New Year Half Marathon

You know that saying about the road to hell being paved with good intentions? I think I built a 4 lane highway over the month of December in my posting. I had this really cool idea to do various unique Christmas gift ideas and yet nothing happened. Here's a brief recap.

1. We got a dog. I'm taking her running a couple times a week and my wife will walk her a couple times also. She's almost to what her ideal weight should be.

2. Christmas was good. I got some new running gloves. My last pair had a hole in them.

3. I ran a half marathon this morning. Details to follow.

Marathon Maniacs New Year Half Marathon
Last year, the race was a bitter 5 degrees. This year, the weather has been wacky. All week the weather has been in the 50s. January is the coldest month of the year in Utah. 50 degrees is unheard of.

The race this year had more participants, but it was still a bare bones event. We did get a local running store to offer free gatorade and GU at their store which was about mile 7.5 on the course. I talked my brother in law into joining me. He hasn't run since November and I haven't done much in the past two weeks. When I got up this morning, it was snowing! Of all the days to snow and it decided to finally snow on race day. It tapered off though so we only had to contend with some wind.

The race started and finished at the race director's house again, but he offered better medals and had more food so the cost was a little more. Overall, the race was good and fun. I didn't have any goals in mind, but I felt really good so I just found a pace and went for it. My Garmin died around mile 6. I'll have to buy a new one or send it to Garmin to have them replace the battery. I'm bummed about that.

My finish was 1:43:30 'ish. We all timed ourselves for the race and I had to estimate my time based on who finished in front of me. They were at 1:41 and I was just a couple minutes behind. This time equates to a new PR in the half marathon. This makes me hopeful to break into the 1:30's for the half this year.

At the end of the race, there were big pots of chili, rice, yogurt, chocolate milk, bread, biscuits, gatorade and water available. That was probably the best part. Oh yeah, we also got a cool medal.

I have two marathons on tap for 2012, but would like to add a couple more. It will depend on timing, finances and my training.

K-5K Program

Maija is a seven year old Weimeraner who
needs to lose about 20 lbs. We've put her
on the K (kennel) to 5K program.

I'm doing a little coaching on the side. My first client is looking to lose about 20 lbs. to meet her ideal weight. She's a close family friend so I accepted the challenge. We're starting off slow since she hasn't really been doing a lot of exercising lately. Her doctor recommended she start slow, but that eventually she should be maintaining a 5-7 mile run on a regular basis to maintain her health.

We started right after Thanksgiving and have been doing every day since. Obviously we're taking it slow. She alternates between walking and running which is a good way to work up to her goal. In addition to the running, she is also working on her nutrition. She's moved to a lesser fat diet and more natural foods. She's also reduced her portion sizes. She's got her family behind her in keeping to her goals.

Since I'm not really a certified coach or anything, I am loosely following the Couch to 5K program. I've termed this the K to 5K program. I'm looking forward to working with her more and more and since this is in addition to my normal running, I'll be putting in more miles.

Runner Nutrition at its Finest

What's creepier than a hand
with a face that talks? 

Today, I ran 12.6 miles. It was a faster pace than I have sustained for a while and it felt good until my foot started hurting at mile 9 at which point I fell behind. My ending time was still a respectable 8:30 pace for the entire time, but I felt lousy that I didn't keep up. My post race nutrition is noteworthy though.

If you have followed me for a while, you know that my running nutrition is newsworthy in its high levels of good cholesterol mixed with moderate amounts of protein and carbohydrates right up there with Chef Boyardee in the canned goods section of the grocery store. I have to blame this on my parents for never cooking Hamburger Helper. I had a friend who is a successful engineer, his mom is a highly regarded university professor, his dad an accomplished man who worked for the state also served in the National Guard. They all got to eat Hamburger Helper growing up. I would always pray that if I got invited to eat dinner with my friend's family that we could have Hamburger Helper. I would then come home and tell my mom who would get a disgusted bitter beer face on and exclaim in a high pitched voice, "Hamburger Helper is as bad as McDonalds." I happened to long for McDonalds too so this comment really didn't make much sense to my young mind.

After the Saturday run, I cooled down at the running store and signed the wife and 15 year old up for the Thanksgiving Day race. I drove to the Great Harvest Bread store and used one of my buy one get one free coupons (I think I have over 100 left and they have no expiration date) to pick up two loaves of bread (pumpkin chocolate chip and cinnamon pull aparts). Upon returning home, I was tired and ready for a shower and some food. The food resulted in a protein drink with bits of green things with a couple eggs and maybe some hashbrowns  steaming hot corn dog. Yeah, one of those ones that come in the big giant package that is found at Costco. I justified this in that it probably has a good amount of protein and the crust around it i'm sure isn't just regular flour...it's got some cornmeal mixed in. Obviously it is good.

I could have stopped there, but I moved on to some leftover sweet potatoes from dinner last week. These are the kind of sweet potatoes that when you eat them you feel as though you have died and gone to heaven. In addition to the sweet potato, it has a carmelized pecan topping on it. I could eat these every day and then when I show up on The Biggest Loser you can look back at this post and see where it all went awry. Ana Konikova (like I'm going to spill my guts to Bob..ha!) and I would be having one of our get-to-know you visits that they hold and I'll talk about my sweet potato problem.

