Another year, another Boston. This time, the crowds and weather did not disappoint, and it was a fantastic race. I was happy to be staying with my friends Jeff Pham and Kalid Azad at Jeff’s place in Boston, which was right next the course. I even made it to see the Women’s Olympic Trials Marathon, which took place the day before. Also in town from Seattle was Hannah Beren, a friend and fellow runner, as well as some of my teammates from Club Northwest. At the expo on Sunday, I bumped into Jeremy LaBuff, an old teammate from Rice, Ashlee Vincent, a friend from Portland, and met my cousin Kristin Martin, who runs for Northeastern. The world gets continuously smaller, and the running world, even more so…

Although I didn’t do much marathon specific training, I got a case of goal-inflation a few weeks ago when I realized that the New York City Marathon this fall was a lottery system, so no guaranteed entry unless you have a competitive start qualifying time. For males my age, that’s a 2:55, which was about 14 minutes faster than I ran Boston last year. I had not entered a marathon with a specific goal/pace in mind before, which made this race different. I always have target goals, but no real consequences if I don’t hit them.

After waking up at 5, and heading over to meet Hannah at the buses, we finally made it to Hopkinton and the Athletes village at 7:30. The 2.5 hour wait passed surprisingly quickly, as each trip to the port-o-john took 45mins thanks to the massive lines.

I started out pretty far back, and went out slow at just over 7 minute pace, thanks to the crowds. Boston is the only race I ever run where I’m so far back in the pack. Humbling. The race went surprisingly as planned, and I had really even splits, despite the rolling course. I was varying between 6:32 and 6:46 for most of the race.

The Wellesley Scream Tunnel was glorious as usual, and I stopped for a quick kiss from an adoring fan, which slowed me down by about 7 seconds. I was cursing myself later, because at mile 20, I was behind pace by 45 seconds, and still had a couple hills to go before heading into the homestretch. I managed to work the hills at 6:43 pace and for the 3rd time in a row, I was clueless that I was going up Heartbreak hill. There are so many other rolling hills prior, I’m never sure when I get to that final one. I pushed hard on the downhill following Heartbreak and hit mile 22 in 6:16, which got me within 20 seconds of being on pace.

My legs were really starting to hurt with 3 miles to go, and I constantly switched back and forth between saying “It’s okay, I won’t hit 2:55, I can go 2:56 and it will still be okay. Maybe they’ll let me in NY anyhow” then I’d get angry and swear at myself to keep pushing. I hit mile 25 on pace, and with one mile to go, I had exactly 6 minutes and 40 seconds to hit the finish line before 2:55. It came down to the last 800 yards on the home stretch and I pushed hard, and came in 6 seconds under my goal at 2:54:54.

I was hurting pretty bad and a bit shaky so they took me into the medical tent. I wasn’t celebrating yet because it wasn’t for another hour that I learned that I had gotten my time. I had stopped my watch after I crossed at 2:55:11, and was scared that I had missed my goal by a couple seconds.

Hannah had a fantastic race as well, coming in at 3:16. My friends Kalid, Juju, Momina, Jeff and Ash were all at the finish waiting for me. If it were not for my Boston friends, I probably wouldn’t return every year to run this race. They truly make it a worthwhile weekend, and the race is that much more fun when you can celebrate at the finish with friends.

Well, at least I can say I that I ran it. The most accurate description of the marathon, is that I put the appropriate amount of time and effort into it. The race was a bit more organized but less well-planned than I had anticipated. On one hand, the course was well marked out, and they had advertisements the entire way. Sadly, there were a lot of indications that Mumbai doesn’t really understand the physical requirements of a marathon that well.

Getting to the race venue, there was a lot of confusion about where to go. There was a lot more commotion than I anticipated. (Roped off areas, lots of speakers and music, people throwing out free things to mobs of thrashing Indians). We had to walk about a mile to get to a large field, where people were milling about, and it wasn’t entirely clear where the runners go. There were 1/2 and full marathoners, and corporate and sponsored teams, and I think the directions were different for each group.

I entered into a fenced off area, where you couldn’t see over the solid fence. I felt like a horse at the track, because all of a sudden, one of the walls slid to the side, and everyone piled out. There really weren’t that many runners in the full marathon; I’m guessing less than 2000. I was fairly close to the front, but didn’t hear any gun go off. We passed an archway and a clock at 1:53, so I figured the race had started.

