Running in the New Year

So, folks, it’s been nearly 6 weeks since my last race — and my “injury.”  I say it that way because I don’t really believe it’s a true injury.  Dr. Dave who carved me up some semi-custom orthotics calls it neuritis, but I can’t believe that running could cause me any real problems the way soccer or basketball or gymnastics ever could.   

During Big Sur, as I mentioned, it felt like I had a severely cramped up middle toe on my right foot.  Turns out that that pain only progressed further every time I tried to go for a run after that, and after seeing the World’s Best Podiatrist (right here in Terra Linda, no less, and $330 later…) I had a name for it.  With these new running shoe inserts I should be able to run past the 6-mile mark and not have the excruciating pain radiating down the bottom of my foot and up my ankle.  

Problem is, it’s been The Holidays and I’ve had loads of excuses not to go running. Gotta go shopping, wrap presents, prepare for holiday parties, and now I’m feeling a little under the weather, of course… This is exactly what happened after the Honolulu marathon for me last December.  Stuck in a rut. 

It’s time for some inspiration.  For starters, I will reminisce about how awesome 2008 was for me & running.  In celebration, here’s the larger version of the finisher’s picture of Trish and me at Big Sur: (I can’t figure out how to not make it sideways, sorry)

 

Second, I need to get a run on the calendar, otherwise I’m never gonna put my fancy orthotics to use.  

Here are some races that look interesting to me; mainly full marathons, but some of these may have half options…so many to choose from!

* Napa Valley – 3/1/09, Calistoga, CA

* Richmond E-Venti – 3/1/09, Richmond, British Columbia

* Catalina Island – 3/8/09, Catalina Island, CA

* Suntrust National – 3/21/09, Washington, DC

* Moab – 3/29/09, Moab, Utah

* Nature/s Path Whidbey Island – 3/29/09, Oak Harbor, Washington

* Golden Gate Headlands – 4/4/09, Sausalito

* Muir Woods – 4/5/09, Stinson Beach

* Flora London – 4/26/09, London

* Avia OC – 5/3/09, Newport Beach

* Eugene – 5/3/09, Eugene, OR

 

Yeah?? Anybody in?

Anyway, what a fantastic year of hitting the road with my bunioned, stinky, fabulous feet.  I think I ran more races than in any other year, got faster, stronger, and had more fun.  I have a good feeling about 2009!

a few more photos

MarathonFoto finally finished tagging all the pics from Big Sur.  None of actually crossing the finish line, with the clock time, oh well.  Below are my favorites.  Which ones should I plunk down the cash for?

 

actually smiling!

 

a little bit goofy, but elated to be done

 

the one where I am a badass

Legitimate Reasons Why I (Maybe) Did Not or Will Not Run Tonight…or, alternately titled, Why Organizational Psychology Is Lame and Everyone Should Just Buck Up, Dammit (Myself Included)

1.  The logistics of tonight’s planned buddy run were making my blood boil, because we had flip-flopped between having an earlier group and not having an earlier group; and whether to run in one place or another.  Meanwhile people have other stuff to do and excuses.  And when we finally decided to just go back to the original set-up for simplicity’s sake…

2.  I locked myself out of the apartment on my way out to get to the run.  Only the second time this has ever happened to me, surprisingly.  So as I was jimmying the screens off the windows in the dark, trying to break into my own home, I texted Megan to tell her that I was a dumbass.  She called me back only to share the news that…

3.  Megan got in a (minor) car accident and Buggy was smooshed in the front passenger fender.  She was OK but really annoyed.  She was going to go to Novato to deal with it at her mom’s house, so my best bet was to continue what I was doing.  Once I hopped up through the kitchen window on my stomach and shimmied through, garnering a few bruises along the way, I grabbed my keys and rushed up to the run spot, but when I got there, all of a sudden…

4. Megan’s car wouldn’t start, because she was out of gas, so I went to the nearby gas station where she coincidentally was, and called Justin to come save the day with a hammer to bang the fender back into place so it wouldn’t rub on the tire and cause a disaster.  So I missed my run.  

