Slacker Half Marathon

RACE REPORT

Sat, Jun 25, 2005
Slacker Half Marathon
Loveland Ski Resort, CO (10,630 ft)
1:41:53 1st AG


This race was another strategic element of Maddog’s ‘Suicidal High Altitude Training Camp’ – important/necessary to improve leg turnover and speed!

I ran this race last year. It starts in front of the ski lifts at the Loveland Ski Resort on the eastern slope of the Continental Divide – near the Eisenhower Tunnel – elevation 10,630 ft. and finishes in Georgetown at 8,500 ft. It is billed as ‘the highest Half in the country’ (wrong! - Pike’s Peak Ascent/Half finishes at 14,100 ft.) It is also billed as a ‘fast, downhill’ course? They neglect to inform runners that the 1st half-mile is uphill!

I won my age group last year in 1:41:09. I wanted to defend my Senior Title but felt – NO – I knew that a 1:41 was out of the question because I am not (yet) in as good as shape as last year! I figured 1:45 would win my age group so that was my time goal!

Because the race/course is fast it attracts many of the ‘big dogs’ from Denver and the Front Range and the competition is stiff. Thus I lined up with approximately 600 runners for the 8am start. The weather was great – sunny with a temp of 51F. Remembering that very tough 1st half-mile from last year I started slower – reached mile 1 in 8:19 sucking desperately for air/oxygen! Mile 2 – 7:40 so I was right on target with an average 8-min pace.

The first 5 miles of the course are a dirt and rocky service road through a National Forest. The road is in good shape but it is necessary to be very careful not to trip or sprain an ankle on the rocks. I reached mile 5 where the dirt road became a paved road in 38:24. I was ahead of pace? However mile 6 was a tough uphill and I slowed to 8:19. But the next 6 miles were all downhill. I passed mile 9 in 1:10 – still ahead of pace! Miles 9 to 12 are a very steep downhill on a paved bike path from Silver Plume to Georgetown. Last year I remembered having to brake most of the way down but this year I decided to turn the legs over as fast as necessary to keep up with gravity. I flew down that 3-mile section! Mile 11 was a blazing 6:10 pace! I figured the mile marker had to be wrong because I can’t remember the last time I ran a 6:10 mile – especially at 9,000 ft? I knew that the last mile in and around Georgetown was fairly flat with several small hills and I hoped that my kamikaze strategy would not result in a crash and burn? When I reached Georgetown and mile 12 in 1:32:26 my legs were shot but I figured even if I slowed to a 10-min pace I would finish in 1:42!

I dug deep and kept the legs moving even though I desperately wanted to walk. About ½ mile from the finish line I was ready to give in to the pain and desperate need to walk when I noticed a few runners closing on me. No damn way was I going to be passed in the last half-mile! Maddog screamed at me “Dig deeper – ignore the pain – push to the finish line”! At mile 13 there was a short, steep hill – shades of Estes Park last weekend? But this time I charged up the hill and turned the final corner to receive a huge surprise – in fact a SHOCK! The finish clock was reading 1:41 and change? I couldn’t believe I had run/finished that fast! I was so exhilarated that I sprinted the final block to cross the finish line in 1:41:53!

I had won my age group and successfully defended my Senior Title! Needless to say I was very pleased/elated with my time and performance. For once even the Maddog had no complaints/gripes/whining! I had run a smart, disciplined race (well- maybe a few crazy miles?) – had run way over my head and finished in a time that I thought impossible before the race! Proves that the hard work/training will produce improvement and good results!

Maddog says I must stay with the ‘Program’ so he has scheduled another difficult challenge/test for next weekend – the Leadville Trail Marathon. It is a trail marathon with a lowest elevation of 10,500 ft at the start/finish in Leadville and a highest elevation of 13, 185 ft at the summit of Mosquito Pass.

Stay tuned for the next race report - only don’t expect the same kind of results because I am not a good/fast trail runner and I intend to run slow and cautiously since I can’t afford to risk a fall or injury only two weeks before my next European trip/marathon.

Estes Park Marathon

RACE REPORT

Sun, Jun 19/05
Estes Park Marathon
Estes Park, CO
‘The highest paved marathon in the world’
Marathon # 244
Time: 4:02:11 - New course record for 60+ Age Group
16th OA – 1st AG

This marathon was scheduled as part of Maddog’s ‘Suicidal High Altitude Training Camp’ in order to beat my old, fat, out-of-shape body back into marathon shape. It was described as a tough, hilly marathon and ‘the highest paved marathon in the world’. Just the right medicine needed to do the job!

On Sat morning the sports manager and I drove over to Estes Park, CO using the back roads through Black Hawk and Nederland – a very scenic route along the western slopes of the Front Range of the Rocky Mountains. When we arrived in Estes Park I picked up my race packet at the high school and then we decided to drive some sections of the course to check out the hills. I had looked at the course map and profile on the Internet and it looked ugly? I had also checked the winning times for my age group last year and nobody had run under 4 hrs so my initial reaction was to set a realistic time goal of 4:15.
However after driving most of the course I decided that the hills did not look that bad and I lowered my time goal to 4 hours.

Enough race preparation – time to explore the town of Estes Park. It is a pretty little town nestled in Estes Valley at an elevation of 7600 ft. The Big Thompson River flows through the middle of the town into Lake Estes on the east side of the town. It has been a ‘tourist’ town/destination for many years since it is the gateway to Rocky Mountain National Park. To the south the Front Range, including Longs Peak (14, 255 ft) towers above the valley and town. To the west Rocky Mountain National Park unveils a stunning array of mountain peaks, 74 of which reach elevations of 12,000 ft or more. The town has a lot of neat shops, bars and cafes overlooking the Big Thompson River.

We enjoyed a great pasta dinner at the main sponsor’s restaurant – Mama Rose’s Italian – overlooking the river while listening to live music being played along the riverbank. It is definitely a neat town to visit! I would have liked to have stayed and sipped some wine/beer while listening to the music but unfortunately alcohol is not permitted the night before a race! So off to bed to get ready for an early race start.

There were 3 races – marathon, half and 10k. They all started and finished at the high school. The marathon and half started together at 7am. It was sunny and a warm 62F at the 7am start and warmed up rapidly to the 80s by the time we finished. I knew a few runners (members of the 50 States Club) as I lined up with about 400 runners to start the race. The marathon started at 7600 ft. The first mile was uphill and mile 2 was downhill. Then the fun began! Miles 3 through 6 climbed 550 vertical ft to the highest elevation (8150 ft) of the course. Fortunately the climb was steady and gentle and my training on my favorite hill loop had prepared me well for the challenge. I crested that BAH (Bad Ass Hill) and reached mile 6 in 53:52. Mile 7 was fairly flat along Mary’s Lake but then the course dropped 700 vertical feet over the next 3 miles. It was difficult to control my pace/speed as I braked all the way down at a sub 8-min pace and passed 10 miles in 1:27:38. I was hoping that those hills had not beaten my legs up too badly?

I passed the Half in 1:55:31 and knew at that point that my legs could not manage that same pace through the 2nd Half. But I had almost 5 minutes in the bank so I decided to hold that pace for as long as possible and try to beat 4 hrs! Mile 15 was another BAH that climbed from Lake Estes up into the hills/mountains north of the town. By the time I crested that BAH I was all alone and never saw another runner until mile 17. Then the fun began again. Miles 17 through 20 were uphill! The hill just kept going – and going – and going! I struggled to run a 10-min pace for the first 2 miles and mile 20 was an agonizingly slow and painful 10:30! I reached mile 20 in 3:02:15. I had 58 minutes to run the last 10K! But the hills had really beaten up my legs. I figured I might still have a chance if there were enough downhills to help me recover and make up some time. At that point the 1st-place female caught and passed me. I remember thinking “she is running so smooth and easy – if I can just stay with her she will drag me across the finish line under 4 hrs”!

