Buffet Mandatory, Marathon Optional
So the Las Vegas Rock n' Roll Marathon was the final marathon for the year. I always love going to Vegas to eat. I wanted to try out two sushi buffets, Sushi Mon and Hikari. Even though I kept telling myself that the marathon was optional, I knew that I wanted to run it to see the condition of my right Achilles. I had not run a step since the Malibu Marathon 3 weeks prior. I was even beginning to think that I had forgotten how to run. The Achilles was healing up really nicely. I had full range of motion and it was looking a lot more like the good left one. It was relatively pain/niggle free when I walk. Oddly enough just 2-3 days before the race, the Achilles was feeling a bit sore whenever I walked longer distances. In hindsight maybe it was telling me not to run the marathon. :)
Day 1 - Getting to the Expo
I decided last minute to take a personal day on Friday and headed out Friday morning. I was able to book a pretty nice place just off of the Strip for $50. I got into Primm in about 3 hours for my usual restroom break. Boy it was cold! Stupid me, I was wearing shorts. I got into Vegas shortly thereafter. I headed over to park at Luxor. I wanted to walk around a little bit to see how the Achilles felt. I got to the expo before it opened. I talked to one of the competitor group girls at the booth about the ultra with Dean Karnazes at the RnR Arizona. They were setting up outside of the convention hall and it looked quite hectic since it was not planned that way. There was a cowboy convention just next door to the marathon expo and that really added to the crowd. I met Meb Keflezghi, the winner of this year's NYC Marathon, at the Nissan booth. That was really cool. He was a very humble down-to-earth guy. He signed my bib and a postcard of him celebrating after the win at NYC.
I zipped through the rest of the expo with absolutely no intention of signing up for another race. I was however scouting for calf sleeves. All I saw were 2xu. Since I was getting hungry I decided that I would check those out the next day. Then I waited in the registration line to do a last minute sign-up for my friend. After I was done with that, I met up with my Bay Area friends, Cat and Aimee at the food court. I then bumped into Mae on my way to get my car to go check into my hotel and eat at Sushi Mon. I checked into my huge room at the Tuscany Suites. Then I finally headed out to eat a very late lunch or a very early supper at Sushi Mon. It was about 3pm and I was so hungry I could hardly think straight. I love almost all Japanese food and I stuffed myself to the point that I almost had to hurl. I then went back to my hotel to rest my stomach.
Day 2
I woke up the next day pretty early around 5am and read part of Dick Beardley's book, Staying the Course. I checked out at around 9:30ish and went back to the expo to look at the 2xu calf guards and meet up with a few other RWOL folks... Jake, James, Howard, Ingrid, and Marcia. I tried on the sleeves and they felt ok. I was told they were too tight for running by other runners, but I thought I'd give them a try. I bought a pair to use during the race. After saying goodbye to my friends, I stopped by a CVS to buy some sunflower kernels to snack on and OJ for race day. I then checked into the Bluegreen Club 36 resort. This was a really nice place with everything... a kitchen, washer and dryer, and a handicap access bathroom. I could actually sit down and take a shower. I swear the signs were all there. James and Howard joined me for sushi buffet number 2 at Hikari for dinner at 5pm. I tried not to eat too much. It was great eating with friends at Hikari versus eating solo at Sushi Mon. I wished them both a good race and headed back to my hotel. Back in my room, I popped in my Spirit of the Marathon dvd to get some motivation. I really did not want to run a marathon the next day. Jeanette stopped by to pick up her race packet. If you thought that I ran too many races... it's all kid's stuff compared to the amount she ran this year! Ever since I bumped into her at Montaña de Oro, I almost always expect to see her at every single marathon that I run. She's one of my maniac idols! :)
Pre-race
I got ready and checked out by 3:30am to park on the other side of the Strip. The instructions stated that the Strip was going to be closed at 4am. Lies! It was already closed. So I drove further south and was able to cut across onto the street that led to the Mandalay Bay and Luxor parking lots. I didn't want to deal with crowds so I headed for Luxor. I walked over to the Mandalay Bay and hung out at the food court eating my Powerbar. As it was getting close to the start, I headed over to exit and found Jeanette sitting in a corner. I hung out with her since we were in the same corral. Eventually we had to go out into the cold, check our bags, and run a marathon. I wore my Pearl Izumi visor, Worldvision shirt, Sugoi arm-warmers, Asics gloves, Mizuno shorts, 2xu calf sleeves, and Nike shoes. As you can see, no brand loyalty. Man it was cold... freeze warning cold! We hopped into our corral and after some fireworks we were off.
First Half
I started off very slow. When I eventually sped up, it was only up to about a 9:00 - 9:15 pace... a very comfortable pace. I even starting to think that maybe all is well and I would have a decent race. Well, that lasted all for about 3 miles. At that point I started to notice that I wasn't getting much of a push off of my right leg. It just got progressively weaker and weaker. As with my last several marathons, my left leg was again dragging the right leg. I eventually had to slow the pace way down just to avoid injuring my left good leg. The slower I went, the more miserable and demoralized I felt. The legs felt extremely heavy at mile 12 probably due to me not running for 3 weeks.
1: 8:51
2: 9:49
3: 9:01
4: 9:45
5: 8:55
6: 9:12
7: 9:43
8-9: 19:17
10: 10:32
11: 10:05
12: 12:07
13: 12:39
Second Half
Maniac No. 1382 asked me for my maniac number when we bumped into each other at around mile 15 and 16... right about when my race turned into a piss-a-thon. I kept getting the urge to pee. I tried to drink less, but then my legs started cramping. So I had to pick the lesser of the two evils and kept visiting the portapotties at almost every single mile. Even after the race I had to keep going. I saw James when he was around mile 21 and headed back while I was still heading out. He said he was having a bad day and he even turned around to walk with me a little. Apparently he had caught the flu. Later on when I stepped out of the potty of my many potty breaks somewhere around mile 22, I bumped into Jeanette. She had just ran a marathon the day before and she was in better condition than I was. She really helped me out at that point. But after hitting yet another potty, I ran pretty fast up the last hill just to catch her. But hills and a bad Achilles don't mix, so I had to let her go. Besides my legs were starting to lock up, so I couldn't even keep up if I wanted to go with her. I saw my friend Ingrid around mile 25. I think she said that I made her wait an extra hour. Once I saw the 26th mile marker, I just ran with whatever I had left to the finish line bad Achilles and all. I don't know why, but what always lights a fire under my butt for the last .2 is when I tell myself that it's only a short par 4 to the finish.
14: 12:00
15: 12:26
16: 15:56
17: 15:19
18: 15:07
19: 14:52
20: 12:35
21: 15:27
22: 13:50
23: 15:02
24: 13:30
25: 12:26
26: 14:30
26.2: 1:56
Finish: 5:15:05
Post-race
I met up with my RWOL friends (Joe, Cat, Kristy, Mae) and Aimee at the House of Blues. I must say that Guinness is my new favorite post race beer. My former go-to beer, Newcastle, did not taste good at all for some reason. I had the "Cobb salad of defeat" and boy did I feel defeated! I really finished out the year with a whimper.
The greatest strength of a typical marathon maniac is the "never quit" attitude. Sad to say, it is also the greatest weakness. A normal sane non-maniac with my injuries would've drop out at mile 3 or maybe even at the 10k mark. It would be safe to say that it takes quite a bit to bring down a maniac. It's literally the finish line or bust.
The 2xu calf guards felt great throughout the race. They did not feel too tight. I actually prefer the feel of 2xu over Zensah. They both work well though. The last few races that I've worn calf sleeves, the calves were never sore or were the first body part to recover.
In case you were wondering which sushi buffet was better... the quality of the sakana (fish) and food art was definitely better at Sushi Mon. Hikari was ok with a few other items on the menu, but the quality just wasn't as good. Sushi Mon wins my vote.
The Future
Obviously the Achilles did not pass the test. So I will not be signing up for anymore races in 2010. I will only run the races in which I've already paid. In fact, I'm seriously considering downgrading a few of the earlier races in 2010 to half marathons or skipping them altogether. Right now Carlsbad is pretty much a DNS. We'll see... I have about a month and a half to recover.
Monday, December 7, 2009
Monday, November 16, 2009
Malibu Marathon
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
I almost had a tragic Benjamin Button moment. Out of everything that needed to happen for an accident to happen almost happened. I had planned the day before to leave the house around 8am so that I could get to Zuma Beach at around 9am right when the expo started. But that morning, I was feeling lazy so I changed my mind and left around 10am so I could hit the expo and then lunch. I usually take the 10 because the 60 is the worst freeway ever... EVER! So I was driving down the 60 freeway to connect to the 10. We were all zipping along around 80 when the cars in front of me broke rather suddenly. I engaged my brakes and stopped in plenty of time, but I heard a bunch of tire screeching. Looking in the rear-view mirror I see a small white Geo Metro type car with smoke coming from its tires. I thought, "oh crap, she's going to kill me!" Then at the very last second she swerved over to the next lane. Obviously she had not been paying attention. Man if she had slammed into me at that speed, I wouldn't have had to wrestle with the decision of whether to attempt the marathon with 1 bad Achilles. I'm pretty sure if I had left earlier, there would've been less cars on the freeway and the near accident would've never happened. After that near miss, the rest of the trip was boring. I guess I could've taken that as a sign that running the race on Sunday was a bad idea. But everything was paid for already and I was also going there to meet up with an old friend that I've known since grade school.
