RunRunLive 4.0 - Running Podcast

The RunRunLive 4.0 Podcast Episode 4-415 – Kate Williams – Yaks and the Planet (Audio: link) audio:http://www.RunRunLive.com/PodcastEpisodes/epi4415.mp3] Link MarathonBQ – How to Qualify for the Boston Marathon in 14 Weeks - Hello and welcome to episode 4-415 of the RunRunLive Podcast.  Today we have a great conversation with Kate who is the CEO of 1% for the planet.  I owe you a bit of backstory here, so try to keep up.  When I first started the podcast 11 years or so ago I was a bit worried about mixing my professional world with my running world.  I’m a pragmatist.  I made the decision early on that if the podcast ever caused conflict with my regular career the regular career would win.  I had this nightmare scenario of sitting in a board meeting and someone saying “You had time to do this stupid marathon race report, explain to us why you missed your numbers again?” As an insider to our endurance lifestyles I get it.  I know what we do is additive to our careers.  What we do doesn’t make us worse at our day jobs it makes us better.  I believe that.  But my beliefs weren’t what I was worried about.  It’s like the old joke about marriage; “Would you rather be right, or be happy?”  I would rather be able to pay my bills than be sanctimonious. I was never that guy.  Because no one at work gives a crap about your training or your marathon times.  I built a wall between what I did for a living and my podcast adventures.  Which confused and intrigued my listeners.  Here I am talking about airplanes and board meetings and hotel stays and clients, and never sharing what I actually did for a living.  I would get questions.  What do you do for a living?  So, I made something up that fit the evidence.  I told everyone that I was a contract killer (that explained all the travel), but that my cover job was a yak farmer.  And if you have the patience to go back and listen to those early episodes you’ll find all the yak farming jokes.  Here’s the thing, I have never even seen a live yak.  I just randomly picked the most absurd profession I could think of.  Fast forward to a couple weeks ago.  I was in LinkedIn doing whatever it is you do in LinkedIn and I came across Kate’s profile.  Here is this out-doorsy, masters runner person with an ivy league education and one of the jobs on her resume is “Yak Farmer”.  I could not resist.  I reached out to her and got her on for this interview.  Which turned out to be apropos and extremely beneficial because she leads an organization that addresses the intersection of business and the environment – a topic that I have done much rumination on.  Why can’t we be business friendly and environmentally friendly at the same time?  Why are those two things antithetical?  I think you’ll like our conversation and I’m grateful that this silly podcast thing has led me to engage with another outstanding individual who I would have never otherwise had the opportunity to meet.  In section one I’m going to ruminate on the Boston Marathon some more. In section two I’m going to ruminate about rumination.  And, I hope you enjoyed my attempt to be funny with the Leadville race report.  Sorry for the salty language.  Hope the kids weren’t listening.  To make up for it I’ll give you a Dad joke.  What kind of animal do you need to take with you on a trip to the Himalayas?  A Yak of all trades… On with the show! … I’ll remind you that the RunRunLive podcast is ad free and listener supported.  What does that mean? It means you don’t have to listen to me trying to sound sincere about Stamps.com or Audible.. (although, fyi, my MarathonBQ book is on audible) We do have a membership option where you can become a member and as a special thank you, you will get access to member’s only audio. There are book reviews, odd philosophical thoughts, zombie stories and I curate old episodes for you to listen to.  I recently added that guy who cut off is foot so he could keep training and my first call with Geoff Galloway.   “Curated” means I add some introductory comments and edit them up a bit.  So anyhow – become a member so I can keep paying my bills.   … The RunRunLive podcast is Ad Free and listener supported.  We do this by offering a membership option where members get Access to Exclusive Members Only audio and articles. Member only race reports, essays and other bits just for you! Links are in the show notes and at RunRunLive.com … Section one – The Boston Problem - http://runrunlive.com/the-boston-problem   Voices of reason – the conversation Kate Williams, CEO Kate Williams is CEO of 1% for the Planet, a global movement inspiring businesses and individuals to support environmental nonprofit solutions, through annual membership and everyday actions. Last year, the network of 1800 members in more than 40 countries gave $24+million to environmental nonprofits. Kate stepped into her role at 1% for the Planet in May 2015 bringing a strong track record as a leader:  Professionally, Kate served as Executive Director of the Northern Forest Canoe Trail and as founder and owner of the Vermont Yak Company prior to starting at 1% for the Planet. In addition, Kate served on the Board of the National Outdoor Leadership School (NOLS) for eleven years, two as chair. Kate has also served on the boards of the Northern Forest Center and Shelburne Farms (current), and served as an elected member of the Town of Waitsfield Select Board, serving three years a chair of that board. Kate earned a BA at Princeton University where she majored in history, and an MS at the MIT Sloan School of Management where she focused on organizational systems. Kate is a master’s distance runner and kitchen gardener. Kate lives in Waitsfield with her husband and two children. Links would be to our website: (our podcast) MISSION We bring dollars and doers together to accelerate smart environmental giving ORIGIN Ever wonder how 1% for the Planet began? It all started when two businessmen met and bonded over their shared love for the outdoors. Realizing their responsibility to protect our planet, they decided to give 1% of their sales back to the environment—whether or not they were profitable.   In 2002, Yvon Chouinard, founder of Patagonia, and Craig Mathews, founder of Blue Ribbon Flies, created 1% for the Planet and started a global movement.    “The intent of 1% for the Planet is to help fund these diverse environmental organizations so that collectively they can be a more powerful source in solving the world’s problems.” — YVON CHOUINARD IN HIS BOOK “LET MY PEOPLE GO SURFING”   Soon after our inception, 1% for the Planet’s mission began to resonate across the globe. The idea was simple: because companies profit from the resources they take from the earth, they should protect those resources. Realizing their responsibility, brands such as Brushfire Records, Klean Kanteen, New Belgium Brewing, Honest Tea, Caudalie and many more followed suit to join the movement.   Our network is global and diverse, proving that anyone can make a difference. From the individual members who give back by donating to and volunteering with local environmental nonprofits to singer-songwriter Jack Johnson, who joined our network in 2004 to protect the shores of his home state of Hawaii—everyone has a 1%.   We connect our members with high-impact nonprofit partners that align with their values and add to their brand story. In doing so, we take the time to get to know what’s really important to our members. Through our partnership advising process, we learned that member, Klean Kanteen cares deeply about a myriad causes, which include connecting young people to the wonder and science of our world through environmental education. Beginning in 2008, Klean Kanteen's support of NatureBridge is one of our longest-standing partnerships.   Today, we have more than 2,000 members, in over 45 countries, coming together to protect the future of our planet.   Section two – The Ruminating Brain– Outro Well, my friends, ruminated to the end of the RunRunLive Podcast episode 4-415, which is a small miracle.  Two weeks after Leadville I went ahead and ran the Wapack Trail 18 miler.  I couldn’t stop myself.  I had a perfectly reasonable plan.  I would do a couple hard weeks with speedwork and then treat Wapack as a long training run.  This was a wonderful idea on paper, but not so much in execution.  What I had not considered is that going into a technical trail mountain race like Wapack with tired legs result in spending a lot of time with your face in the dirt.  Yeah, If you don’t lift your toes you eat dirt.  I probably fell 7 times. Then I shut it down hoping for a big bounce for the BeanTown Marathon last weekend.  I felt pretty fit and strong for the race but I only had 18 miles in me. I raced hard and hung in as long as I could but I just didn’t have the legs.  Duh.  It was a 6 loop course in a park, by the ocean in southern Mass.  Pretty course with some gravel roads and a little hill in each loop.  That little hill started really getting to me by the 4th loop and I just couldn’t hold the pace. Another classic Chris Russell 15 minute positive split. 18 miles at race pace and 8 more at a stumble.  I’m not terribly upset about it because I felt like I was close.  These last few cycles I haven’t made my time but every one of them felt like they could have gone either way. Next up for me is Baystate.  I’m chilling this week to recover.  I was super beat up after this race. I’ve got a very sore hip and still have that tendonitis in my butt.  If I can get healthy I’ll load up on the long runs for a couple weeks and get some speedwork in.  The challenge is going to be staying healthy. I can tell I’m a bit over trained.  And, now, I’m officially out of qualification.  If I want to run Boston this year I’ll need a waver bib. Oh, and I signed up to pace another half marathon.  I’m going down to Nantucket with Gary two weeks before Baystate to pace the 1:50 group with him.  Should be pretty. And that’s a good two-weeks-out workout for a marathon.  As usual, I’m hopeful and still plugging away, but I’m only in my first year of this age group so I’ve got to qualify 3 more times at this level before I age up 10 minutes. And what about Ollie-dog?  He is growing like a weed.  As I was writing this he was crying to go out.  I just came back in so I figured he was just bored. But, as all good puppies do, he proceeded to march into the living room and show the rug that he did indeed really need to go out.  Good thing we haven’t got around to changing the carpet yet.  He’s a maniac.  When he’s not chewing on you he’s stealing something of yours to chew on.  He like ice cubes and anything he is not supposed to have.  He’s going to be a great dog if I can ever break him.  Right now he’s a wild animal.  It’s nice to have the pitter patter of little hooves in the house again.   And I’ll see you out there. MarathonBQ – How to Qualify for the Boston Marathon in 14 Weeks - Rachel -> Coach Jeff ->

Leadville, 2019 Call me a schadenfreude asshole but the moment that stands out from this adventure was watching Eric throw up for the first time in his ultra career, just after we left the Hopeless aid station.  That’s the first point where I thought I was actually adding value.  Until that point I felt like a bit of a third wheel, maybe some poorly chosen window dressing for Eric’s 8th LT100.  But, right then as he tried to yawn a toxic combination of noodles and electrolyte drink into the bushes, I felt like I was needed, like there was work to be done. And who doesn’t like to be needed? Chapter One: Anticipation Eric asked me to pace him at the Leadville Trail 100 some time around the beginning of the year, 6 -7 months ago.  He caught me at a low point.  That ebb in activity where the fall race season is behind you and the spring training hasn’t started yet.  A time when summer is as far off as old age used to be. That mid-winter blue period. The doldrums of the year.  A time when I wallow in manic depression without the so much of themania.  He knew I’d be weak.  You may have heard of the Leadville Trail 100 ultra-marathon.  “The race across the sky”.  It was established in the early 1980’s as a secret government program to harness the psychic energy of ex-drug addicts, by making them suffer at altitude for hours on end.  Then the iron curtain rusted, the wall fell, and Vladimir Putin started posing for romance novel covers.  They had to make up a cover story about saving the town of Leadville from imminent demise from the abrupt closure of the Climax mine.  The fun thing about Leadville, and here I use the term ‘fun’ to mean ‘awful’, is that it sits at an altitude approximately 200 meters south of the moon’s orbit.  It’s a place where only a few thimble fulls of oxygen reach and those few thimbles have to be shared among everyone in town and a few dozen shaggy mountain goats.  It’s known for its rough Western setting, it’s panoramic scenic mountain vistas and spontaneous nosebleeds … right before you pass out.  As we came into the summer and the event started getting closer it began to dawn on me that maybe this wasn’t a good idea.  It’s one of those things that seems like a really good idea 6 months in the future where it can’t harm you but starts to get gnarly looking as it comes into focus in time.  Eric casually mentioned that one of his pacers was in Europe for a wedding and the other one was hurt, so, hey, I’m going to need you for 39 miles.  Wait, what?  39 miles, at altitude, in the middle of the night?  That’s terrifying. So I did what I usually do and didn’t train for it.  Well, I mean I was just rolling out of a stout effort at Boston, and in general maintain a pretty solid level of fitness, but 39 miles at altitude is an ultra-marathon.  I live at about 250 feet above sea level.  Hope Pass is 12,600 feet above sea level.  You do the math, unless you’re actually on Hope Pass because you won’t be able to do math at that altitude, but, yeah that’s two miles straight up.  The highest I’ve ever been is Denver and that’s 1 mile up.  Hope Pass is 2 miles up.  Again, math-wise, twice as up.  Here’s the thing they don’t tell you, until you get there and it’s too late, then they tell you because they think it’s funny, the oxygen content in the air is not linear. At sea level, where I (and all the bright people) live, the oxygen content is 20.9%.  Where we were running it was in the 12-13% range.  42% less oxygen.  Just a reminder, humans need oxygen to do things, like breathe, run, and stay alive.  I had visions of me bent over coughing up blood by the side of the trail while Eric ran on.  I read a race report from the Leadville trail Mountain bike 100 held a couple weeks previously from a guy my age.  He had a small stroke at the top of one of the passes and the mean old race officials made him stop racing when he was slurring his words.  He was pretty sure his racing days were over.  On the minus side of the ledger: I had not trained well I had never been at this altitude, let alone run at this altitude My head might explode I might give out on my runner – which is very bad form On the plus side I have a lot of trail running and mountain racing experience I was picking him up at 50 miles so he was already cooked when I got him I’m pretty good at suffering when I need to be This is just the sort of stupid shit that turns my crank, so to speak… Chapter Two: Getting there I flew from Boston to Denver on Thursday afternoon.  The race is on, well it’s one of those stupid ultra things, the runners start on Saturday Morning at 4:00 AM and have to finish by 10:00 Am on Sunday.  It’s a 30 hour cut off.  Which sounds generous but less than 50% of the people who start this race finish.  A majority of those miss the cutoffs at some point on the course.  Flying into Denver is unique.  I’ve done a lot of flying.  When you fly into Orlando it’s all screaming kids with mouse ears.  When you fly into Vegas it’s all drunk people in cowboy hats.  When you fly into LaGuardia it’s all close-talking loud people shouting at cell phones.  On most flights through the Midwest I get squeezed between corn-fed mid westerners who take up most of my personal space with their MAGA hats and over-stretched golf shirts.  Or, perhaps a California flight with that crazy woman that wants to talk to me about her vitamin regime.  Not the flight into Denver.  Everyone on the plane is an endurance athlete of some form.  Even the children.  On the one hand it’s quite spacious with all the skinny people, but on the other hand if I had to resort to cannibalism, they looked a bit gristly.  But, if I did have to resort to cannibalism I’d start with the vegans, because I think that would be ironic.  If we did crash, I’d be all set.  You could not hope for better seat mates.  I’m sure they could carry me out of the plane and up a mountain while devising intricate splints and tourniquets from spare tent pieces and technical fabric scrounged from those North Face backpack carry ons.  Maybe shoot some rapids in a kayak assembled from air sickness bags on the way back to civilization.  Eric and crew fetched me at the airport.  I felt like an adopted child being picked up by the new parents.I have hung out with this crew before and they are a blast to do an event with.  We did the New Orleans marathon in 20014 and it’s one of my favorite race memories.  Eric, his wife, Dan his best friend and other pacer, and Dan’s wife.  We would round up the crew with Eric’s son, Eric’s son’s wife, who was also pacing and one of Eric’s son’s friends, who was the other pacer. To formalize his relationship (sort of an indentured servitude type of relationship) with the Leadville Trail 100 Eric bought a house in Breckenridge, which would be race HQ for the weekend.  I had a room at a Breck hotel a mile away.  Breckinridge is a nice town in a Stepford Wives sort of way.  You sort of feel like you’re on a movie set and it’s all not quite real.  