Walking Tom

Back to Nike Women's Marathon

2011-04-29T13:12:00.003-04:00

April 28, 2011 - learned my luck did not bring a lottery entry for the 2011 Nike Women's Half Marathon, so signed on for my 7th Nike Women's Marathon appearance with Team in Training. Have actually been there for all of the NWM events, but the first year was as "Support Crew" for Naomi's first effort doing a Marathon. Have now done five Fulls at Nike and one Half, so guess that makes me a veteran. We are going back for the eighth time to the Nike Women's Marathon - October 16, 2011, a couple of weeks after we do the Marathon di Tuscany.

4 weeks earlier Naomi will be riding 100 miles with TNT in the Moab Century Tour with me along as support/mechanic. After the Nike we return to Virginia, where we'll racewalk the Marine Corps Marathon 10K on October 30. The 10K uses the last 6.2 miles of the MCM course, finishing at the Iwo Jima Memorial. You may recall last year's MCM was my last full marathon. "Beat the Bridge" and finished, but enough is enough

Again this year I am raising money for LLS, adding my efforts to the $1 Billion raised for the Leukemia and Lymphoma society since TNT was created 22 years ago. Some of that money has gone to help my friend Bob Raleigh in his battle with AML or acute myelogenous leukemia. Not long ago we were not sure about Bob's prognosis, by May of 2010 he was well enough to be back in the courtroom and now he's going strong.

The other reason I keep doing this is a young man named Caleb Schneck, who turned 6 in February of this year (he is pictured above in the yellow "TNT gear"). He is also a leukemia survivor, having been diagnosed at age 3. Caleb is a very active boy who seems to be able to take the ongoing medical issues with amazing grace, as do his parents and family.

Bob and Caleb are survivors instead of statistics thanks to research funded by your TNT contributions. The treatment programs both of them participate in are funded in part by the Leuekemia and Lymphoma Society, the parent of TNT. Bob's done with active treatment and is putting his life back together again, thanks to your help. Caleb's medical attention is currently more active than Bob's but his Mom says in about a year his active treatments should be complete.

Bob and Caleb are what we at TNT call "Honored Teammate" - the ones who are fighting the blood cancers in person. Ohers involved with TNT are people like me who get out and do these endurance events because they are "fun". Yes, there is hard work involved, but when the race is finished, it's fun.

Your contribution to this LLS fundraising is the best possible way to help support treatment for Bob, Caleb and all the others who are fighting blood cancers. We don't have a cure yet, but the survival rates are improving every year, thanks in large part to the money donated by friends of TNT. In fact Dr. Kwak, whose work has been funded by LLS, is on the 2010 Time100 list in recognition of his work with cancer vaccines.

Please - take the time now to make a donation! By supporting my participation in Team In Training you help patients like Bob & Caleb and advance LLS's mission. Use this link to contribute by credit card, or send a check to me in Alexandria and I'll be sure it's properly credited on the TNT records and you get a tax receipt.

Want to join us for the MCM10K? Great way to see the fun of the MCM, and it's only 6.2 miles. Just use this link to register, but get there soon as they limit it to 10,000 people.

Thanks for your support! Cash goes to TNT but your friendship is priceless.

"Walking Tom" Farnam

ps - Purple for this post - the TNT color, also the color of my pancreatic cancer lapel ribbon.

Bulldog Pride & Determination

2011-04-10T11:54:00.004-04:00

Yes, it says runner-up, again and we are mighty proud of our Bulldogs! Butler is the only Indiana school to ever go to the final game two years in a row, and based on a quick glance at the NCAA history it looks like you have to go back to the late 60's/early 70's UCLA teams to find any school repeating in the final game more than two years in a row.

Alright, this blog is supposed to be about my racewalking, so let's return to that topic. After finishing the Marine Corps Marathon last fall, I've been doing some shorter events over the past few months. Not giving up on Half Marathons, will be doing The Virginia Wine Country Half on June 4th, which is an inaugural event. In the meantime, here's a quick list just to bring it all up to date:

November 20, 2010 Cranberry Crawl 5k – 41:04 =PR

February 13, 2011 Love the Run You’re With 5K – 43:26 (bronchial asthma)

February 19, 2011 GW Birthday 10K - 89:00.01 (into 50mph wind gusts on 1st half)

March 12, 2011 4 Courts 4 Miler - 58:08

March 26, 2011 National Marathon ½ Marathon Relay – 5 Miles in 1:09:000

April 1, 2011 Crystal City Friday 5K #1 – about 43:22

April 8, 2011 Crystal City Friday 5K #2 – about 47:11.7in cold rain

April 10, 2011 GW Parkway Classic 5K – 40.31 = PR

Naomi is spending a good deal of time on the bicycle, even got herself a new Trek Madone 4.7 to go faster more easily. Neat bike, carbon fiber frame and weighs very little. My contribution to this process has been a really nice indoor trainer which she uses with her older bike just to avoid installing and removing the new one. Also have modified the car bike rack to fit more closely with the new Trek bike. Can't say enough good things about our Bird Automotive bike rack. It took about an hour to install the first time, but just as advertised it's very easy to install and remove without any tools. Naomi can walk into the garage, install the rack and put the bike in place in less than 5 minutes with no tools, and you can still use the trunk of the car. Great investment, if Sam Bird makes one for your car it's worth considering. He even makes versions to carry golf bags, skis, snowboards and luggage.

Walking Tom

Memories

2011-03-29T17:54:00.005-04:00

BULLDOGS

It really is fun to watch the NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament when your alma mater is doing well, and when they are giving us good close games to enjoy watching. Now have my friends telling me I should be making bets in Vegas. Don't have any idea how to do that, no intent to learn but it sure is fun to see the Butler Bulldogs in the Final Four two years in a row.

Lots of fun as well to hear people talk about Butler having a good basketball team as something new. The Bulldogs have been good at the game for as long as I can remember, which is getting to be a long time since I was in the class of 1966, my sister was in the class of 1962, and my mother was in the class of 1933 (and got a Masters in Education there in the '50s). My father, my uncle, a couple of cousins also went to school there. Good place for an education, not terribly expensive "back in the day", still not expensive compared to a lot of schools.

Also been having fun recently with Facebook, seems my Noblesville High School class of 1962 has a Facebook page and is putting together a 50th reunion for next year. Hard to believe, don't feel that old but the calendar says it's true. Guess having two new lenses in my eyes to fix the cataracts maybe says something about age as well, not to mention the silver hair.

"Silver hair" brings back memories of a conversation with my sister Fran. I said my hair was silver, she looked at me and said "Brother, your hair is gray". I looked at her and said "Honey, if your hair is blond mine is silver!" End of that line of conversation. Miss her, would love to share the Butler games with her. Sure they are watching from heaven, wonder if they get cold beer?

Enough of this, need to update for this year's racewalking. No, will do that another day. For now just going to savor the memories.

2010 Season Completed Successfully

2011-03-16T08:24:00.006-04:00

It's been too long since my last post on this blog so let's get caught up a bit. My 2010 racewalking year is complete, and was reasonably successful.

Thank you, on my own behalf and especially for my honored teammates Caleb and Bob. The best news is they are both doing extremely well in their battle with blood cancer. As his mother says "In a nutshell, Caleb is FABULOUS! and during this season of thanks we are truly thankful to be able to report that! We are also grateful and thankful to all of you for your continued support of our family through this very long journey. " Bob Raleigh is back actively at work, and having a great time with the lovely lady Noelle. The contributions you have made to TNT have helped!

My 2010 Marathon season was a little bit less successful than the basketball team of my alma mater. The Butler Bulldogs Men's Basketball team wound up nearly winning it all. What a wonderful series of games to watch, and think about how proud my whole family would have been. My sister, mother, father, uncle, aunt and a couple of cousins were also Butler alums, so if there was a party in heaven to watch the NCAA Basketball Finals, they were cheering loudly.

Like Butler my own fall marathon season was not quite what we hoped, but respectable finishes when all things are considered. Nike Women’s Marathon (NWM) was a Half Marathon for me this year after five years of the Full Marathon at NWM. Gee, the Half is as much fun as the full, but only half the distance. The part of the Full course not used for the Half seems to be interminable. No intent to offend SFSU alums, but the four miles of the course around Lake Merced is boring, even with the Ghirardelli chocolate at mile 22. Besides, on the Half course we got the same chocolates at mile 12.

My race went very well other than a visit by an old friend – gout. First diagnosed 15 years ago, had bothered me only occasionally for the past five years, but hit me during the NWM. If you are doing an endurance event on foot you want nothing to change your gait, and have no doubt, gout will change your gait. Still managed to finish, despite painful right ankle and leg.

About the time we finished the half the sun just plain disappeared from sight and it began raining and blowing, more reasons not to be doing the full. Naomi had finished ahead of me, and she and her sister Ruth Behling were waiting for me at the finish line. Welcome sight, to put it mildly. Collected another Tiffany sterling necklace, then headed on through the finish area to find some food, and catching up with Naomi and Ruth.

Even in the TNT welcome tent with heaters it was windy and cold enough to make us shiver, so we left soon after we finished and got some pictures. Actually back to the hotel and in a warm shower by the time I would have finished the Full. Enjoyed lunch and a tour of SFMOMA, just around the corner from our hotel.

We finished our west coast stay with two days in Healdsburg, Sonoma County. Wonderful small town with wineries in every direction. You can check my blog for those details, and use this link to see more photos from this year's NWM trip.

Marine Corps Marathon is a race I've watched for the past five years, either touring with the coaches or doing the 10K to be at the finish. Since it’s done almost in our back yard, and this year was going to be two weeks after NWM instead of one, the lure of one more Full Marathon was irresistible. Having gone to Quantico Marine Base in March for the “Run to Register 10K”, my entry was guaranteed for a race which sold out - 30,000 entries plus 10,000 for the 10K.

MCM was not a TNT race for me, but our Fall Season TNT training included both the NWM and MCM so we all trained together, getting psyched up to "Beat the Bridge", which is MCM slang for finishing the first 20 miles of the course within 5:15 of "gun time". After a nice tour of the Nation's Capital, we use the 14th Street Bridge to cross the Potomac. The bridge carries I-395 into the District, so can only be closed for a limited time, and if you don't Beat the Bridge you must ride to the finish in a bus, and you will not get the finisher's medal.

The extra challenge is presented by the size of the starting field, which takes over 1/2 an hour after gun time for the last starters to finish. Gout was going to make it very tough for me to Beat the Bridge if starting from the back, so my choice was starting from the front. Just move to the side and stay out of the way of the "gazelles" and there will be no problem. Actually worked quite nicely other than some bruises on my arms from folks passing, sure those were accidents. In any event, my approach worked well enough to earn a finisher's medal.

MCM 2010 is my last full marathon, unless by some miracle I qualify for Boston or New York. Not likely so now I'm going to focus on improving my form and speed while doing Half Marathon and shorter races. Still out there, and it's still both fun and really good for me. Besides, the Half Marathon is about 99.9% as much fun as the Full, and less than half the strain on my aging body.

Thanks for all your support. Almost reached my fundraising goal for this year, but did manage to raise nearly $4,000 to help fight blood cancers, bringing my personal total to over $40,000. Our National Capital Area TNT chapter raised over $1.5 million dollars for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society in this Fall Season alone. That's part of the $1 Billion dollars raised by TNT in the past 21 years. Lots of help for patients and families. If you have not contributed and would like to do so, mail a check to my home address payable to "Leukemia and Lymphoma Society", and I'll be sure the check gets credited to my fundraising account.

Contribution from Bob

2010-07-27T10:23:00.012-04:00

Have to step away from the usual “training report” which is overdue, and tell you about something special which happened yesterday. Opened my email to find a contribution to my TNT account from Robert Raleigh! To help you understand what a big deal that is, at this time last year Bob was moving from Siteman Cancer Center in St. Louis to the rehabilitation center, where he was learning to walk again. We were all delighted with his progress, but also wondered whether he was ever going to be able to return to work as a trial attorney, his dog Charley, and all the other joys of his life.

HE’S BAAACK! June 2, 2010 we had dinner at Trattoria Marcella, with Bob walking across Pernod Street into the restaurant with the lovely Noelle on his arm. No walker, no cane, just a pretty girl. What a wonderful change from less than a year before, when on July 8, 2009 he got his first “real meal” from Trattoria Marcella which I carried into Barnes Hospital for him. As you can tell from the photo, he and Noelle had a wonderful evening, and were truly a joy to watch. No offense to Bob, but she's vivacious and pretty enough to be fun for any man to watch!

Now, about that training report. Let me assure you the heat and humidity of Washington, DC and Saint Louis, MO are essentially equal. And neither makes training more pleasant. One must search for small bright spots in the process, such as this scene along the Mt. Vernon Trail near our home in Alexandria. By the same token, last Saturday morning on the W&OD trail near Vienna, VA was so hot we actually cut our routine a bit short. Scheduled for 10 miles, we stopped after 8 with temp above 90 and humidity close behind the sun became too much to tolerate. That was at 9:00am! My training times are on target, but my heart rate was above 150 for virtually all the 8th mile, and it just was not worth the risk to continue for two more miles of training. Did get back out on Sunday for a couple of miles.

Our projected schedule of fall events is changing a bit due to my scheduled cataract surgery for the right eye, which will be done September 9 by my god friend and fine surgeon Frank Catanzaro in St. Louis. That means we'll miss the Wilson Bridge Inaugural Half Marathon as competitors, serving as volunteers instead. While it might be OK for me to do the 1/2, it seems a bit risky signing up for that level of exertion only 10 days after eye surgery. BTW, the left eye is working just great after the February cataract operation, so I'm really looking forward to having clear vision in both eyes again.

Naomi is not training with the racewalking team this year, instead is off on her bicycle each Saturday as she trains for the “Seagull Century”, a 100 mile bike ride in Salisbury, Maryland on October 9. The month of October is going to be very busy for the two of us - 10/9 is Seagull Century, 10/17 in San Francisco for Nike Women’s ½ Marathon, 10/24 Naomi does the Army 10 Miler, 10/31 I’m doing 26.2 miles of Marine Corps Marathon while she does the MCM 10K. We don’t expect to be very active the first week of November.

2010 Events

2010-04-24T10:45:00.003-04:00

Having done a couple of short (5K events) since the CIMC, and realizing it's been far too long since this blog was updated, thought I could at least post a list of the events Naomi and I have planned for the rest of this year. Must say the Easter weekend "short event" had an extra element of fun, as my daughter Rachel and her daughter Katie got to run one of the Crystal Run 5k Friday races with me. They were faster, but we all had a great time.

