Zach and the NP Marathon

Was it worth the Money?

2010-04-21T21:44:00.000-07:00

"Was it worth the money?" is the number one question that I've been back since I've been; followed closely by "What was it like?"and "Did you have fun?". To the first one I can easily answer 'Yes'. To the second...I'm finding harder to explain. I've ended up telling anecdotes about our resourceful and capable Russian hosts at the north pole camp, talking about the weather, and about beautiful Svalbard. To the third, I cant really say 'Yes'; so I say "It was an experience". I've been waiting to write this last entry until I had digested the whole thing and could really wrap a rope around what I got out of it. I'm not sure I'll ever really have a handle on what I 'got out of it' or what the experience 'means' but what I can do is dump all the bits that I do know out on the table.

Was it worth the Money?

I figured that a marathon at the north pole would be a way to live a day in the life of a turn of the century polar explorer. 26.2 miles on foot on the pack ice would have been a good day for the likes of Amundsen or Nansen. I now have even more respect for those guys. Seven hours in the wind and blowing snow, tripping over snow drifts and crumpled sea ice was a more vivid look at history than just words in a book.

What was it like?

Like I said, the race was seven hours and twenty minutes of trudging around out in the snow and ice. Camp Barneo is the Hilton of floating sea ice camps. The tents were all warm and the food was good. The people were all really interesting, and everyone was there for a different reason. The Russians and the BBC were at work and all us runners were there on holiday. Actually being there sort of felt like no big deal because it was 'business as usual' for such a high percentage of people there. I have never met so many people in my life that had been to Antarctica or had run marathons across the Sahara or the Himalayas. I guess I mean running a marathon at the north pole doesn't seem like a big deal when the only people you have to talk to for three days are people running a marathon at the north pole.

Was it fun?

It was an experience. I read someplace that if you are standing at sea level that the horizon is only about three miles away. Oddly the best way I can describe my couple days on a frozen ocean is that they were horizon-expanding. I can't put my finger exactly on what I mean, but that seems to fit. It wasn't that being cold and running around on the ice was particularly moving. It was the race combined with just being there combined with the history I have read, the months and months of training, and the giant financial investment in something with no tangible return. I have always been skeptical of astronauts who've claimed that looking out a window and seeing earth from orbit changed their lives. The view is probably great, but not all that different from a commercial airliner. Now I see how the years of work and training give significance to the view out the window, just like the tribulations of hundreds of miles of pilgrimage give significance to standing in front of a relic or shrine. I guess you tend to savor every bite when it is an expensive meal. On paper this trip was a couple airplane rides to a remote but still completely accessible part of the world for nothing other than a vacation that wasn't nearly as fun and relaxing as sitting on a beach drinking something with its own umbrella. To me, having lived it, it was all those hundreds of miles I running alone in the desert in the sun, wind, rain, snow, pitch dark, and in the quiet glow of the moon that set this vacation apart from one that culminates in a photo staged to look like you are pushing over the leaning tower with your bare hand. I read Amundsen describe each one of his dogs and their personality and how having to eat them to survive was horrific for its similarity to cannibalism not for meat's inferiority to beef. These pages are what made standing in a blizzard in the midnight sun amongst a team of working dogs more significant than just petting another mut that eats its own shit.

After the race and back on dry land Juls and I talked about what we had done and tried to figure out if it was the hardest thing be had ever done. Maybe, maybe not. It definitely wasn't easy...but only a couple days after the race, we both had trouble remembering how hard it actually was. I think we concluded that it was up there at the top of the list of hardest things ever, but we were prepared. Or at least, we weren't surprised by anything. We had trained well (maybe over-trained), we had the right equipment, and we had read enough to know, generally what to expect. Considering that this was the first marathon and first time in the arctic for each of us, the lack of surprise is the bit I am the most proud of.

That said. Maybe the biggest thing that I can take away from the North Pole Marathon is a new scope for what is possible. Six months ago, a marathon at the north pole sounded impossible and ridiculous and the price tag seemed unfathomable. Six months ago, the farthest I had ever run was about twelve miles. In hindsight the whole thing doesn't seem like that big of a deal. Anyone who wanted to do it... could have.

