San Diego AIDS Walk/Run 2009

I attended the San Diego AIDS Walk/Run 2009 on Sunday September 27th, 2009. It was a 10K race for runners, and the weather was perfect for running.

Preparation
I generally train for long distances and wasn’t planning on racing that Sunday. I ran 20 miles the afternoon before the race, so I felt prepared. My muscles were prepared, but my running form was not up to par with my body. Several parts of my body were sore well after the long run, and the soreness was exacerbated by the race.

Race Day
I arrived late and barely made it to the start line in time for my start time to get recorded — just as they were pulling away the start line! I spent most of the race trying to catch up with my friend Ray, whom I had failed to sync up with before the race began. I sweated away several miles and sprinted through the finish… only to find, I had at some point passed him and he finished behind me!

I finished the race in 48:31, about a minute slower than last year. Even having completed a marathon since last year, my body was not up to the stress of a long run before a race. Lesson learned.

Afterthoughts
As I walked along the quilt and photo exhibits that were at the San Diego AIDS walk, I couldn’t help feeling sad. There are so many victims to this illness. The surprising thing was that everyone at the AIDS walk looked so upbeat and happy. I realized that, the way to fight illness is not to mourn over it. You can mourn the victim, but the point of the AIDS Walk is to celebrate their lives, celebrate the present , and also help support new victims through fund raising. It’s amazing what a community can do to help its members cope with the calamities of life.

America’s Finest City Half Marathon August 16, 2009

Training
So this time I trained mostly by training for the Long Beach Marathon on October 11th that I am planning on racing. I added more rolling hills and occasionally mountains (iron mountain), and a few long runs. These helped a lot, in terms of my endurance. In addition, the super-long-runs to Del Mar and back (~4 hours including rest break) helped my endurance.

I drastically increased mileage and the overall intensity through some of the harder runs, but I have been slacking on the tempo runs as of late. I prefer running hard uphill or downhill, as tempo runs tend to be boring and flat, but fast. The speed is something I am unused to, and as such my running form tends to deteriorate rapidly as I sustain a fast speed.

Day of the Race
As I have been slacking on the tempo runs and my real goal is to achieve a Boston Marathon qualifying time, I really hadn’t planned on racing this one and trying for a new PR. However, with motivation from my running friends I decided to test myself. This course has the significant feature that it is mostly downhill, with a slight uphill during the last two miles.

I started out at a medium pace, and over the course of the first two miles sped it up. The more time I gain in the beginning, on the downhill, the more slack I would have in the end to meet my goal of 1:35.

The downhill was a piece of cake, and I earned a few minutes of slack towards my goal. The next part was just maintenance. After the initial four miles, it just had to keep my pace to make my goal. I breathed smoothly and realized, I could keep this up!

As I passed the airport and continued running, the view of the downtown San Diego skyline appeared in front of me. It is magnificent. I see it every time I drive to and from the airport, and it’s beautiful. I am at peace and it is a perfect day. I continued running.

Breathing is obviously an important part of running, and I often measure my performance and effort level based on how hard I’m breathing. At this stage of the game, my breathing was steady and not struggling or gasping, so I keep up my pace.

I made it to mile eleven, and then the uphill started. Just two more miles left, I thought to myself, I can push it a bit more. The uphill battle is starting to wear at me. I’m going quickly, and each breath gets harder.

The course turns into Balboa park, and I feel the finish line must be near. I start racing and sprint through the finish.

I surpassed my goal and had a time of 1:30:03. It was a perfect conditions for my new PR, with the cool but cloudy weather and a nice downhill course.

NYT Article: How to Fix Bad Ankles

Injury prevention is one of the key themes to my running, and why I switched to POSE early last year. I just read this article in the New York Times, and I believe it is extremely relevant for runners as well as people in general. Humans were born to walk and run, and the ankle is one very important part of the picture.

The theme of the article is that balance is key to preventing ankle injuries from occurring or reoccurring. I strongly agree with this, and in an addition part I believe that the lower leg muscles surrounding the ankle are also key.

Balance is something that I often neglected to practice until recently, after learning to skimboard from my uncle. He divided exercise into two categories, moving activities like running and balance activities like skimboarding or surfing.

