Lulled In By the Bulldog 25K Trail Run Again This Year

The Bulldog 50K and 25K trail races are on Saturday, August 25th this year at Malibu Creek State Park in Calabasas.  Don't know what it is about this brutally tough race, but I'm signed up for the 25K again this year. Last year it was the hottest day of the year and I didn't fare too well, feeling dehydrated most of the race. Hoping we get an overcast morning.

Today I did my longest run so far of the year, a 2 hour run mostly on the trails in Sycamore Canyon. Ran up Danielson Road, turned up the Old Boney Trail (which gives some really nice views of Boney Mountain), down Fossil Trail down to the bottom of Sycamore Canyon. From there I ran a handful of other trails and road to achieve a total time of 2 hours.

Did something I would not recommend. Swigged down a bottle of water, put a couple candy bars in a fanny pack, and took off. Didn't carry any water with me this morning as I felt I was able to drink enough down to get my through a 2 hour run. I'm not a big fan of carrying water. Started the run at 7:20 a.m. and it was nice and cool. Temps only reached about 70 degrees. Worked out fine for me. My backup plan is that I knew of 3 water fountains on my path. Didn't need to stop for them though.

But I did stop briefly to take a few quick pics of the view!

Australian Hurdler Michelle Jenneke's Warmup Dance; You Can Get Away With This if You're Good at What You Do!

After sucking in some oxygen, I thought, is this too overtly sexualization of sports? But I paced myself, watched the whole video...29 times...and though, heck no. This 19 year old Aussie Michelle Jenneke demolished the competition so if she wants to do a little dance show to warm up, by golly, let her!

While she won't be at the Olympics in London next month, perhaps we will see her smiling face and wiggly, jiggly moves at the 2016 Olympics in Spain.

More at www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/07/19/michelle-jenneke-dancing-australian-hurdler-video_n_1686230.html.

Video Footage of June 28th U.S. Men's 5,000 Meter Olympic Trials in Oregon

On June 28, 2012, 26 year old Galen Rupp of Portland, Oregon broke Steve Prefontaine's 1972 5000m trials record, running the race in 13:22.67. Galen's career best time in the distance was set earlier that month on June 2 at the Prefontaine Classic in 12:58.90, where he finished in 3rd place. This will be Rupp's 2nd appearance in the Olympics, finishing 13th in the 10,000 meters in Beijing 2008 Summer Olympics.

Rupp will be joined by 38 year old (ancient by 5,000 meter standards) Bernard Lagat, who finished 15/100ths of a second behind Rupp, and 3rd place finisher Lopez Lomong. This is a great finish in what was a very tactical race. Looking forward to seeing these guys compete in London next month.

Waking Up My Body Once Again With a Local 5K Race on the 4th of July

With no particular race plans and no real focus to my running these days, I don't have a lot of motivation to run fast. It has been 3 1/2 months since I started back with my running after 5 1/2 week hiatus. I've been running consistently, but not spectacularly.

Part of my problem continues to be lack of adequate sleep...getting to bed too late. I'll have to work on cloning myself. Too tired in the morning, my daily runs have been slow. My long runs in the 8 to 9 mile range over the last 3 to 4 weeks.

In any case, I thought it would be fun to do the local Miller Family YMCA 5K in Newbury Park on the 4th of July to give my body some shock treatment again. When you don't do speedwork on the track or in your training in general, I'm a fan of running a periodic 5K to force a little speed with peer pressure surrounding you in a fun environment.

There were over 400 runners on hand for the 5K. The weather was overcast, the course was semi-challenging. I felt decent. Not speedy, but not bad.

As usual for pretty much any local 5K/10K, there were dozens and dozens of teenagers toeing the line. Although I know most of them will be out of the gate like a sprinter, then fizzle out before the first miler marker, I don't bother trying to squeeze into the front where I know I belong (I did, even at my advanced age of 47, still manage to finish 9th overall). I chose standing in the 2nd/3rd row and relaxing, though slightly annoyed, to jostling with a pimply 16 year old for a spot.

The race starts and, sure enough, 50 people bolt out ahead of me as I work my way into it. But within 1/2 mile most of these folks are behind me as I slowly but surely reel them in. At that point I was pretty much in the spot I'd end up at at the finish line.

While the speed that carried me to 17 1/2 minute 5K times 2 years ago was not there, I felt more competitive than the 10K I ran 2 1/2 months ago. So I was able to keep a couple teenagers on their toes most of the race, trading positions with them a few times. At the end, they were able to accelerate while I stayed in 2nd gear, and they beat me 8 seconds.

The results show me in 9th place in 18:31, roughly 5:59 per mile. The first mile was uphill, which forced me into negative splits, which is a good thing. The two kids in front of me were 14 and 16. The 10th place finisher, 25 seconds behind me, was 15. WTH?? I'm older than the combined ages of these 3 guys. Too much fun!