But that could have been the total lack of usable oxygen making it to my cerebral cortex.  At the hotel I was on the 6th floor.  I’ll tell you a Colorado story.  I was walking to the elevator and there was a young dad behind me with a 5 or six year old.  I was going to let that kid press the button in the elevator. But they marched right be me and into the stairwell. I figured they must be on the next floor up or something.  When I was existing the elevator, they were trooping down the hallway in front of me.  Really? It’s Colorado! We don’t need elevators!  We don’t’ need stairs!  Just put in a climbing wall and we’ll belay our luggage up from base camp. Pass me a piton.  Belay on!  Chapter Three: Camp Foreshadow As a walked over to the base camp house early Friday morning I passed a guy out on the sidewalk having a morning smoke.  As we exchanged pleasantries about the beautiful morning, I thought to myself that this guy is going to get mugged by a gang of high-altitude hipsters.  I figured he’d be pilloried on an extra mountain bike frame when I came back by.  If Smokie the Bear didn’t get him first.  I consciously chose to walk the less-then-a-mile through the bad streets of Breckenridge just to see how the altitude felt.  Would I be gasping for breath?  Would my muscles be screaming for oxygen?  Would my head explode? Turns out the answer to all this hyperbole was, “No.”  I felt fine.  Well I felt altitude fine.  Which from my time in Denver feels a bit like a three-beer hangover combined with a bit of an allergy.  We collected the tribe and drove over to Leadville, through Frisco and a valley where the headwaters of the Arkansas River begins, to eventually empty into the Mississippi.  The whole place is drop dead scenic.  The Rocky Mountains rise up on all sides with their 13,000 and 14.000 peaks.  There was still snow in places.  With the thin air the mountains pop out at you like some ultra-real Instagram filter, their crags and points crisp and sharp in the lasering sun.  It’s just an interesting place, Leadville.  There was an apocalyptic novel written in 2008 where Leadville becomes the new capital of the United States called “Plague Years”. It’s got a ton of history and character.  You take all that and pour several hundred near-psychotic ultra-runners on top and you’ve got a party.  It turns out that, after his 7 straight Leadville finishes Eric is pretty much the Mayor of Leadville.  Everywhere we went he would be embraced by emaciated trail ghosts.  There was much back slapping, handshaking and hugging.  I think he has a good chance in the upcoming election. We attended the pre-race briefing which is a bit of theatre.  The long-time race directors all standup and give inspirational talks.  It’s a wonderful, feel-good, almost family reunion feel.  The Ultra-running community is very close.  Almost everyone has a backstory.  There are recovering addicts and abuse victims.  All those lost souls who can only find peace deep in the dark place out on the trails.  Made me wonder what dark secrets Eric was harboring to drive him into this carnival of lost souls.  I’m going to go with dressing up in women’s underwear and dancing around, just because the visual cracks me up. From the briefing we wandered over to the expo, which was a small, open-air affair. They had everything you would expect at an event like Leadville; commemorative shirts, extra nutrition, handmade backpacks crafted from organically harvested Koala foreskins.  And as much CBD as you could carry.  Eric and his son grabbed their stuff, more hugs, more selfies and we commuted back to the ranch.  Wonderful news for me was that Dan’s knee was feeling better and he’d pick up Eric a bit earlier on the course. Instead of 39 miles, I’d only have to survive 27. Piece of cake.  We had a nice dinner, a couple beers and everyone got an early bedtime.  They would be getting up early to be there for the 4:00 AM start.  The rest of us would sleep in and head over to catch them as they came through Twin Lakes in the early afternoon, then pop over to the turnaround, 50-mile mark at Winfield. Chapter Four: Wait for it. Much of Friday was spent by the runners running the Leadville course.  Much of the day for us was spent waiting. Waiting for them to come through Twin Lakes.  Waiting in line for the buses over to Winfield.  Then lying around in the sun at Winfield waiting some more.  The weather was wonderful for waiting.  A little warm for running.  I ended up with a bit of a sunburn before the day was over.  While I was getting ready, I realized my water pack had sprung a leak and had to do a quick tape-job on my bladder to fix it. I’ve had that pack for a long time and it’s starting to show. I would pick him up at the Winfield aid station which is the turnaround point for the out and back, about 50 miles in.  Dan, Eric’s best friend and long-time pacer had the last 7 of Eric’s races in a big spreadsheet.  We partially knew what to expect.  Eric has a history of falling down early in this race. Last year he broke his nose.  He decided this year to go out slower in the early sections to avoid rolling in the dirt so much and keep the blood inside his body. Because of this go out slower strategy and the warmer day he was late coming into Winfield.  Now Eric is as calm as a cucumber on a cool day.  A real machine.  The whole time I was with him he was lucid, forming whole sentences and moving well.  Which is not an easy thing to do after 60-70 miles at altitude.  I on the other hand was still a bit terrified.  I still didn’t know if I’d be able to perform at altitude.  I knew we were close to the cutoffs.  And my equipment was acting up.  But, on the plus side I had my runner and the game was on.  I had a job.  Eric knew what he was doing but I was there to make sure he stayed on track and drag him through any rough spots. Chapter Five: Up and Over. And so, it began.  At 5:25 PM Eric and I fast walked out of the Winfield Aid station and made our way towards Hope pass.  This is a mountain pass, which is a saddle between two mountains, that tops out at 12,600 feet.  Eric had already been up and over once.  Now we were going back. This is a tough climb at a tough point in the race.  The runners are already 50+ miles in and they already know what they are up against, having just done it.  It’s a psychologically hard place for the runners.  On the bright side, they get to pick up a pacer for the return trip.  Eric had me.  My plan was to just try to keep up.  Keep him engaged as much as possible.  Keep an eye on him.  And periodically remind him to eat and drink.  I bit like a mother hen or a border collie. Our approach out of Winfield towards the pass was a beautiful single path through an Aspen grove.  Not easy running, but nothing out of the ordinary.  We passed through places where avalanches had cleared the slopes of trees and piled things up.  The single path hugged the side of the mountain with precipitous drops off the side of the trail.  It was a delightful afternoon.  The whole time we were climbing towards the pass runners were passing us coming in the other direction.  We would tell them “Good Work!” and such but we knew they were ‘dead men (and women) walking’.  We were tight on the cutoff there was not much chance these stragglers were going to see the finish line.   I believe the race intentionally makes the cutoffs tight early to sort people out before they get hurt.  There is a lot of attrition after the first trip over Hope Pass and even more on the way back.  It doesn’t seem hard on paper.  You’re only trying to hit 3 miles an hour, but the pass and the altitude mess with people.  It get’s into their heads.  Especially the second trip up and over.  As we began to climb, I pulled my phone and turned on some Grateful Dead to pass the time.  I had this fantasy vision that my music would attract a van-load of old hippies who had been hiding in the woods since the 60’s.  They’d come out smoking joints and dancing and they’d joined us on the trail.  That didn’t happen.  When we got to a flat or a down, we’d run a few strides, but for most of that climb Eric was just grinding away trying to hike as best he could. I was feeling good.  The altitude scare passed, and I was able to keep up and even get out front and pace a bit.  We were grinding out maybe 2 miles an hour.  It was single path, rocky trail at 15 – 20 % grade.  Just putting your head down and pushing those quads up one step at a time. I remembered from the Burning River last year when Kevin was pacing me, and I was pretty shot at the end.  He would stay ahead of me like a carrot on a stick and make me keep up.  I tried to do that with Eric.  I could hear his hiking sticks clacking on the rocks behind me so I knew where he was and tried to stay just out of reach.  It took us awhile to clear the tree line.  Then we could see the pass.  And all around us the mountains rose like gods.  It was stunningly gorgeous in the late afternoon sun.  As we got into the switch backs on the final push the temperature started to drop.  I had been super comfortable in the 65-degree, dry sunny afternoon, but now the wind kicked up above the tree line and we stopped to fish out some gear. I remember saying to Eric as we climbed the pass “It had better get cold because I’m going to be pissed if I had to carry all this winter gear and don’t use it.” I got my gloves on and a fleece beanie for the summit.  I was wearing my Brooks baggie shorts with a pair of Zensa Calf sleeves for added protection and a tech T shirt with my water backpack.  I brought with me a running jacket.  As we approached the summit, I got Eric’s video camera and scrambled ahead to take some video of him crossing the pass.  I felt the altitude.  Not so much in my legs and lungs, but in my head.  My red blood cells were holding an emergency impeachment meeting to vote my brain out of office.  The whole time at altitude for me is like a combination of a 3-4 beer hangover and a spring pollen allergy.  A fuzzy head, dry sinuses, a little cough.  I brought a bit of an airplane cough with me but the dry altitude seemed to dry it up.  One thing I loved was no chaffing.  With the lack of humidity I never got sticky enough to lose any skin.  And just like after about a couple hours of climbing we were up and over.  Eric went blowing by me not pausing long at the pass.  I had my pack off putting on my jacket and finding my lights.  No time to waste.  I’d have to catch up.  He was on a mission.  In the same way that having the pass in front of you messes with your mind, having it behind you give you wings. Eric was a machine. That’s why he’s finished this race 8 times now.  He just keeps moving. This was to be his modus operandi. It didn’t matter what was going on around him he kept moving.  At one point we passed a guy who was down and out on the trail with people gathered around tending to him.  Eric didn’t even pause we just went chugging by like this poor bastard roadkill was a rock or branch.  I think they ended up helicoptering that guy out.  While I was on the pass struggling into my jacket the sun was setting.  It was even worse now because we were on the other side of the mountain from the sun.  It got dark in a hurry.  As I was fishing out my headlamp and flashlight in the dusk there a guy asked me if I had an extra light?  I said, well I have my runner’s extra light but that’s for my runner…  He says, “I’ll give you $100 for it.”  I don’t think he actually had $100 on him; I think he just wanted me to understand the urgency of the situation.  I relented and gave him Eric’s extra headlamp. He put Eric’s bib number into his phone.  Far as I know that headlamp hasn’t shown up again.  Now I had to catch Eric who had taken off running down the mountain.  I put some coal in the boiler and started making way, happy to be done with the whole Hope Pass thing without incident.  We actually had to run through a patch of snow, left over from the previous winter.  No kidding.  Slipping and sliding through the snow at 12,000 feet in the feeble, failing dusk, trying not to superman as I was trying to catch Eric.  One thing you have to know about Eric.  He’s very tall.  Probably 8 inches taller than me with legs to match. He eats up a lot of ground.  When we were hiking, I’d have to run a little to keep up with him. 70 miles in he’s walking faster than I can walk.  He thought I was trying to get him to run.  I was just trying to keep up.  Chapter Six: All Night Long. Coming out of the pass the first landmark is the Hopeless aid station.  We paused there to refill our tanks.  I was wearing a pack and carrying a bottle.  We’d shoot Gu’s every so often on the trail and then browse what was on offer at the aid stations.  I made sure to be aggressive with the Enduroyltes under the unsupported theory that the electrolytes would help my head in the thin air.  We grabbed some hot broth and noodles.  Eric remixed his backpack with the Sword energy stuff he was using.  We pressed on.  Next thing I know he’s retching off the trail behind me.  I guess the Sword didn’t mix well and he got a super strong mouthful of it on top of the noodles, and, 15 hours of running, and it wanted to come back up.  I told him keep moving.  If you’re going to throw up, throw up and we’ll keep moving.  You’re going to feel shitty either way, so keep moving.  He managed to get the offending admixture up and out and we forged on.  We had the downhill now and could make some time.  We had to be back into Twin Lakes by 10:00 PM and it was tight. We were good time on the back side of the pass.  By this time, with the dry air and the hundreds of runners the trail was super dusty.  You could see the dust in your headlamp and taste the grit in your mouth.  I was coughing a lot and losing my voice. Which did not keep me from singing.  We were see-sawing with another runner and his pacer. I started singing West Texas Cowboys (because of the one line about dusty dirt) and the other pacer knew the words and was belting out the song with me. I felt great.  We were having fun and Eric was keeping up.  I don’t know if it was my imagination but I felt like there was palpably more oxygen as we descended that dusty trail, dancing through the occasional rock garden. I’d try to hold my flashlight beam on anything that looked treacherous so Eric could get a good fix on it coming down behind me.  I’ll call out the obstacles when I could, “Toe Grabbers!”, “Rock Garden”. At one point off the side of the trail the moon was rising over the lakes and it was blood red.  An awesome sight.  Dripping that blood red reflection into the lake between the mountains.  This is also where we passed Eric’s son Zach and his wife.  Zach was having some sort of stomach issue and had stopped running.  We tried to get him to come with us, but his head wasn’t in it, so we forged on.  Coming into Twin Lakes there were 5 – 7 open water crossings. They had a wet year so there was more water. We splashed through these.  Some were cold and knee-deep. Some were disturbingly warmer and muddy and knee deep.  I only had one pair of shoes with me, but they were trail shoes and I was pretty sure they’d drain out and be ok. Eric knew where we were and could smell the barn, so to speak.  He started to hammer through the water obstacles and was running hard through the fields to the Aid Station.  I pulled in behind him and let him drag me in.  As we got close there was a lot of foot traffic. It was a bit confusing and crowded and dark.  Dan met us as we were coming in and told us to hustle to the timing mat because we were tight on time.  The three of us pushed through the crowd in the dark. I was accidently body slamming people in the trail because, they were wandering in crowding the course, I was trying to keep one eye on Eric, it was dark and I was trying to figure out where the finish line was with some urgency.  We made the cutoff by 8 minutes.  Which was a good thing, but also got me to worrying about the next cutoff and making up some time with my athlete being 60+ miles in. The crew got Eric into a chair took care of his needs while I tried to clean all the sand and gravel out of my shoes from the water crossings.  We topped off our tanks and got back on the trail.  We had work to do.  It was just after 10:00PM local time and midnight on Boston clock.  Eric had been going for 17 hours and I had had him for 5 of those.  We had to get to the next cutoff at Half Pipe by 1:15 AM.  Less than 10 miles but on this course you never know. There was lot of fire road and a lot of climbing up out of twin lakes.  Everyone talks about Hope Pass but not so much about how there is another mountain to climb out of Twin Lakes. We worked it.  We were making time and catching runners.  Eric continued to be a machine.  It was all work now.  Deep into the night. This was where I decided Eric was a robot.  He kept telling details about the course as we were coming up on them. “There’s a little hill here, then a downhill switch backs with rocks.” We’re coming up on 70 miles for him and he knows exactly where he is, he’s lucid, and he’s moving well. Definitely a robot. We got into a nice rhythm on the downhills and flats.  I stayed out in front and set the cadence.  It’s an old ultra-running trick.  You count out 12 strides at a run, then count out 12 strides at a hike.  It keeps you focused on moving without over working anything.  I kept just far enough ahead to keep him engaged and moving.  We made it into Half Pipe with time to spare. Frankly I wasn’t looking at my watch much anymore, we were just focused on moving and letting the course take care of itself.  We had 3hours and 15 minutes to get there, we did it in 2:42 and picked up 20 minutes on the cutoff. I was getting tired coming into Half Pipe.  I had some waves of Nausea on the trail and was totally disappointed that it was only gas.  