My First Marathon Support Gig

George and Me Before the 2011 City of Oaks

While I've volunteered at a marathon before, yesterday was my first experience of supporting a runner during a marathon. George was shooting to complete his first marathon, the City of Oaks Marathon in Raleigh, NC. To help me help him, he developed maps with mile markers and ETAs, and packed a bag of possible supplies for me to have at each stop. It was fun to see him at each stop, though I discovered how tiring it can be! My advice: people doing support need to get rest before the race too! I stopped in at the Cafe Carolina at Cameron Village in between support points, and I actually fell asleep in the restaurant! (Glad I woke up in time to get to the next location!)

I'm sad (for George) to say that he didn't quite make it to the end. He suffered calf cramps for about 10 miles (Holy Cow! TEN?!) before finally deciding to call it quits after 21 miles. He's bummed, of course, but otherwise doing okay. He plans to get lots of R&R today.

I continue to be very proud of George and his running, and hope he recovers quickly. He does plan to try another marathon sometime in the future.

Thanks to Ashby for taking the picture above of George and me before the race started!

Picking Up Swag for a Race I'm Not Running

I visited the City of Oaks Marathon and Half Marathon Expo today to pick up my number, shirt, and other stuff for tomorrow's half, only I'm not running! :-/ As I've mentioned earlier, plantar fasciitis and grad school have gotten in the way in recent months, so it's the right decision, for sure. Still, it ended up feeling a little odd walking out with this stuff I'm not going to use tomorrow. I went with George, who's running his first marathon tomorrow, though, and it was nice to be there with him! I also saw several runners I know, so it was fun to be able to wish them luck in person, rather than on Facebook only!

Ahhh, Massage!

I had a professional massage a little while ago, my first one in several months! It feels like I have a new upper back! Holy cow!

Meanwhile, I've gotten a little more exercise this past week, and that feels good too. Here's hoping there will be more of that soon. Grad school continues to eat up a lot of free time, but that's definitely a priority right now.

Meanwhile, George is gearing up for his first marathon a week from today! Yippee! I won't be running the accompanying half marathon that I paid for, but it is what it is. I stopped running because of plantar fasciitis in my left foot, but classes and studying have quickly filled the void I've felt in the past when I stopped running to heal. So, I'm really looking forward to supporting George during next Sunday's marathon. I'm sure he'll do great!

Longest Run/Walk of the Season

Yesterday I completed my longest distance of this training season, 9.09 miles! I'm still tired this morning, so it's a rest day from exercise. Still, it felt good to finish the distance yesterday morning.


George and I Before the Run
(Thanks to George for the kiss, and thanks to Ashby for taking the shot!)


I started early in the parking lot where the Raleigh Galloway group was starting, since I wanted to be in the annual big group picture at 6:30ish. I tried 15-sec/45-sec run/walk intervals as Jeff Galloway suggested for my recent Magic Mile, but it drove me a little nuts, so I went back to my regular 30/30 interval again. Maybe I'll try it again, or fiddle with it and try 20/40 later. (I wish I'd done that at the end of yesterday's mileage, now that I think about it!)

After the group picture, Ashby was kind enough to take the picture above of George and me! (Thanks, Ashby!) Then I headed off to another part of the American Tobacco Trail to finish my run/walk. I felt pretty strong for much of the run on the other part of the ATT, but started to fade toward the end. I ended up walking it in, but wish now that I'd just shortened the running interval. But I finished, and I'm relieved about that.

9:09 miles in 3:14:32, 21:24 avg pace

According the Magic Mile prediction calculator, I should be training at a 23:48 pace, so I'm pretty comfortably ahead of the game there. My predicted half marathon race pace is 21:02, which I still have several weeks to improve on. (And I certainly wasn't doing a race effort yesterday!) Maybe I'll try another Magic Mile this week.

