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This past Thursday was the Sunset Classic 5-miler in Bloomfield. My employer partly sponsors this race, so we always get a group together from work to run and share a pizza dinner afterward. It’s also a big draw for the local running community, with several clubs showing up in large numbers. Between my local running friends and my coworkers, it’s a fun night of familiar faces all gathered around my most precious hobby. What’s not to like?

Coming off the birth of my son earlier this year and the few months of uncomplicated training (and increased stress levels) that followed, I was apprehensive about this year’s race. In my last post, I wrote about the 30:56 I ran at Sunset 2023 as a possible benchmark, with my post-collegiate 5-mile best of 30:23 as an afterthought for a potential A-plus day. As the race got closer, setting up these goalposts almost felt like a mistake, as I had no idea what kind of shape I was in and had now given myself something to live up to. General apprehension turned into the specific, steady background hum of anxiety.

I tried to simplify: by the time the gun went off, my only goals were to get out in 6:15 for the first mile, get to the top of Sunset Ave without overextending myself, and see what happened after that.

What happened after that was I ran 29:51, which is the fastest I’ve run over that distance since I ran 8K (close enough) in 27:58 as a junior on my college cross country team. That was in 2011.

As I reflect on the race, I have several questions, and several plausible answers.

How did I misjudge my fitness by this much?

While I knew deep down I’d love to break 30 minutes on the Sunset course, I assumed that would be a goal for 2026 at best. Here, I was nervous about blowing up completely trying to break 31. Why was I so worried?

My first guess is I underestimated the impact of all the hill workouts I ran over the last several months, as well as the strides and strength work I put in. It wasn’t much, but I suppose it was more than doing nothing. I just thought it was closer to nothing than what I ended up getting out of it.

Also, Dad Strength is real. My shoulders and chest felt much better after five months of lugging my son around than they did when I was an office worker with no kids and no strength routine.

Speaking of my son, I think he was a big reason why I was keeping my expectations low. I didn’t want to be too aggressive and set myself up to fail (a mistake I nonetheless made right out of the gate). I didn’t want to strain against my new circumstances trying to do something I could try again at next year—but I also assumed that if I did strain, the circumstances would overpower me. Even with strong workouts coming in almost every week, I listened to that fear instead of the data.

It wasn’t just fear that I couldn’t be a dad and a runner at the same time, either. Thirty minutes is a nice round number, one I haven’t broken since I was in college and in close to the shape of my life. I like a nice round number when I’m changing the volume on my TV, or calculating the tip at a restaurant, but when running I find them intimidating. Round numbers ask questions of you. So, you think you’re a sub-30 guy?

Turns out I am, but I didn’t believe it on the starting line. Which raises the next question:

How did I run so much faster than expected despite my lack of confidence?

The short answer here is an unusually strong mental performance, but I want to elaborate because I finally noticed and put a name to a few things after this race.

First, I went into the race with a simple, action-oriented plan that made it easy to maintain a flexible and resilient racing mentality out on the course. The best races I have had over the last few years—my 4:58 mile in 2023 and my 2:52 marathon in Rehoboth come to mind, as well as this one—went as well as they did because I gave myself simple instructions: “compete more,” or “be patient,” or, in the case of Sunset, “go out in 6:15, climb the hill, and see what happens.”

People who talk about performance talk a lot about process-oriented goals, rather than outcome-oriented ones. Maybe I’m learning this a bit late at 33 years old, but they really do work.

There was something else I noticed about the instructions I gave myself on Thursday, the ones after I’d gotten to the “see what happens” part of the race plan. My self-talk was patient and gentle: “stay right here,” “don’t force it.” Maybe it’s me, but I always imagine the self-talk of a personal-best performance will sound like something out of Rocky.

That’s not to say I didn’t have moments where I was aggressive—namely, at the tops or bottoms of hills and other places on the course where I was naturally tempted to slow down, I looked at the runners ahead of me and stepped on the gas. It was important to keep going. After I got back up to pace, the gentle talk would return: “that’s enough,” “just keep rolling.”

If I were in a worse headspace, I might have panicked about the pace being too hot. Instead, I was calm and open-minded. “See what happens” left me a lot of room to work.

While it felt like a mistake leading up to the gun, setting a few different time goals also gave me a lot of room to work. I knew after three miles that I was going to blow past my course best. I knew after four that I was going to beat my post-collegiate best. It wasn’t until maybe four and a half miles that I really seriously considered pushing for sub-30. I think if that had been my goal from the beginning, I wouldn’t have made it.

