PRESS: Seattle TV Interview

Dan Cruz was kind enough to send this link to me last week--it's the TV interview I did with KIRO CBS in Seattle, two days before the marathon. 

The piece was shot directly across from the base of the famous Space Needle, but when I walked into the station, everyone's eyes were glazed over as it had just hit the wires that Michael Jackson had collapsed in his LA home and was being transported by ambulance to the ER. It was presumed that he was DOA and the shock and awe that rippled through Seattle--a town with no shortage of musical influences and icons--was palpable. 

Regardless, many thanks to both Courtney and Matt here in DC and to Jake in Seattle for making this possible. Not only does the campaign exposure continue to grow, so too is the case with generous financial contributions. 

mms://streaming.vmsnews.com/media/INSIGHT/20090627-651771-7343E96A-262A-48C7-B93E-669512AB98AD.wsx

I leave for San Francisco in two days so I'll post another entry very soon. 

Doug Eldridge

President

DLE Sports

Seattle: Post-race

Man, when the wheels fall off....they're off. 

When you get a flat, you can drive on it for a while, but eventually the flat will flop around the rim and the rubber will shred with the thousands of RPMs as it beats the asphalt of the road. At some point or another it will totally break off of the rim and you'll be running metal on the asphalt with sparks flying everywhere until you come to a grinding halt somewhere down the road. Then you're just stuck.

Yeah, I was that guy today. Shredded rubber, rim on road, grinding halt.

I ran strong through 18 miles hitting at or under 8 min pace, but at some point, things took a turn. I was covered in salt, completely dehydrated (despite going through both bottles in the fuel belt and taking a 1/2 cup of water at each stop from mile 10 on) and then started to cramp with increasing intensity from 18 through 22. The last four were brutal. Don't have the words yet. 

I would, however, like to thank Aaron, who was one of the assigned members of the medical team for the Seattle Rock 'n' Roll Marathon. She rode next to me and talked, from mile 15 (when I was strong) all the way through 25.9 (and all the starts and stops in between) as the cramping set in and I was cut from a run, to a jog, to multiple stretching stops, to simply shuffling across the line. Aaron, you're great. Thanks for your support. 

So I finished in 3:42 (8:28 pace) which is the slowest finishing time of the first six races by nearly 9 minutes. Ugly day...re-wording...beautiful weather, great city, 25,000 runners, but a tough day and a grueling performance. I'll write more tomorrow or Monday and give a more in-depth breakdown but for now, I need to grab a bite before meeting up with some of the RnR crew for an event this evening. 

Six down. Four to go.

Doug Eldridge

President

DLE Sports

Seattle: 3 hours 'til the gun

It's 0345hrs PST and true to form, I beat my alarm on race morning. My internal clock says it's 0645 back east, so the early call time wasn't a problem at all. My body feels pretty good, considering my 4.5hr trip from Eugene, OR yesterday turned into 6.5 after a two-hour traffic jam in Portland. My compact car is really compact, so those extra 2 hours made my lower back super tight...long story short, I'm good. Sitting here drinking a couple 180 Energy drinks, gels are loaded in my Fuel Belt, 180s are in the small bottles, new Nike Lunar Trainers are raring to go and I'm waiting for the decongestant to kick in for my nose and throat. 

I think there's a difference in humility and unnecessary self-deprecation. I say that to say, all of my prior statements about my uncertainty regarding my fitness level (or apparent lack thereof) leading up to this race were an accurate portrayal of how I'm feeling inwardly (self-confidence) and how I'm feeling outwardly, given the mile splits and relative soreness of some recent workouts. Nonetheless, the marathon is about controlled suffering or as a DLE intern said to me in an email last night, controlled relentlessness. What a brilliant way to put it.

So as I do my final prep over the next 67 minutes before boarding the hotel shuttle for the drive out to the Tukwila starting line, I will be thinking about all the local support I've received here in Seattle, as well as all the well-wishes, and steady contributions we've received at the office for our continued drive towards $100,000 for the Wounded Warrior Project. 

Six Awaits.

Doug Eldridge

President

DLE Sports

PRESS: Seattle Examiner article on the 10-12-100 Campaign

Yesterday, Lynne Butler of the Seattle Examiner wrote an information piece on the 10-12-100 Campaign. You can check it out below:

http://www.examiner.com/x-9652-Seattle-Endurance-Sports-Examiner~y2009m6d26-2009-Seattle-Rock-n-roll-Marathon-and-Doug-Eldridge-running-for-very-worthy-cause

I appreciate Ms. Butler taking the time to cover our efforts. Additionally, I did a phone interview yesterday (while sitting in 2hrs of bumper to bumper traffic outside of Portland) with Mike Gastineau of 950AM Sports Talk in Seattle. The interview ran about seven minutes long and The Gas Man (his name, not mine) was really supportive of what I'm doing with this campaign. In general, the Seattle media community--whether the Seattle Times, Seattle Examiner, CBS or 950AM--have all been very enthusiastic about this campaign and the ultimate beneficiaries we seek to serve. 

I would be remised, however, if I did not say a special thank you to Courtney Beese, who has quickly become an integral part of DLE Sports and is solely responsible for the logistical and media-based success of this trip. Her detail-oriented commitment, vision and thorough follow-thru have made this company run much more efficiently and I am grateful for all that she does on a daily basis. 

