Executive Summary:
Weight: 112 lbs. (same as last year)
Half Marathon 1/6/2007: 2:14:32, 10:16/mile, 44 out of 597 F50-54, did not wear HRM
Half Marathon 1/7/2006: 2:07.17, 9:43/mile, 86 out of 789 F45-49, burned 1,206 calories, average heart rate 128
Full Marathon 1/7/2007: 4:31:13, 10:21/mile, 27 out of 361 F50-54, did not wear HRM
Full Marathon 1/8/2006: 4:27.07, 10:12/mile, 68 out of 586 F45-49, burned 2,398 calories, average heart rate 124
Combined Time 2007: 6:45:45, overall average 10:19/mile
Combined Time 2006: 6:34.24, overall average 10:02/mile
When I did this race last year, it was a new experience, so I went into it with a sense of fun and completing a new challenge. While I was preparing for it this time, I had designs on PR’ing the marathon and perhaps even qualifying for Boston. Neither of those things happened, but I am still glad I did this--although this was the last time, I swear! Having the race looming gave me a reason to do some serious running, including gaining some speed (which the numbers above don’t show), adding on to my running base, and giving me additional confidence that I should not have any problems (or at least no severe ones!) in attempting the Desoto American Triple T (DATTT) this May. DATTT will “only” have about 26.2 miles of running across its 3 days of 4 triathlons. I’m not saying it still won’t be tough, but at least I’ve exposed myself twice to a boatload of running across consecutive days.
I have gone without formal coaching since 11/13/2006. I figured out what I needed to do for Goofy by looking at what I had done last year and listening to my body. My coach knew I could handle the scheduling myself. About all I did differently was to make running the priority. So if I was tired and didn’t feel like getting up early to swim, I skipped it. If I didn’t feel like going as hard on the bike, I didn’t. But I did do a few longer long runs than I had done a year ago. What I didn’t have this time around was a recent marathon performance. In 2005, I ran a marathon by myself in “penance” for having DNF’ed at Ironman Wisconsin. But in 2006, my only marathon was at Ironman was Brazil in May. After that, I kept up more of a biking focus through August. After that, I switched gears into ½ Ironman training for Miami Man, and stepped up my running for Goofy.
As of 3 weeks ago, I was concerned that I had jacked up my lower back/hip mechanics, as evidenced by extreme tightness in my left calf muscles. It seemed to be worse when running on the treadmill, which was a new thing for me. Typically, the treadmill fixes up any lingering issues I developed from running on the roads all spring and summer. But this time, the treadmill took revenge on me. So last week’s runs prior to Goofy and the week before were done back on the roads. Yet I still didn’t know if I’d come out OK after Goofy.
I am running faster than a year ago. About 15-20 seconds per mile on long runs. My typical long run in the fall, winter and early spring starts with an easy (Z1) warm-up, building to a tempo (Z4) finish of 20-25 minutes. Last year my pace on these runs was 9:35-9:40, and this year it was 9:10-9:15. That’s not too shabby of an improvement considering I am always in training for some Ironman or another. I’ve read that you can improve your running for about 10 years from the point you begin doing it seriously, so that means I may have another 2-3years of improvement left! I think it may actually be more if I were to switch to pure running. At any rate, I am very happy (thanks, Coach) for the steady improvements that I’ve made over the past 3 years.
So, as is customary with triathletes and other OCD individuals, I began to experience goal inflation for this year’s Goofy. It was about late November when I thought, gosh, what time do I need to qualify for Boston? And then when I looked at that marathon pace (9:21/mile) against how I had been executing my long runs, I began to think it was doable. In retrospect, sure, if I didn’t run 13.1 miles the day before! Some highly gifted runners could pull it off, and I still believe that if I just go run a marathon and get decent weather (i.e., mid-60’s or lower), I can do it.
But you never know. Early last week was the first time I started looking at the weather forecast for Orlando. It didn’t look good. 70’s to 80’s and high humidity. I really didn’t think I could keep up my training paces under those conditions across 39.3 miles of running. My plan was to really hold back on the ½ marathon, and then try and go for it in the full.
I arrived in Orlando on Thursday, 1/4, quite late. My plane was delayed about an hour leaving Chicago O’Hare International airport because it began raining quite heavily early that afternoon. As soon as I stepped outside the plane, I could feel the humidity, and it didn’t feel good. By the time I got my rental car and drove to Kissimmee to my hotel, it was 12:30AM Friday, and I was unable to fall asleep. I am not sure how much I actually slept, but figured I’d be plenty tired the next night and catch up.
At 10:50AM EST on Friday, I went for a run from my hotel. Side note: this was the sleaziest hotel room I have ever stayed at in the Orlando area. But it served my needs, except that it didn’t have a coffee pot. Anyway, I suited up wearing as little as possible and headed out to run. It felt nice to be in shorts and a small top, but it was humid. As I was running, I felt like I was going at a peppy pace, despite the lack of sleep. But later in the day when I was driving to get some lunch and I was able to calculate how far I had run, it was disappointing to find out that I wasn’t really running as fast as I thought. So I gave myself a reality check as far as how fast I might be able to run in the races. I didn’t want to totally let go of my ultimate goal, yet I knew I had to be comfortable with something less.
I went to the expo for packet pickup around noon. The expo is pretty big, and you can find just about anything you need there. Just as for last year, in our packets we received a lightweight, long-sleeved technical shirt for the ½ marathon and another for the full marathon. We got our chips for both days. I ran into a guy I used to work with, who was running with his son and daughter. I asked who would win? He said his son probably would.
