On the Ragged Edge of the Western World
I am so glad I ran this race!
Good thing I'm too cheap to back out of a race I already paid for. :-) I was concerned about the hills; concerned about my inadequate training. But I finished and I enjoyed myself.
But let's start with the Blogger meet-up. Donald had graciously arranged for us to meet for carbo-loading at an Italian restaurant in Carmel the night before the race. SD and I attended, along with Eric and Michelle, and Darrell, a blogger that I didn't know but the others did. He was there with his teenage son, Tyler, who was running in the relay. Donald was also running in the relay--the Hurricane Point leg!
Michelle and I met last year at Nike and I felt like I was hanging with an old friend. But the other's I have never met. There weren't any real surprises in meeting these people in person, except that Donald is much younger than I imagined. He is a really nice guy, which usually is a euphemism for someone who's lacking in the looks department, but not in this case. I am in awe of both him and Eric for their athletic capabilities. Actually, I'm a little in awe of Michelle, too.
Dinner was at 5 p.m., because we racers had to get up in the middle of the night to get to the starting line. The buses left Monterey at 4:30 in the morning to get the runners to Big Sur and then get back to Carmel so the road would be clear before the race started. SD and I got up at 3, I dressed, filled my water bottles, and headed across the street to Denny's for a bowl of oatmeal. It was the graveyard shift and I guess they weren't expecting anybody to eat before running 26.2 miles or some portion of that, because it was hard to get any service.
SD walked me to the bus and then headed out to take pictures. The bus left later than they said it would, so I only had 15 minutes to change out of my sweats, drop off my gear bag, and get in the portapotty line before the race started. Fortunately it wasn't a very long line and I was able to get out before everyone was gone.
The 21 mile race was on the same course as the marathon; it just started at mile 5 and 15 minutes ahead. Now that's the way to do it! We had the course to ourselves for the first 4 or so miles, then the leading man came running up, just past the Bixby bridge. Taiko drummers were pounding a slow steady beat, but when the marathon leader arrived, the pounding became fast and furious, which was how we knew he was approaching. That and the screaming. :-)
When the lead female passed me, I didn't get a good look at her number, but I commented to somebody that she didn't look like an elite. She was muscular and not matchstick thin, but she was sure running. And there were no other women close to her. The marathon winner was Kris Lawson, and her number was 38 and her age is 28, so it may have been her that I saw. How cool is that--I got to run with the front runners!
And then I got to run with the mid-packers. Life is better at the front--I never ate so much during a race. There were oranges, apple slices, and Gu packets being handed out all along the course. Plus fresh California strawberries at the Carmel Highlands. Usually this is stuff I only hear about, because by the time I get there everything is gone.
I expected to see Donald or Eric run past, but I never did. They must have gone by while I was in a portapotty. There were portapotties, like, every mile and I must have stopped at each one. At least I didn't disgrace my family by peeing in public! Food, entertainment, portapotties: I'm telling you, this race was perfect. :-)
And the course is STUNNING. SD and I have driven on Hwy. 1 many times, but it is different on foot. Climbing up Hurricane Point and then looking back to see where you came from was an incredible feeling. Watching the surf crash on the rocks, and just taking in all the natural beauty, made me so grateful to be a runner.
Lest you think it was a stroll in the park, there were some hills to deal with. And wind. I drafted off of people when I could and just bucked up when I couldn't. We had to climb a hill just to get onto Hwy. 1, because our start line was at the state park. I set my watch for 5:1, but just walked whenever I felt like it, which was often. My longest training run was 18 miles and even though I tried to be conservative, I was getting progressively fatigued. But I just played mind games until I crossed the finish line.
SD was there waiting for me and took my picture as I got my medal. I was exhausted, but it was a good tired and I felt proud for finishing. My finish time sucked, but I still feel like I ran a good race. And confident that I'm ready to Rock n Roll in San Diego!
Place Overall: 255 out of 588
Women: 204 out of 491
F Open: 0 out of 0
AgeGrade: 38.11% Place: 197
FINISH: 5:11:09 pace: 14:49
Chip Time: 5:11:09
Gun Time: 5:12:59
I looked for Michelle, but she came in sooner than I expected. If you haven't already, go read her race report. She rocked the Big Sur marathon!
