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Race reports: A Run for the Angels

Friday 3 August 2001

Yesterday was just a short run. We had to fit it in between the Fresh Prince and Friends. So only half an hour. Since the park is still presumably closed (will have to check that out for sure later) we went a bit around the neighborhood. In all, we were only gone about 25 minutes (if that) and ran about 6 of it. I feel like I'm slipping out of the habit. Must get back into it.

It's too bad we didn't go further yesterday, the weather was nice. At one point, we felt a cool (!!) breeze! Well, not chilly or anything, but definitely not hot! Very exciting. But we didn't have time, and my left shin has started to hurt again. By the time we got back to the apt, the pain was almost as bad as it was in the beginning! Perhaps I took too much time off. But I stretched for a long time and then iced it for a while, so it doesn't feel so bad today.

I think what I really need to figure out now is how to lose weight. A lot of it. I'd like to go to a nutritionist, but I know I can't afford that. I'd like to join a gym so I can get lots of cross-training in, but I definitely can't afford that, either. What do I do? Do I just continue as I am and hope I lose 50 pounds in the next 6 months? Not likely. Even with the cooler weather, I'm just going to get injured if I run enough to lose that kind of weight. It's a tough call...

BTW, Sportbrain is now officially out of business. Hrmmph.

Off to Baton Rouge this afternoon. Might see if I can fix Dee's treadmill and run on that. Could be interesting.

Tuesday, 7 August 2001

Well, it's been a slow couple of days, running-wise. I ended up going to Baton Rouge on Saturday. I did manage to fix Dee's treadmill, and went 1.5 miles on it. It's so wobbly though on the thick carpet that I didn't run much of it. The upside is, I did walk some "hills" which is a novelty for me.

Sunday was a non-running day - Kristina and I went to the Weakest Link auditions. We didn't make it to the second round. It was more nerve-wracking than I thought it was going to be - we had to stand in front of 120 people and say our names, ages, occupation, and an interesting thing about ourselves. I couldn't think of anything so I said "I read the encyclopedia when I was little" which got a tiny reaction, but obviously not enough for them. They did say that they'd be back in 6 months, so maybe we'll have better luck then. At least we can practice next time.

Kristina went up to New York yesterday for an interview with a big fancy law firm, so I went running by myself. Not very far or for very long, but at least I got outside. I went for about 25 minutes, just around the neighborhood. I couldn't get into it enough to run much, so I mostly walked. Better than nothing, I'm sure. There were some moving guys working in a van near my apartment. They said hello to me, and I said hello back, but then they started laughing at me. Not sure why, but it didn't help my mood any. Hrmmph.

Chris isn't sure now if he'll be able to go to London with me. I hope he can. I really don't want to be running for 5 hours or whatever by myself. I will go alone if I have to, though.

If it isn't raining when I get home, I'm going to go to the park. Half of it's closed right now, but Sarah said I should be able to run up and down the open half. That'll be good. I miss the park.

Wednesday, 8 August 2001

Went to the park after work yesterday. The sky was black so I thought I should go right after I got home instead of waiting until 6:30 or so, like I usually do. Leaving the apartment, it was misting, just a bit of a drizzle, but as I got halfway there, the sky (pardon the cliche) opened up. Poured. It was bad. But then, closer to the park, it wasn't raining so bad, so I got out of the car, and started to walk. I was going to walk to the St. Charles side of the park, then run back down, but I only got to the first bend, probably only a quarter of a mile, if that, and it started to pour. I would have kept going (it felt great - cool rain! and a bit of wind - nice!) but my glasses were completely soaked. I could see better with them off, which is to say not at all, so I ended up turning around and going home. I was completely drenched. And I was out for a grand total of 5 minutes. Sigh.

But it was nice to go home and put on a flannel nightshirt. Cozy. I watched TV for a while and then went out with Anne and Jason. Looks like it's going to rain like that again today. Hope not. Although I was contacted by a woman at the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society on Monday about the card Kristina and I sent in for information and they're having a kick-off meeting tonight. I don't know if it's worth going, though, since I don't want to use them to train for London, but I think I'll do it for a future marathon. Maybe Dublin? That'd be cool.

BTW - I sent in my deposit for the marathon today! Now I'm committed! (Or should be) And Chris and Rebecca are going! Yay!

Thursday, 9 August 2001

Kristina was really tired when she got home (and her feet hurt) so I went running alone. Not for very long, we were both hungry and wanted to go to Louisiana Pizza Kitchen for dinner. I went around the neighborhood again, just zig-zagging along the streets. I only went for about 20 minutes, but it was pretty nice because the weather wasn't bad at all - it was relatively cool (probably high 80s) and not very humid. I was still having a bit of trouble with endurance, though. I hope that it doesn't mean that I won't get better when it gets cooler. Hmmm.

