The Running Thread --2025

[Mr_Incr3dible]

ATTQOTD re: supplements

Iron. If I'm training for a HM or longer I try to remember to take an iron supplement (I'm horrible about remembering) because my ferritin tends to be really low in general.

That would explain your magnetic personality.


I'll see myself out...

 

[5xdisneyfans]

Ritual multivitamin and Canprev joint pro daily. I also try to take my liquid B12 a few times a week. Iron by how I am feeling. Both B12 and iron give me headaches if I take it everyday but I have suffered with being deficient in both.

 

[camaker]

ATTQOTD: I only take a couple of supplements. The most important one is a glucosamine/chondroitin complex. I can really tell a difference in my knees with it. I also started taking urolithin A over the summer on the recommendation of my PT. It's supposed to help with recovery, but I don't feel like I've seen any real positive effects from it and may stop taking it when the current bottle runs out.

 

[The Expert]

ATTQOTD: Not specific to running, but I'm solidly in perimenopause, so I get my blood checked often for anything new going on. In addition to HRT, I've been on daily B12, D3, turmeric and a multivitamin (for 50+ women) for a few years now. I do toss a bit of creatine in when I make a smoothie a few times a week, but I'm not religious about it. I definitely notice if I forget to take the turmeric as it seems to have a pretty immediate impact on inflammation for me.

 

[GuinnessRunner]

ATTQOTD: After my physical earlier this year my supplement list has grown a bit. I now take a multivitamin geared for men over 50, red rice yeast to keep cholesterol in check and creatine based on my doctor's and trainer's reccomendation, as well as looking at recent studies on the postive impacts it can have outside of just muscle (including brain health which I definately need). The only one I can say I know has a positive impact is the red rice yeast as my bloodwork has shown the the improvement in the numbers.

 

[Dopey 2020]

Race Report: Wineglass Marathon Corning NY 10-5-25

My first time for this one but have heard only good things so it seemed like the one to try for a Boston time - spoiler, today was not my day.

I’ll start with registration, it was like most, very easy online, I don’t remember the cost but not bad, especially now that I’ve seen the organization. I do wish there were more runner specific emails sent out, I had to search for the bib pickup location online last week as that wasn’t communicated, but it was very easy to find the info on the race website. The expo and bib pickup was Friday afternoon (there was a 5K on Saturday) and all day Saturday in the Corning Glass Museum. Parking was available however not plentiful. It took a bit of circling to find a spot but what can you expect when a couple thousand people show up to the same place at the same time. I won’t complain, it was about a five minute walk to the expo and I thought it was very well organized. Signage was everywhere telling runners where to go, when I got in line there were about 30 ahead of me and I only waited about 5 minutes for a volunteer to check my ID and hand me a new cinch bag with my bib, a commemorative wine glass, a mini bottle of champagne, and a pretty nice 1/4 zip tech shirt. Then it was look around at some gear, not nearly as many vendors as say Disney, but a decent selection if you were to need or want something either for the race or to remember the weekend.

They host a pasta dinner with a guest speaker for runners, but I can’t say anything good or bad on that as I opted out, for the $$ DW and I went to a little Italian hole in the wall we found searching the area and had myself their special, chicken parm with marinara served over penne alfredo, garlic knots, and beer. Perfect

The next morning was up and ready by 6, coffee, PBJ, out the door to the buses. They ran from 5:30-7 for the full and were about a 15 minute drive away from our hotel. The plan was for my wife drop me off and head back for a bit as the race started at 8:15. There was an area for drop offs, and many volunteers directing runners to busses for either the half or full and I was seated and on my way to the start within 10 minutes. There was an area with a large tent set up for runners to help with warmth, as it was 51 degrees with 88% humidity, that was a nice surprise. There was also a gear bag check well organized with local UPS workers helping get runners’ gear to the finish line for anyone that wanted.

The start was right on time, I do wish it was earlier, as the heat proved to be a problem for me later in the race. The course itself was nothing special as far as scenery, just your average run through some towns and down the road. The crowd support through a few small towns was fantastic, I always appreciate that. The course is a point to point mostly on half closed roads, similar to Disney, runners get ample room and take precedent over traffic. I saw no issues anywhere. I’m not sure that I believe the course map as far as elevation, it’s definitely a net downhill but throw in a couple small bumps up with more flat than I expected and it didn’t feel as fast as I was hoping for, that could be a function of me slowing in the heat though. Did I mention the heat? It warmed up much faster than expected but the volunteers were right on top of it, there were water stations scheduled about every two miles when I had looked at the course info but after mile 20 I noticed they had people out with Gatorade and water every mile. There were several stops with gels, bananas, oranges, etc as well.

