You're better than your last run

A view of Griffith Park Observatory taken last week from the deck of the house in the Hills where I stay when visiting LA. It is a 5 mile round trip from where the picture is taken to the Observatory and back.

I still haven't tried out the new Brooks Cascadias yet. I plan to do a trail jaunt this week as soon as I recover from the most brutal run I've ever done. It all started yesterday a.m... I remember it as though it were yesterday... I awoke around 6:30 feeling pretty good - maybe a bit sluggish. But nothing a bit of coffee and oatmeal couldn't cure. I took my CoQ10 and some potassium. I swallowed a spoonful of chia. I had a quick shot of EmergenC. I don't normally do EmergenC prior to a run, but since the weather was hot and humid, I thought that having some extra electrolytes might be a good idea. I also grabbed my Amphipod belt with a water bottle (something else I don't normally carry). I was a bit concerned about the heat. I also did something I never do - I brought along identification. I don't know what was going on in my mind. The day (or maybe it was just me) felt a bit different than other days I had gone for a run.

So I took off heading south into a pretty strong headwind. The route I was on would require running into it for about 4 miles before turning perpendicular to it. As I ran, I felt OK, but not in top form. As I came upon the 6.2 and 8.5 mile bailout points, I thought that perhaps I should take one of them. But I chose to continue, thinking that I usually run through any issue. And I couldn't specify what felt wrong. At about the 6.5 mile mark, my right quad began to hurt. Each step was a little bit painful. I drank most of the bottle of water, and slugged down a shot of Accel Gel that I had brought along. I hoped that I'd get an energy burst. The burst was never to arrive, however. The rest of the run became a painful slog.

To get through it, I tried several different things. I tried to think of my right leg as unnecessary. I concentrated on pushing off on my left leg, and letting the right one flow along. I counted steps and cracks in the pavement. I watched sweat stream off my cap like a small waterfall. Nothing really worked. I thought, at several points, how good it would be simply to stop and walk. But I stupidly have an issue with that course of action ever since reading the book, What I Talk About When I Talk About Running by Haruki Murakami. He doesn't like to walk when he sets out on a run. I, for some reason, subscribe to that philosophy as well (though after yesterday, I think I'll change that plan in the future). I can't recall ever feeling as bad during a run.

When it ended, I bent over and remained in that position for a bit of time, trying to ascertain what was wrong. I took an Aleve when I got indoors. Had another EmergenC, then sat down. For the next two hours the muscles in my legs would fire off in painless spasms. It was interesting to watch, but it kind of freaked me out because it had never happened before.

I'm taking today off. In the next couple of days I plan to do 2-3 miles on the levee or on trails in order to ease myself back in to the groove. The plan is to cut down on miles a bit this week and next - with the longest run being 8 miles next Sunday. That should put me right on schedule for a good time at the Hospital Hill half marathon in a couple of weeks.

Udo's Oil and Other Offerings: my sustenance and supplements

While I may drop dead from a heart attack or an aneurysm tomorrow, I, nevertheless, am in probably the best shape of my life. Several years ago, I dropped about 65lbs, took up running, and became a vegetarian. A few month ago I gave up one of my two remaining bad habits when I quit smoking. I had been down to about 5 a day for the past 4-5 years. And, when I noticed that the smoking was getting in the way of my running, I dropped it. It was actually easy this time, because I had found something to replace it that I liked doing more. I wrote about this in a previous blog a while ago, but wanted to revisit it as part of this posting on health maintenance.

A common question I'm asked (both due to lifestyle and the industry in which I work - Natural Products) is what do I consume in the way of food and supplements. That is both an easy and a difficult question to answer. The best answer would be: It varies.

I'll start with food. For breakfast most mornings, I have either Wheatabix mixed with GrapeNuts or oatmeal. With both I use either soy or rice milk (I try to stay away from animal milk products as much as possible). I usually have a banana later in the a.m. or after a run (I run in the a.m. about half the time). Lunch is usually a soup and a vegetable. Dinner is usually a salad or a really hearty soup (I've really been into making super spicy asian noodle-type soups lately), sometimes coupled with a wrap filled with something light. In the evening, I snack on nuts, apples, or crackers, and every now and then a bowl of orange sherbet. I don't have a problem with varying this diet, or eating out. I'll do pizza, Asian, or my absolute fav, Greek/Mediterranean foods whenever any friend wants to dine out. I do pass on fried foods, meals with a lot of carbs, and sugars. I'm lucky with respect to the last item, because I don't have a huge desire to chow on sweet things, and don't ever have a craving for things like chocolate.

