A Magical Weekend

Man, what a great weekend. This weekend was even better than last weekend when I ate a delicious homemade raw soy coconut burrito and hung out with friends as we watched the sun set over the mountaintop. Ross and Oliver came up for the Lake Effect Half Marathon--Ross to run it and Oliver to watch us run as he stood motionless in the wind and snow and cold.

After a delightful evening out on the town Friday night that included a Restaurant Week trip to Pastabilities, we woke up on Saturday morning to find that winter had decided to give it one more go here in Syracuse.

The ground was covered with at least three inches of freshly fallen snow, which showed no signs of abating. The wind whirled ferociously like some crazy nutty super wind.

We quickly decided to run the race together and make it a workout. Thinking it was one big out and back (out being into the headwind), my plan was to run the out part with Ross and push it on the way back. I should have realized that it was actually a two-loop course, though, based on the fact that the lake trail is only so long. Ross and I ran together for the first out segment before I picked it up slightly.

Really, it was two different races out there. Running into the wind was horrible, and there were huge snow flakes hitting you in the eyes every few steps. Running back was a piece of cake, though, and it made you want to throw your hat and gloves to the side of the trail. (Thankfully, I didn't do this, as I was glad to have them for the third quarter of the race.)

After the race, we went downtown for the Margarita Mixoff and Sandwich Stroll. Saturday night involved catching up with Cornell alumni at Heps, and Sunday was basically a full day of quality track and field at the Heps in Barton Hall. Cornell ended up getting second on both the men's and women's sides, but it was a great meet nonetheless.

Cornellians in Houston

I'd like to propose an informal prediction contest for our blog readership. I probably should have posted this earlier given the irregularity with which most people check the site, but we'll see what turns up. Better late than never.

As you all know, Max King (2:15:34 in B'more), Sage Canaday (2:16:52 in San Diego), and Zac Hine (2:16:54 in Boston) are running the Trials tomorrow. Your job is to pick their finish order and times. Here's how the ultra-complicated scoring will work:

5 points if you pick their respective finishes correctly (e.g. Max then Sage then Zac; you don't need to say how they'll measure up against the rest of the field.

1 point for each time guessed within a minute of the actual time run.

2 points for each time guessed within 30 seconds of the actual time run.

3 points for each time guessed within 10 seconds of the actual time run.

10 points if you predict a time to the second.

Time-related points are not additive, so the maximum number of points you can get is 35.

The winner will get something cool. Most likely, I'll send you a free racing singlet once I get around to designing and ordering them. Everyone else who wants one will have to pay for it, but you'll have a free one. Look at you. You in your free jersey. Hey, how'd you get that? You won it; that's how.

January Racing

Four years ago I was working and teaching in Philadelphia. I was in my second year of Teach For America (and also my second year out of college). The (fucking) Heps, in this particular year, were going to be held at Cornell on the Barton Hall track. As many of you know, I was really excited about it because almost everyone I had known at Cornell was going to be back in town for this meet.

I remember that I'd had to leave late, and on the road up to Ithaca, true to Ithaca form, it had started snowing heavily. I had to stay in the tire tracks of the truck that was ahead of me to keep from swerving off the road. Anyway, when I got back to Cornell and watched the meet I was struck by two things. First, I was envious of the fitness of the guy's that were currently on the team. Watching them made me want to race again. Second, every person I met up with made the same shocked exclamation upon seeing me again: "Oh my god! You've lost so much weight! It's like your wasting away!"

So, I went back to Philly motivated (and shamed) to get back into shape. I emailed Will, told him what I wanted to do, and he gave me some ideas for workouts. I, also, contacted the Central Park Track Club and joined their team (I was moving to NYC at the end of that June). All through that spring I kept a log of my training. After school, on Tuesdays and Thursdays, I would jog from my apartment on 13th and Pine, across the river, to Penn's campus and to Franklin Field where I would do workouts.