I dug deep and stayed with her through mile 21 but mile 22 was yet another BAH and as I struggled up that hill in 10:34 I watched her quickly leave my sad, tired, old butt behind. Not a damn thing I could do about it! I reached mile 22 in 3:21:29. I had 38 minutes to run the final 4.2 miles. Doable - but not with my legs. They were totally trashed and running on energy fumes! And there just wasn’t enough air/oxygen to light the fumes? I figured it was going to be very- very close! Maybe 4 hrs plus/minus one minute. So I kept plugging away and hoping for a miracle recovery over the final 4 miles? The course re-entered downtown Estes Park at mile 24 – time 3:40:13. But no miracles had occurred and now there wasn’t even any energy fumes left in the legs – there was nothing! I started to console myself that 4:01 wasn’t that bad? At mile 25 I was forced to go into ‘survival’ mode – i.e. try to finish the race ALIVE, w/o an injury and preferably w/o walking! At mile 26 there was a short steep hill from the bike path up to the high school. I didn’t think I could make it – I wanted to sit down and rest (and cry) for a few minutes before I tried to climb that mountain! All I can remember is some idiot volunteer shouting “just a short hill up to the track – you look good – you can make it”! I managed to answer “Well I feel like shit”!

Somehow I did make it up that hill and on to the school track. Normally I can muster up one final jolt of adrenaline to ‘sprint’ across the finish line. But not this day! All I could think as I struggled the final 400 yards was that I had certainly not left anything on the course today! I crossed the finish line in 4:02:11!

At first I was a wee bit disappointed that I had not finished under 4 hrs but then I confirmed that I had won my age group and was also told that I had set a new course record for the Senior/ROF (Real Old Farts) Division. I had beaten the old record by 7 minutes. So I guess I didn’t do too bad after all?
Now that I have run ‘the highest paved marathon in the world’ I figure I should change my mind and also run ‘the highest marathon in the world’ (Mt Everest) in the same year?

With the minor failure and major successes of this race I now feel that I am making some improvement/progress in my base/endurance conditioning. But my ability to run a fast pace for a long time is pitiful! Only speed work can correct this disability. To that end I have signed up for a very fast Half next weekend. It starts at 10,600 ft and drops 2000+ vertical ft over the first 12 miles. That should help improve my leg turnover and speed?

So stay tuned for the next race report – or obituary?

Maddog

Run the Rockies Half

Race Report
Sat, Jun 11/05
Run the Rockies
Frisco, CO
Half Marathon
1:50:38 - 2nd AG

Run the Rockies is one of my favorite Half Marathons in the High Country. The race starts at the base of the Copper Mtn ski resort (elevation 9700 ft) and runs downhill on a paved bike path to Frisco. The first 10K drops 600 vertical ft to finish in downtown Frisco (9100 ft). For those stupid enough to run the Half the next 11K runs through a series of rolling hills – many of them BAH (Bad Ass Hills) – on a bike path towards Breckenridge and then loops back on the same path to finish in Frisco.

We had rain and snow again on Fri night so it was sunny and a chilly 29F when 400 runners lined up at Copper Mtn for the 8:30 am start but it warmed up to a balmy 40F at the finish. I had set a goal of 1:50. I wanted to run under 1:45 but believed it was unrealistic to average an 8-min pace in my current marathon shape and the high altitude. Thus my strategy was to run sub 8s for the first 10 Km and then try to run 8:30/8:45s over the final 11K. At mile 2 I was averaging an 8:10 pace and sucking air desperately. Mile 3 was 7:30 and finally by mile 4 I had settled into an 8-min pace. I reached mile 6 in 47:32 and was wishing that I had signed up for the 10K and NOT the Half! But I needed the training/punishment/pain to beat the old bod into marathon shape – continue on! Mile 7 was fairly flat with a few hills – 8:46. Unfortunately mile 8 was all uphill and all I could manage was a 9:28 pushing as hard as I physically could! The pain level was increasing and my goal was not looking good? The hills continued and mile 10 was the toughest mile of the race – a very steep BAH! I managed to crest the top of that BAH in 9:31 but my legs were drained and my lungs were on fire! Thankfully mile 11 had a few downhills that allowed my legs to recover and my lungs to get some air/oxygen back into them –a 9:08 pace but the time was 1:32:38. I needed to run 8:45s for the final 2 miles – on dead legs and burning lungs?

Mile 11 was all downhill and I managed to push the pace back down to 8:14. But the time was 1:40:53 – only 9 minutes to finish the last 1.1 miles? I had noticed at least one or two ‘gray hairs’ or competitors in my age group on the return loop and I knew I could not catch them. But I wasn’t going to give up and continued to push as hard as I could but alas there just wasn’t enough energy in the legs and air in the lungs to hold an 8-min pace through the hills on the final mile and I crossed the finish line in 1:50:38.

I was neither surprised nor disappointed to learn that I had finished 2nd in my age group. I had figured a 1:45 would be needed for 1st place and that was the winning time. But I was disappointed in my time and performance. Even though I pushed as hard as I could and left nothing on the course I was not pleased with my progress and improvement. I guess I need to push harder in my training?
I WILL train/push harder this coming week to prepare myself for a very tough challenge next weekend – the highest paved marathon in the world!
Stay tuned for the next report.

Steamboat Springs Marathon

RACE REPORT
Sun, Jun 5/05
Steamboat Marathon
Steamboat Springs, CO
Marathon # 243
Time: 3:57:58 - 1st AG

This was a totally unplanned, impromptu race. There were so many reasons why I shouldn’t run a marathon:
Lack of training – I had run very few training miles since we returned from Europe due to that flu bug and the move from FL to CO
Only one week of altitude training/adjustment
I was in very poor marathon condition

But then again there were a few reasons why I should run a marathon:
I had logged 70 miles in the mtns in my first week in the High Country
What better way to correct all of the above than to run a tough, hilly marathon at high altitude?

Then Mother Nature added some additional concerns/reasons “not to run the marathon”. As you saw by the photos I sent, the weather was horrific for the two days before the race. It snowed Fri and Sat and was still snowing when we (the sports manager and I) left home for Steamboat Springs at noon on Sat. But the weather forecast called for sun and temps in the mid 60s on Sun? The snow soon changed to rain and we even had flashes of sun on the drive to Steamboat – until we drove up Rabbit Ears Pass (9,500 ft) where it was raining and the fog was so thick we couldn’t see more than 25 ft! When we arrived in Steamboat it was raining so I collected my race package and we secluded ourselves in the hotel. We were disappointed because we wanted to stroll and window-shop in Steamboat because it is such a nice place to visit – an old western town – now a ski resort village with lots of neat shops, bars and cafes. No such luck – it was still raining when we went for dinner. I was beginning to worry about the forecast – I did not want to run at high elevations in such terrible weather!

But the weather Gods smiled on us and it was sunny with few clouds when I lined up for the bus at 6am. The course is point-to point and starts at Hahn’s Peak (an extinct volcanic mtn) 26 miles northwest of Steamboat. It was sunny with a light breeze and temps in the mid 40s at the 7:30am start. The temps gradually warmed up to 60F when I crossed the finish line. What great weather for a race!
There were 500 runners in the Marathon and 900 in the Half. The race starts at 8128 ft – drops about 200 vertical ft over the first 3 miles and then climbs to the highest point of the course –8178 ft. at mile 4. The course then drops 1400 vertical ft over the next 17 miles although there are several rolling hills and many of them are BAH (Bad Ass Hills). Coming down off the BAH at mile 4 a runner with a gray hair and beard blew by me. Could he be in my age group? I decided to let him go. I ran this race last year with two mates from the UK. I had been in much better shape and had trained at high altitude for one month. I had started out too fast and struggled over the last 10K so I was determined not to make that mistake this year – especially for the reasons above. My goal was to finish under 4 hours so I tried to run a 9-min pace for the 1st Half. However the hills made it difficult/impossible to run a consistent pace so I decided to pace strictly off my heart monitor. It kind of worked as I passed 10 miles in 1:25 and the Half in 1:54. That was about 3 minutes faster than desired and I hoped it would not bite me in the ass later even though I felt strong and relaxed. I contemplated pushing the pace for the 2nd Half but wisely decided to wait till I reached mile 16 and then make the decision. However at mile fifteen I passed ‘Mr. Gray Beard’ and I decided to charge up the BAH at mile 15 to bury him! When I crested the top I continued to push the pace lest he try to catch me? But it didn’t last long! By mile 18 my legs started to feel tired and I decided to slow down to conserve energy for a really BAH starting at mile 21. I reached mile 20 in 2:57:20 but I was starting to struggle. Another competitor with gray hair blew by me – I had to let him go because I knew I could not survive a ‘running duel’ with 10K left to go!
The lack of training miles was staring to tell!

