Random Thoughts Thursday – Running Topics

Preface:

After running (pun intended) this blog for a few years, sometimes it is a bit tough to come up with topics to write about. Fortunately for me, Sara Kurth has published a massive list of potential blog topics that focuses on running (check out her blog here, ***).

When did you first consider yourself ‘a runner’?

Although I ran cross country and track & field (1600 m and 3200 m) in high school, I never saw myself as a true runner. Well, technically, I did run cross country for about a week in college. During my high school life, I pretty much participated in these sports because they were “easy sports”. I have never really been a sports guy so I was not interested in playing more traditional sports like baseball, basketball, or football. Boy, was my grandfather a bit disappointed that I did not show any interest in baseball as a little kid because “it was in my blood”. Random trivia about my family: my grandfather and two of my great uncles played baseball in the Negro League. Oh wait, I did play soccer until my middle school years, but I was not interested in pursuing it any further.

See, I already became distracted. Let’s answer the question at hand. I started considering myself a runner when I started paying to run New York Road Runners (NYRR)-sponsored races. I guess that would have started back in 2011. For me, I think that’s when running transitioned from a passive hobby to an active hobby because I’m pretty cheap. That said, I often do not consider myself a true or a hardcore runner even though I have run over 5 marathons. Here are some (mostly superficial) reasons:

• I typically own only one pair of running shoes at a time.

• I find it difficult to engage with the local running community. I believe that I have blogged about my issues with running groups. To be perfectly honest, most of these are my issues and not running groups . . . for the most part.

• I do not really keep up with elite runners or new advancements in the sport.

• I rarely stick with my training plans.

• Most of the time, I run just for the sake of running (ie ain’t sh*t else to do).

Since I was beating myself up a bit with this short list, I’ll add some humor to offset the negativity. With the help of the Thrillist article “30 signs you’ve officially become a runner”, I’ve listed the five signs that I identify with. Here’s the list in case you are interested (link: ***)

• You’ve started Googling road races in exotic locations you want to visit.

• You have to do laundry twice as often.

• You’ve started to keep deodorant at your desk at work.

• You’ve hated yourself during a race.

• You’ve started to think of distances in terms of how long it would take for you to run that far.

Race Report: NYCRuns Brooklyn Half Marathon

DATE: APRIL 24, 2022; 7:40 AM

DISTANCE: 13.1 MI

PLACE: BROOKLYN, NY

WEATHER:  55F 

OFFICIAL TIME / PACE: ???/???

FINISHERS: ???

SWAG: TECH SHIRT

While this was my worst half marathon performance to date, which was expected, I absolutely LOVED this course.

Race Expo:

Overall, I thought that the expo was pretty nice and easy-breezy even if the expo site was super far for me.

While the expo was nice and pretty straight to the point, it gave me a chance to check out Industry City, which has been described as a creative workspace where folks can eat, drink, shop, and explore. After I picked up my race stuff, I figured that I would check out all (or most of) what Industry City had to offer.

IC was nice and had a variety of shops; but unfortunately, most of the restaurants, bars, and shops were closed during my visit. I thought it was kind of weird because I picked up my race materials around 6:30 pm and figured that more things would be open. I guess most of the shops are open over the weekend when more folks are around.

Prerace:

It’s kinda weird, but it seems as if I did more prerace prep for a half that I did not really care too much about.

Not sure if this is snow or snot.

I carbo-loaded by grabbing a pizza pie at Sottocasa, one of my favorite pizza spots in Harlem. Also, I laid out ALL (very rare) of my race and post-race materials and was in bed by around 1 am. I was faced with a bit of a conflict (as always) to go with or without bag check. From my understanding, 6:40 am on race day was the last point where one could check their bags. However, my wave was going to start at 7:40 am. This meant that I would have to leave my apt in Harlem by 5:30 am (public transportation) or 6:00 am (Uber/cab) to travel to Brooklyn to meet the bag check deadline. Meaning, that I would have had to wake up around 4 am to get ready. In the end, I decided to skip bag check because that meant I could “sleep in” and leave the apt around 7 am to take a cab to the start. Of course, I saw this email after going through my internal conflict.

Half Marathon Time:

Normally, I do these reports by breaking them up into 3-4 segments based on mileage. Since I did not really care too much (performance-wise) about running this half marathon, I’ll just randomly mention some thoughts.

-Why are folks so damn annoying? Unfortunately, we are at a point in our lives where large NYC races have security checkpoints. One of my biggest pet peeves is when folks wait in a line for 10+ minutes and do not have their stuff ready when they get to the front of the line. In this case, the security point required folks to go through metal detectors. Please tell me why folks did not have enough sense to remove some of their metal items (eg smartphones, Garmins/Apple Watches, jewelry, etc) before getting to the front of the line. The same thing annoys me when people do not have their money ready by the time they reach a cashier. Sorry for the rant. Perhaps, I was crabby because I really had to pee and folks’ bullsh*ttery was preventing me from getting to the portapotties after the security checkpoint.

