2017 Haddonfield Adrenaline 5k: Race Report

Ran the 12th annual Haddonfield Adrenaline 5k last weekend.  I love this race for so many reasons (flat and fast course, competitive field, great after party...) and try to do it every year. It's usually the first race of the year for me and a great time to shake off the winter cobwebs and assess where I'm at in terms of racing fitness.

The race happened to fall the day after St. Patty's Day this year, so rather than go out and drink my face off Friday night, I abstained from alcohol completely and went to bed around 10pm.  Because Stevie works on Saturday mornings, my dad met me at Haddonfield Memorial High School, the site for the start and finish of the race, so he could watch Neale while I ran.

Close to 9am we all gathered on Kings Highway, and I caught up with some people from Who's Up? towards the front of the pack of hundreds of runners.

The race was unremarkable, to be honest.  I ran hard, but without any specific preparation for the 5k distance this winter,  I finished in roughly the same time I do every year.

The winner finished in 14:42, by the way.  Like I said, it's a competitive race.

The after party was held at the gym of a nearby church with wine and kegs of Yards Pale Ale and Yards Brawler.

I love these guys.

Another great year in the books, and already looking forward to next year...

Global Running Day

Like running?  Like social media?  Boy is this the holiday for you:

National Running Day was upgraded this year to Global Running Day, and my Facebook and Twitter accounts have been blowing up all day with people singing the praises of this simple sport (as if we don't annoy the hell out of people already with our incessant run talk, we had to go and create a day where we kick it into overdrive...).

This holiday always falls on the first Wednesday of June, meaning I always end up celebrating it with my Wednesday night run crew Who's Up? over at the Haddonfield Running Company.

This year, though, owner Dave Welsh truly outdid himself.  Our group run is 6.6 miles long, so he recruited six race directors to come and promote their races at each mile marker along the route.  Runners received two raffle tickets at the store, and could choose two of the six races to drop their tickets into buckets while running by for a chance to win a free entry.  Just another example of the creative marketing that Dave employs and why I love the Haddonfield Running Company.

Photo by Ron Riskie

It ended up being the biggest crowd I've ever seen at a Wednesday night group run.

We were packed to the rafters until 8 o'clock when each race held its drawing.  I had put in tickets for the Haddon Twp. Turkey Trot and the Bridge 10k, each in November, but sadly I didn't win either one.  Still didn't dampen my spirit, though, as it was a great evening either way.

Happy Global Running Day, everyone!  Can't wait for next year!

Your spelling homework

You would hate being in one of my German classes.  Not only do I embrace the role of surrogate parent and try to embarrass my students at every opportunity, not only do I force them to listen to more German rap than is healthy, not only do I actually expect them to speak German in my classes, but on top of all of the German, I also correct their English.

"Can me and Julie go to the office real quick?"

"Sorry?"

"Can me and Julie go to the office?"

"I didn't catch that."

"CAN ME AND JULIE - "

"Excuse me?"

"Oh... Can Julie and I go to the office?"

"And now in German!"

"Ugh..."

Yes, I am that teacher.

The truth is mistakes in spelling and grammar make me a little guano.  I could tell you that being a language teacher makes me hypersensitive to all languages, but in fact I've always been this way.  Grow up with parents who insist you speak the King's English, and you might turn out similarly.

When outside of the classroom, I try not to say anything because I realize doing so would make me sound like a colossal douche.  Likewise, when reading something online, I try to give most people a break.  Blogs, Facebook posts, tweets, etc usually get a pass because they are mostly written by every day folk who don't share my neurosis for perfect spelling and grammar.

But professional publications and/or major brands should probably know better, in my humble opinion.

Which brings us to tonight's running-themed spelling homework.  Can you spot the spelling mistakes in the following examples?

First up is Zelle, the Runner's World offshoot for women:

Next up, Spartan Race shows us again how "your" vs. "you're" can be quite the conundrum:

And on to Runner's World.  Even the biggest publication of them all lets a few errors slip through once in awhile:

RunHaven reminds us that the rule's for apostrophe's can be very tricky.

And last but not least, not even my beloved Haddonfield Running Company can escape my wrath:

This post probably won't win me any friends, but at least I was able to get all of this off my chest.

Seen any mistakes lately?  Let me know!

2016 Haddonfield Adrenaline 5k Race Report

Ran the 2016 Haddonfield Adrenaline 5k this morning in what was my first race of 2016, and my first race since the Turkey Trot last November.

