Punk in Pittsburgh

I spent Thanksgiving in Pittsburgh with my mom's family, which is always fun; however, there are 14 of us crammed into very tight quarters. It tends to make a person antsy, so obviously I had to go for a run the day after the big feast.

I had checked the weather before I packed and Wunderground said it would be 38 degrees and cloudy. What the forecast failed to mention was that it was also really, really windy and of course I forgot to bring a hat. Normally I wouldn’t need a hat (I usually dress as though it is 20 degrees warmer out than it actually is) but I was a big punk on Friday morning and only did three miles. For some reason my body still thinks three miles is just a warm up, so I was freezing the whole run.

And, the whole time I was running I was thinking that Pittsburgh hills are so much steeper than Cincinnati’s. (the streets all had names like Mt. Hood and Rainier which didn’t help) In reality, Pittsburgh hills are not that much worse. They’re just more straight up and down with small breaks between, while Cincinnati hills are a bit more gradual. I pulled some elevation charts from Map My Run, and the total ascent isn't that different between the two:

My three-mile route in Pittsburgh

My standard four-mile route in Cincy

I’m not even going to say how long it took me to do the three miles, it’s too embarrassing. In my defense, I’m a little tired from two weeks of traveling AND I have a cold.

Putting me to further shame were my cousins, ages 7 and 12. Even though the girls are super well behaved, they have a lot of energy so my aunt kept sending them outside to do hill repeats. I think we have some future track stars on our hands here! It seemed to work and the girls didn’t complain. Note to self if I ever have children…

portland run

Last week I decided to burn some vacation time and went to Portland Oregon with a couple of friends. Running in different cities is one of my favorite things to do, and even though I was completely stiff from a four-hour plane trip and a night on a semi-deflated air mattress, I was excited to go out for a quick jaunt on new turf. We were staying in the Pearl District, which is only a few minutes from a nice path that runs along the river.

Portland is surrounded by mountains but running downtown was comparable to running in Chicago or Columbus - very, very flat. We did a couple of bridges but even those weren't too steep. The path is practically IN the river and there were tons of people out running and walking, wearing just about everything Nike manufactures (Nike headquarters is in nearby Beaverton).

Lots of cyclists were on the path too and they were so NICE. I couldn't believe it. My girlfriends and I were running two deep (sometimes three), which made us hard to get around in some spots and no one yelled at us. No one even said "on your left", they just waited patiently for us to move. I guess having good scenery and readily available microbrews makes people happier? In Cincinnati, you'd get growled at for taking up so much space (it is kind of rude I guess).

In semi-unrelated news, I think I'm going to do the Pig. I was talking with one of my runner friends who lives in Portland (and is also a global design director for Nike) and he pointed out that even though I may not get as good of a finish time in the Pig, the hills will help me build up for a faster Fall race. Plus I have a bunch of friends doing the Pig, including my NYC friend. Yay! Official training starts in January...

Tour de Cincy + free entertainment

After spending all day on my couch yesterday, I was feeling pretty stir crazy this morning and decided I needed a long run. Also, I needed a break from running around Hyde Park. Enough is enough already.

I thought it would be fun to run from my apartment to downtown, through Northern Kentucky, back through downtown, then up Gilbert through Eden Park to O’Bryonville/home. I don’t know why I never did this route during marathon training except that it has a ton of hills and I’m lazy. A good portion of the route also happens to be the Flying Pig course.

What I didn’t realize was that downtown would be crawling with Bengals fans. I’ve been to a Bengals game once in my life and had no idea they were home today (I really, really hate football).

Most of tailgaters were super nice and got out of my way. A few of them yelled “good job” and of course I got the obligatory dumbass comments from a few of them as well:

“You’re going the wrong way”
“Slow down”
And some other stuff I won’t repeat…

The whole mess was amusing and distracting. I was cracking up by the time I got out of downtown.

The rest of the run was relatively uneventful (it's hard to top hundreds of drunk people in orange tiger stripes). Once I got to Eden Park I was pretty exhausted and realized that I’m out of shape these days. Even so, I managed to do 12.8 miles in 1:54, which is only about 4 seconds per mile slower than my half marathon race pace. I can deal with that.

The off season…

Not much to blog about right now. I’m working 10-hour days and am barely squeezing in 15-20 miles each week. Most of my runs are pretty uninteresting. I run 4-6 miles. I run around Hyde Park. I run hills. I wear a flashing light because it’s dark whether I run in the morning or after work. Exciting, right? But, I spent 9.5 months of this year in training and I think my body is benefiting from the relaxed schedule.

Plus it’s nice to have a social life again. I’m really starting to notice some similarities between running and drinking. For instance, both of these things can:

- Cause dehydration

- Induce vomiting

- Make you swear you’re never going to do it again (but then you do it again anyway)

- Make you say dumb things (I’m nonsense after a 20-miler. I’m nonsense after piles of beer. Go figure.)

- Make you forget that you’ve had a really bad day

I could keep going but I won’t. Anyway, I prefer running. ☺

Pics from Columbus

Pre-race dinner with my cheering squad and my running buddy :-)


Me, somewhere between miles 9-11


Post race with Dad

Running without a purpose

Now that the marathon is over, everyone keeps asking me what’s next. You know what? I have no idea. There are so many options - for instance:

- I could run the Otter Creek Trail Marathon in December. I’ve never done a trail race before and my dad has been talking about doing this one. Would be fun to do a race together. Plus it’s in Kentucky, and I like the idea of trying to do a marathon in all 50 states…but am I ready to jump back into training just yet? And do I really want to do a course that loops three times? (Big Ben. Parliament.)

- I could take two months off from marathon training and then join the Running Spot Flying Pig group in January. I live here so I probably should do the full Pig at some point? Ugh, the hills on that course…

- I’ve been eyeing the Paris Marathon on 4/5/09. This would be an expensive one (I think the race alone would be more than $100) but how cool would it be to run in Paris?? The downside is that I would have to start training in December AND I would have to find someone who wants to either do the race with me or come to Paris to watch. I will definitely need some type of moral support. There are only 10,000 spots left…

- I’ve also been thinking about Boston…a race I would never have thought I could ever qualify for…but now I wonder. I’m only 18:25 away from a BQ marathon time. Should I start scoping out other really flat marathon courses and focus on getting my time down? I know I won’t be qualifying on a course like the Pig but maybe if I can find other courses like Columbus?

Regardless of what I end up deciding, I have really enjoyed my week of running without a purpose. Last Tuesday was my first run since the marathon and I went out with my training group. We did an easy five miler (it was freezing! I forgot how much the cold air burns your lungs) then had happy hour, which was fun. Thursday night I did another five miles with my Landor running buddy, who I haven’t run with since July. Our route included several of the Cincy/KY bridges and I was exhausted afterwards. Ha.

Today I got brave and decided to tackle Eden Park/Mt. Adams. I was planning to run for an hour but was feeling so great I ended up adding on an extra 24 minutes.

Yes, my IT bands are still bothering me, however I tend not to notice this as much now that I'm not worrying about staying healthy for the race. Plus it's hard to be worried about anything when you're checking out the view from the top of Celestial Street and there's not a cloud in the sky. All in all it was a gorgeous run AND I managed to crank through nine miles of hills at a 9:15 pace. Dig.