Friday, October 28, 2011

My 8th Marathon!

This past Sunday I ran the Delaware-Lehigh Heritage Marathon. It was my 8th marathon but the first in 8 years. Four of us, me, Jessi, Dave, and Ron, drove up the afternoon before to pick up our race packets. Had some ok beer at a brewery in Allentown and good Japanese food at another restaurant the night before. And of course - Jessi's cookies! The weather was perfect for a marathon - sunny, about 45-50 F at the start and warming up to about 60+ F by the time I finished.

The race course is very scenic. It is mostly on rail-trails along the Lehigh River. It is a relatively flat course with two noticeable hills - one short one to cross a bridge sometime after mile 10 and a steep one (~30% grade!!!) at mile 17.5. Though that statement needs a qualification as the course is actually a gradual uphill until mile 17.5 (thanks to Jessi's and Dave's Garmin data), then the race flattens out and becomes a downhill course.  After the big hill we ran along a ridge offering scenic views of the area and the Lehigh River. Good thing it wasn't raining or very windy because you are really exposed on that ridge.The one part of the course that I really didn't like (except for that steep hill! They really need to have some beer to reward us when we get to the top) was the multiple out and back at around mile 21. After running down from the ridge there is an aid station. You then run out about 1/2 - 3/4 of a mile then BACK to the aid station while passing the turn-off to the trail then back a bit where you are then running on the trail again.

This was the first time the marathon was run so there were bound to be some issues. The 30 min delayed start pissed off a lot of people. Especially those fast runners who had already done a warm-up and were now cooling down. But it gave me more time to hit the port-a-johns! And after drinking a whole 16 oz bottle of water I needed to pee again! The volunteers along the course did a great job and were enthusiastic. Along the ridge I had two girls shout out "Go NG!". Now this is a nick name that few people knew about so I knew that one of my friends who was running the race and wearing the same shirt as I asked the girls to do this. Thanks Ron! It is also a small race. There was a limit of 500 runners for both the full and the half-marathon and 125 people ran the marathon. Luckily, I have no problems running alone.

I had hoped that my 28 mile run in August with several 2-3 hr hilly runs (avg of 9 - 10.5 miles) in September and October would have been sufficient training but it definitely wasn't! I planned on running 10 min and walking 1 min; and I held to that for at least most of the first 10 miles. But I probably went out too fast - a 9:30 first mile! Early on my knees started aching and the muscle pains began. Why didn't I bring some Aleve with me??!? Occasionally I would walk 3-7 min in the hopes that it would help. But I think it just delayed finishing the race! I never felt that fatigued due to lack of energy. I was eating parts of a Power Bar, fruit chews, and drinking G2 Gatorade along the way. I was able to maintain good form - never did the marathon shuffle. When I walked I did so quickly. But people were passing me and I wasn't passing anyone else. As I approached the downhill to run the last 5-6 miles, one of the volunteers let me know that I was in last place. Oh well - not the first time that has happened. I made attempts to catch the runner in front of me and I was closing the gap! But I didn't have enough race left nor did I have any legs left to catch up. I definitely was running more than walking in the last miles of the race and actually ran to the finish line.

I finished in 5:24:35 (a personal worst) and last. Since its a small race, one of the volunteers quickly found my bag and brought it to me shortly after I finished. Jessi (placed first of the women - and had 2 hrs to rest before I finished) brought me a chair to sit down and some food - a turkey wrap, chili, and water. There was plenty of food at the end for the last runner and the volunteers to eat!

As expected, I hurt! The worst was the sharp pains in the front of the left ankle/lower shin. I was able to run without the ankle hurting but had sharp pains while walking during the race. I had a similar issue with the 50k in the Maylon Mayhem in August (except it was the right ankle then). Not sure what is causing this but I need to get it solved! Recovery has been pretty good. Did 25 min of yoga on Monday night - still able to touch the ground during a forward bend! Sore legs for about 2 days. And by Friday I think I'm ready for a run!