Balance is very relevant to running, for reasons of injury prevention. Running is the act of falling forward and constantly catching yourself, and how you fall forward depends on how you balance on the foot that most recently touched the ground.

Try it out: stand on one foot and see how long you can balance before you have to catch yourself.

Mountain and Beach

Saturday

I ran a 10 mile trail around Iron Mountain last Saturday morning with four members from the San Diego running Meetup. The weather was perfect for running — drizzling/foggy in the morning and throughout the run.

It was one of my hardest runs of the year.

I fell behind of the main group from the start. One of the Meetup members, Mike, had just finished a 100 mile ultramarathon two weeks earlier, so I had no illusions that I would be able to keep his pace. At the first fork, there was no sign so I turned right. The path started going downhill, which confused me as I thought that I was supposed to be running uphill towards the mountain! I kept going, but it looked like I was on the wrong route, until I came back to the fork and realized I had done a loop.

I continued on the path, and it got steeper. There were few rocks, and my breath was hard as I pushed my way uphill in my first super-long uphill run in a while. It wasn’t a continuous uphill like the Torrey Pines park entrance, but rather a windy trail that sometimes dipped down and sometimes was so steep that I had to just stop running and hike. As I climbed up, I kept thinking “this is the easy part, downhill will be the hard part.” I was right about that.

I finally made it to the peak, and caught up with the others. They had been waiting for 15 minutes already! They were talking with a man who was explaining how he trained for an ultramarathon in the 100+ degree weather in the desert. I was amazed.

For several weeks before the race, he would run his long runs on the weekend two or three times up a mountain, in the middle of the day when it was hottest. On weekdays, he would turn up the heater of his car wherever he drove so it reached up to 117 degrees Fahrenheit. He said that when he finally got to the day of the race and stepped out of the car, it felt cool.

Then we started downhill. The others raced ahead of me unbelievably quickly. I tried to keep up. Being unused to the rocks, the dusty trail which caused my feet to slip on rocks, and the intimidating speed of going downhill, I had to slow down. Fortunately, at the forks in the trail the others waited up for me and pointed me in the right direction!

After the run was over my feet were spent, but I felt energized somehow. After a foot long Subway sandwich I had the energy to go for another couple of miles.

So in the afternoon, after a few hours of work, I ran another 6 miles on the trails behind my workplace. And then I did some super-light hiking/walking for another hour at Torrey Pines. By that time, I could barely walk in my shoes and my left foot hurt with every step!

Sunday

Sunday was such a contrast to Saturday. The sky was mostly clear and sunny, and the air was clean.

I took it easy in the morning and then decided to do a beach run in the afternoon. I had a 24 hour break since the previous day’s run, so I thought I could do 5-6 miles easily.

I figured it would be a good chance to start my training so, while I turned the heat up in my car all the way up for the 25 minute ride to Pacific Beach, subjecting myself and my friend Albert to considerable heat. By the time we parked on the street, sweat was dripping off of our faces, shoulders, and down our legs. As I got out of the car, the change in temperature and the sweat evaporating from my body caused me to cool down rapidly, it felt cold outside on such a bright sunny day!

We walked to the beach and I took off my shirt and shoes and socks and ran barefoot on the wet sand. My left big toe had been bothering me for the past few weeks, but the pain generally went away after running for a few minutes.

I kept running and pumped out the miles on my tired legs. I love running barefoot on the beach, with the waves occasionally washing under my feet and softening the sand. The challenges involved are keeping good form, avoiding large clumps of seaweed on the sand and that wash up with the wave, avoiding surfers on the beach, and avoiding kids rushing in and out of the water. I ended up running 7 miles, but I was exhausted by the end.

On Monday, I ran 2 miles in the morning, and 3 in the afternoon, but that was all I could do with the pain in my feet from all of the downhill pounding and the barefoot beach run.

San Diego Rock’n'Roll Marathon 2009

The Marathon

I ran the longest I’ve ever run before at a time in my life on Saturday, May 31st at the San Diego Rock’n'Roll Marathon 2009. It was a spectacular event, with crowds cheering on the sides every mile, drinking stations every other mile, and rock bands every other mile as well.

