Travel exercise tips

My job does not require too much travel, but I usually end up going on two or three trips a year. Although running is a fairly portable sport, I find it difficult, sometimes, to be fit on the road. Through the Consumerist, I found this post on exercise while you travel over at Nerdfitness.com. His tips? Make it a priority, find creative ways to workout without a gym, and eat well.

The post also reminded me of this video. Ever heard of Burpees? Check out this great video by Mike Rowe, the narrator of several shows on Discovery and star of Dirty Jobs.

Risk of clots in marathon runners who travel by air

You have probably heard, at some point, that traveling on an airplane raises your risk of having a clot form in your leg veins. This is a complex phenomenon which may relate to a variety of things that occur during air travel including immobility (blood sitting still tends to clot), lower air pressure, and lower oxygen concentrations (both have been implicated in activating the clotting cascade in the body).

Now, in the March 2011 issue of the Clinical Journal of Sports Medicine, Parker et al. took blood samples from two groups of Boston Marathon runners, those who flew (over 4 hours) to the race, and those who drove (less than 2 hours) to the race. Three sample were taken, before the race, at the finish, and one day later, prior to returning home. In these samples, they measured different compounds which are known to play important roles in the formation of clots. The researchers found that from pre to post race, these compounds increased in both groups, but more so in the air travel group. They conclude that marathon running induces a hyper-coagulable state, presumably more so in those who travel by air. The study is interesting, but it was only conducted in 41 people and it does not measure actual clots, just blood tests that are markers for clotting.

While people do get vein clots while traveling by plane, they also occur during car trips and even seemingly without provocation. Other factors that increase your risk include birth control pills, age, and poor circulation from other medical conditions. Many people also carry minor deficiencies of anticlotting blood proteins, and many do not know they have them (Protein S or C deficiency and Factor V Leiden mutation). Dehydration also does not help, and that may be an additional concern for runners (also airplane air is very dry, about 20% humidity). Compression hose may help and staying hydrated while avoiding alcohol seem like good suggestions even if evidence of effectiveness is limited.

Crossposted at drdavemd.com

A run to New Orleans, east of the French Quarter

2008: One of the homes in New Orleans. The marks mean the date of search (top), the people who searched (left), number of people found (bottom), and any dangers present in the home (right)

Three years ago, I visited New Orleans for a conference and went for a run east of the French Quarter. I do not think I made it into the true 9th Ward, but I certainly got far enough to see some of the destruction left after Hurricane Katrina and the floods. I was sad to see that even after three years, block after block of homes were still abandoned, many emblazoned with the marks above from the search and rescue after the flood.

I returned to this area in April 2011 when I was in town for the American College of Cardiology and I have to say it felt like things were at least improved from 2008. The area is still very poor but more homes now appeared occupied and renovated, or at least freshly painted. With as many disasters as there are in the world, we cannot contribute to them all, but if you feel so inclined, Save NOLA is one of many campaigns with the goal of helping to rebuild the city.

Shipping up to Boston

Left for Boston last night. Today, it is time to head to the Hynes Convention Center for the John Hancock Sports and Fitness Expo. All sorts of exciting stuff is happening for the race.

• Inaugural marathon Olympic gold medalist, two time Boston champion, and former world record holder Joan Samuelson announced on Monday that she would be in the race with the other elite women. 
• $132 million of income for the Boston area
• 26,923 official runners
• 4,307 runners from 66 countries outside the US
• Estimated 500,000 spectators
• Four time Boston champion Bill Rodgers will serve as Grand Marshal. 
• Seeing as how marathon registration filled in eight hours this year, the BAA has decided to make two notable changes for registration. First, all times have been dropped by five minutes, and the 59 second grace time is gone. My former BQ time of 3:10:59 is now 3:05:00. Second, the registration process will "roll" where the fastest runners (who beat the BQ time by 20 minutes) get to register first. People who merely meet the standard get to register a week later, and then you are only "applying" for a spot, no guarantees.

See this video from Dave McGillvray from the BAA discussing the changes.

The Cardiosmart 5K 2011

I spent part of last week in New Orleans for the American College of Cardiology (ACC) meeting which was a great educational and professional experience. At the meeting, the ACC announced a new partnership. The ACC sponsors a patient information website called Cardiosmart. The announcement was a new partnership with Subway to promote health diet and lifestyle choices.

