Wishing our weekend racers a fun and speedy race weekend!
Please run a mile for us who are on the sideline.
04.07 tetsujin - Yakima River Canyon Marathon (wooden geta sandals)
04/07 Opie - County Senior Olympics track meet (the first of my life) 800m & 1500m, Las Cruces, NM
04/08 analogkid - Statesman Cap10k - Austin, TX
04/08 runr_nut -Statesman Cap 10, Austin
"Champions are everywhere; all you need is to train them properly..." ~Arthur Lydiard
It's unclear whether the 800m race will happen in the morning because I may be the only one signed up. There are supposedly 5 of us running in the 1500m and it will be an automatic PR because I've never raced in that distance!
"I didn’t run a race until I was 41 and that was a marathon! Let that sink in for a minute." -me
In the 1500m (which was about a mile for me because I didn't know I was supposed to cut over to lane 1), I got 6:51.8. Very happy with this time because I told my Coach, Neely Spence Gracey, that I would like about 7 min. AG win & 2nd overall! Then after it kept getting hotter, we ran the 800m and I got 3:26.8. Another AG win & 2nd overall!
Nice running Opie. I ran the 880 in high school. Not quite sure if I'd want to try that again. At least not in public.
I didn't know what running was in high school!
barefootin'
Heading out for Saint Louis 7k. First race in six years!
43:30 and can't complain!😃
Bill Wagnon / stl
Marathon Maniac #957
Opie - nice racing!
Life is a headlong rush into the unknown. We can hunker down and hope nothing hits us or we can stand tall, lean into the wind and say, "Bring it on, darlin', and don't be stingy with the jalapenos."
Trails are hard!
Nice racing Opie. I share Dave's experiences with the 800. About all I remember is that it was painful.
STG--welcome and congrats on first race in forever. We have another bare-footer here you can trade tales with. Good luck
Need a fast half for late fall. Then I need to actually train for it.
Nice racing Opie. Does that beat your Reckless Redneck time?
Paul's blog
It does, which is amazing in a couple of ways, right? First, that I'm several years older. Second, that this was flat and that was a steep downhill. I have them entered in my log here as separate PR's because my watch says I ran slightly under a mile, about 1530 m. If I had been in an outer lane, I probably would have done a mile. It's so weird, was talking with a running friend after church this morning, and we thought you were supposed to stay in your lane. I guess it depends where they start you. In the 800, I cut over when instructed after the curve.
MM#209 / JapanJoyful#803
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Nice barefoot running STG.I’ve been the same since 1990: running barefoot except on trails, . . .
and when the roadways are sometimes worse than the trails.Yakima River Canyon Marathon - 2018SUMMARY: Ever since Barefoot Todd made it all the way and I made it part of the way before putting on my emergency thongs due to rough roadway chipsealing of sharp, crushed gravel, I’ve run all five of my YRCM in either my Merrell Bahria trail thongs or Japanese wooden geta sandals. However, some repaving of the canyon hiway made it possible, albeit it barely for the last six miles, to run the last 14 miles sans shoes. They need to pave the rest, though, before I’ll recommend it, or do it again that way. This time (2018) - 7:57:38 first time (2003) - 4:47:17 What a difference 15 years makes - 3hr/10min.. Doesn’t matter, though, because some marathons are too special for time to matter anyway. HILLS - along with the challenge of daunting ascents in the latter miles of the Portland (mile 17) and Seattle (miles 21/22), the relentless 1.3 mile ascent up Rosa Hill to the upper reaches of the Yakima River Canyon Marathon from mile 23 makes it the most challenging of all. The vista of the river below where we’d just been running and the joy of the final descent down the other side to the finish line fill even the worst hill-haters with awe..ROSA HILL - the hills all have names to those of us who love them and all are like seeing long-lost friends again that I’ve always strived to run all the way up to the tops no matter what. It’s always worked, . . . until now. I was doing fine with my current aging-era version running when a 50-yo Marathon Maniac friend from the regular start seemed to be struggling as he slipped by me with barely a grunt of greeting at the bottom of Rosa Hill. There was still about a mile to go but, as he slowly forged ahead, I couldn’t help remembering so many times I’d left similarly-fading runners in the dust in Seattle, Portland and here too so buckled down and pushed harder and harder to catch up enough to turn and say with glee as if from the old childhood game: “Sorry.” However, that was that and, for the first time in 42 years of annual marathons, I had to walk up a familiar