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One of the most beautiful races on earth, featuring our marathon training program. From Coach Gary’s first Catalina Marathon and SoCalRunning.com’s 5th video ever, to my last year’s video. What a difference in technology.

Race Focused, Coach Steve – Certified ChiRunning® Instructor

Click “View Details” to see my mile splits. Here are my stats for the Athens Classic Marathon, October 31, 2010. Miles 10 – 20 were pretty tough as you can see by the elevation chart below. What a great day! The Video for this race is below this post. Now more work to bring that 3:55 down to a 3:30 and qualify for Boston.

Train Focused, Steve Mackel – ChiRunning Instructor

I don’t even know where to start but can I ever top this marathon? Probably not. Today was history. Today, 2500 years later we retraced history. Everything about the day was special and the last 2 minutes of the video are almost worth the first 10 minutes.

Once again I try to show you the course and the people running it, as well as share my personal experience with you. I met people from all of the world. What I don’t show you or talk about are the smells. International marathons, or at least this one had some smelly people. If you smell the chances are I don’t interview you. Second, more men run than women and it feels like it is the exact opposite in the States. Also, the runners are much faster. I haven’t seen the official stats but the median finishing time has to be closer to 4 hours rather than most marathons in the States which seem to be around 5 hours.

The city of Athens stepped up and this marathon was managed very well. I felt it ran smoothly and have some suggestion for race directors that I Iearned today.

I also managed to PR which added to the day and my feelings but nothing beats running into the marble Olympic stadium in Athens. The music was pumping and the people never stopped cheering. It was amazing.

Now, I can start looking for the next international marathon to run. Join the email list in the center column and it will keep you in the loop because the Sole Runners had a great time and are going to make this an annual event.

Lastly, I have to thank all the Sole Runners that made the trip over with us, Michele for making our wings that everyone loved, and all our well wishers. I’ll see you State-side soon. Look for my Madrid video at the end of the week.

Train Focused, Steve Mackel – Head Coach Sole Runners

The Palos Verdes marathon and half marathon have a reputation as tough races. It seems like Southern Californians are afraid of a few hills. Well, I went out to do my usual interviews but spent a little more time showing you the course. Miles 4 – 6 are mostly down hill, while miles 7 – 9 are what you just ran down, not that bad. Western Ave is a steep half mile uphill but at mile 2, and it means you get to run down it at mile 11. The last 1.5 miles are flat, fast and beautiful. And, you can’t beat the views.

This is an awesome race and they keep the entry fee affordable. A new push on SoCalRunning.com will be supporting races that keep the entry fee affordable. The Palos Verdes races top this list.

Train Focused, Steve Mackel – ChiRunning® Instructor

Another great day in So Cal and another great race!

Train Focused, Steve Mackel – SoCalRunning.com Co-founder

Steve and Lucy Pose at the Starting Line of the Tahoe Rim Trail 50k

If you scroll down you can look at the elevation chart, but what it doesn’t show you is that over 32.2 miles (33.9 on a fellow runner’s Garmin) there are hardly any flat spots on the course. We were going up an down with an average grade of 10%. I forgot to mention between 6800 – 9000 feet of altitude, spending a majority of it close to 8000 feet.

This was Lucy’s first ultra-marathon. She trained for it but until you run this race you don’t realize how the combination of steep climbs and decents at altitude can effect you. I felt it.

I was running this with Lucy, at her pace. I remember thinking when we were 7 hours into the race, this is the longest I have ever been out on a course and I knew I still had close to 3 hours to go.

The last 7 miles are mostly downhill and by this time your quads feel every step while you are trying to get to the finish. It was hot, in the high 80′s. Every step was worth it. Not only finishing my second ultra-marathon, the beautiful course but sharing the experience with my close friend.

A Runumentry video is on the way. You’ll want to watch it for the beauty alone. This was then most beautiful course ever; wide open alpine meadows, wildflowers, lakes, trees and spectacular views.

In the end, this is a difficult yet good first ultra-marathon. There is a 14 hour cut-off time, so most will finish. 9 hours and 46 minutes later I took my shoes off, put my feet in a bucket of cold water and sent a thank you out to all the volunteers. This race had the best aid stations ever and I gave me a very memorable experience. Thanks Lucy.

Lucy Crosses the Finish Line

Train Focused, Steve Mackel ChiRunning® Instrcutor

Setting baselines during your training seasons are important. As I start my journey to qualify for Boston, by the end of the year, I wanted to get an idea of where I am in my training. At the same time I wanted to make another Runumentry.

