rooshvforum.network is a fully functional forum: you can search, register, post new threads etc...
Old accounts are inaccessible: register a new one, or recover it when possible. x


SWPL Obervations at the NYC Marathon.
#1

SWPL Obervations at the NYC Marathon.

A month has passed already, but I ran and finished the NYC marathon November 7 in 5.5 hours. It was the first one I ever ran. I highly recommend the experience – I was thinking of writing a series of articles about the day and what I had to do to run it – but some observations I know the folks here would appreciate –

I got a real good look at the world class runners. Before the race starts – we are all in various corrals around Fort Wadsworth in Staten Island. The elite women go first – followed by the elite men and ‘competitive men and women’ and then Wave 1 and so forth. The elite field walked up through a fenced off partition with a police escort – I was about 8 feet away.

In general, the first 50 finishers for the men in any marathon with a large purse are Kenyan or Ethiopian – maybe one or two from Ecuador/Columbia. I took a look at their physiques – the Kenyan men’s lower legs are about the width of my forearm. They can’t be more than 130 pounds tops and about 5’ 5” average.

In contrast, far more Caucasion women finish at or near the top of marathons. Seeing Irish-American Shalene Flanagan standing next to a male Kenyan champion for example, despite how thin the women are, look far far healthier and stronger than the Kenyan men. There were a lot of very fit runner’s legs and asses in spandex that morning. In the entire ‘elite’ pack going up the bridge that morning – I would say 70% were Africans and South American (by that I mean Ecuadorean, Brazilian, etc.) - the rest were northern European white. No Asians – no Italians or darker skinner whites. Now contrast that to the 48k people with me in the corrals -

Amongst the people on the field – it looked like 80% Caucasion, 13% Hispanic from South America, 6% Asian and 1% African-American/African. It was like I had hit the quest for the SWPL Holy Grail. Of that amount – it was about 65% male and about 35% female. Interesting note – I ran the race at 206 pounds – I should be about 172. (My 206 is way way way down from where I was after finishing up my first year at the Law Firm I am at now 6 years ago)

There were men running the race in my general weight class – but the women – across the Board - were extremely fit. I saw perhaps six other women packing a body weight (at the same percentage over) I am overweight. Reason being (I think) male organs and lungs are bigger in general and able to handle the increased load on the joints and provide oxygen into the blood stream if overweight. A woman’s organs are smaller and cannot handle the increased load that weight places on the system as opposed to a male. The result is that of the 17,000 or so women running the race – about 10,000 of them are physically ‘perfect’ whether they are 22 years old or 45 years old. There were hundreds, if not thousands of knockouts in Staten Island that morning – the women’s field is more fit than the male by necessity.

Which brings me to the other point – among some of my wife’s gabbing unmarried 35 something pseudo-girlfriends here in downstate New York – running a marathon is the chick equivalent of a man having a 10 inch wang. The bragging before, during and after the race is off the wall – I guess they can’t help it. Who cares if Mrs. Kirk has 3 kids 6 years of age and under in the household – what is that in comparison to running a marathon. Running a marathon also has effects on other, even married, woman – a woman in my office tried the medal on when I was not looking.

It gets white people acting kooky – 2 out of my 3 superiors said nothing to me the morning after – but I found out from the chicks in the office that both of these guys were looking my name up on the computer that morning to see if I finished. I did send some of these picks to our clients – who then mentioned it to the head honcho – who then a week later – said congrats after people upstate were ‘raving’ about my pictures. Now I know I am sounding cunty myself – but this is another insight into what so many talk about here about not being ‘believed’ when you talk about your experiences. Further, there are very few opportunities to find a ‘crew’ that is going to help you improve yourself – or encourage you to do something like this, or frankly anything because no one does anything to begin with.

Here are some more sports examples – I have my 4 year old son in gymnastics – the classes at the school near me end for boys at age 6 and this school is good enough to have sent girls to the Olympics over the years. I think all round gymnastics with the pommel horse, the rings and stuff is about as good an exercise and coordination training as you can get – but because of the way things are set up – you can’t get it. Boys can do baseball – woohoo.

You can do karate – but if you want a real school its’ hard to find. I went to Japanese kickboxing school for a year in New York City and learned – but if I spend the equivalent of a high end gym membership money a month for my kids – I don’t want GrandMaster Chain Link Fence down at the mall teaching them. Yeah – that 8th degree black-belt – sure whatever. Its’ just the Swipple parents are used to dropping little Johnny off at the school at the mall while they shop for XXL underwear at Cache.

