baslog

F*ck the Lakers

When I was in the Twin cities three weeks ago for the marathon, I bought this long sleeved running shirt at the pre-race convention. I have no idea why the Apple photo booth takes pictures in mirror mode -one would think it can't be that hard to reverse the image- but the shirt reads I heart The Lakes, and below, in small font: Cedar, Isles, Calhoun, Harriet, Nokomis Run Minneapolis.

Heather really liked it, and so do I. A little ode to my stomping grounds in Minneapolis, where I prepared for two marathons, and that I really really miss from a running point of view. Not that Chicago is all that bad. Today, I ran home from work, a nice run along Lake Michigan, but you always feel the city so nearby with the cars passing by on Lakeshore drive, not the quiet escape that the lakes are in Minneapolis. The running path in the dark also gets to be quite monotonous, to be honest, and the wind coming in from over the lake also gets to be annoying after a while. But I guess overall I am a bit pissy because my run was semi-crappy. Preparing for a marathon while recovering from a previous one is a delicate balancing act. You run too much and you risk injury/overtraining, you run too little and you risk being unprepared for the next marathon. I did a fast ten miler on Saturday, an easy six on Sunday and was going for another brisk ten miler today, but I had to settle for a less ambitious pace tonight. Consecutive days of running is harder than it was when preparing for my previous marathon. I am adapting my training approach a bit. I am not going to run too many long runs, I am afraid that they will drain too much energy and do more harm than good, I' ll just hope that my previous training and my marathon has made my body ready to handle another 26 miles. Instead I will focus on runs between 8 and 14 miles, working on speed a little bit, and maybe do one longer run about 17 days before the race. But enough about that.

About a week ago, I went for a short night run, going north along the lake from where I live. To get to the lake and the parks where it is nice running, parks, lakeshore paths, neighborhoods, the Northwestern campus, which is gorgeous by the way, I have to run through some city streets where it tends to be a bit rougher. It is not all that bad, but you have to be aware of your surroundings a bit. Wanna be ghetto thugs make it a matter of honor not to make room on the sidewalk and the like. Once someone yelled at me "what you running for, there aint no cops around," you get the picture. But during this particular run, the yelling was a bit more intense than usual. One guy yelled at me while I was running around his quartet of wanna be though guys: "what the fuck is wrong with you?" No idea what that was all about. Later, someone else also hurled a profanity my way that I could not quite understand, but it had something to do with a "white boy running cus he can't jump" or something to that effect. I might have misunderstood that one though. When I was almost home, I made the mistake of running on Morse
, which is where the usual gang of losers hangs around the liquor store and El stop, and one guy yelled at me as I was running by: "fuck the lakers." All of a sudden it dawned on me: they were yelling at me because of my shirt. They did not get that my shirt was an innocent reference to the city of lakes, but they though it was an LA Lakers shirt. Lakes or lakers, small difference, but in this sports crazy town, I might as well have worn a shirt saying "please beat me up." Guess I won't wear that shirt again at night.

beginners.....

Nu ik zelf twee marathons achter de kiezen heb betrap ik me erop dat ik een beetje een pedante pseudo expert aan het verworden ben. Zaterdag las ik in De Morgen dat de ietwat betweterige sportjournalist Hans Vandeweghe zich opmaakte voor de Beijing marathon met amper zes weken doorgedreven training, waarvoor chapeau. Hij leek goed op de hoogte van alles, had het over zijn hemoglobine en hermatocriet en weet ik veel wat, indrukwekkend, tot hij het over zijn voedingsfilosofie had:

“Ik geloof ook in de juiste voeding als bestrijder van de man met de hamer die na kilometer dertig klaarstaat. Dat gaat altijd over koolhydratenverbranding en vetverbranding, maar ik baseer mij op triatleten die de hele negen uur of langer blijven eten en drinken. Ik ben van plan zestien gels van High 5, carribean en lemon, door mijn strot te duwen en dat laatst mag u heel letterlijk nemen, want zo'n suikermassa gaat niet vlot naar binnen. Vorig jaar was er voor de tragere lopers niet genoeg drank meer, daarom heb ik een drinkbus bij. Voorts heb ik bij bakker Stefaan van in Beernem pannenkoeken gekocht, twee stapeltjes in vacuüm verpakt. Bruine suiker heb ik in een doos ingepakt, samen met acht confituurtaartjes. De pannenkoeken en de confituurtaartjes zijn de voeding in de twaalf uur voor de wedstrijd. De ochtend zelf zal ik cola drinken. Het diuretische effect van de cafeïne neem ik er voor lief bij.”

