The MS Runner

The San Antonio Marathon was this past weekend, and although I knew it was going to be a tough one because of the time I missed due to injury, I was hoping that I could still get through it.  It started out by getting to the shuttle bus area at around 5:45.  When Jason and I got there, we both were amazed at how many people were here.  But it was really worse than we thought!  The line wound around to the front of the building, then you came back towards the buses, then you turned and went away from the buses again, and then finally coming back to them.  It was like one of those lines at an amusement park or the security line at the airport.  I’m guessing that at that time there was around 6 or 7 thousand people there trying to get on the bus.  And more kept coming!

We finally got on a bus and headed out.  The ride was maybe 15 minutes long and then they dropped us off.  I’m looking around for the start, but I don’t see anything.  Mostly I see people going to the gas station to go to the bathroom.  There were luckily some other people that were walking along so we followed them.  And we walked, and we walked.  Where the hell is the start??!!  After maybe a half a mile, we see the start, and by this time it’s 7:15.  It was an hour and half from when we got to the shuttle area to the start.  So now I’m looking around for the food because they advertised that there would be bagels and banana’s at the start, and I hadn’t eaten anything that morning.  We get to the area where the tents are set up, and all we see is a table with raisins and apples.  That’s it?  We look around some more.  Nothing.  I’m doomed.  There’s no way I’m going to run a marathon with only raisins in my stomach.  We get in line for the bathrooms, and luckily that didn’t take very long and we make our way to our corral area. Where the port-a-lets are was at corral 30, and we had to make it to corral 7.  We are walking up there when the National Anthem starts and we end up at corral 9.

Once the race starts, I feel better about everything, and I feel good.  Hmmm….. maybe I can do a full marathon.  It’s funny how you think that after only running a half mile.  My plan was to run to the water stations and then walk for a minute.  So Jason and I are starting off together and his knee is doing good.  We do 9:45 the first mile (a little too fast, but not bad) and then we hit the water station near mile 2.  I get water and start walking, and Jason takes off.  I walk for a minute and then start running again.  After awhile I see Jason and I’m catching up to him.  This is not good.  I was doing around a 9:15 pace and I was catching up to him.  I catch him and ask how he’s doing and he says he doing all right, so we run together until the next water station where I get water and walk for a minute.  Jason keeps going so once I start running again , he is out of sight.

One thing that I forgot to mention, it’s 67 degrees at the start and 98% humidity.  Not ideal conditions to run in.  After 3 miles, I’m already wearing out.  Between the heat, humidity, and no food, this was not not pretty.  But I keep going on and the fact that there were so many people, it made it nice to run.  At around 6 miles, we pass by these houses and the people there were handing out Guinness beer.  So of course I had to drink one.  At mile 8 (or 9) we are going running in downtown San Antonio and going right by our hotel.  I had no clue that the race went this way.  Next thing I know Jason is raising his arms in celebration and I look over and there is Diane and Megan!  So seeing Diane gives me some instant energy and I feel good again, but it doesn’t last long.  I think it was less than a mile after that I hit the water station, and Jason goes on ahead.  My knee at this point is hurting a little bit, and I feel real sluggish.  After my minute walk, I start running again, and I see Jason up ahead and he is pulling off to the side.  I catch up to him and ask how he’s doing.  Yes I know, dumb question.  His knee is really hurting and he says he’s not going to make it.  I tell him that I don’t think I will either, but I’m not sure.  I leave him there in the ditch (I hope someone will help him out of there) and I head off.  But it wasn’t long before I got that feeling that I had to go to the bathroom.  This is the “dreaded” bathroom break and I can’t just go behind some tree.  I come up to a water station and there are 6 port-a-lets there.  One is open and I go in there.  No toilet paper.  I go into another one.  No toilet paper.  In fact, all 6 were out of toilet paper.  Not good.  At this point, it hurts my stomach to run.

The next thing I come up to is the break for the half marathon and the full.  If I go right, I do the full.  If I go left, I do the half.  I’m on the right side of the road and thinking that a miracle could happen and that I could still do the full.  I’m sure there’s a port-a-let up here soon, and there are plenty of water stations.  YOU CAN DO IT!  Luckily, I come to my senses and at the last second, I go left.  Thank goodness I listened to my brain and not my heart.  After a little bit, there are some port-a-lets and they have toilet paper!  Wahoo!

