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Running Bio Part 4b Print E-mail
Four More Years on the Erie Canal

Rochester, NY:  2002-2005

Part 4a ended with an unexpected career year at age 56:  being outsprinted by an elite woman for 2nd overall at the BPAC 6 Hour, a top 20 finish in the Ontario Shore Marathon, a 100K win on a brutally hot day at the Niagara Ultras, a sub-5 hour age group record at the Mendon Trail Runs 50K and finishing 2nd in my RROY age group. Highlights of Part 4b include:

•·         Age-group gold and silver medals in USATF National Championship races and an Oven Door road trip to the "Boston" of ultramarathoning

•·         Joining GRTC Board of Directors and writing the first Eclectic Runner columns

•·         With Rick Cronise and Charlie Sabatine, reviving the Canandaigua Mini Ultra as a full 50 miles race around the lake

•·         Bringing together the directors of the other ultramarathons in the region to create the Western New York Ultra Series

•·         Relaying 310 miles across the state with Rick Cronise

•·         And still finding time to run a few ultras myself.

 

2002:  Too Much of a Good Thing.  At the end of 2001, I sent a note off to Coach Roy Benson closing with a list of things I might want to avoid in the next year.  Two of them turned out to be prophetic:  1) Don't race from March to November with no real recovery period, and 2) Don't run too many races.  Of course, I proceeded to do just those things.  My target races for the year would be the USATF National Championship 50K in March, the Niagara Ultras in June and the USATF National Championship 100K in October.

My training through the winter went reasonably well, averaging about 50 miles per week.  Despite being about five pounds over my 2001 weight, I was about a minute faster at the Runnin' of the Green 5 mile.  With the National Championship 50K on the next weekend, I foolishly ignored the mild pain in my right foot and did a last long run the next day.  By the end of a 19-mile loop, the foot hurt on every foot plant.  That last long run was unwise because it was too close to my big race and it was stupid because I ignored the injury.  After the run, it is obvious even to me that I'd really messed up the plantar fascia of my right foot.

I rested the foot for five days and took my chances in 50K.  The weather in Pittsburgh didn't favor a fast race; it was only 24 degrees at the 7am start with a 25-35 mph wind blowing down the out and back 5K course along the river.  My race didn't go well from the start... I ran at a heart rate and effort that felt like sub-8 but my actual pace was well over 8 minutes per mile.  After a few laps my right foot started hurting, especially on a stretch with tight 90-degree turns and a severe camber.  I kept pushing where I could as the pain got worse with each lap.  Despite my problems I still managed to catch and pass a few runners as the laps wound down.  The end came at 4:25:52 for a back of the pack finish, 30th overall in a small field but with a silver medal in the 55-59 Age Group.

What followed next was not pretty.  My right plantar was now badly injured.  I probably should have taken some time off running to let the foot heal.  But, instead I substituted a couple days of cycling and kept training.  And I continued racing the RROY Series... my times were off but I still managed to score points in the smaller races... CATS Half Marathon (1st Age Group), Tom Wahl's 5 Mile (2nd Age Group) but out of the points at 11th in Age Group at the more competitive Lilac 10K.  I kept looking for a quick fix for the foot... new orthotics (which didn't seem to make any difference), deep massage (which seems to help but really hurt!), new shoes... anything but taking time off.

When the Niagara Ultras came around in late June, I stepped down to the 50K distance and ran 4:25:30 for 8th place... a time that was almost identical to my 50K at Pittsburgh in March and my 50K split in the Niagara 100K the year before.  Disappointing but I shouldn't have been surprised.  With the lingering injury, my training mileage and quality was only about 60% of the year before.  The trend continued with the summer RROY Series races... my times were significantly slower and I was scoring fewer points.

By September, despite the continued abuse, my foot was better and I was able to train more.  I ran my fastest 5K of the year at Katie Harper in September, only 12 seconds over what I did the year before.  The last two months before the National Championship 100K I was able to average 51 miles per week, close to what I was doing in 2001. 