Last year I didn’t buy any Goofy-specific merchandise, but had decided I would get some this time around. Normally, I don’t buy race stuff until afterwards, but there would be no chance for that this time (or at least I wasn’t going to try), so I picked up a black t-shirt (can’t have too many of those), a baseball cap (I can’t call it a running hat because it’s mesh like a trucker’s hat) and a pin. This got me in the spirit of dropping cash mindlessly as is customary in Orlando.
I browsed around the expo just for fun (what else did I have to do?), and espied a nice Pearl Izumi tank top with fish on the front! As I looked at it, I saw it had a mesh back, and it occurred to me that this might be more comfortable (read cooler) than what I had planned to wear on Sunday. It was good that I could try it on, because many times I find I’m a size XS, but in this brand it turned out that S was good for me. I have many running tops that are tank-style, but none of them have mesh backs, so I think I may actually get some good use out of this one.
As I drove back to home base along the strip (Highway 192, or Irlo Bronson Memorial Highway) trying to decide what I wanted to eat for lunch, I found a sushi restaurant, which seemed perfect. I hadn’t had sushi in some months, and with all the soy sauce I would take in, decided this would be a good bet for some sodium loading for the warm race conditions. I ordered more sushi than I could eat all at once, which was fine, since I could finish it later for my dinner, which is what I ended up doing. My favorite thing was the conch sushi. Simply awesome!
Friday night, I again had difficulty falling asleep, but I wasn’t worried since all I had to do was run 13.1 miles on Saturday, and I was going to run easy. It was already almost 70 when I woke up at 2:30AM, and I had decided to use the race provided nutrition, so I wore pink shorts and a pink bra top, and my 2004 Kona Timex hat. When I got to Epcot, I saw people wearing a lot more clothing than me, and thought to myself how hot they would get. I wasn’t the least bit cold standing out in the open. I had scored some mango Gatorade (which I can rarely find at home) to sip on before the start.
Originally, I had planned to go 2:30 in the ½ marathon, that being an arbitrarily easy pace (11:27/mile) for me to run. I ran easy, easy, easy, but just couldn’t go much slower than about 10:31. In hindsight, maybe I should have taken very long walking breaks, but I was so hot and sticky that I didn’t want to prolong this any more, and my legs felt fine, and I knew I was going easy, because I could sing whenever I wanted to! I knew my stomach didn’t appreciate the Powerade at the aid stations, but I didn’t think it would create many problems on Sunday, since I’d also be using good old Ultra Violence. I did try a new flavor of Clif Shot, though—Apple Pie. It tasted like barf with cinnamon to me. I will not be purchasing any of that!
After I finished and showered up, I wasn’t really hungry (but I did remember to drink my Endurox R4), and I really didn’t want to walk around a bunch, so I stretched for close to an hour. Around 1:00PM I decided it was time to get some food, so I walked over to the IHOP. My legs felt absolutely great! Nothing was tight, I wasn’t finding any trigger points while I stretched, and walking was no problem. I felt much looser than after any of my 2-hour training runs, and I felt way better than I had last year after the Goofy ½ marathon, so I felt like I had held back enough. But the forecast for Sunday called for even warmer temperatures. I had 3 eggs, steak and pancakes for lunch at IHOP. YUM!!!!! Since that was such a big lunch, I knew I wouldn’t need to go out for dinner, and ended up topping off my tank with a couple of freebie Clif bars, some Pringles, and plenty of water. I had liberally applied salt to my lunch, and that combined with Pringles was sufficient salt loading for the marathon.
Saturday night I slept pretty well, although I only got 6.5 hours of sleep. It was tough to fall asleep at 8PM, especially since it felt like 7PM to me, coming from the Chicago area. Still, it was restful sleep, and I felt very refreshed upon waking. My legs felt great—almost like I hadn’t done anything the day before. I even managed to stretch for 15 minutes.
While getting dressed, I decided against pinning my bib number onto my brand new top because I wanted to be sure I got photos showing the fish! How messed up is that? Anyway, I matched it up with my lucky red long distance shorts (those red shorts have carried me through many successful Ironman runs). I had brought already defizzed Ultra Violence (Mountain Dew Code Red, for those of you not familiar with my pet name) with me, and had loaded up my (6) 6-oz. Fuel Belt bottles the night before. I attached my bib number to my race belt, which fit comfortably below the Fuel Belt (I’m pretty small in the hip area). For headgear, I had brought a visor, since I’d be out there longer and it would be warmer than on Saturday, and if necessary, I could pour cups of ice directly into it.
Breakfast was a Power Bar Triple Threat, 3 cups of 7-Eleven coffee, 16 oz. of water, a gulp of Ultra Violence, and I took along a 20-oz. bottle of mango Gatorade to drink up until the start. The morning dawned with what seemed like less humidity than on Saturday, but I think I was already acclimating to the conditions, because it was really about the same. Driving to Epcot again in the dark, I didn’t notice anything peculiar about the weather, and I felt great. It was only when they began walking us to the start corrals that I noticed something—fog—and lots of it. It wasn’t just above us—it was AROUND us. We were literally in the fog.
We could feel ourselves soaking up water like sponges as we marched to our start area. While my legs felt wonderful and it wasn’t yet too hot, I was not optimistic about running fast this day. I knew the humidity would be oppressive, so I began to think about what I wanted to accomplish. And then I thought, let’s just run a few miles and see what unfolds.
