I’ll admit it. I like to run with music or podcasts. Given that many of my runs are solo, it’s almost a requirement.

I’ve been searching for the perfect earphones to run in for quite a while. Honestly, I’ll probably be searching forever.

Some History First:

I’ve been through Bluetooth headsets (oh, how I’ve gone through these… )

I’ve been through Apple headphones (and my, don’t they break easily?)

I’ve tried the add-on pieces (Yurbud? eh.)

I’m not the perfect runner. Once I get up to temperature, I quickly go OVER temperature and sweat. It’s not drenching (so I say, my wife would probably disagree), but it’s definitely present.

So, headphones present a challenge.

• They must stay in place.
• They must not block my hearing.
• They must not die after the second run.

What I’m not focused on:

• Sound Quality – I wear these while running. That means that it’s either High energy music, or podcasts. In neither situations do I listen to anything with a critical ear. As long as it’s putting out a waveform that is close to the original (by my general definition, not an oscilloscope), I’m fine.
• Fashion. I wear Vibram 5 Fingers everywhere. My fashion sense is skewed to begin with.

Jaybird JB-200:

Bluetooth, good battery life, sweat proof. These, honestly were pretty good for me. The controls weren’t great (in fact, they were very hard to use), but once you got them situated, they tended to work, and you didn’t have a cord down your front. The company offered a free replacement guarantee for sweat damage, and backed it up. I took them up on it once after 8 months of use.

But, I also managed to sit on them, breaking the plastic. Discontinued, no way to replace. Sadness.

Plantronic’s Backbeats:

Similar design to the Jaybird, also bluetooth. Most definitely NOT sweat proof. I’m very glad I ordered via Amazon, as I went through 4 pairs of these (I think) before giving up. None of them lasted more than a week. No picture for you!

Apple earbuds:

Does anyone NOT know what these look like?

I’ve got a ton of these lying about the house. Most of them don’t work anymore. They worked in a pinch, and the simple ones kinda still do. The ones with controls and Microphones… Not so much. Slick enough that there are definite issues with staying in place.

Random cheap generic earbuds:

I picked up a pair of gummyish ones for less than 10 bucks, at a Walmart if I remember correctly. Most definitely was not very good sound quality, but they did work, and actually still do, remarkably. I put a pair of Yurbuds on them a while back to try to stabilize them, and that worked ‘ok’.

Various In-Ear buds:

I’ve got several brands of these. Soundwise, they are probably the best sounding phones I’ve got, but I can’t run in them. They block the outside sound WAY too much, and aren’t comfortable to wear running or extended timeframes.

Jaybird Freedom 3:

Oh, I wanted these to work. I trusted the company to build a good product based on the previous design. They were smaller, nicer. And unfortunately, In-ear. I tried all of their earpiece options, but the final straw was when one of the earpiece’s came off the earphone, and lodged in my middle ear. On a run. Away from home. After driving home with it still in my ear, and with some assistance from my wife and needle nose forceps, it was painfully removed, and those went back to the store the same night.

Whew.

Ok, enough History.

Enter the Auria Exceed’s:

I found these at the Walt Disney World Marathon Expo. I had planned on wearing my <$10 earphones during the marathon, and wasn’t really looking for anything in particular. I honestly don’t remember what made me come over to listen, but I’m glad I did.

Auria doesn’t seem to have a huge presence, and I had never heard of them before. So, I was a bit skeptical of most of their claims.   X-Fit, enhanced audio, blah, blah, blah. Everyone has heard the same claims from every audio manufacturer out there.

Auria actually did something different. If you look at the picture above, there are flanges on the side of the base. Those kinda lock onto the soft sides of your ears, gently. It’s rather hard to explain, or even illustrate, as evidenced by the fact that the manufacturer DOESN’T.

But it works.

1. To my first requirement, these stay in place. And they do it very comfortably. I’m of two minds here. They don’t FEEL like they are going to stay in place. They feel rather precarious. But they don’t move. It’s something that I’m still not quite used to, after a month.
2. And, because they are held outside of the ear canal, outside sounds don’t have a problem coming in. Yes, you can turn them ALL THE WAY UP, and it’s going to be difficult to hear anything else, but honestly, isn’t that YOUR fault more than the headphone?
3. To the last point, I’m still running in them after a month. I ran the Disney Marathon with them in place continuously, in 70 degree heat. I was sweating pretty decently. I’m guessing that the same design that hold them in place also helps keep the electronics away from the sweat, prolonging life.

Potential Problems:

Now then, I wouldn’t say all is perfect.

I bought the Exceed’s, which have a microphone, volume slider and button for controlling the iPhone. This is most likely where I’m going to have the most problems with them. The Volume slider is a simple resistance function, and in my experience, these things always end up crackly and failed. I’m hoping I’m wrong, but fear I’m not. I really wished they had gone the electronic way and controlled the volume similar to the Apple earbuds, but that adds cost, and would likely restrict their market to just iDevices. Unfortunate, but understandable.