Ren had the idea that we should get someone (not Gary, he's a masochist) to drop us off somewhere sort of far away (5 miles or so) and then we have no choice but to get home. I think that's a good idea. When Kristina and I were going to LPK, we discovered that Carrollton is only 3 miles from Louisiana. It seems so much further! I can't believe it. That means if I ran from Milan to Carrollton and back, it'd only be about 5 miles! Sheesh. When I have to do the 18-20 mile training runs, I don't know what I'm going to do. I guess the levee. I just hope I don't have to run all the way to Kenner to get the miles in. Ugh.

I'm thinking of going to the kickoff meeting for the Team in Training next week. I don't think I'd use them for this marathon, but I just want to find out what it's all about - maybe do it in the future. Maybe the Dublin Marathon next year. Nice!

Monday, 13 August 2001

Only 6 days until the 5K! And I have been really slacking off for the past couple of weeks. Friday, I had Kristina drop me off at the St. Charles side of the park, and I walked up it, and around a bit until I reached Perrier, and then I walked home from there. I estimate it was about 3 miles total, and it took me exactly 45 minutes. I only ran a few blocks of it, I just didn't feel up to running. I don't know why.

Yesterday, Kristina and I decided to try the Somersize program. I can't believe I'm letting Suzanne Somers dictate what I eat, but the recipes in the book are really yummy. And Kristina's mom sent her the book after she used it and she said it works, so why not? I'm really just interested in losing a lot of weight right now, I don't really care how I go about it (healthy, I know) because once I get enough weight off to be able to run further, I can use the running to maintain. I certainly don't want to use this eating plan forever, because you can't eat much sugar and carbs are discouraged, which doesn't exactly fall in line with running nutrition.

It's raining today, but I'm going running no matter what.

Tuesday, 14 August 2001

5 days...ack! I'm a little nervous. Not too nervous, though, because at least I'll be with lots of friends. Anne's running it with us, and Chris, and maybe Ren and Gary. So it'll be fun. And Maura's coming in town this weekend, and we're going out because it's Anne's last weekend in town, so it should be a nice weekend.

Yesterday, Kristina and I both felt really crappy when we went to the park - I had cheated earlier in the day with a little chocolate (I felt so much better after I had some sugar that I don't regret it) and with our lack of carbs all day long, neither of us had much energy, but it felt good just to get outside. It wasn't even too hot. Today we're going to go twice around (well, it's my goal to convince Kristina to), hopefully in under 45 minutes. I think we can do that. I had carbs for breakfast and didn't feel nearly as yucky as yesterday (but I still got a bit itchy around lunchtime). I just don't know how well I can deal with no sugar. I love sugar. I don't care how bad it is, I love it. Sigh.

Last night Anne and Jason came over to watch a movie and brought Twizzlers and Sour Patch Kids. Even a bag just for us! (Thoughtful, yeah.) Anne hid one of the bags in Kristina's room (strangely, they didn't trust me enough to hide it in my room - hmmph) but it was rather torturous to listen to them eating the lovely, sugary candy, while we had Diet Coke for dessert. Ick.

Wednesday, 15 August 2001

Yesterday was better. We went around the park twice. Well, it took us 52 minutes, but that means we were averaging 14:30 miles. Yikes. Actually, considering we only ran about 5 minutes of that, I suppose it's not all that bad. I'm sure if we just walked the whole way, we could do the whole 5K in 45 minutes, which is our goal. So maybe I should rethink our goal. No, better not. Then we'll be pleasantly surprised if we do it in under 45 minutes. Hmmm.

It's pretty overcast outside right now, I don't know if we're going to go running today or take a break. I wouldn't mind running. Just once around.

Last night Kristina made a really yummy chicken dish. Creamy cheesy sauce. Mmmmm. But this morning, I weighed myself and the scale said I've lost 7 lbs since the last time I weighed myself (about 3 weeks ago). I wonder if it's true...that scale is a piece of crap, so who knows. We'll see...

Nevertheless, I'm getting really sick of this Somersizing crap. I just want to eat a sandwich! Even a healthy sandwich! Blech. Only two more weeks of this. Thank god.

Friday, 17 August 2001

Bad, bad us. We haven't run since Tuesday, and I don't know when we'll have time to go before Sunday. Yikes! Hopefully we'll have time tomorrow afternoon. Maura's coming in at 5 this afternoon, then we're going out tonight, then tomorrow night is the Saints game (my first! and it's free! Kristina got free tickets at work). Fun weekend, definitely.

