A Zone of Appreciation - Rock n Roll Dallas 2015

"There Will Come a Day When I Cannot Do This.

Today is Not That Day"

This is one of my favorite slogans. I see it at almost every race expo at the OneMoreMile booth on car magnets and shirts. This saying was also top of mind for me at Rock n Roll Dallas. After celebrating Joe Harris becoming the first Rock n Roll marathoner to finish 100 races in the series, the thoughts of our Rock n Roll Gypsy group turned to our friend Beth.

We met Jim and Beth at Rock n Roll Chicago in 2012. She was hard at work making a sign for the Allard "Get Back Up" campaign. We found out that they were one of the only other married couples on the RNR circuit to have earned the 10-race Rock Idol medal. We instantly bonded. As the years went on, we looked for each other to catch up at races, spending a lot of time together at RNR Montreal, RNR Raleigh and of course, the epic Double Live adventure of RNR San Antonio and RNR Las Vegas in 2013. 

For those of you who don't remember those blogs, Beth has a condition called Foot Drop in which her right ankle was paralyzed and she can't lift her toe, making it difficult to walk much less run. After some time with the condition, she discovered Allard, a company that makes a specialized brace that not only allowed her to run, but be fast enough to qualify for Boston. She's one of my personal heroes and has been inspiring other people with foot drop to walk, run and take control of their lives - literally, Get Back Up. Beth told us the prior week in DC that she had to go back in for surgery and because of her previous conditions, there was a chance that this new procedure would leave her paralyzed from the waist down. 

We kept Beth and Jim in our thoughts the whole weekend and entered what we've dubbed the Zone of Appreciation.

Race weekend started early Friday morning. Susan, Al and I caught an early flight and landed around noon at Love Field, headed straight for the Aloft and to the expo for bib pick up. At mid week, the forecast for the Saturday 5K was about a 50% chance of rain. Sunday was looking to be close to 90% chance of rain. It was time to call in our legendary Weather Luck to see if we could make the weekend better. The expo visit was well timed. We met Joe Harris as we walked in.

After the race on Sunday, we actually were approached by two women at lunch who recognized us from the Hall of Fame banner. Amy and Ainsley are planning on hitting 15-19 races this year to make the Hall of Fame

Marcey from Sport Hooks decided at the last minute to run the race for the first time as a mother-daughter team. Sunday also happened to be her daughter's birthday. Since Marcey was working the booth that weekend, she hadn't brought any gear with her, but fortunately, there were a lot of good places to shop at the expo. Pete wondered if his wife would ever get back to the booth to work - it looked like she was having way too much fun shopping!

We ran into Rock n Roll race announcer, Ann Wessling, on the way out. Ann was in Mexico City the previous weekend when Joe hit 100, so they exchanged greetings and cards in Dallas. I took the opportunity to give Ann a care package of Snappers, a snack that she introduced us to last year in Denver which we got totally addicted to. Word is that the care package didn't survive the weekend.

We met Beth and Jim for dinner at the Iron Cactus. Hyalker and a few friends from our SA2LV adventure (Leny and Nancy) joined us. I was caught up in the conversation so much I don't even have any pictures. Jim's daughter Kristen would be running the 5K the next morning, their first race as a family. The forecast was clearing up nicely. Thank you, Universe!

I'll have you hop over to Beth's blog on the 5K at this point. Not only did she have a great set of pictures for Saturday, she also had a lot of detail from Rock n Roll DC that I missed and some information on her upcoming surgery. After reading that, you'll get a good sense of how concerned we were for Beth's health. I did get a chance to take a video of the 5K family finish. Al, Susan and I formed up behind Jim, Kris and Beth. The rain held off for the race. The first drops started falling as we left Fair Park. Our zone of appreciation continued.

Susan, Al and I were back on Main Street at CBD Provisions for lunch. We caught up with Kevin and got the recap of the Inaugural Rock n Roll Mexico City. Not only did Kevin have a good race time wise, the event was a big success. It looks like 2016 is definitely on and there are rumors that it will be the same day as RNR Dallas. The "Tex Mex" challenge may be popping up soon.

Pre-race dinner was at Ravenna, the same location as last year. Tawni and her aunt Missy joined us and Kevin actually surprised us by not ordering his usual Fettucini Alfredo. He went for spaghetti and meatballs (but no clams). 

Al was suffering from some really bad seasonal allergies. Smiling or laughing generally resulted in coughing up a lung. Kevin... well, I think he was between smiles in this picture.

Race morning came and the forecast for the 8 AM start was down to 5% rain. Let's just say, everything was lining up to give Beth a great race day. We caught up with a few friends at the Omni then headed out. Beth chose to go out of corral 5. We formed up an RNR Gypsy support circle around her before taking a few more group selfies.

I had the group move over to the left side as we approached the start line since Ann was on the announcer stage. I'd asked Ann earlier to give Beth a shout out to start the race.  Tears flowed freely, but we wiped them away as we started on the course.

