Country Music (Almost) Marathon

Travel
I got to LAX very early on Friday to catch a direct flight to Nashville on Southwest Airlines. As I boarded the plane, I bump into my friend Sam who is attempting to run 60 marathons this year for his charity, OperationJack. The Country Music Marathon was his 21st of the year. We're in April, you can do the math. CMM was supposed to be my 6th marathon this year and the 10th state. We arrived at Nashville on time and went our separate ways once we got to the car rental area. I drove to my hotel that was about 5 minutes away. I checked in and found it weird that they gave me a care package. It consisted a bottle water, peanut butter crackers, and Doritos chips. They probably knew most people were there for the marathon. I threw my bag in the room and headed back out to attend the race expo.

Expo Entrance

Expo/Pace Pickup
The expo was super crowded. While in line to pick up my race packet, I bumped into Sam again. We went over to the Clinic area to check out Tara Stiles, Ryan Hall, and Eddie George. I lost Sam after I went to get a better picture. I went through the expo with no intention of buying anything or signing up for any races. I did check out the iFitness belt, but decided to pass. I drove back to the hotel to take a short rest before dinner. I stopped by a local Walgreens to pickup some water and my usual race morning OJ. I was getting pretty famished, so I ended up eating the Doritos and crackers.

Tara Stiles (yoga instructor), Ryan Hall (elite marathon runner), and Eddie George (former Titan)

Pre-Race Stuff
For dinner I ate at the Stock-Yard Restaurant. Definitely not a place for penny pinchers, but a place that any steak lover needs to visit when in the area. I had the South Pacific Prime Ribeye Steak, baked potato, and cream of spinach. My waiter James introduced me to the grill master after I was done. The grill master showed me the charcoal that they use and the nice big grill.

The best advice they tell you when you run a marathon is: nothing new on race day. Since the weather report did not look one bit promising, I figure the race was going to be canceled or cut short. I packed my Camelbak dual bottle waist-pack to give it a try. Also I've changed to using Salt-stick caps instead of Shotbloks.

I had my orange juice in the morning, but realized that I had forgot to pack my Powerbar. I got to the LP field super early and tried to take a nap. But my GI system had other ideas. I had to make 2 portapotty visits before I even got to the bus for the starting line. It might have been a case of nerves. In the starting line village, I ate a banana and a bagel.

Almost a Marathon
Right from the very first mile I felt like I had ankle weights on. I did not like the waist-pack. It was very cumbersome with 2 bottles full of liquid. I took both bottles out and carried them as hand-helds. But my arms were getting tired after 2 miles since they were bigger bottles than my normal hand-held bottle. So back in the waist-pack they went. The course was very up and down. I felt extremely fatigued during a gentle climb around mile 3. I slowed way down. Never have I felt like I wanted to die so early in a marathon. The humidity was really getting to me. My head was starting to hurt. Once I took in my first GU and salt cap, I started to feel better. But could not run comfortably except at around a 10 min pace. I kept pouring water on my arm sleeves and on my head. It was a very enjoyable course, lots of trees and definitely a lot of rollers. It reminded me of the Cowtown Marathon in Sacramento. The race was storm-free for about 3 hours. But shortly after crossing the mile 20 mat, I was diverted to the half marathon finish since the storm was upon us. The rain was starting to come down and there was a good possibility of tornadoes. Their original contingency plan was to allow runners running 4:30 or better to finish. At mile 20 I was still on that pace, but it was more than likely that it was going to take me about 4:45 to finish. But at the end of the day, it was a 3:37 long run.
1: 8:18
2: 8:16
3: 9:47
4: 10:03
5: 10:04
6: 9:37
7: 10:22
8: 10:08
9-10: 19:36
11: 10:10
12: 10:13
13: 11:14
14: 9:55
15: 11:24
16: 11:52
17: 12:21
18: 13:12
19: 12:31
20: 13:08
20.x: 4:38

After the Race
After crossing the "finish line" they gave me a marathon finisher's medal, but I'm not too sure what to do with it. I guess I'll keep it with my Pasadena Inaugural Marathon medal. It just counts as a DNF or a training run in my books. I picked up my gear bag and headed back to my car. It took a really long time getting out of the parking lot. I filled up the gas tank and headed to the airport. I hung out there reading my book until it was time for my flight.

