I’d like to take this time to personally thank Zappos.com for stepping up to the plate and being the presenting sponsor of this year’s Rock-n-Roll Las Vegas Marathon. The were the presenting sponsor back in 2007 when the Las Vegas Marathon was being run by Devine Sports and then did not sponsor the 2008 – for good reasons.

Devine Sports didn’t pay their bills and were close to not even being able to stage the 2008 event. They owed the city, vendors and even the race winners money from the previous years event. In order to pay their debts, they had to sell the Los Angeles Marathon and the Chicago 1/2 Marathon. If I were Zappos, I wouldn’t have wanted any part of Devine Sports either!!!

Now that the Competitor Group is running the event Zappos is back on board. As a local company, I’m proud to be running under their banner this year and I hope this is a relationship that continues for years to come!!!

Advertising footnote: If you’re driving from Los Angeles to Las Vegas, you’ll notice a lot of Adopt a Highway signs with the Zappos.com logo on it – 29 of the first 34 miles to be exact (yes I counted, it’s a long trip). With companies trying to save dollars, I can’t think of a better way to get your name viewed by the driving public every single mile.

I finished adding our recent race swag to our “Running Wall” in my home office. Now that I’ve completed 7 distance races (1 marathon and 6 – 1/2 marathons) and the various races my wife and kids have run, the wall is starting to fill up very quickly!!! With 2 more races in the next 4 months, I need to find some more room.

Everybody likes to commemorate the race accomplishments in different ways and this just happens to be ours. The framed piece in the middle celebrates my first marathon (and first race) – the 2006 Las Vegas Marathon.

What do you do with your race swag?

There’s a book out that I can’t wait to read. The title is “A Race Like No Other” by Liz Robbins and the paperback hits the shelves September 22nd.

When you think of iconic marathons, the New York City Marathon and Boston Marathon have to be right on the top of your list. Since it’s pretty much a given that I will never qualify for the Boston Marathon, that only leaves me one option. I’ve never really thought about running in New York and to be brutally honest with myself, I’ve never really thought of myself as worthy enough to run in the race.

After reading the reviews on Amazon and reading Liz’s blog on the book, I think this might be the very thing I need to kick start my dreaming for running New York.

I love reading about running but I hate reading about the technical side of running. I enjoy the human interest stories that relate to running. When I get my Runner’s World every month, I skip to the feature story towards the back. Sure, I’ll take a peak at nutrition, running tips and shoe reviews but it’s the inspiring stories that I’m thinking about when I run.

That’s what’s so intriguing about this book. Not only does it look like to capture the spirit of the New York City Marathon but it also takes a look thru the eyes of regular runners like you and I that have stories to tell. Time will only tell if I ever run in New York but until that time, I’ll have to rely on Liz’s account.

I’ve talked before about inspiring people to run and being inspired by others. Today is one of those days where as a runner, I’m inspired…as a sibling, I couldn’t be more proud!!!

I haven’t relayed the full story yet so here it goes. Last Christmas, my wife and kids paid for my registration for January’s Walt Disney World Marathon. The added bonus was that my sister, Kirsten, was going to start running this year and join me in the race. My wife and sister had come up with the surprise and what wasn’t told to me was that it was supposed to be the 1/2 marathon.

After I registered for the full marathon, I emailed/called (I can’t recall which) my sister and told her I was all registered and excited to run with her. To her surprise I registered for the full marathon and not the 1/2 marathon she was expecting. Since I had already signed up, she cowboy’d up and did the same.

Fast forward to today, my sister just completed her first 1/2 marathon – the Dick Beardsley 1/2 Marathon in Detroit Lakes, Minnesota. Not only did she finish, but she did great finishing in 2:06:59 (only 4+ minutes off of my time).

Congratulations Kirsten!!! Only 4 months until you’ll finish your first full marathon and I can’t wait to share in the experience!!!

Disneyland 1/2 Marathon
Sunday, September 6th, 2009

First, let me say I’m biased when it comes to this race. It’s the one race I run that my family can actively participate in almost all the hoopla – and when they can’t, there’s plenty to keep them occupied. With that said, I enjoyed this year’s event (Expo aside) more than the previous two.

