HAVEN'T HAD CABLE SINCE THE MOVE SIX MONTHS AGO. NOW I HAVE THAT DIGITAL BOX THAT I GOT FREE WITH THE GOVERNMENT VOUCHER. I'M HOOKED ON THE FREE USN CHANNEL (NBC) THAT PLAYS OLD KONA SPECIALS FROM YEARS PAST!!!
THEN OF COURSE FOR THE HOURS I SPEND ON THE TRAINER...
180: EVERYTHING IS ILLUMINATED.... AND EVERYTHING HURTS!!!
looking at the countdown clock is startin' to make me nervous and excited all at the same time!!! it's now officially 180 days, 6 months until Ironnman Brasil. DAMMIT!!!! i recall Bold mentioning that nothing really serious happens until your at 112 (one day for every mile on the bike), so i'm feelin' pretty good about the extra 68 days i'm depositing into the Bank of Ironman.
waking up today, i'm HELLA SORE!!! the swim, bike and run part haven't even been very hard or long yet. so far i've just gone for time. the weight training is kicking my ass for sure, though, and this week i kick it up another 5% of my 1rep max. and i say BRING IT ON!!! it's that good kinda hurt, the hurt that tells you you're gonna come out the other side of this ready to take on anything coach might throw at me. like the climbing that's coming. of all 3 disciplines, it's definitely the cycling that i sucked at and hated the most when i began doing triathlon. for most it's the swim, but i grew up in the water and at the beach, so i love big, choppy surf. it's my only advantage over you cyclists. in my first sprint tri, i came outta the water in 11th place, and then EVERYONE AND THEIR GRANDMA PASSED ME ON THE BIKE. it really pissed me off and made me never wanna ride again, but now i gotta say i'm loving that bike, and i now love climbing. i love it so much that i want this bike to climb with instead of my tri bike. it's like surfing. you gotta have a quiver of boards for all breaks and conditions. so now i want a new road bike. let's see what santa brings in my stocking this year. hee hee.....
last week i also got a great surprise from Iron Mom Jenny who i've just recently met through this great world of tri bloggers. first, a big congrats to her for completing IM Florida earlier this month AND for defending her athena title!!! when i'd read in one of her posts that she'd done IM Brasil, i wrote to her and asked if she had any advice or could impart any of her knowledge to me. well not only did she do that, she sent me her photo album from her trip!!! oh man, it looks so beautiful!!! I WANNA BE THERE NOW!!!! so just the extra little boost i needed to help me visualize where i'm gonna race. thanks Jenny!! and if anyone else knows anyone who's done Brasil, please let me know!!!
on another great note, my fellow tri club member and recent Kona finisher, Oliver Martin, emailed to let me know he's throwing his hat in for Brasil as well!! YAY!!! now i'm not going alone!!!
yes yes, it 's a good day. day 180 and off to the pool........
Thanksgiving day didn't start out too great. i was all set to head to Griffith Park for two different meet ups and activities, but i got a late start:
fog on the highway
10 seconds later
yes, it's true. people in L.A. cannot drive under any adverse weather conditions. there's just one speed here: FAST AND IN A HURRY (while on the cell phone). so when it's foggy or it rains, people do not know how to adjust for such conditions, and our already congested highways get all backed up because idiots cannot slow the hell down and then ram into each other. i got stuck in this foggy parking lot for about 15 minutes which made me late to my bike ride with fellow iron maidens, Cindy (IM Germany) and Juliet (IM Arizona #1). i was actually planning to get there early and get some drills in before i met them, but instead i made it just in time as they were prepping to head out...
iron maiden Cindy
iron maiden Juliet
... just then Cindy realized that she lost the nut and spring to her skewer, so she had to head home to find another one. bummer. Juliet and i went on and warmed up with drills, and by the time Cindy met up with us again, it was time for me to say goodbye to them and head over to another spot in the park. i was meeting up with my friend Francis, his wife Lalee and their new baby, Ligaya along with the annual Thanksgiving Hobble Gobble Crew. we meet every thanksgiving morning for an easy run around the golf course. this year a few of us ran while the others walked and then ran back to walk in with them. it's all about friends and family and makin' room for the bird!!
(from l. to r.) Matthew, Mario, Elena, Mike, Lalee, Francis, baby Ligaya, me (sportin' my Brasil colors), Floyd, Voni, and Cesar
as the morning's activities made a nice deposit in the Bank of Burned Calories, it was now time for the big event. we call it Orphan's Thanksgiving, a tradition started years ago by my best friend, Gail, who's from Chicago and attended by me and my old roomate , Chuck, and whoever else wants to join in. all peeps who don't have family in L.A. are invited to eat Gail's famous meal, and some of us who do have family in L.A. still opt to eat there anyway. hey, family is relative, and these guys are my homies. all together, i think there were 12 orphans/guests this year. the best part of the night was that THERE WAS NOT ONE MENTION OF TRIATHLON OR IRONMAN!!! ok, maybe just one or two, but nobody made the usual big deal about it. i didn't find myself once reciting the usual "it's a 2.4 mile swim, a 112 mile bike, and a marathon" explanation. really,i'm beginning to think that i'm somewhat of a bore. when people ask me what i've been up to lately, it's always the same answer: "oh you know, just swimming, biking, and running...." it's kinda refreshing to be around peeps who don't swim, bike, or run and talk about other stuff for a change.....
for full slideshow click here:
saturday, i headed out to coach my runners' 2nd to last run, an 8 miler, before we head to Honolulu for their marathon. as i was putting out the mile markers, i got this view:
6:30am
just when we thought we were clear of the wildfires, they start back up in Malibu again. at last count, roughly 50 homes had been destroyed. crazy. i thought i might have to cancel the run as the last time the fires whipped up, the air quality was too bad to run in, but as you see, the smoke was being carried out towards the ocean. here's what it looked like as i sent the 2nd group of runners out:
8:30am
that's the Santa Monica pier in the foreground and the Malibu fires about 8 miles away. it was eerie how everyone was carrying on as usual, running, biking, and surfing while this stood as our background. later, after my runners had finished around 11:am, i had to get a 3 hour ride in. i was hesitant to stay near the beach as the fires had been burning for several hours now and the wind could shift, but sure enough, everyone was still out and about, so i headed out towards the Ballona Creek bike path...
the end...