I'll run this race again. It's only about a 1.5 hr drive away (that is when Ron isn't driving) and hopefully I'll be able to do packet pick-up the morning of the race. But before I attempt another long road/non-technical trail race again there's a couple things that I need to do. The first is MORE MILES during training. I know that ultra runners think that time on the feet is sufficient but I know I need to do at least a couple of runs of distances of 15 miles or greater if I want to run most of a marathon and definitely if I want to finish it faster. The second is I need to lose some weight.

Dave, Jessi, me, and Ron. The shirts were quite popular!

Wednesday, September 21, 2011

Racing the trails in Morris County NJ

My friends have a race company that puts on trail races in various counties in New Jersey - check them out at NJ Trail Series. They are the only company that offers these types of races in NJ and races can cover distances from 5k to 100 miles and even up to 72 hrs! As race directors there are many issues they have to deal with. Permits to use various parks or facilities are, of course, one of them. The Morris County Parks Commission recently decided to not give NJ Trail Series permits to run three of their races due to the mistaken assumption that races of distances greater than 25 km (15.5 miles) is too risky. Many people who have participated in these and other NJ Trail Series races are writing letters to protest this decision. Here is the letter that I am going to send:


Dear Ms. Biase and members of the Morris County Parks Commission,

I am writing to you in response to your recent decisions to not allow NJ Trail Series to host three of their races in Morris County Parks (NJ Ultrafest, Mahlon Mayhem, and the Muddy Marathon) and to significantly increase the registration and permit fees for their other races, especially the 5k cross country series held at Central Ave Park.

NJ Trail Series has been the only company in New Jersey that is making trail races open to everyone. Their offerings of distances from 5K up to 100 miles increases participation to a wider range of people. Their attention to course markings, the safety of participants, and their focus on the fun of running in the woods has attracted people from many counties in NJ, many states in the USA (22 at the 2010 NJ Ultrafest!), and countries around the world! The race directors, Jennifer and Rick McNulty, care about every runner on the course and will wait for every participant to finish, no matter how long it may take them. This is not true of many road races. Marathons close their course after a certain time period. If you are still on the course of these other races, you are left to your own devices to get to the finish and without aid. NJ Trail Series supplies aid the entire time runners are on the course and does not leave anyone or anything on the course. Volunteers for the NJ Trail Series races run the course at the end of the race to pick up every flag and ribbon used on the course.

Many people have the mistaken assumption that running longer distances (ie. the arbitrary 25 km limit set by Morris County Parks Commission) are detrimental to health and is considered risky behavior. This is far from true.  Yes there are instances of someone dying while running marathons or participating in triathalons. This can occur whether on the race course, while training, on the road or in the woods. All of us who are running the longer distances of some of the NJ Trail Series races, including the three races that were denied permits by the Morris County Parks Commission, have trained for these distances. We have undertaken months of running longer distances on the roads and on the trails, many on the trails in Morris County, to prepare for these races. As adults, we understand the risks of running long distances and running on trails.

The 5k cross country race at Central Ave Park exposes runners of all ages to the race environment. Runners as young as 7 yrs and as old as 74 yrs participate. This is a low key (and low entry fee) race that anyone can run. To charge a small, family-owned, company $150/race to utilize the course is outrageous. The park is rarely used on a Wednesday evening by Morris County residents who aren’t racing; the dodgeball participants have use of the upper parking lot since most runners park on the street; and those who are there aren’t restricted from using the site or the facilities. The county provides very little ammenities to justify this fee. There are portable toilets provided, along with the permanent bathroom facilities; however, the toilets were removed and not replaced for 3 weeks this year, and these are open for anyone that frequents the park Monday-Sunday, not just race participants.

What has running NJ Trail Series done for me? It has gotten me back into running more often and longer distances, encouraged me to see what my limits might be and allowed me to run my first ultramarathon (two 50 km races this year!). I have observed the strength and vitality of other runners who are running very long distances and setting records (US records have been set at NJ Trail Series races!), assisted other runners in achieving their goals through volunteer work and support and assistance of other runners on the course, and have met people and made new friends

“I run mostly to see things, to explore places I don't know. And the places I do know, like around here, then I get a sense of the weather, the shifting light, the seasonal changes; it can be pleasurable even when you hurl yourself into the teeth of nature. “
- Edward Koren, Artist/New Yorker cartoonist.
 