Oh, and besides the short events I went down to Quantico, VA for the Marine Corps "Run to Register 10K" on March 27th. Did not get a medal, but did get a guaranteed entry for the Marine Corps Marathon on October 31st. Having decided five Nike Full Marathons was enough, and with the schedule changed so there are two weeks between Nike and MCM, this looks like a great year to do the big event in our backyard and I'll be training to "Make the Bridge". Will be doing the 1/2 Marathon at Nike with TNT (get ready for fundraising appeals), then MCM on my own.

For those not familiar with "MCM slang", "the Bridge" is the 14th St bridge across the Potomac, which as a major highway bridge (I-395 & US 1) can only be kept closed for a limited time. That means if you don't get to mile 20 in 5 hours, you will be "swept off the course" and taken to the finish in a bus. No challenge for the 20-something runners, a little bit of a workout for some of us older folks.

Most of the shorter events are put on by Pacers (we are both having fun serving as "Pacers Ambassadors") for which we may be volunteers or may be doing the events. We have not yet registered for the Wilson Bridge Inaugural or Run To Victory, have to see how other things work out. Otherwise, this will give you a good idea of our future races.

TCF & NMM 2010 Events - both doing these except as noted:

4/25 - GW ParkwayClassic - 10 miler http://www.gwparkwayclassic.com/
5/2 - Brain Tumor 5K "Race for Hope" (Freedom Plaza - Naomi's trainer's benefit)
5/5 - Great Strides (NMM says a simple after-work slow walk)
5/9 - Pacer's Mother Day "Running Festival" NMM-1/2M TCF-1/4M http://www.pacersrunningfestival.com/
5/16- Marine Corps Half in Fredericksburg (TCF only)
6/6 - Zooma Annapolis 1/2M (TCF might back off to 10K, see how it feels after MCHalf) http://races.zoomarun.com/annapolis/race_details.php
6/19 - Pan-Can "Purple Stride DC" - Freedom Plaza (Naomi part of organizing team, with both of us having lost family members to pancreatic cancer, this has lots of meaning)
7/3 - Independence Day 5000 - Fairfax http://www.independence5000.com/
7/24 - Crystal City Twilighter 5K http://www.crystalcitytwilighter.com/
8/28-29 24 Hours of Booty bicycle ride (NMM, maybe TCF) http://www.24hoursofbooty.org/site/PageServer
9/19 - Wilson Bridge inaugural 1/2 M - http://www.wilsonbridgehalf.com/
9/25 - Clarendon Day 10K http://www.clarendondayrun.com/
10/9 - Seagull Century bicycle ride (NMM riding for TNT) TCF as mechanic
10/17 - Nike 1/2 M (TCF & NMM)
10/24 - Army 10-Miler (NMM)
10/31 - Marine Corps Marathon (TCF) & 10K (NMM)
12/12- Run to Victory http://www.runtovictory.org/details.html

See you on the trails - that's where we'll be spending a lot of time.

Caribbean Islands Marathon Cruise 2010

2010-02-22T18:09:00.012-05:00

Caribbean Islands Marathon Cruise
2/6 to 2/13/2010 - Tom Farnam’s Journal

Many more photos can be seen in this Kodak Gallery

This saga begins in August of 2009, when Naomi sent me an email with the subject “Birthday Idea” reading: “Any interest in doing John's Caribbean Cruise for your birthday? Interesting way to put new skills from Dave's clinic to play! Let me know and I'll register us - early birthday present?” Lest you think Naomi does not plan ahead, this was 6 months and two days before my 65th birthday.

Duly registered for the trip, in October 2009 I made reservations on Spirit Airlines for a non-stop flight from Washington Reagan National Airport (DCA) to Fort Lauderdale International Airport (FLL) to arrive FLL at 12:30 on 2/6/10, giving us plenty of time to get to our cruise ship.

On 2/2/10 Naomi sent me an email about the snow storm expected to hit the DC area on Friday the 5th, suggesting we change the flight to 2/5. Found Spirit had a 4:40 departure on Friday, so we booked it, then contacted our friends Russ and Betty Gaudreau, who had asked us to come stay with them on our way through Ft. Lauderdale. They confirmed their generous offer was still open, and we planned to join them for dinner and the night of the 5th. By Wednesday afternoon (2/3/10) the storm prediction was getting more severe, and we started talking about changing our flight to Friday morning, but Naomi needed to be in the office on Friday. (There had been a lot of turmoil in her office that week, and as VP of HR she needed to be present.)

I flew into DCA on 2/4, then took the train to Baltimore for some IRS meetings going on there on the 4th and 5th. En route to Baltimore I had an email exchange with Naomi about whether we should try to leave earlier on the 5th. Her office was going to follow federal “liberal leave policy” that morning and close at Noon, so she felt she could be away after all. By the time I got to Baltimore and was able to get online at 4:45pm on the 4th, the earlier flights on Spirit were no longer available. By the time I got home that evening, there were no alternatives to get out of DCA on the 5th, on any airline. No matter, we were going on this trip, both because of my birthday and because she’d had several tough weeks in the office and needed to get away.

Friday the 5th we arose at home to a gray and lowering sky, which actually smelled like a storm. The TV news was telling us Amtrak was closed and it was not looking good at any DC area airports. By the time we got in a cab at Noon, the first scattered flakes were beginning to fall. At DCA there was no one at the Spirit counter, so we waited. 30 minutes later, still no one and I got on the phone with their reservations department. After finally getting a connection to a supervisor, the story became there would not be anyone from Spirit at the airport, all their flights were canceled and the staff had gone home. As Naomi listened to my end of the conversation, she got on the phone with US Air and found a flight out of Charlotte at 8:00am on 2/6 which would get us to FLL by 10:00am. We left the Spirit counter, got my laptop going to reserve the US Air flight while she called Hertz for a rental car.

By 2:00pm on 2/5 we were in a Toyota Camry headed through the snowstorm to Charlotte. Naomi drove the first leg in the “daylight”, through snow and sleet. Dave Morales had been called and was online giving us traffic and weather projections as we headed out of town. Tom sat there sending emails to friends and family about our situation, one of whom said "Amazing how you managed to find a solution without sitting in the air port whining...". The snow/sleet/freezing rain continued until we were south of Richmond, but by the time we got to Peterburg it was rain, which continued all the way to Charlotte.

Only a bit the worse for wear, in Charlotte we first found the Hertz return location, thanks to the “free” GPS unit in the Camry, then doubled back to a hotel we passed on the way there. Actually caught about six hours of sleep after a coach’s nightmare of a pre-race meal - generic cheese puffs, beer, beef stick and Cadbury crème eggs.

5:30am on Saturday 2/6/10 we were on our way back to the Hertz counter, reaching the airport on their shuttle by about 6:00am. Must say US Air was doing a great job of dealing with a full Charlotte terminal, with “all hands on deck” at the ticket counters to deal with the extra load from flights canceled the day before. Our flight departed on time with every seat filled, many of the occupants wearing Saints or Colts jerseys, hats and other paraphernalia as they headed to the Super Bowl in Miami.

Betty and Russ Gaudreau picked us up at the airport, then gave us a brief tour of Ft. Lauderdale before taking us to lunch at a lovely beach club near their condo. Lunch completed, we went off to the Cruise Ship Terminal. Betty was forced to get out of the car at the gate because she had neglected to bring the photo ID required by TSA rules for anyone entering the Terminal. Actually boarding the Eurodam was smooth as good Dutch chocolate.

Found John Bingham & Jenny Hadfield, along with our cruise companions. 61 had made it, there were two couples who were not as lucky as we at making emergency changes. (They were from Pennsylvania, wound up catching up with us in San Juan, one of the options we considered.) Dinner on the Eurodam, a nightcap in the Crow’s Nest bar, and early to bed.

Sunday the 7th we met for a “pre-race briefing” at 7:00am, then off to the Promenade Deck where we had special permission for those of our group so inclined to run on the deck, which has large signs posted forbidding that activity. Three miles on the Promenade deck required 9 laps, and we were eligible for prizes if we were able to finish within plus or minus 15 seconds of the time we predicted for ourselves. Tom was 6.3 seconds faster than his predicted time, Naomi was 1.5 minutes faster than her forecast (and a lot faster than Tom).

The balance of Sunday was spent in a very low key and easy-going day. The evening wound up with us watching part of the Super Bowl via ESPN satellite link to the ship. They even put the “Ship’s Theater” to work as a projection room - talk about a big screen. Fortunately it was also on the TV set in our stateroom, so we retired with the sleep timer set. Actually wound up staying awake for the finish, which meant it was quite a game since neither of us is a big football fan.

Monday the 8th - another mandatory pre-race briefing at 7:00am as we had breakfast, followed by debarkation on Grand Turk about 8:00am. John and Jenny had arranged for us to be the first ones off the ship, even ahead of the dedicated shoppers. A set of Toyota buses were waiting to take us out to the Lighthouse, on the far end of the island from the cruise terminal. (These buses were the same type we rode on in Bhutan & Nepal, clearly a very functional vehicle.)

What a wonderful way to really see an island! There is not much elevation change on Grand Turk (about 90 feet), and they really got hit hard by hurricane Ike in 2008, but it’s a lovely place. Sort of glad we got there this year, they are about to construct a 600 room resort hotel (about 10 times the number of rooms now available) which is sure to make big changes in the island. The only reason it’s not already under construction is their need to finish building the new hospital to replace the one destroyed by Ike. We went from the lighthouse on the north end of the island, through Cockburn Town then back to the cruise terminal, about 8 miles and 2 hours, really interesting to see the island up close. We even had a water stop - two local ladies with water bottles in their car who met us at least twice - plus police protection including our own motorcycle escort and ambulance that cruised back and forth along the road.

Back on board the Eurodam for some relaxation before dinner followed by a drink in the “Crow’s Nest”, the very classy lounge on the top deck at the very front of the ship. Not too late though, we have another “stage” of the Marathon the next day in San Juan.

Tuesday the 9th we get a leisurely start with time for breakfast before our “Mandatory Pre-Race Briefing” at 11:00, then time to watch the ship come into the harbor at San Juan, which is a lovely sight. Once again our group is allowed to be off the ship even ahead of the shoppers (some of whom seemed a bit irritated) and off we go on a “Great Race” tour of Viejo San Juan. Jenny had put together maps and clues describing nine locations we were to find, then take a picture at each of them. Of course, she did a masterful job of giving us a complete tour of Old San Juan as we completed the course, most of us completely ignoring our watches/times and just having fun seeing the city.

One of our personal stops along the way back to the ship was a spice shop (great gifts) where we asked the clerk if she had a restaurant suggestion for good “local food”. She did indeed, and since the ship was not departing until 10:30, John, Jenny and eight others decided to join us. It took about a half mile walk back up the hill into the old town to find La Fonda del Jibarito, http://www.eljibaritopr.com/ but the end result was an outstanding meal at a very reasonable price. Plantain tamales with pork filling, cassava root, little salad and a “tres leches” (three milk) cake. Good local beer, some hot sauce which brought tears to our eyes (even a Penguin who claimed no sauce is too hot) and a fun evening.

Wednesday the 10th we awakened looking at St. Thomas, USVI. Up early for 7:00am briefing, then down to the gangway to be the first ones off the ship. Clamber aboard local jitneys for a drive to Magen’s Bay, where we gather on the beach for instructions from Jenny. She takes off ahead of us (chalk in hand to be sure our course is marked) as we go up the hills. Highest point on our tour was Peterborg Point, which is about 400 feet above the ocean, and it felt like it was uphill both ways. But oh my goodness what views, as the road ran along the spine of the island with lovely homes on both sides overlooking the ocean. Not to mention flowering cactii, bougainvillea, and other lovely foliage. Once again while others were just getting started on their shopping we got to really see the island.

Finished the 6ish mile loop back on the beach, and even though it was not yet Noon, the cold beer was too inviting to pass up (a Margarita for Naomi to carry into the surf). Buses back to Charlotte Amelie, some shopping and then lunch at “Cuzzin’s”, which makes a really nifty rum punch, along with some great conch in creole sauce.

After shopping long enough to locate some studs for my formal shirt (the ones I brought were falling out of the buttonholes) and a gold penguin charm, Naomi caught a cab back to the ship while I searched for a “jump ring” to attach the new penguin to her racing charm bracelet. Found the jump ring, then wound up walking an extra 1½ miles back to the ship. No problem, “no hurry mon”, interesting view of the town. After dinner that evening Naomi retired but I decided to try my hand at karaoke, just for fun, and was invited to the “finals”.

Thursday the 11th we are at sea all day, so no “run briefing”, only a stretch and core exercise session on the top of the ship led by Coach Jenny. The rest of the day was “take it easy” time, which cost Naomi a sun burn. Seems that after using loads of sunscreen on the islands she thought it would be OK to simply sit in a deck chair on the top deck without covering. It worked out fine, she was wearing a blue dress that night and was very patriotic. Made a lovely contrast with my white dinner jacket, about which I got several compliments from people who saw me in the karaoke finals before dinner.

Friday the 12th, another 7:00am run briefing, then we were on the first tender when the ship anchored off Half Moon Cay. Based on John & Jenny’s visit a year ago the folks from Holland America had marked out a “running trail” of about 2.6 miles, covering most of the island. (The GPS unit on my Garmin said the island was named “Little Solomon’s Island, maybe Holland America changed the name when they took ownership.) Fun event, followed up with an hour or so in a “clamshell” on the beach to keep out of the sun.

Back on board the Eurodam, ready to depart, but there was a problem. The anchor chain had “fouled” and could not be pulled up into the ship. This meant we had some 400 feet of chain/cable/anchor hanging from the ship, which made it impossible to even consider going back to Florida. They finally resolved the issue by cutting the anchor chain, letting it drop into the relatively shallow waters off Bermuda, so it would only cost about $300,000 to recover and reinstall it instead of paying $600,000 for a replacement. My suspicion is someone’s career at HAL will go less well due to the incident, but we may never know.

We do know the ship was delayed several hours getting back to Ft. Lauderdale, so we had to revise our travel arrangements for the return to DCA. Finally wound up on an American Airlines flight from Miami to DCA, and since I fly AA almost every week we were able to upgrade to 1st and have a very relaxed supper flight home. Arrived home about four hours later than originally scheduled to find huge snowbanks along the nicely plowed streets in our subdivision. Thanks to our friend Nicole Harris who had been staying with Princess and Pinky, the driveway and stairs were even cleared.

What a trip, and now home to sleep in our own bed, celebrating my 65th by falling asleep in the arms of my lovely and thoughtful wife. If only the room would stop moving, which it finally did a couple of days later as our inner ears realized we were back on dry land to stay.

Did we enjoy it? ABSOLUTELY A BLAST! So much fun we have seriously discussed whether we could manage the Great Alaska Maritime Marathon with John & Jenny in July. Another week on ship - up the Windward Passage to Alaska. Might not be able to make that trip this year but both of us are really high on doing another trip with John & Jenny in the future.

