Steamtown Marathon Oct 8, 2006

Scranton, PA

Sugu's flight was late so I checked out Ikea - which is just outside the perimeter of Newark. They have neat furniture and lamps but nothing I could easily transport. Ikea hired the reggae band 'Verdict' to play in the cafeteria; Lunch was very pleasant.

I am not impressed with Scranton. A mall security guard sped over to ask if we needed help have finding my car. Maybe they were profiling. (We did walk through the mall and not buy anything). A gas station had a sign to asking customers to ring the buzzer to get into the convenience store after 10:30pm. The area looked pretty shady. I moved my car in front of a security camera at the hotel. On the way back, the engine light came on, and the car lost power and hesitated. After 20 miles or so, the the light reset itself and the car drove normally. I think the car got a bad tank of ghetto gas. (back in the 80s in New York, gas was often diluted with water )

I had lower back pain that morning and my soleus was sore all week - so I didn't know what to expect for the race. The weather was decent starting out at 43 and finishing at 61. It was sunny but there was a nice breeze. It wasn't all downhill -- it was rolling hills which were not shown on the course map. The first 4 miles were unpleasant -- too steep to run down and the road was crowned. After getting to the half in 1:44 -- I decided to bank time for the hills at the end. I saved up 4 minutes. My left hip was tight -- from a tight lower back.

My soleus went into spasms whenever I tried to pick up speed. So I took it easy - I even skipped the usual sprint at the end. I finished in 3:28, a 35 second PR (from 4/2004 Jersey). Even thought it is touted as a fast course, I'm not sure, with all its rolling hills, whether it is faster than Chicago or Jax.

I think I am doing better on 42 minutes of training a week this season than the 30 minutes of training last season. Though it is hard to say how much of it is just weight loss.

We saw an operating steam locomotive at the Steamtown Historic Site. Pity the guy who has to shovel coal.