I'm here to complete, not compete...

It's been a crazy few days, and the hot week we had in Phoenix hasn't helped at all. Seriously, it's November and we're still seeing 90°+ days? I was ready for summer to be over in September, but it's still beating us down.

But enough bitching about the weather.

I did my week three short runs this week on Monday evening and Wednesday morning. Both were four miles and uneventful. Just the usual run out to the park, around the lake and back home. I was supposed to do a seven mile long run on Friday. I woke up too late to do it before work, so I figured I'd do it in the late evening. I ate too much for dinner, though, and even though I waited 2-1/2 hours before my run, I got sick about 2.5 miles into it and called for a ride home. The upside to that run was that I found $30 in cash on the ground.

I thought about making another attempt at the seven miler on Saturday, but my knee was feeling sore and I had the Phoenix 10K the next day, so I decided it would be more prudent to take the day off. This puts me behind on the training schedule, but I think I can make it up; I'm supposed to be doing ten mile long runs by December. Once I reach that point, I think I'm within striking distance of the half-marathon goal.

The shoes that I won finally showed up on Friday. Nike Air Pegasus+. They're pretty cool shoes, and I'll probably try them out in about 100-200 miles. I overpronate, though, which means that I need stability shoes, and the Pegasus (Pegasi?) are just cushioning shoes for normal pronators. I've been working on my stride, though, and they may work out. We'll see.

The grand total of stuff I've gotten from running. Not exactly breaking even, yet.

As I foreshadowed earlier, Sunday was the Phoenix 10K. Laurel and I both went; she was signed up for the 5K and I the 10k. The event was well organized and publicized. There were approximately two thousand  participants in the 10K event and the coordinators had set up pacing teams for various speeds all the way up to 10:00/mile. I decided to start just behind the 10:00 pace team based on my earlier experiences. They sounded the horn promptly at 8:00 am, and about a minute later I crossed the starting line.

I have a new pet peeve: walkers who start at the front of the pack after being told repeatedly to start in the back. There must have been a dozen announcements before the 10K and Laurel said there were at least as many before the 5K. Even so, I was dodging walkers before I crossed the starting line, and pretty much continuously for the first couple miles. Some of them were even walking three or four abreast, completely oblivious to the runners. It was like I was the one chasing the zombies. I wanted to hit every one of them with a dipstick. Fortunately, both events took place on wide streets, so it wasn't hard to get around them. It was just frustrating, though, that so few of the walkers bothered to follow the rules.

At around 2.25 miles, some motor officers started pushing all the runners to the right side of the road. I was kind of annoyed at first, but then I saw the elites go by, making sub-five minute miles look easy. As I had expected, they lapped me. It was awesome to see them fly by us, though. Everyone around me was clapping and cheering for them, and we all even sped up a bit. Running is one of the few sports where professionals and hobbyists share the same field, and to quote Jerry Myers in Spirit of the Marathon, it's like running in the footsteps of giants.

I finished the first five kilometers somewhere around 28:30 (the timing company doesn't provide a 5k split time even though we crossed the timing mats), but somewhere around 2.5 miles, the inside of my left knee started hurting. The second five kilometers turned into a run/walk with a sprint at the end, but somehow I managed to complete the event with a chip time of 1:03:31, which put me at an overall pace of 10:14. I finished 1330/1988 overall, and 94/113 for my division. It felt completely awesome to finish. I turned in my chip, limped over to the clothing check, and managed to get the camera out just in time to get a few shots of the beginning of the 5K.

 The 5K gets underway. I think Laurel is in there somewhere. Yup, she's waving. Um, I think you're supposed to wave with all of your fingers.

I took a few minutes to ice my knee in the shade and savor the sanctification of finishing. It wasn't my best performance, and I was frustrated with the knee forcing me to walk for about a fourth of the distance, but I still finished, and finished ahead of almost 660 other runners. On the off chance that any of the hundreds of people that worked to make this event a success are reading my blog, I want to wish you a hearty thanks.

Now I need to get caught up with my half-marathon training. This week is 4/5/7, and I absolutely have to get that seven miler done on Friday morning due to weekend plans. I'm planning to do a slow four mile jog this evening to work out the kink in my knee; hopefully some even ground will help.

Last of all, I'm getting frustrated with the limited featureset on blogspot and I'm thinking of moving my blog over to Wordpress.

