Is it just cold or are you happy to see me?

I hate cold weather.  Growing up in Cleveland, OH, winter used to be my favorite season.  Looking back I still can't see exactly why.

I think I can track the beginnings of my cold intolerance to when I moved to Washington, DC for undergrad.  It's uncommon to get more than a couple inches of snow and the temperatures don't get all that dramatic.  But if you watch people drive when the first couple flakes hit the air you would think the world was ending.  Everyone freaks out.  At the time I thought they were all ridiculous and scoffed at their shivering and slip-sliding.  But I think that over the years I slowly started to join their ranks without realizing it.

(The big one circled in yellow)

The nail in the coffin was when I served in the Peace Corps.  I was an HIV/AIDS Education Volunteer in Mali, which is located in West Africa.  In case you're not sure where I'm taking about, here's a map:

[Don't worry, the post office didn't know where Mali's located either.  I had mail routed through Maui, Malawi and Bali to get to me - and that's just a few of the more "obvious" examples.  Then I told people to add "West Africa" to my address, thinking that might help.  Once someone at the post office crossed out West so that it read:  West Africa.  I mean, I'm not arguing with you that Mali is in Africa.  I'm just not sure what was accomplished by the correction.]

Mali's pretty close to the equator, relatively speaking, and the top 2/3's of the country are made up of the Sahara.  Pretty much year round the temperature hits 100F at least during the afternoon, and in the hot season it can be 120 degrees even at night.  (And to put it in perspective, air conditioning was pretty impossible to find outside of major buildings in the capital - 12 hours away from me.)  For maybe a month in the winter time it would get "cold" at night... there were a handful of times I could see my breath!  Feel free to make fun, but when all of your clothes are appropriate for 120 degree weather, 40 or 50 degrees is horrifying!

Winter hat, jacket, pants

So cold intolerance is basically the cultural norm.  And it's kinda hilarious because donated clothing of all sorts makes it to West Africa from the industrial world.  Particularly during "cold" weather you'll find Malians wearing winter hats, puffy jackets and the like.  This isn't my picture, but it's not uncommon to see guys dressed like this year round in Mali.  (Worse in the "winter," of course, but people would wear those hats in the 120 degree summers!)  I made the picture a little larger so you can kinda appreciate the woman in the background wearing a thin skirt and a sleeveless shirt.  It's probably 80 degrees out and he was a little chilled.

So... 2 years in West Africa + almost 4 in New Orleans = wimpy in cold weather.  Once the thermostat drops below 75 I start wearing sweaters and break out the winter coat.  Strangely enough, some of my best races have been in "cold" weather - either the 40s or 50s.  I know that's "ideal" racing weather and I feel good once I get going.  It's that "getting out the door" part that's often unbelievably hard.  I love the concept of running sleeves, which are easy to remove as you keep moving.  And throwaways are a great idea, but perhaps not for the weekly long run.

So, what do I do to stay warm?  I go for the ridiculous look.  Living in NOLA, I can't convince myself that it's worth buying cold weather running clothes.  So I have some $2 gloves from walmart, one long-sleeve wicking shirt, two pairs of capri running pants (which don't wick) and a $5 hat from Old Navy (does a great job at keeping moisture around my head which means once it's on I can't take it off or I'll FREEZE).  If it's REALLY cold, I wear the outer layer of an old ski coat that chafes my chin.  Sweet!  And then I layer like a crazy person.  You know the kid in a Christmas Story?  ("I can't put my arms down!")  Yeah.  I go for that look.  Now that I'm back in Cleveland for the holidays, it's on!

Did you know that a Christmas Story was filmed in Cleveland?

And in case you haven't discovered this little gem, hot chocolate is amazing after a run in cold weather!  What do you do to stay warm?

Cheapskates Unite!

I might have mentioned once or twice that I'm poor.  As a grad student in a program that leaves little possibility of employment during school, I've got to eke out a living from financial aid alone.  Many of my classmates get a lot of help from their families, and though my family would love to help me out that's not an option.  So, here's a tricks I've picked up for races to help pay for my long distance running & marathon habit:

Started with the top row
(plus a Roctane) and finished
with 3 bonus PowerBar gels.

