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 …

Can't skirt this bet ...

In the summer of 1998, I was an outfielder on a very, very good co-ed softball team in Fall River, which had a roster loaded with drunks, delinquents, and the best-looking girls in the league -- and good enough to finish 10-6 and mercy-rule a lot of teams along the way.

I thought we were so good and I was so confident in my team's ability, that when we started off the season with a 3-1 record, I called out the next team we were going to play (in Terrell-Owens like fashion) and told them that I would wear a dress to the next game we played if my team lost to them.

And guess what happened? We didn't hit and we lost a 12-4 game that was highlighted by a simple grounder hit to me in right-center field in the top of the third inning that I misplayed into a three-run homer. True to my word, I wore some ugly dress from the '70s to my next game. I had an excellent nine-year career in that league, but to this day, whenever my name comes up in conversation around the park, some folks still talk about that stinking dress!

Well, that was 12 years ago, but now I'm going back to the future. On my Facebook page, I made a vow that if I raised $700 OR got 12 members of my running club, the Rhode Island Road Runners, to donate at least $5 to my cause, the American Cancer Society, then I will run in the pictured dress (from runningskirts.com) in one of the biggest spring races in southeastern Mass., the Thomas Giunta 5K in Fall River on Sunday, April 11, which last year, drew over 1,000 runners and should do so again this year.

A lot of family, friends, and folks I haven't seen in a while will be at this event, and there's a chance they will see my with this skirt on and I'll feel the same shame and humiliation that I felt the game after that 12-4 loss. It's a gutsy move and a dumb bet on my part, but if I don't raise $700 or get 12 RIRR donations -- and honestly, I don't think either is going to happen -- then I'm free and clear. But if I'm wrong ...

Georgia on my mind

When someone’s birthday ends in a zero, whether it’s their 30th, 40th, 50th, 60th or beyond, they usually celebrate the occasion either with a big party or a night on the town or by doing something else extravagant.

I already know what I’ll be doing for my 40th birthday on March 21 -- I’ll be heading to Atlanta to run in the ING Georgia Marathon.

This week, I toured cyberspace and made visits to coolrunning.com, hitekracing.com, and a few other web sites to find some races that will help get me ready for the Boston Marathon. I had my sights set on the Eastern States 20-Miler at the end of March as my final 20-miler before Boston, but my wife Bozena had the wild notion of flying away to somewhere warm on the week of my birthday and starting the week with a big race. Los Angeles was an option, especially since the marathon also fell on my birthday, but I’d rather settle for a shorter flight. Besides, I’ve never been to Georgia and the Florida panhandle’s just a drive down the road.

Some runners may find it crazy to run marathons on consecutive months -- and others may think it’s no big deal -- but I’m only doing this as a training run, so don’t expect anything in the neighborhood of 4:00 from me! I took a virtual tour of the course and there’s really a lot of historical things to check out, such as the house where Dr. Martin Luther King was born. There’s also some rolling hills to contend with, so I should get a good workout along the way!

I also registered for the Stu’s 30K on March 7 in Clinton, Mass., which is a great prep race for a marathon and features a difficult rolling course around Wachusett Reservoir. And in February, I could be running in the following:

-- Feb. 13, Martha’s Vineyard 20-Miler. I’m 50/50 on this race, probably because of the 45-minute ferry ride and the potential for having a good puke or two before the race. But I’ve heard very good things about the race, from the mostly-flat course to the post-race chowder and minestrone soup.

-- Feb. 21, Old Fashioned 10-Miler in Foxboro, Mass. or the Half on the Hamptons. Tough call here. I did the 10-Miler last year and really enjoyed the race, but I’ve seen the web site for the Hampton Beach race and that looks promising. From the race to the post-race festivities, it would be a great way to spend a day.
The Foxboro race may end up being my choice for the day because it’s a 20-25 minute drive there and I just found out that they are looking for runners to donate old race t-shirts to the race organizers so they can pass them on to some local shelters and community-based programs. I have a ton of t-shirts that I never wore and they are taking up a huge clump of space in my closet, so this would be a good chance to get rid of them.

