Avenue of the Giants Marathon: Race Report

On May 3, 2009, I ran my first marathon. It wasn't pretty, and I made a lot of mistakes along the way. I ran the first half way too fast (which is a common mistake), but in my case, there were hills, which made it even worse. I wore myself out within the first 7 miles and by the time I got to the halfway point, I was physically spent.

The following December I proved how many mistakes I made by beating that time by over an hour. I'm not saying that because I think it's an accomplishment. On the contrary, I think that I did so badly in the first race, that it almost didn't matter what time I got in the December. Unless I didn't try, I would have had a PR!

Even still, it didn't seem like redemption. I decided to do better this year, and registered for the Avenue of the Giants marathon, which was to be run May 2, 2010, a day short of a year from the first.

Friday
We drove to Humboldt on Friday, and stayed at the Motel Garberville, the same place we stayed last year. It's a pretty run of the mill place, but they only charge $60 a night for our entire family of 5, and have free internet. The internet was running poorly this year, but it was still worth what we paid.



Friday night we didn't do much other than lounge around the motel room. We had dinner at a place down the street that claimed to be an Italian place, but wasn't much more than a deli. The food was premade and microwaved, and while my lasagna was delicious, my wife's sandwich and the kids' bagel dogs left something to be desired.

Saturday
On Saturday morning, I drove the marathon route, making a video of the drive-thru to put on Youtube. I recently replaced my car stereo with one that has a DVD player built in, so while I was driving the route, I had Spirit of the Marathon playing in the background. It was certainly a highlight!

As I got beyond the first half, the memories of last year's race came over me and I got a little emotional. I didn't cry, but you could certainly see it on my face. In fact, my wife even asked me at one point of I was okay! I think what I was feeling was more fear than anything. Would I be able to conquer the thing? Was I properly trained? Would I be walking as much as I did last year?

After driving the route, I picked up my bib & promised t-shirt at the starting line. While last year they had disposable champion chips that attached to a shoe, this year they were doing something different and had the timing RFID tag attached to the bib itself. It's a neat idea, certainly people won't be forgetting their chips, but it also added weight to the bib.

We then headed up north to Eureka, and my favorite place to eat in Humboldt County, the Samoa Cookhouse.



It was originally the mess hall for employees of a lumber company, and while they still own the place, it's now a restaurant that's open to the public. They serve up what they call "family style", and bring out the food the same way you would at home: on serving plates, which you then serve onto plates yourself. If you want more, no problem, they bring more. They also have a logging museum on the premises, and make up some of the best homemade bread you'd ever want. The food for the day was fried chicken.



I'm not sure if that counts as carbo loading, but it's certainly a great once a year splurge that's guaranteed to be burned off during the marathon!

That reminds me...

Sunday
Saturday morning, I got up with little trouble. I had my clothes laid out the night before, and my GPS in one of my running shoes to ensure it wouldn't be forgotten. I had the fanny pack pre-stocked with energy gel, 5 of them planned, and one extra in case I was slow like last year. Rather than using Cytomax, I brought Nuun, which is sugar free and was much more compact. All that was left was to make breakfast.

I boiled some water with the motel-provided coffee pot, but mistakenly turned it off before pouring. I used two packets of oatmeal and a scoop of protein powder, mixed in the water, but as I started to eat, realized that I was mixing in lukewarm water. WOW, that didn't taste all that great! I didn't have much of a choice, this was the only oatmeal I brought. I hoped this wasn't a sign.

The drive from Garberville to the race start at the Dyerville bridge was uneventful. I made sure to leave early so I could get a decent parking spot on the road, as opposed to the river bar. It wasn't my idea of a good time, having to walk 50 feet down a hill to get to my car after the race!

Once I was parked, I got my gear together and made a visit to the portapotties, then walked around looking for people I might no.

As luck would have it, I ran into Layla Bohm from Twitter (@laylabohm) almost immediately. There were 30 minutes left before the start, so Layla decided to go back to her car to drop off some clothing.

I headed over to the starting line. There were a lot more people racing than last year! After a few minutes, I stumbled on Layla Bohm again. While we didn't say much to each other, it was nice to have someone to chitchat with to get my mind off the race.

After the National Anthem was sung, the race started.



Miles 1-5
I made a big effort to try to keep my pace around 10 minutes per mile during the first 6 miles, which is where most of the uphill running would be. It was obvious pretty quickly that the road hadn't been maintained at all in the past year, and in fact was worse than it was the year before.

As planned, I stopped at each aid station, but of course instead of drinking ERG (quite possibly the worst named sports drink), it was water for me. My bottle had Nuun in it, and I sipped on it the whole way.



While it was hard work, it wasn't near as hard as I expected. Slowing down made a world of difference, and I was feeling surprisingly good.

Miles 6 to 10
At the 6.5-mile turnaround, the guy at the timing mat was demanding a high five. I had to oblige, there wasn't much else I could do.

Once on the downhill, I increased the pace ever so slightly. Just before Mile 7, I noticed an older gentleman was starting to pass me. Over the next half mile, we did the exchange: I'd pass him, he'd pass me, and this went on two or three times.

At the 7 mile mark, I paused the music I was listening to in order to hear the time read out by the person on the side of the road. As I passed, he said, "Looking good, number 303, you're doing great!" The older man shouted, "What about number 393? How's he doing!" to which I responded, "Number 393's going to beat me, that's for sure!"

