A P500,000 portion of the sponsorships generated for the holding of the first Quezon City International Marathon (QCIM) is being re-channeled to help the victims of typhoon Ondoy, the Quezon City government and Runnex officials announced last Tuesday. The initial QCIM donation will be drawn from the product contribution of San Miguel Corporation, sponsor to the running event.
Also, Runnex Chair Art Disini has committed to donate part of the registration fees for the marathon to the victims of Typhoon Ondoy in Quezon City. In this way, all runners to the QCIM are contributing even in a small way to help those affected in rebuilding their lives and continuing to pursue their dreams for themselves and their families.
I do not wish to drum up more support for this marathon than what it has already gained as a major event to look forward to but organizations and local governments tasked to build up their respective communities should lead the way in providing victims food, water and other necessities.
By providing the little that we could give to help these victims, running would have a more meaningful essence knowing that a substantial part of the proceeds and registration fees of this race are going to a very good cause.
My greatest fear, besides being run over by a University of Texas campus shuttle bus, is becoming a Fatty (no, not rolling one, being one). I used to be a Fatty, then one day, out of pure disgust at looking at myself, I started to change my diet and amped up my exercise. Yes, I controlled the beast. 40lbs lighter, I live with the burden of being a constantly chased by the extra lbs everyday of my life. But I love this chase.
What is my point? Well, my week has been busy. I have not been able to run, swim and/or workout for 4 DAYS now. The DEVIL wants me to go eat a Big Ass Burger at the Roaring Fork just to end the mind FU*K that I am playing with myself. Why am I so obsessed that I need to worry about not exercising for a few days? Well, I am in the cycle. My talking friend can only shake his head at my lack of reasoning.
The Big Ass Burger, MMMM MMM
I am reduced down to the scenario that could not be better stated than by ultra running purist Anton Krupicka: “a person who has found himself in such a hopeless situation that all he can do is smile wryly.” Now Anton was talking about quitting the Leadville Trail 100 at MILE 78 because…well who really knows. Maybe Anton was craving a burger too.
My bark today is this…am I the only one that feels like a middle-aged idiot for obsessing over not exercising for a few days because work, clients, life got in the way? I think not.
So what do we do about this?
I am going to get up extra early (before 4am) just so that i can jump start my week with an extra long run followed up my a few mile swim in Barton Springs. I just may feel better.
Just needed to get this off of my chest.
Ciao, I mean Chow, I mean…damn I want that burger.
I started running 18 months after I stopped smoking. That makes it just about exactly five years I’ve been regulary beating the pavement. So, you’d think the running thing would be a twaddle by now – but not so!
The last couple of months of work and Wellington winter has worn me down a bit and instead of my usual four to five runs a week, I’ve been doing two to three. One particularly dark and miserable week I even got a tally of a big fat zero!
Every run has a degree of difficulty that sometimes edges on torturous and I wonder what the hell I’m actually doing out there. During the working week (Monday to Friday) I run at night – and after standing all day in a kitchen, and then walking home (half an hour up hill) my legs aren’t exactly what you’d call fresh and full of latent energy. In fact, they just want to be up….which gives me an idea….maybe when I get home I should stand on my head for five minutes just to get things equalised a bit?
Summer is just around the corner so with more light and sunshine (I hope!), less bone-chilling cold and wind-driven rain my energy levels should spike and I’ll be up and running like a wild filly.
On saying that, I’ve decided not to run at all the whole six-and-a-half weeks I’m away in Bali – but I’ll be doing Yoga every day then so I’m not too worried.
Our freshman boy, C, ran another PR (Personal Record) of 17:22! He is currently ranked the 2nd fastest freshman in the state of Colorado. AND HE’S ON MY TEAM! It’s truly amazing the potential he has. I think he’s oblivious of what he’s capable.
Last week, at one of the state’s fastest courses, our Senior girl, T, broke the school record by running a 19:16!
On the homefront, E and I decided to train or our half marathon (coming up in 8 weeks) by running during the week with the high schoolers and getting our long runs in on the weekends. As E was out of town this past weekend, I ran a 10 mile solo on Sunday morning. It was unexpectedly windy and there were huge hills in miles 3-5, but I maintained an 8:48 pace, and negative split, despite all of this.
I tried Citrus Fruit Nuun, the electrolyte-enhanced sports drink tablets, for the first time. I usually drink Cytomax on my long runs, but had heard so many positives about Nuun, that I thought I’d give it a shot. The night before a long run, I always prep my fuel belt. Two of my bottles are filled with water, two are filled with an energy drink. One to three gels, depending on my distance, and perhaps a few Shot Bloks or something. I filled a bottle with 16oz of water, dropped the Nuun tablet in, and let it do its fizzy thing. After it “unfizzified”, I decided to go ahead and take a sip, so I knew what to expect the next morning. At first taste, I was immediately reminded of Emergen-C, the Vitamin C super energy booster that’s in the form of a fizzy drink mix. Or, I like to think of it as Vitamin C Alka-Seltzer. I refuse to take Emergen-C because I can’t stomach the flavors or smells. Nuun has that same “sharp” flavor to it that makes my nose scrunch. I wasn’t sure I was going to like this on my long run.
I typically don’t drink anything until 3-4 miles into my long run. At around the 4 mile mark, I tried the Nuun. It still had that “sharp,” Emergen-C flavor to it, but I did appreciate that it wasn’t overly sweet as some of the Cytomax flavors tend to be. At mile 5, I took my Powerbar Chocolate gel with water. Then, sipped on the Nuun off and on for the trip back.
I can’t say I’m overly impressed with the Nuun. Maybe it’ll just take me some getting used to. Perhaps I should try a different flavor. Who likes Nuun? Why? What flavors?
We went over to the shopping center (the Hoog Catharijne) yesterday to check out the sale going on at V&D. No luck, unfortunately. Then we headed across to the train station, to pick up a few odds and ends from the Albert Heijn To-Go store, which is located in the terminal. Being Sunday, it was one of the few shops open. The station is connected to the Hoog Catharijne via a skywalk of sorts that looks down over the Catharijnebaan highway and out toward the Vredenburg music/theater center. As we were walking across and looking out, we realized there was some sort of race/marathon taking place. It turns out the start/finish line was nearby on the Catharijnesingel/baan, so we were seeing the beginning of it all.
As we walked back through the Hoog Catharijne — which is massive, by the way — and then out across the Vredenburg square where the outdoor market is held, we eventually made it back to the main street running through town. The racers had made it that far and were still coming. Considering our leisurely walk from the station to that point, it gave us an idea of just how many people were participating.
We stuck around for five or ten minutes until just about all of the runners had passed. Moving on, we soon came across the 1 kilometer marker. Only nine more to go!
They still had quite a ways to go, though. You can see the map of the route they took here. It was the 59th running of the Singelloop Utrecht, and this year was won by a Kenyan, Leonard Komon, with a time of 27 minutes 10 seconds.
These pictures are from my preferred place to run. The state park trails near my house.
This particular trail is a one mile loop around this marsh. I do this trail when my goal is a distance specific run. Which means most Saturdays or Sundays from now until Thanksgiving, I will be on this trail. The other days I run during the week will be a time specific run, so I will be able to run around randomly in the forest and likely get lost!
It doesn’t matter if I start thinking about running at 8 AM or 4 PM, I can’t seem to propel my butt out there until at least 6:30 PM. Which means as fall comes on, it gets darker and darker on my runs. I think I need to get a headlamp for my runs since usually by the time I finish, it is pretty dark beneath the canopy of forest!
I decided to try a new route today–one I eyed in the car one day on my way back from the corner grocery store.
There’s one big hill on the route–and several small slopes. It passes the new student houses that a private contractor built over the summer, and it passes the corner grocery store. Then it winds through a residential area, passes a golf course (which was once an 18-holer and is now a 9-holer) and a Greek Orthodox Church, then winds through some more residential streets.
The last mile and a half go by a gas station, liquor store, and a Methodist Church, and through some more residential streets, before ending up back next to the new student houses. It was 4.2 miles in all, and nothing on my body hurt–not my feet or my knees (well, they hurt just a bit, in the last mile or so), and the best part was, right as I passed the Methodist Church, it started to very lightly rain. It’s my favorite kind of weather to run in.
And my current favorite running song–”Bad” by U2–started at just the right spot in the route for me to sprint without getting exhausted before reaching home. “If I could, you know I would, if I could, I would, let it go….”
It’s finally the weekend! This week was killer. I was tired and overworked for the majority of it, because school projects have been completely nuts. Tonight, I am finishing a few pieces of homework and watching some reality TV. Nothing exciting to report about this week, aside from the fact that I did really well with eating and haven’t eaten all of my weeklies. That’s a first for me!
Today I made a super sweet running mix with tons of upbeat jams. I tried it out and it worked really well. I managed to get through another 25 minute run. It’s always hard, but it gets progressively easier. This week, I run 27.5 minutes, and then next week it will be 30. I am running at 5mph, so after I hit the 30 minute mark, I will start increasing speed until I can run a 30 minute 5k.
I’ve been looking around online, and I think I’m going to run my first 5k in Indianapolis with some friends in November. I am getting so excited.
Oh I guess there is one thing to report. I tried on my jeans from high school and they are getting closer to fitting. I could almost get them up past my hips. Before, they barely fit up to me knees! Getting stronger and healthier – so happy!