Spooky Six

I'm not blogging to myself anymore; I've amassed a loyal band of readers that number somewhere in the single digits. Mid-to-low single digits. So, I will no longer address my nonexistent readers. I've also decided to limit myself to weekly blogging because (a) I don't have time for much more than that, (b) that's been the trend lately, anyway and (c) my posts are a lot longer when I can put an entire week's worth of content into them. Which brings me to throwing in the last week's worth of content.

Monday was the official start of my half-marathon training program. I'm using the Coach feature on nikerunning, which starts off with two four-mile short runs and a six-mile long run. When I first started the C25K program this summer, I really couldn't comprehend the idea of four-mile short runs. Part of me still can't, but I did them anyway. I did both of them in the early evening, following a familiar route to the park, around the lake and back home. I was scheduled to do my long run on Friday, and I even had the day off from work, but I just didn't feel like doing it. Instead, I got caught up in reading Addicted to Hate, Jon Michael Bell's account of Fred Phelps and his Westboro Baptist Church. Believe it or not, there is a running tie-in there, but I'll leave it to you, my paltry band of readers, to discover it for yourselves.

Saturday, of course, was Halloween, and I really needed to get that long run in. It's one thing to skip a short run during the week; another entirely to blow off a long run. The day was already busy with errands, meals and trick-or-treaters, though, so I decided to do it after the trick-or-treating tapered off. Shortly after nine o'clock, and under a nearly-full moon, I finally started. I took the same route as the short runs, but added another lap around the lake to increase the distance. I kept my pace at approximately ten minutes per mile and focused on my form. I'm still trying to clean up the mechanics of my stride to avoid injury and reduce recovery time. Every time Nike+ announced a mile completed, I had three or four sport beans and a mouthful of water (thanks for the tip, Michelle). I ran past quite a few Halloween parties, but I didn't see any ghosts, ghouls, zombies or even the Great Pumpkin. The six miles ticked away one at a time until I completed them, leaving me with a quarter-mile walk to my front door. Week One - Done.

On Sunday, we stopped into Ross and scored. I got a pair of Reebok men's running tights for $15 (regularly $50, and yes, I'm sure they're actually men's). Now that it's finally starting to cool off in the evenings and mornings, they'll come in handy.

I also watched the 2009 New York City Marathon on Sunday. I thought it was a bummer to see Paula lose it at the end, but apparently Nike didn't get the memo:

This week is 4/4/7, plus I have the Phoenix 10K on Sunday. I'll post again after all of that.

The Finish Line is Just Another Starting Line

My apologies, nonexistent readers, for not updating you in almost a week. Most of the week was spent icing my shin or knee and trying to keep both elevated, so there wasn't much to report.

On Thursday, I felt well enough to run again, but I decided to leave the hydration belt I hate behind and just see how my leg and all of its sore components felt. The answer was, they felt better. I did start feeling a little bit of shin splint after about ten minutes, but after another half mile it loosened up and felt fine. I was supposed to do a forty-five minute run, but without any hydration or nutrition I settled for thirty-one minutes and 3.26 miles.

Between Thursday and Saturday, I picked up the Nathan Speedbelt 4 that I talked about getting the last post. I loaded up the bottles with water and electrolyte replacement drink and set out Saturday morning to run the Nike+ Human Race 10k. That belt is light-years better than the other one. It doesn't bounce around at all, and I barely even noticed it.  There is a small pouch on the front that's perfect for a bag of sport beans, of which I ate a small handful every two kilometers. About 400 meters from the finish I felt a twinge in a rather personal adductor muscle, but I kept going because I was so close to the end. This was my longest run so far, and it was tough, but I finished it in 1:00:09.  That completes the One Hour Runner program, which segues directly into my half-marathon training program.

Remember that Shoes Challenge I was logging runs for? I WON! THEY'RE SENDING ME SHOES! I don't know what shoes they are, but I'll probably just put them on the shelf until I mile out my Equalons.

After I recovered from my Saturday run, we went to the State Fair using the pass I got from my last 5k. We had a good time, enjoyed the fair food and saw all the animals (I saw a lot of mutton that didn't know it was mutton, yet).

Sometime over the last week, I went green on Nikerunning. Which is cool, but it means that I have 465 miles to go until I hit blue.

This is probably a good time to mention that I've signed on with the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society's Make Cures Happen program. I'm hoping to raise $1000 for research into blood cancers, and everyone reading this blog can help. No donation too small, and no donation too big.

