What in the world was I thinking?

What in the world was I thinking when I signed up for back to back marathon weekends? Despite what people say, I'm not a real Marathon Maniac. When I cross the finish line, I usually start thinking about the next marathon that I'd want to run. This Sunday, I was completely wiped out. All I could think of was "get me out of here!" The day did not start off well for me. At the RW forum FE on Saturday, I was already feeling the malaise that you feel when a cold is coming on. On race day, I woke up with a sore throat. I pounded the fluids and the throat felt better.

I went back to my old pre-race routine where I drink Campbell soup for breakfast. The hot soup made me feel better. I got ready and arrived at the parking lot a little before 5. I was actually trying to get into the free parking beach lot, but it was closed at both ends. So I ended up parking in the closest lot for $5. I took a little nap in my truck before going to the Hyatt to take care of business in their 5 star restroom. While I was waiting in the starting area, my church friends that were running the 5k found me. We wished each other well and the race was soon underway.

Miles 0 - 6:
Before I ran a single step, I was already expecting the worst. But I kept reminding myself to go BIG or go home. What is the point of showing up if you're not going to perform. The gun goes off and I quickly bumped into an older gentlemen that I've ran with in numerous other races. I was staying behind the 4:20 pacers. But after the 2nd mile I pulled ahead of them and stayed between the 4:10 and 4:20 pace groups. Next I ran into Ingrid while running with another guy that I was chatting with about running a smart race. But right at the mile 3 turn, I just decided to throw caution to the wind and stretched the legs out a little. I don't mind it during the long runs, but I was tired of running 9:30+ paces during a race. I knew from my screwed up training, that I did not have the stamina to hold any decent pace for more than 15 miles. But I just had to do it to feel good about running again. So I sped up for the next 3 miles until I came barreling down on the 4:10 pace group. That's when I went back to running 9:30 - 9:40 pace where I ended up leapfrogging this one girl whose shirt says to follow her to the bar. Sure, why not. I talked to her every time we passed each other.
1 - 9:43
2 - 9:33
3 - 9:30
4 - 9:08
5 - 8:41
6 - 8:25

Miles 7 - 12:
My goodness, it was hard to run my slow pace when the course reconnected with the fast half marathoners. I was trying to stay out of their way. I felt like Simba running in the gorge trying to not get trampled by those Wildebeests. When we got back on the PCH, I found it really tough to run on the flat road with the wind blowing in my face. Littlestinker(Lori) passes me and says hi between miles 10 and 11. She sees me again when she was coming back from the turnaround. I was glad to make the turnaround to have the wind behind me for a change.
7 - 9:45
8 - 9:13
9 - 9:38
10 - 9:14
11 - 9:36
12 - 9:50

Miles 13 - 18:
I saw Chic runner(Danica) somewhere near mile 13. I sped up to ask her how she was doing and I don't think she was happy with her pace. At that point I was still feeling ok, but I kind of wished that I was doing the half marathon instead. Some guy shouts, "Pony Express, I'm catching up to you!" I couldn't tell who. I started to fade really fast when we made the turn onto the bike path which was pretty much my limit. After that I was running on fumes. I saw Johnkitt running strong in the opposite direction. As well as Sam in his 3:30 pace group.
13 - 9:46
14 - 9:15
15 - 10:09
16 - 9:58
17 - 10:33
18 - 10:39

Miles 19 - 24:
Took a potty break after reaching mile 19. Somewhere near mile 21 my right quad near the knee was giving me problems. I felt it tightening up. So I slowed it down some more and increased my walking breaks to 2mins. I saw Charlie around mile 23. He was trying to get my attention, but my mind was elsewhere. He asked me how I was doing and I told him that I'm hurtin'. He tells me to just run relaxed. Seeing him improved my mood.
19 - 12:43
20 - 10:55
21 - 12:47
22, 23 - 27:46
24 - 12:56

The finish:
As I made the final turn onto PCH, a lady runner nearly shoves me into the aid station table. Perhaps she was dying of thirst. But most likely I cut the corner a little tight and she didn't see my skinny butt coming through. I found it hard to run near the gutter... the little roped section for the full marathoners. At this point, I didn't want to run anymore. I walked quite a bit since I was among the half marathon walkers. I knew it was going to be over soon no matter what I do. But I figured that I should run it in if I still have something left, so I stretched out my legs a little in the final stretch. I heard a shout of "Pony Express" right as I crossed the line. I was too zoned out to turn around to see who.
25 - 12:32
26 - 13:38
26.2 - 1:53
Finish - 4:37.59

I didn't think I had a sub 5 in me this day let alone a PR. There is still a lot of room for improvement, but it's not going to happen until this year is over... until I exorcise the maniac in me. At first all I wanted to do was go home and crash. But I changed my mind and went to BJ's afterwards with Spandex, Ryan, Cat, and Ingrid. I'm glad I did. I was lightheaded after the race and I think I really needed to eat something. Also the beers hit the spot even though what I really wanted was an Irish coffee. I skipped the beer flavored water garden at the finish line. "Healthy" beers need to be outlawed.

