Day Trip to L.A. - bridal showers and running

I am very delinquent in blogging.  I have been writing and half-finishing lots of our life happenings in our seven-and-a-half months of married life, but this is my first one I'm posting to my public blog.  Thankfully I can backdate these with Google to keep them organized along a timeline (this day blogged below occurred a week ago on 7/19/14).  I want to do better because I love looking back and reading about past experiences because I re-remember details that I had forgotten and get to relive all the memories again.  I don’t want to forget anything from this first year of marriage.

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Heidi’s former roommate Hannah was having a bridal shower down in L.A.  Heidi initially was disappointed thinking it impossible to go.  It was the weekend after father-son campout and her watching Ava and Caleb, so it would be too much to be out of town again the whole weekend.  So I proposed a day trip.  The shower was at noon, and really close to where Daniel Z. lives, so I made plans to hang out with him.

So we set out early and stopped at McDonalds on the way for breakfast.  Since becoming “part-time vegans” (as I call our food plan changes), that food tastes like plastic to me, but I was desperate, so I ate it.  We did have healthy snacks in the car for the rest of the day.

I drove the whole way down there.  We talked, listened to music, and one Adventures in Odyssey episode.  We enjoy our opportunities to travel together.  Heidi still had to buy a shower gift, so we stopped at Bed, Bath & Beyond just a mile away from the restaurant where the shower was being held.  The clerk Stacey, was so helpful.  We were frazzled from just walking in after driving 200 miles nonstop.  She was from Florida, so we talked about the Disney World trip we had taken.

Then I dropped Heidi off and plugged in Daniel’s address.  I should have actually looked at the map before following the directions.  Google changed the zip code on me, so it took me in the opposite direction of Daniel’s apartment.  It took me awhile to figure it out, and I finally got to Daniel’s an hour later.  I was so frustrated that I was really glad we were going running.  So I changed into my running shorts and off we went.  Daniel took me along a new running route that I hadn’t been on before through some nice ritzy neighborhoods.  It was a cool but sunny day, absolutely perfect outside.  We ran and talked, catching up from the last few months.  Daniel had manager at his firm a week earlier.  I told Daniel about married life and the Tough Mudder, trying to convince him to join me for my next one.  We ran a hard 4.5 miles.  I'm usually lagging a few steps behind Daniel huffing and puffing because his legs are so long, but we were holding together pretty well.  A little slower than our usual, but we were happy with a 9:10-minute-mile pace.

We headed back and I called for push-ups until dropping (trying to cajole him into Tough Mudder shape).  I did 16, but Daniel pumped out at least five more than I did.  We re-hydrated and walked down the street for some lunch.  Daniel took me to this place that serves amazing pita wraps.  Back at the apartment, we took turns showering, and then it was time to meet Heidi.  She had gotten ride from Hannah’s aunts to a Starbucks down the street.  We drove over to meet her and sat talking for awhile so Daniel and Heidi could catch up, and then we got back in the car.

Heidi drove the first leg of the trip home.  I conked out for a good 30+ miles and barely woke up when she stopped for gas before Magic Mountain.  She continued driving, I napped a little more, and then we switched at the base of the 99 freeway.  I got us the rest of the way home, and was so grateful when we were done driving.  We pulled only the necessary stuff out of the car and crawled into bed.  It was a long but “worth-it” day of memories.

Marathon #2

It’s hard to encapsulate all my thoughts from this marathon.  The most persistent thought is “Praise God, it’s finally over!”  Both the training to prepare for the race and the pain during the race just made me want to be DONE.

It was very difficult to make time get all those long training runs in.  I wasn’t getting up early without a running partner, so if I was doing solo runs (which was often), they were LATE at night.  Heidi and I were both noticing how stressful running was becoming for me trying to schedule these runs around seminary, church, work, wedding planning, travel and us-time.  Running shouldn’t be stressful, it’s where I want to go to unload stress.

This race was so much a team effort.  It feels so cliché to write that when I was the one who physically ran those 26.2 miles, but I couldn’t have mentally or physically done it without my unofficial support team:

·         Heidi and her parents, who came out to cheer me on from two different locations, thereby seeing me four times throughout the race.  Three of those times, I dropped or picked up gear or sustenance.  The change in temperature from standing still at the start line an hour pre-race at 6 a.m. to high heart-rate only an hour-and-a-half later is extreme, so I was glad to have someone to give my gloves to at mile 4, and be able to change my shirt and hat at mile 12.

·         My running group Sunday Runners.  I wouldn’t have upgraded to the full marathon from my plan to just run the half-marathon if not for this new group of friends that motivated me to get up and run almost every Sunday morning 8-12 miles before church.  Shannon, Jennifer, Janet and I were in the marathon group, and there were even more in the half-marathon group.  Laura, who did the half, finished her race and then got on her bike supplied with gu, water and Gatorade, and rode the last few miles in with the three of us (Shannon had to walk earlier than I did and got separated from us).  They kept me going when I was screaming from the pain in my feet, ankles and stomach.

·         My other three non-racing running partners.  Adam, Alicia, and Cole (who is only 9!) each did one or more training runs with me at some point along my training plan.  Sometimes it’s nice to run alone and just go through some solo therapy to unwind stress, or to embrace some music (passing cars must get a kick of my conducting efforts with my arms as I run with some really emotive music).  But other times, it’s really nice to have someone to talk to.

·         My county-wide aid stations for my long late-night training runs: Heidi in Fresno, Phil & Sandy in North Fresno, Larry & Angela in Clovis, Javad & Kimberly in Clovis, Bryan & Cory in Fresno, and Amy in Fresno.