Every pursuit of a crazy idea has to begin somewhere. Mine is no different. Before I get into where I am starting from… I think telling you a bit about where I have been might provide a better idea of why my pursuit to Get Goofy is going to be quite a challenge for me.
For the most part I am moderately athletic in nature and have taken on some interesting challenges in the past. A friend in Vermont got me interested in both mountain biking and triathlons many years ago. (Thanks Mike S.!) I have off and on over the years run both Sprint and Olympic distance races to stay in shape. Of course were a natural off-shoot of this, as well as just straight running events. In every race I have ever run, my goal is always the same; to merely finish (without great bodily injury I might add). I have successfully finished every race I have entered so far. In all of those races, I have never come close to the leader board, nor have I ever finished in the top half of the racers either. I am completely fine with this, which is absolutely amazing to me sometimes. As my friends will attest, I am extremely competitive. Let’s put it this way… have you ever played Cranium before? For me… it’s a contact sport!
Going back to the theme that I tend to do things not necessarily in the easiest manner, you can add my training and completion of a marathon to that list. The main purpose for running the marathons was to that I thought it would be a good way to keep me in shape over the winter. (We will come back to this sentence a bit later.) Basically for my first (and only) marathon, I selected to earn a Mickey Mouse medal, which in itself seemed like a great idea. Florida in January, is a fantastic place to run. Sunshine, palm trees, and tropical breezes, what more could one ask for while running 26 miles? So far no problem right? My typical trathlon training consists of six days a week, one short, one long in each event. I am never outside more than an hour and a half, except for running the races themselves. Needing advice to train for a marathon, I turned to “The Man” (Hal Higdon) and followed his novice training plan. Everything with the plan just fell into place on the calendar and I was well prepared for the race. Near the end, the long runs were approaching 20 miles, so given my moderate athletic ability, it took a bit of time to complete. Still, it’s not sounding bad huh? Now let’s go back to what I said earlier, “…it would be a good way to keep me in shape over the WINTER!” See… I live and train in Michigan year round. For those of your who aren’t familiar with Michigan, well we get a real winter here. You know, lots of snow, freezing rain, gusting winds… all those things that make spending long periods of time outside truely enjoyable! I swear there were many days that I returned from my runs I had to count my fingers and toes to make sure they hadn’t frozen and fallen off at some point during my run. It was pretty brutal at times. Evidently I either have selective memory, or I just didn’t learn anything because the second marathon that I intended to run (the second day of my quest to get Goofy) will require me to once again train over the winter.
As you can see, I have some solid experience to draw upon in my quest. In my next post, I will talk more about where I am starting this challenge from.
I signed up for the 2010 Country Music Half-Marathon
Yeah.
I used to hate/despise/loathe/detest running. But since I’ve started running, I’ve found out that I don’t really hate it as much as I thought I did.
This race is something that I’ve never done before and it presents a big challenge (a 13.1 miles challenge to be exact–but I’m not going to think about the hundreds of grueling training runs that I will have between now and then.)
So now that I’ve registered for it and paid the money for the cool t-shirt, I’ve got to follow through on it.
But I need people to train with. I need the accountability and you can always run farther if somebody else is pushing you to keep going. So who’s with me?
Do you want the ability to copy your Wii games and play them om your Wii console?
Do you want to start playing Wii homebrew apps and experience the benefits of it?
How about playing dvd’s and running other software on your Wii?
By homebrewing your wii you can enjoy regional games from all over the world, play DVD’s and be able to play all the sega games out there which are free by the way. There are two ways of going about this.
The hard way is by installing a modification chip inside the console. But this can be very dangerous if you don’t know what your doing. When installing a chip you have to open the console and mess around with the electronics and install the chip. And by doing this you void the warranty of your system. So if you’re not an expert you have a real risk of ruining it. This can be a very expensive risk by going this route.
But there is a new way of going about this without the hassle of installing a mod chip. And this involves a software upgrade which does the thing as the chip. Instead of the chip by passing the safeguards in the system to play homebrew applications you have a software upgrade that does the same thing without the chance of voiding your warranty. This new way is going in popularity all over the internet. This way is the safest way by far. Why take the risk of ruining your console?
Whichever route you choose you will be able to enjoy all the benefits wii homebrew apps can offer. Since I started using home brew applications my Wii is like a whole new powerful machine.
With Wii Secrets Exposed, you can do this. This new product will show you how to run the Wii Homebrew application by safely freeing your Wii. This program uses a fool-proof method, so it can’t go wrong. If you installed Wii homebrew, you can play every backed-up, imported and region coded game. Along with dvd’s, you can also play games that were originally designed for other platforms, such as N64, SNES and Sega Genesis, by using the homebrew emulator feature. And the best part of this, is that it’s 100% legal.
This method does not expect any mod-chips of other hardware modifications, because it only uses software.
The software includes the following features:
* Install the Homebrew application easily without opening your console.
* Easily make multiple copies of your own Wii games and play them.
* Play any DVD`s and MP3`s simply with the advanced DVD player.
* Get unlimited lifetime upgrades for free with the best features.
* Play games from the N64, Sega Genesis (Megadrive), SNES + more!
* Works on version 4.0 and lower with NO Zelda game!
* Play import games from different regions with ease.
* And more!
Get more out of your Wii console by running Wii homebrew applications. Once installed, it will let you install other applications, simple and safely, and you even keep your warranty.
If you want to homebrew your wii safely and instantly , then follow the easy instructions that we provide, and that’s all! Within a few minutes, you will be running the Homebrew application on your unlocked Wii.
To Homebrew your Nintendo Wii , check out the wii softmod software.
Wii Homebrew instantly.
Am I tired? No, not really – legs a bit heavy, but otherwise I’m ready. I’m fully trained for my first marathon, it’s all in my head at this point.
Besides, I don’t have a right to feel tired after reading Jarhead’s blog.
He’s running the Royal Victoria Marathon too. Same day I am. Except race day will be his 7th time around the route — in 7 days. Yep. With his running partner for Big Brothers Big Sisters – an organization I fully support, they do great work – he’ll be running a total of 300 km in 7 days.
So go – click on that link and donate some money will ya? C’mon the guy’s running a marathon a day for SEVEN DAYS!
(Psst Donald next time you see me on Frontrunners don’t be shy! Come up and say hi to me!)
I mentioned on Monday that I was waiting to post about the actual race last weekend. I’ve never been very good at waiting too long, so here it goes.
This race was far and away one of my favorites. And it had everything to do with the course, the crowds and the weather.
The course, itself, was beautiful. We ran a few miles through the city, and then through more park than you expect out of Philly – even when you know it’s there.
And the weather? Perfect for racing. Chilly in the morning (which is to be expected when you’re up by 6:30am), and gradually warmer with every mile. If I had my druthers (what are druthers anyway?), every race would be like that.
But the crowds – it’s the crowds I’ve come to love. I’ve realized that races just aren’t the same without them. Because even if they’re not cheering for you, specifically, they really are cheering for everyone who made the commitment to run that distance that morning.
There are little kids out there, cheering for mommy and daddy, and giving high fives to any runners that will reciprocate. There are friends, holding motivational signs, from “Your butt looks great!” to “Don’t let your nipples get chafed!” And you can’t help but laugh, and push just a little bit harder.
There are the other runners who finish, and come back to cheer, and even run alongside their friends, because they know how much it helps. (That said, if I had heard, “You’re almost there!” or “You’re so close!” One. More. Time…)
And there are the characters, who just get into the spirit of the city.
How could we be in Philly and *not* get a photo with Rocky?
Finally, at the very very end, you have the prize. The Medals. That we just raced 13.1 miles to get.
And, let me tell you, wearing those heavy suckers felt amazing.
I almost can’t wait to do it again.
*Not a sign, but one of my favorite t-shirts that I’ve seen while running. I kind of want to make my own.
P.S. As an aside, even though my parents were waiting right along the finish line, they still didn’t get a photo of any of us crossing. I asked my mom about it later and she was shocked at how she could have missed it. And then she admitted, “Actually, I was waiting, and then the ambulance pulled up. So then I started looking for you in the ambulance.”
Thanks, Mama. Your vote of confidence is overwhelming.
I was on the road for work earlier this week at a conference in Minnneapolis. It can be a major challenge to find the time to workout while traveling, especially while exhibiting at a conference, but my favorite way to work up a sweat on the road is to go for a run. I love to explore a new city from the sidewalks, especially early in the morning when traffic is light and the air is cool, and people are just getting a start on their day. I’ve gone for runs while visiting Orlando, Las Vegas, St. Louis, Chicago, Reno, and even Segovia, Spain. So I continued the trend this week in Minneapolis.
running map from the hotel
I grabbed a map from the hotel desk with a 6.5-mile route that took me away from the city and into a residential area and park with a lake. It was small enough to carry and had a map on one side and turn-by-turn directions on the other. I thought this was fantastic until about 10 minutes into my run when I realized the map seemed to have been created by someone who’d never even walked through it before. I really wished I had my compass that I’ve just learned to use for the adventure race next month! Instead I asked another runner (who looked strikingly like Lance Armstrong) for help, and he directed me on what turned out to be a great 6-mile run. It was a perfect distance, there was a good mix of hills and flats, the weather was cooperative, and the scenery was nice. I ran through two parks and many neighborhoods. Though I usually prefer more urban sightseeing runs, this was a nice departure and felt much like running at home in Louisville.
