Tri-Maine Series - Training & Preparation

Beach to Beacon 10K Road Race 2008

Getting Ready for the Beach to Beacon
By Eric Hoffman M.D.

Many local runners look forward to events such as the TD Bank Beach to Beacon 10k in August. For many, it is great opportunity to compete against world-class runners. For many more, it’s a ton of fun. If you haven’t already started, now is a little too late to train for the event. If you don’t prepare your body and use the correct equipment, running can take its toll on your body. Some of the most common injuries, usually associated with the overuse of a particular part of the body, such as shin splints, Achilles tendonitis or plantar fasciitis, can be avoided remembering the mantra, “start low, go slow.”

For many, running is not just exercise, it’s a way of life. Whether you run for solitude or society, there are few sports that match the benefits running can have on health. Weight loss, increased energy, aerobic capacity and, some would argue, mental health can all be improved through running. Plus, it’s simple. There are no teams, schedules or any special athletic talents needed in order to enjoy the sport. The human body was made to run. The challenge today is to take the proper steps necessary to maintain fitness, avoid injury, prevent discomfort and maintain your body’s energy levels.

Before you head out for a run, spend at least 10 minutes stretching. I’ve listed an excellent resource on stretching at the end of this article. In general, you should focus on stretching hamstrings, quadriceps, Achilles and the iliotibial band (the band on the outside of the hip and knee). Proper stretching prepares your muscles and tendons for activity and reduces the risk of injury.

One aspect of running that has changed dramatically over the last few years is the design, fit and function of the running shoe. Tremendous improvements in how a shoe absorbs and distributes the impact of a foot hitting the pavement can help prevent some injuries. To insure this protection lasts, its important to replace your shoes every six months.  An inside tip: label the date with a marker inside the shoe.

Under normal running conditions, a good pair of running shoes should last 250-500 miles of use. This is one area in which you really do get what you pay for. Plan to spend $90 to $150 for a good pair of running shoes. Although the price may seem high, its still a lot less than the costs associated with developing a chronic injury. Many running shoe stores also offer services such as orthotic fitting and can help you find the right fit for the size, shape and design of your foot. Gait analysis, which is offered at Orthopaedic Associates Physical Therapy, can also provide insight into your running mechanics.

There’s an old saying that if you want to become a better runner, you simply need to run more. However, I believe that the benefits of cross training are important to keep you injury free, which will make all of your activities more enjoyable. Biking, swimming, rowing, elliptical and core strengthening are all good exercises that will also help improve different aspects of your running.

Developing a training regimen is also a good idea. Many runners find that the discipline needed to maintain a consistent running schedule helps them to organize other aspects of their life as well.

For an event like the Beach to Beacon, you should prepare well in advance and then give your body a chance to rest for 2-3 days before the race. You should increase your carbohydrate and fluid intake 5-7 days before the race.  The night before the race eat a moderate size meal of mostly carbohydrates and go to bed early.

On race day, a light carbohydrate breakfast of bananas, toast or bagel, and juice will serve you well 2-3 hours before the event.  Eat some energy gel, orange slices or other easily digestible food 30-45 minutes before the run. For a 10K you may not need to eat during the race. However, if you do need to eat, eat something easily digestible and practice eating during your training runs to make sure it agrees with you. 

During the run, focus on hydrating. You should be drinking something at least every 20 minutes, but don’t overdo it. If you feel liquid sloshing as you run, back off.  After the race, drink plenty of water and carbo-reload with a bagel, soup or sports bar and graze on carbos for the next 24 hours to restore depleted reserves of glycogen (stored sugar in muscles).

So get out there and start running. But don’t Forrest Gump it. Go slow and enjoy yourself.

Dr. Hoffman practices orthopaedic sports medicine with a special interest in arthroscopic treatment of knee and shoulder injuries. He is board-certified by the American Board of Orthopaedic Surgeons and is a fellow of the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons. Dr. Hoffman has a Subspecialty Certificate in Orthopaedic Sports Medicine from the American Board of Orthopaedic Surgery. He is active in many sports including triathlons and is a 2007 Ironman Lake Placid finisher.

Urban Epic Results: 2008

Urban Epic athletes were treated to a beautiful day and calms waters as the first wave of racers hit the cold Atlantic Ocean at 7:50AM. Professional triathlete Mike Caiazzo won the elite wave with a time of 2:19:58, while Becky Lavalle took first among the elite women.

Since the thirteen athletes participating in the elite wave were asked to swim a different course than the age group athletes (a late race start resulted in difficult currents), Tri-Maine elected to record age group results separately from the elite wave.

