Track Me Running the Chicago Marathon

One of the interesting features of this marathon is the ability to track people while they run. A lot of marathons do this now, and it really allows "fans" of people to watch their progress while they are running the race.

Because I'll have a chip on my shoe, there will be certain points throughout the race where I will cross scanners. If you signup, you can receive either emails or text messages charting my progress.

So whether or not you are in Chicago, you should be able to see where I'm at and maybe even my current pace.

I placed the link over there under "Various Links." However, you can also get to it by clicking here.

10 Days, 18 hours....

I was just on the Chicago Marathon's website and saw it change over to 10:18:59... that's just crazy to me! Talk about seeing the home stretch!

While running with Becky this week, she mentioned her nerves. She said that at times she's so excited it's almost here, and at other times she's freaking out. Oddly enough, I was kinda just listening to her going, "Yeah..." You know, in that typical Regan-fashion of "nodding" and "agreeing" but it's not really registering, so I'll just keep nodding and agreeing. (I've been accused of this all of my life)

Then last night, while having dinner with Chandra, she said, "You must be so pumped up but so nervous all at once! I can't even imagine!" Again, "Uh huh" and "Yeah" came out. I have "sort of" been thinking about it, but not really.

This morning, the wall hit me. Like a ton of bricks, I was driving to work and I just thought, "Holy Crap! I'm about to run 26.2 miles with 45,000 people in a city I've never run in and it's happening not this Sunday but the next!"

Amazing how one can start sweating on a cool Autumn morning...

Anyway, it's coming up and it's coming up fast. Not the vomit in my stomach (that I'm pushing back with all of my might!), but the incredible task that awaits me. A MARATHON!!! You know, people use that term throughout daily conversations: "It's not like you're running a marathon" or "I just came out of a marathon meeting." Well, we're about to RUN a marathon!

Am I ready? Hmmm... ask me that later on when/if I'm not freaking out!

Crazy Legs...

Do you ever have that feeling when you go to the gym where you're just itchin' to get started? That was me last night. I spoke with "Coach" yesterday and was informed that I only had to run 4 miles (not 5).

As soon as I could, I headed home and changed into the running gear. I made it to the gym and was on the treadmill by 6:15. Normally I start out with the speed set to 5.5 (10.57 mile) during the first mile. Then after each mile I increase it a little.

For some reason, I was just feeling it! Once I crossed over the first mile, I was ready to Rock N Roll - I not only increased the speed, but increased the elevation. I would run for three-tenths of a mile at an elevation of 3, then reduce it. But after I would catch my breath, I'd increase the speed... then start the entire cycle over again.

This went on for several miles. Entering the last mile, I had increased the speed to 6.0 (10 minute mile). However, I still felt I could go faster. Not only that, but I felt I could push harder with the incline. That became my ultimate mile - I had the incline set to 5.5, and I kept increasing the speed. It became insane!

When I finished up the last half of the mile, I was running a 6.5 speed (8.57 mile) with an incline of 6. Nuts! I was running like a crazy man... and even crazier, I still felt I could go faster!

I don't know what has gotten into me... maybe I'm just at a point where I'm like that Dixie Chick's song: I'm Ready To Run!

Bring on Chicago!!!!

Speed...

Yesterday's run was a significant drop-off from the previous week. We only had to run 12 compared with the 21 last Sunday. Not to sound cocky, but we were like, "We just have to run 12" as if it were no big deal. Isn't that strange?

I think in life you master something and it becomes something of an understatement. Like riding a bike... driving a car... etc. And with running, it's been one big "goal" after another. I remember back in January when I had a goal to run 3 miles the first week. That was HUGE for me. And of course, each "major" upgrade in the miles always was a burden to me throughout the year... 4, 5, 6, etc.

For me, this was the 3rd time I've run "just 12" this year. The first was in April when I was preparing to run the Nashville Half Marathon - geez, that seems like so long ago! I remember reaching the end of 12 and thinking, "Wow! I did it! I'm ready for the Half!"