H-E-L-L-O! zestien gels? Pannekoeken? Confituurtaartjes? Cola voor ontbijt? Ok, ik heb de dag voor de marathon ook een pannekoek naar binnen gegooid, maar acht confituurtaartjes en pannekoeken en vooral die zestien gels tijdens de race. What was the guy thinking? Die gels zijn energiebommetjes, eentje voor de race en dan nog eentje of twee tijdens de wedstrijd dat is echt alles wat je nodig hebt, meer kan je volgens mij echt niet verbranden. En ik denk dat dat zelfs al aan de hoge kant is. Als je er echt zestien nodig zou hebben hadden ze die dingen wel zestien keer geconcentreerder gemaakt me dunkt. Dus ik zei nog tegen een amper geinteresseerde Heather dat dat om maagproblemen vragen was. En ziedaar in de Morgen van vandaag (altijd grappig om dat te schrijven:

“De 4u30 was ruim boven de vooropgezette tijd en kan uit technisch oogpunt bezwaarlijk nog worden gekwalificeerd als lopen, eerder behoort het tot de categorie veredeld strompelen.
Het zij zo. De Chinese muur stond voor de gelegenheid bij kilometer 35. In de laatste zeven kilometer schoten de kilometertijden de hoogte in. De combinatie van enkele noodbezoeken aan drie bomen, een pas aangeplant bosje en het sanitair van twee plaatselijke eethuizen - eeuwige dank aan deze hele aardige mensen die mijn 10 yuan ter compensatie van de bergjes darmellende niet wilden - én het veel te warme weer - 21 graden gemiddeld met heel het laatste uur 25 en meer - maakten er een calvarietocht van.”

Als je in de laatste vijf km tweemaal op de pot moet gaan zitten, dan heb je misschien wat te veel aan de confituurtaartjes gezeten….

Joan

Joan as a Police Woman

When I was in DC earlier this summer, I watched a great artist perform. Her name is Joan. Joan as a Police Woman. The show I saw probably was not her best. There was a lot of the noise in the venue, she looked strung out, but still, she had something that draws people in. Joan is the ex of Jeff Buckley (was his girlfriend when he drowned), worked together with Rufus Wainwright, but who cares. She put out an album herself, and it is great. She actually toured in Europe and Belgiun a lot and is way better known over there than she is here, but by accident I got to know her music, bought her album and saw her show. It was a memorable night, and a great show. You all know Youtube and you can look her up. I do think it is one of those artists you need to listen to on album before you see her live, but she has one song that I think is just absolutely wonderful, it starts on minute five of this clip. I think the album version of this song is even better, but the life version is not too shabby either. For me music that really gets to me is a great lyric elevated to an ever higher level by the way it is performed. That’s why I like “After the Goldrush” by Neil Young, that’s why I like “Exit Music (for a film)” by Radiohead and that’s why I love “We don’t own it” by Joan as a Police Woman.

We don’t own it

You will know by the way
That he cuts his eyes
Looks away from the door
That walked in you
You will know it will go
Down in history
How sweet he was to you
And all the others
So hand it over
Cause we don't own it
It's in the mystery
Our silent fantasy
Cause i
Nor you
Could ever
Know what it's like
To have the night fall
And be felled by the night
No, we don't own it
All you know is the way
That he made you feel
He made you feel safe enough
To feel at all
It's all there in the moment
You understood
That he's not going on
And you're still going on
So hand it over
Cause we don't own it
It's in the mystery
Our silent fantasy
Cause I
Nor you
Could ever
Know what it's like
To have the night fall
And be felled by the night
No, we don't own it
It's his story
Our subtle jealousy
Cause i
Nor you
Could ever
Know what it's like
To have the night fall
And be felled by the night
No, we don't own it

yeeeeiiii

Heather passed the Illinois bar. Not only that, she passed with a high enough score to also waive into Minnesota, if she'd wanted to go back. Great news! Now she can be an unemployed lawyer in Minnesota AND Illinois.