At some point, Will said I needed to race. I was not enthusiastic about the idea because I didn't want to run when I was not in tip-top shape, but I could understand the logic. It's been over a year and a half. I need to practice racing again. So, I signed up for a race in NYC. To take the pressure off the race I signed up for the 400 meters.

There was a lot that I had forgotten about: nerves, how the timing of the meet can get pushed around (my race started a half hour late), racing from a gun, etc. I think I ran 52 point something. I remember I lost to a guy from Ithaca College (before the race I saw him warming up and thought to myself, at least I know I'll beat that guy). I wasn't distraught by the result, but I certainly wasn't encouraged.

I ended up not racing again on a track for four years. I think I held off on writing this post because I was afraid that I would somehow end up not racing this past Friday night. I am very glad that I was able to get back out on a track and race.

As for results, they are encouraging. I ran the meet a little bit like a workout. I raced in the 3000 and the 500. Sam and Steve were running the 3000 and I wanted to be able to run with them, and I wanted to run some speed so I entered the 500. The week before the race the meet was not really on my mind. I had labeled it as a workout in my head. The night before the race I got a little bit of nerves, and on the day of the race all of my racing nerves were sending off big jolts of adrenaline and fear. Once I got to Barton Hall and warmed up with Sam and Steve things felt a little better.

After we went out, I settled down a bit. I had no idea how the 3k was going to feel (not having run one ever before). I knew that I wasn't going to stay with Sam and Steve, but I was surprised when they bounded away from me in the first lap. I settled into pace (and got pacing advice from John and Robert, which was really helpful). I lost count of the laps, and the person who was switching the "Laps To Go" sign messed up and left up "5 laps to go" for two laps in a row. So, I wasn't sure what I was doing. I heard Robert yell something like (you've got to get a 70), and guessed that I had two laps left. So, I picked it up and finished for a 9:25, which felt great. I assume that 9:25 is not a great 3000 time, but I was very happy with it being that it was my first 3k and I don't count myself to be a great distance runner.

After the 3k I was feeling good for about 30 minutes before I got nervous again for the 500. I asked myself again why I ever signed myself up for these things. The 500 came and at the gun I tried to get out, but had a hard time accelerating. I was in last after the crash, and I tried to pass guys the entire way, but only managed to catch two of them in the final straight away. I was beating myself up the entire run because I was in last, but down the last straight I saw the clock and knew we were going to hit a good time. The time ended up being a 67.1.

I had gone into the meet hoping for a 9:30 and a 68. I hit 9:25 and 67.1. So, all in all, I'm very pleased with how it went. I'm excited to get to the next meet.

New Year's Reflections, Resolutions, and Goals

We're three days into the New Year, and I've been meaning to take a moment to write down some thoughts. I've never been good about keeping a journal, so it's probably unrealistic to expect that to happen in any conventional sense. I do, however, think it's beneficial to reflect on whatever's going on in your life from time to time. Running blogs are a great forum for this sort of thing.

So here goes. I'm going to try to do this "free-form" with minimal editing, so please bear with me. I'll throw in my goals at the end of each topic.

Meat. Last night, I ate filet mignon. Most of you know I've been vegetarian since March. I've tried not to make it a high-horse issue, but it always seems to come up in conversation, especially when I'm eating with a group of people. Natalie and I have, for the past month, been eating meat on Mondays--only super high quality meat, though--none of the crap they sell in the grocery store. The day after Thanksgiving, we went to Scheffler Farms near my mom's house and stocked up on free-range, grass-fed beef of different varieties. I highly recommend it. It was delicious.

The nice thing about eating meat on an occasional basis is that when you do eat it, you really enjoy it more and can justify buying the primo stuff. I pan-seared last night's filet for five minutes a side in minced garlic, sage, black pepper, and salt, then cooked it in the oven for another ten or so minutes. It was damn good. Shout out to the local CSA for making the transition to vegetarianism so easy. That is definitely something we'll continue this coming year with Dave and Erica taking Andrew and Elizabeth's place as "co-shareholders" or whatever it's called.

