Chase Instinct

Dogs have the inherent desire to chase something that is running (or moving fast) away. Run away from a dog or ride a bike past it and it is likely to chase after you either based on its instinct to catch prey or its instinct to play.

Yesterday morning Jakeb and I ran around MacRitchie. Our plan was to take it easy around the lake since we had run an 11 mile long run the day before and should have had tired legs.

On the way out we came up behind three guys running with backpacks on. Neither one of us picked up the pace but we caught them easily. When we did they started running a bit faster and finally on an uphill we had to kick it into gear and pass them.

We made it to the ranger station at about the 4 kilometer mark and we stopped like we always do and got a drink of water. While we were there a guy and girl ran past. We got back on the trail and I could tell by how we were running that the chase instinct had kicked in. Our prey was ahead. By the time we got to the foot bridge behind the golf course we had caught the couple and passed them by. I felt like we were pushing it a little but I am addicted to competition. “Hi my name is Tommy and I am a competeaholic.”

Once we passed the couple we kept on pushing and ran up the technical stuff after the golf course. It is probably the only real technical running on the MacRitchie trails. I told Jakeb “We are like a couple of dogs. We have a chase instinct. When we see someone in front of us we have to pass them. The problem with that is once I pass them I feel like I have to stay in front of them.”

We ran hard most of the rest of the way back to the park. I am getting to old for this.

Christchurch New Zealand Earthquake

I had to come in to work on Saturday morning. When I got here I had an email from a friend and when I responded I told him how much fun Jakeb and I had running the marathon in Christchurch New Zealand. Not only running the marathon but we had fun driving through the mountains and seeing such an incredible place. The food was good, and they had good beer to enjoy with it (Speights). We had such a good time in New Zealand that we wanted to go back and bring Andrea and Anna (and Tori even though she is in college and can’t come) and have more time to explore.

Just after I hit the “send” button on the email to my friend I opened Google News and the headline at the top of the “Top Stories” was about a 7.1 magnitude earthquake in Christchurch. The pictures that were posted in the next couple of days were amazing to me mostly because they showed the devastation of a place where I just been. I had walked those streets and passed some of those buildings. There was a picture of a girl staring into a hole on Avonside Street where Jakeb and I had run our marathon.

I have never felt even the slightest tremor of an earthquake so I cannot relate. But I have experienced the aftermaths of more than one hurricane and I have to assume it is a bit the same - to have a natural disaster disrupt life and cause one to live in a completely different way than they are accustom.

I feel for the people there and hope their life goes back to normal as soon as possible. I check the news everyday and it seems like they are making progress towards rebuilding.

We will be in Christchurch next month. Our plan has always been to land there, rent a car and leave towards the mountains. I am still excited about going back.

I like messing with people sometimes

This morning I ran 6th Avenue / Clementi five mile loop. I left the ipod at home and planned on taking it easy. This run has five hills. One is early on 6th Ave and the last four consecutive are at the end of the run on Clementi and Ulu Pandan.

I ran at an easy pace and well within myself. On Bukit Timah about a quarter of a mile before Clementi I saw a runner ahead of me. He was running slow enough that I knew I would catch him. He was in yellow short shorts, a yellow singlet and a white headband. He pranced when he ran and held his forearms vertical while swinging his hands in a circle.

I got within a couple of paces of him at the bottom of the second hill of my run and he sped up. This hill is long. It is slow at ending with the incline stretching out at the top. I felt like I had enough in me to pass him but I didn’t want to be pushed from behind so I just hung out behind his left shoulder. As he sped up I sped up and when he slowed down I slowed down.

Then on the downhill I passed him and just ran easy. He stayed about 5 paces behind me. The third hill is short and not too bad so when we hit the base I hammered it to the top. When I crested I slowed down and could hear him behind me breathing hard. I laughed inside.

I ran the downhill side of this hill easy and when I approached the fourth hill I ran hard again. This hill is not as long as the second but there are some steep sections. I felt good. I pushed hard and my prancing runner friend dropped way behind. At the top I slowed. As I did he started catching back up. On the downhill side there is a bus stop and I zig-zagged through the bus stop barricades just because I wanted to mess around. He caught me on the base of the downhill.

