Race report: DC Rock 'n' Roll USA Half Marathon (and Metro mess)

I guess when you run enough races, you eventually get to see everything. Today when the starting gun went off at 8 a.m. While when the race starts, I'm usually inside a corral, I found myself in another type of holding pen: Inside a Metro station a kilometer from the start. Here's what it looked like as we were climbing up the escalator. Pretty insane.

Via goldpeachdesu

I guess I should've known. This was the first year that the rock 'n roll series have come to DC to take over the SunTrust Marathon and half marathon. A victim to corporate naming rights, the half marathon I ran was actually called the CareFirst, BlueCross, Blueshield Roll 'n' Roll USA 1/2 Marathon. Wow, that's a mouthful.

Actually, I should've known from looking at expo yesterday was that a hell of a lot of people have signed up for this race.

Still this morning, I decided to leave more than enough time to get to race, the same time I put aside to get to the Pentagon for the MCM the past five years - or so I thought. We waited for 20 minutes at one station on the Red line, by which time our subway was packed tight with runners. They couldn't close the doors, so they kicked us all out and we basically ate 40 minutes on trains and subway stations.

That's a first, starting the race on a subway platform. I just resigned myself to a different kind of race. "It's a training run," I thought as I waited and line and chatted up other runners as we waited for the portapotty. We complained about the wait, but we were pretty chill about it -- at least none of us were using it as a goal race but i'm sure others were.

From the back of the corrals (there were 27), I finally did some maneuvering to make it pass the start line 26 minutes after 8. I'm not sure how fast the runners were at my start, but I did spot the 2:45 pace group. Wow, I had a lot of work to do.

Going into the race, my strategy was to pace for 5 minute kilometres or 8 minute miles for a 1:45. It was an even pace and a good one to see how it'd feel -- I haven't really done much pace work at all this year. I've been a pace bunny for two half marathons for 1:45 so in theory this was a piece of cake. Right.

So, given that I started way back, I spent the entire race doing the following

• Running on the sidelines, which includes grass, raised sidewalks and almost brushing up against parked cars
• Weaving through walls of runners looking for a window so I wouldn't lose pace
• Going from left of the course to the right (and the opposite) to get into a groove

It's not ideal finding a consistent pace when you're spending the race pacing increasingly faster runners. From the first 5 miles, I was going significantly faster, then as I caught up to runners at the front, it became harder to figure out how fast I was going.

Rock 'n' Roll Marathon at Dupont Circle

The course has a good stretch from mile four to eight of gradual uphills, with some bigger ones around mile 6-7. Still, I gradually increased the pace. Once we hit the high point, I remembered how I attacked this course a few years ago after the 9 mile mark. Although I was still weaving through crowds, I felt great and started to hammer it. A few other runners were doing the same.

I hit the home stretch going at tempo pace, which pretty much emptied the tank but it felt great to ramp it up. I hit the end in 1:41:36 -- considering the circumstances, I'm really happy with the time.
 According to my finish page, I was the 909th half marathoner of 16291.

Next week, Around the Bay 30K!

Splits

Here's the mile splits:
Mile 1: 8:11 (5:05km)
Mile 2: 8:16 (5:08km)
Mile 3: 7:38 (4:45km)
Mile 4: 7:49 (4:52km)
Mile 5: 7:55 (4:55km)
Mile 6: 7:55 (4:56km)
Mile 7: 8:03 (5:00km)
Mile 8: 7:50 (4:52km)
Mile 9:  7:18 (4:33km)
Mile 10: 7:18 (4:33km)
Mile 11: 7:18 (4:32km)
Mile 12: 7:29 (4:39km)
Mile 13: 7:02 (4:22km)
Mile 13.x: 1:28 (4:21km pace)

And bling:

Word on the street

It's funny to be on the other side. In my day job as a journalist, I've seen the power of a media brand, and fielded questions and assumptions on how mainstream media (MSM) works. How we often miss the mark. How we supposedly fail to connect. My running life, aside from all the reasons I love to write about, allows me to experience the other side.

Our sport is portrayed in the oddest light in mainstream media. On one end, you get the bizarre (pregnant marathoners, web cam runners), while on the other, you'll get the clinical coverage of the top end of the sport focused on the key stars. Other coverage tries to chart the movement of this running boom, deciding to give lifestyle-tinged coverage of how to get fit and cross another line on your bucket list.

Even within our own press, such magazines as Runner's World and Canadian Running Magazine, struggles with how to connect to this community. We'll see great features of our running royalty, of the top 10 ways to (lose weight/eat healthy/run long), and a few feel-good profiles of fellow runners who do great things. Occasionally, Runner's World hits it out of the park with top notch narratives that's worth the year's subscription.

Fielding accusations from the general readership on how MSM operates, I often wonder if it's true. Does mainstream miss the mark? Can they tap into issues, topics and feelings that emerge.

The masses

Maybe there is that wall -- not the one at mile 20 -- that sits there between the mainstream view and the general running public. I've often thought about what is it that makes media decision makers so disconnected to what the public thinking and saying and experiencing.