Sure I was disappointed that I didn't complete a marathon, but the race director made the right call. With possible tornadoes headed our way, there was no sense in risking the lives of runners, public servants, and volunteers. It was not an easy marathon, but I guess I will be back to try again. Hopefully next time, I'll be able to see the last 10k of the race. In a way I was glad that I ran about 20.5 miles instead of 26.2 miles since I was running the challenging La Jolla Half Marathon the next day.

I won't use the waist-pack again in a marathon. Salt-stick caps worked great, but I need to take more than 1 per hour especially if it is very humid. My right ankle is still no good. A little bit of anterior tibial tendonitis.

Carlsbad 5000 all day 25k

This was the 25th year of the Carlsbad 5000 and only the second year that they've offered an all day 25k event where the runner gets to run in 5 heats. As the race got closer, the more I began thinking that it was a very bad idea. After my disaster in Sycamore Canyon, I had nearly zero confidence in coming out of this race unscathed. But still I wanted to run hard and see what I could get out of my not-so-fresh legs. But I had to monitor the condition of my ailing body parts so that I don't cause any further damage.

I parked in my usual spot at the Carlsbad train station at around 5:15am. Took a little nap. Then I used the portapotties and picked up my bib at around 6am. I bumped into Charlie, a fantastic masters runner! We wished each other a good race and I headed back to my car. Along the way I stopped by the expo to pick up my race shirt and goodie-less bag. I got ready and jogged back to the starting area. In the starting area, I bumped into the same 70 year old triathlete as last year. I really hope I move like he does when I'm his age. Right before the start of the first heat, I came up with a goal to try and break 23 minutes. I don't run very many 5k's, so I don't really have a personal best at this distance.

Masters Men 40+
23:09 7:13, 7:22, 7:55, 0:39 - overall pace 7:27
I went out pretty well. The course was a bit congested with really large men trotting along in the front. I realized that I was pushing too hard as I got closer to the first mile marker. I was going to clock a sub 7 first mile, so I backed off. The second mile was pretty much a steady climb. When I saw that I had clocked a 7:22... I realized that I had to back off again or my other heats were going to suck really bad. I guess I backed off a little too much as I kicked down the final stretch and noticed that I was going to be about 10 seconds shy of my goal. If this were my only 5k, I'd definitely be in the 22s or lower.
31:49 break - I drank a bottle of Clif Shot Electrolyte drink and took 1 GU.

Masters Women 40+
24:59 8:02, 8:08, 8:08, 0:41 - overall pace 8:02
Running with the cougars! RAWR! This was my favorite heat. It's more of a happy fun run since most of the testosterone was not present. I started off a little bit slower in this one, but I developed a side stitch. So I kept it at an even pace the rest of the way. I tried taking deeper breaths to see if the pain would clear up. Eventually it did.
59:34 break - I drank a bottle of Clif Shot Electrolyte drink. I then went through the expo stopping by the RunRacing booth to say hi to Brian (at least I think that was his name, the band was loud). I then relaxed a little bit in my car. I jogged back to the start to loosen up the legs. I took 1 GU before the next heat.

Men 30-39
24:05 7:27, 7:52, 8:06, 0:40 - overall pace 7:45
Since this was my age group, I went out as hard as I could and tried to hang on. Seeing the same hill for the third time really drained me mentally. I just could not convince my legs to push after the first mile.
32:41 break - I drank a bottle of Clif Shot Electrolyte drink and took 1 GU. I carried a GU and some water into the next heat.

