2010 Taipei International Half Marathon: The Report **UPDATED**

**UPDATE** December 26, 2010: Official finish time was 2:01:48 - a bit off my race goal.  Better luck next time!  See http://www.sportsnet.org.tw/score_101219_21.php and search for finisher #2712 (they list 1000 finishers per page, if you select the "all finishers" under the half marathon results choice).  There you will see me.  Or you can try to search for my bib number (18253) or my name (c'mon, you already know that one).  Merry Christmas!


**********


Editor’s note: the below race report was drafted on the day of the race, as the competitor rode the High Speed Rail train back to Kaohsiung.  At the time he wrote this, the running human did not have a chance to access media or news reports about the race, nor to examine his own results.  An addendum will appear at the end of the post that adds some clarifying information in these regards.  Read on…

The "writing salon" aboard the HSR train where this post was drafted

Without yet having had a chance to see any news reports about the 2010 Taipei International Marathon, I would have to say that I think there very well may have been 100,000 or more participants.  There were so many people, it took me over 10 minutes to move from where I was at in a mass of people (thousands and thousands) at the race start over the timing mats to actually start the race (it was about 7:15 AM local time when I started the race, which actually began at 7AM as advertised).  I actually saw one fellow crowd-surfing towards the start line, as if it was a giant rock concert.

My aims for the race were quite modest.  I no longer establish “finishing” a race like this on as a goal – I’m sorry, but barring some type of catastrophic injury or natural disaster, I am going to complete a half marathon, it’s no longer such a long distance to run for me.  I wanted to finish in less than 2 hours, a decent but not too difficult pace that under normal circumstances should be attainable quite easily for me.  I wanted to run easy for the first hour (~the first half of the race), and then step it up in the last hour for a nice “negative split.”  I reality, because of the crowds of runners, my pace during the first hour was far slowed than I figured it would be, so I changed strategy, trying to “keep the horses in the barn” until about the 9 mile mark.  Then I ran harder during the last 3-4 miles to produce the negative split I was looking for. (I have yet to have had a chance to review my race data, but I’m quite sure that it was a pretty decent negative split run).

2010 TAIPEI Marathon

EveryTrail - Find hiking trails in California and beyond

(Note: this map is not my personal results/pace, etc., but of another competitor that I found online)

The race was on a very flat course that made a loop of Taipei City.  The only elevation changes of note during the entire ½ marathon course were a few on- and off-ramps traversed when moving from regular streets to elevated highways or underground tunnels.  Coupled with the fantastic weather for the race today (about 60 degrees F and clear at race start), conditions were ripe for a fast race – that is, if you started with the elites at 6:57 AM.

 

Why?  Well, go back to the first sentence in this post.  I have never, in all the races I have done in the past 10 years, seen anything close to the number of people turn out for a race that I saw today.  In my mind, I consider marathons like those held in Chicago or New York City to be very large (I have not yet run either one, but have heard that they boast something like 40,000 participants).  I do not know as of yet how many people were out there with me today, except to say that it was A LOT.  So many that at no point on the 13.1 mile half marathon route did the congestion ever go away.  There were tons of people from the start to the finish.  Usually in these races once you make it several miles in, the crowds of runners start to thin.  Not so today.  I was trying to duck and weave in and out to find running room from beginning to end.  It’s not a set of conditions that are conducive to fast finish times (again, unless you are out in front of the pack, like the elites runners).

Gear staged the night prior to the race

Because there were so many runners, it seemed to me that the aid stations were lacking in adequate personnel to keep up with demand.  I actually missed the first two aid stations because the throngs of people blocked my view of them and I was pretty much past them by the time I realized they were there.  But when I finally saw one in time to stop, I was hardly able to get any refreshment.  Unlike at any race I have done previously, it was essentially self-serve – that is, there were bottles and containers of water or sports drink on the tables at the side of the run path, and there were cups, and it was sort of a free-for-all to pour your own drink.  This created “madhouse” conditions – every runner for himself.  I had to elbow my way to the table to try and pour a beverage.  Generally, in other races I have done there are either volunteers holding the drinks out to the runners – pre-poured – and you can grab one as you pass, no need to stop and try to pour the drink yourself; or there are pre-poured drinks set on the tables that you can grab and go – again, no need to self-serve the drink.  I believe these methods to be superior in terms of quality and speed of refreshment.  But it seemed to me that the rest stops did not have enough personnel to support these methods.  I only saw one or two volunteers at each table, far too few to keep up with the thousands of runners coming past.  This is certainly an area for improvement.