I was in the 2nd corral behind the start line, so I wouldn’t have to jostle for room. I started running, real easy, but purposeful. 9:21 should feel easy. Mile 1: 9:29. That’s fine, I can pick it up. Mile 2: 9:25. Miles 3-4: 18:42 (9:21). I asked myself how that pace felt and whether I could keep it up. The answer was probably not, but let’s just keep this effort up. Mile 5: 9:37. Crap, I’m slowing down already. Mile 6: 9:49. Right about here I knew I was off Boston qualifying pace, so I had to make some decisions. Did I want to bag it now and commence walking? I was only walking briefly through the aid stations. I decided to keep running at this pace through the halfway point and then re-evaluate. I really didn’t care how much I might slow down after the halfway point.
I got to 13 miles in 2:05, so I was already about 5 minutes slower than Boston qualifying pace. I knew there was no way in hell I could make that up, so I let the pressure off of myself. Bonus, my legs really started to hurt at this point. Perhaps it was exacerbated by the extreme camber of some of the roads (I had forgotten just how bad they were), or maybe it was just that I had run 26 miles already between yesterday and now! We had been in the fog for 2 hours, and to make things even better, now the sun came out with guns blazing! So I knew things would get worse, and then I began to think about my ultimate goal. At first I was thinking 4:20, but then I guess I just didn’t care enough to push that hard, so I sort of went on autopilot. It was hot and sunny, and I was covered with salt and assorted slime, and my legs hurt like sons of bitches.
One of the saving graces was that every 1-2 miles they had people giving out Biofreeze. I would take a small handful and apply liberally to my screaming quads. I am not sure it actually did anything, but it did take my mind off the pain for at least ½ mile each time I used it.
Originally I wasn’t planning on switching to the Ultra Violence until Mile 15 or so, but after the first hour when I had already determined I was off Boston pace and that this was going to hurt, I decided to alternate it with Powerade at each aid station. It worked like a charm to at least keep my brain from deciding to shut things down altogether.
I managed to find the beer mile, sponsored by a Hash House Harriers group. They only had small cups (about 4 oz. worth), but man it tasted great! I should have taken more, but by that time (Mile 18 I think?), I was not interested in prolonging this pain festival any more than necessary, so on I went.
As much pain as I was feeling, I was passing a lot of runners who weren’t running Goofy. Us loonies were sporting special blue wristbands, and you can bet I was looking for them, even though I was off pace for my original goal. Passing people who were just doing the marathon gave me a slight boost. I think it was Mile 19 where I was listening to AC/DC’s Highway to Hell, and I sung loudly as well as I could, since I was also laughing, and my quads were screaming. How appropriate!
I was really feeling it during the last 5 miles, and just before we hit the Mile 25 marker, a 4:30 pace girl came up from behind. I thought, OK, let’s do this thing—all I have to do is stay with her (she had quite a small group—no doubt she had lost many folks along the way) and run it in. So I did, but it didn’t seem like she was on pace, either. Oh well, at least I am not going to slow down.
The last mile is winding around Epcot, so we’re on concrete, which just enhances the pain in your quads. I didn’t care. I wanted it to be OVER. I ran, I ran, and then, boom, I was done.
I headed to the medical tent to get ice for my knees as a preventive strategy. My knees themselves felt fine, but I knew they would be vulnerable to after the fact pain. So I sat for about 10 minutes with the ice on them, and then I removed the bags and put one on my head. Well, I guess my core temperature had gone up a few notches, because I couldn’t really feel any cold on my head. I’m not really sure what the air temperature was at that point, but my guess is high 70’s or low 80’s. I ambled slowly over to the area to collect my Goofy medal. I told one of the volunteers it should have been labeled “Idiot Tent.” But what the hell, I did it again, and so gimme my stinking Goofy medal!
For some reason, I didn’t remember being in such pain a year ago while running the marathon. Maybe because I ran the first ½ faster this year, maybe I just have short term memory! I think forgetting about the pain you experience in these events is a protective mechanism of our brains. I shuffled some more to get a finisher photo taken, and I sure hope those fish on my top show up!
I was so gross from all the sweat, salt, Biofreeze and general drool that I didn’t hang out to cheer others on. I needed a shower and FAST. When I got back to my hotel, the first thing I did was wash my face. I wanted to get all the salt off of it before I popped out my contact lenses. Then I took off my clothes. They were soaked through and through, just as they were the day before after the ½ marathon, only I think I smelled worse on Sunday! There were a few times during the races when I would run up near someone and notice their stench, but I figured I must have smelled just as badly. When I took off my shoes and socks, I could see (as expected) 3 blisters on my right foot—one on the medial side of my big toe, a blood blister on the lateral side of the 2nd toe from the right, and one on the bottom of my little toe. I guessed that my 2nd toe (which is longer than my big toe) on each foot was probably going to lose its toenail. Ah, the pleasures of running with sweaty feet!
I got in the shower, and as I rinsed my head, I could tell there was salt crusted around my eyes! Man, had I ever sweated! I was a bit dehydrated, as you’d expect, which I can always tell by pressing on my triceps muscles and feeling them hurt just a little bit. But as always, it was the BEST SHOWER EVER—well, except for it being in a dive hotel room.