Then, a few months ago, Becky and I had to run 12 one Sunday. I remember it well. In the end, I was gassed. It was so dang hot (we hadn't started our 5:30 AM runs yet) that morning and we ended it by trying to think of everything positive we've gained this year in running. "Eating anything we want... losing weight..." I also remember almost being rear-ended by a bicyclist right at the end of the 12.

Since that 12, our long runs consisted of a 13.1, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 14, and 21. After the 18 and the 21, I now know why we ramped down. The body is just WAY too sore after that kind of beating. Not only do your knees hurt, but your thigh muscles are screaming! This week in particular, my legs were pretty dang sore.

So we started our 12 at 6:30 AM - still dark, but almost sunrise. The humidity was a bit higher than the week before, so it was a wet one for me. I made Becky's day by running the spillway with her. Normally I walk it, but I gave in since it would be our last time to run that section of the lake before the marathon. It wasn't too bad, but I definitely had to walk afterwards.

As with our previous runs, our pace was moving along pretty good... and strong. We ran really fast at times. Typically I'd see us running just south of the 10-minute mark. Sometimes we even made it under the 9-minute mark! While that sounds good, I still had to rein her in and even had to force her to walk. I was just getting out of breath. Basically, we were running about a minute faster than we normally do and it was wearing me out.

After 9 we headed north again. This time I wanted to just run away from the crowds, so I told her to head towards Northwest Highway. Once we reached it at 10.70 miles, we turned around. I was getting hot and I was definitely ready to end this run. We finally finished at 2 hours 8 minutes. That comes out to an "average" pace of 10.43. That factors in the walks and stops for water... that's our fastest pace to date!

Anyway, I told Becky we can't keep that pace up. I'll sputter out... and knowing that we'll be running with 45,000 of our closest friends, I doubt we can reach that along the streets of Chicago. I think we can finish under 5 hours, and my hope is that we'll even surprise ourselves!

Now, with less than 2 weeks remaining, I want to continue to focus on gaining strength. I plan to run 5, 6, and 4 this week. I'd like to do at least 2 of those in the gym on the treadmill where I can ramp up the speed and the incline.

So while I don't want speed to be my focus DURING the marathon, I believe it can help me in the training aspect... and in the end, speed will make me stronger. (At least that's the thought this week)

Heck of a Week...

This week has been about "work." To say my stress level is high would be an understatement. It's funny... I thought that my running would not be interupted. Sure, the 21 miles was a big thing. And, going into the week, I knew it would be difficult.

Unfortunately, I haven't run since Sunday... sigh.

Have you ever had a day where everyone seemed to gripe at you? Well, that's been my week. That's kinda what my job is all about. To manage attitudes. Frustrating at times, but sometimes I have some really rewarding days. Not this week. I'm so stinkin' tired and I can't wait until the weekend. My plans? Sleep. Sleep a lot.

However, running will be involved. If my running partner is reading this (a.k.a "Coach"), my goal is to run Saturday and Sunday mornings. Just letting her know that while I did take the week off, it'll ramp back up this weekend.

Incidently, if you go to the Chicago Marathon website, they now have a "countdown" clock. Uugh. Today was 16 days until the marathon. Can you believe it? Let me say it with more effect: I started running January 2 in preparation for this marathon. I have 16 days until I have to run 26.2 miles!

For those wondering, I already have my time planned after the marathon. I'm taking the week off - returning from Chicago on Tuesday but going camping in the hill country of Texas Friday/Saturday/Sunday. I can't wait.

So for now, the clock is ticking. My only hope is that my weeks at work will be better, my running will be more productive, and on October 7th I'll have one heck of a day... in a POSITIVE way!

21 Miles Later...

Seriously... can you believe it? Twenty One freakin' miles!!!

