to rabbit or not to rabbit

elmer j. fudd, he of looney tunes fame, famously and dubiously, we might add, proclaims, "be vewy vewy quiet. i'm hunting wabbits!" it was and is a constant battle for him to catch these said "wabbits." the same cannot be said for runners.

rabbits are a pacing mechanism used in some races by elite athletes to hit goal race finishing times. the theory goes that the rabbits will pace the lead group for at least half of the race distance at the goal pace time in order to help them attain a specific finishing time, most often of the record (course, national, country of origin, world) variety. one could rightly ask, what would be the point of these mechanisms otherwise? the rabbit has a predetermined pull-off point at which they stop running. not fall back to a slower pace, but literally stop and quit running.

the wall street journal has an interesting article running today about the ban on rabbits in the new york city marathon. for several years the race organizers have eschewed rabbits for tactical racing. the idea behind this runs something like this: when you eliminate people employed in a race for the specific purpose of pacing the lead runners to a goal time you require the runners themselves to manage and dictate that pace over the total duration of the course, not just part of it. it also requires that the runners accept the mental burden of running in a tactical race for, say 26.2 miles in the case of the marathon, versus part of the race, say 13.1 miles in that same case of the marathon.

i have run competitively, granted not at the same level as people running for a living, and found that one of the most difficult parts of managing a race in order to achieve a desired outcome is the very lack of knowledge of the runners you are running against. in most cases you don't know what their race strategy will be. will they try to lead from the front the entire race? will they yo-yo their pace in order to test the strength, fitness, and endurance of the other runners? will they have a back half pace of brutality that is designed to see who has the most heart in a race rather than the fastest legs? in other words the mental game of furtive glances at the runners, watching as a runner disappears around a corner at a pace you can't maintain in that moment, or playing your cards at the moment you feel is right by accelerating the pace on a hill, flat, or downhill in order to pull away from those around you is not an easy game. it requires an extraordinary amount of mental toughness in the moment.

do rabbits hinder these game? do they steal from the beauty and art of play that unfolds over roads, trails, and fields as runners perspire? and are the two even mutually exclusive? do rabbits inhibit tactical racing?

what say you readers and runners? rabbits or no rabbits?

the trail

when i need a place that will be quiet, involve minimal human interaction, and be intensely focusing i head to the trail to run. trail running is one of the most physically focusing activities i have ever done. you are always on. you can't stop paying attention to the trail ahead of you, under your feet, your surroundings (who knows what animals are out there), and the quietness of the trail. it is this quietness that leads to an even deeper level of focus. the sounds of your breathing and exertion are magnified and the necessary decisions of stride length, pace, intensity level exerted on uphills, downhills, and flats become critical, footfall placement and quick recovery from misplacement of steps are crucial. all of this happens in split second decisions that if ignored can result in painful falls.

there is a depth of truth to running on trails that puts on display your fitness level, your strengths and weakness, the rightness or wrongness of the decisions you make. once you are out on the trail whatever happens is coming back in with you whether it is a looped path or an out and back. and this i know: there is no other place, despite all that goes into each and every step taken, in which i can focus on everything else going on in my life and find answers, peace, calm, and a sense of being centered. 

i hope you know of where that place is for you. where do you go to be centered when you need it?

a running perspective

a friend wrote a great post on her blog a couple of weeks ago concerning crossing over the chasm of running for fun to running as competition. it is a great and insightful post. you should take the time to read it. i commented on the post, and in light of my most recent race performance they were good words to review today. (i think i just patted myself on the back in semi-public...uhhhh...that was awkward.) here they are, hopefully, for your benefit as well:

i often remind myself that it is about perspective. i have goals, and that is what keeps me motivated, but in reality it is more about the experience of pushing myself than what happens at the end of the race in my age group or overall field that reminds me why i run. i gain far more satisfaction from giving everything i have in a race than not and doing well; there simply aren't any nagging wonders about what could have been when that is the case.

happy running!