I also fear that the whole assembly isn’t hardened to prevent sweat from destroying it. Time will tell on that.

They do have two other models. The Zeal is same thing, but with upgraded audio. I couldn’t tell the difference on the expo floor, so I passed. Perhaps they really are better and my very brief sample wasn’t good enough to notice. However, I’m afraid that the microphone, volume and button assembly looked VERY similar, so I’m concerned about spending even more for something that wasn’t going to last.

The Base model, the Provoke, is actually probably the best model. It’s the same audio head at the ones I have, but without the microphone assembly. It’s also $10 cheaper. When/If my current ones die, I’m pretty sure I know which ones I’ll be replacing them with.

Final words:

I’m really happy with these. I wore them for 4 and a half hours and outside of the microphone in my face because of the way I was wearing it, I never had a problem with them. I can’t say that about any set of headphones ever. They really don’t FEEL like they should stay in place, but they do. It’s a weird feeling.

These aren’t going to be something that I’m using while mowing the lawn. Noise reducers there, please.

I don’t know that the inline controls are going to fail. There is a bit of cut out at the bottom of the range that leads me to believe they have a limited lifespan. I hope it doesn’t get worse.

But I’m thrilled with the earpiece. I’d love to hear the upgraded audio units with an inline control that doesn’t feel like it’s going to fail. Having said that, if these do fail, I’m getting a set of the entry level models without the inline control.

I don’t know where to get them except at their website: www.auria.com

And because disclaimers are so today… I don’t have a connection to them. I bought the earphones on my own, and was impressed enough to put this out there.

Synopsis: Yes, It works with the RS800CX. Yes, if you have an RS800CX you want to buy it. If you don’t own the RS800CX, don’t bother reading more.

I’ve been using a Polar Rs800CX PTE since I started to run. I’ve always believed that you tend to do better buying a model of anything that you can grow into rather one that will be limiting. The Polar is absolute proof of this for me. I haven’t seen a HRM that makes me want to upgrade (in fact, I contend there aren’t any HRM’s that I can UPgrade to. Even the ‘successor’ RCX5 doesn’t have some the capabilities of this watch.)

There are so many functions in this watch that I’ve never used. To date, I haven’t touched the bike components. (although I do own them, unlike the bike itself…)

ANYWAYS…

The one thing that has never been a great part of this package was the GPS module.

Polar takes a different approach to GPS than almost everyone else. (Of course, Polar takes a different approach to almost everything. Enter ANT+ vs W.I.N.D. discussion. End discussion.)

The watch itself doesn’t contain any GPS chips, it’s all in a separate module.

This can be great. Calibrated footpods can be more accurate. And, if you don’t want GPS or it doesn’t give any information (treadmill), then don’t use it. If you are running with the footpod and the GPS, then it uses both. The watch itself isn’t a huge brick on your arm. It doesn’t have to be recharged. Once a year, give or take a month, you replace the battery with another coin cell. I rather like this.

BUT.

The GPS I originally used was the G3.

Pluses:

• Waterproof.
• Used single AA battery, including Rechargeables.
• Would eventually lock on to GPS satellites, and generally stayed there.
• Long battery life (relatively speaking)

Cons:

• It was REAL picky about it’s Single AA Battery.
• Took Forever to lock onto GPS Satellites.
• HAD to be worn on the arm. Put it on a fuel belt or otherwise on the waistline, and you’d get dropouts and problems.

It’s NOT a HORRIBLE device by any means. I got used to wearing it on my arm. Although with an iPhone on my arm as well, it really brought out the cyborg comments. It wasn’t heavy, to be honest, but you did feel it. I have slammed the thing into road signs cutting corners close.

The biggest issue I had with it was the battery. This thing REQUIRED a minimum of 1.5V under load to start up. Most Rechargeables just aren’t there. The Eneloop low discharge rate batteries generally were close, and you could finagle one to work… If it came off the charger hot, immediately and you made the appropriate sacrifices. You’d hold the power button for a couple of seconds, watching the status lights. If you were luck, you’d see the GPS light start to flash AND keep flashing. If you got it to the Green lock light, you were generally good until the end of your run, unless it was more than 10 hours…

More often, however, you’d get about 3 flashes from the Signal lock light, and then never see anything more. To infuriate you even more, you could occasionally take the battery out, put it back in, and get it to start up. But it was never reliable there. A battery that worked fine one day would come off the charger and fail.

So, most runs, I’d fiddle with it for 5-10 minutes beforehand. And when you got done with that run, that battery was toast. There was NO way it would start the unit again without going on the charger. Even for a quick 3 mile run.