Favorite event: Magen’s Bay. After those hills, we’d like to think we don’t have to train hills at all leading up to Nike in San Francisco. Nice in theory, but we know better.

Most fun & educational event: the Great Race across Old San Juan.

Most revealing event: Grand Turk, an island in recovery.

ps Cataract Surgery

Some of you, including those who were on the CIMC outing, may have heard I was scheduled for cataract surgery soon after the cruise. It’s now done, and even one day “post op” it seems to have been a complete success. My friend, ophthalmologist since 1989 and surgeon (Frank J. Catanzaro, Jr. MD FACS of St. Louis) did the work, and after examining me the next morning said all looks good. I can honestly say there was no pain, even though I was conscious for the procedure.

It was interesting to see the shadows of the tools Frank was using inside my eye. Nothing visible in the usual sense as it was all behind the lens. Doing several kinds of eye drops for a few days to ward off infections and such, but no pain from those either. Will be going back to Dr. Frank next week, then again in a couple of weeks for new prescription measurements. We selected a fixed lens for distance vision so reading glasses will still be needed for the left eye, with full prescription for the right. Of course we fully expect to be doing comparable surgery in the right eye in the future when the cataract forming there gets denser.

Dr. Frank says the cataracts are more or less to be expected,with age but can be slowed down a lot if you wear your sunglasses – the biggest factor is UV radiation. I wonder if many years spent in fluorescent-lit offices are a factor, but it does not really matter. I do recall my mother had cataracts removed 35 or more years ago before the lens implant technology was not available so she wound up with “pop bottle bottom” glasses. Implants are much better.

Most fun was going to dinner last night at Trattoria Marcella, my favorite restaurant in the world. It’s always a great meal, but the large YES on my forehead made for lots of fun conversations with Chef Steve Komorek, brother and maitre ‘d Jamie Komorek, and the staff. Having Brian Stujenske there to celebrate his birthday and mine (9 days apart) and be my driver made it even better.

See you soon – better than ever!

Marine Corps Marathon 10K

2009-10-27T17:54:00.004-04:00

October 25, 2009 was a "faith restored" sort of day - did the 10K at the Marine Corps Marathon in a Personal Record time. 1:25:04 may not seem fast if you are a runner, to this racewalker it felt good.

It also means I can consider last weekend's Nike as a small stumble in my progress. Now it's time to rest a bit, then prepare for a five day "World Class Racewalking Camp", in an effort to learn how to do this better. Having a t-shirt made up that reads like this:

Front

Faster than I used to be

Slower than I want to be

Still trying

Back

You Are

Following a

Racewalker

Nike Full Marathon 10/18/2009

2009-10-20T22:45:00.009-04:00

Even though my finishing time in my last Nike Full Marathon was 30 minutes slower than I had hoped for, it was a good weekend, good day and good race.

I learned several things, among them there are some bodily functions one cannot completely control/predict, and that having black bean soup for lunch Friday, followed by risotto for dinner, then tamales with frijoles refritos on Saturday morning, chili for lunch, and pasta dinner may create a problem. (As John Bingham said in a post-race conversation - "Tom, you are not in your twenties any more, you can't eat like that".) So as you could see from a detailed mileage chart, my time for mile 3 is over 10 minutes too long. Fortunately, there is a McDonalds at that point on the course, which made cleaning up a lot easier than a "blue room" or porta-john, but it was still unpleasant and time consuming.

About two hours after what we can call the "frijoles incident" another "Nike first" occured for me - got a short video clip shot by our friend John Park. Not sure exactly where this was taken but think it was about mile 12 or so based on the traffic. As you can see by then I was just having fun and doing the race.

In the cold light of the days after the race, it looks like a personal record might have still been possible if I'd made up a lot of time in the next 12 miles or so, but that did not happen, so the PR did not happen. I realized there was not going to be a PR by about mile 12, and sort of "cruised" from there to the finish. The good news is I'm OK with that, having decided before the start that my goal was to complete five Nike Full Marathons before my 65th birthday, and that has been accomplished. There will not be another Nike Full for me in the future, I've met my goal.

Not giving up racewalking, going off to a five day Dave McGovern training camp in November. Simply have concluded that the Half Marathon is just as much fun and a lot less taxing on the body.If nothing else doing the Half at next year's Nike will give me the chance to try keeping up with my beautiful wife (who set her own PR doing the Half Marathon this year) and see how the first five or six miles of the course look in the daylight. (I've started at 5:30 each year, so it's not daytime until about six miles into the event.)

Thanks for all your support! Be watching for reports from the Marine Corps Marathon 10K (we do it as a recovery walk) and the racewalking camp. Following those is a "Turkey Trot" with our granddaughter, and the Carribean Cruise Marathon with John Bingham in February, which ends on 2/13/2010, my 65th birthday.

If you are curious about detailed results from Nike, go to http://raceresults.eternaltiming.com/index.cfm/20091018_Nike_Womens_Marathon.htm

2009 Marathon des Deux-Rives Levis/Quebec Demi-Marathon Marche

2009-10-20T22:26:00.003-04:00

OK, for those who (like me) don't speak a lot of French, that says "2009 Marathon of the Two Banks Levis/Quebec Walking Half Marathon". We went to Quebec City, Quebec, Canada for another racewalking event with our friend Alice Till on August 30, 2009. She won first place among walkers in her age group while Naomi and I were a bit slower but had a great time. Complete details can be viewed at http://www.sportstats.ca/display-results.php?lang=eng&racecode=45416

Quebec City is lovely, much like a French town. Gee, that's in fact what it is, the oldest French city on the North American continent. The good news is the people are all very polite, and actually encourage you to attempt using your high school French, and not making fun of how bad it is this many years later.

Really a neat weekend and fun race - worth considering if you want something a little different.

Tom

2009-08-05T07:13:00.004-04:00

TRAINING

Getting ready to do yet another Nike Women's Marathon is sometimes fun. Then there are the summer mornings when you get up to 75 degrees and 75% humidity at 0500, knowing the temperature will be even higher when you start your training walk at 0700. Last Saturday was one of those days, but Naomi and I got out and did twelve miles with our friends from the National Capital Area Team in Training Chapter. Personally, by the finish there was not a dry piece of clothing on my body - and it had not rained.

This Saturday we are doing "track training", which is an important part of racewalking training in order to increase your speed. My target is 400 meters (1/4 mile) in 3:00 minutes. Have come close at 3:03, but would like to get it down a bit more to a 12 minute per mile pace. Given the expected heat and humidity this weekend, it may or may not happen, but we just keep trying.

Part of my regular training regimen, in addition to "long miles" most weekends, is "speed work" doing 8x400 sets. That means 400 meters 8 times, with a 2:00 rest between each one. Coach & friend Jacque Carter has me doing those with targets of 3:17, 2x 3:13, 2x 3:10, 3:06, 3:03 & 2:58. Try it some time, it's a nice workout. I don't have easy access to a high school track in St. Louis, so do my repeats on the nearly one mile of flat, straight and uncrowded sidewalk along the riverfront below the Arch. Pretty spot where one can do up to 800 meters without a turn.

CONTRIBUTION TIME

Speaking of Team in Training - please consider the following as an unabashed plug for you to make a contribution to my fundraising account. Since you are reading this blog, you may have already contributed and if so I thank you again. If you have not yet made your contribution for 2009, please do so now! Just click on my TNT web site at http://pages.teamintraining.org/nca/nikesf09/tfarnam and make your donation using the secure link. It's tax deductible, but more important helps save lives. My friend Bob Raleigh is still alive today because of a research program funded in part by LLS. By the way, he is recovering nicely, learning to walk again after three months in hospital.

COMING EVENTS - we have one race scheduled before the October 18th Nike Women's Marathon in San Francisco. On August 30th Naomi, our friend Alice Till and I are going to be doing the Quebec City Half Marathon (or more correctly stated "Marathon des Deux Rives SSQ-Lévis/Québec". Naomi has never been to Quebec, it's been at least 25 years since I was there last, and it looked like a fun event. We'll spend a couple of extra days touring the area, and some friends who have done the race in the past said it's a good one. The challenge will be to not eat too much good French food before the race. After the race - les bon temps roulez!

After the Quebec event it's back to training. We will have "tapered off" our long miles before 8/30, then build back up to 20 miles on 9/26 before tapering again before the Nike. The idea is to train the body, not wear it out.

OK, enough for now - just please make a contribution.

Tom 8/5/09

Tom's Racewalking History at 4/29/2010

2009-05-31T07:00:00.005-04:00

TCF Racewalking History as of April 29, 2010

October, 2004 - Naomi finishes five months of training and completes Nike Women’s Marathon

1. April 30, 2005 Nashville, TN Country Music ½ Marathon – 3:17:10 = 15:03 “Trained” on my own for 2 months - managed to complete it. Not fast, but finish.

2. August 7, 2005 Chicago Distance Classic ½ Marathon – 3:09:06 = 14:26

3. September 4, 2005 Virginia Beach R&R ½ Marathon – 3:13:53 = 14:48

I. October 23, 2005 Nike Women’s Marathon – 6:50:24 = 15:39 Major back spasms from mile 20 onward, but finished.

4. January 15, 2006 Phoenix - P.F. Chang ½ Marathon – 3:21:13 = 15:21

5. March 12, 2006 Tucson - Arizona Distance Classic – 3:17:14 = 15:03

6. April 9, 2006 St. Louis ½ Marathon – 3:13:22 = 14:46

7. May 7, 2006 Cincinnati - Flying Pig ½ Marathon – 3:22:31 = 15:27

8. September 3, 2006 Virginia Beach R&R ½ Marathon – 3:13:53 = 14:48

II October 22, 2006 Nike Women’s Marathon – 6:34:40 = 15:03

October 29, 2006 Marine Corps Marathon 10K – 1:25:45 = 13:50

9. January 21, 2007 Carlsbad, CA ½ Marathon – 3:18:39 = 15:10

10. May 6, 2007 Vancouver, BC BMO Bank ½ – 3:10:16 = 14:31

11. July 15, 2007 Carneros Wine Country ½ – 3:11:02 = 14:35

III October 21, 2007 Nike Women’s Marathon – 6:35:19 = 15:05

October 28, 2007 Marine Corps Marathon 10K – 1:26:00 13:52

12. May 18, 2008 Marine Corps ½ Marathon - 3:21:50 = 15:24

13. May 31, 2008 Zooma Annapolis Women’s ½ Marathon – 3:18:19 - 15:08

14. August 10, 2008 Chicago Distance Classic ½ Marathon – 3:03:22 - 14:00 Course measurement error +.1668 miles, “chip time 3:06" not correct

IV October 19, 2008 Nike Women’s Marathon – 6:30 = 14:53

October 26, 2008 Marine Corps Marathon 10K – 1:26:28 = 13:57

November 9, 2008 Veteran’s Day 10K – 1:25:45 = 13:50

15. November 15, 2008 Richmond, VA ½ Marathon – 3:13:36 = 14:36

16. January 18, 2009 Bermuda Challenge ½ Marathon – 3:20:05 = 15:16 1mi Friday, 10K Saturday

February 14, 2009 GW Birthday 10K – 1:28:02 = 14:12

17. April 18, 2009 Dismal Swamp Stomp ½ Marathon DNF back spasms @ 11

18. May 17, 2009 Marine Corps Historic Half - 3:08:16

May 30, 2009 Zooma Annapolis 10K - 1:26:22

19. August 30, 2009 Marathon des Deux-Rives Levis/Quebec Demi-Marathon Marche (Quebec City Half Marathon) - 3:08:07.24 = 14:21.62

V October 18, 2009 Nike Women's Marathon -- 6:57:09 (see Blog for details)

October 25, 2009 Markine Corps Marathon 10K - 1:25:04.4 = 13:30 = PR

VI February 13, 2010 Caribbean Islands Marathon Cruise - see Blog re "staged marathon"

March 27, 2010 Marine Corps Run to Register 10K - Quantico - 1:23:57.92 = 13:32.56

20. May 16, 2010 Marine Corps Historic Half - 3:20:40 - see Blog

June 6, 2010 Zooma Annapolis 10K - 1:33.49

21. October 17, 2010 Nike Women’s Marathon – 3:18:43

VII November 1, 2010 Marine Corps Marathon – 7:00:28 - last Full Marathon

November 20, 2010 Cranberry Crawl 5k – 41:04 =PR

February 13, 2011 Love the Run You’re With 5K – 43:26 (bronchial asthma)

February 19, 2011 GW Birthday 10K - 89:00.01 (into 50mph wind gusts on 1st half)

March 12, 2011 4 Courts 4 Miler - 58:08

March 26, 2011 National Marathon ½ Marathon Relay – 5 Miles in 1:09:000

April 1, 2011 Crystal City Friday 5K #1 – 43:22

April 8, 2011 Crystal City Friday 5K #2 – 43:10 in cold rain

April 10, 2011 GW Parkway Classic 5K – 40.31 = PR

April 15, 2011 Crystal City Friday 5K#3 – 42.10

April 22, 2011 Crystal City Friday 5K#4 – 42:01 = PR for that course/event

2009-05-29T15:58:00.002-04:00

OK, we did it. No sunburns, no frostbite (closer to the latter than the former) and more than a little soggy, but we did it. Friend Kevin could not do the event, but was at the finish line to greet us and take pictures.

All the NOVA walkers finished. Naomi and I started more or less next to Marni Matyac, behind Jacque, Carol Day, Linda Schwartzstein, Cathy ??, Paula McNichols, Virginia Ukaegbu. Naomi and I passed the others before the first turn, then my good wife took off like a scalded rabbit and left me to my own devices. She finished ahead of me, I was in turn ahead of the others mentioned above.

By mile 3 no one doing the race had a dry place left on their body, and all feet were squishing with every step. But we all finished, and other than being cold (60 is fine if you're moving, but lousy with a 15mph wind, wet clothes, no mylar blankets and no shelter) everyone seemed fine. If you want to know details, the results are available http://results.active.com/pages/stats.jsp?rsID=78270

They ran out of XL men's shirts (you can just imagine how delighted I was to be told at 4:00 pm that we should simply have gotten there earlier). However, instead of coming back completely empty-handed, after me making a little fuss they managed to find size XL shirts which look identical to the standard issue, except ours say "Volunteer" on the right sleever instead of "Competitor". Figured that was a lot better than nothing.

Then there were the mis-measured miles, and the final straw, noted above, of no mylar blankets at the end on a cold windy day. Seems they only ordered 3000 mylars, despite claiming the race was going to be 9000 strong, and actually having almost 7000 entries. Can imagine the nice email I'm going to send the Deputy Director who got us our "Volunteer" shirts? They ask for comments, right? And she gave me her biz card with title and email address, so guess I'll have to prove the adage "if you don't want my opinion, don't ask".