Another needed improvement is related to the lack of on-course restrooms.  Just as I remarked on in my write-up of the 2010 Ironman 70.3 Taiwan triathlon a couple months back, the race today had far too few restroom facilities on the course.  In fact, I didn’t see a single race-provided venue for this type of need until after 6 miles into the race.  I saw some people, prior to that point, running off the course to businesses and fire stations along the course to use their facilities, but if the race was doing what it should in terms of providing adequate ON COURSE facilities, this behavior shouldn’t be necessary.  Finally, about 5.5 miles into the race, near the river, was a toilet provided for use by people who use the riverside recreation path.  Because the race did not have any on-course toilets to that point, there were some people waiting to use the facilities (women, and presumably men who needed to “sit”), but far more men who chose to use the nearby bushes and treeline for their “facilities.”  This would not have been the case if portajohns had been placed on the course in sufficient numbers and often enough to relieve the (literally!) pent-up demand.  On later portions of the course, near the aid stations, there were generally a couple portajohns, but even so these were insufficient in number to prevent long lines (and the concomitant choice of convenience for many men, trees or bushes nearby).  The race would be better for everyone if this issue was successfully redressed in future iterations.

I was able to see some of the elite runners at the end of the race – the marathoners, that is.  The top men were finishing the full marathon as I was coming in to my finish.  It’s a bit depressing to be “lapped,” so to speak, by these runners, but quite amazing at the same time to see up close how fast they are moving in comparison to a “regular” runner like me.  I heard (but have yet to confirm) that a new course record was set today.

Post-race "snacky-treats"

In all, it was a nice experience.  I am glad I did not try to run the full marathon because it would have been pretty tiring to keep on going.  I was glad to be done after 13.1 miles.

GJS

Editor here again: check out this page on Flickr (note: it is not the running human’s Flickr page – he did not take a camera with him during the race; http://www.flickr.com/photos/future77/sets/72157625503659903/) for some photos from the marathon.  See also this report (http://focustaiwan.tw/ShowNews/WebNews_Detail.aspx?Type=aSPT&ID=201012190019) from Taiwan’s official news agency that puts the competitor estimate at 110,000 (with 31,000 in the marathon itself).  A course record was NOT set yesterday; the top male finisher crossed the line at 2:14:04 (course best is 2:11:05) and the top woman finished in 2:30:37 (course record was set last year by the same woman, at 2:30:05).  Finally, while final results for all runners were not available at press time (they will eventually be posted here: http://www.sportsnet.org.tw/en/,  some unofficial times for the running human are 1:51:14 (from the Taipei Marathon Information and Results Finder here: http://marathon.taipei.gov.tw/change.action?request_locale=en_US; screenshot below) and 1:55:45 (from his wrist-mounted GPS unit).  As posited above, the runner did indeed increase his pace throughout the race, averaging 9:40/mile over the first ~5.5 miles, then 9:23/mile for the next ~4 miles, and a swift 7:23/mile over the balance of the race (about 4 miles).  Both of these times seem to be a bit low, as in, faster than the actual finish time.  This post will be updated when the official finish time is available.

2010 Ironman 70.3 Taiwan recap

Done!

Want to get this written before too much time passes since the race and I start to forget stuff.  Where to start?  Some people have expressed interest in how the mini-van driving went.  I enjoyed the utility of the Chrysler Town and Country we rented.  It had seats that folded into the floor, making it easy to take advantage of the cargo room necessary for hauling my bike and our luggage.  The auto-open side doors were nice, and it was easy to get the boys in and out (unlike when you are stooping and bending in a car to do the same).  "If the sweatpants fit..."

