Showing up

The running club at the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center sponsors a semiannual 2 mile “fun run.” In my many years there, I’d run most of the races.

There was a colleague whom I knew mostly from meeting each other twice a year at this race. He was about my age, and we were always in the same age group. There was a period of about five years, the first half of that 10-year age group, in which he and I were consistently the top two finishers. He was faster than me, by about a minute. So, in the age group results, he was always #1 and I was #2.

Except for the two times when he didn’t run, for whatever reason. Each of those two times, when I picked up my certificate for being the top age group finisher, I’d think to myself that this is kind of tainted--#1 with an asterisk (* the faster guy wasn’t there). That I wasn’t really the top finisher for my age group, because there was someone else on campus who was faster and, if he had raced, he would have been the top finisher.

Over time, however, I’ve come to see that there is no asterisk. Because, by the logic of the asterisk, only someone like Usain Bolt, during those years that he was on top of the world, could say that he was the top finisher. There is no asterisk, because, on that day, in that race, I was the fastest in my age group. There could be, and in my case there was, someone else who’s faster. But, they didn’t show up. It doesn’t matter why they didn’t show up, only that they didn’t. This is true of any race, including those at the Olympics.

This is also true of life (for which long-distance running is an apt metaphor).

Woody Allen once said, "80 percent of success is showing up." What did Allen mean by “showing up”? There seem to be two main interpretations. One is literal: 80 percent of success is simply physically showing up at the starting line, be it a race or anything else in life. After all, if one is not there, then there’s zero percent chance of success. The other is metaphorical: showing up intentionally and committing to do deliberate work. The finished work may not be of the desired result, but it provides something to be improved on (one can’t revise a blank page). I think a combination of the two is probably what Allen had meant.

Allen’s quote is like that famous saying found in those wise fortune cookies, “The journey of a thousand miles starts from beneath your feet.” No, actually, it’s from the Tao Te Ching (chap. 64). You have to show up at the beginning of the journey, and you have to show up with the intention to put in the work to take the journey. Similarly, in those two NASA Goddard races, I not only showed up (and the faster guy didn't) but also put in the work to make sure the third fastest guy didn't beat me to the finish line.

In my running life, showing up is part of that eternal question of life: Why I run.

Recently, in my non-running life, an opportunity for “showing up” showed up in my inbox one day in July. The email was from Lorig Charkoudian (MD Delegate District 20), and it began with “We need to show up and keep showing up to build a just and inclusive future—in Maryland, in the United States, and across the planet.” Charkoudian is actually not one of my delegates; I think I got on her mailing list from attending a Third Act Maryland meeting at which she was a speaker. She is also an ultrarunner. So, if she were my delegate, I’d vote for her just based on that (jk, but only partly!).

Anyway, in her email was an invitation to join a Maryland group she was organizing to go up to Pennsylvania to canvass. Something I’d never done before and a bit out of my comfort zone. But, her words stuck in my mind, and I eventually decided to get out of my comfort zone and go find out what canvassing is all about. I decided to “show up,” both literally and, after getting there, go through the training and then knock on doors. The result was not always as desired, but it provided something to be improved on, from door to door and from canvass to canvass.

It was an interesting and fun learning experience, with some eye-opening conversations with my fellow citizens. With less than two months to go before we all decide if we can keep a republic, showing up is all the more important.

Whether in running or in non-running, showing up intentionally is the Tao.

It's still a matter of training, more of it (Jim Thorpe 2024 Marathon race report)

On the train to the start of the Jim Thorpe Marathon in April, I saw the 4:15 pacer in the same car as mine, and I was thinking, I’m going to see her back a lot today, hopefully all the way to the finish line! My BQ time is 4:20, so, to be able to actually run the Boston Marathon, I’d need probably at least 4:15, based on recent trends in registration for Boston.

The Jim Thorpe Marathon, which finishes in Jim Thorpe, PA, is advertised as very BQ-friendly. The point-to-point course from White Haven to Jim Thorpe has a “slight, steady 0.5% to 1% downgrade nearly the entire way.” The course is on trails that follow the old D&L and Lehigh Gorge railroad bed, through the Lehigh Gorge State Park.