-- Feb. 27, Colchester Half Marathon in Connecticut. I ran this race last year and the odds are very, very good that I’ll be back for it. And I know a lot of runners are going to Hyannis that weekend to run in either the marathon or half, but I think I’d rather take the road to be less traveled and the shorter drive to Connecticut.
This race is by far the toughest half marathon I have ever run, a lot tougher than what Hyannis has to offer! This was the only time I ever finished a half in over two hours (2:05), and for good reason. The start of the race is a slight uphill, the final mile or two is a giant uphill, and there are so many uphills in between that you swear that there’s no downhills. And the race director seemed to pop up on the tougher stretches of the course and offer some high-fives and laughs to the runners, so that was cool to see.

Officer Thomas Giunta 5K (1995-2010)

Here's some good news -- registration is now open for the Officer Thomas Giunta 5K Memorial Road Race on Sunday, April 11, in Fall River, Mass. Here's some bad news -- the front of the web site notes that this will be the final race in its 16-year existence.

This news really bums me out because this race ranks among my top three favorites and it gives me a chance to race in my hometown and run into people I know from Fall River that I rarely see. If you have never ran it before, it takes place on a nice course with an uphill at the start and a downhill midway through the race, features one of the best post-race buffets around (picture two 60-foot rows of food) with two of my favorite Fall River dishes (chourico & peppers and Fall River chow mein), and a superb post-race party at the Elks Club four miles up North Main Street with a few kegs of beer, good company, and a scaled-down version of the band Bob's Day Off playing music.

It's surprising that this great race is coming to an end, especially since last year it drew over 1,000 participants (1,040) for the first time in its history (a 25 percent boost from the 823 it drew in 2008) and the city really gets behind it. The Giunta family and their race committee put a ton of work into making this race one of the best in this chunk of New England. I'm definitely sad to see this race come to an end, and I'm sure I'm not the only runner who feels this way.

Here's how I'm starting this blog ...

Most people take up running to lose weight or get in shape, try to quit an addiction (whether it’s smoking, drinking, or drugs), or overcome something else personal in their lives. Not me. I started running because my Sunday morning softball team in Somerset got royally upset in the quarterfinal round of the 2004 playoffs and I had nothing to do the following Sunday.

So I gave into the pleas of my then-girlfriend -- who begged me for years to run in the CVS Downtown 5K in Providence with her -- and signed up for that race. The semifinals always took place on the weekend of the race, and had we made it back to that round, there was no way on earth I was going to miss them for some stupid, boring race. And that’s what I thought about running, from high school to 2004 -- stupid and boring. There were times during the past few summers when she would ask me to go running with her, but I’d always bark back, “I do my running on the basepaths!”

Nevertheless, I did a little training that week, and the following Sunday, ran in my first-ever road race. I didn’t do that well (26:43), but I had such a wonderful time that I had to run in another 5K, so I ran in three more that fall around Rhode Island before pulling my right calf halfway through the old Scituate 5K and calling it a year.

The next two years, I was off-and-on-and-off-again with running, especially since I was selling my house in Fall River, buying a bigger house in R.I., and getting married, yet I still managed to run here and there and squeeze in a total of 25.

But I really became full-time devoted to running in 2007, and in each of the last three years, I’ve topped 40-plus races that spanned a total of over 250 miles. I’ve also done seven marathons in six states, placed in my age group (30-39) here and there, and have had some very profound luck in post-race raffles.

Now I’m getting ready for the Boston Marathon in April, but I decided to do some extra special for this event and run it for the American Cancer Society. I just think that after running 160-something races for pretty much no one but myself, it’s time to do something for people who are less fortunate than me and suffering from this deadly ailment.

And that’s kind of why I’m starting this blog. I want people who decide to donate money to my cause (or are thinking about it) to see how my training is going and if I am worth the investment of a few dollars. I want them to tell me in the “comments” section of this blog to take off the prom dress and high heels and pick things up if they think I’m slacking in my training (and I know some people who will be good at doing this!). I also want them to throw me some advice if they think I’m doing or not doing something I should, or comment in any way they wish. It’s all good.

And hey, if you don’t want to support my cause and just have to kill and want to read about some wacky guy who during the winter, likes to run in the snow (and at times, around a 1-13th of a mile indoor track in East Providence) and do yoga three times a week to stay sharp and keep his edge, then that’s also fine. This is going to be a ride and you’re welcome to “get on board” for it …