Near or beyond 60?
T
GEEZE

A
M
Old is just a word!

Racewalking to save lives. Donate at http://pages.teamintraining.org/nca/nikesf09/tfarnam

Dismal Swamp Stomp 2009

2009-05-29T14:47:00.007-04:00

April 18, 2009 found us headed for Chesapeake, VA for a Half Marathon called "The Dismal Swamp Stomp". Selected this one for several reasons: not too far away (about 3 hour drive); flat course; met our friend Alice Till's need for an April event (she is doing a Half per month in honor of her 65th); interesting name & website outlook on doing a Half; and gave me a chance to visit "The Great Dismal Swamp", home of Francis Marion, aka "The Swamp Fox" during the Revolutionary War.

If nothing else my experience at this event taught me some lessons (CORE), and gave me a reminder of my appreciation for friends and TNT. The best short description is my email report from the event:

TCF notes - the times from the Kale Running system confirm the times on my Garmin, and it’s clear all was going exactly according to plan through mile 6, then began “coming apart” from there. Not sure what caused my back to “spasm”, but one of our group was told after the event that when seen just after mile 6 it was clear I was in trouble, with spine at about a 15-20 angle to the left. Will have to check photos from web site when posted, they may help identify when and why. When Alice and I passed Naomi after “turn around” (about mile 6.75 or so) she called out “you are leaning”, so it was obvious by then.By mile 9 it was clear simply finishing was going to be a challenge, with at least one of the medical units offering help between there and mile 10.5. Just past mile 11 we came to a complete stop. (Alice had very kindly slowed down and stayed with me, and shortly before that Naomi had caught up to us). Someone suggested calling Mike Goode (who was at the finish line) and having him send the medics down course for me, which we did. Medics took me to finish area, told me to walk across finish line unless I wanted them to carry me in. Don’t deserve it, but was given a “finisher’s medal”. Feels very strange, first time to ever DNF an endurance event.

Why? Not sure yet, suspect part was result of 5+ hour drive to event in cramped seating position in back seat (spine kept in unnatural position due to being unable to sit up straight). Other contributing factors may have been insufficient warmup and stretch before event. Know I must focus on a 4 letter word in order to avoid this problem and improve performance. CORE

The event itself had about 1000 entrants, of which 75 or so were signed up as walkers, plus another 100 or so doing a 1/2 mile "Cub Run". Neat course, going out and back along the Dismal Swamp Canal along a two-lane road which was closed for the event, with farms on one side and the canal and swamp on the other. Almost perfect weather, mid-50s to start going up to mid-70s by the finish.

Virtually no elevation changes on the course, and most of it shady with trees leafing out, some blooming plants, overall a lovely "country side" setting for this event. The organizers also include some walkers, so for those registered as "1/2 Marathon Walk", there was a special "W" bib to be pinned on so you could be recognized by the "judges". They weren't judging for perfect form, but if you wore a "W" and were seen running, your time would be included with the runners, not the walkers.

More important than those details is the effect of friends and team mates. First, there were five of us doing the Dismal Swamp Stomp, which is a lovely smaller event. We all have gotten to know one another through TNT, and this event looked like (and was) one which would be relatively easy to get to and fun to share. We followed our usual practice of wearing TNT gear (singlet for me, green hat for Alice, etc.) and enjoyed all the "Go Team" greetings from other TNTers on the course. Some were in TNT shirts/hats, many were not but still greeted us with "Go Team". Another part of the team aspect was the pure joy of being out for the day with others who we have come to know.

I'd been training fairly rigorously for this event, and Alice was ready to serve as my mentor, cheering and prodding me on to my target finish of 3:00. We started out right on pace, not too fast but not too slow, and began bringing our average down to the desired level for the desired overall time. Everything seemed to be working well, but for reasons which I can't fully explain, my back started "acting up" and by mile 7 was in "spasm", causing me to be unable to stand up straight. Between the turn around and mile 7 we had seen Naomi going the other way, so knew she was not far behind, and a bit behind her we saw Peggy Goode, who told us Mike had problems at the start and turned back about mile 2.

Here's where the Team part appears in an even more direct and personal way. Despite my urging her to go ahead and do her own race, Alice slowed down and stayed with me as I kept going slower and slower, barely able to keep my feet moving. Soon Naomi caught up with us, and she too slowed down so the three of us were walking at my increasingly slower pace. By mile 10 my speed was down to about 20 min/mile, and getting slower. Finally about mile 11.3 I could not go any more, and tried to tell Naomi and Alice to go ahead. Instead they stayed with me, and one of them finally said "you have Michael's cell phone number, call and ask him to send out the medics for you?".

Got Michael on the phone, he was within a few feet of the medics, went over and I could hear them telling him they were on the way. About that time Peggy caught up with Naomi, Alice and me, which I reported to Michael and he said "good, she's having blister problems, glad the other ladies are there with her". Paramedics load me into the SUV (sitting, thank you) and the ladies resume while I get a ride to the finish line. The paramedics tell me my choice is to walk across the line to the medical tent, or they will carry me. I walk, get handed a "finisher's medal" I don't deserve, and go straight to medical tent with one of the paramedics at my side.

Tell the med staff I need an ice pack and some ibuprofen, they give me both and a cot to lie down on. Within about 20 minutes I'm able to get up and move around, and wind up catching photos of our three ladies coming across the finish line. As Michael put it "thank goodness for team mates, it all worked out fine in the end". We are all ready to go back for this event next year, for me personally just to prove I can manage it. By the way, the accommodations were great in a five month old Hyatt Place with a couple of nice places to eat within easy walking distance and very friendly folks.

You should put this event on your personal calendar to join us next year - think the date is Saturday, April 17th. Naomi, Alice and I talked on the way home about how much fun it would have been to share this weekend with other friends, and the hotel was nice enough to warrant staying another night. 24 hours later I was a bit sore, but overall not too bad. Peggy reported blister problem was a function of wrong socks, and Michael and I are about to start a "biggest loser" contest of our own.

Alice is off to another event next month (Zooma, if memory serves). Naomi, Alice and I are now planning another "out of the country" event, the Quebec City Half Marathon on August 30, 2009. Then of course we'll all three be on hand for Nike in Nov., and we'll plan on following that up with "the usual" MCM 10K for a recovery walk.Now for those core exercises - have to get ready for the Marine Corps Half Marathon on May 17th, then Zooma 10K on May 31st, not to mention Fall Season and the Nike Marathon.

BERMUDA TRIANGLE CHALLENGE

2009-01-25T12:13:00.018-05:00

Bermuda for a race? Naomi picked up a flyer for the event at the Baltimore marathon expo (where she raced and I played spectator/support). We started talking with our NOVA racewalking friend Alice Till, and wound up signing up in mid-October. Part of the early sign-up was an attraction open only to 400 - the "Bermuda Triangle Challenge", which would lead to a special medal and t-shirt "if you survive the Bermuda Triangle". Extra incentives were giving Alice her January event (she is memorializing her 65th birthday by doing a Half Marathon each month) and a weekend in Bermuda, which none of us had ever visited before. Not to mention a nice smaller race instead of the Disney or PF Chang mega-events with their thousands of runners and walkers.

We arrived Friday after a short hop to Philadelphia and a two-hour flight to Bermuda. Our Marathon Tours package included transport to the Fairmont Hamilton Princess Hotel, with a driver who gave us our first taste of the welcoming and pleasant Bermudan culture, along with a chance to get acquainted with some of the folks we would be seeing at our events for the next few days.

First event of the Triangle Challenge was a one-miler on Front Street (main street in Hamilton), and it involved a lot more than just our marathon group. Our people went first, with 166 signed up for the Half Marathon Challenge, and 29 for the Full Marathon Challenge out of a total of 438 who did the marathon events. We were followed by myriad classes of local runners, including school boys and girls from the primary, middle and secondary levels, as well as local elite runners and other classes. A real festival, with many local parents/friends of the kids as well as many other people, tourist and local folks, sitting in restaurants and bars along Front Street cheering people on for the many heats run by the many classes. My time was slowed significantly by not knowing that in local parlance this traffic officer shelter was called a "birdcage", so when they said turn around at the birdcage, I kept going for another couple of blocks as everyone else in my heat was a runner and they were all gone, due in part to my starting at the back of the pack from force of habit. Yes, in the daylight with me standing in the middle maybe it's a birdcage, but at night on a street I've only walked once, it really was confusing. (grin)

We had a nice dinner and a couple of pints of Guiness at the "Pickled Onion" on Front Street, went back out to find the races still going, followed by awards ceremonies. Can you say local fun?

Saturday's 10K race did not start until 10:00, so I took advantage of the full breakfast offered by the Princess before the three of us caught a cab to the Sports Centre where the event was to begin and end. It was rainy but fortunately not especially cold (about 50 degrees) so even with the wind we agreed the weather was nothing compared to the 20 degrees we left behind in DC area. Not to mention the crowds flooding into DC for the Obama inagural festivities.

Delightful scenery on Saturday morning as we toured the island, up close and personal. It takes a bit of getting used to doing a race when you are sharing the road with vehicle traffic. No real problems, just not the most common situation. Of course our feet were just as wet as all other parts of our bodies, since at times there were virtual rivers flowing down the roads as we strode up.

Despite the puddles which looked like small lakes, we kept going through the rain to the finish line, where my wife Naomi and I finished holding hands, much to the delight of the announcer and photographer at the finish line. My purple singlet seems to have drawn the photographer's attention even while we were waiting to start the 10K. Here's a link to the official photo site, we are recognizable in #055 and 005

By the time we finished the weather had of course cleared nicely, so we could at least enjoy the music provided by the organizers. We were wet through and through, but it was fun. Another short taxi ride back to the Princess, which was made funnier when Alice said something about the Custis Trail, and the couple with whom we were sharing the cab asked if she meant the one in Arlington, VA. Turns out they are from the DC area and knew the trail well.

Back at the Princess, an unusual opportunity presented itself. Seems Samuel Langhorne Clemens, also known as Mark Twain, was a regular visitor to the Princess. They have memorialized this with a statue which gave me a chance to imagine being able to to sit and talk with Samuel Clemens. Wouldn't that be a fascinating opportunity?

We took advantage of the nice weather on Saturday afternoon for a little tourist time, including the whale tail fountain on Front Street, a ferry ride over to Dockyard (old Navy port) and other attractions. Nice way to spend a little time before the Pasta Party, which featured some really good food. We had a couple of unusual things happen. One was a lovely lady approaching me saying "Are you the Khatmandu guy?". It was John Bingham's wife Jenny Hadfield, who was leading 76 people from Chicago Endurance Sports for the weekend. The other unique event was sitting at a table with several of the young runners from Kenya and their coach. They are all college students in the US, several at Texas Tech, doing the Bermuda event (and winning, one was 1st in the Half). Closest I'll ever be to winning a half marathon.

Sunday dawned bright, clear and sunny, temperature about 60 degrees, giving us wonderful weather for the Half Marathon. It really was fun, not flat but nothing outrageous in terms of hills. Times are not fast, Saturday due to rain, Sunday because we wound up having a great time. In addition to getting Alice and Naomi to slow down a bit for me, we also spent time stopping for pictures and visits with the locals on several occasions.

We were not first, nor last, but we definitely had a great time and enjoyed the island. May go back again, the smaller (362 in the Half, 76 in the Full) race field, change of scenery and culture. It's certainly a race worth considering, as the cost and time is not much different than going to Phoenix, Carlsbad or other races.

Here is a photo gallery - enjoy.

Tom

All three NOVA walkers "survived the Bermuda Triangle"! Times below are "gun times", using a chip at end - no chip reader at the start line.
Alice Till - - Total 4:55:03
1 Mile 11:48
10K 1:23:10
1/2 Mrthn 3:20:05
Naomi Morales - - Total 4:58:35
1Mile 11:26
10K 1:27:04
1/2 Mrthn 3:20:05
Tom Farnam - - Total 5:00:55
1 Mile 13:45 (got lost on the unmarked course)
10K 1:27:04
1/2 Mrthn 3:20:05

Richmond, VA Half Marathon 11/15/08

2008-12-10T09:44:00.004-05:00

Our friend John Phillips has been talking about the Richmond Half Marathon, and convinced us we should join him. After all, Dave, Rhonda and David Morales live just outside Richmond so we can stay at their house, right? (They are thankful sanity won out and we stayed in a hotel, they would not have enjoyed having us get up at 5 on Saturday to leave for a race.) Post-race we exchanged a series of email messages with our Coach and friend Jacque Carter, and they sort of tell the story better than just my words, so they are shown below. Tom

TCF to Jacque, Naomi and John Phillips, 11/15/08 6:44pm

Jacque, we had a nice race, the three of us did it together and finished together. Not our fastest, but still a fun day. Better weather than we expected, no rain and by the finish we even had sunshine. The "official" finish line photos should be great fun, as we had David Matthew between me and Naomi, with John on her other side. Dave and Rhonda Morales may have gotten some photos, here's hoping they share them with us.OK, here's the times, in the usual format of time, Garmin distance, "adjusted" pace per mile
1 - 15:23 1.02 15:04 (stop for Naomi to remove jacket caused me to miss mile mark)
2 - 14:25 .99 14:33
3 - 14:19 1.00
4 - 14:13 1.03 13:48
5 - 14:14 1.01 14:05
6 - 14:11 .98 14:28
7 - 14:18 .99 14:26
8 - 14:19 .99 14:27
9 - 11:24 .80 14:25 (Mile marker was .2 off correct location)
10-17:32 1.20 14:36 (Extra distance was correction of #9 in course markings)
11-15:36 1.01 15:26 (Naomi shoelace)
12-16:17 1.01 16:07 WALL
13-15:40 1.01 15:30
.1 - 1:40 .12 13:53 Total 3:13:39 13.16 milesWe had FUN, and isn't that at least as important as PR? BTW, if Richmond accepts wheel chairs for their Half, we agreed this would be a GREAT race for Tony in his wheelchair. Very flat course, he would have no hill problems at all. Tom

Naomi "reply all" 7:24am 11/16/08

OK - let's be totally honest. We started out amid a clustered pack of run/walk/saunterers - John had a little delay joining us but put in a fast Mile #1 and caught us shortly. It would have been miserable to do the race without him - since Tom and I went to Richmond to enjoy the race with John. As for me, I started at a usual early-race pace 14:15 ish, felt pretty good, plus stops for taking off jacket and replacing #. But as we went around the track of the Richmond Athletic field by The Diamond (about mile 3.5), I started into one long Bite Me Race (this was NOT a race with a Bite Me Mile, it lasted for at least 6 miles). But I thought if we could keep up the same pace, we'd at least have a good time, not a PR of any kind, but not bad. The neighborhoods were really pretty with Fall leaves, a really nice course, a few residents (this is not a race for large neighborhood groups out - that's Baltimore) and very nice homes; and I stayed just a half step in front of the guys "just 'cause" - at least until my shoe lace got really tight about mile 9 or so and I stopped briefly to loosen it.