This was the event that I’d been preparing for since the beginning of the year. In the process I increased my weekly mileage to 40-50 miles a week, had several long runs during the week, and also tried to cross train on off-days. Since February 1st I’ve run at least 1 mile every day.

I started off very well, eating more than normal for breakfast and trying not to overdrink. The weather was perfect for the marathon, cool and not too windy. With my goal of 3 hours 24 minutes, I knew I had to pass the 3:30 pace group. Fortunately, this came in the first mile of the race.

With my confidence increasing, I thought about a 3:10 marathon. This would require a 7:15 minute mile, which was my fast pace.

By mile 13, I saw 1:35 on the clock. I had passed the 3:15 pace group earlier on, so I knew I was well on my way to achieving my goal. Good, I was exactly on pace for a 3:10 finish! I met a guy named John who had just run Boston, who said he had lost his friend who he was also pacing for a Boston qualifying time.

I kept up with him for a mile or two, going at a 7:10 pace. But at around mile 16 I stopped at a water station and couldn’t catch up with him again. Each time I stopped at a water station, I would walk by, grab a drink from a volunteer, take it down, then start running again. This gave me a short break, but also cut away at my time.

But I kept pushing on, though my time was slowing by a few seconds. I can still make it, I thought to myself, if I can sprint and run 6 minute miles for the last two miles as I did for the Carlsbad half marathon. Unfortunately that wasn’t the end of the story.

At mile 22 my body reached a wall. I wasn’t able to push my body any further and had to stop running to catch up. I had run out of energy in my muscles. I had run out of breath in my lungs. I walked a step and then another. Okay, if I walk a minute, I can still save it by sprinting at the end, I thought.

I continued running, though at a slower pace. When I reached mile 23.5, I passed some members of the “Run Run Fun” running group I’m part of who were volunteering by passing out water. They cheered me on and I sped up momentarily, until I again had to walk a few minutes later.

Somehow, I managed to run/walk through mile 25, and until the last half-mile before the finish. This was the end. It was now or never. I was already behind my goal of 3:10 by at least 5 minutes. I had to just finish this up. So I looked ahead and started sprinting with whatever I had left. Each step was pain, but with each breath I was exercising my right and ability to live. I made it past the finish line, walked a few minutes, and had to stop and catch my breath on the ground.

I finished my first marathon!

The Aftermath

After I finished in a little more than 3:15 by the clock, I walked around for a few minutes, found a space blanket to keep warm (it was cold after I stopped running!) and waited for my friends who were completing the race behind me. I found Jordan outside of the finish area, and then we waited for Amber at the stands by the finish line.

While we were watching, Jordan said “Hey Kendall, look at that guy over there.” I turned to look and saw an older looking man with an American flag worn as a cape around his neck and over his shoulders.

And he was wearing nothing else.

This is a form of “freedom,” I supposed. But I’m sure the security at the finish line would catch him at the end.

Eventually Amber and her mom Mary came out of the finisher’s area. We found Mary with a chipped tooth! This was her first marathon, and at mile 25 she had taken a hard fall in which her face made contact with the ground, and she spit out a chunk of one of her front teeth! The paramedics wanted to take her away, but she would have none of that. She wanted to finish her first marathon. So she got up and started running again.

We walked back to the parking lot, spent 20 minutes looking for the car, and then drove to the 94th Aero Squadron for a buffet lunch of salmon, more salmon, lots of fruit, and dessert.

Next up: America’s Finest City Half Marathon in August, and Long Beach Marathon in October.

La Jolla Half Marathon

Last weekend I ran the La Jolla Half Marathon and beat my goal time of 1:40:00 and set a new personal record!

On Saturday, to prepare for the event the following day, I woke up early and ran five miles at Nobel Park in the morning. This has been my daily routine for the past two months. I showered, put on a thick layer of sunscreen, and went to Tomoko’s birthday BBQ party at La Jolla Shores Beach. Though it is recommended to eat more carbohydrates the day before an endurance race, I ate a hamburger, a hotdog, and some beef. Legs still sore from the morning workout, I played a little volleyball in between all of this eating. Then I went home, showered, and got ready to go to dinner at my boss’s house.

Dinner was delicious Persian food with 3-4 types of rice, and again some BBQ chicken and ground beef. I ended it with a large serving of cake, leaving me bloated through the night but full of energy for the next day’s race.