Women 30-39
25:37 8:13, 8:17, 8:26, 0:41 - overall pace 8:14
I started to feel really sluggish in this heat. I took a GU at around the first U-turn and finished off the water. In the final stretch as I was passing a guy also running the all day event, he turned on his kick. So instinct took over and I tried to match his kick. He beat me by a little. We congratulated each other, but it looked like I pulled or strained my right hammy.
51:22 break - I drank a bottle of Clif Shot Electrolyte drink and took 1 GU. Used the Clif Shot bottle to massage the hammy loose. I kept doing stretching exercises and it finally felt good to go a few minutes before the next heat. I was about to take a DNS on the final heat. Then took another GU.

Men and Women 29 & Under
26:13 8:18, 8:22, 8:43, 0:50 - overall pace 8:26
The heat that almost didn't happen. This was basically a fast jog. Good thing was that the right hammy was fine with it. I don't remember much about this heat as I was tired and spacing out. On the final stretch I tried to speed up, but my left hammy was cramping up. So, I ended up cruising in.

It took a bunch of us a while to find the Awards table in the village faire to pick up our 25k medal. There were signs pointing to it, but man it was a bit confusing and far! I picked up my medal and met up with my RWOL friends to watch the elites run the course. Man, those elites were flying! The winner for the men, Eliud Kipchoge, finished in 13:11, 4:15 per mile pace. The winner for the women, Meseret Defar, finished in 15:04, 4:51 per mile pace.

The breaks were kind of hard to endure. The faster you ran, the longer you had to wait in between heats. But if you run them slower than your capabilities then what's the point? I love this race, but 5k's are incredibly hard races to run. Most likely I'll be back, but man that was brutal to run five of them in succession. Carlsbad is a tad far of a drive to run only 1 heat. None of the usual niggles or ailments were bothering me during the race. But maybe I'm just more suited for shorter distances.

We then had lunch at Casa De Bandini. It was a Mexican restaurant in the Forum. I had an avocado omelette and 2 Stone IPA's. It was my attempt at eating less red meat. I'll probably go back to eating more seafood. It was a fun Sunday with running, food, and friends. Maybe next year I'll run 1 heat and just watch other people run.

Sycamore Canyon 30k + 13.1 "warmup"

4/3 - I ran about 7.86 miles for OperationJack in 1:07:56 about 8:38 pace. Then ran another 5.24 miles with James to make it a half marathon. Kind of stupid of me to ramp up the mileage with so many ailing body parts. But I needed to get the body used to running higher mileage on back to back days so I'll be ready for the Country Music Marathon followed by the La Jolla Half Marathon.

Sam and his son Jack

Sam finishing marathon 16 out of 60 this year

Niggle list: just below the knee, the left tibia feels "bruised" especially when running downhill. The right hip loses strength when it nears 10 miles. The right ankle feels weak. The lower back sometimes goes out.

4/4 - I ran/hiked the Sycamore Canyon 30k in about 5:09:40.

One of the reasons why it's so hard to keep me away from the races is meeting up with friends and making new ones.

Pink Loop part 1
I did most of the running on this leg. Last year I was able to run fairly well up to the fire road, but this year I was feeling extremely fatigued. Less than 30 minutes in, my legs felt trashed. While running down to the aid station, I latched onto about a 6 person train. The downhill section was nice, but there was definitely a discomfort building up in the left leg.
9.1k - 1:02:30
La Jolla Canyon aid station - 2:33

Orange Loop
I love this section of the course. But this year, it was a long long struggle. I had to shutdown any sustained running during somewhere in the grasslands. I came to a standstill and decided to hike it in. But I was not prepared for a long hike. Thank goodness for kind runners behind me to give me some of their fuel/salt. I tried to jog here and there. But it was more of a fast limp. During the steep downhill rocky portion of the La Jolla Canyon trail I had to sit down a few times on a boulder because I was getting really dizzy and nauseated. While sitting, I contemplated dropping out at the aid station. I eventually hiked down, made a quick stop at the restroom, and finally reached the aid station. But being the hard headed person that I am, I filled up my bottle, grabbed a few salt tabs, a gel, and a banana... and back out I go.
12.2k - 2:14:52

