Get Lucky Half Marathon Race Report!

It's been a while since I was able to sit down and write in here. Things have been busy. I've been travelling and grading way too many intro astronomy papers. Consequently this race report is a bit delayed.

But! I ran the Get Lucky Half Marathon on St. Patrick's Day in St. Paul. There were a few hiccups for me with this race for me. First, the cold I had acquired a week before the race was not going well. My resting heart rate was still much higher than it was un-sick. That's usually a sign to not run. Consequently, I took most of the week leading up to the half off from training and focused on getting better. It was no dice though. I did a brief two miler the before the race, and I could still barely run a solid 8 minute pace. But I figured I would just start off with an 8:30 pace group and see how I did. Instead of aiming for my 1:45 time, I had to decide that as long as I came in under 2 hours, I'd be happy.

And then came race morning. I actually slept well the night before. I got dressed. It was a warm day, so I stuck with the singlet for the day. I wore my Green Silence for the race. I hadn't done too many long runs in them, but enough to know that they were comfortable up to about a half. I checked my blood sugar prior to race start. I was around 200. A little higher than I like to start a race with, but I was afraid to give myself insulin to bring it down. I probably should have though.

Due to all the traffic, Rachel dropped me off at the race start and left to go park the car. Then, when I got to the race, I only had 15 minutes prior to the start and really had to go to the bathroom. And the bathroom line literally snaked throughout the entire race start. The lesson here was to leave for the real marathon even earlier than I would think necessary due to all the traffic. And so standing in line for the bathroom, I heard the race start. But we had Chip timing, and I said, "Well, the race for me will start when my Chip crosses the start," and I just stayed in line for the bathroom.

In reality, I started the race 6 minutes after the gun. Everyone else was already on the course. And so I spent the first 5-6 miles of the race weaving between groups of runners who were going slower than me. It at least kept my mind off of the race itself. And the good news was that I was holding down a solid 8 minute pace! The cold hadn't completely decimated me!

And the course went on. It was right along the Mississippi River, and was just a there-and-back course. At about mile 5 I got to see the race leader just blowing through the course running the opposite direction of me. The closest runner was a good two minutes behind him. It was nuts.

Then, I reached the turn-around point still feeling pretty good. At about mile 7, I began noticing that the course was mostly going uphill. Afterwards, my Garmin confirmed this. About mile 8, all that uphill began to affect me, and my pace began to fade closer to 8:30 miles.

Near, the end I was just gutting it out and trying to finish. The cold had definitely taken its toll on me, and it was now becoming apparent. But I finally crossed the line just off my 8 minute pace and just kind of stood there. Then, the guy to the direct right of me immediately vomited. He was kind enough to miss my feet.

I grabbed my medal, found Rachel, and took my shoes off. A few blisters. In the final, I did 1:48:30. Given the cold, I was okay with that.

It was a fun course. I learned a few lessons. First arrive earlier to the start. Second, I needed to find a pair of shoes not my Green Silence to do the full marathon in. I've recently thrown out my Asics Gel-Blur because of shin pain they were giving me. But I've grabbed in their stead the Brooks Pure Flow, which I've now done a 15 mile run in and felt pretty good. Third, make sure I have a ride home after the full. I will not want to move after the full. So, yeah.

Training's going better with the cold gone, and the half in my legs. The long runs are getting easier, and the pace runs are easier to complete now too. Training for the marathon is exhausting though. Definitely going to do some shorter distances once I'm done with it. After all, I need to make an improved appearance at the Amana Colonies trail run, right?

Training through Illness.

Today I was supposed to venture out on a 14 mile distance run. That didn't happen. Thursday evening I noticed the all too familiar tightening up of my throat that usually coincides with illness of some sort. Then, Friday I woke up with a congested nose and head. Yep. It's spring-ish. Time for that strange seasonal cold I seem to always get with spring's beginning.

