Tag: map

The Past Few Weeks

I’ve been somewhat quiet lately.

First, there was the Tour. I watched almost every minute for three weeks. There were lots of exciting moments and plenty of dull moments as well. One thing that kind of annoyed me was the extent to which the media (TV & Web) tried to create controversy around every little thing (Alberto vs. Lance, Cavendish vs. Hushovd, Hincapie vs. Garmin, etc, etc). Sure, there was probably some legitimacy to it, but everything just seemed to be blown completely out of proportion.

Next, as Melissa mentioned, I’ve apparently been nesting. We’ve done lots of work around the house in preparation for Fig’s arrival, and there’s still plenty more to do. On top of that we had baby week.

Fig's car seat

Hand rest

Finally, the I’ve been busy working on a couple of interesting (to me) software applications in my spare time. I’ll probably talk more about them in the future.

The bad news is I’ve been out with this knee problem for around six weeks or so. Earlier this month I completely stopped riding my bike (I already stopped running at the beginning of June). I still swam a little bit, but it didn’t help that my swim practices conflicted with my watching of the Tour.

The so-so news is that I started riding the bike to work again last week and picked back up with the Wednesday night rides. Last Wednesday I didn’t feel great. I kept complaining about how hard the ride was when everyone else was talking about how easy it was. I’ve got some work ahead of me. My poor ride was further complicated by a complete bonk with about 10 miles to go. 24 mph became 22, then 20, then 18, then 16, then 14, then finally 12 mph the last mile or two. It was the worst I had felt since, well, the Illinois Marathon.

The good news is I’m feeling better day by day. Since monday I’ve had no knee pain on the bike around town, and only very little knee pain on tonight’s hard 50 mile ride. I felt much better on this ride than I did last week, but my fitness is still very poor (by my standards). My heart rate was absolutely through the roof for most of the ride. My average heart rate was 154 and my max was 189, which is fairly ridiculous. Typical numbers from two months ago would be closer to 135 average and 178 max.

Sangamon River route

Tonight’s ride combined several commonly used routes along the Sangamon river into one, making for just about as much rolling hills as one can get around here.

The Devil Mountain

I love bicycling up and down mountains. Ironically I live in Champaign-Urbana, IL (i.e. the flattest place on Earth). The past several times I’ve travelled to San Francisco for WWDC I have ridden Mt. Tamalpais, just to the north of the city in Marin county. I decided to mix it up a bit this year, so after the conference ended on Friday I grabbed my bike, hopped on BART, and travelled to Contra Costa county in the east bay to ride Mt. Diablo.

I started at the Walnut Creek BART station. From there I headed down Ygnacio Valley Road (which had a little more traffic that I was expecting). From there I turned onto Walnut Ave. (not Walnut Blvd.). I turned right at the traffic circle at Oak Grove Rd., then I took a quick left onto North Gate Rd. This leads into Mt. Diablo State Park. Before the ride I read that bikes didn’t have to pay so I blew through the park gate.

Mt Diablo map

Mt. Tamalpais rises 2500 ft in around 10 miles, whereas Mt. Diablo rises 3500 ft in 10.1 miles (average 6.5% gradient). So Mt. Diablo is noticeably steeper most of the way.

Mt Diablo elevation

Mt Diablo gradient

Mt. Tamalpais has a fair amount of shade, while Mt. Diablo is almost completely out in the open. So I baked in the sun. This was somewhat unexpected, as the weather had been 60˚ F and overcast all week long in San Francisco. As soon as I left the city the temperature was much, much hotter.

Traffic was light. I think I saw more bikes on the road than cars. Incidentally, most of the cyclists were all decked out in cold weather gear like jackets. Meanwhile I was sweating like a hog and shedding clothes. The flies apparently liked the way I smelled, because a swarm of 6-8 of them followed me the last 6 miles of the climb.

Just like both the West and East peaks of Mt. Tamalpais, the road up Mt. Diablo throws in a 16% gradient to just before cresting the summit, though this steepest section on Mt. Diablo was much longer. I was afraid to stop for fear that I wouldn’t be able to get started again. It was that steep.

Rob at summit of Mt. Diablo

A very sweaty Rob at the summit of Mt. Diablo

The views were spectacular the whole way up. The lack of trees (and guardrails) allowed an unobstructed view. The view from the top did not disappoint either. I could see miles in all directions. I couldn’t quite see San Francisco. I think there was a shorter range of mountains/hills between Mt. Diablo and the city that blocked the view.

