Casper Marathon

Thumbs up to Dawn and the rest of the race committee. Pre-race expo was a breeze - in and out. Low profile and a relaxed atmosphere. I did the marathon and for the most part loved the course along the river. We could have used more water stations, due to the direct sun along the entire course.

The marathon started at 5270 feet and went up a bit from there. The temperature at the start was 48, but it rose to 88 at my finish, with intense sun. There were definitely times when my mouth was calling for water but the next aid station was a mile away.

The marathon course follows a lovely paved trail along the North Platte River. Today, that river is well over its banks and flowing rapidly toward the Missouri, then the Mississippi, and finally New Orleans. The water was high enough to cover some of the paved trails, so the race directors had to redirect us on dirt trails in a few places. No problem here - I love dirt trails, have been quite happy with marathons that are ALL trails. They improvised well.

My Splits: mile 1= 11:30, mile 2=12.01, mile 3=12:41, mile 4=12:08, mile 5=11:46
mile 7=13:09, mile 8=12:21, mile 9=12:34, mile 10=12:34, mile 11=13:16, mile 12=13:12
mile 13=13:13, mile 14=13:55, mile 15=14:56, mile 16=16:52, mile 17=15:29
mile 18=14:45, mile 19= 15:35, mile 20= 15:24, mile 21=16:13, mile 22=16:18
mile 23=15:48, mile 24=15:26, mile 25=16:44 mile 26=15:12

I battled a flooded race course and near-record heat temperature, and upset stomach, I crossed the finished line in 6:06 at an average pace of 13:59, not my best but not my worst either. This is my reward for completing this race.

The Mesa Trail

Last Sunday I got a chance to run the Mesa trail and it was wonderful. The Mesa trail is the main artery along the foothills of Boulder. We park at the Doudy trail head parking lot near Eldorado Canyon and walked over to the Mesa trail head. The weather was crisp and perfect for trail running. This trail runs north and south between Chautauqua and Eldorado Springs around 6 miles one way and is intersected by most of the mountain trails in the area.

Although there is no real elevation change from its northern point to its southern point, there is still plenty of elevation change along the way. The trail climbs and descents again and again so be ready for a great work out.

This trail is well maintained and spends most of its time right at the base of the foothills in coniferous forest. All along the trail are beautiful views out over Boulder City and the eastern plains. Over all it was a great trail and very close almost in my backyard. I plan to come here more often this summer to practice trail running.

My running mates, Cindy and Truman.


                             

Greenland Trail 50k Race Report

At the start of Greenland Trail 50k the weather was clear and cool and I ran into a marathon maniac Lisa, she told me that the Greenland course is a fast course and it's one of the easier ultra trail course, no hills. She also told me that she DFL this course last year as well. Being an ultra virgin I did not know what DFL means but affraid to ask, I later found out what DFL means "dead fucking last", and I also want to acknowledge that the Greenland course is not easy or fast in my humble opinion, this course is wicked hard with some epic climbs and some quad busting downhills and the uneven surface covered with loose gravel and and sand did not make the footing any easier to run on.
This course is divided in 4 laps of around 8 miles per lap, I went into this event knowing that I have not trained enough on the trails, but I kinda thought if I ran and completed five marathons already, this 50k should not be much harder right? just another five extra miles, how hard can that be? Well to my surprise, it was a lot tougher than I expected it to be, trail running is a lot different than road running, treadmill running or any other form of normal running.

I used the Galloway's method of 3:1, run 3 minutes and walk 1 minute for the first 2 laps. In retrospect, I should have reduced that ratio to 1:1 at the begining of this course. The course had two water stations, one at the turning around spot and the other at three and half miles away. I did not refilled my water bottle after the first lap and ran out of water prior to the next water station on the second lap, which did not help my cause for the day. Oh did I tell you that this course was all up hill for the first 5 miles or so then it was all quads busting downhill for the last 3 miles, yes that is what I remembered and I am sticking to that.
I ran into my girlfriend/pacer #1 at the start of the 3rd lap and she ran with me and let me tell you by that time I was not having fun anymore, my energy was depleted, I did not fuel enough, drank enough electrolytes and my body was giving me fits. Cindy was there to talk to me and keep me going when I wanted to quit, and even by the end of lap 3 I told myself and Cindy that I will walk to the car and call it a day after this lap since I did not have anything left in my tank, I was in a dark place of the mind that I never want to be there again. Somehow at the end of lap three my marathon maniacs friend Lisa ran by me and her energy just gave me a boost and I felt reenergize and motivated to complete this task.