If you decide to run while traveling, I recommend planning a little better than I did and preparing your route in advance. And always take a phone, ID, and some money with you (for safety reasons, but also handy if you get lost on foot and need a taxi!).
The reward at the end of my trek, the “cherry on top” if you will, was this Claes Oldenburg sculpture I spotted:
It’s officially Fall and there are some great races coming up! Check them out! I’m going to be running all four!
San Jose Rock N Roll Half Marathon
San Jose, Ca -October 4, 2009
Fast. Flat. Music at almost every mile. It’s an easy PR, what else is there to say? Register NOW!
Nike Women’s Full and Half Marathon
San Francisco, CA – October 18, 2009
Hilly. Beautiful. Great bling presented by tuxedoed SF Firemen! Sold out but worth paying the price for a bib on Ebay! (not that you heard it from me.)
Big Sur Half Marathon on Monterey Bay
Monterey, CA – November 15, 2009
Coastline. Monterey. Aquarium. Cannery Row. Priceless. Get thee to Monterey!
Hark the Herald Angels 12K and 25K
Angels Island, CA – December 12, 2009
Trail running on an island in the middle of SF Bay with 360 degree panoramic views? Sign me up!
If you know of a kicking race, let me know so I can promote it here!
So today I had a long run. Since I have a lot of time on my hands I figure I should spend it trying to get skinny. Its not really working since I eat like a pig, but I digress. Today while running I made quite and interesting observation (no I didn’t get any more free wine). I ran past three high schools today. One is a school for the arts; one is a public school; and the last was a private school. It was around 2:30, when most schools are generally being let out.
Now what I observed is incredibly offensive and stereotypical, but that doesn’t change the fact that it was true.
When I ran past the school for the arts, I generally saw this:
When I ran past the public school (REPRESENT), I saw this:
When I ran past the Private school, most students came out looking like:
It was like BOOM BOOM BOOM STEREOTYPE STEREOTYPE STEREOTYPE.
Amore-Infinito Photography had the pleasure of photographing Angela and Ryans wedding in Calgary earlier this month. I flew out from Victoria, was fortunate in that a Calgary photographer, Reuben Krabbe, was available to assist and second shoot the wedding. Here is a sneak preview of a selection of images taken [more images will be added to our website, amore-infinito.com shortly].
Even personal trainers have a hard time getting back into routines when they’ve let them go.
I ran a few races this summer. They were conveniently spaced out so that I never really could take a break from training, without seeing a direct result in my times. Now that I’m not committed to any races, I’m having a hard time getting my arse out the door and making my feet move in a manner that resembles running.
This morning I gave myself the old “Today is another day! A new chance to start fresh!” pep talk. It didn’t work. I put on my running clothes. Still no motivation. I tried reading about running (thanks RunnersWorld!). That was enough to get me out the door. And then it happened. Rain. Or more accurately, sparse spitting. The pavement wasn’t even completely wet but it was all I needed to turn me around right back inside my cozy house. Just one problem…I still had all that running gear on. I wasn’t quite ready to call it quits. Luckily, we own an eliptical machine.
I made myself a deal. If I wasn’t going to run for 35 minutes, I was going to have to gut it out for 60 minutes on the eliptical. My brain mulled that over for 30 seconds and decided it was a done deal. I grabbed Transformers (2007), popped it into the dvd player and finally got some muscles moving. I didn’t work as hard as I would have for the run (you can cheat at almost anything, except running) but at least I got moving again. It made me realize that if I’m really having this much trouble with motivation, I could benefit from some cross training. So here’s the plan: Run on Tues/Thurs and Sat, cross-train on Monday, Wednesday, Friday. Next week, I hope to add strength training back into my routine. Let’s see if we can turn motivation, smotivation back into a little bit of that You Go Girl! mojo.
Friday after work I hit the road and headed North to Boston. My bus left at 6pm and so I channeled my inner 3rd grader and packed a lunch box. On the menu: leftover homemade pizza and carrot sticks with a lil container of peanut butter. 4 hours is a long time to be on a bus – this girl needs her snacks!
I arrived in beantown shortly after 10pm and was met by the 3 smiling faces of Anj, Hannah, and Agnes (college housemates from senior year!). After much catching-up and some homemade chili popcorn (must get Anj’s recipe!) we hit the hay. Yes, I’m 25 and still absolutely love sleepovers
The four of us were up early on Saturday and after the obligatory coffee and a bite of bread pudding, Hannah and I hit the road for a run.
Even though I ran 11 miles last weekend, there were small breaks in between the warm-up, race, and cool-down, so I was a tad worried about doing a continuous long run. However, I needn’t have worried – Hannah is magical and the run was the best I’ve had in maybe a year The weather was beautiful – bright sunshine and 60 degrees. We ended up running 9.25 miles in 1 hour 22 minutes. My hamstring/IT band/knee felt amazing! I’m still wearing the pre-wrap on my knee – I’m not sure if it’s actually doing anything, but it kind of feels like a security blanket.
After a fabulous run, Hannah and I returned to an impromptu yoga sesh. Pajamas are a perfect choice for warrior pose!
Check out the giant jar of peanut butter Hannah and I found!
After a pretty basic re-fuel (banana, yogurt, peanut butter) we showered and headed to Cambridge.
After a bit of exploring, we happened upon Darwin’s Cafe. Fair trade coffees, yummy sandwiches, and a case of delicious baked goods.
My sandwich was two pieces of freshly baked whole wheat bread stuffed with hummus, avocado, carrots, sprouts, tomato, granny smith apple, and honey mustard. It was packed full of veggies and I ate every last bite!
After a few more hours of exploring Boston (I love fall weather!!!)….
we made a pit stop for pumpkin lattes!
Invigorated by caffeine, I was ready for an adventure. Someone special was celebrating a birthday on Saturday and per his request we trekked out to Bob’s Food in Medford, Mass. Back in college Bob’s Foods was THE destination for post-track meet sustenance. This little Italian grocer/sub shop was always on the cool-down route for the Wesleyan track team and returning to Bob’s brought back good memories. This place has a ton of yummy food, but the vegetarian selection was a bit sparse.
I managed to find something veggie though – roasted red peppers, grilled eggplant, and provolone on a roll. Nate and I took our sandwiches to a grassy field on the Tufts campus and made a pic-nic of it. Twas delightful!
Despite ordering the small, my sandwich was bigger than my head. Loved all the roasted red peppers and ooey-gooey provolone!
Nate ordered something involving a lot of turkey and melt-y cheese.
With New England-themed chippers for a side dish.
My tum was full and happy by the end of the pic-nic, but I was still tempted by all the delicious foods that Anj had back at her place. Had to have a little taste of everything!
Check out these garlic & parsely sweet potato fries:
homemade nachos!
And Individual chocolate souflees:
Unfortunately my camera battery died at this point, but the night concluded with some Shipyard pumpkin ale, wine, and lots of reminscing about our college years
Saturday morning brought another lovely run with Ms. Hannah (5 miles!) and pumpkin pancakes (2 cups pancake mix, 1.5 cups water, .5 cup pure pumpkin). They were perrrrrfect with brown sugar and peanut butter. I’ll have to make these again and photograph!
The rest of Sunday was a glorious mix of long walks, sunshine, raw-organic Kombucha (my first!), and a life goal of mine – ice cream from JP Licks. After missing out on the Healthy Living Summit excursion to JP Licks in August and reading about all the yummy flavors on Tina’s blog, I knew I had to go there someday. I ordered a small cup of 1/2 oatmeal cookie, 1/2 oreo cake batter and it was delicious! So glad I finally got to try it – thanks for the company Hannah
I’m on the bus back to NYC as I write this and am about to dig in to the other half of my red pepper-eggplant-provolone sammie from Bob’s. Hope your weekend was as good as mine!
Question: What food brings you back to college/highschool?
P.S. Decorate an e-cupcake for free and $1 will be donated to children’s cancer research!
Last Saturday the 12th, I had some fun organizing a bowling party for a bunch of us at work. We all had a good time and I bowled one of my best games ever. Here’s a shot of me during the silly game, with someone else about to bowl between my legs:
Silly Bowling Game
Sunday the 13th in the morning, Little Runner and I showed up with some coworkers and family members for the Terry Fox Run. This is a fun, very casual event where one can sign up that morning before the run, or earlier on-line. There is no set fee to run, just give what you feel you can. One can still donate to the cause even now.
Little Runner and I mostly walked the 5k, with some fun jogs towards the end to see who would stay ahead. There were hot dogs afterward, and it was fun hanging out with happy runners and walkers.
That afternoon I thought we might head to the last day of Spruce Meadows horse jumping, but Little Runner wanted to become Little Mermaid again, so we went to the pool instead. I didn’t complain at all.
I’ve hopped off my bike to train for the Southend 10K Classic two weeks tomorrow. I’ve left the training a bit late and I haven’t run that far for over 6 years so I am not overflowing with enthusiasm. Added to that I had a niggle in a calf for a week, some kind of virus and this morning I had a terrible pain in my shoulder blade, so the scant training is even scanter!
I love my bike, apart from when it’s really windy or hilly, and now I am comparing the running experience unfavourably with the joy of cycling, as I thud along the sea front. I ran with the OH yesterday and he found my fartlek laughable. He adopted a poker face when I out-kicked him at the finish, declaring that I was clearly a lazy cow who had been idling on the run and saving my effort to show off at the end! In my defence, I can’t yet judge my pace so am probably running quite conservatively, plus I was “testing” the calf after the week off.