·         My fellow runners and walkers at the race yesterday morning.  It’s exhilarating to run with three thousand other people at the same time.  Especially when I’m privileged to know so many of them!

·         The spectators.  I say it to educate the masses: it sounds crazy, but a stranger standing along the race course ringing a cowbell can bring me to tears.  It HURTS to run this far, and that someone (especially someone I don’t know) would smile, hold a funny sign, shout encouragement, hand me pretzels/gummy bears/oreos, and/or ring a cowbell is the nicest thing in the world anyone could ever do in that moment.  So it doesn’t matter whether you know the person or not, if you’re out there, you don’t stand silently waiting for the ONE person you know, you make some noise.

My goal for this race was to be under 10-minute miles and to run the whole way.  I came in just shy on both goals, but had so much improvement compared to three years ago that I was very content.  Three years ago, I had to run/walk the last five or so miles and finished in 4h:28m:33s.  This year, I made it 24 miles of non-stop running and only had to run/walk the last 2.2.  Finish time was 3 minutes faster at 4h:24m:50s (10m7s-miles).

I broke down sobbing after I crossed the finish line just from the relief of it finally being over.  I didn’t have my phone, but thankfully Jennifer did so I got in a few post-race pictures.  The medals went through a redesign this year, and I really like them.  The sweatshirts were good before but are even better this year.  The food was amazing, but then again, what doesn’t taste good after running a marathon?  I devoured a bowl of ice cream, a plate of breakfast, almost a dozen orange slices, and several fruit cups.  I signed up for a post-race massage.  Usually I don’t wait through the line for them, but it helped so much after the Wascally in September that I decided to try it.  They were pretty organized and the wait wasn’t long.  Eric was my masseur (there were about 20-25 of them) and he didn’t really seem to be able to loosen me up that much, but oh well.  The free beer wasn’t worth the cacophony of noise coming from the band on stage in the finisher’s area.

As I was walking to my car after the race, I started talking to a couple that was leaving at the same time.  Rex and his wife Shelley walked the half for their first time.  Rex is an attorney, and they are Christians.  I found out that they used to live on my street, only a block east of me!  They were a neat couple to get to talk to, albeit briefly.

It’s hard to say what my racing future will look like.  I don’t think I’ll do the Two Cities full again.  I’m glad to have improved, but I don’t feel like this race is conducive to me performing at my best.  In November, I need to do my long training runs as the days are getting shorter and as the weather is getting colder.  Miles 16 through 24 of this race are the hardest for spectators to reach, making them a pretty demoralizing stretch.  And finally, as my wise friend Katie pointed out last year, most of our friends have gone home by the time the marathoners finish, so there aren’t as many people to reunite with when we’re finally done.  So I’ll probably stick with the Clovis route for the half marathon.  But then again, merely doing the Clovis half last year made me jealous of all the full marathoners and motivated me to do the full this year.  I would like to consider an occasional marathon in the future, but I’ll probably travel for it.  After I’ve recovered and forgotten about how tight all my leg muscles are.

California Classic Half Marathon 2013 - Part 2

I went home from the party battered and bruised.  I yanked off the band-aids (actually, I had to have Amy do it because I couldn't inflict the hair-pulling pain on myself) and applied Neosporin, but the band-aids were so painful coming off that I didn't want to put on more.  As a result, my exposed wounds were incredibly tender and itchy, that trying to sleep last night was difficult.

I probably only slept four hours--if that.  I was miserable upon waking up.  I tried to sleep a little later just to get in a few more z's.  I was dizzy and nauseous, two less-common but acceptable symptoms of sleep deprivation.  Thankfully I had laid out everything the night before, so not much thought was required in getting out the door.  I found a place to park with only moderate difficulty.  Made it through the bathroom line with just enough time to get to the start line.  Saw a few friends.  My buddy Brandon and I decided to start together.  He's a triathlete and running is his weakest event, and he was only shooting for 2h30m.  I was aiming for 1h50m, and he was okay trying to stick with me for awhile.  He's in much better shape than I am overall, and he normally runs faster than I anyway, so I figured he'd be able to do it.  Heidi had come out to cheer for me and our Bible study leader Sandy, so we saw her for the first time near the end of mile 2.  Brandon and I stayed together for a little over 2 miles before he veered off for the portable bathrooms along the course.

One odd thing about this race is that there were no mile marker signs.  If not for my Garmin watch, I wouldn't have know how far along I was on the course.  I'm not sure if it was a good or bad thing to not have signage.

We had started behind the 1:50 pacer (actually behind all the pacers because they were jammed so close to the front and we couldn't get through), but I caught up to within 30 feet of him and held there through mile 7.  During mile 3, I passed girl with a full-size sandwich board sign that read "Free Gummy Bears."  I had decided not to run with gu (big mistake given how lousy I was feeling) so I pointed to her for some, and she was flat out ecstatic that yet another person wanted some of her gummy bears.  She may have been a teenager, but could have been in her 20's.  Her exuberance reminded me of Lisa L.  I exclaimed "God bless you" with relief as she dumped a handful into my cupped hand.

We ran through the Tower District and then into Roeding Park.  We were running through the zoo on mile 6.  It was actually pretty nice, and I considered that maybe it was time to lift my boycott of the zoo (another rant for another blog post another day).  But then I realized I wasn't thinking clearly and abandoned that thought.

Mile 7 was where things started to go downhill.  I was so exhausted, and my knees were in so much pain that I couldn't even tell if I was actually experiencing any running pain or if it was just from my wounds.  The spectators were few and far between, probably because the participant numbers were also down, so it was hard to keep morale up.  I promised best friend status to almost everyone holding a sign or ringing a cowbell.  I would start crying almost every time I pass a big cheering group.

