This weekend was a success. Starting with Friday night I had a huge plate of pasta and got all of my stuff ready for the long run and went to the store to buy some ice, sports drinks and pretzels, but came home with saltines. That night I ate an entire packet of saltine crackers and began my hydration, so that the heat on Saturday wouldn’t affect me quite as much.
During the night I woke up in anticipation of the run, knowing full well that I was ready for it, but was able to fall to sleep for the few more hours that were necessary to have a successful run. At around 6:15 I woke up and turned off all of my alarms, I wouldn’t leave for the run until 8, but I wanted to have everything ready and not be rushing around at the end trying to make it on time. At 6:45 I began hydrating and had an apple. Some of the tips for the race are to wake up 2 hours before and hydrate, and to eat simple carbohydrates between the last meal 18 hours before and the race. I decided to bring along some saltine crackers in my hydration belt, and begin the race by drinking sports drinks.
I drove over to Hellyer Park in San Jose, and at 8AM it was already beginning to heat up. By the time I arrived at about 8:35 it was probably in the high 70’s. It didn’t bother me too much as it guaranteed that my muscles would warm up fairly quickly and considering I’ve spent the last 4 years in Tucson, Arizona this heat isn’t too bad.
There were 4 of us that started on the 20 mile route, which consisted of an out and back of 9 miles, and an out and back of 11. I started with 2 of the mentors, Amer and Sara, who gave me a bunch of advice about San Diego
Start slow, but faster than the massive crowd, otherwise I’ll have to swerve around them later, which will add miles.
Cut the corners to shorten the distance, because apparently most marathons are actually longer than 26.2 miles because of the route taken.
There is a slope during a few miles, so take that really slow, and even maybe walk.
Go to the later water stops, because everybody stops at the first few.
Setting up all of my gear the night before, and specifically before going to dinner so that I can just crash right after.
I really appreciate all of the help and hope that I can follow all of these pieces of advice and have a great marathon!
So the actual run:
It was a really nice day, a little hot, but manageable, and there were so many bits of pollen in the air it looked like it was snowing. Some of the parts where trees were situated the entire ground was covered 10 feet by 10 feet.
The first 4.5 miles to the turn around point went by really quickly, passing a cycling velodrome, a golf range and course, some people picking up garbage, a large pond, and some campsites. Much of the first half of the course was shaded, so it provided at least some relief from the weather. Plus we were running on black pavement, so the heat around us was slightly increased.
The first 9 miles I felt really good, not really tired, and I had kept up my food/hydration plan. Drink every 5-10 minutes, eat a saltine cracker, drink again, and have a GU packet every 40-45 minutes. For the much of the first 13.5 miles I was alone, just enjoying the scenery and taking in the messages my body and mind were sending, when to drink, when to slow down, cut that corner, walk, eat, take a GU, stretch my arms, etc.
At the 13 mile water stop there were already a few people there and one of the honorees I have run with on 2 of the previous long runs stopped and asked me to wait for him to get some water and then we could run together for the remaining 7 miles. Keith and I strolled on, not quite knowing where the turn around was, just that it was an addition 1.5 miles out. We talked about a sign that was posted, about how if it’s raining not to go into a field, which was pretty obvious because it looked dangerous, which brought up an interesting story from Tucson, and then one from Phoenix. We talked about monsoons, and flash flooding. It was nice to have somebody to talk with, especially towards the end when my legs began to tighten up slightly. When we neared the turn around point we saw one of the mentors that had previously sped up at the 4.5 point and looked like he was running 6 minute miles. He urged us on and we continued, occasionally passing by other team members. In some ways I just wanted to keep on running, the hot weather hadn’t really affected me, and because I had a really good game plan going into the run, I remained hydrated and my energy levels were at perfect levels.
Because I had been going at about a 9:40 pace for the entire run I felt really great. We met up with Amer again (the guy who ran off) after he had taken a dip in the lake and said it felt amazing. Our pace was around 9:15 for a few miles and then we started to crank it up. My legs felt really great and I just started pushing it. Amer has a GPS watch that tracks pace and he would update me on our pace, 8:50, 8:05, 7:50, and then I was gone. I ran that 7:50 pace for part of the 19th mile, maybe half a mile, and then slowed down, because it had taken a slight toll on my body. When I got to a bridge with some good shade I slowed down and relaxed, knowing there could only be about 1.5 miles left. The terrain looked familiar and I couldn’t wait for a few turns that I recognized, because that would mean I had a very short distance left to run. Around this point I started seeing more team members, and tried my best to lift their spirits.
Finally I reached the familiar landscape and just kept on going, finishing with fairly fresh legs. I definitely could have ran another 6 miles if I had taken more GU packets and had enough hydration to do it. The marathon will be interesting, in that it will be a similar climate to this long run, which I am happy about because my muscles liked it, but I feel bad for people who like to run in the cold, because it will really put a strain on their bodies.