We ran the flat on Ulu Pandan until the base of the fifth and last hill. When we first moved to Singapore I hated this hill. It is long and hurts by the time I get to the top. I pushed as soon as I felt the road rise under my feet. My runner friend pushed with me. I could hear his steps behind me and then as the hill steepens I looked back and he was walking.

Maybe I am too competitive but it feels good to be in good enough shape to run like this. I know there are plenty of people who can leave me in their dust and I am okay with that.

Over My Head

I slept horrible last night. Andrea has been in Texas since July 15th and it is not easy to sleep when she is not here. I think it is about time for her to come back. She will be home Wednesday night. Since I slept bad I figured this morning’s run would not be so good. I thought I would be tired. Boy was I wrong.

Last night I downloaded an all King’s X mix onto my shuffle and took off across the street to Vegetable. My legs felt light and strong and I ran fast. I am sure I probably set a 6th Avenue / Clementi 5 mile loop PR. But I wouldn’t know because I have never kept my time on that run – or many others for that matter. It was good to feel like I was flying.

Music, music, I hear music
Music over my head
King’s X – Over My Head

1000 miles

This morning I passed one thousand miles of running for 2010. It is just a number really starting on an arbitrary day that happens to be the first of the year and culminating on August 20th. There are people who have run many more miles than that since January 1 and there are even more who have not run a step. Even though it is just a number I have to admit I bragged about it to Jakeb and Andrea … twice.

A lot has happened over the last thousand miles. I had a foot injury around the February/ March time frame that I thought at the time would be with me forever. Today the injury is gone and I had forgotten about it until I looked back at my run log.

I have run parts of the thousand miles in Singapore, America, New Zealand and China.

I have listened to a lot of good new-found music and I have listened to some music that has been my favorite since I started running over seventeen years ago. I’ve ran without music lost in my own thoughts.

I’ve run some of the thousand miles with Jakeb and some alone and I have enjoyed both.

If I am able to run all of the miles planned in my Texas Marathon training schedule I will run a little less than seven hundred more before the end of the year.

I want the passage of miles to be a routine part of my life. Not something extraordinary but something that is part of who I am - a basic part of my humanity – to put on a pair of running shoes and just run.

The 1000th mile I ran this morning was nothing more than a spot in the road that I didn’t take notice of as I approached it and ran on without thought of it, just like the rest of the other 999 and hopefully like the thousands more to come.

Broken Social Scene

Last night I went to see the band Broken Social Scene. I hadn’t heard any of their music before I saw the advertisement that they were coming to town. I listened to their music online and generally liked what I heard. Since Andrea is not in town and since I haven’t been to many concerts here in Singapore I decided to buy a ticket. I downloaded and listened to Forced to Love and Meet Me in the Basement just so I would at least be familiar with two of their sings when I went to the concert.

Broken Social Scene is a talented group of musicians who are all part of other bands or they do their own solo thing. They are referred to as a musical collective. During the concert of the eight members of the band the only person onstage who played only one instrument was the drummer. Their live sound is really good. Being as big a band as they are you would think the music would get a little muddy but the sound was tight and clear. Since there are so many instruments the music is layered really deep and there is much to listen to. I liked it a lot but I will probably not listen to much of the studio stuff because it is just not the same.

Run on …

MacRitchie in the rain

Yesterday morning it rained - like crazy. My plan was to run the 11 kilometer trail around Lake MacRitchie. Jakeb and I have run there a couple of times in the rain and frankly it is fun. So I was not going to let a little rain (or a lot as the case was) stop me from running one of mine and Jakeb's favorite places in Singapore.

I should have known it was not going to be a typical run when the traffic was stopped on Farrer because the cars could not get off on the flooded Bukit Timah exit. It was still dark outside when I got to the park and people were standing under the cover of car park waiting for the rain to stop so they could run the trail. I got out of my car and put my key in my shorts and started running immediately, excited to get to run in the rain. I got a couple of strange looks.

As I ran past the pavilion where the food and bathroom are there were more people standing under cover watching it rain. I ran by - more strange looks.

As I entered the trailhead and started the first short climb I was running in a river of water that was looking for the lake. It was ankle deep and there was nowhere to run where water was not.

The trail continued this way - river for a while then sloshy mud for a while. I felt like a little kid and I had the trail completely to myself. A refreshing change since MacRitche is normally crowded on a Saturday morning.