As far as supplements go the list is long and varied. Every morning, I take a swig of Udo's 3.6.9. Oil, a CoQ10 capsule, and a potassium supplement. Udo's I take for essential fatty acids (EFAs), CoQ10 for heart health, and potassium mainly for cramp prevention when running. During the day, I'll chew a few of Pines wheat grass tabs, or mix some wheat grass powder in water. I do this for general vegetable nutrition; the idea that you should get most of your vitamins, minerals, protein...from a whole food source, which wheat grass is. Less frequently, I'll take Flora's DHA capsule. I'll also take an effervescent powder from Either Trace Minerals or EmergenC to restore electrolytes after a hard run. My sports doctor recommends taking Ibuprofen before or after all workouts. Honestly, though, I only take it when I have some sort of pain related to a workout. It seems to help with the occasional muscle or joint pain. Late in the day, I'll take another swig from Udo's bottle, and finish off the day with an ounce or so of Lilly of the Desert Aloe Vera Juice - a wonderful product. During runs longer than 8 miles, I take any one of a number of gel shot type products - Accel Gel, Powder Bar, Cliff's... They all seem to do the trick.

After my long runs on Sundays, I almost always take a bath (I have a jetted tub which makes for a nice bit of relaxation). On the advice of my massage therapist, my rolfer, my sports doctor, and the chiropractor I see on occasion, I always add epsom salts to the water. Honestly, I don't know how much doing that helps. But, if nothing else, the salts do make my skin feel better.

Finally, a bit more about running. My Mizunos are hanging in there, but have suffered a bit of damage on the periphery from too much running on gravel. And, with a trip to Colorado coming up in the not too distant future, I decided to give them a break and buy a pair of running shoes designed for trail running. Last night I settled upon a pair of Brooks Cascades. As soon as I get a bit of running in them under my belt, I'll put down some thoughts on them. They'll be the first pair of Brooks I've ever owned. My beloved Asics Gels will go into semi-retirement. The Mizunos will now only be used for the road, as intended.

One final item: if you're looking for a place to donate old running shoes, Garry Gribble's passes along their customers' old shoes to an organization called Soles 4 Souls. The shoes go to places like Haiti. Very worthwhile.

Back to my favorite run

I flew back home from LA yesterday. As those of you who know me know, I love LA. As a runner, LA boasts my favorite places to run - challenging routes that involve a bit of technical skill (when adding trails), a whole lot of hills, an abundance of wildlife, and very little traffic (eat your heart out NYC). It seems crazy, but on the runs I take in the City of Angels, I never feel as though I'm in an urban area until I reach a vista point where the metropolis unveils its vastness before me. Usually, I'm less worried about traffic, and more concerned about coming upon a rattle snake, coyote, or (in the back of my mind, please god no!) a mountain lion.

I did my favorite run the first day. It begins from the doorstep of the place I stay in the Hills. A quick half mile run downhill to the mouth of Griffith park, followed by a 2 mile uphill to the observatory, and then home. It's a nice 5 miler with no flats. My LA running buddy, Joe, joined me for the run.

On day two, Joe and I met up with his regular partner a pied, Steve, on a five miler along Mulholland. That was a truly nice run, involving some gentle hills, cool winding roadways, and fog-shrouded vistas. When we finished, and were driving back, Joe suggested doing the Griffith Park run again. So, we grabbed a scone and coffee at Trails (a stunningly good little outdoor eatery in the park), and then, reloaded, the two of us charged up the hill. The Sunday running total fell somewhere between 8 and 9 miles. Not bad for a city more know for traffic than trails.

I hope to have some pics to post next week.

Some advice for those traveling to LA in the near future: Blow off Malibu. Right now it is cold as heck and blanketed in a cloudy/foggy haze - total disappointment. Do go to: The Antelope Valley Poppy Reserve - a state park near a rather unpleasant little town called Lancaster. The drive out is amazing, and the 8 miles of trails they have that meander through fields of poppies is really beautiful.

That's all for now.

