On June 11, 2017 I ran the 107th running of the legendary Dipsea race. I finished in a time of 1:02:04. Goals Finish/Survive – ACCOMPLISHED Qualify for 2018 – ~150 spots – ACCOMPLISHED – with 136 to spare Average heart rate 170+ – ACCOMPLISHED – averaged 177 BPM 160+ on the Downhills – ACCOMPLISHED – 175+ 175+ on the Uphills – ACCOMPLISHED – 180+ Sub 1:05 – ACCOMPLISHED – 1:02:04 Top 25 Open Section – ACCOMPLISHED – 21st out of 796 runners Do not walk or speed hike – Not Accomplished – 3 sections of speed hiking, 2 forced Sub 1 hour – Not Accomplished Top 1% Course time – Not Accomplished 55:00 – Not Accomplished Successes What am I proud of from race day? Completed my first trail race Really strong effort, dug deep & kept pushing Managed to stay upright the whole time Maxed my heart rate at 192 – haven’t seen 185+ since college Really let go on the paved downhills –
On November 6, 2016 I ran the New York City Marathon. I finished in a time of 3:11:37, about a half hour slower than my best marathon. Here is the race report. I debated writing this – I wasn’t sure it passed my litmus test of being a race – or of deserving a report. In my mind the goal of writing a race report is to document the ins and outs of an all out effort in order to learn from it and also to serve as way to remember a momentous event. I ultimately decided to write this because I think I have something to learn from it, and it was quite memorable. If you’re interested in the training I did leading up to the race, you can read more about it here. Successes What am I proud of from race day? Finished Was leading my heat for the first mile Solid
On July 31, 2016 I raced my first marathon. I finished in a time of 2:42:23, taking first place in the race. Here is the race report. Compared to the Ironman I did in 2014, this race was relatively quick and not quite as grueling – but it was much more intense and there was far less margin for error. To put numbers to that – during my Ironman my average heart rate was 137 BMP or about 74% of my maximum. For this marathon it was 166 BPM or 90% of my maximum. My goal, which I had set at the beginning of the year before I started my training regimen, was to break 2:37. I missed by about six minutes. If you don’t fail once in a while, you aren’t trying hard enough. This was an intentionally aggressive goal that was set without context months earlier. That said, I think
This is one of 14 updates about my 2014 challenge to complete an Ironman – you can see a list of the others here. I did it. I can now call myself an Ironman. What did the right to that title cost me? $6,000, 4,000 miles over 450 hours of training, 25 lbs, one toenail & 100+ hours of research. All of that and a grueling day that tested every fiber of my body & mind. My finish time of 11:01:10 put me in 277th out of 2,390 total finishers (not counting 248 DNFs). I was also 15th out of 112 in my division (excluding 5 DNFs). All & all I was faster than about 90% of people out there on race day. My goal was to win my age group and I missed that by a significant margin. To be honest though, I set that as a goal knowing it