This is the kicker.

There is nothing special about me, or any of the other people there, except that we decided to go. I have been thinking about all of the other things that I have always thought were impossible. Moreover, I have been realizing how small even my big goals are compared to what what might actually be possible. All sorts of cheesy and cliche words of wisdom have been flashing though my brain. Unfortunately it does me no good to repeat them, I can only say that they have new meaning when you feel that they are true. I guess another way to say it is that before this trip, I could never imagine what sort of people start revolutions or volunteer for the first wave; now I see that they are people just like you and me.

2010 North Pole Marathon!!!

2010-04-09T14:40:00.000-07:00

I'm back on dry land after completing the 2010 North Pole Marathon. I came 11th out of 27 and finished in 7 hours 21 min. It was only -20C but the wind was howling and visibility was almost non existent for the bulk of the race I'm back in Longyearbyen in beautiful Svalbard. I'm still digesting the experience and am flat wore out so I'll just leave it at a few pictures for now.

Check out the results at the race website 2010 North Pole Marathon

also check out the story that the AV Press did on Juls and I before the race AV Press Story

A Little Over a Week to Go!

2010-03-29T23:11:00.000-07:00

There are just a hand full of days before I leave for the 2010 North Pole Marathon! I leave Friday and have just one more planned run before I jump on a plane. Tonight I had to work late, so I ended up doing thirteen and change miles in the dark with winds blowing in the solid twenties and a moon doing its best midnight sun impression. It was a good run at about an eight and a half min pace (I'm not exactly sure because my wiz-bang gps tracker died on me in the last mile or so). I spent most of the run thinking about the last six months worth of runs and all of the different ways and days that I had run past this and that. As the race gets closer, I'm focusing less on pushing my speed and mostly trying not to hurt myself at the end. I'm finding that has led me to settle into a distance pace that sort of seems to take care of itself. Tonight I didn't really think about the running itself (other than the ever present base coat of "just dont stop"); I was just sort of watching it happen. The change in stride with inclines, careful footfalls on uneven desert, swinging shoulders. Over the last six months I have been trying to find a way to think about this entity that is 'the running' I've tried to think of it as a truck or a ship to be driven and guided through the desert ( on fast days it is a big white lone ranger stallion :) ). I have tried to think of my legs as the close air support of a Normandy beach landing. There are lots of these, most are fairly cocky and none are really true. Tonight I realized that the running is almost a conscious entity that I'm sharing my body with. It's hard to explain why this feels right, but it is. Its like a split personality that I can't ever meet face to face. I can only watch it at work. This is the character that swings the arms and meters breath and times the steps so that the left foot falls just before an old sheep skeleton and the right one falls just after. Its not just legs and feet and lungs, and it is more than hundreds of miles of muscle memory.

Now that I'm all showered and full of post run chocolate milk, sitting comfortably typing, I have to wonder if this runner is in there someplace watching me. Maybe restless over the stillness, maybe wishing I've stretched a little better. I wonder if this runner has any idea what lay in store for it in a week or so.

As the race looms I'm finding myself spending less time running and more time thinking about what I'll be running in. Seems like everyday I'm ordering some piece of gear that I realize that I've forgotten. I think I have most of what I need at this point. I laid it all out on the floor in two groups. One for the run, and one for the time spent hanging out in a frozen wasteland. The running stuff was pretty easy to sort out, the race organizers have a complete list of suggested equipment that was really helpful. The hanging around in the arctic was a little more of a challenge. I have been secretly terrified of not being able to keep my feet warm and have this horrible vision of some ancient Norwegian doctor cutting of frost bitten toes with an old cigar cutter! Lucky for me my Uncle Dan, who has spent all of recent history in Alaska, sent Juls and I army surplus arctic travel Bunny Boots. These things are inflatable, waterproof inside and out, and rated to minus 65F. Awesome. Dan managed to find some of these monsters in my size 14. Clodhopper is an understatement. These things are an absolute life saver. Thanks Uncle Dan! Less exciting, but a lot more colorful; I found a really nice 800 fill down jacket a big discount online. It is bright orange and makes me look like something in between the stay-puff-marshmallow-man and a traffic cone. At least they will be able to find me if I get lost. :)

Thanks and Game On!

