Trot Off Your Turkey 5k

This was to be my first race since ... May? Dang.  Naturally, I was volun-told to run (how many races have I voluntarily signed up for?)  Due to a step back in mileage this year from hamstring issues, going in to this drizzly race initiated my bowels to grumble out of sheer nerves.  My mindset flip-flopped between just going out easy and testing what I had left.  Earlier in the week, I tested the wheels out and was around a 7 minute mile pace on the treadmill for half-mile bursts.  I think 7:15-7:30 was my goal.  With no fan fare, there was one guy going King Leonidas on everyone to pump up the 5k group.  We had chilled around the starting line with ten other runners for most of the beginning, thinking this would be a much larger race.  Then the hoard of runners came ten minutes before the race, everyone saying hi to everyone since it's Rhode Island and everyone is related.

With no gun or a countdown, a horn honked and we all hit our watches on the official chip reader.  Of course the beginning was a bunch of jostling for position until the inevitable sidewalk sprinting happened to get free.

Split down the middle in terms of either going easy or pushing it, I ran the first mile around 7:15 feeling decent.  At least this wasn't a half marathon kept running through my mind to relax myself.

There were a bunch of little kids I used to pace myself; those kids are fast, man.

The course wasn't hilly at all with only a couple turns to maneuver through.  There was one water station mid way but I figured it's just a 5k, keep turning.

The last kilometer.  Like usual, I tried to push the gas pedal but the body wasn't willing.  I made a "move" around the last quarter mile, died in the stretch without the extra gear to go on.  

Overall, pretty pleased with a smart race as I ran around the 7:15-7:30 range.  When I saw my watch dipping towards 7:00, backed off knowing that would not happen. Today.

  

First race in the new age bracket:

30-39...woah. Looks weird, doesn't it?

Corn chowder.  Donuts.  Pizza.

There are three things you can count on; death, taxes, and Chris Magill at a 5k race in Rhode Island.

Consistent weight lifting, a loose term for what I do in the gym, definitely helped pull me forward towards the end of the race.

Leg days definitely helped, too.

Have you seen Aaron Tang (running)?

Well, I have fallen off the face of the running Earth for the past month and have irregularly run.  With that and a hamstring problem, Marine Corp has been deferred.  Today, I ran outside for the first time in a while.  What have I learned? DON'T TAKE AN EXTENDED BREAK.  Plodding through mud, having one gear.  It's like starting all over.  Time to get back to work.

Freedom Run 5k

Post-Tang's own version of what I'd assume was the plot of "Eat, Pray, Love", what they (theoretically) don't tell you is that upon return to reality, running again will be tough.  After the half marathon that I half-assed, (side note about that "race": high fives all around from cops and kids in super hero costumes, ran on the second wave like an idiot, playlist chalk full of Boston Calling acts because, I ran it in between the festival: run the jewels, st. vincent, beck, tame impala's "elephant" on repeat for the last mile), the 5k was another gauge to see how far off I had fallen since my two month Epicurean sabbatical.

Still following me?

Of course an 8 day stretch from Hell appeared before this race and personally something came up the night before at the Sox game; par for the course at this point.

So for the first time I would pick my bib up on race day like a rookie at the Cambridge Mall which would be critical in the fact there was a water fountain and bathrooms of the non-portapotty variety.   Friends were met up with, time to warm up for a mile.  With 10 minutes to go, the announcer let us know that massive American flag was the split between, I kid you not, "fast runners", and "slow runners".  I naturally sat in the middle.  It actually worked better than corrals.

With the anthem, all of us shadowed by the flag looked up with our hands over our hearts.  The first mile, with people actually obeying the fast versus slow pace, went smoothly.  All I can remember is this runner making a wide curve around someone to just get ahead by one person.  I made it a point to not lose to him and with my veteran savvy, know that the first mile and a half is fool's gold.  Hang on and the runners fade.

How do I know this? Like always, at mile 2 I faded.  Maybe if I tell myself to run hard for four miles, I wouldn't have this issue.  I also started the dry heaves way earlier than usual at the beginning of mile 2 so I slowed a bit.  Like always, I sped up at the last tenth of a mile and passed three people.

21:55.

Pasta from CPK and 4 beers later, ran a 4 miler home and here we are as I type.


It was definitely nice to know my race course ahead of time from previous excursions and to know how to get there with the T (even directing a kid how to use it)...slowly turning in to a Bostonian?

