Summer Doldrums

Okay, so it's been almost two months since my last event, the poorly-organized, insanely hot and humid Pasadena Half Marathon.  I took a little time off after that, and then of course shut it down completely a couple weeks ago to deal with what I believe was tendinitis in my left foot.  Now I'm all healed up and back in the groove, training hard for a very busy fall season.  I had entered a local event, the Hangar Half Marathon, but that race has been canceled for "reasons beyond our control."  This is the same race director who canceled his last race as well.  Fool me once, shame on you, etc. etc.

Beach Cities medal.  The Holy Grail.

So my next event is a very local and very small 5K, coming up on September 21.  I don't think it's even officially timed, and there's no finishers' medal.  Just a t-shirt and a run, hanging out with some of my school people and other friends.  Nothing wrong with any of that, of course.  Then comes a slightly bigger 5K on October 12, which Theresa and I entered specifically for the very cool, Halloween-themed skull medal.  That race kicks off my very first two-event weekend, as we're going right from the 5K to the expo for the much larger Long Beach International  City Bank Marathon & Half Marathon.  I'm running the half, and Theresa is just going along for support this time.  We're staying overnight in Long Beach, and the race is bright and early on Sunday, October 13.  This race will be the second in a three-race trilogy called the Beach Cities Challenge.  Runners who complete a major race (half or full) at the OC Marathon, Long Beach Marathon, and Surf City Marathon earn a special "Beach Cities Challenge" medal which looks like something Flava Flav would wear if he were into distance running.  I've already run OC, and I'm signed up for the full Surf City Marathon on Super Bowl Sunday.

Must have mega-medal.

So it's full-training mode for pretty much the next six months or so with events every few weeks.  In addition to those above, I'm also doing the Rock 'N' Roll events in Los Angeles and Las Vegas, a New Year's half marathon, and the 2014 San Diego Half Marathon.

You knew I was crazy already, right?

In other news, my brother-in-law Barry sent me a pair of Injinji toe socks last week, and I immediately ordered three more pairs.  They feel kind of weird at first, but once you get used to them, they're pretty comfortable.  Of course, being the fashion diva that I am, I've also picked up a few more outfits and a great pair of ASICS Gel-Nimbus 15's.

Don't judge me.

But I'm No Doctor

I guess it was bound to happen sooner or later.  For almost a year, I've been slamming my feet into pavement for hours on end, so it's not too surprising that it looks as though I've suffered my first running injury.  Thankfully it doesn't seem serious, but to be on the safe side I'm shutting it down for about a week and limiting myself to non-impact gym workouts.

Here's what happened, as far as I can tell.

Last Sunday, I went on my weekly "long run," which was eight miles at this stage of my training for the Long Beach Half Marathon coming up in October.  Everything went as normal, I finished the run, did some light stretching, and went on about the day.  No pain, nothing.  The next morning I was also fine, aside from the usual soreness, but after lunch I noticed an increasing pain on the top of my left foot, to the point that I couldn't walk without a limp.  I iced it that evening, and did some online amateur podiatrist-type diagnostics.  My biggest fear was that I'd suffered a stress fracture, which would keep me out of action for around two months.  The articles I read said that stress fractures are accompanied by redness, swelling and/or bruising.  I had none of those symptoms, so I more or less eliminated that possibility.  An interesting test for stress fractures, I learned, involves a tuning fork.  Apparently, if you ring a tuning fork, touch it to the bones of your foot, and then erupt in a blood-curdling scream because your foot feels like it exploded, it means you have a stress fracture.

Alas, I do not own a tuning fork.

After icing the foot and elevating it overnight, the pain seemed to have disappeared on Tuesday.  Relieved, I headed down to San Diego on a business trip, where I planned to get in a couple training runs in the evening.  I love San Diego, and it's a great place to run.  Well, midday on Wednesday, without warning, the pain returned.  Not as bad as it had been on Monday, so I decided to go ahead and do a four-miler with a few of our teachers.  It was gorgeous.  Perfect weather, a well-paved bike path to the beach, and if you disregard the homeless camp where we saw an interesting "couple," it was a very nice run.  Of course, running on a slight injury tends to make it a not-so-slight injury, so my foot was screaming the rest of the night.  I took a few Advil, wrapped my foot in ice, and did some more free-lance doctoring.