The course had dropped to 6700 ft at mile 21 and then climbed about 300 vertical ft over the next two miles. I struggled to run a 10:15 pace through those two miles. Finally I crested the BAH at mile 23. The last 5K dropped down to finish at 6728 ft in downtown Steamboat. The time was 3:27:44. All I had to do was run a 10-min pace for the final 5K? But there was no gas/energy left in the old legs and bod – and I was starting to have trouble sucking enough air to keep the legs moving. Only experience and will power kept the old, tired legs running/moving for the final 3 miles. When I saw the finish line with ½ mile to go I asked the old bod to give me one final jolt of adrenaline so I could push the pace and cross the finish line in 3:57:58!

After the obligatory photo at the finish line the sports manager drove me back to the hotel for a soothing hot bath and shower. I wanted to return to the finish line to see where I finished. I figured I had at least placed in my age group. I was surprised to discover that I had finished 1st! Mr. Gray Hair was a youngster in his 50s. We stuck around to collect my award since this race provides nice/practical awards – running gear!

From a race results viewpoint this looked like a successful race but from a personal point of view there was both Good and Bad news.
Good News:
I finished under my goal of 4 hrs
I won 1st place in my age group
I had no pain/problems with my left knee that had surgery in Feb
Bad News:
My time was 13 minutes slower than last year
I finished 119th overall vs 54th last year
My marathon shape can be summed up in one word– PATHETIC

I need to beat my pathetic, old, out-of-shape body back into marathon shape if I ever want to achieve my goal of running sub 3:30 marathons again! To accomplish this goal I have scheduled races (Halfs and Marathons at elevations from 8,500 to 13,800 ft) every weekend for the next month.

I am determined to beat this old bod into good marathon shape or KILL it – whichever comes first!
So stay tuned for more race reports – or an Obituary!

Maddog

Trip report - Poland

TRIP REPORT
POLAND & ENGLAND
May 5 –10/05

Photos may be viewed on www.maddog.smugmug.com.

Now where were we? Oh yes – this is part two of a two-week European trip and we had just traveled from Belfast to London (Luton airport) and were now departing Luton for Krakow, Poland.

We met up with about 16 runners/mates from London and the Midlands at Luton. I had met most of them on other trips. They are members of the 100 Marathon Club (UK).
When we arrived in Krakow we had a brilliant idea to take a local bus from the airport into the city. Eighteen of us loaded ourselves and all our baggage on to a local bus. Forty-five minutes and another tram later we finally arrived at our hotel. Everyone vowed that they would take a taxi back to the airport when they departed?

Waiting at the hotel was another good friend/runner from London who was our unofficial guide and translator for the trip. Tad is of Polish ancestry and still has family in Poland - and fortunately still speaks Polish! After helping us check in Tad escorted us to Race HQ to pick up our race packets and show us where the race started. His language skills were much in demand and appreciated. After registration most of the runners decided to accompany Tad to a popular local restaurant to enjoy Polish food and beer. However I had still not recovered from the flu – in fact it seemed that I always suffered a relapse each evening. So the sports manager and I found a Thai restaurant near the hotel and enjoyed a nice relaxing dinner. What a difference from Ireland and the UK. Our dinner with wine cost about $15 US! Poland is still a relatively good tourist bargain compared with most of Europe. This is true of most of the former Soviet countries but unfortunately it is changing fast so take advantage of these tourist destinations/bargains while you can.

It was an early evening for us as I hoped that lots of rest would finally kill that damn flu bug? On Friday morning several runners decided to visit a 1000-year old salt mine in Wieliczka that contains many underground sculptures but we decided we would rather explore Krakow. Unlike many other Polish cities Krakow miraculously survived WWII and years of socialist planning relatively unscathed. The Old Town (Stare Miasto) is compact and easy to explore on foot. In the center of the Old Town are the Main Marketplace (Rynek Glowny) and the Cloth Hall. The square is ringed with bars and cafes and several interesting buildings and sites such as: St Mary’s Church with a 500-year old wooden altar – the oldest Gothic altar in the world and the small church of St Wojciech – one of the oldest churches in Krakow. Going south out of the Old Town is the Royal Road that leads past many more churches to the Royal Castle on Wawel Hill. The Wawel Castle (Zamek Wawelski) was originally built in the 10th century and remodeled in the 1500s. The royal apartments and staterooms contain the original furnishings and can be visited. The castle complex includes Wawel Cathedral where many polish kings were coronated and Pope John Paul II was the Archbishop. We spent the whole day exploring Wawel Castle and Old Town.

Friday evening many of the runners/mates decided to go to the official marathon pasta party but some including the sports manager and I decided to find a local Italian restaurant to enjoy better pasta. Nicole and I again did our own thing and enjoyed a nice pasta dinner ($15US vs the $40 at the Pizza Hut in Belfast?). I retired early because the flu was still dragging me down.

Saturday was M-day! The race started at 9am. The weather was miserable as we walked from the hotel to the start line – very cold and raining! There were about 2000 runners in the Marathon and a Half marathon. I wore my typical rain gear (garbage bag) for the first three miles because it was so cold and miserable. I felt sorry for those runners just wearing shorts and a singlet. But this race was much better organized than Belfast. There were distance markers every 1Km and water every 3 – 5 Km. Much of the course was on paved bike paths along the Wisla River and when it did run on roads the roads were blocked off to traffic.

I was not sure or confident in my health/condition because of the flu bug and did not want to repeat the same mistake (and pain) as Belfast so I started out very slowly. I watched my heart monitor closely and kept my pace just under 9 min/mile through the first Half. Many of my mates that I normally beat passed me and I just let them go. I reached the Half in 1:57:09 and felt OK. I thought about picking up the pace at that point to see if I could catch some of my mates but decided it was still too early to make a push. I reached 27Km in 2:30 and still felt OK except for the occasional, uncontrollable coughing spasms that hurt like heck but I decided it was now or never to make a push. Besides it was raining hard again and I was so cold and miserable that I needed to get this over with? I dropped the pace to 8:20/8:30s.
I caught and passed a few mates but was looking for one mate in particular – yes Roger I was looking for you! After 8 Km of pushing hard I still couldn’t see Roger? I figured that if I could just see him by 38K I could make an interesting/challenging race out of it? At 37K there was a loop in the course and I still couldn’t see him (regretfully it turned out that Roger did see me at 37K although I didn’t see him – he was only one minute ahead at that point?). So I decided it wasn’t worth killing myself for the last 5 Km and eased off some. I crossed the finish line in the Old Town Square in 3:53:58 – about 1-½ minutes behind Roger!

I was pleased with my race. The time was not great but I had run a smart race and even ran a negative split in the second Half. However I will now have to wait for another opportunity to regain my bragging rights over Roger and a few other mates.

It was still raining when I finished the race and I felt cold and miserable. Unfortunately our hotel room did not have a bath so I had to stand in a shower for more than 30 minutes while running the hottest water I could stand over my poor cold body. Finally I felt like living again and decided it was time to explore some more of Krakow and work up an appetite for some Polish food and beer. Thankfully the sun had come out and the sports manager and I walked over to the Castle to take some pictures and then we walked through Kazimierz – Krakow’s 600-year old Jewish Quarter and back to the Old Town for some food and beer.
Later that evening we met with a group of mates to accompany Tad back to the favorite restaurant for an evening of celebration, food and beer. It was an old Polish restaurant – much like a huge beer hall. They brewed their own beers – the light beer was 11% alcohol and the dark was 14%. The beer was delivered to the table in casks and you poured your own pints. There were over 20 runners/mates at the party/celebration. The food, beer and company were all great! Near the end of the meal Tad ordered a ‘special’ local drink for the table. The drink contains the colors of the Polish flag – white vodka, red raspberry juice and Tabasco sauce. The idea is to ‘shoot’ it and then chase it down with some 11 or 14% beer. Tad ordered a second round. However some couldn’t drink the second one so Tad and I volunteered to finish off them off. Needless to say I was feeling real goooooooodddddddd when we left the restaurant. What stinking flu?
Only later did Tad explain that the special drink is called ‘Wsciekly Pies’ - that literally translates to ‘Mad Dog’! Don’t you think I should be getting royalties for all the use of my nickname?

