I am a little behind in the weekly logging of my Ironman training due to leaving for spring break and not having access to a computer, as well as not having any desire to post about it as I was trying to enjoy my vacation. So I will wrap up the past two weeks with one post.
Week 3 was going just fine until I strained another high leg/groin muscle, this time in my left leg. This left me very sore and unable to run. The same injury happened a few weeks ago in my right leg, which left me unable to get in the mileage I was hoping to do while training for a spring marathon. Due to that lack of training due to injury, and the fact that I had signed up for this Ironman, I decided to pull the plug on attempting to run another marathon and try for another Boston Marathon qualifier. I ran Boston for the first time in 2018 and it was really all I needed to accomplish with it. I found the journey of getting there to be more rewarding than actually running Boston. By the time Boston rolled around I was overtrained, tired of killing myself, and thanks to one of the worst weather days in the history of the race, it wasn’t much fun. The emotions of finishing my first Boston Marathon were special, especially on that day, but I will cherish the effort it took to get there more than the race itself, as I ran it much like a victory lap that I couldn’t really enjoy due to the weather. Enough about Boston. I pulled the plug on the upcoming marathon because there was no way I would be ready, and I didn’t want anything messing up my Ironman training. Boston will have to wait until a time in the future when I really want to do it again. I will get to enjoy watching my son and his girlfriend run Boston for their first time instead of running it with them. Actually, running it “with” them isn’t even a possibility, as they are much faster than I am.
So in Week 3, I was only able to get in one 5-mile run. Biking wasn’t affected and I was able to get in what I needed to. I rode the Saturday 1 hour 45-minute ride on Friday instead because I was leaving on vacation Saturday. One thing I was able to accomplish with my bum leg was to work on a small portion of my running path that is plagued with potholes. I took a shovel and filled them in and was proud of my work.
Week 4 was a week for touring the Confederate South, as my wife and I took our daughter on a college visit tour of two southern colleges, Vanderbilt in Nashville, Tennessee, and the University of South Carolina in Columbia. On the trip back home, we also stopped in West Lafayette, Indiana for a look at Purdue University. There was a lot of walking involved in these tours, a lot of sitting in cars, and not a lot of great opportunities to workout. I did squeeze in a spin bike workout in the hotel gym with a short two-mile brick added to it on Tuesday and decided not to worry about missing anything else.
We did a 4.5-mile hike in Gatlinburg, Tennessee through some relatively tough terrain. Lots of uphill walking, stones, and climbing. It was a good alternative workout. I’ll take it.
Becca and I hiking in Tennessee
We walked a ton during the tour of Purdue. It was a big campus and the tour guides walked us everywhere.
Upon getting back home on Friday, I was able to do the planned 90-minute bike workout but chose to do it on the spin bike at the gym instead of outside. After having some decent weather on our trip, I was a little disappointed to find Illinois was rainy and colder. Sunday’s 60-minute run went well on a windy but sunny 30-degree day.
So I think I will benefit a little from taking a little break to get back on track. I had originally planned to follow the “Just Finish” plan but I have given in to peer pressure a little from my training buddies who are all following the competitive plan. I will make sure to stay in the planned zones and not overdo it.
On to Week 5!
Week 3 & 4 Training Totals:
Swims: None > Rides: 5 total / 87.75 miles > Runs: 3 total / 14 miles
I ended this week with the typical Sunday run and was not in a good place mentally. I woke up on this fine St. Patrick’s Day to find about an inch of freshly fallen snow and I immediately slumped my shoulders and trudged downstairs. Will this winter never end? Come on, already! I also had strained my upper left leg groin muscle on Friday’s easy run. I can’t even go easy and not injure something anymore. It seems my attitude lately has been pretty low.
My fellow Gunner teammates are feeling somewhat off as well. In our group text chats this week we complained about the change to Daylight Savings Time and how that has screwed us up; our necks (Alex) and butts (me) hurting on the bike training; Alex declaring “I HATE THIS SPORT” after a windy, cold, and wet ride that was mentally draining for him; and to wondering why this sport costs so much.
By the time I got around to doing the run, the sun had pretty much melted what snow had fallen, leaving the paved trail void of any slippery spots. As I made it around the block I questioned if I had dressed warmly enough and continued on into the nature preserve where it wasn’t long until I encountered two dogs being walked off-leash and in the preserve where they weren’t allowed. They didn’t bother me physically, but mentally I wondered why can’t people follow the rules. As I began climbing the hills on this run I paid close attention to that strained groin and hoped that I would not strain it more. I backed off when I felt like it might be getting bothered and promised myself to take it easy today. Heading back home in the last mile of the 6 total miles I ran I almost got hit by a lady who must believe that stop signs are optional, and that yielding the right of way to a pedestrian who was actually crossing the street at the time was not in her ability. When she finally looked left and saw me she gave me the most puzzled look, like what the f*ck was I doing there in the street. The look changed from surprise to screw you, buddy, when she realized that I wasn’t happy with her ability to follow the Rules of the Road and not kill people. It wasn’t more than 1/4 mile later when I made it to the big intersection and pressed the WALK button and waited my turn. That’s when the next driver decided stop lights were optional when turning right on red and didn’t bother waiting for me.
As a runner, you learn to run defensively and anticipate those kinds of things, but when you deal with them nearly every run it starts to wear on you. When I got home I realized this week should have been a fun and easy one. Week 2 out of 30 should be fun, but it seemed it had other ideas for me and my training partners. But when I pushed the code to open the garage door I realized that I had made it home safely, I had gotten my run in even though I had strained my muscle, and I had completed the bikes and runs for the week, preparing the foundation of another Ironman attempt. The sun was out, the snow was gone, and in reality, things are looking pretty good. I have to remember that a positive attitude can go a long way in making 30 weeks of training be pleasurable. That is on me.
~
I took my bike in for a tune-up to make sure that it’s ready for riding when the weather gets better. I’m glad I did. Turns out the bottom bracket needed work, and one of my derailleur pulleys was cracked, so both got replaced.
It looks like the bike is in good running shape again and ready for the season. I can’t wait to get off the stationary bike and head outside.
Week 2 Training Totals:
Swims: None > Rides: 3 total / 50 miles > Runs: 4 total / 17 miles
A couple of months ago, Dave’s awesome wife and our usual Ironman travel coordinator Carla texted us Ironman friends and informed us that she had secured hotels for our next Ironman. Say that again? You did what?! When did we decide we are doing an Ironman?! Usually, when I get that nauseated feeling of signing up for an Ironman it is self-inflicted. This time Carla was causing it! After some not-so-deep introspection as to whether I wanted to add this to my racing calendar (I already had a spring and fall marathon and some shorter tri’s on it) most of our group decided to rev up our Gunner mobiles and give it another go. Honestly, training was not going well for my spring marathon Boston qualifying attempt, and this was a good enough reason to get out of that. As for that Chicago Marathon that is two weeks after this Ironman race, I will see how I feel. I may defer the race until the following year if I remember to do it in time, or I might just take it easy for two weeks post-Ironman and run Chicago as a victory lap. I was planning on it being my last one for a while anyway. So with that reasoning, I decided that I was in.
Training has now started for my fourth Ironman and again I am joined by my Gunner teammates, or some of them anyway. It appears that Alex and I are the only ones officially signed up, and my life long buddy Dave (Alex’s dad) was the one who initiated the idea about doing the race so I am sure he’s probably signed up. Jeff says he’s only in if John is in, but Jeff has started training for it too. John skipped Louisville and has his hands full with a very young family, so I’m guessing he may miss this one as well, but I never count him out. I’m trying to pitch the easy training plan to him, which requires less training time. There’s also talk of Jeff’s sister Jan joining us, and Dave is heavily recruiting his brother-in-law Scott to join in the fun. That’s awesome, the more the merrier. Also, there is a group of first-timers from the local running club that are also training for the race as well. I’m looking forward to seeing Susan and John B. training and completing their first Ironman, and I hope we can find some time to do some training rides together. So there are quite a few joining in the fun this time around.
IRONMAN CHATTANOOGA
Ironman Chattanooga is sponsored by Little Debbie! I love Nutty Bars! Wait, is it Choo or Chew?
Our adventure is taking us to the Smoky Mountains of Tennessee, to Ironman Chattanooga, also known by triathletes as “Choo” as in The Chattanooga Choo-choo, and sometimes “Chatty,” and has a reputation for having a fast downstream swim, a mostly gentle rolling hill bike ride through northern Georgia and back to Chattanooga, and a run with a few killer hills. The most notable item about Choo is that the bike ride is 116 miles, four more miles than all of the other Ironman races, making this Ironman 144.6 total miles. The veterans will say that you don’t really notice the extra four miles of cycling and that the fast swim evens out the time. All Ironman races have unique things about them, but none of the others have an extra four miles. I’m looking forward to adding this race to my finisher resume.