I also noticed that as we ran, just about everyone coming in the opposite direction was shouting positive words to him. And who wouldn't? It's always great seeing older people run, they're quite inspiring. With him running near me, it also gave the illusion that everyone was giving positive words to me!

Since we had the exchange at the mile marker, I took it as an opening to talk to him. He told me his name was Keith Sime, and he'd been running since he was 44 years old. He was 76 years old.



Incredible! I told him that when I get to be 76 years old, I want to still be running as he had. He said that running had made his life worth living and he wouldn't want to be doing anything else.

As we ran along, he started giving me advice. Cut the corners, keep your form up the hills. I told him thank you, started my music, and kept going. He ended up finishing long before I did.

Miles 10-15
I kept musing to myself at how good I felt. It was truly night and day from last year, and I even felt better than I did at CIM in December. It was truly amazing to me.

At two occasions I passed a guy who waved and said my name, but I had no idea who it was. I later found out it was Derrick Tsang (@derricktsang) from Twitter. While I didn't know who it was at the time, it was great having someone say my name!

At the halfway point, I once again thought about how it felt the year before. Approaching the bridge, the half marathoners were being ushered to the left, while full marathoners were being ushered to the right, and the number of spectators cheering for people were a whole lot less the direction I was going. While it was depressing last year, this year I couldn't help but think that we were the "chosen few". This was a good feeling!

As I crossed the bridge, I saw a photographer, so I came up with the best smile I could muster. It's not the best one I've even given, but it did the job.



Miles 16-20
There were so many landmarks that made me think of last year. The Visitor's Center was one particular spot that made me sad at the time, since I was so tired when I shouldn't have been. This year was much different! I had them fill my water bottle and dropped a Nuun tablet in, then headed off again.

Around Mile 18, I started feeling fatigue in my legs and decided to do some walking. I tried not to walk too much, and I felt good about it because it certainly wasn't the death march I had been on before. I had also been listening to music the whole time, which to me was making a huge difference.

The 2nd turnaround was between miles 19 and 20. As I reached the Visitor's Center the 2nd time, I used the bathroom.

At Mile 23, I'd been running for 4:30, and started wondering if I might be able to finish in less than 5 hours. I did some more walking, as did another guy I was next to. We talked a little bit, and I mentioned to him that if we busted our butts, we might break the 5-hour barrier. He laughed and said he'd been thinking about the same thing. I started running again.

It just wasn't meant to be. While I could reach a 10 min/mi pace, I just couldn't hold it for more than a few minutes at a time. I decided to focus on a PR instead.

My time for the California International Marathon had been 5:18:21. As I reached the last mile of the race, I met up with a person who was walking alongside a guy with a bike, who'd somehow gotten a flat tire. She told him that there was no way she'd continue walking just for his sake, and started running again. I talked to him for a few minutes, but finally had to concede that I'd PR if I ran the final mile, but if I walked with him there was no way I could do it. I started running again.



Coming over the final crossing over Hwy 101, the final incline of the race, I knew I was close to the finish. I saw the sign for the Dyerville Bridge, and the silliest water stop in the world. It was placed at the end of Mile 26! Why anyone would bother to stop 2/10 of a mile before the actual finish of the race is beyond me.

I came over the bridge and turned to the right, towards the finish line. My final time was 5:10:29, an 8-minute PR over CIM, and a full hour and hour and 11 minutes faster than last year!



Just look at that photo! The woman to the left is walking the 10k, crossing the finish line with a nicely posed smile, while I'm struggling to finish the last six inches! I thought it was pretty funny.


See the activity on RunSaturday

Type:	Run - Race
Duration:	5:10:59
Distance:	27.46 mi

Splits
Comparing this year's splits to last really tell the story of what I did wrong last year, and how I did better this time around.


2009


2010



In 2009, I ran most of the first 6 miles under 10 minutes per mile, a few around 9:30. I started walking as early as mile 7, tried to pick it up again, but by the 2nd half I was walking most of the 2nd half.

In 2010, I kept the pace right around 10 minutes per mile during those first 6, some around 10:30. I picked it up slightly at mile 7, but still kept it slower, and while I was slowing during the 2nd half of the race, I was walking a lot less. In the end, I finished stronger than I expected and ran probably twice or even three times as much during the later parts of the race.

For fun, here are the numerical splits for both 2009 and 2010, as well as CIM for reference. The slower of the splits are highlighted in gray.

	AVE 2009	CIM 2009	AVE 2010
Mile 1	0:09:13	0:09:46	0:09:56
Mile 2	0:11:01	0:09:56	0:10:10
Mile 3	0:09:55	0:09:42	0:10:15
Mile 4	0:09:44	0:10:02	0:11:12
Mile 5	0:09:36	0:10:16	0:10:57
Mile 6	0:09:58	0:10:22	0:10:48
Mile 7	0:10:00	0:10:24	0:10:37
Mile 8	0:09:52	0:10:39	0:10:29
Mile 9	0:09:46	0:11:34	0:09:47
Mile 10	0:09:36	0:10:26	0:09:31
Mile 11	0:12:23	0:10:36	0:09:45
Mile 12	0:11:41	0:10:40	0:10:15
Mile 13	0:13:11	0:11:02	0:11:40
Mile 14	0:12:36	0:11:51	0:10:10
Mile 15	0:15:15	0:11:58	0:10:21
Mile 16	0:20:09	0:12:17	0:12:06
Mile 17	0:19:45	0:12:37	0:13:20
Mile 18	0:20:41	0:16:11	0:12:07
Mile 19	0:16:19	0:13:19	0:12:20
Mile 20	0:19:39	0:15:05	0:14:53
Mile 21	0:26:11	0:13:21	0:16:40
Mile 22	0:20:18	0:12:39	0:11:00
Mile 23	0:20:21	0:11:33	0:13:39
Mile 24	0:22:10	0:14:47	0:12:47
Mile 25	0:20:28	0:13:47	0:13:40
Mile 26	0:14:57	0:14:36	0:15:01

Hydration & Food
During the race, I drank two full bottles of Nuun, and only 4 energy gels. I thought I'd need 5, but that late in the race it just didn't matter to me. A couple times in the middle of the race, I felt my stomach growl, so I ate a few pieces of fruit given along the way. Banana and oranges, nothing else. For water, I drank one or two cups at every aid station.