Since my 1989 visit to the Edmund Fitzgerald 100K, the race route was switched from the fairly busy highway along the shore of Lake Superior to an inland route passing over a low mountain range.  Race day was cold and stayed below freezing all day.  I started at a good pace and the race went well until I tried to squeeze GU out of the squeeze flasks I carried.  In the cold, the gel would not come out of the flask and I bonked between aid stations at about 20-25 miles.  I also screwed up the long climb over the mountain range.  The climb was about five miles long but was so gradual that I was lulled into not slowing enough.  The first 50K took 4:53 and after that, the race turned into a real struggle to finish, getting slower with each 5K segment.  I revived a bit after 85K as I became more confident I would finish.  With the second 50K taking an ugly 5:38, I finished 19th overall in 10:31:27 and got the gold medal for 1st in the 55-59 Age Group.  Despite the struggle, my time also beat the handful of runners in the 50-54 Age Group.

Comment:  Of all the National Championship races I've run, my worst performance was the one that brought home a gold medal... demonstrating the randomness of awards and the sad state of USATF National Championships, especially in the road ultras.

Three weeks later, to support my local ultra and perhaps seeking a little redemption, I again ran the Mendon Trail Runs 50K.  On the first lap I enjoyed chatting with Greg Brooks (a much faster ultramarathoner than me back in the day).  On the rutted downhill into the meadow near the Add-En-On Kennel, Greg tripped and did a most elegant tuck and roll back onto his feet with no injury and no loss of position in the pack.

The race itself followed a familiar pattern for the undertrained, over-raced ultrarunner... a couple of pretty good laps followed by an inevitable slowdown:  1:05, 1:05, 1:07, 1:12 and 1:14.  Still, I managed to finish 4th overall and was happy enough with the 5:41:59.

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ODR on climb to the AT

Oven Door Road Trip!  Two weeks later I joined a large group of Oven Door Runners on a pilgrimage to Maryland for the 40th Annual JFK 50 Mile Ultramarathon.  I had read every JFK race report since Ultrarunning magazine started publishing in 1981.  The JFK has always been on my short list of races to do but, living in California most of those years, I never made it east for the race.  So, when Rick Cronise proposed getting an ODR group together for JFK, I opted in even though it would be my third ultra in five weeks.

The JFK 50 is the oldest, biggest and most competitive ultra in the United States.  In 2002, over 1000 athletes from five countries, 37 states and Washington, D.C came to contest the 50.2+ miles from Boonsboro to Williamsport.  In every sense, the JFK is to American ultrarunning what Boston is to the marathon. 

The JFK course is an interesting hybrid of road and trail, mountain and flat.  The race starts gently enough on a road.  By one mile you start up a steady climb of 1.5 miles that takes you to a junction with the Appalachian Trail.  The trail is a single track that runs along the top of a mountain ridge for about 13 miles until you hit a set of steep switchbacks down to the bank of the Potomac River.  Most of the trail is runnable except for some rocky bits which are a real challenge... just getting through the rocks without falling took our complete concentration.

Once off the trail, the course turns onto the C&O Canal Path and follows the Potomac River upstream for 26.2+ miles.  I found the C&O Canal Path to be a lot more interesting than our own canal path.  The C&O Canal was constructed along the bank of the Potomac with the towpath separating the river from the canal.  Along much of the part we ran, the now-abandoned canal sits at the base of steep cliffs.  Running along, you have the lots to look at.  The early sections of the river have several rapids.  There are abandoned locks and other canal structures.  And, with 1000 runners, you are always catching someone.

After 42 miles, you exit the soft and flat canal path for a final road section.  If you have anything left, it's time to fly.  While the road is not flat, the grades are gentle and none of them are long.

My race went well.  I took it easy on the initial climb and on the trail, passed hundreds of runners on the canal path and didn't fall apart too badly on the road section.  I finished 196th overall out of 862 finishers in 9:23:08.  The real treat of the weekend was being able to share in the joy of my companions in completing their first ultras.  Training for a marathon you can do a couple 20 milers and grow confident in your ability to do the extra six miles on race day.  By comparison, a 50-mile ultra is a big step into the unknown.  The distance is probably twice your longest training run and may be farther than you typically run in a week.  In finishing your first ultra, you discover that you can do far more that you ever thought possible.

Totals for 2002:  5 ultras (30th, 8th, 19th, 4th and 196th overall finishes), 4th in RROY 55-59 Age Group; 2151 miles total running and 877 total miles cycling.

 

2003: Giving Back to the Sport.  Over the course of many a Saturday morning Oven Door Run in 2002, Rick Cronise and I discussed organizing a local ultramarathon with anyone who would listen.  Eventually the notion of reviving the Canandaigua Mini-Ultra got traction and we started to seriously plan for a 2003 race.  Greg Brooks suggested taking a proposal to the GRTC Board to see if the club might be willing to give some organizational backing to the race.  The proposal was turned down but subsequently I accepted an invitation to join the GRTC Board. 

