10 years ago
Tuesday, May 29, 2007
Starting From Scratch
So how much running have I done since The Relay? Not much. I think i've ran a total of one...two....yup just twice. Both times were not very far at all. Let's see....I ran 3 miles the week after The Relay and then the week after that I ran only 2 miles. At this moment, it feels just like the first time when I joined Team in Training. I have some doubts that I can even complete a full again. Right now 6 miles even seems like a daunting task. I mean I know I can do it, but it feels like it is asking a lot of me. I suppose i'm not mentally all there yet, but hopefully once the season starts, i'll be back with the click of things. The good news is I have been strength training every other day. The last time I was so consistent and dedicated with it was back in college. Alright, time to get focus once again!
Monday, May 07, 2007
"FAT KIDS" FINISH LAST
But had a fun time in the process!
“What’s your team name?”
“Fat Kids Always Win at See-Saw”
“What’s your team name?”
“Fat Kids Always Win at See-Saw”
“Oh yeah! We love your name” said the lady in charge at the registration area. There we were 7:00 am Saturday morning in Calistoga. One hour before our team started the journey of 199 miles and 3 hours after I woke up. I rested well leading up to the run. I got a healthy 6 hours of sleep. A few minutes later, our second van arrived and we took some team photos. Our first runner, Allan took off and from then on, it would be a mad dash that would not end until we got to the beach boardwalk in Santa Cruz.
Showing off our t-shirts
The Relay is a 199 mile race from Calistoga to Santa Cruz in which teams of 12, separated in 2 vans go crazy in what has been dubbed "California's Longest Party". Right off the bat, our team was at a disadvantage because one runner fell ill and we were going into the Relay with just 11 people. Three runners (Tina, Kristi, Sean) stepped up big time by adding another leg to their race. I had the normal 3 legs (4.1 miles easy, 6.5 miles hard, 5.6 miles easy).
Van #1
One of the many rules of the race is that the van cannot trail the runner. Like many other vans, we stopped every 2 miles of the leg and waited for our runners to arrive and provide them support. The runner would continue again and we would find another spot to meet them later. Meanwhile the second van was not allowed to follow us and had to meet us at the van exchange. We would repeat the support until all 6 runners in our van finished their legs and then we handed it over to the runners in van #2. While van #2 was out, we had some time to eat, sleep, and rest.
Allen (Fat Kid #1) started strong and then Kristi continued it off. My leg was after Kristi's. While Allen and Kristi were running, I was already preparing my gear and eating the food I needed to ensure I had a great run. I finished my stretches and headed over to the runners exchange area where Kristi was coming coming. She handed me the baton (a green wristband) around 10:00 am.
I'm off!
My leg wasn't too bad. Some rolling hills with not much to see. Lindsay would later tell me I ran part of the Napa Marathon. Looking back it was pretty dangerous course because I was really running with cars. I’ve never been in a race where I had to constantly inhale exhaust. Anyways, my first mile felt great. The van stopped for me at mile 1.5. I was still doing great. By mile 2, I had severe side cramps. It was just painful to get deep breaths. I couldn’t believe I was semi-walking already. It was also extremely hot, but I kept pushing. I handed the baton to Lindsay and I looked at my watch. I finished at 41 minutes. It all made sense now. I was going way too fast. I was doing 10 minute miles. The miles were not marked, so I had no idea what my pace was during the entire leg. All that time, I thought I was doing 13 minute miles.
I'm almost done!
Lindsay started her leg and she also agreed it was too hot. Lindsay was definitely the unlucky one of the bunch. We missed multiple turns on two of her legs. We should have realized something was wrong when we begin asking "why isn't Lindsay here yet? In fact, why haven’t we seen any other runners or support vans? “OH SHIT! We missed a turn.” We drove back and saw Lindsay near the exchange….OOPs.
Team Captain Tina followed Lindsay and Sean followed Tina to finish up at the first van exchange. Sean then passed it off to Alisa (first runner of Van #2). Sean followed van #2 since he had take run an extra leg. Van #1 took the opportunity to eat lunch and relax. Lindsay’s dad made a surprise visit and drove all the way up to see her.
Lunch in Napa
After a full lunch and ice cream at Ben & Jerry’s we drove to the next van exchange where many teams slept and rested on the lawn. At this point, we spotted Team Dean, which consisted of 3 runners.
Fat kids love ice cream!