Still, here I am, sitting in my running clothes, debating whether or not 7:30 is too late for me to get out there.  I think I pulled a back muscle mid-climb whilst defeating the fortress that is my apartment, but some Motrin will cure that.  Tic, toc…I could really just use a massage right now, and a glass of wine, and a hot bubble bath.  

All of this in the wake of our remaining runners feeling a lack of support because the majority of the team is done with their event, Nike.  I remember how it was last year, the unappealing darkness of November.  It’s like a Bergman film.  Everyone is melancholy and it’s lonely and cold and we’re in Sweden and it’s only the road, the wilderness, and you, and a moose perhaps.  Here, the only option is to run, or kill yourself.  Neither of which is a very viable option, because the former is hard to do without motivation and the latter kind of defeats the purpose.   In other words, training for Honolulu by yourself is no fun.

We need some sort of rejuvenation, some cohesion.  I want our runners to feel as strong as they possibly can before they go off for their 26.2, and that’s hard when everyone wants/has to do their own thing.  That’s the whole point of the TEAM aspect of TNT.  Doesn’t help much that they’re switching track to Wed., which I can’t make.  I would suggest that Marin have our own track workout on Thursdays at a better time for everyone, but that is just splitting us up even more.  Still working on that one.  

Anyway, back to my bubble bath.  I got some girly candles in Monterey and there’s some chocolate ice cream in the freezer.  So despite my pumped-upedness from Sunday’s accomplishment and the need for a real recommitment, I think I’ll heed Trish’s warning that with the way things are going if I run tonight I’ll probably break an ankle.  Here’s hoping I don’t slip in the tub. 

I blame it on the (nearly) full moon.

Double Bonus Post

Forgot that I had all these other pics from previous races…but see below for an update on Big Sur.  

 

 

Heather, trying not to freeze before Nike. Also apparently not wearing pants

 

Heather, Bonnie, me & Perrisa before Nike, just minutes after P sprained her ankle

Al, Trish, Bonnie before Nike

 

the super qualified professionals at Walgreen's did a number on this one. I did not, in fact, have a bloody nose, and we did not rip the space-time continuum on the left side of this frame

 

deirdre right before the start of the Wine Country Marathon

 

Colton, #1 sleepy Deirdre fan

 

the runners begin the Wine Country Marathon...all 125 of them!

 

Go Deirdre!!!

 

Trish & Deirdre

 

Al & D

 

it's small, but that's Michelle, Colton, Deirdre, and me

yay Deirdre!!!!!!

 

WOO HOOOOOO!!! I cried a little bit, it was so special

 

and she's still standing!!

BEST. RACE. EVER!!!

Do you notice a trend appearing in this blog?  I’m sorry, I can’t help it if awesome stuff inspires my posts. And pardon my superfluity, but all sorts of exciting competitions have been occurring in the past few weeks and things have really been turning up LIZ.  I mean not to brag, but first our boy wins the presidency, and then I take 18 MINUTES OFF MY PERSONAL RECORD for the half marathon.  What’s next? With this luck maybe I’ll win the lottery or maybe Suzie will be asked to be on the cover of Cat Fancy. WHO KNOWS in this crazy world?!  Like the little silver race charm that Trish gave me says, “anything is possible.”  

Gayle, Al, Trish and I went down to the Monterey peninsula this weekend for the Big Sur Half.  Saturday was pouring rain and nasty, but we all held close to the dear words of the meteorologists for race day, who all predicted dry weather.  To make up for missing the usual TNT-style pasta party in a giant convention center with eighty thousand of our closest friends, we went over to Trish & Al’s room at Embassy Suites for happy hour and our own kind of feast.

 

No, I didn't actually drink the night before a race...my friends are just crazy and have better digestive systems

 

Carbo-Loading, Chez Hart

 

my home-made contribution: sweet potato fries! mmm

 

Gayle and I got to bed at a reasonable hour, but when the alarm went off at 4:45AM the first thing she said to me was, “is that the wind I hear?”  That combined with the uncertainty about whether to wear a long-sleeve or ditch it in the gear check, and fact that I was freaking out about being poop-shy that morning (thanks Perrisa for that term), did not make for a very confident start.  