The advice I can give for anybody that wants to run 10+ miles, is to know your limits, the climate, and be prepared both mentally and physically.
After the run, we hung out and talked, got and gave some advice, talked about the run, if there was any pain, the usual stuff. I drank a whole bunch of sports drinks and had some more saltine crackers. During the entire run I did not have any plain water. After another 30 minutes or so I began getting ready to leave and still felt really good.
When I got home I used a foam roller to loosen up my muscles and then took a shower and got ready for the ice bath. I wasn’t sure what to expect because it was my first one, besides the Pacific Ocean which didn’t feel so great because I had to do it alone, since everybody had finished before I got there. I got the water in the tub and then got in and added the ice. It wasn’t too bad, just cold. After finishing, I saved the water and planned to use it in the garden once it warmed up.
The rest of the day I hobbled around because my foot was raw from a previous blister, but other than that my legs were still a little tight, but felt pretty good.
The next morning I had expected to wake up at 2:30 in excruciating pain, but to my surprise I woke up around 7 and felt amazing. My pre-race and post-race activities and preparation had helped me ensure that a positive experience did not turn to the dark side.
In closing, 20 miles wasn’t too hard, but it would definitely not be possible with proper training, nutrition and a good game plan. Had the weather been similar to San Francisco 2 weeks ago, I probably wouldn’t have finished in such high spirits, let alone finish. I highly suggest ice baths for anybody running extended distances, and proper hydration is crucial. If you’re drinking water, definitely get enough salt and electrolytes to counter what you lose during extended exercise.
I am looking forward to the marathon which is in 13 days, and the post-race fun in San Diego for 3 days.
Thank you to everybody that has supported me through this endeavor and to those whom have donated. If you’re interested in contributing to my fund raising it is not too late, the website is still open, and everything really does help.
http://pages.teamintraining.org/sj/rnr09/rgreenfield
Have a great week,
Ryan
Monday, May 18, 2009
Tuesday, May 12, 2009
19 days to go
May 12, 2009
19 days until the marathon.
Yesterday I had to work during the spinning class, so I did some spinning on my own for 45 minutes and then worked on my core for about 15 minutes. It had been a really long day, so after getting home I pretty much just fell asleep.
This morning I slept in and got up at 7AM, it’s been really nice getting awake early in the morning so that I have plenty of time to get additional tasks accomplished before I would normally be awake. After vacuuming part of the house I got myself ready to go on a run. I ran to the Baylands and on a trail for about 40 minutes, then came home, stretched, showered and soaked my legs in cold water. At that point I ate a lot of food and here I am.
One thing that’s awesome about having the marathon coming up is that I constantly have people asking me about it. Over the last few days I have begun thinking about a game plan for the actual event, here’s what I have so far.
Walk the first 10-15 minutes when there are thousands of people trying to get by, I have no reason to rush and I might as well enjoy the beginning and let people pass me early, and I’ll inevitably be passing them later anyway.
After this walking portion I will jog really slowly for about 20-30 minutes and then take a break and get some food and energy.
During the course of the marathon I will be running for 20 minutes and then resting for 2 minutes. In the 2 minutes I will eat and drink, and recover for the next 20 minute interval. I’m not sure what my pace will be for the marathon, but I’m thinking around 9:30 which would be a little over 4 hours, but all I really want is to finish and have a good time.
I have heard that some friends are thinking about heading down there for the race and others that live in the area will be going. It’s supposed to be an awesome venue, with 46 live bands, a headliner concert afterward and roughly 20,000 runners. The weather should be perfect, hopefully not too hot during the last 6 miles.
It’s great to have so much support from those around me. The other day my brother told me that he asked one of his co-workers who runs numerous ultra marathons (50 miles) for some advice. The information was very intelligent, mostly about how to keep my energy up and how to eat and drink before and during the event.
I’m off to go enjoy the rest of the day
Ryan
19 days until the marathon.
Yesterday I had to work during the spinning class, so I did some spinning on my own for 45 minutes and then worked on my core for about 15 minutes. It had been a really long day, so after getting home I pretty much just fell asleep.
This morning I slept in and got up at 7AM, it’s been really nice getting awake early in the morning so that I have plenty of time to get additional tasks accomplished before I would normally be awake. After vacuuming part of the house I got myself ready to go on a run. I ran to the Baylands and on a trail for about 40 minutes, then came home, stretched, showered and soaked my legs in cold water. At that point I ate a lot of food and here I am.
One thing that’s awesome about having the marathon coming up is that I constantly have people asking me about it. Over the last few days I have begun thinking about a game plan for the actual event, here’s what I have so far.
Walk the first 10-15 minutes when there are thousands of people trying to get by, I have no reason to rush and I might as well enjoy the beginning and let people pass me early, and I’ll inevitably be passing them later anyway.
After this walking portion I will jog really slowly for about 20-30 minutes and then take a break and get some food and energy.