Expo
I got to Zuma Beach and parked at the Trancas parking lot. Apparently you can park along the side of the street, but I saw a cop car and a bunch of tow trucks towing several cars away. Turns out they were parked in a designated no parking anytime zone. The expo was very small. I picked up my race packet and started through the expo. I talked to my friend at the Worldvision table. Then I visited the Pasadena Marathon table. Then I checked out the DetermiNation program for the American Cancer Society. It would seem that almost every charity out there is getting into endurance sports. Then I talked to a lady at the EFX booth. She noticed that my calf looked really tight and of course it was my bad leg with the bad Achilles. She told me that the EFX was essentially an upgrade from the Power Balance. The inventor of the Power Balance had to jump ship and start a new line. We talked about Dick Beardsley, Alberto Salazar, the NYC Marathon, and she also recommended how I can take care of my Achilles. Apparently she's a fitness instructor. I told her that I would buy an EFX bracelet at the next expo when I have money.
The Last Meal
As I was walking back to my car, I noticed that the Achilles felt an awful a lot like it did before the Marine Corps Marathon. I drove up to my hotel in Calabassas. I passed by the entrance for Malibu Creek State Park... fun memories there. Before checking in, I stopped into Albertson's to buy my usually water and orange juice. Then I ate lunch at McDonald's. I have not eaten there in ages. I found that the menu has gotten rather complicated. Then I checked into a no-frills Good Nite Inn. It was ok, all I heard the entire time were very loud Harleys and the faint sound of cars driving along the nearby freeway.
The first thing I did when I got into my room was ice my Achilles while watching Mr. & Mrs. Smith. I ate dinner with my friend at a sushi restaurant next door. When I returned to my room I ended up finishing the book, Duel in the Sun. I really couldn't put that book down.
Pre-race
I started getting ready around 3am. I checked out at around 4:15am and drove down to Zuma Beach. I got there a little before 5am. I had to ask the girls at the tent for directions on where to park. I had to drive about another mile back where I came from just to enter the beach parking lots. I got my stuff together and boarded the bus. As the bus almost reached its capacity, I realized that I had forgotten my gels. So I scrambled off of the bus... went back to my car... picked up my gels and headed back for the bus. One of the volunteers told me that my bus was leaving. I said that's fine, I'll just take the next one. So I got on the next bus and headed for the back of the bus. I tried to take a little nap but this bus was too cold. When we got to the Camarillo airport, it was just after the crack of dawn. I saw Danica and her "Malibu Barbie" friends exiting the bus. Apparently we were on the same bus. It was rather chilly but I knew it would warm up later in the day. I saw a lot of Marathon Maniacs at the starting area. They all treat me as if I'm one of their own. But this day I was a solo purple Team in Training runner! The starting line felt almost like a big family reunion.
1st Half
I didn't have much out there from the very beginning. I started off slow and slowly sped up. I followed PasadenaRunner for about the first 3 miles and got dropped like a rock. My Achilles felt worse than it did at Marine Corps. So I slowed way down. I was jogging along between 10-10:30 pace and it felt hard! I wanted to drop out, but it didn't seem like it was possible since we were running through some farm land. So I tried to relax and run as comfortably as I could. I figured if the discomfort doesn't get any worse that would be a good sign. Eventually it felt tolerable. We ran by celery and manure... two things I would never put in my mouth. Apparently the farm land section was the easy part. Once we got on the PCH, we had to deal with the wind. Most of the time it was a very stiff headwind with lots of dust swirling around while trying to power up a hill with 1 very sore Achilles tendon. The cambered road did not help one bit. Please shoot me now.
1: 9:25
2: 9:04
3: 8:58
4: 10:05
5: 10:09
6: 10:24
7: 11:25
8: 10:42
9: 10:42
10: 10:47
11: 11:29
12: 11:58
13: 11:13
2nd Half
I mismanaged my fluids. I thought I had enough to last me until the next aid station. I did not. I ran about 2 miles without a sip of my Nuun laced water. So when I finally got to the next aid station and got filled up... I had to start taking extended walking breaks for the next several miles while chugging my nice tasting cola flavored Nuun water since I could feel the cramps starting to set in. Once I got through that bad patch, I could start jogging again. But every time I started back up, the Achilles would hurt. But walking it in would probably take me about 7 hours to finish, so I had to keep moving as fast as I could. Then there were these hills. The elevation chart showed 3 major climbs with the last one ending at mile 24. When I saw that the finish line was close, I had to open up my stride. It felt ok, but definitely not something I could hold together for more than a few hundred yards.
14: 11:12
15: 12:31
16: 11:06
17: 14:42
18: 16:02
19: 14:00
20: 14:29
21: 16:29
22: 17:20
23: 15:12
24: 14:33
25: 13:23
26: 13:20
26.2: 1:53
Finish: 5:22:44
Post-race
That was one horrific mind screw from start to finish. I wouldn't say that the course was super hard. But it definitely was not easy. Most of the time I was just focused on managing the pain in my Achilles and convincing myself that this was a good idea... anything to just get me to that finish line. Anyways I got my medal and went to say hi to Danica as she and her "Barbie" friends were being interviewed. Then I realized that I didn't return my J-chip so I headed back to the finish line. Then one of the volunteers took my chip and gave me a pretty cool lunch bag with a bunch of treats. But since I took my sweet ass time to finish, they had already ran out of the finisher's beach towels that they were handing out. I sat down at a nearby chair and ate a banana as I waited for some of my friends to finish. I had so much salt on my arms, I looked like a margarita glass... thank goodness for Nuun. I go through about 5 - 7 Nuun tablets each marathon just to prevent cramps.
From the way that I felt during this race, I am considering a scratch on the Las Vegas Marathon. I will definitely be there to eat my obligatory buffets, but I would very much like to rest my right Achilles and re-evaluate in January. The swelling hasn't gone down much yet but it doesn't hurt this time. It's just a little uncomfortable when I go up or down stairs. In all honesty I shouldn't have ran Long Beach, Marine Corps, New York, Fresno, or Malibu. That's 5 marathons' worth of gimping around. Thank goodness it felt good at New York until after the race. I couldn't believe that I completed Fresno and Malibu just so I would obtain a 4 star status with the Marathon Maniacs. I am so glad 2009 is finally coming to an end.
I almost had a tragic Benjamin Button moment. Out of everything that needed to happen for an accident to happen almost happened. I had planned the day before to leave the house around 8am so that I could get to Zuma Beach at around 9am right when the expo started. But that morning, I was feeling lazy so I changed my mind and left around 10am so I could hit the expo and then lunch. I usually take the 10 because the 60 is the worst freeway ever... EVER! So I was driving down the 60 freeway to connect to the 10. We were all zipping along around 80 when the cars in front of me broke rather suddenly. I engaged my brakes and stopped in plenty of time, but I heard a bunch of tire screeching. Looking in the rear-view mirror I see a small white Geo Metro type car with smoke coming from its tires. I thought, "oh crap, she's going to kill me!" Then at the very last second she swerved over to the next lane. Obviously she had not been paying attention. Man if she had slammed into me at that speed, I wouldn't have had to wrestle with the decision of whether to attempt the marathon with 1 bad Achilles. I'm pretty sure if I had left earlier, there would've been less cars on the freeway and the near accident would've never happened. After that near miss, the rest of the trip was boring. I guess I could've taken that as a sign that running the race on Sunday was a bad idea. But everything was paid for already and I was also going there to meet up with an old friend that I've known since grade school.
Expo
I got to Zuma Beach and parked at the Trancas parking lot. Apparently you can park along the side of the street, but I saw a cop car and a bunch of tow trucks towing several cars away. Turns out they were parked in a designated no parking anytime zone. The expo was very small. I picked up my race packet and started through the expo. I talked to my friend at the Worldvision table. Then I visited the Pasadena Marathon table. Then I checked out the DetermiNation program for the American Cancer Society. It would seem that almost every charity out there is getting into endurance sports. Then I talked to a lady at the EFX booth. She noticed that my calf looked really tight and of course it was my bad leg with the bad Achilles. She told me that the EFX was essentially an upgrade from the Power Balance. The inventor of the Power Balance had to jump ship and start a new line. We talked about Dick Beardsley, Alberto Salazar, the NYC Marathon, and she also recommended how I can take care of my Achilles. Apparently she's a fitness instructor. I told her that I would buy an EFX bracelet at the next expo when I have money.
The Last Meal
As I was walking back to my car, I noticed that the Achilles felt an awful a lot like it did before the Marine Corps Marathon. I drove up to my hotel in Calabassas. I passed by the entrance for Malibu Creek State Park... fun memories there. Before checking in, I stopped into Albertson's to buy my usually water and orange juice. Then I ate lunch at McDonald's. I have not eaten there in ages. I found that the menu has gotten rather complicated. Then I checked into a no-frills Good Nite Inn. It was ok, all I heard the entire time were very loud Harleys and the faint sound of cars driving along the nearby freeway.
The first thing I did when I got into my room was ice my Achilles while watching Mr. & Mrs. Smith. I ate dinner with my friend at a sushi restaurant next door. When I returned to my room I ended up finishing the book, Duel in the Sun. I really couldn't put that book down.