I thought for sure I was going to get dropped.  I figured I should it the porta john at Half Pipe just to be sure.  They had them helpfully rigged with lights inside and not so helpfully absent any toilet paper, but we make do.  When I took my pack off I realized that I had worked up a good sweat coming down the mountain and the cold air on my wet body sent me quickly into chills.  It was cold!  I got some hot broth in the tent and cuddled up to the gas heater for a few minutes. Eric was ready to go again and told him we’d have to keep moving because I was on the edge of hypothermia. With only 8 ½ more miles to Outbound where I would hand him off to Dan I figured I could tough it out.  I was suffering a bit, nothing awful, but with the altitude and the cold I was at the edge of my training. The course was relatively easy in this section and we just kept up a good cadence and kept moving.  We were still passing a lot of runners. Eric was asking for the time. I didn’t want to roll up my sleeve to look at my watch because I didn’t want to lose the heat so I just told him to never mind and keep moving. We got that good, steady run-hike cadence going again and were making good time.  I had to drop him by 3:00 AM local time, which would be 5:00 AM my time. All good. With about 5K left we were cutting through a farm field and were treated to a wonderful visual, a bit of true performance art.  A runner was reliving himself in a great golden arc by the spotlight of his head lamp. It was like a water feature you’d expect to see in a Venetian fountain. We congratulated and applauded. And that was it for me.  We pushed down a section of open road and across a field that seemed to go on forever.  My lights were dying and I was having trouble staying on the trail on the field.  We pushed into the outbound aid station and I tagged off to Dan. I gave him the update.  Eric was doing great.  He was eating and drinking and performing other bodily functions with reassuring regularity.  Duty done I collapsed into a chair with my teeth chattering from the cold and tried to disappear into a space blanket.  We had picked up some more time and Eric and Dan had a good 40+ minute cushion to work with.  My watch said I had run almost exactly 27 miles in almost exactly 9 hours for almost exactly 3 miles an hour.  Eric’s crew bundled me into the car with the heat on to give me ride back to the hotel for a hot shower couple hours of napping.  Eric and Dan pressed on into the morning. Chapter Seven: Aftermath. I got a couple hours sleep and then headed back over to base camp to join the rest of the crew.  We drove over to Leadville trying to figure out from Dan’s text messages how close Eric was to the 30-hour cut off.  It looked like it was going to be close and we prepared for the worst. I got some hot coffee and oatmeal and we waited by the road on a warm, sunny Leadville morning watching the happy parade of exhausted runners come up the street wit their crews in celebration. And sure enough, with 20 minutes left on the clock Eric and Dan came up the street and there was much rejoicing. We all ran him in.  He was like a happy drunk.  He just finished his 8th Leadville Trail 100 Race on his 59th birthday on a day where only 42% of the people who started made it home.  It’s a beautiful, terrible race that gives back to its runners more than it takes in the end.  It fills them with a satisfaction of having faced this terrible, beautiful course across the sky and walked away, sometimes with a belt buckle, always with a bucket of memories.  Thank you, Eric.  That was something to be part of.  If memories and experiences are the currency of our lives then I am a very rich man.

The RunRunLive 4.0 Podcast Episode 4-414 – Matt Part 2 – The Ironman (Audio: link) audio:http://www.RunRunLive.com/PodcastEpisodes/epi4414.mp3] Link MarathonBQ – How to Qualify for the Boston Marathon in 14 Weeks - Hello and welcome to episode 4-414 of the RunRunLive Podcast.   I’m trying to get this one out early this week because this weekend is the Leadville 100 Trial race – “The race across the sky”.  I’ll be flying out Thursday night to pace Eric over the weekend.  Truly, this has all the earmarks of an adventure (with a capital A).  This is the thing I really dig about longer endurance events.  Whether a marathon, multi-day relay or and ultra, you really have no idea what’s going to happen when you toe the line.  There os that middle road, the one you are planning for, or more appropriately guessing at, that travels a clean but relatively uninteresting path, where everything stays within expectations.  That middle road where nothing weird or memorable happens.   You just run your miles and bask in the warm glow of an expected job well done.  You trained.  You showed up.  You ran.  You finished.  You wipe your hands, note the effort in your log, check the box and move on.  That is the less interesting path without much adventure.  But there is always a chance, I’d say better than 50/50 that something goes sideways.  There are those glowing, multi-colored traces that arc off of the main path at crazy angles into the unknown.  This is where the good stuff happens. Adventure is when you show up for a 12-person relay and there are only 8 runners.  Adventure is when you start throwing up 75 miles in.  Adventure is when you roll that ankle or crash your bike in the early miles.  Adventure is when that storm blows in with its driving wind and hail.  Adventure steps in and tears up your well-made plans. Adventure wipes the slate and resets the score. It strips you of your smug comfort and your middle of the road expectations.  But, my friends, adventure is not catastrophe.  Adventure is not some evil, beady-eyed thug stepping out of a side alley to blacken your eyes and steal your money. No, my friends, adventure is an opportunity.  Adventure strips away our silly human thoughts of predetermination and let’s us draw on deeper pools of resource and strength that we didn’t know we had.  Adventure, you see, leads to fulfillment.  Adventure is where the “Epic” lies.  Adventure to the shores of new worlds, and to the walls of Troy. Adventure is a tool to flush out the human spirit.  We, endurance athletes, we hardy few, we celebrate Adventure. “You are better than you think you are, and can do more than you think you can.” – Ken Chlouber On with the show! … I’ll remind you that the RunRunLive podcast is ad free and listener supported.  What does that mean? It means you don’t have to listen to me trying to sound sincere about Stamps.com or Audible.. (although, fyi, my MarathonBQ book is on audible) We do have a membership option where you can become a member and as a special thank you, you will get access to member’s only audio. There are book reviews, odd philosophical thoughts, zombie stories and I curate old episodes for you to listen to.  I recently added that guy who cut off is foot so he could keep training and my first call with Geoff Galloway.   “Curated” means I add some introductory comments and edit them up a bit.  So anyhow – become a member so I can keep paying my bills.   … The RunRunLive podcast is Ad Free and listener supported.  We do this by offering a membership option where members get Access to Exclusive Members Only audio and articles. Member only race reports, essays and other bits just for you! Links are in the show notes and at RunRunLive.com … Section one – Form series Chapter Three -   Voices of reason – the conversation Matt Schorer Matt is father, husband and triathlete from upstate NY who recently made the successful move to reclaim his health.  Matt is currently training for the Lake Placid IronMan in Late June of this year.     Section two – Thoughts on Seneca’s Letters– Outro Well, my friends, you fixed your form and fixed your sites on the new horizon, which, by the way, was the name of a NASA probe that made a flyby of poor old demoted king of the kuiper belt but no longer a planet Pluto, and then, even more astoundingly cool, Ultima Thule which turned out to be two big chunks of accreted dust bunnies from the birth of the solar system 4 billion years ago, to the end of the RunRunLive Podcast episode 4-414, which is in some small way astounding in itself. For me the weirdness that is my life continues.  I try to not struggle against the current so much.  I try the choose, as much as I cah the rocks to bump against on the way.  I will be pacing Eric this weekend at Leadville.  And, don’t anyone tell him, but I’m terrified.  My training has been shyte (it’s not really bad language if I use a non-U.S. dialect).  I’ve still got that damn rattle in my lungs from whatever that airplane cold was, I’m thinking consumption, or maybe grippe, or apoplexy – but I’m no doctor.  And I have the great personal responsibility to guide a dear friend through 38 miles of dusty Colorado trail, at night, over a pass that tops out at 12,600 feet.  I may die.  I would rather die than not support a friend who needs me.  People often over estimate my ability, but, thankfully they also underestimate my insanity – so it balances out.  Assuming I survive this adventure I am actually registered for a series of hard races, that I’m also not prepared for.  Screw it. Why change my approach now and do the smart thing?  That might work but it’s a boring narrative.  I’m going to call this a training run.  A nice long hike in the woods.  Good for building strength and base aerobic fitness, right?  Then in a couple weeks I’ll run the Wapack trail race and that’s another nice strength builder.   Which is stupid because a week after that I’m signed up for a marathon to see if I can’t get a qualification time before the Boston registration window closes.  Ya never know.  It’s happened before.  Remember when I rolled out of that 6-hour Spartan race in 2017 and requalified at Portland?  Or when I turned my training for an Olympic tri into a qualifier at Baystate in 2018?  It happens.  I have a history of doing better when I’m not focused. I’m also signed up for the Baystate Marathon in October which would give me 6-7 weeks of training to make another good show.  I still have some tendonitis in my ass.  My knee is still crunchy from crashing in June.  The machete injury healed fully, so at least I have that going for me.  Maybe the $1,000 emergency room visit was worth it.  Although my wife is of the opinion that I should have gone to the Redi-clinic or stitched it up myself.  And I may be patient zero for some new form of zombie plague that starts as a juicy night cough you can’t shake.  So – everything is status quo over here at the RunRunLive HQ.  And honestly I’m happy to be alive.  But, I can hear you scream, “Chris, no one cares a wit about your constant stream of whinging about running.  What about the puppy?” As we speak Ollie the border collie is what? 10-11 weeks old?  He’s growing like a weed.  He bites everything and everybody.  If it exists it goes in the mouth.  He’s sleeping through the night mostly in his crate, but usually sleep in the couch in the vicinity and that calms him down.  He’s a random poop and pee machine, but we’re working on it.  He is teaching us patience.  I’ve realized how much older I am since I last had a puppy or a baby in the house.  They have two speeds – all ahead full and sleep.  He likes to destroy Yvonne’s perennials. He like to chew on rocks.  He likes to steal my socks.  The other day I walked out to my garden with him.  I picked a pile of produce.  Tomatoes, peppers, squash and cucumbers.  He stole one of my cucumbers and gleefully kept it away from me as I grumbled and fumed and chased.  He capered away with a sparkle in his eye. I ended up freezing that cucumber so he could use it as a chew toy.  He’s probably a month ahead of where Buddy was at this age.  Buddy was the runt of the litter, a sad little dog that grew into his wonder.  Ollie is the class clown, full of energy, bravado and clever impishness. Does he run? Yes, he does.  He’s traversed the mile-ish trail with me at a trot a couple times now.  He’s not quite sure what we’re doing but he hangs with me and has plenty of juice left over at the end.  At the end of the day I’m happy to have this little, warm ball of fur weaving around my legs and trying to knock me down so he can bite my face.  I need that.  I miss that. And I’ll see you out there. MarathonBQ – How to Qualify for the Boston Marathon in 14 Weeks - Rachel -> Coach Jeff ->

Let’s talk about form Part 2 in a series on form Ok Bubbah, you’ve been patient .  Now I want to fill in the details . Before I start out, let me say one thing; if you’re getting out and running and enjoying yourself then don’t obsess about form.  If it’s working for you, hey, that’s perfect.  I don’t mean to form-shame anyone.  I certainly don’t have perfect form.  But, if you want to learn more form.  Let’s talk.  I always worry about this because it is so holistic.  There are so many moving pieces – it s like juggling octopi.  But – we will progress.  The other point worth mentioning is there are a bunch of interconnected movements here and there is really no precedence in what sequence to work them.  Most coaches start with foot strike and posture, so that’s where we are going to start.  Foot strike – This is when, where and how often your foot hits the ground.  Let’s talk about ‘how often’. Cadence: In your running form there is a certain frequency to your foot strike.  It is 180 hits per minute.  That’s the magic number.  That’s the cadence.  Plus or minus 2 hits per minute.  Like everything else that may vary slightly from runner to runner, but overall this number is pretty solid.  When I count my cadence it is usually a bit low, in the 170’s.  When I’m doing speed work it might be a bit fast.  Uphill, downhill, it varies, but somewhere around 180 is a good number. Bump   Bump    Bump   That’s the cadence.  Burn it in.  Bump   Bump   Bump There are different ways to count your cadence.  Newer GPS watches come with a foot-pod accessory that you can stick in your shoe and it will count your cadence for you as part of the data.  The easy way is to just look at your watch, or phone, note the time and count each time your right or left foot hits the ground. At the end of the minute multiply that by 2. There’s your cadence. There is also a ton of music you can get, and even a metronome app that will give you a 180 count you can practice with.  When you first time your cadence you’ll typically find that you are too slow.  It’s seldom too fast. The reason your cadence is too slow is because you are over-striding. What does that mean?  It means you’re reaching out too far in front with your leading foot and dwelling too long in the transition. Which is a nice segue into next bit of running form in the foot strike itself.   You want to pull your form upright and forward so that your center of gravity is slightly forward of your foot strike.  Your center of gravity should be slightly forward of your foot strike.  Where is your center of gravity? It’s in your core.   In your torso.  You want to push that center of gravity out in front of you so that you are falling forward.  You are falling and you are catching yourself as you are falling.  The way you push your center of gravity forward is by pushing your hips forward.    Imagine that there is a rope tied to your belly button and it is pulling you forward.  Push those hips forward.   Move that torso so it is falling forward.  Then your feet have to keep up with that forward fall.  This almost forces you to land on the forefoot.  That space right behind the toes.  You feel the foot hit the ground, but since you are falling you flow through that foot strike and kick it up behind. Fast, hot feet.  Bump bump  bump. No lingering on the foot strike.  Bump bump bump. A great mantra here is “Light Feet” or “Run Lightly” this will remind you to loosen up, run tall and maintain fast cadence. Fall through the foot strike.   Push those hips forward.  Move those feet quickly.  Bump bump bump. Think about your torso.   When your hips are pushed forward that automatically straightens up your posture. You should be, in the words of running coaches “Running tall”.  Don’t slump forward. Straighten up your shoulders.  High and square.  Light and relaxed.  Let all that tension release out of your back and shoulders.  It’s all being pulled along by the hips.  Bring your head up.  Look forward.  Relax your chin.  Smile.   Breathe.  In through the nose.  Out through the mouth.   What do you do with your hands? Bring your hands up lightly to your chest.  Elbows at 90 degrees and slightly pushed back behind you.  Straight back and forward in rhythm with your quick stride.  Hold your hands lightly and open, high and close to your chest.  Quiet your arms and hands.  Don’t swing or pump.  Just quiet.  High and quiet.  light and quiet. Bump Bump Bump.  In your mind imagine a string that runs down your spine and pulls you upright.  Though the top of your head.  Run tall.  Hips forward. Bump Bump bump.  Forefoot strike. Hot feet. Bump Bump Bump.  Light feet. Fast feet.  Tall and strong.  Easy. Relax into this form.  Tall and strong.  When you get into the right spot there is no wasted energy.  There is no pushing off.  You are falling easily down the trails with you light, fast, feet catching you.  That’s good running form.  Next time we’ll talk about some of the “Why do you care?” moments for running form.  Like in races.  Last time I asked you to look at the form of good runners and make a mental note of what that looks like.  I also asked you to have someone video your own form so you can see the difference.  This week I’m going to ask you to pay attention when you’re out running with other people.  If you have a running group take a look at the various ways people run.  Better yet, if you are in or watching a race watch what happens to people’s form at the end. When they get tired what happens? This is fun right?