-I absolutely loved this course. I think that I’m going to say that it was my favorite half marathon course in NYC. Why was it my favorite? I really enjoyed running through various sections of Brooklyn, which were accompanied by amazing views of our city.

-While I enjoyed the course, I wonder if I would have enjoyed it as much if I did not do my run-walk-run cycle. During my walking cycles, I had plenty of opportunities to take in the sights of Brooklyn. If I have to walk during a normal half, it’s typically due to an injury or some other struggle so it was a different (and well appreciated) flavor to walk on purpose.

-Even though I did the run-walk-run method, I tried my best to actually run (~8:30 – 9min/mi pace). Although this is not a “normal” way to run a half marathon, I did feel like I was working hard.

-Ugh, I think I am at that age/physical state, where I cannot complete a half marathon without a bathroom break. Well . . . then again, it did take me longer to run this half. Actually, I take this back because I was holding my pee starting around mile 3. Since I started in the last corral of the last wave, the lines for the portapotties along the course were super long. At first, I thought that I could hold my pee, BUT I really had to take a poop. I decided to stop by a Burger King along the course to take a quick poop. Man, when I entered the men’s bathroom it was so filthy that my booty hole was like Naw, we’re good and will hold it until after the race. At least, I got a “cute” Burger King crown. While the bathroom was gross, I gotta give props to the employee who said that I did not need to purchase anything to use the restroom. She probably knew how nasty the bathroom was.

-While the crowds during most of the course were kind of small, there were enough of a crowd not to make you feel like a red-headed stepchild.

-I really liked the race bling. I think this might be the most colorful half marathon medal that I have seen in a long time.

-LOL at brunch. I really did not plan on having a boozy brunch. After learning that one glass of sangria was $11, but the bottomless brunch cocktail special was $20/hr, I figured that going with the bottomless option was a no-brainer.

-Has Uber lost its mind in your neck of the woods? After my brunch, this is how much Uber was trying to charge me to take me from downtown Brooklyn to Harlem. Note: A regular taxi cost about $25 bucks to take me from Harlem to the start area in Williamsburg, Brooklyn.

Starting from Scratch – 1st Quarter Update

I gotta say that the first 3 months of 2022 have not been so great in terms of running. Actually, this quarter has not been so great in several aspects of my life. I guess this is fine because April (for me) has always marked the beginning of Spring, which is all about rebirth and all of those other warm fuzzy sentiments.

Main targets for the first quarter

Rather than beating myself up about not hitting these goals, I guess that I will shimmy these on over to the 2nd quarter of 2022. It’s probably better than I move these goals over because I probably lost all the progress that I have made while training for and running Fred Lebow Half Marathon (Jan.) and Rock n Roll New Orleans Half (Feb).

Unfortunately, the month of March has been plagued with a couple of injuries that kept me from improving on my half marathon times.

Besides meeting the goals in the above picture, I have/had a couple of goals for 2022

-Run a half marathon each month.

-Run 2022km by Dec. 31

Running a half marathon each month:

This goal is now out of the question since I could not get over my injury in time to run last weekend’s Run Love Philly Half Marathon. I’m not going to beat myself up too badly about missing this goal because there were some things that were out of my control. When I signed up for these half marathons in December (at least the Jan – Mar ones), the college course that I teach was supposed to be virtual. However, a couple of weeks before the semester began, the college changed the course from virtual to in-person. I‘m not complaining too much about this change because I prefer teaching in person. Since I had already made my travel arrangements for New Orleans, I told the department that I made these plans before the department decided to make the course in-person. I’m not sure that I could have pulled that excuse (again) for Philly’s half marathon. That said, I did request off for April’s Brooklyn Marathon. Well . . . actually, the Brooklyn Marathon is going to be a half marathon for me because there was no way that I could train for a full marathon on a bum leg.

Image courtesy of NYCRuns

To be perfectly honest, this upcoming half marathon will be more of a walk->run->walk->run situation. Depending on how the next couple of weeks go, I plan on doing the following: walk (1mile)->run (1mile), rinse and repeat for 13.1 miles. If I can run the 1st three miles and do my walk->run->walk cycle, then great. If not, oh well . . . feet smell.

Image courtesy of NYCRuns

Taking another peek at the course, I guess that I’m not missing too much by switching my registration from the full marathon to the half marathon. After Mile 13, the full marathon pretty much is an in-and-out course along Ocean Parkway, which can be a bit boring.

Running 2022km (1264mi) in 2022

To meet this goal, I have to run about 168.5km per month. Looking at my total mileage (errrr kilometrage) as of March 31, I’m a bit off of my goal.

At this point, I’m supposed to be around 505.5km so I’m about 63.5km (40mi) off of my goal. Although I’m a bit off of my target monthly mileage (errr kilometrage), I think that I can still make 2022km by Dec. 31. Now, my target monthly kilometrage is 176km (109mi), which is about 5.8km (3.6mi) a day. If I do not have any other issues with my leg (fingers and toes cross) or other random BS, I think that I can manage this new goal, especially through easy runs.