Pre-race
I started getting ready around 3am. I checked out at around 4:15am and drove down to Zuma Beach. I got there a little before 5am. I had to ask the girls at the tent for directions on where to park. I had to drive about another mile back where I came from just to enter the beach parking lots. I got my stuff together and boarded the bus. As the bus almost reached its capacity, I realized that I had forgotten my gels. So I scrambled off of the bus... went back to my car... picked up my gels and headed back for the bus. One of the volunteers told me that my bus was leaving. I said that's fine, I'll just take the next one. So I got on the next bus and headed for the back of the bus. I tried to take a little nap but this bus was too cold. When we got to the Camarillo airport, it was just after the crack of dawn. I saw Danica and her "Malibu Barbie" friends exiting the bus. Apparently we were on the same bus. It was rather chilly but I knew it would warm up later in the day. I saw a lot of Marathon Maniacs at the starting area. They all treat me as if I'm one of their own. But this day I was a solo purple Team in Training runner! The starting line felt almost like a big family reunion.
1st Half
I didn't have much out there from the very beginning. I started off slow and slowly sped up. I followed PasadenaRunner for about the first 3 miles and got dropped like a rock. My Achilles felt worse than it did at Marine Corps. So I slowed way down. I was jogging along between 10-10:30 pace and it felt hard! I wanted to drop out, but it didn't seem like it was possible since we were running through some farm land. So I tried to relax and run as comfortably as I could. I figured if the discomfort doesn't get any worse that would be a good sign. Eventually it felt tolerable. We ran by celery and manure... two things I would never put in my mouth. Apparently the farm land section was the easy part. Once we got on the PCH, we had to deal with the wind. Most of the time it was a very stiff headwind with lots of dust swirling around while trying to power up a hill with 1 very sore Achilles tendon. The cambered road did not help one bit. Please shoot me now.
1: 9:25
2: 9:04
3: 8:58
4: 10:05
5: 10:09
6: 10:24
7: 11:25
8: 10:42
9: 10:42
10: 10:47
11: 11:29
12: 11:58
13: 11:13
2nd Half
I mismanaged my fluids. I thought I had enough to last me until the next aid station. I did not. I ran about 2 miles without a sip of my Nuun laced water. So when I finally got to the next aid station and got filled up... I had to start taking extended walking breaks for the next several miles while chugging my nice tasting cola flavored Nuun water since I could feel the cramps starting to set in. Once I got through that bad patch, I could start jogging again. But every time I started back up, the Achilles would hurt. But walking it in would probably take me about 7 hours to finish, so I had to keep moving as fast as I could. Then there were these hills. The elevation chart showed 3 major climbs with the last one ending at mile 24. When I saw that the finish line was close, I had to open up my stride. It felt ok, but definitely not something I could hold together for more than a few hundred yards.
14: 11:12
15: 12:31
16: 11:06
17: 14:42
18: 16:02
19: 14:00
20: 14:29
21: 16:29
22: 17:20
23: 15:12
24: 14:33
25: 13:23
26: 13:20
26.2: 1:53
Finish: 5:22:44
Post-race
That was one horrific mind screw from start to finish. I wouldn't say that the course was super hard. But it definitely was not easy. Most of the time I was just focused on managing the pain in my Achilles and convincing myself that this was a good idea... anything to just get me to that finish line. Anyways I got my medal and went to say hi to Danica as she and her "Barbie" friends were being interviewed. Then I realized that I didn't return my J-chip so I headed back to the finish line. Then one of the volunteers took my chip and gave me a pretty cool lunch bag with a bunch of treats. But since I took my sweet ass time to finish, they had already ran out of the finisher's beach towels that they were handing out. I sat down at a nearby chair and ate a banana as I waited for some of my friends to finish. I had so much salt on my arms, I looked like a margarita glass... thank goodness for Nuun. I go through about 5 - 7 Nuun tablets each marathon just to prevent cramps.
From the way that I felt during this race, I am considering a scratch on the Las Vegas Marathon. I will definitely be there to eat my obligatory buffets, but I would very much like to rest my right Achilles and re-evaluate in January. The swelling hasn't gone down much yet but it doesn't hurt this time. It's just a little uncomfortable when I go up or down stairs. In all honesty I shouldn't have ran Long Beach, Marine Corps, New York, Fresno, or Malibu. That's 5 marathons' worth of gimping around. Thank goodness it felt good at New York until after the race. I couldn't believe that I completed Fresno and Malibu just so I would obtain a 4 star status with the Marathon Maniacs. I am so glad 2009 is finally coming to an end.
Monday, November 9, 2009
Eye-Q Two Cities Marathon
The Morning Drive
After dropping off some clothes at the Goodwill bin, I took off for Fresno. I was making pretty good time despite seeing lots of Highway Patrol Cars. They caught most of the super reckless drivers. I kept it to 80 tops and usually hung with a pack of cars. I had a pit stop at a Starbucks in Bakersfield and I arrived at my hotel in about 4 hours. I had thought about taking the free event shuttle to the expo, but I wanted to buy supplies and go eat lunch somewhere after the expo so I decided to drive there.
The Expo and Stuff
I picked up my race packet and ticket for the pasta dinner. I then walked through the small expo and fortunately saw nothing to buy. I then waited to hear Dick Beardsley speak. I talked to him beforehand, had him sign my bib, and snapped a photo. He is a very good speaker. It was fun to listen to his stories about his life and running. He was signing autographs and selling stuff afterward. I bought both of his books (Duel in the Sun and Staying the Course: A Runner's Toughest Race) and a shirt. My marathon maniac friend, Mitch spotted me while I was listening to Dick. By coincidence we were both staying at the Holiday Inn Express, so we decided to meet up later and go to the pasta dinner together. Good thing because we would have a hard time finding the place.
I first drove to a Walgreens to buy some water and orange juice. I then drove to a Japanese restaurant on Ness called Sakura Chaya. I ate their lunch special which had California rolls, tempura, chicken terikyaki, and unagi don. It was okay but very Americanized, but that's to be expected since I was in Fresno. I then headed back to my hotel to rest. I watched a little bit of Underworld 2 and surfed the web on my ancient laptop with the free hotel internet. Then it was time to go to the pasta dinner. Mitch and I took the shuttle back to the expo. Along with a bunch of other people, we all had a hard time finding the location. Well we finally found it and ate the somewhat mediocre pasta. They didn't even have spaghetti. All they had was penne, one of my least favorite pasta. But it was still worth it since we got to listen to Dick Beardsley speak again. They showed a clip of the 1982 Boston Marathon, the duel in the sun between him and Alberto Salazar. After all of that was over, we hopped on the shuttle back to our hotel. When I got to my room, I had started to watch The Spirit of the Marathon dvd but fell asleep sometime around 7:30. I had originally planned on watching The Dark Knight on HBO but I was knocked-out.
Pre Race
I got up at around 4am to get ready. Ate my Powerbar and drank my juice. I packed up all of my stuff and put them in my car. When it was time to go, I checked out and met up with Mitch in the hotel's free breakfast area. We took the shuttle for a quick ride over to the starting area. We waited around and watched the half marathoners take off at 7am. Mitch went to check his bag at the Cintas trucks while I went to use the potty. As I jogged over to the Cintas trucks to meet up with Mitch, I knew it was going to be a difficult day. The right Achilles was tight. It did not hurt or give me trouble when I walked so I figured I'll give it shot. Worse thing I'll do is drop out at the first relay station. We proceeded to our starting corral... corral C.
1st Half
I started off slow. Mitch was going to run with the 4 hour pace group so I made sure I never got close to him. I could not find a comfortable gait/pace until about 2 miles in. The course took us on the Clovis Old Town Trail. At around mile 5 I was actually starting to feel pretty good and I started closing in on the 4 hour pace group. I think the pacer was a little bit slow but still I made sure I did not catch the group. Mile 10 was a pain having to run into a headwind. Coming back up the Clovis Old Town Trail was really hurting my Achilles from having to go down and up through several underpass tunnels. I was struggling on each uphill part. One thought kept running through my head: I cannot believe that I was attempting to finish this race just for a nice finisher's sweatshirt. I was ready for the race to be over when I reached the halfway mark. I was thinking how great it would have been to be a relay runner and just have someone else finish the race.
1: 9:35
2: 9:04
3: 9:11
4: 9:26
5: 8:50
6: 9:03
7: 9:53
8: 9:24
9: 9:16
10: 10:10
11: 10:38
12: 10:23
13: 10:59
13.1: 2:07:05
2nd Half
Mile 15 was more pain running into more headwind. I was really tired at around mile 18, so I started taking longer walking breaks. There was somewhat of a climb at around mile 23 so I had to walk a bit to rest the Achilles. Because I wanted the race to be over sooner rather than later, I managed a decent stride and ran most of the final mile passing some of the people that I had been leapfrogging for the past 20 or so miles. The announcer, whom I had met at the expo, gave me a shout out. He told the crowd that this was my 3rd marathon in 3 weeks and that it was my 17th this year. I heard a comment from one of the volunteers, "woah, that's crazy!"