On Sunday I woke up at 4:20AM after six hours of sleep. I put on my clothes, and drove with Amber and Mary to La Jolla Cove, where we parked and took a shuttle to the Del Mar Fairground where the race start was. We had to wait for 2 hours in the cold, and after half an hour I was sitting down on the street holding my legs to try to stay warm. But shivering in spite of the effort.

I started running with Anil and Vijay but lost them after a few miles as I got warmed up. First mile was 8:30, then 8:00, then 7:30. I maintained a steady pace until I reached the Torrey Pines hill, the half mile which was the most challenging feature of the course. It was the equalizer, and as I came up I smiled at the camera crew because I knew what was ahead. I kept a steady pace and remarkably did not stop running at the end, even managing to pass a few people. By the top of the hill, I had averaged an 8 minute pace overall, so I knew I was on track for a decent finish.

The trail slowly sloped uphill after the Torrey Pines hill, and then slightly downhill until just before La Jolla Shores Beach. I gulped down water at the stops every two miles (surprisingly there were plenty of water stops). When I reached La Jolla Shore Beach I was expecting some downhill, and I was confident on the downhill. Unfortunately, I was a bit overconfident and very unprepared for the slope. The downhill went down for maybe half a mile, and once I started going at top-speed I couldn’t stop! Each step was pain as I struggled to get my legs underneath me in time to catch my fall. At this point I was running with the elites, so there weren’t many other people around me, and those around me were matching me step for step.

By the next mile marker I realized I had run around a 7-minute mile including that downhill. The next few miles were around 8 minutes, but I was on track for meeting my goal. Each step got harder as I ran, so I tried to conserve energy by drafting behind some other runners.

I reached to near La Jolla Cove and saw the finish line across the grass. I started sprinting at top-speed and made it to the finish. I was so out of breath at the end that I had to lie down on the grass for a few moments to recover.

I made a new personal record for a half marathon of 1:38:57! Thanks to my running buddies and running group.

Coming up next is the San Diego Rock’n'Roll Marathon on May 31st, 2009.
http://www.rnrmarathon.com/home.html

I’m also thinking of trying for the Medoc Marathon in 2010.
http://www.marathondumedoc.com/

I’m hoping to qualify for Boston in 2010. Atlanta and Chicago are my backups in case I don’t make a 3:10:00 by the San Diego R’n'R. Wish me luck!

Carlsbad Half Marathon

I ran my second half-marathon in my life on Sunday, January 25th. I started out more quickly than in my previous marathon. There were several “waves” of runners, which meant more spread-out groups than at the Long Beach half-marathon.

I had started running with a group of people, mostly from my company but also living around San Diego. I’m the minority there, as all of the others in the group are Indian. During the long runs, running with a group really helps the time go by, especially since I realized I don’t need to use all of my concentration on my running form.

So on the day of the race, I started out the first three miles running with two of my friends Vijay and Anil. After the first three miles, feeling that the pace was a bit slow, I sped up a bit and lost them. I searched for the others in the group, but seeing that they were far ahead I tried to maintain a steady pace, hoping to reach my goal of 1:50:00. At around 7 miles into the race, having not seen the rest of my group yet, I sped up more seeing that I still had the energy. At 10 miles, I reached the fastest guy in our running group, Reddi. He was ahead of me for 10 miles of the race!

The day before the long run, I heard a talk by Dane Rauschenberg, who had made his goal running one marathon each weekend for 52 weeks in 2006. He met his goal, raised $44,000 for the charity of his choice, and went on to write a book about it. Seeing him on the course at mile 11 as I ran the half marathon (he was a pace leader for the full marathon), I thanked him for his talk and I was inspired to make a last-minute dash during the last two miles.

So now, the results! I had previously run:

Long Beach Half Marathon: 1:53:01 at 8:38/mile pace

And my new time was:

Carlsbad Half Marathon: 1:41:57 at 7:47/mile pace

I had beat my old half-marathon record by 11 minutes!

Of course, some of that must be attributed to not having to weave through a crowd of people at this race. Carlsbad human traffic, with the waves of runners and the separate marathon and half-marathon start times, was much more organized and controlled. In addition, the day was chilly (probably around 60-65 degrees) by the beach at 7:30AM, so I had a cold start but did not lose much water sweating.

