Saga of the Maraþon: Reykjavikur Maraþon (8/18/12)

(at the start)

                     

Race: Reykjavik Marathon

Location: Reykjavik, Iceland

Goal Time: 3:10:00

Actual Time: 3:18:50

(After SnorriSturluson)

In the 30^th year of the reign of Olaf Folkekongen – King of Norway – Jesse Spencerson went with his family to move his homestead from Atlanta in the south of Vinland to Boston in the North.  From then he set a goal to run the Marathon of Boston one day.

By the 40^th year in the reign of Margrethe II – Queen of Denmark – the qualifying time for Jesse Spencerson was 3 hours and 10 minutes.  In his first battle of the year – at Providence – this goal he failed to achieve.  And thus it left like Nevsky’s Battle on the Ice – the Marathon of Reykjavik.

The day of battle dawned, and with his forces for marathon and half and 10K, Jesse made his way down the Wash Road toward the start of the race.   Under the Red Awnings brought by the Islandsbank, Jesse of Somerville and the rest of the forces awaited the start.  As the gun was fired he spoke this verse:

1. Upon the sound of the starting shot

The surge of Hoenir’s human cohort

Took by winged foot the tölt toward

Thor the Thunderer’s blessed forty-two.

And past the councils of Man and the Geese’s pond,

The thousands in the cohort thinned in pace

And spread in gait into the capital seaport’s gate,

As I began the road to Boston’s qualifying place.

With a couple of easy miles to warm the legs and face the challenge of running 24.2 more at a pace set to qualify for the Boston time.  At 5km in there was a band of troubadours playing one of his favorite songs – “The Final Countdown” – and thus Jesse knew this was his day.

(longboat sculpture, Reykjavik)

The race turned toward the harbor - shops once placed as a poor country’s entrepôt – and ran about the old village’s kitchens and shops.  Then past the sculpture of the longship, Jesse said:

2. The wrought relic raises its iconic mast

And glints against the outline of Ejsa

Harkening back to the water-walkers ridden

By the founders of the City and Commonweal.

Along the coast I run

Hearing the call of Siegfried’s music horn

Following the words of Egil’s mead of Odin.

It carrys my feet at a quick gate

It carries my kilometers ever faster.

Down from the first great hill, he ran with allies found along the way.  These five men pitched into the wind hid about the long road into the city.  But upon 18K, those battling the full marathon went left and those battling only half stayed straight.   Jesse Spencerson was the only of the five to go left.  And up the second mighty hill he ran toward the hills of the sports halls and stadia.  Alone. 

At 20K words of encouragement and greetings of support came from Brian as Jesse Spencerson passed.  At half way through (21.1) the time was but 45 seconds off, enough for him to close and still qualify.

  

(Hamming it up for the Camera)

 

Winding through the park atop the hill Jesse ran through the zoo and past the hockey rink.  He was passed quickly by the relay men in green and then soon by Brian of the Three Musketeers relay.  Jesse told him of the position of the men in green. 

Out of the park and tired Jesse entered the bike path that ran along the south and against the old National Airport.  Of course there was yet another pretty (yet small) foss along the way.

30K struck and Jesse was hit with a moment of truth, 45 seconds slower than his wanted pace.  Thus, he spake:

3. Alas another 45 I need to make

If I am to Shawmut be in 2013.

Oh the speed is not fleet of feet

And the lead to qualify flees from me

Perhaps with another 2000 meters along the sea –

As long as I see no tricks from Loki –

If I can but save this race for me.

But at 32K, alas, he was not faster but 5 seconds slower.  Thus, Jesse with no chance to reach his goal accepted this minor defeat and as not to injure himself for another week, with hiking and biking in Iceland to see, slowed to 8 and 9 minute miles.  He dropped in 9K from 40^th to 63^rd as those many in the middle passed him.  At 1 mile to go (right before 41K), he made a last desperate charge.  First passing an Albanian and then 5 others.  His last 8 minute mile brought him in to break 3:19 and place him in 57^th!

(First place team award, finisher medal and BIB)

4. Though city streets

Over central Olmsteadian like ponds

Along seaside boulevards

Upon the hills of suburban avenues

Down into dells on parkland paths

Through fog engulfing dunes

            With reeds two meters high

Now I make my way around

To the big finish to cheers of friends.

Hooray! Hooray!

Marathon number 4 complete.

SHOUTOUTS

-          Mariah took second overall and second in her age group

-          SoRad, Korynn, Brian T and Laurie all had PR’s!

-          Shark Tank also qualified for Boston (on her “goddamn Birthday!”)

-          The Three Musketeers (Andy and Brian K.) took second in the relay

-          SRR – En Fuego (Mariah, Brian T and myself) won the team competition

-          SRR – AV Club (SoRad, Korynn and Victor) took third in the team competition

Fjórir Tanka: Golden Circle (8/17/12)

The Golden Circle bus trip.

