Posted in Uncategorized on February 29, 2012 by roninsherpa
Chrissie Wellington is the greatest triathlete on Earth. 13 times she has run an Iron distance triathlon, and 13 times she has won. On four separate occasions she has won the Ironman World Championship held in Kailua-Kona, Hawaii each year. She beat the standing speed for finishing time, a record which stood for fourteen years and she beat it time by more than 30 minutes. On a regular basis she finishes in front of professional male triathletes. This past year, Chrissie soundly won the Kona World Championship Ironman after a bike crash which would put most people out for months or years. She swam the 2.4 miles with a torn pictorial muscle, and the road rash scars she bore would make your skin crawl. Her determination and grit are unstoppable. Her dedication to her craft is a model of perfection.
How can you not want to read about this woman’s life?
Earlier this year Chrissie announced she would step away from Ironman for a bit, and this book is just one of the things she has on the slate. I was excited to read about Chrissie. I have viewed her as a hero for many years now, watching the Ironman coverage online and on NBC trying to catch a glimpse of her. As a triathlete, cyclist, runner and just as a person who tries to make himself better with each day, Chrissie’s accomplishments are awe inspiring. Each evening when I spend time on my bike in the trainer, I watch an Ironman DVD and in most of the modern ones, she is there motivating me.
I had to have this book.
Not to be released in the US until May, I called some friends in the UK and asked for a big favor… A few days later, and a few Euros in shipping, I now have a copy.
From her humble childhood, to University and wanting to become a lawyer, and from long distance cycling in Nepal to her first triathlon, this is the story of a girl who becomes a woman, and a woman who becomes a World Champion.
Chrissie’s story is one of success and failures, and learning how to deal with both. She remains one of my heroes and this book is one I will read again and again for inspiration.
Posted in Uncategorized on January 3, 2012 by roninsherpa
“…4, 3, 2, 1, main engine start, zero, and LIFT OFF of the Atlas V with ‘Curiosity.’ Seeking clues to the planitary puzzle about life on Mars.”
With that, the Atlas V Rocket lifted off and began its 8 month journey to Mars.
The Atlas V rocket carrying the new Mars Rover named ‘Curiosity,’ screamed into the heavens beginning its 8 month trek the red planet. It was a fitting start to the Space Coast Marathon weekend. My vantage point for the launch was the front gate of the Kennedy Space Center where the Health and Fitness Expo was taking place.
This was the 40th Space Coast Marathon, but my first time running it. I had visions of qualifying for the Boston Marathon, but I had a few complicating factors. Just one month ago I had run the Mount Lemmon Marathon in Tucson, AZ which is called “The Toughest Road Marathon in the World,” and I was still dealing with physical issues from it. I had suffered a nasty stress fracture in my left leg which had put a damper on my training, and my weight was up a few pounds. By “few” I mean 15. It is amazing that in 42 years I could not gain weight to save my life, but I quit running for a few weeks and gain 15 pounds with relative ease. Fuckin Domino’s pizza, right? But that’s another blog…
So I had doubts about achieving my High Goal of Boston. My Main Goal was to finish, and have fun doing it. As this was the 40th running of the event, special finishers medals had been made. Medals are the ‘bling’ of the marathoners world.
On this trip I wasn’t alone, My friend and business partner, Megan G flew in from Utah to run her first half marathon. She and I met trough the fitness world a few years back. Megs has been a source of great inspiration for me because of her personal growth and dedication. I have witnessed her change from a very quiet, introverted and painfully shy person unhappy with who was in her mirror into a someone very self aware and physically confident with herself. We have both had the great fortune to meet with Jillian Michaels, but Megan has worked with Chalene Johnson, creator of Turbo Jam and Turbo Fire and Tony Horton Creator of P90X, P90X2 and 10 Minute Trainer. Megs and I opened a branch of the fitness company called Beachbody. It produces some of the most popular home fitness programs in the world: Turbo Jam, Turbo Fire, P90X, Insanity, and now the most anticipated program to come along in years, P90X2. But this blog is not a sales pitch for those products, we are talking about running 26.2 and 13.1 miles. I had bet Megs that she couldn’t finish her first half marathon in under 2:30 and she had come to Florida to kick my ass.
