kinda in that place that is unlabeled.
our 24 week last phase starts in a few weeks. Jan 14 is my b-day, feb 14 is valentines, mar was always pi day 3-14. its now also national ( sorry canadians ) steak and bj day. this year is also our first day of training to the book.
we decided to add a bunch of smaller events between now and the ironman, our thinking was it would help us stay motivated over the weeks. so we have a trail marathon in a few months. this is the same trail i crashed on 2 times and resa once last year. for 16 miles. so we do the same run, then do a bonus 10 more happy miles. :-)
doing the usual TOSRV ride this year, 100 miles out, 100 back. done that before - but this time we are adding a half marathon to the end of the ride. should be fun.
also added a tri in may. they set up a race that is 1/100th a triathlon, its something like 100 meter swim, 1 mile bike and 400 meter run. but you have to completely transition. - you cant just do it in your swimsuit with shoes on, sounds pretty goofy. thats friday night. then saturday they do a sprint distance tri in the morning. and another one that night. so thats 3! but wait. act now and receive, at no additional cost, a full half tri on sunday. so four full events. the bike is supposed to be pretty brutal, steep hills. from what i have read its about as hard as doing a full ironman, but, well, we will see. should be good for some pretty funny pictures. especially the first one.
so those are the plans. :-)
swam my second mile this morning. was pretty ho-hum. what a great feeling that is. to look at the pool and just swim a mile. huge huge difference from a year ago. we want to go to the pol several times a week for the next month. should help us a lot as its my weakest point. resa who is a better swimmer also feels she needs the time in the water.
and in a side note, i got the total immersion CD about 6 months ago, i think i mentioned it a few times last year, it helps a lot. today i saw someone practicing the glide and skate thing. he was freaking awesome at it. 6 strokes to get across the pool and moving faster than me in my 'windmill special'. so, thats what i am going to get good at. it looked freaking great.
mentally give myself a 9 on the 10 scale. maybe if we go olympic scoring i give me a 9.7 on the 10 for how i feel about stuff right now. just all smiles here. feel i can do it for the first time ever too. just this morning's swim makes it seem possible. i would not be surprised if this is my highest moment of the year as we have some brutal days coming up in the next 8 months. if it is, well, its pretty darn good.
give myself an 8 on the physical status. here i have two versions. compared to me for the last 46 years, and compared to what i need to be on event day. so i would say 8 compared to all time ken, i have been better on the bike, never better in the water or running. and have certainly been better in the weightroom. and compared to where i think i need to be i give me a 6. a bit behind my thinking a year ago... but thats real life i guess. i would think i need a 7 to finish the event, an 8 to like it and a 9 to do better than 15 hours.
so lets get it going again. march 14 is coming, game time is pain time baby.
Tuesday, January 19, 2010
Wednesday, January 13, 2010
Feeling Goofy
the day of the marathon arrives and its even colder! wow. in the 20s in florida. no orange juice this year as all of the oranges are now asploded.
again we got up at 4:00 (about an hour after the football coaches went to bed) and headed out at 4:30, at least this time the sky was clear. today we tried extra hard to all stay together. i was feeling pretty good. my prep was pretty good too. the body glide everywhere and all the bandages. had them on knees too. and the usual toe. and both knee braces on. went with the same setup in clothes as the previous day - lucky i brought about 4 pairs of everything... added hand warmers this time for the chillier day.
again we get to the parking lot in plenty of time. passing all the cars in the wrong lane. we must have pased a good several thousand runners on the way in. today the race went from 15k to 25k people running. much more crowded in the parking lot and we park about 34 miles from the start. the temp says only a few degrees colder but it feels a lot colder for some reason. and its not even sleeting today. i was glad i had the hand warmers in my gloves. also doubled up the hat and wore the trash bag over all my stuff.
we stuck together and made our way past the first ( and over crowded ) port-a-pots to the second or third wave of them. still plenty of people around waiting. we took the corner line in the box of potties as that line always moves the fastest in joe louis arena bathrooms. it worked again, our line went many times faster than those around us and we were in and out in about 5 minutes versus 30 the day before.
on the walk to the start sheila thinks maybe the shorts were a bit aggressive as far as clothing goes and happens along some sweats someone had dumped off. perfect fit, and she wears these till about mile 11ish.
again we miss our assigned pen, just cant get there fast enough. its not that we are so late, or that there are so many people. its that you park so far from the start that gets you. so if you do this race, you just have to be on-site about an hour min before the start to get in the pen you want to be in. for the half this was kinda important as our plan was to set half personal bests and then go whatever speed the day allowed on the full. so we got close but not to our pen. we waited about 10 minutes and then off in the distance the fireworks go off for our section and about 10 minutes later we are running. i hear NY doesnt do this - its all one ginormous start and you can wait a long time at the back to get to the starting line. the race we did in cape town on our bikes a few years ago was more extreme. there are about 100k bikers and they send you out in groups of 500 at a time. to spread it out a bit. you have to qualify for that one and we worked at it for about a year. and got a pretty decent start position. about half way through the pack. we still got to see the winners come home before we started though. and the race was 100 miles.
this time i managed to start my watch at the beginning of the race. :-) the day before it went into other modes on me when i didnt want it too. and a few weeks ago it made beeping noises every time i moved my arm. so i did some playing around with it to see what was up. turns out you can set the sensitivity of the touch bezel. and i think now that the running beeping and the change of modes happened both times because i had the sensitivity set to 'most'. i changed it to that to most to make it easier to change settings. but. it was now way too easy and my stiff jacket sleeve bumped into the bezel and sent it commands. so i changed the setting from 'most' to 'I cant focking hear you'. and that did it. no surprises all day long on that - it just gave me the info i wanted. the battery lasts as long as the thing is gathering gps data. the day before after 2:30 of gps collection the battery was at 55%. so i figured i had about 5:30 of battery life today. i was thinking this would just be enough. i guessed we would get in about 5:30ish.
the plan was for the three of us to run the first 11 miles together at a doable pace. sheila wanted to run to the enchanted castle and then walk most of the rest of the way in. resa and i both thought that sounded good. but we were probably going to run on after that and see how well we could do on the day after a half marathon.