In previous years, I was always really early to the start which meant lots of waiting. This year, I slept in a little later and headed to the start a 1/2 hour before the gun. Big mistake. With over 13,500 runners, I was trapped in the back of Corral B. In fact, I couldn’t get into my corral until the wheelchair start when they lifted the gates between A and B. Normally this wouldn’t bother me much except I knew that the more people in front of me would mean slow going running thru the parks.

The weather was almost perfect – mid 60′s – but the humidity was in the 70% range. This meant more water and not skipping stations. As an added bonus, a marine layer of clouds blew inland just as the sun was rising and stayed for good hour before the sun burned it off.

As predicted, the first three miles thru Disney’s California Adventure and Disneyland proved to be slow. I was only able to average 10/min. miles and couldn’t wait to hit the streets of Anaheim. The coolest thing about this race is the community participation. I’ve never competed in a race with so many different organization represented. From cheer groups, bands, dancers, boy and girl scouts – it’s really fun to see a community get behind an event like this.

Knowing I had a lot of time to pick up, I kicked it into gear and started putting in low 8/min. miles. Since I’m no speedster, I think I’m most proud of the fact that between miles 3-9 I was able to keep this pace steady. In fact, when I paced out my time, I was actually looking at a 1:57 finish which would have been a great time for me and a personal best.

The sports geek in my really comes out when the race route reaches the Honda Center (home of the Anaheim Ducks) and Angel Stadium. First the course wrapped around the Honda Center and then onto the Santa Ana trail (a hard pack trail that runs next to the Santa Ana river). I swear that the first step I took on that trail, a rock with my name on it found it’s way into my shoe. Not wanting to ruin my new found “speed,” I chose to wait until I exited the trail at the next water stop. This is where my race took a turn for the worse.

As I took off my shoe and rid myself of my pesky passenger, I stiffened up like a board. In a matter of 30 seconds, I could barely move. Only the thought of running thru Angel Stadium got my wheels moving again.

Running thru Angel Stadium is awesome. It’s amazing how big the stadium is and imaging yourself playing in front of 40,000 fans makes the trip thru it an adventure. To add to the atmosphere, there had to be at least a thousand boy and girl scouts in the stands – all in the front row waiting for high fives. This was the coolest moment of the whole race and I truly appreciate everybody who was there and the organizers for putting that whole thing together.

After exiting the stadium, my legs were like boards. I downed my last gel and struggled to get back to a comfortable pace for the next two miles. Not until the last mile was I able to loosen up again and pick it up to the finish. I ended up finishing in 2:02:13 which was a course best for me by 8 minutes.

I love this race and as long as my family and I can make it there on Labor Day, I’ll run in this race. My only regret is that I didn’t run the inaugural race (I wasn’t so much a runner then) and be able to say I’ve run in every race.

Registration is now open for next years race on September 5th. Sign up early because it fills up fast. I’ll see you there.

Mickey’s Main Street U.S.A. 5K
Saturday, September 5th, 2009

The first thing to remember about 5K Fun Run’s are that they are Fun Run’s!!! Don’t ever think you’re going to PR a Fun Run. Most of the runners there are not runner’s and especially at an event like this, it’s all about location, location, location. With that said…on with the review.

I signed my wife and boyz up for this when I first registered for the 1/2 Marathon. We had ample time to do a little training and of course, buy appropriate running gear!!! When race time came, those training days seemed to fly by…just like our vacation.

The Fun Run started at 7 a.m. and the temperature was in the low 70′s but the humidity was around 80% so it was more than a little uncomfortable. There were approximately 4,000 participants at the event and the atmosphere was much more jovial than I’ve experienced at the longer distances. We took advantage of some of the free snacks and got in the corral well before it was time to go. There was a little concern before the gun went off as a runner not far from us fainted and had to be assisted by a medical team. To Disney’s credit, the medical team was there within minutes and before we started, it looked like she was doing fine.

