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When you go out for a run, you never know what you’re going to find. Last evening after work I took advantage of the 49-degree, sunny weather and headed out for a nice jog. Upon reaching Main Street I noticed that the police had closed off a section of the road. An officer instructed me, the pedestrian runner, to take the detour! I asked him what’s going on and he mumbled a couple words that sounded like “crane drop”.
I noticed a large crane over at the flour mill and while it appeared to be intact and functional, the officer’s comments had me wondering if a crane accident had occurred, reminiscent of the collapses in New York and Miami. As I finished the detour loop and popped back out on Main Street, though, I observed that the crane was outside the closed-off area. Hmmm.
Poor Amanda had to drive the detour when she came home – cars were backing up enough that at times I was out-pacing them with my blazing 9-minute miles. That’s what you call “ludicrous speed“! 
Finally home, Amanda was able to find out what happened: there had been a bank robbery on Main Street! The perpetrator left behind a bomb that turned out to be fake, but during my run was when the bomb squad was checking it out. Apparently the officer I encountered had said “bank robbery” and not “crane drop”. One cool thing in the news story is that they interviewed Chief Valentine, who happens to be one of my neighbors. Good job, Jim!
The funniest thing about the robbery (if crimes can be funny) is that the bank robber fled the scene on a bicycle! The news anchor in the video clip refers to it as the “get-away bike”. If it was a tandem bike would the other guy be called the “get-away pedaler”?
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Sunrise over Reeds Lake – I can’t believe folks are ice fishing after several days of 40+ degree weather!
One year ago I ran the 2007 Irish Jig 5K and surprised myself by notching a post-high-school PR. This year’s event would just be a training run for me, however, since my right hamstring is still not ready for any kind of speed.
Taking advantage of the relaxed pace I decided to carry a camera, inspired by the exploits of trail runner Scott Dunlap who takes photos during his races. One major difference between us is that when Scott ran a 5K just for fun, stopping to take photos along the way, he finished in 20:22! I can only match that time when being towed by a dog, and the 2008 Irish Jig saw me clock a pedestrian 28:53. But it was fun!
Downtown East Grand Rapids at sunrise.
I arrived before sunrise and had some time to wander around downtown East Grand Rapids to catch a couple photos of the beautiful morning. Sunny, yes, warm, no. Before the sun came up it was below freezing but once our part of the world got some solar radiation the air warmed to the lower 30’s.
Runners staying warm at the Irish Jig 5K registration.
After a while the chilliness motivated me to go indoors and join hundreds of other runners in the high school gym seeking out some warmth, or more importantly picking up our registration packets. Celtic Kilroy was already jamming away, keeping us entertained and setting a festive mood for the event.
Celtic Kilroy entertains the runners.
This year the Irish Jig was split into two races: a men’s race at 9:00 and a women’s race at 9:30. The guy next to me at the registration table was in a good mood despite being given a bib for the women’s race! Even though he checked the “M” box, he joked that from now on he’ll use his full name of “Patrick” instead of just writing “Pat” on the forms. Don’t worry, the volunteers got his gender changed in no time.
Green light indeed – runners waiting for the start of the race.
Around 8:45 I walked the quarter mile to the start line and did my best to keep my legs loose in the cold air. While doing a warm-up jog on a side street the race pack began moving forward! At first I thought I’d missed the starting horn but in fact they were just moving across the intersection to the official start line. I settled into position at the back of the pack just in time to hear the horn. We’re off!
After a quarter mile or so we turned to face directly into the rising sun. It did wonders for the ambiance of the race but it also made photography very difficult, especially with an inexpensive five year old camera. While making an attempt I heard someone shout behind me “Hey, Andrew’s taking pictures!” Who recognized me?
Dave Horne smiling for the camera… while running backwards!
It was Dave Horne, one of my co-workers. He accelerated in front of me then turned around, running backwards and begging for a photo. Even though I couldn’t see the camera’s LCD screen due to the glare, I think Dave’s portrait turned out pretty well. Like me, he was nursing an injury (an achilles tendon that he partially detached from the heel bone while skiing – ouch!) and taking it easy. Unlike me, he’s very fast when healthy and still fast when injured; soon he was out of sight.
Around the one mile mark I noticed Don Kern running next to me. I first met Don at a book signing for Dean Karnazes two years ago – Don organized the small group of us that ran with Dean that night. Don is the race director of the Grand Rapids Marathon and an avid marathoner himself. I asked him what he was doing at a 5K and he assured me that he had a 17-mile run planned for the next day. He also told me that his “marathon a month” streak is up to 60 – five straight years of running at least one organized marathon every month! There’s a good reason they call him “Marathon Don”.