Pink Loop part 2
I hiked behind 2 hikers and a dog. They made nice pacers. Eventually I passed them and tried to jog again. But that didn't last too long. Along with the other pains, the legs would start cramping again. Even walking/limping down the downhill sections was a chore. It took so friggin long, I ran out of food and fluids. One guy going back out to finish his 50k made me take one of his gels even though I refused. Then my friend Jean, who was also doing the 50k, made me take some of her water even though I refused as well. Runners are such nice people. Then as Daniel, a 50k runner was about to pass me, he gave me a salt tab. It was so close to the finish and I felt so defeated having to limp/hike my way in.
9.2k - 1:49:43

Breaking Point
I think there's something sick and rewarding about discovering one's limit. Suffering through this race really did allow me to appreciate those that walk endurance events. Mentally, this race took me to the limit. When I got tired from running, I walked. When I got tired from walking, I had to sit or just stand there. It was an ego-busting defeat out there. This ranked up there with my 7:30+ hour marathon. You have to finish what you've started, right? :)

Anyways I shouldn't have signed up for this race, especially the 30k. 18k would've been more than enough. But this race made me reconsider my future races. I've been pushing my return from Achilles injury too soon. The endurance is incredibly lacking and I'm trying to resume where I've left off.

The Aftermath - Meet Mr. Niggles

Cutback
After my bad experience at the LA Marathon, I've decided to drop a few more races in 2011. I've been running the "Half Marathon Triple Crown - 39.3 Miles of Paradise" for the past few years. The triple crown consists of a half-marathons in Carlsbad, La Jolla, and San Diego. I love running near the San Diego area. But I need to cut out some racing to let my body heal up even if I'm not running those races at top speed.

Starting in 2011, I'm planning on returning to a more sane 4 marathons a year. My fixed marathons are LA, San Diego, New York, and Honolulu. Since New York will not always be guaranteed, I can pick another place for my forth marathon. Apparently I had to make that choice rather early. I want to also start working on completing a marathon in all 50 States. I was not able to resist the temptation to sign up for another marathon in California when Surf City offered their race at 50% off. How could I resist such a deal? Just for being a Longboard Legacy runner, I was able to sign up for about $53 dollars. I suppose if they keep treating their legacy runners in such fashion, Surf City might end up being a race that I'd run every year. But definitely I will no longer be running 10+ marathons in one year until I've qualified for Boston.

3/27 - approx 3.4mi at ~8:35 pace in 29:12, 14:36 out, 14:36 in.
I was surprised that such a pace felt easy. I wore my cheap crappy Pearl Izumi Push Plus. I figure I'll put some miles on these shoes since they've been sitting there for several years practically unused. I did use them in one marathon, but they are just bad shoes. I think it was just their 2nd line of running shoes. I'm sure their more recent lines are much better.

3/28 - approx 11.8mi at ~9:20 pace in 1:50:29.
Some more slow stuff. Lots of hill on this route. My right hip and leg were bothering me on the downhills, but everything felt fine going uphill. I have renamed my right leg, Mr. Niggles. At least my left leg is not hurting. It is a lot of fun to run around 5am. The sun doesn't come out until you're well into your run. I only saw about 5 people, all near the end of my run.

Sycamore Canyon
I am looking forward to running a trail race this coming Sunday. I had hoped to be running the 50k, but 30k might be more than I can handle in my present condition. My goal is just to finish better or around my time from last year.

LA Marathon

A Day at the Expo
I took Friday off to pretty much spend the whole day at the expo. I originally wanted to take the Metro so I didn't have to deal with parking. But I decided to drive since we were going to eat dinner after everyone was done with the expo. I picked up my race packet and noticed that the layout was all wrong... typical inaugural event mistake. They setup the pickup lines where they crisscrossed each other. I noticed that my age was wrong on my bib when I went to pickup my shirt. Oh well, it's not like I'm going to place in my age group except for maybe DFL. The shirt design was crap. Less is more, but it looked like someone went crazy with their markers and then started sniffing the markers halfway through.