View from summit of Mt. Diablo

view to the north from the summit of Mt. Diablo

The ride down was super fast (well above the posted 25 mph speed limit). I recorded the whole thing with my Flip video camera. Here it is at 5X speed.

Anyway, the ride was awesome. I’m a little sad I didn’t get a chance to ride Mt. Tam also, but maybe I’ll do that next year.

Ride Information
Date: 2009-06-12 1:33 PM PDT
Mountain: Mt. Diablo
Road Elevation: 3849 feet
Climb Distance: 10.1 miles
Climb Ascent: 3471 feet
Climb Average Grade: 6.5%
Climb Maximum Grade: 16%
Ride Distance: 32.75 miles
Ride Total Ascent: 4400 feet
Ride Maximum Speed: 35.9 miles/hour
Ride Start: Walnut Creek, CA (200 feet)
Ride End: Walnut Creek, CA (200 feet)

The Twin Peaks

On my 6 a.m. bike ride this morning I headed towards Golden Gate park. When I reached Market & Castro the “bike route” split off from Market up this hill, so I continued up the hill. I reached the top at an intersection. To the left it continued to go up, so I turned left. A few turns later, after a mile and a half climbing at 10% gradient, I found myself at the top of Twin Peaks (nearly the highest point in the city). Even though the air was hazy the view was spectacular.

San Francisco panorama

San Francisco panorama

Market Street

Market Street & downtown

You can see this hill from anywhere in the city, but for some reason I always assumed the top wasn’t publicly accessible so I never tried to ride up before.

After descending the hill I rode through Haight-Ashbury, Golden Gate Park, along the Pacific coast, then back downtown.

TwinPeaks ride map

ride map

TwinPeaks ride elevation profile

ride elevation profile

The Memorial Day Weekend

This Memorial Day weekend flew by. We got a lot accomplished, but not as much as we had hoped. I can’t help but feel partly responsible.

I had Friday and Monday off work, which is pretty rare. I celebrated by sitting around in my underwear until noon or so on Friday. I followed that up with my first post-marathon run, five miles easy. It went well. I had some tight muscles with a few aches, but no major injuries. I spent most of the afternoon mowing the lawn and doing other miscellaneous yard work. In the evening we went to Target to look at baby items.

Kickapoo mountain bike trails

Kickapoo mountain bike trails

Saturday morning I mountain biked at Kickapoo with Gene and Greg. I haven’t been there in a few months, so I wasn’t quite at the top of my game. The trails were a little muddy, but not nearly as bad as they could have been. Gene and Greg took me onto the “new” section of trail, which was absolutely ridiculous. Most of the trail is challenging, but this new part was downright sadistic. The single track trail was very narrow (18″?), cut into the side of a very steep hill, slanted downward, with tight and steep switchbacks. I made it through okay. Actually, it was dangerous. There, I said it. The rest of the trail pales in comparison.

Fields

Many unplowed fields across Illinois and Indiana had bright yellow flowering plants (which I assume are weeds) this weekend.

Saturday afternoon we drove to Indianapolis. First we visited Babies-R-Us to look at cribs and other various items. Next we went to Aimee & Brett’s house to pick up a few baby items they wanted to give us. Then it was on to Aunt Jeanne’s house to meet up with the family. Finally, we went to Zionsville to my uncle Dennis and (new) aunt Sally’s wedding reception (the main event of the trip). The reception went well, and it was great to catch up with the cousins, aunts, & uncles. Sally is a wonderful woman and she and Dennis seem very happy together.

Dennis & Sally

newly married Dennis and Sally

Sunday morning I got a little cleaning done in the office, but not as much as I (or Melissa) hoped. It’s never as much as I hope. I also worked for a little while setting up one of my old computers for my grandparents in Bismarck. After lunch we went swimming (our first family swim). Then we went shopping for new stoves. We’ve been on the brink of getting a new stove since Christmas. I think it’s finally going to happen this week.

Memorial

Danville National Cemetery at the VA on Memorial Day

Monday morning I drove over to Danville for the Memorial Day 5K race at the VA. It rained during the race, which kept the temperature somewhat cool, but also made the roads a little slick. Right from the start a large pack of high schoolers shot out to the front. I tagged onto the back of the pack, maybe 12-15th position for the first half mile. I was running way too fast and I knew it. What were all these jokers doing?

Entrance to the VA on Memorial Day

The 5K course followed the road around the VA, which was lined with flags for Memorial Day.