The finish line set up was fantastic, come over the bridge into town, wall to wall people as you take a right, then a left, and see the finish about .2 ahead, that level of crowd support gets me every time, no matter how exhausted I am I smile and speed up. The street and surrounding area is closed to traffic and is basically a couple blocks of small shops and restaurants set up for a party. Cross the line and get a water, your medal gets hung around your neck, and you walk through the food tent. I’m sure I missed something but a quick list I saw was Coke, water, Gatorade, bananas, apples, bagels, cookies, soup, and pizza. Grabbed some cookies and pizza and headed out to meet DW. There were screens set up to stop off and get a get a photo with your results and then it was wander about, talk, stretch, and head to the car. We didn’t stay for long so I can’t say how long others did but it seems like you could hang around and enjoy.

I would recommend this one if anyone is on the fence about it, if I decide to keep trying for a fast time (if, yeah right) I will probably be at it again next year. I’ll continue my long winded performance in another post.

 

[The Expert]

Race Report: Wineglass Marathon Corning NY 10-5-25

My first time for this one but have heard only good things so it seemed like the one to try for a Boston time - spoiler, today was not my day.

I’ll start with registration, it was like most, very easy online, I don’t remember the cost but not bad, especially now that I’ve seen the organization. I do wish there were more runner specific emails sent out, I had to search for the bib pickup location online last week as that wasn’t communicated, but it was very easy to find the info on the race website. The expo and bib pickup was Friday afternoon (there was a 5K on Saturday) and all day Saturday in the Corning Glass Museum. Parking was available however not plentiful. It took a bit of circling to find a spot but what can you expect when a couple thousand people show up to the same place at the same time. I won’t complain, it was about a five minute walk to the expo and I thought it was very well organized. Signage was everywhere telling runners where to go, when I got in line there were about 30 ahead of me and I only waited about 5 minutes for a volunteer to check my ID and hand me a new cinch bag with my bib, a commemorative wine glass, a mini bottle of champagne, and a pretty nice 1/4 zip tech shirt. Then it was look around at some gear, not nearly as many vendors as say Disney, but a decent selection if you were to need or want something either for the race or to remember the weekend.

They host a pasta dinner with a guest speaker for runners, but I can’t say anything good or bad on that as I opted out, for the $$ DW and I went to a little Italian hole in the wall we found searching the area and had myself their special, chicken parm with marinara served over penne alfredo, garlic knots, and beer. Perfect

The next morning was up and ready by 6, coffee, PBJ, out the door to the buses. They ran from 5:30-7 for the full and were about a 15 minute drive away from our hotel. The plan was for my wife drop me off and head back for a bit as the race started at 8:15. There was an area for drop offs, and many volunteers directing runners to busses for either the half or full and I was seated and on my way to the start within 10 minutes. There was an area large tent set up for runners to help with warmth, as it was 51 degrees with 88% humidity, that was a nice surprise. There was also a gear bag check well organized with local UPS workers helping get runners’ gear to the finish line for anyone that wanted.

The start was right on time, I do wish it was earlier, as the heat proved to be a problem for me later in the race. The course itself was nothing special as far as scenery, just your average run through some towns and down the road. The crowd support through a few small towns was fantastic, I always appreciate that. The course is a point to point mostly on half closed roads, similar to Disney, runners get ample room and take precedent over traffic. I saw no issues anywhere. I’m not sure that I believe the course map as far as elevation, it’s definitely a net downhill but throw in a couple small bumps up with more flat than I expected and it didn’t feel as fast as I was hoping for, that could be a function of me slowing in the heat though. Did I mention the heat? It warmed up much faster than expected but the volunteers were right on top of it, there were water stations scheduled about every two miles when I had looked at the course info but after mile 20 I noticed they had people out with Gatorade and water every mile. There were several stops with gels, bananas, oranges, etc as well.

The finish line set up was fantastic, come over the bridge into town, wall to wall people as you take a right, then a left, and see the finish about .2 ahead, that level of crowd support gets me every time, no matter how exhausted I am I smile and speed up. The street and surrounding area is closed to traffic and is basically a couple blocks of small shops and restaurants set up for a party. Cross the line and get a water, your medal gets hung around your neck, and you walk through the food tent. I’m sure I missed something but a quick list I saw was Coke, water, Gatorade, bananas, apples, bagels, cookies, soup, and pizza. Grabbed some cookies and pizza and headed out to meet DW. There were screens set up to stop off and get a get a photo with your results and then it was wander about, talk, stretch, and head to the car. We didn’t stay for long so I can’t say how long others did but it seems like you could hang around and enjoy.