Among age group participants, Paul Noone of Worchester, MA took the men's overall with a time of 2:17:58, while Kristin Marvin of Ottawa, Canada took the women's overall with a time of 2:31:08.

URBAN EPIC ELITE OVERALL MALE WINNERS

Place Bib#  Name                     Ag City                  Tottime 
===== ===== ======================== == ===================== ======= 
    1     6 MIKE CAIAZZO             32 WESTBROOK ME          2:19:58 
    2   186 DERECK TREADWELL         33 LAURENS NY            2:22:33 
    3   291 OWEN MCGONAGLE           44 BOSTON MA             2:33:54 


URBAN EPIC ELITE OVERALL FEMALE WINNERS

Place Bib#  Name                     Ag City                  Tottime 
===== ===== ======================== == ===================== ======= 
    1     3 BECKY LAVELLE            34 LOS GATOS CA          2:25:54 
    2     5 TENILLE HOOGLAND         30 OTTAWA ON             2:27:28 
    3    10 CATHERINE STERLING       32 KENTS HILL ME         2:35:44


URBAN EPIC AGE GROUP OVERALL MALE WINNERS

Place Bib#  Name                     Ag City                  Tottime 
===== ===== ======================== == ===================== ======= 
    1   153 PAUL NOONE               25 WORCESTER MA          2:17:58 
    2   163 THOMAS MCWATERS          26 THORNDIKE ME          2:24:32 
    3    48 STEVEN TENNEY            40 FALMOUTH ME           2:24:59 

URBAN EPIC AGE GROUP OVERALL FEMALE WINNERS

Place Bib#  Name                     Ag City                  Tottime 
===== ===== ======================== == ===================== ======= 
    1    99 KRISTIN MARVIN           33 OTTAWA ON             2:31:08 
    2   128 ERIN BRENNAN             43 PORTLAND ME           2:38:01 
    3    96 MEGAN FIX                32 PORTLAND ME           2:39:03 

For complete race results, click here.

Urban Epic: Race Favorites

To determine the race favorites for the 2008 edition of the Zone Urban Epic on Saturday, July 26 at 9:00AM, OA spoke with last year's men's and women's winners, Kurt Perham and Katie Payson.

On the men's side, Kurt points to Mike Caiazzo, recent winner of the Scarborough Triathlon and a professional triathlete. Kurt also expects Jeff Fisher, Rob Fast, Thomas McWalters and Scott Marr to have solid performances among the amateur racers. As to his own chances, Kurt will not decide until today whether or not he will race.

On the women's side, the Urban epic will feature two elite-level triathletes.  Mary Miller, a 28-year old from Elliot, Maine, is an elite amateur athlete who has been ripping it up around the country over the past year. She was first at the inaugural Pumpkinman Triathlon, 6th among USA women in the ITU Age Group World Championships and 2nd overall at the 2007 Timberman. But it is Becky Lavalle, the first alternate for the Beijing Olympic team, who is expected to win the women's overall. She may even give Caiazzo a run for his money. Sponsored by Zone, the Urban Epic Title sponsor, Lavalle has been enjoying the rainy, humid Maine weather over the past few days in what is her first trip to Maine.

Among the "best of the rest," Katie Payson points to Angela Bancroft, Larissa Boddie and Erin Brennan as top competitors for the women's race. Katie will also be competing. She has been racing and training strong (2nd at Mooseman and 2nd at the Scarborough Triathlon) and expects to do well on Saturday. In fact, she and Angela Bancroft seem to be trading wins lately. Katie beat Angela by seconds at the Mooseman International distance triathlon and June, while Angela took Katie by a few seconds at Scarborough on the shorter distance course.

Should be fun to watch. Check back here on Saturday for Urban Epic Results.

Scott Marr: Physician and Endurance Athlete

Scott Marr knows a thing or two about sports-related injuries. Not only is he a sports medicine physician at OA Centers for Orthopaedics, but he is an elite, Masters-level triathlete recovering from an injury of his own.

Several weeks ago, he tweaked his back while playing hockey (a sport he plays weekly), only to suffer a hamstring pull a few days later while on a training run. “The two are interrelated,” says Dr. Marr who works with endurance athletes as part of his practice. “I tweaked my back, and favored it while running, only to pull my hamstring.”

Dr. Marr is currently training for the USA Triathlon National Age Group Championship in Portland, Oregon on September 20. He qualified for the USAT Nationals with a 3rd place age group finish (30th overall) at last year’s Lobersterman with a time of 2:16:57 and then again by placing sixth overall (AG 2nd) at the Mooseman international distance triathlon this past June with a time of 2:06:31.

