Run For the Diamonds Race Report

The Run For the Diamonds is a Thanksgiving morning 9 mile race in Berwick, PA that started in 1908. It draws an incredibly elite field (top 8 in both genders get a diamond, the next 8 get a beautiful plaque). I have been wanting to do this race since about 2007, but there was always some conflict: work, the Philadelphia Marathon, being too out of shape, etc. This year I was determined to make it happen, and ran *just* enough this off-season (i.e. probably not enough to sufficiently train for a 9 mile race) to be sure I would do ok and not die.

I made plans to carpool the 1.5 hours to Berwick with my high school cross country coach, Mike, and his wife, Rachel, who are both talented runners and have both *just* missed out on top 16 awards at this race. (Also, these two are both registered for Mooseman 70.3 and Ironman Lake Placid for 2012)! It was ~27 degrees when I woke up on race morning, but it was supposed to warm up to mid-50s during the day, so I wore shorts and brought a bunch of different running tops along, just in case.

hilariously awful race shirt!

I showed up at their house promptly at 7:45, and we arrived in Berwick at around 9:15. The car ride was full of stories of other races, tales from High School, and Mike scaring me to death with a description of the terrain of this race. We picked up our race packets, warmed up, hit the portapotties, got race-ready, and headed to the start which was set to go off at 10:30 am. I decided to run in shorts, a short sleeved tech shirt, arm warmers, and gloves. I started at the front of the middle.. in the midst of maybe 1500 runners? The gun went off and it took me about 12 seconds to cross the start line, which is when I started my Garmin. Rachel had asked me my goal for this race, and I said that I was shooting for 8 min/mile pace, which, once I heard of the terrain (after 2 miles, you run up a non-stop hill for at least a mile), thought that might be a little fast. An 8:00 min/mile pace would put me across the finish line at 1:12, so I tentatively aimed for that as a ballpark finish time.

Unsure of my fitness, and how fast I might actually be able to run a 9 mile race right now regardless of the hills, I took it out at 8 min/mile pace for the first 2 flat-ish miles. This race is a huge party in Berwick - tons of people were out on their porches and lining the streets - drinking beers, smoking cigarettes, etc. Gotta love Pennsylvania!

The first 2 miles felt a little fast and I was cramping a little and wondering how I was going to run 7 more miles at this pace (and 8 min/mile pace is not super intense fast for me.. it should be doable!). It's a testament to how of shape I really am right now. But once we hit the big uphill, I settled into a decent rhythm. It was slow going, but I actually felt better running up the hill than I did for the first 2 miles of that race. I ran up, up, up for what seemed like forever, and then it turned into a steep downhill, and then went back up! Once the downhills started was where I started to have some problems. I am not a great downhill runner, but I knew that if I wanted to make up the time I lost on the slow uphill sections, I would have to push it, so I was basically running as fast as I could down this huge, unrelenting hill. My right knee and leg seemed stiff but I didn't want to stop and stretch it so I just ignored it. It didn't hurt.. just felt weird and a little uncomfortable.

I hit the halfway point at about 38:45 (which was ok, both Mike and Rachel had assured me that it is impossible not to negative split this race, even if you started out like a maniac), rounded a hairpin turn, and saw some young guy puking on the side of the rode. Lovely. I continued to run downhill for most of the rest of the race (mixed in with some quick uphills). It finally flattened out as we started to approach the town, but after running downhill for so long, it actually felt like I was going uphill! I passed the 8 mile clock in about 1:06:xx and knew that there was no way I was going to run a 1:12, so just started hoping I could finish in less than 1:15. At about 8.2 miles, I ran out of steam (funny, this is about the length of all of the "long runs I have done since Ironman Wisconsin). The last mile of this race was the worst part.. it's the same as the first mile (more or less) and is a straight shot down a divided "boulevard" with grass in the middle, which I am assuming is one of the main drags in Berwick. It just kept going on, and on, and on at what felt like a slight uphill grade. I finally saw the finish line, crossed, and was DONE! My legs were jello from those hills and my right knee was bothering me. I tried to stretch it out and then found Mike and Rachel. We went over to where there was food so they could check results, unfortunately, neither of them had super great races so we left without waiting for the awards ceremony.