it was dark and we started off. the first section of the run ran us around epcot a bit. about a third of the way around the park and then out onto the main highway like the day before. going backwards from the direction we took the other day. had some small drama around us as it was even more crowded than the day before. but people were a lot slower too. the 20% or so of the people running the goofy were pretty tired and the good marathoners were way way up in front of us at the start. again we trotted along with everyone pretty much just comfy like. read a shirt that said "if found lying on road, please drag across finish line." another shirt i read the day before which i really liked was "My sport is your sport's punishment." harhar. :-)
about mile 4 and there is epcot again! wtf? we just left the giant silver ball thing and it shoes up again, i looked at the map for a while the night before and for sure you dont re-enter epcot until about mile 24. hmm... well... everyone else was going this way. we ran towards the ball for about 10 minutes before we realized it was a giant hot air balloon that looked just like epcot's big ball. pretty weird. so we stopped for our first picture. was the coldest moment of the day for me. the hand warmers totally kept me from being miserable and i was very glad to have them, but my hands were still too cold to move and i had to have resa pull the camera out of my pocket. sheila took a picture of the two of us in front of the balloon. and we trotted on.
our pace was about where i would have set it and all three of us seemed pretty happy to be trotting. the next event was the sunrise. i sang a few lines of "here comes the sun." and got a small group singing it as we ran around the corner and headed into the magic kingdom about mile 9. also today there were about 4-5 times as many spectators and things going on at the side of the road. the half was there and back and pretty business like. today was a pretty huge celebration of being there. all around us people were pretty happy. also being in the back of this pretty famous race we were in with a lot of first timers, goofy runners and walkers. was a pretty slow pace and not much you can do about it. it was fine with me. i was feeling a bit sore but pretty strong. an easy first 10, 16 to go.
i pointed out the spot i wiped out the day before. and the curb *was* a good 3 inches higher, right in the middle of the sidewalk. again we ran around the park a bit, down mainstreat usa. i slapped hands with the mayor and a few feet later his wife. but she was only blowing kisses. was pretty funny. then the castle was ahead of us and we stopped for a picture. actually a few of them. very fun. then we ran through the castle looking all around. out the other side and up through the old west town and out the back as we did the day before. i joked we needed an E ticket for the rides. but i think that is SO old school that nobody got it around me. ran past about 6 guys playing accordions. we got a long water stop and i checked the watch. we were doing ok. a bit slow. mile 11 and i was ready to run on. sheila had run her planned run so she was pretty happy too. at this point i would give me a 9 on the 10 scale for how i felt. much better than i had hoped. better than yesterday.
not resa.
her stomach had blown up bad. really bad. about as bad as her first 13 puke marathon. she was saying it felt as bad as she has ever felt. she didnt look all that good either.
or two biggest problems, by FAR are me getting bonked after mile 15ish. just too tired to even stagger forward. dizzy and unable to move. this has happened 4 times now. i wrote them up each time. and 3 of the 4 were due to lack of drinks on the run. just ran out of water. the last time, about a month ago was, i think, due to the 35 miles in 2 days plus tile work. i was thinking i had about a 40% chance of that happening to me during the marathon this time. but i felt much much better than i did at mile 11 the day before. the other big problem is what resa can eat. she doesnt seem to bonk ever, but she has bad stomach and good stomach days. and its like a light switch, no medium days, either all good or all bad. i think i just need a bit more running and better planning on the drinks and i will get past my trouble, but resa's was a mystery.
so we walk a half mile and i am ancy. i felt like running and was worried i would get really cold walking as i sweat about as much as the other two combined and i am not joking. i was totally wet from top to bottom. i dug out the extra hat i had taken off a few miles earlier and put that back on. my hands are now useless. i cant get food or anything else out of pockets. i know the hand warmers are keeping me from be in total pain but they are still too cold to use. and, i know the reason for this. i have thick running gloves i really like. but i ran them the day before and switched to thin ones today. so that could have been reversed...
sheila says she is going to pretty much walk it in from there. maybe do some small amount of running. i did the math on my watch and it looked like that would work. you have to get the thing done in 7 hours chip time or you dont get your goofy medal. resa said she needed to walk. she would puke if she ran. she drank waters and poweraids at every stop and kept that up the whole way. mostly water. so it wasnt that she was full of goos and bars and sugar.
i walked with them, they walk faster than i do. a lot faster than i like to actually. walk walk walk. i was thinking maybe resa would feel better after a few miles.
well. as they say about golf "a good walk spoiled". i didnt want to feel that way about it and after a mile i put all thoughts of running away. i was a bit bummed for the mile. but what can you do? so after a mile of moping we came upon goofy himself at 12. we stood in line for a picture for about 5-10 minutes and got our pic with him and mini mouse. just then mickey showed up and we got another with him and donald duck. cries of protest from all the people in the line. we were the only ones to get both sets of characters. this for some reason cheered me up considerably. heh. also the sun was now up and out. felt tons better. i warmed up finally. so my one dark mood mile came and went and the day was now not to run run run. but to fun fun fun.
we walked to mile 13 where a guy was taking picture on the skylift. we all walked right next to each other so the picture would come out with the three of us. resa told me to do something stupid. which i try to do at EVERY picture place. but if she hadnt told me i probably would have come up with something, but since she said too, i was stumped about what to do. i thought maybe the superflex muscleman thing or the standing backwards or doing some pointing thing. but in the end i walked with a confused look on my face past the camera guy. i think i did do the rocky balboa arms in the air at the last moment.
14,15,16,17 and resa is feeling slightly better. walking seems to help her stomach. but she was pretty close to total crash about mile 13-14ish. i am keeping track of our pace and for the first time in the day i am out in the front setting the pace at something that will get us done in time. i am getting more worried about our time. also thinking about what would happen if resa had to stop for a half hour or so.
about mile 16 and my foot is itchy. i thought the toe bandage and come lose and slid under my foot. it stung. i took off my sock and checked it but it was ok. i did it again about mile 17. right by the nasty sewage treatment plant. THAT would be fun in 80 degree weather. it was nasty even at about 34degrees. nothing going on with the sock so i put it back on and walk on. but it hurts.
we walk on at an ok pace. we walk through the animal kingdom. spent about 2 miles in there but we didnt slow down, just walked through. i was kinda pressing the walking pace a bit as the math was starting to look scary to me.
we exited the kingdom and did about 4 miles on the expressway again. guys doing the stilt walking and some more guys doing the extreme trampoline jumps. right on the edge of the over pass in the wind too. kids.
resa did some math too and asked me about my math and i said i was very confident that we were going to make it in time. i was very confident that the pace we were doing would be in time but if we had to slow down much i thought we would be in big trouble.