Everyone I know that runs trail races embrace this sentiment.
 
Please reinstate the permits for the NJ Trail Series races that were to be held in Morris County Parks in 2012 – NJ Ultrafest, Mahlon Mayhem, and the Muddy Marathon!
 
I’d be happy to answer any questions you have about my views on NJ Trail Series races – or trail running in general. I am very familiar with the races as I have run or volunteered at nearly every NJ Trail Series race and have participated in numerous other races.
 
Regards,
 
Anne Pumfery

Thursday, June 30, 2011

Why was Avastin pulled by the FDA for treatment of breast cancer?


I was reading a piece in The Star-Ledger this morning and came across a news piece written by a Washington Post reporter (http://tinyurl.com/washpost-avastin) about the FDA ending the use of Avastin to treat metastatic breast cancer. The reason that the FDA is pulling the drug (according to the above news piece) is “…that the drug was harming women more than it was helping them.” The remainder of the article discussed the price of the drug ($88,000/year/patient) and the outcry from patients and advocates for access to new treatments. It was stated that clinical trials failed to support the drug’s promise to treat breast cancer but at no point does the reporter tell readers the harmful side-effects that prompted the FDA to remove approval of the drug for breast cancer treatment. I think these two pieces of information are quite important to understand the FDA’s decision. However, the use of Avastin to treat colon, lung, kidney, and brain cancers is not in jeopardy.


So let’s start with how Avastin is supposed to work to treat cancers (I’ll post at the bottom of this page the links to where I obtained my information for anyone who wants to learn more). Avastin is also known as bevacizumab. It is an injectable cancer medication that works by blocking a protein that is important for the formation of blood vessels. This is a method for targeting solid tumors since the cells that are in the interior of the tumor need a supply of nutrients, which are brought in via new blood vessels. As tumors get larger, the cancer cells start expressing proteins that will induce cells of the body to generate new blood vessels. In 1971, Dr. Judah Folkman of Harvard Medical School first proposed that large tumors need these blood vessels to grow and metastasize, which he called angiogenesis. He also proposed that inhibiting angiogenesis may be one way to treat cancer – besides inhibiting cellular replication. His research and the work of others over the years led to the discovery of several proteins that cause angiogenesis. One of these proteins is VEGF (vascular endothelial growth factor) which is the target for the drug Avastin. Patients whose breast tumors express VEGF in high quantities have a poor prognosis, so VEGF should be a very good drug target. Avastin binds to all forms of VEGF in the blood which prevents VEGF from binding to its receptors and functioning to induce blood vessel formation. However, this drug has little effect on its own in treating breast cancer but does help to increase the efficacy of other drugs that inhibit cell growth such as paclitaxel. But more importantly, the combination only extended overall survival by less than one year! An increase of survival of less than one year does not seem like much of an improvement; and this would be especially true if there are any serious side effects associated with use of the drug.

So what are the side effects, how often are they observed in patients, and how significant are these side effects? Side effects observed included kidney damage, development of holes in parts of the body (for example, nose, stomach, intestines), massive bleeding requiring blood transfusions, and various cardiovascular problems (for example, heart attack, stroke, clotting in arteries, chest pain, and reduced blood flow to the brain). These are pretty serious side-effects that can cause death or brain damage. The rate of severe or life-threatening side effects was 14-20% higher in patients who were on Avastin plus chemotherapy as compared to patients on chemotherapy alone. Additionally, there was an increase risk of treatment related deaths in patients receiving Avastin with chemotherapy as compared to chemotherapy alone.

