See Diva Run

I started this blog a year ago, with a report about the 2007 Mardi Gras Marathon. My goal was to avoid writing the race report on each of the message boards I frequent. Since then the blog has taken on a life of its own, and I have had the opportunity to get acquainted with the community of running blogs. I don’t want to rehash the 2007 report, but I do want to explain that the Mardi Gras Marathon is very dear to my heart. Before August 2006, what I knew about New Orleans was limited to what I’d seen in movies and on television. On a Saturday afternoon in late August, I was running on a treadmill at the health club. The televisions were all set to CNN, and the story of the day was the evacuation of New Orleans. It was a very compelling story. I followed it for the rest of the weekend. Coverage went from the evacuation, to the storm, to the aftermath. It was horrible, but for 3 days, I couldn’t tear myself away from the television. I watched people wading up Canal Street. I saw people being airlifted from roof tops, and I saw the horror that was unfolding at the Convention Center. To my surprise, on September 15, the New Orleans Track Club announced that the marathon would be held on February 4, and that proceeds would go to helping rebuild the city. We decided that we wanted to be a part of it. Four and half months later, we were standing outside the Superdome, lookingup at the Convention Center. After two years, it is still difficult to describe the experience. Follow this link to see photos from 2006.

This year we were joined in New Orleans by friends from the LVM21 message board. We also had the opportunity to meet Grinny from the Runner’s Lounge, and HornGoddess from the Nike forum. We organized a pre-race pasta dinner at Tony Moran’s.

Rather than make you sit through a report that takes as long to read as it did to run, let me just give you the highlights:

• It was cool and foggy at the start, but became warm and humid before we were halfway done.
• Even though the course was flat, I ran slower than last week at Birch Bay
• I enjoyed 2 small cups of beer at the water stop in Audobahn Park, and another at the Hash House Harrier’s stop in City Park.
• Even when I wasn’t stopping for beer, I stopped to drink the water and visit with the volunteers
• My kidneys were functioning very well. I made a record 5 bathroom stops
• I was so tired going into the second half, I didn’t know how I was going to finish.
• Even though I was tired, my pace in the second half was only a minute slower.
• I took 70 photos along the course.
• Despite all of this, I managed to beat my PR by 17 minutes to finish in 5:33.

Enough about me. Let’s talk about the event. They had a great turn out this year, with over 1300 marathon runners and another 2800 for the half. Things were very well organized, and the new course was great. The expo was relocated to a larger venue, which was a huge improvement. The volunteers were wonderful, and the post race food continues to be some of the best. After the race we dined on red beans and rice, Subway sandwiches, bananas and King cake. There was plenty of food, even when the last runners came in.

You can see my entire photo album here.

The “Take it and Run” topic from the Runner’s Lounge this week is Strength and Flexibility. Amy says this topic was selected because of my “Hard Core Challenge“, which was actually inspired by a friendly offer from everyone’s favorite inspiration, Nancy. Amy and Tom have provided some excellent information on strength and flexibility, so if you have not been to the Runner’s Lounge, I encourage you to do so just as soon as you are done reading my silliness.

I’ve completed 6 marathons, but I’ve never run one. I’ve run in all of them, but I arrived at the starting line either over trained or under trained every time, and I’m usually limping before the half way mark. The exception would be the 2007 Mardi Gras marathon, where I had planned to run the first half and walk the second, just to see that part of the city. In my previous attempts at marathon training, I thought my problem was that I hadn’t built a sufficient base. I worked very hard on building up my base mileage last year, and I ended up injured. I gave myself a 2 week rest, and started the FIRST Marathon plan on January 1, with a goal of running the Eugene Marathon on May 1 in 4:20. To my surprise, I’ve been able to keep up with the interval runs, but I’m struggling with the tempo and distance runs. I have been plagued with side pain, that might be iliopsoas tendinitis. I’ve had this problem occasionally through the years. It is always on the right side, which is also where I suffered the groin pull in 2006, and where I’m also experiencing peroneal tendinitis. I’m starting to think I should forego marathon training in favor of running shorter distances while building up my core strength. Whether or not I decide to continue with marathon training, I will continue to work on core strength, as I suspect that you can’t build a good marathon on a weak foundation.

