Bill's Training Journal

Chuy's 5k - a few surprises

2008-05-10T18:55:38Z

I wasn't planning on doing this race this year, until last week, when I realized it was running right through my neighborhood.   I couldn't pass up a chance to run a race where I could just leave my house in the morning and get to the start line on foot.

And that is what I did - put on my stuff and did a warmup run from my house to the start. I wasn't the only person out there with the same plan - I saw a few other people along the way. It was really humid and warm though - by the time I got there, I was already sweating pretty good.

When I got to the start line, I saw a few other people I recognized from all the running these past couple years. Gundi was there, I talked with him for a bit. jasontru was there, we chatted briefly too. Chris from the first marathon training group was there also, but I couldn't get his attention right away, and they were doing the national anthem. By "they", I mean the Elvis impersonator, and a good percentage of the runners. Evil apparently forgot the CD with the national anthem on it, so it turned into a sing-along.

Then, we were off. I had positioned myself up near the front to try to avoid a bottleneck at the first corner - I could tell that the first half mile or so was a bit quicker pace than I would be able to hold for 3.1 miles, so I eased off a little, and settled into a pace I thought I could maintain. At the mile 1 marker, I checked my watch - 6:08. Faster than I expected... but not unreasonable. I had just told teambaraka yesterday that I was shooting for anything under 20 minutes. Looking up ahead, I realized I could still see the leaders.. and there weren't all that many people between me and them.

At about 1.25 miles, Ben and Stephanie were out there cheering, and I waved. I was really feeling the heat by this time, sweating profusely, and mostly onto my sunglasses, which weren't really necessary with the overcast skies. But I was cruising along and feeling good still.

5k is a really short race. I didn't understand that quite so fully until today. The last time I ran a 5k (which was also Chuy's), was a couple years ago, before all this Marathon stuff happened. The next couple miles flew by much faster than I really anticipated.. and then it was done. I sped up a little down the final stretch through the parking lot, but kind of felt like I should have pushed it a little (lot) sooner. The final splits were:

1    6:08
2    6:23
3    6:28
3.1 0:36

Total = 19:35.. I managed to get under 20!

After the finish, I talked with Gundi and jasontru again - also caught up with Chris and chatted for a while. Before heading home, I decided to check the results. I wanted to know where I ended up, because I figured I probably made it into the top 10 for my class, based on last year's times, which I had looked up last night. I went over to the UNofficial results list (UN is emphasized for, well... emphasis). I found my name on the list - 58th place.... and 3rd in my class! I had to look at it a couple times to make sure that it really said I was 3rd.

I bummed a cell phone from someone and called Stephanie to let her know I wasn't going to be running home right away (she decided to drive over with Ben and pick me up). It took a while, but they finally did the awards - Ben met Max, and had fun running around for a while. When they got to M 30-34, I was surprised to hear someone else's name as 3rd place (and 2nd and 1st). I figured I read it wrong and went over to the results board again - on the unofficial results, it still said I was #3. I figured there was a timing snafu of some kind, or maybe the list was made before someone else had finished. After thinking I'd get one, I really kind of wanted one of those wooden fish even though it never crossed my mind before or during the race. Although I was a little disappointed, I still did better than my goal and came home with a new (non HS) PR.

Checking the unOfficial results online, it looks like the #2 person in my class must have been misclassified originally or something. Still 58th overall, 53rd male, and 4th in my class (but 1 second away from 5th).

It was a good race. Maybe next year I'll do it again, and actually catch a fish.

Addiction

2008-05-09T03:19:43Z

So this is where the addiction comes in. I'm already wondering about my next Marathon. What I want to do, what I'd do different... or the same. It's going to be a while before I run another one (I say that now, but...) - going to take it somewhat easy for a little while. New baby is due in just 10 very short weeks - we will see what kind of running schedule I can keep after that. It will probably entail a lot of running after and away from "the toddler" to keep him entertained.

Still, its in my brain... munching away up there like some kind of parasite.

"I can probably do that better." or "I'd like to do this other one sometime, too." That's really what it all comes down to.

Boston Report

2008-05-05T05:12:10Z

At long last, a race report from Boston. I began typing everything, but realized I was boring even myself. I decided to pare it down a bit, but its still pretty long. If you aren't in for the entire story, then the short version is: I ended up running the Marathon pretty much exactly the way they tell you not to, but I still had a great time and it was a great race. I finished in 3:32:44.

If you are in for the whole thing, click below...

Goals:

1) Enjoy the experience
2) Run the whole way

Packing:

This is the first race I've ever done "away from home".. meaning the first time I did not have the luxury of throwing all my stuff in the car in the morning and driving to the start. Planning what to bring was almost as much work as the race itself, and it certainly took longer. To keep myself sane, I took this picture before putting all my stuff into a bag and leaving Austin:

I only referred to the picture once (ok, maybe twice), but just having the picture available was helpful for peace of mind. I took it so that I did not need to pull open my carefully packed bag to figure out if I needed an emergency trip to wherever I might need to go to get a new one of that thing I forgot.

Getting from the hotel to the start:

We stayed at a hotel in Milford, about 4 miles from the start. On arrival, they told us there was a $10 shuttle to one of the parking areas, where I could take the normal shuttle to the start. Since it would mean a slightly more relaxing start to the morning for Stephanie and Ben, I decided to sign up for the 7AM shuttle.

At 7 on race day, it seems that the 7AM shuttle guy called in sick or something, and the Hotel's front desk manager (Kristine) ended up taking the other runner who signed up for 7AM and myself in her car. Not knowing the logistics of where the race actually started or anything, Kristine just drove straight up route 85 from the hotel, headed for the state park. I figured that there was no way we'd get very far before someone made us turn around. We had buses full of runners in front of us and behind us, and I just hoped that we'd get far enough up the road to walk the rest of the way comfortably. As it turns out, we were there before the roads closed in Hopkinton, so we followed the buses right into the high school parking lot and Kristine dropped us off right where the buses were going. Yay for Kristine! I am told that the later shuttles never arrived either, and she was still carting people in her own car as late as 8:30 AM.

At the Athlete's Village:

I decided that instead of walking around and seeing whatever there was to see, I would plant myself in one spot for a while. I found a nice place to sit, up against a tent post overlooking some port-a-potties in the athlete's village. I inflated one of my 2-pack of kids' floaty pool tube things (Big! Lots - $2), and settled in for a while. Here I am, in one of the thumbnails from the MarathonFoto site. They have bigger pictures available but there's a "PROOF" watermark with a copyright, so I figured I'd just post the little ones.

The red shirt and warmup pants seen here were rented from Goodwill just for this photo op.

It was foggy, and very cold. Despite the relatively warm clothing I had on, I was still a bit shivery. A guy near me was wearing a long-sleeved T, shorts, and plenty of goosebumps. I gave him a rain poncho I wasn't going to be using to help him keep his legs warm. I also donated my inflatable tube thingy to him when I was done with it (having forgotten that I had two of them). I chatted with some other people in the area, drank water, ate, and basically just waited. At about 8:45, I stood in line for a while and took one last potty break.

At around 9:15, they asked for my group of numbers to head over to the start. The weather was still foggy, but it had warmed up to the point where I decided to lose the long pants. I tossed them in one of the donation bags, grabbed my sunglasses (just in case... ended up using them the entire race) and handed my big red bag o' junk to someone in a school bus. Then I headed towards the starting line.

