Pony Espresso Express

Dear PE’s:

For those of you new to this site, I have republished the Half Marathon Calendar for Southern Califonia. Please note (as I’m sure you already have) that most half marathons sell out early, so be sure to register even earlier!

01/09/2010 Saturday 8:00 am	XTERRA Boney Mountain Xduro – 6K and 21K Trail Runs	Generic Events 310/821-7898 info@trailrace.com	This race is held in Rancho Sierra Vista/Satwiwa National Park and Pt. Mugu State Park.	Part of the XTERRA SoCal Series. Features two challenging & scenic races through fire roads & single track trails of Point Mugu State Park. www.trailrace.com
01/09/2010 08:00am Saturday	Kaiser Permanente 18th Annual Southern California Half Marathon, 5K, & 1.6K Kids Run	949/559-8171 www.schalfmarathon.com chemco29@aol.com	Irvine, CA (corner of Barranca & Creek) Village of Woodbridge	Fast, flat, scenic course, beautiful t-shirt, Fabulous Expo,. A great tune-up race for SD, OC, and LA County upcoming marathons. Featuring chip timing and finishing medals for the half marathon! Online reg at www.active.com www.schalfmarathon.com
01/17/2010 Sunday 7:30 am	7th Annual P.F. Chang’s Rock ‘n’ Roll Arizona Marathon & Half Marathon	Elite Racing 1-800-311-1255 rnraz@eliteracing.com	Phoenix, Scottsdale and Tempe, AZ	Flat courses for runners & walkers/all ability levels, featuring many popular attractions. 70 Live Bands, Headliner Concert & A Boston Qualifier. Health & Fitness Expo Jan 16-17, Website: www.rnraz.com
01/24/2010 07:00am Sunday	Carlsbad Marathon & 1/2 Marathon with Health & Fitness Expo (nearing sell out – register today)	In Motion, Inc. 760/692-2900 info@inmotionevents.com	Spectacular coastal course. Carlsbad, California Westfield Shoppingtown Plaza Camino Real.	Beautiful coastal courses with fastest 1/2 marathon time on the West Coast. 3-day Health & Fitness Expo & more! Website: www.carlsbadmarathon.com
02/06/2010 08:00am Saturday	The Sedona Marathon Event, including Marathon, Half Marathon and 5K.	800/775-7671 info@sedonamarathon.com	Sedona Arizona	Run a marathon, half marathon or 5K through the mystical and majestic red rocks of Sedona on asphalt and dirt roads, in elevations of 4100-4650 feet. sedonamarathon.com
02/07/2010 06:50am Sunday	Surf City USA® Marathon, Half Marathon, 5K and 1 Mile Kids Race	Kinane Events 888/422-0786 info@kinaneevents.com	Huntington Beach CA 92648	This exclusive oceanfront course is a California Dream! Run on Pacific Coast Highway past the famous Huntington Beach pier and wind through the legendary surfing beaches of Southern California in Huntington Beach, CA www.runsurfcity.com
02/14/2010 Sunday 8:00 am	42nd Annual San Dieguito Half Marathon & 5K Run/Walk	Kathy Loper Events 619/298-7400 kathy@kathyloperevents.com	Start/Finish: San Dieguito County Park, Rancho Santa Fe, CA	“This is one of the most beautiful & scenic courses you will ever run.” Benefits: San Diego County Parks Society, Hosted by San Diego Area Hash House Harriers. kathyloperevents.com/sandieguitohalf
02/14/2010 Sunday 7:00 am	12th Annual Palm Springs 1/2 Marathon, 1/2 Marathon Relay and 5K Run/Walk	Klein Clark Sports 760/324-7069 greg@kleinclarksports.com	Ruth Hardy Park – Palm Springs, CA	Flat, fast USATF Certified 1/2 marathon & 5K courses benefiting PAL. Register online at active.com or visit website at: www.kleinclarksports.com
02/21/2010 06:00am Sunday	Pasadena Marathon	Pasadena Forward 626/797-7238 information@pasadenamarathon.org	Pasadena, CA	This event offers a variety of Race Day options-Marathon, Half Marathon, 5K, Bike Tour, & Fun Run. Scenic Marathon course, USATF certified, & a Boston Qualifier. Join us in our beautiful city in February! www.pasadenamarathon.org
03/07/2010 08:00am Saturday	Ventura Half Marathon & 5K	Josh Spiker 805/258-6361 JoshSpiker@Gmail.com	Ventura, CA (Ventura Unified School District off Stanley Ave.)	A half marathon that runs out and back along the Ventura-Ojai bikepath. Friendly and cozy race (only a few hundred people) with a tech top and affordable www.VenturaHalf.com
03/27/2010 07:00am Saturday	25th Annual Dole Great Race of Agoura Hills featuring the Chesebro Half Marathon, Old Agoura 10K, Deena Kastor 5K, Kids 1 Mi/Family Fun and Pacific Half Marathon	877/GR8-RACE greatraceofagoura.com greatracehelp@gmail.com	Chumash Park in Agoura Hills	Voted Best Post Race Party in LA six years in a row! Tons of food, big prizes, scenic USATF certified/sanctioned courses, chip timing, professionally produced, huge expo. greatraceofagoura.com
05/02/2010 06:30am Sunday	2010 OC Marathon	949/222-3327 info@ocmarathon.com	Orange County, CA 401 Newport Center Drive Newport Beach, CA	A world class running event featuring the best the OC has to offer. www.ocmarathon.com