Icelandic Horse

Ponies they are not

Yet with manes long and bushy

Stances stout and strong

They travel the four beat tölt

Without dropping a drip of beer

~ 23 Aug 2012

   Reykjavik, Iceland

Geysir

The derivative

Dormant lays; as its cousin,

Stokkur, yet still spoots

Geysas of scalding vatn

High above the treeless ground.

~ 23 Aug 2012

   Reykjavik, Iceland

Gullfoss

Icy water falls

As the foss cuts, curves and curls

Canyons deep and rapt,

“Caverns measureless to man,”

Beauty boundless to the eye.

~ 23 Aug 2012

   Reykjavik, Iceland

Lögberg

The plates rip in rifts

New World west and Europe east.

Fire, snow and sea:

The flag flies freely unfurled

There upon the Rock of Law

~23 Aug 2012

  Reykjavik, Iceland

A Good Clip: Yankee 10 Miler (7/30/2012)

Clipper Dreadnought, at Full Tea Rig

Race:   Yankee Homecoming 10 Miler

Location: Newburyport, MA

Goal Time: 1:07:00

Actual Time: 1:08:38

In 1860, the Clipper ship Dreadnought sailed from New York to Liverpool in 9 days, 17 hours.  This was the record and has never been broken by any sailing ship.  Within 9 years, as the last great merchant clipper – the Cutty Sark – was completed, the Suez Canal was opened and the Clipper Age was coming to a close and oceans “watched the men who sailed [them] switch from sail to steam.”

But the Clipper Age (1843 – 1869) was part of the internationalization of American Capitalism.  Combined with later the railroad and the telegraph, the Clipper helped to globalize the world.  During the Clipper Age, Newburyport stood right in the middle of it.  Shipyards along the Merrimack built clippers – including the aforementioned Dreadnought – for the burgeoning China trade and the gold rushes of California and Australia. 

The beauty of the clipper was the sleek lines that made it easier to carry high value items (such as tea, silk and opium) at incredible speed.

*****

152 years after the Dreadnought I was hoping to use          the clipper speed in the annual Tuesday night tradition – Yankee Homecoming 10 Miler.  Like the square sails of a clipper I was ready to fly.

Course Sail: Miles 1-2.5

As the race started, I saw Mariah running off to the right.  Knowing the two of us run similar race paces, I decided I would catch up with her – slowly.

It took a good three quarters of a mile, but I was able to catch her and run with her.  We dropped into what Jim calls “comfortable hard” for the 10 mile race pace and chatting.  I believe it was first about Artificial Intelligence and the seeming every five years that somebody says: “Soon computers will be smarter than people.”

Top Sail (which oddly isn’t on the TOP really): Miles 2.5 – 5

So the next few miles the conversation was more dedicated to training and our upcoming marathon (in ICELAND!!!).  In doing so we kept thumping out our 6:45 – 7 minute miles. 

Top Galant (which is on top of the Top Sail): Miles 5-7.5

This is probably the hardest part of the course.  Mariah and I’s conversation turned to her talking and me making grunts of recognition.

Konigssegel: Miles 7.5 – 9.85

The course had one last hiccup (so I thought) as we ran on the overpass over I-95.  I fought up this bit ready to start really running.  Mariah started really running.  At Mile 8 she had pulled away from me.  While I picked up the last two miles she still peeled away from me.

I still felt good as I ran in the last mile and then made the last turn.  But it wasn’t the last turn!

Wreck!:  Miles 9.85 – 10

The Dreadnought wrecked just four months before the Suez Canal opened.  The crew watched as it crashed into the rocks at Cape San Diego in Tierra del Fuego. 

The last turn of the race led into the Newburyport High School parking lot.  It was a steep climb and while I passed one person two guys sprinting each other for the line split me like I was road furniture.  I still finished with a 16 Minute PR in the 10 Miler.

At the end of the race no less than THREE people commented that Mariah and I did well but could have done much better if we didn’t spend the whole race talking.

Shoutouts –

Anthony continued his fantastic summer with a 1:04

Diona and Chris Smith both took 3^rd in their age groups

Mariah “Morah” Tinger – 2^nd in her age group

The SRR Women took 2nd Overall!

SRR Men took 7^th (with no help from your truly)

5280 feet: the mass ave m1le (7/22/12)

Tim, me and Urvi after the Mile.

Race: Mass Ave Mile

Location: Cambridge, MA

Goal Time: 5:30

Actual Time: 5:33 (Adult PR!)