2 hours into the ride, i reached the end of the path and could feel the burn in my sinuses. just as i feared, the winds had shifted, and for the last hour heading back, i rode straight into a headwind of smokey air. yuck. still today, the fires have only been 40 percent contained. here's hoping they get it under control without any loss of life or anymore property.
and in the end, i'm thankful that i came away WEIGHING LESS THAN I DID BEFORE THANKSGIVING DINNER!!! really though, lots to be thankful for: friends both old and new, family, my two dogs, my health, two great jobs that i love (photographer and coach), a roof over my head that isn't going up in flames, etc. i've not really gotten into my past and what this Ironman journey is all about to me (more to come on that in the future), but i will say for now that marathon and triathlon have quite literally saved my life. i honestly don't know where i'd be today without having discovered my potential for a life of fitness. i don't even want to imagine.....
since i've been back from NYC, things have been pretty mellow. last week was the first week of my official Ironman base training. it came and went without much fanfare except that i thought i pulled something in my back my first day back to weights while trying to figure out my new 1 rep max at several different exercises. talked to coach about it, and we agreed i'd hold off on the weights, take a day off and then resume with swimming. i wouldn't even attempt to run until the weekend, and by then my back should be fine. went for a mellow ride saturday after i coached. back felt ok mostly in aero position, and i came home and iced immediately. that night i went to a friend's going away party, had two glasses of wine over the course of the evening, and was home by..... well...2am?? all i needed to do was get a 75 minute run in on sunday, so i decided i'd sleep in and go for my run sunday evening to really let my back rest up. in the middle of the night, i started to feel a pain in my left leg and hip, again like i'd lifted too heavy a weight or something, but i hadn't lifted in days!!! slept in until the housekeeper showed up around 10am, and when i took the first step outta bed, THE PAIN WAS AGONIZING!!! i was limping so bad, it felt like i had a serious leg length discrepancy. all day, i could not get comfortable, not even laying on the couch, and still my back was a mess. there goes that sunday evening run. i started to get depressed that i'd missed so much of my first week of base and could not for the life of me figure out how the hell i did this to my hip and leg. hopefully, i'd feel ok enough by monday to go for my drill swim, low impact ya know.....
monday i woke up with no pain in my leg...POOF!!! WTF??? how could i be limping like i was and then just be fine the next day?? i'm not complainin' though. so i got my drill swim in with still some pain in my lower back, but by now the pain is pretty acute and on my right side, right about where my..... yep..... dammit..... fuck... shit... fuckshit....KIDNEYS ARE. i've had this pain once or twice before but not in years, and i've never sought a doctor for it. for one, unless my tonsils are drippin' with puss (sorry for the gross out), I HATE TAKING ANTIBIOTICS. i'm not going to my quack of a doctor, who already doesn't like that i have low resting heart rate from all this swim-bike-run stuff (note to self: must find new doctor), just for her to prescribe me some strong antibiotics that may get rid of the infection but kill all the good stuff goin' on in there too. nope, not gonna do it. cranberry juice and acidophilus should clear it right up. and by today, the pain has lessened considerably, so i went to my shoot early this morning and then came home to rest some more before i'd attempt a run on the treadmill at the gym tonight. i even decided that if the impact felt too much for the back, i'd switch to the elliptical doo hicky. packed up the bag: socks...check, shorts...check, bra...check, singlet...check, ipod...check, shoes...check.....and i was off.
so imagine my absolute horror when i dumped out my bag and found this:
the mismatched shoes
i have several pairs of these Asics DS Trainers, so many so that i write the dates on them to keep track and then phase the old ones out. so in my rush to get to the gym, i grabbed two shoes that were sitting in a pile.....
the one on the right, dated 9/07, is from the most recent pair that i ran the NYC Marathon in (see the chip still attached), and the one on the left, dated 5/07, has at least a half marathon, some 5ks, an olympic distance and half ironman tri in them. and has NO SHOE LACE because i'm cheap and swap out my Yankz from pair to pair.
SHIT.FUCK.SHIT.FUCK.SHIT.FUCK.FUCK.FUUUUUUUUCK!!!
but then i looked down at my other shoes i had on. thank god i hadn't picked my slip-ons to wear today.....
...and my old school Vans save the day!!
and imagine the look on the woman's face next to me in the locker room when she saw me taking several pictures of my shoes!!! got my 30 minute run in, but man did my two feet feel REALLY DIFFERENT.....
CATASTROPHE DIVERTED.....CARRY ON!!!
btw, the pics above were taken with my new digi point-and-shoot camera. i can't tell you how friggin' happy i am. my old one died months ago, and i've been reduced to the camera phone for on-the-go shots. DO YOU KNOW HOW MUCH IT KILLED ME TO POST CRAPPY PICS HERE?? i really wanted to get something new with a good lens on it and video capabilities for training rides and what not. saturday, a few of my runners that i coached presented me with a really thoughtful gift of a gift certificate to our big camera store here in L.A. so i'm back in bidness!!! stay tuned for more exciting pics and video as i train through the winter...... as soon as this kidney thang clears up.....UUGH!!
