A New Record!
Unlike previous attempts, I have been diligent this time around. Instead of just running three miles regularly and rarely running five miles as my long runs, I have been loosely running five milers during the week and long runs of 10 or more on Saturdays this year. I say loosely because there was a period of four weeks where I could not run after getting injured from playing football. And my doctor threatened if I didn't stop running for three weeks, he would not treat me for the additional injury. I thought he was kidding, but I didn't want to test it like how I did with my mom when she would yell, "Do that one more time and I'll spank you!" Somehow, my mom always ended up following through with her threats. My well-scarred ass can attest to that.
Anyway... While all my CARA (Chicago Area Runners Association) friends began training on June 9 for the marathon, I didn't even start my long run till a couple weeks later, which was only 6 miles on June 23. Not much of a "long" run, I'd say. The following Saturday on June 30, I ran 8 miles, which preceded the Race to Taste 5K the next day. This is where I was not thinking straight, because right after the 5K race, I went and played over three hours of intense football, which ended me up with a twisted ankle.
Even though I was supposed to rest for three weeks, I couldn't resist going to the Nike Rock & Run on July 14 after just two weeks of rest. I simply wanted to test out the healing progress of my ankle. My injured ankle felt tingly and numb during the race. I thought, Yup, it isn't completely healed yet! so I forced myself to slow down. After that race, I took a couple weeks off until July 28 (for a total of four weeks), when I ran 11 miles, followed by 12 miles on August 4.
All in all, I felt pretty confident for the LaSalle Bank Chicago Distance Classic Half Marathon this past Sunday. Even with a four week running break, I actually had some distance training under my belt overall. I couldn't say nearly the same for any of my previous half marathons, which preparation typically involved running no more than 5 miles and drinking and staying up the night before a race. My goal this time around was to simply beat the flat two hour completion time. It wasn't entirely impossible, since my average slow pace has been 10 minute miles.
Knowing what I know, I went to bed on Saturday night pretty early. The plan was to wake up super early on Sunday, eat some breakfast, sit on the toilet for a long time so I could empty out my colon, and spend time putting on Body Glide at strategic areas around my body such as my nipples, waistline, and jock lines. After all, forecast for Sunday August 12 was going to be super hot and humid, and I didn't want what happened to me previously to recur.*
But alas! I woke up a full hour later than planned, ate too much cereal, and although I did relieve myself in the wash room at home, I still ran into problems at the race. Apparently, I did not empty myself all out, because right into mile 4, I began spending a lot of my energy holding it in! In all my experiences in many races, I have always prepared myself fairly well as far as avoiding the need to drop the kids off at the pool. And this was my very first race where this has ever happened to me!
The feeling sucked! Remember when you were a kid, and your parents' idea of an excellent family QT (quality time) was to strap you to the back of the station wagon and drive all day across the country to some promised land where you will definitely love and enjoy, which ultimately always ended up being a disappointment? Yeah, remember those times, when you were at the mercy of your parents' restroom schedule, not your's? Yeah, that's how I felt during the race.
I had the opportunity to relief myself at mile 6 while running under McCormick Place Convention Center, where they had huge restrooms instead of portapots, I stupidly ran on. My thinking was that if I held it in long enough, my body will simply forget about it. But it didn't. Besides, we had been running pretty slowly, and my target was simply getting out of reach. We couldn't waste any more time, and needed to catch up, thus we soldiered on.
Somewhere in the middle of mile 8, I saw a park restroom. Having had a torturous run the last four miles, where all I could think about for the better part of the last half hour was using a restroom just like in those silly incontinence medication adverts you see on television, I decided that it was time to just take the Browns to the Super Bowl. Unfortunately, the park restroom only had two toilets, and I certainly was not the only runner with a similar problem. So I had to wait. After wasting almost 7 minutes, I was out of there.
Oh! My! Gosh! I felt nearly a hundred times better. My mind suddenly became clear, thus allowing me to run better. I didn't have to spend the extra energy on the muscles in the lower abdomen and posterior for anything. Now all I had to do was use less of my abdominal muscles, just enough so as to control my breathing and balance. I suddenly could run faster!
And faster I did run! Consider this: It took me 1:16:43 (hr:min:sec)to get to the halfway point of the race. And the rest room I used was located in the second half of the race. Including the near 7 minutes I spent dropping the kids off at the pool, I ran the second half of the race in 0:53:22! My previous personal best split for a half marathon was 0:57:12! Cool, huh?
Unfortunately, that isn't my new personal record that I am writing about. My first half marathon result at the 2005 Chicago Distance Classic on August 7, 2005 was 2:04:25, with an average pace of 9:30 minute mile. My second half marathon result at the 2005 Chicago Half Marathon on September 25, 2005 was 1:55:33, with an average pace of 8:50 minute mile, my personal best.
My new personal record was definitely established this year! If you did the math based on my split this year, you would have known that I completed the 2007 Chicago Distance Classic half marathon in 2:10:05 at an average pace of 9:56 minute mile.
YES! A new personal record! My slowest half marathon ever!!!
I know with the heat and humidity I couldn't possibly beat my personal best record, but I didn't think with some training I could possibly run worse than my previously worst record, which was the result of zero training whatsoever! Even if I was to shave off 7 minutes to account for the restroom time, I would have matched my personal worst record!
I guess to be fair to myself, I did gain weight last year, and 2005 was probably my fittest year, weighing in at around 155 lbs. Excluding my fat years in college, the heaviest I had gotten was 189 lbs this past winter, while I have recently brought it down to 177 lbs. But still, accounting for the extra 22 lbs and the heat, I should have run better, considering the training I actually had! Sigh...
We'll just have to see what happens on October 7 (Chicago Marathon) and October 21 (San Francisco Half Marathon) later this year... Because honestly, I had a shitty race on Sunday. [Pun intended.]