So because there was very little benefit and significant risk to patients taking Avastin, the FDA rightly pulled the approval of using this drug to treat metastatic breast cancer. These results are also a good example of why accelerated approval of drugs is not necessarily a good thing. Accelerated approval allows earlier approval of drugs to treat serious diseases, and that fill an unmet medical need. Generally clinical trials results are based on clinical outcomes (ie. prolonged survival or years disease-free) and obtaining these types of results can take a very long time. Accelerated approval of drugs started when AIDS activists pushed to have anti-retroviral drugs approved at a faster rate for treating AIDS. At the time, there were no treatment options for HIV infected patients except to treat the opportunistic infections that these individuals would get due to their suppressed immune system. So we have the balance the good (getting new and better drugs to patients at a faster rate) and the bad (may not observe some of the severe side-effects or treatment-associated deaths during shortened clinical trials) when deciding whether accelerated approval of a drug should occur.

Additional information:

Encyclopedia Britannica article on angiogenesis: http://www.britannica.com/nobelprize/article-224720
Paper by L.S. Rosen, H.L. Ashurst, and L. Chap discussing treatments for metastatic breast cancer: http://theoncologist.alphamedpress.org/content/15/3/216.long


Genentech’s (manufacturer of Avastin) website for Avastin: http://www.avastin.com/avastin/patient/gbm/sideeffects/index.html

Thursday, March 24, 2011

Thoughts from my first 50 km race

Last Saturday I ran my first 50 km race at the NJ Ultra Festival that was put on by NJ Trail Series (http://www.njtrailseries.com). Though this wasn’t actually my first ultra distance, having completed 27 miles at the 2010 12 hr fat-ass at the Parsippany Hills track, it was my first 50 km race. I made it to the Long Valley Presbyterian Church early Friday evening and saw lots of friends who were going to be running a variety of distances from 50 km to 100 miles! Jessi Kennedy and Dave Lettieri were running the 100 mile race – as was Johnny Rodriguez who I first met in August at the Mahlon-Mayhem; Jonathon Wilson, Dave Kravitz, Dave Monzella, and Ron Redfield were going to be running the 50 km “with” me. With is in quotes as I knew all of them were going to finish way ahead of me. It was interesting to hear the nervousness from some of the runners and I kept thinking to myself “Why am I not feeling the same concern”. It was my first 50 km race and the last time I ran a marathon was seven years ago! Plus my longest training run was 16.5 miles – 13.1 miles at Lewis Morris Park which isn’t a place that is easy for straight running and then 3.4 miles in Kearny – not exactly the best training for a 50 km race. But I also knew I had all day to complete the distance (goal #1) and that I’ve ran my last marathon with probably less training. Surprisingly, I also thought I should be able to do this in about 7 hrs (but secretly hoping for 6 hrs).

Race morning started with me not wanting to get out of bed at 5:45 AM so I slept in for another 15 minutes. Probably a mistake since I still had to find breakfast – which I was able to do at a bagel shop about ½ mile from the hotel. I ate the bagel and drank coffee on the drive back to the church, neither of which I finished before the start. I dropped my stuff off at the start with a few minutes to spare. It was quite chilly so I donned a double layered fleece that I picked up recently. I figured if I got too warm I can always tie it around my waist.  We all received directions from the race director, Jennifer McNulty, and we were off. I started running with Dave K. at a comfortable pace of about 11 min/mile, according to his Garmin, till we hit the turn-around 3 miles later. Both of us needed to make a pit stop and at this point it was time for me to walk a bit. My strategy was to do timed run-walks. I kept debating how long I was going to run before walking – 15 minutes won out. I was running well, though my shoes kept bothering me – my toes were getting numb. This is a common occurrence for me with new shoes until they are broken in or I’ve figured the correct tightness of the laces. Luckily the course had the 50 km runners going back to the start-finish two times before we finished so I was able to change out to another pair of shoes that I brought. Of course this was a huge leap of faith on my part since I had run all of 6 miles on these shoes. I also switched out the fleece and put on the windbreaker. I was debating whether or not to wear the windbreaker but I’m glad I did – every so often clouds would obscure the sun and the wind would pick up and I would get cold.