There were two ways to get to the start of the race in White Haven. One was to drive there and then take a free shuttle back after finishing. The other was to take the scenic Reading & Northern Railway from the Jim Thorpe Station to White Haven at 6:30 am for the 8 am start (recommended!). My registration receipt combined the cost of registration and train ticket, and I don’t remember how much was for the ticket. But, it was reasonable.

                                Historic Jim Thorpe Station /Visitor Information Center, Jim Thorp, PA

                          Reading & Northern Railway train, the scenic way to get to the start of the race

                                                    On the train to the start of the marathon

The temperature was in the upper 40s when we got off the train at White Haven at around 7:30 am. Perfect, I was thinking and was feeling quite hopeful. It was a bit chilly in the shorts and T-shirt I had on. Bag drop was done by leaving it on the train, to be taken back to the finish area. So, I was glad I brought one of those emergency thermal blankets (that, folded, could easily fit into my hydration vest) for the half hour or so wait before the race began. The start was at the D&L Trail White Haven North Trailhead next to and east of the train stop. The course goes north for a two-mile out-and-back before returning to the Trailhead at around Mile 3 and continuing south to Jim Thorpe.

I crossed the halfway point at ~2:06 so was on track for a runnable BQ (i.e., actually being able to run Boston 2025). I kept up with the 4:15 pacer through M14. My pace slowed just a bit over M15-16, though still keeping the 4:15 pace group in sight. Over M17-20, though, my pace slowed significantly. There were also intimations of leg cramping. So, instead of trying to keep running at an increasingly slowing pace and possibly having to start walking, I tried a new run-walk combination over the last six miles.

This run-walk enabled me to finish with a 35-minute improvement (4:45) over Wineglass 2023 and Honolulu 2023. In this version of the run-walk, for each half mile, I walked the first 0.04 mile, which was how far I walked the first time until I felt sort of recovered, and ran the remaining 0.46 mile. This way, the walk time was not long, and the run was at a pace that, though slow (~12-13 min/mi), did not decrease precipitously as was the case in Wineglass 2023 (~15-20 min/mi). So, I’m happy about the 4:45 in that sense; though, of course, it's still ~30 minutes shy of a runnable BQ.

Looking back, everything leading up to the race went well. There were no interruptions during the 16-week training period. I got to the start line healthy. Planning for the race weekend was right on target. What I wore was just right, before and during the race, including the emergency thermal blanket for the wait before the start. And, I was glad I decided to switch from parking at the Jim Thorpe Area High School and then taking a shuttle to the start (both free) to parking in the municipal lot next to the Jim Thorpe train station/finish area. The latter option was not free but was much more convenient both before and after the race.

Though my time was slow, I don’t think I left much on the course. The 4:15 pacer ran Miles 2-6 too fast (by 10-30 sec/mi). It did get warmer for the last third of the course. But, neither of these affected me that much. Jim Thorpe was my third marathon since before COVID; so, it could be that I still haven’t regained my racing rhythm. (My time for the last pre-COVID marathon, Harrisburg 2019, was 4:05.) Mentally, there was no real problem. I think, physically, I just wasn’t prepared enough from my 16 weeks of training. I think my training volume needs to be higher than the 30-40 miles per week I ran. I may go back to the plan that I’d used to run my marathon PR and first BQ at Pocono 2016 (3:55), which peaks at 60 miles per week. Of course, I’d modified it to account for an eight-year older body. 😊

So, the bottom line: it’s still a matter of training--just more of it.

The Jim Thorpe course has few easy vehicular access points. So, kudos to the race logistics and all the volunteers for setting up the aid stations every two miles or so! Jim Thorpe is a relatively small race, this year with 533 finishers. After the first few miles, if one was not with a pace group, it was basically like a weekend long run. And, because of the limited access to the race course, there were few cheering crowds along the way and, thus, less of a race effect. So, I appreciated the smiling helpful volunteers at each aid station even more than usual.

Overall, this was a really well-organized race, from registration to the finish line, including the unique train ride to the start. One nit I do have, though, was the pickup of my bib and train ticket at the “micro-expo” located next to the railway station. Parking at the adjacent municipal lot was $15 for the five minutes or so needed for the pickup. This was the Saturday bib pickup. The main one on Friday was at a local coffee shop; the parking situation there could be better.