Surf City here I come!

Man, I always bust up laughing whenever I watch this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KZrRoTcme0o

If Cousin Sal were to be at the Surf City marathon this Sunday offering money to drop out, I'd take it. Plus he might throw in a margarita as well. =)

But in all seriousness, it is a big milestone race for me. As you already know, I will be qualifying at the lowest level for the Marathon Maniacs. I will also be joining the Longboard Legacy Club and completing the California Dreamin' Race Series. It will also be my 20th marathon. But even before the race begins, I'm already tired. Frankly, I'm just worn out from work... actually life in general. I'm hoping on Sunday I'll just go into my running zone... my happy place and just forget about the cares of this world for about 5 or so hours.

I've watched my Honolulu marathon DVD and it's rather pathetic to see how slow I'm moving during a marathon. Still I would give the service/product two thumbs up and recommend people to buy it. It's nicely put together. I just wish that they would show even more of the elite runners. They sure make it look good and easy out there.

Anyways, the plan for this Sunday is to get myself to the finish line within the allotted time of 6hrs. I'm guessing I won't need all 6hrs, but hey I have no idea what my right leg is going to give me. I'll try to stick to the 10min/mile pace as long as I can and restrain myself from following the 4:15 pace group out at the start. Now for a crash and burn scenario, I will be setting up a carrot... 6 bottles of Shiner Bohemian black Lager waiting for me in the truck at the parking lot. I'll probably bypass the beer-flavored water that they'll be serving at the "beer" garden. =)

1 down, 1 more to go!

Yea! I finished the Carlsbad marathon this morning. Just 1 more marathon to go to qualify for the marathon maniacs group. The goal for this race was to just finish in one piece... saving enough of my legs for next week at Surf City. I predicted a 5 hr finish... only because I knew that my injury in all likelihood has not completely healed. My Hawaiian friend has always told me to go BIG or go home! So I decided to go "BIG" and join the 4:15 pace group. If I weren't hurting, it would've been fine. It started out ok. The pace felt easy... until I got to the halfway point. My right hip started acting up and I knew the race was done. I was very demoralized and at one point wanted to completely bag the race and walk the rest of the way in. But after doing some quick math calculations in my head, I realized that I can still finish in 5hrs. So I started alternating between walking and shuffling. I made sure I did only as much as my legs would give me. I didn't want to trash my legs entirely for next week.

While I was suffering through the 2nd half of the marathon, I made a decision to cut back on marathoning in 2010. My body is a little beat-up and I really need to take a year off to recuperate. I would like to focus more on the half marathon and get that down to the 1:30-1:40 range. Although I'll be a marathon maniac next week, I'm just not too fond of the distance at this point. It is way too demanding, requires too much commitment, and your likeliness for injury is so high during training for that distance.

One other thing that I've learned during this race... Ultima sports drink is horrible! Why can't they just use Gatorade? And if they insist on using that brand, they should not use the clear mix. The volunteers passing them out will sometimes forget and tell you that it's water! What an unpleasant surprise!

Here are my splits:
1 - 9:58
2 - 8:32 I knew that pace leader was going too fast!
3 - 9:35
4 - 9:38
5 - 9:45
6 - 9:44
7,8 - 19:26
9,10 - 19:56
11 - 9:17
12 - 9:25
13 - 9:40
14 - 9:39 starting to feel discomfort in the right hip
15 - 10:03 could no longer keep up with the 4:15 pace group
16 - 11:38 started taking walk breaks
17 - 11:54
18 - 12:15
19 - 15:31 potty break
20 - 13:59 the death march is in full effect
21 - 13:44
22 - 14:37
23 - 15:49
24 - 14:43
25 - 13:53
26 - 14:30
26.2 - 2:29
Finish 4:59:49

Desperate times calls for desperate measures

Saturday (1/17) - I went out for a 3.4mi test run. Out - 1.7mi @ 7:59 pace. In - 1.7mi @ 8:15 pace. It felt pretty good going out. Right hip felt a bit tight coming in, so as a precaution I slowed the pace down. Nice to go running after an entire week off.

