cool runnings

Today's run was hard. We ran earlier than usual - about 5 p.m. - due to a quick session w/ super cool HSB photog Jamm Aquino, who shot Cub and me for my as-yet-unnamed monthly column on Marathon Training for Dummies. More on that later.

Anyway, we found ourselves at the park while the sun was still beautifully but uncomfortably high in the sky. By the second mile, we were dragging, and by the third, we were done. We still haven't learned how to fuel properly - I was hungry because of a poorly-planned lunch and we were both under-hydrated. We were both disappointed because we've been running 5 - 6 miles up to four times a week with no problems, and have been looking forward to increasing mileage, and today just felt like a massive fail. By the time we shuffled our way back to the car, I started to giggle deliriously at the mental image of myself stealing every barbecue/picnic dinner we passed and running away with it. So. Hungry.

The Good: short run allowed me to rest my knee, which has been giving me some minor problems. The Yech: feels like a setback. The Reality: Once we ate dinner, we were fine. The moral of Pierre is: don't skip lunch.

Oh yeah ...

GAR REPORT! Feb 15, 2010

We both woke before the 4:30 alarm went off. I was wide-awake, not groggy at all, unlike previous years in which we had to scream nonsense at ourselves just to make it out of bed. We drove to the Stadium, took the shuttle back downtown, and spent so long in line for a non-Porta Potty restroom that the starting gun went off as we were scurrying to the Starting Line. We needn't have worried because a crowd of 24,000 people makes it hard to even get to the SL. It was ten minutes before we even saw the banner. Once we cleared the shrieking timing chip activation area, we were off. This year we didn't stop for anything silly, like potty break at McDonald's or free roses from Watanabe's. Neither of us had an mp3 player. Our consistent (though far from hard-core) training paid off, and we were able to run at a pace just shy of 12 minutes, for an end time of 1:37:11. Sure beats last year.

Highlights: taiko, as always. Running empty-handed for the first time. The constant support of my Cub. Each mile marker. And cold water coming out of huge plastic garbage cans never tasted so good. Lows: Felt a twinge in my right Achilles tendon at around mile 6, and put too much stress on my left knee as a result. The ultimate high was reaching mile 7 and realizing we could do it. We didn't have to use our walk option; we were fine. We had trained! So we adjusted our pace, shook out the aches, and ran it in. For me, in all previous races, the last mile has been a special kind of torture. But that day, not to get all Chariots of Fire on you, it was pretty awesome. And so we ran across the finish line, smiling - hurting, but smiling (mostly because I reminded him how gourd-awful our photos from last year looked so please grit yer teeth and smile). And as we limped to our celebratory pancake breakfast, I said ...

"At this point at the marathon, we won't even be one-third of the way through."

Shmiggity shmoke.

Well, one down, four to go before the Big One.

Straub/Kapiolani Women's 10K: 3 Mar
HIBISCUS HALF MARATHON: 6 Jun
Coconut Chase 8K: 11 Jul
Mango Days 5K: 8 Aug

Coconuts and mangoes, those are just for fun because after the halfie we'll deserve them. (Also, it was cheaper to sign up for the hibiscus, coconut and mango together than it was to register separately.)

This just occurred to me: as novices, are we stupid to do a halfie and a full mar in the same year? Granted they are six full months apart but they are both major, because (I can't stress this enough) we are novices. Chime ... in?