The RunRunLive 4.0 Podcast Episode 4-413 – Morgan Writes in the Wilderness (Audio: link) audio:http://www.RunRunLive.com/PodcastEpisodes/epi4413.mp3] Link MarathonBQ – How to Qualify for the Boston Marathon in 14 Weeks - Hello, my friends and welcome to episode 4-413 of the RunRunLive Podcast.   We’ve got a great show for you-all today. A couple weeks ago I interviewed Morgan.   I really enjoyed the interview.  You’ll hear the story in the conversation, but the brief version is that I get the privilege to read a lot of books by athletes, and seldom does the writing do justice to the story. In most cases there is just too much exposition and too much linear narrative.  Morgan’s book, “Outlandish” is the exception.  She is good at her craft. And I dig that.  Also, note that about 17 minutes into the interview my phone crapped out and we had to reconnect to finish it. In section one I’ll give you a nice stand-alone audio on good running form.  I’ll also post it as a separate file so that you can have it to listen to independently when you’re out and about on your feet. In section two I’m going to finish talking through the “Happiness Curve” which I completed last week while traveling.  It has been an action-packed couple weeks since we last talked.  I knocked off 16 miles with my Sunday-Morning Buddies on that one Sunday that was really hot and humid.  It was pretty awful.  I got home, took a shower and immediately napped for 2 hours.  I fought through it though and that was a good confidence builder. I was down in Memphis at a client last week, (the week of the 21st of July 2019 – for those of you who are time traveling – or are interested aliens from another dimension and need a way-point).  I got a couple decent runs in on the sidewalks.   Had some dicey travel coming back and didn’t end up getting to bed until 4:00 AM on Friday morning. But, of course I was still at work at 9:00!   Then Saturday, Yvonne and I drove out to North Central PA to meet up with Greg to pace the Conquer the Canyon ½ marathon. I know what you’re saying, “this is normal Chris stuff”, but wait for it… The big news is that we stopped to see a puppy litter on our way and came home with a new puppy!  Yup, an eight-week border collie.  I don’t know what I was thinking.  It’s like having a new baby in the house.  He’s starting to settle in now, but he’s a terror.   God help us.  As I am editing this sitting on the steps in my front yard he wasthrowing up some grass he just ate, now he’s rolling in it.  And...managing to be cute as hell in the process… Oh, and I picked up a cold traveling.  So I lost some more training time and the continuous sleep deprivation doesn’t help at all! I’m still a bit of a train wreck in my training…or should that be ‘training wreck’. … I’ll give you a story.  I posted a workout to Instagram.  One of my runs down in Memphis.  Nothing special just a sidewalk 8 miler out and back.  And one of the comments was that’s a pretty good pace and distance…wait for it… for a guy your age!  That’s it.  I’ve entered the “for a guy your age” club!  And, because my expectations are exceeding low, I’m happy with that. On with the show! … I’ll remind you that the RunRunLive podcast is ad free and listener supported.  What does that mean? It means you don’t have to listen to me trying to sound sincere about Stamps.com or Audible.. (although, fyi, my MarathonBQ book is on audible) We do have a membership option where you can become a member and as a special thank you, you will get access to member’s only audio. There are book reviews, odd philosophical thoughts, zombie stories and I curate old episodes for you to listen to.  I recently added that guy who cut off is foot so he could keep training and my first call with Geoff Galloway.   “Curated” means I add some introductory comments and edit them up a bit.  So anyhow – become a member so I can keep paying my bills.   … The RunRunLive podcast is Ad Free and listener supported.  We do this by offering a membership option where members get Access to Exclusive Members Only audio and articles. Member only race reports, essays and other bits just for you! Links are in the show notes and at RunRunLive.com … Section one – Form series Chapter Two -   Voices of reason – the conversation Morgan Sjogren Morgan Sjogren (“SHOW gren”) is a writer, adventurer, and former elite track athlete turned avid trail runner. A lifelong competitive runner, Morgan has raced sprints on the track to ultramarathons in the mountains, yet she prefers using running as a vehicle to explore wild places. Her writing focuses on human-powered adventure, public lands, conservation, history, travel and food. Find her writing and photography published by REI, Runner’s World, Trail Runner, Patagonia, Archaeology Southwest, Sidetracked, Gear Junkie, Snowsports Industries America (SIA), The Gulch and Adventure Pro. Sjogren is the author of three books. The Best Bears Ears National Monument Hikes, the first guidebook devoted to the National Monument. Her forthcoming guidebook, The Best Grand Staircase Escalante National Monument Hikes releases this year. Both are focused on educating the public to visit their lands with a conservation mindset. Outlandish is a sun-soaked starter manual to fueling your own epic. Through her riveting ersonal stories, flavorful recipes, and the book’s gotta-go-there photographs, Sjogren shares her advice and lessons learned from years exploring the desert Southwest while living out of her canary-yellow Jeep Wrangler. Outlandish is a gorgeous guide to a more adventurous life. Section two – The Happiness Curve Final cut–     Outro Well, my friends, you packed your jeep with burritos and set out into the wastes for a long, soul searching, run and found yourself at the end of the RunRunLive Podcast episode 4-413, Was it cathartic? For the conquer the canyon ½ marathon,  I met Greg and was official alternate pacer for the 2:00 hour group.  It was fun to be able to coach people along and help them get through the race.  The key difference when you’re pacing is that you aren’t going very hard, so you can help others.  That’s good, right?  That’s sharing some of that wisdom.  If you’re heads down racing you don’t have the bandwidth to help other runners.  It was a pretty, wooded course along a packed gravel rail trail that follows a river through a canyon.  No hills.  Kind footing.  Decent scenery.  We had a bald eagle watching us at one point. I think the best part about pacing is that people come up to you afterwards and thank you for helping them.  That’s cool, when someone thanks you for getting them through the rough spot and thanks you for getting them a PR.  And there you go, one of the keys to happiness: helping others.  My mileage has been pretty low.  I’m getting out 3 days a week.  I still feel that mountain bike dinger in my knee.  I rehabbed the hamstring pull I gave myself in that 5k a couple weeks ago.  And I’m just about through the other side of the airplane cold I caught traveling last week.  I’ve been doing 3 sessions a week of high-hamstring tendinosis exercises.  Trying to get my glutes and hips strong.  It’s a couple sets of hip bridges, a couple sets of clamshells, and a couple sets of planks.  In between sets I do pushups and incline situps – so I’m keeping a bit of core strength.  I figure if I can still do a hundred pushups and 200 situps I can’t be that out of shape, right? Next up for me is pacing Eric at Leadville in a couple weeks. Good thing I’m picking him up at 50 miles!  I have no doubt I can muscle through some Rocky Mountain High miles at 3.5 miles per hour.  I did a night run last night over to the ski area next to my house.  I ran over and did the ski hill, hike up, run down, hike up, run down – ended up with 10+ miles and about 2,00 feet of climbing.  At this ski area they have a tiki bar in the summer months with bad cover bands and the like.   The bouncers rode over on a golf cart to see what I was up to.  They could see my lights going up and down the mountain.  Told them I was training.  They weren’t happy but they went away.  I guess it might not make sense to see and old guy humping up and down the double diamond late at night. Then I got up early this morning and ran part of the Wapack with Paul.   That was perfect.  Doing those technical mountains on tired legs was just the ticket.     I’ll tell you a couple more stories to take you out.  First, was on the plane flying back.  I sit next to this guy, maybe a couple years younger than me.  Looks a bit squirrely, a bit nervous, so I ask him where he’s going.  Turns out he’s going to Boston to meet his daughter who he hasn’t seen in 21 years, since she was 4 years old.  Felt like I had stumbled into a reality TV show! His story was that he had a drinking problem, left them and moved to California. Now he’s cleaned up and the ex-wife had orchestrated the reunion.  No wonder he was nervous. I told him to not worry about the past and just be in the moment and this isn’t about him, and he’s going to do great.   Wish I could be a fly on that wall.  Then, final story, I’m at this brewery with Tim and Frank, two of my running buddies, in Lowell, catching up.  They let people bring their dogs in to this brewery.  It’s all very Bohemian.  Bit of a hole in the wall.  I dig it.  I’m at the bar saying hi to this big goofy pit bull and there’s a guy there, bit older than me. He leans down to pet the dog, turns to me and says “A lot of times they’re afraid of me because they can smell the cancer.”  How do you respond to something like that?  Luckily, I happen to know everything, so I said, “You know, I’ve heard about that.” People are funny.  I was out at the race last week and no one said “Hey, you’re that guy!” and no one asked me how many marathons I’d done. I didn’t wear any Boston gear.  I was basically anonymous.  It was a different crowd. It wasn’t about me.  If you want to be popular at a race, ask people about their accomplishments, ask them about their stories, listen intently, and then congratulate them when they tell you. Everybody has stories.  And I’ll see you out there. MarathonBQ – How to Qualify for the Boston Marathon in 14 Weeks - Rachel -> Coach Jeff ->

The RunRunLive 4.0 Podcast Episode 4-411 – Katy Sheratt – CEO Back on my Feet (Audio: link) audio:http://www.RunRunLive.com/PodcastEpisodes/epi4411.mp3] Link MarathonBQ – How to Qualify for the Boston Marathon in 14 Weeks - Hello, my friends and welcome to episode 4-411 of the RunRunLive Podcast.   Like I mentioned last week 411 and 412 are out of order due to the forecasted recording sequence being different than the actual recording sequence and me not wanting to go move files around.  But, I know you, you don’t care about such things.  You care about important things like running past your house at the end of a long run to pick up that last .003 miles because you’ll be damned if you enter 6.97 miles into your log. Today we have a very good interview with Katy Sherratt who is the front person, the leader, for Back on My Feet.  This is the organization that helps homeless individuals by leveraging the transformational power of running.  We have spoken with this organization before.  We have history.  I was so fascinated by their program that I chased down the initial leadership team for an interview back in episode 89, which would have been 10 years ago, and then interviewed one of their recovering addicts in episode 167.  So, if your interested we’ve got sample points in the life cycle curve of this program from its birth to where it is now.  It’s a testament to how effective and resonant the program is that it grew from that nascent good idea of one runner in Baltimore to the professionally managed, multi-city, international manifestation of today.  And, I was interested to ask Katy about that progression.  Katy is a professional and you can hear the media coaching in her responses, but I think I did a good job of asking the questions that I truly wanted to understand.  … My training is not going great.  I’ve still got this troublesome high-hamstring tendinosis that is really curtailing my ability to push the pace or climb hills at pace.  It’s fine until I load it then it screams back at me.  I’m currently working through the best way to re-hab it.  That being said I have been getting some good volume in.  I’m trying to get 2 longer runs of 8 – 10 miles in during the week, then get a bike ride in on Saturday, then go longer on Sunday on the tired legs.  But, it’s a bit unstructured and I a feel a bit adrift. It’s getting hot and humid up here and the bugs are out.  This makes trail running a bit less enjoyable. I tweaked it Tuesday night and I’m limping around a bit right now.  It was a hot night.  There is a summer race series that many folks from my club run in near my office so I decided I’d run over to the race, run the 5k with them, then run back. Jogged over, it was about 4 miles away.  That was ok, a nice easy warm up.  Then I lined up for the 5K.  No big deal.  I just kicked it off at a solid tempo pace and felt pretty good.  Clicked off the first mile at around a 7 minute mile, working hard but not killing myself, it had a lot of downhill.  Then the course climbs a little hill over a bridge, over the river, and as I was leaning into the hill something tweaked in my left hamstring. I didn’t stop running but I slowed down to a pace where I wasn’t loading the hamstring and limped it in.   Got passed by a lot of people in the 2nd mile!  Had to get a ride back to my office.  2 days later and it is still noticeable sore.  So, looks like I have a new project. … I listen to a lot of history podcasts.  And when I find a new one, I typically start at the beginning and listen through until I’m caught up.  The interesting thing about this to me, is the pattern.  There’s this arc to a successful podcast.  They start out as tentative and unsure of themselves. Then they start to get positive feedback and they find their stride.  They comment with amazement on the 100 listeners, then the 1,000 listeners and the 10,000 listeners.  Then they start to think that this could be a fulltime job for them and they start to look for revenue.  The audible ads, the Patrion page, the iTunes reviews. At some point they become quite pleased with their progress and start having Q&A session about “Why they got into the podcast and where they got the theme music and some even quit their jobs. You can do that if you’re a history major. It’s fun to watch.  I’m not sure what part of that cycle I’m in.  I decided quite early on that this was a labor of love and I was primarily doing it as an exercise in self-preservation and improvement for myself, not for any practical or commercial concern.  I talked to sponsors, but to be honest, I hate commercials and there just isn’t enough money in ads to move my needle.    I stopped paying attention to numbers but, weirdly to imagine, we’ve had multi-millions of downloads from around the world.  I don’t even know how to containerize that number.  Each of those might be some individual, you for instance, at some point in their lives, looking for some combination of information, entertainment or inspiration, I get that personal touch point, but I can’t wrap my brain around the abstract of ‘millions’. I do get a bit of a satisfied feeling about the 400+ hours of content we have available for you now.  That’s a goodly chunk body of work and by my calculations represents about a million words of content.  That’s 4-5 goodly books worth of material. So, thank you all, whoever you are, wherever you are, and whenever you are, for facilitating my personal journey of creation.  I appreciate it.  I think the lesson here, is that you, yes you, as an individual can start something for no apparent reason and it can be the proverbial snowball that creates an avalanche.  For me it’s bee the personal connection and friends and opportunities for connection that are the best part.  For you it might be fame and fortune.  Put yourself in the running shoes of Anne Mahlum.  You are running in Philly at 5 o’clock in the morning and you keep running by the homeless shelter. You think to yourself, “Ya know what would be a good idea?  