I stumbled across something called "Plantar Fasciitis," which in addition to containing too many i's and sounding like a band of Communist farmers, is a pretty nasty foot injury that can sideline runners for weeks.  But PI usually shows up in the heel, so I wasn't worried about that either.

Which brings us to foot extensor tendonitis.  This is an inflammation of the tendons that connect the muscles of the lower leg to the toes.  Of everything I read, this seems like the most likely injury unless it's something more minor such as a tweaked foot muscle (that's the medical term).  The treatment for most foot injuries is condensed into the acronym RICE which does not, unfortunately, stand for "rapid ice cream eating."  What it does stand for is "Rest - Ice - Compression - Elevation."  So that's what I've been doing.  As I write this on Saturday, I have been pain-free for three days (I woke up Thursday without any pain and it hasn't returned).  The temptation, of course, is to go ahead with my long run tomorrow and hope for the best.  But I'm not going to do that.  I'm just going to keep icing it, hit the gym, and not run again until Wednesday which will be a week since the last run.

Hoping for the best!

Running the Golden Gate

This weekend, Theresa and I went to San Francisco to visit my brother and his wife.  We love the city, and this was a great opportunity to not only hang out with family and go to my first SF Giants game, but also to go on a run across the Golden Gate Bridge.  When planning the trip, I wasn't sure if runners/pedestrians were even allowed on the bridge, but not only is it permitted, the bridge and surrounding area make for a great run and the whole "course" is very runner-friendly.

We drove down to Crissy Field and parked, which was far easier and more secure than we thought it would be.  I'm not sure if it's just because the America's Cup was going on, but there were parking attendants in the lot to keep an eye on vehicles.  There were porta-potties available, and the running path is clean and well-maintained.  Theresa and I set off on a 10K run with no intention of worrying about our pace or finishing time.  We just wanted to enjoy the morning and have a great running experience.

The course is clearly marked with signs to the bridge, so a couple miles in we started winding our way up.  The hills weren't incredibly treacherous, but then again, we were going at a pretty relaxed pace to begin with.  The weather was cool and foggy -- we couldn't even see the top of the bridge, but it was a comfortable day for running.  Once we got to the bridge itself, the pedestrian lane was fairly crowded with walkers, moms-and-strollers, and sight-seers.  We did a bit of dodging to avoid collisions, but all in all it was a fabulous run.  We finished in about an hour and fifteen minutes, including our photo opportunities.

As I've mentioned before, it's easy to get caught up in official events, specialized training plans, and paranoia over improving race times, but every so often it's a good idea to go out and run with no expectations beyond having a good time.  We did that in San Francisco this weekend, and it was one of the best runs we've been on yet.

That said, I'm absolutely going to enter the SF Marathon next year.

Here are some pictures from our morning:

Ready to start!

Theresa winding her way up.

2013 Pasadena Half Marathon

Pre-race.  It was "only" about 80 degrees at this point.

So there I was, all ready for a summer of casual runs just to keep in shape, knowing that I didn't have to worry about training for another official event until the Hangar Half Marathon in September, when Theresa said to me, "I'm kind of in the mood to do another race, is there anything coming up?"  In our home, I'm usually the one signing up for event after event and I sometimes feel like I'm just dragging Theresa along for the ride. So whenever she makes the first move (I'm still talking about running, kids), I am most certainly going to be supportive and jump on her bandwagon.  So I went online and signed us up for the Pasadena Half Marathon (me) and the Pasadena 5K (her).

Checking out the half marathon course map and elevation profile, I saw that the middle of the route goes right around the Rose Bowl, which is a very nice but also very hilly area of Pasadena.  Also, and this is a key point here, since the OC Marathon in May I haven't been in "training mode."  I've been in "hey, let's put in a few miles a week after the sun goes down just to keep in shape" mode.  As if all that wasn't enough, the temperature's been in the mid-to-high really friggin' hots around here lately, and the race day forecast was calling for more of the same.

