Back To Running

After being off my feet for 7 weeks, I finally ventured out with my running shoes this weekend.  As I wasn't too sure if my achilles was ready, I only pounded out 1.5 miles on Saturday at a pace of 8:45.  I had felt a slight twinge in the beginning of the run, but that quickly disappeared and I felt OK afterwards (aside from my asthma acting up a bit).  On Sunday I went for a 2 mile run with Truffalo at a slightly faster pace of 8:30 (thanks to Truff) and didn't even feel any pain whatsoever.  I think it would be safe to say that I can start building up my base again.  As for the June race, I may not be able to get ready for that so I'll have to find a fall race to run.  Tentatively looking at the Hudson Mohawk Marathon in Oct.  It's a small and flat race, but it'll be a little costly to fly out there just to run a marathon.  I'll have to do some more research and see if I can find a good race out west.  Which race to run will also hinge upon what BAA decides upon the 'window' for qualifying times or qualifying times themselves.  If they shorten the window to 16 months, then all November and December races will be out.  If they lower the qualifying times, then I might just take it easy until I'm 39.

Season's Over

My running season is officially over.  The achilles tendinitis healed and is no longer the problem, but I've developed a new injury that is absolutely disabling.  Not sure if it's peroneal tendinitis at the 5th metatarsal, a stress fracture, or cuboid syndrome, but I can barely walk without any pain.  So I'm waving the white flag right now.  The plan is to stop running for the next 1.5 to 2 months to really let the injury heal, and then run the Eugene Marathon in 5/2011 or Newport Marathon in 6/2011 to try to qualify for Boston.  I realized that even if I were to qualify in 12/2010 during the Tucson race, I wouldn't be able to run Boston until 2012, and the time is only good for 2011 and 2012.  However, if I qualify in May/June 2011, I'll be able to run Boston in 2012 and 2013.  So everything works out at the end.  塞翁失馬, 焉知非福。

2010 Tucson Marathon Course

Just checked the Tucson Marathon website and found out that the 2010 course will revert back to the 2007 and 2008 course!  Thank you Pam Reed.  According to those who have run both the '08 and '09 races, the 2009 course was much tougher than the previous years' course.  I'll probably start doing my long runs along the course in 2 weeks to get my legs accustomed to all the downhill running.  PSYCHED!

Running Crazy

The general population looks at marathoners as a crazy bunch to begin with, "why would you pay money to torture yourself?"  Then you have the certifiably insane ones who would email the race director of an upcoming race (in six months) at 2 in the morning inquiring about the race course, and whether there will by any changes to this year's course.  OCD much? However, in my defense, I was being 'proactive'.  Since I really want to qualify for Boston this year, I needed to maximize my chances.  Last year's Tucson race was run on a 'slower' course compared to the 2008 course, according to those who have run both years.  I just wanted to know, if this year is going to be just as slow, then maybe I should instead run CIM, which has consistently been a fast course.  So I emailed the race director, Pam Reed, who surprisingly responded that she's working on getting the 2008 course back, and suggested that there's good chance that it may happen!  Let's hope that it'll happen because this will save us $800 (hotel, airfare, and kennel fees) by not having to run CIM.

Mount Lemmon Marathon

So I was just noseying around on the net, and I came across someone talking about running the Mount Lemmon Marathon.  I thought, "huh, how come I've never heard of it before?"  I've lived here for 4 years, I've heard of the famous El Tour de Tucson, and of course the Tucson marathon, but have never heard anyone talk about the Mount Lemmon Marathon.  That's because 2010 is the inauguration of the Mount Lemmon Marathon.  
If you've ever been to Tucson and have had the opportunity to drive up Mount Lemmon, you'll know how crazy this marathon is.  No, the start line is not at the top, but at the bottom!  The course brings you up 6000ft!  There are no rolling hills, it's all uphill.  Tucson's known for having some of the most hard core outdoors people, but this is INSANE!  Here's their blurb:

The Toughest Road Marathon in the World 

The Only Uphill Marathon in the US

6000 ft Elevation Gain

Paved Course Open for 10 Hours

No Qualifying Necessary

Free Tech IN TRAINING Shirt

Registration Limited to 2500 Runners

Group Discounts and Referral Program

Perfect Running Weather

Guest Celebrity: Bart Yasso

To top it off, the temp is predicted to be in the 80's-90's between miles 5 and 15.  Oh, but no worries, it's DRY HEAT.  Then they don't allow headphones.  Why not? So that you can hear falling rocks and listen for mountain lions and black bears, "although we don't foresee any problems with them."  Really?  I've heard stories of mountain lions tracking cyclists down that mountain.