Trying to set off cramps...don't try this at home

Last week was pretty good for running. The weather here has been unseasonably chilly with strong winds... Well maybe last week wasn't so good for running. But I still logged 27 miles - with a couple of runs being very good. I calculate my weekly mileage from Sunday through Saturday. Sunday is my longest day and kicks off the week. The next longest is usually Wednesday or Thursday. The other days I usually just put in three or four miles.

Yesterday I got up pretty early and was out on the roads and pathways (which oddly could also be written roadways and paths)by 8 a.m. The weather (as I previously stated) was unseasonably cool. It was a relatively uneventful run. Nothing too taxing. So a little past midway, I added 1/2 - 3/4 mile to it by cruising up a spur to an area that overlooks the lake. Just that little change up in the run seemed to refresh the whole vibe. So, while the NPR types chattered away in my ears, I ran along the last portion of the course back toward civilization. I did have one thing to report. Since the run was now over 12 miles, I wanted to see if I could trigger some sort of leg cramp. And I noticed that by increasing speed, I started to feel a twinge in my right calf as well as in the muscle that runs down the back of the upper portion of my leg. I slowed my pace, took about 1/8 teaspoon of salt (which I now carry with me for cramping), and the sensation went away. I'll try to trigger it again in a couple of weeks and will, I hope, be able to again stave off the cramps. I'm not doing this because I'm a pain junkie, or because I like to test limits, but because I don't want to have an issue on the Hospital Hill run like I had on the last three miles of the Kansas 1/2 Marathon.

The rest of the day was spent looking at an ultra-modern house in North Lawrence, a Mother's Day meal with my parents, and hanging out with friends at night. My friend, Terra, has started to run a bit. She's started to do a mile a day. She started out running and walking, and now, a short time later, is up to running the full distance. She'll probably be adding more as it gets easier. I'm going to try to talk her into doing a 5 k some time in the next 3-4 months.

Movie Moment: I finally saw The Hurt Locker over the weekend. It wasn't the best movie I saw last year, but was certainly a respectable choice for the awards it garnered.

For the next posting, I'm going to be back out on the left coast doing my favorite run in America - one I have designated the Griffith Park Observatory Run. The way I do it makes it a 5 mile run with 2.5 miles downhill, and 2.5 uphill. No flats to be found anywhere. There is also a startling temperature transition that happens 2-3 times on the run. It is such a great run - in the wilderness, yet in the middle of LA - that I don't really have words to describe how exhilarating and at the same time relaxing an experience it is. I usually do the run with my friend, Joe, who knocked out an LA area half marathon a month or so ago as well. I'll try to have some pics of the run for the next post.

Until then...

Bah Bah Bah Bah Bah Bah, Oh Honey Honey

I have allergies. There I said...er, wrote it. They're nothing I'm proud of, but they smack me down every year or so in the Spring and Fall. I used to take Claritin and pills of that ilk like a child to a bowl of candy. Nothing really seemed to work that well. I'd lie awake at night trying to breathe out of whichever nostril wasn't filling with fluid like a nasal version of Titanic. Or, I'd shoot spray up my nose to clear up the congestion, only to get mildly addicted to the stuff for a month or two a year. The options weren't good.

Then, one day I was speaking with a friend who suggested that I purchase locally-produced honey. He said that if I took 1 tablespoon a day, that my allergies would clear up. While I understood the odd rationale behind the witch-doctor-like proposal; that locally-produced honey would contain local pollens, thereby assisting the immune system in building up defenses, I just didn't think it would work. Well, three days later, all symptoms of allergies were gone. And even without taking honey the next year, all symptoms were gone. Not even a little sniffle or eye-watering. So a week ago, when I came down with a ferocious allergy attack, I ran out to the local co-op and purchased the most local honey I could find - from a little burg called Iola, Kansas. And guess what... three days later every symptom and manifestation was gone. Completely. Finito.

I heard a piece on NPR or KPR from an expert talking about how this cure is a wives tale, but I now know so many people who have been relieved of their symptoms through this that I believe the 'expert' to be wrong. And I really don't think that I had a placebo effect. Because the first time I tried honey as a cure, I had no belief in its efficacy whatsoever. My friend, Mark Robison, who initially suggested the treatment to me is vegan, and informed me last night that he and his wife no longer use the honey cure (and I have another vegan friend who also doesn't do it). But, if you're not vegan, and suffer from allergies like hay fever, you might want to give local honey a try. The worst-case scenario is that you'll just have a tasty treat while supporting a local business.