Here’s a look at the bike and run elevation comparisons from the three races I have done (in order of completion) and Choo:
The data was taken from the Ironman website, but there are lots of triathletes that say that Ironman’s reported elevations are not very accurate. I seriously doubt that Moo has less elevation than Lou. Regardless, the chart is pretty consistent with how I remember them. Choo looks like an easy run compared to Moo and Lake Placid.
TRAINING PLAN FOR CHATTANOOGA
I’m changing up my training plan this time around. I will once again be using Don Fink’s Be Iron Fit for training, but after following the Competitive plan in the book for my previous three races I am giving serious consideration to following the Just Finish plan with some alterations. The main reason is that I am pretty sore all the time, and I just want to ease into the training this time around without killing myself. The Intermediate plan seems to me does not differ much from the Competitive plan to make it worth dropping down to. Getting the Saturday and Sunday long bikes and long runs in are what really matter, and the Just Finish plan starts off with much less time training but gradually catches up to the Competitive plan. The big difference is that the Just Finish maxes out at two 5-hour rides, whereas the Competitive plan has two 5-hour rides, a 5:30 ride, a 5:45 ride and finishes with a 6-hour ride. Not sure if I can handle that stuff this time around. We’ll see how the training goes and I may increase my weekend rides and runs to follow the Competitive plan. If the group decides to do a group ride and they are following the harder plan, then I will definitely go along with that.
As I eased into Week 1 training, I found that the Just Finish plan was less work than I had been averaging in my off-season training, so I decided to start with the Competitive plan and keep my daily efforts to about an hour of daily exercise until I’m happy using the Competitive plan, or when the Just Finish plan catches up to me.
As for swimming, I gained a lot of confidence from the training I did in 2017 for Ironman Louisville. Lou has a similar river swim as Chattanooga and I set a swim personal best there with a 1:09 swim. Lou has a short upstream swim portion which Choo lacks. At Choo, it’s all downstream, and I hear that even though the water temps may prevent wetsuit usage, many still set swim personal bests. For Lou, I basically waited until May when I opened my own swimming pool and just did two 45 minute swims a week, with the occasional hour-long swim or open water swim thrown in to keep me honest and make sure that I had the confidence I needed to swim 2.4 miles. Swimming for 45 minutes is really no big deal, and to swim an additional 45 minutes I always thought would be no big deal as well.
So here we go again! And I’m very excited about training for Ironman Chattanooga! GO GUNNERS!
Week 1 Training Totals:
Swims: None > Rides: 4 total / 57 miles > Runs: 4 total / 12.25 miles
Hey everyone! It has been a while since I thrilled you with my search for a classic car, so let’s return to another edition! (If you need to get up to speed, you can read my previous posts at the links at the bottom.)
PART III – Why I Suck At Buying A Muscle Car
This was supposed to be fun. This could have been simple. Find a car you like. Contact the seller. Pay some money. Get a car. Nope.
Back in November of last year I got excited about a 1967 Olds 442 that I wrote about in Part I, and I rushed up to the northern Chicago suburbs to take a look at the car, test drove it, almost reached into my back pocket for the checkbook, and then hit the brakes. I just had a bad feeling. I felt like I was rushing into it too fast, and that I was buying on adrenaline fueled impulse. The adult in me told me to take a pass and make sure I knew what I was doing. I kind of regret that. That car was pretty good, it was priced well, and the wife and I would have looked great in it cruising around town on the weekends. That car is gone, and I needed to move on.
And move on I did, onto a 1967 Plymouth Belvedere GTX convertible located in sunny Los Angeles, California.
’67 GTX in Turbine Bronze Metallic!
This car looked great in the pictures online and I was hooked – hooked in the same way I was with the 442. I think part of my problem is that these cars are pretty rare. You could argue that the market for old muscle cars is plentiful, and there are plenty, but there just are not that many 1967 Plymouth GTX convertibles in turbine bronze metallic paint with white on black interiors. Trust me on that one. It’s not like you can go down to the local Plymouth dealership and place an order for one like they did in 1967. (Plymouth doesn’t even exist anymore, so there’s that too.) So when a cool optioned car becomes available, you kind of need to act on it if you want it. But with the 442 lesson learned I decided to wait. In late December we were going to be in Pasadena for the Tournament of Roses Parade with my daughter’s marching band. I had the great idea that since we would be in SoCal for the parade, I would take a ride to Chatsworth, CA and take a look at the car. But the trip was already pretty heavily planned out, and I had to take a pass on seeing the GTX.
I wrote in Part II of my search that I had done a little more digging into the history of the GTX and found out some things about the car that gave me a little pause, mainly it’s history of being auctioned three times, and that it had been in Virginia and Florida when the dealership was advising that it was an Arizona/New Mexico car. But that didn’t really deter me, so I kept a close eye on it.
I was kind of sitting in the midwest in the middle of the typical winter polar vortex, and I came to the conclusion that trying to buy a car and have it shipped here in this weather was a bad idea. But a few weeks passed and we moved into February and eventually I decided that I liked the idea of owning that car enough that I should either book another flight to California to see it myself, or have someone go look at it for me. Guess what, there are people who are experts at classic cars (i.e. the opposite of me) that you can pay to inspect it for you! I finally contacted one that I thought was trustworthy and was told that for my $400 I would get a detailed inspection of the car with an awesome report and tons of pictures. All I wanted him to do really was to drive the thing and give me a thumbs up or thumbs down, but what he was offering to do was cool too. So I contacted the dealer and told him I was going to send this guy over to look at the GTX and got the following email reply:
Hi Chris,
Thanks for reaching out.
The 67 has sold.
I have a 68 Hemi Coupe and a few other cars that I will be happy to have inspected.
All the best.
Bummer dude. That’s a real drag, man. He had the gall to suggest I buy a 68 Hemi Coupe. A Hemi. A HEMI WITH AN $80,000 PRICE TAG. Sir, you mistake me for a Rockefeller. And if I am heading into the year 1968, I’m buying a Road Runner, not a GTX. They are basically the same, but the Road Runner is much cooler. (I may regret that statement. Okay, I already do.)
Okay, the car is gone. Actually the second of two cars that had me drooling are gone! What the heck? I suck at this! Turns out being patient and making sure I was making the right purchase was dumb too! Buy on impulse = bad idea. Wait and make sure it’s the right one = also bad. I am really bad at this!
But I am learning, and I will keep looking. Here are some cars that are on my current wish list, that I am sure I will not be owning any time soon:
A 1968 Olds 442 convertible in green that looks pretty good, but is located in Maine and the dealer says the A/C isn’t working. On my gotta have it scale it is a 6/10.
Next up is a 1970 Olds 442, which is priced way below market value for some reason. Could it be the Chevy emblem on the crankcase breather element? The dash that has no vent holes? Hmmm… Positives are it looks pretty decent, is located about 1.5 hours from me, it’s a 4-speed, and it’s painted gold with a black interior. Looks nice. Cons are it may not be original, and it looks like it sports a kinda okay restoration. It’s a 5/10 on the scale for me.
Here’s another GTX that’s within a couple hour drive for me. I really like this one. It’s much cheaper than the one I lost out on, but it isn’t pristine. Looks pretty good though. It has an aftermarket A/C that I am not sure I’m down with as the original Plymouth climate control levers were replaced with different knobs from the aftermarket unit. I’d give this car a 7/10.
Next up is a 1967 Dodge Coronet R/T. The Dodge Coronet and the Plymouth Belvedere were practically the same car. They even rolled off the assembly line in St. Louis together. This thing has got me excited like the California GTX did. Apparently it was owned by a Vietnam vet who traded in a 60’s Corvette for this when he came back home. I looked into the guy and it turns out he passed away. In his obituary, a buddy of his recalls a proud time when they rode in the Coronet on a trip somewhere. I dig that history. The car is in Ohio, which isn’t that far and may be worth a weekend trip for me. It does have a small visible paint chip on the front right fender, but the rest of the car is clean. 9/10 on the want it now scale!
Guess what I found? Another 1967 Dodge Coronet R/T convertible! This one in Deep Blue Metallic paint. The big highlight for this car is that it’s a 4-speed. The downside is that it’s mid-80’s restoration is showing a little wear, and it’s in Minnesota. But it’s still a big like from me. I’d give it 9/10 for sure.
