And I Thought Fredericksburg Was Tough

 And I thought running in Fredericksburg was difficult on Sunday. Better than the satellite race in Helmand province, Afghanistan. And I wasn't running in boots.

A Marine runs to the finish line during the satellite version of the Marine Corps Historic Half Marathon on Camp Leatherneck, Helmand province, Afghanistan, May 19, 2013.  

Samwise the Slow

I beat Samwise this weekend. And he wasn't even carrying anyone up Hospital Hill...Frodo would be so disappointed.

Actor Sean Astin receiving his #1 bib.

Race Report: Marine Corps Historic Half 2013

Headed down to Fredericksburg for my second Marine Corps Historic Half. After running the 2012 Historic Half, I knew what to expect and thought I was prepared for the hills.

However, being woefully behind in base mileage from daddy duties in 2013 made the event a lot more challenging than expected.

But in a tough race, you gotta Marine up.

The Expo

I headed down to the race expo on Saturday morning, grabbed my bib and shirt, and went through the expo pretty quickly. They had a mix of regional groups and some military charities, with a few random merchandisers thrown in the mix.

After the expo, I headed over to the A. Smith Bowman distillery to get a tour and tasting. Drinking dark rum and bourbon counts as pre-race nutrition, doesn't it?

I spent the rest of the day at my hotel, catching up on some sleep with a little nap. Was eerily quiet in the room, I hadn't heard silence in quite some time, but I was still missing my little girl. I watched some horse racing and a bad movie, and made some pasta in the hotel microwave. Same hotel as last year, sitting in a classy part of town between a Waffle House and a Hooters.

The Course and Race Day

The day started in a misty rain, and would continue in a mist or light drizzle for the next 13.1 miles. The course started at the Fredericksburg Convention Center, site of the race expo, and quickly started to fall under foot. There's an elevation loss of 300 feet over the first nine miles, but there are definitely some steep bumps spread throughout. As I clicked off the first few miles, I was feeling pretty good, and ended up under my goal pace in crossing the 5k mat in 6:32 pace. But I also started thinking I had messed up my hydration; I started thinking this may be the first race where I needed to hit the on-course bathrooms. In the following few miles I tried to hold back a little, knowing my lack of base mileage may be an issue later. As I made my way through historic Fredericksburg, I came across the 10k timing mat in 6:42 pace, getting back to my goal area. At this point, I decided it was time to hit the bathroom and ducked off course, thank you historic bushes!

As I approached the 9-mile mark, I started to feel my endurance suffer a bit. There were some small bumps and I was getting a little out of my groove. Add the mist and rain, and I had to wipe off my glasses every few minutes, running in a distorted view of the world the rest of the time. I was struggling a bit to keep up my motivation as I watched time slip away; I crossed the 15k timing mat back at 6:48 pace, but the preceding 5k was run at 7:00 courtesy of the bathroom stop.

At this point I was getting concerned actually about Hospital Hill. I knew about it from last year, where I kept a consistent pace up to the top, but I didn't feel quite as strong on this morning. I passed mile 10 and started the climb. There was a sparse crowd willing us up the hill, and for about a solid mile it climbed 260 feet. I kept my arms moving, kept a consistent effort, and surprised myself with a pretty good assault on the incline. The rest of the miles however, were more difficult. The steady and sustained climb to mile 12 was tough, especially knowing my pace was slipping and I wasn't in top shape.

There were some very tough mental and physical moments, and my 20k pace of 7:02 meant I'd run miles 9-12 in about 7:44; I knew the inclines would hit my pace, but that was a pretty slow slog for me. The uphills were pulling on the muscles that were pounded on the early declines, but I still finished strong and felt pretty good about beating last year's time. It wasn't a PR for sure, but it was better than my 2012 finish, even with a bathroom break. And even though I continued my bad trend this year of positive splits, it can be forgiven based on the elevation changes in this race. Final time, with a little break, was 1:32:18 (7:03/mi); probably looking closer to 1:31:30 (6:59/mi) without the visit to the bushes, but that's part of the game.

The Results

5k :        6:32/mi
10k :      6:42/mi
15k :      6:48/mi
20k :      7:02/mi
Final:   1:32:18  |  7:03/mile 

The results were what they were, not the best, not the worst. Faster than last year, but clearly I lost some speed with my strained training schedule since my early season PR at Rock 'n' Roll USA. 

The Swag

All runners received a technical shirt, a race program, and a finisher's medal. The medal nicely devoid of sponsors, lending to a simple ribbon and design. It followed the growing trend of bigger medals, which is getting a little silly. Also, whereas last year was a patriotic red, white, and blue, this year's design was overly simple and had random aqua accents. The back featured the "13.1" logo with an outline of the Gen. Hugh Mercer Monument for the final digit.

