409 Shop Provides Comms for Standard Chartered Hong Kong Marathon

Lots of radios...

Good Luck, Morons

A good article on Lazarus Lake and the Barkley Marathons.

There is a great documentary on NetFlix about the race.

Marathons

Astronaut runs a marathon in space.

I hate when this happens - 12 year old girl accidentally runs a half marathon.

Boston Marathon

I'm not there, but maybe some day...

Monday workout: 1x26.2 @ goal marathon pace.

— Boston Marathon (@bostonmarathon) April 18, 2016

Two Wrongs

Black Lives Matter protesters to block finish line at the Twin Cities Marathon.

I don't think this will help bring support to their cause. Attention, yes. Support, no. I'd be most upset if this happened to me.

METERS Knoxville Marathon Support

In the latest newsletter from the Knoxville Track Club, there is an article about a woman who cheated during a marathon by not running the full distance. One of the local ham radio clubs gets an acknowledgement for their part in ensuring the integrity of the results:

"At our Knoxville Marathon, we have a somewhat similar course layout. Our full and half marathons start simultaneously, and both finish on the 50 yard line of Neyland Stadium. They run together for 12.5 miles before the half splits off toward the finish line. Every year, we get folks who have signed up for the full and for some reason (bad day, cramps, underestimation of the hills), opt for the half when the split comes. One of two things has always happened."

 ...

"We get novices that don’t know better. They finish the half, grab some food and drink, and then they head home. They assume that we’ll know that they only did the half. Do we?

Yes. We use METERS (Middle East Tennessee Emergency Radio Service) to spot participants running the half wearing the full bib. They radio in the bib numbers so we can switch them in the results. Our timing crew also checks the top finishers to make sure that they have a 10k split, a half marathon split, and a 20 mile split that correlate to their marathon time. If someone only has a split at 10k and it is for a 10 minute mile, there is no way that they finished the marathon averaging 7 minutes a mile.

Never, have I ever, seen one of these folks stick around for the full marathon award ceremony and attempt to claim an overall or age group award."

Double

I've been a little busy this week-end. I ran a half marathon on Saturday. I ran another half marathon today. If you ran the double, they gave you a third medal.

Not a Sub 2-Hour Marathon

So yesterday I posted a link about running a sub 2-hour marathon. One additional note for success is avoiding Beijing as the site of your run.

This is what it's like to run a marathon in Beijing http://t.co/2x9RgL4o02 pic.twitter.com/PIrconVTRU
— i100 (@thei100) October 19, 2014

Sub 2-Hour Marathon

What will it take to run a sub-two hour marathon? Someone faster than me.

Marathon Results

Well, I hit my silver goal by running a marathon in less than 4 hours. That puts me in the top 25% for my age group at the Knoxville Marathon. (The winner finished in under 2.4 hours.) I'll take it - especially since it was a huge improvement over 2012. And I ran the whole way without having to stop to walk at all.

I started out too fast and as a result I struggled the last few miles. It was hard to slow down when I was being passed by so many people - most of which I strongly suspect were running the half. I saw several friends along the way. I even ran with one for about two miles which was a nice break/distraction. I made a new friend around mile 18 and ran with him until about mile 23. He needed me to help slow him down and maintain his pace. I needed him to pull me a long. He left me around mile 23 when I started to fade and he started to push.

I really did just have to grind it out from 23 on. I kept playing mind games...

- just a 5k left
- just 2 miles
- 1 mile
- up this hill, down this hill, and up a hill to finish
- doing the math assuming a 10 min pace (that's a nice round number for someone who is not functioning mentally at full capacity) to see what my time would be when I finished

After I stopped, I felt okay except for my shoulder. It was really hurting. I must have tensed it up because of the cool weather. Some heat, food, shower, ibuprofen, and laying down for a couple of hours and I was good as new. I only have a little soreness in one quad.

A couple of notes..

Many of the spectators near the end of the race are liars. Even at mile 25, they kept telling me that I was "looking good." I'm quite certain that was not true.

There were the usual signs along the course. This one, held by my daughter, was my favorite. She's a rascal, but I only have myself to blame.

Marathon

I'll be running 26.2 miles on Sunday with about 7,000 runners who are doing the Knoxville Marathon, Half, or 5k. My personal goals are:

3:50 - Gold
4:00 - Silver
4:07 - Bronze

Even my "bronze" time puts me at a minute per mile faster than my first marathon. That's a lot faster, but to put this in perspective, I would need to finish in 3:15 to qualify for the Boston Marathon.

Beat the Blerch

A destination race... Beat the Blerch 10k/Half/Full Marathon in September that includes "large quantities of birthday cake at every aid station, in addition to Nutella and magical grape beverages."

Double Boston for Charity

I was patting myself on the back for the improvement in my running. Anything I have done pales in comparison to this... A Knoxville runner is going to do a Double Boston Marathon. He's going to begin at the finish and run to the start. Then he will complete the marathon with everyone else going from start to finish. That's 52.4 miles. And he's doing it to raise money for some people that were injured in the bombing last year. The couple has connections to Knoxville. Wow.

Running

I'm a better runner than I was two years ago. I've run a lot more miles and I've been doing work-outs besides just running. I'm also a smarter runner.

When I was training for the marathon in 2012, my longest training run was 20 miles. My fastest mile was the first mile and the difference between the fastest and slowest mile was more than 3.5 minutes. (I tossed out one data point that would have made it even worse, but I was probably stuck at a cross walk.)

This year, I've completed one 20 mile run so far. On average, it was about 40 secs faster per mile than the similar run in 2012. What really strikes me (and this is where the smarter comes in), was that my pace varied only by 15 seconds from fastest to slowest. There were two exceptions, but they were the last two miles where I intentionally sped up to see what I had left in the tank.

So in 2012, I got slower as I went and was half-dead when I finished. This year, I maintained my speed until I decided to speed up and I could have run further.

I'm optimistic about my potential for a good result at the Knoxville Marathon in a few weeks.

Hams at the Boston Marathon

Tim (W3ATB) tells his story of working at the Boston Marathon.

Via the ARRL story about hams at the race.

Wrong Target

"If you're trying to defeat the human spirit, marathoners are the wrong group to target."

Mighty Brighties Facebook Page

Keep Calm and Run On

Bruce Schneier on the bombings at the Boston Marathon.

Marathon Signs Part 2

I also saw...

• Beast Mode On!
• PR or ER
• As a series..
• Naked Cheerleaders Ahead - 1/2 mile
• Naked Cheerleaders Ahead - 1/4 mile
• Naked Cheerleader - On Break

Signs Along the Marathon Course

I'm running the Knoxville Half Marathon today, so here are few of my favorite signs that you see around the marathon course..

• Worst parade - ever.
• They lied - it isn't 2.62 miles.
• Getting up early to make this sign wasn't easy either!
• You think you are tired, I've been holding this sign for minutes!
• You are the slowest runner so far.
• Pain is temporary - results on the internet are forever!
• I'm sure this seemed like a good idea four months ago.
• Chuck Norris never ran a marathon.
• Shortcut -->
• Running is my sport's punishment.

But my favorite is the one held by my little girl that says "Yay Daddy!"

Nenikékamen!

Nenikékamen!