Grab extras.  Grab extra Gu, water, and whatever else they're handing out.  My loot from Pensacola?  I ate 4 gels during the race (and an orange slice!  Mmmm!) and only one of the gels was mine from home - a Vanilla Orange Roctane.  I always start with 4 gels *just in case.*  It's better to have extras that you don't need than not have any and miss a gel station.  So of the 4 I ate, 3 were ones I picked up on the course.  Since I grabbed 2 at all three stations handing them out, that means I finished with 2 more than I started with.  Bonus!  Oh yeah.  And one of the Hammer gels I brought from home was loot from the Towpath Marathon.

Note:  If you, like me, are carrying 193 gels in your hands - offer them to people who look like they need them.  I've only ever had 1 person take me up on the offer but you never know.  I've missed a gel station before and I wasn't about to turn around and go back.  If you didn't have gels of your own you might end up really regretting that decision later.  Enter: the gel fairy.  Wouldn't you love a magic gel to appear when you're in need?  It's good karma and it's polite.

What else did I pick up in Pensacola?  A free massage (heaven!), 4 bottles of water (drank them ALL), trail mix, and 1348 orange slices.  I parked myself next to the boxes of orange slices at the finish to make up for losing out on a sandwich.  They were handing out 6-inch Subway sandwiches but they only had meat options. (I'm not eating tuna salad or deli meat that's been sitting in the sun for a couple hours even when it's free.  No, thank you, but I like my stomach!)

Unbreak my Heart

Nope.  Not that kind of broken heart.  But this may be something worse.  I may be flirting with overtraining syndrome.  (And my flirting, I mean, I may have leapt into OTS' open arms.)  I've ramped up the miles and cross-training over the past few weeks cuz I've been feeling pretty good.  And I even did accidental speedwork/pace run yesterday.  I know I just ran a marathon Sunday, but my legs feel good and my training plan called for a Monday run.  (Ok, ok.  My training plan also called for Sunday to be 20 miles, not 26, but I skipped the 10 mile pace run Saturday to accommodate.  Should be ok, right?)

Well, apparently I went wrong somewhere.  I was planning an easy 8 this morning before I head out on a road trip this afternoon.  I laced up my shoes and headed out the door full of optimism.  Jogging casually down the street I glanced at my Garmin to see... Holy heart rate, Batman!  My heart rate is WAY too high.  I doing almost 9:30 minute miles but my heart rate was almost 180.  That's not right.

I slowed it down and kept an eye on the Garmin.  I figured it must  be a mistake.  Sometimes my heart rate is a bit high for the first mile as I warm up.  But no.  I got to Audubon Park where I would have branched off for two 3-mile loops and I was still around 175.  Mission abort.  I really struggled internally, as I felt ok, but heart rates don't lie.  I guess I need a couple days off.  (To give some context, I ran 12 miles at 9:12 pace last week with an average heart rate of 145.  Today, I ran 2 miles at 9:31 pace with an average heart rate of 174.  Bummer.)

Luckily, today I'm driving to Birmingham and tomorrow I'll head to Cleveland.  I'm starting a month long road trip, hitting a bunch of interviews I have lined up for post-graduation all over the country.  So getting in work-outs is already going to be a challenge.  I just won't try that hard to squeeze them in the next couple days and pick up next week (1 week into taper.)

And just in case, to anyone who might consider breaking into my house... reconsider:
1.  I have 2 roommates who'll still be here.
2.  One of my roommates has 2 evil dogs.  (Ok.  Maybe not evil, but loud.  They'll bark your head off and lick you to death!)
3.  I'm a grad student.  There's nothing to steal anyway.

Have any of you run into overtraining syndrome?  How long did you have to back off?  Did I just throw away my chance of a BQ in 3 weeks or am I ok since I'm tapering anyway?  Ahhh!

Pensacola Marathon Race Recap

Shoot.  It's Tuesday.  I said I'd get you this on Monday.  This is way past my bedtime, but I won't have time tomorrow (today?) so here it is:

Saturday

Luckily, not many people on the roads.