Conclusion
I think next time around, for training I really need to focus on endurance. One of the problems I've had all along has been slowing down towards the end of a race as fatigue has set in. I need to get to the point where I can hold a pace for 26.2 miles. The next step after that is to push that pace, the "all day" pace, even faster.

Here's the video I created of the race. Unlike my prior races, I didn't take any video during the race, just before and after.



Finally, here's the drive-thru video I created. It took more than an hour to drive, and the Flip actually holds less than an hour's worth of video, so I came back and finished it off the day after the race.



Special thanks go to Layla Bohm, Derrick Tsang, my family for once again being so supportive of me leaving for the day, @biscuiterie from Twitter, who ran the half marathon and shouted at me as she passed, and finally, Keith Sime, whose story I'm telling to everyone who wants to listen. Keith's final time was 4:33:54, he was the only person in the 75-79 age group, and NAILED a BQ. We should all aspire to be doing as well as this man when we reach 76.

It was a great race!

Running Vlog #9: Avenue of the Giants Marathon, 5-3-09

Here's the video I took from the Avenue of the Giants Marathon, May 3, 2009. Due to Youtube limitations, it's split into two parts.

Part 1


Part 2

Avenue of the Giants Marathon, 5-3-09

I was so afraid of not waking up on time that I set 3 alarms in my Treo. I had no problem getting up with the first.

04:48 Good morning! #

04:48 *yawn* #

05:14 Just finished oatmeal w/scoop of whey protein, and a banana. 5:13am, not too much more time... #

05:37 Just checked the weather, it shows 54 degrees & cloudy. Tempted to not wear head to foot clothing, but know better. #

I loaded up with Cytomax, Accel Gel, my Flip Cam, and cell phone to tweet along the way, and headed on out.

06:13 Alright, enough of this. Off to get first place! Sub 2 hours here I come! #

07:08 Just arrived at the starting line, less than an hour until the gun! #

07:27 Bib #117 for those interested. #

07:39 Test from MoTwit... #

08:01 Starting soon... #

Shortly after 8am, the gun went off, and so began my first marathon! The first mile, while slow, wasn't too bad. A quarter-mile in, a guy passed me on the left, running what seemed to be twice my pace. He shouted, "Praise be to God!" This race was getting off to a great start.

I found out later the first mile is relatively flat, and the hills don't start until Mile 2. Still, I felt pretty darn good, all things considered. At Mile 4 I pulled out my cell phone and called TwitterFone.

08:47 Mile 4, it's all uphill. tinyurl.com/d65nlj #

45 minutes later, I heard my phone go off, telling me I had a text message. It was from @alitherunner on Twitter! I was able to read the first part, but not the last part, so I responded:

09:23 Allie the (?) runner. Mile 7 and I could not read your message but thanks. tinyurl.com/dylbho #

By the halfway point, my legs were getting pretty sore because of all the hills. I'd slowed down quite a bit, down to about 12 minutes per mile, but still felt I could finish in 4:40. Or so.

10:24 Halfway there. Looking at 440. tinyurl.com/clveho #

After another half hour, I was at an aid station and decided to actually type a text message instead of calling TwitterFone.

11:01 Time for a real tweet: 2:55:07, 15.65 miles. Slowwwww finish but gettin 'er done. #

11:02 Back hurts a tad, now back to running. #

At this point, things had pretty much fallen completely apart. I was probably doing more walking than running, but was still making progress. Then it happened: this old guy, in his 70s, passed me. Speedwalking. Coming the opposite direction.

12:09 Well this sucks. Old speedwalker-dude just passed me... coming the opposite direction. 4:04.05, 19.14 miles. #

Needless to say, it was a blow to my self esteem. Wasn't I supposed to be running? Wasn't I supposed to be finishing in under 4 hours? Yeah right. I started thinking of my pastor, Rob, who told me that I was crazy to even attempt finishing under 4, and that averaging 12 minutes per mile would be an accomplishment.

I wasn't even making that.

13:43 Breaking a new world record: slowest marathon in the world. 5:38.44, 24 miles. But I'm finishing, by God! #

I decided not to worry about it anymore. When I got to Weott, I called my sister, who was waiting for me at the finish, to tell her it'd be another half an hour before I finished. She said that she had her son and my son with her, and they kept asking where is he? Where is he?

Finally, I crossed the Dyerville Bridge for the finish. As I headed over the peak, Gregory & Christopher, and in the last 40 yards, I sprinted to "race" them across the finish line.

14:41 Everyone: I'm alive. It took me about 6 1/2 hours, but I finished. #

14:42 I'll be uploading a pic to Flickr in a second, but wanted to tell everyone. It all fell apart around mile 11 (!). #

My official time was 6:21:32. I was so slow, the photographer had abandoned the scene and I ended up having some random guy take a picture of me at the finish.