Food goals: Status quo meat-wise, reinstate the one beer -or- one dessert per night rule for six out of seven nights of the week.

Running. This theme has obviously been a big one for the last year and promises to continue to hold an important role in my life in 2012. I really enjoyed the first go-round of Marathon a Trois. (No, I'm not going to insert the accent over the 'a'; This is free-form, remember?) It was nice to have some substrate for motivation, and Ross and Gordon provided that. I didn't initially expect Pittsburgh to be a lead-in for Boston, but I'd be lying if I expected the "project" to end with one race. It's unfortunate that Gordon blew up so badly, but, being the fleetest of foot of the three of us (Ross and I could never run a sub-50 quarter), I think his sub-1:50 800 goal makes a lot more sense than racing another marathon.

The main problem with Pittsburgh was that it's in May, which meant that I had my highest mileage weeks in February and March (not super-high mileage, though, as I've recently eclipsed my highest pre-Pittsburgh week two or three times) and down-time in May and June. Pittsburgh took more out of me than I expected. I thought 2:49 would have left me more OK than I was, but I guess running it at 6 minute pace for the first half and 7 minute pace for the second, is far from ideal.

Late in the year, Steve had the idea of trying to break 15 minutes in the 5k in 2012. As someone who has run a few pathetic 5k's on the track in his time, I thought that was a great goal. Certainly, it makes a lot more sense than my nebulous 2:30-something marathon goal, considering that I'm 175 pounds and my 4:08 mile PR. On the other hand, sub-15 requires some serious effort track-wise. Holding 4:48 pace for 12.5 laps is no easy task, and I've never had a great gas tank in the aerobic sense.

Reflecting on the sub-15 project today, I'd say that I'm about as optimistic as I was when we started out: I think there's about a 50-50 chance that we do it. The video blogging has been fun when there's time to do it, but we've really started to hate taking footage. We'll see how much more annoying it gets as we get through the winter (which apparently decided to start today). It's also going to be tricky making Boston work with the 5k goal. The fact that the marathon is in April helps, though. Hopefully I'll come back around by late May to make my first attempt.

Running goals: 2:30-something at Boston, sub-15 5k, daily core work.

Work. As a grad student, I use the term loosely, though these days, it pretty much is a 9-5 (6) thing for me. 2011 was a great year for me career-wise, as I published paper early in the year and got an NIH fellowship in July. On the down-side grant funding for my project and a few others expired at the end of the year, and a few great people had to look elsewhere for jobs.

Still, I think 2012 will be at least as good as 2011 on the work front. I'm hoping to get another paper out by the end of February and then crank out a review by the summer. I'm also exploring two potential collaborations that look to be interesting. Put it all together, and I should be in good shape for an April defense in 2013.

I suppose AMA stuff falls under the work heading as well. This past year, I went to two national conferences in Chicago and New Orleans. While I've had problems with specific elements of the organization at times, I think the overall concept of organized medicine is good. Generally speaking, physicians need to take responsibility for what happens with health care policy and not simply complain when the system presents inequities. In New Orleans, I termed out as a delegate to the HOD, but I'm looking for ways to stay involved.

Finally, a reflection on the project that never was but some day may still be. I've been very interested in the healthcare cost & quality dilemma for the past few years. This past year, I started drafting a grant to be submitted to the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation that allowed me to flesh out my thoughts in project form. MaT contributor Ross helped, as a recent grad of the CMU applied statistics program. Without going too far into it, suffice it to say that I'll be exploring more avenues to see this entrepreneurial spark come to fruition.

Work goals: Publish two papers, devote one day a week to clinical work or reading.

Family/House. This was a great year for the family. Natalie and I are still very much in love a year and a half in to being married. Stuffy Pierre is somewhat less curmudgeonly than when we got him, and Charley has really developed into an awesome dog.

We got a lot done on the house this year, too, including doors connecting the deck and dining room (all the way back in January '11), a new laundry room, ongoing kitchen remodeling, and a toasty gas fireplace insert. It's been fun doing projects with my dad when he makes trips up to Syracuse.