Doug Eldridge

President

DLE Sports

PRESS: Seattle Times article on the 10-12-100 Campaign

A special thank you to Steve Kelley, who wrote a brilliant piece on the 10-12-100 Campaign which ran on the front page of yesterday's Seattle Times Sports section. You can read the feature, below:

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/stevekelley/2009380374_kelley25.html

We had a phone interview earlier this week and I must say, Mr. Kelley was as informed and engaged as he was enthusiastic and supportive. I appreciate his willingness to so eloquently cover our campaign, as it will help us reach a whole new group of potential supporters in the greater Seattle area. 

I hope you guys enjoy the piece. There will be more media updates to follow later today. I'll try to make a posting when I get back to my hotel in Seattle, sometime around 2300hrs PST.

Doug Eldridge

President

DLE Sports

Seattle, Eugene and the Merits of an Ice Bath...

I am looking forward to making my first trip to Seattle, Washington next week for Saturday's Seattle Rock 'n' Roll Marathon. By all accounts, Seattle is a beautiful town and after talking to the PR Director for all the RnR Marathons--Seattle and Vegas, my sixth and tenth races respectively--I am even more excited for what will likely prove to be an awesome venue and an awesome race.

By my own admission, my training since Cincinnati has been rather non-existent. Indeed, I was totally exhausted at the conclusion of The Flying Pig and the even though the micro-fiber muscle tears associated with post-marathon soreness subsided within a few days, the general lethargy and cumulative fatigue did not. Since I had essentially a seven-week break between Cincinnati (May 3rd) and the Seattle RnR (June 27) I ended up taking waaaaay too much time off in between...something in the order of 5.5 weeks. Now, to be clear, it wasn't a total training hiatus. I'd ride my bike (or the trainer late at night) and do some easy runs along the Canal in G'town or some track repeats at sub-marathon pace, but generally speaking, both the volume and intensity needed to truly prepare for a marathon just hasn't been there. 

I'm not sure there's really blame to assign for this--though clearly any and all of it would fall on me, since I write and administer my own program. I'm hoping, however, that the training reprieve leading up to the Seattle Marathon (which will undoubtedly mean that this race is gonna hurt like hell next weekend) will hopefully benefit me over the course of the last five marathons, each of which is difficult for a different reason: Seattle (time change/lack of training), San Francisco (time change/hilliest city in the U.S.), Colorado Springs (trail marathon/7,200ft of elevation), Marine Corps (always hot or raining here in DC that weekend), Las Vegas (tenth race of the campaign...total fatigue). That said, I'm not making excuses, but rather, trying to be pragmatic in looking down the road at the races still to come. Additionally, I've resumed an old practice that began back in the fall of '96 when I was running track at JMU: the dreaded ice bath. For those of you who have never done an ice bath, it is at once both unthinkably painful and yet horribly simplistic in design and execution. It is literally a tub full of ice cold water, followed by several bags of ice dumped in to further lower the temperature. It's not cold, it's downright painful. The benefits, however, far outweigh the pain when it comes to repairing damaged muscles. 

Ask any runner and they'll tell you they bundle up, roll their shirt up, put on a tabogan, gloves, iPod and get a magazine to sit through the 20 minutes of self-induced torture. Last night, I did just that. After finishing an 11-mile tempo run in the driving rain along the C+O Canal, my quads were unreasonably sore and simply weren't recovering as they should've been. After all, it wasn't even half the distance of the marathon, and it was on soft-packed dirt/gravel, and at a pace some 10 seconds slower per mile than the targeted race pace. Nonetheless, my body was just rebelling. Foreshadowing aside, I did the ice bath last night and my legs this morning are discernibly better than they were yesterday afternoon. 

So looking ahead, this race will actually be crazier than most, due to some travel within the travel and some Agent obligations. Here's what it looks like:

THU. 6/25

0700 Direct flight from BWI to Seattle

0940 Arrive in SEA (PST)

Rental car

Drive to Expo to pick up race packet

Afternoon media in Seattle

3-mile tempo run, stretch, shower, change

1730 VIP Reception for RnR Elites (no, I'm not an Elite, just got the invite)

2000 Drive 4.5hrs to Eugene, OR

FRI. 6/26

0100 Arrive in Eugene/check into hotel room

0830 USATF Agent Conference in Eugene, OR

1530 Conference concludes, see clients for 2 hours

1800 Quick pasta dinner in Eugene before hitting road for 4.5hr drive

1830 Start drive back to Seattle

2300 Arrive in Seattle/check into hotel

2315 Lay out gear for race

2330 Bed

SAT. 6/27 

0330 Wake up, stretch, caffeinate with 180 Energy Drink

0530 Drive to downtown Seattle and shuttle to Tukwila start

0600 Arrive at shuttle/head to Tukwila start

0640 Arrive in Tukwila/drop off bag

0700 RACE BEGINS!!!!

Let's hope for a 3:30 finish

Pick up rental car

Drive back to hotel

Shower/Stretch

Call family, post Blog, follow-up media

1300 Drive out to Wounded Warrior event in Olympia (70min away)

Drive back to Seattle

1900 Post-Race Reception

See college friends in Seattle

SUN. 6/28

1000 Ice bath in hotel

Sight-see in Seattle

1500 Return my money rental car

Blog/Client calls from airport

2100 Return redeye flight to DC (arrive back at BWI at 0740hrs on Monday)

It'll be a great trip. I'll write more this week in the days leading up to the race. For now, I'm going to try and sneak in a run before yet another round of thunderstorms rolls into the area. The wind has picked up, the skyline is dark and the sunny forecast is about to go right out the window...very rainy spring and early summer in D.C. 

More soon. 

Doug Eldridge

President

DLE Sports