My expectations for Sunday were not especially high, is what I'm saying.

Theresa and I volunteered to work the check in booth for a local 5K run on Saturday morning, after which we headed to Pasadena for the race expo where we picked up our shirts, bib numbers, and goodie bag.  Since Pasadena is only about an hour from home, we decided to make two separate drives over the weekend instead of getting a hotel room.  For our recent events we discovered that even when we stayed near the race location, we still had to get up around 3:30 in the morning to eat

Post-race, tired but happy.

breakfast and prepare.  This being the case, if we're only about an hour or so from an event, it makes just as much sense to wake up at the same time, eat breakfast, and then just drive to the race.  Saves us a few bucks.  After the expo, we drove the half-marathon course (or as much of it as we could before getting hopelessly lost).  The hills don't seem too terrible, and there's a lot of shady streets so I figured that would provide some relief from the heat.

We got up at about 4:00 Sunday morning and I had my usual pre-race breakfast of a CLIF Bar and half a Gatorade G2 (orange).  We arrived at Pasadena City College at about 5:45 (start time for the half marathon was 6:30, the 5K started at 7) where I filled the bottles on my fuel belt and took care of last minute "business."  Normally for a half marathon I don't wear the belt because there's always plenty of water stations on the course.  But given the extreme heat, and because I'd heard horror stories about this particular event in the past as far as running out of water, I thought it would be better if I didn't leave hydration to chance.

The gun sounded at 6:30, and the temperature was already 80 degrees. The first couple miles down Colorado Boulevard were shady, because the sun hadn't yet risen above the buildings.  We crossed and re-crossed a bridge around mile three, and I was averaging about nine minutes per mile.  I knew I would only get slower as the heat increased, so at this point I already knew that a PR and probably a sub-2 hour finish were out the window.  This actually helped me because it took the pressure off.  I made sure to hydrate regularly and didn't push myself beyond a semi-comfortable pace.  Miles four and five were downhill into the Rose Bowl complex, followed by a three-mile "out and back" loop around the stadium.  Miles six and seven were the toughest stretch for me because there was no shade, and the temperature was now pushing 90.  My pace dropped to about 10:30 per mile, and I walked through one support station to take extra water and refill my bottle.  This gave me a bit of a boost, which I needed for the one significant hill on the course which came at mile ten as we left the Rose Bowl.

The last three miles were actually not terrible as they passed through shaded neighborhoods and were mostly downhill.  I picked up the pace a little bit and although I knew I wasn't going to come in under two hours, I set a goal of 2:10.  Not great, but respectable.  At about mile eleven, I ran by a home where the owner was out front with his garden hose spraying the runners as we passed.  Very refreshing!  With about a mile to go, I made the final turn back onto Colorado Boulevard and began

I'm so proud of Theresa . . . she's awesome.

looking for Theresa among the spectators.  I missed her during the OC Marathon, and I wasn't going to let that happen again.  With about 300 yards to go, I saw the crowd, had rockin' music going on the iPod, and I went full-out.  I saw Theresa alongside the road, and I ran over to give her a high-five.  I crossed the line with a time of 2:08:51.  This put me in the top third of the field overall, and about the same in my age group.  I collected my medal, got a bottle of water, and met up with Theresa who, as it turns out, totally rocked the 5K.  She finished sixth in her age group, which consisted of about seventy runners.  My sweetie kicks butt!

After we got home, we found out that six runners from the event were hospitalized with heat-related illnesses and several others had to be treated on-site.  Pretty scary, and it just goes to reinforce how important hydration is, not only during the race, but in the days prior.  If you wait until race day to start drinking your water and sports drinks, it's probably too late.  I made sure to keep my water bottle handy all day Friday and Saturday, and I think that's why I didn't have any issues.  In fact, I felt better after this race than I did after the San Diego Half in March, or the OC in May.  No cramping, no blisters, not even much soreness.