The race course was quite nice. A lot of it was along the sea, and it was fairly cool in the morning. Water (small bottles) were readily available during the first 20 miles, though it was spread out rather haphazardly, so I didn’t know when it was coming.

I was carrying my phone (I didn’t find the race bags, so I didn’t have anywhere to put it until after the race) and was pleasantly surprised with phone calls from my friends back home in the States, much to the amusement of the spectators. Technology truly is amazing. I can talk to friends 12,000 miles away while running a marathon.

I ran pretty easy, and was having no trouble at all until about mile 20. Besides water, there was a ‘energy drink’ that was available. Not only was it available, it was also clear, and in the same bottles as the water, so it was like playing Russian roulette when you went for a drink. It was the nastiest energy drink I’ve ever tasted. It tasted like a really bad version of tang + salt + sugar, all partially diluted so that at the end you get a nice shot of the powder straight in your mouth.  I gagged and spat the first time I got it.

By mile 20, things had spread out considerably. Water was sparsely available, and with the lack of carbs on the course (no gels, or bananas, etc) the few people around me were dropping like flies. I started to feel dizzy and light headed, and knew I was going to tank if I didn’t get some fuel. I stopped at a roadside stand, dug out 10 rupees and bought some salty chips (carbs + salt). About 10 minutes of stumbling in the hot sun, I recovered, and was able to keep running fairly normally.

Surprisingly, it was really the lack of fuel that stopped me from running better. I was on target for about a 3:13, which is not bad considering my prep and that I was not racing hard. However, the tanking cost be about 20 min total, and I came in at 3:33.

Oh yeah, and since they timed the 6K and 1/2 marathon to finish before the marathon, by the time we got to the last few miles, nobody really cared. The crowds were using the streets as usual, and I had to fight my way through to find the finish line. When I got there, a group of volunteers were standing and chatting, and looked at me as if to ask why I was there. I asked where the food was, and the first guy brushed me off, and the second gave me a vague reference to something behind him. I went to another roadside stand, and got more chips.

All in all, it was quite the experience. Nothing like hearing people cheer you on in a language you don’t understand. Occasionally I would hear (insert heavy Indian accent) “Go Uncle, Go!” from little kids, or “Go India!” as people assumed I was a local. Special thanks to Ashwin, Gerard, and Liesl for coming out to cheer me on, and to Alfie and family for opening their home to me afterwards.

I have been on the road for over a month now, and I’ve finally found myself back in Mahableshwar, and on vacation until the second week of January. This break really couldn’t have come at a better time, as I am really feeling the effects of traveling and working for a month. So far, the trip has been:

• Fly into Bombay, 1 day recovery, then meetings all of week 1.
• Relaxing weekend in Mahableshwar
• Hectic week full of meetings in Pune
• Fly to Bangalore, repeat hectic week of meetings
• Fly back to Bombay, 4th week of meetings.
• Leave on Thursday night for Pune, for 2 more meetings on Friday.
• Leave Saturday for Mahableshwar.

All of this has been exciting from a career perspective, but extremely taxing in other ways. The transportation has been what makes it hectic, as each meeting requires careful planning in order to not get lost in the maze of taxis, rickshaws and trains in a metropolis area that takes 2 hours to cross from end to end (due to traffic) and has no roadsigns and no drivers that speak English. Thankfully, I’ve been able to find accommodations with family everywhere so far, which made things easier.

Also playing a part have been my eating and exercise habits. Staying with family means Indian hospitality of continuously shoveling food on your plate. This makes breakfast and lunch much heavier meals than I’m used to, and dinner is usually after 9pm. I’m still running, but it has been quite difficult in the cities.

I’m happy to be back with family in Mahableshwar, where I can run out to beautiful scenic points, relax during the day, and play with our new German Shepard puppy, who we picked up in Pune yesterday. We bonded last night as he kept me awake all night, and is now sleeping on my feet as I type. My family is arriving in two days, and my friend shortly thereafter, so while it doesn’t feel like a traditional Christmas, I’m looking forward to the holidays more than ever.

Many of my friends know that I have a hard time hearing about a race and not entering. Well, the day before last, I found out about the Mumbai Marathon. It will take place this coming January 20th, which is 4 days before I head home. Perfect. And the best part is, the registration fee for Indians (which I will claim to be) is $200INR, or about $5US.