During the course of the marathon I will be running for 20 minutes and then resting for 2 minutes. In the 2 minutes I will eat and drink, and recover for the next 20 minute interval. I’m not sure what my pace will be for the marathon, but I’m thinking around 9:30 which would be a little over 4 hours, but all I really want is to finish and have a good time.
I have heard that some friends are thinking about heading down there for the race and others that live in the area will be going. It’s supposed to be an awesome venue, with 46 live bands, a headliner concert afterward and roughly 20,000 runners. The weather should be perfect, hopefully not too hot during the last 6 miles.
It’s great to have so much support from those around me. The other day my brother told me that he asked one of his co-workers who runs numerous ultra marathons (50 miles) for some advice. The information was very intelligent, mostly about how to keep my energy up and how to eat and drink before and during the event.
I’m off to go enjoy the rest of the day
Ryan
San Jose Half Marathon In October
May 11, 2009
With less than 3 weeks to go, I can feel the marathon breathing down my neck, and half of it is sweet with accomplishment, the other half is anxiety and nerves. This has been a true testament to my will power and dedication, but at the same time hasn’t been too hard. Obviously 18 mile runs aren’t easy, but being forced to exercise is something that I can enjoy once the routine is set. The hardest thing I have begun doing over the last few days is getting up around 6AM to prepare for the race. On race day, I’ll be waking up at about 4AM to hydrate and get ready, so this is nothing.
One of the best experiences from this training is positively affecting those around me. From people eating oatmeal in the morning, to doing some sort of exercise everyday, to drinking more water or getting more sleep. I certainly don’t deserve the credit, because it’s ultimately up to the person to decide, but being a role model for better health feels great.
At this very moment, I am in the greatest shape of my life. Since my training began in Nov/Dec I have lost about 18 pounds. This is taking into account that I wasn’t in bad shape, just not optimal, proving to myself that I really hadn’t been taking care of myself as best I could.
I already have some post-marathon plans for running, this October I will be running the San Jose Rock and Roll Half Marathon with my cousin and anybody else that is interested. It would be awesome to have 20-50 people running the half marathon together. I have already heard some excuses about the possibility of running a half marathon for those who aren’t in the best shape of their life, and my only response is, it takes time, but it’s well worth it. Plus, once the race is over, that’s just the beginning because at that point you’ll be in the best shape of the last 10-50 years. Probably losing roughly 10-30 pounds in the process, amongst friends and family, and enjoying an incredible experience that you won’t soon forget. Plus it’s a Rock and Roll race so there’s bound to be a great experience to be had.
I would really like to experience the San Jose Half Marathon with a bunch of friends of family, so that we can all have a great time and feel incredible doing it. If any of the following are reasons for YOU to do it, please join me on October 2, 2009 in San Jose.
Have 10-30 pounds that you want to lose before Thanksgiving
Would like to lower your cholesterol, blood pressure, risk of heart attack or stroke
Have never completed a half marathon
Are interested in people telling you that you are “glowing, look incredible, radiant, look 20 years younger than your age,” or other awesome compliments
Want to start running for leisure
Are tired of putting off exercise because it’s not the right time
Want to be part of a group
Be able to jog 3 miles without working up a sweat
Jog 2 miles just to warm up, for the rest of the workout
I am thinking about setting up a training group over the summer to prepare for the San Jose Half Marathon, so if you’re interested please let me know so that I can gauge interest and determine if this would be worthwhile. Don’t limit it to yourself, do it with your spouse, friends, children, parents, cousins, aunts, uncles, and dedicate it to somebody you love.
I’ll speak more about this later, I have to go do some spinning and abs, the week has just begun.
More importantly, as of today I have raised $2,000, and am looking for more! My deadline for fundraising is the 14th, so if you’ve been thinking of donating and haven’t gotten a chance please take a few minutes to donate.
http://pages.teamintraining.org/sj/rnr09/rgreenfield
Thanks and take care,
Ryan
With less than 3 weeks to go, I can feel the marathon breathing down my neck, and half of it is sweet with accomplishment, the other half is anxiety and nerves. This has been a true testament to my will power and dedication, but at the same time hasn’t been too hard. Obviously 18 mile runs aren’t easy, but being forced to exercise is something that I can enjoy once the routine is set. The hardest thing I have begun doing over the last few days is getting up around 6AM to prepare for the race. On race day, I’ll be waking up at about 4AM to hydrate and get ready, so this is nothing.
One of the best experiences from this training is positively affecting those around me. From people eating oatmeal in the morning, to doing some sort of exercise everyday, to drinking more water or getting more sleep. I certainly don’t deserve the credit, because it’s ultimately up to the person to decide, but being a role model for better health feels great.
At this very moment, I am in the greatest shape of my life. Since my training began in Nov/Dec I have lost about 18 pounds. This is taking into account that I wasn’t in bad shape, just not optimal, proving to myself that I really hadn’t been taking care of myself as best I could.