There are a few others I am following, but I won’t bore you with those for now. I’ll save them for the next blog when I write about missing out on the cars above. For now, I will keep kicking those internet tires and keep my hopes up for finding one that has my name on it.
Hello again, and welcome to another addition of My Search For American Muscle! I’m back with another interesting story of how I am shopping for a classic muscle car and why I probably will never own one! Time to kick some more tires – virtually this time.
In the last episode I wrote about my admiration for the GM A body cars (Malibu/Chevelle, Skylark/GS, LeMans/GTO, Cutlass/442) and chose for my first look-see a 1967 Oldsmobile Cutlass 442 convertible. This bad boy was local and looked great on the internet, but wasn’t quite what I wanted when I went to see it. In retrospect, maybe my expectations were too high. Maybe that car would have been just fine for me. Maybe I should have bought it. I could be out in the garage polishing the fenders right now and worrying about a shovel falling on it. I guess I will never know, as the car was sold and off the seller’s website within a week. The seller said that he bought and sold them quickly. That ain’t no lie. Oh well, it’s gone. You can read about the 442 in Part I here: My Search For American Muscle – Part I
PART II – The 1967 Plymouth GTX
Although I really do like the GM cars from the muscle car era, I don’t limit myself to just GM. I can admire something about all of the offerings from the Big Three, as they all took a turn dominating the muscle car era. When I was a kid the first car I remember my parents buying new was an 1972 Plymouth Sport Fury Suburban station wagon. I was playing with my friends “down the street” as I always referred to it back then, and was on my way home on my Schwinn for dinner and saw that we had company. But it wasn’t company; my dad had purchased a new station wagon that afternoon. I can remember pretty vividly pedaling down the path to my house and seeing it for the first time. Pretty exciting stuff.
If you are not familiar with 70’s station wagons, they were huge and fun to play in as a kid. Three rows of seats, with the back seat facing backward so you could make faces at the driver of the car behind you, which we did constantly.
This isn’t our car, but looks just like the one we had in the same color. The fake wood grain is falling off this one too.The door could swing open or fold down and it had little footpads on the bumper. Imagine a 10 year old me with a Moe Howard haircut staring at you from that window.
We drove that Plymouth everywhere, I think we even drove it to the top of Pike’s Peak in Colorado on vacation one year as well. It wasn’t long before Dad acquired another Plymouth. I believe it was a ’66 or ’67 Satellite/Belvedere or possibly a Fury sedan, I don’t really remember the details well. I do remember that it was white with a light blue interior. Dad did some welding work on a sign that Mr. Skiniotis was having him build for a used car lot they were starting in town, and I think he bartered with them to get the Plymouth. The details are kind of fuzzy after 45 plus years, but it was a cool car and Plymouth was definitely leaving an imprint on my youth.
THE PLYMOUTH/DODGE B BODY
Okay, so now you know that I do have a liking for Plymouth and particularly what were called B bodies. The B bodies included many cars from Plymouth and Dodge, but the really cool B bodies were those produced between 1968 through 1970, and they were lead by the likes of the Charger (think Dukes of Hazzard’s General Lee), Coronet R/T, Belvedere GTX, and the super cool Road Runner. The engine offerings for these cars were 383 and 440 cubic inch monsters, but the big dog was the Hemi. As popular as the Hemi was then, they are insanely popular now. A 1968 Charger with a Hemi engine could cost you at least six figures. That’s way out of my price range. But due to the popularity of those ’68 through ’70 cars, the non-Hemi cars are up there in price as well. Turns out, I like some of the less popular models as well, and I tend to buck the trends and fads somewhat. I like to be different, and the 1967 Plymouth GTX kind of stands out for me. At a car show full of Camaros, Chevelles and Mustangs, I bet a ’67 GTX would definitely stand out. In 1968 the designs of the cars were starting to look more to the future, with redesigns part of most of the Big Three car company offerings. That made them immediately popular. The ’67 model was really the last of the ’60s era car designs in my humble opinion. The ’67 GTX has very sharp lines, looks like a box on wheels, whereas the ’68s started taking on that “Coke” bottle design with curves. That being said, I love the look of the ’67, and they are much cheaper than the second generation of B bodies.
The first ’67 GTX that I found was being sold by a classic car dealer in Tennessee. It was another red car (the 442 was red as well) and a four speed too. It looked great and I watched it for a few weeks. Then it was gone. They sold it. So with the 442, I felt I needed to hurry up and seal the deal, only to learn to slow my roll, and then find out another car I was keen on was no longer on the market and I missed out on it.
1967 Plymouth GTX in Tennessee. Gone in 60 Seconds, give or take a few weeks.
So I kept looking and stumbled on to a beauty, another ’67 GTX, this one a convertible. I stopped looking at other ads. This one was the one for sure. Take a look:
’67 GTX in Turbine Bronze Metallic!Looks new!440 Super Commando, BABY!
This one is a Super Commando big block, a rag top, and in a not very common but super cool color! I’m ready to hit buy. But it’s in the LA California area, and although it’s about at the max cost that I want to spend, I’m sure shipping isn’t cheap either.
We were in Pasadena for the Tournament of Roses parade and I wanted to go see the car, but we just couldn’t find the time to look at it with the busy schedule we had. I contacted the dealer’s salesman and tried to get the lowdown on the car. He said that it was all original and super clean (aren’t they all), and that it was a car originally from New Mexico, spent some time in Arizona before a complete restoration about 5 years ago, and then bought by him and brought to Cali. I asked if there was any video of it driving and he said he could provide some of it running, but not driving (hmmm…), and would send me some pictures of the underside of the car (still waiting…). I was really considering buying it sight unseen, but decided to wait to see the video and extra photos. One downside to the car is no power assist on the brakes, but I can probably live with that. Adding a vacuum booster is a possibility as well, and they’re pretty cheap.
I got a little impatient waiting on the extra photos I requested and decided to see if the internet could provide some background into the car. I found a lot of related listings that were just cross posted ads relating back to the dealer. But then I Googled the VIN.
It seems this car wasn’t just a New Mexico/Arizona/California dry climate car like the salesman believed. (For the record, I don’t doubt that he didn’t know more than he passed along to me.) This car has spent time in Virginia and Florida, as well as being sent across the Barrett-Jackson auction block a few times, selling in Las Vegas, Nevada for $57,200 in 2009; Scottsdale, Arizona for $44,000 in 2012; and in Palm Springs, Florida for $28,050 (no reserve) in 2013! There were two more listings that I found from Fort Lauderdale, Florida listing it for $40,000 and $44,000. I also found a video of the car for sale from Fort Lauderdale for $58,900 from 2013. Video of the GTX
Something weird is going on with those prices. Also, the car seemed to have two restorations, one that gives it a look that it sports today, and another to replace the under hood insulation and to remove the two white stripes on the car.
Same GTX sporting two white stripes in VirginiaRear viewThis picture book documents the restoration and is currently in the possession of the current dealer.
So it’s got a history, big deal. Cars that are more than 50 years old are bound to have a history. It doesn’t really deter me from this car, but it does add a little bit of intrigue to it.
I’m thinking of hiring a classic car appraiser from the LA area to go take a look at it for me. It might cost me $400 bucks for the service, but at least I would know more about the condition and drivability of the car. Something to think about. I’m no longer in any big rush. Maybe I’ll look at the GM A bodies again.
It’s kind of funny how I vacillate between “got to have it now” and “I had better wait.” Lots of thoughts keep popping into my head about making a classic car purchase. I worry that it won’t hold value, which is somewhat silly because the trend seems to constantly be going up. I also worry about breaking it doing something silly. There aren’t many parts available for the ’67 GTX like there are for later models. And I also sometimes think that it is a dumb move to spend so much money on a 50 year old car when there are lots of other things to spend that money on that can give me just as much joy. It’s just that those cars are special. And I want one.
I can wrap up 2018 in a couple words: overtrained and rainy. In 2018 I turned 55 years old and it certainly feels like it. The work I did in the three prior years while maintaining a three plus year run everyday running streak turned me into a pretty good runner and triathlete until it became too much. By the beginning of 2018 I was starting to feel beat up and it only got worse. By the time I made it to the starting line of my first Boston Marathon in April I wasn’t sure I could even finish it, but I did, in the rain, the first of many 2018 events run in rainy conditions. The day after running Boston, I ended my running streak and spent the rest of 2018 trying to recover and rebuild. There was a little bit of success there, but I am still searching to recapture the ability to get the personal bests that were happening consistently in 2016.