Now, I should also mention that the reviews from last year describe both fanatical crowds and cheering, and also a severe lack of support and water. Couple that with the fact that I’m both very choosy with my water choices here (specific bottled water bought only from reputable shops), and with my food/supplement/hydration during my marathons, and you have an interesting mix.

Now that there is a marathon in the near future, I decided to renew my efforts of running in Bombay. Yesterday I went out in the afternoon, to face the traffic and heat, just to see if it was possible to get in a decent workout. I managed for about 40 minutes before getting sick of it. You can’t really mentally ‘get in the zone’ when you have to dodge traffic every half second. I did come up with a new game though: I call it rickshaw fartlek.

Those of you familiar with track and field terminology will know that ‘fartlek’ means ‘speedplay’ in Swedish. It consists of 30 to 3-minute bursts of hard effort, separated by easy running. Now, it turns out that these rickshaws, at max speed, seem to only go about 20-25 mph, maybe a touch faster if they ever hit an open, unobstructed, even road; which never happens. When cruising through the side streets, I can at least keep up with them and sometimes even pass them, as they are constantly slowing and accelerating. So, in order to avoid the throngs of bicycles, cars, pedestrians, and scooters, I started following rickshaws like I was shadowing a runner. They paved the way through the mess of confusion, and I could worry less about the oncoming traffic, and spend more time thinking about the lawn-mower-engine-type exhaust I was sucking in.

I think I confused (or annoyed!) the drivers quite a bit, but it was a lot of fun while it lasted. I always take pleasure in passing lazy cyclists when I’m in the States, and passing actual gas-powered vehicles is just that much more fun.

Mumbai Marathon, here I come.

Tomorrow, I’ll escape to Mahableshwar, a hill station in the mountains, 5 hours outside of Mumbai. It’s my mom’s hometown, and tomorrow is my Grandma’s birthday, so I’m surprising her. It’ll be nice to get away from the city, relax a bit, see my family, and I’ll even get to do some decent running at altitude.

This morning I went for my first run in Bandra, a suburb of Bombay where my Dad grew up. I woke at 6AM thanks to the jet lag, and the roads were relatively quiet, so I slipped out and hit the road for the first time in a few days. I managed to make it to the shoreline, but was still weary of the cars and rickshaws as I’m not used to people driving on the left hand side of the road. It was a stop and go type run, as I kept hitting dead ends and cutbacks, though I managed to make it about 55 minutes and only get lost once. I have a feeling it was more mentally therapeutic then physically beneficial, as I could actually see the pollution in the air.

India has really been westernized in the last 5-10 years. For the first time, I saw other people jogging and walking along the promenade. There were even signs that said “Exercise Daily.” Definitely a sign of western influence, as exercise has never been an Indian value.

However, at one point, I reached the end of a promenade (Indian version of a boardwalk), and hit a poorer area where the smell of fish hit me like a brick wall. The fisherman apparently cast the excess fish on the side of the road, for consumption of the crows. I went for another two minutes, passing through a very poor, dilapidated area, when I finally had to stop. The road went on, but in this environment, my running for the first time felt like a show of extravagance. The people on the street side watched me carefully, and I felt guilty passing by them as if to say

“I have so much excess in my life, I run in circles to get rid of it.”

I made my way home, where my uncle and aunt were awake, and despite knowing about all my running and exercise pursuits, looked at me as if I were an alien species.

In the last two weeks, I’ve been in touch with a lot of friends and family members, all offering their congratulations on my race. Life has been different after coming back from Ironman. I am still inwardly glowing about my accomplishment, which I hope will continue to be the case for a while. I feel it’s the first time in a long time where I actually feel as proud as those congratulating me seem to expect.

Recovery
There is a concept of “post Ironman depression” which comes from all of a sudden not having that goal to look forward to.  In addition, there is the loss of physiological benefits of all that exercise because I had to take some days off after the race for recovery.  After acclimating to 3-6 hours of exercise per day, taking off days following the race was tough. I was sore for about 3 days, and after that I was just going crazy. I ended up taking off Monday-Friday, then doing a 10-miler Saturday and realizing Sunday morning it was a bad idea. Sunday was a rest day, and but I’ve been back on the road for at least an hour of biking or running since.