The 1:50 pacer pulled further and further ahead of me, and was out of sight by mile 10.  My calves were cramping around mile 9 through the end.  I would occasionally throw out a really deep groan from the pain.  I wanted this race over.  Heidi was there mid- both miles 10 and 11.  I finished mile 11 and I had to walk.  I didn't let myself walk for longer than a tenth of a mile, but I had to do that 3 times in mile 12 and twice in the final mile.

I was eyeing my watch, trying to make sure I'd still be able to PR.  I wanted to break 1:58 so badly.  I ran into the baseball stadium and heard Shawna (who was one of the announcers) announcing the gun time (which was about a minute ahead of my chip time) of 1:57, so I poured everything into it, sprinting for home plate.  I flashed a smile for the jumbo-tron and the cameras, and screamed with relief when I crossed the finish line.  I received my medal and started chugging water.  I had carried a bottle of water and had a cup of water or Gatorade at almost every aid station, and I was still thirsty.  These past few months I've needed to carry more water when I run, even for my short training runs, so I was glad to know that going into this race.

Then we actually had to climb the stadium stairs to get up to the finishers arena.  Not fun, but I survived.  And then I ATE.  I drank a lot of water.  I had two bowls of Coldstone ice cream, two plates of breakfast (pancakes, sausage, strawberries, bananas, bagels).  I hadn't realized we'd need our ID's for our free beer, and I wasn't carrying mine, so I was resigned to forego it, but my friend Chad didn't want his, so he got one and gave it to me.

I walked around for awhile, saying hi to various friends I hadn't realized were running today.  When I finally went to leave, I discovered with dismay that my car key had come loose from the knot in my running shorts drawstring.  And I had only worn those shorts because I couldn't wear my normal track pants which I know had a better drawstring material for retaining knots.  My mind started racing.  I hadn't carried my phone because it was too heavy on these shorts.  I had nothing on me except my music player.

I went back into the race arena.  I tried to call Amy using a security guard's phone because she's the only number I have memorized because she's always my emergency contact on race forms.  She didn't answer either because she was in church or didn't recognize the number.  So I went back inside figuring I'd find a friend.  If I could at least get a ride home, I could clean up and then get another ride back with a spare key.  I found my friends Larry & Rebecca first, and they were about to leave themselves.  They graciously dropped me off at home, and I logged onto FB from my laptop to let Heidi know what was going on, since we had plans to go to church after I got home.  So instead of me picking her up, she came and picked me up.  I showered while I waited for her, and when I finished cleaning up, she was waiting in my living room.  I tried to stretch a little more before we left, but I got dizzy from that and had to lay down for a minute.  We finally made it back to my car, abandoned the plan for church because my knees were hurting so badly, and I BBQ'd lunch for us instead.

All in all, I'm glad I ran.  It was a rough test of endurance, and I'm grateful to have passed.  But wow, I hope I never have a racing day this tough again.

California Classic Half Marathon 2013 - Part 1

I need to blog about this quickly so I don't forget all the details of it.  And because I tend to put off getting around to blogging about big events in my life.

I wasn't originally going to run this race.  Last year's (that I didn't run because I was running a half marathon the same day in Portland) apparently did not go well.  The weather was insanely hot for May and the aid stations all ran out of water way too soon.  Sign-ups definitely declined this year because of that debacle.  But after the bombings and the Boston race last month, I felt like I had to run.  And I was really struggling to be diligent about staying in shape even though it was warming up.

I was going to register for the two-person relay with my friend Todd, and his wife Alicia and our friend Amy were also going to relay it.  I decided I wanted to be paired with Todd because he's even faster than I am at short distances, whereas the women are slower than us.  At our speeds, Todd and I actually had a chance (albeit a small one) to place for one of the cash prizes.  Then we found out the per-person price was the same whether you ran the whole 13.1 or just half the course.  As an accountant, I understand that your costs incurred are mostly per-person, but there is a perceived loss of value in paying the same price to run 6-7 miles instead of 13.1, and they lost three registrations because the three of them weren't interested in paying that price.  So I registered for the half solo.

I went to the expo on Thursday for packet-pickup.  I'm always a little letdown at Fresno's race expos.  I've been spoiled by the elaborate Rock 'n' Roll expos with so many booths and sponsors you actually get lost in the convention centers.  But there were some fun moments.  I walked up to a booth selling solar energy equipment, genuinely curious, and asked the rep to give me his spiel.  He smiled, stood up, took a deep breath, and started off with "How much is your monthly electric bill?"  I gave him the number range, and then corrected myself saying that was total PG&E, that just electric would be less than that.  His face fell the slightest bit, and he replied, "Then my spiel is, have a nice day."  He was very nice about it.  I explained that I have a swamp cooler and that my house is pretty well insulated.  He sighed, saying, "Those swamp coolers are killing us."  Apparently I couldn't get per-month cost savings to justify the installation costs.  That made me unbelievably happy.

I bypassed the free massage booth.  I historically haven't found them good enough to be worth the wait in line, so I decided not to bother this time.  I was specifically looking for the Trail of Two Cities (Fresno/Clovis' November half marathon) booth.  They were offering two free gear items from past years' races if you signed up for this year's race at the expo.  I didn't know yet whether I'd want to run the half or the full, but you can change that at that expo and just pay the price difference.  Since the price difference doesn't increase, I decided to save the $15 now, because it won't be refunded if I drop from the full to the half.

