Old New Year's Resolutions

I was cleaning out some old files on my laptop when I came across one that said ‘Najarian 5K’. I thought it was something that I wrote about the old David Najarian 5K that until last year, was held every mid-November in Coventry -- this race was best known for its T-shirts that looked almost like the ‘Choose Life’ T-shirts the band Wham! wore in its ’80s video “Wake Me Up Before You Go Go” (that’s the picture on the right) -- but I was wrong.
Instead, it was a list of 10 things I wanted to do running-wise in 2009 -- an early list of New Year’s Resolutions. It was funny to see that I saved it and forgot about it, and I must have been off my rocker when I wrote one or two of them. Anyway, here’s the list and if I succeeded in doing each of these:

1. Stay healthy and injury-free!
-- For the most part, yes. I had an episode at the Boston Marathon when I pulled my right calf, strained a groin muscle, and looked rather sickly, but I managed to bounce back nicely a-week-and-a-half later.

2. In 2008, I totaled 294 miles in road races and Red Rooster Rambles (a 5-mile series in Warren), but I couldn’t squeeze in another 10K or two smaller races to push me over 300 miles. In 2009? Over 300.
-- Yes, I barely squeezed it out (301.6), thanks to the year-ending Christmas Run for Hope/Oncology 10K in Newport. The week before, I ran in the Las Vegas Marathon, and even though I wasn’t 100 percent back from that race, I still ran this 10K for shits and giggles and eked out a 51:40.

3. I want to run at least five half marathons and two or three marathons.
-- Almost. I ran in four half marathons (Hyannis, Colchester, that hot, steaming piece of hippopotamus crap known as Amica in Newport, and the Ghost Air Line Trail Run in East Hampton, Conn.) and three marathons (Boston, Maine, and Las Vegas).

4. Of the 45 races I ran in 2007, I will return to 30 of them. And I want PRs in at least 20 of them.
-- I only came back to 18 of them and tried a lot of new races, but I did PR in two-thirds of them (12). So half a point for this resolution.

5. I want to run a race in a foreign country, even if it means Canada!
-- I didn’t leave the country, but I did go to Las Vegas twice and Hawaii. I never thought that would happen!

6. And I want to run a race in another state. California and Pennsylvania were fun last year -- now where else can I go?
-- Done. Maine Marathon. It was the first time I was in this state for longer than two hours and it was really scenic and nice, a place I'd visit again!

7. I want to dog a family member or a friend into running a race.
-- It never happened. I thought I could lure a couple of friends to one of the Red Rooster Rambles because of the good pizza and the abundance of beer after the run, but no dice here.

8. I want to get a total stranger who never ran a road race before to run one with me. And I will lose to that person.
-- What the hell is this!? I think I got drunk the night I wrote this, watched “Fight Club” for the 134th time, and got inspired by the scene when Tyler Durden (Brad Pitt’s character) gave his fight club a homework assignment to start a fight with a total stranger -- and lose. No, I never challenged anyone to a race, and I don’t think I could just gag a race so someone could finish ahead of me. OK, what’s next?

9. I won raffle prizes at 18 different races last year. Here's hoping my good fortune continues and I "strike it rich" in 20 races!
-- That was a running-wise goal!? I must have been drinking some strong beer! I just took a glance at the list of races I ran, thought really hard, and (this may seem like a surprise to people who know me) came up with 18 again! The top raffle prizes I won last year were four round-trip ferry tickets to Martha’s Vineyard (Fisherman‘s Tribute 5K in New Bedford), a big box of basketball and football cards from the late 1980s/early ‘90s that has to be worth some money (Common Point Fence 5-Miler in Portsmouth), and six fresh lobsters (Mews Tavern 5K in Wakefield, R.I.).

10. Stretch a little better before races and improve my pre-race preparations. That should help give me a better chance at achieving some of the goals I just mentioned!
-- Yoga has clearly helped me with my stretching, and I have learned two or three helpful stretches from my practice. There were times in 2008 when I showed up 10-15 minutes before a race and let the chips fall where the may, but last year, I always tried to show up at least 40 minutes early for a race to stretch out, get in a short run, pick up everything I need, and just pretty much get a little mentally focused. I’ll give myself a full point on this one.