Running for...Fair Tickets?

Saturday was supposed to be week 9, day 3 of One Hour Runner, a 55 minute run. I started with my usual half-bagel with cream cheese and added a bag of extreme sport beans. It was hot and I just felt exhausted. I only made it about thirteen minutes before I just completely ran out of energy. I'm also just hating my hydration belt more and more every time that I run with it. On Saturday it was bouncing around and the buckle was punching me in the abdomen. I think it would be fine for hiking, but it's torture for running. I'm about ready to give up on it and get one of these instead:

The reviews on Amazon and other sites are pretty good, and my friend Michelle just finished a full marathon using one on Sunday. She spoke highly of it, so it's probably worth a try. The heat was supposed to break after Sunday, so I decided to shelve the run for Monday and headed home. I really should have pushed ahead.

Speaking of Sunday, I ran the Arizona State Fair 5k. I completed the race in 29:09, coming in 75th overall and 8th in my division. I think that's a respectable finish. One I can improve upon for sure, but I'm happy with it.

The author posing with "Midway Marge," a State Fair mascot.

Included in the registration for the race was a pass for 5 to the Arizona State Fair. Admission is usually $10, so I've rounded up four friends to go next weekend.

Monday showed up right on schedule, cooler but still unseasonably warm, so I tried the 55 minute run again. This time I skipped the pre-run sport beans and just took a bag of the non-caffeinated variety as a refueling snack. I felt better, but after 2.6 miles I developed shin splints in my right leg for the first time. Actually, my whole right leg was getting sore; my quad, knee, IT band and ankle were also acting up. All of those I could power through, but the shin splint was too much. Somewhere around week 6 of the Couch-to-5K program, I was experiencing pain and weakness in my right knee, which I traced to a bad habit of turning my right toe in when I got tired and lazy. I think I was trying so hard to keep from turning my right toe in that I was just out of balance and landing really hard on my right foot. I'm going to spend the next couple of days icing my shin and knee while loading up on ibuprofen. I'll try for running 45 minutes on Thursday; if that's successful I'll push ahead to 6.2 miles on Saturday.

I don't need to run around in circles....

Condition: I hate running laps. I like for my run to have a start and a finish, and there's something demoralizing about running around in circles, even if they're really big circles. I realized that this had actually become an anxiety, causing me to map out long and complex routes to avoid running laps.

Problem: The Phoenix 10K consists of two laps of a 5 kilometer course, so I'm going to have to run the laps to complete it.

Solution: Exposure therapy. I learned this from watching Obsessed. The best way to get over an anxiety is to confront it head on. Plan a run that includes multiple laps of the same course.

So, that's what I did. This morning was week 9, day 2 of One Hour Runner, a forty minute run. A park near my house has a small lake with an island. Running all the way around the lake is 1.1 miles, adding in the island makes it 1.5. Guesstimating that my pace would be a little under 10:00/mile, I decided to go for three laps including the island, which would leave me about a five minute cooldown walk to my car at the end.

I got up at 5:30, had half a bagel with cream cheese and a bag of caffeinated sport beans and then drove over to the park. It was still pitch dark for the first lap; except for a few geese and a couple of fishermen, I had the park to myself. By the time I started my second lap, the sun was breaking the horizon and I was sharing the pathways with walkers and homeless guys collecting cans. I downed most of another bag of sport beans with some water on the loop around the island. On the third lap I was wishing for sunglasses, but the fastest way to get to them was to finish the run. I got the five minute warning just as I hit the bridge to start my last island loop, and as I came around the south end of the lake I completed my forty minute goal.

So, do I like running laps now? No. Still not my favorite way to put miles on my shoes. But with 1.5 mile laps, it's a convenient way to stack up some distance without actually going very far.

---

I just got a Facebook update from the Runner's Den about the Arizona State Fair 5k Fun Run/Walk. Apparently registration includes admission to the fair and Stone Temple Pilots is playing that night. Hmm...

Running for Beer & Pizza

It's been a long few days, and I haven't had time keep you updated, nonexistent readers.

