Fine Fifteen

Before I get into my post, I have to say that I'm hoping to get back to shooting some new Cooking With Yvie episodes this week. I apologize to you loyal readers/viewers for no new shows. The girls got sick and were sick for a while and that ruined a good Halloween show I'd planned on doing. I thought it would be nice to have the girls dress up in their uniforms and make a Halloween recipe. Anyway, I really will make it an effort to shoot a new show this week as Yvie and I both need to get back to that.

I just got back from my long run. We were scheduled to run 15 miles today, and that's what we did. Actually, it was 15.38 (I can't cheat myself out of those .38 miles, you know). I think this was officially my longest run ever. The last time I ran 15 miles, The Garmin gave out on me during Mile 5 so I wasn't able to properly record the distance that day. Today, though, The Garmin plowed right through to the end, just like I did.

Actually, The Garmin wasn't the only thing that wasn't up for 15 miles two weeks ago. I remember dragging through the last couple of miles and by the time we were done, I was done. I was spent, drained, exhausted. I remember collapsing on the grass out of sheer fatigue. But today was different. I felt strong, very strong. In fact, I felt so strong that I thought about getting in some extra mileage today but decided against it. See, next week I'll be up in Seattle and I have to crank out an 18-miler that day as part of my marathon training.

Today started off pretty chilly. Temperatures were in the mid-40s when we met up and that's ice-cold for me. To me, anything under 60 degrees is quite chilly... yeah, I get no sympathy from my out-of-town readers, I know. Anyway, it was cold this morning but the only difference I made was to wear my gloves. I didn't wear long pants or a long-sleeve shirt or anything, just my gloves. I figured that if I started running and got hot, it would be easier to just take the gloves off.

And I like wearing gloves. I wore them a lot last winter, and today was really the first day I needed them since then as it's been a warm fall... if you can even call it fall... thus far. But today was definitely fall weather, although the sun was shining on us throughout the run.

I felt good, never felt cold, never felt the weather at all. I was surprised when we reached the turnaround mark, right around 7.7 miles or so, because I felt reallly good. I had used a Gu packet at Mile 5 and another one at Mile 10 (Vanilla Bean, yum!) and started to wonder if I'd hit the wall at around Mile 12 or 13. But we got to 12.9 miles when we got to the last water station and I was surprised that I felt like I had energy to burn.

One of my Loper buddies I'd been running with and talking to was complaining of stomach pain so I stayed with her as the rest of our diminished group went up ahead. But she fought through it and by the last mile or so we were running good. She sprinted down the stretch but I still had the foolish thought in mind that I wanted to keep running so I held back for a moment until I reached the end, and then I just figured it would be best to quit while I was ahead.

We finished our 15.38 miles in just under 2 hours 44 minutes, and I think the difference in how I felt today from last time was the weather. It wasn't boiling hot two weeks ago but it was a lot warmer than it was today.

Even though I know I could have ran more, I figured it would be best to bottle up that energy and take it with me to the Emerald City. In fact, while I was originally worried about the weather (forecast for next Sunday is a high of 47 degrees, possible chance of rain) I'm now encouraged by it. If a 10-degree change made such a difference in how I felt, I think I could similarly benefit by another slight dip in temperature.

The best part about having to figure out how to run 18 miles in Seattle was stumbling across new blogs. It seems the running blogosphere in the Northwest is quite strong. I came across mom vs. Marathon first and then went on to read Lisa runs? Wait... what? (she's actually in Northern California) and then Tall Mom on the Run and 5 Miles 2 Empty. Awesome blogs and I look forward to keeping up with their own running exploits. And there are even more blogs they all follow so I'll be busy checking out new running blogs. Sweet.

Anyway, I'm pumped now about knocking out what will be my longest run ever (I have a lot of those lately) in a new city. About the only thing that kinda bums me out is that the Seattle Marathon/Half-Marathon is scheduled for Nov. 29, a week after I'll be there. How awesome would it have been to run a half-marathon in Seattle?!? Oh well, maybe another day.

For now, I'll have my own little 18-mile party in Seattle. And that's not a bad consolation prize.

The Pink Flash

The pictures from the Mission Inn Run are up on the photographers' web site.

Since there were no actual pictures of me taken by my own camera, I might spring for one of these two pictures.

I think it might be cool to have one of these action shots of me in my awesome hot pink shirt. Well, I have the pictures but they have that water mark. I'm going to get one though. Why not?

This is at about the 2.5-mile mark. I can tell because my shirt isn't quite drenched with sweat yet. I was doing pretty well here, feeling good and strong.

****
This is at the same point during the second go-round, so I have about a half-mile to go, probably longer. I was doing well at this point, and trying to finish strong. But right about here was where I started to feel that if I would push myself hard, I wouldn't have much left for the sprint down the finish. I was in maintain mode.

***

One other thing: in looking at my time again, it seems I somehow improved my position in the overall male finishers. It seems that I now finished in 101st overall. Not sure what happened to finishers 101 and 102 as I'd originally finished 103rd. So now I was just a couple of seconds away from a medal.

Argh!

Friday Leftovers

It's Friday already. Normally that'd be great but tonight's going to be a long work night for me, so I'm kind of wishing it were Saturday already. But oh well, that'll be here soon enough.

Word Association

Play along here.

1. Alarm :: ring
2. Guest :: house
3. Worm :: hole
4. Puppies :: kittens
5. Honor :: brave
6. No! :: Don't!
7. Stomach :: pain
8. Counter :: clockwise
9. Waffles :: eggo
10. Plates :: tectonics

Nothing really shocking. I guess I had geology on my mind for the last one.

Dad Update

My dad was released from the hospital on Tuesday evening. He'd been in there for nearly a week as he was taken to the ER the Wednesday before. He was in about as good condition as he could be when he was let go. We learned a few valuable things about him while he was in there.

One, he can't really eat solid food and certainly can't drink any more liquids. For his food, we need to either feed him soft foods like applesauce and mashed potatoes and the like, or we need to mash up his food for him. Part of the Progressive Supranuclear Palsy, or PSP, is that it breaks down the ability to swallow properly, and this could lead to aspiration pneumonia. He was starting to develop this so we need to prevent it from getting worse, thus this seemingly drastic action.

After a while, he will likely need to use a feeding tube because even soft foods and such won't be enough to prevent him from aspirating. For liquids we have to use a thickening powder to get the liquids to have the consistency of honey. That includes liquids like water and milk but also broth in his soups and things like that.

So, if you had any ideas for foods or recipes that might help my dad out, that'd be great. My mom already tries to provide him a somewhat modified diet in terms of foods that are soft and the like but I might want to do some cooking for my folks if I can.

Two, his spirits are high. Thus, he hated being in the hospital. He wanted to go home and his last day there he was anxious to get out. He ripped the IV out of his arm and tried to stand on several occasions. Luckily my mom and I were able to reach him before he did so, because he can't stand on his own.

The best thing is that he was able to take the trip to Hawaii after all. Danny and his wife flew with my parents to Hawaii. They rented a condo for 10 days that's right on the beach so they will be able to spend some time on the islands. I'll see if Danny wants to share any more pictures when they come back from Hawaii. He was able to send me this one from his phone. I'm incredibly happy that they made it because it looked like his trip to the hospital would have prevented that.

Musical Influence

I neglected to mention music in my post yesterday about thoughts during running. It's funny because I used to rely heavily in my iPod. Now, I have progressed to the point where if I don't have my iPod on, it's no big deal.

While I still use it and still plan out playlists and the like, I think if I had to run without it I'd be fine. I guess that's why it didn't come to mind.

I do think it's great and preferable to have one handy and music does and can help you get motivated but if you rely solely on music to get you through your runs, that may not be the best course of action.

I'm not as militant as some Lopers are about running without an iPod. I don't wear one during our long runs and neither do most Lopers. But that doesn't mean that I'm anti-iPod. I like the iPod and look forward to running to certain songs or groups, but I know that I can run without it.