Novel Approach For Eliminating the Dreaded Nip Chafing Issue While Running a Marathon

A good friend of mine recently finished his first full, official marathon, the Taipei Expressway Marathon in Taiwan. If running an entire marathon on a highway ain't bad enough (sounds dreadful to me), it was over 80 degrees and humid. Call me a wimp but I'm not flying over to Taiwan anytime soon to run a marathon (though truth be told, I signed up to run the Singapore Marathon, which I ended up not going to).

In any case, one of the photos my friend shared was the one below. The dude with his arms in the air while reaching the finish line is wearing a shirt that could (theoretically) be the solution to runners' chafing of the nipples. Simply cut out those sections of the shirt and, wallah!! No more chafing issues, no more bleeding, no need for bandaids on the nips or other strategies for addressing this particular issue!

My thinking is, perhaps women should first try it to see if it catches on. I'm sure at least 3 of the 7 people reading this are women. Try it out and let me know. And send pictures :>

2nd Annual Ojai 2 Ocean Marathon and Half Marathon Proves to Be a Hit!

The 2nd Annual Ojai 2 Ocean Marathon took place this past Sunday, June 3rd, under mostly overcast skies...perfect marathon weather. 

The marathon course starts near Nordhoff High School in Ojai and has a net downhill of 700 feet as it takes runners through a scenic bike path to the Ventura waterfront. My friends that ran it said it is a really nice course and that they would run it again. One friend who was targeting a 3:30 had some solid training and blew through the course in 3:10.

Both the marathon and half marathon races sold out, with 809 finishers in the marathon and 877 in the half marathon.  My friend indicated there is talk that they make some change next year to allow for a larger number of participants, given the race's popularity.

Indicative of the steady downhill, there were 24 marathoner that finished the race in under 3 hours. That is fully 3% of all finishers, which is quite impressive. Contrast that with this past year's Los Angeles Marathon, where 116 finishers out of 18,729, or just .6% finished in under 3 hours. That is a factor of five difference!

Of course, the large proportion of speedy marathons could also be in part to course organizers' reaching out to faster runners. On its website, they indicate they will give a free entry to any men and women that have recent times under 2:45 and 3 hours, respectively.  And they give 50% of the cost of an entry to men and women with recent times under 3 hours and 3:20, respectively. Nice!

The top 2 men in the race were only 37 seconds apart. Overall winner Jay Thomson of Santa Cruz finished in 2:30:16 while Clyde Behunin of St. George, Utah (also known for one of the most downhill courses in the United States) was 2nd. Blue Benadum of Malibu finished 3rd in 2:35.

Julie Brekke of San Diego won the woman's race in 2:59, followed by Shauna Rountree of Bakersfield in 3:00:16 and Amy Laughter of Ogden, Utah in 3:00:41. Pretty close race!

Top Ventura County finishers were Aaron Torres of Ventura, 6th place overall in 2:48:46 and Melissa Hernandez of Oxnard in 3:08:39.

Ojai 2 Ocean is one of only 2 full marathon courses that are run completely in Ventura County, the Camarillo Marathon being the other one. Prior to 2009, there were no Ventura County based marathons. Keep up the great work in bringing 26.2 mile races to our local area!

Mini Duathlon Through Sycamore Canyon

This past Saturday morning I decided to try something I always wanted to do. Drive to the beach, leave the car, run home via Sycamore Canyon, then ride my bike back to the car with my son. What a fun way of "mixing it up" a bit by doing something new.

My destination Saturday morning was PCH at Sycamore Cove State Beach in Malibu. While a straight shot down Sycamore Canyon Road from Newbury Park to the beach is 8 to 9 miles depending on where you start, getting there via Potrero Road west to Hueneme Road and south on Las Posas to PCH is about 18 miles.

Driving west on Potrero Road while deftly taking picture before navigating twisty, hilly turns.

I reached the ocean around 6:45 a.m. and soon noticed there were "no parking" signs lining up almost every inch of PCH within range of the Sycamore Canyon trailhead. Thoroughly annoying. I KNOW it wasn't this way all the time. Perhaps the state is so broke they're putting up the signs to force us to pay $12 to park in a lot.

Malibu in the morning does not suck

I thought of parking in the state park lot but it didn't open until 8 a.m. So I drove down PCH just south the trailhead and discovered a handful of spots available and nabbed one. Whew!

Most of Sycamore Canyon from the beach is slight to gradual uphill, up until the very top where there's an 800 foot ascent over 3/4 mile. The bottom half of the course is mostly dirt trail, then switches to pavement  More on this course HERE.

I love it back in Sycamore Canyon. It is rarely crowded, beautiful, peaceful scenery, you can go miles without seeing anyone, in the early morning you'll come across deer and other wildlife and....there are plenty of, ahem, porta-johns along the course. That's a nice feature to have along any course.

So 72 minutes later I was home and felt great. A bit grungy though, so I hopped in the shower and within 15 minutes was out the door with my son.

The ride down Sycamore Canyon doesn't require too much effort. Other than some initial, brief uphills into the Canyon a handful of dirt stream crossings, it is a fun, downhill ride. Make sure your brakes work!