2018 just wasn’t my year for running. I was in a groove the past five years or so, claiming at each year end that I had just had the best running year ever. But not this year. It seems like I have plateaued, hit a wall, or just plain have gotten old. I’m not sure about the excuse of being old, as I have set plenty of personal bests the last few years in both marathons and Ironman and qualifying for and running my first Boston Marathon. I think I may have just pushed a little too hard toward the end of 2017 and into 2018 that I need to reset myself. It’s hard for me because although my body reminds me daily that I’m in my mid-fifties, my brain still acts like a twenty-something. The brain is writing checks that my body cannot cash any more. I think I need to put my training on some sort of budget, but my brain has already declared that I’m doing two more marathons next year. Dumb brain. Anyway, I did try to dial it back into a rebuild this year, dropping my 3 year running streak and taking more rest days, as well as not trying to set a personal best on every damn training run (thanks a lot, Strava).
30 YEARS – WOW! One thing I’ve been thinking a lot about as I run is that I have been doing it for 30 years now. I started experimenting with running in my teens and college days, but I didn’t start keeping track of my miles until 1989, when I started to see myself going farther and getting faster and wanted to see how I improved over time. I just kept writing it down. Now I log it with an app, which has taken some of the fun out of it because I used to write down comments and notes about my run when I logged it by hand, but I do not do so as much now. I used to hand write this yearly wrap up as well, but I think I enjoy sharing it on this blog page more. I can add photos and leave and share memories that I can look back on easily. Some day I will get around to writing about the years and miles of running I have accumulated, but for now I will just keep on running and enjoying the miles.
2018 – RUNNING REVIEW
Here’s a monthly wrap up of my running miles and milestones.
JANUARY
Total Runs: 31
Average Weekly Miles: 35.5
Total Hours: 20.4
Total Miles: 142
Nothing much of note in this month. Training for the Boston Marathon had begun. I do remember it being super cold and occasional runs in the snow.
I tossed some older running shirts that I never wear. That is a big move by me.
FEBRUARY
Total Runs: 28
Average Weekly Miles: 29
Total Hours: 17
Total Miles: 116
Still training for Boston in the cold.
MARCH
Total Runs: 31
Average Weekly Miles: 40
Total Hours: 23.4
Total Miles: 159
The plan upped the mileage this month preparing for my date with Boston. I did my one long run on 3/23, an 18 miler. I had no intention on doing any longer runs. I was pretty sore and had no energy.
APRIL
Total Runs: 23
Average Weekly Miles: 27.5
Total Hours: 16.3
Total Miles: 110
My first Boston Marathon! I think that might be Des Linden behind me. Maybe not.
Yay! I ran my first Boston Marathon! It was quite an experience that I will never forget. I beat Galen Rupp! Okay, he dropped out and I didn’t, but technically I think that still qualifies as a win. (The link to my race reports will be at the bottom of this post.)
Immediately after finishing the Boston Marathon I kept the promise to myself that I would drop my running streak. I needed to recover from 3 plus years of running at least a mile every day. It was a good challenge, but it had worn out it’s welcome. Here’s the wrap up of the running streak: RIP Running Streak
MAY
Total Runs: 17
Average Weekly Miles: 25
Total Hours: 14.75
Total Miles: 100
Recovery from Boston was pretty quick and I started enjoying some milder running weather. I was kind of surprised that I hit 100 miles this month.
JUNE
Total Runs: 18
Average Weekly Miles: 23
Total Hours: 13.3
Total Miles: 93
Had fun running the 5K with the youngin’s, Ben and his girlfriend Emily. Ben was the overall winner and Emily grabbed 1st in her age group and 13th overall.
I jumped back into the 5K race season with a decent but slower than usual finish time, but still nabbed a first place age group award in the getting old division at the Frankfort Short Run on a Long Day 5K. As nice of a finish that is, I had my first ever Did Not Start to a race I had signed up for. The weather on race day morning of the Batavia Triathlon was threatening enough for me not to waste my time driving up there, thinking it would be canceled. I took a gamble and lost, as the race was delayed and shortened, but it’s a punch to the gut when you drop out when others committed to it and got it done.
JULY
Total Runs: 17
Average Weekly Miles: 33
Total Hours: 19.7
Total Miles: 135
The corral seeding came out for the Chicago Marathon and they put me in the E corral, which is weird because the time I used to qualify for the race should have put me in the D corral from the start. So, I applied to move up to the D corral based on that previous qualifying time and hatched a plan to move up to the C corral by trying to run a qualifier in a half marathon. So on 7/21 I toed the line in Hoffman Estates and attempted to run a sub-1:35 half marathon. I was kind of shooting for the stars, and missed it by about 4 minutes, but it was a pretty good time for a rainy half marathon in July. I was happy to be in the D corral.
‘Murica! The people behind me were finishing the 10K as I wrapped up the half marathon. I love when that happens.
I also did the Manteno Tri at the end of this month, with Kari doing the duathlon. We both did well, placing 2nd in our age groups. Fun race.
AUGUST
Total Runs: 20
Average Weekly Miles: 39.5
Total Hours: 23.4
Total Miles: 158
Marathon training was ramping up again. I did the Chicago Triathlon with my Gunner mates and our side kicks. That was a hot race. First time that I HAD to walk a portion of a running race as the temp was into the 90’s.
SEPTEMBER
Total Runs: 19
Average Weekly Miles: 42
Total Hours: 24.2
Total Miles: 167
Highlight of this month was running the Frankfort/New Lenox Running Club’s 20 mile training run. I did surprisingly well and built a lot of confidence on a mid-September Saturday. Since it’s not a race, here’s the link to that report: The Dreaded 20 Mile Training Run
Last few feet of the F’NRC 20 mile training run.
OCTOBER
Total Runs: 17
Average Weekly Miles: 25
Total Hours: 15
Total Miles: 102
I gave my best to the 2018 Chicago Marathon but it just wasn’t my year. I held on and was on pace for the first half and slowly lost it from there. The highlight of the race was running with my son Ben, who was running his first. And boy did he, finishing in 2:47. Impressive! I dialed it way back after the marathon.
Running the marathon with my son was the highlight of the year.
NOVEMBER
Total Runs: 13
Average Weekly Miles: 21
Total Hours: 12
Total Miles: 83
I really went into recovery mode in November and I think it paid off. I find that my feet and calves were no longer killing me like they were in 2017. I did start adding some bike spinning on non-running days.
DECEMBER
Total Runs: 15
Average Weekly Miles: 20
Total Hours: 12
Total Miles: 82
2018 RUNNING TOTALS
Total Runs: 249
Average Weekly Miles: 27.8
Total Hours: 211.5
Total Miles: 1447
LIFETIME RUNNING TOTALS
Total Lifetime Runs: 4589 – 153 runs per year average
Total Lifetime Hours: 3335 – 111 hours per year average
Total Lifetime Miles: 24995 (Really?! Missed it by 5 miles!) – 833 miles per year average
TRIATHLON REVIEW
This was a dial back year of sorts for triathlon. I signed up for three and only started two as I chickened out for the Batavia Tri. But the year was pretty much dedicated to doing the Boston and Chicago marathons. I was thinking that 2019 would be a bigger year for tri’s but I’ve already signed up for two more marathons! I am definitely planning on another Ironman in the next year or two. Swim and bike totals were way down from 2017.
SWIM TOTALS: Total Swims: 11 / Total Distance: 14,475 yards
I was really planning to take it easy in 2019, seeing that I didn’t re-qualify for Boston, but that just made me mad. Ben and Emily qualified for Boston 2020 and now I wasn’t content to be a spectator, which I was just fine with in October. But I thought it over and decided to give it one more shot at qualifying. I looked around and found the Spring BQ 26.2 in Batavia, IL in early April 2019. Fortunately, I met the qualifying standard to get into this race and I look forward to running it. It’s an 8 lapper on a bike path, and they treat you like an elite with a table for your own sports drink and nutrition – cool! I hope to dial it in, lock it down and run sub-3:35 for another BQ and join Ben and Emily in Boston. But if it doesn’t happen, I’ll once again be glad to be a spectator in Boston.
Speaking of dialing it in, I’m going to utilize Don Fink’s Mastering the Marathon plan for us older athletes. It’s geared to the over 40 runners, which I certainly qualify. There’s more recovery and I can swap some runs in the plan for running related activities, in my case cycling. This will hopefully still prepare me to do well at the marathon as well as allow me to gear up for the triathlon season.