Oh wait – what about the pool – well my Town has an indoor pool – a real nice one but you have to join and a family membership is about $600 and they don’t have a day use rate. That’s in addition to the Village summer outdoor pool which costs 350$ per year – oh – and if you live in the Village and don’t join the Village pool – you can’t go in as someone’s guest.

What about soccer (The sport of champion Swiples) – well they have the practices at 8:00 pm and the games at 9:30 am on Sundays – sorry I won’t do that – Sunday is family day and I work till 8:00 to often to freeze my ass off with other Swiples with Starbucks cups. Besides – I think a bunch of 7 year old girls playing soccer is silly.

The stuff I saw this past summer out running through Long Island and Queens. Passing suburban warriors playing hardcore softball – all hard and shit. Guys 350 pounds stretching before the big game – making sure the bags half distance out could be covahed! Conferences with the pitcher and catcher deciding whether to lob the ball to the left or to the right. They getten’ they exercise on. I was running up hills and beating young people on bicycles.

Black people out running usually smiled and said hello and we would exchange salutes. I had one white male acknowledge me once all year.

Is it an accident that Viagra ads run during golf tournaments?

Here is a link to where I did most of my running the past 5 months - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brooklyn-Queens_Greenway

In July I got up to running 6 miles in 58 minutes – 6 mph. The part of the bikeway I ran – at the top right – is within a 15 minute drive of 2 million people. It’s on the Long Island Sounds and the sun sets over the Throgg’s Neck Bridge. I never ran past or saw more than 15 runners using the 6 mile path at any one time – most of the time it was 7 runners and under. But here’s the thing – once I could do 6 miles in an hour – there were only 5 people (I saw them repeatedly) that were faster than me on that trail – two were Hispanic males – two white males and one white female who was the fastest of them all – doing 9 mph at least. Think about that – with so many people even within walking distance – no one was out.

Really – to have anything in this country you have to swim against the tide in everything.
Reply
#2

SWPL Obervations at the NYC Marathon.

Great post.

I know of only one white girl who "ran" a marathon. She's fat as a whale right now.
Reply
#3

SWPL Obervations at the NYC Marathon.

Quote: (12-07-2010 01:51 AM)Jim Kirk Wrote:  

A month has passed already, but I ran and finished the NYC marathon November 7 in 5.5 hours. It was the first one I ever ran. I highly recommend the experience – I was thinking of writing a series of articles about the day and what I had to do to run it – but some observations I know the folks here would appreciate –

I got a real good look at the world class runners. Before the race starts – we are all in various corrals around Fort Wadsworth in Staten Island. The elite women go first – followed by the elite men and ‘competitive men and women’ and then Wave 1 and so forth. The elite field walked up through a fenced off partition with a police escort – I was about 8 feet away.

In general, the first 50 finishers for the men in any marathon with a large purse are Kenyan or Ethiopian – maybe one or two from Ecuador/Columbia. I took a look at their physiques – the Kenyan men’s lower legs are about the width of my forearm. They can’t be more than 130 pounds tops and about 5’ 5” average.

In contrast, far more Caucasion women finish at or near the top of marathons. Seeing Irish-American Shalene Flanagan standing next to a male Kenyan champion for example, despite how thin the women are, look far far healthier and stronger than the Kenyan men. There were a lot of very fit runner’s legs and asses in spandex that morning. In the entire ‘elite’ pack going up the bridge that morning – I would say 70% were Africans and South American (by that I mean Ecuadorean, Brazilian, etc.) - the rest were northern European white. No Asians – no Italians or darker skinner whites. Now contrast that to the 48k people with me in the corrals -

Amongst the people on the field – it looked like 80% Caucasion, 13% Hispanic from South America, 6% Asian and 1% African-American/African. It was like I had hit the quest for the SWPL Holy Grail. Of that amount – it was about 65% male and about 35% female. Interesting note – I ran the race at 206 pounds – I should be about 172. (My 206 is way way way down from where I was after finishing up my first year at the Law Firm I am at now 6 years ago)

There were men running the race in my general weight class – but the women – across the Board - were extremely fit. I saw perhaps six other women packing a body weight (at the same percentage over) I am overweight. Reason being (I think) male organs and lungs are bigger in general and able to handle the increased load on the joints and provide oxygen into the blood stream if overweight. A woman’s organs are smaller and cannot handle the increased load that weight places on the system as opposed to a male. The result is that of the 17,000 or so women running the race – about 10,000 of them are physically ‘perfect’ whether they are 22 years old or 45 years old. There were hundreds, if not thousands of knockouts in Staten Island that morning – the women’s field is more fit than the male by necessity.