I ate 5 packets of Accel Gel, and in the last mile, I found an unused Vanilla-flavored Gu, so bonus! I used 2 packets of Cytomax each mixed with 12 ounces of water, in addition to the 72 ounces or so I drank spread across the aid stations along the way. I burned about 3200 calories, and when I crossed the finish, I was famished!



The splits obviously tell the story. You can tell where the GPS lost signal below the trees, the 305 thought I ran 28 miles. The hills? Here's an elevation profile.



Finally, here's a map of the route.



Upon finishing, I bought a burrito from the roach coach, which I promptly lost and didn't get to eat. When we got back to the motel, I ate a huge burger at the adjacent restaraunt, along with a giant brownie smothered in fudge sauce. I don't regret that meal in the least bit.

I do wonder what my time would be on flat ground, without injury in the middle of training, and without the stresses involved with the weekend. Regardless, it was an experience I'll never forget. Will I run another marathon? Almost certainly. Which one? I'm sure I'll let you know when I find it.



Stay tuned for video...

Adventures In Training, Camping... AND BEYOND!

On January 1, 2009, I started training for the Avenue of the Giants Marathon. In the past, the most "training" I'd done was running 2.5 miles every day. I suppose I'd also done some weight training, which I accomplished by following training plans. It was nice, because it was like following a menu. I'd already been losing weight via a diet plan, and the workouts were like a diet plan with weights! Follow the steps, and you're there.

So I started looking for similar plans for running a marathon. I didn't want to forsake the weight training, so I found a plan that accomodated my goals: the FIRST Marathon Training Program. It compressed the training into 3 days a week, allowing me to still go to the gym 3 days. I dove in head first.

The first six weeks went great, but then I started having problems with my leg. When I ran, it was fine, but afterwards my leg hurt so much I was having difficulties picturing myself running in May. It got so bad that I ended up not running at all for a week and a half. Even lifting weights was hurting my leg, so I stopped going to the gym.

After much research and visits to the local running store, I found out they fitted me with the wrong shoes a year before! After being fitted with the right shoes, I also swapped out my walking shoes, and over the course of the next few months, my leg healed. In March I ran the Shamrock'n Half Marathon in Sacramento, and managed to finish with a respectable time! I was on the mend, and on track to finish the marathon.

I made reservations in the Burlington campground, where I grew up camping, and is a great camping spot for kids. It's next door to the Humboldt Redwoods Visitor Center, and is right on the marathon route. I flew my sister out from Charlotte, NC for the occasion, and took a week's vacation for the event. On May 1, we drove up to Humboldt.

The drive up was entirely in the rain. Not just rain, but pouring rain that just wouldn't let up. I set up our tent with the help of my sister, and we all headed in.

The tent turned out to not keep water out at all. That night, we slept with rain drizzling down from the top of the tent. It's a good thing we slept on air mattresses, because the next morning I discovered there was an inch of standing water underneath.

The kids couldn't play and were getting restless. The overpriced food we'd bought in Garberville for cooking while camping couldn't be fixed because of the rain. If it were just my wife and I, or my wife, son, and I, that would have been fine. But on this trip, we had my sister, her son, and the two girls as well, and just about everyone was either bored, crying, or complaining. All our clothes were soaking wet because of sitting on the floor of the tent in puddles all night, so we didn't have anything to change into.

The tweets tell the story...

20:40 Hey everyone. Sitting in humboldt, in a tent that's supposed to be waterproof but isn't... #

20:41 ...and a rainfly that's supposedly rainproof but obviously isn't, with no extra tarp. #

20:42 I have a very waterproof backpacking tent that will hold 2 ppl on a good day. We have 7 ppl. #

20:43 It also appears my wife wants to blame me for the whole debacle. #

20:44 She asks, "What are we going to do?" and I give options that only piss her off. #

20:46 Every marathon book or article says not to be stressed prior to a marathon. Uhhhh... #

20:54 OK back to the tent. Sorry to bring everyone down. #

21:51 Going to bed now. By getting lucky I was referring to having a happy family. Nite all. #

In all the marathon books I've read in preparation for this thing, all the websites I've followed, and all the fine runners I've talked to on Twitter, they all say the same thing about stress the week before: avoid it. Don't go near it, steer clear as much as possible. Hah! After sitting there for long enough, and shedding enough of my own tears, I finally booked a room at the Garberville Motel, 15 miles from the marathon site. I told my wife and sister to pack up everything and stuff it into the back of the Xterra. Meanwhile, I drove the 2nd car to the motel and booked the room.

When I got back, without exception everyone's spirits had lifted. We left the tent up, and drove to the motel. We all showered, and in our wet clothes, went off to eat dinner.

06:46 Good soggy morning! #

06:56 My sister gave up, she & her son slept in the car! It's really not that bad. The mattress kept us off the wet floor. #

12:22 Camping DNF! We gave in and got a motel. :) #

I had planned the next day to be somewhat without activity. Our big activity that day was eating at the Samoa Cookhouse on Samoa Island in Eureka, CA. This is a tradition I've followed while driving on the North Coast for the past 20 years or so, and recommend it to everyone. I'll never rave enough about it.

12:35 OK time to go to one of my favorite restaurants in the world, The Samoa Cookhouse in Eureka, CA. tinyurl.com/d5pu86 #

In the evening, we drove over to Weott for the spaghetti feast. Getting ready for the marathon, I had a mild panic attack when I couldn't find the Garmin!