Regardless of how I do in the spring marathon, I plan on taking it easy for Chicago. The only way I push hard is if my buddy Jeff wants to run it together, but I don’t think I can keep up with him. I’m thinking I might put that race away for a while even though I have legacy status to maintain. Running it every other year would maintain my legacy status. I might focus on 70.3’s and Ironman for a while instead.
Of course I still plan on running my favorite local 5K’s and the triathlons I like to do. I’m already signed up for the Batavia Tri and will definitely sign up for Manteno again. It’s a fun race.
I was born in 1963 at the tail end of the baby boomer generation, and I think we and maybe the first of the Generation Xers are the last of a breed of guys who think the muscle car era (1964 through 1972) was the greatest period for cars ever. We may be the last group that can appreciate the beauty of these machines and the last that may appreciate the value they hold. These are the cars we grew up around. Maybe your parents had one. Maybe your cool uncle came back from Vietnam and bought a GTO. Maybe the neighbor down the street would roar past your house in his Mach 1. Maybe it was a cool guy in your school whose dad let him have a Chevelle. For me, the biggest influence was my brother Jon. He was eight years older than me and was into going fast. He had a 1968 Camaro that I think he rolled into the ditch near the high school, probably showing off. He also had an orange and black 1969 Chevelle SS, that I begged him to drive me around in. I can clearly remember getting in the back of it and driving to Old Chicago, a suburban indoor amusement park in the early 1970’s where I experienced eating Wendy’s for the first time, and watching an old guy hand roll cigars in the window of a tobacco shop. I think my sister might have even thrown up in the back seat once, not sure on that.
My sister Sue and the ’66 Ford Mustang, circa 1979-80.
Believe it or not, this was a color photograph. Pictures sucked back then. Neither the sign nor the house in the background are there anymore.
My first car was a 1966 Ford Mustang, a car whose radio would only work if the lights were on, and the brakes would work sometimes, only if I really stood on the pedal. When Mom found out about the brakes, Jon was enlisted to find a replacement. It was a beater 1974 Chevy Vega, a car that got me through high school but was far from a performance vehicle, although it did have a four speed manual transmission that made driving it at least a little more fun.
A stock photo of a 1974 Chevy Vega. I had the same exact car, just imagine it with more rust.
In college I found a 1971 Olds Cutlass 442 for sale for $1000 in Macomb, Illinois. I called my mom and asked if I could use my savings to buy it. She agreed, and the deal was made. Then I learned some hard lessons about buying a 23 year old car for $1000. The original motor wasn’t there, and in it’s place was a Buick 350. I didn’t know any better to even check. The body had a little front end damage that was not really visible from a distance. And it wasn’t long before I could see where the body had been repaired with body filler. There was lots of it. But inside it was pretty nice, and it drove well enough for me to drive it around and get the occasional thumbs up from someone who could appreciate a car from that era. I even courted Kari in that car, cruising around going nowhere in particular, even though I had a nice new 1987 Pontiac Sunbird Turbo GT by then.
The 442 parked at the old apartment at WIU
The car was actually able to make it from WIU to home
Then Kari and I got engaged and married and I sold the not very original 442 for $500 so that I could help fund our honeymoon. Five hundred bucks. Today you can sell the rear bumper of a 442 for much more than $500. I was thinking that I was kind of dumping this car on the guy that bought it because the transmission was fried, no longer really wanting to go in reverse. But when he came back with the money to pick it up, he was driving a cherry 1970 442 that looked brand new. His intention was to restore the car for his daughter. I was glad it was going to someone who knew what he was doing, and I hope that the car is still out there today.
MY SEARCH FOR A MUSCLE CAR
Since selling that 442 back in 1992, I have often wished that I could have another muscle car to drive around in. I can remember back in the mid to late 1990’s I even started a muscle car savings account at the bank and would throw some money into it hoping to save enough for another car. The problem that arose however, was the market for them exploded. Baby boomers were now in a position to buy them and they were scooping them up. Prices skyrocketed. Some of the Hemi powered Mopars were fetching well over $100K, with the rare Superbird reaching close to a million bucks at some auctions. I knew that I wasn’t really positioned to purchase a muscle car with three young kids, a mortgage and college to pay for. I think I emptied that savings account to help pay for one of our houses we moved to, or the minivan that we bought for our growing family. So I waited. Waited until I turned 55 years old.
On my birthday this year, my wife gave me a birthday card that was car themed and on the bottom she had written “Let’s go pick up that classic hot rod!” I was floored, but excited! She had seen that I had been looking online at old cars for sale. I was looking just because I like to look at them, but she also could tell that I was interested in getting one again. Thankfully, prices for classic muscle cars has come down quite a bit. The 2008 economy tanking affected the values somewhat, and they came down to more reasonable levels. But they are starting to creep up again.
So I began looking in earnest for a car. What did I want? What could we afford? Lots of things to consider. It was almost a burden, because the cars I really like are the most popular of the muscle car era. I particularly like the 1970 Chevy Chevelle SS. That’s really the dream car for me. But I see those all the time and Chevelles are really expensive. So I broadened my list to include not just the Chevelle, but all of the GM A bodies – Buick GS, Olds Cutlass, Pontiac GTO. I really like the 1970 through 1972 era for the A body, but there is another year that really stands out for me – 1967. That year seems to me to represent the last of the old 60’s cars before the newer 1968 style ushered in a new look that would take those car styles into the 1970’s.
But I didn’t limit myself just to GM. My dad had a 1965 or 1966 Plymouth Sport Fury III sedan that I remembered from being a kid. It was a cool car, painted white with a nice light blue interior. On summer days when it would rain, I would go out and sit in the car and listen to the raindrops pound away on the roof of it. It just had a cool interior. One muscle car from mother Mopar that reminds of that Fury is the 1967 Plymouth GTX. The lines on that car are super sharp, and it just looks aggressive sitting still. The Dodge R/T is very closely related, so that car is on my list as well.
So I guess I’m not saying no to any of the cars from that ’64 through ’72 era, it’s just that those are the ones I like. I was looking mostly online on the Hemmings Motor News website, one that had a ton of cars. I found several that I saved as favorites. The trouble is many of them are located several states away. That meant that I would have to plan on taking a trip to see them and budget for shipping costs to get them delivered home. Lots of things to consider now. I told my friend Carl that it was becoming a pain in the butt for me!
THE FIRST TEST DRIVE
I was searching on eBay and found a 1967 Olds Cutlass Supreme 442 convertible in an ad. This car was local too, being sold in Huntley, Illinois about 55 miles away. The listing had a ton of pictures and I was blown away. A convertible 442 that looked awesome and I could get it locally. It listed for $45,750.
A red 1967 Olds C/S 442 convertible for sale in Huntley, Illinois. Are you drooling too?
One of the best looking 1967 GM A bodies in my personal opinion.
This car had me drooling. The pictures made it look like a show winner. This car was sexy. I now knew that this one might be the one.
The engine was billed as original to the car. I studied and decoded the body tag on the firewall. It indicated that it was a 1967 442 built in the third week of April. The one discrepancy was the paint code, it showed a “P” which meant a Pewter color and this one was “arrest me red.” The other thing that bothered me was the underbody was painted the red body color and most all of the ’67’s that I have seen are painted black on the underside. It was super clean though, and all of the floor panels looked original and in great shape.
I contacted the owner, a guy who ran a dealership called National Muscle Cars, and arranged to go see it. I just didn’t feel comfortable making an eBay offer on a car without seeing it in person. I promised him that I wasn’t just some tire kicker and that I was serious about acquiring a collector car.
Kari and I drove up and met with the guy. He was super cool and told us that he acquired muscle cars as a hobby and did a lot of buying and selling. This was the only car he had for sale at the time.
My first impression of the car was wow, it looked awesome and sounded cool too. We did a cursory walk around and I liked what I saw and we took it for a spin. It was the test drive that started to change my mind about the car. The very first thing I noticed was that the compartment lid in the shifter console would not stay closed. For a car that was billed as having an extensive restoration, to not put the effort into making sure the lid would stay closed seemed odd to me. Plus it had some weird bolts in the bottom of it securing it to the floor that did not look factory correct to me.
The transmission shifted hard into gear and it seemed that it just wasn’t shifting very smooth. I decided to put my foot into the gas and there was no get up and go to it. It rode pretty smooth, but the drive did not thrill me like I had hoped.
Upon getting back to the shop, he let Kari and I look the car over. It was then I could see some of the little flaws that from 5 feet away you wouldn’t have noticed. It was a piece of chrome trim that was loose around the the convertible top that made me think that this car’s rotisserie restoration was just basically a repaint and not much more. For nearly $46,000 bucks, I wanted a little more of a solid car. I didn’t want to have to correct every little thing. I told the guy that I would have to think about it, but I had already decided to take a pass. It just seemed to me that if I was finding these little issues, there would be more that I would discover later on.