I was in Corral 5, which was maybe 200 yards from the start, and situated right in front of Bill's Pizza. Coincidence? Probably. It wasn't long before the corrals were all full of runners. They started the wheelchairs first, then the elite women at about 9:40. Shortly after that, the sun came out from behind the clouds. This is about the time I realized I was actually about to run the Boston Marathon. I am not sure if it was the sun or that realization, but it suddenly felt a lot warmer out. I decided to get rid of the outer shirt layer, but keep the hat and gloves.

At about 5 minutes before the start, I really had to pee. There was no escape back to the bathrooms at this point - we'd already started to pack in tighter for the start. I decided I'd just find a port-a-potty on the course as soon as I could and take care of it there, despite whatever wait there might be.

Then, the race started. Everyone cheered, and there was a little more compression, but nobody really moved for about 30 seconds. Once we did start moving, we were just inch-worming along like Mopac in the morning. People would go from a dead stop to a feeble jog, to a sprint, and back to a dead stop. It wasn't until we crossed the start line that we really managed to go. I waved at the TV cameras like a dork when I passed them - my Mom said she would be watching (she didn't see me).

First Mile:

About 5 minutes into the race, I gave up on goal #2. Really, I had given up before the race started, but here's where I actually ended up stopping for the first time. Several (hundred) other runners were taking advantage of a wooded area off to the right side of the course. I followed suit, and took a nice long bathroom break, then got back on the road to continue running. I was taking it easy - runners were passing me slowly on both sides. I wanted to be going in the 7:30-8:00 / mile range for this part of the course. When I hit the first mile marker, and my watch said 8:04, I nearly needed another bathroom break. With the minute or so I had just taken for myself, that meant I was going *way* too fast, and I needed to slow down.

Miles 2-7:

This part of the race was basically me trying to slow down, and very slowly succeeding. I still have no idea how fast I actually went during that first mile, but the next 6 were 6:57 (ACK!) 7:06, 7:12, 7:24, 7:24, and 7:20. I am glad I decided to wear my watch, because I felt like I was creeping along through these miles. All the people passing me probably contributed to that. One of the people who went on by had a sign on his back reading "< 3:00 = Sex every day for 2 weeks". I hoped this was a goal, and not an offer. I ditched my gloves around the 2nd mile, and my hat at mile 4. It was a bit warmer than I had expected, but still nice running weather.

The picture below was probably taken somewhere in that part of the course (but not while I was peeing in the woods):

Meanwhile, just past the 1/2 marker, my smallest fan and the monkey on his back are waiting patiently:

Miles 8-16:

I finally settled into the pace I wanted to run. Around the mile 11 marker, a spectator was shouting "Nobody walks mile 11!" and someone's grandmother (perhaps that guy's) was handing out what appeared to be tissue. Since my nose started running at the beginning of the race and hadn't stopped, I gladly accepted one. I found that it was actually a bonus - not tissues, but baby wipes! Just past the mile 12 marker, I could hear the girls at Wellesley College screaming up ahead, though "up ahead" was still a ways off. When I got there, I was on the right side of the road, but quickly moved to the other side, as some of the guys were stopping to kiss girls on their way by. I decided I didn't want to end up a casualty of running into one of them.

I knew that Stephanie and Ben were meeting up with some friends of ours (Man Ching + Anne, and their son, Simon) somewhere near mile 14 on the left-hand side, so once I got over there, I stayed over there. Just after the 1/2 marker, I heard someone near me yell "Go Bill!" and saw Man Ching and Anne. It caught me a little off-guard, as I was expecting to see them a little later. I managed to also catch a glimpse of Stephanie as I was running by, but didn't see Ben or Simon. I think I caught them a little by surprise as well. They didn't manage to get any pictures as I went by, but they did take a few excellent pictures of the leaders and Team Hoyt:

Elite Women

Elite Men

Team Hoyt

I found another small cheering section at mile 16, in the form of Deb and Jorge (Deb was one of Stephanie's neighbors growing up). She jumped out into the road in front of me and yelled my name.. I probably wouldn't have seen her otherwise.

Within the next mile was Stephanie's brother and his family, but I didn't see them, and they didn't see me. But they had a camera running on and off, and actually caught me very briefly on tape.

Splits = 7:32, 7:35, 7:44, 7:44, 7:41, 7:38, 7:36, 7:59, 7:41

Mile 17-21:

Those hills that you hear so much about? They are in this section. There's four of them, and for me, the first one was the worst. Just after a long, steep downhill in mile 16, there's a long uphill for about 3/4 of a mile. Running up this first hill was the hardest physical part of the race for me, even though my splits would say otherwise. The entire time going up this hill, my quads were threatening to cramp up on me. I'm familiar with those threats from the previous two Marathons, though normally it starts with my calves. At the top of the hill, I resigned to dial my effort back a little bit more. With 9 miles left, I wanted to still enjoy the rest of the race - and I figured at this point I could still give myself a waiver on that first stop. It had been an emergency, after all. The hills in miles 18 and 20 felt steeper, but much shorter than the first one. I had the crampy feeling going up those ones as well, but on the downhills afterwards, my legs would just loosen up again, and feel fine.

This picture is likely to be from somewhere like the 30k marker:

The last hill (Heartbreak Hill) in Mile 21 was also steeper, but not so short. It is one of those hills that looks like it is about to crest, but just keeps slowly getting closer to level while still climbing. I wasn't really even sure I'd made it to the top until I saw someone with a sign that said "Heartbreak Hill" with an arrow underneath, pointing back the direction I had just come from.

I should take a break to mention here that at about mile 18, the already large crowds became enormous. Going up Heartbreak Hill, and for pretty much the entire course after that. I am sure people were yelling that the last hill was all done, but there were so many voices that only the sign got through.

Back to the running - I didn't feel as bad going up the last hill as I had on the first one, but I wasn't pushing anything at this point. Despite that, reaching the top was an enormous relief. My quads were still making threats, and now my calves were too. Because the downhills had been loosening that all up each time, and the rest of the course is pretty much flat or downhill, I figured the rest was just going to be about keeping myself running until the end.

Splits = 8:18, 8:23, 8:20, 8:52, 9:04

Mile 22:

Mile 22 was awesome. My legs loosened up, I had settled into a nice comfortable pace, and everything was feeling good again. Split = 8:34.

Miles 23-25:

There was a bit of a steep downhill just past the mile 22 marker. About the time I started on this little downhill, my left calf seized up on me. I hadn't actually experienced a full-blown cramp during the previous two Marathons, but this one stopped me. I hopped off to the side of the road on my right leg, and did my best to work it out. It didn't take too long before I was back on the road again running, but goal #2 was definitely a done deal now. But I really didn't care that much.. I was out there to enjoy this thing, and really, I still was enjoying it, and I knew I was going to finish, even if it meant a few more incidents like that one.

I ran again at a reasonably easy pace, though I can't really say it was comfortable past that point. I kept getting the feeling in both of my legs that I was on the verge of another cramp, and ended up walking through a couple of the water stops in miles 24 and 25, stopping one more time to stretch out and massage my calf. The spectators were very supportive. When I was walking, I got a lot of "Keep Going Team Baraka"s from the people I passed. Of course, they were supportive when I was running too, but the text on the shirt is obviously too small. I got a lot of "Go Team Barak Obama!", at least one "Go Team Broken!" and a "Go..." squinting "Go Red!".