Anyway, with 1500 runners on the sea-front in a fortnight it will be a 10K shuffle for me, and I can’t say I’m too sorry. Roll on the triathlon in 2010!
No need for speed when you can have an ice-cream instead
The following article was copied from www.marathonguide.com. The famous Berlin Marathon is being held today, 20 September 2009. This Marathon Race is considered as one of Marathon Races included in the World’s 4 Grand Slam Marathon Races.
This is where Haile Gebrselaissie got the world’s record finish time for the Marathon Race in 2:03:59 hours.
Check on the website of the Berlin Marathon for the LIVE Update at www.scc-events.com
Gebrselassie Versus Kibet – The Fastest Marathon Duel Ever?
No one could have imagined that the BERLIN-MARATHON would become one of the
most spectacular sports events in Germany when the race was started for the
first time 35 years ago. That happened next to the Grunewald, a forest in
West Berlin, and there were only few spectators. Today the real,-
BERLIN-MARATHON attracts around one million people who celebrate one of the
greatest running events on the globe. It was almost 20 years ago – after
the fall of the Berlin Wall in November 1989 – when the race got a huge
boost. Leading through both parts of the German capital from 1990 onwards
the real,- BERLIN-MARATHON became famous for superfast winning times, great
crowd support and growing fields. This Sunday we could well see another
thrilling race: defending champion and world record holder Haile
Gebrselassie (Ehtiopia) will be up against Kenya’s Duncan Kibet, who leads
the current world season’s list.
A record number of 40,923 runners from 122 nations have entered the 36th
edition of the real,- BERLIN-MARATHON. Since the race belongs to the World
Marathons Majors (WMM) even more people want to take part. A year ago
35,783 runners finished the real,- BERLIN-MARATHON. That was the highest
number ever in the history of the event and the 2008 event became the
seventh biggest marathon ever seen. In 2006 Race Directors of the
prestigious marathons in Boston, London, Berlin, Chicago and New York had
formed the WMM.
Gebrselassie targets his own record once again
So far five runners have established personal bests of sub 2:05 at the
classical distance. Two of them will run in Sunday’s real,-
BERLIN-MARATHON. While Haile Gebrselassie had improved his global record in
Berlin in 2008 to 2:03:59 Kenya’s Duncan Kibet had run 2:04:27 earlier this
year and has moved up to number two on the alltime list.
Haile Gebrselassie’s goal is obvious: He intends to break his world record
again. If he succeeds it will be the third time in a row that he would
establish a new world best at the real,- BERLIN-MARATHON. So far the 36
year-old has broken an amazing 26 world records during his career.
Gebrselassie thinks that he can at least slice off another 30 seconds from
his present marathon record. “If everything fits together perfectly then
may be even 2:02:59 would be possible,” says the Ethiopian, who is going
for a record fourth consecutive victory at the real,- BERLIN-MARATHON.
But Sunday’s marathon could well be the toughest for Haile Gebrselassie in
Berlin. In a recent interview Kenya’s star runner Paul Tergat named four
fellow countrymen who he thinks may be able to break Gebrselassie’s world
record: Olympic Champion Sammy Wanjiru, Martin Lel, James Kwambai and –
Duncan Kibet.
For more than two years Haile Gebrselassie has not competed against an
athlete as strong as Duncan Kibet in the marathon. This could well become a
fascinating duel. “I feel honoured to be able to run against Haile
Gebrselassie,” said Duncan Kibet during Thursday’s press conference in
Berlin. My training went very well and I think it is a very good sign that
my training partner James Kwambai ran 59:09 minutes last Sunday at the
Rotterdam Half Marathon.” Duncan Kibet did not want to comment on a
possible world record attack, but said that he intends to break his
personal best. For this he must of course run in the region of the world
record. “After Rotterdam I though that I might be able to run even faster
in Berlin. So this is why I decided to go for this race.”
Looking ahead to a duel with Haile Gebrselassie the Kenyan record holder
said: “I don’t know about Haile’s training. And he does not know about my
training. So we will have to wait and see how it develops. But I will try
to run his pace.”
There will be two more Kenyans and one Ethiopian with high-class personal
bests in the race. Francis Kiprop came fourth at the Seoul Marathon in 2008
with 2:08:30 and Mariko Kiplagat (all Kenya) placed fourth at last year’s
real,- BERLIN-MARATHON in 2:09:04. Ethiopia’s Eshetu Wondimu was able to
improve to 2:08:41 despite bad weather conditions in this year’s Dubai
Marathon. The strongest non-African runner could be Atsushi Fujita (Japan)
who has a personal best of 2:06:51. This however is already nine years old.
Ethiopian favourites in the women’s race
Askale Tafa Magarsa will be the favourite in the women’s race on Sunday. A
year ago the 24 year-old Ethiopian finished second behind Irina Mikitenko
(Germany), clocking a great personal best of 2:21:31. With that she
remained the second fastest woman worldwide in 2008. Now Askale Tafa
Magarsa returns to the real,- BERLIN-MARATHON and will be eager to further
improve. She may well be able to establish a world season’s best, which
currently stands at 2:22:11. Irina Mikitenko clocked this time when winning
in London in April. Askale Tafa Magarsa’s strongest rival probably will be
a fellow Ethiopian: Atsede Habtamu clocked 2:25:17 in torrential rain in
January’s Dubai Marathon, where she took second place.
Genet Getaneh will also be in with a chance on Sunday. The 23-year-old
Ethiopian finished fifth in 2:26:37 at the Dubai Marathon this year. The
strongest Kenyan should be Leah Malot. She has a very good long distance
track record and improved to 2:30:29 at the Paris Marathon this April.
Short-term relief is all I get when I run away and hide from my problems. Whatever shield or defense mechanism I use to hide behind eventually becomes too burdensome. It becomes greater than the problem. When I turn from pain in a personal relationship, I may lose the chance to cultivate a deep and meaningful friendship. Working at friendship helps me weather the ups and downs of relationships. Running from a problem at work could take away an opportunity to find solutions to problems. Hiding in the back of the room at an EA meeting takes away my opportunity to share. Running from conflict does not produce a winner, just a loser – me.
MEDITATION FOR TODAY
Help me to find the strength to confront whatever I want to run away from.
TODAY I WILL REMEMBER
To run out is to hide out; to hide out is to lose out.
Happy weekend everybody! I’m so glad it is finally here. I have a lot of fun stuff going on that I can’t wait to get it going.
Anyway, this morning, I got to have something awesome…oats in a jar! Well, really it is 5 grain cereal in a jar, ha.
Yum yum yum.
A few hours later at work, I took a short walk and ate some mixed nuts.
I have found that it is totally motivating to get out for a quick walk when you have errands to run. This morning, I made a trip to the mailbox to get some bills out…goodbye paycheck
Before lunch, I met up with Farrah for a nice workout. I ran a mile on the treadmill to warm up and it was brutal, so much harder than running a mile outside. So weird.
Anyway, after the run we did some weights and strength training. Let me see if I can remember it all (everything was 2×12, except abs which was more):
Cable crossovers
Bench presses
Seated row machine
Dead lifts
Pushups
Squats w/ dumbbell
Lunges w/ dumbbell
Abs, abs and more abs (rocking horse, regular crunches, side crunches, partial sit up with dumbbell, and standing side-to-side dips with dumbbells)
It was an awesome workout and I am sure that my legs will be sore tomorrow!
For lunch, I got to try something new…a Boca Vegan burger on an EZEKIEL ENGLISH MUFFIN
Topped with some tomato and spicy mustard. This muffin was delicious…so dense and chewy. I think I’m in love. Good thing I have five more in the freezer.
I also had some veggies and hummus on the side.
I totally had some tea (peppermint, my fave) and a piece of dark chocolate after this but forgot to photo it again, ha ha.
For my real afternoon snack, after another walk to the bank this time, I had something I hadn’t had since a little salmonella outbreak a while back.
Oh how I love thee. Unfortunately, thee has a lot of sugar, so this is a special treat. It felt so good to be reunited though
For dinner, Josh and I decided on Buffalo Wings and Rings because Josh was in the mood for wings (shocker) and they at least have two vegetarian selections as opposed to one or zero at most wing places. It took FOREVER for us to come up with this, I hope in the future it is not as challenging to accommodate both of us.
We have been there two times before, both when I was still eating meat. So this would be my first time trying out their veggie choices.
I decided on the Veggie Greek salad pita. I didn’t even think to ask but apparently it comes with feta cheese, of which I picked most off.
The homemade Saratoga chips were pretty good. But I don’t think I will get this pita again. It had way too many olives and wasn’t really all that filling.
I read on the menu their veggie burger is not just a patty so perhaps I will give that a try if I find myself here again.
Even though it was a bit of a letdown for me, Josh really enjoyed his wings. I believe he got atomic ragin’ cajun?
When we got back home, we started watching the movie “Adventureland” which was honestly sort of depressing at times. I thought it would be funnier, oh well. I had a snack about half way through.
Toast with almond butter and semisweet chips. Just what I needed
I’m off to make some tea and then hit the hay. Be back soon!
There’s a running track in Northampton, not far from where I live at Sixfields Stadium; which is home to Northampton Town Football Club. It is the first time in my life, that I’ve been on a running track. Running outdoors is completely different to running in the gym on a treadmill. I only managed 3k in the same time that I run 5k at the gym. I think I definitely need to increase the incline on the treadmill! I went twice this week to get in some practice of running outdoors. Must keep going…
The running track is next door to Northampton Town’s football stadium:
I’ve been at home for nearly 3 weeks now, and I’m headed back to Stanford on Saturday.