LB's Song Of The Week

I guess it's only appropriate to have a song about the color pink as the song of the week. Given my post and picture earlier this week about my own choice of wearing the color pink, this was a natural fit.

This song is by the group Rocknoceros and the song is called Pink.

Or rather, PINK!

Running Through My Mind

One of the possible setbacks of running is boredom. The thought of running for 30 minutes, 40 minutes, an hour or more even, is enough to turn most people off. What are you going to do for so long, besides run of course? You can't exactly surf the net while running. Talking is difficult too, unless you run with others but you can't do that every day. And you can't really talk on the phone or text or tweet or Facebook.

Running just comes down to you and your thoughts.

And what of those thoughts? My reader TG had a question about thoughts, as in what to think during runs. More specifically, what do I think during runs and how do I encourage myself.

It can be tough sometimes to get out there and run, knowing you will have six miles or eight miles or 10 miles ahead of you and you'll be all by yourself. I believe running is as much about conquering mental obstacles as it is physical ones. Yeah, running can take a toll on your ankles and knees and other body parts, but it can also take a mental toll. It's easy to psyche yourself out before you even step on the course.

So it's always good to go into a run focused. I like to think about the overall run, about all the parts of a run, before I go on it. So if I'm running, say The Hill, which I haven't run in a while, I like to imagine myself at certain landmarks along the way - crossing over the only traffic light on the route, passing by the entrance to the golf course that's along the way, taking my first steps after reaching the top, going down to the bottom of it and turning around. If I visualize the run, it seems to make the run doable.

But once you're on the course and running, that's when your thoughts take over. So, what to think about?

I'll start by saying some of the things I do not like to think about and do my best to avoid.

* Anything stressful. If I have something uneasy pending, like a stressful story I'm working on or a tough weekend of games coming up, I try not to think about it because it will only unsettle me.

* Any thoughts about how much longer I have to go. This one's kind of hard but I try and supress anything along these lines: "I've only got half a mile done? I still have five-and-a-half miles to go??" That just makes me want to stop. The only time I allow myself those kinds of thoughts is once I pass the halfway point. And even then that can be discouraging.

* Something I can't control. If the wind is blowing in my face, I try to not let it bother me too much. I can't change it, so why fret about it? I just try and deal with it as best as possible.

So what are some of my go-to thoughts?

* I like to visualize lots of things. As I mentioned before, I like to picture different parts of the run if I've done it before. If not, then I like to visualize myself finishing the run, to let my legs know that it will be over soon.

* Past races always provide great fodder for thoughts. Sometimes if I'm running a long-distance run, I like to think of other races, or runs even, that I've ran at that distance or longer. It's kind of like proof to myself that I can and have done that before but also the emotions I feel from those achievements still energize me.

* Future races are also as valuable. Lately, I keep picturing myself along the Surf City course. I visualize Mrs. LB and the girls at, say, the Mile 16 marker cheering me on. One of my favorite visualizations right now is reaching the Mile 20 marker and having my brother Danny slap the Ragnar bracelet on my wrist. I ended up with that bracelet and I'm going to use it during the marathon as motivation. I think at the Mile 20 mark is when I'll need it the most, and that would be a fantastic moment for me if I was able to coordinate that exchange.

* My blog. I think about my blog and try and plan what things I can blog about. I'm usually on the hunt for blog topics or things that I'll want to mention in a particular blog post and that helps pass the time.

* I used to be a big sports nut but over the years family and work have minimized my ability to keep up on it like I used to. Still, I follow my teams closely and sometimes I like to think about them. However, this is dangerous if your teams are pathetic and this may cause you to stress out, so this one has an asterisk next to it.

* Probably one of the more important things too is to think about the mechanics of your run. I'm constantly focusing on my stride, my arms and how they are moving, my posture, where my shoulders are (too far forward or back?), my breathing, is there any pain anywhere, etc.

* Also as important is my pace. Am I running at a too-fast pace or do I need to speed up? If I'm in the middle of my run, how has my pace changed? If I'm feeling exhausted earlier than expected, I think about about the first part of the run and try and figure out what I've done that may have caused that. And if I feel like I have energy to burn, I contemplate the positives and negatives about running faster than I'd anticipated and wonder if I can get away with it.

Now overall I'm a bit of a daydreamer and I can easily put together scenarios in my head so to me having such daydreams is comforting. I've always been a daydreamer, ever since I was in grade school. I always had problems focusing on my schoolwork because of it and even now it's a challenge a lot of times to keep my focus on something. So some of these thoughts aren't too difficult for me to conjure up.

It's mostly the negative thoughts that I try to avoid.

Still, the one thought that I used to think and sometimes still tries to crawl into my head is the one I try to avoid:

Oh my God this sucks.

Because while it can seem that way, running really isn't that bad.

Real Men Wear Pink

Real men do wear pink.

It's what's in. Haven't you heard? Well, if you haven't gotten the memo, lavender is out and pink is in for men this, what season are we in?, oh yeah, fall.

You heard it here first.

I think if I say it enough, I'll be okay with wearing pink.

I'm actually not sure about wearing pink... well, let me rephrase that. Under normal circumstances, I would not wear pink. Period. I've never considered it as an option for any clothing apparel of mine, nor have I pondered purchasing a pink clothing item.

But when I joined the Loma Linda Lopers, I was given a pink t-shirt upon registering. Pink, you see, is the Lopers' color of choice. Not black, not white but pink. Not blue, not green, not aquamarine. Pink.

Wearing the shirt is, of course, not mandatory. In fact, a lot of runners on our Sunday runs typically don't wear the shirt, and some wear white Lopers shirts, which I might do as well once I get my hands on one. But I wear the shirt during our Sunday runs. The only time I didn't was my first run back after the Ragnar Relay when I wore my white Ragnar shirt, and I might wear it again soon and ditch the pink once again.

I wore the pink shirt during Sunday's Mission Inn Run, for a few reasons. One, the Loper people recommended wearing it beacuse one of our own was going to take pictures and have them for sale at a much cheaper price than the regular race photographers. Two, I've worn it most every Sunday for the last three months so why stop now? And thirdly, I'm part of a club and these are our colors. There were a lot of Lopers out there, and many of them wore the pink shirts.

And I'm proud of being a Loper; thus I wear the colors. I've learned so much from my fellow Lopers since July that I feel obligated to wear the colors and support the group. I can't imagine being where I am now, training for a marathon, logging all these miles in on Sundays, improving on my midweek runs, and doing all that I've done without the Lopers. I did well to get to where I was over the summer, to have completed a half marathon and the like, on my own. Now, I'm not saying that I couldn't have done Ragnar or this 10K or even a marathon on my own, but it would have been a lot more difficult, a lot more challenging and a lot more discouraging.

On Nov. 22 I'm going to be in Seattle and we have an 18-mile run scheduled for that morning. I am not sure how I'm going to tackle that, if I'll run the distance by myself or if I'll tack on three miles to this week's 15-miler and run 10 or 12 miles on the 22nd alone. Just the thought of running 18 miles on my own frightens me, but the thought of running 18 miles with the Lopers is less scary. Sure, it's daunting but in my mind it's doable. Running 18 miles by myself scares me. But if that's what I have to do, then that's what I'll have to do. The Lopers, though, are encouraging in that sense.

What's great too is that there are many people like me. My awesome rockin' blog buddy Angie joined the Lopers in August or September of 2008 and has already run three marathons. My fellow 11-min group runner Meriel kicked ass in her first 10K, finishing in under 50 minutes on Sunday. And she'd never even run more than four miles before joining the Lopers. I dare say she's one of the stronger runners in our group. I use her as motivation to get through the last miles of our long runs because she finishes so strongly. And there are several others in our group who are just starting, hadn't run double-digit miles before September, have the same worries and fears as the other first-timers, about finishing the marathon in one piece, about closing out or 13-, 14- or 15-mile runs out well and the like.

