18-7-13, HELLO?

Yeah. it's been like a month since I've posted. I am so lame at this. I'll start from the beginning of the month and work my way down to now. Brilliant.

Sept 25
This was the day of my EPIC 18-mile run! Deciding where to run was tricky. Fullerton and surrounding area is SUPER boring to run in, and full of hills might I add, so I decided to make a morning of it and drive up to Santa Monica and run on the beach. Plus, that would mean I would be mere blocks from my fave cupcakery - Yummy Cupcakes - and win myself a little treat for being so runningly awesome. After looking through a few mapped routes via MapMyRun, I locked in on starting by Pico and heading south to Dockweiler and back, running through the marina. I wanted to run north up to Malibu but I was iffy on bike paths and whether or not pedestrians were able to take PCH all the way up. Maybe for my next 18-20 miler (scheduled in a month).

I woke up at 5:00am and drove up, found a great parking spot in the residentials three block up from the beach (which gave my legs a great mini warm-up), then started running around 6:15. It was dark and a bit chilly. There were a few runners/cyclists out, but we were way out-populated by the scary homeless people sleeping all over the bike path and on Ocean. As I headed into Venice Beach I saw a large group of people and tents and stuff. Turns out it was the same day as the LA Triathalon! Fancy that. So I ran past all the entrants warming up with their bikes and saw the news people. Then I thought "well this is gonna bite me in ass later!"

I continued on to Marina Del Rey and turned up away from the beach into the marina area. I ran around the entire marina until I hit a special bike path that headed towards the river mouth into the ocean. I crossed the bridge onto the Del Rey beach and kept south until I hit Dockweiler (and I knew when I hit it bc planes were taking off overhead!). I turned around at Imperial and did an out-&-back the way I came. I did take a bathroom break before crossing the bridge again (which was over halfway through so I thought that was very impressive). My legs got really fatigued around mile 9 and it was tough going until I hit marina again. By that time, my legs hit what I call "the robot" stage, where I don't even have to think about moving them anymore... they just go like a robot. The marina loop was faster going back, but I was still SO relieved to hit the crossroad down to the beach. Then it was like "woooo! almost there!" And I did hit the triathalon right as athletes were crossing the finish line. I had to bob up and down waiting to cross. And then the lady said "ok yuo can run through first" so I did... right as a finisher sped up and we almost collided. NICE. The last 3 miles were tough but once I saw the SM Pier in the distance I got super happy and made it. The actual route was 17.3 miles, so when I hit the end, I thought "yeah I'll just make it even" so I went 4 minutes more north and turned back which added just enough to make it 18. I walked for 10 minutes straight after that, and boy was I out of sorts. I was walking very gingerly and my ankle was killing me bc I stupidly didn't tape it (tape it for a 40 minute soccer game, but 3-hour run? not so much. dumb). It felt all wobbly and loose around the bone. It was really odd. I slowly walked back up the hill to my car and downed a full bottle of Gatorade, grabbed my sweatpants, stuffed a protein bar in my mouth, and took another Gatorade back down to the park at the beach. I stretched for another 20 minutes and then finally felt able to go back to the car and drive. It was crazy, and I was so proud of myself! Final time said 2:30 but I think I forgot to restart the watch after a traffic light or something because that just seems too fast. It was most likely 2:45-ish. I know I finished at 9:00am.

and yes, duh, I bought a dozen cupcakes. It was a good "special flavor" day that day.

The whole week was spent recouping. I don't think I ran at all until soccer.

Oct 3
I didn't do any running other than soccer that whole week, and I waited until Monday after work to do another run. I did my 7 mile loop around work. It was pretty good. I did it in 57 minutes, but my ankle was hurting a few miles in. I was so paranoid from that long run that I taped it insanely tight and it cut off my circulation a bit and made a big blister! So that was great. At least I was able to run downhill without wincing. I ran once more on Friday - only 4 miles - just to get another easy run in before the long beach race on the 9th. That was slower than usual. It was also a bit hot. Ugh.


Oct 9
THE LONG BEACH HALF MARATHON! weeeeee!

Hamming it up!

can I just say that Lisa is the BEST for running 13.1 miles with me for no reason? Yes, I will say it. Her family rocks too. It was wonderful carpooling with them so I didn't have to drive all the way to LB early in the morning. The Holmans run the LB every year and it was nice to have them there as MY family didn't care enough to come out and see me run. Jerks.

The race was not so much as good as the pre-race hijinks. I took a Gu at the start line. Mistake #1. Our first 3 miles were sllllow because the damn course is like an inch across and you get stuck behind slow people. Mistake #2. I had to stop for the bathroom at like mile 2. Gu's Mistake #1. That stretch of 4 miles along the beach was torture for those of us with no sunglasses. Mistake #3. I had to stop for the bathroom AGAIN at mile 7 or 8. Gu's Mistake #2. Some guy was handing out donut holes. WTF? Ugh my stomach is turning just thinking about it. My tum was not having it that race. I knew I should've been drinking more powerade or water, and perhaps have eaten an orange, but I was so worried that something would come out if I put anything in my stomach. I was iffy on taking a ShotBlock. It was really difficult the last 3 miles. I didn't want to increase my stride; I just wanted to go to the bathroom. I somehow crossed the finish line. and by crossed, I mean I jumped across kickbox-style:

Finishing Miss-style

The official time is like 2:03, but Lisa's watch had us at 1:59. I'll take it! I don't count bathroom stops in my time!

Lisa (and my abs) ROCKS!

I have never felt so sick after running. I got down a banana, some protein bar, and a coconut water, but I felt gross. The Holmans took us to Krispy Kreme and I didn't even want to eat one! ME! NOT EAT KRISPY KREME! yeah, I was that affected.

It took me two days to recover. I went home sick Monday because of this tummy trouble! So lame. I hope this was a one-time issue only. I don't need this happening with every long run from now til December!

Oct 16
Just a simple 8.5-mile run this morning. Plus a 1 mile walk cool down. It was nice. Now I will spend the rest of week 1) worrying about the 15 miles I'm doing Saturday and 2) where the eff am I going to run?? *sigh*