More Water Aerobics

George and I did a water aerobics class last night at Gold's Gym, and Kathryn from our Galloway running group joined us! It was another pretty good sized class, not like two weeks ago when I was the only one. I enjoyed knowing one more person in the class, and Kathryn had a nice time chatting in the sauna for a few minutes afterward. I tried the heavier water weights during the class last night, and I can feel it this morning! Not too bad, but I can tell I had a good upper body workout last night. I need more of those, since upper body strength is a weakness of mine right now.

Meanwhile, I've finally started having some success with my latest Weight Watchers venture, down 6.8 pounds on my own scale. I continue to be consistent about weighing myself daily, even when I've gone over the points allowance. I'm not enjoying tracking what I eat and drink, but I think it's helping me be more aware of what I eat, which is a good exercise right now.

Good Crosstraining Day!

This morning I went to the gym before work, and did 35 minutes (6.25 miles) on the recumbent bike, and followed that with some upper body strength training and much needed stretching. On a work break, I I walked 1.5 miles. After work, George and I met at the gym and took 60-minute water aerobics class together.  I am worn out and ready for bed!

Race Report: 2009 Triple Lakes Marathon

Well, I did it! My first marathon, the Triple Lakes Trail Race, is in the books! It's still a little hard to believe, eventhough I'm living through continuing, though subsiding, aches and pains.

I left home about 5:30 Saturday morning, and watched the nearly full moon set as I drove west towards Greensboro, North Carolina. I got there about 6:50, and learned that the race director had decided to let the early bird marathoners start at 7:00, rather than 7:15 (as published on the website). I had to hustle to get myself together at the start, but was happy to get the show on the road. I'm glad I got to see both Wendy (fellow Raleigh Galloway Group runner and social networking friend) and Amy (a coworker at Duke) before the start, as I didn't see them again on the trail.

The first mile plus was on pavement, but the rest of the course was on single-track trail. It was a very pretty course, taking in Greensboro's Watershed Trails, through the woods and around Lake Brandt. The course itself had a fair number of roots, rocks, holes, etc., enough that it took a fair amount of concentration to keep upright. I didn't do a very good job of that early on, falling three times in the first six miles of the course! Two falls were around mile 4, the other around mile 6. I walked it in after the second fall, and took advantage of first aid supplies at the next three aid stations. I decided that as long as I could walk on my bum knee without any pain below the skin surface, I'd try to keep going. It got to the point where I broke the race up into smaller goals. When concentrating on each mile ("Do the mile you're in!") got too tedious, I would shoot for the next aid station. I'd tell myself I could decide whether or not to stop for good at the next aid station. At the aid stations, I got more liquids and food, and where needed, I got extra water to clean out my knee wound, as well as antibiotic ointment. I decided to pass on the gauze and tape offer, for fear that the tape would restrict my movement.

The aid stations got better stocked as the day progressed--unusual, huh? (Most aid stations tend to run out of things for us back-of-the-packers.) There were more food choices, as well as gu gels, at the later stops. The last stop had some defizzed Coke, which was amazingly refreshing (partly because of the caffeine)! In addition to the extra nourishment, I got more chatty with the aid station volunteers as the day wore on, because I was out there on the trail for stretches all alone. Usually I savor running/walking time to myself, but I got pretty bored and lonely out there on the wooded trails.

As the miles wore on, I began to feel blisters form on my right foot. By then, it was hard to know which leg to favor, since my left knee was the injured one. I gritted my teeth and chugged on.

With a mile or so left to go, George showed up on the trail, and was a welcome sight! He had run with the Galloway group in Raleigh Saturday morning, and his mom (another saint!) brought him to Greensboro so he could drive me back home in my car! He came bearing an extra water bottle, and was great company for the end of the race! He told me that former coworker Gina and her husband Steve had stopped by to try to visit with me at the finish while I was still on the course. (What a shame that I missed them!) What a delightful surprise to find that Wendy (fellow Galloway runner) had stuck around to see me finish my first marathon! She finished about three hours ahead of me, so it was quite sweet of her to stay, considering her drive home.

