VCM 2008 photos and spreadsheet

photos for VCM 2008

spreadsheet with our individual and team paces (thanks M@)

A note to the 2008 VCM teams......

Thank you to Britt, Tim, Ingrid, Becky, Tara, M@, Karen, Kara and Jill for making this such a fun and successful relay. It was fun from the moment we arrived on Saturday until the time we left today. Looking back it seems to have gone by so fast. And yet my leg seemed to go by so slowly. I wonder why that is......

Despite how slowly I may have thought I ran (and once M@ finishes the spreadsheet we'll know just how slow I actually was) both teams finished sooner than predicted. Of course Tara's team kicked my team's sore little asses. But we're OK with that. Gives us something to strive for next year.

Check out our team results: VCM 2008 results Tara's team was bib #5562 and my team was #5497. The website app is very kewl. The last page you can even find out where Becky was when Tara crossed the finish line. But please don't rub it in.

OK that's all I have for today. Check back in the next few days and I'll have photos and M@'s spreadsheet. If anyone has any photos they'd like to send me I'll add them to my picasa album. Or if you want to just send me a link to your album, that's fine too. We are also looking to verify some of our time info. I wish we had done better at recording when the handoffs were and when the racers finished but all we have to base these on is the pictures on our camera. So if anyone has their watch time that would be useful.

Again, thanks a ton! I had a great time and once again I am psyched to do it all over again next year. I hope everyone else will too, tho this time I think I'm only going to do one team.

VCM 2009 sign ups start in January. Mark your calendar.

suzy

P.S. forgot to mention that there will be official photos on the VCM webpage. They aren't up yet but if you click here you can sign up to be notified when they are posted. Of course I have already signed up so when I find out I'll let you know.

Last Hurrah!

No one will be reading this today but I feel like I should write a final post before D-day. We're doing last minute preparations and awaiting Becky's arrival. We'll have a full car. 3 adults, 4 kids and a dog plus all our stuff. Yikes! But it'll be fun.

See you all on the other side with stories, pictures and lots of post-race excitement.

WAHOO!!

suzy

running with company

I ran with Jill last night. Matt stayed with the kids and Alex. We set out to do 4 miles but I wimped out at 3. I had a hard time. I don't know if it was because I was trying to run a little faster than I normally do or if it was because I was trying to talk while running. Poor Jill had to run a lot slower than she was used to. Still it was very good to have company.

It reminds me of a book we read to Nick "Mike Mulligan and His Steam Shovel". When Mike and his steam shovel had people watching them they worked a little better and a little faster. The more people they had watching, the faster they worked. With all the 1000s of people at the race this Sunday I'll surely be picking up my pace.

Steam on.
suzy

reminiscing about last year

Becky asked that I post her post-race report from last year. She said she was all teary eyed this morning as she read it. It really was such a wonderful, emotional experience (coming from 2 people who don't normally do this kind of thing). You can read my report here.

From Becky --->

Some of you may or may not know that for almost a year I've been training for a relay in the Vermont City Marathon http://www.runvermont.org/ . I blame it all on my sister. It was her idea! Added incentive was my quickly approaching half-octogenarian birthday. I started with 1-2 mile runs last June and stuck with them for quite a while. Sometime this winter, maybe February, I kicked it up to 3. By the end of March I was closing in on 4 miles and in the week before the race I did a couple over 5 miles and one over 6. I needed the confidence that would take me through my 5.5 mile leg in the marathon.

Saturday we carpooled to Burlington with my sister and her family. Our relay team, Saps Running, consisted of my sister (in NH), her BFF from high school Tara (in VT) and her sister, Christa (in Long Island, NY), Suzy's friend Karen (NH) and myself (MA). All 5 of us had minimal experience running and none of us had run in any running event. We kept in touch over the months via a team website and weekly training updates.

Suzy, her husband Matt and kids, our parents, Karen and friend, and myself and the kids shared a condo in Stowe for the weekend. Saturday evening we had a team, including support staff, dinner at the Olive Garden. There were 18 of us! We had to go over some of the details necessary to get us through the race the following day. Suzy and Matt had created a spreadsheet based on information that we had given them regarding our average minute per mile run. It was necessary in order for us to figure out what time our hand-off would take place. Also, we had set up meeting places and discussed how we would let each other know when one person took off to give us a better idea of their finish.

