Caumsett Park confessions
March 5, 2007The trip east was a mostly positive experience. As far as I can tell, the job interview went well. At the least, it supplied me with an awesome quote on the relationship between research and teaching in academia. One of the deans with whom I met made the following observation: “People used to regard research and teaching as being in conflict: time spent on one is time unavailable for the other. Now we see research and teaching as being like sin and confession: if you don’t commit the act, you have nothing to talk about.” Amen!
After the interview, Liz and Phil and I met up with my mother, aunt, and sister (and her boyfriend) in New York City, where activities included sampling Max Brenner’s “Chocolate by the Bald Man” and watching a street performer who stomped and twirled to ring the bells on his ankles while playing the fiddle and singing in a surprisingly pretty falsetto voice.
Speaking of physical challenges that wouldn’t appeal to most people…. On Sunday I ran the Caumsett Park 50K, which consisted of 11.8 laps of a 2.63-mile paved park loop. I achieved my goals of winning my first USATF championship (worth $150) and breaking the course record of 3:05:59 (worth another $350), but they didn’t come nearly as easily as I had hoped, partly due to the wind and the unexpected presence of another good runner, 29-year-old Dave Welsh of Mullica Hill, New Jersey.
Dave and I ran together, more or less, for the first half of the race. By the sixth lap, I wanted to use a port-a-potty, but the first two I ran past were occupied, so I threw in a surge to test Dave’s strength prior to relieving myself of the previous day’s lunch and the lap-8 lead. After Dave dropped back a bit during my surge, I entered the next port-a-potty confident that I had the race in hand. I overtook Dave again during lap 9, and although I had to work hard to stay on course-record pace after that, the encouragement of the native New Yorkers (with their great accents) mitigated my suffering. I finished in 3:04:35, with Dave 2nd in 3:07:06 and Derek Dippon 3rd in 3:26:25. Triathlete Anna Fyodorova of Brooklyn won the women’s race in 3:55:13.
My Track Record 
Congratulations on a strong run, Doogie. Unfortunately the "winner" in job interviews isn't as immediately evident, but I'm crossing my fingers for you.
Sweet run. Congratulations on hitting your goal(s) for this one; hopefully that bodes well for other upcoming goals. (I like the research analogy, too.)
Helluva race!!! And a pit-stop to boot! Congrats!
Nice job!
Greg, congratulations on the nice win. $500 equals $10 per kilometer which doesn't sound like that much moolah. (That's the extent of my math skillz.) To further indicate that we live in a small community, allow me to connect the dots to Dave Welsh. I worked for IBM up in Fishkill, NY a few years ago: Dave worked up there too. Dave quit and moved to the Philly area: I quit and moved to the Philly area. Dave won the inaugural Valley Forge Tricorn Hat and Tin Whistle 5-miler last year: I came in a distant second. I read your blog: Dave is mentioned in it. Amazing.(Not really, but I figured it was worth writing about since I recognized his name–he's a very strong runner which indicates that your victory was no jog around and around and around and around the park.)
Great job Greg! Especially given the conditions. Looks like you're right on track for the 100k. Good luck on the job front.
Great job Greg! You look to be in strong form. Any run near major water seems to present wind issues.
Congrats on both the great race and the interview!
… can't figure out if the course record was on the highish side or if you are particularly fast at relieving and cleaning yourself 🙂 congratulations on the race and the bowel control! At that pace, wow… no kidding, I am impressed…
Proper congratulations are in order! Nice job on meeting both of your goals for this race!
Greg,Meghan's post made me wonder if maybe I should clarify as such my congratulations.If I remember correctly, I read your race account about the same time I read Ryan's post from March 3, where he writes:"The 2nd interval I had to slow way down or else I would not have made it to the end without incident. I had to turn the 3rd 4k into a 2k because I just could not continue to run with the butt tight. Luckily on the 4th one the intestinal issues had passed and I was able to finish that one full steam ahead."It might seem like a minor issue, undeserving of proper congratulations as such, but I suppose running with a tight butt (and not finding a functional port-a-potty) could have significantly negative effects on race performance… so the more to you from a somewhat detailed (giggly?) point of view. In general I tend to find details more interesting than the overall picture. Sometimes they are pivotal. And that can be fascinating. Is this clearer? Sorry if I sounded somewhat cheeky, but there was a serious side to my post, about an issue which no doubt afflicts or has afflicted many an athlete, of all abilities and experience. Cheers, and again congratulations on your performance. corrado
Congrats on your championship, Greg!Hope you performed songs during your interviews. Sorry to see you heading out of town, but best of luck.Liam
Have you read "Chasing the Antelope" a.k.a "Why we run" by Bernd Heinrich? In that book, he talks about how he times his bowels and how he knew he had to eat dinner the day before his race by 5:30 if I recall correctly. Personally, I know I have to go at least twice in the morning before the race. Or perhaps you prefer to follow Paula Radcliffe's example – http://www.sportsfilter.com/comments.cfm/4373