Before the swim start

I'm out there somewhere

 As for the race, the swim course was unlike any I had seen before.  It was a two-lap out-and-back course in which you actually had to come back up on the shore and cross the timing mat between the first and second laps.  Originally it was supposed to be a triangle-shaped course (pretty standard for these types of races), but perhaps due to the currents they changed it to the out-and-back format.  Whatever the case, the first half (the "out" portion) of the first lap of the swim course was as bad as any I have experienced.  It was a mass start of close to 900 athletes, and it seems like the preferred swim stroke here is the breaststroke, with its attendant side-flaring arm pull and frog kick.  This stroke takes up a lot of room, and made for a much-kicked and struck opening leg of the swim.  Along with the "fisticuffs" taking place between competitors, the current also seemed quite strong, pushing back as I tried to swim out to sea.  It was only on the first "back" portion that I started to get into a rhythm, finally beginning to use bilateral breathing and getting some space around me to swim more comfortably.  The water was surprisingly warm (wetsuits were optional and lots of folks were wearing them, though I definitely think they were unnecessary in terms of water temperature) and pretty clear - I could see all the way to the bottom of the ocean for most of the course.  I came up on my first lap in the water at about 27 minutes and figured I would be able to beat that pretty easily on the second lap since the crowd had thinned out a lot and I was swimming much more comfortably, but perhaps due to fatigue or increased current, the second lap was actually slower, about 30 minutes.  My total swim time was 56 minutes 34 seconds. (By the way, full results [PDF] are at http://www.ironmantaiwan.com/editor_images/im-70-3-tw-final-res.pdf; do a search for my bib number, 391.)

"Quick draw" caught me going from the swim to the transition area

I was unconcerned about how long my transitions took and tried to stay relaxed.  The path from the beach to the transition area (TA) was long!  We had to go up a couple flights of stairs and then I had to transit the entire length of the TA to get to my bike.  I should mention the weather in Kenting, Taiwan, on race day - absolutely gorgeous!  Blue skies, lots of sunshine, and seasonally cool - about 80 degrees for the high temp.  I think that the cooler temperature in comparison to the site of my last 2 Half Ironman races (Hawaii, in June) really helped me (though I still got sunburned - one of these times I will learn).  There were some pretty gusty winds, which made the bike course interesting, but I will talk about that a bit later.


I felt really good on the bike course. (see above)  It was also a two-loop course, this time essentially circumnavigating the Hengchun peninsula in southern Taiwan.  The course was mostly flat, except for two uphills just after leaving the TA, and then one climb portion covered once per lap thereafter.  There were many parts of the bike course heading north along the coast where you basically had the ocean on your left side and mountains on your right side.  It was quite scenic.

Enjoying the scenery

The gusty winds were coming from the north - northwest, which gave a nice push coming back in on the second half of each lap.  I tried to keep from over-extending myself on the bike, which tends to lead me to excessive cramping on the run portion (I know from past experience), but still putting in a decent effort.  I think I struck the balance well, as evidenced by my run performance.  My overall bike split time was 3 hours 8 minutes 25 seconds (about 17.4 mph average).


Unlike in past Half Ironman races, I only had to stop due to cramping (hamstrings both times, first the right and later the left) twice, at 5 miles and again at 10 miles.  I was able to easily address the cramping with only 10-15 seconds of static stretching followed by 10-15 seconds of walking.  Then I was back on my way.  I ran all the rest of the course, with the exception of aid stations.  I stopped and walked every one of these, making sure to get the food and drinks I needed, as well as sponges to keep cool.  Once I was done, I ran again to the next aid station.  I believe this tactic, which gave me 11 short walk breaks on the course (there were aid stations almost every mile), along with my conscious effort to find and run with other competitors who selected a pace a little bit slower than what I would self-select to run, allowed me to be relatively cramp-free on this half-marathon. (You can see some photos of me using this tactic, as well as all the other race-sponsored photos [13 in all] at http://www.finisherpix.com/; go to "Select Event" - Ironman 70.3 Taiwan 2010; enter my bib number [391], press "Go".)  My run split was 2 hours 20 minutes 54 seconds (a pace of about 10 minutes 25 seconds per mile).  I actually did not look at my run time at all on the course - my pace wasn't important to me, finishing with as little cramping as possible was.  Mission accomplished!

In this race, I believe I learned that doing this type of race and not being completely destroyed at the end is possible for me, IF I race smartly and don't overly concern myself with the amount of time I am running it in.  This is the first time I crossed the finish line on a long-course triathlon and felt like it would be possible for me to extend my effort out over a longer course...