In the end, here is my post run nutrition for the morning.
2-Foster Farms Corn Dogs
1 serving sweet potatoes
water/leftover gatorade from my fuel belt

Now, I'm going to follow this up with a pizza from Costco or Papa Murphy's because I don't want to cook.

Netflix-You Made My Day

The weather has moved from Fall to Winter here in the Northern Utah area. On Saturday, the valley areas got 1-3" of snow, while the mountains got up to 24" in some areas. The wind on the other hand was nasty and mean. I however, have not resigned myself yet to break out my cold weather gear. Yes, I'm in denial. However, I am transitioning into putting in more time on the treadmill on those "not so nice" winter days.

Today, I put in seven miles on the treadmill. Normally by seven miles I start thinking about creative ways to get the little dots to go around faster and faster. I then imagine how fast I need to make the treadmill go before it throws me off or if I time it just right if I could fling myself off and take out the treadmill runner behind me. Today, was a magical moment for me. The local rec center added public wi-fi to the facility. No longer am I forced to choose between the ipod or the three different programs on the tv monitors. I can have NETFLIX.

Today's run was one of my more pleasant treadmill workouts. The only thing I have to remember is to make sure that I don't stop to watch whatever is on more closely or for sure I will be launching myself into the treadmill behind me.

Got Toenails?

How far will a runner go for an additional medal? Here are some brief statistics in my case.

930 miles
$200 gas
47 total hours in the car
23 total miles running
90 degree temperatures
1 toenail that is officially 'questionable' terminal
infinite number of 'honey-dos' to make up for the time gone

2 finisher medals

The Las Vegas Ragnar Relay was the past weekend. In June, I put together a team of 12 runners to take on this event. One of the most motivating factors was the possibility of receiving an additional medal. Ragnar offers a second medal for anyone who runs the Wasatch Back Ragnar Relay and the Las Vegas Ragnar Relay in the same year. Leading up to the race was a long and sometimes frustrating experience.

I ran this race last year, but missed out on the second medal because I didn't complete the Wasatch Back Relay that year also. I wasn't about to let that second medal slip away this year.

The race itself was uneventful other than the 90 degree weather during my day runs, the lack of sleep at night and the running took everything I had, but it was a good way to round out the running season.

This was also my third relay for the year. I'm relay'd out. I plan on holding off on any more relays until something fantastic comes along.

Van 2: L to R Melanie, Terece, Cami, Me, Chad, Jeff

By running both the Wasatch Back (middle)
and the Las Vegas (right), I received the
Saints and Sinners medal (left)

Real Men Wear Pink?

She's rocking the outfit much better than me

In an effort to get ready for pacing the Pink Series Half Marathon on Saturday, I spent some time feeling the essence of the event. In a race with 800+ women and only 10 men, it took some work. I had to ask myself a couple of the following questions:

• Do I look fat in these tights?
• Would it look better to go with the black shorts with silver trim or the black shorts with the white trim?
• Should I wear my hair up or down?
• Hat or no hat?

After a couple of these questions, I began to break out in a cold sweat and started feeling slightly nauseous.

The weather went from a projected 60-70 degrees for the day (2 weeks before) to a chilly projected high for the day to be 39 degrees (29 at start time). I had to do some digging around to get out my cold weather gear in preparation for the race.

The race officials gave us a table at the race expo, put us up for the night in a hotel and fed us dinner in addition to getting all the gear the racers did. 

Race morning was cold and wet alternating between rain and snow. I changed places with one of the other pacers so that instead of pacing the 2:20 group, I moved up to 2:00 pace group.  This was much closer to what I have paced in the past so I didn't have to focus on slowing down as much. We spent as much time on the bus or in some covered shelter areas as possible before the race began.

I started with a group of people who said they would be sticking with me. In the end, there were about 6-8 that finished close to our group. The course consisted of several small rolling hills with a couple inclines. I banked about a minute and half at the beginning to have as a cushion if the course ended a little long. I stopped about 200 yards from the finish to cheer on and push forward some of those who were behind me. I finished in 1:59:29.

I expected the charm to be more inventive

Instead of giving out medals, they gave out a charm. They had four well-dress executives giving the charm. When I walked up to one and asked him for the charm, he gave me a strange look. When I held out my hand, he breathed a sigh of relief and handed it to me. I thought the charm would be nicer and represent the race better. Instead it was a small rectangle with the words "Park City '11" on it. I did some looking around and it costs about $.50 in bulk. It was rather disappointing. The race bag did contain a set of Skull Candy earbuds which was a great boon.

All in all, the race was fun. I enjoyed working with the ladies to accomplish their goals and also to be one of the lucky few men who can say that they have run the Pink Series Half Marathon.

Where No Man Has Gone Before....

In all my wildest fantasies about winning the Boston Marathon dreams, I never expected to be part of an elite group of runners. I didn't know that my running prowess would be so noticed that I would be chosen to experience something that very few–if any–other man has experienced. In fact, if I were a single man, this would be a dream come true.

I will be running in the Pink Half Marathon on Saturday.

How did I get so fortunate to run this event? Is it because I have become so well known in my running abilities? Is it because I'm "In the know" with the event organizers?

It's even better. I get to run the race as a pacer for the 2:20 group.