Shortly after chatting with Don I noticed a runner fly past in the opposite direction – the race leader! He was about 1/4 mile from the finish line. My watch read 11:00 and I was confounded; no way was someone going to set a world record in this event?! Then I remembered that almost 3,000 folks had signed up for the Irish Jig and I had started at the back, requiring a couple minutes before I reached the start line. Later I learned that the winner was Boaz Cheboiywo, who blazed an absolutely amazing 14:14, nine seconds faster than his winning time from 2007.
While trying to photograph the race leaders (unfortunately I was shooting into the sun and the photos didn’t come out well) another familiar voice called out – it was Lori Lenar, another co-worker who often spends her lunch break out running where we’ve often crossed paths on the sidewalks. We talked about the high number of women in the “men’s race” – it seemed like 20% of the runners were women. Laurie was a perfect example of why it can be a problem to split up a race by gender since she wanted to run with her husband and other friends.
The 2 mile marker… Just 1.1 to go!
Finally I reached the marker for mile 3 and once again I took a photo that didn’t turn out well… How does Scott Dunlap do it? I guess I have some learning to do about how to photograph while on the run. Somehow I resisted the urge to sprint to the finish but that was not easy – one of my favorite parts of a 5K is kicking the last 0.1 as fast as I can but my wisdom overcame my competitiveness, even when Lori dashed by vowing “I can’t let an injured runner beat me!”
By the time I returned the timing chip it was 9:31 and I was over a quarter mile from the start line, so I didn’t get a chance to watch the women take off. Luckily the half mile point was nearby so I booked over to that section of the course in time to get a photo of the race leaders. It’s amazing how much easier it is to take a photo when the sun is at my back and I’m not running!
The lead pack of the women’s race quickly approaching.
I wandered back over to the “feed zone” to grab some breakfast SWAG, then watched the finish of the women’s race. You can see how fast they were running – by the time they whipped around the corner into view I was barely able to get a shot of race winner Denisa Costescu as she flew by. She won in 17:33 to defend her title (she won the 2007 Irish Jig in 17:03!) with Laurel Park just nine seconds back. The two of them were well ahead of the rest of the field as third place didn’t finish until almost a full minute later.
Denisa Costescu has the finish line – and victory – in sight.
Unfortunately I didn’t have time to hang around since I was slated to staff the booth for 2 Feet 4 Paws and Vicky’s Pet Connection at the local community expo. Before leaving I made sure to grab a piece of cake – yes, the Irish Jig serves cake to its runners! I wore my new race shirt at the expo and about a dozen people recognized it and asked if I ran that morning. It was great to see that so many folks were out running!
]]>Notice that “running a fever” is not one of them, nor is “runny nose” or “running to the store to get medication”. Recently I came down with the flu, apparently for the first time in my adult life because I have never felt so physically miserable before! Even the low point of my first ultramarathon didn’t feel so bad in comparison. Also for the first time I had to call in sick at work as my wife and I were both non-functional on Monday.
I awoke that morning after a night of fruitless attempted sleep and staggered down the hallway to the easy chair, where I remained for the next few hours, unable to move. Despite doing nothing but sitting, my heart rate was around 120 bpm! More than double my usual resting pulse. My body was working hard but I wasn’t going anywhere.
Finally I took my temperature and was stunned to see the mercury lined up with 102.5 on the scale! I drank a couple glasses of ice water and an hour later my temp was down to 101.8 and I was feeling much better. Another hour went by and the thermometer read 101 flat, which I maintained the rest of the day.
I wonder if my system was overheated due to the fever? Being unable to thermally self-regulate, an external cooling source (ice water) was required to bring my physiology under control. The high heat of a fever is beneficial to the immune system and it’s also a more hostile environment for the virus, but apparently 102.5 was borderline too hot for the rest of the body.
Interestingly, according to a fascinating article about exercising in the cold from the bloggers at The Science of Sport, the human body quickly heats up to about 102 degrees during physical exertion. Maybe running a marathon isn’t quite so different from running a fever after all!
We need look no further than the 2007 Chicago Disaster to realize that 102 degrees of body temperature is very close to our physical limits. When stressed to the point of being unable to thermoregulate, many marathoners in Chicago required external heat control (such misting fans or ice cubes handed out by spectators) in order to maintain a safe body temperature.
I suppose I could’ve stepped outside into the subfreezing Michigan winter to cool off, but I’ll save my physiological challenges for my foot running not my fever running, thank you. Besides, hydration is quite important when sick, giving my ice water remedy a double-whammy of effectiveness.