I am pretty fortunate that the allergies, which I am now over, never interfered with my running. Other than doing a few well-placed farmer blows over my shoulder, running continued unabated. I knocked out a 31 mile week, taking Saturday off for some tennis (An aside here; we were the first people to play on the new tennis courts at Lawrence High - pretty cool). Most of the runs were uneventful, except for one. I did an 8 miler on Wednesday. The wind was, well windy. It averaged 20 mph, with gusts up to 40. There were wind advisories for all counties surrounding us, but not for Douglas County. So I set off on a route that I believed to be mainly perpendicular to the wind. At the two mile mark, I knew I was going to be screwed. At a 'T' intersection, I had the choice of going into the wind for two miles, or with the wind for two miles, and then back into it for my return. I opted to delay the inevitable and cruised along a slight downhill route with the blow at my back. And so, dear reader, when I turned around after two miles, I got a full force gale right in my face. And it really sucked. It was 2 miles of uphill into the wind. For the first time ever on a run, I actually thought of just stopping and walking, because I wasn't going much faster than a British chappie out for his daily constitutional. But I soldiered on. It seemed to take forever. I couldn't even get my MP3 player to go up loud enough to cut the wind noise out of my ears. When I finally turned out of the bluster and gusts (after what seemed like an hour), I could've cried with relief. That evening became a 2 ibuprofen experience, because for some reason, my right knee (who I take along on all of my runs) began swearing at me and the only way I could calm him down was with the anti-inflammatory painkiller.

Yesterday, I ran my normal 10 mile route backwards. That sounds funny. I should write that I ran it in the opposite direction than the one I normally take (for the record I was facing forward the whole time). It was such an incredible day. Out on the edges of the country, where this route goes, there are a few runners, but mainly cyclists. I was passed by a couple of friends I used to spin with around the Kansas countryside. And as much as I love bicycles, I didn't regret that I was a pied rather than on two wheels. I only saw a couple of other runners out near the dam. I didn't go too into the zone on the run, but was never taxed. And I didn't need any ibuprofen or ointments for any muscle or joint issues when I was finished. It was just a good, solid run on a beautiful day.

First Finally: I saw The Girl With The Dragon Tatoo over the weekend. I'd recommend it with a couple of reservations. If you want to see it, be prepared for a 2.5 hr experience. It also has some pretty serious adult themes - rape, incest, serial-killing, torture, and fibbing - so leave the kiddies at home. I have one friend who read the book who took us to see it. I have another friend who read the book who refuses to see it. After seeing it, I understand why.

Finally Finally: Rafa continues his tear on the clay courts in Europe this season. Yesterday he beat David Ferrer in a rain-delayed match to win in Rome (his 5th time to take home the trophy in that tournament). The new guy to watch however, is Ernests Gulbis of Latvia (I believe), who smacked down Roger Federer in the first round of the tourney, and took Nadal to three sets in the semis. It was a pretty darn good showing for a relatively fresh face on the tour.

See you next week.

Kick Ass Running

Before I ruminate re running, I'll put in a plug for an actual funny American movie. While I am sooo not a fan of most things that come out of Hollywood, I absolutely loved the movie, Kick Ass. It was so fresh and surprising, funny and violent, that at first I didn't quite know what to make of it. It must've been pitched as a kind of Sin City meets Super Bad. And, while it easily could've gone off the tracks in several scenes, Kick Ass hangs in there and builds to an actual climax that is fully satisfying to the viewer. It ends with a pretty dopey set up for a sequel, but even that doesn't matter, because the movie up to that point has been so ...well... kick ass. Favorite character: tie between Big Daddy and Hit Girl. Ed note: Do not take your kids to this movie. The language is foul, and the violence at some points is very real (and at others just hugely over the top Sin City-ish).