But when gun goes off, it’s time to run, and all the mental garbage has to be left behind at the starting line.  No turning back!  Here’s the course:

 

course map

You can’t really tell from this tiny picture (plenty more of those to come…), but we started near Fisherman’s Wharf, ran down the coast toward Pacific Grove not quite to where 17-mile Drive starts (if we did run through there, would they charge us each $9.25??), turned around and came back to finish at the old Custom House.  

Despite an iffy morning, when I started moving I felt good, and that feeling stayed with me for most of the race.  There were some droplets of rain right at the beginning and I feared reliving the horrible nightmare of the Monsoon at Waikiki that defined miles 1-3 of my marathon in Honolulu last year, but luckily that faded quickly. 

There was nothing too dramatic about this course, except for the fact that it was coined as a “flat” race, but it was most definitely NOT flat.  Good thing we love hills — thanks to Coach Joe for that.  Trish and I ran the whole thing together, and carried an 11:42 pace average.  The cool thing was that we were aiming for a sub-12 pace, and every time we passed a mile marker we were at least 2 minutes under what would have been a 12-min/mile pace, nearly to the second.  (E.g. at mile 3 we were at 34, not 36 min; at mile 5 we were at 58, not 60 min). Consistent, predictable running, which sounds really mind-numbingly boring to non-runners, is actually really thrilling for those of us who care.  It shows that we can pace well, and that’s what it’s all about for long distances.  

When things temporarily sucked, I reminded Trish and myself how beautiful the scenery was.  My right middle toe cramped pretty bad from mile 8 onwards, and my right ankle was being stupid for the first time and hurting for the last several miles, but this pristine landscape mitigated the pain to some degree.  The added bonus of endorphins help spice things up visually, but even these pretty pictures don’t do the experience justice (but thanks nonetheless to Trish for capturing these post-race!):  

 

 

Monterey coastline

 

near mile 5 or so

 

at one point, Trish hallucinated that she saw a whale, but I like to pretend it was really there

 

part of the "flat" course

 

I have mixed feelings about the fact that more often than not a snapshot of a road in CA will also contain a Prius...so smart, yet so ugly

 

So the rest of these pictures are taken from the official MarathonFoto site, and we’re technically supposed to be buying these as full-size shots…which explains why they are tiny, and you have to squint to know it’s really me.  

         

         

  

this one’s actually my favorite, because I actually look like I’m running for once. and I look like a bad ass! wooo! push it!     

That one where I’m a hard-core runner was taken right at the finish, the 0.1 of the 13.1 where I’m sprinting my guts out.  The guy on the loudspeaker actually said, “and here comes number 4975, tearing it up at the end!”  That was pretty darn exciting.  I bet I have a big smile on my face and I don’t look as much of a retard as I did at Nike in the finish line photos at this race (still waiting for those to be posted…will put them here when they are). 

But the fact that I could surge at the end like that makes me feel like I’ve been cheating myself.  My brain is slowing me down, apparently, because when I shut if off and just go, I can push it and go faster than I thought I could.  Another example: the fact that I could take nearly 20 minutes off my best half time ever, just because I had someone pacing me.  Trish and I barely did not break 2:30 (official time for me was 2:33:21) which drives me nuts, because I could have eliminated 3 and a half minutes somewhere in there.  Oh well, guess I just have to do another one to break 2:30! 

Took today off and played around in Monterey, but gotta go back to work tomorrow.  Glad I had the extra day to recuperate.  Half marathons are the very best distance because you can do one and not be completely dead for the next week.  Yesterday I got to be a tourist after the race, and I wasn’t even that tired.  Our hotel, Carmel Mission Inn, was fabulous and I highly recommend it.  And of course, I am so grateful to my parents and our friends Doug & Theresa for coming down to cheer me on in the chilly, wet weather — you guys are the best!! Now, it’s time to go roll out my calves and hams on the foam roller…and stuff my face, cuz I CAN now! yippeee!

