I Can't Afford the Actual Race Virtual Marathon Report

Thanks to barefoot crazy person Neil Z for organizing. That dude ran a LOOOONG way in total barefootedness. Impressive!

So, I split this run over the two week period provided, 4/17-5/1. Did you know 5/1 is International Barefoot Running Day? I sure didn't!

Anyway, my runs were training runs, then the PCRF Half on May 1.

4/21 - 5 mi, 54 min
4/23 - 6.2mi (Jelly Bean 10K!), 1:10:24
4/26 - 4mi, 41:38
5/1 - 13.25 (PCRF Half), official chip time 2:32:53

Total: 28.45mi (because I'm an overachiever), 5:18:55.

Three Things Thursday

1. The Ankle came back after the PCRF Half (recap HERE), and with some attitude. It seems to be settling down a little now, and I'm hoping to get some hiking in this weekend... and start training for Corona del Mar next week.

2. Gabby starts this "Delayed Intensification" round of chemo today. It's super, duper intense looking. I dislike that. We've been pretty lucky so far, that she hasn't had any major effects from anything, so fingers crossed that this continues.

3. #2's birthday is next week. On her wish list? Sugar, graphing paper, a kimono, a mini-fridge. Thanks, #2. That's super helpful.

Wordless Wednesday

PCRF Half Marathon - Recap

Bleh.

This is going to be super long, grab a coffee. Or tea. Or water. And probably a snack.

I trained for this race with Pediatric Cancer Research Foundation's VIP program. It's similar to the TNT program we're all familiar with - you fundraise, they coach and motivate you through the training and race day.

I'd had this race on my radar for awhile - mainly because registration was reasonable, and it was literally down the street from my house. As in, we ran directly across the street from where I live.

I found out about the VIP program from SkinnyRunner, and jumped on it. We were just getting out of the hospital, and Gabby's diagnosis was still very new, and I felt like I needed to take some type of ACTION. Everything else was just happening around me, this I could grab on to and run with.

Anyway, I followed my training to the letter. I listened to my body, and moved around training days or rest days as needed. I ate consciously. I hydrated. I did my speed work.

I was ready. I felt great heading in. Carb loading done right...

I earned a free hotel night across from the start/finish line, and planned to stay there alone the night before. We did a test run in San Diego, the weekend before, and it was mass freaking chaos, so the kidlets got to stay home this time.

I bailed on the VIP pasta dinner pretty early to get my stuff together and hopefully get to bed at a freakishly reasonable time.

Note the Luna bar displayed prominently. Foreshadowing.

It kind of worked. In bed at 8:30. Watched the royal wedding (32 channels, 2 showing the wedding? Really?), until it put me to sleep around 9:30. Tossed and turned all night. Woke up a billion times because apparently I can't sleep when it's.... quiet. Or something.

Got up bright and early, got everything together, had cofefe, got the hair up in a reasonable way so that it wasn't touching me. Grabbed my Luna bar (breakfast!), and headed out... Got to the elevator and realized I forgot chapstick. Ran back... and this is where things began to fall apart.

I left my Luna bar in the room, and didn't realize it until we were at the start line.

Knowing I couldn't just run empty, I downed a Pineapple GU.

I saw Sarah Soon-To-Be, and wished her luck... then got this tweet from her later:

(How'd you do?? I totally didn't even register that was you at the start until you'd walked away -sorry I was so short!)

Heh.

I lined up where to 2:20 pacer was mingling about...

But then, when I looked over 5 minutes later, he was MIA.

He was waaaaaay back there. Waaaaaaay past the 2:00 pacer that was... also behind me.

(Also, note the BLAZING WHITE HOT SUN. Already. It's 6:50am.)

Hm.

There was no scooting back there, now, so I just kept far over to the side, and ran a comfortable pace.

I saw my cousin just before mile 1... She was one of the awesome volunteers that got up super early to help direct runners :D

She's on the left - she even conned a friend into waking up super early with her :D.

I was just cruising along. I felt great. It was definitely warm, so I was expecting to be HOT by the back half, but so far, so good.

I had some chafing I started to feel around mile 2... in an outfit I tested! WTF, clothes?! That's not cute.

Miles 1-3
9:47
10:07
10:35

I saw The H at just past mile 3 (remember, how we live directly across the street from the course...). I stopped to chat with him for a second, and told him, then, I needed to slow myself down. I felt GREAT, but I was going too fast. I had taped some paces to the back of my bib (2:20, 2:25, 2:30), and was ahead of the game, significantly. He said the 2:00 pacer had JUST passed us. Later, he said he was really surprised to see me so early.