Then I saw the Wascally Rabbit (Fresno's September half marathon) booth.  This will be the second year for this race.  This race benefits kids aging out of the foster care system.  Many of these kids can qualify for full-tuition financial aid, but have no resources for housing, books, etc., and as a result, pass on the chance to go to college and just enter the minimum wage work force and/or often end up homeless.  I couldn't run this last year because it was on our company's fiscal year-end, so I was counting inventory, but it's a week earlier this year.  And there was a ten-dollar discount for signing up at this expo.  They were also giving away shirts and medals from last year's race.  The shirt has a female version of Bugs Bunny leaning forward in a provocative fashion, so that went in the goodwill bag when I got home.  At first I thought it was cool to get last year's inaugural medal, but when I got home, I was saddened that they were giving them away to people who didn't run.  I feel like it cheapens it for the people who ran and earned these medals last year.

A key element of this race story is what happened the night before.  Last night, I went to Joshua's 7th birthday party.  I had Joshua in my Kindergarten Sunday School class.  I plan on taking him and his older brother Kyle (9, who I had in my VBS group when he was in first grade) on the CBC father/son campout in July, so I skipped our monthly Spades night to go to the party.  The party was at a place called 2extreme, a playplace with dozens of trampolines.  You can bounce by the hour or have birthday parties hosted there.

I was a little nervous about going to the party knowing I had the race the next morning.  I've never been huge on trampolines because I get headaches from jumping too high on the big ones, but I was really more concerned about twisting an ankle this time.  Thankfully none of the individual trampolines were that huge, there were just four large arrays of them.  There were padded mats in between each one, and carpet separating the four areas.  One of the areas had an adjacent pit filled with 1-cubic-foot foam blocks.  Ryan & Elika, Kyle & Josh's dad and stepmom were there already, but their mom Tiffany was running behind.  I signed the waiver, got a wristband, took off my shoes and started jumping.  I was the only adult jumping to start.  But after about fifteen minutes, Ryan started jumping too.  Tiffany, Elika, and the other kids' mom stayed on picture duty.  At first I was getting the lay of the land, and then got more confident in sprinting across.  I eventually ditched my socks too.  I was glad I had learned from previous parties and brought a hand towel along, because I was sweating like crazy.

I launched the boys into the foam block pit several times, and later games of tag broke out.  Somewhere in there, Kyle was chasing after me and I misjudged distance and landed on the carpet area instead of another trampoline.  I fell forward and scrapped a half-dollar-sized piece of skin off each knee in rug burns.  Man those HURT!  I knew band-aids weren't worth the effort yet since we were still jumping, so I just got kept a wet paper towel in my pocket and kept dabbing it periodically.  When our hour of jump time was up, I asked for band-aids and Neosporin.  They only had the standard-size band-aids but no Neosporin.  I was shocked but tried to keep my "You idiots run a playplace for children and don't stock Neosporin?" face and voice at bay.

We then got the kids into the party room and handed out chips and capri-suns while we waited for the cake.  The staff brought it in, Josh blew out his candles, and they took it away to cut and plate with ice cream.  It was going pathetically slow, so I stepped into help by delivering some plates and ultimately cutting the cake.  I was really surprised that they were this inexperienced in flow of events.  But Josh had fun and that's what mattered.

Boston Marathon Tragedy

I’m still processing my reaction to the bombings today at the Boston marathon.  When I started seeing status updates on Facebook today, I rushed to a news website and saw the horrific news.

Thankfully one of the local running stores that I follow on Facebook immediately posted that all of the runners that were there with their group were okay and accounted for.  Another friend posted a Fresno Bee article confirming that most of the Central Valley runners were confirmed safe.  I know a few of them.

I am still just shocked.  As a runner, I started wondering what it was like as someone not yet across the finish line at the time of the blast.  The Boston marathon is a pinnacle racing achievement, and to be told you can’t cross the finish line had to be devastating.  Not to be unsympathetic to the actual victims of the race, but having run a marathon, the emotion in that is so high, and the thought processes dull to basic needs.  Runners call it “race head.”  You have the attention span and cognitive functions of a 3-year-old.  In a normal race, the worst thing a volunteer can call out is a full sentence, such as “Gatorade up ahead, I have water.”  They need to just yell “water.”  To have to stop and process a volunteer or police officer’s instructions that it is not physically safe or possible for you to finish the race you’ve been training months—maybe years—for, is unfathomable.

How much worse for the runners and spectators actually injured or killed.  Another race group posted on Facebook asking everyone to wear a race shirt (almost all races give out a shirt as part of your entrance fee) tomorrow in support of those who died today.  One of the three fatalities was an 8-year-old boy.  Over 100 people were injured.  I’m crying watching the news reports online.

I wouldn’t be able to qualify for the Boston marathon as my time isn’t fast enough for my gender and age, but it was pretty sobering to read the timeline on a news story and realize that there is a very good possibility I could have been at the finish line or near it when the bombs went off.  I would be running about a 4h15m marathon.  Non-elite runners were released in waves between 10:10 and 10:40.  I would have been in the middle or toward the back of that pack.  The bombs went off at 2:50.

Finally Away!

As I sit here at the Courtyard Marriott in Paso Robles, I feel so relaxed.  I was so desperate to get out of town.

I ran the Blossom Trail 10K with my coworkers this morning in Sanger, and had a wonderful time.  The company I work for sponsors the race each year, and they purchase a number of entries for us to participate.  If not for it being a "showing company spirit," I wouldn't have stuck around for the race and would have left town the night before.  I think I came in first in the Company, and I think I set a new PR for myself at 51m53s.  It would have been lower, except I was following the herd, and the herd missed a turn and went around an extra (but small) residential block, adding about 0.13 miles to our course.  Looking back, there was an arrow on the pavement, but no signage, and since the first guy missed it, most of us missed it.  Somewhere after me, somebody figured it out, because I passed on of my coworkers twice: once right before my wrong (lack of a) turn, and once shortly after we were back on course.