I thanked the guy and Kari and I drove to the local Culver’s and had a quick bite to eat, and I explained to her why I didn’t think this was the right car. We agreed that there are many more out there, and there was no rush to buy the car right away. I learned to make sure to put in the time to check them out before committing. These are cars that are 50 years old, and were basically driven hard by baby boomers and people like me for five decades.
I guess that I will need to kick a few more tires. The search will continue!
For my 19th time, I hereby do declare I WILL NEVER RUN ANOTHER MARATHON AGAIN! This time I MEAN IT!
This Chicago Marathon will definitely go down as one of my most memorable. The race was my third long distance race this year that was run in the rain. It brought back memories of Boston last April, cool temps, wind and rain. This was a light version of Boston though. The temperature was near 60 degrees instead of 40, and the rain wasn’t pouring. The wind was only noticeable when running certain directions, and only briefly. Thankfully, Boston taught me how to manage crappy running weather, but you can never be fully prepared. And it turns out I’m not sure I was fully prepared for this one.
I was looking forward to running Chicago, as my son was going to be running it as his first marathon. Notice I didn’t say that we would be running it together. He’s fast, I’m not. Well, not as fast as he is anyway. But I looked forward to sharing that experience together.
Here’s the lowdown on how the Chicago Marathon went for me.
TRAINING
After finishing the Boston Marathon I needed to give my body a break. I was beat. I showed up at Boston way overtrained and worn out. The day after Boston I ended my three year running streak of running at least a mile everyday, and told myself I had to get myself right again.
After a trip to the doctor, I learned what I was kind of assuming, that I had thyroid issues. Blood tests confirmed it, and now I’m taking a synthetic thyroid medication for the rest of my life. I had thought that it might change things for me metabolically, but my doctor buddy said not to expect miracles. He was right. I really struggled to lose the ten pounds I had gained over the winter and spring. Eventually, I did drop a few pounds, but nothing like what I had expected. One positive was that I wasn’t as tired as I had been before, so that is a plus.
In mid-June I began following the same 16-week advanced training plan that I usually use. I also had been doing some triathlon related training, hoping to throw in a couple of races before the longer mileage weeks started to kick in. I ended up doing a sprint triathlon in June and the Chicago Triathlon in August.
I was a little nervous about the training after struggling with the Boston training and the race itself, but it actually went pretty well. The highlight for me was the 20 mile training run I did three weeks out from the race. I was able to hold my 8 min/mile pace fairly easily through that run and it really gave me a confidence boost. You can read about it here: The Dreaded 20 Mile Training Run
RACE WEEKEND
I took Friday off and headed to Chicago to attend the expo with Ben and his girl friend Emily. Every year that I had gone to the expo I would see proud Boston finishers parading around in their Boston Marathon jackets and be somewhat envious. This year, even though I didn’t really need a jacket, I decided I was going to peacock the hell out my one Boston Marathon finish and sport that damn jacket at the expo. I wasn’t alone. I saw numerous Boston 2018 celebration jackets.
Me, Ben and my jacket heading to meet Emily and go to the expo.
We ended up getting there around midday, and man was it crazy! I had never seen it so crowded before.
For a minute I thought I was in the corral of the actual race. This was just the holding area to get in and pick up the race packet. I had never seen it this bad before.
Ben and I got our bibs and started the trek through the expo. We ended up spending money on mostly disappointing official Nike marathon gear and other odds and ends. We caught a glimpse of Deena Kastor and then decided to get out of there. The expo can be overwhelming after awhile.
Saturday, we all met downtown in the late afternoon and met at our hotel, the Chicago Palmer House Hilton. The hotel lobby was impressive, the rooms not so much. It’s location to the race start area was ideal, but a little bit of a hike from the finish. The Chicago Hilton is a better option for being closer to the finish, but I didn’t book it fast enough and had to settle for the Palmer House. I will say there were better dining options nearby, and I opted for the Corner Bakery and got some loaded baked potato soup and bread for an evening carb load. I had already eaten some pasta at home around 1 pm, so I think I had enough carb loading for the day.
Ben and I talked some race day strategy and I laid out my options for what to wear in the race. I had already kind of chosen the outfit, but I had brought some options in case I changed my mind.
Only thing not showing is my matching grey with red Hoka Cliftons.
Sleep went well except for a weird moment in the middle of the night where I found myself sweating like crazy. I got up, used the bathroom, and went back to sleep. The alarm finally went off, and I got myself ready for the day.
RACE MORNING
Ben met me at the room and after some last minute assurances, we decided it was time to head to the corrals.
It wasn’t raining yet, but we wanted to keep warm.
We were advised to go into the corrals by entering into a specific gate based on our corral assignments, but I wasn’t having any of that. The first and closest gate was at Jackson and we got in line. Just as we were getting near the inspection point this Chinese guy cuts in front of us. Then he couldn’t understand why they wouldn’t let him carry in his sling bag because only the clear plastic gear bag was allowed. Fortunately, they let him put it into his gear bag, which he should have done in the first place. Off to a great start, but we weren’t done with him yet. As you pass security, there are event photographers ready to take your pre-race photo, so Ben and I decided to do so. Just after the guy takes our picture, we realize the guy photobombed us.
We made an international friend!
I’m smiling in the photo, but I was laughing right after it when I realized he was in the photo too! Here’s one without Mr. E10796:
Still laughing about our friend.
Ben and I got to the split where Corrals A and B went one way and C through E went another. I told him that I loved him and that I was proud of him and that I don’t tell him that enough. We hugged and I headed straight to the toilets.
Once in the corral I found it pretty empty as I was there pretty early. So I headed to the front of it to the rope that separates the C corral from D and just hung out. I used my portable urinal (my nearly empty Gatorade bottle) under my plastic bag three times before the race started which surprised me, as I had used the port-o-lets twice before getting into my corral. Nerves I guess. After the anthem the start horn blew and I pulled the plastic garbage bag off and tossed the bag and bottle over the fence, and we started the 7 minute shuffle to the start line. Ben said he crossed the line within 10 seconds. It took me 7:18 to cross it. I gave him a head start.
RACE
Start to 5K: Overall Time: 0:25:12 / Ave. Pace 8:07 min/mile
I started off well and felt pretty strong, although my first split was about 8:15 min/mile which surprised me a little. It is hard to concentrate on pace right at the start because we are still packed tight a little, and you spend more time getting through the field than thinking about pace. It was in that first half mile that my Garmin lost track of me as we were under Randolph Street and Wacker Drive and put my split a couple of tenths off at each subsequent mile marker. Ben was going to hit his lap button every mile, but I’m done with that business. I had decided I was warm enough without my homemade tube sock arm warmers and stuck them in my shorts in case I needed them again.
Ben (in blue) coming thru the 4K area where our cheer crew was waiting.
Our Cheer Crew was amazing. Kari and Rebecca, along with our friends Jeff and Jill were there, plus Emily and a couple of Ben’s running buddies from Loras College braved the wet day to cheer us on. Although I had told Kari to stick with Ben, I saw Jeff and Jill up through the half way point, and then Jeff at a few other spots. Seeing everyone was always a big pick-me-up.
Me greeting the Cheer Crew.
5K to 10K: Overall time: 0:49:03 / 5K Split: 0:24:31 / Ave. Pace 7:54 min/mile
It was raining pretty steady now but I wasn’t cold really. I managed to get my pace under 8 minute miles and was feeling good. Nothing out of the ordinary through here, just still going north.
10K to 15K: Overall time: 1:14:29 / 5K Split: 0:24:27 / Ave. Pace 7:59 min/mile
Miles 6 through 9 really had nothing remarkable about them. Right about the 10K mark the 3:25 pace group went by me and I took note of that. I usually see an Elvis impersonator through this stretch, but I’m guessing that he wasn’t into the rain this year. I did start to sense I was getting a blister on my left pinky toe from my shoes being soaked. That was a little surprising because I had lubed up my toes very well. Kept my average pace near 8 min/miles.
15K to 20K: Overall time: 1:39:55 / 5K Split: 0:25:26 / Ave. Pace 8:11 min/mile
As I neared the halfway point, I started to tell I was slowing a little. The effort was getting harder even though I was on top of my nutrition plan. I felt okay, but that would change as I passed the halfway point.
Wet, but still content. (This photo won’t stay center justified for some reason!)