With only 8 seconds to spare, I likely also wouldn’t have made it if the weather hadn’t been extremely favorable for a late-June evening race. After hitting the high nineties just a few days earlier, temperatures were in the low seventies by gun time. There was a light breeze. The humidity was tolerable—a miracle for summer in Jersey. Simply put, I will likely never have a night like that for the Sunset Classic ever again.

I’m glad I put myself in the best possible position to capitalize.

How should I adjust my goals for the future?

For the first time since 2011, I am once again a sub-30 guy. It feels really good. Now, I’m thinking about where I’m going from here.

Five miles in 29:51 is worth about 18:05 for 5K and 2:53-low for the marathon, according to VDOT. I’d love to be running 17:30 and 2:49, so this doesn’t move the needle much on pure numbers, but we can look at how I’ve run in the past to see what this might be worth for me, specifically.

In 2023, I ran a 2:57 marathon in April, 30:56 at Sunset in June, and a 4:58 mile in July. Taking a minute off that 5-mile time has me feeling good about those other two distances. It has me thinking I’ve lost far less fitness than I expected since Rehoboth and the birth of my son. If I spend the summer building mileage, how far can I go from here? Is a sub-80 half marathon (6:05 pace) possible by fall? Am I on track for sub-2:50 (6:29 pace) by next spring?

I guess we’ll see what happens.

After a mild May and a cool and rainy start to June, the first heat wave of summer is here. Heaven help us all.

Right now, the forecast for my race this week is favorable, but it’s on the other side of several days of high-90s temperatures with feels-like-the-inside-of-a-dishwasher humidity and absolutely no wind. I spent a brief 45 minutes mowing the lawn around 7 this morning and came inside dripping. After sitting in the office parking lot all day, my car thought it was 109 degrees at quitting time. We’re in the shit.

My plan is to cut back even more than I had originally planned in the run-up to Sunset, and let the heat make up the difference in training stimulus. I will not be doing any more than a half-hour jog each day between now and Thursday, and even that looks like a lot of work from where I’m sitting. With any luck, the heat dome will lift and I will feel like the first day of fall on the sixth day of summer.

This weekend I met up with some friends for a workout, which is always better than going alone. These guys have made a summer tradition of weekend tempos that get one mile longer every week. This week was five miles. Joining them for the whole workout would have meant racing five miles five days before racing five miles at Sunset, so I rode the bus to halfway and called it a day.

In the future I hope I can join them for more. I have been quietly wanting to feel ready to race a half marathon by the fall, and that is exactly the kind of workout that can get me there. Right now I need to weather the heat dome, stay fresh, run Sunset like a fall breeze (briskly), and let the last few months of training soak in.

After that, bring on the summer miles. Just please spare me the heat.

The Boston Athletic Association gifted me a lead-in to this week’s blog when they imposed a new rule for downhill marathons starting with the 2027 qualifying window.

These have always been a small and weird corner of the qualifier pool, so I don’t expect the impact on qualifying times to be large, but it does feel more “fair” to know there is some sort of standard for Boston-eligible courses. If the Olympic Trials and the Olympic Games have a limit on net downhill for qualifying times, surely it makes sense for the “People’s Olympics” to do the same (and for that limit to be much less stringent, at 1,500 feet).

I’ll be very curious to see what local runner and data cruncher Brian Rock has to say about this. Brian has made a name for himself online predicting the Boston cutoff time the last several years. He, and others like him, have made it much easier for me personally to prepare for the emotions of the September application window; I knew my 2:53:45 had a shot in 2024, but not a good one, and I know my 2:52:48 this year is in no way fit to travel. I expect Rock will look into the impact of downhill races on the cutoff time, and I will take anything he has to say on that pretty seriously.

In the meantime, I’m just trying to get through another week of training toward a five-mile race later this month. Here’s how I’m doing:

Sunday: 8 miles easy at the beach. I ended up stuck at the drawbridge leaving Belmar and made some conversation with a few runners, who I wound up yapping with for the next two miles.

Running is absolutely great for this. It’s similar to the experience I have skiing—people are in a good mood because they’re doing something they enjoy, and you’re doing the same thing, so you’re also in a good mood and you have something in common right away. And running is way cheaper than skiing!

Monday: 3 miles easy.