As I've mentioned plenty, I haven't been training very hard this winter.  I usually run 7 miles on Wednesday night with my running group, and every once in awhile I'll bump it up to 3 miles when out on my own, but this winter has mostly been a series of one mile runs to keep up the running streak.  I've lost fitness and definitely gained weight in the past few months.  I also had plenty of beer and pizza from last night still weighing me down this morning.

All this to say I was not expecting to race well this morning.  I wouldn't have been surprised if I had run well over twenty minutes.

Stevie decided to run this year as well, so we drove over to Haddonfield around 8am, parked at the Haddonfield Running Company, then walked over to the high school which was the start and finish of the race.  Stevie took Neale in the stroller to the back of the 1,000 runner field, and I joined the Who's Up? folk towards the front.

Who's Up?
Photo by Ron Riskie

The course goes down Kings Highway, Haddonfield's main drag, veers left into the neighborhood, tackles one minor hill around mile 2 before coming back to Kings Highway for the final stretch.  It was a perfect day for a race - no snow like we had last year.

Erik and I took off together and stuck with each other for most of the race.  My race strategy for 5k's is usually to just run hard at the beginning but try to save some for the end where I try to pick off as many runners as I can.  But in the homestretch I was just over it and wanted the race to be over.

Final stats:

19:31
15th in my age group (out of 46)
147th overall (out of 922)

Maybe some day I'll break the top 100.

Erik came in just behind me in 19:37, which was a post high school PR for him.

After finishing I walked back down Kings Highway to find Stevie and run in with her.  I had planned to take the stroller from her, but Stevie wanted to keep going.

In the homestretch
Photo by Wayne Partenheimer

She finished in 33:49 which is a stroller PR for her.

Photo by Wayne Partenheimer

I know that I've said this before, but imagine what I could do in the 5k if I dedicated my time and energy to it the way I have to the marathon in the past.  Since I'm not running a marathon this year, this seems like the perfect goal.  Can I PR in the 5k at the age of 34?  Can I really run a sub 18 minute 5K?  I think I'm excited to try.

In the meantime, thanks Haddonfield Running Company, as always, for putting on a great race!

Fishtown Beer Runners meets Who's Up?

If you're a runner in the Philadelphia area, you've probably heard of the Fishtown Beer Runners.  As the name would suggest, they're a group that meets in Philadelphia's Fishtown neighborhood to run and then - you guessed it - drink beer afterwards.

Founded by Eric Fiedler and David April in 2007, the club's concept is actually aided by science.  They had heard of a study conducted at the University of Granada in Spain by Professor Manuel Castillo that told of beer's positive effects following a run.  They decided to test the theory, and the rest, as they say, is history.

After the club's reputation grew, David decided to contact the Professor in something of a fanboy moment.  To his surprise, the Professor wrote back, and the two struck up a correspondence that has since led to several trips to Spain, where David eventually met the woman who would become his wife.

Today the group's name is trademarked, it has received endorsements from such heavyweights as Christopher McDougall, and even been the subject of a feature-length documentary.  Through it all, the group's activity remains the same: dozens of runners meet at David's house in Fishtown on Thursday nights, always running 3-5 miles, always finishing at a local bar and always raising a glass to toast the professor before the end of the evening, just as they have done since the beginning.

A few weeks ago, one of the guys in Who's Up? ran with the Fishtown Beer Runners and decided to organize a viewing of the aforementioned documentary at one of our own club meetings.

So that's where I found myself last night: after seven sweaty miles, we all convened in the basement of the Haddonfield Running Company for our club's first movie night.  David himself and a few others from his club made the trek across the bridge, and after a short introduction, we all sat with beer and soft pretzels to watch the film together.

The film was incredible, by the way.  It starts on a low note as David reels from a recent divorce, and quickly picks up steam as running begins to save him, all while capturing Philadelphia's unique neighborhoods.  The action transfers to various bars in the city before going international, tagging along on one of the group's trips to Spain as they meet the professor and participate in one of his ongoing studies.

In my humble opinion, it's right up there with films like Spirit of the Marathon in terms of inspiration and should be included in any runner's movie collection.  You can rent or buy the movie to stream on any device by clicking here.  I don't think it's available on DVD, though.

After the movie, we all toasted to the Professor:

And I got a picture with the man, the myth, the legend himself:

Huge thanks to the Haddonfield Running Company for letting us hang out after hours, especially to Shawn and TJ for sticking around to supervise us delinquents.  Also thanks to Tom for putting the whole thing together, and of course David and the Fishtown Beer Runners for making the trek across the bridge to run and drink with us and share the movie.  And of course for spreading the gospel of running and beer.  The world is most definitely a better place because of them.