I already have some post-marathon plans for running, this October I will be running the San Jose Rock and Roll Half Marathon with my cousin and anybody else that is interested. It would be awesome to have 20-50 people running the half marathon together. I have already heard some excuses about the possibility of running a half marathon for those who aren’t in the best shape of their life, and my only response is, it takes time, but it’s well worth it. Plus, once the race is over, that’s just the beginning because at that point you’ll be in the best shape of the last 10-50 years. Probably losing roughly 10-30 pounds in the process, amongst friends and family, and enjoying an incredible experience that you won’t soon forget. Plus it’s a Rock and Roll race so there’s bound to be a great experience to be had.
I would really like to experience the San Jose Half Marathon with a bunch of friends of family, so that we can all have a great time and feel incredible doing it. If any of the following are reasons for YOU to do it, please join me on October 2, 2009 in San Jose.
Have 10-30 pounds that you want to lose before Thanksgiving
Would like to lower your cholesterol, blood pressure, risk of heart attack or stroke
Have never completed a half marathon
Are interested in people telling you that you are “glowing, look incredible, radiant, look 20 years younger than your age,” or other awesome compliments
Want to start running for leisure
Are tired of putting off exercise because it’s not the right time
Want to be part of a group
Be able to jog 3 miles without working up a sweat
Jog 2 miles just to warm up, for the rest of the workout
I am thinking about setting up a training group over the summer to prepare for the San Jose Half Marathon, so if you’re interested please let me know so that I can gauge interest and determine if this would be worthwhile. Don’t limit it to yourself, do it with your spouse, friends, children, parents, cousins, aunts, uncles, and dedicate it to somebody you love.
I’ll speak more about this later, I have to go do some spinning and abs, the week has just begun.
More importantly, as of today I have raised $2,000, and am looking for more! My deadline for fundraising is the 14th, so if you’ve been thinking of donating and haven’t gotten a chance please take a few minutes to donate.
http://pages.teamintraining.org/sj/rnr09/rgreenfield
Thanks and take care,
Ryan
Monday, May 4, 2009
Concert and 18 Miles Saturday
It’s been a while, and there’s a lot to catch up on.
Thursday was the night of my fundraising event. It was incredible!
I got to Blue Chalk around 6pm and began setting up everything, but there wasn’t much to do since the people at Blue Chalk did a great job helping me out and making sure everything was set up and ready to go. The band began arriving a little after 7PM, and there were already a number of people in Blue Chalk enjoying cheap appetizers and drinks, so the place looked like it had potential for a good crowd, I had no idea what was about to happen.
As the night went along, the band began to play, people started rolling in, some associated with my event, others with another event, and even more coming for a Stanford Beerpong Tournament. Ah, the power of drinking games on college age life, Only a year ago, that would have been an activity in my agenda.
A lot of friends showed up and it was great to see everybody! I talked with quite a few, though I was outside handling the money, so I wasn’t awarded much time to hang out with the people who came. My mom handled the socializing inside, and I’m pretty sure she had a good time. Many friends were able to chat with friends they hadn’t seen in a while, or with new friends or with portions of my family, in all it was successful. I had expected more people to come, but I’m not sure Blue Chalk could have handled many more, as there were probably about 150 people from Stanford, 50 people at my event and another 100 or so upstairs either there on their own or associated with another event. I’m really glad there were that many people for Whiskey Hill to play for, they played an awesome venue and all of them seemed happy at the conclusion of the event.
I tried to stay away from the booze and was pretty successful, making a point of limiting my consumption to about 1-2 drinks, with the reasoning going towards carb-loading for my 18 mile run on Saturday. On Friday I was pretty exhausted from running around dealing with last second details so I just took it easy and prepared myself for the 18 miles the following morning.
Saturday, I woke up around 6:15 and started getting the rest of my stuff ready for the day. One of my friends was staying in San Francisco with some other friends, and 3 of my other friends were staying there overnight, so I had planned to meet up with at least 1 group while I was up there for my long run. I left my house around 7:40 and got up to Lake Merced at 8:15. I wasn’t sure how the run would go, I didn’t have the big adrenaline rush that had occurred during the 16 mile run, the weather was gloomy and there seemed to be a lack of excitement radiating from the people about to run. This would be our furthest run to date, and it certainly felt like it.
We began by running around Lake Merced, after about 10 minutes it felt like something was in my shoe, so I stopped and checked, putting me behind the rest of the group, when nothing was found I tied my shoe and started playing catch up. It took me a few minutes to get back to the group and by then I was feeling pretty good so I just kept going at a faster than marathon pace (stupidly). At the conclusion of the Lake Merced 4.5 miles, I stopped by the bathroom, but was forced to wait about 5 minutes for somebody to finish so that put me behind about 6 minutes, and then I had to play catch up again.