18,19,20,21 and my foot has gone through the roof in pain. i can hardly walk. and the other foot did it too. both feet are just screaming. i was afraid to take off my shoes now. i was thinking they would both be full of blood or something and i wouldnt get them back on. like hockey skates when you take a puck off your foot. leave the skate on! there were a few first aid stations but i dreaded sitting there and then being worse off.
so why the foot problems? walking. if i had known i would have run on from mile 11 and just waited each mile for them to catch up. running is bouncing off your foot. walking is pulling your foot across the shoe and i am obviously not in any way in walking shape. they walk fast and i was trying to walk fast too to keep us on a finishing pace. after the race i looked at my feet. both have blisters as large as a golfball or bigger. just not a walker i guess. not sure i am going to work on that either. last time this happened was the 15 hour walk on the way down kilimajaro.
mile 22 and some chick is handing out oranges and pretzels. resa takes a bunch. 5 minutes later she is ready to sprint home. totally better. so i think we have her stomach figured. which would make the entire trip worth it. i really think we have an answer to her problem now and thats really huge as we have both worried about it for the last 6 months.
sheila was fairly indifferent about running and i was barely moving. doing the one legged shuffle thing. ouch, ouch, ouch. each step, both feet hurt a ton.
about mile 22 my watch dies. no more battery... and i am worried about time now. it was getting close. and i was going a lot slower. sometimes resa and sheila are just happily chattering away looking at one thing and another like walking in the mall and i am about 30 feet back and thinking i wont be able to finish. pain dont hurt.
23,24 and we are going through the studios. the movie place. which i liked a lot. tons of crowds and everyone is walking around us. there is one runner every several hundred walkers. so at least we are not clogging things up. we take several pictures.
oddly my legs are great. everything else is great. my banged knees are good, i am warm and my hands are working again. everything is perfect. except 10 square inches on the bottom of my feet.
25 and we are back in epcot. lots of people milling and we get some more pictures. for the first time i start asking sheila every few hundred feet what our time was. it was getting close. we go through germany and i wonder where my hunger went. actually it was with me. it was after lunch. resa saw a great garden railroad, and i was very tempted to check it out, but i was just too worried about our time. at about 25 people start saying half mile to go!!! they say that for the next mile. i hate that. its hard to hear that and not believe it. someone told us we were looking goofy. harhar. a 14 year old girl looked at all the people walking and said 'all you have to do is walk 26 miles?' made me laugh. i couldnt walk 15 miles.
mile 26 under the big epcot ball and we get our first mile marker picture. i look at the timer. we had almost 6 minutes to finish and i finally let out a sigh of relief. i was doing the math in my head after my watch died, and wasnt sure one way or the other on the last few miles. we handed the camera to an employee and used our hands to cover up the clock and got a picture at mile 26. i can tell everyone it was reading 3:17 or something. not 7:17.
what the heck, cant walk over the finish line. we run the last 100 yards. resa looking jumpy and ready to start a long run. sheila looking pretty darn happy and me trying not to fall.
over the line. less than 4 minutes before cutoff. lol. what a weird day.
we walked to the tent. actually resa and sheila walked to the goofy tent. i stopped and stood there a bit. then decided i was done walking for the day. so i shuffled a foot out and dragged the other one up. did this for about 3 - 4 minutes and got to the goofy tent. resa and sheila were already going to the food line. as you would imagine with 4 minutes left there were probably about 3 people on the course not yet in for goofy. some chick was behind the rope holding my medal. she was doing a staged bored look. staring at the ceiling, whistling. she held the medal about face high and was swinging it back and forth. doop-dee-doo. i laughed... was perfect. so i went over and asked "can i please has one?" and she broke into a huge smile and put it over my head. awesome.
for about 2 seconds. it weighed a FOCKING TON. it was like having a small dog around your neck. lol.
i shuffled through food and then started to the car. resa and sheila were nice enough to go very very slow with me. i finally got to the car and then to the hotel where i checked my feet. nasty.
pretty medals. we will keep them a few weeks and then out they go to medalsformetal and then on to the kids in the hospital.
wednesday morning back in canton and i cant walk yet. but its better each day. i would guess a week before my next run...
end of phase 3. phase 4, the hardest one starts in a week or 10 days...
ironman training. fock fock fock. finally the base building is done.
the second half of the marathon was a disaster, but the training was certainly not. right now, today i feel very good about things.
i give us a 7 on the 10 scale for getting ready for ironman. time to get ugly.
again we got up at 4:00 (about an hour after the football coaches went to bed) and headed out at 4:30, at least this time the sky was clear. today we tried extra hard to all stay together. i was feeling pretty good. my prep was pretty good too. the body glide everywhere and all the bandages. had them on knees too. and the usual toe. and both knee braces on. went with the same setup in clothes as the previous day - lucky i brought about 4 pairs of everything... added hand warmers this time for the chillier day.
again we get to the parking lot in plenty of time. passing all the cars in the wrong lane. we must have pased a good several thousand runners on the way in. today the race went from 15k to 25k people running. much more crowded in the parking lot and we park about 34 miles from the start. the temp says only a few degrees colder but it feels a lot colder for some reason. and its not even sleeting today. i was glad i had the hand warmers in my gloves. also doubled up the hat and wore the trash bag over all my stuff.
we stuck together and made our way past the first ( and over crowded ) port-a-pots to the second or third wave of them. still plenty of people around waiting. we took the corner line in the box of potties as that line always moves the fastest in joe louis arena bathrooms. it worked again, our line went many times faster than those around us and we were in and out in about 5 minutes versus 30 the day before.
on the walk to the start sheila thinks maybe the shorts were a bit aggressive as far as clothing goes and happens along some sweats someone had dumped off. perfect fit, and she wears these till about mile 11ish.
again we miss our assigned pen, just cant get there fast enough. its not that we are so late, or that there are so many people. its that you park so far from the start that gets you. so if you do this race, you just have to be on-site about an hour min before the start to get in the pen you want to be in. for the half this was kinda important as our plan was to set half personal bests and then go whatever speed the day allowed on the full. so we got close but not to our pen. we waited about 10 minutes and then off in the distance the fireworks go off for our section and about 10 minutes later we are running. i hear NY doesnt do this - its all one ginormous start and you can wait a long time at the back to get to the starting line. the race we did in cape town on our bikes a few years ago was more extreme. there are about 100k bikers and they send you out in groups of 500 at a time. to spread it out a bit. you have to qualify for that one and we worked at it for about a year. and got a pretty decent start position. about half way through the pack. we still got to see the winners come home before we started though. and the race was 100 miles.