I didn't really have a good idea of what my finish time was as I crossed the line (like I said, I hadn't really been keeping track very closely, unlike in some past races when realizing I wasn't going to be able to make whatever time goal I had set before the race my morale began to flag).  In all, it was 6 hours 35 minutes 50 seconds.  I had forgotten all but my most recent Half Ironman finish time (Hawaii, 2008), and I knew that I beat it by a fair margin (about 20 minutes, as it turns out), so I was quite happy with the improvement.  Later, I looked up all my Half Ironman times.  I have developed quite an interesting patter of doing these races, at least in the past 3 iterations.  My first race was actually my fastest by far, the 2002 Pigman long-course race in Iowa (5 hours 37 min 34 sec).  Then I raced Half Ironman-length events again in 2006 (Hawaii, 5:50:19), 2008 (Hawaii, 6:54:53), and now 2010.  I fear I will not keep the pattern going forward, though - I have my eyes on another Half Ironman race in the spring (March 2011) in Singapore, which will set me up for the ultimate goal - the full Ironman China race near Tianjin, People's Republic of China, in May 2011.  There's no time like the present to do it, and I believe it's time.  Who's with me?

I have a couple criticisms of the race.  First of all, there were no port-a-johns on the race course or even in the TA.  The only restroom facilities I am aware of near the TA were at the beach, near the swim start, very inconvenient if you need to use the facilities while transitioning.  I did notice two "rest area"-type areas along the bike course that evidently could be used by competitors as needed, but this seemed quite inadequate to me.  I pulled off in the bushes along the side of the road during the run about 4 hours into the race for a quick pit stop, since no facilities seemed forthcoming, but what about the women doing the race?  This needs to be addressed in future iterations of the race.

Second, the race course and even the host hotel changed several times before race day.  I understand that this was the first year of the event, but it's pretty inconvenient to have to keep adjusting your plans for the race as the organizers sort things out.  I figure this will be less of a problem during future iterations of the race.  I actually am glad the bike course was changed.  Originally, it was going to be an out-and-back course that went from Kenting down around the southern tip of Taiwan and back up the east coast a ways.  I drove this area the day after the race and the terrain was much more challenging there than it was on the actual (Hengchun peninsula) race course.  That and out on the east coast, the winds were absolutely WAILING.  I felt like I was about to be blown over as I stood and looked out over the Pacific Ocean.  I am glad I didn't have to bike out there for the race.

The wild, windy east coast of Taiwan

I'm glad to be writing this some 9 months after I basically wrote off being able to run triathlons and other races again due to lack of training and deconditioning.

GJS

P.S. I found this additional account of the race, from the fellow who finished 2nd overall: http://www.triathlontribe.com/blog/post/show/id/77-Jamie-Whyte-Blog-My-best-Ironman-70-3-result.  Looks like I am not the only one who thought the winds and current were challenging.

Coffee ban is (temporarily) off

My view

Enjoying a large cup of black coffee this AM while I study and write stuff (like this post).  The coffee ban has been temporarily lifted during the triathlon recovery period (about a week).  I think abstaining from coffee for the 2 months prior to the race helped - I was then able to take advantage of the well-demonstrated performance-enhancing benefits of caffeine that were unavailable to me when I was habitually drinking coffee.  I had 2 cups of coffee at the hotel the morning of the race, and enjoyed a couple espressos on Monday.  Now I am having more black coffee.  Delicious!  But a rare treat for me now.

GJS

This post NOT brought to you by...

From Wikipedia

That's right folks, I hope you are sitting down.  It's been nearly 3 weeks since my last coffee.  I know, I know, hard to believe, but in the midst of our visit to Beijing, I decided to take a break from caffeine for a while.  Just to prove to myself that I can do it.  I used to semi-regularly take breaks from caffeine, maybe 5 years or more ago, but since I got back into the "gun club," let's just say there hasn't been much of an occasion to do it.  What was the catalyst in Beijing?  Nothing in particular, really, I just felt like it was time.  Well, actually, it was a little bit inconvenient to get a decent, affordable cup of coffee where we were staying at, and so I just decided to go without for a few days...and that carried over to after we got back to Taiwan.  Of course, here I have easy access to my own coffee machine, beans, and all other necessary materials required to brew a fine and affordable pot of coffee...but I just felt like I wanted to go with no coffee for a while and see what happened.

