute ice bath with a scathing cup of coffee ( after-all, I am a man of mysterious contradictions)... (what?) and after some time rubbing down my legs with the stick and the roller, I felt good as new.

Oh, and polo practice today!!! More on this later but I finally found a polo club that would have me!  See ya!

Coming Up - NYRR Half Marathon - Grete's Great Gallop, 13.1 Miles, Central Park

*Special Note: I'd just like to point out, I found the link to the picture of the Robin Fish by googling "Messed Up Looking Fish by Coney Island", apparently I'm not the only one totally interested by that thing...

Emotional Growth

There comes a come in every young man's life where he must accept the fact that he has eaten the entire scone, and that there is now none left for him to eat. For Stephen Dennis, that time is now....

No more politicking, I promises!

Care of Drew

Ironman World Championships - 1st of a series

This is a bit of a magical time of year in the triathlon community. For a sport that mainly skirts well under the main-stream-news the World Championships in Kona, Hawai'i come very close to breaking that surface. It's a special race not only because it's the 'big race' all triathletes dream of competing in (it's qualification only, much like the Boston Marathon for runners) but also because it's where the 'Triathlon' as we know it was born. 

Over the next few posts I'll be giving a little background, history and 'language' that'll help anyone watch and enjoy the event. So here is the first, the history of Ironman.

In the mid-to-late 1970's endurance sports were booming in popularity, women were finally allowed to run marathons (it was too 'demanding for them' before that) and were even included in the Olympic Marathon. There started to be a lot of trash talk between the worlds top bikers, swimmers, runners, climbers, hikers, etc, on who was the most power athlete in the world, who was the iron-man.  

Enter U.S. Naval Commander John Collins. Stationed in Hawai'i, he competed in the three most demanding endurance racers there in the 70's. A swim across Waikiki, a 2 day bike around the entire island, and the Honolulu Marathon. His challenge to his friends was that the true iron-man could complete all three of these things, back-to-back, in the shortest amount of time. 

On February 18th, 1978 Fifteen men attempted the slightly touched up course (the bike ride was reduced to 112 miles to better align with the marathon course). Twelve men finished and Gordon Haller broke the tape at 11 hours, 46 minutes as well as became the world's first Ironman. 

With no advertising whatsoever word of mouth ballooned the 1979 race to over 50 athletes. The race was then moved to Hawai'i's Big Island and changed into a relay event in hopes of drawing even more competitors but just after the announcement Sport's Illustrated Magazine devoted 10 entire pages to the race and it's unique brand of insanity. Within days, hundreds of athletes were writing and phoning Collins to the point where the relay was called off and the event was born. 

Ironman has since grown to dozens of events around the world (both full length as well as the half Ironman 70.3 mile event) and become a racing corporation. Still, every year the triathlon world's best of the best gather on Big Island in a display of the same endurance, brawn and recklessness that has been endemic for 30 years. 

As the first t-shirts handwritten in sharpie said, "Swim 2.4 miles!!! Bike 112 miles!!! Run 26.2 Miles!!!  ... and brag for the rest of your life..."

Just a funny note

I just checked and if I had been timed, I would have come in 283rd of 13,810 runners. 

Last year I came in 284th.... yeah for improvement!

Philly Distance Run Race Report

I'm only disappointed that the race is over. After two runnings this is still my favorite race of the year. All the factors coincide for perfection - the best course, the best weather, the best trip. Here's the report. 

I travel down to Philly about five times a year. My brother and his family just bought a home fifteen minutes on foot for city centre and it's a terribly convenient train ride from Penn to 30th street station. My pre-race tradition of eating a large chocolate dessert the night before was born exactly a year ago before the '07 distance run at Naked Chocolate, a boutique chocolate shop on Walnut btw. 13th and 14th. This is typically where we meet after I hit up the expo. 