I was not immediately hungry but knew that I needed to get on my rehydration. Luckily, I had remembered to premix (and chill—at least my dive had a refrigerator) some Endurox R4, and so I downed that and had a little lay down. Around 12:30 I decided to drive (walking was not a good bet at this point) to McDonald’s for lunch. I only go to McDonald’s after I have run a marathon—either open or Ironman. It’s the only time I can justify such blatant disregard for my body’s nutritional needs, or at least I know it won’t make me feel badly. I had a Quarter Pounder with Cheese (Royale with Cheese, for you French folks or Pulp Fiction aficionados), medium fries and lemonade. I ate while sitting out in the sun, which at this point felt good, knowing I’d be returning to colder Chicago in a few days.
After the junk food, I had a hankering for some beer, so I headed to go buy some, went back to the dive, and drank a few while lying in bed. Around 5:15 I ambled down to Pleasure Island to view the results and see if I could catch the awards presentation, which I did. Of course, I didn’t win anything, but I knew someone who did, so it was good to cheer for him.
On my way back to the dive, I went back to the sushi restaurant again. I ordered what I thought I’d be able to finish—about 25 pieces of sushi and assorted rolls—but was only able to eat half of it. Which was fine, because I figured I might want the rest later or something, but it turns out I was quite full.
I slept well Sunday night, because I didn’t have to try to be asleep by 8PM, nor did I have to wake up at any particular time. I got a solid 9 hours. I had more or less decided to get an earlier flight on Tuesday, so on Monday my plan was to hang out at Sea World. I thought I might also catch a movie later in the day, but that never happened. I walked so slowly while at Sea World that I was there pretty much all day, and found myself exhausted by the time I returned back to home base.
I took in the “Shamu” show and also the dolphin show while at Sea World. I enjoyed it, especially when I discovered that the park is owned by Annheuser-Busch, meaning that bottles of water cost $3.00, but beer is FREE! People could tell that I had run on Sunday (and I would mention to them also on Saturday) by the way I could barely walk and had trouble with the stairs in the stadiums where the shows were held. But it was a good kind of trouble, if you know what I mean.
While Sea World was enjoyable, I really do not like the idea of keeping such amazing ocean creatures as the orca whales and dolphins in captivity. In the orca tank, I could tell that most of the whales were females by the size of their dorsal fins. Female orcas are much smaller than males, and no doubt less aggressive and possibly easier to train. There was one male who was HUGE, that came up on a platform so we could see his entire size. He had a really long dorsal fin, but it was curled over. Something told me that this is indicative of stress. I have never seen photos or film footage of orcas with curled over dorsal fins. But I found this: http://whale.wheelock.edu/archives/whalenet95/0034.html, so perhaps that big guy I saw was OK. Call me weird, but I had this secret desire to see one of the whales go postal on the trainers. I give those trainers credit, though—they must have a healthy respect for these great predators.
One thing I didn’t notice at Sea World was any display discussing the overfishing of the oceans. I couldn’t find anything on the website, either. I think it would be responsible to point out to the visitors that many of the creatures we were looking at are endangered either due to us eating too many of them, us eating their food or pollution of the oceans. Oh well, you can’t have everything.
I found it comical that at any of the displays where we could buy fish/squid/whatever to feed to the thing in the display that there were many egrets hanging out trying to cop a free meal. The egrets were quite aggressive. I thought to myself that all the egrets that live within flight distance of Sea World must have some sort of system to decide who gets to go visit each day. There were even egrets hanging out at the orca and dolphin shows, and a few of them managed to snag fish when the trainers accidentally left a treat box open.
My best memory of Sea World is the seahorses that look like they have leaves growing out of them (photo at the beginning of this post). It made me feel like a child to look at these things, and recapture the feeling of Nature as being far superior to anything us humans can produce.
I didn’t have the energy to go out to eat after all the stumbling around at Sea World, and I decided I had earned one more bad meal to enjoy, so I ordered a pizza. I think that’s the 2nd time I’ve eaten pizza in the last 12 months. Good thing, because it really is quite heavy.
Tuesday morning I woke up, went to 7-Eleven to get my coffee, ate breakfast, stretched, and then drove to the airport where I easily got on the earlier flight (12:15) to Chicago on standby. I enjoyed my stay in Orlando, but at this point, frankly, I was done with the Magic Kingdom! I don’t think I’ll be back for awhile, but somehow I keep ending up in Florida, so I wouldn’t count it out totally.
My plan is not to run until Sunday or maybe even wait a few more days. I lifted weights Tuesday evening when I got home (no leg work, though). I went to swim at lunch Wednesday, and the swimming was OK, but my quads hurt when I pushed off the wall, so I stopped after 30 minutes. I thought I’d finish my weight routine and do my legs, but found out that my quads were still nowhere to be found, so I did everything but quad work (hamstrings, calves and anything with a stable knee were fine).
I got a massage Wednesday night, and my therapist went pretty deep on me, including my quads, and it didn’t feel bad. But Thursday I found myself pretty tired, and so I did not do any exercise. Today I may or may not swim—I feel a little cold coming on. At this point, rest is my priority, and there’s no rush for me to do anything—the next thing I have coming up is a 2/11 indoor sprint race, and I know I’ll be ready for it. My guess is my bike legs will suffer the rest of this month and that I’ll really come around in February. I should be back on 1:30 runs next week already, so it’s all good.
Actually I’m pleased at how good I feel, all things considered. I don’t think I’ve damaged anything, and everything is working fine, just a bit slow. My legs are still a bit puffy, and I’m up about 3 lbs. as a result, but that should go away by the weekend. Now it’s time for me to get back on some much better nutrition, since I won’t be running as much as I was, and I need to watch my intake a bit more closely.
4 ½ months until my next major adventure. I can’t wait!