None of us slept the night before the race. We could have all been sitting up together instead of tossing and turning in bed. The morning of the race Suzy and Matt headed up to Burlington early, around 6:15. Matt was going to run the entire 26.2 miles and the start time was 8 a.m. Karen left the condo around 8 for her leg that would start at approx. 9:45. I didn't see either teammate before they left for the marathon. Mom, Dad, all 4 kids and I headed up at 8:30 to meet Suzy at my leg at 9:30. Finding a parking spot was near impossible and once we were out walking, trying to cross the race course was impassible. I found that my cell phone was dead as were others. I slipped across the race track while my family was stuck there for 45 min. My sister never showed up at our meeting spot and I found out later that it was because she couldn't get across the course. She gave up and took the bus to her leg, the last leg of the marathon.

After asking several confused marathon workers I finally found out where my hand-off was to take place. I got there at 10:30 expecting Karen to arrive anywhere between 10:45-11:15. There was a sea of people, I had no idea what she was wearing but knew that I'd recognize the long blond hair. Others were almost as lost as I, they were walking back and forth amongst the relayers yelling out bib numbers searching for their next runner. Karen arrived at 10:50 and after an exchange that lasted 10-23 seconds longer than it should have (2 relay teams came in before us with those times) I was off!

Not 100 yards into my run I saw Casey and then the rest of the kids and my parents. I got high 5's and a nice boost. I ran up the North End of Burlington and into several neighborhoods. About this time it started to drizzle. The temperature in Burlington was in the lower 60's and it was overcast. The drizzle turned into rain and for a while it seemed to rain pretty hard. I had a cap on which kept the rain out of my eyes but it was coming off the brim pretty steadily. Each mile was marked so I could count down my approach to Suzy and the final leg of our relay.

As the rain was tapering off I approached mile 5.1. I had .4 left to go to reach Suzy. I found my favorite running song on my mp3 player and started to sprint but then I didn't see the exchange site and my lungs were killing me I and didn't think I could go much further but then I saw the sign for the exchange. I rounded the corner and saw Suzy! I have never been so happy to see someone in my entire life. We screamed and jumped up and down and hugged (waisting more precious time) and then Suzy was off!

I took a bus back to the finish line where Karen and I waited for Suzy. I estimated the time she would approach and sure enough we saw her coming and we yelled and screamed and cheered. It was such an amazing accomplishment and a wonderfully, emotional ending to months of training. We already have plans for other runs this summer, the Maine Marathon in Oct. and, of course, the Vermont City Marathon again next May.

Each of us ran faster in the marathon than we had in training. This year the goal was to just finish the race. Next year we have times and teams to beat!

Pictures: http://picasaweb.google.com/msheppard/Marathon

Thanks for reading!

Becky

links on right

just a short description of the links listed on the right side of my blog:

• the weather for Burlington: so far sunny, cloudless and 75deg!
• relay leg predictions: M@'s spreadsheet created in google docs
• relay leg descriptions: from the VCM website, includes a link to a .pdf of the course
• my training schedule: a spreadsheet I created in google docs
• Vermont City Marathon: the homepage for the marathon
• a frog in the hand: my personal, non jogging, blog

6miles has kicked my butt

I made it. Painfully. Slowly. And it has really wiped me out. Just got off the couch after sitting for a long rest and dozing off. I wonder if this has more to do with the more than usual amount of sneezing I've been doing today rather than the run. Oh please let it be the run.

last weekly update with some important info

It's ONE WEEK from today!! Woohoo!

I hope everyone is looking forward to it as much as I am.

I ran 6miles today. Oh man it was hard. But I made it. It will be so much easier next week with all the excitement that is to be had on raceday.

Does anyone have any questions? I will try to impart as much knowledge of the weekend here as I can, but I'm sure I'll leave some stuff out. You can check here for some general race FAQs.

Right now the forecast for Sunday is looking good, if not a little warm for my taste. Sunday: Sunny, with a high near 70. The website reports Average temperature for May 25 8a.m.: 50 degrees, Noon: 72 degrees, so we're looking at an average day. For now anyway. As we know these things can change in a heartbeat. We'll have to keep looking all week.

Someone asked about ipods or the like while running. The official word is that they are not allowed. But everyone uses them. I think we all had them last year. There are so many people that it's impossible for them to police it.

For those of us going up to Grand Isle; would you rather we each bring our own food or organize a dinner for the group? Right now it appears that it will be Becky, Matt, me, our 4 kids, Tara, Keith and Elise (Tara's husband and little girl) going up. That's a total of 10 adults and 7 kids (including the ones staying at Grand Isle).