After a yarge piece of smooth chocolate fudge cake we walked back to chez Dennis. Please note the all inclusive 'we' - Zoey Jane is now mobile! Liz still insists that no child of hers is going to be an athlete but I'm forever going to be a source of insurrection. Perhaps a little pair of baby Nikes is in the works? For dinner we travel to the Belgian Cafe and enjoy frites and a chicken aplenty. Since this wasn't exactly an 'A' race for me, I enjoyed a couple of fermented beverages with my sandwich. Apparently Philly is rapidly becoming a hot bed of Belgian styled ales, so when in Rome right? After dinner my brother and I joined his neighbor on the roof deck and enjoyed a round of barleywines. A terrific view of downtown Philly. Bed around 10:30...zzz

Race Day- 

Let it be known now that Zoey has a new favorite toy. My 3 year old cell phone. So as I'm putting on my race gear, pinning my bib and chowing some oat-meal she manages to call Coach Aw (at 6:45 am) 3 times. Coach Aw has been away in upstate NY at a 3 day music festival so when she calls me back, thinking that I've broken my legs or something, neither of us are the most coherent. After reassuring her that I'm only going to be aiming for a 1:30 (about a 40 sec/mile step up over last week in preparation for the Marathon) I lock my phone and give it back to the inconsolable niece. 

There are so many things to love about this race. It has quite possibly the best weather, ever. 55 degrees, sunny and just a hint of wind. It also kicks off at the steps of the art museum (a la Rocky) and has about 40k spectators all cheering and going wild. A hugely energetic atmosphere that gets all the runners pumped. The first few miles are in downtown, past the Liberty Bell, City Hall and another 10k spectators. 

First Mile - 6:25... oops. I had checked the math when I got up and a 1:30 half equates to roughly 6:52, so I was going way too hot. Some math at the second mile showed 6:30, a little better. By mile 4 I was still averaging just a pinch over 6:30 but since I felt fine I just kept it up. It's a really fast course and going any slower would have felt like I was walking. I also noticed around mile 3 that in my confusion with Coach Aw in the morning I had left my new-fangled timing band-thingie on the kitchen table. No office score for me. No big loss however, I wasn't in this to win. 

It became apparent around mile 8 that I need new shoes, my turn around was getting a little jaunty, un-cushioned. But I actually started speeding up after the Falls Bridge turn around and pulled consistent 6:15 miles from 10 to the finish. I had just read an article in the latest Runner's World about how the mind controls your fatigue level by extrapolating all these variables like body temp, weather temp, the distance to your goal and a few others. Long story short it really emphasized just how much the pain is 'all in your head'. Using that as a yardstick your mind 'creates' a level of fatigue, but it's still all in your mind. I know this is all a cliche but just thinking about this on my run helped me really push through and finish strong. Time on the clock at my finish was 1:24:56, not too bad considering how little I had prepared mentally for the race. I attribute it all to the chocolate. 

Coach Aw returns from her 10 day vacation/conference/festival this afternoon, just in time for my taper week. Awesome.

Coming Up: East Hamptons Marathon 9/27/08

Hampton's Marathon Course Map

So, the race officials have posted the finalized course for the Philly Distance run. This race is my favorite so far for several reasons. First and foremost is a gorgeous course, it starts in downtown Philly and passes all the best sites - city hall, the liberty bell etc. After this brief jaunty (only about 3 miles downtown) it heads up along the river for some really fast straight aways. There is a reason it's such a fast course, it's A. extremely flat and B. extremely straight. Runner's World magazine described it as a "track meet instead of a half-marathon". 

As if these weren't good enough reasons for the race it's also in a perfect time of year in Philly, the very beginning of Autumn, great weather for a race. The course is also, basically, just a condensed version of the marathon in 2 months, so I get to stretch out and see the what's ahead of me on the marathon so it's helps there as well. Finally, my brother and his wonderful family are in Philly so this is also a chance to see them. I here that Zoey is finally walking around! I can't wait!

Ok, I lied. The biggest reason this is my favorite race? This is the place where my 'Pre-race chocolate' tradition was born. Naked Chocolate is a located just past city hall and is quite possibly the best gourmet chocolate in the world (certainly the best I've ever eaten). No trip to Philly passes me by without a quick visit! This will be a great weekend!

 

Tired, No Coach

Day #4 without Coach AW. Oh lordy life is tough. She's been good though and phoning me her instructions from across the nation. Last night I was strictly forbidden to run so a bike ride was in order, just a couple of loops around the park (also forbidden against anything too intense). Tonight the plan is a mile and a half of swimming, the most I've done since polo season. To give you an idea most sprints are between half and 3/4 mile swims, which I can do in about 20 minutes. I'm headed to Philly this weekend, no word yet on whether or not I have permission to go all out. This'll be fun tonight...Thanks coach....