On Sunday morning I was surprised/pleased to discover that I did not have a huge hangover? Many of the group wanted to visit the concentration camps at Auschwitz. Since the normal tours required a full day and we were leaving on a 5pm flight we hired three taxis to be our private drivers and guides. They drove us to Auschwitz, explained the layout of the camps and how to visit them and waited for us. At the first camp, Auschwitz I with the infamous gate “Arbeit macht frei” (Work brings freedom) the original barracks now house exhibits and artifacts describing the atrocities that were conducted there. Fortunately we had seen many TV documentaries on the camps and were somewhat prepared for the gruesome and depressing things we saw. But the sheer size of the camp and the other two camps Auschwitz – Birkenau II & III boggles the mind how so many people could have been forced and duped to their death. We also visited Auschwitz-Birkenau II with the ‘Gate of Death” where the trains entered the camp and unloaded the prisoners. A depressing but educational tour!

Finally our taxis/guides dropped us off at the airport and we were on our way back to London. We arrived at our hotel around 8pm. I had used an award/free points to book the Marriott Grosvenor House near Hyde Park. Usually they give you the worst room in the hotel with these vouchers but the hotel was being renovated and was almost empty so they put us in a corner suite. Biggest damn hotel room I ever saw – a one- bedroom apartment/suite. I could get used to that kind of living? Of course we couldn’t afford to eat at that hotel – breakfast was 20 Pounds/person ($40US). I don’t know how people can afford to live there. Needless to say we found a pub nearby and enjoyed a full English breakfast for 3 Pounds! Maddog knows how to travel like the locals.

In all our trips to London and living there for a year I had never visited the British Museum and that was one of my primary goals on this trip. So on Monday we spent the whole afternoon at the Museum. I especially liked the sections on Egypt, Greece and Roman artifacts. The Rosetta Stone is one of the main artifacts at the Museum. On Monday evening – our last evening in Europe we attended the new Andrew Lloyd Webber musical “The Woman in White”. The story and music were good but they substituted high-tech for the normal stage scenery and it distracted the audience from the performers. It was OK but not as good as my favorite “The Phantom of the Opera” and certainly not worth the $200 tickets?

Finally it was Tuesday and time to go home. I had managed to get rid of that damn flu by giving it to my sports manager. I felt sorry for her because it was going to be a very long and miserable flight home with that nasty bug. After 14 hours of airport and flight time (London to Chicago to Tampa) we were finally back home. The weather was sunny and mid 80s when we got off the plane in Tampa. Good to be back home – and WARM again!

I don’t believe I will ever be able to get the sports manager to accompany me on any more trips to Europe but I still have three countries left to run so stay tuned for the next adventure!

Trip Report - Northern Ireland

TRIP REPORT
ENGLAND & NORTHERN IRELAND
4/27 – 5/4/05

Photos may be viewed at www.maddog.smugmug.com.

The planning for this trip started last year when my ‘buddies’ from the UK informed me that I would have to run a marathon in Northern Ireland to complete my goal of running every country in Europe. Is Northern Ireland a ‘country’?
“Don’t go there”! If England, Wales and Scotland are countries (and I ran them) I guess I should run Northern Ireland too?

Since the only marathon in N Ireland is in Belfast I had to wait for this year’s race to come up in early May. I really tried to find a second marathon in the same time frame that I could run to check another needed country off my list but alas I was not successful. I still figured that there was no point going all the way to Europe to run ‘just’ one race so I decided to run a second marathon in Krakow following Belfast. That race/adventure will be included in another report. Since both marathons would be in ‘nice’ places the sports manager agreed to go along – it would probably be her last marathon trip to Europe?

After schedules were confirmed I decided to route us through Manchester, England to visit some close friends transplanted from Texas. We departed from Tampa late Wed. and arrived in Manchester at 8am on Thu. Our friends picked us up at the airport and took us to their home in Wilmslow. Normally we try not to crash/sleep when we arrive but this time we had not slept on the flight and decided to crash for a few hours. Later that day I managed to run an easy 5 miles to help my body adjust to the new time zone. Then our hosts, John & Debbi, treated us to a wonderful gourmet dinner at a pub in a nearby village. Since the meal was accompanied by lots of good wine we were very relaxed and tired when we finally went to bed. We slept for 12 straight hours and felt like our body clocks had adjusted to the local time.

Our hosts had a previous business meeting/dinner planned for Fri night so the sports manager and I walked to a pub in Wilmslow (we had stayed there before and knew the town) for a regular pub meal i.e. steak & ale pie! On Sat after a pleasant morning run with John we had to say goodbye to our gracious hosts and depart for Belfast. We arrived in Belfast late Sat. afternoon and after checking into our hotel headed straight to Race HQ to pick up my race packet. Since the race was on Mon. – a bank holiday – we decided that we should tour on Sun. It was cold and raining on Sun morning so we decided to take a day tour north to Antrim County and the Giant’s Causeway.

The Giant’s Causeway is a most extraordinary natural phenomenon – a rock formation of volcanic origin consisting of 40,000 vertical basalt columns of varying sizes and heights. According to legend the Causeway was the work of the giant Finn McCool who fell in love with a giantess from the Island of Staffa (in the Hebrides) and began to build a causeway as a means to bring her to Ireland. It is an interesting site to see but it was so damn cold and rainy when we got there that we did not spend much time out of the bus.
We continued along the Antrim Coast past the Dunluce Castle to the Bushmills Distillery. While many toured the distillery we toured the village of Bushmill. By late afternoon the rain had stopped and it warmed up so I did take a walk down to the rope bridge at Carrick-a Rede. It is not much compared to the rope suspension bridge at Capilano, BC or the rope bridges in the canopies of the rain forests in Costa Rica! But the Antrim Coastline is very scenic. The bus did not arrive back to Belfast until 7:30 pm. By then I was feeling very sick and knew that I was unfortunately coming down with some bug/illness.

There are not many Italian restaurants in Belfast and I didn’t feel well enough to take a taxi to another section of the city and spend lots of money on spaghetti so we found a Pizza Hut near the hotel. Good thing because I learned how expensive things are in the UK. A cheap spaghetti dinner for two was 20 Pounds ($40 US – no booze). It was the same menu and dinner we ate in Trinidad in Feb. – only that meal cost $7 US! The moral of this story is that if you want to retire move to Trinidad – not the UK!

By the time we got back to the hotel I was in BIG trouble! I was really sick! All night I suffered a very high fever and cold chills – sometimes together? I put an extra blanket on the bed in the hope that I might burn the bug out if I kept my temperature high? It partially worked. By 8am my fever was down to about 100F and the cold chills were gone. Should I run? No choice –I was not waiting another year to come back here. And it is too expensive to make another trip!

The good news was that the start of the race was only a few blocks from the hotel – the bad news was that is was very cold and raining again. You cannot imagine how terrible (and cold) I felt standing on that start line in the freezing rain with a temp of 100+F. I decided that I would be lucky just to finish this race alive so there would be no heroics today! I moved to the middle of the pack so I could start out slow.

There were about 5,000 runners at the start – 2,000 marathoners and 3,000 relay runners. The race started at 9am – in the rain but I had my rain gear (a garbage bag) on. I wore the bag for about 3 miles before I was warm enough to throw it away. The race started at City Hall, went through Ormeau Park and then along Falls and Shankill Roads past many of the political murals. There were no mile markers until mile 10 so I could not figure out my pace? I tried to set my pace by my heart monitor and figured I was running just under 9 min/mile? I reached the first marker at Mile 10 in 1:22 – an 8:15 pace. That was not good! I tried to slow down expecting to find another marker at least at the Half. No marker or timing mats where they should be? I didn’t understand or find out why until the next day. A terrorist group (IRA?) had planted a bomb on the course around 12 miles. Luckily they called it in to a newspaper and the police found the bomb (yes – a real bomb with a remote control). Only the 20 lead runners had run past the bomb before the police diverted the course. They added 1106 meters to the length of the course and I suspect bypassed the original Half marathon mark?

I finally reached another marker at 15 miles –2:06. Still too fast! I knew I was in trouble at that point. I started to slow drastically. By the time I reached 16 miles (another 10 minutes) I could hear “the fat lady singing” and I knew the race was over for me. I started to walk. The rain had stopped and the sun was shining and I started to overheat. The water stops were located about every 5 Km and by now they had started to run out of water. The runners had to wait while the volunteers filled the water bottles from taps and then filled cups. I was concerned about drinking local tap water but really didn’t have a choice? It was one of the worst organized races I have ever run. With 3,000 relay teams the relay check points were so congested that we were forced to stop and walk. That didn’t really affect my time near the end – it just frustrated me!

