Thoughts before the ATB

Eighty seven days ago I decided to sign up for the Around the Bay 30K Race, a legendary road race that is "Older than Boston" (which is the slogan on the technical t-shirt in the goodies bag). It's about 6 hours before I take my place among more than 7,000 people who have trained through the winter. Which is kind of a funny thing to say because as far as training went in the last 87 days, it was a really poor effort on my part overall. I have run no more than 20K in preparation for this race. I have no doubt this is going to hurt me even as I plan to take it easy. Every time someone asks me what my goal time is for any race, the answer has always been "to complete." That's not changing today.

Positive temperatures, negative attitudes

It took me til about an hour ago to finally stop making excuses and go run this weekend. I went to the dentist, had lunch yesterday with my family, had dim sum today with the extended family, went grocery shopping, watched Sunday morning cartoons for a bit, I even played piano for the first time in years -- and for more than one sonata -- at my parents house yesterday afternoon so I wouldn't have to come home and put on my running shoes, despite the positive temperatures all weekend. I'm funny that way. All told, this plus 4C temps wasn't bad and in fact, probably somewhat ideal, come Race Day. Just 5K today, but given my mental struggles to get out the door this weekend, I'll take it.

For extra motivation, I wore my Chicago Marathon souvenir pullover today as I dragged my feet around my neighborhood. The pullover just reminds me that I can train myself to go this distance, and that so much of running is really a mental issue for me.  And Chicago always reminds me of the deep dish pizza that Yumke and Frankie and I inhaled after that race. Also Yumke has signed me up for a "recovery" run for the weekend after the Around the Bay. That's what friends are for.

Running with Glee

I wanted to stay in bed this morning. But last night I convinced myself that I need to start getting used to running outside again. A treadmill will only take me so far, but if I'm running a race in March, I'm going to have to face the elements. As I was laying in bed last night, all I could hear was the howling wind and I wanted to cry a little. I also thought about how I should run with people because people keep people honest with friendly competition and I know me, I can just as easily talk myself into not leaving the house. So my plan was to go down to the Beach and join the Sunday Running Room clinic. Only CMan wasn't yet home from work when I woke up and I was clearly not going to make this clinic. Already dressed though, I decided I'd have to do this alone after all around the neighborhood.

The streets were empty. No one was walking their dog, going to brunch, or even driving anywhere. It was -10C, but felt like -21C with the wind. Snow was blowing off roofs and smacking me in the face. Very strong winds made me feel like I was running in the same spot and I kept thinking to myself, WHY, OH WHY?

But the Glee soundtrack has been inspiring all my running lately, and this one was no different. I stepped out of the house to "Walking on Sunshine" and ended with "Don't Stop Believing". Five kilometres is a good start to the year, I say. Once I reach the 10K I think I will start believing.

Two bad decisions to end 2009

Not entirely sure what drove me to do any of the following yesterday, but it's done and 2010 starts with me feeling actually somewhat good about running again. Since my last post about the buddy system, I've convinced myself to run increasingly longer amounts, by five or 10 minutes each session. Slow, but steady. Average pace of about 5 miles per hour with walking breaks. I pushed myself to run a full hour the other day after a particularly harrowing work day. To top it off, I have finally hung the plaque commemorating the Chicago marathon. It only took three years.

So this is exactly what I emailed to Frankie yesterday after my "two bad decisions":

1. am confirmed for the 30K race

2. i tweeted about it

I'm just now trying to see what the fuss is about this Twitter thing. Still not on FaceBook though:

kyngca

last bad decision of '09, decade: just signed up for 30K around the bay race. oh, peer pressure! the other bad decision: signing up for thisabout 21 hours ago from web

Guess I'll be seeing my cousin, Yumke, and Frankie around the bay in just under three months. Brrrrr. Someone please have hot chocolate at the finish line. Or bring a spatula to scrape me off the sidewalk for the moment that reality hits me in my frozen face that 30K is frakin far.

The buddy system

Tis the holiday season and time to get together and celebrate some good cheer with old friends. And so last week I found myself reconnecting with a girl I grew up with. We'd been through the Girl Guides system, softball teams, and swimming lessons together ... lost touch through university but found out years later we belonged to the same gym. And so we'd end up having baked brie and beer on occasion. Last week was one such occasion. Of course, we talked about the gym: how she goes, even after she had knee surgery a few months ago, while I talk about how I've been avoiding it because in truth, I've turned pretty lazy about exercising (I keep blaming my bad shoulders but guess what I have a doctor's appointment next week to finally get it seriously checked out.) My friend and I came to a buddy system agreement where we will meet each other at the gym every Monday so that we can each get a good start to the week (though we started on Thursday this week because of previous engagements). She convinced me to join her because she's in the early stages of learning to run. She's at a 15-minute walk/run level right now. I thought to myself, I should be able to handle that. Just ease back in...