Races, however, got the Energizer Lithium batteries. These would jump start the device VERY well, and would last quite a while. I’d always use the race battery for a week or so afterward, enjoying not having to worry about it. Even buying in bulk from Sam’s Club, these are expensive.

Enter the G5.

I was interested.

No more batteries (microUSB rechargable! 20 Hour life!)

No more armstrap (Polar still includes one! It’s in a drawer somewhere!)

The picture doesn’t do it justice. It’s smaller than a pack of gum. Think of a slightly wide USB key.

Simply put, I haven’t worried about batteries anymore. I charge the G5 occasionally (when I remember). This locks on quicker than the G3. I don’t care how much quicker. I press the button on it, put it in the window and put my shoes and heart rate strap on. It’s ready.

Then it just goes into a pocket on my shorts and I forget about it.

The only 2 issues that I’ve ever had with it:

1. It’s failed to lock on twice by the time I was ready. I turned it off, back on, and it was locked in 30 seconds or less. I can live with this.
2. I’ve started to run off without it several times. It’s been in the window, and I’ll forget to grab it. I’ve gotten VERY used to not having the thing on my arm.

I think it’s more accurate than the G3. There were times that I could look at the map and see where the G3 lost it’s lock for a second or two, and then re-established. Percy Warner park comes to mind with it’s trees. I’ve yet to see evidence of the G5 doing so.

I love running with this. I’m VERY glad I upgraded. I’m VERY glad I have a HRM that allows me to upgrade just the GPS and keep the rest. Eventually, I’ll find another HRM that I’ll want to move to. The RCX5 almost was that, but they took away too much, including R+R data. That was the straw that kept me away. With the G5, I don’t mind anymore.

We went down for the Marathon. But, there is the 5k, thus an opportunity.

Don’t click to read more if you are on a slow connection. I have a camera and I wasn’t afraid to use it!

My Daughter, Mary, had been training (on and off) for most of the fall to run a 5k. Once we fell past the November time frame due to various reasons, it was pretty much decided that we would do the Disney 5k as her first.

It’s expensive, but can you honestly imagine a better first race? Ok, she’s eight. Now can you imagine a better race?

I was having a hard time doing so.

I bring you to present (then).

3am

She’s awake. The race isn’t for another 3 and a half hours. But she’s awake and as a result, so am I. Oh well, it’s better to be early right? We were staying at the Shades of Green, an absolutely awesome resort on the Disneyworld park for the military and dependents. Heading upstairs to the main room of the hotel, we waited for the first bus.

Ready to go!

Being on the park property meant that we had bus service from the hotel to the start line. For the 5k, I believe the first bus was 4:30am. We were on it.

In retrospect, we really didn’t need to get on that bus. But we did.

OFF to the Start Line!

When we got there, there was NO ONE there. Well, there were some people there, but let me show you what the general scene looked like.

That’s not the sun coming up.

But, since we were there early, we were able to get in to see the Three Caballeros (including Donald Duck!) first thing (and it’s a good thing too, that line got huge, QUICK.)

(Yes, that’s a Breath Thermo shirt, and shorts. It’s Florida.)

Did I mention that it was cold? I had planned to wear throw aways for the marathon, but hadn’t really thought about the 5k. I didn’t figure I was really going to heat up much at the pace we would be running, so I wore the Mizunu breaththermo shirt. You have to be exercising for that to really work. Duh. And shorts. DUH!

We had some Hot Chocolate and Coffee while we waited for everyone to show up. But that didn’t last that long, and thankfully everyone else started make their way to the start line. I was a bit happier then… Body warmth and people to chat with!

8 thousand strong!

Did I mention that the start was 6:30am? When that picture was taken, we still had an hour to go. I must admit, the hurry up and wait is not one of my favorite things about Disney races, and I was really surprised at how well Mary dealt with it. We talked a lot, huddled together and generally had a good time waiting and thinking about how great the run was going to be.

Ready to GO!

At last, the start was upon us. Ordinarily, I’d be in the first wave, but I knew that we weren’t going to be running this one fast. We had a bit of fun with some of the other runners noticing all the people heading into the first starting wave (Honor system, sub 9 minute miles). Personally, I saw people who would be lucky to run 15 minute miles entering into this wave… but that’s ok. We weren’t worried about it. They missed out anyways. The first wave didn’t have fireworks.

The Race!

Second wave, GO!

Technical problem or not, the first wave didn’t have fireworks. We did. We went out about 12 minutes after the first wave. It’s on!

Mary went out strong

(and as typical of most first time runners, too fast). But fear not, because about a quarter of a mile into the race, the hot chocolate became a hindrance and had to be dealt with. Potty break number 1! (No picture)

But we picked it up again, and began the trek anew. I knew that she wasn’t going to be able to run the whole distance, and had planned on pacing her with walk breaks. I had also planned on her being able to run between character stops, but that didn’t work out quite as I had envisioned.

