The CRIM Start Line - 2006

The CRIM Start Line - 2006
Originally uploaded by Ed Roth.

Well here it is - the post-CRIM post. Eagerly anticipated by two people (me and our dog Rosa; maybe anticipated by nobody; I don't want to write it and Rosa's not a person!) Well, whatever - there were 13,024 athletes there that day and here's the story of two of them.

I CANNOT sleep the night before raceday. The race I did in Saratoga? Up all night. The CRIM this weekend - up all night the night before. It's not that 'Christmas Eve' kind of excitement - it's, sort of this half excitement, half anxious, half ....., well you can only have two halves.

Jeff wanted to leave at 6 a.m. to meet up with his training group, and at 7:30 the phone rang -
"Hello.
Hey man, what time do you guys plan on leaving?
In about 30 mins, why is the traffic bad?
I don't know - I didn't leave early and wondered if you wanted to drive down with me."
This race has so much excitement tied into it, it's hard to stay discplined when you start and not takeoff like a jackrabbit. They broadcast this live on t.v. as well as a week of replays afterwards and it just kind of grabs hold of you. We stayed pretty cool for the first mile though - avoided what for me would have been disastrous and start off too fast or with two infrequent walk periods.
Mile 1 was fine - getting into the feel of the race.
Mile 2 was even better - shaved about 50 seconds off - woo hoo - positive split!
Mile 3 was rougher because of the Bradley hills.
Mile 4 I was getting this really painful tightness in the soles of my feet (more on this later), my left shin, and the top of my right foot.
Then all of a sudden, at the beginning of mile 5, bam, everything just loosened up and the body felt great. My lungs were fine, my legs and feet were fine, and we were crusing. Of course Jeff, like always, decides to spring the last 40 meters or so, and of course, like always, (and like an idiot) I give chase - I cannot resist!
Jeff and I did exactly what we thought we'd do in terms of time. We finished with a 1:08:38 time in the 5-miler. So, you see we were not tearing up the streets of Flint. I think Jeff might've been a little disappointed but for me, the really good part about it, is that almost ALL of my training had taken place on a collegiate track. A nice cushy, bouncy, FLAT track. Almost the entire course of the race is a slight upward grade and there are a set of hills around mile 2 or so that are so grueling, they've gained a reputation among runners who simply refer to them as the "Bradleys", named after the street they are on(?). Anway, the time we ran was dead on with my fastest training run which was done on the cushy flat track I mentioned earlier - so for me, this was a wonderfully successful race in that the pavement, grade, and hills of this race didn't slow me down at all! In fact, we had positive splits going into the hills, and positive splits coming out of them - so I think we did great for the amount of training we put into it.

OK - so I've got to buy new shoes - there's no way I can continue to train in these and our next big race is the Detroit half-marathon. So RBF'ers (hmmm, that doesn't sound good does it?), I need some help. What causes that extreme tightness and soreness on the soles of my feet? I don't think it's heel striking as I've had a gait analysis and they didn't pick that up at all. Maybe it's as simple as buying a shoe that simply has greater arch support. I'll bring in the pair of Saucony's I ran in before these Reeboks and see if we can get something similar - they worked great.
Anyway - so the CRIM has me totally blissed out again on running and I was up until 2:30 last night reading my Galloway book and looking at continued training for Detroit - right up to the part where I read about the necessity of sleep for muscle repair. And with that, it was time to rest.