2010-03-16T11:11:00.001-07:00

Thanks my Dad and Lisa and Uncle Dan and Gina with there last minute help with my race entry fee. As of this morning I am a paid entrant 2010 North Pole Marathon!!!

Check out the website; I've made the entrant list!
http://www.npmarathon.com/html/200324/

Gettin' There

2010-03-06T15:01:00.000-08:00

I did my longest run ever yesterday, just shy of 23 miles. I'm not sure of the exact time or distance because I forgot to turn on my trusty run tracker till I was about a mile or so out. Over the rest of my run I managed to average just under a 9 min pace. What that actually means is that I started off at a good clip and finished up at an ungraceful stumble. I'm pretty convinced that anything over 18 or 19 miles is gonna hurt, no matter what you do. The upside is that I was more careful about eating plenty over the morning before the run and giving myself a couple hours between lunch and the start of the run. As a result, the first sixteen miles or so were pretty enjoyable. I have stopped listening to music when I run. I was talking to a buddy about having trouble keeping pace as the tempo of the music changes. He said he had the same problem, and never ran with music. I'm finding that the quiet is a better fit for me. For one, aside from the pace thing, I end up with sweat in my ears when I wear headphones and am always frustrated by the headphone cord bouncing around or getting tight when I turn my head. Also without the music, I find that my mind wanders less and I focus more on the run itself. I think I have about 13 miles of day to day things to think about. On a long run like yesterday there is a sort of magical period between mile 13, when I run out of day to day stuff, and mile 18, when I just want to curl up and die, when I find myself in this almost meditative peace. It is this quiet period before the body starts yelling obscenities at the brain when my mind is clear and there is nothing but appreciating what it means to travel with complete independence. There is no motor, no pedals, no gears, tires or wings...sometimes no road. Just you, your breath, footsteps and the distance. I like that.

I did have some company yesterday. I got chased by several sets of barking dogs on Sierra Highway. Fortunately this is was a common occurrence running back home on East Texas county roads. I find the best way to deal with an aggressively territorial country dog who is chasing you is to turn around and jog backwards while making eye contact with the dog, growling, and harboring thoughts of extreme aggression toward the dog (I figure if they can smell fear, this is like the opposite. it also works on mosquitoes I swear!). This almost always sends them running back home. If this doesn't work, try chasing the dog also while growling. I have only been bitten by a dog once in many years of running. I was able to punch it squarely in the nose (also while growling) and never had a problem with the animal again.

As of tomorrow it is one month to the marathon. I am still a little short on the entry fee but Richard (the awesome race coordinator) is being really patient with me. I'm in the process of ordering all kinds of clothes and kit. Hopefully next weekend I will be able to head north and actually do some running in the cold and snow. YeeHaww!