Which brings me to the other point – among some of my wife’s gabbing unmarried 35 something pseudo-girlfriends here in downstate New York – running a marathon is the chick equivalent of a man having a 10 inch wang. The bragging before, during and after the race is off the wall – I guess they can’t help it. Who cares if Mrs. Kirk has 3 kids 6 years of age and under in the household – what is that in comparison to running a marathon. Running a marathon also has effects on other, even married, woman – a woman in my office tried the medal on when I was not looking.

It gets white people acting kooky – 2 out of my 3 superiors said nothing to me the morning after – but I found out from the chicks in the office that both of these guys were looking my name up on the computer that morning to see if I finished. I did send some of these picks to our clients – who then mentioned it to the head honcho – who then a week later – said congrats after people upstate were ‘raving’ about my pictures. Now I know I am sounding cunty myself – but this is another insight into what so many talk about here about not being ‘believed’ when you talk about your experiences. Further, there are very few opportunities to find a ‘crew’ that is going to help you improve yourself – or encourage you to do something like this, or frankly anything because no one does anything to begin with.

Here are some more sports examples – I have my 4 year old son in gymnastics – the classes at the school near me end for boys at age 6 and this school is good enough to have sent girls to the Olympics over the years. I think all round gymnastics with the pommel horse, the rings and stuff is about as good an exercise and coordination training as you can get – but because of the way things are set up – you can’t get it. Boys can do baseball – woohoo.

You can do karate – but if you want a real school its’ hard to find. I went to Japanese kickboxing school for a year in New York City and learned – but if I spend the equivalent of a high end gym membership money a month for my kids – I don’t want GrandMaster Chain Link Fence down at the mall teaching them. Yeah – that 8th degree black-belt – sure whatever. Its’ just the Swipple parents are used to dropping little Johnny off at the school at the mall while they shop for XXL underwear at Cache.

Oh wait – what about the pool – well my Town has an indoor pool – a real nice one but you have to join and a family membership is about $600 and they don’t have a day use rate. That’s in addition to the Village summer outdoor pool which costs 350$ per year – oh – and if you live in the Village and don’t join the Village pool – you can’t go in as someone’s guest.

What about soccer (The sport of champion Swiples) – well they have the practices at 8:00 pm and the games at 9:30 am on Sundays – sorry I won’t do that – Sunday is family day and I work till 8:00 to often to freeze my ass off with other Swiples with Starbucks cups. Besides – I think a bunch of 7 year old girls playing soccer is silly.

The stuff I saw this past summer out running through Long Island and Queens. Passing suburban warriors playing hardcore softball – all hard and shit. Guys 350 pounds stretching before the big game – making sure the bags half distance out could be covahed! Conferences with the pitcher and catcher deciding whether to lob the ball to the left or to the right. They getten’ they exercise on. I was running up hills and beating young people on bicycles.

Black people out running usually smiled and said hello and we would exchange salutes. I had one white male acknowledge me once all year.

Is it an accident that Viagra ads run during golf tournaments?

Here is a link to where I did most of my running the past 5 months - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brooklyn-Queens_Greenway

In July I got up to running 6 miles in 58 minutes – 6 mph. The part of the bikeway I ran – at the top right – is within a 15 minute drive of 2 million people. It’s on the Long Island Sounds and the sun sets over the Throgg’s Neck Bridge. I never ran past or saw more than 15 runners using the 6 mile path at any one time – most of the time it was 7 runners and under. But here’s the thing – once I could do 6 miles in an hour – there were only 5 people (I saw them repeatedly) that were faster than me on that trail – two were Hispanic males – two white males and one white female who was the fastest of them all – doing 9 mph at least. Think about that – with so many people even within walking distance – no one was out.

Really – to have anything in this country you have to swim against the tide in everything.

Why is that?
Reply
#4

SWPL Obervations at the NYC Marathon.

Yeah, great post indeed, and CONGRATULATIONS on running the NYC Marathon! That sounds like an interesting experience!

I do some trail running in the local park, but have never done anything close to 26 miles. How was your training? How many long runs did you do, and how far and how often? Did you do any intervals? (I am thinking of joining a running group at the local track.)