Ugh, $125 for this crap? Please give us a no-shirt option next time.

I bumped into Mitch. Then we went through all of the tents. I visited my favorite race booth, the Rock n' Roll booth. I talked to the same girl that signed me up for the Carlsbad all day 25k and finally got my free shirt. I later bumped into Louis and James. I swear I see the same people at all of my races.

My friend at the RunRacing Booth

I was hungry so I drove out to Little Tokyo for lunch at Sushi Go 55. Those Japanese are so in love with Hideki Matsui! I had their self proclaimed "best chirashi in town" which was a disappointment because I've had better. Next time I'll try another restaurant. I drove back to expo to finish visiting all of the booths.

Friends at the Worldvision booth

I said hi to Sarah Reinertsen and her mom.

I didn't buy too much stuff, just a new Phiten x50 necklace and a bracelet. I sampled some of that soy milk only because I was parched from the super nice warm weather. I bumped into Roccco while waiting to see if Kara would show up.

There was a tweet that said Kara was going to be there, but this was as close as I got to meeting her.

I got tired of waiting for Kara. Apparently she canceled. I went to listen to Rod Dixon a little bit. Then I hung out at the RunRacing booth with Danica. Later everybody started showing up... Lori, Billy, Ryan, Rachel, Ray, Johannes, and Jen. We then went to a nearby restaurant, Gingergrass, for dinner. Everything about the place was just okay. The company was good which was what mattered. A few of us stopped by the Red Lion Tavern afterward for some German drinks and extra grub. I love their schwarzbier... I guess it's fitting that my name is German.

Bo Sate w/Lori warming her fingers on the warm plate @ Gingergrass - It was okay... it looked better than it tasted.

Pre-race
I left the house at about 2:30am and got to the Civic Center parking lot with zero traffic. I was about the 5th car in the lot. I took a nap in the car listening to music on my shuffle. When it got closer to 4:30, I got ready and boarded the bus for Dodger Stadium. I saw a huge line of cars on the freeway trying to exit and was glad that I had arrived extra early. As a charity runner for WorldVision, I got to hang out in one of the suites which was really nice. They have really nice restrooms which always beats using the portapotties. We even got to see some of the elite athletes as they were walking to their suites. Andy Baldwin, who was also a WorldVision runner and of the Bachelor fame, gave us a little pep talk.

I ran into Jen in the starting area. We made our way to the 4:30 pace group where we waited and waited for the race to start. They announced that the race was delayed. My strategy for this marathon was to run at 30 minutes for every 5k.

1st Half
The first mile was congested. With chip timing, why do walkers insist on starting so far in the front? I wanted to start slow, but not that slow. It remained clogged until around mile 2. While jogging around Dodger Stadium, I ran into Jessica. The left knee was feeling wrong coming down the hill leaving Dodger Stadium. That's never happened before. It was nice having the taiko drums while running up a huge hill going up to mile 4. I ran a little with a barefoot runner. My day was finished at mile 7. They said that it was all downhill after the first 10k. I was completely demoralized when I saw another hill... only one of many more soul-sucking hills to come.
1: 11:01
2: 8:57
3: 8:23
4: 9:49
5: 9:40
6: 9:29
7: 10:09
8: 9:22
9: 9:57
10: 10:23
11: 10:04
12: 10:23
13: 12:26

2nd Half
The right hip was feeling weak. Saw Billy and Danica as we were approaching the mile 16 arch. I was not expecting to see them at all because they're in much better shape than I am. They pulled away from me at Rodeo Drive. I pulled over to an aid station at mile 16 to refill my bottle and I bumped into Rajan again. I did not like the steady incline through the VA Administration area. I took a potty break around mile 20. I saw things inside that portapotty that makes me thankful for being a guy and someone that does not get grossed out very easily. Somewhere around 22 and 23 my right pectoral muscle cramped up. Then it was my right butt cheek. That's the first time that's ever happened. Thank goodness for the Sunny D at around mile 24. I should've taken a second bottle. I walked most of the last 3 miles. After crossing mile 26, I saw Oksie walking near the side. I tried to get him to run it in with me, but he was hurting more than I was... so I hobbled across the finish line with both calves o' crampin'!
14: 10:51
15: 11:09
16: 12:13
17: 13:14
18: 14:36
19: 13:48
20: 15:50
21: 14:55
22: 17:09
23: 18:21 - hard to walk when your right butt cheek cramped up!
24: 14:15
25: 14:08
26: 14:58
26.2: 2:26
Finish: 5:18:07