21:24 CRAP!!!!!!!!!! #

21:24 The 305's at home. #

21:30 Whew #

21:30 Found my 305, it was in the wet workout bag. Thank GOD. #

21:30 Addicted to tech at all? #

21:31 One thing I don't have, tho, is a USB cable for it. But I can live without that, heh. #

I managed to get to bed at 10pm and even had a good night's sleep.

Shall We Get Autobiographical?

This post has been a long time in coming, so please forgive me for a long indulgence.

Growing up, I don't think I was much different from other kids. Certainly I wasn't an ugly child, nor was I dumb. I like to think I was above average intelligence, but at this point, there's no way to know for sure.

Somehow though, I ended up being "that kid". The one who's picked on, the one who becomes the focus of every other kids' fears, angers, and annoyances. I wasn't particularly athletic, which isn't to say it couldn't have been developed. Since I didn't have a natural ability, this lent me to be picked last on teams, to be made fun of when I'd even attempt something physical. I was afraid of the ball in little league, so I'd become a statue at bat. In the field, I played left field, and the once or twice the ball came to me I wasn't able to catch OR throw it into the infield. I ended up being pressured into quitting the team, then made fun of for being a quitter.

High school wasn't any better. In PE, once again I didn't have any natural abilities, which led to me doing poorly. Rather than working with me, I was punished in the only way the coaches knew: running. I think I spent my entire Freshman and Sophomore years running laps. No, excuse me, not running. Plodding, walking, with the other losers such as myself. That year was one of the worst I had in my life, and PE was hell.

Then in 1984 I got the reprieve I was looking for: I was in a car accident with my mother. It wasn't major for me, although my mother ended up in traction for a short time. By doctor's excuse, I was excused from physical education, and said goodbye to physical hell forever!

Or so I thought. In my Junior year we moved to a new town where I attended a new town, and during the second semester of my Senior year, found out the doctor's excuse was only for one year. To graduate I had to take a year's worth of PE in one semester. So during that second semester, I had a 7am PE class and a 4:30pm PE class, the "extra" one designed for jocks to get a little more workout time during their day. You can guess how it went.

After high school, that was it for me. As far as I was concerned, physical activity was the least appealing thing in the world, something I would never be doing again. Of course, I was still eating like an active teenager. The pounds packed on.

As I matured, moved out on my own, and became my own person, I ate anything I wanted, in any quantity I wanted. Who were my friends? People like me, of course, and in many cases, people who'd taken my lifestyle to other extremes! My eating began to mimic theirs, but since I was only 5'6" tall, the pounds kept coming on. 170 pounds, 180, 190, 200. It didn't stop until I was over 250, and stayed there for another couple decades.

Then something happened. A friend of mine introduced me to a plan that he'd lost 20 or 30 pounds on, so I decided to give it a try. The exercise that went along with it wasn't difficult at all, they just said to walk 10,000 steps a day. My first day with the pedometer, I didn't add any walking to the routine and found I was walking 2000 total. The next day I walked around the block where I work, and found it was exactly 1 mile. I walked 7000 steps that day, and burned 125 calories doing it! Still, I wasn't at 10,000, so I decided to walk around twice. That walk, I was out of breath, tired, and sweaty, but I'd walked 12,000 steps, and burned 150 calories! The weight had also started coming off.

So I started walking every day at lunch. Back then, it would take me 50 minutes to walk 2 miles. I was burning calories, so I didn't care! After a little while, the walking became easier, so I started speeding up. I tried to finish the two miles in 45 minutes, and when I succeeded, tried to finish in 40. In 35. When I got to the point where I could do it in 30, it was getting harder to go any faster without jogging. How would I continue to improve?

I found myself at a wildlife sanctuary one day, and was on my way back to the car when I got a crazy thought: what if I ran? It was only a quarter-mile to the car, and I'd been walking for a while. What if I can run? So I did. It was slow, and I got out of breath, but I ran to the car, and didn't die!

I knew what I had to do next, but run outside? Please. I was still a fat guy! So I moved inside, and onto the treadmill. I turned on the TV, and started to jog. The first minute was great! The second minute, mmm, not so great, but liveable. The third one? Dear God, why wouldn't it end? When 5 minutes was over, I walked 25 more minutes

I also found that I burned more calories than I had been burning when I walked! Well then, what if I did more running? The next day, I ran 5 minutes, walked 5, then ran 5 more. I walked the last 15 minutes. Rince & repeat!

Eventually I worked my way up to jogging 30 minutes nonstop on the treadmill at about 4.5mph. Not the fastest in the world, but who cares? I was doing it, and burning the same amount of calories I would have burned, had I been walking for a full hour! I was pretty satisfied with this.

Then the announcement came that my company would be moving. The kicker was that there wouldn't be room for a workout facility. But I was enjoying running on the treadmill! At the new office, out of necessity, I found a route for myself around the office. It was a bit farther, 2.5 miles, and for the first time, I ran outside.

There were people, but I didn't care. I was running outside, and didn't care what people thought! This was a completely novel thought, and for the next year, I ran that route 5 days a week. I did take a few breaks for hernia surgery. When I took up running again, I'd lost 70 pounds and was in the best shape of my life.

To celebrate my weight loss, I planned a trip to Yosemite with some friends to climb Half Dome. This would be quite the accomplishment, but also would involve a lot of pulling myself up a rock by ropes. Again, out of necessity I took up another activity and began weight training. I joined a local gym and started alternating days between weight training and running.

The trip went wonderfully! It was hard work, some of the hardest work I'd done in my life, but I got the job done.