So, there it is. ALL the “halfs” you ever wanted to know about and those you didn’t! Just click on the links to go directly to the race sites. One other date,  not yet listed in Race Place is  ?April 24,2010, La Jolla Half. Note that several of the “Marathons” have “Half” options but don’t mention them in the 2^nd column (see Pasadena and Orange County).

Happy Trails,

JRB

Pony Espresso Express

Dear PE’s:

Sunday, December 13th was a banner day for me. Having run 128 prior marathons, I certainly did not expect to make any startling new discoveries…but I did! As I have done for the past 10-15 years, I started the race with a dear friend, John Nerness, a physician from Vero Beach, Florida. We had each run this race 27 times in a row and were planning on #28 together. It started out like each of the other Honolulu Marathons we’ve run. We met in the lobby of my hotel at 4 am and took pictures and greeted family members. We walked to the start of the race with thousands of others in quest of conquering the mythic marathon distance. We heard the gun go off at exactly 5 am and we ran carefully to avoid walkers (where did they come from?) and watched the fabulous fireworks which lit up the still dark and starry sky. We ran conservatively (with John’s son Curt, also an established marathoner and physician) through the first half, all pretty much stride for stride. At that point, John suggested that I run ahead since he was feeling a little “under the weather”.  I took off  and ran easily and within the limits of my training and abilities. Much to my surprise, I actually continued to pickup the pace and finished with my single fastest mile (if you call 8:50 fast) and cruised under the finish banner with a negative split of more than 7 minutes! Now many of you have probably done this…but for me, it was an entirely new experience. In fact, I’ve never even been within 10 minutes of an even split! I’ve often told neophyte (and veteran) marathoners that the race is really a 10K race…with a 20 mile warm-up or that the 2nd half of the marathon starts at mile 20, but I never truly embraced the concept myself. Like thousands of others, I’d always get caught up in the moment and go out at 10k or half marathon pace assuming I could hold it. I never did! Sunday was different. This is not to say that it was fast. Nor did I come even close to my fastest times. But this was more satisfying than any of the prior efforts. I got to run with my “old friend” and meet many “new friends” and do something entirely new and different. At the end, I ran into a sports columnist for the Honolulu Star Bulletin. It would have never happened  had I not  finished just when I did. Below is the article which appeared the following morning in the paper. This was my reward:

Marathon’s 5-hour gang keep each other going

By Dave Reardon

POSTED: 01:30 a.m. HST, Dec 14, 2009

I’d like to introduce you to someone, but it may be too late.

If you were at the Honolulu Marathon yesterday, there’s a good chance you’ve already met John Backman, a 63-year-old cardiologist from San Diego who not only talks the talk, but talks the run — seemingly the entire run, with plenty of vocal chords left to keep chatting after the 26.2 miles.

I met Backman a few feet beyond the finish line at Kapiolani Park, right around the 5-hour mark. He was getting his picture taken with a young lady who had also just completed the run, and a lot of conversation was involved. I figured they were maybe father and daughter.

“Oh, we just met,” the woman said.

Then a few minutes later, a guy dressed like Yoda floated through the finishers’ chute. Backman gave him one of those “You da man” point-and-nods, like teammates do after big plays.

“Thanks, Yoda. You helped me through that rough stretch. I wouldn’t have made it without you.”

The wise one nodded and pointed back.

Later, Backman laughed when I asked him about his costumed friend. “Yoda was cool. We were playing tortoise and hare. I picked him up between the 17 and 21 (miles). That stretch I was walking, but then I would run and catch him, then walk and run again. I knew Yoda had power.”

This was Backman’s 129th marathon and he’s finished here 28 years in a row. I asked him how many people he usually talks to — how many friends does he make — at each race.

“Probably 25 to 100,” replied the good doctor. “One guy today, I picked up at the 22-mile mark. He was a Marine. I said, ‘Come on, you’re a Marine. You’re tough, you can do this. He started running again.”

My 10 minutes with Backman yesterday made getting up at 3:30 a.m. worth it. He was three Red Bulls, without the crash.

Proper training: “I push consistency over intensity. Consistency trumps intensity, like in bridge.”

Aging: “We learn there’s more to running than beating the clock.”