Splits: 10:09, 8:55, 10:10

Last 1.2:

After the mile 25 sign, (I presume at mile 25.2), there was an official-looking "1 Mile to Go" sign. I had mixed feelings about that. I very much wanted it to be over and to stop running, but I was still soaking it all in and enjoying the ride. I decided that with only a mile left, I'd just keep going and ignore the warnings from my legs. But my legs don't like to be ignored. Somewhere in the middle of that mile, there was an underpass - really just a divot in the road. Once again, the downhill part of this divot caught me. My left leg seized up on me, and I got in one hop on my right leg before it did the same thing, and I just stopped dead in my tracks. I was right next to the concrete wall of the underpass, and found it to be a very convenient place to stretch. My legs loosened up again pretty quick, and I started running again.

On the last little jog over to Boylston and all the way down Boylston to the finish, the crowd was pure insanity. It was so loud I thought my ears might be ringing later on (but they weren't). All that energy from the spectators made me totally forget about anything other than crossing the finish line. That last stretch to the finish is pretty long, but it was awesome. I never saw the 26 mile marker (if there even was one), but I was so overwhelmed by the crowds that it hardly mattered. I threw my hands in the air and crossed the finish line at 3:32:44. Split for the last 1.2 = 11:22 (9:28/mile).

Afterwards:

Damn they make you walk a long way at the end. It took about 45 minutes to get through all the post-finish stuff, and it was mainly because of the sea of people clad in silver capes in front of me. And after getting my stuff and meeting up with Stephanie, Ben, Man Ching, Anne, and Simon, we did a lot more walking to get to a T station. I was either standing or walking for about 1.5 hours after the race, until finally, I planted my butt on a red line train, sitting down for the first time in about 6 hours. But I think that was actually a really good thing. I recovered very quickly from this race. The previous two Marathons saw me hobbling around for days afterwards. This time, I was pretty sore for a couple days, but still able to walk at a normal pace and go both up and down stairs in a forward-facing direction.

And that's pretty much it. I left out the part about the guy in the pink dress with the wand, the Red Sox vs. Texas scoreboards, the Dana Farber challenge runners, the army runners in full gear, the car dealer's mirrored windows, the barbecues, the drunken BU frat boys, the little kids wanting high-fives, the people hanging from windows with all kinds of sheets and stuff.. and a million other little things. But I doubt I will forget them even if they aren't all written down here. It was a great day, and I managed to keep Goal #1.

Two awesome things happened today

2008-04-21T22:07:20Z

1) Someone gave me a medal that says I traveled from Hopkinton to Boston on foot, with 25-someodd thousand other people. More on this when I have time to write a report and post it.

2) The mystery of the toe blood has finally been solved. As it turns out, it is from blisters underneath callouses. Sneaky little buggers.

Ok.. that's it for the moment.

Everything's Official

2008-04-19T16:09:43Z

We're officially here. I've officially got an official paper number to pin to my (official) chest. I officially bought the official jacket at the official expo. And yesterday, while driving West on the Mass Pike, I officially go my first real taste of race nerves. When we were passing the Framingham exit, after driving for what seemed like a long time at 70 miles per hour, I realized we were not too far past the halfway point, and 26 miles is officially a long way to run. That little bout of nervousness has since turned back into excitement, but I am sure its a taste of what is still to come. I did my last official last training run this morning, and I'm officially ready to go!

Perspective

2008-04-14T04:58:10Z

Twelve years ago, I lived and went to school in Massachusetts. I also worked for a subsidiary of IBM which was responsible for the maintenance and repair of their army of tan cash registers with triangular blue buttons. I used to drive all over the Eastern half of the state fixing these cash registers when I wasn't in class or asleep. It was actually a decent job, as boring as I just made it sound. Anyway, while much of Massachusetts has Patriot's Day off, places like CVS and Star Market do not, which means neither did I. At least for the morning - my classes were in the afternoon on Mondays.

I remember that day being strange. Driving East on I-90 to get to one of the first CVS stops, there weren't all that many people on the road. But I noticed that about half the Westbound traffic consisted of a long line of buses. I remember thinking to myself "What in the hell are all these buses for?"

I did my work and moved from one store to the next.. gradually forgetting all about the buses. Getting to the last stop of the day required an unexpected detour - the road I intended to take was closed. But I managed to get there after consulting my book of maps. Normally these little drug stores were pretty busy this close to noon, but not this time. I remember thinking that it was probably because they had that main road closed off and it was more difficult to get here. At this particular store, the staff were all gathered around watching a small TV that had been set up on part of the counter. Normally they would have been lounging around behind me, waiting patiently (or not) for their register to get fixed.

At one point the manager came over and asked me how it was coming along. I said I was almost done and asked him what everyone was watching. He said that the Marathon was about to start, and I was welcome to come over and watch with them if I had a spare moment. In fact, if I was up for a walk I could head "that way" about half a mile to some road (I don't remember where "that way" was, or the road's name for that matter) to see the runners... they'd probably be starting to come by in the next half hour or so.

My response was something along the lines of: "Oh, thanks... but I have to get back to Worcester for a class."

Really, I wanted to get back to my apartment and take a nice nap for a couple hours before my first class. My normal Monday routine at that time was roughly: 1. Go to bed at 4AM. 2. Wake up at 7, shower, and work for about 4 hours, hoping the last stop was somewhere near home. 3. Get home as fast as possible. 4. Take a nap (this was the most important nap of the day). 5. Eat some ramen and head to class. 6. Come back and take another nap. 7. Go to Big D with my roommate to get some ingredients for dinner. 8. Do a combination of homework, TV watching, and goofing around until 4 on Tuesday morning.

Twelve years ago, I was an ex runner who couldn't understand why anyone would want to subject themselves to something like a Marathon. It wasn't even until last year that I put two and two together and figured out what all those buses were for.

I'm sure my nap was excellent that day, but I find it amusing how much my perspective on things has changed.

Oh yeah..

2008-04-09T02:36:26Z

And I have decided I am not sick, it is just all the green crap falling off the trees that is doing this to me.

TV's influence upon an impressionable me

2008-04-09T02:34:50Z

Every time I see a motorcycle with a sidecar in real life, I fully expect it to tip over when it turns.

Second to last of the longer runs

2008-04-07T03:27:23Z

I'm not counting next weekend's 8 miles, but I am counting the longer run I have planned for the 21st.

Today, I ran with Glen. Glen was another member of Gundi's training group this year who is also headed to Boston, and we're about the same speed (though his Boston goals are slightly more ambitious than mine). We started at Barton Springs pool this morning for a few reasons:

1) It is close to the trail + water-supported running. Since neither of us wanted to go through the trouble of depositing water bottles all around town, this was a good idea.

2) It seems like a good place to meet, which I discovered on my run with whyiron a couple weeks ago. Oddly enough (or maybe not so oddly), I saw him (whyiron) at the Mopac water stop in the middle of the run today.

3) I've heard rumors that there are gorgeous naked women all over the place in the early morning hours, and they'll let you take pictures of them. Unfortunately, it must have been too chilly this morning for them to show up. I forgot my camera anyway.

We ran an 18-mile run that was a combination of some hills (first ~8 miles around on Scenic and Pecos), and some not hills (last ~10 miles around the damn dam loop). It was a good run, and it was once again good to have someone to talk to. I think Glen is starting in the corral behind me at Boston, and his plans are to go slightly faster than what I am thinking, so we're going to keep an eye out for one another and maybe run a few miles together if we connect up.

Also today - I think I am getting sick. I haven't been sick in a long time, and kind of forgot what it feels like. Basically I have a sore throat. I think that's the beginning. But I mowed the lawn yesterday and was breathing all kinds of nasty dust - that could be part of it. I'll tell myself that, but drink even more water, just in case.