WHAT I DID ON MY NEW YORK VACATION PART THREE: FINALLY!!! THE MARATHON....
ok, so from my mom i inherited my infamous "death stare" and from my dad, the inability to tell a quick story. it used to drive me crazy as a kid on road trips or at family dinners. we'd roll our eyes and tell him, "get to the point already!!" to which he would reply "listen, when i'm done, you're gonna have the whole story. there won't be any questions" but of course we always had questions, most often "what the hell took you so long??" so again, you've been warned. THIS POST IS LONG.THIS POST IS TWO WEEKS LATE. you can read it or not. i don't care. it's my blog for me to look back on when i finally become an ironman. does anybody actually read this thing anyway?? and there really shouldn't be any questions once i'm done. and then we'll get right back to regularly scheduled short posts about crotch itch and cool gear and of course the retarded love life....
map courtesy of nycmarathon.com
i had my traditional pre-race sushi dinner with three of my close buddies, Wellington, my host and dear friend from my college days at NYU, Doug, my best friend from high school, and Ron who made it through Art Center with me. my plan was to try to be as lite as possible. this time, i wouldn't be carrying a camera or cell phone or any combination thereof (i seriously used to carry that crap). in training, i replaced my water bottle belt with a hand-held water bottle strap that has one small pocket for an i.d and keys and some money, that's it. i had hidden all my food in the bushes for all my long runs which posed a problem for race day. how the hell was i going to get my food?? that's were the boys come in.... and the meeting would convene. i handed them all baggies with Clifbloks, potato chips, and powdered gatorade that i'd want at different points on the course. the baggies included a copy of my proposed pace chart so they'd know when to expect me as well as spectator signs for them to hold so i'd be able to find them. Doug lives in Greenpoint, Brooklyn, so he would see me first at mile 10.5 in Williamsburg where his brothers live. he was to wait on the left hand side of the street at Bedford and N. 4th. Ron's in Sunnyside, Queens, so i'd see him later at mile 15. He was to wait on the right hand side of the street just before i entered the infamous Queensboro Bridge. lastly, Wellington would be my Manhattanite waiting at mile 19, now back on the left side of the street just past the water station. he'd then hop over to mile 23 in case i was in trouble. they looked at me like i was insane. then Doug asked something like, "you gettin' paid for this???" as he politely excused himself to suck on a cancer stick outside the restaurant. i swear, i have the best friends ever!!!! it's always been really difficult for me to ask for help from my friends. i have no idea why, because i know that they would be there for me in a second, but it's still hard for me to ask. they may not be into this whole marathon and triathlon thing, but my friends will TOTALLY HAVE MY BACK when the shit goes down. this was going to have everything to do with whether i was to have a good run or not.
cool pace wristband
great, now i'm cross-eyed....
before i left L.A., i typed out a pace chart and put it in this really cool dryfit wristband that i got as a freebie from Nike at the Honolulu Marathon expo last year. i have never been so obsessive about my pace, but i knew that if i was going to have any shot at running a p.r., i was gonna have to be on top of my pace as the New York marathon is not a flat, fast or p.r. type of course. my general plan was to run/walk a 6:1 ratio for the first 16 miles until i came off the Queensboro Bridge. then i'd assess my legs and my pace and probably adjust to straight running with short walk breaks through the water stops. anyone reading this who says your'e not a marathoner if you walk can SUCK IT. i was trained by Jeff Galloway himself, elite runner and proponent of the run/walk method, and that's just how i roll. 26.2 miles is 26.2 miles however you get there, and you're probably the same wanker who says only an ironman is considered a triathlon. considering the elevation chart and my memories of the two previous times i'd run this mother, i typed my chart up in microsoft excel using a formula that would add all cumulative miles as i entered them until the total time at the bottom was what i wanted. i would start out with an 11 minute mile to warm up and get up and over the Verazano-Narrows Bridge. there'd be some flat miles in Queens where i could pick it up to 9:45 and 9:30. i'd give myself an extra 2 minutes to get over the Queensboro Bridge as it is a mile long uphill. then i remembered how i felt the last time as i came UP 5th Ave. for miles 22 and 23. i asked myself for the first time ever, "why do you keep doing these friggin' marathons?" yep, better give myself 3 extra minutes per mile through that little pocket of hell. ok, guess i better run that first mile in 10:30 now. and just in case, i typed up a whole extra column that would give me a slowest possible pace of around 5 hours. i'm really hoping that my days of anything longer than a 5 hour mary are behind me, but you never know. and so it went as i entered and re entered the per mile times until it came out to 4:36. yeah, i'd be so happy with 4:36. 4:36 it is. then i resized the thing down so it would fit in the little plastic pocket around my abnormally small wrists. shit, i'd be lucky no to go blind trying to read the damned thing. and finally, i decided if by mile 10 when i got to Doug, if i wasn't on pace, i'd just throw him the bracelet. fuck it, i was gonna have fun no matter what!!!!
my view from Wellington's apartment on 14th st.
got up at 5am on race morning even though the gun doesn't go off until 10am. the daylight savings change the night before helped with an extra hour of sleep since i still couldn't get off of L.A. time. so technically, it was 3am for me. ate my oatmeal breakfast and was out the door to the subway. while waiting on the platform, you could feel everyone's nerves, the stares from others as they checked out your shoes, your bag contents or your runner number. then there was the one lady who was so afraid she wasn't on the right train that she got up and checked the wall map a hundred times but was too intimidated to ask anyone else where to go. and she was right!!!! just as our next stop shoulda been Whitehall/Ferry, the conductor announced that this train was going to the Brooklyn Bridge. whoops!! we all scurried to get off, and as i passed the next car, i could see some runners who were still seated. i crammed my foot in the door as it was closing and yelled "this train isn't going to the ferry!!" everyone ran for the door as i held it open. unfortunately, not every car got the warning, and as we stood on the platform waiting for the next N train, we watched as the next few cars carried unsuspecting marathoners to the Brooklyn Bridge rather than the Staten Island Ferry. Damn, sure hope they made it on time.....