So to celebrate that and to revive a tradition at the ACC, a 5K fun run was organized for the meeting. The suprise on race morning was meeting Jared Fogle (yes, that Jared) from Subway. He was there to support the new partnership and to join us for the run!

We started at the World Trade Center building near Harrah's casino on the south end of Canal street. The course went out along the Mississippi down to Esplanade, which is a divided road running north/south along the eastern border of the French Quarter. About a half mile up that road, we turned around and ran back to the start/finish line.


View Cardiosmart New Orleans 5K 2011 in a larger map

My wife is my best cheerleader and when I told her I was going to run this race, the only thing she wanted to know is "was I going to win?" I told her that when I ran the 5K in Chicago with a bunch of cardiologists, nurses, surgeons, and such, that I came in somewhere in the teens with a PR about 19 minutes. Expecting a similar crowd, I told her that I had no plans to win and no expectation that I would come close. A 19 minute 5K is excellent, and I am proud of it, but there are plenty of people faster than me.

Seeing the competition at the start line reinforced my opinion. There were several men about my age with lean physiques from Germany, Ireland and (as I found out later) Brazil. Again, no expectation of a win here. Then, the horn went off.

I was right up front, but there were only about 200 runners. I got out front with two other men and after we made the first turn towards the river, I realized that it was just the three of us. This, of course, rapidly changed my estimation and my plans. This was going to be a race, and I was in contention for a win! I was running second behind a young man who turned out to be a medical student from Brazil and another man right on my shoulder. I stayed right on Brazil keeping just a couple of steps behind him, matching his pace.

We ran along that way and after about a mile, the guy behind us could not keep up and dropped back. We stayed steady through 2 miles. I could feel some burn coming on in the legs, but I had my breath and figured now was the time for my move. Turning off of Esplanade, back towards the river, I surged out front. Not trying to dust the guy, just enough to test his stamina to keep up with my slightly faster pace. At first he kept on my shoulder, but after a few hundred feet, I heard his breathing fade as he dropped back.

I focused on the tempo, trying to keep the pace I was now setting for the field. The really incredible thing to me was the pace bike out front, showing me where to go, warning me about the train tracks and cracks in the road. I have never been leading in a race before and it was surreal. The course had a couple of 90 degree turns that gave me an opportunity to look back without having to turn 180 degrees and I could see that I had secured a healthy lead. No need to push at this point, just maintain the lead and Brazil was going to have a tough time catching up. On the last turn onto Canal, he was several seconds behind me and all I had to do was not trip on the streetcar tracks.

I crossed the line in 19:05, in first place, and won my very first race!

After the race and catching my breath, I had a great conversation with a couple of the other top men, and the top woman finisher who comes from a running family (her mom ran in Olympic qualifying trials for the marathon in the past!) I stuck around figuring that they would likely make some announcements and hand out some awards, which I had already seen at the tables full of goodies and drinks. The awards were Mardi Gras masks, mounted on plaques and looked very festive. Unfortunately, someone else took them! I saw someone with them after the race, but I figured he was some race official or organizational leader. When the PA crackled several minutes later announcing "if anyone has the winner's plaques please return them", I looked to where the man had been sitting and he was gone.

The race was obviously much more fun than having another plaque to hang on the wall, but it certainly was disappointing that someone would abscond with the plaques like that. The race sponsors did kindly take my address and said they would mail me another, once they could get it made, so I'll post a picture when it comes in the mail.

Additional note: results are now posted on Cardiosmart's website.

Common courtesy, not all that common really

I was in DC at the end of January and went for a nice long 13.7 mile run. Got to try out some new ground by running the length of the West Potomac Park and then a circle around the entire Mall. Snow was on the ground, and in the park, this was actually really great. While the main bike/run trail has been salted/shoveled, the outer perimeter sidewalk was not and there was an excellent crust of about 3 inches of snow, untouched and not mucky. So, I got to run in fresh snow with the greatest satifying crunch of each step as I broke through the thin frozen over layer on top. It was kind of like running on sand, but much more fun.

On the Mall, thousands of tourists were out looking around the capital at monuments and such, which brings me to my frustration for this post. I recognize that it is my responsibility to share the sidewalk with walkers and cyclists, and I do my very best to pay attention to them and their trajectories to avoid hitting anyone. For that matter, I do my best to make some noise as I approach people from behind to avoid startling them. Sometimes if they are distracted, I still frighten people, but I always apologize.