Good day for a run

2008-04-04T03:09:26Z

Not in the traditional sense of "hey the weather is nice out".. as far as that goes, it was actually a bit on the humid side. But the weight of work and other things was on my shoulders today, and heading out for a run at lunch ended up being a good break from it all.

As I was headed out the door, I (figuratively) ran into Agustin, who was also on his way to run. His plan was an easy 4 miles.. mine was an easy 4-5. I convinced him that we could run together and just do 4 miles. Then, I convinced him to go the opposite direction from where he was headed, and we'd just turn around at 2. Then... we decided to keep going on the route, and we ended up running about 5 miles at a pace he later admitted was "a little faster than I was going to run.. but good." Hopefully his coach doesn't get too angry with me for messing with the workout schedule.

We ran a loop that Mandy and I have gone on a few times in the last month. It includes part of town lake, part of shoal creek, some trails, some pavement, some flat, some hills, some forest, some city, some highway... a little bit of everything, really. The only problem with the run today was that Mandy is normally the navigator, and I don't pay enough attention to my surroundings. It could have been worse - I only made a couple wrong turns which were identified very quickly, and as effendi pointed out a few days ago, "wrong turns = more training". In this case, I think we got about 40 feet or so of extra training.

Music

2008-04-02T04:19:11Z

So to make it 4 in a row, I'll post about a random topic that is almost related to running.

A post on teambaraka's journal a few days ago got me thinking about music (while running.. see I told you it was related). I don't wear any kind of music player when I run, but I always have something bopping around in my head if I am out there on my own. It is usually the last thing I listened to before that particular run, even if it was hours or days ago. Sometimes it is a song I am making up as I go along. Since August, about the only thing I have been listening to in my car is a band called Pinback. And so it follows that pretty much the only music in my head while I have been running for the past 8+ months has been Pinback. I can't say that it is particularly well-suited to running.. some of it is.. others stuff maybe not so much. I had "Good to Sea" and "Walters" from their latest album stuck in my head during most of Austin - here is where the running-related stuff ends.

Their music manages to hit the right nerve with me, and I find myself singing along, even when I don't actually know what the words are. This is one of those bands I kind of wish more people knew about (and also kind of don't). A small part of the attraction, admittedly, is that they are just two geeks in the basement with a computer, a microphone, and some musical instruments. It would be a shame to ruin that. Most of my obsession with them though, is that they make really good music. They have these interesting vocal harmonies in nearly every song that are strangely compelling, and the rest of the instrumental parts all just kind of "fit" and work together. Anyway, since I'm out here kind of pimping them... there's a few samples on their myspace page if anyone is interested in taking a listen: Pinback's Myspace Page

3 in a row...

2008-04-01T03:27:51Z

...and 3 weeks to go. I don't think I've posted three days in a row in pretty much forever. I don't really have much to say.. I just decided I'd post because I was kind of on a streak. Maybe I will post something random tomorrow too. Who knows. It got muggy out. My run in the dark tonight was a bit too warm and humid. But it sounds like that won't last too long.

And a quick Chris update for anyone who read all about him in Saturday's post and were on the edge of your seat... His foot is broken. =(

Last but not least, thanks trichelle and teambaraka for calming my transportation nerves a bit. I will find something else to obsess about by Thursday.

Boston Nerves

2008-03-30T14:07:12Z

Hmmm.. well I am not nervous about running the race (YET), but I received the instructional booklet the other day, and read it cover to cover (I didn't realize it, but it is also online on their web site). There are some things written in the book which are now causing me a little concern about getting to the start.

The grand plan is that we are staying near Hopkinton the night before, and Stephanie is going to drop me off wherever I can be dropped off to shuttle/walk/crawl to the start. They seem to have shuttles running from a couple areas near Hopkinton, starting at 6AM, but they also say the following things in the transportation instructions:

"The only guaranteed way to get to the start in Hopkinton on race morning is by using the official B.A.A. buses between 6:00 and 7:30 a.m. Bus loading will take place at the Tremont St. side of Boston Common in Boston’s Back Bay area." etc.

and

"We STRONGLY recommend that all entrants take the official B.A.A. buses from Boston to Hopkinton on race morning, as it is the only way we can ensure that you will get into Hopkinton."

Grrr...

Le Tour de Friends

2008-03-30T03:48:28Z

That's what I am naming today's 16 miler that turned out to be a 16.5-miler. The "d" is silent, of course.

I took a cue from a friend, and decided to plot a run to go past various friends' residences. All-in-all, I managed to hit 9 of them if you count a house someone is in the process of buying. In order (and excluding neighbors on my street who are also technically friends), I went past Tabi, Parker, Jeff, Chris, Preston, the future Casa G, Ken, Brent, and Kim & Eric. I think If I had planned better, I might have been able to get two others on the list too.

The run was pretty good, though faster than I should have been running. I took a couple breaks to refill water, and one bathroom break at about the 3 mile mark at Dick Nichols park. I also some wrong turns along the way. The first one was near Chris' house. I was on some road that I hadn't run on before, and just completely missed the sign for the road I needed to be on. I didn't realize it until I was almost at Brodie (which I knew wasn't part of my plan).. and had to backtrack a bit.

Yesterday I had warned Chris and Brent that I might be using their faucets as water refill stations. On these solo long runs, I have been carrying a little 8-oz bottle around with me and refilling it whenever I get the chance. At Chris' house, I found that he had left some small water bottles near the hose, one labeled "Beel". I refilled from the Beel bottle, and left the other one. As I told him, I felt a little like Santa Claus, only with water instead of Milk and cookies. And I didn't have any presents to leave for him, except for an empty bottle with "Beel" written on the side. Unbeknown-st to me at the time, Chris was out running with the Rogue group on Shoal creek, and managed to damage his foot in a pothole. =-p There will be x-rays later on this week, but it doesn't sound good. I hope it is a simple, quick-healing thing that feels worse than it is.

As I had just passed Slaughter and Escarpment, someone honked and was waving at me, but I couldn't completely see who it was in the car. I waved back - fairly certain it was Mandy, but I couldn't tell for sure. I had to get email confirmation to find that it was indeed her and her daughter. Although I wasn't going past her house, I am counting that as a 1/2, to bring my total up a little.

Anyway, after the chance encounter, I made my way to the second and most difficult hill stage (of three), which was between Ken's and Brent's. I knew that area was hilly, but didn't realize how hilly until I was out there running it. Mapping it out after the fact shows that there's about 100 feet of elevation gain in just over 1/2 mile on the toughest hill. Surprisingly, it felt really good. I felt very strong today.

After that, I managed the second wrong turn of the day. I am so accustomed to turning left at a certain intersection that I forgot to turn right at that same place today, which would have put me on a loop to get another mile in before coming back to the same place. It wasn't until 2 miles later that I realized my mistake (because I was pretty sure I hadn't just run 3 miles in under 16 minutes). So, I ended up altering the plan again, taking an intentional wrong turn, and running a little bit of extra to try to make up for it. Of course I had forgotten about the earlier detour, and when all was said and done, I had 16.5 miles instead of 16. Some of that Rogue math must be rubbing off on me.

Incoherent rambling about new shoes...

2008-03-28T01:42:11Z

I always feel a little bit apprehensive when I start on a new pair of shoes. I started in on a new pair on Tuesday.. ran in them today too. I've ended up buying basically the same shoe now for the last seven pairs. Really, its been four different versions of the same shoe, but at least the most recent two are pretty similar. I have no idea where this apprehension comes from, but so far, so good.