Sure, I was a tad edgy at first, but since then I feel like I have slept better, gotten out of bed in the morning easier, and had more even energy levels throughout the day, without having to suck down a pot of coffee to keep myself going!  It's been pretty nice.  I have even been able to get out and do my workouts in the mornings (well, most mornings, anyhow - look for an overdue post on my July and August workouts coming before too long) without ingesting any type of caffeine beforehand, something that for a long time would have been a bit of a joke (and not a funny one).

My intent is to regain being able to use caffeine on a select basis as a performance enhancer / ergogenic aid for exercise and sport.  Caffeine's performance-enhancing properties for endurance sport are well-documented and I have known of them for a long, long time - but it only really works if you don't customarily use it.  I plan to break it out when I run the Taiwan Ironman 70.3 triathlon at the end of October and perhaps for select long training bouts before that, but not too often - I want to see how it helps me when it is "go time."

These 3 weeks have not been entirely without caffeine, though - I've had a few sodas (I like to drink soda with my burgers, that or beer, and it's not always appropriate to knock back on the 'ol "wheat juice" any time of day, you know?) and a milk tea or two, but compared to coffee, these drinks are poor sources of caffeine.  It's been a lot easier than I feared it might be.

GJS

A couple new runs

Wanted to mention the last two runs I've done.  One was on Saturday and the other this morning (Monday).  Today's was a workman-like 5-mile effort, not bad in that I was pretty late getting out the door and it was starting to get pretty warm even by the time I took my first step. (See all details here: http://connect.garmin.com/activity/28320538)

Today's run

Saturday's run was more notable.  Even thought sleep the previous night had been rather interrupted (pretty much par for the course with a newborn in the house), I decided to go ahead and try for an hour-long run.  I had come close a couple weeks back (~55 min), but if I recall correctly, I was pushing the speed pretty good on that run, too, so not only was it long, it was relatively fast.  By contrast, on Saturday, I just decided to take it a little bit slower and make it last an hour.

Saturday - 1 hour!

In this I was successful.  The temperatures were quite cool and comfortable, which helped, and I must also admit that I am getting a much better feel for running-friendly places that aren't too far from where we live, so this helps a lot (last fall when I was running here I was primarily running only in the park across the street - I think the boredom and monotony of this is part of what led to me abandoning running for about 3 months).  I decided to head west, towards my school, and in fact I ran all the way there.  Once I was there, I took a little "victory lap" around the running track (check it out on the map).  Check out all the details here: http://connect.garmin.com/activity/28107375.

I feel like my running is coming along pretty well.  Still plenty of room for improvement, though.

GJS

Reflections on a sedentary lifestyle

Finishing a triathlon, Kansas City, Missouri, ca. 2003

Odd title for a post, wouldn't you say?  Especially from someone like me who enjoys running marathons, triathlons, and so forth, right?

That was the old me.  Let me tell you about the new me.

This post was catalyzed by a little 23 minute jog I went on this morning, my first run in quite some time.

How long had it been?

This topic has been simmering in my head for some time now, really since about mid-November, my last run (!) prior to my little jog this morning.

I don't really have a god excuse for being so lazy, it just kind of...happened.

I didn't feel good about it, far from it.  I felt constantly tired and irritable.  I ate whatever and drank a lot of coffee.

One day while classes were still in session, bored during a seminar, I decided to write up a draft chronology of how I got to this point (i.e. not exercising).  It was hard for me to figure out, I mean, for such a long time (over 15 years, since before I joined the Marines in 1994) I was all about being physically fit.  I even chose exercise science as a major in college because exercise and fitness was so my thing!

So if this can happen to me (becoming sedentary), it really can happen to anyone!

You really wouldn't be able to tell that I wasn't working out by looking at me, though -  it's not like I am sporting a big beer gut or something.  I'm still "skinny" - probably too much so. (I haven't stepped on a scale lately, so I don't know how much I weigh.)

See, what happens to me when I don't work out is that I get "soft" - muscle atrophy.  I can really tell that I have lost a lot of muscle tone.  There just isn't nearly as much muscle under the skin.  It's sad, really.