Sunday (1/18) - I ran 11.6mi at 9:21 pace. The weather was great, but the wind made the hills extra tough. Felt great, except for the lower back... few spasms. Right hip felt better... much better than at the SC half marathon.

Monday (1/19) - I ran 3.4mi at an easy 8:33 pace. That's three running days in a row. The right hip feels ok... not great, but much better.

I most likely won't be doing much more running this week. It's going to be another busy week at work. Maybe I'll go out for 5 miles on Wednesday. Then it's Carlsbad marathon here we come!

Here's a little bit of non-running stuff... so I caught an episode of Desperate Housewives yesterday and I must say that the writing for this show is really superb.

The moment of truth

Well, it's almost time for the moment of truth. My back to back weekends of marathoning will determine what the rest of 2009 will look like. If I survive will little or no problem, I will be doing it again with the LA marathon and the San Diego Rock n' Roll marathon. I'm really excited to be running the Carlsbad full marathon this year. For the last couple of years, I've always done the half marathon just to fulfill the Half Marathon Triple Crown - 39.3 Miles of Paradise. This year I decided to take it up a level and do the full. I'm planning to just coast through it in 5hrs which is about an 11min/mile pace. That way I don't leave myself banged up for the Surf City marathon. I will test my legs this weekend to see if the week off helped. Thank goodness for the 3 day weekend! It'll be time for Carlsbad before you know it!

This weekend, I plan to run my usual 3.4 mile route. Followed by my usual 11.6 mile longish run to see if my leg/hip will hold up. It was hard not running for an entire week, but work kept me busy and zapped enough of my strength and sanity that I didn't care as much.

It may be a tad early, but I'm starting to plan for the Seattle and New York marathons. They are respectively in June and November. Those 2 will bring me that much closer to joining the 50 states marathon club. I need to have 11 states before I can join them. So far I have CA, AZ, NV, and HI. I'm especially excited about these two marathons because Seattle is my favorite city and New York is always a cool place to visit. I really can't wait for NY because I've been trying to get in for the past 3 years with their lottery system, but failed every year. They have to let you in automatically the 4th year. Maybe I need to start training more seriously so that I can get in with a qualifying time instead. Anyways it will also be a chance to see and meet some of the elite runners... the best of the best at a major marathon! I'm sure Kara Goucher will be there again this year and give Radcliffe a run for her money... literally. =)

Marathon Maniac

What the heck happened? When I first set out to join the Marathon Maniac group, I was going to run Long Beach in October, Pasadena in November, and Honolulu in December. Bam, I would be in. But Pasadena got canceled due to the fires and now I'm going to qualify with Honolulu in December, Carlsbad on Jan 25th, and Surf City on Feb 1st. Except now the 3 marathons aren't equally spaced apart. The last two are on back to back weekends. Normally I'm daring enough to not care about that, but I've been dealing with right hip, right shoulder, sometimes right foot issues since late October. With the hip giving me problems at the Southern California half marathon this past Saturday, my confidence is pretty much in the crapper.

Originally I just wanted to cruise through both at about 5hrs a piece... but it's looking to be worse. I will do some test runs this MLK weekend to see if I need to reassess. I'm really hoping that I do not have to walk one of these marathons.

2009 Southern California Half Marathon

1 - 8:31
2 - 8:19
3 - 8:15
4 - 8:06
5 - 8:51 attempting to back off on the pace
6 - 8:32
7 - 9:01
8 - 9:01
9 - 8:36
10 - 9:31 right hip feeling tight
11 - 9:47 right leg would not fire
12 - 10:12 right leg is now along for the free ride
13.1 - 10:02

last ran in 2005 - 2:05:45
predicted - 1:50 - 1:55
finish - 1:56:49 (watch)
official - 1:56:59

It was a bit chilly before the race, but it quickly heated up. It was really great to have finally met a bunch of the RW forumites! While I did not get the time that I wanted, I'm just glad to be healthy enough to be running week after week, month after month. The wind was brutal and the hairpin turns were not fun. Now I need to figure out how I'm going to survive Carlsbad and Surf City marathons.

I want to start blogging again. Most of my race notes that I keep are in my excel file.