The second half mile I slowed down, but all the kids around me slowed down even more. I moved my way up through the pack. I reached the first mile in 5:36. I ran mile two in 5:50, by which time I had moved into 4th place. My heart rate was through the roof and it was starting to wear on me. The last guy I passed tagged along behind me and stayed with me for the third mile. He passed me back with around a quarter mile left. My last mile was 5:55 and I finished in 5th place (out of a record 398 participants), 1st in my 30-39 age group. I was worried I might still be feeling the effects of the marathon eight days prior, but my legs felt perfectly fine. It was a tough race, mostly because I started too fast (didn’t I just learn not to do that?). Well, racing a 5K is a world apart from racing a marathon. Incidentally, my heart rate hit 194 in the last tenth of a mile, which I believe is the highest I’ve ever recorded (my theoretical max heart rate is 195).

After the race I went to visit my grandparents. They’ve been having some health problems recently and I hadn’t seen them in a few months. They seemed to be doing fairly well, all things considered. My dad and I worked to get their computer problems straightened out. Then we had a pizza lunch before hitting the road. I drove my dad back to Danville in the new car, which he seemed to enjoy.

Finally we spent this evening at a cookout with Cara & John at our house. John got a nifty remote controlled speedboat for his pond. Good times.

The Tale of Two Marathons

I found my performance at the Illinois Marathon to be unsatisfactory. I enjoyed terrific preparation, but suffered from poor execution. I physically recovered fairly quickly so I decided to do something unprecedented (for me) and run another marathon only five weeks later. This marathon would be different. It had to be. I had a plan. And I was going to stick to the plan come hell or high water.

Melissa and I drove up to Rockford, IL on Saturday. The Rockford Marathon was quite a bit smaller than the Illinois Marathon. There would be just a few hundred participants in the full marathon (as opposed to a few thousand), while several hundred more would run the half marathon. We battled heavy winds the entire trip. When we stepped out of the car at the packet pickup location I briefly forgot what month it was. In addition to the awful winds it was bitterly cold.

We stayed with Melissa’s sister, brother-in-law, and nephew on Saturday night. We had great fun catching up and playing with two-year-old Logan.

Logan

The next morning I awoke a little before 5 a.m. I immediately checked the temperature, which read 35˚. This was going to be a long morning. I crept downstairs to eat a Clif Bar, two cinnamon brown sugar pop tarts, and a banana. Normally before a race my stomach is very upset, but not this time. I felt perfectly calm. I felt no pressure. This was a good sign.

By the time we stepped outside I was pleasantly surprised to find very calm winds and the temperature didn’t feel nearly as cold as I anticipated. I was concerned that it might be too cold to wear shorts, but it wasn’t.

We arrived at the race right on schedule. After a quick trip to the porta-potty it was time to start.

I wanted to finish with a time faster than I ran at the Illinois Marathon, but that goal was really secondary. My primary goal for this race was to run negative splits. This is the term used by runners to refer to a race when the second half is run at a faster pace than the first half. Running negative splits is easier physically, but it’s much harder mentally. It takes a tremendous amount of discipline to pace yourself correctly in the early part of the race. I’ve been running competitively for 15 years and I’ve only been able to run negative splits in races just a few times… but these were my fastest races.

My target pace would be 7:15 per mile with a goal finishing in 3:10:00. I wanted to start the race around 7:25 per mile. I positioned myself 5/8 of the way between the 6:00 per mile sign and the 8:00 per mile sign. Before I knew it we were off.

Rob at start of Rockford Marathon

I wore a yellow shirt so Melissa could spot me along the course. Unfortunately, a few others must have had the same idea.

I started very easy. For the first few blocks people were moving past me like I was standing still. 1/2 mile into the race I began to worry. They can’t all be running too fast, can they? I felt like I was running way too slow. This can’t be right. The first few miles of the Illinois marathon felt easy to me, but they definitely didn’t feel slow. This felt both easy and slow. I breathed a sigh of relief as I passed the first mile marker in 7:24. It was exactly where I wanted to be.

The first part of the race absolutely flew by. I was concentrating on breathing as easily as possible and running as efficiently as possible to save my energy. Around mile six, content with my easy start, I decided to pick up the pace a bit to hopefully start running closer to 7:15 per mile. I left the group I had been running with, never to see them again. After mile five not a single person passed me the remainder of the race. I can’t begin to tell you what kind of a confidence booster that is. Incidentally, not a single person passed me in either of my previous two races. This streak can’t continue much longer.

