My (Fake) 13.1 Race Report

When I last rambled on in a post I mentioned that the arrival of my second child was imminent  Last Monday we were told to expect the little one any day, of course here we are a week later, and no baby .  So instead of going to Vancouver to run my first half-marathon, I stayed home so that I could be at the ready when it was time to go.   However, I did run 13.1 miles, it just isn't official or anything like that.   So without further ado, my fake half marathon.

Friday evening I planned out a couple of routes to run 13.1 miles, an out and back in the park along the river, and a romp through my neighborhood, figuring I would just pick one Saturday morning based on how I felt.   Then I checked the weather to see what the hourly forecast would be, the low 60s and cloudy, with rain to come after I planned to be finished.   Perfect.   I was prepared, I got my clothes and gear all set up and ready so all I had to do was get going first thing in the morning.

Saturday, the alarm went off just before 6, and I snooze it a couple of times just because I can, thinking to myself, I can totally turn this off and sleep in for a little bit longer.   I get up a few minutes later and get dressed and ready to run.   I get a water bottle ready and a couple gel packs and at 6:30 I hit the road, 13.1 miles here I come.

The first 3 miles are pretty good.  The first mile is out of my neighborhood down to a paved path, which I can only do 2.5 miles on going out due to construction on the parallel road.   The first 3 miles are good, I am at a 8:20m/m pace and fell pretty confident that I can hold this for while.   Just after mile 3, I get to the stop light that indicates my turn-around back towards the neighborhood.   At mile 4, I slow down to take in the first gel, and am averaging 8:30 m/m.   I come off the path and turn up one of the major roads in my area an keep on pushing towards mile 5.

Somewhere between miles 4 and 6 I must have mistepped, or hit a curb funny along the sidewalk, because I now have a throbbing pain in my left calf and hamstring.   I don't remember doing anything to it, but I am now very sore.   This stretch also has a couple of hills, so between the ailing leg and the hills, I slow down, walking a bit to try to work out the tightness in the leg.   Finally, around mile 6 I ease back into a reasonable pace and my phone chimes at me to indicate that I am at 9 m/m pace.   Fine I think, I can pick this back up and keep going, I could still get through this under 2 hours.

But, instead of working through the pain, the leg gets more tight.   Between miles 7 and 8, I truly think about heading back to the house and icing up as it has now started to rain a little .   I push on, two thoughts keep me going, first, just run three more miles, a 5k then reevaluate, the second, your training partner is going to run this thing tomorrow, how will you feel if he finishes and you didn't even get to mile 8.  I push it, running/walking to ease the pain a bit.   I get to mile 9 taking the other gel hoping that a shot of energy will really help.   The whole time I am visualizing the path I am going to take, trying to calculate the distances of each segment until I can get to 13 miles.

I push past mile 10 at the bottom of my traditional 2 mile loop, thinking, just round this little section twice to get to 11 then back to the top of the hill and around that loop twice and a short jaunt downhill to get to 13.  Just 3 more miles, let's hit some milestones.   I complete the two mini-loops and reach 11 miles as I head up the hill, thinking it won't take long to get to 12.  But it did, it felt like it was going to take an eternity for the phone to beep out that 12th mile.   I check to see where I am, 11.4, Let's go, run this thing out.   So I do, no more walking breaks just pushing as much as I can go .   I run the last two miles under 8:45m/m, and finally coast to a stop at 13.1 finishing with a 9:33 m/m pace and 2:05:05.  I am sore, disappointed, and tired.  I walk home, just a couple minutes and stretch out .

I have to be honest, I am of course disappointed that I didn't get to go to Vancouver and run this race.   I truly think that I would have run it at about 1:50, but the mental shift from running a race and running a glorified long run is remarkable.   My mind is also a little preoccupied with the impending birth, so I wasn't focused on running as much as normally would have been.  Plus I should have taken the flat asphalt path in the park instead of the ever changing sidewalks in the neighborhood.  But, it was important that I get out and run this, to show that I could.   I have another one on the schedule in three months, and my friend who did get to run in Vancouver is talking about another one next month.   There are tons of opportunities to run.