Needless to say it was a very long and painful struggle just to walk and run the last 10 miles. But I finally crossed the finish line in 4:17:13. The official website states that 1106 meters were added to the course because of the bomb and each runner should adjust their own time. Well my time is adjusted to 4:09:47! I figured I walked/ran/crawled those 1106 meters at a 12 minute pace? The finish line was a zoo. I almost couldn’t find my sports manager and I desperately needed to go back to the hotel and crash. My body temp was soaring?

In spite of the high temps I still forced the old bod into the hottest water I could stand because it was aching all over. My legs weren’t sore – I hadn’t run fast enough for them to hurt – but everything else ached? After 30 minutes of soaking I felt alive enough to go find a pub. Fortunately there was one close to the hotel and we immediately made new friends with some locals – one had run the relay. We learned a lot about N Ireland, Belfast and the political views over several pints of beer? We also ate in the pub because it was too expensive to eat in a fancy restaurant. A good meal with wine, etc. would cost about $75 to $100 (pounds) – translate to $200 US! I was hoping that a lot of beer would kill the flu bug that was plaguing me – but it was only a temporary fix?

On Tue we decided to take a tour of Belfast. Belfast (Beal Feirste = “sandy ford”) is situated in the northeast corner of Ireland at the outflow of the River Lagan into the Belfast Lough. It was once a very important shipyard. The Titanic was built here. The downtown is going through a redevelopment. But right now it is not pretty. It closes down at 6pm and all the storefronts and buildings have shutters and iron bars for security. Very few bars and restaurants are open except for a section called the ‘Golden Mile’ between City Hall and Queen’s University.

The tour went into the Falls (Catholic) and Shankill (Protestant) sections of the city. These two communities are separated by a 70-ft high fence and two gates (called the ‘Peace Gates’) that are only opened from 6am to 6pm. Each community has several murals painted on the sides of buildings depicting the political struggle/differences.
But once you leave these areas and downtown the rest of the city looks normal and is quite nice. I guess we just don’t understand the situation?

After our city tour we decided that we would spend our last night in the country instead of the city. We were flying out of Belfast International airport that was located about 20 miles north of the city. We booked a room in a B&B in the village of Moira. It was a quaint little village that reminded us of Bishop’s Stortford (where we lived in England).
We enjoyed a great dinner (at reasonable prices) and the next morning our hostess drove us to the airport at 5am. We had to fly to London (Luton) and connect to a flight to Krakow. Unfortunately we had a 5-hr wait at Luton but finally many of my mates from the London area started to arrive at the airport and we chatted and boarded the flight together.

We were on our way to Krakow – the next marathon – the next adventure - and the next report.

Stay tuned!

Boston Marathon

RACE REPORT
Boston Marathon
April 18/05

As I mentioned in my pre-race report I had no intention or plans to run Boston this year because of all the injuries, surgery, etc that I suffered from Oct through Feb. I had missed so much time and training during the past 4 months that I was not in any shape to run a competitive race at Boston.

However a close friend from Siesta Key- Frank – who is also a member of our local Running Club had decided that he wanted to run Boston only nine months after undergoing quadruple bypass surgery. Most of his running friends tried to discourage him and his cardiologist (also a member of the Club) advised him that his heart no longer had the capacity or efficiency to run a marathon and he should limit himself to a maximum distance of a half-marathon. Like any runner who is stubborn and invincible I knew that he would/could not be talked out of running the marathon so I decided that I should accompany him to help pace him through the race and watch over him. There were several members from the Club going to the marathon as well as many friends from around the country so it would be a fun and social event.

After meeting up with Club members and other friends during the few days and pasta dinner before the race we were finally ready for the marathon. Unfortunately the weather forecast called for warm, sunny weather although not as hot as last year! Frank and I took different modes of transportation to the start so we agreed to meet in Frank’s corral. I had qualified for corral # 8 but would be permitted to drop back to Frank’s corral (#18). Good idea – but I couldn’t find Frank among the other thousand runners in the corral as I waited for the start. At 12 (Noon) the race started but it took 8 minutes before we started to move in corral #18. Still no Frank so I stepped out of the corral to let the rest of the corral and corral #19 pass by me in the hopes of finding Frank? I jumped back into the throng of runners with the hope that Frank was in front of me and I would catch him after I started the race.

It took 24 minutes to reach the start line (where I started my watch for chip time) and by then the throng was running about a 10-minute pace. By that time the leaders were almost at the 5-mile mark and I as weaving my way around the back of the pack looking for Frank? Fortunately he was wearing a distinctive singlet with his name and a brief message about his bypass and I finally spotted and caught him about 1½ miles into the race. Thank goodness! I slowed my pace down to his and we settled into our race strategy. The plan was to run a 10 to 11-min pace for the first 10 miles and then walk and run the last 16 miles. The heat and sun were bothering Frank by 10K so I decided that we should walk for 1 minute at that point while I poured water over his head and body to cool him down. We reached 10 miles in 1:42. We were doing well but Frank was already starting to tire and having difficulty with the heat (mid 60s) and the sun.

As we approached mile 12 we could already hear the screams of the Wellesley girls. Wellesley College (for girls) is located on the Boston course at mile 13 and the young ladies line the course for about 1 mile and scream encouragement to the runners. The noise level is almost painful but it provides an emotional high that is impossible not to succumb to. They also hold up signs offering hugs and kisses and many male runners stop to oblige. Frank insisted on stopping – twice- while I took his picture getting his Wellesley kisses. After that emotional boost we reached the Half in 2:20.

We continued to walk at the beginning of each mile for one minute and then run to the next mile marker hoping that the walk would provide Frank with some recovery time to rest and cool down. However by mile16 Frank was hurting and in trouble. He was very tired and his body was overheated. He was feeling slightly dizzy so we stopped. I poured water over his head and body to reduce his body temp and we decided to walk the next 5 miles through the hills of Newton. He felt so bad that he conceded that his cardiologist had been right – his heart no longer had the capacity and efficiency to run a marathon and “this would be his last marathon”.

He urged me to continue on without him but I refused. I told him that “we started together and we would finish together”! Besides at that point it was irrelevant and meaningless whether I finished in 4:15 or 6:15? I asked him what his heart monitor was reading? I was both shocked and upset when he told me that he had forgot to wear it! I had specifically instructed him to wear it! Damn fool! So we measured his pulse rate frequently and compared it to my heart rate. Fortunately his heart rate was only about 10% higher than mine and it was well below the minimum level I have set on my monitor. If I am below that minimum level it indicates: a) I am not working/running fast enough or b) I am in big trouble if it is that low and I am working hard! Since we were walking I felt comfortable that our heart rates were not in any danger zone! So I continued to throw water on Frank to cool him down and asked him to eat a carbo gel at mile 17 in the hopes that it would help him recover?

This strategy seemed to work. By mile 19 we started to ‘jog’ some of the downhill sections of the hills but continued to walk all the flat and uphill sections. Finally we approached the last big hill on the course –‘Heartbreak Hill’. I had never ‘seen’ Heartbreak Hill even though I had run Boston six previous times. I was always too obsessed with some specific time or performance goal and totally focused on charging up the hill and blocking out the pain to ‘see’ the hill? In fact I had never had time to see or enjoy the Boston course or the millions of spectators like I was seeing and enjoying it during this race? Heartbreak Hill ain’t that big and bad – it only seems that way because it is the last big hill on the course and located at 20.5 miles when your legs are totally trashed from all the hills. We crested Heartbreak Hill at 21 miles in 4:26 (but that was chip time and official clock time was 4:50). I informed Frank that we had only 70 minutes to complete the final 5 miles if we wanted to finish under the course limit of 6 hours and receive a finishers’ medal. We could do it easily if we walked and ran.

Frank again urged me to continue on without him but I explained that we would finish together and either receive a medal together or not! I knew that he wanted to walk the final 5 miles by himself because of his concern about his health and lack of confidence that he had recovered. He just needed some motivation and a gentle push. So I coaxed him to try running just a short interval until he tired and then we would walk again. Much to his credit he dug deep and starting running. Soon the running intervals started to become longer. When we reached 35K we got some unexpected motivation. The race volunteers had already unplugged the mats that read the electronic chips. It was like they were saying “the time limit is 6 hours and you bozos are too slow to make it so you don’t need a split at 35K”! We were determined to prove them wrong! The running intervals became longer and the walks much shorter. By the time we reached 40K they were removing the mats from the course and we were really PO’d because we knew that we were going to beat the 6-hour limit. We later learned the early removal of the mats caused much concern/worry to Frank’s wife (and my sports manager) who were following our progress on the Internet via the split times. All of a sudden there were no more split times and we were no longer on the course? Shame, shame on the BAA for being so thoughtless and unprofessional.