that used to run with ease. <<<(ed note: ease - “a lot of effort&rdquo>>> Somehow, though, the exhileration of gaining the final turn to look down the canyon towards the finish made it one of the best ascents of all..GETA - otherwise, for another first time, my overly-casual approach to marathons resulted in some of the toughest miles I can remember. In particular, the old canyon road features 26.2 miles of so much sharp crushed rock embedded in the chip-seal pavement that I’ve been reduced to wearing either my Merrill Bahria trail thongs or, since the marathon weekend is also an annual reunion of the 100-Marathon Club, the Japanese wooden geta I like to wear with the All-Japan 100-Marathon Joyful Running club happy-coat and suegasa straw farmer’s hat. .BAREFOOT - therefore, I was delighted to learn that, from mile 12, the canyon road had suddenly become barefoot friendly with so much shiny new pavement that I ditched the wooden geta at an aid station and ran the final 14 miles au natural feet. Both resulted in a number of selfies along the way from other runners who obvious must have held my running in such high regard having nothing to do wiht my getup. <<<(ed note: . . . oh, forget it)>>> .CHIPSEAL - unfortunately, floating along the blessed shiny-new, smooth pavement like on a cloud as also happens when driving a car from a rough, gravel road to the start of a brand-new pavement section, only lasted until mile 20 where, unbeknownst to me it was back to the normal chip-seal..The absence of my usual caution of stringing a cut-down Japanese zori thong in my fanny pack belt for rough spots that I assumed there wouldn’t be any of this time, made the last 10K such a cautious struggle of pussyfooting that the entire 26.2 miles ended up taking almost two more hours than 6:00:07 in Portland only a year-and-a-half ago. However, being somewhat stubborn, the clock doesn’t deter me one bit from thinking that an elusive sub-six might still be possible, especially with a 2:56 half mary last month. <<<(ed note: it’s okay, let him dream)>>>..PRE/POST FESTIVITIES - as usual nowadays, the pre-and-post marathon activities at yesterday’s Yakima River Canyon Marathon, especially the annual reunion of the 100-Marathon Club, were even more enjoyable, if not more so, than the actual running. .YRCM DEVOTEES - in addition to many states, the 200 marathon runners (and same for a half) came from Canada, England and Japan. Even though his running days ended in 2014 with foot surgery lingering from Vietnam, one fan’s still comes every year to volunteer. Another veteran of all 18 YRCM’s has a 35-yr running streak and another runner who’s running streak ended at 27-years after heart surgery, still comes over for an annual excuse to run a marathon with so many friends. AGING RUNNERS - three 80-yo’s finished in 6:45, 7:54 and 8:30, respectively.Club awards included two 70+-yo’s:Gunhild Swanson (Spokane) - first and only lady 70+’er to finish Western States.Jeff Hagen (Yakima) - dozens of U.S.-and-world records, most recently including for his new 70-74 AG, . . . . a. 24-hours: 110.2 miles. . . . b. 100 miles: 21:54:04.SPEAKER (70-yo) - in fact, instead of a more nationally renown banquet speaker this year, Jeff addressed “The Power of the Mind in Ultramarathoning and Life” by noting that ultramarathoning is 20% legs and 80% mental. He related to a lot of us by proving it with his 40-years of very, very minimalist training for ultra-marathons - 15 miles/week instead of 50-or-70 to 100m/w. In addition, his walk-running “reverse Galloway” (for the run-walk marathon king) for ultra-success was the same as most of us slower runners do anyway, . . but are too embarrassed to admit to out-loud and certainly didn’t know how much it helped the elites too..MILESTONES - maybe because the RD, now-88-yo Bob Dolphin (502 marathons from 1978 - 2014) founded the U.S. 100-Marathon Club in 1993, their YRCM provides special personalized medal plaques for finishing 1st, 100th, 200th etc. marathons so I strongly recommend potential qualifiers do it at Yakima if at all possible. Thanks to Bob and Lenore for another great YRCM 2018 and, with the YRCM surely going to outlast us all, many more to come.
"Enjoy yourself. Your younger days never come again." 100yo T. Igarashi to me in geta at top of Mt. Fuji (8/2/87)
Tet - wow! It's hard enough to run 26.2 for those of us who wear shoes, but I can't imagine how painful it would be on sharp terrain like that. Well done!
MM #5615
That was a fantastic report, tet! Congratulations! I promise I’ll do my 100th there if you do it with me.
Nice run Tet, shoes or no shoes you are an inspiration.
Statesman Cap 10 was the first 10k I have run in a long time. Not totally disappointed but feel I could have done better, ended up 538 out of 18762 finishers. 4th in AG, I was satisfied with a negative second 5k split.