Ben Rosario
Age: 29
Race: Marathon
Goal: sub 2:19
Blog 1: My Bummer Blog
Blog 2: Kings of Leon
Blog 3: Momentum
Blog 4: A Great Day
Blog 5: Ramblings from a busy Sunday
Blog 6: "Our sport is powerful"
Blog 7: Time to Rock n Roll!
Blog 8: Wrappin' up
I am the one that writes all these little bios so I guess I'll write this one in the first person. My running career has sort of been the opposite of most people's. I jumped into the marathon right out of college and qualified for the Olympic Trials when I was 23 years old. At that time and for the next two years I ran for the Hansons Brooks Distance Project in Michigan and ran three marathons in those two years including my PR of 2:18:53. After Hansons I ran four more marathons including a runner-up finish at the US Championships in 2005 and another appearance at the Olympic Trials in 2007. Since then I have gone back to the shorter stuff, even the mile, which I never even liked in high school or college. I got my mile PR all the way down to 4:03 this past indoor season but I figured I'd try the marathon one more time this fall.
Wrappin' Up
Well, I don't really know where to begin so I guess I'll just go stream-of-consciousness style. The race was Sunday.
It was a little different situation for me because I wasn't really going to be racing. My only job was to run with Brian through 10 miles where the courses split off. Because of that I didn't have the pre-race nerves that everyone else did. I was still excited though. I had been in Austin all week at a conference and gotten in a lot of nice runs so I was hoping to feel good and use the race as a nice workout for myself. Race morning Brian and I got up at 4am and he went for a little walk and I went for about a 10 minute run. I didn't tell him or Jen but I knew the fact I was sweating after a 10 minute jog at 4 in the morning was not a good sign.
As it turned out the temps at the start of the race were near 70 degrees but the real bad part was that the humidity was at 96 percent. It doesn't get much worse than that. We took the elite bus out to the start and they had a nice area for us to relax in. At 6:45 I warmed up with Brian, Adam, Kyle O'Brien and Matt Levassiur. I felt okay...nothing special. I was a bit tired from bumping up my mileage to 90 that week.
The race went off at 7:30am and I settled in with Brian and Matt trying to work together. By 3 miles I was already thinking, "man am I even going to be able to help them out all the way to ten miles?" We talked and they decided that they just wanted to feel comfortable and weren't too worried about the splits. They had wanted to hit 5:15-5:18 going in to the race. Our splits were kind of all over the map. I think we started with a 5:12, we had a few right around 5:18, we had one 5:03 and we had a few around 5:25. I did make it to ten and then decided to take it easy for a mile after my job was done. I jogged to the 11 mile mark and then picked it back up for the last couple. I guess it was a good workout but it certainly did not make me hungry to run another marathon any time soon.
As for the group we had a bad day...there is no question about it. Brian was definitely a bright spot. Finishing 10th and beating some of the people that he beat and hanging on to run 2:24 in those conditions definitely shows that he was in great shape. The thing is though, when the weather is so bad like that you just can't really gauge what kind of fitness you were in because no amount of harder training would have prepared you to handle that kind of humidity. My hope for all of them is that they realize that their training went very well and that they will benefit from it at some point. It just wasn't on Sunday.
Sunday night we tried our best to rally the troops and celebrate all of the hard work over the last 12 weeks. Everyone was pretty beat but we did manage to make it out to a piano bar and have a little fun!
Thanks to everyone for checking these blogs. We'll try to do this again...maybe for the St. Patrick's Day Parade Run.
- BEN
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Time to Rock n Roll!
11.11.09 (5 days out)
It's been a long journey but the big day is almost here! I can't say how excited I am for everyone and how proud I am that our group has worked so hard. They are definitely ready to Rock n Roll. That was corny...sorry. Anyway, I am already down here, well not San Antonio exactly but Austin for a run specialty store conference. I am learning a lot and I am more pumped than ever to keep working super hard and make our store one of the very best in the entire country. Matt and I are actually going to receive an award tonight as one of the top 50 stores in the US which is pretty cool. The next step is to be number one! Running-wise I have had a good week. It is always refreshing to run somewhere new. Austin is a great running town and I've had some nice runs along the river on the nice crushed red clay path. I got a 6/5 double in on Monday, 13 miles in on Tuesday and this morning they had a little 5k for us to crown “the fastest retailer in America” (ha ha). I was able to get the victory even thought Matt and I overslept and woke up at 6:37 when the race was supposed to start at 7. Luckily there were others that were a little late so we made it just in time.
