06.14.08
Posted in Uncategorized at 10:38 am by Joan
Yesterday I decided to swim some laps in our club pool while my six year-old was happily swim teaming two lanes over. Halfway through laboring to reach my “36 lengths” goal, a broad-shouldered fella (something New Jersey-like made him a “fella” not a fellow or a gentleman or a guy) asked to share my lane. He looked like someone who could have made it all the way down the lane in three butterfly strokes, but in actuality he lumbered (can a swimmer lumber?). He swam lumberingly? Anyway, he was all over the lane and I had to hug the rope to dodge his sideways scissor-kick. Thinking quickly (ahhh, a flutter kick will help!), I asked him if he’d like a kick board as I was going to the lifeguard shack to get one for myself. “Sure, that’d be great,” he smiled. Well, now we were friends. Lap lane friends are a bit like airplane buddies. Of course I found out he was a runner. “Just finished a marathon last month,” he said. Is there anyone left who doesn’t run marathons? “What was your time?” 3:50. [I didn't share any of my stats. One marathon. 10 years ago. 2:54 Took a 5-minute nap at mile 25]. I just said, “What’s a big guy like you running marathons for?”
“I have to. It’s in my blood.”
“Really?”
“Yeah. Ever heard of George Sheehan?”
“Sure. Why?”
“Well, he’s my grand father.”
“Get out! Seriously? Wow, you’re running royalty.”
“Yep. So you can see why I have to run.”
“Have you read his book, Running and Being?”
“No. Can’t say that I have”
And here is where I get the to whole point of this post. How can you be George Sheehan’s grandson and never read his book? How can you “run marathons” and not know of Running and Being? How can I be this old? How can I be this out-of-date? Perhaps Sheehan’s chapter on “suffering” doesn’t resonate with the modern running soul. Maybe if Sheehan had a chapter on the Garmin watch or on a fuel belt or on how to eat right for triathlons his grandson would read his book.
I did a few out-and-backs on my kickboard but I didn’t have the heart to make it to 36 lengths.
Oh, woe is ancient me!
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05.29.08
Posted in Uncategorized at 2:30 pm by Joan
On a dark and stormy night …. (actually, it wasn’t stormy anymore or all that dark - I just wanted to start my post with that sentence) … John Hinton and Asher Hertzberg faced off in a battle of ages. The Old Man versus The Young Buck. 800m. Two laps around the oval. Asher’s PR is 2:06; John’s is 1:47 … but at age 46, he’s hoping to break 2:00. Four men toe the line in the final heat of the Godiva all-comers track meet (and it certainly was ALL comers …. as 25 multi-shaped Godivans ran 3 and 4 abreast around the track in the first heat, hoping to break the 3:30 mark). In the 4-man “fast” heat, one dude was wearing stone-washed blue jeans and black penny loafers … slap, slap, slap on Coach Craddock’s track. Asher was shirtless, accentuating his not-yet-a-man bird chest. Hinton was, as ever, impeccably attired in his slick black sweats, peeled down to a final singlet. if John had chosen to run shirtless, the title of this this bout could have been: The Incredible Hulk vs. Birdman.
Crack when the gun (no smoke, so I tried to time my stopwatch to a mili-second BEFORE the sound). John takes the reluctant lead, Asher rides his right shoulder, 28-29 at the 200 … John is relaxed, Asher is wide-eyed … around the 300 turn Asher no longer looks like a boy but a 6′1″ tall predator, ready to attack, casting a shadow over 5′9″ John. Hinton senses the heat, and applies some of his own. He surges into the bell lap. 59-60 at the 400, with no slowing into the turn. The normally staid Godivans are now cheering. You can feel the whirlpool of energy spinning counter-clockwise around the track as Young and Old are locked in battle. At 500m, the boy returns; weakened by his burst of animal pride, powerless to respond as the Master begins to pull away. There is no whoop whoop whoop-assing going on here. Just another day at the office for Mr. Hinton. At the exact moment when Asher slowed, John pressed. At the exact moment when Asher looked up to gauge what it would take to get back in the race, John surged - knowing a surge would break his opponent’s spirit. At the exact moment when Asher made one final, youthful push to close the gap … off the final turn, driving his weary wings arms, the Old Man marshaled his ancient strength (with a grimace only his coach could detect) to finish the job he set out to do. 1:59
Asher flew across in 2:04. PR !!
And, of course, they cooled down together, opponents no more, but father and son. As they jogged away, chatting, side by side, I had to blink back the tears … and I thought, “Time plays tricks on dark and stormy nights.”
John and Asher were the same age in this magical setting; for 2 minutes around that sacred oval, the boy was a man and the man was a boy.
vs 
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This is to inform you …Thanks CAC!another day, another world record …
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05.20.08
Posted in Uncategorized at 10:56 am by Joan
Hey ya’ll,
I just put up a CAC records page in the right-hand column and now I’d like to add a favorite running quotes section.
So far, I have the following:
Kim Certain’s favorite:
“Don’t fear moving slowly forward … fear standing still.” - Kathleen Harris
John Hinton’s favorite:
“World records are only borrowed.”
- Sebastian Coe 
(this was accompanied by John’s running goals … “to borrow world records”)
Joan Nesbit Mabe’s favorite:
“My hope is for the heart to strive forever.” - Joan Benoit Samuelson
Please add yours to the list!