* Read more about this in a future blog entry coming soon! It will be titled "Hey, Nice Tits!"
Anyway... While all my CARA (Chicago Area Runners Association) friends began training on June 9 for the marathon, I didn't even start my long run till a couple weeks later, which was only 6 miles on June 23. Not much of a "long" run, I'd say. The following Saturday on June 30, I ran 8 miles, which preceded the Race to Taste 5K the next day. This is where I was not thinking straight, because right after the 5K race, I went and played over three hours of intense football, which ended me up with a twisted ankle.
Even though I was supposed to rest for three weeks, I couldn't resist going to the Nike Rock & Run on July 14 after just two weeks of rest. I simply wanted to test out the healing progress of my ankle. My injured ankle felt tingly and numb during the race. I thought, Yup, it isn't completely healed yet! so I forced myself to slow down. After that race, I took a couple weeks off until July 28 (for a total of four weeks), when I ran 11 miles, followed by 12 miles on August 4.
All in all, I felt pretty confident for the LaSalle Bank Chicago Distance Classic Half Marathon this past Sunday. Even with a four week running break, I actually had some distance training under my belt overall. I couldn't say nearly the same for any of my previous half marathons, which preparation typically involved running no more than 5 miles and drinking and staying up the night before a race. My goal this time around was to simply beat the flat two hour completion time. It wasn't entirely impossible, since my average slow pace has been 10 minute miles.
Knowing what I know, I went to bed on Saturday night pretty early. The plan was to wake up super early on Sunday, eat some breakfast, sit on the toilet for a long time so I could empty out my colon, and spend time putting on Body Glide at strategic areas around my body such as my nipples, waistline, and jock lines. After all, forecast for Sunday August 12 was going to be super hot and humid, and I didn't want what happened to me previously to recur.*
But alas! I woke up a full hour later than planned, ate too much cereal, and although I did relieve myself in the wash room at home, I still ran into problems at the race. Apparently, I did not empty myself all out, because right into mile 4, I began spending a lot of my energy holding it in! In all my experiences in many races, I have always prepared myself fairly well as far as avoiding the need to drop the kids off at the pool. And this was my very first race where this has ever happened to me!
The feeling sucked! Remember when you were a kid, and your parents' idea of an excellent family QT (quality time) was to strap you to the back of the station wagon and drive all day across the country to some promised land where you will definitely love and enjoy, which ultimately always ended up being a disappointment? Yeah, remember those times, when you were at the mercy of your parents' restroom schedule, not your's? Yeah, that's how I felt during the race.
I had the opportunity to relief myself at mile 6 while running under McCormick Place Convention Center, where they had huge restrooms instead of portapots, I stupidly ran on. My thinking was that if I held it in long enough, my body will simply forget about it. But it didn't. Besides, we had been running pretty slowly, and my target was simply getting out of reach. We couldn't waste any more time, and needed to catch up, thus we soldiered on.
Somewhere in the middle of mile 8, I saw a park restroom. Having had a torturous run the last four miles, where all I could think about for the better part of the last half hour was using a restroom just like in those silly incontinence medication adverts you see on television, I decided that it was time to just take the Browns to the Super Bowl. Unfortunately, the park restroom only had two toilets, and I certainly was not the only runner with a similar problem. So I had to wait. After wasting almost 7 minutes, I was out of there.
Oh! My! Gosh! I felt nearly a hundred times better. My mind suddenly became clear, thus allowing me to run better. I didn't have to spend the extra energy on the muscles in the lower abdomen and posterior for anything. Now all I had to do was use less of my abdominal muscles, just enough so as to control my breathing and balance. I suddenly could run faster!
And faster I did run! Consider this: It took me 1:16:43 (hr:min:sec)to get to the halfway point of the race. And the rest room I used was located in the second half of the race. Including the near 7 minutes I spent dropping the kids off at the pool, I ran the second half of the race in 0:53:22! My previous personal best split for a half marathon was 0:57:12! Cool, huh?
Unfortunately, that isn't my new personal record that I am writing about. My first half marathon result at the 2005 Chicago Distance Classic on August 7, 2005 was 2:04:25, with an average pace of 9:30 minute mile. My second half marathon result at the 2005 Chicago Half Marathon on September 25, 2005 was 1:55:33, with an average pace of 8:50 minute mile, my personal best.
My new personal record was definitely established this year! If you did the math based on my split this year, you would have known that I completed the 2007 Chicago Distance Classic half marathon in 2:10:05 at an average pace of 9:56 minute mile.
YES! A new personal record! My slowest half marathon ever!!!
I know with the heat and humidity I couldn't possibly beat my personal best record, but I didn't think with some training I could possibly run worse than my previously worst record, which was the result of zero training whatsoever! Even if I was to shave off 7 minutes to account for the restroom time, I would have matched my personal worst record!
I guess to be fair to myself, I did gain weight last year, and 2005 was probably my fittest year, weighing in at around 155 lbs. Excluding my fat years in college, the heaviest I had gotten was 189 lbs this past winter, while I have recently brought it down to 177 lbs. But still, accounting for the extra 22 lbs and the heat, I should have run better, considering the training I actually had! Sigh...
We'll just have to see what happens on October 7 (Chicago Marathon) and October 21 (San Francisco Half Marathon) later this year... Because honestly, I had a shitty race on Sunday. [Pun intended.]
* Read more about this in a future blog entry coming soon! It will be titled "Hey, Nice Tits!"
Labels: sports
posted by StHalcyon at
14:11
1 Comments:
Hahaha, your run sounded like it was fun...well, at least it made for a funny story =P
I've admiration for all long-distance runners...partly because I can only do spurts of short distances at a time with a short-term objective in mind (think basketball). Good luck next time around!
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