On the way back down from the dome, my friend Bob said, "So what are we going to do for a major activity next year to keep up the momentum?" I responded in jest, saying, "What about Mt. Whitney?"

Over the next few weeks, we started talking more and more about it and finally decided to go. This would be a more difficult trip, requiring better fitness, so of course I trained more and worked out more at the gym.

It was around this time I decided to run my first 5k, the Sacramento Zoo Zoom, and finished in about 27 minutes. It was a BLAST! The kids got to run their own races as well. I also realized that the scrawny, nonathletic kid who became a 250-pound man was now a 158-pound runner. [i]Runner![/i] I was not only doing the activity I had found so hellish in my youth, but realized I enjoyed doing it.

Once I ran the 5k, I started trying to get faster and faster, as well as lengthen my runs at work. See, the faster I ran, the farther I could run, and the more calories I could burn, in the same amount of time. I took up a training program and made a new goal: I'd run the Humboldt Redwoods Half Marathon in October (2008), with the goal of a full marathon the following October (2009).

Then the long backpacking trips came in preparation for the Whitney trip. This was long run time, so I had to back off the half marathon training in order to focus on backpacking. We went to Mt. Whitney, and while we were unable to summit due to circumstances beyond our control, we had another great trip.

Once back from Whitney, I dove right back into running. On the date the half marathon would have been, I ran 13 miles on my own. In essence, I would have been able to complete the half, even though I thought I wouldn't be able to! This got me into some serious thinking. If I could run a half marathon once, I could do it again. The next 6 Saturdays in a row, I ran 14 miles.

I also started researching possible marathons. I went back and looked at the Humboldt Redwoods Marathon, and found out that there were actually two marathons. The second one was in May, specifically, on my dad's birthday. A marathon, on my dad's birthday, in one of his favorite places, the Humboldt Redwoods. It was as if he was looking down from heaven, telling me to do it for him, and so on the first of the year, I started training for the May 3, 2009 Avenue of the Giants Marathon.

Final Taper Run - 3 miles

Today was the last run before Sunday's Avenue of Giants marathon. It actually worked out well, because I had to take my wife to work anyway, so what I did was run the 3 miles as soon as I dropped her off, then came back to use the restroom after.

A user named @keeponrunning on Twitter told me that his Thursday runs are usually a good indicator of his performance on race day the following weekend. If I go by his estimates, Sunday's going to be fabulous!

Goal was 3 miles at projected marathon pace, which is 8:52/mi.





Splits
Mile 1: 8:49.65
Mile 2: 8:39.75
Mile 3: 8:35.86

3 miles, 26:06.41, 8:41/mi average, 360 calories burned

Then this afternoon, I needed to drop something by to my pastor. When I got there, there were still quite a few people at the church, so we all prayed for the marathon. It was great!

Hopefully it'll go as well as today's run went.

Taper Long Run - 8 miles

Well guys, this is it: today was my last long run before the Avenue of Giants marathon.

It went really well, too, I'm quite pleased. My goal was race pace for 8 miles, which I think if it weren't for the wind, I would have done. Race pace going by the FIRST plan is 8:52/mi, my goal is at very least 9:10 in order to make a 4-hour race. Today's average pace was 9:17/mi.





Splits
Mile 1: 9:01.45
Mile 2: 8:48.52
Mile 3: 8:46.70
Mile 4: 9:10.55
Mile 5: 9:37.79
Mile 6: 9:28.31
Mile 7: 9:50.14
Mile 8: 9:36.97

8 miles, 9:17 min/mi average, 955 calories burned

And with that, there's exactly one week until the marathon. Two more short midweek runs (sprints on Tuesday, 3 miles @ marathon pace Thursday), and that's it! Tuesday night I pick up my sister at the airport. It's all coming together, a very exciting time.

Another thing. As of right now, I'm off caffeine until after the marathon. GULP! RIP Diet Dew. For the time being, anyway.


Onto race week!

Long Run - 20 miles

20 miles! I'm surprised myself, actually, but I finished it.

I planned the whole thing ahead of time. I cached 5 water bottles along the route every 2-3 miles, similar to how the Avenue of Giants Marathon will be: Lytle Road, the end of the bike route, where Acacia turns into Pass Rd., 2 miles from there, and 4 miles. I also carried Cytomax in my Ultimate Direction bottle, and another Cytomax packet in my fanny pack.

Just before the first water cache, I had to use the restroom. I didn't expect that, because I went before running! Luckily there's a gracious amount of trees along the path, so I did my duty.

As I passed Lytle Rd., I didn't need any water. I stopped at the end of the bike path to drink, and noticed a new, unopened bottle of Gatorade G2 nearby. Apparently someone had the same idea! I thought it was pretty cool.

When I approached Butte House Road, there was a little league park with a game going on, so they let me use the restroom again.

At the edge of town, I drank more water, and did the same at 8 miles, and again at the turnaround at 10. I also took the opportunity at 10 miles to mix the packet of Cytomax.

The hills were crazy! After I came off them, my quads were having issues and on the way back, I ended up drinking most of the water I cached, and stopping way too many times.

The last two miles were really difficult. I ended up walking half of the last two miles, but was able to run the last quarter mile. The way I see it, I don't have any need to walk through a finish, least of all my first marathon! So I pushed myself to finish running instead of walking.