Rob at mile 11 of Rockford Marathon

I saw Melissa out on the course around mile 11. She was kind enough to take the arm warmers I no longer needed. It was turning out to be an absolutely gorgeous day. Neither too hot nor too cold, it was perfect running weather.

By the half way point I had made up all the time I lost in the early miles. I was exactly on my 7:15 pace.

Rockford Marathon course map

Once the marathon runners split off from the half marathon runners I saw relatively few people. Most of the racers were in the half marathon. At several points in the last half of the marathon I would go minutes at a time without seeing another competitor.

I saw Melissa again at mile 14 after flying down a fairly steep hill. I wouldn’t go so far as to describe Rockford as hilly, but it’s far hillier than Champaign-Urbana. To my pleasant surprise, despite very little hill training, I handled the rolling terrain with relative ease.

Rob at mile 14 of Rockford Marathon

Nothing went even remotely wrong until mile 15 or so when I began to notice a blister between the first two toes on my left foot. I ignored it as best I could, but the pain became worse and worse. I began to dread every step. By mile 16 or 17 I was fairly certain it was bleeding. Everything else was going so well, I wouldn’t let this problem stop me. I ran through it and eventually blocked it out. After the race I discovered the very large blister had completely ripped off and my toes were quite raw. It will take a few days to heal, but I’m not worried.

I couldn’t believe how good I felt at this point in the race. Mile 16 & 18 were the two fastest miles I ran the entire race (mile 17 & 19 were good also, but they were slightly uphill). I kept going faster and faster.

A slight hiccup came just after mile 22 when the course went onto a multi-use path through the woods. I ran for nearly a mile without seeing a single course marker, volunteer, or competitor. I had no idea whether I was still on the course and it was beginning to really freak me out. Did I just run this well only to screw up now? Luckily I was still on the right path.

It was becoming harder and harder to maintain my pace. By mile 25 I cracked and could no longer hold my sub-7:15 per mile average. I still finished reasonably strong, but I definitely slowed down the last two miles.

Rob finishing Rockford Marathon

I crossed the line in 3:09:05. It was a 13 minute personal record for me. It was a Boston marathon qualifying time (the Ragfields are going to Boston). It was a negative split. Actually, I don’t know my exact 1/2 marathon split so I’m not certain. It was only 3-5 seconds different either way (which is fairly remarkable if you think about it). I guess it would be better to describe it as even splits.

I noticed when I crossed the finish line my timing chip didn’t cause an audible beep. It had caused a beep at all the checkpoints, but not at the finish line. This caused me to worry. I had just run a Boston qualifying marathon time, but if something went wrong with the timing system it may not have counted. I tracked down a race volunteer who was able to check for me, and indeed the timing system did not register me when I crossed the line. Fortunately, they got it all straightened out and my time does appear correctly in the official results (actually, it took two tries to get it right… but they got it right). The race timers were very helpful in getting the matter resolved.

Rockford Marathon finisher medal

Interestingly, since the marathon was so small (249 finishers), I ended up in 15th place overall and 3rd in my 30-34 age group. That was certainly unexpected.

So that was the story my 2nd marathon this spring, my 4th road marathon, my 5th marathon, my 9th marathon or beyond. I ran faster than I’ve ever run for such a long distance. I did it at a very even pace (only 28 seconds difference between my fastest and slowest miles, compared to a difference of 3:03 at the Illinois Marathon). I felt better than I’ve ever felt in such a long race. And with any luck, I’ll recover faster (the jury’s still out on that one).

I’ll leave you with a brief comparison of my performances in these two spring marathons.

Illinois Marathon Rockford Marathon
Time Split HR Time Split HR
Mile 1 00:06:51 06:51 151 00:07:24 07:24 145
Mile 2 00:13:47 06:55 162 00:14:48 07:23 153
Mile 3 00:20:38 06:51 166 00:21:59 07:11 156
Mile 4 00:27:23 06:44 168 00:29:20 07:21 156
Mile 5 00:34:08 06:45 168 00:36:45 07:25 158
Mile 6 00:41:04 06:55 170 00:43:51 07:05 159
Mile 7 00:47:56 06:52 171 00:51:00 07:08 161
Mile 8 00:54:53 06:56 169 00:58:04 07:04 159
Mile 9 01:01:38 06:45 173 01:05:11 07:06 160
Mile 10 01:08:27 06:48 174 01:12:22 07:11 160
Mile 11 01:15:28 07:01 176 01:19:38 07:15 158
Mile 12 01:22:23 06:54 176 01:26:48 07:10 161
Mile 13 01:29:15 06:52 178 01:34:03 07:14 164
Mile 14 01:36:07 06:52 177 01:41:11 07:08 165
Mile 15 01:43:10 07:03 179 01:48:18 07:06 167
Mile 16 01:50:33 07:22 178 01:55:17 06:59 168
Mile 17 01:58:18 07:45 180 02:02:29 07:12 167
Mile 18 02:06:09 07:50 180 02:09:28 06:59 169
Mile 19 02:14:31 08:21 179 02:16:30 07:01 172
Mile 20 02:23:15 08:44 176 02:23:33 07:02 170
Mile 21 02:32:05 08:49 176 02:30:43 07:10 169
Mile 22 02:41:53 09:47 169 02:37:46 07:02 172
Mile 23 02:51:19 09:26 166 02:45:06 07:20 172
Mile 24 03:00:57 09:38 164 02:52:10 07:03 174
Mile 25 03:10:38 09:41 164 02:59:38 07:27 174
Mile 26 03:19:59 09:20 166 03:07:04 07:25 175