Tuesday: 7 miles easy with strides. I have been adding distance to my Tuesday and Thursday runs to bulk up my weekly totals. So far so good.

Wednesday: Hill repeats. I added two more repeats to my usual set this week and slowed them down to simulate how I’ll run the hills at the Sunset Classic later this month. The slightly slower pace made a huge difference in how I felt, and I was still able to send the last rep as fast as any I’ve done in a shorter set. I’m really enjoying seeing the effect that hills and strides have had on my running these past few months. It’s starting to raise my expectations for Sunset.

Thursday: 7 miles easy. I was sorer than usual from the hills the day before and the extra mileage this week.

Friday: 4 miles easy with strides. Still sore.

Saturday: 3 x 1 mile at tempo pace (6:01, 5:59, 5:55) with 1 minute rest. This went really well thanks to the weather, which has taken a turn for the cooler lately. The fact that I’m hitting these times while stretching out my mileage has me thinking seriously about a personal best at the Sunset Classic.

In 2023, I came off my first sub-3 marathon in April to set a ten-second personal best over the five-mile Sunset Classic course that June. I finally ran the hilly course correctly (read: conservatively), and I had a lot left over the final miles. I felt great.

My workouts in 2023 didn’t indicate that I was in any special kind of shape, but I put it together on race day for a really pleasant surprise. My workouts this summer have me several steps ahead of where I was two years ago, even having to rebuild after my son was born, so I am now trying to decide what my goals should be. I have two times in mind:

1. 30:56 (personal best for this course)
2. 30:23 (best five-mile performance since college, set in 2018)

The big question underlying this exercise is how much endurance I still have after running mostly low mileage since December. I ran 30:56 off the strength of a marathon block, with middling workouts on the track. I ran 30:23 on a flatter course, in cooler (read: freezing cold) conditions, seven years ago, off less mileage and more speed. How does 2025 compare to either of those?

I’ve decided, at the very least, that I want to give myself the best chance possible of finding out. I’ll be dialing back the mileage just a bit until the race; the past two weeks at 40-plus have been encouraging, but tiring. I’m going to sharpen up, full send at Sunset, and regroup for some bigger mileage this summer.

This past week was my first 40 since my son was born:

Sunday: 8 comfortable miles before driving down to Grand Slam Track in Philly.

Monday: 3 miles from the office on my lunch break. Monday runs have been hard to come by lately, so this was a step towards better consistency.

Tuesday: 6 miles easy with strides.

Wednesday: 4 x 600 meters (1:56, 1:56, 1:54, 1:53) with 3 minutes rest. I found 600-meter repeats really helpful while prepping for a sub-5 mile attempt in 2023. The reps are just long enough that you can’t fake them, but not so long that it hurts too much to hit them at close to mile pace. It is a good speed-endurance stimulus.

I’m not sure if my schedule will allow for a mile or 3K this summer like I’d hoped, but I still want to build speed before attempting a longer training block later this year. This workout made me feel like I am, in fact, building speed. My splits were quicker than in 2023, and I felt strong when pushing the pace. I think the hill reps and strides and strength work I have been doing have been working. A little bit of Dad Discipline goes a long way.

Thursday: Another 6 miles easy.

Friday: 4 miles easy with strides.

Saturday: 3 miles at tempo pace (6:10 average) on the boardwalk in Asbury Park. My wife and I took a trip to Belmar this weekend, leaving our boy with her parents nearby in Central Jersey. I wanted to go somewhere my wife could relax and recharge as her maternity leave winds down. Belmar was where I proposed to her, so suffice to say it has treated us well in the past.

We ate well, read books on the beach, played pinball at the Silverball Museum, drank rum buckets, visited a bookstore, and played mini golf. It was everything she loves to do except spend quality time with our little guy; we had a wonderful trip, and we still missed him the whole time.

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While this all feels like a huge win for discipline and consistency (and for a happy marriage), there was one important part of my routine that utterly eluded me—sleep. I had seemingly no motivation to go to bed on time; my watch logged me sleeping close to or after 11 PM six of the seven nights this week.

I can forgive myself for sleeping less when I’m on vacation, but that leaves four weeknights stuck in a bad habit. I need to do better than this to keep building into the summer and fall. My first week at forty miles is a small victory, but in the long term it’s only a checkpoint on the way to fifty, or sixty, or more—whatever my new life as a dad will allow.

Though, my wife (and to my surprise, my infant son) have been extremely supportive, so I guess that’s ultimately up to me.