I sit here tonight amazed. I was so nervous for the past two weeks knowing it was coming up... 21. I have tried to be so focused this week - monitoring my "intake" and "training." This past week, Coach (a.k.a Becky) told me we had to run certain miles on certain days. I was close to keeping that schedule. I ran 5 on Tuesday, 10 on Wednesday, and then 3 on Friday. Saturday was my "rest" day... although, I did work in the yard. Besides that, I spent the day drinking a lot of fluids and eating foods that would hopefully help me on the 21. I stretched a lot, too.

Seriously... 21! (Do you even fathom what it takes to run that amount of miles?)

So... I went to bed around 10 on Saturday night, and got up at 4:00 AM. I left the house and met Becky at 5:30. To say I was scared would be an understatement. I remember how bad the 18 miles was (read below), and I didn't have the greatest 14-mile run the previous week. Plus, I was yawning a lot. That was unusual.

We took off around the lake. I was shocked around mile 2 when I realized that my calves weren't screaming... normally they were pretty dang sore at that point. We ran at a pretty good clip... again, surprising. But, given the temperature was 68 degrees and the humidity was less than 50%, maybe that was to be expected.

One thing that caught us by surprise were the lack of runners. You'd have to witness this to understand it, but usually we see dozens of runners around 6:30 AM. However, we really didn't see a lot. Maybe the groups were doing their long runs on Saturday?

I felt pretty good running, and we kept our conversations up for the first 9 miles. At that point, we were back at the parking lot. After a quick change of my sweat band/head band, we headed around the lake again. Normally we haven't done this, but we really wanted to lap the lake twice.

I don't have many memories of the west side of the lake other than a water fountain that used to be broken but is now working. I walked the spillway again (Becky always runs it), but at the top I met her and we continued onward.

After the water fountain, I turned on my iPod. A few songs into it, "Too Legit to Quit" came on. Well, my pace increased dramatically. I played it twice, and I think I was surprising Becky at how I increased my pace. Ever the competitor, she increased hers.

Well, the talking stopped around that time as well. We were getting tired. My knees had been hurting since mile 6, but for the first time she mentioned hers were hurting. That's just a lot of pounding on the bones...

At 18 we were back at the parking lot again. So, we lapped the lake twice. I can't imagine how many people can say they have done that on foot. But, knock on wood, I wasn't feeling too bad. I was tired, but I wasn't dead. So, we had 3 miles left...

Now we had to dig deep. We decided to stay in the shade as much as we could. Remember this: If you ever run early in the morning and don't want to be exposed to a lot of the heat, park on the east side of the lake... Big Thicket! There are so many trees that block the sun... so that was the plan. We ran and ran and ran in the shade.

We realized that Becky's GPS was about 1/4 mile further along than mine. I thought, "Great! We'll finish earlier!" Well, as we were running I kept thinking, "It's about to end! Woo Hoo!" As I was thinking about that, a guy ran alongside us. Somehow he heard Becky say something like we were almost finished. He asked how far we had to run, and where we were. When Becky told him 21 miles and we were 20.75, he looked at us and said, "That's fanstatic! Ya'll look great." Of course, I'm lagging behind... he looks at me and I think he wanted to take that sentence back! Hahahahaha

Anyway, back to the run. We made a turn and I started asking Becky, "How much further?" She was quiet. I said it louder, "Hey... how much further?" She then said that we were over 21 on hers but she wanted to stick with mine.

GRRRRRR....

I said, "Ok... it's official. I hate you." I then told her the audience has spoken, and she's been voted off. Geez Louise! I wanted that to be over, and she's over their laughing... and running along. To Becky, she was enjoying it. To me, I was thinking, "Where is my water???"

Well, we ran a little further and finally made 21 on my GPS. On hers, it was 21.26. We finished at 3 hours 52 minutes. If you're doing the math, our "average" pace was 11 minutes 3 seconds. Now, that's adding in walks and stops drinking water. Becky said there was one time we were sub-9 minutes at running, and a lot of times we were right around the 10 minute mark. So, that's awesome!