The begining of the home stretch

2010-03-03T20:24:00.000-08:00

Well I'm neck deep in my first week after getting back from Australia. In case you are wondering, no two weeks lounging around some of the prettiest country on the planet does not make you a faster runner, all it does is make you want to live in Australia in a hundred year old hotel in the middle of nowhere flying crop dusters and driving around in your ute with your trusty blue healer. Aside from getting back to the real world, the other thing that is significant about this week is that it marks exactly one month till the 2010 North Pole Marathon! I have sunk my teeth into training pretty solidly this week so far. I put in two sevens mile runs and did a 9.3 tonight. I'm finding that I'm quite a bit slower than I was before I left. Part of me thinks it is all the muscle mass that quietly dissolved watching the sun set on a sail boat ( I came back from vacation 8 pounds lighter than when I left); another part of me thinks that I just need to wrap my head around running again. All this week I have felt a touch of uncertainty setting out for each run. It is amazing how fast you forget what you are capable of. Most of my training has been on the same stretches of desert around the airport and the path has been continuously marked with my tacks. It must have rained a couple of times while I was away because not only is the desert soft and moist, there is no trace that I was ever there. Its amazing how fast that mean old desert can forget. I guess I never realized how much my own tracks meant to me, they were like a flag stuck in a beach proclaiming that I had already conquered that stretch of ground and that it was therefore safe. It reminds me of the first time I landed a taildragger on a dry lakebed with no windsock, centerline, or edges mowed in the grass. Aside from being forgetful, the desert just seems more hostile this week. The ground is soft and each footstep sinks solidly, the wind hasn't been shy and there have been sprinkles of rain. All of that adds up to seeming kind of hostile after sitting on a warm beach so pure that the harvested its sand to make the Hubble telescope mirror!

Long story short, I've got about three weeks to show that ol desert who's boss before the race (I'm planning to take it pretty easy the week before the race).

Aside from running I'm taking care of a bunch of the other details for the race. I finally booked my flights from LA to the UK. I already had tickets from the UK to Spitsbergen, and Richard has promised me a seat on the plane to the Pole (redeemable as soon as I pay my entry fee). I'm looking at the required equipment list and ordering all the bits I'm missing...including, you guessed it! Racing snow shoes! On top of that I'm still sending out sponsorship letters looking for some corporate bucks. I've put just about every penny I have towards the entry fee for the race and I'm still coming up short. (this is your que to click the sponsorspace link over on the side and send me a few bucks, every little bit helps. Thank you in advance ;)

PS Below is my run from tonight. Nothing to write home about, but it does put me back in the saddle.

Run Down Under

2010-02-23T16:11:00.000-08:00

Holy smokes! It has been a month since my last blog, and close to a week since my last run. I'm on vacation in Australia, roadtripping around central NSW. Before that I was burried at work and burried even more by more work on top of that. It has been nice to get all that out of the way and relax for a while. Yesterday I got to sqeeze in a short 4.7 mile run in Warrenbungles National Park in NSW. The run made up for being short by also being slow. I'm not too worried about it, gimme a break I'm on vacation. :) The park is beautiful, the trail is narrow and runs through the woods and winds its way up towards the peaks of jagged rocks. The morning was cool and full of mosquitos. The trail winds back and forth across a deep cut creek with numerous wooden bridges. Almost all of which were closed because of recent flooding and possible damage. This meant that frequently the path was bypassing bridges and diving headlong into the streambed. I couldnt help but smiling over hoping from stone to stone, karate kid style, across a perfect stream in a perfect lush green forest. No people were to be seen on the trail, but there were numerous kangaroo families, which would dart of the trail and sit and watch me pass from the safety of ten feet away. :) it was a good run

In other news. I'm still looking for donations. Every little bit helps. As of yet, I haven't found any big corporate sponsorships and I'm about out of ideas. Aside from spending the bulk of my lifes savings, I'm still coming up short. Please help if you can and send this link to your buddies

G'day and happy tailwinds

Circumnavigation of Mt Soledad!

2010-01-24T19:35:00.000-08:00

Its Sunday again, which means that I was due for another long run. Being able to track my run with the GPS freed me up from having to run the same course all the time. Today I chose to run around soledad mountain. It wasn't my longest run or my fastest, but there was some more ups and downs, most notably an overpass within a mile or so of the end of the run. Getting over that guy was rough. Actually the last four miles or so of this run was really hard. My legs and lower back were burning and I felt like I was on the verge of cramping up. On the bright side, the weather was great and I dont have any chaffing. :)

Looks like the Marathon distance is within reach. The next steps are to go run in the snow and finish raising the big pile of money I still need. Please feel free to help out however you can. Every dollar counts. I also could ideas and introductions for corporate sponsors. :)

Cloudy Lunch Run and a Neato iPhone Tracker

2010-01-22T14:38:00.000-08:00

Went for a quick run at lunch and used my new iPhone to track my progress. It has used the gps and tracks your pace and elevation. It even logs pictures you take along the way. So Neato!