On this run, I was approaching a lovely murky brown puddle of melted snow, road grime, and salt/sand from snow removal efforts. For a bonus, this puddle was surrounded by uneven cracked concrete. Approaching the puddle, I got there roughly at the same time as a gaggle of 5 or 6 people walking the other direction. In an effort to not stomp the puddle, muddying my shoes and splashing the passers-by, I tried to skirt the puddle and got zero leeway from the oncomers. Not one inch of extra room for me to squeeze by. Ultimately, it is my responsibility where my feet land and whether or not they get stuck on a crack in the sidewalk. I could not help but be a little annoyed, however, when my efforts to keep myself and others clean failed spectacularly with my resulting face plant into the aforementioned murky brown puddle of joy.

As a side note, I am always suprised at the seeming slowdown of time as an inevitable fall takes places. Every time I am about to go down, it seems that I have plenty of time to think "Wow, this is gonna suck" and put my hands up in defense, and I even percieve that I have taken evasive action to try and roll into the fall. Certainly,  this is probably just all reflexive, but it seems conscious at the time.

Anyway, yeah, puddle, wet, cold, dirty, not awesome. I hear someone say "Whoah dude, are you okay?" After I sighed, I said "Yeah, sure, fine." and then they were gone. I guess I should not have expected more, since I told them I was okay. That said, can I please ask everyone to try and be a little more aware of your surroundings? Make room for other people, share the road, have some courtesy, please?

Epilogue: Thankfully no significant injuries. My thigh is sore from somewhere that I fell on it, but I was able to run afterwards, just slowly while the bruise works its way out.

RAGNAR: day two

After a big plate of pasta and a too-large piece of cake, we grabbed a restful four hours of sleep in the van. On waking, my stomach felt quite full, a little too full. I debated, should I get up and move around to try and improve the situation, or stay prone and try to grab another 30 minutes of sleep? Eventually, other team members decided to get up so I did the same. Unfortunately, my stomach my dinner continued to argue and ultimately my stomach won the argument, kicking the dinner out to the curb. Additionally unfortunate was the fact that I was supposed to run first, for 9 miles down US 1 on Islamorada. Unable to step up to my duties, Shannon covered my leg and I tried to sleep and recover for the rest of the race. When I eventually woke again, I was greeted with this sight, which unfortunately could have been my view during my run.

Sunrise over the middle keys

I kept some water down and waited my chance to pay Shannon back by running a leg for him. Eventually I took over a similar length leg and rested for my last leg in the third rotation.

Hydrating before moving on to the next exchange

We ran the 191 miles using 11 people. Several teams did the race as an ultra, using 6 or less. Two men, however, did the race alone, all 191 miles from Miami to Key West. One did it to raise awareness of childhood obesity and one did it to raise money for a child with cancer, each took about 70 hours to complete the race. I can only imagine how sapped they might have felt at the end of the race. While we still had some energy towards the end, the coordination did fall off a little bit.

Due to our late start and despite a moderately good pace, we were behind by a couple of hours when we were expected to make our last exchange. We discussed our options with the race staff and ended up deciding to use the honor system to track our times, which would become unofficial. The benefit is that we could go ahead with our final legs and cross the finish line at a reasonable time. Unfortunately, this meant I would start my last leg of the race about 2-3 hours early. Should not have been a problem except that my GI transit had not really improved  and I had just downed Gatorade, water, and a protein smoothie. Anyway, my leg was a short 3.5 mile run/walk and I will just say that I was glad to be done with it. We shuffled quickly through the last legs and came across the very last "one mile to go" marker very nearby the Southernmost Buoy.  

Finally, one mile to go

I ran the last mile in, making my total mileage about 23 miles over two days. Afterwards, my legs felt okay, but it took a while longer for me to be able to enjoy some of the great food options in Key West. Thanks to Team Sox on the Beach, I had a great time. We finished 124 of 291 overall and 58 of 141 in our open mixed division, in 29:50:27.

Still standing and proof that the reflective vests work

Yes, the medal is also a bottle opener

RAGNAR: day one

The first day of RAGNAR got off to a great start. After spending the night in Miami, I met up with the rest of Sox on the Beach, from Boston and we went out for some breakfast.

Shannon, Abe, Mandy, AJ, Roxanne, Sue, Katie, Tiffany, me, Becca, and Mark

For our first taste of local color and hospitality in Miami, we returned from our breakfast to find that both our vans had been towed! We began asking around at Fresh Market and the marina where we had parked but no one would claim any responsibility for having us towed and no one at the stores would help us with contact information for the towing company. We were about 90 minutes from our start time and we still needed to get to the pre-start  safety briefing.