I passed the quarter mile clock at 72 seconds!  My internal Keith Jackson voice hit: “Whoa Nelly.” If I continued running at this pace I would break my all-time record for the mile.  The one I did when I was 17 and used to run the mile every week.  Well, looks like I’m in trouble. Not much I can do about now – GO For it.

*****

The Mass Ave Mile is a new event in Cambridge.  Starting in Porter Square and finishing in front of Harvard, it just runs straight down Massachusetts Avenue.  They set up clocks every ¼ mile for updates.  Tim said he forgot to run the tangents; I noticed few tangents to run except for into Harvard Square.

*****

I passed the half mile clock at 2:30!  After such a fast quarter mile I figured my race was over anyways.  Might as well try to keep up the INSANE pace I had started.  What did Joe say? You might think your banking time, “but, the bank charges interest.”  It was now time for me to pay up.

*****

I had feared that the start of the race would be a big cluster fuck. It was the first year (always a bad thing) AND not being headed up by a runner or normal race director.  I was wrong.  They had managed to place an obvious divide between under 5:20 and over 5:20.  Tim, John and I stood right on the divide.  This was good for both John and Tim as they were able to run with the groups of runners who were their respective speeds.  It was bad for me because I got sucked up into the people running John and Tim’s respective speeds.  (See: The aforementioned Keith Jackson impression.)

*****

At three quarters of a mile I was at four flat.  This was odd since for the most part I was passing people.  However, I had “lost” 12 seconds on that quarter alone.  But that was okay, with another 90 second quarter I would still run a 5:30!

*****

After the finish line we were escorted down Kennedy to Winthrop Square where there was a good light breakfast spread with bagels and coffee and what not ; and a little mini-runners expo.  The awards were then held on the grass outside Grendel’s. 

*****

The finish line was in sight as we made the gentle right into the Square (a tangent Tim apparently did not run).  5:22!  “C’mon!” I yelled to the guy next to me: “5:30!”  Alas, it was not to be.  I came across at 5:33 – still an adult PR but at least 5 if not 10 seconds slower than I could have run without a CRAZY first quarter.

Tim finished at a blazing 4:55!  Urvi came in 6 seconds faster than her mile from earlier this year.

A Thursday Lament on the Death of Odd Distanced Races: Jim Kane Sugar Bowl 5K (7/19/12)

The Gang after the race (Notice Karen's finisher AND first place medals)

Race: Jim Kane Sugar Bowl 5K

Location: South Boston, MA

Goal Time: 19:30

Actual Time: 19:40

 Last winter Joe commented how many races he’s seen go from 10K to 5 Miles to 5K in his career.  Indeed all races seem to be coalescing into 5ks and half-marathons.  To me, it’s sad.  The odd distanced races are going the way of the dodo.  The Wall Street Journal looked into this in 2010 without trying to answer why.

I have my own hypothesis. If you think about it, the running boom is to blame.  The fact is with the running boom, there are a greater number of runners.  Many of these runners have zero chance of winning the race or even their age group.  All they have to race is against themselves.   In today’s world of instant gratification, nobody wants to wait around until next year’s 7 mile race to find out if they are getting better. So month to month they want to run a distance to compare themselves 

If you look at the largest road races in the US, there are many non-5k, non- half marathons:  The Peachtree Road Race (10K), Bay to Breakers and Lilac Bloomsday (12Ks), Boilermaker (15k), Falmouth (7miles) Shamrock Shuffle (8K).  However, these are large races that are often season defining races in their city.  I know in Atlanta the Peachtree t-shirt is a goal; and, I’m sure for residents of Utica and Spokane – that Boilermaker or Lilac Bloomsday t-shirt or finisher medal like the Peachtree holds a personal cache greater than running a 5k faster than last month. Bay to Breakers is even a world famous party for the back of the packers.

Unfortunately the smaller races cannot be the Peachtree or Falmouth.  So to get the racing dollar it has to attract through distance.  One day all small races will be a 5k or a half-marathon (or Derry).

The Jim Kane Sugar Bowl 5 miler made the move this year to the 5k. 

I was unable to defend my heavyweight title (won in last years 5 miler) – finishing in 3^rd.  Karen however did win her age group.

A Ride to Wachusett: Climb to the Clouds Century (7/15/12)

atop Mt. Wachusett

"The needles of the pine 

All to the west incline"

~Thoreau "A Walk to Wachusett"

Ride: Climb to the Clouds Century
Route: Lincoln-Sudbury High School -> Mt. Wachusett -> Lincoln-Sudbury High School
Distance: 100 Miles (104.98 with various side stuff) / 144 miles on the day
Goal Time: 7:30:00
Actual Time: 8:33:21

Mountains sit upon the horizon and and rest upon the sky like indistinct signs of the gods embrace.  Throughout the pages of history and myth mountains have been allusions to grandeur and sacredness.  With Homer we have sat upon Mt. Olympus and with Virgil we roamed the Apennine Mountains between Rome and Ravenna.  Myths carried us to Qamata's giants at Table Mountain and reminded us of Zhang Sanfeng and ODB in the Wudang Shang. While in more modern days, Mallory attempted to climb Everest "because it's there."