The Expo had all kinds of product demos. From a self massaging rolling pin called “The Stick,” to sunglasses and jewelry. Brooks Shoes were a major sponsor of the event and their booth was massive. Megs and I both got cool Brooks jackets embroidered with the special 40th Space Coast Marathon logo. We hung out for a bit and then headed back to the Radisson to rest up.
Just a quick word about the Radisson at the Port: This is a lovely place. All inclusive, restaurant, pub, massive pool with a huge waterfall in the middle of it, and poolside live entertainment every night. There was even a great koi fish pond!
The Pasta Diner would bring us back to the Kennedy Space Center later that evening. From the front gate we marched over to the awaiting busses which took us out the Apollo/ Saturn V Complex. This complex is a celebration of mans journey into space and contains an actual Saturn V rocket and we ate our meal beneath it. The guest speaker was Kathrine Switzer: the first woman to ever complete the Boston Marathon. She told her harrowing tale of how the race director attacked her and tried to tear off her race number, but her boyfriend (a 260 pound Olympic hammer thrower) counter attacked the director and she was able to finish.
The story of the race into space, and Kathrine’s story of overcoming the odds both played well into the theme of running a marathon. There are endless obstacles to overcome to achieve the greatness of a Finish Line.
Both story lines tied well into the task of training endless hours, running in the rain, changing ones diet, time away from loved ones and everything else that goes into the prep work of running a marathon. You see the actual running of a marathon is the glory part, the icing on the cake. It has little to do with the work which has to take place in order to finish. Those endless hours running at 5:00am are the actual marathon. The event day is mainly the pomp and circumstance of your reward for doing the actual work.
Right. So 4:00am comes quickly and as per my normal marathon day routine I shower, dress and eat… oh crap. I forgot my normal eats of rice and eggs, so I wolfed down three chocolate energy bars. Hmmm. We will revisit this choice again in a bit.
The busses picked us up and delivered us to the Finish Line Village. Thousands of people wandered about. Hundreds waited in line at the port-o-potty. We wandered over to the Start Line and watched the video loop of Space Shuttles and Darth Vader music. (Very cool BTW.)
The Space Coast Marathon is in its 40th year and they really have the event down to a science. I must say it is the most professional and well put on event I have ever attended. Around every corner there are a dozen things which you would only think of on a race day like placing the bag drop right between the Start and Finish line so little thought has to be put into where you need to go. Large friendly signs that point toward, well, everything you want: busses, port-o-pottys, food, Start and Finish Lines… etc, etc.
The Start Line had a super large HiDef TV with images from NASA and the space program flashing on it to Star Wars Music. Corrals were set up for different pace times with the faster runners up front. Like I said I wanted to qualify Boston with my run here.
Lets revisit that thought just for a minute. Qualifying for Boston is not an easy thing. If it were easy, everyone would do it. Two things had changed making the qualifications harder for this year:
First: Seconds do not count anymore. Before this year if you needed to run a 3:20 time and you Finished in 3:20:59, you still got in. Now if you need a 3:20 and you ran a 3:20:01 you were out. So that is almost an entire minute. So to compensate you have to give yourself that minute back by running a 3:19. Twice in training I have run a 3:19 marathon distance, so I know I have it in me.
Second: My age group qualifying time for Boston had been raised to 3:15. So now to give myself the minute padding, I have to run a 3:13 marathon. That is 6 minutes off of my time. Difficult? Yep. To be honest, it was playing heavy on my mind.
One of the reasons I had chosen the Space Coast Marathon was because they offered pacers who will run at the right pace to keep you on track for your goal. It is easier to run with someone and keep pace sometimes than run with yourself. At least that was my thought. However the fastest pacer they offered was a 3:20. I needed to run faster than most of this pack of 4000 people in order to achieve my goal. Heavy on my mind? Yeah. We are at Def Con Six, baby.