Names removed to protect the guilty

Luckily, we did find a sign in the lot with the company's number. We contacted them and they were only 2 miles away. Even luckier, my wife was still with us and had her car with GPS. We jumped in and headed over to the towing company. When we arrived however, only one van was there. No surprise, but the towing company had zero sympathy for our situation, no desire to hear our pleas for being unjustly towed, and felt no impetus to try and hurry the other tow truck driver along.

The man with the van

Meanwhile, the driver showed up, then drove off with our other van still attached. We asked the towing company what was going on and the driver had lost his cell phone BACK WHERE HE TOWED THE VAN FROM! Could they leave the van there? No. Could he please hurry up and return to we could get the van? No. Eventually, we got the vans and went to start the race. The safety briefing sounded as expected given the nature of the terrain, the overnight portions, and so on. Admittedly, the alligator warnings and special waivers required of some runners was a bit of a surprise.

Break the rules and you get a strike, but also some candy!

As we would later figure out, despite having a projected 9 minute/mile team pace, our projected start time was a little later than we would have liked. We actually missed our 1 pm start due to the prior issues, but we did convince the race officials to let us start at 1:30 instead of waiting for 2 pm. 

Mark gets ready for the start

I was in van two, so while the first six runners did their thing, we went ahead to score some lunch at the PB&J bar at the first major exchange.

All-you-can-eat PB&J

And finally, at long last, we got ready to race. Headlamps, tail-lights, and reflective vests required of everyone outside the van after 4:45 pm. By the time we started it was getting fairly chilly in Miami, down in the 50's. 

Warming up for my first leg

The relay is done using a slap-wrap bracelet as demonstrated in this excellent early exchange. Many hours later, the coordination would not be as good.

I signed up for three legs, but our van was one short, so I ran an extra during the first rotation and then could not pass up the opportunity to go on the infield and the track itself when I figured out that we would run a lap around the Homestead speedway. Of note, they were also holding drag races that night so we were also treated to the sounds and smells of screeching tires. The drags were on the pit lane while we were on the track itself. The advice from the crew at the track? "Stay on the outside of the wall and you'll be just fine."

Running a 4 minute mile here? Not that impressive actually.

After this leg, our van was done for the night. We grabbed a s'more at the firebowls the staff had set up outside for us and then we headed down to Islamorada to grab some dinner and a nap before getting up in the morning for more running. When we arrived, the exchange was overflowing with vans. Because we started late, we would catch up when our vans jumped ahead, but then by the time we started running, the teams had thinned out. In this case we arrived in time for the local high school cross-country team pasta dinner fund raiser (which would later turn out to be ill-fated) and then we went to sleep. Many slept outside on the ground, a few had tents, but we were happy to stretch out in the van.

To be continued.....

American Heart Association 5K Fun Run

Tuesday November 16 at 6:30 was the AHA's 5K Fun Run, my first at this conference. Had a great time, weather was gorgeous (37F and a little warmer when the sun came up). Despite this just being a fun run as part of a large conference of doctors, nurses, and scientists, they did a great job with official timing tags, and a well done course. It wasn't shut down to the public since it was only a few hundred people, but not crowded in the slightest (thanks to the early start).

I have been under the weather for several days so I didn't know quite what to expect when I got out there. I had hit up a few puffs of albuterol before leaving the hotel, but left the inhaler there. It was a 2 mile run/walk/warmup from my hotel to the start which I was handling fine.

I was near the start and the 20 or so people in front of me quickly set out at a pace I could not possibly match, so I settled in and ran roughly 6:00, 6:30, and 6:30 with a finish of 19:03-ish. Believe it or not, this was my first officially timed 5K, so hooray, new PR for me! (age grade performance of about 68%)

Shortly after, I wished I had brought the inhaler because I started coughing violently due to the heavy breathing and cold air. But with another cup of coffee and some short, methodical breathing, I was able to keep the coughing at bay long enough to get back the 2 miles to the hotel and get a few more puffs.

I must recognize that this race was a memorial for Ken Baughman. One year ago at the AHA meeting in Orlando, FL, Dr. Baughman was out running when, at the intersection of Sand Lake Road and Universal Blvd, he was struck by a car and died. People who knew him wore shirts for "Team Baughman" and we shared a moment of silence for him prior to the race. Thoughts and best wishes to his family and friends for their tragic and unnecessary loss.