Mile 1.

Remember that we went out about 12 minutes after the first wave (and therefore the clock start). This matches up with my split time pretty well, about a 14 minute mile. Considering a potty break was in there, I was pretty happy with my little girl. Considering that she had a smile on her face the entire time, I was ecstatic with her. And the best was yet to come.

Entering Epcot, Disney had the torches going, as well as cast members everywhere, cheering.

Since Mary was taking walk breaks, I took picture breaks!

Soon enough, we came across our first character encounter – Mulan. We hopped in line and waited for our turn. Thankfully, we did so at just the right time, as shortly before we came to the head of the line, Mushu the Dragon also came out to make an appearance. This thrilled Mary to no end.

Crazy Dragon.

I had problems with my original plan for taking pictures, but looking back, I made absolutely the right decision. I ran (slower than usual for me) with my Canon 5d Mark II, fitted with a 50mm prime. It’s not as heavy as my normal setup, and has the advantage of a very open aperture for low light (the last two pictures are about 5 minutes apart.) I had thought that I’d buy race photo’s from Brightroom, but they were nowhere to be seen for the character visits. So, having the heavier, but much more awesome camera paid off, big time. Disney had cast members at every stop, and they were more than willing to take pictures, thankfully.

Mary was happy as can be at this point, having her picture with Mulan (and more importantly, the Crazy Dragon), plus Daddy wasn’t pushing her hard to keep running… I wanted her to enjoy it. We can always work on speed later.

There’s that golf ball…

Watching the sun rise in Epcot was truly a beautiful thing. I ended up stopping her whenever she wanted to take a walk break and made her pose for me.

It’s going to crush me (the mind of an 8-year-old)!

Yes, we’re yelling for effect.

Right before this round of pictures, she needed to use the bathroom again, and this time, it wasn’t a porta potty! Real, live bathrooms, thanks to us being in the park! She was much happier at this development. Even happier when she realized the next characters were just ahead on the trail!

Jasmine, Aladdin and some monkey(s).

Another character stop, and a beaming little girl.

Mile 2: Still smiling.

Yes that clock is 12 minutes faster than our start, and yes, we’ve had multiple photo stops, 2 character stops, and another bathroom break. Clearly, we’re burning up the road.

But, thankfully, the water stop was coming.

I never understood how important and awesome a water stop was to her.

And the water was FREE! In DISNEY! Something is Free! It’s a Miracle! (oh wait, HOW much was this 5k?) I made a joke as we passed about this, and I honestly don’t remember ever getting as large of a response before. Everyone was having a great time.

Posing before the Golf ball.

We were entering the home stretch, and the magic of Disney was keeping Mary going. She’d been to Epcot once before, and remembered it fondly. Had the Geodesic been open, I’m certain she would have tried to detour into it.

Gotta involve Bambi.

Still Running strong!

Throughout training, I had to fight with Mary to run after we had passed about a mile and a half. There weren’t any problems for her to focus on today.

Doing the Hula.

My little goofball had dutifully posed and smiled and did a great job with photo opportunities, but she likes to cut up, and wants her silly pictures as well. Here is the last frame of her Hula impression, right before we reached the 3 mile mark. You can tell the race is taking a lot out of her.

Mile 3: We’re almost DONE!

She honestly could have gone for quite a while longer, given the pace and stops we were doing. Subtract 12 minutes and you are pretty close to our finish time. We’ll work on making sure the next one is sub 1 hour.

Finish!

I don’t know WHO is more excited.

Ok, I guess I do.

She’s done her first 5k, had a great time, and has a medal to show for it. It wasn’t an incredibly fast time, but it’s a PR, and those must always be celebrated!

Showing off to the Family

Heading to the Park to Celebrate!

This was a great start to the running weekend, but it wasn’t the end. We still had two more events to do. My son had to run for his Medal, and it’s a good thing Mary had energy left over, because she wasn’t done either.

I still had the marathon on Sunday, but that’s another post.

So, I had several options.

• My Canon 5D Mark 2
• Canon Powershot A640
• iPhone 4S
• Other

Lets look at this for a moment:

1. 5D Mark 2 – Awesome photos. Awesome low light capability. Big. Heavy. Bulky.
2. Powershot A640 – Decent Photos. Not HUGE. Not small. Limited use, don’t care if it dies.
3. iPhone 4S – Good Photos. Light. Decent low light. It’s going to be on me anyways. What happens if I drop it?
4. Other – Should I buy a running camera?

I didn’t want to take the A640 – I don’t use it often, and that’s for a reason. It does OK, but simply put, the 5D Mk II blows away just about any competition. And if I’m not taking the 5D, I’m probably using the iPhone 4S, which frankly, seems to take very similar pictures most of the time, AND it’s already on me.