Afterward I came home to finish packing and do a little house cleaning.  Right as I was ready to go, I noticed an odor in my bathroom.  The tub had about two inches of water in it.  So did both of the showers.  Ugh.  I called a plumber and described the situation.  He figured it was a backup of the drain, and that the water levels would only rise if more water went into the drain by turning on the faucet or flushing the toilets.  He reassured me that it was unlikely to get any worse and that it could wait until Monday.  I poured some bleach in each area, and cracked the windows to vent it out.  I wasn't about to let this ruin my weekend.

It is weekends like this one that I am so grateful for my traveling with my old job.  I have racked up a lot of hotel rewards points from my extensive travel, mostly with Marriott.  I always had in mind that I was saving them for an awesome honeymoon.  But since my wife has yet to show up, I've decided to start enjoying the use of some of these points.  And I actually have to have some activity on my account each year

It took awhile to get on the road, but I was finally on the freeway at 2:15p because of other interruptions and errands.

I stopped at two wineries on my way to the hotel, Eberle (German for small, wild boar, BTW) and San Antonio Winery, both wonderful.

At Eberle, a woman named Kathy served my tastings.  She was a hoot!  Probably in her 50's, she would pinch her nose and say "voignier" in a high nasally voice just for laughs.  She said they offer five complimentary tastings, but in a hushed tone, she admitted to being lousy at keeping count.  I enjoyed their wines, my favorite being a blend of three whites and a sweet muscat wine.  They had a beautiful deck and hill-top view, so instead of buying a bottle to take home, I just ordered a glass of the muscat and enjoyed the beautiful overcast afternoon.  Sweater weather, but not overly windy or freezing.  It had taken me this long to get here, I figured it was time to stop rushing.

Elise served my tastings at San Antonio Winery.  I had discovered this winery on my trip out this way last year and knew I wanted to visit again.  I purchased a bottle of a sweet red wine that I enjoyed because it's rare for me to find a red wine that I like.

I stopped at A&W for dinner.  I figured that since I ran a 10K that morning, I had earned a root beer float.  Absolutely delicious!

I then checked into the hotel and read for a little while.  I am behind on my reading for seminary and am really working to catch up.  After cranking out a couple of chapters, I donned swim trunks and headed out to the pool.  A young family was there, so I just sat in the hot tub and talked with them for awhile.  Lupe and her fiance Robert were enjoying a bottle of wine while her daughter Diana and niece Leila were alternating between the hot tub and the pool.  They live in Bakersfield (I gave them my sympathies).  Robert used to live in Fresno, and he says he misses it.  Robert is a police officer, and Lupe is a hospice nurse.  They are getting married out here in three months, and are attending a wedding expo tomorrow to help finalize some of their plans.  I did go over once and crank out some laps in the pool, but I tired out pretty quickly.  I figured I did enough to help loosen the muscles.

Then back to the hotel room for some blogging and now off to bed.  No alarm is set for tomorrow, and agenda is entirely TBD!

Karate Purple Belt Test and Two Cities Half-Marathon – Part 2

Friday Flashback: I left work at 3:30 to get to the expo by 4p when it opened.  I had to get in and out before karate class at 6p, which is always a struggle for me to leave because the expos are so much fun, and I usually see a lot of people I know at the Fresno race expos.  I picked up my full marathon race bib and then got in the race changes line.

Getting sick after the Exeter half marathon in August and then just generally being lazy after I finally got well really messed up my plan to build distance in my training.  By the end of September, I realized it wouldn’t be safe to do the full marathon.  I always say that I want to be able to run until I die, and trying to run a marathon with too little training unfortunately wouldn’t kill me, but might injury me to the point where I’d have to give up running.

So I was dropping down to the Clovis half marathon.  Thankfully Fresno was offering two half-marathon courses this year instead of just one.  The recurring half course is miserable.  I think some people run the full marathon just to avoid that half course.  Some very loud and deep pockets have protested the course going by their homes one day per year, so it has severely limited the options for the race directors to outline a better course.  So when they offered a course going out to old town Clovis, I was excited for the change.

The rest of the expo was great.  I saw a few people I knew.  My chiropractor was there with a booth, and he popped and cracked me again.  There seems to be this one spot in my upper back that isn’t unlocking.  He got some good pops Thursday night, and again Friday at the expo, but even that didn’t seem to get all of it.  Hopefully it just needs time to settle out.

Then I went over to karate class, and we were doing ducking exercises, killing my quads.  And then we learned a new form, very overwhelming the day before the test.  But oh well, here goes nothing.

Back to Sunday

I woke up with plenty of time and dressed quickly to get out the door for the race.  I was in such a hurry that as I parked I realized I had forgotten my cell phone on the living room table.  I actually had enough time to go back and get it, but decided it wasn’t worth the stress.  I had a great parking spot close to the start line.  I was very early, so I popped in an Adventures in Odyssey cassette and stayed in my car to keep warm.

When I got out and started walking around, I started running into countless people I knew.  This is my favorite part of Fresno races: reunions.  Seeing friends from other churches, from FPU, from karate, from my old job and clients is a real boost for me.

Since I had a new race bib from switching races, I didn’t have an assigned start corral, so was free to start wherever I liked.  I decided to start with Olga, Katie and Olga’s sister Mira.  Olga and Katie go to church with me.  They pace a little slower than I do, but we’ve been excitedly talking about this race together for the last few months.