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05.16.08
Posted in Uncategorized at 3:03 pm by Joan
One nice thing about being “elite athletes with full time jobs” (our identity, Marc?) is that no one will feel pressured to cheat. Your future livelihood does not depend on how fast you run. Although it’s natural to wonder just how good you could be with EPO blood or HGH muscles, thank goodness everyone in CAC has a bright, successful, CLEAN future awaiting them after sport. All those maggots that are going to be revealed when they finally turn over the Balco and Trevor Graham rocks will forever be losers. Their resumes will be stamped “cheater” forever and even if they do manage to find jobs or careers, they will never be fully trusted. In the same way we clean athletes wonder, “How fast could I have been if I’d tried drugs?” do you think dirty athletes wonder how good their lives could have been if they hadn’t?
For those going to prison (or worse, dying of cancer or heart failure in 10 years), performance-enhancing drugs are no laughing matter … but this movie looks hilarious:
http://www.biggerstrongerfastermovie.com/
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05.12.08
Posted in Uncategorized at 8:44 am by Joan
Marc wrote earlier about not understanding the marathon …. well, here’s a curiosity for you: Andrew Wheating, University of Oregon middle distance man. He just ran a blistering 3:38 1500m, blowing the field away at the Oregon Twilight meet, as if he’d been racing at this level for years. My 10-year theory is completely shot when I look at Wheating’s running trajectory. He didn’t even run track in high school. Cross-country, skiing, basketball, but no track. He’s 6′5″ tall (another Jim Ryun, maybe, but in high school Ryun ran 10 mile morning runs in addition to his after school training sessions) and fresh off the turnip truck when it comes to experience on the track. I always thought it was experience that mattered most, but maybe innocence is a necessary part of the equation for racing success. Marc went into Boston rather wide-eyed and open to “come what may” (the mono helped lower his expectations AND reduce the pressure) and Wheating is taking each race as it comes … with no preconceived notions - for success OR failure … just plain excited by the newness of it all.
Perhaps we can all learn a lesson from Wheating about fresh starts: http://www.oregonlive.com/trackandfield/index.ssf/2008/05/ducks_wheating_learns_as_he_go.html
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04.29.08
Posted in Uncategorized at 10:49 pm by Joan
Hello CAC members and Carrboro Athletics Club fans,
This may well be one of the last official posts of our blog. I have tried to impress upon everyone the importance of generating new content on a regular basis, but there seems to be ittle or no interest in keeping this experiment going. Just like Rob who wrote about an “ill-defined spring,” I feel that this blog has remained ill-defined for many, many months now. I have asked Dave (who has devotedly kept this site up and running, paid for with our family’s private funds) to take the site down at the end of our spring season. I want to thank our readers for their insightful comments. I do believe it is important in life to take risks and we did try to put www.carrboroac.com on the internet map … but it takes more than a few posts a month to keep a site like this viable.
thanks for reading,
joan
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04.21.08
Posted in Uncategorized at 6:22 pm by Joan
Congratulations to Marc for his 15th place finish OVERALL up at the Boston Marathon. When I asked him if he had to wear one of those silver blankets afterward, Marc said, “Nah, I didn’t need it.” This, after recovering from mono just a few weeks ago. 2:20:57 is a mere 24 seconds off of his lifetime PR for the marathon. Imagine a mono-free effort … on a flat course. Oh, yeah!!
I
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04.15.08
Posted in Uncategorized at 9:18 am by Joan
A question from Victor:
One thing I have been thinking about lately is how good I feel after one interval in a work out. Then my second interval I feel relaxed and comfortable. Sometimes when I step up to the starting line of the race and race…I feel like I never relax and open up. I feel tense and not smooth. It’s like that first interval in a workout…then on the second interval in the workout I’m much more relaxed and comfortable. I want to eliminate that feeling of being tense during races and just relax.
So I researched some different warm-up routines. I realize that a lot of Ethiopians and Kenyans run long but slow….with full warm-ups. They toe the line sweating…which is great. I also read another warm-up where Ed Moran (13:25 5K guy) runs for 20 minutes, stretches for 10 minutes, followed by 5 minutes of faster running?, then 8 strides. I wonder if that faster run is to get rid of that tense feeling and get ready for that second interval…your race! My question is….do you understand what I’m describing and if so, how did you warm-up for your races?
An answer from Joan:
Hi Victor,
YES, I do know what you are talking about.
In fact, I recently encouraged Jason to incorporate a new warm-up routine to help with that “first interval” feeling in the race. Here’s what I learned works:
1 3/4 before race, have caffeine and 1/2 bagel consumed;
1 hour before race start, take care of potty issues (helped along by coffee)
take inhaler X 2, pin on race number
50 minutes before race, slow jogging in full sweats (I run this alone b/c I find that when I warm up with others I run too fast … or too slow) until I break a good sweat - usually takes about 17 minutes for me.
Another trip to the bathroom …
change into my racing flats or spikes, take a 3rd puff of my inhaler if needed, peel down to penultimate layer of clothes (tee-shirt and light tights);
Now, here’s the crucial part: about 20 minutes before the gun, run a “first interval” LONG stride of about 300m - between 45-60 seconds - at race pace or faster, then slow jog back to gear.
Jason started doing this before indoor nationals and felt like it made a difference, so you may want to ask him about it. Don’t be afraid of “using up energy for your race” because it will take nothing away from your race performance.
Next, stretch and readjust shoelaces until they are perfect.
Peel down to final layer (except for hat and gloves on cold days)
and do 6-8 X short strides … of, say, 80 meters .. with jog back.
Find your way to the start line and, while standing on the line, begin visualizing yourself getting out with a great start. Do 1-2 starts off the line, with jog back.
Jump up and down on the start line to release any final burps.
It’s a long routine, but it works.
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