Splits
Mile 1: 10:02.18
Mile 2: 10:24.16
Mile 3: 10:18.49
Mile 4: 10:42.24
Mile 5: 11:07.42
Mile 6: 10:53.83
Mile 7: 11:09.46
Mile 8: 12:11.04
Mile 9: 12:33.44
Mile 10: 12:22.78
Mile 11: 10:38.48
Mile 12: 11:24.21
Mile 13: 16:37.52
Mile 14: 13:52.62
Mile 15: 12:54.38
Mile 16: 15:09.57
Mile 17: 14:22.28
Mile 18: 13:01.73
Mile 19: 18:33.73
Mile 20: 11:21.64

20 miles, 4:09:41, 2671 calories burned

Incidentally, if you look at the map, it shows less than 20 miles. I noticed towards the end of the run that if you have auto-pause turned on, if you immediately start walking instead of running, the Garmin doesn't pick up the fact that you're in motion again and actually stays paused until you run! It also doesn't count that distance, so by the end of it, the Garmin ended up a little over a quarter mile off. It had to have been over 20 miles, because at the turnaround point I was at 10.08 miles.

Remember I mentioned the hills were difficult?


Finally, a rendering from Google Earth.




OK, so what did I learn? Did I have any observations?

- Caching water is the way to go! Unlike last week's simple 10-miler, I wasn't dehydrated.
- Cytomax in the water bottle was a great call as well, so kudos to Rob Christian for that one. Not only was it giving electrolytes, but it tasted good, too.
- I really like the flavor of Accel Gel, but I'm still not sure I can tell the gels are doing much for me.

How will I be able to improve for the marathon?

- While there are hills, they aren't nearly as bad as these ones in the Sutter Buttes were.
- Normally I run three days a week: Tuesday, Thursday, & Saturday. This week, I ran 4 miles Thursday, 8 miles Friday, and 20 today. I won't be running subsequent days prior to the marathon.
- While I'm going to walk through water stops, or walking if fatigued, I'm not stopping like I did todtay. Not on your life.
- Remove the average pace on the Garmin!
- Turn off auto-pause on the Garmin!

So now I get to rest. Thank goodness! The taper starts next week.

Tempo Run - 8 miles

Yesterday was my scheduled tempo run, and it was raining pretty hard. I didn't mind too much, but the problem was I brought the wrong shirt with me to work. It was one of those "muscle shirts", without arms, and I didn't really want my arms to be exposed to the elements. So I went to the gym with the idea that I'd do 8 miles on the treadmill.

I was able to watch a rerun of Lost while there, but 8 miles? That was a bit too much. I managed 4.

Usually when things like that happen, I'm not able to "make good", and just have to deal. This time I got lucky. The weather was GORGEOUS for a good run today! So I was able to do the 8-mile tempo run today instead. By doing the full 8 miles today, I'll have an extra 4 miles in for the week.



Splits
Mile 1: 8:46.69
Mile 2: 8:51.45
Mile 3: 9:21.45
Mile 4: 9:37.15
Mile 5: 9:55.93
Mile 6: 9:47.40
Mile 7: 10:05.22
Mile 8: 9:45.71

1:16:13, 9:31/mi average pace, 1058 calories burned

Tomorrow's my last long run before the taper: 20 miles. I was out caching water tonight when the cops pulled up.

What is it with cops and fitness, anyway? Don't they have to maintain a certain level of fitness in order to keep their jobs? At the end of my 18-miler a few weeks ago, I ran into some cops who, when I said I was on mile 18, said, "That's IN.. SANE." Tonight while putting out the last bottle of water, the cops drove up and asked what I was doing. They just wanted to make sure I wasn't doing anything shady, so I explained to them what I was doing and why. The response? "You wouldn't catch me doing anything like that, good luck."

Anyway, it will be the longest I've run to date. I made all the preparations I needed, bought some gels for the occasion. This time I'm going to use AccelGel. I mixed up a bottle of Cytomax in the Ultimate Direction bottle, which I'll sip along the way. For water, I have my caches (I set out 5 20-ounce bottles at the same intervals as the water stops during the marathon).

Finally, I'm running out the bike path I've run before. I would have run from my house, but by running the path, when I get to mile 7 a long hill begins, with the greatest incline closer to mile 10. That will give me some hill training for the big day.

Tempo Run - Treadmill, 4 miles

Today was supposed to be an 8-mile tempo run @ 8:47/mi, but it was raining and I brought the wrong clothes. Excuses, excuses? Perhaps. I went to the gym and was going to do the 8 miles on the treadmill, but could only hack 4 miles. At least I got to watch Lost! It's interesting watching the older episodes knowing what we know now.

Anyway, I also called the organizer for the Avenue of Giants Marathon to ask logistical questions about travel to & from the campground, as well as get information about the Saturday night spaghetti feed. Everyone can go! Now I won't have to ditch my family.

Tomorrow I'm going to do the full 8 miles, and this time bring the proper clothing.

A Look At The Ave

Today was my 8th wedding anniversary! My wife was gracious enough to endulge me and make our road trip a drive on The Ave marathon route.

Let me tell you, I've driven those roads, even walked large portions of it, but have never noticed how hilly it was before. That was scary! Scary but manageable. As I drove the route, I was thinking of my strategy for success. It's obvious what I'll do (take it easy on the way up, and be careful not to run too fast on the way down), but it's something I'll have to keep in mind the entire way.

The first half of the route is also an extremely poorly maintained road. Lots and lots of cracks, bumps, and potholes. It's also a lot less wide than I remember it to be, and on top of that, it'll be split in half due to the turnaround at 6.5 miles.