On the backside of the lake the water got kind of deep. It is the lowest part of the trail and there is a 2' high wooden bridge without handrails built over the swampy jungle. Water was running over the bridge. The walkway to the bridge was mid-calf deep and when I took the steps up onto the bridge it was over my ankles. The problem was that it was muddy water and since there are no handrails I could not tell were the sides were. Not wanting to fall off of the edge, when I got the chance I bailed off onto a nearby golf course (there were no golfers either).

I finished out the run with more of the same - rivers of runoff and mud while the rain came down. I was soaked, my shoes were soaked and full of mud and sand. It was awesome.

This morning I ran MacRitchie again. It was not raining and the trails were as crowded as I have ever seen them.

Running in Beijing

Andrea, Anna and I went to Bejing, China for vacation and to meet our daughter Tori there. Tori has been studying Mandarin in a study abroad program with her professor and other students from University of North Texas.

We did all the touristy things you are supposed to do in China like see The Great Wall and The Forbidden City, but I also got to run.

The first morning we were there I did not run. But the second morning we were there I ran from the Double Happiness Courtyard Hotel, located in a Hutong, to Tiananmen Square.

Beijing is a polluted place. When I ran I tasted my sweat and it tasted to me like pollution. Maybe it was in my mind but I felt especially dirty there.

My first glimpse of Tiananmen Square was at the halfway point of my run on the second day in Beijing. It is a huge square that thousands of people visit every day. Even at 6 am in the morning the sidewalk in front of the Forbidden City where Chairman Mao's portriat hangs there is a crowd of people taking pictures and waiting for their chance to go in.

As I approached the square the first time I was struck that it looked exactly as I expected. I was also struck by how a leader could be so full of himself to hang such a huge a self-portrait on the Forbidden City. Maybe he didn't have it hung it there but it still seems like a show of a leader's self-indulgence.

I ran to Tiananmen Square at the entrance of the Forbidden City three times and I always made sure I told Mao what a jerk I thought he was. I think he probably knows now. It is amazing to me that a man who did the things he did to kill so many and destroy such cultural heritage could be so loved by the people of China even today. This is confirmed by the fact that so many would stand in line to see his body lying in state thirty years after his death. I stood in line too with thousands of my Chinese friends - more out of morbid fascination as anything else- to see Mao's glowing face.

On two other mornings I ran to the Jingshan Hill Park north of The Forbidden City. There is a hill there built from the dirt removed from the ground to built the 30 meter deep moat around the Forbidden City. From there you can look over the plot of ground where Emperors walked hundreds of years ago. What was impressive to me was how many, mostly old, Chinese people were exercising in the morning in the park. It was a definite cultural experience.

This morning back in Singapore I ran a seven miler through the Botanic Gardens and there were as many, mostly old, people exercising there. It was just easier to breath the air and my sweat tasted normal again.

Texas Marathon

The Christchurch Marathon is behind me and I wanted a new goal. I can run just to run. I like running enough to keep at it even when I am not training for something. But training for something makes me push myself to run when waking up and going out the door at 4:40am does not sound fun. Call me weird but yes most mornings it does sound like fun.

We are going to Texas around Christmas. I was hoping to find a trail race to sign up for where I could run in the dirt. The holidays are not a great time to find any race at all much less a trail race. I assumed if I found a race to run I would probably have to drive some distance to get to it.

After digging around I found the Texas Marathon. I have heard about this race but had forgotten about it. It is a small race run in Kingwood Texas (not too far from home) on New Year’s Day. It is a four loop course on greenbelt and I have read that it is very well organized.

So I signed up for the Texas Marathon and assured myself that I will (as normal) sleep the New Year in.

SBS Marathon Photos

It looks cold huh?

SBS Christchurch Marathon

I woke up this morning and took a quick shower to wake up and put on my running clothes - a short sleeve tech shirt and a pair of shorts and went down stairs in the hotel to find some coffee. After drinking two cups I stepped outside where there were drops of rain falling from the sky and it was chilly. It was too wet and cold for my current dress.

So I went back upstairs and pulled out the two long sleeved tech shirts I brought and gave one to Jakeb.

We got dressed and walked the couple of blocks to the marathon start. We hung out inside of the "town hall"and waited until closer to the start to line up.

At exactly 09:00 New Zealand time we took off. I have to say here that New Zealanders are a friendly talkative bunch of people and we had a great time listening to the conversations and participating in some.