So where does that leave me? Out of a score of a possible 10, everything seems to add up to a 5.4. That kind of stinks, but then again, who really keeps all of their yearly resolutions?
Wow, I just realized that there’s actually a picture of George Michael on my blog. This may be a new low for me. A running blog with a picture from an actual Wham! concert. But It could be worse. I could have put a picture of Michael Bolton or the two guys from Right Said Fred, you know …

Some thoughts on a bad day for running

This morning, I was supposed to take the hour-long drive into Connecticut for the Colchester Half Marathon, but when I got up at 7 a.m. and took a look out the window, it was snowing. What a surprise …
So instead of braving the elements (and the slick drive), I stayed home and went back to bed. I learned my lesson from running in the monsoon known as last year’s Amica Half Marathon in Newport (I could write for hours on how miserable an experience that was) and decided to put my health before a good race. And this was a good call on my part, because I went online and saw how bad Connecticut was getting pelted with snow.
This has been a bad winter to run and train for a marathon. I’ve jumped all over the few good days we’ve had and got in some strong runs at Lincoln Woods in Lincoln, the East Providence/Barrington/Warren/Bristol bike path, and picturesque Brown Avenue on Johnston heading into Greenville and Smithfield. But during the bad days -- and there has been a lot of them -- I’ve had to retreat to Bally’s in East Providence and do 80-90 laps around a 13th-of-a-mile carpeted track. One time last year, I actually did somewhere in the neighborhood of 120 laps before I started hallucinating and running a little bit off track!
Anyway, I know it’s been a while since I have blogged -- work, running, and everyday life has occupied my time -- but I'm going to take some of the hour-and-50-minutes it probably would have taken me to finish today's half marathon and catch up on some things:

-- The drive to raise money for the American Cancer Society before my run in the Boston Marathon continues, and to date, I have raised $450, which will soon turn into $500 once a matching gift has been accepted. Again, I am very, very, very grateful to everyone who has donated to my cause, and I still hope to raise more money because every little bit (even a $5 donation) helps people who are less fortunate than us and have to deal with this crap.
I had promised to run in two races in a tight leopard-print skirt and Catholic school socks, but it looks like I’m going to be off the hook! I went an entire week without raising a dollar, and it looks like things are starting to run out of steam. Then again, you never know. Someone might be reading this and saying, “Oh yeah, Eric? Think you’re in the clear? Screw you …”
-- Last weekend, I ran in my first road race of 2010 -- the Old Fashioned 10-Mile Run in Foxboro, Mass., which is a pretty popular race at this time of the year, especially for runners planning to run in the following weekend’s Hyannis Half Marathon on the Cape.
Last year, I finished this race in the 1:22 neighborhood, but this year, I just wanted to concentrate on running nine-minute miles and ended up finishing in 1:28:20 (8:50 pace). My fastest mile was the first (8:33, I guess I got too pumped up for the start!) and the slowest was the eighth (9:34, the toughest hill on a slightly-rolling course), but the other eight miles were in between 8:41 and 9:20, so no complaints here.
-- Earlier this month, my running club held its annual Awards Banquet. It was a big improvement over the past couple I attended, only because of the food, which was prepared by the club’s master chef and featured excellent baked fish, stuffed chicken, and desert, and it took place in a larger facility, the Warren Soccer Club.
During the awards ceremony, I received my third Ironman plaque in a row for covering over 250 miles in road races (301.6), but the highlight of the night was the infamous ‘Yankee Swap’ that involved wrapped gifts in the $10-20 range. If you donated a gift to the Swap, you received a raffle ticket and tried to strike gold with it by either keeping a good gift you unwrapped or swapping it for someone else’s unopened prize.
The rules are simple. Raffle ticket numbers are called, and the person who is called first grabs a prize, opens it, and keeps it on their table for everyone to see. The next person does the same thing, but has the choice of keeping it or swapping it for the first person’s gift. The third person then has the option of keeping their gift or swapping it for one of the other two, and so on.
Once everyone has picked (or swapped) a gift, the first person who picked a gift then has the pick of the litter and can take any gift that was opened, and that wraps up everything. So as you can tell, it pays to have the first pick or even one of the latter picks, but you’re in trouble if you get one of the picks immediately after the first.
I ended up getting one of the middle picks, and to make a long story short, I had a 12-pack of Heineken’s taken away from me late in the Swap for some bottle of white wine, but after the Swap, I made a side trade with someone and exchanged it for the Runner’s World Complete Book of Running. And it’s a great read and a nice addition to the library of running books I already have! After reading a couple of chapters, I feel like I’ve made the biggest trade since the Celtics landed Kevin Garnett from the Minnesota Timberwolves!
-- Next Sunday, I will be running in the ever-so-tough Stu’s 30K in Clinton, Mass., and in two weeks will be the ING Georgia Marathon. Again, I have to keep reminding myself that this is a training run and a time of 4:30-4:45 would be good enough for me. I obviously have bigger fish to fry in April in the Boston Marathon!
In between Georgia and Boston, I think I’m going to have a little fun and run in some short-distance races. On the last Saturday in March is the Run the Reservoir 15K in North Scituate, and that could serve as a nice recovery race for me. Of course, there is the Giunta 5K, and in between those two races is another 5K at Goddard Park in Warwick, which is my favorite place to run a 5K. We’ll see what happens …