                  "Micro-expo" next to the railway station (basically pick up bib and train ticket).

Again, the train ride to the start was a really nice feature of the race. And an integral one: it’s prominent on the finisher’s medal and race shirt. And, everyone’s favorite? A restroom in every car, so no long wait lines for porta potties!

Jim Thorpe the borough (“borough” in PA is similar to “town” elsewhere) is a popular tourist destination, for its scenery, opportunities for outdoor activities, and history (esp. railroads).

                       Clock tower in historic downtown Jim Thorpe, PA, near the train station

About a mile northeast of his eponymous Borough is the Jim Thorpe Memorial. How Thorpe, who grew up in Oklahoma, ended up in PA has been controversial. He never set foot in Mauch Chunk (name of the Borough before being renamed to Jim Thorpe in 1954). He did go to the Carlisle Indian Industrial School (about 100 miles to the southwest), which is on the official list of 417 federal Indian boarding schools that was the subject of a recently released report of the Federal Indian Boarding School Initiative.

NB: Race shirts for Jim Thorpe were not provided at bib pickup. They were available only at the finish. But, I was so used to picking up shirts at race expos that, even though I saw a lot of people at the shirt tent near the finish line, it didn’t register that I should go there and get mine (!). 😊 Fortunately, when I wrote to the race director, Michael Ragozzino, about it, he helpfully mailed it to me. Not just because of the latter, but I do plan to run Jim Thorpe again. Besides increasing the training mileage, I have a few other ideas on how to better prepare, physically, for the race.

Even pacing vs banking time (Honolulu 2023 marathon race report)

I passed the drummers near the crest of Diamond Head Rd just south of the Diamond Head State Monument around Mile 8 (also Mile 24.5) of last December's Honolulu Marathon. They were still setting things up in their tent under the predawn light (race start was at 5 am) overlooking the Pacific Ocean. The view was, as I’d already experienced in my training runs over the previous weeks, simply gorgeous. At the time, with my legs still feeling good (don’t they always in the first 10 miles of a marathon?!) and the forecast heat and humidity not yet out in full force, I didn’t pay that much attention to those drummers.

Some 16 miles later, though, on the way back up Diamond Head Rd, those drummers were a welcomed sight and sound.

I was using their rhythmic sound to help maintain my pace up the hill. And, then, in passing the drummers, I got a much-needed recharge for the last 1.5 miles to the finish.

Having run the Wineglass Marathon in early October of last year, where I went out too fast, faster than my interrupted training could support (in hindsight), I was a lot more conservative in the early miles through downtown Honolulu. It was also a lot warmer and more humid. The result was an overall much more even-paced run, compared with Wineglass, where I banked some time (unplanned!) in the first 10-15 miles but had to walk quite a bit toward the end.

Banking time usually doesn’t end well, as in Wineglass last year, and is generally not a good strategy. This is so, even though, more even paced doesn’t always mean faster. My finish time for Honolulu was about the same as that for Wineglass (~5:20). But Honolulu, though a lot warmer and more humid, felt a lot better! And, the Honolulu pace chart also looks a lot better than that for Wineglass!

	Honolulu Marathon 2023	Wineglass Marathon 2023
Alternating walking and running	Began Mile 22	Began Mile 20
All walking	None	2 miles
End spurt	~1 mile	~0.5 mile

The Honolulu Marathon is a major international race. Typically, there are 30,000+ runners (40+% of which are from Japan). The race expo was the biggest that I’ve ever seen and very smoothly run. A big attraction of the expo was, not surprisingly, the two pure gold medals for the two winners of the race (each 202.3 g, worth about $15K).

The Honolulu Marathon is also a major local event, with a program covering the entire long weekend, from entertainment to shorter races, ending with the marathon on Sunday. Aloha Friday night kicked off the fun in Waikiki Beach Walk Plaza on Lewers St., with a variety of hula performances, plus those by Kapena, a popular Hawaiian `ohana band, playing a blend of traditional Hawaiian and contemporary music.