you may have heard people joke about the New York marathon that there are two events, getting to the race and then actually running the race. to add insult to injury, there was construction happening on the one and only bridge into Staten Island, so everyone was advised to take the ferry. in previous years, i've always taken this route, but with just a few other racers to avoid the crowds taking shuttle buses and cabs across the bridge. this year was a huge cluster fuck of 38,000 people all scrambling to get on the ferry and get over to the island. somehow i was able to find fellow tri club members, Summer and Brian, to make the ferry ride over with. this being there first New York Marathon, they were a little dazed by the whole production and happy to find someone who knew how it all worked. i had warned them that given all the time it takes to actually start the race, the breakfast they ate before they left their hotel wouldn't be enough to fuel them for the run. i brought an extra Uncrustable and a bottle of FRS which fueled me perfectly, and managed to get a good poo in at the relatively clean ferry bathrooms. sorry to gross you out here, but i have a superstition about pooing before a race. if i don't get a quality poo in on race morning, i might as well go back to bed. but i've got it down to a science now:
pre-race sushi dinner + morning breakfast of organic oatmeal + chocolate soy milk (CANNOT DO DAIRY!!) + a bottle of FRS 30 minutes before the gun goes off
=
A GOOD RACE MORNING POO
once we got to Fort Wadsworth where the start was, we had about an hour 'til the race. usually plenty of time to find a place to lay down and warm up 'til the very last second before you have to drop off your personal belongings bag to the UPS trucks. again, with all the shuttle changes and whatnot, it all felt screwy. Summer's wave start was in a totally different direction than mine or Brian's. she stopped to go to the bathroom and Brian waited for her, but i could tell it was beginning to get crowded at the bag drop off, so we parted ways to accomplish our various tasks thinking we'd all meet up at a certain tent again. the whole staging of the start was different from what i ever remembered, and everyone got pinned in this fenced off area trying to drop off there bags and then exit back out the same way they came in. really lame planning on the race director's part. it didn't help that people panicked and started pushing and shoving. i kinda lose my shit in these situations, not by going along with the flow of panic, but by going off on the super negative people around me who can't do anything but complain incessantly about everything. but i didn't go off, didn't even flash anyone my death stare. i simply got inside my head, trying to tune the whining out, and meditated on the image of me PASSING ALL THEIR TIRED-FROM-COMPLAINING ASSES ALL OVER THAT COURSE!!!!
by the time i made it out of the cluster fuck of whiners, there was no time to waste. i went back to our agreed meet up spot but figured that Summer and Brian figured the same thing i did: "love ya, mean it. gotta run...." and so off i went to try to catch up with the orange wave women's start. got in just in time as we were ushered onto the bridge and heading towards the start line. the National Anthem was pretty lackluster, and then there was a moment of silence for Ryan Shay. there were lots of Notre Dame logos and "RS" written on people's arms, and one woman was handing out black armbands two wear in remembrance. i would be thinking of him a lot today for sure. just then the cannon went off, and the elites were heading out from the opposite lanes of the bridge. THERE IS NOTHING MORE EXCITING THAN THIS MOMENT!! ok, so i haven't experienced the start of an ironman yet, but so far this is it. you can feel the bridge vibrating from the weight of all the runners as everyone surges forward to the timing mats. Frank Sinatra's "New York, New York" is playing and EVERYONE is singing along and doing radio city rockette kicks. holy crap, i'm about to run my 3rd New York Marathon, AND AWAY WE GO!!
STATEN ISLAND
while the race boasts that the course goes through all 5 boroughs, you start in Staten Island and then immediately leave. there's a reason for this, and even my dearest friend, Def Stef, a Stagnant Island native transplanted to L.A., will tell you there's nothing to see here. after all, it's where they bring all of NYC's trash. no, wait, one redeeming contribution to hip hop came from Staten Island. WU TANG CLAN AIN'T NUTTIN' TO FUCK WIT. nuff said...... i've heard people talk about their experience of this race with frustration that there are just so many runners that it never thins out. you're always jocking for position and trying to negotiate your way through thousands of runners. i always felt jealous of this description, jealous that i was such a slow runner that it DID actually thin out in the back. in fact, by the time i hit 5th Ave. last time, it felt as though we were the walking wounded coming home from battle. this time was different though as i crossed the timing mat just 4 minutes after the cannon. the crowd was electric as we looked to the view of Manhattan to the northwest. people from all over the world, Canada, BRASIL, Mexico, England, Venezuela, Italia, Deutschland, Kenya, Belgique, Ireland, Morocco, and the list went on....oh and lest we forget VIVE LA FRANCE (more on that later). the cotumes, oh the costumes. Sponge Bob Squarepants, Elvis, Statue of Liberty, the Star Wars Crew, and The Hot Dog Heads (WTF??) i felt good and just tried to maintain an easy pace to warm up. 6 minutes in, my watch beeped for my first walk break, and i struggled to move out of the way of everyone. hey, at least if i'm gonna take walk breaks, i'm not gonna be the wanker who just comes to a halt right in the middle of 38,000+ runners (and more on that later). i'm feeling good, the weather is perfect at about 50 degrees, and IT IS ON!!! mile 1 and i'm already a minute faster than pace, but i feel like i'm going SUPER EASY!!! along the bridge, so far i'm just taking in the excitement of my fellow runners around me, but coming off that bridge into Brooklyn, it's just magical!!