Thoughts on the Pole

2010-01-17T19:21:00.000-08:00

I did an 18.6 mile run today. Two laps around the airport at a 9 min pace. Slower than the 21.7 mile run last week. The difference lies in the fact that I missed breakfast and it was freakn cold, windy, and raining. It is amazing how being uncomfortable eats away at your mental resolve. I have assumed that the cold and the snow at the pole are horrendous and that is why the fastest men's times are four and a half hours. It is a little scary to imagine what wind and snow and 40 below will be like.

Dudeman Sinks the Bismark!!

2010-01-12T15:25:00.000-08:00

Went for a 7.1 mile run at lunch today. I spent the morning hobbling around, still sore from Sunday, and was trying to talk myself out of going. Then I got a text from my good buddy Justin 'The Dudeman' Gillen asking if I was going for a run at lunch. Obviously I had to go. Justin recently ran the Santa Barbara Marathon in a near super sonic three hours and change. Damn close to a seven min pace. If he wasn't such a nice guy I would have been intimidated by running with a living, breathing rocket ship. Luckily he was really nice about slowing down to my pace and I did my best to speed up (mostly to impress him). It worked out really well! We did the run in a record 54.8 min. That is a 7.7 min pace! Take that 8 min barrier; who's your daddy now!

21.7 miles !!

2010-01-11T13:59:00.000-08:00

Yesterday was a perfect Sunday in Mojave. Warm, no wind, clear sky. A good day for my longest run so far. I did a 21.7 mile run, non stop, at a 8.7 min/mile pace. It was my longest training run by over three miles! I drank 1.6 liters of water and ate a couple of the power bar energy gel packs. Banana Strawberry is disgusting. The route was two laps around the airport and part of a third lap. I took an mp3 player but found I didn't need it and was more comfortable just focusing on my form and breathing... and just enjoying the day. All in all, it was a nice run. The first 18 miles were pretty comfortable. The last bit was hard. I knew that you were more likely to 'hit the wall' after the 18 mile mark and I was mostly stressed for the last three miles that each successive step would be the one where the world came to an end. I didnt find the wall this time around. Aside from being really tired the only squawk that I can report is some sort of fatigue in my lungs or throat. For the last mile or so every breath was accompanied with a buzz or hum that I had no control over.
Also about ten minutes after the run I got really cold. Like teeth chattering REALLY cold.

Today I am sore. But not as bad as on some other runs. I finally feel like the marathon distance is within reach. Yee-Haw!

Happy New Year!

2010-01-08T19:41:00.000-08:00

It has been a while since my last post. In the mean time, it has been a busy couple of weeks. Work has been crazy and I've been getting over a nasty cough. I was getting a little discouraged that I wasn't getting to run much and I seemed to be getting slower. Maybe that is why I haven't written, I have been a little embarrassed at my lack of progress.

I've had a couple good runs this week and have taken stock of where I'm at and actually find myself in pretty good shape. I've busted the 300 mile mark for total training miles, made a new fastest pace for the 9.2 mile course at 8.2 min/mile, and made a new fastest overall pace of 7.2 min/mile for the three mile course. I think I owe the recent increase in speed to Juls. Juls and I have puzzled over my continued soreness after runs. Sometimes I could barely walk a few hours after a hard run. Juls pointed out my general lack of flexibility and my lack of enthusiasm for stretching after a run. All true. I found that I was particularly stiff on the back of my legs; calves and hamstrings. Since then I have been paying extra attention to stretching and flexibility in general. I guess it is paying off. Another one Juls came up with another one that seems to have made a difference. Chocolate milk. Juls read someplace that a big glass after a run aids in recovery. Sure enough. I have tried it after a couple long runs and find my recovery is reduced...or at least that it seems that way.