By that time, I had gone through all the excuses I could think of why this was the world's second worst event ever (second only to the Chicago Distance Classic in 2007). Let's see: 2 glasses of wine Friday eve, not a full night's sleep that night, a very clear hope that the 100% rain would not only come true but that the threatened thunderstorms would call the race - I was really hoping for this all the way to the start - so the mental prep was nowhere to be found, having to wear the race shirt because I forgot to pack a well-worn shirt, not stretching before the race, having a really tough workout with my trainer Friday who focused on the glutes and quads, changing the order of my race snacks and Gatorade sips, and I am sure I have forgotten some of my excuses/observations.

But the guys were so sweet and decided they'd pull me through. So we smiled for all the photographers as a trio of crazy AARP-eligible walkers and wandered at what felt like a 20-minute mile pace! Mile 12 was an "Oh My Goodness" mile, I cannot believe it is a 16+ minute mile because I thought I could have watched a whole episode of Food Network Challenge during that mile. Then we saw Dave and David Matthew at the top of a tiny rise and David Matthew jumped out into the road to do the race! Between two gentleman and a grandson - I had a GREAT last 1/2 mile.

So the bottomline is I had a really bad race, had a pair of gentlemen so sweet to pull me through and cross the line together and have achieved an objective: getting my grandson to think "doing a race is really cool." Now he wants to do "the whole 13 miles with you Grandma." That's a few years off.

Anyway - thank you BIG TIME to my husband and our friend! (And Brittney and I are going to talk tomorrow AM - no more major core workouts right before an event.)

John Phillips "reply all" 1:06pm 11/16/08
Now along comes John to weigh in. John started out with a big morning from south of hell- i notice my wonderful new water belt - the yellow rain jacket (My dog left my belt back in Arlington for me and the rain coat held keys, bottle of water, gels, etc). John sat in traffic for 40 minutes waiting to get off the exit - after telling my friends which exit to take I took another one - bad move. and of course, this is after leaving my bibb at Josie's place and then going back to get it. I had a bibb for a Marine Capt which worked out fine - he was there waiting for me as I ran up. When I got to the ups trucks, the race had already started and yes I missed the mats. I ran as fast as I could b/c I missed the mat and made record time... well it could have been that way... but instead I caught up with my friends - and I was so happy for that. I have not been working out much the last two weeks - dumb move on my part!! among many.. but it turned out to be a good day with good friends and I was glad I caught up with them twice (once at the beginning and the second when I had to hit the porta Johns) - i would say that it was a great weather day and agree with Tom - yes this would be a great half for Tony!To me doing this with my friends far outweighed any pR - especially since I had to run all the way to the end since I really missed the first mat - BIG deal but it does give us a fun story to tell for a long time... shall we tell it in mixed company??I got the medal, the t shirt, a respectable time per my GPS of 3:09:54 and distance of 13.19 - hmm. oh well..but most important - I enjoyed fellowship of my friends... and it was cool to be with grandson and grandparents whose faces beamed with delight..a nice massage free afterwards helped too the 8 k would be nice recovery next yr for some and half for others - have an informal alumni party!

There was an extra benefit from this race - at least some of us now have an "official logo" for use with our racewalking correspondence.
Near or beyond 60?
T
GEEZE
A
M
Old is just a word!

The evolution of the logo was described in the following email exchange with Alice Till, another racewalking friend who has persuaded us to join her in Bermuda for the "Bermuda Triangle" on January 16/17/18, 2009.

Our mascots: http://www.geezecats.com/ GeezeCats (geez kats) n. Slang 1 Some cool old guys. 2 Aging hipsters, hepcats.

How did this all get started? (Alice, remember you asked)

Someplace about mile 10 of the 11/15/08 Richmond Half Marathon, as Naomi, John Phillips and I were pushing, pulling and prodding one another to keep going, the name occurred to me, and I told Naomi she was walking with Team Geezer. (Referring then, now and until time immemorial solely to John and myself, it never occurring to me to apply any such sobriquet to my lovely wife.) The name seemed somehow even more appropriate yesterday when I saw this photo, which Naomi had taken about mile 8 or 9 of the Richmond Half.

We even became featured in a video at that race, perhaps the cinematic debut of Team Geeze, admittedly due solely to our being with Naomi. http://davemorales.org/2008/11/david-and-the-richmond-marathon/

More to come, but that's enough foolishness for this morning.

Near or beyond 60?
T
GEEZE
A
M

Old is just a word!

Veteran's Day 10K 9 November 2008

2008-12-10T09:18:00.003-05:00

The date for this 10K happened to coincide with World Run Day, so Naomi signed us up for this event, as World Run Day is something she has gotten involved with, in part as a "team building" item for the employees of PhRMA, where she is VP of Human Resources. Fine with me, must admit being at the point where a 10K is more or less some speed work, so why not.

Race day found Naomi having some physical issues, so she took me over to the Washington Memorial and dropped me off with instructions to call her from the Metro on my way home. Nice day, and to say the course is flat and fast would be a considerable understatement. The biggest elevation change is about 10 feet, with the entire event being done in Potomac Park, including around the end of Hains Point and back.

No pictures, but I did take about 40 seconds off my MCM 10K time and set a new PR for the 6.2 mile distance of 1:25:51. OK, not super fast for a racewalker, let alone a runner, but it's getting better.

http://www.runday.com/ "The event is intended to promote the sport of running and charitable giving on one special day each year. Started with just 100 runners worldwide, runners connected and impacted their communities in a positive way. As a result, World Run Day was the only event celebrated simultaneously around the globe by people of all backgrounds, faiths, nationalities, and benefitted their favorite charity. "

ps - here's one picture from a training walk earlier that week.

Marine Corps 10K October 26, 2008

2008-12-10T08:58:00.006-05:00

Took at look at my blog site this morning and realized there's no posts since Nike 2008. Here's the first, from our "recovery walk" the following week at the Marine Corps Marathon. We started doing this three years ago, now have a number of other Nike veterans joining us. One of the best parts is that because we have race bibs, we can be in the finish area when the TNT folks we've been training with since May cross the finish line. This year's event had an extra added attraction in the person of Melony Gilbert, Naomi's assistant, who was doing her first-ever endurance event. So, instead of Naomi and I doing the 10K together, I took off with our friend John Phillips to try for a PR time, and Naomi joined Melony.

We both won! John and I both got a PR. Melony and Naomi had a great time, and Melony got her first medal presented by a handsome young Marine. Big fun.

Nike Women's Marathon 10/19/2008

2008-10-22T11:35:00.019-04:00

Sunday morning, 3:00am Pacific Time and the alarm is buzzing. Time for Naomi and me to get up and get moving, the bus departs for the start line at 4:30 and we need to be ready by 4:15. The good news is we have only been in San Francisco for two days and kept our bodies more or less on Eastern time. Nice day on Saturday, breakfast from the "Primavera" kitchen set up at the Farmer's Market behind the Ferry Terminal Building - outstanding food. Then I hopped on BART for a visit with some Porsche friends at EASY in Emeryville (Thanks to Jim Breazale and Ron LaDow for the rides from/to BART stations), capping the day with a TNT Pasta Party. Having gone to bed about 8:00 the night before the Sunday morning hour is not quite as beastly as it sounds. Almost, but not quite.

Up and dressed quickly, then I'm off to the Denny's a block away from our Fisherman's Wharf Hilton hotel. It's an easy way to get a real breakfast before a long day using lots of calories (about 2926 calories burned during the race). Back for a team photo before we board the bus for Union Square and our 5:30 start time.

It's dark out there at 5:30 am, and with about a 10mph wind off the bay, and air temperature below 50, not exactly a warm and cozy place to wait for the starting gun. Temperature feels almost right for a penguin - and guess who turned up at the Start Corral? None other than our friend John "The Penguin" Bingham, there to wish us all well and support his friends. Somehow despite the hour and the chill we all manage to smile for the camera once more before the start.

The course is very scenic, with dawn just breaking as we pass the base of the Golden Gate bridge, then turn to go up Lincoln Blvd. over the Presidio. Our route rises from 30 feet above sea level to 240 feet over about 1.25 miles, but they keep telling us "we don't use any cable car hills".

Across the Presidio heights we go, passing Robin William's house, winding our way up and down then over to Seal Rocks, past a very small coffee shop which reminds me of a Harry Chapin lyric "It was an early morning bar-room" from his song "A Better Place to Be"). Then we go by the Cliff House restaurant and down the hill onto the Great Highway, where we can see the finish line tents. The bad news is we are only at mile 10, and have to turn in to Golden Gate Park.

Through GGP, all the way back (and up) to the art museum, with the Half Marathon course cutting off before mile 12. Why am I doing the full instead of the half? Turn around at the art museum and go back towards the Pacific, with the Half Marathon course rejoining about 1/2 mile before we exit GGP. They turn right to their finish line about .2 miles away, we have another 10 miles to go. I ask one of the course marshalls if the left turn is for the fully certifiable and he just laughs. There must be some good reason I'm doing the full instead of the half?

The Full Marathon course turns South on the Great Highway, past the Zoo, 3 miles or so around Lake Merced, then back up the Great Highway. No pictures, this part of the course is pretty boring until we come back onto the highway, by which time one is usually brain dead and has forgotten they even own a camera. By some supreme mental effort it seems to me my goal is perhaps within my grasp, but to attain it I absolutely must move faster. Trust me, after 18 or so miles on the course, your ability to do math is lower than a 3 year old's, but somehow I figured it out.

Finish line is literally in sight (you can see the tops of the tents for over a mile) and I managed to work up enough energy to make the last mile my fastest mile. Met my goal of finishing in 6 hours and 30 minutes. My first time in 2005 was 6:50, so it's getting better. There to welcome me is our friendly Penguin, John Bingham. Nice to see a friend at the finish, thanks for all your support John. Just to make it easier on your eyes, here's a finish line photo of Naomi getting her Tiffany sterling medal from the firemen at the finish. We all get the same medal, but we don't equally appreciate the delivery method.

We (the 4000 TNT walkers and runners doing the Nike Full and Half Marathon) raised $18 million for leukemia and lymphoma research from this event. Even got a nice write-up for some of our folks in the San Francisco paper on Monday morning. http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/10/20/BAH413KMD3.DTL

Here's a link to photos by Naomi and I during the weekend. http://adobe.kodakgallery.com/I.jsp?c=d4oq73e.6mafb412&x=0&y=1ogxjt&localeid=en_US

Tom
- Faster than I was, slower than I hope to be if I ever do a Full Marathon again.

Chicago Distance Classic - August 10, 2008

2008-08-27T18:45:00.008-04:00

August 8th found Naomi and I traveling again for the Chicago Distance Classic Half Marathon. The good news is we finished, earning ourselves another "Big Honkin' Penguin Medal" as race organizer John "The Penguin" Bingham calls them. Best news is that for all of us wondering if Naomi has recovered from her Kathmandu infection, the answer is a resounding YES.

Naomi set a new personal best, beating her old Half Marathon time by over five minutes (and me by about the same amount) while I also notched a personal record for the Half Marathon of 3:03:00. For comparison, that was seven minutes faster than my time at this same race last year, and is an average of 14:00 per mile. This was due in part to fabulous weather, with a start temperature of about 65, rising to mid-70's by the time we finished the lovely course along the Lake Michigan shore.

We flew up to Chicago on Friday, and after giving John Bingham a special shirt on Saturday morning we had made for him in Kathmandu, took off for another Chicago Architecture Association tour, this time by Segway. Very intriguing machines, and after a couple of hours we were both pretty comfortable driving them. Not quite as relaxing as sitting in a chair (legs tense, probably mostly due to nerves and inexperience) but less strenuous than walking.

The race finish line again featured John Bingham in the middle of the course just before the line to greet us by name, thanking us very publicly for the shirt.

Just to remind me and you of why we are doing this, on Saturday August 16th Peggy Goode and her husband Michael were at our morning TNT training session with great news. Peggy has responded so well to her new chemo-therapy treatments her doctors believe she will be in full remission soon. She thanked us, but the real thanks has to go to all those who contribute to TNT, since their money helps finance the research for these new and better treatments to keep the lovely lady pictured below gracing us with her presence.

Now it's back to training for the Nike Marathon in October. Just did 16 miles on Saturday (8/23) near DC with our TNT group. The temperature was reasonable, but oh my, the humidity. Lose a few pounds and it might be easier, we'll see how the diet works.Speaking of the Nike Marathon - if you have not yet contributed to my TNT fund-raising account (all funds go to the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society) you can contribute right now on my secure web site at http://pages.teamintraining.org/nca/nikesf08/tfarnam .

My goal for this year is $7000 , and I still need your help getting there. For those who have already contributed, my heartfelt thanks.

For those wondering if it's time - YES it's time.

Want another reason to help? How about Caleb, who has been diagnosed with leukemia and is getting treatments at Johns Hopkins about once a week.

Zooma Annapolis Half Marathon

2008-06-02T17:45:00.000-04:00

This was our second "Inaugural Event" this year, and turned out to be a very nice smaller event. Pretty course, starting at the Navy/Marine Corps Stadium, going past the Naval Academy, across the Severn River, out the Baltimore-Annapolis Road, then onto a "rail trail" on the roadbed of the Baltimore-Annapolis Railway. Several miles on the B-A Trail, then back-track to end at State Park before recrossing the Severn.

Course map at http://www.mapmyrun.com/run/united-states/md/annapolis/209549241453

Photos are at http://adobe.kodakgallery.com/I.jsp?c=d4oq73e.93kipfre&x=0&y=-ieqda5&localeid=en_US

More detailed description of the event is best summarized by this email sent to my coach via Blackberry while Naomi was driving home:
Coach, there is a lot of good to be said for the Zooma event today.
1st - Naomi had a good race (We were concerned about her endurance after her hospital stay in Nepal.)
2d - I proved to myself that going 5 weeks with no training, then doing the MChalfM & following that 2 weeks later with a Zooma Half Marathon is not the way to have great times. The good news there is that you don'thave to give me the lecture about it.
3d - Naomi was willing to slow down for me.
4th - The course was .14 miles longer than the advertised 13.1 (Event chair assures me it's USATF certified as 13.1 miles, so my Garmin must be reading long.)
5th -Wearing a TNT singlet with your name on it results in lots of encouragement, especially from the TNT Baltimore Chapter water stop crew.
6th - We still managed some decent if not wonderful times, on a prettycourse, at a nice & well run smaller event.