Once on the Board, I needed to take on some work for the Club.  Seeing that the newsletter needed more content, I volunteered to do a monthly column.  Here's how I introduced the Eclectic Runner column in the January-February 2003 issue:

"Each month I will share something about running and racing.  The content will vary from month to month, hence the title.  Some of the topics that interest me right now and may generate future columns are age-graded performance, relay races and road trips, masters' competition and technology for runners.  I promise not to write too often about ultramarathons."

Over the winter, Rick Cronise, Charlie Sabatine and I had several planning meetings and divided up the tasks to organize the first annual Canandaigua Ultras and Relay.  In particular, I have fond memories of scouting alternative routes with Rick at the Naples end of the course.  Everyone who has struggled up Bopple Hill will be glad that Rick and I rejected going over South Hill to get from Sunnyside to Vine Valley.  The dirt road up South Hill is just as steep as Bopple and twice as long.  And the downhill to connect to South Vine Valley Rd is just as steep.

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Niagara Above the Falls

My own training went through some hiccups over the winter but finally got on track once the weather warmed up.  I went into the Niagara 50 Mile planning to run a controlled effort... faster than a training run yet easy enough to be able to resume training within a week or two after the race (in hindsight, even a 50 mile training run takes more than two weeks for full recovery).   

To make it easy to stay at a controlled effort, I monitored my average pace using my Timex GPS Speed & Distance Monitor.  After an easy start I settled into a steady 9:00 per mile pace and didn't worry about the increasing gap to the runners ahead. By 10 miles I started picking off runners who had started faster. I held that effort through the 25-mile turnaround at 3:48 (9:08 average). By halfway it had gotten hot. I backed off the pace a bit and kept my head and shirt wet.  At 12 miles to go I learned I was in 4th with the next runner about 2 minutes ahead.  In another 3 miles I caught her.  We ran together another 3 miles until she had to slow. I went on to finish 3rd in 7:49 (9:23 average).

The two runners ahead of me are worthy of mention:  The race winner in 6:59 was Daniele Cherniak from Cohoes, NY.  I first met her when she finished 2nd overall in the 1995 Canandaigua Mini-Ultra.  By 2003, she had been a nine-time member of the US 100K National Team, was the 1998 100K National Champion and was named Ultrarunner of the Year by Ultrarunning magazine in 1999.  Second place and first male was Todd Baum (7:31) from Fayetteville, NY.  This was one of Todd's first ultras.  Todd and Daniele will both figure prominently in the history of the Canandaigua Ultra and ultrarunning in Western & Central New York.

Preparing for the inaugural Canandaigua Ultras and Relay took lots of time and emotional energy over the summer, definitely compromising my training for the National Championship 100 Mile scheduled for September 13th at Olander Park.  But, while undertrained and uncertain about my fitness, my wife and I made the drive to Toledo and I started the race.  The first few hours were fine.  But toward the end of the fifth hour the wheels started coming off.  I felt increasingly fatigued, aware of aches in my left knee and tightness/soreness in my legs.  I slowed more with each mile over the next three hours.  It felt like I was gradually grinding to a halt.  I started doing the math to predict my finish time and debating whether it would be worth continuing.  At 42 miles I switched to walking and soon after promised my wife I would just go to 50 and drop out.  The race directors credited me with 50.9 miles in the companion 24 hour race but as far as I was concerned, I did not finish.

There wasn't much time to mourn over the DNF.  The following weekend I was the novice race director of the Canandaigua Ultra and Relay.  The turnout was modest... only 11 solo runners and 11 teams completed that inaugural 50 miles around the lake.  Despite the small field, that first race had an elite champion:  Daniele Cherniak won the race outright for her second overall win in 2003. Her 7:11 finish time beat 8 of the 11 relay teams and still stands eight years later as the women's event record.

In November, in support of the other local ultra, I got my fifth consecutive finish of the Mendon Trail Runs 50K.  I never really got back on track with training after the 100 mile DNF and only did a couple of runs on the course.  As expected the results weren't pretty... a couple of OK laps and then a struggle over final three laps, finishing in 6:21, my new personal worst for the course.

