Marathon-training weather, race-day weather again won't match

Ideally, you want to train in conditions that are similar to the ones you'll deal with on race day. But it appears that for the second straight marathon, that isn't going to happen.

During my training for last October's Detroit Marathon, I never once wore gloves, a Balaclava on the top of my head or a long-sleeve running shirt. But with temperatures in the low 30s and the wind chill in the high 20s at the start, I was wearing all of that on race day.

My training for Sunday's Tobacco Road Marathon has been full of brutally cold temperatures, blustery winds and some snow and, until recently, gloves were required for every run. The temperature never has been above the mid-40s for any of my training runs, but according to weather.com's hour-by-hour forecast for Cary, it will be 51 degrees at 7 a.m. when the race starts, with the temperature rising to the 60s by about 10:30 a.m., when I hope to finish.

Given the choice between those two conditions, I'd probably prefer Sunday's forecast. But 60s is a bit too hot for a marathon, particularly when I haven't run in those temperatures for months. At least the long-range forecasts of rain for race day turned out to be wrong.

I'm trying to drink as much Gatorade and water as I can today so that I'm properly hydrated for the run.

My goal for the race is to run 8-minute miles, which would give me my adventurous finishing-time goal of 3 hours, 30 minutes. 

Short of that, I'd like to beat 3:33:51, which is my marathon PR set at Chicago a few years ago. 

Short of that, I could run a Boston Marathon qualifying time with a finish of 3:35:59 or better. I've run Boston with a media waiver, but never have qualified for Boston.

Failing the above, I would hope to at least finish around 3:40.

The key to all of that will be not going out too fast,  running as close to 8-minute miles as possible, and avoiding the dreaded 9-minute miles that invariably crop up in the last six miles.

Can't wait to get to the starting line!

A special night at Carmichael

I would have blogged about this sooner, but life -- specifically my "involuntary separation" from the Daily Press on Wednesday -- has diverted my attention just a bit.

Even though it's a few days later, I can't help but write about how special it was to go to a game in Carmichael with my dad Tuesday night. It was a present a day before his birthday. 

My fondest memories as a kid surrounded going to games in Carmichael with him. Of course there were many times when I had to slip over to the aisle to see the action because I was so short, but it literally didn't get any better than that. 

I remember not being all that happy when we went to Disney World one year and I missed an exhibition game against the Soviet Union national team. I'm sitting there at Disney World when it tipped off thinking about how I wished I was in in Carmichael.

When I was driving back to Virginia on Wednesday, I talked to my 12-year-old son, Scott, before he went to school. When I was trying to explain how much the game meant to me, I nearly lost it. Heck, I didn't even come close to losing it when I found out I was getting laid off! Maybe it's because I thought I'd never be able to do that again. So there's one excellent result from a painful Carolina basketball season!

Heck, Dad and I even made ESPN's Star Watch (right). Kind of.

Even if the Tar Heels had lost, it would have been terrific. But it was an exciting victory that was very much in doubt until the final four minutes. 

I knew from watching several William and Mary games that it is extremely dangerous from 3-point range, and just hoped that the Tribe wouldn't hit that many. Since it took 43 3-point attempts, the second most against the Tar Heels in program history, it's good that W&M didn't hit more than they did!

It was a bit irritating that the Tribe brought its pep band and cheerleaders, particularly after the game when we had to wait for its band to finish a song before our pep band played Hark the Sound.

There are new seats, a new scoreboard, new bleachers and, sadly, a new name (Carmichael Arena instead of Carmichael Auditorium) but it still is one of the classic college basketball venues that gives UNC a significant home-court advantage.

This was no wine-and-cheese crowd. We stood for nearly the entire game as did most of the crowd. Had that NIT game been played in the Smith Center, I never would have driven down for the game.

I've got to thank my former co-worker, Jeff Patterson, for switching his Tuesday night off for my Thursday night off so that I could go to the game. I feel bad that I couldn't make good on my end of the bargain because I got laid off on Wednesday.

Who knows? If N.C. State and North Carolina pull upsets this weekend, there could be a rematch of the last previous Carmichael men's game. That definitely would draw me back to Chapel Hill!

Just another kick in the gut for a newspaper guy

What is it with my newspaper career and the number seven?

I stayed at the Burlington (N.C.) Times-News for seven years before going to the Durham (N.C.) Herald-Sun. I worked in Durham for seven years before getting laid off.

In my five years at the Daily Press in Newport News, Va., I survived six rounds of layoffs/buyouts. But, you guessed, it, I didn't survive layoff round No. 7, which went down today. Follow this link for details about why these layoffs happened.