Family/House goals: Visit Becky in Salem, be more of a tight-wad when it comes to home improvement.

That pretty much satisfies my writing itch. I guess I should state that I do have a few other resolutions for the year, including reading more (thanks for the Christmas Kindle, Natalie), and watching less TV (this is usually more a function of getting Natalie to not turn it on as background entertainment, though I am guilty of the occasional Hulu binge).

I also hope that contributors new and old re-up on the blog posting. No one really reads it except us, anyway, so more than anything else, it's just a good way to stay in touch.

Onward,

Sam

Test the Waters

I'm signed up for the 3000 at the January 6th Cornell meet. What are the chances you guys (Gordon, more likely) would be up for a race there?

Training

So, I am putting sub-1:50 out there as a goal, but not necessarily the goal. At this stage, I want to see what I am still capable of. That being said I have certainly had that number on my mind for a long time, and I can empathize with Steve(Sam)'s sub-15 blog (in fact, I think about it every time I open that website).

As for the video from the Nittany Half, I will be posting that after finals week has ended (this week) when I can load the video and figure out how to edit it/post it.

So, I won't go into great detail about the past few months. My first month I was consistent in running 60 minutes every day and 90 minutes on Sundays, but I had to scale that back after I started doing workouts because I was getting really bad tightness in my knees. I put a post on Letsrun to see if there was anyone to workout with here, and I got a response from the PSU Track Club and recent PSU graduate Ryan Foster. I ended up not having the time slot for the track club available, but I have run a few long runs with Foster, which has worked out much more to my advantage since I am much slower/older and less driven than him (he's in the process of qualifying for the Australian Olympic team).

Anyway, so skip ahead a few months of workouts. After trying to think of things to do to make myself fast I went ahead and got Will Seidel to put together a workout calendar for me, and thus far, things to seem to be going smoothly.

Last week:

S: 90 minutes

M: 60 Minutes

T: 45 minutes + 10 short hill sprints

W: 2 x 8 x 200 (36/35 for the first set and 34 for the second set) with 100 meter jog in between and 4 minutes between sets) --> The first set should have been faster but I had to run it on an outdoor track in the snow and the track got pretty slippery. So, I went based on effort.

R: 60 minutes

F: 45 minutes

S: 600 meter TT - 1:26 (200 splits: 28, 28, 30) again solo on outdoor track with some wind - I think I could have gone faster if but for the wind, but I'm happy with the time.

So, that's last week. As for things to look forward to, right now it looks like I'll either be running at Bucknell on January 7 or at Cornell on January 5. Either way, I'll be running a 500/3000 double.

le Trois - Sam

About a week ago Ross and I ran the Nittany Valley Half as a tuneup. For Ross, this would be a tuneup for the Boston marathon this coming April, and for me, this would be a tempo run of sorts as I train for some kind of track season this spring.

I am no longer a teacher, and this means that I have a lot more time on my hands. I would say that I am still busy, but my time is not as structured as it was, and I am nowhere near the level of busy-ness that I kept while I was living in NYC. Over the summer I ran a bit (40-50 mile weeks), but I wasn't sure what I was training for. Sometime around August I started thinking about running another marathon or trying something new like a triathlon or tough mudder. So, I got in touch with Ross and Sam, but, unbeknownst to me, Ross and Sam had both decided to take advantage of their Boston qualifying times and race another marathon this April (as they, admittedly, should).

I am sad to say that I was disappointed to hear this. I should have been happy for my friends, but, owing to the fact that I flamed out at the Pittsburgh marathon like a communist rocket, I would not be racing in Boston alongside them. So, come April, I will head up to Boston to watch, but not to run. Maybe another year.

Now, I had a decision to make - what was I going to be training for. I suddenly had time to train, but I wasn't sure what the goal should be. I had always said that I wanted to run sub 1:50 for the 800, but I had not done so in college. So, I decided that I'd see what I could do on the track as a 27-28 year old, and that's the plan right now.