The women who started after me were in good spirits and we chatted a few times as we were stopped at red lights. I headed up Sunset toward Golden Gate park and then into the park. We passed by some other runners, a carousel, near places I have played baseball, had picnics and shared memories. We continued on passed the De Young Museum, which is incredible and back around and on a course that wasn’t entirely interesting. It was drizzling, cold, and the ground was wet, not optimal running conditions. From about the point we reached Golden Gate Park I began running with Bridget and Ian, who are excellent runners and gave me plenty of pointers in preparation of this marathon. All 3 of us were on the same page and because of this got slightly lost. We hadn’t seen any white flour markings in a while, and ended up in a random park with some other walkers and a little festival with a salami dealer (that’s the truck I saw) and some other stuff going on. Anybody attending must have really wanted to be there since the weather certainly wasn’t outside fair event weather.
We continued on and made our way back to the Great Highway and saw one of the other runners. By this time, my legs felt terrible, and similar to Jello. We ran along the Great Highway and passed by the last water stop. I had begun walking about a minute before reaching the station, and hung out there for a little while as my 2 running partners continued on. When I felt a little better I began to run again, still with Jello legs and beginning to feel a little emotional. I think it was because my body was shutting down and there hadn’t been enough water stops, and the catch up from earlier. In any case, my goal was to finish the day’s run by finishing with my 2 partners. I could see them in the distance but didn’t know if it would be possible to catch them, we took a left on Sloat, and ran passed the SF zoo, and I think back to Sloat, by then I have no idea, completely exhausted and ready to collapse. After finishing I quickly changed clothes and had some food and drink.
I stretched out for a few minutes and waited for other people to arrive, finding out that some of the people who were supposed to run 14, had unintentionally ran 18. My heart went out to these people because of the way I felt, but they hadn’t been training to run that far yet.
When we started to disperse I called my friends to see what was going on, the ones I got a hold of were at the Wharf about to have lunch. I made my way over there finding some cheap and easy parking. I met up with them after walking right passed where they were and having to turn back because I don’t know that area at all. We hung out around the Wharf for a while, and then I drove my friend by USF and then back to their hotel.
Upon arriving home I just sat there and knew my body wouldn’t be too happy the next day. I didn’t want to fall asleep because I wanted the really good nights sleep. The rest of the day was a blur, just that I had some good Risotto at night and went to bed without any injuries. When I woke up at 2:30 it was not out of happiness. My left foot was hurting and it was difficult to bend. I had no idea what to expect and I had a few thoughts on why it could be hurting so much, but didn’t have a solid idea of what was really wrong. I took some Ibuprophen and went about the rest of my day, making some terrible decisions. We had a baseball party and I ended up playing about 35 games of knockout basketball, which is basically running back and forth trying to score before the other person does. By the end of the day my foot was hurting again and this morning when I woke up it wasn’t any better.
The party was really nice, some good pizzas, deserts, and friendly people. I came home and relaxed until going to bed.
This morning as I mentioned was another battle with pain. I was up pretty early so I tried to figure out what was going on, and my conclusion is that it’s a tendon in the front that was just overworked during the 18 miles. I took some more Ibuprophen earlier and it feels good now, but we’ll see tomorrow when I wake up. Hopefully it will feel a lot better after icing it today and not playing basketball for hours.
In all, this weekend was nice and fulfilling, but hard and painful.
Thursday was the night of my fundraising event. It was incredible!
I got to Blue Chalk around 6pm and began setting up everything, but there wasn’t much to do since the people at Blue Chalk did a great job helping me out and making sure everything was set up and ready to go. The band began arriving a little after 7PM, and there were already a number of people in Blue Chalk enjoying cheap appetizers and drinks, so the place looked like it had potential for a good crowd, I had no idea what was about to happen.
As the night went along, the band began to play, people started rolling in, some associated with my event, others with another event, and even more coming for a Stanford Beerpong Tournament. Ah, the power of drinking games on college age life, Only a year ago, that would have been an activity in my agenda.
A lot of friends showed up and it was great to see everybody! I talked with quite a few, though I was outside handling the money, so I wasn’t awarded much time to hang out with the people who came. My mom handled the socializing inside, and I’m pretty sure she had a good time. Many friends were able to chat with friends they hadn’t seen in a while, or with new friends or with portions of my family, in all it was successful. I had expected more people to come, but I’m not sure Blue Chalk could have handled many more, as there were probably about 150 people from Stanford, 50 people at my event and another 100 or so upstairs either there on their own or associated with another event. I’m really glad there were that many people for Whiskey Hill to play for, they played an awesome venue and all of them seemed happy at the conclusion of the event.
I tried to stay away from the booze and was pretty successful, making a point of limiting my consumption to about 1-2 drinks, with the reasoning going towards carb-loading for my 18 mile run on Saturday. On Friday I was pretty exhausted from running around dealing with last second details so I just took it easy and prepared myself for the 18 miles the following morning.