Anyway, 21 miles later and I spent a great day rejuvenating the body. I only dropped 8 lbs. during the run (normally it's closer to 15 lbs.), but I spent the day eating and drinking a lot of fluids. I slept for over 2 hours, too. I'm sore... but I feel awesome!

I ran 21 miles today! Chicago, here we come!

Too Legit To Quit!!!!

Ok, it was only 5 miles... or a little more than 5... but I finally got my groove back. I FINALLY had a great run!!!

As some of you have noticed (or commented), I have not been enjoying running these past few weeks. Honestly, I'm tired. My body has been doing this since January 2. I've got sore knees, sore muscles, and at times a sore back. The heat and humidity have been brutal, and it's becoming extremely difficult to get motivated.

But yesterday, I had a fantastic run! The first 2 miles were kinda tough. I was on the treadmill, too, but I wanted to see if I could work on a few things. I kept increasing my speed - starting from a 10.56 pace and speeding up to a 10 minute mile.

I then decided to increase the elevation... of course, that started once my iPod starting playing, "Too Legit to Quit" by MC Hammer. If you need a motivating song, that's it! Every 5 tenths of a mile, I'd increase the elevation. The sweat would be pouring off of me, but I'd press on. Why? Because I was too legit to quit!!!

My heart was pumping and I probably looked like a crazy fool, but I pressed on at brisk/elevated state. I ended up running almost 5.5 miles. The song lasted that long... good grief! But, I was feeling awesome! I then walked until I hit 6 for a cooldown.

Tonight I'm running 10 around the lake. I hope I haven't lost it... but I slept great last night and woke up in the best mood!

Props to my homey... Hammer!

Recap of Week...

So after the really really REALLY bad run of 18, my body was beaten down. I'm serious... the entire week was terrible. The legs were sore all week long, and it was rough on the mental front.

The first time I ran was Tuesday (from Saturday) and it was pretty tough. I only had 5, and the first 3 miles were very difficult. However, as always, things loosened up after the 3rd and I was able to get to 5.

I then took the next day off. You know that feeling you get after you've been to the gym and you've REALLY worked your legs? That's how I felt all week... and doing more leg-work was just a strain. So after the 5, I was having trouble walking. Basically, I ached. I ran Thursday night, though... did 7. It was ok... but it was also on the treadmill.

Friday I took the day off and rested up for the 14-mile on Saturday. I met Becky at Hillcrest/LBJ at 7:00 AM. We figured we'd run the White Rock Creek Trail. From LBJ to Northwest Highway, it's a "fairly flat" 7-mile run. Plus, we had heard that there are several water fountains. No problem, right?

Well, for me, the first 5 miles were ok. Not great, but fine. At 5 I took my 2nd water break at the tennis courts. We then continued south. Around mile 6 Becky realized there weren't anymore water fountains. Uuugh.

We turned around at Northwest Highway, and I changed my headband/wristband (I kept a dry pair in my pocket). I then put my music on because I was getting grumpy and I needed a bit more motivation.

The next 2 miles were so freakin' long - not because of the mileage, but because of the parchedness! Geez Louise we were thirsty! The temperature was in the mid-80s, and the humidity was in the 70s. So to go without water for 4 miles after running 5 is a LONG time.

That seemed to wear me out, but we made it to the water fountain back at the tennis courts. 2 miles later, I was looking for water again. We passed this park and I told Becky, "there's GOT to be a fountain here, right?" I felt like a man in the desert searching for a mirage. I kept thinking, "there's one!" Nope... I finally gave up and we ran another mile until we found one.

Anyway, it wasn't a great run. We both got winded a few times, and the heat was bearing down on us towards the end. Sitting on the bench afterwards, we both expressed it: "How in the heck are we going to make 21 miles next week?"

We just have to... that's all there is to it.

Worst... Run.... EVER!!!