HELLO BROOKLYN!!!
there's a real sense of borough pride at this race, each one trying to outdo and outcheer the others. going up 4th Ave., your sights are set ahead on the Williamsburg Savings Bank tower, the tallest building in Brooklyn. Passing djs blasting my favorite salsa and merengue songs, i had the best songs and beats stuck in my head for the rest of the day!! The Korean church orchestra all dressed in their sunday best played "God Bless America." everyone wants to show off to the French runners "Vive La France!!! Allez Allez la France!!!" ok, cool, you speak French. i get it. the NYFD all come out with their trucks and the ladders extended across the course with their firehouse flags flying. Then as i got to the bank at mile 8, the crowds became so thick at the Brooklyn Academy of Music that they flowed out into the course and crammed us into narrow chutes. another walk break, and i moved to the left of the road where out of nowhere my friend Miranda appeared with her boyfriend Cameron!!! they couldn't make it to the sushi dinner, and i didn't get the chance to tell her what i'd be wearing or find out where she'd be standing, so they just walked out to the street from there apartment in Fort Greene. with 38,000+ runners, WHAT ARE THE ODDS??"hug, kiss, love ya, mean it, gotta run!!!"
leaving Fort Greene, i head into one of my favorite parts of the course, the rows of brownstones that line the uphill Lafayette Ave. in Clinton Hill. even though they lived in nearby Brooklyn Heights, this spot always reminds me of The Cosby Show, and i imagine that Cliff Huxtable, wearing one of his wacky sweaters and holding little Rudy's hand, is gonna be standing out in front handing me water, but alas, Bill Cosby never appears. i'm ahead of pace by about 3 minutes and flying by people as we head up Lafayette, but i really feel like i'm holding back!!! has it been so long since i've run a marathon that i just don't know what my new pace is?? am i going too fast and gonna pay for it later?? i guess i just have to go for it and listen to my body, but so far my body is sayin' we're just fine!!! moving along on the downhill of Lafayette, the crowds are so friggin' thick. i don't mean the cheering crowds, but the runners!! it's difficult to get around people. i'm doing more lateral side to side pivoting like i'm in a tennis match not a marathon, and everyone keeps cutting me off and forcing me to come to a jutting stop on the downhill. i can't keep this up or i'm gonna be in serious pain. watch your step, monica. no more jutting. you gotta float. you gotta float like a butterfly and sting like a bee!!!
next is the Hassidic neighborhood of South Williamsburg. all the kids come out and giggle while they hand out hard candy as their more serious parents, dressed in traditional Hassidic fur hats and long coats, stand curbside. coming up on mile 10, i'm starting to warm up and decide to peel off my under layer and ear warmers to give to Doug. and there he is with his brothers!!! i grab for the baggie, and shove a handful of potato chips in my mouth as they tell me i look great, i'm keeping a good pace and that the 4:15 pace group passed just ahead of me. yeah, they'll slip away, but i'm still ahead of pace and feeling good. "hug, kiss, love ya, mean it, gotta run!!!!" yeah, i'm feeling great, and I'M DEFINITELY KEEPING THE PACE BRACELET!!! leaving Brooklyn out of Greenpoint and going over the Pulaski Bridge, the kids of the Sikh Community cheer us on to the halfway point at the crest of the bridge, the 2nd of the five we'll cross today. as i head up the quarter mile incline i quickly check in with myself and my hill form. stay upright, baby steps, quick turnover, knees not too high, yeah, i'm good, let's get ready to fly....
QUEENS
Queens is just a short visit, about 3 miles, pretty flat before the Queensboro Bridge, so i need to pick it up here. I'm still ahead of pace, but i'm gonna pick it up because i feel like i can, and we'll just see how i do at mile 22-24. the crowds are ok, but thinning compared to Crooklyn. not much to see here except more HAWT firefighters. just gotta pick it up a bit and do these miles at the faster pace i had planned. i'm still taking the walk breaks when i see a woman holding a huge Brasilian flag and others wearing green and yellow face paint. i turn around and show them my starter's shirt, and they all give me a huge cheer. that's when it dawned on me for the first time the whole day. shit, this is nothing compared to what your about to do next year... THIS IS A WARM UP FOR IRONMAN BABY!!! coming up on the Queensboro Bridge and there's RoRo and Shayla waiting patiently, but they don't see me at all. as i grab for the bag i see that Ron has made his own addition to it...CANDY CORN!!!!YESSS!!!! in the days after halloween, i kept craving candy corn and making everyone stop at every Duane Reade we passed looking for leftover bags of it, but to no avail. "hug, kiss, love ya, mean it, ok take my picture, gotta run!!!"the candy corn was just the boost i needed for what was to come.....
QUEENSBORO BRIDGE
this friggin' bridge gets its own chapter of designation. if you aren't in pain yet, if you're not respecting the distance, the Queensboro Bridge will PUT.A.HURT.ON.YOU. the view of Manhattan is ominous, and suddenly the cheering of the crowds is gone, and you're entering a darkened underbelly as everything becomes eerily quiet. there's a med stop halfway on the bridge, and it's filling up with runners desperate to find something left in their legs. rubbing, stretching, icing, grunting, anything to get going again. "don't look over there," i say to myself, "you're fine. baby steps, quick turnover, you know how to do this." the crowd of runners is still thick but mostly slowing down now. i'm reduced to doing some some sort of speed skating side-to-side move to negotiate around these fools. i've lost more time than i planned for on the bridge, and i know that once i get to the crest, it's time to fly again, and then on to MY FAVORITE PART OF THE ENTIRE DAY.......
MANHATTAN: PART ONE
coming off the bridge at 59th st. is a left hand turn lined with hay bales. it always makes me laugh when i see them, as if we're gonna be going so fast we might crash!!! coming around the turn that eerie silence on the bridge becomes drowned out by the throngs of spectators lining 1st Ave. the road widens for the first time and I.AM.A.FRIGGIN'.ROCKSTAR!!! there is nothing, NOTHING like the sounds along 1st Ave. the crowds are now 10 people deep and it feels as though the entire city has come to a complete halt. i also laugh at all the drunk people, i mean DRUUUUNK!!! bar after bar the boozers spill out from every door. "VIVA LA FRANCE!!! ALLEZ ALLEZ FRANCE!" so the boozers speak French too. ok, i get it. i'm approaching mile 17 now and feeling pretty damned good. the i.t. band is slightly irritated, but nothing too serious. i decide i'm gonna stick with the 6:1 ratio 'til mile 18 and then pick it up as best i can. 1st ave. is a series of rollers. if i pace it right and use the few downhills and some gravity to preserve my legs, i'm golden. i'm now a minute ahead of pace, not bad. i think no matter what happens now, i'm cruising for a p.r. but no time for false confidence. there's still two more bridges....
checking my pace..... and stuffing my face at mile 19
Wellington showed up just when i needed him at mile 19. i could tell from the white deposits on my tights that I NEEDED SALT!!! the potato chips did the trick, and i was off again. "hug, kiss, love ya,mean it, ok take my picture, see you at 23!!!!