Combine that with the knowledge and experience our pace leaders have and it's no wonder why I feel so good about my chances at Surf City. As I mentioned earlier, one of pace leaders has run more than 50 marathons and ran 33 miles just this last weekend. Another veteran helped us during our recent 15-miler as he was a fill-in, and he'd hiked 20 miles the day before.

So while I'm going to have to run Surf City on my own two feet, I know that the Lopers will have helped carry me and will continue to carry me there. Will I wear pink that day? Well, so far 272 Lopers have signed up for Surf City, and I wouldn't want to get lost in the crowd.

So pink it is.

Real men wear it, right? Maybe? Oh well. At least the girls like it. Of all my shirts, it's their favorite, and they've told me so many times.

Mud Run Calendar Is Set

Camp Pendleton Races announced their 2010 race calendar last week, about five weeks earlier than they did a year ago. I remember last year waiting, wondering, hoping to hear about the 2009 race calendar. I suppose I was a bit eager since I ran my first Mud Run in Oct. 2008 and was quite anxious about signing up for another Mud Run.

There are three Mud Runs on the schedule for 2010: June 5, 6 and 12.

There is also one slight problem. The San Diego Marathon is scheduled for June 6.

San Diego Marathon? Where the hell did that come from?

Oh, well, I just haven't blogged about it but I've been thinking about running another marathon in 2010, well, more exact, thinking if I should run another marathon in 2010. It's a long year and I might get bored. And the San Diego Marathon would be great because I'd have enough time after Surf City to relax, rest up and then train for San Diego.

But if I did that, I could probably say farewell to the Mud Run. I obviously couldn't do it on June 5 or 6, so that would be out. Could I run the marathon one weekend and then the Mud Run six days later? Maybe a more experienced runner would be able to challenge that task, and that might be something that I'd be up for in 2011 or beyond, but right now, several months before my first marathon, is not the time to think like that. So unfortunately that would be out too.

The Mud Run is an awesome event. I enjoy it quite a bit, have enjoyed it since I did my first one, and it's becoming a bit of a tradition for all of us involved. I'm not sure if I'm willing to give that up.

I suppose one thing that would help would be to find another marathon in May that I could run, or at least, that I could potentially run should I decide to go for another 26.2.

I'm still not convinced that I will want to run another marathon so soon but I do think that I will need something to train for. I've thought about running another half marathon sometime in the spring, and that one is pretty much a lock at this point. Might do the Run Through Redlands again. Not sure.

I guess I have a couple of months to figure out whether or not I want to run San Diego or if running the Mud Run is and should still be the focal point of the early part of my summer.

And then there's this: some of the Tortoises might want to get together for the Wasatch Back Ragnar Relay June 18-19 in Utah.

What??? Where did that one come from??

Aw, well, I guess I have a lot to consider for 2010.

Don't even mention South Africa.

Mission Inn Musings

Some tidbits left over from the Mission Inn Run...

Where Are The Pictures?

I didn't actually take any pictures myself at the run. Sadly, Mrs. LB and the girls had a prior commitment and weren't able to attend, so nobody greeted me at the finish except volunteers. As I went to the race myself, I couldn't really take a camera.

Funny thing is, I ran into Yvie's teacher at the race. I volunteer in her class a lot so she knew me and we exchanged a brief hello as her husband had just finished the 10K himself (I don't know yet if I beat his time or not). I suppose I could have asked her to take a picture of me.

But there is one picture floating around of me in my awesome pink Loper shirt. You'll have to click here to see it. Angie of Angie Eats Peace had her camera and her husband took this picture.

The other person in that picture is Art, one of my Loper pace leaders. He had run the half marathon with a time of 2 hours, 11 minutes. Funny thing is Art had run 20 miles in 3 hours 40 minutes the day before the half marathon. He's run a total of 52 marathons, and will run number 53 next month in Las Vegas. He's 58 years old.

Yes, I am in awe.

Picking The Pics

Now, there will be some pictures of me I believe. There were photographers along the course and it was a real strange coincidence that when I came upon them I was right in their way, like weird. I was running and the photographer was in front of me and there wasn't anybody or anything between me and the photographer.

Strange how that worked out.

Anyway, hopefully there will be some action pictures of me. And hopefully I won't look like I was suffering too much.

Claim Your Medal, LB

One of my readers (JM) commented on my Mission Inn Run race recap about the medal and wanted to know how much faster would I have needed to run in order to have gotten a medal. It was actually a great question and really got me thinking.

To answer her question, I would have needed to run about six seconds faster as the 100th male finished in 50:19. My time officially was 50:24. It was attainable and will be attainable for me the next time I run it.

I started thinking about this, about earning a medal. I've received medals before. Actually, my first race, my 5K back in '08, I got a medal for and I figured that every race would be like that, that you'd get participation medals in all races no matter what. Of course, it's not like that.

The longer races seem to have participation medals as I got one for the Run Through Redlands Half-Marathon and the Ragnar Relay, and will get one for Surf City.

But while those medals are great and treasured, I didn't really earn them. Now, you could say that by signing up and running the race I earned them and while I won't argue that, I will say that I haven't earned one by finishing in a certain time or place. Again, I'm not so concerned with time and competing against others, but I suppose in some ways it would be nice to earn a medal this way, to finish in the top whatever of a race and get a medal that others didn't.

Still, I'm not going to fret over that but it is something that I hadn't thought about before. We'll see if it comes back into mind the next time I run a 10K.

Pace Yourself

I wound up running the 10K with an overall pace of 8:06, which is pretty good for me. I had run the 10K a year ago at about 8:30. Shaving seven seconds and finishing the 10K with a pace of 7:59 would translate into finishing in 49:53, which would be fantastic, but it's a challenge.

Still, I think I can get there. I just need to run more tempo runs and more intervals as I hadn't been running many of these lately, well, not as many as I would have liked.

Motivational Mondays (Nov. 9)

The overall winner of the Mission Inn Run 10K finished in a time of 29 minutes, 10 seconds. His pace was 4:41, and the 25-year-old beat the second-place finisher by more than two minutes. He also beat my time by more than 21 minutes.

Should that discourage me? Should I be disappointed that I finished so far back of the winner? Realistically, the race was over for me after a few steps for once the eventual winner took his first few steps it would have been obvious that I wouldn't have been able to catch up.

But to say that I am disappointed in my time would be way off the mark. I am still happy... however... the official race results came out and this is what it reads...

So turns out what I'd originally seen when I crossed the line was indeed my finish time, which is fine. It changes nothing to be honest.

I'm still excited about having run my best-ever time for a 10K and excited about the potential I showed that I have for future races. 49:59 or below is within sights and that's encouraging. Motivating.

I suppose that's why I like running. Well, there are many reasons why I like to run - staying healthy, meeting challenges, looking halfway decent - but races in particular are enjoyable. Even though I am not as physically talented as the ones who can run 10Ks in under 30 minutes, half-marathons in under 1 hour, 10 minutes or marathons in under 2 hours, 30 minutes, we are on level footing. They have their challenges and I have mine, and we both try and meet them however we can.

It's encouraging to know that if you were to pick up running and try to run a few miles here or there and then enter a 5K as a newbie with only a few months of running under your belt, you will liely enjoy the experience, and you won't be humbled by others who are better/faster/stronger.

Unless you can run five-minute miles, the only person you compete against when you run is yourself.

So even if the winner of a given race can finish, shower, dress and start eating a sandwich while you are still on the course, it's not exactly discouraging.

Mission Inn Run 2009: Raising The Bar

For the last month or so, I'd switched my focus from the Ragnar Relay to the Surf City Marathon, but part of my training included the Mission Inn Run 10K. I'd ran the race before, as it was my first regular, non-obstacle 10K run and I'd set a pretty good time of 52:55.

But over the last two weeks or so, I'd wanted to beat that time and had set my sights solely on this race. I had two goals: 1) beat my time from last year, and 2) finish in 49:59 or better. Goal 1 was a must, Goal 2 would have been icing on the cake.

Although I'd ran the Ragnar Relay and the Mud Run in the last five months, this was my first regular street race since the Run Through Redlands in April. As I went to check in and grab my bib - I got number 88 - I felt the excitement of the pre-race atmosphere.