race report: marathon 2 marathon

(brief disclaimer: this is long. parts are more graphic in their imagery and details than others. skip those if you'd like.)

marathon, tx is a sleepy town. it is also the last place of civilization before you head further south to big bend. finally, it is a beautiful stretch of land, marked by the davis mountains to the west and mesas and ridges surrounding you as you dip and rise over the mostly barren land, save for a few cacti and mesquite trees. at night you can see so many stars that the dust-like span of the galaxy is majestic and awe inspiring.

on a lonely, quiet stretch of two lane highway runners gathered in the pre-dawn light of the morning to prepare to run 26.2 mi. some consider this misery of the purest form. others consider it an exhilaration of what it means to be alive. still others simply can't conceive of why a person would want to devote 3, 4, 5 hours of their lives to the pursuit of putting one foot in front of another for a seemingly endless expanse of pavement, concrete, and blacktop until their legs feel like quitting.

my brother and i chose to run this race after i had come upon it quite happenstance. i googled some reviews of the race and found nothing but good things to be said and told him we had to run it. for the past year we have filled our calendar with races we wanted to do with little restraint to location. as a disclaimer, this is not a race for someone who enjoys the running of the pack, a lot of people to pass ahead of you who foolishly started too fast, or throngs of people lining the road to cheer you, oh anonymous runner on in your pursuit of individual challenge and glory. there are few people, simple aid stations, and cars going either direction every once in awhile. you are more likely to hear the voice of the local sheriff, ems personnel, or random race organizer asking you if you want water, need anything, or are doing ok than you are a spectator cheering you on or a fellow runner chatting about the pleasantries which runners are want to exchange during a long distance race.

a rolling course of sloping hills up and down persist for the entirety of the race. up and down you go as you climb from ~4,400 ft. to ~4,800 ft. of elevation at the peak of the race and finish mostly downhill over the profile of the race. to call it specifically downhill is not tell you the truth. the biggest climb was at mile 22ish and i wasn't sure it was going to ever end, but i am getting ahead of myself.

i felt prepared to run this race. my longest run in training was 23 miles. i ran that distance a couple of times before the race. the last time i finished the training run with a good amount of energy feeling i could have continued for several more miles. i declared myself ready, was confident, and believed that i could run a 3:30 marathon. if it were a perfect day, with a great run, i thought i had the outside chance of running a 3:15. my training plan, which wasn't necessarily "textbook" consisted of running 3-4 times a week. i have been "blessed" with injuries in my running history mostly of the over-use variety. so i wanted to train smart, stay healthy, and show up to the race with a realistic chance of running a great race. i feel like i accomplished that goal.

race morning went off without a hitch. we showed up to the race with good time to spare. we made our ritualistic forays to the port-a-potties or ranch fence -- hey, this is west texas afterall -- and i was ready to go. after saying our goodbyes to our support crew, my wife and sister-in-law who should win an award for the support they gave throughout the race leap frogging us in the car, i toed the start line.

the first several miles were flawless. i was running about a 7:45 pace and felt confident and comfortable. i actually wondered to myself at one point that it was fairly effortless with the cool of the morning. this is about the time that the problems started. i have been running for nearly 20 years, and running races through much of that time. i have never had any stomach or gastro-intestinal (gi) problems. today was my day. i felt awkward and wondered if it was simply food settling in my stomach. at some point between miles 6&7 i decided i would pull off and try to relieve some pressure on my bladder, aka urinate over the fence. that didn't work, i simply didn't have anything. about a half mile later i finally accomplished that, but still felt bad at this point. eventually i wondered if i could make it to a port-a-potty on the race course. the first one i saw, with some relief, a runner several hundred yards in front of me pulled off to use. at this point i was in the unenviable position of deciding whether or not to wait. i am glad i didn't. he must have been in there for awhile, because despite all my coming problems, i didn't see him again until well after the half way point of the marathon.