The Verdict

I enjoyed my trip down to Fred-town, especially the distillery tour the day before. The race expo and race were easy to navigate, even with the early wake-up call. I'm sure I'll be back again.

Cute stowaway trying to go with daddy.	Mascots at the starting line.
Race start. I'm all the way left, all black with white hat.	Thank you, Marines!
Hanging out with the town crier.

A. Smith Bowman Distillery Tour

After visiting the Historic Half expo, I headed over to the A. Smith Bowman Distillery in Fredericksburg. As a frequent drinker of Bowman Brothers small batch, I figured it was time to visit the home of Virginia bourbon. It was close to my hotel for the night and tucked away in a nicely-wooded side street. You enter through a brick fence gate and proceed to a large red brick building.

Upon arriving in a nice brick building, you enter in the gift shop area which also shares floor space with the bottling area. The bottling line sits two people who hand bottle product, talk about small batch premium spirits.

The space was nice and I was greeted immediately by a friendly Bowman employee.

Distillery entrance.	View of bottling line from the gift shop.	Close-up view of the hand- bottling production line.

Thinking I would skip the tour and just do the tasting, I quickly found myself in front of five bottles with a very knowledgeable Bowman employee. Laid out in front of me was the entire product line:

• Bowman Brothers Small Batch bourbon (90 proof)
• John J. Bowman Single Barrel bourbon (100 proof)
• George Bowman Dark Caribbean Rum
• Deep Run Vodka
• Sunset Hills Gin

The tasting line up.

I was instructed I could only taste three of the five bottles (silly Virginia ABC laws!). Given that I always have a bottle of Bowman Brothers on hand and given that most decent vodka tastes the same, I opted for the single barrel bourbon, rum, and gin. The John J. Bowman single barrel bourbon was pretty mellow and smooth, as expected from spending 10 years in oak. The George Bowman Dark Caribbean Rum was a great sipping rum, unlike the over-flavored spiced rum most people are drinking. It's a pot-still rum, with all the ingredients purchased from a single farmer in Guyana, and has a very full flavor. You get a great taste of brown sugar and molasses, with some other subtle aromas as well. The Sunset Hills Gin had a great smell of juniper, but wasn't as overpowering as a bottle of Bombay Sapphire. It had a light and smooth taste, easy to sip by itself or build a martini around.

After having a good discussion with the employee and learning he was about to lead the tour, I stuck around and went through the distillery with a handful of people in a small tour group. Bowman Brothers is named after John, Abraham, Joseph and Isaac Bowman — four brothers who served in the Virginia militia during the Revolutionary War and eventually played a major role in the settlement of the Virginia territory that would eventually become the state of the Kentucky. It was interesting to learn the history of the Bowman family and distillery, including their production of Virginia Gentlemen, their settling in northern Virginia, and their providing Russia with vodka for a long time through history.

"Mary"

Most interesting in the history of the company was that they began in Fairfax County, their land becoming what is now Reston, Virginia.  The Bowman family has a dairy and granary and named it "Sunset Hills," which is now a popular road name in Reston and one I travel frequently to visit business clients. Excess grain from the granary would be used for distilling spirits, and with the exception of the Prohibition years, liquor poured from that distillery until their move to Fredericksburg in 1988. The company is still the home of Virginia Gentlemen, but the only products fully distilled, stored, and bottled in the Fredericksburg facility are the Bowman brands.

The tour took us through some older distilling equipment, stave making, and the importance of the oak barrels, including their creation, use, and second life as scotch barrels. After our history lesson, we were led into the stillhouse where we could meet "Mary", the company's massive copper still. We also made our way through the barrel filling area and finally to the warehouse that stores barrels floor to ceiling for the requisite near-decade of aging.

We also saw a few barrels that were aging some bourbon "tests" as the barrels were previously used for apple cider or other items. The master distiller, who sadly passed in December 2012, came from Buffalo Trace, and it seems that Bowman is headed in a similar direction of mixing tradition with exploration and innovation.

Storage warehouse floor.	Storage warehouse from above.	"Test bourbon," ready to sample in 2019.

In summary, it was a very educating and interesting tour of a small batch distillery. The life cycle of bourbon is fascinating, especially the waiting game and evolution of the product in the barrel. The bourbons were good, the employees were friendly, and the entire facility had a small town feel that you don't get when you visit a mega-producer in Kentucky.

Bought a nice set of new glasses.	Took home a few of these...	...and one of these for good measure.

The Pre-Race Sound of Silence

I'm definitely enjoying a little pre-race solitude in my hotel room. No baby crying at 2:00am. No dog getting sick at 3:00am.

The sound of silence....