Weight: 112 lbs. (same as last year)
Half Marathon 1/6/2007: 2:14:32, 10:16/mile, 44 out of 597 F50-54, did not wear HRM
Half Marathon 1/7/2006: 2:07.17, 9:43/mile, 86 out of 789 F45-49, burned 1,206 calories, average heart rate 128
Full Marathon 1/7/2007: 4:31:13, 10:21/mile, 27 out of 361 F50-54, did not wear HRM
Full Marathon 1/8/2006: 4:27.07, 10:12/mile, 68 out of 586 F45-49, burned 2,398 calories, average heart rate 124
Combined Time 2007: 6:45:45, overall average 10:19/mile
Combined Time 2006: 6:34.24, overall average 10:02/mile
When I did this race last year, it was a new experience, so I went into it with a sense of fun and completing a new challenge. While I was preparing for it this time, I had designs on PR’ing the marathon and perhaps even qualifying for Boston. Neither of those things happened, but I am still glad I did this--although this was the last time, I swear! Having the race looming gave me a reason to do some serious running, including gaining some speed (which the numbers above don’t show), adding on to my running base, and giving me additional confidence that I should not have any problems (or at least no severe ones!) in attempting the Desoto American Triple T (DATTT) this May. DATTT will “only” have about 26.2 miles of running across its 3 days of 4 triathlons. I’m not saying it still won’t be tough, but at least I’ve exposed myself twice to a boatload of running across consecutive days.
I have gone without formal coaching since 11/13/2006. I figured out what I needed to do for Goofy by looking at what I had done last year and listening to my body. My coach knew I could handle the scheduling myself. About all I did differently was to make running the priority. So if I was tired and didn’t feel like getting up early to swim, I skipped it. If I didn’t feel like going as hard on the bike, I didn’t. But I did do a few longer long runs than I had done a year ago. What I didn’t have this time around was a recent marathon performance. In 2005, I ran a marathon by myself in “penance” for having DNF’ed at Ironman Wisconsin. But in 2006, my only marathon was at Ironman was Brazil in May. After that, I kept up more of a biking focus through August. After that, I switched gears into ½ Ironman training for Miami Man, and stepped up my running for Goofy.
As of 3 weeks ago, I was concerned that I had jacked up my lower back/hip mechanics, as evidenced by extreme tightness in my left calf muscles. It seemed to be worse when running on the treadmill, which was a new thing for me. Typically, the treadmill fixes up any lingering issues I developed from running on the roads all spring and summer. But this time, the treadmill took revenge on me. So last week’s runs prior to Goofy and the week before were done back on the roads. Yet I still didn’t know if I’d come out OK after Goofy.
I am running faster than a year ago. About 15-20 seconds per mile on long runs. My typical long run in the fall, winter and early spring starts with an easy (Z1) warm-up, building to a tempo (Z4) finish of 20-25 minutes. Last year my pace on these runs was 9:35-9:40, and this year it was 9:10-9:15. That’s not too shabby of an improvement considering I am always in training for some Ironman or another. I’ve read that you can improve your running for about 10 years from the point you begin doing it seriously, so that means I may have another 2-3years of improvement left! I think it may actually be more if I were to switch to pure running. At any rate, I am very happy (thanks, Coach) for the steady improvements that I’ve made over the past 3 years.
So, as is customary with triathletes and other OCD individuals, I began to experience goal inflation for this year’s Goofy. It was about late November when I thought, gosh, what time do I need to qualify for Boston? And then when I looked at that marathon pace (9:21/mile) against how I had been executing my long runs, I began to think it was doable. In retrospect, sure, if I didn’t run 13.1 miles the day before! Some highly gifted runners could pull it off, and I still believe that if I just go run a marathon and get decent weather (i.e., mid-60’s or lower), I can do it.
But you never know. Early last week was the first time I started looking at the weather forecast for Orlando. It didn’t look good. 70’s to 80’s and high humidity. I really didn’t think I could keep up my training paces under those conditions across 39.3 miles of running. My plan was to really hold back on the ½ marathon, and then try and go for it in the full.
I arrived in Orlando on Thursday, 1/4, quite late. My plane was delayed about an hour leaving Chicago O’Hare International airport because it began raining quite heavily early that afternoon. As soon as I stepped outside the plane, I could feel the humidity, and it didn’t feel good. By the time I got my rental car and drove to Kissimmee to my hotel, it was 12:30AM Friday, and I was unable to fall asleep. I am not sure how much I actually slept, but figured I’d be plenty tired the next night and catch up.
At 10:50AM EST on Friday, I went for a run from my hotel. Side note: this was the sleaziest hotel room I have ever stayed at in the Orlando area. But it served my needs, except that it didn’t have a coffee pot. Anyway, I suited up wearing as little as possible and headed out to run. It felt nice to be in shorts and a small top, but it was humid. As I was running, I felt like I was going at a peppy pace, despite the lack of sleep. But later in the day when I was driving to get some lunch and I was able to calculate how far I had run, it was disappointing to find out that I wasn’t really running as fast as I thought. So I gave myself a reality check as far as how fast I might be able to run in the races. I didn’t want to totally let go of my ultimate goal, yet I knew I had to be comfortable with something less.
I went to the expo for packet pickup around noon. The expo is pretty big, and you can find just about anything you need there. Just as for last year, in our packets we received a lightweight, long-sleeved technical shirt for the ½ marathon and another for the full marathon. We got our chips for both days. I ran into a guy I used to work with, who was running with his son and daughter. I asked who would win? He said his son probably would.