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

BEST. ELECTION. EVER!!!

(Except for 8…really, California? Really? WTF?)

FINALLY…a day to relax

I’m so freakin’ glad October is over.  It’s my favorite month, but there is always way too much stuff going on for some reason.  My goal for November:  do less stuff, relax more!  

All of which sort of is my excuse for not posting.  No time!  But tonight I’ve got the whole evening to just do nothing, and it’s awesome.  I’ve got a glass of wine, the Wedding Singer on tv at Trish’s house while I dog/house-sit, and a cute doggy’s warm butt resting on me.  What could be better?  Whoopity doo!  All right, so on to the blog post…

Nike, which seems so far away now, was amazing.  Way better than last year, for two main reasons: the weather was absolutely perfect running weather, with cloud cover the whole time and no warmer than 60 the whole race, and because I ran the whole thing with Trish, Nicole, and Perrisa.  Didn’t have the best finishing time (2:45, give or take a few minutes based on if you deduct the handful of minutes we waited for each other at the tops of hills; but still better than 2007 because I wasn’t waiting with Deirdre while she puked like last year), but having each other for support was more important at this race.  

 

Perrisa & me, around mile 5

 

Perrisa and I stayed the night before the race at the Parc 55 hotel near Union Square, and lemme tell ya, it was not all it’s cracked up to be.  They gave us room 666, and although it wasn’t haunted, if we’d wanted a mini-fridge it would have cost $25 a night, and parking was $50 a night.  The room was pretty dinky, too.  Oh well.  The bad luck from our cursed room number came in the morning, though, when Perrisa and I were on our way to the starting line and she tripped on some stairs and sprained her damn ankle!!  I have to commend her, though, because although it was a nasty fall she was able to run the whole thing on it and I didn’t hear her complain once.  When the race was over though her ankle looked more like a cankle on steroids.  

The course this time was slightly different than last year around mile 4 or 5, which threw us all for a loop, because it ADDED two more substantial hills! ugh!  We had planned on basically miles 1 through 6 being completely flat, with the first hill up towards Presidio and Lincoln Ave.  For some reason before we got to Aquatic Park, the course veered up to the left a few streets and then down again before the Presidio hill.  It was good that we had made a conscious effort to start really slow, because the hills honestly weren’t that bad this time.

Everything was pretty enjoyable all the way through Cliffhouse, at mile 10 or so.  We saw a woman running and carrying her baby on her back; apparently there was a barefoot guy; and of course the sea of purple TNT people was pretty awe-inspiring.  To be a small part of something so massive is unforgettable.  The only crappy part is when the leukemia survivors with signs reading “thank you for saving my life” get you all choked up and then it’s really hard to breathe and run at the same time.  But I guess it’s good, too.

After the Clement St. hill and the nice long downhill at the Cliffhouse, the blisters were starting to twinge, and my least favorite part of the race began: entering the Park from Great Highway.  The last two or three miles just suck ass, because it seems like one big gradual uphill.  Nike tries to perk it up by putting the “Chocolate Mile” in there and hands out squares of Ghiradelli chocolate, but pretty much the last thing you want after running for 2+ hours is chocolate.  Bluehgh.  

 

by the Cliffhouse, near mile 10

 

 

Things turned around a bit when I spotted my two friends Monica and Pete, holding the “nice buns Liz” sign (see my last post).  That gave me a boost and carried me through the last 0.1 mile bend toward the finish.  I got a little carried away and left my buddies in the dust (sorry, dudes) and we didn’t get our corny hands-grasped-together-in-the-air finish…but I had a moment and sprinting the last bit is sort of my trademark.  Here’s me checking to see if they were coming up soon behind me (I’m in the white hat, can you spot me?):

 

that was the gun time, not the chip time, btw

 

The finisher’s area was ridiculous, and I’m actually glad that everyone who had planned on coming bailed last minute (Mom & Dad, Justin, and Megan) because the logistics of Nike are just fucking ridiculous.  I’m really turned off by it based on the sheer size of it…10,000+ runners, plus a few spectators per, equals way too many damn people and cars in a tiny city.  It took us 2 hours to get from the smooshed finish area back to the hotel to get our stuff and check out.  Probably would’ve taken more than 3 if I’d had to wander aimlessly looking for people.  (All these pics, incidentally, are probably illegal since I snagged them from brightroom’s preview site where they try to get you to buy packages of all the photos they took of you.  My mom is going to buy a few shots, so that’s my justification….)