Here is some athlete eye candy. The Norwegian runner/cross-country skier (and now part-time model, it seems) Therese Johaug:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ajr5r52mAM4

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DD8-A9ekM...re=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hPw4RSOsU6I&feature=fvw
Reply
#5

SWPL Obervations at the NYC Marathon.

Top post JK. Interesting observations as far as race and the top order in the NYC marathon. I guess when you're at that level it's only subtle genetic differences seperating the milk from the cream. It's alway cool when someone to goes against the grain though. eg: White guy good at track. Black guy good at swimming. You almost never see at at top international level though.

Another suggestion for your list of uber cool outdoor activities in NYC. Kayaking around Manhattan. I was in NYC for a while two Summers ago and am dissapointed I didn't think of it then. Apparently you can kayak all the way around Manhattan. I think a great excercise routine would be to kayak from one of the midtown piers on the Hudson around the Statue of Liberty and back after work in Summer. This is apparently possible and legal, though I believe you are not allowed to actually berth/set foot on Liberty Island. I guess due to some sort of security concerns. Apart from just being much cooler than anything you could do at a gym, imagine the the diffence in response between telling someone you kayak two times a week along the Hudson for cardio versus that you spend 45 minutes on the treadmill at some gym.
Reply
#6

SWPL Obervations at the NYC Marathon.

Jim I like your posts man, you are a solid poster for sure. Great insight and good time on your run. I like the part you mentioned about how important people think this shit is. Some of the lamer SWPL's that surround me at work and living quaters talk about this non stop.Its really like verbal masturbation and passive aggressive in nature, when two beta bitches, try to one up each other over a bike ride or a timed run.

Do not get my wrong, I respect any endevour a man wants to undertake. I wold never knock a man for whatever athletic endeavour he wishes to persue.. To each his own.. But you are correct that running a marathon is total SWPL shit. I hate hearing about it. IMO If I ever have to run that far from anyone or anything it can go ahead and kill me, eat me whatever. I dont hear the ex Army Infantry guys I work with every day talk about 20-30 mile road marches with hevily weighted ruck sacks. Rapelling, climbing to and from destinations for a real reason, other than bragging to some SWPL slut at a tofu bar.

Where I live there are tons SWPL's in their bright yellow and orange spandex Bicycle suits, roaring down the trails and streets pretending to be Lance armstrong. Some of them get into this gear (thousands of dollars of machinery and spandex I imagine) and don't even really bike that far. Ass padding, odly shaped helmets, shaved legs, heart moniters, Elite foreign named bicycles etc. In comparison I see the Mexican immigrant huffing his ass off riding his bike in all sorts of weather, with a back pack and jeans, just to get to work on time, heading 10-15 miles each way, simply out of necessity. I can bet he is not in a trendy bar, drinking an organic wheat beer bragging to his friends about a trek on his bicycle that day.
Reply
#7

SWPL Obervations at the NYC Marathon.

Quote:Quote:

Which brings me to the other point – among some of my wife’s gabbing unmarried 35 something pseudo-girlfriends here in downstate New York – running a marathon is the chick equivalent of a man having a 10 inch wang.

Quote:Quote:

It gets white people acting kooky – 2 out of my 3 superiors said nothing to me the morning after – but I found out from the chicks in the office that both of these guys were looking my name up on the computer that morning to see if I finished.

I have two friends who actually ran and finished the Marathon(They both Black). To be perfectly honest, I didn't think too much of it. In fact, I don't even remember asking them how it went. I just looked them up on the Marathon Website, one finished @5:50 and the other @6:30. Reading this post gave me a new found appreciation for it. I had no idea that finishing the Marathon was that big of a deal and turned co workers into haters.
Reply
#8

SWPL Obervations at the NYC Marathon.

Status whores in the SWPL scene playa. That is all that is.
Reply
#9

SWPL Obervations at the NYC Marathon.

Thanks for the compliments - I enjoy writing this stuff – I cause fights with friends and family with a lot of this stuff so its nice to see someone appreciate it -

@ IshGibber – That was not a slight against blacks – I brought that point up just because I noticed black people to be enjoying their time out exercising more than whites. I would trot through a park and if there was a black woman on a park bench doing sit-ups – she would never fail to smile – it was just one of those things you notice. Maybe one or two of them just like blue eyed white meat – but it happened too often to be that all the time.