The changes explained in the link force a Daily Press sports department with award-winning writers and an excellent sports editor to try to produce good journalism at a significant disadvantage when it comes to the print edition.

A lot of content that doesn't appear in the print edition will go online. Clearly, that's where the business is going and it's extremely important to any newspaper. But very few newspapers are making money with their Web site.

But I'm just as sad to see what is happening at a place I loved the past five years with people committed to good journalism.

My losing my job is collateral damage when you consider the damage that's being done to the business that I love. The Daily Press is far from alone in that regard. Many newspapers are depleting their product at a time when the business already is losing readers.

This all brings me back to the debate I had five years ago: Is my love for newspapers so great that I'm willing to take another chance on a newspaper job? 

It always is a tough debate because I have a passion for journalism and newspapers. It's what I love to do. You don't take a job that forces you to work nights and weekends unless you love it. You certainly don't go into this business for the money.

I'm certainly open to non-newspaper jobs, but I've got to think that there is a newspaper job out there that might be safe. It's probably going to be at a small paper or a bigger family-owned paper. It's got to be out there.

The worst part for me is something that the corporate folks making these decisions are unlikely to consider: What laying off newspaper people does to their wives/husbands and their kids. The kids have to change schools and the spouses haves to look for a job -- again -- if the new job forces you to move.

I realize that the newspapers are far from the only industry that has endured lots of layoffs in this bad economy. But if you're a banker, there are lots of banks in most towns. There are countless other professions that would be similar. If you get laid off, you don't necessarily have to move. But if you're a newspaper guy, there are very few situations that allow you to get another newspaper job that don't require you to move.

Hopefully the next big opportunity is out there.

If you know anybody looking for a copy editor with 27 years of experience, let me know!

Hey, at least now I have lots of days off so I can catch my Tar Heels in the NCAA tournament. Wait. Oh, never mind.

Third "last game in Carmichael" on the way

I was there for the first two alleged last games in Carmichael and I'm will be there for the latest "last game in Carmichael."

The first was on my 25th birthday, Feb. 23, 1985. It was the last home game of that regular season against Clemson, an 84-50 victory, and it was expected to be the last at Carmichael Auditorium because the "Student Activities Center" was supposed to open the next season.

Well, that didn't quite work out -- much to my delight -- and there were more Carmichael home games early in the 1985-86 season.

The move to the SAC was set to be made for the Jan. 18, 1986, Duke game, making the Jan. 4 game against N.C. State, a 90-79 victory, the "last game in Carmichael."

After the game, Wolfpack coach Jim Valvano grabbed a ball and made a layup so that he could jokingly say that he made the last basket in Carmichael.

Later that month in 1986, the new facility became the Dean E. Smith Student Activities Center. Obviously it's more commonly called the Smith Center and a name I've never liked: the Dean Dome.

But, thanks to renovations in the Smith Center, Tuesday's NIT game will be the latest "last game in Carmichael." As I blogged earlier this month, it was my understanding that this would happen if there were NIT games this season.

Barring upsets of No. 1 regional seed Mississippi State, No. 2 UAB and No. 3 South Florida, it will be the only NIT game at Carmichael this season and likely the last for the men's team.

I got the matchup I wanted. But I wanted the Heels to face William and Mary because I figured that the game would be just down the road from me in Williamsburg. I'll certainly take another game in Carmichael, but I wish $40 tickets and a 9:30 p.m. tipoff didn't come with it.

Knowing UNC's tendency not to defend the perimeter very well makes me worry about playing the Tribe, which has several excellent 3-point shooters. When W&M is hitting, it is very dangerous as it showed in winning at Wake Forest and at Maryland, both NCAA tournament teams.

David Schneider (92 3-pointers, 33 percent shooting from 3-point range), Quinn McDowell (48, 42.6), Danny Sumner (45, 31,8) and, off the bench, JohnMark Ludwick (34, 40.0) all are dangerous shooters. The Heels can only hope that Schneider's shooting slump that kept W&M from beating Old Dominion in the CAA tournament final (he was 2-for-12 from 3-point range) continues.

The Tar Heels should score with ease inside as long as the guards are able to get the ball to the big men, but this Tribe team is a gritty bunch that won't make it easy. How William and Mary has a lower seed than North Carolina is mystifying, but I'll take it.

It's a terrific story with W&M coach Tony Shaver returning to the same building where he played a reserve role for Dean Smith in his playing days. I've loved following William and Mary's season, but I'm obviously hoping that it comes to an end Tuesday!