Van #2 came in around 7:00 pm-ish. They dropped off Brian who joined our van. Off went Allan as the sun was coming down. He was already equipped with a reflective vest and head light. By his second mile, it was pitch black dark. Some support vans were decorated with x-mas light and it looked like a moving techno party bus. Because of the darkness, we made it a point to stop for our runners at each mile. As Kristi began her leg, you could hear the coyotes howling. Pretty freaky. Around 10:00 pm, Kristi finished her leg and it was my turn. This would be my hardest leg. The first 2 miles was a steady 152 feet incline. It was so cold, I could see my breath. The darkness helped because I could only see about 10 feet in front of me. I pictured just like what Coach Al and Mama Lisa told me, run through the hills. I eventually did and I made it to the top. I was rewarded with a 410 feet decline for the last 4.5 miles. It felt like running down the Cliff House, but 5 times as long in distance. I knew that would be trouble for my quads.
It's so dark!
By mile 4-5, I could see life. It looked like a downtown. Of course everything was closed except for some bars and people celebrating Cinco De Mayo. I then came to a path where I didn’t know which way to go. I decided to go left and I turned my ankle on a trench I did not see. I was terrified the race would end for me. I carefully tried to plant it. I felt like I could possibly walk it off. I did and it didn’t hurt more, so that was a good sign. I began running again and I was able to do it. I then got back to stride. As long as I kept going, it was good. I knew if I stopped, it would begin hurting. I saw the van around mile 5. They told me 0.8 more miles to go and asked if I wanted a vegetarian pizza. Earlier in the race, I noticed my leg would end at a Round Tables Pizza. We joked about getting a pizza. In the map, they even posted Round Table’s phone number.
0.8 miles, no problem. I go to where I thought was 0.8 miles and no vans in sight. My calves were tightening up and I really wanted some pizza. About another 1.5 miles was the runner’s exchange. I told Brian, that was no 0.8 miles. He said “Yeah, we calculated it wrong”, but he did tell me that the pizza was here. So all was forgotten. What made it more forgiving was that the pizza was not vegetarian!
Lindsay ran her leg and here was another time where we drove too far ahead and missed a turn. Again, we asked ourselves "why are there no runners? Why are there no vans? OH Shit! We missed the turn again!” We found Lindsay; however, she came to tell us she lost the baton (green wristband) when she took off her gloves. We debated about going back to find it; however, we decided to go on without (even if it meant us being disqualified). Lindsay felt so bad.
Tina followed Lindsay and we were slowly making our way to Marin County. It was about 1:00 am when Brian followed Tina. Brian got the most scenic run. In fact, I recognized it. I remembered it from our TNT Mill Valley run. Brian zoomed by as we awed the beauty of the nighttime skyline of San Francisco and the moon shining and reflecting from the bay waters. We drove over the Golden Gate Bridge where the next van exchange was. As soon as we parked, we met up with our well rested van #2 teammates. Brian quickly got to the exchange and Alisa was on her way. Tina joined van #2.
It was 2:00 am and the next van exchange was at Canada College in Menlo Park. I passed out for about 30 minutes en route. By 3:00 am, whoever was still awake from our van somehow got us there. We unloaded and finally got to shower and sleep in a gymnasium with other relay racers. I didn’t sleep till 3:30 am. Three hours later, it was time to wake up. Van #2 was going to arrive within an hour. Tina came flying by and Allen was off again for his final third leg.
It got very hot again. All of us where feeling sore from the previous day’s run. Allen finished his 5 miles and Kristi was off. As we stopped to provide support, I could see the route had no shade whatsoever. Kristi was zooming and quickly it was my turn. “It’s so FUCKING HOT!” That’s all I could say to myself. It was as hot as San Diego. I was fearing another heat stroke. Unlike San Diego, I was trying to run smart. I balanced my water and cytomax. I drank more of it because of the heat. I even slowed it down using another runner as my pacer. Last half mile, I could see the exchange and busted my ass there and off went Lindsay, who felt the heat intensify.
Lindsay’s run was classified “hard”. It looked hard and again, I didn’t understand how we were able to run so close to cars. It’s amazing no cars ran into runners. However, we did hear from van #2 that some crazy stuff was happening in SF. Apparently some runners were assaulted by crazy people who came out of cars hitting runners with 2x4’s. Lindsay (aka Diarrhea Butt) finished her leg and we were told our team was one of the last six team left through the runner’s exchange.