In other words, we both recommend it for next year.

Tom & Naomi

Sunny, 70deg, 90%humid, C shoes
1-15:14 1.04mi. 14:42pace
2-15:06 1.02mi. 14:47pace
3-15:06 .97mi. 15:34pace
4-15.11. 1.03mi. 14:48pace
5-15:10. 1.01mi. 15:03pace
6-14:50. 1.00
7-14:48. 1.00
8-15:43. 1.01 15:30pace - &removing rock from shoe
9/10-30:19. 2:0015:09pace
11-15:10. 1:00
12-15:13. 1.02 14:54pace
13-14:45. 1.02. pace14:32 Got the negative split
13.1-1:38

Total 3:18:19 13.24mi

Marine Corps Historic Half Marathon - 18 May 2008

2008-05-27T15:38:00.000-04:00

This was the inaugural Marine Corps Half Marathon, held May 18, 2008 entirely within the city limits of Fredericksburg, VA. They limited the entry to 5000 people, had a course with a few hills (nothing compared to San Francisco) and managed beautiful weather for the event. The expo center was less than a block from our hotel, well organized and although small had the usual gear, food and so forth.

Our TNT walkers from the DC area were well represented, with seventeen alumni there in purple and green to show our colors. Althugh this was not an official TNT event, we all had a great time, including our own private pasta partySaturday night before the race. Homewood Suites gave us a kitchen, complete with pasta pots, so a little "bring your own" and we were eating well.

Kevin Frederici did a great job cooking pasta to go under the sauces provided by Naomi and Tom, Pam Parks and Ellen Cohen brought a salad, John Phillips furnished the bread, Katie Collins made a fine cake for dessert to go with the one Marni Matyac brought, Karen Brooks provided vino, and John Park brought good beer. Guaranteed to be better than any $30/plate banquet center pasta party. Photos of the pasta party and race at http://adobe.kodakgallery.com/I.jsp?c=d4oq73e.c2xg59oa&x=0&y=8gvyc6&localeid=en_US

Sunday morning was sunny and about 60 degrees, with the start/finish line directly in front of our hotel, no buses needed. Most of us started at the back of the pack, since it's not a lot of fun to have the runners elbowing you out of their way, even if we do pass many of them before the finish. Course was well marked, good water stops and other necessities, even later in the race when walkers sometimes find them out of water. A couple of the early stops had not been equipped with rakes or brooms so had more cups on the ground than we like (they get slippery) but even there some of the Marines were picking them up by hand.

Don't know when I've seen so many smiling local residents out to cheer us along, lots of Marines all along the course, and they all seemed to appreciate us being there. The Marines even interviewed a couple of us for the Quantico post, don't know what they will do with those tapes but they surely made us feel welcome. Several of us have already made hotel reservations for next year's event, which will be on May 17, 2009. See you there.

Bhutan/Nepal

2008-05-27T07:06:00.000-04:00

This topic is much too broad to cover in my racewalking blog, but just to give you an explanation for the incredibly slow time at the Marine Corps Half Marathon on May18th, let me tell you about what we were doing from 12 April until early May.

We returned to the USA on May 6th. We were originally scheduled back on May 2, but as explained further below, had a delay.

The good news is we had an amazing trip, especially in Bhutan. It is truly a lovely country with equally lovely people, and very little influence yet on its civilization from European/American/Chinese influences. Travel is a challenge, as the roads are narrow and although asphalt paving is present, it has many holes and rough places. Such that travel on the main highway is at an average of 20km/hour (that's about 12.5 mph), meaning a 100km journey is most of a day.

Nepal is much more "westernized", with an absolute plethora of motorcycles, cars, bikes, pedicabs, trucks and busses of all shapes and sizes. Kathmandu is about 3.5 million people, but seems to have infrastructure for perhaps 500,000, so the electricity goes off for several hours in various areas on a pre-set schedule, water service is so uncertain each house has several hundred gallons of storage, which they fill when they have power and water, and use gravity feed from rooftop tanks for times with no power. It's a fascinating and beautiful country, but as the drivers of all those vehicles think they must honk their horns to tell everyone they are passing, it's noisy.

The less good news and reason for our being in Kathmandu until May 5 was that Naomi had to be hospitalized for four days to recover from a couple of infections. She was running a 101 degree fever when we got her there April 30, but they got her temperature and the infections under control, she regained her strength and was discharged on May 4.

We had gone from Kathmandu to Nagarkot, a more mountainous and remote part of Nepal, when she started showing symptoms of diarrhea and fever. We tried getting this under control with aspirin, immodium and so forth for about a day and a half before bringing her back to Kathmandu. We are in the Norvic-Escorts International Hospital, which is providing first class care. Several of the physicians have trained in US, and one (a cardiologist) is going to be in DC for a fellowship at George Washington University Hospital again this fall. The "we" is appropriate, I stayed in the hospital with her, sleeping on a cot in her room. It was reasonably comfortable, and there was no way I was leaving her in a foreign hospital on her own.

Naomi recovered pretty quickly, having among other things learned about cricket by watching a match on TV with our friend/guide Surendra, who is helping her understand the game. Surendra has been a friend of Naomi's for many years, and over the last week has become my friend as well. Her hospital discharge gave us about 24 hours in a hotel before we departed for home. We were both delighted to get to the hotel's shower, as the hospital is equipped with a shower about the equivalent of a motor-home unit, and we had agreed to forgo same. Like many Nepalese, Surendra owns a motorcycle, which is the family transport. In fact he, his wife and five year old daughter have come twice to the hospital for a visit.

The legal limit for motorcycle passengers is two adults and two children, which is seen often. More surprising was being passed by a motorcycle with a man driving, his five year old in front of him, a teenage boy in back and a live goat between driver and teenager. Many cars, most of which are small (a Toyota Rav4 seems quite large here), and all drivers seem to believe honking their horn will make traffic move more rapidly (futile, but loud).

As it worked out, the timing of Naomi being well enough to travel matched up pretty well with our ability to get flights home. We ended up taking the same flights as originally planned, just four days later, so arrived in DC on Tuesday, May 6th at about Noon (after 32 hours of travel, about eight of those on ground between flights).

Surendra and I spent a couple of days running errands on his motorcycle, and it's quite an experience. Then there was going to the airport to change flights - that's an adventure in and of itself.

Pictures soon!

Stupid Bowl Party & Early Training for MC1/2M

2008-05-27T06:33:00.000-04:00

First the sad news - we had to "scratch" both the Victory Junction Run half marathon with John Bingham and the Petty family and the Carlsbad Half Marathon. It was just not possible for us to take the time off necessary for the trip to High Point, NC or California. Much of the time pressure was created by our trip to Bhutan/Nepal in April/May of 2008, but more about that later.

Having given Naomi a big screen (46 inch) TV for Christmas, and successfully mounted it on the ceiling of our sitting room, it seemed only appropriate to have a "Stupid Bowl" party. (Since both the St. Louis Rams and Washington Redskins were long out of contention, and neither of us are big football fans, using my friend Lee Ski's description of the Super Bowl seemed appropriate.) We invited TNT friends, our neighbors (just in case we got raucous) and told everyone to bring a snack. Lots of fun, even if we did not always focus on the game.

February is not a great time for being outdoors in the DC area, but we are a bit intrepid, and there is a race (Marine Corps 1/2 Marathon) coming up for us in May, so we joined some TNT friends in Behesda for a training walk on the 17th. Pictured is one of the favorite parts of these outings - coffee and conversation after we finish. Even managed a semi-respectable 1:27 for 10K.

Miracle Cure, Turkeys, etc.

2008-05-27T05:52:00.000-04:00

We don't event need a formal event as an excuse for a nice session on the trail. OK, we can consider "World Run Day" an event, but certainly not a formal one, as the whole idea is get out for some exercise. We did, offering our TNT friends the following invitation:
Have you been suffering from:

- Excess avoirdupois (aka spare tire)?

- Social withdrawal (aka lack of contact with TNT teammates)?

- Restless foot syndrome?- Uncertainty about how a racewalker should observe World Run Day? www.runday.com<http://www.runday.com/>

- Caffeine shortage?

- Indecision about what to have for a guilt-free Sunday brunch?

- Tony/Christina withdrawal pains?

WE HAVE A CURE!Come to Buzz on Slaters Lane on Sunday morning (November 11, 2007) at 10:00 or Noon. http://www.buzzonslaters.com/buzz.htm

Several friends joined in, we had a great visit after about 5.5 miles of quick walking (14:19 pace), and did consume a few calories at Buzz, our neighborhood coffee and pastry shop.

Turkeys?

One of the fun things about this racewalking routine is the almost endless number of events available, often near home. Thanksgiving is a great time for most outdoor activities in the DC area, and the "Turkey Trot" races are a classic example. Over the Thanksgiving holiday weekend there are a number of these in the area, and some folks from Naomi's office decided they would do one in Bethesda, MD. There were others closer to home in Alexandria and Arlington, but Bethesda is a short drive and has been doing a "Turkey Trot" for about 25 years, so off we went for a Thanksgiving Day stroll. Our friend John Phillips joined us, and the three of us had fun taking a stroll with about 5000 of our closest friends. One of the liabilities of being a walker doing runner events is the course is often closing as we finish, but no matter, it was still fun. Besides, doing a few extra miles gives you a great way to use about 1100 calories, making it easy to justify that extra bit of Thanksgiving dessert.

Marine Corps Marathon 10K

2007-10-29T22:36:00.000-04:00

This may seem to some like being a glutton for punishment, but one week after the Nike Marathon in San Francisco, Naomi and I are back at another racewalking event. October 28th, "just" a 10K (6.2 mile) side event for the Marine Corps Marathon, starts next to the Pentagon, just a couple of miles from our home in Alexandria, and gives us an opportunity to be in the Finish area to welcome our Team in Training mates when they finish the Marathon. We even get a nice medal and a t-shirt, without having to travel more than a couple of Metro stops.

More about it later, suffice to say this was our second year of this, and it's fun. We even get our grandson David Matthew Morales out to walk the last mile with his Grandma, complete with a medal at the finish. Took me 85 minutes to walk the 10K, and it's a great recovery walk.

Next event is a "Turkey Trot" 5K, then we'll be off to Randleman, NC (High Point) for the December 2d Victory Junction Run being put on by John Bingham. Finish is at Kyle Petty's Victory Junction Camp.

Nike Women's Marathon 2007

2007-10-25T15:58:00.000-04:00

A few minutes past Noon on October 21, 2007, after 6:35:19 on the 26.2 mile course, my adventure with the 2007 Nike Women's Marathon came to a close. Official "chip" time was 39 seconds slower than my 2006 time on the same course, and I'm beginning to understand why. It's a bit disappointing not being able to improve my time from the year before, but it's not a disaster. More about that in a moment, but first let's talk about the good news.

We had a GREAT weekend in San Francisco, even though it was too short. Naomi had business meetings in SF on Wednesday and Thursday, so arrived ahead of me. We were staying with the TNT team at the Serrano Hotel on Taylor at O'Farrell. In the "Tenderloin" (which meant lots of interesting street people), only a couple of blocks from the race Expo and start at Union Square. We went over to Union Square as soon as I got to the hotel, about 2:00pm, and picked up our race packets, with the "bib" for the front of the shirt along with various giveaway goodies like "sport beans" (energy food for the race) and looked around the Expo.

Left the Expo and went across the street to Niketown - five stories of downtown SF Nike store, complete with loud music and crowds of fellow racers. Posted on the outside of the store is "the wall", a two story listing of the name of each entrant in the Nike Women's Marathon, always a crowd of people looking for their name. Naomi had been there on Thursday evening for their special "ladies night" packet pickup, complete with wine, cheese, free posters with all the entrant names from "the wall".

Back to the Expo to wait for the rest of the TNT National Capital Walk Team to arrive for packet pickup, greet everyone and get some photos. We then went back to the hotel to relax for a few minutes before the 5:00pm wine tasting in the lobby (nice touch in an old hotel). Then off on an adventure in a strange city - trolley to Divisadero Street for dinner at Metro Kathmandu, an excellent Nepalese restaurant. Great chance to sample the cuisine before we head to Bhutan/Nepal next April.

SATURDAY
Up and out about 7:30 for a walk to the Ferry Terminal Building with our friend Kevin Frederici from the Walk Team. Breakfast at the Farmers' Market has become a tradition any Saturday we are in San Francisco, with a great chance to get fresh and dried fruit, great yogurt and excellent breakfast tamales. Saturday was a "take it easy" sort of day, trying not to spend too much time on our feet and save energy for the marathon.

TNT Pasta Party at the Moscone Center Saturday evening with a few thousand of our close friends. John Bingham (aka "The Penguin", writes for Runners World and owns a company which puts on several marathons - we enjoy his races) does a funny and motivational speech. We learned there were some 4500 folks doing the Nike Marathon for TNT, and the combined funds raised were over $18.5 million. That's enough to provide some serious help for folks like the young lady who was our prinicipal speaker, telling us how much our fund-raising mattered to her and other blood cancer patients. Our dear friend Peggy G. was seated between me and the speaker, and it was sort of tough watching Peggy during the speech, knowing her cancer has recurred and she's back in chemo and other treatment. But she is DOING the Nike Marathon, and is a real inspiration to me any time I wonder whether the strength is there to complete the next mile.

This event makes me really proud of our National Capital team - 69 walkers and runners went to San Francisco, and each one met the $3800 fund-raising minimum, so we raised a lot of money for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society. We let the other teams know we were there too, whooping it up when our name was mentioned. Back to the hotel, get all the equipment and clothing ready for next morning and then try to sleep. Nerves make that difficult at best, but we have to try. Getting equipment ready the night before may sound like overkill, but it's the best way to be sure the "timing chip" is fastened on the shoe, the "bib number" is pinned to the singlet (and not pinned through the singlet, which makes it really tough to put it over your head), Gatorade mixed (I use the "Endurance Formula", buying it as a powder then carrying 3 or 4 snack size bags with enough for a single water bottle), clothes laid out and so forth.

SUNDAY
Out of bed at 3:30 to get ready for a 5:30 start, after a visit to the nearest all-night diner for a real breakfast. That's one of the advantages of doing an event in a city, fresh fried eggs, sausage, toast instead of hard-boiled eggs and cold bread. Besides, you see and meet some interesting people in the diners at that hour.