Humans are meant to run!

Check the this article from Discover Magazine - http://discovermagazine.com/2006/may/tramps-like-us

It posits some very interesting evidence that humans are quite possibly the best runners on the planet - better even then antelope, cheetas, horses, even dogs! The theory is that our lack of fur and our abundance of sweat glands combine to give us greater than endurance than any other animal (indeed, I had heard that in 2004, 20 mile race between a horse and a man, the man won!). Obvious we can't out sprint a cheetah, but as some Native Africans can still show us today, two people can manage to out run an antelope to the point of exhaustion in order to bring back meet to their families!

The big surprise is that every other prodigous runner has one advantage over us - a tail. It is the easiest way to maintain balance during the tumolt of muscles vs. inertia of running. Complicated analyses of human locomation illustrate that we make up for the lack of a tail with a feature unique to humans - our gigantic, fat asses. No other primate can hold a candle to the human in terms of ass-muscle volume per body size, and electric impulse testing shows that our rearends are finely tuned to help runners maintain balance and not fall on our faces with every step.

The hypothesis is that running helped us chase down our game after humans decended from the trees and that without the rich stores of fat and protein garnered from fresh game, we could never have maintained the biological requirements of our developing brains. The evidence for this is a special ligament that attaches our shoulders and backs to our skulls, allowing our skulls to remain fixed and focused during an all out sprint. This is a feature unique to predatory animals that are chasing after a goal, say, a yummy bison on the horizon, rather than just sprinting like hell to escape a lion.

Read the artical for further information but I found it very interesting! Or better yet, go out there and run! Run like you were meant to!

 "Hard means hard, easy means easy, and rest means sitting on the couch eating krispy kremes." - Samantha McGlone, 70.3 Distance (triathlon) World Champion, on how to train for an Ironman

NYRR Half-Marathon Grand Prix- Queens

Finally, a race report that won't be all glowy and happy. This is a race that I will not be running again - the logistics are just too inconvenient.

I left my apartment around 4:30 in order to catch one of the chartered buses from the Subway station to the race start. I took the 2 train from Bergen to 42nd Street, and from there I took the 7 train the entire length to the Flushing stop. To those of you who aren't from New York, I just described one of the longest subway rides it's possible to undertake.

Arrived in Flushing around 5:45 and got on the bus, the ride was about 15 minutes... ugh, so there is no way one can walk from the race back to the subway, just too far...

My pre-race was uneventful enough, just changed and packed my stuff up. Since the weather report threatened rain I wore one of my heavier tech-shirts and packed a bag of spare warm clothes. Well, it didn't rain, it just hot and humid - very humid.

Coach AW instructed me to take it super-easy on this race so I placed myself a little further back in the line up. I can usually do a half at around 6:25min/mile so I set a goal of 7:30min/mile which is about an extra mile-minute slower. It's also close to my marathon pace which is even better for training for the East Hampton's Marathon.

The race itself was pretty uncomfortable due to the heat and my heavy clothes but I walked through each other aid stations and still managed to come in 288th of 3000 runners, final time 1:39:14 or 7:34min/mile. I also managed to run into Serge (see Block Island RR) after the race, he's headed to Berlin in 2 weeks to run the marathon there, fair play to him, it's one of the more notorious races in the world.

So after the race the buses weren't coming to pick us up until 10:30! I finished the race around 8:30... sheesh. So I walked the 4 miles back to the subway (which took over an hour) then rode the 7 for 45 minutes, then took the 3 back to Brooklyn, another half-hour. All said I walked back in the apartment around 11 and proceeded to do nothing for the rest of the day... When does Coach come back again?

Coming Up - Philadelphia Distance Run 9/21/08 13.1 Miles

Queens Half-Marathon

Just got up and am working on a mug'o'coffee in preparation for the Queens Half-Marathon. It doesn't appear to be raining and I'm all packed! *coffee sip* It's also 4 am. *coffee sip* 

Just got a 'Go Get 'Em' Text message from Coach AW, she's in California for the weekend and well be following my exploits via texting and gratuitous phone calls. Ok... I should go.