“With the hamstring injury, Kurt and I have had to make some adjustments to my training program,” says Marr in reference to his multisport coach, Kurt Perham of Personal Best Multisport. “I haven’t been able to run for the last 10 days.” Instead, Scott has been doing more work on his bike while the hamstring heals.

Dr. Marr plans to test out his running legs this Saturday at the Urban Epic Olympic distance triathlon in Portland, Maine. Last year, Dr. Marr could be found in the OA medical tent at the Urban Epic assisting injured athletes. This year he hopes to avoid it, despite the hamstring injury. “I have been resting the hamstring. I should be fine.”

That said Dr. Marr was not too excited to hear about the length of the swim course at Urban Epic. “I have a good feel on the bike, and I know that on the run I only have to suffer for a finite distance. But the swim – I just have no way of guaging the effort. A long swim is definitely not to my advantage.”

Like the Mooseman, the Urban Epic is a preparation race for his big race this coming fall in Portland, OR at the USAT Nationals. “My goal is to finish the course in 2:10. If I finish in 2:10, that should put me in the top 10 in my age group,” says Marr in relation to the 40-44 year old age group in which he competes. “I’ve studied the course in detail. I have an erg file of the bike ride on my Compu-trainer. I’ll be ready.”

Something tells us, he will be.

Urban Epic 2008

The Urban Epic Triathlon, properly referred to as the Zone Urban Epic to honor the title sponsor, gets underway this Saturday, July 26 at 9:00AM along Portland, Maine’s waterfront. Coming three weeks earlier in the calendar than last year, the Urban Epic builds upon its 2007 debut with some improvements to the course.

One of the big issues at Urban Epic last year was the swim course, which had to be rerouted at the last minute due to safety concerns. The resulting course took swimmers near a sand bar, hanging up some of the participants. This year the swim starts on the other side of Macworth Island. “There are no shallow spots on the swim course,” says Will Thomas of Tri-Maine, the Urban Epic race organizer. “It’s a straight course that measures 1.2 miles to shore. There will be a current like last year, so it will sweep to the left, taking swimmers straight into East End Beach.”

Participants should note that the swim is LONGER than the 1.5K (1500 meters) noted on the web site. “There’s no way this is a 1-mile swim,” said Katie Payson, the women’s winner of the inaugural Urban Epic. “We swam the course last Tuesday, and it took nearly 40 minutes to complete.” Normally, a 1-mile open water swim like this would take 25-30 minutes for a competitive swimmer.

Swimmes will exit the water at East End Beach. Then instead of running uphill to T1, Urban Epic racers will run along a newly opened path. “It will be a flat run to the transition area at the Portland Company Complex,” says Thomas.

The bike course takes off the same as last year but takes participant though Payson Park. Everything else on the 40K Urban Epic bike course remains the same, including a tough hill at the end on Walnut Street.

The 10K run is also improved over last year. Instead of heading out Fore Street, the run will begin along the bike path taking triathletes down a small hill. Athletes will then climbing to the beginning of the Eastern Promenade where it then resumes the same course as last year.

For the official Urban Epic website, click here.

Results: Scarborough Triathlon Results

Mike Caiazzo won the inaugural edition of the Scarborough Triathlon. As expected, Caiazzo beat the rest of the field by more than six minutes with a winning time of 59:48. Caiazzo was the only triathlete to finish in less than an hour. Thomas McWalters took second in the Scarborough Tri with a time of 105:55, followed by Daniel Jackson at 1:06:21, Kurt Perham at 1:06:32 and Robert Fast at 1:06:44 to round out the top five.

Women's race favorite Angela Bancroft took first place among with women with a finishing time of 1:10:30, followed close by Katie Payson with a time of 1:11:08. Alison Van Zandbergen took third with a time of 1:13:47, followed by Carrie McCusker in 4th at 1:14:12 and Anne Wilkenson in 5th at 1:15:08.

For complete Scarborough Triathlon Race Results, click here.

Scarborough Triathlon Race Favorites

OA asked Will Thomas, Tri-Maine race organizer, and Kurt Perham, last year's overall winner of the Tri-Maine Series, who were the likely favorites for this Sunday's Scarborough Triathlon.