The fun continued Saturday morning with the Kalakaua Merrie mile, where several T. Rex’s showed up. Why T. Rex? Well, I kind of knew that Hawaii was involved in the movie, Jurassic Park, but not the details until I talked with one of the staff members of the Ho`omaluhia Botanical Garden. The latter is not the actual site where Jurassic Park was filmed; but driving through its 400 acres of tropical plants (from around the world) right away reminded me of the movie. The actual site (Kualoa Ranch) is just up Kamehameha Hwy (Rte 83) along the east coast of O`ahu.

                                                 Ho`omaluhia Botanical Garden, O`ahu

The main event that all this fun was building up to was, of course, the marathon itself very early on Sunday. My TL;DR summary review of the race: efficiently organized; gorgeous scenery (though less than expected); terrific volunteer support; wonderful Aloha Spirit all around; had a great time running it; would run it again, if the opportunity arises. To be fair, I was there on vacation, and the marathon was a “race of opportunity,” i.e., I didn’t fly out there just for the race.

There are, though, a couple of nits I do have about the start of the race. First, more porta potties are needed! Good thing the starting line was next to the Ala Moana Regional Park, which had restrooms. But, of course, once people realized, long lines started to form there too.

Second, a somewhat bigger nit, corrals should be enforced, along with wave starts! I was assigned the “Blue Zone,” but no zones were visible at all. And, very quickly, as runners streamed into the starting area along the not very wide Ala Moana Blvd. before the 5 am start, practically no space was visible either. It also seemed that the walkers all corralled themselves near the starting line, so it was hard to get into any kind of running rhythm for the first couple miles. Aloha Spirit, sure, but come on, these issues could be easily remedied! The pre-start fireworks, though, were great!

Oh, did I mention it was warm and humid?! Along with the marathon, there was a companion Start to Park 10K, in which some 7,000 people ran. A number of elites from around the world came to run the 10K for heat and humidity training. Molly Seidel, the 2021 Olympic marathon bronze medalist, ran it and was second overall (32:25).

Race day was not as breezy as in previous weeks. The first four miles through downtown Honolulu were quite muggy. It got better just before Mile 4, as the route emerged from Piikoi St. back onto Ala Moana Blvd. with its shoreline breeze. It was around there that I realized that I’d forgotten my SaltSticks, which I’d started to use after that weird cramping experience in the 2018 Potomac Marathon. For the rest of the race, I paced even more conservatively and went for Gatorade more than water at the aid stations.

Aloha Spirit was all around the aid stations, and that Spirit was more and more welcomed toward the latter miles (see video of drummers above). Some of the aid stations had, in addition to water in paper cups, water from tubing connected to hydrants. That’s a first for me. It’s a bit wasteful of water. But, it does save paper cups and is great for cooling off. Of course, one would need to bring their own bottle, which I did. It was the first time I had my own bottle (in a hydration vest) for a marathon. I plan to do that in future races, for more flexibility in hydration and fueling.

As mentioned previously, I was on the island for vacation, and the Honolulu Marathon date just so happened to be on the Sunday before I flew out later that week. So, I was fortunate to be able to have trained there for a month before the race to get more acclimated to the heat and humidity than otherwise. Also, on the many training runs during that month, I was able to get familiarized with most of the race course (miles 1-13 and 20-26). The seven miles between miles 13 and 20 along the Kalaniana`ole Hwy (Rte 72), basically an out-and-back to Hawaii Kai, are the only miles I didn’t run beforehand. I also did some non-race course training runs, the prettiest one of which was the early morning run up Diamond Head State Monument. Highly recommended!

         From top of Diamond Head State Monument, looking northwest toward Waikiki, O`ahu.

Being familiar with a race course has its advantages. One would know, e.g., where a long climb is coming up and could mentally prepare for it. Disadvantages, too—one would know where that dreaded long climb is coming up. 😆

Maybe because Christmas was just a couple weeks away at the time, that Christmas song, Here Comes Santa Claus, kept popping up in my head, during the latter miles especially. And, maybe because its rhythm matched my stride rhythm, I couldn’t get it out of my head. Not sure if that resulted in + or – a few minutes in my finish time. 😊

One way to make the miles go by faster

Or, rather, seemingly go by faster.