But, for a run, I was pretty scared of accidentally dropping the phone during a handoff, or while running… And with a glass back and front, that would probably make me VERY unhappy. The 5D also isn’t exactly the best option for trying to run with, even stripped down, it’s a hefty, bulky piece of kit.

Enter my favorite store : Costco!

They have the Fuji FinePix XP20 on sale! Waterproof, shockproof, dustproof. And it’s relatively lightweight! Plus 14 Megapixels!

PERFECT!

Yeah, not so much.

I tried it out on a few runs leading to the marathon. Holding it in my hand as I ran was OK, but I’m not used to it, and frankly, after 6 miles, I was swapping back and forth. Pictures were decent, but I was taking them in the noon day sun.

I was able to put it in my SPIbelt along with the iPhone, so it seemed like it might be a good solution.

Enter the first day at Disney World.

We went to 1900 Park Fare for dinner. I took the Fuji to take pictures. This is typical of the pictures I took, even as I tried to find the correct settings in the camera.

White balance is way off, but can be corrected. The blur from having too slow a shutter speed can’t. And I couldn’t ever get it faster. Plus, it has really bad shutter lag (the time between the press of the button and the actual picture being taken.)

So, I have VERY few pictures worthwhile from our Dining experience at 1900 Park Fare, and those that I do have are from my iPhone. Disappointing, but I am very glad I found out about it before the marathon. It’s going back to Costco.

I switched my strategy.

• 5K – I ran with the 5d and a 50mm lens attached.
• Marathon – iPhone 4S, combined with the professional’s on the course.

It’s VERY apparent to me now that I’m spoiled by my 5d and the iPhone. I don’t like shutter lag. I LIKE low light performance. I like to be able to increase the shutter speed up, open up the aperture, and push the ISO.

The Fuji didn’t allow that. Shutter lag was HORRIBLE. White balance was routinely off. The pictures are not bad when the conditions are good, but they fall apart very quickly once you get into a less than ideal area. I looked at the other models in the line, and frankly, didn’t see much about them that would improve on the problems I had. All appeared to be the same sensor (and ISO – surprisingly 3200. Sure didn’t perform like it.) The higher models added GPS tagging to the package (not an issue for me.. Minimum of 2 GPS devices per run ANYWAYS) and some bells and whistles. But nothing indicating better aperture opening, or increased processor speed (for it’s autofocus/lag).

Perhaps I didn’t give it enough time, but honestly, I expect a stand alone device to do at LEAST as well as a combined. This is a camera that is out performed, easily (in image quality as well as easy of use) by the iPhone. Given that I have the iPhone, why do I need this?

I knew going into it that I wasn’t trained as well as I’d like. But I also knew that I can be pretty competitive, and the numbers had been coming up closer as I neared taper. I wasn’t as good as I was a year ago, but I wasn’t far off, either.

Last year, we debated about on twitter and in real life about what to wear – the forecasts were bouncing around all over the place until the morning of the race. Turned out to be close to perfect.

This year, there wasn’t any debates over what the weather was going to do, that I saw. It was cold.

Pre-Race:

31 degrees at race start, and that was warmer than expected.

Having said that, I don’t think for a moment that I considered NOT running this race. It’s simply a great event. The race organizers, aside from being massively, crazily against headphones, do an incredible job. Last year, I heard at the post race dinner there were 1100 volunteers. 1400 people took the starting line. That’s an INCREDIBLE ratio. It shows.

But it was cold. The ground was frozen, and I think that played a part in my race. I had considered running in Kinvaras, but frankly I still am not comfortable in them. I think they are fine shoes, but after running in Vibrams for so long, they feel like marshmallows on my feet. I can’t feel the ground in them, and while I’ve noticed that I can run fast in them, I have also seen that on long runs, my form deteriorates badly. I’m sure my form deteriorates in the Vibrams, but I’ve never felt like it was nearly as bad.

Clothing

From the ground up:

• Vibram Bikila LS
• CWX compression tights (which, truth be told, are neither compression nor really tight anymore.. Time for new ones)
• Pair of shorts
• Mizuno BreathThermo shirt
• Windbreaker shell.
• Oh, and a brand new pair of running mittens! The first pair that actually kept my hands warm!

The Race:

It took about 2 miles to get up to temperature, but after that, I was good to go.

My first 15 miles were great. Consistent 8:30 avg, plus or minus about 5 seconds. I knew that there were relatively few porta potties on the course, but I remembered there was one around mile 16.

I ran with quite a few people, some of my running friends from Franklin, until I ran ahead (only to be re-passed later), some complete strangers. I love being able to be on a run and start up a conversation on the fly. It’s something that I’m rarely able to do elsewhere, but the common bond of running really seems to encourage.