Anyway, this is a long explanation of why I was calling the Nittany Valley Half a tempo while Ross was tuning up for Boston. We were both hoping to improve on our times from last March's Race For Life Half where Ross ran (I think) 1:25 flat and I ran about 1:26:30. We were both hoping for about 1:22.

We ended up with Ross at 1:23:22 and myself at 1:25:00 placing 18th and 28th respectively. I think our initial reaction was to feel disappointed, but, after having given it some thought, it was a pretty good showing. The course was very hilly, there were few stretches that were not on some sort of incline/decline, and the inclines and declines were very steep.

Ross and I got through the first 2-3 miles in 6:30 pace before we began dropping it down to 6:15ish. We had heard that the there was a big downhill around mile 8 and that the last 1.5 miles of the course were all uphill. Our plan was to use the big downhill to relax and save up for the last 1.5 miles, but the downhill (which seemed like it was 1.5 miles straight downhill, like we were descending into the Earth) ended up being more taxing than we anticipated. The next hill at around mile 9.5 was straight up for about 400 meters, and I had to say goodbye to Ross or risk not finishing. So, I slowed. From there the rest of the run was all about maintaining dignity while trying to catch my breath. I was by myself - there was no one else behind me or ahead of me, and I think this aided in me slowing down because there was little to gauge myself on. The last uphill was horrendous, but satisfying when I finished.

I think my effort on a flat course would have been worth about 1:23:30, and I'll bet Ross's would have been 1:22. The last 3 miles of the course made all the difference.

Chances Slim

Episode 1 is now up on the sub-15 blog. I'd like to take a moment to reflect upon how mutually exclusive my current running goals are. As if running a fast Boston or breaking 15 minutes (when I could never do it before) weren't hard enough, I'm dumb enough to try to do them in the same year. Goal number three, therefore, has to be not getting a femoral stress fracture. Enjoy.

Back From Vice City

Apologies for the lack of new blog posts. I've been away at a conference in New Orleans, and as a result, my running and blog posting have suffered.


By day, I drank coffee and was stuck in a suit for 12 hours at a time. By night, I was a hell cat, and considering our locale, this took its toll. New Orleans is basically one loud tranny bar filled with cigarette smoke. I didn't mind the fact that there are video poker machines at gas stations, but I did object to the fact that from Thursday to Tuesday, I had one long mild headache. This was the result of copious amounts of coffee and alcohol with little water in between and little sleep to boot. No one to blame but myself.

Running-wise, I guess I finished "Week 1" around what I wanted with a mid-40's performance. This week will be far worse than expected, though, as I haven't run since Saturday.

Thanks to Steve for posting the Sub-15 blog. I'm not sure when that little experiment will start, though I'm sure it will be very painful and fun to watch.

The Quest for Sub-15:00

So the blog idea that Sam alluded to earlier is a quest to break 15:00 for 5k. Each week he and I will complete one workout here in Syracuse. The catch is that the workout will be created by blog readers and can be comprised of just about any sort of repeats imaginable. We will keep a video record of our training and rate each workout when we are finished. Here is the link to where these videos will be cataloged: http://sub15minutes.blogspot.com/
If you have a good workout idea feel free to post it in the comments section after you watch the pilot episode.

A Word on the Second Coming

This is mostly a housekeeping post. I thought it would be useful to get some logistical things out of the way as we prepare for the (re)launch of Marathon à Trois.

First of all, it should be clear to everyone that the format has changed dramatically. You'll now be able to access links under the banner (e.g. "About", "Log", etc.), which is something you couldn't do before. I think there is a way to create a subpage within Blogger without creating a post, but I haven't figured out how to do it (hence the posts entitled "About" and "Log"). If one of you guys stumbles upon the solution, let me know. Hopefully you all agree that the color scheme is a lot cheerier. All in all, I think we're in a better place with the new layout.

