Creating a Positive Atmosphere

At the beginning of 2005, I did not have any New Year's Resolutions to make. However, this Marathon experience emphasized to me the importance of a positive atmosphere in regards to success in distance running.

The On the Run Racing Team and all the customers and athlete's that I coach were a constant source of motivation, determination, positivity, and understanding. The outpouring of support from everyone I met and talked to about the marathon was nothing but phenomenal. I would have some of my best training when I was immersed in my bubble of positive energy.

However, I had a bad habit. I would visit message boards, more specifically Letsrun.com. Letsrun was one of the fore fathers of Internet distance running, taking its lead from the now defunct, but stellar, TnFMedia.com. I still remember my days mesmerized in front of my computer at FIU reading every single posting and learning as much as I could. Visiting Letsrun brought me into contact with my first "professional" coach, the great John Kellogg. "JK" as he is known, trained me when I graduated from college and established the groundwork for my future as a distance runner. I ran my first marathon under his guidance and learned valuable lessons, especially in terms of mileage. I got to meet Kyle Heffner (1980 Olympic Marathoner), as he would assist in JK's training of me as well. I vividly remember their advice before my marathon debut in 2001, talking to them on a pay phone in 20-degree weather the night before as I was so nervous... but they got me through it and though I know they were disappointed in my time, they were pleased that I had placed 4th Overall and was the 1st American (in the two marathons I have finished, I have two Top 10 finishes and have been the first American in both, I need to run Boston or New York!!).

Anyhow, without Letsrun, I would never have met JK, would never have learned about the Hi-Lo Altitude project, would never have learned the training "secrets" of George "malmo" Malley or the great resource of Bob Hodge's (2:10 Marathoner) website. I would never have learned about Greg McMillan's website or my other favorite message board in its prime, Merv. I was proud to be a "Mervite" as we were called. I probably would have never been exposed to anything, from Dyestat to Track & Field News. I would never have had the opportunity to be coach by Renato Canova (Italian coach) before my Chicago Marathon in my futile attempt to make the Olympic Trials. I was so naive about running prior to the educational floodgates being opened when JK told me about the site.

I was one of the original posters, as the site is operated by Weldon and Robert Johnson (students of John Kellogg, with wejo being his tremendous prodigy and greatest success), under the screename "GRod" that my best friend, Joe Mazzeo (a baseball nut) had given to me at FIU. I remember running White Rock in 2000 under Kellogg and introducing myself to Robert Johnson as "GRod" because he didn't know my real name, but once I said, "GRod", he completely knew who I was, what my times were, etc. It was cool to have an Internet prescence and life.

However, all was well until I resigned from Texas-Pan American and moved to Houston. I guess as a Division I coach I "earned" some sort of respect from the running community and I was respected on the message board as a regular human being. However, once I entered the realm of attempting to be a better runner by training full-time, the board turned on me. Not everyone, but all of a sudden there were these "haters" that had no idea who I was, but were disgusted in the ideal that I stood for: working hard and racing hard. I would share my training, my thoughts, and get absolutely destroyed by anonymous posters. I had no idea what I had done wrong to these individuals and it wrecked my psyche. I was on Letsrun to learn how to run faster and better myself as a runner. I shared all I knew. I remember spending hours typing up Dellinger's schedules for everyone that was interested. I shared all I could and there would always be that negative poster that would make personal attacks.

Well, it hit me prior to the Houston Marathon: no Letsrun equals no negativity, which equals better, happier me. I could be flying high, full of confidence, thinking I could do anything, no limits, and then, BANG, a poster would completely say something ridiculous without knowing me and it would cause unwanted stress.

So, I have sworn off the Internet message boards for the remainder of my life. I am not an Alan Webb or Dathan Ritzenhein or an Alan Culpepper or a Meb Keflezighi, but all those guys get destroyed by the "Monday-morning-Quarterbacks" on the message boards. And I realized that I guarantee those aforementioned guys do not visit message boards. And I need to do the same.