@ Chaz - A few more facts about running if you were to try endurance running – the formal ‘training’ for a marathon begins about 17 weeks before the race. The NYC marathon is the first Sunday of November so you start the last week in June usually. By that time – you should have been running about 20 to 25 miles per week comfortably for one month – the charts typically look like this depending on how much you can handle –

M T W Tr F S Su
Base: Off 5 5 5 Off 8 Off
“” ‘
Week 4: Off 5 6 5 Off 12 Off

(so and so forth)

Week 16: Off 6 6 6 4 18 3

What is a killer is when your Saturday long runs get out beyond 14 miles or so. My longest ‘long run’ was 22 miles – it sucks being out on the street for hours by yourself and that was the biggest killer with this stuff for me.

In July – I would get home from work at 6:30 p.m. – eat dinner and hang out with family and leave at 8:45 to run. It would still be light out and people were still out. Come September 15, 2010 – its pitch black and no one is out anymore. That was the biggest mind killer for me – running in the dark. I did so much of it during September and October – I can say I will never run at night again. In the summer there were always sunbathers – roller-bladers in bikinis - I need at least ‘walkers’ out to look at.

There are running clubs in my part of suburbia – but the average age is about 48 and they really just do a 45 minute 3 mile ‘trot’ – nothing close to the mileage/speed haul you need to do for a marathon. Over the summer it was easy – you are still increasing mileage – your running trails don’t look so ‘rote’ – but in September/October when you are putting up 4 hours on the road on a Saturday by yourself – it begins to wear on you. I started hating it toward the middle of October. This is another point to my earlier posting about finding a ‘crew’ to train with and help pull you through – there ain’t one roung these parts.

As far as interval training – by that if you mean fartlek workouts - I never got that far. I should have as they say this type of workout gets your mph up the quickest. This has to be planned in advance and you have to have an accurate distance measure or hill that lasts a certain distance – I really lack the attention span for that although if I try this again I will find someone who can show me a place to do these ‘repeats’

@ Chaz – if you do have a halfway serious track-club in your area I would join to avoid being alone all the time – when you go and meet these people – if its full of old skinny men – or fat younger woman in spandex – find another club. The one thing a good coach could give you is review your running log and make suggestions for a track surface speed workout – it also helps to have some real runners for inspiration – when I would run in the park, especially early on and was getting smoked by someone – I would try to match their cadence , or keep up. It provided some inspiration. But if you do anything at all – goto a real runner/tri-athelon store and get a sneaker recommendation. I had a flaming gay runner in Manhattan in a specialty store look at both of my feet bare and he said get ‘Brooks – Beast model. I have worn down 10 pairs in 3 years – I would never get anything else. There are a lot of sneaker companies you’ve never heard of – such as Saucony and Brooks. There are also high end lines of Nike and Asics sneakers you cant get at Dick’s sporting goods. If you don’t get fitted for a good pair of sneakers you are doomed before you start.

Another thing I found interesting – with the long runs – there is a fueling component to putting in that much mileage to avoid hitting the wall. I hit the wall but did not know it at the time. Best way I could describe it – you could be having the best run of your life – tearing it up – easy as cake. Then in the space of 5 minutes you slow to a slow walk – then you walk for 5 minutes and try to trot again and can’t do it for more than 20 steps. The ‘syndrome’ is real – also referred to as boinking out. I stopped hitting it when I ate bagels before going out on a long run and from sucking down Gu energy gels every 40 minutes – on my real long runs I would go out carrying 6 or 7 of them. You have to find a system that works for you – and I found that interesting. Its also vital because if you ‘boink out’ – you then can’t recover for several hours – so you end up walking the rest of the race. They have water/gatoraid stations every mile at these races – you have to think along the way – Am I going to have water and a Gu or get Gatoraid endurance formula next? Should I save that Gu and eat that banana up here?

Which in further line with what I posted in terms of being the SWPL mecca – here is a gross simplification of why marathon completion has the aura it does (I think) in the swipple community – it has to do with human engineering –

Simplified – 99% of human beings – with the exception of genetic freaks – can pretty much get off the coach and walk/trot 10 to 14 miles. That is the ‘distance’ that the human body can cover comfortably and without drawing protein and various nutrient supplies (primarily glycogen) from your body’s organs – Once you start running 30 miles a week and more – and put up 15 miles plus every weekend – you start sucking all this stuff out of your organs because you cant 'store' enough fuel in your tanks to cover this distance. The only way you can train and prepare yourself to make it across the finish line in less than 6.5 hours – (which is when they usually start closing down the course - usually they do it much earlier ) is to put 15+ mileage in on Satudays for 10 to 15 weeks and eat a lot of good food along the way.