Saturday, I woke up around 6:15 and started getting the rest of my stuff ready for the day. One of my friends was staying in San Francisco with some other friends, and 3 of my other friends were staying there overnight, so I had planned to meet up with at least 1 group while I was up there for my long run. I left my house around 7:40 and got up to Lake Merced at 8:15. I wasn’t sure how the run would go, I didn’t have the big adrenaline rush that had occurred during the 16 mile run, the weather was gloomy and there seemed to be a lack of excitement radiating from the people about to run. This would be our furthest run to date, and it certainly felt like it.
We began by running around Lake Merced, after about 10 minutes it felt like something was in my shoe, so I stopped and checked, putting me behind the rest of the group, when nothing was found I tied my shoe and started playing catch up. It took me a few minutes to get back to the group and by then I was feeling pretty good so I just kept going at a faster than marathon pace (stupidly). At the conclusion of the Lake Merced 4.5 miles, I stopped by the bathroom, but was forced to wait about 5 minutes for somebody to finish so that put me behind about 6 minutes, and then I had to play catch up again.
The women who started after me were in good spirits and we chatted a few times as we were stopped at red lights. I headed up Sunset toward Golden Gate park and then into the park. We passed by some other runners, a carousel, near places I have played baseball, had picnics and shared memories. We continued on passed the De Young Museum, which is incredible and back around and on a course that wasn’t entirely interesting. It was drizzling, cold, and the ground was wet, not optimal running conditions. From about the point we reached Golden Gate Park I began running with Bridget and Ian, who are excellent runners and gave me plenty of pointers in preparation of this marathon. All 3 of us were on the same page and because of this got slightly lost. We hadn’t seen any white flour markings in a while, and ended up in a random park with some other walkers and a little festival with a salami dealer (that’s the truck I saw) and some other stuff going on. Anybody attending must have really wanted to be there since the weather certainly wasn’t outside fair event weather.
We continued on and made our way back to the Great Highway and saw one of the other runners. By this time, my legs felt terrible, and similar to Jello. We ran along the Great Highway and passed by the last water stop. I had begun walking about a minute before reaching the station, and hung out there for a little while as my 2 running partners continued on. When I felt a little better I began to run again, still with Jello legs and beginning to feel a little emotional. I think it was because my body was shutting down and there hadn’t been enough water stops, and the catch up from earlier. In any case, my goal was to finish the day’s run by finishing with my 2 partners. I could see them in the distance but didn’t know if it would be possible to catch them, we took a left on Sloat, and ran passed the SF zoo, and I think back to Sloat, by then I have no idea, completely exhausted and ready to collapse. After finishing I quickly changed clothes and had some food and drink.
I stretched out for a few minutes and waited for other people to arrive, finding out that some of the people who were supposed to run 14, had unintentionally ran 18. My heart went out to these people because of the way I felt, but they hadn’t been training to run that far yet.
When we started to disperse I called my friends to see what was going on, the ones I got a hold of were at the Wharf about to have lunch. I made my way over there finding some cheap and easy parking. I met up with them after walking right passed where they were and having to turn back because I don’t know that area at all. We hung out around the Wharf for a while, and then I drove my friend by USF and then back to their hotel.
Upon arriving home I just sat there and knew my body wouldn’t be too happy the next day. I didn’t want to fall asleep because I wanted the really good nights sleep. The rest of the day was a blur, just that I had some good Risotto at night and went to bed without any injuries. When I woke up at 2:30 it was not out of happiness. My left foot was hurting and it was difficult to bend. I had no idea what to expect and I had a few thoughts on why it could be hurting so much, but didn’t have a solid idea of what was really wrong. I took some Ibuprophen and went about the rest of my day, making some terrible decisions. We had a baseball party and I ended up playing about 35 games of knockout basketball, which is basically running back and forth trying to score before the other person does. By the end of the day my foot was hurting again and this morning when I woke up it wasn’t any better.
The party was really nice, some good pizzas, deserts, and friendly people. I came home and relaxed until going to bed.
This morning as I mentioned was another battle with pain. I was up pretty early so I tried to figure out what was going on, and my conclusion is that it’s a tendon in the front that was just overworked during the 18 miles. I took some more Ibuprophen earlier and it feels good now, but we’ll see tomorrow when I wake up. Hopefully it will feel a lot better after icing it today and not playing basketball for hours.
In all, this weekend was nice and fulfilling, but hard and painful.
Monday through Wednesday
I forgot to post this journal last week
Monday was just another day in my fairly strange last week. I woke up, got ready for work, went to work for a few hours, and then walked around downtown for a while accumulating various prizes for the raffle I am throwing in conjunction with the concert that is occurring tomorrow night (Thursday April 30). After walking around and picking up one of the prizes from Osteria, whose manager is really cool and I respect him for his courtesy, I came home and relaxed for a bit before heading back to the gym for spinning and yoga.