Here’s something I found out. It is much harder getting video interviews running 7 minute miles verus 10 minute miles. There is more space in between runners and sometimes I had a hard time catching up to people. In fact, my few on course interviews are people I am passing.

Overall I had a good day achieving my personal goals of a sub 45:00 race, shooting this video and having fun. Now I have a baseline and feel that much closer to Boston. This race is on the calendar for next year. Join us.

Train Focused, Steve Mackel – Sole Runners Head Coach

Always Happy Jason – Showing His Stuff Early in the LA Marathon

The night before the marathon is the time when I set up all my stuff for the morning. This is when I really know that I’m getting ready to run another marathon.

This is my 4th marathon and my first time writing about my experience at a marathon. I do wonder why it took me sometime to decide on doing a running blog. I guess I was not ready yet. I’m ready now. Here we go.

I woke up around 4:00 a.m. took a shower, and drank my Mega juice. I got all my gear and I was out the door. I was feeling pretty relaxed that morning. I was telling myself that this is going to be a great day for me to run another marathon. Boy…there were so many people up early, and at the starting line. I made sure to take a lot of pictures. I love taking pictures. It shows that you were there to experience this event and it feels good to smile. It was so cramped (that word is going to be important later) at the starting line. The horn went off and we where off on Figueroa. It was amazing the parade of people on the course, it was so awesome. While on the course I saw a gentlemen named Ed that I had seen running in my neighborhood. Before that I had seen him in San Pedro running so I introduced myself. It’s a small world to see him in the L.A. Marathon with over 14,000 people. I was feeling pretty good. I was taking it slow not to go out to fast.

It was about after mile four that Coach Steve and another member of the Sole Runners saw me. It was so cool to see them. Steve ran with me for about mile and a half. We talked about how things were going and then he wanted to know my heart rate. It was around 162 bpm at the time. He told me to slow down. He suggested for me to keep my heart rate down around the 140-150 bpm range until 10:00 a.m., then see I how I felt. I took his advice and I’m grateful to have a great coach and a great friend to help me out. Thanks Coach Steve.

I continued to drink and check my Garmin to make sure I was in the target zone. So far so good. While I was on Venice Blvd. I saw some more Sole Runners that had come to cheer on the Marathoners. It was great to see them and kept my spirits up. Sole Runners…You guys are awesome!

I check my time and it was 10:30 a.m. My feeling at that time was so so. The first half of the marathon was not too bad, but… (always a but) the second half was challenging. I believe at mile 15 or 16 I started feeling tight in my calf area. It was not feeling good at all. I was cramping up. This feeling has come up before but not this bad. I continued going on. One step at a time. Looking back now I should had stretched it out. I also believe that I should have drank more electrolytes. This was a learning experience for me. I worked on using my ChiWalking® for the rest of the Marathon. This helped a lot. The support at the water stations and on the course was amazing and greatly appreciated. That continued to help me to go on.

I was between mile 25 and 26 and I heard a runner tell me, ”Boy…you have a good walking pace.” Then we met in the final stretch of the race and his hands were on his knees. I came by him at told him, “You are almost there.” That helped him to continue. He told me that he signed up for this marathon on Saturday. He has done marathons before but this one he did not train at all for. I was amazed. His name was Carlos. I attempted to run the last .2 miles but my calves were still in pain.

I finished this L.A. Marathon (Yah) one minute faster than last year. The course was pretty good and the weather was great. I’m humble and thankful to have this time to share my experience on the marathon.

This marathon was dedicated to two people that I care about a lot. Pastor E.C. Carson and Ricardo Gordillo’s mom. Fight On. (LIVESTRONG).

AlwayshappyJason – Sole Runners and SoCalRunning.com member

http://www.socalrunning.com/

Coach Gary of SoCalRunning.com does the Catalina Marathon with the rest of the gang from Solerunners.

It was my fourth Catalina Marathon and my most enjoyable one.

Thanks to everyone involved for such a wonderful experience.

God Bless, Gary

Here it is, up only 48 hours after the race. I never know how it is going to turn out while I am filming and I wanted to show the whole day, because the Catalina Marathon is so much more than just a race. I hope this video does it some justice.

As usual, I had a great time and wished I could have interviewed more people. I was going for a PR which makes it difficult to pull the camera out in some sections, when I was pushing through some pain or flying down hills. Sorry if I missed you.

Remember, if you see me come up and say hello. I will pull out my camera and film you.

Steve Mackel – Sole Runners, Head Coach