It’s also pretty cool that I ran into Drew Jones from Fleet Feet Nashville and Emily Ryan, my daughter’s 2nd grade teacher. Emily also has the distinction of being a heck of an athlete, and that’s understating it. Drew fitted me into a pair of motion control shoes when I first started running, and I’ve been giving him some good natured grief as a Vibram runner ever since I converted. They were both down supporting our Nashville runners. I saw him & Emily several times on the course. I can’t say enough about the level of support given.

So mile 16 – Potty break. Got running again, but I never regained my original pace. Shortly after I got running again, I started feeling my calves start to cramp up. For the next 3 miles, I struggled with it, slowing a bit, but realizing that it wasn’t working very well.

I haven’t had this happen to me before. I think the harder ground due to the cold temperatures put more stress into my calves than I was used to. I was fueling well (E-gels every 5.5 miles), and I don’t think that it was a lack of electrolytes.

Mile 21 – Worst mile of the race. I had started trying to walk the cramps out at this point. Mile split was 11:43. I hadn’t fully cramped up, but I could tell it was getting worse every mile. I also felt that if I let them get fully seized, the race was over. To be honest, I knew the race as it was over anyways. But I could still use the run as a training run, and I sure wasn’t going to stop unless I absolutely had to.

Mile 23 – My salvation appeared. My first Rocket City Marathon, I ran into the family around mile 20, and spent a few minutes enjoying them meeting me on the course. This year, I hadn’t seen them since the mile 3 loop back toward the start. Given that I was on Mile 23, I was pretty sure I wouldn’t be seeing them.

But as I rounded a curve towards a cheer area, I could have sworn I saw my wife shaking a tambourine and my daughter. But that couldn’t be right. Where did Jeffie get a Tambourine? Where was my son, and his grandmother? I knew it was around mile 23, and frankly, I was beginning to doubt my fueling strategy as it was obvious I was delusional!

But it was them. I ran up to my wife, mumbled something about pain, and was told that Mary wanted to run with me. That’s all I needed. It was more than I needed. Mary ran with me for about 200 feet, to where my son and mother were at.

The last three miles were consecutively faster. Not great, but I finished sub 9:30 on the last mile.

Official time was 4:09:19. Almost twenty minutes slower than last year.

Wrapup:

I was disappointed. I knew I could have done better, and HAVE done better. That’s a tough pill. Even with issues, excuses, and anything else I could throw out there, it didn’t feel as good.

Lots of my friends from Nashville ran this race. I think most, if not all of them did very well. I’m honestly thrilled for them. This is a great event, and it’s very conductive to success. In retrospect, I’m disappointed in the time, but I didn’t feel like I did that poorly.

Regardless, I knew I had another marathon in a month. I had to get over this, treat it as a LONG training run, and keep going.

If you look back at my report from last year, our Sunday continued to be great. My daughter was on the front page of the newspaper, cheering me (and the other runners) on. She made the online version this year, with the rest of the family!

Race bling, goodies:

They also give away a nice race hat, in the color scheme of the year. This year, that appeared to be Orange. It’s a nice looking hat, I suppose. It’ll come in handy on early morning runs and evenings, when visibility is low. But as a University of Alabama supporter, living in Tennessee…. I’ll be wearing Red and White much more often than Orange.

This race also sends a photo of you crossing the finish line. Last year, it was straight from them. This year, it was from Brightroom. Either way, with the cost of race photos being so high, it’s a really nice perk to have.

There is another thing that I feel like is important about this race, from my standpoint. I KNEW I had a second chance with Disney marathon, and frankly, with the amount of money we were dropping on Disney, it was my A race much more than this. I thought throughout the race that I’d push hard enough to do it, preferably with a good time, but not hard enough to get hurt.

It worked. I felt better the day after the marathon than I had after some of my training runs of 3/4 distance. I ran lightly the week immediately after the race, and started building again for Disney.

I bought a pair on the way to Walt Disney World, for the Marathon. In the store, they felt awesome. I’ve got a regular pair of the Komodo, and frankly, it’s my go to shoe, outside of running. I wear them everywhere.

Really.

I should get commission from Vibram for the sales pitches I’ve done in the Grocery store and about…

The LS is the laced version, and it fits tighter. It felt high performance. Like a glove is exactly the description I’d use. The regular komodos feel very loose in comparison. I was excited. They felt great in the store. I REALLY wanted this to be the successor to my Blue Bikila’s, only more versatile.

Unfortunately, one hour of wear was all it took to wear a blister on the inside top of my foot, and pop it. The only other blister I’ve ever had in a Vibram shoe was in my original bikilas, during the rocket city marathon 2010. And I didn’t even notice that one until the day after, it was so minor.

