It's official, we have kicked off the fall Team In Training season! And I have created a new blog to document it: longdistancelaura.blogspot.com. Be sure to visit often, and thanks for supporting me!
Community Captain for the Fall Diablo Valley Team
22 JunI had so much fun training for the San Diego marathon that I've decided to train for another race through Team In Training! Notice I said race and not marathon…I plan to run the innagural San Antonio Rock and Roll HALF-marathon in November; 13.1 miles should be much more manageable than 26.2!
In addition to joining the Fall Diablo Valley team as a runner, I will also be serving as a Community Captain. Basically, I'll be the team storyteller, help build team spirit and camaraderie, and increase awareness about The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society.
You can already imagine what that means…another blog! Stay tuned for the new URL, which I'll probably set up in late July. Training for the fall season starts on August 3. In the meantime, I'll be volunteering at various community races, helping staff the TNT information booth. I was at Candlestick Park this morning to help out at the Stadium to Stadium 10k, which started at AT&T Park. It was unseasonably warm for San Francisco. I was sweating in the shade — woe to the runners in the sun!
You can do it, too!
Ever had even the most fleeting thought that you might like to train for an endurance event? If a marathon seems too much to bite off, you could do something much less intense, like a half-marathon! Think running's too hard? Try walking! Team In Training has all kinds of endurance events you can participate in, including Century Rides (bicycling) and triathlons (of varying distances); there's even a hiking program called Hike For Discovery.
Teams around the country are forming for the fall season; very likely there's an information meeting at a location near you. I'd encourage you to go, just to see if there's an event that sounds right for you. Find out more at the Team In Training website. Give it a shot!
A few more race-day photos
13 Jun
“A first marathon is like a first love. You might bumble through it, but you never forget. Nothing you do later will ever be quite as memorable as your initiation, even if its memories are painful.” –Joe Henderson, Marathon Training
Tonya, Becca, Sharon, Kirsten, and I had a celebratory dinner together last night. It was nice to get together somewhere other than a trail or park! We relived race day and lamented our inability to run while our legs rest and recover. Despite everything we went through, we're all making plans for what's next, so stay tuned! There will be more races on the horizon (just not full marathons).
BTW, our team (Team Strength) collectively raised over $250,000!
Here are yet a few more photos from race day. I still get emotional looking at them.
More race-day photos!
6 JunThe official race photos are up online! I'll be ordering some for sure, but here are snapshots. Enjoy!
Oh, BTW, I decided to go to the gym this morning because, after three days of inactivity, I was getting restless! So I did the elliptical trainer for 30 minutes at a very low intensity. However, my knee/IT band clearly told me it is not healed! Such a bummer. I then bouldered (rock climbed on 15-foot walls), which didn't adversely affect my legs, but it did quickly show me how weak my arms have gotten! Guess I'll be doing more climbing while my legs recover.
And now, on with the show:
Feeling much better today
4 JunMy massage today was WONDERFUL! Mary at BodyTech is the best! If you ever need a sports massage, I highly recommend her. BTW, she thinks my left hip is out of alignment, which helps explain the pain in my IT band. (She also thinks my left leg is slightly longer than my right. Geez, Louise!) Since I want to keep running (not yet, I know!), I think a visit to the chiropractor is in order.
Meanwhile, here are some more photos from race day. I'll be posting more in the days and weeks to come, so keep checking back! I'll also post other tidbits of detail, including this story, from the day before the race:
Chris and I changed hotels, from the Bay Club on Shelter Island (which we loved), to the Crowne Plaza, which was one of the team hotels. Heeding Coach Gary’s advice at the send-off party back in Walnut Creek to bring anything and everything I might need to replicate my training routine, I had packed coffee grounds and stevia (a plant-based sweetener I prefer to Splenda) and had bought almond milk at Trader Joe’s upon arrival in San Diego – all so I could make coffee the way I like it.
I figured the hotel would have a coffee maker I could brew my own coffee in. Well, not exactly. They had this newfangled “pod” system that brewed by the cup. I’m sure it would’ve worked fine if I wanted the prepackaged pod coffee. But I didn’t! I wanted my coffee! I called Mom in a panic, telling her she was going to have to go to Target or some other store to buy me a “real” coffee maker. There was no way I was going to get up at 3:15am without my coffee! I had even brought my stainless steel Nissan thermos (it’s awesome – keeps liquid hot for up to eight hours) to transport a second cup of coffee to enjoy pre-race. (I knew I could check the thermos in my gear bag.)