My aerobic threshold is around 174 beats per minute. In the Illinois Marathon my average heart rate was 174 at mile 10. In the Rockford Marathon my average heart rate didn’t hit 174 until mile 24. My legs hurt as bad at mile 15 in the Illinois Marathon as they did at mile 25 in the Rockford Marathon. I just can’t get over the stark contrast between these two races when I had roughly the same level of fitness for both. If this doesn’t convince you to run even-to-negative splits in a marathon, I don’t know what will.

Many thanks to Melissa for her awesome support and wonderful photos.

The Training Camp

This past weekend was my cycling team’s training camp in southern Illinois. We spent four days riding on some very hilly roads (particularly compared to the very flat roads of Champaign County) in what turned out to be some fairly nasty weather (much like last year).

Training camp

My cabin at Giant City State Park

The ride schedule was mostly the same as last year. About half the team went down a day earlier this year to get in one additional ride. We started out on Thursday from Giant City State Park and did a quick climb from Makanda up to route 51. This is a two mile long climb that got the heart pumping right away. On the way back down I hit 45.3 mph trying to keep up with fearless Jay. Last year on this same hill I only hit 39.1 mph.

Jay descends into Makanda

Jay descends like an animal

From there we headed to Bald Knob, the highest point in southern Illinois. This is the same climb we would be doing on Friday, so this was just a warm up. We intended to go nice and easy, but those intentions never seem to work out. We rode a litter harder than we planned, and probably a little harder than we should have.

I was pretty exhausted by the time we returned to our cabins in Giant City to clean up. We drove to Carbondale for dinner at the Italian Village, followed by some window shopping at closed bike stores, before picking up Dan who took the Amtrak train from Champaign. After returning to Giant City I slept for 10.5 hours.

Six grown men ogle bikes through the store window

a Carbondale drive up liquor store

Friday we rode to Lick Creek to meet the rest of the team members who were staying in cabins there. From there we rode over to Bald Knob again. The entire group was much bigger and rode much faster. I was pretty tired from Thursday’s ride, so it was tough just getting there.

At a gas station stop I made the mistake of taking too long to strap my little Flip video camera onto my bike and ended up missing the group as they rolled out. I had to chase for a couple miles, including the really big hill were the group split up. I caught up with several riders on that hill and a few of us hauled ass to try to catch up with the lead pack. We didn’t quite make it as they reached the Bald Knob climb before us and we picked our way through the remnants of that group on the way up the climb.

Training camp Friday elevation

Friday’s elevation profile

The remainder of the ride was much easier as everyone was tired by this point. We refueled afterward with a big dinner at the Giant City lodge, which, despite not having any vegetarian entrees on the menu, has a number of delicious sides, including wild rice, mashed potatoes, corn, salad, etc. After dinner I quickly fell asleep for 9.5 hours.

Saturday’s ride was 100 miles, going from Lick Creek to Golconda and back. At the start of the ride it was 50˚ and drizzling rain. The rain came and went all day, but the temperatures got colder. During one two minute stretch I was even pelted with pea-sized hail. We split into two groups. Given my fatigue from the previous two days (and the fact that I am supposed to be tapering for the marathon) I wisely chose to ride in the slower group. We faced a stiff headwind the entire first half of the ride. Despite the nasty weather we had a pretty good time. It was a tough ride, very hilly. The group would split up on the uphills they we’d come back together on the flats and downhill sections.