There must be a hundred runners out here already.

I had about 20 minutes to go before the race started when I walked up to the start line, but I wasn't ready to get a spot in the start. I warmed up by jogging very lightly, walking, then jogging faster and increasing the pace little by little. I ran a total of about .8 miles and got my pace up to the pace I thought I would feel comfortable at the start.

When the 10K runners started to gather at the start, I tried to grab a spot up near the top, and I met up with a pair of my Loper pace group buddies. One of them, Meriel, was worried about time and wondered how she should run it, as it was her first 10K. I had faith in her, as even though she is a first-year Loper like myself, she is one of the stronger runners in our 11-minute pace group.

I wound up running with Angie of Angie Eats Peace, who wanted to beat her 2008 time of 56 minutes, for a good portion of the start. We sort of pushed each other for the first two miles, and we flew. We finished the first two miles in about 15 minutes, 20 seconds.

Holy crap! Man, those tempo runs worked!

I knew we wouldn't be able to hold that pace for the entire race but it felt very good to know that I was even running that pace and not feeling the effects.

Early in the third mile, though, we got to a hill. It wasn't the steepest hill ever but it was steep enough. Our early speedburners were shut off, and Angie fell behind a bit. I pushed forward, got up to the main street (Market Street) and swung a right. The half-marathoners were running alongside us at that point.

I'm so running that next year.

I had to maintain my focus and I sort of lost it during this stretch. After the turnaround point, which was the end of mile 3, I was at about 22 minutes, a little more. I felt good knowing that if I were to run a 5K I know I could beat my 5K time of 25:05. Perhaps it was this that made me lose my focus, or maybe I just got a bit fatigued, but by the time I got to the end of Mile 4 I was at about 32 minutes, and that was about the same time I had been at a year ago.

Stupid Garmin! What the hell?!?

Thinking back now, The Garmin was not working properly. It kept giving me "Weak GPS Signal" readings, so I think my times may have been off at a certain point. Regardless, I felt that if I didn't push myself, I wasn't going to beat my PR and would definitely not come close to finishing in under 50 minutes.

Time to push yourself.

Angie had caught me sometime during Mile 4 but I sped up and left her and a group of other runners behind, probably not too far behind but I couldn't see them in my peripheral vision. I was worried though that I wouldn't be able to maintain that pace for much longer and while I know I slowed down (The Garmin was unreliable by this point) I could feel myself going at a good pace regardless.

The 5-mile marker came up and..

"40 minutes, 41 seconds"

I had a shot. I had 1.2 miles left and I was going to do whatever I could to finish in under 50 minutes. But the realities of running sunk in quickly. My muscles ached, my feet were taking a pounding and I could feel my heart working overtime. The hill approached yet again, and it slowed me down once more. I came up out of it, made a left on a street where the hill wasn't much of a factor but it took some time coming out of it.

Still, I kept pushing. I could see Market Street up ahead, and once I turned onto it I knew that there would be no holding back. But Mission Inn Boulevard was a ways down, and I wasn't sure if I could sprint that far.

This is what you do intervals for.

I heard people on the sidewalks cheering, and that sort of gave me a lift. I steadily improved my pace, got faster and by the time I was approaching Mission Inn, I was running as fast as I could.

No holding back now. You got this.

I wanted to leave nothing in reserve. My legs churned, my chest heaved, sweat dripped down my sunglesses and drenched my shirt. I remembered to look at the clock as I approached the finish line, but I couldn't really tell where the exact finish line was. Still, I shot a look at the clock as I slowed down.

50:24

I felt a mix of emotions. First, I was tired. I was breathing heavily and I wanted to jog a little longer but I was funneled into a the finish line and had no choice but to walk. Secondly, I could feel my leg muscles relaxing for the first time in about 50 minutes. They breathed sighs of relief. And since I hadn't taken my fuel belt or Gu, I was feeling the need to get some fluids and fuel inside of me. After I was able to get past my physical shortcomings, I was able to think about my time.

New PR!! Kick ass!!

As I made my way over to get some water, someone who I'd beaten told me that I needed to get my medal. Apparently, the top 100 male and female runners get a medal, and since I'd finished before that guy and he'd gotten one, I needed to get one. I went back to the finish and asked for one but didn't get it. I didn't care, but as I waited with Angie (who had her medal swung around her neck) I started to feel as if I got ripped off. Angie destroyed her PR, finishing in 51:24, while Meriel beat us both, finishing in under 50 minutes.

Once the official results were posted, I went over to see if I'd finished in the top 100 and then would go track down a medal.

I scanned the list, saw my name and...

103___7__M__34__50:19___88

Oh no! I didn't finish in the top 100 as I finished 103 in the overall male category, and apparently seventh in my age group.

I actually feel good about this. For one, I love my time. 50:19 is an awesome time! Much better than 50:24, and way better than 52:55. Secondly, I know I can run a better 10K race. I could stand to shed a few pounds, not talking 20 or 120 by any means but I know I can get leaner. And I know I can train better. I'm still in my early running stage as I've not ran a marathon before, have ran only one half-marathon and one 5K along with my three regular 10Ks, two Mud Runs and the Ragnar Relay. That's not a ton of races. I think the longer I run, the more races I run, the better my training will be. Plus, I haven't done hardly any resistance training this year so there's that element as well.

I like this bar that I've set for myself, and I know that the next 10K I participate in, I'll have an awesome chance of finishing in 49:59 or under so long as I remain true to myself in the run-up to the race.

Until then, I'm going to relax and enjoy the moment.

Eve Of Mission Inn

It's a day away from the Mission Inn Run and I feel good about my chances of finishing the race in under 52:55. That's the time I posted last year and is my 10K PR, so I'm hopeful that I will be able to beat that time.

I had a fantastic workout on Friday as I did The Interval. For the low parts, I ran at a 6.5 and for the high parts I ran an even 8.0, so that's at a 9:12 and 7:30 pace, respectively. I actually felt great running the faster pace, didn't feel like it was blazing fast or anything so that was very encouraging for my race. I finished off with a two-minute sprint at 9.0, which is about 6:40 pace. Yeah, that's way too fast for me to maintain it for more than a couple of minutes but to be able to run that fast after having run/walked for nearly 3.5 miles at that point was also encouraging.

I'm not saying I'm going to go into a full-on blazing sprint the last half-mile or longer, but I do have hope that I'll be able to pick up the pace on the stretch run. Whether that's a 6:40 pace or not remains to be seen but I could maintain a faster pace this time around than I did last year. I remember last year trying to go into my sprint a bit early and being humbled right away by not being able to maintain it for 20 steps.

Whatever happens on Sunday, I am going to remain positive about it. I know that I can train better and eat better and be in a better frame of mind leading up to a 10K. I'll just have to try my hardest to move the bar higher for the next time. And if that doesn't happen, then I'll have another chance to beat my 10K time soon enough.

One other thing...

I wanted to re-print my Mission Inn Run experience from 2008. I've come a long way both in my running and my blog since then. To wit: I had no comments on this original post!

**Re-printed from Nov. 9, 2008**

Sunday was going to be a good day no matter what. I felt as much when I got up this morning. It was going to be good for several reasons:

- The Mission Inn Run was today and I was going to participate in it.
- The race would cap off a year that saw me run in three races, and actually I ran those in a span of six months.
- It would also mark the end of my running... for now. By no means am I stopping but I need a break from running.

I was running the race with my two younger brothers, Danny (27) and Jesse (19). The older one of the two is an experienced runner, and all-around athlete, while the younger is in his running infancy. So I had others to help keep me company.

We got there early, pre-registered and made our way around the beginning of the route. My wife and girls were there too from the start and helped cheer me on.

At 8:30, we stood on the start line with a daunting six miles standing between myself and personal glory.

Gee, that seems really long right about now.

The horn sounded off and hundreds of shoes hit the street. I was near the front at the start but I settled well back of the leaders. If there was anyone to avoid in helping me keep pace, it was the speed burners up front. I wanted to save some of my energy for the end.