Next stop, Big Sur!
Holy, moly! I can't believe three weeks have gone by already. I had a great time in Portugal, but it's not much of a city to run in. The streets (and sidewalks) are paved with cobblestone. It's really pretty, but not a very forgiving surface.
I managed a few training runs on my vacation. I did do the 16 mile run that I mentioned in the previous post. I wish I could say it was spectacular, but it wasn't. It was too crowded to run in the street, so I had to stay on the sidewalk, and there weren't a lot of bathrooms. I tried to be positive, but the best I could come up with was how cool it was to be running along the mouth of the river that Vasco de Gama sailed out of when he sailed around the tip of Africa and discovered an alternate path to India. Yes, I read that out of a guide book; I never would have remembered that tidbit from 5th grade geography. The run was so blah that I postponed my 18 miler until I got home. It worked out much better for many reasons.
We drove up to Porto with some friends of ours, and on the way stopped in at a town called Coimbra. It is home to one of the world's oldest universities in continuous operation. We arrived at night and went out to dinner. I tried what I was told was a typical Portuguese meal, octopus. It was cooked in red wine, so it took on a hideous color. I ate it, but I didn't like the way it looked. I had two more opportunities to try octopus, but each was prepared a different way than the first dish and it was absolutely delicious.
In the morning I went for a run along the river, while SD went for a walk around the university. I ran through a park with well kept gardens and admired how pretty the town was. When SD returned from his walk I commented on what a nice town it was and he had just the opposite impression. I guess I got lucky that I ran where I did.
All this leads up to Big Sur. The race is this weekend and I'm nervous but excited. I did an 18 mile run ten days ago and it was tough. But I got through it and so I guess I can get through Sunday. My goal is simply to finish and enjoy myself, but as I said in the previous post, there are some killer hills!
I'm looking forward to a blogger meet-up with Michelle, her husband Eric, who likes to read hot chocolate cups, and Donald who organized the meet-up. Donald's post from last year about Big Sur is the reason I'm running it. I've driven that route many times, but how often does a person get the opportunity to run with the highway closed to traffic? Uh, once a year.
While I was in Portugal, my dad was having the tumor on his neck removed. He had been going through chemo for the past year, treating the tumor on his neck as well as his lung and kidney. He was supposed to have two years of chemo, but the spot on my kidney is gone, the one on his lung is the size of a pencil point, and so they were able to operate on his neck. He's recovering nicely and is overjoyed to be rid of the cancer. Now he can get on with living his life. Way to go, Dad!
Oh, I got a comment today from a woman that ran the Nike marathon. She came across my Nike race report and I mentioned her in it because we ran together for a little while. This is one of the reason's I like to blog, because it gives me running friends on other coasts and other continents. :-)
Dutch Masters and Seven Hills
Well, I had a wonderful time in San Francisco. Had a great run to the Golden Gate bridge, which brought back memories from the marathon. And had my virgin Irish Coffee while talking to an Irish cop from New Jersey. How appropriate.
But that was then and now I´m in Lisbon with SD. We left California on Sunday night and arrived in Portugal on Tuesday morning, just after midnight. It took so long because we had a 9 hour layover in Amsterdam. We made use of the time by taking a bus into the city center and visiting the Ryjks museum. We were pretty tired by the time we got to Portugal, and had no trouble sleeping through the night!
Although SD has been to Lisbon one other time, he was here on business so didn´t sightsee as much as he would have liked. He has a business meeting next week, so we took vacation time and came early. This is my first time to Portugal, but it feels so comfortable. I told SD that I´m a European at heart. :-)
Of course, I brought my running shoes. When we went to San Francisco two weeks ago, we drove north on Highway 1, right through Big Sur and the course of the marathon. It makes the Nike Marathon look as flat as Calysta Flockhart. There are some serious hills and it freaked me out. I´ve been training since then on the highway near my house, in order to be better prepared.
Lisbon is built on seven hills, which makes for some good hill training. I ventured out for a 5-6 mile run, but didn´t get too far. It took me 1.25 hours to run only 4.75 miles. Sheesh. I´ll blame it on the hills. And the stop lights.