As most of you know, #5 Michigan lost to Appalachian State University on Saturday 34-32. It was a huge upset. ASU is a school in Division I-AA. They went up to Ann Arbor, MI with only 40 something players to play in "The Big House." It's called that for a reason - 109,000 fans witnessed history! If you don't follow college football, that would be similar to a very good high school football team beating The Dallas Cowboys. Ok, maybe I'm stretching that a bit, but my point is this: It was not expected to happen.

If you're a Michigan player (or fan), you came into that game thinking "no big deal." Sure, it's a game... but it shouldn't be that difficult. When the game is over, we'll have won and we'll prepare for the next one. As I laid on my couch Saturday afternoon watching the thrilling end to this shocking game, I sympathized with the Wolverines (Michigan). Why? Not because I'm a big fan of Michigan. It's because I, too, was guilty of that same overconfidence earlier in the day.

My day began at 4:00 AM. I woke up to the darkness thinking, "Well... time to get up and get ready for 18 miles." I stretched at my house before I left, but I didn't have a lot of excitement. It was like I was going to work or something... not "I'm about to run 18 freakin' miles!!!" I casually thought that since I did so well the week before with 17, what's another mile? Believe me... that extra mile was something else and THEN SOME!

We started out from the Big Thicket. I knew something was amiss when we were just at 2 miles and we were dealing with a lot of cars on the road. Normally, when we've run before, the lake isn't that busy in the morning. I also didn't think it would be very busy on a holiday weekend.

At the 6 mile mark we started seeing troops of runners. I'm serious... there were these great big groups of 20-30 runners all running towards us. Behind them, the bikers. Behind them, the walkers.... and then you'd see another squad of 20 or so runners. Hence, that's why we had all of the traffic so early: Running Groups.

At 9 miles we were back at the Big Thicket. Instead of lapping the lake again, we thought it best to turn back towards the spillway. That way we could avoid the groups. Well, I was feeling mighty bad at that point. My knees were hurting, and the humidity was getting to me. But, I hung in there.

Around 12 we hit something unexpected: A Race. There was some sort of 10k or something going on, and there had to be 500+ people running it. We passed them before they took off in hopes of getting to the water fountain (about a quarter mile away) before they started. However, that didn't work. They took off and basically forced us into the grass. Miserable...

We then turned back towards the Big Thicket... it was getting hotter and the humidity was still bothering me. We hit the parking lot at 15 and I was gassed. I wanted to quit so bad. Probably the worst I've ever felt. However, I decided to not quit because Becky hadn't quit on me. You see, I'd say, "Go on... just leave me" and she'd always say, "Nope... we're finishing this together."

And you know what? She was having a fantastic run! It was a tale of opposites. The week before it was me having the good run and she was suffering. We commented on why we're always "off." Around 16 we saw an old man passed out on the side with heat exhaustion issues. Becky went and flagged down some cops (even though they were a little reluctant) to help him (there were also others with him).

Instead of crossing over the bridge to go back to the west side of White Rock, we just headed north. It was not only shadier, but we didn't have anyone to bother us. We ran and ran.... and ran up to Northwest Highway. At that point it was 17 and we turned back. When we finally got to 18 and she called it, I almost burst into tears. Words can't convey how unbelievably bad I felt.

So here I am... 3 days later. I STILL feel awful. I told Rob when I got home that morning I had dropped 15 lbs. of water weight. I slept for 2 hours that day and never left the house. My legs are still sore, and I can't believe I've got to run tonight... 5 miles!

Was I overconfident? Yes. Am I humbled by that? Absolutely. I will do much better from here on out. I'm not superman. I won't allow myself to get into that mindset anymore. I've run too far and too long to get to this point and make mistakes like that. And, more importantly, I'm too damn stubborn to quit... give up... send up the white flag. Nope, I'm in this to win. I'm in this to cross that finish line in Chicago! Mentally, I'm pissed/fired up!

Now if I'm thinking that way, do you think Michigan is thinking the same? Hmm... guess we'll see this weekend when they play Oregon... and I complete my 14.