Totals for 2003:  3 ultras (3rd, DNF and 6th overall finishes), 1965 total miles running and 232 total miles cycling

 

2004:  More Giving Back and a Wild & Crazy Adventure.  In December 2003 I contacted the directors of the BPAC 6 Hour, Finger Lakes Fifties and the Mendon Trail Runs and kicked around the idea of including our four events in a race series.  The idea took off and in early 2004, we announced the 2004 Western New York Ultra Series.  I took on the job of coordinating the series which consisted mostly of scoring the series and maintaining the series website at http://www.wny-ultra.org/.

The first race of the new series was the BPAC 6 Hour.  On a rainy day, Todd Baum won with 41.2 miles and I finished in 5th overall with 36.6 miles.

A side effect of the series discussion was that Carl Pegels, the long-time BPAC race director, suggested organizing a multi-day ultra and relay race from Lake Erie to the Hudson.  There had been such a race 20-some years ago and Carl was interested in reviving it.  Rick Cronise and I talked it over and committed to doing a 2-man relay if the thing happened.  In the end, Carl had to back out and no one else was sufficiently interested to actually do the thing. 

So, over six days in May, Rick Cronise and I ran 310 miles in 6 days... from the banks of Niagara River at Tonawanda to Cohoes Falls at the confluence of the Mohawk and Hudson Rivers. Two days following the Erie Canal, three days along the Historic US 20 Corridor and a final day along the Mohawk River.

Cronise and I did the run as a self-supporting relay. When I started running, he would drive the car up the road a little over 2 miles and wait. When I reached the car, he would start running and I would drive ahead. Repeat the process 12-15 times and you'll cover 50-60 miles for the day. Repeat for 5 more days and you'll be a long way from home.  There is a daily diary of the adventure, links to photographs and maps of the route on the run web site (www.wny-ultra.org/erie2hudson.htm).

The run was a wonderful experience and a great shared adventure.  Rick and I genuinely enjoyed each day. The self-supported two-person relay is a very nice way to cover ultra distances while experiencing the scenic byways of our state.  The route had lots of variety:  Erie Canal Trail, Finger Lakes, big hills, farms & orchards, historic towns & villages and bikeways through the two large cities.

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Rick - Day 2 on the Canal

The run was easier than it probably sounds.  While we averaged more than 25 miles per day, we rarely ran more than 3 miles at a time.  Our pace was no faster than an easy training run.  The rest breaks gave us plenty of time to drink and eat so dehydration and bonking was not an issue.  We were in 4-hour-plus marathon shape at the start so you don't have to be an elite athlete to do a similar journey run.

There were low points, usually in the first half of each day's run.  The unrelenting hills and the road camber brought out all sorts of nagging aches and pains that would have us in fear of being unable to complete the day's run, much less the whole 6 days.  And, somehow, magically, the pains would abate as the day wore on and we would become more confident of finishing as the miles accumulated.  Patience is a real virtue when running ultra distances.  Relentless forward progress eventually gets you to the finish.

One topic of conversation Rick and I revisited many times running across the state was whether the run (155 miles each in six days) was going to do us any good as training for our next race.  In hindsight, it is clear that mega-mileage on the road is not a good way to train for a trail race.

Seven weeks after Erie to Hudson, I ran the 50 mile at the Finger Lakes Fifties.  In 2004 only the 50 mile distance counted in the Ultra Series so I needed to finish.  The first half of the run went well enough... then I got tired and stopped picking up my feet.  Road racers can get away with barely lifting their feet.  Trail runners have to lift their feet to clear the little rocks and roots you don't even notice that are waiting to trip you.  After halfway, I had five spectacular falls and ended up walking the last 10 miles to finish in 11:28.   

The Canandaigua Ultra was the third race in the 2004 Ultra Series.  Todd Baum brought his "A" game to the race and won it in 6:47.  That mark stood as the event record until finally broken in 2010.

The final race of the series was the Mendon 50K.  Todd Baum led five men under the existing course record and was the outstanding runner in the augural Western New York Ultra Series with three wins, two of them in course records.  After having finished every Mendon 50K since the first one in 1999, I had a very bad race and dropped out after four laps for my second DNF of the year (and third DNF ever).