Grand Slam Track made its Philadelphia stop this weekend and did not disappoint. While I was initially frustrated that they would cut the 5000 from the schedule, not least because of the way this impacts the Long Distance group’s ability to earn points (and US Dollars), the two-day format worked a lot better than the three-day slate from Kingston and Miami.

Saturday’s 11 races made for a lot of highlights, including a full reset of Franklin Field’s long-running record book with 11 new facility records. Here’s what stood out to me:

• Marco Arop negative-split a 1:43!
• Melissa Jefferson-Wooden exploded out of the 200-meter blocks and put away a field that included Olympic champ Gabby Thomas!
• Kenny Bednarek likewise put up a no-doubter in his own 200-meter race, extending his Grand Slam winning streak.
• Agnes Ngetich did what I have loved seeing in each of her Slam performances—taking charge of a race and strong-arming the competition from the front of the pack.

The Men’s Short Distance group had me excited for Sunday. Yared Nuguse finished third in the 800, which I thought set him up really well for his specialty in the 1500 meters. The field was deep, adding Paris fifth-placer Hobbs Kessler to an already potent mix.

I was especially excited because I was going to be there! That’s me!

Grand Slam Philadelphia continued to deliver on the second day of competition, and I got to watch.

Admittedly, I got the start time wrong and got us to the stadium having just missed the Women’s 800 meters. What a race to miss! Jessica Hull ran the wackiest third-place I have seen in some time, and Welteji was once again not to be trifled with.

Instead, I caught that on the replay when I got home and entered moments before the start of the Men’s Short Hurdles 100 meters. The roar of the crowd after the gun went off was special. Unlike the Kingston and Miami venues, Franklin Field is a tight-fit stadium. The sound reverberated off of every brick—especially when Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone lined up for the next race.

I was a little disappointed when Grant Fisher didn’t line up for the Men’s 3000 meters, but Nico Young’s blistering finish took the sting out a little. This was my first time watching a pure professional meet in person since Galen Rupp’s 3:50 mile at BU in 2013, and it’s easy to forget how different it is. The guys at the front of your local 5K do not have the gear shift that Nico has, and it’s amazing to see.

The Men’s 1500 meters was the highlight for me. I was pulling for Yared to win his first Slam—I wore the only article of clothing I own with a goose on it—but the race we got was still electric.

As soon as Cole Hocker took charge of the race I knew it would be good. A strong kicker who pushes the pace early is a scary man. I was amazed when Marco went with him, and even moreso when he made a play for the win! Luckily for Marco, he held off enough of the pack to squeeze away with a one-point overall victory. After dominating the 800 at every Slam so far, he surely deserves it.

Cole was nearly rewarded for his own efforts, but Josh Kerr nipped him at the line. This group is an utter free-for-all, which has been thrilling to watch.

Even worse for Cole, he had to make chitchat with an awkward washed-up runner from Jersey after the meet.

That’s right: I got Cole Hocker’s autograph!

I had brought my journal to the Slam specifically for autographs, so you’d think I would be prepared for this interaction.

I was not. Our conversation went exactly like this:

“Cole, do you mind?”

“Sure.”

“That’s my running log.”

“That’s cool, I love that.”

And scene. Cole Hocker was gracious with everyone and none of what you just read is his fault. I called a thank-you after him once I got my wits back.

If you think that’s bad, I almost chickened out of getting the autograph. Thankfully, I had a great crew with me who hyped me up.

Overall, I had a Grand time Slamming in Philly and would definitely go back if Michael Johnson brings his circus back to town next year. For now, I’m looking forward to watching Los Angeles!

This week was a bit of a blur as my wife and I got ready to attend her brother’s wedding on Sunday, which we were looking forward to for a very long time. My marathon PR was 3:05 when he popped the question!

It was a beautiful day full to the brim with love. I love weddings, and the better I know the bride and groom the more this is true. We had a wonderful weekend.

That said, my past week of training feels much less consequential than such a Major Life Event, and also was pretty standard even when not weighed against the sacred bond of marriage, so I’ve been unsure what to post today.

In the spirit of the wedding, I think I can write a little about our groom. My brother-in-law is many things, but most recently—and most relevant to this blog—he has added “runner” to his resume.