14: 10:09
15: 11:05
16: 12:04
17: 11:27
18: 12:08
19: 16:11
20: 16:48
21: 12:57
22: 11:40
23: 14:26
24: 13:57
25: 13:54
26: 12:43
26.2: 1:56
Finish: 4:57:30
Post Race
I walked over to pick up my medal and the nice zippered sweatshirt. I had to work quite hard for it. I then picked up a plate of breakfast: some scrambled eggs, spicy potatoes, and sausages. They were really good. I thought about getting seconds, but that will slow me down on my quest to reach 130. Then I made my way to the beer garden to look for my friend Mitch. He was there with his mom listening to the band. The band was pretty good. I gave one of my two beers to Mitch since I was going to be driving home soon. I said goodbye to Mitch and went to find a shuttle back to the hotel to pick up my car. Most likely I will see him again in Malibu since maniacs run every weekend.
Just as with the NYC Marathon, my Achilles felt fine for the rest of the day after the race. But it swelled up overnight and it's now rather uncomfortable walking up or down stairs. But it is no worse today than it was the day after MCM or NYC. The trip would've been worth it just to meet Dick Beardsley. This race was one of the best managed races that I've run in. I would recommend this race to anyone looking for a small town cozy marathon where they treat their runners really well. I just might be back in the future to see how I'd do with 2 working Achilles.
After dropping off some clothes at the Goodwill bin, I took off for Fresno. I was making pretty good time despite seeing lots of Highway Patrol Cars. They caught most of the super reckless drivers. I kept it to 80 tops and usually hung with a pack of cars. I had a pit stop at a Starbucks in Bakersfield and I arrived at my hotel in about 4 hours. I had thought about taking the free event shuttle to the expo, but I wanted to buy supplies and go eat lunch somewhere after the expo so I decided to drive there.
The Expo and Stuff
I picked up my race packet and ticket for the pasta dinner. I then walked through the small expo and fortunately saw nothing to buy. I then waited to hear Dick Beardsley speak. I talked to him beforehand, had him sign my bib, and snapped a photo. He is a very good speaker. It was fun to listen to his stories about his life and running. He was signing autographs and selling stuff afterward. I bought both of his books (Duel in the Sun and Staying the Course: A Runner's Toughest Race) and a shirt. My marathon maniac friend, Mitch spotted me while I was listening to Dick. By coincidence we were both staying at the Holiday Inn Express, so we decided to meet up later and go to the pasta dinner together. Good thing because we would have a hard time finding the place.
I first drove to a Walgreens to buy some water and orange juice. I then drove to a Japanese restaurant on Ness called Sakura Chaya. I ate their lunch special which had California rolls, tempura, chicken terikyaki, and unagi don. It was okay but very Americanized, but that's to be expected since I was in Fresno. I then headed back to my hotel to rest. I watched a little bit of Underworld 2 and surfed the web on my ancient laptop with the free hotel internet. Then it was time to go to the pasta dinner. Mitch and I took the shuttle back to the expo. Along with a bunch of other people, we all had a hard time finding the location. Well we finally found it and ate the somewhat mediocre pasta. They didn't even have spaghetti. All they had was penne, one of my least favorite pasta. But it was still worth it since we got to listen to Dick Beardsley speak again. They showed a clip of the 1982 Boston Marathon, the duel in the sun between him and Alberto Salazar. After all of that was over, we hopped on the shuttle back to our hotel. When I got to my room, I had started to watch The Spirit of the Marathon dvd but fell asleep sometime around 7:30. I had originally planned on watching The Dark Knight on HBO but I was knocked-out.
Pre Race
I got up at around 4am to get ready. Ate my Powerbar and drank my juice. I packed up all of my stuff and put them in my car. When it was time to go, I checked out and met up with Mitch in the hotel's free breakfast area. We took the shuttle for a quick ride over to the starting area. We waited around and watched the half marathoners take off at 7am. Mitch went to check his bag at the Cintas trucks while I went to use the potty. As I jogged over to the Cintas trucks to meet up with Mitch, I knew it was going to be a difficult day. The right Achilles was tight. It did not hurt or give me trouble when I walked so I figured I'll give it shot. Worse thing I'll do is drop out at the first relay station. We proceeded to our starting corral... corral C.
1st Half
I started off slow. Mitch was going to run with the 4 hour pace group so I made sure I never got close to him. I could not find a comfortable gait/pace until about 2 miles in. The course took us on the Clovis Old Town Trail. At around mile 5 I was actually starting to feel pretty good and I started closing in on the 4 hour pace group. I think the pacer was a little bit slow but still I made sure I did not catch the group. Mile 10 was a pain having to run into a headwind. Coming back up the Clovis Old Town Trail was really hurting my Achilles from having to go down and up through several underpass tunnels. I was struggling on each uphill part. One thought kept running through my head: I cannot believe that I was attempting to finish this race just for a nice finisher's sweatshirt. I was ready for the race to be over when I reached the halfway mark. I was thinking how great it would have been to be a relay runner and just have someone else finish the race.
1: 9:35
2: 9:04
3: 9:11
4: 9:26
5: 8:50
6: 9:03
7: 9:53
8: 9:24
9: 9:16
10: 10:10
11: 10:38
12: 10:23
13: 10:59
13.1: 2:07:05
2nd Half
Mile 15 was more pain running into more headwind. I was really tired at around mile 18, so I started taking longer walking breaks. There was somewhat of a climb at around mile 23 so I had to walk a bit to rest the Achilles. Because I wanted the race to be over sooner rather than later, I managed a decent stride and ran most of the final mile passing some of the people that I had been leapfrogging for the past 20 or so miles. The announcer, whom I had met at the expo, gave me a shout out. He told the crowd that this was my 3rd marathon in 3 weeks and that it was my 17th this year. I heard a comment from one of the volunteers, "woah, that's crazy!"
14: 10:09
15: 11:05
16: 12:04
17: 11:27
18: 12:08
19: 16:11
20: 16:48
21: 12:57
22: 11:40
23: 14:26
24: 13:57
25: 13:54
26: 12:43
26.2: 1:56
Finish: 4:57:30
Post Race
I walked over to pick up my medal and the nice zippered sweatshirt. I had to work quite hard for it. I then picked up a plate of breakfast: some scrambled eggs, spicy potatoes, and sausages. They were really good. I thought about getting seconds, but that will slow me down on my quest to reach 130. Then I made my way to the beer garden to look for my friend Mitch. He was there with his mom listening to the band. The band was pretty good. I gave one of my two beers to Mitch since I was going to be driving home soon. I said goodbye to Mitch and went to find a shuttle back to the hotel to pick up my car. Most likely I will see him again in Malibu since maniacs run every weekend.
Just as with the NYC Marathon, my Achilles felt fine for the rest of the day after the race. But it swelled up overnight and it's now rather uncomfortable walking up or down stairs. But it is no worse today than it was the day after MCM or NYC. The trip would've been worth it just to meet Dick Beardsley. This race was one of the best managed races that I've run in. I would recommend this race to anyone looking for a small town cozy marathon where they treat their runners really well. I just might be back in the future to see how I'd do with 2 working Achilles.
Monday, November 2, 2009
The New York City Marathon
Travel Stuff
I took a red eye flight out of LAX on Friday evening. While I was waiting for my flight, I ate some ridiculously expensive fish tacos at a seafood restaurant near my gate. At least they were good. I flew on Virgin America. It's nice to be able to watch TV on a long flight. It's cool if it's there, but I don't mind reading a book instead. I arrived at JFK very early Saturday morning. I hopped on the Airtrain to take the subway from the Jamaica Station. I got into Manhattan before the sun came out. I walked over to my Hotel and waited in the lobby for the sunrise. Check-in time was 2pm so it was too early for me to check in. Amongst all of my planning I had forgotten to plan for breakfast. I checked out the breakfast over at the Sheraton and the Hilton, but they were a tad too pricey. I ended up eating corned beef hash with eggs and toast at a cafe. I then made my way over to the free bus pickup for the expo. The traffic was pretty bad... yeah, welcome to New York.
Expo part 1
The expo was huge. It was held at the Jacob Javits Convention Center. It was very well organized. I guess they have to when there's over 40,000 runners and their families coming to pick up their race packet and buy souvenirs. After picking up my race packet and long sleeve shirt, I made my way through the official merchandise. I bought a NYC Marathon singlet and blue gloves that had the 5 boroughs on the 5 fingers. I tried on some Moeben arm sleeves, but didn't buy them because I already have 2 pairs of sleeves. I made my way to the Competitor Group table to sign up for the Country Music Marathon and of course the girl there recognized me. Right next to that table was Sarah Reinertsen. I bought her book which looks like a good read. When I walked past the Adidas area, I saw a sign that said the great Grete Waitz was going to be there signing at 1pm. I had a few hours to kill.
NYC tour
I walked over to 38th and 8th to eat some good Japanese kare (curry). I only had enough cash left on me to order the walk (small) size chicken curry. The next time I'm back here, I'm going to order the Grand Slam. That meal looked huge. After I was done I walked over to the Empire State Building. It was going to cost me $20 to go up to the 86th floor observation deck so I just settled for some pictures from the ground floor. I had wanted to visit ground zero and the crown of the Statue of Liberty, but I just didn't have enough time. Plus on my walk back to the expo I was already starting to feel as if I've been on my feet walking around too much.
Expo part 2
I met the legendary Grete Waitz, a 9 time NYC Marathon Champion. I couldn't believe that I was 3rd person in line to meet her. If only the other expo attendees realized how dominating she was in her day. She signed a small Adidas poster for me and my bib. I was pooped so I got in line for the free bus service back to my hotel.