this time i managed to start my watch at the beginning of the race. :-) the day before it went into other modes on me when i didnt want it too. and a few weeks ago it made beeping noises every time i moved my arm. so i did some playing around with it to see what was up. turns out you can set the sensitivity of the touch bezel. and i think now that the running beeping and the change of modes happened both times because i had the sensitivity set to 'most'. i changed it to that to most to make it easier to change settings. but. it was now way too easy and my stiff jacket sleeve bumped into the bezel and sent it commands. so i changed the setting from 'most' to 'I cant focking hear you'. and that did it. no surprises all day long on that - it just gave me the info i wanted. the battery lasts as long as the thing is gathering gps data. the day before after 2:30 of gps collection the battery was at 55%. so i figured i had about 5:30 of battery life today. i was thinking this would just be enough. i guessed we would get in about 5:30ish.
the plan was for the three of us to run the first 11 miles together at a doable pace. sheila wanted to run to the enchanted castle and then walk most of the rest of the way in. resa and i both thought that sounded good. but we were probably going to run on after that and see how well we could do on the day after a half marathon.
it was dark and we started off. the first section of the run ran us around epcot a bit. about a third of the way around the park and then out onto the main highway like the day before. going backwards from the direction we took the other day. had some small drama around us as it was even more crowded than the day before. but people were a lot slower too. the 20% or so of the people running the goofy were pretty tired and the good marathoners were way way up in front of us at the start. again we trotted along with everyone pretty much just comfy like. read a shirt that said "if found lying on road, please drag across finish line." another shirt i read the day before which i really liked was "My sport is your sport's punishment." harhar. :-)
about mile 4 and there is epcot again! wtf? we just left the giant silver ball thing and it shoes up again, i looked at the map for a while the night before and for sure you dont re-enter epcot until about mile 24. hmm... well... everyone else was going this way. we ran towards the ball for about 10 minutes before we realized it was a giant hot air balloon that looked just like epcot's big ball. pretty weird. so we stopped for our first picture. was the coldest moment of the day for me. the hand warmers totally kept me from being miserable and i was very glad to have them, but my hands were still too cold to move and i had to have resa pull the camera out of my pocket. sheila took a picture of the two of us in front of the balloon. and we trotted on.
our pace was about where i would have set it and all three of us seemed pretty happy to be trotting. the next event was the sunrise. i sang a few lines of "here comes the sun." and got a small group singing it as we ran around the corner and headed into the magic kingdom about mile 9. also today there were about 4-5 times as many spectators and things going on at the side of the road. the half was there and back and pretty business like. today was a pretty huge celebration of being there. all around us people were pretty happy. also being in the back of this pretty famous race we were in with a lot of first timers, goofy runners and walkers. was a pretty slow pace and not much you can do about it. it was fine with me. i was feeling a bit sore but pretty strong. an easy first 10, 16 to go.
i pointed out the spot i wiped out the day before. and the curb *was* a good 3 inches higher, right in the middle of the sidewalk. again we ran around the park a bit, down mainstreat usa. i slapped hands with the mayor and a few feet later his wife. but she was only blowing kisses. was pretty funny. then the castle was ahead of us and we stopped for a picture. actually a few of them. very fun. then we ran through the castle looking all around. out the other side and up through the old west town and out the back as we did the day before. i joked we needed an E ticket for the rides. but i think that is SO old school that nobody got it around me. ran past about 6 guys playing accordions. we got a long water stop and i checked the watch. we were doing ok. a bit slow. mile 11 and i was ready to run on. sheila had run her planned run so she was pretty happy too. at this point i would give me a 9 on the 10 scale for how i felt. much better than i had hoped. better than yesterday.
not resa.
her stomach had blown up bad. really bad. about as bad as her first 13 puke marathon. she was saying it felt as bad as she has ever felt. she didnt look all that good either.
or two biggest problems, by FAR are me getting bonked after mile 15ish. just too tired to even stagger forward. dizzy and unable to move. this has happened 4 times now. i wrote them up each time. and 3 of the 4 were due to lack of drinks on the run. just ran out of water. the last time, about a month ago was, i think, due to the 35 miles in 2 days plus tile work. i was thinking i had about a 40% chance of that happening to me during the marathon this time. but i felt much much better than i did at mile 11 the day before. the other big problem is what resa can eat. she doesnt seem to bonk ever, but she has bad stomach and good stomach days. and its like a light switch, no medium days, either all good or all bad. i think i just need a bit more running and better planning on the drinks and i will get past my trouble, but resa's was a mystery.
so we walk a half mile and i am ancy. i felt like running and was worried i would get really cold walking as i sweat about as much as the other two combined and i am not joking. i was totally wet from top to bottom. i dug out the extra hat i had taken off a few miles earlier and put that back on. my hands are now useless. i cant get food or anything else out of pockets. i know the hand warmers are keeping me from be in total pain but they are still too cold to use. and, i know the reason for this. i have thick running gloves i really like. but i ran them the day before and switched to thin ones today. so that could have been reversed...
sheila says she is going to pretty much walk it in from there. maybe do some small amount of running. i did the math on my watch and it looked like that would work. you have to get the thing done in 7 hours chip time or you dont get your goofy medal. resa said she needed to walk. she would puke if she ran. she drank waters and poweraids at every stop and kept that up the whole way. mostly water. so it wasnt that she was full of goos and bars and sugar.
i walked with them, they walk faster than i do. a lot faster than i like to actually. walk walk walk. i was thinking maybe resa would feel better after a few miles.
well. as they say about golf "a good walk spoiled". i didnt want to feel that way about it and after a mile i put all thoughts of running away. i was a bit bummed for the mile. but what can you do? so after a mile of moping we came upon goofy himself at 12. we stood in line for a picture for about 5-10 minutes and got our pic with him and mini mouse. just then mickey showed up and we got another with him and donald duck. cries of protest from all the people in the line. we were the only ones to get both sets of characters. this for some reason cheered me up considerably. heh. also the sun was now up and out. felt tons better. i warmed up finally. so my one dark mood mile came and went and the day was now not to run run run. but to fun fun fun.
we walked to mile 13 where a guy was taking picture on the skylift. we all walked right next to each other so the picture would come out with the three of us. resa told me to do something stupid. which i try to do at EVERY picture place. but if she hadnt told me i probably would have come up with something, but since she said too, i was stumped about what to do. i thought maybe the superflex muscleman thing or the standing backwards or doing some pointing thing. but in the end i walked with a confused look on my face past the camera guy. i think i did do the rocky balboa arms in the air at the last moment.