Megs and I sauntered over to the Starting line, wished each other well and I climbed up to the front of the pack.
At first the Half Marathon and Marathon runners were together but soon we peeled off to run a 6.525 mile out and back loop then we would run the other 6.525 loop that was the Half Marathon loop to make up the other half.
We had bunches of turns and twists in the first mile, but then settled down to a nice straight course that took us along the Indian River. At 65f at the Starting Line, it was warm, humid and heating up fast.
The first three miles ticked off quickly. My head was in a good place, my legs were steady and I felt strong. It was just so damn hot. This first leg was an out and back course so going out for 6 miles the water would be on my right, and then coming back in the water would be on my left. At mile four I saw the storm coming in. The black cloud boiling in from the ocean, pouring rain down on us all. I didn’t mind a bit. The warm wind blew the cool rain over us in sheets. There were moments of concern when the wind whipped palm leaves down and across the group of runners in front of us, but thankfully they were only large leaves.
I ran by a woman walking her dog and said ‘good morning.’ She said it back.
I ran by a couple whose golden lab was holding a newspaper in his mouth. Good dog!
The first cramp hit me just before the turn around. Damn energy bars. I always wear my Fuel Belt with my super secret drink mix and I took a hit of it. The cramp past but I began to think about a port-o-potty. (aka The Little Blue Room.)
Quick note to those who are not runners or triathletes: The use of a port-o-potty is sub-optimal. The use of a port-o-potty in soaking wet spandex is below sub-optimal.
The cramps did not go away.
At this point I would like to give a loud and very heartfelt shout out to all the volunteers who all dressed up and manned the aid stations. Being a “Space” themed event there were the Buzz Lightyear, Star Wars, and Star Trek aid stations but my favorite one was Space Balls.
After a lengthy stop at a Little Blue Room’ I gathered my self, cranked up a little Fatboy Slim and began to work the math on what my pace had to be to salvage my Boston goal. The rain returned. It felt good.
I found it impossible to pass another Little Blue Room and had to make a second stop. My time clicked away.
I was not half way done yet and the cramps were still not going away.
By the time I came back through town, and crossed the Start Line area again to begin the second half, it was clear I was going to have to let go of achieving Boston this go around. I would have had to achieve a pace grater than 6.00 and I was not capable of it in my current state. Finishing became the order of the day. Having passed the halfway mark I was now encountering the half marathoners finishing their race. At mile 16 Megan appeared. She shrugged her shoulders as if to say “What happened?” I smiled and slapped her a high five. I knew she would hit 2:30 if she hustled.
In every marathon I’ve run to date, at mile 13.1 I have taken two Advil. With trying to calculate my pace, and dealing with an upset stomach I had missed it this trip. At mile 18 the wheels came off. Try as I may, I could not keep things moving at the pace I wanted. Or any pace really. I was baked. I had changed things in my race day routine and I was paying for them now. At an aid station I got two Gu packs and hit them right away. My secret drink wasn’t doing what I wanted it to do and I was in a free fall of doubt.
At that moment I noticed the house I was running by. There was a man on a ladder working under the eve of the house. Another runner, a woman then ran into my field of vision. She was also looking at the ladder man. In a moment so clear I can still hear her voice she turned and looked me straight in the eye and said “Damn. That looks like REAL work” and she ran off. I became hysterical at the irony of a woman running a marathon calling what he was doing ‘work.’ I had to stop I was laughing so hard. Here I was tied up so far in my own head I had forgotten I was out here to have fun. I gathered myself and ran on.
I began to run along with a woman in a blue sports bra. We passed each other a number of times. There was a man in front of the two of us who pointed out into the water and said something. I was still in iPod land so I heard “whaal- whenns” I looked and saw a sailboat so I thought he said ‘sailboat.’ There were 4000 people running this thing, some of them could be from out west and had never seen a sailboat. Blue Bra woman smacked me and said “Dolphins!” I looked and sure enough there they were! Right at the end of one of the house docks, two dolphins! One of them had a small fish that he threw into the air! It was so surreal!