Last year I didn’t buy any Goofy-specific merchandise, but had decided I would get some this time around. Normally, I don’t buy race stuff until afterwards, but there would be no chance for that this time (or at least I wasn’t going to try), so I picked up a black t-shirt (can’t have too many of those), a baseball cap (I can’t call it a running hat because it’s mesh like a trucker’s hat) and a pin. This got me in the spirit of dropping cash mindlessly as is customary in Orlando.
I browsed around the expo just for fun (what else did I have to do?), and espied a nice Pearl Izumi tank top with fish on the front! As I looked at it, I saw it had a mesh back, and it occurred to me that this might be more comfortable (read cooler) than what I had planned to wear on Sunday. It was good that I could try it on, because many times I find I’m a size XS, but in this brand it turned out that S was good for me. I have many running tops that are tank-style, but none of them have mesh backs, so I think I may actually get some good use out of this one.
As I drove back to home base along the strip (Highway 192, or Irlo Bronson Memorial Highway) trying to decide what I wanted to eat for lunch, I found a sushi restaurant, which seemed perfect. I hadn’t had sushi in some months, and with all the soy sauce I would take in, decided this would be a good bet for some sodium loading for the warm race conditions. I ordered more sushi than I could eat all at once, which was fine, since I could finish it later for my dinner, which is what I ended up doing. My favorite thing was the conch sushi. Simply awesome!
Friday night, I again had difficulty falling asleep, but I wasn’t worried since all I had to do was run 13.1 miles on Saturday, and I was going to run easy. It was already almost 70 when I woke up at 2:30AM, and I had decided to use the race provided nutrition, so I wore pink shorts and a pink bra top, and my 2004 Kona Timex hat. When I got to Epcot, I saw people wearing a lot more clothing than me, and thought to myself how hot they would get. I wasn’t the least bit cold standing out in the open. I had scored some mango Gatorade (which I can rarely find at home) to sip on before the start.
Originally, I had planned to go 2:30 in the ½ marathon, that being an arbitrarily easy pace (11:27/mile) for me to run. I ran easy, easy, easy, but just couldn’t go much slower than about 10:31. In hindsight, maybe I should have taken very long walking breaks, but I was so hot and sticky that I didn’t want to prolong this any more, and my legs felt fine, and I knew I was going easy, because I could sing whenever I wanted to! I knew my stomach didn’t appreciate the Powerade at the aid stations, but I didn’t think it would create many problems on Sunday, since I’d also be using good old Ultra Violence. I did try a new flavor of Clif Shot, though—Apple Pie. It tasted like barf with cinnamon to me. I will not be purchasing any of that!
After I finished and showered up, I wasn’t really hungry (but I did remember to drink my Endurox R4), and I really didn’t want to walk around a bunch, so I stretched for close to an hour. Around 1:00PM I decided it was time to get some food, so I walked over to the IHOP. My legs felt absolutely great! Nothing was tight, I wasn’t finding any trigger points while I stretched, and walking was no problem. I felt much looser than after any of my 2-hour training runs, and I felt way better than I had last year after the Goofy ½ marathon, so I felt like I had held back enough. But the forecast for Sunday called for even warmer temperatures. I had 3 eggs, steak and pancakes for lunch at IHOP. YUM!!!!! Since that was such a big lunch, I knew I wouldn’t need to go out for dinner, and ended up topping off my tank with a couple of freebie Clif bars, some Pringles, and plenty of water. I had liberally applied salt to my lunch, and that combined with Pringles was sufficient salt loading for the marathon.
Saturday night I slept pretty well, although I only got 6.5 hours of sleep. It was tough to fall asleep at 8PM, especially since it felt like 7PM to me, coming from the Chicago area. Still, it was restful sleep, and I felt very refreshed upon waking. My legs felt great—almost like I hadn’t done anything the day before. I even managed to stretch for 15 minutes.
While getting dressed, I decided against pinning my bib number onto my brand new top because I wanted to be sure I got photos showing the fish! How messed up is that? Anyway, I matched it up with my lucky red long distance shorts (those red shorts have carried me through many successful Ironman runs). I had brought already defizzed Ultra Violence (Mountain Dew Code Red, for those of you not familiar with my pet name) with me, and had loaded up my (6) 6-oz. Fuel Belt bottles the night before. I attached my bib number to my race belt, which fit comfortably below the Fuel Belt (I’m pretty small in the hip area). For headgear, I had brought a visor, since I’d be out there longer and it would be warmer than on Saturday, and if necessary, I could pour cups of ice directly into it.
Breakfast was a Power Bar Triple Threat, 3 cups of 7-Eleven coffee, 16 oz. of water, a gulp of Ultra Violence, and I took along a 20-oz. bottle of mango Gatorade to drink up until the start. The morning dawned with what seemed like less humidity than on Saturday, but I think I was already acclimating to the conditions, because it was really about the same. Driving to Epcot again in the dark, I didn’t notice anything peculiar about the weather, and I felt great. It was only when they began walking us to the start corrals that I noticed something—fog—and lots of it. It wasn’t just above us—it was AROUND us. We were literally in the fog.
We could feel ourselves soaking up water like sponges as we marched to our start area. While my legs felt wonderful and it wasn’t yet too hot, I was not optimistic about running fast this day. I knew the humidity would be oppressive, so I began to think about what I wanted to accomplish. And then I thought, let’s just run a few miles and see what unfolds.