at mile 8.5 i knew it was desperate times and desperate measures were in my future. i started looking for the bush. you know the bush that in the empty west texas landscape would at least give me some muted sense of privacy while other people passed on the side of the road. it was either luck of a heavenly blessing that a bush, on the good side of the barbwire fence aka my side, that would be decent and not result in me displaying all of myself to the rest of the runners appeared ahead. i peeled off and did my business, with no tp. like i said, the operative word in all of this was desperate.

did i mention that we had a rockstar support crew? i knew they were leap frogging my brother and i as we ran. i knew he was behind me some way and that hopefully they would come along soon. i started running again, praying fairly earnestly that they would be the next car to creep by to no avail a couple of times. i then wondered how long it was going to take me to get to the next mirage of a blue box standing in all its glory. it was about this time somewhere between miles 9-10 that my crew rolled up and provided some napkins. it was relief of a kind that i hadn't known. chafing might yet be avoided for the remainder of the race. i had to stop again at the halfway point to utilize the blue box. this wasn't an ideal first half. and yet, despite all of this i looked down at my watch as i headed off and had covered the first half in 1:45. i was still on pace for a 3:30 finish.

because of my issues i had been distracted and focusing on my water intake had been a struggle. i carried a camelback which i had trained with for months and was comfortable wearing while running. i simply wasn't consistent enough in hindsight in taking in water. we'll call this foreshadowing.

the second half of the marathon settled in nicely. i started to feel some internal normalcy and reminded myself to simply run within my abilities and give it what i had left. and give i did. i rocked along passed aid stations and the few spectator cars feeling more confident as the miles passed.

about mile 20 i started to feel my calves tighten up. at juncture i knew it was only a matter of time before cramps set in and i hoped that 6 miles was inside that point. i was wrong. i had started to take water and gatorade in tandem with the liquid i was already drinking at the aid stations. when i hit mile 23, after the aforementioned hill of no end, the cramps won out. i was able to run about a half mile at a time before needing to either walk for about a minute to stretch out or to just stop completely and stretch. at about mile 24 it became pure pain as i had to stop about every 100-200 yards to stretch out my calf muscles which apparently wanted to evacuate my legs from either side of my lower legs.

i had given up all hope of finishing with a faster time and told myself that at all costs i could finish under 4 hours. it was a matter of want and desire. i trudged in (at least that's what it felt like) at 3:59:50. my wife urged me in under the 4 hour mark and i felt happy relieved exhilarated to be finished. i was disappointed. and if i'm honest i was really just mad at myself. i had trained, had the ability and potential, and didn't deliver the results i wanted. with some time between myself and the race, i can assess things more positively.

overall i placed 20th. i placed 2nd in my age group. i finished under 4 hours and dropped my marathon pr by nearly an hour. it was a good feeling. undoubtedly the most rewarding part of the race was eagerly waiting for my brother at the 26 mile marker and running him in the last .2 miles. for people who have never run a marathon there really isn't much more of a rush adrenaline and feeling of elation than those last tenths as you head to the finish. it was a moment i won't forget. we had trained for months and accomplished something many will not. it was more than just a long run on a saturday morning.

overall this is a great race. it is a niche marathon. there is little fanfare, but this is replaced with a level runner camaraderie that isn't matched in bigger marathons. we are tentatively planning on heading back next year. i have said before that every runner has good runs and bad runs. it is in the nature of pushing your body to do something to better itself. the same is true of racing. you have good races and you have bad races. so lace up those shoes, get out there, and run into tomorrow; you'll be better for it.

a childhood lived together

i am more and more convinced that one truism in life is that you appreciate your parents more as you get older. there are, obviously, exceptions to this, but as you get older you begin to understand the perspective by which they lived through the days and nights of parenthood.

my parents were and are generous people. whether or not they really wanted to, they taught me what i have come to see as a virtue of food culture: to be hospitable and generous is a higher calling.

