So this morning I learned I'm a "Road Rat"...

For my Ironman training, I swim my laps 4 times a week at the local YMCA. I'm one of these people that comes in, says good morning or hello to everyone I see, put my stuff in my locker, head out to the pool and do my laps, come back in and shower, and head home. I'm pretty focused on what I'm doing, and although I am friendly to everyone, I don't have time for a whole lot of locker room small talk.

I've never quite been able to figure out why, but for whatever reason, it seems that the majority of the pure cyclists seem to really look down on runners. On Saturday mornings when I'm doing my long runs, there is a large group of sometimes a couple of hundred cyclists that will go by me on the road. I'll typically say good morning to them as they pass by, but very rarely do I get a response back. It's not going to stop me from continuing to be friendly, it's just my nature.

Well, this morning at the YMCA, as I'm getting dressed for my swim, there were a group of cyclists who had just finished their workout talking in the locker room. These guys are probably in their 40's like me. I'm not sure they have any idea at all that I'm a runner or training for an Ironman, nor is it important to me that they do know. For whatever reason, one of them was really belittling runners, and told the others that when his bike group sees one of us on the side of the road, they'll say "there's another Road Rat" to each other. He even went so far to say how pompous the people in his own riding group can be. I'm not quite so sure that's something to be proud of, and makes another argument for me as to why I prefer to train totally alone.

I kept my thoughts to myself, as well as the question that was going through my mind, "Why do they call us a Road Rat?" As I was swimming I thought about how sad it is that people will put down others doing something when they truly don't understand it. I've never understood why someone would only like to cycle, but you don't hear me going around calling them gerbils because they are spinning a wheel for hours. I also wonder if they know that Lance, the king of their sport, said that marathoning was far tougher than anything he had ever done in cycling or in the Tour de France. I also doubt if they realize that when a runner is tired when they reach the top of a hill, that runners don't have the luxury of sitting back and coasting down to the bottom on the other side if they so choose. Our quads hurt even worse on the downhill side, and even Lance said that the downhills at the Boston Marathon really took a toll on him, something I doubt he ever said on the downhills of a cycling event.

So, this "Road Rat" is proud to run on. I'm just wondering what I'm supposed to be called as a triathlete...

2008 Boston Marathon - I'm confused, did Lance win the race?

I am a pretty easy-going person, not a lot gets under my skin, but Lance's finish at the Boston Marathon yesterday really has me steamed. Let me explain...

As a 3-time Boston Marathoner, I understand what it means to qualify and what a tremendous blessing it is to be a part of the race. I was excited as always to watch the race yesterday, and both the women's and men's winners were phenomenal efforts. Once they had crossed the finish line and broken the tape, they both gave humbling interviews about their success. Folks, THEY were the winners of their respective categories, there should be no more finish line tapes to be broken through, period.

Several minutes later, they join the coverage of Lance, and pretty much follow him in non-stop over his last 4-5 miles. I was impressed with the fact that he qualified, with the fact that he was not given a race spot like other celebrities have received in the past, that he can run a sub-3:00 marathon which I could not do in my wildest dreams, and especially his raising money for charity. Other than that, he is simply another runner out there and should be treated exactly as such.

The race goes on with Lance, he turns onto Boylston Street heading down the last few hundred yards to the finish, the crowds are cheering for everyone...

...and then it happens. He gets to within 25 yards or so of the finish, "appears" to be a bit confused as to where he is supposed to go, and then is directed off to the right BY HIMSELF AWAY FROM THE OTHER RUNNERS, and lo and behold what is awaiting him???????? His own personal tape to break at the finish line! Are you kidding me? I have no idea who thought that up, but it was 100% TOTALLY WRONG. His effort to run that race was no better than the people that finished ahead of him nor the people that finished behind him, but he gets a finisher's moment and photo breaking the tape?????? My hope is that Lance did not know they were going to do this and that the BAA rethink ever doing anything like this again. If he did know they were going to do this, it is one of the most ultimate ego "hey look at me" things I have ever witnessed, and ratchets down my respect factor for him considerably. A classy move would have been to wave them off and continue across the regular finish line like everyone else.