Oops.

Anyway. Like I said, I was still feeling great. As evidenced by my stupid happy grin while running uphill.

Also of note? How red my face is. It was probably in the 70's by this time, and only 7:30. Luckily, the wind hadn't started yet (foreshadowing!).


A few miles later, I'll kind of regret not turning left here...

Miles 4-5
10:30
11:15

And then it sucked.

Around mile 6, we hit a series of overpasses (okay, so, like, 2, but they seemed ginormous). The 2:10 pacer passed me around mile 6.5, and that was fine. I certainly had no business being in front of them anyway.

(Okay, so I took that while driving yesterday, but it's one of three that we ran over).

Mile 6-8
11:50 (GU and water stop)
10:48
12:18

Ouch.
Around mile 8 we turned into a trail through Mason Regional Park. It was hot. The air was dry and just... like... sitting. We were running INTO the sun, and the wind. The wind started. I considered puking, a lot. The 2:20 pacer passed me some where around here. We leapfrogged for a mile or so, but he pulled ahead on an uphill, and I just couldn't hang. I. Was. Done.

9-13
11:56
12:27
12:45
12:55
13:52

Yep. There were a handful of big-ish hills (overpasses), the underpasses I'd been training on, which never phased me before this, but seemed totally insurmountable today.

There was one, right at mile 11... there's a fork in the road - go left, under a road (and then UP the other side), on the race course, or... to the right, no incline, right out to the street and quit. It. Was. So. Close.

Obviously I walked a good chunk of mile 12. It was uphill, nothing significant, but steady, and... I just had nothing. I watched the 2:30 pacer breeze past me around 12.5.

The VIP Coach (Coach D) met me with about .25 left, and ran me in. She's the nicest chick ever, but in all honesty? I wanted to backhand her. There was a lot of yapping about how great I looked (lies), how strong I looked (also lies), how great I was doing (liiiiies). I just didn't want to hear it, I certainly didn't feel like I could pace with her in, and I most definitely didn't feel like I was doing anything particularly well right then.

She ran me in, and I didn't even look at my time. Not a single glance. I grabbed a water, and an apple, found the VIP tent, and sat my ass down. There was food, and beer, and margaritas, and I seriously considered puking, some more, at the thought of any of that.

Chip time - 2:32:53. Not the 2:20 I wanted. Not the 2:25 I thought was realistic. Not even the 2:30 I thought might be not challenging enough.

I definitely left EVERYTHING out there. Largely, because I made mistakes - I ran too fast, too early, I forgot my breakfast, I didn't know the course - I'd heard it was flat and fast, in previous years, but apparently the course changed this year. The elevation profile posted by OUaL from her Garmin...

There were also things just working against me - the heat, the WIND. We were running into a 15-20mph headwind for pretty much the entire second half of the race, after the turnaround at mile 8. I had no clue the second half was uphill.

But, considering all of these factors, I'm kind of okay with it. I'm disappointed that I failed to execute the plan I had. I'm pretty happy with my time considering how spectacularly I bombed. I walked probably 1/2 of miles 8-13.1, and still finished just 2 minutes off of my C-goal. Something to keep in mind, I guess.

I spent a significant amount of time Sunday (mainly from miles 10-13.1, and for 12 hours after) wondering why I would do this, why I would PAY to do this, and what was I freaking thinking signing up for more of these.

I'm over that. I spent an hour last night putting down my training plan through the Disneyland half.

I was kind of worried that I'd just be a miserable mess, running 13 miles without Disney characters to keep me entertained. But I wasn't, I was a miserable mess for 5 miles because I failed to execute my plan. The running, the course, the lack of Disney, all of that was fine. Again, I ran without music (I normally do when I'm running outside), and had no issues. I carried my handheld, and considered losing it a few times, but I'm pretty sure that's only because I was pissed off at everything at that point. I stopped to re-do my hair, once. Who does that in a race!?

The race itself was well organized - start and finish lines were easy to navigate, water stations were well stocked - mile 11 offered to dump water on us, it was that hot :D. The course was pretty dull, not really any course support, but that didn't really bug me. Just an observation. If screaming people are your thing, this probably isn't the race for you. If you don't mind running through random neighborhoods and cute parks, this might be a good choice. There was one complaint about the course - around mile 10.5, we transitioned from a neighborhood onto a bike trail, and were funnelled through a gate - like, a 3 foot wide gate. Single file style. Weird.