Second, I wanted to tell you how the running log feature will work. I created a form using Googledocs, so now instead of posting a weekly recap, you can just go to the log and fill out your mileage. You can even do this a couple of times per week if you want. Just make sure you don't double up on reporting different days. Everything you input goes to a big spreadsheet, which I can share with you if you want. From that spreadsheet, it will be super easy to create graphs and shit. Cheeah. Welcome to 2011.

Third, Steve proposed an idea on the run today, which I thought was excellent. I'm thinking we'll devote a link to it so that we can track its evolution from now until summer. I'll let Steve describe it in his own post, though.

Finally, I just wanted to extend a warm welcome to le trois neveux: Oliver, Steve, and Will. Make us proud.

About Marathon à Trois

Gordon, Ross, and Sam were all middle-distance runners on the track and field team at Cornell University. As is the case with many collegiate athletes, their lives devolved into the petty swill of the prosaic American dream after graduation.

In late 2010, these three -- better known as "le trois" -- developed the zany idea of running the Pittsburgh Marathon in order to salvage some of their former glory. This blog, which derives its namesake from a friend's food blog, followed suit as a chronicle of their successes and failures along the way.

Pittsburgh was a painful experience, but everyone made it to the finish line. Sam and Ross got Boston qualifiers and have set their sights on the ballyhooed April race. Gordon cramped up early on (we're talking like mile 4) and missed the standard, but he's gearing up for another go in the spring--possibly with swimming and biking attached.

The paltry blog readership has also been reduced by 20% for this go-round, as Oliver, Steve, and Will have been tapped as honorary authors for launch part deux. They have disparate goals on the roads but one shared vision for blogging greatness.

So with that, thanks for coming. Lord knows what's in store for the new-found six-some as we trudge on to Boston and beyond.

Running Log

Status Post-Pittsburgh

The Fickleness of a Long-Distance Runner

By now, dear readers, you may have heard the news. Ross has (understandably) bowed out of the early winter 2012 marathon agenda to focus on school and not going bankrupt. These seem like good reasons.

As for the marathoning, that leaves me and Gordon going a deux, which is fine, if not a little sad. The good news is that Oliver has expressed an interest in running Disney. Just like that, one friend is swapped for another. How fickle.

Now, I know what you're saying. Sam, every time you bring up that big fat bag of shit getting back in shape, it's like watching Lucy pluck the football away from Charlie Brown's earnestly swung leg. Yeah, yeah. But this time it's different, you see. This time, Dear Uncle Walt is involved, and we all know that Oliver can't say no to him. Sure, the question still remains as to whether it's Oliver or myself living in the Land of Make-Believe, but we'll know soon enough--once we get something nailed down with registration.

Disney is probably somewhere in the low double digits when it comes my ranked preferences among the early winter marathons. But, hey, who am I to complain if Gordon took the time to Google a JPEG of Mickey Mouse and post it on the blog? I am game for anything as long as I can complete my dream of dominating the Made-Up Upstate Mile Series (Wilber-Duck, Ithaca Festival, Charlie McMullen, East End) in 2012. Running Disney in January gives me time to do that, so game on.

Caroline White; Runner in the Boston Marathon

Caroline White, a LT in the United States Air Force, ran the Boston Marathon in April in a big PR of 2:37:32. This is a 8 minute PR over her old marathon best of 2:45. This also qualifies her to compete in the Olympic Trials under the A standard. She will be training between now and next January with high mileage, lots of track work, and race at shorter distances in attempts to see another PR in Houston.

Her story is found here: http://csmng.com/2009/08/20/discovery-of-running-talent-a-pleasant-surprise-for-air-force-lieutenant/

The Disney Proposal

While we hash out the details surrounding the next marathon, I'd like to throw a few considerations out there regarding Disney. Some are pro and some are con.

#1 - I have not been to a Disney resort since I was one year old and got stung by a colony of red ants.