Last minute details
When I checked in, the clerk said he was going to upgrade me to a suite for no extra charge because I was staying for 2 nights. Suite? Sweet! The last time I was in NYC I stayed in a nice hotel but the room was the size of a walk-in closet. There was enough room for 3 families to stay comfortably in this suite. I never used the living room area while I was there. After settling in, I went back out to eat ramen. I bought the usual water and orange juice and headed back to my suite to relax. I pinned the bib on my Marine Corps Marathon singlet, loaded up my Nuun tablets and gels, and laid everything out. It's GO time!
Getting to the Starting Line
I woke up around 4am, drank my orange juice and got ready. I rode the Subway down to the South Ferry Terminal. Met 2 girls while waiting for the ferry to Staten Island. One was from Norway and the other from Canada. The Norwegian had a later starting time than the two of us, so I rode the ferry with Michelle from Canada to Staten Island. After a short bus ride to Fort Wadsworth we then bid each other a great race and headed to our separate colored starting area. Mine was blue, hers was green. Remember to bring your own TP if you plan on taking care of business right before the race. I'm guessing about 99% of the portapotties were already out of TP by the time people in the 2nd wave showed up. I was in the 2nd wave which started at 10am. I checked my gear at the UPS trucks and made my way into the corrals about 30 minutes before the start. The corrals were packed very tight. We were like sardines in a can!
1st Half
It was a surreal experience for me hearing the howitzer go off and running across the Verrazano-Narrows bridge. I could not believe that I was finally running the NYC Marathon! Since I had not run a single step since the Marine Corps Marathon, I made sure I went out slow. My right Achilles was feeling tight as soon as I ran that second mile coming off of the bridge. So I immediately backed off to a pace that didn't cause any pain. It was one big running party. It was weird taking my usual walking breaks because every time I did, it felt as if I was going to be trampled over. I'm sure my Achilles appreciated the rest. Just as the crowd of runners were loosening up, we joined with the green and orange runners at about mile 8. I was happy to have reached the half in a little over 2 hours. The legs did not feel as tired as they did last weekend. I was optimistic that I had a chance at lowering my PR.
1: 9:47
2: 8:17
3: 8:48
4: 9:35
5: 8:53
6: 9:02
7: 9:34
8: 9:21
9: 10:20
10: 9:10
11: 9:40
12: 9:32
13: 10:22
13.1: 2:03:39
2nd Half
It was fun crossing all of these bridges! I got to cross the Pulaski Bridge near the halfway point. But I think I spent too much energy crossing the Queensboro Bridge. Soon after, I hit the wall somewhere near mile 17. Too bad it happened when I was on 1st Ave. There was a ton of people out cheering on 1st Ave. It took me about 2 miles to recover. We crossed over the Willis Ave Bridge for a short visit in the Bronx. Then we crossed over the Madison Ave Bridge into Harlem. We headed down 5th Ave towards Central Park. It was really fun running through Central Park. It was somewhat hilly, but I was definitely feeding off of the energy from the crowd. I still took some walking breaks to rest my Achilles. When I saw the Columbus Circle, I knew it was almost over. They had signs telling you how much you have left to run which was very nice. I picked up the pace once I saw the lovely finish line which I have seen many times on TV. Wow! That was the most fun that I've had on a 26.2 mile run!
14: 10:18
15: 10:45
16: 10:27
17: 12:12
18: 14:01
19: 14:05
20: 11:39
21: 12:18
22: 11:31
23: 12:47
24: 13:42
25: 10:39
26: 10:51
26.2: 1:46
5k: 27:49
10k: 56:23
15k: 1:26:34
20k: 1:56:20
25k: 2:29:23
30k: 3:08:57
35k: 3:57:20
40k: 4:25:14
Finish: 4:39:32
Post race
Even though we crossed the finish line around 66th St, we were herded like cattle to the UPS trucks to pick up our baggage. I didn't exit the park until around 82nd St. I had thought about taking the subway but decided to walk back to my hotel. The streets were very crowded and I don't think my Achilles liked the extra walking. Next time I'll hop on the subway. After I cleaned up, relaxed, and watched a little TV, I went back out for some ramen. Then I fell asleep watching the World Series. My right Achilles didn't swell up and hurt until the next morning. The rest of my body was fine, didn't even feel like I ran a marathon.
I will sign up for this race every year! It has dethroned the Honolulu Marathon as my favorite marathon. Hopefully I won't have to wait another 4 years before I run it again. I will need to start training for speed. Then I can qualify for NYC by time instead of the lottery.
I took a red eye flight out of LAX on Friday evening. While I was waiting for my flight, I ate some ridiculously expensive fish tacos at a seafood restaurant near my gate. At least they were good. I flew on Virgin America. It's nice to be able to watch TV on a long flight. It's cool if it's there, but I don't mind reading a book instead. I arrived at JFK very early Saturday morning. I hopped on the Airtrain to take the subway from the Jamaica Station. I got into Manhattan before the sun came out. I walked over to my Hotel and waited in the lobby for the sunrise. Check-in time was 2pm so it was too early for me to check in. Amongst all of my planning I had forgotten to plan for breakfast. I checked out the breakfast over at the Sheraton and the Hilton, but they were a tad too pricey. I ended up eating corned beef hash with eggs and toast at a cafe. I then made my way over to the free bus pickup for the expo. The traffic was pretty bad... yeah, welcome to New York.
Expo part 1
The expo was huge. It was held at the Jacob Javits Convention Center. It was very well organized. I guess they have to when there's over 40,000 runners and their families coming to pick up their race packet and buy souvenirs. After picking up my race packet and long sleeve shirt, I made my way through the official merchandise. I bought a NYC Marathon singlet and blue gloves that had the 5 boroughs on the 5 fingers. I tried on some Moeben arm sleeves, but didn't buy them because I already have 2 pairs of sleeves. I made my way to the Competitor Group table to sign up for the Country Music Marathon and of course the girl there recognized me. Right next to that table was Sarah Reinertsen. I bought her book which looks like a good read. When I walked past the Adidas area, I saw a sign that said the great Grete Waitz was going to be there signing at 1pm. I had a few hours to kill.
NYC tour
I walked over to 38th and 8th to eat some good Japanese kare (curry). I only had enough cash left on me to order the walk (small) size chicken curry. The next time I'm back here, I'm going to order the Grand Slam. That meal looked huge. After I was done I walked over to the Empire State Building. It was going to cost me $20 to go up to the 86th floor observation deck so I just settled for some pictures from the ground floor. I had wanted to visit ground zero and the crown of the Statue of Liberty, but I just didn't have enough time. Plus on my walk back to the expo I was already starting to feel as if I've been on my feet walking around too much.
Expo part 2
I met the legendary Grete Waitz, a 9 time NYC Marathon Champion. I couldn't believe that I was 3rd person in line to meet her. If only the other expo attendees realized how dominating she was in her day. She signed a small Adidas poster for me and my bib. I was pooped so I got in line for the free bus service back to my hotel.
Last minute details
When I checked in, the clerk said he was going to upgrade me to a suite for no extra charge because I was staying for 2 nights. Suite? Sweet! The last time I was in NYC I stayed in a nice hotel but the room was the size of a walk-in closet. There was enough room for 3 families to stay comfortably in this suite. I never used the living room area while I was there. After settling in, I went back out to eat ramen. I bought the usual water and orange juice and headed back to my suite to relax. I pinned the bib on my Marine Corps Marathon singlet, loaded up my Nuun tablets and gels, and laid everything out. It's GO time!
Getting to the Starting Line
I woke up around 4am, drank my orange juice and got ready. I rode the Subway down to the South Ferry Terminal. Met 2 girls while waiting for the ferry to Staten Island. One was from Norway and the other from Canada. The Norwegian had a later starting time than the two of us, so I rode the ferry with Michelle from Canada to Staten Island. After a short bus ride to Fort Wadsworth we then bid each other a great race and headed to our separate colored starting area. Mine was blue, hers was green. Remember to bring your own TP if you plan on taking care of business right before the race. I'm guessing about 99% of the portapotties were already out of TP by the time people in the 2nd wave showed up. I was in the 2nd wave which started at 10am. I checked my gear at the UPS trucks and made my way into the corrals about 30 minutes before the start. The corrals were packed very tight. We were like sardines in a can!
1st Half
It was a surreal experience for me hearing the howitzer go off and running across the Verrazano-Narrows bridge. I could not believe that I was finally running the NYC Marathon! Since I had not run a single step since the Marine Corps Marathon, I made sure I went out slow. My right Achilles was feeling tight as soon as I ran that second mile coming off of the bridge. So I immediately backed off to a pace that didn't cause any pain. It was one big running party. It was weird taking my usual walking breaks because every time I did, it felt as if I was going to be trampled over. I'm sure my Achilles appreciated the rest. Just as the crowd of runners were loosening up, we joined with the green and orange runners at about mile 8. I was happy to have reached the half in a little over 2 hours. The legs did not feel as tired as they did last weekend. I was optimistic that I had a chance at lowering my PR.