With increasing flexibility comes some changes in stride. I'm finding that my stride is longer. The cadence of breath doesn't seem to have changed much. In order to maintain the rhythm of the run, my legs are having to move faster relative to my body. I'm finding myself self using my upper body and abdominal muscles to make this happen by twisting at the hips. I'm tending to hold my arms rigid relative to my chest and swing the whole upper body works in the yaw directions out of phase with my hips and leg. This is a departure from my former form. Previously I tended not to twist my spine and only arched my back to aid in breathing. My arms swung at the shoulders and didn't seem to add much energy to the stride. Hopefully I'm getting stronger and I can massage my form to take advantage of the strength

The sound barrier of the moment is the eight min per mile pace for the nine mile course and the seven min mile pace for the short runs. The time versus distance plot of all my runs shows a trend toward a 4 hr marathon. A plot of pace versus calendar days shows a trend toward a 6.7 min per mile pace by early April, which is where we can find the North Pole Marathon.

Long story short. The running is going well. The big hurdle at the moment is funding. I'm gonna need to find some big sponsorship in the near future if I'm gonna have a chance at making the race.

Merry Christmas from Dr Juls!

2009-12-30T18:35:00.000-08:00

Special thanks to my training partner Julia who surprised me with a giant and fantastic Christmas present. I now have in my proud custody plane tickets that will take me from London to Spitsbergen Norway! Thanks to her I'm at least getting my butt to 80 deg North!

Merry Christmas Mr Schroeder!

2009-12-28T12:49:00.000-08:00

Special thanks to my best friend and hero Kyle Schroeder for his special Christmas donation. That puts me over the $3,000 mark. There is still a long way to go, but we are getting there. Thanks Good Buddy.

18.6 miles and a metoer shower

2009-12-15T10:37:00.000-08:00

Sunday night I made my longest run to date. 18.6 miles, which is two laps around the Mojave airport. The sun went down about 2/3 of the way the way through the first lap. The second lap was in the pitch black of a dark clear night. The sky was clear and I was treated to a private meteor shower. My legs look like I ran though a barbed wire fence from the bits that are off a trail and though the open desert. I consumed one and a half liters of water, one ounce of honey, and my entire collection of Steve Earle and most of my Romi Mayes. It was exactly three hours on the move. I was tired when I got done but thanks to some serious post run streatching, I'm not as sore today as I was after the 16 mile run.

Also last week, I made my fasted pace on the 9.2 mile course at 8.3 min per mile. Still not fast, but getting there slowly but surely!

Also. During Sunday's run, I got to thinking about how when you run far, you take alot of steps. Sure enough 18.6 miles is something like 33,000 steps!

One foot in front of the other kiddos.

Thanks to Mike Mangold and Things that Come in 3's

2009-12-04T12:09:00.001-08:00

Special thanks to aviation and air race legend Mike Mangold. Mike says that good things come in three's, and his support is proof enough for me.

Check out his website for more info on a guy that is a true competitor and a hell of a stick.

http://www.mikemangold.us/

Busy Week

2009-12-02T17:53:00.000-08:00

This week is pretty busy one at work. I did manage to squeeze in a three mile last night and a seven in today at lunch. Last night's three was a new fastest pace at 7.6 min per mile. Not a big improvement, but something. I think the full moon made my usual night pace better. The lunch run today was good, it was warm and clear out.

I was looking at the seven mile course today and it is starting to look well worn. Even the parts that are not on a trail, have sort of become a trail. Part of me is tickled to have done something significant enough to be visible, part of me is just surprised that it is so easy to leave a mark on the land

Iron Mike Saves the Day!!

2009-12-02T09:51:00.000-08:00

Thanks to Micheal Albright for his awesome Donation!