So here's what I learned from this event:

1. Hydration begins the week before a race, not the day of.
2. There's a time to go for PR's and milestones, and a time to run smart and enjoy the day.  Extreme heat needs to be respected.
3. Don't lollygag, though, because they might run out of medals (this happened, and boy were there some angry finishers).

Next up, the Hangar Half Marathon in September.  In the meantime, I'm going to take a week or so off from running, and then begin training mode all over again.

Ontario Mills June 10K: I'm Like Joe Nemechek in Asics

Back: Barry, Bobby, Christian Okoye, me.  Front: Katherine, Rachel, Renee, and Theresa

I think I've said this before, but I'm starting to view running in competition the same way I view NASCAR.  The field starts with a certain number of racers, but only a relatively small percentage have any chance whatsoever of actually winning.  Some hope to make the top twenty, for example, others look to set personal records, and others still are just praying that they don't wreck or blow an engine and have to drag their sorry behinds to the garage (I'm looking at YOU, Joe Nemechek).  But over the course of a NASCAR season, only about a third of the drivers record victories.

In running events, the odds are even worse.  About 25,000 people enter the Boston Marathon every year, and of those, I'd guess less than 50 have a legitimate shot at crossing the line first.  Everyone else is just out there Nemecheking it.

All of this is a roundabout way of telling you that I don't have a chance in hell of ever winning a marathon, half-marathon, 10K, 5K, 2XL, three-legged mud run or 100-meter bunny hop.  So the results of the June 2013 running of the prestigious Ontario Mills - Christian Okoye Foundation 10K were somewhat of a surprise to me.

No, I didn't win.

I did, however, finish in the top twenty in a field of about 140.  Nineteenth, to be precise.  I will
definitely take that.

My goal for this race was first to beat my personal 10K record of 51:10.  Additionally, I was really hoping to come in under the fifty-minute mark.  In training, I haven't even gotten under 55, but as we've discussed, official events always inspire us to go faster than we do in training.  So yeah, I thought I had a decent shot.

As is often the case, we had a few of my family members and co-workers participating as well.  My wife Theresa, brother-in-law Barry, brother Bobby, and teachers Renee and Katherine were all running their first 10K's, and everyone had their own personal goals.

With my lofty goal in mind, I knew that I'd have to take off fast and maintain that pace for as long as possible.  That strategy would definitely spell doom in a marathon or even a half, but I knew that I could go strong for 6.2 miles without risking a catastrophe.  Would it be strong enough, was the question.  Right out of the gate, there was a concern because the 5K race started at the same time, and the 5K starting line was about 100 yards AHEAD of the 10K line.  So immediately, we were navigating our way around baby strollers, casual walkers, and a mom who stopped to tie her five-year old daughter's shoe in the middle of the course.  Even so, I managed to do the first mile in 7:13, a personal best.

The course was flat, the weather was perfect, so I kept close to that pace through the halfway point, where my 5K split was right around 24 minutes flat.  That's when I saw something I never thought I'd see in the middle of a race.  Right there, in the road, there was a fairly large pile of what my brother Bobby later dubbed "hobo poop."  Now, we obviously had no idea where the offending number two had originated, but I would hope that it wasn't from one of the runners in front of me.  Sure, we've all answered the call of nature in a convenient porta-potty or (yeah, I'll admit it) an unsuspecting hedge, but right there in the street?  What made it even worse is that there were plenty of more private options in the vicinity.  I have no clue what would inspire anyone to take such a public poop.  Shocked but un-slowed,, I dodged the doo-doo and continued on.

Nemechek gets pushed to the garage.  Again.

I knew I was making decent time, but when I checked my Garmin at the five mile mark, the time was right around 41:20.  I'll save you the math, that left me 8:40 to do the last 1.2 miles.  Not impossible, but I'd have to haul.  I came around the last turn, and with about 100 yards to go, I saw the official clock in the distance.  It read 49:45.  Fifteen seconds to run about 100 yards?  I'm no sprinter, but I turned on the booster jets (okay, Cessna engines) and brought it home.