I would recommend this one if anyone is on the fence about it, if I decide to keep trying for a fast time (if, yeah right) I will probably at it again next year. I’ll continue my long winded performance in another post.

View attachment 1013094

Thanks for the great race report! I'd like to do one of the shorter Corning distances while we're living here in the NE, so it's nice to hear the details. Sorry we couldn't make the weather a little more seasonable for you -- it's been a very strange, dry, warm fall up here this year.

 

[rick1zoo2]

Supplements:
Multivitamin
B12
Osteo Bi-Flex - Glucosamine, Chondroitin - to try to help with joints
Collagen - also for joints
Fiber gummies
Metamucil (don't knock it until you try it)

 

[Dopey 2020]

Wineglass - continued

So how my day went, this was my A-race attempt at Boston. 2027 gets me the age bump, but with them cutting time I still need a 3:30 (so really I’m looking for 3:23). That is right on the edge for me, maybe a little beyond even. Having just done Dopey at 3:32 I am confident that I can beat 3:30 well rested. Mathematically my best half says I can do a full in about 3:28 and that’s almost 4 years old. My best recent mile according to a couple calculators says I can do it in just over 3:22 but really that would have to be me feeling perfect, the weather being perfect, and the course being fast. Well you can’t win if you don’t play so I made a plan and didn’t care that the weather wasn’t ideal, I was going for broke. I trained good but probably relied too much on my base and didn’t do enough speed work, but just the fact that I consistently run 4-5 days/week 100+ miles/month I felt really good going into it.

Lined up at the start, I talked with the fastest (3:30) pace group and found a few looking for 3:25 or faster so it was nice to know who I could watch and try to stay ahead of or with, I let them know I’d be running 4 min, walking 30 sec so we’d be playing leapfrog for some of the race. Started good, not too fast this time, really tried to keep tabs on it. This was the first time I made up a pace band (more discussion on this to come) and at mile 1 I was ahead, not because I was fast but because there was less crowding than I expected. Mile 2-3 saw me about 30 seconds ahead, perfect to slow a little for a small hill and stay on target. Basically went up and down from my pace within 30 seconds of my goal right to mile 10. Mile 11-12 saw a bit of slow down when the aid station didn’t line up good with a walk interval but I was still on target. My pace band said 1:40:49 for the half goal and my split was 1:41:14. 25 seconds off pace and feeling good, much better pace management than previous races. Gained a little on a downhill and showed 10 seconds off at the mile 14 marker, now for a little bit of uphill.

Now is when I started to feel it, the sun was getting up there and the temp was climbing faster than forecast, my pace slowed to above 8 minutes/mile and I knew my goal was out of reach today. No problem, I just pulled a near perfect first half so if I could hold 8/mile or even a little over I could still pull off a record so I pushed it a little harder. Mile 17 saw a 7:57 split and that was all it took to push me off the knifes edge. My brain said you can do it but my legs disagreed wholeheartedly. 9 min, 10 min, 11, 12, the pace dropped steadily. Stopped off at mile 24 aid station for a quick stretch and a reset, glad I spent a few minutes there (came in at a 15 min mile) because it saved my sub 4 streak. I was able to push it back to sub 10 min miles to the finish and keep it just under 4 hours.

I’m happy, it’s another marathon finish, I will get the right race and weather at the right time. Tried different fueling this race and it worked for me, I don’t think that’s why I slowed this time. I was able to drive 4-1/2 hours home and I’m fully functional today. Any time you finish 26.2 with a smile is a win.




The Corning glass medal

 

[PrincessV]

ATTQOTD: I’ll restrain myself from a long rant about the “wellness community” and pushing of clinically sketchy ”supplements” to people who would benefit from actual healthcare based on science, but I’ve been one of them and wasted YEARS of my life and hundreds of dollars on useless junk, when what I needed was a simple replacement of missing hormones. I beg: if you’re having issues, PLEASE seek expert medical advice and self-advocate to get to a practitioner with the knowledge to assist properly.

 

[Dopey 2020]

Thanks for the great race report! I'd like to do one of the shorter Corning distances while we're living here in the NE, so it's nice to hear the details. Sorry we couldn't make the weather a little more seasonable for you -- it's been a very strange, dry, warm fall up here this year.

You definitely should, they have a challenge as well. And yup western mass is the same, crazy dry this year. Leaves are changing quick. Winter will be here before I blink probably.

 

[GuinnessRunner]

Congrats @Dopey 2020 . I know it didn't go the way you wanted but still a great effort!

