It wasn’t that I was lazy and that’s why I stopped training – there were a lot of reasons.  There was all the rain and I was sick at the same time.  And there was the bad back pain I was experiencing.  Rather than continuing to exacerbate it, I figured I should just stop and let it heal and then I can come back stronger than ever – much like what I did with my knees and my shins.  After the half marathon I took about 2 years off and then started training for the marathon.

So since I’m in pain, one would think that the obvious answer to John’s text (2 days before the race) would be, “no, i’ve been hurting too much and don’t think I’m ready”.  Instead, I wrote “Sure! But it needs to be the 5K, not the 10K because my back has been hurting too much”.  I’m a genius.

Come race day though, I wasn’t the one with the crazy ideas to run when I shouldn’t.  It was actually John who had spent 6 hours in the ER with his wife, gotten home at 3:30am, crashed around 4am, and then woke up when I texted him at 6am that I was on my way to carpool.  He’s a trooper, let me tell you.

We ran pretty hard for the condition our bodies were in.  The first half mile we ran with John’s sister, then around mile 2, so that we didn’t spill our water (which was our excuse), we walked for a little bit and ran mile 3.  John was going a lot faster than I am, so I told him to leave me by 2.5 miles.  In the end, I came in at a respectable 36:08, which is pretty damn good for not having run in a month, not being able to breathe half the time, and for still being sore 2 days later.  It made me feel better about myself too, knowing that I can run under 11 minutes without a ton of training.

And the amazing thing?  my back hasn’t been sore even a teensy bit since the race other than usual “i lifted too much” pains.

maybe this means I can do the PV Half in May? hmmm….

added later…

i almost forgot! the beer this year was terrible!  They only gave ONE cup of Michelob Ultra Light.  That’s not even beer.  That’s pisswater that can’t even give you a buzz after running 3.1 miles with no food.  Last year was at least 2 cans of Asahi.  I know I’m a bit of a beer snob and I know they City of Redondo probably paid minimal to null for Michelob to be a sponsor, but goodness gracious, they should be a little more picky in their choices.  How am I supposed to be proud of drinking Michelob at 8am?  Now, give me a guinness or a newcastle, or even a saporro and we’re having a different kind of discussion…

So anyways, as far as my training is concerned, I’ve decided to move onto the intermediate level of training plans.  I think its about time and I think I have enough distance between me and my high school cross-country career to make time goals again and not stress out about them too much.  This past birthday in June marked my 10th year of long distance running, and my 10.5th year of running in general.  I’ve come a long way from the girl who, in 6th grade, couldn’t even run half a lap around the school field.  I’m pretty sure Mr. Crumley never would’ve thought I would be a runner and do a marathon.

The intermediate level involves speedwork and sprints and repeats of various sorts.  This particular plan I have focuses mainly on 400 repeats, and let me tell you, finding a track to run on in my neighborhood was way more difficult than I thought it would be.  The local HS track was in the middle of a fortress and I couldn’t figure out how the hell to get in and the local Community College track was 1.  not a full track and 2.  being used by the soccer team who had their gear spread out over all the lanes.  So I ended up at the gym which I was trying to avoid since I detest the treadmill.  it turned out, though, that speedwork on the treadmill isn’t nearly as painful as straight mileage on the treadmill and I’m pretty sure I sprinted way harder than I would have by myself at the track with no real gage of how fast i was running.

I have a tendency to slow down and “pace myself” out of fear of getting tired and I need to stop that, so being able to control my speed was actually a good thing in the end. My repeats looked something like this:

1.  I started off with a speed of 6.0 for .10 of a mile, then bumped it up to 6.5 for the next .10 of a mile and then 7.0 for the last .05.  My lap time was 2:20

2.  The next 400 started off with a speed of 6.5 for .10 mi then bumped to 7.0 for .10 and then 7.5 for .05.  My lap time was 2:18

3.  The next 400 was my fastest.  i started off at 7.0 for .10, then moved to 7.5 for .10 and finally 8.0 for the last .05.  my lap time was 2:09 and I wanted to die. lol.  it made the last lap the hardest.

4.  i started off at 6.5 for .10mi and then had to stop and breathe and coax myself into finishing the stupid lap because I was so exhausted.  Then I ran 7.0 for the second .10mi and 7.5 for the last .05mi.  My lap time was around 2:18 again.  i messed up on my timing so it was a little off.  i pressed the lap button before I started running, so my time was a few seconds off before I realized what I’d done.

In between each 400 I walked 0.12mi and then jogged 0.12mi at a 5.0 pace.  I also had a .5mi warm up at a pace of 5.0

Overall, the workout felt good and tiring in a positive way.  Which is good since I’m also sick and have a phlemy cough.  Hopefully the rest of the week’s training goes as well!

The traffic was insane though.  It took a full hour to get from the 110-101 interchange to Dodger Stadium – 1 mile!  Some people were so worried they got out of their cars and walked on the 110 and up to dodger stadium.  yeah, forget that, there’s no way in hell i would’ve finished the marathon if I had been one of those people.  But then most of them looked like they belonged in wrist-banded corrals anyways, so I’m sure they had lots of steam to blow.  Me? I used walking around trying to find a line for a restroom with less than 100 people in it as my warm up.  By the time we got into Dodger Stadium, it was technically only 30 min before the gun was supposed to go off so I snapped a few photos of sunrise and kissed my husband goodbye and giddily made my way towards the start.

Which was PACKED!  i had read that they were going to have corrals for each minute pace after the sub-3 hour and sub-4 hour corrals.  and supposedly they did exist, but i had no idea how to get into them and by the time i got to the start line it was probably about 10,000 people deep, thus taking me 18 minutes from the start of the gun to the actual startline.  but more on that later.

on my way to the start i saw a friend that I haven’t seen since I worked at Chick-Fil-A at the South Bay Galleria nearly 8 years ago now and I was so excited to see a friendly face!  It was going to be a long day of seeing people I didn’t recognize so I was glad to start it off in this fashion.  Then, I met a very nice woman in line for the restroom who gave me some tips which didn’t come in handy due to unforeseen circumstances, but she was very nice and put me at ease none the less.

after the restroom i realized i had no sunscreen and was about to spend well over 5 hours in the sun which was a bummer – until – dun dun dun – i saw a gigantic, economy sized sunscreen on a table which was also littered with smaller sunscreen bottles provided by island creations or some name like that for free!  my saviors.  saved me from another mottled tan, or, worse yet, a burn and skin cancer.  that was some strong suncreen too!  i applied a fairly thick coat to my legs which was still visible by the time i reached the finish line 6.5 hours later.  amazing!

after sunscreening and stretching and watching the wheelchairs, hand cranks, and elite women take off (and NO ONE cheering for the LA Mayor as he waved to the crowd), I made my way to try and find a place in line, which was nearly impossible.  I got in what was the end when I got there and waited patiently next to a nice woman named Missy, who this was her 2nd marathon and she was shooting for a 5:30.  We had hoped to run the first few miles together possibly, but during the craziness of walking to the start line I lost sight of her and never saw her again.  The 18 minutes it took from the “ready set go” to the start line was the most anticlimactic start I have ever been in.  By the time I made it to the front I had seen thousands of people finish their first mile (since it was visible from the start line) and had seen enough discarded clothes to fill a goodwill!

once we crossed the startline it was the best 5 miles I ever ran.  They felt good. I was pacing myself beautifully around 12:30/mile, and I was having fun.  I was taking pictures and absorbing my surroundings and appreciating all the other runners and their enthusiasm.  Except for the woman who, within the first quarter of a mile freaked out on a woman for stepping on her foot (because that never happens in starts as people jockey to get out of packs?!)  One of my favorite runners I came across as we entered Chinatown and this fellow was wearing a box, in FedEx fashion, which said PedEx.  Hilarious.  There was some pretty awesome course entertainment.  The Taiko Drums were amazing.  Passing Disney Music Hall.  Echo Park.  Passing Legacy Runners and this weird stalker guy who was trying to find all 233 of them.  The spectators were high on energy and so were the runners.  And then reality started to set in after mile 6 or so.  The spectators were fewer, the sights were less, and people started getting tired.

Me? I tried to keep my spirits up.  I called my godfather from mile 6 as I was running down sunset (or hollywood blvd., who knows?!), was trying to adjust my pace to account for the pain I was beginning to experience, and was trying to find people I could stay with who I thought were maybe on the same pace that I was.  Then the boredom started to set in, the pain started to increase, and the entertainment was packing up before we even got there! wtf?!  After mile 8, every mile felt like the longest mile of my life.  After mile 10, i started to forget what mile I was even on!  The heart of hollywood blvd. was fun to run, but it wasn’t too long and many of my pictures were actually pictures of the ground once I looked at my phone after the race.

By mile 14 I hit my wall.  My calf hurt, my hip hurt, and I couldn’t run anymore.  I called my husband to cry, but he didn’t pick up his phone, so I told myself to suck it up and keep going.  Coincidentally the 13:00 pace group passed me around this point, and I thought what the hell, lets try to salvage this race and come in at 6 hours.  I have to say I did not really enjoy their run/walk style.  It seemed to be 1 on, 1 off, and that was too much stopping and starting for me.  It pushed me for the next mile and a half but I just couldn’t keep up with them.  I kept looking outwards for help, but I wasn’t SRLA and I really liked their motivator, but she couldn’t help me.  So I called Christian again and cried (while walking, of course!).  I couldn’t run anymore.  I need to walk.  I felt like such a dissapointment.  I felt I had dissapointed myself and everyone I had ever told I was running the LA Marathon.  How unfit was I to walk nearly half the course and come in over 6 hours?  I felt disgusted with myself.  But Christian talked me through it as I sobbed and tried not to throw myself into a panic attack and the poor guy who ended up walking near me kind of went a little faster to avoid me, and I walked.  I walked as fast as I could at that point.  I figured if I couldn’t run, I was going to walk as fast as I could – 4 mph, dammit!

And then, somewhere around mile 17 or 18, my blister popped open and the juices came out.  Now, I’ve had blisters before.  I got one in the PV Half Marathon and I got one during cross country.  I got one during my 20 miler too.  But usually, what happens, is they seem more like a callous, or, instead of popping persay, they tear open and end up bloody, which I think I might have preferred to feeling the juice and the stabbing pain every single step.  When it first popped, I got scared.  It hurt like hell and I didn’t know what it was.  I started to cry and looked around for a medical tent.  I thought about taking my shoe off, but knew that probably it would make the pain worse once I saw what it actually looked like.  So I gathered myself together, told myself I’d come too far to quit with more than half done, and kept going.  I passed the medical tent (not without  second thought – i probably had like 5) and powered through.

Then, around mile 19 I saw my savior.  My friend who I hadn’t seen in over 8 years was there!  With signs that said We Believe In You and shouting my name and screaming I love you!  I was SO happy to see her.  I knew that her best friend has passed probably over 30 min before I even got there, but she stuck around.  She gave me a huge hug and I wanted to cry out of the joy.  Her words were so encouraging and inspiring that I think I walked faster than I have ever walked after I left her arms.  I tackled the next 3 miles with gusto, passing people left and right who had left me in their dust when I hit the wall.  I owned the miles through the VA like they were my bitch.  And then we hit san vicente and brentwood.  BORING!  It was supposed to be an awesome final 5 miles.  All downhill is what I heard, sights of the beach!  Lies.  All Lies.  Yes, there was downhill, around mile 23.  And I’m sorry, running by multimillion dollar homes isn’t inspiring or beautiful after you’ve run 20 miles.  Watching them spectate and walk their toy dogs and seeing them all skinny WITHOUT running a marathon.  I got a little bitter.  and a little tired. and I just wanted it to be over. The downhill hurt my shins and each mile felt like the longest mile of my life.

People along the way were entertaining.  People humming the rocky theme song, making bad jokes, acting silly, and leaving me wondering just how much energy do these people have?!  although, maybe if i hadn’t cried like a little baby so much i would’ve had more energy too.

anyways, seeing the mile 25 marker was amazing.  I decided that i was going to try to run as much of it as I could to the end, straight shot down ocean, and I ran pretty much all of it.  maybe 75%.  I walked for a bit in the middle to make sure that I could run the last .2 and made a direct beeline.  I passed all kinds of people at the end and as I was nearing the finish line, there was this HUGE charity group walking in the finishing chute.  WTF?! they were totally in my way and I had to weave around them in my final “sprint”.  I say “sprint” becuase the first running step I took in mile 25, my back felt like it had been punched and I hurt and ran like someone who had never run before.  But I crossed that finish line and fought back tears because dammit, i’d already cried enough that day!  i got my medal, got my picture taken, talked to my husband who had gotten to see me run, grabbed my blanket, and hobbled to the corner to meet Christian.

The pain I felt once I stopped was horrendous.  It was 10X worse than any pain I felt during the marathon.  It was like my body knew that it could give up and didn’t need to pretend to function anymore.  I wasn’t hungry or thirsty or anything.  All of my focus was on walking to the car and not collapsing into a heap on the ground.

My husband was nice enough to buy me presents for finishing.  I got a turtle puppet (because I was slow) and a purple minnie mouse wrist band (because  love disney, purple is my favorite color, and i was all sweaty), and a librarian action figure (since i’m a librarian) with shushing action.  It was pretty amazing.  I am so thankful to him for all of his support during these 6 months of training.  He never let me give up and always encouraged me and put things into perspective, espeically when I was hurting.  i don’t know anyone else that would’ve woken up at 4am to drop me off at dodger stadium and then sat in santa monica for over 6 hours just to pick me up and drive me home.  and then listen to me for two days complain about how sore i am.  this, all in addition to listen to me talk about the marathon for the last 6 months and complain about how sore i was after all my long runs. lol.

during the marathon, i thought, surely, i would never do this again.  why would anyone want to do this again?  but then I thought… I was injured on this run.  I should’ve gone to the doctor but didn’t becuase they would’ve told me not to, more than likely, so maybe, if i’m actually healthy for the next one… I can’t do anything but PR, right?!  LAM 2011? possibly…

oh, and FYI, yes, technically the course is all downhill because you’re starting at Dodger Stadium which is way up high and ending at SM pier which is sea level. HOWEVER, there are a MILLION hills inbetween, big and rolling, all painful.  Not that I have any other courses to compare it to, seeing as this was my first, but it seemed like a pretty difficult course…

but i did it.

and i am still really sore.  my quads are sore and my shins are sore.  i’ve been having shin issues lately, so I shouldn’t be too surprised, but they kind of hurt just walking around, which is definitely not a good thing.  i know i’m not supposed to do this, but i’m going to try and push through this week and get in all my mileage – mostly because, until the marathon, this is my last REALLY intensive week of training and my highest mileage – and i don’t think it’s a good idea to mess with it too much since the marathon is in less than a month.  I understand, though, why people don’t walk so well after they run a marathon.  It freaking hurts!

the run itself was just fine.  that is until the 13th or 14th mile when everything just started hurting.  i pulled out my knee brace for my left knee with 2 miles to go and that seemed to help a lot.  Also, in the last 3 miles I cut my walking down to 1 minute for every 9 minutes of running, since it felt like anything longer than that and my body hurt more trying to get back into motion.  Once I hit about 45 seconds my body seemed to enjoy walking a little too much.

i ate a moderately real breakfast for the first time on a long run – a bowl of high fiber oatmeal about 40 minutes before the run.  I didn’t really feel the effects of it until about 40 minutes into the run which I guess was fine.  I then ate 2 Gu – one at about 1:30:00 and one at about 2:08:00.  They seemed to help since I didn’t get really hungry until the last mile which isn’t so unusual. 

after the run we ate breakfast at the bixby and then i went to work where my legs felt like they wanted to be chopped off, especially by the 2nd hour.  i stopped providing the kind of customer service where you place the book in their hands and started pointing them in the right direction.  everything hurt!

i’m not too worried though – i’m fairly certain i’ll finish the 20 miles feeling just slightly worse than i did yesterday and i’m pretty sure i’ll feel horrible once I finish the marathon.  My saving grace is that I ran the 18 miles in 03:34:26, which means that I’ll probably run the 20 miles in 4:15 or less, which further means that if I can keep up about a 17 minute pace for the last 6.2 miles I’ll still make it to the finish line in less than 6 hours.  Lets pray that once I hit the wall I can do that =)  I’m pretty certain though that I’ll come in under by at least 15 minutes.

It wasn’t a bad run.  I started off slow to try and conserve energy but then decided that I was going too slow and didn’t want to run all day so I picked it up from a 12 minute pace.  The night before I ate pizza and cookies for dinner at Karl’s and went to bed around 12 and then woke up at 5:30 to do my run.  I ate a banana before I left because it was way too freaking early to eat a real meal like oatmeal which i know is what i really should’ve eaten. 

The first half went smoothly.  My shins were a little sore, but nothing too serious.  I ran on the road shoulder and came across a decapitated hawk which was pretty gross.  After the turn around I ate a gu because I figured I’d start feeling hunger pangs and was feeling pretty good until I hit about mile 14.  then my body crapped out, i was starving, and my feet wouldn’t move.  This is not unusual though.  Normally my wall hits the last far mileage I ran, which guess what, happened to be 14 miles.  I pushed through though and made it in at 3:04:25, with under 12 minute miles, so I was pretty proud of myself.

The only real issue with the run came in the after math.  I am way sorer and tireder than I ever have ever been after a long run.  Yesterday’s soreness was pretty equitable to after the 14 miler, but I’m pretty sure I wasn’t this sore the next day.  Maybe its just the long distance that wiped me out and my body needs longer to recover.  I just hope that it doesn’t take too long…

AILA is the American Indian Library Association and ” is a membership action group that addresses the library-related needs of American Indians and Alaska Natives.”  Usually, Native Hawaiians don’t fall into this category due to their different political status than American Indians and Alaska Natives.  Normally, they would get roped in with Asian Pacific Islanders and APALA.  But, APALA gave all of their awards this year to Asian books, with no PI representation, which would’ve been fine and whatever to me, except that it got me thinking about whether or not a book like “Between the Deep Blue Sea And Me” was even considered for the APALA Literature Award.

AILA gave it a Youth Literature award, but personally, browsing through the book when it first came out, I thought it was more adult, which would explain why, as a member of APALA’s YA Literature Committee, I did not receive a copy to review.  I wonder, though, if the Adult Committee received a copy.  I have heard through the grapevine that perhapsp PI authors who publish through PI publishers don’t get a fair representation in this awards circuit.  That maybe APALA is only dealing with the large publishers, which would greatly decrease the number of PI books in consideration.  Last year, the children’s biography on Duke Kahanamoku, “Surfer of the Cenutry”, received an award from APALA for Children’s Picture book.  So that’s one book in the nearly ten years that APALA has been giving awards that went to a PI when there have been so many books published between now and then.

I know I’ve expressed this concern before that PIs are under represented when grouped into this APA category, but I feel like its not getting any better and that people are so stuck in their Asian focused world that even AILA felt the need to take it upon themselves to review these works which are representational of a decent number of the APA community.

As I gear up to work on the 2011 APALA Children’s Literature Award Committee, I think that I will also work extra hard on ensuring that PIs are represented in the sample available for contention, now that I know how this system works.

finishing the run I felt pretty terrible because I thought that I had run slower than my last 9 mile time about a month ago where I did my run/walk routine.  So I was ecstatic to find out when I got home that I BEAT that time by FIVE minutes! That’s right, 5 minutes!  now to think that I felt like I could’ve gone even faster had I not had the stomach pain, I might’ve broken the 11 min/mile barrier.  Maybe next week.

Now I have to mentally prepare myself for my 16 miler on Sunday which I’m hoping will be really good since I’ve had a pretty great week of running.  hopefully I’ll keep my pace around 11:30 or less because I’m pretty tired of this 12:00 shit.  I think that the 10K last weekend really boosted my confidence and showed my that I’m not even close to my limitations speed wise and that I can really pick it up!

oh, and the course i did today was terrible.  i ran from alamitos to pine then back down to 55th pl, then up to la verne, then back down to 55th place and back to alamitos.  that switch back kind of thing in the middle really messed me up but I wasn’t comfortable running off of the fairly well-lit/traveled at 5am ocean blvd…

mile 1: 09:52

mile 2: 9:56

mile 3: 10:05

mile 4: 9:52

mile 5: 10:52

mile 6: 10:43

mile 0.2: 2:03

for a total 10K time of 1:03:25

John left me in the last 2 miles, so you can tell that I slowed down considerably.  I probably could’ve kept the pace, but I was scared that I was gonna burn out or hurt myself, although I guess with only 2 miles left to go that should’ve been the least of my worries.  None the less, I beat my time goal of 1:06:00 and was decently close to my better than i could hope goal of 1:00:00.  I felt really good crossing that finish line, passing people with my last sprint.  It’s been awhile since I crossed a finish line and I forgot how good it can feel! I wanted to cry when I realized I’d run faster than 11 min a mile – especially 10:16!  That’s amazing for what I’ve been running lately.  The last time I ran so fast was when John ran with me a few weeks ago.  Maybe a running buddy is a good thing to have…

oh, and the 2 beers afterward at 9:45am are possibly the most delicious beers ever. haha.

and before i forget.. i came in 77th for my age division (19-24 F), 889 for my sex division and 2564 overall.  Not great places, but not bad for someone who does no speedwork and runs an average of 11:30 min miles 90% of the time!

today I had my first post-half marathon run, at 14 miles.  it felt okay until i hit the 11th mile or so and then i kind of died.  my time was slow, but as long as i made it, that’s the only thing that matters, right?  i think that i’ll make it through the marathon.  i just hope in under 6 miles…