Ran Like A Girl

"Ran Like A Girl".....so that's what my Nike Women's Half Marathon finisher's t-shirt says. Yup, I was one of 700 males who participated in this race of approximately 15,000 runners.

East Bay Run Team (Nike Summer/Fall 2006)

I finished, but not without facing obstacles. Why is is that I always have these obstacles? I probably place it on myself by not running smart. Anyways, i've been hyping this race up to be the one I will PR my half marathon time. I don't know why I chose this course to do it. I must have forgotten how hard this course was. I set a finishing time goal of 2:30:00. I was on pace to do so up until mile 8, when things got ugly. I don't know the exact location, but apparently its near Robin William's home. Regardless, this one never ending hill pretty much killed any chances of PR-ing. I ended walking some of it, but at this point I could feel a tingly tightening sensation in my left calf. "Oh great!" was my reaction. By the end of the mile, the right calf gave way as well. It was certainly deja vu of last year. I had the same huge calf problems at Nike '05.

Unlike last year where I mostly walked the remainder of it, I tried to run it off this time. My legs did not like that. Both calves yanked me back like i've never felt before. This kept going off and on from mile 9 through 10. I would run hard, but it would pull me back. As a result, I had to walk. I would try to run again and do it succesfully, but a little later, it would yank me back again.

At mile 11, I saw Brenda, Emma, Carol Ann, and Ken and that gave me a boost. I can see in their faces that something was wrong with me, but they cheered me on. I attempted to run again, but this time the calf seriously locked up and I could feel the calf wanting to come out of my skin. At this point, Brian saw me and tried to stretch it out. Not only was calf hurting, but my hamstring right above it was bothering me. The stretching helped a little, but the calf occasionally locked. This hamstring and calf problem was not going away and I think it was altering my running form. It almost felt as if something was out of place. At one point, my calf locked so hard that I screamed "FUCK!" and plopped onto the plantar strip next to the curb. Fortunately a Nike volunteer heard/saw me and quickly grabbed my leg and tried to turn it to relax the muscle.

I seriously thought my calf was gonna pop out of my skin. During this time I was lying on my back and someone came by and said I was probably lacking electrolytes. She gave me two electrolyte pills. Not knowing what the hell they were I stupidly swallowed it, hoping it would make the pain away. That would be a costly mistake and as Capitan Jeanette mentioned, I know better than to take pills from strangers. They were able to lift me back up and I figured walking was the only way to finish it. By this time I was so close to the finish line. I had the energy to run it in, but my calves controlled by body at this point.

I smell the finish line, but here I am at mile 13 when my calf locked up again.
I couldn't move even if I had wanted to. So frustrating!

I hobbled into the finish line, while everyone else was able to run it in. The most surprising thing was I turned over my shoulder because someone yelled "Phil" and it was Olivia, who I had abandoned around mile 1. We ended up finishing around the same time. Official time was 2:45:49. Pretty funny.

After seeing everyone at the TNT tent, I wondered to find my sis and cousins. I walked to them and was not feeling good. Not exhausted, but sick. They even knew something was wrong with me because I was not my happy self. In fact, they noticed I looked pale. I felt something was wrong myself and after sitting for another half hour without wanting to talk to anybody, I knew I had to vomit. I rushed to the port-a-pottie and did my thing. My stomach was filled with crap and was not feeling good. I'm pretty sure it was those electrolyte pills which I wasn't use to taking. I felt better afterwards, but even during lunch, I didn't have much of an appetite. Believe me, I was starving, but I knew whatever I put in my stomach, it was gonna come back up.

After one more visit to the restroom, I got everything out of my system and my appetite was slowly coming back. Meanwhile my calves were still having an issue of its own. Any sudden wrong movement aggravated them and it would lock up instantly and I would scream "FUCK!" for dear life.

Today's event is one of my worse post race experiences ever. I didn't feel like myself again until 2:00 pm. I've been reflecting on what went wrong and i'm pretty sure I was off balance with liquid. I drank way more water than electrolytes. I assumed it was not hot and neglected the need to drink as much electrolytes as needed. As a result, my calves had issues. By the time I took salt packets, I think it was too late. I was happy with the first half of the race, but the second half was a disappointment. I bow down to this course....it's a toughy. So what have I learned from one year of running? That I still have lots to learn. I have yet to learn how to run smart.

No More Running!

well..... at least not until Sunday.

I had my final two tune-up runs on Saturday and tonight. I ran about 3 miles each time. I'm feeling good and relaxed. Tonight, it got really dark early at what I figured was the final evening buddy run at Lake Merritt. After Sunday, i'll have no more buddies to run with at the Lake....so it's closing time and i'm off to find another spot to run. In addition, the darkness is ridiculously crazy because even with a light, you cannot see where you are stepping. Kinda dangerous.

Back to the Nike Women's (Half) Marathon race this Sunday! This appears to be my final "big" race of this season. I say appears because i'm leaving it open in case another race comes up. Realistically though, i'll sign up to do some 5K or 10Ks to improve on my speed. With Thanksgiving and X-mas coming up, I think there will be plenty of races to keep me busy. Meanwhile, i'll still train with the team. I still have some mentees and I figure I can help them out. I can run them in the final 6-10 miles of their super duper long training runs.