A barbershop quartet, Mickey and Minnie Mouse saw us off promptly at 7 a.m. With the number of people there, it took a while to get going and when it did, the going was slow. That fit perfectly into my pace plan for us. I figured my wife and the boyz could run and have fun around 15-16/min. miles.

The course started at the Mickey & Friends Parking Structure and we headed toward Disney’s California Adventure. It’s important to remember when you run within the theme parks that some of the paths get narrow and keeping an eye on who’s in front and behind you is very important. There were many characters along the route and we (along with many others) stopped to take photos with many of them.

After looping thru California Adventure we were off to run in Disneyland. The interesting part of the route is that you get to see some of the back stage areas of the buildings and attractions – sort of behind the scenes access if you will. After several walking breaks and shoe ties, we headed towards the finish line – Main Street.

Now in other years, they’ve finished the race in a parking lot which provided ample space for handing out medals, refreshments and photos. Having the finish line at the end of Main Street was probably not a great idea. Now the atmosphere was great with characters, fans lining Main Street, the music and engaging announcer – it was just there was no room for anything when you were done!!! The crowd stacked up at the medal lines and getting to the bagels, water and Powerade was extremely difficult. While half the fun is just taking in the mass of sweaty humanity, we just tried to exit with all limbs intact as quickly as possible.

Overall, the experience was more than enjoyable and running with my family was a thrill. The medals are plastic, artistic and colorful and the same can be said for the shirts. The only thing that Disney officials need to work on for next year is thinking thru the finish line area.

Disneyland Health & Fitness Expo
Friday, September 4th, 2009

With so many things going on this past weekend, I thought I’d break up my race review into three parts: the Disneyland Heath & Fitness Expo, Mickey’s Main Street, U.S.A. 5K and the Disneyland 1/2 Marathon.

The Health Expo started at 2 p.m. on Friday. Not wanting to fight the initial crowd with my wife and kids, we decided to let it play out for an hour before we went and picked up our goodies. Over the last two years, the Expo has been very well orchestrated. There were never long lines (unlike the Indiana Jones Adventure or the Finding Nemo Underwater Adventure) and I could breeze in and out within a 1/2 hour. Not this year!!! Turns out the lines at the Expo would give the Disney attractions a run for their money.

The confusion started when we arrived at 3 p.m. and noticed a strange line forming outside the main event hall and into the lobby. Since I knew the layout of the Expo from the previous years, we ventured into the hall to where we were to pick up our bibs and t-shirts. Arriving at the end of the hall, I noticed that the bib pick-up was no longer inside the hall. The long conga line that snaked thru the Expo was the line for t-shirt pick-up.

After retracing our steps back out into the lobby, we finally found our first volunteer who told us the bib pick-up was in a separate hall outside and downstairs. At this point, the conga line was outgrowing the lobby and was spilling outside. Now, I’ll give Disney credit for dressing up the ramps leading to the bib pick-up with a track carpet and Disney character silhouettes – but that’s about where my praise ends.

Wandering back up to earth’s surface, we joined the aforementioned conga line without much glee. Just when we thought there was a little hope with the line moving at an incredible speed, we were again halted in our tracks only to learn they snaked the line around a couple more exhibits. I’m still trying to put my thumb on why they separated the bib pick-up and shirt distribution. With the bibs you have multiple lines. That breaks up your participants into several smaller lines where handing out the t-shirt at the same time should have been a simple task. Every other race I’ve been to has done it like this (and so did Disney the 2 previous years).

My suggestion to the Disneyland Health & Fitness Expo representatives would be this: if it’s not broken, don’t fix it. Go back to the old ride because this new one doesn’t beat the original.

Overall the vendors and race wear were top-notch and I need to give a shout out to my new friends over at iFitness for the Mini Sport Belt I picked up!!! It’s a small running belt, big enough for your cards and phone, and it didn’t move an inch during the race!!!

With the Race Roll Call complete, many of us are preparing for upcoming race events with much to look forward to. Unfortunately, I hear all too often how “nervous” or “stressed out” a runner feels about an upcoming event.