If someone were to invite these folks out for a run and potentially transform their lives.”  And so she started Back on my Feet with that one small thought and that one kick of the snowball. What’s your snowball? On with the show! … I’ll remind you that the RunRunLive podcast is ad free and listener supported.  What does that mean? It means you don’t have to listen to me trying to sound sincere about Stamps.com or Audible.. (although, fyi, my MarathonBQ book is on audible) We do have a membership option where you can become a member and as a special thank you, you will get access to member’s only audio. There are book reviews, odd philosophical thoughts, zombie stories and I curate old episodes for you to listen to.  I recently added that guy who cut off is foot so he could keep training and my first call with Geoff Galloway.   “Curated” means I add some introductory comments and edit them up a bit.  So anyhow – become a member so I can keep paying my bills.   … The RunRunLive podcast is Ad Free and listener supported.  We do this by offering a membership option where members get Access to Exclusive Members Only audio and articles. Member only race reports, essays and other bits just for you! Links are in the show notes and at RunRunLive.com … Section one – Form series Chapter One -   Voices of reason – the conversation Katy Sherratt Katy Sherratt leads Back on My Feet as Chief Executive Officer. An award-winning social innovation leader, Katy has been instrumental in increasing Back on My Feet’s programmatic impact by over 75% and introduced new and important measures to demonstrate the holistic impact of the program. Under her tenure, Back on My Feet has gone from early stage startup to sustainable organization and is now a leader in the homelessness services space nationwide. Funding has increased by over 50% thanks to the growth of existing, and cultivation of new, partnerships and fundraising streams and the geographic expansion of operations along the East and West coasts. Katy has been recognized across multiple media and news outlets including by The Economist’s Philanthrocapitalism program as a leader in social innovation and cutting edge non-profit management. In 2016 she was also named among Women’s Running Magazine’s “Top 20 Gamechangers” and most recently a winner at the Philadelphia Social Innovation Awards. Katy brings over 15 years of leadership experience across both the for-profit and nonprofit sectors. Prior to joining Back on My Feet, Katy led global projects for Accenture in their UK and US-based Strategy Practices working with corporate clients, NGOs and nonprofits with clients ranging from leading Financial Institutions to the United Nations. “I’m honored to lead such a unique, dynamic and growing organization,” said Katy. “You don’t have to be a marathoner or even a 5K runner, to feel the power of what we do on the morning runs – the community we build for individuals experiencing homelessness is the critical missing link and the reason why we’ve had such huge success in enabling our members to transition out of homelessness and maintain that transition.”   Section two – The Happiness Curve – navigating the cliff -     Outro Well, my friends, that was fun, huh?  You got up at 5:00 AM and ended up at the end of the RunRunLive Podcast episode 4-411, you are amazing. I have no idea whether or not I’m going to survive this summer with the sore but and sore knee and hot weather, I’m a hot mess!  But it is the season I’m in, yeah?  I’ll give you a couple tips.  The first tip, which I haven’t tested yet, bt seems to be corroborated from multiple sources is how to make a DIY der fly trap.  The deer flies are awful this time of year. I got chased out of the woods by them last week.  Even if you have the big hat on and the bug spray they still harass you in their multitudes. You can buy the deer fly patches which are a sticky patch that you put on the back of your hat that they get stuck on.  Or, you can make them.  The instructions are to take some blue tape (apparently the flies like blue and that painters tape works great) and create a 2X6 inch patch on the back of your hat.  Then apply a layer of an off the shelf product called “Tanglefoot” which is sticky goop that you apply to tree trunks to keep bugs from climbing up. That’s it. This will trap the flies, or enough of them, to solve the problem.  The second tip is for your bottles.  If you carry water bottles on your run, either in your hand or in a belt, you may notice that they start to taste a bit moldy as they age.  Especially if you have been putting sports drink concoctions in them.  It just can’t be helped.  The sugars get turned into wildlife.  You can wash them out.  You can rinse them with a bleach solution.  You can put them in the dishwasher.  But once those beasties get in there it’s a losing battle.  I don’t want to gross you out but the problem is typically hiding in your nipples.  That rubber bit that sticks out of the top of the bottle has crevices that you can’t get to.  But guess what?  If you pull on that nipple you can usually get it to pop off.  Once you pop it off you’ll see all the black stuff in there and you can scrub it out.   Then you can pop it back in. Good to go. So that’s it.  We went from form to homelessness to old age to moldy nipples – such are the seasons of life.   And I’ll see you out there. MarathonBQ – How to Qualify for the Boston Marathon in 14 Weeks - Rachel -> Coach Jeff ->

The RunRunLive 4.0 Podcast Episode 4-412 – Maryro does Comrades (Audio: link) audio:http://www.RunRunLive.com/PodcastEpisodes/epi4412.mp3] Link MarathonBQ – How to Qualify for the Boston Marathon in 14 Weeks - Hello, my friends and welcome to episode 4-412 of the RunRunLive Podcast.  You’ll have to forgive me an episode incongruity here, a non-linear scrap of publishing.  I had a couple interviews stack on top of each other, like the way you stack your hips in a yoga pose, and, apparently, in the race to you ears, episode 4-412 won out over episode 4-411.  Confused?  Don’t be.  It will be fine.  Today, this week, you will get episode 4-412, an interview by my friend Alex, long time participant of the RunRunLive podcast experience, of another long-time friend of the show Maryro Mendez, who ran Comrades this year.  I’m always fascinated with Comrades.  It seems such a foreign place, an extreme adventure.  Both Alex and Maryro are world travelers.  I have yet to make it to Africa.  Except, maybe through enjoying a good read of “The Heart of Darkness”.  In section one I’m going to give you the run-down on the cow-pasture race.  I got some positive feedback on the uncertainty essay from last show, thank you for that.  I certainly appreciate it.  I struggled to write that last episode.  I felt too jacked up about other things.  I need a certain amount of alone time and contemplation to get the creative juices flowing and I couldn’t get settled.  That has been solved!  I am took Vacation!  Yes, just my wife and I down on Cape Cod enjoying the beautiful weather.  Soaking up the sea breezes.  Very peaceful.  No internet.  Just reading and relaxing. In section two I’m going to piece together a vacation story for you.  … I took 5 days off from running and riding due to a sore knee.  It was one of those things where I probably tried to do too much too fast.  In this case the too much part had to do with going mountain bike riding with Anthony.  Don’t get me wrong, I love Anthony. Anthony has taught me an un-repayable number of useful things about bikes and riding over the last decade.  But, for my second ride in the woods in two years he overestimates my ability.  And, I on my part feel compelled to keep up, like a boy trying to please his Dad.  I ended up bleeding from 4 different wounds at the end of the night.  Nothing life threatening.  Just those slow speed, slow motion crashes that stalk you when you haven’t got the miles in yet. That little bit of uncertainty, that spoonful of tentativeness as you go into an obstacle those few millimeters off your line that find you wide in the turns and stuck in the bad spots.  You might call it ‘anti-flow’  On one of these slow speed crashes I couldn’t clip out and took the full weight of mass times acceleration (due to the force of gravity) on a pointy rock with my left knee.  It hurt but didn’t feel consequential at the time.  Over the next week it just ached a bit as I kept up my running and cycling.  Finally, with the race in the cow pasture Wednesday night,  going hard on uneven ground and the knee seemed to be more sore than it should be after a week, so I did the smart thing and took a few days off.  I was a bit worried I might lose fitness, but I managed to get over myself, and do a little core work and yoga instead.  Still a little sore, but I think it’s on the mend.  We’ll see.  I guess I don’t heal as fast as I used to.  But, I feel pretty good and it’s summer time, and the days are long and what can be wrong with that? On with the show! … I’ll remind you that the RunRunLive podcast is ad free and listener supported.  What does that mean? It means you don’t have to listen to me trying to sound sincere about Stamps.com or Audible.. (although, fyi, my MarathonBQ book is on audible) We do have a membership option where you can become a member and as a special thank you, you will get access to member’s only audio. There are book reviews, odd philosophical thoughts, zombie stories and I curate old episodes for you to listen to.  I recently added that guy who cut off is foot so he could keep training and my first call with Geoff Galloway.   “Curated” means I add some introductory comments and edit them up a bit.  So anyhow – become a member so I can keep paying my bills.   … The RunRunLive podcast is Ad Free and listener supported.  We do this by offering a membership option where members get Access to Exclusive Members Only audio and articles. Member only race reports, essays and other bits just for you! Links are in the show notes and at RunRunLive.com … Section one – Lonely Cows - Voices of reason – the conversation Alex Cooke Interviews Maryro Mendez Comrades Marathon 2019(up run): The other big 5 People always come to Africa wanting to see the big 5, Lion, Elephant, Leopard, Rhino and Buffalo, but I came here with the mission of not just seeing but conquering the other big 5. The nerve wracking 5 famous hills along the Comrades route, Cowies Hill, Fields Hill, Botha’s Hill, Inchanga and Polly shorts. What ever people can say about this race, they would be falling short but I will just describe my own experience here. On our way to Durban, Andrey had a packed itinerary. We spent 2 days in Johannesburg and 5 days in Kruger National Park, chasing the animals and we were rewarded with amazing sightings. That on its own is worth a different write up. We arrived in Durban on Friday afternoon, went straight to the expo, picked up my race pack and wonder around a bit just to feel the vibe but not too long.  The city was filled with incredible energy. The people were amazing from day one. There is no hiding that I was scared, scared of failure, of not finishing. I knew I had put it a lot of work but also knew I had not been feeling quite right, mentally and physically. I also knew even when I was creative trying to do hill work, living in Rotterdam, NL I lacked that part. I felt excitement, fear and pure joy to be there. It was the fact that I was stepping in to the unknown but actually knowing that it was going to be the hardest race I had ever done that made this so especial. It was actually being part of a race that it is so important to a nation and you can feel it as soon as you land in Durban. Less than 10% of the 25000 runners are international runners, the rest are South Africans whom are very proud of their race. Only 20% are women. On Saturday Andrey went hiking up Royal Natal Park and also drove on the route while I stayed in the hotel resting. When he got back, he said “if you see those hills, the first 40km are the most difficult, you have never done anything like it. Even by car they look horrible” ok that scared me even more. “I got the belief, I will embrace the experience that I have earned after 5 months of hard training when conditions weren’t ideal. I got the belief that I am enough, good enough to be here but I will be patient and cautious because no medal will come easy tomorrow” I said to myself on Saturday.  I woke up at 3:15, had some Ucan and almond butter, had a shower and we left for the start at 4:30 for a 5:30 start. Luckily our hotel was just in front so I was in my corral before 5. The atmosphere was incredible. I was next to a South African guy doing his 11th comrades. He started talking to me with a very zen like tone. He told me to be patient, that his first was also the up run and he did it in 10h15min. Even when my ultimate goal was to finish, on a good day I thought I could do 10h (A goal), my B goal was to finish under 10:30 but I thought “maybe my first can be close to this guy’s 10:15”. I also wanted to finish before sun set (5:15 pm) The start is just amazing, very emotional no point describing because you have to be there to live it. Never felt such an emotional start in a race. I started my watch as soon as the gun went off because this race is gun time and all the cut offs and different medals are awarded by gun time. I was seeded in corral C so took me a few minutes to cross but not too long. I had my watch in overall time and average pace, this time I didn’t want to get distracted  by mile splits that made no sense. It was very humid and I was sweating like crazy even when the sun was not out yet and I started to worry but tried to just keep it together. The sea of people in front and behind was incredible to see thinking we had 87 km to go. I followed Bruce Fordyce’s advice and ignored the distance markers that go in count down mode.  I was running by feel and just checking my total time and average pace every now and again specially when I passed the cut off points (there are 7 in total) that would give a good idea of how much I was slowing down or not. I realised very early on that running up the hills in such a slow pace felt very inefficient, just didn’t feel natural to me so I decided to power hike up the hills. This was not a walking break this was very intense walking. I was passing people running while I walked up the hills, felt just like Killian Jornet  . However I did not train my body to do this so every time I was changing from walking to running my calves would rebel against me. I could feel my lower back too. But I just when over the initial transition discomfort and continue and as soon as I was in running mode it felt good again. “do not stop” that was my other strategy, no matter what, I was not stopping for anything. And I didn’t. There is no doubt as to when you are going up the big hills, they are relentlessly brutal. I was scared to ask anyone if we were at any of those hills in case I got NO for an answer. All along the route the atmosphere is delightful, the locals set up tents full of aid for people apart from the official 43 water stations and they do it every year. People singing, dancing, bbqing. Going pass the wall of honour was neat, thinking my name could be there once I finished. When I reached Arthur’s seat I touched it out is respect and moved on. When I reached half way at 43km to go I knew I had just done the hardest marathon (a bit over a marathon) I had ever done in my life and I still had more than a marathon to go. I was supposed to see Andrey there but nothing. I struggled a little, but I said The only way you are not finishing this is if you do not make any the cut off point and you are forced to stop and get on a bus.  The 10h bus passed me. They are amazing to watch. You can hear them coming, it is like a pack of horses trotting and singing. I felt a little disappointed that there would be no sub 10 for me but I was clear by that point I had underestimated the course so I just continued with my mission. Suddenly with like 37km to go a familiar voice when I was not expecting “Moni, Moni” it was Andrey. That was my only stop. Maybe for just a minute or two. I grabbed a ucan bar and the hotshot anti cramp, which saved me because my calves were alive and kicking. My lower back was sore again for the power walking I am guessing. That gave me a second wind.  