Think of it another way – everything half-marathon (13.1 miles) distance or less (5k, 10k, etc.) is in one class of endeavor that anyone can finish on a Sunday and be home before lunch – anything over that distance has the glycogen problem and requires the time commitment. Anyone can do a marathon – but it takes a LOT of effort along the way and months of practice. By virtue of the human body and the distance – the marathon has its own Darwinian entrance test so to speak. Its ‘doable’ for the average person but hard enough that its beyond reach without months of practice. This is where you get your Swipple bragging rights – finishing a marathon is actually hard to do and you cant get an edge on your competitor by buying more expensive gear.

Look at the females running a 5k or 10k - then look at them pulling a marathon - tells you everything you need to know.

@ Rocco – thanks for the props – one thing you said hits the nail on the head for sure –

""Where I live there are tons SWPL's in their bright yellow and orange spandex Bicycle suits, roaring down the trails and streets pretending to be Lance armstrong. Some of them get into this gear (thousands of dollars of machinery and spandex I imagine) and don't even really bike that far. Ass padding, odly shaped helmets, shaved legs, heart moniters, Elite foreign named bicycles etc"""

' and dinbt really bike that far' A serious road cycler will do 30 miles a day – 4 times per week and do 75 to 100 miles on a weekend. This is another theme – no one is really serious about their hobby or sports but they got a $1500 bike that weighs .4 pounds and his workout is 14 miles every other day – woo hoo. If there is one thing swipples like - its GEAR!
Reply
#10

SWPL Obervations at the NYC Marathon.

Thanks for the post; you have my sincere respect. I'm not hating, but what is the point of "running" a marathon at a 13 min./mile pace? That involves a lot of walking.

I got up to running ... 6 mph.

Then Running Times says your marathon pace should be 11 min./mile.

Running time conversion

In other words you were not really trained for the marathon distance. It seems especially unhealthy to do that distance without training properly. You could get more health benefits with less pain by skipping the marathon and either training on longer distances, improving speed at shorter distances, or losing weight.
Reply
#11

SWPL Obervations at the NYC Marathon.

@ kimleebj - it all depends on how you look at it. I have all my 'mile' times which I saved into my watch as I ran the course - my fastest mile was mile 2 (the decline off the Verrazano Bridge) which was 9:50. My slowest mile was 15 when I stopped to see my wife and kids - that mile was 17:00 minutes. I also stopped once to stretch for 5 minutes and had to hit the head on one mile which added time. I actually ran miles 22 and 23 through Harlem faster than I did miles 4 and 5 through South Brooklyn.

You are correnct in that my marathon finish time at 6 mph would have come out to much less - but realize that my 6 mph run was on flat ground - NYC is very hilly and its one of the harder courses. The inclines up the Willis Avenue and Queensborough Bridge at mile 16 are rough - I had to walk those.

As far as my weight - my knees were shot by the end of the summer and I popped 3 motrin on the course that day - but you have to realize where I came from. No athletic background - if you read my other posts you know what I've dealt with at work as I'm a lawyer and my third child was born in September. One of my long runs was missed because it was my daughter's baptism. You can only do so much -

The last two times I tried working up to the marathon I stress fractured a bone in my foot or just could not physically do it as I was stuck in my office till midnight 2 days a week. As with anything - experience is your best teacher - a lot of people I know who can now run the race in 4 hours or less started with a 5 hour plus time.

I still beat 10,000 people over the line so to speak and it was a helluvday - and I got swipple bragging rights. I will probably try one again next year.
Reply
#12

SWPL Obervations at the NYC Marathon.

Hey Mr. K,
Your post above reminded of something I was gonna ask about, and that's if you sustained any injuries while training, or after the marathon. I joined a running group, and they are good people (bonus: a couple cute girls, too), but they tend to run on concrete surfaces. Now when I said I do trail running in the park, I forgot to say that these are woodsy, dirt trails, often muddy. This soft-surface running doesn't cause any soreness in my legs, but I do get a little sore from the running on hard surfaces. So I was wondering how your legs held up, especially if you were running 15+ miles on concrete. Also wondering, of course, how your legs were after the marathon itself. Judging from your post above, it sounds like it wasn't totally smooth sailing all the way.