We´re leaving for Porto on Saturday, so I´ve scheduled my long run for Friday. I´m planning to run 16 miles, then 18 the following week. The best course I found is along the river, which hopefully won´t have too many hills. I´ll let you know how it goes. Adeus for now.
Proud 2B Half Irish
One evening, twenty-two years ago, I was sitting in a classroom in Santa Ana and wishing I was in San Francisco. It was St. Patrick’s Day and I wanted to be celebrating with an Irish Coffee at the Buena Vista. They specialize in Irish Coffee, making it with Tullamore Dew whiskey.
Instead, I went home from my night class and turned on a Clancy Brother’s special. I grew up on the Irish songs of the Clancy Bros. On my TV screen, Tommy Clancy was talking about the success the group and the toll it took. He talked about the parties every night and how much drinking he was doing. He knew he had to stop or it would ruin his life. Then he looked straight into the camera and said, “I haven’t had a drink in ten years.” Whoa!
I couldn’t believe someone could go a week without drinking, much less a decade. I quit drinking couple of months later and whenever I wanted a beer, cocktail, or glass of wine I would repeat Tommy Clancy’s words. The power of positive thinking: what the mind believes, it can achieve.
Today is St. Patrick’s Day and I’m sitting in Starbucks on Fisherman’s Wharf in San Francisco, kitty-corner from the Buena Vista. It’s the first time I’ve been in this city on this day. I’m going to go for a run to the Golden Gate bridge and when I return I plan to toast the Irish with an Irish Coffee at the Buena Vista, hold the Tullamore Dew.
In keeping with my tradition of a joke on this day, I leave you with this.
What It Means To Be Irish:
1) You will never play professional basketball.
2) You swear very well.
3) At least one of your cousins is a fireman, cop, bar owner, funeral home owner or holds political office.
4) You think you sing very well.
5) You have no idea how to make a long story short!
6) There isn't a big difference between you losing your temper or killing someone...
7) Much of your childhood meals were boiled.
8) You have never hit your head on a ceiling.
9) You spent a good portion of your childhood kneeling in prayer.
10) You're strangely poetic after a few beers.
11) You are, therefore, poetic a lot.
12) You will be punched for no good reason...a lot.
13) Some punches directed at you are from legacies of past generations.
14) Many of your sisters and/or cousins are named Mary, Catherine or Eileen... and there is at least one member of your family with the full name of Mary Catherine Eileen.
15) Someone in your family is incredibly cheap. It is more than likely you.
16) You may not know the words, but that doesn't stop you from singing.
17) You can't wait for the other guy to stop talking before you start talking.
18) You're not nearly as funny as you think you are...but what you lack in talent, you make up for in frequency.
19) There was not a huge difference between your last Wake and your last keg party.
20) You are, or know someone, named Murph.
21) If you don't know Murph then you know Mac. If you don't know Murph or Mac then you know Sully. Then you probably know Sully McMurphy.
22) You are genetically incapable of keeping a secret.
23) You have Irish Alzheimer's... your forget everything but the grudges!
24) "Irish Stew" is a euphemism for "boiled leftovers."
25) All of your losses are alcohol related (loss of virginity, loss or drivers license, loss of money, loss of job, loss of significant other, loss of teeth from punch...) but it never stops you from drinking.
Ahem, I can relate to many of these! Happy St. Patrick's Day, everyone!
Vote for Waddler
Fellow blogger, Waddler 26.2, is trying to get a full Ironman sponsorship from Evotri. They are offering 3 sponsorships to the blogger with the most votes. Go to Waddler's blog (http://1waddler.blogspot.com/) to read her very compelling reasons for wanting this and if you agree then help a girl out and submit your vote. Voting ends March 21, so there isn't much time left. All you have to do is copy the URL of her blog and paste it in the subject line of an email. Waddler has all the links in her post.
She's the only one I know trying for this, but if YOU are looking for the same sponsorship, go ahead and mention it in the comments. And accept my apologies for not giving you a shout-out.
Sidelined
I can't run!!! Actually, I can, but I'm afraid hurting myself more. I'm fine when I run, but then the next day my foot hurts.