Fortunately, Mom and Dad stayed at a hotel that had a “real deal” coffee maker, including a reusable (gold) filter. Hooray! Mom zipped it up in a backpack and surreptitiously delivered it to me. I made sure to use it before she left; it passed the test! Phew – crisis averted. Sounds funny now, but it was not a laughing matter at the time! Just ask Chris – he’ll attest to me being a basket case.
Home from San Diego
3 Jun
I was like the walking wounded all day today – every time I sat down for any period of time, I had a really hard time getting back up. I literally had to swing my left leg out, grimace as I straightened it, and then push myself into a standing position. I would then limp for a few minutes before working the pain out in my IT band. Being injured is brutal! My hats off to all of my teammates who ran through injuries during our training season. I have no idea how they stuck with it.
I looked at the course map again today and realized that my leg started hurting closer to the five-mile mark, which means I ran injured for 20+ miles! That is insane. But I was determined to do it, and I’m glad I was able to.
My self-diagnosis is Iliotibial Band Syndrome, which is basically excessive friction between my IT band and my knee bone. (The IT band is thick tissue on the outer thigh that runs from the pelvis down to just under the knee; it’s a critical component for stabilizing the knee while running). The net result is sharp pain! In all likelihood it developed because of the prolonged road camber along the race course (the sloped/banked surfaces). Just picture curved freeway onramps and off-ramps (which we ran on!) that slope from right to left (or vice versa). You can imagine how the unevenness screws with your body’s mechanics when all you’re doing is pounding the pavement mile after mile!
Anyway, enough of my injury already! Here are a few highlights from race day:
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Sea of purple: The sheer number of TNT runners dotting the course was amazing (at least 4,000+, but I don’t have a real count). Everyone had their shirts decorated, and some made us cry even before the starting gun sounded – like the gentleman’s from Bakersfield, who lost his young son to leukemia and had a short story on his jersey in his son’s memory.
- Incredible support: TNT is an extraordinary organization, and its support via coaches and team managers during the race was phenomenal. You couldn’t hardly go 100 yards without seeing at least one coach and, even though it wasn’t your coach from your chapter, you knew you could flag him/her down if you needed anything. Plus, the coaches cheered for you! It was like one huge family with lots of extended relatives.
- Giselle the pig: By now you know one of our mottos, “Go out fast, die like a pig”; hence, the pigs on the front of our singlets. As we were running by the San Diego Zoo between miles two and three, I started to get a bit ahead of our desired pace, so Sharon reigned me in by yelling, “Pig! You’re like a Giselle! I mean…a gazelle. Get back in your pen!” I decided then and there that my pig’s name is Giselle.
- Pretzels to go: About halfway up Highway 163, near mile nine, I suddenly got really hungry and needed pretzels! So I called Chris, who was waiting for me with Mom and Dad near the 12-mile mark, and asked him to run across the course to the Arco station to buy me some. I so appreciated the salty goodness once I got to him, even though I was in tears at the time.
- Peeing on the freeway: Not long after placing the call for pretzels to go, we stopped to visit the port-o-potties, which were grouped together just off the freeway where we were running. Ginny was enamored with the idea of doing things on the freeway for the first time (“We’re running on the freeway!” “We’re eating gummy bears on the freeway!”), and peeing on the freeway was no exception. Suffice it to say, it was a first for all of us!
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Sombreros: Sharon’s husband, Brian, and Tonya’s boyfriend, also Brian (who’s training for an Ironman Triathlon), wore green shirts and donned sombreros that they decorated with fantastic green and purple trim, among other craft items, and rode their bikes to different parts of the course to cheer us on and take pictures. Thanks, guys!