1: 9:47
2: 8:17
3: 8:48
4: 9:35
5: 8:53
6: 9:02
7: 9:34
8: 9:21
9: 10:20
10: 9:10
11: 9:40
12: 9:32
13: 10:22
13.1: 2:03:39
2nd Half
It was fun crossing all of these bridges! I got to cross the Pulaski Bridge near the halfway point. But I think I spent too much energy crossing the Queensboro Bridge. Soon after, I hit the wall somewhere near mile 17. Too bad it happened when I was on 1st Ave. There was a ton of people out cheering on 1st Ave. It took me about 2 miles to recover. We crossed over the Willis Ave Bridge for a short visit in the Bronx. Then we crossed over the Madison Ave Bridge into Harlem. We headed down 5th Ave towards Central Park. It was really fun running through Central Park. It was somewhat hilly, but I was definitely feeding off of the energy from the crowd. I still took some walking breaks to rest my Achilles. When I saw the Columbus Circle, I knew it was almost over. They had signs telling you how much you have left to run which was very nice. I picked up the pace once I saw the lovely finish line which I have seen many times on TV. Wow! That was the most fun that I've had on a 26.2 mile run!
14: 10:18
15: 10:45
16: 10:27
17: 12:12
18: 14:01
19: 14:05
20: 11:39
21: 12:18
22: 11:31
23: 12:47
24: 13:42
25: 10:39
26: 10:51
26.2: 1:46
5k: 27:49
10k: 56:23
15k: 1:26:34
20k: 1:56:20
25k: 2:29:23
30k: 3:08:57
35k: 3:57:20
40k: 4:25:14
Finish: 4:39:32
Post race
Even though we crossed the finish line around 66th St, we were herded like cattle to the UPS trucks to pick up our baggage. I didn't exit the park until around 82nd St. I had thought about taking the subway but decided to walk back to my hotel. The streets were very crowded and I don't think my Achilles liked the extra walking. Next time I'll hop on the subway. After I cleaned up, relaxed, and watched a little TV, I went back out for some ramen. Then I fell asleep watching the World Series. My right Achilles didn't swell up and hurt until the next morning. The rest of my body was fine, didn't even feel like I ran a marathon.
I will sign up for this race every year! It has dethroned the Honolulu Marathon as my favorite marathon. Hopefully I won't have to wait another 4 years before I run it again. I will need to start training for speed. Then I can qualify for NYC by time instead of the lottery.
Wednesday, October 28, 2009
The Marine Corps Marathon
Holy smokes, that was one crazy but fun marathon! The race had excellent course support and it was a very scenic route. I'd definitely run this again in the future preferably without a sore Achilles. It would be fun to run this race hard instead of just trying to survive.
Travel/Expo/The Last Dinner
When I was buying my plane ticket for this race, I knew I had very little wiggle room. I was stressed out the whole day hoping that there was no flight delays. I even hopped on an earlier flight at my layover in DFW. But when we arrived at the Reagan National Airport around 3:25pm, it was foggy and rainy. We circled the airport several times but the pilot was unable to land eventually running low on fuel. He flew us down to Richmond to fuel up. We waited in Richmond until the weather cleared up in DCA. By the time we flew back up to DCA and landed, it was already 6pm. I needed to get to the expo by 7pm! I took the Metro yellow line straight to the Convention Center. I got there around 6:30pm and walked as fast as I could to expo. My Achilles was already very sore at this point which was a really bad sign. I was able to pick up my bib on time. But when I went to go pick up my goodie bag, all I got was an empty bag. Then when I went to pick up my long sleeve shirt, it was one size fits all... all they had left were XL shirts. I went up and down as many of the rows as fast as I could. Many of the booths were already being torn down. I said hi to Dane. I bought a nice MCM singlet and then headed over across the street to check into my hotel. As soon as I checked in, I got a bucket of ice and iced my ankle and Achilles. Then I walked over to eat at the Kanlaya Thai Restaurant in Chinatown. They have pretty good spicy duck curry with basil. I'm salivating just from typing that. Too bad I was flying solo, but I'll have to remember that this place is a good date place. I stopped by a convenient store to buy water and orange juice.
Pre race
I couldn't really fall asleep but eventually I got in a few hours. I awoke before all of my alarms and got ready. I ate my Powerbar and drank my orange juice. Then waited until it was time to head to the starting line. I took the Metro over to the Pentagon and walked about a mile to the baggage drop area. After hitting the line for the pottapotties, I jogged over to the starting line. There was a lot of people out there! I tried to make my way into the 4 hour area, but somehow I ended up in the 3:30 area. But it was so packed, no one was going to be able to run 8 min miles from the start. I kept reminding myself not to chase anybody because my Achilles would probably snap... and that's no joke! My strategy was to finish the first half in around 2 hours and see what I have left from there.
First Half
The first 3 miles were mostly uphill and I sort of just ran with the flow. Then the next 3 were downhill. Then we had the last major climb of the race starting at mile 6 ending at mile 8. During this climb, my right Achilles was very sore so I had to really slow down. I knew at that point I was not going to make it to the half under 2 hours. The whole time I was repeating in my head, "New York City", to get my mind off of the pain as well as to remind myself to keep the pace slow so that I could run New York the following week. When I got to the halfway mark at a little over 2:08, I knew I would have to begin taking my walking breaks for the 2nd half.
1: 9:20
2: 9:02
3: 8:31
4: 8:22
5: 8:47
6: 9:19
7-8: 19:39
9: 10:07
10: 10:45
11: 10:11
12: 10:33
13: 11:41
13.1: 2:08:07
Second Half
I would walk for about 2 minutes and run to the next mile marker. After about 3 miles this proved to be even too much for my sore Achilles, so I increased it to about 4 minutes of walking. I just wanted to keeps things under the pain threshold. I don't remember much of the 2nd half even though we ran by several of the major monuments. I just remember lots of people out there cheering. I was happy when I got to the bridge cutoff at mile 20. From the beginning I just kept telling myself to get to mile 20 and it'll all be over. I got in line for the portapotties at mile 22. It was a steady climb to the finish line from here on out. I veered off the course at mile 24 to use the potties again. My legs were starting to cramp so I had to keep drinking Nuun to get the electrolytes back in my body. I thought I was going to snap my Achilles at the last hill for the final .2 miles. I walked it a little and all I kept hearing from the crowds was, "you're almost there!" So I had to appease the crowd and ran it in.
14: 12:01
15: 12:04
16: 12:29
17-18: 28:04
19: 14:16
20: 15:36
21: 14:37
22: 17:03
23: 13:21
24: 15:14
25: 14:37
26.2: 17:44
For those that prefer measurements in 5k increments:
5k: 27:19
10k: 55:18
15k: 1:26:13
20k: 1:59:32
25k: 2:37:00
30k: 3:20:22
35k: 4:06:15
40k: 4:54:05
Finish: 5:13:34
Post race
Then they herded all of the cattle to pick up their finisher's medal and food. I picked up my finisher's coin while walking over towards the Rosslyn Metro Station. When I saw how packed it was, I turned around and walked towards the Arlington Station. A handful of people had the same idea. There was no wait at Arlington and you got to see and cheer on those that were still heading towards the finish line. Once I got back to my hotel room, I cleaned up and got a foot long Subway sandwich. Then I just relaxed, took a nap, and woke up to watch the Yankees/Angels game.
The next day I tried to sleep in, but couldn't. I'm too much of a morning person. I checked out of the hotel around 10am and went on a tour of DC. My Achilles was still very sore... so I got to sit on a lot of benches during my tour. I saw the White House, the Washington Monument, the WWII memorial, the Lincoln Memorial, the Jefferson Memorial, and the US Capitol Building. It actually felt okay to walk around. I was glad that I ran the race semi-injured because I got to tour DC for just the second time since high school.
Travel/Expo/The Last Dinner
When I was buying my plane ticket for this race, I knew I had very little wiggle room. I was stressed out the whole day hoping that there was no flight delays. I even hopped on an earlier flight at my layover in DFW. But when we arrived at the Reagan National Airport around 3:25pm, it was foggy and rainy. We circled the airport several times but the pilot was unable to land eventually running low on fuel. He flew us down to Richmond to fuel up. We waited in Richmond until the weather cleared up in DCA. By the time we flew back up to DCA and landed, it was already 6pm. I needed to get to the expo by 7pm! I took the Metro yellow line straight to the Convention Center. I got there around 6:30pm and walked as fast as I could to expo. My Achilles was already very sore at this point which was a really bad sign. I was able to pick up my bib on time. But when I went to go pick up my goodie bag, all I got was an empty bag. Then when I went to pick up my long sleeve shirt, it was one size fits all... all they had left were XL shirts. I went up and down as many of the rows as fast as I could. Many of the booths were already being torn down. I said hi to Dane. I bought a nice MCM singlet and then headed over across the street to check into my hotel. As soon as I checked in, I got a bucket of ice and iced my ankle and Achilles. Then I walked over to eat at the Kanlaya Thai Restaurant in Chinatown. They have pretty good spicy duck curry with basil. I'm salivating just from typing that. Too bad I was flying solo, but I'll have to remember that this place is a good date place. I stopped by a convenient store to buy water and orange juice.
Pre race
I couldn't really fall asleep but eventually I got in a few hours. I awoke before all of my alarms and got ready. I ate my Powerbar and drank my orange juice. Then waited until it was time to head to the starting line. I took the Metro over to the Pentagon and walked about a mile to the baggage drop area. After hitting the line for the pottapotties, I jogged over to the starting line. There was a lot of people out there! I tried to make my way into the 4 hour area, but somehow I ended up in the 3:30 area. But it was so packed, no one was going to be able to run 8 min miles from the start. I kept reminding myself not to chase anybody because my Achilles would probably snap... and that's no joke! My strategy was to finish the first half in around 2 hours and see what I have left from there.