The following weekend, I experienced the opposite kind of race: the Wine Country Marathon in Healdsburg.  I wasn’t running all 26.2 miles, but I was supporting Deirdre in her first full marathon.  This was the inaugural race for the full, but the half has been going on for years.  At the expo the day before, which was like three tents on a grassy area behind the local brewery, a nice lady showed us where we could spectate from.  The next morning as I waited for Deirdre at the mile 8 mark, I cheered on every single runner as they passed…because there were only 125 of them!  Some of them commented how I was only the 2nd spectator they’d seen on the whole course at that point.  Hm.  So, the upside to this is that we could drive along the road the entire race, which made it very convenient to wait for Deirdre a few miles ahead of her.  I ran from mile 8 to mile 13.1 with her, and then met up with Trish and Al who also came to run with her at mile 16.  We took turns being her “pacer” all the way from 16 to 26.  I’m so proud of her – she finished in 5:35!! Woo hoo! I took a ton of pictures on a disposable camera but I gotta get it developed with a CD before I can put the pics up here.  

Next weekend is the Big Sur Half Marathon in Monterey Bay.  This is my more serious race, I’ve concluded, because Nike was really just for fun.  Trish and I both know we can get better times than what we did at Nike…so this time there will be no pact-making or hand-holding.  If I can keep up with her I will but I totally believe in the most important tenet of running buddies: if you get a boost, you gotta go with it.   I’m riding down with Gayle on Saturday, and our friends Doug and Theresa are coming down to hang out with Justin at some auto-rally thing in Carmel and then coming to see me at the race if the timing is right.  My parents are also coming down, which is exciting since they haven’t seen me run since San Diego 2 years ago.  Sunday night Justin and I are staying at the Carmel Mission Inn which looks shmancy.  Taking Monday off because it’s just retarded to try to go to work the day after any long distance of running. 

Something weird was going on with my calf muscles last night.  Could’ve been because I went to bed drunk, but I have recollections of having horrible charlie horses at several points during the night.  That’s never happened to me, but yesterday my calves were fine and this morning they felt like I’d run 10 miles.  I DID however have a dream that I was at a big box store like Costco or Target, looking to buy a treadmill… hmmm….

Anyway, more to come once I get the rest of the pictures from last weekend and from next weekend.  Tomorrow morning Heather is coming over here to run @ Sam Taylor, but if it’s raining as hard as it is now I’m probably going to whine a lot…we shall see.

UPDATE:  Woke up with a sore throat and congested lungs, blah.  Heather and Kristin found each other (I hope) and went out to Sam P. for a run.  I will try later on if I feel better…but I’m really just enjoying doing NADA.  Haven’t been able to do this for months, it feels like!!   

Also, I have to share this awesomeness:  On our way back from Sacramento yesterday after a boolicious Halloween party, we stopped by the local Safeway in Elk Grove that has a gas station.  I put in my club card #, and it asked me if I wanted to use my “rewards? Y/N” and SAVE $1.90 PER GALLON.  Umm hell yes!?! So I enthusiastically hit the “Y” button and basically I got 15 gallons of gas for under $10.  I’m guessing some employee messed up when he punched in the gas price for the day, and I almost felt like I was stealing or something, but it was amazing.  

 

And here is my evil puppy fur-monger costume:

 

Cruella de Vil and her next victim

OK, back to being lazy! aahhhh.