I’ve spent a lot of time reading about core training. I’ve probably spent more time reading about it than I have spent doing it. Do you suppose that is part of the problem? As I mentioned in the “Core Training for Dummies” post, I need a plan that is simple. I particularly like the Five Exercises You Must Do, and the strength training exercises from “Runner’s World Run Less, Run Faster”, which is the FIRST training program book. The FIRST strength training plan consists of

• Standing wall slides
• Single leg squats
• Walking lunges
• Calf raises
• Push-ups on a stability ball
• Single arm bent-over row with dumbbell

Push-ups on the stability ball are way beyond my current ability. I substitute “girlie” push-ups from the floor. For the bent-over row, I sometimes substitute the single leg bent-over row from the Core Performance book. I find that the combination of Standing Wall Slides, Single Leg Squats and Walking Lunges is enough to have my hips in complete agony for 48 hours, so I usually save the squats for a different day. If it’s a good day, I might combine the FIRST program with the Five exercises.

Rowing is also considered a core building activity. I can tell that I’m gaining strength in my back and shoulders. Tuesday I held a plank for 145 seconds! That is the good news. The bad news is that the squats and lunges left me with the equivalent of a toothache in each hip today. It’s going to take a heck of a lot of lunges, squats and wall slides (and a whole lot of ibuprofen!), but once I have a solid foundation, I can build a better marathon.

There are a phenomenal number of half marathons and marathons in Washington State. Before I hang up my running shoes, I’d like to participate in all of them. Being a fair weather runner, the Birch Bay marathon was the one I thought might not happen. It has a reputation for being an event for “serious” runners, and if you’ve read at least one other post on this blog, you know that I am anything but serious. Then my friend Rob, from the LVM21 board announced that he was flying up from Arizona to run Birch Bay. How could I not join him? So, despite my visions of being cold and wet, I signed up for the 25K “Half Ultra” event. Rob assured me that I had nothing to worry about, because the Arizona heat follows him wherever he goes. To my surprise, meteorologists announce that we will have sunshine with high temperatures in the 50s on Sunday. Perfect running weather!

My alarm goes off at 5:00 on Sunday, and the first thing I notice is that the house is cold. I put on my Sub-4 running tights and Brooks short sleeved tech shirt, but I’m still cold, so I put on my Brooks dry-fit jacket, and head down to make breakfast. When I open the front door, I get an Arctic blast. It is very, very icy. I drop my heavy Nike running jacket, and put it on over the dry-fit jacket. With gloves and a hat, I’m comfortable while I de-ice my windshield. The thermometer in the car says it is 29 degrees. By the time I reach the highway, the fog is quite dense. I can only see about 3 stripes ahead of me. It’s like being in a dream. I hope that there are no deer or dogs wandering about, as I won’t see them until it is much too late. It’s a 90 mile drive to Birch Bay, and I’m not looking forward to it. Fortunately, the fog lifted after 20 miles. The trip is uneventful, for which I am grateful! By the time I reach Bellingham, the sun is coming up. I check the temperature one more time before getting out of the car at Birch Bay — 26 degrees. At least it will be sunny!

I pick up my race tag and look around for Rob. Even though there are only about 100 participants, I have trouble finding him. Then I hear someone else calling for him — a photographer. The local paper is running a story on Rob, and they want to take his photo. Why am I surprised? I have had the opportunity to meet many amazing, inspiring, and even famous people since I started running and visiting running forums and blogs. Check out Rob’s story here.

This is a very small race, but what it lacks in amenities, it makes up for in spectacular scenery. Did I mention it was cold? When the temperature drops to 26 degrees that close to water, there is going to be plenty of frost, and as you can see, everything was white.

The race director called the marathon participants out onto the road, which wasn’t closed. As he as giving pre-race instructions someone yelled from the back that a car needed to get through.

The crowd parts like the Red Sea, and the car gets through. Finally, the marathon starts.

The 25K starts 30 minutes later. I go up to the car to make wardrobe adjutments and get my gear. The people next to me are attempting to break into their van after locking their keys inside. They end up starting with the 25K group, even though they are running the marathon. Finally it is time to start, and the road ahead is beautiful.