I think I still need to move my superfeet into these new ones though, as much as I would prefer not to. The one consistent problem I have had with this particular series of shoes is that as-is, they push on my ankle bones in a weird way. I actually don't notice it when I am running, but when I am walking around, it is annoying. I think maybe because I end up running more on the balls of my feet and when I walk I am putting weight on the heel.. or something. In any case, the superfeet lift me up a little and keep my ankles in a better place, and i'm more comfortable.

I would *really* prefer to use the shoes as-is though. Sooner or later (probably sooner) I'm going to have to replace the insoles too, and that adds a chunk of change to the equipment budget. Maybe 300 miles from now, I will just have to go on a tedious hunt for a better shoe.

Good Run, Good Company

2008-03-24T03:56:32Z

I had some company for my run today, in the form of whyiron. This was actually the first time I've met him in person. Earlier this week, teambaraka suggested that the two of us see if we could coordinate our runs. After a series of emails, we managed to arrive at the same place at the same time (the place being Barton Springs Pool, time being 7:30). Actually, he was there earlier than I was, since he needed 1/2 hour more in his run today than I did. Then, he was going for a swim. And here I thought training for a Marathon required a lot of time.

From Barton Springs, we went... elsewhere. Honestly, I am not sure where we ran for a good portion of the first 5-6 miles. I was sort of along for the ride, but it was a good run, good company, and a nice change of scenery.

We started on the trail, made our way around to Mopac.. went onto Stratford, and then took off into the woods, which is where it gets a little hazy. I was reminded of running cross country in high school (in a good way). It was very rocky and hilly. If there had been any recent rains, it would have probably been pretty wet too. At points, it seemed like we might need to break out the rock climbing gear, but it never came to that.

We popped out at a neat little area that had a nice view of the city, and then we ran around in Rollingwood for a while, which was also a first for me. Eventually, we made our way back to familiar territory at Stratford, and did a loop on Exposition, Enfield and Lake Austin before heading back to the pool again.

All in all, we ran and chatted for a little over 1.5 hours, and it was a good time. I don't know how far we went, but it doesn't really matter. On the last Mopac bridge crossing, there was another unexpected livejournalist meeting - we ran into itrithere4iam, and Jess? - I think. I am pretty bad with names the first couple times I meet people, but it was good to meet nonetheless.

As I told whyiron towards the end of the run, it was a little strange running with someone who has basically the same running cadence that I do. That rarely happens to me, even in a race. But the two of us seem to be built the same way - we're about the same height, and we both have legs that reach the ground at the point where they end in feet. We spent most of the run in lock-step with one another. It was kind of like having a metronome along for the run.

Random

2008-03-18T01:56:43Z

We went to lunch at Austin Java today, and Steve Buscemi was there. Or it could have been his identical twin. Either way, the guy didn't look too happy. I guess I'd be a little bummed too if I'd been a great, key actor in so many movies, yet most people still remembered me as "that funny looking guy who got stuck in the wood chipper in Fargo".

14+ today..

2008-03-16T04:20:04Z

I'm not really sure how far I ran today - I will have to map it out. It was at least 14, probably closer to 15. I ended up taking a couple wrong turns, because I decided to go in a different direction than what I usually do, and was unfamiliar with the roads. Regardless, it was a good run.

On part of the run, I went around the little trail I am tentatively calling the "Costco loop".. anyone who lives southward along Mopac probably knows what I am talking about. It is actually a really neat little trail, except where it goes along William Cannon (there's not much shade on that side, and the entrances to the shopping area are there as well), but that part is relatively short. I'm waiting for that Chuy's to show up.. they had a sign that said they are hiring starting March 17th.. after hiring and training people.. maybe that means there will be a Chuy's there within the next month or so? That would be cool.

I also did a lot of thinking on this run about whether I should wear my watch at Boston or not. I still don't know if I am going to bring it. I don't have a real time goal, though I anticipate I will probably run something like an 8/mile average pace.

On the one hand, I don't want to be obsessing over my mile splits the entire race - I'd rather just run. But if I put a watch on my wrist, the chances are pretty high that I am going to be looking at it. Maybe I'd be able to go into "long run mode" and just start it at the start and stop it at the stop, but I bet I'd probably want to hit that split button a couple (or 26) times.

On the other hand, if I don't have a watch on, I am going to be a pain to the people around me at the start, asking what time it is. And I also won't have much idea of what speed I am running during the race. I don't want to get caught up in a bunch of faster runners at the start of the race and run with them because it feels ok, just to run out of steam at mile 16 because I didn't pace myself.

I realize that proposing the idea of running a race without a watch on would be considered sacrilege to most runners... but I'm doing it anyway. Does anyone reading this have an opinion on the subject?

Nothing to say, really...

2008-03-13T03:38:30Z

I haven't posted in a while, mainly because the I2I (Interesting to Inane) ratio of the things I would post about lately has been even lower than my already painfully low threshold.

But hey.. there's been enough time to reach some kind of critical mass, and here I am.

I'm back in the swing of things.. doing a few runs a week. My long run this weekend was 12 miles, which turned out to be surprisingly difficult. I am not sure what was going on - perhaps I just chose a path that was too hilly, or maybe I am still feeling the aftereffects of the Marathon (last weekend's 10 miles was no problem, though). In any case, the most interesting part of the run is that the mysterious toe blood is back. I don't get it. There's really no rhyme or reason to it. It is one of those enigmas wrapped up in riddles with a bit of conundrum thrown in for flavor. Whatever.

The other thing that I find much more interesting than anyone reading this would is that Boston is really close. Like 5.5 weeks away close. That is messing with my head a little bit. I feel like I should be training more or something, but I'm sticking with my plan. It was blessed by people who know better than I, and so I'm going to stay on target.

Also, I have established my first goal for Boston, which I am basically just carrying forward from Austin - that is to run every step of the way. No walking, and no stopping. I will forgive myself for doing either of these things only if circumstances force me (like a bottleneck on a corner or at a water station).

Back Home Again

2008-03-01T15:50:55Z

I was in Germany for work last week - I am glad to finally be home. I had grand plans to run at least twice while I was there, and I brought all my running gear with me. Technically, I ran a few times, but really only one of those was a planned run. I went running through a forest near our hotel the first morning we were there - that's basically what I was reporting in the last post, though quite a lot of it was lost in the babelfish translation (I speaketh not the German).

My travel plans changed midway through the trip, so I was unable to go on any other planned runs.. but the other couple times I ran could be considered short sprint workouts. On Thursday, I had the opportunity to sprint through a train station in Aachen to try to catch a train that was leaving in 2 minutes (I made it). And then yesterday, I got to sprint through the Dallas airport to catch my connecting flight to Austin (after being delayed by immigration, customs, and security for over 1.5 hours). We made it to the gate with about 3 minutes to spare, but they had already given our seats away. The next flight was only an hour later, so we made it back at a reasonable hour anyway.

Laufen innerhalb des Waldes

2008-02-26T00:09:35Z

Ich tat meinen ersten Durchlauf auf Deutsch heute. Er ist sehr viel wie das Laufen, in englisches, aber für mich, zum stark persönlich zu verstehen. Ich nicht wirklich spreche Deutschen, den ich war das größte Teil des Problems denke (diese Anzeige wurde mit Babelfish übersetzt, falls Sie sich wunderten).