I knew this time. It hurt.

I’ve had issues with Vibrams not fitting correctly in the past – I’ve got 4 pairs of the original Blue Bikila’s in 43. 3 of the 4 fit differently. One is too small for any run over 6 miles, one needs toe socks to be ok, and then one of them ‘fits like a glove’ and has been featured on this blog with over 1000 miles on them.

I’ve got a pair of Bikila LS’s that are my current primary running shoe. While they aren’t the near perfection of my original blue bikila’s, I don’t think the lacing system itself is the primary problem. I think Vibram isn’t consistent in their sizing.

So, they are going back. I don’t know if it’s a case of the shoe just fitting me perfectly wrong, or continuing issues with Vibram quality control in sizing, but I am not putting my feet in these again.

This was the 3rd running of the Half Marathon, and the best.

(Btw, this race was in November. This post has been in limbo for a while, waiting on me to actually take pictures of the medals. Shiny reflective surfaces take a bit of care to get right. Laminated cards even more & and frankly, I didn’t want to take the time to do it. Sorry for the delay. )

The first year, coincided with the first half marathon I ran. It wasn’t one of my ‘A’ races, and it still isn’t. The first time, it was a training run for the St. Judes Half Marathon – CAN I DO THIS?

Yes. Not fast, not very pretty, but yeah, I can run 13.1 miles. – 2:08:35

The second year, it was a training run for the RocketCity Marathon – HOW FAST CAN I DO THIS?

Whoa. Faster than I expected – 1:41:30. I was on track and peaking a good training season.

 This year, it was the first race of the year, and a training run for my upcoming Marathons – WHERE AM I?

Hmmm. Not as good as last year. I’ve been plagued with injuries and lack of understanding of those injuries, so therefore I haven’t ran much leading into this race.

I’m training for 2 marathon’s this season. I’m going to re-run the Rocket City Marathon in December. One month later, I’m running Disney’s Marathon in January. This was originally planned to give me 2 chances for a Boston Qualification – 3:15:59 or better. Heading into the summer, that looked like a very real possibility.

It’s not now.  Part of training for a marathon is training hard enough to improve. Part of it is also NOT over-training, therefore leading to injuries. Guess which part I’m still learning?

So – for various reasons, this is the first time this year that I’ve been in a competition. I knew going into it that I wasn’t going to PR. My time last year was really a surprise. It was significantly faster than I expected, and it was done feeling great. This year, I’ve been training hard the last few months – probably harder than I should trying to recover fitness.

The course is different this year. I SWEAR I saw “a mostly-flat course” on the website. I can’t find it now, and that’s fine. It’s mostly-flat, except where it isn’t. My watch recorded about 1300 feet of total elevation change. That’s not huge, but it’s not mostly flat.   There were some hills.

I knew I could beat 2:00. That’s a pretty low bar, honestly. I was going to be pretty upset if I missed it. I also knew it would take an incredible day and course for me to beat my PR – 1:41:30.

20 minutes is still a pretty wide gap. Privately, I wanted to at the least beat 1:50.

1:47:34.

It’s my second best Half Marathon time, which frankly, isn’t saying much.

I’m fairly happy with it. It’s not my best, but being honest with myself, I’m happier than I expected to be. It’s six minutes slower than my best at this distance. That’s actually closer than I thought I would be.

The course itself is not as good as it was previously, in my opinion. I liked the route along the river. The new course snakes over in to Shelby Bottoms. Different, and it’s ok, but I can’t say it’s better.

I didn’t run into problems with water stops this time, which can not be said about the 2nd incarnation, even though my problems were minor compared to some. Last year, there were huge issues with water stops, and while I was running ahead of the problems, I definitely heard about them, and saw the probability of the issues. This year, there appeared to be no such issues.

I think that I Run for the Party learned some very important lessons last year, and got many earfuls in the process. Based on this race, I’d say they learned from it, and rebounded well.

One last thing… The Bling.

In the first year of this race, it came with some pretty standard bling – a medal.

Last year, this race came under some (needed) fire for their race medal. Mainly due to the fact that there wasn’t one.  There was this piece of laminated paper on a string.

Sorry about the photography. I REALLY couldn’t be bothered to take more time to photograph this. I know it’s not perfect. Trust me, I already have spent enough time on it. Now, I understand the reasoning behind it being a ‘pass’ with privileges, but frankly, as something to collect and remember the race (aka, the bling), this sucked.

The Race Director heard the complaints (it would be impossible for him NOT to) and went exactly the opposite for this year. This is a much more impressive medal, complete with spinner! My kids approve (as do I!)

But I do have a number of posts that are getting queued up now…

3 Race reports.
4 equipment posts.
Various images.

I’m not going to pretend that I’ll be updating this often, but I’m going to try to change to more posts, less words per post soon.