And so I showed up today and we found two treadmills together. Started with walking, then eased into a jog. It was about 3 min run, then 1 min walk pace. By around the 10th minute, I was feeling pretty good about myself: unexpectedly, my breathing was not particularly labored, nor were my running mechanics totally off kilter. I was not in as rough shape as I thought. I decided to push it and run harder for the last five minutes. It was hard to maintain the 6 mph pace, but I did it. I am pretty sure I will actually feel it in my legs tomorrow. But it was fun and I might just do this again tomorrow.

And this is how we build towards the Around the Bay 30K race. Peer pressure might just get me to sign up (like everyone is doing it! Yumke, Fleetfooted, Cousin...!!!) but let's see how I handle a little more distance in the next week or two before I really commit. I'm pretty good at talking a big game sometimes and then "forgetting" about it, when it comes to these races and stuff.

Oh ya, speaking of buddies: Yumke has devilishly decided to revive the 2006 Chicago team of himself, me and Fleetfooted to run another race together and has generously decided to pay for our choice of Toronto spring races next year. Ah, the gift of running.

Cheerleader

Today I played the role of cheerleader, running on the sidelines instead of in the main event. This was an event that I had to precisely time if I wanted to see all the runners I needed to see today, and I spent a lot of time this weekend trying to figure out best places to catch them at one point or another.

But I knew I wanted to spend as much of it chasing Yumke around town on the subway while he chased his dream to qualify for Boston. He's come so far since we both trained for the Chicago Marathon in 2006. (I have actually gone backwards but this is not about me today).

I saw him at the 9K mark, where the half-marathon and marathon routes split up. I took a quick break to try and catch the half-marathoners and made my way to near the finish line. I missed Cousin's finish (she was spot on what I thought she would do, way to go!) but caught R and her sister (awesome!). Walked a few blocks and saw my former boss and his son in the home stretch of their half-marathon together. Hopped on the subway and positioned myself right near work and not more than three minutes later caught Yumke as he hit the halfway mark. The cheering group at this corner kept shouting "BOSTON! BOSTON!", and I chimed in too. As soon Yumke passed by, I headed back up to the finish line and met up with Cousin. We sipped americanos, conspired about doing a marathon together next year (really?) or at least the 30K Around the Bay, and then scooted back into position at the 41K mark to watch for Yumke.

We saw the 3:10 pace bunny go by and I knew Yumke couldn't be far behind. And in what seemed like an eternity, a white hat came bobbing along, and as Yumke approached, our little group went crazy and while we didn't know what time it was and where Yumke stood against the clock, we had a good feeling that it was good enough to be a BQ. Our suspicions were all but confirmed when we spotted the 3:15 pacer run by solo after Yumke (where'd his group go?)

We found this happy guy as he slowly walked through the chute. No doubt savoring the moment.

Congrats Yumke. So proud of you.

Gak, it hurts but confidence building

Mini update, not that there's much to say. Last month, I ran Harry's Spring 5K with a bunch of former university paper staffers, making good on a promise we made to each other last year when we coincidentally came together at this race. It hurt. It hurt bad. My breathing was off, my strides were all wrong, my arms felt alien to me. Oh and it was so cold and windy which set the stage for miserable attitude anyway. My 5K time was kind of embarrassing -- 34:47.o chip -- though much better than my prediction that I'd finish in 40-45 minutes, that's how much confidence I had heading into it. But that's what I get for running less than I can count on one hand since... well let's not even review that. 

I then missed out on the Sporting Life 10K -- one of my favorite races in this city -- because I *forgot* to sign up. Just as well because after my performance at Harry's, I was too scared to go out and train for it, didn't have the will to even try. As if I'm not scared enough as it is, I've recently agreed with J from work to sign up for the Toronto half-marathon in October (151 days to go). And the midterm goal is to hit a 10 miler in the summer (60 days to race day).  

So today, as I wind down my hours in cottage country (CMan whisked me away to the resort we stayed at for our honeymoon for a long weekend), I laced up my shoes and ran a little, from the resort to the turn-in off the highway (which the sign says is 2K one way). It wasn't easy but there's something about running on backcountry roads that's so much more something something than city asphalt. And there was a hot tub with a magnificent view of the lake at the end of it. 

It was a good start in that I started. If I can get two or three more runs in this week, I'm sure it'll become a habit again. Confidence will rebuild, but it's baby steps. Sometimes I still marvel at how I dragged myself cross that finish line in Chicago, but obviously I can do it. I can repeat the slow build to achieving that personal goal if I want to. And I want to. Because lately I've been feeling as useful as a sack of potatoes...Maybe even resembling!