So back to the task at hand this weekend. I think our team is going to see tons of PR's. Adam has a hamstring problem which is a bummer but I really think if he can get it solved he will be fine. He was in the best shape he had been in in a long time and he's only missed a few days so he should not lose any of that fitness. Brian looks ready to take a go at the Trials standard and Julie should be able to run under 2:50 for sure. Just how far under we'll have to see. I don't want to go through every person and make the blog really long but I know for sure that Kris, Jen and Sara are going to PR. They have looked fantastic. Also, I'm excited to see Dustin give it a go...hopefully the knee holds up!
I am running the half but as soon as I finish I will begin getting you guys who have been following us some Twitter updates at twitter.com/bigriverrunning . The race goes off at 7:30am so I should be getting results from the half in around 8:45 and marathon updates soon after. The weather looks like it could be a touch warm near the end but there's low humidity and very little wind so it really should be just about as good as you could hope for. So that's the report....GO BIG RIVER!!!
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"Our sport is powerful"
11.1.09 (2 weeks out)
This always happens to me but it's daylight savings morning and I did not take advantage of the extra hour of sleep. Instead I was up at 5am and as soon as I am awake I can never get back to sleep. I have my first "long run" since my hamstring injury in a couple of hours. I'll be going 90 minutes and no doubt we'll be talking about the ING New York City Marathon that will be happening at the same time. My dilemma is whether to hurry home and watch the end of the race live or to wait and watch the replay later so I can see the race in its entirety. Oh...the life of a running nerd. Either way I need to get a nap in there somewhere seeing as I worked all day Friday and Saturday setting up the course for the A-10 Cross Country Championships and then instead of taking it easy last night I went out to the Central West End Halloween Party and had a few pints dressed in full-on lederhosen (see pic at right). A dude dressed like Michael Jackson won the big costume contest and though he did have a good costume that included the red leather jacket, the glittery glove, the tight pants and even the face mask it was his dance moves that put him over the top. The guy could do a hand stand for like a full minute while dancing with his legs up in the air. Craziness.
Anyway, back to the NYC Marathon, I just watched a Flotrack video of Bill Rodgers before the race talking about the state of our sport and he said something that I really liked. He said, "Our sport is powerful." You know what...he's exactly right. There are more people running in this country than ever before. 40,000 people will be running down the streets of New York City today for 6 hours. What other sport has the power to shut down one of the world's busiest cities for a whole day? The Bank of America Chicago Marathon brings in more money to the city of Chicago than any other annual event the city hosts including its famous St. Patrick's Day Celebration, its Fourth of July Fireworks Extravanganza and Lolapalooza. Here in Saint Louis we are following that same trend. The GO! St. Louis Marathon, and many other races big and small, are continuing to grow every year and because I get the opportunity to see Saint Louis' runners every day in our stores I know that the enthusiasm for running is at an all-time high. Now it is up to those of us who love the sport to continue to get others involved. Like I always say, "There must be something to it if hundreds of thousands of people are signing up everyday for marathons and half marathons around the country."
Anyway, I'll climb down off the soap box and bring you my predictions for this mornings race. I figure this is my last chance to make an official prediction and we can see how smart...or dumb...I really am. The latest weather looks pretty good. Light rain and temps in the 50s. I think the lead pack will be large early with no moves being made until about halfway. I think one of the Kenyans, Patrick Makau or James Kwambai, will try to really push the pace and start to make it a fast race. They will drop everyone save for Ryan Hall and Gharib from Morroco and maybe Meb Keflezghi. I had predicted Makau to a couple people earlier in the week but I am going to change that and say that Hall will take it. By all accounts his fitness is at an all-time high and he's been pretty darn good before. Makau and Kwambai are not as experienced as Hall at the marathon distance and I think Hall will make the right move at the right time, similar to when he broke it open at the 2007 Olympic Trials. So there you go. Hall wins in 2:08 and I do think a bunch of Americans will be in the top 10 including my boy Brian Sell who many of you were able to meet at the Forest Park Cross Country Festival this year.
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Ramblings from a busy Sunday:
10.19.09 (4 weeks out)
I know blogs are supposed to be sort of "off-the-cuff" ramblings instead of structured essays so I'll try my best to just write this one as such and not go back and revise as I sometimes do. Instead I'll just take you through my day yesterday...a very fun one indeed.
The day technically began at 2:30am when I awoke to some people being loud outside our apartment. It took me about an hour and a half to fall back asleep which was not good seeing as I had to wake up at 6am. Anyway, I felt no ill-effect from the lack of z's since I woke up excited about the GO! St. Louis Halloween 10k that most of our team would be running in two short hours. I did my best husbanding and coaxed my wife out of bed. She is not a morning person but I was pretty sure she'd thank me later considering it is probably not wise to sleep in until 7 if you have to race at 8.