I have a tendency to want to get EVERYTHING into a post, and make it perfect – there are several drafts that I worked on for several weeks before I just got upset and stopped. So, hopefully, I’ll be able to get out of that habit simply by trying to push more out quickly, and add the details in later posts.

We’ll see how this works out.

And DUH!

My lovely wife had a Library conference at Montgomery Bell State Park this weekend. In an effort to get away from the kids for a little bit, I came along, figuring I would take advantage of the park while she did her thing.

I’ll gloss over the wild parties that ensued – I mean, it was a LIBRARIAN Conference. I’m sure that the word Legendary isn’t quite appropriate.

I did want to take a chance on the trails surrounding the Inn. Little did I realize it was actually a chance.

This is my first trail run. Practically ALL of my running in the past two years has been road optimized. I have trail Vibrams – The KSO Trek, with a great kleated sole and kangaroo leather upper. They did awesome. The thicker sole really did a great job shielding my feet from the rocks while still allowing me to feel what the ground was doing. For the most part. More on that in a minute.

Now the park itself is beat up. There were some severe storms that came through, and some HUGE trees were uprooted. The park rangers have done a very good job clearing the trails, but there are still lots of areas that you have to sidetrack around. Erosion from the run off is also everywhere.

Notes from my run:

1. Starting into a trail run at a 6 minute mile pace – Not Recommended.
2. You are not going to go in a straight line. Your traveled distance is going to be higher than your GPS distance.
3. Vibram Trek’s actually do a VERY good job gripping the trail and shedding water from the streams.
4. Ticks. Yup, they are out.
5. Downhills on an eroded trail with exposed roots. Pay attention here.

I’ve had my first trail run, and my first wipeout running.

Coming down a hill, at way too fast a pace, a malicious root reached UP, several feet at least, & latched onto my right foot. It also had the nerve to not let go until my center of balance was extended several feet ahead of me, resulting in a less than ideal entry into a pit stop.

Thankfully, I broke the fall with my face and had only minor damage to my legs and knees.

So, at the end of it I came running up the steps into the Inn, undoubtably looking like a zombie risen from the dead. Covered in dirt, debris and sweat, busted lip, bleeding thigh. Plus, all of the vegetation between my toes. Oh, and with a smile, because it was actually rather fun. I’m surprised they let me in. I did get several concerned looks from other guests…

I don’t know if I’m going to do this again.  It was fun, but rather painful. If I do, I’ll undoubtably take a different tack.

I won’t take off up the trail like a madman. That was seriously stupid. I felt great running, and looking at my instantaneous pace, I was bouncing off of 6:00 miles – which I’d have a hard time holding for any period of time even on a road. On the trail, heading UP a good incline – Stupid.

I wasn’t worrying about my time, but I was concerned about getting back to have breakfast with the librarians. That’s the main reason I was moving as quickly as I was.

The hilarious thing about it, for me, is my final pace, based on my GPS track – 11 minute miles. I haven’t been that slow on a road since I started running. And I was MOVING on the trail. Instantaneous pacing off of my footpod was 7-8 minute miles. It was just that I was moving side to side almost as much as I was moving forward. Some of that time is occupied with the fall, and trying to assess how badly I hurt myself afterward. And yeah, I kept running, but I’ll admit it wasn’t as fast as before the fall.

Final scoring :

• 1 wipeout, resulting in a busted lip, minor scratches elsewhere. My iphone case may be a fatality, as it also acted as a shovel. Right arm is tweaked a bit but nothing major. I also managed to bust up my big toe where the root grabbed me.
• 2 ticks – that I could find. Neither had actually attached yet. I think I got them all off.
• 3 near busts crossing the streams – the Treks did great on the dirt, mud, etc. but NOT extraordinarily wonderful on slick stream rocks.

I’m going to have to give the victory to the park on this one, but I had a good time in the fight.

I had whimsically named the post : “Rumors of their demise are greatly exaggerated.” Given that I had effectively written these shoes off.

When I retweeted the post a few minutes ago, I thought about all of the weather detail I had posted the previous day.

I’ve re-titled the post.  1000 miles.

On a family note: Thankfully, all of our family, spread through Alabama, made it through the storms yesterday without loss. Mom visually tracked two of the Tornados from her safe spot, including the one that really tore up Cullman. Arab, AL got hit pretty hard, although not on the scale of Tuscaloosa or Birmingham. When I see the aftermath pictures, and remember the way T-town used to look, it’s pretty hard to not get choked up.

Mom and the rest of Arab are without power, and likely to remain without power for quite a bit, but she’s got a generator for essentials, and frankly, it’s such a small thing after the possible outcomes from yesterday’s events.

We are obviously very thankful today for their safety, and our prayers are out for everyone affected.