Now let's matriculate on to my week in running. After the half marathon last Sunday, I took Monday off to give my calves a rest. Tuesday I was still a bit scared from the cramps I had experienced, so I did a bit of walking/running combo in order to test them out and get back on track. I had purchased a potassium supplement as well, and had begun to take it without any ill effects. Tuesday night I came down with the second worst bout of food poisoning I had ever had. I spent the night on my bathroom floor hugging my porcelain friend. When Wednesday rolled around, Marisa came by at 5:30 a.m., and drove me to the airport where we flew to New Jersey for a trade show. So with travel and sickness combined, I did no running that day either.

On Thursday morning, around 6 EST, I found a free treadmill (always a tough thing to do at the Sheraton Meadowlands), and knocked out a 5 k. It felt really good. I had no calf or soreness issues. We flew back on Friday morning, and by that afternoon, I had done a rather tiresome 4+ mi in a rather humid Kansas. I think the tiredness was due to several factors - flying, recovering from food poisoning, and this damned anti-biotic that I had been taking that, for once, I stopped taking before the prescription had run out because it made me feel so lousy. I had never stopped a course of treatment early, but in this case, I felt as though I had to.

Anyway, as usual I took Saturday off in order to smack some tennis balls and do yard work. Then yesterday I went for my normal long Sunday run. I opted for an 8.5 - 9 mi course that would take me directly through the hills that had triggered my calf problems in the race. When I got to the downhill, I did take it a bit easy, not wanting the pounding to initiate any cramps. But I had no ill effects; not even a twinge in that section, or for the duration of the run. I had taken a packet of salt with me in case of cramp onset, but it remained in my pocket.

I did get a chance to try out Accelerade's power shot type energy booster during the run. I had been given a bunch of packets by one of their sales guys at the trade show in NJ. I had the vanilla flavored packet. My initial reaction to it was that it was not the best tasting or texture of the four different brands I've tried - Cliff's, Power Bar, Hammer, Accelerade. But it did do the job. I have always liked Accelerade's drink mixes, and used them all the time when I biked. I have another flavor of their's to try out, and I'm hoping it's better. I'll write a bit more on it next week once I've sucked it down in a run. So far on the shot reviews, Cliff's gets the nod for flavor, Power Bar for texture, and Hammer and Accelerade get passing marks (as do all) for getting the job done.

This week's running plan is as follows: today 3-4 mi (on the levee if all goes well). Tuesday the same or tennis. Wed - Fri 5 - 8 mi. Sat, tennis. I'm also looking at signing up for a couple of runs in Northern Cal or Nevada - the SF Marathon (or half), and a trail race or two.

The Kansas Half Marathon - Bittersweet

Last week I wrote that I'd have an update covering the Kansas Marathon and Half Marathon. Most of my friends and I were doing the half, so 'training' focused on that race. I put the word training in quotes, because I no longer really train for a specific race. I just like to put in middle distances 4-8 mi each day during the week, and then a 10+ mile run on Sundays (taking Saturdays and sometimes Mondays off). A half marathon distance never left me feeling any trepidation, because I typically can go knock one out whenever the spirit moves me. This attitude may have led to a slight lack of respect for the distance. That is always a mistake. Any distance to be run for a PR is not something that one should take lightly. But I'll get more into this shortly. What ultimately happened to me directly leading up to, and during the half marathon, seemed to be a perfect storm for how not to run a race.

This past week, I had done a long run on Sunday (10.5 mi). I then began to taper off, doing 4 mi runs on Mon - Wed, a 2 mi run on Thurs, and plans to do another 2 mi run on Friday before taking Sat off before the race. Thursday afternoon changed all that. I was standing barefoot on my back deck at 5 pm. I was supposed to play some tennis at 5:30. I turned to go back inside, and felt a sharp pain just in front of my left heel. The sharp pain was followed by a popping sound and an intense pain as I drove the first half to full inch of a 4 inch locust tree thorn straight into my foot. I felt a kind of shock as I looked down. My first thought was to get the thorn out of my foot (that required very careful, yet very forceful tugging so that it wouldn't break off beneath the skin). My immediate second thought was I'm f'ed for the race on Sunday. I bled out the puncture as well as I could (punctures don't seem to bleed much. I put some hydrogen peroxide on it, and wait for it.... went off to play two hours of tennis - the single stupidest thing I could've done.