The10:30h bus passed me and I was between 1h30- 1h20 ahead of the cut off time at the check points every time. I caught up with the 10:30 bus again. I was going to stay with them but I felt good so left them behind.  The Coca Cola station is amazing and this kid starting calling, “my lady get a coke my lady” I grabbed a coke (never ever I drink real full sugar coke) and boy that felt good, it was iced cold. He said “I knew you wanted a coke my lady push on continue” and that my friends is reason 1568 I loved Comrades. With 20km to go I decided it was time to start counting down the km and noticed every km board. A runner with a green number that had done 13 Comrades started talking to me, he asked about my shoes, he congratulated me for my first comrades finish to which I thanked them but said that there was still 20 km to go. He said you will finish I know. With 17 km to go I saw Andrey up on a bridge after I went under it, again great surprise, I waved and continued. I reached little pollys, she is like The hiena, not part of the big 5 but her presence doesn’t go unnoticed in the wilderness. When I hit the 10km to go mark, I started feeling for the first time that I had it in the bag. Now my aim was to go sub 10:15. Then Polly shorts shoes up, and there is no need to ask anyone, I knew this is the famous mighty one that stretches along for 2km.  Last 7 km I felt strong and full of joy. The down hills were hard, my toes were completely wrecked or so they felt. And the uphills even though shorter in comparison really sneaked up on you. 5 km to go and there he was again, I saw Andrey and I said “see you at the finish” saying that felt so good. I have say the performance of the day goes to him. Driving around with road closures it was messy. 4 km to go I kept checking my watch, 3 km to go and suddenly I felt it was taking too long for the 2k mark but then I saw 1km to go!!! I had missed the 2 km mark.  I was there, I got chills. Yeah and because it is Comrades there is one final mini climb a few meters to the finish. I crossed the line 10h 13 minutes and 55 seconds after the gun went off and got my bronze medal.  The different colour bibs depending on if you are national or international, the number of medals on your bib, the different medals depending on your finish time, the people oh the people and how passionate they are, all that make this race extra especial. With regards to nutrition I had 2 chia gels(low carb) and almond butter during the first third of the race. Then I started taking maurten gels I had 5 in total. I also had half a bar of ucan and some coke (I still can’t believe I drank full sugar coke but the even had ice cubes!) in the second half. I think probably consumed about 1000-1200 cals. I never felt I needed to eat but I forced myself to have something every 30 mins or so. I also had high5 zero electrolyte tablets. I grabbed 2 water poaches in maybe 40 out of the 43 water station, they were always cold so one to drink and one for my head and neck. All races should have those. I realised now why this race was unique for me. I normally enjoy the training, the process more that the races themselves. Races are always an excuse for me to train. This time for the first time was the other way around, I enjoyed the race more than the training, the race was a whole process in itself that was changing me for the better as I went through. The race was a whole new experience.  From a performance standpoint I could say I am a little sad I didn’t get a sub 10 but I am actually very happy my splits were consistent, I finished strong and I learned a lot. In the end it is only running so the time itself is nothing in comparison to what you gain as a person through running. But the type A person I am is already looking at what to improve  Comrades you are much more that people say, I will be back for the down run but next summer is already committed for other adventures so will be tight. If not in 2020 I will be back for the 100th Comrades in 2021 which will be another down run as it was the original...and maybe for my second I can properly aim for a better time  I am a runner because I run, I run because I am a runner  We carry with us, deep inside, the knowledge that we have faced our fears and conquered challenges, and with that brings confidence, peace of mind and self-belief. Section two – Puzzle Pieces -   Outro Well, my friends you run the uphill course to the end of the RunRunLive Podcast episode 4-412, see you in Paradise City. Got a couple nice long runs and rides in this week down the Cape.  I did my traditional long run on the beach in Chatham.  I went on the 4th itself and it was jammed with people.  Usually once I get a mile or so down the beach I’m pretty much alone, but on the 4ht of July people come out by boat and hang out all over the place.  At one point there was a seal on the beach injured, probably by a Great White Shark.  Some guy was yelling at me to, I guess, not run by it.  Chill out there Ranger Rick, it’s a seal, not a unicorn.  When I came back the other way they had the seal EMT’s there working on it.  There are a lot of seals and a lot of sharks now on the Cape.  I ran out of beach almost exactly at 5 miles.  Which gave me a nice tidy 10 for the outing.  I timed it well too.  I got out just after high tide. That means the tide is going out and you get a nice strip of hard sand. I got out this weekend for an 18+ mile trail run.  Felt ok.  It was a little hard at the end, but it’s supposed to be.  I have to bring my volume up for the races I’m running this summer.  All in all I got a good mental rest.  I read a couple books.  The best one was a Bradbury collection of short stories from the 70’s.  Great writer Bradbury.  The better read among you will smell a bit of Bradbury in my writing this week. One of the books I’m working my way through is ‘ by Jonathan Rauch.  He basically says that the science shows everyone’s life arc is about the same.  You’re happy when your young, you’re miserable when you’re in the prime of your life for the most part and then, in the last bit, the middle age forward, you get happy again, because, I guess you just don’t really care anymore?  A couple things you can take form that.  One is that your happiness is different depending on what phase of life you’re in.  Another is that it’s, on average, the same experience for everybody.  There ya go.  Hang in there and it gets better.  And I’ll see you out there. MarathonBQ – How to Qualify for the Boston Marathon in 14 Weeks - Rachel -> Coach Jeff ->

The RunRunLive 4.0 Podcast Episode 4-410 – Tim Vedder Qualifies (Audio: link) audio:http://www.RunRunLive.com/PodcastEpisodes/epi4410.mp3] Link MarathonBQ – How to Qualify for the Boston Marathon in 14 Weeks - Hello, my friends and welcome to episode 4-410 of the RunRunLive Podcast.  It’s been an interesting and, I’ll admit challenging, beginning to the summer.  It’s been a few weeks since the Vermont Cities Marathon race.  I’ve spent that time trying to navigate the inevitable emotional trough and working how and what to do next.  Even as well worn an athlete as myself is not immune to the post-training cycle slump.  And, as is my habit, one of the ways I work through these things is by talking to you about them.  It’s hard to see when you’re in the Sargasso Sea of a slump, but it is a learning opportunity like anything else.  In the spirit of this I’m going to talk about some straight-on, tactical solutions to getting out of the blue doldrums in section one and talk a bit about balance in section two. Our interviewee today is Tim Vedder who goes into what it took in his Boston Marathon quest.  When I started this podcast a dozen or so years ago one of the things I wanted to do was expose every-day, average joe runners to the community, because that’s who we are.  Average Joe and Jill’s who occasionally roll out of bed at 5:00 AM to do hill charges in the freezing rain. What have I been up to?  Basically taking my own advice and letting loose of the tight grip I had on the wheel of life a bit.  I’ve been trail running, Mountain biking and lifting weights.  And I’ve been eating!  I felt a bit out of sorts being too skinny so I’m letting myself put a few pounds on.  Basically, I’m doing what I want to do, while still staying in good enough shape to be within reach of a race.  We’ll talk more about what I’ve got on the race calendar at the end. … I got great feedback on my iPhone tips from episode 4409.  It seems I was not the only one getting annoyingly treated to the first song on my list every time I turned the truck on.  For more detail, the audio I found was a very peaceful and meek morning meditation routine from YouTube.  You can search in YouTube for “Peaceful Morning Meditation” and it will find something to fit the bill.   To get it off of YouTube and onto your computer Google “YouTube to Mp3”.  This will show you on-line apps that will convert the video to an audio and allow you to download it to your computer.  Then rename the Mp3 file aaaaaaaaaaaa.mp3 – this will cause it to be that default first song in your music library.  To get it into your iPhone go into iTunes and do “Add File to Library”.  Then, while your phone is connected to the computer you should be able to select this file to be synched, either by name, genre or artist.  (there’s a icon of your phone in iTunes when it is connected and you click on that to set the sync rules).  Then you sync and the mp3 should be on the phone. There has been a lot of talk recently about digital diets and addiction to the phone apps.  You can track how much time you spend on social media or news and there are ways to set limits. The friends I have who have gone cold-turkey report that they have about a week of withdrawal, but by the second week they feel more in control and have more time.  Failing that I have some middle of the road tips for you around social.  I don’t use Facebook that much, nor Twitter anymore just because I naturally don’t find it all that interesting.  I do like Instagram.  But, here’s my tip.  Only allow social apps to be used when you are connected to WiFi.  This means you can’t use them randomly as you’re out an about.  It removes the knee-jerk reaction to check your feeds.  It’s a setting on your phone.  Go into the app and set it to NOT use mobile data connection.  It will keep you from looking at it in the car.  It’s a good compromise.  Second tip is to turn on the Do Not Disturb while driving.  There’s no reason to be checking you phone while you’re driving.  Turning this on adds a barrier to phone use in the car.  Might save your life.  Third tip is to turn on a generous quiet time at night.  There is a Do-Not-Disturb setting that you can set your phone to silent between the hours of X and Y.  I set mine to 9:00PM to 6:00AM.  This keeps me from hearing or seeing anything you text to me at 10:00PM when I’ve nodded off.  Psychologists will always talk about setting boundaries.  The real risk with the technology is that it takes our boundaries away, and that is not good for your mental health.  You have the ability to take some of those personal boundaries back.  So, take them back.  On with the show! … I’ll remind you that the RunRunLive podcast is ad free and listener supported.  What does that mean? It means you don’t have to listen to me trying to sound sincere about Stamps.com or Audible.. (although, fyi, my MarathonBQ book is on audible) We do have a membership option where you can become a member and as a special thank you, you will get access to member’s only audio. There are book reviews, odd philosophical thoughts, zombie stories and I curate old episodes for you to listen to.  I recently added that guy who cut off is foot so he could keep training and my first call with Geoff Galloway.   “Curated” means I add some introductory comments and edit them up a bit.  So anyhow – become a member so I can keep paying my bills.   … The RunRunLive podcast is Ad Free and listener supported.  We do this by offering a membership option where members get Access to Exclusive Members Only audio and articles. Member only race reports, essays and other bits just for you! Links are in the show notes and at RunRunLive.com … Section one – Practical Slump Advice - Voices of reason – the conversation Tim Vedder Bio: Timm Vedder is a neonatologist in St. Cloud, Minnesota who also serves as a physician in the National Guard. He is married, with two awesome kids. His other athletic pursuits include trail running, triathlon, tennis, and CrossFit. Section two – Balance -   Outro Well, my friends you Successfully trained and qualified for the end of the RunRunLive Podcast episode 4-410, see you in Boston.  On the calendar I’ve got the ½ marathon pacing duty at the end of July. Then I’ve got Pacing duties at Leadville in mid-August.  I also signed up for a local “last chance to qualify” type marathon for September 8th.  We’ll have to see if I run Wapack on Labor Day.  Then BayState in October.  I don’t think with the weird assortment of races and training this summer I’ll be fit to qualify, but I’m starting to doubt whether I have a clue about my own fitness.  The first 14 days of June I ran 5 miles a day as one of those slump-busting tactics.  My plantar fasciitis was acting up so I pivoted to bike riding, weight lifting and trail running.  My club had an ice-cream social over in Groton yesterday so I rode Fuji-san over, had a bowl of ice cream, chatted for a bit and rode back. 26 or so miles of road riding separated by ice cream eating.  You won’t find that on your coaches training plan.  Then I rolled out early this morning for a 15 mile run with my buddies.  My theory is that I for Leadville I have to run on tired legs, so I bike ride on Saturday and long run Sunday.  I’m trying to get 3-4 longish trail runs in a week with a couple rides.  I’m toying with organizing an overnight run out in July.  This would be a 10 hour trail run where we start at 10:00 PM and run through to 8:00 AM for me that’s probably 50K or more.  This falls under the category of if you do something stupid enough people will join you.  I did a similar 12 hour run last year as part of my 100 training and it was cool.  It’s quite surrealistic.  Time goes by weirdly fast.  Enough random training talk.  I hope you are doing well as we move into official summer.  Thanks for bearing with me as some of these episodes come in a couple days late.  I do enjoy the writing, but I am in a place where balance has been hard to find.  … I watched my way through the Netflix original zombie series “Black Summer”.  As much as I appreciate a good zombie show, being a professional zombie hunter myself, this one had a lot of holes in it. They used every zombie trope and seemed to have a very small budget.  So remember, cardio and double tap and… I’ll see you out there.   MarathonBQ – How to Qualify for the Boston Marathon in 14 Weeks - Rachel -> Coach Jeff ->