So, I will enter my little world of running, remove myself from any Internet presence (other than this blog and the OTR and personal website) and just train the best I know how and just suck up that I will miss out on all the positives I did learn while visiting the message boards, but the trade-off was just not worth it. For all the magical training concepts and knowledge I gained from the site, a single bad post (I can take constructive criticism) would destroy it all.

I admit, I'm a running junkie. I have not met someone yet that keeps up with the sport more than I do, but I have to sacrifice that geekiness for happiness. The best part is that I get to focus on what does make me happy: my family, my running, my coach, my support group, my athletes, my customers, the store, and every single one of you that I meet in person and takes the time to know me.

Thank you for showing me the light, everyone. However, Nancy, if you're reading this, you will still be capable of invoking the wrath of the Sith, but just know now it will not be from some Internet posting, but for some other reason, which is rare, because I pride myself on being a happy, Gebrselassie (alright, not that much) smiling person.

Press On!!! everyone, and if you need to get in touch with me you can e-mail me. :) Whew, thanks for hearing me out. I feel like this was a confession of sorts...

2:31:18

HP HOUSTON MARATHON
I do not know where to begin. I am still having thoughts and feelings about this race, even as I type this entry. There were so many positives and negatives from the race, but overall the race was a slight disappointment. But I am not disappointed so necessarily on my time, but I am disappointed to how my body reacted to an increase of sustained pace. The race plan was to begin conservatively the first 10K of the race, starting out at 5:30 pace and dropping down to 5:20's by 6 miles. At 10K I was to drop down to 5:15's and maintain that effort as long as I could. "As long as I could" was theorized to be around 18-22 miles, and then we would experience a "crash" down to 5:30-5:40 pace.

However, from the gun I could not find my rhythm. From the start I was adrift perhaps 100m from the lead pack and on my own (I would run the entire 26.2 miles alone, not to be passed by a single soul). I clicked off a 5:40 into the headwind and attempted to pick up the pace, but my left hamstring was already rebelling (not a good sign) and I backed off a little and waited until I felt more secure. Finally, I felt ready at 4 miles, but once again, I only saw 5:30-5:40 on my watch- what was happening? Regardless, at 10K, I was determined to take off and I did, finally hitting a smooth stretch of running as I began clicking off 5:20's. I held this pace and rhythm beautifully, running 5:24-5:22-5:28-5:27-5:35-5:31-5:32-5:40-5:28 before suddenly tightening to a 5:56, 16th mile (almost immediately at 25K after the overpass at 15 miles and when I caught one of the fading Ethiopians).

I thought I may have hit a bad patch- something I preach to watch out for, something you will experience but eventually get out of - but this was different. I knew I was done. And I was only at 16 miles, but I was in 8th place. I couldn't believe it. A minute ago I was envisioning working hard until Memorial and then crashing, but not this soon. I needed to relax. I kept trudging along into the headwind, where approaching 18 miles I saw a grey Nike uniform ahead: it was the young Finn who had run 1:04 last year in the Half Marathon. He was in the same state I was in, but his stride was bouncier, so with the same effort, I was running faster as I was closer to the ground. I caught him by 19 miles and kept going. However, as every minute passed I knew the runners behind me were gaining. I kept expecting the lead female or Brett Riley or someone coming up on me and I would be useless to respond. So I kept on.

I remember passing the highway and seeing a Texas Lottery billboard and it read "$133 Million" and I remember thinking, "damn, I didn't win (I had played earlier in the week), so I can't rely on being a millionaire so I'm going to need the 500 dollar top local prize money." My memorial bracelet for my teammate that was killed in Iraq would get snagged on my number whenever I would begin fading (quite timely at times) and I would be reminded of his death and sacrifice and that this temporary pain is nothing compared to what he suffered. I remember hearing Derek screaming at me, but only once I was 50 meters passed him and he was yelling his lungs out when I thought, "hey, that was Derek. I hope he ran the 5K." I remember paying attention to the crowds as I would pass: they would cheer for me and 20 to 30 seconds would pass and then I would hear a cheer again. Not too bad. By 22 miles, I would pass a cheering section and would wait in much anticipation for the next "cheer" and it was now only 10 seconds! They, whoever, were gaining! I had to re-focus and not let anyone pass me the final 10K.. no one had passed me the whole race, they were not going to do it now. I remember looking back at 25.5 miles (my only time) and seeing someone behind me I thought was the Ethiopian. I remember thinking what my Coach had told me: "Gabriel, at 25 miles you are to kick and destroy your body. You will hurt regardless if you run 2:18 or 2:22, so make something out of it." I did not want to be in a kick with an Ethiopian (it ended up being Vaughn Gibbs running the race of his life for 8th). I remember motorcycles and a car pulling off beside me and thinking "what was that for." Later I would find out it would be for the lead female, as she would run 2:32 in an amazing peformance.