He started with 5Ks a few years ago and caught the bug immediately. I think the twin pillars of community and competition you find at most local races spoke to him as both a lifelong theater kid and an all-purpose pick-up athlete. Sadly, he hurt his foot pretty badly in a freak Thanksgiving football accident, proposed to his now-wife in a boot, and was on the shelf for a while as far as running was concerned.

The comeback got serious when some friends encouraged (read: challenged) him to sign up for a sprint triathlon last summer. One sport is enough for me, personally, but our protagonist is not the kind to hit for contact. He’s always swinging for the cheap seats—remember, he’s a theater kid.

We went on vacation together around the time of the US Olympic Trials, and by then he was dialed in. We shared a few miles together most days that week and talked a lot about our training and our goals. I relished the chance to watch someone discover the sport in real time. That he went on to finish that triathlon after injuries and doubt was the icing on the cake.

After crossing your first triathlon finish, what could the next logical step be but a half marathon? He kept in shape through the fall with a few 5Ks. He put winter running gear on his Christmas list, but didn’t wait for it. He logged some miles with me on Christmas Eve. He got really sick, tweaked his knee, put on a few musicals, and crammed for the test with a ten-miler two weeks out from race day. He finished and crushed his goal time.

Watching my brother-in-law grow as a runner has been a blast. When you do it right, growing as a runner means growing as a person, too. Setting big goals, showing up on the good days and the bad, trusting your work, and enjoying the ride are skills that transfer anywhere. Maybe that’s why all the young folks are using their local running clubs to find a date.

Not this guy; he’s officially taken. Congrats!

No big thoughts this week, so let’s recap last week’s training like I did before Rehoboth:

Sunday: 8 miles, slow but not easy. Came home and made that Mother’s Day brunch I wrote about last week.

Monday: No planned run. Planned core. No core.

Tuesday: 5 miles in some lousy, muggy weather. Did some strides that felt good.

Wednesday: 5 x 1′ hills on a loop in town. I’ve been doing these a few times a month to really lift those knees and drive for power, and I think it’s helping even though I’m too tired most of the time to see the results. This set was a bit slower than my last few outings, but I felt more in control and had some gas at the end.

I’m trying hard to balance my effort so I don’t burn out. Right now I’m riding a month-long streak of 30+ miles per week, and I think my legs are starting to notice. Like I said, I’m tired a lot of the time, but it seems like just the right amount. I find myself able to run a little farther on my easy days without feeling like it’s too far. I want to see how long I can keep this up, adding a mile here, a mile there while soaking up some consistent training. I think it’s going to pay off soon.

Thursday: Another bog swamp kind of day. Did 6 easy. Utterly neglected to do core exercises again.

Friday: 4 easy, swampy again, with strides.

Saturday: 3 x 1 mile at tempo pace (6:04 average) with 1′ rest. Humid again; came home soaked like I’d been rained on. Ran too hard. Took the second and third reps out in 89 and didn’t learn any lessons. Just had to hold on. I felt pretty tired on the cooldown but knocked out some split squats and calf raises when I got home, which felt good.

This Week: 36 miles. This morning I did my first Monday run in a while, so I’m hoping I’ll see 40 soon enough. I think this is a pretty good place to be with a not-quite-four-month-old at home, but it’s still frustrating having lost a step from last year’s marathon blocks. I wasn’t running hills like this last year, or doing any sort of strength, so I think that’s keeping me tired but hopefully also making me strong. I want to keep dialing in this routine until I find out.

Baby: My son is teething. There’s really no good way to do it, is there? He’s crankier than usual, but he’s holding up and so are we. Some friends of ours recommended chilling his pacifiers which has been a good quick fix. We’re opening up lots of new devices to help him with the pain, and we’re figuring it out as we go. He needs a little more love these days. Twist my arm.

My son is now three-and-a-half months old, and I’m still waiting on Dad Strength—the near-mythical muscle gains that supposedly come with fatherhood.

Dad Strength seemed like it would be inevitable for me. My complete lack of interest in the weight room, or even pushups, during my youth means the only way for me to go is up. Lugging a twelve-pound baby around is a lot more than I was doing most days before I became a dad.

Outside ran an article on Dad Strength last month that I found interesting. If you read what the athletes they interviewed had to say, you can see a common theme, and it isn’t Dad Strength. It’s Dad Discipline.

I’m not talking about the kind of discipline where Dad takes the car keys away after you miss curfew. I’m talking about the reckoning that comes for every parent, athlete or not—the realization that your life is not your own anymore. Some accept this by putting away the parts of themselves that make it hard to be a father; I’ve known many dads who were athletes, “back in the day.” Others figure out how to keep those parts of themselves in the present tense. They strategize. They develop discipline: Dad Discipline.