Freedom Run 5k

After Tang's own version of "Eat, Pray, Love" (or what I assume was the plot of the movie) through Brussels, Amsterdam, Antwerp, Portland, NYC, Baltimore, DC, and a Boston Music Festival (which a half marathon that was half assed was wedged in the middle, stuck in second wave of runners hell, full of high fives from Boston's finest, kids in super hero costumes, a playlist full of Run the Jewels, St. Vincent, Beck, Tame Impala's "Elephant" for the last mile"), the movie poster (theoretically) failed to mention a two month Epicurean sabbatical would result in slower run times.

Still with me?

So a chance to redeem myself of course would happen after an 8 day roll out of a new system at work that was SAVAGE.  Thank God the race as at 9:30, so I could mosey to the T

Jetlagged, cold/flu like symptoms, feeling great

With Europe and sickness swiss-cheesing my lofty forty miles a week pipe dream, I headed home to Barrington to visit Pops.  Originally planning on a 7 miler and 8 miler to get up to thirty miles for the week, I still felt the effects of it all and passed out.  Slumbered hard until noon the next day and finally went for a run.  A little over two miles in to it, I felt better, loose, and with headphones blaring I ran in the direction of an older lady with sunglasses and a big overcoat on talking to me.  I removed my headphones and she just repeats "you make it look so easy! (pause) but it isn't".

That made my week.

I felt sluggish but after that, picked it up and just kept chugging along, seeing strangers waving and smiling (this isn't Boston) and again, it is all the perspective and mind set that you set out the door with. I originally was going to feel out the run and see how far I could get.  With that encouraging sentence from a complete stranger, I felt I was on the hook for ten miles, smiling the whole way, feeling energetic.

Running abroad

After a week in Europe, I noticed some runner-related things:
1) cambered roads=ITB problems.  If I ran there for more than a week, I'd need a foam roller
2) runners here seemed slower, probably due to observation 1.

And I accidentally signed up for the Marine Corp Marathon...numero three, three years later.

Aaron's First Track Meet

While I had attended a handful (a small hand) of cross country meets for my sister, I had never gone to a track meet before.  Enter the 20th New Balance Indoor Grand Prix on the wrong side of the tracks.  In tow was a Rhode Island track kid to explain the intricacies of track itself.  To let us know we were on the wrong side, a car full of kids screaming 'penis!' and that will always be funny to me.

The heir apparent to Kara Goucher as my runner crush is Katie Hoaldridge (UT product) who I saw walking by, unsure it was her since I am conditioned through the major 4 sports that athletes have an entourage surrounding them at all times.

We got to the track real early and as a small venue in comparison to TD Bank, there wasn't a bad seat in the house.  Athletes were warming up, going through the motions, and doing every plyometric known to man.  The pole vaulters either exaggerated their movements or flowed as if it were ballet, then went stiff as a board at the apex of the pole vaulting.  The high jumpers ran at odd angles up to the bar.

The racing was totally worth attending.  There were 5 meet records and 2 world records (2k and masters 3k).  Notables were La Salle Academy winning their relay on a furious last 400 by my friend's running buddy and Brenda Martinez with a hell of a finish to win the distance medley.  What was great was the commentary by my friend, what the runners needed for each lap to break records, when runners were gonna go and try to win, back stories (Will Leer being the only sub 4 miler in Rhode Island and a bro for signing and selfie-ing with the fans), and personal asides as these were guys running collegiately at the same time.  


Best reaction: after a heat for the 60m dash, one of the dashers walks back, stops, pukes near the track, then shrugs his shoulders.

Worst reaction to the best reaction: that happened at 5, we left at 8 and no one cleaned it up.  Gross.

Cool idea: Jenny Simpson, Brenda Martinez, and Emma Coburn heads on a stick to cheer em on.  No Meb? That's sexist

2015

Welcome to 2015, and year 6 of the running club.  As we wave good bye to 2014, I am looking forward to a great year.  How do I get on the right foot?  Break in my Nike Flyknit Lunars going the other way on the Charles River, trying my darndest to get these northerners to wave back.  Along the way, I notice that I am chugging along at a decent clip that can be explained by actually sleeping on New Year's Eve and shoes that have cushion after running in mostly minimalist shoes.  I do not know why I don't go this way more often since there are woods and trail like areas.  At this rate, I would have 4,781.5 miles for 2015.

There is an indoor meet coming up with elites in Boston, decent tickets are $44 and cheap seats are $22 at one of the fastest tracks in the world.  It's in my backyard, why not go?  It's February 7th, www.nbindoorgrandprix.com.

Finally, I have joined a couple of run groups up here.  I have to say I should've stepped my efforts up to keep more of you motivated; their leader gave out Marathon Sports gift cards, I got a sweet Saucony water bottle, and we had pizza and beer.   Mea culpa, dudes.