VT 2019 – The French Farce (Audio: link) audio:http://www.RunRunLive.com/PodcastEpisodes/Vermont2019.mp3] Link Farce. A farce is a comedy that aims at entertaining the audience through situations that are highly exaggerated, extravagant, and thus improbable. Farce is also characterized by physical humor, the use of deliberate absurdity or nonsense, and broadly stylized performances. … Covered in dirt, sweat and sawdust.  There I was, laying on the table in the emergency room at my local hospital.  A nice thick maroon swell of blood blobbing out of the gash on my shin.  Waiting for the doctor-lady to come back.  You might think this would make me cranky.  But, on the contrary I was having a pretty good day. It was, ironically, Memorial Day.  A long weekend and I had gotten a lot done, including running the marathon in Vermont.  I was relieved to have that off my agenda, be done training and back to working on other stuff.  Like cutting up the trees I had felled in the yard.  Then the machete glanced off a branch and I whacked myself square on the shin bone with that long, heavy, sharp blade designed for slicing. Right on the shin bone.  Nothing serious just a bit of a rent on the protective covering of skin that keeps the red stuff in.  Editor’s note: “Rent”, to divide, usually violently or abruptly from the middle English Renden and Old English Rendan. I staunched it with a rag from my chainsaw box and hobbled inside for some awkward first aid.  I flushed it out with Bactine and taped a bunch of gauze to it, wrapping the tape around my calf, ending up with something that you might see in an old war film or maybe an even earlier mummy movie.  That held it in place long enough for me move enough trees out of the driveway to get my truck out.  I drove to the emergency room. I wasn’t looking forward to the emergency room.  On a major holiday it was sure to be filled with drunken yahoos, with “hold my beer” accidents.  I brought along a book and was going to start working on this report for you in the hours of waiting that I anticipated.  But, I was positively thrilled with service.  I barely had a chance to sit down in the squeaky, vinyl, institutional seat when I was called.  I was attended to by no less than 4 or 5 charming, enthusiastic and competent medical professionals.  It turned out that the doctor-lady on duty’s favorite thing was stitches.  We had a great chat and I was in and out in 45 minutes!  They were impressed that I could tell them exactly how much I weighed.  They were almost as impressed with me having run a marathon in Vermont the day before as I was impressed with myself for, well…just being me.  It’s a curse.  I drove home and finished chopping up my trees.  … The next night I went to the local Red Cross and tried to give blood.  I see you rolling your eyes.  Chris, what the hell?  You run a race Sunday, your put yourself in the Emergency room Monday, why are you trying to give blood on Tuesday?  In my defence they really want my blood.  They are on me serval phone calls and emails a day about how much they want my blood.  But, I’m usually in the middle of a training cycle and can’t really afford to tapped of my basic circulatory life essence.  Consequently, I try to schedule blood donations for after my target events.  The nerve of them.  After begging me for weeks and putting me through all the preliminaries, they turned me away when I told them of my recent forestry mishap.  Apparently there is have some silly rule about ‘no open wounds’. I mean, you’re after my blood, wouldn’t this be a positive proof point that I’ve got some to spare? … No worries.  On to my next thing.  I like to be tightly scheduled.  I’m happiest when I have a nice pile of tasks in my que.  That’s how my weekends go in the spring and summer.  A yellow sticky pad list of chores in my pocket that I try to get done to have that warm fuzzy feeling of accomplishment from washing the car or folding the laundry or … maybe even running a race.  … Teresa had come home from the City to pick up some stuff Friday.  We had to do a bike swap. I had procured a new city bike for her.  A city bike is a bicycle that is perfectly functional but has a low value and low probability of being stolen.  The 40-year-old Schwin I had previously procured was broken.  She had managed to crank out the bearing, which is not something I’m going to fix on a bike where the tires are worth more than the bike.  I procured a ‘new’ old bike, cleaned it up, got most of the gears working, and transferred the rack from the old-old bike Saturday morning.  As we are all destined to do, I have turned into my father.  I had to drive her back into the city on Saturday.  I had to be in Vermont Saturday night as well. … I had packed up my race stuff.  Since I was driving, I didn’t need to be picky.  A little of this, a little of that.  I opted to go back to my old Brooks baggie shorts with the bike short liner, because they have enough pockets to carry all my standard race stuff. A couple gels, a baggie of Endurolytes, a small thing of lube. I was trying to make the 7:00PM deadline to pick up my bib in Vermont.  Burlington is about 3 hours and change from my house.  After the side trip to the city it was going to be tight.  … The weather forecast called for clear skies Saturday slowly changing to rain in the evening, then into thunderstorms through the morning.  I try not to think too much about the weather when I’m approaching a race.  There really isn’t much you can do about it. No sense wasting your energy fretting. It was starting to drizzle when I pulled into the race expo hotel in South Burlington with 8 minutes to spare.  I was able to get my bib and pick up a couple Expresso Love Gu’s – old-school nutrition.  In a change of pace, I got a medium shirt, instead of a large due to my current waifish deportment.  Then I wandered off in the strengthening showers to find my campground.  My comfy rustic home to pitch my lonely tent for the evening.  … To get to my camp I was routed right by the race start/finish area. Which was nice.  The college town of Burlington sits on the edge of Lake Champlain.  The race course for the marathon is a sort of figure 8 that goes out north of the city, turns around and runs back through the city, turns again and comes back by the park again to go north, again, then comes back south along a bike trail at the edge of the lake to the finish.  Eyeballing it on the map I thought I might be able to walk to the race start in the morning from my camp.  The bike trail that the race finishes on runs right by the edge of the campground.  I measured it to be over a mile by the road. I figured I probably wouldn’t want to hike that, especially in a storm, in the morning, and definitely wouldn’t want to hike back after the race.  I called Brian to see what his plans were. He told me he wasn’t racing. He was running with his son Chris.  Good for him.  That completes something special for him.  Running a marathon with every one of his kids.  But, for me, I wouldn’t be able to pace with him. Did I mention I was racing?  Yeah, I had a goal.  I was trying to spin that fitness from my Boston training cycle into a qualifying race.  I thought it would be a no-brainer.  I was in good shape.  This was supposed to be a more reasonable course.  I’d just hang on to the back of the nearest pace group to 3:30 and be done with that.  Piece of cake.  … Checking in to my camp site it was raining fairly hard now, and of course, as I unrolled my tent it started pouring.  I was trying to hurry but that just made things slower.  The way these tents work is that there isn’t a real roof.  The roof part is a screen, a mesh, to I suppose, let your foul camping breath and farts out.  But that let the rain come right through.  The way you make it watertight is to string another bit, called a fly, over the open part, which was giving me trouble in the wind.  Picture ma trying to do all this in the pouring rain and wind.  I must’ve looked incredibly pitiful.  Hold that picture in your head next time you think hiking the Appalachian trail is a good idea.  Some guy even ran over from a neighboring camp site to help me.  At least it wasn’t dark out yet. The good news was that I was right next to the shower & bathroom facilities buulding. The bad news was that I was right next to the shower & bathroom facilities building.  Lots of traffic. Lots of lights.  People wandering around.  I took a few minutes to pump up my mattress. This all seemed like a great idea when I set it up last month.  Not so much now.  Soaking wet.  Pumping away in my little tent with the rain beating on the sides. … Now I’m thinking I should have some sort of meal before I crash out in my soggy hidey hole.  I did what any sentient 21st century droid would do and asked Siri for a grocery store nearby.  I was thinking maybe a Wholefoods or something similar.  But, Burlington, being an old New England Town, is filled with corner grocery stores. Basically, one room affairs with beer, chips and lottery tickets. I was getting tired at this point, so I gave up and bought a turkey sandwich and a beer. I returned to my campground and sat in my truck, thinking how sad a spectacle I was soggy, in my truck with the rain pouring down, chewing on a gas-station sandwich.  Having paddled my canoe through these types of adventures before and thought to myself, smiling a bit, ‘this will make a great story’.  I was worrying a bit about logistics for the morning.  I didn’t want to hike the mile plus to the start in a rainstorm.  I decided I would drive in early and find a place to park. They said there was municipal parking, but after my ‘grocery store’ adventure I wondered what that would be like, or if it even existed.  Ce’st la vie.  Time for beddy-by.  … In normal conditions my tent, mattress and sleeping bag are pretty darn comfy.  These weren’t exactly ‘normal’. It was storming hard, with blowing wind and driving rain. I could hear the waves crashing down on the lake shore with a steady roar. The spotlights on the facilities lit up my tent like an operating theatre. I crawled into my tent, dragging mud and water with me.  Crawled into my sleeping bag and wrapped my throw away shirt around my head like a bandage to block the light, put my phone on airplane mode and set the alarm for 5 AM. That should give me plenty of time to get ready and find a parking spot. Now, on a normal night, in the campground, hard up against the communal bathroom, I probably would have been kept awake by the noise of the park denizens coming and going and recreating. This was not a normal night. I considered my good fortune. The roar of the waves and the wind and the steady drum of a hard rain was like a meditation track, right?  White noise.  The song “The wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald” was running slyly through my head. “The legend lives on from the Chippewa on down Of the big lake they called 'gitche gumee' The lake, it is said, never gives up her dead When the skies of November turn gloomy” That’s when I realize that I had to pee.  At the same time I realized I would rather have my bladder explode and die of sepsis than go out int o this storm.  Then I fell asleep.  A couple hours later I woke up to an eerie, (no pun intended), silence.  I was woken up by pause in storms.  It was a bit before 11:00 and I thought, now would be an excellent time to make a run for the facilities next door.  As I started moving around I realized that there was a fair amount of water inside my tent.  Whether it was from me bumping the sides or the rain coming sideways under the fly, I don’t know. My sleeping bag was wet.  As I extracted myself and went to the rest room I thought that this might be a problem if the storms returned and temperature dropped a bit more.  Woke by quiet after 10.  Goodtime to pee.  Sleeping bag wet.  So, we held an executive meeting in my head and decided to sleep in the truck for the rest of the night.  It was surprisingly comfortable with my sleeping bag and the seat all the way back.  I slept great.  … My 5 AM alarm woke me to a humid, cool morning with scattered, pudgy clouds.  I was still worried about parking so I got my stuff on and drove into town.  Not only was the parking garage available and deserted, I’m pretty sure it was free.  The gate was open and the display had some sort of non-descriptive announcement.  I didn’t have too many options for breakfast so I ate one of the SpringEnergy gels I had brought.  They’re more like baby food than race gels.  My next mission would be to find a cup of coffee somewhere.  I took $5 with me and went out to walk around the start area.  After a few laps I found a gas station with some coffee and checked that box.  That left me with another problem.  Now I had $3 left over that I didn’t know what to do with.  I could just drop it on the ground.  I could try to carry it.  In the end I just handed to some guy in a Bruins shirt.  He was confused.  He was pretty sure I was up to something nefarious.  … Then I just hung out in the park and stretched and relaxed.  It was partially sunny, very humid with a bit of wind and lots of puddles.  The race starts at 7:00 now, ever since the heat incident of 2 years ago.  Looking out over the lake there were towers of blackish clouds.  As I wandered about someone called my name and it was Brian and his son.  I was glad to see them.  Glad to have someone to chat with.  We hung out and listened to the race announcements.  Bart Yasso was saying something to the assembled throng.  There were maybe 3,000 people in the race.  Lots of 50 staters.  A nice size for a race.  About 15 minutes before the start the announcers came on and told everyone to leave the park and take shelter in the parking garages.  Apparently one of those black clouds out over the race had us in its sites.   The crowd filed out of the park across the street and down the road.  Brian, his son and I went into the Courtyard Hotel lobby.  We chatted with some of the folks in there, but basically stood around for 45 minutes while another small storm cell passed over.  That’s a first for me.  They let us go back to the race start after the danger had passed.  Speaking of passing, I got passed by Bart Yasso leaving the hotel.  I said hi but he was in a hurry to get back to the announcing.  We found our corrals.  I hunted down the 3:30 pace leaders.  And we were off and running about 7:45.  It was a bit humid but nothing terrible.  I hung close to the pace leader and we were quickly up to pace.  There were two pacers for 3:30.  They did a good job. They kept us within 5 seconds of the pace even with the rolling hills, the hard lefts and rights, and the slight wind.  They did something really useful.  Instead of running together one guy ran about 50 to 100 feet behind the other guy.  I started out with the lead guy but then filtered back to the second pack.   The effort was steady but not hard.  I felt fine.  … It was hillier than I had surmised from Brian’s description.  There was one long hill back into the city that wasn’t steep but was a nice long pull.  There was a pretty good head wind in one direction.  It was useful to be in the pack and I was able to draft the pacer.  There were some good crowds in the city but not much as you got out of town.  When the sun came through the clouds it was a little hot.  I was staying on my nutrition, taking enough water and sipping from my bottle of F2C.  The gels they had on course were maple syrup gels.  Which is fitting for Vermont, but basically, you’re drinking pancake syrup.  I knew the “big hill” was coming up at mile 15ish.  As we turned back towards that hill I put a little extra fuel in the fire and dropped the pace a bit.  I knew, from my training I had some faster miles in me.  I figured I’d put a little buffer between me and the pace group in case I struggled on the hill.  I thought that once I got over the hill, I could relax into the rocking chair and just glide home.  … Up to this point I was pacing well.  Not easy but not hard either.  Race pace. The hill was a monster.  For some reason it really knocked me back on my heels.  I had to grind it out.  I lost some time but stayed ahead of the pace group.  I was suffering badly as I neared the top, but I got over it.  On the back side of the hill I was trashed and focused on finding a recovery pace.  My hips were tight.  My stride was painful.  That high hamstring tendonitis was biting me in the ass.  Remember when I said I “had some good training runs and some not so good since Boston”?  Remember how I said I had somehow managed to give myself tendonitis in the ass?  Well, one of those workouts was a 20+ mile tempo run.  And what happened on that run was I got to about 16 miles and this tendonitis flared up.  It hurts.  Like some monster biting your ass.  It makes it hard to lift your legs and makes running up hills really hard.  It makes it hard to keep your stride length.  I ended up doing a fair amount of walking at the end of that workout.  This showed up again at Vermont after the big hill about 16-17 mile in.  It wasn’t the ‘wall’ I had plenty of calories.  It wasn’t cramps, I had plenty of salt.  It was this pain in my ass that kept me from holing my pace.  And that’s where I stopped racing and started limping in.  In a few minutes the 3:30 pacers went by me. I said “That hill was a bitch.”  