Our first mile was a 10:12.  Starting out, I was feeling tight but not too sore from the test the day prior, but after that first mile all the pain was gone.  So I decided to pull ahead and see what I had in me.  I started flying.  I hadn’t had this kind of speed since before the Exeter race.  I don’t know what happened, but I finally unlocked it all.  It was awesome!  I had been in the mid-10’s this whole 2-month training period, so frustrated to have lost my speed, where normally I’m in the low 9’s.

Dave & Cheryl were cheering for us outside their house just before mile 2.  Then I saw Amy, Christine and their collective broods of 7 children, and they had signs and a line of high fives waiting for me, Olga & Katie.  I love it when strangers are out there cheering, ringing cowbells and holding signs, too.  My favorite sign from this race was “Run like you stole something!”  Amy, Christine and their kids relocated to another spot around miles 5 and 7 (same spot due to the loop), so I got to see them three times during the run.  Around mile 8, I saw Jolene and gave her a high five as I flew past.  And then Garry brought his girls out to cheer us on at mile 9.  I was able to chat with a few of the other runners around me when we were pacing with each other.

I flew across the finish line in 2 hours, 2 minutes, and 8 seconds!  Average pace of 9:12/mile, with some laps in the high 8's!  I was so excited to have done that well after being nervous about wear-down from the test yesterday.  I was just four minutes shy of my personal best time.

I always take a lot of time in cool down, unwinding from a race.  And this race feeds us so well, so there’s no motivation to leave.  Ice creams sundaes; full breakfast of eggs, hash browns, bagels and orange slices; frozen fruit cups; water & Fluid (a less-pleasant, but not disgusting version of Gatorade).

They offer massages, but I never bother because the wait is so long.  I always end up sticking around long enough, but I don’t want to be tied to watching my watch.  I stretched, ate and talked with friends as they finished.

Katie and I walked over to get our free beer from the pavilion area.  Our race bibs said a free beer or glass of wine, but we couldn’t find the wine, so we settled.  Still a refreshing reward.  Then I gave Katie a ride home since she had walked over to the start of the race.

I cleaned up, rested a bit, and then headed out again to a fundraiser dinner for Young Life, a youth outreach that my friend Tiffany supports.  Sadly a very boring and poorly structured presentation, but the food and company was good.

An awesome whirlwind weekend.  I was a little stiff through Monday, particularly my quads, but I was pretty much back to normal by Tuesday.

Karate Purple Belt Test and Two Cities Half-Marathon – Part 1

This was an intense weekend: purple belt test in karate on Saturday and then a half marathon on Sunday.

I had known my purple belt test was coming up.  I just didn’t know exactly when it would be.  If I had still been planning to run the full marathon, I would have asked ahead of the announcement that it not be scheduled within two weeks of the test.  I did my orange belt test in February a week and a half after one half marathon and two days prior to another, and that was hard.

The biggest thing I was worried about was how long we’d have to stand in square horse stance.  For my orange belt test, I had to hold the stand for two sets of probably 10 minutes and 15 minutes.  But to my surprise, he refocused the testing.  We only had three sets of two minutes, two minutes and five minutes.

I was also nervous about the sparring element of the test.  Sparring is difficult for me.  I just don’t seem to have great instincts in defending, or finding an open shot.  I took about six punches to the side of my head from Bryan S. in our one-minute round.  In all of our practice sparring, we had never been allowed to hit the head, so while I was used to keeping my guards up, I wasn’t used to having to block shots up there.  My ears were ringing by the end of it.

But Bryan S. was testing for his blue belt (the next level up).  His test involved stripping an attacker of a weapon.  Three of us went in there (one at a time) with a two-foot padded training stick.  First, he took it away from Bryan L. in 17 seconds.  Third, he got it away from Dan W. in 24 seconds.  But I went second, and I beat him front and back nonstop.  He couldn’t get it away from me!  Finally he knocked me over and braced my striking wrist with his knee.  I was trying to twist around and use my left leg to slide him off of me (because he weighs nothing), when our Sensei called it a truce at 31 seconds!

The rest of the test wasn’t easy, but was pretty doable.  We were on the mat for three hours, and there was about an hour of dead time within that from all the individual testing vs. group testing.  Everyone earned their next belt.  Three were promoted to yellow belt, about six to orange, seven of us to purple, and one to blue.

I then hobbled out to my car, stopped at Arby’s for some sustenance, and then went home to prep for the race.  I had never tried it, but I heard an ice bath works wonders for rapid recovery from intense workouts.  I didn’t want to lug a bag of ice home, so I just ran a cold water bath.  I was able to survive that for about 15 minutes, and I do think it helped.  I had some pasta at Amy’s to carb up for the race, and chilled out the rest of the evening at home.

I also had to set all my clocks back.  I was nervous about this.  Last year I had a new phone and I wasn’t sure how it handled DST.  My prior phone didn’t turn back/forward until you slid it open to reveal the keypad, so I always had to set my alarm assuming it wouldn’t reset.  So last year, deciding not to trust the phone’s ability to handle this complex time change, I turned off the “auto update item” option and manually changed the time back.  Not a good move.  It still rolled the time back an hour at two a.m. (but didn’t “auto-update” to the correct time) and I was an hour late getting ready for the race.  Thankfully I give myself a lot of lead time for races.  I recall that I had even set a clock alarm but I don't remember why that didn't help.  So this year, I knew I could trust my phone to handle DST.

Portland

Let's see how fast I can get this typed up, and how long it ends up being.

Friday morning, I got an hour or two of work done from home, and then Mom drove me to the airport on her way out of town.  She had been visiting me for a couple of days as a belated birthday present.  It was great for us to get to spend a couple of days together since we don't see each other that often anymore.