 

[Naomeri]

Since it’s Medal Monday, here are my medals for the TCMW Loony Challenge.


I was only 4 minutes slower on the 10 miler yesterday than I was last year, when the weather was much more in my preferred zone. And luckily for me, the sporadic rain held off until I was eating my snacks on the MN Capitol lawn. Coincidentally, my Sparkle Squad windbreaker has the perfect pocket for post-race snacks, which keeps your hands free for all the other post-race stuff and for eating on the train back to your car

 

[Dopey 2020]

And now one more discussion topic- pace bands, anyone use one or thought about it?

This past race was the first time I figured I try and for me the pros outweigh the cons, I’ll make another for any goal race.

The pro - each miles goal pace with the cumulative times at each mile marker takes away the mental math. It was so nice to check each mile and say oops 10 seconds fast, don’t push it or a little slow use the next downhill wisely. I was surprised at how much easier it was to stay on pace.

The con - when I slowed and fell behind pace it was a mental game killer. A little voice saying hey look at me getting louder as the time increased, however if I didn’t have that reminder I’d still be slow and all the mental game in the world wouldn’t save the goal so for me seeing the goal each mile was a big help.

 

[camaker]

And now one more discussion topic- pace bands, anyone use one or thought about it?

This past race was the first time I figured I try and for me the pros outweigh the cons, I’ll make another for any goal race.

The pro - each miles goal pace with the cumulative times at each mile marker takes away the mental math. It was so nice to check each mile and say oops 10 seconds fast, don’t push it or a little slow use the next downhill wisely. I was surprised at how much easier it was to stay on pace.

The con - when I slowed and fell behind pace it was a mental game killer. A little voice saying hey look at me getting louder as the time increased, however if I didn’t have that reminder I’d still be slow and all the mental game in the world wouldn’t save the goal so for me seeing the goal each mile was a big help.

I got a couple and used them for marathons early in my running career. I didn't find them particularly helpful and ended up relying more on the calculations in my head. Plus, they were one more item to wear or keep up with, which got annoying.

 

[RuntheMouse]

No medal on this Monday, my first DNF

Yesterday was the TC Marathon. It was my third marathon but first time here. I had a great training block, didn’t get sick, was injury free except for a few whispers from my old friend IT Band. I was so ready for this race. It was warm, windy and had pop up rain. The best laid plans…..

I’ve wanted to do this race for awhile but didn’t think I was ready, until now! I love Twin Cities in Motion events and feel lucky to be local and participate in most of them. I usually run the 10 mile which finishes on the same course so I was familiar with the end but not the first part of the course. You start in Minneapolis, run around the chain of lakes, up the Mississippi River and then down Summit Ave to the Capitol in St. Paul. It’s gorgeous and the crowd support is unbelievable! I was having the time of my life, dare I say even more so than Disney?

We started in the city people seeing their runners off. It was a little quiet from mile 1-2 until you see Justice Page playing his sousaphone. The after that it’s a full on party. I’ve never seen so many people out spectating. Miles 3-8 go around the chain of lakes and the number of lawn parties, no words. Bottomless Mimosas. None for me but there were many takers! The Vikings were playing so lots of score talk. One house even had a DJ! Mile 9 things started to go sideways. The whispers from my IT Band turned into a not so subtle poking. I’m thinking I’m still going to gut it out, I’m pacing well and enjoying the race too much. Mile 11 the nausea I battled earlier in the summer when it was hot returned. NOOOO! I texted DH and asked him to bring Goldfish crackers at our next meet up. When I saw him at Mile 12.6 I told him how I was feeling and he told me I didn’t look so good. I sat down on the curb and he went to wipe the sweat off me with a towel, only there was no sweat. I was in trouble. I made the awful decision to drop out.

It sucks and I’m having all kinds of feelings about it. I really want to run the whole course, it truly was amazing, but I’m scared to death to run into this same scenario again in the future. This race was cancelled in 2023 due to heat and I think the reality now is that I need a later fall marathon as insurance for the weather. So right now I don’t know where I stand on this marathon for me but I can’t recommend it enough.

So I’m taking the week easy and then jumping back into training for MW. Not sure if this is going to change my plans to focus on fun during the marathon or not. I was going to focus on pics this year but now I have the itch to run for time.

 

[sandam1]

When I saw him at Mile 12.6 I told him how I was feeling and he told me I didn’t look so good. I sat down on the curb and he went to wipe the sweat off me with a towel, only there was no sweat. I was in trouble. I made the awful decision to drop out.

I know that this stings right now (been there, done that), but know that you made right decision. Live to run again is always rule #1.