We ran all of the last 2K except for one brief 30-second walk that I forced Frank to take just before we made the final turn on to Boylston St. I wanted to make sure that we could run the last ½ mile down Boylston St in front of the thousands of screaming spectators. Yes, even 6 hours after the start there were thousands of spectators along the course screaming encouragement at the runners to beat the time limit! This is one of the many things that make Boston one of the best marathons in the world – and my favorite!

Frank and I crossed the finish line together in 5:54:42. I had a net or chip time of 5:30 and Frank had a chip time of 5:32. That was 15 minutes faster than his time at Boston last year. As we walked through the finish chute I congratulated Frank on a great performance/race for his last marathon. He admitted that this race “had been the most difficult marathon in his life” and I commented that was a fitting tribute for a ‘retirement’ marathon. Knowing runners and how easily and fast pain disappears (and minds change) I reminded him that I would tell everyone and hold him to his promise “not to run another marathon”!

It would be hard for him to top this performance. If he was not the first runner to run Boston after quadruple bypass surgery he must surely be the earliest – only 9 months after the bypass?

As for the Maddog it was an interesting and unique Boston experience. I was happy and proud to be a small part of the team that supported Frank in his quest. (Even his cardiologist went to Boston to run the marathon and provide support). And I got to see and enjoy the scenery and spectators along the course for the first time. The race itself served as a very lonnnnnnngggggggggggggg training run. Since nothing hurt or was sore at the end of the race I will be able to continue my speed workouts in preparation for the marathons in Europe in a few weeks. I believe that I should be in good enough shape by then to run sub 3:45 in both marathons.

Stay tuned for the next adventure!


Maddog

Ocean Drive Marathon

RACE REPORT
Cape May, NJ

Sun, Mar 20/05
Ocean Drive Marathon
Cape May, NJ
Marathon #239 - State # 38 (2nd loop)

It was a long, boring trip and a lot of time and money just to expunge a ‘DNF’ from my marathon record but the deed is done! The only disappointment came when I read the marathon history and learned that the course record for ROFs (Really Old Farts) was 3:36:52. If I had not been suffering from a strained hamstring that tore in the first mile of last year’s race (hence the DNF) I would have blown that record out of the water. I was in excellent marathon shape after training hard all winter for Boston and planned/expected to run under 3:20. But alas – it was not to be!

And this was another year and another body stepping up to the start line. After so much forced rest and inadequate/lack of training during the past four months because of injuries and surgery (y’all know the story) I wasn’t even confident that I could run the entire distance let alone finish under my goal of 4 hours? But I was confident I could finish!
The weather was also different this year – worse! In addition to the cold (42F with a wind chill of 37F) it had been raining since midnight and was forecast to rain throughout the whole race. There was a 10/15mph wind blowing from the North. Since the marathon started in Cape May and finished 26 miles north in Sea Isle City that meant a head wind the whole way. Oh Goody – oh Joy!

The weather was so miserable before the start that I refused to get out of my car until the very last moment. Finally I forced myself out of the car and jumped into the middle of the pack along with 600 other runners (300 in the marathon and 300 in a 10-mile race) just before the 9am start. I was wearing a green garbage bag for rain gear and a throwaway sweat shirt on top of my race gear – a long sleeve T-shirt, shorts and gloves. I had decided to skip my usual warm up and stretches because of the rain and use the first mile of the race as a warm up. Bad decision! Every joint in my body was stiff and ached during that cold/wet/miserable mile! I considered dropping out again? No way - I am not coming back here no matter how miserable it is or gets! Mile 1 – a slow, painful 9:38!

However many things improved during the 2nd mile. The weather Gods took pity on us and stopped the rain. It only drizzled a few more times during the race. The wind was not as big a factor as expected and when it did gust I just dropped in behind another runner and drafted. By mile two I had shed the garbage bag and sweat shirt and settled into a smooth/easy 9-min pace. That was my target pace and I was pleased when I reached mile 10 in 1:30:08 and the Half in 1:57:33. That should provide me with enough cushion/margin to come very close to my goal of 4 hours? But I wasn’t suffering any false/silly illusions. My longest run in the past four months had been 16 miles (I don’t count the Trinidad Marathon where I walked and jogged as a ‘Run’) and I expected the last 10K of this race to get ugly! So I wasn’t surprised when I reached 18 miles and found myself struggling to hold a 9:15 pace.

It was too early to slow down – I did not have enough cushion. So I decided I had to push the pace back below 9 min and hold on as long as I could? Fortunately the old bod responded to the pain by producing more endorphins (ahhhhh – those wonderful endorphins) to mask the pain and I started to feel better. Mile 20 - 3:00:57 and an 8:50 pace. I was still on target pace. I continued to push to mile 23 – 3:28:11. The time was good – I had about 32 minutes to run the last 5 K but there was a slight problem. My legs were trashed – there was nothing left! I was both surprised and pleased that I had hung in that long and contemplated walking and jogging the last 5K. But OH NO! – NOT the Maddog! He wasn’t having any such NONSENSE! He could smell the finish line and taste success and he would not give up or give in and slow down or walk! I knew it was pointless to argue with Maddog so I just sucked it up, dug deeper and forced my tired old legs to keep moving.

And I started playing the usual mind games: “One step at a time” – “just one more step” – ‘pain is only temporary”- “any old fool can stand pain for a measly 30 minutes”! Then Maddog explained “the pain is good for me and necessary training for that BIG race when I am competing for 1st place and need to block out all pain”! I had to agree that he was right and so I pushed on. When I reached mile 25 in 3:47:17 I knew that my goal of 4 hours was in the bag if I could just keep the old legs moving. The smell of sweet success was enough incentive for the old bod to provide a few final jolts of adrenaline to carry my old, wasted legs through the final mile and across the finish line in 3:58:18! I had done it!

I was happy and so very pleased with both my time and performance. I had run a smart and disciplined race. I even amazed myself by running the entire race at a fairly consistent 9-min pace. My time was good enough for 2nd place in my age group (indicative of the competition and not my competitive prowess at this stage) and more importantly qualified me for Boston for 21 consecutive years! But before I got too confident and cocky I reminded myself that I still had a long way to go to reach my ultimate goal – to be truly competitive again in marathon races! That requires running a sub 8-min pace in my age group. I believe I can attain that level again if I can stay healthy and injury-free! But that is a BIG IF since my right foot is already giving me problems? During the last 10 miles of the marathon my right foot was suffering the same symptoms and discomfort that I experienced last fall just before the pain got severe and I discovered I had a stress fracture. Thus I need to manage a fine balance between adding the necessary intensity and speed work back into my training program vs. resting and monitoring closely the condition of my foot and knee.

It’s tough being a jock – in a broken-down, 61-year old body!

Stay tuned for my next adventure. It will be a surprise!

Trip report -Trinidad

TRIP REPORT
TRINIDAD
2/23 – 3/2/05


Photos may be viewed at www.maddog.smugmug.com.

Where to start - for this trip almost immediately became the ‘trip that was destined not to happen’. Why? The first reason was that I began planning for the trip last Oct and as soon as I had booked and prepaid our air and hotel I tried to register on line for the marathon and encountered problems. So I contacted the race committee and a few days later was informed that the website was being redesigned and by the way “the marathon was postponed from Jan 16 to Feb 27/05”! I had only decided to run the marathon because it was scheduled for mid-Jan in the Caribbean and that is a good time not to be in FL because the weather can be iffy (i.e. a 50/50 chance of a cold front from TundraLand).
The airline and hotel would not refund my payment but they were kind enough to let me reschedule the trip without any fee so I was locked into the trip and the new date.