Before Mom pulled away, Amy's sister Andrea pulled in to drop off Amy and Stephanie.  The three of us headed inside and breezed through security.  I was relieved because I was warned it's hit-and-miss with TSA efficiency at the Fresno airport.  I usually drive south to fly out of Long Beach or LAX for more direct connections, so it's rare for me to utilize the Fresno airport.  I hadn't been here in a year and a half.  Thankfully we had some time before the flight boarded, because I had to open my laptop and prep a report for work in the terminal.  I had to do the same in the Portland airport.
I have discovered my relaxation point on flights is Sudoku puzzles.  They are challenging enough to engage my brain but simple enough to do with distractions.  And I love flying Horizon because of the free beer and wine.  I'm a white wine drinker, so I always opt for beer if they only offer red wine.  So it was beer for both flights north and wine for both flights south three days later.

When we landed in Portland, I almost left my sweater on the plane, but thankfully I stayed near the plane long enough for the flight attendant to come running out of the plane waving it.  Portland was just my layover, but was Amy and Stephanie's final stop.  They graciously stuck around and had lunch with me in the airport during my hour layover.  We were enjoying our time together so much that I was summoned over the loudspeaker for final boarding for my next flight to Seattle and was the last one to walk on the plane.  Thankfully the last few people were still finding their seats, so they weren't waiting on me.

One thing unusual about these flights is that I barely attempted to converse with my seatmates at all on this trip.  Usually I'll initiate a conversation and we'll talk for the length of the flight if they feel so inclined.  I didn't even get the name of the person I sat next to on my first flight, and barely spoke to the woman next to me on my second flight.  I wasn't stand-off-ish, I just didn't offer any effort at conversation and neither did they.

Getting my rental car in Seattle proved more annoying than difficult.  Not as difficult as for Amy, whom was still trying in Portland when I landed in Seattle.  The company I went with had just relocated facilities and was having trouble with process flow.  I'll write a letter.  But finally I was in my car and headed to SPU to pick up my sister Joy.  I got lost when the freeway I was on ended and I couldn't find the rest of it.  I finally ended up in a corporate parking lot and a woman leaving work graciously told me to follow her to it.

I arrived at SPU and had dinner in the SPU cafeteria with Joy.  They have great food, but since I liked the FPU cafeteria food, I know only 10 people in the world who would take my word on food quality.  We stopped at the student snack shop to grab supplies and got in the car for the drive back down to Portland.  There wasn't too much traffic, but the delay in getting my rental car and getting to SPU set us back on desired arrival time.  And everyone here drives 5 MPH below the speed limit.  It's ridiculous.

Then I realized that of all my Google Maps I printed planning for this trip, I neglected to print on to get to the hotel.  And my PDA's GPS was having a meltdown, so we called the hotel.  The front desk clerk really tried, but he didn't put emphasis on taking the 205 instead of taking the exit off the 5 after passing the 205 freeway.  We eventually arrived.  Then a different hotel clerk, Sandy, was in no end of confusion with our trying to check in.  While I had reserved two rooms (one for Joy and me, another for Amy and Stephanie) using some of my D&T-travel-earned Marriott points, I had only put Amy's name on one of the reservations (my name was on both), and apparently they checked her and Stephanie into the room without Amy's name on it.  I failed to see why this mattered, but it was a big deal to this clerk, who kept trying to describe to me the process by which Amy would now be checked into both rooms.  After having been in travel mode for 11 hours of flying and driving, Sandy's life expectancy was getting shorter and shorter, when she finally handed me a room key.

Amy and Stephanie were across the hall from us, and we all talked in their room for a little while before going to bed.  Then Joy and I discovered our different room preferences.  I don't sleep well in a cold room, and she doesn't sleep well in a warm room.  And the hotel room thermostats never seem to be sophisticated enough to control to a desired temperature.  We made do and found a decently happy medium.

The next morning, we had oatmeal and bananas in Amy's room before heading to the expo to grab our race bibs.  Amy had signed up to race also, but due to plantar fasciitis, was under doctor's orders not to run.  Joy had problems with her knees and ankles while training for this race, so she had decided to power walk the race.

I love Rock-n-Roll race expos.  This is the largest series of races nationwide and the expo in each city occupies a whole convention center, and so it's very high energy and they attract a lot of sponsors who give out lots of freebies.  We got lots of food, both prepared and packaged for later, we made race signs for Amy and Stephanie to hold, and I even competed for a free Spartan race entry, trying to complete the most burpees in a minute.  The expo record for guys was 28.  I did 19, and was pretty darn proud of myself, because those are hard and I don't regularly do them.  I'll just have to train for my next expo.
After the expo, I dropped the girls off at the hotel so they could go sight see.  I had other people I wanted to visit that day since I so rarely make it to Oregon.  I drove up to Vancouver, WA, to visit my godparents Sherman and Harriet.  They're in their 80's, and just celebrated 66 years of marriage.  It's amazing how mentally sharp these two are.  None of even the standard forgetfulness any average senior citizen may experience.  I had to work to keep up with Sherman's humor and quick wit.

The secret to their longevity?  I'm not sure, but I think it's ice cream.  Their freezer is packed with almost a dozen half gallon cartons of different varieties.  There really isn't that much else in there, so that's what I had for lunch.

That evening I met up with my friend Matt.  We started work at D&T together, he last three years and I lasted five.  We have so little in common outside of our time at D&T, that if not for working together, we probably wouldn't make any effort to get to know one another if introduced.  But just that experience has forged a deep friendship that I believe will last a lifetime.

Matt is working on a Sports Management MBA at University of Oregon in Salem, but he was up in Portland that weekend for a bachelor party.  He invited me over to the house they rented that weekend for us to hang out for awhile and then I joined the group for Thai food that evening.  The food was spicy, but so delicious.  It was a good group of guys to hang out with, and I was grateful they were okay with me joining in for awhile.