I was pretty psyched and drove out to Pensacola without any problems.  I even took a picture of me singing my head off on the drive but the picture turned out worse than my singing.  Coordinating self-portraits while driving is probably a bad idea anyway so you'll have to settle for a my picture of the road (easier to aim) and the beautiful blue sky.

The hotel wasn't super sketchy, although I did debate staying at a hotel down the street advertising $35/night.  The cheap place did look super sketchy so I passed.  (I did, however, spend 10 minutes parked in their parking lot debating how much I cared that it looked unsafe.  Not gonna lie.)  Right after I checked in at my hotel I drove over to the packet pick-up covering some of the course in the process.  I was a little bit surprised to see how hilly it was.  Not just little rolling hills but some significant climbs as well.  Hmm.  Nothing to do about it at this point.

The people at the packet pick-up were very helpful and organized. Piece of cake.  The only downside is that the shirts are that "see-through-white."   So see-through that you can hold them up and not only read the print on the front AND back of the shirt, but could talk to someone standing on the other side with a better field of vision than if you were wearing a burka.  Bummer.  I'm not really into the see-through shirts, but at least you can layer.

Race Day

3 gels pinned to my behind.

After sleeping fitfully, I woke up at 3:55.  The race started at 6:30 and I wanted plenty of time for "digestion" (if you know what I mean), getting ready, checking out of the hotel and driving the 20 minutes to the start.  I woke up right on time, downed my coffee & whole wheat bagel with peanut butter immediately and got everything together.  I did what you're always told not to do and toyed with a new way to carry gels:  I pinned 3 on the back of my shorts (I normally carry them in my armband).  I won't create too much suspense... they made it less than a mile before I took 2 of them off (stabbing myself with the pins in the process) because I could tell they were going to piss me off if I didn't.  Bummer.

Sunrise (long after I got to the race start)

Anyway, back to the story... "digestion" didn't work.  I could not go to the bathroom before I left the hotel.  This seems to be a problem for me when I'm A: away from home and B: have early starts for races.  Not sure which is most responsible, but Sunday was no exception.  I showed up at the starting line a little more than an hour early so I figured I'd warm-up, jump up and down to "warm-up" and therefore *get things moving* so I could hit a port-a-potty before the race.  Luckily, getting there so early meant that I got a killer parking space right near the finish and could jump around without making too many people think I was crazy.  After hitting the port-a-potties twice with no luck, I figured, "who cares?"  This ones just for fun anyway.  If (or rather, when) I have to stop for a potty break, I won't mind losing a minute or two.  So I lined up with everyone else and waited for the gun.

The Race

Miles 1-15 were mostly me trying to reign it in.  I was feeling good and my body kept picking up the pace.  I tend to want to keep everyone else's pace, but the marathon is a personal battle you have to fight on your own.  I also knew that there were way more half marathon runners than full so I didn't want to get carried away by their enthusiasm so early on.  I mostly kept my pace where I wanted it and enjoyed the sights.  This time around (the course was a double loop) the hills were mere speed bumps - they slowed me a little but were soon forgotten.  It was also during this portion of the race that 2 exciting things happened:

1.  They had free Gu/Powerbar gels around mile 6 and 13.5.  I grabbed 2 at each stop.  Sweet!

2.  Despite someone stealing using the public port-a-potty at mile 6, I wasn't experiencing an emergency so I patiently waited until mile 8 rather than stand & wait.  I don't know if it works the same for you, but successful "pit stops" are magical and significantly improve my quality of life.  Let's just say that mile 9 was beautiful.

There was also the bonus that from mile 9-13 I was flying by half-marathoners (and a couple marathoners...  Uh oh!) who went out too fast, didn't train well, or were simply having a bad day.  It's not that I enjoy your misery.  It's simply that we've all been there and it's nice to have a day when you're not that person.

Miles 16-20 were uneventful.  My adrenaline energy had worn off at this point, and we'd left the half marathoners behind.  This means that I was now spending a lot more time alone on the course but there were still 10-20 runners within sight in front of me at any given time.  (Yeah... a little lonely.)  I was no longer struggling to slow down, but I wasn't struggling to hold the pace either.  Everything was feeling pretty good.

