Epic Win!

Yay me!  I made it!  
326th out of 378!
326 211 Nan Shellabarger 57 F Silver Spring MD 38:53 38:30 12:24

How about that!  These are the official race results - my official time is 38:30, for an average pace of 12:24.

It was a crisp and cold morning - around 41 degrees when I left the house. I got up at 5 am, so that I'd have a chance to drink significant coffee before running. I got there really early, because I wasn't sure how it would go.  There were lots of people hanging around on the plaza, and I walked around anxiously, trying to keep warm.  

I huddled in my sweatshirt, but I knew I'd get hot as soon as I started. They had a "bag drop", however, so with about 15 minutes to go I shed the layer and wandered towards the starting line. 

There was a big crowd!  Nearly 400 people, I found out.  There were far too many people to all cross the starting line at the same time, but they have electronic timing with some kind of disposable transponder in the race number "bib". I didn't know much about protocol, but I figured out the fastest runners should start near the front - so the one to cross the finish line first would also end up being the ones with the fastest time. 

Loud music was playing, and they started the race exactly on time.

People jostled a bit in the first few yards, but we sorted ourselves out to different paces pretty quickly.  I never fell into pace to run alongside anyone, but I did keep overtaking the same people. I maintained a steady jog throughout, but there were a lot of people who ran past me, then walked for a while and I passed them, then they took up running again and left me behind.  The course was out-and-back, and I saw people coming back the other way before I got to the half way point.  The fastest time was about 17 minutes!

I had visions of emulating Sheryl Yvette who constantly snaps on the move, but I just took the one picture after we started.  I had my phone in my hand, using it as an ipod, but it was just too complicated to compose a shot while moving - especially not one of myself!  

The music definitely helped me keep going, especially on the brutal hill that made up the last 3/4 mile of the course.  The only time I fell into a walk was for thirty seconds or so on some of the steepest parts.  My heart rate stayed in the high 140's for most of the course, and only went up above 150 as I pushed to the end.

Here is more detail than anyone could want on my stats:  Earth Day 5K.

I really liked the adrenalin rush. I ran faster and harder than ever before. I was going faster than normal on the first part of the course (downhill) and knew I'd be slow on the up-hill no matter what, so I figured I should just get some distance behind me.  And then I did put on a pretty big push at the end, just because it seemed the thing to do. There were official cheerers, and guys handing out water bottles.

I came home afterwards and looked for more new races to sign up for!  I'm pretty sure if I hadn't been so public about signing up for this one I would have given up the whole running thing a while back.  Now I need more deadlines to keep going.  I am running another neighborhood 5K next week, and after that I'm not sure.  I'd like to keep going. There was a definite strut in my step afterwards, and I liked the feeling.

Running with Friends

My first ever 5K is tomorrow. I'm not at all ready. I've only run (without walking) the whole distance a couple of times. I had hoped to run tomorrow's course as a practise last weekend but when it was time, it was pouring rain, so I ran it on the treadmill instead, sans hills. I have never run in company before, and am not really sure what that part of the experience will be like.

Tomorrow's number looks like a lucky one!

Every bit of my running is consciously layered with my thoughts of my friends, however, so I'm never really running alone. I first got the notion to do this around Christmas time, but I was partially prompted by my friend KCF, who wrote of venturing onto the city streets with a trainer back when she first started blogging. Honestly, the notion had never occurred to me, at least not for years. And my iPod has some of the songs she recommended for the running playlist back then. My friend Liz wrote of her handy treadmill, and helped solidify my desire for one this year. I remain in awe of her pre-dawn swims, even in the dark and cold winters. My friend Z was the only fitness fanatic among my college friends - and besides the inspiration of her 22 year-old self dedicated to running and swimming, she gave me the tip to keep the treadmill at a slight incline always: "better on your knees".  And I have friends I've never met who run beside me as inspiration: Alice, a runner in high school, now with her boot camp, her bike rides, and now her training for a much longer run than me. And folks I admire and look to for inspiration: Jack Sh*t, Jenette Fulda, formerly known as the Pasta Queen, still running four years into an epic headache, and, chief among them, the empress of all  weight loss and fitness blogs: Sheryl Yvette. This is a woman who rides her bike to 5Ks, and who will be doing the NYC marathon soon.  "Run when you can, walk if you must, but never quit!".

I'm woefully undertrained for this event, but I know I can finish.  Frankly, I've been in such a funk for a few weeks that if I hadn't told y'all I was doing this I probably would have just quit.  But I'm going to do this, and I'll do another one next week (with less of a hill!) and I'm going to look for a run in the fall, to try to keep myself honest all summer.  I have some private goals for how I'd like to finish for this, but last year's last finisher took 64 minutes, and I know I can walk the whole thing faster than that! So my only public goal is not to be last.  Let's hope the slowpokes show up again this year.

Heartbeats

I took a couple of runs outside yesterday and today, as well as on Monday. Wednesday I ran on the treadmill. I'm upping my endurance, but the first race is just three weeks off, and there is no way I'm as trained as I'd like to be for it.  But, there is nothing quite as motivating to me as a deadline, which is why I signed up in the first place. It's also why I actually got out there yesterday and today.  I know myself. These things can actually work.