- Mile 21 phone call: I made the mistake of calling Chris just after the 21-mile mark. He had left really loving voicemails throughout the race for me that I listened to along the course. I desperately needed a pick-me-up by the time I hit 21 miles, so I figured a call to him would do the trick. Bad idea! He was already at the finish line waiting in the stands, and pretty much the only thing I could hear was the cheering and excitement for the runners at the end. I still had just over five miles to go and could hardly walk by that point, let alone run for more than a few minutes at a time (if you could call it running). So hearing all that excitement, which I knew I wouldn’t be able to revel in for at least another hour, was like having a knife shoved into my IT band.
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Finish line victory: The four of us girls had separated at various points during the race but we managed to meet up at mile 25. By then we were only missing Ginny, and she appeared out of nowhere; it was fabulous! We stuck together from there to the end, strategizing about how to cross the finish line. We ended up holding hands and raising them in the air. We tried to smile, but I think we were crying, too. I honestly don’t recall; I guess we’ll look to the photo finish to find out.
I’ll add photos as I get them from different people/sources. And I’ll add additional thoughts as I have time this week. Thanks again for all your support! I got a few letters in the mail upon returning today and loved them. So thank you, truly.
I did the damn thing!
2 JunI didn't do well, and it was by far the worst run I've had out of all my training (100 times worse than the Antioch run), but I did it! I finished on my own two feet, and now I can say that I've completed a marathon. I have the medal and pin to prove it, not to mention a couple of beautiful leis.
The 26.2 miles amounted to one of the most emotional experiences I've ever been through. I was in pain from mile 7 on (left IT band, just below the knee), and it took sheer determination to stick with it. Even walking hurt; I'm talking phenomenal pain.
I honestly couldn't have done it without Sharon, Tonya, and Ginny. The four of us stuck together through most of the race and crossed the finish line hand in hand. I also couldn't have done it without our coaches. Tim, Jeremy, and Judy were such great motivators, picking us up from the depths of despair. Literally every time we saw them we started bawling — at least, I did. We were like water faucets with no off position. And, of course, I couldn't have done it without the support of Chris and Mom and Dad, who endured hours of sitting in the sun and shuttling themselves on various trolleys to see me at the 11.5-mile mark and the finish line. Your yellow sign was awesome.
THANK YOU TO ALL OF YOU!
More tomorrow or later this week. Right now all I can think about doing is getting horizontal and staying that way for a long, long time.
Ready or not…the race is on!
1 Jun
It's race eve, and I just got back from the team pasta party; let me paint a picture of it for you. Imagine a sidewalk leading into a convention center lined shoulder to shoulder a couple of rows deep with coaches, mentors, and team captains, all cheering at the top of their lungs, clanging cow bells, and cloaked in green and purple. That's how we were greeted as we entered the dinner. It was awesome! I felt like I was walking the red carpet.
The convention center itself was packed with thousands of TNT participants and supporters (friends and family), plus staff and all those coaches, captains and mentors. We carbo loaded, heard several inspirational speeches (including John "the Penguin" Bingham, who's run 40+ marathons!), and received last-minute words of wisdom, including the fact that we will act like two-year-olds in the morning and that around mile 20 we will cease to be able to reason or even think logically on any level. I believe it!
I fully expect not to sleep well tonight due to the excitement and anticipation of tomorrow's race. Nevertheless, I'm going to tuck myself under the covers to finish watching "Miracle." It's such a feel good movie, how can it not inspire me?
GO TEAM!!!!!!
San Diego is beautiful!
30 May
The weather could not be any better — sunny, clear skies with a light breeze. And it's supposed to be like this for race day. Yahoo! Chris and I are staying on Shelter Island, a few miles southwest of the airport and naval base. We have a great view of the marina from our second floor hotel room, and out front there's a beautiful vista of the downtown skyline, just across the water. Fabulous.
We went to the expo this afternoon. I now have my official bib (race number) and shoe chip, plus a goodie bag chock full of "treasures." It's sort of like Halloween when you just get as much loot as possible, then sift through it once you get home. I haven't sifted yet. I'm going to go get a pedicure, then come back, sift, and r-e-l-a-x.
Chris & I are in San Diego!
30 May
We flew in this afternoon. I'm soooooo excited! (Plus, vacation rocks!) I'm going to hit the expo tomorrow afternoon to pick up my bib (number) and race chip, as well as other freebies from sponsors. Should be fun!
My First Marathon 