Think about what a good dad does. He wakes up early and goes to work. He works hard, comes home, and helps get things done—whether that’s housework, homework, or yardwork. He sits down to dinner and asks about the day. He doesn’t complain. He doesn’t miss baseball games or piano recitals, if he can help it. He goes to bed early and does it all again.

I have yet to achieve this sort of parenting Nirvana. To do so means to accept the many demands of fatherhood until all coalesce into a oneness of purpose. When I attain this enlightenment, I will wake up in the morning with one objective: be Dad. All else will follow.

I want to believe it is possible to include my BQ pursuit within the infinities of “be Dad,” at least for a short while, at least for long enough to make that turn onto Boylston. Wanting to believe, or even believing, is not the same as doing.

After my last marathon in Rehoboth, but before I became a father, I wrote about my plans to resume training. I said I would target speed and power. I said I would do the little things to maximize my training time.

A few months in, I have been tested. After coming back too eager and burning myself out in March, I adjusted my plans and eventually settled on a weekly routine:

Sunday: Long run, slow; core work after. (8 miles)

Monday: Off day except for core work. (0 miles)

Tuesday: Easy, with strides after. (3-5 miles)

Wednesday: Sprints, either hills or track; strength after (6-8 miles)

Thursday: Easy; core work after. (3-5 miles)

Friday: Easy, with strides after. (3-4 miles)

Saturday: Tempo; strength after. (7-8 miles)

It all adds up to about 30 miles of work, two workouts, three core sessions, two strength sessions, and two days of strides. I wish I could say I’ve been doing all of that.

The truth is, doing the little things, after you’ve already done the big things, is really hard. I have avoided core work like the plague this past month. I have been decent about the strength work and strides, albeit in small doses: 10 split squats on each leg and 2 x 10 pushups, with or without some calf raises, is a “strength session” for me, and 4 strides is a lot. I’d love to be doing twice as much.

I used to use a journal to keep myself accountable in times like this. Back in 2022, as I was gearing up to DNF Philadelphia (I swear I will eventually write about this instead of just flogging myself for it), I made an effort to go to bed earlier and it worked. It worked because if I was in bed with the lights out before 10pm, I checked a box when I woke up the next morning; if I didn’t, then I didn’t. This was the motivation I needed to make the habit stick. Accountability was my discipline hack.

I kept a meticulous running journal all through 2022, and through most of 2023, before falling off the wagon. It was a lot to keep up because the format was custom and I was drawing it by hand every week.

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I tried reviving my journal in a less demanding, less custom format this year, and I barely made it to March. Now I’m trying to find a way to create the accountability I had in those journals without also creating work I don’t have time for. In 2022 and 2023 I finally realized the value of The Process and put it to work, page by page. In 2025 I need to tweak The Process so it fits into my family and becomes part of my Dad Discipline.

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In related news, this Sunday was my first Mother’s Day as a father, which was more important to me than any race day could be. I planned a big homemade brunch to celebrate, and I thought I would be stressed about getting everything ready in time, but I wasn’t. Instead, I took my time, thought through each step in advance, seized opportunities to get more done, and didn’t sweat the tiny mistakes along the way.

Brunch came out great. Most importantly, my wife loved it. I was so relieved, and so happy.

Dan the Runner can learn a lot from Dan the Dad. Maybe soon enough he will, and all will be one.

Between a local 5K race and Grand Slam Track’s Miami meet (each alike in dignity, and in warm weather), I spent a lot of this weekend running or thinking about running. Unfortunately, I didn’t spend it writing about running, so here we are again with a Monday night blog.

Run With Eagles: A Hot, Windy Homecoming

This was my third time at the Run With Eagles 5K in Allentown, NJ. My father-in-law helps organize the race with the local Lions club; when he heard his daughter was dating a runner, he was keen to sign me up!

That was in 2018. I was finally making a somewhat serious effort to get back in shape, which would eventually slingshot me into training for my first marathon in Oakland in 2019. I looked over the past results and liked my odds at winning it. I showed up excited to race—until I saw a high-schooler in his team sweats. He sat on my shoulder for two and a half miles and outkicked me easily. We both defeated New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy which, given that this was a race, I think made me Lieutenant Governor of the Garden State at the time. I didn’t seek reelection.