Visitor

Oph. was here this week. Oph. is Heather's best friend. I like him too, he was my emergency contact during my marathon. Doctor. Jewish. Gay. I'd recommend a a best gay friend for the girlfriend to all the guys out there. I hate driving 25 minutes to that perfect, quaint dessert place to find that perfect piece of cake, I hate shopping, I hate driving aimlessly around looking at houses and rating them, I hate discussing the finer points of interior design. Oph. covers all that, great time saver. Oph. and Heather are Will and Grace, it is uncanny. He was here to take his boards (sp?), some kind of exam for doctors who want to specialize in something. I think.

Oph. and his partner, Michael, recently got married in Toronto. Yes, Toronto, because gay marriage or even civil unions are still a big no no in the United States. I really wonder why, I don't think that overall the US is more anti gay than we are in Belgium. I just think that the very vocal opponents of gay marriage usurped the silent majority in the US, the silent majority of people who do not care enough to be advocates for gay marriage, so they end up being opponents by default. Whereas in Belgium I think the opposite happened, the very vocal minority of pro gay marriage advocates where able to pass gay marriage laws because the silent majority did not care enough about the issue to oppose it. I may be totally misjudging this, but that's my opinion. And therefore I also think it a disgrace that none of the democratic presidential candidates (or at least the front runners) has taken a clear pro gay marriage stance. Why should they? There is no alternative for gay voters anyway. If I were a gay activist, I would not let democratic candidates get away with this anymore, courting their votes by showing up at pride parade, but not doing anything for them once elected.

Running again

I started running again this week. I was surprised how hard it is. have been doing four mile runs every other day since last Saturday, and only today was I able to run without walking. My heart rate is off the charts when I run, and my legs feel kinda weak still, but it is getting better. Five weeks until the Seattle marathon. I decided to just approach it as a fun relaxing easy marathon without too many time goals. Maybe I'll get one or two twenty milers in and some speedwork before my two week taper. This will be the experiment for the Seattle marathon, a two week taper instead of three. I think a three week taper is too long, and I may have taken it too easy during the taper. I felt a bit lethargic during the last week of my taper. I only ran twice in the last week, and I don't think that was enough. Anyhow, we'll see.

the job

Wow, soon it will have been three months of living in Chicago. That's a lot of time in baby years. Moving rarely brings about the sea of change one thinks it will. Bills still keep coming, the kitchen is still a mess, and the best is always yet to come, at least we hope it is. But overall, guess I can't complain.

I haven't blogged about the job a lot. That's because people who blog about their job too often end up fired. Not my idea of a career change. But I guess I won't be fired if I divulge that overall Loyola is a pretty unique place, something about that Jesuit tradition really makes it special. Most of the students I have in my classes are nice, considerate and mature people, who care for the world around them. More mature than I was at their age. They have so much to think and worry about. Very few of them display the cynicism, apathy and sense of entitlement I encountered at some of the other places I taught. They are not all A-students of course, but they all seem to be pretty aware and responsible and are pleasant to interact with. Loyola is not a party school, and it shows. Sometimes I think I am the only one with a hang over in the room....

For the rest, the job is treating me well. I have a lot of independence to do my own things when I am not teaching and that's great. The relative independence of this work is what makes life in academia appealing to me. The program is also going through a lot of changes, so it is kind of exciting to be here and see where it all goes. We are hiring tons of new faculty for the next year and I ended up on some of the hiring committees. That will probably mean quite some extra work between November and March, but I feel a strange sense of excitement to be part of the hiring process. The last two years I was on the other side of the fence, trying to figure out how these hiring committees work so I could compile the most effective application. Now I feel like my curiosity will be satisfied.

