Off-Season 2016 - No rest for the weary, just more fun and bizarre endurance events

It is that time of year again; the leaves are turning color, the grapes are ripening on the vine, school is back in session, the weather outside is crisp and clear -- autumn has always been my favorite season.  And just like last year it is my "off-season" - supposedly a time of rest and recovery - a time when the experts recommend taking it easy, focusing on lifting weights, honing technical skills, sleeping...  

But just like last year my off-season calendar is filled with another weird assortment of endurance events:

Adidas World Battle Run 

One of my key endurance events during my off-season.  OK, the event was all of maybe 80 meters in length so it was hardly an "endurance event" -- perhaps one would call it a sprint event.  And I am not entirely comfortable calling it a sprint event ---  essentially the World Battle Run was an Adidas marketing shoot in which us participants were "extras" who were compensated with the cool t-shirts, fancy food and drink and a funky, high-tech party atmosphere. 

We were also spurred to jump through the obstacles with the always-enticing motivation of free shoes for the winning team. My team of largely middle-aged, male distance runners seemed especially incentivized by prospect of winning shoes. During the long build-up to the obstacle event my team grew increasingly confident-- confidence bordering on swaggering cockiness.  In retrospect I am not sure what gave my team such confidence.


Personally I knew that I was not in my league at all (this was another "No Race for Old Men" where my advanced age and years of long-distance running and cycling combined to render me embarrassingly clumsy and inept on an obstacle course that rewarded quickness and finesse).


My teammates (though also slow-twitch athletes) were clearly more agile than me, but still no match for the teams made up of young, co-ed  basketball and rugby players.

I was a bit relieved that we were hopelessly in last place when my turn toward last leg of relay arrived.  Still I gamely stumbled through the various obstacles as best I could even as I am being totally overtaken as you can see in the adjacent picture.

At the end I absolutely exhausted, but primarily just relieved that I did not pull any muscles.  Despite my pitiful showing in the Battle Run I come away feeling determined to enter other obstacle type races in the future - one because of the sheer fun of it and two because of obvious need to diversify the type of exercise that I do.

Vietnam Mountain Marathon


I had sought to visit Sapa since hearing a fellow traveler's captivating description of climbing Mount Fanispan a half dozen years ago.  

So at last second I register for the Vietnam Mountain Marathon, an event of increasing popularity that attracts a variety of different runners from all over the world to a remote mountain setting, and that requires an overnight train and dangerous van ride along winding mountain roads to reach Sapa. 

It is my second "once in a lifetime race experience" in just over a single month (including Australia Worlds)


There is a lot to be said for recent race specific training the experts say.  But once again I have to rely on long-term muscle memory, memory that has faded with lack of any running on trails.  

I power though the first 7k uphill portion of the race and move into 4th place.  But it is pretty much all downhill for me after that (and as I am sure you already guessed:  I mean downhill both literally and metaphorically).

Apparently a winner never quits, and quitter never wins.  But by 9k I have totally given up on placing well in the Vietnam Mountain Marathon.  

I must have looked pretty bad.  At the 17k I stop briefly and immediately a kindly fellow runner came to a halt and asked if I am OK.  I was getting out my phone and I looked up to tell him "I just need to get a selfie"  The look of deep disapproval on his face when I tell him this is a bit disconcerting.  

But hey the terraced rice fields are simply stunning and when am ever going to be back on these remote trails? 

Afterwards I am asked about my "running race" by the wildly ebullient guest house staff, and I am not sure that it is technically accurate to call what I did a "running race" given I had walked or climbed more than 50% of the course so it wasn't technically a "run" and I did not consider myself to be racing anyone.   I was too busy enjoying the mountain scenery and the wildlife along the course

Fruits Marathon 

I enjoy a triumphant podium finish  -- 

with a crowd of teammates cheering raucously and the race sponsors awarding me a huge box of grapes.

The run experience was great fun --- 

running through vineyards, 

dealing with a wicked sequence of hills,  

mixing it up with teammate Michael T 

and enjoying my last second kick finish....

..... the next morning I look on Strava results and compare Fruits Marathon with my results at last May's Fuji-Susono 10k and I notice that my time at  Fruits was 2 full minutes slower on a course with less than HALF the elevation gain....

.....but...


.....I will take any glory I can get these days (especially after my triathlon season) 

and moreover, look at all these grapes...