The course follows the bay out of the park and into an area with vacation homes, hotels and restaurants. It is still early and there is very little traffic on the roads. In fact, there is very little traffic throughout the race, which is a good thing, as much of the course is on county roads that have no shoulder, and no where to go if the car doesn’t go around you. Even though it is freezing out, it doesn’t take long for me to overheat in my Nikesphere jacket. At the first water stop, I pull my arms out of the sleeves and tie them around my waist. When it comes to running, comfort is more important than fashion!

It was a small group to begin with, but as time passes we start spreading out. By mile 5 I’ve lost sight of the runners in front of me, and behind me. There is a lone spectator on the course with a boxer puppy. They must be waiting for a family member. I see them several times. Most of the time it is just me, my beloved iPod, and the magnificent scenery. After mile 5, we start to climb. Until this point, the course has been flat for western Washington. The next 7 miles are on the bluff overlooking the water. The view is still fabulous, but the terrain is more challenging.

I felt strong until mile 10. I was very happy to stop and rest at the water stop at mile 10.5. At mile 8 I was overtaken by a marathoner on his second lap. The next two caught me at the water stop. It seemed like a small army overtook me in the last two miles. I was still running, but I was tired. I must have been very tired, because to my shock and dismay, my finish time was 2:56. I had been planning for the 2:35-2:40 range. My disappointment wasn’t in the actual time, but in the fact that running 15 miles at an 11+ pace made me that tired. I had plenty of energy to sprint the finish, but I don’t think I could have gone another 11 miles without walking a good portion of it.

While I had some doubts before the race, I am so very glad that I did it. I would recommend it to hardy Northwest runners who are used to our roads, terrain and weather. The sunshine was what made the race so enjoyable, and as we Northwesterners know, you can’t count on it. Any other weekend it might have been raining too hard to see anything, and I might have been too miserable to pay attention! The race is spartan at best. There were 4 water stops, with gaps up to 4.5 miles between. There was no expo, no medal, no gels, no post race food, and only one portable toilet on the course. The entry fee was only $15, and for an extra $10 you could buy this stunning t-shirt.

I loved it, but if you prefer a few amenities with your race, you might want to pick a different event.

Chances are this will be my only race with “ultra” in the title. I’m really bothered that a 15 mile race took so much out of me. I was in bed by 9:00 last night, and I’m still feeling tired today. My quads are sore. When I took Jasmine out for her “poop jog”, she didn’t even try to run. I guess I was going so slow she didn’t think it was worth the effort. My legs and brain felt like they were running, but there she was keeping up with me at a medium paced trot. Oh well, more stretching and a little rowing are helping to work the stiffness out. I’ll run one more time on Wednesday, and then its off to “The Big Easy”.

The Bellingham Herald had a great article about the race, including a photo of one of the runners getting bit by a dog! Link to the article. Be sure to check out their photo gallery.

If you are looking for meaningful content, try this product review of running headphones. If you are willing to read the kind of silliness you have come to expect from me, continue.

Dear iPod,

When we first met in 2006, I had no idea how important you were going to become in my life. My old MP3 player, which held about 256Mb of music, was optional, and only used for really long runs. Then I discovered you and the oh so seductive Nike+ sensor that would track my speed and distance, and draw cute graphs on the Nike web site. After that, we were inseparable. You supplied the soundtrack that turned my running story from a tragedy into a comedy, a feel good tale and finally a love story. You are the spoon full of sugar that makes the nasty tasting running medicine go down!

Not only do you turn those dreadful training runs into one of the happier parts of my day — you often shuffle up an offering so delightful that I have to keep running. How many times have I run further than planned because another good song came on? More than I can count. In addition to cheering up those awful training runs, you brighten up other onerous tasks like cooking, washing dishes, core training, cross training and flying. You have even sat in the dentist’s chair with me. You have become one of my closest companions. If only I could figure out how to sneak you into meetings!

Alas, every great love story must have a conflict. The RRCA and USATF are trying to come between us by keeping you from running with me in races. Apparently they are operating under the delusion that running is a sport, and not a recreational activity for the masses (kind of like golf). I can understand why they might not want the professionals listening to music, but much of the growth in organized race events has been the result of marketing to recreational runners, joggers and walkers. We might pretend to be athletes (kind of like golfers), but one look at our sad, saggy butts will reveal the truth. If the RRCA and USATF are trying to protect the dignity and integrity of the sport, they should restrict races to people who can complete them at at least a single digit pace, and prohibit juggling, costumes and other things that have nothing to do with the sport of running. In other words, restrict running to the serious runners, and don’t complain when the number of participants plunges.