We ran down the main street of the race and made our way toward a park on the edge of the city. The scenery was actually things we'd see again as the 10K route called for us to run the 5K route twice. Near the end of the street, we sloped downhill and ran into a path that cut through the park.

It was pretty even terrain at that point and I guessed we were at around the mile mark.

See? Just five miles more.

I hadn't been in the best conditions during the week to train so I did not enter the race with much confidence. I knew I could finish it but I was worried I'd struggle. But early on, there were no negative effects from my setbacks this week.


The path was actually quite scenic. It took us near the edge of the lake and several people were there fishing.

I wish I would have gone fishing instead.

I looked far ahead to see if I could make out the curvature of the path and sure enough I saw dozens of runners around the bend and through the trees. Pretty soon, we were running around the last vestiges of the lake and the park in general as a neighborhood - and cups of water - awaited us.

Wait. Is that an uphill run?

Sure enough, the water was a small positive to what was a major negative. A hill greeted us. Now, it wasn't a very steep hill. But I feared that in my less-than-stellar condition I would have problems with the hill. Still, I tried to keep my pace and did well to reach the top. A bend followed and we were headed down toward the main street, which is actually Market Street.

I made a right on Market and saw other runners headed toward me. We had to run about three blocks to the turnaround point before starting the second portion of the run.

Okay, you did the first half fine. Just do that again and you'll be good.

Still, I didn't feel good. I felt just okay. My heart rate had straddled the 180s for most of the second part of the run up to that point and that only meant it was going to climb for the remainder of the race. For me, 180 is manageable but the closer I get to 185 the more I have to conserve my strength. I'd love to run between 170-180 but I was past the point of keeping it in the 170s unless I wanted to slow down.

No slowing down. I've got to finish this as quick as possible.

I went back down Market towards Fairmount Park. There weren't as many people as there had been the first time I ran that way but there were still quite a few runners around me. I got back into the park, ran back the same path and was prepared to see the lake once again when I ran past a sign that said Mile 4.

"32 minutes and 32 seconds," a voice shouted as I ran by. That was encouraging. If I'd already ran four miles, that meant I only had two to go.

Actually, 2.2.

And the time was also encouraging. Four miles in 32 minutes was a good pace for me.

Wait a minute. Did the sign mean I had already ran four miles or that I was starting my fourth mile? Big difference.

For the sake of my confidence and my mental state, I decided that I'd ran four miles already. Besides, if that was the three-mile mark, that wouldn't have made much sense for the 5K.

Buoyed by a surge of confidence, I tried to pick up my pace. I had been going to a rather easy pace, perhaps a bit slower than I could have ran otherwise but now was the time to move quicker. My legs responded though at first extending my legs further was a bit more difficult than I'd anticipated.

Finally, the park was at an end. The water station awaited, as did the hill. But I felt strong.

Time to make a move.

A group of runners slowed on the hill. I glanced at my watch and saw 184. I had some in reserve and I wanted to use it. I took some large strides up the hill and passed by several people. When the street flattened out, so too did my pace. My watch now read 191.

You've gotta slow down.

I nearly used up most of my reserves and I still had - what a mile? - left before the finish. I slowed but even if I hadn't my body would have forced me to. My heart rate was still in the high 180s and I felt it.

Up came Market Street and the final stretch run. I wanted to wait until I was close enough to the finish to use up the rest of my reserves. In the distance I saw my wife and girls cheering me on. That, coupled with the the motivating messages I'd received from some friends earlier in the morning, helped me get through the finale.

I sprinted. I had just one block left and I wanted to run hard and finish hard. I was so focused on the finish line and finishing strong that I failed to notice the big clock situated near the finish line.

Come on! One last push!

And with that, I crossed the line. I had nothing left in me. Every muscle in my leg was wide awake and yelling, probably swear words, at me. My left foot throbbed and my hamstrings felt like they were a good lunge from ripping off the bone. I wanted to sit but more than that I wanted to walk. I needed to cool down and get a semblance of my former self back. Danny had finished about three minutes before me while Jesse ran about a minute behind me, maybe less.

When I finally met up with my wife and girls, she asked me how I felt and I filled her in on my aching muscles. She then asked me if I was glad I'd run the race.

Hell yes.

****

Friday Leftovers (Nov. 6)

Another edition of my weekly leftovers.

Word Association

Remember to play along here.

1. Hairbrush :: Where?
2. Sneak :: attack
3. Hole :: head
4. Horror :: show
5. Standard :: equation
6. Mailbox :: letters
7. Attachment :: PDF
8. Type :: writer
9. Nails :: hammer
10. Storage :: shed

Notes: Hairbrush and Where? are in reference to The Hairbrush Song by the Veggie Tales. I don't watch that show and never really have but that song is played on the children's music channel on Sirius and Kennedy is especially fond of it. It's a pretty funny song. And has anyone under the age of 30 ever used a typewriter? I'm pretty sure you could ask some random high school students about a typewriter and they'd probably never even heard of or seen one. Yeah, aging myself here...

Dad Update

My dad's in the hospital and will remain there for several days as they run some tests. We're still not sure what he's got but the consensus seems to be some sort of aspriation pneumonia. But it appears as if it's mild if that's what it is and he seems like he always does, save for a little shortness of breath. Some tests Friday morning could determine the extent of the illness.

Mud Run Dates

I'm going to post about this in much greater detail but Camp Pendleton Races announced their calendar for 2010. The Camp Pendleton Mud Run 2010 dates are June 5, 6 and 12. We may go for the 5th. There's usually another one in October but that one's not up yet. We might go for that too (we meaning the usual crew that I've run the last two with).

LB's Song of the Week

My weekly nod to children's music...

You are either going to like this or really dislike it. There seems to be no in-between. Three of us here like it and one of us really dislikes it, Mrs. LB being the lone dissenting vote.

It's a song called Highway 40 by Brak. I'm not sure what Brak's history is or what show he's on - well, I did some research and found out he was on a show called Space Ghost back in the day, like, back before my day, in the late 60s - but still I'm not familiar with him.

But I heard this song on Sirius 116, the kid's music channel, and immediately thought it was great. The girls and I love to sing the song together.

Father's Fight

Back in the day, my dad was a rock of strength, an example of what work ethic looks like. He knew only one way to conduct himself at work, and that's full tilt.

From about 1980 to 1997 or so, he worked as a dairy hand. He would spend all day herding dairy cows around, hooking them up to machines and cleaning after them. It was rough work and long hours. He'd work from 9 a.m. to the early afternoon, then go back in at 9 p.m. and work until the wee hours of the morning. And he did that for many years, hardly taking any vacation time, working six days a week, working Christmas, New Year's, Thanksgiving, everything.

Nowadays, my dad is fighting a debilitating disease. He's not a rock any more.

In 2005, he was diagnosed with Progressive Supranuclear Palsy. I'm blogging about it for a couple of reasons, mostly to bring awareness to his horrible disease. Progressive Supranuclear Palsy, or PSP for short, is along the lines of Parkinson's Disease. It's a neurological disorder that is fairly rare, affecting about 5-6 people out of every 100,000.

According to CurePSP.org, these are some of the major symptoms of the disease:

> Loss of balance.
> Changes in personality such as a loss of interest in ordinary pleasurable activities or increased irritability.
> Weakness of eye movements, especially in the downward direction.
> Weakened movements of the mouth, tongue and throat.
> Slurred speech.
> Difficulty swallowing.

That pretty much describes my dad. He's confined to a wheelchair because his balance is gone. He started to lose his ability to speak a couple of years ago and, well, the last conversation I had with him was awhile ago, and I didn't know at the time that it would be my last real conversation with my father.

It's been tough watching him go from a strong middle-aged man to how he is now, in a wheelchair, not talking, unfixed gaze, but we all know the same toughness that helped him support a wife and four boys is still there.