Mile 19/20 - The clouds disappeared and the sun came out in full force.  Until now, the weather had been warm but cloudy with very little direct sunlight.  Once the sun peeked out, you could look around and immediately tell it was taking a toll on everyone.  It was around this point that my heart rate started to slowly creep up.  I still had gas left in the tank, but I began to debate the impact that pushing the last 6 miles would have on CIM.  Any time we hit hills my heart rate was jumping into the high 170s and I was getting worried about pushing it too hard.  A little disappointed, I decided to simply keep the pace I'd been running all along (rather than running MP for the last 6-8) and that I'd walk the uphills.  CIM is predominantly downhill, so I didn't want to "practice" on hills I won't be running.  I repeatedly had to remind myself this was a long, slow run for me... not a race.  Going full throttle wasn't going to get me anywhere (figuratively speaking, that is).

So I plodded my way to the finish line.  I felt ok, but started feeling that hot weather type of exhaustion where you just don't want to move unless it's toward an ice bath.  It wasn't dangerously hot out, just the mid-70s, but when you've already run over 20 miles the little temperature changes take a bigger toll.  Miles 21-24 were my slowest, primarily due to walking hills but I still kept my pace averaged around 9:28 for those miles.  Once I hit mile 25 I dropped back until 9:00 miles to coast in to the finish and I still came in under 4 hours.

And yes, I even did a goofy run through the finish line.  I became a maniac, afterall.  Figured I had a good excuse to act like one.  (We'll see when the pictures come back how ridiculous I look.)  Some guy yelled that if I had that much energy crossing the line I shoulda raced harder.  I didn't want to tell him I'm saving my energy for December.  Plus, at this point the extra energy I used to sprint the last 0.2 and high-step it across the finish had taken it's toll and I was gasping for air.  Whatevs.  The finisher pictures don't show what you look like on that side of the line.  That's something we can all be grateful for.

I'm a maniac... next up, massage!

Overall?  It was good for a supported long run, but I'm not sure I'd run it again.

The quick & dirty:

Pros:  Small, but very friendly marathon.  The route is made up of 2 loops - some people don't like that, but I don't mind.  You know what's coming and can settle into a groove.  The first few miles of the loop are pretty and along the Gulf.

Hurt so good.  He's really leaning into it!

Cons:  There are very few spectators, particularly on the second loop once all the half marathon runners have finished.  The course was just ok.  There isn't much to say about most of the scenery... a lot of it was industrial or small residential neighborhoods.  I don't know Pensacola at all, so maybe that's all it has to offer.  Once you finished, there was only one guy doing massages and one guy doing dynamic stretching.  The stretching tent started packing up almost immediately after I finished.  (I ran to my car to dump my gels and switch to flip-flops and by the time I arrived at the tent - maybe 4 hrs and 10 minutes after the start - they'd already stopped taking names for the list.  Really!?!  The bulk of the marathon runners are just crossing or haven't crossed yet.  I'm gonna go out on a limb and say they need your help the most, but whatever.  Not much you can do.)  The massage guy was great, but it would have been nice to have another person or two to help him out.

Once I get the official pictures, I'll post some of the ridiculous ones for you.  Nothing like running pictures to make you humble.  I hope everyone had a good weekend!

She's a Maniac!

First off, I want to thank everyone for the support.  This is a pretty low stress race for me, but support is always welcome.  Especially because I drove some of the course on the way to the packet pick-up and was horrified pleasantly surprised to see that it was all rolling hills.  (In Florida?!?  What?!  Isn't Florida supposed to be super flat?)

I'm actually writing this Saturday night and set it to post automatically... barring any major problems, I should have finished by now and may even be back in NOLA which means that:

(I suspect the only thing we have in common is how much we sweat.)

Yup, you guessed it:  At this point in time I should qualify as a marathon maniac.  I'll get you the race report as soon as I enjoy the post-race festivities, drive back to New Orleans, enter a food coma at the Po-Boy Fest, and sleep it all off.  So probably Monday.  (Appropriate to have a manic Monday, no?)  I hope you all had a great weekend as well!