I finally got back to the hotel at 11 p.m., and the girls were all asleep.  Joy hadn't prepped her race gear, but I decided not to wake her up for it.  I pulled out what I could so I could help her with it tomorrow as she got ready, then put everything of mine together, and went to sleep.  Since Joy was already out, I was able to warm up the room a little more to my liking, but still within a range where she wouldn't wake up from it.

We woke up, dressed, and drove across town to the start area.  I figured out at my last RnR race that while an event photographer will only offer to snap one or two photos of you, you can pass the time from arrival to gun time by walking around and posing for all the event photographers.  With over 22,000 people at the race, there were a lot of photographers.  So Joy and I kept walking around to find new ones and trying all sorts of poses together: her on my back, taking turns pantomiming choking the other one, different facial expressions.  Try as I might to get decent photos along the course, I'm never thrilled with them, so we decided to get good ones before the race.

Amy had signed up for text message alerts on both of our bib numbers so they'd know when we passed certain markers along the course.  They were there on the sidelines to cheer me on at mile 3, and said they'd see me on mile 7, but while waiting for Joy, couldn't get to me until mile 11.
Some spectators will make signs, either personalized to their runner, or generic to get runners to smile.  Some of my favorites have been "Worst parade ever," "free beer at the end," and "great practice for the zombie apocalypse."  This course actually took us past a church, and they put a Bible verse about running a race in their marquee for us, and a few parishioners were out cheering us on.  I love interacting with spectators.  The best ones make noise.  It doesn't matter whether they're yelling, cheering, blowing a kazoo, or ringing a cowbell.  Especially when I'm on a difficult stretch of the race, it can overwhelm me to tears to see some stranger ringing a cowbell with a smile on his or her face.
But since this is an inaugural race, many spectators stand there expressionless and silent for the whole race, waiting for their one friend or family member to come running past.  I used to resent these people who couldn't muster up the energy (hey, I'm running 13.1 miles here, they're just standing or sitting there) to smile and cheer for everyone, or at least more than one of the 22,000 runners.  Now I have accepted to call to educate such spectators.  So as many times as I could (at least 15 over the course of the race), I identified such an individual, pointed straight at them as I ran past, smiled huge, and breathlessly yelled, "Thank you for being out here today, it means so much!"  It provoked a smile or more out of most of them.  Time to be a part of the solution instead of continuing to complain about the problem.

Most of the first half of the race was uphill, and most of the second half was downhill, only about 400 feet in elevation change overall.  We ran across two bridges.  It was sprinkling on for the second half of the race, which I loved.  I finished in 2h6m, and was thrilled with my time.  Joy finished in 3h6m.

I love race recovery food: fruit cups, chocolate milk, bagels, pita chips, powerade, and a beer for the 21+'ers.  I loved the rain during the race, but afterward it started getting a little annoying trying to eat after having run that long.  Thankfully it wasn't too cold.  Amy and Stephanie had tried to leave and go to church, but couldn't find their way due to road closures, so they came back to congratulate us.

We then went back to the hotel and cleaned up.  We each went down and sat in the jacuzzi for awhile.  I tried to do some laps to loosen up after the race, but was pathetically winded after three in a very short pool.  So I just soaked in the hot water for awhile.

Joy and I then packed up and gave Sandy at the front desk a chance to redeem herself.  I had to get Joy back to school sort of early the next morning, so we were leaving for Tacoma that evening to stay with Leroy and Karen.  Since our room hadn't been cleaned yet, I requested a late check-out after normal check-out time of noon had already occurred.  Sandy refunded some of my rewards points back into my account.  Sweet!

We went to Famous Dave's with Amy and Stephanie for dinner before hitting the road.  Delicious food!

The traffic was actually terrible trying to get up to Tacoma.  No accidents, but at one point the three lanes reduced to two, and that caused a statewide panic that held us up for an hour.  The freeway sign not only said "Right Lane Ends," but also elaborated "Form Two Lines Left."  These people need help.
We finally made it to Leroy and Karen's for a late second dinner of chili, equally delicious.  We had a nice visit with them and then went to bed.  They left in the morning before we did, and I was pleasantly surprised that I was hardly sore the next morning when I woke up.  Joy however was having a hard time moving.  A sharp contrast to two years ago when we ran the Seattle half marathon together.  I was in pain the next day, but she (with almost no running training but in shape from water polo) bounded down the stairs fine the next morning.

I dropped her off at school, and drove up to Everett for a brief visit with my grandma, before heading to the airport.  I spoke at length with my seatmate on this flight, but can't recall her name as I'm writing this a week and a half after the fact.  She was in her 70's, lives in Cleveland, and was coming to Portland for the Rose Festival.  She plays the soprano saxophone in a large band every year here.  She was staying for three weeks.

I got off the plane and met Amy and Stephanie at the same airport restaurant.  They had ordered me the same burger I had on Friday, and we had the same server, Jared, who was starting to feel like a familiar long-time friend.  We finally boarded our flight home Fresno, soaking in as much cool weather as possible in anticipation of the summer heat awaiting us in a few hours.  Andrea picked us up at the airport with Amy's kids.  They dropped me off at home first, along with three of the kids who couldn't wait any longer for the bathroom, and then Amy picked them up later after dropping off Stephanie and Andrea.  And I just watched T.V. the rest of Monday evening because I was smart enough to take Tuesday off work, too.

After these past few months at work, with the audit, and the bank loan renewal, this was a much-needed break for me, and I'm so grateful for the ability to run and for the flexibility to take time off work for these races.