I ended up finishing in 1:14:36 (8:18 pace), 13 out of 83 in my age group, and 605 overall, out of 1579 total runners.

Garmin data.. at least I kept my heart rate stimulated!

mile splits

We headed out of town, hit up a Sheetz for some MTOs (LOVE SHEETZ!!) And then started the 90 min drive home. Mike decided to take a different route home than we took to the race, and we ended up driving over this mountain and in the "town" of Lopez in Sullivan County. Remember all of that terrible flooding that happened in PA in September? Well, the area that my parents live and the surrounding counties were hit hard. There are bridges closed all over the place. We got to Lopez, and the bridge we needed to take to get home was closed. So instead of turning around, we went straight (the bridge was to the right of us) into the PA State Gamelands hoping that we could go through them and emerge on the other side. 20 minutes later, we were driving up huge rocky ATV trails in a Subaru Outback, splashing through giant mud puddles, and Mike was getting frustrated. Meanwhile, Rachel and I were giggling because in reality, the situation was pretty hilarious. Mike was worried that we were going to pop a tire and be stranded miles into the wilderness with only some water and a Clif Bar. Rachel and I were facebooking back and forth in our iPhones (her in the front seat, me in the back).

the "A" marks Lopez, the green area is where we were driving around lost!

We finally just had to turn around and backtrack because we weren't finding any other way out. 40 minutes after we first entered the Gamelands, we exited in the same place we started, laughing about how there was probably mud all over the side of the car with branches sticking out of the roof rack. There was an older couple walking down the road just past the closed bridge, so Rachel asked them how to get to Wyalusing (which is where they live) and they gave us directions, with the warning that it was 10 - 12 miles and "part of it is a dirt road." Umm.. did you folks NOT see where we just emerged from? Dirt road is fine.

We made the turn onto the detour road, which eventually turned into the widest dirt road we had ever seen, complete with "do not pass" signs. Seriously, I can't believe that a dirt road in freakin' Lopez, PA gets enough traffic to warrant a "do not pass" sign! 20 minutes later, we turned onto a real road. Comments from the car included: "LOOK! a real road!" "it even has a painted line!" and "CIVILIZATION!!" We arrived back at Mike and Rachel's not long after our return to paved roads, and I thanked them for driving and headed home for Thanksgiving dinner with my family!

en-route Facebook conversation between the passengers

Unfortunately, after racing a hard, hilly 9 miles and then sitting in a car for over 2 hours, my right knee was not happy with me. It was stiff and painful to walk. Since the race, I have been taking ibuprofen and icing religiously in hopes that I didn't do any serious damages. Fingers are crossed!

I will DEFINITELY be returning to this race in future years - it was a blast!

Hope everyone had a fabulous Thanksgiving!

big weekend! (big ride/race report)

I haven't blogged at all this weekend because I wanted to wait and do a recap once this weekend was over. This was probably my biggest training weekend so far this year. On Saturday I had a 4 hour ride with the last 90 minutes at tempo pace, with a 30 min T-run at 7:45 pace afterwards. Sunday I had the Flower City Challenge Inaugural 1/2 Marathon. I was to run this as a training run to practice pacing and nutrition. More on this later.

Friday evening I did a breakfast-for-dinner carbo load at Jines. I ate 2 chocolate chip pancakes (I can only eat pancakes if they have choc. chips in them!), 1 egg, hash browns, and 2 slices of toast. Yummmm.