The road may not be maintained well, but the route is marked well. I think I mentioned this before, but they actually have two separate versions of this marathon. The one I'm running is called the Avenue of Giants Marathon (The Ave for short), while the other one in October is called the Humboldt Redwoods Marathon. The one I'm running goes over the poorly maintained road first, while the other one takes the other direction first. Both marathons are marked with spraypainted lines throughout the entire route. Every mile is marked, every turnaround. What I found strange though is the finish isn't marked.

Starting Line


1st Turnaround (6.5 miles, HR stands for Humboldt Redwoods)


2nd Turnaround (19.6 miles)


For some reason, I couldn't find the finish line. It's either not marked, or it's in a spot I wasn't expecting. At the Visitor's Center I picked up an official pamphlet for The Ave.

Another helpful thing I found, someone recorded their 2007 Ave marathon and posted it to Youtube.

Part One


Part Two


It was a fun trip. My wife spent lots and lots and lots of time together without kids, which we both needed. I got to drive the marathon route and know a little more about what I need to work on the next few weeks. It was a successful day.

Me, My Father, and The Ave

I need to tell you about my father.

Ernest Wayne Chance was born May 3, 1935. In his youth, he was skinny by nature but anything but athletic. Other than bowling and water skiing, I don't think he did anything active. In his 30s, when I was born, his sedentary lifestyle had caught up with him and he had a nice, big belly.

He wasn't a bad father, don't get me wrong. He just wasn't very active. There was a small burst during my early teens, when he and my mom decided to start playing tennis. This without any knowledge of the rules, of course, but we did have a lot of fun.

Anyway, one of my dad's favorite activities was camping, and his absolute favorite place was the Humboldt Redwoods State Park. Specifically, the Burlington Campground on the Avenue of the Giants, next to the Humboldt Redwoods Visitor Center. For most of my childhood we'd camp there once a year. He and my mom especially liked this campground because it was like a natural playground. In the 1800's it was a logging camp, which later got shut down. One of the methods they used for logging was they would use hatchets to make large notches. In the notches they'd put a wooden platform for the crews to stand on, then make another notch a bit higher up. By using this technique, they could get up a tree 15 to 20 feet up, then saw it off and let it fall. The stumps all remain, and the notches made for great climbing fodder for us kids.

Being next to the visitor's center, there was always an evening campfire. There was also a Jr. Rangers program, which by doing various activities, we could earn prizes. One activity was gathering cigarette butts from the campground, and my father helped us win the prize for that one by saving his butts for a week or so before we went up there, hehe.

Once grown, I started taking my family there on a semi-annual basis, camping at Burlington again. It's one of those strange places that never seems to age. Unlike most places you visit as a child, it's truly remained the same as I remember it. In the visits I've made as an adult, I've also done quite a bit of hiking. Grasshopper Peak was one of the first longer hikes I did, back before I'd lost much weight. I didn't make it to the peak because it was just too difficult at the time, and when I got back to the visitor center I found out that I had actually hiked 16 miles round trip.

I still hike, of course, but most recently running's come to the forefront of my fitness activities. In the past, running has been a means to stay fit, but I really do believe that staying fit for me is now a means to continue running. Not much of a difference, perhaps, but it is to me.

So with the natural progression of running, I started investigating marathons. I recalled on the first trip I made to bring my family to Humboldt, we were eating at a restaraunt and I used the restroom. On the wall, they had a poster sized print of runners with numbers pinned to their chests, running what was called The Ave. My immediate thought was that it must be quite the experience, running through the Avenue of the Giants, something I'd really only experienced by car. That's as far as the thought went, since I wasn't a runner at the time, but it did stay in the back of my mind.

Once I started running, the natural progression of things led me to at very least contemplate a marathon, sort of as an unreachable goal that could be there at the end of a long journey. I did a Google search for "humboldt redwoods marathon" and found exactly that, the Humboldt Redwoods Marathon. I was doing my search last year, and the marathon was being held in October. I was doing a 3-miler with my pastor and commented that what I'd love to do would be the half marathon that upcoming October, with the full marathon another year later.

As spring came, things changed as we made plans to climb Mt. Whitney. As time progressed, with all the Whitney training I ended up not being able to do long runs on the weekends because I was backpacking. I had to stop the training plan I had started about a month in. This was entirely acceptable, since Whitney was such an amazing place. I made a blog entry for the trip if you're interested in reading about it.

After Whitney, my workouts started leaning towards running and that's really when my interest in it exploded. Not that my interest wasn't already there, but it really gelled during this time.

One day I was researching marathons again, when I came to the realization that there are actually two marathons run on the Avenue of the Giants. The one in October was the one I had seen before, but there was another, called The Ave. That was a bigger marathon, but was run on a familiar date: May 3.

That's right. The Ave Marathon is being run on May 3, 2009, what would be my father's 74th birthday (he died in 1989). So here's one of my father's favorite places on earth, now one of my own favorite places on earth. My life is steering towards running a marathon, of which one is being held in that place on my father's birthday.

Most marathon training programs are 18 weeks long. I was already thinking The Ave would be perfect when last week I started doing the calculations and found out that next week is exactly eighteen weeks before May 3. I mean, really, can it be any more perfect?

So that's that. Tomorrow I'll be registering for The Ave, and will run it in my father's memory, on his birthday, in his favorite place. The route goes right in front of the Burlington campground, where we'll be staying, once again. When I told my mother all of this, she was dumbstruck. Now all I need to do is muster the ability to run 26.2 miles. That's what training programs were invented for, right?