Tina was left to do 3.0 miles of 1000 feet incline with no support. Unfortunately, it was not van accessible, but Tina was able to finish. From what she described, it was freakishly scary. Brian was next in what I witnessed was the worse of the relay. It was 3.1 miles of 1100 feet incline. It was sickening. It was not even right to have a human do it.
Brian did do it and did it an amazing time. It only took him 38 minutes to do it. Van #2 was already at the van exchange waiting for us to finish. Kristi hopped over to van #2 to do the final leg.
Lindsay, Brian, and I
We made our way to Santa Cruz and had a very late lunch. I got the hamburger I was deliriously craving and lots and lots of Guinness. As we waited and watched for hour and hours as teams were coming in, we were unable to contact van #2. Around 5:00 pm, we got word that “109” our team’s official number was last. We were still worried about the team and didn't know what happened or if something happened to someone. We asked one of the Relay workers, if the knew where our team was. She asked what our team name was. "Fat Kids.." She said "Oh! You're the fat kids! We all loved that name!" Apparently if there was team name competition, we would have won. I hear they are implementing that category next year.
We were still puzzled how we could be in last place. In really didn’t make sense. Then we began to hear that teams leap frogged towards the end of the race. Leap frogging is when teams drop off their runners at future exchanges and have them start running at the same time. That way they do the legs, but they don’t finish in sequential order. We wanted to finish it the right way. Our team was told to leap frog it as finish tents were folding. As the final teams were coming down the hill, we kept thinking it was one of ours and we began yelling “GO FAT KIDS!” It wasn’t them. By 7:00 pm, it was our team. Everybody got together and we ran through the beach to the finish line (which was still up) and we celebrated. We finally got our medals. I couldn’t wait to go home, take a shower and fall asleep.
Team Fats Kids Running to the Finish Line in Santa Cruz!
The Finish Line!
This race was unlike any other race I had ever done. While resting between legs was nice, it felt like a marathon split into two days. What’s worse is that you don’t get much sleep, which adds to the challenge when you try to do the final leg. On top of that, the body is very fatigue from lack of sleep and recovery. It would have been nice to hang out with the other van, but there wasn’t much time to do so. Next time, I gotta train better and learn how to run in the hot afternoons. Yes, there will be a next time!
My legs:
Leg #3 > 4.1 miles > 41 minutes (10:01/mile)
Leg #15>6.5 miles > 1 hour 9 minutes (10:36/mile)
Leg #27>5.6 miles > 1 hour 5 minutes (11:36/mile)
*UPDATE*
We may have been the last team to cross the finish line, but we may not be in last place! See results here.
Team Fat Kids Always Win at See-Saw
Showing off our t-shirts
Van #1
One of the many rules of the race is that the van cannot trail the runner. Like many other vans, we stopped every 2 miles of the leg and waited for our runners to arrive and provide them support. The runner would continue again and we would find another spot to meet them later. Meanwhile the second van was not allowed to follow us and had to meet us at the van exchange. We would repeat the support until all 6 runners in our van finished their legs and then we handed it over to the runners in van #2. While van #2 was out, we had some time to eat, sleep, and rest.
Allen (Fat Kid #1) started strong and then Kristi continued it off. My leg was after Kristi's. While Allen and Kristi were running, I was already preparing my gear and eating the food I needed to ensure I had a great run. I finished my stretches and headed over to the runners exchange area where Kristi was coming coming. She handed me the baton (a green wristband) around 10:00 am.
I'm off!
My leg wasn't too bad. Some rolling hills with not much to see. Lindsay would later tell me I ran part of the Napa Marathon. Looking back it was pretty dangerous course because I was really running with cars. I’ve never been in a race where I had to constantly inhale exhaust. Anyways, my first mile felt great. The van stopped for me at mile 1.5. I was still doing great. By mile 2, I had severe side cramps. It was just painful to get deep breaths. I couldn’t believe I was semi-walking already. It was also extremely hot, but I kept pushing. I handed the baton to Lindsay and I looked at my watch. I finished at 41 minutes. It all made sense now. I was going way too fast. I was doing 10 minute miles. The miles were not marked, so I had no idea what my pace was during the entire leg. All that time, I thought I was doing 13 minute miles.
I'm almost done!
Lindsay started her leg and she also agreed it was too hot. Lindsay was definitely the unlucky one of the bunch. We missed multiple turns on two of her legs. We should have realized something was wrong when we begin asking "why isn't Lindsay here yet? In fact, why haven’t we seen any other runners or support vans? “OH SHIT! We missed a turn.” We drove back and saw Lindsay near the exchange….OOPs.