Still, there is no cure for PSP and the outlook for PSP sufferers is pretty grim, so we're trying to enjoy my dad while he's still with us.

Now, I'm not one to ask "Why me?" and things like that. I've always believed things happen for a reason. My parents have never been that kind either, to question their lot in life. We were dirt poor growing up but my mom has never received a cent from welfare, never applied for any financial assistance when she could have qualified for it.

But I do think something is quite unfair about this whole situation. My parents were both born in Mexico and came to the United States in the early 1970s, to provide a better life for their future children. They struggled a lot, but were able to raise four boys, became citizens, were always productive members of society, paid taxes and worked hard at everything. In the late 90s, my dad was laid off and we all got together as a family to figure out what he could do. We came up with truck driving, a respectable profession that pays well but can be tough and challenging.

He got into truck driving and found work as a long-distance truck driver. He'd drive all over the country, going from Southern California to Florida to Delaware to Pennsylvania to Utah. He was always calling us from places I'd never dreamed he'd visit - Alabama, Tennessee, Ohio. And he'd worked so long and so hard before that this was a great change of pace for him.

And my parents were doing well financially, well enough that they bought a house in their hometown, hoping and expecting to spend a lot of time between Southern California and Mexico. They had their own trucking corps briefly, had drivers who worked for them, and things were going well.

But instead of enjoying their time and relishing in the rewards for years of sacrifice, my mom and dad now have to deal with this bullshit. It just doesn't add up.

But we all play the hand we've been dealt, and my parents fight PSP every day. It's a challenge mentally, physically and emotionally, but they aren't backing down. My mom keeps the faith in a cure, as do we. Until then, we all enjoy the time we have with him in our lives.

This is him with his in-laws - my mom and seven of her brothers and sisters - at his 60th birthday party earlier this summer.

My brother Danny and his wife are hoping to take my mom and dad to Hawaii. It's a place he's always wanted to visit, and was a bit out of his trucking route :) They will get to spend about 10 days out there, and my parents can take a real vacation for the first time in quite a long time, if everything goes as planned.

Unfortunately, my dad was taken to the hospital on Wednesday with pneumonia. We don't know much more than that and hopefully we will get some positive news and hopefully he can take that trip to Hawaii.

If everything goes well, I might have the chance to spend some vacation time with my parents next spring. We've talked about a cruise, and I think it would be great to take my mom and dad to Alaska. I'm not sure my mom is that thrilled about it but I think it would be great for my dad to see Alaska and to get away from things once more.

We'd decided against traveling a while back because of the potential difficulties of traveling for my dad but this story here made me think twice. And it's great that Danny and his wife are in a position to be able to take my parents on vacation as they're footing 100 percent of the costs.

Since I live real close to my parents, about five miles away, I try and take my girls over often. It makes me happy when my girls are with their grandparents. Since both sets of my grandparents lived in Mexico when I was growing up, I never got to spend a lot of time with either of them growing up. But I want things to be different with my own children and their grandparents, so I do what I can. They love their Papa, but they only know him as he is now, not the pillar of strength he was when I was younger. Still, they enjoy seeing him and I know they bring joy to his life as well.

While this disease is vicious and unrelenting, that doesn't mean it will break any of our spirits.

Pie In My Sky

I have goals. At least I like to think I do. My idea of goals may vary from another's, but I do have goals.

My goals right now are twofold: 1) set a PR at the Mission Inn Run on Sunday and 2) finish the Surf City 2010 Marathon in February.

There are a lot of little goals that make up those two bigger goals so I guess if I broke it down there would be plenty of goals along the way to meet, and when those runs come up I do consider them goals. I mean, we do have a 20-miler sometime in January which I'm sure will be a big goal when it comes up.

But there are other things I want to accomplish that I'm not sure I'd call goals. Dreams? Maybe. Impossible? Pie in the sky? Quite possibly, but you never know what you are capable of until you set your sights on something and challenge yourself. I wrote once about how when I first talked to my personal trainer (weighing in at 308 pounds) and he asked me what my goal was, that I told him the most pie-in-the-sky thing I could think of, I said to have a one in front of my weight, to weigh 199.

It seemed ridiculous to have a huge guy who wore size 44 pants and XXL shirts to talk about weighing 199, but that's what I said.

Twenty months later, of course, I reached that figure.

Now, this isn't quite the same thing but to me these goals/dreams/pies seem unreachable. And I'm not sure why I want to achieve them.

Pie 1) Run a 10K in 49:59 or faster.
Pie 2) Run a Half Marathon in 1:59:59 or faster.

I would add a 5K goal but I do think I can beat my PR of 25:05 since I've only run one 5K before. And I don't think there's any way I can run a 5K in less than 20 minutes so I won't even bother with that one. And I'm sure that I'll have plenty of time to think about a marathon time and PR after I run my first, because finishing that will be a chore in and of itself.

If you've read my blog for awhile, you know that speed isn't important to me. I'm not exactly competing against the other runners during races. I'm not going to place anywhere near the top of my age group in any particular race unless I'm the only one in it. I'm not going to set any new course records anywhere. I'm slow. But that's fine. I understand I'm slow. I try to speed up but no matter how fast I get, I'm never going to compete for a 10K race title. But I don't care.

What I do care about, though, is competing against myself. I like to think that I'm a stronger, better, more informed runner now than I was in June, and that in June I was stronger/better/more informed than I was in March, and so on, and so on. Times that I set in the past, then, should be times I can beat in the present.

Finishing a 10K in under 50 minutes would be nothing for many experienced runners, but such a speed is not a reality I enjoy. Finishing in under 50 minutes means running 8-minute miles. That's a pretty fast clip. I can probably hold that pace for about three miles, maybe four. But I've only ran it for that long of a time. I've not tried to run that pace for longer than 3-4 miles so I don't know if that's something I can do or something that will drain me quickly once I get a certain distance.

Finishing a 21K (half marathon) in under two hours would mean running at a pace of 9:11-minutes-per-mile, which is a pretty solid pace. I can run that no problem for six or seven miles, but 13?

It's funny though because I think I have a better chance of running a half under two hours than running a 10K in under 50 minutes, even though I'd have to shave off almost 15 minutes from my half time as opposed to about three from my 10K time.

Still, even though I want to set new PRs and reach my goals, I'll try and not be disappointed if I fail to accomplish them. After all, if I take care of myself and get in the sufficient amount of training before a race, the outcome will be positive even if I don't set a new PR.

Stick It To LB

Over at All Recipes, I have a blog as well. I really don't use it that much. I kinda started to at the beginning of the year but I've written all of one thing there since early September. I guess since I started to write more about things like cooking and family here on Muddy Runner, there wasn't really a necessity to blog over there about things like that.

But I revived that blog, for at least one post anyway. And it has caused a little bit of a stir.

Here's the link to that post.

As much as I was tempted to do it over there, I'll explain here why I chose to blog about that and some of the fallout from that post.

Now, it's not exactly a hot-button topic. I wrote about cumin. Yeah, the spice. I like the spice although it doesn't smell that great (I believe Raoulysgirl described it as armpit stench once, and that's not stretching it in the least). Well, the post wasn't about the spice itself per se but rather the pronunciation of it.

It sorta bugs me when I hear it pronounced koo-min, as in it rhymes with Newman. It's just like a pet peeve I guess. It doesn't exactly boil my blood when I hear it pronounced koo-min, just bugs me. I pronounce it kyoo-min. I felt like I needed to express my reasons why I pronounce it kyoo-min instead of koo-min, convince others that I at least have a basis of why I feel this way and maybe try and make people laugh or at least think. So I blogged about it. It was meant to have a lighthearted tone, not really meant to have any malice. I wasn't exactly advocating anything really, just a pet peeve and a reason why I feel that way.

But some people were quick to try and tell me why I was wrong or to question my reasoning. None of the negative comments really bothered me - I've heard much, much worse said about me, believe me. It's just funny what will draw the ire and venom from some people, as if questioning a random blogger's intelligence will make them feel better or something.