So 6 miles done, 25 more to go! Of course the new shoes were giving me issues but not as much as the first pair. During my walk breaks I would untie my shoes to loosen up the laces. A couple times of doing that did the trick and I was able to run without any shoe issues for the rest of the race – though it wasn’t the end of my foot issues. After a while (not sure at what mileage – was I still on the western loop? Or back on the eastern loop?), my feet really started hurting. This was likely due to the lack of training and the fact that I am carrying an extra 20 pounds or so for these distances!  So I continued my run-walk, eating cut-up bits of Cliff bars and drinking water and feeling pretty good for the 15 miles or so until I ran into John Coffey who was walking as well. So I chatted with John for about 5 minutes and then I was back to running.  At this point I thought I was doing pretty well since John usually finishes races before me (and he did again, passing me for the last time towards the end of the western loop). At some point I started struggling, so I switched to 10 min run – 1 min walk, then to 5-1, and then to running when I felt good enough. I figured I was struggling because of the lack of training, but based on how I felt after getting some food at the start-finish, it was likely due to lack of food. Earlier at one of the aid stations, I ate two raspberries and all of a sudden my stomach tightened up. Not good since I still had a lot of race left! I was also getting really tired of my Cliff bar bits (I had cut a Cliff bar into 6-8 bite-size pieces and put them in a ziplock bag). So at the aid stations I would grab a strawberry or two, pick out several jelly bellies that I knew I would like (some of their flavors are just nasty!) and continue on the run. Not the best nutrition but I always felt I had energy to continue running – got to love those simple sugars that get into your blood stream quickly!

So I finished the western loop and had 9 more miles to run. Ugh! I was seriously hurting at this time – feet, legs, hips, back – you name the body part it hurt! So I just finished running much more than my training and I knew the last 9 miles were going to be a struggle. But I knew I would finish even if I had to walk the entire distance! Which of course I would never let myself do. I was hoping to keep at least a few 50 km racers behind me. I’ve been ok with finishing DFL in several races this past year but that day was not going to be one of those days! So as I continued running for a bit and walking even more, I spied a woman about a quarter mile ahead of me and I could see she was struggling. So my goal was to catch up and pass her! And I did! But at some point she ended up catching up to me again. Darn! I talked with her for a while to find out she was also running her first 50 km race. And she never ran a marathon before this, which I find totally amazing since I know how difficult a marathon could be! So while we were chatting I saw Jonathon running towards me. He had already finished his 50 km race and he decided he would run the last couple miles with me. Thanks Jon! And then Dave, who was running his first 100 mile race, joined us as well. It was nice to be running with friends again since I ran alone most of the race. Though never truly alone as I kept seeing people running in the opposite direction – we would give each other a thumbs up or a “nice job” – or someone would pass me.  So after chatting with my “competition” for a while I was back to running – and walking – with Jon. After turning the corner to the straightaway to the end, I found myself picking up the pace and “sprinting” to the finish. I finished in 7hr 11 min! Pretty much hit my target! I figured I would have been emotional about finishing my first 50 km race but I wasn’t. But I was definitely proud of what I had accomplished – and had a post-race celebration beer with friends at the race. Not everyone can run that far!



Of course, I was exhausted and quite sore but that evening I was already thinking about next year! I know that I can run faster and my training wasn’t optimal. I also need to think more about nutrition and plan better. Grabbing a bagel and coffee 45 minutes before the start of the race is not ideal. But I also have to think about nutrition during the course. The Cliff bars were pretty good but I probably need to carry something that is more readily digestible and probably should eat more often. I know a lot of people eat gels, but the thought of "eating" a think gel does not sound appealing. Though the thought of eating Powerbars used to not appeal to me, until I started long distance training and races and needed to carry food with me. So maybe I should give gels a try. I just have to find ones that I like.

I’ve already registered for my next looong distance race. I’ll be running for 12 hrs at 3 Days at the Fair in May – another race put on by NJ Trail Series. I wonder how far I'll run - 50 miles perhaps?