So if anyone's interested, registration is $85 for either the full or half.  They're basically giving you a discount to torture yourself by running the full.  Here we are all looking for a fast course to BQ, then there are people who are simply sadomasochists!  At least they'll get to meet Bart Yasso.  

San Diego Marathon Race Report

First things first.  I failed to qualify for Boston again, but this time I was off by 6 minutes, not 6 seconds like last time.  For some strange reason I'm not totally beaten up by fail #2.  Maybe because I've reset my goals so many times during the run that I've managed to do much better than what I had finally decided was my goal.  Along the run, my goal went from BQ to 'just finish' to 'must beat NYC times' to 'under 4 hours'.  I finally came in at 3:52:22 (much better than under 4), so I'm pretty satisfied.  So what happened?  We'll get to that, but let's rewind to the day before.

J and I got to San Diego at around noon Saturday, and headed straight for the expo before grabbing lunch.  The Rock n' Roll marathon is an entire league of its own.  Compared to the miniscule Tucson marathon, this one is huge.  If you include both the marathon and 1/2 marathon runners at SD (there were more 1/2 marathon runners), the field is about the size of the NYC marathon.  

Packet pick-up.  They required a photo ID and a printed signed confirmation sheet.  No other races in the past required a photo ID.  I guess they're trying to prevent people from selling their bibs, or having other people run for you.

Scenes at the expo

Way too commercialized...

Porta potty fitting rooms...

I had wanted to sign up with the 3:45 pace group, but they ended up not having one.  They had a pace team for 3:40 and 4:00 and nothing in between.  That was a sign.  Next to their table, I saw that they had pace bands for each race time, so I figured I'd use that instead.  I was under the impression that they were giving it away for free so I asked for the 3:45 pace band, then they asked me for $2.  What was I going to do?  Fling the band back at them?

I ended up coughing up $2 for a band that I used wisely up until mile 19, at which point I gave up tracking my time since I was starting to lag.

Everything about this marathon is better than Tucson: the expo, organization, volunteers, water & gel stations, and medical aid stations.  With that said, I would not run it again because of its size.

The morning of the race (nice and overcast, but HUMID): on the way to the starting line.  It was a mile and half from our hotel.

I'm the 'short little thing' in the white cap futzing around with my garmin, and finally concluding that my garmin refused to be 'customized', so I turned the 'pace alert' to OFF.

Scene at the start line, with marathoners (blue bibs), 1/2 marathoners (yellow bibs), and relay runners (black bib) all grouped together.

And off we go...

I was running a bit under pace, but made sure I slowed down when I was going too fast.  Things were going great even up that hill between miles 7 and 10.5 that I was fretting about pre-race.  I thought to myself, "This is it?"  Apparently, my hill training had paid off.  However, things started to turn for the worse at mile 13 when I felt the first twinge of a calf cramp.  Alarms were going off in my head, "What's going on?  It's starting too soon.  I didn't get my first calf cramp until mile 19 during the Tucson race."  So I slowed down a bit more to work out the cramps, and it did release a bit from time to time but stuck around till the very end of the race.  This was about the same time the sun came out, and was in full force at mile 16 as I was about to scale a 'mountain'.  

I saw this little blip (between 16 and 16.5) on the chart, but it never concerned me as much as the earlier hill.  Oh, was I wrong...

Finally, at mile 19 I started to fall behind, and that's when I started resetting my goal.  I had felt terrible and entertained the thought of dropping out of the race.  As I approached the water stations I decided to do my walk breaks through the stations and then run on.  So it was: run a mile, walk 50 feet for the rest of the race with intermittent stops to stretch out the calves and quads.  The best thing I got from the medical station was a bag of ice, which I ran with for a mile using it to cool me down (putting it on my head, face, chest, and arms).  It was HOT!  From mile 18 on, it was 2 cups of Cytomax, one cup of water, and one cup of water used to pour over my head.  I was soaked from head to toe.  It looked as if I had peed all over myself, but the strategy helped ease the discomfort, and I began to reset my goals 'up'.  Between miles 21 and 22, I saw an ambulance with a guy in the back and another one being tended to by the paramedics, and I was so tempted to join them and ride the ambulance back, but then I remembered J was waiting for me at the finish.  For the last 1/2 mile, I started to work up to a sprint and actually felt OK sprinting, and questioned myself whether I should have started sprinting earlier.