But right before I get on that Frontier Airlines flight bound for San Francisco, I’m running the US Air Force Half-Marathon with Will, one of my childhood friends. I’ve been training pretty consistently most of the summer, but for some reason, I’m not really nervous or even completely aware yet that I’m going to be running a 13.1-mile race in less than 2 days. Usually, right before a marathon, I’m all hyper and raring to run, but this time, I guess I have other things–the start of another school year, mostly–on my mind. Also, in terms of difficulty and glycogen drain, 13.1 miles is definitely NOT equal to half of 26.2 miles, so I haven’t had to carbo-load or taper. And no taper = no “taper madness.”
12 weeks of training: Check. Race number (4469): Check. Broken-in shoes (Brooks Adrenaline): Check.
So I’m in pretty good shape for the race, right?
Nope. So on Tuesday morning, I picked up the book Born To Run, by Chris McDougall, and couldn’t put it down until I finished it that afternoon. It’s a hyper-paced story that revolves around a lost tribe of sorts, the Tarahumara Indians of the treacherous Copper Canyons of Mexico. The Tarahumara are legendary among those in the know–essentially two communities: ultrarunners and crazy sports scientists–as the world’s natural-born superathletes, gods among men. The problem is, with AK-47-toting drug lords guarding their precious crops and perilous cliffs that drop away into nothingness, few people ever make it in AND out of the Copper Canyons alive (the Tarahumara themselves are a peaceful people). Anyway, McDougall weaves together a storyline involving a mysterious gringo named Caballo Blanco (”White Horse”), a delegation of the world’s best ultramarathoners, and a 50-mile race through the heart of Tarahumara country pitting the best of modern running against the best of the “Running People,” who run in sandals made of used car tires and rope. And the book is NON-FICTION. Amazing.
The most exciting non-fiction book I've ever read
The book talks up the genuine joy of running so much that, naturally, I decided yesterday that it would be a good idea to try running barefoot, kinda like the Tarahumara. And well, it sure felt good while I was running.
Then I woke up this morning.
It felt like Chris Brown had gotten mad at my calves and decided to teach them a lesson. (Too soon? Sorry, Rihanna.) Luckily, I still have another day and half before the race, so I should be at full strength by the time I pin on my race bib.
That’s going to be my motto for the next week. I’m off to Cornwall with some friends for a week of relaxation by the sea. I’ve been counting the days until this holiday for about three months, no lie!
The people I’m going with are some of my oldest friends and it’s fair to say that we’re known for partying quite hard (even though none of us are spring chickens any more). This week could be an opportunity to sit on my arse, drink more red wine than most people consume in a month and feed myself with comfort food. You know how it is … half an hour walking by the sea and suddenly you convince yourself that you have the appetite of ten men and start ordering extra portions of chips. That would be disastrous.
I also have zero excuse for not keeping up the miles (I’m up to a comfortable 6 miles at the moment). If I can run around London, breathing delicious lungfuls of exhaust fumes and other people’s fag smoke, then I can sure as hell run in the beautiful surroundings of the Cornish coast. In fact, it will be a pleasure. The only drawback will be dragging myself out of bed while everyone around me sleeps off the effects of the previous night’s dinner and beer.
Training in general is still going really well. I’m well and truly in the swing of it, despite the minor setback of a bug over the last week (thankfully not the dreaded swine flu) that kept me separated from my trainers for a few days. I’m intending to go out tonight for a decent 4 miles to get me back on track.
So keep them crossed that I don’t succumb to temptation and turn into a couch potato. I hope to come back with tales of beautiful clifftop runs and healthy living!
I ran so far today that my toe started bleeding. I am a real runner!
Now, this isn’t to say I am a FAST runner, or a GOOD runner, or even a slightly-above-average runner. But I ran 2 miles tonight, without stopping, without pain, and I felt like I could keep going. I am doing it!
I won’t be winning races any time soon, but I am starting to think I might actually complete one.
hmmm, second night on the row and i’m out running – what is going on? I decided to try something different after reading The Amazing Shrinking Gaz’s blog about bonk training.
I had nothing to eat all afternoon, I normally have a number of biscuits etc
Got home, put the kids, had 2 cups of coffee and then a little later went for a run.
I was going to use the sportstracker on my phone, but was unable to get a gps fix, which I later found was due to a low battery, so I ended up fannying about and lost a few minutes trying to get it working. After I gave up on the sportstracker idea I carried on with my run, which was the same as the night before, just short of 2 miles and it took just under 30 minutes
Well what can I say.. When I got home and sat down my whole body felt like an inferno. A colleague of mine was saying that it’s down to the body burning fat reserves to fuel the exercise.
I think I’ll have a night off tonight as my legs are quite sore, but will repeat the process again and see how the weight loss is going.
I had my first weigh-in yesterday. I lost 7 pounds!!! Yes, that’s right. 7 pounds. That is the equivalent to 28 sticks of butter. Oh yeah baby.
Second:
I am no longer going to do the daily food journaling. I think it has made my blog a little boring, and doing it is boring. I much prefer blogging about new recipes I have tried, so that is what I’m going to do. However, I do not cook new things everyday, so I won’t be blogging everyday. I LIKE blogging everyday, but not about my boring, uncreative, Weight Watchers friendly food. Also, when I was blogging solely about new recipes, it inspired me to cook more. And I REALLY need the inspiration these days. So hopefully I will be back in a few days with a new healthy recipe to share.
Third:
I have been thinking about this a lot lately, and I have made a life-changing decision about something. For YEARS, I have always said I would like to run. There are people that run almost everyday for the exercise, and more importantly, for the FUN of it. I have always been envious of those people. I never thought I could be one of those people. (I have circus-freak boobs and I have fears of murdering myself with them if I’m not careful.) But I have been following several bloggers that are also runners, and they started out thinking they could never be a runner and had many excuses for it, much like myself. These women motivated me. So, I am gonna give it a go. After a few more weeks of healing from my C-section, I am going to start a beginning runner program.I am totally excited, and more than a little scared. It is probably going to hurt at first. But that’s ok. I am also very worried about my joints. I have Lupus, and I worry they may not withstand the impact very well. But the only way to find out is to try. So, I am going to buy some really good running shoes, and a NASA designed sports bra (to wear UNDER my regular bra. Yes, I am going to wear TWO bras. Did I mention I have circus-freak boobs?) and I will start pounding the pavement. I will post my progress here. That should certainly motivate me to keep going.
No pics in this post. That’s odd and I don’t like it. There will definitely be pics next time.
I was excited to see this retro (circa 1984) book on running during a recent trip to Half Price Books. I have a collection of running books which I acquired several years ago. They’ve all been found in a similar capacity: at Half Price books, at yard sales, or at a thrift shop. I don’t know that I’ve ever paid full price for a running (or cook) book.
I tend to shy away from taking the plunge and purchasing a new, “updated” running book, because the principles are the same.
Here are some good points in the book…
The Five Stages of a Runner
The Beginner – Generally, this describes someone who becomes active through running. Establishing the fitness habit, progressing slowly, and those that don’t put pressure on theirselves have an easier time with beginning.
The Jogger- The joggers have a hard time starting everyday and become intimidated by “high achievers”, though don’t have a plan or a goal. That said, though, the jogger pursues running for the health benefit.
The Competitor – The competitors plan their run around racing goals. Not all joggers reach this stage. As your competitive drive goes, you start to feel insecure. You no long value your daily runs for their worth, but think about how it will prepare you for your race. Often times, the competitor get hurts
The Athlete – The athlete is not bound by times and wants quality effort put into their running. Competitors search for races they can win. Athletes look for competition, but are not intent on a higher ranking or better performance.
The Runner – The final stage blends all of these stages and elements of life balance well. The runner may revert back to one of these stages, but these are only passing bouts the runner is a happy person. A race is the opportunity to pull out hidden strengths. The race is no longer sacred.
Going farther, before the race, slowly will help you avoid hitting “the wall”.
Apparently, for every second you run too fast, in the beginning, you’ll run ten seconds slower in the end. I agree with this, it happened to me in the half.
Run a few miles the day before a race.
The exercise you’ve done for the past 7-14 days before a race, your body/muscles will remember. Seems to make sense.
Anything you eat 12-18 hours before a race won’t be processed in time to help you. Instead, you’ll be carrying it along. It’s best to carboload 24 hours in advance. This makes sense. No wonder I was so bloated for the race
Combat negative thoughts by projecting yourself through the race. Concentrate on the sites and sounds, intentionally, for the next few miles (or steps, or whatever)
so even though i JUST got my weekend post to actually upload i wanted to quickly update you guys on my run today!
i ran 7 miles in about 62 minutes. i’ve decided that as long as it doesn’t make my legs tired its ok to kind of just run at a pace i’m comfortable. it doesn’t make sense to run slower than i was running before i started training.
so today i ran 7 miles and it really made my legs feel better (they were stiff and sore from running and then spending time in the car)
tomorrow morning i think i’m going to get up early and do some elliptical before i go to work because tomorrow after work ally and i want to go to ippudo! i can’t wait for tomorrow to be over i have a big meeting hanging over my head.
more to come! i’m going to photograph our ippudo experience =D
but for now i’m going to go to bed very soon, massage my legs with the stick and get some sleep! i need it.