My body was spent and I still had three or four miles to go. Finishing became my goal. There are people out there who aspire to finish one marathon and this year I had run three of them, including one called “The Worlds Toughest Road Marathon.” I was not going to beat myself up about bonking out.
5:00:09. Hands down my slowest marathon time ever, but I finished and I am proud of my efforts. Some people would have ducked out and taken the DNF. Not me.
Megs hit her mark and ran a 2:23:17! Big props to Megan! It was her first Half Marathon and she did very well. I am very proud of her.
The festival went on into the afternoon with space creatures wondering about the Pavilion. I saw Jabba the Hut, a blue Avitar woman and Princess Leia in her metal bikini.
I did find out that only 14 of the 4000 runners finished with a 3:15 or better. It made me smile. While my performance was not on par with my efforts, or training level, I must say that this event was the most professionally run event I have ever attended anywhere. With NASA as their backdrop, and even having the luck of witnessing the launch of an interplanetary rocket, The 40th Space Coast Marathon was a fantastic event! While my goal now is to run a marathon in each of the 50 states, I will return to the Space Coast again for this event. My thanks to Race Director, Denise Piercy and her entire staff of volunteers for putting on the best marathon on Earth!
Posted in Uncategorized on December 28, 2011 by roninsherpa
News Flash!
Moments ago, our intrepid fitness guru, while traveling in France, Tweeted that she and friends were having drinks. Shortly into the evening Jillian Tweeted that they were close to Jim Morrison’s grave site and the suggestion had been made to try and sneak into the graveyard to see it. However upon finding the 20 foot wall which surrounds the place, Jillian began to Tweet again…
@JillianMichaels Good friends bail you out of jail. Best friends are sitting with you in the cell!
Obviously not being one of her best friends, or even one of her close friends, I am sure I will not get a phone call from Jillian Michaels should she get booked for trespassing. But it was super cool to get a Tweet.
Posted in Uncategorized on December 16, 2011 by roninsherpa
I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.
Robert Frost
The mans body lay motionless in the middle of the narrow, mountainous road. Startled, I looked for help, but there were only desert rocks. I was alone, utterly exhausted, and this was the third body I had come upon. I was running the Mount Lemmon Marathon, “The Toughest Road Marathon in the World” and the carnage I was witnessing, quantified its namesake.
A marathon covers a distance of 26.2 miles. To finish one is a true accomplishment. It takes dedication and hard work to train your body to cover that type of distance. You have to run slower than you want at the start so at the end you have enough left to finish. The longer you go, the more tattered your body becomes. Your legs burn and tire, your thoughts dim and your energy saps.
What makes The Mount Lemmon Marathon different is that the entire course is run up hill. There are over 6000 feet of elevation gain from start to finish. This is enough distance to cover three very distinct ecosystems: the desert, the pine forests and the craggily barren rocks of a mountain top. To make things more interesting, Mount Lemmon sits just outside of Tucson, Arizona, which is at 3000 feet above sea level. The mountain summit sits at 9000. The further you go in this marathon, the less air there is to fuel your body.
When I heard about Mount Lemmon, I knew I had to run it. Having visited Tucson, I’ve fallen in love with the desert, and the challenge of running “The Toughest Road Marathon in the World” would not stand unanswered. I signed up for this marathon so far in advance, no airline would sell me a ticket. I had to wait another three months just to be in their scheduling range.
(Big shout out to Southwest Airlines, because they treated me fairly and once I bought my tickets, there were no scheduling changes for the five months I was in possession of them.)