Saturday morning I had a protein shake 2 hours before my ride and some shot blocks 1 hour before. I met Ken and Kim in Victor at 11. We rode through Bristol, around Canandaigua Lake and then back to Victor. It was the perfect weather - 70 degrees. I wore shorts, a jersey and armwarmers. Pulled the armwarmers off maybe halfway through. I ate shot blocks every 45 mins and drank Powerbar Endurance throughout my ride. Kim gave me some salt tabs to try and a mini Snickers bar. I'm going to start riding with both of these things. I also am going to experiment with what I'm drinking as I still think I'm not taking in enough calories. Let me tell you, I think I need to pick it up on my training rides. Kim toasted me and I usually feel pretty confident on the bike. I think I'm doing my E-rides too slowly. This is the great thing about group rides- they motivate you to HTFU! I also hit my tempo pace for the first time ever (on the bike) and got in a good hour at tempo effort. Then we hit Victor (arriving 30 mins ahead of schedule) and that's when I started to unravel. I think it was a combo of losing "the zone" on the bike, and having to go past my car which is where I thought I'd be stopping, and probably not having enough calories. I need to figure out how to tough it through this because I need to be able to ride strongly past the 3.5 hour mark! Lake Placid is only 3 months away so that's like 10 or so long rides left for me to figure this out on!!!!! Did about 70 miles at 17.2 average mph or so. Then I was a mess on the run. My legs were dead and I only pulled an 8:15 pace. Left me feeling discouraged after what had started out as such a good ride. It was sooo good to ride with people.. even if we were spread out at times due to Ken's and my tempo and our slightly differing paces. I'm hoping to make riding with teammates a regular thing on Sundays! So things I learned: need to put in a little more effort on Zone 2 rides, need to eat more on the bike, need to be more confident towards the end of the ride so I can finish strongly.

I ate pasta for dinner and relaxed on the couch (with the cat of course) with my legs up!

I got up at 5:15 this morning, ate a protein shake and some toast for breakfast. Had some shot blocks at 6:30. I picked up Andy and we drove over to the War Memorial. Race started at 7:30. I wore shorts, short sleeved shirt, armwarmers, and a visor. I was feeling pretty sluggish so I did absolutely no warmup. I had a gel at the start. I was instructed to go out at 8:20 pace and then maintain an average pace of 8:05 - 8:35 throughout the race. I went out in about 8:00 (opps). I was feeling pretty crappy for the first 5 or so miles - my legs were super tired. Good thing I had gotten the idea of a PR out of my mind when I saw my race plan because even if I was told to go race my ass off, it wouldn't have happened today. I saw Mary M. on the course a few times and she is an awesome cheerer! I drank a few sips of Gatorade at every aid station. Jason W. caught me on Park Ave. and we ran together til the cemetary. I took some of a gel here but then at that point I had to go to the bathroom (of course) so I picked it up to try to get to a porta-potty. Had to run through the entire cemetary before finding one at like mile 9. In and out in a minute or so. Then I tried to make up some time. Caught back up with Jason and finished feeling pretty good. I dropped my 2nd gel after only having a little bit of it. I really need to switch to shot blocks on the run - it might make me do better at eating. This was my main goal for the race and I did not execute that very well. My chip time was 1:50 but my Garmin says 1:48:something. I think overall pace was 8:14. Other than the first mile I think my pace was pretty good. I started a little too fast which is easy to do. The race was well organized and I loved running through the cemetary! I wish I could have enjoyed it more instead of worrying about a porta-potty! Running with Jason was nice but I think we both slowed down a little, but there were hills when I was running with him so it could have been that (up Goodman and then in the cemetary). It was a nice distraction from my achy legs! I got a nice finisher's medal and a plastic beer cup thing. I am all for supporting the city of Rochester!

So all in all..

Nutrition: I sucked. I HATE gels. I need to stop trying to force myself to eat them and switch to something that I know I will eat. I did that on the bike and maybe I will have to do it on the run as well. Gels are convenient but they are horrible.

GI Issues: This also wasn't good. I couldn't go before the race and that was my problem. If I could have gone I would have been fine for the race. I was out of applesauce which is totally my fault. I will try the applesauce thing next time.

Pacing: OK, but could have been better if I had gone out more slowly.