I was in the 2nd corral behind the start line, so I wouldn’t have to jostle for room. I started running, real easy, but purposeful. 9:21 should feel easy. Mile 1: 9:29. That’s fine, I can pick it up. Mile 2: 9:25. Miles 3-4: 18:42 (9:21). I asked myself how that pace felt and whether I could keep it up. The answer was probably not, but let’s just keep this effort up. Mile 5: 9:37. Crap, I’m slowing down already. Mile 6: 9:49. Right about here I knew I was off Boston qualifying pace, so I had to make some decisions. Did I want to bag it now and commence walking? I was only walking briefly through the aid stations. I decided to keep running at this pace through the halfway point and then re-evaluate. I really didn’t care how much I might slow down after the halfway point.
I got to 13 miles in 2:05, so I was already about 5 minutes slower than Boston qualifying pace. I knew there was no way in hell I could make that up, so I let the pressure off of myself. Bonus, my legs really started to hurt at this point. Perhaps it was exacerbated by the extreme camber of some of the roads (I had forgotten just how bad they were), or maybe it was just that I had run 26 miles already between yesterday and now! We had been in the fog for 2 hours, and to make things even better, now the sun came out with guns blazing! So I knew things would get worse, and then I began to think about my ultimate goal. At first I was thinking 4:20, but then I guess I just didn’t care enough to push that hard, so I sort of went on autopilot. It was hot and sunny, and I was covered with salt and assorted slime, and my legs hurt like sons of bitches.
One of the saving graces was that every 1-2 miles they had people giving out Biofreeze. I would take a small handful and apply liberally to my screaming quads. I am not sure it actually did anything, but it did take my mind off the pain for at least ½ mile each time I used it.
Originally I wasn’t planning on switching to the Ultra Violence until Mile 15 or so, but after the first hour when I had already determined I was off Boston pace and that this was going to hurt, I decided to alternate it with Powerade at each aid station. It worked like a charm to at least keep my brain from deciding to shut things down altogether.
I managed to find the beer mile, sponsored by a Hash House Harriers group. They only had small cups (about 4 oz. worth), but man it tasted great! I should have taken more, but by that time (Mile 18 I think?), I was not interested in prolonging this pain festival any more than necessary, so on I went.
As much pain as I was feeling, I was passing a lot of runners who weren’t running Goofy. Us loonies were sporting special blue wristbands, and you can bet I was looking for them, even though I was off pace for my original goal. Passing people who were just doing the marathon gave me a slight boost. I think it was Mile 19 where I was listening to AC/DC’s Highway to Hell, and I sung loudly as well as I could, since I was also laughing, and my quads were screaming. How appropriate!
I was really feeling it during the last 5 miles, and just before we hit the Mile 25 marker, a 4:30 pace girl came up from behind. I thought, OK, let’s do this thing—all I have to do is stay with her (she had quite a small group—no doubt she had lost many folks along the way) and run it in. So I did, but it didn’t seem like she was on pace, either. Oh well, at least I am not going to slow down.
The last mile is winding around Epcot, so we’re on concrete, which just enhances the pain in your quads. I didn’t care. I wanted it to be OVER. I ran, I ran, and then, boom, I was done.
I headed to the medical tent to get ice for my knees as a preventive strategy. My knees themselves felt fine, but I knew they would be vulnerable to after the fact pain. So I sat for about 10 minutes with the ice on them, and then I removed the bags and put one on my head. Well, I guess my core temperature had gone up a few notches, because I couldn’t really feel any cold on my head. I’m not really sure what the air temperature was at that point, but my guess is high 70’s or low 80’s. I ambled slowly over to the area to collect my Goofy medal. I told one of the volunteers it should have been labeled “Idiot Tent.” But what the hell, I did it again, and so gimme my stinking Goofy medal!
For some reason, I didn’t remember being in such pain a year ago while running the marathon. Maybe because I ran the first ½ faster this year, maybe I just have short term memory! I think forgetting about the pain you experience in these events is a protective mechanism of our brains. I shuffled some more to get a finisher photo taken, and I sure hope those fish on my top show up!
I was so gross from all the sweat, salt, Biofreeze and general drool that I didn’t hang out to cheer others on. I needed a shower and FAST. When I got back to my hotel, the first thing I did was wash my face. I wanted to get all the salt off of it before I popped out my contact lenses. Then I took off my clothes. They were soaked through and through, just as they were the day before after the ½ marathon, only I think I smelled worse on Sunday! There were a few times during the races when I would run up near someone and notice their stench, but I figured I must have smelled just as badly. When I took off my shoes and socks, I could see (as expected) 3 blisters on my right foot—one on the medial side of my big toe, a blood blister on the lateral side of the 2nd toe from the right, and one on the bottom of my little toe. I guessed that my 2nd toe (which is longer than my big toe) on each foot was probably going to lose its toenail. Ah, the pleasures of running with sweaty feet!
I got in the shower, and as I rinsed my head, I could tell there was salt crusted around my eyes! Man, had I ever sweated! I was a bit dehydrated, as you’d expect, which I can always tell by pressing on my triceps muscles and feeling them hurt just a little bit. But as always, it was the BEST SHOWER EVER—well, except for it being in a dive hotel room.