When it came to the overall winner, Thomas and Perham, were in unanimous agreement. Mike Caiazzo of Cumberalnd, Maine is the likely men's winner. Says Perham, "Caiazzo will beat the rest of the field by at least five minutes." He should know, as Caiazzo beat Perham at last year's Pumpkinman Sprint Triathlon by the same margin. Other favorites include youngster Daniel Jackson and Steve Tenney. Also, keep an eye out for Douglass Endrizzi, a top swimmer from Scarborough and son of OA's very own, Dr. Donald Endrizzi.

Scarborough Triathlon race favorites on the women's side include Katie Payson, Angela Bancroft and Carrie McCusker. Payson consistently takes first or second in every race she enters, most recently placing second at the Mooseman International.  Angela Bancroft, featured in this blog last year and the Gatorade Athlete of the Month in the July issue of Triathlete magazine, placed third in that same race and finished in just over 1:00:01 at Polar Bear in May. McCusker, one of Payson's training partners, is showing a lot of form on the bike and has healed from a hamstring injury that held her back last year.

Best of luck to all the athletes at the Scarborough Triathlon on Sunday!

Scarborough Triathlon Results Live

Live results for the Scarborough Triathlon, Greater Portland's only sprint triathlon featuring an open water ocean swim,  can be found at Live-Timing.com.

Scarborough Triathlon

The Scarborough Sprint Triathlon kicks off its inaugural year in the face of Hurricane Bertha bubbling offshore in the Atlantic Ocean on Sunday, July 13 at 8:00AM. Why is this a concern? The Scarborough Triathlon features a 1/3 mile open water swim from beautiful Scarborough Beach in Scarborough, Maine. An estimated 350 racers will depart in a total of 5 to 6 waves, with the fastest men and women racing first. Triathlon racers will leave from the south end of Scarborough beach, head straight out into the ocean, turn left parallel to shore, then take another left hand turn and head toward beach for a total of 575 yards.

“Hurricane Bertha is expected to produce head high waves,” according to longtime local long-board surfer, Peter Interland of Yarmouth. “That means waves will likely be in the 5- to 6-foot range, big for July.” The good news for racers is that offshore, hurricane-generated waves tended to be spaced in longer intervals than the typical wind generated waves. “The interval should be about 15 seconds,” according to Interland, “And at high tide waves will likely be breaking within 100-110 meters of the Scarborough beach shore. The big potential issue for racers is the strong rip tide, which will present challenges going out and coming in. Beyond 100 meters, it should be pretty smooth.”

According to Will Thomas, race organizers at Tri-Maine are working with the state park service and the Town of Scarborough on contingency plans. “It’s too soon to tell,” says Thomas, “But the worst-case scenario is that we may have to delay or shorten the swim, or go with a beach run instead of a swim, turning the event into a duathlon.”

For up to date surf information, Interland suggests http://www.nesurf.com/to keep track of hurricane and wave development.

Beyond Bertha

With water temperatures in the mid-60s, Scarborough Triathlon race participants are reminded that they are required  to wear wet suits during the open water portion of the race. (To monitor current water and wave temperature, visit http://www.ndbc.noaa.gov/station_page.php?station=44007) Exiting the water at Scarborough Beach, triathletes will run to T1, which is set up in the first parking lot from the beach. The first portion of the 15-mile bike ride will be over a hard packed dirt road, where racers will turn right onto Black Point Road racing straight to Highland Avenue on the right. Riders will pass through a well-marshalled stop sign at the intersection of Highland and Pleasant Hill Road. But the real issue will be the turn onto Fickett Street in South Portland. Racers will take a hard right hand turn onto Fickett, which will require everyone to slow. Fickett Street starts with a short, steep climb before turning into the downhill of Sawyer Road in Cape Elizabeth. Given Fickett’s sharp turn and steep little climb, smart riders will have shifted to the small ring and a small gear before turning onto Fickett Street. From Sawyer, racers will turn right onto Route 77 and then take another right at the end of 77, back onto Black Point Road. This time, racers will proceed past Highland over the highway overpass and through beautiful Scarborough Marsh. T2 is located half way up a steep hill and requires racers to turn left into the second transition area. Left hand turns are cause for caution, so even though the roads are well marshalled, riders will need to be on the alert for Sunday morning drivers.

The run portion of the Scarborough Triathlon has triathletes returning to Black Point Road (also known as Route 207) where racers will proceed to the Eastern Trail head, where the majority of the 3-mile foot race will take place. Racers will pass through a small residential neighborhood before crossing Route 1 to finish in Scarborough’s Memorial Park, home to the Town of Scarborough’s 350th anniversary celebration. For a list of post-race events taking place at Memorial Park, visit http://www.scarborough.me.us/350thcelebration/events.html.

Race smart. Be safe and enjoy a beautiful race!