He said, “Yeah, but it’s done now.” I said, “Yeah, but so are my legs.” At this point I still had about a 2-1/2 minute cushion but I could race anymore and had 8-9 miles to go. There were still some rolling hills and each of those little rises hurt like hell.  I threw in the towel and started walking and jogging, just to get it done.  I ran by my camp ground a couple more times and thought about just leaving, but my truck wasn’t there, it was downtown.  I was depressed and having dark thoughts.  I thought to myself “Now I know why those people cheat.  You can put in the work and do all the right things and what do you get?  Nothin.  That’s why they cheat.:” I might even have had a thought or two about how I’m just getting slower and what’s the point of staying in a world that’s just a constant loss of ability?  Such is the death march.  When you get into the death march late in a race you notice there are people there doing the same death march pace you are.  You see them walking, stumbling, summoning the strength to run a bit, walking some more.  The comradery of zombies.  It wasn’t awful physically.  I was fit enough to not be physically suffering.  Not like a calorie crash.  Not physical exhaustion.  My HR was fine.  I just couldn’t get my legs to turn.  And my mind had left the building.  I was done.  Done with training.  Don’t with chasing unicorns.  Done with it all. At one point the course cuts through a wooded section in the high miles.  Just a short bit of trail to connect to road sections.  With the rain and the runners it had turned into a mud hole.  I felt bad for the runners who were still racing.  Also, late in the race, in one of the neighborhood sections, there was a bunch of people, a couple neighborhood families handing our Budweiser pony cans.  I had no desire for a can of beer but one of the guys in front of me took one, took a sip and immediately dropped it in a big splash of foam.  The guys handing out the beers yelled at him for dropping it.  It was a bit surreal.  Finally we found our way onto the bike path for the last couple miles back to the finish.  I came upon a guy clutch his calf, hopping around and screaming with a cramp.  I dug out the rest of my Endurolytes, gave him two and said “chew these, to get the salt into your system.”  Hope he had some water with him.  With the late start it was pretty hot and really humid.  It didn’t impact me.  I was out of the fight before any of that would have hit me.  As I was pulling into the finish, I was trading places with an older, grey haired woman wearing a singlet from one of the regional running clubs I know.  I thought to myself, ‘great, my finishing photo is me being out kicked by this lady!”  I wasn’t in a good place mentally.  I managed to find a pretty fast last mile heading into the finish.  It didn’t matter.  I had turned a 2-1/2 minute buffer into a 12 minute hole with a 3:47 finish.  I got my medal and a bottle of water.  I stood around waiting to see if maybe Brian and his son weren’t close behind me since I lost so much ground.  I had passed his daughter out on the bike path and she hadn’t seen them yet.  I saw the club singlet and congratulated her.  She turned around and said “Chris?” Turns out it was Linda one of the Goon Squad runners.  We had a long talk catching up.  She was coming off AFib surgery and starting her recovery.  The doctors had told her to quit running and it took her a long time to find a doctor who could give her a correct diagnosis and fix it. Now she’s on her way back.  I got my truck and made my way back to the campground.  I didn’t see any reason to sleep over another night, so I broke it down and loaded up.  I stopped to tell the kid I was leaving early and he insisted on giving me my $36 back. Good Karma.  … I drove the sunny, warm day home to get back onto my list of chores.  I must tell you I was relieved to get this race over with.  But, now I’m out of qualification and I don’t have the time or the energy for another campaign this summer.  Maybe I can’t make the standard? I don’t know.  I kills me to give up, but I’m not having fun anymore and my body is talking to me.  I need some time off.  It took me a few days to come to grips with not running Boston.  I’m not making any proclamations.  But, I’m ok with letting it go after 21 years.  I’m not saying I am.  I’m saying I’m ok with it.  That’s the best I can give you coming out the back of this farce of a long weekend.  I’m ok with it.  … “To be alive: not just the carcass / But the spark. / That’s crudely put, but … / If we’re not supposed to dance, / Why all this music?” – Gregory Orr

The RunRunLive 4.0 Podcast Episode 4-409 – Julie the Marathon Goddess (Audio: link) audio:http://www.RunRunLive.com/PodcastEpisodes/epi4409.mp3] Link MarathonBQ – How to Qualify for the Boston Marathon in 14 Weeks - Hello, my friends and welcome to episode 4-409 of the RunRunLive Podcast. With any luck I’ll be able to publish this before I jump in my truck and drive up to Burlington VT for my next marathon.  It’s go time and I’m stressed out about it.  I’ve held my weight and conditioning and am coming into the race in good shape, on paper anyhow.  It’s a 3.5 hour drive from my house. Vermont Cities, I’m told, is a much more reasonable course than Boston.  Fewer hills.  My training buddies tell me that it has always been a good race for them.  It still stresses me out.  Age graded, for my goal, I’m targeting times that are faster than I ever ran when I was younger – if you believe age grading. Looks like the weather is going to be dicey.  The race starts at 7:00 AM so I shouldn’t have to worry about heat.  But, they are calling for thunder storms and a stiff wind in the morning.  Doesn’t matter.  I’m committed.  I’ll fight it all the way down. It’s a figure 8 course.  I’m not sure how sheltered it is, but that should mean I’ll have as much head wind as tail wind and side wind.  I’m going to find a pace group and stick with it.  Stay in the shadow of the pace group. I need a 3:35 to requalify and it looks like they have a 3:30 pace group.  I’ll have to decide whether I want to hang with them or freewheel.  10 seconds a mile could be significant and I’d much rather negative split than burn out.  We’ll see. I’m camping in a park on the lake front.  Like I said it’s a trick I learned in my mountain bike racing days.  Frankly, I don’t think those hard-core mountain bikers are house-trained.  I’ve got a tent, a mattress and a mattress pump in the back of my truck.  You don’t sleep much the night before a race anyhow.  Eyeballing the map, it looks like I can walk to the start from where I’m camped. Brian is going to be up there with his son.  I’m going to stay over Sunday night probably.  We’ll see. I can’t wait to have this over with.  I’m pretty sick of road racing and training.  Not sure what I’m going to do if I miss my time.  I might hang it up.  Move on.  What would you do?  Do you think 21 Boston marathons is enough?  Or will my life totally unravel if I remove this prop from the infrastructure? Today we have a great interview with Julie the Marathon Goddess.  You know Julie.  She’s the California Girl from the move “The Spirit of the Marathon 2”.  Which isn’t an awful movie.  The reason it’s not awful is that it has a cast of characters and Julie is one of those characters. In section one I’m going to talk about some new things I learned in this last training cycle.  In section two I’m going to talk about the wild and whacky English Language. And, since we’re talking about the English language and the Boston Marathon I have a question for you?  What is another perfectly good word for ‘unicorn’?  Monocerous!  Isn’t that a great word.  Monocerous! Here’s another one.  Did you know that the word Cadence comes from the same Indo-European root as Cadaver?  Same Latin root meaning, loosely to fall.  The cadence is the foot fall.  The cadaver is a fallen one, so to speak.  So next time you can’t keep up your cadence and you feel like a cadaver, you’ll know why. Oh, I have a redaction from last show.  My childhood friend Dave didn’t die.  He’s living in Seattle I think.  His older brother Eric, who I went to school with passed.  Rest in Peace Eric. On with the show! … I’ll remind you that the RunRunLive podcast is ad free and listener supported.  What does that mean? It means you don’t have to listen to me trying to sound sincere about Stamps.com or Audible.. (although, fyi, my MarathonBQ book is on audible) We do have a membership option where you can become a member and as a special thank you, you will get access to member’s only audio. There are book reviews, odd philosophical thoughts, zombie stories and I curate old episodes for you to listen to.  I recently added that guy who cut off is foot so he could keep training and my first call with Geoff Galloway.   “Curated” means I add some introductory comments and edit them up a bit.  So anyhow – become a member so I can keep paying my bills.   … The RunRunLive podcast is Ad Free and listener supported.  We do this by offering a membership option where members get Access to Exclusive Members Only audio and articles. Member only race reports, essays and other bits just for you! Links are in the show notes and at RunRunLive.com … Section one – LEssons from this long training cycle. Voices of reason – the conversation Julie Weiss Author/Runner/Marathon Goddess    Available now on : 52 Weeks, 52 Marathons: The Miles and Trials of a Marathon Goddess by Julie Weiss with John Hanc and Ali Nolan (Tender Fire/Enhanced Communications)   Do you ever wonder, or have a burning desire to be more than what you have aspired to be? I always knew there was more to life, and I found it through my joy of running. Before I started running I was overweight, on antidepressants and I could barely run around the block. I was a young mom and had battled some very dark moments. Since I started running I am no longer taking any medication and I have lost 20 pounds. Running saved my life. On March 2, 2008, I ran my first marathon, the Los Angeles Marathon. I had made all the beginner mistakes. Ouch! Pretty much sums it up. I had not trained properly, and swore I would stick only to 10K’s after that. But it was not long, two months in fact, until I ran another marathon and then another. My father became my biggest fan. We had a goal, that goal was that I would qualify for the Boston marathon where he would go to see me run. I attempted to qualify for Boston 19 times. Every time I completed a marathon I would call my father and let him know how I did. He was still proud of me, even if it was my slowest time. He always encouraged me to keep going and so I did. In October of 2010, my father was diagnosed with stage 4 pancreatic cancer. I was devastated, but my father urged me to continue to train, to work and go on with life as usual. It was hard, but I did as he wished. On December 5, 2010 I finally did qualify for the Boston marathon and made it in 3:47, sadly it was 1 week after my father passed away, just 35 days after his diagnosis. I know he was there with me, he was the wind at my back and had the best seat in the house, my heart. After I ran the Boston marathon in 2011 I looked deeply into the disease that had taken my father. I found that pancreatic cancer was the 4th leading cause of cancer death and the least funded for research. This was unacceptable to me. I knew had to something dramatic to raise awareness and that it should be centered around my passion for running and the love for my father. So I set out to run 52 marathons in 52 weeks to raise $1,000,000 for the Pancreatic Cancer Action Network. I recently completed marathon#52 on March 17, 2013 at the ASICS L.A. Marathon. I did all of this while holding down a full time job. I work 9-5 as an accountant. I would leave my office on a Friday or Saturday, travel to a different city, state or even country, run a marathon on Sunday and fly back home to get to work Monday morning. Almost every weekend waking up at 3:30 in the morning to get to the starting line. Not even Super Storm Sandy could stop me. I dedicated each of my marathons to someone affected by pancreatic cancer because my fight was nothing compared to what theses people had to go through. They are my heroes. I am now 42, have two amazing kids, who are 20 and 24, my wonderful fiance, and of course my first running partner ever, my dog Jessie. I have found my purpose in life. Now, I invite you to join me in the light, embrace your highest self and start being the person you were put on this earth to be. If it speaks to you, I also invite you to join me in the fight against pancreatic cancer. The disease that took the life of my number 1 fan, my father, and so many others. I am so grateful that we have completed this amazing journey, but we are not done yet.  I am currently on a journey to finish 100 marathons ending at the 2016 Sketchers Performance Los Angeles Marathon and hope to reach my 1 Million dollar fundraising goal by then. When you do what you love, for those you love, that is when the miracles happen. The joy comes from the heart. If your love is running, I have learned that it’s not about how many miles you go, or even how fast. The heart does not have a clock, it has beats. My mission is to make sure those beats are spent on pursuing your dreams, your passions and having fun. Marathon Goddess is about embracing the God or Goddess within us all. Now I am running with a purpose, to fight the good fight against pancreatic cancer. It has become my mission, and I will not stop until we have found a cure. Find your passion, bring out your spirit and let it shine. We got this!! Section two – The Wonderful, Wacky, English Language -   Outro Well, my friends you did that thing where you strike the Goddess pose in your underwear in front of the bathroom mirror and though tno one was watching, but we won’t judge and you have come to the end of the RunRunLive Podcast episode 4-409, Keep up the good work. We’ve been having a cold and rainy spring in New England.  Every time I hit one of those long hard tempo runs in a 45 degree drizzle I mutter a little curse to the gods.  Why couldn’t we have this weather at one of my target marathons? I’ve been working in my garden for the last couple weeks.  I started some seeds earlier but the weather has been so cold they are quite stunted.  I got some tomatoes and beans and squash in.  We’ll see what come up.  Nothing like a warm, garden fresh tomato on a warm August afternoon. Part of the rhythm of life. I should be able to execute a decent race at Vermont.  I’m still light – hovering around 170 pounds – I’m still hitting my tempo paces in the mid-7’s.  Like, I said, on paper it’s a lock.  We’ll see.  Wish me luck. Send me whatever universal Karma you can. I accepted an invitation to pace a ½ marathon in PA at the end of July.  It’s the Conquer the Canyon marathon and half marathon.  I’ll be the alternate pacer for the 2 hour ½ with Greg.  Light duty. It looks like a pretty course on a rail trail that winds through a river valley.  6-hour drive for me.  This pacing outfit is called Beast Pacers.  If you want to be a pacer they have races all over the country.  They comp you the entry.  Would be a great way to pick up your 50 states. One more of my favorite old-English words for you before you go.  The old/middle English word for window or opening was ‘thirl’.  You may be familiar with a compound word we still use this in.  It combines the word for ‘nose’ and that word for window ‘thirl’ – and you may have guessed – that compound word is ‘nostril’ – literally ‘nose-window’.  Isn’t that great?  Nose window? … Julie’s story is a good one.  On the one hand it’s familiar to us.  It’s the classic hero’s journey.  Over coming challenges to become the champion.  On the other I think it verifies a useful truth: if you just decide to do something you can change the world, at least your little part of the world.  You don’t need permission.  You just do it and let the details figure themselves out. It’s not goal setting.  It’s not achievement.  It’s more like directing, or freeing the universal energy that is in each of us. Looking inside yourself, how do you let that energy free? I’ll see you out there.   MarathonBQ – How to Qualify for the Boston Marathon in 14 Weeks - Rachel -> Coach Jeff ->