just about every day of the summer my friends and i engaged in an endless cycle of activity that went something like this: 1. get up fairly early and assemble said friends if not already present. 2. commence outside activity of running around, riding bikes, playing basketball, football, or home run derby until it became too hot to be outside without the aid of 100s of gallons of water. 3. go to a friend's pool and stay in it for the rest of the afternoon and into the early evening. 4. eat dinner...eventually. 5. find one person's house to stay at that night. 6. eat and drink nearly everything in sight. 7. stay up entirely too late. 8. repeat steps 1-7.

our merry band of friends numbered 4-5 and we could eat in our teenage years. and our parents let us. they allowed us to form bonds over the shared experience of a childhood lived together in happiness and struggle, fun times and hard times that friendships inevitably will come upon, and successes and failures as we grew older.

whether or not our parents meant to do this is now inconsequential. i think they taught all of us something much more important than we could have intentionally taught ourselves: that to share and live together is greater and more fulfilling than to isolate ourselves and create an island of our own personality.

much of my childhood was literally lived with the same 5-6 guys and they are still close friends today. they were the groomsmen in my wedding; they were the people i called first to let them know we were having a baby...and then 2 babies a couple of weeks later; they are still the people i feel a longing to know how they are doing and what is going on in their lives. they are most likely a part of who i am and feel most connected to.

and much of this was developed over shared food and drink, over nights spent bleary-eyed and tired but not wanting to let go of the fun to fall asleep, and over the countless hours of unconscious weaving of life experienced together that we didn't realize was happening.

we all owe a lot to our parents. they taught us that to be generous and hospitable was and is greater than anything else we had going on in our lives. i am sure that we were an inconvenience in their lives from time to time, but they must have seen the bigger picture and noticed what was happening day after day after day. and for that words cannot contain the gratitude that i suspect we all have for them.

vive le tour!

it is arguably my favorite time of year. as the july heat is ratcheted up in the lone star state, so the summer in france sizzles with excitement. it is time for the tour de france, or simply le tour.

as they hurl toward the prologue, riders from 22 teams will each take their turn to churn out 8.9km as fast as they can in an atmosphere of exhibition on saturday. to be sure this will be the beginning of a gut wrenching covering of 3,642km over 20 stages with a couple of rest days sprinkled in between. there will be big names who crash, big names who fail to live up to expectation, and big names who are disgraced - only adding to the blight and shadow that doping casts over the sport. but there will also be big names and unheralded names who conquer both mountain and flats to rise victorious, even if only for a day. and they will succeed on the backs of their teams as they pull them through stage after stage and only one man is left atop the podium donning the yellow jersey that is known the cycling world over.

dirty racing is something that we unfortunately come to expect in the cycling world. we wonder if humans are really capable of achieving the feats they seem to accomplish in the days leading up to failed tests. we know that it will be present this year, but we hope that it will be lessened in each of the successive races. whole teams are beginning to make efforts to clean up the sport (see team garmin-transitions). riders are tested more often, especially if your initials are la (just follow @lancearmstrong to find out just how often that is). as a devoted cycling fan i can only hope that this year will be cleaner than last and the next even more so.

despite all the dark publicity brought to the sport every year in doping scandals, i find myself excited and ready to watch the 22 teams begin a quest to accomplish their goals both as individuals and as cooperatives. it is compelling to think that no man can succeed in winning the tour on his own, he is constantly in debt and dependent upon the team whose colors he pulls on each morning. the cooperative nature of this type of sport reminds me time and time again that we are not alone. that in our greatest successes and failures there are others who celebrate and agonize with us. vive le tour!

the united states of LeBron

apparently what LeBron James does on the basketball court matters, a lot. at the end of the series the Cleveland Cavaliers played against the Orlando Magic, LeBron walked off the court without shaking anyone's hand. he didn't stick around for the post-game press conference either. he quickly showered and made his way to the team bus, and he waited there to leave. in the next days a national furor went up from all kinds of media outlets. sports writers and commentators alike have excoriated LeBron for not sticking around and showing "good sportsmanship."