Post-race
That was one big beat-down by the LA Marathon. It was literally a pain in the butt experience. This was my 7th consecutive LA Marathon. With the exception of last year's race, I have always done my worst at LA. It was a combination of hills and warm weather that did me in this year. I did not carry enough fuel. My body was already banged up and it was just extra tiring to run 26.2 miles in the super nice Southern California weather. It was very hard getting down to the pier and the post-race celebration area. I didn't bother visiting any booths or anything and just made a beeline for the gear check trucks. I got my stuff and made my way back to my car. Then I escaped the traffic madness on the freeway by taking a bunch of surface streets to get to Santouka in Mar Vista for my post race ramen.

When Life Throws You Lemons

Why?
It has been asked, "why do you run so many marathons despite nagging little injuries?" Well running is a great way to clear my head. In a spiritual sense, you feel a sense of connection with God. But the main reason why I do it so often is that I'm trying to combine my passion for running with charity work. I like to raise money for charities. I first started with Team in Training... yes, those purple people running all over the place at the marathon. Then I spent most of 2009 promoting WorldVision in their quest to bring clean drinking water to the people of Africa. At the suggestion from a good friend of mine, I recently have taken a more personal approach to the fund-raising aspect of my marathon running. As a brother to someone that's autistic, it really sucks to be affected by autism. He's got the body of a 33 year old, but has a mental age of about 5. I'd like to support organizations that are helping to find a cure or improve the quality of life for someone with autism. Autism not only affects the person with it but the rest of the family as well. I've sacrificed most of my own dreams and life's ambitions to help my parents out in taking care of him. Actually it's helping out my mom. In the Asian culture, the father typically has a hands-off approach to raising children. It is the duty belonging to the mother. I still live with them, but there are times when I just want to move out. When you're always there and always dependable, it is inevitable that people start taking you for granted. That's just human nature.

When Life Throws You Lemons
My friend Sam, the father of an autistic child, is running 60 marathons this year to raise awareness for Train4Autism. Here's his website: Operation Jack. This year, I'm running most of my marathons in support of Operation Jack. If Sam is running in the marathon that I'm in then I'll be wearing my Operation Jack or Train4Autism shirt. If you're looking to support a great cause, please consider Operation Jack.

EAS Myoplex - Chocolate Cream

It seems like it's been a while since I had to chance to run for more than 6 miles during a training run.

3/13 Saturday - I went out for a semi-long run. The course was one of my usual routes around where I live. It was a rather hilly course, approximately 11.6 miles. It was a cool 50 degrees when I started, but it warmed up near the finish. After about 8 miles, the right ankle felt wrong. The hip was no good either. It only felt better if I slowed down or when I was running uphill. One good thing was that the Achilles tendon was no longer an issue. Other than the hip and ankle discomfort, it felt great to be out running. I finished the run in 1:52:13 which comes out to be about a 9:40 pace.

Just as a precaution, I'm not going to run at all leading up to the LA Marathon. Originally I wanted to finish LA in about 4:30, but that's not looking too good. Still, I'm really excited to be running the LA Marathon again! It'll be my 7th consecutive LA Marathon. I love LA!

Product Review - EAS Myoplex
After my run, I drank a free bottle that I got from one of my races. It tasted mighty good. They claim that it helps your body not waste a workout. I loved the taste, but that's the same with regular chocolate milk. I'm pretty sure the latter is cheaper. While I won't hesitate to take a free sample, I will not invest in this EAS product. Chocolate milk or Ovaltine would be fine with me.