Team Captain Tina followed Lindsay and Sean followed Tina to finish up at the first van exchange. Sean then passed it off to Alisa (first runner of Van #2). Sean followed van #2 since he had take run an extra leg. Van #1 took the opportunity to eat lunch and relax. Lindsay’s dad made a surprise visit and drove all the way up to see her.
Lunch in Napa
After a full lunch and ice cream at Ben & Jerry’s we drove to the next van exchange where many teams slept and rested on the lawn. At this point, we spotted Team Dean, which consisted of 3 runners.
Fat kids love ice cream!
Van #2 came in around 7:00 pm-ish. They dropped off Brian who joined our van. Off went Allan as the sun was coming down. He was already equipped with a reflective vest and head light. By his second mile, it was pitch black dark. Some support vans were decorated with x-mas light and it looked like a moving techno party bus. Because of the darkness, we made it a point to stop for our runners at each mile. As Kristi began her leg, you could hear the coyotes howling. Pretty freaky. Around 10:00 pm, Kristi finished her leg and it was my turn. This would be my hardest leg. The first 2 miles was a steady 152 feet incline. It was so cold, I could see my breath. The darkness helped because I could only see about 10 feet in front of me. I pictured just like what Coach Al and Mama Lisa told me, run through the hills. I eventually did and I made it to the top. I was rewarded with a 410 feet decline for the last 4.5 miles. It felt like running down the Cliff House, but 5 times as long in distance. I knew that would be trouble for my quads.
It's so dark!
By mile 4-5, I could see life. It looked like a downtown. Of course everything was closed except for some bars and people celebrating Cinco De Mayo. I then came to a path where I didn’t know which way to go. I decided to go left and I turned my ankle on a trench I did not see. I was terrified the race would end for me. I carefully tried to plant it. I felt like I could possibly walk it off. I did and it didn’t hurt more, so that was a good sign. I began running again and I was able to do it. I then got back to stride. As long as I kept going, it was good. I knew if I stopped, it would begin hurting. I saw the van around mile 5. They told me 0.8 more miles to go and asked if I wanted a vegetarian pizza. Earlier in the race, I noticed my leg would end at a Round Tables Pizza. We joked about getting a pizza. In the map, they even posted Round Table’s phone number.
0.8 miles, no problem. I go to where I thought was 0.8 miles and no vans in sight. My calves were tightening up and I really wanted some pizza. About another 1.5 miles was the runner’s exchange. I told Brian, that was no 0.8 miles. He said “Yeah, we calculated it wrong”, but he did tell me that the pizza was here. So all was forgotten. What made it more forgiving was that the pizza was not vegetarian!
Lindsay ran her leg and here was another time where we drove too far ahead and missed a turn. Again, we asked ourselves "why are there no runners? Why are there no vans? OH Shit! We missed the turn again!” We found Lindsay; however, she came to tell us she lost the baton (green wristband) when she took off her gloves. We debated about going back to find it; however, we decided to go on without (even if it meant us being disqualified). Lindsay felt so bad.
Tina followed Lindsay and we were slowly making our way to Marin County. It was about 1:00 am when Brian followed Tina. Brian got the most scenic run. In fact, I recognized it. I remembered it from our TNT Mill Valley run. Brian zoomed by as we awed the beauty of the nighttime skyline of San Francisco and the moon shining and reflecting from the bay waters. We drove over the Golden Gate Bridge where the next van exchange was. As soon as we parked, we met up with our well rested van #2 teammates. Brian quickly got to the exchange and Alisa was on her way. Tina joined van #2.
It was 2:00 am and the next van exchange was at Canada College in Menlo Park. I passed out for about 30 minutes en route. By 3:00 am, whoever was still awake from our van somehow got us there. We unloaded and finally got to shower and sleep in a gymnasium with other relay racers. I didn’t sleep till 3:30 am. Three hours later, it was time to wake up. Van #2 was going to arrive within an hour. Tina came flying by and Allen was off again for his final third leg.
Sunday Morning Van Exchange
It got very hot again. All of us where feeling sore from the previous day’s run. Allen finished his 5 miles and Kristi was off. As we stopped to provide support, I could see the route had no shade whatsoever. Kristi was zooming and quickly it was my turn. “It’s so FUCKING HOT!” That’s all I could say to myself. It was as hot as San Diego. I was fearing another heat stroke. Unlike San Diego, I was trying to run smart. I balanced my water and cytomax. I drank more of it because of the heat. I even slowed it down using another runner as my pacer. Last half mile, I could see the exchange and busted my ass there and off went Lindsay, who felt the heat intensify.