First Half
The first 3 miles were mostly uphill and I sort of just ran with the flow. Then the next 3 were downhill. Then we had the last major climb of the race starting at mile 6 ending at mile 8. During this climb, my right Achilles was very sore so I had to really slow down. I knew at that point I was not going to make it to the half under 2 hours. The whole time I was repeating in my head, "New York City", to get my mind off of the pain as well as to remind myself to keep the pace slow so that I could run New York the following week. When I got to the halfway mark at a little over 2:08, I knew I would have to begin taking my walking breaks for the 2nd half.
1: 9:20
2: 9:02
3: 8:31
4: 8:22
5: 8:47
6: 9:19
7-8: 19:39
9: 10:07
10: 10:45
11: 10:11
12: 10:33
13: 11:41
13.1: 2:08:07
Second Half
I would walk for about 2 minutes and run to the next mile marker. After about 3 miles this proved to be even too much for my sore Achilles, so I increased it to about 4 minutes of walking. I just wanted to keeps things under the pain threshold. I don't remember much of the 2nd half even though we ran by several of the major monuments. I just remember lots of people out there cheering. I was happy when I got to the bridge cutoff at mile 20. From the beginning I just kept telling myself to get to mile 20 and it'll all be over. I got in line for the portapotties at mile 22. It was a steady climb to the finish line from here on out. I veered off the course at mile 24 to use the potties again. My legs were starting to cramp so I had to keep drinking Nuun to get the electrolytes back in my body. I thought I was going to snap my Achilles at the last hill for the final .2 miles. I walked it a little and all I kept hearing from the crowds was, "you're almost there!" So I had to appease the crowd and ran it in.
14: 12:01
15: 12:04
16: 12:29
17-18: 28:04
19: 14:16
20: 15:36
21: 14:37
22: 17:03
23: 13:21
24: 15:14
25: 14:37
26.2: 17:44
For those that prefer measurements in 5k increments:
5k: 27:19
10k: 55:18
15k: 1:26:13
20k: 1:59:32
25k: 2:37:00
30k: 3:20:22
35k: 4:06:15
40k: 4:54:05
Finish: 5:13:34
Post race
Then they herded all of the cattle to pick up their finisher's medal and food. I picked up my finisher's coin while walking over towards the Rosslyn Metro Station. When I saw how packed it was, I turned around and walked towards the Arlington Station. A handful of people had the same idea. There was no wait at Arlington and you got to see and cheer on those that were still heading towards the finish line. Once I got back to my hotel room, I cleaned up and got a foot long Subway sandwich. Then I just relaxed, took a nap, and woke up to watch the Yankees/Angels game.
The next day I tried to sleep in, but couldn't. I'm too much of a morning person. I checked out of the hotel around 10am and went on a tour of DC. My Achilles was still very sore... so I got to sit on a lot of benches during my tour. I saw the White House, the Washington Monument, the WWII memorial, the Lincoln Memorial, the Jefferson Memorial, and the US Capitol Building. It actually felt okay to walk around. I was glad that I ran the race semi-injured because I got to tour DC for just the second time since high school.
Thursday, October 22, 2009
The Accidental Birth of a Marathon Maniac
How I ended up on the Maniac Bus
I have been hampered by a bad right hip, chronic lower back aches, and occasionally ITBS. They were mostly aches and pains that I got from playing tennis and skiing. After I got my body well enough to finally run my first sub 5 hours marathon in San Diego, I wanted to start training and improving so that I can qualify for the Boston Marathon. But first I thought maybe it would be a good idea to qualify for the Marathon Maniacs. So I decided to qualify at the lowest level by running Long Beach, Pasadena, and Honolulu. I got destroyed in Long Beach (see last year's post below) and Pasadena was canceled due to poor air quality caused by nearby fires. That delayed my plan. I finished Honolulu with a then PR but had to deal with lower back aches all week leading up to the race. Then I figured I would qualify for MM by running the Carlsbad Marathon and the Surf City Marathon on back to back weekends.
Step 1: Back to back marathons
So my first race for the new year was the Carlsbad Marathon. I wanted to improve to a 4:15 marathon, so I ran with the pace group. It was surprisingly more difficult to run at a 9:40 pace vs a 8:40 pace. The right leg quit on me before I even got to the half. I struggled to a 4:59 finish. Around mile 15 of that race, I really wanted to quit running marathons for good. But a lot happens during 11 miles of suffering. I got the idea that quitting is not good. So I decided to abandon my plan of running quality marathons. I decided to go for quantity instead and see if I could stay relatively healthy while running 3 marathons in 1 month.
The following weekend I ran Surf City. I didn't want to repeat what happened in Carlsbad, so I ran with the 4:30 pace group. I ditched the pace group very early and just ran at whatever pace my body felt like running. My legs seemed to like that better. I finished in 4:38. Was actually on pace for about 4:20 until I started cramping late in the race. I was surprised that I actually ran faster. It was at the race expo that I met Dane Rauschenberg where I bought his book documenting his quest/adventure of running 52 marathons in 52 weeks.
Step 2: Filling in the gaps with marathons
So I had ran a marathon in December, January, and February. Pasadena was rescheduled to March which I ran a PR in 4:21. My goal for 3 marathons in 1 month was in May. So I needed a marathon in April to keep the streak going. Here's where I got the idea to run at least 1 marathon per month for the rest of 2009 hopefully all of them at sub 5 hours.
Step 3: 3 marathons in 1 month
I ran Palos Verdes in 4:51 while suffering severe cramps. I went out to destroy the PR that I got in Pasadena, but it was too hot and I hadn't figured out my electrolyte problem yet. I then ran Los Angeles in 4:24 feeling pretty super. The following weekend I ran San Diego in 4:27 wondering how my body is holding up. I still remembered when I could not for the life of me finish a marathon under 5 hours.
Step 4: Continuing the streak while gaining weight
I gained about 15 pounds because of overeating and lifting weights. I overate because of stress and I lifted weights because I couldn't run as much as I would like. In June I ran Seattle in 4:50. It was fun but I had a hard time dealing with the heat. In July I ran San Francisco in 4:55. I had too much beer with friends the night before and was surprised I even broke 5 hours. Then the lack of discipline caught up to me when I ran the difficult but fun ET Midnight Marathon in 5:28. I was becoming more and more out of running shape since I was in the weight room more than I was running.
Step 5: Sign up for a hard 50k
I was not ready for the Montaña de Oro 50k. It was about a week before my birthday and I thought I could just hike it if I was tired. Boy I underestimated the distance and the course. I DNF'd while only covering 33k. About 5k of that was just getting my useless body off of the mountain when I reached a point where I could not continue. This was sort of the wake up call that I needed to get back on track in preparing myself to become a Boston qualifier. I had to give up my distractions: bowling, lifting weights for upper body mass, succumbing to work/life stress. I will be back to MdO next year to have my revenge!
Step 6: Let's go for some altitude training!
Since my streak of sub 5 hours was broken, I thought I'd go run a fun marathon in Big Bear. I was sort of traumatized by MdO in that I couldn't run this race the way that I normally do. Anyways I was destroyed by the hot weather, altitude, and poor electrolyte replacement. I didn't bring enough salt caps. I cramped my way to a 5:53.
Step 7: 3 in 3 consecutive weekends
I was really unhappy with myself at the Big Bear race which led me to sign up for the Lake Tahoe Marathon at almost the very last minute. I brought more salt caps this time and I ran as hard as my legs would let me. The views were definitely worth the long drive, but next time I'll be flying. I finished in 5:08.
I could feel the difference in the elevation when I ran the Sacramento Cowtown Marathon. 8:20 pace was feeling like 9:30 pace from last weekend. This was the first time trying out Nuun. I got really sick when I ran out of Nuun/water late in the race, but I was able to recover and finish in 4:48. Nothing new on race day is still the smart thing to do! Kind of hurt my ankle in this race.
My ankle/AT was sore going into the Long Beach Marathon... my dreaded nemesis. Truth be told, I always go out at a pace that would get me a sub 4. By the 10k mark, I make my adjustment and again at the half way mark. In this race, I considered a DNF when I reached 10k. My ankle/AT was just not feeling good at all. I had to jog/walk the 2nd half and finished to 4:49. Using Nuun during a road race was quite hectic.
Step 8: 4 in 4 consecutive weekends
Now comes my final challenge for the year. I'll be running the Marine Corps Marathon this weekend, followed by the New York City Marathon, followed by the Fresno Marathon, and ending with the Malibu Marathon.
Step 9: 5 in 5 consecutive weekends???
I might run the Santa Monica Mountains 50k. I should be fine now that I've started using Nuun. But first I will need to get past step 8.
Hopefully I will be physically able to enjoy the Las Vegas Marathon in December!
I will end the year with about 20 marathons. I still marvel at the fact that Dane finished his 52 uninjured while holding a full time job with nobody sponsoring him!