Sunday, 19 August 2001 - RACE

Run for the Angels 5K
7:00 p.m.

My first 5K! On Sunday, Kristina and I went to a movie, then when we got home, I ate a bagel with peanut butter. Chris and Rebecca came over at about 5:45, then Kristina and I got ready and we left at 6:00 to get to Live Bait. I was really nervous (just because I didn't know what to expect) and Kristina and I had been snapping at each other all day, so not only was I nervous, but Kristina wasn't talking to me. Which was okay, really, because I knew if either of us spoke, we'd just get in more trouble. Gary and Ren showed up at around 6:20 or so, and were mad at me because I had (apparently) said that we were going to ride with them. So at this point, not only am I nervous, but I felt like everyone was mad at me (except for Chris and Rebecca, thank goodness.)

So, at about 6:45, everyone was calmer, and we stretched some and drank a little more water. Then everyone lined up and from then on, everything seemed to go quickly. They played the Star Spangled Banner, and everyone was quiet. It was a nice night, not too hot, not too humid, and the sun was going down. Suddenly, the horn went off, and the race began! Ack!

There were a lot of people there, and we started running slowly. As I thought we would, we got caught up in all of the other runners, got carried along, and we ran for the first 7 minutes or so of it, which we haven't done in our afternoon runs for a while. I suspect that may have sapped us a bit, but we crossed the one mile marker at 11:45, which is our usual 1 mile pace, so considering we walked about 3-4 minutes of that, we must have been running faster than that. By the time we got to the turn around, I was really thirsty and pretty hot. I had had a side stitch for most of the way, and I was feeling slightly nauseous. I grabbed some water and drank it, and we jogged a bit up the levee. After we stopped running, I felt bad. Lightheaded, nauseous, faint, chilled, the whole bit. I seriously thought I was going to faint for a while, but I didn't.

We ran intermittently, and after each time, I felt the same way. We hit the 2 mile mark at 24:40. With about 1/3 mile to go, Kristina went ahead and ran the rest of the way. I walked and jogged the rest of the way, and ran the last tenth of a mile. Kristina finished in 38:25, I finished in 39:05, which was much faster than we had thought we'd do! We had predicted a 45 minute finish, so we were very excited that we did better.

After I finished (I was the last to finish of my friends - Chris finished in 22:xx!) we went back down to Live Bait, and had popsicles and Chee Wees and jambalaya and beer. It was fun!

Wednesday, 22 August 2001

Yesterday, Kristina and I went to the park again. We had to go relatively early (around 6) because she had to go study after dinner. Since it was so hot, we walked most of the way. We ran maybe a tenth of a mile at the beginning, but not at all after that. We went around twice, though. I guess I don't mind walking when I go with Kristina, especially right now when it's hot. The most important thing right now is just burning calories, since a) I need to lose weight and b) because it's so hot. I don't think my endurance is going to improve greatly when it's the heat that stops me from going further. According to some website, going around the park burns 513 calories. Woah! That means every 7 days of doing that, I should lose 1 pound. Hmmm. Interesting.

I think I might start going around 3 times. Or running to the park, running around, the coming back. That would be different, at least. We shall see. For now, though, I want twice around not to be so tiring. No matter how I do it, walking or running.

Thursday, 23 August 2001

I can't believe it! Yesterday, at around 7, Kristina and I went to the park. We planned on running, because we hadn't on Tuesday. We walked for about a minute or so, and then when we hit the first turn, we started running. And we didn't stop for 1.5 miles! Or 18 minutes!

We started off going very slowly. Kristina is faster than I am, and I usually just try to go as fast as she does, but yesterday I made sure we went slowly. And after we had made it up the first long side, I turned to her and said "this is easy!" And she said, "I know, but I didn't want to say anything and jinx it." And we just kept running! We ran all the way up the second long side, which put us at 19 minutes total, and I guess we walked for a minute before we started running, so we ran 12 minute miles.

Yesterday we ran further and longer than we ever have, in our entire lives! It was amazing.

My shins hurt a bit afterwards, but I iced them and stretched, so I think they'll be ok.

Monday, 27 August 2001

Ahhh, Monday. Fun weekend. Friday afternoon we went to the park, walked around twice. Ran about 1/4 of the way around at the end, though. At least it was something. But then we were too tired to go out so we just stayed home and watched Trainspotting.