Hydration, thermoregulation, heart rate… is there any other way to relate the flu with running? Why of course – body fat. Two days of no appetite resulted in a net loss of seven pounds, a fat-burning trait that my body would do well to make use of during my next ultramarathon!
]]>Screw shoes are nothing more than homemade studded running shoes using hex-head screws as the studs. I got the idea for trying screw shoes about a year ago when browsing Matt Carpenter‘s website. He did such an excellent job explaining how to make screw shoes that I won’t bother doing the same. What I’ll discuss here is how well screw shoes work and how they compare to commercial products that also aim to provide winter traction.
On the right is a photo of my 2007 screw shoes – if you count ’em there are 20 screws in each shoe. I note this because Matt Carpenter was boasting about 18 in his shoe and 19 in his wife Yvonne’s shoe – it’s the only running-relating “competition” in which I can top the elite mountain runner.
I used my screw shoes extensively last winter when running on icy sidewalks with my co-workers during our lunch runs. The faint click-click-click of metal against the pavement was the only indication that my shoes were different than those of my friends, until we hit patches of ice or packed snow – then my shoes fell silent. Yet it was still clear that I had “special” shoes because the other runners had to slow down and proceed cautiously while I was able to maintain my stride without fear.
Screw shoes simply do not slip on ice. The only surface that has ever resulted in minor slips is smooth, black ice that’s shallow enough to allow a slight amount of asphalt/concrete to poke above the ice. This is still very slippery for regular shoes and screw shoes do help, but the exposed pavement seems to be just enough to prevent the screws from digging into the ice with full force and allowing them to skid a bit.
Otherwise screw shoes provide better traction than regular shoes in all winter conditions – ice, slush, packed snow, fluffy snow, roads and trails. I loved them so much that I made a new pair this season. All of that sidewalk running did wear down a few screws, especially a couple on the heel and at the front under the toe. While I could’ve simply replaced the old screws with new ones, I chose to recruit another pair of shoes for two reasons: 1) my original screw shoes had about 400 miles on them (including before “getting screwed”) and 2) my new shoes are extra wide.
Last year I tried a wide version of my favorite shoe, the Brooks Adrenaline GTS, but the 14 EE didn’t work as well as my usual 14 D. It occurred to me that a wide shoe would be a perfect winter running shoe since I could add an extra layer of socks in cold temperatures. Perfect! On the right are my 2008 screw shoes, this time with 30 screws per shoe. Matt Carpenter doesn’t stand a chance against my huge feet! I easily could’ve fit 40 screws, too.
I used #8 x 1/2″ screws; on my 2007 shoes I made the mistake of using #10 x 1/2″ screws. The length was fine (even in the toes) but the #10 size required a 5/16″ hex bit compared to #8 screws using a 1/4″ bit. The latter is a standard size and magnetized 1/4″ bits are commonly available – it is so much easier to install screws into rubber soles when the bit is magnetized!
Over time I may elect to remove a few screws once I determine which locations are the most critical for traction – the screws do add a noticeable amount of mass to the shoe although the gains in traction are easily worth the tradeoff. With my 2008 shoes you may notice I was able to put a row of screws in front of the first flex line, which has improved toe-off traction tremendously.
If screw shoes are such a great idea, then hasn’t someone developed a similar commercial product? The answer is yes, but none of them compare to the simplicity of a couple dollar’s worth of screws.
Yaktrax makes a popular elastic slip-on that easily slips over most any shoe. An adventure racing friend from GRAAR used Yaktrax during winter training runs on the trails a couple years ago and they worked well… until they broke. The rubber straps that secure the device are exposed at the corners of the shoe and are no match for the abrasive power of ice, rocks, and pavement. At $30 a pair, they’re not expensive but not cheap enough for frequent replacement.
STABILicers are another option I’ve seen in stores but I don’t have any experience in them, nor do I know anyone who’s ever used them. They’re similar in concept to Yaktrax but utilize a solid sole with replaceable studs – not a bad concept except that those replacement studs cost a buck more than good ol’ hex screws and you have to drop $40 on the STABILicers in the first place.
Kahtoola makes two types of traction devices. MICROspikes are similar Yaktrax – they elastically slip over shoes but use a metal chain instead of rubber where contacting the terrain. It’s a smart but expensive design, ringing up at $60. KTS flexible crampons are for the serious winter adventurer with a price tag to match – it’ll set you back $130 for a pair of these! Many adventure racers who’ve taken the financial plunge will swear to the effectiveness of Kahtoola products, but at that price you had better be A) competitive, B) wealthy, or C) run in the most extreme environments.