Ok, really back to my race this Sunday! I'm excited about doing the race that started this whole running thing for me. Lately, I mindlessly often refer to this race as "just a half marathon", but this race is not "just a half marathon." It's a special race because not only was it my first enurance event, but this race soley benefits the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society. Last year $14 million dollars was raised from this race alone. Pretty amazing stuff. Another special note is this year's race will be held on October 22nd, which is Cole Regan's Birthday. He would have turned 4 years old. In case you don't know who Cole is, he is the modern day Hercules. Life is truly precious. Never take it for granted.

On a personal goal, i'm striving to break my PR. I'm confident I can do so, barring no injuries. Of course you never know with race day. Anything can happen. You can have a perfect training season like I did in the Spring and sadly tank on the race itself as I did in San Diego. Well you learn and move on. Whatever happens on Sunday, happens...but i'll give it my all, cuz that's all I can do. There's nothing like waking up in the morning and thinking to yourself, i'm so lucky to be able to run. This Sunday will be no different.

DO THE DAMN THING!

My PR Goal for the Nike Women's Half Marathon

I went to the Nike Women's Marathon website and decided to check what my split times if I wanted to finish at 2:30:00. The website broke it down as follows:

My current PR (from Disneyland) is 2:34:54. My past time (and first half marathon) for this course is 2:49:01.

Must tackle those hills!

Back at Track!

I showed up to the Buddy Run on Tuesday and was ready to run the second lap with my mentee.. My mentee who wanted to do 6 miles, showed up earlier to do one lap; however, by the time I arrived after work, she finished her first lap and was having knee aggravations. I thought it was best she stop, go home, and ice. As a result, I opted not to run and went home to catch the A's game. Bad huh? Well not really. I didn't want to push myself considering I got sick from my previoius two events. An endurance event can take a lot of you and if you don't take care of yourself, it can be problematic.

But I was back at track tonight. It's getting dark really early. It was also cold and windy. Coach wasn't there, but Mentor Rudy took over for him. We ran two miles at marathon pace. Of course I didn't. I didn't plan on it, but something about the track makes me wanna get it over with as soon as possible. Tonight I ran two miles in 19 minutes and 19 seconds. That's way too fast for me, but it was a great workout. I'm just happy i'm not sick.

Inaugural San Jose Rock 'n' Roll Loogie Half Marathon

Hello faithful readers! I'm back from my second half marathon of this season. I didn't have to travel far since it was in the South Bay. On Saturday, we hopped Karen and I hopped into Olivia's car, tailing Rocky, Patch, and Claudia in her brand new ride! We got to San Jose, checked into the hotel and went to the Expo to pick up our bib numbers and all the other goodie stuff. Afterwards we stuffed up at Il Fornaio and headed back to sleep.

The morning came and I don't remember much about the race. There wasn't much to see as everything looked the same. To be honest, it's pretty damn boring and I have to think twice about doing it again in the future. With an 8:00 am start time, it got hot pretty fast. The only thing I recall about the race was the countless loogies found on the ground. I don't ever remember dodging so many loogies. Some runners are just nasty. There was this one runner, who was ahead of me, and she pushed her index finger to one nostril and preceeded to shoot out her boogers from the other. It almost landed on my leg....not once, but she did it twice!! Nasty crap.

Anyways, I managed to finish the 13.1 miles running with Olivia all the way. Claudia and Patch were our cheerleaders for the day as they found us twice during the race. Thank goodness because the race was serving fire hydrant water at the water stops. We were well prepared and got our own water.

In regards to the race, I felt good overall considering I ran too fast my first mile. The rest for my back did me good as it didn't bother me at all during the 13.1 miles. The race was a great tune up run for the Nike Half, in which I plan to give everything I have to PR. Less than 2 weeks away!

Time: 2:41:39
Distance: 13.1 miles
Pace: 12:20

Freakin' Out

My back is killing me. I'm thinking I must have pulled something while moving to my new place. I can barely sit up straight. I've been popping some Ibuprofen to ease the pain, but i'm freaking out. Rock 'n' Roll Half is this Sunday. I sure hope I fully recover before then.

Buns of Steel

I woke up at 4:15 am yesterday to get ready for the big run in SF. Saturday's morning training run was our sneak preview of the Nike Marathon. We ran part of the race course. Since I ran the race last year, it wasn't so much of surprise for me.

I got to Alameda at 5:45 am to pick up my mentees. We arrived around 6:30 am and it was still dark out. We checked in while other participants started early because some were doing 20 miles. Since my group is just doing the half, the plan was to do 10-12 miles.

I started off with the early group and was instantly thrown at climing a supa-dupa incline that is at the Cliff House. As we got about 3 miles in, that's when the course became familiar to me. Of course my first time during the race, I walked most of those hills. However, yesterday i ran all of it, which is probably why it seemed tougher than my first time going through them. I completed 8 miles Saturday morning because i'm tapering for the San Jose Half Marathon this Sunday. I'm pretty sure the inclines of SF hills are second to none. As a result, my butt feels hard.

Me, Andrew, Margo w/our new TNT shirts