Last week, one of my morning runs was “easy-steady and finishing with 4x5 sets of 10 sec strides.” For fun and something different, I decided to do the strides spread out throughout the run, rather than at the end, as follows:

Mile 1 - Warm up

Mile 2 – Easy-steady

Miles 3 to 6 – Easy-steady with 10 sec stride every 0.2 mile

Last half mile – Easy-steady

Miles 3-6 are basically fartlek but regular and rhythmic. For every 0.2 mile, the beginning 10 sec stride covers ~0.03 mile, with the remaining 0.17 mile at the easy-steady pace. Just like a metronome. Well, at least for the first 2 miles or so (Miles 3 and 4).

Initially, I’d check my watch at just about the end of each 0.2 mile and get ready for the next 10 sec stride. But, toward the end of Mile 5, as my legs tired, the next 0.2 mile seemed to come up faster and faster. What, time for another 10-sec stride?! Miles 5-6 were thus not quite as rhythmic, as I kept being late to the beat (top pace plot of the following figure).

Of course, I was not actually going faster--my pace was gradually slowing, though still mostly even. But, because I was paying attention to my legs wanting more time to recover, the 0.17 mile after each stride seemed to fly by. It’s another example of the fascinating mental aspects of (especially long-distance) running. Other than that, however, is it useful practically for, say, toward the end of a race or long training run that I’m struggling to finish? I’d need to experiment and find out. But, training to be able to speed up for 10 seconds or 20 seconds or more, especially when the legs are tired, is obviously good to do. This week, I did the same run, and the latter miles with the strides were already more rhythmic (bottom pace plot of the above figure). Or, perhaps, I was just paying more attention to maintaining the beat, instead of the complaining legs.

Tai Ji Quan and no-running running

My aha moment came, naturally, during a long run: From a Tai Ji Quan (Tai Chi Chuan) perspective, why elites run the way they do all makes sense now. It's like, of course this is how it should be.

It all began with Kelvin Kiptum’s Chicago Marathon run in October of last year, Adharanand Finn’s commentary on the run, and a link in the commentary to Jae Gruenke’s interesting analysis of Kiptum’s form. (Gruenke is founder of The Balanced Runner.) Both Finn and I thought Kiptum’s form is just the natural way he runs. But, regarding Kiptum's forearms in relationship to his chest, our views are a bit different. In part that’s just a difference in description. Finn sees Kiptum’s forearms as “swinging across his chest,” whereas I see them as swinging across his chest to just past the body centerline. The latter means the arms are actually at an angle to the chest, not across the chest, and it’s the hands that swing across and down the chest. (The discussions among Finn, myself, and others occurred on Finn’s Patreon site of which I’m a “patron.”)

It was a fascinating discussion. The sometimes misunderstanding ensued, I think in part, from the difference in western and eastern thinking. That is, in the former, the focus is on structure, on the individual parts (arms, elbows, etc.), and how they affect each other; whereas, in the latter, the focus is on process, on the body holistically. Holistic movements have long been a central part of Tai Ji Quan. From Tai Ji Quan principles, movement always originates from the Dan Tian (~core?), the source of the body's energy. All movements should originate from there, followed by the extremities, the exact positions of which would vary with the individual. These principles apply to running but also elsewhere, e.g., in music, the vibrato of string players, properly done, originates from a relaxed body.

Analyses of videos of elites that show a certain form don’t mean the rest of us should try to copy it (e.g., have one’s arm at this angle, swing the arm to here). One can run either rigidly or relaxed with arms that are in some “ideal” position. I think most elites seem to run that way (Kiptum's), because they all run with a relaxed core. The rest (arm, elbow, hand, etc.) follow from the core. Trying to change one's form by adjusting head, arm, etc. is from the wrong end of the process. I experimented in recent runs with these form adjustments, and they felt awkward. But, when I consciously relaxed my core (still a work-in-progress!), these adjustments just happened, a sort of “no-movement movement.” Whatever the “ideal” arm swing is, it doesn’t come from conscious movement, but from a “no-swing swing.”

So, to run like an elite, don’t run like an elite! 😊