We got there at 7 and met the entire crew of 25 or so folks that were going to be running the race that day for us. We warmed up and took a look at the last mile of the course so they could know what to expect. The GO! St. Louis folks did a great job of creating a fun atmosphere with music and lots of Halloween decorations all over the course. I got to ride in the lead vehicle with Brian so I had a great spot to watch the action unfold. Ryan, Dan, Adam and Kyle separated from the pack pretty much right away and hit two miles in 9:50 looking super comfortable. Ryan made a big move on the downhill before 3 miles and pulled away for good. Adam and Dan battled it out for second with Kyle not far back the rest of the way with Strack eventually getting the best of them. After that it was a steady stream of Big River jerseys as everyone just ran great! Plus, we saw tons of our Big River Halloween shirts out on the course all the way through the entire pack which was awesome.
I stayed around after as long as I could and got to see our folks get their awards but I was bummed to have to leave before the costume contest began. I hope the guy in the praying mantis suit won something. That one was definitely my favorite although there were a couple women in outfits that caught my eye as well...if you know what I mean. Anyway, it was off to the Blazers meet after that to watch our little guys and girls compete at the Kirkwood Invite cross country meet. That was just as much fun as we had lots of great performances, especially since it was the first meet of the season for most of them.
I had to jet out of there to go open the West County store where I worked for the rest of the day. I love the store on Sundays...no phone ringing with solicitors...just lots of nice customers. Plus, it's only noon to five! Finished the day off with a 6 mile run with Brian and Carter followed by a nice dinner with a few folks from the team at the Royale (no smoking!). Then it was just me, the wife, dessert and a new episode of Desperate Housewives. Don't laugh...it's a good show!
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A Great Day:
10.12.09 (5 weeks out)
People ask me all the time what it's like to own my own business. My answer depends on what day I'm asked. A lot of the time I say that it's really freakin' hard. Matt and I eat, sleep and breathe the business and almost never does a day go by when I don't work in some capacity even if I am not at the store. It can be difficult. Then along comes a day like yesterday...
First of all we put on a 20k trail race in Castlewood State Park called The Skippo. I love events and I get really excited the days leading up to them almost like when I'm getting ready to run a race. This particular race was a little easier for me than most of the things we do because Drew was really in charge of this one and he did a great job. He and I ran the course on Saturday afternoon and made sure everything was marked and that the course was safe. Skip had already marked most of the course and it looked great. To our surprise the heavy rains had not done that much damage and we didn't have to change the course very much at all. I woke up Sunday at 3am to watch the World Half Marathon Championships on the internet and it was worth the missed sleep to see Dathan Ritzenhein finish third. The guy has immense talent but I believe his best talent is his high threshold for pain, something he has always shown even back to his high school days. Anyway, after the race I gathered all the things we needed for the race and headed to the park to meet Drew.
The race went off without a hitch and everyone had a great time. It was so inspiring to see so many of the folks we've met through the store rounding the bend at the top of the bluff where I was stationed and getting so many positive remarks about the course and the race. Okay, so a few people cursed me because of "the stairs" but it was all in good fun! Then we had a blast hanging out with everyone afterward and hearing the war stories.
Meanwhile I was getting text updates during the race from the Bank of America Chicago Marathon where several of members of the Big River community, friends of the store as we call them, were racing. We had lots of people we knew running the race but three in particular that I was following closely were Julie Bergfeld, Gabriel Medina and Matt Gibbs. It was cool to see their splits coming in right at what I knew they wanted to do. All three have worked so hard and it was awesome to see hard work pay off. It always does in this sport but sometimes it takes a while. Take Matt Gibbs for example. When he first came to the store he had just started running and as he would tell you he had a long way to go. Still, he was determined and joined our training team and followed the plan religously. He had the bad luck last fall of picking the Lewis and Clark Marathon for his big race and of course it was the Hurricane Ike year where the race was shortened to ten miles (the race did a great job by the way...there was no other safe choice). Still, Matt had been on pace to hit his goal so he was pretty bummed. Rather than find another "real" marathon he ran his own marathon according to his garmin on a Saturday morning in Forest Park with several of his Big River Training Teammates helping him out. He ran 3:42 that day. Then he joined the spring training team hoping to set a PR at the Nashville Country Music Marathon. Well, mother nature got him again and he ran 4:20 or so in absolutely brutal heat. Undaunted he ran our speedwork sessions all summer, joined the fall training team again and signed up for Chicago. This time temps were in the 30s at the start...perfect for a marathon. He ran even 8:00 pace almost the whole way except for the last couple where he picked it up, even laying down a 7:33 last mile for a 3:29 marathon...sub 3:30!