Spinning was awesome, I hadn’t gone the previous week, so I expected this week to be really challenging, but it was perfect. Last week my coaches told me to take it easy on the cross-training, so I was expecting to go about 80-90% of capacity, but the workout wasn’t all that hard, so I just went about the routine. After the spinning class I stayed for the yoga class which I haven’t done in about a month. It was absolutely amazing. On one of the positions, I literally heard parts of my body pop numerous times. It felt kind of weird, but extremely relaxing immediately after.
The rest of the night is a blur, but I remember writing emails and then waking up around 6AM on Tuesday and being stoked about training. I got my mind right and then started to run around 7AM, heading over to the gym, which is a little over a mile from my house. After getting there I immediately jumped on the treadmill and decided to run a mile and see what my time would be, having already warmed up and being ready to bang it out. I set a goal to run a near 6 minute mile, so I set the treadmill at around 6:30 pace, which is approximately 9.5MPH. I went like this for the first 3 laps and then increased the cadence to a little over 10MPH and about a 6 minute mile. For the entire mile I was as far up as possible, and occasionally feeling my foot slide along portions of the machine (meaning I was going too fast for the treading). I finished the mile in 6:10 and got off, heading into the studio to do some abs, obliques and lower back. It felt great to do some core as it’s been about 2 weeks since I’ve really gotten a good workout in that section.
After the core I headed back home and then got ready to play tennis with my dad. It was pretty nice outside, fairly overcast but it was much better than the crazy wind from 2 weeks prior. It was sunny for about 2 minutes, but in comparison to the time we played when it was sprinkling, this was awesome, no sliding. Neither of us were particularly on, but it was fun and I could tell that m legs were a little tired from the running less than an hour prior.
When I got home from the tennis, I got ready for work at the Golf Course and eventually made it over there. The course was fairly slow, so we just hung out for a while. I had a chance to continue reading Barack Obama’s first book “Dreams From My Father.” So far it is a good story, and it’s amazing what I’ve read thus far, well before his political scene began, so there’s probably some really crazy stuff coming up. I was going to head over to a comedy presentation after work with one of my friends, but we got kind of lazy, we’re tired and both had obligations, so I left there and picked up my mom from her friend’s house (We share the car). We watched a little of American Idol and then headed home. I am not an Idol fan, but it’s an interesting show and I think that Simon does a little too much manipulation of the fans’ voting agenda based on emotion. After all, his money depends on the ratings and advertising money (Apparently Coca Cola has a big push, as their big red cups were right in front with the Coca Cola showing for all to see. I don’t think any of them took a drink while we were watching, I wonder if there was even anything in the cups?) In any case, don’t drink soda, it will rot your teeth, cause bone density loss, and make you fat, it’s a no-brainer.
Tuesday night led to Wednesday morning as I fell asleep on the couch for about 5 hours. When I woke up after falling asleep during a recorded episode of Fringe, I woke up to some nonsense and turned it off and headed to bed. I had meant to work on part of the raffle information that night, so in the morning when I woke up, my work began, quickly engulfing my entire day. After working on the raffle for about 2 hours I went to work and then worked on the raffle for the next 4 hours until I headed over to the baseball field for practice. After practice, which was very productive I went to my dad’s for dinner and had some really good pesto chicken and a good salad with sesame miso dressing, it was really good. We hung out for a while and I ate some chocolate, chocolate chip cookies and some orange flavored water.
At this point in the day, I am absolutely exhausted, and I really just want to fall asleep right here on the keyboard, but as there are still things to complete tonight, I shall head on and get them done before falling into a quick REM sleep.
As I mentioned at the beginning of this journal, tomorrow (Thursday) I am hosting a fund raising concert to benefit the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society between 7-11PM. Whiskey Hill will be performing with Joe Hayes from 8-11PM, and there will be a raffle with a bunch of cool prizes. I will attach the flier for all to see. It should be really cool and hopefully you’ll be able to attend and bring lots of friends and smiling faces.
Thanks again for all the support, this Saturday will be a new test, 18 miles of running over about 3.5 hours. I’ll let you know how that feels.
In recent news, I have added Clayton Hagy to my list of honorees, for which I am dedicating and running this marathon. Clayton is an 8th grader and family friend of one of the kids on my baseball team. Clayton has biphenotypic acute leukemia, and is waiting for a bone marrow transplant. More information about Clayton can be read at this website:
http://www.caringbridge.org/visit/claytonhagy
Please let me know if there is anybody in your life that you would like me to run in honor of. I am running this marathon to improve the life of any person with blood cancer, and anybody or their family in the future that may be affected.
Thank you for reading and I hope you have a great rest of the week and weekend. Start it off right by attending the Fundraising concert!
Ryan
Monday was just another day in my fairly strange last week. I woke up, got ready for work, went to work for a few hours, and then walked around downtown for a while accumulating various prizes for the raffle I am throwing in conjunction with the concert that is occurring tomorrow night (Thursday April 30). After walking around and picking up one of the prizes from Osteria, whose manager is really cool and I respect him for his courtesy, I came home and relaxed for a bit before heading back to the gym for spinning and yoga.