On Thursday night, Laurel and I attended the Training Kick-Off Party for the P.F. Chang's Rock 'N Roll Arizona Marathon & Half-Marathon. We had a good time and made contact with several charity running organizations. I'm probably going to sign with either Team-in-Training or the Shade Foundation. After making the rounds at the expo and listening to a pep talk from Josh Cox and Susan Loken, we did the 3.5 mile run. It was completely disorganized; everybody just walked up to the starting line and started running. Cox was supposed to be leading the run, but he started from all the way in the back and worked his way up to the front. I paced him for a couple of minutes before he pulled away from me. Unlike my first 5K, I started in the middle of the pack at my own pace of about 9:13/mile and moved up slowly. This will be my strategy for future races. After the run we came back to free beer and pizza. How awesome is free beer and pizza? Infinitely awesome.

---

On Saturday morning I was scheduled for week 8, day 3 of One Hour Runner, a fifty-minute run. I got up and got dressed, but had a hard time motivating myself to get out the door. I finally dragged myself onto the street and ran the first quarter-mile before I realized that I had forgotten my hydration belt. I knew I would absolutely need it, so I headed back home. By the time I really got underway it was almost 9 o'clock am. Still feeling unmotivated, I slogged out of my neighborhood and into farmland, cursing myself for picking the route. There were no sidewalks and the shoulder was rough, so I ended up running towards traffic on the rarely traveled roads. I had to stop and walk twice to safely cross busier streets, but I kept pushing and pushing myself as the Nike+ announcer counted down my time. When she announced "one minute remaining," I checked the distance and was disappointed to hear only 4.83 miles. I decided to keep going until I crossed five miles, which only took another minute. When I finally paused Nike+ and checked Runkeeper, I had already hit 5.18 miles. Adding a few hundredths for the time it takes to start Runkeeper after starting Nike+, and subtracting a few hundredths for crossing the busy streets, I calibrated the workout to 5.1 miles. Some days I feel great at the end of a long run, but this was not one of those days; I felt just as crappy for the rest of the day as I had before I ran. The upside, though, is that I finished the run and qualified for the Shoes Challenge.

---

On Sunday, Laurel and I stopped into The Runner's Den and registered for the 34th Annual Phoenix 10k. I'm scheduled to run seven miles just two days before this event, so I'm confident about finishing. I'm aiming to finish in just under one hour, so I fully expect the elite runners to be crossing the finish line as I'm completing my first lap.

---

I just looked at the video highlights from the Kick-Off Party and I'm briefly visible talking to Ron from The Runner's Den.

Running for Shoes

I waited until after nine o'clock pm last night to go for my run so that it would count for the Shoes Challenge. It was the final run for week seven of One Hour Runner, so I loaded up my hydration belt with water, sports drink and sport beans. The moon was full and accented by a few streaks of clouds; the air was calm and 72°.

I set my iPhone for a 45 minute workout and started down the trail, mouthing the words to "My Neck, My Back" by The Vandals. I cruised along past horse pastures and stalled housing developments, heading for the park. By the time I reached the halfway point I was on the far side of the lake. Small groups of fishermen were clumped in various spots, enjoying the cool evening and probably hoping for a free dinner. I took a handful of sport beans from their pouch and chewed them slowly, washing them down with some water. As I came around the lake, the moon was reflected perfectly in the nearly still water. Someone's unleashed pit bull ran alongside me for a couple hundred yards, reminding me of passage in Great Races, Incredible Places where a Klondike Relay runner was being paced by an actual grizzly bear. After a quick loop of the island, I reluctantly turned away from the lake and started back towards home. Before I knew it, I was hearing the five minute warning. With one minute remaining, I opened up and sprinted to the invisible finish line, completing my new personal distance record of 4.65 miles in 45 minutes.

When I got home and synced my run I was already in second place, so I obviously wasn't the only one trying to get a jump start on the challenge. By the time I checked it again this morning, I had dropped below fortieth.

I learned a few things on this run:

• Night running is pretty awesome now that the evenings have cooled off.
• Sport beans are even more awesome. I finished that run feeling great and I attribute that to the beans I ate at the halfway point.
• The hydration belt works best once the main water bottle is at about 75% capacity. It stops bouncing around and rides evenly. I only drank about 50% of the bottle, anyway, so I'll just fill it to 75% for future long runs.
• I've decided to just round all the remaining run times in OHR to the nearest five minutes.
  

Tomorrow starts week eight of OHR and Thursday is the Training Kick-Off Party for the P.F. Chang's Rock 'N Roll Arizona Marathon & Half-Marathon. That will count for day two and I'll finish the week with a fifty minute run on Saturday.