In the previous post, I mentioned that I thought I hurt my sciatic nerve--I had pain from my butt to under my big toe. That was about 3 weeks ago. After the 10 mile run in Minneapolis, I took a week off. I woke up on Sunday with not even a twinge and the next day ran 3.5 miles with my running group. After that run, I may have had a smidgeon of an ache in my arch. The next day (Tuesday) I ran/walked 3:2 for 20 minutes. That was my last run, because my foot hurt and my calf felt tight. My running coach advised me to take two weeks off; I'm in my second week.
This is making me very nervous for Big Sur! I have not run any further than 10 miles and although I gave up any delusions of running for time, I would like to finish and get a medal. Big Sur is 8 weeks away and Rock N Roll is 13. Yikes!
My shoes are new, so I don't think they're the problem. Although maybe they are. I actually have two pair--Asics Gel 3000, which are stabiity shoes that I wear on the road and longer runs, and Adidas Supernova Cushion. The Adidas don't offer any support and I was wearing them on that ill-fated treadmill run. I also wore them yesterday as I used the elliptical for an hour. I noticed that my foot starting hurting on the elliptical, even though there is no impact. I guess I'll just run in the Asics, when I start running again. I've been lucky in not getting injured and I hope this is a passing phase.
It was great to see AmyBee and go to Spirit of the Marathon with her. And it was cool to be in a theater full of runners! I loved that movie and got a kick out of how much of the lingo I got. I was amused how even Deanna Kastor got excited over a new pair of running shoes. And of course, I related to the back of the packers. But mostly I just related to the runners, regardless of their talent, and that was a good feeling.
In other news, Spring is coming to the Central Coast. The fruit trees are flowering; they smell great and look so pretty! And wildflowers are blooming on my property. Mostly lupine, but some California poppies. We haven't done any landscaping yet, and the weeds are coming up as well. I don't want to cut anything down, though, until I know what it is.
I spent the weekend taking care of two dogs for my friend. She had to leave for the weekend and I offered to feed them. They are not well-behaved so for the first couple of days I wouldn't put them in my truck, I just fed them at their house and walked them around their yard. But on Sunday I loaded them into the back of the truck and tied their leashes so they couldn't jump around. I let them run loose on my land, since it's all fenced. They loved it and never seemed to tire of running around. It's been 28 years since I've had a dog and I'm ready for one, but SD wants to wait a couple of years. He wants to be able to travel when he retires and doesn't want to have to find a caregiver for the pets whenever we want to go somewhere. And putting them in a kennel will be too expensive. Anyway, it was fun to have some canine company and to see how happy they were to run around. They're only a year old, so have lots of energy!
I allowed myself to go look at bikes the other day. I've been avoiding them, since we didn't have the money to buy one, but now we're getting close to having the money. I found a couple of Felt bikes that I'm considering. One is a women's specific bike, and has good componenets. I like the idea of women's geometry, especially since I'm under 5'4", but this bike has pink trim and I've never been a fan of pink and black. Pink and white, maybe. The other bike is an affordable all-carbon, but it's more unisex. I'm leaning towards that one, even though the WSD comes with slightly better components. I guess I'll just have to go for a test ride and see how they feel.
Early morning wake-up call.
Fortunately for me, this Denny's was just across the street from the hotel and open 24 hours for pre-race nutrition. 
Love is walking your wife to the bus before the sun is even up.
How far is that marathon? 
Medaled!
Michele and Eric met us for some post-race coffee later that night. They're wearing their "I Survived Hurricane Point" shirts. They're too modest to wear their medals; however, I wore mine all day and to dinner! The marathon finisher's medal has the Bixby Bridge on it--that's the one I want next.
Early morning wake-up call.
Fortunately for me, this Denny's was just across the street from the hotel and open 24 hours for pre-race nutrition. 
Love is walking your wife to the bus before the sun is even up.
How far is that marathon? 
Medaled!
Michele and Eric met us for some post-race coffee later that night. They're wearing their "I Survived Hurricane Point" shirts. They're too modest to wear their medals; however, I wore mine all day and to dinner! The marathon finisher's medal has the Bixby Bridge on it--that's the one I want next.