One Does Not Simply Bike into Mordor

For Bike to Work Day 2013, I pledged to actually ride my bike into the automotive Mordor of Tysons Corner. In previous year BtWDs, I've just done a ceremonial ride; I've put my laptop in a backpack, put on business casual, stopped at the Vienna pit stop, and then completed a few miles on the W&OD trail before riding back to work at home. Though supportive in spirit, it wasn't the same as playing Frogger through angry car traffic and cramming the bike in my tiny office - so that's what I decided to do in 2013.

Though my usual car commute is only 2.8 miles, it goes along very non-bike-friendly thoroughfares, so hostile I'd label them as a potential suicide mission. Given my young daughter at hone, I opted to modify my commute to 5.6 miles to take advantage of riding along the W&OD trail and connecting with the Gallows Road bike lanes towards the gates of Mordor...er, Tysons. The night prior, I left some dress clothes at the office and parked a car for the return commute. Though the inner-Tysons trip to my centrally-located office is navigable in the early morning hours, the return route was just too dangerous and with the ubiquitous afternoon rush hour, I wasn't comfortable making my way back out of the gridlock.

Vienna pit stop

So the Morning of the 17th I woke up, added a flashing red light to the back of the road bike, and set off for the Vienna pit stop to join the Fellowship of the (Chain)ring. Headed along the W&OD trail, there were dozens of bikes going in both directions, everyone was enjoying the 60s temperature, and the pit stop was hopping by my 6:40 arrival. Dozens of people were milling about, grabbing swag, and enjoying the refreshments. As it was my official pit stop, I picked up my 2013 shirt, along with a bunch of other swag. The first item was a really cool bike route map for the area, printed on a micro-fiber cloth that doubles as a glasses wipe (swag pictures at bottom of post). The Friends of the W&OD organization was giving out reflective safety straps (slap bracelets) and bike water bottles. Vienna Whole Foods was giving out bananas, water, and breakfast bars, and of course there was hot coffee to warm up.

From the Vienna pit stop I headed down the W&OD trail a few miles, connected with Gallows Road, and started up the bike lanes towards Tysons. It was fun to see so many bikes, and especially young kids, getting into the day and riding along the trail. Once I started up Gallows though, I was on my own. The trip was fairly uneventful; I was a bit nervous by some close-passing traffic, but overall it was easier than I expected. The only hiccup was having to stop midway up the largest hill for a red light and having to crank the pedals to get going again while avoiding the angry glares of vehicles waiting behind me for a right turn. Before the bike lanes ended, I peeled off on Tysons Branch Road, crossed the small bridge by the mall, and rode along Fashion Boulevard to the Tysons pit stop at LL Bean. Though this final stretch was along roads sharing with traffic, I was early enough to pretty much have the road to myself and the Metro buses around the mall.

Tysons pit stop

When I arrived at the Tysons pit stop, there was only one other person there, and no one else was showing up. I'm hoping it picked up a bit later, but it was surprisingly empty of much activity. LL Bean and Atleta were there with raffles, the the swag was mainly from Access Tysons. They were giving out a string backpack, another Tysons microfiber map, a card-sized map of Tysons bike routes, blinking red lights, and a green bar light (wraps around front bike bar with a couple white LEDs). Unfortunately absent was refreshments; though the stop was sponsored by La Sandia and California Pizza kitchen and they advertised refreshments, there was nothing there. Not that I needed much, but I skipped coffee in Vienna in the hopes I could mill about in Tysons and drink there.

I rolled out of Tysons and started heading around the back roads and Westpark Drive. There were a few hills and some traffic, but other than generating a bit of sweat and burning a few extra calories, it wasn't a bad ride.

Burn a few hundred calories and win free parking.

All told, door-to-door in 26:30 if I cut out the pit stop time, and that's extending my commute to 5.6 miles of cycling. That's on par or better than my usual car commute (yes, it usually takes me that long to go a mere 2.8 miles). It was a fun ride and definitely more relaxing than sitting in traffic. It's a commute I would do much more often if I didn't have to drop my daughter off at daycare each day.

Thor Hushovd’s BMC Impec

VeloNews has a quick slideshow this morning of Thor's new BMC Impec for the racing season; he'll be cruising on these wheels for the Amgen Tour of California, which kicked off yesterday.

I preferred the BMC Team Machine they used in the Tour, but the Impec certainly adds function and technology.

External link: Pro Bike: Thor Hushovd’s BMC Impec

Knee Strap, Pack of 3

Amazon is wicked smart. They somehow know that if it was possible to have a third knee, I'd manage to injure it.

Prepare for the Hordes!

30 billion to 1 trillion cicadas. I may dread the thought of running in "wall to wall cicadas," but I am absolutely terrified of biking 20mph in this swarm. Time to buy a skull and flames motorcycle face mask?

External link: You won't believe how many cicadas are about to envelop the East Coast