It has been suggested that head phones present a safety issue, to which I can only reply bull $hit. If safety is the issue, why are they banning headphones but not scissors, knives, guns, brass knuckles, explosives, chemical weapons, biological weapons, and liquids. If you can’t bring it on an airplane, why should you be allowed to bring it to a race? So leave the Gu in your checked bags people! And while we are on the subject of safety, there have been several races that were allowed to start under unsafe conditions due to heat and humidity, where participants ended up needing medical assistance. How many runners have been hospitalized for injuries caused by wearing headphones?

So, why do the RRCA and USATF feel compelled to try and keep us apart dear iPod? Control I suppose. It’s their race and they get to make the rules. Fair enough. The problem here is that races are also a consumer item. They are heavily marketed with slick ads in running magazines, literature at expos, as well as direct mail and e-mail. Do any of these ads say that they don’t want slow, unserious, iPod wearing runners? No, they just say sign up and send us the money. If they have an affiliation with a charitable organization, they ask us to send extra. They want your entry fee, and they are so full of themselves that they think you will be happy to leave your beloved iPod at home, or and by the way, no refunds.

Fortunately for us, dear iPod, the RRCA has introduced a new “universal no headphones icon” which is to be included in all race materials, including sign up forms. This race equivalent of the Mr Yuk sticker will protect us from evil races that don’t understand or approve of our need to be together, because “tramps like us, baby we were born to run.” And when we run, we run so far away, we run all night and day — couldn’t get away. Together, when a problem comes a long, we will whip it, whip it good, and if we can’t we will “get over it”. No matter what, we will “die, die, die, die hard” and “they will never tear us apart”. I know this because these are the very special sentiments that you whisper in my ear while we are running together.

So thank you, dear iPod, for whispering these words of inspiration, and many others. Where would I be without your 461 different selections that shuffle up to amuse and inspire me, and when one song doesn’t work, I can always skip ahead. When I need serious support, I can go to my power song. At first it was “Whip It”, then “Get Over It” and most recently “Die Hard”. Next week in New Orleans, Lady Marmelade by LaBelle will be just a button press away, whenever I need it. How could I possibly run without you? I couldn’t, but more importantly, I wouldn’t. With all of the money I save on race entry fees (potentially thousands of dollars per year), I will be able to take you to some very nice places.

Tonight was interval night according to my schedule, but I’d had a headache and been in a generally bad mood all day (possibly longer). In the past those would have been reasons to run, and I would have been anxiously running upstairs to change. Lately, where running is concerned, I’ve lost that loving feeling. I think part of it is burn out, and part of it is the stress of keeping a schedule. On the FIRST plan every run serves a purpose so there are no “just for fun” runs. I already have a job that is sucking the life out of me, I don’t need a second one.

So there I was changing into my running clothes, and thinking about easing into it by warming up on the treadmill. The problem with that was that my “running partner” was following me around the house with bright shiny eyes and wagging tail waiting for me to finish tying my shoes and grab the leash. Being in a generally bad mood, I had no desire to go out in damp, 40 degree weather to “warm up”. I was all set to disappoint her when I thought about our friend Linda, who lost her “best friend” in a tragic accident this weekend. My best friend is 11, and while she is still game for a 1 mile warm up run, I know that our future runs together are numbered. I grabbed my jacket and a plastic bag, and away we went! Jasmine has never quite grasped the concept of warming up. She likes to drag me for the first quarter mile, pace me for the second half mile and trot along behind me for the last quarter. Somewhere in the middle we stop to fill the bag.

With warm up out of the way, Jasmine headed upstairs to nap on the bed while I went downstairs to run my 3 x 1 mile intervals @ 8:40, with 1 minute rest intervals. I confess that the rest intervals were more like 2 or 3 minutes. After finishing the first one, I didn’t really think I could finish a second one, but I decided to at least try and get half way through. After making it half way, I decided to go a little longer, and soon the second interval was done. I had my doubts about finishing the third mile, too, but somehow I did. Then came the delightful 10:30 cool down mile. It was my favorite. When I was done, my headache was gone, my energy level was up, and my mood was greatly improved. Is there any chance that I will remember that when it is time to run on Thursday? Probably not.