The Pre-race Festivities

We did it! Eitan and I ran 39.3 miles in San Diego this Sunday - 26.2 of those miles on Eitan's legs and 13.1 on mine. I'm overwhelmed with pride, hunger and muscle pain.

Saturday evening, the festivities began. We attended a pasta dinner with Team in Training where thousands of people crammed into a banquet hall for last minute carbs and inspiration. Eitan and I sat at a table with some of the women in our training group and their parents, we had a lovely time chatting, sharing our jitters and excitement. The pasta was mediocre, by the way, I was not satisfied but had been dealing with an upset stomach for several days so I likely wasn't going to eat it even if it knocked my socks off. The presentation was unbelievable. In addition to sharing some amazing statistics about the Society's work, a gentleman who was battling leukemia spoke to us about what Team in Training has done for him. I was expecting him to talk to us about the donations we collected and how they made a difference in his life - instead, he talked to us about his battle and how his training with TNT has changed his outlook on life and his disease. I thought his story was incredible and I want to share the details accurately, so I am pasting them in from the TNT website:

Honored Teammate - Gordie Lat

Gordie was diagnosed with Chronic Myelogenous Leukemia on June 9, 2005. After undergoing many rounds of chemotherapy, he decided he was tired of sitting around and sulking, and he was going to do something to help him beat the disease.

"I got a flyer in the mail and decided to go to an informational meeting about TNT to find out what it was all about. One of the speakers, Virginia Gardner, spoke of a drug named Gleevec (one that I was taking) and how a large amount of the research funding came from TNT."

Saturday evening, he was presented as a candidate for the "triple crown" an award given to TNT participants who complete a triathlon, century ride and marathon. I was completely blown away, as were the thousands of people in the hall who stood and applauded as Gordie announced he would be running the marathon with us the next day. We were beyond impressed and ridiculously inspired.

After Gordie spoke, Eitan and I ducked out and went back to the hotel. It was 8:30 already and we were knew we had to be in the hotel lobby by 4:00am the next day, so we were anxious to get to sleep. I put my book down at 9:30, woke up at 11:30, 2:00 and 2:30 just to be sure that we hadn't missed the alarm and wake up call that we had set for 3:30am. 3:30 came and we cheerfully jumped out of bed and threw our clothing on without any confusion of who's shoes, race jerseys and hats belong to whom (please read with heavy sarcasm and snarling upper lip). Honestly, we were quite prepared and even pinned our bibs to our jerseys the night before - I guess Eitan was having a laugh when he put on my sports bra. We were in the lobby by 4:02, checked in and on the bus by 10 after and sitting near the starting line by quarter to 5:00. Did I mention the race began at 6:30? The buses couldn't run after 5:45 because the roads shut down and TNT shuttles ran early to be sure we were all ready to go - so we hurried up to sit around and wait, but I didn't mind-we wouldn't have slept anyway.

A piece of advice I heard numerous times from our coaches and some season pros - once you arrive at the race, get in line for the port-o-potty. After you exit the port-o-potty, get in line again. I heeded this advice, not only because I'm a nervous peer but also because my stomach was not cooperating and I had gone to the bathroom a million times the day before so I assumed Sunday would not be different. Unfortunately, I was correct on that one - but more on my San Diego Rock n' Roll Marathon Port-O-Potty Tour later.

We stretched, sat around, stretched some more and then headed to our corrals. Yes, corrals like where the put cows. They give you corrals based on your predicted finish time. The further back you are, the slower you run. There were 23 corrals, the Kenyans were in #0, I was in #21.

6:30 rolled around and the started gun was shot. We think. It was hard to hear back where we were, a mile or so away from the start. Kudos to those who ran the full, I think we could call that an "ultra" marathon being that it was probably more like 28 miles after all is said and done. So, the gun went of and we started running - we ran for about 20 seconds and then realized there was no penetrating the wall of 17 thousand people ahead of us, so we stopped running. Then a minute later, we thought we would give it a try again. Running attempt #2 foiled as well. 15 minutes after the gun went off, we crossed the starting line and were on our way....

Everything Hurts!

I'm sorry I haven't updated for a while. Life has been insanely hectic and will continue to be rather hectic until May 19th. This will be a short entry, but I wanted everyone to know that I am still training even if I haven't updated my blog.

Today Eitan and I set out to run 16 miles together. We were at Camp Ramah for Passover and missed 2 Sunday practices. We had to make up a very long run on our own and it was ridiculous. The run out wasn't so bad at all. We ran from Shobi's daycare to Venice Beach. By the time we saw the water, I felt ready to sit down. We'd been running for 2 hours at that point. Then we turned around and started to head home. It was hot and I was sooo tired. I kept telling Eitan that I thought he should run ahead, get the car and drive back and get me! He said no and stuck with me. I run slower than he does and he was really sweet and stayed with me. Then my knee started to ache so much and I could feel blisters on my feet. After 3 1/2 hours of running, I my knee decided it wasn't interested in carrying my body any longer. We walked a few miles in for a grand total of 4 hours on our feet.

