Nugget #45

This little number happened in 2004.

Must be the “luck of the Irish”

By Bill Donnelly

Local runner and tri-athlete Kevin Patterson has had a string of luck that can only be attributed to his being Irish. Now, I know Patterson is not an Irish name, but I believe it was originally O’Patterson when his grandfather came over from the old sod.

Whatever, I got to know Kevin and his wife Heather when they joined the Fleet Feet running group last year in order to train for a marathon. Both are very talented runners (Heather won Runner of the Year in her age group last year) and both are very driven. No, I do not mean that they have a chauffeur. They set lofty goals, and they usually reach them. Except, of course, when the “luck of the Irish” strikes.

Last fall Kevin was training for a marathon and an Iron Man Triathlon at the same time. The latter is just a race where one starts off the competition with a two and a half mile swim, then proceeds to a 112 mile bike jaunt, and finally finishes with a full 26.2 mile marathon! One after the other! All on the same day! No naps in between! I’d rather have a root canal!

So last fall Kevin heads up to Montreal to do a half Iron Man triathlon, driving his three day old, brand spanking new Hummer. Kevin did the race and finished in fine fashion. Now comes the “luck of the Irish.” Kevin limps back to his car with nothing but his bike and the clothes on his back, (wet and smelly at that) and guess what, no Hummer! It’s gone, kapoof, vanished, on a ship to Hong Kong already.

Everything was stolen, including his laptop and his wallet with all his ID. There’s poor tired, sore, and smelly old Kevin with no way to get back to the States. Fortunately, on about his seventeenth try, Kevin found a disgruntled pimply-faced teenager working at a rent-a-car agency who was willing to take honest looking Kevin at his word, and rented him a car with no money or ID. How Kevin got back into the US is anybody’s guess.

Kevin’s second stroke of Irish luck came at the Boston Marathon this year. As I have written, it was 87 degrees that April day, and all 20,000 runners had that Irish luck to deal with. It’s just that Kevin took it one step further. Rumor has it that he lined up in heat that one could bake a pizza with wearing a pace band on his wrist. This lets you know what you must hit each of the 26 miles at so you know if you have a chance to reach your goal, and Kevin’s goal was, I’m sure, a sub-three hour marathon.

Most runners knew not to go for the gusto this day. Did I mention Kevin is driven? After finishing the marathon in a much slower time than he is capable of running, Kevin was a special guest of the medical tent, spending two hours recovering with IVs stuck in his arm trying to raise his blood pressure from 80/40. Gots to be the Irish in him.

Good and bad things come in threes they say, and so it is with the “luck of the Irish”. While training on his bike for the Iron Man Triathlon to be held in Wisconsin later this fall, Kevin took his bike for a ride in early July. I have heard the Wisconsin race is particularly grueling, because they make you eat a pound of cheese before each event. So Kevin had his work cut out for him that July Sunday. No one knows what happened, not even Kevin, who doesn’t remember leaving his house. He suspects a car clipped him on the country bridge he was crossing, sent him flying, and left him for dead.

A motorist did find him, and he was taken to the hospital for body-work. After getting over 150 stitches on his face, and a cast on his left fore-arm, which was fractured in two places, they could deal with some busted fingers and smashed up knees. I didn’t think I’d see Kevin for months.

Did I mention the lad is driven? Two and a half weeks after all that, I go to the Ronald McDonald House 5K race, and who shows up with a smile and his wit about him, but Kevin. And he’s running the race! Not only does he run it, he finishes right behind the lovely Heather. He later admits he dared not beat her (did I mention she is driven?).

Now, at the time, I’m suffering from an ingrown toenail on my left foot, and I plan on using it as an excuse as to why I may not run so well. That excuse is sure as shootin out the window. I went and got the dang thing fixed by the Running Podiatrist, Mike Curry.

So if bad things do come in threes. Kevin should be safe from here on in. That goofy guy still plans on doing the Wisconsin Tri, and then in November, he’s running the New York City Marathon. Did I mention he is driven? Let’s just hope there is no “curse of the Germans”.

      

Nugget #44

This is an article I wrote a few years ago about Checkers AC and their track program.  It still pretty much applies, but now the program is coached by Vicky Mitchell.

Finding your true fast self

By Bill Donnelly

OK, so any of you who may have been thinking about running are now totally turned off to the idea after reading my first two columns. Who wouldn’t be after reading about training for a marathon during the winter months, and then reading about running a marathon in the heat of Boston this year?

Don’t give up hope yet. There are many more races out there besides marathons, and most of them are 5k, or just over 3 miles for you non-Canadians. Just look at the race calendar that accompanies this article. Not a marathon among them.

I do recommend that if you start running, doing a race here and there is a great way to stay motivated. Once you try a couple, you will be back for more, and of course, you will be bitten by the competition bug, and you will want to improve.

The best way, if you become serious, is to take part in the Checkers AC Tuesday track workouts. Coached by Bob Carroll, one of the area’s top runners for years, and still running strong at the ripe old age of 47, Coach Carroll puts together one heck of a program for all comers. You just have to be a member of Checkers (worth joining just for their newsletter) and pay a $15 fee to help cover expenses. The workouts run from April till the end of October, and now we meet at Crosby Field in Kenmore before 6pm

Averaging 117 runners weekly, it is amazing that Bob can put together an organized workout week after week, yet he does. As a newcomer, he would place you in a group to train with based on your ability, and believe me, there is a very wide range of abilities out on the track, so anyone would feel comfortable. Bob obviously spends so much time on keeping track of how each runner is progressing during the year that most suspect he has no life. Coach Carroll’s credentials include being a three-time All American when he attended Fredonia State College, running a four minute mile, winning Buffalo’s Turkey Trot in the late 1980s, and having coached some of Western New York’s finest athletes, yet he welcomes runners of all abilities. 

When you show up the workouts are up on the board. You know exactly how fast you are expected to run the distances because there is a code word for the speed. You just plug it into your group number, and the pace for the different code words is right there.

For example, the code words are something like cruise pace (which is slowest), date, rep, and I think the fastest is called OW!!! pace. So if you are in group 22, and you are supposed to run 10X400s at OW!!! pace, you find that in your group that means each 100 meters will be at 21 seconds, and using your amazing intelligence (which you must have since you are reading my column) you know each 400 should be run in 84 seconds. Ow!!!

There are pros and cons to the workouts. One pro is that you have many people encouraging each other during the workouts. A con - if on a pain-scale of one to ten, with one being the pain you feel when you eat too much ice cream, and ten being the pain you feel as a friend pulls out all ten of your toe-nails with a pair of rusty pliers; these track workouts would rate a 17.7.

A pro – you get the expert coaching of Bob Carroll, and he puts so much effort into each aspect of each workout. A con – the workouts hurt very, very, very much!

A pro – the tremendous feeling of satisfaction as you finish each workout. A con - you realize that you have to do it again next week.

A pro – the lasting friendships you are bound to make as all strive for the same goal, improvement. A con – did I mention it hurts a lot?

I could keep going, as there actually are so many pros, and I’m just a big baby when it comes to pain. When it comes right down to it, the biggest pro is the high so many runners get when they hit a PR, or personal record, in a race. Then all the hard work pays off big time, and you have new friends and a coach who will be as happy for you as you are for yourself. Just give track workouts a chance.