I live in Apex, North Carolina which sits at 500 feet above sea level. Because of the drastic difference in sea level, I knew this run would be a massive challenge for me. I used my Polar Heart Rate Monitor to train. To find out your maximum heart rate, subtract your age from 220 and you will have a starting point. That gives me about 178. I knew with less air in AZ, my heart rate would be higher with less effort. My training theory was over the summer bring myself to a point of being able to maintain a higher heart rate for a longer period of time so that in AZ I could back my effort down a bit and last the entire run. The Polar Computer I chose to train with was the RS800CX (PTE) because with this one unit I can monitor the cadence on my bike, my heart rate, my running and (Most importantly) I could monitor my altitude.
During training I would task my body harder than my environment would allow: I ran with weights, rode my bike at a higher cadence, ran hill sprints in the first part of the week and distance runs later in the week. I pushed myself to the point where I could run a half marathon pushing hard enough to maintain an average heart rate of 170.
The shoe I chose was the Asics Gel-Nimbus 13. This shoe is built as a comfort trainer lighter than most with great air flow and it fit my foot like a glove. For an endurance event like Mount Lemmon, this shoe was perfect!
The one rule The MLM staff had which I can’t say I liked was they would not allow you to wear headphones. Their reasoning was (first) the Mount Lemmon Highway was a narrow mountain road which is prone to rock slides and (second) they did not want to have emergency vehicles being held up by some jackass who can’t hear over the Miley Cyrus blasting in his earphones. But…Dude…I need my music. Their rules didn’t say anything about a small speaker… Sooo I found a small rechargeable speaker that would attach to my iPod Shuffle and I zip tied it under my hat! (This was my attempt at being clever.)
The Mount Lemmon Marathon gave me 7 hours to finish. I wanted to do it in 5. Having ran the Wrightsville Beach Marathon in 4:16 earlier in the year, I thought 5 was realistic. I trained, I ate good quality foods, and kept my eye on the prize. The day came and I boarded the Southwest airliner.
Thanks to Google map I found Trader Joe’s within a mile of the hotel and walked over there to shop. Walking there made my head woozy. This was going to be fun.
The Expo was intimate enough that I saw everything, but big enough it all interested me. Cool clothes, water bottles, Tucson info, and crazy running people to chat with. One older man asked if I was a triathlete. “Why yes I am” I said proudly. “Yeah I can tell, because you don’t have a runners body.” The vain egomaniac in my skull only heard “You have a big fat ass and a muffin top that could feed Guam.” Thanks Pops.
Race day began with a shower. Some runners don’t bother, but it is a routine with me. Lay out the clothes, photo a diorama of the things I will use for the race: number, compression pants, singlet, shoes, water bottles.
The Mount Lemmon Start Line was a quiet place. There were hundreds of people around me, yet I felt as if it were set up just for me.
The Start Line of any endurance event is a special place; it is the focal point of weeks, months and possibly years of training. It is the reason we run, the reward of the sacrifice. Unlike the Finish Line, which is the judge and jury of your efforts. The Finish Line is for the photo, and friends. The Start Line is all about you.
And then we began to run. The sun was still just peeking out over the Sonoran Desert, outlining centuries old saguaro cactus. The red rock cliffs loomed above us.
At Mile One I smiled and began to listen to “Sweet Disposition” by The Temper Trap. The road twisted back around to the right and I got my first views of Tucson as the sun rose and changed the colour of the sky. It was breath taking.
In running a marathon you will find yourself in a ‘click’ of runners. To occupy my mind I make up little sayings or stories about them. Sometimes I will make songs about the colours of their running kit: “Blue, blue, blue, yellow, yellow, orange!” Sounds nuts, but it works.
The music on the iPod was better: “I’m so sick” by Flyleaf
Mile Three was my first water stop and I took some of their water.
“The Beautiful People” by Marilyn Manson
Mile Six was the next water stop and I stopped again because the third maned aid station was at Mile Thirteen. There were water jugs at mile(ish) stops between.