I’ve definitely felt the addictive pull of running before, but never like this. I wake up and feel absolutely compelled to get outside. It’s nice in a way, because I really enjoy the workout, but I don’t feel completely in control, which is not ideal. It’s been over two weeks now, and I think the mental post-race downswing has mostly passed.

What comes next?
Everyone has been asking me what comes next. In truth, I have made a decision to step away from triathlons and marathons for a while to concentrate on my career. I do have a desire to do this again, but not for a while. Training takes up an extraordinary amount of time, and I have other goals to pursue. Eventually, I have my sites set on an Ultramarathon, specifically, the Western States Endurance Run (100 miles through the Cascades), and now that I see what I’m capable of in triathlons, I’d like to try to make it to World Champs in Kona, Hawaii, which would require a sub 10-hour finish. With a better bike, and many more miles in the saddle, I think I am capable of this. This is all in the distant future, and nothing I’m really planning for right now.

Dear friends and family,
As most of you know, last October I went a bit out of my mind and signed up for the first Ironman Louisville, which will take place this coming Sunday, August 26th. It’s the first time Ironman has come to my hometown of Louisville, and I’m very happy to be a part of it. This event is special for me because it’s the first time I’ll be challenged just to reach the finish line. I’ve entered endurance events before (marathons and recently a half-ironman), but I find this one particularly hard to grasp, which is both exciting and scary.

Over the last 10 months, training for this event has dominated the majority of my mental and physical effort, and now that the date is finally here I’m a combination of nervous, scared and excited. I pleased with the work I’ve done to reach the starting line, and happy that I’ve already accomplished my first goal in doing this, which was to arrive at the starting line healthy and prepared.

A quick synopsis of the race, for those unfamiliar. The Ironman triathlon is a pure endurance event consisting of 2.4 miles (3.9km) swimming, 112 miles (180km) biking, and 26.2 miles (42.2km) running (a marathon). As in all triathlons, the event is continuous, with transition stations oriented in between the legs of the event to allow athletes to change gear. The race is often the most grueling event in the life of an endurance athlete, and takes the full day to complete (between 10-17 hours).

On Sunday, the event will start at 7am EST, and while time goals are secondary, I would be ecstatic to finish before sunset at 8:20pm. I’ll be wearing bib # 537 and the orange race suit in the picture here (from my half-ironman race at Lake Stevens). If you happen to be in Louisville, I’d be delighted to see you along the course. It should be a spectacle to watch. Let me know ahead of time if you’ll be along the course, and I’ll look out for you.

For those who would like to track me online, there will be live athlete tracking on the Ironman website. This page: http://www.ironman.com/ironmanlive/racedaycoverage should have a link for Ironman Louisville, and you can enter my bib number (#537) and see how I’m progressing throughout the day. I’ve also written about my training on my blog, which I’ll be updating before and after the race. www.blog.craigdossantos.com

Thanks so much for all the support.

Craig

I arrived home in Louisville yesterday. I have one week until my Ironman competition. There are so many thoughts going through my mind. I’ve been training for this for 9 months, and it has pretty much taken over my life since February. I’ve faced a few setbacks, including a torn hamstring in April, and a 10-day bacterial infection earlier this month from swimming in a contaminated lake. (I’ll let you guess at what it was contaminated with…)

But right now, I’m about 16 days into my taper, and I’m feeling really ready. I’m constantly switching between feeling lethargic and being full of nervous energy. For the first time in a while, I’m holding back on my normal eat-as-much-as-possible diet, so that I don’t gain weight now that my workouts are knocked down to an hour or so per day.

My mind is constantly racing over the details of the race, trying to anticipate what it will feel like at different stages. In truth, I don’t think I can come close to imagining what it will feel like in reality. I’m a bit nervous, because today is the 21st straight 90 degree day in Louisville, so it’s going to be a hot day on Sunday.

My main training book, Going Long: Training for Ironman-Distance Triathlons by Joe Friel says this about race day:

“Odds are that sometime during the day you are going to feel really, really bad. This feeling is normal, and things will get better if you persevere to the end. Finish at all costs, and you will thank yourself later.”

I have to admit that after typing that, it seems kind of nuts…

I can’t wait.

This past weekend, I participated in my 2nd triathlon ever (or 3rd, if you count the dinky IronKids tri that I did in 8th grade), and my first at the half-ironman distance (1.2mile swim, 56 mile bike, 13.1 mile run)
The race was held at Lake Stevens, and upon reaching there on Saturday to get my race number and check in my bike, I was surprised by a few things.