There is already talk in our group of crossing the bridge to join them on one of their runs in the nearby future.  Until then...

To the Professor!

When seven miles is still too much

It's the Wednesday night running and beer crew, night ops style:

Photo courtesy Tom Cunningham

Every Wednesday night I run with the fine folks at the Haddonfield Running Company for seven miles through the mean streets of Haddonfield.  A group of us formed an informal drinking club afterwards called Who's Up?, and we take turns bringing the beer each week.

But you're a passionate and savvy reader of this blog and already knew all of this.

Anyway, tonight I wasn't able to finish all seven miles.  It's gotten to the point that seven miles is now my long run and I sometimes struggle to get it done.  Tonight was one of those nights.

Altra stopped by and was kind enough to let us try on their shoes, but the cushion and extra toe box for which they are famed did nothing to push me through to the end.  In the end, I had to chalk it up to a lackadaisical winter training regimen and just tell myself that it will get better.

In the meantime, there's always a post run beer, no matter the length of the run, to make everything better.

2016 Olympic Trials Marathon

It was a great afternoon to be a runner in South Jersey.

Local running celebrities Jen Miller (prolific author and running columnist), Dave Welsh (owner of Haddonfield Running Company) and Erin Donahue (2008 U.S. Olympian) put together a spectacular event today in honor of the first ever live televised coverage of the Olympic Trials Marathon.

About 15 of us met at the bar at 12pm and took off into a blustery snowstorm for 2.62 miles. Aside from my usual Wednesday night 7 miles, this was the longest run I've done in a month, and probably the coldest this season.

When we returned from the run, the first round was on the house, and an epic buffet had been set up for us.

The bar quickly filled up with people - runners on the left side, and random day drinkers on the right.  It was definitely a novelty to see so many people at a bar in the middle of the day to watch a marathon.

I was ecstatic to see Meb and Galen place in the top three, and as for the women, I was sad that Kara didn't make the cut but happy Shalane gutted it out to finish third.

Stevie eventually joined us and brought Neale, and the highlight of the afternoon came when Jen raffled off a copy of her book and I won.

Bonus photobomb from Stevie and Neale.

I've been following Jen's progress on the book for months now and have been looking forward to its release, so it was a pleasant surprise to receive a free copy today over a month ahead of its scheduled release.

I'll be sure to read it and write a review here soon.

All told, it was a great afternoon of running and beer.  Big thanks to The Irish Mile for hosting the event and for the beer and food.  Can't wait to watch the Olympic Marathon this summer!

Saucony Triumph

Shin splints update: ran 1 very slow mile on Monday and Tuesday to keep up the streak.  Iced my shin both at home and at work as often as possible.  Took ibuprofen at night.

Tonight I went to my weekly run at the Haddonfield Running Company and only did 3 of the 7 miles.  My shin felt fine the whole time and I could have probably done all 7 miles, but didn't want to push my luck.  I also bought a pair of compression socks which I'm wearing right now.

Saucony was there tonight to let us try on their shoes.  I wore the Saucony Triumph, which I've worn before and absolutely love, probably because they're similar to the Nike Pegasus I usually run in.

They also had a photobooth set up in the store along with props.  I guess they were going for the whole "A mad scientist cooked up all of this insane footwear technology in a lab somewhere" theme, hence the goggles on the Saucony rep in this picture: 

I also successfully recruited two women from Who's Up? to help pace me in the final two miles of the marathon next week.  One of them told me she is going to work on a repertoire of jokes and tell me a new one every quarter mile.

And now I'm sitting in my compression socks with my legs up.  My spirits are back up after a fun night of running and hanging out with my running people.

Only a week and a half until the marathon...

Ode to the Haddonfield Running Company

I'm part of a running group on Facebook, and recently one of the members asked everyone for shoe recommendations.  One person suggested going to a local running store to try on different shoes, and then buy the pair online for much cheaper.

Which brings me to my daily PSA: don't do that.

Look, I'm one of the cheapest guys on the planet.  I work hard for my money and try not to be frivolous with it.  But even I don't mind paying more money at a specialty running store than I would online for the same products.

Why?

Because I am all about supporting not just my local community, but the local running community as well.  The money I pay at the running store goes right back into the community in which I participate in the form of races and other special events.

It's no secret how much I love my local running store - the Haddonfield Running Company - and it looks like that love has finally spilled over into this blog post.