Jim and Beth took off. With Al under the weather, we had no hope of keeping up. She finished her half in under 2 hours while most of us came in between 2:30 and 3 (with pictures and videos). The sky reflected our moods, but we didn't have a drop of rain.  Kevin had a solid 2:25 a week after walking a 2:29 in Mexico City altitude. I walked sub-2:30 (and over a 60% age grade) in March for the first time ever which bodes well for the training year. Tawni kept Al company and Susan caught up to them in the late miles. Susan said she was in a "Zone of Appreciation" for this entire race with the realization that we should never take anything for granted.

This cowboy at mile 11 was doing this rope trick for runners who stopped. The reason Al, Tawni and Susan are staying very still was that the woman who went right before them held up her arms and got caught on the rope. No bueno.

I caught Ann at the finish and thanked her for Beth's shout out. She said she saw Beth finish, looking strong. I must have been really overcome with emotion at the time since I didn't know that the Dallas Cowboy Cheerleaders were right behind Ann off the chute.  I waited for Susan, Al and Tawni at the finish so I wasn't able to catch up with Jim, Beth and Kevin since they had early check outs.

We did catch up with Joe at the Victory Tavern. We also found a woman with a great pair of shoes that match any color gear. 

Those colorful feet belong to Master's Half Marathon record holder Deena Kastor. We saw her world record setting effort last year at Rock n Roll Philadelphia.

We caught up with Jim, Beth, Joe and Lisa later at the Press Box Grill. Jim had to find a place to watch the NCAA tournament. It is, after all, March and they're doing what comes naturally to North Carolina residents. It was the first weekend we actually spent a lot of quality time with Joe. He's even learning how to take group selfies (with a little help from Jim).

We laughed a lot at lunch - more than I remember in a while. We talked about the next person to likely hit 100 Rock n Roll races in our marathoning subculture of agelessness and our plans for Hall of Fame this year. On TV, I think all of the right teams won. Lots of appetizers were demolished and drinks were drunk. We sent Beth off with all of our positive energy. I even told her I'd trade our weather luck for healing.

Beth went into surgery Tuesday morning. She posted her blog recap for DC and Dallas just a few hours before that so we knew the latest news. Tuesday afternoon, Susan got a text from Jim saying that the surgery went well. As of Wednesday night, it looks like she has mobility in her legs and she can start the road to recovery.  We'll see her in Raleigh in a couple of weeks and she said she'd be on the sidelines cheering for us. If all goes well, she can get back to training in 6 to 8 weeks and maybe we'll toe the line with her in Chicago where we met years ago.

They say that running is an individual sport. That doesn't mean you're alone.

And there may be a day where Beth, or any of us, won't be able to do this anymore.

Today is not that day.

We're in our home town for Rock n Roll San Francisco this weekend. Follow us on Facebook at Marathoning for Life.

Racing with Heart(-rate Training) - Rock 'n' Roll Dallas Half Marathon 2014

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It's been 50 days, the longest we've gone without a race in year and that includes Ron recovering from surgery last August. We went from doing five races in the space of five weeks, capped off by doing two full marathons in the span of 4 days on different continents and we somehow forgot to plan a race for the month of February. So what's a Marathoner For Life to do?

After going three and a half years without setting a half marathon PR between 2006 and 2009, I improved my PR twice in 2010, 3 times in 2011, twice officially in 2012 (we have timing mat and traffic questions that may have made it four PR's), and three times in 2013. I've been getting faster, but the incremental improvement has been getting smaller every year. 

We've dedicated 2014 to heart rate training. After eight years of marathoning, it felt like the right time to take greater advantage of our Garmin technology and educate ourselves more on the nuances of the heart. We’re only a couple months into this journey and yet we’re already learning a lot.

First things first. We've been in recovery mode ever since completing the White Continent and Punta Arenas marathons. Since then, our weekly long training has been slow and steady, keeping our heart rates in the 130 - 135 beats/minute (Zone 1 - 2, depending on your calculation method) as long as we can. The idea here is to elevate your heart rate, but only to the point where your body can easily clear out any lactate build up easily and you never go into a state of oxygen deprivation.

Thanks to the advice of veteran marathoner, Al, we've been monitoring our heart rate on flat ground for miles at a time. We end our training when we can no longer sustain the low heart rate regardless of how slow we go. For a benchmark, the training pace was anywhere from one to three minutes per mile slower than race pace.

Susan has successfully experienced this phenomenon of spiking heart rate once,  after about 11 miles, with her heart rate coming up into the mid 140's without being able to bring it down. It was alarming when it happened so it was good to know what was coming in advance. Ron went nearly 20 miles before he spiked into the 140's. Regardless, our race in Dallas was going to be the test to see what affect this novel (to us) approach had on our race performance.

The results are now in. Apparently we've successfully increased our level of metabolic efficiency. Since we’re still new to the physiology of heart rate training, bear with us as we do our best to communicate our understanding of what is going on.