Saturday, we went to the main library downtown, and I checked out some books. I had dreamt about going to the library the night before, so it seemed fitting. Then we went and ate lunch at TGI Friday's in the Quarter. That seems like it should be very wrong, but whatever. I wasn't feeling so hot, but after lunch, we went down to the French Market and Kristina bought some stuff - candles, a watch, and she had bought a t-shirt at Virgin earlier. I didn't buy anything (because I'm currently broke) but after that we went and had coffee at CC's. Then, we wandered back towards the Aquarium and went to the IMAX theatre and watched the Cyberworld 3-D movie. It was cool. I suppose the point of all this, is that we walked pretty far that day, so it wasn't so important that we didn't go running.

That night, Kristina, Jason, and I went to the pub in Algiers. That was fun. After that, we went to dba, then finally to the Avenue. It was a fun night, nothing terribly exciting, but fun. I really wanted to smoke, but of course, I didn't. I think no matter how strong my cravings are, when it gets down to it, I really just don't want to smoke. And if I can resist when I've been drinking, well...that's some kind of willpower! It's comforting, since Wednesday is my last day on the patch.

Sunday, we woke up late, and Kristina was very hungover. It's amazing how not smoking can make you not hungover, because I drank almost as much as Kristina, but she smoked a pack and a half of cigarettes. So after lazing around the house, and giggling a lot (surely that must be good for something? abs?) we went to Rite-Aid and to LPK for dinner (thank god Kristina was too hungover to Somersize, or to care.)

That was pretty much it for the weekend. UKtoYou got two sales this weekend, seems like things are finally picking up. Yeah! I'm going to Baton Rouge after work on Thursday, and staying until Sunday or possibly Monday. Jenny's coming into town on Saturday. Yippee.

Oh yeah, and the scale this morning read -7 lbs since I started running. Hmmmmm...

Tuesday, 28 August 2001

Today is Jenny's birthday. She is 29. Ack! I can't believe she's almost 30!

Last night, in lieu of going running (it was rainy all afternoon, but it stopped by the evening) we walked to Sav-a-Center. I wore my new Adidas Cairo '01 shoes that I got in the mail yesterday from Road Runner Sports. Yay! Exciting! They're motion control, but my other shoes are stability, so we'll see if these are more appropriate. I would think so, but who knows. I'm no expert. They are pretty, and they were extremely cheap (something like 66% off!)

We only ran a little bit on the way to the store (wanted to test out the new shoes - so far so good) but we were so hungry there was no more running going on. Today is going to be a real running day, though. Maybe we can go further than 1.5 miles...who knows?

Wednesday, 29 August 2001

Yesterday, around 3 p.m., it started thunderstorming horribly, so a run after work was unfortunately out of the question. It was raining just hard enough to be yucky by the time I got home, though it wasn't thundering or lightening anymore. So I decided to go this morning instead. It was nice! I hit the snooze button a few times, almost decided not to go, but then I figured it'd probably storm again this afternoon, and then I'd be screwed. So I got up, and went to the park at around 7.

Half of the park was closed off for resurfacing, so I just ran up to St. Charles and back down. But I really ran it! Both ways! When I got up to the St. Charles side, I walked a little, up to the sidewalk, and stretched, but then I ran back to the parking lot! I ran for at least 7-8 minutes each time, with maybe a 2 minute recovery, and I didn't even feel all that bad. Had the park not been half closed, I probably would have gone around twice, but I really didn't feel like going back and forth again.

Last night I had a really nice dream and I want to record it here, so I don't forget it. It really has nothing to do with running. But anyway...I dreamed I was back at our old house (on Port Hudson, the house I grew up in and we moved out of when I was 17) in my parents' bathroom, getting ready to take a bath (but I was still clothed.) I was the only one in the house, but then I heard a noise. I went out to investigate, and at the last minute, went into my parents' closet to get something to defend myself with. Turns out, I grabbed one of my golf clubs that I got when I was little (the wood, as if it matters.) I don't even know if I had my own wood when I was little, but I think I did. I went out into the kitchen, and there was Dad, bent over, putting papers in his briefcase or something like that. He was dressed like he was going to work, and there was someone else in the kitchen (some guy, don't know who it was.) He stood up and I looked at him, and it wasn't creepy or scary or anything, it was just normal. I looked him right in the eyes and he smiled and gave me a big hug. He was just as squashy as always, and it just felt so normal and nice. I can't remember if he said anything to me. I feel like he felt proud of me for something. Maybe for quitting smoking, since that's what probably killed him. Ironic then, that it was most likely a nicotine patch-induced dream. Ha ha!

Anyway, I woke up feeling good, like it was his way of visiting me and checking up on me, since I know I wouldn't handle anything vaguely "supernatural" well at all.

Enough about dreams - might go running again this evening with Kristina. I won't be able to go tomorrow since I'm going to Baton Rouge, so I should get it in now.

PS Whoever said running in the morning energizes you for the rest of the day was not talking about me. Hmmm.