All of the above options give you the flexibility to wear them with any shoe of your choice at any time – admittedly this feature is lacking in screw shoes, although it’s still a simple process to “get screwed”. I’d love to try them, however, the price is too steep. $4 bought me a pack of 100 hex screws and I already own a power drill (if you don’t own one, I’m sure one of your running buddies has one) so the cost is just the sacrifice of an older pair of running shoes. There are certainly plenty of those in my closet!
Last but not least, making a pair of screw shoes is actually quite fun. You get to decide where to put the screws and experiment with various strategic arrangements. You can compare notes with friends or even compete to see who is the biggest “stud” – can anyone get 50 in a pair?
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Haven impatiently waits for me as I struggle in the deep snow on the North Country Trail
Even though I’ve lived in Michigan for almost 30 years of my life, I’ve never owned or even tried out a pair of snowshoes. During my last run I really wished I was wearing some!
My plan for Sunday morning was to run 8 miles on the North Country Trail with Haven, trying to extend my long run from last weekend’s 5.6 miles in the snow. We’ve been getting snow all week so it was no surprise that the trails were now coated in 7″ of fluffy snow on top of a 1″ layer of uneven crusty snow.
What did surprise me, however, was the difficulty of running on such a surface! It’s been a long time since I ran in such deep stuff and boy does it ever suck away a lot of energy. At first I was feeling frustrated by my apparent lack of fitness, being forced to walk several times to catch my breath. Building back up after an injury is bad enough but I was starting to wonder if I was back to square one.
Haven, on the other hand, wasn’t nearly so encumbered by two clunky feet; her four paws slipped through the snow with ease. You can see in the photo above one of the countless occasions where she would stop and wait for me, looking back as if to say “Aren’t you coming?”
Reaching a crossroad (2.8 miles) in 37 minutes, I realized that there was no point in stubbornly pushing on for 8 miles when I’m still trying to baby my hamstring somewhat. Haven and I turned around and settled for a 5.6 mile run that took us 1:13, so at least my pace was consistent.
I bypassed the last 0.7 of trails in favor of a dirt road (i.e. packed snow) and oh my gosh did that feel great! No wonder I was so frustrated – deep snow is tough. I was feeling pretty good mentally knowing that my 5.6 miles was probably near equivalent to 8 miles of effort.
That mood was tempered a bit when I spotted a bright blue koosh pillow on the side of the road. Marks in the snow made it clear that it had been tossed from a moving car, and it hadn’t been there when I ran by less than an hour earlier. How annoying.
Not wanting to end my run on a sour note, I picked up the pillow and carried it home. If I can clean it up, then Haven and Beacon will have another cushion for their frequent naps (as dogs can do so well!) and if it’s too dirty, then at least the road is free of one big piece of litter.
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Making Tracks in the Snow on the North Country Trail
Two weeks ago I was running in 55 degree weather; today when I stepped outside it was a frigid 12 degrees! There’s a saying that there’s no such thing as bad weather, just bad clothing. Heeding those words I dressed in three layers – a wicking base layer, a fleece middle layer, and a windbreaking nylon outer layer – and tackled the subzero wind chills head on.
It worked – I felt toasty warm for the entire hour that I was out on the North Country Trail and was glad I made the effort to get out for a run. Although the wind was strong out in the open, the heavily wooded trails provided cover from the icy blast. However, it was still cold enough for the eyelashes on the outer corners of my eyes to freeze together!
One fun aspect to running in the snow is seeing the tracks of those who traveled before me. Early on I spied some paw prints from a large dog accompanied by small human boots. Crossing a road into a more remote section of trail the human presence disappeared but my footprints had the company of a set of deer tracks.
Later on the deer veered off trail and I smiled – the trail ahead of me was untouched by the feet of any animal. I was making the first tracks! For about half a mile I enjoyed this “solitude” when a new set of tracks joined the trail. I first I thought it was the paws of a medium sized dog but as I continued along the trail there were no human tracks to be seen. Those weren’t dog tracks, they were the tracks of a coyote!
They were somewhat fresh, too – at least within the last 12 hours – but they were headed in the opposite direction so I wouldn’t get the chance to meet this wild canine. On the way back home I did spook a trio of deer that spooked me as well – I never saw them until they started running away.
All told I ran for over an hour, the first time I’d done that since 08 October 2007! Boy did that feel good, and my hamstring didn’t complain at all.
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