Ben Gaetos, an ultra runner friend from Los Angeles, California sent me a Balaikbayan Box full of used donated shoes from his ultrarunning friends in California. I received the said box last Friday and it contained 34 pairs of running shoes.
Thanks again, Ben! Hopefully, these shoes will be given to our less-fortunate runners on the day of MILO Marathon Finals which will start and end at the Quirino Grandstand, Luneta Park on October 11, 2009.
Balikbayan Box From Ben Gaetos
Filled With Neatly-Packed 34 Pairs of Running Shoes
My last blog reported a good day throwing the shot…maybe it was a bit too good. I was feeling good and I probably took a few more throws than I should have. Both the elbow and the shoulder let me know they weren’t very happy.
I took an extra day of rest, then threw the 18# ball inside at HealthQuest a little on Friday. I was hitting 30′ regularly standing which is good, so I think the arm is OK, no serious damage. I videotaped my glide this morning (not throwing any weight) and it looks much improved.
The running this week went well for the most part. This is my 3rd go at these intervals, and I completed the only one out of the six that I had previously been unable to finish (three 800s at 10 mph). Today was hills (after legs!) and it was pretty brutal. I have to keep reminding myself to back off a little. I don’t want to get to the point where I dread doing these runs.
Once again, it’s been a few days since my last post; I guess that I’m struggling to adjust to being back in school. In any case, I raced my first 5K since June yesterday morning: the Paper Mill 5K at Historic Rittenhousetown, here in Philly. I ran this race last year, too. The course takes you through a section of Fairmount Park that runs along Wissahickon Creek; it’s predominately packed dirt, with some mildly uneven, rocky terrain, and a few moderately challenging hills. Not an easy course. I was looking to PR, and hoping to break 20 minutes, but I knew going into it that the conditions weren’t in my favor, so I tried to set my sights on placing rather than on hitting any specific time goal. The race started at 10:00 AM, so I woke up at 7, ate my normal breakfast (peanut butter & banana in an Ezekial wrap), and drove down to the course around 9 to pick up my bib and t-shirt. I ran the course to warm up and felt pretty good: no hamstring pain, no real stiffness or soreness anywhere. I came across a huge tree down in the middle of the trail that I had to slow down to jump over, and I wasn’t too happy about this, but, again, I had already decided that placing was more important than setting a PR, so I tried to take it in stride. I finished my warm-up with about 10 minutes till gun time, so I did a few quick strides and made my way to the starting line. A guy standing near me asked me how fast I intended to run, and I told him that I’d probably be somewhere in the 20:xx range. He then told me that I stood a good chance of taking top female, and helped to clear a spot for me up front, right on the line. I’m still a pretty inexperienced racer so I’m never quite sure where to start. I knew that I should be near the front, but I had no idea if there were women planning to run in the 17s, 18s, 19s—so I appreciated some guidance from someone who knew the field better than I did.
When the gun went off, I took off too fast, as always. It’s still very hard for me not to get swept up in all the excitement. However, within 400m or so, I settled into a steady pace, and reached the turn-around point in 10:10. I knew then that sub-20 was something of a dream, as I’ve never run negative splits in a race, but I dug in and tried to pick it up a bit anyway, as I was intent on maintaining my position: there were 4 or 5 people in front of me, all men, and only 1 woman in sight, roughly 200m behind me. I needed to hold her off. After leading for half the race, succumbing to second place would be shattering. I set my sights on the man directly ahead of me and focused on staying right behind him. He didn’t seem to be wavering at all as we neared the 2.5 mile mark, so I figured that if I could keep my position relative to him, I’d know that I wasn’t flagging, that I was still going strong and that I needn’t worry about losing my lead. The 3 mile mark approached and I began to feel a little queasy. There was a big hill leading into the finish and by this stage my legs were just shot; still, with the end so close, I summoned the energy for a passable kick, and crossed the line in 20:45, taking first female by several seconds. I took a minute to drink some water and steady my breathing, then turned around to cool down by running the course a third time. It felt great to win. I’ve taken my age group a couple of times but I’d never before been the first woman overall. Unfortunately, I started to get a bit depressed later in the day, wondering why I wasn’t faster after all my hard summer training. It’s difficult not to worry that I’ve been doing something wrong. Luckily, I’ve been able to put those thoughts out of mind, for the most part, and to enjoy my victory—which, by the way, came with a $100 prize!
Here are a couple of pictures:
Just after the starting gun. I'm in purple, number 711. The guy on the far right without a shirt took first overall. The woman behind me and to the right wearing a sports bra took second female.
Coming into the finish. Blurry!
Collecting my prize money, looking awkward.
I’m planning to head out for an easy 10 in a few minutes; then it’s time to start focusing on next week’s Philly Distance Run. I can’t believe that it’s so soon!
Rene Desuyo of the Elite Team Bald Runner won as Champion, Overall in the 21K Race with a finish time of 1:14:42 hours. He won Gift Certificates worth P 19,000.00, Timex Watch and Medal.
Rene Desuyo as Champion, Overall 21K
Anna Vargas of Elite Team Bald Runner won as Champion, Women’s Overall in the 21K Race with a finish time of 1:38:00 hours. She also won Gift Certificates worth P 19,000.00, Timex Watch and Medal.
Anna Vargas Won As Champion, Women's Overall 21K
Jujet De Asis of Elite Team Bald Runner won as Champion, Overall in the 10K Race with a finish time of 32:00+ minutes. He received P 8,000.00 worth of Cash Certificates, Timex Watch and Medal.
Today was my first technical run in the huaraches. So I remember saying that the MR790’s were light, felt like I was floating. Well scratch that. These guys are light! Though seeing that there is much less material between me and the ground I had to be very mindful of each and every step. The places where there were lots of pointy rocks I would walk, but I can really see myself running through such a section in the future.
I still find that the leather strap that holds the shoe on to my foot is still in the stretching phase. I’m not sure how much longer this will go, but eventually it’ll stop. What this means, though, is I have to stop now and then to re-tie the strap cause it gets loose.
The trail wasn’t very muddy, but it was muddy enough. I found that I slipped very little, probably cause I was being more mindful of each and every step. Making sure that a) it won’t hurt and b) it won’t slip.
The only down side to this run was there were a few little hills, which are to be expected when you’re out at Clinton Lake. The down hill running did hurt my knees, but thankfully the section I ran was mildly hilly, and more rocky/muddy. The flatter sections and the up hill sections were pain free and I loved every minute of it. Now though it’s time to go ice/rest and keep the knees feeling happy.
“…If I travel but four foot by the squier further afoot, I shall break my wind.”
–Falstaff (1 Henry IV: II, ii)
You can stop at red lights, but then keep running again when they turn green.
I ran 20 miles this morning.
There’s something weighty about the distance itself, quite apart from the pain it inflicts. Twenty is such a large, round number, a distance often driven and rarely traveled afoot. In America, where people rarely put shoe leather to paving stones, I doubt most people understand how far 20 miles actually is. I wonder if three hundred years ago most people would have known someone who lived farther than, say, 50 miles away. And yet it’s a requirement of modern society that we be able to travel and communicate across these distances at great speeds on a daily basis.
For fun, take a look at these two graphs:
Total Mileage per Week 2008
This is a graph of my total mileage from 2008 with three points marked:
C: The week I injured my ankle and had to take several days off (this follows a half marathon and my black belt test, so I’d been putting it through the wringer). My marathon training really began after this.
B: The week of the marathon. I ran 42.5 miles that week, though a little more than half of that was the marathon itself. This is because I don’t know how to turn it off, even when I’m supposed to be relaxing.
Training for 2009
My average weekly mileage is a lot higher, although my long runs are generally shorter (I’ve only done one twenty-miler so far, compared with four before the marathon last year). I’m also doing a lot of speed work (it helps that my training partner is working on improving his 10k time), so my runs are getting faster (instead of the 12 minute miles I was running in 08, I’m doing mostly 10s and 11s with a handful of 9.5s thrown in – a marked improvement for me).
Although I’ve been running for years, I’ve only really been doing serious distance since Fall 2007 (when I ran my first 10k). It’s really interesting to see how my running has changed over time. I’ve been routinely hitting close to 50 miles per week for half the year (my standing goal is “at least 36″). I’ve also noticed that while my absolute minimum for a run (that is, the minimum I had to run to feel okay) used to be about 5 miles, now it’s between 6 and 7 miles. Any more and this is going to start cutting into my life a lot…I guess it’s a good thing I’m getting faster.
The marathon is 25 October, a little more than a month from now. I think I’m ready.
E and I chose our November half marathon the best way possible: out of a hat. Or, more appropriately, out of a running shoe box! We had narrowed the field down to 7 possibilities, spanning coast to coast. We had been discussing them over text last night, each of us drinking wine, which may have had something to do with the Valley of Fire Half Marathon in Mesquite, NV that I threw into the mix.
Turns out the half marathon gods were smiling on me. I chose the Women’s Half Marathon in St. Pete’s, Florida. Sponsored by Nike. Thanks to the lovely Margaret for suggesting the race, as I hadn’t come across it in my personal research.
The half marathon is Sunday, November 22nd. A mere 10.5 weeks away. Better start “really” training. And, I better solildify my training plan…or FIND one!