Halfway: Overall Time: 1:45:42 / Ave. Pace 8:29 min/mile
I hit the halfway and felt not so great. I was only 45 seconds over my intended split of 1:45:00 for the half, but I knew that I was losing it. My average pace dropped from 8 to 8:30 min/mile and I really didn’t see how I was going to maintain it.
Halfway to 25K: Overall Time: 2:06:32 / Split: 0:20:51 / Ave. Pace 8:36 min/mile
At the 14 mile area I saw Jeff and Jill and said I wasn’t feeling good any longer. It seemed like I was being drained of my energy. We had just passed a couple little inclines downtown, but I don’t think that was a factor. I was starting to realize that this was going to be a get to the finish line in one piece marathon for me. My time goal of 3:30 was slipping away.
25K to 30K: Overall Time: 2:34:01 / 5K Split: 0:27:30 / Ave. Pace 8:51 min/mile
I generally call this section the Dead Zone and it was no different this year. It’s mainly just runners along this portion as it is the farthest west part of the course. I will say though, that I expected the rain to drive away the crowds this year and in reality, the course was pretty populated with cheering fans. My time is creeping closer to the 9 min/mile average.
30K to 35K: Overall Time: 3:03:47 / 5K Split: 0:29:46 / Ave. Pace 9:35 min/mile
Running through Pilsen and Chinatown are highlights of the race usually, but not this time. I just wanted to get past the 20 mile mark and know I had 10K to go. It was in this section that the 3:30 pace group passed me by like I was standing still. I was resigned that my goal of finishing 3:30 was gone, and I also knew that being sub-3:35 for a Boston Marathon qualifier was pretty much out the door. I was a just finisher now.
Mile 21 – Chinatown
35K to 40K: Overall Time: 3:37:22 / 5K Split: 0:33:35 / Ave. Pace 10:49 min/mile
Hello 3:35 pace group. Goodbye 3:35 pace group. I was walking the aid stations now and willing myself to keep moving forward. In 2016 I was passing these zombies, this year I was one of the un-dead. Along this section I did get a pick-me-up though – I saw the guy that is always at Ironman Wisconsin on Old Sauk Pass wearing the orange afro-wig. He was cheering us on here as well. I stopped and said hello to him because we spent some time with him on that course cheering for Jeff and his sister Jan.
I wish I had a good side, but sadly I don’t. This definitely isn’t it. I feel bad for E8772, having my dumb ass in his photo.
40K to the Finish: Overall time: 3:52:07 / Split 0:14:46 / Ave. Pace 10:50 min/mile
I saw Kari and Rebecca waiting for me after the 25 mile mark and I stopped to say hello. Not much longer and I would be done.
Saw Kari and Rebecca and I headed to their side of Michigan Avenue.
I started to press forward and make it up Roosevelt Road and head to the finish. As I was climbing Mount Roosevelt as we marathoners call it, a volunteer said to “Fight up the hill!” I told her I was a lover not a fighter. She laughed and then I heard her yell, “then Love up that hill!”
As I headed toward the finish I heard my name get called out from the stands. I turned to look and saw Calvin Jordan, a fellow runner from New Lenox that I had met this fall. I made a beeline over to him and said hello. I think he thought I was nuts not sprinting for the finish, but I was glad to end the run with a friendly face and hello.
Wrapping it up.
Finally done with 26.2 miles.
Conclusion
The goal for me was to take advantage of a 10 minute Boston qualifying cushion that I would receive just by turning 55 years old. But in September, the BAA decided to reduce the qualifying times by 5 minutes. So I went from needing a 3:40 marathon to 3:35, which didn’t seem to be out of the possibility for me seeing that I had ran a 3:25 in 2016. But this just wasn’t my year. I wanted to join Ben and Emily in Boston in 2020, but instead of being in the field, I will happily go to be a spectator.
I think my main issue this year was volume, and essentially too much of it for a guy in his mid-fifties. When I finished Boston in April, my body was beat. Everything hurt. So I dropped the 3+ year running streak I had and worked on rebuilding myself. I was really feeling pretty good again come summer, and when I did my 20 mile training run in late September, I held that 8 min/mile pace well. Just wasn’t my year this year.
But I must say I’m very proud of my 3:52:07 finish. Being sub-4 hours is always pretty cool.
Ben made me very proud. He crushed his first marathon in 2:47:11! After the race he seemed like it was just another day of running to him! Not tired at all. The next day I went out and got my Chicago Tribune and saw that he was in the banner photo at the top!
I also found this photo of him online. Not sure where that hard left turn is, but seeing that the field is pretty spread out and the sparse crowd, I’m guessing toward the latter part of the race. It could be up near mile 8 though.
We wrapped up race day back at the Corner Bakery with some hot soup and then headed for home.
The Trump Tower was off to the left of me and I was trying to pull Ben over to get the sign in the photo, but he wasn’t having any of that! Proud dad with his running boy!
Preparing for a marathon means following a plan, a plan that takes you up in mileage over several weeks (16 for me) and gets you ready to tackle 26.2 miles. This is Week 13 of 16 for me, and it was time to do the dreaded 20 mile training run.
This year I decided to join in with the local Frankfort/New Lenox Running Club that I have been following and run their 20 mile training run. This club really did a great job putting on this event. The route was run on my local trail, had awesome volunteers, plentiful aid stations with anything you could have needed, and even a local team of specialized volunteers called CERT (Community Emergency Response Team) aiding with traffic at several street crossings.
We started at the still sleepy hour of 6 am in downtown Frankfort, Illinois after a group photo in the dark that surprisingly turned out well.
Photo by Susan Danforth
I don’t know why I get nervous before long runs like this, especially when I am doing them alone. This was just billed as a training run, not a race. But regardless, I still was a little nervous. As soon as the photo was taken, I hit the trail.
I was in a pack of about 12 people at the start, but by the time I got 100 feet into it I was in second place. Not that I was racing it!
The trail was in great shape for the early morning run. Most of the brush clearing that the forest preserve does in the summer/fall seemed to have been all cleaned up, and the trail was not yet overrun with cyclists getting in their weekend miles.
I could see a couple of runners ahead of me and I could tell that they were pulling away from me through the first two miles. The girl was moving super fast. They caught another runner and the male dropped back and ran with her. It wasn’t long before I caught them and realized it was a guy from the group named Pat that had also run the Boston Marathon in April. He ran with me for the next two miles to the 4 mile turn around point. We had a great conversation about Boston, running and triathlon. He decided to drop out at the turn around and told me he was heading to the 14 mile aid station and would see me there.
It was now just me and the super fast girl ahead of me, when around mile 6 I was passed by another guy from the group whose name I learned was Gavin. Gavin killed it. He was moving too. There’s some good runners in this club.
I got back to the 8 mile aid station, which was our starting point and filled up my water bottle. I think they were slightly surprised to see runners already returning from the first out and back. It was awesome to have the aid stations. I probably could have left my water bottle at home, but I like to be able to drink when I wanted it.
Stopping at the 4 mile water stop running with Pat. I’m unsure who took the photo, but thanks to those that did!
Around the 10 mile mark I couldn’t take my sweat soaked shirt anymore and I took it off and wrung the sweat out of it. It could have easily been a cup or more of sweat. The day started cool enough, and there was plenty of shade when the sun finally made an appearance, but it was humid and I was sweating. I kept up with my run plan of taking a salt capsule every hour and it kept me in good shape.
Me holding my GU wrapper garbage getting ready to toss it in the garbage at one of the last aid stations. This might be near the 14 mile turn around.
Soon after turning around at the 14 mile mark, I could see that another runner Dan Doyle had made up some time on me. He was closing the gap and finally caught me at Wolf Road when I stopped one final time to top off my water bottle. We ran the remaining 3 or 4 miles together. He was planning to do an extra two miles but he said that he was starting to feel like he was going to cramp up. He ended up doing an additional mile. He’s looking to get a Boston Marathon qualifier in Chicago, and I think he has a real solid chance at that. You never know with the Boston Marathon numbers game.
Dan and I getting to the finish of 20 miles. He went on to do another mile.
I wasn’t planning on writing such a long report for a 20 mile training run, but I haven’t posted anything about my marathon training so far. I was a little concerned about how I was going to fare, seeing that Boston was a terrible run for me and that I came to the conclusion that I was way overtrained. After Boston I dropped the 3+ year running streak I had and took some time off to let my body heal. Missing out on those recovery days after hard efforts was killing me. I think I trained pretty well through the summer to get to this point. It’s kind of hard to know sometimes, as the hotter summer temps produce slower times even though I was putting in hard efforts. What was clear about this run was this: performance on race day is so different than when you are just out there working on a training run. Even though this highly supported 20 miler was not a race, it had a vibe of one, and it allowed me to see where I stood. The previous weeks’ 18 mile run was done on a much cooler day and I seemed to struggle to eventually finish with an 8:15 average pace. Today I averaged 8:05 on a much warmer day and felt strong at that 20 mile mark finish line. A great weather day in October for the Chicago Marathon will hopefully make for another 3:30 or 3:25 finish for me. This run certainly was a confidence builder. I don’t think I have much to dread anymore.