Becoming more social:

During the next quarter, I’m going to try my hardest to get reconnected to NYC running culture through my running groups. You know, until people get on my damn nerves.  Right now, I’m a half-assed member of two in-person groups (Harlem Runs and Front Runners NY) and one virtual group (Black Runners Connection). HA! I was even featured in Front Runners’ Member Spotlight in February.

https://www.instagram.com/p/CZhFlysuaWB/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link

For some, it might be a huge honor, but in this case, I was a bit conflicted.

-It’s clear that they wanted someone of African descent to be featured because of Black History Month. Also, I’m probably one of 5-7 (I’m being generous with these numbers) active (well . . . near active) African descent/Black members of the group.

-For the spotlight, you are asked to answer a few questions. I will admit that I felt a certain way with this question: Black History Month – Is there anything you want to see from the running industry as it pertains to Black runners? If the club is trying to show that they improving diversity, shouldn’t all members be asked this (or a similar question)? While probably an oversight, the person who sent me a list of the questions didn’t bother to keep the font consistent with the other questions.

Actually, let me stop there because this is supposed to be a positive (or a near positive) update.

Running update

I do not even remember what I’m training for . . . or to a larger extent even care what I’m training for. I don’t know, but I think that I have lost my running mojo over the last few weeks. Well, technically, I lost my running mojo at the beginning of the pandemic and have spent the last couple of years trying to get it back. There have not been many running-specific updates because it seems like one injury turns into another (or life gets in the way). Over the past couple of weeks, I have been dealing with a couple of leg injuries. First, I thought it might have been a stress fracture in my shin (or really bad shin splints), which more or less went away after modifying my cardio boxing workouts. Now, the calf muscle has been a bit problematic. For instance, my calf muscle does not bother me when I walk, but I experience mild soreness once I start running. I’m not really sure where to go from here. Actually, I wonder if last week’s deep tissue massage is playing a role in this injury. Perhaps, my muscle was injured, but the deep tissue massage really exacerbated it.

It’s like every time I get some steam going in a fitness journey, there’s something around the corner that takes me out. Perhaps, I just need to take a break from running for a bit.

In earlier posts, I’ve mentioned that I had two long-term goals for 2022.

Run/jog 2022 km in 2022

1. Run at least one half marathon (or full marathon) during each month.

2. I’m only three months into 2022, and I do not really care if I reach goal one or goal two.

GOAL 1: RUN/JOG 2022 KM IN 2022

Based on my mileage (err, “kilometrage”), I did not hit my running goal in Feb. To run 2022 km in 2022, I need to run at least 168.5km (105.3mi) each month. However, logged about 98km in February. Basically, I feel pretty defeated on my trek to run 2022 km this year, and we are only in the 3rd month of the year. Then again, my recent injuries have been screwing up things left and right. Honestly, I do not think that I have been overexerting myself because most of my runs are easy runs. Perhaps, these “easy” runs are not so easy on my body.

GOAL 2: A HALF MARATHON (OR FULL MARATHON) EACH MONTH.

This goal was DOA before I really could get it up and running (no pun). In addition to my main job, I work as an adjunct professor of biology at a local college. Since my main job is a standard 9-5/6, I typically teach during the weekends (12:30 – 3 pm). When the college asked us for our availability for the Spring semester, I was under the impression that my course would be virtual as it has been for the past four semesters. Literally, 1-2 weeks before the semester was set to start, I was told my course would be in person. Fortunately, I’m only teaching on Sundays, 12:30 – 3 pm. Unfortunately, for this running goal, most half marathons are held on Sundays, which causes a time conflict. For instance, I had to cancel class last month in order to travel and run in New Orleans. Because of class, I probably will not run this month’s half-marathon in Philly. If this semester’s class was virtual, I do not think it would be a big issue running half marathons outside of NYC and teaching because I would not have to be in NYC to teach a virtual class.

That said, I’m going to try my hardest to run next month’s Brooklyn marathon. If I’m able to run a marathon, I have a feeling that it’s going to be 70% walking and 30% running depending on what’s going on with my calf. I guess time will tell.

Then again, we’ll see what happens. Over the weekend, I was supposed to run a 5K, and I was so over it that I stayed home EVEN after putting on my running clothes.

Believe it or not, I was looking forward to this NYRR race because it’s one of the few races that is held outside of Central Park.

Ok, let’s talk about something a bit more positive, which does not have anything to do with running. Another goal for 2022 is to read more, and the plan is to read at least two books each month. Seems like a moderate goal since the New York Public Library book loans are for two weeks. Here are my current books:

I decided to start with Mayer’s The Gut-Immune Connection, and I am loving it so far. I have often told folks that I would have studied something at the interface of oncology, immunology, and microbiology if I could redo my Ph.D. life. Over the past couple of years, I have been so fascinated by the recent advances in linking the microbiome to various types of cancers.