And as most of my readers know my plans and ‘running’ life only went downhill from that point. I ran three marathons in Nov on a sore right foot that caused an additional injury to my left knee as I changed my gait and stride to compensate for the foot injury. I was forced to rest both injuries during Dec.and finally in Jan learned that the foot injury was actually a stress fracture. It was healing with rest but not the knee and Xrays and a MRI showed no problem with the knee? So for the whole month of Jan I was forced to cross train at the YMCA while the orthoped tried to figure out what was wrong with my knee. Although I had to cancel three marathons scheduled (and paid for) in Dec and Jan I was still planning/hoping that I could recover and be ready for the marathon in Trinidad. Finally I exhausted all non-surgical medical options on the knee and decided to proceed with arthroscopic surgery on the left knee on Feb 3/05. Fortunately my cross training program had included several exercises to strengthen my legs and knee and the surgery went well. The orthoped found and cut out a tear in the meniscus. Four days after surgery the bandages were removed and I walked three miles. Within a week I had built the daily walk up to ten miles. I had not yet given up on Trinidad even though the orthoped advised (warned) me not to run for 4 to 6 weeks after the surgery! I needed some kind of reward for all the suffering and pain I had endured with that frustrating knee injury. One of my biggest disappointments was not being able to keep my streak going for the Tampa marathon that was run three days after the surgery.

In week two after the surgery I was vacationing in the Rocky Mountains. Instead of skiing with my kids as planned I walked 7 to10 miles in the mountains each day. When the knee became sore I went back to the gym and pool to cross train. Finally two weeks after surgery I decided to test the knee by walking and jogging 10 miles. It was successful – no problem or pain with the knee. So the next day – exactly one week before the Trinidad marathon I walked and jogged a ‘test’ Half marathon without any problems with the knee. But I wanted one more test before making my final decision about Trinidad. On Tue – the day before we left for Trinidad I asked my buddy Frank from Siesta Key to join me for another test Half marathon. I knew Frank would understand and support my decision whatever it was. Why? If you will recall Frank is one of my friends that ran Boston with me in 2004. He was the one who ran Boston after having stents placed in his main arteries. A few months after Boston he had quadruple bypass surgery and three months later he was running again! He is now training seriously to run Boston again this year - and beat his time from 2004! As Frank and I walked and jogged the Half with all our injuries and scars we discussed how all our family, friends and even doctors think many of our actions are extreme (some use the word ‘nuts’). We concluded/agreed that the rest of the world is crazy and we are the only two sane people left. And it is nice to run with the only other person in the world who is sane and can give you ‘sane’ advice and support!

Thus with another successful test run completed and the support of the only other sane person in the world I made my decision – I would indeed run the Trinidad Marathon!
And finally the actual trip report can begin!

Since we had a very early (6:30 am) flight out of Tampa on Wed. my sports manager and I decided to drive into Tampa Tue evening and stay at an airport hotel. This would allow us to get a few extra hours of sleep and the hotel let us park one week for free so the hotel only cost a few bucks more than regular parking. Worked out very well!

We arrived in Port of Spain, Trinidad mid afternoon and were met by a driver and car to take us to our apartment. I had rented a 2 BR apartment because Trinidad has only a few modern, international hotels and they are very expensive - $150 to $200/day vs $65 for an apartment? By pure luck (or should I say skill) our apartment was located in a very convenient and upscale location. It was close to the US and UK embassies and only a half block from Queen’s Park. Queen’s Park – called the Savannah by the Trinis (what the locals call themselves) is a large 200-acre park on the northern edge of Port of Spain between the city and the North Coastal Mountains. There are several soccer/cricket/sports fields and a 2-½ mile jogging path around the park. All the Trinis run and play sports in the Savannah.

Before describing any more of the city and Island a brief history lesson is necessary to understand much of what I will tell you. Christopher Columbus discovered Trinidad in 1498. The inhabitants were aboriginals called the Caribs and Arawaks. The islands changed hands many times among the colonial super powers – Spain, England and
France. Slavery was abolished by the British in 1834 and indentured labor was brought in from India and China to replace the slaves. There are very large communities of Chinese and Indians and much of the culture and food on the Island is derived from these two ethnic groups. The islands of Trinidad and Tobago became independent in 1962 and a Republic in 1976.

The islands were once part of the South American continent (Venezuela) and are only seven miles from Venezuela. Trinidad was lucky and got a small share of nature’s oil and gas that is common in Venezuela. Tobago has none. Oil drives the economy of Trinidad and there is virtually no tourist infrastructure. Tobago survives on tourism.
Port of Spain is the largest city in Trinidad – 350,000 of the 1.3 million inhabitants of the two islands. The city burned down in the late 1800s and was rebuilt in the early 1900s so most of the ‘old’ buildings are 100 years old. Because the city is wedged in between the Gulf of Paria and the North Mountains it is very compact and densely populated. The streets are old and narrow and there is not much room for cars and traffic that is horrendous (and driving on the wrong side of the road to boot). All the homes and buildings are surrounded by 8-ft walls topped with barbed wire and all doors and windows are covered by iron bars (just like Jamaica and Venezuela). There is obviously a serious crime problem – yet we never felt unsafe or threatened at any time? Trinidad is definitely not a tourist destination!

After we checked into our apartment we decided to scout out the neighborhood (called Newtown). Because of all the embassies in the area there were several upscale restaurants including a few American chains – Tony Roma’s, TGI Friday and Trotters- an English Pub! We found a local supermarket to stock the apartment with snack food and Caribbean beer and retreated to our air-conditioned apartment to escape the afternoon sun and temps in the mid 90s!

The following morning we decided explore Port of Spain on foot. There is a bus/taxi transport system in the city but no information on where it goes or how to use it so we decided our feet would be the best transport system. There is a downtown commercial area called “Downtown’ on the map. It was only a mile from our apartment. It is pretty dirty and the shops are pretty ratty but we were able to find the typical souvenirs (postcards and a silver teaspoon) easily and quickly. We passed several old churches and buildings that looked interesting but had no idea what they were? Luckily we stumbled across a tourist office and were able to collect some maps, brochures and a list of tourist guides. They were even able to give me a contact number for the marathon. Up to that time all I was able to get from the website was the starting time and place. I wasn’t even sure if the race was still on? After lunch we retreated back to the apartment and A/C – you cannot walk around Trinidad in the afternoon sun/heat unless you are a Trini!

Back at the apartment I called a few tourist guides and finally located a guide that had a car and offered us a tour of the city and North Coast for a reasonable price. I also made contact with the main sponsor of the marathon – Colonial Life Insurance Corporation – hence the name of the marathon – CLICO Marathon! The rep informed me that I could pick up my race package at the corporate HQ the next day and get more info on the race.
Things were looking up! After a few cold Carib beers it was time to look for a restaurant. But the only restaurants we could find other than the expensive, upscale restaurants were a Pizza joint, several Chinese joints and fast food joints called ‘Rotis”? We selected a Chinese restaurant and enjoyed a great dinner for about $40TT ($7 US).

On Fri morning our tour guide, Derik picked us up at our apartment and started our morning tour. As we drove around the city he pointed out many of the buildings we had walked by and explained their history. He also explained the history of the country and city and provided much-needed information about how to find things in the city and what the local culture and politics were. Some things finally made much more sense? For instance the main meal for the Trinis is lunch and many of them eat a big meal in local fast food restaurants. Most of the restaurants are Chinese or Indian. The Chinese food is similar to what we find in the US but has a Creole flair added. However the Indian food is called ‘roti’ and is mostly fast food. There are very few Indian restaurants as we know them? Very few Trinis eat a big dinner and they don’t eat out at restaurants for dinner so many of the restaurants are closed in the evenings. As Derik was providing this explanation on food he stopped at a roadside cart that served ‘Doubles’. It is a local food derived from Indian culture. A type of dough/bread called ‘bara’ made from flour and split peas is deep fried. Then they add curried channa (chickpeas) and hominy and some hot chutney and spices. Since the bread is small they always serve two – hence doubles! Doubles is a very common breakfast or morning snack for Trinis. We declined to eat one because it didn’t comply with Maddog’s travel rules – “never eat food from a street vendor/cart’.

After Derik enjoyed his Doubles we continued our tour through the North Coastal Mountains to Maracas Beach on the North Coast. The nicest beaches in Trinidad are located on the North Coast facing the Caribbean Sea. The Gulf of Paria on the west and the Columbus Channel on the south are full of silt from the rivers of Trinidad and Venezuela and are brown and dirty. The beaches on the East Coast along the Atlantic Ocean are supposed to be OK but are rocky and the water/waves are much rougher. Maracus beach is supposed to be the nicest beach in Trinidad. It was very pretty and the water is clear and calm. But the beach is remote and isolated and there is only one small hotel/resort on the beach. I would go stir-crazy in one day! We arrived at the beach around noon so we were able to enjoy a typical Trini treat/lunch – ‘shark and bake’. They deep fry pieces of fresh shark and wrap them in a piece of fried leavened bread (bake). It was delicious! The sports manager declined because everything was fried?