14,15,16,17 and resa is feeling slightly better. walking seems to help her stomach. but she was pretty close to total crash about mile 13-14ish. i am keeping track of our pace and for the first time in the day i am out in the front setting the pace at something that will get us done in time. i am getting more worried about our time. also thinking about what would happen if resa had to stop for a half hour or so.
about mile 16 and my foot is itchy. i thought the toe bandage and come lose and slid under my foot. it stung. i took off my sock and checked it but it was ok. i did it again about mile 17. right by the nasty sewage treatment plant. THAT would be fun in 80 degree weather. it was nasty even at about 34degrees. nothing going on with the sock so i put it back on and walk on. but it hurts.
we walk on at an ok pace. we walk through the animal kingdom. spent about 2 miles in there but we didnt slow down, just walked through. i was kinda pressing the walking pace a bit as the math was starting to look scary to me.
we exited the kingdom and did about 4 miles on the expressway again. guys doing the stilt walking and some more guys doing the extreme trampoline jumps. right on the edge of the over pass in the wind too. kids.
resa did some math too and asked me about my math and i said i was very confident that we were going to make it in time. i was very confident that the pace we were doing would be in time but if we had to slow down much i thought we would be in big trouble.
18,19,20,21 and my foot has gone through the roof in pain. i can hardly walk. and the other foot did it too. both feet are just screaming. i was afraid to take off my shoes now. i was thinking they would both be full of blood or something and i wouldnt get them back on. like hockey skates when you take a puck off your foot. leave the skate on! there were a few first aid stations but i dreaded sitting there and then being worse off.
so why the foot problems? walking. if i had known i would have run on from mile 11 and just waited each mile for them to catch up. running is bouncing off your foot. walking is pulling your foot across the shoe and i am obviously not in any way in walking shape. they walk fast and i was trying to walk fast too to keep us on a finishing pace. after the race i looked at my feet. both have blisters as large as a golfball or bigger. just not a walker i guess. not sure i am going to work on that either. last time this happened was the 15 hour walk on the way down kilimajaro.
mile 22 and some chick is handing out oranges and pretzels. resa takes a bunch. 5 minutes later she is ready to sprint home. totally better. so i think we have her stomach figured. which would make the entire trip worth it. i really think we have an answer to her problem now and thats really huge as we have both worried about it for the last 6 months.
sheila was fairly indifferent about running and i was barely moving. doing the one legged shuffle thing. ouch, ouch, ouch. each step, both feet hurt a ton.
about mile 22 my watch dies. no more battery... and i am worried about time now. it was getting close. and i was going a lot slower. sometimes resa and sheila are just happily chattering away looking at one thing and another like walking in the mall and i am about 30 feet back and thinking i wont be able to finish. pain dont hurt.
23,24 and we are going through the studios. the movie place. which i liked a lot. tons of crowds and everyone is walking around us. there is one runner every several hundred walkers. so at least we are not clogging things up. we take several pictures.
oddly my legs are great. everything else is great. my banged knees are good, i am warm and my hands are working again. everything is perfect. except 10 square inches on the bottom of my feet.
25 and we are back in epcot. lots of people milling and we get some more pictures. for the first time i start asking sheila every few hundred feet what our time was. it was getting close. we go through germany and i wonder where my hunger went. actually it was with me. it was after lunch. resa saw a great garden railroad, and i was very tempted to check it out, but i was just too worried about our time. at about 25 people start saying half mile to go!!! they say that for the next mile. i hate that. its hard to hear that and not believe it. someone told us we were looking goofy. harhar. a 14 year old girl looked at all the people walking and said 'all you have to do is walk 26 miles?' made me laugh. i couldnt walk 15 miles.
mile 26 under the big epcot ball and we get our first mile marker picture. i look at the timer. we had almost 6 minutes to finish and i finally let out a sigh of relief. i was doing the math in my head after my watch died, and wasnt sure one way or the other on the last few miles. we handed the camera to an employee and used our hands to cover up the clock and got a picture at mile 26. i can tell everyone it was reading 3:17 or something. not 7:17.
what the heck, cant walk over the finish line. we run the last 100 yards. resa looking jumpy and ready to start a long run. sheila looking pretty darn happy and me trying not to fall.
over the line. less than 4 minutes before cutoff. lol. what a weird day.
we walked to the tent. actually resa and sheila walked to the goofy tent. i stopped and stood there a bit. then decided i was done walking for the day. so i shuffled a foot out and dragged the other one up. did this for about 3 - 4 minutes and got to the goofy tent. resa and sheila were already going to the food line. as you would imagine with 4 minutes left there were probably about 3 people on the course not yet in for goofy. some chick was behind the rope holding my medal. she was doing a staged bored look. staring at the ceiling, whistling. she held the medal about face high and was swinging it back and forth. doop-dee-doo. i laughed... was perfect. so i went over and asked "can i please has one?" and she broke into a huge smile and put it over my head. awesome.
for about 2 seconds. it weighed a FOCKING TON. it was like having a small dog around your neck. lol.
i shuffled through food and then started to the car. resa and sheila were nice enough to go very very slow with me. i finally got to the car and then to the hotel where i checked my feet. nasty.
pretty medals. we will keep them a few weeks and then out they go to medalsformetal and then on to the kids in the hospital.
wednesday morning back in canton and i cant walk yet. but its better each day. i would guess a week before my next run...
end of phase 3. phase 4, the hardest one starts in a week or 10 days...
ironman training. fock fock fock. finally the base building is done.
the second half of the marathon was a disaster, but the training was certainly not. right now, today i feel very good about things.
i give us a 7 on the 10 scale for getting ready for ironman. time to get ugly.