We ran next to a guy from Singapore who is a stock broker. Last week he ran the Sundowner double marathon and now he was here to run Christchurch. He said he ran 23 marathons last year alone. He was wearing a Marathon Maniacs shirt. Go figure.

Jakeb wanted to finish faster than four hours so we looked up the pace per kilometer for a four hour marathon and tried to keep our lap time below that pace. I punched my watch at every kilometer that I saw. I missed some. During the first half our fastest kilometer was 5:12. A four hour marathon is 5:41 pace. We hit the half in approximately 1:55. I knew I was running faster than I should and would have to tell Jakeb to take off soon.

At the 28k mark my legs had had enough. I asked Jakeb how many more gels he needed to finish. He said "one". I asked if he had it and he said "yes". So I told him "you are going to have to take off if you want to get a less than four hour marathon". He said "You sure you don't mind"? I told him "no go for it." And he took off.

It was actually good for me to be able to slow down and work on getting the best time I could. It helped that it was raining and my shorts were wet and they were keeping my legs cool. I slowed down and even though the effort was not easy I felt much better. Toward the end I had to walk some and when I walked I tried to walk at a brisk pace.

I finished by my watch at 4:04:59.

Jakeb finished in about the 3:49 to 3:50 range. He smoked it. His first marathon was faster than my marathon PR. Youth is a great thing - and Jakeb is a really good runner. He has the mentality for it. He can go into himself and push when it is necessary. When he stepped on the finish line he said his calf cramped up. He tried to sit in a chair and take off his chip but as soon as he sat down he had to stand right back up. If you have run a marathon you know the feeling.

The SBS Marathon is one of my favorite so far. No fuss. Just a well run (pun intended) marathon in an amazing place where the people are laid back to begin with.

Update: According to the SBS Christchurch Marathon web sight Jakeb finished 3:50:18 chip time and I finished 4:04:57 chip time.

Race Morning

8am cold and rainy. One hour to race time. This should be a fun wet cold run. Details to follow.

New Zealand Marathon in the morning

So Jakeb and I will wake up and run the Christchurch Marathon at 0900 New Zealand time. You figure what tme wherever you are.

If it is carbs you need before a marathon it is carbs I have. Pancakes for breakfast, banana snack in the morning, vegetable soup and bread for lunch, baked potato in the afternoon and pasta for dinner. Hopefully I am as ready otherwise.

Here are some pictures of what we have seen here so far.

Intensity

Tapering for a marathon is a weird thing. After running the highest mileage week in training you start to back off of the mileage to “rest” for the marathon. In the past when I tapered I would not only run less miles but I would run them slow and easy. It made me feel lethargic during the two weeks before the marathon. I would show up to the starting line of the marathon jittery and wanting to run but I also felt lazy.

I don’t know who wrote this but a about a year ago I read that it was important to keep up the intensity during the taper even though the mileage decreases. So for the last couple of weeks I have been trying to run harder during these runs that are progressively shorter.

This morning I ran three miles. Rather than the normal taper feeling of being slow and fat I felt strong and light. My form felt good and I ran three miles in the 7 minute per mile range. I was listening to loud music and running hard and it felt good.

For me it shows how important it is to always challenge myself in some way. I challenged myself with distance for the last 16 weeks. Now I just changed the challenge from distance to intensity. Rest is good and important but when rest borders on laziness it is almost always a bad thing.

I am boarding a plane tomorrow for the cooler climates of New Zealand. Marathon day weather is predicted to be cloudy with a low temperature of 40 F and a high temperature of 53 F. - Perfect weather for running a marathon.

Run hard …

Thirty Four Miles to New Zealand

Jakeb and I ran twelve miles this weekend. Twelve miles sounded like nothing especially since we had run twenty miles the weekend before. Since it sounded like nothing to us we decided not to take GU or water and just run free and unencumbered by anything we would have to carry.

Jakeb did ask “We’re not taking water?”

I said, “Nah we can make it.”

Although the run seemed short we made it harder than it had to be by not at least taking water. It is HOT in Singapore. Have I said that before?

At the end Jakeb was saying “A cool glass of water has never sounded so good.”

Our training schedule says we have thirty four more miles to run in training before the marathon. Then next Wednesday evening we board a plane for New Zealand. We plan to do more than run a marathon. We will go into the mountains while we are there and see what we can see. Maybe even hang out with Frodo.