Totals for 2004:  3 ultras (5th overall, DNF, DNF), 2062 total miles running and 28 total miles cycling

2005:  Eighty Percent of Success.  Reflecting on my 2004 results, I wrote in the January-February 2005 Eclectic Runner column that I

"... decided to go back to the basics.  Pick a target race and follow an appropriate training plan for that race. ...going for a rematch with the the Finger Lakes 50 mile...  Last year I went into that race inadequately trained and paid dearly for it.  ...I've picked an ultra training plan developed by George Parrott (www.halhigdon.com/ultramarathon/ultramarathon2000.htm)."

Of course, a plan will work only if you actually follow it.  January went well. After a couple of good weeks, I ran the Florida Gulf Beaches Marathon (4:12) as a "training run."  Immediately after the race I thought I had successfully kept the effort in the training range.  After a low mileage week to recover from the marathon, I was back to 40+ miles a week and a 19-mile long run only to succumb to a virus and lose the next two weeks of training. I only managed 105 miles for February.

March was better. I was able to consistently complete all workouts and had my weekly mileage up to the 45-55 miles per week called for by the plan. The plan called for a big increase in mileage in April, coinciding with warmer spring weather.  I again attempted to include a race as part of my training, using the BPAC 6 Hour as a long run. I ran a restrained effort, 35.4 miles for 10th overall and 2nd in my age group, scoring useful points in the Western New York Ultra Series.

Recovery from the Six Hour initially seemed to go well but by early May the signs were not good. I was cutting short the long runs called for in the plan and my total mileage was way down. Soon the next Ultra Series race came up and I attempted another "training race" effort at the Highland Forest 3 (a 30-mile trail race). Again, the results were good enough (6;23 for 11th overall and 3rd in age group.  But my total for May was only 185 miles, not the 250+ I wanted to run. June should have been a time of increased energy with a gradual reduction in total mileage. Instead, I was fatigued and continued to cut short my remaining long runs.

I soon ran out of time to be ready for my target race.  My plan for the race was to run just fast enough to stay comfortably ahead of the 7:30 cut-off time for 50K and then try to finish the 50 miles without falling or being reduced to walking many miles. The odds of the plan working were not good but I had little to lose in giving it a try.

The short version is that the first 15.5-mile lap went by easily enough in 3:21 (versus 3:11 last year)... it was cool, the few muddy spots on the trail could be avoided and the grassy bits had been mowed recently. The second lap started well enough but by half way around it was getting hot in the sun and my pace began slowing noticeably despite the planned easy start. It was becoming all too obvious that I was inadequately prepared for the full 50 miles and would face at least another five hours of struggle to finish the additional 19 miles of trail. Before finishing the second lap (3:45 versus 3:24 last year), I had decided to finish at 50K. The consolation was I won a "cow" trophy for being first in the 60+ age group.

The Lesson Relearned: In hindsight, it is pretty obvious to me that each "training race" set me back in my preparation.  Recovery from even a controlled effort at the three long "training races" took several weeks instead of the several days I had hoped they would. As a result, I never put in the consistent mileage (50-70 miles per week for 2-3 months) needed to comfortably complete a 50-mile trail race. On the other hand, I enjoyed the training races and wanted the points-paying finishes at the two Ultra Series races.  Life is full of choices and sometimes you can't have it all.

Having blown my target race for the year, I joined in the fun of the return of the Rochester Marathon to downtown with a 4:13 finish.  And, in November I returned for a rematch with the 50K distance at the Mendon Trail Runs.  This time I stuck it out to get my sixth finish in seven starts... my 6:56 finish was my slowest yet but it did give me the final points I needed be the top point scorer in the 50+ age group in the 2005 Western New York Ultra Series.  Paraphrasing Woody Allen, "Eighty percent of success is just showing up and finishing."

Two additional items of note:  In April I took over as President of the GRTC from Paul Kato.  I am thankful that Paul Kato set such a good example for me to follow. 

Totals for 2005: 4 ultras (10th, 11th, 27th and 20th overall), 2 marathons, 1852 total miles running and 0 miles cycling

In December 2005, after my doctor got concerned about a rapid spike in my PSA score, I had a biopsy and got a diagnosis of prostate cancer.  Fortunately the cancer was found early and had not spread beyond the prostate gland.  Since I'm writing these words over five years later, you can conclude that the cancer surgery turned out OK. 

Looking over my training log data from 1974 through 2005, I found the last time I took off more than a week without running or cycling was two weeks in 1986.  Cancer surgery in January 2006 was going to change that.  The story will continue soon with Part 5:  Yet Another Comeback.

 
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