16.2 Fueled by Leftovers

2009-11-29T18:53:00.000-08:00

It was a windy and clear Sunday in Mojave today. I set off on my longest run yet in the early afternoon. A sort of ritual seems to be emerging in preparation for the long runs. The short ones are easy, throw the shoes on, stretch, and you're off. The long ones are more complicated. Maybe because there is a little more excitement, maybe a touch of fear. I carefully tie my laces and tuck them in so that they won't chaff but so the also can get snagged on any of the crap in the desert. The camel back gets filled to the brim. Nipples get a dab of neosporin. Stretching is almost meditative. It is sort of like preparing a deep space probe. The run today wasn't impressive by any standard 16.2 miles in 149 min. That is something like a 9.2 min pace. After I was finished I realized that I could have gone faster, maybe I was a little afraid of not making it.

I seem to be haunted by some sort of pace demon. I feel like I have grown my own personal sound barrier. By and large I find my self at a regular 8.4 min pace. I have been thinking of my short runs as 'pace runs' but for the last three weeks or so I'm not any faster. If the cadence of breath is your bodies rpm, then I find that the peak of my power curve is about the speed of Fred Eaglesmith's song "Georgia Overdrive". The stanza of breath is a quick in-in-Blow. The runner's transmission is their stride. My transmission only seems to have two gears. One step to a breath stanza or two steps for a breath stanza. Now I have tried runs in both gears and a few where I swap back and forth. The only difference is where I'm sore the next day. The kicker is that gears are the same speed. ...At least for now!

Special thanks to my Mom who sent me fifty bucks and moved my sponsorship ticker closer to the goal! (she also sent me some really awesome granola)

Also special thanks to Mrs Sara Reed who not only fed me on Thanksgiving, she sent me home with a big pile of leftovers. Some of which fueled today's run.

Halfway Plus. Or the Old Motor's Revenge

2009-11-21T08:44:00.000-08:00

Last Sunday was perfect in Mojave. I was gonna go for a 12.2 mile run but it all felt good and it turned into a 14.4 mile run. That puts me over halfway to the marathon distance. My pace was about eight and a half min per mile. Nothing to write home about, but at least it is about the same pace as my shorter runs.

Last week I watched a documentary about six runner preparing for the Chicago marathon. The runners ranged from world class athletes to first time runners. The most interesting thing was how humble the world class runners were. Almost like they realized that they had tuned their bodies as best they could and the rest was up to chance. Most of the new runners, or at least the non competitive runners, seemed to have this subconscious arrogance. Its hard to explain, but it was interesting. In this film they asked all the runners what they thought about when they were running. That got me thinking about where my mind wanders while I'm running.

For me, long runs are like driving my old pickup. The old girl is a '52 model Chevrolet that I put together in high school. There is no cruise control and driving is a full time job. You have to balance speed with water temp. and are constantly listening for anything out of the ordinary. She is not a powerhouse by any means and is an encyclopedia of quirks. Every start and every shift are an exercise in technique. When you drive cross country, you drive with the dash throttle, which always wants to creep toward idle if you are not paying attention.

Running is alot like that for me. I spend most of the time tinkering with breathing or cadence, or how my feet land in the dirt. For me, keeping pace is like manning that old dash throttle. When my mind wanders, I tend to slow down. It is a constant battle to maintain a head of steam. When I am pushing hard, I find myself breathing with my whole torso. Arched back on the intake stroke and crunch forward on the exhaust stroke. Sometimes I find my self sort of detached from my body just listening to the rhythm of another motor on a road trip. Wind. Step. Step. Intake. Step. Step. Exhaust. Ad infinitum. I am just the driver, making little adjustments now and then. Add a little water, push the pace a little now and then, and enjoy the ride. Other times I let my self be the motor and let the pace be pushed be pushed by some unseen driver. I let my legs and lungs burn. This is my penitence for every old motor I pushed too hard. I imagine all the times I was in a hurry to get some place and let the water temp wander a little too close to the 'H' or when I pushed the rpm a little too far past its comfortable cadence. Maybe I pretend that that all those old motors are driving me and I let them have their revenge.

First Sponsor!!!