1. There were a lot of rules (mostly about not drafting on the bike leg), and there were ‘time penalties’ where you have ti sit in a tent. In reality, all the rules didn’t come into play, but I’m used to running races where all you need to do is stay on the course.
2. The ‘pre-race expo’ was pathetic. There were 4 booths, and a place to get your t-shirt. I forgot that expo’s are primarily for marketing, and so a race in north Washington with only 1,400 won’t draw too many companies. I usually look forward to the expo’s at the big marathons (Chicago, Boston and even Seattle) and spend multiple hours gathering freebies and debating sporting good purchases.
3. The bikes! Despite dolling out a good portion of my bank roll on my Trek 5000, with good pedals, shoes, carbon fiber aerobars, special aero-bar water bottles, etc. I felt like I brought a tricycle to a grownups bike race. When I checked in my bike to transition, my eyes were bugging out at the equipment surrounding me. The majority of bikes had race rims (serious money for those), and were in general much lighter and worth about $2-5K more than mine. Forget about being tough sport, triathlons are a rich sport.

I woke up the next day at 4am, drove up to Lake Stevens (about 45 min), and checked over my gear, food and swimming/running equipment. I really missed the simplicity of a running race. I was in the first wave behind the elites, and I was surprised at how easy the swim was. I finished way faster (34:01) than I had anticipated, probably because of the wetsuit, which adds to your buoyancy. I moved steadily through transition, but in retrospect, it was a bit slow.

The bike leg was really tough for me. My legs were somehow dead and hurting from the swim, and it took a long time to hit a groove. My back was aching by the end, and the hills were endless. I actually topped my all-time high for speed, hitting 47.3 mph on one of the downhills. You can imagine the uphills. Many people passed me, and I really didn’t battle it out, or try to hang with anyone.

The running leg felt great. I was surprised not to have dead legs starting out, and I started pulling people in immediately. I ended up averaging 6:54’s with a sub 6 last mile. I was motivated by counting the people I passed and eventually got bored after about 140. I finished with a 1:30:30, for a total time of 5:10:35.

Overall, I felt my performance was respectable considering my newness, and my (comparably) low-end bike. I have a lot of respect for my full Ironman now. It will be a feat just to finish.

**Special thanks to Chaitanya Sareen and Trevin Chow, who woke up early, bared the hot sun, and lost their car, all to watch me race. Races like this are only worth it if you have people waiting for you at the end. Their presence made my day.

Without a question, my purchase of the year was the Vibram Five Finger Shoe.

At $70 a pop, it was a bit of a splurge for something that wasn’t even designed for what I wanted to use it for: running.

It’s turned out to be awesome. I was looking for a minimal running shoe for a long time, and even experimented with making my own. I baked my old running shoes until the glue fell apart and then tried to peel the cushioning off, layer by layer, and glue the rubber back to the foot casing. It worked horribly. Then I tried just running barefoot, which was good, but after not being able to do it during the winter, my feet would lose their callous (which is damn sexy, by the way), and I’d have to start all over again the next season.

Why do I want a minimal shoe? Well, I’ll leave that for another post, since the explanation is quite in depth. But suffice to say that the Vibram Five fingers has performed amazingly well. It’s like having a rubber glove on your foot, which simulates being barefoot, but still dulls out the real sharp stuff. It’s essentially a modern version of Mexican Huarache Sandal, which are used by the Tarahumara… a tribe known for their prowess at long distance running.
I use them as training tools, not full on running shoes. This means I put in just a few miles a week in them, in order to strengthen the small muscles in my feet, which makes me a more efficient runner and less injury prone.

I’ve also found them to be ideal for short hikes and scrambling up rocks etc. Recently, Vibram realized that people were using their shoes (originally meant for water sports like sailing) for all sorts of other activities, and have come out with other versions. I recently got my second pair, which are designed for running (they have a top strap, and no elastic band). These are comfortable, good for my feet, light and easy to pack. I’m pretty sure I’ll be keeping at least one pair of these around for quite some time to come.

**If you’re interested, I think some stores now carry the classic and the sprint versions (depicted above).  You can also order them like I did, directly from the site: www.vibramfivefingers.com.  I wear a mens 11.5 US, and ordered the M45 (European sizing).  They are fantastic about returns, if you have any problems at all.