Tuesday, January 12, 2010
Goofy Half.
the half marathon is the first of the two runs.
resa, sheila and i got up at 4:30 and drove to the start. it was 32 degrees out and raining. actually sleeting. in florida. wtf?
well, anyway we get there and are all set. sheila and i decide to use the bathroom. unfortunately the port-a-pot line was huge there. about 30 minutes in line. and pretty cold too.
while in line resa heard the starting announcements and they said last call for start. so she took off after looking for us. sadly we were still in line. resa had a good run. about 2:19 on the clock, which is a personal best for her. but i didnt see her until at the car after the race. real bummer that all happened.
sheila and i walked to the start together, past about 7,520ish open port-a-pots. gads. that sucked!
after about a mile of walking we reached a long straight road that had all the runners on it. 15thousand people started the race. when we got there it was down to the last 5 thousand or so. sheila wanted to start in the back and i wanted to find resa in our starting pen so we split up... i next saw her at the car too... which means i ran alone.
which to me is like going to the bar alone. somewhat fun but much funner going with someone you know. i would rather be slow with someone than fast alone. ah well.
i hurried to get to the back of the pack that resa and i had planned on being in, but i was too late. they closed the gate about 2 seconds before i got there. gads. it was a rope they just grabbed and yanked in the way, then a bunch of guys stood in the way. i asked if i could just run out to meet my wife but they were not to happy with the idea and i really wasn't sure where she would be anyway. so i stood there while they filled up the pen. with the entire rest of the field of 5000 people. and i was in the front row. it took about 10 minutes before they let people go out running again so i stood there looking around.
there is a master of ceremonies guy that does the video and race announcements. he walked over to do an interview for a few minutes.
with me.
"whats your name sir?" he asked me with the tv lights and camera guys all closing in.
"ken?" i suggested.
"where you from ken?"
"canton, ohio" i stammered. i had just came from the hotel in florida, stayed the last 2 months in alabama and just moved a few months before that from michigan to ohio. i had no idea where i was from. five thousand people thought that was pretty cool though. fun to hear your voice booming from several hundred speakers over a few square miles of land.
at the back of the pack of runners sheila heard me but didnt know it was me. she thought it would be cool if i heard the guy from my home town.
"Ah, football hall of fame is there... so, ken, is this your first time?"
again the 15 things you think. first one here? first one ever? first half and full combination? first time ever in shoes? what???
"my first time here." i hopefully guessed.
"wonderful, i hope you enjoy, hey! you are running the Goofy Race!"
"yep."
"thats a half today and a full marathon tomorrow!"
"yep."
"ever do that before?"
"never."
"ah, have you ever run this half marathon before?"
again, any half or this one?
"first time here."
"well, enjoy your day. and now to our countdown!"
they all walked away from the start. and they did the 10,9,8 thing. at zero they dropped the rope and off we all went.
me first! for some reason getting interviewed made everyone stay back a step or two and i lead out the whole field for the first mile. very weird. i was going about 9:30 pace which is fast for me and probably fast for the field be gads i was a bit wired up. there was a huge section of people watching the guys run out and i would bet most of those thousands were watching me. about a half mile out i did a test on this by doing the arms lifting thing and the hand to the ear thing and a big roar came out of the crowd.
i wished i could have told the guy i was using the half marathon to train for the full one. resa told me the day before someone at her work was coming down for their first ever half and they started training a week before. ran like 5 miles a day for the last 6 days in a row. sounded like a great plan.
so anyway i am running along, about mile 2 and i am passed by about 400 people and we catch the walkers from the previous group.
ARG! i HATE that. people that walk and start at the front of a race. columbus has walkers on the starting line with the elite athletes. takes 5 miles to get around all of them.
not so goofy. they have to prove they belong in the starting pen by previous race times. but i guess that doesnt force them to run that fast. and so the walkers start. i finally got through the last of the walkers about mile 11ish. the last 2 miles there were no walkers.
the first 6 miles are on big open roads. very good for running, if not very interesting. also we are into the wind and sleet. the stuff i wore was perfect for temps though. very good picks on clothes. i give my prep a 9 on the ten scale. went great. other than losing my running buddy that is.
so 6 miles go by and i am wondering if i should go for a good time or just enjoy the day. and when you cant decide which to do you do neither. which would really suck. but i was thinking after all the tile work from the last few days i wouldnt be able to break 2:30. or my best ever 2:25. so i just settled in and tried to listen to my body.
which was probably a mistake. i should either go for it or not i finally thought. might as well try to run faster and see what i get. so at mile 6 i put the hammer down and sped up. but just then we entered the magic kingdom. the 4 lane expressway turned into a one lane walking path. with 15 thousand people on it. plus the kingdom was right there. someone decided to take a picture of the castle. this is hard to do while running. so they stopped. right in the way.
i dodged sideways to my left and ran on a sidewalk, down a very steep hill. and caught a HUGE change in elevation in the cement. it was very dark and slippery. and the cement curb was about 3 inches high. they had a guy standing there with a light and he was pointing out the curb to all the runners. but i just got done dodging sideways. was running at my fastest for the day, downhill and i had just decided to go quicker.
i FLEW into the magic kingdom like peter pan.
sadly i didnt land like peter pan. i had caught the curb perfect. got some good air, landed on both knees and hands, chin, chest and one elbow. might have also landed on mr happy, but the other things hurt too much to be sure. the i slid down the sidewalk about 10 or so feet on my chest, ripping off my number and burning up my knees and hands. again, just like columbus i got the big OOOWWW from about 100 people around me. and the weirdest part was the guy yelling behind me "You Okay Ken?" i lay there a few seconds. how did he read my name so fast? it was pretty amazing. i got up and walked a few minutes. my hands and left knee hurt the worst. bloodied both knees but it was impact not scrapping that hurt more, both knees hurt. was hard to get running again.
spent the next mile sullenly plodding along. about 300 feet after the wipeout an automated message announced "Caution, road narrows, Caution, road narrows..." caution. well i got a laugh there.
i started running again. through the park as the sun started coming up. hard to tell in the rain though.
ran sore and kinda angry through the park. and it was crowded. several times i had to just walk behind people taking pictures or just going slow looking at stuff.
after the park we got back on the roads and i ran it home. i was pretty gassed at the end. the tiles finally cashed me out about mile 11. i walked a bit. and i was the ONLY one doing it. most people were running in the last 2 miles now. i got passed by a few thousand people in the last two miles but it was all in all not bad.
my new watch again decided to show me some stuff i had no interest in. this time it was a compass. i didnt even know it could be a compass. but it SURE wanted me to. so i forced it somehow into pace mode again. i did some fast math and figured with a strong finish i could still get my best ever.