I know, I know…

 

mon & pete, my own private cheering section, with me @ the Nike finish

I have not been doing a good job of updating lately, and the most exciting stuff has happened all season!! This is just a teaser since I don’t have time to write a whole big blog.  Basically I ran the Nike half last weekend and it was really awesome, then today I went up to Healdsburg for the Wine Country Marathon to run about 8 miles with Deirdre for her 1st ever full marathon, and in 2 weekends I will be doing another half marathon (Big Sur Half) in Monterey.  Phew!  I have pictures to order and put up online from both Nike and Wine Country and I’ll try to get to that soon.  In the meantime, please enjoy the picture of my lovely friends who stood out in the cold with the best cheer sign ever.

Runny Brain

 

Shel Silverstein's Runny Babbit

 

Every weekend, countless men and women rise well before a reasonable hour, apply the Body Glide and lace up the running shoes, and set out on their own crusades to conquer double-digit miles, either in the name of event training or just plain lunacy. 

When I’m in the middle of a long run, however, MY run is obviously the most important and impressive one going on out there.  Especially if my course takes me through a busy area, I’ve got a giant green neon sign above my head announcing how far I’ve come and how far I’m going.  I wipe the sweat from my face as I pass latte-sipping tourists wiping croissant flakes from their lips in downtown Sausalito, and I feel a special kind of hubris beating in my chest:  It’s pride, mixed with a little jealousy and craving for delicious breakfast food, but mostly pride. Everyone knows that I’m on my twelve-miler and how freakin’ incredible that is, even if I look like dying crap. Dog-walkers, strolling lovers, bikers and other runners gaze on with amazement,  oohing and aahing, as I charge by on my mission toward the finish line.  ”There she goes,” they whisper, the way they do for Dean.  

Around the same time my running super star fantasy begins to fade, my running brain, a.k.a. runny brain,  starts to kick into full gear.  Basic, rote cognitive functions go out the window, speech slurs, and the legs sorta do their own thing.  In other words, whatever’s between my ears starts to get mushy.  It hasn’t happened yet, but I won’t be surprised if I start talking like Runny Babbit next time.  I’m just glad when I can het gome, shake a tower, and feet some ood.  

There’s an article in this month’s Runner’s World about how it’s the brain that controls pace more so than the legs.  Training your mind to deal with Runny Brain Syndrome can be just as critical as training the heart and the muscles to deal with physical fatigue.  If anyone knows any mental tricks to keep my illusions of athletic grandeur going strong into the big miles, cuz it really does help with motivation, lemme know.

At least we know one bank that won’t be going belly-up

 

And that would be the bone marrow bank, because they just got a bunch new investors. Last night at TNT’s Cause for Celebration, I signed up to have my bone marrow typed and got put in the National Bone Marrow Program.  Apparently if I’m a match for someone, I’ll get a giant needle sawing into my pelvic bone to extract my marrow.  MMMM!  But that’s like a 1 in 20,000 chance or something.  Oh well, I guess saving lives is not pleasant work…but it’s worth it.  

I also am staying home from work today because I woke up feeling sick and barfing all over the place.  Can’t really figure out what’s going on, but maybe it was the catered food from the event last night.  The thing was, it was so delicious — basil mozzarella tomato skewers, beef peanut satay, portobello shrooms, spinach frittata bites.  Anyway, here are some pics from the festivities: 

 

Al and me. The left half of my face was still numb at this point from novocaine from a filling I had earlier in the day...I'm surprised there's no visible drool glistening on my face.

Pammy and Karla with her cute new haircut

 

Manager Leslie

 

Philip, the man responsible for most of the unflattering pictures of me that end up online (he is EVERYWHERE)

 

Josi & Kelsey

 

TFM & K (aka Top Fundraiser Megan and Kristen)

 

fillin' out paperwork, enjoyin' the free booze

 

Chelsea & Al

 

Watch out for these goofballs: Al "wants to rock and roll all night" and Trish "Have you seen her chest?" Hart

 

the food that could have possibly been responsible for me hating my life in the bathroom this morning

I think the best part of these events is seeing people in normal everyday grown-up clothes, instead of in sweaty running gear.  We are a pretty sexy bunch.