The race also offers a prize for the fastest Eagle Scout, a relic of its early years as a community service and fundraising effort for the local troop. I spent my teen years earning merit badges, which wasn’t exactly what all the cool kids were doing, so I thought I would have that prize in my back pocket in the event of an “upset.”

My teenage opponent was an Eagle Scout too. From the very beginning, this race has had a way of keeping my pride in check.

When I showed up to race this weekend, I knew right away it would be another humbling outing, though not because of any student-athlete spoilers (He went on to run Division II cross country and never returned to defend his title—I won the 2022 edition in 17:58). No, this time it was just unseasonably hot, and the out-and-back course was starting into a stiff headwind.

Oh! And I was a new dad who was struggling to maintain 30 miles per week. As much as I wanted to prove I hadn’t lost a step, time goals were out the window.

Thankfully, I recognized this and ran accordingly, keeping a pretty even pace en route to an 18:34 victory.

It’s worth mentioning here that the prizes at Run With Eagles are above and beyond what you’d expect for a local 5K. Cream Ridge Winery hosts the race, so I got a bottle of wine, and on top of that a trophy, a gift card to the local running store, a bouquet of tulips, and—as fastest Eagle—a pint glass. Frankly, I don’t know why the hometown heroes don’t come back; it pays for itself!

I definitely spent some of my time on Saturday wishing I had felt a little more fit out there, but it was hard to be too preoccupied when it was such a beautiful day for a race and the mood in town was so high. While warming up, I spotted a guy in neon green shorts and we joked that bright colors go faster (I was wearing neon orange). When he saw me leading the race later, he called out, “It’s the shorts!”

I had several friends racing too, and my family was cheering. The race director came dressed in his Kentucky Derby finest and sent us off with a bugle; people were having fun.

I came home to my in-laws’ house, wolfed down a cheesesteak from a local place, took a shower, and slept for two hours. It was a good day.

Grand Slam Miami: The Times They Are Improving

I have been following Michael Johnson’s grand experiment with Grand Slam Track since it was announced last year. With the Diamond League effectively disappearing behind FloTrack’s no-way paywall, I was looking forward to the possibility of actually watching some compelling professional races as they happened. So far, Grand Slam Track has delivered on that.

Emmanuel Wanyonyi showing up the entire Paris 1500 podium in Kingston was a fabulous proof of concept, and I was disappointed he didn’t return as a Challenger in Miami, but there was a lot to be happy about. I know this is against the ethos of the league, but I was pleased to see some impressive times come out of Miami. Granted, with the exception of Agnes Ngetich’s masterful 5000-meter win from the front and her hard-fought 3000 with Eisa and Meshesha, the distance races were not the impressive ones by the stopwatch—until you look at everyone’s off-distances. Marco Arop runs a new PB of 3:35. Yared Nuguse runs 1:44!

Seeing athletes push themselves in their non-specialty events is something I’ve really been enjoying about Grand Slam Track. It’s hard not to get excited about Yared’s 1500-meter chances later this year after seeing him sniff the front of a competitive 800 and go 1:44. It’s also hard not to watch Alison dos Santos rounding into near-PB 400-meter form in May and wonder what might happen next time the Big Three square off.

And what the hell can Sydney run for 400 in LA?

This is not to mention speedy specialties from the likes of Kenny Bednarek, Masai Russell, Gabby Thomas, and Trey Cunningham—to name a few! The track was fast! Fast is fun.

Grand Slam’s next stop is in Philly at the end of the month, and mine is in Bloomfield for the Sunset Classic 5-miler in late June. Over the next eight weeks, I’ll be trying to build consistency: consistent mileage, consistent workouts, consistent cross-training (my biggest weakness), consistent rest (with the new baby, my biggest question mark!), and consistent positive attitude.

If this is going to work for me and my family, I have to embrace the process and do a little bit every day to get where I want to be. I have to embrace celebrating a “slow” 5K because I ran it smart and had fun. I have to embrace my son because he’s so cute. I have to embrace my Point A and my Point B, and find the way between.

I am starting this post at 6pm Monday evening, when I should have already posted something, and so in that sense I am catching up. I was already planning on writing about how things have been going since Rehoboth, so this at least feels on-theme.

But first, let’s catch up on some recent history. Last week I opened up shop at The DNF, which was exciting for me. I put my money where my keyboard is and paid for a domain name. I decided to take this writing exercise a little more seriously.