Spinning was awesome, I hadn’t gone the previous week, so I expected this week to be really challenging, but it was perfect. Last week my coaches told me to take it easy on the cross-training, so I was expecting to go about 80-90% of capacity, but the workout wasn’t all that hard, so I just went about the routine. After the spinning class I stayed for the yoga class which I haven’t done in about a month. It was absolutely amazing. On one of the positions, I literally heard parts of my body pop numerous times. It felt kind of weird, but extremely relaxing immediately after.
The rest of the night is a blur, but I remember writing emails and then waking up around 6AM on Tuesday and being stoked about training. I got my mind right and then started to run around 7AM, heading over to the gym, which is a little over a mile from my house. After getting there I immediately jumped on the treadmill and decided to run a mile and see what my time would be, having already warmed up and being ready to bang it out. I set a goal to run a near 6 minute mile, so I set the treadmill at around 6:30 pace, which is approximately 9.5MPH. I went like this for the first 3 laps and then increased the cadence to a little over 10MPH and about a 6 minute mile. For the entire mile I was as far up as possible, and occasionally feeling my foot slide along portions of the machine (meaning I was going too fast for the treading). I finished the mile in 6:10 and got off, heading into the studio to do some abs, obliques and lower back. It felt great to do some core as it’s been about 2 weeks since I’ve really gotten a good workout in that section.
After the core I headed back home and then got ready to play tennis with my dad. It was pretty nice outside, fairly overcast but it was much better than the crazy wind from 2 weeks prior. It was sunny for about 2 minutes, but in comparison to the time we played when it was sprinkling, this was awesome, no sliding. Neither of us were particularly on, but it was fun and I could tell that m legs were a little tired from the running less than an hour prior.
When I got home from the tennis, I got ready for work at the Golf Course and eventually made it over there. The course was fairly slow, so we just hung out for a while. I had a chance to continue reading Barack Obama’s first book “Dreams From My Father.” So far it is a good story, and it’s amazing what I’ve read thus far, well before his political scene began, so there’s probably some really crazy stuff coming up. I was going to head over to a comedy presentation after work with one of my friends, but we got kind of lazy, we’re tired and both had obligations, so I left there and picked up my mom from her friend’s house (We share the car). We watched a little of American Idol and then headed home. I am not an Idol fan, but it’s an interesting show and I think that Simon does a little too much manipulation of the fans’ voting agenda based on emotion. After all, his money depends on the ratings and advertising money (Apparently Coca Cola has a big push, as their big red cups were right in front with the Coca Cola showing for all to see. I don’t think any of them took a drink while we were watching, I wonder if there was even anything in the cups?) In any case, don’t drink soda, it will rot your teeth, cause bone density loss, and make you fat, it’s a no-brainer.
Tuesday night led to Wednesday morning as I fell asleep on the couch for about 5 hours. When I woke up after falling asleep during a recorded episode of Fringe, I woke up to some nonsense and turned it off and headed to bed. I had meant to work on part of the raffle information that night, so in the morning when I woke up, my work began, quickly engulfing my entire day. After working on the raffle for about 2 hours I went to work and then worked on the raffle for the next 4 hours until I headed over to the baseball field for practice. After practice, which was very productive I went to my dad’s for dinner and had some really good pesto chicken and a good salad with sesame miso dressing, it was really good. We hung out for a while and I ate some chocolate, chocolate chip cookies and some orange flavored water.
At this point in the day, I am absolutely exhausted, and I really just want to fall asleep right here on the keyboard, but as there are still things to complete tonight, I shall head on and get them done before falling into a quick REM sleep.
As I mentioned at the beginning of this journal, tomorrow (Thursday) I am hosting a fund raising concert to benefit the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society between 7-11PM. Whiskey Hill will be performing with Joe Hayes from 8-11PM, and there will be a raffle with a bunch of cool prizes. I will attach the flier for all to see. It should be really cool and hopefully you’ll be able to attend and bring lots of friends and smiling faces.
Thanks again for all the support, this Saturday will be a new test, 18 miles of running over about 3.5 hours. I’ll let you know how that feels.
In recent news, I have added Clayton Hagy to my list of honorees, for which I am dedicating and running this marathon. Clayton is an 8th grader and family friend of one of the kids on my baseball team. Clayton has biphenotypic acute leukemia, and is waiting for a bone marrow transplant. More information about Clayton can be read at this website:
http://www.caringbridge.org/visit/claytonhagy
Please let me know if there is anybody in your life that you would like me to run in honor of. I am running this marathon to improve the life of any person with blood cancer, and anybody or their family in the future that may be affected.
Thank you for reading and I hope you have a great rest of the week and weekend. Start it off right by attending the Fundraising concert!
Ryan
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