It was such a relief to cross the finish line! I wasn't as emotional as I thought I'd be, just incredibly relieved to be at the end of the path. I ended up finishing in 10:55:43, a disappointing time and last place marathon finish, but I'm sooo glad I finished the distance. It would not have been a shame to stop early, but I do feel pretty satisfied to have logged the distance I said I would. This was a major athletic feat for me, no matter what the time.

[I learned afterward that my official time at the race was logged at 9:55:43, because I was rushed at the beginning and didn't realize that I needed to let a race official know I was starting early. NOW that makes sense, but I just didn't think about it at the time (nerves?), and nobody mentioned it! Also, the race director had decided not to bother with timing chips and mats.]

On the way home, George ordered me a tomato and mushroom pizza, and had it delivered as I took my ice bath. The 9:15 PM pizza meal was my first meal of the day (I'd had a banana with almond butter for "breakfast," and then the race course foods for the rest of the day), and it was the best pizza in the world right then!

I spent the day after the marathon resting, drinking liquids, soaking in the tub, and eating in bits and pieces. I also went to the CVS Minute Clinic for suggestions for my blisters and my knee. (I felt kinda like a wimp for going, but I was so uncomfortable!) The lady I saw just suggested soaking my blisters in Epsom salts and using detergent to scrub the dirt out of the knee I fell on (three times!). Soaking in a warm bath felt good, but the knee scrubbing fell short of a fun time.

Things I learned about myself by doing the Triple Lakes Race:

1) I can do 26.2 miles in one day. And I'm certain I can do it faster than I did last Saturday.

2) "The Wall" can happen earlier than Mile 20. For me, it happened after the second fall at Mile 4 in this particular race. The last 22 miles, they were very long. I hope that the "The Wall" will be MUCH later down the road for my next marathon.

3) I need to come up with a list of more things to think about when I'm running long mileage. I depleted my "alone time" topic reserves during this marathon, and that surprised me. (I usually exercise and run alone, except on Saturdays with the Galloway group).

4) I did pretty well last week with nutrition the week before the marathon. My gauge is that I utilized the two available porta-potties (only two, can you believe it?!), but didn't have to hold "it" uncomfortably for any of the race.

5) I ran out of water/Gatorade once on the trail, but made it to the next stop okay. Otherwise, I did a decent job of drinking and rationing my water/Gatorade between stops, which were usually about 4 miles apart.

6) Saying mantras on the trail helped a lot, but I had to change them up every so often. Being by myself for long stretches allowed me to say them outloud at times, which helped. The word "finish" factored in more than once. Popular ones for me were:

*Do the mile you're in.

*I-can-do-this.

*Fi-nish-line.

*Go-ing-home.
*Got-ta fin-ish

7) I have friends who care about me, and are happy that I've tackled this marathon thing. Their support before and at the end of the marathon (and since) have been heartwarming. I also got a good bit of encouragement from other runners along the trail, a number of whom asked me how my knee was doing.

8) I found a lot of extra determination on the trails, and what a pleasant surprise that was! Sometimes my feet were on automatic pilot, but I almost threw in the towel a couple of times. I'm glad that something deep down pushed me to keep going.

9) My blisters and bum knee have hurt worse than my muscles since the race, and I'm not as tired now, a couple of days out, as I was after my 18-mile training run. I can tell I put my body through some trauma on Saturday, but acute injuries aside, I don't feel as bad overall as I expected. I'm still getting to bed early, but I feel like I'm healing.

10) I'm not as fond of trail runs, especially single-track trails, as I'd hoped. I'm too new of a distance runner to be tackling challenging single-track trail runs, and the run/walk in the woods was less enjoyable than I expected. (I assumed the course would be a sufficient distraction.) Maybe it was the falling-down stuff that make it kinda miserable, but I'm not in a hurry to do another trail run like that. I'd signed up for another trail run, the Medoc 10-Miler in Hollister on October 17, and had an order in for a new book on trail running that's coming out in January 2010. I'm bailing on the 10-mile trail race in favor of training near home, and I've cancelled the book order. Training time is too precious (and so is new book money!), and I need to focus on getting ready for the Outer Banks Marathon early in November.