I was not immediately hungry but knew that I needed to get on my rehydration. Luckily, I had remembered to premix (and chill—at least my dive had a refrigerator) some Endurox R4, and so I downed that and had a little lay down. Around 12:30 I decided to drive (walking was not a good bet at this point) to McDonald’s for lunch. I only go to McDonald’s after I have run a marathon—either open or Ironman. It’s the only time I can justify such blatant disregard for my body’s nutritional needs, or at least I know it won’t make me feel badly. I had a Quarter Pounder with Cheese (Royale with Cheese, for you French folks or Pulp Fiction aficionados), medium fries and lemonade. I ate while sitting out in the sun, which at this point felt good, knowing I’d be returning to colder Chicago in a few days.
After the junk food, I had a hankering for some beer, so I headed to go buy some, went back to the dive, and drank a few while lying in bed. Around 5:15 I ambled down to Pleasure Island to view the results and see if I could catch the awards presentation, which I did. Of course, I didn’t win anything, but I knew someone who did, so it was good to cheer for him.
On my way back to the dive, I went back to the sushi restaurant again. I ordered what I thought I’d be able to finish—about 25 pieces of sushi and assorted rolls—but was only able to eat half of it. Which was fine, because I figured I might want the rest later or something, but it turns out I was quite full.
I slept well Sunday night, because I didn’t have to try to be asleep by 8PM, nor did I have to wake up at any particular time. I got a solid 9 hours. I had more or less decided to get an earlier flight on Tuesday, so on Monday my plan was to hang out at Sea World. I thought I might also catch a movie later in the day, but that never happened. I walked so slowly while at Sea World that I was there pretty much all day, and found myself exhausted by the time I returned back to home base.
I took in the “Shamu” show and also the dolphin show while at Sea World. I enjoyed it, especially when I discovered that the park is owned by Annheuser-Busch, meaning that bottles of water cost $3.00, but beer is FREE! People could tell that I had run on Sunday (and I would mention to them also on Saturday) by the way I could barely walk and had trouble with the stairs in the stadiums where the shows were held. But it was a good kind of trouble, if you know what I mean.
While Sea World was enjoyable, I really do not like the idea of keeping such amazing ocean creatures as the orca whales and dolphins in captivity. In the orca tank, I could tell that most of the whales were females by the size of their dorsal fins. Female orcas are much smaller than males, and no doubt less aggressive and possibly easier to train. There was one male who was HUGE, that came up on a platform so we could see his entire size. He had a really long dorsal fin, but it was curled over. Something told me that this is indicative of stress. I have never seen photos or film footage of orcas with curled over dorsal fins. But I found this: http://whale.wheelock.edu/archives/whalenet95/0034.html, so perhaps that big guy I saw was OK. Call me weird, but I had this secret desire to see one of the whales go postal on the trainers. I give those trainers credit, though—they must have a healthy respect for these great predators.
One thing I didn’t notice at Sea World was any display discussing the overfishing of the oceans. I couldn’t find anything on the website, either. I think it would be responsible to point out to the visitors that many of the creatures we were looking at are endangered either due to us eating too many of them, us eating their food or pollution of the oceans. Oh well, you can’t have everything.
I found it comical that at any of the displays where we could buy fish/squid/whatever to feed to the thing in the display that there were many egrets hanging out trying to cop a free meal. The egrets were quite aggressive. I thought to myself that all the egrets that live within flight distance of Sea World must have some sort of system to decide who gets to go visit each day. There were even egrets hanging out at the orca and dolphin shows, and a few of them managed to snag fish when the trainers accidentally left a treat box open.
My best memory of Sea World is the seahorses that look like they have leaves growing out of them (photo at the beginning of this post). It made me feel like a child to look at these things, and recapture the feeling of Nature as being far superior to anything us humans can produce.
I didn’t have the energy to go out to eat after all the stumbling around at Sea World, and I decided I had earned one more bad meal to enjoy, so I ordered a pizza. I think that’s the 2nd time I’ve eaten pizza in the last 12 months. Good thing, because it really is quite heavy.
Tuesday morning I woke up, went to 7-Eleven to get my coffee, ate breakfast, stretched, and then drove to the airport where I easily got on the earlier flight (12:15) to Chicago on standby. I enjoyed my stay in Orlando, but at this point, frankly, I was done with the Magic Kingdom! I don’t think I’ll be back for awhile, but somehow I keep ending up in Florida, so I wouldn’t count it out totally.
My plan is not to run until Sunday or maybe even wait a few more days. I lifted weights Tuesday evening when I got home (no leg work, though). I went to swim at lunch Wednesday, and the swimming was OK, but my quads hurt when I pushed off the wall, so I stopped after 30 minutes. I thought I’d finish my weight routine and do my legs, but found out that my quads were still nowhere to be found, so I did everything but quad work (hamstrings, calves and anything with a stable knee were fine).
I got a massage Wednesday night, and my therapist went pretty deep on me, including my quads, and it didn’t feel bad. But Thursday I found myself pretty tired, and so I did not do any exercise. Today I may or may not swim—I feel a little cold coming on. At this point, rest is my priority, and there’s no rush for me to do anything—the next thing I have coming up is a 2/11 indoor sprint race, and I know I’ll be ready for it. My guess is my bike legs will suffer the rest of this month and that I’ll really come around in February. I should be back on 1:30 runs next week already, so it’s all good.
Actually I’m pleased at how good I feel, all things considered. I don’t think I’ve damaged anything, and everything is working fine, just a bit slow. My legs are still a bit puffy, and I’m up about 3 lbs. as a result, but that should go away by the weekend. Now it’s time for me to get back on some much better nutrition, since I won’t be running as much as I was, and I need to watch my intake a bit more closely.
4 ½ months until my next major adventure. I can’t wait!