I enjoy taking things seriously.

I logged into Canva and designed a logo. I signed up for socials I have only glancingly, or never, used before: Bluesky, Instagram, Threads. I have no delusions of doing the runfluencer thing, but I want to put myself out there in case anyone besides my closest friends like what I have to say.

I’ll catch you up on this past week by saying that I am not enjoying my experience with these new socials so far. These algorithms are brain poison. They are partly the reason this post is so late; I tripped and fell into the infinite scroll so quickly I lost a couple evenings to an internet-induced malaise.

One thing that grabbed me so quickly is the alarming number of bad takes out there. Many of them are designed to lure you in and get you to react, but I think some of them are just bad. I saw a video where a man said, into a camera and with total certainty, that prime Eliud Kipchoge would beat prime Usain Bolt in a 400-meter race because, and I quote, “When Bolt hits 70 meters, he is already slowing down.” As if Bolt would race 400 meters the same way he raced 100, and as if his 400-meter PB weren’t readily searchable in our vast information landscape! It’s 45.3.

It’s not Bolt’s best event, obviously, but to think a 5000-meter specialist who moved up and dominated the marathon for nearly a decade ever had a 45-second quarter mile in him is ridiculous. David Rudisha, whose 2012 Olympic 800-meter gold is one of my favorite races ever, is the more interesting comp here, with a 45.5 to his credit. If nothing else, it would be a showcase of two of the most brilliant strides in all of sport.

If you’re thinking this post is already getting into the weeds, you can see how I only sat down to write this post at 6pm this evening. I will be using The DNF’s social media accounts as little as possible going forward.

Let’s catch up!

December

Aside from running Rehoboth, I spent December hauling around various baby supplies, building nursery furniture, and getting ready for and hosting a housewarming-slash-Christmas party. That was just the first half of the month.

I started running again just before Christmas, with snow on the ground: a few miles a day with drills and strides, trying to maintain some all-around fitness before I went into hibernation with my wife and our new baby. I hit 2,400 miles for 2024, which is a new high for me.

January

My son was born on the 24th, which was incredible in every way. My wife was incredible. My son was incredible. The doctors and nurses and staff were incredible. I was a first-time dad and did the best I could for everyone in support.

Everyone came home happy and healthy, and tired. I volunteered for the night shift and quickly transitioned to Hawaii Standard Time, here in New Jersey. My wife and I learned a lot. So did my son. Even three months in, it’s already amazing to look back on. Life happens really fast when you have a baby.

My running life was far less interesting leading up to that. I was dividing my time before the birth into two days running, one day of Ring Fit Adventure. I ran some hills. It was enough not to go crazy while we waited for my son to arrive, but it wasn’t much more than that.

February

If my running life was boring in January, it was almost nonexistent in February. In the dead of winter, it wasn’t the worst thing to stay inside. Coming off the night shift and back to Eastern Standard Time was brutal. None of it was as brutal as the early days of motherhood, or of human life. This month was intense. I went back to work four weeks after my son was born, and by then I was also running a little bit, somewhat regularly. The search for a new normal was underway.

March

I was in like a lion and out like a lamb this month. With my first taste of regular running in late February and my son starting to sleep pretty well, I came roaring out of the gate and crashed hard. For whatever reason, I decided I would try Canova-style workouts for the first time with almost no base mileage and a mountain of sleep debt.

Here’s how I spent the middle weekend of March:

5mi @ 85% 3K Pace (~6:10)

8 x 200 @ 115% 3K Pace (~33) with 2 minutes rest

Strava embeds do not work without a beefier WordPress plan, apparently?

This on back to back days! What could possibly go wrong? Why not add some hills on Wednesday? Why not try another long tempo run on Saturday? Hey, Dad, how much sleep are you getting these days?

I had to cut that next tempo so far short I walked over a mile to get home. Oops!

Dad Strength is earned, not given. I hadn’t paid my dues.

April

Here we are at the end of April, and I have learned a few lessons. I am sure I have many more coming, but by now at least I am listening much more to my body. I wish I could say I’m not stressing too much over running so early into fatherhood, but old habits die hard. For now, things are working. I have the love and support of my wife, and a brand-new joy in our son, and with a little effort and a little luck we will keep finding that new normal together.

I have a 5K coming up next weekend that will be a fun rust-buster, if I’m open to that. I’ll have someone new cheering for me, so I think my head and heart will be in the right place.