How high can you be?

Sunday morning we had Brunch with Charles and Suzie at the morseland cafe, one of the nicer places in our neighborhood.
They have Leffe on tap and serve a hearty brunch on Sunday. To get there we had to walk a couple of blocks down Morse Avenue. I don't think Morse is all that bad . There is an El stop on Morse, a liquor store, a check cashing business, so it attracts its fair share of low lifes. It's where the neighborhood goes to buy its crack. Buy local. I have seen some prostitutes there as well. But other than that, it is a rather charming street... It really is not all that bad, I don't think it is dangerous even, just a street in diverse, poor part of Chicago where you have to be somewhat aware, and where thousands of people pass every day to go about their business, and for some, that business may not be entirely legal.

Anyhow, on the way to the Morse we stayed on Farewell -our street-, which runs parallel to Morse, but is a nice, tree-lined residential street, where far less funny business is going on. On the way back though,
I thought I'd show our guests the more colorful side of our neighborhood and we walked home via Morse. As we were approaching the El stop (EL- elevated train, Chicago's metro system), Charles pointed
to a woman in an alley and exclaimed with a strange mix of surprise and amusement "Is she peeing?" And indeed, she was. A bigger African American woman, wearing a big coat and nothing below was squatted against the wall of a building doing her thing. Then, as she noticed people's stares, she got up a little bit, and still naked from the waist down, pressed her buttocks against the wall and started yelling "My butt is warm- gotta cool my butt down, gotta cool my butt down."

That made us all feel much better. For a moment there, I thought we were dealing with a lunatic who thinks it is ok to pee in the middle of the street. Imagine what that would do to the property values. Turns out she was only bringing down the temperature of her ass by rubbing it against a building. Totally makes sense.

Chicago

One of the things that struck me when I was living in Minneapolis was what a well-run city it was. Minneapolis is a city that works. After a snowstorm, the ploughs come out and within hours the major roads are swept clean, and within a day or two, all the smaller roads are cleaned up too. It is one of these places where citizens are responsible and the leaders are accountable. Not a lot of corruption and good, responsible leaders.

Chicago, well, not as much. When we arrived, a big mob trial was going on. A real, mob trial, with snitches and hitmen, colorful lawyers, the works. I almost peed my pants. The mob, or the "outfit" as it is often referred to here, seems to be still going strong in Chicago. The other day I read an editorial in the Chicago Tribune accusing the mayor of Chicago of sending city contracts in the direction of his mobbed up friends. I cannot imagine this happening in Minnesota. You don't tip the pizza delivery boy enough and your political career is pretty much over in 'sota.

The other day I read an article about a special police unit being disbanded because of wide spread corruption, kidnapping, murder attempts, drug dealings etc within the unit. It was not even a matter of finding a few rotten apples, the whole basket of apples pretty much was rotten. In Minneapolis, a cop getting a DUI was big news.

Since I have been here, Chicago also has been facing a major budget crisis. The mayor announced major tax increases this week and for a while now, there has been talk about a doomsday approaching for public transportation. Bus lines will be cut and we will face major fare hikes, up to 2$ extra per ride. So a bus ride or metro ride could cost 4$. Crazy. Soon it will be cheaper to share a cab to go to work.

But hey, it's Chicago. A hopping place, and people seem to be wiling to deal with it. Since we have been here, we have had almost more people visiting than during our whole time in Minneapolis. Tonight Charles and his lady are in town. Charles is a friend from back in the day in Minneapolis, he left a couple of years ago to become an English professor in Eastern Illinois (three hour drive from here) and is in town tonight with the misses to go see a show, the Go Team!. If I would have been on top of my game, this would so have been a show I sowould go see, but I have been a bit despondent when it comes to getting out lately. Scared puppy syndrome? Perhaps.