Official time -- 50:09.  A little disappointing, but it was still a PR.  All in all, a successful morning.  As I said at the top, that time was good for 19th overall and sixth in my age group.  Bobby crossed the line a couple minutes later, clocking in at 52:43 (27th overall).  Theresa finished in 1:09:07 (her goal was 1:30, which she destroyed . . . I'm so proud of her), and the rest of our group either improved on previous times or came in faster than their goal.

It's great to have such awesome people to do these things with.

We collected our medals, and scarfed down breakfast at Denny's.

Now that the summer is here, I've got a long stretch until my next event, the Hangar Half Marathon in Apple Valley, Ca. in September.  I might not do too many long runs in the desert heat (it's about 105 today, for example), but I plan on logging 20-25 miles a week.  Come fall, though, it's back to the training schedule because we've got lots of races on the calendar.

Stay tuned!

Put Away the X-Box, Kids, Running is Fun Too

Sometimes minutes-per-mile just aren't important.

Now that summer's coming, my event schedule is thinning out quite a bit.  I was going to add "just like my hair," but let's face it, that ship sailed a long time ago.  I have the Ontario Mills 10K for the Christian Okoye Foundation coming up in a couple weeks, but after that there's nothing on my calendar until the fall.  Then it gets crazy.

The point, in case you were wondering, is that ever since I started running last September, I've only been focused on preparing for specific events and following somewhat rigid training schedules.  But now I don't "have to" run sixteen miles on Sunday mornings, and I don't "have to" log 35-40 miles a week to get ready for a half-marathon or a marathon.  Now I'm just running to keep fit, and to make sure I don't have to start from scratch when next fall's "Half Marathon Mania" comes around.

While I'm not following a specific program for the summer, I do have a general idea of what I want to accomplish.  My goal is to run at least four nights (yes, nights . . . it gets really hot here in the SoCal High Desert) a week with a total mileage of about twenty.  If the mood strikes, I might do longer runs, but probably not more than the half marathon distance.  So far, I'm really enjoying this plan.  I'm not really worried about my pace, my finishing time, or all the "pressure" that goes with getting ready for an event.  Now it's more about running comfortably and enjoying the experience.  Running around the lake as the sun goes down is a very peaceful and relaxing way to end my day.  To make a long story short (if it's possible at this point), I'm loving every mile of it.

Probably not how Derek Jeter or Peyton Manning spent their childhood.

Now we're going to shift gears and talk about something unrelated to running, but it keeps with the overall theme of health and fitness.

Just the other day, we had our school's annual Staff vs. Sixth Graders Softball Game, or as we like to call it, "Teaching our students how to lose gracefully."  As expected, the staff won by a score of 29-18 even without the assistance of softball legends like Jim "Suldog" Sullivan, Ron Johnson, or anyone by the name of Atton.

Most of you won't understand that last part, but it's okay.  I'm confident it will reach the intended targets.

The reason I bring up our softball game is that every year, I'm more and more alarmed by the overwhelming lack of athletic ability in our sixth grade students.  We have about 150 sixth graders at our school, and I'm not exaggerating in the least when I tell you that only about 10-15 of them had the first clue about how to play softball.  They were holding the bat with their hands reversed or separated, standing directly on home plate while batting, and were missing slow-pitch style pitches by several feet.  Not to mention having no idea how to run the bases, particularly evident in the number of double plays the staff was able to turn on simple pop ups.

Nowadays, this kid is the exception not the rule.

This is not meant to put down our students.  They're doing the best they can, and it was a really fun morning all around.  But when I was a kid (yes, I'm sounding more and more like my father with each passing year), it seemed like three out of four guys in my sixth grade class were involved in Little League or other organized sports.  The kids that COULDN'T hit or throw (or make a lay-up, or run a button-hook-and-roll) were the exceptions.  Somewhere along the line, it seems to have flipped around, and now it's only a handful of kids who you'd consider to be good athletes.

The knee-jerk answer would be to blame it on video games, and assume that fewer kids are signing up for Little League, and more kids are planting themselves in front of the television with a PlayStation and a bag of Cheetos.  But it has to be more than that, doesn't it?  Back in my day (hello again, Dad), we'd always be talking sports in the junior high cafeteria.  How the Jets were doing, whether or not Reggie Jackson was really as big a douche as he seemed to be, or whatever was current in the pre-ESPN era.  Not so common anymore, and I can't really put my finger on why.  I'd love to hear your thoughts.