We enjoyed the beach a bit afterwards then drove over the Oxnard via PCH to grab lunch and enjoy the rest of the day.

Sycamore Canyon is beautiful but do watch out for poison oak if you veer off the main road/trail.

Plugging Away in Hidden Valley

Not a lot of excitement to report running-wise these days. Just plugging away, slowly ramping up mileage for a TBD fall marathon at this point. Nothing too serious, though I did run The Oaks Mile 5K on May 5th in a (for me) pedestrian 19:55. Hoping something "clicks" in this ancient body of mine one of these days. I also had a decent 90 minute run into Sycamore Canyon last Sunday; my longest run, roughly 12 miles, in about 4 months (pre-eye surgery).

This morning I got out later than I wanted and chose to run into Hidden Valley from Newbury Park. Running through Hidden Valley can be one of the most peaceful, rewarding runs one can do in the Conejo Valley area. Quiet, serene farmland views, mostly flat (though there are sharp hills on both the Newbury Park and Westlake Village sides of the run).

The only negatives of running through Hidden Valley are that there are no restroom stops, which makes the run dicey if you feel you may have a need for a pit stop, and you may encounter periodic speeding cars.  You'll also encounter cyclists on most any day through Hidden Valley...remind me the final "con" - that there are no bike lanes/sidewalks back there, so you absolutely must run facing traffic back here to stay safe and sane.

See you out there...!

Boston Marathon 2012 Was Sweltering; Top Local Finishers

Here is the card I got back in the mail, indicating my lack of appearance at the race. My friend picked up my shirt in Boston for me. At least I have even splits in this race.It was actually a blessing that I didn't run the Boston Marathon last month as I don't like running in the heat and it was one gnarly, hot and humid day out there. According to race organizers, it was 79 degrees at the start of the men's race and 85 degrees at the finish.

One local runner who has run Boston a dozen or so times said it was 87 degrees at the finish and he was starting to see double. He finished about 33 minutes slower than last year's time, though he was equally fit. Another friend of mine who works at Future Track Running Center in Agoura Hills dropped out of the race; having finished in 3:22 last year, he saw little point in staying on the course for 4+ hours in overheated misery! The winner of the men's race finished in 2:12:40 this year, nearly 10 minutes slower than last year's winning time.

Here are some of the top local runners who did complete the whole course. Congratulations to all!

• Blue Benadum, 32, Malibu: 2:42:08 (100th overall!)
• Jessica Douglas, 30, Santa Barbara: 3:12:41 (79th female overall)
• Pete Feldman, 47, Santa Barbara: 3:16:58
• Joy Zemella, 36, Santa Barbara: 3:19:37 (153rd female overall)
• Craig Prater, 47, Santa Barbara: 3:20:50
• Simon Martin, 45, Newbury Park: 3:26:40 (1st Ventura County finisher)
• Steven Kulchin, 57, Santa Barbara: 3:34:01 (61st in age group)
• Leanne Mohr, 26, Camarillo: 3:34:25 (2nd Ventura County finisher)
• Joslynn Spreadbury, 35, Santa Barbara: 3:37:30
• Fred Alvarez, 49, Ojai: 3:37:35
• Rebecca Getman, 23, Calabasas: 3:38:22
• Barry Wallman, 60, Camarillo: 3:38:30 (19th in age group)
• Andrew Whittington, 45, Thousand Oaks: 3:38:39
• Jason Griffith, 40, Thousand Oaks: 3:40:03
• Sharon Pick, 45, Thousand Oaks: 3:41:03 (56th in age group)
• Brianna Alban, 23, Thousand Oaks: 3:41:09
• Erik Lange, 44, Ventura: 3:41:57
• Scott Hambly, 45, Thousand Oaks: 3:42:24
• Dana Janowicz, 36, Camarillo: 3:42:31
• Larissa White, 25, Santa Barbara: 3:42:49

Visit www.baa.org/races/boston-marathon for more information.

Knocking Out the Cobwebs With a 10K Race

Yes, I guess I did run like never before last weekend...my first 42 minute 10K, 11 seconds slower than the first 10K I ever ran back in July 1993, 2 months after starting running.

But I don't mind. I had been back to running less than a month after 5 1/2 weeks away from running and this was a good way to "work out the kinks." My hamstrings have been sore and stiff and the day after the 10K they seemed to have loosened up. While 42 minutes isn't blazing fast for me in a 10K, the 6:46 pace was much faster than the slowpoke training pace I've been running.

Now I've got a bit of a sore right outer knee, something new for me, but it doesn't seem to be impeding the running too much. My right hamstring has been sore too. Guess I gotta give it a day off or two as I've barely taken a day off since coming back to running.

In any case, my advice is, if you're looking to improve your speed and aren't motivated to run on the track, consider signing up for some local races as training runs. It costs a bit of $$ but usually it goes towards a good cause. Plus, it makes it more enjoyable to run fast when you're running with others.