I walk a lonely road
The only one that I have ever known
Don’t know where it goes
But it’s home to me and I walk alone
- Green Day, “Boulevard of Broken Dreams”
That’s not necessarily true but at times, when I’m training for events, it feels that way. I s’pose it all goes back to June 25, 2005 – the day before Ironman Coeur d’Alene. I was walking my bike to it’s rack spot and that song was playing, so to this day I relate that song to training for endurance events. I always have a plan but I don’t really know where it will take me.
I walk this empty street
On the Boulevard of Broken Dreams
Where the city sleeps
and I’m the only one and I walk alone
Thankfully, I’m not the only one training for the Savageman Half Iron Triathlon. I’m lucky to have friends who enjoy this stuff too. On Saturday, August 29, myself and two others woke early to ride. I mapped out a hilly 50+ mile route, tackling all the good hills in Ellicott City – Hilltop, Westchester Ave in Oella, Ilchester. It was a great ride, until about mile 47 when I flatted. Tube changed in record-setting time (for me) and I was off for the final climb and then the 8 or so remaining miles to get home.
I’m walking down the line
That divides me somewhere in my mind
On the border line
Of the edge and where I walk alone
The next day, I ran with my friend Chip. He’s training for IM Florida and wanted to run 16 miles. Me? I volunteered to accompany him for 10. I was feeling good so I did 12.
A few days later, I recruited a fellow football-parent to ride with me during practice. We hit the same wonderful hills in and around Ellicott City.
One week closer to the race and the training is going well. Hmmm, too well?
Read between the lines
What’s f’ed up and everything’s alright
Check my vital signs
To know I’m still alive and I walk alone
Had a bit of a scare this afternoon when I checked the Philadelphia Marathon website to find that the race had sold out. I hadn’t registered yet (financial woes) but I figured that I’d have until mid-October or so to do so; nothing I’d read had suggested that I’d need to worry about it selling out so early. I was at school in the computer lab when I made the discovery, which was immensely uncomfortable; I wanted to cry but I hate crying in public (who doesn’t?) so I just sort of sat there in quiet anguish and tried to convince myself that my life could still be meaningful while all around me people typed up syllabi and registered for courses and went about their usual business. That sounds excessively dramatic, I know, but I take disappointment pretty hard.
Eventually, I left the lab to go outside and call my mom, who in turn called my dad to relay the news to him. He then called me, and asked if I’d tried to register. Well, no, I hadn’t; it just hadn’t occurred to me that this was an option. The website had “SOLD OUT” plastered all over it, and I suppose I took that quite seriously. I shouldn’t have, though! I asked my dad if he’d try it for me, as I didn’t have my credit card on me at the time, and he agreed, and said he’d call me back to let me know if it worked. I figured that it was a (very) long shot, but felt the swelling of some desperate hope within me nonetheless. When the phone rang, I was a little afraid to answer it, but I was greeted with good news: he had successfully registered me. I’m glad that someone doesn’t completely crack in the face of crisis! I’ve got the confirmation letter sitting in my inbox now, and I’m feeling much, much better. Thanks again, dad.
I had a hard interval workout this morning: 8×400m in 1:30 each, with 200m recovery jogs. Legs are trashed. With warm-up and cool-down, I logged 7.6 miles, plus another 6 tonight (including 4 with S. along Kelly Drive; we got caught in a downpour midway through). Oh, and I had a(nother) stressful experience at school, when, after my evening run, I returned to the department to get my bag out of my locker only to find that all of the doors had been locked. Right. My house key was in my bag, along with all of my money and my laptop, so. I imagined myself having to sleep in the lobby of the building: hungry, cold, full of rage. Luckily, after 30 minutes of this, a professor appeared who happened to have a key to the department, and he let me in. As was the case with the marathon, everything worked out in the end. But still: what the hell? What a day.
I don’t know what is up with my post title, but in fear of using the same blog entry title every week (or day), I decided to put something random in.
My run yesterday was nice and challenging. During the work week and through this last leg of training, I have really found a lot of my endurance to build back-up. So I have been attempting to double my run in hopes that I will get back-up to 6 miles during the work week, so I’ve been going at it slowly. There are certain parts of my run that were once physically challenging that are now just mentally challenging but in all, I am pleased with my progress. I so badly want to run it, and feel like I can get in all six miles this week, but I have to taper, taper, taper. Ahh, c’est la vie.
Yesterday, my dad stopped in to visit me at work. He’s got this week off (our birthday is tomorrow, whoo hoo) and mom took tomorrow off to visit me at work and take us out to birthday lunch. I guess he couldn’t wait until Thursday to see his daughter in management action. So I took him around to meet everyone, and it went well, he saw my office and was impressed. It was cute
Sometimes, I think all I ever wanted was my parents to be proud of me. I hope that they are.
Too bad my dad doesn’t see when the lawyer publically humiliates himself using me as that object. Let’s just say that happened last night. I need to end this rant, though.
I did get this sweet e-mail, mid-day:
PRE-RACE PACKET PICK UP —– will be held on Thursday 5p-8p and Friday 5p-7p this week at ELITE RUNNERS AND WALKERS, 5992 Steubenville Pike, Robinson Twp 15236 —– race packets will also be available during the regular business hours those days. Race packets can also be picked up race day at Ikea beginning at 6:30am CONSTRUCTION — Be aware that there is construction at the RT 60 & RT 22/30 interchange, both on Rt 60 and on Rt 22/30. The exit for Ikea IS OPEN around the array of orange cones. Thank you for your continued support of the Montour Trail, and we look forward to seeing you on Saturday.
Oh yes, tomorrow is packet pick-up day! What a great birthday gift. Jared thinks he is getting the car to come home for the plumber. Pssh.
I talked to my old boss yesterday, who has been getting back into jogging, and said he may run the Run Around the Square next year with me, Jared, and another one of my co-workers. How perfect. During times of unprofessionalism, I really miss working at the County. Or at least, I miss working with a group of professionals that know the distinctions between appropriate and inappropriate…
No fun pictures to break-up the sea of words. I had a smoothie post-run, a waffle with PB, jalapeno poppers, a half of an Arby’s turkey sandwhich, and some curly fries. It was a late night, and I have been craving jalapeno poppers for awhile now. They help satisfy that craving. And I ate them and moved on. Simple as that. Nutritionally void? Yes. Delicious? They were okay, but now I can stop craving them. Simple as that!
After driving to the track with my plan written down for my 2.5 mile walk/run tonight, I was annoyed to find the jr. varsity had a game tonight, so I drove home.
I was trying not to get mad. I had planned all day the exact time I would run, what I would eat and what time I’d eat beforehand, etc.
So, I pulled up gmaps pedometer and planned my run in the neighborhood.
Reid wanted me to take my cell phone since it was dark, but there was no place for it, and I wasn’t going to miss this workout just b/c it was dark, so off I went.
Ok, they’re doing construction a couple of streets down. In the dark, it looks like a scene from Close Encounters of the Third Kind. I’ll take a picture sometime to prove it. I ran so fast to get away from it, you know, just in case something (like an alien or scary person) jumped out of the dark, deep hole.
I got to another joining neighborhood and their stupid lights were out in most of it. I kept thinking of what Reid told me before I left–”if someone comes after you, make sure to run really fast.” So, I did. My mind kept coming up with all these crazy situations.
I blame Theresa, a former roommate in college. She always could twist the happiest situation in her mind to something possibly scary. It must have rubbed off.
Despite the fear, I ran my three miles. And survived the black hole of darkness.
Don’t be surprised again, as I am the only Race Organizer who is doing or submitting a Race Organizer’s Report to its runner-participants and readers of this running blog. This is my 2nd Race Organizer’s Report as the 1st BDM 102 Race was the first time I made such report about my insights and observations after the conduct of such event.
It is worthy to mention the reasons why I came to organize a run for the MASTERS. The first reason was the presence of at least 15 cases of assorted beer donated by the Hardcore Runners led by Jonel aka Bugobugo85 which was supposed to be intended to be used for the participants in the GLOBE’s Run For Home 21K Race as part of one of the Water Stations but the Race Organizer did not give me a feedback after verbally asking him of the possibility of putting up a Beer Station along the route of the race. It started to play in my mind that the MASTERS runners would be the appropriate runners to drink the said beer after a race exclusively for them, I mean, for us!
The second reason was to expose a better running environment to runners devoid of vehicular traffic and pollution. The third reason was the interest of the members of the Elite Team Bald Runner to assist in the conduct of a race for the MASTERS. And the last reason, the presence of of friends and supporters who believe in our advocacy to promote running to everybody.
After getting the commitment of support from Mr Amado Castro, Jr aka Reinier6666 for the payment of the Digital Clock/Timer from PATAFA amounting to P 5,000 + P 1,000 for the operator, the race was published in my blog and the implementation of the race had started. It took me and my staff/elite Team Bald Runner to prepare all the works and coordination needed for a period of less than a month, to be exact, in 26 days!
After I posted this race in my blog, a friend of mine who remains not to be identified and a regular visitor of this blog, called me and offered an amount of P 5,000 as support for the said race and the money was used to purchase the Winners’ Medals we ordered from BERNAL Engravers, Inc.
After the BOTAK’s 10-Mile Race at UP iliman Campus, Ultrarunner Francisco Lapira, Jr aka Isko introduced to me a couple, Carrey and Eugene, and they told me that they will be donating the Gatorade Drinks for the race. Two days before the race, Carrey was kind enough to give us 75 bottles of 1.5-Liter Gatorade Drinks!