That night when I got home, my foot was a mess. I could barely walk. That followed into the next day when I called my doctor and explained the situation. After an office visit followed by a visit to the pharmacy, my new routine for the next couple of days was to soak the foot in epsom salts and then ice it. I also was prescribed an antibiotic and told to take Aleve. But here's the kicker; I told my doctor that I planned to run the half marathon on Sunday regardless of time or pain. I inquired if there were any pain killers that could be taken once or twice that would completely kill the pain without causing drowsiness. That didn't seem likely, but the nurse-practitioner who was seeing me had an amazing suggestion. It was a lidocaine patch. Normally used for people who crack ribs, or have back issues, the lido patches cover an area and deaden it without causing any drowsiness. I thought it was a brilliant idea.

When I was picking the patch and the antibiotics at the pharmacy, my pharmacist, who was also doing the half marathon gave me some suggestions. He recommended that I not take the antibiotic the morning of the race because it has a tendency to make you lose more fluids through excessive perspiration than would normally be lost during a race (it seems also to be a bit of a diuretic). So pain pills, antibiotics, and patches in hand, I felt a bit better about my shot at the race. Saturday I tried out the patch, and it seemed to work OK in lessening the pain. I couldn't run very well, but I could shuffle quickly.

I'll take a moment for an aside here. Initially my plans for the race were based on four scenarios. I never know how I'm going to feel on a race day, so I set 3 or four goals. For this race, I had set three. All things being good, I wanted to run around 7:45 min/mi. I thought that wouldn't be too taxing, and my training runs were all in the 7:30-8 min/mi range. If there was bad weather, wind, or I just felt like crap (which happens to all runners every now and then), I wanted to beat 1hr 50min. That's still a speed where you're still moving, and would translate into a 3hr 40min marathon. In other words, respectable (see note at the end of this paragraph).* My third goal, was that if all systems were go, to try to break 1hr 40min by whatever margin I could muster. Every now and then on a run, I get so elated (see last week's posting), that running becomes effortless, speed meaningless, and I PR (usually not in a race). So those were my pre-injury goals. *If you are reading this and run a a slower pace, that is great. Keep it up. I only used the word, 'respectable (above),' in reference to my own running times. Many would consider my times to be slow. All that is important is that you keep loving the run...

Post injury, I revised them. My major goal was to finish in under 2 hours. 1hr 50 min would be fine. And 1hr 44min would rock. And so it began...



Pic above: Me, Phil, & Chris

The race morning was actually pretty chilly. It took a while to warm up. For the beginning of the run, I wore shorts, gloves, and a long sleeve shirt over a short sleeve. I planned to run into Marisa (who's husband is my running chum, Chris) around mile three and dump the gloves and long sleeve. My foot felt pretty good, thanks to the patch, so I lined up in the 1hr 40 min section with Chris and Phil (who's a cross country coach at Free State High). What was a bit odd about this lineup, is that there weren't a lot of people ahead of us, even though there were somewhere between 800 and 1,000 people in the race. No worries. After the national anthem, we were off. For those of you that know Lawrence, KS, we headed east on 21st street to Naismith. We turned and cranked it up the hill to the KU campus. The we headed west, over the bridge by the dorms at Iowa Street and through a back route into West Campus. I found Marisa, and flipped her my shirt and gloves at the 3.5 mi mark. I was only about 10 seconds behind Chris, so I knew the time was good (as I've said before, Chris Ford is a pretty awesome runner).

Next, we had a stretch that skirted along Clinton Parkway (23rd St). After a few turns and miles, we hit the SLT running trail that leads to the dam at Clinton Lake (a route I normally run in training, so I had been looking forward to this). By my watch, I crossed the 6 mi mark at 46 min. That was wholly unexpected. I felt great. No foot pain, muscles relaxed, a smile on my face, and loads of energy to burn. I knew the rest of the course like first-grade math, so at that moment, I made what would be a fateful decision. I actually thought; It's time to put the hammer down. So I took off. The path out to Clinton is slightly uphill for about 2 miles. I run it almost every Sunday, so I knew what to expect. I cruised through to mile 10 with almost no effort at about a 7 min/mi pace. I just had one major hill to go down, one to go up, and then there would be a slight downhill three miles to the finish.