With all the running, it has been a bit hard too. I have let my running interfere a bit too much with my social drinking, I am afraid. For a while I considered running on a hangover the equivalent of training with a bag of stones on your back. I reckoned that once I would drop the booze I would fly during my runs. Just kidding, but the last three or four weeks or so before the marathon I stayed away from the beer more or less and only had some wine every now and then, and it helped to shed those last extra pounds. Beer really adds calories and pounds. Ok - wasn't going to do any more marathon talk. i did go running today though, still a lingering soreness in the legs, but in a week or so I should be good to go full throttle again, then a three week training and a two week taper for Seattle. That's the plan at least. A bit crazy perhaps, but I want to give it a shot. A nice, cool fall marathon out west, what could be better?

Dirk moet gedotterd worden

You tube is toch schitterend.
Hier heb ik gisteren tranen met tuiten mee zitten lachen. Wat een unieke mix van humor en sociaal commentaar die Koot en Bie toch afleverden. inleveren wapens en alcoholarme pils zijn ook leuke Dirk filmpjes.

Van Koote, lekker pilsie kome drinken, hou toch op met dat geouwehoer.... priceless.

Marathon pics are up . I got unlucky again, no nice close ups... I noticed how I look pretty relaxed crossing the finish line. Strange, despite the overall shitiness of the run, at the finish line I felt much better than last year.

huh?

Called into the kitchen tonight by H., who had gone into the kitchen to get some milk to drink with her mini donuts. I hate this feeling of knowing your in trouble but not knowing for what yet, makes it very hard to work on a defense. "I haven't been in there all day," "It was already there," "I was dead all day."
She had opened the cabinet door for a cup and found this:

Did I do this? I honestly do not remember. But I cannot say it is totally impossible.

back to reality

Marathon is over. For now. Have been pigging out the last two days: Snickers, greasy chinese food, chipotle, coke, big breakfasts and not a trace of guilt. Nice. But I cannot do this too long, Seattle is calling me... But I need to focus on some other stuff now, such as submitting papers to conferences and all that. First deadline isFriday, frantically working on a paper right now to submit together with a paper that has been rejected at different conferences but I still think is quite good. Good thing this week is quiet at school.

I totally forgot about it, but the night before the marathon I received an email expressing interest in publishing my dissertation. I could not quite tell how serious it was, but I'll submit it and see what's what. I had planned to milk my dissertation for some articles and then move on, I am kinda of done with the topic and since it deals with Internet law, a rapidly changing topic, it would need major updates if it were to be published. Would be a lot of work, but we'll see. I am currently working on some smaller, fun, side research to spice up my research agenda a bit, but sooner or later I'll need to tackle my dissertation topic again.

One more marathon thought and then I'll shut up

The national media are all over Chicago for the Marathon that wasn't, as it was canceled half way through and ended in general chaos after a runner died. Apparently Twin Cities was close to being canceled too, according to the TCM director. Maybe "we" Minnesotans are just tougher than Chicagoans....

"This is the hottest we've ever started," said Dr. Bill Roberts, the TCM medical director since the beginning. "It was really close to the cancellation level recommended by the American College of Sports Medicine."

Does this sound like I keep coming up with excuses for my 4 hour plus marathon? It does sound a bit petty on my part, doesn't it? Ok, I'll zip it from now on. But really, did I mention how hot it was? A runner in front of me actually melted into the pavement and was not heard of ever since. Another one caught fire while crossing Franklin bridge and I'd swear I saw a sign along the road that read "Lasciate ogni speranza voi ch'entrate."

Pamper's comment

Voor wie de comments niet, hier broer pampers witty comment van eergisteren:

-eigen verslaggeving-
Onze landgenoot Bastiaan Vanacker heeft in Minneapolis 4u8' gelopen in de marathon aldaar. In een zindererende hitte heeft de man met de hamer de argeloze Vanacker genadeloos geraakt. De beoogde 3u30 werd een calvararietocht zonder weerga. Dat Vanacker toch de finish haalde is op zich een fantastische prestatie. " Ik ben net Peter geworden, en het besef dat ik een voorbeeld moet zijn voor het knaapje, deed me de pijn verbijten. "Your uncle is not a quiter" was het mantra tijdens de loodzware 2de westrijdhelft." Aldus de Vanacker - in tranen- na de aankomst. Een diepe buiging mijnentweege was de enige gepaste reactie...