Ich lief mit einem Freund/einem Mitarbeiter, der auch auf dieser Reise mit mir zu Nuremburg ist, und wir stiegen weg in diesen interessanten wenig Waldbereich mit einer Enge, Einweg Straße ein. Bei einem Punkt gab es ein loggencLkw-Lager unten auf uns, und wir verbrachten einige Zeit im Abzugsgraben und paßten ihn auf, durchführen eine interessante Dreipunkt Umdrehung. Es war Spaß und ich fühlte lebhafter als Durchlauf Freitags.

Ok.. a real race report..

2008-02-23T06:57:30Z

I went for my first post-Marathon run this morning. It felt great for the first 1/2 mile, then it became a mild reminder of Sunday. But it was good to get out and run again. I think I clocked in at just under 2.5 miles.

At any rate, I ended up finally writing out a more detailed race report, which turns out to be more of a thank-you note to a bunch of people than an actual report on my race. But it can be found behind the cut, if anyone other than me is interested in it.

At Home

I woke up suddenly and looked over at the clock. 3AM... damn. I slept well – at least a lot better than I anticipated – but I REALLY wanted that last hour, too. I closed my eyes and willed myself back to sleep. It wasn't working. I looked over at the clock again. 3:09, no.. it changed to 3:10. I stared at that number for a while, and then closed my eyes again. “Just try to relax,” I told myself, “breathe. The alarm will wake you at 4 when it goes off.” 3:23. 3:37. Suddenly, the room was filled with the calming sound of an artificial waterfall. Only not so calming – I turned the volume all the way up to “Niagara” to make certain it would wake me up. It was 4AM, and I guess I must have actually drifted back to sleep there. Thank you to my wife Stephanie, for putting up with various forms of this insanity for 6 months. Time to move. Eat. As the toaster was doing its job, I obsessively checked the weather one last time before calling Chris. Oops! He sent me a text...

Chris: Morning Bill! Awake and excited?
Bill: I am alive
Chris: Whoo!

Our foolproof insurance method worked again. Basically, I would call him by about 4:15, and if he didn't hear from me, he'd call me by 4:30, and that would make sure we both get to the race on time. If calls fail, then driving over and knocking on doors, breaking windows, etc. was the next order of business. It isn't until typing this out that I wonder.. “What if we both slept late?”

At any rate, I force-fed myself my peanut-buttered bagel, went to give Stephanie a kiss, because she was still awake, and then I got dressed. The usual: Rogue tee, shorts, and my trusty Motive socks. Over that, an old jean shirt and a pair of old pajama pants. Thank you to Stuart, for teaching me how to dress for the occasion.

Getting There

Chris picked me up at 4:55 – this felt like Deja Vu. A repeat of last year. On the ride there, I really wasn't feeling anything. Not nervous or excited. It was just another car ride until I see the barriers blocking off the Cesar Chavez exit. Then it hits me all at once – today is it!

Downtown, we dodged around some barriers, because the desired parking garage happens to be at mile 6 of the course, and they had it all blocked off. Inside the barriers we drove over a curb, just to say we had to drive over a curb, too. We hit the parking garage at 5:23 AM, and headed to the lobby. Working a few blocks from the starting line has its perks. Thank you to Chris, for the transportation and the company.

Some of the self-titled “B-Team” met us in the lobby to avoid the long lines at the port-o-potties and the still chilly morning. I'm not actually part of the B-Team, but they tolerate my presence anyhow. I put my other stuff together – hat, gloves.. wondering why do I have so many water bottles with me? For that matter, why do I have 7 gels? I guess I brought extra, just in case. One water is finished, one in each pocket, another one is donated for the common good. 4 gels in my pouch, 1 in my denim shirt pocket, and two more in my hat. It is off to the Rogue tent for our warm-up! Gundi must have meant 6AM when he said it.. we saw the rest of the group run by on our way over there at 6:03. Change of plans – drop off clothing first, then warm up.

After the short warm-up, the group gathered near the tent. Everyone is here. Mandy pointed out the little water bottle I was nursing, and said “I should have brought one of those!” That was my cue - I handed her the spare bottle from my pocket. I knew I had a reason for bringing the extra. Thanks to Mandy for countless hours of keeping me company (listening to me babble) over 6 months of weekend long runs, and plenty of runs in-between.

The Start

At t minus 10 minutes, I retrieved the gel from my shirt pocket and ate it. Then, I decided that the pajama pants had to go. Gundi was over on the side, so I handed them over the fence to him. And what seemed like seconds later, the race was beginning. There was the “runners to your mark” and then a huge BOOM! From some cannon or something, and a host of fireworks on either side of the bridge. I was over the start line in under 20 seconds. Compared to last year's start, that was amazingly fast. I don't think I was quite prepared for it to happen that quick, but there we were, and the start line began to fade behind us. Somewhere on the hill, I glanced at my watch – 8:16?!? I planned on heading out slow, but more like 7:30. I had just missed the first mile marker, but it took a couple of slightly panicked seconds to realize that. I had been secretly dreading the hills at the start of the race. I tossed my shirt somewhere on the way up, and chatted a little bit with Glen.. almost lost my water bottle near Oltorf. Before I knew it, that part of the race was history, and we were turning to head back down the hill on 1st.

Miles 3-6

The main thing I remember from this portion of the race is a blur of spectators. There were so many people out there cheering. Amy was out there, somewhere on the downhill, and the crowds just kept getting thicker as we crossed over the bridge. I forced myself to take the first of my hat gels between mile 4 and 5, as planned. Somewhere on the hill, I realized Glen and Dave were there, so we talked a bit – might as well, while we still can. At this point, there were probably still at least fifty people in the pack of runners surrounding the 3:10 pacers.

Miles 6-9

The crowds thinned out a bit, and we had a chance to really settle into a rhythm and run for a while. Passing under Lamar, I shook my fist at my favorite curb. I was tempted to shake only a finger, but there were spectators over there, and I decided that might be taken the wrong way. I remember seeing a couple signs near Austin High: “Children grow more quickly in the springtime”, and “Flamingos are pink because they eat shrimp”. I have no idea why they were there, but they stuck in my head. Somewhere in this stretch, I gave up my gloves. I soaked one at a water stop, and decided it was time to get rid of them.

The Hills from 9-12

Turning onto Enfield was actually a relief in a way – I was looking forward to getting these hills over and done with, and starting on them gave me a bit of a mental boost. I focused on using a couple mantras in here: main-tain, main-tain up the hills, float-float, float-float down the hills. I just wanted to keep a good rhythm and not lose it. I also focused on using my arms up the hills, and down the hills, I tried to keep my feet low and sort of “run stealth”.. minimize the pounding. Once again, this part of the race just sort of flew by me. I was so focused on running the “right” way through this area that I barely remember the scenery.

Up, Up, Up to 18

It is really in this section that I realized how many water stops there were on the course. I don't remember this many last year. Then the whole 26 charities, 26 miles thing comes back to me.. and I think I get it now. I am pretty sure I managed to hit about 20 of the stops throughout the course. I had my water bottle with me for the first few miles, and then I didn't really want to stop at the last few, but I was taking every other opportunity to grab a new cup. Most of that was to just keep the fluid coming in, but part of it was also relishing my new skill of drinking on the run. Somewhere near the half, Gundi was out there cheering and yelling splits. I yelled back at him “GO RAMBLERS!” I think he liked that. Thanks to Gundi, for being a great coach, and in particular for helping plant a few ideas about form in my head early in the season.