11) I have a lot of admiration for all the runners who finished in front of me, including my Raleigh Galloway Training Group friend Wendy, who walked a course PR by over 40 minutes on Saturday! I also have a lot of gratitude for the volunteers who talked with me at aid stations and checked up on me in the last miles, as well as for the race director, who allowed me to finish about three hours past the posted time limit for the marathon.

So, three days after Marathon #1, these are my thoughts. I'm certain I'll continue to process the experience for a while. Corny as it sounds, I do feel like my life's changed because of my first marathon adventure. It'll be interesting to see how my running changes because of it.

Another Personal Distance Record in the Books!

I rejoined the Galloway group this morning for the 18 mile long run/walk mileage. I wanted to see everyone in the group and wish 1st time racers in next weekend's Virginia Beach Rock and Roll Half Marathon well, and George also wanted to try running with a faster pace group for part of the morning. (George and I had done our own long run thing the past two Saturdays.)

So, George and I got to today's meeting place and started off with some other early morning starters at 5 AM, but the two of us kept a slower pace going and managed 3.9 miles before returning for the whole Galloway group check-in and send-off. From there, I started out with "my" pace group, but assured them that they didn't need to wait with me, as I was stocked with my Garmin Forerunner, a map, money, my cell phone, water and energy food, and my iPod.

Lo and behold, Jackie, one of the pace group leaders, and I started talking, and she ended up staying with me all the way until my mile 11.2! I kept trying to encourage her to go ahead with the rest of the group, but we had a fun time chatting all the way back to the Panera near our starting point (and a popular Galloway hangout after our long runs). George arrived at Panera shortly after we did, and after making a pit stop and refilling my water while George got something light to eat, we headed back out for the rest of my mileage. We ended up back at Panera with my mileage at about 16.7 miles, so I headed back out on my own while George headed into Panera to wait. I finished on my own, which felt both strange and refreshing. After expecting a lot of alone time and not getting any, I enjoyed both the unexpected company and the time at the end to dig deep by myself and gut it out.

So, I ended up finishing 18 miles using (mostly) a 1/1 run/walk ratio today, in 5:40:02, an average pace of 18:53. Yes, it's still quite slow, but the beauty of this number is that on my last personal distance record of 14 miles two weeks ago, I had an average pace of 19:06! Today, I averaged 13 seconds per mile faster, eventhough I was out on the course for an additional two miles. I'm pleased that the changes I'm making in my workouts overall are finally showing! I still have some hard work between now and the Outer Banks Marathon, but I am feeling encouraged.

Here are my mile splits:
1) 18:31
2) 18:06
3) 19:44
4) 19:58
5) 18:55
6) 18:03
7) 18:35
8) 19:04
9) 18:38
10) 18:47
11) 18:40
12) 19:02
13) 19:05
14) 19:25
15) 19:27
16) 18:46
17) 18:35
18) 18:38

Afterward, I finally had a bite to eat at Panera, and came home to a shower, then an ice bath! Ahhhh! Now I see a nap in my future! :)

Busy Tuesday

I kept the workout short this morning, as I had an appointment with the doctor this morning.

1) Walked 1.75 miles (30 min) on the treadmill
2) Ran 0.15 mile (2 min) on the treadmill---yes, pitiful, I know!
3) Stretched IT bands and did hip and glute strength exercises

The orthopaedist was glad my IT band was doing better, and said the knee noise is crepitus. No arthritis yet. She tested my quads and hamstrings, and said I REALLY need to work on flexibility and strength for my knee health. So, I'm planning to try a yoga class tomorrow night (hoping I can get away from work on time!).