The running group I've recently joined is pretty "recreational." I think I will stick with them, especially since there is some social circle game opportunity there. The other group (which I haven't joined yet) is doing timed runs at the track, and has more competitive folks-- like the people Rocco81 was describing. By the way, they are doing what I meant by "intervals" before -- i.e., timed sprints of, say, 400 or 800 meters, interspersed with rest intervals of 1-2 minutes. Similar to "fartlek" workouts you mentioned. I think of "fartlek" as off-track stuff, like running hard up hills, then going easy downhill to recover, etc.

To clarify, SWPL, or swipple, is Stuff White People Like? Is this correct? I have noticed that triathlons are very white. But I do recall reading about how Puff Daddy (or P. Diddy) ran the NYC Marathon a few years ago. I believe he had a pretty impressive performance, with a shorter training period than most people have.
Reply
#13

SWPL Obervations at the NYC Marathon.

Chaz I might add that Puff Diddy was doing that as an ode so to speak, to his SWPL nature IMO. The clothing line the television shows. P-Diddy I hate to say it, does alot of SWPL shit now adays. He would rather sell cologne and ties than records I think. Now, more power to him on getting money any way he can..but while Jay Z has a personal boxing trainer and buys basketball teams while still rapping, P diddy runs marathons and hangs out with gay dudes at fashion shows.

Just as a white guy could have some very Black tendancies..for instance Bill Clinton was said to have "negro tendancies" and was considered the first black president by the black community here in the USA. Some black folk have the SWPL thing.
Reply
#14

SWPL Obervations at the NYC Marathon.

And........ science get in your way again

http://www.ergo-log.com/marathontest.html

Stick to sprints
Reply
#15

SWPL Obervations at the NYC Marathon.

see below - double post-
Reply
#16

SWPL Obervations at the NYC Marathon.

@ Chaz - When you start running on concrete you have to be aware of some things.

Unless you are on a properly poured concrete track or course - the street pavement is going to slope to the curb to allow for drainage. This means your foot strikes ground with a 5 degree to 15 degree 'cant' to one side. You should run out and back on the same side of the street to equalize the effect of the slope on your ankles and knees. You can avoid this by running quality paved trails and on sidewalks.

Overall - I started running indoors a few years ago on a good quality Landice manufactured treadmill. I lost about 50 pounds beating the crap out of myself on it. These are popular because they actually work forever but also because the treadmill deck is very hard compared to what you see in most gyms or machines. These machines are bought to help prepare your legs for concrete. If you have only run on dirt and wood chips before - you legs are going to get beat up bad for awhile - here's some stuff on how you can injure yourself simplified. I got most of these at one point but first - if you do anything else - Get good quality 125$ sneakers - fitted by someone who knows what they are doing - AND THEN REPLACE THE SNEAKERS EVERY 3 MONTHS RELIGIOUSLY.

You got 4 body parts at play
1. Feet
2. Ankle
3. Shins
4. Knees

People injure their quads and hamstrings but not to the proporation of injuries to these body parts.

Two things will stop you from running for 2 months or more - shin splints and stress fracture of the bones in your foot. Both are hard to see coming.

Both are bone fractures (breaks) but are the width of a hairline in the bone. There is nothing you can do - you have to stop running. If you have a pool - you can maintain your cardio swimming laps but if you stress fracture any bone in your foot you will be limping for well over a month. Ask me how I know. I 'broke' the right foot 3 years ago when I ran 15 miles on concrete for the first time at about 225 pounds - that took care of April and May that year. I then 'broke' the other foot running 20 miles in August that year on a wooden boardwalk - didnt make it to the race that Fall because of it.

You'll know you have one of these when you can't localize the pain in the foot but its there in the middle and makes you limp. These are very hard to see coming but I could say that if the top of your foot - the first 3 inches of skin where your smaller toes end - if that starts to throb or feel icy or wierd - stay off your feet for awhile and reduce your running and see what happens. X-rays also dont pick these up right away either - a stress fracture is confirmed by x-ray several weeks after the 'break' - its just one of those things and any pressure on the bottom of your foot is going to hurt you.

Shin splints - its the same thing but you get them on the front and sides of your shin - these are often confused with sore muscles that connect to the bones midway up the leg. If you get these - you will probably feel a distinct line of pain across the front and side of your leg. These are easier to spot coming - if you feel any discomfort inside your leg that goes beyond a little soreness - backoff because you are working on a splint. Also - when you start putting in distance mileage - this will probably be the first injury you get - ESPECIALLY IF YOU DO NOT REPLACE YOUR SNEAKERS EVERY 3 to 4 months. I got splints in my right shin 2 years ago probably from running on angled pavement - as I only got them in the right leg.