Packet pick up was easy, and the finish line expo was fun - especially if you have kids. Face painting, petting zoo, giant bouncy things. Gabby was able to go, and had a blast. THAT was really what turned my morning around - I was incredibly pissy after my performance, but seeing her, there, surrounded by people who just did amazing things to support cancer research for children.... Indescribable.

This didn't hurt, either.

So, what's next?

I've got Corona del Mar 5K June 5th, and City of Cypress 10K in July. I plan to spend the next 2 months focusing on speed, with easy long runs on the weekends. I don't intend to PR at Disneyland. I know next time I *race* a half, I'll kill it. I'll be patient :D

April Recap

April was good to me. I felt good the whole month, my runs got better, faster. I hit 66 of a scheduled 66.5 miles (I skipped my last run pre-half last week, due to crappy scheduling on my part). I even went to yoga twice, and did some at home. Which was great, and makes me wonder why I don't do it more often.

I started speed work about 3 weeks ago, and have seen my paces drop a TON. I mean... 11:45-11:30, to comfortably maintaining 10:45-10:35.

Amazing what you can pull off when you train for it ;).

Suck Less Challenge: I sucked at it. I skipped 1 full week, because... for no reason, other than I was just TIRED. It's back on for May, though.

I'll cover the PCRF half in a separate post. I will say, that I PR'ed significantly (hard not to when there aren't costumed characters every mile...), I did ALL of my training right and felt really strong going in, and completely failed on executing. Bombed.

What's on tap for May?

Not sure. It's the first month since October that I've not had a training plan to work off of. I start training at the end of the month for Disneyland in September - gives me a 16 week schedule to work on. I'm putting this one together on my own, so we'll see how that goes. I've got a 5K at the beginning of June, my Corona del Mar vindication. My time last year was 37:57. I hit 35:XX in Dana Point after that... and pulled out a 32:xx yesterday during the half. So I'll probably fill in May with some shorter runs, focusing on speed work and hills.

All in all, it was a good month. I'm bummed about how things went for me yesterday, but... meh. I did everything right heading in, so that really good to know.

“I may not have gone where I intended to go, but I think I have ended up where I intended to be.”

Gabby had a clinic visit yesterday. It was nothing special, nothing interesting. She had some blood drawn, and she likes to help the nurse transfer her blood into these little tubes. She knows the green and purple have to be shaken.

The nurse paused, and asked how old she is. "She's so mature for four!"

I don't want my 4 year old to be... mature.

We got our road map for the next phase of chemo, that she starts next week. It's called "Delayed Intensification", and they're not really joking. It's pretty intense. She'll lose her hair again, but we expected that. The Steroid makes another appearance. I was googling some of the drugs that are being introduced, and found this gem amongst the descriptions of side-effects:

Due to these side effects and its red color, it has earned the nickname "red
devil" or "red death."

Really?

That's really our BEST CHOICE FOR TREATING LEUKEMIA IN A FOUR YEAR OLD CHILD?

I've been freaking out a little (in case you hadn't noticed...) about the half this weekend. Can I stick the pace I'd like to, for 13 miles? Seems so tough.

Probably less tough than giving your child an IV loaded with "red death".

In the end, my goal time is irrelevant.

We raised, you, me, this blog, over $2000 for Pediatric Cancer Research Foundation.

The team I'm on raised over $45,000.

That all goes to find better treatments. Treatments better than this.

You can still donate through this weekend, LINK HERE.

But you can make a difference in so many other ways, too.

Volunteer for an event. Volunteer for office work, for a local foundation or charity. Volunteer at a local children's hospital.

Kids are resilient. They're stronger than we think. They take their treatments, and they often don't say a word. They don't complain. They don't let it phase them.

But they shouldn't have to be strong. They shouldn't have to be mature. They should be... kids.

Anyway.

Enough preachy preachy.

A bunch of people are running this weekend - I know Little Fruit Fly and (Just) Trying are running Eugene, and Skinny Runner (and maybe Bro?!). Rad Runner and Canadian in Exile are hitting the OC Marathon. Once Upon A (L)ime and I are doing PCRF Cinco De Mayo Half (not together, she's way fast).

I know I've forgotten a bunch, but good luck everyone!

Three Things Thursday, Random Style

1. After my Tuesday run, I feel like... maybe, maybe I can stick that 2:20 goal pace. Splits: 11:09, 11;23, 9:45, 10:22.

9:45???? I don't even know how that happened.

2. Just checked the browser history on my kids' computer. Someone, yesterday, was searching for "How to sabotage parents", and "How to ruin someones life". Um...

3. Royal wedding? Meh. But shuttle launch on Friday? Psyched. I'll be live streaming NASA TV.