-S

Updates and Thank You's

My legs are still a bit stiff from Saturday's performance but the prospect of the season's races is just too exciting. I have a half-mary on Sunday in Queens for which the team AW coach (AW herself) has given me the burden of relaxing through. I must take it easy in preparation of the Hampton's Marathon next, next weekend. We'll see how that goes. I did an easy mile in the pool on Tuesday and yesterday a leisurely jog throughout Downtown Brooklyn and Brooklyn Heights. Tonight I'll try and hit the gym, then do a couple of miles at a bit higher intensity. 

In case you didn't notice from my tally on the left I have recently broken the 50% mark on my fundraising efforts for the New York Marathon. I would like to thank everyone who has contributed so far, your generosity will help make a big difference both to me (I get to run the NYCM)  but to thousands of children across the country. For those of you who would still like to donate the cut off date is October 31st and you can access the Team For Kids Website at the link below! Thanks again!

Team For Kids,  and my runner # is 232291 with the last name Dennis. If you leave out those two pieces of information the donation will not be reflected on my personal tally. 

Alicia's Photography!!

Run Around the Block RR - 9/7/08

A pretty surprising race overall. Alicia and I arrived on Block Island Friday night and just relaxed, I can't lie, we spent most of it asleep. Saturday morning we enjoyed the 1661 Inn's amazing breakfast buffet. Forgetting that I had a race that afternoon I pounded eggs and corned beef hash and a muffin and seconds... oh man, lovely. We were expecting the remnants of the hurricane to hit at any moment but the sky seemed to be fighting it off. The humidity was rising to be sure but the sky maintained a fairly light overcast cloud cover without turning evil on us. Around 12:30 we grabbed some coffees and jumped aboard the bus towards the race start.

The race began on a nice stretch of lonely road near the center of the island. Most people were warming up in an old Indian Cemetery (macabre I know, but still cool), T-shirts were handed out, numbers, etc. A quick estimate of the distance led me to guess around an hour to finish but after warm up run in the humidity I mentally amended this to around 1:15. The weather at this point was still moderately sunny but sticky, I was starting to sweat just warming up. Alicia gave me a good luck kiss and I jogged down the 300 yards or so to the race start. 

Not feeling my best I took a position closer to the middle of the corral than I usually do and did my usual pre-race nervous stretches and only then realized I hadn't brought GUs or my iPod. Oh well, something always falls through, good thing I wasn't go to be to aggressive on this race, ehh?

Well the gun went off a little bit after 1:30 and the pack starts it's usual canter over the line. Within about 20 steps I had already passed nearly the entire group, I remember thinking "Why isn't anyone going anywhere?" before I got that 'blood in the water' scent. Oh man, I'm only going 60% and I'm already in the first 10 runners... so, yeah off I went. Within 30 seconds of the race start, I was in first place. By the time I turned that first corner and saw the spot where the bus dropped us, I was a good 100 yards in front of the second place runner. When I saw the pace car start it's engine and lights and pull away from the spectators it actually hit me, "Oh man... I'm actually in... in first place..." So for a good 20 minutes it was just Steve and the pace car. I passed spectators who jumped up with the pace car and start cheering me on as I went past. I smiled and thanked the ambulances parked every 3/4 of a mile or so. It feellllt goooood.

But then around mile 2.5 it hit me. Damn it's hot. We hadn't passed the first water station yet and my shirt was well soaked through. I had started hearing the foot falls of another runner a little while ago and I was starting to see a shadow over my left shoulder. I battled him for a little bit, cutting him off when we tried to over take me, yelling well before hand to grab water at the first station and indeed picking up a few seconds on him. In all honesty I just wanted to pass where-ever Alicia had parked herself and just show off "Hey! I'm in first place! Check that out!" but by mile 3 I knew I couldn't match this guy and backed off. He over took me just before we crested a big turn and did spy Alicia fumbling to get out her camera - didn't I say it would be a slow day for me? I continued for the next mile or so enjoying second place all to my lonesome. 