Training camp Saturday elevation

Saturday’s elevation profile

Half of our group chose to turn around at 37.5 miles rather than ride the full 50 to Golconda. The first 10 or so miles after we turned around were actually somewhat pleasant. Sure, I was soaking wet, but we had a good tailwind and as long as I kept moving I stayed plenty warm. Around this time the sun actually came out for about 30 seconds. Soon after came lighting, thunder, driving rain, hail, a drop in temperature, and a change in wind direction. We faced a headwind the rest of the way back.

After the ride I changed into dry clothes, munched on some snacks and chitchatted while we waited for everyone else to finish. Then we all packed up and headed over to the Giant City Lodge for a team banquet. Saturday was all you can eat fried chicken night at the lodge. This is going to sound crazy, but that’s actually what I ordered. I simply didn’t eat any of the chicken. The meal also had all you can eat mashed potatoes, corn, rolls, etc. Everyone placed the same order and huge plates of food were served to us family style.

Lodge

We awoke Sunday morning to temperatures in the mid-30s, howling winds, and damp roads. The ride was much shorter, but still challenging. We coasted down to Makanda then took turns climbing the two big hills heading out of the valley. One was long and gradual, the other was short and steep. I did five climbs before deciding my toes would fall off if I did any more.

The last descent of the last day of training camp

And that was it. Training camp was great fun. We had some tough rides in tough conditions. Most importantly, I don’t think it screwed up my marathon preparations. We’ll know for sure in less than two weeks.

The Land Between the Lakes Trail Race

I’ve been doing a lot of running lately in preparation for the Illinois Marathon in four weeks. The past few weeks have been my peek mileage and I’ve been pretty tired. These isn’t really the best time for a race, but I didn’t let my fatigue stop me. I really wanted to do a half marathon at some point. I found out several weeks ago that many of the local Buffalo trail runners were heading to Kentucky to run the Land Between the Lakes (LBL) trail race this weekend. LBL has four different distances, the shortest of which is 23 KM (a little over a mile longer than a half marathon). Perfect.

The race is about 4.5 hours away from Champaign-Urbana, so we made it a road trip. I rode down there with Andrew and Sandra. We followed Cousin Don, Brian, Juan, & Natanya in another car. Once there we met Jeff, Chris, Wes, & Becky, who drove another car. Just before the race we met up with Marla, who came late Friday night. Jeff’s sister lives 10 minutes from the race start/finish in Grand Rivers, and she was kind enough to let many of us sleep at her house the night before.

This area of Kentucky was hit pretty hard by an ice storm at the end of January. Many, many trees were knocked over or broken in half. The forest was pretty messy. Fortunately, with the hard work of many volunteers, the 11 mile LBL canal loop trail was cleaned up and ready for the runners.

Ice storm damage

Ice storm damage
Ice storm damage

We awoke early on race morning to make it to the starting line by 7 am. The longest event is 50 miles (yes, fifty miles), which takes a long time to complete, so the race started early. It had already been drizzling for a few hours and it wasn’t supposed to let up anytime soon. This was going to be interesting.

I squeezed my way up towards the front of the starting line. I was running the shortest race and I assumed/hoped I was one of the faster runners there. We started off with 1.75 miles of paved road before we reached the trail. The runners spread out pretty quickly. One guy shot way out ahead of everyone else. Then there was a chase group of three or four. Then I was in the next group of three or four. My first (paved) mile was quick, but not unreasonable.

I counted the runners ahead of me and figured I was in 9th when we hit the trail. The trail immediately went under the bridge on the road where we started. As I passed beneath it I heard the familiar calls of “Buffaloooooooooo.” This is what the Buffalo trail runners yell when they see other Buffalo on the trail. Some of the others running the longer races spotted me from up on the bridge as I ran beneath them.

The early miles were pretty easy. The trail had a lot of twists and turns but not many hills at this point. There was a little bit of jockeying for position as I moved from 9th to 8th to 7th to 8th to 9th to 8th and so on.

LBL trail race map

The trail was in pretty good shape, though there were clearly some spots that were messed up by the ice storm. In a number of places a tree along the side of the trail had blown over away from the trail and where it was uprooted there was a big hole that required fancy footwork to get around. The steady drizzle made the entire thing just a little bit muddy, but it wasn’t as bad as it could have been. My shoes were never in any danger of being sucked off my feet.

Around miles 9 and 10 (I think) there were three or so fairly big hills, which were steep enough to cause me difficulty, but not so steep I couldn’t run up them. I really struggled with these hills. I tried to make up for my super slow uphills by really pushing the flats and the downhills, but I fell back to 10th and I was losing ground at this point.