I decided today that I need to stick to the original plan of the half marathon. I really wanted to go the full 26.2, but I don't think my body is going to go for it... I'll keep you posted!

Deflated

I had a hard time today. Usually my blogs are so happy and hopeful, but today for the first time I thought to myself, "why am I doing this?" Our run was meant to be 13 miles, but at about mile 7 I felt my knee start to hurt again so I stopped at 8 miles.

I had spoken with the coaches and they didn't think I should run at all but aqua jog (I'd never heard of it either, but basically it is treading water with really high knees and moving in circles around the deep end of the pool - no impact). I really wanted to run, and I especially wanted to run 13 miles because it would have been a half marathon! I hadn't yet committed to the full, but I kind of thought it would be cool. Today I thought, I have tons of time ahead of me to get to the full, why kills yourself now - there is no shame in running a half? There is an amazing amount of peer pressure though, well intentioned I'm sure, but people on the team say "you are only running the half? Come on! You can do the full!" I'm still conflicted about it, the coaches seemed to think it was no big deal and we could work past it. It probably isn't a big deal, but I felt very deflated not to finish the run with my group. I also felt angry at my knee for not being on board with the running.

Most of all, I thought if I weighed 30 pounds less it probably wouldn't be so much pressure on my joints....

Good news though, I'm $95 away from my goal! If you've been waiting to donate, I think now is a good time! Don't worry, I'm completed the race no matter what.. walk, run, limp, or crawl.

Dead Squirrels and Crunchy Knees

I have a bag of frozen green beans on my knee. Traditionally, peas are used in my family for injuries but Shobi prefers peas to green beans, so we have more green beans around. My knee just started to click at around the 11 mile mark and by the time we were almost done with the run, I was limping. My coach assures me it is just a case of runner's knee that should get better with rest and ice (or frozen vegetables). I ran just shy of 12 miles today though, and feel pretty good about it!

Toward the end of our run (about 9 miles in) one of the girls ahead of me started screaming. I thought maybe it was because the water stop was in sight, I would have screamed too, but it was because she nearly stepped on a dead squirrel. It was kind of gross. I think stepping on dead squirrel might be as high or close to as high on the grossness scale as stepping on fish. I tried to warn some of the group 1 runners about the squirrel as we crossed paths (us on the way to the 9 mile water stop and them on the way to the 12 mile finish) but it sort of came out as a breathy "squirreldeadcareful." They looked at me puzzled and then probably ran so fast over poor Rocky that they didn't even notice.

Great fund raising news! I am under $200 away from my goal! Wouldn't it be tremendous if you were the one to help me complete the goal?!

Major Donor!

Yesterday I was handed a check for $250 from Aunt Debbie. She asked her boss, Rich*, if he would like to sponsor our run and boy did he! This is the biggest donation I have received so far, I hope to see more like it. There is still time to send in the big bucks, so click away!

This morning we "only" ran 8 miles. It was a taper week, so they say. The amazing thing about this morning was that I not only knew that I could run farther but I physically felt like I could continue running for at least a few more miles. I was asked how far I ran this morning and said, "only 8 miles." I said that because people knew that we had run 10 miles the week before, not because it felt like a short distance - though I did feel a little bit cool saying "only 8.."

I am slightly concerned about my toenails. Not only because I thoroughly enjoy getting a bi-weekly cheap-o pedicure, but also because I have heard horror stories about runners losing their toenails. I can't imagine anything worse than a toenail falling off - that isn't true, I can imagine many things that are worse - but seriously, how gross is that? They feel okay so far, a little sore but they don't wiggle when I touch them. I am envisioning my childhood when I felt loose teeth and played with them incessantly until they fell off, er out... teeth fall out, toenails fall off. I don't think I would play with loose toenails... in fact, I just got the willies thinking about it. I'll keep you updated on the wiggle status, so far so good.

*Many thanks to Rich at Terra Pacific for his super generous donation - www.terrapac.com for all of your commercial landscaping needs.

Double Digits!

I ran 10 miles today. I'll likely have to fill in the details later, but it was really an amazing experience. There was sand involved. Sand inside my shoes and inside my toe creases. As we were running I commented that I was making little sock pearls and only one of my running friends chuckled politely, I thought it was pretty clever. (An aside: I always think I am pretty clever, clearly.)

Nana and Poppi are in town and I need to replenish the burnt calories with them at lunch.

45 Minutes

I saw a woman coloring her hair purple in the bathroom at LA Fitness this evening. I was able to regroup and run my 45 minute "short run" anyway.