Tonight, George and I joined the Raleigh Galloway group for a happy hour at Tobacco Road. I hadn't been there before, so it was fun trying a new place and seeing familiar faces. It was fun chatting with runner friends in normal clothes, with hair down and no sweating. I ended up eating supper there, a tomato and avocado sandwich with cheese grits as my side dish. It was yummy, and a wonderful change of pace.

Trip to REI

I shopped at REI across from Southpoint for the first time tonight, and I must admit I really enjoyed the store! It made me want to go hiking and camping! I stocked up on SportsBeans, and got a couple of gu flavors to try. I also got this ball thing on the left to try on my feet, especially for the plantar fasciitis in my left. It's under my foot as I type, and it feels so good to roll my foot on it!

Now George is rubbing the ball on my shoulders and neck--ahhhhhhh (he's hired!)!

Apex Turkey Trot Race Report

This morning I ran in the Apex (NC) Turkey Trot, which started and ended at the Apex Community Center. The path went around a 50+ acre lake, and was quite pretty! The fall leaves made it even prettier. The race started at 10:00, still plenty cold, but I was thankful that it didsn't start any earlier! (I wore leggings and a couple of short sleeve t-shirts, and felt comfortable, temperature-wise, in no time.) It was a fairly flat trail, for which I was thankful! The worst hill was near the end, and it wasn't that bad. There were signs at each mile, but no one giving splits, which I missed. (I know, I know, I need to wear a watch!)

At the end of the race, I got a high five from a big 6-foot turkey, who beat me! The Chick-Fil-A cow was at the start of the race, but I didn't see him at the finish line when I got there. Perhaps I beat the cow! ;-)

I was pretty excited to cross the finish line in 40 minutes, 13 seconds, a new personal record! This is also the first time I've averaged under 13 minutes per mile, and that's a milestone too. I am a little disappointed that I didn't break the 40 minute mark today, though. While I was mainly hoping to beat my last race time of 40:54, finally getting below 40 minutes would've been sweet! Oh well, maybe next time!

Both of my feet held up well in this race, but my right leg started bothering me some, on the outer part of my knee, plus down the outer part of my leg a little. Will take some more ibuprofen and see how it feels tomorrow.

Laura, my niece, wasn't able to run with me as planned. I missed her, but George came along for moral support, and that was great! I also made a point of chatting with several other runners before, during, and after the race, and that added to the fun experience. Runners are a friendly bunch! :)

I've enjoyed having two races (and two PRs!) this month. I need to sign up for another one soon. There are a couple in December that I'm thinking about.

Are you a race runner? If so, what's your next race?

UPDATE: Official results have been posted, and I finished 235th out of 244 running in the competitive devision (using chip timing). I finished 11th (and last) in my age group.

Gym with George

George and I went to the gym together this morning, and it was nice to be together at the gym early on in the day. I only did 30 minutes on the elliptical, though, then spent some time in the sauna. I don't like the cardio machines at this particular gym as much--it's a different one from the gym I usually go to, because they're older models and are showing their wear. George was wanting to see how exercising first thing affected his day, and asked if we could go together, so I thought it sounded like a great idea. We plan to do it again on Wednesday. :-) I think I'll add some strength training into the mix then. Meanwhile, I'll plan to go to my regular morning gym tomorrow.

Progress pictures for George and me

The picture on the left was taken of the two of us a year or so ago, and the picture on the right was taken last Sunday. Interesting to see these two pictures side by side and be able to tell that we've both lost weight. I'm still on the Rice Diet, and George has been doing his own thing.

Lighter workout

I was tired this morning, so I did a lighter hour on the elliptical this morning, only burning 605 calories. Glad I did the whole hour, though I felt a little wimpy for taking it easy. I'm still kinda tired, the achy kind of tired, though, so I needed to listen to my body.

George and I have a date night at the gym planned for tonight, and I'll probably do some strength training then.