Ivan Sonck

En dan te denken dat ik mijn Buddhist Zen beads die ik sinds een tijdje rond mijn bovenarm draag als talisman aan mijn petekind zou schenken, voor als hij zijn eerste marathon afwerkt. Ok die Zen beads zijn misschien een tikkeltje new age-y en ruiken verdacht veel naar dokter leconte and werkschuw langharig tuig, maar het is een gewoonte die ik overgenomen heb van een goede Chinese vriend die ik jammer genoeg uit het oog verloren ben. Had ze ook aan tijdens de marathon- heeft niet veel geholpen. Soit allicht zal een outfit van de Gap en een envelop met nieuwjaar meer welgekomen zijn, dat rekkertje breekt vroeg of laat en dan kan het boeleke zich verslikken in die balletjes. Ook weer niet de bedoeling natuurlijk.

The "fuck-no" voice

So what does a cocky runner look like, ready to take on the world? Pretty much like this. What does that same runner look like when he still has seven miles to go in a marathon, feels like total ass, knows that he has no chance of running a good time, and feels like a lobster in a pot of boiling water? Pretty much like this.

More pictures here....

Ok, last discussion about the marathon, and then it is time to get on with my life. I compared my results of this year with last year's and it is not all that bad. I actually came in 1470th compared to last year's 1585th. A deceiving stat though, since I was in the first wave start this year and got a four minute jump start on the majority of the field. A lot of the runners coming in within five mins. after me actually had a faster time, probably about 70 runners or so (rough count) placed behind me but ran faster than I did. Also a lot of the American elite runners were not running because of Olympic trials (let's for the sake of argument assume they would have finished before me, a stretch, I know), so I am roughly at the same spot I was last year. The idea was to make progress, but I do think that lanky guys such as myself have more of a heat disadvantage than some of those pocket runners, so I'll give myself the benefit of the doubt. Someone has to do it....

And ok, one more stat, and as far as I am concerned, the most important one. Notice how this year I was the 1080th male out of 4397 male finshers compared to last year's 1285th position out of 5179 male finishers Quite the difference in number of finishers, no? This year, just like last year, there were 10.500 runners at the start. I downloaded the official results. Number of finishers in 2006 (also a pretty hot marathon): 8200 (men and women). Number of finishers in 2007: 7200. So 3300 runners did not cross the finish line, can't say that I have not thought about joining that group. Last year, when I hit the wall around mile 21, the choice was easy, toughing it out, running on guts and all that crap, you are almost there and still in the hunt for a good time . This year, around mile 15 I was pretty spent, with still 11 miles to go and knowing that things would only get worse from there on, it took a lot more willpower to keep going. Thought about it a couple of times, really, just stepping out of the course and lay in the grass for a while and go home, rather than endure the shame of finishing in a time well below my lowest expectations. It sounded really really appealing, and it would have been a great way to save face. "I got heat exhaustion, started feeling dizzy, did not want to risk my health and I quit," who would have blamed me? Now, forgive me for being un-Flemish and drop the modesty for a second, but I am really glad that I did not do that, that I had the little voice in my head that said "fuck no - no quitting today, no matter what." And to be honest, the picture of myself I posted above, taken at mile nineteen by heather (I was walking towards her to tell her how dead I was), I kinda like it for that reason. Yes, it does not depict me striding along at a great pace as I wished I had at mile 19, but it was more or less the point of the race at which I realized that I was going to finish no matter what. I like the Fuck-No-ness of that picture, "Fuck no, no quitting today." And really,
more than running a 3:30, 3:45 or 4:08, is digging deep and finding the "fuck no" voice inside yourself not what running a marathon is all about? Or is that just a slowpoke's loser talk?