Mile Thirteen brought me to Windy Point and the halfway mark. As I said, they had closed the road for the marathon, but there were police on motorcycles escorting lines of cars up the mountain. At mile 13 I had to wait for the damn traffic so I could cross the road. The lady at the aid station said “You shouldn’t have had to wait” but I told her I didn’t mind. In my running plan I knew I would stop here for a minute or two. Then I said “I’m on vacation, ya know… I could be behind a desk somewhere, but I’m running up a mountain dressed in spandex like a superhero.” They all laughed. There was a large bowl of banana and orange halves which I happily gnawed on. Following my running plan, I took two Advil. Soon things were going to start hurting.
“Don’t stop believing” by Journey.
Once I got going again I was able to notice the altitude more and more. My arms were becoming somewhat heavier and when I would push myself above 160 I would begin to see flashes in my peripheral vision. When the flashes came I would slow to a walk until they would pass. It was also seemingly getting easier to get my heart rate above 150. I’ll have to keep my eye on that.
“My Delirium” Ladyhawke.
Mile Fifteen saw an overlook where I could look down and see Windy Point. Past that was the Sonoran Desert floor. Magical.
Near Mile Seventeen it all became really hard work. The points of my pelvis felt as if they were going to rip through my skin. My legs were now heavy and burning. There was a thin sheen of salt on my arms and face left by evaporating sweat. I didn’t dare stop moving because my thoughts were all of rest.
This is where I came across the first person laying in the road. I rounded the corner, and for a half mile in either direction you could not see another human. Exhaustion makes your mind think in funny ways, for some reason I flashed on my days as a Boy Scout in Troop 93 at Camp Durant building a splint… I shook my head clear and yelled “HEY!” He looked up and then sat up. “Dude, are you OK?” Stupid question to ask a man laying in the middle of the road, right? He said “It is harder than I thought it would be.” I looked at him and asked “Did you come here to quit.” I tossed him one of my gel packs as he stood. “No…” he said as I ran by. “Then come on, let’s go.” He kept up for about another mile.
At this point my heart rate was 140 when I was walking. Every step was higher than the last one. My hip flexors felt tattered and raw. Imagine running on a stair machine for four hours.
Management of The Mount Lemmon Marathon had made arrangements with the local police to monitor the road as we ran up this mountain. The motorcycle police taxied lines of cars up and down the road, but near the end, I was seeing the same bike cops over and over quicker and quicker. I knew I was near the end.
Around Mile Twenty Three I was walking passed a group of police gathered on the side of the road. Unprovoked one of them said to me “Don’t let this thing get you. You’re almost there.” It was what I needed to hear.
Mile Twenty Four saw a turn onto a gravel road that was all downhill. I had been running with a woman, but I had to smoke that chic and the down hill became a sprint.
Tons of my running here in NC had been on dirt back roads so I let slip the dogs of war and took a few risks. Going downhill changed the direction the force was now being applied to my hips. At first felt pretty good, but it quickly turned into nauseating pain.
Suddenly I was upon Mile Twenty Six. There was some jackass turning a camper fifth-wheel around in the middle of the road and I was not about to wait for him. A motorcycle cop came out of nowhere and stopped the guy.
My Finish Line song always is “We are the Champions” by Queen.
This event was by far the hardest endurance event of any type I have ever done. I suffered a stress fracture on my lower left leg, shredded my hip flexors and toasted myself for a month. I finished in 6:19 adding a little over two hours to my best official marathon time. I had wanted to do 5 but having little training expirence at altitude I had no idea of the effects.
Here is a link to the data recorded by my Polar RS800CX (PTE) on the Mount Lemmon Marathon. If you click ‘Settings’ and check the ‘Altitude’ box it will give the overlay of where I was on the mountain. I started the timer 10 min before the race and forgot to cut it off after. My finish time is the spike at 6:29 on this graph, which is the 6:19 I actually ran. The slam off is the moments by the Finish Line and part of the bus ride down the mountain.
I burned over 5400 calories.
My thanks to the race directors and all the volunteers out on the course. Without you all it would have just been a silly old man running up a hill. I recommend adding the Mount Lemmon Marathon to your bucket list because it is definitely one I will run again! Plus being able to say I finished “The Toughest Road Marathon in the World” is pretty bad ass.