As I was almost at the bottom of the hill, something that I've never had happen on a run occurred suddenly. My right calf cramped and stopped me cold. I was in total shock. I took about 5 seconds and stretched it and set off again. About a hundred yards later, heading up the last hill, my left calf cramped. And I must say, while I have never experienced cramping, I knew that my fat was fried. What ensued was the realization that I simply needed to throw out any and all race plans, and just finish. I did everything I could think of to keep going: I drank every sports drink that was offered, I consumed my last Powerbar energy packet (vanilla flavor), I ran on my heels, trying to keep my achilles tendons stretched and prevent more spasms, I ran on grass whenever possible... But about every quarter mile, I was forced to stop for 5-10 seconds and stretch. It really sucked.

In the last three miles, I was passed by about 50-60 runners. I didn't feel too much of the desperation that comes with that type of occurrence, because I was intently concentrating on keeping the calf pain to a minimum level. But I was aware of being passed (when I normally would've been the passer), and that sucked as well. So, to shorten the story, the last three miles which should've taken me 22 minutes took 30. Shockingly, I crossed the finish line in 1hr 49min (below my initial secondary goal).

My initial feeling was one of utter defeat, however. I had so much left in the tank, that Chris commented that I didn't look tired when crossing the line. And I wasn't. I may have been the only runner to cross the line breathing through his nose! My energy levels had been great. Breathing and muscles were all great (with the calf exception). And it just killed me that I was brought low by something I had never experienced as a runner. Even on previous runs of that distance and at that speed... When I crossed, I was actually embarrassed about my time.

But now, 24 hours later, I'm actually quite pleased. Here's why (pardon the subject verb agreement issues to follow): 1) Only 2 days before, it looked as though I wouldn't even be able to run. 2) Though it was below initial goals, the time I ran was better than what I thought I would be able to accomplish with an injury. 3) I learned something - always a good thing.

Post race, I scurried home and did a lot of research about cramps. What I found out is that the Cramps are a really good band, but having the cramps is not a good thing. My antibiotics may have exacerbated the situation with a slight diuretic effect. I also found out that it is possibly a good idea to add potassium and some sodium to your diet prior to longer races. In fact, it isn't a bad idea to take a couple of salt packets with you on longer runs. Those can help prevent or chill out cramping during a race. I'll put a mention here that I am not a doctor. I read about this, and plan to try it before my next long race (maybe not in training - the jury's still out). If you want links to articles and discussions on the matter, I'll gladly provide them. There was also mention of not running faster than you train. I'm not certain about that being one of my proximate causes, because my running varies so much in terms of speed, that yesterday didn't seem to be too taxing at all when I increased my speed.

In final notes on the run: I thought the race organizers did a great job (at least for the half marathon distance). The chips worked great, the course was clearly marked, the aid stations well-manned and stocked, traffic kept at bay, and a nice finish chute (something I never cared about, but it was kind of cool). The race also had the single best t-shirt I've ever gotten at an event, and nifty medals. If I had a suggestion or two, I'd put the finish onto an adjacent field rather than on the hard surface lot. I'd also put the copious free food, drink, medical, and massage tents just slightly farther away from the finish, so that there isn't the cluster of people clogging the area.

Chris Ford, I should mention, finished second in his age division and 28th overall. I finished 18th in my age group and 185th overall.

The pic below is Chris Ford with his 2nd place victory jug. I'm sure it is not full of grain alcohol.



I love to run. I don't run for races, but for myself. In my reckoning, races add stress and take the purity out of the sport. Races are, however, good on occasion, because they remove me from my routine, and cause me to reflect on things like time, training, physiology, fitness level... Basically, things that I don't think about too much when I just run for myself. Races become the mileposts along my running highway: there to be noted, but not to be taken too seriously. They also bring runners into contact with each other, and add to a sense of community (as I write this, I'm including the hundreds of supportive volunteers who also make racing feel like a community sport).

And, since I always like to write about running happy, here's a pic of my friend, Joe (and his friend, Steve), who knocked out a half marathon in the LA region a week ago. Good job.



Finally, since those who know me know that my other main sport is tennis: Over the weekend Rafa did what no other person in tennis has ever done. He won a masters tournament (Monte Carlo) for the 6th consecutive time. Only a handful have won a tournament 5 times in a row. Rafa is now all alone in this category. He crushed an excellent Fernando Verdasco (who is ranked 9th in the world) to take the match. If you get a chance to catch a re run on the Tennis Channel, you won't regret it. Some of the points were jaw-dropping.

See you next week.