Race day or event day is hardly stressful, if you have prepared properly. In fact, if you prepare and train properly, your race day can be a CELEBRATION…truly a day to celebrate the previous 16-20 weeks of training! You have done it! You have arrived at race day fully prepared, after having had the discipline to complete and stick to a regimented training schedule, diet, and race plan. This is a day to test your fitness level, stamina, desire, speed and runner’s mentality. Let’s face it, running the actual race is the easiest part of the past 4-5 months of your training. It’s getting out of bed at 5:45 am, passing on the ice cream sundaes, running that last mile repeat faster than the first, and just flat out doing it day in and day out! After 120-150 days of pure discipline you deserve to celebrate your big day by having some fun.

Here are my Top 5 race day thoughts to help you celebrate YOUR day:

1. Relax. Don’t take yourself too seriously (or any other runner for that matter). No one else really does. Even if you run a sub 3:00 marathon, likely 98% of people you ever talk to about running will even know if that is a “good” time or a “bad” time. I can’t tell you how many times I have heard people tell me “Oh, I can run a 7 minute mile!” All you can do is smile. Let’s face it, the same people don’t know the total distance for a marathon, and driving that far is huge feat for some.
2. Smile. It’s okay to acknowledge spectator support and it’s okay to let people know that you actually like running (when you smile, you make it look easy).
3. Reflect. When faced with anxiety, stress, pain, doubt or any negative emotion, reflect or think back to the reason or reasons you started running.
4. Trust. Trust your training. If you can look yourself in the mirror and say “I worked my tail off the past 16-20 weeks to get here”, then you will have a great day. If you can’t honestly say that, and you have cut corners, then you are on your own, and I wish you luck…because you’ll need it. That’s one thing about running, it’s just you and the road (or trail), you can’t hide behind anyone else, gain an advantage through equipment or compensate your lack of fitness through some magic drink or potion. You have either trained or you haven’t. Either way it will show!
5. Run. Run like someone is watching you. Run because it makes you feel better. Run to push your limits, and simply stated…run because you CAN!

If you have additional race day perspectives that have helped you celebrate your race days, I encourage you to share your thoughts and insights so others might find a way to learn how to make their race day their own day of personal celebration!

“Big occasions and races which have been eagerly anticipated almost to the point of dread, are where great deeds can be accomplished. ”
– Jack Lovelock

“Forrest” (Schrenkspeed)

It happens every time I travel to run in a race. “What did I forget?” On the eve before I pack up the family to spend 5 well earned days in the California sun (and smoke), I know I’m going to leave something behind. I procrastinate and pack the night before (opposed to my wife whose been packed for 3 weeks). This always leads to me scrambling to get my running gear together.

[x] Shoes
[x] Socks (different kinds for different conditions and moods)
[x] Shirt and shorts (warm and cold options)
[x] Band-aids and Vaseline
[x] Garmin and sunglasses
[x] Clif shot gels and Tiger’s Milk energy bars

Yep, I’m ready…or am I? I’ll lose sleep over it tonight although I know that anything I forgot will be readily available at the expo. Feel free to comment if I forgot something obvious. I’ll be back on Wednesday with race reports of Mickey’s Main Street U.S.A. 5K and the Disneyland 1/2 Marathon.

First, I would like to say that I emailed Disney last night about the California wildfire situation. So, at this point, I am going to take full responsibility for the email that Disney sent to registered runners this morning (until somebody else takes credit). Here’s the content of that email:

Dear Disneyland® Half Marathon Weekend Guests,

Recent news of fires in the Southern California mountains has caused an interest among runners who will be joining us this weekend for the Disneyland Half Marathon. At this time, we are moving forward with the Disneyland Half Marathon as planned. We continue to monitor the air quality situation with the Southern California Air Quality Management District (AQMD); the safety of our runners is our first priority. You can visit their Web site at www.agmd.gov to keep updated on the current situation and forecasts for race day. The location of the fires is quite a distance from our resort, and the weather forecast indicates a week of cooler weather and favorable wind patterns, so we anticipate a safe and comfortable weekend of fun.

Of course, we will keep you posted should anything change, but for now get your shoes ready for the Happiest Race on Earth! See you real soon!

– Disneyland Half Marathon Team