Pumpkin Carving

We had our annual pumpkin carving picinic at gram's house. Weather was great and the kids had a blast.

Gram with her 4 great-grand kids:

Alex & Ciara's pumpkins looked cool lit up:

We finished off the night with some leftover fireworks my brother had from the 4th of July...

2008 Hartford Marathon RR

After a DNF at the VT 50, I lost a little steam in my running. In the two weeks between VT and Hartford I ran a total of 28 miles. Basically I had one good workout: a 7 miler at 7:08 pace. The rest of the miles were pretty much just going through the motions. So after two weeks of existing in a junk food eating apathetic state, I wasn't quite sure what to expect in the Hartford Marathon.

Race morning I woke up and felt great. The low key two weeks resulted in me feeling rested and ailment free. While getting ready for the race, I made only one normal routine visit to the bathroom and all things were solid. Looked like there would be no poo issues for me today! Yee haawww!!

I met up with Keith, David (Keith’s brother who was running the half), Mark, and Amy (Mark’s wife who was running her first half). We never did see my cousin Kasia who was running the full. But I did see Steve Nelson (running the half) in the crowd at the start. The weather was incredible. Clear blue skies and temps in the mid 50’s. Perfect race weather!! The race got underway and Mark and I discussed our plan during the first few minutes. We would shoot for a 3:15 finish. So 7:26 pace was our goal. We agreed to keep things under control in the 1st half to conserve and be strong at the end. We weren’t going to go out too fast. First mile was 8:18. Good deal. Mark was concerned we were going to slow. He pushed us a bit for the 2nd mile: 6:56. Ok, let’s throttle back. Mile 3 split was 7:12. As we tried to settle in on our pace, this girl Becky joined us around mile 4. She said she had been running the same pace so she figured she’d join us. It was cool to run and chat with her. In our conversing, Mark and I told Becky how we do ultramarathons. She then told us how her husband is a 2:18 marathoner, Olympic trials qualifier and is going for the world record for the most distance in 24 hrs on a treadmill. All righty then. Sooo maybe we're not as cool as we thought. Ha ha… :)

At mile 9 it was fun to see my kids. They came to watch the race with my parents. (Shannon was waiting for me at the end of the race.) Ciara wanted to give me a hug as I ran by. I couldn’t stop to give her one, so she got upset and cried. Ha ha…

We hit the halfway point at 1:36:32. Right on track. Do the same or faster in the second half and it would be a PR and a BQ!

Miles 14 to 19 were steady, with our pace locked in on 7:22. Mile 20 took 7:35. The first sign of things getting harder. A 7:23 21st mile righted the ship. But then a 7:32 22nd mile brought us back to reality. Mile 23 was hard. It was painful to complete it in 7:36. There would be no more sub 7:30 miles for me from here on in. During mile 24, Becky and I faded back from Mark. He was hanging tough. I was starting to tighten up and could feel the cramps coming. I knew if I slowed it would hurt even more to get going. So I battled as best I could and hung on. I ran the last 3 miles in: 8:04, 7:51 and 8:09. I crossed the finish line in 3:15:28. Not a PR (3:14:46) but a BQ!!! I’ll take it! 139th place out of 1,942 runners.

Note: Mark PR’d with a 3:12:44. Mike finished just under 4 hrs. Kasia finished just over 4 hrs. Keith endured a groin injury and finished just under 5 hrs. Steve smoked the half in 1:25. David finished the half in 2 ½ hours and Amy finished her first half marathon in 3 hrs. Congrats to all!!

Soccer Practice

Sunday afternoons the kids have soccer practice. I took a few video clips this past Sunday:

PSU

Corn Maze

Tonight we met up with Alex's friends at the Foster farm and ran through the corn maze (2.4 miles). A great autumn night to hang outside!

VT 50 Race Report - DNF

Here's how things went down for this year's Vermont 50 Mile Trail Run...