#2 - The last time I had the opportunity to go to Disney was in California when Oliver, Gordon, and Mongeon went. I opted instead to take a nap and pocket what was left of my meal money. I ended up investing that money in Netflix stock, which eventually paid for the down payment on my house. Was it a good decision? The jury is still out. They did seem to have a lot of fun.

#3 - By my cursory count, Disney is 22 weeks from Gordon's wedding. This actually seems to be a pretty good time frame since I don't want to think about marathon training before then, but I want to make sure that it works for the soon-to-be Honeymooners. Natalie and I ran most days on our Honeymoon if I remember right, but I can't really remember the runs. It'll probably be harder if Molly insists on you feeding her grapes all day.

#4 - The race starts at 5:40 am on a Sunday. Do we go down on Thursday, get a park park-hopper pass on Friday, and then chill out Saturday/hit the less physically demanding stuff? Will it be crazy busy if we do it this way? One backdoor option to consider would be to go down on a Saturday, relax, race Sunday, and then hit the rides early in the week. The obvious problem with this plan is our physical condition. I'm pretty sure I will cramp up if I have to make any sort of muscle contraction post-race. History tends to repeat itself.

#5 -Cost for a base pass (one park) is $80, and a park-hopper pass is $133. The race costs $135. When you add lodging, airfare, and food, we're probably looking at $750 pp easy. I'm thinking Disney will be about twice what any other East Coast marathon might cost, but this is just a guess.

#6 - Would a Disney trip lure anyone else into coming over other winter marathons?

#7 - Disney's course looks really challenging. http://as1.wdpromedia.com/media/ewwos/pdf/rundisney/2012WDWMarathonMap.pdf

#8 - #7 was a joke. Here's the real elevation profile: http://www.marathonguide.com/coursemaps/elevationchart.cfm?MIDD=481100110

The Long Awaited Pittsburgh Video

Thanks also to Natalie, Carrie, and Team Gehrke for filming and comedic commentary. I had you in the credits the first go-round but left you out accidentally in the second edition.

Enjoy.

Marathon Vacuum

I still want to write a full follow-up similar to Ross's, but this post is just going to deal with the direction of the blog now that we're in the post-race emptiness.

Before I say anything else I'm going to make a plug: January 8, 2012 Disney World Marathon

I was really excited to run a marathon for the same reasons that Ross listed: get to see my friends, gives me a reason to go out and train (not just jogging), gave us two reasons to get together (the half and the full marathon), satisfaction with the fact that I'm not dead and I can still carry myself a reasonable distance on my feet, and, of course, the blog.

With the exception of the blog, these were the reasons that I asked Sam and Ross to run another marathon. That and the fact that I really enjoyed running the NYC marathon. I would not say it was about racing, beating other people, or even getting a good time (which ended up not applying to me anyway). For me, it was about running with friends, which was my favorite part of being on a college team in the first place.

I do still enjoy competition, but I'm not compelled to compete the way that I did when I was in college. I'm also apt to throw in the towel when the going gets rough because I feel like I've already proved my point competition-wise. Post collegiate racing feels like an attempt to recapture something rather than discovering something new.

With all of that said, I would like to put out the idea of doing some joint 5ks, 5-milers, 10-milers, and the like. I'm all for completing another marathon a year or so from now, but I think this would be lower pressure with less pain and less hiccups to training (or less need to train up for them). I've been running these with Mongeon in NYC, but I'll soon be all moved out and I'll have a car and a functioning license in Pennsylvania.

This would also allow for many more meetups. We could even cycle. One in Pittsburgh, one in State College, and one in Syracuse. Smaller races would also mean no reason to take days off (unless we wanted to). Also, with smaller races there's always the off chance that one of us could actually win.

Anyway, I've been trying to pick a good 5 miler in Pittsburgh in either August or September, but I would be open to others if you know of any.

What do you think?

Where We Go From Here

I've basically taken a week off from running and from blogging; it's been a nice week. I think I've logged less than two miles since the race and I feel great.