So there you go readers, the race that wasn't, the almost injury that was, and the mental ability to push through it.   On the leg, compression socks Saturday night helped ease the pain in the calf muscle and by Sunday no pain there at all.   Wrapped the upper leg in an ace bandage Sunday to help diminish that pain.   I should be back out for an easy 3 tomorrow or Wednesday.  I need to take some pictures of my "course" and get them up here.   Have a great week guys .

Flexibility

If I have learned anything in the 10 months that I have been running, it is the need to be flexible.   I am not talking about limber joints, and being able to stretch in all manners, I mean the ability to handle bumps and curveballs tossed at you by life. 

Those of you that know me and my family, know that I have been talking about two major life events about to occur for me.   The first being that I have been training for the Vancouver USA Half-Marathon, and the other being the impending birth of my second child, due mid-July.   Now, since I signed up for this event back in February, my wife has been joking that the baby would be born on Father's day (which would mean that both or out kids were born on Father's day), this Sunday, the same day as the race.   Even knowing that our first was almost three weeks early, I took this in stride assuming that all would go to plan and that I would have two weeks after the race to prepare for the arrival.  

Of course this isn't necessarily how things work.   My wife went to the doctor Monday as part of a routine check where the doctor told her that he didn't think she would make it to the appointment next week, as the baby was in the process of making it's grand entrance.   Which of course is like the baby just informing me that it will be in charge for a long long time (proof I am sure that it will be a girl).  So of course this means that I am changing my plans for the coming week .  I will not be running the Vancouver Half-Marathon as it makes little sense for me to drive 4 hours across the state to run a race, when we are mere days, hours, or minutes away from having the baby. 

Flexibility!   I knew this was a possibility, I am only mildly sad that I won't run in the race I trained for, but I am elated that the baby will be here soon.   So as I do with most things that happen in my life, I am rolling with it.   My motto has always been control what you can and let the rest go.   This is no different, I have no control of the timing of baby's arrival, but I do have control over several other things.   So, I will still run 13.1 this weekend, it just won't be an official timed race.   I can also get a jump start on marathon training.

Onwards to new and exciting challenges.   First the new baby, and then on to getting my training plan together for a fall marathon.   I plan on running the following races through the fall.   The 7/23 - Shoreline Run 10k in Richland, WA; 9/24 - Indian Summer Half-Marathon, in Richland, WA; and finally on 10/22 the Columbia River Power Marathon, in Hermiston, OR.  I will get more info up on this one in a later post.

I imagine I will get a report up soon regarding the baby (just don't expect it before Sunday )

Fantastical

I have gone back and forth about posting this, as it is personal and a bit emotional, something I have a difficult time with.  I know you will offer nothing but support, that and I felt that yesterday's post deserved a bit more explaination, a brief look at the non-runner me. The first part feeds the second part.

Word of the day: Fantastical (from Meriam-Webster online dictionary)

1. a : based on fantasy : not real

    b : conceived or seemingly conceived by unrestrained fancy

    c : so extreme as to challenge belief : unbelievable: exceedingly large or great

2. Marked by extravagent fantasy or extreme indivduality: eccentric

3. Fantastic: Excellent, superlative

 

My wife and I are part of a book club.  We joined/founded with a couple of people I know from work about 18 months ago as a way to meet new people, read books we would not normally choose for ourselves and stay connected with friends.  Now, on to the title of the post and the reason by providing the definition to you wonderful people out there. Fantastical was the word used most often to describe last month's book club book. 

 

My wife chose 'Luka and the Fire of Life' by Salman Rushdie. 

 

This book is about a young boy who travels to the World of Magic in order to save his father.  It is a grand adventure and truly is a fantasy book (little known fact, but the majority of Rushdie's writing is on the fantasy side of things).  It seems that most of the book group either did not read the book, or did not enjoy the book.  Seeing as this is a group comprised of several engineers this is not a total surprise.  I myself, an engineer, really enjoyed the book, but I have a love of fantasy/sci-fi books probably based on years of video game playing.  Of course there were a couple of people that read the book that are not engineers and they seemed to enjoy the book.  However both sides used the term 'fantastical' to describe it. 