At mile 14, I was due for another gel, and it was almost coincidence that I realized I still had my hat on, with another gel tucked away up there. I tossed the hat (completely unnecessary at this point in the race) and ate the gel. Mile 16 and 17 were very important. I knew that Stephanie and Ben were waiting somewhere near the Northcross mall, and I had written a little note (a couple inches square, covered in scotch tape) for Stephanie. On it were some simple words that I knew would make her smile. I made sure that whatever my mental state, I was going to remember to get the note out at 16, and give it to her at 17. When I got there, I saw that they had a big sign for me (GO DADDY! GO BILL!). I didn't have much time to study it at the time, but they did a good job. Thank you to Stephanie and Ben for supporting me and being there.

18 – 21

I remember going through the Rogue water stop on Arroyo Seco, but honestly I don't really remember what it looked like. I saw the Rogue sign and I know Ruth was out there cheering, because I heard her voice yell “Great Job Bill!” from the left side of the road... I think I grabbed my water from Carolyn, but I was kind of in the zone at this point in the race, and concentrating on the task at hand. Thanks to Ruth for the constant encouragement, and to Carolyn for the water. Arroyo Seco is kind of twisty road, and I was honing in on whatever the next corner was and running a straight line for it. After making it down to North Loop, I made a new temporary friend near last year's mile 20 marker, which was still visible on the pavement. Kevin, who just recently moved here from Chicago was running his first Marathon, but he was going for broke. We spent the rest of the race (well, until mile 24) encouraging each other and the people around us. I think it helped us both. By the time we reached mile 21, the 3:10 “pack” had really started to break up. We lost a lot of people, or maybe we just got spread out some. It was the pacers, myself, and probably 10-15 other people by then, running more in a line than a group. It was also in this section that I began to pass people who were walking in places other than water stops.

21 – 24

On 46th street, where the downhill changed to an uphill is where I began to really start feeling the miles. My calves started to give me little crampy “boings” like last year. But it was different this time. I took something Steve wrote in his race plan to heart. The general idea was that “the wall” is the challenge, and that's what you're running the Marathon for. It shouldn't be dreaded, it should be welcomed. I am glad Steve wrote that. It was what I kept in mind for the rest of the race. Thanks to Steve for helping me understand that simple concept.

This is where the race got significantly harder for me. My brain began telling me I really should be at home on the couch right now instead of doing this foolishness. I began to struggle to stay with the pacers, and it was evident I wasn't the only one. People really began to drop away here. Most of them would just be running along, and suddenly begin walking. The posture was always the same - they would drop to a walk, put their hands on their hips, and hang their head, slowly shaking “no”. I remembered myself in that exact moment from the Georgetown long run, and vowed that I was here to make it past that point without stopping.

Then between 22 and 23, I saw Scott. I'd run a few of the longer MGP runs with him, and from those I knew he was a really strong runner. Scott didn't stop and walk like the others, but he slowed way down. Kevin and I tried to encourage him to stick it out, but he was fading fast, and ended up behind us. A little evil guy popped up in my brain here, and started trying to convince me that I should ease up and try to help Scott out some more. Luckily, I realized that the evil dude was not concerned about Scott's race, and he certainly wasn't concerned about mine. He just wanted me to slow down and join the crowd. I told him to go find someone else to pick on, and kept running. By the time we reached the mile 24 sign, I had started to just feel numb. The calf problems were probably still there, but I no longer noticed them. Nearly everyone in the 3:10 pack was out of sight now – either behind me, or way ahead of the pacers. The pacers themselves had pulled ahead about 20 seconds, but I could still see them up ahead.

Mile 25

Mile 25 happened to contain that last really significant downhill on Duval. Part of my plan for that hill was to take every last bit of it that I could, and that is exactly what I did. I gained some ground on the pacers here, and managed to float out the flatter terrain at the bottom of the hill for a while. But I lost track of my buddy Kevin in the process. Coming down that hill, I realized my legs were basically running on fumes now. I had run out of real gas. At the bend before the mile 25 marker, I felt that I even ran out of fumes. My watch said 3:01:twentysomething at the mile 25 mark, and I knew I had only about 9 minutes left to get to the end in time.

The 1.2 miles at the end

I can't even really describe what happened here. Everything suddenly hurt – mainly my legs, but also my head and arms and chest. It kind of felt like having a real bad case of the flu. And I just went on auto-pilot and ran as fast as my body would allow me (which turned out to be a lot slower than the rest of the race). My memories of the last stretch are pretty vague. I remember seeing Gundi, and hearing him screaming at me that I was going to make it... so loud. I don't really remember going up the hills on San Jacinto, except that there were a lot of people out there. I do remember seeing 11th street and feeling very relieved that I was almost done, and I remember clicking my watch on the corner at mile 26. I also remember thinking that the finish line was not getting any closer as I ran down Congress. I think I had a mild hallucination that the finish line was, in fact, moving down the road away from me at the same pace I was running. And then I very quickly caught up to it. I didn't know I had made it until I looked up at the clock, and saw that it still said 3:10 and change. I celebrated a little too early, then again once I made it across. I did it! I qualified for Boston!

Afterwards

I stumbled over to the people handing out medals and water, and got both. Then Amy was there giving me a huge hug, and telling me how proud she was of me. She helped me stumble along, and got one of the tinfoil blankets for me. I told her that I was going to blame her for this – that it was all her fault. Anyone reading this might ask what I meant by that.

Well.. sometime early in the training for last year's Marathon, when I was just a naive virgin Marathon trainee, I thought “Hey.. if I make it through this in one piece, maybe I can sign up for the Boston Marathon.. I wonder when it is?” We have friends and family up in New England, and I thought that would make a great reason to go on a trip and visit some people. Of course, when I looked it up and found that you had to qualify (really?) for that race, and that I'd need to run 30 MINUTES faster than my goal time (really?!??!?), that little daydream died a quick death.

Then on one of our Wednesday night trainings, I was relaying the story of how clueless I had been to Amy, and her reaction caught me completely off guard. Instead of a chuckle, she said “Oh Bill, You could totally do it!” At the time, I sort of scoffed at the idea, but that moment stuck in the back of my brain. When I started this season off much faster than the last time around, I didn't find the idea to be so far-fetched anymore. And eventually, I decided it was a realistic goal, and one I wanted to achieve. Thank you to Amy, for planting that seed in my brain, and for giving it plenty of encouragement along the way. And thank you for helping me hobble my way over to the fence, where Stephanie and Ben were waiting.

Speaking of Stephanie and Ben, they helped me the rest of the way home. I almost forgot my finisher's shirt in the excitement, but managed to get it and my clothing before exiting the chute. It took a long time to just walk to the car again this year, but not quite as long as last year. I was a bit more mobile this time, for whatever reason.

Well, I have been writing long enough. The last people I actually want to thank are anyone who has managed to read through this whole thing, and I'm assuming it is the same crew who reads all of this stuff, even though very few of you know me in person (though I'd love to actually meet more of you, and hey.. I met shubbe finally, a couple weeks ago!) Anyway, I enjoy reading all your comments here, and your journal posts as well. Thanks!

Even though it is in the last post, I would like this all in the same place for my own purposes, so here's the stats again:

1	2	3	4	5	6	7
7:24	7:24	7:16	7:10	7:13	7:14	7:11

8	9	10	11	12	13	14
7:18	7:11	7:08	7:09	7:21	7:07	7:04

15	16	17	18	19	20	21
7:14	7:22	7:10	7:19	7:10	7:25	7:09

22	23	24	25	26	26.2
7:20	7:20	7:24	7:09	7:37	1:32

Total: 3:10:21
Average 7:16/mi

Austin Marathon 2008 (#2)

2008-02-19T06:12:23Z

Well, I made it through a second one, and I am still alive. I am actually finding it hard to believe I really ran another Marathon yesterday (except for the reminders every time I stand up, walk down stairs, walk in general... etc). When I think back on it, it all seems kind of surreal. I did not manage to meet ALL my goals, but I did meet three of the top four, and I am certainly not complaining:

#1) Qualify to run Boston. 3:10:21 is faster than 3:10:59 by 38 seconds. I have done the math at least a hundred times, and I keep getting the same answer. Check.