Bastiaan Vanacker 2006
overall 1585
division 178/718
gender 1285/5179
5K 24:58
10K 50:23
half 1:46:48
30 k2:33:18
20 mile 2:44:57
full: 3:44:37

Bastiaan Vanacker 2007
Overall: 1470
division 142/641
gender 1080/4397
5k 24:29
10K 49:20
half 1:45:51
20 K 2:44:42
20 mile 2:59:26
full: 4:08:52

Chronicle of a collapse

Finally took a look at my splits this morning. Ouch, caramba.

mile 1 :7.51
2 :7.36
3 :8.16
4 :7.41
5 :8.05
6 :8.03
7 :8.12
8 :7.58
9 :7.57
10 :8.02
11 :8.03
12 :8.33
13 :9.00
14 :9.30
15 :9.26
16 :10.20
17 :10.20
18 :12.13
19 :11.24
20 :10.41
21 :11.19
22 :11.43
23 :11.47
24 :11.12
25 :10.50
26.2 :12.31

I guess what surprised me was that I dropped so fast so quick. I always thought that no matter what, I would be able to still grind out 10 minutes miles, even when pretty pooped, but by mile 16, I already dropped below that pace. I guess I have some new found respect for the marathon after yesterday, Lesson learned....

Anyhow, good thing I did not run in Chicago, sounds like it was even worse there. 10.000 people did not even bother starting, and they closed the course half way through the marathon because of the heat. Granted, they were dealing with temperatures in the high eighties while we were struggling through low eighties, but it took its toll here as well.

So we are spending a free day in Minneapolis today, hanging out at out breakfast joint, and what would you have it, today's weather is perfect for running. Dry, crisp, cool fall weather. The man upstairs has a sick sense of humor....

4.08

Ok - this totally blew. Weather forecasts were right for once, and it was hot and humid out there,
very sticky weather; hot soup. Against my own instincts and better judgment, I still went for my 3.30 target time. What's the point in not aiming for the stars, right? I could hold that pace quite easily for the first 12-13 miles or so, but never really ran very comfortably, and had to push myself a bit harder than I anticipated. As the temperature rose, breathing became much harder. Last year it was hot as well,
but it was not as humid, you really are gasping for air out there. Anyhow, the second half of the race was pretty ugly, thought about quitting a couple of times, but decided to tough it out anyway, running a grand mom pace. Dizzy, upset stomach, headache, the works. It really was very unpleasant. I have always struggled in hot weather, even when playing soccer.

Last year was a great experience up until mile 20, and even those last miles were rewarding in their own ways. This year it was pretty much unpleasant throughout. Though I have to say that crowd support was awesome. Strange how a little "hang in there number 726, looking awesome" can give you a little push in the back,... for about 15 yards.

Anyhow, a bad experience is still an experience, and the weather is part of the equation. I definitely started out too fast and paid for it big time, but I don't think I was going to be able to run much below 4 hours anyway today. Quite a few people missed their target time by half an hour, especially bigger, pale, guys like me. I also may have done some things wrong during my taper, I think, but that's all water under the bridge. It is frustrating not to meet your goals, and not meet them by quite a bit, but hey, there will be another marathon. Seattle at the end of November sounds appealing right now. I Don't think that in seven weeks from now I will be able to run a super marathon, but it should be nice to run a race in better conditions. Anyhow, my friend petter also ran today, his first marathon and a respectable 4.35, so we have something to drink on tonight....

D-day

Ok, het zal wellicht iets te warm en vochtig zijn morgen. So be it. Ready to rumble anyway. Volg hier mijn verrichtingen.
Of klik eens door naar de site v.d. marathon, weet niet
of ze een webcam hebben. Off to bed, voor nog een paar uurtjes slaap...

42 km in 2 min.

Met dank aan broer b., die tussen het pampers verversen door blijkbaar nog tijd vindt voor wat you tube -gesurf: het parcours van de marathon.