I ended my own day with a big nap and some lounging around watching the replay of the Bank of America Chicago Marathon on Universal Sports. Yesterday was a great day to own my own business.
Momentum:
10.5.09 (6 weeks out)
Well, not much to report from my end although I have jogged a bit th past two days. The hamstring was bugging me after today's run so we'll have to see. Anyway, I am on everyone to turn blogs in so I feel like I have to do a good job posting mine as well.
Thinking of a topic was pretty easy after what we had happen this past week. I got to time the workouts on Wednesday and Sunday and I like that almost as much as I like running the workouts myself. We had a huge group for 24 400s on Wednesday. If my memory serves we had sixteen runners out there which made for a funny scene since we had to do the workout on the roads instead of the track which was occupied. Brian found a great little street that is basically a 600 meter circle with no thru traffic. It will forever be known as Brian's loop now per his own request! I am pretty sure the neighbors had never seen 16 half naked men and women running 24 laps around their block before but as is always my philosophy just act like you're supposed to be there and nobody will bother you and nobody did. To a person everyone had a nice workout even Walker who kind of got thrown into the mix with Brian, Adam and Carter for his first workout with the group.
I felt like everyone carried that positive momentum into Sunday for the 12 miles at Marathon Pace workout. Again, no one had a bad day and it just seems like everyone is absorbing the training beautifully. I think marathon training, and running in general, relies on momentum. For me, properly preparing for a race isn't about one big workout or one big week but several solid weeks in a row. That's why no one workout over the next 6 weeks will really stand out as the toughest...more so they will all be accomplishing a certain goal and building on one another until finally everyone will be ready to handle 26.2 miles at their goal pace on November 15th.
Hopefully the positive momentum will continue til then!
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Kings of Leon:
10.1.09 (7 weeks out)
Jen and I went to the Kings of Leon concert at Scottrade last night. It was awesome! We are longtime Kings fans and saw them at Pops before anyone in the States knew who they were. Their first three albums, Youth and Young Manhood, Aha Shake Heartbreak and Because of the Times are three of my favorite albums of all time. Their latest, Only by the Night, is my least favorite of theirs but I still like it and it has brought them tons of fame, finally, in the U.S. They've been huge in Europe for five years now. Anyway, we were a little concerned that they would play too much to their "new" audience that has heard their hit singles Sex on Fire and Use Somebody on the radio. They did play a lot of the new album but they went back to most of our favorite early stuff as well so no complaints on the set list at all. The new stuff sounded pretty darn good live I'd have to admit. The best part for me was the encore where they played three songs ending with Use Somebody and then Caleb Followill said to the dopey fans that were heading for the exits "I see some of you guys are leaving. I'll see ya'll later. I guess you heard all of your favorite songs...well this is one of my favorites" and then they went straight into an old song which for the life of me I can't remember the name of but anyway they rocked it out. Very cool.
I guess my blog should have something to do with running so I will say this; every time I go to a concert I love the music and I'm super into it but I always find my thoughts going to running. I was the same way in school except for the part about being super into it. Anyway, last night my thoughts were on getting my body going again, having a nice October of just running base miles and then a November where I get on the grass and do some cross country workouts to get ready for the Club Cross Champs in December.
Later,
BEN
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My Bummer Blog:
9.29.09 (7 weeks out)
Well, this is my first blog post for the San Antonio segment but it is not going to be a very good one. At least not in terms of my running. Anyway, here's the deal. We are seven weeks out from the race but I am hurt. I re-injured my left hamstring last Thursday. It is the same injury I had last May which is why I couldn't run the mile at our Festival of Miles meet...the one where Leo Manzano ended up running 3:55 and three guys went under four minutes. Anyway, it is basically a strain and will need a few days of rest before I can run again. At this point it is unlikely that I will run in San Antonio but I guess you never know. For me personally it is not a huge bummer. I've been fortunate enough to run in two Olympic Trials Marathons and if I don't run in the next one it won't be the end of the world. That said, I would like to have at least one more successful season of running this winter and into the spring.
Back to San Antonio though. The nice thing for me now is that while I am recovering I can help everyone else out by being at the workouts as a cheerleader/ split-taker/ water-hander-outer. For the purpose of the website I think I'll take some pics at the next few workouts as well and maybe even put together a video or two so those of you who are following the site can see the hard work all these folks are putting in.
That's it for now.
BEN
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