My First Half Marathon

Can I get a woop woop? That's what I was saying in my mind. I was thrilled and so proud of myself this past Sunday because I completed 13.1 miles. I haven't been leaving trainings out of this blog, I really haven't been training. Prior to Sunday, the most I had ran was the 5k at Thanksgiving. I needed to test out my plan for the marathon and even though the course I did was flat I knew the distance would give me an idea if I'd be able to do the full marathon or not.

I've done some reading online and there are plenty of people that have done a marathon with little to no training. I also found out that there are some snobby runners that don't consider people who walk during a race to be marathoners. Obviously I don't agree since I'm one of the people that they are referring to but really, this country has a huge problem with obesity and heart disease and Type 2 diabetes and all kinds of other problems because of an unhealthy lifestyle. I am all for encouraging exercise. The people that are struggling hard but still doing it are more inspirational to me than the people finishing in record time. That is why the night before my half marathon I watched The Biggest Loser. I only weigh 102lbs. I have 1/3 the weight they do to carry across the finish line. If they can do it then I need to suck it up and do it too. I also found that most of the people that are saying that people like me don't belong in a race are not the elite runners but the ones in the middle. Well, as someone pointed out, if it weren't for the slow people those snobby runners wouldn't be finishing ahead of anyone. I respect anyone that chooses to run a race for whatever reason, even the ones that don't respect me and my reasons.

As I've mentioned, I'm doing the Oakland Marathon on March 28, 2010. There is a full marathon course and a half marathon course. This past Sunday they did a practice run and there were two options: 1) Do 20 miles which starts at mile 10 of the full or 2) Do the complete half marathon course. I took the second option. I didn't want to push myself so hard to the point of injury and possibly not be able to do my event. The day before I made sure to drink a lot of water and I had a large serving of pad thai for dinner. I also took Thermolyte pills which are electrolytes. In the morning I had breakfast and more electrolytes and made it to Oakland. Even though I used the restroom before leaving the house and again before starting to run I had to go shortly after we started running again. Luckily I was able to go into a Starbuck's but that's an annoying part of running. After that I was afraid to drink. I met a really cool girl my age that I started running with but it wasn't before long that I felt my heart was going too fast and wanted to slow down. She said she's a beginner and slow but I guess I'm just slower. I met people here and there and I liked everyone I met. I hope I see them again at either the expo or race day. One lady that I was really impressed with was running with her eight month old baby. She had her in one of those running strollers. Occasionally she would stop to breast feed her or to change her diaper. Her husband was also doing the run but finished earlier and then ran back until he caught up with her and then let his wife run ahead to the finish without the stroller. I loved to see that. It's going to be really awesome when I do the race alongside my dad.

The streets were not closed and the course was not marked. They gave us turn-by-turn directions on a slip of paper which I wore as a bracelet. There were a lot of turns and Oakland is pretty confusing and foreign to me so I knew that I was going to have to finish no matter what because otherwise I wouldn't know how I was going to get back to my car. It would have been pretty humiliating to have to call a cab. Since the roads were not closed I had to wait at a lot of stoplights when I didn't feel I needed to rest so that right there could have lowered my time. Also, a lot of the time I was running alone. I had never done that before and I found that it wasn't as boring as I thought it was but I still prefer to have people around. At the end of the run, when I was on Telegraph my calves were sore and my feet were hurting and I was walking, there was a random guy riding his bike and happened to have a pretty big boom box blasting very high energy music. That pumped me up and I ran the rest of the way to The Marriott which marked the end of the course. On race day there's going to be a lot of music and people and cheering so I know that will also carry me through more. Not only that, my dad will be there and he's why I'm doing this. I want to make him proud. I figure that the only way I'm not going to make it to the finish line is if I'm carried off the course from collapsing or something. Even if I have to crawl, I will make it. Before I said that all I cared about was finishing in under seven hours since that's the cutoff well if I don't keep a 16 minute mile I will just move to the sidewalks and unofficially finish. It's the first ten miles of the full marathon course that is intimidating me now since that is all uphill. I know what thirteen miles flat feels like now so next I'm going to try out those ten miles uphill to refine my plan for when to walk and when to jog. I might even do some actual running. There really were some moments on Sunday that I was feeling good and I was running. I was even kind of singing to myself, "I'm doing it, oh yeah, oh yeah, I'm running, oh yeah mmhmm". Kind of like, "Go Sarah, it's your birthday." It is my birthday next week and I'm so glad I'm finishing out 30 on a high note. This was a big accomplishment for me. Thanks for reading and being part of it with me.

Changing My Approach to Training

My approach to training for the Oakland Marathon has changed. I joined Team In Training before I started my new job and at that time the schedule would have worked but now that I have a very long commute and don't get back home til close to 9:00pm every night, it just doesn't work. That's one excuse and I know it's an excuse but the fact is there...I haven't been going to the training or buddy runs.

I still am committed to doing the marathon and I am still committed to raising the money for Leukemia and Lymphoma Society with Team In Training but I'm going to have to find a way that works for me while I am finding my new routine.

While I haven't been running I have been doing other things that hopefully will get me where I need to be. The last time I went to a track work-out with Team In Training I felt completely out of shape because of how hard and fast my heart was pounding. That leads me to believe that I need some serious cardio training. I've always been very thin so I've never felt the need to exercise. Unfortunately, my heart is not in shape because of that. The last couple of weeks I've been going to dance cardio classes because if I'm going to work out it's going to have to be fun. Running is just not fun to me right now and neither is any other cardio machine at the gym. I've also gone to a couple of Qi-Gong/Tai Chi classes.

Tomorrow I am meeting with a personal trainer. I'm scheduled to meet with her once a week for the next five weeks. I need someone to push me because I don't have it in me to do it alone right now. When I start to feel uncomfortable running or on the elliptical I usually just stop and I feel lost when trying to do a routine on the machines.

I just got back from the gym and I did 3.11 on the elliptical machine.  It's a modest attempt at trying to get back into training but at least I did something. I had gone intending to run on the treadmill but they were all taken.

I know that I am very far behind in my training if I'm trying to run the entire 26.2 miles but the goal I originally set is to finish the marathon and to do it to support my dad. I may be completely insane to think this but on that day I know I will have the determination to cross the finish line with my dad and I feel like I will be able to do it even at the rate I'm going now. I think I'll walk the uphills and walk/jog the rest. I am going to step up my training and the personal trainer and the cardio classes is my way of doing that for now. If anyone out there thinks my theory isn't making sense...please let me know, I'm open to suggestions. I have 67 days to go.