DA BRONX
the Williams Ave. Bridge into The Bronx isn't so bad as far as incline, but it's got a strange metal grate pattern. they try to cover it with carpet, but by mile 20, you're sensitive to EVERYTHING, and you can feel that grate as clear as if you were running it barefoot. it's kinda torture, but i'm still a minute ahead of pace, and all is good in the world. my right qaud and adductor are starting to give signs that they might seize at about the point on the course where they did at the New Orleans marathon. and by seize, I MEAN SEIZE. i literally stopped right in the middle of an intersection where a cop was yelling at me to keep it moving cuz i was blocking traffic. no matter how loud my brain was yelling at my leg to move, it wasn't going anywhere. "ok, it's not that bad, you're just freaking out. WALK BREAKS ARE DEFINITELY OVER. MOVE IT, LADY!!"
i've always felt that The Bronx gets no respect at this race. as soon as you run in, you run out, but in that one short mile THE BRONX REPRESENTS!!! people yelling "you're in the bronx, baby!!! the best borough of all!!" it's kinda the same as my general love for the underdog, my love for The Bronx. little kids putting out their arms for high fives, little old ladies in their lawn chairs, reggae bands and da kind, irey smells that go along with that. it was a short visit, but i loved it....oh and more "VIVE LA FRANCE!!! ALLEZ ALLEZ LA FRANCE!!" see, they even know french in Da Bronx....ok, i get it....and now i'm right at pace.
MANHATTAN: PART DEUX
THIS TIME IT'S PERSONAL!!!
coming off the Madison Ave. Bridge back into Manhattan, and i'm pretty sure now that even if i walked, i'm gonna p.r. now i'm in Harlem and i'm hearing some awesome salsa music!!! i wanna dance, so i stop to show off a few moves with this sweet old man and THE CROWD GOES NUTS!!! i hear people talk about not revealing yourself on race day at ironman, but i think i just did, and i'm still on pace, so what the hell. i won't be pulling that in Brasil for sure. coming around Marcus Garvey Park, i feel the history of this neighborhood, the jazz, the poetry, and i'm charged!!! the gospel singers just lift me up and propel me down the road. i'm still on pace, and i've got a little left for the hard part to come.
WHAAAAT?
going down 5th Ave., Central Park appears on the right and the crowds are insane. again, we're getting pushed into narrow chutes where i have to bob and weave around the hot dog heads and the French people. it's now the hellish uphill climb, and the pain is starting to set in. i'm now getting a little negative, a little bitchy, and my first victims are the French. if i hear "Vive La France!!" one more time, or if one more Frenchie cuts me off, someone is going to get worse than the death stare. it's not a threat, but i'm just sayin'....
the uphill along 5th Ave. went better than expected, so much better that i forget to find Wellington at mile 23. poor guy waited too long before he realized we missed each other and wasn't able to make it to the finish line. i'm still on pace, and i suddenly realize that i'm not going to need the extra 3 minutes per mile that i alloted for the home stretch. HOLY CRAP, I'M EVEN GONNA BEAT MY GOAL PACE!!!! just then, i hit east 75th where Ryan Shay had collapsed near the boat house. i got more emotional than i would have expected and started to cry. not to get too schmaltzy here, but i really did feel his spirit, at least the spirit of going for it, always striving to improve, going for a dream and following through with it and the empowerment we get from doing all of this. it is so very real and alive in all of us who do this, and i'm not exaggerating when i say that marathon and triathlon have saved my life. now into the park for some more rollers as the crowd starts yelling "2 more miles!! you can do it!!" again, i just thought,"this is nothing now. you got ironman ahead. BRING IT HOME!!!" coming around the south end of the park and around Columbus Circle, i started to read the signs. first, "1200 meters to go" and then "half mile to go", and i just started to BOOK IT. back into the park for a few hundred yards, AND I CAN SEE THE FINISH LINE NOW. "don't forget to look up!! get a good picture of this!!!!"
WHAT I DID ON MY NEW YORK VACATION PART DEUX: THE OLYMPIC TRIALS
i actually got into the NYC Marathon through the lottery last year, my 3rd time in 4 years. i was so excited that i'd be running it with Lance (well not "with" him), but after a big tri season of racing my first half im and then going to worlds in switzerland just 10 days later and then coming home to a month more of weekend foot races and aquathlons, I .WAS. BURNT. after a disastrous 20 miler turned into an 8 miler, i promptly went home and deferred my entry to this year. come to find out that the day before our race, the Men's Olympic Marathon Trials would be held in a circuit style race of 5 loops in Central Park along the old New York course. SCREW LANCE, here was my chance to watch all the elite distance runners up close!!!
the night before the trials, i looked up the spectator info online. if i played my cards right, i could see the runners at 10 different points on the course!!! but this would require running .4 mile across Central Park for each of the 5 laps. naw, maybe not a good idea the day before the marathon. instead, i'd just stay put at a strategic spot to see them pass 5 times with enough time to high tail it down and watch the finish line and hopefully see coach Joe again. i asked Well if he thought getting there an hour early would be enough time to get a good spot to which he replied "monica, i can't imagine there are gonna be a whole lot of people getting up early to watch this thing. an hour should be plenty of time." huh, little did he know......
team Hansons-Brooks cheer cards
team Hansons- Brooks moms??