View American Heart 5K 2010 in a larger map

Running in San Diego

I spent the weekend in San Diego this weekend for the American Medical Association meeting where I helped run the Research Symposium for residents and fellows. In the morning I had time for some lovely runs. 64 degrees and a nice ocean breeze along the Harbor, 88 during midday, but still pleasant. The Harbor is a great place to run if you are in downtown San Diego and there were dozens of other people out there with me. I headed west out from my hotel and quickly got onto the harbor path which goes for miles and has few interruptions at intersections so you can keep up your pace without stopping. Most of the view when at 5 AM was limited to a handful of stars, the USS Midway, and some other industrial/tourist boating but still a great run!


View San Diego AMA I-10 in a larger map

Running in Vegas

Running in Las Vegas was an interesting new experience for me. I stayed on the south end of the Strip at Luxor and went online to mapmyrun.com to try and find some suggested places to run. A number of people recommended trails out in the mountains and valleys around town, which I would have surely enjoyed, but most were several miles away and something seemed silly about getting a cab to drive me to go out running, and who knows how I would have found one to bring me back.

I settled on just running up and down the Strip. As compared to running in other major cities, Vegas actually has pedestrian overpasses at most intersections, so as long as you are willing to do some stairs every half mile or so, you can pretty much keep running continuously all the way north to downtown Vegas.

And that is precisely what I did on Tuesday. I missed my chance at a long run this past weekend so instead, I started out at Luxor and ran all the way to the 700 block of Las Vegas Boulevard. I chose this as my turnaround because it happens to be the address of the Gold and Silver Pawn Shop featured on the History channel’s “Pawn Stars”. Unfortunately, they were filming interior shots at the time and the shop is no longer open 24 hours because of the show. I was there at 8:30 and did not want to wait 30 minutes for them to open the shop. I was amused at the signage; instead of some formal or nicely printed sign, all that was posted was a scribbled note saying “quiet, filming in progress” in a sloppy script that looked like what Chumlee might scribe.

So, the Strip is reasonable running, the Pawn Stars 24 shop is not 24 hours, oh yeah, Vegas is hot.

Now, coming from Florida, I know hot. I also know humid. It may be a cliché is that “it’s hot, but it’s a dry heat”, but I would say that the difference between Vegas hot and Florida hot is well, several hundred miles apart.

The number one difference I noticed was in my breathing. Have you ever been in a sauna? How about a steam room? You likely noticed that the humidity in a steam room feels quite different on your throat than the raspy dryness of a sauna. That is exactly what it was like in Vegas. After three days there, I actually found myself with a sore throat from it being dry all the time. Consistent mouth breathing led to the back of my throat and my tongue being cottony throughout the run. In contrast, there are days in Florida when it is 90 and 90 (degrees and humidity) when you feel like you are swimming instead of breathing.

Further proof of the difference in dry vs. wet heat was that when I arrived on Monday, it was about noon and I thought, “I wonder how bad running in 100+ degree weather is when the humidity is in the single digits?” So I went out for four miles, and while it certainly was hot, I had sunscreen, sunglasses, a hat and was able to keep up a decent pace for the whole run.

So, location, weather, just a couple of other quick thoughts and observations for this post. When it comes to running “on the road”, you need slightly different gear than at home. I never carry cash, and with my RoadID, I don’t bother with my photo ID. My house/car keys are much easier to store in my key pocket than the infernal and ubiquitous swipey-card hotel keys we all are now used to. First thing I noticed this trip is just how awesome my Pearl Izumi shorts with the zip-pocket over your backside are. With regular shorts, if your key pocket is big enough for a room key, it typically digs into your hips/thigh as you run. These shorts, on the other hand, easily hold a hotel room key without any inconvenience during the run. Second, I usually bring a sandwich bag to put my cash in so I don’t have to hand a wet dollar bill to a clerk for my sports drink. I forgot this time, but, the label off of the bottle of said sports drink actually made for a great wrapper around my hotel room key and cash. Third and last is that in the TSA’s infinite wisdom regarding liquids, getting a small size sunscreen to pack on your carry-on can be challenging, and instead, I took a stick sunscreen which worked just fine.

Overall, I enjoyed running in Vegas. I told my wife I’d rather run in desert heat than Florida heat any day, but that may just be the novelty of the experience. I do think I’d enjoy coming back for the Rock and Roll event in Vegas, so maybe I’ll just pencil that one on the calendar for some day.