Finish line

So what did I learn from this experience?
1) Running marathons is akin to going through labor pains.  You're hating it at the time and swearing that it'll be the last, but as soon as the race is over, you're reminiscing and planning your next race.
2) Never run summer races.  Stick to fall and winter races.
3) Run smaller races.  Large crowds mean energy wasted on running around people.
4) Never wear new running shoes for the race, because it gets really dirty with all the water poured down on it.  Luckily, I wore the ones that are about to be 'retired'.
5) If I want to qualify for boston, I should start running flat courses.
6) I need to change my training plan to include long runs that are longer than 18 miles.
7) I need to figure out what's causing these cursed leg cramps.
8) And last, but not least, I have the most wonderful and supportive husband in the world.  He followed me along the course, and was exposed to the 'element' (we all know how much he hates the sun) for 4 hours to cheer me on.  Later I apologized that he didn't get to do anything for himself on this trip and you know what he said? "I got to spend time with you."  What more can a girl ask for...

It's Official

Pre-race jitters have hit me already.  Four days to go, and I'm getting stomach cramps due to nervousness.  Normally I don't start to panic until the night before races, but I think the fact that the race is in unfamiliar territory is getting me worried.  Not to mention the added stress of wanting to qualify for Boston, because if I don't qualify this time I'll have to wait another 6 months for another attempt.  The way I see it is if I qualify in San Diego, I'll get to run Boston next year.  However, if I wait until December to qualify, I may not get a shot at Boston until 2012 because of how fast registration has been filling up before December.  To be perfectly honest, I think this is going to be a slow race because of the hilly course; and I am not confident that I'll be able to run the time I want, even though I think I'm in better shape now than I was 6 months ago.

Just take a look at the elevation chart, and tell me why I shouldn't worry...

Taper

Thirteen more days until race day.  Taper starts this week, and it couldn't have come at a better time.  My right instep and achilles have been giving me some problems during the last few runs, with intermittent soreness.  Luckily I've figured out that it was due to one of my running shoes.  I've been running in neutral cushioning shoes for my easy and long runs, while I've reserved the racing stability shoes for my speedwork sessions.  I suspect it was the neutral cushioning shoes that have been causing the problems due to the lack of medial support; and as a test, I ran yesterday's long run in the racing stability shoes without any pain.  I guess I'll have to go back to stability shoes from now on for my regular runs.  

Currently I have my eyes on these NB 769s (2009 model).

The Paradox Of Long Runs

The body is a perplexing thing.  After my longer runs (any distances over 12 miles) I am never hungry.  I come back, down 2 glasses of juice and I'm done.  For the rest of the day I eat very little as my appetite appears to have been suppressed for the following 24 hours.  On the other hand, I'm famished by the time I'm done with just 4 miles; coming back and inhaling 2 bowls of cereal.  How does that work?  No wonder I can't lose weight.  

One other funny thing about longer runs is that I start craving for one thing that I normally don't care for - beer.  At around mile 16, I start obsessing about chilled beer.  It's at this point when the body is in desperate need of carbs, and there's no faster and more refreshing way to replenish the body than with cold beer.

I honestly think marathons should start providing cold beer instead of water starting at mile 15.  This will help replenish the much needed carbs, as well as make you buzzed enough not to care that you didn't qualify for Boston (again) by the time you cross the finish line.
J has sworn off on marathons ever since he completed his first, but he said he would make an exception for the Marathon du Medoc, where the emphasis is not about running, but about tasting the wine at the 'water stations'.  Maybe next year...

SD Marathon Course Revealed

It's about time.  It's only what, 3 months before the marathon?  I had just checked the website this morning and was getting a little frustrated that the course had not been finalized.

Well, here's the long awaited SD marathon course (click on the map if you're so inclined)...

I like how the route winds through Balboa park, downtown SD, Mission Bay, Fiesta Island, and ends at Sea World.  The bad part is the continuous uphill climb between miles 7 and 10.5.  That's going be a mother.  Certainly not a PR course, let alone a BQ course.  I guess I'll have to do some serious hill training, and luckily we have nothing but hills here in Oro Valley.

San Diego Marathon

Signed up today for the San Diego marathon.  Today was my last chance to sign up with a $13 off coupon (only available on the 13th of every month), and before prices jump up another $20 to $115 on Feb 1st.  This race ended up costing me $89.95.  Since J and I love going to San Diego, we figured this race would just be part of our annual pilgrimage to SD.  The course route is still up in the air, so I have no idea what to except (i.e., how hilly/difficult the course may be), but I'll be aiming to qualify for Boston 2011.  If I don't qualify, I'll still have the Tucson race in Dec of this year to qualify.  Official training for me begins next monday.