Now, traditionally, I'm rather bullheaded when it comes to even admitting I may be sick. Just ask the lady-friend how often I've told her, "Oh, I'm not sick. It's just allergies," a week before she has the same symptoms as me. And so usually, I'll just keep riding my bike or running or whatever physical activity I'm into at the time of illness. And then it takes forever to get over the illness. Similarly I often end up in denial about injuries. One time I was involved in a nasty bike crash that resulted in a deep, deep cut just above my achilles. I could barely walk, ignored it, and rode 100+ miles in spite of it. Then, it got infected and I couldn't ride for a week.

But now that I'm older and have accepted my stubbornness with regards to illness. Probably not with injury. But as the illness is usually nothing more difficult than the common cold, it's easy to overcome with a little sensibility.

Now, whenever I notice a brief illness coming on, I stop riding my bike for my work commute. I postpone any training I'm doing and rework the schedule. Basically I try to minimize any stress on my body that may distract it from battling the illness.

The result is that I'm no longer digging myself into a deeper hole training, because that's all that happens when you're sick and training. The illness doesn't linger for a prolonged time either. I usually find within a day or two that I'm feeling well enough to start training again. And lastly, because I get over the illness so quickly, I can usually maintain my training schedule and only miss one training day at most and then pick up where I left off and fully attack the schedule rather than gutting it out sick with no benefits of that training block.It's mostly a win-win. And as of today, I'm not doing my 14 mile run, but I can already tell my symptoms are getting better and plan on heading out tomorrow. And even better? The weather will be nicer tomorrow too.

Transitioning to Vegetarianism

As a child, I was considered a very picky eater. I hated vegetables. I’d preferred to stay away from fruit. Mostly, I just wanted pizza and soda. Even during my teenage years after I’d been diagnosed as diabetic, I continued to mostly eat terrible foods. I’m really not certain how I got over it. One day I just started buying groceries and cooking for myself, and I began looking much more closely at everything that was going into my body.

This transition to caring about what I ate also coincided with completion of my bike ride across America. It is mostly true that you can ride your entire bicycle across the country all while eating mostly junk food. I didn’t quite do that. Mostly I ate a bunch of whole grains, peanut butter, jam, nuts, veggies when available, and a lot of pasta. Oh, and Clif Bars (yes. I can go on at length about qualities of each and every flavor). And the pasta was probably mostly a result of it being very cheap to make a lot of, as I was eating 5,000-7,000 calories a day. But I began eating less and less meat just because it’s a pain to obtain and cook when you’re beating it down the road 70-80 miles every day. But the point is I felt great without it. And so I when I finished the trip, I continued not eating much meat.

And then, one day, I was grocery shopping and decided I was going to stop eating meat. Granted, I considered the idea for a long time, but that was it. The important key here is the reason why it was so easy for me to quickly make this decision: I had already arranged a nutritious diet around eating very little meat. I did not just remove meat from whatever I would normally eat. I replaced my regular sources of meat with a lot of protein and iron sources that were not from meat. And iron and protein are mostly what meat provides to our bodies.

In practice this means a lot of beans, nuts, and leafy green vegetables (think spinach and broccoli). It’s not that difficult when you are making sure that you’re eating healthy. And most of us know what that means. We just don’t always do it. So, I’ll refrain from rambling on about that.

There is a caveat to add here. There is a difference between iron from meat (heme) and vegetarian (non-heme) sources. Non-heme iron is not as easily absorbed by the body as heme iron is. So, vegetarians often have to eat more iron than non-vegetarians. There are certain ways to help get around this. Consuming vitamin C with your iron helps your body absorb it better. Sometimes, you just have to take an iron supplement. Mostly you need to pay attention to signs of anemia and go to the doctor if you’re afraid you’re showing signs for anemia.

My point here is that transitioning to vegetarianism shouldn’t be made quickly. You should consider carefully why you’re doing it (something I’ve chosen not to go into here) and how you’re going to make sure you get the iron and protein you will no longer be getting from meat. Making the transition slowly helps a lot too. I was on my “meat seldomly” diet for over a year before making the leap to vegetarianism. But if you’re not careful, you may end up like many people I’ve known who tried to eat vegetarian and then ended up giving up on the diet (because they thought all they could eat were PB&J sandwiches) and/or became malnourished. I think it’s a great decision to eat vegetarian. Just make sure it’s an informed, healthy decision.