 

I felt that fantastic(al) is an apt word for so many things that happen in our life.  It is fantasctic that I have friends and family that support me in all efforts I embark on.  It is fantastic that I live somewhere that I can run for the joy it provides and not as a necessity.  It is fantastic that we have top of the line medical care. It is fantastic that we can choose what we want to do and how we respond to events in our lives.  Life itself is fantastic.  I could go on about how I lucky I am to live with all the niceties that we as Americans sometimes take for granted, sometimes you just need to step back and think about all you have instead of what you don't.

 

I realize, especially after discussing my anxiety with my wife, that the race is my rational/physical way of expressing the feelings I am having about several things going on in my life right now.  The most important of those would be the impending birth of my second child.  My wife is due mid-July, and the pregnancy hasn't been easy, it hasn't been horrible, but complications at the end with the first one have me worried as we approach the end of the second one.  The doctors, of course, have been helpful in so many ways trying to catch warning signs early so that we don't have unexpected problems again.  I know that having a new baby at home will change those worries, but at least the unknowns of the pregnancy will be gone. 

 

So in reality, I have the perfect storm of events, the Half in 10 days, then what I am told is more like days than weeks (Dr. predicting a July 4th baby), for the arrival.  It is a bit overwhelming.  Normally, I would only worry about what I can control (aka the Run) but in this case my emotions are getting the better of me. 

 

To the my readers:  You guys are, in a word, Fantastic!  I know my training will get me through the race.  I also know that my real concern is the coming challenges of an expanding family (there is no training for raising a child).  So thank you all for you words of encouragment, and I can't wait to update you all with the race report and the baby report.

Nervousness

I am down to just 11 days until the Vancouver USA Half-Marathon, Sunday, June 19.  I can't tell if I am nervous excited or nervous terrified for this run.  This being my first attempt at running the full 13.1 miles.  My training as been outstanding over the last four months, but that doesn't mean that the ol' thinker isn't getting in the way of the physical abilities.

I have completed two twelve mile runs, even though the training plan called for only one 12 miler.  I completed the first one by myself back during the second weekend in May in just under 2 hours, and I thought I was going to be sore for a month (it was only a couple days, nothing new after a new distance).  Then this Sunday I ran with my training partner on the regularly scheduled 12 mile run and we did it in just over 2 hours.  The difference being that I felt great after this run.  I felt like I had enough energy to go another couple of miles (the difference between 9:45m/m and 11:00m/m).  This gives me great hope that the distance won't be a problem.  Hopefully I can push myself to complete this race under 2 hours.  So I have settled on nervous excited (though I imagine the brain is still doubtful).

Some future plans:  I am going to run in my local marathon - The Tri-Cities Marathon, October 30th. If I can convinve my wife, or if she can convince her parents, I would like to do the Surf City Marathon in February.  My wife has family down there, so convincing isn't so much of let's go, its how do we get there to avoid winter weather in the north.  Though with a friend's baby shower, and my son's birthday party all this weekend, the planning may not happen until Monday.

Training

My friend and I are a mere 7 weeks away from our goal of running a half-marathon.  We are running the Vancouver USA Half-Marathon in Vancouver, WA on June 19th.  We have been training since the beginning of the year, officially on a training program since mid-February.  So a handful of wonderful, and/or surprising things have happened during this time.  So I will just rumble on by them as I write this (note I tend to ramble when I write).

The training plan is a based on the FIRST Half Marathon training plan, available here on runnersworld.com.  This plan was appealing to both of us for a variety of reasons, starting with the low mileage, and the three days a week running.  The plan is also only a 10 week plan, though I expanded this plan to fill up just about all of the time we had available until the Half in June.  The first week of the official training was to be the first week of April, giving us exactly 11 weeks to make our way to the goal of running 13.1 miles.  But I didn't want to start this training plan having only run over 6 miles once (My first 10k was the St. Patrick's Day Foot Race back in March).  So I expanded the training plan to build up our long runs gradually from February on.  So this was really more like a 16 week training plan that incorporated speed work, as neither of us had done interval work before, as well as the climb in long runs.