Before Derik dropped us off at the apartment we hired him for another tour on Mon to take us along the west coast to the south end of the island. I had considered renting a car and doing our own tour but after a morning of driving on bad roads, horrendous traffic and total lack of any directional signs I wisely decided that we were safer to let a Trini drive and tour us around the island! When we returned to the city we decided to walk downtown to the CLICO office to pick up my race package.

Although the website was very poor and offered little information I must say that the volunteers of CLICO made up for that issue with their hospitality and exuberance. They had lost my online registration so I had to register again but for a $25 entry fee foreign runners were given a polo race shirt and a finisher’s medal. We were also offered a tour of the course on Sat morning and a taxi to pick us up at our hotel to take us to the start line. (Race directors in the US – take note!) While we were waiting around at CLICO I met a few fellow runners – from Seattle, Houston, Germany, Poland and Martinique.

After returning to the apartment and enjoying a few more Caribs (hey – I don’t normally drink beer two days before a race but I knew that I couldn’t take this race seriously) it was time for dinner. Normally I would eat Chinese food two nights before a race but since we had eaten Chinese on Thu night we decided to try Trini food at a well-known Trini restaurant that only served local food. I tried ‘spicy pork’. It was similar to ‘pepper pot’ a popular dish in Guyana.

On Sat morning I woke early to do a short run around the Savannah. I had done a lot of walking the past few days in Trinidad but had not run since the test Half on Tue. I was running around the Savannah by 7am along with hundreds of Trinis trying to beat the morning sun. All went well so I was feeling very confident that I could finish the marathon on Sun.
The bus tour of the course started at 10 am and took about the same amount of time that we expected to run the course because of the horrendous traffic. Our tour guide was a lovely young Trini named Vanessa who had run the marathon a few times. The course started in Chaguanas about 20 miles south of Port of Spain. It was fairly flat with some rolling hills and finished at the Oval (a Cricket Stadium) in Woodbrook – about 1 mile from our apartment. Everyone was very concerned about the roads, the traffic and the heat. Unfortunately all turned out to be legitimate concerns. After the course tour I retreated to the apartment and A/C – no way I was going outside in the afternoon sun!

Finally Sat night – time for carbo/pasta loading! There was no pasta party. And there are no Italian restaurants in Trinidad. Well I lie a wee bit. There were two but both were upscale and very expensive. So we walked around and found a Pizza Hut where I ordered spaghetti for $20TT ($3 US).

Sun was M- day! The marathon started at 5:30am so a bus picked me and a few other foreign runners up starting at 3:30 am and delivered us to the start line at 5am. Five hundred runners started the marathon. There was prize money offered by CLICO for both the open and national divisions so there were elite runners from a few countries. The race started in the dark to escape the sun and heat (the temps were only in the high 70s at the start). I attempted to walk and jog before the start to loosen up the knee but I still walked at the start and found myself in very last place when I reached the one-mile mark in 13:05 – and proud of it! I had stuck to my strategy to start slow and walk. With the heat and humidity my knee had loosened up and I jogged the 2nd mile in 9:15 and passed the back of the pack. Too fast! The knee felt OK but I did not have that much confidence in it. I figured that I needed to walk at least one minute each and every mile and try to average a 10-minute pace. I settled into a 10-minute pace by mile 4. By then the residents were lined up along the course shouting their usual (Caribbean) cheers – ‘Go Pappy”; “Good job Grandpa”! Miles 8 to 10 ran through a cane field and I was still passing runners. I reached mile 10 in 1:41:13 and the knee still felt OK.

However by then the traffic had started to increase and become a problem. There was good traffic control at major intersections but we had to share the narrow roads and be very wary as we ran with the traffic along major roads. I reached the Half in 2:12:18 on a busy road in San Juan. By then the sun was up and the temps were starting to rise and there was no shade! My knee, legs and body felt OK but I was now entering virgin territory? I had not run longer than 13 miles in the past three months. I could only hope that the cross training in the pool had helped to maintain some level of aerobic conditioning? By mile 18 we were approaching Downtown – it was very hot – no shade and the traffic was really bad. I started catching and passing a lot of runners. Mile 20 – the center of Downtown – time 3:21:28. The course turned west so that the morning sun was beating directly down at our backs. I thought I was being broiled. I walked and applied some more sun block to my back and shoulders. I still felt OK but my body was overheating in spite of the fact that I had been dumping water over my head and neck every mile. I calculated that I had 68 minutes to finish the last 10K and beat a time of 4:30. I needed to average 11-minute miles! Just at that moment Vanessa jumped on to the course and ran with me for about ½ mile and then encouraged me to continue on. Strange how the pace on that mile slowed to 12 minutes? I reached mile 23 in 3:55:06 where the course looped back into the sun and to the finish line. I had 35 minutes to finish the last 5K but I didn’t care because I was burning up. I decided that time wasn’t important - I needed to walk at least twice in each mile if I wanted to finish and survive! Mile 25 – 4:17:11. My legs were now tight and sore but I didn’t believe that I could afford to walk anymore so I dug deep and forced the old legs and tired, hot old bod to keep shuffling until I crossed the finish line in 4:29:37.
I had done it! Marathon #238 and country #71!

But there was no time to celebrate – I had to get my body temp down! The temps were 90+F and my body temp was 100+ F! I found some cold water and ice that I applied liberally to my face and neck to reduce my body temp. Then I applied the ice pack to my knee for about five minutes. Only then did I find my sports manager and take the usual finish line photos. Finally we hobbled/limped the mile back to the apartment since my quads had tightened up. Obviously my old bod was not in marathon condition!
After a nice cold shower and a few Carib beers we decided to splurge and walked over to the English Pub for a Sunday ‘carvers’ brunch of roast beef and Yorkshire pudding. I deserved a great meal and beer to celebrate running/finishing a marathon only three weeks after knee surgery!

On Mon morning Derik picked us up again to drive south to the 2nd largest city in Trinidad, San Fernando where he stopped for some more Trini treats. These snacks (some called phulouri and pelou) were made of fried bread (what else) with various vegetables such as eggplant, etc wrapped into the bread before it was fried. Again we declined. Then we continued our journey to Pitch Lake that is a lake of pitch or asphalt covering about 200 acres. It is the only pitch lake in the world. The pitch is natural asphalt about 250 feet deep that constantly replenishes itself. Trinidad mines the asphalt for export to be used for asphalt roads and other petroleum based products. It is possible to walk out on the lake but you must be accompanied by an experienced local guide. The hot sun bakes a crust on certain areas of the pitch. As long as you walk on those areas and keep in constant motion you will not sink into the hot, deep pitch – never to be seen again! We followed a guide across the lake. That proves a point I have always made – “marathon runners are not mere mortals and can walk across a lake”.

After our successful walk across a lake we toured along the coast of the Gulf of Paria to enjoy some of the various sights. For lunch we stopped in San Fernando to experience/taste ‘roti’. What is roti? Remember I said its roots were Indian. Derik took us to a small restaurant and introduced us to ‘Mama’ the owner and cook. Mama took us into the kitchen and showed us how roti is prepared. She takes a dough made of flour and crushed split peas and kneads it into a shape similar to a large tortilla. She then fries this bread (called dhalpouri) just like a tortilla is fried. When the dhalpouri is fried she adds boiled chickpeas and potatoes as the standard ingredients and then you order other ingredients such as meat or vegetables to be added. Then the bread is wrapped around everything and you eat it like a big burrito. It was actually very delicious.

After our roti we continued our drive along the coast back to port of Spain. Other than a few interesting sights such as ‘The Temple in the Sea’ (a Hindu temple) that part of Trinidad is very boring and ugly since it contains most of the industries and refineries. Certainly not a tourist area.

So to bring this longer-than-expected report to an end the summary is:
Trinidad is not a tourist destination. I believe that Tobago is but we never had time to visit.
The CLICO Marathon does not get high marks. The volunteers get high marks but the course, traffic and heat get very low marks. There are better marathons and countries to enjoy in the Caribbean.

But the good news is that I finished – the knee is OK and I can resume my training program to get ready for my next marathon and adventure in Europe in May. Stay tuned!