I regained a little bit of ground after the hills relented. By the time I finished the 11 mile trail loop I moved back up to 9th. The aid station volunteers informed me that I was 5th. Curious. This was the point where the 23K runners left the trail. The marathon runners ran one more loop, the 60K runners ran two more loops, and the 50 mile runners ran three more loops. This placing discrepancy must have meant that four runners ahead of me (and I was running pretty fast) were racing at least twice as far as me, or maybe farther. Impressive.

I was able to pick up the pace again once I was back on the paved road, but despite running my last mile in 6:40 one guy still passed me. I assume this means I finished 6th, though I never got any confirmation on that. I just based that on what the aid station volunteers told me. It was a solid race for me. I wasn’t thrilled with it, but I wasn’t disappointed either.

Finishers keychain
My keychain finishers award

After the race I was soaking wet, so I headed over to Cousin Don’s van (the Patti-wagon) to change into dry clothes. Juan had a really good race, because I missed him finishing while I was changing my clothes. I grabbed my camera and made it to the finish area just in time to watch Andrew sprint across the line in a photo finish. The other guy barely edged him out.

Andrew sprints to the line
Andrew sprints to the finish line

Andrew post-sprint
Andrew looks tired after his sprint to the finish line

Natanya finished a few minutes later as 2nd place female. Apparently her socks slid down during the race and her shoes rubbed her heels raw and bloody. It looked pretty painful.

Natanya was the 2nd female to finish the 23K
the race director awards the 2nd place prize to Natanya

Heel problems
Natanya had a sock snafu that left her heels raw and bloody

Sandra just ran a tough trail marathon last weekend and she wasn’t quite sure whether some pain in her foot would allow her to complete this race. Not only did she finish, she did so with a great big smile.

Sandra finishes the 23K with a smile

Sandra finishes with a smile

Now that all the Buffalo 23K runners were finished we headed indoors for some delicious vegetarian minestrone. Andrew accidentally locked his keys in the car before the race and asked around about who could help him get into it. A firefighter showed up with some tools, and after much work they finally go it.

Locked out
Andrew and Juan help a Grand Rivers firefighter break into Andrew’s car

We were pretty cold and wet so we didn’t stick around long enough to watch the other Buffalo finish their longer races. They did call while we were driving back to Champaign-Urbana and apparently everyone made it alright. Another successful race for the Buffalo of central Illinois.

The Grape Creek Hills

Saturday

Saturday morning several friends and I headed over to Kickapoo for a bike ride. We didn’t ride the mountain bike trails there, instead we did a long road ride up and down the Vermillion River bluffs. These aren’t mountains, but the hills are order of magnitude larger than any we have in Champaign county.

We started in Kickapoo and headed south, through the county fair grounds, out to Shangri-la, down to Catlin, over to Belgium, down to Grape Creek road. Once there we twisted and turned and rode up every hill we could find.

Kickapoo - Grape Creek ride

Eventually we wound our way through Westville and Catlin back to Kickapoo. It was cold, though much of the ride was perfectly tolerable where we were surrounded by trees and hills. The miles between Catlin & Westville were out in the open and the wind was brutal. It was a good ride. Afterwards I visited my parents in Danville for lunch before heading home.

Sunday

Sunday morning I took part in Second Wind’s 20 mile marathon training run at Lake of the Woods. Rather than running the trails as I usually do, we stuck to the paved 3.3 mile bike path. The wind was even worse on Sunday, gusting up to 30 mph. I had to throw on some additional clothes at the last minute because the wind made it feel even colder than I expected.

I ran with two or three other guys the whole way and we ran fast, averaging 7:20 per mile. On one hand, I don’t typically run my long runs this fast so it was pretty challenging for me. On the other hand, I hope to run the marathon even faster than this so I felt the need to prove to myself I could do it.

Sore Rob

I was pretty sore after the run. I ended up sleeping or lounging around the rest of the day. I was able to perform some household chores, albeit very slowly.

The Epic Double

Illini Chill

Saturday morning was the annual Illini Chill winter bike ride in St. Joe. I rode it last year for the first time in some horrible weather. It was a pleasant surprise to see the forecast for this year indicated the high temperature would be in the 50’s.

I learned the hard way last year that the included lumberjack breakfast actually isn’t pancakes. Luckily, Melissa and I filled up on pancakes Friday night at IHOP.

Short stack

Melissa & I ate our own “lumberjack breakfast” the night before the ride at IHOP

The ride start in St. Joe is only 12 miles from my house in Urbana. Since the weather was so nice I just decided to ride over there. I had a nice cross-tailwind to help push me along the whole way.