cue the dilemma. or maybe more appropriately, cue Charles Barkley. i remember when i was growing up and Charles Barkley was a hell of a basketball player. he was fierce under the basket and gave 100% effort 100% of the time. Charles Barkley was also a bit of a conversationalist, and his views weren't always politically correct. when called to task on one occasion for actions unbecoming of a role model he had this to say: "i am not a role model...just because i dunk a basketball doesn't mean i should raise your kids." that is sage advice if i have ever heard it. and i don't say that because i think Sir Charles would do a bad job raising kids. i think he simply understands the religion of sports.

you see sports are a religion in america. we worship athletes as though they will pass the money they make on down to us. we ritualize everything in sports from the celebrations to the way we become superstitious and especially if our team makes the playoffs (the playoff beard for example). there is a lot of good stuff out there by people who have studied this subject if you want a more in depth examination. that sports is a religion is not a problem for me in many cases. that we begin to construct athletes as role models on the other hand becomes idolatrous. and idolatry within any religion is inappropriate and destructive.

i say this because more often than not our idolatry of an individual makes them into something more than human. (although i might not argue that LeBron is more than human...but i would argue that he is a freak machine and not a god!) we forget that they are subject to the same laws as we are, that they are simply human, make mistakes, or are not morally impeccable whether or not we want them to be. our culture has set us up to expect the impossible from certain sports athlete individuals and when they fail to hold those standards we cry foul as though the moral fabric of america is at risk.

only in a voyeuristic culture where we value living vicariously through athletic superstars and holding them up as false role models higher than identifying with the humanity of them as individuals do we get ruffled that someone like LeBron James failed to shake hands with the other team and not show up to a post-game press conference. i ask why should we care whether or not he shakes hands with someone? i am willing to bet that a lot of other people didn't shake hands nor do we in the work place or in daily life when things don't go our way.

here is generally where people suggest that if kids are watching it sets a bad example. i am guessing that the argument here is predicated on the fact that sportsmanship is shown by shaking someone's hand after victory or defeat, some call this having grace in defeat. i wonder if we think the same thing as we see players trash talk others, disrespect stadiums and other teams in celebration dances, etc. it seems singularly selective to suggest that sportsmanship or graciousness is exemplified in a 20 second handshake after a game. as a person who played sports their entire life growing up, there is not a lot of authenticity in those events. you only line up because someone is telling you have to do so. i would suggest that if we want to examine sportsmanship we must look at the humanity of the player. and i would argue that if there is no intention of authenticity in a "congratulatory" handshake on LeBron James' part after a game, he exhibits more sportsmanship than others who falsely display "sportsmanship" by leaving the court. all we are doing is creating an idol akin to the superstar role model out of sportsmanship wherein we value the display of accepted sportsmanship ritual over the true humanity of an individual in a sporting event. in other words, we don't value sports athletes as humans, we only value them for the entertainment commodity we have made them.

perhaps Sir Charles was right so many years ago. true role models should be people who are actively participating in shaping the lives of our children. and as a culture we should recognize the idols we have set up for ourselves and identify the destructive nature of those idols.

on the man crush

i watched Tiger dominate yesterday. he systematically staged a comeback that culminated in an 18th hole birdie that was high drama. i don't play golf, never have, and don't see it in my future, but i like me some Tiger.

i am not sure that i like me some Tiger as much as the announcers liked them some Tiger though. i can't be sure how many times they made some kind of admiring comment about him, mainly because i was too busy flipping back to the college basketball games that were on yesterday (and yes, my bracket has finally imploded), but it got out of control at the end.

statements like, "good thing he has been lifting weights," or "this shot will take all the strength he can muster up from those hours in the gym," or "i don't like it when Tiger wears those muscle shirts; i'm more of a straight polo shirt and slacks kind of guy," or my favorite of the day, "it is a good thing Tiger can bench 450 pounds because it will take all of it right now," were regular announcing fodder. i understand that Tiger is ripped. i remember the days of his youth when he wasn't as huge and i guess couldn't bench 450 pounds, but it was out of control.