it was pretty cold and windy saturday morning. they were also calling for a chance of rain. i bundled up in layers wearing my new waterproof race jacket and brought along an umbrella just in case. it dawned on me though, that i'd only be standing out there for two hours maximum. these boys were gonna haul ass!!! i took a crosstown bus and then hopped on the subway up to Central Park West near where i used to live when i was in college. you could tell just from the subway passengers that Well was wrong about nobody coming out to watch the trials. it was easy to differentiate the folks who were headed to work or worse, headed home from a night out partying, from the running enthusiasts all wearing their fancy racing flats or official Boston Marathon gear. as soon as i came up to street level, i felt the excitement. everyone was headed into Central Park and plotting their strategy on how to watch the race and which was the best vantage point. i got there just in time to get inside the race loop before they announced that the race had begun in Rockefeller Center and nobody would be allowed to traverse the course from this point on. i found a great spot on an island of sidewalk in between the two different course loops to take pics from. soon a woman was asking me about my Oceanside 70.3 hat, and we got to talking about triathlon. turns out she was a triathlete as well, and she was there with her sister who was covering the trials for Michigan Runner. we all huddled on our corner waiting to see the runners come around for the first lap. and soon enough they appeared. and soon enough they passed. my camera was set incorrectly, and the initial pics were blurrier than i had hoped. no worries though. i'd just get better shots the next time they came around.
a lead pack of 5 had already formed with (right to left) Hall, Ritz, Meb, Browne and Abdi all holding in a tight pack watching each other's every slight move. it was so gut wrenching to be up so close to such world class athletes and to know that at the end of the day, only 3 of them would be going to Beijing!! that's when the ambulance came through the course. it didn't occur to me that anything more serious than an exhausted runner lay out on the course needing fluids or at worst stitches...
now looking back at this pic, i realize that Ryan Shay was somewhere in this blur and that he never passed me again. i continued to watch the excitement with the sisters, capturing more pics of these thoroughbreds as they came by lap after lap. some struggled. as number 45, David Ernsberger, came around the second loop, he really looked to be limping as he yanked his i.t. band strap and threw it right in front of me. he also had a pretty significant sheath type brace holding his right thigh together, most likely addressing a pulled hamstring. in the end he DNF'd. so hey, David, if you're reading this, i still have your i.t. strap. and you wonder why they call me a fan....
as the groups passed the 4th time, the sisters and i decided to head to the finish line to get a prime spot to watch the last lap and the ultimate winners. that's when we got the news from a fellow reporter and journalist that the ambulance we saw was transporting Ryan Shay who had suffered a massive heart attack at just after mile 5. everyone gasped in disbelief at the news and hoped to get a better update before the race's end. we made our way to the finish area, and while all the spectators scrambled to get across Sheep's Meadow and back down and around to Tavern on the Green, the sisters flashed their media badges and told me to follow them. it helped to have my own camera with me, and nobody questioned us. next thing i know, I AM STANDING JUST BEYOND THE FINISH LINE OF THE '08 OLYMPIC TRIALS!!!! THANKS JENNIE AND JEANNE!!!!
me 'n Joe (kinda blurry)
that's when i saw Joe Vigil, and he came up and gave me a big hug and asked if i was ready for sunday. what a guy to take interest and stop to talk to me when he'd just received the news that one of his runners had suffered cardiac arrest. he was adamant that Shay was perfectly healthy and that he'd be ok. you could see his concern though. he just really wanted to believe that his runner would be ok.
we watched the last lap, and by now the lead group had blown up all over the place with Khalid Khannouchi hot on their heals and coming fast. this was getting exciting!!! i could not believe i was so close to all the action!!! some were struggling to hang on for the last lap, others were dropping out, collapsing with exhaustion, all giving it the hardest effort they'd ever known....
Ryan Hall takes the lead
Dathan Ritzenhein in 2nd
Brian Sell still struggling in 4th place
Meb and Khalid still neck and neck!!
we then began to hear the rumblings within the media crowd that Shay had not survived, and as i looked around for Joe, he was nowhere to be found. my heart sank. i couldn't imagine what he must have felt. but we all felt it, we all dropped our heads in disbelief, hoping that we had just heard an unsubstantiated rumor that would later prove to be false. but as the other lead coaches were brought in to line up near the finish line and still Joe was nowhere to be found, i just had a horrible feeling about it all. as i looked into the distance to the jumbtron, i could see this larger than life image of Ryan Hall taking in that last mile, no one else even close enough to him now to challenge, fists pumping high in the air, waving to the crowds and still looking so effortless.
when he crossed the line and broke the olympic trial record set last in 1980, we should have all been out of our brains with excitement. in fact the crowds in the stands went ape shit, but there was just something eerily wrong about the moment. i felt sick to stand there and watch his so well deserved celebration and pride for what he had just accomplished knowing that we knew what he didn't, that his friend and teammate would not be crossing that line with him. Ryan Shay was a true contender that morning, and his passing is a loss to the running community at large. HE WILL BE MISSED.
i went back to the apartment in a daze, in disbelief for what had happened and that i had stood so close to it all. if i had run across the park as i originally planned, i would have been right there at mile 5. i felt for his new bride, olympic hopeful Alicia Craig, who i later discovered had run herself to the hospital upon hearing the news. i felt for his parents who he told not to come that day because he'd be too nervous. i felt for Joe who was so kind to me, and now had to write and deliver a eulogy. it just goes to show once again how absolutely precious our time on this planet is and to not take one second for granted. i was definitely feeling depressed and apprehensive. i slept for the rest of the afternoon, and it took everything i had to psych myself up for the pre-race dinner with friends that night let alone to run the next day. later that evening, it dawned on me that i have run more marathons than Hall, Ritz and Sell combined, the 3 top finishers going to Beijing.... that was enough to lift me up....