Starting exercise at a late age: “Get out there. It’s one step at a time.”

THE 5-HOUR finishers are the most interesting and diverse — a cross-section of everyday society. To me, they are stars as much as the elite runners who cover most of the course before the sun peeks over Diamond Head.

Many of these middle-of-the-packers are first-timers, many are veterans like Backman. Quite a few think it’s Halloween, like Yoda. One of the bigger curiosities yesterday was two guys who came in under 6 hours simply wearing jeans and T-shirts.

A barefooted runner or two is always in the mix, and beginning to despair for an angle, I was chasing down a sole man when Backman’s magnetic field pulled me in. Something just told me I had to talk to the chatterbox when I heard him say something about being “stoked” about his “negative split.”

If I’d ever learned that term when I ran in the ’70s and ’80s, it’d gone the way of my knowledge of things like Rico Carty’s lifetime batting average: Once locked in for no apparent reason, now erased. Backman explained cheerfully. A negative split is when you complete the second half of the run faster than the first. “I never had a negative split before, ever,” he said, joyously.

Maybe the negative split is a reward for his positive attitude — that contagious we’re-all-in-it-together ethos of the middle-of-the-pack marathoners.

Reach Star-Bulletin sports columnist Dave Reardon at dreardon@starbulletin.com, his “Quick Reads” blog at starbulletin.com, and twitter.com/davereardon.

Thanks to all my mentors…past and present. Thank you John and Curt. And especially, thank you Dave Reardon, for being in the right place at the right time. There must be gods and muses of the marathon who look favorably on aging but determined athletes

Happy Trails,

JRB

Pony Espresso Express

December 11, 2009

Dear  PE’s-

Winter is just around the corner…and perhaps has already reared its ugly head if you live in certain parts of the country.  If you are anything like me, you might be anticipating upcoming travel to warmer areas for vacation and/or business. I look forward to travel as an opportunity to meet new people, see new places and run in new environments. In this day and age travel has become a bit more cumbersome, especially if you’re planning air travel. None of us has to be reminded about the challenges of air travel…fewer flights, more lost baggage and, of course, the TSA. So, from many recent trips and personal experiences…some tips (in no particular order):

Plan and book early: This sounds much like the admonition to sign up early for races (especially, half marathons). With fewer flights available, the seats get reserved earlier and earlier. If you don’t plan ahead, you might find yourself on a more circuitous, expensive flight, or series of flights. More transfers means more lost luggage, more hassle, more time delays, and, perhaps, more expense to replace lost items. I’m told that booking on a Tuesday is likely to result in lower fares, although I can’t honestly say that I have found that true in my experience.

Travel Lightly: If at all possible, take only carry-on luggage. Assuming you don’t leave it on the plane, you’re much more likely to arrive at your destination with your possessions. If you are traveling to a run, most certainly, at a minimum, take your running shoes on the plane with you…on your feet or otherwise. If you have other special gear or medicines, make sure these accompany you as well. I have made this a habit for 30 years. Only once did I not follow my own advice, and, of course, the luggage got lost. We were traveling to a run in southern France, the Medoc Marathon. This is a race renowned for the fact that it is a costumed event. A hand sewn, designer costume was anonymously floating around the world somewhere when it should have been in my hotel room. Only through the intervention of divine providence did it arrive less than 12 hours before the race, and after a three day period of AWOL!

Get to the airport early: It is difficult to predict just how many others are likely to show up at the airport at the same time you arrive. Long lines at the ticketing counter and even longer lines at the TSA can cause a visceral reaction. There’s always someone who has more questions than the agent has answers, which inevitably leads to even longer delays. If possible, print your boarding pass at home before you leave for the airport! This is not always possible, as I recently learned. If you are traveling on multiple carriers, booked through a 3^rd party such as Orbitz, and the 1^st leg of the trip is not the primary carrier, you may need to get to the airport even earlier to get the boarding passes.

Go with the flow: The TSA is an unpleasant fact of life, but it’s unlikely to go away in the near future! Make sure all your liquids are in the correct size containers, packaged together in a quart sized baggie. Remember that certain “less than solid” foods, although still in the original sealed containers, are considered “liquids”. I found this out the hard way on a recent trip when my yogurt was confiscated L

Something for the stomach: Airline food has a long tradition of being notoriously bad. Now, you can add to that…expensive. If you plan ahead, you can have anything from the epicurean to the healthful to the deliciously sinful. You are an individual! Why shouldn’t your choices enhance the trip? You can bring a 5 course meal, if you like. No candelabra, however J

Something for the mind: This summer, I’ve been on airline flights ranging from 25 minutes to 23 hours (including airport time). You can spend a lot of time in transit…often more than you expected. Some people just like to just chill out. I like to get something accomplished. Catch up on old magazines, new books, a DVD or maybe even write a blog

Happy trails,

JRB