The Pace Setter - Hudson Mohawk Road Runners Club

A Short Circuit is a brief third personnarrative describing outstandingperformances and unusual or humorousexperiences by runners especiallyHMRRC members.All Short Circuits must be e-mailedto jheinlaw@earthlink.net, subject:Short Circuits.Ed Gillen finished a close second in theDistinguished Service Award voting this year.And now he is a winner! Leaving the competitionfar behind, Ed easily won the pizza eatingcontest recently held at the Orchard Tavernin Albany. Ed’s purpose was not to becomeeligible for the Clydesdale division in futureraces but to raise money for the Upstate NY/VT Chapter of the Leukemia and LymphomaSociety’s Team in Training.Ed downed three full pizzas in a recordtime of seven minutes. Ed Gillen then suddenlybecame known at Big Ed Gillen, the PizzaEating Monster. Congratulations Big Ed!and over, running a 3:25:43 in Rotterdam. Theprevious mark was 3:39.Wait... Don’t Tell Me” – who happens to bean avid runner and a columnist for Runner’sWorld – thinks that runners run to feel thepain. “What is it about the pain of endurancesports that’s fun?” he asks. His answer, “I saythe pain is sort of the point. My thesis is thatthe pain isn’t an obstacle to achievement somuch as part of the achievement. We actuallywant to suffer.” rKing of PainBig Ed Gillen - A pizza monster is born Turning 80 in March, Canadian (and Stockadeathonrecord setter) Ed Whitlock quicklydemolished the marathon record time for 80Ed Whitlock, defying father time Are you in a rut? Or, more politely, haveyou reached a plateau? As a runner, it’s easyto get stuck in a rut. You get used to doing thesame workouts, the same number of weeklymiles. But if you want to “Break On Throughto the Other Side,” you have to increase yourtraining. If your training stays the same, don’texpect your races to get faster. The humanbody is very good at adapting to stress whenthat stress is applied is small doses, but it alsodoes something annoying - it habituates. To getfaster, stronger, and break through plateaus,you must gradually and systematically increasethe amount of training stress. – Jason Karp,Ph.D., Exercise Physiologist Peter Sagal, the host of the NPR show “WaitShires of Vermont, cont. from p. 18Manchester.By the last few miles I wished I had stuck tomy stretching plan. My thighs were like rocksand it took me about 4 days to be able to walkdown the stairs like a normal person. My dadmet me at the finish line, and honestly, whenwe had to pass the finish line, continue another2/10 of a mile and then loop back around Ialmost cried. I’m not sure if getting chokedup was from seeing my dad waving me on,or knowing that I was about to be the proudowner of a “26.2” bumper sticker. Nonetheless,I finished strong, for me – still not strongenough to have qualified for anything, even if Iwere over 70 years-old, but I didn’t care. I finished!And to top it all off received a beautifulhandmade ceramic pendant for my troubles.The week before the marathon I sworeup and down to myself and everyone I talkedto that this would be my first and last marathon.Now, I’ve already registered for anotherhalf-marathon and almost can’t wait for nextyear’s Shires of Vermont. I would definitelyrecommend this marathon for anyone in thearea, new or seasoned marathoners alike. It isa beautiful route and maybe next year it willeven be sunny. rThe Pace Setter – 21