Tentative Plans for 2010

So I've opted to sit out the Phoenix race in Jan so that I have ample time to recuperate and come back stronger.  Since the Tucson Marathon offered $30 off for the first 150 entrants to sign up for the 2010 race, I took up on their offer.  Now the race will only cost me $59.96 as opposed to $85.  I figured it would be the cheapest race to run since I don't have to worry about hotel, kennel, and airfare costs.  However, I am still considering running a Spring race to see if I can qualify for Boston 2011 (the Tucson race would be too late by then).  I'm debating between San Diego on 6/6/09 and Newport, OR on 6/5/09.  At this point I'm leaning towards OR because:
1. It's cheaper ($65 vs. $95), but with airfare it may come out to be more pricey
2. It's smaller (800 runners vs. 13,000), which makes it easier to run
3. It's one of the faster marathons, with higher rates of BQs (even more so than Tucson)
4. We've never been to OR and would like to check it out
5. The San Diego course hasn't even been mapped out yet, so it's unclear what the course is going to be like
For the next couple of weeks, I'm just going to take it easy on the running and enjoy sleeping in for a change.  J actually went out for a 6-mile run without me this morning before work today, and I got to sleep in, guilt free.

Six Seconds

That's how much I missed the Boston qualifying time by!  I guess it's easier to swallow than missing the QT by 1 second.  The biggest thing that caught me (and everyone else) by surprise was the strong headwind.  Even though we were going downhill, the wind was so strong between miles 13 and 24 that it felt like we were running uphill the whole time.  I kept ducking and running behind tall men so that I could draft off of them.  It helped, but I could only do it for so long before they got annoyed at me and my beeping Garmin.  Thanks to the steep downhills in the beginning, my quads were so beaten up that the cramps in my quads and calves started at mile 19 and never relented.  The cramps slowed me down significantly.  Interestingly, I never 'hit the wall' at mile 20.  It was all leg cramping.  I was running ahead of the 3:40 pacer up until mile 19, and when I reached mile 24.5, I got passed by the 3:45 pacer.  At the time, I thought I was still OK because the Boston QT allows an additional 59 seconds to qualify (i.e., I could run 3:45:59 and still qualify).  Apparently, it wasn't good enough.  Long story short, I didn't make it.  At this point, I'm considering the Phoenix Rock n Roll Marathon on 1/17/2010, and hoping I can redeem myself.  However, I am not entirely disappointed as I have finally run a sub-4 marathon, which was what I had wanted to achieve back in 2004 (missed it by a whopping 10 minutes).  Since then I've been able to shave off 24 mins, so I know I can do it as long as all the stars are aligned : )  So, it's back to another 5 weeks of training, and J had suggested that I do more intense weight training with my quads and calves (he poo-poo'd my current weight training classes, said they were more calisthenics than real weights).

Pre-Race Jitters

OK, the jitters have officially set in.  It has finally dawned on me the race is tomorrow, after one week of not caring.  Just came back from the expo and picked up a bag of 'junk'.  The race T-shirt is so 'awesome', that I plan on tossing it into Truffalo's cage (the Holy Land of holey T-shirts, where all old T-shirts go to 'die') without even wearing it.  

By the way, 璨 I'd like my 2003 NYC marathon shirt back if you're not wearing it.  
OK, the game plan: load up on pasta tonight; have 2 bananas 1-2 hours before the race; chew 3 Clif Shot Bloks at miles 6 and 12; one Clif Shot gel at miles 17 and 22; and hope for the best (i.e., make the time, and avoid GI disasters).

Post-Vacation Depression

Big time lack of motivation right now.  Missed my morning run today due to the rain.  Have to make it up tomorrow morning, and make up tomorrow's scheduled run the morning after, etc.  I don't even care whether I qualify for Boston or not at this point.  Work is exhausting, and it's only been 2 days.  All I want to do after coming home is curl up in bed with a book.  I haven't even watched any Kdrama.  These are all tell tale signs of post-vacation depression.  I always get these after amazing trips (my worst cases were after Turks & Caicos and Tahiti).  Need to pull myself out of this slump, and get ready for the race; because I know I will regret it afterwards if I don't qualify for Boston.

