Good Luck, Marine Corps Marathon Runners

This Sunday, my birthday, actually, marks the running of the 41st Marine Corps Marathon.  This race is the premier marathon event in Washington, DC and its immediate vicinity.  Coach Kiprunning will be represented in this year's event, and wish our runners--and the rest of you--all the best for a successful race.

I have actually never run the MCM (though I certainly know many people who have).  For any number of reasons, my training schedule has never quite matched up with this particular race. However, in 2012, I did participate in the MCM 10K.  It was a strange day.  Apparently, a suspicious package was found somewhere on the course, so race officials stopped all of the 10K runners, mid-race, right at the Pentagon.  We were about a mile out from the finish line at that time.  As a result, many of us bunched up as we waited for the course to clear.  Given that our race clock was a common clock with the full marathon, our time kept running, while we kept standing.  Eventually, the course was cleared, and we all sprinted toward the finish.  The winner came in at a time of 46:34.  Then, Hurricane Sandy showed up just in time for the end of the full marathon.  Unusual, to say the least.

Regardless, the finish line and the finisher's festival was that day--and remains to this day--professionally run and openly welcoming to runners and spectators alike.  Though I've seen some modest quibbling about whether or not the race truly remains "the People's Marathon," now that it requires a lottery entry, I maintain that it is a much more runner friendly event than many of the larger marathons that get a little more press coverage.  I also, for whatever odd reason, enjoy seeing the annual spray painting of the MCM mile markers on Hains Point.

As has been chronicled at length, the DC Metro's SafeTrack project has caused some minor chaos for commuting to the race.  The MCM website has a good list of commuting resources available for anyone who needs them.

In the coming week or so, we'll post an update about how our runners performed in the event.  In the meantime, once again, we wish you all the best.  Take it easy in the next two days, eat good food, and have a great race.

Meb Keflezighi: Forever Young?

I'm turning 39 in just a few days, so the shadow of my forties is starting to creep ever closer to my worn running shoes and the aging feet that they contain.

Bryan Borzykowski at Forbes recently published a good short article about Meb Keflezighi and how he approaches his training at age 41.  It's an article that can imbue you with a sense of youth if you are anything like me: a person who can't help but wonder how immediately the PRs will stop coming (if they haven't already).  Meb is still doing this running thing at an incredibly high level in his early 40's, which is reassuring.

At the same time, this article will likely make the vast majority of you feel old, because Meb apparently ran a 5:20 mile when he was in the seventh grade.

So there's also that little fact to consider.

Kiprunning Sports Club Training Update: 10/16/2016

Now that we have entered autumn, and the temperatures here in Washington, DC have dropped to more reasonable levels, The Kiprunning Sports Club will return to its usual meeting time of 7:45 am on Saturday mornings for our usually scheduled long run.

As always, we will meet at Georgetown Running Company, which is located at 3401 M St. NW, Washington, DC 20007.

The New Coach Kiprunning Website Has Launched

I am pleased to announce that the revisions to the Coach Kiprunning website are officially complete. With the exception of the typical tinkering with some small appearance settings, the site is now current and stable, and it reflects the contemporary scope of the coaching services that I offer.

One of the more dramatic adjustments that I have made in recent months is tailoring my personalized coaching to offer a more streamlined--but yet dynamic--group of services.  I am still very much available to work personally in a one-on-one setting with trainees who are local to the Washington, DC area.  In addition, however, I am also available to work with runners at a distance, either online or through Skype, and I welcome the opportunity to offer coaching to domestic and international runners.  I am also able to offer customized training plans that runners from anywhere in the world can implement on their own.

As I make clear on the site, I am available to coach recreational and competitive runners alike.  No prior running and racing experience is necessary.  My goal is to help enhance your experience with the sport, and I will work with you no matter what your performance goals are--whether you are seeking to qualify for the Boston Marathon or are training for your first 5K.  If you have any questions, please contact me.