I ran hard through the finish and immediately was met with my Guardian Angel for the day, Jeff Gilbert. The man emerged from the darkness to be my "support crew" and what a great job he did. He was exactly where he needed to be at 6:15 am and exactly where he needed to be at 6:45 am and exactly where he needed to be when Perla and I were done. Thank you, Jeff.

Well, till next time, I will chalk this one down as a learning experience and until Twin Cities I will be refinining my track running abilities (a.k.a., getting faster). Godspeed to all, and press on...

# 6202

That's my bib number for the HP Houston Marathon. I'm just hoping not to lose to 6,201 other runners. If I can beat just 6,201 runners, I will be pleased. I always look at my bib number as my seed place. Maybe I'll surprise the announcers like I did at the Jacksonville Gate River Run 15K, where I raced eventual Olympic Silver Medalist Meb Keflezighi at those US Championships in 2004 (gave him a good run on a stride prior to the gun):

Announcer: Meb Keflezighi has outkicked Abdi Abdirahman for the victory here at the Gate River Run in a fierce battle. Let's cheer on the rest of the top American distance runners at this year's USA 15K Championships.. every position counts! Here comes Ryan Kirkpatrick, wearing number 4 as he has placed well here before. In next is our first Masters runner, Dennis Simonaitis (would go on to run 2:18 marathon in 2004) wearing bib 40, and whoa, what's this.... some kid wearing bib # 862, from Webster, Texas, uh, Gabriel Rodriguez (as he pronouned it Rah-dri-guess). He must have had a great day out there, and that's why we run the Jacksonville Gate River Run....

What the announcer didn't realize was that I was not really having a good day, running 48:44 after going through the 5K in 15:47 and slowed down to 32:20 by 10K on a warm, humid day. I was getting stale with my training and was on the verge of needing a break and was quite fortunate to hang onto a Top 25 finish at these US Champs. Oh yeah, so back to 6202. My bib number. I will be a complete unknown, especially with my secret growth that only a select few of you may have noticed. Only time will tell...

And time is telling us all that the race is within 2 weeks. Wow. Time flies. That is exactly what I am banking on in the marathon. I want to be racing, focusing, running hard, and the next thing I want to see is Mile 15 flying by and it's only felt like 20 minutes! If that happens, I know I'm having a good day.

Well, I am now well within my taper. I capped off a 100-mile week last week with a 20-miler a tad under 2:02:00. Last night I had a 48-min run and I was so paranoid. The Running Gods were out to get me. First, I stepped into a hole in the middle of the road (where I run) within 10 minutes of running. Then, there was some debris on the pitch-dark streets that I barely made it over without falling. The whole run was a mental headgame- are my hamstrings tight, is my calf okay, why is my back tight, am I running funny? Amazing how such a big race will make us so paranoid and anxious.

Concerns: the weather. I have a gut feeling that this will be a warm marathon. A cold front is due to hit tomorrow night, but I am not sure if it will linger for long. A warm marathon will be bad for my competition, but will make an already difficult task (covering 26.2 miles as fast as possible) even more daunting. I guess we will just have to wait and see what happens with the weather. I am pretty sure there is no Austin for me. It's either Houston or bust and get on with the season. Good thing I thrive in hot weather.

Alright, it is off to bed and to find a gift for my 2-year anniversary. I will take any suggestions. What do I get a wife who has everything? (Ha!). Till next time, Press On!!! people and try to stay sane giving the approaching race that lies upon the horizon...