• Both of us were surprised to notice that we ate less during the race - a sign of greater efficiency. Ron actually didn't eat anything at all, a first for a half marathon.
• Both of us were surprised to notice that we drank less during the race. This could have just been due to the colder weather that day, but again, it's a sign of lower overall exertion.
• Negative split accomplished: a strong indicator that you tackled the course well is having reserve energy at end such that your second half split time is faster than your first. 
• Susan’s last mile of the half marathon was not only her fastest mile that day but it smashed her best timed mile pace by 18 seconds. An eight-time half marathon walker Elana paced Susan at the end of her 58^th half marathon, proving that anyone can inspire even the veterans among us.
• No muscle soreness later that day or the next day. Susan was quite tired after the race but physically our lactic acid clearance threshold seems to have improved preventing muscle soreness.

How did we feel right after the race? Ron felt great, like he didn't even work for a 2:36 walking half marathon that would have been a PR three years ago. Susan said, “This race seemed relatively good, but I didn't feel like I did very well”. It wasn't until Ron reminded her that a 2:40 walking half marathon was as fast or faster than most of her run/walk times.

Heart rate training further engaged! Stay tuned for more as the year progresses. 
Random References:
Heart Rate Zone Calculator at Digifit. Use as a starting point only. It does not take into account individual situations, weather, humidity, hydration and sleep.
Recent article at Competitor.com about training with the Lactate Threshold method as a different direction in building endurance.

Faces in the Crowd

On another note, Susan’s most vivid memories on the course often come from things that she overhears and observes. A shout out goes to the Team in Training Texas participants and coaches on the RnR Dallas half marathon course on Sunday. 

Overheard: “If you ever get into any trouble on the racecourse and need help, look for a TNT coach; they will always help you even if you’re not with TNT.” Great to hear! Most TNT coaches absolutely abide by this philosophy that they are there to help anyone in need to the best of their ability. In addition to it being the right thing to do, you never know who might sign up for TNT next season because a supportive encounter out on the race course.

Observed:  A non-TNT race participant was sitting down on the curb surrounded by several people. A TNTer ran up to her and said, “Don’t worry, my TNT coach is just ahead. I’ll call him and he’ll come help you.” Later that TNTer ran by me and I thanked her for what she did to help out a fellow racer who wasn't with TNT (not yet at least). It’s that spirit of camaraderie out on the course and the feeling that, ‘we’re all in this together’ that makes me proud to have been affiliated with the Team in Training organization for so many years.

Keep up the good work – GO TEAM!

Dallas was a great trip for the Rock n Roll Gypsies. We haven't seen Kevin since his 5-second walk-by at RNR Las Vegas.

Pre-race dinner at Ravenna. Kevin was able to get his Alfredo fix.

Al goes old-school with the original RNR Las Vegas singlet in 43 degree weather. He's also one of the hundred or so Legacy runners who've done all 5 RNR Dallas races.

Al, Susan and The Biggest Loser Season 5 contestant Dan Evans. Dan caught up to Al and me at the finish line, just in time for the three of us to have our pictures taken gawking at the Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders. We were a little distracted in the last 50 yards of the race.

If you're looking for more races, The Biggest Loser Run/Walk has added a Theme Park Race Series with 10k and 5k races in the Six Flags locations. We've signed up for the two in California that landed on free weekends. Yay!

Veteran Rocker Joe Harris celebrated his 100th Half Marathon. Michelle Bogush, Jim and Beth Austin were also at the race, but we didn't see them at the finish tent, probably because they were freezing their butts off.

Joe at the finish line VIP tent. The 100 Medals were a gift from fellow Gypsy Beth Deloria-Austin.

This year's Rock 'n' Roll Dallas was the 5th year of the event. There were 9678 finishers in the half marathon compared to 10711 in 2013. The median finish time was 2:15:14. Weather this year was a typical (for March) low to mid-40's during the race and it didn't warm up much until noon. Bring some warm clothes if you are waiting at the finish line for a ride back since its a point to point course. Note that Uber operates in Dallas and there was a $20 credit for first time users in the Rock n Roll goodie bag. We splurged for VIP for Joe's party, so we were able to take the CGI Shuttle back to the Omni.

This was our second Rock 'n' Roll Dallas, last coming to the city when Susan was doing the commute in 2011. Ron had a goal of setting a personal best for the state of Texas, which he did by over 14 minutes. It was Ron's 57th half marathon (43rd Rock n Roll event) and Susan's 58th (44th). While we aren't likely to register for RNR Dallas 2015, we'll come back in the next few years.

We had a few good dining experiences to add to a great list complied at #CGIEats Dallas edition, written by the CGI superstar Shayne McCoy. Look for Shayne's Rock Blogs before your next Rock 'n' Roll race for some great tips!

Y.O. Ranch Steakhouse
We started with the YO Queso and had the Buffalo Filet and Pecan Crusted Trout for our early dinner. Top that off with the Pecan Pie and Apple Tart and you should be set for your post-race celebration.

Price: $$$

Tiff's Treats:
After hitting Slickables after Rock n Roll Arizona earlier, I've learned to appreciate the fresh-baked cookie/ice cream sandwich. Tiff's uses Blue Bell Ice Cream. And they deliver.

Price: $

Yumilicious Frozen Yogurt:
Some of the more interesting flavors include Mango Habanero, Avacado Tart and Maple Bacon Donut. Flavors rotate daily, but there's always a selection for the adventurous and main-stream dessert aficionados. 

Price: $