My brother paced me on the last lap, we played games like let run around the next three corners before we walk, let count to seven and do five set of sevens before we walked, or let's run to the next marker before we walk. Since there is a time limit on this course which is 8 hours, I was now battling myself, the course and to finish on time as well. Well I am happy to report that I crossed the finish chute in 8:06 and was second to last place, Lisa DFL again :)

I am an Ultra Runner!!

Starting the tracking process anew

Today I listened to a podcast by dr. Maoshing Ni about the secrets of healing yourself and was inspired to begin my own inner healing process. What I learned from this podcast was that I am capable of healing myself from my compulsive over eating habits! Over the past five months I have been eating what ever I want when ever I want and not worry about the consequences. My goals for the new awareness in me will be to practice the principle of eating until I am 3/4 full then stop, also I am practicing to eat like a king during the day and like a pauper at night. Also I want to learn to eat between 1200 to 1500 calories per day. Continue on my vegan journey, run 4 to 5 days per week, plus adding in some cross training workouts like bicycling and elliptical. To lose 2 pounds per week, and hitting my weight goal of 155 lbs by December 31, 2011.
According to dr. Maoshing, it's better to eat less then what you want because you will free up your body energy from digesting the foods to do other things like healing itself from other illness. Digesting foods take a lot of energy and especially if we over eat, so less foods mean less stress on the body! What a great concept for me to visualize when I want to over eat to ponder on!

Gotta run!

ING New York City Marathon completed!

Well I finished marathon number 4 at the NYC marathon on 11/7/2010. Let me tell you, that was my favorite marathon so far that I experienced. But first let me updating you on my weight loss journey, I have lost 40lbs since March 21, 2010 and I feel great. Three weeks ago I went shopping for jeans and am able to fit in a size 14, I have not been able to wear that small of a size since 1995. Suffice to say I am stoked about my progress.

Back to the ING New York City marathon updates, we started out the day by taking the Staten Island ferry to the start of the marathon in Staten Island. There were thousands of us runners bundled up in old sweatpants and sweat shirts to keep us warm from the freezing and windy temperature of NYC in the early morning hours. The scenery on the ferry was gorgeous as we can see the lady of liberty and Ellis island and the skyline of Manhattan.

I was in the last corral of the day and we started at 10:55 am almost two hours after the first corral started. We ran thru five burroughs of New York and finished at Central Park. The people came out in droves to cheer us on and to offer high fives to us, I loved the experienced and love the people of NYC.
Well I will have one more marathon on 01-01-11 in Texas to complete my quest to become a member of the Marathon Maniacs club, I can not wait, I am hoping to have a personal best at that one. In the meantime I am still on my journey of losing weight and enjoy running 25 to 35 miles per week.

Portland Marathon is in the books

I did it, finished the Portland marathon in the pouring rain in wet shoes and lots of blisters but I crossed the finished line at 6h26min. Next up is the NYC marathon on 11/7/10 as part of my quest to become a marathon maniac.

Portland marathon was my third marathon within one year, I started on this marathon journey last fall running my first marathon at the MCM and felt in love with the sport ever since. I was an obese person last fall when I ran the MCM, I weighted 234 lbs and today I am happy to report that I am no longer classified in the obese category, I am just an overweight now weighing in at 194 lbs, a 40 lbs deficit within one year.

Until next time I hope you'll find happiness in whatever you do.

Five Weeks unil Portland Marathon

I have not posted since May, 2010 and am sorry about that. I have been busy, with a new job, training for three marathons this fall and winter within 90 days of each other and living my life to the fullest.

Yesterday I went for a 20 mile training run at Sloans lake with Cindy and we had a blast. It did not feel like that at 4:30 am when I got up and did not want to run a all, I felt tired, my mind was dictating me to stay in bed, and to defer the run until today. The beauty of having a training partner is they motivate you to go out when your mind dont want to and that what Cindy did for me yesterday, once we got out to Sloans lake and started our run, I felt fine and was glad that I did it. What I learned from this experience was that, running and life are very similar, do what is the hardest to do and you will feel great once you did it.

On my weight loss note, I am now below 200lbs for the first time since the early 1990's, I am so pumped, also I am still a vegan and working to get my weight down around 150's.

Until then my friends, keep up your training and eating well and live your life to the fullest.