Anyhow, here's what I discovered about what led me to where I am at....

It all started in late 2006 - early 2007.  This was the time I was deployed to the Philippines.  I was working some really long hours and was finding it very hard to get much exercise in.  When I got back to Hawaii, I tried to start running again like I had been before the deployment, I discovered that I was having some Achilles tendinitis.  No way to really fix that besides rest, so I rested, even though it was the last thing I wanted to be doing.  I wanted to be running!

In mid-2007, I started another high-demand work position, which allowed only a little time for exercise.  I didn't run much in 2007.  In early 2008, I decided enough was enough - I couldn't handle not running anymore and I gradually started getting back into it.  I ran a couple triathlons in Hawaii that spring, and even entered and completed the Honu Ironman 70.3 Half Ironman race on the Big Island that June.  It felt to me as  though I had bested the Achilles tendinitis and that I was "back in the saddle."  In fact, that was my last triathlon (at least to date - possibly forever).

When I left Hawaii, it was for yet another time-intensive assignment - learning Chinese.  From July 2008 - July 2009, this was my full-time job.  I decided to curtail running triathlons while near the cold waters of California's Central Coast, with an eye on resuming training for races a bit later, like after getting to Taiwan (I learned that I was going to be assigned to Taiwan in spring 2008).  I really wanted to take advantage of my location in Taiwan as a "jumping off point" to run some of the cool-sounding long-course triathlons in the region, especially the Ironman China race.

While spending most of my time studying Chinese, I managed to pack in training for a half marathon in the fall of 2008 and then a full marathon, my fifth, in spring 2009.  The training I did for the spring 2009 marathon was, up until the last month prior to the event, when I sustained a slight knee injury during a long training run, the best of any marathon preparation I have ever conducted.  I felt like I was running well again, for the first time in a long time.  The marathon itself was a hard one and I planned to take a full month off from running afterwards.

The problem was that I was never really able to get back at it again.  In early June, I attended a training course in Virginia at which I sustained a painful (although not serious) soft tissue injury to my left knee.  I was unable to run again in California, and the time demands of the language training did not decrease, all the way until the end of the 13-month course in late July 2009.

This was followed by home leave and making the international move to Taiwan.  Once in Taiwan, I began a very gradual conditioning program to try to get back into running.  How gradual?  I started off in August only by walking.  Pretty sad for a guy that less than 6 months before was conducting 20 mile training runs most weekends.

I got on a decent roll for training in September and started to think that I might be able to train back up for racing.  I wasn't far into the school semester, which started in the middle of the month, before I realized that I was in trouble, though.  I did not anticipate that the demands of graduate school here would be essentially equivalent to the workload I sustained for over a year in California.  Bummer.

My workout frequency fell dramatically in October and November, and was completely absent in December and January.  This was a tough period for me - I don't really feel well when I don't work out.  I am irritable and don't think very clearly.  I tried to counteract this by drinking more and more coffee.  This method is a poor substitute for actual energy and vigor.

I had to run a Marine combat fitness test (an annual requirement) in December and it was a lot harder for me than it should have been.  I passed, but my average performance left me extraordinarily drained.  When I ran it, it had been a month since the last time I worked out.

I face another fitness test sometime in the first half of 2010.  Unless I can create some consistency in my workouts starting now, I fear that my performance on this test will be even more sub par.

The problem is this: I have less than a week until my next semester at school starts, so the brief respite (and extra time I have for working out) will soon end.

And there will soon be a new baby in the house.

Time to get tough on my schedule - I just have to get it all done.  I have to have time for a workout most days, I have to make it a priority, otherwise I will spiral back down where I was at before (a place that I, a single workout into my "comeback," am still too close to for comfort).

Being physically fit is a huge part of who I am, and I really feel less than whole when my fitness level is low (like now).

Right now, my goal is just to keep the workouts coming, not going for long stretches without doing something physical, bending but not breaking if I miss a planned workout, etc.  Then perhaps I can look at doing some races - maybe not the Ironman China race I had hoped for (held in March each year), but Kaohsiung hosts a marathon (Feb 28 this year - could run it next spring) and there are various triathlons held in Taiwan throughout the year.  Start small...

GJS