Finally, as I have been slowly advertising over the past year, the Kiprunning Sports Club is officially accepting new members.  In order to ensure quality training and racing experiences for all participants, I have set qualifying standards for club membership, and I have opened the club to competitive and elite runners.  Unlike my coaching services, the Sports Club does require prior running and road racing experience for membership.  As always, though, I welcome your questions if you are interested in joining the club but are unsure about the basic requirements.

Over time, I am hoping to develop--and to offer--additional forms of coaching assistance.  As that happens, I will update the site accordingly, and I will certainly publish updates here on this blog.  In the meantime, I invite all of you to follow me on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram.  Now that the site is complete, I will be turning my attention to my social media accounts in an effort to interact with many of you there.

As always, run safe, and run steady.

Sincerely,

Coach Wilson

A Successful Encoded Baton Pass

It has been a strange week on this blog.  For some reason, on Monday morning, when we informed you that the Kiprunning Sports Club details are finalized, Blogger decided to stop properly sharing the meta search descriptions for all of our posts over on Facebook.  This bothered me, because I hadn't tinkered with this blog's HTML since April, and even then, my modest adjustment--singular--had nothing to do with the post search description function.  Moreover, that adjustment worked perfectly with the rest of the blog for months.  Why the sudden problems?


Thus ensued endless hours of frustration and despair.  Anyone who earnestly believes that the Internet fosters open democratic communication should do three things:

1. open a Blogger account
2. open a Facebook account
3. try to make them get along

Shortly after doing these three things, you will be disabused of your optimism.

Now, at the end of the week, we seem to have gotten this matter fixed . . . until it breaks again (for reasons that will never be clear).  I hope that doesn't happen, though.

In the meantime, we owe a heartfelt thanks to Dr. Sara Hooshangi, who took time out of her Thursday morning to start hacking through the impenetrable Blogger code that had flummoxed me for most of the week.

We also cannot thank enough Kevin Thompson.  Who is Kevin Thompson?  Kevin Thompson is a programmer extraordinaire.  He has also been a dear friend of mine since we were teenagers (I actually think I was twelve when I met him).  We met at the first day of cross country practice in high school, and we spent many afternoons riding buses to various running events in the early 1990s.  Lots of memories; lots of them about running.

After high school, we actually went to college together, where we lived together as roommates.  

That last part is crucial, by the way, because on Thursday night, after hours of phone conversation and virtual conferencing about this matter, I was quite confident that my wife was giving me the boot. At least, I think that's what the packed suitcase that she placed by the door was supposed to mean. Kevin was going to have to take me in again!

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<meta content='anger and boredom' og: spousal emotional state>

<b:if else=sleep on the couch with your computer>

If you have no idea what that means, let me assure you, there are lots of us who don't.

Q: Is Running Bad for You?

A: No.

(As always, we invite more nuanced discussion and commentary in the comments section.  I, for one, am very interested in the following part:

The issue here, as pointed out in an excellent special report by Alex Hutchinson published this month in Runner's World, is what happens long term to your heart if you are a pretty serious runner, averaging 20 or more miles a week consistently for a long time.

I'm having an unusually hard time finding that particular report--I'm also at work--but nevertheless, I'm wondering about what would constitute a "long time."  Also, as the rest of Gleiser's article points out, the body has a way of indicating instances of overuse.  At worst, those indications are injuries. I've run over twenty miles a week for a "long time," but I haven't done so uninterrupted because of the usual intermittent injuries.  How do those natural interruptions factor into all of this?  Again, discuss!)

Kiprunning Sports Club Details Are Finalized

As promised, we have been working steadily on a variety of website updates to Coach Kiprunning [dot] com. I'm happy to announce that the new Coach Kiprunning website is roughly 85% complete. Over the next few weeks, we hope to finalize some remaining details to tie up the small amount of loose ends that we have dangling out there.  As always, if you have questions in the meantime, please contact me.

The big news that I want to share today is that the Kiprunning Sports Club section of the site is, essentially, finalized.  The information contained on that section of the site is current and accurate, and it reflects our functioning at this time, the fall of 2016.  I very much welcome DC-area competitive runners to consider joining the club, and I'll look forward to receiving any questions or inquiries that you might have about it.

Until then, run steady.