Then again around mile 4 the heat picked up, only 1 water station so far? No gatorade? Jeez, this heat was lethal. Pretty shortly after that the number 3 racer caught up to me and mad did we fight it out. From mile 4 until mile 8.5 or so we matched each other stride by stride. The only sounds I could focus on were the clumping of our feet and our breathing. I spent a good half-hour pondering nothing else than the differences in our breathing rhythms. His was a deep through gasp that sounds almost like a full glottal stop, froggy, like he was chugging a gallon of water. It was even and constant. 'gulp... .gulp....gulp...gulp' My own breathing on the other hand has a uneven syncopation to it. deep breath, shallow exhale, shallow breath, deep exhale, a sort of onnnnneee, twothree, fouuuurrrr that I chant in my head. For four miles I don't think we ever separated by more than 20 feet. With the beats of our breathing, our foot falls, the blood churning in my head, my turnover felt like an instrument in a orchestra kept by a demanding conductor, I couldn't let the pace slacken, 1..2..3..4.. 

Strategies formed in my head, "I'm damn tired and uncomfortable so he must be. Maybe if  I just let him set the pace, he'll be focusing more on me and he'll get tired emotionally faster than I can get tired physically, that'll be my advantage to beat him." or "Just stay on his heels and than out-sprint him.." A few times we were able to grumble out a few words on how little water there was on the course... Together we grew tired, hot, sweaty, uncomfortable, but we couldn't break the beat. His gulping, our foot falls, my uneven breaths, I remember little else. Finally around mile 7 it occurred to me that I was always beating him a bit on this hills, I would gain around 15 feet or so going up but he would power 20 feet past me going down and I would have to pick it up or else I'd lose him. What's more, with every hill (and that's all this race was... hills) I'd gain less and he'd pick up more. I was losing my power and we both knew it. Finally around mile 8.5 we turned a corner with the final water station, a man was miraculously spraying a hose and we both got dosed (heavenly), a group of kids had the cups on ready. My competitor grabbed two, put one over his head and drank the second instantly and went on. I shouted at the first kid "Just throw them at me" only to see a pair of saucer like eyes stairing... "Please throw them!" Nothing from the first kid, #2 didn't even hold them out. "THROW WATER AT ME!!!" After 5 other kid-statues I just grabbed two cups from the last boy, threw on in my face, drank half the second and by the time I looked up, I had fallen officially into 3rd place. Mr. Gulper was 200 feet in front of me and not letting up a bit. 

I remember removing my glasses and placing them on my head (too fogged up to see anything) and checking behind me once or twice but I saw no-one. I cresting the final turn only see the race directors ultimate joke. There was a 700 foot climb to the finish and up I went. I pulled into the chute and saw the clock 59:50...51...52...53... I just couldn't make it! I wanted under and hour so badly. Pushhh! Pusshh! The last thing I saw I went under was 59:59:00 and then I was in the finisher's corral. The volunteers took my tear away label from my bib and I remember saying something about there being no water on the course, I got a smile, "Didn't seem to hurt you too much though!" The last space was a tennis court. There was a trough of ice filled with gatorade (finally). To give you an idea, the ice was steaming like boiling water in the heat of the day. I drank one bottle at a draught and drew a second before placing myself under a hose. The cold water was sooo good I nearly collapsed. Every muscle in my legs strained to stay up, balanced. 

The Gulper's name was Serge and he was from Colombia. We shook hands and spent a moment just laughing at each other before he put an arm around me and told me that I had lost the race on the hills. "But, you were started in #1 place!" He laughed. "You will be a great runner. I run one hundred race a year! You just learn the hills, take it easy, don't push, then you beat me." With a final handshake I left the court.

I walked off the race with Alicia, took a dip in the pool (the raced ended in a yacht club of some sort) and saw the results. I finished in 1:00:00 exactly and finished 3rd over all and 1st AG 21-29. For the first time I took home a trophy, a small metal cup on a wooden stand. We took the bus back I suppose.. I was tired... I needed and took a nap, ate a big bowl of seafood paella, did some hardcore snuggling, and slept like the dead. 

Coming up - NYRR Half-Marathon Grand Prix - Queens 9/14/08 13.1 miles  

Preliminary Results

3rd place and the race finished up before the storm hit! I am tired, full of paella and very happy. I'll have the RR tomorrow.