There is an expo at the Sheraton on Saturday. It's fun to go and look around. Here are the hours:
Sheraton Conference Center at the Sports & Fitness Expo
Friday, May 23, 4 – 8 p.m.
Saturday, May 24, 9 a.m. – 7 p.m.

and map to the Sheraton

So here are our specifics for the weekend, listed by person:

Tim: will be camping at Grand Isle. I believe they will be up there sometime in the early afternoon on Saturday (please correct me if I'm wrong) He will be running the first leg so will need to get the yellow wristband from Tara on Saturday. His run starts at 8am.

Britt: see Tim. She is running the 4th leg on my team. Britt, you'll need to take a bus back from the end of your leg to downtown. Ingrid will also be running that leg and will also need to be bused back. The spreadsheet estimates that Ingrid will finish her leg about 1/2 hour before you do so you'll have to discuss what you might want to do, wait or meet back at the finish.

Ingrid: see Tim and Britt. Ingrid is running the 4th leg on Tara's team.

Karen: is running the first leg on my team. She and Kara will be staying near Stowe and will arrive late on Saturday. We wont' be able to meet up with them in all likelihood until race day. The plan is to get the wristband and bibs to them Sunday morning. I plan on being at the start early so I can see everyone. So hopefully this won't cause a problem.

Kara: is running the 2nd leg of my team. See Karen above.

Jill: is running the 2nd leg of Tara's team. She and her family are staying at Grand Isle. I believe they will arrive Friday night. Is this right?

Tara: is running the last (glory) leg of her team. She is staying at the Hawthorn Suites on Dorset St. in Burlington. Tara, when will you arrive? She, like myself, HAVE to go to the expo to pick up bibs, the wristband and the chip. She needs to wear the chip so she doesn't need to give it to anyone. That makes things a little easier. Tara will need to take a bus to the start of her leg. I believe the info that we receive at the expo will detail when and where you need to catch the bus.

Becky: is running the last (glory) leg on my team. She is also staying at the Hawthorn Suites in the same suite with Matt and I. That will make it easy to give her the chip. Becky also needs to ride the bus. See Tara above.

Me: I'm running the 3rd leg. Becky, Matt and I will be arriving sometime in the early afternoon on Saturday. We're carpooling. We'll rendez-vous with Tara when we get there then convoy up to Grand Isle.

M@: is running the 3rd leg on Tara's team.

I don't want to make this email any longer. It's already taken me a half hour to write! If anyone has any questions please ask.

Have a good week! It's going to be a soggy one.

suzy

google earth of VCM

M@ created a google earth .kml file of the marathon route.

Download here

And if you don't have google earth (and you should because it's way kewl) you can download it here.

edited to add: the leg handoff for 1->2 and 2->3 are switched on Matt's map. Check out the link to the VCM map here for the correct locations.

funny looking 4

I was supposed to do 4 today but only did 3. All the things I need to do before work were running through my head and they overpowered my will to keep going. (yet here I am at the computer- hmm, I won't be so easily swayed by the voices in my head next time!)

Listened to Mudcrutch's album (Tom Petty's old band before Heartbreakers). It's not bad. There are a few songs I really like and some others I really don't like. They run the gammet from way country (dog died, momma beats me) to very similar to the old TP&H songs from the 70s that I would call southern rebel music. That's the kind I really like. The country ones just grate on my nerves. Thankfully there are more of the latter.

The run was tough (hence stopping at 3). I'm hoping that's just the hangover from Sunday's 5.5mi run. I'll do the 4miler on Thursday.

OK, off to get those things done that I should be doing instead of sitting here.

edited to add: I ran 2mi in 23min 20sec and 3mi in 35min 10sec.

5.5 to Joey

I did the same run that I did last year the week before the race. I had the same knee problem but not until the last 0.5mile. I think it's a leg strength issue. It's fine now. Unlike last year it was NOT easy. I felt like stopping many times. But I still have at least 5 more runs until race day to get myself in shape.

So today I am proud of myself and happy that I burned off my Mother's Day bfast in bed. Now on to other guilt free treats.

Happy Mother's Day

to all you mothers.

inspiration

I love this idea. I could never do it for many MANY reasons, but I love that someone out there is doing this. Check it out.
http://nationrun.com/
My friend Deb's cousin is one of the runners.

BTW I ran a measly 3miles yesterday. I bet they could run that in their sleep.

exceeded goal for a change

According to my training schedule I was supposed to run 4mi on Saturday. I am proud to report that I actually did 4.5mi. I even think it amounted to more than that since the route was a little different than my google Earth path. I was pretty slow tho, and not knowing exactly how many miles I ran I don't know how fast I ran. I do know I ran for 57min. Woohoo.

6.5miles might actually be within my grasp.