I watched the Kony 2012 video take grip this past week. At my newsroom, we flooded to 'figure out' what the buzz was all about, and we jumped on it. Other  national newsrooms started doing the same. A day after that, it appeared on the national news station. And by the weekend, a national newspaper dedicated its front page to explaining what makes a video (or a movement) go viral. A front page newspaper article about viral video? That circular motion reminded me of those first days that media figured out that real people were using Twitter and found the only way to respond is to cover the platform to death. Huh?

I've written about how Twitter is great for running, but it occurred to me how out of touch one can get. A few weeks ago, I read a piece by Canadian Running about How Social Media is Changing Our Stride. The reporter, who had interviewed me a year ago, wrote about the closeness of community that social had brought to our sport.

My post on the Scotiabank marathon bag check disaster got mention (self plug alert):

At the grassroots level, there are recreational runners, ranting to others with similar passions - an angry blog post about poor race organization can get dozens of comments, generating compelling discussions and responses from race directors. The Scotiabank Toronto Waterfront Marathon’s baggage claim disaster received significant coverage on Kenny Yum’s blog “A whole lot of soles.” Race director Alan Brookes even took notice, sending out an apology and incorporating suggestions from the blog into his proposed solution for the next year.

Looking back at the bag check disaster, I remember thinking about that disconnect. I had just finished one of Canada's biggest marathons, and there was, to our community, a massive screwup. I looked for coverage but there was nothing, even from our own running press, no mention on their sites or social. All eyes were on the elites, the record breakers, the 'highlight' reel.

The resulting post provide what I saw as the only outlet of coverage that clearly connected with a lot of my fellow runners. I posted, curated from Tweets and other social channels, conversed on social to get more reaction.

To my fellow media colleagues, I'm sure it was an interesting exercise to witness. Even as I was putting the post together I had several thoughts about MSM conspiracies. Did the running press feel a lack of responsibility to shed light on a race's miscues that could also sub as an advertiser or did it just have its eyes too much on the front of the pack to figure out what the rest of the racers (essentially, its readership) were experiencing? Do the elite press only pay attention to the elite? I wonder about that even now when I look at Canadian Running, who on Twitter describes itself as "the voice of Canada's running community, designed to inspire and motivate runners of all abilities." What do runners care about?

As a recreational runner, and one that's on various social networks (including DailyMile), and one that has maintained a running blog for plus six years, it's interesting to see that daily conversation as they unfold inthe blogosphere, on social media and on the running trails. I get a daily dose when I look through my site's stats to see what people are searching for. They're looking for advice on how to run the next race, how to train for that half marathon, on how to run through sickness, or tackle the hills of the 30K Around the Bay. I've learned that listening to that search traffic, conversing on social, reading other blogs gives me a truer picture of what this running community is like. Sometimes if I'm lucky i'll also see it reflected in the running press as well.

Indisposable

I used to make excuses. I used to have the line ready.

"I have to get my run in."

It's a full fledged addiction, I'd admit, to feel the urge to put in the training, spend hours on the road, rushing life along so I could get some me time and put in the miles. Today I was asked after an event whether I had time for drinks. Another day, I see an evening event. A friend wanted to schedule in dinner.

How do other people do it, I wonder. How does the average person deal with their disposable time?

I love the concept of a disposable income, as if you have money to 'throw away' at housing, food, savings. It in a way devalues the meaning of this well earned cash.

My disposable time, I've found, is a beast to manage. After work (long hours) and sleep (in short supply), I'm often left with precious time. I don't know how my friends with kids and other obligations even manage, because it's hard enough for me to juggle rest, hobbies, catching up with friends, time with R. and training.

Last Sunday, I pounded out my first 20 miler in months. A few days later, after recounting my training, a co-worker (who has kids) said these exact words to me: "Do you know what you can do with three hours?!"

In truth, this winter my training has been lacking in the mileage I usually throw at a training program. My Daily Mile Update tells me I ran for 5 hours, 48 minutes last week. Add time for changing, warmups, cooldowns and traffic lights and you've got about 8 hours dedicated to training. I wonder about finding the balance, but realize that the bar for physical fitness is most definitely pretty low among others, that I'm spending an inordinate time on cardio exercise.

Today, running with a friend, we reminded ourselves of some of the more advanced training programs we've been though, ones that put me through mid-week 12 mile runs, 100km weeks when total training time tallied by sundown Sunday would easily reach seven to 10 hours.

These days, I'm giving back time to other things, like work and sleep and rest. I've even cut down on blogging and tweeting on running, but I just can't let go of the actual act of running. The miles don't tally up to the impressive numbers while I was in the hunt for faster times, but I feel utterly compelled to slip on the running shoes five or six times a week.

Out there, time gets lost. Out there, my mind that was once rushing through life finds the time to focus in the here and now. Out there, I give myself back something I lost -- ultimately, time. And although that epiphany sneaks up on me run after run, as if I get an ah-ha moment that melts away a busy day, calms my mind, steels my body and reminds me why I wanted to get that run in in the first place.



By the way, I'm back! Racing season (and longer evenings) and spring is here!