I have been hampered by a bad right hip, chronic lower back aches, and occasionally ITBS. They were mostly aches and pains that I got from playing tennis and skiing. After I got my body well enough to finally run my first sub 5 hours marathon in San Diego, I wanted to start training and improving so that I can qualify for the Boston Marathon. But first I thought maybe it would be a good idea to qualify for the Marathon Maniacs. So I decided to qualify at the lowest level by running Long Beach, Pasadena, and Honolulu. I got destroyed in Long Beach (see last year's post below) and Pasadena was canceled due to poor air quality caused by nearby fires. That delayed my plan. I finished Honolulu with a then PR but had to deal with lower back aches all week leading up to the race. Then I figured I would qualify for MM by running the Carlsbad Marathon and the Surf City Marathon on back to back weekends.
Step 1: Back to back marathons
So my first race for the new year was the Carlsbad Marathon. I wanted to improve to a 4:15 marathon, so I ran with the pace group. It was surprisingly more difficult to run at a 9:40 pace vs a 8:40 pace. The right leg quit on me before I even got to the half. I struggled to a 4:59 finish. Around mile 15 of that race, I really wanted to quit running marathons for good. But a lot happens during 11 miles of suffering. I got the idea that quitting is not good. So I decided to abandon my plan of running quality marathons. I decided to go for quantity instead and see if I could stay relatively healthy while running 3 marathons in 1 month.
The following weekend I ran Surf City. I didn't want to repeat what happened in Carlsbad, so I ran with the 4:30 pace group. I ditched the pace group very early and just ran at whatever pace my body felt like running. My legs seemed to like that better. I finished in 4:38. Was actually on pace for about 4:20 until I started cramping late in the race. I was surprised that I actually ran faster. It was at the race expo that I met Dane Rauschenberg where I bought his book documenting his quest/adventure of running 52 marathons in 52 weeks.
Step 2: Filling in the gaps with marathons
So I had ran a marathon in December, January, and February. Pasadena was rescheduled to March which I ran a PR in 4:21. My goal for 3 marathons in 1 month was in May. So I needed a marathon in April to keep the streak going. Here's where I got the idea to run at least 1 marathon per month for the rest of 2009 hopefully all of them at sub 5 hours.
Step 3: 3 marathons in 1 month
I ran Palos Verdes in 4:51 while suffering severe cramps. I went out to destroy the PR that I got in Pasadena, but it was too hot and I hadn't figured out my electrolyte problem yet. I then ran Los Angeles in 4:24 feeling pretty super. The following weekend I ran San Diego in 4:27 wondering how my body is holding up. I still remembered when I could not for the life of me finish a marathon under 5 hours.
Step 4: Continuing the streak while gaining weight
I gained about 15 pounds because of overeating and lifting weights. I overate because of stress and I lifted weights because I couldn't run as much as I would like. In June I ran Seattle in 4:50. It was fun but I had a hard time dealing with the heat. In July I ran San Francisco in 4:55. I had too much beer with friends the night before and was surprised I even broke 5 hours. Then the lack of discipline caught up to me when I ran the difficult but fun ET Midnight Marathon in 5:28. I was becoming more and more out of running shape since I was in the weight room more than I was running.
Step 5: Sign up for a hard 50k
I was not ready for the Montaña de Oro 50k. It was about a week before my birthday and I thought I could just hike it if I was tired. Boy I underestimated the distance and the course. I DNF'd while only covering 33k. About 5k of that was just getting my useless body off of the mountain when I reached a point where I could not continue. This was sort of the wake up call that I needed to get back on track in preparing myself to become a Boston qualifier. I had to give up my distractions: bowling, lifting weights for upper body mass, succumbing to work/life stress. I will be back to MdO next year to have my revenge!
Step 6: Let's go for some altitude training!
Since my streak of sub 5 hours was broken, I thought I'd go run a fun marathon in Big Bear. I was sort of traumatized by MdO in that I couldn't run this race the way that I normally do. Anyways I was destroyed by the hot weather, altitude, and poor electrolyte replacement. I didn't bring enough salt caps. I cramped my way to a 5:53.
Step 7: 3 in 3 consecutive weekends
I was really unhappy with myself at the Big Bear race which led me to sign up for the Lake Tahoe Marathon at almost the very last minute. I brought more salt caps this time and I ran as hard as my legs would let me. The views were definitely worth the long drive, but next time I'll be flying. I finished in 5:08.
I could feel the difference in the elevation when I ran the Sacramento Cowtown Marathon. 8:20 pace was feeling like 9:30 pace from last weekend. This was the first time trying out Nuun. I got really sick when I ran out of Nuun/water late in the race, but I was able to recover and finish in 4:48. Nothing new on race day is still the smart thing to do! Kind of hurt my ankle in this race.
My ankle/AT was sore going into the Long Beach Marathon... my dreaded nemesis. Truth be told, I always go out at a pace that would get me a sub 4. By the 10k mark, I make my adjustment and again at the half way mark. In this race, I considered a DNF when I reached 10k. My ankle/AT was just not feeling good at all. I had to jog/walk the 2nd half and finished to 4:49. Using Nuun during a road race was quite hectic.
Step 8: 4 in 4 consecutive weekends
Now comes my final challenge for the year. I'll be running the Marine Corps Marathon this weekend, followed by the New York City Marathon, followed by the Fresno Marathon, and ending with the Malibu Marathon.
Step 9: 5 in 5 consecutive weekends???
I might run the Santa Monica Mountains 50k. I should be fine now that I've started using Nuun. But first I will need to get past step 8.
Hopefully I will be physically able to enjoy the Las Vegas Marathon in December!
I will end the year with about 20 marathons. I still marvel at the fact that Dane finished his 52 uninjured while holding a full time job with nobody sponsoring him!
Friday, October 16, 2009
Long Beach Marathon 2008
I dug up this report from the Runner's World forum. This was where I became the bus bench inspector! I can't believe I came back for more!
I survived... barely. Looks like Slow-Mo, my alter ego, made an appearance today! My right foot has been bothering me lately so I haven't been putting in the miles since the Disneyland race. My plan was to run around a 2hr first half and go from there.
1 - 9:22
2 - 8:57
3 - 8:55
4 - 9:32
5 - 9:35
6 - 9:12
7 - 9:07
8 - 9:14
9 - 9:38
10 - 9:36 Both ankles felt sore, most likely due to running on concrete. Right foot felt sore too so I decided to slow down the pace earlier than originally planned.
11 - 10:24
12 - 9:59
13 - 10:15
I reached the halfway point around 2:08. At this point I knew that I was in for a long day.
14 - 10:37
15 - 11:16
16 - 11:15
17 - 12:21
18 - 17:31 Wheels came off, everything started falling apart.
19 - 23:53 Everything cramped up. I could barely walk at this point. Sat down at the curb a few times to massage my legs. If this was a horse race, they would've shot this horse to put him out of his misery. =) But thank goodness to the people at the aid station they gave me a bottle of Gatorade and sprayed my legs with analgesic spray.
20 - 17:26
21 - 14:33 Was able to start running a little bit. I made a mental note to work on replenishing my electrolytes for my future races.
22 - 15:22
23 - 12:15
24 - 14:23
25 - 17:57
26 - 21:59 Everything cramped up again. Every time I sat down at a bus bench, people asked if I was waiting for the bus
26.2 - 4:01 Could not even run to the finish line. Usually I can summon up some energy to at least trot across but this time I had to limp across the finish line. Both calves were knotted up and my right groin was cramped up. It was definitely not a pretty ending.
Finish: 5:28:42
I'm starting to think it was a bad idea to join the marathon maniac club. Hopefully I'll do a little bit better on my next race. But I will still need to run conservatively if I want to show up to Hawaii in one piece.
I survived... barely. Looks like Slow-Mo, my alter ego, made an appearance today! My right foot has been bothering me lately so I haven't been putting in the miles since the Disneyland race. My plan was to run around a 2hr first half and go from there.
1 - 9:22
2 - 8:57
3 - 8:55
4 - 9:32
5 - 9:35
6 - 9:12
7 - 9:07
8 - 9:14
9 - 9:38
10 - 9:36 Both ankles felt sore, most likely due to running on concrete. Right foot felt sore too so I decided to slow down the pace earlier than originally planned.
11 - 10:24
12 - 9:59
13 - 10:15
I reached the halfway point around 2:08. At this point I knew that I was in for a long day.
14 - 10:37
15 - 11:16
16 - 11:15
17 - 12:21
18 - 17:31 Wheels came off, everything started falling apart.
19 - 23:53 Everything cramped up. I could barely walk at this point. Sat down at the curb a few times to massage my legs. If this was a horse race, they would've shot this horse to put him out of his misery. =) But thank goodness to the people at the aid station they gave me a bottle of Gatorade and sprayed my legs with analgesic spray.
20 - 17:26
21 - 14:33 Was able to start running a little bit. I made a mental note to work on replenishing my electrolytes for my future races.
22 - 15:22
23 - 12:15
24 - 14:23
25 - 17:57
26 - 21:59 Everything cramped up again. Every time I sat down at a bus bench, people asked if I was waiting for the bus
26.2 - 4:01 Could not even run to the finish line. Usually I can summon up some energy to at least trot across but this time I had to limp across the finish line. Both calves were knotted up and my right groin was cramped up. It was definitely not a pretty ending.
Finish: 5:28:42
I'm starting to think it was a bad idea to join the marathon maniac club. Hopefully I'll do a little bit better on my next race. But I will still need to run conservatively if I want to show up to Hawaii in one piece.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)