One last shout out to FNRC for hosting this run and doing such a great job. The cold drinks and popsicle at the finish line was the best ever!
Distance: Olympic/International: 1500 meters (0.93 mile) Swim, 40 Kilometers (24.8 mile) Bike, 10 Kilometer (6.2 mile) Run
Results: 2:53:43 – 756/2238 overall, 24/36 M55-59 Age Group, 171/483 Males Over 40
The Chicago Triathlon is always fun to do, even more so when your Team Gunner friends join in on the fun! WE LOVE THIS SPORT!!! Especially Gunner Alex! He loves it more than anyone!
I thought I’d let the pictures tell the story this time – so buckle up! Here we go!
Team Gunners started trickling in and I started taking selfies. The expo was where we all met and sat through the mandatory course talk in order to pick up our race packets.
I was kind of disappointed in the expo. I usually buy an event tri kit to wear in the race but they were almost completely sold out, save for a few size small tri tops. What guy wears a size small tri top? Nobody, that’s who.
After a quick discussion upon leaving the expo, we decided that we would take advantage of pre-racking our bikes in transition the day before the race. Here’s a few shots of what the transition area looks like. The photos don’t show the 7,000 plus bikes.
It’s a good idea to make a mental note where your bike is located. It’s behind that tree about 50 yards.
One final group selfie after everyone had there Gunner-mobiles racked and toured Bike Out.
For dinner we went to Jeff and Jill’s house on Michigan Ave. and were treated to a wonderful spaghetti dinner. It was great, as was the conversation. Their view of Millennium Park and Lake Michigan is amazing.
RACE DAY – SUNDAY MORNING – 4 AM and the alarm goes off. I had written down that Dave said we should meet at the elevators of our floor at 4:40 am, but for some reason my mind registered to meet at 4:20 am. So there I was, 20 minutes early wondering where everyone was. Triathlon makes you dumb. The crew finally arrived and off we began our trek from the Chicago Hilton to transition again to set up the rest of our race gear. This is a long walk, and we were regretting not having our bikes to ride there. But honestly, the racks were so packed with bikes that I doubt I would have found room to rack the thing.
Upon leaving I saw three of Rebecca’s music teachers who were racing the Olympic distance as a relay team. I chatted them up and they seemed pretty excited.
Alex was first up. His wave started at 6:16 am. Lucky him. Did I mention that he loves this sport? He was racing in the Collegiate division with his buddy Brandon.
More pictures of Alex in the water. Nice sunrise photo, too! Thanks Kari!
The remaining Gunner boys met up one final time before our individual wave starts.
It was Jeff’s turn to go next. He really loves this sport too. He’s on Week 28 of 30 training for Ironman Wisconsin. Fun times.
Down to 3 Gunners! One last selfie before Dave and John abandon me.
It’s 7:08 am and now it’s Dave and John’s turn to jump in to Lake Michigan.
This cutie was next. This year Elizabeth and her friend Claire were in different waves. So Lizzy and Claire had to go it alone. I’m not sure if they love this sport too.
Somehow we missed taking pictures of Claire getting in the water, but I found this awesome photo on the race website. Go Claire!!! I’m guessing that she doesn’t enjoy this sport as much as we do.
My turn has finally come. What was I thinking about you ask? I was looking at these 55-59 year old men and thinking about how we all grew up listening to the same music, wearing the same types of clothes and doing the same stupid stuff back in the 70’s and 80’s. We’re the crew that somehow survived that period in one piece. Deep stuff man. Actually, I was fretting about how hot I was, that I had to pee, and that the run was going to suck. I love this sport.
Time to get into the water. This photo is just after I punched myself in the lip trying to get my wetsuit on. I really enjoyed that. Triathlon=Love
7:32 am – Horn blast and off we go! I’m on the left side in the back. See me? I was just giving the others a head start, you know, to make it fair.
THAR SHE BLOWS, MATEY!!!
SWIM: 1500 Meters – 32:03 – It was a pretty good swim for me, seeing that I had done practically NO swimming the entire summer. I was worried that the water would be warm – a week prior the water temp was 80 degrees. But thanks to some strong wave activity this past week, race day water temp was 70 degrees. I was surprised when I jumped in at how cold it felt. The water was perfect, very calm. I stayed wide of the fray and avoided contact. It was a pleasant swim.
T1: 5:40 – The distance from Swim Out to T1 seems like 1/2 mile. It’s a long way to go. I got my wetsuit off quickly, grabbed my bike and headed for Bike Out.
BIKE: 24.8 Miles – 1:13:49 – The bike course takes you north on Lake Shore Drive and although it can have some rollers, it’s pretty flat and fast. I’ve done about as much bike training as I have swim training, but I was moving along pretty well at an average of about 20.5 mph. Seeing that I was in Wave 24, I knew that there would be plenty of slower riders I had to pass around. I passed Elizabeth and then passed one of the Becca’s band teachers. I probably passed Claire too, but I didn’t see her. After coming back down LSD, you head into Lower Wacker Drive, and then the fun starts. I felt like I was riding a motorcycle. You loose GPS signal on Lower Wacker, so I really don’t know how fast I was going, but I assure you that I was easily getting over 25 mph. Love that section of the race. It’s was a lot cooler under there as well. The last third of the bike course is no fun. It’s on a bus only, two lane road and gets pretty crazy down there. I saw the aftermath of a crash with one guy still on the ground. I just wanted to get through it without any trouble, keep my average speed up, and get to the run in one piece.
T2: 3:27 – I’m kind of surprised that this isn’t longer, as helped a guy find his bike that he couldn’t locate, and I took time to shove an empty Gatorade bottle down my pants and pee into it as I walked from my bike to Run Out. Gotta love triathlon.
RUN: 10K/6.2 Miles – 58:46 – The run was a literal “hot mess” as the kids say. The race results listed the temperature at 93 degrees. It felt hotter. I started picking off other runners right away and got into a good pace. My split for the first mile was 7:42 and I knew I was not going to be able to hold it. By mile 3, I was walking the aid stations and just shuffling along. I felt like I had enough nutrition, I had taken 3 salt capsules leading up to this point, and I seemed like I was hydrated enough, judging from the color of my pee in that Gatorade bottle in T2. (I know, too much info.) My real concern was heat stroke. I could feel myself getting really hot. Fortunately, the aid stations had plenty of water and I kept putting it in me and on me. One table around the 4 mile mark had ice and I stuck some in my jersey pockets. By the time I passed by the 5K sprint turn around, they were sending all athletes back. The Event Alert System had gone to RED. Miles 4 and 5 were my slowest, notching a run/walk average pace of 10:35 and 11:03 respectively. But I think it was smart race management on my part. At least I didn’t end up like this girl:
Kari snapped this picture of another racer trying to prevent this girl from face-planting. She got medical assistance. The guy ended up in Dave and John’s race finish video. Kuddos to that guy.
I told myself that I would pick up the pace for the last mile and ended with a 9:27 pace for that mile. I’ll take it. It was brutal. Probably the hottest running race I have ever done. I can’t remember a hotter one.
My race finish video. I’m on the far right. If you watch it, turn the volume down. You’ve been warned.
Coming down the stretch to the finish.
Glad to be done and still upright on this extremely warm day.
Time to wrap it up:
Here’s Alex thoroughly enjoying his run. If you look at his leg you can see where he donated some skin to the pavement on Lower Wacker. I got to hand it to him – in spite of the signs saying to slow down for the turn, he went FULL GUNNER into it and wiped out. HE LOVES THIS SPORT!!!
Here’s brothers John and Dave finishing together. They finished the race with the exact same time. John is tipping his hat in a show of respect to the sport he loves so much. Dave is like me, I always zip up nearing the finish line as well. That’s a pro move, baby!
I got my medal and my popsicle. I have to say, getting a popsicle was the highlight of the race. Just another reason to love this sport.
Many thanks to this lovely lady for being there for me and my Gunner teammates today. And thanks for walking the extra couple of miles to transition and back to get all my junk. That may have been the hardest part of the day. I really was contemplating quitting triathlons and running at this point. LOL
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an amazing run 