I finished the half and thanked myself for not attempting to do the full.  There will be more marathons (I hope) and this one I’ll be able to look back on and say that I did the right thing.  Jason and I will hook up again and we will finish one together.  Now if I could only get Michael to do one too…….

Wow.  It’s amazing to me that when I’m not running, I eat like a pig.  This past week was a “no running zone” week.  I decided not to run and see if my knee would heal up.  I finally headed out today, one week after my last run, and ran 14 miles.  So far so good.  The proof in the pudding will be tomorrow.  If my knee is going to explode again, it will happen tomorrow.  Right now it feels fine.  So I didn’t run all week, and I was starving.  I would eat breakfast and be hungry an hour later.  I would eat lunch and look around to see what else I could stuff in my face.  Luckily at dinner, I would eat and then drink 6 beers and not really be all that hungry.  Maybe I should be drinking beer all day?  I’m hoping my knee is going to be okay because I’m almost at the peak of my training.  Next Saturday I do 22 miles, and then 2 weeks after that, I do 24.  Eight weeks from now is the marathon and if I lose any more days because of my knee, it’s going to really set me back.  Blah, blah, blah.  Woe is me.

On a lighter note, my son Jason got engaged this weekend and it looks like the wedding will be next summer.  Mmmm….maybe I could work that around some marathon in North Carolina?

The Phoenix Rock and Roll marathon is now history and I would really like to do this one again when I’m better trained and ready.  The race was well organized and I thought that it come off as one of the better ones that I’ve been to.  One good thing is that the marathoners start earlier that the half marathoners and they also have waves.  Based on what you thought your finish time would be, that’s where you started.  That way the start is smooth and you’re not running down people that shouldn’t be be there.  I started off thinking that I have no expectations and whatever happens, happens.  I meant to try and run real slow out of the gate, but I ended up going a bit faster than I should have.  My 10K time was 9:20, and my half marathon time was 9:07.  Normally that would be where I would want to be, but being that my training was off, I knew that I couldn’t keep that up.  At mile 20, I was 3 hours and 3 minutes, which is a 9:15 pace.  I’m thinking, I can keep this up, I can do this!  Boy was I wrong.  One thing that was a factor was the heat.  To most people, they don’t mind 75 degrees and sunny.  To me, that’s way too hot and I started melting and knew that I was going to wilt.  I finished that last 6 miles in an hour and 10 minutes which means that I faded faster than Tyler Hick’s career.  Was it “hitting the wall” or just the fact that I hadn’t run 20 miles since last May?  I’m going with that and the weather.

All in all, I enjoyed the experience and I would do this race again.  For now, I’m going to take some time off and heal my knee, and try and figure out what my next marathon will be.

I think last weekend it was 75 degrees and sunny.  Today it’s 40 degrees and raining.  I’m not sure what the rest of the week will bring, but it’s crazy.  I’m sure it’s global warming and them damn Republicans.  In fact, I think I heard that it was Governor Palin who was shooting holes in the ozone with her shotgun.

I signed up today to do the Denver Marathon which is next weekend.  Since I’m still “recovering” from my knee injury, I’m doing the half marathon and doing this as a training run, and not a race.  The most I’ve run since June is 10 miles, so this should be a good test for my knee.  I hope that the weather is better this year.  Last year it was 34 degrees and raining.  I was miserable.

Then in 4 weeks is the Outer Banks Marathon, of which I’m doing the half with I think my 2 boys, Jason and Michael.  I hear that Michael may bow out because he hasn’t been training at all.  I think that he didn’t want to get beat by the old man.

Not to be missed is my daughter Kari’s wedding in 6 weeks in Sanibel Island, Florida.  That should be fun except for the part where my ex and her family will be there.  I plan on hiding out until it comes time to give Kari away.  Then when that’s done, I run into the gulf where I have a speed boat that is straight out of Miami Vice waiting for me.  I speed away as fast as I can and as far away as I can.  After that my plan is kind of fuzzy.  I’ll either end up in Mexico or Cuba.

I finally started running again this week.  My knee feels better and I did 15 miles altogether.   Today I did 6 miles and although it was a bit of a struggle, I pulled through.  My knee hurt in some spots during my run, but for the most part it was fine.  I’m pleased with the way things are progressing, and at this point, I think I can still got to North Carolina for the OBX Marathon, but I will only do the half.  My 2 boys were only going to do the half anyway, so this doesn’t work out too bad.  Maybe I’ll shoot for a later marathon such as the Rock in Roll Marathon in Arizona in January?