Seabrook Lucky Trail Half-Marathon Race Report: IV and V take III

Of course as soon as I start posting again last month, my business gets incredibly busy for the past 6 weeks or so, and now I finally have a break again. The swimming and running have been going well, and I'm still in the market trying to make a smart decision on a good tri-bike that I can train and race on (any suggestions, please feel free to give them).

This past weekend was the Seabrook Lucky Trail Marathon and Half-Marathon. Seabrook is a town on the gulf about midway between Houston and Galveston. I spoke at their pasta dinner on Friday night before the race with about 75-100 runners in attendance, which was very enjoyable. The field itself had a little over 500 runners in all. They run a half-marathon on Saturday, then a full marathon and another half-marathon on Sunday. If you run both days, you get an extra medal. If you have never participated in this race, I HIGHLY RECOMMEND IT. Robby Sabban, the Race Director, and his event staff do an amazing job.

If you were wondering about the title of this post, let me explain. I (Robert, IV) and my son (Robert, V), took 3rd place (III) in our respective age groups (he was 12-19, I was 40-49). I was so proud of him and will never forget the look on his face when he found out he had placed. This was his 3rd half-marathon, and he has improved his times in each race, this time by more than 4 minutes. Yes, Dad is starting to look over his shoulder...

500 Days to Coeur d'Alene Ironman and 241 days to Longhorn Ironman 70.3 - The Countdown begins...

I have decided to set a goal to do my first Ironman at the 2009 Coeur d'Alene Ironman on June 21, 2009, which is 500 days from today. Why so far out? Simple. I want to make certain that I am fully prepared and adequately trained, and with my work schedule constantly in limbo, this will give me plenty of time and offset those stretches where I may not be able to train as much as needed. If things were to open up for me and I could compete in another Ironman event sooner, I will leave that option open, but I refuse to pressure myself to do it before I am fully ready.

In the meantime, I have registered for the Longhorn Ironman 70.3 in Austin, Texas to be held on Sunday, October 5, 2008. I'm not going to say what my goal time is at this point since I am still a virgin to the sport, but I do have a time in the back of my mind that I believe is doable.

If my schedule remains flexible between now and June, I may also consider entering the Buffalo Springs Ironman 70.3 in Lubbock, Texas on June 29 (provided it's not sold out soon). With only about 4 months of training, my goal for that one would simply be to finish and get a taste of what the transitions are all about. Plus, being experienced with training and competing in the Texas heat, I can not imagine any type of great performance in late June in Lubbock where the temperature will almost assuredly be in the 90's.

On the short term, I'm going to run a half-marathon with my son in March (will be his third half), and I will target some sprint distance triathlons in the local area.

Returning after a lengthy hiatus... and 17th marathon race report

Quite a lot has happened since my last post back in September. Rather than type a long and boring description of what has been going on, I'll make it brief. I own a company that performs title due diligence on first and second mortgage portfolios secured by real estate, and we do work on properties in all 50 states. In September, we were blessed to land a substantial new client that immediately started sending us a tremendous amount of work, and at the same time, two of our other large customers also became very busy in portfolio acquisitions. In October and November, I literally did not do any training of any kind and was working 100+ hours a week.