Next up: La Jolla Half Marathon, April 25, 2009

Oatmeal Recipe

So recently I’ve started eating oatmeal every morning. Here’s my recent recipe:

Banana and Raisin Oatmeal

Ingredients:
1.75 cups soy milk
1 cup oatmeal
1 tbps honey
1/2 – 1 banana, sliced
1 or more tbsp raisins
cinnamon as desired

Heat the soy milk in a small pot until it starts simmering. Add the oatmeal and banana slices. Simmer on medium heat for 3 minutes, stir in the honey and add the raisins, and simmer for another 2 minutes. If the oatmeal starts to foam up, take the pot off the heat and turn it off, it’s done! Add cinnamon as desired and enjoy!

Makes two servings.

Work and Smoothie

As the end of the year nears and the holidays are getting closer, I’m trying to finish up work and ended up working until 10:30PM yesterday (Friday). I wasn’t working the whole day, however. I started the day at 9:30AM, went to a company year-end event from 10:30-4:00PM, then worked until 10:30PM with a short break for dinner. I think the key is to take frequent rest-breaks to rest the eyes and move around.

So today I am back at work. I went for a long run (about 9 miles), had oatmeal and fruit for breakfast, and then came into work. I promptly brewed a pot of coffee. After a long run it’s all I can do to stay awake.

Then for lunch, I took a break and went to Jamba Juice for a blueberry yogurt smoothie. I asked for a Soy Protein Boost, so it tasted a bit grainy.

In any case, back to work!

Long Beach Half Marathon

Last Sunday I ran the longest distance I have ever run in my life. I
ran 13.1 miles in the Long Beach Half Marathon. It was an amazing. Pushing my body to its limit at the end of the race and wondering how fast I could go.

It started six weeks ago when Jordan suggested that we run a half marathon. I had been planning to do a marathon in 2009 and thought that it was a bit early. Six weeks wasn’t enough time. But somehow he convinced me that it was possible, and I could up the training to that level.

In preparation for the half-marathon, I decided to train for a 10K race as well. The San Diego AIDS Walk at Balboa Park would be two weeks before the half marathon, so that would be good preparation.

My training program consisted of running 6 days a week, and abstaining from alcohol completely for the duration of training. No cold refreshing beer after a long day of work. No wine to go with fresh home-made lasagna. No shots at the bar.

In preparation for the race, I ate. A lot. I had 4000 calories two days before the race, and 3000 calories the day before.

On the day of the race, I had a light breakfast, and brought some candy energy for eating on the run. My friends whom I ran with thought I was crazy, but I held a water bottle to run with on the race, so I wouldn’t have to stop.

Miles 1 through 4 went by slowly, as we made our way through the crowd. We wasted a lot of energy just weaving through the crowd, trying to get ahead of the walkers and the slower runners. We started with a 10:30 pace for the first lap, and then kept on for the next 8 miles or so at a 9:30 pace.

Miles 5-8 were scenic and beautiful. It was my first time to Long Beach, and I was able to see all of the sights including the ship called Queen Mary.

Then we arrived at mile 10, and it was time to speed up. I figured, for miles 10 and 11 I should run at least an 8 mile pace, and then for miles 12 and 13 I should speed it up.

I was struggling for breath in the middle of mile 12. And by mile 13 I felt like a fish out of the water. It was like in my dreams, when I try to run as hard as I can but it feels like I have no energy. I can’t move. And yet I was moving slowly, along with the crowd. I was even passing a few people. And finally, around the bend and up the hill… the finish line was in sight! So close and yet so far away. I struggled with every breath, to push my body further. Each step, each breath felt like a minute. Time passed slowly as I made my way further, forward, finishing at last in whatever sprint I could manage.

And in the aftermath, I struggled for breath for a few minutes as I came to a stop.

Afterwards, we had a very fattening burger and fries, a lot of water, and I eventually made my way home with the help of a RockStar energy drink.

Today, I still feel tired. My lungs are weak, I have stiff muscles and a tired body
overall, eating a ton of protein and food to heal.

Hope I get over this soon so I can start working out again.