170 years ago this week, Thoreau wrote of his journey to Central Massachusetts' great mount:

But special I remember thee,

Wachusett, who like me

Standest alone without society.

So on a sunny warm July morn I mounted my trustee steed bearing the name of one of Homer's Olympian era heroes.  Ajax Telemon carried me from Cambridgeport up the not so mighty Charles.  Riding up to Waltham along the beautiful but sleep trails of the still river and Blue Heron trail.  And then over hills and past the farms - with many a huggable sheep - of Concord and Lincoln into the high school.

After signing in I was ready to make my pilgrimage.  I set out on my hajj to the Massachusetts cyclist's Mt. Hira.  I passed rapidly through Sudbury, Hudson and Bolton.  And at twenty miles on from the start of the official ride while climbing George Hill Road overlooking the valley of Lancaster, a POP and a hisssssss forced me to stop.  My tire had popped again.  Fortunately for me there was a mobile bike mechanic parked not 200 yards ahead.  For 30 bills and 45 minutes lost, he replaced my tube and tire and repaired my gears so I could make the ride.

Losing the group which whom I'd been during my mechanical stop created both a physical and mental block.  Hindered without the drafting wind physically slower I went.  Now at the end of the pack, mentally I was lost on the alone on the road.  At the general store in Sterling Center I watched those on the shorter 80 mile ride turn away from the mountain hajj as I purchased Gatorade and Oreos.

At the foot of Mile Hill Road with Wachusett Lake upon my left, I caught two others stopped who were on the ride.  "Look," one said, "Mountain."  And there stood the imposing 2000 foot monadnock.  In its apex of summer verdancy, the ski slopes looked as gashes torn out of the old growth for now quiet chair lifts leading to the summit.

I could get no farther into Kabir than

"the impossible Pass of Ram"

Away from the lake bearing the mountain's name, Mile Hill Road was a relentless climb.  Past the ski area's sleepy lodge, still I climbed.  Past another rider red with sun and sweat, still I climbed.  And upon the right the entrance to the State Park and summit road I took to the visitors center.  

After a quick refueling of water and chessy crackers, I prepared for the summit ride.  In due time I began my ascent of the mountain.  Passing through the sugar maple woo, and still I climbed.  With brief respites of flat or dips until another spike toward the chair lifts or denser wood, and still I climbed.  I passed a woman 2/3 up walking her bike now, and still I climbed.  The last bit - picinic area straight but summit left - I turned once more toward the sky, and still I climbed.  The fire tower came in view and the parking lot atop flattened out, but a trail lead further up, and still I climbed.  Where the tower meets the Mid State Trail I finally stopped, finally atop.

At two thousand feet above the level of the sea but removed and remote as being in another world from the valley below.  I might as well have been in the black forest of Mt. Ainos as but 40 miles from the suburbs of Boston.  I enjoyed a respite, but knew this would be the point to make up time.  So quickly I hopped on the bike and headed back down the mountain toward Princeton town.

Coming down the mountain I broke my top speed record - taking Ajax Telemon to 42 mph!  Taking another water stop at the Visitor Center, I rode off in my return - a winding path passed Wachusett Reservoir (which is NOT Wachusett Lake) and stopping to take a picture at Burpee Road, Sterling.  Then into Berlin I rode and the rest/water stop.  I spoke with Adena who was volunteering here a bit before continuing on.

Through Stow and Boxboro and Acton the road became less wild more suburban and more dull.  The last 10 miles were a bear.  After 90 miles running this week and already 110 on the bike today, I really needed the ride to stop.

As I pulled into the High School, Urvi was the first to greet me with a picture and a smile.  We rode home and she made awesome Saag and chicken rice - a perfect end to a great day.

So while that monadnock still looms in my mind I wonder why our desire is to climb.  Is it because we have a spiritual desire to be in the sky like our gods?  Do we like the challenge? Or, is it just "because it's there"?

Tino Pai,

Jesse...

Boiling in Utica: Boilermaker 15K (7/8/12)

BIG 20

Race: Boilermaker 15K
Location: Utica, NY
Goal Time: 1:02:45
Actual Time: 1:06:07  (PR!!)

This was not my best race.

However, the race is fun!  It's like joining a Pub Series race with the party at the end with a big city race.

14,000 runners with 6,000 volunteers and the people of Utica packed onto the streets to cheer everybody from the world class runners to the next door neighbor.

I'd definitely put this on the bucket list...