2009-11-11T17:53:00.001-08:00

Special thanks to my running partner Julia Tizard for being my first sponsor and for putting me 1.22% closer to my goal. You can check out Dr. Tizard's progress at http://juliatizard.blogspot.com/

A quick one at Lunch

2009-11-11T17:07:00.000-08:00

Today, as an experiment, I did the 9.2 mile course during a long lunch. I worked out pretty well. It was my fastest pace to date for that course, I think because I was worried about getting back to work. I had almost forgotten how nice it is to see where you are going.

I am still looking for sponsors for donations and am open to any suggestions.

New Shoes Hit the Sand

2009-11-10T20:03:00.000-08:00

Ran the seven mile course tonight with the new shoes. They are perfect. Just the right amount of stiffness and bounce. I know its cheesy but I've named the new kicks. The left one I call 'Fram' and the right one goes by 'James Caird'. Fram is a Norwegian ship that was built for ice and polar exploration in the late 1800's. She is a kind of whispered legend amongst sailors and explorers. She is the meter by which all modern ice boats are measured or compared. Aside from her bulled proof wooden hull she had advanced insulation and ventilation that allowed her crews to live in relative comfort where many suffered. Additionally, Fram's hull is an odd bowl shape that was born for ice. Her hull tended to lift her when squeezed by ice, where contemporary hull shapes of the day, particularly in the stern, tended to grab the ice and allow themselves to be squeezed. Fram sailed three major expeditions and holds the distinction of having, at one time, been the ship that sailed the farthest North, and farthest South. I call the left shoe Fram, meaning 'forward', because the left foot leads the way and I like the idea of being carried to the pole aboard my very own Fram. We'll save the James Caird for another day.

The pace on tonight's run was an improvement for the seven mile course, but was still an unimpressive 8.3 min/mile pace. This would me at a 3.6 hour marathon if I could keep it up.

Since the time change and it has started getting dark earlier, I have found myself running almost exclusively at night. If you have ever run in the desert near a town at night you know what this means. Even miles out of town, if there is no moon, any lights at all are relatively blinding. You learn to aim for land marks and let your legs take care of themselves. It is sort of like steering by the stars... except it is more like: Turn left where the fence ends with the trail. Turn left about thirty degrees. Steer through the open desert aiming for the lights of a distant overpass. The desert is a black hole, and only occasionally are the tops of the creosote bushes illuminated by an airplane on short final.

Almost Half Way There

2009-11-09T11:27:00.000-08:00

Sunday was a beautiful day in Mojave. I got a 12.2 mile run in at just under two hours. The good news is that this is close to the half way mark of the marathon distance. The bad news is that my pace was close to a minute per mile slower than on my seven and nine mile runs. I am loosely following Hal Higdon's marathon training schedule but am adjusting it to focus on increasing pace. The other downside of Sunday's run was the amount of water I went though. I drank 1.5 liters of water during the course of the run but I still managed to come back five pounds lighter than when I started. Guess I am gonna need a bigger Camelback.

In other news I got a new pair of running shoes last night and am excited to try them out. They are actually North Face trail shoes. The desert seems to eat shoes for lunch, so this time around I'm trying a little tougher shoe.

Also, I am still on the fund raising warpath. Every little bit helps. You can donate here:

http://www.sponsorspace.com/new_donation.php?memid=9838

... and you will have a buddy for life.

Zach

Howdy and Welcome

2009-11-07T23:49:00.000-08:00

In this blog I'll be keeping track of my training and fundraising efforts for the 2010 North Pole Marathon. To date I have been actively training for about three weeks and have run 59.2 miles. My fastest pace so far has been a 7.8 min/mile on a three mile run. The longest run so far was 9.2 miles (according to google earth). The marathon is April 7th of next year. That leaves plenty of time to train. My biggest hurdle at the moment is raising the €11,900 registration fee in time. The registration fee covers accommodation in Spitsbergen Norway before and after the race, flights to and from the pole, and all the race support that it takes to stage a race in the middle of a frozen ocean.

I can accept donations through Sponsorspace.com which routes donations though PayPal. You can try it out here:
http://www.blogger.com/post-create.g?blogID=5849976375126481341
In exchange for corporate sponsorship, I am offering advertising space on my race jacket.