Ankles and knees - these are prone to just soreness, throbbing and pain. The Chilean miner that ran the race finished it with bags of ice strapped around his knees. You can severely injure either joint but for the most part you just get sore. As your mileage increases - you will feel the knees just stiffining and bothering you. The knees are also aggravated by the 'cant' in road pavement I mentioned above and also by having to carry excess weight like me. You are going to have to learn your knees and when they are to the point of injury or just a little sore where you can pop a motrin and go run. The first year I started running, the knee pain got bad enough I had to stop running for 2 weeks.

This past year - beating up my legs finally paid some dividend - no fracture, no splint, nothing. I started in March but my knees didnt start hurting or stiffining at all until September. I also used an herbal extract called Ruta Graveolons which is a natural anti-inflammatory. By November however - the last 3 mile runs I did before the event were aggravating the hell out of my knees hence my use of motrin on race day. One thing I never got was ankle pain or problem of any stripe.

And SWPL swipple is Stuff White People Like -
Reply
#17

SWPL Obervations at the NYC Marathon.

Thanks Mr. K,
Man, all those bone injuries and such sound pretty bad -- the worst experience I had was 15 years ago, when I started doing too much cycling and shit all of a sudden. One of my knees got really, really swollen with a bunch of fluid in there. I went to the little sports medicine clinic at the university, and they kindly stuck a big needle in my knee and drained the fluid out. So I learned not to push too hard too quickly.

That is interesting about the street having a slight angle for drainage purposes. I did not think about that. I have thought about it when running on the beach, especially down near the water, where there is definitely a slope downwards. So they say to run both directions to even things out.

Good call on calling for shoe replacement every few months. I have been slipping and sliding all over the place with my old shoes out on the muddy trails lately! I'm gonna get some of those new-fangled "trail-running shoes" that get better traction. And better support, cushion, stability, etc.

Hey what about just plain ol' muscle soreness in your quads or calves? Did you ever get that? My thighs will get sore if I do long runs on consecutive days. But this kind of thing only lasts for a day. This wouldn't be considered an "injury," but I wonder how common it is.

Well, take care, and keep on running! [Image: smile.gif]
Reply
#18

SWPL Obervations at the NYC Marathon.

Rocco81,

That was a funny post you wrote on P. Diddy. I enjoyed it, and had never thought of it like that. But yeah, he does seem to have "diversified" himself a lot, with the Sean John products (clothing, cologne). And all this other jazz, including some brand of vodka!!
Reply
#19

SWPL Obervations at the NYC Marathon.

Congratulations on finishing your first marathon! The first one is always special (I just finished #9 a couple of weeks ago). With respect to a first race (of any distance), I always tell people that time isn't important - it's all about finishing. If you decide to run another marathon, THEN you can try to improve upon your time.

"In general, the first 50 finishers for the men in any marathon with a large purse are Kenyan or Ethiopian – maybe one or two from Ecuador/Columbia."

This statement is simply inaccurate. If you're talking about the WINNERS, then yes. I checked the results for the top men at this year's New York City Marathon. Going by citizenship (not residence, as many Ethiopians and Kenyans runners live in the US but are still citizens of their native countries), 35 out of the top 50 male finishers were North American, South American, or European (the other 15 were from Kenya, Ethiopia, and Morocco). Out of curiosity, I also checked the top 50 women finishers at NYC. 40 our of 50 were from North American, South America, or Europe. http://www.nycmarathon.org/Results.htm

"Further, there are very few opportunities to find a ‘crew’ that is going to help you improve yourself – or encourage you to do something like this, or frankly anything because no one does anything to begin with."

You live in the NY area, right? I live in the DC area, and here there are TONS of running clubs, triathlon clubs, etc. to meet up with like minded people. I would imagine there are similar clubs in NY, no? Do a search on meetup.org. I know New York Road Runners is HUGE. If it's too inconvenient for you to hook up with a club (due to work, family, etc), look into the online forums at runnersworld.com, runningahead.com, etc. You'll come across plenty of people who are always eager to welcome a new runner, provide tips, encouragement, etc.

Congrats again. Started thinking about your second marathon yet? :-)
Reply


Forum Jump:


Users browsing this thread: 1 Guest(s)