Getting ready

Tomorrow we fly to Minneapolis. Heather flies at noon, I have a faculty meeting in the afternoon so won't be able to fly until night. I am psyched to go back to Minneapolis for a couple of days, though it will be strange to stay in a hotel in Minneapolis. I am also happy to run the marathon in Minneapolis and not in Chicago, it will be steaming hot and humid here on Sunday, well into the eighties. In Minneapolis the weather won't be perfect either, but it should not be as hot, though it also will be very humid, according to the forecast. I hate heat and humidity, maybe next year I should run somewhere else than in the Midwest. The Portland marathon is also the first week of October, maybe I should check that one out next year, I like the feel of that city.

marathon bis

Ondertussen zitten we al een tijdje in Chicago, veel veranderingen en we moeten alles nog een beetje gewoon worden, maar al bij al valt het goed mee. Ik ben in marathon training en heb het nogal druk op het werk dus het sociaal- en uitgaansleven staat op een laag pitje. Dit weekend vlieg ik naar Minneapolis om daar opnieuw de Twin Cities marathon te lopen. Zondag wordt er hier in Chicago ook gemarathoned, maar ik was te laat om me in te schrijven dus het wordt opnieuw de Twin Cities marathon. Ik kijk er wel naar uit om nog eens in Minneapolis te komen en te lopen. Als loopstad kan Chicago niet tippen aan Minneapolis.

Ik weet niet goed wat te verwachten van de marathon. Ik ben, afgezien van een overstrekte knie (voetballen) bij het begin van mijn training, van ongemakken en blessures gespaard gebleven. Ik ben er wel iets minder mee bezig geweest dan vorig jaar, minder marathon web sites bezocht, minder spulletjes gekocht, en ook misschien iets minder vaak gaan lopen, ik durfde wel eens een training overslaan. Wel liep ik doorgaans langer, en eens op dreef deed ik bitter weinig vuilbakloopjes van vijf a zes km. wat ik vorig jaar wel deed. Ik heb ook wat meer eighteen-to-twenty milers gedaan dan vorig jaar denk ik. We zien wel. Twee weken terug een georganizeerde 20 mijl trainingsrun gedaan langs lake michigan met een pace leader aan een bijzonder gezapig tempo (9.30 min/miles, bijna 6 min/km) maar zonder een centje pijn en heb de laatste drie mijl zonder veel problemen zo'n twee minuten per mijl sneller gelopen, dus dat stemde me wel optimistisch. De halve marathon de week erna viel me wel tegen, maar de negen mijl afgelopen zondag viel reuze mee, ik liep de laatste vier mijl aan 7 min/mijl (4.20/km), maar zat er dan wel wat door. Deze week doe ik het rustig aan, druk op school dus ik probeer me niet te veel te vermoeien daarbuiten.

Ik hoop mijn tijd van vorig jaar scherper te stellen, maar eigenlijk ben ik al lang blij dat ik er opnieuw bij ben. Het verschil tussen een of twee marathons is dat je verandert van iemand die ooit een marathon gelopen heeft in een marathonloper. Mijn strategie is om te starten met de 3.40 pace leader. Na 10 km zal ik dan kijken hoe ik me voel met dat tempo en hopelijk iets versnellen om rond de 1.47 aan het halve marathon punt te passeren. Als ik goed zit kan ik dan proberen in de tweede helft van de marathon een paar minuten in te lopen en rond de 3.30 binnen te komen, zit ik minder goed, dan kan ik proberen toch minstens vorig jaars tijd te verbeteren. Maar we zien wel, vorig jaar was mijn plan om met de 3.50 groep te lopen, iets wat ik uiteindelijk 300 meter volgehouden heb voor ik ervandoor stoof en allicht een iets te snelle eerste marathon helft gelopen heb.

Ik speel ook met de gedachte om eind November misschien in Seattle nog een marathon te doen. Het is eindelijk zonde dat je zolang voor iets traint en je daarna voor een maand laat gaan en veel van je conditie verliest, vandaar dat ik misschien eind November heel rustig aan nog een marathon ga lopen. Als voorbereiding op de kerst corrida in Deerlijk....