Running tourism: The DC Rock Creek Trail

I spent some time in Washington DC this week and took my first shot at running on the Rock Creek trail. I had never been on it before, for a couple of reasons. First, running on the Mall is just a great experience and I love being amongst the grand monuments and memorials. Second, I never quite knew how to get on the trail or where exactly it was, and since I always knew where the Mall was, I didn't need to really expand my horizons.

I stayed at the Fairmont on 2400 NW N St., and they had this great map in the little in-room list of amenities (like the gym, $15 a day!!!). It was cut out like the shape of a foot and gave out directions and distances, very neat. Anyway, I directed me just a little bit west, barely into Georgetown, where I was able to pick up the trail and run south towards the Mall.

Doing this at 5AM was a little nerve-wracking because there are a couple of spots where the trail crosses offramps coming off the adjacent highway. There are serious blind spots, behind pillars of overpasses, where cars CAN NOT see you until the last second, so it is imperative for runners to check once, twice, and three times before venturing into the crosswalk, because otherwise, the cars will be coming at you at highway speed and have little reaction time. (For my wife, who may read this, I waited patiently until there were no cars coming at all, so yes, I was very safe.)

X marks the spot!

Aside from those couple of spots, it was a very nice run along the water's edge of Rock Creek and right past what I now realize was the Watergate complex. The one other problem I had was that when I came up the Potomac Parkway bridge, I ran towards the Lincoln and WWII Memorials. When I started to head back, I realized that I had not paid attention to how I got off the trail and so I had to turn around and run through the DC streets to get back to my hotel. I paid closer attention the second time and got back just fine.

There is a ton of the trail that heads north, out of town, which I did not get to experience this trip, but I would very much like to experience sometime in the future, when I have time for a longer run, or perhaps the opportunity to bicycle it.

Jax River Run: race report

A couple of weeks ago now, I ran my first "River Run" in Jacksonville, Florida. Now, I have given you some info about the race before, but I wanted to tell you a little about how the race went. Pre-race, the expo was held at the Jax Fairgrounds and covered a decent amount of space. I thought it was pretty comparable to the expos at the Disney Marathon and the VA Beach Shamrock Marathon. Plenty of free goodies, sample granola bars, smoothie products, etc., etc. Truly special though, was the star power. Part of the reason I wanted to run the River Run is the history and the famous runners who have toed the line in the past. At the expo, I met none other than Bill Rodgers and Hal Higdon, both of whom were quietly greeting people, answering questions, selling books, and signing autographs. I sat and listened to Mr. Rodgers for a good 20 minutes as he took time to interact with each and every person who came through the line. He was so gracious and fun to talk to, giving out his tips and thoughts about the River Run, Boston, and other races. I picked up a copy of "26 Miles to Boston" with a lot of history about the race and I can't wait to read it (sometime soon at a weekend at the beach). Somewhere around here I've got a picture with Mr. Rodgers, and I'll have to post it when I find it. Mr. Higdon was also quite gracious, but a little less animated. Found some more great shorts, and I think I may have just given up on buying shorts in stores, the deals were so good at the last couple of races I ran that they're hard to beat. Hard to tell how "big" of a running town Jax is. just being as big as it is, there are plenty of runners and people who participated, and I think that per capita it must be a pretty big running town given the number of events and stores it has.

So, the numbers then. 15,000+ for the 15K and 5,000+ for the 5K. 5K starts a little bit before the 15K and goes off in a slightly different course. Then ten minutes before the 15K, the elite women get their start. I was lucky enough to be in the second corral and had a great time chatting with people I'd never met, some of whom had run the River Run dozens of times before and were lamenting the usual running ailments, ITB, fasciitis, etc. The 8:30 AM start time was really nice compared to the 6A starts of recent races I've run, and I was caffeinated and ready when the cannon went off.

The course starts and ends near the stadium going west, south over the river, roundabout for several miles, then back north over the river up and over the Isaiah D. Hart Bridge with a nice downhill finish into the chute. I tried using mapmyrun.com to calculate the severity of the hill on the Hart bridge and the best I can figure, it's about an 8% grade for a half mile (take that Boston!) The bridge is obviously a challenge when you have been pushing hard for the last 8 miles. Overall it is a really fun course which is challenging. Since it is less than a half marathon, I felt compelled to really try to push it, but it is certainly not your neighborhood 5K either, so it's somewhere between an all out and having to save up your reserves. Top ten percent finishers received a custom hat from adidas (very comfy!) with medals for everyone. The post-race massages were free as well! Very relaxing, but actually the best part was the active stretching they helped with.