4:15am - Team Photos in the lobby for the three of us doing the full and taking the early start at 5:30. Two other walk teammates are doing the 7:00 start for the Full Marathon, with one of the Run/Walk team joining us, while Naomi and the others from our National Capital team doing the Full and Half Marathons are all at the later start. We walk about three blocks over to Union Square for the start, and going through the gate a familiar voice greets me. John Bingham is there, before 5:00am, with a light affixed to his hat, checking credentials. We have gotten to be friends over the past three years, and seeing him is good for the inevitable pre-race jitters. Star Spangled Banner, starting gun and here we go.

5:30am - Off through the streets of San Francisco, working to avoid cable car tracks, potholes, and other possible "trip you" spots while working to get around slower walkers. I chose to start very near the back of the pack, there is plenty of time for this and being in front simply means more crowds. Forgot my Garmin 301 unit (watch with built-in GPS unit) does not like being in tall buildings where the satellite signals are not clear, so for about the first mile there is no pace information, as it can't compare distance to elapsed time. Also miss the first mile marker, not sure whether it was not set up yet or just on other side of course from where I was looking. Not a big deal, although by the time I reached Mile 2 my pace was already one minute behind plan.

6:35 - Mile 4.5, by now we have done our first "hill", a short quick climb of about 60 feet up "Fort Moran" between the Embarcadero and the Marina. Nice spot in the daytime, it's a little tricky at 6:30am because it's not well lit (and is where I stumbled and fell in the 2005 Nike Marathon). The Old Scoutmaster had taken along a tiny flashlight, which was very useful in this section. Now we go across the Marina district (going by Ghiradelli Square), past Crissy Field on Mason Street to the base of the Golden Gate Bridge. UP - Long Street to Lincoln Boulevard, going from 25 feet altitude to 295 feet in just over a mile. And our friends training for the Marine Corps Marathon think the slope to the Iwo Jima Memorial is a hill! Course map at

http://www.nike.com/nikemarathon/media/pdf/nike_marathon.pdf

7:20 - Mile 7.25, after reaching the "peak" of Lincoln Blvd., crossing the Presidio to Camino Del Mar on a gentle downgrade, we head down 32nd Avenue to Clement Street. Left on Clement, and UPHILL again! This time it's less steep, but it seems almost endless, until we pass the VA Hospital and start down towards the ocean. During this stretch the "gazelles" (elite runners, who will do the marathon in under 2.5 hours) begin to pass us, complete with motorcycle escorts. The runners will continue to pass us for the next couple of hours, having started later but often moving faster.

8:00am - Mile 10 - Our friend Ed Avant is waiting with extra "gels" (food supplements) and encouragement, a very welcome if momentary break. Past Seal Rocks and the Cliff House, then steep downhill on Point Lobos Avenue to the Great Highway. As we come around the curve at Cliff House the beach stretches out for miles, with just a bit of fog visible in the distance. Nearer at hand are the large white tents at the finish line, but we won't be going there for quite a while.

Mile 11 is around the corner and in Golden Gate Park, where we will do about five miles, going up JFK Drive to the Art Museum, then back out on the Lincoln Street side. The Half Marathon course splits off at about mile 12, takes a shorter route back to rejoin our course just east of the Great Highway on the south side of the park. Oh, did I mention the Art Museum is at 240 feet, compared to 25 feet when we entered the park? At least it's a very long slow upgrade, but it's still UP.

9:30am Mile 16.2 - Lincoln Boulevard and the Great Highway, the Half Marathon turns right to do their last tenth of a mile, but we turn left to go south on the Great Highway. This is when the miles start to feel a little longer, but at least we have the ocean on the right, and there are a fair number of folks out to cheer us on. Having my name on my singlet means people I've never met before call out "Go Tom", which is a nice boost.

Somewhere along the way I've fallen in with a couple of run/walk TNT members from Louisville who are moving at more or less the same pace. (Later learned they were Anuji Abraham and Margaret Anderson.) At times they will run ahead, then I'll walk past them, then they'll run a bit more. We talk, but not a great deal as we are sort of using our oxygen for other purposes at the moment. Wind up being more or less next to them until just before the finish line.

Along the Great Highway between miles 16 and 18, along comes the smiling face of Coach Shari Tanck, just checking to be sure all is OK and going well. Perfect illustration of one of the biggest advantages of doing this kind of event with TNT - the TEAM is real, and the coaches are all there to help us, based on their training and their own hard-won experience.

11:00 - Mile 18, past the Zoo, then at about 18.7 the course turns East to cross a ridge over to Lake Merced. We do a 4+ mile loop around Lake Merced, passing the San Francisco State University campus.

Mile 22 - I see a woman on the curb cheering people on, wearing an outlandish hat with blue ears sticking up and jumping up and down. I pass her, she reads the "Walking Tom" on the back of my singlet, and then starts yelling "TOM - it's LIZZY". Have been swapping emails with Liz Shepard from California and Deb Hellman from Denver, who is walking the Nike, and Lizzy promised to be out there cheering. (We are all three alumni of Dave McGovern racewalking clinics.) Nice feeling, thanks Lizzy! If you have ever done long miles, by this time you are getting really tired, so greetings from a friend like Dizzy Lizzy is a real boost.

11:45 - Mile 25 and here's Jacque Carter, my Coach from National Capital TNT, there to give us a boost before the finish. She asks how I'm doing, I tell her felling good even though I'm not likely to make a PR today. She asks if I want her to pace me, but at that point I have to reply "Thanks Coach, but don't think there is anything left in the tank for more speed, so with the finish in sight Jacque peels off and goes back to help the next teammate.

12:06 - Cross the finish line a little later than hoped for, but at least with no back problems and able to give the photographer a "thumbs up". Just beyond the finisher medals, calling to me from the sidelines - John Bingham, "The Penguin" himself. And just a few yards beyond him was Naomi . Great way to finish a long hard day.

I will be back next year to make that 6:30 finish time.

Last "Long Miles" training before Nike Marathon 2007

2007-10-02T10:56:00.000-04:00

September 29, 2007 we did our last "long miles" TNT training session before Nike.

20 miles - far enough to give the newbies a pretty good idea of what 26.2 will feel like, but not so far as to make it impossible to recover before the big event on October 21 (or for my teammates doing the Marine Corps Marathon, 28 October). We had an absolutely beautiful day, with 6:45am start temperature of about 60 degrees, warming to the mid-70s when we finished (Noon for me, others a few minutes earlier and later). Those doing the Nike half marathon had a mere12 mile stroll, starting about two hours behind us, so we all finished about the same time. We also had all of the National Capital TNT run and run/walk teams out with us, so there were lots of "Go Team" shouts on the trail.

We did all this on the W&OD Trail, starting from mile 17 near Wiehle Ave. in Reston, VA http://www.wodfriends.org/map11.html, then going west to mile 22, back east to mile 12 and finish at mile 17 (Half marathoners did 17-20-14-17). Nice trail, and the early start meant fewer cyclists for most of the walk. If you ride a bike on any of these trails, do the walkers and runners a big favor and tell them when you are passing. Better yet, buy a bell (less than $10) and ring it before passing. If you wonder why, stand on a street corner with your back to traffic moving past you at about 25 mph, less than 6 inches from you. Scary.

I felt pretty good up to about mile 18, when I had muscle spasms in my back which caused me to have about a 15 degree list to starboard. Same problem occurred at the 2005 Nike, at about the same mileage. The good news is I know what causes it, and why it recurred last week. I've a minor congenital spinal deformity, and if I walk bent forward from the waist, it puts an extra strain on my back, and the muscles apparently react by going into a "bend over mode". The attached photo was taken about 30 minutes after I finished the 20 miles, with the other three teammates who are doing the Nike Full Marathon, and makes it very clear what happens. So, my trick is to beware of bending forward (theoretically one can racewalk faster if they bend forward from the ankles, but my body has not learned how to do that yet) - ramrod straight posture is the solution. The mental image I use is a puppet held by a string from the top of its head, which also helps keep me from raising (hunching) my shoulders.

Here's my report to my Coach, which tells all the details.
60 degrees at start, mid 70s at finish, clear & sunny, C shoes
1-14:47
2-14:30 (1.01 mi pace 14:24)
3-14:25
4-14:27 (+5:08 &.15 bio break)
5-14:18
6-14:21
7-14:22
8-14:16
9-14:27
10-14:22
11-14:28
12-14:22
13-14:10
14-14:31
15-14:44
16-14:29
17-14:18
18-14:42 (pause for bike accident in front of me)
19-16:01 (back muscle spasms)
20-14:50 (close as I could get to negative split with back spasms)
Total-4:56:09 for 20.16 miles - average pace 14:41
Back muscle spasms at mile 19 were caused by me trying to lean forward for "better racing form". Same problem at same distance at 2005 Nike Marathon almost caused DNF. Now know that with my congenital back issue the "lean forward" does NOT work and will NOT be attempted.

GOOD NEWS - at the same average pace, will finish 26.2 in 6:27:57, beating PR by 7 minutes!

Pacing plan was VERY simple - first mile at 14:45, after that none slower than 14:30 or faster than 14:00. My plan worked up to bike wreck and back spasms, leaving me feeling reasonably good about using same plan for Nike.

In other words, I'm ready!

Tom

Nike Marathon 2007 - Nervous?

2007-09-24T13:33:00.000-04:00

It's now less than four weeks until the 2007 Nike Women's Marathon, and training is going reasonably well but not as well as I'd hoped. Our TNT 18 mile day was September 15, and shown below is the note I sent my Coach, Jacque Carter about that day. Not my best day, sure hope the 20 mile training set for September 29 goes better. In any case, I will do the full 26.2 miles of the Nike Marathon on October 21st! Even if I can't make the 6:15, I will finish.
Think maybe I learned some things yesterday, guess we will know for sure in 35 days. Think my "hit the wall" may be food related, realized afterwards I was a bit behind usual schedule of gel every 3 miles, and also actually stopped for water, not my usual approach. Besides, up to mile 14 I was essentially right on planned paces, so that was working.

In other words I'm not losing faith, at least not yet.

65 sunny, C shoes
1-14:34
2-14:31
3-14:31
4-14:25
5-14:04
6-14:18
7-14:44 (1.03 mi -- pace 14:30) +4:16 bio
8-13:42 (.97 mi -- pace 14:12)
9-14:07 (1.01 mi -- pace 14:01))
10-13:56
11-14:25 (1.01mi) shoelace
12-13:54 (.99mi)
13-14:03
14-14:56 ??? Did not see that wall but sure hit one.
15-14:17
16-14:39. +6:14 bio/water
17-14:35
18-14:52 aw the heck with it
Total-4:29:14 (with 2 stops) Avg=14:57

Same pace for 26.2 would be 6:31:53, NOT good enough! Soo - need to find an average of 4 sec/mile for a 6:30 finish, or 39 sec/mile avg for 6:15. Then again, each minute of bio break is equal to 2.29 seconds/mile. Guess that means no potty stops - might smell worse but finish faster?

Tom

2007 #7 - Chicago Distance Classic Half Marathon

2007-08-12T16:41:00.000-04:00

The good news is Naomi and I both finished, earning ourselves another "Big Honkin' Penguin Medal" as race organizer John "The Penguin" Bingham calls them. The less good news is that it was really humid (79% at the 6:30 am start) and by 8:00am (mile 6 or so) the sun was quite hot. So no personal records this weekend. I managed to finish in 3:10, which is an average of 14:30 per mile. Naomi was a bit slower, and courtesy precludes me publishing her time. Not great, but within reason, and as a sage "penguin runner" told me, just think how much more time you had to enjoy the course - which was quite beautiful along Lake Michigan.

The finish line was fun, as John Bingham was in the middle of the course just before the line greeting finishers by name. Having gotten to be friends with he and David Babner over the last three years, it was fun to be announced over the PA. Not sure but think we might be walking marathons at about the same pace John runs them. :-)

Overall we had a nice weekend in Chicago, going up on Friday afternoon, sort of "bumming around" that evening, then taking a tour put on by the Chicago Architectural Association on Saturday morning. (Following our coach's advice to not be on our feet all day Saturday it was a bus tour.) We saw lots of interesting buildings, including the Frank Lloyd Wright "Robie House" (it's being rehabbed, so that was a short tour) and learned neither of us cares for the Mies van der Rohe designs at the IIT campus. We have managed several nice little day trips like this, having gone to Taliesin West in Phoenix when doing the PF Chang R&R Marathon, the Sonora Desert Museum in Tucson, and so forth. Helps make our "race weekends" a little more educational and entertaining.

Naomi is still having some issues with sun poisoning due to a medication, so we sort of "holed up" for the afternoon in our hotel room, her reading and me working on the computer. It was interesting when we went out about 5:00 pm to walk up Michigan Avenue and see all the tired and hot folks while we felt quite refreshed. Headed for a "Great Performers of Illinois Festival" at Millenium Park, just north of the Chicago Art Institue on Michigan Avenue. (Interesting bit of trivia about Millenium Park - it was supposed to open in Y2K, but agreement among all parties could not be achieved in time, so it opened in 2004, still named Millenium Park.) The festival included several music stages, and a wine tasting (is there a theme to our events?) of Illinois wines. Yes, they actually make some wines which will not take the fillings out of your teeth, and much to her "California girl" surprise, Naomi found a couple she enjoyed. Being more fond of big reds than sweet whites, I was less impressed, but it was free and not a bad way to spend a few minutes.

Back down Michigan Ave. to a non-memorable pasta dinner, then early to bed to face the 4:00 am wake-up for the Marathon. Sleeping was a bit challenging with the salsa band playing across the street in the park, but we managed. Awoke to rain, lightning, just what we needed to bring up the humidity a few more points. The rain did bring the starting temperature down, but we paid the piper when the sun came up and the sky was clear.

Here are a couple of pictures from the weekend, now it's back to training for the Nike Marathon in October. Scheduled for 16 miles this Saturday (8/18) near DC with our TNT group, which is likely to be another test of my ability to stand the heat and humidity. Lose a few pounds and it might be easier, we'll see how the diet works.

Tom

2007#6 Wine Country Napa to Sonoma Half Marathon

2007-07-17T19:15:00.001-04:00

How bad can this be - walk a Half Marathon, get a nifty medal at the finish line, and then they hand you a wine glass to enjoy tasting products from 15 of the local vintners. :-) We even made a nice family weekend out of it, visited some wineries, ate some good food while having a lot of fun.

Flew into San Francisco, sister Ruth flew up from LA, and we drove up to Sonoma Friday evening. Dinner at Mary's Pizza Shack on Sonoma Plaza, then off to the Sonoma Chalet B&B and our digs in Laura's Cottage. Very pleasant to sleep with the windows open and a feather duvet, awaken to sunny day for breakfast on the deck looking out as the deer and quail wander about on the field next to us, and the woodpecker on the telephone pole chases away the squirrels and all the other birds who come near his perch.