On the bright side, though, we're implementing a running program at our school next year called The 100-Mile Club.  Kids earn prizes for completing 25, 50, 75, and 100 miles over the course of the school year by running at recess, before school, and as part of an after-school club.  It looks like a ton of fun, and the kids are already excited about it.

It might not help them become better hitters, but it will get them in shape.  And you have to start somewhere.

Revlon 5K for Women's Cancer, Los Angeles

Theresa and I with our medals after the run.

In the aftermath of last week's Orange County Marathon, I decided to take a week off from training.  No running at all, no gym, and while I didn't run out and raid In-N-Out Burger, I didn't exactly stick to a rigid diet program.  Plus, the blisters on both insteps continued to burn and throb.  It was so bad during the week that I actually wore tennis shoes to work . . . without socks.  By Friday I was feeling a little better but I was fully prepared to walk some of the 5K if I had to.  No point mangling my feet any further.

Fortunately, this was a charity event with more of an emphasis on fundraising, solidarity, and supporting a cause than on split times and personal records.  We received our race bibs in the mail, but there was no official timing on the race.  Theresa and I were both entered in the event, and we took the opportunity to run together and make a fun morning of it. 

The drive to the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum took about 90 minutes, no traffic since it was about 7:00 on Saturday morning.  Or, I should say, no traffic until we got off the freeway.  The last two miles before the Coliseum were gridlocked, and it took a lot longer than it should've to get into the parking lot.  Once there, though, we were able to pick up our shirts and get to the starting mob without any trouble.

The race was hosted by Halle Berry and Andy Garcia, so we got a quick glimpse of them during the starting line ceremonies.  Looking around, we saw lots of teams supporting friends and family members with cancer.  Maybe there's something I'm not aware of, but I a lot of the team names centered around some sort of veiled profanity.  I'm no prude, and I understand the spirit, but team names such as "Uck-fay" and "Cuck Fancer" come off -- to me, anyway -- as being a little bit tacky.  "Tough Titties" okay, that one's kind of cute, but the others?  Not so much.

So Halle, Andy, and a couple other minor celebs kicked off the event and the thong of runners and walkers and strollers began surging down Figueroa Street.  The pre-race information said that the "runners" would start at 8:45 and the "walkers" would start at 9:00, but that rule was universally disregarded.  So those of us who'd chosen to run (slowly, in my case), had to weave our way through the walkers, strollers, and stander-stillers.  In an official race this would've been immensely frustrating, but in this setting it was only mildly inconvenient.  I'm sure the woman I elbowed understands.

I'm kidding, of course.

You can sort of see Andy Garcia on the stage, in the light shirt and hat right above the red star.

And now for the Moment of Irony.

As you may recall, in my training and preparation for the San Diego Half Marathon and the OC Marathon, I spent a lot of time worrying about having to use the facilities during the race.  I focused on diet, made sure to do what I needed to do pre-race, and in both of those races it worked like a charm.  In fact, not only did I not have to poop during the races, I didn't have to poop for a few days afterward.  But now, less than two miles into a charity 5K, I found myself in desperate need of a toilet.  I started scanning the bushes alongside Adams St.  Considered an alleyway.  And then, up ahead and to the right, I spotted my salvation.

Wendy's.

The deed done, Theresa and I completed the 5K (actually it was 3.5 miles -- told you this was unofficial), crossing the finish line inside the Coliseum together.  We received our medals, had a water and some fruit, and headed home.

My feet survived, so now I can focus on gym training while they finish healing, and then it's back to the training runs.  My next event is the Ontario Mills 10K on June 8, so I'll mainly be doing 5 and 10K training runs until then.  The weather is getting hot, and with no half marathons on the immediate horizon, I'm going to focus on diet and fitness for a while.

Which is a good thing -- I'm feeling kind of blah and pudgy this week, so it's a great time to re-focus.