Lots of Sweat and Lots of Miles

In January of 2007 I ran my first 15K, the Frostbite 15K here in Richmond. To be honest the only reason I did the race was because Mario was doing it. Mario and I had been playing soccer together for quite some time and he was going to do the Frostbite so I thought I might as well do it also.

Mario ended up not being able to do the race at the last minute. The race was fun and I did well finishing in 1:15. After doing the Frostbite, I decided to do a half marathon. In the spring of 2007 I ran the Shamrock Half Marathon (13.1 miles) in Virginia Beach. I also did well, finishing in just over 1:47.

While running the Shamrock I really started to hurt around mile 9. I remember thinking that there was no way I could run any distances over a half marathon. My quads and IT band were throbbing and burning. One of the things that kept me going was the other runners. If they could do it, I could do it. Also while running at the beginning of the race there was this pacer who was pacing a bunch of younger runners. He was one of those know- it- all guys. He was poo-pooing the Garmin Forerunner training watch which tracks your speed, distance, and pace via GPS. I use the Garmin Forerunner and found it quite useful. This guy was going on about how you can't trust it. I had done some experimenting when I got my Garmin. I compared Google Pedometer, my car odometer, and my Garmin and found that I came up with the same results thereby validating the accuracy of my Garmin. This guy was blah-blah blahing so much that I sped away to get away from him and his group. They did eventually pass me around mile 11 but he did motivate me to run fast for quite a while.

Sometimes during a race I find that mental games can help keep me going when I am tired or hurting. I will spot someone off in the distance in front of me going slightly faster than me or at about the same speed. I use the person as a motivator, dragging me along. Or sometimes I will see somebody with terrible form and think to myself that I can't possibly let them beat me.

For my first ever Half Marathon, I did quite well. I had big kick at the end. Once I saw the finish line and realized I that once I crossed, I could stop and my legs would stop burning, I really stepped it up. I sprinted across the finish line and then walked through the chute collecting my medal and post race water, sports drink, and munchies.

After the Shamrock Half, I did the Monument Ave 10K a few weeks later. My wife also ran the race this year as well as her brother Dave and son Chad. Chad was a high school cross country athlete and would be the fastest in our group. I bettered my time this year. In 2007, I ran the race in 46:05 which was an improvement from last year. Chad and I started in different waves but had we run in the same wave, I would have seen him cross the finish line. He beat me by 15 seconds. It was fun to race with family.

After the Monument Ave 10K, I did not do any races for a while. I went through the summer of 2007 playing summer soccer and in June of that summer, my wife and I did a120 mile backpacking trip on the Appalachian trail. Mario dropped us off one Saturday morning on the north side of the Shenandoah National Park here in Virginia. We backpacked and tented out for the next 7 nights. On the 8th day, we pulled in to Rockfish Gap at noon where Mario picked us up for the drive back to Richmond.

The backpacking trip was amazing. It was a challenge and something that neither my wife nor I had done before. We had done some preparation but no more than a long weekend in the woods before this trip. We saw bears every day, lots of deer, and tons of rabbits on this one part of the trail. My wife had terrible blisters on her feet but still kept chugging along every day. Her feet were a mess but she did not complain. She just kept going. I admire her for her fortitude. The trip was her idea and I am glad she suggested it. She had been inspired by a movie we saw at the Banff Mountain Film Festival. I could probably devote several blog entries to our trip but I am not going to go into detail about the trip right now.

After the backpacking trip, my wife and I went to the beach to visit with her family. At the beach I went for a run. I was going to make it a short run but ended up with about a 6 mile run. I was surprised how good I felt on this run. This run was the run that made me decide to sign up for a full marathon. When I got back to Richmond, I signed up for the Richmond Marathon which was in the fall.

I downloaded a training plan from the Internet which mostly entailed lots of running. I got up at 5AM every morning to put in my mileage before work each day. The summers in Richmond can be very hot and humid so knocking out the runs in the morning was the best way to beat the heat. Plus I was still in the midst of summer soccer which entailed 2 games a week after work. I was still running relatively low mileage during the week so playing some summer soccer on top of the weekly runs was not too big a deal.

About half way through my training for the Richmond Marathon, I did the Rock N Roll Half Marathon in Virginia Beach. The Rock N Roll events are very well organized. I stayed with my wife's parents down in VA Beach. Unfortunately, the neighbors across the street had a loud party the night before and I only ended up with about 3 hours of sleep and this affected my performance. I still did fairly well but my legs were so very sore throughout the whole race. I ended up with a time of 1:54:49 which was several minutes slower than my first half earlier that year.

It took me a couple of days to recover but then I got back to my training schedule. I was putting in some serious mileage. I had Saturday long runs of 17, 18, and 20 miles. I had run more this year than ever before I think. Looking back, I probably should have included more strength training, hill and speed work. But I was a novice and I was building up some serious endurance.

I completed one more half marathon before the Richmond full Marathon. I ran the Maymont Half Marathon. Part of this course runs on some gravel roads and a little bit of trails. Race day was cool and I was determined to just take it easy and use the race as a training run. I finished in 1:53:18. Interestingly enough, I felt super great after this race. Even though I ran it slightly faster than the Rock N Roll, I was not hurting at all. The temperature was much lower and I had a good night sleep the night before.

In November of 2007 I ran my first full Marathon. It was a slightly drizzly day and not too hot which made for good running. I probably started out too fast. Most first timers make this mistake. The crowds and the bands really motivated me and made me push the pace. I still felt pretty good going across the Lee Bridge which is about mile 16 of the 26.2 mile race. But then around mile 18 or 19, I hit the proverbial wall. My legs were shouting at me to stop. I started to do some walking and stretching. I would walk for minute and then run for a few minutes. I kept this up until near the end where I summoned all my strength and ran that last mile. My face must have told the story of how I was feeling because when my wife saw me, I could see in her face that she could tell that I was hurting. I ended up with a time of 4:04:00. I had wanted to beat 4 hours and was so close. So close yet so far.

In my next installment I will describe what I felt like after the race and how I recovered.