Saturday spent doing usual wine country tourist things, including a visit to Clos Pegase for their lovely art work. Two bus loads of tourists there for a Japanese festival so lots of people milling around. Took the ladies to Domaine Mumm to relax and sample some champagnes on the patio. You know how much they hated that duty. Then to Sonoma Plaza Saturday evening for the "Red and White Ball", a local charity fundraiser, featuring all sorts of good food and (can you guess) wine. Another treat was seeing our friends Paula and "Mac" McNichols, there for a balloon ride, visit to Sonoma and for Paula to do the 10K while Mac cheered us on. An open wine bar may not be the best training for a half marathon, but it sure did taste good.

4:30 Sunday came very early - had to get to pickup point for buses to start line, going UP a hill at the Cuvaison Carneros winery. It was a bit chilly but really pretty morning, with the rising sun burning the fog off the vines before the start. No on-course photos, my camera battery quit after this dawn photo from our starting point. It really was a pretty course, mostly through the vineyards on country roads with rolling hills. Nothing too strenuous in terms of hills, just gentle rollers. Last part into Sonoma, with folks out having their morning coffee cheering us into the finish at "Depot Park", as you might suspect on an old rail line which is now a trail for walkers, runners and cyclists.

I finished the course in 3:08:47 - new Personal Record for the 13.1 mile Half Marathon distance. Naomi did the 10K (6.2 miles) in a fast new Personal Record of 1:23:55 after switching to the shorter event to avoid sun poisoning issues caused by a medication. We both were presented with the same medal, one of the nice things about small events like this (only 2400 entries, 400 of them for the 10K). All were given a wine glass as well, which came in handy for the 15 or more wineries which had set up tents to give out samples to the racers.

Sunday afternoon, following showers and some "relax on the porch time", we took off to tour - a winery of course! Took Ruth to one of our favorites, Ferrari Carano outside of Healdsburg. Lovely chateau, two tasting rooms (hot tip - join the wine club, your tastings are complimentary and you get a discount on your purchases).

What a great way to recover from an endurance event. As "designated driver" had to sample gently in order to be able to drive back to Sonoma (about 40 miles) then dinner at Maya, a Mexican place on the Sonoma Plaza with excellent food, before early bedtime.

Up for breakfast with the deer and quail on Monday morning, then back to SFO and flights home. Heck of a nice way to spend a long weekend, get some exercise and prepare for the office. By the end of this week I'll be back on my training schedule for the Nike Marathon in October.

Speaking of the Nike Marathon - if you have not yet contributed to my TNT fund-raising account (all go to the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society) you can contribute right now on my secure web site at www.active.com/donate/tntnca04/tntncaTCFarnam07. My goal for this year is $5000, and I still need your help getting there

2007#5 Vancouver Half Marathon

2007-07-17T18:31:00.000-04:00

This one felt a bit strange, as I've gotten used to doing events with Naomi but she had decided not to go along to Vancouver. Our TNT team departed DCA at 6:00am for Vancouver, via Houston. (Someone picked the route based on cheap airfare, never mind the amount of travel time wasted.)

Arrived Vancouver on Friday afternoon to find the sun shining brightly, temperature about 70f, headed in to the hotel. It was very nice (Sheraton Wall Centre) as was my roommate, a young man named Adam Zimmerman doing his first marathon. Vancouver is a very lovely city, as we learned walking about a mile to pick up our "race packets" (bib numbers, etc.) and to Yaletown Brewing Co. for dinner. Yes, the beer was good and it's certainly permitted (in moderation) as part of "carb loading".

Saturday morning we went to Granville Island for breakfast. Fun spot in what must have been an industrial area of the city which is now a big market offering nearly any sort of food you'd like, along with many other shops. Can be reached by a bridge or the more fun way "Aqua Bus" (aka water taxi). Another beautiful sunny day, could not have more pleasant weather. TNT "pasta party" for dinner, held right in our hotel, good pasta and some great fish.

Sunday morning - TNT Team Meeting at 4:30, in order to be ready for the bus by 5:30, as the race start is some distance from the hotel and we must ride the buses. The weather is a bit more like Vancouver's reputation - gray, damp, looking like rain. About three hours into the race it did begin to rain, which was not a big problem for me as I only had a few minutes to put up with it, but it was not very warm. At least the post-race area was inside a domed stadium and dry. Some of our folks really needed it, they got pretty badly chilled over the last few miles. My time - 3:10:16, getting better even if not as fast as desired. It's a lot like racing cars, faster than before but never quite as fast as you hope to be.

Lest you think I'm preoccupied with my times, it's really only a matter of personal performance measurement. In Vancouver I placed 75th of 87 males in the 60-64 age class. That includes runners and walkers, like most of our events this one does not give separate results for walkers. Not disappointing to me, just finishing a half marathon is a victory, and especially when the times are getting a little better.

2007#4 GW Parkway 10 Miler

2007-07-17T18:25:00.000-04:00

Let's just make this brief and tell you it's a beautiful course. You gather at Oronoco Park in Old Town, they bus you down to Mt. Vernon so you can walk back to Alexandria. It's late April (22nd in 2007) and spring is very much in the air, with everything green and blooming. The path along the Potomac is a great place to walk, but having the George Washington Parkway closed to traffic and being able to walk there with no buses and cars belching fumes a few feet away is a real treat, not to mention how quiet it seems.

We'll forget the times, Naomi had a foot problem and we came home in a medical unit. Nothing in the way of permanent damage, but it was a bit frustrating.

2007#3 George Washington's Birthday 10K

2007-07-17T18:14:00.000-04:00

Our friends at Pacer's Running put on this event, and it looked like a fun concept - 10K on a Saturday morning, starting and ending at the Eisenhower Metro Station. Things got a bit more interesting when it snowed at the beginnning of that week, meaning we could NOT use the trails, but the City of Alexandria was cooperative enough to let us do a two-loop five kilometer course on Eisenhower Avenue.

Race day - usual early start (8:00am), but it was 24 degrees, and windy! That is cold, no matter how you say it. We got out and did it, earned "bragging rights", and were not quite the last ones to finish with our 1:26:51 hand-in-hand to keep warm.

2007#2 Carlsbad Half Marathon - January 21, 2007

2007-07-17T17:52:00.000-04:00

We found a pretty good way to combine a couple of things. Flew to San Diego, picked up Ruth (Naomi's sister) at a convention she was attending. The three of us drove to Riverside (about 2 hours) then spent several days there clearing out their Mom's house. End of the week, Naomi and I drove back to San Diego while Ruth returned to her place in LA.

There was a Marathon at Carlsbad, which gave us an excuse to stay across the street from Legoland (good stuff for grandchildren), enjoy the coastline, and do another Half Marathon. Nice course, almost entirely along the coast road with great views of surf and sand - not too cold (remember, I'd been doing winter training in DC, so it's all relative), course was a little hilly but not bad. All in all a pretty good way to spend a weekend. We did another hand-in-hand finish, this time at 3:17:47, which means there is still a lot of work to do on going faster.

2007#1 - Winter Training for Vancouver, BC

2007-07-07T17:52:00.000-04:00

Decided to do something completely different to start 2007 - winter training with TNT, leading up to the May 7th BMO Montreal Vancouver Half Marathon. Naomi chose to "pass" on this one, and I decided not to do the fundraising, wanting to avoid too much challenge to the generosity of my friends. Do you know, it can be really cold out there on a bike trail in January, February and March. Even April is still a bit nippy on some days. The good news is my accumulation of cold weather gear from having been a Boy Scout leader came in very handy, and once you get moving quickly even 30 degree days don't feel so cold - except when the wind is whistling down the trail and you are going up that trail. Still, it's different to train in long john tops and bottoms, long running pants, long sleeved technical shirt, jacket, ear band, gloves and mittens than the summer outfit of shorts, a tee shirt and sweat band.

The cold weather does tend to limit your willingness to stand around at the end of the trail, but then again there always seems to be someplace we can go for coffee.

2006 - Racewalking Adventures

2007-07-04T14:57:00.000-04:00

Having enjoyed our 2005 activities, Naomi and I decided to "step it up" (pun fully intended) with more events in 2006, at least until the big "C" reared its ugly head and curtailed some of our intentions. More about that later, first a little event history.

January 15, 2006 - P.F. Chang Rock n' Roll Half Marathon, Phoenix, AZ - 3:21:13 finish time sort of told us we really needed to train before doing these events. Did have a nice Saturday in Phoenix, visiting Taliesin West (Frank Lloyd Wright's home/school) which was truly fascinating. Did NOT like the course, flat and boring, through mostly used car lots and light industrial areas.

March 12, 2006 - Arizona Distance Classic Half Marathon, Tucson, AZ - 3:17:14 finish for me, Naomi was 3:03:52. Had a great trip to Tucson, enjoyed the Sonora Desert Museum, but proved to myself that having spent March 1st thru 7th driving the Alaska Highway was NOT a good training regimen for me. But the Alaska Highway trip was truly awesome, well worth the time and effort. Not to mention being something I'd dreamt of doing since reading a book about building the Al-Can Highway when I was about 10 years old. A bit chilly (-25F our first night) but what grand scenery. Guess that's the topic for an entire new blog someday soon.

April 9, 2006 - St. Louis Half Marathon, finished in 3:13:26, while Naomi was at her college reunion. Actually wound up Naomi was spending very little time at the reunion, her mother was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer and most of Naomi's time in California was spent helping her mom. This was the beginning of a very challenging summer for us and our loved ones.

May 7, 2006 - Flying Pig Half Marathon, Cincinnati, OH. Did this one without Naomi, although we had planned to walk it together, but she was with her Mom. Honestly don't recall my finish time, as it was overshadowed by the news from my sister as I was driving back to St. Louis from Cincy. Seems that SHE had also been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer.

August 13, 2006 - Chicago Distance Classic Half Marathon. Naomi and I finished hand-in-hand at 3:11:27, not bad considering our limited training after her Mom died July 13, 2006. This was our second time at this John Bingham race, which we really enjoy. His events are very well managed, with good crowds but not the huge fields you see at some events. And we have discovered it's fun to spend just a weekend doing the "fly to the city, spend Saturday sightseeing, do the race on Sunday and fly home after the race".

September 3, 2006 - Virginia Beach Rock n' Roll Half Marathon - another hand-in-hand finish, this one in 3:13:53, including that nasty hot last 4 miles on the Boardwalk. (We do not plan to walk Va. Beach again, just not one we have a lot of fun doing.)

October 22, 2006 - Nike Women's Marathon, San Francisco, CA - Naomi did the Half, I took another shot at the Full Marathon. The 26.2 miles took me 6:34:40, longer than my target time of 6:30, but I did manage a "negative split" and make the last 1.2 miles my fastest miles!

October 29, 2006 - Marine Corps Marathon 10K, which we did as a "recovery walk" a week after the Nike, in part to give us a chance to be in the official finish area to cheer on our teammates. 1:25:45 total time for the 6.2 miles.

We had signed up for the inaugural running of the Outer Banks Marathon on November 12, 2006 but traffic jams caused by the opening of the Marine Corps Museum at Quantico, VA made it impossible for us to make the trip to North Carolina. We'll try that one again next year.

2006 was certainly quite a year, marrred by the loss of Naomi's mother in July and my sister on August 27th, four days short of her 66th birthday.

Nothing we could do to change the effect of the cancer on Mom and Fran, but we continue to raise money to fight blood cancers. Managed another $6000 in 2006, with a comparable amount for Naomi, and they tell us our help makes a difference. Actually it's YOUR help, and we thank you.

Racewalking to save lives. Curious? Go to: http://www.active.com/donate/tntnca04/tntncaTCFarnam07

2005 The Racewalking Begins

2007-07-04T14:41:00.000-04:00

First endurance event - April of 2005, Country Music Half Marathon. Naomi had done the Nike Womens Marathon in October of 2004, and I'd gone along to watch. Decided I needed the exercise, and if I was going to be able to see her on Saturdays and this was what it would take, it was worth it. 13.1 miles in 3:17:22. (Naomi was over 30 seconds per mile ahead of me, clearly more training needed.)

Signed on with TNT in May of 2005, started training more regularly. Found out it's hard work, but there are signs of progess.

August 7, 2005 - Chicago Distance Classic Half Marathon, Naomi and I finished together in 3:08:21. Felt reasonably good about the time and was able (barely) to move the next day.

September 4, 2005 - Virginia Beach Half Marathon, Naomi and I finished together in 3:10:38. Last three miles is on the Boardwalk and HOT!

October 23, 2005 - Nike Womens Marathon, San Francisco, CA. Finished in 6:50:25 My first full marathon, and about four miles into it I stumbled (toe caught a crack in the pavement) and "strawberried" my knee. Ever see a little boy who fell? That's what it looked like, but it really was not painful so keep on going. All seemed fine until about Mile 20, when it seemed impossible for me to stand up straight, because my back was not working right. Kept going, but looked so bad every TNT Coach who saw me said "Tom, how do you feel? Are you going to finish?" (Later saw a picture of me at this point in the race - my face was ashen, can't blame them for asking.) My standard response became "I feel like dog *%$t, but I'm going to finish." Did so, then took Coach advice and went back to the hotel and took a 10 minute ICE bath (tub of water/ice, insert body for 10 minutes). Took care of the muscle injury, went to the TNT Victory Party and did some dancing that night. Not much, but some.

We came back to DC, then spent the following Sunday cheering on our TNT TeamMates as they did the Marine Corps Marathon. Took lots of pictures, probably walked 10 miles, but recovered from Nike.

We managed to complete some interesting and challenging events, and in the process thanks to the generosity of my friends and clients I managed to raise over $6,000 for leukemia and lymphoma research. Given several family members and friends battles with blood cancers, that is the best part of all.

Racewalking to save lives. Curious? Go to: http://www.active.com/donate/tntnca04/tntncaTCFarnam07

Very First Post

2007-07-04T14:21:00.000-04:00

This is my first try at creating a blog, so be patient with me. Want to share my experiences in preparing for my third encounter with the Nike Women's Marathon in San Francisco, CA on October 21,2007. Have successfully completed this event twice, am now trying to make it within 6:15 total time. Not fast for a runner, but for a 62 year old "racewalker" it's pretty quick. Requires averaging 14:18 per mile for 26 miles (about 4.2 mph). My best previous time is 6:34:40, so this is an ambitious goal, but nothing ventured, nothing gained.

I'll be posting training times, miles and similar data, sort of as a personal journal and to give anyone so bored as to be reading this an idea of what is going on. We'll start with some historical data in a separate post titled "2005, It Begins". Come back to see this space from time to time, it may be interesting (or not) but hopefully not boring.

Racewalking to save lives. Curious? Go to: http://www.active.com/donate/tntnca04/tntncaTCFarnam07