Our “long run” is eight miles this Saturday. There is a good chance I will leave the water at home again – some people never learn.

A muppet with a drunken puppeteer

I haven't written here in while so I doubt anyone is reading but that is fine with me. Coming here is a therapy of sorts so as I sit on the couch if you have bothered to come here listen as I tell you how I "feel".

I ran 18 miles with my son Jakeb this morning. We planned to run it on Saturday morning but at about two miles in Jakeb wasn't feeling it so we cut the run short and only ran 4 miles. Today the 18 miler was good but Jakeb was feeling his Wheaties and he ran me into the ground. I should have made him keep running on Saturday morning. Being run into the ground is what happens when a 43 year old runs with a 17 year old. I am just glad I can complete 18 miles even when the last two included a fair bit of walking.

Training for the Christchurch marathon hasn't gone exactly as planned. I hurt my left foot running in the wrong shoes and had to take a week off. We made a trip to the US and Jakeb had a school field trip to Malaysia. All of this made us deviate from the prescribed plan.

Even though there have been challenges and changes in the schedule we are on track to run a marathon in New Zealand. Next week is 19 miles and in three weeks we run 20 and then comes the taper. For me this time I am saying thank God for the taper.

Training for a marathon with Jakeb is completely worth it. It has not turned out as I expected ... like most of the rest of my life these days.

Thanks for listening. I will be back on the couch next time I am desperate for some therapy.

I want to know Lord why it's got to be so hard
I feel like a muppet with a drunken puppeteer
But I'll survive ...I will survive.
To the Light - Newton Faulkner

The beginning of marathon training

January was a 117 mile month for me. That was a big month mileage-wise considering I ran a marathon in December.

Monday Jakeb and I started marathon training for SBS Marathon in Christchurch New Zealand. It is hard to believe that there are only 18 weeks to go until the marathon. At the same time it feels like there is a lot of work and many miles to run before the marathon too.

We will have to work hard to get to the starting line ready to run 26.2 and healthy at the same time. I am pumped that Jakeb and I will finally get to run a marathon together.

Not much running to write about

I have run 4 times since the Singapore Marathon. Otherwise I have either been resting from the marathon or sick. I had cold and flu type symptoms for about a week and a half. Then just when I got over that I got a stomach bug. It could have been something I ate or drank while we were in Vietnam – which was a really good trip so I guess it was kind of worth it.

Anyway, I am ready to run again.

I asked for and got P90X for Christmas. Now I don’t know when I am going to do it. My running would have to suffer some but maybe I need to take a break for a while. I cannot stop completely because I want to be ready for Christchurch Marathon training with Jakeb.

SBS Marathon Christchurch New Zealand

On December 1st I entered Jakeb and me in the SBS Marathon in Christchurch New Zealand. I think it is cool that he gets to run his first marathon in New Zealand in a town named Christchurch.

When the Singapore Marathon told us that Jakeb could not run the marathon unless he was 18 years old we started looking for a marathon to run in Asia. It seems that none of them will let a person run unless they are 18.

While checking out marathon calendars I found the SBS Marathon's web site and could not find an age limit for the race. I email the race director and told him about Jakeb wanting to run a marathon and that he had run a 25k and two half-marathons. I asked if a 17 year old could run his race.

He emailed me back and said that since Jakeb had a running background he seemed well prepared for the race and he said "Will be great to have some more overseas runners at the event. FYI, I ran the very first SBS Marathon when I was 14, so would be a tad rude to deny your son... :-)"

So we have a marathon to train for together ... finally.

I ran this morning for the first time since the Singapore Marathon. I feel fine when I am walking. But running was another story. I still feel it in my quads so I ran s l o w .

Singapore Marathon Evaluation

Here is a chart showing my finishing position in the Singapore Marathon compared to other runners. I would have never finished this close to the front in comparison to the rest of the field in the Houston Marathon. There are many people here who are willing to sign up for the marathon and stroll along until they finish.

There is nothing wrong with walking a marathon. I do have a problem when they dump the marathon course in with the half marathon and 10k races when the people in them are walking while the marathoners who run are still trying to finish. I had a hard time weaving through and sometimes breaking through the crowd of walkers who took up the whole road.