Most of the comments, though, were positive so not everyone was riled up about it I suppose. My favorite comment was probably by the user AZ, who was quite intelligent in her response about the background of cumin.

I mean, it's just kyoo-min, for eff's sake.

Longest Run Ever (Again)

In case you haven't noticed, I changed the picture on my blog, from the half-marathon finish to the Ragnar Relay. I was going to change the whole blog and do a bit of a makeover but instead opted for changing the pictures up. I'm a bit of a restless person sometimes so I don't expect to make it to 2010 with this same look. It's just tough finding blog templates, and I'm not sure that I'd be up for a "Cutest Blog on the Block" look. Call me crazy but that's just not me.

Anyway, that's not the purpose of this post. I just rambled a bit there. Ahem. I'd wanted to blog about Sunday's run, officially my longest-run ever. I ran a whopping 15 miles on Sunday morning, besting my previous long run by a mile (about .72 of a mile, to be precise) and I couldn't not blog about it.

As I've mentioned, Yvie was pretty sick on Saturday night and that made for a restless night of sleep for all of us. Plus with the time change, it made for an early morning. I'm talking 4:30 a.m. early. Usually I'm fighting for every minute of sleep since I work most Saturday nights from March through October, but this Saturday I didn't have to work so I was home and managed to get to bed a decent hour (about 11 or midnight or so, decent since most Saturdays I'm burning the 1 a.m. oil).

I woke up at 4:20-something and knew that it would be pointless to stay in bed. I didn't get my stuff ready right away though so by 5:30 or so I'm starting to get my things together and then everyone woke up, Yvie was coughing, I was wavering on whether I should go running at all and before I knew it, it was 6 a.m. and I didn't have everything together. I usually try and leave by six so I can relax on my drive to the Lopers meeting, which starts at 6:30 with the runs starting at 7. And one thing about me, I absolutely hate feeling rushed. Hate it. So of course I feel rushed and I'm trying to get everything I need. I left the house a little later than I would have liked but left. Mrs. LB said she could take care of Yvie if need be, and need needed be... or something.

Anyway, in my haste to get my stuff together I neglected to find some of my running underwear so I just wore whatever I had on hand. Bad mistake, which I'll get to later. I didn't check in the proper place because I has harried. It was just precursor for how parts of the run would go.

We started off just like any other run and I felt pretty good in the early parts. Mile 5, 6 and 7 came and went and I felt good, felt strong. Oh yeah, I only had one packet of Gu so I decided that I'd save it until Mile 9 or 10. That was just another challenge I threw myself.

When we got to about mile 7 or so, right before the turnaround point, there was a water station which had some cookies. I grabbed a cookie and figured it would serve as a Gu substitute. Not sure if it actually did but psychologically it worked. Now, this 2-mile stretch or so was on a windy, narrow two-lane road. It was a bit harrowing at times because some cars flew down the road and weren't slowing down much for us. I was glad to get off the road, at about mile 9 or so.

Now, usually I'm pretty exact with my distances. It's not that I don't remember them - I just never saw them. At about mile four-and-something, The Garmin gave out on me. Actually, the batteries in The Garmin weren't up for a 15-miler apparently, so I took it off my wrist and jimmied it on my hydration belt. It really didn't bother me too much.

What did bother me was not knowing my exact mileage. Knowing the course helped because I kind of knew where I was but still I like to see what mile I'm at when I'm running.

At about Mile 12 or 13, I started to really feel the run. I think I might try some different socks. I splurged and bought a nine-dollar pair of socks, and they're great because I can barely feel them. But therein lies the problem. I think they would work best for shorter runs, maybe for like the 10K when I need to run faster. But for long distance runs, I think I need the extra cushion and padding on my feet because my feet took a beating during this run.

And it was at about this time that my poor choice of underwear kicked in. See, my running underwear does wonders because it keeps things in their place, and keeps things from grinding against each other, namely my thighs. So my thighs were rubbing against one another, and while this was a much bigger problem when I was heavy, it still persists. Since I had on normal underwear and not running/workout underwear, my thighs were chaffing. So at the final water stop, I slathered vaseline all over the insides of my thighs and it was akin to jumping into a swimming pool on a hot summer afternoon.

One of the few things that went right during my run was my undershirt. For the first time, I wore an undershirt while running. It was a shirt I'd had for a while, a shirt that really sticks very closely to my torso. I didn't tape the nips, nor did I use any lubricant or anything. And towards the last few miles I kept expecting to feel something but I felt nothing. This was probably the greatest part of the run.

Now, at the beginning of the run, we'd set out with a sizable group but some left early as they were running 8 and others hung around until the midway point, then broke off to run 11 miles. Not sure what happened to the rest but when we were heading down the last three miles or so, there was only six of us. While it was motivating to run with the other five of us - including our pace leader who said he'd hiked 25 miles the day before - it was a bit disconcerting to know that so many of the 11-minute-per-mile pace group had not reached the last stage together.

I tried not to let the mental part of the run ruin it for me. We were close, very close and if only The Garmin had worked, I'd be able to...

I heard music. Soft music, far away. Except it wasn't far away. It was coming from my waist. No, there wasn't a party in my pants, but rather a phone in my fuel belt pocket. It was Mrs. LB, telling me that she was going to take Yvie to urgent care. I was close now, about .25 miles from the finish, and I was able to huff and puff myself to a few sentences. I wasn't quite worried about Yvie but relieved that she was going to go to the doctor's.

The group had whittled down to four by now and then when we turned down the last and final part, one of the other first-timers took off and I chased after her. I wanted to finish strong but I know I didn't look as good and as strong as she looked. Still, it was great to have finished running strong and to know that I could have gone on if I had needed to. Oh yeah, I had a good 20 steps left in me, 30 maybe.

After the run, I did something I don't normally do. I collapsed. In the grass near where we start. I was so tired.

One of the final four had a working Garmin and said we'd run 15.04 miles in all. I believe it took us about 2 hours 30-40 minutes. We finished at a 10:54-per-minute pace, I believe is what he said.

I felt good after my initial collapse. I just needed to get off my feet for a moment is all. I didn't feel any lingering effects save for my eyes. My eyes were red and dry after last week's run and after Sunday's run as well but I don't believe it was lack of fluids that caused it. I had Lasik a few years ago so that might contribute to it. I think I'll carry some eye drops with me for future runs of 13 miles or more.

Our training schedule has us hitting 15 miles a few more times before Feb. 7 and the marathon, so hopefully my next 15-miler (slated for Nov. 15) will not be so frenzied as this one.

Motivational Mondays (Nov. 2)

This is my motivation today: Get thee well.

Yvie made it to the doctor on Sunday morning and doc suggested keeping her home from school today. So, here we are, the three of us at home.

She's in good spirits and had asked me twice by 7 a.m. if she was going to be able to go to school on Tuesday. This child loves school, which is great. She loves everything about school and she's excelling in her brief time as a first-grader. Her teacher recently sent home a "Midquarter Progress Report" in which she said Yvie was "clearly advanced in language arts," that "her behavior is exemplary" and that she is "wonderful all around! :)"

Yvie's in a Dual Immerson Program (I've mentioned this before but the newer readers may not be up to speed) and she is a strong reader in both English and Spanish. It's funny because she's never been formally taught how to read in English but can read chapter books in English already, books like the Junie B. Jones series and last week was able to check out Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing - able to because the librarian asked her to read some of it in order for Yvie to check it out since it's not a first-grade level book.

I think the reason why she does well in reading and language arts, well, one of the reasons, is that we read to Yvie since before she was born. We used to read books to her when she was a fetus :D And then when she was a newborn, we used to read books to her while she just laid in bed. I remember being excited over reading her books and trying to find new books to read and things.

I guess that enthusiasm has carried over as Yvie is a voracious reader.

Anyway, today's all about getting her healthy so we can get her back to school because as much as she likes being here, school is her number one obsession.

By the way, in the picture above I tried the side pony. I'm branching out with my hairstyles. I can do a pony, braid, pigtails and now the side pony. Watch out world.