A few months back, I had initially kicked around the idea of running a local road mile last Friday. I thought that despite running a marathon, if I didn't run a step all week, I might be recovered in time to turn in something in the ballpark of 4:30. The early post-marathon signs--extreme stiffness followed by extreme soreness lasting well into the week--were not promising, although by Thursday afternoon, I was feeling good enough to try jogging up a hill on campus to get to a seminar. The result of this little experiment was a deep pain in my calves that couldn't really be described as a cramp. If I were to throw out a medical term, I'd probably say that "claudication" describes it best. This phenomenon is experienced when blood supply to a particular area of tissue is no longer present.

Natalie and I went to the race on Friday, nonetheless, because, by this time, I had convinced Natalie that she could win the race (and the $100 prize money) pretty easily. I warmed up with her for about a mile, and this put the nail in the coffin of any cockamamie ideas ff running the race I might have been cooking up on the drive over to Oneida. Natalie did indeed pull out the victory, although she wasn't too pleased with her time. On the bright side, she's got no where to go but up this summer, and she seems pretty motivated. As a bonus, we met a guy who offered us free registration to Biolermaker (which I didn't realize is already closed :( ).

So other than missing the mile, I have to say I've really, really enjoyed not running this week. My initial rah-rah attitude about getting back on the training saddle has taken on a more tempered perspective. I still want to do it, but I'm at least cognizant of how much I like being lazy.

With this in mind, I thought Ro$$'s post on the race and his relationship with running was well done. I completely get it. For me, the idea of giving up competitive running is certainly not something new. I've in fact done it several times with reasons falling everywhere over the spectrum of purely circumstantial to fully intentional. That said, each time I say goodbye to the prospect of ever setting a PR again, it sparks a tinge of regret somewhere inside of me. I suppose the marathon experience was fun because it gave me something to look forward to, a goal I could achieve as long as I was willing to run over the winter.

I'm pretty sure it was this latter reason--the process toward a greater goal--that made me think so readily about another marathon. It's also nice that people have become so fond of our little blog. So, where to from here?

A few weeks ago, I had tossed around the idea of running the inaugural Empire State Marathon in Syracuse this fall. Maybe I still will, but while it's nice to run fast, I've mostly seen the marathon as a means to an end (getting in shape), and the prospect of two marathons in a year doesn't excite me much.

The next idea was Boston. With my time, I was basically assured a spot given the new qualification standards. The qualifier for our age group is 3:10, but if you're X minutes faster than that time, you're allowed to apply Y days early. There are two problems with Boston, though. First, Gordon might not be able to qualify unless his New York time gets him in, and I'm not sure that it does this late in the game. Maybe his half time? I'm not sure. Second, the race is in April. While a spring marathon got me through the Syracuse winter, it really precludes much in the way of track races in the spring. Will pointed out that I should just do something in January or February. This is a great option for several reasons, but there are strong rumors of a Hall indoor comeback coming out of the State College rumor mill. On the plus side, this time of year works pretty well for student schedules.

In conclusion, I'm not sure what should happen from this point for le trois, but I've got an idea for what my preference is. I would say for me, fall is out. I'd like to run some miles and 5k's in what's left of the summer, and the idea of starting another long build in a week or two doesn't sound too great. I'm sure Ross will agree with that idea. Again, May was nice in some ways, but I'm realizing now that it's also pretty late. At the expense of indoor, January and February seem like the best plan. Bonus reason: Why not sit on my butt for two weeks when there's two feet of snow on the ground?

So without further ado, I bring you my top-five candidates for a winter destination marathon. I'd also like to take this opportunity to gauge participatory interest from our followers, Cornell alumni and others. We will probably keep the name of the blog (which, despite the fact that I stole it from Kate Irvin's Melange à Trois blog, is pretty good), but might as well add a few contributors to keep things spicy. Ross and Gordon have not weighed in on this yet, though, so let's hear it.

5: Carlsbad, January 22, 2012

4: New Orleans, March 4, 2012

3: Houston, January 15, 2012

2: Birmingham, February 12 (?), 2012

1: Miami, January 29, 2012

More here.