for a comparison let us consider the two following photos:

the photo on the left is ca.2000 and shows a much less muscular and strong Tiger, yet no less dominate, and the photo on the right is ca.2009 and shows a Tiger who can apparently bench 450 pounds. needless to say the announcers had a not-so-discrete man crush on Tiger. and i can be honest and say that he is an admirable selection for a man crush. the dude freaking dominates on a golf course and he is good looking. as early as the second hole i had a deep feeling in my gut that the poor kid out in front, sean o'hair, did not have a chance. i only wish Tiger had slammed his hat into the ground again like he did last year when he won the Arnold Palmer Invitational tournament on another last hole birdie.

i am just not sure that Tiger gets my top vote for my man crush. it is probably Dean Karnazes or Lance Armstrong. two equally amazing athletes to Tiger. who is your man or woman crush?

oh my beloved cowboys

for better or worse i am a dallas cowboys fan. before people go all crazy telling me i just like them because they spend a lot of money, are the new york yankees of football, and are basically premadonnas...stop yourself. there are times when i too believe all of those claims. i have been a cowboys fan my whole life which is long enough to remember 1 win seasons. but to avoid my rant on why professional athletes should actually take the role-model position seriously, i will focus on a different thought today.

jerry jones is becoming al davis. not familiar with al davis? he is the long time owner of the oakland raiders. oh the glory days of the raiders! john madden calling plays and probably telling his players boom! in the play call! oh the days of bo jackson and todd marinovich...oh wait that was about the time they started to come unglued. randy moss was a raider once...remember that? in case you don't, let's just say he took the marauding image of the raiders a little too far in his approach to the game. that was before he joined the cheating patriots and apparently became part of the american sports idol duo...but again besides the point. let it suffice to say that al davis isn't all there anymore and well...it shows. today i am focusing on jerry jones losing his marbles and the cowboys delving back into first-year-of-troy-aikman's-career-pitifulness.

apparently last night, the cowboys released terrell owens. i will be the first to tell you that terrell owens is no saint. he wants the ball, and he ain't afraid to let you know that. of course, when he gets the ball over the course of his career he has been pretty damn good. 38 touchdowns in 3 seasons isn't that bad. i remember the time terrell owens stepped on the star in the center of the field and celebrated, and i actually saw him do this with the eagles in the end zone on the little star when they were waxing us. add to this, however, that we also released roy williams, the safety (oh the non-dilemma of having two roy williams on your favorite team just 24 hours ago). now roy has been hurt the past couple of seasons, and really hasn't been as good as he once was, but i attribute this to the fact that the cowboys defensive staff have lost their minds in asking him to be a cover safety. roy williams is a blitz the quarterback, stuff the run, fly over defensive linemen and deflate your red-river-shootout-win-hopes safety. so here is what i predict will happen: some team that actually thinks about things like this will actually play him in such a role and he will return to the roy williams of old, and probably make a fool of the cowboys the first time we face him on this new team.

however, my biggest piece of evidence for the jerry-jones-is-now-al-davis claim is this: we traded away a guy that started all 16 games for us last year at either cornerback or safety (anthony henry), and was pretty decent i might add (granted not great, but go back and read that...did i say great?), for a quarterback we hope never steps foot on the field to actually take a snap...because have you seen the lions the past several years? jon kitna...you are just a pawn in this poor saga of deconstruction...but pawn you must play.

i resign myself to the fact the cowboys are apparently rebuilding now that they actually had a decent team with little to no discipline. seems to me the solution was to actually have some discipline, not throw away what great talent you had in the locker room. so to my wife...who probably in the back of her head is asking why she ever became a football fan much less a cowboys fan...i apologize for the fact that during football season i scream way too much, i generally revolve my world around the cowboys schedule, and care way too much because this year is going to be rough.