What I learned from Monday's run and yesterday's was that it was really hard to push myself to get the heart rate up. Both runs peaked at a 144 beats per minute heart rate, and averaged much lower (there are walking intervals included there.) On Monday, breath was the limiting factor. Yesterday, besides gasping for breath, my legs felt like lead. After my little emergency room incident yesterday, plus the leaden legs, I was thinking about giving myself a pass today. When they took my blood pressure in the ER yesterday, it was higher than I've ever seen it. Plus, one thing all exercise books agree on:  the older you are, the longer it takes to recover. From anything.

But I headed up to the boat to do chores. Originally, I was thinking about kayaking, but 15+ knot winds and a very sore finger convinced me not to venture out. Instead, I went for a jog around the community. I wanted to stretch my legs, and right now walking seems a bit boring, too time consuming. Might as well kick it up into a run.

I had worn flexible pants and some casual trainers, thinking I might do a run, so I didn't even bother to change. That meant more bounce, but it was ok.  What really startled me was the heart rate.  It went immediately to 165 bpm. What's up with that?  I didn't feel bad, so I jogged on and looked at it again. Slightly higher. This seemed so odd to me, that while I thought maybe it was just reading wrong, I slowed to a walk while staring at the numbers on my wrist. They plummeted, in seconds falling below 120. OK then, I started up the jog again. In about the same number of seconds, it was up over 165!  I thought about it, I felt like I was working but I had plenty of breath, and so I just kept going.  Over the course of the next few minutes, I kept up a steady pace and the numbers on my wrist fell down to around 140 bpm - right around where they should be.

This loop is totally flat which is a real bonus compared to my neighborhood. I pretty much kept up a steady jog for the whole thing, a mile and a half. I was not totally blown by the end, either. So the training is making some progress.

Looking at the recorded stats uploaded from my fancy device, it says I hit a heart rate of 170 beats per minute. My theoretical maximum heart rate is 171. I've seen no indication anywhere else that the monitor is off base, so I'm not declaring "instrument error". I think the heart rate really did soar, and then settle down. I am curious why my body would go to such an extreme.  Hmm.....  It doesn't really matter, though, as long as it settled down and let me get it the run.

New Lows in Stupidity

I managed to grasp a staple gun wrong during a home improvement project, and stapled all the way through my finger, bone and all.  My first reaction was disbelief, but the lingering reaction is embarrassment. I nearly swooned as I tried to remove it myself with pliers. My boy with the learner's permit drove me the two blocks to the emergency room, and left on foot after ensuring I'd be taken care of. Only two hours there, end to end. The lidocaine was wonderful, and there is a lingering ache requiring drugs. A bandaid covers all the evidence.

Now, a lifetime of family jokes to look forward to.

April Fool

I had a head cold last week, and I chose to surrender rather than fight it. I cancelled my gym sessions and slept in, even took some time off work to sleep some more. Somehow, that translated into needing to carb load as well. I woke up Saturday morning clearly on the mend, and lay in bed for two hours struggling with the need to run before I finally gave myself permission to take another day off. Saturday night saw me at the grocery store buying a bucket of lousy little chocolate donuts - the kind coated in chocolate colored waxy substance. They are not even good, but they filled some sort of imperative at the time. (I try to reserve my excesses for really good stuff.) Overall, not such a good week on the fitness front.

Luckily, Sunday dawned with a new outlook. I was delighted to get down on the treadmill, and pleasantly surprised that even with a whole week off I was fine running. I did a mile nonstop at 5.1 mph, walked for a bit, then ran fast for another three minutes. I felt I could go further, but I needed to go pick up kid up from his weekend function. That provided an opportunity to donate the remainder of the chocolate donuts to sleepy teenagers.

It's spring break at school, and I'm also giving myself a bit of break with a couple of days off to do stuff with the kids. Their day starts considerably after mine. I went back to the gym at my normal before-work time of 6 am, came home for more coffee, and did an outside run!  It's cool and crisp and a bit windy, and I was too cold at the start and too warm at the end, but not terribly so. I wore compression tights to just below the knee, and baggy gym shorts over them. I went uphill for the first segment, first upstream along Sligo Creek, and then turned and jogged slowly up the big hill on Wayne. There were many walking sessions in there, and I really wasn't working myself to death according to my heart rate, though it was hard to get my breath while going up the big hill. There was inevitably some level and some downhill portions, and I was very pleasantly surprised to realize I could maintain a pace that matched my footfalls to my music with a heart beat around 130 and no problem with my breath.  I did a loop and was home after 2 miles.  I'll have to do more outside work but I'm pleased that I'm enjoying myself (at least part of the time), rather than gritting my teeth and forcing myself through it the whole time. If that were the case, I know I'd stop doing it.

I did a foolish thing to celebrate the holiday. I bought myself an expensive toy - a GPS watch / heart rate monitor. I can re-live my run, practically footfall by footfall, on a map that matches heart rate, pace, and elevation changes.  It was too much money but its mine now, and it will provide some slight impetus to getting outside for the runs - creating an opportunity to come back inside and review my graphs and stats!  So I know I had an average heart rate of 127 bpm for the whole time, and a max of only 144.  I was not pushing myself as hard as I can. My pace is almost embarrassing: 14:49 minutes per mile (factoring in walking + running).

The silly thing is, to the outside eye, I'm "running" at a pace many people can walk!