Five-week old Mocha with Aunt V. (This picture has nothing to do with this entry, but I just thought it was a cute picture of Mocha)

The Culprit #2

Blue Pants Racing held a 13-mile training run from the start of the marathon to the Biosphere.  Since I was scheduled to run 18 miles this weekend, I just tacked on 5 additional miles past the Biosphere.  I was able to complete today's 18 mile run in 2 hours and 27 minutes (8:11 min mile).  The beginning of the course is not as easy as advertised.  There are these steep downhills (at the start) that can do some damage to the quads, and steep uphills (between miles 6 and 7) that make you feel betrayed by the race organizers.  However, after mile 7 it was a nice slope downhill, with some short gradual inclines.  I had some issues with my stomach again at mile 13, but not as bad as last week's disaster.  Since I banned raisin bran cereal yesterday, the only culprits are now the energy gels (GU) and the electrolyte drink (XOOD).  I had consumed the Tri-Berry GU before the start and the Espresso GU at miles 7; didn't start consuming the XOOD until mile 6.  I'm inclined to think that the culprits are the energy gels.  

So I will try the Clif Shot on Tuesday for my 10-mile run.  Clif Shots are supposed to be 90% organic (organic brown rice syrup as opposed to maltodextrin, fructose etc. that you get with GU and PowerGel).  We'll see what happens.

If I can't tolerate the energy gels, I'll have to think of something else to consume (e.g., a banana) before the race, and pop in one of the gels later in the race, so I'll be done by the time the gels start 'working their magic'.

Yasso 800

The Yasso 800 is named after Bart Yasso, Runner's World's race service director.  This work out involves running 8 to 10 reps of 800m (~0.497 miles), at one's 'marathon goal time', and recovery session that lasts as long as it took to run the 800m.  For example, my marathon goal time is 3 hrs and 45 minutes, so I'd have to run 3 minutes and 45 seconds for each of the 800m, then I'd have to run 3 minutes and 45 seconds for my recovery session at a pace of 10 min mile.  It's been found to be a pretty good predictor of race day time.  Greg McMillan finds that the Yasso 800 predicts 5 minutes too fast for most marathoners, so he adds 5 minutes to the time.  So, I did my second Yasso 800 this morning.  Due to time constraints, I only did 9 reps, and my average time was 3:35, and if you were to add 5 minutes, that's 3:40!  That's faster than what I have to run for my qualifying time of  3 hours and 45 minutes.  Now I'm all psyched.  Four more weeks to go until the race, and if I can keep up with the training and remain injury free, then Boston, here I come!

Split Time Distance
1 00:10:00 1.09
2 00:03:38 0.50
3 00:03:40 0.38
4 00:03:36 0.50
5 00:03:40 0.38
6 00:03:41 0.50
7 00:03:40 0.37
8 00:03:35 0.50
9 00:03:40 0.37
10 00:03:38 0.50
11 00:03:40 0.38
12 00:03:33 0.50
13 00:03:40 0.38
14 00:03:32 0.50
15 00:03:40 0.38
16 00:03:34 0.50
17 00:03:40 0.38
18 00:03:31 0.50
19 00:01:40 0.17
Summary 01:13:22 8.78

Amazing!

I was going through the marathon section in the NYT and came across this picture that was submitted by a reader.

So I, the nosy body, decided to check out this older gentleman's race time on the INGNYCmarathon website by typing in his bib number.  When I saw his time, I almost fell out of my seat.  He ran a 3:27:53 marathon!  He's 74 years old!  That's a 7:57 min mile for 26 miles!  I'm speechless.  You see the younger guy dressed in the lederhosen running next to him?  Well, the older gentleman (Manfred) beat the young guy by 2 minutes!  Kudos to Manfred!  By the way, he came in first for his age group.  If only I could run as fast as he, and with a smile like that on my face during the race...

Marathon Entry Fee

Found out that we can now apply for next year's NYC marathon.  Guess what they're asking for the entry fee?  $185!  I remember running NYC in 2003 and 2004 and the entry fee was $70-80 at the time.  How did the fee more than double in 6-7 years time.  That's more than inflation!  I say it's highway robbery.  Ain't doing it.  As much as I love running NYC, I'm not going to cough up $185 just to run a slow course.  I can understand if it's a fast course that'll allow you to qualify for Boston.  Speaking of which, I'm willing to pay anything for Boston if I qualify, just because it's Boston.  Not just anyone can run Boston - that is unless you're one of those "running for leukemia" and buying your way into a prestigious race - boohoo!  For now, I'll just stick to smaller and cheaper races.  Congrats to Meb for breaking the US drought in the NYC Marathon.  Although if you really think about it, he's really Eritrean, but OK, we'll take anything at this point, just to say that an American won : )