It should be noted that I am in no way affiliated with the Haddonfield Running Company.  This post was not sponsored; in fact, they don't even know I'm writing it (though I'll provide a link afterwards). I'm just a major fan in need of some gushing.

Without further adieu...

________________________________________________________________________

Top 10 Reasons Why I Love the Haddonfield Running Company

10. They always have water for passing runners.  Once when I stopped in during a run and there were no cups available, an employee gave me a full bottle of water, free of charge.

9. Speaking of employees, they are the nicest people on the planet (no surprise here - most runners fit this mold).  They greet me enthusiastically when I come in and frequently ask about past or upcoming races.

8. When the bombings happened at the 2013 Boston Marathon, owner Dave Welsh jumped into action and organized a run at a local high school track the very next night.  Candles were placed around the track, and hundreds came out to run a mile in honor of the marathon and the victims.

7. Group runs every Wednesday night.  6.6 miles week in and week out with much of the same folk every week.  They let us hang out in the store afterwards and drink beer, thereby combining two of my favorite things in this world.

6.  They constantly connect with races and running-related companies so that it seems every week there is a different shoe company letting us try on their shoes or people promoting a different race.  Every week feels like a running party.

5. They connect with the local high school track and cross country teams, most recently hosting a "spike night" with deals for high school students looking to get fitted in new pairs of spikes.

4. They run one of the best and most competitive 5k's in New Jersey, the Haddonfield Adrenaline 5k.  A thousand people show up in March, including the best of local elites who compete for hundreds of dollars in prize money.

3. Owner Dave Welsh is constantly brokering food and drink deals with the Irish Mile, a bar down the road, for patrons of his store on special events.

2. Not just one location, but a total of four - Haddonfield, Moorestown, Medford and Mullica Hill.

1. A few times a year they host sidewalk sales in which insane deals on shoes can be found.

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If you live in the South Jersey area, you need to check out one of these stores and get involved in the running scene.  Don't live around here?  Find your closest running store and find your own reasons to love it!

National Running Day

When you run marathons and especially when you're maintaining a run streak, every day feels like National Running Day.  But it's officially today (always the first Wednesday in June), meaning my Twitter and Facebook blew up all day with posts about how great running is.

Mad Max is pretty great too, by the way.

I celebrated the best way possible - by going to the Haddonfield Running Company for our regular Wednesday night run, followed by beers in the store afterwards.

Our group keeps expanding.  We've joked that we don't even know who is in the club anymore.  Did you run with us tonight?  Do you want a beer?  Good, you're in.

Happy National Running Day to you.  Only two days until National Donut Day.  Coincidence? I think not.

Wednesday night run party

Almost every Wednesday, I head two towns over to the Haddonfield Running Company for their weekly group run.  I've done this group run off and on for the past decade, but only started going regularly a little over a year ago.

As I've mentioned before, some of the guys started an informal club called "Who's Up?"  Each week someone new brings the beer for the entire group, leading to the eternal question and our club's name.

Some nights we just drink our beer and head home, but other nights, like tonight, end up as an impromptu party.

I love the Haddonfield Running Company for so many reasons, and one is their penchant for partnering with local races and national shoe companies.  Tonight saw Brooks, the ODDyssey Half Marathon and their beer partner Sly Fox all setting up shop in the store.

I had volunteered to be up this week, but wasn't sure how much beer I would need since I knew Sly Fox would be there.  Turns out they were only giving out 4oz. samples, and when I opened the cooler I'd brought, everyone descended upon it like vultures.

Also, Ron won a freaking pair of Brooks:

And Larry's wife made us amazing baked goods, which has become a regular occurrence.

I love this store and I love this group.  Even if they take the group picture without me.

Tis the season for Christmas beers

Amazing night of running and beer down at the Haddonfield Running Company tonight.

A reporter and photographer from the Courier Post came out for a story on cold weather running.  The photographer had a giant camera and two separate flashes set up on tripods outside of the store.  He was a bit dismayed at how relatively warm it was and how most of us were wearing shorts and T-shirts and was trying to position those of us with hats and gloves towards the front.  We joked that he should just photoshop heavier clothes on us and cover up our bare legs with three feet of snow.  The story is supposed to run next week on Monday.

My mileage and motivation have dipped to the point of seven miles becoming a struggle, but I handled tonight well enough.  Normally I run alone for the majority of the seven miles, but tonight a large group of us stuck together for awhile and we joked about being just like the lead pack of elite runners in a marathon.