Had a lot of fun and if I lived in Jax I'd probably do it again. I think the limiting thing for me is that I had to stay in a hotel the night before, and I'm not sure the race was worth $100 in addition to the registration fees and such. That said, it was a blast and I am really glad I ran it.

Oh yeah, how'd I do? I felt awesome, 6:34 pace brought me in at 1:01:15. 37th in my class, 222nd overall.

Running in Downtown ATL? The Dreadmill

Been in Atlanta for the last few days and there are some options for running while I'm here. Unfortunately, everything downtown is broken by stop lights and crazy traffic (I've almost been run over about a half dozen times). I went onto mapmyrun.com to find some locally mapped runs, and thanks to the people who posted them, but I think I'd just rather stay inside than stop every block running through downtown. The centennial Olympic park is nearby, but I would have to run dozens of laps to get any distance built up. Not to mention the fact that there are enough shady people walking the streets that I wouldn't really want to be hanging around them at 5AM (Cardiology meetings start early). Perhaps things are nicer out in Buckhead and the 'burbs.

So ultimately I have resigned myself to the dreadmill (treadmill) in the hotel. At least they are high quality products as opposed to the ancient, decrepit things that pass for a "fitness center" in lots of hotels. I will say that at least having a recumbent bike and an elliptical there is encouraging me to do a little crosstraining. Check back soon for my report from the River Run in Jax last week (preview: with Bill Rodgers and 9 Olympians!)

Running in Houston 2

Went out for an additional 6 miles yesterday in the Buffalo Bayou and started off heading west/south and had a much nicer time of the run. The trail still goes under a few bridges but soon breaks out into fields and streams of Texas filled with runners, cyclists, walkers, and people with their dogs. I was intrigued by the guy out for a stroll with his wife while he busily puffed away at a cigarette.

The trail itself is some pavement, some silty dirt, some concrete, and some areas with packed grass alongside the harder pavement. Aside from a few areas where the trail surface had become cracked and uneven, it was much nicer than my Friday run.

Running in Houston

Here in houston for the AMA Interim Meeting and went for a run this morning before business. A local physician told me about the Buffalo Bayou on the NW-ish part of downtown which tracks along a waterway that I am not sure has its own name or not. I ran about a mile from the Hilton near the convention center over towards the interstate trying to find an access point, since the Bayou walking path is underneath a series of bridges that span the waterway. Turns out I was just a few feet away from a couple of entry points, but ended up running about a half mile out of the way to finally find a stairway near the Aquarium. Once I got below the roads, the noise level dropped several decibels and the water, while muddy, was calm and babbling. I then headed north, which apparently was not the best way to go.

Shortly up the path, layers of silt covered the concrete, I am guessing from flooding of the river that has not been cleaned in quite some time. A wooden bridge had several planks broken and one nearly rotted out. I weaved through a tangle of pillars supporting the rumbling roadway overhead and nearly ambushed a half dozen homeless people sleeping wherever they could, their belongings tucked behind columns, or sometimes strewn about with whatever trash remained from their last meal. This went on for nearly a half mile, eerie, drafty, traffic overhead and me hoping that I would not startle someone who then might want to relieve me of my MP3 player, fancy shoes, and any money I might have been carrying.

Reaching the end of the path, I turned back, familiar with the trail and the homeless people I would expect to pass, likely still sleeping in the just-past-dawn sun creeping in. I reached my stairwell and proceeded onward hoping the other side might be more enjoyable. It proved to be much more like the scenic place to run that had been described to me. While the pillars of the bridges were still everywhere, for some reason, this side of the trail was well cleaned and maintained. It appeared to be subtly landscaped, and the lawn aside the concrete sidewalk carefully edged and manicured. Having reached my distance goal, I did another about face and took a different stairwell back to street level, finding myself just feet away from a spot I had been half an hour before, trying to find the way down. The sun now up, the sky was hazy and I ran the short mile back to the hotel.

On a separate note, turns out I should have checked the race schedule before deciding on my flight times, because there is a 15K race here on Sunday morning. Next year's Interim meeting is in San Diego, so maybe I can run something like the Silver Strand Half.