Lindsay’s run was classified “hard”. It looked hard and again, I didn’t understand how we were able to run so close to cars. It’s amazing no cars ran into runners. However, we did hear from van #2 that some crazy stuff was happening in SF. Apparently some runners were assaulted by crazy people who came out of cars hitting runners with 2x4’s. Lindsay (aka Diarrhea Butt) finished her leg and we were told our team was one of the last six team left through the runner’s exchange.
Brian and Lindsay
Tina was left to do 3.0 miles of 1000 feet incline with no support. Unfortunately, it was not van accessible, but Tina was able to finish. From what she described, it was freakishly scary. Brian was next in what I witnessed was the worse of the relay. It was 3.1 miles of 1100 feet incline. It was sickening. It was not even right to have a human do it.
Brian on the "fucked-up" leg
Brian did do it and did it an amazing time. It only took him 38 minutes to do it. Van #2 was already at the van exchange waiting for us to finish. Kristi hopped over to van #2 to do the final leg.
Lindsay, Brian, and I
We were still puzzled how we could be in last place. In really didn’t make sense. Then we began to hear that teams leap frogged towards the end of the race. Leap frogging is when teams drop off their runners at future exchanges and have them start running at the same time. That way they do the legs, but they don’t finish in sequential order. We wanted to finish it the right way. Our team was told to leap frog it as finish tents were folding. As the final teams were coming down the hill, we kept thinking it was one of ours and we began yelling “GO FAT KIDS!” It wasn’t them. By 7:00 pm, it was our team. Everybody got together and we ran through the beach to the finish line (which was still up) and we celebrated. We finally got our medals. I couldn’t wait to go home, take a shower and fall asleep.
Team Fats Kids Running to the Finish Line in Santa Cruz!
The Finish Line!
This race was unlike any other race I had ever done. While resting between legs was nice, it felt like a marathon split into two days. What’s worse is that you don’t get much sleep, which adds to the challenge when you try to do the final leg. On top of that, the body is very fatigue from lack of sleep and recovery. It would have been nice to hang out with the other van, but there wasn’t much time to do so. Next time, I gotta train better and learn how to run in the hot afternoons. Yes, there will be a next time!
-Fat Kid #3
*popping another ibuprofen*
*popping another ibuprofen*
My legs:
Leg #3 > 4.1 miles > 41 minutes (10:01/mile)
Leg #15>6.5 miles > 1 hour 9 minutes (10:36/mile)
Leg #27>5.6 miles > 1 hour 5 minutes (11:36/mile)
*UPDATE*
We may have been the last team to cross the finish line, but we may not be in last place! See results here.
Wednesday, May 02, 2007
The Relay
I can't believe The Relay is this weekend already. I'm definitely not where I want to be. I ran again on Saturday for 4 miles. I've been lucky to get just two runs in a week. Nevertheless, I have the utmost confidence that i'm gonna be able to do the damn thing. Just thinking about Brenda definitely makes me think I can do it, BECAUSE I CAN. So I will finish and most importantly have fun and enjoy every moment.
Meanwhile, i'm pretty excited about the Summer Season. I don't regret taking a break. I definitely needed it; however, I was ready to come back (a long time ago). I can't wait to get into the intense training mode and hopefully bring back more exciting blogs. Brenda always wanted more flair in my blogs, so by golly....flair is what you will all get! Kick-off is still a month away, but the work is already beginning. I've already began playing with my fundraising page and the below to it to try to capture the experience. I created my first "rock you" thingy with pictures from all my TNT runs. Click on the music player cuz the music goes with the pictures. Hope you enjoy it.
Meanwhile, i'm pretty excited about the Summer Season. I don't regret taking a break. I definitely needed it; however, I was ready to come back (a long time ago). I can't wait to get into the intense training mode and hopefully bring back more exciting blogs. Brenda always wanted more flair in my blogs, so by golly....flair is what you will all get! Kick-off is still a month away, but the work is already beginning. I've already began playing with my fundraising page and the below to it to try to capture the experience. I created my first "rock you" thingy with pictures from all my TNT runs. Click on the music player cuz the music goes with the pictures. Hope you enjoy it.
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