so i picked it up and ground out the last mile.
and did get my new personal best time. 2:23 on my watch, 2:24 on the chip, not sure the difference - i think i screwed up the start with the interview and got my watch started a minute late. so 2:25 was my personal best. now its 2:24. :-)
a really bad weather day, about 30 degrees colder than normal and sleet.
we went to the pool to recover and started hydrating and eating like a crazy. i felt really strong in my legs for running a 13 mile race. my knees hurt but not badly. no other race issues.
i was ready for the Marathon.
heh. 1/3 done.
resa, sheila and i got up at 4:30 and drove to the start. it was 32 degrees out and raining. actually sleeting. in florida. wtf?
well, anyway we get there and are all set. sheila and i decide to use the bathroom. unfortunately the port-a-pot line was huge there. about 30 minutes in line. and pretty cold too.
while in line resa heard the starting announcements and they said last call for start. so she took off after looking for us. sadly we were still in line. resa had a good run. about 2:19 on the clock, which is a personal best for her. but i didnt see her until at the car after the race. real bummer that all happened.
sheila and i walked to the start together, past about 7,520ish open port-a-pots. gads. that sucked!
after about a mile of walking we reached a long straight road that had all the runners on it. 15thousand people started the race. when we got there it was down to the last 5 thousand or so. sheila wanted to start in the back and i wanted to find resa in our starting pen so we split up... i next saw her at the car too... which means i ran alone.
which to me is like going to the bar alone. somewhat fun but much funner going with someone you know. i would rather be slow with someone than fast alone. ah well.
i hurried to get to the back of the pack that resa and i had planned on being in, but i was too late. they closed the gate about 2 seconds before i got there. gads. it was a rope they just grabbed and yanked in the way, then a bunch of guys stood in the way. i asked if i could just run out to meet my wife but they were not to happy with the idea and i really wasn't sure where she would be anyway. so i stood there while they filled up the pen. with the entire rest of the field of 5000 people. and i was in the front row. it took about 10 minutes before they let people go out running again so i stood there looking around.
there is a master of ceremonies guy that does the video and race announcements. he walked over to do an interview for a few minutes.
with me.
"whats your name sir?" he asked me with the tv lights and camera guys all closing in.
"ken?" i suggested.
"where you from ken?"
"canton, ohio" i stammered. i had just came from the hotel in florida, stayed the last 2 months in alabama and just moved a few months before that from michigan to ohio. i had no idea where i was from. five thousand people thought that was pretty cool though. fun to hear your voice booming from several hundred speakers over a few square miles of land.
at the back of the pack of runners sheila heard me but didnt know it was me. she thought it would be cool if i heard the guy from my home town.
"Ah, football hall of fame is there... so, ken, is this your first time?"
again the 15 things you think. first one here? first one ever? first half and full combination? first time ever in shoes? what???
"my first time here." i hopefully guessed.
"wonderful, i hope you enjoy, hey! you are running the Goofy Race!"
"yep."
"thats a half today and a full marathon tomorrow!"
"yep."
"ever do that before?"
"never."
"ah, have you ever run this half marathon before?"
again, any half or this one?
"first time here."
"well, enjoy your day. and now to our countdown!"
they all walked away from the start. and they did the 10,9,8 thing. at zero they dropped the rope and off we all went.
me first! for some reason getting interviewed made everyone stay back a step or two and i lead out the whole field for the first mile. very weird. i was going about 9:30 pace which is fast for me and probably fast for the field be gads i was a bit wired up. there was a huge section of people watching the guys run out and i would bet most of those thousands were watching me. about a half mile out i did a test on this by doing the arms lifting thing and the hand to the ear thing and a big roar came out of the crowd.
i wished i could have told the guy i was using the half marathon to train for the full one. resa told me the day before someone at her work was coming down for their first ever half and they started training a week before. ran like 5 miles a day for the last 6 days in a row. sounded like a great plan.
so anyway i am running along, about mile 2 and i am passed by about 400 people and we catch the walkers from the previous group.
ARG! i HATE that. people that walk and start at the front of a race. columbus has walkers on the starting line with the elite athletes. takes 5 miles to get around all of them.
not so goofy. they have to prove they belong in the starting pen by previous race times. but i guess that doesnt force them to run that fast. and so the walkers start. i finally got through the last of the walkers about mile 11ish. the last 2 miles there were no walkers.
the first 6 miles are on big open roads. very good for running, if not very interesting. also we are into the wind and sleet. the stuff i wore was perfect for temps though. very good picks on clothes. i give my prep a 9 on the ten scale. went great. other than losing my running buddy that is.
so 6 miles go by and i am wondering if i should go for a good time or just enjoy the day. and when you cant decide which to do you do neither. which would really suck. but i was thinking after all the tile work from the last few days i wouldnt be able to break 2:30. or my best ever 2:25. so i just settled in and tried to listen to my body.
which was probably a mistake. i should either go for it or not i finally thought. might as well try to run faster and see what i get. so at mile 6 i put the hammer down and sped up. but just then we entered the magic kingdom. the 4 lane expressway turned into a one lane walking path. with 15 thousand people on it. plus the kingdom was right there. someone decided to take a picture of the castle. this is hard to do while running. so they stopped. right in the way.
i dodged sideways to my left and ran on a sidewalk, down a very steep hill. and caught a HUGE change in elevation in the cement. it was very dark and slippery. and the cement curb was about 3 inches high. they had a guy standing there with a light and he was pointing out the curb to all the runners. but i just got done dodging sideways. was running at my fastest for the day, downhill and i had just decided to go quicker.
i FLEW into the magic kingdom like peter pan.
sadly i didnt land like peter pan. i had caught the curb perfect. got some good air, landed on both knees and hands, chin, chest and one elbow. might have also landed on mr happy, but the other things hurt too much to be sure. the i slid down the sidewalk about 10 or so feet on my chest, ripping off my number and burning up my knees and hands. again, just like columbus i got the big OOOWWW from about 100 people around me. and the weirdest part was the guy yelling behind me "You Okay Ken?" i lay there a few seconds. how did he read my name so fast? it was pretty amazing. i got up and walked a few minutes. my hands and left knee hurt the worst. bloodied both knees but it was impact not scrapping that hurt more, both knees hurt. was hard to get running again.