It was my turn to bring the beer this week.  I decided to ring in the Christmas season with a round of Christmas beers (and the odd pack of Miller for those unadventurous folk):

The timing couldn't have been more perfect.  Just when I was getting sick of pumpkin beers, in come these wonderful spice soaked ABV bombs to remind me just how much I love Christmas beers.

We have a Texas transplant in the group who was overjoyed that I brought Shiner. Meanwhile, the Great Lakes and Southern Tier were the greatest things I've tasted since... No.  Nothing tastes as good as these beers.

Happy running to you, friends, and Merry Christmas.

Back at it

I missed my beer/running club two weeks ago due to parent-teacher conferences that night.  I missed it last week when life got a little overwhelming and I decided I couldn't spare the 2-3 hours to get out of the house.  So I was happy to return to the Haddonfield Running Company tonight for 7 miles and some post run beers.

The Wednesday night run has been going on for longer than I can remember, but the informal beer club only started a little over a year ago.  Back then people brought a six-pack and called it a night, but now with roughly 20 members, people are bringing an entire cooler and it's still not enough.  We've joked that we'll have to start bringing a keg every night.

In rotation tonight was one of my favorite breweries, and the most local:

It was a chilly night with gusts of wind and a light rain.  Despite the conditions, I guess I was feeling good because I went hard tonight.  In the first half mile I realized how good I was feeling, and I just went with it.  I love it when I'm able to push myself that hard on an average Wednesday night run, especially when I'm not even training for a goal race.

I wasn't wearing a watch, so unfortunately I don't know my time or pace.  I do remember, however, looking at my watch while drinking my first beer and realizing it was only 7:45.  I felt like I'd been finished for ages at this point so I was surprised to see it was still early in the night.

One of the guys in the group has said his batch of homemade beer is almost ready, so I'm looking forward to that.  And for now, I'm just happy to be back in the club.

Who's Up?

Big night at the weekly group run with Haddonfield Running Company.  First of all, there were about a thousand runners there tonight.  In the summer a lot of local high school coaches send their athletes to join in on the run, so the number of runners swells to epic proportions.  I feel bad for anyone trying to navigate the sidewalks on a Wednesday night in Haddonfield.

One of the guys in Who's Up just had his first baby, and volunteered to bring the beers. Playing on the tradition of fathers handing out cigars to celebrate their newborn child, he brought along a few sixpacks from Cigar City Brewing.

I'm not big on IPA's but damned if that brown ale wasn't one of the best beers I've ever had.

It was also another guy's birthday, so his wife brought in several pizzas and cupcakes.

She failed to bring the forklift to get me out of the building.

One of the guys joked that we'd have to go on a second run to burn off all the crap we just ate.

Wednesday night

Another group run with the local chapter of Who's Up?  One of the guys likes to document the weekly run to post to our Facebook page, so we get a picture of the beer and a group picture each week.

Tonight Bane decided to join us for the run:

Actually that's a guy who is training for the World's Toughest Mudder in November.  The mask simulates the difficulty of breathing at altitude, and for tonight's run he had it set to 15,000 feet. I think this was also his third run of the day.  And people say marathoners are crazy.

He finished 74th last year out of several hundred competitors, and is aiming to finish in the top 20 this year.

There was a time when I was thinking of trying to qualify for the World's Toughest Mudder.  But now they've done away with qualifying so that anyone can sign up, which strangely eliminates the appeal for me.  They've also moved it from NJ to Las Vegas which would make it much more expensive for me.  The third nail in the coffin is that it is now the same weekend as the Philly Marathon.

Guess I'll stick to marathoning.

Welcome to the Jungle

Miller Lite, Modelo, and Leinenkugel's Summer Shandy down at the Haddonfield Running Company tonight.  

Usually I have one beer after the run and then head out because I have to get up so early the next day.  But it was damn near a two beer kind of night tonight.  Easily the hottest day of the year so far, reaching the mid 90's.  I wouldn't have survived the run were it not for the cooler of water set up at the 5 mile mark and the thought of beer awaiting me at the finish.  When it gets this hot, I can't imagine wearing a shirt while running.

Apparently only one other guy shares that feeling.

A lot of talk tonight revolved around my upcoming beer mile.  It's one of my 2014 running goals, and I decided to run it this Saturday to celebrate the end of the school year.  I had posted on our Facebook group seeing if anyone wanted to join me, but while many seemed intrigued, no one committed.  Ah well, should still be fun.