As for my 17th marathon in Houston on January 13(coming down to the finish line in the photo to the left), I'll start by saying that 6 weeks before the race not only was I not entered, I had absolutely no idea that I'd even be running in it. The half-marathon and marathon had been sold out for a couple of months and my 15 year old son had entered the half-marathon. My plan was just to go out and be a spectator on race day to watch him and cheer him on. To back up in time a little, my workload had finally gotten back to normal around December 1 (my 48th birthday). I ran 3 miles on my birthday (first time I had run in 2 months) and thought I was going to die (consider that I typically do what I call my "Birthday Run" of 12.1 miles to coincide with the 12-1 date). That night, my Dad called to wish me happy birthday, and made a passing comment that he had run his only marathon in Houston when he was 48. I suppose I subconsciously filed that away somewhere. By this time, my son had decided that he was going to forego the Houston Half-Marathon on January 13 to run in another half-marathon later in March. This was the first year that Houston allowed transfers between runners, so I decided that a half-marathon would be a reasonable goal to achieve in 5-6 weeks and that I would transfer his entry to me. So I go online, and unbeknownst to me at the time, they give you the option to transfer to the half or the full marathon (you see where this is going). I immediately thought to myself how cool it would be to run the same marathon at the same age my Dad had been when he did his, so I transferred and entered the full marathon. This would be my 8th Houston Marathon and 17th marathon overall, so I had a pretty good idea of what to expect. I knew that with such a small window of time to train that it could get really ugly on race day, so my plan was simply to finish it the best I could, walk when I had to, run or jog when I could, and enjoy the day. In a 5 week period, I was able to build up to one long run of 16 miles and had one week of 50 miles about 2 weeks before the race, and in the 6th week I treated it like a normal taper week. At that point, I felt comfortable that I would at least go out and not be totally unprepared. The shocker was what happened on the day of the race. I told my wife before I left the house that I fully expected to take at least 4:30-5:00 hours, and that I would carry my cell phone with me to call her and let her know how I was doing (she and the kids stayed home that day and watched the event on TV because I told her there was no need for them to go out and stand for who knew how many hours waiting on me to finish, if I was even able to do so). The race began and I just ran along at a very nice, easy and comfortable pace. Again, to make a long story short, I made it all the way to the 21 mile marker before I decided to force myself to stop and take a short walk break. At that point, I was at about an 8:45 pace per mile, roughly a minute slower per mile than my normal marathon pace when I'm properly trained. I walked for about 3-4 minutes, and decided I'd see if I felt well enough to start jogging again. Well, I did and ran all the way to the 23 mile marker. Being experienced, I did not want to do anything stupid, so at mile 23, 24 and just before mile 25, I again forced myself to take about a 2 minute walk break during each mile. At the 25 mile marker, I looked down at my watch and was amazed to see that I was at about 3:45, and had a chance to break 4 hours if I could jog the rest of the way in. I called my wife and basically said, "You are not going to believe this, but I think I'm going to run a sub-4:00". I think she was as stunned as I was. I started jogging at the 25 mile marker and ran comfortably the entire rest of the way, and finished with a chip time of 3:57:06 (a 9:03 pace per mile even with the walk breaks factored in). I must say that although it was way off of a PR or my normal times, it was one of the most satisfying marathons I have ever done, and it proved to me that the base I have maintained all of these years has really paid off to keep me in good shape. It also proved to me that I am ready for the next phase of my life as a distance athlete.

Tomorrow, my big announcement about the newest phase of my training... Stay tuned. It's good to be back.

Learn not to be discouraged

I talk to all sorts of beginner runners this time of year here in Houston who have just started training for their first half-marathon or marathon coming up in January. Many get discouraged because they can only go "so far" (whatever that might be for their current fitness level) because of the weather. Case in point... As I type this, here is what the Weather Channel has online for my current weather:

9:00 a.m.
Temperature: 86
Humidity: 100%
Heat Index: 112
Winds: Calm

Don't be discouraged. Nobody can run well under those conditions (and note again that it is ONLY 9:00 a.m.). I always tell them that during the summer months, which here can last into October, that the length of my average run is probably 20% less than what it would be in the winter or spring (our winters here are around 50-60 with many days still up into the high 70's and low 80's). I have also created my own little formula where I have figured out that my level of exertion for something like a 10 mile run in these conditions is equivalent to at least a 15-18 mile run if the temperatures were in the 50's or 60's. So hang in there and learn to live with your weather conditions, no matter where you live.

Getting back on track in many aspects

Those of you who are faithful readers (no pun intended) of the main Faithful Soles web site may have noticed that there have not been many updates to it in the last couple of months, but that will be changing starting this coming Monday, September 10. The main reason for the lack of updates has been getting my DVD produced, my daughter starting college, my son starting his sophomore year of high school, being the Vice-Chair of my 3,000 member church's Capital Campaign Committe to raise $13.9 million for new facilities, and having 3 of my businesses deciding to all take off at the same time with lots of work. On top of that, I've been squeezing in an average of about 6 miles a week swimming and around 40 miles a week running to try to keep up a decent base for my Ironman (whenever that might be) and the upcoming marathon season this fall and spring.

So why do the updates start again this coming Monday? Simply put, I have missed the time I have taken to building the web site. What I am doing in Faithful Soles is my true passion, it makes me happy, and it is what I want to start putting more of my energy into. Many thanks to all of you who continue to visit the site, and please send me some of your stories, race reports, pictures, etc. so that I can use them on the site. ALL of you are inspirational to me. Thanks.