Saturday morning Mark, Bruce and I accompanied the families to the Cider Mill fun run in Tolland. All the kids were able to run anywhere from 50 yards to a 5 K. Alex and Ciara foreshadowed how the 50 mile run on Sunday would be for me:

Alex before the race

The 50 yard race started, Alex and Ciara took off with the group. But then 10 yards into the race, Alex started crying and stopped. Ciara kept going but then realized her brother was crying so she stopped and started crying too. I think they were the only two to not finish the race...

Alex and Ciara during the race

After the kids races, Mark, Bruce and I cruised up to VT in the rain.

I think this is illegal

To our delight the rain stopped as we approached our campsite, so we had a nice window of dryness to set up camp. Once Keith and Jana arrived, we met up with our buddy Mike (who was doing the Mtn. Bike race) and headed over to the registration at Mt. Acutney.

Keith, Mike, Mark, Bruce, Me

Jana and Keith

After registering, we headed back to the campground for some Buongiorno pasta, homemade Savage bread, and sautéed veggies by Bruce. Some good eats! After dinner we finished getting our gear ready and enjoyed some episodes of Family Guy on Mark's laptop (campground has wireless internet.) We had great accomodations in Mark's camper (except for poor Mike who was staying in his tent at another campground.) We were stoked since it rained all night. A huge thanks to Mark!!

On race day, I woke up about 2:30 AM. I was hungry so I ate a cranberry almond CLIFF Bar. I went back to sleep and awoke to the alarm at 5:00 AM. I downed a bottle of ensure and ate a banana. After getting my gear on I went out to the woods and pooed. Always a great feeling to drop a poo before a race! Before we left the campground we stopped at the bathroom facility and I pooed again. Hmmm, a little odd to have to go again, but the lighter I am the better I thought! When we arrived at the start, I ditched into the woods where we parked and released #3 poo. Uh oh. Pre race jitters or was my belly not doing well? 2 poos not a problem, but 3? While we waited by the start line my stomach was rumbling and I had to ditch into the porta-potty and drop #4 poo. WTF? My bowels were in overdrive!

I hoped that I had cleared my system and that once the race was underway things would be fine. At the start the pace was pretty fast. Not sure what was going on, but there was a big contingent doing well below 8 min pace. Nontheless the 4 of us went with the flow and kept pace. I had trouble feeling comfortable and was looking forward to turning the corner and settling in.

Unfortunately that never quite happened. About 10 miles in I had severe stomach pains and had to relieve myself with poo #5. It took awhile to find a spot to go since we were on a downhill section with a river on one side and a steep bank on the other. That definitely generated some unpleasantries in the stomach. After reaching Skunk Hollow station (12.3 miles) I slowed down a bit to try and reign things in. But I couldn't get comfortable. This race was starting to feel excruciatingly long and painful. I couldn't stomach any food or gels and it was tough to choke down any water. About 20 miles in I faded back from Keith and Bruce and had to ditch into the woods for poo #6.

At this point I was now pretty dehydrated and pretty spent. A few points my stomach would start to settle and but then as soon as I took a sip of anything the misery cycle would reoccurr. I was also white as a ghost and freezing. I shuffled my way into the 26 mile check point and reconciled that I was toast. I had been out on the course for almost 5 hours battling the poo and was losing. Maybe I used up all my willpower in the VT100. I couldn't put together a way forward. So I dropped out. DNF. What an awful feeling to have to quit, but it simply was not my day. Oh well, I guess shit happens! :)

Luckliy, Jana was out on the course crewing, so I connected with her and she drove me back to the finish line where I showered and recovered a bit. Jana rocks!! I was then able to watch Mark, Keith and Bruce finish with great times: Mark in just over 9 hrs (a PR), Keith just under 10 and Bruce just over 10. (Mike finished the Mtn. bike in just over 9 hrs)

It sucked not to be able to finish but it was a great event and I'll just have to get the next one!

Yo

Lauren reminded me that it's been a month since I last posted. Wow, time flies! My training for the VT 50 Mile Trail Run has been solid. I've averaged 66 miles/week over the last month (264 miles total). Mark and I had a great 34 mile run this past Sunday in the rain. I'm in taper mode now over the next two weeks...

The kids have been enjoying the last of the summer weather. Here's a short clip of some of their activity over the past month: