What to Wear (updated)

I've revised my post-it note on what to wear while running. Although there are some pretty cool mobile apps out there for this purpose, I have found that my post it note works best because it is tailored specifically for me. What works for me doesn't necessarily work for my running buddies. My hands get cold easily, I don't like layering tops, and if it's 60 degrees or more I burn up with short sleeves. When looking at the temperature in the winter I don't go by the wind chill temperature or the actual temperature-I use the average between the two.  If the temperature is in the teens or if there is ice involved I have a tendency to wimp out. Not sure what the northerners wear for that, but I am pretty sure I don't own it! This is Texas after all...

Marathon #14: Cincinnati Flying Pig Marathon, 2004

Running this marathon was Cheryl Crawford's idea. She loved the flying pig theme and was really eager to break the four hour barrier in the marathon. Since I was consistently running marathons around the 3:50 mark I decided this would be a fun goal to help get her there. I knew she was capable of doing it, but she had a mental block that would have her crater as she hit the 20 mile mark. I only worried about 2 things: the unpredictable May weather in Cincinnati and the very hilly first half of the course. If we didn't go out too fast we'd be ok on the course, but if the weather was going to be warm and humid we would have a lot of work on our hands regardless. Luckily, it was cool on race day morning. It was pouring down rain, my first marathon in the rain, surprisingly enough, but at least it wasn't warm. It actually felt good! My memory is just bits and pieces of small and sometimes funny events, like being passed by a guy running in a shark costume, Cheryl's encounter with a relay runner who attached herself to our backsides around mile 22 (priceless... more on that later), and the constant rain, water puddles and frozen feet...

Luckily, I kept Cheryl's article that she wrote for our cycling club newsletter, so let me introduce to you my guest blogger, Cheryl Crawford, and her story!

This was my 4th marathon, and I was bound and determined to break the elusive 4-hour barrier. My last marathon was a 4:05 three years ago in Austin. Luckily, I had awesome training partners this time, and I even convinced them to go to Cincinnati with me to do the Flying Pig. Thank you, Andi and Teresa! I couldn’t have done it without you! Now, on to the marathon. We arrived in Cincinnati two days prior, and it was warm and humid, and supposed to be raining up until marathon day. However, consistent with two of my prior three marathons, the rain held off until the marathon, but I’ll come back to that later. The marathon expo on Saturday was great! It had a ton of “pig” themed things, which I proceeded to buy. I bought a Flying Pig fleece jacket, a Flying Pig running shirt, and a Flying Pig running hat, so the pressure was on to do well the next day. As part of the race packet, we got a really nice Flying Pig backpack, a poster, and a t-shirt. After the expo, it was an early dinner, and off to bed.


Surprise, surprise! I awoke the next morning to the sound of rain. And it had cooled down to 50-ish degrees. So, I had to abandon the idea of wearing the pink sleeveless top I had bought just for the marathon, and stick with long sleeves and gloves. Luckily when we all met up in the lobby, Toby had orange rain ponchos, so we marathoners were able to stay dry as we walked to the race start. Thank you, Toby! The race started at Paul Brown stadium, and they were nice enough to have the stadium open so we could stay dry and use the facilities prior to the start. At the 10-minute-to- race-start announcement, we headed to the line. Apparently we weren’t the only three girls with pony tails wearing orange rain ponchos. We lost Billy as we exited the stadium. He thought he was following us, but it was someone else. Hmmm… I didn’t ask him if those girls were cuter. Teresa, Andi, and I made our way to the start line. Suddenly, the gun went off, and it was time to go. We, and several thousand other folks, quickly shed our ponchos and tossed them on the ground.

The first couple of miles were pretty tricky since you had to watch your feet for discarded rain gear, garbage bags, and shirts. The first mile was a little slow, but we had gotten close enough to the front that we were quickly able to get into our pace. Across the bridge into Kentucky and back, a loop around downtown Cincinnati, and then the hills. Yes, Cincinnati has hills! Matter of fact, miles 6-10 were basically one big hill. Our pace slowed a bit to compensate, but we were still on target. And the scenery was beautiful, even with the rain. After the big hills, we continued to run through some beautiful neighborhoods and more rolling hills. I was amazed at how many spectators were out cheering us on even with the bad weather. In some of the smaller towns, we could only run two abreast because the crowds were so thick. The miles kept ticking away and the pace remained steady. I was feeling amazingly good! Before I knew it, mile 20 was coming up. I started preparing myself for the big crater, which has happened in my prior three marathon experiences. Along side me, Teresa is claiming that we’ll do the last 10k in 58 minutes, because that’s what she always does. I assured her that that was not possible since I always hit the wall and slow down to 10+ minute miles the last 10k. Regardless, we hit mile 20 under 3 hours, so I had over an hour to work with to meet my goal. Suddenly, we hit mile 21, and I hadn’t slowed down yet. Then mile 22. Then mile 23. What was wrong? I wasn’t bonking! Suddenly, there was Andi, and the three of us were together again. I looked at my watch and claimed “I’m gonna smash that 4-hour mark!” And off we went. And there went mile 24. Still feeling good. At mile 25, there was one more surprise for us. Another hill! I think I was in such a state of shock that I was still feeling good, that it didn’t even faze me. And the crowd was amazingly loud. Right behind me, Teresa yelled “Don’t slow down!”, and off we went picking up the pace. Believe it or not, that last 1.2 miles was the best! We were laughing, smiling, almost crying, coaxing the crowd to cheer louder, and suddenly, there it was: the finish line! And the official clock was reading 3:55! I crossed, and quickly stopped my watch. My time – 3:54:01! Eleven minutes faster than my prior best, and almost six minutes faster than my goal! I was ecstatic. After hugging my awesome running partners, it was on to get the foil blanket. Then the precious finisher medal (Flying Pig, of course.) Food, chip removal, really cute finisher’s shirt, and finally out to meet the guys, who were waiting with dry clothes and hot chocolate. A quick change, and back to the hotel, which unfortunately was about a mile walk away. Through chattering teeth and uncontrollable shivers, that walk was made with a big smile on my face.

So that's Cheryl's story. It's pretty much what I remember of the day as well. She and Andi took off ahead of me right from the start though, going faster than I wanted, and I didn't catch up to them until just before the halfway point. (after the major hills). And this is something I want to point out about marathons I've learned over the years: you may have a plan, but when the race starts you have to be willing to adjust those plans to run YOUR race and trust that in the end it will all work out for everybody. If you try to force something you will end up paying the price. So it worked out. Andi and I worked like a tag team. Somewhere around mile 16 or so Andi left us, then we caught her again around mile 23 or so to finish together the last few miles. Oh and the meltdown story at mile 22...so this relay runner was breathing heavily on our necks and at times trying to nudge between us. She tried to talk to us--mentioned she liked our pace (obviously), but Cheryl wasn't having any of it, and finally turned to her and said, "You're really annoying me!". Oh my God I laughed so hard and told that poor lady, "This is mile 22 for us, sorry." I guess it's so funny to me because Cheryl is such a nice person, and I've never seen her crack like that. We've ridden God knows how many miles together on our bikes and I've never seen her bonk on the bike, and I mean NEVER, so yeah, it was priceless and I am grateful to have shared that moment!

The medal turned out to be adorable! One of my favorites:

In conclusion, thanks to Cheryl for suggesting this marathon. It's really well ran and surprisingly scenic and a lot of fun!

Marathon #13: Motorola Austin Marathon, 2004

Every year several Dallas runners would flock to Austin for this race. Our group would always include at least 15 people either running the full marathon, half, or the 2 person relay. I had ran the half or the relay countless times, but didn't get around to running the full until the year of 2004. I'm glad I did because only a few short years later we all stopped going to Austin. I can't remember why, except possibly because they started changing the course; initially to the disastrous Freescale start in 2006--this is the one with the ice storm and the crazy deer that jumped into the starting corrals and the year that Toby ran his sub-3 hour marathon, all of which is worthy of its own blog entry someday, but I digress. They moved the start again to downtown near the capitol, and as far as I know it has remained largely unchanged since then. I do remember they changed sponsors and the prices jumped really high. Maybe that was the final straw. At any rate I find it strange that I never hear of any local runners heading down there for the event any more.

I liked the original course, a mostly point to point route, with one long out and back in the middle, and a finish into Zilker park near downtown. It had some rolling hills, but overall it was decent terrain. The course was always lively and fun. Every race I ran was an enjoyable one, and the marathon was no exception, so I really don't have much of a story to tell. The race started early--it was still dark when we assembled. Here is the group shot from that year. Doug, Shelly, and I ran the full, and Kathy and Shelly's daughter ran the half, in fact, Kathy ran with me for her entire race, which was a lot of fun.

Pre-race nervousness? Not this group!

We ran a decent first half, around an 8:35 pace, which was reassuring, since my last marathon was the disastrous Boston marathon, where I was reduced to walking. Looking back now it's obvious that the course of Boston combined with lack of downhill training is what did me in, but back then I was still nervous about running another marathon. It was a great relief to get back to "normalcy", and run my usual marathon time again. (3:52 chip time). Years later, after meeting and running with LSP we realized we both ran this race and were within a couple of minutes of each other, back when we didn't know each other! I have scoured all my photos, looking for a shot of her in them to no avail.

Strangely enough it just occurred to me that this was my last Texas marathon! I'm not a repeater, so courses that have remain unchanged are out for sure, and those that have changed haven't changed enough to draw me back. I'm keeping my eye on the fairly new BCS marathon. The only problem is that it's held on the same week-end as the Dallas marathon, which I'm usually involved with one way or another. I enjoyed running the 20 mile distance of the Ft. Worth marathon. Maybe I'll run the whole thing someday, but it's not high on my list. People always ask me why don't I run White Rock-Dallas again and the main reason why is because these are my stomping grounds! I'm afraid I'd be bored to tears. But then again I'd know everybody, ha ha. I don't know, maybe in a few years. I'm having too much fun traveling to new places right now.

As for the Austin marathon...if anyone is up for it I'd love to run the half marathon! But I'm going to have to say NO to the Hula Hut...maybe the Oasis on Lake Travis? Fun times back then...

Marathon #41: Wineglass Marathon, Corning NY. October 2015

Immense gratitude sums up the marathon week-end; a week-end spent with 12 great friends, aka the "cat herd", or in some circles loosely referred to as the "TB's". In addition to our group the White Rock Running Co-op (WRRC) had a huge presence, as did several other Dallas runners who ran in Luke's Locker's training programs.  Oddly enough, even though Wineglass is not a mega-sized marathon, each year many Texans flock to it. There isn't even a direct flight into Corning from Dallas. Our group decided to do it mainly because we had so much fun together last year when we did the Newport Rhode Island marathon for Kathy's 50th state celebration. The Wineglass marathon and surrounding area appeared to suit us.

The day before the marathon it was cold and rainy, but luckily the forecast called for the rain to end that night. Since my last 2 marathons were in the cold rain I was happy to see that forecast. Yay, I'd be able to feel and use my hands! Our group consisted of 8 marathoners, 3 half marathoners, and 2 on the injured list, Laura Hebert and Toby. Laura had a leg injury, but Toby's situation turned out to be a diagnosis of rheumatoid arthritis. It appeared to hit him all at once, early into the training, and he is still working on getting treatment for it. If you don't know much about RA know this: it's serious stuff, and very debilitating. Watching it take an athlete like Toby down is pretty scary.

Race day morning: 7 of us are on our bus ride up to the starting line in the town of Bath. (Mark was already there by the time we got on our bus). The full marathon course ran from the town of Bath southward to the town of Corning, a point to point course. The half marathoners started halfway in between the two towns. We got a text from Vicki, a half marathoner, that their bus driver accidentally took them to the full marathon start, ha! Talk about a bus load of people ready to kill the bus driver! When we got off the bus we all made a beeline to the restrooms. They were playing a David Gilmour song, which made me think of Toby since he loves David Gilmour and I found myself getting emotional. I know he didn't have any real investment in running this marathon, but not having him there with us really hit me hard at that moment. There's nothing more pitiful than crying in a stinky porta potty, except praying, and yes, I've done plenty of that in my day! Thankfully my moment was brief. Rejoining the gang, 8 of us who trained together all summer really made me grateful for our health. We're not exactly a spring chicken bunch!

Grateful for being here

The forecast of a cloudy day was already proving to be incorrect, so right before we turned in our warm ups I switched into a tank top and put on my sunglasses, which, finally, I nailed it on what to wear! They didn't play the National Anthem, in fact, they played nothing! We took off into total silence. Very odd. Early on we all settled into our respective paces, with Jamie, LSP and Amelie together in front of Kathy and I. Mark and George were long gone right away, and Mike stayed behind us. The only bad thing about a point to point course is that we would never see each other again unless in passing, until the end. The out and backs and chances to say hi to each other were a lot of fun in Newport!

I was trying to stay positive, but I did have to say to Kathy that I didn't think this was as scenic as I had hoped. We had a lot of stretches along the highway early on. Also, we were a little early for the turning of the leaves this year. Still, it was nice. The temperature was pleasant, but we did have some head wind to deal with. (Not too bad, in fact I felt it helped keep me cool later on). We had some inclines to contend with, but I have learned a long time ago that "net downhill" doesn't mean "all downhill". Toby was on the course a LOT with his camera. And I mean A LOT.

I was feeling the urge to play my music and keep the pace up--I felt like it was starting to slip a little around mile 11 or so, and I hated to leave Kathy, but eventually I told her my music was going on and I had to go it alone. Unlike during the training runs I am not much of a talker in the marathon. The music really pulled me along for the next several miles, and happily the scenery improved as well.

Last pic of us together

Looking at the marathon's elevation map, there was what we referred to as "the pointy thing" at mile 15. I was really curious to see what it was. Sure enough, it was a pretty steep little climb. It was kind of funny to imagine everyone else going, ah so this is the pointy thing? I was kind of hoping for a bridge, but we did have a few bridge crossings later on. (Yes, I have a bridge fetish).

Not feeling the love of the bridge at this moment

My game plan for pacing marathons these days (if things are going according to plan) is to try to stay within my "comfy zone" of 9:00-9:15 minute miles as long as possible. Miles 19 and 20 were at 9:15, but then I couldn't hang onto it anymore. Once it slips my goal is to try to keep it under 10 minute miles, which usually equates to no walking or lingering at the water stops. At this point the marathon got more interesting because we entered a bike path, where there were a lot of spectators and hoopla--much needed! I was hitting a rough patch around mile 22 when I spotted Toby AGAIN with his camera and I was so mad! I wanted him to cheer or talk to me or something, anything besides point that camera at me. I told him I was really sick of his camera and people laughed, but man, I meant it.

I may be smiling, but I was really bitchy

Finally, at the water stop at mile 24 I took a walk break, took in 2 cups of water and got my head on right for the rest of the run. At that point the 4:05 pacer ran by and I kept him in my sights. This really helped me focus on running and not give in to walking. My marathon math was playing tricks with me, because I was projecting a 4:04 finish, but figured I must be pretty close with the pacer right in front of me. On mile 25 I came across my co-worker Susan. She asked me something about the distance we were at and I said we were at 24.5 and not understanding what that meant she asked, "What mile are we on?" I told her we were on the 25th mile. I know what marathon math is like, and later realized that she may have thought the next mile marker would be 26 instead of 25, so I felt really bad about that. If you run marathons you know what I am talking about! At any rate, I kept my pacer guy in my line of sight over the final bridge to the turn onto the finish line. When I approached the finish I heard screams, and I mean LOUD SCREAMS from the half marathoners cheering for me, and it choked me up as I crossed the line, where Toby, Mark, George, LSP and Jamie greeting me with hugs. One by one we hugged each other as we finished, then made our way to the group photo. It was truly a joyous finish, unlike the cold rainy ones I had last done. (Although frankly, all finish lines are awesome, even if nobody is there to cheer you in).

Final stats on marathoners in our little group:

George ran a 3:21, first place in his age group!

Mark ran a 3:47,  a PR

LSP and Jamie ran together the entire way with a 3:53

I ran a 4:04 (The 4:05 pacer came in a little early, oops)

Kathy ran a 4:09

Mike ran a 4:25

Amelie ran a 4:31. Somehow we passed her without knowing it!

The half marathoners rocked as well. Kelly and Zelda even ran PR's!

The remainder of the trip involved lots of singing, dancing, hiking, wine tasting, and laughter. Lots and lots of laughter.

Group finish line photo--just amazing friends!

Marathon #12: The Boston Marathon 2003

So I had just "finished" the Boston Marathon, the most highly anticipated marathon of my life, the one I repeatedly tried and failed to qualify to run, the one I had visions of an emotional finish down  Boylston Street and across the famous blue and yellow Boston Marathon finish line...
That just happened. But when I finally did cross that line I had nothing. Tears? Elation? Joy? Self loathing at my personal worst by over a half an hour? Nope. Nada. I just hobbled off into the masses and made my way to the hotel to find Toby, because my only thought was concern that he'd be worried about me. As I entered our hallway I saw a few of my friends wandering about in and out of their rooms. I opened up our door and... nothing. Toby wasn't there, and worst still, he hadn't been there. Nothing on my phone either. So I went out into the hall to chat with the others about our races and took my phone with me in case he was trying to contact me.

But I'm getting ahead of myself. If you're going to talk about Boston it all begins months prior, when you're training for Boston, and by training I mean hill repeats with lots of downhills, and long runs with lots of hills...Only I didn't do any of that. I was going to run and have "fun" and not worry so much about my performance. After all, I had finally made it to the big show, the Mecca of running, the Holy Grail, the Boston Marathon! Also, I had a nagging hamstring, so all of my training runs were pretty flat. Nevermind that I dropped out of the Mt. Rushmore marathon at mile 16 because of the downhill terrain...The excitement of finally making it to Boston overshadowed all of that.

The moment you arrive in Boston it's alive with marathon frenzy. The locals refer to it as "the invasion of the skinny people". There is an undeniable buzz in the air. We had a large group from Dallas, and we also joined up with Janet Hughes, who was one of the girls I ran my first marathon with who had since moved to Colorado.

The first order of business was to get to the expo ASAP and buy buy buy. It's a good thing I have devil dog shopping skills, because it was a total madhouse! I walked away with a singlet, shorts, long sleeved tech top, fleece, gym bag, and the coveted jacket. If you run the Boston marathon you must buy the jacket. The second thing you do is walk over to the finish line nearby and take your picture.

Toby, Kathy, and me. 

Boston's course, although historic, is somewhat problematic in that every participant is bused out to the tiny town of Hopkinton on race day to await a noon start (in 2003). We had an issue with our van. He either didn't have permission to take us all the way to Hopkington, or got lost, but either way we found ourselves dumped off the side of the road about 3 miles away. We kept trying to flag down buses, but they were all full, until finally a bus pulled up and let us get on! That madness cut into race prep and didn't help, mentally!

At Hopkington--not the best picture, but notice the Texas Flag shorts

Toby went off to his corral and Janet, Kathy, and I went to ours, which was around a corner and so far away from the start that you couldn't even hear the gun go off! In fact, it took us over 11 minutes of walking until we finally crossed the starting line! (It was better in 2011 with more waves and earlier start times).

Initially, things were going well. The crowds were simply amazing--in every small town the streets were lined with cheering people. It helped that it was a holiday, Patriot's day, and with the noon start people were already celebrating. It was very common to see grills and yard parties along the way. But I knew I was in trouble around mile 11 or so. I just felt hot and felt like our pace was too fast for me, so I let Janet and Kathy go and decided to slow down and try to recover. I did the classic "hide from your friends at the water stop" maneuver. When I approached the famous Wellesley girls I was annoyed by the shrill of their screaming, although I did find humor in their signs regarding kissing. The annoyance was yet another red flag. I was struggling by then, even with the slow down. When I got to mile 15 I started walking. The best way to describe how I felt was that I felt like my quads were being pulled off their bones! There I was having to do a walk-run shuffle and thinking, "Crap! I can't drop out! I just bought all that Boston stuff!" What makes matters worse is I was taunted by the trains running parallel to the course. At one point a spectator yelled, "Texas, what's your name?" I said my name, so he yells, "Teresa from Texas!!! Run!" and the crowd cheered for me, but once I got around the corner I walked again. At one point I smelled grilling burgers and I swear I almost stopped right there to ask for a burger and a beer. I was so so hungry--after all at that time, near the end, it was probably around 4:00 PM and all I had eaten was breakfast, a banana, and the gels! I came by Fenway park right as a game was ending, and the gauntlet of people there was so tight I could smell the beer on their breaths.  All the Texas cheers--I was so mad that I wore those stupid Texas shorts!

You can see the pain in my face and weirdly contorted hands

Finally, there I was, running down Boylston street, the finish line in the horizon, the moment I had dreamed about, and my only thought was that it was long, long, ridiculously long...

Sitting in the hallway of our hotel my phone rings. It's Toby. He says he's coming up the elevator. I have no idea where he's been or what his story is, but when he steps out of the elevator I see the tell-tale cotton ball taped to the inside of his arm. Oh boy! Once again, let me introduce my guest blogger, Toby, to tell his story...

Teresa does superior work in describing the sights and sounds of Boston, so I’ll give you my perspective.  (And yes I did buy the jacket too).

There were runners everywhere and for some reason they seemed  really excited about Boston!  To me (“The Cyclist”) it was just a marathon.  Don’t be too offended, I came to appreciate the history and tradition of the Boston Marathon. I reviewed my 2003 logbook for writing this blog and even I was surprised by my lack of running.  Apparently I had convinced myself all I needed to run a marathon was minimal mileage, cycling fitness and talent from above.  My average miles per week, a staggering 12 (yep, that's sarcasm).  Did one long run of 18 miles, 24 days before Boston.  (I did manage ~200 miles of cycling per month for Jan-Apr).  With all this superior training (sarcasm continues), I needed a time goal for Boston, mmm, ran ~3:15 in my first two marathons, so I should try to go faster, nothing too crazy, just a 3:10.  Yep, a marathon idiot.

Teresa mentioned our “little warm-up” getting to the start area, which probably didn’t help my attempt at a 3:10, nor did the weather, sunny and 70°F.  And you know what?  Boston isn’t flat.  I’m oblivious to all of these things.  Off to the staging corrals! Any guesses where this one is going???

I’m also clueless with Boston’s systematic staging corrals you’re surrounded by similar paced runners, so you shouldn’t be concerned about taking ~3 minutes to cross the start line and you shouldn't feel the need to get past people in the beginning, mile 1, sub 7, oops.  I recall my quads feeling “something” by mile 1, but I’m not smart enough to know any better, nor am I smart enough to realize the first mile is mostly downhill.  Average pace for first 5k is 7:09, (3:10 equates to ~7:15 pace), so I’m on a ~3:07 pace, more oops  I was completely clueless how deep of a hole I had dug myself into in a mere a 3 miles.  I’ll blame it on the crowds, especially the Wellesley College Scream Tunnel, which you hear before you see, https://youtu.be/WbuXW647hCA?t=10s

Half way, 1:34:47, still on 3:10 pace, but imagine this, I’m hurting, I know shocking.  No biggie, I was hurting at Disney and managed to keep pace, after all isn’t a marathon supposed to hurt?  Recall from the Disney story I said warm weather and / or hills would have done me in, well...  Also I’m not smart enough to know that warm weather or hills can impact your marathon, told you I was clueless. 

The Newton Hills, miles ~16-20, although they are not named after Sir Isaac Newton, they should be as his laws of motion and universal gravitation had grasp of me.  The wheels were falling off.  Somewhere along the way I stopped at a medical tent to take off my shoe to treat a major blister on my right big toe.  Reality had set in, 3:10 was gone.  Didn’t take long to see 3:15 was gone too.  I can say that Heartbreak Hill (~mile 20) did not break me, I was already shattered.  I “sneaked” behind the crowds to the sidewalk and walked up Heartbreak Hill.  Maybe my stroll down the sidewalk gave me time to set a new goal, 3:30, quite the tumble!

The last 10k was a struggle (duh).  Plenty of crowd support, but wearing Texas flag shorts was a mistake, “Com’on TEXAS, you can do it, don’t stop!” And everybody say it with me, “You’re almost there!” Ugh.  The aroma of outdoor cooking lined the course, remember at this stage it’s ~3pm, who knows when I ate breakfast and oh yea, I’ve ran 20+ miles.  Around Fenway Park it smells like a frat house washed in beer, lovely.  Remember it’s Patriot’s Day, a civic holiday in Massachusetts so the afternoon crowds while friendly, do have plenty of adult liquid energy in them to support your cause.

The damage had been done, my 7:17 pace through mile 15 went up to an 8:55 for the last 11 miles.  Told myself I was going to run from mile 25 on, but it was more of a hobble / wobble and a 9:20 pace.  The result, a poorly executed 3:28.  While even today a 3:28 sounds good, it’s never good when one’s second half pace per mile is 1 minute and 40 seconds slower than the first half.  I’m also sunburned.  That makes me officially done and the next adventure begins…

Chaos is a good way to describe the finishing area.  Volunteers are destroying the finish fences to get to collapsing finishers, the warm temps and sun had fried people, including me. I’m dizzy headed and am struggling to make progress through the finishing area.  Volunteers ask me if I need assistance, I politely tell them I just need to “rest” and I’ll be okay, off I stumble.  Next volunteer asks me if I’m okay, same response, I’ll be okay, plus there are numerous finishers that have collapsed and really need assistance.  After a few stumbles I find myself being hoisted over the fence by volunteers, being placed in a wheelchair and carted off to the medical tent.  Crazy scene inside the medical tent!  It’s being ran like a triage M.A.S.H. unit, they're well organized / staffed and have things under control .  “Bair Hugger to 36” - “IV to 21” – “wheelchairs to the finish”, their PA system was abuzz with instructions to the staff.  They take my vitals and once I appear stable, (i.e. they don’t think I’ll puke), they start an IV.  Wondrous invention, although I’ll be requesting a blanket very shortly.  They even bring your finisher’s medal to you.  Don’t recall how long I was in the medical tent, an hour, maybe two?  While I don’t recommend  the adventure of medical tent, I did get my money’s worth out of my entry fee.

Off I wander to find the luggage buses. Sad sight as most the bags around my bus are gone, making it obvious I’d had a rough marathon.  Luckily they hadn’t given away my belongings, so I made my “claim of shame” to collect my stuff and venture to the hotel to see how others fared.

No matter what my future marathon times are, hopefully Boston 2003 will stay my worst marathon, although it did teach numerous marathon lessons.  My next marathon attempt would not be until Feb 2006 and I would run Boston in 2010 to “redeem myself”, those are stories for future blogs, maybe…

Back to Little T… 

Looks deceptively good in finish line photo

So many parallels! Boston 2003 still stands as the slowest marathon for both of us, and yes, we both returned to Boston in 2010 (Toby) and 2011 (me) (See blog titled, "Blast from the Past: Boston Marathon 2011", dated 3/28/13). It wasn't all bad. We met the Melders, now great friends of ours, on that stupid van and 2003 was the year Will Ferell ran Boston. Neither one of us saw him, but Kathy did! And nobody remembers that 2003 was a warm one because 2004 ended up being a heck of a lot warmer!

Hood To Coast: 6 years of Start-Finish Team Photos of Team Texas Roadkill

It all started in 1996...

Original Team Texas Roadkill

1997 Texas Roadkill

1998 Texas Roadkill-Includes BART YASSO!

1999-3 Texas teams finishing together!

Sorry, but this is the only photo I can find from 2000. I'm sure I have the purchased photo in one of my many boxes of photos.

Texas Roadkill 2000

...From there team Texas Roadkill and other Texas Teams traveled to other relays, returning to Hood to Coast in 2005, and again in 2006 for their 25th anniversary. I didn't go in 2005, so 2006 was my 6th HTC. As you can see, Team Texas Roadkill only had 2 original members in 2006- Doug Dodge and myself.

2006 Texas Roadkill

Marathon #11: Walt Disney World Marathon® January 2003

I remember complaining about having to pay $100 and sign up a year in advance to run this thing, which makes me laugh now, but back in 2003 we were still signing up for marathons on the fly, even the larger ones, and easily paying less than $100...my how things have changed! Even so, the 4 of us signed up for the full marathon a year in advance, Toby, me, and Kathy and Mike Murgas, AKA the Murgi. We all had different reasons: Mike Murgas looked up to Walt Disney the man, and really loved the parks, Kathy was already working on her 50 state plan, and this was the most obvious choice for Florida, Toby wanted to qualify for Boston, and me, I just wanted the medal. The Disney mickey mouse medal was notoriously large and yes, magical.

About the event: It is an EVENT, not just a  marathon. In 2003 there was a half marathon, whose participants received a Donald Duck medal. Over the years they added a 5K, 10K, and challenges for a Goofy medal (run the full and half), and a Dopey medal (run all 4 races). Wearing costumes is the norm. It was considered somewhat large in 2003, with about 10,000 finishers, but that has since doubled! The current course layout looks similar to the one we ran, traveling from theme park to theme park in a counter-clockwise circle, finishing up in what they call "The Wonder Lot". Leave it to Disney to put a magical spin on a lackluster parking lot finish!

Race day morning: The marathon started before sunrise, at 6:00 AM, and all participants were bused into the park, starting at 3:00 AM and ENDING at 4:00 AM! Needless to say, we were on the very last bus that departed our "Walt Disney World Resort Hotel ®".  We arrived to an endless horizon of porta-potties, which, for some weird reason, amazed the three of us. Toby was not so impressed, and somewhat in a hurry to venture off to his starting corral. Since he was starting in a different corral than us we said good-bye and wished him good luck on qualifying for Boston. He would have to run a 3:15 time, which was do-able on paper, since his first and only other marathon was a 3:16. The problem was he had been injured and didn't train much at all, so we were doubtful. Anyhow, back to the porta-potties. We actually had porta potties with the paper tape on them--UNUSED! I think we even took pictures of them! I am not sure how this happened, but we suddenly looked around and wondered where did everyone go? The place was deserted. We heard Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck blasting on a microphone in the distance, so we decided it must be time to head to our corral.So we started walking...and walking...and walking...oh CRAP! The starting corrals were nearly a mile away! As we approached a giant field with the corrals in the distance we took off running and tearing off our warm ups the National Anthem started playing. Another friend of ours told us later that she saw us running across the field like idiots! We hopped over the barricade into the rear of our corral, which was a disaster because we were trapped behind an endless sea of slower runners and walkers. Yeah, we made a lot of "friends" during those first few miles, as we tried to get up to our normal marathon pace. Whew, what a start though! Even though it was still dark there were fireworks in the sky as we ran through Epcot, which was lit up with pretty colored lights.

We headed towards Magic Kingdom as the sun started rising. The theme park was lined with Disney characters cheering us on. It was definitely surreal! Kathy and I were still running together as we passed through Cinderella's castle and got this picture taken:

Notice that the era of headbands has ended

The stretch between Magic Kingdom and the Animal Kingdom was a little boring, but Disney had distractions along the way, such as Jumbotrons and yes, more Disney characters. Our short jaunt through the Animal Kingdom was lined with various exotic animals. We exited Animal Kingdom somewhere past mile 17, and by then I am pretty sure I was on my own, as I was not having the best run. My legs felt pretty dead, and the only thing I could attribute it to was all the pre-race walking! Lesson learned! Hopefully they have changed the route since then, but we were routed out to the Sports Complex and back, which was painfully boring. We didn't enter the MGM Studio park (now Hollywood Studios) until nearly mile 23, but from here on out the marathon was full of activity and fun again. The Tower of Terror is behind me in this picture, which was one of my favorite rides:

Happy that the urge to throat-punch a Disney character has abated

Lastly, it was a short run through Epcot's World showcase, with the very underwhelming finish in the "Wonder lot". As I was in the finish line queue I saw Toby still standing in the finish area wrapped in a mylar sheet and my heart sank. With my nearly 4 hour time he should have been done 45 minutes ago if he qualified for Boston, so I'll turn over the story to him..

Wow, I get to be a guest blogger!!!

“I’m not a runner”, at least not until 2005.  My thing was (competitive) cycling with the occasional run.  Disney® sounded like fun, WALLY WORLD!  Teresa was running Boston 2003 (Kathy too), so hey, I'll just qualify for Boston too!  (Back then it was possible to run a marathon in January and enter Boston).  You also got 59 seconds, thus I needed a 3:15:59.  Like I said, I was cyclist, so I was clueless about running, marathon training, etc., In my one other marathon, I ran a 3:16:17, so knocking off 18 seconds seemed easy enough.  (Don’t dislike me too much for being blessed with natural talent, find other reason(s).

Simple training plan, increase my long run by 2 miles; 10, 12, 14, 16 & 18, that's close enough to 26.2 (right?)  Even this remedial (i.e. stupid) training plan failed.  About 8 weeks to Disney and my training log comment was, "Slow, out of commission".  I limped along the next several weeks, did a fairly painful (and ugly) 13 miles two weeks later.  Finally saw a doctor… x-rays revealed I had been dealing with stress fracture in the left leg (tibia).  Due to my low mileage approach, (see pure genius) it was showing signs of healing, so I didn't attempt another run until two weeks to go. Time for a make it or break it 18 miler, I didn’t break, but pretty darn sore and didn't run another step until marathon morning.  I was still cycling during and rode 150 miles in December, so cardio-wise I was staying in shape.

If I knew then what I know now, doubt I would have attempted the marathon, much less try to qualify for Boston.  It was good to be naïve and not knowing I doing something fairly stupid.

And speaking of stupid… what’s a good way to rest for a marathon?? Spend two days visiting Disney World®!!!  Yep, we walked around for 8+ hours a day, (perfect way to rest the legs, sarcasm). Race morning out into the darkness, race start @ 6a (sunrise not until 7a).  I don't recall much drama in my world, lined up near front and off I go.  Maybe I should have admired the porta potties like Teresa and Murgi, had to stop for a #1 nature break around mile 6, not helping my 3:15:59 cause.  It was possible to bail around mile 12 and do the half (unofficially).  By mile 11, I had pretty much convinced myself to do that.  I was struggling and apparently my impressive ~ 18 miles per week training plan wasn’t paying off.    While I might have been a marathon idiot, I could still do math, 15 miles is a long ways to go, but I was still on 3:15:59 pace and I feared the wrath of Mickey Mouse for “banditing” the half, so onward I went!

Mile 18 and entering "The Unknown".  Last time I ran farther than 18 miles was in October… of 1999.  The amusement and adventure of running through the parks did help the (struggling) miles tick away, until the last few miles, when I had the strange urge to punch a Disney character. Flat course and good weather was a blessing, hills or heat would have done me in.  Mile 24, still on pace and I remember thinking I’m going to make my time!  Being marathon stupid I didn't know that things can go dramatically wrong those last couple of miles.  And with that, I return you to Little T... 

So there he was, still standing in the finish area. I made eye contact and he gave me a thumbs up! He ran a 3:15:27 and qualified for Boston! When I approached him I asked him why he was still standing there. He said he couldn't move!

Check out the medals!

In summary, I loved this marathon, and even now I would recommend it, knowing that it's huge and it's expensive. I would HIGHLY recommend resting your legs the day before the marathon instead of visiting one of the theme parks, but with time constraints on visiting all the parks it's pretty hard to do. It's truly a unique marathon!  And for Toby of the (12) marathons he has been blessed to run he considers Disney his biggest running accomplishment. I may be wrong about this, but I think Mike Murgas ran a PR that day as well.

The Teva Berry Picker 5K, August 2005

I wrote this shortly after we returned from our summer trip to Vail Colorado in 2005. Luckily, Toby was still able to find it on the computer. One of the hardest runs I've ever done wasn't a marathon or even a half marathon. It happened to be this 5K with the seemingly benign name...A 5K that took me 1 HOUR and 3 minutes to finish...

During one of our daily 4 hour happy hours the conversation went something like this." For a 5K it looks pretty tough. It only goes up.  It starts at 8400 feet and ends at 10,200 feet. There's not a lot of air up there. Hey Toby we're gettin' low here. (Toby opens yet another bottle of wine).  How long does it take to acclimate--longer than 2 days? We should probably be drinking water. (Laughs). Ok so here's what we do. We sign up, get the T shirt, and if it looks too scary we bail. Yeah, I really want that shirt." (Note: The shirt was really cool).

And so the quest for the Vail Berry Picker 5K T shirt began.

After they take your money, registration and waiver so your family won't sue them if you die, they tell you that your T shirt will be waiting for you at the top when you finish. Uh-oh.

They fail to tell you that technically, it's not categorized as a trail run, but as a hill climb with an average grade of 10%.

Or that last year's winning times were roughly 36 minutes for the men and 43 minutes for the women.

The helpful guy at the counter at Christy's Sports said it was the gnarliest, rootiest, single track on the mountain, legendary in downhill mountain biking circles. He said we were really looking to punish ourselves and gave us a quizzical look as to why. The one voice of reason and we chose to ignore it.

Race day morning. Five Texans with white socks, running shoes intended for asphalt, and ill equipped lungs join the rugged Colorado natives at the base of Vail's Eagle Bahn Gondola for the start. Amazing thing about the start of this race. After the gun goes off you can look up and see the lead runners go up and up and up. And up. It runs parallel to the gondola line, but mostly within the thick trees along a narrow, and yes, gnarly and rooty single track. The thought of running, for the most part, would be laughable, if it were funny.The thought of moving forwards in an upright position, again, laughable. As you cross a clearing here and there you can catch a glimpse of your friend the gondola overhead and with clear footing you can attempt a jog. Oh yeah that's right, you need oxygen for that.

Just when you are having those final thoughts about how this would be a nice place to die and wonder did that rescue dog get a good sniff of you at the starting line there it is! You pop up like a gopher to a flat stretch of road, and just for laughs they make you run about a half a mile at 10,200 feet of elevation to the finish line. Now I know how a goldfish feels when you pull him out of the fishbowl and hang him by the tail.

So we received our precious T shirts and we even won Teva sporting gear for placing in our age groups! We cheered "Go Texas!" as each of us received our prizes, which I hear Colorado natives love that about us. The magnitude of our accomplishment was fully realized by the lengthy gondola ride back down. Indeed, it was a very long ride.

See how cool the shirt is?

Toby actually WON the race...in 43 minutes..

Marathon #40: Ogden Utah, May 2015

"...The race would end. I would finish. I knew all that. But what should have been self-evident truths felt like prayers..." Scott Jurek, "Eat & Run".

My co-worker, a retired ultramarathoner and vegetarian, let me borrow this book awhile back, primarily because of the vegan recipes in it. He knows of my struggles with trying to go vegetarian and thought I'd find it useful. Well I did, but not in the way he imagined. It's a strange book. Scott Jurek goes into brutal detail of crashing and burning in the Badwater ultra, then finishes off the chapter with a miso rice ball recipe. Is it a cook-book or an auto-biography? Well, a little of both. At any rate, the irony is that some of the passages of the book got me through this marathon, as it turned out to be one of my hardest yet.

The terrain of the Ogden marathon isn't overly challenging, in fact it's a net downhill course, with a big portion of downhill late in the race, where it's needed the most. I wasn't afraid of the terrain. I was afraid of the altitude, starting at 5400 feet, dropping to 4300 feet, not horrendous, but I've had issues running at altitude in the past, so I tried to mentally prepare for that scenario. I'd have to walk some, especially on portions that turned uphill, like I did in the Colorado marathon, ok. My goals these days are to enjoy the experience and not care so much about how long it takes me, so I was good. We'd start out in the first canyon for about 5 miles, all downhill, then hit a valley and run flat to rolling, and encounter 2 large uphills around miles 14-15. I knew I'd have some walking to do there. From there we would enter THE canyon, the most beautiful stretch of the course, and all downhill to mile 23 ish, and then it would be a rolling to flat finish into downtown Ogden.

We flew into Salt Lake City the morning before the race and drove straight to the race expo in Ogden. They had a really nice expo and some good marathon apparel too. We didn't do a whole lot that day. Our hotel was a block away from the finish, so we went over there and checked it out, then drove over to where the course started making its way into downtown along the Ogden pathway.

From whence we would come--that road went on FOREVER...

We only saw this once. The next day it had blown into the river.

Race day morning came early. No need for an alarm, as the buses were lining up in front of the hotel by 4:15, along with loud race music and announcements blaring. We felt a lot of pain for those staying in the hotel that weren't there for the race! Toby had to take another bus for the half, so we said good-bye to him and made our way to our bus.

Jamie and I had a pleasant morning at the start. Even though it was a little cold, and it even snowed a bit on us, the sun popped out, which lead us to (mistakenly) believe we weren't going to encounter much, if any, of the predicted rain. If only I had texted Toby at his start, where the weather looked a bit more ominous...We decided to take our sunglasses, and I ditched my hat. Here are some pics from the full start and you can see why we were stupid about the weather. We were TRICKED!

Jamie and her precious gloves that she lost along the way

Hatless idiot

You got that right

Proof of snow

Contrast this view with Toby's start, 13 miles down the road from us:

At any rate, off we went into the canyon. Jamie went ahead right away, and I quickly fell into a good rhythm with the downhill, and started enjoying the views. But after only a couple of miles into it the rain began. And it was cold cold cold in that canyon! After cursing at myself for being an idiot I again fell into the rhythm and went with it. As we entered the valley the wind picked up, making it even colder. Shortly after my first gel I suddenly found myself feeling very nauseous and dizzy. I stopped to walk and burp it out, not good. I was somewhere around mile 9. Apparently I was fighting with the altitude at this point, and not in a happy place AT ALL. In fact, I was downright miserable, soaking wet, cold, and sick. I found myself pulling over to walk several times, but couldn't walk for long because I was too cold! I wanted nothing more than to drop out! I started thinking about how far I had left to go and was really doubting everything when I thought about Scott Jurek's book. During a rough patch, and mind you his rough patches are a hundred times worse than mine, he had to tell himself DO NOT THINK. Just do. I wasn't going to drop out, so my only option was to keep moving forward. So I did. And not think. Do. Those were some mindless miles! 

Once we entered the second canyon I came back to life. My nausea was gone and again I fell back into a rhythm, but still had to stop to dig out  and open gels because my hands were numb. My legs were numb. My feet were numb. We were long past trying to skirt the water puddles at this point. Still, it was hard not to look around and marvel at the scenery in this canyon, especially this water fall, around mile 22 or so:

As we left the canyon and got onto the Ogden pathway I saw Toby briefly and told him I was ok, just coming in a bit later than normal. The last few miles were what I would call "normal" late marathon miles, where you make friends by taking turns passing each other over and over in silence. The turn to the finish line was a never-ending road, although flanked with spectators, finally, cheers were a welcome thing at this point. I crossed the line with a chip time of 4:15, which, looking back surprises me, because I had stopped doing the math and assumed it was going to take me much longer. Toby was there to quickly guide me back to the room, as there didn't appear to be any mylar sheets. I promptly changed into dry clothes and jumped into bed, but didn't stop shivering until an hour or so later. Jamie joined me and we shared our war stories. Toby had a great race, placing first in his age group with a 1:29 half!

Jamie in that heavy cotton T

sheer bliss...

Finishing marathon #40!

Official Finish line Photo

In summary, although difficult, this marathon was truly beautiful and I highly recommend it. Someone from the area said the rain wasn't typical for this time of year, but they had rain 2 years ago, so I'd say be prepared. And by prepared I mean wear a lot more clothes than we did!

This will go down as one of my favorite road trips with Toby and the sister wife Jamie. We had a blast hiking the waterfall the next day, and driving up to see the snow in Big Cottonwood Canyon. Love you guys!