During one of our “speed” training workouts at ULTRA, Tin Ferrera, one of our students, voluntarily offered us 20 containers of 5-Gallon Mineral Water for the said race.
In one of the comments posted by runner Gregorio Ocampo in my blog, his running group, HING’s Running Club, had offered ice-tubes and beer in cans for the said race. But in reality, just before the start of the race, the whole running club brought with them lots of Ice Buko, Ice Mango, Ice Ube, Ice Cream, & Popsicle aside from the ice-tubes and beer in cans!
Friends of BR, like Randy San Miguel gave me a Cash Support of P 1,000 and runner Rayabe handed me also P 300. Guys, even if I did not mention you in my previous post in thanking the other supporters, you had been a great help in this race.
I am not being corny and cute here but I want to be transparent on how we accounted for the support and the registration fees intended for the said race. And here were the expenses incurred:
Water Cups———————————————P 660.00
Race Bibs Material———————————— 500.00
Race Bibs’ Printing———————————— 1,240.00
Permanent Ink Pens———————————- 155.00
Ropes————————————————— 800.00
Tarpaulins——————————————— 2,100.00
Trash Bags——————————————— 400.00
Pack Meal For Race Marshals———————- 1,500.00
Certificates——————————————– 500.00
Brown Envelops————————————– 400.00
Water Pitchers—————————————- 150.00
Safety Pins——————————————— 240.00
Bond Papers for Registration Forms/Route/Etc- 700.00
Gasoline———————————————— 600.00
Expenses For Rehearsals/”Dry Run”————— 500.00
Taxi Fare For Clock’s Operator———————- 400.00
TOTAL EXPENSES————————————P 10,845.00
From our Cash Collections from Donors/Supporters and Registration Fees, Mr Castro’s contribution went to PATAFA’s Timer & Operator and the P 5,000 donation from a friend was used for the Medals. We had a collection of P 12,100 from Registration Fees and other Cash Donations. By the way, the registration fee for this race was P 100.00 without any singlet.
The bottomline? We earned P 1,195.00 on the said race. Good enough to support the training for the members of the Elite Team Bald Runner. We were able to save for any payment for the permit to use a running venue; we did not pay any fee to the road marshals & security/safety to our vehicles; we did not pay for the rent of a generator & Public Address System; no paid EMCEES and entertainers; no paid ambulance; and no insurance fees! A lot of savings as compared doing a race in other venues!
But what is most important are the “intangibles” that we earned in this race. We earned a lot of friendships; a lot of fun; a lot of stories; a lot of experiences; and a lot of opportunities for our future endeavors. And most of all, we earned the reputation of not postponing our scheduled race even in the middle of an inclement weather. And of course, the beer will always be there with the support of the Hardcores and BDM 102 ultrarunners!
Now, let me challenge those other Race Organizers to open their accounts and show to the running community where our registration fees are going and how much they are earning from the races we join.
Is a lot of fun. Especially when it involves running, great friends, amazing views, and donuts.
It’s been almost three months since my last night run and I’m glad to have finally satisfied my cravings. It started out as a six person run, but by the time we started running it became four, and then there were three sitting in my car. This isn’t one of those nights that you can really sum up with words.
Running at night liberates us of all the stress we accumulate during the day, it frees our bodies,minds, and souls. The moon overhead gives us some visibility but even if God decided to turn off the lights we’d still know where we were going.
Thank you guys for sharing this night run with me and hopefully the next one isn’t too far away.
There are very few places as beautiful as this.
Doing some philosophical thinking on why he’s so slow =D
I don’t know what is about taking pictures of my shoes that I love so much.
And people wonder why we run at night.
Voon.
This is when we got into the car.
The beginnings of MyBiase
More MyBiase
This picture is kind of blurry, but you get the point, it was early\late and very cold.
The only 10 minutes during which he was quiet.
Foreshadowing? I thought not.
A well deserved feast.
The last time he was semi-awake. I told him to drink some coffee…
sigh…
He slept on this bench at donut wheel for 30 minutes.
Off to Priya’s
Alanna’s response to my picture message: “oh. my. god. that is amazing.” I couldn’t have said it better.
Yes he brought the pillow with him, wanna guess what he did with it?
This. And wanna guess what DiBiase did to annoy him?
This.
And this.
My take on Varun’s point of view.
Varun’s first time was with this pillow.
I don’t know what to write for this picture.
Apparently, Varun doesn’t understand that pillows haven’t been engineered to be hats.
Ryan: “Dude, this is an epic pic!”
At a loss of words again.
HyperBiase.
Words don’t do this view justice.
He finally got up.
This is why.
How can you not be a “camwhore” with this view?
Varun’s lucky the auto shutter didn’t get the next photo in this sequence.
This time Varun is at a loss of words.
We were too tired to try again, so this was our “jump pic”
This and the next two pictures are photographic metaphors for what should be done to the litter on Priya’s and the people that leave it there.
All clean.
For Gene.
Maybe I have some kind of shoe\foot fetish.
I probably do.
The definition of MyBiase.
Only 3 know.
For Lum.
DiBiase: “Dude Varun, did you wake up on the wrong side of Donut Wheel or something?”
Still hyper.
Still tired.
Very tired.
Here’s a panorama of the view from Priya’s right before the sun came up, sorry if the lighting is a bit off, a tripod would have made this perfect, also click on this picture and the other ones to get the full 10mp resolution, I only uploaded to full versions for the best pictures so just hover over them to see if they are clickable.
This night run was truly amazing, I wish Lum could have shared the laughs and the love with us and even though he wasn’t there tearing up the hills, he did put a smile on my face with this text: “You know i wanted to go-just think of yourself lucky i’ve already gone on so many with you. make it a good one for them!”
Thank you, Lum.
This is really a case of saving the best for last, so here’s the answer to the age old question; “Why do I run?”
This morning, I set out to do the Runner’s HI 20K as part of the Marathon Readiness series out here in Hawaii, specifically focused on getting you ready to do the Honolulu Marathon which falls on December 13th this year. This morning’s 20K was my first experience with it, and I was pleasantly surprised. Initially, I was intimidated by the map and the fact that I wasn’t too familiar with the area (It was held in Kapolei).
Here’s the map that was emailed to participants:
I started the run late since I decided at the very last minute to do a walk-start. I wasn’t planning on it, but as I walked up to the start line the run-walk group had just taken off and the two nice volunteers were like: You wanna do it? So I decided, maybe it was fate, and said: OK. But, I had to go to the bathroom, which was at the finish line, so I started about 10 minutes or so behind. For much of it, I did the first lap alone and in the dark, which was actually really cool! My time was calculated from the walk-start time of 5 AM. The rest of the runners started at 6 AM. I loved the flat course. This was my first time attempting 12 miles in 2009, so I was stoked it wasn’t too hard on me. My stopwatch said 2:32:44 or something like that when I was done. One thing to remember about this run: It’s dark out there. Not much lighting and absolutely none in the porta potties, so bring a flashlight, or in my case, I used my iPhone.
I didn’t get as many pics as I’d wanted. My fingers were sweaty and my iPhone wasn’t really responding well to me pressing on the display. Eww, gross… sorry!
Swag:
The shirt they gave us for registering was cool. It was the first race I’ve run so far where they didn’t give a heavy, cotton t-shirt, which is not pleasant to run in if you go long distances. I was impressed with it. At the finish line there were cut fruit, gatorade (it’s got electrolytes!), and water.
As always, I try to post my running playlist:
Nine Inch Nails – Dead Souls // The Cure – Foxy Lady // Kid Koala – Excerpt 3: Stoppin’ Traffic / Tracks, Etc. / Slew Test 1 / Lunch With Pavlov // The Cardigans – Lovefool // The Cure – Subway Song // Luke – It’s Your Birthday (Special Edit) // o.boogie – Hoerenjong // DJ Jazzy Jeff & The Fresh Prince – Just Cruisin’ // kids on fire – MFLD-01b // MwesLee – Un J***r Suave // Kanye West – Jesus Walks // Beastie Boys – Root Down (Free Zone Mix) // Juvenile Committee – Flipside // the marylanders – Good Old 99 // Sugarman 3 – Chicken Half
// // Dred Scott – The Story // The Great Mundane – Juno Had A Rough Day // Bing Crosby – Too Marvellous for Words // Al Bowlly – I’ll String Along with You // The Lonely Island – Ras Trent // John Vanderslice – White Dove // Lucila Campos – Samba Malato // The Ting Tings – Impacilla Carpisung // Will Smith – Will 2K // Count Basie Orchestra – April in Paris // Snoop Dogg – Sensual Seduction (Clean) // Aesop Rock – Citronella // KMD – Trial N Error // The Cardigans – Step On Me // The Cure – Lovesong // The Asteroids Galaxy Tour – Around The Bend // Sharon Jones and the Dap-Kings – Pick It Up, Lay It in the Cut // Os Mutantes – A Minha Menina // Soto – Only Star // Sound Providers – Braggin & Boasting f. little brother // Will Smith – 1,000 Kisses [Radio Edit] // Dr. Dog – The Old Days // suhov – Funny // Crookram – Biggles
Standout tracks that gave me that extra boost of energy:
The Cardigans “Lovefool,” Luke “It’s Your Birthday,” Kanye West “Jesus Walks,” The Marylanders “Good Old 99,” *thanks sifu! Snoop Dogg’s “Sensual Seduction” which came on just as I passed my 7-mile marker… The Cure’s “Lovesong” and Suhov’s “Funny.”