WHAT I DID ON MY NEW YORK VACATION PART 1: GETTING THERE
well sports fans, it's been over a week since i ran the New York Marathon, and i haven't given a race report yet. still, i don't even know where to start. what a whirlwind trip full of emotions. i'm still kind of processing it all. i swear, i tried and tried to make it short, but there's really nothing i can cut out. i need to tell the whole story. whether you wanna read it all is another matter, but i'm gonna break it onto 3 parts over this whole week. christ, you'd think i did a friggin' ironman or something!!!!
coach Joe Vigil giving me marathon advice!!!
as mentioned in my previous post, i nearly didn't make it to New York in time for halloween due to a canceled flight (thanks again United!!), but something serendipitous occurred when i didn't make that original plane. on my rescheduled flight from Denver to La Guardia, i happened to notice a man wearing the New York Marathon jacket. i asked him "you running sunday?" to which he replied, "no, i'm a coach." i took my seat and wouldn't see him again until we were both waiting at the back of the plane for the restroom. turns out he was none other than Joe Vigil, head coach for Team Running USA which includes the likes of olympic bronze medal winner, Deena Kastor, olympic silver medal winner, Meb Keflezighi, Ryan Hall, Abdi Abdirahman, Brendan Leslie, Kyle Baker and Ryan Shay. all the men mentioned would be competing in the Olympic trials in Central Park the day before the marathon. we talked about his extensive system of scientific testing and altitude training that he uses with his runners. when i asked him if he had any advice for an age grouper like me who would be running the marathon on sunday, he was so kind and inspiring. he simply said "dear, don't worry about your pace right out of the gate. first, let your body react to the day. wait and hold back a little and don't worry that you're going at a slower pace. save something for later, and you'll really be surprised at what you can do. and i'll be out there!! we'll all be out there cheering you on!!!" i told him how i was a coach as well, but not nearly at the level he works at. we talked about the joys of helping people realize their full potential, and i asked him if he would come speak to my coaching colleagues the next time he was in los angeles. when we got to baggage claim, i asked if i could take his picture for my blog, so i'd have proof that i met the legendary coach Joe Vigil!!! i told him i'd be there watching on saturday, and i was excited to see him in action at the trials, and we said goodbye....
Sushi Boy can't decide.... subway or cab??
......and then on to halloween. i stayed with my dear old college buddy, Wellington, whose wedding i had been back for in may. Well is famous for his legendary costumes that he makes out of foam rubber. one year he was the Stanley Cup. other years he's been a roll of film, a guy in bed, but this year i think he topped himself with the sushi costume!! we had a blast walking around the city while people got all excited about "the sushi guy." we waited for the parade, but it took too long and we were starving and wanting to meet up with his wife, Gretchen, for dinner, so we bailed, but the streets were plenty filled with all kinds of costumes to enjoy!!!! we walked around forever as i snapped away at my favorite freaks on the street. i just love new york for halloween!!!
for full slideshow click here:
the next day i got up early and went out for a quick 20 minute run and then headed over to the expo to pick up my race packet. i hadn't really paid attention to anything that came in the mail prior to leaving for my trip. it's been a busy few weeks with work and travel, and since this would be my 3rd time running the race, i figured i knew how it all worked already. so when i finally opened the envelope two nights before leaving for NYC, i was a little shocked to discover i had been assigned an orange "f" number. apparently the race was designating a special wave start to go right after the elites and the fast men, the orange women's wave consisting of the fastest 9000 female runners. i have no idea how i got one of these numbers!!! i guess when i applied, they asked my fastest finish time in the last year. since it had been over a year since i ran a full marathon, i submitted my time for my fastest half marathon, somewhere right around 2 hours, but i sure as hell couldn't keep that pace up for a full marathon!!! i started to have anxiety that all these women would be passing me by come the race start. at packet pick up, they had the booths separated into wave colors, and i quickly started to size up the orange wave females. let's just say ALL THESE BITCHES LOOKED FAST, WAY FASTER THAN ME!!! i soon started to second guess myself. what the hell was i doing here? i'm not even a real marathoner anymore. i've been dickin' around with triathlon and hadn't focused on my running enough for this race. but why did i care?? so what if these women were faster than me. none of us were gonna win, and i had my own goal to come and conquer. after packet pick up, i walked around and took in all the booths, all the free schwag and even the official race gear. i finally bit the bullet and bought a slick asics race jacket. i'd wanted one in previous years but could never justify throwing down the bucks for one, but this year was my third time at this race, and i'd saved up to treat myself!!! as i continued strolling through the booths checking out all the stuff i didn't need, i heard an announcement over the loudspeaker, "stop by the Powerbar booth to enter the pace sweepstakes and be paced to the marathon finish line by Ironman champion triathletes, Peter Reid and Tim DeBoom. no way!!! how rad!! (yeah, i said rad again) so i made a b-line for the Powerbar booth and started to fill out the sweepstakes entry form. turns out that the winner got to run along with DeBoom for the first half and then get handed off to Reid for the second half. i couldn't fill out the slip fast enough when i finally read the fine print at the bottom: must be able to maintain a 7-9 minute pace. DAMN!!! but of course. that made perfect sense. why in the hell would Peter Reid and Tim DeBoom want to pace along a slow ass excuse for a runner like me? maybe there were faster "f" runners they could pace. instant bad mood now. get me outta this friggin' expo NOW!! there was one last thing i needed before race day. since i couldn't pack or carry on my liquid concentrate form of FRS, i had to locate the one and only place that carried it in the whole state of NY...
a club???
does this look like a club to you? the spacey, neon lighting, the Philip Starck style chandeliers, the Flavor Paper wall coverings??? maybe a high end clothing store??? nope, it's A TRIATHLON STORE, SBR Multisport in midtown Manhattan. this place was so posh!!! nothing like our stores here in l.a. there was even an endless pool in the back for swim analysis. but it felt like home to be talking triathlon with anyone who would listen. the guy who rang me up had just done Lake Placid and had a "bad day" with a 12:20 finish. wow, sucks to be him!!!