Dress-up

Halloween came and went, and while we had fun the girls' coughs made things difficult for them. Yvie got to see a doctor on Sunday and turns out she has an ear infection. The doctor have her some more meds for that but also some cough syrup that hopefully will help her recover. Doc also said no school on Monday.

Anyway, Mrs. LB took the girls out trick-or-treating on Saturday and Yvie apparently was coughing at a lot of the houses they visited, and they weren't even out very long. They got some candy but not a whole lot, which is fine for us since we are kind of stingy to giving them too much candy.

Anyway, here's what we looked like before the excursion:

The Feathery Witch (Yvie), Capt. LB (yours truly) and Jasmine (Kennedy). I went and tried to find some clothes at a local thrift store to try and pirate myself up but had no luck. I'm not very creative I guess. Oh well. At least I had some cool-looking hair.

Arrrr! Kennedy had her precious jaguar doll with her, which she refers to Baby Jaguar, of Diego fame.

Check out the cool eye makeup. Mrs. LB's artwork. What do you think?

All in all a good evening save for the coughing :)

Then, I went on a 15-mile run on Sunday morning. Welcome to November!

Coughing Fits

I wrote up a post for Halloween and set it to post here at midnight or thereabouts but I'm here now to post something in real time, or something.

Yvie's not been feeling well of late but she just had a major coughing fit. About 10 days ago, she had several of these in about a 24-hour period. They're severe enough that she wakes up from a deep sleep, and some have even led to her throwing up. Like the one she just had. I walked into her bedroom and she'd been in bed for about an hour but coughed herself awake and was crying, telling me "I don't want to cough anymore" before the coughing got worse.

We'd been treating it with Triaminic but it didn't really clear anything up. We took her to the doctor about a week later after she got a fever because up until then it was just cough. She didn't have the flu but the doctor said she had some sort of bacterial infection and prescribed her prednisolone and albuterol.

Nothing seems to be working, as she's been taking those for four days now and the coughing is as bad tonight as it's been.

Anyway, have any of you had any experience with this sort of thing, either personally or with your own children?

Halloween Time, Finally

It's Halloween, like you needed a reminder.

Well, actually if you don't have little ones you might. But I do remember having to run out and get candy every year around this time, usually on Oct. 30, to prepare for the 31st.

Anyway, I'm going to take you back here a couple of years with some pictures and a video, plus I have a bonus video at the end that I think you'll enjoy.

First, here's Halloween from 2007:

That is probably one of my favorite pictures, probably ever. It was one of the first times that I thought I didn't look half bad in a picture. This was at the tail end of my weight loss journey and I felt so great in that vest. I'll have to post a picture of me wearing a similar outfit just four years before that. Yowzer!

Anyway, that year the girls were a princess and a dog. In 2008 they were...

Rosetta and Cinderella. Quick pixie lesson: Rosetta is a fairy, like Tinkerbell. Rosetta and Tinkerbell both live in Pixie Hollow, and live there with several other fairies. Yvie took an instant liking to Rosetta. She's even met her.

And this is in Pixie Hollow to boot.

This year the girls are a witch and Jasmine. You'll have to wait for pics - we hope the girls are up for some trick-or-treating tonight. Before they started to get sick, we visited a pumpkin patch.

Can you believe I just noticed right now as I was posting the picture on here that Kennedy's shirt said something? I'm not the most observant dad, apparently. I hope to have some pictures of their costumes up soon, but we'll see how the day plays out.

Anyway, on the videos. I'm not sure if I've posted this video on here before or not - I don't think I have. But it's a Halloween video from a couple of years ago, 2007 to be precise. The girls are much younger then of course. We had a can of Candy Corn Soda which a friend of mine had given me so instead of just trying it out, we decided to have a little taste test on video.

So we took shots of Candy Corn Soda.



Well, this last video is not mine but it creeped me out. Anyway, if you watch it, you will get scared so don't do something dumb and have your young child next to you while you watch this because then she might start to instantly cry as you fumble for the mute button in a futile attempt to ease the pain... sorry, Kenna.

Again, you will get scared, so don't say I didn't warn you. But you have to watch it. You just have to.

Friday Leftovers (Oct. 30)

To kick off this Friday Leftovers edition, thanks for expressing your concern over the girls' well-being. They're both doing better and improving. Hopefully Yvie does well at school today. I ended up volunteering for a couple of hours but at about 1:30 or so I had to go pick her up because she wasn't feeling well. But she was doing well in the late afternoon and evening.

Anyway, here's the rest of today's blog.

Word Association

This week's WA. Remember to go here to play along.

1. Redskins :: Chiefs
2. Show :: boat
3. Smoker :: drinker
4. Bad movie :: worthless
5. Play :: station
6. Jaguar :: prestige
7. Click :: pic
8. Production :: company
9. Sand :: beach
10. Foreign :: oil

Notes: No movie popped into my mind for number four, although if I had to choose a bad movie I'd seen recently, I think it would be the recent Lifetime movie Mrs. LB watched where a scorned woman sought revenge on her husband... wait, those Lifetime movies are all like that, arent' they? Ugh, not sure about the Jaguar one, as I don't necessarily think a Jaguar is the end-all be-all of prestigious things. I've no desire to drive one. I think it's because it was capitalized that I went for the car instead of the animal or the NFL team. And number seven is for Diego of Nickelodeon fame. "Say Click, take a pic."

Pacific Northwest

I booked another business trip, but this one's going to be a lot shorter than the other ones. I'm heading to Seattle from Nov. 21-23 to cover a game, on Nov. 22. It should be exciting. It'll be my first trip to Seattle, actually to Washington state. I've been to Idaho but that's the closest I've been to Washington.

At first, I thought of a couple of things in terms of what to do. I won't actually have as much time to relax and stuff as I'll probably be busy Saturday from the time I get in until the evening and Sunday from about 3 p.m. on. But Sunday morning I should have some time to do whatever, so of course I'm thinking long run since I'm supposed to run 15-18 miles that day. The weather might be a concern but it would be great to knock out a run of that distance in Seattle.

I thought it might also be cool to run by the All Recipes offices, even if it probably will be closed. A bunch of my blog buddies and I "met" over on AR and it's a really awesome web site, so it'd be fun to run by it, even though it probably would look like a regular building for all I know. Still, it'd be nice to give a bit of a nod to AR as I really did get to know my way around the kitchen because of that site and the people on there.

However, the only thing about running outdoors in Seattle is that it rains a lot up there so I'm not sure if the weather will cooperate. If it does, I'm in. If not, well, I guess I'll have to hope my hotel has some sort of fitness center. No way I'm running 15 miles on a treadmill but I could crank out seven, eight miles or so on there and that'll have to do.

I don't think any of my blog buddies live up there in the Emerald City but if you do or are going to be there (not likely, but you never know) drop me a line and we can have some coffee or something. Yum, coffee in Seattle. I guess that should be a must-do for me as well.

Random Thoughts

I went to the doctor's office twice this week and on the second visit I noticed something. The TV playing cartoons had subtitles. I wondered, as Kennedy told me that she couldn't hear the TV, what good is it to have subtitles for cartoons. The children who were in there watching were all rather young, and I immediately wondered what the purpose was of having subtitles on that TV.

I made gluten-free cookies for the first time. I'd wanted to make some for Mrs. LB to take to work but one of the co-workers is allergic to gluten so I went and bought rice flour. The texture was different but they tasted okay. I made these. We'll see how well they go over.

LB's Song of the Week

My weekly nod to children's music. This week, it's a mainstream band that cut a children's album. I was never a big Barenaked Ladies fan (although like most guys I don't mind bare naked ladies). They had that one song back in the 90s, One Week, but that was overplayed right away and I never really cared for their other stuff.

But I heard this song and knew that their entire children's CD would be good. And it is. This is from Snack Time. It's funny how they could write an entire song about a pollywog and make it sound good, but their entire CD is like that. They sing songs about erasers, numbers, popcorn, the alphabet... and it's all quite clever.