Now, some strange things have happened to both of us throughout this spring of training.  Starting in Mid-March, both us were beset with injuries.  Mine, an ankle sprain, self-inflicted while working on the house, and his an apparent running injury to the right knee.  With my injury I managed to miss only one run, and got back out and worked through some slight pain to stay on target with my training plan.  My friend missed most of a week, before deciding to see a doctor, who prescribed Physical Therapy and an MRI (which he didn't get).  Both of us are back on track, though I have had an interesting month.

The first week of April I came down with a cold, one my son had, and seemed to magnify in length once I got it.  So I managed only a whopping 3.3 miles the whole week, after having completed my best week ever at 15.5 the week before.  Disappointment, as I was getting better and stronger, the missed essentially a whole week.  So I decided I could make up for it the following week, and did I ever, I got out and ran my intervals Monday morning, a day typically reserved as an off day, then was talked into a 5k fun run Tuesday night.  I rocked that 5k, bringing it in an unofficially 24:10, which is almost 4 minutes faster than my PR.  Friday, I added the hill by my house to the run, about a 200 ft climb over .75 miles, almost equivalent to the hill we will be running at Bloomsday in a week.  Then my friend and I rounded out the week with an 8 mile long run, and a total weekly mileage at 17.8.  I felt great, after another strong week.

Then this last week happened.  I missed my speed workout Tuesday, and then again on Wednesday, and said, well I will just get back on track Thursday.  That didn't happen either, though I did some cross-training in on the stationary bike.  I did finally run Friday, the schedule called for a 5 mile Tempo run, I substituted the hill, and got 5.7 in and felt pretty good about that.  Was prepared to go out for 10 yesterday, then was out much too late Saturday night.  Missed the long run with my friend and had to venture out on my own, where I managed a paltry (as compared to his 10.3) 6.6 miles as I decided not to push cramping, tired muscles.  This was so not the week I was looking for as I head into Bloomsday in Spokane this weekend.

Lessons learned last week. 1) Sleep more.  I did not have much good rest last week, and was asleep by 9:30 last night, a good way to start this week.  2) Before long runs, drink more water.  Hydration was clearly a problem Friday and Sunday, as I had cramping issues both days, worse on Sunday.  And 3) Remember, this is fun, don't stress about missed runs and lost mileage.  This is so hard for me, perhaps all of us sometimes, the mileage is gone, focus on what is on this week's schedule and work to that, the body will be well trained even missing a handful of runs.

The Plan

Ever read someone's blog, comic, story what-have-you for a long time, then gone back to the beginning to see what the writing or the person was like 10 years ago, only to find out that they were kind of lame and that the first post was horribly written (and titled the 'First Post').  Well this is my attempt at having a first post, lame or otherwise.  Now you may be thinking that with a title like 'THE PLAN', this post might include ideas for what I plan on talking about in this here blog, hopefully the title of the blog gives you a hint about that.  In this case The Plan refers to running.


So what began as an idea in December (2010), has become a reality.  My friend mentioned that he wanted to run a marathon, only after his friend had run one.  I, being new to the sport, told him that no person should run alone, especially that distance.  After some discussion it was decided that a half-marathon was a more apt goal to attain in the spring.  After the holiday season a race was tentatively decided upon, enter the Sage Rat Run on May 14, 2011.

Turns out this run didn't fit into our schedules, for one, my friend is in class, and, for two, I didn't quite feel I would have my training up to speed in time after completing Basketball Officiating season.  In search of another race we went .  Next we settled upon the Clear Lake Memorial Races, up in White Pass, WA (sorry no link available).  This one, too, had a drawback, in that it has an elevation increase of 1000ft over 4 miles.  Back to square one.

The requirements had been set at this point:
1) The race must be on a Sunday.
2) The race need not unnecessarily climb 1000ft, this is supposed to be fun, not hazardous to our health.
3) It needed to be close so that we could easy get to it Saturday evening.

Another search turned up the Vancouver USA Marathon, which also has a Half-Marathon.  After some discussion it was decided, we will be running the Vancouver USA Half-Marathon on June 19, 2011.

Finally,we will be running a warm-up/introduction to racing the Bloomsday 2011 race in Spokane, WA on May 1st.

Well, there you have it guys, The Plan, which was more to do with my upcoming running schedule than say what this blog will be about.  Look for updates on the actual training plan that we are using to train for this madness.