#2) Find my wife just after the Mile 17 marker and hand her a note. This turned out to be easier than I thought it would be. Check.

#3) Have my overall time start with a three, followed by a colon, followed by a zero, followed by some other stuff. The zero digit didn't work out as planned, but I'm honestly not that broken up about it. No check.

#4) Run every single step of the way. I finally figured out how to run through water stops this year, and decided that I wasn't going to walk or stop unless it was absolutely necessary. And it never became necessary, so.... Check!

Here's some tidbits from the race:

Before the start of the race, I told myself I was going to keep myself disconnected from the pace group, and just run my own race. I had a plan, and I would stick to it. Then I stood there with the 3:10 pacers, and listened to what their plan for the race was. It sounded exactly like my plan. So I changed my plan to disconnect myself from them, and instead followed the 3:10 sign up the hill, down the hill, out past Hula Hut, over the hills on Exposition.... you get the idea.

The new plan worked out pretty well, and I am certain it kept me focused on my goal. It would have been nice to detach myself (voluntarily) though.

Anyway.. cutting a 3+ hour story short (I may write more about this all later), the highlights of the race were:

* Missed the 1 mile marker, but managed to see all the others.

* Almost lost my "first miles" water bottle somewhere on the first uphill. It slipped from my hand, but amazingly, it bounced up off my knee and I caught it.

* traininglog cheering on the 1st street downhill - spectators are awesome in general, but it is always better when you see a familiar face! Or at least I am pretty sure that was her.. I only caught a glimpse as I was passing by.

* Gundi cheering near the half. I still had enough energy at that point to yell "GO RAMBLERS!" back at him.

* Realizing I still had a gel stashed in my hat (which I still had on) at mile 14.. then taking the gel and tossing the hat.

* Remembering to get my note out and ready at mile 16.

* Seeing Ben and Stephanie at 17.. catching a glimpse of the sign they made for me, and handing off my note.

* On 46th street, when my calves started cramping up. This was actually great. Last year I thought I was doomed at that point, but this year, I managed to just say "bring it on!", relaxed a bit, and ran right through that pain. This was sort of a mini-wall. I managed to stave it off and keep going, but at this point, the relatively easy pace became really hard to maintain.

* Hitting a BIG wall just before the mile 25 marker. The last 1.2 miles I felt like I was running as fast as I could, but through a vat of wet concrete. It was incredible.

* Gundi SCREAMING at me just before the San Jacinto hills - "YOU'VE GOT IT BILL! YOU'RE GONNA MAKE IT! YOU'RE GONNA BREAK 3:10 BILL!! GOOO! GOOO! GOOOOOO!" I could hear him yelling before I saw him, and then for about 30 seconds after I saw him too. I don't think that I have ever had a one-man cheering section that loud before. And I had no energy to yell back by then.

* Seeing that the clock still sad 3:10:something just before I got to the finish line, and throwing my hands in the air.

* Realizing that its really hard to run the last 10 feet of a marathon with my hands above my head, putting my hands down, and then celebrating some more after crossing the finish line.

* The unexpected appearance and a great big hug from traininglog in the finish chute, as I was stumbling past the water... and the assistance over to the fence where Stephanie and Ben were waiting.

* Almost forgetting to get my finisher shirt after getting some kisses & hugs from my family.

* Filling out the entry form for Boston when I confirmed the official results at home. Now I just wait and hope I didn't mess that part up!

Mile splits (first 2 adjusted cuz I missed mile 1):

1	07:24
2	07:24
3	07:16
4	07:10
5	07:13
6	07:14
7	07:11
8	07:18
9	07:11
10	07:08
11	07:09
12	07:21
13	07:07
14	07:04
15	07:14
16	07:22
17	07:10
18	07:19
19	07:10
20	07:25
21	07:09
22	07:20
23	07:20
24	07:24
25	07:09
26	07:37
26.2	01:32

I need to go to bed. If there is more to write, I will have to save it for another day.

Yatta!

2008-02-17T20:10:40Z

3:10:21

Woo-Hoo!

3M, among other stuff...

2008-01-28T05:26:51Z

1) Who's the tough guy now, huh? Huh?!?

On Friday morning, I woke up at 6AM to go out and do my run for the day. I made my way out to the kitchen to start getting some fluid and food in me, and had sort of a mini-mental breakdown. I was suddenly *very* apprehensive about going out in the dark and running on my own. It was totally irrational, but at the same time I couldn't shake this feeling off. I just felt like I was going to go smack my head on the ground again if I went out running. I drank a little water, noticed I was actually shaking (not shivering, though it was cold), and decided to go back to bed and save the run for later. Hope that's a one-time deal.

2) Marathon Goal ~~Pace~~ Effort....

I had a good race this morning. I did not hit my exact MGP time goal, but I think I managed to stay at a reasonable "Marathon Goal Effort" level for most of the race. The race ended up being about 7:00/mile average (15 seconds faster than MGP) overall, but I felt really comfortable the entire way. There were a few times in the race I found myself starting to chase other runners, and backed off a bit. But there was only once during the race that I intentionally sped up, and that was about 1 mile to the end. I looked at my watch, and realized that even though I hadn't set out to, if I put in a little more effort I'd get a PR over last year. Something in me couldn't let that go, even though I should have been imagining having to go through 13.1 more miles and taking it easy. I ended up with 1:31:43 - about 30 seconds faster than last year. And it is obvious from my splits that the hills made a difference on certain miles (like miles 5 and 13): 7:07, 7:12, 6:50, 7:00, 6:35, 7:27, 7:28, 7:02, 7:05, 7:02, 7:03, 6:54, 6:19, 0:39

This race is weird. It almost feels like it is over before it begins. But of course, that can't possibly be, since I spent an hour and a half out there running, and I remember some of the in-between stuff, such as: traininglog out at Mile 1, ringing the bell; another shubbe sighting, somewhere between 4 and 5 (or maybe 5 and 6?).. I can't remember, but one of these days when neither of us are running, we might get a chance to chat a bit; the bagpiper was out near MoPac; my favorite accordion player was on Duval again, but he wasn't playing "In the Summertime" this year; traininglog again near mile 12, though I almost missed her because I was all turned around chatting with some other runners; talked with jasontru in the finish chute - he looked like he'd been finished for quite some time already; and last but certainly not least, Stephanie and Ben at the finish to welcome me in from the chilly morning.

3) A bloody mystery.

In the past 2 weeks of running, I have finished a run to find some blood on toes of my right foot on four different occasions. The thing is, I can't figure out where it is coming from , and its just weird. There doesn't seem to be any correlation between my foot attire or the type of run or terrain. A 14-mile long run (first part of the Marathon), a 7-mile easy run (town lake), a tempo run (Zilker), and today. The first of those was in my old shoes, the rest in my new ones, and four different pairs of socks. There's no visible blisters or cuts or anything, no apparent toenail issues, and its not even the same toes every time. I remember this happening once last year too. I don't see it as a problem.. it is just odd.