spent the next mile sullenly plodding along. about 300 feet after the wipeout an automated message announced "Caution, road narrows, Caution, road narrows..." caution. well i got a laugh there.
i started running again. through the park as the sun started coming up. hard to tell in the rain though.
ran sore and kinda angry through the park. and it was crowded. several times i had to just walk behind people taking pictures or just going slow looking at stuff.
after the park we got back on the roads and i ran it home. i was pretty gassed at the end. the tiles finally cashed me out about mile 11. i walked a bit. and i was the ONLY one doing it. most people were running in the last 2 miles now. i got passed by a few thousand people in the last two miles but it was all in all not bad.
my new watch again decided to show me some stuff i had no interest in. this time it was a compass. i didnt even know it could be a compass. but it SURE wanted me to. so i forced it somehow into pace mode again. i did some fast math and figured with a strong finish i could still get my best ever.
so i picked it up and ground out the last mile.
and did get my new personal best time. 2:23 on my watch, 2:24 on the chip, not sure the difference - i think i screwed up the start with the interview and got my watch started a minute late. so 2:25 was my personal best. now its 2:24. :-)
a really bad weather day, about 30 degrees colder than normal and sleet.
we went to the pool to recover and started hydrating and eating like a crazy. i felt really strong in my legs for running a 13 mile race. my knees hurt but not badly. no other race issues.
i was ready for the Marathon.
heh. 1/3 done.
Thursday, January 7, 2010
heading to florida
well, finally it is here. the trip to florida starts in a few hours and i am shutting down the computer till i get back next week.
the last 4 months or so were a build up to this weekend. not really an end to a workout, but the end of our base phase. we wanted to get our running up so that we could have longer workouts without getting dead. i think we did that. for sure i am in better shape now, running wise at least than i have ever been before in my life.
so, i would give the whole 4 months a 9 on the ten scale. had some pretty rough days in there, but all in all it did about what i was hoping it would. i guess my only thought was i was thinking i would be about 10 pounds lighter. i think i drink too many calories! well, thats going to get addressed in the next couple weeks as we turn our attention to the big one in canada in the fall. creeps me out just thinking about it. :-)
for this weekend, our goals were to run the half in about 2:20 and the full in about 5:10ish. once again i had to spend the last few days doing the last of the tile work here in alabama, and i think i probably pissed away those times by doing it. really kinda hard on me mentally knowing i am taking minutes off my time for every hour i spend on my knees doing the tiles. but they are done now, and someone else can come down and do the next project when it comes up. there are 4 of us working on stuff, and this time was my turn to spend a few months here. probably wont do that again for 5 or more years. hopefully!
but, resa is still hopeful for our best ever half and i will go as hard and long as i can to get it too. just... ah.. just thinking maybe i missed it this time. well, its only another training run. :-)
my thoughts now are 2:30 and 5:30 for me. i think i can swing that even with trashed legs. so thats the prediction if not the goal.
see all you guys on the other side. 2 weeks off then the ironman 2 a days start and i should have a whole new set of drama for you. :-)
- ken, done with stage 3 of 4.
the last 4 months or so were a build up to this weekend. not really an end to a workout, but the end of our base phase. we wanted to get our running up so that we could have longer workouts without getting dead. i think we did that. for sure i am in better shape now, running wise at least than i have ever been before in my life.
so, i would give the whole 4 months a 9 on the ten scale. had some pretty rough days in there, but all in all it did about what i was hoping it would. i guess my only thought was i was thinking i would be about 10 pounds lighter. i think i drink too many calories! well, thats going to get addressed in the next couple weeks as we turn our attention to the big one in canada in the fall. creeps me out just thinking about it. :-)
for this weekend, our goals were to run the half in about 2:20 and the full in about 5:10ish. once again i had to spend the last few days doing the last of the tile work here in alabama, and i think i probably pissed away those times by doing it. really kinda hard on me mentally knowing i am taking minutes off my time for every hour i spend on my knees doing the tiles. but they are done now, and someone else can come down and do the next project when it comes up. there are 4 of us working on stuff, and this time was my turn to spend a few months here. probably wont do that again for 5 or more years. hopefully!
but, resa is still hopeful for our best ever half and i will go as hard and long as i can to get it too. just... ah.. just thinking maybe i missed it this time. well, its only another training run. :-)
my thoughts now are 2:30 and 5:30 for me. i think i can swing that even with trashed legs. so thats the prediction if not the goal.
see all you guys on the other side. 2 weeks off then the ironman 2 a days start and i should have a whole new set of drama for you. :-)
- ken, done with stage 3 of 4.
Tuesday, January 5, 2010
taper taper taper
worked last time - but it sure is a mind thingy. this taper stuff. not nearly has hard as the last one though... mostly has its not my first marathon anymore i think. also its more of a long workout weekend rather than anything special. but it is the end of a phase. the 3rd or 4. so after the race on the weekend we take a week or so off - meaning mostly just swimming and a lot of weight lifting. then its on to the 24 weeks of ironman training. hard to believe the race is this year. it was always next year. not no more.
ran a 10 last weekend. nothing really new. the watch has been told to be quite and i figured out how to download the data to the computer. so all set with that. also we ran a 6 mile run a few days ago - used the data to plot our route on the google earth program - pretty darn cool that. the pace thing is nice too. has us running a bit faster, running 9:55 miles is not much harder than 10:05 miles. but sure looks tons better on the watch!
well, wish us luck. 40 mile run in a few days.
also watched the Running the Sahara movie. pretty interesting. lots of drama. three pretty different personalities. the canadian guy was the best person of the three runners. the us guy was an asshole and the taiwan guy was pretty quite and probably had the worst run. they ran about 40 miles a day for 111 days. no days off. pretty insane.
ran a 10 last weekend. nothing really new. the watch has been told to be quite and i figured out how to download the data to the computer. so all set with that. also we ran a 6 mile run a few days ago - used the data to plot our route on the google earth program - pretty darn cool that. the pace thing is nice too. has us running a bit faster, running 9:55 miles is not much harder than 10:05 miles. but sure looks tons better on the watch!
well, wish us luck. 40 mile run in a few days.
also watched the Running the Sahara movie. pretty interesting. lots of drama. three pretty different personalities. the canadian guy was the best person of the three runners. the us guy was an asshole and the taiwan guy was pretty quite and probably had the worst run. they ran about 40 miles a day for 111 days. no days off. pretty insane.
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