Illini Chill

Don, Karl, Greg, & Gene at the ride start

The regular route was a 22 mile loop from St. Joe to Royal and back. There was a 20+ mile long route addition, which I assumed we would do. We started heading north with a strong tailwind. Before I new it we were in Royal and we kept going on the long route–still heading North. We were 15-20 miles north of St. Joe when we finally turned west and hit the first headwind. It was tough. Eight of us took turns leading the way, but our speed still slowed from 25 to 15 mph.

Illini Chill map

my Illini Chill route

We wound our way back to St. Joe, mostly into the headwind. I realized that 20+ miles actually meant 28 miles. That put me at 60 for the day… so far. I was fairly exhausted by the time we returned to St. Joe for the pasta lunch and I was dreading the final 12 miles into the headwind back to Urbana. Fortunately, one of my friends also rode over from Urbana and we were able to ride back together.

It took 4:30 to travel 72 miles. Not great, but it’s only February. This one ride was more than half as far as my total January mileage.

Clinton Lake

I returned home, showered, took a 30 minute nap, ate a snack, then started to prepare for my second adventure. A different group of friends was planning to run 10 miles at the Clinton Lake trail on Saturday night. Clinton Lake is one of the harder area trails to run under normal circumstances. At night (using headlamps and flashlights) it was going to be a new challenge. Additionally, we realized pretty quickly that the entire trail was covered in several inches of mud.

Clinton Lake trail map

Clinton Lake trail

There was a big turnout–18 or so runners. It was kind of neat in the early miles to turn around and see 15 flashlights lining the trail behind me. We slid all over the place. A few people fell. I managed to stay upright, though one time I took a step and when I lifted my foot up my shoe stayed in the mud.

Trail running

my muddy shoes this morning

Somehow I was way overdressed. I started with pants, a long sleeve shirt, and gloves. I took the gloves off almost immediately. Later I pushed up my sleeves and unzipped my shirt. Then I pulled up my pant legs above my knees. I was on the verge of taking my shirt off. I don’t know what the deal was… I’ve never been that hot when it was 45˚ before.

This trail usually takes me less than 1:30, but last night it took 2:20. There was an awful lot of hiking going on at times rather than running. After 6:50 of aerobic exercise in one day I was utterly exhausted.

After the run we all grabbed dinner at Dos Reales, where I consumed copious quantities of chips, salsa, & water. While I was nearly the last person to receive my order, I’m pretty sure I was the first to finish.

Needless to say I had no trouble sleeping last night.

The Domestic Travels

I enjoy traveling, and I love geography, so I was very excited when a friend of mine recently mentioned this website that allows people to track their travels, county by county, across the country. I spent a couple hours entering my data (thanks to some helpful information from my dad regarding trip routes from my childhood) and now I have this wonderful map.

Click to enlarge

I categorized the counties thusly:

In cyan (light blue) are places where I’ve traveled in an automobile (or other motorized land vehicle). These include:

  • Seattle/Olympic National Park
  • Silicon Valley
  • Grand Canyon
  • El Paso/Juarez
  • Dallas
  • Galveston
  • New Orleans/Baton Rouge
  • Nashville
  • Des Moines
  • Minneapolis
  • Green Bay
  • Sault Ste. Marie
  • Cedar Point/Sandusky
  • Washington DC
  • Wilmington, NC
  • Hilton Head, SC/Savannah, GA
  • Hawaii & Kauai islands
  • Most of Illinois, Indiana, and central Appalachia
  • Everything along the way to these places

In magenta (light purple) are places where I’ve been bicycling (and probably travelled by auto also). These include:

In dark blue are places where I’ve been, but only in the airport (i.e. I had a layover there). These include:

  • Los Angeles
  • Phoenix
  • Salt Lake City
  • Kansas City
  • Atlanta
  • Miami
  • Honolulu

It’s exciting to remember all the great places I’ve been, and just as exciting to think about all the places I have yet to explore. I’ve still never set foot in 19 states:

  • Maine
  • New Hampshire
  • Vermont
  • Massachusetts
  • Rhode Island
  • Connecticut
  • New York
  • New Jersey
  • Delaware
  • Alabama
  • Nebraska
  • South Dakota
  • North Dakota
  • Colorado
  • Wyoming
  • Montana
  • Idaho
  • Nevada
  • Alaska

I’ve got places to go. Hopefully I will keep the map updated along the way.